This is an archive of the former website of the Maoist Internationalist Movement, which was run by the now defunct Maoist Internationalist Party - Amerika. The MIM now consists of many independent cells, many of which have their own indendendent organs both online and off. MIM(Prisons) serves these documents as a service to and reference for the anti-imperialist movement worldwide.
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THE MAOIST INTERNATIONALIST MOVEMENT
MIM Notes 145 SEPTEMBER 1, 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. ARMY HELPS ARM LAPD AGAINST MASSES
2. NYC PIGS TORTURE HAITIAN MAN
3. LETTERS TO MIM
4. MILITARIZATION OF U.S. ILLEGIT BORDER INCREASES
5. ISRAELI SETTLER GOVERNMENT CRACKS DOWN ON PALESTINIANS
6. MIT PIGS HARASS AND ARREST ACTIVIST
7. ANTI-ASIAN CHAUVINISM REARS UGLY HEAD
8. MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS IN AZANIA SEEK SECRECY
9. INTERVIEW WITH A MILITANT HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST FROM THE
PHILIPPINES
10. JAPANESE AND U.$. IMPERIALISTS GUILTY OF GERM WARFARE IN
CHINA AND KOREA
11. NEW YORK INCREASES PRISON CONSTRUCTION
12. NEW YORK UPS MEASURES TO OPPRESS IMPRISONED YOUTH
13. FORMER PIG FBI DIRECTOR DIES
14. NEW DOCS SHOW FBI ROLE AS ENEMY OF CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT
15. ANOTHER BLACK MAN STRUCK DOWN BY THREE STRIKES:
PIGS PLANTED PCP
16. CELLUCCI TO REVOKE MASS PRISONERS' VOTE
17. MARXISM-LENINISM-MAOISM ONLINE
18. UPS WORKERS WANT BIGGER PIECE OF PIE
19. TOBACCO KILLS OPPRESSED NATIONS IN RECORD NUMBERS
20. UNDER LOCK & 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
* * *
ARMY HELPS ARM LAPD AGAINST MASSES
by a RAIL comrade
The notoriously brutal Los Angeles Pig Department will soon
receive 600 free M-16 rifles from the u.s. Army in order to
further terrorize and oppress the masses. These surplus
automatic assault weapons -- a standard issue in the
military -- are being shipped from an Alabama storage depot.
These weapons -- renamed "urban police rifles" -- will be
converted to semiautomatic before being given out for
storage in squad car trunks in case of "emergencies".
The pretext for obtaining the assault weapons was a February
shootout in North Hollywood with two armed gunmen. Dave
Hepburn of the LA Pig Protective League whines that if they
had had assault weapons, then less civilians and pigs would
have been hurt in the shootout, "and it would have been over
a lot sooner." MIM knows that this is a red herring -- a
ruse to distract the masses.
The LAPD has the guns and the power provided by Amerika. It
is the poor and oppressed who consistently fall prey to
Amerika's violence and therefore need the protection. The
conflict between the cops and the poor was made evident five
years ago when Los Angeles was the site of major oppressed
nation rebellion. The LAPD wants these M-16s to advance
their offensive position in the war against the resisting
oppressed nations. The only outcome of this intra-pig deal
will be an increase in the butchering of oppressed
nationals.
Collaboration between the two armed forces of the
imperialists, the Army and the pigs, is not unusual. It just
underscores the fact that the police are a military force
occupying the ghettoes and barrios. MIM sees this move as a
joint military effort to murder more oppressed nationals in
order to maintain imperialist bourgeois control. The threat
of resistance requires constant use of repressive forces.
The imperialists are growing bolder and more toward fascism
in imposing a police state in the oppressed nation
communities with the wholehearted support of the white
nation labor aristocracy. In the face of this repression,
resistance will only grow stronger among the oppressed
nations.
After the February shootout, the Pig Commission approved the
use of higher powered weaponry like .45-caliber handguns and
increased pig training for shotguns and assault weapons.
Already, 700 trigger-happy LA pigs have finished the
training and can buy their own .45s. But conveniently
enough, the department "does not track how many [pigs] have
switched to the more powerful handgun." MIM says come on,
who are you trying to kid? This is not a marketing taste-
test! Pigs are only too delighted to obtain guns that kill
faster. The facade of ignorance on the part of the
department is a way to avoid direct responsibility for the
slayings that will result from this new policy and their new
assault arsenal.
Interim Pig chief Bayan Lewis oinks that the M-16s shows
pigs that "we [the bureaucrat pigs] were serious" in
supporting their brutality. He further grunts "To criminals
[sic: pigs are the real criminals], it tells them... We have
diligently sought these weapons and will now be able to
defend ourselves." MIM does not deceive itself that the pigs
are the victims under attack, but rather they are the true
criminals. Victimization of the pigs and the criminalization
of oppressed nation youth is used by the bourgeois media to
justify the continual bloody repression of the internal
colonies. The oppressed must organize and liberate
themselves with the proven methods of Marxism-Leninism-
Maoism in order to stop this wholesale genocide.
NOTE: LA Daily News.30 July 1997, p. 1, 7.
* * *
NYC PIGS TORTURE HAITIAN MAN
After picking Abner Louima at a nightclub for disorderly
conduct, New York City pigs shouted racial slurs as they
beat him and shoved the wooden handle of a toilet plunger
into his rectum and then into his mouth. They then put the
Haitian victim into a holding cell until other prisoners
protested that he was bleeding profusely. He was finally
taken to the hospital. Following surgery to repair a
puncture in his small intestine and injuries to his bladder,
he remains in the hospital in critical condition as MIM
Notes goes to press.
Even at the hospital, a pig was stationed outside Louima's
door and initially prevented his uncle from taking a
reporter in to hear the man's story.
The repulsive behavior of the pigs reveals the nature and
tactics of patriarchal imperialist domination. When white
officers rape Black men, they show who has power in the
nation and gender hierarchy. Rape, a gender issue, is about
power and not biology. Even though the officers and Louima
are the same biological sex, the pigs are gender oppressors
because the pigs control the sexuality and reproduction of
oppressed nation men.
It is not possible to eradicate gender oppression and
national oppression like this or in general without the
seizure of state power by the oppressed. Until the oppressed
seize state power, the pigs, the imperialist army, and the
gender aristocracy will continue to control the oppressed
through gender, national and class power. Until that day, we
expose the tactics used by the oppressors without
expectations that systematic oppression will stop even if
the pigs use less gruesome tactics or if the whole 70th
precinct is replaced by new oinkers. We expose the filth of
imperialism and settler colonialism to end the Amerikan
lockdown and to organize for revolution. If you think that
pig brutality must stop, you shouldn't seek a pseudo-
solution through getting new pigs or through bringing
individual pigs to trial, you should be organizing for total
national liberation of oppressed nations and for the end of
the settler nation reign of terror.
NOTES: New York Times August 13, 1997, A25.
* * *
LETTER TO MIM
AMERIKKKA'S HYPOCRISY REGARDING CHINA
The Amerikkkan government has declared China as a "violator
of human rights" because China (allegedly) is using prisoner
labor. Amerikkkan businesses are complaining and the
politicians claim it is in violation of the trade agreement
they have with China. However, Amerikkka is speaking with a
fork tongue.
Amerikkka has the nerve to hypocritically blast China about
their internal affairs (prisoners making products) while in
the U.$. Amerikkka is using prisoners to work in state and
federal prison factories at "slave" wages and under hardship
conditions.
The U$ doesn't want to have China use prisoner labor because
Amerikkka is in competition with the world. Amerikkka wants
to make all the calls on what is and isn't right, or what
does or doesn't violate human rights, yet Amerikkka leads
the world in incarcerating her citizens. In fact, Amerikkka
leads the world in racist tactics.
Prisoners in Amerikkka are making everything from military
parts/ammunition to clothing and furniture, but Klinton and
the politicians do not see this as wrong. To them it is
"business."
The U$ even goes as far as to justify their abuse and using
Amerikan prisons to make products by laying claim to the 13
Amendment, which has the clause declaring slavery legal if
one is convicted by the state/government for a crime. This
clause allows Amerikkka to justify their repulsive actions
toward prisoners and let them hide behind the guise of
"punishing lawbreakers."
China is trying to produce and maintain their government.
They are trying to become independent and self-dependent.
Naturally Amerikkka sees China as a big business opportunity
and have even gone as far as to place some of their
kompanies there. [Without doubt some of these kompanies are
also spies for the National Security Agency]. But Amerikkka
also sees China as a threat. A threat to their world
domination and control. To make China out to be the
violators of human rights would also mean that the united
snakes are violators of the world and they are not going to
claim that. They are going to continue telling you and I
that they are the "defenders of democracy." But what type of
democracy is this? What type of freedoms are the Amerikkkan
government showing the people?
Amerikkka has become a police state; a fascist state; a
tyrant that bullies the world into submitting to their views
under the threat of war, food blockades, trade restrictions,
and other non-humanitarian acts. This is the government that
had the nerve to call for "War Crimes Trials" against Nazi
Germany for what Hitler and his goons had done to the Jewish
people, yet Amerikkka has done the same thing to her
citizens, especially black people and [members of] First
Nations. Black people are in war now and have been for
centuries. First Nations are in war now and have been since
the first yankee settler set foot over here. Who have held
them up for war crime trials? So haw can a victimizer of
human beings call someone else a violator?
We of PPWC [Political Prisoners of War Coalition] see this
as a smoke screen to have us direct anger to a people who
are not our enemies but the enemies of kkkapitalists; of
this sick system pervertedly called Amerikkka. Home of the
KKK, police brutality, kkkourt korruption, gender bashing,
homelessness, high unemployment, racism, and every type of
political scandal one can imagine.
It is time that the people come from up under these hypnotic
trick of words this government offers. We have to stop
Amerikkka's perpetual aggression and "word wars" against
other nations that do no act in accord with Amerikkka's
politics.
In the trenches,
-- A Michigan Prisoner, 23 May 1997
MIM RESPONDS: We agree with much of this letter. The one
point we think it is very important to clarify is that
neither China nor the United Snakes deserves any defense as
progressive countries. Both are imperialist nations seeking
profit through the exploitation and oppression of the
world's people. The letter writer states that China is
"trying to become independent and self-dependent" as a
reason for its use of prisoners as slave labor. But this is
no more of a justification for China's practice than it
would be for Amerika's practice (which the letter writer
correctly condemns.) The exploitation and torture of
prisoners is unacceptable in both countries. China's system
of state capitalism only differs from Amerika's more free
market oriented capitalism in that there is more centralized
state control in China. Under neither system do the people
benefit: both systems are based on profiting from the
exploitation of the labor of the world's oppressed.
We also disagree with the writer that Amerika is currently
fascist. The injustice system in general and the prisons
system in particular is the most fascistic part of Amerikan
society. But we do not conclude that the united snakes is
currently under a fascist system. This is an important
distinction in that we must correctly analyze the enemy and
current conditions. We suggest anyone with criticisms of
this to study MIM Theory 11, "Amerikkkan Prisons on Trial:
Guilty."
