This is an archive of the former website of the Maoist Internationalist Movement, which was run by the now defunct Maoist Internationalist Party - Amerika. The MIM now consists of many independent cells, many of which have their own indendendent organs both online and off. MIM(Prisons) serves these documents as a service to and reference for the anti-imperialist movement worldwide.
I N T E R N E T ' S M A O I S T BI-M O N T H L Y
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
XX XX XXX XX XX X X XXX XXX XXX XXX
X X X X X X X XX X X X X X X
X V X X X V X X X X X X X XX XXX
X X X X X X XX X X X X X
X X XXX X X X V XXX X XXX XXX
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
THE MAOIST INTERNATIONALIST MOVEMENT
MIM Notes 144 AUGUST 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. AMERIKA'S WAR ON OPPRESSED YOUTH RAGES:
GANG SUPPRESSION PROGRAMS SOAR
2. MASS PRISONERS DEALT COURT SETBACK ON PHONES
3. LETTERS
4. MEXICAN IMMIGRANTS EXPOSE EXPLOITATION:
COLONIZED PEOPLE SUFFER UNDER IMPERIALISM
5. UNICEF REPORT CONFIRMS IMPERIALISM IS BAD FOR THE
PEOPLES HEALTH
6. SENECA PROTESTORS' CASE DISMISSED
7. PROTEST STRONG AS IMPERIALISTS FURTHER DEVALUE SOUTH
EAST ASIAN CURRENCIES
8. PROTESTERS RALLY TO "END THE U.$. RAMOS REGIME!"
9. STALIN AND MAO VINDICATED ON SWEDEN AND DULLES BROTHERS
10. PATRIARCHY SUCKS: YOUNG WIMMIN ARE DYING TO LOOK GOOD
11. BLACK YOUTH TORN FROM FAMILY
12. SUPREME COURT INCREASES REPRESSION OF PIG-IDENTIFIED
"SEX OFFENDERS"
13. CORPORATE CONCENTRATION AND CULTURAL HEGEMONY:
ONE WEEKEND'S MOVIE SALES
14. KREMA-1 PUSHES DEAD-END POLITICS
15. HARDCORE SCENE HAS REVOLUTIONARY POTENTIAL
16. RENT: CAPITULATION INSTEAD OF REVOLUTION
17. COULD BATMAN DEFEAT FASCISM? (WE'LL NEVER KNOW)
18. UNDER LOCK AND KEY
* * *
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
* * *
AMERIKA'S WAR ON OPPRESSED YOUTH RAGES:
GANG SUPPRESSION PROGRAMS SOAR
by a comrade
At the end of July, a superior court judge in Los Angeles
issued the most repressive anti-gang injunction yet in
Amerika's war on oppressed youth. The new legislation
specifically bans "three or more ... members [of the 18th
Street Gang] congregating, standing, sitting, walking,
driving or appearing in public together in a 17-block area
of Jefferson Park. Suspected gang members are also
prohibited from "blocking sidewalks, streets and
passageways" and "possessing any tools that can be used in
applying graffiti."(1)
The L.A. action follows a recent speech Gov. Pete Wilson
made calling for execution of gang members who commit
murder,(2) and a new initiative in Boston, which teams
probation officers with police officers to patrol areas
looking for teen curfew violators.(3) The presence of the
probation officer, before whom youth have no constitutional
rights, means that the pigs can ask anything they want and
get an answer. Oppressed youth know more than anyone that
there are no rights, only power struggles.
MORE MONEY AGAINST GANGS
In recent years, the federal government has been increasing
the money available for state and local gang prevention and
suppression programs. One Department of Justice program,
called Innovative Local Law Enforcement and Community
Policing, will provide a total of $16.2 million to fight
gangs at the local level, of which the Louisiana Commission
on Law Enforcement alone will get $1.3 million.(4)
Prosecutors are also taking a more sweeping approach to
fighting gangs using racketeering laws. At the end of July,
"seven alleged members of the southwest Detroit street gang
Cash Flow Possee [were] indicted by a federal grand jury on
charges including murder, racketeering, and assault."(5)
These measures only underscore the fact that Amerika is
waging an organized war on both the actual entities known as
"gangs" and any and all oppressed youth that fit their
supposed description.
Both the federal government and the bourgeois media
explicitly acknowledge that gang activity is correlated with
poverty. They even report that in some areas, alleged gang-
related murders are down while alleged gang membership and
drug selling are up. "In Orange County, gang-related
killings plummeted last year by 40% to a five-year low.
Still, gang-related drug offenses and gang membership
continued to climb with 33 new gangs emerging in the county
in 1996 alone, according to the Orange County district
attorney's office."(2) This increase in alleged drug
offenses may just be a result of the pigs working even
harder to arrest people they think are in gangs. (And there
would be no drugs for them to sell without the imports
courtesy of the CIA!)
What the media and the pigs don't say is that gangs are not
fundamentally about killing people, but rather about
providing an extra-legal economy in areas where there aren't
enough jobs and providing protection and a community for
people on the bottom of society within US borders. This is
why most gangs are made up of people from oppressed nations
and national minorities. Gangs are armed, and they police
their borders the way any economy must under capitalism. But
the bourgeoisie focuses on individual acts of brutality
(which cannot match the brutality of the Amerikan government
in scale in any case) or on individual acts of
"rehabilitation" all to distract from the truth -- that
Amerika economically exploits its internal colonies and then
uses its police force to crush them.
COLD WAR-STYLE REPRESSION
In Wilson's speech calling for the execution of gang
members, he "also echoed his support for the formation of a
statewide computer system called CAL / GANG. Operated by the
state Department of Justice, the system will keep track of
gang members, including their photographs, nicknames and
other distinguishing features."(2) CAL / GANG "will be run
by an Irvine-based data software company that provided
intelligence information to the CIA during the Cold War."(6)
CAL / GANG is part of a country-wide effort supported by the
federal government to expand "computerized systems used by
law enforcement agencies to share information on gangs."(7)
"Law enforcement agencies in different states need to
communicate and share information with each other," said
Wilson. He also called for "cooperation between all levels
of government."(2)
The ACLU has complained about a gang database in Orange
County, pointing out that it is a secret list available only
to law enforcement, and that racist criteria like "loose-
fitting clothing or hanging out in certain neighborhoods"
can get you on the list. And according to Police Chief Cook,
"individuals who are stopped by police, photographed and
asked to provide personal information can assume they are on
the list." The database coordinator exposed the true motives
of the information gatherers when she said, "I personally do
not know of anybody who is put into the gang system that
does not deserve to be there."(6)
In addition to these high-tech solutions to fighting youth,
the government is also acknowledging that the most effective
strategy to suppress gangs is a successful partnership
between imperialism and a neo-colonial leadership. In
describing its "Comprehensive Response to America's Youth
Gang Problem," the Department of Justice's Office of
Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention stated that
"reduction of gang problems" was correlated with "community
leaders [recognizing] the presence of gangs and [seeking] to
understand the nature and extent of the local gang problem,"
and "the combined leadership of the justice system and the
community."(9) They are talking about sell-out "leadership"
that would serve up its youth to the pigs, not the emerging
leadership among revolutionary youth fighting for national
self-determination.
GIVE US MONEY AND WE'LL GIVE YOU GANGS
In the Spanish American War, William Randolph Hearst, the
media magnate, is said to have told his photographers, "You
provide the pictures, I'll provide the war." In today's
violent suppression of rebellious youth, the motto is, "you
provide the money, and we'll provide the gangs." The federal
government has created an incentive for local governments to
exaggerate their gang "problems." When the feds began making
more money available to fight gangs in recent years, and
then conducted a survey to determine where gang activity was
located and hence where funds would be distributed -- state
and local pigs caught on fast.
Last year, as part of Clinton's Anti-Gang and Youth Violence
Control Act of 1996, he called for $160 million "in
[federal] law enforcement funds to fight juvenile crime and
gang violence."(7) More was available this year. A 1995
Justice Department Survey asking local law enforcement to
report the level of gang activity in their jurisdiction and
finding that "all States and most large cities have youth
gangs," also found that "90 percent of the agencies
reporting a gang problem felt it was staying the same or
getting worse."(8) If there is money in fighting gangs,
there is more incentive for pigs to terrorize ALL youth and
label it "a gang problem."
The government sees gangs as a problem because they
represent the problem of oppressed nations within US
borders. These nations are oppressed by imperialism and have
an interest in fighting back. The youth in these gangs see
the government for what it is: the biggest criminal of all.
And these same youth are a threat to imperialism. This is
why the government is afraid when gangs start talking truces
because this is when gangs really become dangerous, when
they focus all of their energy on the enemy of imperialism.
MIM invites these youth being targeted by Amerika's war to
work with us organizing the fight to defeat imperialism once
and for all.
NOTES:
1. L.A. Times, 12 July 1997.
2. L.A. Times, 16 July 1997.
3. Christian Science Monitor, 17 June 1997.
4. Congressional Press Release, 18 July 1997.
5. UPI 22 July 1997.
6. L.A. Times, 14 July 1997.
7. CNN 13 May 1996.
8. OJJDP Fact Sheet #63 "Highlights of the 1995 National
Youth Gang Survey" April 1997.
9. OJJDP Fact Sheet #40 March 1997.
* * *
MASS PRISONERS DEALT COURT SETBACK ON PHONES
Massachusetts prisoners, their families and prisoners'
supporters on the outside were dealt a set-back on 28 July
by Judge Thayer Fremond-Smith who ruled that the Department
of Corrections (DOC) may monitor conversations between
prisoners and families. This also affects the contact that
prisoners can have with their supporters on the outside. In
a small victory, calls to therapists and clergy may not be
listened to. Calls to lawyers are already protected from
legal monitoring.
The lawsuit argued that the system violated state and
federal laws protecting privacy. The Judge sided with the
DOC which claims it wants to prevent fraud and unwanted
calls from prisoners. What the DOC wants to do is further
repress prisoners. Further showing that repression and not
rehabilitation is on the agenda, the DOC is waging a battle
-- from restricted phone use to deportations to distant
Texas -- that limits contacts with family and local
supporters. The ruling further represses and controls
prisoners and denies them the ability to keep in touch with
supporters and family on the outside is important for
prisoners to be able to set up once they get released.
