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

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = 

     XX XX  XXX  XX XX   X   X  XXX  XXX  XXX  XXX
     X X X   X   X X X   XX  X  X X   X   X    X
     X V X   X   X V X   X X X  X X   X   XX   XXX
     X   X   X   X   X   X  XX  X X   X   X      X
     X   X  XXX  X   X   X   V  XXX   X   XXX  XXX

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = 

         THE MAOIST INTERNATIONALIST MOVEMENT

     MIM Notes 157          MARCH 1, 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.  PUERTO RICANS PROTEST AGAINST YANKEE
    IMPERIALISM "NASA GO HOME!"
2.  UNITED SNAKES CONTINUES WAR AGAINST IRAQI
    MASSES
3.  LETTERS
4.  U.$.-RAMOS REGIME HARASSES NDFP CONSULTANTS
5.  ASIAN STOCK CRISIS SPURS WASSERMAN CARTOON
6.  CAPITALISM AND IMPERIALISM = NO MONEY FOR
    HEALTH CARE: ESPECIALLY FOR OPPRESSED NATIONS
7.  MORE PRISONERS DIE UNDER LOCKDOWN CONDITIONS
8.  MICHIGAN PRISONER'S STRUGGLE AGAINST RAPE
    CONTINUES
9.  PRISONERS FIGHT DNA COLLECTION
10. ZERO TOLERANCE APARTHEID IN MICHIGAN
11. YOUTH RISE UP: ORGANIZE FOR RELEASE OF LEADERS
12. UNIVERSITY OF PUERTO RICO ENVIRONMENTALISTS
    NEED A PROLETARIAN PRESS
13. REVOLUTIONARY NATIONALISTS START NEWSPAPER IN
    PUERTO RICO
14. REACTIONARY COLUMNIST CALLS FOR PUERTO RICO
    PLEBISCITE
15. CARIBBEAN PREPARES PROTEST AGAINST NUCLEAR
    WASTE SHIPPING
16. PUERTO RICAN UNION LEADER STOKES UP TRADE
    CONFLICT
17. POPULAR CULTURE IN PUERTO RICO REFLECTS U$
    INVASION 100 YEARS AGO
18. SAM MARCY DIES, REVISIONIST LEADER OF
    WORKERS WORLD PARTY
19. MARXISM-LENINISM-MAOISM ONLINE
20. MAINE WILL DISCRIMINATE BASED ON SEXUAL
    ORIENTATION
21. UNDER LOCK AND KEY: NEWS FROM PRISONERS AND
    PRISONS



* * *


PUERTO RICANS PROTEST AGAINST YANKEE IMPERIALISM
³NASA GO HOME!"

PUERTO RICO -- One thousand people demonstrated 
February 1 against NASA's Coqui II program 
launching rockets in Puerto Rico. The program name 
comes from the tree frog that is a national symbol 
in Puerto Rico. Coqui I involved 8 rocket 
launchings in 1992.(1)

Contingents from the Puerto Rican Independence 
Party (PIP), the trade unions of exploited workers, 
church groups, Guevarist groups, a Puerto Rican 
artist organization, various Trotskyist groups and 
the neo-Trotskyist Internationalist Socialist 
Organization appeared at the rally. There were many 
Puerto Rican flags flying and people wearing t-
shirts showing solidarity with political prisoners 
of the Puerto Rican liberation movement.

Assigned to carry out chemical and physics 
experiments and gather atmosphere turbulence 
information, the NASA rockets also damage the ozone 
according to the environmental activists. For this 
reason, the speakers drew a firm connection between 
environmentalism and self-determination. The slogan 
most heard was "NASA go home!"

Writing on the details of the chemicals involved, 
The Committee Against Atmospheric Experiments said, 
"In the United States, these launchings take place 
far from the people. Without doubt, in Vega Baja 
this is not the case."(2) The same writers take the 
Puerto Rican government to task for not filing an 
environmental impact study available to the people. 
Hence, there is a national question underlying the 
environmental question. The Puerto Ricans are 
correct to think that some things that happen in 
Puerto Rico are not allowed by the imperialist 
country people in their own countries. Thus 
environmental endangerment is a part of national 
oppression. 

Perhaps the most interesting supporter was the 
mayor of Vega Baja who came to the rally with a 
police escort. Vega Baja is in the launch area. The 
mayor was the last speaker and connected 
nationalism to the environment.

The paranoid Puerto Rican government sent many 
police to the demonstration, which made the role of 
the Vega Baja police all that much more interesting 
since they were supporting the demonstration. MIM 
also spoke with other police that supported the 
rally. One officer approached MIM and asked for a 
newspaper and then thanked MIM for it. Another came 
to tell MIM that Marx and Lenin were very smart men 
while Mao was the leader of China. Clearly splits 
in the ruling class of Puerto Rico reflected 
themselves in the rally with a section of the 
ruling class joining the side of exploited workers 
with no interest in helping NASA or ruining their 
own environment.

At the moment there is a furious fight going on 
within the Puerto Rican ruling class connected to 
political patronage. The question is to what extent 
the winner of the last election should be able to 
hire and fire government employees and control the 
universities.

Utilizing splits in the ruling class and connecting 
nationalism and the environment made this a most 
excellent rally. It's remarkable how far the masses 
had come in organizing themselves without a 
proletarian vanguard party. It's a situation where 
the objective conditions for revolution outstrip 
the subjective forces. MIM has many criticisms of 
the bourgeois nationalism, Guevarism and Trotskyism 
it encountered, but above all MIM has criticism of 
itself.

Rally organizers who first informed MIM about the 
rally had never heard of the Young Lords Party 
formed within U$ borders as a Maoist Puerto Rican 
party. That is MIM's fault. A worker asked MIM what 
Mao has to do with the Puerto Ricans and we had to 
point out his role in national liberation. It is 
difficult to criticize before there is struggle and 
exposure to Maoism. We urge supporters to work with 
Notas Rojas in this regard. 

Nonetheless, some workers and students at the rally 
made some good criticisms. Students and activists 
pointed out that some nationalist leaders were for 
capitalism. Another worker pointed out that even 
the organization of the rally itself reflected 
colonialism. "It's too bad you come here and all we 
have to offer you is Budweiser," said one worker 
who thought that it was not right for people at the 
rally to be selling products from imperialist 
multinational corporations. 

This same advanced worker took the trouble to 
explain internationalism to a middle-class womyn 
there to organize against a 9:00 p.m. curfew being 
proposed for all children. The worker explained he 
was for nationalism, internationalism and "kicking 
[Yankee] ass." 


NOTES:
1. San Juan Star English Edition 31 January 1998, 
p. 7.
2. Vela Encendida Jan-Feb., 1998, p. 16.



* * *



UNITED SNAKES CONTINUES WAR AGAINST IRAQI MASSES

At press time the united snakes is still gearing up 
for another military invasion of Iraq. Clinton 
claims that he needs to attack Iraq because Saddam 
Hussein is holding out on military research and 
weapons, refusing to allow UN arms inspectors 
unrestricted access to his country. Britain has 
declared its support for any force that may be 
necessary to bring Hussein to his knees. 

On February 2 the u.s. sent 2,200 Marines on 
warships to the Persian Gulf to strengthen its 
forces already there bringing the total number of 
U.S. troops in the region to more than 30,000.(1) 
Countries opposed to the u.s. invasion continue to 
send representatives to Baghdad to push Saddam 
Hussein to allow the weapons inspection teams to 
resume their work unhindered. On February 1 Iraq 
began training its citizens to defend against an 
American attack, with volunteers of all ages, 
chanting anti-American slogans and learning how to 
fight.

Iraq has resisted u.s. and UN attempts to maintain 
imperialist control over this small oil-producing 
country. The long standoff with UN inspectors has 
led to on-going diplomatic maneuvers that involve 
many countries and constant threats of military 
actions.

The inspectors must certify that Iraq has 
eliminated its weapons of mass destruction before 
trade sanctions imposed after the Gulf war will be 
lifted. These sanctions caused in a severe lack of 
medicine and food in Iraq.

Current estimates of the direct death toll from 
sanctions imposed on Iraq after the 1990 war run as 
high as 1.5 million people -- the majority of whom 
are children under five years old.(2) See MIM Notes 
#153 (Jan 1, 1997) for an article on the effects of 
the economic sanctions on the Iraqi people.

While Clinton is now claiming that the purpose of a 
military attack on Iraq would be only to 
"substantially reduce or delay" Iraq's ability to 
develop and use non-conventional weapons, it is 
clear that the u.s. really wants to cow Iraq into 
subservience.(3) The U.$. only imports about 10% of 
its oil from the Persian Gulf. But the U.$. needs 
to protect investments in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. 
The U.$. imperialists argue that if Iraq's oil 
industry were allowed to fully function, it would 
seriously affect the world market price for oil.(4) 
For more on the history and details of this 
conflict see MIM Notes #152 (December 15, 1997).

Hussein was once a friendly u.s. puppet, armed and 
funded by his Amerikan imperialist friends. But 
when he stopped following u.s. demands he became an 
enemy and a threat to imperialism. MIM does not 
believe that Iraq presents any more of a military 
threat to the people of the world than it did under 
u.s. control. Hussein's defiance is dangerous to 
the imperialists, though. The imperialists want all 
of the countries of the world under puppet 
dictatorships.

When one resists this not only costs money, but 
also gives the people of the world the idea that it 
may be possible to resist imperialist domination. 
MIM is not fooled for a minute that Saddam Hussein 
is a friend of the oppressed of the world, but we 
support the Iraqi people in their fight against 
imperialist domination.

Many international imperialists have made 
statements opposing another u.s. invasion. With 
such an uneven balance of power, the u.s. military 
will be able to act unilaterally. It is unlikely 
that other imperialist powers will offer more than 
verbal opposition. The strongest imperialist 
opposition to u.s. invasion of Iraq comes from 
Russia. "We should not allow an armed strike, an 
American strike, whatever the circumstances," 
Yeltsin told journalists. "I told Bill Clinton that 
we would not allow that. The most important thing 
is that we assumed a firm stand: no to the 
settlement through the use of force. It is 
impossible; it will mean a world war."(5) 

MIM maintains that World War III has been going on 
for years and it is manifested in the military 
occupation and wars fought in the Third World 
countries. The war against the oppressed people of 
the world is currently characterized by 
paramilitary attacks and repression rather than 
constant full scale military aggression. But the 
death and destruction brought about by the 
imperialist military presence throughout the world 
is evidence of this war. 

As anti-imperialists we seek to take advantage of 
inter-imperialist conflicts. Should the 
imperialists decide to fight one another this will 
be an opportunity for the oppressed to overthrow 
their puppet governments and seize power. And 
throughout these battles MIM will stand firm on the 
side of the oppressed in the fight to overthrow 
imperialism and establish socialism.


NOTES:
1. Washington Post 6 February 1998; p. A35.
2. "Behind the U.S. War Threats Against Iraq: Who 
Gets Rich, Who Dies?² International Action Center, 
17 November 1997.
3. Washington Post 7 February 1998; p. A01.
4. In Focus: "U.S. Oil Policy in the Middle East," 
http://www.zianet.com/infocus/mideoil.html.
5. Washington Post Foreign Service 6 February 1998, 
p. A36.



* * *



LETTERS

TO ALL MY BLACK BROTHAS AND SISTAHS:

The Black womyn/man in Amerikkka has been, and is, 
suffering from a disease. A disease called 
'historical' and political amnesia.' This disease 
has robbed us of our identity, names, purpose, 
culture, family, sense of community concerns, love, 
respect, honor, pride and hope. We can see the 
manifestations of this historical and political 
amnesia by the actions of our people. By the things 
we do; what we say; by the manner in which we live, 
by the importance we place on the gathering of 
material things. You can see the effects of this 
historical and political amnesia by the way we 
address ourselves as 'niggers.' We can see the 
disease of historical and political amnesia by the 
way we MURDER one another, treat our wimmin and 
children and our elderly, whom we've lost all 
respect for. You can see the effects of historical 
and political amnesia and the grip it has over us 
because we no longer fight with purpose, aim, 
direction, and desire. We have given up on any 
prospects for the future for we live for today 
only.

