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 147 OCTOBER 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. REPRESSIVE ALLIANCE ATTACKS PALESTINIAN MASSES
2. INNOCENT TEXAS BLACK MAN DENIED PARDON
3. LETTERS
4. U.$. CAPITAL FEEDS ON PERU; PROPPING REGIME
5. UPS TEAMSTERS GET THEIR PIE IN STRIKE
6. 'TRUTH' COMMISSION PERPETUATES INJUSTICE
7. LIGHT AS A FEATHER: FORMER ZAIRIAN DICTATOR
MOBUTU DIES
8. PUPPET ARAP MOI GOVERNMENT STEPS UP ATTACKS ON
THE PEOPLE OF KENYA
9. RESEARCH SHOWS CULTURAL REVOLUTION SUCCESS
10. MOTHER TERESA: FRIEND OF POVERTY, NOT OF THE
POOR
11. IMPERIALIST UNITED NATIONS TO SET UP
INTERNATIONAL COURT
12. LA UNIVERSITY PIGS AIM FOR SUBMACHINE GUNS
13. GOVERNMENT BUILDS COALITION TO CENSOR INTERNET
FOR CHILDREN
14. FBI WANTS ENCRYPTION CRACKDOWN
15. BOOK REVIEW: RESURRECTION, THE STRUGGLE FOR A
NEW RUSSIA
16. UNDER LOCK AND KEY: NEWS FROM PRISONERS AND
PRISONS
* * *
WHAT IS MIM?
The Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM) is a
revolutionary communist party that upholds
Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, comprising the collection
of existing or emerging Maoist internationalist
parties in the English-speaking imperialist
countries and their English-speaking internal
semi-colonies, as well as the existing or emerging
Spanish-speaking Maoist internationalist parties
of Aztlan, Puerto Rico and other territories of
the U.S. Empire. MIM Notes is the newspaper of
MIM. Notas Rojas is the newspaper of the Spanish-
speaking parties or emerging parties of MIM.
MIM is an internationalist organization that works
from the vantage point of the Third World
proletariat; thus, its members are not Amerikans,
but world citizens.
MIM struggles to end the oppression of all groups
over other groups: classes, genders, nations. MIM
knows this is only possible by building public
opinion to seize power through armed struggle.
Revolution is a reality for North America as the
military becomes over-extended in the government's
attempts to maintain world hegemony.
MIM differs from other communist parties on three
main questions: (1) MIM holds that after the
proletariat seizes power in socialist revolution,
the potential exists for capitalist restoration
under the leadership of a new bourgeoisie within
the communist party itself. In the case of the
USSR, the bourgeoisie seized power after the death
of Stalin in 1953; in China, it was after Mao's
death and the overthrow of the "Gang of Four" in
1976. (2) MIM upholds the Chinese Cultural
Revolution as the farthest advance of communism in
human history. (3) MIM believes the North American
white-working-class is primarily a non-
revolutionary worker-elite at this time; thus, it
is not the principal vehicle to advance Maoism in
this country.
MIM accepts people as members who agree on these
basic principles and accept democratic centralism,
the system of majority rule, on other questions of
party line.
"The theory of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin is
universally applicable. We should regard it not as
dogma, but as a guide to action. Studying it is
not merely a matter of learning terms and phrases,
but of learning Marxism-Leninism as the science of
revolution."
-- Mao Zedong, Selected Works, Vol. II, p. 208
* * *
REPRESSIVE ALLIANCE ATTACKS PALESTINIAN MASSES
by MC53 and MC45
written 15 September 1997
Amerikan Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's
recent visit to Palestine marked the latest in a
series of meetings between U.$. imperialism, its
Israeli protégé and Israel's comprador partner in
repression of the Palestinian people -- Yasir
Arafat's Palestinian Authority (P.A.). The alliance
among Amerikan imperialism, Israeli settler
terrorism and the puppet collaborationist P.A.
continues to deny the Palestinian masses self-
determination. On the eve of Albright's visit, the
Palestinian Authority rounded up 200 militant
Palestinian revolutionaries.(1) The Palestinian
people's just struggle for national liberation has
been under constant attack on both military and
economic fronts.
The Palestinian Authority is defined as a comprador
regime by the fact that it depends on the
imperialists, and not the people for its power and
its survival. Israel and Amerika have Arafat doing
their dirty work for them -- repressing the
Palestinian people and depriving them of the rights
due to independent nations. Unfortunately for
lackey Arafat, the Palestinian people see clearly
through his collaborationist tricks to the
imperialists who hand him his orders. The people
reject imperialist interference in their lives and
see alternatives to collaboration active around
them. Arafat has no right to political leadership
that is not granted to him by the Palestinian
people, and he faces a power struggle as the masses
continue to look toward and work for their own
national liberation.
IMPERIALIST ORDERS:
DEFEAT THE NATIONALIST STRUGGLE, BUT MAKE IT LOOK
GOOD
During her visit to imperialist protégé Netanyahu
and sell-out henchman Arafat, Albright went back
and forth between the imperialist and his
collaborator trying to orchestrate maneuvers which
would make each side look good to its constituency
while moving toward the ultimate goal of stripping
the Palestinian nation of national sovereignty.
Albright made the token suggestion that Israeli
Prime Minister Netanyahu implement a time-out for
Israeli national aggression and settlement
expansion, and warned that the settler nation
should refrain from settlement expansion, land
confiscation, home demolitions and I.D.
confiscation. In response, Netanyahu offered token
adherence to the staged pretense of cutting back
Israeli terror.(2)
Albright went on to pressured the P.A. to intensify
security cooperation with the CIA and the Israeli
General Security Service (GSS, also called Shabak
or Shin Bet). On September 10, Albright said that
"the Palestinian Authority must take unilateral
steps and actions to root out the terrorist
infrastructure." And explained that "evidence
provided by an American intelligence officer who
sits with the Israeli and Palestinian security
chiefs when they meet"(3) had revealed that the
P.A. has not been doing enough to repress its own
people.
Albright then met with Arafat in Ramallah on
September 11 and convinced the Palestinian mis-
leader to further cooperate with imperialism.(2)
Arafat said, "We do not believe in violence or
terrorism."(2) Along with the collaborationist PA,
the Mukhabarat (Gaza counterintelligence), civil
police in Gaza and the West Bank and the
Preventative Security Service serve as the armed
wing in the collaborationists' contribution to the
war against the Palestinian people.(5)
Albright's imperialist rhetoric reiterated the
notion that, above all, peace is most important.
The placement of the peace rhetoric on the
imperialist pedestal covers the fact that the
initial so-called peace agreement was created at
the expense of the Palestinian people. Israel and
its Amerikan masters only agreed to talk with the
Palestinians after years of the people's struggle
for national liberation. Yet the so-called peace
talks gutted this goal -- depriving the Palestinian
people of genuine control of their own land and
national affairs. Amerika uses the rhetoric of
peace to obscure the fact that any cessation of
armed struggle will by definition mean a neo-
colonized Palestine. This is not peace.
When the imperialists refer to terrorism, they are
talking about armed opposition to their own
violence. If peace means solidifying Israel's power
to dominate Palestine without protest, this is not
true peace but an agreement to cement an unequal
power relationship. As Amerika pushes rhetoric like
democracy, freedom and peace to build support for
its interests, it raises the question: democracy,
freedom and peace for whom?
When the 'final status talks' include the
discussion of whether a Palestinian state will
exist, the masses understand that these so-called
peace talks are not being held in their interests.
How can the existence of Palestine be a question of
negotiation for Palestinians?
Under the guise of national security, the Israeli
settler state has withheld millions of tax dollars
from the Palestinian Authority, about 60 percent of
the P.A.'s annual budget. Netanyahu is dangling the
money over the P.A.'s head to pressure for more
extensive crackdowns against the Palestinian
masses, Hamas and Islamic Holy War.(2)
The settler state also holds out the possibility of
free movement of the Palestinian people as an
incentive for Arafat to succumb further to
imperialist demands, saying that extensive
cooperation would convince Netanyahu to lift some
restrictions on Palestinian travel out of the West
Bank. But Netanyahu said that the lifting of
restrictions would not include the movement of
cement. He claims that this cement is being used to
build a Gaza seaport and so he does not want it
taken out of Palestine.(2) While Afarat may bite at
the chance to relieve protests of his servitude. A
true representative government would not be heed to
such restrictions.
The Israeli settler state has put forward a list of
demands before it takes a token step back in the
domination of the Palestinian people. Earlier in
the year, the settlers pulled out a whopping 2.7
percent of Israeli troops stationed in the
recognized-as-Palestinian territories. (4) The list
of demands constitute Israel's newest justification
for refusing the redeployment of troops previously
agreed to for Sept 7. Israel wants the PA to: -
confiscate all illegal weapons; (There are roughly
30,000 to 40,000 Palestinians officially bearing
arms.(5)) -dismiss alleged terrorist elements from
PA police; -dismantle the infrastructure of the
revolutionary nationalist organizations; -outlaw
Hamas, Islamic Holy War and other militant groups;
-"administrative, legal and police action against
military, political, civilian, religious and
economic infrastructure" which struggles for
national liberation of the Palestinian people.(4)
In essence, the P.A. must agree to impose martial
law against the Palestinian people before the
settler state will implement further redeployment
and halt other repressive measures. True
revolutionary nationalists know that conceding the
imposition of martial law and its tactics shows
that the Palestinian people do not really have
power and self-determination.
REPRESSION BREEDS RESISTANCE
Arafat's true nature is revealed in the fact that
he will discuss whether the chicken of repression
or the egg of resistance comes first. It is this
collaborator's position which leaves him struggling
to do enough damage to the Palestinian people only
to prove himself a true enough sellout to the
enemies of his nation. When Netanyahu says that
Israel would talk about halting settlement
expansion after an end to so-called terrorism has
been achieved, he pretends there is no connection
between the theft of Palestinian land and the
revolutionary nationalist liberation struggle. When
Arafat agrees to discuss such matters and equates
Israeli crimes against Palestine with Palestinian
self-defense, he is only begging to have himself
removed from power by the masses.
As part of the series of arrests on the eve of
Albright's visit, the PA launched an attack to shut
down the Islamic Bloc Youth Union in Gaza which
represents thousands of students and is identified
with Hamas.(3) While Hamas has the support of at
least 20 percent of the Palestinian population
(according to the bourgeois media) and provides
necessities to the masses without Amerikan aid the
Arafat regime has been accused of using more that
$300 million for its own benefit.(5)
Israel is continuing its front to rationalize its
refusal to pull troops out of Palestine. Netanyahu
has claimed that these round ups are not enough. He
had wanted more members of the Izzedine al-Qassam
Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, arrested.(4)
Netanyahu claimed that it was only junior militants
who were arrested and that the round up was
cosmetic. Netanyahu further pushed for the arrests
of the specific militants on the Israelis' list. In
an attempt to assure it was a genuine kowtow,
Arafat said that the arrests included members of
the political and military wings of Hamas and had
been made to trace sources of the recent
bombings.(4)
Col. Jibril Rajoub, the leader of the secret police
apparatus on the West Bank, the Preventative
Security Service, frequently meets secretly with
CIA officials and Israeli intelligence officials to
negotiate the tactics of the war against the
Palestinian people.(5) Just prior to the round up,
Rajoub said "we can't arrest hundreds of people
without cause. ... We are not going to go to war
against Hamas."(5) This statement was exposed as a
lie during the round ups.
When questioned about his alliance with the
Israelis, Rajoub defended his collaboration saying
that he was part of the PLO when it was engaged in
armed struggle from the beginning. He stated that
cooperation is not the term to describe working
with the Amerikans and Israelis because cooperation
is "mashtap" which is used by the Shin Bet to
describe the Palestinian informers. He is trying to
have it both ways: telling the people that he would
never collaborate with the imperialists while
cooperating with them in practice to repress the
Palestinian people. Rajoub along with the rest of
the cooperators says that armed struggle is not
correct now.