Prisoners are limited to a list of 10 pre-approved by the
DOC phone numbers for family and friends and five numbers of
lawyers and may only dial collect. In Massachusetts, a
collect call typically starts at 46 cents. In prison, it's
86 cents. NYNEX gives the DOC 40% of its receipts to the
DOC.
The system is profitable for the state because it is paid by
the families or prisoners the percentage of the receipts
from the phone company. In the three years the system has
been in effect, the Massachusetts DOC has taken in $6.6
million -- most of this from the poorest families in the
state. (No surprise there, since it is often those without
money that end up in prison.)
Price gouging may even be worse elsewhere. In some states,
prisons get up to 60% of the phone charge, and the collect
surcharge can be as high as $3. "In Rhode Island, prisoners'
families pay a surcharge of $1.80; $1.05 in New Hampshire;
$1.30 in Maine; $1.65 in Vermont."
MIM supports the struggle of prisoners and their supporters
to have private, affordable communication. They should not
be forced to pay for their own oppressive incarceration as
if it was some sort of service nor should they be forced to
choose between giving up privacy and giving up
communication. We struggle against oppressive living
conditions prisoners face as we struggle to take down the
apartheid system and replace it with a system that serves
the people.
NOTES: Union-News 29 July 1997 p. A5; Boston Globe 15 July
1997, p. B3.
* * *
LETTERS
MIM SELF-CRITICISM NOT OVERBLOWN
In MIM Notes 143, 1 August 1997, MIM printed a self-
criticism for two errors in articles on the Pequot First
Nation. MIM argued that due to a lack of vigilance in
writing and editing, the oppressor's ideology slipped into
the paper.
The comrade responsible for writing what became the
partially incorrect MIM response to a non MIM article
challenged part of the correction. MIM wrote:
"A second article, 'Nationalist Pequot art targeted for
censorship' [MIM Notes 142, 15 July 1997] repeats a
quotation from a source that pits First Nations against one
another when the real battle is between the imperialists and
the First Nations. We must be careful when reporting on
battles amongst the oppressed that we not just repeat the
bourgeois line and 'facts'."
Dear MIM, I think this portion of the s-c is overblown. The
context was quite clearly crediting the English with
leading. I'll readily agree that the thing was a sentence we
could live without, but was it wrong?
It's a true fact that some nations at some times were allied
with the settlers against other FN. And this "fact" you want
to imply isn't true came from the Pequot Museum (via Heap of
Birds [creator of the artwork in question]).
A number of prisoners have written essays for Under Lock and
Key about the fact that Africans were involved in the slave
trade. The slave trade was led by Europeans, but Africans
were involved, and the it's that second fact that some
prisoners think is important to point out as part of
organizing the Black Nation into the national liberation
movement. Some prisoners argue the Europeans couldn't have
done it without the help of Africans. That's probably a
stretch, as the Europeans could have found a way,
eventually. But it's an important part of this history and
the politics.
I think it's relevant to know what happened to the Pequot
survivors, although we are restrained by the English
language. My limited knowledge of "slavery" in the First
Nations is that it was very different than chattle
slavery....
[... B]lindly putting that quote in the paper started with
me. But I'm afraid I don't see a clear line to follow for
the future.
I see this as different than the Ojibwe story [printed in
MN118 and corrected in MN119] which was wrong to the core
because it lacked the imperialist role. Here, the
imperialist role was clear.
-- A comrade
MIM RESPONDS: It's one thing with a well established
historical point like that there were slave-trader lackeys
in Africa. This is completely different in that it makes no
effort to check with the other two First Nations involved.
That process will result in believing compradors about their
special relationship with imperialism or special oppression
by it that requires redress with a special relationship.
You should have to show where the other two First Nations
agreed with this interpretation. And if the Ghanians say the
Nigerians were all the slave-traders would you print this
without checking the Nigerian story?
It is also very important to ask why we should be reporting
on struggles between the oppressed. Sure there are instances
when this would be correct and even necessary. But in this
case, does it serve the purposes of the proletariat or does
it serve the purposes of the bourgeoisie?
It is true that the oppressed will sometimes fight amongst
themselves. But sometimes there are facts that we learn that
we should not be repeating in MIM Notes' limited pages when
we could be using that space to expose the imperialists. We
have to accept that it is a political choice when we decide
what to report on and in this case the choice to report on
fights amongst the oppressed does not serve any proletarian
purpose.
The argument about African slavetraders is relevant only in
the context of an argument about how to liberate the
oppressed might be appropriate. We can not ignore history
but let's not just throw in facts for the sake of reporting
all facts in all cases, we'd never get anywhere if we
insisted on this level of detail. Random reporting of
fighting among the oppressed serves the bourgeoisie.
Reporting of such struggles in the context of analysis about
how to fight the bourgeoisie is sometimes necessary. It was
the former that ran in this article.
As for a clear line to follow, we suggest: Don't report on
struggles amongst the oppressed unless it serves the
oppressed. Even if you had verified this information with
the other nations involved or some other source, could you
really come up with a purpose it serves in that article
besides to support the bourgeois line that the oppressed
just like to kill one another?
* * *
MEXICAN IMMIGRANTS EXPOSE EXPLOITATION:
COLONIZED PEOPLE SUFFER UNDER IMPERIALISM
On July 19th four deaf Mexicans walked into a police station
in New York and handed over a note asking for help to escape
the oppression and exploitation they were suffering. These
Mexicans, along with at least 57 others, had been lured to
Amerika with promises of wealth only to find themselves
enslaved to captors who forced them to live packed together,
working long days selling trinkets in the subways, and
keeping little of the money they earned. As illegal
immigrants, particularly as deaf people, it was very
difficult for these people change their situation.
Reports of this case brought sympathetic stories in the
bourgeois media who applauded the pigs for saving these
people and Representative Charles Schumer of New York even
said the immigrants should be allowed to remain in the
country even though they are illegal immigrants. But this
case is only unusual in that it was reported widely in the
media and the leaders of the slave labor were considered
criminals and arrested.
There are factories in New York where Asians work under
similar conditions, there are farms in California where
Latinos are forced to slave under constant threat of
deportation and violence, and there are many other less
publicized situations in Amerika where immigrants, mostly
illegal, work for long hours for very little money, and kept
captive in living conditions that are uninhabitable. But
even NPR mentioned a few of these examples when reporting on
the Mexicans in New York to point out that this is not
entirely an isolated incident. What NPR neglected to mention
is the conditions of workers around the world.
The reason why these cases of immigrant workers being
exploited and oppressed sound so outrageous is that workers
in this country generally enjoy a high standard of living.
But when these incidents are put in the context of the
situation of the proletariat of the world which is located
mostly in the Third World, the working conditions of
unlivable wages, uninhabitable housing, long hours, and
violence from employers are no longer unusual. The employers
in Third World countries are not barbarians from indigenous
cultures, in most cases they are multinational corporations
which enjoy positions above the law with support from the
imperialist-backed armed forces and the imperialist-bought
allegiance of the governments.
It is the closed borders that force workers into the low
wage jobs in the Third World while workers in imperialist
countries enjoy a much higher standard of living. This is
just one more argument for open borders. But opening the
borders will not be enough, we need to overthrow imperialism
and take the power away from those who oppress and exploit
the people and instead put the power in the hands of the
people.
NOTES: Boston Globe, July 22, 1997. P. A3. and NPR July 22,
1997.
* * *
UNICEF REPORT CONFIRMS IMPERIALISM IS BAD FOR THE PEOPLES
HEALTH
by MC17
On July 22 the United Nations Children's Fund released its
report "The Progress of Nations" for the year 1996. This
report focuses on the health of children and wimmin around
the world, providing statistics and analysis about the
conditions of health and poverty. The report is useful in
showing where capitalism has brought the world and how many
lives could be saved under a better system. The report
points out that about half of all child deaths are
associated with malnutrition and more than 3/4 of these
deaths are linked to mild and moderate malnutrition rather
than severe malnutrition. The related numbers for mothers
reveal that worldwide total maternal deaths are about
585,000 per year. These deaths are blood on the hands of the
imperialists who keep their colonies in poverty through
military and political force so that the rates for maternal
deaths and child malnutrition are dramatically different
between imperialist countries and colonized nations.
Consistently Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia fall far behind the
rest of the world in indicators of basic health. Because the
report categorizes based on geography, it is difficult to
separate out the health of Latin America from that of North
America and Canada but overall it is clear that a country's
status as colony or colonizer is a key determinant in the
health of its people in the current imperialist system.
Underscoring the inequalities between imperialist nations
and the colonized countries, in their commentary Unfinished
business, Monica Sharma and James Tulloch point out:
"Except in rare and isolated cases, measles, diarrhea,
malaria, pneumonia, and malnutrition no longer claim the
lives of children in the industrialized world. But in poor
countries, these five conditions kill more than 8 million
children a year -- and account for two-thirds of all under-
five deaths."
They go on to write "As the 20th century draws to an end, it
is or ought to be a source of profound international shame
that over 8 million children are allowed to die each year
from problems that have long ago been overcome in other
parts of the world. A famine that kills 10,000, an
earthquake that kills 1,000, a plane crash that kills 100 --
all of these may stir the world to pity and protest. But the
deaths of almost 25,000 children every day from five causes
for which we long ago discovered inexpensive means of
prevention or cure are allowed to pass with barely a murmur.
It is as though a cure for heart disease or cancer or AIDS
had been discovered but not used. And if the comparison
seems far-fetched, let it be remembered that diarrhea
disease claims half as many lives as heart disease,
respiratory infections more lives than cancer, measles more
lives than AIDS. And the victims of these preventable
conditions are, in the main, children under the age of
five."
This commentary by Sharma and Tulloch is the best of the
analysis found in the UNICEF report. They point out that in
the past generation 5 million fewer children each year are
dying and "at least three quarters of a million fewer are
being disabled, blinded, crippled, or mentally retarded."
They conclude "Although little noticed in the industrialized
nations, this advance must be ranked as one of the great
achievements of the second half of the 20th century." But
they fail to analyze the causes of these advances or to
correctly assess what is necessary to move forward from
here.
MIM believes that capitalism is better for the health of the
world's people than was slavery or feudalism. But UNICEF
tries to make the false comparison between kinder and less
kind capitalist nations to make the argument that health
problems will be overcome under a kinder gentler
imperialism. Unlike the report recently released by the
United Nations Development Program, this UNICEF report also
fails to discuss the causes of advancement relative to
socialist revolutions. The UNDP report inadvertently does
this by comparing China to India (see MIM Notes #142, July
15, 1997 for a complete analysis of the UNDP report).