The conditions in which we (Black people) live will 
not change unless and until WE change the way we 
think, act and feel. Right now, this disease have 
gotten so far into our system that our very souls 
are affected with this cancer that we even deny our 
heritage by not learning of it. But not respecting 
it. By not appreciating it. And there can be no 
future that has any meaning if we do not have 
knowledge of our history. (i'm not speaking about 
ALL Black people so please do not take this 
commentary out of context.)

The Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM) helps to 
restore some of this historical and political 
amnesia via education. Education on events that 
have take place and which have caused so much 
hopelessness within our communities today. MIM 
tries to educate ones mind and get them to become 
consciously aware of the conditions in which they 
live, and that these conditions came about through 
very deliberate and methodical means. MIM 
encourages the Black womyn and man to recognize the 
zeitgeist of the times and awaken their minds to 
the political struggles that other people's of 
color and First Nations have/are waging for freedom 
and a new way of governing our lives. While at then 
same time recognizing the past mistakes that have 
been made from other groups and movements that were 
infiltrated by the government's COINTELPRO. MIM 
offers to show us how to build a People's Party by 
the examples used by Chairman Mao during the 
Chinese Revolution. A party that could be 
successful and useful for us TODAY, TOMORROW and in 
our FUTURE! But you have to be willing and open- 
minded enough to want to rid yourself of this 
historical and political amnesia. YOU, have to be 
willing to give MIM a chance. Support MIM and 
support yourselves by your support to MIM.

Let us come from up under this long dreaded sleep 
of historical and political amnesia.

In the trenches...

-- a Michigan prisoner December 26, 1997


WEB OF THE PEOPLE¹S NEWS

DEAR MIM: I was pleasantly surprised by an incident 
-- an Hispanic person from X (where that hunger 
strike was) passed a copy of MIM Notes to me at 
work. I had to laugh -- it was one of the copies I 
passed out originally! So, the stuff gets around. 
You sent Spanish issues sometimes and my contact on 
the island makes sure that Hispanic speakers from X 
that work there get the copy. Haitians work there 
too. They in turn XEROX parts of it. I hope you 
don't mind the xeroxing.

But it's free and we do pass them out for free too. 
There is nowhere we can "put" them, like in a 
store, no paper can do that (I mean, like local 
boondock home-style papers). . . . We fear if we 
don't hand them PERSONALLY to contacts that they'll 
be thrown out. Y reads them too, and even if he 
does NOT agree, he passes his copy (one copy) 
along.

--Southern reader February, 1998


MIM REPLIES: Of course we do not object to 
xeroxing. We just want people to have the contact 
information for MIM so readers know who wrote the 
articles.

It may not be necessary to xerox, if people will 
pay for postage for shipping or if they give MIM 
the impression of doing serious organizing work.

Your example will inspire others.



AMERIKKKAN HYPOCRISY

Amerikkka Continues to Display Hypocrisy by 
Pretending to Celebrate and Praise Dr. Martin 
Luther King, Jr.'s Birthday.

January 19, 1998 thousands and maybe hundreds of 
thousands, and maybe millions of people in 
Amerikkka have laid claim to upholding and 
believing in Dr. King's dream, the dream that all 
people in Amerikkka can live together in racial 
harmony; that all people can live and be treated as 
equals; that all people will be judged by the 
content of ones character over ones skin color.

We find [thirty years since the assassination of 
MLK] that Amerikkka has become even more divided, 
racially intolerant and violent than ever. We find 
the meager gains of the late 50s, 60s and 70s being 
restricted and destroyed by all levels of state and 
federal government. We find that the mindset of the 
people has not changed in ways that will support 
even remotely MLK's dream. We find more people of 
color being unemployed, underemployed, homeless, 
disenfranchised, dispossessed and without adequate 
health care than ever before. Yet, Amerikkka shouts 
(in her hypocrisy) that "WE ARE KEEPING DR. KING"S 
DREAM ALIVE!" And the people are still being lead 
to have faith to such untruths.

This lie must stop and the truth must be told. It 
must be told and it must be faced once and for all 
without any cosmetics. The dream of MLK passes away 
into a conscious reality of nightmarish proportions 
in which we live today. And this cancerous 
consciousness has unfolded the realities of this 
ugly truth that Black Churches are STILL being 
bombed. That Black people are STILL the last hired 
and the first fired. That color of skin STILL makes 
a difference in this racist nation. That 
homelessness and slum-lords STILL exist. That the 
pride of having a job and being independent is 
STILL but a dream for millions. That health care 
for the masses is STILL unaffordable and for people 
of color it is almost non-existent.

The tradition of time and the conditions which 
still abound from the ignorance, hatred and 
intolerance continues to expose the naked truth 
that Amerikkka is a false conception conjured up by 
the Framers of the Constitution that this nation is 
a melting pot. That this country can overcome its 
brutal, and murderous beginnings and somehow allow 
all those that come here to live in harmony - YET - 
Amerikkka treats her builders, her railroad track 
layers, her cooks and housekeepers, her gardeners, 
her truck drivers and construction men and wimmin 
with utter disdain, because she continues to uphold 
old lies and old myths and old prejudices.

Nowadays, we even have corporate Amerikkka 
contributing and financially supporting 
hypocritical celebrations of MLK., while at the 
same time they close their doors within the C.E.O. 
Suites to people color, and down-size and exploit 
nations where the people are of color.

We find that Amerikkka continues to do a disservice 
to white children by lying to them and tricking 
them to believe that 'they' are special because of 
this notion Amerikkka has connoted called 'white 
skin-privilege' which is causing them to become 
distorted in their thinking and thus add new 
dimensions to what is already a racially polarized 
and neurotic/psychotic country.

For the Black man to realize and actualize MLK's 
dream they, we, I, you are going to have to learn 
from history and learn well. We are going to have 
to put into practice what we have learned and one 
of the first things we must do is accept the fact 
that this government, this country is in need of 
change from its 200 year old principles based on 
the existing constitution and declare, rebuild, 
develop a new one where (if possible) ALL PEOPLE 
are included.


In the trenches,
-- a Michigan prisoner


MIM REPLIES: We add to this article our 
understanding that the united snakes is an 
imperialist country organized to systematically 
oppress nations both within u.s. borders and around 
the world. We are not only fighting the attitude of 
racism but also the system of national oppression. 
We agree with this prisoner that the government is 
in need of change, but we do not think that 
rewriting the constitution will be enough. Along 
these lines we also disagree with Martin Luther 
King's reformist views. We must overthrow the 
system of imperialism which fosters national 
oppression while trying to fool people into 
believing that all are equal with celebrations of 
MLK's birthday. Only under socialism will we be 
able to build a system where all nations are equal 
and have the right to self-determination.



MAOISM IN RUSSIA

DEAR MIM: I'm a member of Russian Communist Workers 
Party and its youth organization -- Revolutionary 
Young Communist League. The leader of RCWP is 
Victor Tyulkin and the leader of RYCL is Pavel 
Bylevskiy. The RCWP is a Leninist-Stalinist party, 
although some non-Stalinists are in it. The RCWP is 
the largest communist party in Russia (about 10,000 
members). 4 of its members are political prisoners 
since August, 1997 -- Gubkin, 19-years-old worker 
Sokolov, Skliar, Maximenko. They have been charged 
in "terrorism" of Revolutionary War Council. RWC 
mined monument of Peter 1 in July and demanded not 
touching Lenin's Mausoleum. 

The "official" communist-named party -- Communist 
Party of Russian Federation of Gennadiy Zuganov 
have over 200,000 members (generally, old men) and 
third sets in our parliament (State Duma), but it 
is nationalist and social-democratic, in fact. 
Other communist parties are very small. RPC and 
RCP-CPSU are anti-Stalinist (however not reformist 
and nationalist and social-democratic, in fact. 
Other communist parties are very small. RPC and 
RCP-CPSU are anti-Stalinist (however not reformist 
and not Trotskyist). CPSU, CPSUB, CPSU(b) are 
Stalinist but they are not connect with workers 
class. Trotskyist groups are very-very small. There 
are no Maoists, but many communists from Stalinist 
parties like Mao or name themselves as "Maoists." I 
am a Maoist, for example, and the entire RYCL of 
our city is Maoist. 

RYCL (In Russian and ENGLISH languages) 
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/8317/ryc
l.html 

--Member RCWP January, 1998


MIM REPLIES: MIM is proud that the first contact 
that this comrade made on the INTERNET with Maoism 
was with MIM. 

Greetings to the Russian Maoists! We read that no 
one was hurt in the action connected to the 
monument, but these four people are in prison. We 
wish you well to get them out.

We agree with your opinion of the Great Power 
chauvinist and social-democratic people calling 
themselves "Communist" in Russia. It won't be long 
before the exploited Russian workers learn the true 
history of their class as long as so many of you 
hold high the banner of Lenin, Stalin and Mao.

You are right it is not enough to be for Lenin and 
Stalin. We communists in 1998 have more experience 
in our movement in seeing the restoration of 
capitalism. Only Mao explained the operation of the 
law of value and bourgeois right under socialism 
correctly. He was the only one major socialist 
leader to see clearly that a bourgeoisie forms 
right inside the party.

It should now be evident to everyone that class 
struggle continues under socialism and in fact does 
become more intense as Stalin said to Bukharin when 
Bukharin ridiculed his position. However, it is not 
just the old exploiting elements trying to make a 
comeback. It is people like Khruschev, Brezhnev, 
Gorbachev and Yeltsin right in the party. For this 
reason there needs to be several cultural 
revolutions on the way to communism.



* * * 



U.$.-RAMOS REGIME HARASSES NDFP CONSULTANTS

The lackey u.$.-Ramos regime has shown once again 
that it does not take the peace negotiations 
between itself and the National Democratic Front of 
the Philippines (NDFP) seriously. In late January, 
military intelligence officers broke into offices 
used by the NDFP Negotiating Panel's General 
Counsel and kidnapped another lawyer close to NDFP 
consultants. These actions are clear attempts to 
harass the NDFP and its allies. Furthermore, the 
abduction violates agreements on safety and 
immunity which laid the basis for the peace 
negotiations.


The NDFP Negotiating Panel released the following 
statement on February 2:

"The Negotiating Panel of the NDFP condemns the 
break-in at the law office of its General Counsel, 
Atty. Romeo T. Capulong, who is also the President 
of the Philippine Peace Center (PPC) and the Public 
Interest Law Center (PILC). The break-in was 
discovered early this morning at the offices of the 
PPC and PILC located at the 4th floor of the Kaija 
Building, Valdez Street corner Makati Avenue, 
Makati City. The front door and the doors to the 
lawyers' inner offices were destroyed, file 
cabinets and desks were forcibly opened and 
documents were strewn all over the offices.

"Coming just two days after the completion and 
initialing by the GRP and NDFP Negotiating Panels 
of the Comprehensive Agreement on Human Rights and 
International Humanitarian Law, the break-in 
constitutes harassment and an attempt at 
intimidation of the NDFP Negotiating Panel's 
General Counsel and the officers and lawyers of the 
PPC and PILC who have been significantly 
contributing to the advance of the GRP-NDFP peace 
negotiations. Atty. Capulong and the other PILC 
lawyers are also the lead counsels for the Olalia 
family in the Olalia and Alay-ay double murder 
case.

