This is an archive of the former website of the Maoist Internationalist Movement, which was run by the now defunct Maoist Internationalist Party - Amerika. The MIM now consists of many independent cells, many of which have their own indendendent organs both online and off. MIM(Prisons) serves these documents as a service to and reference for the anti-imperialist movement worldwide.
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THE MAOIST INTERNATIONALIST MOVEMENT
MIM Notes 161 May 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. CLINTON PUSHES IMPERIALISM IN AFRICA
2. AMERIKA PRESSURES CUBA TO CAPTURE ASSATA SHAKUR
3. LETTERS
4. END AMERIKAN COLONIALIST DOMINATION OF PUERTO RICO: 100
YEARS IS TOO LONG
5. ASSASINATION IN COLOMBIA; PEOPLE'S WAR NEEDED
6. CORRECTION: MIM NOTES 159 ARTICLE FAILED TO FIGHT
BOURGEOIS ANALYSIS
7. SIERRA CLUB PUKES FIRST WORLD CHAUVINISM
8. WHY BIOLOGICAL WIMMIN USUALLY ESCAPE THE DEATH PENALTY
9. United Nations passes resolution on death penalty
10. RAIL HOLDS SUCCESSFUL CONTINENT-WIDE TEACH-IN ON THE
CRIMINAL INJUSTICE SYSTEM
11. RAIL CONTIGENT JOINS JERICHO MARCH TO DEMAND:
FREEDOM FOR OUR REVOLUTIONARY LEADERS!
12. ATTENTION PRISONERS:
ANTI-IMPERIALIST PRISONER MASS ORGANIZATION NOW FORMING!
13. WEST COAST RAIL RALLIES OPPOSITION TO IMPERIALISM
14. MARXISM-LENINISM-MAOISM ONLINE:
BUDDING WORKER-ARISTOCRATS:
WORK WITH MIM BEFORE YOU SELL YOURSELF TO IMPERIALISM
15. MISSISSIPPI SPY COMMISSION:
PUBLIC DISCLOSURE WON'T WASH THE BLOOD FROM OFF THE STATES'
HAND
16. AMERIKKKAN PRISONS ON TRIAL CONFERENCE:
INJUSTICE SYSTEM GUILTY OF GENOCIDE AND NATIONAL OPPRESSION
17. UNDER LOCK AND KEY: NEWS FROM PRISONS AND PRISONERS
* * *
WHAT IS MIM?
The Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM) is a
revolutionary communist party that upholds
Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, comprising the collection
of existing or emerging Maoist internationalist
parties in the English-speaking imperialist
countries and their English-speaking internal
semi-colonies, as well as the existing or emerging
Spanish-speaking Maoist internationalist parties
of Aztlan, Puerto Rico and other territories of
the U.S. Empire. MIM Notes is the newspaper of
MIM. Notas Rojas is the newspaper of the Spanish-
speaking parties or emerging parties of MIM.
MIM is an internationalist organization that works
from the vantage point of the Third World
proletariat; thus, its members are not Amerikans,
but world citizens.
MIM struggles to end the oppression of all groups
over other groups: classes, genders, nations. MIM
knows this is only possible by building public
opinion to seize power through armed struggle.
Revolution is a reality for North America as the
military becomes over-extended in the government's
attempts to maintain world hegemony.
MIM differs from other communist parties on three
main questions: (1) MIM holds that after the
proletariat seizes power in socialist revolution,
the potential exists for capitalist restoration
under the leadership of a new bourgeoisie within
the communist party itself. In the case of the
USSR, the bourgeoisie seized power after the death
of Stalin in 1953; in China, it was after Mao's
death and the overthrow of the "Gang of Four" in
1976. (2) MIM upholds the Chinese Cultural
Revolution as the farthest advance of communism in
human history. (3) MIM believes the North American
white-working-class is primarily a non-
revolutionary worker-elite at this time; thus, it
is not the principal vehicle to advance Maoism in
this country.
MIM accepts people as members who agree on these
basic principles and accept democratic centralism,
the system of majority rule, on other questions of
party line.
"The theory of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin is
universally applicable. We should regard it not as
dogma, but as a guide to action. Studying it is
not merely a matter of learning terms and phrases,
but of learning Marxism-Leninism as the science of
revolution."
-- Mao Zedong, Selected Works, Vol. II, p. 208
* * *
CLINTON PUSHES IMPERIALISM IN AFRICA
by RC784
U$ President Bill Klinton recently returned from a six
nation, 12 day tour of the African continent. Heralded as an
important historical first by the bourgeois media, the true
nature of this visit was not to show Africa that "Amerika
cares," but to extend Amerikan imperialism. Savvy students
of U$ imperialism know that Klinton cannot and will not
offer the revolutionary steps necessary to liberate Africans
from their oppression and poverty; he just has different
snake-oil sales techniques from previous Amerikan heads of
state.
There's nothing accidental about the timing of Klinton's
visit. It comes at a time when the U$ and African
politicians are debating the "Africa Growth and Opportunity
Act," which passed the House of Representatives on March 11.
Section 7 of this bill would establish a free trade zone
between the U$ and 48 southern African nations similar to
the Mexico-U$-Kanada NAFTA treaty while doing nothing to
protect human rights, the environment or workers. The bill
is also known as the Sub-Sahara Africa Trade Bill.
The Africa Growth and Opportunity Act has supporters within
the Black nation inside u.s. borders, especially among the
Black compradors serving their white master. One of its co-
sponsors is Rep. Charles Rangel (D - NY), who worked closely
with Speaker of the House, Rep. Newt Gingrich (R - GA) to
push this bill through the House following only six hours of
debate. Amalgamated Publications/Bloomberg Financial, a
Black-owned media/financial services company, has been
taking out ads in Black newspapers and using Rep. Rangel's
name to encourage the bill in the Black nation in the united
snakes of imperialism. This is a case of the Black comprador
bourgeoisie trying to pitch the further exploitation of
their African sisters and brothers to the Black masses. MIM
recommends J. Sakai's Settlers: The Mythology of the White
Proletariat especially sections 4 & 5 of chapter IX and
chapter XIV for the historical antecedents of this type of
treachery.
But the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act also has its
detractors within the Amerikan Black nation, who have dubbed
it the "Africa Re-Colonization Act." Randall Robinson,
President of TransAfrica, has recognized it for what it is:
legislation for the advancement of U$ imperialism.
The majority of the Black Congressional Caucus oppose it,
too. The United Needletrades Industry and Textile Employees
(UNITE) and the United Auto Workers also oppose the bill,
but MIM questions their motives. This opposition is less a
part of an overall anti-imperialist strategy on the part of
these unions and more a tactical defense for the
preservation of labor aristocratic privilege.
MIM recognizes that textile workers are among Amerika's
lowest paid workers, and, like all workers, deserve a living
wage, but, like all Amerikan unions, their organizational
efforts are not revolutionary. This is a result of the huge
labor aristocracy in this country which exerts a strong
influence on the unions, pushing for a bigger piece of the
imperialist pie. The few unions which do represent the
oppressed need strong revolutionary leadership to pull them
away from the imperialist influence and to the side of the
world's people in the struggle against imperialism.
From the perspective of the champions of Klinton's visit and
the Africa Re-Colonization Act, the U$ has neglected and
ignored Africa for too long. This is a serious distortion of
history. It gains credibility from the fact that Africa was
colonized by European nations (Spain, Portugal, UK, Germany,
France, Belgium and the Netherlands), and, until the end of
World War II, the main focus of U$ imperialism was Latin
America with some notable exceptions (China, Philippines,
etc.)
But to say that the U$ has "ignored" Africa is a lie. The
value of trade between just sixteen sub-Saharan African
nations and the U$ exceeds the value of trade between the U$
and all of the former Soviet republics combined.(1) The
African masses certainly would be better off today if U$
banks, corporations, military and CIA would have entirely
ignored Africa! For a summary of a few of these
interventions, MIM recommends William Blum's Killing Hope:
U$ Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II
(Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press, 1995).
U$ Imperialism in Uganda
One of Klinton's visits was to the East African nation of
Uganda where he promised millions of dollars in aid. MIM
recommends Mahmood Mamdani's Imperialism and Fascism in
Uganda (Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 1984) for a summary
of imperialism in that nation from its late-19th century
British inception through 1978. Mamdani highlights the U$
role during the Idi Amin years (1971-78). From its
independence in 1962 until the victory of the National
Resistance Movement in 1986, Uganda was governed by
comprador bourgeoisie masquerading as true nationalists who
required rigged elections or outright military rule to
maintain imperialist domination of Uganda.
But the victory of the National Resistance Movement, headed
by Uganda's current president, Yoweri Museveni, filled many
Ugandans, other Africans and anti-imperialists with great
hopes. The NRM established a political system which appears
to be radically democratic: although political parties are
banned, all adult Ugandans are free to participate in their
village-level Resistance Council (RC) and elect a village
executive committee, who in turn serve on a Parish
Resistance Council. This process of executive committee
elections proceeds through subcounty, county, district
levels up to the chief legislative body, the National
Resistance Committee (NRC). No one can be excluded from the
political process, and thus one finds Marxist-Leninists,
republicans, and monarchists within the NRC.
This system seems to have the support amongst a broad
section of the Ugandan masses.(2) The involvement of the
Ugandan masses was also solicited in the effort to rewrite
Uganda's 1962 constitution, but as of 1995 at least, the
constitution remained unwritten and the NRM-established
structure remained in place (MIM has no more recent
information).
Despite its radically democratic selection process for
legislative duties, the Museveni government has succumbed to
imperialist pressure. The regime accepted the international
debt it inherited from previous regimes, and, despite
initial wariness, has signed on to additional structurally-
adjusted IMF loans. Structural adjustment requires the
subordination of the oppressed nation's sovereignty through
demands that it open its doors wide to international
capitalist penetration.
Structurally adjusted IMF loans to other sub-Saharan African
nations have proved to leave them in worse economic shape
than they had been before.(3) As Mugyenyi put it, "the NRM
has lived with the reality that the IMF is a reflection of
the global distribution of power."(4)
Economic inequality within Uganda still runs high, and the
Museveni government has done little to change that. Phares
Mutibwa, author of Uganda Since Independence: A Story of
Unfulfilled Hopes (Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 1992)
stated that "corruption is a way of life," and those with
access to greater thefts (high-ranking bureaucrats) are less
likely to be punished than workers and peasants guilty of
petty thefts (pp. 197-8).
It is clear that Museveni and the National Resistance
government has not put the Maoist goal of the government to
serve the people into practice. Reporters covering Klinton's
visit have heard the Ugandan masses complain that Klinton's
audience was hand-picked by the government and they were
closed out from the address. The government cleaned the
streets and removed the homeless from Klinton's view --
things they never did for their own people. They expressed
outrage at the IMF policies which have severely hindered
government spending on employment and social services.(5)
Ghanaian Masses -- Colonial Mentality?
Bourgeois news sources reported that over 100,000
enthusiastic masses showed up for Klinton's public
appearance in Ghana. Although the U$ government has been
known to stage fake rallies in oppressed nations as a public
relations gimmicks (George Bush in Panama following
invasion), MIM has no evidence that either Ghanaian or U$
governments pulled that trick. What can account for what
appears to be a strong vote of confidence for Klinton
amongst the Ghanaian masses?
