This is an archive of the former website of the Maoist Internationalist Movement, which was run by the now defunct Maoist Internationalist Party - Amerika. The MIM now consists of many independent cells, many of which have their own indendendent organs both online and off. MIM(Prisons) serves these documents as a service to and reference for the anti-imperialist movement worldwide.
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THE MAOIST INTERNATIONALIST MOVEMENT
MIM Notes 156 FEBRUARY 15, 1998
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. PRISONER NUMBERS CONTINUE SKYWARD
2. DC PRISONERS TRANSFERRED FAR AWAY FROM FAMILIES
3. LETTERS
4. TKP/ML SECRETARY GENERAL MARTYRED
5. MIM CUTS BACK INTERNATIONAL MINISTRY
6. AMERIKAN JUSTICE CONVICTS 22 IN PROTEST OF U.$
MILITARY DEATH SQUAD SCHOOL
7. GAY AND LESBIAN ACTIVISTS PUSH FOR WIDER
PROSECUTION ON HATE CRIMES
8. BERKELEY OIL BOYCOTTS DEMONSTRATE NECESSITY OF
REVOLUTION
9. PIG KILLS UNARMED MAN IN NEW YORK
10. SPECIAL FOUR PAGE ISSUE OF UNDER LOCK & KEY:
NEWS FROM PRISONERS AND PRISONS
11. HIP HOP BAND DEMANDS FREEDOM FOR REVOLUTIONARY
LEADERS: REVIEW OF CRITICAL MASS
12. POLICE PEPPER SPRAY BLACK BASKETBALL STAR
13. WHITEHOUSE SCANDALS PALE COMPARED TO
IMPERIALISM
14. UNTITLED POEM
15. LENINGRAD CONFERENCE IGNORES MAOIST UNIVERSAL
ON CAPITALIST RESTORATION UNDER SOCIALISM
16. PHONY WAR CRIMES TRIBUNAL EXPOSES NATO
INTERVENTION: ABOUT PROFIT, NOT HUMANITARIANISM
17. CASTRO MEETS THE POPE
PRISONER NUMBERS CONTINUE SKYWARD
by MC12
The U.$. Justice Department says the number of
people in prison and jail hit an all-time high of
1.7 million in June 1997.(1) That is an increase of
more than 100,000 over the middle of 1996.(2) About
two-thirds of the total prisoners are in state or
federal prison, and one-third are in jails. The
total lockdown population is up 6.2% in the last
year, according to this report, a slightly slower
growth rate than the last half- dozen years.
The incarceration rate increase -- from 313 per
100,000 population in 1985 to 645 per 100,000 in
1997 -- has continued unabated despite a drop in
the FBI's official crime rate in the last six
years.(1) Some reactionaries are saying the
incarceration rate going up while the crime rate
goes down is proof that the system "works," but
these pigs have a much harder time explaining why
official crime rates were up for so many years
while imprisonment exploded from less than 500,000
in 1980 to 1.3 million in 1991, the year crime
rates started down.(3)
The fact is that mass imprisonment in this country
has little to do with the bourgeois-defined crimes,
especially not the crimes that make up the official
crime rates: murder, legally-defined rape, robbery,
auto theft. If any "crime" is associated with
incarceration, its personal illegal drug
consumption (which isn't part of the FBI "crime
rate"), but incarceration goes up even as illegal
drug use falls. The official crime rate has gone up
and down in the last 30 years while the
incarceration rate is straight up.
This is why MIM says all prisoners are political
prisoners. The prison system itself is a political
system, a tool of national, class and gender
oppression -- principally national oppression --
one that serves a function not explained by the
slogans chiseled into the courthouse walls. Many
individuals in this system may have done bad things
that need to be dealt with by the people, but
that's not what their incarceration is all about.
NOTES:
1. New York Times, 19 January 1998, p. A10.
2. U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice
Statistics Bulletin, "Prison and Jail Inmates at
Midyear 1996." January 1997 (NCJ 162843.)
3. The Real War on Crime: The Report of the
National Criminal Justice Commission, edited by
Stephen R. Donziger (HarperCollins, 1996), p. 34
* * *
DC PRISONERS TRANSFERRED FAR AWAY FROM FAMILIES
by a comrade
The recent "bailout" package for the District of
Columbia, approved by Congress, included
transferring control of all of D.C.'s prisoners to
the federal Bureau of Prisons.(1) Two hundred and
forty wimmin inmates will be transferred in January
1998, some as far away as Connecticut, Florida and
Texas. The financial package mandates the shutting
down of D.C.'s Lorton prison and transferring one-
half of the District's 7,000 inmates to the federal
system. Many of the D.C. prisoners will end up in
private prisons.
1,700 male prisoners have already been transferred
to the Northeastern Correctional Center in
Youngstown, Ohio, which is run by the Tennessee-
based Corrections Corporation of America (CCA). The
Wackenhut Corporation, CCA's biggest competitor, is
seeking a federal contract to build a $50 million
prison, also in Ohio. If Wackenhut gets the
contract it will build a 1,500 bed facility for
D.C. prisoners. With the expected increase in
inmates transferred to the existing Northeastern
Correctional facility, the number of D.C. male
prisoners locked down in Ohio will nearly double
what it is now-up to 3,500.(1) The former D.C.
prisoners are now suing the CCA and the District of
Columbia for the excessive use of force by guards
and recent inmate violence that has broken out in
the prison. The attorneys representing the inmates
blame the District, in part, for not "properly"
classifying the transferred prisoners according to
security level.(2) Maximum security prisoners from
D.C. have been housed with medium security
prisoners in Ohio.
There is also talk of D.C. inmates being
transferred to a proposed prison complex in Terra
Alta, West Virginia. A private company has asked
the state for a contract to construct a $250
million facility to house up to 2,400 D.C.
inmates.(3)
The D.C. wimmin prisoners are being transferred to
Connecticut , West Virginia, Texas and Florida.(4)
Families of these men and wimmin will rarely, if
ever, be able to visits their mothers and fathers
in prison when they are so far away. The Washington
Post has rarely reported on the male prisoners
being transferred, but recently did a large story
in the metro section on the transfer of the wimmin
prisoners, who are housed in the Correctional
Treatment Facility (a separate facility from the
main Lorton complex) (3). The story focused on the
fact that the wimmin would no longer be able to see
their children and other family members. Some of
the wimmin featured in the Post article have
children by men who are locked up at Lorton or have
been transferred out of state.
MIM is not surprised that The Washington Post and
other mainstream media have given only minimal
coverage to these transfers, but MIM has found no
community organization that is making noise about
these transfers. For example, when MIM went to the
Web site of Families Against Mandatory Minimums
(FAMM) we did not see coverage of this issue. While
the average citizen is happy to be rid of Lorton
and its inmates, MIM believes that the families of
the prisoners or progressive groups should be
organizing against these transfers. MIM hopes that
Jericho '98 will help to bring mass awareness to
prison issues, including that all prisoners are
political prisoners. Until all prisoners of
imperialism are freed when imperialism comes
crashing down, it is an especially egregious crime
to move prisoners away from their families and
lawyers and the court to which they can appeal
their convictions.
Contact MIM to find out how to get involved with
Jericho '98 and protest prisoner transfers!
NOTES:
1. The Plain Dealer, 10 January 1998 p. 5B.
2. Idaho Falls Post Register, 16 January 1998 p.
A1.
3. The Charleston Gazette, 10 December 1997 p. 7A.
4. The Washington Post, 7 January 1998 p. B1.
* * *
LETTERS
WHY JERICHO?
Dear MIM, I was just curious, why is this called
Jericho?
--A friend in the midwest
MIM RESPONDS: According to the organizers, the name
relates to the "biblical story of people working
together to create change." One of the organizing
groups explained it by saying "as the biblical
story of Jericho shows, when we raise our voices
collectively, we can cause walls to come tumbling
down."
Neither MIM or RAIL are religious and so that is
not the reason that we are organizing people to go.
In fact, MIM and RAIL see that religion has been
used to further oppression in most situations
historically. And even when the purpose of religion
has been less overtly oppressive, it does not serve
the interests of the masses. Understanding,
analyzing and acting on rational, materialist
perception is how we believe that the interests of
the majority of the world's people is best served.
Though, while there is a definite contradiction
between religious/mystical beliefs and materialist
analysis, we still work with people who are
religious as long as they agree that oppression
must be ended and help us build support for anti-
imperialist struggle.
MIM and RAIL have had a long practice of not only
supporting the struggles of revolutionary
prisoners, but of all prisoners. So, our aim it to
emphasize general conditions of prisons,
disproportionate imprisonment rates and how we can
work toward ending this means of oppression.
WRITER FOR ENGLAND ASSESSES MOVEMENT SITUATION
DEAR MIM: In the 1970s many students in britain
were Maoists or at least commumists. Now after
nearly thirty years we look back to those times as
the highest point of the workers movement to
achieve social justice in social democrat britain.
The movement has faced problem after problem over
thirty dispiriting years which have seen the
workers position worsen beyond imagination. but
still the workers reject our ideas even in the face
of poverty, are the capitalists so good at
propaganda to distort any progressive movement.
--Writer from England January 1998
MIM REPLIES: We believe you are right that like in
other countries there is ruling class propaganda in
imperialist England that fools the workers and
oppressed generally. However, in all the
imperialist countries, the problem is qualitatively
worse than just the problem of what Marx called
"false consciousness" by the workers.
While a small minority within "British" borders
faces grinding poverty, the majority enjoys the
spoils of super-exploitation of the Third World.
Hence there is propaganda and a real material
reason for the opposition to progressive movements.
The labor aristocracy in England is lined up almost
perfectly behind Blair right now. All the third
parties catering to the petty-bourgeoisie
evaporated in the last election, because Blair sang
the imperialist song of love for the labor
aristocracy almost in perfect key.
PRINTING PRISONER NAMES
Dear Comrades, In the 15 December 1997 edition of
"Under Lock and Key", I read the story of a
Missouri prisoner who is afflicted of high blood
pressure and denied medical attention. I would like
to help this person obtain medical treatment, but I
don't see how I can with the information this
article has given me.
The readers are instructed to write or telephone
either Dona Shrino, the state prison director, or
Moe Cornalian, the governor, but we are not given
the name of the prisoner, the name of the pig who
has denied him or her medical attention, or the
name of the specific prison housing this prisoner.
There must be tens of thousands of prisoners in the
Missiouri correctional system. Among them probably
hundreds have medical conditions for which
inadequate treatment has been providen, probably a
dozen of whom are afflicted of high blood pressure.
Assuming we can put enough heat on Ms. Shrino and
Governor Cornahan to secure their cooperation, how
can they know about which prisoner we are writing?
They could rightly say, "We'd love to help you, but
if we don't know who is being denied medical
treatment, we can't intervene."