"The NDFP Negotiating Panel likewise condemns the 
abduction and illegal detention of Antonio Jamora 
by military agents in plainclothes on 29 January 
from about 8:00 a.m. to about 3:00 p.m. Mr. Jamora 
was forcibly taken near his residence in Hulo, 
Mandaluyong City.  He was repeatedly punched and 
kicked while being interrogated in a military "safe 
house". Mr. Jamora was regularly and frequently 
consulted by NDFP Consultant Danilo Borjal and 
accordingly is covered by the Joint Agreement on 
Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG)."

The JASIG and the Hague Joint Declaration were 
signed before the start of the substantial 
negotiations and ensure that the NDFP retains its 
independence and initiative in the negotiations. 
The Hague Joint Declaration lays out mutually 
acceptable principles such as national sovereignty, 
democracy and social justice, and prevents either 
side from imposing its constitution on the other or 
requiring one side to surrender in principle or in 
fact.

From the beginning of the negotiations, the NDFP 
has emphasized that the a just and lasting peace 
can only be reached by addressing the social roots 
of the conflict. In particular, the NDFP adheres to 
the revolutionary line of national democratic 
revolution against foreign monopoly capitalism, 
domestic feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism. The 
NDFP has also acknowledged from the beginning that 
negotiations are and inferior form of struggle 
compared to the militant actions of the masses 
themselves, and that armed struggle is the highest 
form of revolutionary struggle. This is why the 
NDFP refuses to accept a cessation of armed 
struggle as a precondition to the peace talks.

Indeed, from MIM's point of view, the armed 
strength of the revolutionary forces in the 
Philippines is only reason the crass reactionaries 
in the u.$.-Ramos regime have met with the NDFP to 
talk peace. As long as the armed struggle remains 
vibrant and progresses, the peace negotiations can 
be an effective form of legal struggle. 

Revolutionaries within u.$. borders can support the 
armed struggle in the Philippines by working with 
MIM and RAIL to build public opinion against u.$. 
imperialism in the Philippines and for the 
revolutionary movement led by the Communist Party 
of the Philippines.

Revolutionaries in the u.$. can also support the 
NDFP in the peace talks by exposing the u.$.-Ramos 
regime's harassment tactics. MIM and RAIL are also 
involved in a long term struggle to ensure that a 
key consultant to the NDFP Negotiating Panel, Jose 
Maria Sison, is granted asylum in the Netherlands 
(where the peace talks are taking place), and not 
expelled to the Philippines, where he faces 
possible assassination. For more information, 
contact your local MIM Notes distributor or the one 
of the addresses on page two.




* * *



ASIAN STOCK CRISIS SPURS WASSERMAN CARTOON

BOSTON -- The mildly leftist bourgeois cartoonist 
Wasserman has aptly characterized the U$ people's 
interests in Asia. A cartoon shows the progress of 
the people's views from the 1960s to the 1990s. In 
the 1960s, it was "Don't send my son over there" 
[to the Vietnam War]. In the 1980s, it was "Don't 
send my job over there," as the labor aristocracy 
feared losing all manufacturing jobs. In the 1990s 
with the recent economic crisis, it is "Don't send 
my 401k over there!" 401k is a tax-protected 
investment program in the U$A. 

Castro: The Pope's preferred "Marxist"? 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)

³I 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) He himself claims to 
be an atheist now, but in recent years he relaxed 
the party policy to allow Christians to be 
members.(4)


NOTES:
1.http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9801/21/castro.text.ap/i
ndex.html
2.http://www.boston.com/globe/nation/packages/pope/
quotes.htm 
3.http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/1998/cuba.pope/icons 
4. San Juan Star, 26Jan98, p. 6.




* * *



CAPITALISM AND IMPERIALISM = NO MONEY FOR HEALTH 
CARE: ESPECIALLY FOR OPPRESSED NATIONS

According to the Los Angeles Times, budget 
constraints at LA County Hospital forced wimmin who 
required cesarean sections to attempt vaginal birth 
instead. Two wimmin and three infants died as a 
result, and many others suffered permanent damage. 
LA County Hospital is the busiest public hospital 
in the u.$. and principally serves the Latino 
population in East Los Angeles.

Administrators at the hospital claimed that a 
shortage of doctors and hospital beds (c-sections 
require longer recuperation) forced them to 
implement a policy which required doctors and/or 
nurses to attempt a vaginal birth, even if it 
appeared a cesarean section would be necessary. 
Since 1992, 49 successful claims have been made 
against the hospital based on injuries directly 
resulting from the policy. The policy was discarded 
last year.(1)

On a related note, the LA County Board of 
Supervisors voted to downsize LA County Hospital by 
over 35% last November. The current aging and 
earthquake-damaged facility has 960 beds. The 
planned replacement facility will have 600 beds, 
again due to alleged budget constraints.(2) The 
hospital's chief of staff estimated that currently 
over 70 percent of patients are admitted as 
emergencies and stay an average of 5.5 days. The 
smaller facility would mean transferring patients 
to other facilities or releasing them before they 
are well.

LA County serves as the health care provider of 
last resort to over 2.8 million people without 
health insurance. It also contains the county's 
largest burn unit and provides services such as 
neonatal intensive care and a jail ward. These 
latter services are not commercially viable for 
private hospitals.


NOTES:
1. "Which Way LA?" 23 Jan 98.
2. Los Angeles Times 13 November 1997.



* * *



MORE PRISONERS DIE UNDER LOCKDOWN CONDITIONS

by a RAIL comrade

Walpole Prison in Massachusetts has been under 
lockdown conditions since the summer of 1997. Since 
the lockdown at least five prisoners have died 
under questionable circumstances. This kind of 
increase in prisoner deaths is not surprising 
considering the inhumane conditions of a lockdown 
situation. During lockdown all prisoners are kept 
inside of their nine by eleven foot cells for 23 
and a half hours every day. 

At least four more men have died under suspicious 
circumstances at Walpole prison since the death of 
Abel Remy in August of 1997. Abel Remy was beaten 
to unconsciousness inside his cell, he was later 
attacked again by four to five guards in riot gear. 
Then he was dragged to the segregation unit where 
he died of a heart attack.

Reggie Regan was fatally strangled in a suicide 
watch segregated unit on August 12, 1997. Guards 
claim he had an electrical wire around his neck and 
claimed it was suicide. 

Yen was the only Asian prisoner and suffered 
harassment from guards and prisoners. He was 
finally kicked off the third tier during a beating 
by some white supremacist prisoners, while two 
guards stood nearby and watched. Yen is now either 
dead or in a coma, Walpole prison administration 
will not comment on his status.

On November 30, 1997 Gary Michaels hung himself in 
the Departmental Disciplinary Unit (DDU). In early 
December a prisoner stabbed another prisoner in the 
yard. These prisoners were all oppressed nationals 
living under lockdown conditions where they 
experienced sensory deprivation which has been 
clinically proven to cause severe mental health 
problems. Units such as the DDU and the suicide 
watch unit are under strict regulation in reference 
to what is allowed inside the cell. The fact that 
guards claim that two men in these units died of 
strangulation by objects that were strictly 
prohibited by prison regulations shows negligence, 
at least, on the part of the guards at Walpole.

MIM realizes that these are not isolated incidents, 
in fact incidents like the ones mentioned above are 
happening all over the United Snakes. Amerikan 
gulags are tools of oppression and only serve the 
interests of the settler nation. When a prisoner is 
beaten and then kicked from the third tier, all in 
front of two guards, those guards are responsible. 
When a prisoner is stabbed by another prisoner in 
the prison yard, MIM asks how this can happen under 
such strict supervision.

Oppressed nationals do not get a just and fair 
trial in the white nation courts; they do not get 
adequate health care and are subjected to inhumane 
conditions, slave labor, and brutality. While MIM 
does not support prisoner on prisoner violence, we 
understand that the current system is one in which 
laws are not applied equally. The guards who 
fatally beat Abel Remy, those who watched Yen get 
kicked off the third tier, and those who stood on 
guard while a prisoner was stabbed to death have 
not been punished. And there will be no 
investigations into the supposed suicides to 
determine whether they were murders by guards or, 
if not, what negligence led to the suicides.

The Amerikan Government and the DOC cannot pawn off 
the responsibility for these deaths because they 
happened within the United Snakes criminal 
injustice system. This system creates and 
perpetuates a cycle of oppression for those who 
live within it and it is this cycle of oppression 
that we wish to break. 

NOTES: Interview with American Friends Service 
Committee prisons activist.



* * *



MICHIGAN PRISONER'S STRUGGLE AGAINST RAPE CONTINUES

by Ann Arbor RAIL
13 February, 1998

***As we reported in MIM Notes 156, a Michigan 
prisoner will soon be appealing his denial of 
parole in an Ann Arbor court. RAIL is organizing 
local community people and students to support this 
prisoner's appeal. Steve Wilcox is appealing his 
denial of parole both because the decision is 
unjustified considering his imprisonment history, 
and because he believes the decision is in 
retaliation for his work to publicize the fact that 
he was raped by prison guard Alan Reuben Collard. 
Since the beginning of February, RAIL has received 
additional updates on this case which we report on 
here.***


RAIL supports this prisoner's work to expose the 
fact that he was raped by a prison guard and to 
bring attention to the prevalence of rape and 
brutality by guards against prisoners. We hope that 
progressive people and activists will join with us 
in the struggle to expose injustice in Michigan 
prisons. Even those who have nothing in common with 
the political struggles of prisoners must 
understand that rape is not a part of the prison 
sentence. When a guard brutalizes a prisoner so 
blatantly, even the most conservative can join us 
in calling the integrity of the so-called justice 
system into question. Please read more about this 
case and give your support to this prisoner who has 
been harshly abused by the Michigan Department of 
Corrections (MDOC).

Alan Collard raped Steve Wilcox in March of 1996, 
and Wilcox immediately began speaking out against 
the rape. Wilcox has excellent reason to believe 
that he was denied parole because he spoke out 
about being raped. His most recent parole board 
hearing was in December of 1997, and his request 
for parole was denied for 18 months. Had he been 
anybody else, Wilcox would almost surely have been 
granted a parole at this most recent hearing. The 
victim of his crime had written a letter to the 
parole board supporting the parole request, 
Wilcox's attorney was present at the parole board 
hearing, and Wilcox's parole guideline score was 
better than it had been at previous hearings. Yet 
at three previous parole board hearings, Wilcox was 
only denied parole for 12 months at a time. Between 
being denied parole and delays in his most recent 
parole hearing Wilcox has served six years of a ten 
year maximum sentence for a non-violent property 
crime.

RAIL is already suspicious of the criminal 
INjustice system in Amerika, because we understand 
it to be a tool of imperialism and oppression. But 
even for those who are not convinced of the DOC's 
role in imperialism, the glaring fact is that rape 
is never part of a prison sentence. Even if you 
disagree with RAIL and think that the basic 
structures of Amerika's gulags are okay, you must 
understand that rape by those who are called 
"guards" is not supposed to be a part of the prison 
experience.

Alan Collard is not going to do any prison time for 
raping Steve Wilcox. He has been sentenced to ten 
months' jail time, which will be served at home 
under electronic monitoring (tether), and will then 
be on probation for another 36 months. Concern for 
Collard's safety is the reason cited for not having 
him serve any jail time. But Wilcox asks: "where 
was the concern for my safety when he raped me in a 
windowless room in a secluded area of the prison?"

RAIL's response is that as Steve Wilcox already 
knows, there is no safety for prisoners in Amerika 
outside of the strength of public pressure to 
ensure prisoners' safety. The Michigan DOC, which 
imprisons eight times as many Black men as white, 
is not out to promote justice. Michigan Governor 
John Engler--who is seeking money to build five new 
prisons in Michigan this year even while the number 
of prisons in this state has already more than 
doubled this quarter-century--is not interested in 
corrections or rehabilitation or education for 
Michigan's prisoners. Just as the DOC cooperates 
with the courts to repress those of oppressed 
nationalities, Engler seeks cooperation with the 
state legislature to advance the Michigan lockdown 
overall.