* * *
MILITARIZATION OF U.S. ILLEGIT BORDER INCREASES
by MC17
The Immigration and Naturalization Service(INS) is sending
69 agents to Brownsville Texas from other parts of the
country to increase the repression on the Texas-Mexico
border. This transfer, which was to take place by August 25,
is just a small part of Operation Rio Grande, an INS plan to
crack down on illegal immigration with hundreds of new
agents and sophisticated equipment being sent to the
border.(1)
By January, more than 100 agents will be in place in
Brownsville, with a total of 270 new agents in the McAllen
sector of the Border Patrol. And more agents might be on the
way in 1998. Legislation that would authorize 1,000 more
Border Patrol agents, more than half of whom would be
stationed in Texas, is pending in Congress.(2) The excuse
for this increased militarization of the border: illegal
immigration and illegal drug crossings. As MIM Notes
reported in the August 1 issue, the war on drugs is the
newest call to arms for the imperialists.
By the end of this fiscal year, the number of immigration
agents will have increased to 2,693 from 1,756 in 1993.(1)
The INS has become one of the fastest growing federal
agencies. Its annual budget, now $3.1 billion, has nearly
doubled in four years.(3) Furthering the anti-immigrant
hype, after two illegal immigrants were charged with
plotting to blow up subways the Mayor of New York City
attacked the INS for failing to patrol the borders
sufficiently.(3) The imperialists benefit from the labor of
immigrants but at the same time want to keep all the wealth
in Amerika for the Amerikans. MIM fights for open borders
and an equal access to resources and wealth for all people
in the world.
NOTES:
1. The New York Times, July 28, 1997, p. A9.
2. Austin American-Statesman, July 27, 1997, p.B2.
3. Austin American-Statesman, August 6, 1997, p. A14.
* * *
ISRAELI SETTLER GOVERNMENT CRACKS DOWN ON PALESTINIANS
by RC 343
written on 9 August, 1997
On 30 July, a bomb exploded in an Israeli market killing 13
Israeli settlers and two as yet unidentified bomber-
suspects. Responsibility for the bombing is still
indeterminate, despite initial Israeli claims that Hamas,
the Palestinian revolutionary nationalist force, was
responsible.
Jumping on the double suicide bombing as justification, the
United Snakes-backed Israeli aggressors are further
escalating their savage oppression of the internal
Palestinian colony. In the eight days since the explosion,
the settler Israeli government has rounded-up suspected
Palestinian activists in pre-dawn raids, imposed stringent
economic sanctions and has the Palestinian territories of
West Bank and Gaza Strip under lock-down conditions.
Two leaflets allegedly written by Hamas circulated in the
West Bank immediately after the bombing. The leaflets take
credit for the bombing and call for more suicide bombings as
the "most realistic option for resisting occupation and
liberating the land."(1) However, even Israeli authorities
admit it is unlikely that Hamas wrote the leaflets. MIM does
not know who wrote the leaflets or what their true
intentions were, but we recognize what the outcome will be
nonetheless: the Israeli settler state will use the
incendiary language in the leaflets and the specter of
"terrorism" to justify more repression of the Palestine
territories and nationalist organizations.
Already, the Israeli pigs have arrested 188 Palestinians
from the West Bank. Israeli Army Chief of Staff Amnon Shahak
oinked that "since our working assumptions are that Hamas or
Islamic Holy War are behind this attack, we are arresting
anyone that can help us solve who sent the bombers and who
is behind it."(1) In other words, the Israeli aggressors are
using the situation to mass arrest and terrorize the
Palestinian populace and quell resistance.
THE DARK DAYS OF OCCUPIED PALESTINE
Israel has controlled the Palestinian Occupied Territories
since 1967 with Amerikan and French patronage -- money and
arms. The Israeli settlers have steadily and brutally
disenfranchised Palestinians of their land and their
sovereignty in the following decades. As of 1990, Israel had
"confiscated over 52 percent of the West Bank and 30 percent
of the Gaza Strip for military use of settlement" by
reactionary Israeli settlers.(2)
In the seven years since, Israel has not slacked its
expansionist thirst for Palestinian lands. Israeli military
settlements violently spread throughout the Palestinian
Occupied Territories and corral the Palestinian people in
ever-smaller areas.
The Palestinian national liberation movement was sparked in
the struggle against the Israeli aggressors and is a justly
militant tide of resistance. The former representative of
the movement, the Palestinian Liberation Organization(PLO),
was originally formed in 1964 by the Arab League to control
Palestinians. But in 1967, the Palestinians seized
leadership of the organization. The PLO was then a coalition
of different political and guerrilla organizations with
different ideologies united around national liberation for
Palestine.
Since 1968, Yasser Arafat -- head of the largest member-
organization, Fateh -- has been the PLO chairperson.(2) The
PLO in its prime was revolutionary nationalist. It has
gradually degenerated to its current position of
collaborationist and has lost the support of the militant
member-organizations and the masses.
In September 1993, the capitulationist Arafat sold-out the
Palestinian people's right to self-reliance, self-
determination and national liberation in the Oslo "peace"
agreement in exchange for neo-colonial domination by Israel
(see MN 81). Traitor Arafat now heads the counter-
revolutionary Palestinian Authority(PA), the puppet
organization controlling the Palestinian territories -- the
isolated Palestinian "self-rule" areas encircled by Israeli
military. The capitulationist PA has consistently but
fearfully shown itself to be the enemy of the Palestinian
people and the servant of the Israeli aggressors and their
Amerikan patrons.
After this most recent bombing, the collaborationist PA,
eager to show obedience to its Israeli and Amerikan masters,
announced compliance with their "anti-terrorist" demands.
The PA running-dogs stated their intentions of rounding up
all Palestinian militants but, afraid of the people's armed
resistance, failed to carry through with mass arrests. The
PA exerted what little power it has over the Palestinian
masses -- that of the gun, not of legitimacy -- to ask Aziz
Rantisi and Ahmed Rantisi, leaders in Gaza, to show up for
interrogation at the PA pig headquarters.(1)
NATIONAL LIBERATION FOR PALESTINE
MIM firmly supports the Palestinian struggle for national
liberation and self-determination against the treacheries of
the Amerikan-backed Israeli occupation. The real terrorist
is the illegitimate, imperialist-patronized settler nation.
In their own expansionist "manifest destiny" plans, the
Israeli aggressors don't hesitate to massacre the
Palestinians with imperialist support. The United $nakes
eagerly funnels "foreign aid" and arms to their Israeli
fledgling. However, in spite of their seeming power, they
are but paper tigers in the face of the righteously angry
masses. The reactionary violence of the oppressors must be
met with and defeated by the wholly just revolutionary
violence of the masses.
MIM believes suicide bombings while expressive of the just
fury of the dispossessed, disenfranchised Palestinian masses
are self-defeating and ultimately suicidal to the liberation
movement as well. National liberation will never be achieved
if the most advanced revolutionaries kill themselves.
Martyrs cannot lead revolutions. (Suicide bombings also
unwittingly serve as a double boon for the Israeli settlers:
leaders of Palestinian resistance die, and Israel has more
excuses to oppress all Palestinians under the pretext of
"terrorism.")
To lead the way to the self-determination and nationhood
which are rightfully theirs, the revolutionary Palestinian
forces must shoulder the proven methods of Marxism-Leninism-
Maoism and launch Protracted People's War against the
collaborationists, the Israeli oppressors and their Amerikan
financiers.
PALESTINE UNDER SIEGE
In conjunction with the round-ups, the Israelis imposed a
security and economic siege of the Palestinian territories
until the PA delivers the militants responsible for the
bombing and disarms the populace. "Israeli soldiers
maintained one of the strictest closings ever of the West
Bank, with virtually the entire population [of two million
Palestinians] barred from leaving their towns and
villages.... while not even newspapers were allowed to enter
the Gaza Strip and its border crossing to Egypt at Rafah was
shut down."(1)
Israel is withholding $25 million in tax revenues from the
collaborationist PA which it collects on the PA's behalf
under the capitulationist "peace" agreement of 1993. Because
of the lock-down, over 100,000 Palestinian day-laborers are
prevented from crossing the Israeli ramparts to work for the
settlers.(3) In all, the Israeli blockades are costing the
Palestinian Authority $9 million per day.(4) This is
Israel's punishment to the PA for not oppressing
Palestinians to its satisfaction.
Regarding the desperate economic situation created in the
territories, Maher al Masri, Palestinian Minister of Trade
and Economy whimpered, "There is no foreign trade, tens of
thousands of workers are being kept from their jobs,
industrial production has stopped, the agricultural sector
is paralyzed and transportation has been halted. The result
is total collapse."(4) This shows how dependent the
powerless Palestinian Authority collaborators are on the
Israeli settler government and its imperialist backers. The
people of Palestine cannot look to the PA counter-
revolutionary sell-outs and puppet Arafat to "negotiate"
independence, but must organize to seize state power.
COLLABORATIONIST PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY IS A SINKING BOAT
In the face of international "censure", Israeli Prime
Sinister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that food and medical
supplies are allowed through the blockade.(3) However,
doctors outside the urban areas protested their inability to
visit patients and the prices of basic food supplies are
steadily escalating.(1)
Hypocrite Netanyahu refuses to end the siege until the PA
toes the line and suppresses all resistance by "fighting the
men of violence."(3) In reality, the true "men of violence"
are the Israeli aggressors who have brutally colonized the
Palestinian nation. The Palestinian militants are the true
heroes resisting the bloody Israeli occupation. The Arab
League calls this latest Israeli ultimatum "a declaration of
war against the Palestinian people."(4) True enough, but the
war has been on the field since Israeli settlers first
carved up Palestine.
Israel's ultimatum put the PA puppets in a precarious
position between the economic sword and the oppressed
masses. The PA counter-revolutionaries are discredited in
the eyes of the masses and have tenuous power at best. Now
that the source of that power -- Israeli support -- is
suspended, the PA collaborationists are extremely
vulnerable. If the PA tries to comply with Israel's demands
for disarming the masses, it will surely be cutting its own
throat. It will completely expose itself as an Israeli and
Amerikan puppet and the roiling fury of the masses will be
fully unleashed. If the PA does not obey Israel, the
economic noose will tighten. Mass discontent will peak as
supplies and patience run low. Like rats fleeing a sinking
ship, 16 of the 18 PA Cabinet members have already submitted
resignations, alleging Arafat's need for decision-making
flexibility.(1)
IMPERIALISTS TREMBLE AT PALESTINIAN RESISTANCE
As public opinion builds in support of the Palestinian
struggle and Palestinian resistance itself grows ever
stronger, the imperialist powers are scrambling to put on a
deceptively pleasant face by "pressuring" Israel to be nice
oppressors. The general international consensus is that
Israel is asking too much of the PA; it doesn't have the
authority nor the power to disarm the revolutionaries.(4)
Nervously eyeing the rebellious Palestine masses, Amerikan
imperialists scolded their Israeli protÈgÈ about its
"counter-productive" economic sanctions. Without the tax
revenues, the PA cannot pay the "public employees" including
the PA pig force. Fully exposing u.$. interests in
oppressing the masses and in counter-revolutionary activity
under the banner of "anti-terrorism", an Amerikan diplomat
chided "if you want a highly-motivated police force to round
up terrorists [sic], you've got to pay them."(3)
Europe's Middle East "peace" envoy whined that Israel's
pressure tactics "instead of bringing security are bringing
insecurity."(4) The imperialists clearly are frightened of
the revolutionary fervor fermenting in Palestinian
territories. MIM welcomes the "insecurity" of ripening
revolution. It will be the dawn of a new era for Palestine.