Without a correct analysis of history, it is no surprise
that UNICEF ends up with the weak conclusion "As in so many
other arenas of the possible, the weak link is still the
relatively low level of political commitment, in many
countries, to doing what can now be done." This is partially
true in that it accepts that humans have tremendous
potential and this potential is only hindered by political
commitment. But this conclusion bolsters the UNICEF position
that countries just need to make the decision to put more
resources into health, refusing to examine the reasons that
countries do not invest in health and the causes of poverty.
This lack of systematic analysis leaves UNICEF focusing on
the measures countries should take to prevent disease such
as vaccinations, iodized salt, nutritional supplements and
breast feeding. They suggest target goals for countries and
talk about the need for governments to commit to working on
these problems.
The UNICEF report states "A need becomes a right when a
society becomes capable of meeting that need and when
fulfillment of the need becomes essential to human
flourishing or well-being (or when its lack leads to ill-
being or destitution). And at the present time, only the
State can guarantee such rights." MIM recognizes that there
are no absolute rights, only power struggles. When the
people are in power they can decide which needs should be
filled first but with the State run by a dictatorship of the
bourgeoisie, the people are forced to rely on the crumbs
left by the imperialists, literally starving to death, while
the imperialists and their lackeys at the United Nations sit
back in their pristine offices and write nice words about
the need for kinder States in those barbaric Third World
countries which, for some reason, are unable to provide the
level of health care and nutrition provided in imperialist
countries.
The UNICEF support for state intervention as the solution to
health problems extends into advocating legal protection for
children, registration of individuals "right to a name", and
other measures which strengthen the role of the state in
dangerous ways. It is not possible to call on the military
in a country to protect children from abuses of the military
but UNICEF is caught in this contradiction when they attempt
to propose protections for children that must be provided by
the very state that is oppressing them.
The report includes National Performance Gap measures which
are meant to describe where a given country's health
indicators fall relative to other similar countries. These
measures are derived by examining the relationship between
national income and each performance measure for all
countries. A line is fitted to the relationship between the
two and this is considered the expected national
performance. This system of measurement is useful in showing
where countries fall relative to others of similar income,
underscoring that what is possible and what countries
achieve are two very different things. The flaw in this way
of analyzing countries is that it does not show what people
are capable of, only what has been accomplished so far.
Under socialism in China tremendous advances were made in
health care relative to the low national income. The
advances were so stunning that China showed up as an anomaly
in any comparison of income and health. It is important that
we not take the best accomplishments of capitalist countries
as an example of the best we can hope to accomplish.
NOTES: All information taken from the UNICEF "Progress of
Nations" 1996 report available at
http://www.unicef.org/pon96
* * *
SENECA PROTESTORS' CASE DISMISSED
byRC93
On July 29 a judge dismissed charges of trespassing,
unlawful assembly and resisting arrest against the Seneca
protesters who were attacked and brutalized by New York
State Troopers last May. All six defendants in this trial
were proclaimed innocent. Meanwhile thirteen others still
await their trial for disorderly conduct charges.(1)
The defense claimed violation of the Canandaigua Treaty of
1794 and the U.S. Constitution in their defense against
state troopers entering Onondaga Territory to arrest the
protesters. The use of an illegal affidavit to arrest the
defendants was also cited in the decision.(1)
The protesters were holding a vigil in response to New York
State's attempts to tax the sovereign nation. Before this
trial had occurred, state officials had offered to drop the
charges if the Senecas would sign a treaty resigning control
of their nation's economy. The Senecas refused and ended up
winning their case in court. This is a small victory for the
struggle. But the nation also turned around and filed
brutality charges against the police who had charged their
protest in full riot gear on May 18. News on this case is
unknown. However it is likely that true justice will not be
served in New York courts and the abusive cops will go free.
This would be just one of many actions the state has taken
against the Seneca Nation in the course of this tax
struggle. Therefore we cannot depend on it for justice, but
we must struggle against it to obtain justice for all.
NOTES:
1. Times Union 30 July 1997, p.B-2.
2. MIM Notes #141.
* * *
PROTEST STRONG AS IMPERIALISTS FURTHER DEVALUE SOUTH-EAST
ASIAN CURRENCIES
Since July 2 when Thailand floated its currency, the baht,
on open market where speculators crashed the price down,
south-east Asian currencies have plummeted to match it. That
means that the imperialists will pay even less for goods
from these countries, and charge even more for materials
that they control.
In the capitalist world, there is supposedly a free market
where one can not only buy and sell weapons, pornography and
the ever-nutritious Cheese Doodles, but also currencies of
other countries. When a government decides to let its
currency go on the free-market, we say the currency is
"floating." When the government passes a law that says
foreigners can only use the country's money at a fixed price
in U.$. dollars or other currencies, then the exchange-rate
is "fixed," and not "floating."
When a country like Thailand floats its currency, it should
be valued at the number of U.$. dollars that make it equal
to buy things in each other's countries. This does not
happen for a number of reasons. In fact, what happens is the
cost-of-living is usually higher in the Third World and the
price of labor-power is always much cheaper.
First of all currency speculation is decided by the central
banks, governments and the very rich. Thai peasants and
workers have very few dollars or other imperialist country
currencies to exchange for their own currency and they have
few disposable baht to bring to market. Hence, because the
ultra-rich decide what to do with their baht from day to
day, there can be great volatility in exchange-rates.
Secondly, what happens is that the comprador regimes, force
their workers to work for an average of 48 cents an hour in
the Third World.(1) By doing this, the compradors are
rewarded handsomely by the imperialists. However, if the
Third World currency exchange-rate triples, that means the
cost of hiring workers triples to multinational
corporations. Then the comprador is afraid the multinational
corporation will go somewhere else, so the comprador regime
will re-fix the currency through a "competitive devaluation"
to make sure the multinational corporations do not go
somewhere else and to make sure the rest of the world still
buys the goods with 48 cent an hour labor in them.
Alternatively, the central banks linked to the government
can simply sell their own currency and drive down the price
of baht or whatever their currency is that way instead of
fixing the price.
That is why it is important to watch what a comprador does
and not what s/he says. Devaluation of a currency is a
competitive strike against other Third World currencies, in
this case making sure that Thailand is the place for
corporations to be. In the past, state-capitalist China and
U.$.-occupied Korea have repeatedly fixed their currencies
at lower levels, in order to make a bad situation worse, and
give the multinational corporations a break. For this
reason, MIM advocates the international currency reform
advocated by Arjun Makhijani in From Global Capitalism to
Economic Justice. Such a currency reform would treat all
countries the same way.
Protest of this change has been widespread and sharp. From
the streets of the Philippines to the meeting rooms of the
Association of South-east Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Kuala
Lampur, the masses and even their bureaucrats are
illuminating the realities of "free trade" under imperialism
as systematically depriving the neo-colonies.
Press statements issued by national democratic organizations
in the Philippines tied this issue of devaluation into their
general program against u.s.-Ramos misrule: "The Bagong
Alyansang Makabayan, together with other militant
organizations, vows to spearhead massive and nationwide
protest actions to pressure the u.s.-Ramos regime to heed
the people's demands."(2)
"We, who suffer from the plunge of the peso are here to
protest President Ramos' subservience to the IMF and World
Bank's harsh economic impositions, the latest of which is
the policy of peso devaluation."(2)
As for the u.s.-Ramos regime, it responded with force
against these protests. As protesters chanted slogans such
as "down with imperialism" and "end the u.s.-Ramos regime,"
PSG and WPD elements kept attempting to break up the picket
but the protesters stood their ground. Finally just as the
program ended, the police and palace guards wielding
truncheons and stun guns violently dispersed the protest
action.(3)
Some leaders of the neo-colonies of South-east Asia have
taken a different tactic in dealing with the crisis. Ever
courting the IMF and World Bank but also trying to quell the
protest of their people, comprador leaders have been caught
in a bind. Malaysia's leader, Mohammed Mahathir, has stolen
the show at recent Alliance of East Asian Nations meetings
by calling the imperialists' game. However, only the people
rising up will actually change the conditions that make
Malaysia all but powerless before imperialism.
Mahathir was good at pointing out the hypocrisy of "free
trade" under imperialism. "We are told we must open up, that
trade and commerce must be totally free. Free for whom? For
rogue speculators?" he thundered at this week's meeting in
Kuala Lumpur of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(Asean), the region's top logistical organization for the
compradors.
Progressives know that a free economy under imperialism
means only freedom to exploit. Mahathir and his ilk
generally do not admit this. So he is half right when he
warns that Malaysia faces a new colonialism: "If
[Malaysians] do not wish to be colonised again, in whatever
form, they must learn to manage their affairs better." There
is a threat of ever-increasing neo-colonialism, but the only
way that Malaysia and other countries can "manage their
affairs better" to deal with that is to fight for national
liberation and to build a self-sufficient economies.
Mahathir this week also criticized the increasing power of
multi-national companies, which he said were "swallowing up
chunks of the business in the developing world". But even as
he talked criticism, he does not act against imperialism.
According to the Financial Times of London, "Malaysia is an
attentive host to these very same companies and its economy
has been considerably enriched by their investments."
Thus, the Filipino activists present a much better way
forward. Rather than using the double-speak that pretends
there might be some nice way to organize imperialism if just
the banks would play fair, BAYAN says: "The de facto
devaluation of the peso is not a bitter medicine which
Filipinos must swallow. It is a mere symptom of an ailing
economy wrung dry by imperialist impositions. It is the
consequence of the erroneous policies of import
liberalization, export-oriented growth and opening the
economy to foreign speculators. Unless the Ramos government
implements genuine land reform and national
industrialization, our economy will remain in crisis."(2)
NOTES:
1. Financial Times (London) July 26, 1997.
2. http://www.sequel.net/~bayan/onpeso.dev.htm
* * *
PROTESTERS RALLY TO "END THE U.$. RAMOS REGIME!"
LOS ANGELES -- On July 28 several RAIL comrades and MIM
supporters joined a rally in front of the Philippine
Consulate which denounced Philippine President Fidel Ramos
as a puppet of u.s. and Japanese imperialism. The rally was
organized by BAYAN International-USA and several other legal
national democratic organizations in Los Angeles in order to
expose the self-serving lies put forward by Ramos in his
State of the Nation Address. Similar demonstrations
organized by the legal national democratic movement in the
Philippines drew 100,000 participants.
