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.
I N T E R N E T ' S M A O I S T BI-M O N T H L Y
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
XX XX XXX XX XX X X XXX XXX XXX XXX
X X X X X X X XX X X X X X X
X V X X X V X X X X X X X XX XXX
X X X X X X XX X X X X X
X X XXX X X X V XXX X XXX XXX
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
THE MAOIST INTERNATIONALIST MOVEMENT
MIM Notes 162 May 15, 1998
MIM Notes speaks to and from the viewpoint of the
world's oppressed majority, and against the
imperialist-patriarchy. Pick it up and wield it in
the service of the people. support it, struggle
with it and write for it.
IN THIS ISSUE:
1. WASHINGTON D.C. RETAINS TITLE: MURDER CAPITAL OF THE
WORLD
2. SETTLER COURTS THROW ANOTHER BLACK MAN IN THE GULAGS
3. LETTERS
4. PUERTO RICAN PRISONER OF WAR RETURNED TO PRISON
5. PENNSYLVANIA DEATH ROW HUNGER STRIKE RESUMED
6. STATE COURT RULES NO FREEDOM OF SPEECH IN PUBLIC MALL
7. FILIPINA SPEAKS ON GENDER OPPRESSION IN THE
PHILIPPINES
8. AMERIKKA'S FORCED STERILIZATION OF DRUG ADDICTS
9. RAIL SPREADS REVOLUTIONARY STRUGGLE AT EARTH DAY FORUM
10. ONONDAGA ACTIVIST TAKEN PRISONER OF WAR AT PLYMOUTH PROTEST HEARING
11. NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC FRONT OF THE PHILIPPINES SIGNS
AGREEMENT WITH THE GRP
12. U.$-RAMOS REGIME TORTURES AND MURDERS NPA COMRADE
13. POL POT DIES: IMPERIALIST PROPAGANDA MARCHES ON
14. CULTURE: LOST IN INDIVIDUALIST, UNSCIENTIFIC SPACE
15. CULTURE: SOCCER ZINE MOCKS MAO
16. ATTENTION PRISONERS: CORRESPONDENCE INCORRECTLY
SUPPORTED OPPRESSION
17. DEATH OF JAMES EARL RAY LETS FBI OFF HOOK
18. 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
* * *
WASHINGTON D.C. RETAINS TITLE: MURDER CAPITAL OF THE WORLD
by a MIM comrade
Washington, D.C., the U.$. capital city and the city with
the greatest number of police officers per capita in the
country, has had the highest (illegal) murder rate of any
large city over the past 10 years. Police-state zealots
conclude from this that D.C., like other cities, needs more
and more pigs policing the streets. Revolutionaries know
increased numbers of police are not the answer to crime. In
fact, the proliferation of Amerikkka's police force only
increases the violence which is committed against the
masses.
Amerikkka is at war with its internal semi-colonies.
Amerikkka systematically denies oppressed nations the right
to self-determination and control over political, economic
and military affairs. The Amerikkkan police state enforces
the oppressive relationship between the white nation and
internal semi-colonies through its illegitimate INjustice
system. Amerikkkan domination depends on its ability to
control the oppressed through massive round ups by the
Amerikkkan pigs into the ever-increasing prison system.
The high number of illegal murders mostly result from
current systematic poverty and inequality. And it is the
occupying settler police army which enforces national
oppression. Above all, more pigs does not mean that the
causes for crime are eradicated. Increasing the number of
agents of Amerikka's police state will only strengthen
Amerikkka's war against oppressed nations.
The total number of illegal murders fell in D.C. last year,
but the rate per capita was more than five-times as high as
New York City's. There are still many more murders each
year than there were in the early 1980s. According to a
government study, a Black man in D.C. who turned 18 in 1989
had a 1 in 24 chance of being murdered by 1995 -- the worst
odds in the country. All that is despite the fact that,
with seven cops on duty for every 1,000 residents, D.C. is
the most heavily policed city in the country. Obviously the
police are not helping to prevent illegal murders, so the
push for more can only be taken as a push to increase
oppression of the masses, not solution of society's
problems.
D.C. is also one of the most imprisoned cites in the
country. According to a study by the National Center on
Institutions and Alternatives, in 1997 50% of Black men in
D.C. ages 18-35 were in prison or jail, probation or
parole, out on bond or being sought on a warrant. That
number was increased from 42% in 1992. This mass
persecution by the INjustice system is a vast crime of
national oppression perpetrated in the name of the law and
democracy. Notably, the vast majority of murders that are
not being prevented by this police state are committed
against young Black men.