But the march forward to national liberation, self-reliance
and self-determination lies on the path of proletarian
feminist revolutionary nationalism. The resistance movement
leaders must choose this path to serve the Palestinian
people most effectively.
NOTES:
1. NY Times Aug 2, 1997, pp.1, 3.
2. "Palestine for Beginners," The Weekly News Nov. 1, 1990,
pp15-17.
3. The Independent (London) Aug 7, 1997, p.10.
4. International Herald Tribune (Neuilly-sur-Seine, France)
Aug. 6, 1997, p.6. See related articles MN 81, 114, 135,
136.
* * *
MIT PIGS HARASS AND ARREST ACTIVIST
A long time activist, Richard Picariello, was recently
arrested by MIT pigs for the crime of being in the student
center waiting for a meeting taking place. This student
center has stores and restaurants which are open to the
public but apparently sitting in the chairs is a crime if
you don't look like a student.
Initially, one pig approached Picariello and began
questioning him about why he was in the building. Picariello
stood up to put some space between himself and the pig and
as he did so the pig pushed him back down. This initiated a
physical confrontation which ended when backup arrived and
maced the activist, clearly using excessive force.
There are witnesses to the excessive use of force and
Picariello is filing a suit against MIT. But in the mean
time the MIT pigs have issued a restraining order on the
activist keeping him off MIT property while also bragging
that they are going to put him in prison on a conviction of
assault with a deadly weapon (the deadly weapon is
Picariello's foot.)
MIT pigs have a history of harassing people who do not
appear to be students. Those working on this case are
searching for other witnesses to the confrontation since the
pigs failed to interview those in the area and Picariello
was handcuffed and was not given the chance to collect names
of possible witnesses. Instead, witnesses report that the
pigs asked someone who was not even there to testify as a
witness to the entire event. Statements are also being
sought from others who have been harassed by the MIT pigs to
bolster the case.
Because Picariello is a former prisoner, the cards are
stacked against him and it is important that the MIT
community and other activists in the area join in this
struggle against the MIT pigs. As MIM has said repeatedly in
the past, there are no rights, only power struggles! It is
no surprise that the MIT pigs consider MIT property to be
the exclusive property of those wealthy enough to afford
access. Arguments about public funding and public stores
will be lost without a power struggle to demonstrate to the
MIT pigs that we will not sit by and passively allow them to
harass the people. Pigs and courts can be pushed to back
down and MIM and RAIL fight against illegitimate control and
gross pig harassment to free up organizing maneuverability.
Students and activists should work with us in these power
struggles that are necessary ground work for revolution.
* * *
ANTI-ASIAN CHAUVINISM REARS UGLY HEAD
In July in Boston MIM and RAIL showed the film "Who Killed
Vincent Chin" about a white worker who murdered a Chinese
man, admitted his guilt and got away with it. As we postered
for the event in the Harvard Square area we noticed another
poster already up. It read only, "Too many orientals at
Harvard" and was signed "Community Concern."
This anti-Asian propaganda reflects reactionary Amerikan
chauvinism which believes that everything of value in this
country should be the property of white people only. This is
not so different from the propaganda used years ago to keep
settler-labeled "Japs" and "Chinks" out of jobs, stores, and
other public places. Society may have progressed to the
extent that it no longer explicitly bans people of specific
nationalities, but white nation chauvinism, and the power
the white nation wields, have not been done away with.
In the week before the event, we received a number of
harassing voice mail messages. The most explicit said "If
you don't like this country you can leave you fucking gook."
The most threatening said "I'm gonna kill you." The calls
were clearly responses to the publicity for an event
fighting white supremacy and anti-Asian chauvinism.
Participants discussed after the event how the film showed
that different people ñ depending on their national
interests ñ portrayed various versions of the same story.
The white murderer of Vincent Chin repeated how hard his
life had been, moving from an agricultural town to the fast-
paced Detroit. Other white people paraded before the camera
said that the murderer was a fine, decent man. Meanwhile,
the mother of Vincent Chin told a story of real hardship.
Vincent's murder by this unpunished man was a clear example
of national chauvinism: the murderer complained of the
"japs" (Vincent was Chinese) stealing Amerikan jobs. It is
astonishing that the white man even had the gall to
complain.
Those present talked about the relationship of this
individual story of Vincent Chin to general Amerikans' self-
pity. While the masses suffer to the point of death -- often
producing goods to benefit Amerikans -- Amerikans whine
about hardship if they cannot get that second car.
Most supposed progressives here in the belly of the beast
insist that the way to get white workers' support is to tell
them how oppressed they are. MIM knows that this is not true
at all. Tell white workers they are oppressed, and like
Chin's murderer and the people who wrote the anti-Asian
flier, they will too often turn to fascist methods and
beliefs.
* * *
MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS IN AZANIA SEEK SECRECY
by a reader and an MC
For many years, evil rotten to the core capitalist
corporations, partnerships, joint ventures, sole
proprietorships etc. have operated in other nations under
multiple names so as to totally confuse the general public
and avoid blame for environmental disasters, exploitation of
workers etc. This information warfare that results in
millions of unwary citizens truly not knowing who to blame
is illustrated in a June 5th press release of Gencor that
went to stock market investors, speculators and not the
general public.
Gencor is a multi-billion dollar international conglomerate
based in Azania (South Africa.) Gencor has an unsavory
reputation in some quarters because of its role in the worst
slave labor days -- during the English and Boer rule
periods. Gencor holds the controlling interest in Eldorado
Gold Corp. and has transferred to it numerous mines and high
quality mineral exploration properties plus development
properties.
Since Gencor operates under the Croesus, Billiton, Eldorado
and other names and since these other names conceal assets
under the protection of multiple capitalist governments,
Gencor is more difficult to attack. This is unlike the
situation of the dictatorship of the proletariat where there
is a clear structure and everyone knows who is responsible
for what without any hiding -- to such an extent that
socialist leaders often get criticized for things that
capitalist leaders do, but worse.
Some of the attacks that the corporations hope to avoid
include possible boycotts, political attacks on politicians
in the pocket of the master capitalist company and
nationalization. The capitalists hope the Azanian people
will not nationalize their properties if their property
seems to be owned by foreigners, for fear of provoking
international intervention. The way it works is that Gencor
owns the controlling shares of foreign companies and then
forces those companies to buy Gencor assets.
Gencor is one example of thousands. We do not mean to say
that Gencor needs to be singled out at the moment. We have
not investigated whether Gencor is any worse than the
others. MIM's approach is not to wage one struggle at a time
or one nationalization at a time. We instead attack the
whole political system allowing this sort of
unaccountability, such that the only time we really know
these billionaires and their agendas, is when they buy
themselves a presidential campaign, like Ross Perot did.
* * *
INTERVIEW WITH A MILITANT HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST FROM THE
PHILIPPINES
Recently MIM had the privilege to interview Marie Hilao-
Enriquez, the Secretary General of KARAPATAN, the most
militant human rights organization in the Philippines. MIM
also attended a public talk given by Hilao-Enriquez. What
follows are some excerpts from the interview and a summary
of what MIM learned about human rights in the Philippines.
KARAPATAN is a militant human rights advocacy organization
composed of several mass organizations and individuals.(1)
It formed in 1995 when these organizations and individuals
left PAHRO, a human rights coalition which separated the
struggle for human rights from the broader struggles of the
Filipino people for economic, political, and social self-
determination. Since then, KARAPATAN has had great success
in exposing the human rights violations of the u.$.-
supported puppet regime in the Philippines.
HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE PHILIPPINES NOW
A KARAPATAN report on the u.$.-Ramos regime's human rights
record from July 1992 to June 1997 documents the regime's
steady move towards fascist rule and its subservience to
foreign imperialist powers.(2) In terms of militarization
and counterinsurgency, the Armed Forces of the Philippines
(AFP) is the worst violator of human rights. There were 753
reported cases of abuse by the AFP in the last five years.
The Philippine National Police (PNP) are close behind with
533 reported cases. These abuses range from unwarranted
arrests and executions to massive dislocation of the
peasantry, including Indigenous Peoples.(2)
For example, on April 12, 1996, army soldiers riddled three
civilians with 975 bullets. Two of the victims were college
students. On April 26, 1997, AFP soldiers stormed a farmer's
house and killed 8 year-old Cherry Fe Bustamante. The
soldiers claimed the house was occupied by members of the
New People's Army (NPA), which is led by Communist Party of
the Philippines (CPP). In August 1995, the military bombed a
village of indigenous Lumads in Agusan del Sur, killing
eight civilians, four of them children.(2)
Incarceration of people for their political beliefs is a
common practice under the u.$.-Ramos regime. KARAPATAN has
documented numerous politically motivated arrests under
Ramos. Presently there are 166 political prisoners
throughout the Philippines. The majority of these were
arrested without a warrant and were charged and convicted of
common crimes instead of political offenses. There were also
15 "disappearances" in the last five years including the
most recent "disappearance" of peasant organizer Romeo
Cortez.(2)
WHO IS TO BLAME?
One common notion associated with human rights is
"neutrality." Some human rights organizations claim to
monitor human rights abuses over all sectors of society.
Associated with this is the notion of "human rights for
all." Concerning this notion, Marie Hilao-Enriquez told MIM:
"KARAPATAN has studied classes and we have traced the
emergence of the concept of human rights in the Philippines
and in a world-wide context. Concurrent with the history of
classes, human rights has emerged. The state is the source
of human rights violations of the people and it has not
changed. So long, in the history of classes, when classes
emerged human rights were born at that time because it is
always the struggle of the oppressed and the exploiter. .
.so long as the state exists, [human rights] violations will
continue.
"The reasons the United Nations and Amnesty International
can say 'human rights for all' is because they do not
recognize the existence of classes, of inequality in society
. . .they say 'all men are born equal' but that is nonsense
because it is not so in the concrete life.
"The slogan 'human rights for all' means nothing because in
class society inequality always exists . . .that is why in
KARAPATAN we do not remain 'neutral,' we are always biased
and we say so in public. There are those who say 'you are a
very political organization' and we say 'yes, because human
rights is a very political issue' . . .you talk of
exploitation, of powerlessness and you talk about the whole
society, the whole structure, so you have to be biased when
violations occur. You have to identify who the violators are
and who the victims are and in Philippine society we say
that the state always violates the rights of the people an
the rights professed by the government mean nothing."(1)
WHAT ABOUT UN CHARTERS ON HUMAN RIGHTS?
Marie Hilao-Enriquez told MIM that the UN charters on human
rights have a dual character. The positive aspects of the
charters flow from the fact that they were concessions to
successful national liberation movements of the oppressed.
Although these charters remain abstract and are never
realized in practice, they can be used by the oppressed to
justify struggle, hold the UN and the signatory states to
their own standards, and expose the hypocrisy of oppressive
regimes.(1)
On the negative side, the imperialists use UN human rights
charters to punish oppressed peoples. For example, they may
clam that the NPA is causing human rights violations in
order to justify the deployment of more troops and police
into the general population. Similarly, the u.$ imperialists
can score political points against social-fascist China by
denouncing China's alleged abuse of prison labor (without
mentioning the fact that the u.$. itself is guilty of
exploiting prison labor.)