A statement delivered at the rally by BAYAN International-
USA decried Ramos' willingness to allow foreign monopoly
capital to dominate the Philippine economy at the expense of
the broad masses of the people. In the countryside, Ramos'
policies force peasants off of their land in order to give
that land to the local landlords and imperialist
enterprises. In the cities, Ramos' policies promote cheap
labor, repress trade unions in the name of "industrial
peace," bulldoze the homes of the urban poor, and suppress
student activism.
The statement also exposed the u.$.-Ramos regime's
increasing reliance on repression: "The strangulation of
the rights of the Filipino people is at its height under the
U.S.-Ramos regime. Cases of human rights violation continue
to rise due to intensifying militarization against the
peasant masses. Bombings and strafings in the countryside
and forced evacuation of tens of thousands of people are
happening right now in the southern island of Mindanao. Big
scale military operations are purportedly launched against
criminal elements, but in reality these are directed against
the Moro revolutionaries and the New People's Army and their
mass supporters." New repressive laws allow warrantless
arrest and curfews, and para-military violence is used
against protesters and activists in the cities. In fact,
riot police in Manila harassed 8,000 protesters on July 28.
Other organizations addressed the rally as well. The
secretary general of KARAPATAN gave a short speech.
KARAPATAN is a national democratic organization which works
to expose and combat the human rights abuses of the u.$.
puppet regime in the Philippines. A representative of
GABRIELA-LA described some of the specific problems wimmin
face under the u.$.-Ramos regime.
The RAIL comrades and MIM supporters distributed MIM Notes
and Maoist Sojourner, which contain coverage of both the
legal national democratic movement in the cities and the
underground, armed movement in the countryside led by the
Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP). Both movements are
important parts of the masses' struggle against the
imperialist economic and military domination of the
Philippines, but the CPP-led armed struggle is the principal
weapon in the struggle. U.$-imperialism stole the
Philippines with the gun and -- through local lackeys like
Ramos -- continue to defend their stolen goods with the gun,
so the masses are forced to take up the gun themselves to
take back and defend what is theirs. And only the communists
are willing to mobilize the broad masses of people, which is
the sole criterion for victory.
* * *
STALIN AND MAO VINDICATED ON SWEDEN AND DULLES BROTHERS
The Swedish family that owns half of Sweden has long had a
reputation in the bourgeois media for helping the Jews avoid
the Holocaust. Now it turns out that diplomat-legend Raoul
Wallenberg's family profited from the Nazi murder of Dutch
Jews.
The Swedish capitalists bought the Nazi-stolen bonds of the
Dutch Jews and accepted Dutch Jewish gold in payment for
weapons. Assisting the Wallenberg family was future
Secretary of State and past U.S. Government lawyer, John
Foster Dulles, who was the grandson of one Secretary of
State and the nephew of another.
After the Nazi invasion of Poland, John Foster Dulles
arranged the legal work for the Nazis to have Amerikan
companies front for them through a Swedish intermediary, so
that the Nazis could carry out their war-time business
without being taken over.
John's brother Allen was instrumental during World War II in
starting a program of infiltration of communist parties with
the aim of their "peaceful evolution" after the war. He also
helped Nazis escape and join the precursor to the CIA once
the Nazis lost.
Both Stalin and Mao specifically mentioned the Dulles
brothers and their strategy, but many at the time did not
believe these communist leaders. This includes the petty-
bourgeoisie in the party of Mao, which eventually became the
new bourgeoisie of China. It is a stark reminder how
proletarian leaders must deal with the petty-bourgeoisie and
its paralysis -- being lodged between the two great classes
-- right in the party.
Allen became director of the CIA and John Foster Dulles
became Secretary of State in 1953.
We communists are fortunate that some older Jews still
living did not keep their mouths shut till death. Many who
know the facts kept quiet while they sided with the United
$tates in the Cold War. Now the truth is coming out thanks
to the collapse of the Soviet bloc and thanks to the Jews'
self-interest in the matter.
Now Sweden is being blamed in addition to Switzerland for
holding Nazi gold -- 7.6 tons. The discussion of this matter
vindicates Stalin repeatedly. Now it is inevitable that the
Swedish government is being asked why it cooperated with the
Nazis and it is equally inevitable that the truth is finally
coming out: "Tens of thousands of Swedes would have been
willing instruments of the Nazis if we had been occupied,"
according to Swedish diplomat Krister Wahlback.
The Swedish Jew, Inga Gottfarb credited with saving all of
Denmark's Jews in 1942 also says, "'If we had been occupied,
we would have had our Quislings too.' She was referring to
Vidkun Quisling, who headed a Nazi puppet government in
Norway that shipped a third of Norwegian Jews to
extermination camps."
The Swedish diplomat and Inga Gottfarb are correct and that
is why the Swedish government says it had no choice but to
do business with Germany. It was do the business or be
occupied.
This vindicates Stalin on two points. One is that Stalin had
numerous traitors shot. If Sweden had tens of thousands,
then the Soviet Union with 30 times more people had millions
of Nazi-sympathizers. The bourgeois historians act like
everyone Stalin had shot was innocent, but MIM says that is
obvious nonsense. While the other countries in Continental
Europe fell like a house of cards to the Nazi onslaught, the
Soviet Union did not, because the Soviet Union had dealt
with its internal enemies and kept a razor-sharp political
vigilance.
The second point vindicating Stalin is that the Swedes have
admitted they would have been occupied and thus had no real
independence anyway. Hence, when Stalin pushed the Baltic
states to join the Soviet Union and took tough measures in
Poland, he was right. Those small countries had no choice
either: it was either be an ally of the Soviet Union or be
invaded by the Nazis. We are glad Stalin took half of Poland
in the circumstances.
NOTE: Boston Globe 6Jul97, pp. 1, a10.
* * *
PATRIARCHY SUCKS:
YOUNG WIMMIN ARE DYING TO LOOK GOOD
by MC45
A young womyn dancer with the Boston Ballet died at the end
of June after having complained to her family of a racing,
pounding heart but not seeing a doctor. While the exact
cause of her death is unknown, these can be symptoms of not
eating enough or of having too much stress on one's body in
general. MIM calls her death a tragedy because it was
completely unnecessary and may well have been caused by
decadent manifestations of patriarchy.
The 22-year-old dancer was 5'3" tall and weighed 100 pounds,
not a dangerously low weight, but there has been talk that
her death was at least an indirect result of an eating
disorder. The dancer had been told to lose weight in the
past as a prerequisite for becoming a professional. It is
very common for wimmin dancers to starve themselves, drink
lots of diet soda and smoke cigarettes to make themselves
skinny and stay that way.
Unnatural and unhealthy ideals of how wimmin's bodies should
look are a product of patriarchal culture, which views
wimmin's bodies as objects which are either sexually and
aesthetically attractive or not. Professional dance takes
this objectification to the extreme and uses people's bodies
to make art. Under capitalism this art conforms to bourgeois
standards and has nothing to do with real life. This is why
young wimmin dancers wind up starving themselves, because
this so-called art requires them to be unnaturally thin.
In a much less than charming summary of professional
dancing's perspective on health, the New York Times article
on this dancer's death and on eating disorders in general
closes with some advice from a dance physician. The doctor
says of dance protÈgÈ's parents: "people have to realize
that the child is not going to make it if they are not thin.
Mothers must start thinking twice. Is it worth the risk?" As
far as MIM is concerned, the dance institutions in general
must start thinking twice: how can you call this art if you
run the risk of killing people?
MIM sees this First World dancers' aesthetic as being
especially vile, because it makes a mockery of forced, not
self-enforced, starvation in the Third World. Amerika is now
trickling food aid out to north Korea while elderly Koreans
starve so that their children and granchildren can eat. At
the same time the Amerikan government spends money
supporting so-called art which requires people to make
themselves sick, and the majority of Amerikans condemn
Communism as evil while paying money to see wimmin distort
their bodies whether in a dance concert, a fashion magazine
or Hollywood.
Communists see wimmin's bodies as we see men's: as living
beings which are capable of marshaling their strength for
the overthrow of imperialism. For this reason, we respect
people's physical health and well-being and we mourn the
loss of human life to decadent whims. Lenin said that young
people in general should strive for healthy bodies and
healthy minds, and that keeping oneself physically in one
piece is necessary to being an effective revolutionary.
MIM seconds Lenin on this and adds that given the life-and-
death struggle of people all over the world for food it
would be gross decadence for First World people to kill
themselves to look good when they could be organizing for
revolution instead. We call on the youth and young wimmin in
particular to firmly reject patriarchy and take up the
struggle for independent power of the oppressed. Don't waste
your lives trying to conform to a vile system, work with MIM
for the overthrow of that system instead.
NOTES:
1. New York Times 16 July, 1997, p. B1, 8.
2. For more of MIM's line on gender, order a copy of MIM
Theory no. 2/3, a special double issue on Gender and
Revolutionary Feminism. For MIM's analysis of psychology
under imperialism, write for a copy of MIM Theory no. 9.
* * *
BLACK YOUTH TORN FROM FAMILY
by a RAIL comrade
San Marcos, Cal -- The Kriminal Amerikan Injustice system
arrested and convicted 11-year-old Jerry Swanegan and has
torn him from his family. Starting with the enslavement and
murder of Africans to build the empire, Amerika has a long
history of tearing Black families apart. That tactic in the
war against the Black nation continues today through
disproportionate incarceration and persecution. In the case
of Swanegan, the prison system ripped apart his family after
alleging that the Black eleven year-old committed sex crimes
against older white females.
The state convicted Swanegan of a lewd and lascivious
conduct felony ("adult" penal code section 288) for
"inappropriately touching three [12- and 13-year-old] white
female playmates." The myth of the Black rapist is clearly a
prime motivation for the prosecution and persecution of this
Black youth.
The state also convicted Swanegan of a misdemeanor weapons
charge for "displaying a [one and a half-inch knife] in a
threatening manner against a 9-year-old playmate". The
Amerikan system is quick to pounce on any alleged
"misbehavior" to crack down on Black youth like Swanegan.