MIM refers to "illegal murders" in this case because the
biggest murderers -- the imperialists, their corporations
and their armies -- aren't doing anything illegal by
bourgeois standards, and their crimes go unreported in
official crime statistics.
Washington, D.C. is the murder capital of the world in more
ways than one. Besides the illegal murder rates, D.C. is
the seat of power for the most murderous imperialist power
in the world: the United Snakes of Imperialism. Amerika's
armies killed more than a million Vietnamese, hundreds of
thousands of Iraqis, and unknown numbers of murdered and
disappeared activists and revolutionaries throughout Latin
America. Beside direct military invasion, Amerikkka
continues its long history of propping up puppet comprador
regimes, as in Peru and the Philippines, which carry out
systematic torture and war against the masses.
This is also the police state that murderously crushed the
Maoist revolutionary Black Panther Party of the late 1960s,
whose plan for self-reliance and self-determination for the
Black nation would have blocked the importation of heroine
and cocaine, and countered economic isolation of the urban
lumpenproletariat, all of which fuel today's illegal murder
rate.
Just as all nations oppressed by imperialism throughout the
world, oppressed nations within the illegitimate U.$.
borders need self determination and national liberation.
These are the products of revolutionary struggle, not a
stronger occupying army of police.
NOTES: Murder and police statistics from Washington Post,
19 April 1998, p. A1. Prison statistics from "Hobbling a
Generation: Young African American Men in D.C.'s Criminal
Justice System Five years Later," National Center for
Institutions and Alternatives.
http://www.igc.org/ncia/hobb.html
* * *
SETTLER COURTS THROW ANOTHER BLACK MAN IN THE GULAGS
In April, another one of the criminal injustice system's
unjust convictions reached the supreme court of
Massachusetts. To the surprise of the defendant, his lawyer
and his family, the judge asked the important questions
about the laws that were broken in the course of the murder
trial. The verdict from this hearing is not yet in but the
course of this entire case demonstrates why MIM says that
all imprisonment is political and why we call this a
criminal INjjustice system
In 1993, XX was extradited from Georgia and convicted of
murder within four months of the beginning of his trial.
His lawyer, a public (defender) pretender, cooperated with
the prosecution in rushing the trial, ignoring evidence and
neglecting cross examination of witnesses. The criminal
injustice system intimidated XX's family and friends and
continues to harass and torture XX in prison as he appeals
this unjust conviction.
Shortly after the murder, XX went to the police station.
Thinking that he had nothing to fear, he decided to clear
himself as a potential suspect by submitting to testing for
blood. The murder was a very bloody one, but nothing was
found on XX or in his car. XX was seen at his printing shop
at 9:15, a half hour away from the murder which took place
between 9 and 9:30. In spite of the lack of evidence
against XX, the prosecution succeeded in convicting him by
suppressing important evidence. In just one example of
this, the witness who was to testify at the trial was told
to leave the court by a police officer who intimidated him
and said they didn't need him.
One of the prosecution's witnesses against XX was a known
drug addict who changed his story at least once. Another
man who testified knew the murder victim and worked as a
special officer. He threatened a womyn, saying that he
would kill her "just like I killed [the murder victim]."
This womyn filed a complaint against the officer but this
was not disclosed to XX before the trial. The womyn who
filed this complaint came forward to tell the defense team
after reading about the case in the newspaper.
XX's original public pretender solicited the case, lying to
XX and his sister. He told them that a wealthy benefactor
wanted him to represent XX. But the lawyer was being paid
for by the state as a public pretender. It is not clear why
this man wanted the case but his complicity with the
prosecution suggests that this case was fixed from the
beginning. The lawyer was eventually brought to court where
he denied lying about the wealthy benefactor but admitted
calling to solicit the case.
Before XX was even arrested, some people showed up at the
house of a cousin of his and tried to question her, telling
her they were going to get XX. She never found out who
these people were. During the trial the prosecution had
XX's sister followed. And his family was threatened by the
officers of the imperialist court.As a part of the ongoing
harassment of XX for maintaining his innocence, he has been
moved four times in prison and there have been a number of
attempts on his life. Most recently, in the middle of the
night a few days after the appeal at the Supreme Court, XX
was moved again.Other than being a member of the Black
nation, there's no clear reason why XX was set up for this
case. He was not a political activist or any particular
threat to the imperialist system except as another Black
man in white Amerika. The criminal injustice system is used
as a means of social control by the imperialist state.