"The armed struggle was never an end in itself for
me. The target the whole time was to live in peace
and security in an independent state next to
Israel."(5) So while the P.A. and its armed
attaches no longer endorse the armed struggle waged
by the masses, they engaged in an armed attack
against the masses.
The Preventative Security Service has been
criticized by Palestinians for engaging in torture.
One Shin Bet official seconded this accusation,
saying "Jibril learned our techniques."(5) Rajoub
has led the arbitrary arrests of Palestinian
revolutionary nationalists and has "employ[ed] the
same techniques on their prisoners that Israel once
used on them. These include sleep deprivation and
the binding technique known in the interrogation
rooms of Shin Bet and preventative security alike
as "shabah.""(5)
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 its own
expansionist plans, the Israeli aggressor does not
hesitate to massacre Palestinians. The United
$nakes eagerly funnels aid and arms to its Israeli
fledgling. However, in spite of their seeming
power, Amerika and Israel 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. To lead the way to the
self-determination and nationhood which are
rightfully theirs, the revolutionary Palestinian
forces must shoulder the proven methods of self-
determination against the treacheries of the
Amerikan-backed Israeli occupation.
NOTES:
1. The New York Times 10 September 1997. pp. A1 and
A10.
2. The New York Times 12 September 1997. pp. A1 and
A7.
3. The New York Times 11 September 1997. pp. A1 and
A8.
4. The New York Times 10 September 1997. pp. A1 and
A10.
5. The New York Times Magazine 14 September 1997.
pp. 62-69; 74; 102-104.
* * *
INNOCENT TEXAS BLACK MAN DENIED PARDON
by MCB52
It's not often that the prosecutors recommend a
pardon of someone they convicted. But in the case
of James Byrd, the DNA evidence newly available
simply proves that his semen was not the semen
found in the accuser. However, Texas Governor
George W. Bush refuses to grant a pardon because he
wants to be tough on crime -- at the expense of an
innocent Black man. This case again shows something
MIM has known all along: the criminal injustice
system is not about guilt or innocence, it is about
oppressing the internal colonies.
Byrd's lawyer maintains that Bush is denying the
pardon because "He doesn't want to take any risk
that Byrd could become his Willie Horton." (William
Horton was the Black supposed rapist released from
prison on furlough by Massachusetts Governor
Michael Dukakis. President Bush used this case to
smear his opponent Dukakis in the campaign for
president.)
Byrd was initially accused after being seen by the
white accuser in a grocery store months after the
rape. Even though she had initially claimed her
rapist was white, Byrd was readily convicted. So
the deal is, any Black man who enters a grocery
store can be convicted of rape. Then regardless of
the evidence he will have to endure punishment
forever to protect the political futures of the
likes of Bush who seek the support of white wimmin.
In response to questions about Bush's refusal to
grant a pardon, the governor's spokesperson
repeated a favorite mantra of Amerikan criminal
injustice: "The Governor is very leery of granting
pardons. His basic philosophy is, if you commit a
crime, you should be prepared to live with the
consequences." Of course, given as an answer in
this case, the hype is absurd. Even the DA says the
guy is innocent. What she is really saying is: if
you are born a Black man, you should be prepared to
face injustice.
NOTE: The New York Times, 13 September 1997. p. 23.
* * *
LETTERS
STRUGGLE OVER MIT ARREST CONTINUES
Greetings. I just wanted to drop a note about your
recent coverage on the arrest of the former MIT
activist. Upon first reading your respective
publications and flyers [story printed in Sep 1 MIM
Notes #145 as well as The Thistle, the alternative
student newspaper at MIT], I was somewhat shocked
about the incident. However, both organizations
failed to report the "full" story; namely, both
neglected to mention that said activist was
recently released from prison on terrorism charges.
Whether or not the MIT police were still justified
in their actions in light of this is could be
debated, and it is not my intention to do so here.
More specifically, I wanted to point out that as
"underground" alternatives to the mass media, you
have an added responsibility to try to disseminate
as much information as possible, even if it may
weaken your claims or causes. Perhaps the fact that
he had been convicted and incarcerated prior may
have been a driving force behind his recent arrest.
Of course, his past does not necessarily condone or
support what happened recently, but something
should have been mentioned ... specifically in the
MIM publications where armed conflict is seen as a
means to an end.
Just about me ... I initiated a brief dialogue with
the UCLA MIM group (my alma mater) concerning the
CIA's involvement in Guatemala. I do not subscribe
to political ideologies since in my opinion they
serve only to herd people into cut and dry groups
without a chance to think for themselves. Some of
my beliefs are "far right" while others are "far
left." Despite my beliefs, I am glad to see that
MIM is active in this area in addition to the
availability of "alternative" news media sanctioned
by MIT.
Just a suggestion.
--MIT student
RAIL RESPONDS: You must not have read the
literature you were sent very closely. It said very
clearly that Picariello was a former prisoner in
that first flyer that was sent out and also in the
Thistle article. We thought this was a very
important point to make and we did not try to hide
this. At the same time, we didn't discuss his
alleged crime because the criminal injustice
system's definition of "terrorist bomber" (which
actually is not the name of any crime, just the
name that the Globe and Tech chose to use to label
Picariello) requires a lot of discussion.
If you have not read the issue of MIM Theory on the
criminal injustice system, you should check it out.
It explains why we do not see this system as
legitimate in defining crime. The system's failures
range from the discrepancy in crack to powder
cocaine sentencing to the condoning of murder and
terrorism by our government while condemning what
happens on a much smaller scale at home. Many
people in prison did not commit crimes but many
others did (and these are crimes against the people
no matter what social system you put them in.) But
in a system that locks up more Blacks (per capita)
than the apartheid South African regime, clearly it
is not a case of blind justice.
The fact that Picariello was convicted of a crime
that did not involve harm to people but instead was
a crime against property only serves to bolster the
case that he is not someone interested in hurting
others. But this has to be said in the context that
we do not consider it a crime to be fighting
against imperialism in spite of the fact that the
government will murder, imprison, and frame those
who do this (check out Agents of Repression: The
FBI's Secret Wars against the Black Panther Party
and the American Indian Movement by Churchill and
Vander Wall if you think these are just delusions
of the communists.)[Available from MIM Distributors
for $20.]
These are all important issues but not the things
we think this recent attack on Picariello should
focus on. Clearly we did not hide his prison
history: he served the entire sentence and was
released a free man (supposedly.) The more
important point here is an issue of police
brutality and the hypocrisy of MIT for inviting the
public to its shopping mall and then harassing and
arresting particular people once they arrive.
NJ PIG CORRUPTION AND COVER-UP
Here at the Trenton state prison, prisoners are
presently, as always throughout the past, being
abused, disrespected and harassed by correctional
staff. This has been allowed to go on simply
because administrative officials turn a blind eye
and support such officers.
Prisoners here who address such complaints are
labeled as snitches, trouble makers, etc. by
officers and some of the so-called administrators.
And these prisoners become targets.
Never is any disciplinary action addressed to the
officers who create such problems, instead they
receive a pat on the back! To the administrators,
the officer is never wrong and never lies.
Therefore their words are always upheld whether it
be disciplinary charges or just simple complaints
lodged against them or the prisoner.
When a prisoner addresses a letter to the Governor
or Commissioner regarding such abuses their
complaints are only referred right back into the
hands of those being complained about, leaving
nothing to be resolved and the problems for the
prisoner become more intense.
It is also amazing (because of such complaints) how
the administrators and their associates have
influence with the prisoner's parole hearings. [The
Pigs influence] whether or not a prisoner is
granted parole simply because they [the prison pigs
and parole pigs] work hand in hand with one another
here at Trenton state prison.
There is widespread corruption within this facility
from top to bottom, that is being disregarded while
prisoners suffer. I myself have addressed letters
to the Trenton newspaper requesting interviews, but
there is never a response. However, the chief of
custody here had an article in such a newspaper,
stating how he wouldn't tolerate any prisoners
jumping on his to beat up on prisoners. Nor [was it
printed] that they are constantly getting away with
it.
This clearly shows that even the media only allows
society to be made aware of one side of the real
picture, with no interest in showing the other side
of it.
There is, and has constantly been, unnecessary
problems that simply take place to make society
justify why corrections officers should earn more
pay, however, they are presently making lump sums
for jobs that rely on simply pushing buttons. Here
there are guards who walk around all throughout the
day because of nothing to do. Some who work housing
units, with a co-worker, which allows them to talk
on the phone all day or simply sit in the booth and
sleep. Yet they claim to be in need of higher pay.
-- A New Jersey Prisoner, 16 June 1997
MIM RESPONDS: This gets at the settler nation
ideology of Amerikan injustice. Bureaucracy is
implanted in order to stop anyone outside of that
bureaucracy from fighting the system. At the same
time it creates jobs that pay high wages for
parasitical work that produces nothing of value.
The guards uphold that system because in the end
they benefit with more pay and less labor. MIM
realizes that this why prisons exists: to control
those not benefiting from the system and to buy off
the rest of the country. As the letter correctly
shows, a lot of people materially benefit from
incarceration and in this country this is
disproportionately incarceration of people from
oppressed nations.
MIM realizes that under the current system prison
bureaucrats won't ever be systematically punished
for their crimes against the prisoners. Token
punishments of individuals happen occasionally when
there is too much outcry or publicity around a
guard's crime. But this serves the system by
individualizing brutality instead of exposing the
entire system of imperialism as the cause of prison
injustice. The only way to end injustice is to
attack oppression head on and build for revolution.
MORE PROOF THAT PIGS ARE THE REAL CRIMINALS
Thought i'd inform you koncerning the latest news
here in the imperialist gulag (Trenton State
Prison). On August 18th, several New Afrikan
prisoners were exiting the mess hall and were
attacked by a group/gang of unprovoked attack [on
the pigs by the prisoners], making it appear as
though the pigs were attacked first, which is a
kommonly used tactic when they want to kover their
asses.
First of all, the pigs that were involved in this
incident attacked first. It is the "right" of
anyone to defend themselves. And as a result 6 pigs
were korrected. One required multiple stitches to
the ear. One received a broken jaw, while the
others were treated for injuries. This attack comes
as no surprise to many of us. Just hours before
this attack, a pig attacked a prisoner and as a
result, the pig suffered a broken leg and injuries
to the face.
Second of all, these latest attacks [by pigs on
prisoners] kome as revenge. Ever since a racist pig
met his timely death, these pigs have been
systematically attacking, harassing prisoners,
specifically New Afrikans. An the "head nigga in
charge" (the warden) is aware and refuses to take
appropriate actions. In fact, when one does
komplain, he is met with more repression. This
tells us, whatever the pigs do or feel like doing,
it will be kovered up and justified.
Lastly, i would just like to say that it doesn't
end there. More attacks will follow and the
repression will intensify. But for the many of us
who are organized and have established united
fronts, with bases of support, ... will continue to
struggle and will kontinue to unite all who can be
united.
In klosing, as our beloved komrad on death row once
said, "The greatest form of sanity that anyone can
exercise is to resist that force that is trying to
repress, oppress and fight down the human spirit."
(Mumia Abu Jamal)
-- Another New Jersey Prisoner, 20 August 1997
MIM RESPONDS: This letter accurately shows that
there are no "rights," particularly not for
prisoners who are "legally" allowed to be enslaved.
Instead of "rights" MIM talks about power
struggles. Only those with the power, namely the
imperialists and their labor aristocracy lackeys,
have the ability to live in relative luxury off of
the oppression of other nations.
MIM unites with this prisoner in his/her resistance
to the system and we urge all to fight the power of
the white, imperialist structure and build for self
determination of all nations.