A comrade visiting Ghana has given us some insight. S/he has
despaired in a number of personal letters that years of US
Information Agency propaganda, Christian missionaries, and
thousands of Peace Corps volunteers have duped the Ghanaian
masses into believing "if it's white, it's right." Pictures
of a European Jesus are everywhere, and Ghanaians will
immediately give up a seat on a bus or a spot in a line for
a European. Apparently, the comprador government of Jerry
Rawlings has intentionally forgotten to teach the Ghanaian
masses that their former President, Kwame Nkrumah, a nominal
socialist who expelled the Peace Corps from Ghana, was
overthrown by CIA-backed military coup! When this same
comrade sought out the current Nkrumahist's headquarters,
s/he found a dispirited bunch. No surprise given the
colonial mentality of so many Ghanaians.
A Socialist Africa?
Clearly, Bill Klinton, the leader of the imperialist world,
offers nothing but further exploitation of Africa's people
and resources. Is their hope for a socialist Africa?
An African historian, Ali Mazrui, made famous for his
documentary, "The Africans: A Triple Heritage " (1985-86)
has suggested that there are both favorable and unfavorable
prospects for socialism in Africa. But the clearest obstacle
to socialism, Dr. Mazrui has stated, is "the primacy of
ethnicity as against class consciousness."(6) The map of
modern Africa is the product of European imperialism: at
the 1885 Berlin Conference, representatives of competing
European imperialist nations carved up Africa to prevent war
between themselves. While most African nations were gaining
nominal national independence in the 1950-70s, most African
independence leaders agreed to keep these borders as they
were to prevent civil war. Previously existing ethnic
rivalries were heightened by imperialist-created
occupational divisions.
MIM and RAIL are interested in working with any Africans in
the U$ who want to see imperialism overthrown, ethnic
divisiveness overcome, and an a shining path of Maoist
socialism build in the African motherland. Struggle with MIM
and RAIL for proletarian liberation!
NOTES:
1. Commentary by Salih Booker on National Public Radio's
"All Things Considered" Program, April 3, 1998. Booker is
the Senior Fellow & Director of the African Studies Program
at the Council of Foreign Relations, an international
imperialist "think tank."
2. For further details on the structure of the contemporary
Ugandan government, see Uganda: A Country Study, Washington,
D.C.: Federal Research Division, Library of Congress, 1992.
3. Joshua B. Mugyenyi, IMF Conditionality and Structural
Adjustment under the National Resistance Movement, Changing
Uganda: The Dilemmas of Structural Adjustment &
Revolutionary Change, London: James Currey Ltd., 1991, p.
66.
4. Ibid. p. 74.
5. NPR News, 25 March 1998 6. "Privatization versus the
Market: Cultural Contradictions in Structural Adjustment,"
in Changing Uganda, p. 368.
* * *
AMERIKA PRESSURES CUBA TO CAPTURE ASSATA SHAKUR
In late March, New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman
announced a $50,000 reward for the return of escaped Black
Liberation Army leader Assata Shakur, whom the pigs call
"Joanne Chesimard." Whitman is preparing a radio address to
be played on the Amerikan anti-Castro station "Radio Marti"
to demand Assata's return.
Assata Shakur was a member of Black Panther Party and the
Black Liberation Army. She was captured in an ambush on the
New Jersey turnpike 25 years ago, on May 2, 1973. It's
relevant that she was not convicted on any of the
indictments that made her "wanted" and worthy of stopping on
the Turnpike. Assata Shakur did not handle a gun during the
ambush and was then shot with her hands raised. Despite
this, in the courts of the white nation Assata Shakur was
convicted of aiding and abetting in the murder of the New
Jersey State Trooper who ambushed them. Sundiata Acoli was
convicted for killing the Trooper. Assata escaped from
prison in 1979, and was granted political asylum in Cuba
five years later.
The Black Liberation Army (BLA) was a revolutionary Black
nationalist organization fighting for the independence of
the Black nation. It existed mainly in the early 1970s. The
BLA engaged in armed struggle against the Amerikan
government and carried out bank expropriations to fund its
political work.
Mao and MIM argue that armed struggle should not be carried
out until the enemy is "truly helpless." This was not the
case in the Black nation in the early 1970s, where the
masses were not ready to support the armed struggle, and the
Amerikan government was too strong. This incorrect strategy
is why Assata is forced to live in exile away from her
people. Taking up armed struggle before strategically
correct is the reason that the imperialists were easily able
to murder or imprison hundreds of revolutionary leaders.
The pressure on Cuba and Assata have been increasing.
Recently, the New Jersey State Police asked Pope John Paul
II to request her extradition back to the United Snakes
during his recent trip to Cuba. The economic disintegration
of Cuba now that it is no longer a neo-colony of the Soviet
Union also increases the chances that Assata could be forced
from Cuba, and possibly back into custody.
Whitman may also be trying to recruit anti-Castro elements
to kidnap Assata and return her to the United Snakes.
Whitman launched her campaign after seeing an interview with
Assata on New York's WNBC-TV. MIM has not seen in the
interview in question, but we have heard other interviews
with Assata and read many of her writings. Whitman no doubt
targets Assata because her freedom serves as an important
political symbol of revolutionary resistance. Radio Marti
offered air time for Whitman, after Whitman wrote to Clinton
and Janet Reno asking for additional help in recapturing
Assata.
Strangely, Whitman announced that the reward money will come
out her entertainment budget. Whether that money was
intended for Whitman's entertainment or that of her guests,
it's clear that the immediate effects of this ploy is
entertainment for the pro-police white masses and further
political repositioning by Whitman. As Assata pointed out
about Gov. Whitman: "She's trying to present herself as a
pro law-and-order, right-wing governor."
The longer term effects of this Whitman campaign are much
more significant and should not be ignored. Assata said "Of
course, I'm concerned. It's a character assassination."
Whitman is building a campaign against Assata, but the
people must rise up to say "Imperialism must be stopped from
imprisoning the people's leaders!" Just as MIM supports the
demand of freedom for the revolutionary leaders behind bars,
MIM supports the demand of amnesty for Assata so she can
return from exile.
Notes: http://www.challengegroup.com 31 March 1998.
* * *
LETTERS TO MIM
EX-PRISONER SAYS "SYSTEM STINKS, SIGN ME UP!"
Dear MIM, I'm writing you this letter because I am very
unhappy with the way things are; especially here in
Amerikkka and, I too believe in socialist revolution. These
fascist, Capitalist-Imperialist pigs should be destroyed
utterly, without hesitation, and exposed to the masses for
what they really are.
I'm 26 years old and I've spent most of my entire life in
and out of concentration camps (prison). It's been almost
one whole year now since I've been released from hell. And
to be honest with you, I still can't find a place for me in
this forever-consuming, forever-selling, materialistic
society. I'm so tired of the way things are that I rather
spend time plotting against the real enemy of humanity:
Imperialism & Capitalism.
This barbaric society is based on individualism, greed and
private property. In fact, it places private property above
humanity and, as long as it continues to exist, there will
always be unhappiness, hunger, crime and poverty. Therefore,
I would like to become an active participant and follower of
Maoism
While being in prison for almost 4 years, I've read
intensively in the fields of Marxist economics, political
theories and development, geography and guerrilla warfare.
I've read a lot of books on Marx, Engels, Lenin, Luxemburg,
Mao, Che Guevara, Debray Regis and even Carlos Marighela.
And to be honest, I AM READY TO PASS ON THE TORCH AND TAKE
MAO'S GREAT LEAP FORWARD!!!
I know what a socialist revolution is and what it means to
us as a people, but I still don't possess a very clear
Marxist way of thinking. In fact, I still need major help in
understanding Dialectical Materialism. If I can only get a
clear and thorough understanding of Marx-Maoism and be able
to express my political and economical views, I'm quite sure
that I can become more effective, join the class struggle
anywhere around the world, in destroying the real enemy of
humanity: Imperialism and Capitalism.
Help me prepare myself, so that I can answer to the cry of
liberation and build a future for those that have been made
the floor-mat of the world, along the side with our comrades
in arms and the proletarians. Long live the revolution and
armed struggle!!
Revolutionary yours,
-- a new Comrade in the East March 25, 1998
P.S. Send me any information on how to become a member of
MIM. Also, I would like to subscribe for MIM Notes and RAIL
newspaper. And if you can send me some reading material, I
will greatly appreciate it.
MIM responds: A clenched fist salute, comrade! We are
excited to hear from you. Letters such as yours are rarer
than they should be, as many good comrades from under lock
and key fail to hook up with us once they are on the
outside. This is a double setback since the outside is where
comrades can be the most effective. This is why MIM stresses
that all prisoners who have release dates within two years
should immediately contact MIM and begin to prepare a
political work plan for their release. MIM is steadily
building work with prisoners to meet the needs of re-leased
prisoners so that they can continue and intensify work once
released.
As this comrade so aptly demonstrates, there is little room
in this sick society for the politically conscious, and even
less room for politically conscious ex-prisoners. All of
those, ex-prisoner or not, who reject this sick Amerikan
society should work with MIM for revolution.
To become a member of MIM, you must agree with and show a
commitment to, the principles in the "What is MIM?" box
printed on page two of every MIM Notes. The Revolutionary
Anti-Imperialist League (RAIL) is a mass organization for
anti-imperialists who believe that revolution is necessary
to overthrow imperialism. RAIL does not have any other
ideological requirements. RAIL is for people who do not
fully agree with Maoism but are genuinely anti-imperialist
and who agree to be open about MIM's leadership of RAIL.
As for publications, MIM Notes comes out twice per month and
is available for $20/year. The continent-wide RAIL Notes and
the Massachusetts RAIL's MASS RAIL are available for
$10/year. As you probably know -- but many of our student
supporters from the parasitic classes can never understand
-- MIM is not in the "forever selling" business. Rather, we
operate at a loss because of the tremendous volume of the
literature we give away, especially through the very
expensive U.$ post office. We recognize the financial
situation of most prisoners is tight, and will happily take
whatever you can afford, including trades of labor for
literature. As you've probably noticed, we need additional
help in your city with literature distribution. How many MIM
Notes can you distribute every two weeks?
There are a number of projects you can get involved with us
locally on:
a) Preparing for the 5th Annual Prison Awareness Week in
November at a large University in the area. (We just
completed a month long series of preparatory events and sent
a large RAIL contingent to the Jericho March Against
Political Imprisonment and RAIL teach-in in Washington D.C.)
b) Building for an event in the center of your town about
the Revolutionary Legacy of Malcolm X.
c) We are also trying to recruit more people to help us
answer letters from prisoners. As you know, second to the
recruiting prisoners do amongst each other, this the most
important way we have to raise the consciousness of
prisoners.
d) RAIL is also building a study group in this part of the
region, and would be happy to expand it to your area. We
would be happy to try extending it to your city. There is
also a continent-wide RAIL study group on email. You can
contact rail@mim.org for more information on that. Study
groups are the best way to advance your theory.
e) Anything else. We are always looking for new ideas and
new ways to expand our work.
Enclosed with this letter are several back issues of recent
MIM and RAIL publications, as well as the "What is MIM
pamphlet" and flyers for some upcoming meetings and
activities. Please send whatever money you can afford for
the enclosed literature and subscriptions along with your
comments and criticisms of the literature. We hope to hear
from you soon, or see you at the upcoming events.
In struggle,
MIM
* * *
END AMERIKAN COLONIALIST DOMINATION OF PUERTO RICO: 100
YEARS IS TOO LONG
by MC5
1998 marks the 100th anniversary of the U.$. invasion of
Puerto Rico. We seek to make it a year of progress toward
the end of colonialism.
