I N T E R N E T ' S  M A O I S T  BI-M O N T H L Y

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         THE MAOIST INTERNATIONALIST MOVEMENT

   MIM Notes 148        OCTOBER 15, 1997



MIM Notes speaks to and from the viewpoint of the 
world's oppressed majority, and against the 
imperialist-patriarchy. Pick it up and wield it in 
the service of the people. support it, struggle 
with it and write for it.


IN THIS ISSUE:
1.  15TH PART CONGRESS CONTINUTES CAPITALIST ROAD:
    CHINESE LEADERS RUN FROM SOCIALISM
2.  UMICH CAMPUS POLICE KILL BLACK MAN STABBING HIS
    GIRLFRIEND: GENDER AND NATIONAL OPPRESSION LEAD
    TO DEATH
3.  LETTERS
4.  MIM GAINS EXPOSURE TO ISLAM
5.  U$ IMPERIALISTS SUBVERT DEMOCRACY IN HAITI
6.  BOSTON POT RALLY: PROGRESSIVE SEEDS THROUGH THE
    INDIVIDUALIST HAZE
7.  PAPER TIGERS
8.  HELP UNLEASH INDEPENDENT BUSINESSES OF THE
    OPPRESSED
9.  MIM VISITS CHICKAHOMINY POW-WOW
10. EXTENSION OF AMERIKAN TROOPS IN BOSNIA EXPOSES
    HYPOCRISY
11. IMPERIALISTS AND MILITARY SPONSOR CASSINI
    DESPITE MILLIONS OF POTENTIAL DEATHS
12. END VIOLENCE AGAINST THE OPPRESSED: WORK WITH
    MIM
13. RENO GETS PEACE AWARD FOR SUPPRESSING YOUTH
14. LAPD ESCALATES THE WAR ON OPPRESSED
15. UNDER LOCK & KEY



* * *



WHAT IS MIM?

The Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM) is a 
revolutionary communist party that upholds 
Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, comprising the collection 
of existing or emerging Maoist internationalist 
parties in the English-speaking imperialist 
countries and their English-speaking internal 
semi-colonies, as well as the existing or emerging 
Spanish-speaking Maoist internationalist parties 
of Aztlan, Puerto Rico and other territories of 
the U.S. Empire. MIM Notes is the newspaper of 
MIM. Notas Rojas is the newspaper of the Spanish-
speaking parties or emerging parties of MIM.

MIM is an internationalist organization that works 
from the vantage point of the Third World 
proletariat; thus, its members are not Amerikans, 
but world citizens.

MIM struggles to end the oppression of all groups 
over other groups: classes, genders, nations.  MIM 
knows this is only possible by building public 
opinion to seize power through armed struggle.

Revolution is a reality for North America as the 
military becomes over-extended in the government's 
attempts to maintain world hegemony.

MIM differs from other communist parties on three 
main questions: (1) MIM holds that after the 
proletariat seizes power in socialist revolution, 
the potential exists for capitalist restoration 
under the leadership of a new bourgeoisie within 
the communist party itself. In the case of the 
USSR, the bourgeoisie seized power after the death 
of Stalin in 1953; in China, it was after Mao's 
death and the overthrow of the "Gang of Four" in 
1976. (2) MIM upholds the Chinese Cultural 
Revolution as the farthest advance of communism in 
human history. (3) MIM believes the North American 
white-working-class is primarily a non-
revolutionary worker-elite at this time; thus, it 
is not the principal vehicle to advance Maoism in 
this country.

MIM accepts people as members who agree on these 
basic principles and accept democratic centralism, 
the system of majority rule, on other questions of 
party line.

"The theory of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin is 
universally applicable. We should regard it not as 
dogma, but as a guide to action. Studying it is 
not merely a matter of learning terms and phrases, 
but of learning Marxism-Leninism as the science of 
revolution."
-- Mao Zedong, Selected Works, Vol. II, p. 208



* * *



15TH PART CONGRESS CONTINUTES CAPITALIST ROAD: 
CHINESE LEADERS RUN FROM SOCIALISM

by MC17

China's 15th Party Congress, which concluded in 
late September, provided more evidence that China 
is no longer a socialist country and instead has 
traveled far down the capitalist road since the 
death of Mao Zedong. Mao might as well have been 
criticizing the members of the current Chinese 
Communist Party when he wrote: "The Marxist 
philosophy of dialectical materialism has two 
outstanding characteristics. One is its class 
nature: it openly avows that dialectical 
materialism is in the service of the proletariat. 
The other is its practicality: it emphasizes the 
dependence of theory on practice, emphasizes that 
theory is based on practice and in turn serves 
practice." (1)
 
This quote illustrates two very important aspects 
of socialist government, two aspects which are not 
seen in the Chinese so-called Communist Party 
today. The first is the service of the proletariat: 
in a country with growing unemployment and 
disparities between the rich and the poor, many 
advances of the revolution are being rolled back in 
the "advances" of capitalism. The second is the 
dependence of theory on practice: as the verbal 
gymnastics from the Party Congress demonstrate, the 
Chinese government is doing all it can to pretend 
to follow the theory of socialism while putting 
into practice capitalism. The theory of socialism 
is fundamentally working in the interests of the 
majority of the people, this is not the practice 
seen in China today.

MIM calls China state capitalist to distinguish it 
from the free market capitalism of many imperialist 
countries. Under state capitalism the economy of a 
country is centrally controlled. But in both forms 
of capitalism a few individuals are getting rich at 
the expense of the majority of the people by 
exploiting the people. With state control this 
exploitation is often hidden under the guise of 
ownership by the people, but taking a close look at 
the economy of China reveals that it has been on 
the capitalist road since the death of Mao. Those 
who defend China as if it were not capitalist look 
more and more foolish as even the so- called 
communists in China admit that they are in fact 
implementing capitalism.(2)


MAKING A MOCKERY OF "SERVE THE PEOPLE"


Mao Zedong wrote, "Our point of departure is to 
serve the people wholeheartedly and never for a 
moment divorce ourselves from the masses, to 
proceed in all cases from the interests of the 
people and not from one's self-interest or from the 
interests of a small group, and to identify our 
responsibility to the people with our 
responsibility to the leading organs of the 
Party."(3)

For a government to truly serve the people it must 
act in the interests of the people. Deng is famous 
for the statement "To get rich is glorious", a 
proclamation that he put into practice when he took 
power in China.

The reforms after Mao's death signaled the end of 
socialist economic planning in favor of capitalist 
competition where a few succeed and get wealthy at 
the expense of the majority. Although China has the 
world's fastest growing economy, it also has huge 
problems: unemployment, corruption, crime, drugs 
and large disparities of wealth between regions. 
Most of the newly affluent are among 200 million 
urban dwellers; there still are a billion rural 
poor. While China under Mao certainly was not 
without economic and social problems, the country 
had succeeded in productively employing the entire 
population, practically eliminated crime and drug 
problems, and was successfully waging a battle 
against abuse of power that involved educating and 
mobilizing the entire population to participate in 
the political activity of the country. The battle 
under socialism was to eliminate economic and 
social problems. Under capitalism China has 
developed more and more of these problems.

In China in 1997, official figures report over 100 
million people for whom there are no jobs. If China 
stopped printing money to support unprofitable 
industries in the bloated state sector, it would 
throw another 150 million people out of work. While 
the per capita income has risen since Deng Xiaoping 
took power, it is important to look at more than 
just average income and also examine the growing 
disparities between rich and poor. Meanwhile, the 
People's Liberation Army (PLA, a branch of the 
government that was devoted to educating and 
organizing the people during the cultural 
revolution) has become a bloated military apparatus 
soaking up subsidies for more than 7,000 military-
run businesses ranging from hotels to 
pharmaceuticals.(4)

China is now moving to eliminate state ownership, 
moving further towards free market capitalism. In 
this move they are opening up the opportunity for 
factory managers to transfer large amounts of state 
assets into their personal control. This should 
clearly reveal who was benefiting from the state 
capitalist system. Related to this "problem" for 
the Chinese government is the question of how to 
compensate new owners and senior managers of 
corporations as they are privatized. The people of 
China learned well from the revolution that the 
workers deserve to earn as much as the managers and 
now the capitalists in power are having a hard time 
coming up with a way to overtly pay off the owners 
and managers without angering the Chinese people. 
(5)


SELLING CHINA TO THE HIGHEST BIDDER


China announced on September 22 that it will cut 
taxes on equipment imported by foreign companies, a 
move designed to attract overseas investment by 
saving multinational companies billions of dollars. 
China hopes to attract investment in high-
technology industries that require billion- dollar 
investments, such as semiconductor plants and 
telecommunications equipment. Motorola Inc. said 
last month it plans to invest $200 million to 
expand a chip plant in China. General Motors is 
building a $1.6 billion auto plant in Shanghai, the 
biggest investment in China by a U.S. company. "Any 
tax break makes a big difference,'' said Tom Dahl, 
finance manager at GE China, which builds power 
plants. "For capital goods, you're talking about 20 
percent.'' (6)

This announcement came only days before U.S. 
Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin was to meet with 
Chinese President Jiang Zemin in Beijing. Rubin was 
going to press Jiang for a decision on an order of 
up to $2 billion worth of Boeing Co. jetliners from 
China. Boeing is planning to buy a stake in an 
aircraft maintenance business in China and its 
McDonnell Douglas unit builds aircraft parts in the 
country. (6)

Opening up China to more and more foreign 
investment is good business for those running the 
Chinese government and those in positions of power 
within the domestic and foreign corporations, but 
it does not mean a better life for the workers of 
China. So many companies are eager to open up shop 
in China because the labor is so cheap. Factories 
are moving out of imperialist countries where the 
bloated working class demands labor aristocracy 
wages and into China where only three years ago the 
workers earned $0.50 per hour.(7)

The liberalization of China's policies towards 
foreign investors comes with the privatization of 
state-run industries. A central theme of the 15th 
Party Congress was endorsing the shift from state 
ownership to a system of share-holding. More than 
10,000 of China's 13,000 large and medium- sized 
state enterprises are likely to be sold, though 
many issues-- like who the buyers will be -- remain 
unclear.(8) A total of about 700 Chinese companies 
have already been listed on China's two stock 
exchanges in Shanghai and Shenzhen, and a handful 
have sold shares in Hong Kong and New York.(5) 
Because privatization is a still a bad word no 
government official will discuss the possibility 
that big-time capitalists will emerge as owners of 
large enterprises, though many economists are 
speculating that this seems inevitable at some 
stage.


RESULTS OF THE PARTY CONGRESS: FAKE LEFT, RUN RIGHT


The formalities of the congress included reelecting 
the General Secretary Jiang Zemin and choosing a 
new larger Politburo with 22 members along with the 
all-powerful seven-person standing committee. There 
were some shifts in power between Jiang supporters 
and Jiang opponents but in the end not much changed 
from the perspective of the international 
proletariat. Just as there is no real difference 
between Bush and Clinton, there is no real 
difference between one form of state capitalism and 
another. Moving faster or slower towards free 
market capitalism will not bring about equality and 
justice for the workers and peasants in China.

Giving up any anti-imperialist rhetoric, Jiang said 
he wants to "join  hands'' with President Clinton 
in building "long-term, stable and healthy 
cooperation into the 21st century.''(4)

Prior to the congress a series of editorials and 
interviews ran in the state- controlled press 
urging China to give up the debate about the merits 
of socialism versus capitalism and instead get on 
with making money. (10) During the congress Jiang 
argued that market reforms are just a Chinese 
variation on socialism. On the last day of the 
congress delegates enshrined Deng Xiaoping's famous 
phrase "socialism with Chinese characteristics" 
into the constitution.(9)

To justify the move away from state ownership, the 
Party that still calls itself communist was forced 
to avoid the word "privatization" and instead 
insist that when ordinary people buy shares of 
stock it is a form of "public ownership."(8) 
Newspaper editorials in the state-run papers denied 
that Jiang was endorsing privatization throughout 
the month of September in an attempt to placate the 
Chinese people who are bound to be alarmed. "The 
share-holding system has nothing to do with 
privatization," said Wang Jiaqiu, vice president of 
the Party School, the news agency reported. "The 
system only provides a method to achieve public 
ownership and will bring no change to the present 
economic structure where public ownership is in the 
leading position."(8)

The capitalist hacks in China can call apples 
oranges if they want, that won't change the fact 
that apples are apples and not oranges. The reality 
of the state-capitalist system in China will cut 
through their lies, and the Chinese workers and 
peasants will once again rise up in resistance to 
those who would exploit and oppress them.