* * *
U.$. CAPITAL FEEDS ON PERU
U.$. imperialism and consistent capital infusions
have propped up the comprador regime in Peru for
years. The people of Peru, led by the Communist
Party of Peru (PCP, or Sendero Luminoso as it is
often called in the bourgeois press), struggle
daily against the comprador Fujimori regime and
U.$.-supported repression and violence. MIM does
not represent the PCP or its line; we instead
exercise our internationalist solidarity with the
PCP by exposing U.$. imperialism from within the
belly of the beast.
It is the task of people living and organizing
within u.s. borders to understand and expose the
integral role Amerika plays in the current social
and economic structure in Peru. U.$. imperialism
has no business being in Peru, or in determining
the affairs of that country and its people.
Amerikans need to study and understand their
country's stranglehold on Peru as our contribution
to breaking that grip.
PROTECTING PROFITS:
WHY AMERIKA CARES SO MUCH ABOUT PERU
In 1994, Amerikan imperialism directly invested
$836 million in Peru.(1) Direct investments are
enterprises for which Amerikans are directly
responsible -- Amerikan owned businesses in Peru.
In 1993, the U.$. had only $630 million in private
investments in Peru, so Amerikan money is
increasingly putting down stakes and the United
Snakes continues to develop reasons to support
capitalism in Peru.(2)
One Amerikan company with operations in Peru is
Occidental Petroleum, which does business in a
total of ten countries outside the U.$. Occidental
plans to suck 60,000 barrels of oil per day out of
Peru this year. Compared to 229,000 barrels per
day, which was Occidental's total in 1996 for all
of its international pilfering, and accounting for
increases internationally, this means that the
company is expecting to get about one-quarter of
its total oil out of Peru this year.(3)
Back in 1994, U.S. businesses exported $1,408
million worth of goods and services to Peru and in
the following year, in 1995, exports were
$1,775.(1) Amerika estimated Peru's total imports
as $7.4 billion in 1995, so Amerikan exports were
more than 20 percent of Peru's imports in that
year. Clearly with this level of money tied in to
the stability of the Peruvian economy, both in
product and capital exports, Amerika has a
tremendous stake in the comprador regime's
continued allegiance to imperialism.
WORLD BANK LOANS -- INCREASE THE DEBT AND KEEP'EM
PAYING
Loans granted through the World Bank have been an
important means of controlling the Peruvian
economy. The Fujimori regime owes its position in
power to money and military support from the U.$.
and other imperialist lenders and donors. The
Amerikan-dominated World Bank has been central to
Peru's foreign debt. The Bank's stated purpose is
to "reduce poverty and improve living standards by
promoting sustainable growth and investments in
people." The WB operates by giving "loans,
technical assistance and policy guidance to help
its developing-country members achieve this
objective."(4)
Because the World Bank is, in its own words "a
lender of last resort," it makes loans principally
to very poor countries and makes its money largely
off of debt servicing and interest paid out on
these loans. The fundamental purpose of World Bank
lending is to preserve Third World dependence on
foreign capital. The loans are structured to force
recipient countries to accept international
investments. This in turn means that borrower
countries are barred from developing self-
sustaining economic structures, because they are
constantly paying on debt while their land is used
for industry and agriculture which will not benefit
the people.
Peru's history with the World Bank is a sterling
example of how these loans encourage dependence on
further lending. Between 1952 and 1987, the Bank
loaned Peru a total of $1.7 billion. Lending
stopped between 1987 and 1993 when the Peruvian
government stopped paying on its debt and started
racking up back payments. The World Bank's first
re-involvement with Peru in 1993 was with
adjustment loans which cleared arrears with other
lenders.
Since 1993, the Bank has loaned Peru $2 billion.(5)
One year following the resumption of World Bank
lending in Peru, in 1994, the country held
approximately $22.4 billion in external debt. A
year later, in 1995, debt was estimated at $31.7
billion.(6) With lending totals continuing to
multiply, clearly the relationship between the
World Bank and Peru is not aiming to "promote
sustainable development."
MIM Notes publishes articles like this one because
it is our internationalist duty to the people of
Peru and to their party, the PCP. MIM's Peru work
is MIM's best attempt to follow the leadership of
the PCP although the PCP and MIM have no official
ties. Organizing within the United Snakes, we have
special access to information about U.$. government
and capital involvement in Peru, and we can use
this to educate people in the u.s. and abroad about
the deep cooperation between Amerikan imperialism
and Peruvian compradorism. In this way, we build
support for the People's War in Peru and for the
ultimate victory of the proletarian forces.
NOTES:
1. Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1996.
2. MIM Notes 86 March 1994.
3. Occidental Petroleum Corporation 1996 Annual
Report, p. 7; Occidental Petroleum Corporation
website, http://www.oxy.com.
4. World Bank website, http://www.worldbank.org.
5. WB website, "Peru and the World Bank" October
1995.
6. CIA World Factbook, 1996.
* * *
UPS TEAMSTERS GET THEIR PIE IN STIKE
by RC35 and MC206
UPS Teamsters claimed victory at the conclusion of
negotiation talks on August 19th ending the 15-day
strike. The new agreement met many of the
teamster's demands including increases in full-time
jobs, decreased sub-contracting, increased
pensions, wages and contract changes.(1)
The amerikan pseudo-left hailed this strike as a
symbol of progressive organizing and a sign that
amerikan labor has become more militant. But the
strike and demands behind it did not signify a
change in class perspective. The strike was
consistent with the amerikan working class'
position as a labor aristocracy, bribed with booty
of the imperialists stole from oppressed
nations.(2)
The teamsters and UPS agreed to 4 of the 5 initial
demands of the teamsters. Teamsters won an
additional 2,000 full-time jobs per year over five
years. Currently, part-time workers receive between
$8.00 and $10.50 per hour, while full time workers
receive $18.50 per hour, so this concession amounts
to a substantial raise for many UPS workers. The
new contract gives workers per hour wage hikes
which will take full effect after 5 years. Part-
timers get an extra $4.10/hr; full-timers get
$3.10/hr; and loaders get an immediate increase to
$8.50/hr. The new contract also keeps the multi-
employer pension plan which allows the teamsters to
capitalize off of the stock market at a 1987-1994
increase of 60%.(1)
For an international comparison, the daily minimum
wage in the Philippines in 1994 was $4.10 per
hour.(3)
A recent speech by an amerikan labor leader summed
up the ideology behind the "new" "militant"
amerikan labor movement. Amerikan workers, he said,
are sick and tired of working for low wages. This
makes them poor workers and poor citizens. It may
even radicalize the workers, and cause them to
reject amerikan "democracy"! That's why, this labor
leader said, amerika needs a raise! Compare that
speech to the following quote from Cecil Rhodes,
architect of British imperialism: "I was in the
East End of London yesterday and attended a meeting
of the unemployed. I listened to the wild speeches,
which were just a cry for 'bread! bread!' and on my
way home I pondered over the scene and I became
more than ever convinced of the necessity of
imperialism... If you want to avoid civil war, you
must become imperialists."(4)
Indeed, exceptional wages such as those guaranteed
to the UPS workers are possible only because of the
extreme exploitation and super- exploitation of
workers in Third World countries. Apologists for
the amerikan labor aristocracy call the new UPS
contract a long due reparation to the "hard
working" amerikan and imply that amerikan workers
created at least $18.50 in value per hour
themselves (while workers in oppressed nations
produce less than $5.00 of value per hour). These
statements, aside from being factually incorrect,
stoke up reactionary amerikan nationalism and
cement the alliance between the labor aristocracy
and the imperialists.
The stock benefits included in the workers' pension
plan also illustrate how the majority of the
working class inside an imperialist country can
become "coupon clippers," as Lenin said, and reap
the benefits of imperialism without lifting a
finger. The u.$. invades Iraq, the stock market
goes up, and suddenly these workers have a bigger
pension plan. Critics of MIM often complain that
our analysis of the amerikan working class ignores
the fact that ownership of the means of production
determines your class position. The stock benefits
in the new UPS deal confirm something MIM has said
before: Working class pension funds are among the
largest stock holders in amerika. In a very real
way, the labor aristocracy does share in the
ownership of the means of production in amerika.
After the successful UPS strike, Teamster leader
Ron Carey pledged to unite all workers, from
Washington apple pickers to Federal Express
employees, in a movement much like the UPS strike.
What Carey fails to see, or mention, is the
parasitic nature of his imperialist lap-dog gains.
Integrating immigrant farm workers into a movement
specifically aimed at sucking more blood, labor,
and resources from the Third World Proletariat,
does nothing else but force settler nation ideology
onto those oppressed nation who have not, and will
not, benefit from imperialism.
What this false "unity" does is secure settler
positions more firmly in imperialism by co-opting
potentially progressive movements and groups. The
teamsters, and like-minded settler nation
organizers, aim to force oppressed nation
allegiance to imperialist hegemony -- not
equalization of the worlds wealth. If they truly
believed in ending class antagonisms, they wouldn't
rely on imperialist super profits to fill their
petit-bourgeois pockets.
MIM works to bring imperialist oppression and
exploitation to an end by uniting with those truly
oppressed in the Third World and the colonies
inside U$ borders. MIM studies history and the
nature of labor and work to return the world's
wealth to those who actually create it. If you are
sick of the continued cry to fill up the pockets of
those lucky enough to live within false boarders,
unite with the international proletariat and expose
the rhetoric u.$. labor uses to secure its place on
the imperialist ladder.
NOTES:
1. New York Times 20 August 1997, p. A1, A22,23.
2. MIM Notes 145, 1 Sep 1997.
3. PIGLAS, "The Truth About the Ramos Regime,"
1994.
4. Quoted in VI Lenin, Imperialism, Chapter 6.
* * *
AVAILABLE NOW!
"IMPERIALISM AND ITS CLASS STRUCTURE IN 1997"
This is an unofficial booklet available now for
discussion outside the U.$.A. We continue the work
started by Lenin of eradicating the influence of
the labor aristocracy, a new petty-bourgeoisie in
the international communist movement. To do this we
must know how extensive the petty-bourgeoisie has
become so as to avoid becoming its spokespeople
unintentionally.
This booklet reviews the concept from Marx to Mao,
examines current evidence for the integration of
finance capital, the existing trade blocs, the new
trends and sources in surplus-value extraction that
have bailed out the capitalists and the evidence
that there is no surplus-value extracted from the
bought-off oppressor-nation majorities in the
U.$.A., Japan, Germany, France, England, Italy,
Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, Sweden and
Australia.
We challenge our readers in the imperialist
countries to read and support or rebut this booklet
and we promise to publish serious replies.
Available to residents outside the U.S. borders
only! $5 for xerox copy from the address on page
two.
* * *
'TRUTH' COMMISSION PERPETUATES INJUSTICE
by RC343
The neo-apartheid south African Truth and
Reconciliation Commission's Amnesty Committee is
considering the case of Clive Derby-Lewis, the
ultra-right mastermind behind the 1993
assassination of Chris Hani, a popular Azanian
leader of the revisionist South African Communist
Party.
Derby-Lewis admitted to planning the assassination
based on a hit list prepared by his wife; to
obtaining the "untraceable" murder weapon; and to
enlisting the help of Janusz Walus, the gunman. In
a move to placate the outraged Azanian masses, the
South African state had convicted Derby-Lewis and
Walus of the murder.
President Nelson Mandela sold the African National
Congress (ANC) for nominal power, and then
established the Truth and Reconciliation Commission
(TRC) in 1995 to cover-up his collaboration with
the white nation supremacists in power. The TRC's
stated purpose is to investigate the "gross
violations of human rights" and grant amnesty for
the political crimes of apartheid. Through these
hearings, the TRC and neo-apartheid state hope to
promote "racial healing" and "transcend" the
conflicts of the past.(1) What this new age,
postmodernist doublespeak really means is that
disenfranchised Azanians should lick the white
settlers' boots and like it, just like Mandela did.