In most cases MIM's policy of maintaining the
confidentiality of prisoner names is the correct
one, but in a case like this the prisoner has more
to gain than to lose by being identified. Surely
the individual pigs who are oppressing him or her
already know that this prisoner has received MIM
Notes and has requested antihypertension
medication. If this neglect continues, this
prisoner will likely die soon and has nothing to
lose. The only way we can save his or her life is
to notify the pigs responsible that we are aware of
the situation, which means we should be directed to
write to the low level pigs who have knowledge of
it or to inform the high level pigs of the name and
location of this prisoner.
Naturally no prisoner's name and/or specific
location should be published without the consent of
that prisoner and where it is not necessary to do
so, but in cases like this, exceptions should be
made to the general policy of anonymity when the
prisoner agrees to be named and if circumstances
are such that it is better if the prisoner is
identified.
MIM RESPONDS: We agree with this letter writer on
the question of when to print a prisoner's name. We
know that having their name in print in MIM Notes
can mean increased repression for a prisoner. And
even when they are exposing mistreatment of
themselves specifically, sometimes having a name in
print will increase this mistreatment. Our general
policy is to only print prisoner's names when we
have the explicit consent of the prisoner and when
it is clear that printing the name will do more to
help than to harm the prisoner.
* * *
TKP/ML SECRETARY GENERAL MARTYRED
The TKP/ML, representative of the international
proletariat in Turkey and Turkish Kurdistan, has
lost its 4th Secretary General in the heat of the
struggle!
Workers, oppressed and exploited peoples all over
the world, revolutionaries, comrades:
The TKP/ML, representative of the international
proletariat in Turkey and Turkish Kurdistan, the
communist vanguard of all peoples, minorities and
workers in Turkey and Turkish Kurdistan, has lost
its 4th Secretary General, MEHMET DEMIRDAG, on 23
November 1997, during an armed encounter between
the fascist Turkish army and the guerrilla fighters
of the TKP/ML-TIKKO in the Black Sea (Karadeniz)
region.
The loss of the leader and comrade DEMIRDAG is a
great loss for our party, the working class and the
people. His place cannot be replaced in a short
time. In struggle against imperialism and its
subordinates, in the struggle for the salvation of
mankind, the death of MEHMET DEMIRDAG is a great
loss for the international proletariat and the
oppressed peoples all over the world. Also for our
sister parties and organizations and the anti-
imperialist movement with which we carry out
activities, the death of DEMIRDAG is a great loss.
Because of this great loss, our grief is great. But
we Communists are aware that we shall lose
countless leaders and guerrilla fighters in the
class struggle. The TKP/ML has united with the
teaching of the working class in every field. It is
conscious of the tough laws of the class struggle
and subscribes to these laws. Our party has, for
these reasons, been able to recreate itself and it
is continuously able to continue and expand its
struggle. The 25-year history of our party is proof
of this.
Our leader and comrade was determined to carry the
red flag up to his death. We as TKP/ML, his
comrades, shall continue to carry the red flag with
conviction. Our class hatred has deepened and our
will to struggle is stronger than ever. The bond
with our party, the people, our class, and the
belief in a world without classes and exploitation,
namely communism, is greater than ever. The guide
of TKP/ML is the science of Marxism-Leninism-
Maoism.
The TKP/ML is conscious of the fact that the path
to revolution experiences many difficulties,
setbacks and temporary losses. But we Communists
shall be determined, step by step with total
courage and strength and without giving up, to
overcome the difficulties, setbacks, and temporary
losses that stand in our way. The loss of our
comrades in the struggle for a society without
exploitation and oppression will make us all the
more strong in order to continue the struggle.
Comrade MEHMET DEMIRDAG was a person who mastered
the science of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism to its
smallest details. His mind and heart were one with
the science of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. Comrade
DEMIRDAG was a nightmare for the enemy and for the
anti-MLM modes of thinking within the circles of
the party and other revolutionary movements. For a
comrade who remained loyal, under all
circumstances, to the international proletariat and
MLM teaching.
In the history of our party, comrade MEHMET
DEMIRDAG played an important role during the 2nd
Extraordinary Conference which was successfully
completed in 1995. For he was the architect of this
Extraordinary Conference. The slogan of our party
during this 2nd Extraordinary Conference was "FROM
HEAD TO TOE, REVOLUTION." During this conference,
the party identified its errors and shortcomings.
It seriously criticized itself and its struggle in
the past. After the conference, the party dealt
with its shortcomings and errors. This led to
better results which are clearly seen in practice.
Comrade DEMIRDAG put an end to all anti-MLM ideas
within the party by condemning them and removing
them from the party. He played a great role in the
strengthening of the guerrilla struggle by which
the armed struggle in Turkey grew. He was an
exponent for the expansion of the armed struggle,
the guerrilla struggle. He carried out in practice
the decisions taken during the 2nd Extraordinary
Conference without any hesitation, without any loss
of time, and with all decisiveness.
Our leader and comrade was one of the greatest
enemies of imperialism, capitalism, feudalism all
other reactionary ideas. Hence, he used every
minute and all possibilities to attack the enemy,
weaken their power, and defeat the enemy. In order
to achieve this, he overcame countless obstacles,
took upon himself the most dangerous tasks, and
attained what was impossible. When comrade DEMIRDAG
was taken prisoner by the fascist Turkish state, he
suffered the heaviest tortures and cruelties.
During the very heavy tortures, he held on to the
culture of communist resistance of our party
founder and leader, IBRAHIM KAPAKKAYA. He too did
not yield to the enemy.
* * *
MIM CUTS BACK INTERNATIONAL MINISTRY
MIM has cutback its "International Ministry" to
reflect its 1997 Congress resolution on the
subject. This reflects both a reallocation of
resources and a tightening of security.
In 1993, MIM made some steps toward international
outreach by attending meetings and visiting with
comrades. Prior to that time MIM had a very low
international profile except by INTERNET, where MIM
was a pioneer.
In summing up the period from 1993 to 1997, MIM can
point to some positive benefits of international
outreach. The flow of concrete information about
Peru and the Philippines has greatly improved on
account of international outreach. We have also
learned concretely about the balance of forces
internationally between imperialism and
proletarian-led masses.
With the collapse of the Soviet Union, we have also
learned of several attempts to regroup the
international communist movement. It is MIM's
opinion that although the prospects of such
regroupment are vastly improved over the time of
the 1980s, it is still premature.
Hard as it may seem to believe, the issues of Cuba
and Korea still split the international communist
movement. The revisionists who stand exposed with
the outright collapse of the Soviet Union still
sing the same songs about Korea and Cuba. There is
a greater chance of Castro and Kim admitting past
errors and launching cultural revolutions against
the bourgeoisie in the party than there is of the
international communist movement uniting "from
below" on these questions. If the Cuban, Vietnamese
and Korean comrades could see their way to Maoism
in review of what has happened in the international
communist movement, we can reassess the
possibilities of regroupment. Right now we find
that regroupment is going to happen, and happen on
a revisionist basis.
In the 10 percent of the world that is imperialist,
there is an additional roadblock in that the
individuals and organizations supporting the MIM
cardinal principle on the petty-bourgeois majority
do not yet have the international stature,
connection to the masses and experience to impose a
successful conclusion on the battle against
revisionism. Capitulation to the petty-bourgeoisie
and imperialist parasitism is still the rule and
not the exception. Although MIM could conceivably
win some major battles on the question of
regroupment in the imperialist countries soon, such
is unlikely to be a stable strategic situation
unless MIM expands its connection amongst the
youth, lumpenproletariat and oppressed nations.
This is a fluid time in the international communist
movement and it is tempting to believe in the
possibility of major victories in regroupment. From
examination, summation and experience, MIM can say
such would be a mistake.
We remind comrades internationally to be on their
guard against people from the imperialist countries
posing as communists. In the imperialist countries
there is not much danger in discussing politics
with people who may or may not be genuine MIM
comrades or other comrades. At all times, our Third
World comrades should protect their own security in
relation to the supposed comrades of the
imperialist countries.
* * *
AMERIKAN JUSTICE CONVICTS 22 IN PROTEST OF U.$
MILITARY DEATH SQUAD SCHOOL
On 21 January, convicted 22 protestors of "criminal
trespass" for "participating in the largest-ever
protest against a U.S. army training school for
Latin American soldiers."
On November 16, 2000 people participated in a
protest at the School of the Americas, located at
Fort Benning in Georgia, which is a training ground
for the military leaders of comprador regimes. The
school's "students" have been linked to some of the
worst military atrocities in Latin America.
The School of the Americas -- more accurately
called the School of the Assassins -- exists as one
of the tools that has enabled Amerikan imperialism
to repress and exploit the masses of many Latin
American countries for the last 50 years. This
training ground equips the leaders and the soldiers
of military dictatorships with the military
strategies needed to fight against guerrilla
warfare; teaches tactics of torture, both physical
and psychological; teaches commando operations and
interrogation techniques.
The molding of puppets within the walls of the
School of the Assassins allows the Amerikan
imperialist beast to sit fat within North America
reaping the super-profits and protecting the
interests of multi-national corporations without
sending numerous Amerikan troops to fight a direct
war in the countryside of Latin America. Instead,
the beast trains those from the Third World who
will ride in the tail of imperialist profit to
slaughter the toiling masses of the soil and the
exploited Latin American workers.
The Latin American Training Center-Ground Division
was started in 1946 in the Panama Canal Zone. This
became the School of the Americas in 1963. In 1984,
the school suspended its operations in compliance
with the 1977 Panama Canal Treaty. Three months
later it reopened in Ft. Benning. Since then, the
trail of massacres, murders and torture of rebels
continues to trace back to the School of Assassins.
The assassination of Bishop Romero and over two-
thirds of the soldiers responsible for the worst
atrocities in El Salvador have been linked to this
school.
At the protest, some of protesters carried "small
white crosses and cardboard coffins containing
petitions". The struggle against the School of the
Assassins is a just one. The only "criminal
trespass" MIM sees is in U.$ imperialism trampling
Third World nations without the consent of their
people.
* * *
GAY AND LESBIAN ACTIVISTS PUSH FOR WIDER
PROSECUTION ON HATE CRIMES
In early January, the FBI released 1996 statistics
on hate crimes -- data collected from participating
local police departments, as mandated by the Hate
Crime Statistics Act of 1990. This year, activists
in the Gay and Lesbian Task Force and the Human
Rights Campaign, with the support of Attorney
General Janet Reno and President Clinton, are
calling on Congress to include crimes based on
sexual orientation bias in federal anti-hate crime
statutes. Whereas currently the federal government
only mandates data collection where gay and lesbian
victims are concerned, more than one third of
"states currently include attacks motivated by
sexual orientation bias in their hate crimes
penalty statutes."(1)
MIM opposes the expansion of any criminal
prosecutorial power of the imperialist state. Under
the dictatorship of the proletariat, the people
will effectively criminalize oppression, and its
laws will be combined with the actual dispossession
of the exploiters of their means of exploitation.