Swanegan was declared a ward of the court after being
separated from his mother, Janet Swanegan, by juvenile hall
for six months. In November, he was transferred to a 24-hour
school in Ukiah, California.
Swanegan's mother expressed her outrage at the adult
conviction of her son, "I just felt what they were doing to
an 11-year-old boy was not right." She also stated that his
lawyer did not present an adequate defense but "[she] did
not have the money to fight this case the way it should have
been."
Swanegan's mother says that teachers labeled him as a
"problem child" since he was four-years-old. Black and
oppressed nation youth are disproportionately labeled
"problem children" and "juvenile delinquents" by the
Amerikan MISeducation system in comparison to their white
counterparts. This makes it easier to justify tearing up
oppressed nation families. The current oppressors have no
material interest in gearing the education system to
genuinely work to help youth develop their skills and tap
their potential. This is particularly the case for oppressed
nation youth, who if held back systematically will provide
slave labor in the prisons rather than provide revolutionary
leadership for liberation in the streets.
Swanegan's appeal lawyer, John Lanahan, points out how the
law was twice stretched in Swanegan's case. Lanahan stated,
"It is a bizarre fact that Jerry is accused of molesting
'older women' as an adult or older person. I haven't seen
any [288] case where the perpetrator is younger than the
victim. It is meant for older people who are more sexually
sophisticated who are going and exploiting children."
Furthermore Kalifornia Penal Code 26 states that a minor is
exempt from criminal prosecution unless it can be shown by
"clear proof" that s/he knew that a conduct was wrong. This
was not proven beyond a reasonable doubt in his trial.
Lanahan said the judge had the ability to dismiss specific
or all charges but refused to do so.
In Swanegan's appellate brief, the judge was quoted as
saying that the legislature "[is] going to reduce the age of
people which we can send downtown [county jail] to the age
of fourteen...., I really wish there were a lot more
flexibility given the judges in situations like this." This
in spite of the fact that Swanegan is only eleven.
BEING BLACK IS A CRIME IN AMERIKA
According to an attorney at the Kounty Probation Department,
it is fairly normal for an 11-year-old to be tried as an
adult in juvenile court because the minor's age is not as
critical as the offense, but convictions of youth that young
on the 288 charge are not commonplace. MIM adds that the
nationality of the accused overrides both age and offense as
justification for the Kriminal Amerikan Injustice system. In
the Unentitled states, it is illegal to be an oppressed
national.
Because of his age, Swanegan will not have to register as a
sex offender and the offenses won't be counted as strikes.
But is blatantly apparent that the childhood tracking of
Swanegan as "uncontrollable" and a "delinquent" was
successful in the eyes of the oppressor, and fallout from
the case will hound Swanegan for his adult life.
This is precisely the reason why we need independent
institutions of the oppressed. The oppressed nations must be
self-reliant and self-determining. They must liberate
themselves from the vicious genocidal Amerikan imperialists
with the proven methods of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. MIM
calls on those whose blood boils from injustice to struggle
against imperialism! Work with MIM, PIRAO and RAIL to make
proletarian feminist revolutionary nationalism a reality.
NOTE: The San Diego Voice & Viewpoint, 17 July 1997, A1, B6.
* * *
SUPREME COURT INCREASES REPRESSION OF PIG-IDENTIFIED "SEX
OFFENDERS"
State attorneys general and other Amerikan pigs are pleased
with the Supreme Court's recent ruling which allows them to
re-imprison people who have finished serving prison terms
for sex charges. States can now put these ex-prisoners into
mental institutions. The law is all vague, allowing states
to involuntarily and indefinitely commit anyone they think
is "mentally abnormal" (not necessarily so-called "mentally
ill", as usually defined).
The effect, like that of the other timely post-prison
penalty of registration, will be to further protect the
prime child abusers (family members) while increasing the
repression of strangers accused of a myriad of offenses
including sodomy and statutory rape. Since the oppressed are
far more likely to be arrested in the first place, this
ruling like all increases in incarceration will lead to
further repression of already oppressed groups.
There are two things to criticize in this post-prison
repression of institutionalization and registration. First,
the whole discussion of the issue as one of child sex abuse
is a big lie. These measures will affect many who are guilty
of less shocking crimes, like hiring a prostitute or having
homosexual sex. Second, the state is profoundly hypocritical
when it feigns strong opposition to child sexual abuse but
at the same time supports the privacy of the family that
creates the conditions for the vast majority of that
abuse.(1)
New York Attorney General Dennis Vacco's comments were
illuminating. He said: "Today's ruling in the Kansas sex
predator case is a tremendous victory for the families of
America."(2) This is total patriarchal line. The patriarchy
equates the interests of "families" with those of white
parents, and this ruling is certainly good for them. All the
talk of "sex predators" as being incurable monsters that
seek out the children of strangers distracts entirely from
the real situation of rape and abuse of children: it's
usually family, and family doesn't go to jail. Now MIM is
glad family doesn't go to jail -- we certainly don't think
that state control is what these people need, but at the
same time we criticize the institution of family privacy
since abuse happens in private. With state-led repressive
measures, Amerikans can pretend they want to stop child
sexual abuse without in any way hampering the patriarchal
family structure that makes abuse so rampant.
According to the Supreme Court, only "abnormal" sex
offenders are to be subject to indefinite incarceration. The
state is using this vague wording to clear the path for
targeted repression of those protected from mental
institutions thus far. Sarah Sappington, an assistant
attorney general in Washington State, explained the drive
behind getting around usual restrictions on involuntary
committal: "As a society, you are faced with dangerous
recidivists who are not normal, by any measure, but they are
not insane, as the law defines insane."(3)
MIM knows just what a fast and loose definition of
"abnormal" means: while normal sex abuse by family members
and (for adults) by "chosen" partners will continue to go
unpunished, abnormal sex abuse by oppressed strangers will
be punished severely. Even this marker for normal versus
abnormal is bogus in a culture in which Calvin Klein's
perfume ads use children as sexually suggestive models power
is exactly what makes sex sexy.
Only under socialism, when we begin to destroy the power of
groups over groups, will sex abuse of children actually be
abnormal. We will socialize childcare, removing the privacy
the family has in which to abuse. And with the decrease in
power differentials between groups, we will also create a
culture that no longer makes domination sexy.
NOTES:
1. See MIM Theory 9: Psychology and Imperialism for more of
MIM's analysis of child abuse, and MIM Theory 11: Amerikkkan
Prisons on Trial for more MIM criticism of sex offenses and
the criminal injunstice system.
2 Times Union (Albany, NY), June 24, p A1, B2.
3. The New York Times, June 29, 1997.
* * *
CORPORATE CONCENTRATION AND CULTURAL HEGEMONY:
ONE WEEKEND'S MOVIE SALES
by MC12
On a fairly typical weekend in the film industry, July 18-
20, the top 60 movies in national distribution grossed $104
million in ticket sales within U.$. borders. These top 60
movies altogether had grossed $2.1 billion by the end of
that weekend, at which point they were showing on more than
13,000 screens.(1) So, U.$. movie-goers have spent more for
tickets to these 60 movies than the whole Gross Domestic
Product in Eritrea for 1995.
The concentration of spending on just a few movies is
significant. The top five movies on this list -- Men in
Black, George of the Jungle, Contact, Nothing to Lose, and
Face/Off -- grossed $72 million that weekend, or 69% of the
total. This is evidence of a mass capitalist culture of
conformity.(1)
These top five movies were run by the largest culture
companies in the world, also some of the largest companies
period. Men in Black is from Sony, which had $46 billion in
revenue last year, and also owns Columbia Pictures and
TriStar Pictures, and distributes Castle Rock films, among
others.(2) George of the Jungle is from Disney, which had
revenue of $18.7 billion and ranked 55 on the Fortune 500
list last year.(3) Disney, which also owns ABC, owns Buena
Vista home video, 17 theme parks and resorts, etc., and
controls Hollywood, Touchstone, Caravan, and Miramax films.
Contact is from the Time Warner publishing empire, which
owns CNN, HBO, and lots more, and had $10 billion in revenue
last year, at 141 on the Fortune 500.(3) Nothing to Lose is
also from Touchstone (Disney). Finally, Face/Off is from
Paramount, which is owned by Viacom, which owns MTV and its
"competitor" VH1, Showtime and its "competitor" The Movie
Channel, and, if you want to pick your own, Blockbuster
video as well.(4) Viacom is also in publishing with Simon
and Shuster, and a lot more, with $12.1 billion in revenue
last year making it 112 on the Fortune list.
Each of these companies is heavily involved in production of
films, and their distribution in theaters, on TV, video
stores, and so on -- all up and down the entertainment food
chain. That way they don't have to worry about serious
competition at any level.
One feature of imperialism is its increasing concentration
of capital and power. When this concentration develops in
the realm of culture, one important result is the
concentration of control over culture and the public
expression of ideas. This leads to hegemony by the ruling
class over culture. By maintaining a tight control over
large-scale cultural production -- in addition to news
media, the education system, and so on -- the ruling classes
can do a lot to smooth the way for the public acceptance of
their view of things.
Lots of critics of capitalism are upset about the
concentration of capital in culture, but Maoists understand
that this hegemony is reinforced by the massive infusion of
super-profits from Third World countries -- which are used
to pay the people of the oppressor nations to play along --
so that Amerika in particular has developed an epidemic of
decadent conformity despite the constant mantra of free will
and individuality.
NOTES:
1. Variety box office lists available at www.yahoo.com.
2. Sony corporate information from www.sony.com.
3. Fortune 500 at www.pathfinder.com.
4. Viacom corporate information from www.viacom.com.
* * *
KREMA-1 PUSHES DEAD-END POLITICS
by a RAIL comrade
July 19th, Cambridge, MA hosted a punk show which comrades
attended. The comrades distributed MIM Notes and struggled
with those attending to oppose to the current Kriminal
injustice system. Part of the our organizing and education
efforts focused on the struggle to return Massachusetts
prisoners deported to Texas. Along with gathering petition
signatures to support that specific battle, we discussed the
necessity to build a revolutionary alternative to the
current imperialist system.
Hearing that the show was progressive, a comrade
investigated one of the bands -- Krema-1. As it turns out,
Krema-1 is rabidly anti-Communist. In particular, Krema-1 is
an example of the "left" variety of anti-communism, which
claims that all states are equally repressive and all
leaders are inherently oppressors. The band's politics are a
mixture of pie-in-the-sky idealism and historical ignorance.