Uncle Sam uses the carrot and the stick to keep Puerto Rico
under U.$. rule. One important carrot is U.S. citizenship.
Economic pressure in Puerto Rico only builds up so much
before emigration to the U.$.A. Puerto Ricans arrive in the
U.$. not as illegal immigrants but as citizens.
U.$. government programs also bring money to Puerto Rico.
These programs dull the nationalist passion of the Puerto
Rican people.
Finally, as for carrots, there is the U.$. dollar itself
binding Puerto Rico to the U.$.A. Since Puerto Rico does not
have its own currency, it benefits fully from U.$.
imperialist manipulations of international exchange. The
masses of Puerto Rico enjoy the same prices for goods that
mainland U.$. residents do.
For the stick, the U.$. puppet regime in Puerto Rico still
does not allow unionization of workers. As we speak, tepid
legislation is coming to pass to allow government-approved
unions.
This unique combination of circumstance makes Puerto Rico a
microcosm of imperialism and its relationship to oppressed
nations. Using the carrot more than in most oppressed
nations, U.S. imperialism has created a "split in the
working class" in Puerto Rico. The workers are not all sub-
minimum wage proletarians and they are not all labor
aristocracy. As an island, Puerto Rico would be the poorest
U.$. state, but there are parts that certainly resemble the
Mainland states, especially in the urban and suburban areas
where living conditions are very similar to those in the
Mainland U$A.
When the people rise up against colonialism, the U.S.
Government cracks down with killings and imprisonment. Even
though Puerto Rico is not the 51st state, the U.S.
Government calls some actions of the Puerto Rican patriots
"sedition" and convicts Puerto Rican patriots in U.S.
courts.
MIM upholds both the peaceful and armed actions of Puerto
Ricans against U.$. domination. That is what all Marxist-
Leninist-Maoists must do to uphold the right of self-
determination in Puerto Rico.
Hence, we call for the unconditional release of all Puerto
Rican prisoners of war. As of yet, the same U.$. government
founded by George Washington has yet to uphold international
treaties and recognize the prisoner of war status of the
anti-colonial freedom-fighters in Puerto Rico
All Puerto Ricans in prison are political prisoners;
although not all are prisoners of war. Puerto Rican
political prisoners should all be released to be tried by
Puerto Rican justice systems. Some prisoners are truly sick
and will be incarcerated by the will of the Puerto Rican
people, but most are victims of the world's leading prison
state per capita -- the U$A. The majority will readily
redeem themselves given a chance in a socialist system.
MIM seeks to uphold the Maoist tradition of the Young Lords
Party -- Puerto Rican Maoists organized here in the U$A with
the inspiration of the Black Panther Party. It is our duty
to render material aid to the organization of a Maoist party
that will conduct the People's War in Puerto Rico.
It is also our duty given the actually existing conditions
to call on the Euro-Amerikan settlers moving to Puerto Rico
to do business or retire to respect the national aspirations
of the Puerto Rican people. We expect that land currently
held by Euro-Amerikan settlers will be returned to the
Puerto Rican people through revolution.
MIM supports all peaceful and armed efforts of the Puerto
Rican patriots against the U.$. government. There are two
mistakes to avoid through this line. One is to avoid
opposing the right to self-determination. The Puerto Rican
people are entitled to fight any way they choose. Some will
fight better than others, but we must uphold the rights of
all Puerto Ricans to fight for their independence. All
Puerto Rican patriots are our friends.
The other mistake MIM seeks to avoid is relativism and
subjectivism. MIM is itself a collection of Maoist parties
and pre-parties. It would not be correct for it to treat all
Puerto Rican political organizers equally. It is natural
that we should support the Maoist Puerto Ricans the most.
Right opportunists and post- modernists believe that MIM
should not favor the Maoist Puerto Ricans above other
patriots. They would also oppose our criticizing Puerto
Rican revisionism. However, we at MIM believe that
Khruschev, Gorbachev and Yeltsin were the bourgeoisie in the
party in the Soviet Union and that fact is the same no
matter one's national background. Fighting revisionism is a
scientific matter that comes before asserting one's unique
national identity. The cardinal principles upholding the
Cultural Revolution in China and opposing old Soviet-style
revisionism are cardinal principles everywhere in the world.
MIM calls on non-Maoists in the U$A to support their
counterparts in Puerto Rico seeking independence. It is
MIM's duty to assist with the establishment of a Maoist pole
in Puerto Rico. With the Young Lords, other organizations
and amongst individuals in Puerto Rico there is already a
strong Maoist tradition on which to build.
* * *
ASSASINATION IN COLOMBIA
PEOPLE'S WAR NEEDED
An INTERNET report says that the Colombian state killed a
mayor of a town in Colombia called Fortul, Arauca on March
29th. He was at home when assassinated.
An organization calling itself the Communist Party of
Colombia has asked for an international exposure of this
crime against legal opposition in Colombia.
Colombia has long had a movement on the boundary of
reformism and revolution. The view of armed struggle there
has long been to use it as a bargaining chip in
negotiations.
The assassination of a mayor claiming to be communist is
proof that only a People's War is a true guarantor of
people's democracy. Democracy is meaningless when the
communists are killed or the people have their arms twisted
so as not to vote communist.
The history of Latin America is one where U.$. imperialism
invades or starts civil wars if the people elect someone
Uncle Same doesn't like. There has never been a true
democracy, not in slave-owning Greece or Rome and not now in
imperialist Amerika. That is why People's War is still
necessary.
* * *
CORRECTION
MIM NOTES ARTICLE FAILED TO FIGHT BOURGEOIS ANALYSIS
by MC53
In the MIM Notes #159, the article entitled "Report confirms
increased national oppression" presented an incorrect
analysis concerning conditions within imperialist countries.
Publication of this incorrect article supported the way in
which the bourgeoisie twists empirical data to support
imperialist and reformist anti-proletarian interests.
Specifically, the article uncritically stated that "The top
1 percent in u.$. borders has more wealth than the bottom 90
percent. In order to maintain such inequality the u.$. also
has the highest incarceration rate than any country, with
1.5 million prisoners, who are disproportionately members of
oppressed nations."
While the statement concerning the concentration of wealth
in the hands of the top 1% is something that social
democrats and supporters of the labor aristocracy often
repeat ad naseum, this statistic itself lacks the correct
analysis that MIM has put forward concerning who will make
revolution.
If 100 Amerikkkans eating greasy McDonalds have 10,000 Big
Macs to divide between them and one person hoards 5,050 Big
Macs for himself, that leaves the other 99 people with
4,950. Some of the Amerikkans might eat a little more or
less than the 50 per Amerikkkan that is left. But the real
question is the comparison between what the average Big Mac
eater snarfs down compared to the pittance that the majority
of the world's people are consuming. This analysis and the
analysis of value created by the snarfers versus the
exploited mass of the Third World is answered in detail in
MIM Theory #1, #10 and various other MIM publications.
The purpose of the Criminal INjustice System in Amerikkka is
not to control the snarfers who have an average of 40-80 Big
Macs to chow. In fact, as we have explained elsewhere, the
labor aristocrat middle class settlers gain from the
proliferation of prisons in Amerikkka because they are
provided with yet more parasitic jobs. The primary purpose
of the gulags in Amerikkkan is to perpetuate the dominance
of the white settler nation over the masses of the Black,
Latino and First Nations of Amerika's internal semi-
colonies. Gulags are used as a systematic tool of social
control and national oppression, but this tool is not used
against the labor aristocracy which the article includes as
somehow having an unjust proportion of the imperialist pie.
While the report of the Eisenhower foundation contained some
useful statistics, just as the Justice Bureau produces some
useful statistics, it is the responsibility of the vanguard
and the editors of its official newspaper to present these
statistics in a manner which leads the masses on the
quickest path to the door of revolution: Maoism.
Without describing the problem accurately - the problem of
exploitation of the world's majority by imperialist nations
- the presentation does the same thing as the report
constructed by the bourgeoisie. The bourgeoisie tailors its
analysis of statistics to support imperialism. And MIM must
struggle vigorously to expel political line and analysis
which fakes left but does the work of imperialism. Such
Menshevism has led so-called radicals and so-called
socialists in the imperialist countries to cater their
demands and struggles to the parasitic desires of the labor
aristocracy. And this crucial question is one that sets MIM
apart from revisionists and sets MIM on the side of the
world's majority.
* * *
SIERRA CLUB PUKES FIRST WORLD CHAUVINISM
Amerikkka's largest so-called environmental organization is
in the news for an internal proposal to endorse "net
reductions in U.S. immigration." The Sierra Club chauvinists
are arguing that keeping out oppressed nationals will keep
Amerika ivory-clean. In 1996, the Sierra Club took a "no-
position" position on immigration. Amerikan chauvinists,
including "Worldwatch Institute president Lester Brown and
Galylord Nelson, founder of Earth Day," argue that more
Third World people moving to the United Snakes will hurt the
environment.
MIM has long criticized a reformist, Amerikan-chauvinist
environmentalism that concretely organizes against Third
World peoples while ignoring the issue of First World over-
consumption. The Sierra Club is amongst the so-called
environmentalists that endorse Third World population
control. They paint a picture of Third World peoples
breeding out of control and their numbers destroying the
environment. If population growth is a problem (which MIM
has argued against) then the solution is for these First
World chauvinists is clearly in education for Third World
wimmin and girls. But this Sierra Club analysis ignores the
fundamental question of resource control and consumption. To
pick just one example, the greatest consumers of
nonrenewable resources are Amerikans, but the Sierra Club
wants to see imperialist money going to sterilize poor women
in the shantytowns of the Third World.
The next step for the Sierra Club's racist image of Third
World hordes breeding out of control and overrunning Amerika
is the efforts of current activists to get the Sierra Club
to oppose immigration. Unwilling to think of the environment
as a global problem, the Sierra Club want to keep Amerika's
stolen wealth to themselves.
Some cadres working with MIM and RAIL started out in First
World chauvinist environmental organizations attempting to
stop environmental destruction. But these organizations only
push for higher quality parasitic existence of the
imperialist country dominators, they do nothing to
fundamentally stop environmental destruction. And as seen
with the push to oppose immigration, these settler
chauvinists have a core agenda which supports and
perpetuates imperialism. And imperialism is the worst enemy
of true environmentalists - revolutionary environmentalists.
* * *
WHY BIOLOGICAL WIMMIN USUALLY ESCAPE THE DEATH PENALTY
Florida has not executed a womyn in 150 years. This we learn
as one is planned for the electric chair as we go to press
-- Judy Buenoano.
The public attitude toward wimmin is that they do not and
are not capable of committing murder. For this reason, the
USA Today was only able to find 72 victims of death row
wimmin total.(1)
This absurdly low number is the product of a judicial system
that puts the romance culture above any consistent idea of
justice. According to this culture, wimmin are dainty
creatures that should be available for sex. When it comes
time to seeing the violence of wimmin, the culture looks
away or fails to believe.
As we showed in MT#13 and contrary to popular myth, the
average sentence for a womyn convicted of the same crime as
a man is lower. In some areas, most notably drug use, wimmin
seem scarcely patrolled by the state, judging by their
relative arrest and conviction rates. Thus the real
inequities are not in the sentences for the same crimes, but
the fact that the same crimes are called different things or
that suspicions against wimmin rarely add up as quickly as
they do for men.