Only when we get to communism, and the abolition of
group power, will we truly see an end to violence
against people based on group status.
The FBI collects hate crime statistics from "9,500
law enforcement agencies in forty-five states and
Washington, D.C. covering seventy-five percent of
the U.S. population."(5) It is totally up to the
discretion of the local agencies what to count as a
hate crime -- so there is wide variation among the
reporting regions, not to mention the non-reporting
areas, and wide variation from year to year.
According to the recent FBI report, there were
1,016 hate crimes against people based on sexual
orientation, or about 11 percent of total hate
crimes counted, roughly the same as in 1995.(1) But
activists insist that this is a gross undercount.
In November of last year, researchers from the
University of California at Davis presented
findings to a congressional briefing stating that
victims of hate crimes are least likely to report
to the police. According to the Davis study, "only
33 percent of hate-crime victims reported the
incident to the police, compared with 57 percent of
the victims of random crimes."(2)
At the time of the congressional hearing, Clinton
hosted the first "White House Conference on Hate
Crimes" in which he "announced an initiative to
expand federal hate-crime laws to include more
potential victims, stiffer penalties, and more
accurate reporting."(3) And then when the new FBI
statistics came out, Reno chimed in her support to
"expand the definition of hate crime in the federal
hate crimes penalty law to include those involving
sexual orientation, gender and disability bias,
making it possible for the federal government to
more strenuously prosecute offenders in those
areas."(1)
No oppressed group should treat the state's
eagerness to expand its prosecutorial powers as a
victory. But that's exactly what the NGLTF is
calling for. That group published a press release
on the day the FBI report was released:
"'Our nation strives for fair and equal treatment
for everyone,' said Kerry Lobel, NGLTF Executive
Director, "no one should be a target for bias
motivated violence because of their sexual
orientation. Congress must follow the lead taken by
twenty-one states and the District of Columbia to
do their part in ending these crimes."(4)
According to FBI reports, there were 2,988 anti-
Black hate crimes, 1,002 anti-gay hate crimes --
and 1,266 anti-white hate crimes in 1995.(5) By the
standard of this bourgeois definition, violence
against whites because of who they are is the same
kind of crime as that against other groups. This is
like pacifists who say killing colonial soldiers in
a war of liberation is just as wrong as those
soldiers killing colonial subjects.
MIM agrees with the part of the NGLTF press release
which states that no one should be a target of bias
motivated violence -- that line is reflected in our
fundamental goal to abolish the power of groups
over groups. But in a patriarchal, imperialist
society organized around group oppression, the
concept of hate crimes is misguided and deceptive.
Poverty and mass imprisonment, for example, are
crimes against oppressed nationals in Amerikkka --
but neither is considered a "hate crime." The
imperialists are in no position to define, count or
prosecute such a thing as hate crime.
NOTES:
1. Washington Blade 16 January 1998, p. 23.
2. Trial January 1998, p. 96.
3. Trial January 1998, p. 95.
4. "NGLTF URGES GREATER FEDERAL ACTION TO CURB HATE
CRIMES," NLGTF Press Release, January 9, 1998.
5. Statistical Abstract of the United States 1996,
p. 206.
* * *
BERKELEY OIL BOYCOTTS DEMONSTRATE NECESSITY OF
REVOLUTION
by a friend of RAIL
The city of Berkeley, CA has passed so many
selective purchasing ordinances that it is having
trouble finding a supply of fuel for its municipal
vehicles. Arco, Unocal, Mobil and Texaco have been
excluded because they do business with the regime
in Myanmar (Burma). Shell and Chevron have been
excluded because they do business with the Abacha
government in Nigeria. Exxon has yet to be excluded
but it is also the focus of protest by
environmental activists.(1)
Just as Karl Marx wrote about The Poverty of
Philosophy in 1847, this situation demonstrates the
poverty of single-issue boycotts. Many intelligent
and motivated progressive activists have devoted a
lot of time, energy and resources into these
boycotts, but history has shown that boycotts can
only be effective in the context of a larger
revolutionary struggle. A good example of this
would be the Chinese boycott of Japanese products
during the May Fourth Movement (1919). This protest
against Japanese imperialism not only involved
product boycotts, but was part of a larger
nationalist movement that involved language reform
and strikes.
Berkeley is similar to a few other Amerikan cities
(Cambridge, MA; Ann Arbor, MI; Madison, WI; etcŠ)
in its high concentration of progressives. These
cities also feature universities that have a
history of progressive protest politics, and so
they serve as a mecca for other Amerikan
progressives who want to be around their "type."
Unfortunately, when activists move to places they
"feel comfortable," they abandon communities that
could use their wisdom and energy. They feel a
sense of righteousness that they are a part of a
progressive community; meanwhile, though, the rest
of Amerika carries on as it always has: either
ignorant or completely inconsiderate of the
oppression of others.
MIM has pointed out that youth (including
university students) have played a historically
revolutionary role, but youth alone cannot make a
revolution. There must be a social basis for
revolution, and currently, the objective material
conditions in Amerika do not lend themselves to
revolution but instead labor aristocratic collusion
with imperialism instead. Boycotts can serve an
educational purpose, but as long as the
buses/police/cars/ambulances etcŠ need oil,
Amerikan cities and individual must "do business"
with imperialism. An international oil corporation
that does not exploit Third World workers is a
contradiction in terms.
NOTES: "Berkeley's Oil Strike," Utne Reader.
Jan/Feb 1998, p. 12, as reported in Reason, October
1997.
* * *
PIG KILLS UNARMED MAN IN NEW YORK
RC 4T4
On December 25, 1997 William Whitfield was shot
dead in a Brooklyn grocery store by a trigger happy
pig named Michael Davitt. Whitfield was unarmed
when Davitt show him point blank in the chest.
Davitt has reportedly fired his gun eight times in
the last fourteen years he has been on the NYPD. He
was sent for firearms retraining twice, once after
he fired his gun accidentally, so he claims, while
chasing an alleged thief in 1995. He has been
charged with 12 civilian complaints during his
career. The police and district attorney say the
case is under investigation. Pig Davitt has been
placed on modified duty pending investigation. The
Whitfield family demands to know why William
Whitfield was fatally shot while unarmed.
The history of officer Davitt is probably not as
unusual as the NYPD is claiming. As we have seen
over the last year alone, using brutal violence
while serving as Amerika's soldiers is commonplace.
Although it is important that Whitfield's murder be
exposed, MIM does not see this as an isolated
incident. Nor do we see it as true justice if
Davitt is charged and/or dismissed.
Pig Davitt took advantage of the absolutely
chauvinist "provision in the police contract that
gives an officer who shoots someone 48 hours before
he must speak to investigators."(1) The fact that
such a provision exists is just one example of the
disgusting injustice of the Amerikkkan injustice
system. This 48 hour grace period allows the pig
who shoots someone plenty of time to fabricate a
story to cover up the wrong-doing s/he has
committed.
In defense of the New York pig department, Mayor
Giuliani was quoted in the New York Post, "People
shouldn't jump to conclusions before all the facts
are known."(2) Mayor Giuliani's statement is quite
ironic since the pig who fatally shot William
Whitfield did not seem to care about the facts
before he pulled the trigger. The officers
suspected Whitfield of a crime which they had been
called to the scene of, and without knowing all the
facts, officer Davitt shot Whitfield point blank.
MIM sympathizes deeply with the pain of the
Whitfield family. We urge Black nation members and
all oppressed in the United Snakes to mobilize
against the violence of the white nation pigs.
Amerikkkan imperialism is the fundamental root of
violence against the oppressed and we mobilize the
masses to use their anger and outrage to organize
against these acts of violence. True justice will
not be a reality until this unjust imperialist
system is overthrown.
NOTES:
1. The Times Herald Record 27 December 1997.
2. The New York Post 27 December 1997.
* * *
PARTICIPATE, ORGANIZE, MOBILIZE:
RAIL TEACH-IN ON THE CRIMINAL INJUSTICE SYSTEM
MIM and RAIL are helping to build for the March 27
Jericho'98 march on Washington DC which focuses on
the release of comrades incarcerated for their
political activism. As a part of this work we are
organizing a teach-in in DC on the criminal
injustices system the day after the march (March
28). The teach-in will involve people engaged in
many different forms of activism around prisons and
we will use this opportunity to build greater unity
and strengthen our struggle against the criminal
injustice system by sharing information and ideas.
If you or a group you work with is engaged in the
fight against the prisons system, we invite you to
participate in the teach-in. Write to us for a more
detailed invitation to participate or send us an
outline of your topic and presentation
(approximately 20 minutes for each presentation).
* * *
SPECIAL FOUR PAGE ISSUE OF UNDER LOCK & KEY: NEWS
FROM PRISONERS AND PRISONS
"THERAPEUTIC" ALTERNATIVES TO PRISON & THE U$
INJUSTICE SYSTEM
by facility RAIL
As both MIM Notes and MIM Theory #11 have shown,
the incarceration rates in the imperialist U$ have
been steadily increasing. This is part of
Amerikkka's growing attack on oppressed nations
within its borders. One of the main weapons in this
offensive is the alleged "War on Drugs". The U$ has
been using this "War" as a cover for increased
repression in both tactics (pigs with M-16's) and
harsher sentences. As more and more white nation
youth get caught in the "crossfire", so to speak,
the same white society that begged for harsher
measures in the 80's (when they thought drugs were
only a problem for the oppressed nations), has been
crying out now in the 90's for the need for
"rehabilitation." Now that white Amerikkka's
material interests are affected, the U$ government
has felt the need to show a change of heart.
A KINDER, GENTLER EXPLOITATION
In response to these calls for "rehabilitation" of
drug offenders, the U$ injustice system has
increasingly been working with programs that claim
to offer this. Various programs called "boot
camps", "thereputic communities", and "work-
therapy" programs have been proliferating nicely
off this. While they may all differ slightly on
minor points, they all serve the same function, and
operate similarly. Within these programs,
"patients" often work 11-15 hour days performing
harsh physical labor. In return they receive no
payment, and are told their work is in return for
room and board (as if the state and federal grants;
mandatory welfare and foodstamps for "patients";
and other sources of income are not enough!). This
room and board usually consists of drafty buildings
(which are often rodent infested) and high fat,
high calorie food filled with salt. This way
"patients" gain weight and "look" healthy.
Medical and other services are often minimal,
maximizing profit. Instead of going to the people
performing the labor, the profits they make for the
institution go into the exploiter's pockets,
providing them with an easy source of free labor
for their business-in-the-guise-of-a-program. In
addition, these programs use bourgeois psychology
to attempt to convince the masses imprisoned within
them that struggle is useless and that society will
never change. They push the concept of "acceptance"
on their victims, telling them that "accepting" the
injustice and oppression of capitalist society as
essential to their "recovery".