Oppressed nations within u.s. borders are the particular
target of the criminal injustice system. This is why the
u.s. has a greater proportion of Blacks in prison that even
Apartheid South Africa.
MIM writes about cases like this one for two reasons.
First, we hope that the publicity will put greater pressure
on the political system which has convicted XX as we
support his struggle for freedom. And secondly, we use
cases like this to demonstrate the injustice of the overall
system of imperialism. People interested in supporting XX's
fight or in taking part in the struggle against the
criminal injustice system in general should contact RAIL.
* * *
LETTERS
PRISONERS RESPOND TO MICHIGAN PRISONER'S PLEA
Comrades of MIM and RAIL,
We were reading MIM Notes 153, Feb1, 1998 edition, an
article in the 'Under Lock & Key' section entitled: "A Plea
for Help' from a Michigan prisoner that begs our attention.
However, though all the articles in Under Lock & Key are
deserving of comment and analysis, this one article gains
our attention because this comrad spoke of having feelings
of 'suicide' and we do not want any comrad to feel this
way, or to feel as though they are at such a low state that
there is no other alternative or that there is no one in
this struggle that care. Therefore, we respond as follows:
In this prisoners missive he states that he is 25 years old
and that he is writing on behalf of (PDTRT). We of
Political Prisoners of War Coalition (PPWC) have not heard
of PDTRT, what their political line is, what they represent
etc. But, that is not a big deal because we are sure there
are many who do not know who PPWC is or have not heard of
us. However, we do know that this brave comrad sounded as
though he was giving up giving up at a time when he nee to
stand firm and defy the odds. To refuse allowing the MDOC's
actions to cause him, or any other prisoner in struggle, to
feel weak and broken-spirited, or have desires/thoughts of
wanting to commit suicide. That will not accomplish
anything other than the MDOC prisoncrats a hearty laugh and
a good subject to discuss while they sit on their fat lazy
asses feeling victorious, as they call you a 'weak ass
piece of shit.'
You, my brotha, need to affirm your position in the
struggle for political/social change by staying alive,
studying the principles of Chairman Mao, Marx, Lenin and
the Black Panther Party (BPP) so that you and other comrads
you talk and study with will become strong vanguard
soldiers (souljahs).
In your missive you spoke of staff writing "fake tickets"
and you somehow feel they are wrong for doing this. But if
you come to true revolutionary overstanding then you would
accept the fact what the prisoncrats do is done
purposefully. That what they do is designed to break your
resistance down. To kill the revolutionary spirit that is
rising up against their imperialist domination over the
working class. The proletariats. That what they do is meant
to cause ones such as yourself to develop suicidal
thoughts, and a defeatist attitude so they can continue
fucking over the lot of us. But - when you refuse to allow
prisoncrats or even their lack-dog prisoner agents to deter
you from the job you are doing the mission you are on,
which is to education others as you educate yourself with
the proper principle revolutionary discipline, then there
is NOTHING to destroy you, and the conscious seeds you've
planted will grow to maturity and the roots from the tree
of revolution will DESTROY the ignorance of the
bourgeoisie.
MIM offers, especially to prisoners, a line to follow from
the examples of Chairman Mao, the Gang of Four and the BPP
in which to formulate our goals, because MIM overstand that
it is within these prisons a strong vanguard party can
develop with the proper grooming and political re-education
and discipline.
As you work with you comrade within PDTRT and give then
strength, reserve some strength for yourself. And as our
comrads of MIM have told you, "You have been organizing
prisoners and explsing the truth about the atrocities of
the prison system. Don't give up hope. You are not alone in
this struggle against imperialist domination." Comrads such
as yourself are valuable to this struggle. And this is why
it is important for you and your comrads of the PDTRT to
struggle and work with MIM and give MIM your support so
that we can overcome the obstacles the bourgeoisie place
before all of us.
--Political Prisoners of War Coalition March 25, 1998.
BOOKS FOR PRISONERS PROGRAM CRITICIZED BY ACADEMIC
When I first said that I was interested in Books for
prisoners I had no idea that the only books that you would
be sending them would be books written by people trying to
take over the world. I want prisoners to have books. I want
them to be able to read real literature. If they desire
philosophy let them read Aristotle, Plato, Wagner, Thoreau,
Sartre. For history political, and or political inspiration
consider Niccolo Machiavelli's, Prince. Thucydides,
Herodotus, Aeschylus, Homer.