Since the death penalty came back 22 years ago, only one
womyn has been executed. No persyn in Texas has ever gotten
out of the death penalty, but Christian born-again
television-evangelist Pat Robertson asked Governor George
Bush to commute the death sentence of a confessed womyn
murderer who found God in prison -- Karla Faye Tucker. She
was executed anyway, but the point remains that few wimmin
are executed and it is controversial for the
reactionaries.(2)
One in eight people arrested for murder are wimmin, but only
one in 70 people on death row are wimmin. That shows that
the courts regularly find reasons not to convict wimmin.
Texas executed 37 men last year, but it has not executed a
womyn in 135 years.
This fact demonstrates what MIM has said before, that gender
oppression is not strictly additive to class and nation
oppression. Many calling themselves "Marxist" and "feminist"
believe that there is a simple matter of "triple
oppression."
When it comes to the bourgeois state, wimmin are more likely
to have illusions about it, because of a relative lack of
prison and military experience. If the United $tates policed
everyone the way it polices wimmin, we would no longer be
close to being the world's number one police state. This
reveals the political bankruptcy that goes into decisions of
justice in this country. As we show elsewhere, the state has
admitted that the death penalty is applied in a racist
manner, but it still supports having the death penalty.
Likewise, there is irrationality when it comes to gender, as
our sick system is not capable of any consistent justice.
In a similar matter, in Massachusetts in mid-March, the
courts had to deem a womyn insane for stealing a wallet. The
womyn was a famous convict -- a member of the Framingham 8
released early for killing their batterers by then Governor
Bill Weld. Since her release she has gained notoriety for
entering another battering relationship and for stealing the
wallet and getting caught.
Black womyn Shannon Booker had served less than five years
for the murder, (how much less is not clear from the Boston
Globe article). Rather than face that this womyn might
actually be aggressive, might actually have bought into
Amerikan consumerism that said she should steal for her
boyfriend's Lexus payments and might actually be the
batterer herself, the judge decided she must be temporarily
insane.
Judge Herbert Hershfang decided that the "battered woman's
syndrome" defense was not applicable, but he deemed Booker
insane anyway.(3) As MIM has explained before in MT2/3, the
means of social control for wimmin are different than those
for men. Wimmin are targeted with psychology by the state.
They are not directly confronted with armed power nearly as
often as men, because they are viewed as non-threatening and
valuable outside prison. Besides which, the abuse of
repression might spoil their hair and lipstick.
Another side benefit to the patriarchy of its policy is that
it gives oppressed nation wimmin a reason to opt for pseudo-
feminism. Pseudo-feminists loudly advocate that even serving
one year in prison is too much for womyn, because they only
kill their batterers. Shannon Booker is an example of a
Black womyn benefiting from an alliance of pseudo-feminist
liberals and paternalist Republicans who released her from
prison to promote a certain view of wimmin.
All across the country the message is the same:
conservative Republicans will make exceptions to their
"crackdown" on crime for wimmin. New Hampshire conservative
Governor Stephen Merrill also pardoned a womyn named June
Briand for killing her husband while he slept. She served
eight years, (4) while other murderers receive life without
parole or the death penalty.
If gender oppression were additive or if wimmin were the
vanguard activists against the state, we would expect to
find more wimmin in prison than men. That is not the case,
and although reality is surprising and dialectical, it is
wrong to see gender oppression as completely parallel to
class and national oppression but dialectically obscure.
The real gender oppressed people of the imperialist
countries are children, the forcibly sterilized as in Puerto
Rico, those who have sex-related pharmaceuticals tested on
them like guinea pigs in the Third World, prisoners and
anyone of whatever genitalia murdered in the name of the
romance culture. The pseudo-feminists never speak for these
groups and instead focus on the rights of the gender
aristocracy -- adult white wimmin.
Pseudo-feminism is a crucial prop of the patriarchy. While
saying that even more men should go to prison for battering
and rape, pseudo-feminists also hold the romance culture as
so important that wimmin should have the right to shoot men
in their sleep.
For MIM this is all sickness. Judges and pseudo-feminists
have decided in advance that some must die or serve long
prison sentences, so that the rest of us may continue to
believe that romance is worth it. The rest of us must
continue to believe that romance is worth risking life and
limb for or it would not be very exciting.
When it comes to inhaling second-hand smoke, opposing
increased highway deaths from higher speed limits or banning
boxing because it causes death, there are critics available
to say it would be better to change the rules than to
tolerate more deaths. When it comes to gender though, what
we see is the patriarchy encouraging more deaths in order to
purify the romance culture of evil. There is no way to link
this fact to an economist view. If men are more economically
valued through discrimination, then why does the state let
wimmin kill them in their sleep and serve less time than
men? Clearly there is nothing economic to this logic.
The real logic behind patriarchy and battering is that adult
biological wimmin receive real power in the romance-related
world. They still win nearly all court custody battles
against men. They can earn money from divorce as the ex-wife
of Donald Trump proves; they earn more money in
prostitution and modeling than men do and they can even
legally kill some portion of men for getting out of line in
romance life. These are not phony privileges: they are real
power restricted to a certain sphere, as if calculated to
interest wimmin only in that sphere. It reflects the
interest of the patriarchy to keep wimmin focussed on
romance culture as a life-and-death matter worth sacrificing
prison terms and murders for. These are not economic powers
granted wimmin. They are powers to govern leisure-time.
In the class situation, imperialists want the loyal troops
and peaceful political homefront and hence they appreciate
settlers. When it comes to gender, the patriarchy wants
adult biological wimmin to be fully focussed on providing
pleasure; hence, the patriarchy grants adult wimmin,
especially white wimmin, certain privileges, the degree of
which indicate the rank or level of sexual privilege of
these wimmin.
For the same reason that imperialists ally with settlers,
the patriarchy of men allies with the gender aristocracy
receiving the above-mentioned powers. The ruling men believe
they receive even more pleasure in their leisure-time by
keeping wimmin focussed on romance. In fact, the patriarchy
is willing to tolerate imprisonment and death of a certain
percentage of men, especially lower-class and oppressed
nationality men, to pay the price for the ruling men's
extremes of romance pleasure.
NOTES:
1. USA Today 23 March 1998, pp. 1-2.
2. Charles Zewe, "Texas Prepares to Execute Woman," CNN,
Jan. 15, 1998.
http://cnn.com/US/9801/15/texas.execution/index.html
3. Boston Globe 20 March 1998, pp. 1, 16.
4. http://www.mnsinc.com/petrus/wanderer/week2.htm
Alternatively, see January 27, 1997 issue of the Wanderer, a
national Catholic weekly. For a positive mention of the
celebrated case of the Framingham 8 turned into heroes, see
http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/artmuseum/orig_visions.html
* * *
United Nations passes resolution on death penalty
The United Nations Commission on Human Rights passed a
resolution against the death penalty in early April. The
United States of Imperialism, along with 13 other countries,
voted against the resolution while 26 countries voted in
favor. A top U.N. investigator said the way the death
penalty is applied in the United Snakes violates several
international treaties.
MIM does not think that a U.N. resolution is going to change
the way the death penalty is applied in the united snakes
because we know that the u.s. and other imperialist powers
control the United Nations and would never use it against
themselves.
Waly Bacre Ndiaye, a Senegalese expert on executions who
visited death rows in the U.$., said the use of the death
penalty "seems to continue to be marked by arbitrariness."
He said race, ethnic origin and economic status are key to
determining who is put to death -- as is politics,
especially during election campaigns.
This underscores the reason that MIM opposes the death
penalty in the united states of imperialism. The entire
criminal injustice system is a tool of social control for
the ruling class. The death penalty is one more tool in the
arsenal of the criminal injustice system which locks up and
kills a higher proportion of Black men than in Apartheid
South Africa.
Join the fight to smash the imperialist state and its
criminal injustice system so that we can establish a system
of justice for the people not for the ruling class. Until
that time, we must oppose any move to lock up or kill more
people under the imperialist criminal injustice system.
Notes: Associated Press, 3 April 1998.
* * *
RAIL HOLDS SUCCESSFUL CONTINENT-WIDE TEACH-IN ON THE
CRIMINAL INJUSTICE SYSTEM
Washington, D.C., March 28 -- On the day after the Jericho
'98 March Against Political Imprisonment, RAIL held a
successful teach-in on the Criminal Injustice System. RAIL
distributed thousands of leaflets about the teach-in at the
Jericho march, and succeeded in getting many people to stay
in the city overnight to attend the teach in. Participants
came from California, Florida, New York, New Jersey,
Michigan, Ohio, Missouri, Massachusetts, Vermont, Maine and
other states.
The teach-in contained panel discussions about various
aspects of the criminal injustice system. Some talks focused
on the battle outside the prisons, such as the cops war
against youth and gangs, and others focused on battles
within the walls, such as slave labor in prisons and
censorship.
A RAIL comrade made the opening address. S/he put the
Jericho 98 struggle to free revolutionary leaders in the
context of the national liberation struggle. While the
Amerikkkan government has backed off its COINTELPRO actions
against the leadership, the masses are increasingly being
locked up. S/he said "Prisons have two main purposes. First,
they take dissenting groups or individuals off the streets
weakening their ability to crush Amerika's systematic
domination. Second, prisons serve to break up existing
structures, be they communities, families, or
organizations." S/he explained the need to unite all who can
be united against the common enemy: imperialism in general
and prisons in particular.
Included in the teach-in presentations was a discussion of
the war on drugs as a war on oppressed people. The speaker
went through the various aspects of this war and led the
audience to the only logical conclusion: the government is
locking up and killing the oppressed within u.s. borders in
the name of a war on drugs. A presenter from St. Louis
discussed the fight RAIL has been leading against police
brutality in that city where cops are regularly beating and
killing Black youth. RAIL put this fight in the context of
the criminal injustice system under imperialism where cops
are the occupying army in inner cities.
Small group discussions focused on what we can do to build
the fight against the criminal injustice system were very
productive. After many sessions we had a hard time getting
people to move in to the next activity because they were so
caught up in the important discussions going on. Part of the
goal of the teach in was to build concrete ideas for future
work fighting the criminal injustice system. RAIL is working
to summarize the results of these sessions and using these
ideas to expand our work. For written copies of these
summaries please write to us at the address on page 2.
Readers can look to MIM Notes and RAIL Notes for news as we
implement some of the ideas from the teach-in and expand our
work around the criminal injustice system.
A number of prisoners sent greetings and messages to the
teach-in. A statement from Ohio-7 prisoner Jaan Laaman who
was incarcerated for his political activism was read during
the first panel. He wrote: "The fight for human rights and
freedom for political prisoners is closely tied to the
overall struggle against the U.S. prison system. With over
1.7 million people in prisons and another 4 plus million on
bail, parole or probation, prisons and the entire so called
justice system in America is becoming an ever more important
and ugly part of the repressive machine that keeps this
system rolling." The messages from other prisoners (which
can be found at MIM's website) reflected the same theme and
prisoners called on comrades on the outside to get involved
in the struggle both on the smaller scale to free our
incarcerated leaders and on the larger scale to fight the
entire criminal injustice system as a part of the battle
against imperialism.
Part of building the revolutionary forces necessary to
overthrow imperialism and take down the criminal injustice
system is the long slow struggle to educate and organize the
people. The productive discussions and educational
presentations as well as the numerous books, magazines and
newspapers that were purchased during the teach-in
demonstrate the success of this one day. Work with RAIL to
build on this success and fight the criminal injustice
system.