These programs also routinely restrict political
and religious mail of anyone adhering to a
non=state- approved ideology and place similar
restrictions on visitation, all in the name of
"therapy".
EXPLOITATION & THE COURTS: PERFECT TOGETHER
Representing the latest development in imperialist
tactics, these programs offer free labor and pro-
system propaganda all in one package. There is much
good publicity to be gained from this for the
courts, as well, since they can now say "See, we
let them go to a program" and such. Relations
between the directors of these programs and
government officials are normally very cozy. The
director of one such program in New Jersey is known
to be extremely close to both the mayor and police
chief (the police force in this town is renowned
for its brutality and corruption, as well as its
harassment of activists) of the town the program is
based in.
The profit-based motive behind these programs is
made clear when it is also understood that certain
county courts have actual contracts to supply a
certain amount of individuals; the formation of
drug courts (DCI) in the state of New Jersey that
habitually sentence people to lengthy program
stays; and most programs' participation in the MAP
program providing for the early release of
prisoners to programs (not to mention $30,000 a
head for the "non-profit" program!)
While pointing out the position these programs
serve in imperialist society repression, it must be
stated that there is often a much-reduced chance of
physical harm, and the length of stay is still less
than that of the average prison sentence.
Therefore, individuals facing prison time MAY wish
to look into the prospect of getting stipulated to
a program. As well, I feel the need to point out
that the issue of drug abuse is a serious one for
the revolutionary movement to tackle (MT#9 was a
good start).
In the way of self-criticism, I formerly abused
narcotics, but now feel that most drug use is
simply escapist and serious comrades would do
better to spend the time and money doing Party
work. 'Tis better to work to destroy imperialism,
then use drugs to hide from the horrors of it. Work
with MIM and RAIL to expose the system of national
oppression known as the criminal injustice system!
CRITICISMS & SELF-CRITICISM
The [facility] RAIL collective recognizes the
unparalleled value of criticism and self-criticism
to the revolutionary. Only through criticism and
self-criticism can correct revolutionary line be
achieved, and (in our current circumstances,
somewhat more importantly) can we recognize,
compensate for, and correct our errors on a
personal level. We realize that beyond organizing &
educating others, and studying on a theoretical
level, that building for revolution also entails
changes in our personal attitudes and behaviors as
we break free of imperialist society conditioning.
We should welcome opportunities for criticism and
self-criticism as important struggles to become
better, more effective revolutionaries. In keeping
with this belief, the collective issues the
following self-criticisms.
1) Objectively serving imperialism through past
dealings with drugs. Through our escapist use of
drugs we sought to hide from the horrors of
imperialist oppression, rather that organize for a
revolution to stop it. Through our purchase of
drugs we served imperialism both by providing an
excuse for increased pig presence in our
communities, and money for CIA operations in Third
World nations struggling for liberation. Finally,
through our sale of drugs, we led others down the
escapist path.
2) Failure to struggle to advance the line set
forth in this resolution. In the past year we have
seen many good comrades who have had quite advanced
theory and practice leave the program (often to
face long prison terms), without taking into
account the consequences of their actions.
Criticism and self-criticism could have helped
avert these occurrences.
As revolutionaries, our primary goals should always
be to prepare ourselves for struggle, and to free
ourselves (and others) from imperialist
restrictions as soon as possible. Thus, if one is
stipulated to 18 months here or face a 7 flat, the
comrade should be encouraged to stay in the program
and reminded of his duty to the People. Finally, by
carrying out intensive criticism and self-criticism
publicly, we will show the People our dedication
and determination, winning their respect.
ATTENTION PRISONERS:
JOIN RAIL IN ORGANIZING THE CRIMINAL INJUSTICE
SYSTEM TEACH-IN
A clenched fist salute to all brothers and sisters
imprisoned in U$ gulags. The Maoist
Internationalist Movement and the Revolutionary
Anti-Imperialist League firmly support the
struggles of prisoners as they oppose the unjust
prison system in Amerika. The targeted harassment
and brutality of members of oppressed nations and
of the poor by pigs on the streets; the inadequate
access to legal resources for oppressed nationals
and the poor; the denial to a jury of your peers;
the disproportionate sentences received by
oppressed nationals; the disproportionate
convictions of the oppressed; and brutality and
inhumane conditions in the prisons are all methods
of war which we are fighting against in solidarity
with you.
MIM works toward the end of oppression. The battle
which is at the forefront of the path for the
liberation of the oppressed is national liberation
for all oppressed nations. Without national
liberation and with the imperialist oppressors on
their backs, oppressed nations cannot struggle to
eradicate class inequality and gender oppression.
Without national liberation, a people cannot fully
develop its own economy, teach its own history to
its own people and lead its own people in political
affairs. MIM unites all who can be united in
genuine support of national liberation.
In the United Snakes, what this means is that we
oppose the domination of the Black nation, the
Latino nations and First nations by the white
settler nation. We oppose the use of white cops to
occupy and round-up members of oppressed nations.
We oppose the use of laws created in the interests
of the white nation to imprison more and more
oppressed nationals. We see the prison system and
the entire white nation's legal system as tools
which are used to continue the domination of the
oppressed within the United Snakes.
In our organizing work, we work on the outside to
mobilize activists who are broadly against national
oppression and we also mobilize people on the
outside who may only want to work against one
specific aspect of Amerikan Injustice -- maybe
people who support Affirmative Action, or people
who oppose the death penalty or people who oppose
police or prison guard brutality. The people who
work on single issues of opposing oppression can be
important allies if directed by the Party to do the
most effective work.
Across the country, outside of the prisons, we have
been holding events to educate community members,
students and local activists about the systematic
use of prisons as tools of national oppression,
social control and genocide. The events are geared
toward educating people about the facts and
struggling with them to do productive work that
will aid our ultimate goal of ending all oppression
through revolution.
This educational work is only one aspect of the
work that MIM and RAIL do which is necessary to
build opposition to Amerikan settler colonialism.
We also need to further develop various other
independent institutions of the oppressed. We would
like your help with pushing the struggle forward.
We are working on the expansion of programs which
address some of the needs of prisoners in their
struggles against oppression. To do this, we need
prisoners across the country to contribute to and
expand existing people's programs and direct
efforts in the most effective way to expand and
build other necessary people's institutions.
This year we are helping to build for the March 27
Jericho'98 march on Washington D.C. which focuses
on the release of comrades incarcerated for their
political activism. As a part of this work we are
organizing a teach-in on the criminal injustices
system the day after the march (March 28). We need
your help to build Jericho'98 and the struggle to
End the Amerikan Lockdown. The teach-in will
involve people engaged in many different forms of
activism around prisons and we will use this
opportunity to build greater unity and strengthen
our struggle against the criminal injustice system
by sharing information and ideas. We would like
statements from our comrades behind bars to read at
this teach-in. Statements about conditions,
struggles you have been undertaking, or on the
general nature of the criminal injustice system are
all welcome. We encourage all our comrades behind
bars to send us statements and information that we
can present at the teach-in.
Send statements to educate and mobilize!
PRISONER'S MURDER BURIED UNDER FOOTBALL COVERAGE
[This letter was shortened due to limited space.
The full letter can be found in Mass Rail No. 11 --
MIM]
... Paint peeling gray, tall walls of wretched woe
encircles MCI-Walpole. The maximum-security state
penitentiary in Massachusetts currently operating
in a "pseudo-lockdown fashion". Keeping the vast
majority of its 900 prisoners confined 22 1/2 hours
daily, in their respective single cells.
Rehabilitative, school programming is non-existent,
other than the substandard GED video educational
programming administered via the prison's tv- cable
system. Separated thus and existing so, you'd think
prisoners continually demonized by "free-society"
and banished from within its midst wouldn't have
commonality. Well think again! For being a "Fan"
enthusiastically endears individuals across the
human landscape. Nowhere is that more evident than
New England's Patriot football arena. The
commonwealth's circus-maximus, adjacent to its'
Penal Purgatory Realm...
... The home game was the 35th sell-out ... 60
thousand plus, screaming zealots, who'd driven
without pause or consternation past the foreboding
gray structure of MCI-Walpole prison. [Which is] a
place where prisoner on prisoner, and/or staff
against prisoner violence is commonplace and
sometimes fatal. Examples of this can be found in
the July 25, 1997 incident where a white officer
got the worse end of an altercation with a black
prisoner. [The prisoner] who was later beaten
severely by a host of other white officers. As were
the four unfortunate black prisoners who'd been
deemed insolent for laughing at the hurt (in pride
and physically) officer.
Not even one week later, a Haitian prisoner was
accosted and severely beaten down by white
officers, causing his death. His family and
attorney's poignant pleas that somebody should tour
MCI-Walpole and investigate the steady stream of
incidents of violence going on unchecked as
'reports' indicated, apparently fell on deaf
(political/judicial/societal) ears. Media coverage
was minimal at best, but rumors that the Patriot
might be leaving New England caused a major hue and
cry from across the commonwealth. Media coverage
was maximum, telephone lines were overloaded with
concerned callers all fanatically voicing an
adamant sense of both anguish and ire that this was
being allowed to occur.
In the midst of this frenzied-furor, the
death/murder of Haitian prisoner, Abel Remy, was
swept aside. Proof positive that the priorities of
the public are very distorted, immoral and locking
in humanity. Such that an outpouring of rage was
not forthcoming when a human being's life was
snuffed out by those entrusted to watch over it
within the criminal "justice" system.
20 "seasons" ago, then state Senators, Jack Backman
and Bill Owens and Rep. Doris Bunte toured MCI-
Walpole with representatives of the media.
Afterwards they met with then Governor, Michael
Dukakis, advising him on conditions at MCI-Walpole
and demanding an investigation into abusive
treatment of prisoners.
A year later Senator Backman announced he intends
to file legislation establishing a state policy
that Walpole be closed and requiring a preliminary
planning for phase out. In the two decades since
those courageous politicians asked for human
changes in correctional operating policies, the
differences are very superficial and cosmetic at
best, because the mindset allows Walpole to be
violent remains intact.
Herein MCI-Walpole, prisoners were occupied August
31, 1997, with massive television coverage of the
spectacle surrounding the death/murder of Princess
Diane (of Wales, England) and the pro-football
season opening televised games. Early Sept. 1, 1997
prison -wide, correctional officers dressed in all
black, went unit after unit awakening and
transferring pre-picked prisoners within MCI-
Walpole. Unbeknownst to prisoners was the fact that
other prisoners located at the MCI-Concord
(reception center) were also being rousted from
their sleep to be transferred up to the higher
security confines of Walpole. Or in the unlucky
case of a busload of prisoners (about 45) sent to
Texas in exchange for some prisoners already housed
there.