Krema-1 started its set with an anarchist fairy tale: once
upon a time, the Spanish communists and comrade Stalin
wanted the revolution in Spain to fail and caused the deaths
of Spanish anarchists during the Spanish Civil War.
Back to reality: Stalin began to rally international
support against fascism in 1934, two years before the
fascist coup led by Franco. The Soviet Union was the only
government to support the anti-fascist forces with supplies
and arms. Even Emma Goldman, famous anarchist critic of the
Soviet Union, admitted that it was this Soviet aid that
allowed the anti-fascists to survive as long as they did.(1)
Krema-1 also dragged out that imaginary ghost story of
Stalin being Hitler's best friend because of the 1939 non-
aggression pact between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany.
Again, this seemingly simple story ignores concrete history.
Before the non-aggression pact, the Western capitalist
powers were trying to force Hitler to go to war with the
Soviet Union first, so that the West could sit on the
sidelines and see the Soviet Union crushed. The non-
aggression pact bought the Soviet Union two years to
industrialize and prepare for the war. As a result, the Red
Army was able to play the principal role in defeating
fascism -- something Krema-1 omits entirely.(2)
But Krema-1 isn't interested in success; they're interested
in purity. They ignore the fact that real world movements to
change the status quo have to make real world decisions,
which include temporary compromise. In this Krema-1 and Emma
Goldman have a lot in common. Emma Goldman explicitly said
that the Spanish anarchists should remain pure, even if that
meant they would be crushed.(1)
On their 7-inch and in their song "On the Prospect of Social
Revolution", they explicitly attack MIM as "authoritarian"
and call Mao a murderer. They also lump MIM and several
other so-called Marxist groups together and claim that
"[MIM] has no desire for universal freedom and the
elimination of authority" and "[Marxists] want to replace a
system that puts them in control."
In the short run, MIM admits to using the effective method
of hierarchy and to gain control -- MIM wants the world's
oppressed majority in control to exercise authority over the
world's oppressing minority. Because the oppressing minority
is armed to the teeth and will stop at nothing to preserve
their privilege, MIM believes that placing the majority in
authority is a necessary step towards MIM's long run goal:
The elimination of all oppression, of all power of groups
over groups. While MIM is working to build a dictatorship
(ooh, shudder to think) of the proletariat, nihilistic
complacency with the status quo allows such anti-communists
to sit back and passively supports the dictatorship of the
bourgeoisie.
As far as the unsupported charge that Mao was a murderer is
concerned, we suggest Krema-1 read the MIM essay, "Was Mao a
Butcher?"(3) Krema-1's unsubstantiated charges against Mao
and Stalin and their "anti-authoritarian" demagoguery only
serve to cover up the fact that they have no real
alternative to the communist path forward. Mao lead the
Chinese people closer to communism and the eradication of
oppression of groups over other groups than has ever
happened historically. With Marxism-Leninism-Maoism as our
ideology we can carry on the struggle stage by stage rather
than preaching to others about the mistakes of those taking
action to move history forward.
NOTES:
1. See MIM Theory 8, "The Anarchist Ideal and Communist
Revolution."
2. See MIM Theory 6, "The Stalin Issue."
3. See the pamphlet, "What is MIM?"
* * *
HARDCORE SCENE HAS REVOLUTIONARY POTENTIAL
by a RAIL comrade
Hardcore crowds often epitomize what MIM refers to as first
world youth who have not yet bought into supporting
imperialism. The underground music scene attracts youth who
don't fit into mainstream society and some who are looking
to change it. White youth vacillate between assimilation and
revolution. They have reasons to rebel, but they also have
reasons to assimilate or "rebel" ineffectually. Hardcore is
often referred to as a movement -- though there are no set
goals or strategy, the scene can provide a forum for
progressive ideas. MIM and RAIL organize these youth to work
against the system entirely, not just through individual
acts of kindness or rebellion, but through strong organized
methods to tear Amerika down entirely.
The general rejection of Amerikan culture is evident in some
of the currents of the scene. For instance many youth reject
all forms of drug use as inhibiting to their ability to
function clearly. Many also reject Amerikan romance culture
and promiscuity as destructive outlets for one's potential.
General condemnation of capitalist greed and selling out is
also common within the hardcore scene.
RAIL recently took the opportunity to participate in a
three-day hardcore festival organized by two ambitious
hardcore youth. The program included music and other
culture, as well as tables set up by a variety of political
organizations -- some reformists, some anarchists, some
identity-politics groups, and, of course, RAIL.
RAIL set up a table with petitions, literature and T-shirts.
There was relatively high interest in what RAIL and MIM have
to say as was evident by the number of people who stopped to
browse through our literature and ask questions. RAIL
distributed a lot of newspapers, theory journals and sold
fundraising T-shirts as well and was generally received
positively.
One festival workshop, set up by students and a self-
proclaimed radical professor, focused on language and ideas
in Amerikan culture and the necessity to recognize their
roles and change them. Though the presenters mentioned the
material advantage of middle class Amerika and the
oppressive role of the U.$. government in world politics,
this was not the focus of the presentation. They did not
stress the need for material change, rather the change of
ideas and thought. Principally focusing on changing ideas
ignores the fact that oppressive culture stems from the
oppressive imperialist system, not vice versa.
The weekend was successful for RAIL, as we reached a lot of
people with revolutionary information. Often young people
have great potential without the knowledge or outlet to use
it. Many young people in the hardcore scene have the
progressive potential to become revolutionaries, but
anarchist ideas seem to prevail rather than more scientific
communist ideas. Throughout history youth have played an
important leadership role in revolutions. They will continue
to do so and MIM and RAIL organize youth to learn from
history and move forward along the quickest path to
liberation and the elimination of oppression.
* * *
RENT:
CAPITULATION INSTEAD OF REVOLUTION
Jonathan Larson's musical Rent is about the lives of middle
class Amerikan youth who rebel against capitalist society's
alienation and its commodification of necessities -- for
example, rent. These youth "drop out of society" and live as
anarchist squatters in the lower east side of Manhattan.
Larson's indirect autobiography focuses mainly on the lives
of ten characters -- half with AIDS -- who, alienated by
patriarchy and capitalism, left suburban homes to rebel.
Rent falls far short of being a revolutionary play because
ultimately its characters pursue individual happiness
instead of meaningful social change. But there are two
positive aspects to Rent: (a) it exposes the subordinate
role of youth under patriarchy, and (b) it serves as a
negative example by showing the incorrect, assimilationist
choices some youth make in response to decadent Amerikan
society.
The play accurately expresses the way material conditions of
Amerikan youth can shape their political outlook. The
characters want to change society only to a certain extent
(like doing away with rent) but want to keep the rest of
imperialist society, like patriarchal romance culture.
Within the white nation, youth are the most revolutionary-
minded group, because they have not yet been totally bought
off, and they have more to gain from socialism, like a clean
environment, and end to war, and an end to patriarchy. But
the material conditions of oppressor nations give youth the
choice to side with imperialism or not. They can whole-
heartedly remain complacent to their own oppression and move
up to be fully enfranchised parasites or they can side with
the international proletariat against imperialism. In the
case of Rent, Larson tries to have it both ways: his
activist characters buck the system in symbolic ways only.
When symbolic activism fails to change the world the
characters adopt the same thing mainstream pop culture
endorses for alienated youth: nihilism and apathy.
Larson creates a myriad of potential sexual relationships
between various characters. Just about every character
presumably hates the social status quo, yet the play still
promotes the idea of finding "love" with one other and
making that a main priority in life. This accepts the
bourgeois ideals of individualism simply because it focuses
on individuals as more important then society. It also
upholds patriarchy by saying that sexual relationships are a
requirement for "happiness" when true happiness in an
oppressive system is impossible. In the big picture, Rent
puts forward a practice that works to fuel the oppressive
system that its anarchist characters are explicitly
rebelling against.
In all of this blatant acceptance, Larson does manage to
expose some aspects of a capitalist society. In the title
song two of the main characters sing about the contradiction
between classes under capitalism. Those at the bottom are
falsely accused of being lazy, but, as Larson points out,
that inability to work comes from the society's unequal
distribution, leaving some starving and cold while others
have multiple times what they need to survive.
Some of the characters in Rent try to use their art to open
up people's eyes to the oppression all around them. One
character documents the lives of the homeless; another
defends her tent city performance space against big money
developers; yet another acts as a lawyer for unwed mothers.
This is all very progressive in exposing the system, but
falls short on changing it. Instead of focusing on overall
systematic revolutionary change, the characters think only
of small changes to an overall dying imperialist system.
Most of the characters' art is either never shown or is
bought out by big media people who sensationalize their
actions into stunts. The end result is that only a few
people, namely close friends, ever see the really
progressive parts. This again puts change into a very small
context that only a few individuals benefit from rather then
into social systematic change.
Another important theme in Rent relevant to the oppressed is
AIDS. The capitalist system has no interest in finding a
treatment (let alone a cure) for AIDS which all can afford.
Existing treatments cost tens of thousands of dollars each
year -- hard enough for an uninsured Amerikan to pay,
clearly impossible for an African peasant. The big
pharmaceutical companies get big profits by elongating the
release of new, more effective drugs and pimping off of
patient's medical necessities.
In such circumstances, many with HIV feel great despair, and
in Rent, one character commits suicide after finding out she
and her boyfriend have AIDS. The boyfriend locks himself in
his house until he meets another womyn. Besides the reliance
on romance to solve one's problems via escape with the
"ideal" mate, socially motivated self-hatred also ends up
destroying the individual. Capitalist society blames the
individual for their illness or social situation while
allowing entire groups of people to oppress others.
Scapegoating individuals, like in the case of the criminal
injustice system, turns all of society's attention away from
the oppression that imperialism relies on for its existence.
Focusing on superficial quests like romance comes directly
from this. But this ignores the facts that oppression is
systematic and no one can truly be happy if you care at all
about oppression.
Despite all of this good exposure, Larson falls into an
anarchist individualist line that indirectly supports what
he is supposedly against. Rent's The characters want to
struggle and change some backwards aspects of society, but
want to keep all those things that allow them to still hold
a degree of power, namely individualism and patriarchy.