The TRC's bourgeois talk of "human rights" ignores
the basic class and national inequality within
occupied Azania.(2) In the words of south African
Minister of (in)Justice Dullah Omar, the TRC does
not "distinguish between ANC wounds, PAC wounds
[Pan-Africanist Congress] and other wounds. "(1)
That is, abstract talk of human rights does not
distinguish between the vicious crimes against the
people committed by the reactionary white settlers
and the Azanians' revolutionary violence. In this
view, all violence -- except the violence of
poverty, starvation, and disease -- is condemned
without regard to who initiated it and who has the
power. This is a counter-revolutionary, anti-people
belief which cloaks the capitalist intentions of
the bourgeoisie under the guise of humanism.
Reactionary violence must always be countered with
revolutionary violence. For national liberation,
for self-determination, for freedom and true
justice, the Azanian masses must seize state power
-- and that doesn't mean the neocolonial pseudo-
power that a few Azanians now hold in concert with
the white settlers. This struggle is always met
with savage repression from the bourgeois state to
maintain itself in power. Revolutionary violence is
therefore necessary. In the words of Mao Zedong,
"political power grows out of the barrel of a gun."
The retreat from armed struggle advocated by
collaborationist Mandela means continued
subjugation for the Azanian masses.
The Truth and Reconciliation (to the status quo)
Commission offers not justice but pacification.
Having sold the Azanian struggle for national
liberation down the river for a neo-apartheid deal
with the white settler nation, Nelson Mandela would
like the masses to grieve for injustice rather than
revolt against it. The TRC is firmly entrenched in
the white supremacist mold of the government;
reactionary assassins are pardoned, while
revolutionary political prisoners remain
imprisoned. Even bourgeois political analysts admit
that amnesty is an inadequate process.
"Perpetrators fully confess, but do not have to
admit what they did was wrong." Stephen Friedman,
director of the Center for Policy Studies, argues
that "reconciliation" will not be achieved just by
listening alone, but there has to be repentance and
"some kind of community service to right the wrongs
of the past."(3) He is correct to a point - -
serving the people is a step forward. But it is not
enough to feel bad about injustice. The imperialist
structure of inequality must be overthrown so the
conditions for true justice can be built. That is
why Azania (and all oppressed nations) must
organize for revolution.
Under the dictatorship of the proletariat,
revolutionary justice goes beyond such simple token
gestures such as repentance. Redeemable
reactionaries will undergo thorough self-criticism
through which they will come to understand their
mistakes and change their thinking, even as society
itself undergoes massive social transformation.(4)
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and the
neo-apartheid government, cannot even promise that
injustice will be prevented in the future, because
injustice and inequality are necessary for the
bourgeois state to maintain its power.
The true road to freedom is the revolutionary
nationalist proletarian feminist line, not
reconciling with and embracing the oppressor. The
ease with which the leadership of the movement has
been co-opted by the settler bourgeoisie should
serve as a warning to be ever-vigilant in studies
and organizing. Maintaining the correct line --
that of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism -- is the best
strategy for freedom and justice.
NOTES:
1. Excerpt from the Interim Constitution
http://www.truth.org.za/back/justice.htm
2. For more on revolutionary approaches to human
rights, see "MIM Interview: Marie Hilao-Enriquez,
militant human rights activist" in MN144 8/15/97,
p.5.
3.
http://www.truth.org.za/sapa9708/s9708/s9700825b.h
tm See also the article 4. For an explanation of
self-criticism, see Prisoners of Liberation by the
Ricketts. Available from MIM for $10.
* * *
LIGHT AS A FEATHER: FORMER ZAIRIAN DICTATOR DIES
by a MIM comrade
Mobutu Sese Seko, who dominated the country which
is today once again the Democratic Republic of
Congo and who served U.$. and French imperialism,
finally left the Congolese people's lives for good.
In Mao's words, MIM says that Mobutu's death was as
light as a feather, since it came at the end of a
life lived in the service of the reactionaries.
Mobutu will not be mourned by any friend of the
international proletariat.
President Mobutu's life was distinguished by
stealing from the masses in the form of pilfering
his country's funds, serving imperialism both by
overthrowing the people's leader Patrice Lumumba in
his own country and by aiding pro-imperialist
forces in fledgling democracies all over Africa,
and upholding the appearance of genuine nationalism
as a means of disguising his own allegiance to the
Western imperialists.
True to the definition of a comprador, the New York
Times described Mobutu as a ruler "who grew
fabulously rich by providing a bulwark against
Communism." Mao defined the comprador class in the
oppressed nations as that part of the bourgeoisie
which rules under direct orders from the
imperialists and which derives all its wealth from
its relationship to imperialism. A comprador's job
in the era of neo- colonialism is to look like an
indigenous leader while opening her/his country to
extraction of raw materials and exploitation of
labor by the imperialists. Mobutu did this job so
well he was frequently compared with King Leopold,
the Belgian who ran the colonized Congo as his own
personal territory. Leopold was known for
physically mutilating subjects who did not serve
him well. Mobutu faced continuous rebellion from
the genuine democratic forces in what he called
Zaire throughout his rule.
In recent issues, MIM Notes has written about the
rebellion in the newly renamed Democratic Republic
of Congo, and about Mobutu's long and exploiting
history in Zaire. While MIM still has little
information on Laurent Kabila, who led Mobutu's
overthrow and has since taken up the leadership of
the Democratic Republic, Communist comrades in that
country have called Kabila a genuine democrat. And
while we know that Kabila has not completely
shunned imperialist intervention in his country, we
are happy to see the Amerikan death-grip on the
republic loosened by the fall of Mobutu.
During his rule, Mobutu claimed that "before him
there was no Zaire, and that his country would not
survive him either." If the second part of this
statement proves true, it will be at least in part
because Mobutu led the 30-year campaign to destroy
his own country. The Nkrumah- influenced
revolutionary Patrice Lumumba won national
liberation from Belgium in 1960 and renamed what
had been the Belgian Congo the Democratic Republic
of Congo. With CIA-sponsorship, Mobutu (who led the
new military under Lumumba) seized power in a coup
in 1961. After having his own army torture Lumumba,
Mobutu turned him over to a group which had been
unsuccessfully fighting to secede from the new
republic. These rebels killed Lumumba.
Since Mobutu's inauguration as a CIA stooge in
Africa, the people who only briefly tasted
revolution between Belgian colonialism and Amerikan
neo-colonialism fought against his oppressive rule.
MIM joins its voice with the voices of the people
who suffered under the CIA-Mobutu reign of terror.
We celebrate the victory against imperialism that
was Mobutu's downfall and we look forward to the
Congolese people's struggle for an ever more just
and democratic society, free from all imperialist
domination.
NOTES: New York Times 8 Sept., 1997; Mark Twain,
King Leopold's Soliloquy; MIM Notes 140 15 June,
1997; MIM Notes 138 15 May, 1997.
* * *
TOO BUSY TO STUDY MAO?
BUSIER THAN THE PAN-AFRICANIST CONGRESS IN 1968?
"Illuminated by the brilliant thought of chairman
Mao Tse-Tung, the path of the Chinese revolution
has reached new heights unprecedented in the
revolutionary history of mankind. The great
proletarian cultural revolution is a glowing
testimony to the Chinese people having been aroused
to a scale unprecedented in the mass movement
anywhere in the world. . . .
"Revolutionary China is a bastion of the world
revolutionary movement towards the overthrow and
elimination of imperialism. At a time when
imperialism is in its death throes, U.S.
imperialism has assumed leadership of all
reactionary forces in the world. With the
connivance of and bolstered by modern revisionism,
the U.S.-led imperialists have become more
ferocious than ever in brazenly kindling counter-
revolutionary wars throughout the world, especially
in Africa, Asia and Latin America. At this moment,
Chairman Mao's teaching is dearer to us when he
points out there is only one way to eliminate it
(war--editor) and that is to oppose war, to oppose
national counter- revolutionary war with national
revolutionary war, and to oppose counter-
revolutionary class war with revolutionary class
war. We Azanian people are positively responding to
the clarion call of Chairman Mao that 'political
power grows out of the barrel of a gun' and we have
taken up arms."
--Victor Mayakiso, Chief representative in Cairo of
the Pan-Africanist Congress of Azania
NOTES: The Black Panther, October 12, 1968, p. 12.
* * *
PUPPET ARAP MOI GOVERNMENT STEPS UP ATTACKS ON THE
PEOPLE OF KENYA
Government sponsored violence against the people
increased in Kenya during the summer of 1997, and
the people of Kenya responded with anti-government
strikes and protests. Kenya's government presents a
facade of democracy but is actually a military
government which serves foreign economic and
political interests. Kenyan President Daniel arap
Moi has been "elected" to four 5 year terms as
President and recently announced that he plans to
seek a fifth term in elections scheduled for later
this year.
ELECTION YEAR VIOLENCE
The violence in 1997 was similar to violence that
took place around the elections in 1992. Bands of
armed thugs paid by the government attacked the
ethnic groups most likely to be in opposition to
Moi. These attacks are disguised as "tribal
violence." The violence and resulting fear has
caused tens of thousands of poor people to flee
their homes. Moi sets up this upheaval in order
weaken any coordinated opposition and in order to
portray himself as the only one capable of
maintaining order in Kenya.
The 1992 government-sponsored clashes eventually
left thousands dead and hundreds of thousands
homeless, mostly in central Kenya. They were aimed
at driving the Kikuyu tribe, Kenya's largest, from
the Rift Valley region; the Kikuyu have been among
Moi's most unrelenting critics since he took power
in 1978.(1)
This summer the violence involved Kikuyus, Luos and
other tribes that have lived on the Indian Ocean
coast for decades. These groups tend to oppose Moi.
Marauding gangs of up to 500 people used guns,
clubs, machetes, and bows and arrows in their
attacks, which began August 13.(1)
The violence is clearly planned. Many of those
attacked have moved to the coast from central Kenya
in recent years. Those indigenous to the area fear
for their jobs in a country where unemployment is
very high, and the government uses this economic
instability to create hostility between the
newcomers and the longtime residents. One of Moi's
ministers was accused of taking money to the
attackers the weekend after violence broke out. As
one Kenyan political analyst explained, "... just a
few months before the election, a group of thugs
hits the minority group. The security forces, who
know everything about everybody, can't get to the
scene for hours and hours.... The whole thing just
doesn't look right. It's a government
operation."(2)
"If you create what appears to be ethnic violence,
then it looks OK to crack down on all dissidents,"
said John Githongo, director of the African
Strategic Research Institute, a privately run think
tank in Nairobi, the capital. MIM adds that calling
these attacks "ethnic violence" also obscures the
complicity of foreign imperialists, who are the
ones who back thugs like Moi.
ELECTIONS DO NOT MEAN DEMOCRACY
Moi won the last election with only 36% of the
vote, certainly not an overwhelming statement of
popularity. The main opposition parties combined
won more than 60% of the vote. Legal manipulations,
election fraud and military force played helped Moi
get the small portion of votes that he did receive.