The "justification" for all these moves was, as
reported by local media, working in collusion with
prisoncrats and politicians, attributed to "safety-
concerns" from an alleged increase in problems with
(minority) gangs at the Concord facility. Which
[the Concord facility] was even then locked down
ostensibly stemming from an Aug. 27, 1997 melee in
the prison's main-yard, involving between 30 -40
Hispanic and Black prisoners. When the truth
eventually became known, the reason why the
prisoners were incited was because of the many
rumors running rampant within the general
population of an impending transfer of prisoners to
Texas. Which eventually became a reality.
In insidious and racist fashion, malevolent
administrators were able to circumvent state law
and constitutional mandates prohibiting segregation
of prisoners by race using the vague and nebulous
reasoning of safety concerns for their further
stigmatizing and locking-down of these transferred
minority prisoners in a newly designated Security
Threat Housing Unit. Bringing the total up to six
units.
All in all these racially tainted MDOC-machinations
ratcheted up higher to boiling point in an already
seething caldron of prisoners' emotions, stemming
from the lightly media-publicized death/murder of
Haitian prisoner, Abel Remy. A Black man who was
screaming in agonizing pain from the brutal beating
given to him by all white correctional officers
herein Walpole, Mass. While in New York, a fellow
Haitian, Abner Louima was screaming in similar pain
due to all white law enforcement shoving a plunger
up his rectum!
Because violence in Walpole is such a common
occurrence (be it staff on prisoner, or prisoner on
prisoner). When an Asian convict was tossed from
the third tier and the sight of his brain matter
splattered on the floor caused a rookie officer to
rush from the scene, visibly distraught from what
he'd seen, some prisoners found cause to laugh and
joke about the overall situation. Sad, but true
none-the-less...
Neither the incident with the Haitian or Asian
prisoner was cause for a great hue and cry from the
general public herein Massachusetts, because people
were more alarmed and concerned with the possible
move of the New England football team out of state.
With everyone having an opinion on radio and tv-
pundits encouraging the citizenry to vent their
anger at politicians in the upcoming local
elections if the Patriots are allowed to leave
Foxboro.
One suggestion floated by a harried state
legislature looking for feasible financial packages
to pay to keep the Patriots in the commonwealth,
was to get prisoners to press Patriot logo license
plates. Which would be then sold to the public at
$55 dollars a set. This in turn was estimated to
quickly raise about 1.5 million dollars. That would
help pay debt services on the borrowing of the 20 -
30 million dollars need for Foxboro Stadium
renovations.
Once again the priority of people in Mass. are
shown to be misplaced. All money raised is better
spent on other pertinent public services in dire
need of financial infusion. [Services] that the
legislature says isn't readily available because
the state can't afford these "liberal luxuries".
Meanwhile the communal infrastructure continues to
decline into decay. The Circus Maximus games must
continue at all cost and the legitimate social
concerns are deemed to be trifling issues.
Money could also be well spent here in Walpole,
where the "Pat's Plates" are to be manufactured.
The first place to start could be within the food
service area. Which is serving substandard small
food portions. [Substandard portions are served] so
often that on September 24, 1997, prisoners, who
had access to the prison's chow hall, began a
weeklong boycott in protest. The only thing that
came out of this unified showing of prisoners was
the `leaders' were placed in segregation and the
min-end of Walpole was placed on "pseudo-lockdown".
Money was also a central issue of why a Muslim
prisoner was removed from Walpole. He was seeking
funding similar to that received by the Christian
and Catholic departments respectively. Even while
stating that their money was constrained with an
overburdened budget, as with every new fiscal year,
the MDOC [Massachusetts Department of Corruptions]
spent money needlessly. This year it was on
replacing perfectly good windows in the units'
observation galleries with new reflective, tinted,
one-way mirrored windowing. Painting of the units
was also done unnecessarily at an exorbitant coast,
herein the Circus Maximus. Meanwhile prisoners and
plebeians in the public, cheer on the Patriots!
Some prisoners, not completely inundated by the
mass entertainment culture and asleep to the
sleight of hand tricknology of the Mass Department
of Corrections, voiced displeasure with the latest
policy change. Which rescinds prisoners from being
able to receive two and a half days per month
participation in the institutional GED video
programming schooling, because the MDOC provided
program was deemed to be substandard! Truly the
time went backwards more than one hour this year at
daylight savings time, and the Circus stays open.
-- A Massachusetts Prisoner, 15 November 1997
"MY NAME IS NOT MUMIA ABU-JAMAL"
Even though, with all due respect, my name is not
Mumia Abu-Jamal, I am one of a million people that
are incarcerated in this country for political
reasons. Yes, that's correct. There are over one
million political prisoners in this country.
This fact may shock most people but the most
shocking aspect of this fact is that the vast
majority of those incarcerated in this country for
political reasons are not aware of the fact because
the vast majority have no politics, per se.
Now, logic begs to ask, if someone who doesn't have
a political bone in their body, let alone exercise
it, how then, can they be incarcerated for
political beliefs? The answer, of course, is that
we're not incarcerated for our political beliefs
but for those beliefs pressed on us or oppressed
upon us by the system, for we live in a system that
now defines social problems as public health
problems.
We also live in a system that seeks more ways to
incarcerate more of its people instead of seeking
more ways to free them. The war drums of the system
upon its people can be heard loud and clear
throughout this nation. Specifically in California
where anti-affirmative action, anti-immigration,
and anti-bilingual education is not only the law of
the land but politically correct.
Dostoyevski's challenge, to all citizens, still
rings true today, in that, "The degree of
civilization in a society can be determined by
examining its prisons." I'm saddened, though, that
most people will not take up this challenge because
they are truly afraid of what they will find which
is sadly a truth within itself.
-- A California Prisoner
OPPRESSION BREEDS REBELLION
... These fascist type gestapo lackeys are at it
again within South Karolina's Department of
Koruptions (SCDC). Just the past week, these neo-
pigz cam and got myself along with three other
brother/comrades to place us back on the so-called
bad side of the Special Management Unit (SMU) at
Lee for not abiding with grooming standards.
As for this placing Askori Souljahs on the chains
or full security in what they call level I: For
some time now, the oppressive pigs have devised
this so-called level system to pacify the prisoners
with things such as radios and tv's; phone and
visit privileges, etc. in return for allowing them
to continue the oppression.
But one who has studied the strategy of revolution
knows that oppression breeds rebellion. Therefore
they could place me under this kamp and i would
still be politically conscious. And i would strive
to liberate the thoughts of anyone around me.
For an individual as myself, who was placed in the
control unit for my STG (Security Threat Group)
status, which the pig Michael Moore has targeted to
obey the commands of the devil in a white shirt
(Captain Hall), it would go contrary to my
ideology.
...In the tradition of comrade George Jackson, i
rage on against any and everything that advocates
this unjust society, plots to imprison the young
souljahs, and keeps us away from our own form of
social equality. Until the pigs die and their
empire crumbles, i remain as always.
In Struggle,
-- A South Carolina Prisoner, 11 December 1997
POOR MEDICAL CARE IN MASSACHUSETTS
...Currently I am on isolation for refusing they
say, "to give a urine sample". I was unable to give
them a urine sample simply because I could not
urinate on demand. The so-called free medical care
which inmates allegedly receive is a hoax. It is a
fraud perpetrated against inmates who are powerless
to resist it.
Not only is the medical staff here totally useless,
the frequently call inmates to HUS (the prisoner
hospital) for the most ludicrous things, all the
while completely ignoring any real serious
problems. A month ago, I was called to HUS at 8:30
AM to give a blood sample to check for syphilis,
which I am absolutely sure I do not have.
Meanwhile, I was not seen till nearly 10:30 AM, two
hours later, thus wasting my morning. I of course
refused the blood sample. Not only have they done
nothing about my lower back pain or the two torn
rotator cuff muscles I have, they waste my time on
top of it. They are not only utterly useless, but
worse then useless.
Of course they are all paid extremely well to do
little more than pass out aspirin and band-aids,
while ignoring serious medical problems. I was
informed today, I will receive five days isolation
and four weeks loss of canteen for, they claim,
"refusing to supply a urine sample". In any case, I
will end this letter saying I regret very much that
I am unable to receive your literature. It is a
totally irrational decision, but one I am powerless
to appeal....
-- A Massachusetts Prisoner, 5 December 1997
TEXAS PRISONER CRITICIZES UNDER LOCK AND KEY
I am an indigent prisoner in the Texas slave
plantations. Recently I was permitted by a fellow
slave to read 4 old issues of MIM Notes still
circulating here....To open my comments, I saw in
the Sept. 1, 1997 issue, your response to a letter
in which you said: "We also disagree with the
writer that Amerika is currently fascist." And you
also said: "We must correctly analyze the enemy and
current conditions."
If you were serious about the latter statement,
then I fear that whoever is responsible for doing
your analyzing has died and you haven't yet
noticed. Amerika is in fact currently one of the
most outrageously fascist oligarchies ever to
disgrace the human race.
Next, in the same issue, prisoners in New Jersey
and Pennsylvania complain about the "low wages"
they are paid for their work. You poor, underpaid
workers have our deepest sympathy from Texas --
where we are not paid a solitary cent for our
forced slave labor. [Labor] ranging from eight to
fifteen hours per day, five to seven days per week.
Despite the fact that our prison industries each
year extract thousands of dollars from the
taxpayers for what they list as "wages for inmate
labor".
I saw discussions from some inmates complaining
about not receiving enough channels on his cable
service, and one talking about turning off the TV
in his cell. By the Gods! Do you also have a
swimming pool, a golf course and tennis courts? I
would damn sure love to trade places with either of
you!
There was one in Michigan who complained that the
pig he got arrested for sexually assaulting him
didn't get enough punishment. How did he work the
impossible miracle of getting him arrested? The
free-world mother in Huntsville would like to know.
Since she caught one of our pigs in the act of
sexually assaulting her three-year-old daughter,
and all they did to him [the pig] was to reassign
him to another unit.
For the prisoner in Georgia, in the September 15th
issue, who after complaining of work with no pay
said, "the only answer is the court room." I say
use it while you can friend; it's going fast. They
have already removed the law libraries from prisons
in some states. Here in Texas they have a simpler
solution -- they just automatically dismiss all
actions filed by prisoners as "frivolous".
In the July 15 issue a South Carolina prisoner
complains that clowns run the prisons from high
positions. Here the prisons are run by the
individual guards, each of which makes up his/her
own rules minute by minute. The only function the
clowns in high positions serve is to prevent anyone
from investigating. Want to make a bet on which
system is worse?