You don't want to offer these people the opportunity to
choose their own path. You call them the victims and only
permit them to believe that that is what they are and say
that a revolution is the only course for a victim. A victim
can, and sometimes does turn the other cheek. Ghandi,
M.L.K., and most important Jesus all forgave their
attackers. In these three instances they were made martyrs
, but their efforts moved nations and in some cases worlds.
I do not know, but I think that if you offer a prisoner in
our prison system the opportunity to change one aspect of a
city, and then you offer them the opportunity to change an
aspect of a nation, which do you think they would change.
Anger is sometimes healthy, but anger cannot propel and
motivate us.
I AM SORRY TO BE THE ONE TO INFORM YOU OF THIS, BUT IT
APPEARS MORE AND MORE WITH EACH LETTER YOU SEND THAT YOU
ARE NOT WORKING FOR THE RIGHTS OF PRISONERS, BUT SIMPLY
TRYING TO RECRUIT PEOPLE TO JOIN IN YOUR WAR. IF YOU ARE SO
BENT UPON GETTING WHAT YOU WANT PLEASE FOR EVERYONE'S SAKE
OFFER THESE PRISONERS THE OPPORTUNITY TO CHOOSE WHAT THEY
REALLY WANT. LET THEM KNOW THAT THERE ARE ALWAYS OPTIONS
EVEN FOR THE MOST RESTRICTED SITUATIONS.
Please take me off of your mailing list. Wishing you, and
perhaps myself, more understanding of what we should really
be fighting for.
MIM responds:
This letter writer has been duped by the Amerikan education
system to believe that the world is presented in an
objective way through bourgeois scholars. And so s/he
believes that if only we could just offer everyone access
to these scholars, they could have a complete education
with all the options presented.
In fact, this writer is suggesting that we should give
prisoners a very biased view. The examples of "real
literature" and philosophers s/he presents include only
people who have earned a reputation in the bourgeois world
which means people who represent imperialism, fascism,
feudalism and slavery. Among the list of suggested authors,
the only person representing the perspective of the
oppressed people of the world is Sartre. Perhaps this
letter writer does not realize that Sartre was a communist
since he also attained academic prestige. In imperialist
society people already have access to all the well known
bourgeois scholars and most of these do not offer the
oppressed an analysis of society from the perspective of
the majority of the world's people or a way to end their
oppression.
MIM fills a much needed hole in these educational
opportunities when we send in political books to prisoners.
We are responding to a demand from the prisoners and we do
not force any ideology upon anyone. In fact, we encourage
everyone we talk with to check out all of the ideologies
and analyses out there. But at the same time, we have a
responsibility to present the political line and strategy
that we think is going to achieve the liberation of
humanity. This is no different from what all historians and
philosophers have done throughout history.
There is a reason that the revolutionary literature we
provide is in demand in the prisons. Prisons are the most
fascistic element of u.s. society. Prisoners have the
opportunity to experience the evil side of imperialism
first hand and their analysis of this society leads the to
a revolutionary analysis. Apparently this letter writer
would rather not fill this demand and instead limit
prisoners to the one sided "real literature" that they have
already had access to all of their lives.
MIM and RAIL are very honest about the fact that our Serve
the People Books for Prisoners program does not include
spending money to mail prisoners copies of the bible or
literature classics or reactionary political history. We
send in the revolutionary history and theory that prisoners
must study to understand how to take on and defeat their
oppressors.
* * *
PUERTO RICAN PRISONER OF WAR RETURNED TO PRISON
by MC17
Antonio Camacho Negron, a Puerto Rican who was imprisoned
for his part in the fight against u.s. colonialism, was re-
arrested by the FBI in Puerto Rico late Thursday night,
April 16th.
He was released in February after spending 11 years in
prison. He was arrested again for violating the terms of
his release, particularly for not reporting to a Federal
Magistrate in Puerto Rico and for associating with
independentistas. The conditions of his parole required him
to stay away from independentistas and required that he
present himself to the Federal Magistrate every 72 hours.
Upon arrest he was refused access to his lawyers and he was
shipped back to the united snakes of imperialism.
Negron's refusal to comply with the terms of his parole is
a political statement that he does not recognize the
legitimacy of the united snakes courts to deal with the
criminal justice of the Puerto Rican people. 1998 marks 100
years of u.s. colonialism in Puerto Rico. As an occupied
island whose population is required to serve in the u.s.
military but does not get a vote in elections, Puerto
Rico's official status is a Commonwealth. But those who
aspire to an independent Puerto Rico correctly oppose the
imposition of the u.s. colonial injustice system on the
Puerto Rican nation.