NOTES: 
1. Mao Zedong, On practice, Selected Works, Vol. I, 
p.297 
2. This article does not attempt to document the 
details of the capitalist restoration in China 
after Mao died. Interested readers should check out 
"China Since Mao" by Charles Bettleheim, ""The 
Capitalist Roaders are still on the Capitalist 
Road," or "The Political Economy of the 
Counterrevolution in China." Available from the 
addresses on page 2 for $6, $10, and $10, 
respectively. Make checks out to MIM Distributors. 
3. Mao Zedong, On Coalition Government, Selected 
Works, Vol. III, p.315 
4. Rocky Mountain News, Sep. 2, 1997. 5. New York 
Times, Sep. 17, 1997. 6. Miami Herald, Sep. 23, 
1997. 7. Deng's economic legacy: made in China By 
Martin Crutsinger AP Economics Writer 
8. NYT, Sep. 12, 1997 
9. Sun Times, Sep. 23, 1997. 
10. September 2, 1997 Rocky Mountain News.



* * *



UM CAMPUS POLICE SHOOT BLACK MAN STABBING HIS 
GIRLFRIEND
GENDER AND NATIONAL OPPRESSION LEAD TO DEATH

Early in morning of September 23, a University of 
Michigan Department of Public Safety (UM-DPS) 
officer shot a young Black man twice on the U-M 
campus; the man had been stabbing his girlfriend. 
This was the first time a UM-DPS officer had fired 
a weapon while on duty. Both young people died 
within a few hours while in surgery.(1)

MIM joins both these young people's families and 
communities in grieving for them, and we write 
about this incident as an example of why we 
organize for national self-determination for the 
Black nation, and for a real end to gender 
oppression. As a result of gender oppression, 
romantic partners are responsible for more wimmin's 
murders than any other group; and national 
oppression subjects the Black nation to gun-
wielding white police forces. 

For MIM, national domination of the Black nation by 
white Amerika is principal in this incident. The 
supposed solutions to domestic violence--mandatory 
arrest and sometimes imprisonment, and coaching 
wimmin to get involved with more sensitive men--do 
not work. FBI statistics prove that arrests and 
imprisonment for rape and domestic violence 
disproportionately target Black men. Even the 
domestic violence activists will not openly argue 
that Black men are more prone to violence than 
whites. Yet they join everyone else who does not 
oppose the u.s. criminal justice system in 
supporting the unequal application of domestic 
violence laws. In effect, the domestic violence 
advocates do more to control Black men through the 
criminal justice system, than they do to protect 
wimmin. Because sex is tied up with power in our 
society, getting involved with nice individual men 
is no guarantee for wimmin either. The solution is 
to build a society in which power differentials 
between romantic partners are not considered sexy, 
not to smooth over these power differences with 
sweet talk.


KILLINGS ON THE U-M CAMPUS


The young womyn who died was Tamara Williams, a 20-
year-old college senior who lived with her 2-1/2-
year-old daughter Kiera and her boyfriend, Kevin 
Nelson. Kiera's father had also been killed 
previously by his girlfriend, so Kiera has been 
placed with her maternal grandmother. The DPS 
officer who shot and killed Nelson is on 
administrative leave with pay while the case is 
investigated--this is DPS policy when there has 
been a shooting.

Since the stabbing and shooting, mourners have held 
two candlelight vigils for Williams, one in the 
parking lot near her house where she was killed and 
one in the middle of the U-M campus. The University 
has set up an education fund for Kiera Williams, 
and domestic violence and sexual assault activists 
have been offering their counseling and support 
services both to people who are touched by this 
incident and to those who are dealing with violence 
in their own relationships.(1)

There has been no public mourning of Nelson, 
showing that the majority of public opinion on the 
U-M campus is at best ambivalent about whether 
Nelson was a victim in this or not. In a way, this 
was a dream case for the campus cops: how many 
times do the police murder a Black man only to have 
an organized and supposedly left movement rise up 
to say they did the right thing and should do more 
of it in the future?

Nelson's sister and Williams' mother have both said 
since the stabbing and shooting that two young 
people have lost their lives here.(1) The fact that 
Nelson first murdered his girlfriend should not 
mean that the field is suddenly open for summary 
executions by the police.(see article on this page) 
MIM says that any U.$. police force already has 
enough blood on its hands by its work upholding 
order in a country which carries out overt and 
covert wars internationally and with impunity, 
which pipes drugs into oppressed communities within 
its won borders and which, as the Black Panthers 
said, "occupies the Black community like a foreign 
troop occupies territory."

Drumming up support for racist injustice system
The Michigan Daily printed the statistic that while 
almost half of murdered wimmin are killed by 
spouses or lovers, less than 10 percent of men are 
killed by romantic partners. According to the U.$. 
Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), in 1994, 
"husbands or boyfriends killed 28% of female murder 
victims; wives or girlfriends, 3% of male victims." 
This distorted statistic is often used by domestic 
violence centers and police as an excuse to crack 
down harder on men who are violent with their 
lovers.(2)

As MIM has pointed out in its theory journal Gender 
and Revolutionary Feminism, the Daily and the 
domestic violence experts leave out the fact that 
very similar absolute numbers of men and wimmin are 
killed by their romance partners. But more men are 
murdered than wimmin, so the number killed by 
spouses make up a smaller percentage of the total 
number of men killed each year.(3) The BJS report 
also points out: "Except for rape/sexual assault, 
every violent crime victimization rate for males 
was higher than for females."(2) So men do not 
necessarily kill their romantic partners more than 
wimmin do, men are simply killed in larger numbers 
overall. MIM does not see this statistic as 
sufficient evidence that more men need to be locked 
up.

Falsifying these statistics by telling only half 
the story is good for the domestic violence 
shelters and the cops, because it lends credibility 
to their efforts to criminalize men, Black men in 
particular, for romantic violence. In response to 
these two killings, the police and domestic 
violence experts have agreed that calling the cops 
is the best thing people can do in response to a 
domestic violence problem.(1) But all of these 
calls for more policing rest on two very big, and 
incorrect, assumptions. The first assumption is 
that the laws are applied evenly, meaning that 
given a total number of domestic violence 
situations reported, on average more guilty people 
will be punished and more innocent people will not. 
The second assumption is that punishing more 
perpetrators will work. Both of these assumptions 
are wrong. 

According to the FBI in 1983, 63.3 percent of all 
rape cases faced by Blacks were brought by whites. 
Since the anti-rape activists already agree with us 
that roughly three-quarters of all rapes are by a 
person the victim knows, we should be able to 
assume that profiles of men charged with rape match 
up approximately with profiles of men wimmin date. 
We have no numbers on interracial dating, but we 
know that among Black married men in 1989, four 
percent were married to white wimmin.(3) According 
to the 1990 Census, 93.7 percent of married Blacks 
were married to other Blacks.(4) If we take the 
percentage of Blacks who are married to whites as a 
reflection of the percentage who date whites, and 
we remember that three-quarters of all rapes are by 
someone the victim knows, we would think that the 
percentage of rape accusations Black men face from 
white wimmin would at least be less than ten 
percent if we already assume bias against Black men 
in white wimmin's reporting of rape. But instead of 
four or even 10 percent, 63.3 percent of rape 
accusations against Black men came from white 
wimmin.(3)

Given the gross bias in white wimmin's rape 
accusations, maybe we should be relieved that the 
conviction picture is not quite so hideous. In 
1986, among rape convictions in cases where the 
victim was white, Black men were 22 percent of 
those convicted.(3) All people who support equality 
should be up in arms about this. Even if all 12 
percent of men in the United Snakes who are Black 
were dating white wimmin (and we know this is far 
from true), this number would be disproportionately 
high. Given the bias we know exists in dating, this 
bias in rape convictions is striking. So we know 
that both white wimmin's reporting and the court 
system's response to rape charges against Black men 
puts Black men in prison far more often than white 
men committing the same crimes. For MIM, this would 
be enough to say that those people wanting a real 
end to domestic violence and rape should not be 
calling on the police and the courts for help, 
unless in their efforts to end violence against 
wimmin they are willing to perpetrate violence 
against the Black nation.

We also know, direct from the Ann Arbor, Michigan 
police, that mandatory arrest laws for batterers do 
not make a difference in the rate of continued 
battering. From statistics kept by the Ann Arbor 
Police Department in 1987, out of 104 arrests of 
batterers, 15 went on to batter their victims 
again, while among 130 batterers who were not 
arrested, 18 battered the same victim again.(3) In 
other words, arresting batterers made no difference 
in whether the violence continued or not. So we are 
not even talking about an approach which 
discriminates grossly against Blacks and works half 
the time. We already know that the criminal justice 
system is biased against Blacks and now, by the Ann 
Arbor police's own accounting, arresting 
perpetrators of domestic violence makes no 
difference to the outcome of continuing or ending 
domestic violence.


STUDENTS WERE CORRECT TO OPPOSE CAMPUS COPS


In 1990, a student movement on the U-M campus 
responded to the state legislature's passage of a 
law which allowed deputization and gun-carrying for 
Michigan campus police forces. The students raised 
the possibility that deputized campus cops would 
cause unnecessary killings and that is exactly what 
happened. Did that cop save Tamara Williams' life? 
No, he only managed to deprive another Black man of 
living out his own life.

MIM did have some disagreements with the student 
movement against deputization, but overall we 
remember it as a very correct period in mass campus 
organizing, when students were more mobilized 
against increased police activity than they were 
about anything else. While the students incorrectly 
raised some side issues like the possibility of 
"trigger happy deputies," they were overall correct 
in opposing the presence of more cops.(1) MIM does 
not bring up the possibility of "trigger happy 
deputies" because we don't believe one cop with a 
gun is necessarily worse than any other cop with a 
gun.

MIM opposes any increase in any police force which 
is not controlled by the people. In Amerika this 
means we oppose all police at this time because all 
police work within the criminal injustice system 
which exercises tremendous repression against 
Blacks, Latinos and First Nations. Tamara Williams' 
own mother said after the two killings that "two 
young lives have been stamped out for nothing," she 
did not restrict her grieving to her own 
daughter.(1) It is awful enough that one young 
womyn died at the hands of her boyfriend, there was 
no reason for the police to add her boyfriend's 
death to that night.

NOTES: 
1. The Michigan Daily 24, 25, 26, 29 September 
1997; The Ann Arbor News 23 September 1997. 
2. National Crime Victimization Survey, 
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/pub/bjs/ascii/cvius94.txt 
3. MIM Theory 2&3: Gender and Revolutionary 
Feminism; order a copy from the address on page 2 
for $6. 
4. Reynolds Farlye, ed., ITAL State of the Union, 
Vol 2 END, Russell Sage, New York 1995. p. 166.



* * *



LETTERS

ANTI-IMPERIALIST STUDENT BREAKS WITH ISO, SUPPORTS 
MIM AND RAIL

Dear MIM,

School started and it's going fine. . . the ISO is 
big on campus, but I've helped get a handful of 
people to drop their membership - - I'm working 
with a campus group, the Student Solidarity Network 
- - they're big on Imperialism and I'm helping to 
run their program "Liberation Classes" where we 
study injustice, methods of action and hidden 
history etc. . . 