In a state which prioritizes incarceration over 
rehabilitation RAIL seconds Steve Wilcox's call on 
all people who know the truth about the Injustice 
system to speak out. No conscience is going to drop 
down and hit the Michigan state government. Prison 
guards are not going to restrain themselves from 
abusing prisoners out of new found good will. 
Activists both inside and outside of Michigan's 
prisoners must join together to bring public 
attention to prison conditions, and to let the DOC 
know that we are watching.

Wilcox has been consistently harassed since he was 
raped and began his work to expose the rape. A 
friend reports that even before the most recent 
denial of parole, Wilcox's prison time before his 
parole hearing was extended an extra six months 
without official cause. Shortly before this hearing 
was initially scheduled in August, he was moved 
from one prison to another and so his time to see 
the parole board was delayed. In addition to 
administrative harassment, Steve Wilcox has 
suffered physical harassment and brutality. Guards 
try to provoke him into fighting back against their 
brutality, usually when some hearing is coming up 
so that they can write him up in time to mess up 
his chances of parole. Wilcox has been sent to the 
hospital twice for wounds inflicted when he refused 
to fight back against brutality.

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 Steve Wilcox in his 
struggle for fair treatment, and join us in putting 
the spotlight on Michigan's criminal INjustice 
system.


SOURCE:: A Bill of No Rights: Attica and the 
American Prison System by Herman Badillo & Milton 
Haynes. All news about Steve Wilcox's case comes 
from Wilcox and a friend.



* * *



PRISONERS FIGHT DNA COLLECTION

The state of Massachusetts collected DNA samples 
from over 100 prisoners before being forced to stop 
in early February. Prisoners took the state to 
court after officials started ordering inmates to 
give blood samples. The state said it wanted these 
samples to solve old crimes or crimes committed in 
the future. Parolees and probationers were also to 
be required to submit samples or face fines or 
prison terms as punishment.

The courts blocked the state from collecting any 
more samples after the inmates filed their suit. 
MIM supports the prisoners in their lawsuit to stop 
this attempt by the state to increase its control 
over the people. The criminal injustice system is a 
tool of social control. While the biggest rapists, 
murderers and thieves run the government and its 
military, a disproportionate number of Blacks and 
Latinos along with political activists, youth and 
poor people are imprisoned. We oppose any expansion 
of the power given to this imperialist state.


NOTES: Boston Herald 29 January 1998 and Boston 
Globe 10 February 1998.



* * *



ZERO TOLERANCE APARTHEID IN MICHIGAN

by Ann Arbor RAIL

During governor Engler's January 29th state of the 
state address, Michigan's boss hog announced his 
new plan for harassing oppressed people. He calls 
his new plan "Operation Zero Tolerance".

The proposed plan will start by drug testing 
welfare applicants before they can begin receiving 
any benefits. Anyone that tests positive will be 
referred to treatment and if they fail treatment 
they will lose their welfare benefits.

Pig Engler did not say what treatment programs 
would be used or what if any other help would be 
given to people to make treatment work. This only 
shows that Engler is much more interested in taking 
away welfare assistance than he is in actually 
doing something to help people with drug problems.

Worse still, this plan will treat poverty as 
probable cause for criminal investigation and will 
deliver punishments without any form of a trial -- 
not that a trial means much in amerika anyway. 
According to Engler's logic every person poor 
enough to need assistance is so likely to be a 
dopehead that every last one should be tested for 
it. This is obvious discrimination and harassment 
of poor people.

Since poor people in Michigan, as in the rest of 
the U$, are disproportionately from oppressed 
nations, this plan is an increase of the already 
extreme police state repression of oppressed 
nations. Increased settler police occupation, more 
prisons, and unreasonably long prison sentences 
just aren't good enough for pig Engler. He is 
determined to make sure that all oppressed 
nationals will feel their settler big brother 
breathing down their necks everywhere they go.

The people most likely to be worst affected by this 
unjust, unethical, and inhumane plan are oppressed 
nation children and youth unfortunate enough to 
have born in Michigan. Engler made no mention of 
being concerned that some children could go hungry 
or be separated from their families as a result of 
his scheme. Neither should we assume that he really 
is concerned. Engler is simply copying his 
forefathers who also did not care how badly their 
actions affected children of the Black, Latino, and 
First Nations. Some things just never change -- at 
least not without revolution.

A few years ago such a plan would not even have 
been possible. But thanks to the quick pen of Slick 
Willie Clinton and a bi-partisan vote in the 
federal legislature, now all 50 states are legally 
allowed to begin treating poverty stricken masses 
as criminal suspects just as pig Engler is planning 
to do. This is proof positive that regardless of 
what petty political rivalry exists between the 
settler politicians of different parties, in the 
end they are all still a bunch of sorry crackers. 
Not that their oreo Tom side kicks are any better 
because they most certainly are not.

No matter which party wins elections, both will 
always stick together in their common goal of 
maintaining settler rule over the internal 
colonies. The white nation never did and never will 
do anything to substantially benefit the peoples 
they oppress. On the other hand the cracker 
politicians are always real fast to come up with 
more ways to increase the police presence in 
people's lives, just as we see here.

Electoral politics offers us no real solutions. The 
pigs have abused their power and the people for far 
too long. Only one thing is capable of stopping the 
apartheid U$ from moving closer to fascism as the 
number of prisons skyrockets out of control. Only 
one kind of movement can build a society where all 
of its members are engaged in constructive labor. 
Only one kind of movement will be truly concerned 
with feeding the whole population and serving the 
genuine interests of the masses by destroying 
national oppression. That kind of a movement is 
socialist revolution for national liberation. It is 
time for real democracy and power to the people!


NOTES: Pig Engler's State of the State Address 
1/29/98



* * *



YOUTH RISE UP!
ORGANIZE FOR RELEASE OF LEADERS

The late 1960s and early 1970s saw a huge 
revolutionary upsurge of young people. The Black 
Panther Party, Young Lords Party and many other 
organizations were built to fight Amerikan 
imperialism here in the belly of the beast. 

Hundreds of thousands of white students joined 
Students for a Democratic Society, which fought the 
war in Vietnam, supported the struggle of Black 
revolutionaries and attempted to lead a revolution 
for white people.

Due to political mistakes and government assault, 
these revolutionary movements were crushed. 
Hundreds of leaders and activists of the above 
organizations and their political descendants still 
languish in Amerika's gulags. These people are 
imprisoned for acts they committed while engaged in 
political work or they were framed for so-called 
"common crimes" because of their politics. This 
latter group has received sentences far longer than 
typical for their "crime."

Because we aren't as closely tied to the positions 
of our parents and because of the environment of 
schools, youth have always played large initial 
roles in revolutionary struggles. Since the 1960s, 
progressive activism in North America has been on 
the decline. Increasingly, Amerikan culture is 
summed up by "What does the billboard say? Play, 
play and forget the movement." As the youth, we 
have a duty to reject this programming, turn this 
around and pick up where our parents left off.

One excellent place to start is with the prisoners 
our parent's generation left behind. One of these 
prisoners, Ojore Lutalo of the Black Liberation 
Army has said "Any movement that does not support 
their political internees is sham movement!"

MIM and the party-led organizations have long held 
political education events and distributed 
information to build opposition to the imprisonment 
of the peoples' leaders and prisoners incarcerated 
for political beliefs and actions. Over the last 
few months, we have intensified this work through 
building a RAIL contingent to march on Washington 
on March 27th. The RAIL contingent will attend the 
Jericho march, organized by the New Afrikan 
Liberation Front, to support the release and 
amnesty of prisoners incarcerated for political 
beliefs and actions.

The RAIL contingent will also strengthen the 
foundations necessary to continue pro-prisoner 
organizing and anti-imperialist struggles during 
the RAIL teach-in on the Criminal Injustice System 
on March 28th in Washington DC. This is a great 
time for the youth to say loudly and clearly that 
the so-called "Generation X" is not hopelessly 
apathetic. It is a great opportunity for activists 
to educate others and learn tools to build stronger 
opposition to the Amerikkkan system of political 
imprisonment.

As youth, many of us have not been political very 
long. But we have a duty to demand freedom for the 
previous generation's prisoners. Many of these 
prisoners have been incarcerated longer than we 
have been alive, let alone politically active. 
While our movement is weak compared to that of 20-
30 years ago, these organizations did leave us the 
legacy of their experience. We can pick up where 
these movements left off. By organizing for freedom 
for these leaders, we do several things.

We advance the strength of the progressive forces 
by getting its activists out of prison. One is that 
we help achieve justice for those accused. We also 
take an issue that a great majority of liberals 
will support and begin to make them question the 
legitimacy of the whole system. We hope the liberal 
will ask:  "If Mumia was framed by police lying, 
how about other people who didn't have the 
political resources to expose their experience?"

Previous issues of MIM Notes have highlighted cases 
of leaders imprisoned for their beliefs and 
actions. Below are yet more examples of how the 
nasty, disgusting Amerikan Injustice system 
incarcerates political leaders and activists who 
have organized to tear the beast down.



SUNDIATA ACOLI



In 1969 Sundiata Acoli, was arrested in what became 
known as the Panther 21 conspiracy case. He was 
held without bail for over two years before being 
acquitted by a jury that deliberated for less than 
two hours.

In May 1973, while driving on the New Jersey 
Turnpike, he and his comrades, Zayd Malik Shakur 
and Assata Shakur, were ambushed by NJ State 
Troopers. Zayd was killed, and Assata was wounded 
and captured. A state trooper was killed. Sundiata 
was captured two days later and was brutally 
tortured and beaten by police and prison officials. 
After a highly sensational and prejudicial trial in 
which no credible evidence was provided by the 
state linking him to the shooting, Sundiata was 
sentenced to consecutive terms of life plus 30 
years (for the murder of his comrade, Zayd!), and 
was confined to a new and specially created 
Management Control Unit (MCU) at Trenton State 
Prison because of his political background.

Sundiata was held in MCU for almost five years in a 
stripped cell that was smaller than the SPCA's 
space requirement for a German shepherd dog.



MARK COOK

Mark Cook has dedicated a lifetime to working for 
justice and equality. He was an officer of the 
Black Panther Party. Throughout the late 60s and 
early 70s, Mark fought to end not only the Vietnam 
War, but the systems of racism and imperialism that 
caused that war. In Seattle in the mid-1970s, the 
George Jackson Brigade waged an armed struggle.

Mark has already spent 20 years behind bars. The 
average length of stay for the crimes of which Mark 
was convicted is only five years.

Mark has never renounced his beliefs, and remains 
behind bars only because of his politics.




THE MOVE 9

On August 8th, 1978, Philadelphia police assaulted 
the MOVE house. MOVE is a Black nationalist, back-
to-nature organization. In the assault, a cop was 
shot in the back by another cop. The cop died. Nine 
MOVE members-the sum total of all MOVE members in 
the house who refused to renounce their MOVE 
membership-were convicted of murder. Not only does 
the trajectory say the cop was killed by friendly 
fire, it's impossible for 9 people to pull the 
trigger on the same gun.

The judge who convicted them admits he doesn't know 
who killed the cop. He said "They were tried as a 
family, so I convicted them as a family."

Merle Africa, Janine Africa, Debbie Africa, Janet 
Africa, Chuck Africa, Eddie Africa, Mike Africa, 
Phil Africa, and Delbert Africa were each sentenced 
to 30-100 years.




* * *



UNIVERSITY OF PUERTO RICO ENVIRONMENTALISTS NEED A 
PROLETARIAN PRESS

PUERTO RICO -- In January and February, some 
students at the University of Puerto Rico, San Juan 
led a movement against tree-cutting by relying on 
the bourgeois print press and television stations. 
One student wore a black mask and chained himself 
to a tree to prevent the government from cutting it 
down.