KARAPATAN recognizes the UN charters as instruments that can
be used against the ruling class, but Hilao-Enriquez said,
"we want more. We want to go beyond the declaration. We want
concrete enjoyment of those rights." That is why "people's
struggle is the inspiration of KARAPATAN, not UN
declarations, because you can always change the covenants
through people's struggle."(1)
ONGOING STRUGGLE
KARAPATAN's closing statement in their Report on the Ramos
Presidency and Human Rights reads: "In the final analysis .
. .the people's enjoyment of their human rights in all its
dimensions -- civil, political, economic, social, and
cultural -- can only be possible under conditions of
national liberation and social emancipation."(10) KARAPATAN
struggles alongside legal national democratic organizations
against the Ramos puppet regime and its foreign masters.(2)
This perspective is consistent with MIM's slogan: "There
are no rights -- only power struggles!"
Those of us in the imperialist countries who wish to hasten
the day when imperialism is torn from the face of the planet
must support struggles like those carried on by KARAPATAN
and the national democratic movement of the Philippines. We
can do this by exposing u.$ imperialism and its role in
smashing the self-determination of the Filipino people.
A concrete example of u.$ imperialist influence on the
Philippines is the case of the alleged killers of the
fascist u.$. colonel, James Rowe. Rowe had been an important
intelligence officer in Viet Nam and was in the Philippines
in order to "advise" the puppet government. In 1987, he was
ambushed and killed. The Philippine Department of Justice
itself set the alleged killers free in 1993 but the u.$.
state department -- with the explicit backing of President
Clinton -- effectively vetoed their release. This clearly
shows the political character of these arrests and neither
can it deny subordinate role of the Manila government to
u.$. interests. Of all political prisoners in the
Philippines, these two face the gravest charges, for
murder.(1)
This is just one of many cases around which revolutionaries
and anti-imperialists in the imperialist countries can rally
in order to build popular support for national liberation
struggles in the Third World. Take part in revolutionary
campaigns here in the united snakes! Work with MIM, RAIL and
the PIRAO in order to hasten the fall of imperialism and
work for genuine human rights for the oppressed!
NOTES:
1. Personal interview with Marie Hilao-Enriquez, 25 July
1997.
2. "The Ramos Presidency and Human Rights, A report on the
Human Rights Record of the Ramos Administration from July
1992 to June 1997" Available from: KARAPATAN (Alliance for
the Advancement of People's Rights) #43 Masikap St., Bgy.
Pinyahank, Dilman Quezon City, Philippines. Email:
tfdp@epic.net
* * *
JAPANESE AND U.$. IMPERIALISTS GUILTY OF GERM WARFARE IN
CHINA AND KOREA
by MC206
More than 100 Chinese war victims and their families sued
the Japanese government recently, demanding an apology and
compensation for germ warfare the Japanese army conducted
during World War Two. According to Wang Jingdi, one of the
plaintiffs, "Over 390 died from the plague in my village and
more than 400 houses were burned down. The Japanese
government must acknowledge its war crime and apologize."
This was the first lawsuit filed in relation to Japanese
germ warfare.(1) The Amerikan military used germ warfare
techniques similar to those the Japanese used in China
during the Amerikan invasion of Korea, in 1951 and 1952.(2)
During World War II, units in the Japanese army code-named
"731" and "100" conducted experimental surgery and tested
biological weapons on Chinese prisoners. Unit 731 also used
airplanes to spread insects carrying bubonic plague and
released thousands of infected rats. The resulting plagues
killed more than 20,000 Chinese, according to sources cited
by Reuters.(1)
"My brother died, my uncles and aunts died, even our dog
died ... but the Japanese government still does not
acknowledge this historical fact. That is impermissible,"
said He Yingzhen a 63-year-old from Hunan province.
At the end of World War II, u.$. authorities granted those
Japanese responsible for the biological weapons research
immunity from war crimes prosecution in exchange for the
results of their research. This mirrors u.$. actions towards
German war criminals, many of whom later played leading
roles in Amerikan war research.(3)
The Amerikan military then used the research provided by
Unit 731 during the Amerikan war of aggression in Korea.
According to testimony from captured u.$. pilots and
international observers, Amerikan planes dropped germ bombs
throughout north Korea starting in November 1951.(2)
"The germ bombs were filled with flies, fleas, spiders,
bedbugs, mosquitoes, lice, beetles, crickets, and other
noxious insects infected with various epidemic bacilli such
as cholera, pest, and typhus.
"Due to the US imperialists' criminal activity of germ
warfare, various infectious diseases never known before
broke out in places where germ bombs had been dropped and
they took a toll of precious lives of people."(2)
The u.$. government does not acknowledge its use of germ
warfare and claims that the pilots had been "brainwashed."
These crimes of the u.$. and Japanese imperialists show that
these reactionaries will stop at nothing to preserve their
unjust domination of oppressed nations. The u.$.
imperialists' protection of war criminals from the defeated
fascist powers also shows that the communists were the most
consistent anti-fascist forces in World War II. But the
imperialists' awful crimes make it clear to the broad masses
that compromise with such beasts is suicide and will
strengthen the resolve of anti-imperialist revolutionaries
around the world.
NOTES:
1. Reuters article by Yvonne Chang, 11 Aug 1997.
2. Kim Han Gil, "Modern History of Korea," Pyongyang:
Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1979, pp. 334-340.
3. For example: Kurt Blome, a high-ranking Nazi scientist
who conducted experiments with "plague vaccines" on
prisoners in concentration camps, eventually worked for the
u.$. Army Chemical Corps. See: Clare Lasby, "Operation
Paperclip," Athenaum, 1979.
* * *
NEW YORK INCREASES PRISON CONSTRUCTION
by a RAIL comrade and MIM
New York state bureaucrats recently decided to increase
prison construction. The bureaucrats struggled over the new
budget to determine the most effective way to imprison the
oppressed. As negotiations continued, propaganda bolstered
support for what will be the largest construction plan of
maximum-security cell space in 70 years. The Injustice
system and the prison system are tools for social control
and repression of the oppressed nations, poor and youth.
While profit-seeking white Amerika, which the state serves
and protects, reaps jobs from prison construction, the
oppressed get prison.
Although opposition to Governor Pataki's proposals was not
strong, RAIL talked with many individuals opposed to the new
prisons as we campaigned against the new construction and
the Amerikan prison system. RAIL petitioned against the
proposal for 6,950 new prison beds within the context that
prisons are a tool of national oppression and that the
conditions within super-max prisons are torturous.
The agreement over the proposals was official on August 2,
but RAIL continued to campaign in light of the decision for
new prison construction. Copies of the petition were sent to
the governor, the D.O.C. and local assembly members. Though
these petitions will not change the oppressive system, we
were able to bring the issue to the attention of many people
this way.
The final plan will create 3,100 new maximum-security beds.
These new beds will be used in the context of pig-controlled
'disciplinary housing.'(1) One can get an idea of the kind
of discipline that is used in these facilities by reading
letters by prisoners that are printed in the Under Lock and
Key section of MIM Notes.
1500 of the new beds will become a new maxi-max prison,
while the other 1600 will be maximum security additions to
other lower security prisons.(1) The new cells will have
isolated showers and solitary recreation rooms in order to
eliminate contact between prisoners. Even access to these
facilities will be controlled by prison officials. Inmates
will be under complete lockdown with only one hour for
recreation.(2) This facility of sensory deprivation,
isolation and psychological torture goes to the furthest
extent to eliminate communication with other prisoners and
the outside world. This is why MIM sees it as the utmost
importance that we provide these prisoners with access to
revolutionary newspapers controlled by the oppressed as a
form of communication as well as literature from our Free
Books for Prisoners program.
SETTLERS DROOL OVER JOBS AND CONTROL
During the negotiations over the extent of new repression
centers, prison pigs lobbied for more jobs. "Over the past
several months correctional officers have been unusually
vocal about conditions at the state's prisons, particularly
the maximum-security facilities."(3) This strong voice from
prison pigs was accompanied by a few violent outbreaks in
state prisons. As these incidents are being investigated
even bourgeois media has suggested that guards have
instigated violence in order to convince people of the
necessity for more cells.
Many upstate towns became excited at the prospect of new
construction and jobs. The location of the new maxi-max will
be Franklin County. As Altamont Supervisor Dean Lefebvre
says of the new construction scheduled for his town, "Out of
sight, out of mind."(2) Local residents and businesses
aren't concerned about the effects that lock down has on
prisoners; their only concerns relate to the effects that a
prison might have on property values.
But the employment through construction and the
possibilities of pig positions quelled any reservations
about the new construction. As an example, Senator Ronald
Stafford was behind the campaign to build the new maxi-max
prison in Altamont. The town was very appreciative, and a
local McDonald's even put the message "Thank You Senator
Stafford" on the magnetic sign. The $140 million prison will
provide 400 new jobs, with a payroll of up to $20
million.(2) Lefebvre justified the construction, "Why not?
It's a clean industry with no adverse affect on the
community."(2)
MIM does not expect the settlers of Altamont to oppose
increased repression through the proliferation of prisons.
They are bought off with the financial security. But just as
this multi-billion dollar industry is creates wealth for the
white nation and controls the oppressed temporarily it is
creating the basis for revolutionary organizing and
rejection of the system as the incarceration rates increase.
Even though the state has the money and the media,
opposition will continue to grow and become better
organized, and the oppressed will eventually overthrow
settler colonialism and imperialism.
NOTES:
1. Times Union 3 August 1997, p.A-6.
2. Times Union 9 August 1997, p.A-1.
3. Times Union 31 July 1997, p.B-2.
* * *
NEW YORK UPS MEASURES TO OPPRESS IMPRISONED YOUTH
by a RAIL comrade
The New York State Division for Youth has established a new
Youth Facility Code in response to what has been hyped by
bourgeois propaganda and settlers as ìa new generation of
troubled youths.î The code will apply to all 2,100 young
people in state facilities, including residential-type
housing and prisons. The code includes 21 points which
restrict the actions of the youth and requires punishment
for innocuous common activities. These rules will create a
more oppressive and controlling environment for the youth.
The prison system serves to control in the interests of the
white nation, it does not serve to help youth become
productive members of society. Under socialism, prisons will
still exist, but as in Maoist China, the prisoners will be
engaged in productive activities which help them to better
serve the interests of the masses. But under the current
system, reform and rectification are not the goal ñ
especially when the real criminals are in positions of power
and the majority charged with crimes don't even get just
trials.
There are numerous points in the new code of conduct which
seem to be ridiculous excuses to attack young prisoners. Of
course, there is a rule prohibiting fighting, but it goes on
to include ìsparing, wrestling, body-punching or other forms
of horseplay.î This basically gives a license to punish
these youth for any sort of physical contact, no matter how
innocent. The next rule prohibits riots, but goes on to
include ìloud talking... talking after lights out, or
playing of radios, televisions, tape players or musical
instruments in a loud or improper manner.î Understanding how
the implementation of discipline a.k.a. power happens under
lock and key, these rules will only give the prison pigs
more maneuverability to brutalize and harass the youth.