When I told the ISO I wouldn't join because of 
political differences, they asked me why so we had 
a conversation. . . this woman said that "even 
bourgeois economists agree that American workers 
are the most exploited in the world." She went on 
to say how bad it is for American workers when a 
company moves operations to the third world. By her 
logic, of course, the company would then pay the 
third world workers MORE than the Americans - - not 
one tenth. Not that you don't know this, just that 
it's another good example of the ISO's ineffective 
path of action. . .

I hate to say it but I'm way behind on the 
distribution. I need a new list of places to 
distribute, my list got lost in the move. I don't 
want these papers to go to waste. I'll really push 
to get the papers out.

Keep in touch

--a comrade in the east

MIM RESPONDS: We're happy to see that this comrade 
understands the importance of anti-imperialism as a 
dividing line question when deciding who to 
organize with. The ISO is not anti-imperialist: 
organizing white people in Amerika for a bigger 
piece of the pie while telling these workers they 
are more exploited and more productive than any 
other workers amounts to organizing for national 
chauvinism. (For more in- depth reading on this see 
MIM Theory 1 and 10 available for $3 and $6 
respectively). 

The most effective anti-imperialist organizing and 
revolutionary action has been led by communist 
parties and because of this we'd argue that 
regardless of where you are organizing, the best 
possible work that you can do is working with RAIL. 
Even if there is no RAIL branch in your city, we 
can help people set up and build revolutionary 
anti-imperialist groups that are part of a 
continental organization. This comrade is doing 
important work getting out MIM Notes in his/her 
city and this is one part of working with RAIL and 
MIM. If you are reading this paper and agree that 
it is an important educational and organizing tool, 
you too should become a MIM Notes distributor. 
Write to us at the address on page 2 for 
information on how to get started.


POETIC JUSTICE

Poetic Justice would be a career cop going to 
prison among the masses of innocent people who have 
been brutalized by him and his fellow pigs.

Poetic justice would be watching the governor have 
a 17 car accident with a gasoline truck that has 
just been struck by a match wagon.

These are dreams of poetic justice. The type that 
are worthy of good morality plays But here is some 
poetic justice that really happened. This kind of 
poetic justice bears laughing at and shows the 
potential of the masses to fight against oppression 
and ultimately to make revolution:

M. Pookie, who is one of my relatives, and by 
choice a lesbian, had been harassed by a certain 
pig on several occasions. After the seventh or 
eighth time, she finally told him; "If I catch you 
without your badge, I'll get with you!" (Meaning 
they would fight).

When she saw him at a local store while off-duty, 
she told him it was on. Pookie put her bags down 
and released her hostility. I've never seen 
something happen so fast. It was almost as fast as 
getting in the car and leaving. She proceeded to 
kick his ass, throw him over a car and a half, drop 
kick him and also ask him, "what have you done for 
me lately?" He was so ashamed that he left. No 
police friends to help.

The pig was sorry he was by himself without a 
badge. But I doubt if he was sorry about harassing 
people because of their skin color or sexual 
preference. Mind you, these people (pigs), are the 
same people you see at the store while out of 
uniform. They may ask you a polite question about a 
lost dog or stray cat. They'll amuse with, "I'm no 
different, I bleed just like you do". But when they 
have that badge on, you are an under-class person.

These pigs who sport on the side of their cars, 
(that we pay for), TO PROTECT AND SERVE', which 
only means to protect and serve capitalist 
interests--including the capitalists and their 
lackeys--victimize and brutalize the poor, the 
Blacks, Latinos, First Nation people because they 
are expendable.

But on the lighter side, you could imagine the 
poetic justice which I witnessed that day! Normally 
he would have had his friends and their badges to 
protect them.

The trees may kiss the winds so high The flowers 
may kiss the butterfly The wine may kiss the 
sparkling glass But all policemen can kiss my ass!

MIM notes: Individual acts of justice such as the 
one described above will continue as long as the 
police occupy oppressed nation communities like a 
foreign troop occupies territory. But such 
individual acts of resistance will not stop police 
brutality. It is a cold hard truth that at the 
current stage of the struggle there is little 
stopping this pig from harassing our friend 
tomorrow when he has his badge on again. As long as 
the oppressed nations have no armed bodies (police) 
which they themselves control, the existing police 
and other military forces can have their way.

MIM organizes the righteous indignation of the 
masses in order to build anti-imperialist and 
socialist revolution. This revolution will smash 
all the present state structures and their 
institutions: military, police, courts, etc. and 
replace them with proletarian institutions which 
will truly serve and protect the masses while 
repressing the present capitalist rulers and their 
lackeys. Karl Marx said it best: "The point, 
however, is to change it!" To help us build anti-
imperialist and socialist revolution work with and 
join MIM or RAIL.



* * *



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page. Make checks and money orders out to MIM 
Distributors.



* * *



MIM GAINS EXPOSURE TO ISLAM

RICHMOND, VIRGINIA--The Muslim Cultural Committee 
(804-644- 5360) and Muslim Student Association of 
Virginia Commonwealth University put on a talk 
September 25th titled, "New Afrika: A Renewed 
Vision in the Tradition of America's Multiethnic 
Foundation." The speaker was an emissary from Imam 
W. Deen Mohammed, who is the son of the same Elijah 
Muhammad, who recruited Malcolm X. 

The crowd of 50 people gave a friendly reception to 
an informative talk that outlined the differences 
of the mainline Muslim organization of Amerika with 
others working against national oppression. The 
public knows Louis Farrakhan, but Imam W. Deen 
Mohammed's organization is separate from 
Farrakhan's and does not consider Farrakhan's group 
Muslim at all. Richmond's Islamic community had 
Farrakhan speak in August and now Imam W. D. 
Mohammed is coming October 26th. The self-described 
"Muslim Americans" believe that Imam W. Deen 
Mohammed has been in charge of the largest 
conversion of people to Islam in history, in the 
years 1975 to 1980. In the last two years, he has 
been gaining stature in the Islamic global 
community and has been meeting with heads of state 
and the Pope to build up momentum for his movement. 

MIM is mostly in unity with the speech of the Imam 
emissary, because it dwelt mainly on practical 
issues facing the Black nation--the need for New 
Afrikan police, New Afrikan community control, 
opposition to drugs including alcohol and 
development through struggle against adversity. At 
the end, MIM challenged the speaker to explain how 
his philosophy was any different than atheism. The 
speaker had said Allah and the prophet wanted us to 
fight for justice with "the means at hand," just as 
a materialist-atheist would and just as Lenin and 
Mao urged against the ultraleft. He also said, "God 
doesn't give us any ideas that aren't based in our 
reality, that can't be achieved in our reality." He 
said that even dreams come from something in 
reality, which is something we could have read 
right out of Lenin's philosophical essays. 

Whether any Muslim knows it or not, these are not 
religious ideas. These are materialist ideas that 
have developed over the centuries to their present-
day scientific level. MIM's only difference with 
the Muslim speaker in this area is that we do not 
believe in a "destiny for the soul," but he did not 
dwell on that subject except to say that what some 
people call "human capital" is what he calls 
"characteristics of the soul." The speaker upheld 
the goal of progress and explained a dialectical 
metaphor on the growth of seeds while being 
oppressed or packed down under soil. He went so far 
as to say that the Muslim leaders of West Africa 
turned a blind eye or assisted the slave trade with 
the thinking that they could not resist the 
military power of the Europeans, so perhaps they 
would develop through adversity by going along with 
the Europeans. The Imam cited passages from the 
Koran to back this line of reasoning. 

Backing a materialist interpretation again, the 
Muslim speaker replied to a member of the audience 
that the Prophet believed the people who feed a 
religious man are superior to the religious man who 
does nothing but pray. 

A most admirable aspect of Imam W. D. Mohammed's 
brand of Islam aside from its appeal to progress is 
that it is firmly internationalist. The speaker and 
supporters spoke of Muslim internationalism, in 
which unity is the main aspect amongst Muslims. The 
emissary spoke admiringly of the Jews for having 
risen from oppression and convinced the world of 
their worthiness. He also made a point of speaking 
well of Koreans and other immigrants who set up 
shop in the Black community: "I salute them." Then 
he asked the audience to realize that Africa should 
not be going to Europe for economic aid, because it 
should be getting that aid from its "children" in 
America. We too at MIM believe in reparations to 
Africa. This demand of the "mainstream" Black 
Muslims is proof that the Black bourgeoisie and 
petty-bourgeoisie still has a progressive role to 
play--much more progressive than that of the labor 
bureaucrats and Trotskyists who resist the correct 
analysis of parasitism and reparations and even do 
so in the name of Marxism. 

On the same note, the speaker distanced himself 
from the ideas of certain professors putting 
forward biological theories of Black superiority 
and historical mythologies of African achievements. 
As always, the speaker did not name any names and 
used cautious language--in one instance referring 
to the colonial genocide of the First Nations 
peoples as "distasteful." Saying something that MIM 
has also had to repeat in the face of subjectivism 
including narrow nationalism, the Imam said, "all 
human-beings can recognize the truth. . . The 
simple truths are accessible to anyone. It doesn't 
matter who you are." Such is another fundamental 
cornerstone of science and also internationalism. 
He castigated the crowd if it would follow those 
seeking "Black superiority" explanations: "Why do 
you need mythology?" According to the spokespersyn, 
the whole point is that people should feel some 
self- worth and believe in their own capacity for 
development and the speaker says that for thousands 
of years that has been the belief of Muslims about 
all peoples as the creation of God. MIM would say 
we didn't need God or a 2000 year-old book to know 
that all the various peoples have potential. We 
materialist-scientists see it in real life. 

Our most concrete difference with the Imam W. Deen 
Mohammed's school of thought appears to be that it 
believes "unwarranted attention" goes to prisoners. 
We were urged to "concentrate on the living" and 
keep Black children out of prison by building "New 
Afrika." In general, the one way in which religious 
idealism showed up in the speech was that the 
speaker went so far as to call for an end to the 
struggle against red- lining in Richmond, "because 
we are as free as the persyn red-lining the 
district." So overall we would say there was some 
unwillingness to face the realities of systematic 
power. Ultimately it is that incorrect analysis of 
power that leads this organization to call itself 
"Muslim American" while seeking a "New Afrika" 
explicitly patterned after "New England" and "New 
York" etc. A good antidote would be a visit to the 
Seneca and Mohawk territories, where there are 
budding police forces already. The Imam would find 
that the white man resists the role of these police 
forces and seeks jurisdiction for himself, contrary 
to the image presented by the Imam of an easily-
accepted Black nationalism in white Amerika 
complete with "New Afrika" squad cars. 

Mao would have called this brand of Islam 
"capitulationist" in that it considers it "wisdom" 
for the Black man not to "confront" the white man 
the way the Indians did. This shows in the explicit 
defense of not just W.E.B. DuBois but also his 
nemesis Booker T. Washington. While we agree that 
radicalism easily veers into "empty talk," we would 
not be emphasizing Booker T. Washington and George 
Washington Carver, the accomplished scientist, as 
much as the Muslim American spokespersyn does. 
Booker T. Washington did not just promote 
scientific learning and self-cultivation: he 
explicitly opposed Blacks' learning various skills 
needed for power. 

On the whole, we see in Black Islam all the 
contradictions of the Black bourgeoisie--one minute 
showcasing the desire to be on an equal footing 
with the bourgeoisie of other countries, as 
demonstrated by repeated video showings of Black 
Muslims being put up in four star hotels and being 
greeted in posh receptions by heads of state and 
Islam--and in another moment posing smiling in 
front of a large poster of Malcolm X or making 
positive references to DuBois. This is the fine 
line walked by today's "Muslim Americans." We 
believe our futures are linked together in this 
stage of struggle between oppressed nations and 
imperialism.