Many middle-class activists believe that 
"effective" activism is whatever grabs the 
Establishment media's attention. They do not stop 
to think about how that affects their own actions 
and distorts the education that the public 
receives. 

The students opposing the tree-cutting received 
several days coverage in both the daily newspapers 
and television news. Yet, MIM spoke with many 
Puerto Ricans who did not know who was cutting down 
the trees in the first place. Even committed 
environmentalists that MIM spoke with did not know 
why the students were defending the trees. TV 
coverage left the impression that the students just 
opposed the cutting of all trees. 

The Puerto Rican government is cutting down trees 
on the San Juan campus to prepare for a subway 
station in a $1.5 billion project. Since public 
transport is an obvious priority of 
environmentalists, MIM looked for more information 
on why the students opposed cutting down the trees. 
On the campus itself, MIM found no answers to its 
questions from either students or printed 
publications.

The mainstream press printed articles from students 
about how the trees gave shade to the campus. MIM 
was less than impressed and that goes doubly for 
the television coverage which only sensationalized 
the conflict without giving reasons on either side. 
Some trees it turns out have been transplanted. 

Others argued that more could have been. As of 
cutting proceeding on January 30, 34 more trees 
were due to fall.(1,2) The public needed to have 
information on the possibility of transplanting 
more trees, but it did not receive any. Instead, 
government officials were able to claim in the 
press that they did conduct an environmental impact 
study and did hold open consultations with student 
organizations and about 500 students before they 
proceeded. It seems that some experts and students 
agreed that many trees just could not be saved.(3)

Despite all the media hoopla and consultations, 
when the government cut trees on January 30th, 
there were still graduate students to be found 
shocked and uninformed about what had happened. 
Probably some such students are like the proverbial 
ostrich who notice nothing in the TV or newspapers, 
but others could have benefited from an independent 
press.

MIM believes that the students should be focussing 
on the autonomy of their universities, the 100th 
anniversary of the invasion of the U$ troops and 
building their own press so that when they do carry 
out such actions the public will understand them. 
For this reason, MIM says its principal task is to 
"create public opinion and independent institutions 
of the oppressed to seize power." 

NOTES:
1. The San Juan Star English Edition, 31 January 
1998, p. 1, 8.
2. El Nuevo Dia 27 January 1998, p. 30.
3. El Nuevo Dia 31 January 1998, p. 20.



* * *



REVOLUTIONARY NATIONALISTS START NEWSPAPER IN 
PUERTO RICO

PUERTO RICO -- The Federation of Pro-Independence 
University students (FUPI) started a newspaper 
called "New Country." In January and February, FUPI 
distributed its first issue at campuses and 
demonstrations around the country they call 
"Boriken." The FUPI supporters had a contingent in 
the demonstration of 1000 opposing the NASA rocket 
experiments in Puerto Rico. 

1998 marks the 100th anniversary of the U.$. 
invasion of Puerto Rico and the fears of the U.$.-
puppet regime relate to organizations like FUPI. 
One professor writing to a mainstream newspaper 
called the San Juan Star had to defend the 
independence of universities from the government 
explicitly mentioning the fears of the Puerto Rican 
government this year regarding the 100th 
anniversary and what the people will sum up about 
their last 100 years of history. He mentioned 
groups like the FUPI that concern the puppet 
regime. 

Already the government's naked intervention in 
university affairs has prompted students and 
professors to form a large movement for university 
autonomy. Thousands have demonstrated in this 
ongoing movement and student leaders predict that 
it will only continue and heat up. 

In its self-description, FUPI claims it will go 
beyond the conformist patriotism of the status quo 
in Puerto Rico and move to the "new country" idea 
as a part of internationalism. MIM agrees with FUPI 
that relating nationalism to internationalism is at 
the center of political life in Puerto Rico. 

The newspaper boasts writers from across Puerto 
Rico. Like MIM does in English, three of the FUPI 
writers consciously alter the spelling of Spanish 
itself to achieve a gender-inclusive effect. Taking 
advantage of the "@" symbol on typewriters and 
keyboards, the FUPI writers say "l@s" and not "los" 
and "las." Likewise they change other nouns and 
adjectives to be both "-os" and "-as"--male and 
female-- simultaneously.

MIM has a number of disagreements with the 
FUPIstas, including their upholding of Che Guevara 
and some Christian revolutionary influences 
received through Pedro Albizu Campos. At some 
future date we will go into those in more detail. 
Right now it is important for all opposed to the 
U.$. colonization of Puerto Rico to step up their 
activities for this 100th anniversary of the 
invasion and to work on freedom for Puerto Rican 
prisoners in U$ prisons. 

We encourage readers to rally around Notas Rojas, 
the MIM publication in Spanish for the colonies of 
the U$A. 

NOTES: "Rossello eyeing a UPR take-over," The San 
Juan Star, 31 January 1998, p. 64.



* * *


REACTIONARY COLUMNIST CALLS FOR PUERTO RICO 
PLEBISCITE

San Juan, PUERTO RICO -- Guillermo Moscoso wrote an 
editorial in The San Juan Star drawing attention to 
pro-U$ aspects of the thought of Puerto Rican 
Eugenio Maria de Hostos, an educator and 
abolitionist born 159 years ago. The editorial is 
typical of the concern of the ruling class that 
1998 will turn out to be a big year for anti-
imperialism in Puerto Rico: "Excessive and false 
nationalism will be the order of the day this year, 
which has already given signs of being a year 
loaded with tensions, hostilities, misguided 
emotionalism, obstructionism, divisions in the 
Puerto Rican family, intolerance, protests, marches 
and demonstrations against measures of the present 
administration aimed, in good faith, at serving the 
best interest of Puerto Rico and its people." With 
that vote of confidence, we urge the Puerto Rican 
people to prove him right! 

Apparently de Hostos believed that Puerto Ricans 
should learn English to be on par with U$ citizens. 
He also thought Puerto Rico was too small to make 
it as a country according to Guillermo Moscoso who 
advocates a consistently and consciously Liberal 
bourgeois internationalist view. 

Guillermo Moscoso repeatedly condemns those 
agitating against the "infamous invasion of Yankee 
imperialism." We have to give him credit for 
raising the idea of a plebiscite on Puerto Rico's 
future. However, Guillermo Moscoso says this 
involves asking the U$ for permission and lobbying 
the U$ government to set up the plebiscite.

MIM agrees that the Puerto Rican people should have 
self-determination. If they want to join up with 
U.$. imperialism though, we do not support them. 
The connection to the peoples on the Mainland 
should await revolutionary government.

At this moment, there is a great difficulty in 
Puerto Rico's simply holding plebiscites. One 
problem is who to count. All Puerto Ricans have 
U.$. citizenship and all U.$. citizens can 
establish themselves to live and vote in Puerto 
Rico by fulfilling a residency requirement, 
according to a professor in Puerto Rico at the 
School of the Inter-Americas. There are pensioners 
retiring to Puerto Rico from the U$A just as if 
Puerto Rico were Florida. These Euro-Amerikan 
settlers with the right to vote in Puerto Rico 
obviously cannot be wrestling with a Puerto Rican 
national identity.

Another problem is that so much of Puerto Rico's 
population is in the U$A or formerly part of the 
U$A. Both these problems of who to count in a 
plebiscite are a result of the 1898 invasion by 
Yankee imperialism. Puerto Rico has no 
representation in the U.S. Government (no Congress 
people and no voting for the President) and it does 
not pay federal taxes, but it has had citizenship 
rights and economic subordination to the U$A. 

At this time, the plebiscite that Guillermo Moscoso 
proposes would simply show what the Puerto Rican 
people will say with the bribery and arm-twisting 
of Uncle Sam. Only the people themselves in Puerto 
Rico can establish a true plebiscite of the people 
for self-determination. After a stage of 
revolutionary nationalism, the Puerto Rican people 
will be able to decide their future without the 
influence of imperialist power. 

NOTES: The San Juan Star English Edition 26 January 
1998, p. 50.



* * *



CARIBBEAN PREPARES PROTEST AGAINST NUCLEAR WASTE 
SHIPPING

RINCON, PUERTO RICO -- Business-owners and 
environmentalists in Rincon are mobilizing the 
people to stop nuclear waste shipments from passing 
through the Caribbean from France. As we go to 
press a British-flagged ship is making its way 
toward Puerto Rico to bring processed wastes back 
to Japan via the Panama Canal. According to 
activists they are still hoping to negotiate with 
the French and Japanese, but if there is no action 
by next week demonstrations will start.

Already the town square of downtown Rincon is 
adorned with large banners protesting the passage 
of ships with nuclear waste. One protests "floating 
Chernobyls." 

In Japan, the people are also mobilizing in 
internationalist fashion. The Japan YWCA and 
National Christian Council oppose the shipping. 
According to the Japanese office of Green Action, a 
similar but much smaller boat lost its cargo at sea 
near the Canary Islands on November 24th, 1997. 
Studies claim that a serious accident could easily 
destroy the economies of islands dependent on 
fishing and tourism. The shipment contested at the 
moment is 3,000 times larger than the one lost near 
the Canary Islands. 

Green Action notes that the Japanese and French are 
violating the 1982 UN Law of the Sea which requires 
prior notification and consultation relating to 
shipments. The shippers gave no prior notice of the 
route. 

MIM does not support opposition to technology for 
its own sake. However, nuclear waste is one 
Achilles Heel of the nuclear industry, under 
socialism or capitalism, because it is very 
difficult to handle. Progress in other energy 
technologies obviates the nuclear industry as we 
now know it. 

In other forms of energy production, there is also 
pollution and accidental death, but the masses are 
correct to demand control of their environmental 
lives whenever they come to realize the threats 
posed to it. We at MIM additionally believe the 
environmental movement should connect itself to the 
anti-imperialist movement. 

The peoples of Third World countries have the 
wastes of the First World dumped on them because of 
economics. Rich people can afford to pay others to 
dump waste somewhere else. 

In Puerto Rico, the people face two burdens. One is 
that the ordinary worker's environmental interests 
are not the same as that of the capitalists. 
Capitalists often profit hugely from dumping 
pollution somewhere, so while rich people suffer 
from pollution they also profit from it. Exploited 
workers suffer from pollution and do not profit 
from it. That is the burden of capitalism. Then 
there is the burden of national oppression which is 
related. The whole people of Puerto Rico are not in 
charge of their own island and waters thanks to the 
U$ invasion of 1898. 

The Amerikan settlers moving or retiring to Puerto 
Rico (much like Florida) share the environmental 
interests of the Puerto Rican people in not seeing 
their beautiful island destroyed by pollution. For 
this reason, the settlers from the Mainland should 
support the nationalist movement in Puerto Rico. 
The Puerto Rican people share in common the need 
not to become the dumping grounds of other 
countries like the U$A, Japan and France. To 
negotiate with other richer and more militaristic 
nations is not possible in the current system of 
imperialism. All the peoples must have self-
determination and imperialism must die before there 
can be meaningful international environmental and 
economic cooperation. 


NOTES: Green Action, amsmith@gol.com



* * *



PUERTO RICAN UNION LEADER STOKES UP TRADE CONFLICT

An organization representing 50,000 workers called 
the Workers Federation in Puerto Rico condemned the 
Wrangler jeans company for its legal conflict with 
Coleman of Belgium. Coleman claims its Eastpak 
backpacks are "made in the USA;" even though they 
are made in Puerto Rico. 

Wrangler claims in a lawsuit that Puerto Rico is a 
"Third World country" composed of "Indians and 
Creoles." (1,2) It recently argued its case in 
Brussels, Belgium December 10, 1997.(3) 

On January 30, 50 people burned Wrangler jeans when 
two radio announcers from "Sal Soul" called for an 
instant rally. Wrangler immediately apologized to 
the Puerto Rican people and took out full page ads 
in newspapers. MIM hopes that the workers receive 
economic support from the Coleman company for their 
actions, because otherwise the political action 
pitting support of Coleman against Wrangler is not 
worth it. 