To the characters of Rent and those who sympathize with
them, we say: Don't turn to lifestyle politics. There can
be no lifestyle free of oppression as long as we live in an
oppressive system. Instead, work with MIM and RAIL to
actually change the system and create a society where all
people are valued without the presence of oppression.
***MIM received the following handwritten note from Dennis
Brutus, former political prisoner, anti-apartheid activist,
and poet, in response to MIM Notes 141, which carried
coverage of the release of former Black Panther Geronimo
JiJaga Pratt after 25 years of imprisonment for a crime he
did not commit:***
His voice
breaking through walls
riding over years
is strong:
he has endures
[it] is a vibrant assertion
we will persist
until we have justice
until we are free
For Geronimo, July 1997
Dennis Brutus
* * *
COULD BATMAN DEFEAT FASCISM?
(WE'LL NEVER KNOW)
In a MIM-led study group we were recently discussing Stalin
and why people are unable to take a materialist approach to
analyzing Stalin's successes and failures. People look at
what Stalin did and say "well, people died so he was a
failure" but this idealism is just not realistic when you
are talking about overthrowing imperialism and building
socialism not to mention taking on fascist Germany.
We concluded that one big problem in Amerika is culture that
teaches us to expect the good guys to win without having to
spare even a single life. In the movies this idealism is
rampant where the good guys can be dumber and weaker and
still make the decision not to compromise on anything and
win without even getting their hands dirty. Batman was a
good example of a movie like this. Stalin may have led the
Soviet people to defeat fascism but he will never measure up
to Batman in the eyes of imperialist culture. Amerikans only
want perfect heroes.
Batman's enemies in this latest movie were Poison Ivy and
Freeze. Poison Ivy was an extremist environmentalist who
wanted to kill off humanity and all animals so that plants
could rule the earth. Freeze was a physicist soured by the
sickness of his wife who was willing to do anything to get
the money to research a cure for her disease so that he
could bring her out of deep freeze and save her life. Ivy
was a cunning womyn who convinced Freeze to join forces with
her to destroy humanity. She used sex to attract men she
wanted to manipulate, used them and then would kill them
with a deadly kiss.
The movie had some fun underlying plots. The young cousin of
Alfred the servant, whose parents died when she was a kid,
took up motorcycle racing to deal with the pain. She decided
she wanted to take Alfred away from his position of
servitude. Her tirades against the role of servant were
noble but Alfred was quite happy in his position running the
heroic household of Batman and Robin.
The young cousin of Alfred decided she wanted to help out
Batman and Robin and so after years of being strictly male
superheros, the team acquired a female sidekick: Batgirl.
Through the victorious struggle Batman learned to trust
Robin, to accept the illness of his beloved servant,
overcome the wiles of evil womyn Ivy, and help Freeze to
regain his humanity. And while doing all that he saved
Gotham from sure freezing death without even sparing a life
of a dumb cop or helpless scientist.
Yep, fun movie, but Stalin will never measure up to Batman
so I guess humanity will just have to wait around until
Batman saves us from the imperialists because real people
can't win the battle without a few causalities along the
way.
* * *
UNDER LOCK AND KEY
CENSORSHIP ACROSS AMERIKKKA
This Under Lock & Key edition focuses on the ongoing
struggle against censorship within Amerikan gulags.
Prisoners and comrades under lock and key have encountered
various types of censorship. Some states blanket a ban on
literature and correspondence. In other states, prisoncrats
censor literature case by case depending its content or the
political whims of mailroom supervisors. Some prisons use
minor regulations to justify political censorship. For
instance, prisoncrats claim that books must be only
paperback, new and from the publisher and cannot be
authorized photocopied books. The specific requirements and
regulations vary, but the purpose is the same ñ political
censorship to prevent prisoners from obtaining historical
and political information which will aid in struggles
against oppression.
MIM prints articles and letters which expose censorship
across Amerikkka because our aim is to educate and organize
to build support for revolution. Amerikkka does not want
information which exposes its oppressive strategy to reach
the oppressed. Amerikka fears the development of opposition
to its repression and systematic brutality, torture, and
imprisonment based on imperialist interests. We want
prisoners and non-prisoners alike to learn about the nature
of Amerika, take the information and struggle against
oppression by building solid foundations to ultimately crush
imperialism and settler nation colonialism.
Articles written by comrades under lock and key explain
repression faced in struggles to build opposition to
oppression. To build support for revolution, we must be able
to contact our comrades under lock and key and make
information available to them. The fight against censorship
is an necessary reformist tactic which we use to tackle the
obstacle of reaching our comrades. Lead by genuine
proletarian leadership, reformist battles against censorship
can be successfully fought. Reformist battles which are
necessary should be fought to create enough leverage to
organize and should not stray from our primary objectives --
to achieve national liberation for Amerika's internal
colonies and build socialism.
Comrades under lock and key should send us information about
the specific censorship policies of your captors. Finding
which methods of censorship and which justifications are
used can help MIM and MIM supporters on the outside better
aid prisoners in their requests for information. In some
cases letters of protest, grievances, lawsuits and public
pressure can reverse censorship policies. Prisoners should
also send specific names and addresses of the appropriate
prisoncrat who should receive letters of protest. Sending
the name and address of the warden, superintendent or
publications approval committee can improve the chances of
letters of protests reaching the appropriate people.
Comrade interested in fighting Amerikan censorship should
write to receive MIM Notes #136 which includes the "How to
fight prison censorship: A guide for prisoners." Another
important resource for battles against censorship is
Prisoners Self Help Litigation Manual for $29.95 (for
prisoners) and $39.95 (plus postage for non-prisoners) from
Oceana Publications, Inc., 75 Main Street, Dobbs Ferry, NY
10522 (914) 693-1320.
MISSOURI PRISONER BATTLES CENSORSHIP
A couple of months ago I received a letter from one of you,
asking me if I was receiving your newspaper, MIM Notes. I
wrote back explaining that I had NOT been receiving MIM
Notes. I had thought you simply stopped sending it to me.
Recently I received a letter from you telling me that I am
being censored. So I immediately wrote to the
superintendent, a supervisor at missouri department of
corrections, and the American Civil Liberties Union.
So TODAY I received the two March issues of MIM Notes.
I [had] not received MIM Notes for about a year. Had you not
thoughtfully written me, I would have went on thinking you
had simply stopped sending me MIM Notes. This is why it is
so important for all of us who are in these prisons to write
you more -- so we will know what's going on, and if the
paper stopped arriving we can find out immediately that it's
being censored.
I received the papers today because these pigs know I have
been made aware that they have been censoring it. And I'm
known for suing.
For the last two months I've been placed on grievance
restriction in retaliation for the act of filing grievances
and for using disrespectful language in some of my
grievances. Prison officials placed me on this status in an
attempt to prevent me from filing lawsuits for prison
conditions violations. The united snakes congress passed the
prison litigation reform act. Among other things, this act
gives prisons the ability to stop all lawsuits from being
filed against them by denying a prisoner the right to file a
grievance. The law makes it mandatory for prisoners to
exhaust the grievance procedure BEFORE they may sue.
-- A Missouri Prisoner, 9 April 1997
TAMPERING, CENSORSHIP AND CONFISCATION IN DELAWARE
Thank you all for keeping in touch with me and the books you
sent as well. We are still having problems with the prison
administration here. And our rights are being violated and
privileges being taken by the administration. [They] have us
confined to quarters 24 hours a day for weeks at a time now.
Staff are deliberately destroying or tampering with our
personal property and mail; and confiscating legal
materials as well, from us in administrative segregation. We
now need help to file a 42USC1983 complaint against guards,
administration and other staff here in the Institution.
-- A Delaware Prisoner, 21 February 1997
Letters of protest can be sent to: M.P.C.J.F, Gander Hill
Prison, PO Box 9561, Wilmington, DE 19809
ILLINOIS SNAGS MIM LIT...
AND CLAIM IT'S WHITE SUPREMACIST
These prisoncrats have kidnapped my copies of the MIM Theory
Journals 1-10 and the "What is MIM?" Pamphlet that you
mailed to me. They sent me a notice stating that the
publications review committee was going to review them. So I
sent back the notice stating that I would like to exercise
my rights and file a statement of support, speak to a
committee member personally and, write to the publishers of
publications and send them the form provided by the
committee. But because of the red tape, I was denied my
rights to challenge the committee. I wasn't sent the form
that I requested from them! They decided on the Publications
on 4-24-97, and decided I shouldn't have them because
supposedly "publication contains white supremacy literature,
which attempts to spread hate messages."
Now I need a letter of support from you comrades so that
when I give my grievance to the Director, I can exactly show
them what the journals are about and be able to get them
back!
-- An Illinois Prisoner, 25 April 1997
Letters of Protest can be sent to: Pontiac Corrections
Center, PO Box 99, 700 W. Lincoln, Pontiac, IL 61764
PELICAN BAY CENSORS AGAIN
I am a prisoner at Pelican Bay State Prison in the SHU
[Segregated Housing Unit]. My MIM Notes arrived here in this
KKK prison and were not given to me because this KKK Captain
P. Dillard said that my MIM Notes No. 133 pages 1, and 8;
No. 134 pages 1, 7, 8, and 11; No. 135 pages 2, 5, 7, 8, 9,
and 11; No 136 pages 3, 4, 6, 8, and 11: "Incites Riots, or
any form of violence to any person or group and is
soliciting a response from an inmate"
So this KKK P. Dillard is keeping them and throwing them in
the trash. But please keep sending me the MIM Notes because
I have filed an inmate appeal form and when I win they will
pay for every issue they throw away. We must stop this
Pelican KKK Bay State Prison from doing what they please to
our materials. People of struggle please write the Warden at
this prison to have my MIM Notes given to me.
-- A California Prisoner, 14 May 1997
Letters of Protest can be sent to: Warden, Steven Gambra
Jr., Pelican Bay State Prison, P.O. Box 7500, Crescent City,
CA 95532-7500
FLORIDA COMRADE RECEIVES FIRST MIM NOTES THIS YEAR
Dear Comrades, The power of the press, and the efforts of
Comrades joining together, has seemed to be successful in
helping me.
Regarding the jail censoring my MIM Notes, you printed a
letter in the April 15th issue ["Censorship in Florida
Continues"], asking for comrades to support my right to read
MIM Notes. Just today the April issues were delivered,
uncensored, and I was allowed both copies. A first since
last year.