* * *



U$ IMPERIALISTS SUBVERT DEMOCRACY IN HAITI

On September 30, radical anarchist academic Noam 
Chomsky and Haitian Open Gate Senator Renaud 
Bernadin participated in a panel discussion about 
Haiti's current crisis. They both emphasized that 
the so-called U$ "restoration of democracy" was 
instead military coercion to place Haiti under U$ 
neo-colonial rule.

The Open Gate Party was founded during the recent 
CIA-backed military regime. This regime had ousted 
popularly elected President Bertrand Aristide, 
leader of the Lavalas movement. While Aristide was 
in exile, Lavalas was banned. In its absence, 
organizers secretly gathered and created the Pati 
Louvri Barye, (Open Gate Party). Aristide's 
successor, Rene Preval, supports U$/IMF policies 
rather than those of the original Lavalas. The Open 
Gate Party continues to operate under the broad 
umbrella of Lavalas while criticizing Preval's 
policies.

Bernadin pointed out that no country has ever 
reached self-sufficiency through the policies that 
the IMF/U$ is pushing on Haiti. All currently 
prosperous countries have either relied on colonies 
to provide the initial wealth for 
industrialization, or on heavy state intervention, 
or both. Neo-liberalism is bringing Haiti few 
benefits, and all of those come at a heavy human 
cost.

Bernadin cautioned against making the current 
structural crisis in Haiti a battle of 
personalities. The argument should instead be 
around concrete policies. Aristide is neither a 
saint nor a demon, but must be criticized when he 
supports the IMF policies. Similarly, Preval need 
not step down, he need only change his policies 
from IMF-tailing to his original pro-Haitian 
program. Most importantly, the U$ military must 
leave. Both Chomsky and Bernadin told of the 
history of the last few years in Haiti much the way 
MIM has seen it. Both agree that after the U$ 
military intervention, the so-called "restoration 
of democracy," there has not been an increase in 
democracy. While the whole-scale slaughter by the 
formerly CIA-backed military has subsided, the mass 
hunger has only increased.

Chomsky drew attention to the fact of U$ support 
for the coup all along, pointing out that it let 
the military stay in power for years before 
"returning" the elected president Aristide. 
According to Human Rights Watch, there is evidence 
of U$ support for the anti-Aristide coup in more 
than 160,000 pages of documents confiscated by the 
amerikan military, but the U$ is hiding this 
evidence. Chomsky also pointed out that -- even 
though there was supposedly an embargo on the coup 
regime -- the U$ gave Texaco special permission to 
keep the oil flowing to the dictators.

Chomsky described the election of Aristide the 
"first and only genuine election ever in Haiti," 
but described Aristide's so-called restoration a 
restoration of the pro-U$ elite. The crash-course 
in "democracy" that the U$ subjected Aristide to 
before returning him reveals of the U$ definition 
of democracy. He was told that the rich elite 
should be fundamental to his government, and that 
there should be no subsidies on foods for the 
Haitian masses, because "price controls" are 
supposedly "undemocratic."

Chomsky pointed out that the U$ heavily subsidizes 
its own agricultural products, while not allowing 
Haiti to do the same. Thus Haiti, once the fertile 
land that helped France become rich in the first 
place, imports subsidized U$ rice instead of 
feeding itself.
The price for the U$ "restoration" of Aristide was 
the undoing of Aristide's pro-people program. In 
Chomsky's words: "Democracy has been restored by 
doing away with democracy and replacing it" with a 
U$-friendly regime. 



* * *



SUBMIT REVOLUTIONARY AGITATION!

So MIM Notes didn't cover a case of imperialist 
plundering, settler nation domination or struggle 
of the masses to build self-reliant power? Well, 
what are you waiting for? Send your article 
submissions to us so that we can better serve the 
needs of the oppressed in getting out news that is 
not censored by the main stream media. Send article 
submissions to the address on page two or to our 
new address: mneditor@mim.org



* * *



BOSTON POT RALLY: PROGRESSIVE SEEDS THROUGH THE 
INDIVIDUALIST HAZE

Boston, 20 September--The 8th Annual Freedom Rally, 
a big rally for the legalization of marijuana was 
held on the Boston Common attracting tens of 
thousands of people. MIM and RAIL went to this 
event to for two reasons. First, within the white 
nation, youth are the most alienated group and the 
most likely to want to break away from the 
imperialist system. Secondly, while the struggle to 
legalize marijuana is a struggle mired in decadent 
individualism, it is often openly anti-cop and 
anti- justice system. The criminal injustice system 
is the main weapon of repression against the 
internal colonies here in North America, and so 
allies, however shaky, are valuable in this anti-
imperialist struggle to reduce and eventually 
eliminate the power of the criminal injustice 
system.

At the rally MIM and RAIL met many interesting 
people and made some allies, including the 
relatives of a prisoner deported to Texas. Others 
were not sympathetic to the plight of prisoners. 
Some people defended the Amerikan prison system by 
parroting the usual reactionary lies, such as 
"prisoners deserve what they get." Some people at 
the rally were clearly not interested in any sort 
of politics.

One early speaker at the rally referred to the 
recent case reported in MIM Notes where U.S. 
Marines doing drug interdiction work shot and 
killed a young goatherder. The speaker said that in 
this case the drug war has two more innocent 
victims: the goatherder and the Marine. The Marine 
is most defiantly not an innocent victim. As MIM 
Notes wrote, the Marine was not charged with 
murder, despite evidence that the goatherder was no 
threat to the Marines, that the Marines did not 
give first aid and waited to call for help, and 
that the Marines lied about what happened. The MIM 
distributor pointed out to nearby masses what 
really happened, and the masses responded with 
outrage.

Much of the pot legalization movement uses 
opportunist tactics and history to try and unite 
everyone behind legalizing pot. This often leads to 
patriotic, pro-state and pro-repression arguments. 
Arguing that the U.$. Marines serve a good purpose 
except when they help the Drug Enforcement Agency 
is just another form of pro-Amerika organizing. 

Some harder drugs are clearly harmful, but softer 
drugs like pot are debatably safer than legal drugs 
like cigarettes and alcohol. MIM supports the 
decriminalization of marijuana because the Amerikan 
war on drugs is actually a war on the oppressed 
nations. Decriminalizing pot would remove a weapon 
in Amerika's war on the oppressed nations, although 
they would come up with other mechanisms to bust 
heads. 

MIM disagrees with the argument that pot is a tool 
for raising consciousness, which is common among 
those who are actively promoting the legalization 
of marijuana. Under the current system, MIM 
discourages pot smoking because it is illegal and 
can give the pigs a useful way to crack down on 
revolutionaries. 

MIM doesn't get involved in picking one legal 
leisure time activity over another. All other 
things being equal, there is nothing better or 
worse about smoking pot than drinking beer or 
watching TV. MIM does encourage people to spend as 
little time on leisure as possible and instead put 
that time into revolutionizing the world to make it 
better for everyone. Under the later stages of 
socialism and then in communism, there will be 
little need or desire for escapist chemicals 
because societal alienation will be removed. When 
the distinction between "work" and "play" no longer 
exists, the people will be firmly united behind 
improving the common good.



* * *



PAPER TIGERS

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

* * 

RICHMOND LACKEYS OF THE PROPERTIED CLASSES BACK 
DOWN

RICHMOND, VIRGINIA--Vicious anti-social 
individualism of the particularly Amerikan sort 
raised its ugly head in Richmond on July 28, but 
the oppressed nation masses fought back and won in 
September. We are referring to a City Council 
ordinance passed with regard to homelessness. This 
law belongs in the museums that will be constructed 
on the history of capitalism. 

"The ordinance restricts to 30 the number of 
homeless people the churches can feed and requires 
churches to pay $1,000 to apply for a special use 
permit to feed more than 30 homeless people." 

The City Council members had a bad case of the bug 
called settlerism, a twisted sense of values. They 
thought they were serving their capitalist masters 
well by prettifying Richmond and sweeping 
homelessness under the rug. 

The same kind of settler attitudes hold that 
property values go down by having poor people 
around. Hence, the City Council law was a struggle 
of the bourgeoisie and petty-bourgeoisie against 
the lumpenproletariat, the people on the absolute 
bottom of U.$. society. The same kind of reasoning 
holds that protests and flyers are "eyesores" that 
should also be restricted by local police. 

It took a while for this to sink in with the area 
Christians. Some local government leaders and 
journalists started to criticize the churches for 
taking the July 28 ordinance lying down. Finally 
the churches erupted and a mostly Black audience of 
600 watched as their clergy took the City Council 
to task and received an apology from the mayor, 
Larry E. Chavis. 

Black churches are very strong in the South and the 
City Council was taking them on directly. In many 
areas of the country, it would be white Christians 
taking the lead in putting forward blame-the-
individual- for- homelessness ideology. However, 
the case of the Richmond Christians and 
homelessness shows that religion does not shape 
material reality, but rather the other way around. 
Oppressed nation Christians are not the same as 
other Christians. 

SOURCE: Richmond Free Press 11-13Sept97, p. 1, a9. 

* * 

"ASIAN-AMERICANS" ORGANIZE AGAINST WHITES-ONLY 
RULING-CLASS

The United $tates finally has a chance at campaign 
reform, and even limiting the spending of the rich 
in elections. The reason is that given the choice 
between racism and purer capitalism, the dominant 
nation often chooses racism. Thanks to Asians who 
donated money to Democrats, now the whole country 
is glued to the issue of how much money gets spent 
in campaigns. 

We communists have always said that European 
democracy is majority rule of the rich and white 
over the rest of the world. It is phony majority 
rule. Now that some Asian millionaires are trying 
to buy or rent the U.$. politicians too, some 
people are taking notice. 

Indonesians and Chinese behind donations to the 
Democratic National Committee are in the news. In 
response some U.$. citizens with Asian ethnic 
background are complaining that the politicians are 
targeting them and not just the non-citizens. 

Led by former Los Angeles City Councilpersyn 
Michael Woo, who is a toy manufacturer, the Asian- 
descended citizens have pointed to the remarks of 
various Senators as going well beyond concern about 
foreign lobbying.

Senator Pete Domenici, R-N.M. said, "'I don't 
believe there's any Asia bashing. . . . We ought to 
get on with immunizing these little nuns and monks, 
so we aren't worried about discriminating against 
them.'" 

Senator Sam Brownback, R-Kansas, said, "'no raise 
money, no make bonus.'" 

Senator Robert Bennett, R-Utah, said, "'In my 
opinion, Mr. Trie's activities are classic 
activities on the part of an Asian who comes from 
out of that culture and who embarks on an activity 
relating to intelligence gathering.'" 

Source: Los Angeles Times/Washington Post News 
Service in Richmond Times-Dispatch 13Sept97, a2. 

* * 

AMERIKKKAN COURT RULES CONFEDERATE FLAGS ARE A MUST

On September 11, North Carolina Judge Donald 
Stephens ruled that the Department of Motor 
Vehicles must provide Confederate Flag license- 
plates to those who request them. At least 300 
members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans 
requested the license-plates. 

A similar case in Maryland resulted in a federal 
court's ruling that the license-plates are a must 
there too, in the name of free-speech. 

On the bright side, we communists should use the 
same legal principle to get our literature into 
public libraries. The government including public 
librarians and public university administrators is 
not allowed to choose what taxpayers read in their 
libraries and universities, so they cannot stop our 
making donations. 

SOURCE: Daily Press 13Sept97, p. a5. 

* *

SETTLERS SYMPATHIZE WITH NAZISM

Who says the masses are apathetic? While the 
crackers in the South are organizing for their 
right to keep fighting the North over the U.$. 
Civil War, the crackers in the West are actively 
organizing to refer to indigenous people as 
"savages." 

The use of offensive sports mascots is universal 
across the continent, but the people of Wallowa 
Valley in Oregon stand out: a school board retired 
the name "Savages" for their high school mascot and 
then faced angry residents with 500 names on a 
petition to restore the name. The school board 
recognized the complaints of the Nez Perce Tribe 
and then reversed itself under pressure from the 
crackers. Until recent years, Wallowa Valley had 
none of the original Indians who lived there while 
selling itself as a tourist attraction for Nez 
Perce history. When some Nez Perce returned to 
their land, the crackers organized the "Savages" 
drive of August. 