By itself, the political impact of the action is 
reactionary. The trade unionist was undercutting 
Puerto Rican nationalism by clamoring for the right 
to say "Made in the USA." It was also a matter of 
lacking internationalist solidarity to be 
separating Puerto Ricans from the Third World, 
Indians and Creoles. Hence, the claim of "racism" 
against Wrangler might apply to the protestors even 
better. 

In Puerto Rico, there is a split in the working 
class still. Although the dollar is the currency 
and Puerto Rico benefits from access to 
superexploited Third World labor that way, there is 
no minimum wage and unions are only just starting 
to achieve legal status. Hence, a good third or 
half of the population lives U$ middle- class 
living standards whereas another chunk of the 
working class is still exploited and 13 percent or 
more is unemployed. 

We can expect that many trade union bureaucrats 
will in effect clamor for the chance to be part of 
"Made in the USA." Such trade unionists and people 
in favor of joining the U$A as a state want a piece 
of the imperialist pie. Since Marxism is not just 
syndicalism or pursuit of economic demands 
(economism), we have the duty to explain why 
pursuit of economic betterment by joining up with 
imperialism is not in the self-interests of 
workers. 

NOTES:
1. The San Juan Star English Edition 31 January 
1998, p. 7.
2. El Nuevo Dia 31 January 1998, p. 63.
3. El Nuevo Dia 30 January 1998, p. 56.



* * *



POPULAR CULTURE IN PUERTO RICO REFLECTS U$ INVASION 
100 YEARS AGO

San Juan, PUERTO RICO -- Political fermentation on 
the question of self-determination in Puerto Rico 
is evident in the most mundane details of cultural 
life of the ordinary people. A loud commercial for 
one musical performer on radio waves in Puerto 
Rico's largest city blares out "100 years ago the 
United States invaded Puerto Rico. [Pause and 
suspense] Now you can listen to. . ." 

Every persyn in Puerto Rico seems to ponder this 
question. The evidence that Puerto Rico is already 
a nation appears even on the sports pages. The 
major daily newspapers all gave the Superbowl 
victory of the Denver Broncos second or even third 
leading coverage behind the baseball playoffs in 
Puerto Rico. While half of the U$A was glued to its 
seat with regard to the football championships, one 
Puerto Rican daily did not even mention the 
Superbowl on the front page of its sports section.




* * *



SAM MARCY DIES, REVISIONIST LEADER OF 
WORKERS WORLD PARTY

by MC12

Sam Marcy, founder and chairperson of the 
Workers World Party, a revisionist party 
based in the United $tates died on February 
1, at the age of 86. 

According to a statement from the WWP's 
National Committee, Marcy had an activist 
career or more than 70 years, highlighted by 
his tenure with the WWP, founded by him and 
a few others in 1959. At this writing MIM 
hasn't dealt with Marcy's complete political 
history, so our comments are based on the 
WWP that he represented, including as a 
contributor to the Workers World newspaper 
until two years ago.

WWP under Marcy's leadership was remarkable 
for its militant defense of the most 
reactionary, revisionist, and social-
imperialist regimes, thereby not only 
discrediting true socialist and national 
liberation movements, but also sowing 
confusion in the ranks of many potential 
revolutionaries and communists.

The statement from the National Committee 
said, "He promoted the militant defense of 
all socialist countries against imperialist 
intervention and internal counterrevolution 
while maintaining a world view that was 
uniquely independent and consistently 
revolutionary." MIM agrees that all 
oppressed nations should be defended against 
imperialist intervention, and we agree that 
most of the movements against revisionist 
regimes -- such as those led by Boris 
Yeltsin, Vaclav Havel, Lech Walesa and so 
on, were anti-communist. However, the error 
of maintaining that Russia, Poland, 
Czechoslovakia, China, Korea, or Cuba were 
socialist countries in the 1980s has grave 
consequences for the international communist 
movement. This is perhaps the worst feature 
of the WWP under Marcy's leadership.

Deirdre Griswold, writing for Workers World 
on February 12, speaks of Marcy's love for 
the Russian Revolution, in the country of 
his birth. "With all its later vicissitudes, 
the Soviet Union inspired the workers and 
oppressed all over the world. It helped 
other revolutions break the imperialist 
grip. And it survived until the Yeltsin 
counterrevolution. To leftists who had 
earlier given up on the Soviet Union, 
Comrade Sam would say, 'Don't throw out the 
baby with the bath water.'" MIM is among 
those leftists whom Marcy would condemn for 
using the tools of political economy and 
materialist analysis to conclude that the 
Russian Revolution was lost to a resurgent 
bourgeoisie within the communist party 
itself after the rise to power of Kruschev 
in the 1950s. At the time that Marcy wrote 
Perestroika: A Marxist Critique in 1990, 
Griswold writes, "many experienced Marxists 
were devastated and paralyzed by the news 
coming out of the Soviet Union. Others were 
completely thrown into the bourgeois camp by 
Gorbachev's capitulation, vainly hoping for 
something good to come of it." MIM and all 
Maoists were in neither category, because we 
understood the restoration of capitalism 
that had occurred more than 30 years earlier 
in the USSR, and just 15 years earlier in 
China -- a country that Marcy's WWP believes 
is socialist to this day.

WWP offers better lip service than some 
other so- called communists to the notion of 
national oppression within U.$. borders. As 
Griswold writes: "Sam would keep returning 
to Lenin's views on the national question. 
Communists must support self-determination 
for all the nationally oppressed within the 
borders of the U.S. -- African Americans, 
Latinos, Asians, and Native people. Should 
there be integration? Federation? 
Separation? It was up to the oppressed 
themselves to decide what political forms 
would facilitate their freedom."

To the embarrassment of many Trotskyists, 
this is close to what Trotsky said, too, and 
it appears close to an actual recognition of 
the need for genuine national liberation for 
the Black, Latino, and First Nations in 
North America. However, this apparent good 
will is sabotaged by the insistence that the 
labor aristocracy -- in the U.$. this means 
primarily the white working class -- is an 
ally in this struggle. So it is too with the 
Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP-USA). As 
much as the struggle of the oppressed 
internal colonies -- and oppressed nations 
everywhere -- is lumped together with the 
parasitic interests of the labor and gender 
aristocracies, who draw their life's blood 
from the system of imperialism and 
patriarchy, the genuine aspects of national 
liberation struggle are lost. This happens 
in the practical day-to-day operations of 
the movement as well as at the theoretical 
level. As MIM has argued in MIM Theory 10, 
WWP's demands for more pay for the labor 
aristocracy were direct assaults on the 
international proletariat, from whose hides 
such pay raises inevitably come.

Sam Marcy and WWP, in their vocal criticisms 
of imperialism and patriarchy, often 
apparently put themselves on the right side 
of the principal contradiction under 
imperialism -- the contradiction between 
imperialism and the oppressed nations. 
However, with their revisionist views on 
capitalist restoration, and their grotesque 
pandering to the parasitic interests of the 
labor aristocracy in the imperialist 
countries, they destroyed WWP's potential 
for making a serious contributing to the 
international communist movement, the 
movement the imperialist and patriarchal 
systems they intended to oppose.




* * *



MARXISM-LENINISM-MAOISM ONLINE

NEW SURVEY OF INTERNET USE SHOWS PROMISE FOR 
REVOLUTIONARY ORGANIZING

In December 1997, the Graphic, 
Visualization, & Usability Center at Georgia 
Tech University released the results of its 
8th World Wide Web user survey. This survey 
of users in the United Snakes and Europe, 
endorsed by the World Wide Web Consortium, 
ran from October to November of last year. 
Ten thousand participants (out of an 
estimated user population of 64 million in 
the U.$. and Canada alone) responded to ads 
placed in prominent sites such as Yahoo! 
(which numerous surveys have concluded is 
the most popular site on the Web), computer 
and Internet related Usenet groups, and ads 
in other popular media such as radio, 
newspapers and television. Surveyers 
collected information about demographics, 
political (electoral) participation, 
electronic commerce, and what policy issues 
concern users the most about the Internet.

MIM recognizes that the methodology of this 
survey skews the results in favor of the 
type of people who are willing to volunteer 
information to surveys. So when the results 
reveal, for example, that more than 80% of 
Internet users vote, we understand that 
figure to be more a reflection of the 
correlation between voting and survey 
participation than an accurate 
representation of Internet users at large. 
Still, we examine the results of the GVU 
survey to evaluate the Internet as a viable 
forum to build public opinion on behalf of 
the international proletariat, and for 
socialist revolution.

The GVU survey confirmed earlier findings in 
the Statistical Abstract (and political 
economic reality) that Internet users are 
disproportionately formally educated and 
have high incomes. But the Internet is 
reaching more and more people: 66% "of all 
Internet users had a college degree in 1995 
compared to 47% in 1997." But this is also 
true of one of MIM's core recruiting 
populations -- students in the U.$. So we 
take this overall statistic and work 
strategically within it. While it may true 
that X University is mostly white and rich, 
we can still seek out a critical mass of 
progressive people and target them with our 
literature and organizing activities. 
Historically some of the most privileged 
Universities produced the most revolutionary 
students. We do not disparage the Internet 
simply because it attracts economic 
privilege. We ask, what else about this 
forum might lend itself to those progressive 
elements of the population? If there are 100 
million people on the Internet and only 1% 
are proletarian -- that's still 1 million 
proletarian Internet users.

Other results of the survey were more 
interesting. The percentage of U.$. users 
who are wimmin has risen from 5% in 1994 to 
about 40% today (compared to 21% in Europe). 
And the gender trend shows the greatest 
increase among younger wimmin. According to 
the survey, "a large amount of the increase 
in female Internet users is among college-
aged women. Of the 10,000 participants in 
the survey, there were more females 
respondents in the 16-20 year-old age range 
(11%) than males (8%). A press release 
accompanying the report said, "A lot of the 
female use is being driven by the fact that 
more educational settings are being wired -- 
high schools and especially colleges."


PROMISING TRENDS


When we did a search for "public library 
Internet access" on Yahoo! to write this 
article, we found numerous sites that listed 
new availability of public access Internet 
terminals in public libraries. MIM has 
previously reported on the reactionary use 
of software such as NetNanny to police the 
specific use of these terminals by library 
patrons (with emphasis on controlling the 
access of children), but we also understand 
the positive benefit of having such public 
terminals away from the direct grasp of 
parents and teachers. We would also expect 
and encourage the leadership elements among 
the proletariat (of all ages) to access 
these resources as well.

GVU linked to an "other surveys" page that 
included among other findings a report that 
"that there are almost 10 million children 
online. The report, Children on the 
Internet, revealed that 14% of people under 
18 are currently online, meaning that 
children are one of the fastest growing 
sections of Internet users. The research 
group projects that there will be 45 million 
children online by the year 2002. Thirty-two 
percent of children aged 16 to 17 spend five 
or more hours online per week." (FIND/SVP: 
45 Million Children Online by 2002  
http://www.nua.ie/surveys/index.cgi?service=
view_su rvey&survey_number=447&rel=no)


INTERNATIONAL USAGE


Internationally, the imperialists obviously 
have a gross advantage. Out of the 101 
million estimated world population of 
Internet users, 84 million are estimated to 
be from North America and Europe, followed 
by 14 million in Asia and the Pacific. (How 
Many Online? 
http://www.nua.ie/surveys/how_many_online/in
dex.htm l) "In Africa there is an average of 
one Internet user per 5,000 people in the 
entire continent while analysts put the 
global picture at one Internet user per 40 
people and Europe and North America at one 
per 6 people. ... The majority of Africa's 
one million ... Internet population reside 
in South Africa which is ranked among the 
top 20 in the world because of the abundance 
of Internet nodes. 
(http://www.nua.ie/surveys/index.cgi?service
=view_s urvey&survey_number=572&rel=no) 
Still, even within this reality, we would 
expect (and in fact see evidence that) 
vanguard elements of Third World countries 
to access and make use of Internet resources 
in their own public opinion activities, and 
to be looking for fraternal allies in the 
imperialist countries through this medium.