In Kenya, the president has the power to legally
block opposition assemblies and control television,
and there are laws allowing police to detain
suspects without filing charges. This makes the
campaign for president anything but democratic.(3)
The bourgeois opposition in Kenya demanded
constitutional and legal reforms before this year's
elections. The opposition said that if no reforms
are made they would boycott the elections. Moi
refused their demands.(2)
THE IMPERIALISTS SUPPORT MOI
According to the Financial Times of London, Kenya's
foreign aid in the decade beginning in the mid-80s
totaled more than $8 billion.(3) In addition to
foreign aid, tourism is an important part of the
Kenyan economy. Last year, 770,000 tourists -- 60
percent of them beach- bound -- earned Kenya $465
million in foreign exchange.(1)
The election year government-sponsored violence
could backfire for Moi, since his government is so
dependent on imperialist aid. The International
Monetary Fund (IMF) froze a $220 million loan on
July 31, refusing to release the money until the
Kenyan government cleaned up its act. As a way of
further controlling the country through foreign
aid, the IMF set a series of conditions that Moi
must meet to get this money. In particular they
must combat graft and strengthen management of the
energy sector. These demands have nothing to do
with the well being of the Kenyan people but
everything to do with the well being of foreign
business operating in Kenya.(4)
The imperialists need corrupt thugs and dictators
to run their neo- colonies, since the majority of
the people in the neo-colonies are oppressed and
exploited by imperialism and regularly rise up
against it. Sometimes these thugs and dictators
displease their masters -- maybe because they
demand too much of a cut (Noriega in Panama), or
maybe because they are exposed as brutal toadies
(Marcos in the Philippines). Then the imperialists
are willing to allow some formal "democratic"
reforms while hand-picking a "cleaner" leader (e.g.
Aquino in the Philippines). But the imperialists
retain control of the economy and the government
through massive bribes and loans. The imperialists
often also control the military, which has the last
say in who runs the country. This is why the people
in oppressed nations need to kick the imperialists
out through armed struggle.
PROTESTS GROW
On September 7 Kenyan police detained opposition
legislators, broke up an open-air market and fired
tear gas in the western city of Kisumu to stop an
anti-government rally. Police and paramilitary
units sealed off the center of the city and barred
five opposition lawmakers from leaving the local
airport to attend a demonstration calling for legal
and constitutional reforms. The legislators (member
of Forum for Restoration of Democracy-Kenya) were
detained for planning to attend an illegal rally.
Police also fired tear gas at young people arriving
at the local bus station to attend the
demonstration.(5)
The rally in Kisumu, an opposition stronghold 185
miles northwest of the capital, was to kick off a
series of nationwide demonstrations announced
Thursday by the National Convention Assembly, a
coalition of opposition leaders, civic rights
activists and lawyers.(5)
Nairobi University closed Kenya's largest campus in
mid-July after hundreds of rioting students took to
the streets to protest the fire death of a student
leader, Solomon Muruli. Muruli was involved in
demonstrations against police brutality and living
conditions on campus last November and had spoken
out publicly after police of kidnapped and tortured
him in retaliation for his political activism. He
was scheduled to identify the police officer
suspected in his torture and had received a death
threat the week before he was killed.(6)
On July 15, Students clashed with police in
downtown Nairobi after demonstrating outside the
High Court building where 14 of their colleagues
were scheduled to appear in connection with the
previous day's violence. Police used clubs to
disperse the students, sending them running through
downtown Nairobi.(7)
In August, advocates of constitutional reform
called for a nationwide strike. The strike was
marked by rallies where activists, many of them
youth, shouted "Moi must go" and blockaded the
streets until the police broke up the
demonstrations. Many demonstrators were prevented
by police from joining the rallies. Opposition
politicians were arrested for "inciting people to
strike".(8)
The National Convention Executive Council (NCEC)--a
loose alliance of political opposition groups,
civil rights activists and clergy has urged Kenyans
to observe general strikes Sept. 18 and 19, and
Oct. 8 and 9. A protest rally also is planned for
Oct. 10, the day Moi is scheduled to publicly
commemorate taking office in 1978. This display of
disrespect for President's Day is expected to lead
to confrontation.(9) These actions are aimed at
reforming a corrupt system rather than overthrowing
imperialism, but they show how the brutal nature of
imperialist domination creates unrest and
opposition even among the bourgeoisie and petit-
bourgeoisie of oppressed nations. It is the task of
proletarian revolutionaries in oppressed nations to
recognize the anti- imperialist sentiments of these
classes and win them over to revolutionary anti-
imperialism as much as possible.
REVOLUTION IS THE ONLY SOLUTION
In early September Amnesty International announced
a campaign against the Kenyan government. This
campaign involves calling on international aid
agencies to hold Moi's government responsible for
abuses of power and mobilizing its membership in a
publicity campaign.(9) While Amnesty is correct
that the Kenyan government's abuses against the
people are deserve outrage and action, their
strategy for ending human rights abuses in Kenya is
a proven failure.
It is the imperialist backing that encourages Moi's
dictatorship by providing the financial support
that sustains a willing puppet in power for
economic exploitation and military oppression.
These agencies are only going to cut off aid or
pressure for change when it is in their financial
and military interests. The IMF's conditions for
release of aid are a good example of this. Rather
than calling on the imperialists to tame the
results of colonialism, Amnesty supporters should
be working to overthrow imperialism and end the
military and economic support that sustains
dictators in power.
It is only by overthrowing imperialism that a
government that serves the people will be
established in Kenya. The people learn this through
political activism and from the actions of the
puppet government itself. Because imperialism
oppresses the majority of people in Kenya and the
imperialists inevitably defend this oppression with
the most brutal means, the majority of Kenyans will
one day rise up and secure national liberation.
NOTES:
1. The Washington Post, Aug. 21,1997, P. A21.
2. Detroit Free Press Sep. 8, 1997.
3. The Washington Post, July 27, 1997, P. C08.
4. The Star Tribune, Aug. 29, 1997.
5. The Star Tribune, Sep. 8, 1997.
6. Nairobi campus closes after student riot in
Kenyan capital By PATRICK MAJUTE Associated Press
Writer
7. San Francisco Examiner, July 15, 1997, P. A11.
8. Houston Chronicle Aug. 8, 1997.
9. LA Times, Sep. 11, 1997.
* * *
RESEARCH SHOWS CULTURAL REVOLUTION EDUCATION
SUCCESS
review by MC12
New research by non-communist sociologists shows
that the intergenerational transfer of educational
attainment was all but demolished in China's Great
Proletarian Cultural Revolution (GPCR, 1966-1976),
more than in state-capitalist or imperialist
societies. In capitalist societies, the education
system is the most important way to allocate people
to unequal positions, and the class system is
perpetuated by the transfer of educational
credentials from one generation to the next. In the
nitty-gritty work of building socialism,
redistributing the advantages of educated parents
to all children is one of the hardest and most
important tasks.
In the imperialist countries, published work on the
GPCR is dominated by intellectuals and capitalists
who fled China while it was socialist or left after
capitalist-roader Deng Xiaoping came to power in
1976. These people hate the GPCR for what it did to
their class privileges, and their perspective is
embraced by liberal intellectuals in the West. On
the other hand, a handful of studies by sympathetic
Western intellectuals have documented the progress
for China's great majority during this period. But
these have been dismissed by anti-communists
because they are often based on selective visits to
certain areas of the country, or evidence from the
communist government.
This new study uses data from China's first modern
national census in 1982 - a nationally
representative sample conducted by the reactionary
state-capitalist government. The census asked
people how much education they had, and Deng and
Treiman compared the education levels of grown men
with their fathers to see how much
intergenerational transfer there was. By looking at
education for people of different ages, they are
able to see the effects of education policies at
different times. (As is typical in many studies,
they only look at men, which in this case is more
understandable because in China sons are much more
likely to live with their parents than daughters.)
MIM recommends this article, by Zhong Deng and
Donald Treiman, as a documentation of China's
socialist era educational policies and their
outcomes, even though the authors are not
communists and in some ways are anti-communist.
This review outlines their research, and points out
MIM's differences with the authors.
DENG AND TREIMAN SUMMARIZE THE COMMUNIST EDUCATION
POLICIES:
"At various points over its first 30 years of rule
but particularly during the Cultural Revolution,
the Chinese government introduced strong policies
to favor people of working class and peasant
origins. One set of policies structurally expanded
the educational system, raising the educational
level of the population in general, and of the
peasantry and proletariat in particular. . . .
other educational reforms promoted the educational
achievement of the children of peasants and workers
at the expense of those from classes normally
considered of higher status. By substituting
students of 'good' class background (which, from a
numerical standpoint, was composed mainly of those
from working-class backgrounds) for those from
'middle' and 'bad' class backgrounds (who consisted
mainly of the former bourgeoisie and
intelligentsia), this set of reforms was
specifically designed to reduce the effect of
social class origins on educational attainment" (p.
401).
MIM would add that the "former bourgeoisie and
intelligentsia" often maintained advantages from
pre-socialist times in China, although there was
also some discrimination against those children
whose parents were from oppressing classes.
There was a tremendous increase in schooling,
especially for peasants, among people born from
1935 to 1962 or so: that is, people who did much of
their education from 1949 to 1976. Educational was
extended to hundreds of millions of people who had
never had it before. "Among those born at the
beginning of the century only 30% had any schooling
at all whereas among those born in the 1960s more
than 96% had at least some primary schooling. Among
the farm population the expansion of primary
education is particularly marked, from about 30%
among those born in 1917 to about 95% among those
born in 1964" (p. 412). During the socialist
period, there were differences as well. In the
countryside, a lot of people did not advance in
school during the Great Leap Forward, and some
people did not advance while a lot of schools were
closed at the beginning of the GPCR. But in the
later years of the GPCR, the greatest gains were
made.
There was a sharp drop in education as the policies
of the capitalist roaders kicked in during 1976-
1978. That is when, under the "household
responsibility system," many peasants were pulled
out of school because they needed to earn money for
their families, like in all poor capitalist
countries.
In terms of intergenerational transfer of
education, the authors first compare China to
studies of other countries, including the state-
capitalist countries of Eastern Europe, who
extended education to more people, but did not
break the intergenerational link. In all research
on other countries, children's education level is
more tied to their parents than it was in China
during this time: "So, all in all, China appears to
be an unusually egalitarian society with respect to
educational opportunity" (p. 419).
Second, they look at the effect of class
background. These advantages dropped dramatically.
"Thus, initially the Cultural Revolution had its
intended effect - to reduce inequality of
attainment on the basis of social origins" (p.
420).
Third, found that the intelligentsia lost their
advantages dramatically during the GPCR in
particular. The children of Communist Party cadre
also lost parental advantages during this time, but
not as much as the children of intelligentsia. This
helps confirms to MIM, though not to the authors,
that there was a significant threat of a new
capitalist class in the communist party, something
the GPCR reduced but did not eliminate, and which
returned with a vengeance under state-capitalist
rule beginning in 1976.
Deng and Treiman conclude that "For nonfarm men
from normally advantageous backgrounds, the
Cultural Revolution was a disaster. Specifically,
the advantage usually associated with coming from
an educated professional or managerial family was
substantially reduced during this period" (p. 424-
5). MIM notes that despite all the belly-aching of
profit-making Chinese intellectual authors who
complain about the GPCR, children of professionals
and intellectuals did not lose all their advantages
in education; even during the GPCR the children of
intelligentsia got more education than other
children.
The gains from socialist education policies in the
countryside were more constant over the 1949-1976
period, and less specifically affected by the GPCR.
Overall, "the Cultural Revolution succeeded -
temporarily - in dismantling a reemerging
stratification system for the benefit of the
peasantry. The Cultural Revolution was probably the
most drastic attempt the world has yet seen to
reduce the intergenerational transmission of
advantage" (p. 425). By the end of the GPCR, the
old system of parental advantage was coming back.
MIM disagrees with Deng and Treiman, who don't
think the "disaster" for formerly privileged
classes, or the "drastic" attempts to
egalitarianism were necessary. MIM thinks these
were the great accomplishments of the GPCR. Deng
and Treiman, with their Liberal ideology,
appreciate the expansion of the whole education
system from 1949 to 1976, but don't think that
"policies favoring one group over another" were
necessary or valuable (p. 425). But MIM looks at
their own evidence and sees the return to power of
a new bourgeoisie in 1976, and from this we see
that despite the heroic efforts of the GPCR, it was
not enough to stop the return of capitalism.