For us at MIM, it gets to be easy to see that a 
certain portion of the white nation would have been 
with Hitler if they had had the chance. We can also 
see why Stalin decided to shoot some people before 
they could support his invasion of the Soviet 
Union.

SOURCE: News from Indian Country, Mid-Sept97, p. 
15a. Rt. 2 Box 2900-A, Hayward, WI 54843

* *

WHITE MAN RESISTS SELF-DETERMINATION IN NEW YORK

As MIM has reported before, certain tribes are 
making progress toward formation of their own 
police forces and tribal leaders should not be 
attacked by anarchists and other ultraleftists 
merely for having their own police forces. The 
Oneida Nation surrounded by New York State are a 
case in point. 

Although the Oneida police mostly have training on 
New York police forces, the local government 
leaders of Sherrill and Vernon are opposing the 
"Oneida National Police Bill," which Governor 
Pataki has the opportunity to sign. 

Mayor Dwight Evans of Sherrill wants New York taxes 
imposed on the Oneida and says the Oneida police do 
not and will not enforce the New York sales tax. 

MIM says good for those Oneida police. 

SOURCE: News from Indian Country Mid-Sept97, p. 3a. 
Rt. 2 Box 2900- A, Hayward, WI 54843

* *

FEDERAL PIGS RECRUIT FIRST NATIONS TRAITORS AT 
POWWOWS

by a First Nation ally

Recently the FBI, CIA and Secret Service issued a 
cordial invitation for members of First Nations to 
become active participants in the genocide of their 
peoples via a recruiting campaign in First Nation 
news media and powwows.

Visitors at the information tent during this year's 
Quinnehtukqut Rendezvous and Native American 
Festival held in territory known as Haddam, 
Connecticut were confronted with a flashy FBI 
information table manned by a First Nation FBI 
agent handing out expensive brochures with 
politically correct pictures of the major oppressed 
nationality groups. The captions underneath each 
picture were careful to stress that a career with 
the FBI will yield the height of personal 
satisfaction through valuable community service. 

I walked away from the table feeling deeply 
enlightened about COINTELPRO(1) and the murder 
and/or imprisonment of hundreds of peace activists, 
Black Panthers, AIMsters, and Brown Berets. 
Community service! Yes folks, if you like to kill, 
steal, lie, cheat, rape, maim, you no longer have 
to worry about a prison sentence. Just join the FBI 
or CIA and call your nasty habits "community 
service." They'll even pay you.

NOTE: 1. COINTELPRO, or COunter INTELigence PROgram 
was the FBI's undeclared war against the Black 
Panthers, Brown Berets, AIM and other activists. 
For more information see Agents of Repression, 
available for $16 from MIM.


* * *


HELP UNLEASH INDEPENDENT BUSINESSES OF THE 
OPPRESSED

Writing, editing, distributing media, protesting, 
debating and holding talks--no one doubts that a 
revolutionary movement must do these. Yet Mao 
taught us that leadership and participation are 
possible in an infinite number of areas, including 
finance, where there is a science to carrying out 
people's finance for inevitable victory.

The people can build their own business 
institutions and do so with greater foresight and 
social cooperation than the imperialists can. In 
fact, some of the masses and comrades will 
specialize in making just such business 
contributions to the revolution, which is in line 
with the fact that there are an infinite number of 
possibilities for doing successful revolutionary 
work, one winning battle at a time. 

Even for those not on the front-lines of armed 
struggle there is never an excuse for not carrying 
out the most exceptional work. Contact MIM to learn 
how to help build independent business institutions 
of the oppressed with no financial loss to 
yourself. Those of us not dodging bullets can still 
make a contribution to the cause of the 
international proletariat without sweating bullets. 
Even greater contributions are possible from those 
willing to take small risks compared with the 
comrades in Peru, Turkey, India and the Philippines 
putting their lives on the line for revolution 
every day.



* * *



MIM VISITS CHICKAHOMINY POW-WOW

On September 27-28, the Chickahominy Indian Tribe 
held its 46th annual pow-wow on territory a few 
miles east of Richmond, Virginia. MIM attended to 
learn the concerns of the First Nations peoples of 
the region. 

The burden of history weighs heavily on area 
natives. The biggest tourist attraction in the area 
is the Civil War museums and Pocahontas comes in 
second. 


POCAHONTAS


Although some neighbors of the Chickahominy, the 
Mattaponi, came to the pow-wow, we were happy to 
see that there was no evidence of any of the 
Pocahontas industry. There were no Pocahontas dolls 
for sale that we saw. 

Pocahontas was the daughter of the leader of a 
remarkable alliance of area natives named Powhaten. 
The English killed most of the peoples of the 
Powhaten confederacy, and the issue of 
accommodation to Euro- Amerikan power is still with 
the Indians of the 1997 pow-wow.


VIETNAM WAR


Dressed with fatigues and carrying weapons, the 
Vietnam Veterans performed a ceremony in the dance 
circle of the pow-wow. The announcer said quite 
bluntly that the veterans served in Vietnam and 
previous wars, "so we can preserve our culture." 
Thus, the Chickahominy, who have no territory in 
their possession at the moment, see serving in the 
U.$. military as a means of proving patriotism and 
gaining the approval of the white nation 
oppressors. 

In reference to the general idea of accommodation, 
one young member of the Mattaponi told MIM that 
there were two things accounting for this spirit of 
accommodation. "You are in the South." By that he 
meant that the people of the South are more 
patriotic and thus to accommodate to the white man, 
the Indians also had to be patriotic. The people of 
the South themselves bear the burden of the Civil 
War history and in some sense overshoot with their 
patriotism as if to make up for previous blows 
against the Union known as the United States. 

The young Mattaponi trader also said that older 
natives in the area tended to believe that if they 
lie low enough, "they will leave us alone," because 
otherwise, the white nation "will want something" 
[from them]. 

We spoke with a Vietnam Veteran who had obviously 
assimilated the white man's politico-military 
views. Since the 1980s, the right-wing has 
generated the belief that the U.$. government did 
not want to win the Vietnam war, instead of 
admitting that the U.$. military was killing 
millions of people and that "winning" would have 
meant the total extermination of the Vietnamese 
population. Ronald Reagan was the chief proponent 
of this lie. The native Vietnam Veteran we 
interviewed concurred with Reagan's beliefs and 
said, "governments will be governments." He said, 
"at the time we were fighting for the freedom" of 
another people.

MIM believes that oppressed nations people should 
obtain military training, possibly in the white 
man's army. However, it is a different matter when 
it comes to killing peoples of other oppressed 
nations. It makes no sense to strive to be U.$. 
imperialism's lackeys.


SOVEREIGNTY


Not surprisingly, the patriotic accommodation to 
U.$. imperialism by the assimilated Chickahominy 
leaves little room for First Nation nationalism. 
There were no signs of any political initiative of 
any kind at the pow-wow. 

Even traders from the Cherokee Nation selling 
Cherokee Nation paraphernalia linked that trade to 
the split within the Cherokee people into two 
regions, not to sovereignty via the white man. 

However, we spoke to one Haliwa-Saponi trader who 
said he was "sorry to say" there is no sovereignty 
movement in the area known as Virginia and North 
Carolina. He pointed out that the natives in the 
region do pay property taxes, sales taxes and even 
hunting and fishing license fees despite treaties 
to the contrary. He was also considerably miffed 
that Virginia does not even have a category for 
Indians in some of its government paperwork. When 
Virginia police arrest Indians, they label them 
white for their paperwork. "It's another way of 
annihilating a race."

Speaking of the Iroqois and the movements further 
north for sovereignty, the Haliwa-Saponi man said 
that "we're close friends with them . . . even 
unofficially they know we are a kindred people. 
When we hear about them fighting (amongst 
themselves), it bothers us, because we love them." 
He added that the Iroqois should balance economic 
development with tradition and not squelch one or 
the other, because "you can have both." 

A Mattaponi trader added that another difference is 
that many of the area tribes do not have any or 
sufficient land to defend as a compact unit against 
the white man and this results in a decrease in 
sovereignty aspirations. 


KING WILLIAM COUNTY RESERVOIR


The clearest demand MIM heard voiced concerned a 
project to build a reservoir in King William 
County. The city of Newport News led by mayor Joe 
Frank wants to build a reservoir three miles from a 
very small Mattaponi territory in need of 
expansion. 

The reservoir would flood land with over 300 
archeological excavation sites of the indigenous 
people. At the same time, the diversion of water 
would result in the flooding of saltwater into 
freshwater areas causing a brackish water to 
replace a freshwater environment. Since Newport 
News is a city on the ocean, it can pay for a 
desalinization plant for its water supply and has 
no need of the reservoir. 

On January 10, 1997, Frank met with the Mattaponi 
and on February 27, he met with representatives of 
the Pamunkey people. He is apparently still under 
the impression that his project is going ahead 
smoothly. Newport News has bought the necessities 
for a pump station and it points out that the 
public comment period ended July 16, so that the 
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers can give the project a 
go-ahead. 

The latest news is that there will be another 
environmental impact study.



* * *



TOO BUSY TO STUDY MAO? BUSIER THAN THE COMMUNIST 
PARTY OF PHILIPPINES IN 1976?

"The reestablishment of the Communist Party of the 
Philippines on the theoretical foundation of 
Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought constitutes a 
victory of profound and far-reaching significance 
in the Philippines revolution...

"We have disseminated the works and propagated the 
scientific revolutionary teachings of Marx, Engels, 
Lenin, Stalin, and Mao and we have successfully 
criticized and repudiated Soviet modern revisionism 
and social-imperialism. Chairman Mao's works have 
been widely circulated because they not only deal 
correctly and elaborately with the problem's of a 
people's democratic revolution in a semifeudal and 
semicolonial country but also because they contain 
the latest and most comprehensive summing-up of the 
world proletariat and people.

"To propagate the Marxist-Leninist stand, viewpoint 
and method, we have undertaken study courses, put 
out analyses of current national and international 
events, promoted further researches of national and 
regional scopes and required social investigations 
and criticism and self-criticism as methods for 
raising our ideological level and improving out 
practical work.

"In our ideological rebuilding, we have had to lay 
stress on studying basic Marxist-Leninist 
principles and combating the modern revisionism of 
the Soviet and local renegades. We have had to rely 
considerably on books dealing with successful 
revolutions led by fraternal parties abroad..."

-- "Our Urgent Tasks," Central Committee of the 
Communist Party of the Philippines, July 1, 1976

"Our Urgent Tasks" is included in the newest 
edition of Philippine Society and Revolution, by 
Amado Guerrero, founding chairperson of the new 
CPP. This book is available from MIM. Send $20 to 
the address on page two. Make checks out to "MIM 
Distributors."



* * *



EXTENSION OF AMERIKAN TROOPS IN BOSNIA EXPOSES 
HYPOCRISY

by a comrade and a RAIL comrade

Since the signing of the Dayton "Peace Accord" in 
1995, signaling the end of the war in Bosnia- 
Herzogovina, NATO troops have spread out from the 
city of Sarajevo to other cities and towns, 
ostensibly to maintain peace in the region.