POLICY CONCERNS


Whereas censorship used to be the number one 
policy concern among Internet users, 
according to the GVU survey it is now 
privacy. In other words, people are more 
concerned about data collection about them 
as individuals for commerical or marketing 
use than they are about the government or 
capitalists like Amerikkka Online censoring 
their speech. While the electronic privacy 
movement has some progressive elements, and 
has certain valuable advice for 
revolutionaries wanting to protect their 
anonymity online, MIM is disturbed to see a 
decline in concern with censorship at a time 
when reactionary corporate policies and 
tightened law enforcement constitute the 
greatest threat to the Internet for 
progressives and revolutionaries. We will 
continue to use the pages of MLM Online to 
expose pig activity online and to promote 
the revolutionary use of the Web, Usenet, e-
mail and other Internet- based applications.



BUILDING INDEPENDENT INSTITUTIONS OF THE 
OPPRESSED: MIM TO PUBLISH PRISONER ZINE 
ONLINE

In early February, a prisoner in a Michigan 
gulag wrote to MIM proposing that we publish 
his/her zine "The Prisoner's Perspective" 
(PP) on our World Wide Web site 
(http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext).
The prisoner wrote, "I know that it is a big 
favor that I ask, but we are fighting the 
same cause and even though we are doing so 
in different ways we need the solidarity of 
unity as it gives us strength."

While MIM has some criticisms of "The 
Prisoner's Perspective"'s politics, we are 
agreeing to publish it, starting with the 
May/June issue. Such has been MIM's practice 
for years with the Under Lock & Key feature 
of MIM Notes. We publish material that, like 
the Prisoner's Perspective, expresses the 
conditions of our comrades in prison, but 
does not consistently represent the 
proletarian line. Our struggles before the 
masses in the context of a Maoist 
publication build independent prisoner 
activism.

MIM's main criticism is that the zine 
approaches prisoner issues from the 
incorrect perspective that prisoners come 
equally from all social groups. The first 
issue of The Prisoner's Perspective which 
MIM read included statements such as "the 
individuals that make up and fill the 
State's and Nation's penal systems are from 
all walks of life and form a literal 
hodgepodge of cultural diversity."(Nov/Dec, 
1997) As a RAIL comrade wrote in struggle 
with the prisoner:

"In reality, whites are very 
disproportionately underrepresented in u.s. 
prisons, while oppressed nationalities are 
imprisoned at rates much higher than their 
percentage of the general u.s. population.

"This is not just a question of what we 
emphasize in our work. It is actually 
detrimental to spread the idea that 'prison 
cuts across all social groups' because this 
undermines some of the most important 
reasons for working to expose injustice in 
prisons. In your letter to MIM Notes, you 
talked about how censorship should not be 
tolerated, and how this is a reason for 
saying that all prisoners are political 
prisoners. Do you see the fact that in 
Michigan for example Blacks are 13% of the 
general population and more than 50% of the 
prison population? RAIL would say that to 
deny this by saying that prisoners are of 
all social groups is detrimental because 
that makes it seem as if the criminal 
injustice system is blind in deciding whom 
to imprison. This then implies that Blacks 
are simply more prone to crime, which is 
bogus."

The RAIL comrade also criticized the PP for 
emphasizing personal self-improvement over 
organizing broadly for justice. But this 
question of end goals alone should not 
divide individuals or organizations from 
working with RAIL or MIM. In practice, the 
PP is already setting an excellent 
organizing example in putting out a 
publication and seeking support to reach 
more people and expand the discussion of 
prison conditions and injustice. RAIL seeks 
to organize people like the PP editor who 
have a clear practice of anti- imperialism. 
MIM will continue to have criticisms of the 
individualist approach, but will happily 
work with genuine anti-imperialists while we 
continue to assert our leadership for a 
proletarian line.



* * *



MAINE WILL DISCRIMINATE BASED ON SEXUAL 
ORIENTATION

On February 11 voters in Maine passed a vote 
on the question: "Do you want to reject the 
law passed by the Legislature and signed by 
the Governor that would ban discrimination 
based on sexual orientation with respect to 
jobs, housing, public accommodations and 
credit?" 

The law, which would have amended the Maine 
Human Rights Act, was endorsed by the state 
Legislature and signed last spring by Gov. 
Angus King. Led by conservative Christian 
groups, petitioners collected 59,000 
signatures of registered voters to hold a 
statewide election on the issue. The law was 
suspended pending the outcome of today's 
vote.

The referendum passed by about 4% even 
though previous polls had shows that a 
majority of people in Maine support the ban 
on discrimination based on sexual 
orientation. 

While MIM does not put faith in the 
imperialist state's protection of human 
rights, we consider legal advances that 
recognize the equality of all people to be 
progressive. However, even with official 
recognition that discrimination is wrong, 
the reactionary culture of imperialism 
encourages inequality and gender oppression. 
Only under socialism will we be able to 
ensure the equality of all people by putting 
the power in the hands of the people and 
eliminating both the power and the culture 
that discriminates. 

NOTES: Washington Post 11February 1998, p. 
A05.



* * *



UNDER LOCK AND KEY: NEWS FROM PRISONERS AND PRISONS


FORBIDDEN FRUIT

Michigan Department of Corrections recently issued 
a memo to prisoners in one facility which 
highlights the contradictory nature of Amerika.

It reads: "Nothing is to be taken from the kitchen. 
This includes fruit! If fresh fruit is served, it 
will be cut up and must be consumed in the chow 
hall.

"ALL food service workers are to be shaken down 
before they are sent back to their units. Other 
prisoners are to be routinely searched when leaving 
the chow hall."

Now, think about the over abundant amount of fresh 
fruits from Third World countries which are 
available on the shelves during the dead cold 
Michigan winters. These fruits are available to the 
good old Amerikan family, yet prisoners are denied 
the same basic need.


NEGLIGENCE CAUSES DEATH

...I have been removed from the hole, after being 
there a year. The foulest part of KKKalifornia 
concentration camps. Moved to a different slave 
camp.

...A prisoner died at this camp prior to my 
arrival. The person died due to the negligence of 
an MTA (Medical Technical Assistant) and the fact 
of the immoral and dehumanizing character of the 
bourgeois society.

 -- "An Afrikan Solider in Struggle," 3 November 
1997


LEGAL PATH FOR TEMPORARY RELIEF, NOT TRUE 
LIBERATION

DEAR MIM, I'm happy to report that I've received my 
MIM Notes for the past two months without any 
problems. I suppose this is the pigs so- called way 
of showing their holiday spirits by not interfering 
with them.

The information you sent of how to fight prison 
censorship is highly appreciated. This is a 
valuable tool in which to help keep the 
administration from just doing anything they want.

Even though we can't prevent them at this time form 
doing whatever they want. They're well aware of the 
resistance and challenge that some of us will put 
up against these arbitrary rules of theirs.

As one of my weapons and most powerful tools the 
Prisoners self-help litigation manual is the best 
thing since Peanut Butter and jelly sandwiches came 
along.

True liberation is never won by merely by policies 
or asking a super-powerful arrogant government to 
correct their unstable adherent subordinates from 
committing illegal acts under their own laws. 
However, it is a way to get temporary relief....

 -- A Pennsylvania Prisoner 31 December 1997


PRISONERS RESIST REDUCTION OF LEGAL AVENUE 

The Prisoners' Rights Organization for Incarcerated 
Texans (Profit) submitted the following:

...On January 28, 1997 Nevada Senator, Harry Reid, 
introduced Senator Bill #206. Which was co-
sponsored by Louisiana Senator, John Breaux and 
Mississippi Senator, Thad Cochran on February 12, 
1997. 

The above bill prohibits all prisoners and 
detainees from filing lawsuits pursuant to the 
"Religious Freedom Act of 1993" to protect their 
religious rights. This includes prisoners' choices 
of long hair and diet. 

Therefore we request everyone to ask all of their 
state's congresspersons to vote "NO" to Senate Bill 
#206. We also request, everyone living in above 
states to have their family, friends and general 
public oppose re-election of above congresspersons.

Any willing to help us in our endeavor to withdraw 
above bill from the docket please contact us via 
MIM.

Professionally Submitted,

 -- A Texas Prisoner, 5 December 1997


MIM RESPONDS: Thank you for exposing this anti-
prisoner legislation. The imperialists only wish to 
control the masses with prison and tactics like 
above. Instead of calling or writing Congress, we 
suggest working with MIM. Help us build revolution 
and independent institutions for the people.


EXPOSING THE FLORIDA INJUSTICE SYSTEM

...The Florida legal system has noting to do with 
justice or fairness. The Florida legal system is 
based strictly on vengeance and economic 
exploitation of the poor, especially black males.

The Florida legal system is rigged to convict the 
poor, especially black males by any means 
necessary. Very few poor minorities go to trial, 
since the trial judge, prosecution and public 
defender, who are all employed by the state, rig 
the trial against a poor minority defendant. Most 
trials are plagued with numerous errors and 
ineffective assistance of counsel. 

Most minority prisoners are illiterate and don't 
know what a fair and impartial trial is supposed to 
be like in the first place. When they go through 
these trials which are a travesty of justice, they 
know something is wrong, yet they can't articulate 
it themselves.

Only about one percent of convictions in the state 
of Florida is overturned. Does this mean that 
Florida has an almost perfect judicial system? I 
think not. It goes to show you this is a totally 
kangaroo system.

...Also I have filed a complaint against Columbia 
Correction Facility. While I was Taylor 
Correctional Facility, the staff at Taylor, who are 
Masons, intentionally got my complaint dismissed. 
They intentionally denied me a legal phone call to 
the judge in October 1997 for a telephone hearing. 
They claimed that the judge would give me a 
rehearing when in fact she or he dismissed my 
complaint.

The appeal system in Florida prisons is a joke. 
"Based on the officer's statement, you didn't tell 
us anything new, so your appeal is denied." So then 
they fabricated four disciplinary reports and sent 
me to me to Columbia Correctional Facility -- the 
people I am suing for Close Management review. Then 
Columbia put me on Close Management status for 37 
months.

 -- A Florida Prisoner, 8 December 1997


MICHIGAN PRISONERS FIGHTS CENSORS

...I have received your correspondence, and at my 
request -- MIM Notes 142. You will find it 
interesting that this prison administration 
mailroom has held on to your letter and note 142. 
Instead, they sent me a notice of intent rejection 
package. Stating that MIM Notes 142 has been added 
on the restriction list without further hearing. 
Thereby denying my due process right to a proper 
hearing. I filed a grievance. Now awaiting 
response.

...all the prior [MIM]Notes were not restricted. 
But this is the second time they placed a 
restriction on MIM Notes 142. 

...My words are effective in showing the truth 
about the united snakes gulag system.... 

 -- A Michigan Prisoner, 25 November 1997


STRUGGLING AGAINST CENSORSHIP IN FLORIDA

DEAR MIM,  Peace. Until recently I had been 
successfully receiving MIM Notes without any 
problems from the "Beast". First Under Lock and Key 
was sent back. Then about a week later the MIM 
Notes were sent back. I found it reasonable why the 
material in ULK was sent back, but the MIM Notes 
are on my approved reading list.

I asked the mail lady who runs the mailroom, why 
was my reading material, MIM Notes, sent back? And 
she responded, "The attitude of the paper was too 
negative." I then asked her if she knew that she 
was violating my first amendment right of the U.S. 
Constitution. She just lifted her pink nose in the 
air and walked away.