NOTES: Zhong Deng and Donald J. Treiman, "The
Impact of the Cultural Revolution on Trends in
Educational Attainment in the People's Republic of
China." American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 103,
No. 2, September 1997.
* * *
MOTHER TERESA: FRIEND OF POVERTY, NOT OF THE POOR
by MCB52
Mother Teresa's funeral on September 13th gave
everyone an opportunity to see who her true friends
were. As the foreign dignitaries poured in, the
poor were kept off the streets by the strong-handed
Indian military. While most everyone who has access
to media--even pseudo-leftists and secularists
usually critical of missionaries--praises this nun,
MIM takes this opportunity to point out that those
offering only spiritual goods, denying the
importance of material ones, are not true friends
of the poor. Mother Teresa, and the thousands of
members of the order she leaves behind, are friends
of the imperialists.
The beef that MIM has with Mother Teresa is most
clearly expressed in the words of her successor,
Sister Nirmala, the day before the funeral:
"Poverty will always exist. We want the poor to see
poverty the right way--to accept it and believe
that the Lord will provide."
Much has been made of the point that Mother Teresa
took in dying people and orphans, supposedly
"regardless of caste or creed." Most media imply
that this means she did not try to convert. But
considering the quote above, it becomes clear that
this is a lie. Those without religious thinking of
any sort were and will be strongly encouraged to
adopt it. In the care of her order, a Hindu is
allowed to die a Hindu, but nuns will try their
damndest to let no one die without God.
Pushing people to believe in a God encourages them
to see the world as unchangable which means that
the poor will always be poor and the imperialists
will always have power. This is not a progressive
way of looking at the world. But not all people who
believe in a higher power so are enemies of the
people. Some religious people, especially those
from oppressed nations, are part of United Fronts
to seek national self-determination. Many can be
united with because they agree with materialists
that the oppressed need to be liberated through
social change. Mother Teresa was not one of these
forces. She was not silent about social change to
help the poor, she opposed it and polemicized
against it. She told all people not to look at the
real world and stop the suffering, but to instead
look at the "beauty" in poverty and await bliss in
an imaginary world beyond.
Looking to an external savior, rather than real
world forces, is a common feature of most all
religions. Marxists' alternative to religious
thinking, materialism, maintains that there are no
causes or purposes outside the real world and that
making the real world a better place is the most
important goal. Materialists are not included in
Mother Teresa's happy family of "all people
regardless of caste or creed." All her life, she
claimed we had incorrect approaches toward poverty
and the poor. Where she wanted everyone to believe
that poverty is inevitable, we want people to see
that it can be eradicated. Where she wanted the
poor to placidly accept their position, we want
them to fight against it.
Mother Teresa did far more than hold dying people
in her arms. She also campaigned against birth
control and other reproductive freedoms and then
ran part of the insidious practice of baby-shipping
that oppresses poor wimmin in many parts of the
world. She encouraged poor wimmin to use what
little calories and nutrients they could acquire on
bearing babies, which they could then leave at her
orphanages. Most of the infants in those orphanages
are sent on for adoption in the United Snakes--for
modest bureaucratic fees.
It is hard to know whether Mother Teresa understood
the baby-shipping as we do, whether she consciously
planned to exploit the religiously-induced
hardships of the wimmin in her adopted city of
Calcutta. But even if she did not calculate so
cynically, the result was the same. And there is no
doubt that many of her decisions, of whom to
appoint where and when to open barely-staffed
outposts so that her organization could look
stronger on paper, were extremely political.
While MIM will always oppose religious ideology,
not all religious people are enemies as the
Missionaries of Charity are. But whenever someone
says it is good for the poor to be poor, whenever
someone says that imperialism must not be fought,
they are an enemy of the people. There will be no
true peace without justice, and so it is justice we
anti-imperialists are fighting for en route to
lasting peace.
NOTES: New York Times, September 14, 1997, p. 14.
* * *
IMPERIALIST UN TO SET UP INTERNATIONAL COURT
by MC234
Diplomats at the United Nations are completing
negotiations to establish the world's first
permanent International criminal court. If the
remaining problems can be sorted out, they expect
to finish this effort within a year. The court
builds on previous efforts such as the tribunals to
try war criminals in the former Yugoslavia and
Rwanda. In these instances, judges were brought
together from different legal systems and managed
to come up with rules of procedure and evidence
that "met the needs of all [participating]
systems."
The Clinton Administration supports the idea of
creating a court to "judge the most terrible of
mass crimes--including genocide and the massacres
that have come to characterize the ethnic conflicts
of recent decades", but the Republican-led Congress
may object. Issues that remain to be debated are
"on what crimes take on ... how crimes would be
taken to court, in particular whether a chief
prosecutor would have the authority to originate
cases."
When Amerika is under the dictatorship of the
international proletariat, there will be a court to
try the worst criminals of the old regime. This
court will be set up by the standards of the
proletariat and will serve proletarian justice. The
proposed International Court is not a step in this
direction, instead it is another bourgeois court
set up to serve bourgeois purposes.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s the United
Nations General Assembly was a sounding board for
the newly independent states to bash imperialism
diplomatically and in the media. Now such real
dissent is much rarer, although differences in
opinion between the different imperialists or
between the imperialists and their subjects will
still be aired at the U.N. It is around these
differences and not around the needs of the
oppressed that the debate on the proposed
International Court is taking place. The
assumptions underlying the court and it's temporary
predecessors are bourgeois, and that eliminates any
hope of finding real justice for the people. The
genocide in Yugoslavia and Rwanda were not ethnic
conflicts, but imperialist manipulated ones. The
biggest war criminals are the imperialists for
setting the stage for the bloodshed, Karadzic et.
al. are just the willing pawns.
The highest U.N. body, the Security Council has
always been firmly in the grip of the imperialists,
as four of the biggest imperialists, Amerika, Great
Britain, France and Russia each have permanent
seats and veto power over the council's decisions.
Amerika, mostly by itself, wants the security
council to decide which cases will go to the Court.
This would give Amerika and the other permanent
members of the Security Council the ability to
protect themselves and their allies from
prosecution under this treaty. (And some neo-
colonies are nervous that the Court will lessen the
power of their own comprador rulers.)
If the reader has any doubts about the neo-colonial
nature of the United Nations, the fact that the
biggest killers on the planet (the imperialists)
want to build in a mechanism to exempt themselves
from prosecution should make it clear that this
Court is not about justice but just-us.
There is more, however.
Amerika wants to limit the court's jurisdiction to
"cases of genocide, crimes again humanity and war
crimes, with sexual assault built into the
definitions" and excluding terrorism and organized
crime.
David Scheffer, Clinton's special envoy dealing
with war crimes explained that he doesn't want to
see the court used against Amerika itself:
"There is a reality, and the reality is that the
United States is a global military power and
presence. Other countries are not. We are.
"Our military forces are often called upon to
engage overseas in conflict situations, for
purposes of humanitarian intervention, to rescue
hostages, to bring out American citizens from
threatening environments, to deal with terrorists.
We have to be extremely careful that this proposal
does not limit the capacity of our armed forces to
legitimately operate internationally.
"We have to be careful that it does not open up
opportunities for endless frivolous complaints to
be lodged against the United States as a global
military power."
Complaints of terrorism and racketeering against
Amerika would be entirely justified and not
frivolous. Regardless of whether the mostly-puppet
version supported by some imperialists comes to
exist, or the fully puppet Amerikan version, such
legitimate claims against the imperialist system
will likely be quickly dismissed as frivolous. To
the imperialist system, that the roots of war and
genocide are in Washington D.C., Paris and London
is just a frivolous little detail.
NOTE: New York Times 13 August 1997.
* * *
LA UNIVERSITY PIGS AIM FOR SUBMACHINE GUNS
The University of California at Los Angeles Police
"Community Safety" Department (UCPD) is looking to
stock their armory with MP5 submachine guns capable
of firing 30 rounds without reloading. Cal State
University Los Angeles(CSULA) pigs set the
precedent and will get six Heckler and Koch MP5s in
November. The MP5s will replace shotguns as CSU
campus pigs' secondary "backup" weapons. What
prompted the change? According to firearms expert
Alex Reyes, "it is easier to teach a person to be
[deadly] accurate with an MP5 than a shotgun."
Military agencies such as the SWAT team, the FBI,
the LAPD, and German Border Patrol already have the
MP5s in their weaponry. CSULA pig chief Gerald
Lipson claims that the MP5 submachine guns will
only be used when the campus pigs back-up the LAPD.
CSULA is located in East Los Angeles, a
predominantly Latino area.
NOTES: Daily Bruin 11 Aug - 17 Aug, 1997, pp. 1, 9,
11.
* * *
MARXISM-LENINISM-MAOISM ONLINE
GOVERNMENT ASSEMBLES COALITION TO CENSOR INTERNET
FOR CHILDREN
The White House has ordered all federal agencies to
release special web pages geared toward youth
(grades K-12) by October.(4) The White House says
they want "family friendly" web sites -- by which
they apparently mean the Department of Defense and
Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, which they cite as
positive examples. The new web sites are supposed
to include classroom materials for teachers to use
as well.
This youth-oriented government propaganda, designed
as force-feeding kits for teachers to impose on
their students, is combined with an increased
federal effort to combine law enforcement,
capitalists and new technologies to censor the
Internet for children.
Using analogies to food safety labeling and
seatbelts, the White House has been promoting
Internet censorship as a necessary measure to
protect Amerika's children. Not coincidentally, the
outcome is both increased paternalistic oppression
of children by parents and educators, and an
Internet that is increasingly unsafe for
revolutionaries and the oppressed.
Speaking at a press conference on the White House's
commitment to a "family-friendly" Internet in July,
Clinton said: "After the Supreme Court struck down
the portion of the Communications Decency Act last
month affecting this as an abridgement of free
speech, we brought together industry leaders and
groups representing teachers, parents, librarians
to discuss where to go next."
Heralding the "E-Chip" (actually not a chip, but
blocking and filtering software for the Internet)
as that next step, Clinton raved, "[These tools]
give parents the power to unlock - or lock the
digital doors to objectionable content."(1)
"Family-friendly," in imperialist-speak, means
patriarchy-friendly -- a virtual mandate to parents
to control their children's access to online
materials.
But the government mandate does not stop at
parental power. Throughout his speech, Clinton
called for a "combination of technology, law-
enforcement and parental responsibilities."(1) He
said:
"Beyond technology, we must have strict enforcement
of existing laws - the anti-stalking, child
pornography and obscenity laws as they apply to
cyberspace. In the past three months alone, the FBI
has expanded by 50% the staff committed to
investigating computer-related exploitation of
minors, and established a task force to target
computer child pornography and solicitation. In the
past six months, the Department of Justice has
increased the number of lawyers working in its
Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section by
50%."(1)
Vice-President Gore added: "Our challenge is to
make these blocking technologies and the
accompanying rating systems as common as the
computers themselves. . . . We need to keep
bringing public values and private actions
together."(2)
And what do you know, the major Internet service
providers and software developers are right on
board with the youth crackdown. Both Microsoft's
Internet Explorer and Netscape Communicator are
incorporating filtering based on ratings systems in
the newest releases of their Web browsers.
Netscape, for example, will use what's called
"Platform for Internet Content Selection" which
"allows parents to choose from a variety of ratings
systems to block sites" that they don't want their
children to see.(3)
According the White House press release, "all major
commercial online services, as well as over 145
regional and local Internet Service Providers in
more than 40 states, now offer their customers
filtering software either for free or for a small
fee. This software allows parents . . . to limit
the amount of time that a child spends online, or
prevent a child from typing personal information .