The Western European nations and the united snakes 
have an interest in a stable Balkan region, in part 
because stability in Bosnia means less immigration 
of war refugees into Germany and France and other 
European countries. The united snakes wants to 
maintain its dominance over European imperialist 
powers, and will profess humanitarian reasons to 
stay in Bosnia when the truth is that the amerikan 
government could care less about human rights 
violations or genocide committed by the Serbs or 
the Muslims in Bosnia. The united snakes is also 
eager to continue to use Adriatic shipping 
facilities in order to avoid high tariffs in 
dumping its exports into the Balkans.(1) In 
addition, "ex- Yugoslavia also serves Amerika as a 
source of strategic weapons- grade materials and as 
an espionage listening post."(1)

President Clinton has recently announced that the 
u.s. troops will not leave Bosnia by the end of 
June 1998 as planned, but will remain indefinitely. 
On September 25, 1997 Congress passed a $247.5 
billion spending bill that cuts off funding for the 
u.s. troops after June 1998 but gives Clinton an 
opening to ask Congress for additional funds while 
explaining why keeping the soldiers in Bosnia would 
be in Amerika's national interest.(2)

Richard Holbrooke, the primary author of the Dayton 
accord, claims that the u.s. (and by extension 
NATO, because European troops will not stay if 
Amerika leaves) presence should be continued, lest 
the region collapse again into chaos and widespread 
violent fighting.(3) The united snakes government 
supports the president of Republika Srpska, Bujana 
Plavsic. U.$. soldiers along with Western European 
troops stand between her and her former ally, 
Radovan Karadzic. Without NATO support, Karadzic's 
supporters would likely kill Plavsic. The Serbs who 
support Radovan Karadzic condemn the NATO forces as 
Nazi occupiers, while the Serbs who support Bujana 
Plavsic welcome the NATO forces as literal 
lifesavers.

The split between Plavsic and Karadzic is more 
political than ideological--both are nationalists, 
and both used xenophobic and hateful propaganda to 
demonize the Muslims during the war. When the war 
was over and Karadzic was sentenced to persona non 
grata by virtue of the Dayton accord, Plavsic 
became President of Republika Srpska and the 
favored player of the imperialists. Within 
Republika Srpska Plavsic attempts to gain popular 
support by painting Karadzic as a corrupt mafioso, 
while she presents herself as a leader of the 
people. NATO supports Plavsic because she gives 
them a foothold in Bosnia whereas Karadzic would 
attempt eliminate all foreign influence.

NATO's strategy of isolating Karadzic is not 
working the way the u.s. and Western Europe 
expected--which is why there is talk of NATO 
extending its stay in Bosnia. For many months the 
NATO troops have done little except maintain a 
divide between the Serbian factions. Following the 
arrest in August 1997 of a Bosnian Serb indicted 
for war crimes, NATO stepped up its presence and 
began a campaign of seizing control from Karadzic 
of local police stations and turning power over to 
Plavsic.(4) Karadzic's supporters have in turn 
increased their threat against NATO troops and 
Serbian supporters of Plavsic.

The recent municipal elections, on September 13, 
1997, which were required under the Dayton accord, 
firmly entrenched the divisions between Karadzic 
and Plavsic. NATO troops prepared to enforce the 
election process in order that Plavsic could gain 
legitimacy through "democracy." Supporters of 
Karadzic threatened to boycott the elections, but 
then relented. Karadzic and his supporters continue 
to deny the legitimacy of Plavsic and the NATO 
presence, while the united snakes is committing its 
troops to an extended involvement in the conflict 
in Bosnia. The Organization for Security and 
Cooperation in Europe, the group who coordinated 
the elections, ruled several days after the 
elections that all votes from Pale, Karadzic's base 
of support, were "decertified."(5) NATO policed the 
elections and transported Serbs to polling places 
in armored trucks, and officials have said that 
communities that do not accept the election results 
will have sanctions imposed.(6)

MIM knows that the u.s. engineering of the Dayton 
Accord was not for any humanitarian reason, but to 
maintain its interest in a stable European market. 
The Amerikan government did not care whether 
Muslims or Serbs were slaughtered, and it does not 
now care whether war refugees can return to their 
homes as required under the Accord. The NATO 
presence in Bosnia, now likely to be extended even 
longer than originally planned, will never bring 
real peace to Bosnia. NATO troops stopped the war 
between the Serbs and the Muslims, but instead 
imposed imperialist occupation of the region, which 
MIM knows is the worst kind of war.

NOTES: 
1. See MIM Theory 4, p. 39. 
2. NYT 26 Sept. 1997, p. A8. 
3. Washington Post 28 Sept. 1997, p. C7. 4. NYT 11 
Sept. 1997, p. A6. 
5. NYT 17 Sept. 1997, p. A14. 
6. NYT 14 Sept. 1997, p.1.



* * *



IMPERIALISTS AND MILITARY SPONSOR CASSINI DESPITE 
MILLIONS OF POTENTIAL DEATHS

In mid-October, NASA plans to launch the Cassini 
space probe to explore Saturn. The probe will carry 
more than 72 pounds of Plutonium-238, a highly 
radio-active substance. NASA itself admits than an 
accident could expose as many as 5 billion people 
to that Plutonium. Researchers estimate that 30 to 
40 million people could die as a result of such 
exposure.(1)

NASA claims that the mission to Saturn is essential 
and that Plutonium is the only feasible power 
source for the probe. From MIM's perspective, as 
long as 14 million children are dying every year 
from malnutrition and preventable disease, a 
billion-dollar mission to determine the chemical 
composition of Saturn's rings should not be a top 
priority. In any case, non-toxic alternative energy 
sources do exist. A closer look reveals other 
motivations for the use of Plutonium in the Cassini 
probe: Imperialist profits and military research.


RISK FOR DISASTER


NASA downplays the probability of an accident which 
would result in the release of Plutonium into the 
atmosphere. According to NASA, the odds against 
such an accident are 1,500 to 1. This is actually a 
very high probability for such a disastrous event. 
By comparison, the odds against winning the lotto 
are about 4,000,000,000 to 1.

NASA publicly claims that the Radioisotrope 
thermoelectric generators (RTGs) which contain the 
Plutonium are "indestructible." But according to 
Alan Kohn, NASA's former emergency preparedness 
operations officer, "They're indestructible just 
like the Titanic was unsinkable."(1) Kohn says that 
the stress tests which NASA ran on the RTGs were 
inappropriate and the RTGs failed several of them 
anyway.(2) NASA's own contingency plans contradict 
their public claims. In one scenario, the rocket 
carrying Cassini explodes over Africa, and the RTGs 
"impact rock surfaces," which releases the 
Plutonium throughout the continent.(1)


BODY COUNT


NASA also says that around 2,300 fatalities over a 
50-year period could be attributed to any Plutonium 
exposure due to a Cassini accident, and adds that 
these deaths would be "likely to be statistically 
indistinguishable from normally occurring cancer 
fatalities among the world's population."(1) In 
other words, nobody will notice. But Ernest 
Sternglas, professor of radiological physics at the 
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, says 
that NASA "underestimates the cancer alone by about 
2,000 to 4,000 times. Which means that not counting 
all the other causes of death - infant mortality, 
heart disease, immune-deficiency diseases, and all 
that - we're talking on the order of ten to twenty 
million extra deaths."(1) Again, NASA's own 
contingency plans contradict their rosy assessment 
of the health consequences of a Cassini accident. 
For example, if the Plutonium falls on an urban 
area, NASA plans to "impose land-use 
restrictions... demolish some or all structures... 
[and] relocate affected population permanently."(1)


"WE BRING GOOD THINGS TO LIFE"


MIM isn't alone in considering the Cassini mission 
non-essential - the u.$. Congress cut funding for 
the probe in 1995. Lobbyists for the Department of 
Energy and Lockheed, which manufactures the RTGs, 
immediately convinced Congress to restore the 
funding. General Electric used to manufacture and 
lobby for the RTGs. GE is one of the five largest 
corporations in the world and is very involved in 
the atomic and high-tech weapons industry.

In any case, the mission to Saturn does not need 
the RTGs. Recent solar-cell technology developed in 
Europe could provide the power the probe 
needs.(1)But thanks to a pocketful of money from 
the people who brought us better atomic bombs, 
Cassini will take off carrying the potential for 
millions of deaths. As long as the bourgeoisie 
holds political power in amerika, the interests of 
the profitable and parasitic weapons industry will 
come before the interests of the majority of 
humanity.

Finally, the u.$. military has an interest in 
nuclear-powered space missions. Last year, a former 
commander of the u.$. Space Command said that the 
Air Force plans to "expand into space. We will 
engage terrestrial targets someday - ships, 
airplanes, land targets - from space... We're going 
to fight in space, and we're going to fight into 
space."(1) The type of weaponry the u.$. military 
envisions (lasers) will require large power 
sources, and the u.$. military believes nuclear 
power is an ideal solution. Michio Kaku, professor 
of nuclear physics at the City University of New 
York, says, "Nuclear energy in outer space is the 
linchpin [of the u.$ space program.] Ultimately, 
what they would really like to do is have nuclear 
powered battle stations in outer space. That's what 
all this is leading up to."(1) Although Cassini may 
not be directly related to a military project, it 
will provide NASA's military researchers with 
experience using nuclear power in space.

NOTES: 
1. Karl Grossman, "NASA's Nuclear Gamble," The 
Progressive, Sep 1997, pp. 20-23. 
2. Interview with Alan Kohn on radio station KPFK, 
19 Sep 97.



* * *



END VIOLENCE AGAINST THE OPPRESSED: WORK WITH MIM

As if often true in cases of violence among the 
people, an in police violence against the people, 
MIM finds much to agree with in what the oppressed 
are saying about the recent stabbing and shooting 
deaths on the University of Michigan (U-M) campus. 
We have great sympathy with everyone who has called 
out that both of these young people's lives should 
be mourned, because Kevin Nelson did not need to be 
summarily executed by a campus pig anymore than 
Tamara Williams should have been murdered by 
Nelson. But we also find plenty of pigs among those 
people who have had their words printed in public. 
Here, MIM responds to some of the community 
responses to this tragedy.

"All I know is that two young lives have been 
stamped out for nothing." --Yvonne Williams, 
Tamara's mother
MIM supports Yvonne Williams in grouping Kevin 
Nelson together with her daughter as a victim in 
this incident. We work to build public opinion 
against wimmin's oppression in all its forms, 
including battering and murder, and we struggle to 
build understanding of why these things happen; and 
at the same time we struggle against the idea that 
police crackdowns are any solution to these 
problems. In this instance alone the police 
presence insured that two young people would die 
instead of one. This is not part of the solution.

"He's a victim too. He lost his life too. Nobody 
said nothing about the family he had left. Did they 
have to shoot him? Why take two lives?" --Terriea 
Nelson, Kevin's sister

"Terriea Nelson has said there was a second victim 
in the recent tragedy ... I say she's off by one, 
there are two other victims and neither is her 
abusive and deceased brother. First, there's the 
... Department of Public Safety Officer ... [who 
will] forever wonder, 'What if I shot a minute 
sooner?'" --Stephen Hipkiss, University employee

"[Kevin Nelson] deserved to be shot. That kind of 
abuse doesn't deserve to be tolerated." --Brian 
Clune, U-M graduate student

If Mr. Hipkiss is so concerned about the DPS 
officer's future emotional health, allow MIM to 
suggest that the officer pick a less violent 
career, and that Mr. Hipkiss support removing guns 
from the hands of DPS officers. Tamara Williams did 
not have to die and everyone understands this and 
is angry that she was killed. But killing Kevin 
Nelson has not changed this, it has only offered up 
the question his sister did: "why take two lives?"

Graduate student Brian Clune's Klan-style comment 
reminds us of exactly why that officer took a 
second life.

Because our criminal INjustice system is designed 
for punishment and not for rehabilitation or 
genuine public safety, people in this country are 
trained to look for retribution for violence rather 
than looking to address the causes of violence. 
This stance makes a joke out of the so-called 
constitution of this country which states that 
people accused of crimes supposedly have a right to 
trial by a jury of their peers. Clearly, Kevin 
Nelson's peers do not think he deserved to die, 
even though they know he killed his girlfriend. But 
according to the law and order crowd calling for 
more guns and more cops, Nelson deserved nothing 
more than on-the-spot execution.