* * *
RAIL CONTIGENT JOINS JERICHO MARCH TO DEMAND:
FREEDOM FOR OUR REVOLUTIONARY LEADERS!
Washington, D.C., March 27 -- The Revolutionary Anti-
Imperialist League (RAIL) organized a contingent to attend
the Jericho 98 March Against Political Imprisonment. RAIL
organized buses and vans traveling from over 500 miles away
to attend the march and participate in RAIL's teach-in the
following day. Thousands of people came out for the rally
and marched through the streets of Washington D.C. shouting
slogans, holding up signs and banners, and distributing
literature.
RAIL came out in force to support the principal demand of
the march: U.$. recognition of and freedom for our
incarcerated political leaders. Comrades who have been
imprisoned for their political activism deserve special
attention in the fight against the criminal injustice system
and we must actively and vocally demand their release. We
also took the opportunity to add our analysis of u.s.
prisons to the march by offering MIM and RAIL literature to
all who attended. We struggled with other activists and
rallyers over the need to indict the entire criminal
injustice system.
While we agree with the demand for freedom for the specific
prisoners targeted by the Jericho march, MIM and RAIL take
the analysis further and declare that all prisoners are
political prisoners. We say this because incarceration under
imperialism is political. Starting with the cops on the
streets through the courts and into the prisons the system
is stacked against oppressed nations and white nation youth
and political activists. The court system of the white
nation should not even have jurisdiction over the oppressed
nations. And even behind the bars prisoners are refused
parole and placed in control units for political activism.
This system politicizes all imprisonment.
RAIL organizers from within D.C. got hundreds of signatures
on a petition demanding an end to the transfers of D.C.
prisoners to distant states. This is one campaign of many
that RAIL is working on that attempt to win a battle for the
oppressed, while also helping us to increase the strength of
the proletarian forces for the inevitable revolution.
Many copies of RAIL Notes and MIM Notes were distributed to
the crowd as people eagerly snatched up literature offering
important information and analysis about the criminal
injustice system. Folks who had been reading MIM Notes in
prison were glad to get a copy again on the outside. People
from across the country recognized and were pleased to see
our literature and it was clear that the years of prisons
activism by both MIM and RAIL have paid off in a strong base
of support.
There was no coverage of the Jericho rally on the D.C.
evening news, nor in the Washington Post the next morning.
In fact, the rally does not seem to have made it into any
mainstream media across the country. This limits the number
of people who will know about the Jericho event, but it is
also a sign of the people's strength that the march and
rally were entirely ignored by the bourgeoisie's media. It's
not possible for the bourgeoisie to respond to the issue of
political incarceration without blatantly lying, so they
took the simpler route of suppressing the rally's existence.
This is why MIM and RAIL build our own presses so that we
can effectively speak in our own words without having to be
filtered through the pigs.
D.C. pigs repress progressive struggle
At the rally in Lafeyette Park across from the White House,
MIM and RAIL distributors of literature were continually
harassed by SWAT (Special Weapons And Tactics) officers. The
pigs said there were rules against furniture (tables,
chairs) and that selling things in the park was banned. MIM
generally requests donations for our literature, and there
are a few items that are almost only available by donation.
This put a severe cramp in our fundraising potential. For a
while we were able to walk interested purchasers of
literature to a spot outside the park where the cash could
change hands, but the pigs leaned on the Jericho organizers,
forcing them to ask us to not display items that we wanted
donations for. The pigs were afraid of the way in which
various progressive activists exposed the pigs hypocrisy to
large numbers of people. Apparently, the Jericho organizers
feared that the cops would attack activists like MIM, the
masses would defend us, and then a battle would ensue that
the people were not equipped to win.
It was especially ironic that just a few hundred feet from
the global center of capitalism's political arm, what could
arguably be called a "small business" was suppressed by the
armed force of pigs. This is just more evidence that
capitalism's freedom only exists for those at the top of the
pinnacle.
Build on the successes of Jericho
The attendance at Jericho did not reach numbers seen at more
mainstream rallies for issues like abortion access, but this
should not surprise anyone who understands that the criminal
injustice system is a fundamental part of Amerikan
imperialism and most people in this country have a material
interest in supporting imperialism. It should be no surprise
that while the vast majority of the people at the abortion
access rallies are white, the composition of the Jericho
marchers more closely reflected the make up of the prisons
where a majority are Black and Latino.
Although most people within u.s. borders are not going to
oppose the criminal injustice system or even demand the
release of all people incarcerated for political activism,
we can win battles to get our political leaders out of
prison. Geronimo ji Jaga (Pratt), who spoke at the rally, is
one example of these potential victories. He was released
after 27 years in prison because the government was finally
forced to admit it had set him up by using an FBI agent as a
witness against him in the original trial.
We must continue to vocally demand the release of all people
who were incarcerated for their political activism.
Organizing locally to educate people about these cases and
organizing continentally to put pressure on the government.
This work helps to expose the prison system for the
Injustice system that it is. And in this context we can
build an anti-imperialist movement prepared to overthrow
imperialism and establish socialism and justice of the
people. While a few speakers at the rally suggested that now
might be the time to take up armed resistance of various
forms, MIM knows that it is this kind of focoism going up
against a government we are not strong enough to defeat that
led to the imprisonment of many of the comrades who were the
focus of this rally.
Those speakers who declared that now is the time to educate
and organize for revolution were on target. And this
organizing needs to be led by a Maoist party with the
history of the revolutionary struggles of the world to build
on. We can't afford to waste time repeating old mistakes:
Maoism is the most effective tool for revolutionary change.
Work and struggle with us if you are serious about fighting
the criminal injustice system.
* * *
ATTENTION PRISONERS:
ANTI-IMPERIALIST PRISONER MASS ORGANIZATION NOW FORMING!
by MIM Prison Minister
For over a decade now, the Maoist Internationalist Movement
has been developing structures to expose the systematic
repression and genocide of the oppressed through Amerikkka's
prison system. Stemming from the work to expose systematic
gulag injustices, MIM has developed structures to serve some
needs of prisoners under lock and key. The primary method to
serve the needs of oppressed prisoners is the publication of
news by prisoners and about prisons within MIM Notes.
Without that starting point, our comrades' words are heavily
censored and ignored. With the help of the Revolutionary
Anti-Imperialist League and progressive allies, MIM has been
increasing prisoners' ability to receive legal and political
materials from the Serve the People Books for Prisoners
Program. And with the leadership of the People's
Internationalist Rear Area Organization (PIRAO, the MIM-led
army), we work to increasingly met the needs of re-leased
prisoners.
Now it is time for prisoners to organize a prisoner mass
organization to strengthen the MIM-led United Front against
imperialism and to further expand prisoners' ability to
organize under lock and key. The primary purpose of the
prisoner mass organization is to consolidate and strengthen
prisoners' ability to agitate against imperialism and
Amerikkka's principal tool of national oppression - the
Criminal INjustice System.
As prisoners strengthen unity and fierce agitation against
oppression, your comrades in RAIL will be working in a
parallel manner to take your words and spread them on the
outside. The intention is a more effective organization of
prisoners to build stronger campaigns against the Amerikkkan
prison system and imperialism in general. Prisoners face
specific conditions which differ from those comrades face on
the outside. And because of immediate oppressive conditions,
many prisoners are willing to step forward to build
revolutionary struggle without being timid. The anti-
imperialist prisoner mass organization will be structured so
that prisoners can discuss organizing concerns specific to
those under lock and key which will strengthen the MIM-led
United Front struggle against imperialism.
The prisoner mass organization has the same general
principles as the Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League. It
is anti-imperialist, led by MIM and won't champion struggles
which are not in the interests of the international
proletariat. The mass organization must retain anti-prisons
and anti-imperialist focus and it must not dilute that focus
with incorrect goals. The mass organization should work
independently but cooperatively with the Revolutionary Anti-
Imperialist League to build public opinion and independent
institutions which increase support for revolution.
Whereever possible, the mass organization should generate
funds from supporters to help focus agitation work against
prisons.
We invite all anti-imperialists languishing within
Amerikkka's gulags to submit organizational and tactical
proposals to build this mass organization solidly toward
meeting the needs of prisoners and the world's oppressed
majority.
Immediate needs of prisoner mass organization:
1.) Prisoner leadership. All prisoners interested in
developing the structure and goals of the mass
organization should write to MIM with their proposals.
Proposals could be about goals for prisoners in your
state or for a continental campaign of prisoners. Make
your argument for why these particular goals would help
build unity among prisoners and target winnable, yet
important struggles which are inhibiting prisoners'
ability to organize or which will improve prisoners'
material conditions.
2.) Name. The mass organization needs a name which
explains its purpose and direction. One suggestion is:
PAI BAKK (pronounced pay back) (Prisoners Against
Imperialism Battling Against Koncentration Kamps).
Another suggestion is P-RAIL (Prisoner-Revolutionary
Anti-Imperialist League) or RAIL-ULK (Revolutionary Anti-
Imperialist League Under Lock and Key.) Creative comrades
under lock and key... Submit your proposals for a name for
the prisoner mass organization.
3.) Art. Creative comrades need to come up with a logo for
the mass organization which illustrates its fierce
opposition to imperialism and the oppressive Amerikan
prison system. Additionally, we need art which speaks out
against the Amerikkkan prison system in general which can
be used alongside articles and agitation which prisoners
write.
4.) Article submissions. Article submissions for MIM Notes
should reflect existing MIM line as spelled out in the
classics or MIM Theory. Article submissions for RAIL
Notes can contain information with less of a worked out
theoretical content. Both types of articles should either
build opposition to imperialism or build opposition to
Amerikkka's imprisonment of the oppressed.
5.) Study group leaders. We've got the books both for
study and review. We need prisoner leaders in each gulag
to step up and be the contact for your prisoner study
group. At this point in time, prisoner study groups are
covering a variety of different material. Be the contact
for your study group and work with MIM to get the books
through to your comrades.
6.) Fuel for the fire. We need prisoners to conduct
research and sum up information which will better help
your comrades on the outside build support for prisoners'
struggles. All information about conditions are welcome,
though research and summaries prioritized should be on
campaigns which we can use to organize more support.
First.... RAIL and MIM are celebrating May Day in some
locations by holding events about slave labor in Amerikkka's
prisons. The May Day celebrations will focus on building
support for prisoner workers who we know are not paid the
value of their labor. We have some information to use for
the educational events, but we will continue the work of
exposing slavery in prisons following May Day and organizers
on the outside need your help. We need more information
about forced labor in your state.
Second... RAIL and MIM have run into many problems with the
pigs censoring letters and books for prisoners. We need
information on censorship policies in your state. We need
prisoner volunteers to coordinate the struggle against
censorship in your state.
If you're a prisoner who is against the hegemonic domination
of Amerika over other nations and you believe that
imperialism is the primary struggle to fight against...
If you believe that the Amerikkkan INjustice System is the
most fascistic aspect in Amerikkkan society and is a tool
perpetuating national oppression and social control...
And if you want to see stronger organization and unity
against Amerikkkkan domination....
Write to MIM and start building the prisoner pole of the
United Front against imperialism.
* * *
WEST COAST RAIL RALLIES OPPOSITION TO IMPERIALISM
LOS ANGELES - Close to 100 protesters turned out in front of
the Criminal Courts building in Los Angeles to join in the
Jericho '98 protests. The protesters chanted "1 2 3 4 - Free
our Political Prisoners of War! 5 6 7 8 - Open up the Prison
Gates!" and "Free our Freedom Fighters now!"