. . in an online chat-room. Major computer
manufacturers such as Acer, Apple Computer, Compaq,
IBM and Packard Bell are also bundling home PCs
with filtering software."(3)
Parental and government powers recognize that their
knowledge and ability to exploit the power of the
Internet lags behind the skills and dedication of
youth. So their measures become more authoritarian
(beefed up law enforcement) and more costly (new
and improved software), in a constant ratcheting up
of restriction and resistance.
Like revolutionaries, all youth have an interest in
unfiltered access to information on the Internet
and elsewhere. As is always the case under
imperialism, most available information is designed
to serve reactionary interests: youth and
revolutionaries share an interest in maintaining as
open an information system as possible.
Youth: visit www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext to get
involved in the fight for independent media for the
oppressed.
NOTES:
1. "Remarks by the President at Event on the E-Chip
for the Internet" July 16, 1997.
2. "Statement by Vice-President Al Gore" July 16,
1997.
3. "President, Vice-President Announce Strategy for
Family Friendly Internet" July 16, 1997.
4. "Memorandum for the Heads of Executive
Departments and Agencies" April 18, 1997.
* * *
FBI WANTS ENCRYPTION CRACKDOWN
Speaking to the 13th Annual Software Publishers
Association in September, Vice-President Gore
outlined the central imperialist challenge
regarding new Internet technologies, specifically
encryption: "We must be able to strike a balance
between the legitimate [sic] concerns of the law
enforcement community and the needs of the
marketplace."(1) So while encryption technology is
necessary for the comfort of the Amerikan public
and their credit card information, the pigs don't
want encrypted information out there that they
can't read.
According to Interactive Week magazine, "current
federal law bans the export of cryptographic
technology that relies on keys of 56 bits or
higher. Until January, the limit was 40 bits. Law
enforcement officials argue that the limits are
necessary to allow them to gain access to
communications among terrorists, drug dealers or
others involved in criminal conspiracies."(1) The
more bits used, the longer it takes a computer to
crack the code. MIM knows that the pigs also want
access to anyone advocating threatening ideas -
such as socialism and equality for the oppressed.
"The FBI has proposed that all developers whose
software relies on public-key/private-key
cryptography provide the government with a copy of
the private key."(1) If FBI Director Louis Freeh
has his way, "all domestic data- scrambling
technology would include mechanisms for law
enforcement to unscramble computer files, e-mail
and telephone calls when agents have a court order
to allow it."(2)
As if the government has always complied with such
constitutional measures in the past! In the
relatively low- tech days of COINTELPRO, the FBI
illegally stalked and murdered revolutionaries from
the Black Panther Party and the American Indian
Movement. While revolutionaries should take
advantage of new technologies like the Internet and
encryption to build public opinion for revolution,
we have to know that the pigs will use technology
at their disposal to continue suppressing
revolutionary thought and action.
MIM urges anyone using the Internet for
revolutionary purposes to obtain and use existing -
and currently legal -- encryption software to
protect themselves and their organizations from the
government.
NOTES:
1. Interactive Week, September 9, 1997.
2. Interactive Week, September 4, 1997.
* * *
BOOK REVIEW:
RESURRECTION: THE STRUGGLE FOR A NEW RUSSIA
by David Remnick NY: Random House, 1997, 398 pp.
review by a comrade
This book is a dialogue with the petty-bourgeoisie
of the old pro-Soviet communist parties. Much
journalistic information can be gained with a view
to the petty-bourgeois struggles in the Cold War
that were aimed at aiding the new bourgeoisie in
the USSR.
Remnick notices a lot that could vindicate the
revisionists of the Soviet Union. First, the
Yeltsin regime and some others replacing the USSR
(p. 4) he admits are more "authoritarian" and use
much more force than the recent patsy revisionist
regimes. Having tanks fire at the Parliament in
1991 was revealing for most of Russia on Yeltsin.
It is also clear that Yeltsin roughs up political
opponents in the streets. (p. 191) He admitted he
would not honor a "communist" election victory; (p.
338) and he banned the social-democrats calling
themselves communist from the airwaves during the
campaign. (p. 336) Secondly, Remnick notices things
in the conditions of the common person, including
that life expectancy for men fell to 59 in 1993
from 65 in 1987 under revisionism. (p. 46) Thirdly,
when it comes to writers, the perennial complaint
was that they were suppressed. Today they are
starving, because there is no money for writers.
(p. 222) Hence, there is no intellectual life
anymore just the mad-dash for profit in a free
market system. One writer admits to wishing for
Brezhnev suppression back, because then there was
intellectual life. (p. 227) The whole book is about
the bourgeois democrats and the wistful petty-
bourgeoisie like this writer who wish for the old
state-capitalist system back.
When it comes to the coup of 1991 that supposedly
was a hard-line Marxist-Leninist coup, it turns out
the coup had many more people in the streets
supporting it than the Yeltsin regime had
supporting it. Furthermore, contrary to images, the
coup plotters were the ones unwilling to use
extensive violence and it was only the military
that finally bailed out Yeltsin.
Backing MIM's line on the pull of the gender-
aristocracy is an interesting tidbit Remnick found.
Who is running Cosmopolitan magazine in Russia? A
degenerated Maoist turned capitalist is. (p. 162)
We see thus the pull of the patriarchy's privileges
and its widespread support amongst the gender-
aristocracy that makes it difficult to attack the
patriarchy. We communists have not paid enough
attention to this issue and have lost many to the
patriarchy's snares.
Remnick helps us to understand the combination of
mafia and monopoly capital that is Russia today.
"If it were to be ranked by the Global Fortune 500,
Gazprom would be second in profits, behind only
Royal Dutch Shell. Gazprom is responsible for 5
percent of the entire Russian economy and is the
country biggest taxpayer, pouring $4 billion
annually into the state. In fact, Gazprom does not
pay nearly the amount of taxes it should." (p. 178)
Of course, it has bought-off key government
officials.
The war to suppress the Chechen ethnicity is also
covered in depth. Here is a gem: "'During the Cold
War, you Americans used to go wild over one or two
political prisoners,' one man said. 'But when an
entire city is wiped out there is hardly a word
from you! Would President Clinton have come to
Moscow for the V-E Day parade if Sakharov were
alive and in prison?'" (p. 284) Such comments
abound in the book. There is no lack of reason for
cynicism about Russia. People are seeing through
the many cheap political stunts of U.$. imperialism
in its Cold War.
Remnick is aware of the grist for those with
"something of the social democratic orientation."
(p. 296) He understands and mentions Zyuganov who
ran for president and got 40 percent of the vote.
Zyuganov sought the coalition with the fascists and
came up with the traditional Nazi garbage about
finance capital being Jewish. (p. 315) Fortunately,
Remnick informs us that the more hard-line
communists distance themselves from anti-Semitism,
and not just Molotov's circles either. (p. 325)
Also, Remnick interviewed another person whose
parents were killed by Stalin but who considered
himself a staunch communist not unfriendly to
Stalin. (p. 327)
The petty-bourgeoisie does not understand the
essentials of class politics and is distracted by
the mountain of lies it has to dig itself out from
under. To avoid a simply cynical type of politics
easily manipulated by fascists and bizarre
nationalists, the Russians must return to an
understanding of the proletariat, Lenin and Stalin.
Most of what passes and has passed for communist
politics is not.
* * *
UNDER LOCK & KEY
MEDIA COVER UP:
PIGS SHOOT OVER 200 PRISONERS
Dear MIM, I am a South Carolina prisoner in the
Allendale Correctional Institution. I was placed on
lock down in July 1996 for a riot that took place
here. They shot so many inmates. When the media
came they only said that they fired 4 rounds
(warning shots), when they actually fire over 400
rounds.
The buckshot penetrated the skin of myself, and
over 200 inmates, but yet they [claim they] only
fired 4 shots in the air.
Again South Carolina, the worst and most corrupt
prison, succeeded in a cover up. All the officers
got their rocks off by shooting us unarmed inmates
up. This whole SCDC [South Carolina Department of
Incorrections], system is corrupted by Michael
Moore.
The whole legal system of America does nothing but
suppress people. It is a military state. The United
Snakes feeds off other little countries to make
itself look big and get rich quick. Well I am tired
of it. Something should be done before it's too
late. ...
-- A South Carolina Prisoner, 6 May 1997
MIM ADDS: We agree that the U$ is an imperialist
nation that feeds off many countries and dominates
the oppressed nationals within its borders. We
advocate exposing these atrocities. MIM works to
build public opinion on the subjects toward the end
of the masses seizing state power. Thank you for
your contribution. We hope others will follow your
example and work with MIM against imperialist
repression.
OHIO PRISONERS RESIST OPPRESSION
Revolutionary Greetings! I am writing from the
Orient Correction Institution, in Orient, Ohio.
After many months of harassment, repressive
restrictions, mass shake downs, verbal abuse and
beatings -- prisoners begin to fight back.
Yesterday (July 9, 1997) prisoners who had just
been moved to a newly implemented punishment
program, set the building a fire. As clouds of
smoke rolled across the yard, the rebellion spread
through the prison. Prisoners in other dormitories
began tearing up the dorms. The goon squad moved in
wearing full riot gear and body armor.
As the firemen extinguished the fires outside, the
good squad chained prisoners together and began
loading them onto buses to disperse the rebellious
prisoners to other prisons throughout the state. So
far over 400 hundred prisoners have been moved from
the prison in the past 18 hours, and the prison is
now locked down.
Prisoncrats aren't telling the corporate news media
that the reason prisoners set fire to the building,
that housed the punishment program, was that
prisoners who were being moved into this program
had already been punished long ago for alleged rule
violations! Some of the alleged rule violations
took place as far back as a year or two, and these
prisoners were punished at that time with months of
isolation in the "Hole". Now without any
provocation the pigs decided to punish these
prisoners again -- without any due notification.
This rebellion was clearly orchestrated by
prisoncrats themselves. Even the guards admit the
administration was trying to start a riot.
Sporadic rebellion is likely to continue here since
the pigs are still using repressive tactics.
Prisoners are fully aware that the roofs burn
easily, and may set fires to more dormitories.
Prisoners here will no longer accept these gestapo
tactics, since we have nothing left to lose but the
chains of oppression!
In the revolutionary struggle,
-- An Ohio Prisoner, 10 July 1997
FEDERAL CONDITIONS WORSEN
... I am one of the federal prisoners from Dublin
who was falsely accused of participating in the
fall 19995 riots. I am writing you to enlighten you
on present conditions in Marianna.
Earlier this year, they took out our closet spaces,
cut out half the counter and bolted down the
lockers. Recently, we just found out that the doors
with food slots have arrived and they are going to
begin hanging them at the men's FCI [Federal
Correctional Institution] first. This unit already
has begun to ship out as many persons with low
security or with clear conduct. All of their
actions tend to lead toward a lock down facility.
The warden, Sal Seanez, claims that it is only in
case of an "emergency situation", but I find that
doubtful
-- A Federal Prisoner, 9 June 97
P.S. In the latest issue of MIM Notes [MN 138], you
included part of one of my letters regarding our
lack of leisure library [Under Lock and Key, Briefs
Section, "No Library"]. You printed that I am a
Florida prisoner.
Although I am in the state of Florida, I am a
FEDERAL inmate in a FEDERAL institution in the
state of Florida. I feel that emphasis on federal
is important, as the general public thinks that
federal prisoners live it up, as though these
federal institutions are country clubs. We don't
even have a leisure library, or newspapers from the
outside, unless someone sends them to us.
MIM ADDS: Your point about being a federal versus a
state prisoner is well taken. Being a federal
prisoner is different from being state prisoner. We
agree with you and regret this error.
The federal prison system incarcerates the third
largest number of people in the United Snakes, with
California and Texas being first and second
respectively.
Thank you for noting this important point. Often
people forget that the federal prison system is so
large. It is easy to get confused, since federal
prisons and prisoners are scattered throughout the
U$ and not concentrated in one place like Texas.