My thanks to all Comrades who called or wrote the jail in
support of MIM Notes. It is by joining together that we can
and will overcome this oppression forced upon us by the in-
justice system. If we can change one jail's policy, and then
another, and another, the system will be reformed. It is NOT
an overnight success story, but it is with a grain of sand
we begin to build (or unbuild) these wall of injustice, into
walls of hope.
Keep up the fight for your rights, for our rights, and never
give into the KKKorection mentality! You are someone and we
are all going to make them realize it one day.
In Struggle,
-- A Florida Prisoner, 5 May 1997
CENSORSHIP PROBLEMS ON DEATH ROW
Right now I am having problems with the mailroom here, about
the book you sent me. They have confiscated it because they
claim that MIM is not a publisher. I am fighting them
through the inmates grievance procedure. Our oppressors
don't want us to have anything that they think would wake us
up to the revolutionary [thoughts] that are coming to pass.
I still haven't been receiving the MIM papers which I would
like to continue.
Here in Florida our legislator and court system are
perfecting the laws in Florida to carry out the murdering
system like Texas. Right now the murdering system is on hold
until Sept. 1, 1997. The lower courts are having hearings on
whether or not the electric chair is cruel and unusual
punishment. The public doesn't care whether or not the chair
is cruel and unusual punishment. The public don't give a
damn about that, they want blood. When the hearing is over
and done with the court will say that the chair is just fine
and they will continue to slaughter our asses as if we were
cattle.
-- A Florida Prisoner, 3 June 1997
Letters of Protest can be sent to: M. L. Graves, Mail Room
Supervisor, Union Correctional Institution, PO Box 221,
Raiford, FL 32083 or telephone (904) 431-2131
MORE FLORIDA CENSORSHIP
I have been receiving my MIM Notes with no problem for over
a year. But the last issue that was sent to me the mailroom
sent me a contraband slip. They are holding it because they
claim it did not come from the publisher, but I was under
the impression that MIM is its own publisher.
If indeed you are, try to contact these people here and make
them aware of it so I can get my MIM Notes that they are
holding as contraband. The lady in the mailroom is B. Singer
and the superintendent's mane is Mr. Germany. Please try to
help me receive my MIM Notes. Don't worry I keep my faith
strong all the time. This injustice system can't get me
down. Please try to clear this matter up.
I remain strong.
-- A Florida Prisoner, 1 July 1997
Letters of Protest can be sent to: B. Singer, Mailroom
Supervisor, and/or Mr. Germany, Superintendent, Washington
Correctional Institution, PO Box 510, Vernon, FL 32462
MIXED MESSAGES FROM FLORIDA
As I trust you may be aware of by now, the 4/1/97 and
4/15/97 issues of your publication -- if not my entire
subscription has since been rejected by officials here per
the enclosed notice. I have since, as of 5/11/97, initiated
a grievance along with a request to review the rejected
materials. As soon as I receive a response or exhaust all of
my administrative remedies, I will send you a copy of same
for future reference or further litigation purposes. 12 May
1997 As I trust you are aware -- the May 1 and May 15th,
1997 issues of MIM Notes have also been rejected or
confiscated. However, for some reason, I just received the
June 1, 1997 and July 1, 1997 issues in the mail! So please
keep the newspapers coming.
In solidarity,
-- A Florida Prisoner, 9 July 1997
NEW YORK APPROVES MIM NOTES
I want to inform you that before receiving these important
MIM Notes, this correctional department submitted them
through the Media Review for approval. A few weeks later
they were given to me. So this means that the MIM Notes
newspaper is approved in this Solitary Special Housing Unit.
In Struggle,
-- A New York Prisoner 9 June 1997
PENNSYLVANIA CENSORS MIM THEORY
I'm writing to inform you that I received the May issues of
MIM Notes. I also wanted to tell you that I didn't receive
the MIM Theory that you sent. It appears as though SCI-Green
has chosen now to make its move toward censorship. I've been
informed that the MIM Theory is being withheld for review by
the Publication Review Committee (PRC). They will notify me
when a decision is made, whether or not it will be allowed
into my possession.
But you and I know will not [be allowed]. So any help that
you can give will be of great help. When I receive the
decision, I'll inform you. If it is not in my favor, I will
appeal their action. I'm willing to fight for what I believe
in and this is no exception.
In Struggle,
-- A Pennsylvania Prisoner, 3 June 1997
Letters of Protest can be sent to: State Correctional
Institution-Greene, 1040 E Roy Furman Hwy, Waynesburg, PA
15370-8090
PENNSYLVANIA CENSORSHIP
I have been relocated to the State Correctional Institution
at Dallas, PA, RHU [Restrictive Housing Unit] Sensory
Deprivation Unit. Your newspapers were forwarded to this
institution. However, these brain dead assholes stop the
newspapers [March 97 MIM Notes] at the door, for the reasons
they allege on the enclosed pink slip. Right now I am a
little put out, as these racist people here are so far back
in the middle ages with their mode of thinking. They don't
realize that there is a world outside of Dallas, PA.
I'm not interested in reading about football, or sports, or
sex magazine, hunting catalogs, etc. They allow all that
type of crap in here.
-- A Pennsylvania Prisoner, 14 May 1997
Letters of protest can be sent to: Superintendent David H.
Larkins, State Corrections Institution - Dallas, Drawer K,
Dallas, PA 18612-0286
COLORADO GULAG BANS MIM NOTES & NOTAS ROJAS
I regret to inform you, that the Limon Correctional Facility
has taken it upon themselves to ban MIM Notes and Notas
Rojas. The reasons given: The paper advocates violence and
armed revolution; furthermore it was stated you are
advocating racial hatred. Since March 3, 1997 I have not
received either paper.
What I would like your staff to do is write this facility
and inquire why the papers are not being allowed in this
facility. Furthermore a call out for others to write here
would be great. Write to the following assholes: Carol
Soares, Review Committee Chair, and/ or Robert Furlong,
Superintendent of Limon Correctional Facility, at PO Box
10,000, Limon, CO 80826.
En Lucha,
-- A Colorado Prisoner, 10 June 1997
TEXAS CENSORS MIM NOTES
I received my first 2 publications on June 3, 1997. One of
the papers was taken by the White Supremacist, Angela S.
Milbern, Mailroom Supervisor.
I have started a discussion group and a study group on our
struggle with the Administration. My Rail Notes was taken by
the mailroom without property censored denial forms from
Angela S. Milbern. [Milbern] took the publication out of the
package of MIM Notes.
I would appreciate it if someone could write her here or
call her in the mailroom to see why she's holding my MIM
Notes and RAIL Notes without proper appeal or denial forms.
Sincerely,
-- A Texas Prisoner
Letters of Protest can be sent to: Angela S. Milbern,
Mailroom Supervisor, 2101 FM 369 North, Iowa Park, TX 76367-
6568, or telephone (817) 855-7477
ANOTHER BLACK MAN STRUCK DOWN BY THREE STRIKES
PIGS PLANTED PCP
by a RAIL comrade
Alfonso Johnson is currently serving 25-years-to-life under
the three strikes law in Cocoran State Prison. He was
convicted in May 1996 for possession of PCP, his seventh
felony arrest. He was framed by the pigs in a case that
clearly demonstrates the nature of the criminal injustice
system.
Johnson wrote to a San Diego county Black newspaper and
explained the circumstances surrounding his arrest. At the
time of his arrest, Johnson was under the influence of PCP
and was naked. A pig ordered a womyn in the room to put a
pair of shorts on him. The shorts were searched before and
after they were put on and were found empty. Johnson was
then hog-tied and taken to the police station. He was cuffed
to a chair by the wrists and ankles. Pig-officer Derrough
then placed a vial of PCP in Johnson's pocket. This
information was omitted in the police report and the trial.
Because of a bruise on his face, Johnson was refused
admission to the county jail and taken to the Harbor View
Hospital. As he was exiting the hospital, he threw the vial
at pig Derrough and stated, "you forgot something." This was
entered into the police record as "here, forgot something".
Johnson pointed out in his letter that his lawyer failed to
ask the crucial questions which would have raised
considerable doubt about the authority of the police record.
The questions that should have been asked in Johnson's words
are: "Where did the vial come from. If you are saying [he]
was naked on your arrival, then you authorized a person that
isn't in law enforcement to put a pair of short pants that
had one pocket on the prisoner. There was nothing in the
pants because you state they were fully searched. Where did
the vial of PCP come from?"
Johnson closes the letter with a reflection on his life and
his sentence: "In all reality, I was just under the
influence of PCP. I am a victim of my past, not of the
charge. I have done things in my past that I am not proud
of. I grew up with several different relatives and never had
a strong father figure while growing up... I was very much
confused and lost to the street way of life. I started using
PCP at the age of 12 or 13. But all the bad I've done, I own
up to it and paid my price to society. All that was looked
at was my past, not the controlling facts in this case. For
any man to receive a life sentence in this case where the
facts speak for themselves is not justice."
MIM says that in this white chauvinist imperialist society,
the cards are stacked against Blacks in the Amerikan legal
system. As this Black newspaper pointed out, since it passed
in November 1994, the three strikes law "has cut a wide
swath among California's Black male population with prison
being their destinations." The three strikes law is being
used to further oppress Blacks and other oppressed nationals
and keep them locked down in Amerikan dungeons.
Johnson's history is not unique to him, but is the product
of the historical and material on-going conditions of brutal
exploitation and oppression of the Black nation by the
Amerikan imperialists. But repression breeds resistance and
the struggle continues. The bourgeoisie's fear of the
oppressed is palpable. MIM, the PIRAO and RAIL are building
towards the day when another Maoist-led Black Panther Party
phoenixes from within the Black nation to lead them to true
Freedom from the shackles of oppression.
NOTES: The San Diego Voice & Viewpoint, 7/17/97, A1, B6,
B10.
* * *
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 ñ 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.
![[About]](/archive/etext/gifs/0_about.gif)
![[Contact]](/archive/etext/gifs/0_contact.gif)
![[Home]](/archive/etext/gifs/0_home.gif)
![[Art]](/archive/etext/gifs/art.jpg)
![[Movies]](/archive/etext/gifs/movies.gif)
![[Black Panthers]](/archive/etext/gifs/blackpanther.gif)
![[News]](/archive/etext/gifs/0_hotnews.gif)
![[RAIL]](/archive/etext/gifs/0_rail.gif)