The LA Rally was principally organized by a coalition which
included the nationalist Malcolm X Grassroots Movement and
veteran anarchists from People Against Racist Terror. Some
protesters drove more than two hours to come to the rally.
The RAIL contingent carried banners and passed out flyers
promoting RAIL and MIM's "Free Books for Prisoners Program"
and spoke in support of freeing the people's leaders and
abolishing Amerikkkan domination over oppressed nations.
The freedom of freedom-fighters like Mumia Abu Jamal, Mutulu
Shakur, Alejandrina Torres, and hundreds more is indeed
worth struggling for. Not only is it important to the
revolutionary movement, but it is also linked to the
question of true democracy for the oppressed nations within
u.$. borders. As long as the u.$. government can harass,
lock up, and kill political leaders from the oppressed
nations with impunity, then the much lauded Amerikan
democracy is obviously a sham.
Furthermore, the continued imprisonment of these leaders
goes hand in hand with the expansion of the Amerikan
injustice system. Kalifornia's Three Strikes law and federal
sentencing guidelines for cocaine disproportionately target
Blacks and Latinos. The high incarceration rates for petty
so-called crimes and the courts complicity with police who
harass and arrest people from oppressed communities on
trumped up charges show that the Amerikan injustice system
is not about stopping crime, rather it is about social
control. Meanwhile the biggest criminals - the cops
themselves and politicians an militarists like the coke-
importing CIA - these criminals go unpunished.
After the formal protest was over, RAIL supporters began to
collect signatures supporting the political asylum case of
Jose Maria Sison. Sison is currently a consultant to the
National Democratic Front of the Philippines in its peace
negotiations with the Manila government and was formerly
imprisoned by Marcos for his revolutionary activities. The
protesters responded enthusiastically though the success was
cut short by the arrival of riot pigs. Once the pigs showed
up across the street from the protest, the protesters
dispersed.
* * *
MARXISM-LENINISM-MAOISM ONLINE
BUDDING WORKER-ARISTOCRATS:
WORK WITH MIM BEFORE YOU SELL YOURSELF TO IMPERIALISM
by MC45
We organizing in the imperialist countries are in a constant
race with the reactionaries to win the hearts and minds of
youth. On the Internet, MIM struggles to promote
revolutionary politics and to reach those young
intellectuals of all nations who still have the class
flexibility to embrace revolutionary politics. But at the
same time, the reactionary forces of private property and
ownership of the global information network are tempting the
youth towards personal wealth over politics.
In March, Fortune Magazine ran an article enumerating the
grotesque levels of salary and benefits young people in
Amerika with technical skills can expect to bring home.
According to Fortune Magazine, people with Internet-related
skills are some of the most likely to pull down big
salaries. To the cheerleaders of capital, the outrageous
compensation Amerikans receive for shuffling large piles of
paper is evidence of the wonders of U.$. know-how and
business acumen. To MIM, this salary information about
Internet workers is the flip side of Internet privatization.
Just as large corporate owners of the Internet
infrastructure can seriously limit access to the Internet
hardware, these same companies are handing out incentives to
Internet users to only use their skills for financial gain.
MIM has written about the Internet before as a location of
clashes between proletarian and bourgeois interests and
forces. This global data network is at once a resource of
endless capacity for distributing the people's literature,
and a hot new media frontier for capitalist advertising and
enterprise. MIM and other revolutionary and progressive
organizations can take advantage of cheap access to the
Internet to reach the masses in great numbers. But at the
same time, capital seeks to shut down this massive
information resource and reserve its potential for profit-
making.
As professionals go, people with Internet-related skills are
young; many are under 30. This group is working with
technology that was only invented shortly before they were
born, if not after. Because such young people are being
wooed into high-paying careers, the corporations doing the
wooing usurp much of youth culture to attract employees.
Netscape, most famous for its Web browser software, paints
itself "a cool place to work." Microsoft tells prospects
that may be wary of signing away their lives to a career:
"don't work for a living, work for a reason."
But building operating system software doesn't seem like a
whole lot of reason to MIM. If we had a slogan for how
working people in this country should choose their careers
it would be "work for the paid vacation time; spend it
opposing imperialism," or "work to gain skills; use them to
foster independent institutions of the oppressed," or "make
lots of money; use it to build revolutionary politics."
Of course, high tech companies do much more to build morale
among their staff than throw catchy slogans around.
According to Fortune Magazine, "during the 1996 University
of Michigan football season, companies spent between $500
and $2,000 to sponsor tailgate parties for MBA students. In
1997, the minimum spent by a company was $2,500." Many
companies have stock option plans for regular employees. As
Intel's website advertises, employees "can own a part of the
company by purchasing stock at a discount price."
The handwriting is too big for U.$. economists calling
themselves Marxists to ignore. Since we first studied J.
Sakai's Settlers: The Mythology of the White Proletariat in
1987, MIM has demonstrated in great detail that white
workers in Amerika are not a proletariat but a labor
aristocracy, bought off with the spoils of imperialism. U.$.
workers as a group are paid the full value of their labor
and usually more, to the point where they can now own
portions of the companies they work for. This is not the
alienation and exploitation Marx spoke of.
When MIM talks about targeting the young people of the
imperialist nations for political struggle, we are talking
about those who have yet to seize the legacy of the
exploiting classes. Like their parents, the imperialist-
country youth have the potential to become vicious abusers
of the international proletariat. But at the same time, they
have yet to outgrow their own rebellious perspective, which,
in combination with the fact that they personally do not own
much (relative to their parents) allows them to see the
contradictions in their parents' lives. Seeing the
contradictions inherent in this system of private property
encourages youth to question whether they will accept and
learn to be happy under capitalism. MIM targets the youths'
ability to see contradictions in capitalism. By emphasizing
these contradictions with them, we work to win the youth
over to the side of revolution -- to resolve the
contradictions of capitalism in the only way possible,
through anti-imperialist and then socialist revolution.
MIM fully expects that the majority in the imperialist
countries will be entrenched in career paths of one sort or
another by their mid-twenties. This is why we target the
youth for recruitment to revolutionary politics, because
they have not yet signed up for their share of the
imperialist plunder and are still flexible in their plans.
But with younger people being targeted by capital, MIM must
focus its efforts evermore. To those youth who find the
Internet exciting: contact MIM and ask how you can learn
first-hand the joy of putting your skills to work building a
revolutionary presence on the World Wide Web. Visit our
website at www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/ and see what
contributions you can make -- as we build more pages to
support pro-prisoner agitation, proletarian feminism, and
more. MIM can also help you put your high-level programming
skills to the service of the international proletariat --
building information systems to organize MIM and Maoist
literature in this crucial time of building public opinion
for socialism. Work with us while you have the freedom to do
so, and find out what you may be missing if you fail to make
a place for anti-imperialist politics in your life.
Gone are the days when Trotskyists and other labor
aristocrat advocates could continue to blindly muddle along
claiming to work in the interests of the so-called
proletariats of their own imperialist countries. We are not
talking only about workers within United Snakes borders
either. Intel boasts again that "our Israel sites provide
child-care 'kindergartens' on or near the Intel facility."
And "in Munich, employees can turn to an external agency
called the Kinderbureau for assistance in locating child-
care resources. The agency's searches in behalf of Intel
employees are entirely funded by the corporation."
Under socialism, MIM would organize child-care as part of
the work of normalizing work and home relations for men and
wimmin, and importantly as a first step to relieving
children of their property relationship with their parents.
But this does not mean that highly paid workers in the First
World need to have free child-care for their offspring as a
matter of survival. If child-care isn't enough of a perk for
you though, Netscape keeps concierges on its payroll to
arrange such basic chores as *dog grooming and gift buying*
for its employees. Netscape also offers work-place car-
maintenance and in-office massage for its chair-bound
'workers.'
MIM says that the rising salaries, perks and ownership
stakes in these corporations demonstrate the ease of upward
class mobility for Amerikans. MIM does not try to hide these
rosy conditions for First World nationals. Our first duty is
to the international proletariat and so we seize on every
opportunity to expose the inflated wages of imperialist-
nation workers. We also take the petty bourgeois pressures
on the imperialist country youth seriously because we have
tactical respect for the imperialists' efforts to recruit
the youth to the ways of reaction.
If it is possible for younger people to make more ridiculous
sums of money, then this just means MIM has to get to them
first before they sign over their lives to the bourgeoisie.
We aren't even saying not to take the jobs -- just spend
your loot, free time and your skills to build revolution.
Notes: Nina Munk, "The New Organization Man" Fortune
Magazine, March 16, 1998. Microsoft website:
http://www.microsoft.com/ Intel website:
http://www.intel.com Netscape website:
http://www.netscape.com Iomega website:
http://www.iomega.com
* * *
MISSISSIPPI SPY COMMISSION:
PUBLIC DISCLOSURE WON'T WASH THE BLOOD FROM OFF THE STATES'
HAND
In March, by order of Judge Barbour of the United States
District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi, the
documents of the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission were
officially made public, concluding a more than 20 year
lawsuit against the state by the Mississippi American Civil
Liberties Union (MSACLU).(1)
The spy commission papers have gotten considerable attention
in the bourgeois press -- as a dark, supposed exception to
the usual state of democracy in the U.$., and as an
opportunity for the imperialists to congratulate themselves
that the democratic process triumphed against the backward
ideology of a few maverick politicians in the Deep South.
Thirty years later, civil rights workers also inspire more
sympathy among the liberal press than, say, MOVE or the
victims of COINTELPRO. And the more attention they give to
public disclosure of these records, the more they obscure
the ongoing repression of activists for Third World
revolution and self-determination for the oppressed nations.
The Sovereignty Commission was founded in 1957 as a state
agency to collect and disseminate information on civil
rights activists and others suspected of supporting
integration. According to MSACLU:
"The commission hired agents to investigate civil rights
rallies and marches as well as the individuals who sponsored
voter registration drives and sit-ins. Some of these agents
were spies, paid to infiltrate organizations and report
details of organizational plans and of the lives of members,
and some were full-time employees who reported rumors and
observations in Mississippi towns. The commission would warn
local officials prior to boycotts, meetings, and voter
registration drives. Its agents harassed individuals who
assisted organizations promoting desegregation or voter
registration, and would suggest job actions to employers,
who would fire the targeted moderate or activist. The
commission maintained and distributed lists of people
reported to be supporters of civil rights organizations or
who supported public measures toward moderation or
desegregation. These lists were made available to other law
enforcement agencies."(1)
Time Magazine reports that "Commission investigators
documented the whereabouts, finances and sexual habits of
civil rights leaders. They fed some of the information to
the targets' employers and the Ku Klux Klan. Untold numbers
of people were fired and others beaten and perhaps even
killed after the commission targeted them. " (2)
The Commission stopped getting state funding in 1973 but its
files remained available for use by the pigs until 1977 --
when the Mississippi legislature ordered the Commission's
destruction. (1)
That same year, the MSACLU filed a class action suit on
behalf of the investigated to keep the records from being
sealed or destroyed. The state cleverly added an amendment
to its vote, saying that the records would be sealed until
2027, with "criminal penalties for disseminating information
in the files." The substance of the MSACLU lawsuit was to
make the records public information to expose the crimes of
the state, but some plaintiffs were divided about the
disclosure of personal names, along with the information the
state collected about them. Some called for the blacking out
of names of Commission victims (and its agents and
informants as well), unless there was permission granted for
third party access to that information.(1)
A member of the MSACLU and the leading plaintiff of the
subclass calling for privacy were both interviewed for
National Public Radio in early April. The story focussed on
the issue of privacy and the public "right to know."(3) How
revealing that the settler Amerikkkan press, including its
left-liberal components, is as concerned over the invasion
of citizens' privacy as it is about the potentially fatal
leaking of information to the Ku Klux Klan, or the
Commission's funding of the White Citizen's Councils, or its
documented tampering with the jury of Medgar Ever's murderer
Byron De la Beckwith!