MIM takes the time to debunk the fallacies about 
more cops and harsher laws making a difference in 
domestic violence because we believe it is 
desperately important that people understand the 
dangers of state-administered violence and 
repression. In the accompanying article, we discuss 
briefly the studies which show that increased 
police action does not stop or even slow domestic 
violence. If you are interested in reading about 
these studies in more detail, order a copy of MIM 
Theory 2&3: Gender and Revolutionary Feminism from 
us for $6. 

People who are genuinely interested in liberation 
of any kind cannot in good conscience satisfy 
themselves with asking for more police action as a 
means of stopping violence among the people. Cops 
have proven themselves, by their own accounting, to 
be irrelevant in the continuing occurrence of 
violent assaults between romantic partners. The 
solution is deeper than the Amerikan criminal 
INjustice system is willing to go because it deals 
with the fundamental problem of power between 
different groups of people. More cops will only 
aggravate the problems between men and wimmin 
because more cops increase the stakes of any level 
of violence. 

If you want to put an end to domestic violence, do 
not be sucked in by the short, easy and ineffectual 
route of pushing for more cops. Work with MIM to 
research, understand and expose the way power is 
exercised in this society. Don't believe the hype 
that putting more Black men away is worth it if it 
saves a few wimmin. Not only is this Klan 
propaganda, but it doesn't save anyone. Honor 
Tamara Williams and Kevin Nelson's lives and join 
us in the proven most effective way to end violence 
against wimmin: revolution.

NOTES: The Michigan Daily 24, 25, 26, 29 September 
1997.



* * *



RENO GETS PEACE AWARD FOR SUPPRESSING YOUTH

by MC44

The National Peace Foundation has honored Attorney 
General Janet Reno with a ceremony and crystal 
sculpture called a "Bird of Peace." Foundation 
advisory board member Frances Humphrey Howard said 
Reno deserved the peace award for her work as a 
"remarkable, visible, advocate for children" and 
for her career's likeness to the "words and deeds 
of the great Mahatma Gandhi."(1)

Part of that wonderful work for children was 
apparently Reno's work increasing federal money and 
programs for vicious repression of youth under the 
guise of "anti-gang" activity. Amerikkka's war on 
gangs funnels federal grant money to state and 
local law enforcement agencies if they adopt the 
federal agenda. If money is available to fight 
gangs, then local jurisdictions sure as hell better 
have (or concoct) a gang problem to qualify for the 
funds -- which bring them extra police, more 
sophisticated weaponry, etc. to fight their ongoing 
war against oppressed nations and the poor. And 
what do you know, according to an FBI report 
released in the spring, "violent street gangs are 
now operating in 94% of all medium and large-sized 
cities."(5)

And studies show that current methods of fighting 
"the gang problem" don't work to reduce crime as 
the state defines it. As MIM Notes reported in 
August, Los Angeles recently passed a very 
restrictive injunction against the 18th Street gang 
-- prohibiting known or suspected members from 
congregating together in public or engaging in 
"violent criminal behavior" such as whistling.(2) 
The Los Angeles injunction, like similar ones in 
Boston and elsewhere, also permits parole officers 
to make "apartment searches that would be illegal 
for police to conduct."(3)

But "a three-year ACLU study of an injunction on 
the 18th Street gang in the nearby San Fernando 
Valley showed that reports of violent crime 
actually increased. The California court declared 
injunctions permissible, saying their abridgement 
of First Amendment rights is acceptable to protect 
public safety. This report, the ACLU says, 
demonstrates the weakness of that argument."(3)

In a typical display of pig hypocrisy and double- 
speak, Los Angeles assistant city attorney 
discounted the ACLU report, saying that a higher 
crime rate in this case was good, because it 
represented a restored faith in law enforcement 
that people were once again willing to call 911 
without fear of gang reprisal.(3)

Just as with the adult "criminal" population, the 
pigs will claim all failures in the injustice 
system as victories and increase all repressive 
measures despite their proven empirical 
bankruptcies. The New York Times reported at the 
end of September that despite the steadily falling 
official crime rate in the past five years, 
Amerika's prison population has been increasing at 
a rate of about 7% a year since 1990 -- climbing to 
a staggering 1.7 million last year.(4)

The New York Times, voice of corporate Amerika and 
government apologist, argued that "of course, the 
huge increase in the number of inmates has helped 
lower the crime rate by incapacitating more 
criminals behind bars." Then in the next sentence, 
reporter Fox Butterfield admits that this is 
difficult to measure and that "crime rose sharply 
in the mid- and late 1980s ... even as the rate of 
imprisonment grew much faster."(4)

The article turned outright genocidal when it 
paraphrased expert criminologists who suggest that 
the growth in the prison population "has created 
its own growth dynamic" -- meaning that the more 
people Amerika incarcerates the more it will 
eventually let out to continue to act on their 
inherent "criminal propensities." The implications 
are chilling -- keep on locking people up and never 
let anyone out. Indeed, "release rates of those 
prisoners eligible for parole have declined to 
31.2% in 1995 from 37% in 1990."(4)

The article concludes by comparing the amount spent 
on education relative to incarceration in 
California -- a state which at the current rate 
will run out of prison space by the year 2000.

In the last 20 years, the proportion of 
California's state budget going to prisons has 
increased by the same amount that the proportion 
spent on college education has dropped. And the 
state university system has lost 10,000 employees 
while the prison system has gained 10,000. A 
California State University chancellor was quoted: 
"you pay now for college, or you pay dramatically 
more later for prisons."(4)

MIM has previously used current prison growth 
trends to project that, if current trends were 
allowed to continue, by 2020 there would be 4.3 
million Blacks in prison, or 9.5% of what the Black 
population is projected to be by then.(6)

MIM and RAIL say, work with us to organize against 
further prison construction, to raise money for 
badly needed and desired reading and study material 
for prisoners, and to expose the criminal injustice 
system for the corrupt system of national and youth 
oppression that it is.

NOTES: 
1. Washington Post, September 22, 1997. 
2. MIM Notes 145, 
3. The Christian Science Monitor, August 18, 1997. 
4. The New York Times, September 28, 1997 
5. CNN, April 22, 1997. 
6. MIM Notes 137, May 1, 1997.



* * *



LAPD ESCALATES THE WAR ON OPPRESSED 

by a RAIL comrade

The vicious Los Angeles Pig Department is gearing 
itself for the bloody repression and outright 
genocide of the oppressed nations. In mid-
September, the LAPD obtained the 600 surplus M-16 
automatic rifles donated by the Army. Sergeant pigs 
will keep the "urban police rifles" in their squad 
cars. There is no official protocol for use of the 
M-16s, leaving the pigs free to use the assault 
weapon whenever and however they choose. Now, the 
police pigs don't have to wait for the SWAT death 
squads to arrive before they start razing. 
According to the bourgeois media, the assault 
weapons will "help even the odds against heavily 
armed bandits."(1) But the only powerfully armed 
bandits roving the streets are paid for by the 
bourgeois state: the police force.

Kalifornia public university pig squads are also 
joining the rush to arm themselves against the 
masses.(2) Kalifornia State University Los Angeles 
will receive six MP-5 submachine guns in November 
to provide back-up support for the LAPD in the 
predominantly Latino community, and the University 
of Kalifornia at Los Angeles is hoping to acquire 
submachine guns as well. Historically, students 
have played a strong agitational role in 
progressive movements. The bourgeoisie is acting to 
put a wedge between the students -- who migrate to 
the school for only a few years -- and the 
surrounding communities of oppressed nations by 
criminalizing the oppressed and paternalizing the 
students. Resurging levels of activism also has the 
imperialist state ready to crackdown should 
students correctly choose to ally with the 
oppressed. The Kent State massacre in 1970 
demonstrated that the Amerikan state isn't afraid 
to kill white youth when they oppose imperialist 
wars of aggression.

The hostile situation in the oppressed nation 
communities makes it painfully clear that the 
police are an occupying force. The contradiction 
between the oppressed nations and the colonizing 
Amerikan nation is growing ever more antagonistic. 
The Amerikan state is scurrying to meet the rising 
tide of resistance with violent force by using the 
specter of violence and terrorism to escalate the 
level of repression with white settler support.

NOTES: 
1. USA Today, Sep. 17, 1997 p. 4A. 
2. Daily Bruin 11 Aug - 17 Aug, 1997, pp. 1, 9, 11. 
See articles in MN 145 and MN147.



* * *



REVOLUTIONARY ELECTRONIC MAILING LIST NOW AVAILABLE 
FROM THE MAOIST INTERNATIONALIST MOVEMENT! 

Subscribe to mim-news and get news and feature 
articles from MIM Notes, the bi-monthly newspaper 
of the Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM). mim-
news contains anti-imperialist global and local 
news coverage, letters from revolutionary prisoners 
in Amerikan gulags, reviews of Internet politics 
and sites, and cultural analyses -- all from a 
Marxist-Leninist-Maoist perspective. (mim-news is 
not a discussion list.)



* * *



UNDER LOCK AND KEY


MEDICAL NEGLECT = DEATH

...So far I have been here 6 1/2 months and have 
seen one inmate die. This inmate was sick for 
weeks, writing requests, complaining everyday to 
all medical and prison official. They did nothing 
for him.  

He used to be throwing up blood everyday. They 
chained him up. Then had a nurse come look at him 
for one minute. All she said was, "You look all 
right to me. I'll order you some Tylenol and you'll 
be all right." I could look at this inmate and see 
he was sick. He told her he was throwing up blood 
and he needed to go to an outside hospital and be 
checked out. This nurse just left his cell. Two 
days later that found this inmate in his cell on 
the floor dead. 

They tried to put a mask on him and rush him out to 
the hospital to make the other inmates think that 
they were doing something, but this inmate was 
already dead. The warden then put the whole 
facility on lockdown. This jail already is a 
lockdown facility. We can't come out of our cells 
unless we are chained up. And the warden still put 
us on lockdown, where no inmates would be allowed 
to use any phones to call the outside and let them 
know what's going on.  

No mail was allowed to go out of the facility. The 
state police came to investigate. We stayed on 
complete lockdown for 3 weeks straight. No shower, 
phones, mail or nothing -- until they covered up 
this inmate's death by saying he had a heart attack 
to the news media and this inmate's family. Which 
is a lie. 

Another inmate was jumped on by two other inmates 
who slipped their handcuffs and beat this other 
inmate so bad because he was in chains and could 
not defend himself. Now he is brain dead in ICU on 
life support. The guard set that shit up and just 
watched. They waited about 15 minutes before they 
called a code. This is just a little of what is 
going on behind the walls here in Northern Supermax 
Correctional Institution. ... 

 -- A Connecticut Prisoner, 8 June 97 


NEGLECT CAUSES DEATH  

...These events occurred while we were on A-wing in 
P.H.D. [Punitive Housing Detention] and/or 
solitary. Gerald Wayne Champion was a suicidal 
patient and he finally committed suicide by hanging 
himself in a solitary cell on July 9, 1997. Right 
after a conversation with the psychiatrist. 

I have had constructive knowledge of Champion's 
suicidal tendencies since June 1997. ...There are 
several events that are documented which 
[demonstrate this]. Around the 3rd day of June 
1997, Champion swallowed 40 pills and was 
transferred to John Sealy Hospital. 

On or about July 5, 1997, Champion cut his arms 
with a razor bland and he was taken to the 
infirmary. Then later brought back to A-wing, given 
the opportunity to take a shower and then he was 
put back into his cell. 

On or about July 6, 1997, Champion put razor blades 
or pieces of razor blades in his eyes. A second 
shift supervisor, Sgt. Johnson, escorted Champion 
to the infirmary to have the blades removed from 
his eyes. Sgt. Johnson told the medical staff that 
Champion needed to be placed into a padded cell. 
Nurse Butler said that they do not put inmates in 
the back of the infirmary anymore so take him back 
to A-wing.  