Other rules are more straight out ridiculous. Any form of
gambling is prohibited by the code. Tattooing and mutilation
is banned as well. The ìtattooing rule is designed to
curtail gang activitiesî according to the pigs. As has been
illustrated in past MIM Notes this can be translated into
the oppression of organizing. Another rule prohibits
ìlending, borrowing, selling, trading, or buying any items
from other residents or staffers.î In other words youth will
be punished for possessing anything that the pigs donít want
them to have, or that was not bought at outrageous prices
from the prison commissary.
As the war against youth forges ahead, it becomes more
evident how destructive the u.s. efforts have become. Elie
Ward, a youth advocate, noted that the new restrictive code
ìcreat[es] an unrealistic environment where almost no kid
will be able to abide by every single [rule].î Furthermore,
the pigs will have more excuses to say that these youth
should get longer sentences, should be put in solitary or
should have further privileges denied and the pigs will no
doubt use it as a chance to brutalize the youth.
The proliferation of prisons, jails and other means of
repression are on the rise in the United Snakes. More and
more repressive and controlling codes and policies will help
the pigs to keep down the oppressed and incarcerate the
oppressed for longer periods of time. While the bourgeois
media and settler colonizers increase the hype and the myths
to bolster support for such repression, we must push forward
and continue exposure of oppression to build revolution. End
the Amerikkkan Lockdown!
NOTE: Times Union 27 July 1997, p.B-2.
* * *
FORMER PIG FBI DIRECTOR DIES
***"All men must die, but death can vary in its
significance... To die for the people is weightier than
Mount Tai, but to work for the fascists and die for the
exploiters and oppressors is lighter than a feather."***
-- Mao Zedong, "Serve the People," 1944.
Clarence M. Kelley died on August 5 at the age of 85. From
1973 to 1978, he was director of the U.S. Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI). This fascist's life and death were
lighter than a feather. Kelley was the first official FBI
director following J. Edgar Hoover's 1972 death.(1)
Many people are aware of the FBI's abuses under Hoover,
including provocations against the Black Panther Party which
left dozens of Panthers dead. However, many of these same
people are not aware that Hoover's death did not change the
FBI's nature. To this day, the FBI remains a
counterrevolutionary political police force.
On 8 March 1971, a group calling itself the Citizens'
Commission to Investigate the FBI broke into the FBI's
Media, Pennsylvania office and liberated thousands of pages
from classified files. This is how the public first found
out about the FBI's longstanding series of
Counterintelligence Programs, collectively known as
COINTELPRO.(2) COINTELPRO was aimed at left and progressive
forces, but its main target was the Black liberation
movement. In 1967, Hoover wrote in a memo, "The purpose of
this new counterintelligence endeavor is to expose, disrupt,
misdirect, discredit, or otherwise neutralize the activities
of black nationalist, hate-type organizations and groupings,
their leadership, spokesmen, membership and supporters."(3)
The 1971 revelations tarnished not only Hoover's reputation,
but also those of the FBI and the U.S. government (USG). The
USG response following Hoover's death was to portray
COINTELPRO as Hoover's doing, and as a deviation from USG
business-as-usual. Kelley, therefore, was chosen to head the
FBI because he had a "clean" image. He did not foam at the
mouth about communist subversion the way Hoover did.
Image notwithstanding, Kelley was an active
counterrevolutionary. His treatment of COINTELPRO operative
Richard G. Held illustrates this fact. Held ran the cover-up
of the 4 December 1969 assassinations of Chicago Black
Panthers Fred Hampton and Mark Clark. On 27 June 1975, Held
took charge of all FBI operations, some fatal, against the
American Indian Movement. Among other atrocities, Held was
responsible for a reign of terror against AIM and the Oglala
nation in July and August 1975 and for the fraudulent
extradition of AIM activist Leonard Peltier from Canada.
Within a year, Kelley rewarded Held by promoting Held to
second-in-command of the FBI.(4)
NOTES:
1. Los Angeles Times, 6 August 1997, p. A12.
2. Ward Churchill and Jim Vander Wall, Agents of Repression:
The FBI's Secret Wars Against the Black Panther Party and
the American Indian Movement, South End Press, Boston, 1990,
pp. 39-40. 3. Ibid., p. 58. 4. Ibid., pp. 246, 303-304.
* * *
NEW DOCS SHOW FBI ROLE AS ENEMY OF CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT
by two RAIL comrades
The files of the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission, a
state-funded pro-segregation organization, are to be
released later this year. The documents include memos
between the FBI and the Commission showing the sharing of
intelligence information.
The Mississippi Sovereignty Commission was set up by the
"state legislature in 1956 to maintain segregation and guard
against 'encroachment by the federal government.' The
release of these documents -- to people named in the
documents in August, and to the public in the fall ñ
augments the exposure of the FBI role in the repression of
the civil rights movement.
The Globe tamely reports that "in the early 1960s, many of
the FBI agents based in Mississippi were close friends of
local law enforcement officers who were openly hostile to
the [Civil Rights] movement." In reality, the FBI was
actually involved in many attacks on Civil Rights workers
and played a leadership role in the media campaign against
the movement.
The video "FBI's War on Black America" states that one
quarter of the KKK members in the South were "undercover"
FBI. This means that the FBI was involved in the planning
and carrying out of attacks on civil rights workers.
This is different than the story told in the film
"Mississippi Burning". The popular film says that the FBI
successfully investigated the local police and the KKK for
their roles in the murder of three Civil Rights workers
during "Freedom Summer." In reality, the FBI was in cahoots
with the KKK and local police. The only federal
investigating was done reluctantly by the Justice Department
as a result of the righteous pressure of the people.
The movie also depicts the local sheriff as finding the
perpetrators after one beat his white wife. In the real
world, the Justice Dept offered $10,000 reward and one of
the perpetrators turned on his friends. The film also
downplays the scale of Amerikkka's war on the Black Nation
during this period. For example, during the investigation
and the hunt through the Mississippi swamps for the bodies
of Cheney, Goodman and Schwerner, many other bodies of Black
lynching victims were discovered, but this was not mentioned
in "Mississippi Burning".
The full release of Sovereignty Commission files may bring
more information about these murders to light. Boston Globe
sources report that the files indicate that Civil Rights
worker Michael Schwerner was under surveillance before he
was murdered.
The Commission has been accused of "infiltrating civil
rights groups and stealing membership lists and other
documents to help the state agency compile a list of people
to be watched." Documents from the files leaked several
years ago indicated that the Commission helped the defense
team for Byron De La Beckwith, murderer of NAACP leader
Medgar Evers, with jury selection at his second trial. (The
second trial, as the first, ended in a hung jury. He was
finally convicted in 1994 and the story serves as the basis
of the recent film "Ghosts of Mississippi.")
MIM supports the release of these documents as they will
further show the deadly treachery of Amerikkkan justice. We
work to expose this history while showing how the same
oppressive apparatuses, although sometimes under different
names, are here today.
NOTE: Boston Globe 30 July 1997, p. A1, A4.
* * *
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 members of oppressed nations
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 to true
Freedom from the shackles of oppression.
NOTE: The San Diego Voice & Viewpoint, 7/17/97, A1, B6, B10.
* * *
CELLUCCI TO REVOKE MASS PRISONERS' VOTE
by a RAIL comrade and MIM
In July, Paul Cellucci took over as Massachusetts acting
governor following Bill Weld's resignation to take a step up
the imperialist career ladder as nominee for ambassador to
Mexico(1). Changing the face doesn't mean the policies will
be any different. Following in the wake of Weld's infamous
midnight Massachusetts inmate deportations to Texas,
Cellucci has already begun to show that the oppressors shoes
won't be difficult to fill.
Reacting to organizing by Massachusetts prisoners to start a
political action committee(PAC), Cellucci announced that he
will file an amendment to the state's constitution that will
revoke prisoner voting rights. (Currently Massachusetts,
Maine and Vermont are the only states that allow prisoners
to vote.) Cellucci justified this by saying, "[w]hen you
sentence someone to prison, they lose their liberties for a
reason." He also went on to blur the definition of crime to
say "let's think about the victims of crime, instead."(1) He
certainly did not mean the victims of settler nation
domination and imperialism.
Since the majority of prisoners are from oppressed nations
and are subject to inhumane and oppressive material
conditions at the hands of the state apparatus, prisoners
are one of the most revolutionary groups in the United
Snakes. This is the real reason Cellucci and the other
"tough on crime" advocates turn to neo-fascist measures to
hold down the oppressed. This is also the reason to restrict
prisoners basic privileges as it effectively shows who is in
control. When prisoners educate themselves about the
nationally oppressive character of the U$ injustice system
and organize themselves against it, they pose a real threat
to amerika's stolen power. Cellucci and others, like Sen. J.
P. Jajuga(D - for "don't see any difference"), oppose
prisoner organizing to keep the white U$ majority bought off
by keeping the U$ internal nations segregated and under
lockdown.
Joe Labriola, the PAC spokesperson, said the objectives are
to raise funds for outside elections and promote awareness
of issues like poverty and poor education as fundamentals
that help crime flourish.(2) This could expose the bio-
determinist stance of prison advocates that blame
individuals for "crime." MIM takes it further and say that
"crimes" certainly can not be decided on by a government
which commits crimes and gets away with it via imperialist
Third World domination and oppressed nation occupation. Nor
can individuals be blamed and locked up for petty crimes
when society does not value them as humyns or provide the
necessities for existence, like food, housing and education.
Though the PAC has sparked settler reaction, it aspires to
electoral influence and thus will not help the oppressed to
achieve liberation. Nevertheless, the denial of such
organizing illustrates the hypocrisy of Amerikan so-called
rights. The PAC's goal to work within the system limits its
chances of true change. Though the PAC points out that
candidates normally win on small margins, this is because of
the similarity between the party agendas. When it comes time
to vote, it is a choice between which oppressor the white
nation masses think will best represent its material
interests.
No matter what individuals win elections after making
promises they may or may not keep to certain groups, voting
under imperialism is not an effective method to achieve
self-determination and liberation of oppressed nations.
There are separate nations in the United Snakes. The only
nation which is represented in electoral politics is the
white settler nation. In the United Snakes, the majority ñ
the settler nation ñ supports imperialism. This majority
will stop at nothing to ensure that imperialism continues
and Amerika will not concede to pull its fangs out of the
oppressed nations without a fight. Many on the left have
attempted to use electoral politics to achieve their goals,
and none have been successful. When working within the
system, we must choose winnable battles which allow us more
mobility to organize for revolution, we cannot spend the
energy of revolutionaries and the oppressed to fight battles
which will gain little or nothing on the road to build
revolution. We urge prisoners to work with MIM to expose the
bullshit inequalities and brutalities faced by prisoners
with the ultimate goal of gaining support for revolution.
It's a long path that we must stay tight to.
Some people may have hoped that with Weld gone, the
Massachusetts injustice system would get better. But the
change to Cellucci was just a change of one imperialist
figure head for another. A change of one pig isn't going to
clean up the shit.