Then in the July 1 issue, I saw the Maryland
prisoner who thinks those locked up for child
molesting and for killing blacks should stay in
prison. Does that include the black who killed a
black he caught molesting your child? Does it
include the man here serving a fifty year sentence
for repeatedly raping a child. Despite the fact
that the state's own medical doctor who examined
her testified that even now, she is still a virgin,
and shows no sign at all of ever having any sexual
activity of any kind? Perhaps it is a certain
Maryland prisoner who should stay where he is until
he learns to put his brain in gear.
-- A Texas Prisoner, 15 November 1997
MIM RESPONDS: This letter demonstrates that
prisoners in Texas live under horrible conditions.
It is important to know that the conditions on
Texas are worse than many other states but at the
same time it is the entire prison system in Amerika
which serves as an imperialist mechanism of
oppression. Because prisoners are murdered and
brutalized and forced into labor in Texas does not
mean that Amerikan oppression through prisons is
insignificant in states where there is less overt
tactics of oppression.
Under Lock and Key, as well as other programs of
MIM and RAIL to expose the use of the prison system
as a tool of national oppression and social
control, cover a wide variety of atrocities which
the white settler nation commits. We use the pages
of MIM Notes and other organs to build unity
against imperialism. The pages are not used to
state that only the very worst tactic of
imperialist domination should be fought. It is the
entire system which we must force to crumble!
We argue that all prisoners are political
prisoners. This means that it is the entire corrupt
capitalistic Amerikan society that creates the
conditions of poverty, unequal education and
opportunities which the oppressed are forced to
endure. All imprisonment under the dictatorship of
the bourgeoisie is characterized by injustice.
Whether it is looking at the statistical facts of
disproportionate imprisonment of oppressed
nationals or looking at the fact that the oppressed
do not have adequate legal assistance or fair
trialsŠ Amerika uses prisons as a tool against the
oppressed and this is political. Again, the tactics
of oppressed must be exposed. But it is not only
the worst tactics which we fight - we fight the
entire Amerikan system!
Note that many of this prisoner's criticisms were
addressed by MIM responses in the issues mentioned.
So, they will not all be completely rehashed here.
First, as we have stated in MIM Theory #11 and
elsewhere, Amerika is not currently fascist.
However, we point to the Amerikan prison system as
the most fascistic part of Amerikan society. The
reason is that in the prison system you can see the
merging of state and capital and the use of force
to exploit the masses.
Important to the analysis that Amerika's system is
not entirely fascist is sizing up the political
position of the middle classes in Amerika. The
middle classes in Amerika currently support
imperialism and the flow of super-profits from
oppressed nations to puff up the Amerikan standard
of living. The middle classes in Amerika are not
being squeezed as they were during the development
of Nazi fascism in Germany. Because of
imperialism's ability to super-exploit the masses
of oppressed nations, the Amerikan government and
capital do not need to force the middle classes
into labor as what would be necessary under
fascism.
It is a minority in Amerika where are forced to
work under fascistic relations. The majority in
Amerika is not forced through fascistic relations
to labor for profit of the state and capital
combined. Though there are seeds of fascist
ideology among the middle classes, white nation
chauvinism to support imperialism is sufficient at
this time to perpetuate the interests of the
Amerikan settler nation. A threat to these
interests would be a well-organized and strong
communist movement. And at this time, this threat
is not strong enough for the middle classes in
Amerika to firmly support fascism.
We do not conclude that the united snakes is
currently under a fascist system but instead a
dictatorship of the bourgeoisie. The dictatorship
of the bourgeoisie enables the settler middle
classes to benefit from imperialism. When state
powers are delegated to capital, capital uses those
powers to increase its influence over the state.
This decreases democracy and at this point in time
there is no need for the state and capital to
decrease democracy for the majority in Amerika
because the majority in Amerika supports the goal
of imperialism.
The injustice system in general and the prison
system in particular is the most fascist part of
Amerikan society. The injustice system in Amerika
is one of the main tools in oppressing Amerika's
internal colonies through force. You are correct to
point to the outrageous exploitation and oppression
which Texas prisoners face, but remember that it is
the entire system that is used to oppress and that
is why we expose it in its entirety.
You are right that prison industries extract
thousands of dollars off the labor of prisoners.
The prisoners do not benefit in Texas, New Jersey
or Pennsylvania. Texas prisoners get paid nothing,
New Jersey Prisoners get 28-30 cents and hour, and
Pennsylvania prisoners work 8 hours and get paid
for 7 (wage amounts were not mentioned). Texas
prisoners are the worst off but it does not mean
the objectively the prisoners in other states which
are being paid pittances are not exploited.
When we expose the lack of control that prisoners
have over things like reading newspaper or watching
TV, we are exposing the fact that prisoners are
controlled. We expose the fact that prisoners do
not have the ability to gain further education in
most cases or the fact that their books are
censored when we send them out. Sure, these things
are not as egregious as prison pigs murdering
prisoners, but we expose it to teach people that
Amerika is not about democracy and prisons are not
about rehabilitation. Too many people on the
outside want to increase the number of Amerika's
prisons. It is our job to expose the many aspects
which show that prisons are only about controlling
the oppressed, they are not about stopping crime
and are not about helping people to become
productive members of society.
MONEY FOR EDUCATION -- NOT PRISONS
This prison has approximately 600 prisoners, and
only two teachers to serve the ones who wish to
learn. Each teacher spends about three to five
minutes once a week with a prisoner. The
administration here refuses to pay the money for
the teachers, and refuses to open the school
building here at X prison. Inmates or residents
here have in cell teaching. Out of Y years in
prison, I have never seen such a low level of
teaching in the State of Michigan. There's a lot of
young guys here, who really don't care about
getting an education, and yet we know this is the
reason that we are in here, for the lack of
education.
I believe that it is relevant that this institution
make reading, writing and math more sufficient for
inmates or residents.
--a Michigan prisoner, 19 December, 1997
My white teacher dropped me from her class, and
claimed her five books back from me but I feel
there is no education or rehabilitation in here.
The teachers spend five minutes with you. If you
are in the hole they drop you some books and expect
you to do the work. Also if you want to take the
GED test you can't do it from the hole only
population.
--another Michigan prisoner, 4 July, 1997
The educational set-up is prisoners can take GED
classes [at Michigan Department of Corrections
expense]. I have a GED so I am not allowed to
attend any schooling. If I request educational text
books I am told they need them for prisoners who do
not have GED. There are no college teachings at all
so if we have GED and wish to continue schooling it
has to be done by our own resources. The MDOC does
not aid once you have the GED.
--a third Michigan prisoner, 19 December, 1997
MIM RESPONDS: MIM believes that the lack of
education for oppressed nationals in Amerika is
part of the same system of oppression as the
prisons system. Lack of schooling does not cause
people to commit crimes and be put in prison;
rather lack of schooling is part of the systemic
denial of the basic needs of the oppressed under
imperialism.
Having whites serve as teachers and guards and the
majority of DOC staff overall is another aspect of
the same oppression -- it's not enough to lock up
the Black, Latino and First Nations in
disproportionate numbers, but they must be
supervised by white captors as well.
Even under imperialism, MIM advocates that money be
spent on education rather than imprisonment, and we
believe that there are winnable battles within this
general goal. Our Free Books for Prisoners program
is designed to provide resources to prisoners which
the DOC will not provide.
OPPOSE THE AMERIKAN LOCKDOWN
MICHIGAN PRISONER RAPED BY HIS CAPTORS
January 10, 1998
***In the next couple of months, there will be an
important parole hearing in Ann Arbor. A prisoner
originally from Ann Arbor will be appealing his
denial of parole, because he believes the denial
was an act of retaliation for his exposure of
brutality within the Michigan prisons. The judge
who will hear his parole appeal is Donald Shelton,
in Washtenaw County Circuit Court. Read more about
this case and give your support to this prisoner
who has been harshly abused by the Michigan
Department of Corrections (MDOC).***
X* was raped by a prison guard in March of 1996. By
his own accounting it took more than a year of
repeated complaints from him, and his own
submission to a lie detector test, before the MDOC
would even begin to investigate his rape charge.
Now that the charge is known to be true, the state
has let this violent guard plead guilty to charges
less than rape, which X says "is the last thing I
want," because "as long as the MDOC can sweep this
under the rug, nothing will change, and more POWs
will be abused."
RAIL sees this case as another nail in the coffin
of the MDOC's image as a rehabilitative system. As
X points out, sexual abuse of prisoners is "an
everyday affair" in Michigan's prisons. Based on
their authority over prisoners and their impunity
in the face of the law, prison guards are in a
position to abuse prisoners who have never been
abusive to anyone. The system is set up so that
prison will further worsen the condition of
prisoners who are already in bad shape, and degrade
the conditions of those prisoners who are
relatively healthy before they are imprisoned. It
is always to the credit of the prisoners who
struggle against this system, never to the credit
of the system itself when prisoners survive in
spite of it.
In a statement demanding reform of the miserable
conditions at Attica Correctional Facility in New
York, months before prisoners there rebelled in
1971, "under the facade of rehabilitation we are
treated for our hostilities by our program
administrators with their hostility as a
medication." Here in Michigan more than twenty-five
years after the Attica rebellion, prisoners are
still treated with gross hostility.
Join RAIL in struggling against these abusive
prison conditions. Work with us to support X in his
struggle for fair treatment, and join us in putting
the spotlight on Michigan's criminal INjustice
system.
*In general, RAIL and MIM do not print the names of
prisoners in connection with their cases. In many
cases, prisoners can be politically active without
bringing consistent attention to themselves. In X's
case, he has already suffered rape at the hands of
a prison "guard" and is now enduring retaliation
for his resistance. Where we are building support
for this individual's appeal, we will print X's
name if he asks us to. We will not do this without
permission first.
Source on Attica: A Bill of No Rights: Attica and
the American Prison System by Herman Badillo &
Milton Haynes.
BRUTAL BEATING IN MISSOURI
EXPOSE THE PIGS! IT'S A MUST!
...I've had an altercation here at Potosi
Correctional Center that has more than jolted my
thoughts. I'm now in the hole due to a situation
that's taken place. Please let me explain.
Some time ago, I recorded this article out of a
Black Islamic newspaper called the Final Call.
There was this article untitled "Black man accept
your own" in it. It seemed to have made some
interesting points, so I copied it down. It spoke
about how we black people need to start building
educational systems for our youth, love one
another, buy our own land, and stop being so
dependent on those who mean us not good --i.e. The
Amerikkkan Government. Also that America has
inflicted injustice upon our ancestors all the way
up into this present day.
We were going out to school. Since this plantation
is on the verge of being on total lock down, we
have to give our folders to the pigs and get pat-
search before we get hauled off to school. Walking
single file, like a bunch of military guinea pigs!
No talking, no waving at other prisoners at the
windows. Just single file marching with pigs
everywhere waiting to fabricate a reason to write
you up!