The Mississippi Sovereignty Commission should be understood
for what it was -- part of an ongoing history of state-
sponsored terrorism against oppressed nations, in defense of
imperialism and white supremacy. It was not an exception,
and it does not represent the worst of its kind.
NOTES:
1. MSACLU Web Site on the Sovereignty Commission
2. John Cloud, ""The KGB Of Mississippi" Time Magazine.
March 30, 1998
3. NPR Morning Edition, April 3, 1998.
* * *
AMERIKKKAN PRISONS ON TRIAL CONFERENCE:
INJUSTICE SYSTEM GUILTY OF GENOCIDE AND NATIONAL OPPRESSION
submitted by RAIL
The Amerikkkan Prisons on Trial Conference was organized on
the east coast during February and March by a student
organization allied with RAIL to sharpen support for
struggles against the Amerikan prison craze. Many
organizations and individual allies contributed financially
to this successful conference.
RAIL recognizes that prisons and the police are key weapons
in Amerikkka's war on the oppressed nations. The United
Snakes imprisons four times greater a percentage of its
Black population than the old apartheid South African
regime. This trend shows no sign of abating. If current
trends continue, there will be 10 million people behind
bars, with almost half being Black. This would represent
almost 10% of the Black population, and a much higher
percentage of young Black men.(1)
Many of the students who helped organize the events became
interested at an earlier showing of a video about the
framing of former Black Panther Mumia Abu Jamal. These
students advertised extensively and spent dozens of hours
tabling. The students distributed literature that advertised
for the conference, recruited for the march and teach-in in
DC and educated people with information on prisons and
prisoners incarcerated for political beliefs and actions.
This information was posted in every residential bathroom
stall on one campus. The agitators were disturbed to see
that University repression had started to keep the dorms
locked 24 hours a day, with some dorm wings themselves
locked off. This greatly slowed down the process of
political agitation. This is a University plan to increase
the control of the police and administration over the
physical and political movements of students. By isolating
students in their rooms with cable television, the
University gets more passivity from the students as a whole.
The first conference event exposed control units and the
torture inflicted upon the politically conscious who are
sent to these units. The video showed contained a short
interview with a local college alumni who became
revolutionary and was sent to Marion.
The second day of the conference, "All Power to the People:
The Black Panther Party and beyond" was shown. This
documentary puts the Black Panther Party in the context of a
world-wide anti-imperialist upsurge. The Black Panthers were
inspired by the successful Chinese revolution and the heroic
struggle of the Vietnamese people for self-determination and
liberation. Likewise, the American Indian Movement and the
Young Lords Party were inspired by the theory and practice
of the Black Panthers.
The Black Panther Party came up with a materialist
assessment of the short and long term needs of the Black
semi-colony -- the 10 point program. They then met those
concrete needs as part of building revolution to permanently
end the political subjugation of the Black nation.
The Amerikan government took this awesome movement for what
it was -- a threat to Amerikkkan dominance. The Black
Panthers were labeled "Enemy Number 1" by the J. Edgar
Hoover's FBI. This video breaks new ground as it shows not
only how the FBI, CIA and the police used military force to
kill and incarcerate the Panthers, but how the FBI was able
to destroy the most important asset of the Panthers: their
political line.
Two people arrived so late that they missed RAIL's initial
presentation and 75% of the film. They then launched into an
attack upon RAIL for saying that the Black Panther Party was
fighting colonialism. What these students were arguing for
was unclear, but they were not able to offer an alternative
explanation of the BPP's Program point #10: "... And as our
major political objective, a United Nations supervised
plebiscite to be held throughout the black colony in which
only black colonial subjects will be allowed to participate,
for the purpose of determining the will of black people as
to their national destiny. "
A later event featured two former prisoners who were
incarcerated for political beliefs and actions and sent to a
variety of supermax prisons. These former prisoners vividly
described the torture within these prisons.
On February 25, a People's Tribunal Against the Criminal
Injustice System was held, at which evidence was presented
to convict this system for the crimes of genocide and
national oppression. This event sparked the most politically
effective discussions of the conference so far.
On March 5, a Rally Against Political Incarceration was
held. The organizing students called the rally a success
because many people stopped to listen to the speeches and
took information about RAIL, prisons, and our contingent to
the Jericho March. Various speakers put political
incarceration into a context of Amerika's war on dissent &
national liberation struggles. One speaker spoke about the
killing of the Rosenbergs in the 1950s, and the need to
support the families of political people repressed by the
state. Another explained why the Amerikan government killed
George Jackson and talked about the cases of those still
languishing behind bars. Many others read letters from
prisoners about their conditions, or letters about how the
incarceration of all prisoners is in fact political.
On March 6, a benefit concert featuring Critical Mass was
held. The hip hop band sang about the incarceration of
revolutionary leaders.
The conference was already a success with several weeks to
go. Each of the events expanded the number of people who
know about RAIL's contingent to the Jericho March and D.C
teach-in as well as deepened their understanding of the
importance of struggling against the criminal injustice
system. This includes not just the new people we have met
who have become close allies, but also those people who
consider themselves part of the student organization allied
with RAIL.
Notes: 1. See MIM Notes 137 for calculations and base
sources.
MIM adds: The RAIL comrades and students working with RAIL
demonstrate in the above example many tactics to build more
support for prisoner struggles and struggles against
imperialism. MIM strongly urges those critical of the system
to hook up with RAIL, drop the excuses and start with basic
agitation which will further build opposition to Amerikan
gulags.
* * *
UNDER LOCK AND KEY
EXPOSE THE INJUSTICE SYSTEM'S BRUTALITY
Dear MIM, Your paper stated you accept submissions and
critiques from anyone. If I send you two different stories
[will you print them?]
One involving this Institution describing the medical
conditions and they way women are being allowed to die and
become disabled because of REFUSAL of medical treatment.
The other story of my own arrest in 1985 in another state
where I made over 133 murder confessions, which were
obtained through brutal force, rape, and being forced to
watch my own 11 year old son being raped by the detective
whom arrested me. I received several broken bones over a
four month period. I was given and became addicted to a 21
class A narcotic.
...I am currently serving two Natural Life Sentences. My
sentences run consecutive. Natural Life in this state means,
"until you die". I was cleared of all my charges in [the
other state] except for a criminal mischief charge and
extradited to Louisiana on two murder charges. I was
convicted here based on my confessions only. Louisiana is a
state where a confession will override physical evidence in
a Capital Murder case. The evidence was on someone else....
Sincerely,
-- A Louisiana Prisoner, 19 January 1998
MIM Responds: Please send us your stories of your struggle
with prison brutality. We would be glad to print your first
hand experience with the oppressive ways of U$ Prisons.
Under Lock and Key is dedicated to the exposing the
injustices that prisoners face daily. It is important for
the masses to know about the horrendous atrocities that go
on behind the walls in Amerikkka's prisons.
We encourage everyone to submit to Under Lock and Key
regardless of spelling or handwriting. At the same time, the
more legible and concise your letter is, the easier it is
for us to print it. Tell your friends and comrades to write
about their struggles.
BRUTAL ASSAULT IN TENNESSEE
...I am incarcerated at Riverbend Maximum Security
Institution in Nashville, Tennessee. It's the typical
oppressive kamp in amerikkka. What I mean by typical:
inadequate medical care, racist pigs, rental kops, and
manipulative administrators.
Recently I had an incident. I'm on maximum security, locked
down twenty-three hours a day. When I move from my cell it's
in handcuffs, and leg irons. Anyway I'm in my cell, it's
about 5:30 p.m., dinner has just been served. The inmate in
the next cell over gets into an argument with the officer
working the housing unit.
The Sargent is called. The shift commander enters the
housing unit, walks over to this inmate's cell and has [the
prisoner] place his hands through the pie flap (an opening
that food trays, cleaning supplies, and other items are
passed through). Anyway, the inmate's hands are cuffed, and
the shift commander enters this man's cell. The housing
officer follows along with the sergeant and two corporals.
I'm in my cell, and I can pretty much hear the conversation
through the air duct that connects the two cells. Okay, they
start questioning the inmate about the incident between him
and the officer, and I clearly hear the shift commander say
that they are going to give that inmate a disciplinary
infraction for an assault on staff. Now remember, we're
maximum security inmates.
I holler through the air duct and tell the inmate if they
are going to give him a disciplinary infraction he does not
have to say anything. Which is an institutional rule: you
have a right to an inmate advisor before questioning. The
reason I know this is because I am a legal aid, not
recognized by the administration, my politics are too
radical.
The shift commander comes to my cell door, and tells me I
better keep my damn mouth shut. I tell him, "I can say
anything I want to as long as I'm not cursing or being
disrespectful. Remember the First Amendment?!"
About 15-20 minutes later, after they have finished their
interrogation of my next door cell partner, the shift
commander comes back to my cell with the sergeant and this
corporal. He tells me to stick my hands out to be
handcuffed. I'm being moved. Now this is just a move to
isolate me, yet I don't resist, argue or anything.
I'm handcuffed and the shift commander opens the door, and
tells me to step back towards my bed. I state, "I'm by my
bed." At which time he sprays mace in my face and closes the
cell door. I start spitting in the toilet, and the whole
nine yards from the mace, running eyes, runny nose. He opens
the door again and sprays me with mace again. I guess just
for good measure, and closed the door again.
The third time he opens the door, he runs in the cell and
grabs me in a strangle hold around my neck and drags me for
about thirty yards out of the housing unit. During this
time, I've not struggled or broken any institutional rule.
When I'm dragged out into the hallway, the same shift
commander starts banging my head against the cement wall.
Other officers are standing around, not saying or doing
anything.
I'm then dragged out into the visiting area, and thrown into
a cubicle. I am left there for a few minutes before the
shift commander comes back. He snatches me out of the
cubicle and drags me out of the unit, bringing me to another
unit. When we get to the other unit, my head is banged
against the wall some more, just for laughs.
When one unnamed corporal the shift commander and myself get
inside the unit I'm just looking at this stupid, brain dead
moron. He says don't look at him, but I look anyway for a
closer inspection of this insect. I'm slammed onto the
floor, and his foot is placed across my neck, like I'm some
trophy or big game animal he just dominated.
Some more officers come. I'm lifted off the floor and told
to strip. These dehumanizing games get old. I refuse, I'm
still a man, prisoner or not. So king imperialist hits me so
hard I'm knocked onto a table. At which time he jumps on top
of me and jams his radio into the family jewels. Only one of
the officers intervened. I was then walked into another
housing unit.
There happened to be a nurse in the unit, so I saw the nurse
and my swelling and bruises were noted. The next day I'm
really sore. I sign up for sick call, and it's not until
four days later that a nurse practitioner shows up and
orders me some motrin -- the cure-all. Three days later,
they were kind enough to bring my property. I guess this is
the price you pay for speaking up and convicted of a felony.
Anything goes!