NOTES:
1. Boston Globe, 5 August 1997.
2. Boston Globe, 2 August 1997, A1&A9.
* * *
MARXISM-LENINISM-MAOISM ONLINE
"PROGRESSIVE" ISP CENSORS PRO-BASQUE SITE
At the end of July, faced with world-wide protests and
aggressive mail-bomb attacks on its service, the left-
liberal Internet Service Provider IGC, or Institute for
Global Communications, agreed to censor a pro-Basque
independence Web site that was hosted on its server.
The protests, which initially took the form of letter-
writing and then escalated to "forged and invalidly
formatted email as well as other methods to jam up IGC" came
"in response to ... the Euskal Herria Journal, which
advocates 'self-determination'" for Basques in Spain and
France.(1) Protesters said they were reacting against the
site's support for the Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA), an
organization that has claimed responsibility for the recent
assassination of Spanish politician Miguel Angel Blanco.
IGC acting executive director Scott Weikart had first
declared "'We don't want to legitimize attempts to bring our
service to its knees by censoring one site or another just
because attackers don't want it ... We don't want to be
controlled." But according to Weikart, when the organization
appealed to other ISPs to help trace the source of the
attacks, their counterparts ignored them, "suggesting
instead that IGC simply drop the Basque site."(1)
So that's just what IGC did. In its press release announcing
that it was suspending the EHJ site "under protest" and for
review, IGC explained that "the suspended Web site was for
... a New York-based organization supporting Basque
independence in Spain and France, whose goal was to publish
'information often ignored by the international media, and
to build communication bridges for a better understanding of
the conflict.'"(2) "The site also contained articles on
human rights," the press release continued, "politics,
language, and lawful Basque groups working for autonomy, as
well as a collection of hyperlinks to sites with views
opposed to the ETA."(2)
But the press release was careful to point out that as a
"humanitarian organization" IGC would have taken the views
of legitimate protesters into account, implying that they
might have taken the same course of action without the
electronic attacks. The IGC thus makes it clear that as a
"humanitarian" resource they would censor political speech
that offended its interests. Censorship for so-called
humanitarian reasons is nothing more than the middle-class
censorship of the proletariat as we have seen repeatedly in
the struggle to win allies in building public opinion in
favor of revolution. The IGC is merely upset that they were
forced to make the decision to censor for pragmatic reasons,
fearing that it sets a "bad precedent" for the Internet if
the attackers think their actions caused the site's
suspension.
But faced with similar pressure from the Spanish government
(albeit minus the attacks on its service), even the
bourgeois media conglomerate CNN refused to remove its links
to an ETA Web site -- explaining that it was standard
practice for their online news stories to provide direct
links to organizations they referenced!
Last summer, MIM struggled with its ex-ISP, NY Transfer, to
suspend service to the cop outfit "MPP-USA" which falsely
claims to be the voice of the Communist Party of Peru, and
attempts to split and wreck the international support for
the Peruvian People's War under that banner. NY Transfer,
which claims to be a service for the oppressed, refused on
principle to suspend service to anyone for "political
reasons." But they incorrectly equated police actions with
"legitimate political expression" and thus erred on the side
of Liberalism. The IGC, by contrast, makes it clear that as
a "humanitarian" resource they would censor political speech
that offended their values, but is upset that they were
forced to make the same decision for pragmatic reasons.
The IGC also published several statements of support for
their actions, all of which denounced the violence of the
ETA but called for "free speech in cyberspace." Some, such
as Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR)
helped to provide mirror sites with increased security for
the censored site's content.(3)
The Association for Progressive Communications (APC), of
which IGC is a member, stated that "'Bombing' a site ...
carried out from anonymity and whose eventual success does
not depend on the force of the arguments but on the mere
power of computers and bandwidth available to the aggressor
as compared with that of the victim is an illegitimate use
of force."
These statements reveals the naivete of Internet-based,
speech-centered politics -- and underscores the Maoist
belief that there are no rights, only power struggles. The
reality of the Internet is not, as liberals claim, a great
big democratic space -- but a fairly centralized network
controlled by governments and capitalists. Revolutionaries
should capitalize on the relative freedom of communication
we currently enjoy, but we also understand the difference
between resources used by the people and resources
controlled by the people. And until the people are in
control, inequality will rule, and attacks like the one on
IGC will be possible.
MIM does not currently have enough information to argue that
the Basque struggle is a progressive struggle against
imperialism. We welcome further information and readers who
will take initiative to work out a solid proletarian
position. MIM supports the struggles of all oppressed
nations which are at battle with the imperialists for
genuine revolutionary nationalist gains which will not come
at the expense of the international proletariat.
NOTES:
1. http://www.news.com "IGC under attack for Basque site"
July 17, 1997.
2. "IGC Press Release" July 18, 1997 3. CPSR Statement, July
29, 1997.
PARTY PROGRAM & ARCHIVE OF BPP & MIM LIT
***MIM received the following letter from a visitor to an
old web site maintained by a friend of MIM.***
Dear MIM, I recently came across your website about The
Black Panther Party Platform and Program, and at the top of
the page, it said October 1966, and I was wondering if the
list of WHAT WE WANT and WHAT WE BELIEVE are still the ones
that you share today, and if there is still a Black Panther
Party today...
Please e-mail me back if it is or isn't...
Thank-you, An Internet Reader
MIM RESPONDS: Thanks for writing. You should check out MIM's
own program, which is on our new web site
(http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext). The structure of our
program is based on the old BPP program, and is similar in
some ways.
On our site, you will also find an archive of old BPP
newspaper articles (http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/bpp)
from the late 1960s. This is era of the Black Panther Party
that MIM looks to as the Maoist vanguard in North America at
that time. There are various groups that use the Panther
name today, but to our knowledge none of them are true to
the party's Maoist roots. After 1970 the BPP degenerated,
check out our lit list to learn more.
On our web site you can also read our views on the subject
in much greater depth, which we encourage you to do -- and
then tell us what you think, too. We always welcome opinions
and responses to our work.
WORLD WIDE WEB REVIEW
NEW SITE OPENS FOR SERIOUS STUDY OF MARXIST CLASSICS
From Marx to Mao
http://gate.cruzio.com/~marx2mao/
Released to the public on International Workers' Day of this
year, "From Marx to Mao" is a growing electronic archive of
classic texts of Marx, Lenin, Stalin and Mao. In the site's
statement of purpose, the author acknowledges other Web-
based libraries devoted to collecting the works of Marx and
Engels, and writes that s/he wanted "to provide an on-line
version of very important texts, most especially by Lenin,
which are long, long overdue."
In a letter to MIM, the site's author wrote, "As of now,
there are more than 40 listings, mostly from before the
October Revolution, which include many of Lenin's most
important texts, which other sites have avoided (either out
of a lack of familiarity or because these texts are very
long). There are also a dozen texts from Stalin and about
the same from Mao. I will begin to turn my attention
increasingly toward the latter as time permits."
MIM applauds this effort and looks forward to the continued
development of the site. We do think, however that the
author goes too far in pitting Mao against Stalin in the
opening quotation of the Mao section, which criticizes
Stalin for not paying attention to the superstructure. In
fact, Mao believed that overall Stalin was about 70%
correct, and while the CCP made serious advances over the
Soviet Union's approach, Mao credited Stalin with
"creatively [developing] Lenin's theory that socialism can
first be victorious in one country, ... the theory of the
general crisis of the capitalist system, ... the theory of
the fundamental laws of present-day capitalism and socialism
... [and] the theory of the revolution in colonial and semi-
colonial countries."(1)
NOTE: Mao Zedong, "The Political Thought of Mao Zedong" ed.
Stuart Schram, Schreager, 1969.
* * *
UPS WORKERS WANT BIGGER PIECE OF PIE
by RC35 and MIM
August 3rd, in yet another display of labor aristocracy pie-
hoarding, employees at United Postal Service (UPS) went on
strike to demand more full-time jobs and continuation of
past pension plans.(1)
Strikers expressed sentiments of being "a machine" and
worrying that once the "strength in your back...goes out of
whack, it's over"(2). While work under a capitalist system
is alienating, Amerika is at the top of the imperialist
ladder and has voraciously hoarded Third World super-profits
to buy off its working class and to avoid exploitation of
the Amerikan working class. At this stage of capitalism, the
settler nation working class is part of the Amerikan labor
aristocracy and ceased to be defined as the proletariat
specifically because the settler nation working class is not
exploited, and hence, not revolutionary at this time. The
UPS teamster strike is a prime example.
THINLY PACKAGED PARASITISM
As settler nation rhetoric has repeated in the past, this
strike focuses on getting more "out of upper management" so
that labor can "survive financially." One of the main
demands of the teamsters is for the part-time employees that
start at $8, $10.50 after 5 years, get more full-time jobs
starting at $18.50/hr(1). This huge demand doesn't clearly
show where this increase will really come from or why the U$
workers deserve it more then the rest of the world.
One worker said "for every $1000 in business she brings in
for UPS...she is paid $26."(3) But this womyn left out the
profit created by the labor of others including those who
manufactured the boxes and other materials used by UPS, and
other workers along the line. Just because one worker
solicits $1000 in business does not mean she created this
entire profit herself. And if you include the other perks
amerikan workers get just for being on the right side of
phony borders, this exploitation teamsters allude to is
quickly proven false.
UPS is at the center of the shipping industry, delivering
about 80% or 12 million parcels a day,(1) which, with the
whining of businesses over delayed packages, puts the
teamsters in a pretty strong bargaining position. They say
they want to take it out of the "men in suits [who] are
making all the loot,"(2) but they chose to ignore that the
majority of U$ wealth comes directly out of Third World and
oppressed nation super-profits. The UPS workers seem to
think that because they lift up the box, or sort the
packages, that they are the only ones doing any productive
labor. They don't see that the trucks, the boxes, the goods
they are shipping are produced with Third World labor, and
the money used to pay their salaries and create their First
World pension plans come directly from the super-
exploitation of oppressed nation workers.
The fact that Third World workers are exploited or super-
exploited is exactly why imperialist nation workers can get
away with arguing for more money and pension plans and
frequently win. It is that wealth squeezed from the Third
World that lines the pockets of imperialist nation pockets.
This intentional oversight proves more clearly that the
teamsters, and the labor aristocracy in general, have no
wish to overthrow imperialism, but only want more wealth
stolen from the Third World.
TIGHTLY SEALED REACTIONARIES
The workers are crying that they don't have enough to get by
in Amerika, but in reality they reap the benefits of
imperialism. The white nation in particular is doing very
well in this country. 68.2% of whites own homes (compared to
43.4% of Blacks)(4), and whites are 50% more likely to get
mortgage loans than blacks (the numbers are even worse for
First Nations)(5), which they can easily use as collateral
for purchasing more assets. In addition to access to
capital, the white settler nation benefits from
imperialism's subsidies in the form of pension plans. In the
current context, the teamsters are attempting to increase
pension plans for labor aristocrats despite their low level
of productivity.
Even at $8 an hour Amerikan workers can get by just fine.
Mexican workers earn 0.15 to every $1 an amerikan makes,(4)
white income brackets are steadily increasing,(4) and long
term white unemployment is much less then that of the
oppressed nations(6) which makes it relatively easy for
workers like the teamsters to go out and find other jobs.