Well I forgot that this article was in my school
folder. I gave the pig my folder and he searched
through it curiously and spotted the copied article
in it. He stated, "What's this." I asked to see it
but he wouldn't allow me any view of his now
delight. During the course of some indifferent
chitchat he finally said that he's not giving it
back.
I got agitated with his arrogance and just snatched
my paper out of his hand. Before I knew it there
were pigs everywhere. "Grab his arms, get his
legs!" is all they yelled. I resisted being slammed
to the ground, so they politely rushed me against
the building and smashed my face into a protruding
brick wall, and bloodied it all up! Then they
sprayed mace in my eyes, nose and mouth, after they
drug me to another designated spot. After I was on
the ground they suffocated me by pressing their
knees into my back.
I screamed, "I can't breath, I can't breath!"
because I was choking on mace and gasping profusely
for air. The only response I got was, "So what, you
should of thought about that before you snatched
that paper you fuck, you ass-hole!" They covertly
punched me in the face and sprayed mace in my mouth
again.
I could breath no longer. Lost my sight for a short
while and felt as if I was going to die. So I just
said unto myself, "Fuck it. I'm going to die!" But
as these words pushed through my mind I was lifted
and drug to this cell. Stripped of all my clothes
and comforted by cold steel and concrete for four
days.
These pigs mocked me for my efforts to stand on
what I believe. This is a prime example of the
American Justice System. Also it's a prime example
of manifest destiny syndrome. Who made these
bitches my keeper? I almost lost my life because I
used an improper method in their eyes to stand up
for my beliefs. I guess if you're not white, you're
not right, huh? This just goes to show imperialism
in its purest form.
-- A Missouri Prisoner, 4 December 1997
P.S. By the way they're talking about prosecuting
me because after they slammed my face against the
wall and almost cracked it open, I tried to free
myself from anymore bruises. They "say" I elbowed a
pig in the chest, punched on in the shoulder and
kicked one in the testicles. So they're going to
charge me for a fabricated assault on three pigs. I
get fucked up for taking a damn piece of paper and
in the process of attempted liberation, I get
charged for assault.
Bullshit! I need help. Is there anyone I can talk
to about this matter? These pigs are probably going
to try to give me 10, 20, 30 years for some Bull!
MIM RESPONDS: We're printing your letter to expose
this pigs' brutality and also request more advice
from Jailhouse lawyers and prisoner paralegals
reading MIM Notes. First try the local ACLU and
National Lawyers Guild and the sidebar contains
some legal resources that were recommended by
fellow prisoners.
LEGAL RESOURCES:
The National Prison Project of the ACLU
1875 Connecticut Avenue, NW Suite 410
Washington, D.C. 20009
(202) 234-4830 www.npp.org
NLADA Directory
16525 K ST, 8th Floor
NW Washington, DC 20006
Provides a national listing of free legal services
Prisoners Rights Advocacy Centers of America Inc.,
204 Elmo Ave
San Antonio, TX 78225-2140
Attention: Anna M. Dobbyn, Founder
* * *
HIP HOP BAND DEMANDS FREEDOM FOR REVOLUTIONARY
LEADERS: REVIEW OF CRITICAL MASS
Suite No 192 72
VanReipen Ave
Jersey City, NJ 07306
Beep: 201 693 1860
Critical Mass is a new political hip hop band out
of New Jersey. They are currently on tour of the
East Coast doing benefit concerts for the Jericho
March. Critical Mass is using their tour to build
consciousness for the march as well as raise funds
to pay for buses to the march. In some areas, RAIL
has organized concerts for Critical Mass to perform
at. Here MIM reviews the demo tape "Rise Up!"
Critical Mass is firm in their support for the
incarcerated revolutionary leaders who languish
behind the walls in Amerika's gulag. They sharply
link the question of those incarcerated for their
political beliefs and actions to social conditions
in Amerika's ghettos to U.$ imperialism in the
Third World.
Critical Mass exposes what MIM has long said, that
the real criminals are the imperialists for
carrying out genocide through enforced starvation
and military suppression of the people's
organizations. Critical Mass exposes the role of
the police on the front line of Amerika: "cops are
military forces/in our urban areas/causing mass
hysteria."
The emphasis on this demo tape is the need for a
revolution to end this unjust system and a defense
of those incarcerated for their revolutionary
politics. "Organize/Legitimize/Mobilize/For our
freedom fighters/Tighter fist raised up." Critical
Mass links the incarcerated revolutionary leaders
with their movements against imperialism:
"Amerika's based on a fucked up foundation...
/Emancipation was a lie/ ... The stole the land
from Peltier to drink Perrier."
Critical Mass enlarges the issue of incarceration
as political beyond those arrested for their acts
and beliefs, at one point singing "All prisoners
are political." MIM wouldn't go so far as to say
"Free all prisoners" or to "Smash all prisons" like
Critical Mass. MIM does not say "Free all
prisoners" because some prisoners did indeed commit
crimes against the people for which they should
make self-criticism. We do call all prisoners
political prisoners, however, because under the
dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, all imprisonment
is substantively political. We also don't advocate
prison abolition because we believe that prisons
will be necessary -- along very different lines --
under socialism.
At another point Critical Mass sings a song about
Black Liberation Army leader Assata Shakur. The
song doesn't make it explicit that the song is
about her and it also serves as a strong testament
to the inhumanity all prisoners are subjected to.
Based on a review of their demo tape, MIM has two
significant disagreements with Critical Mass.
First, we believe that now is not the time for
armed struggle in the imperialist countries. It's
correct to oppose the illegitimacy of white rule in
North America, but we disagree that "It's time to
rise up/It's time to get it back/It's time we start
shooting/cops in the back/of the head/face full of
lead/the only good cop/is one that's dead." We must
do as Mao said, and wait until the imperialists are
"truly helpless." To not wait until the time is
ripe will unnecessarily send comrades to their
graves or the prisons as has been so well proven by
the number of the people's leaders lost in the
1970s.
Secondly, we disagree that marijuana's use is
progressive or revolutionary. "I take a puff of the
herb/to get back my nerve/to pull the trigger/cause
I figure cops got to do down/before they take my
body and put it six feet underground." In doing our
work we must be in full control of our facilities
at all times. The Black Panther Party didn't allow
members to do political work or be in their offices
while high. MIM takes this further, not allowing
its members to use or possess illegal drugs,
recognizing how the pigs use drugs as an excuse to
bust members and recruit informants.
MIM is glad to have been introduced to this hip hop
band. We are inspired by their concrete support to
the cause of raising consciousness in general and
the Jericho March in particular.
Upcoming Critical Mass Show:
Amherst, MA appearance: Friday, March 6, Student
Union.
* * *
POLICE PEPPER SPRAY BLACK BASKETBALL STAR
According to the Prince George's County (Maryland)
police department, the cop who pepper-sprayed
Washington Wizards basketball star Chris Webber was
justified even though he didn't even warn him
first. Webber, 24, was convicted on the spot of
being a young, athletic Black man with a $57-
million contract and an attitude, driving a kick-
ass 1998 Lincoln sport utility vehicle.
The pretense for pulling him over was his alleged
speed of 70 in a 50 zone. Police say Webber failed
to produce his driver's license and registration,
instead showing the cop his credit card. When the
cop ran the license plate and found that the car
was registered to someone with the same name as the
credit card, he apparently decided Webber could be
assumed to have stolen both. He told Webber to get
out because he was going to impound the car. Then,
according to the cop, he started to open the door
and Webber slapped at his hand -- that's assaulting
a police officer, up to 10 years -- and so the cop
fired his pepper spray without warning. (Webber
hasn't discussed the incident on the advice of his
lawyers.)
Impounding the car under those circumstances is
discretionary on the part of the cop, the police
department says, as was the pepper spray. It is up
to the pig on the spot to determine how bad the
situation is and to act accordingly. The Washington
Post reported, "Steven Edwards, an analyst at
National Institute of Justice who studies the use
of pepper spray, said [officer Raymond] Kane was
right to use the weapon if he felt he was losing
control of the situation. He also said a warning
might have prompted Webber to escalate the conflict
and perhaps even try to drive away." And driving
away, which would have resulted in a Black man
driving his own kick-ass Lincoln sport utility
vehicle, was obviously out of the question.
When Webber arrived at the police station in
handcuffs, the genius cop at the station with
"special training in recognizing the effects of
drugs" looked at Webber's red eyes (remember the
pepper spray) and declared that he was driving
under the influence of drugs. Cops later claimed
they found the butt of a joint and some suspect
ashes in the ashtray of the Lincoln.
MIM takes from this story that a rich Black man
can't take for granted the things rich whites can
in Amerika. White Amerika often makes some
exceptions for star athletes, but Webber
unfortunately ran into a redneck who said he didn't
immediately recognize Webber. Webber is lucky to be
alive, as people in his situation are often deemed
too dangerous to let live.
This racism is the kind of behavior that limits the
progress of the Black national bourgeoisie. In this
case, Webber's riches as an athlete are at the
mercy of the white establishment, but the cop's
actions are indicative of the limits on his
privilege. Once the pigs get their act together
they might figure out to let Webber off with a slap
on the wrist, but the boundaries have clearly been
drawn in any case.
NOTES: Washington Post 22 January 22, 1998. p. D1.
* * *
WHITEHOUSE SCANDALS PALE COMPARED TO IMPERIALISM
by a MIM investigative team
Sources say Clinton was not monogamous, and he used
his job as governor to make profits on shady land
deals, and when his lawyer friend Web Hubbell got
in trouble on the land deal Clinton got his other
friend Vernon Jordan to get Hubbell overpaid legal
work at Revlon to shut him up, and around that time
Clinton tried to get free sex from state employee
Paula Jones, like he did from other wimmin as
governor of Arkansas, only that backfired years
later when Jones sued for sexual harassment, at
about the time that a Special Prosecutor was
charged with the job of chasing down Clinton's land
deal, and both Jones's lawyers and the Special
Prosecutor Star eventually got permission from
judges to investigate Clinton's whole sexual
history, at about the time Clinton was having an
affair with 21-year-old White House intern Lewinsky
(a graduate of Bel Air Prep after transferring from
Beverly Hills High), and a White House staffer
named Trip (now at the Pentagon at $80,000+)
decided she had better start taping Lewinsky's
bragging rants, including Lewinsky playing
Clinton's sexy answering machine messages over the
phone to Trip, and then when Trip and Lewinsky were
both subpoenad to testify in the Jones trial on the
matter of Clinton's sexual history, Trip brought a
tape to Star with Lewinsky saying Clinton told her
to lie about the affair and promising her a job
courtesy of yes-man Jordan, and then Lewinsky was
offered a job at Revlon that was even better than
her top-secret clearance job at the Pentagon, and
so Star wired Trip to get more dirt on Clinton and
Jordan from Lewinsky, which she did in a four-hour
conversation, and about this time the U$A bombed
300,000 Iraqis to death and starved many thousands
more children with an embargo, and millions of
oppressed-nation children died from preventable
diseases and another million Black men went to
jail.