THE STG PHENOMENON [SECURITY THREAT GROUP]
i can remember first reading about the above policy
and practice in the California prison system
employed against captives who were identified as
"gang" members. After being so identified, captives
would be tossed into Administrative Segregation or
an SHU [Segregated Housing Units]. Here they would
languish until they either "paroled, debriefed, or
died." I recall thinking how diabolical this scheme
was. How it could be used - twisted-to be a tool of
political repression.
I was still in the fetus stage of my studies when I
first read about the situation in California
prisons. I hadn't then realized that the repressive
policies and practices were designed form the start
to neutralize political activism behind the barbed-
wire. The disguise of `fighting "gang" activity'
was used for legitimacy. If exposed to the public,
the people would support it. Who doesn't want an
end to the high rate of crime and violence that is
commonly associated with "gangs"?
Since my first exposure to STG ("security threat
group") policies and practices in the California
prison system, I have learned that it has spread to
prisons across the u.s. And as of December 16,
1996, the state in which I am held captive had
enacted its own political policy: 04.04.113,
"Identification and Management of Security Threat
Groups and Members."
Comrade George [Jackson] taught Us that "Power
responds to all threats. The response is
repression." Have We learned from history?
COINTELPRO, NEWKILL, etc. If We are not prepared to
deal with the Paper Tiger, then it will force its
claws deeply into Our efforts at educating to
liberate.
STG can be defeated. We ain't got to be forced into
a corner with Our only option being to either
debrief, to denounce Our political associations, or
fact repression. However, the only chance We got to
defeat STG is to end Our isolation. We got to reach
outside these kkkoncentration kkkamps into the
communities from which We came and of which We
represent in our organizing and educating efforts.
When the Paper Tigers attempt to attack, We got to
have an outside base of support. Do Our people on
the outside know Us? Do they know what we care
about? Or, will they be left to believe whatever
spiel the Paper Tigers wish to say about Us? If
because We have no roots on the outside We are left
vulnerable to unbridled repression, it is no one's
fault but Our own!
Myself and others in Michigan want to expose the
STG Phenomenon. However, We want to do so based on
how it has spread across the u.s. We are asking for
captives from any state in amerikkka that has some
form of STG policy and/or practice to forward
information and documentation to Us. You may
forward such information/documentation to: [MIM
and] N.I.S. & G. Publishing, c/o Mbwa Wa-Kulindi,
654 Franklin Road, Pontiac, MI 48341
-- A Michigan Prisoner, 19 May 97
OLD DEATH ROW = NEW CONTROL UNIT
ALERT!!!
S.C. Prison Administrators clandestinely seek to
convert old death row unit into state's second
control unit!
Revolutionary Greeting Comrades: Be advised that
SCDC [South Carolina Department of Corruption's]
Officialdom is in the process of modifying the old
death row unit here in the Broad River Prison
Colony, entitled Edisto Unit, into what appears to
be the state's second control unit.
Because ever since the doydens transferred all the
death row prisoners to the Liebra Prison Colony,
major alterations continue to be made. Including
the application of mesh wiring to most cell doors
and the erection of beams and walls - apparently
for separation purposes.
This unit was open as a regular lock-up component
on April 19,1997, but on July 1, 1997 Supermax
procedures come into effect here.
Last week five high security prisoners (ML5) were
brought in from surrounding Ad-Seg. [Administrative
Segregation] Units. I was selected for placement
here in April 1997 despite the 2 years of
repression i endured at SC Maximum Security Control
Unit at [location]. So all aggressive agitating
militants, paralegals, anarchists, Black
Nationalists, Anti-Imperialists, Theoreticians,
Propagandists, Revolutionaries and Communists,
BEWARE!
-- A South Carolina Prisoner, 17 June 97
SEGREGATION SHUFFLE
Dear MIM, ... I have not received anything since
March. Being in D.D.U., I would have guessed that
my mail was being help up or turned away. But I
have a bit of a story for you.
On July 2, 1997, I was released from D.D.U. at 9:00
am. I was assigned a cell out in population. I
cleaned this cell's walls, floor and the toilet
before I fixed up my stuff in the places I wanted
it to be placed.
At 2:30 in the afternoon, I was done. And no sooner
had I sat down than 7-10 officers were at my cell
door ordering me to cuff up. I asked why and was
ignored. I asked to see the captain and was denied.
After a while, I cuffed up and I was brought back
to D.D.U. for no reason, with no explanation.
That's how dirty they are here in Walpole State
Prison.
In Struggle,
-- A Massachusetts Prisoner, 6 July 1997
P.S. I even got the same cell back in D.D.U. (How
nice)
THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES DESPITE BRUTALITY
Comrade MIM: Once again I find myself in a very
unique political position of significant repressive
subjugation as the fascist Bastards continue their
effort to neutralize my political consciousness.
But my ambitions to move forward as a crucial
thinker, a doer and a Revolutionary Soul-jah will
proceed without capitulating the principles of our
vital struggle. ...
Bro. MC be advised that the Doyen Bastards have
heightened their repression directed at progressive
prisoners here at Lee Corruptional Institutional
Colony. Oh, yes, I was targeted for and became the
victim of the state sponsored terrorism.
On May 2 1997, I was restrained in the torture
chair for four hours. The torture chair is employed
for disrespect to a prison official, and prisoners
talking cell to cell. [Also used] to enforce
intimidation upon ASU [Administrative Segregation
Unit] prisoners and to make them go along with the
rampant human rights abuses that are routinely
practiced in the ASU.
The pseudo reason I was placed in the torture
restraint chair was the librarian (Randall Forton)
claimed that I had his glasses that I supposedly
grabbed from his face. In addition Randall told
several representatives that he, Randall had
honestly misplaced some legal copies that he was to
deliver to me, and to this day those copies have
not been located.
The goons immediately had cuffed me and tore up the
cell/cage -- but no glasses were found. About 2
hours later I was in the shower and was told by
Lieutenant Stuckey that the Associate Warden, Ms.
Robertson, informed them to put me in the torture
chair.
Subsequent to an individual enduring 4 or 8 hours
in the torture chair, he is further deprived of
food, a bed/mattress, all clothes, all bed linen,
soap, tooth paste/brush, toilet paper and
writing/reading materials. This deprival of hygiene
necessities is enforced for 7 to 12 consecutive
days. I was also charged for their gestapo tactic
for assault, battery and disrespect - and I was
found guilty based on supportive statements in
narrative written by, of course, Randall Forton,
the librarian.
The move itself is a confirmation of how much a
threat I pose to the colonial occupational
personnel because this move also affirms that I'm
hurting the adroit fascists somehow.
But I will never submit to these Racist Caucasian
oppressors who run this apartheid type system.
Rage On,
-- A South Carolina Prisoner, 28 May 1997
WISCONSIN SLAVE WAGES
Revolutionary Salutes Comrades, I shout at you from
the bowels of the Green Bay KKKoncentration KKKamp
which is under neo-KKKolonialist rule by Master
Tommy Thompson. I would like to give you my
Revolutionary thanks to all `rades that are lending
support to my brother Kalphani Khaldun who is still
fighting for his right to live in the oppressive
KKKamp of Pendleton, Indiana. Revolutionary Shout
out to you by brother. I am down to the end, if
they come for you tonight, they will come for me in
the morning!
Presently Master Thompson has come up with more
profitable slave plan within the KKKoncentration
KKKamp. He has a contract with an outside glove
company and he uses the prisoners/slaves to make
the product. The bait is minimum wage pay by the
hour, but after the master takes out for room &
board, and medical costs, the slave is left with
less than $1.00 of that minimum wage. By stressing
the money, Master Thompson tried to make it sound
like he he's looking out for the prisoners/slaves
best welfare but yet he is actually getting more if
all the prisoners/slaves could work in his
sweatshops. These shops are run in 2 shifts from 8
am to 9 pm. He is trying to get as many
workers/slaves as he can to fill his shops.
The question is: If the rent and medical bills are
already paid for by the taxpayers, where does all
the money that they take out actually go? Those
that work within the sweatshops must still pay
$2.50 to see the nurse even though medical is taken
out of their pay.
I refuse to make Master Thompson's pockets fatter,
so I don't participate in the sweatshops.
There was an investigation with the company because
it is believed that people on the street were fired
so that the slaves on this plantation could take
their spots. These jobs of course do not offer any
placement once one is released, it is only for the
KKKamp. This is just another way that the Neo-
KKKolonialist state is getting over, and like I
said before Nobody here is saying anything. .
I leave you in Revolutionary love.
-- A Wisconsin Prisoner, 8 July 1997
FREEZING FUNDS
Revolutionary Greetings Comrades and MIM and RAIL,
... I am totally indigent because of the new policy
that this institution has adopted. No inmates on
lock-up will be allowed to write a check out of
their account, except for legal fees. Thus freezing
my account to all publications and personal bills,
which I may need to pay.
I have been subject to such harsh treatment Because
the chief of this Dept. of Corruptions has
classified myself as well as others, as being a
threat to security because of our membership or
affiliation with a group known as the 5% Nation of
Islam, or that Nation of Gods and Earth.
In this case these capitalists have shown their
true colors for we have done no wrong in our
conduct, yet we are all punished because of our
extensive amount of knowledge we are a threat.
(Sound Familiar?)
I recall MIM Notes stating there are no rights just
power struggles. That is 100% correct. ...We
(myself and a couple of comrades) have strived to
form a study group. Our communication is very
limited, but the important thing is we have
started. ...
Strengthen the Struggle. Always your comrade,
-- A South Carolina Prisoner
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 and 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
MICHIGAN OVERCROWDING
... As you may know, Michigan Prisons are well
beyond their capacity. They have brothers sleeping
on the floors and in the day rooms at this
particular camp in the heart of Detroit. ...
-- A Michigan Prisoner 24 May 97
KALIFORNIA GOONS PANICK & REPRESSION
... I've been getting your publication for over a
year now, with no problems, until issues #133 &
#134, where page 2, 6, and 10 were censored for
violent content. Then I received issues #135 &
#136, with no problems. Please continue to sent me
issues,
Here in the Kalifornia prisons, the pigs have been
slammin' us down `cause a convict with AIDS escaped
from the Vacaville prison near here. Anybody with
life or escapes or their record is getting locked
down after 4:00 p.m. The goons are panicked.
In the struggle,
-- A California Prisoner, 10 May 1997
INVOLUNTARY PROTECTIVE CUSTODY
I'm not in the hole anymore, ... they have me in
involuntary protective custody until they ship me
to another joint. They claim that my behavior
disrupts the proper runnin' of the facility cause I
beat the tickets they served on me on appeal.
They can't put me in the box and they don't want me
in general population here so they put me in IPC
which is almost like the box. You just have all
your privileges and instead of 1 hour rec.
[recreation], you get 2 hours rec. in the regular
yard. So I'm basically waitin' to get shipped to
another joint. ...
--A New York Prisoner, 16 June 1997
* * *
MIM ON PRISONS AND PRISONERS
MIM seeks to build public opinion against
Amerika's criminal injustice system, and to
eventually replace the bourgeois injustice system
with proletarian justice. The bourgeois
injustice system imprisons and executes a
disproportionately large and growing number of
oppressed people while letting the biggest mass
murderers - the imperialists and their
lackeys - roam free. Imperialism is not opposed to
murder or theft, it only insists that these crimes
be committed in the interests of the bourgeoisie.
MIM does not advocate that all prisoners go free
today; we have a more effective program for
fighting crime as was demonstrated in China prior
to the restoration of capitalism there in 1976. We
say that all prisoners are political
prisoners because under the dictatorship of the
bourgeoisie, all imprisonment is substantively
political. It is our responsibility to exert
revolutionary leadership and conduct
political agitation and organization among
prisoners 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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