All this coupled with the fact that many goods are cheaper
in amerika while the rest of the world survives (or barely
survives) as oppressed nations are unable to sell goods
because of imperialist product dumping. And the teamster
argument goes no where but to selfish national chauvinism.
Labor organizers like the Teamsters ignore the facts of
national oppression and Third World super-exploitation and
continue to fight on for more pie. Imperialist hegemony
focuses on only getting more for the imperialists and
imperialist nation labor aristocracies -- not changing the
social structure and relations. The drive for more pie for
the labor aristocracies leads to fascism because the more
that is being demanded by Amerikans comes at the expense of
Third World workers' forced exploitation.
Instead of fighting along side white nation individualism
and reactionary nationalism, MIM urges those within the
movement to turn 180 degrees toward real change. If you want
to end unequal distribution for good, unite with the
international proletariat in a movement struggling against
systematic injustices of imperialism. Fight against the
exploitation of the majority of the world's people which
only benefits the imperialist nations and their working
classes and imperialist lackeys.
NOTES:
1. Boston Globe 4 August 1997, p. A5.
2. The New York Times 6 August 1997, p. A16.
3. Boston Globe 11 August 1997.
4. MIM Theory #10. "Coming to Grips with the Labor
Aristocracy." $6 from MIM.
5. Boston Globe 5 August 1997, p. D3.
6. MIM Theory #7. "Proletarian Feminist Revolutionary
Nationalism." $6 from MIM.
* * *
TOBACCO KILLS OPPRESSED NATIONS IN RECORD NUMBERS
MIM recently reported on the so-called historic tobacco
settlement between giant companies and 40 states.(MN 142) In
this follow-up article, we focus on the effect of the deal
(which does not limit export in any way) on Third World
nations, who will increasingly become the dumping grounds
for the Amerikan tobacco companies being closed out of the
u.s. market.
"Tobac-colonialism" is the newest form of colonial drug
dumping.(1) The British used Opium as a weapon to control
China in the 1800s, and the united snakes as well as the
European Union is now filtering tobacco products into Third
World nations. In many European nations, as in Amerika,
public health campaigns and government initiatives are
driving down the rate of tobacco consumption, while the
tobacco companies are producing the same quantities of
tobacco that must be sold somewhere to maintain their profit
margin. Tobacco companies will insist on a strong foothold
in the Third World, where there are some legislative
initiatives to control tobacco consumption but not nearly
the resources to stem the tide of increasing smoking-related
deaths.(1,2) For example, in 1992 Viet Nam prohibited the
use of the mass media for cigarette advertising. The Viet
Nam government also imposed a fixed-rate consumption tax on
all cigarette plants.(2)
China is by far the largest consumer of cigarettes --
China's 350 million smokers consume thirty percent of the
world's total cigarette production each year.(2) Over 4.4
million Chinese die of smoking-related illnesses each
year.(2)
The united snakes is stepping up its efforts to promote
tobacco products overseas. Amerikan government initiatives
and as well as private company actions include targeted
advertising campaigns, investments, and threatening u.s.
sanctions if Third World markets are not opened up to u.s.
tobacco companies.(2) The health consequences of this
Amerikan imperialism are devastating. By the year 2000,
tobacco consumption is expected to be the leading direct
cause of death in the Third World.(2) Just as with deaths
caused directly by starvation, malnutrition and infectious
diseases in the Third World, smoking-related deaths are
increasingly imposed upon the masses by the imperialist
nations.
Even with the efforts of oppressed nations at restricting
foreign tobacco imports, Amerikan companies are finding ways
to enter into joint ventures with local manufacturers in
order to spread the death and disease due to tobacco
products. "[E]ven though faced with significant trade
barriers, foreign tobacco firms are penetrating the markets
of developing countries."(2)
Nothing short of abolishing capitalism will begin to
alleviate the devastation of tobacco consumption. Tobacco is
the embodiment of capitalist production for profit rather
than socialist production for need. It is not only Amerikan
capitalism that kills by tobacco--China, capitalist since
1976, has recently attempted to raise the quality of Chinese
tobacco in order to encourage consumption of Chinese rather
than foreign tobacco.(2) But while China may benefit
economically by the increase in the national market of
tobacco, those benefits "are outweighed by the economic loss
due to treatment for smoking-related diseases and death."(2)
MIM is working toward a society where cash crops are
abolished and food for local consumption -- not export
profit -- replaces fields of tobacco. Stop the leading cause
of death: fight imperialism!
NOTES:
1. New Straits Times Press, 31 May 1997 p. 1.
2. "The export of U.S. tobacco products to developing
countries and previously closed markets", Law and Policy in
International Business, 22 Sept. 1996, p. 217.
* * *
UNDER LOCK & KEY
BRUTALITY AND GENDER OPPRESSION IN PRISONS
ARIZONA PRISONER EXPOSES GAY-BASHING AND MURDER
***MIM mourns the deaths of Carl Wayne Howard, James Dixon,
and Billy Balance who were killed while incarcerated in
Arizona prisons.***
Dear Maoist Internationalist Movement,
I am presently incarcerated in the Arizona Department of
Corrections(ADOC). Due to my sexual orientation I have
suffered many hardships. I am a homosexual and sadly most of
my abuse has directly or indirectly come from prison staff
members. I am contacting your organization out of sheer fear
and desperation for my health and safety. I am hoping that
you can help bring an end to my torture by writing letters
of concern on my behalf to ADOC central office and
government and officials, (names and addresses enclosed).
The acts of abuse that I have been subjected to is nothing
short of "hate crimes". I have been physically struck while
being called, "bitch, faggot, punk, and sissy". I have been
spit on while being called "faggot." I have had both my
personal and legal mail tampered with, lost, delayed for up
to six months, and returned to sender for no reason. I have
had my personal property lost and stolen. I have even had my
very life endangered when inmates were falsely told [by ADOC
staff members] that I am a "confidential informant" and
"that fucking faggot has more pull up front than I do." The
last statement could have gotten me killed, and did in fact
lead to me being brutally beaten by two inmates on Feb. 6,
1997. The worst part of all these acts of abuses was at the
hands of the ADOC staff members.
The list of abuse goes on and on. . . and I must say
considering the track record of ADOC when it comes to
protecting inmates from being stabbed or killed, I really do
have something to worry about. I'm enclosing a copy of a
newspaper article about a gay inmate who was killed. [The
murderer] used the defense [that the] "inmate was a gay man
with AIDS so I killed him". This reflects the total attitude
of most ADOC staff members that I have encountered. It's
this type of open homophobic hatred of gay/transgender
inmates that puts us at risk of being hurt or killed daily.
When other inmates see that prison staff members will openly
abuse inmates like myself it gives them the green light to
do the same. I have even went so far as to try to get a
court order granting me protection against abusive ADOC
staff and inmates. So far this effort has been to no avail.
I have filed two law suits in federal and state courts, and
for some reason I'm not getting through to these people that
this is a life and death situation. I want to share some
situations that have happened due to neglect by ADOC staff
which has caused inmates in their custody to lose their
lives. In 1994 at the South Unit in Florence, AZ, inmate
James Dixon was stabbed to death. The reason inmate Dixon
isn't alive today is because ADOC staff sent him back out on
the yard after he requested protective custody. Not only did
they send him back out on the yard, they told the inmate
population about his request for protection. A few days
later her was found stabbed to death in the tool shed.
I'm telling you about this because while I was at the South
Unit I was raped. Since my crimes are non-violent/non-
dangerous, and non-repetitive, that I should have ever been
sent to South Unit. Knowing what happened to James Dixon I
was too afraid to report my being raped for fear ADOC staff
would tell the inmates that I had told.
The next act of neglect happened on Feb. 7, 1997. It was at
the Douglas Unit and inmate Billy Balance was stabbed to
death. It's my understanding that he too had asked for
protective custody and was refused. I tend to believe this
due to the fact that my requests have fallen on deaf ears.
Then on Feb. 12, 1997, at the Tucson Complex, another inmate
by the name of Inmate F was stabbed while in the same lockup
unit that inmate Howard was killed in. Inmate F had also
requested protection and thank God he is living proof that
ADOC neglect doesn't always end up in the death of an
inmate. Inmate F is, however, in the intensive care unit at
a near by hospital, my prayers are with him..
The abuse that I've suffered has left many scars. I'm now on
three different medications for mental health problems
related to stress and depression. When I say that I'm at the
end of my rope, I mean just that. The Psychiatrist has even
put it right in my mental health file "NO GROUP HOUSING".
ADOC doesn't care about the Doctor's orders, and is in fact
trying to send me to the Echo Unit where I would be housed
in tents with 11 other inmates. If 12 inmates isn't group
housing, what is?
Please send some letters on my behalf soon. I don't want my
name to be added to the long list of lives lost behind these
walls. I know that we are living in a time when getting
tough on crime is the rage. In keeping with that thought I
feel that everyone should be held accountable for their
actions, even if it's the keepers themselves.
-- An Arizona Prisoner, 21 February 97
Letters of protest can be sent to:
Mr. Daniel G. Knauss, First Assistant U.S. Attorney,
District of Arizona, Tucson Division, 110 South Church St.
Suite 8310, Tucson, AZ 85701 tel. (520) 602-7300
Mr. Grant Woods, Attorney General State of Arizona, State
Capitol Building, 1275 W. Washington St., Phoenix, Arizona
85007
Mr. Terry L. Stewart, Director, Arizona Department of
Corrections, 1601 West Jefferson, Phoenix, AZ 85007
MIM RESPONDS: This letter does a good job of demonstrating
the gender oppression faced by gay men in prison. And as the
letter writer points out, this oppression is mainly at the
hands of the DOC. But there is also a problem in our society
in general that leads many people to believe that gays are
inferior and deserve to be abused. Because of this, guards
are able to use a prisoner's sexual orientation against him
and create conflict among the inmates. There is no more
basis for considering gays inferior than there is for
considering wimmin or Blacks or Latinos inferior.
MIM deplores violence amongst the people and calls on all
prisoners to fight the imperialists' attempts to pit inmates
against inmates. It is good that this prisoner recognizes
that the violence is principally coming from the DOC staff.
But calling on the staff for protection is clearly not a
solution when they are perpetrators of much of the violence.
Instead we must organize for our own protection. Comrades on
the inside and on the outside can help out this prisoner and
many others by getting involved in the struggle. On the
outside we should be writing letters on behalf of the many
prisoners cases covered in these pages. And on the inside
prisoners must work together to defend themselves and to
organize and educate others behind the bars.
GULAG KOP RAPES PRISONER:
NO SURPRISE, PIG ESCAPES PRISON
Dear Comrades, I read about RAIL in the MIM newsletter....
The reason I am writing you is becuz I was sexually
assaulted by a prizon kop named Alan Reuben Collard in March
of 1996. I had to go through a bunch of krap and even pass a
lie detector before they would investigate it. It took them
over a year to even arrest the pig. Had I been accused of
raping a kop, I would have been arrested the next day.
Anywayz, they have tried their best to kover this up. They
are gonna let the pig plead guilty to reduced charges, and
he won't do a day in jail. This same kop has messed with
other POW's in the past they knew about it as early as 1992,
but they kept him on the job.
I am in a max prison, even though I was only sentenced for
fraud. Since I got this pig arrested, my life has been hell.