I tell you my Brothers, she hasn't seen the last of 
me. And when I get through with them, they will be 
glad to put MIM Notes in my mailbox....

One Love, Soldier in Struggle

 -- A Florida Prisoner, 9 December 1997


CENSORSHIP, LOCK-UP AND TRANSFERS

...I know you have not received all of my letters.

...I'm locked down pending transfer. I filed a 
grievance about them stopping me from receiving my 
MIM Notes and this is the response I received:
This plantation will not let my papers come into 
this prison. They locked up everyone caught with a 
paper. They [MIM Notes] are now considered 
contraband.

One of the soldiers [prisoner comrades] has been 
transferred already. I'm next and the other brother 
will be transferred as soon as they serve their 
disciplinary time.

The struggle continues until victory is won.

 --A Pennsylvania Prisoner


PRISONER RETRIEVES MIM NOTES FROM CENSORS

...I had an altercation with a few of Pontiac 
C.C.'s [Correctional Center] simple-minded 
officials who disagreed with the political line of 
MIM.

...I wrote the Warden, Jerry D. Gilmore, about my 
denial of my publication I received from the 
institutional publication review committee [IPRC]. 
I later received a canary slip explaining the IPRC 
reasons for the restriction of MIM Notes.

...I told the warden that the IPRC members could 
not have analyzed MIM's political aims with basic 
intelligence. For if they did, they would have 
quickly realized that MIM Notes has the right to 
print their political beliefs without hindrance 
from the state or federal government. This also 
includes the right to speak out against the 
criminal justice system to those who desire to 
learn more about this system. And inform the 
general public about the growing prison population. 
Which shows that that there is indeed, a major 
conflict about the totality in operational 
government concerning criminal justice.

I pinpointed the many lawsuits against IDOC 
[Indiana Department of Corruptions] and suggested 
to the warden that he request a follow-up reading 
for the IPRC to reread Under Lock and Key.

The IPRC's main argument was this: MIM Notes "could 
encourage retaliatory acts against security and 
staff at this facility in an attempt at 
liberation/protest." 

I counter-attacked the IPRC's weak argument by 
stating: Pontiac C.C. has been currently under 
twenty-four hour lockdown (with the exception of 
five hours for recreation once a week) for the past 
year and a half. During the last six months there 
has been a decline in security and staff assaults 
dropped rapidly 90%, from a steady rate of three 
attacks per day. I further went on to say, that MIM 
Notes could not be held responsible for any alleged 
"retaliatory acts" if we prisoners decide to rise 
up and "protest".

The IPRC claims that MIM Notes are directly aimed 
to overthrow imperialist rule so they can step up 
shop, for a criminal justice system that serves the 
people. I explained to the warden who the people 
were. I defined them as people identified with the 
poor people's struggle. This excluded the IPRC 
members who are collaborators of this unjust 
system, which MIM Notes exposes in their papers.

I then finalized my letter by explaining that there 
are no major protests going on at present in 
Pontiac C.C. that allow this IPRC to restrict my 
MIM Notes. Thus violating my freedom of speech, 
press and expression rights. I asked the warden to 
examine the periodicals and then request the IPRC 
to produce five acts of protest in the previous 
month that were related to MIM to support their 
claim.

I summed my letter by telling the warden that I 
challenge the IPRC's review of the publication. I 
went on to say that the IPRC appeared to conduct a 
hearing based on personal conscience and not on 
fact-findings by which the law abides by.

The IPRC's statement: "The DOC is a part of 'our' 
criminal justice system" show brightly that they 
are going to be against anything challenging that 
system. Their decision to deny my MIM Notes is 
based on personal bigotry, dogmatic encounters and 
their disillusioned assumptions on what could 
happen, rather than what MIM Notes has to do with 
Pontiac C. C.

...It was further noted in my letter that to 
restrict my [MIM] Notes would cause me to contact 
various critics, authors, etc from somatic sources 
on my behalf to elaborate their thoughts concerning 
this restriction. I offered a list of publishers, 
but instead was handed a copy of my October issues, 
last month, without any further questions or 
complications.

So I savor, this mouth-watering victory with the 
taste of sweet self-dignity. A message heard 
throughout the valleys and concrete jungles. Birds 
spread the news in laughter and play. I brought it 
to you Under Lock and Key today.

A Luta Continua!

 -- An Illinois Prisoner, 19 December 1997


MAIL TAMPERING IN CONNECTICUT

...Please continue to send me your MIM Notes. I am 
allowed to receive them here in this facility, 
called Northern Corrections Institution Supermax.

I had written you several times already.... I 
thought you were receiving my mail. Now I find out 
that you have not and they are tampering and 
withholding my mail!

...I am not having my letters copied and watched by 
the postmaster to see if they are still tampering 
with my mail.

 -- A Connecticut Prisoner, 4 January 1998


FAMILY CONTACT DENIED

[The letter was written to a Prisoncrat and 
submitted to MIM]

To: Thomas James, Inmate Correctional Services, 
Camp Hill, PA 17001-8837

Dear Sir,

I am confronting you, as man to man on paper. This 
is a very unusual way to start off a letter like 
this, but I don't know any other way at the moment.

I have been in the hole since August 1997, with no 
write-ups or charges. I was put in the hole at 
Facility X and was put in the hole under 
Administrative Custody, and was later transferred 
to Greene SCI. 

I have seen the PRC [Prison Review Committee] and 
Deputy Warden White granted me a phone call. I have 
not talked with my family since I have been in the 
hole. I put in five requests to call my family, and 
the warden granted it, but they did not acknowledge 
his request.

... You took my TV and radio and all of my 
belongings and put them in a storage closet, when I 
was sent to the hole. Why?...The PRC said I could 
ask for my TV first, and then get the rest of my 
belongings one at a time after that. Nothing has 
materialized.

Why are they keeping me here? That is my big 
question. Being in jail is bad enough. But to come 
to jail and be jailed again for nothing...!!

Please contact me sir. My wife is a very sick 
person and I would like to talk with my family. 
Thank you in advance for your help.

 -- A Pennsylvania Prisoner, 30 November 1997


PIGS REFUSE TO SHOW ROSEWOOD

[This letter was written to Warden D. Smith and 
forwarded to MIM]

TO: Warden D. Smith RE: Movie/Video
I forward this letter to you to express my anger, 
frustration, disappointment and resentment 
regarding the film/video "Rosewood" -- that was 
supposed to have been shown on Thursday November 
27, 1997, but was changed to another film/video.

According to the Warden Forum Representative for 
Unit X, the video "Rosewood" was going to be shown 
again because it was pulled the last time it was 
scheduled to be shown. This prevented myself and 
many other prisoners from the opportunity of seeing 
this historical film.

I do not understand why there is such unsupported 
controversy about showing this film to the general 
population at this facility. This film is not just 
a piece of entertainment, but it is a historical 
account of what took place in the town of Rosewood 
in the state of Florida. It is educational and 
should be shown. 

Before this movie's creation, I did not know about 
the important historical events that occurred in 
Rosewood, Florida. As an African American, I should 
have the opportunity to take advantage the 
educational this film offers.

Why, in 1997, should you deny African Americans the 
opportunity to view this historical documentary? 
From an educational standpoint, it would seem that 
you and other officials would want to encourage the 
showing of such films. This way myself and others 
could learn. And from this learning we could 
develop the inner realization that we have a social 
obligation to conduct ourselves in a responsible 
manner. This is due to the hardships and sacrifices 
made in the past so that African Americans (in 
particular but all people in general) can have the 
basic freedoms now afforded to us.

Equally interesting, is how you prevent us from 
viewing anything that significantly covers or 
depicts the hardships that African Americans had to 
face and overcome. You are denying an audience 
which, for the most part, is already lacking in 
education about their history and the positive 
contributions of African Americans.

The showing of this film could only serve as a 
strong reminder that what we do today should 
reflect the past selfless sacrifices made for the 
true meaning of democracy.

Therefore, Warden Smith, I am appealing to you to 
have this documentary shown (in its entirety, 
without any rude interruption) for our educational 
and historical benefit.

Thank you very much, in advance, for your time and 
cooperation in this matter.

 -- A Michigan Prisoner, 27 November, 1997


MICHIGAN YOUTH NEED MORE EDUCATION

...Michigan is imposing life sentencing on our 
youth regardless of age for offenses such as 
murder. Michigan has a young boy, age eleven, on 
trial for first degree murder. If found guilty of 
this crime, he will be tossed in here with us, 
"mostly adults" to fend for himself. This is no 
more than a death sentence to this young boy.

I understand that this young boy took someone's 
life, but is it right for the oppressor to take his 
life?! I don't think so!

It is obvious that this boy is already a victim of 
society. I am not suggesting that he be freed, but 
I am suggesting that some other method be taken to 
assist this young man.

...This prison has approximately 616 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. That is if 
he's lucky. The administration here refuses to pay 
the money for teachers, and refuses to open the 
school building here at ECF. Inmates or residents 
here have in-cell teaching, as stated above, three 
to five minutes per week. Out of eleven years, I 
have never seen such a low level of teaching in the 
State of Michigan. 

There are a lot of young guys here, who really 
don't care about getting an education. Yet we know 
this is the reason that we are in here, for the 
lack of education. 

I believe that it is important that this 
institution make reading, writing, and math more 
sufficient for inmates or residents....

 -- A Michigan Prisoner, 19 December 1997


SOME 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



* * *



MIM ON PRISONS AND PRISONERS

MIM seeks to build public opinion against 
Amerika's criminal injustice system, and to 
eventually replace the bourgeois injustice system 
with proletarian justice. The bourgeois 
injustice system imprisons and executes a 
disproportionately large and growing number of 
oppressed people while letting the biggest mass 
murderers - the imperialists and their 
lackeys - roam free. Imperialism is not opposed to 
murder or theft, it only insists that these crimes 
be committed in the interests of the bourgeoisie.

MIM does not advocate that all prisoners go free 
today; we have a more effective program for 
fighting crime as was demonstrated in China prior 
to the restoration of capitalism there in 1976. We 
say that all prisoners are political 
prisoners because under the dictatorship of the 
bourgeoisie, all imprisonment is substantively 
political. It is our responsibility to exert 
revolutionary leadership and conduct 
political agitation and organization among 
prisoners ­ whose material conditions make them an 
overwhelmingly revolutionary group. Some prisoners 
should and will work on self-criticism under a 
future dictatorship of the proletariat in those 
cases in which prisoners really did do 
something wrong by proletarian standards.


***WHAT NON-PRISONERS CAN DO TO SUPPORT 
PRISONERS***

*1. Struggle with, work with, finance and join 
MIM. The best way to support prisoners is to 
overthrow 
the system under which capitalists profit from the 
exploitation of prisoners. History shows that the 
best way to do this is to build a Marxist-
Leninist-Maoist party. The oppressors will not give 
up 
their power without a fight.
*2. Finance MIM's prison work. Our biggest bill 
each month is postage. Most of the prison comrades 
who read MIM Notes have no way of paying for it. 
So if you have money, send what you can afford. 
Every 
cent helps, and stamps are as good as cash to us.
*3. Distribute MIM Notes and Notas Rojas. Bring 
the voices of prisoners and their supporters to as 
large and wide an audience of people as possible. 
Contact MIM for bulk rates and distribution tips.
*4. Start or join a prison support group. MIM can 
provide advice and resources to help you build 
public opinion for prisoners and their struggles.
*5. Fight censorship, beatings, torture and other 
fascist outrages. Under Lock and Key often 
features the addresses of prisoners' friends and 
enemies. 
Work with the friends and let the enemies know 
you're watching. (Don't expect to win the fascists 
to the side of humanity, however. See #1 in this 
list).
*6. Stay in touch. Keep us informed of pro-
prisoner work you do. Our readers might find it 
educational 
or inspirational.