Champion was brought back to his cell ... and told 
prisoner Z and myself about the above event. On 
July 7, 1997 prisoner z wrote two I-60's for 
Champion. One addressed to Warden Brock and the 
other to the psychiatrist.  

The I-60 stated: "This is the second time that I 
have asked you for help which you refused me the 
first time. ... If they put me out in the fields 
the way my mind is right not I will be a danger to 
myself, to the bosses and inmates working around 
me. I feel as thought it would be best for all the 
people in general if I were to have a job in the 
building such as necessities or the kitchen." 

On July 8, 1997, Champion talked to Warden Arnold 
and Sgt. James was present. Champion told Arnold 
his problem which was being assigned to work in the 
field and he also told [Arnold] that he was going 
to injure himself or kill himself. Warden Arnold 
told Champion that it wouldn't do him any good to 
injure himself because if they send him to Skyview 
they would only send him back. 

On July 9, 1997, at approximately 10:00am Champion 
told Officer Walker that he wanted to talk to Sgt. 
James. Walker told Champion that he had missed Sgt. 
James because Champion was asleep when Sgt. James 
came through. ... Walker told Champion that he 
would tell Sgt. James to come back. Champion said 
that's Okay, I know how to get him back here. 

At approximately 11:30 to 12:30 Champion asked a 
officer (female) to close his door. At 
approximately 12:45 pm to 1:00 pm the psychiatrist 
came to Champion's cell and he told the 
psychiatrist about what he would do if he went out 
to the fields to work (make the officers' shoot 
him). Champion asked the psychiatrist to tell them 
to give him a job in the kitchen or building and he 
would go out into population and take care his 
business. 

The psychiatrist told Champion that he could not 
tell people where to put Champion to work, and that 
if Champion hadn't been putting razor blades in his 
eyes and acting childish and doing the things he 
had been doing, he [the psychiatrist] might be able 
to help Champion.  

The psychiatrist also said to Champion that if I 
was you I would lick my wounds and go out there and 
do the best I can with what I got. 

After Champion's encounter with the psychiatrist, 
Champion was found hanging in his cell at 
approximately 1:20 pm by a female officer who 
shouted, "He's Hanging." 

As a result of neglect Champion is now dead.  

 -- A Texas Prisoner, 11 July 1997


PRISONER REFUSES TO SUBMIT TO DNA TESTING 

I am an indigent prisoner, serving a life sentence 
for second degree murder. I have been in solitary 
confinement for 3 months for refusing [to submit 
to] DNA testing under state law. I refused because 
the law is unconstitutional and does not apply to 
me. I am not going to willingly submit to this 
test. I fear the prison officials will eventually 
forcibly retrain me and take my blood. ...  

 -- A Missouri Prisoner, 10 August, 1997 


MANDATORY DNA SAMPLES IN INDIANA  

Greetings Rades: 

I need your assistance, the State of Indiana is 
planning to collect DNA Samples from all prisoners 
at Wabash Valley Correctional Facility in Carlisle, 
IN. They claim it is being done for identification 
testing. This is a conspiracy to frame brotha's who 
are true freedom fighters. The DNA is going to be 
used to clear-up unsolved crimes. Enclosed is a 
letter that I mailed to the IDOC [Indiana 
Department of Incorrections] Commissioner. 
...[Which is printed below -- MIM] 

 -- An Indiana Prisoner, 10 August 1997 

To: Edward L. Cohn, Commissioner Indiana Department 
of Corrections 302 W. Washington St. R#E334 
Indianapolis, Indiana 46204 RE: DNA Testing at WVCF 

Commissioner Cohn: 

On 6/6/97 it was brought to my attention that the 
IDOC will be collecting DNA samples on July 1, 1997 
from all prisoners who have been convicted for an 
offense under I.C. 35-42, after June 30, 1996 and 
before July 1, 1997. I am interested in knowing if 
this law or policy applies to individuals who were 
convicted in 1988. [In addition] what compelling 
state interest does the IDOC attempt to serve by 
the taking of DNA samples? I don't feel this said 
action is justified when there isn't any current 
criminal investigation being initiated against me. 
Nor does the Indiana state police have reasonable 
suspicion to believe I've committed any crime.  

I have been incarcerated in the IDOC for the past 8 
1/2 years, so why would the Indiana State Police 
need a DNA sample from me? From my legal research 
I've discovered that all other states that have 
passed a law of this kind, have only applied it to 
prisoners who were convicted of "sex crimes", 
Indiana is the only state that is attempting to 
require all prisoners to submit to a DNA sample, 
regardless of what they have been convicted for.  

According to the Indiana database statue, under 
title 10, DNA samples taken from prisoners, will be 
transferred to the Indiana State police, and placed 
in a DNA database for identification testing. I am 
concerned to know what type of action will be taken 
if my DNA sample matches a DNA sample that is 
already logged in the database, which was recovered 
from a crime scene? 

I have also been informed that prisoners who refuse 
to provide the Indiana State Police with DNA 
samples will be penalized. I must bring it to your 
attention that Under the Indiana DNA database 
statue, there is nothing cited that states a 
prisoner can be penalized for failing to give a DNA 
sample.  

A prisoner has a right under the 14th Amendment to 
refuse any medical testing. If in fact the Indiana 
state police's reasons for wanting DNA samples from 
prisoners is for identifying a particular prisoner 
with a crime that has never been solved, then I 
urge your department to honor the laws of the this 
land and obtain search warrants, as the law 
requires. I also must further bring to your 
attention that the laws of my religion do not 
permit me to give a DNA sample, and there must be 
others ways to accommodate me. ... 

 -- An Indiana Prisoner, 10 June 97 [Same prisoner 
as above]  


MIM Responds: 

We agree that mandatory DNA samples taken from 
prisoners would be used to target politically 
active prisoners. We oppose this policy for all 
prisoners -- regardless of what the real criminals 
(those running the government and the DOC) say they 
have done. We do not agree that this practice 
should be reserved for state-accused child 
molesters or any other targeted group. Possession 
of a search warrant only makes attacks on the 
oppressed appear more legitimate and does not 
justify mandatory DNA sampling. 

While we support this comrade's actions to use the 
legal system against the practice mandatory DNA 
samples -- we recognize that their are no rights 
for the oppressed in Amerikkka; only power 
struggles. The above letter does a good job of 
pointing out how the pigs break their own rules to 
serve their own needs. So legal battles are good 
for small short term battles but in the long term 
we need revolution to eliminate oppression. Work 
with MIM to expose the imperialists and free the 
oppressed. 


PRISONER BATTLES SET-UP AND TRANSFER 

...In June I was classified unmanageable and sent 
back inside the walls here in Jackson. This all 
started in December 96 when I was issued a ticket 
for attempting to assault two officers. The problem 
with this is on this day I had just been released 
from a downtown hospital where I had undergone 
lower back surgery for ruptured disks and was in no 
condition to assault anyone, even if I hadn't been 
cuffed from behind and chained at the ankles.  

If anyone was assaulted it was me because two days 
later I was back in the hospital for 18 days due to 
the swelling in my back from being dragged up 
stairs and forced to bend over and touch my toes 
for a strip search even though I had just come from 
having an operation. I filed an appeal of the 
ticket to the DOC in Lansing but was over-ruled by 
them. Six months later I'm in my cell ... when 
officers came to my cell, gave me five minutes to 
pack years of acquired property and I was moved 
back in here. 

I had not seen the inside of this place since I 
transferred from here in 92 and I was in for a 
shock when I got here. The state prisons of 
Southern Michigan was once the world's largest 
walled prison, and it probably still is the largest 
in size, but it is now a ghost town. There are only 
two population blocks where there used to be 6. You 
can't walk twenty feet without running into a fence 
or gate. And all the guards here are young and 
ready to prove that they run the place or so they 
think.  

You can bet your last dollar that you'll be hearing 
about this place in the near future because the 
only people here are the ones they kicked out of 
other joints around the state and tension is high 
right now. When and if this place does blow, the 
DOC will get what they've been after for years, 
which is to put this joint on total lockdown. ... 

 -- A Michigan Prisoner, 8 July 97 

P.S. ...Maybe what makes me unmanageable is my 
choice of reading material because I did get some 
strange looks when they gave me my last MIM Notes. 


FEDERAL HARASSMENT

...Today the battle centers around U.S.P Lomac 
(United States Penitentiary) and those who suffer 
from the constant racially motivated harassment, 
simply because of the hue of their skin. In the 
aftermath of an incident in which an officer was 
killed, every African American has been the target 
of constant harassment, physical as well as 
psychological -- making the atmosphere as one found 
on a plantation some 400 years ago. 

The constant visual searches (strip searches) for 
no justifiable reason, which is standard procedure, 
to retrieve suspected contraband, but here it is 
used as a tool to dehumanize and degrade the 
individual. In some instances having the individual 
strip in front of, as many as 6 correctional 
officers. Or in the worst case, having racial 
epithets and slurs vocalized during the course of 
the search.  

The other tactic is the total disarray of an 
individual's living quarters: destroying personal 
property, taking portions of legal documentation, 
pictures of family members. 

These issues remain to be a constant malingering 
curse, which is totally ignored by the 
administration of this institution. Those who have 
been a witness or a victim have only been met with 
hostile reactions in the their efforts to make 
grievances to any branch of this institution's 
administration. Many have been threatened with 
possible disciplinary action and in the worse case 
disciplinary action was taken. Those who remain are 
so struck by fear of the consequences of making any 
type of complaint, they simply accept what is being 
done. I can not be so easily shaken, and in reading 
this I hope you will understand that and join me in 
the struggle that is unfortunately is suffered by 
many but fought by few. 

In Struggle, 
 -- A Federal Prisoner in California, 8 July 97 


DON'T EAT THE FOOD 

Dear MIM: 

I'm a prisoner at the Moberly Correctiona Center in 
Missouri. And to show you the shit that is going on 
in this place, I was recently sent to the hole due 
to the fact that I would not eat the food from a 
cook who didn't have the proper equipment to serve 
the inmates. (1) No hair net, (2) No gloves, (3) No 
chin guard. So I took it upon myself to get my own 
tray and I was put in lockup at that point. 

Then I was released the next day. Prior to release 
from lock-up, I was seen by the Ad-Seg. 
[Administrative Segregation] Committee. They told 
me that I was wrong for getting my own tray. So I 
told them pigs that I don't care what they say. If 
the cook won't put on the proper gear to serve the 
food, then I will get my own food from the table 
myself, even if it means going to the hole each 
time. I don't care, my health comes first and the 
health of my brothers as well. 

This goes to show you that these pigs don't care if 
you live or die in these KKKamps. So someone has to 
stand up for whats right. 

Respectfully Submitted,  -- A Missouri Prisoner, 20 
May 97 


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 pigs. Though, the 
bourgeois/imperialist media put it out as it it was 
"an 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)  

A Komrad 'N Struggle, -- Another New Jersey 
Prisoner, 20 August 1997 


WANTED: PRISONERS TO WRITE REVIEWS OF BOOKS

MIM has a lot of non-revolutionary but political 
books that have been donated to our Books for 
Prisoners program. These books are worth reading 
and reviewing for MIM Theory. We have a range of 
topics and if you are interested in reading and 
reviewing one (or a few), feel free to specify your 
areas of interest. Along with these books we can 
often provide you with related information from 
past issues of MIM Theory to help with the reviews.


MIM RE-LEASE PROGRAM

MIM doesn't have a Re-Lease program, but you are 
the one who is going to make that change. Help ex-
prisoners get a new lease on life. Mao said we in 
the imperialist countries would have to fight long 
-- dare we say it? -- tedious legal battles in the 
imperialist countries. MIM channels the anger of 
the oppressed into revolutionary politics. We aim 
to set up independent business institutions of the 
oppressed so that prisoners can make a living in 
this rotten system legally -- while staying true to 
the revolutionary cause. Find out how you can 
participate with no financial loss to yourself. 
Contact MIM.


* * *


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