All the other kops are always on my ass, trying to
intimidate me. They give me bogue write ups, trying to mess
up my changes with the parole board (who I see in October).
I am hoping that you can help me out, and bring this case to
the attention of the people. As long as the Michigan
Department of Korruptions can sweep this under the rug,
nothing will change, and more POWs will be abused. I have no
problem standing up to these fux, but I would certainly
appreciate some support.
I hope to hear from you soon. NO SURRENDER,
-- A Michigan Prisoner 28 July 1997
MIM ADDS: The way we see it is that the settler nation of
Amerika is at war with internal colonies. In a systematic
manner, Amerika brutalizes, oppresses and commits genocide
against oppressed nations. The systematic terror is easily
seen if you examine the police and the prison system. Within
the prisons where the masses are kept in order to quell
revolutionary opposition to settler domination prisoners
face brutality, unjust and inhumane treatment, slave labor,
rape and even murder at the hands of the prison guards.
The fact prisoners are raped and assaulted by the guards
shows that under the current imperialist and patriarchal
system, the oppressors use gender privilege to exert force
and power as a way to oppress the masses and further
dominate and cement the power of the oppressor.
MIM and RAIL do not expect that pigs like this will be
punished. When they are, it is only a token and irregular
circumstance. Their brutal actions are part of the
systematic domination of the settler nation. The only way to
end this shit is to build opposition to the system in its
entirety and build support for revolution.
PRISON WORK & ECONOMIC REALITY
PRIVATIZATION, EXPLOITATION AND REBELLION
"Prisons in this country are overflowing and conditions,
worsening, with ruling class officials pushing for more
prison construction and throwing more and more Black,
Latino, and Native youth into prisons. To work in the
factories of Big cooperation at cheap low-wages."
I'm a prisoner being held captive in Virginia where the
introduction of privatized prisons is being formed. This is
a move at industrialism from within prisons nationally
instead of moving the jobs to other countries, just put them
in the prisons. With the abolition of parole and the
governor's (George Allen) Truth Sentencing Act (meaning 85%
of your sentence will be served), the sentences are still
20, 30, 40 and 50 years. [This act] says a prisoner would
have to serve 17 years on an 20 year sentence, with no time
off for good behavior. The plan is to have as many potential
workers [in prison] as possible.
These conditions aren't new. After the Civil War, which left
the majority of the South devastated, the South replaced
slavery with sharecropping. The devious system which kept
poor farmers bound to the land by perpetual debt to the
landowner, and the introduction of Prison Farms, by 1871
state prisoners were laying railroad tracks and mining coal
from Memphis to Knoxville. Their urine was collected and
sold to tanneries by the barrels. Their bodies where sold
often to medical schools after they died so the medical
students could practice on them. "In a waste not, want not
campaign." The most notorious example of this institution
design was the Parchman Penitentiary on the Mississippi
Delta opened in 1905, turned a $185,000 profit in its first
year, and kept pumping out cash by Reviving the Basics of
Plantation Slavery. (V.C.E, Virginia's Correctional
Enterprise, made a profit of $24,638,000 in 1996)
1996 was a year of rebellion against increasing policies of
denial and the racketeering of prisoners' funds. The hiring
of Ronald Angelone as Director of Virginia's Department of
Corruptions, who has several lawsuits pending in Nevada
(where he was the Director there as well) for his "Shoot
first ask questions later" policy. He has now brought this
same slogan here. Dec. 26, 1996 at the Buckingham
(In)Correctional Center the warden, Eddie Pearson, was
stabbed, the Canteen liberated, gym and law library set
ablaze, and four (unarmed) prisoners are shot. The
governmentally, backed media says it was just an isolated
incident, and no need alarm.
The new policies of taking and limiting privileges via: no
college programs, only vocational training in the prison
factories, denial of legal accesses in the form of a $120.00
filing fee, and the limiting of visiting hours. In some
cases, families drive 4 hours to spend 2 hours with the
relative, then four hours back. Also, the monitoring of all
phone calls, taking away of personal property, then selling
it right back through commissary at much higher rates.
With public opinion being "We don't want the Bad Guys
around, we want them locked away and gone from our midst for
good." So they're all right with the increasingly
restrictive conditions. Deprived and Oppressed people,
packed together in not so nice surroundings. That's a time
bomb ticking -- and the clock is showing seconds.
-- A Virginia Prisoner, 3 February 1997
NEW JERSEY PRISON INDUSTRY EXPOSED
As you can see I'm a Prisoner of New Jersey State. Actually,
I'm now in the so-called infamous, East Jersey State Prison
(formally Rahway State Prison). As I've been incarcerated
here in this fascist state for the past [#] of years, I've
seen my share of changes within the prisons and outside far
as politics are concerned.
I'm more concerned with the political aspect of things, at
this time, because of the new bill of laws about to be put
into effect. At first, it was the "3 strikes you're out
law". Now it is the "do 85% of your sentence law". New
Jersey has a total of 8 prisons, one of them a sex offender
prison. There's also another one being built -- Regular
KKKoncentration KKKamp. East Jersey State Prison will become
a double max as the infamous Trenton State Prison. Prisoners
with 10 years or less will be packed in the newly built
kkkamp, while the lifers and other prisoners with large
stips (stipulated sentences) will occupy the maxs.
Not only that, there was a program speaking on the use of
New Jersey state prisoners sentenced to life as sacrificial
lambs in scientific research and development of biochemical
testing of drugs and viruses. From what I understand, this
has already been placed into law.
Right now we face the reality of paying for medical and
dental expense, while most prisoners have accepted inmate
state decreases. [The wages] weren't much to begin with.
Governor Christie Whitman had the audacity to lie to the
public concerning the living status of New Jersey Prisoners
as well as the state pay rate. The starting rate went from
35-40 cents per hour down to 28-30 cents per hour.
It urkes me to watch fellow prisoners sit back and watch our
situation become more and more deplorable. Others who are
released from behind these walls, go out and forget about
the warriors who've sacrificed time, material of
consciousness, and to some extent their very lives.
Unbelievable - In any case continue to send me MIM Notes. I
need the inspiration. Peace, love, Respect and Unity.
-- A New Jersey Prisoner, 24 March 1997
PRISONER WAGES CUT
Greetings and I wish you health and happiness!
I would like to bring my problem to your attention. The
department of Corrections has instituted a new policy that
targets certain detail and it don't effect the entire
population. The inmates in the Institution, in the Chapel,
and the Act. Dept. were getting paid for working eight hours
a day. Starting April 4, we will only be compensated for
seven hours which is a very serious demotion considering the
fact that we inmates haven't had a pay increase in the last
three years and everything keeps going up all of the time. I
would like to know if anything at all can be done about this
unfair policy?
The inmates in this Prison have been complaining about the
cable in this prison for years. I made an attempt to get
everyone to cancel their subscription so that we could get a
better contract however everyone would not cooperate.
I was told by my superiors, as they refer to themselves,
that this directive will effect all of the state prisons. If
this is true I wish to call a massive work strike until this
unconstitutional policy has been recalled.
Inmates must stick together, we must refuse to live in
double cells. Simply refuse to take a celly. As long as we
permit these prison officials to have their way, they will
continue to warehouse us human beings like animals.
We inmates at Camp Hill pay for our own medication. Our
cable just went up and we were not given any new channels.
We pay twenty dollars a month for five channels. Every
prison in the state of pennsylvania gets more for their
money.
The cable is not my primary concern. My primary concern is
the fact that this prison could not function without inmate
work crews and we are being stepped on and mistreated.
Everything in the inmate store has gone up and the prices
just keep going up all of the time. I supposed this is the
reason Prison industries are so very profitable. The
commissary store here makes 5,000 dollars a day, that alone
says it all.
-- A Pennsylvania Prisoner, 27 March 1997
P.S. The guards and the staff are still being paid for eight
hours and we inmates do all of the work.
PRISON BRIEF:
AMERIKAN OPPRESSION TACTICS
ARIZONA REMOVES LAW LIBRARIES FROM PRISONS
MIM, As of July 1997 the state of Arizona has decided to
remove all law libraries from its prison system. I would
like to be able to keep up with the law concerning prisoners
rights. Therefore could you send me any information
concerning other publications that I can receive.
-- An Arizona Prisoner, 28 Jun, 1997
PIGS CHARGE PRISONER
I would like to inform you that an officer here at this
prison had brought an assault and battery charge against me.
But the problem is that the evidence in the case is no good,
because the evidence is a picture that was taken a minute
before the alleged assault took place. I went to an all
white jury trial on [date] and was found guilty after the
jury deliberated for six (6) hours. The first time the jury
sent their decision to the judge it was a deadlock, and the
judge sent them back into deliberation. I still have to go
back to be sentenced as they think. When I return to the
judge I am going to give my defense. I understand how the
political system had done Mumia wrong and they're doing me
that way. I seriously hope that Mumia will go free. The
capitalists and imperialists are to be totally destroyed by
any means necessary.
--A Michigan Prisoner, 10 March 1997
MEDICAL AND HYGIENE ABUSES
Dear MIM, As you know I've spent already almost seven years
in solitary confinement isolation and I have stood up for
the cause of the struggle and Prisoner's rights both in
prisons and on the streets all the way.
Because of me being able to mobilize thousands of prisoners,
I have been subject to barbaric corporal punishments in
large doses. 31 months of bread and cabbage only; three
piece, full restraints, always leg irons cuff behind the
back to waist chain. Yet I suffer from epilepsy and asthma
attacks, and 10 other medications I take for disabilities
etc., coming to a total of 12 medications. At the present
time I'm also on deprivation of shower/yard exercise,
haircut, cell cleanup and a pillow.
I'm dying. My blood sugar count is only 29. Extremely low
blood pressure 100/60, gastritis, chest pains, dizziness,
seizures, asthma, migraine headaches, infections, allergies,
sinusitis, upchucking blood, etc.
The beastly pigs even urinate on the bread and cabbage. If
you wish, send complaints to:
M. McGinnis, Superintendent, Southport Correctional
Facility, PO Box 200, Pine City, NY 14871
Dr. Wright, MD, Chief Medical Officer, Department of
Correctional
Services, State Office Campus Building #2, Albany, NY 12208
Respectfully,
-- A New York Prisoner, 10 July 1997
DON'T EAT THE FOOD
Dear MIM: ...I'm a prisoner at the Moberly Correctional
Center in Missouri. And to show you the shit that is going
on in this place, I was recently sent to the hole due to the
fact that I would not eat the food from a cook who didn't
have the proper equipment to serve the inmates. (1) No hair
net, (2) No gloves, (3) No chin guard. So I took it upon
myself to get my own tray and I was put in lockup at that
point.
Then I was released the next day. Prior to release from
lock-up, I was seen by the [Administrative Segregation]
Committee. They told me that I was wrong for getting my own
tray. So I told them pigs that I don't care what they say.
If the cook won't put on the proper gear to serve the food,
then I will get my own food from the table myself, even if
it means going to the hole each time. I don't care, my
health comes first and the health of my brothers as well.
This goes to show you that these pigs don't care if you live
or die in these KKKamps. So someone has to stand up for
what's right.
Respectfully Submitted,
-- A Missouri Prisoner, 20 May 97
* * *
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.
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