-- A Tennessee Prisoner, 12 February 1998
PAROLE DENIED IN RETALIATION FOR LAWSUIT
The parole board has denied me parole this time for 18
months. What is interesting is that last year, before I had
been raped by a pig and exposed the Michigan Department of
Corruptions in the media, I was only denied for 12 months.
This year, with above-average reports, a better parole
guideline score, and an attorney representing me at the
hearing, I was given an 18-month denial. This is nothing
more than retaliation for exposing the sexual abuse that is
an everyday affair in these gulags. It is simply punishment
for filing a million dollar lawsuit....
-- A Michigan Prisoner, 5 January 1998
MIM responds: Sexual abuse of prisoners by guards is an
integral part of the criminal Injustice system, which exists
to repress and not to rehabilitate. One of the Attica
prisoners said in 1971 that guards "treat" prisoners'
hostility with their own hostility -- those who had
committed violent or hostile crimes were then reinforced in
their behavior by guards who treated them just as they had
treated others. The prison guards are in a position (both in
terms of their authority over prisoners and their impunity
in the face of the law) to abuse prisoners who have never
been abusive to anyone. The system is thus set-up so that
prison will further worsen the conditions for prisoners who
were already in bad shape, and degrade the conditions of
those prisoners who are reasonably healthy mentally and
physically before they are imprisoned. It is always to the
credit of the prisoners who struggle against this system,
never to the credit of the system itself when prisoners
survive in spite of it.
LOCKED UP FOR RESISTING PIG HARASSMENT
The pigs here at ECI [Eastern Correctional Institution] will
not let me have the November and December 1997 issues of MIM
Notes. They say that the material contents constitute a
violation of institutional policy. But I wrote to the warden
here at ECI. He told the mailroom to go ahead and give me
the four MIM Note newspapers that they were holding from me.
So I got the MIM Notes now.
...By the way I want you to know that I'm on lock-up for
fighting with a pig. I had on handcuffs, and this pig kept
on pushing me. So I told this pig to stop pushing me, but he
kept on. Then I came out of one of my handcuffs. I tried to
take his hold off me.
So about twenty pigs fucked me up. But I'm well now and
everything. I got 330 days lock-up for fighting the pig. But
all together I have 980 days on lockup.
I got the other lock-up time because the pig over here on
lock-up was playing a game with the Brothers' food. So a few
other guys, and me stayed on the walk and did not lock in.
So the pig gave the guys their food, but they still gave us
time on lock-up. So now I got 980 days on lock-up.
...By the way, the pig here is taking me to court in
February 1998. I may get one or two more years but no more
than five years. I'll keep you up-to-date. Keep up the good
work.
-- A Maryland Prisoner, 10 January 1998
NEW YORK BRUTALITY
...These racist, spineless, jellyfish, crackers continue to
harass, degrade and downpress prisoners here at Southport
Incorrectional Facility. In May 1997, while in handcuffs and
waist chains going out to the recreation kages, the pigs
wantonly assaulted me because I refuse to speak like a foot
shuffling ass kissa.
This and similar incidents continually happen to defenseless
prisoners because of the mechanical restraints. The racist
pigs continue to lie to the Elmira County Community so that
after a brother prisoners is assaulted the pigs can easily
take them to the towns to be convicted by other ignorant
crackers, already brainwashed by these shit kicking pigs in
here.
Secondly, I was again accused of assaulting a pig in July
1997 in another incorrectional facility. After the alleged
misbehavior report was dismissed the racist white scum took
me to kkkourt claiming he sustained abrasions on his finger.
The ... judge wants me to plead guilty to assault in the
second degree and pay a surcharge. This way I'll remain
longer in prison and give up money to build the raggedy ass
town.
...Thirdly during the past five months I've been on a
religious alternative meal (RAM) which is non-meat eating.
After being out to kourt for four days these bastards refuse
to feed me a RAM tray and respond with racist remarks. When
I brought this to the attention of the sergeant and the
lieutenant that continually camouflage their efforts to do
nothing with a bucket of bullshit.
This letter is not just to reveal the injustice but in hopes
that families will call and inquire about the well being of
their family members. For communities to get together and
strengthen their concerns for prisoners -- or else these
fine people may be in the same situations. "Prisoners are
also are families."
-- A New York Prisoner, 14 January 1998
LAZY PIGS AND EXACTING RULES
I'm another warrior from Africa, born here in this prison
called Amerikkka. It's been a while since I've communicated
with anyone; mainly because these haters have locked me up
in their so-called Special Housing (the hole) for an offense
I never committed. They've taken all my merchandise,
studying material, stamps, personal hygiene stuff, and left
me without anything -- just a sheet and a blanket only.
I'm in a Federal Prison in Oakdale, Louisiana. They're so
corrupt in this system they even made a law pertaining to
underwear. No inmate can go out to the recreation area with
his underwear hanging down or he will be written up on a
charge! I know that's not fair.
It's about one hundred degrees all the time here in the
South and we have to wear a jumpsuit while outside. It's
really just so they won't have let anyone out for "Rec"
[recreation]. So they [the pigs] can smoke and sit around
talking most of the day.
I've just gotten in the federal system and I've been written
up so many times on stupid violations. Most of them I've
never even done. And the corrections officers who gives you
your sentencing in the DHO is another one who doesn't like
Afrikans born in Amerikkka. He has taken all my good time
for no major reason. Not for one year but for two years --
that's one hundred and eight days! That's not fair! They
hate mer here so much. I better end [this letter] before
they make rounds to find out why it's so quiet on the Range
in Lockup!
I've told the brothers here that we must stick together and
demand to be treated fairly!...
A brother in the struggle,
-- A Federal Prisoner, 17 February 1998
SEND CHILDREN TO SCHOOL NOT PRISON
Just a note to touch base with everybody from Oakdale FCI
[Federal Corrections Institution] which is also an
Institutional Detention Center for the Federal BOP [Bureau
of Prisons].
Kops are using us against each other, conducting mass lock-
ups of 10 - 20 people sometime, at the slightest hint of
trouble. The people on Disciplinary Status were not given X-
mas packages. Some inmates here have been in lock-up over a
year. Some mutilate themselves and others go insane without
help from staff. Staff only slap inmates with more write-
ups. There are some good staff but the bad ones prevail
regarding treatment [of prisoners]. The psychologist is a
joke.
We have more "kids" as federal prisoners. Most of them have
their priorities misplaced scamming on other prisoners,
drugs, racism. Racism has NO place in a prison setting. When
it does, it's the old divide and conquer setting: us
against each other and the cops and we always lose.
They should send the children to school not prison. People
from all over the world are represented here. We should all
come together as friends instead of being hateful to each
other...
Snitches need to be checked and if they don't quit should be
made to leave. By snitches I mean the ones who sit in the
police office all day talking. We have one who sits behind
the kop desk and even smokes his pipe behind it.
Needless to say a lying Rat crossed me out. Now I'm doing
solitary with about one year to do. All because a bunch of
Rats crossing each other out....
It's a sad shame our prisons have come to this. All
prisoners need to work to help each other get educated and
stay outta here! It's up to you!
-- A Federal Prisoner, 14 February 1998
UNDERGROUND CONTROL UNIT
...I'm a 28 year old Native American who is incarcerated in
the Oklahoma State Penitentiary, a maximum security prison.
I'm currently housed within a Behavior Modification Unit
called H Unit, which is underground. It also houses Death
Row inmates.
I've learned a lot about our struggles against the
government from one of the best teachers, Prisoner X. This
is an elder brother who has touched many lives. It is my
hope that younger brothers and sisters are able to come
across such as tremendous teacher as I have had....
In solidarity and Resistance against the system,
-- an Oklahoma Prisoner, 15 February 1998
EVERYDAY OPPRESSION IN TEXAS
As a modern day slave in Texas prisons we are required to
perform toil labor for no pay. S-4 status to Line 2 status
receives good time and work time credit to be utilized for
parole purposes. Line 3's are required (compelled) to work
with receiving good time or work time for their slavery
performance.
Good time and work time earned by your roil labor in the
fields, factory, etc. can be taken for disciplinary reasons.
Needless to say when paroled, you are compelled to sign a
contract with the state relinquishing your good time earned.
January 1, 1998 all offenders are required to pay a $3.00
fee to visit the infirmary except for emergency situations,
but at the oppressor's arbitrary decision to warrant the
visit emergency or non-emergency. If you don't have the
money in your account upon visit, you will be accepted but
that $3.00 fee will be notified to your account awaiting for
when a loved one sends you some funds.
T.D.C.J.-I.D. administrators here have taken the tobacco
products out of the system for the offenders, yet officers
are allowed to go outside in the smoking zone and smoke on
state property. We no longer wear pants with a zipper or
pockets in the front but pants where we have to pull down to
even urinate.
Law library books delivery have decreased for inmates in
Administrative Segregation or close custody housing from 5
days a week to 3 days a week, from 5 books to 3 books,
instead of keeping the books until the next day we are only
allowed 8 hours now.
For as censorship goes, an African American in Texas Prison
will most likely be denied cultural development. A Majority
of African American author's books are denied to enter the
system. Holloway House Publication Co. books are
discriminated against not all, but the majority. When a
black author publishes a book detailing about what the
Europeans are doing to the African American, it will be
denied by the system.
Of course in conclusion, the prison library is a farce,
especially for the African American. Hope I was of
assistance to you all and feel free to get in touch with me
at any time.
-- A Texas Prisoner, 9 January 1998
MICHIGAN LABOR RATES
The average prisoner, in Michigan, earns between 20 and 30
dollars a month and the cost of living is such that even a
modest lifestyle would require 3 times that much. I work as
a clerk for X department, with a schedule of 8:30 to 8:30
six days a week and only make about $35 a month, which isn't
enough to cover my monthly mailing expenses.
-- A Michigan Prisoner 15, December, 1997
...The labor situation is very bad for higher custody
prisoners, like myself. The jobs are limited to only
porters, yard crew, tutors and recreational porters. These
jobs do not pay enough -- especially if you have no help
from the outside world. An inmate makes an average of $5.00
to $7.00 a month.
The prices in the inmate store are outrageous. It will cost
me $1.75 for a tube of toothpaste, 60 cents for one bar of
soap. A Ramen noodle soup that is normally sold in the
outside world will cost me only 15 cents, in here I am
paying 25 cents. That's 10 cents more than the outside
world. If I get sick and I need to go to health care -- that
will cost me $3.00 each time I request to see them....
-- A Michigan Prisoner, 2 January 1998
MIM responds: We thank these prisoners for providing the
specifics on their own rates of pay. If other Michigan
prisoners who are working can do the same, we will compile
the pay information and print accurate figures on how much
money prisoners in Michigan are paid per hour, and for what
type of work. As was printed in RAIL Notes recently (January
15, 1998), we know that the Michigan Department of
Corrections is putting out false figures on how much it pays
prisoner workers. With your help we will publish the real
numbers and expose the DOC lies.
Attention Prisoners:
Remember to write to MIM once every 90 days to maintain your
subscription. And if you have only written us once, you need
to write within 30 days to keep your sub going. This is
because we see the pigs moving prisoners around all the time
and want to make sure that you are receiving the material
that you need, not that the material is ending up being
thrown out by the pigs.
Also, if you are being released within the next two years,
write to MIM and let us know. We want to work with you after
you get out of Amerikkka's gulags to overthrow this
imperialist system!
Last thing, if you are interested in writing a book review
for MIM Theory, write us, let us know what your interest is
generally or if there is a specific book that you would want
to review.
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