NOTES: classified.
* * *
UNTITLED POEM
by Dennis Brutus
The perfume of freedom has burned my mind
with grief for my country:
while I walk the ammoniac streets
reeking of urine and vomit,
while shadows move in and out of shadows
gesturing with flapping empty trousers,
while gnarled and soiled both hands
thrust and review with skeletal fingers,
dead eyes stare glassily, unconnected
to the hourse whispered words of thanks
and I stare against the blank wall
of a despaired and despairing future:
the perfume of freedom has burned my mind
with grief for my country:
but I remember that seeming ultimate journey
to the bottom end of a continent
to an island graveyard of corpses and hopes
and an indestructible assertion
"We shall survive"
Dennis Brutus 1996-1997
San Francisco/Santa Clara/San Jose/Capetown
* * *
LENINGRAD CONFERENCE IGNORES MAOIST UNIVERSAL ON
CAPITALIST RESTORATION UNDER SOCIALISM
In November, 1997 from the 6th to the 9th, there
was a conference of parties in Leningrad upholding
Stalin. 23 parties signed a declaration attacking
Khruschev revisionism. Most of the signatories were
from the former Soviet Union.
Khruschev came to power in the Soviet Union after
Stalin died in 1953. Khruschev denounced Stalin and
set about making the economy profit-run.
Today, with the advent of Boris Yeltsin and the
restoration of open capitalism in the ex-Soviet
Union, those who used to be in the fog of
Khruschevism have in the main moved right into
social-democracy, reformism. Another portion has
now taken up "Stalinism."
Among the oddities of the November, 1997 Leningrad
resolution reflecting ex-Soviet politics are the
following: "Financial oligarchy, transnational
companies, whose assault troops are American
imperialism and international Zionism, under the
banners of deceit and "World Democracy" exert
increasing pressure in order to instore a world
order." Although Israeli imperialism is certainly a
ranking and aggressive imperialism, pairing it (and
not even by name) with "American imperialism" as if
it were equal with it and referring to
"international Zionism" is a way of deflecting the
question from Israeli imperialism to one of
international Jewry. It amounts to catering to the
unrealistic illusions or outright reactionary
nationalism of anti-Semitic people, mostly in the
labor aristocracy, which is not the majority in
Russia, but which is still substantial and
influential.
No where does the resolution even mention the split
in the working class; although such an issue is
certainly important in attacking the social-
democracy of the Gorbachovs and Zhuganovs.
The declaration signed is especially the reflection
of the work of Ludo Martens in Belgium. Ludo
Martens is the author of the excellent book Another
View of Stalin, which he unfortunately uses as
capital or credentials to introduce revisionism
into the international communist movement. He has
taken his party from a pro-Mao position into
defending Gorbachev and trafficking with Deng
Xiaoping. Now he is at the center of opportunist
efforts to unite all who uphold Stalin -- or in the
case of some, at least do not openly oppose Stalin!
According to Ludo Martens, at his conferences,
"There was a better understanding that parties who
used to belong to different tendencies, who
supported the positions of Mao Zedong or Brezhnev,
of Che Guevara or Enver Hoxha, can unite on the
basis of Marxism-Leninism, proletarian
internationalism and the struggle against
revisionism."
Here is what Ludo Martens says about Maoism.
"Certain Maoist parties have also put forward this
principle of "struggle for ideological unity
without compromise". For them, ideological unity
consists in recognising Mao Zedong Thought as the
third stage of the revolutionary proletarian
theory, after those of Marxism and Leninism. These
different positions, seemingly "firm on
principles", amount to maintaining the divisions
between the parties that used to adhere to the
Maoist, Albanian or Soviet orientation and the
parties that have followed none of these three
tendencies."
He adds that "the works of Mao Zedong are not
sufficient to maintain the unity among the parties
that adhere to them, for at least five different
orientations can be distinguished among them. These
divisions and subdivisions necessarily diminish the
richness of the discussions and exchanges within
each grouping. Similarly, they facilitate the
adoption of unilateral positions that could have
been avoided through larger, contradictory
debates."
Hence, Ludo Martens is at the center of efforts
attacking Khruschev revisionism without attacking a
bourgeoisie in the party. He maintains there was
class struggle in the Soviet Union, but he points
to no bourgeoisie. The idea of a class struggle but
no bourgeoisie has always been a vexing problem for
the international communist movement, but now that
we have seen what has happened in the Soviet Union
and China it is inexcusable: Khruschev, Hua, Deng,
Alia were the bourgeoisie. Class struggle under
socialism was not against thin air.
That is the difficulty with all the Brezhnev,
Castro, Che, Hoxha and Kim Il Sung defenders. They
are not able to admit that Mao was right about this
crucial point and so they are being allowed by Ludo
Martens to overlook it. When the open restoration
of capitalism in the ex-Soviet Union should be
allowing the whole international communist movement
to be making rapid gains, there are those like Ludo
Martens seeking to put a brake on the process.
Far from adding to the richness of the
international communist movement, those who cannot
face the stern realities imposed by capitalist
restorations need to add to our movement by
subtraction out of it.
NOTES: http://www.wpb.be/icm/icm.htm
* * *
PHONY WAR CRIMES TRIBUNAL EXPOSES NATO
INTERVENTION:
ABOUT PROFIT, NOT HUMANITARIANISM
During the war in the former Yugoslavia, the
Amerikan imperialists first tried to publicly
ignore the genocide, and then concocted a clever
story about humanitarianism to justify an Amerikan
involvement. This charade suffered its first major
unraveling in the fall, when Clinton announced that
the Amerikan troops would not leave in June 1998 as
originally "planned." Now it's becoming more
obvious, even to the bourgeois papers, that the
International Criminal Tribunal for the former
Yugoslavia at The Hague is a farce.
The tribunal was charged with prosecuting war
crimes, namely genocide through ethnic cleansing
and rape. Reports of systemic round-ups of young
men for execution and brutal gang rapes of women
provided fuel for reformists to demand
intervention. The various imperialists that
constitute NATO as well as Russian imperialism
wanted two things in the former Yugoslavia:
stability, so as to protect their current
interests; and an expansion of their influence.
While all the imperialists covertly or not so
covertly aided the combatants (often while
pretending neutrality), they could not openly
intervene for fear of sparking an inter-imperialist
conflict. The Dayton "Peace Accord", signed in
1995, created a framework to ensure this stability
and ended the War.
The Tribunal was created by the imperialists to co-
opt the masses' desire to see justice served for
these horrible crimes, as well as to placate the
reformists in the home countries. An additional
benefit of the Tribunal to the imperialists was
that its powers could be used selectively against
those within the former Yugoslavia who disrupted
the Dayton Accord's egg-cart. But so far, the
Tribunal has shown itself to be a powerless sham.
Because the Tribunal is being run by the
imperialists, MIM does not care that is has no
power as any power it wields would only be used to
aid the imperialists. But the farce of this
Tribunal does serve to expose the imperialists lack
of interest in genuine peace and justice.
Of the 78 Bosnians indicted in public warrants for
war crimes, 56 of them were still at large.(2) The
Dayton agreement requires those harboring people
indicted of war crimes to turn them in, and if they
refuse, the NATO troops are supposed to size them.
In fact, the NATO forces have gone out of their way
to ITAL not END arrest indicted war criminals. The
Washington Post recently detailed a July incident
where indicted war criminal Miroslav Bralo, a
Bosnian Croat, attempted to surrender to NATO
troops but was refused. Apparently, there was a
miscommunication between the war crimes tribunal
and NATO, but when they straightened that out, U.S.
army generals blocked pleas from the tribunal to
pick him up.(1)
A State Department deputy spokesperson said "We
have really nothing to be ashamed of concerning our
track record on the arrest of indicted war
criminals or their detention over the last several
months." Foley wouldn't discuss the Bralo case with
reporters.(1)
Official NATO policy is that the troops will arrest
indicted criminals when they come across them, but
they aren't even following this weak standard.
Foley attempted damage control, as the Post
summarized:
"NATO-led peacekeepers 'retain all the options' in
determining whether 'it's possible to apprehend an
indicted war criminal in a given circumstance or
not.'
"It was for the commander on the scene to determine
on the basis of tactical considerations, 'but it
remains a live possibility,'" Foley said.(1)
In the case of Bralo who was trying to surrender,
there shouldn't be any tactical concerns. What
makes Foley turn NATO policy into just a
"possibility" is a strategic concern: namely that
prosecuting those leaders indicted of war crimes
would jeopardize the comprador relations these
leaders have with various imperialists.
It's possible that the comprador regimes and the
imperialists will find more palatable political
clones for those indicted. These new leaders could
start where the old tainted leaders left off. Such
an arrangement wouldn't alter the fundamental
injustice of the war crimes tribunal, which targets
only a small number of Serb, Croat and Muslim
leaders and ignores the fact that the genocide was
manipulated and created by the imperialist system.
NOTES
1. 9 Dec 1997, Reuters
2. 19 Dec 1997 Reuters, 9 Dec 1997, Reuters
See also Boston Sunday Globe, p A1 for coverage of
the imperialists' sudden disregard for the
prosecution of gang rape.
* * *
CASTRO MEETS THE POPE
Fidel Castro made a number of comments agreeing
with the Pope on the Pope's visit. Recalling
Nixon's visit to China, MIM sees nothing wrong with
having the Pope visit, but Castro went much
farther.
"Holy Father, we feel the same way you do about
many important issues of today's world and we are
pleased it is so; in other matters our views are
different but we are most respectful of your strong
convictions about the ideas you defend. . . .
"Mankind has seen its population increase almost
fourfold just in this century. There are billions
of people suffering hunger and thirst for justice;
the list of man's economic and social calamities is
endless. I am aware that many of them are cause of
permanent and growing concern to the Holy
Father."(1)
There have been any other such statements from
Castro, some even more positive. "There is a great
concurrence between Christianity's objectives and
the ones we communists seek, between the Christian
teachings of humility, austerity, selflessness and
loving thy neighbor and what we might call the
content of a revolutionary's life and behavior.'' -
speaking with Chilean Christians, 1971. (2)
"I believe that the teachings of Christ are very
revolutionary and completely coincide with the aims
of socialists, of Marxist-Leninists.'' -
conversation with Nicaraguan Christians, 1980.(2)
Castro was raised a Jesuit.(3)
NOTES:
1.http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9801/21/castro.text.ap/i
ndex.html2.http://www.boston.com/globe/nation/packa
ges/pope/quotes.htm
3.http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/1998/cuba.pope/icons
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