Negron, along with other Puerto Rican prisoners of war,
stand strong in their fight against the illegitimate
authority of the u.s. criminal injustice system. The fear
that this strength puts in the imperialists is clear from
the terms of Negron's release. Even after 11 years in
prison they knew that Negron would continue the struggle
for Puerto Rican independence and they tried to restrict
his political activities on the outside.
These actions make it very clear that the u.s. criminal
injustice system is nothing more than a tool for social
control wielded against the oppressed nations. Those who
take the most bold actions in the fight for national
liberation are most severely punished. MIM stands with
Negron and all of the Puerto Rican's in Amerika's gulags in
the fight for Puerto Rican self-determination. Let us take
advantage of this 100 year anniversary of u.s. colonialism
by stepping up the struggle. Work with MIM to forge Maoist
parties with the strength and resources to lead national
liberation struggles in all of the nations colonized by
u.s. imperialism.
Notes: Press Release from the Committee to Free Puerto
Rican Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War, April 22,
1998.
* * *
PENNSYLVANIA DEATH ROW HUNGER STRIKE RESUMED
In MIM Notes 160 for 15 April, we ran a story about a
hungerstrike by death row prisoners in Pennsylvania. The
hungerstrike was in protest against a series of new
restrictions imposed on the prisoners, of which the most
draconian was one which restricted the total property
allowed to what would fit within a 12"x12"x14" box. This
restriction makes legal work very difficult and restricts
the ability of death row prisoners to appeal their
sentences is. As Mumia Abu-Jamal wrote, "the separation of
the inmates from their legal materials is meant to hasten
death. It is an attack on the last vestige of hope"(1).
MIM Notes called the hungerstrike a victory, based on
initial reports that some restrictions were rolled back,
and others were on hold pending negotiation. After MIM
Notes went to press, we received word from Mumia Abu-Jamal
via the internet that this was in fact not a victory.
Mumia's statement was in part a response to the
prisoncrat's media spin which we had not seen, but his
fundamental point was that too little had been won by the
prisoners to call it a victory.
MIM does not have a lot of specific information on what is
going on right now, but current events bear out Mumia's
statement. It's unclear to MIM whether the DOC reneged on
its agreement to lift the restrictions on legal materials,
or if the negotiations failed to reverse the March
directive. Either way, legal materials were the main issue
which brought about a second hunger strike. Again, Mumia
joined the hungerstrike at the request of other prisoners.
As a result of the hungerstrike, the prisoners have been
put on "layin" which means that they do not have the
privilege of going to the yard, do not have access to
showers, are in lockdown 24 hours a day, and cannot use
library resources.
As of April 13, 17 prisoners were hungerstriking. Mumia
wrote: "The key issue ... is legal material; I just want to
point out that the situation of the Department of
Corrections, vis-a-vis men on death row, has changed
dramatically in the last few years. Under relatively new
statutory authority, the DOC now may sign a death warrant.
Thus, no longer are they neutral state agents they are
active agents of death. In this context, the tampering,
custody and control of a man's legal materials seems
starkly and unquestionably malevolent."(1)
The law in question states that if the Governor fails to
comply with the time restrictions on an execution, the DOC
is to carry it out anyway.
The changes in DOC policy also extend to an upsurge in
brutality against prisoners. After the initiation of both
hungerstrikes, drastic shakedowns by the guards took place
where cells were looted and prisoners beaten for reasons of
retaliation and political activism. A recent compilation of
Philadelphia news clippings exposes an increase in
brutality at SCI. When taken to the hole [segregation
cells], prisoners are fiercely beaten and the video tapes
of the beatings are systematically destroyed. A progressive
lawyer who does prisoner advocacy work around the country
said "What they're running there is a concentration camp.
It's like an Alcatraz mentality. It's horrible....I have
never, ever, ever seen a place such as Greene. I have never
seen such bigots in my life."(2)
Both the legislation and increased brutality are aimed
specifically at the politically conscious prisoners and
those prisoners who file suits against the DOC. SCI-Greene
is a particularly brutal example of all incarceration
within the U$ that aims to cut down all human and legal
ties prisoners have to the outside world as a way of
controlling the oppressed who, even if they were not
politically conscious upon imprisonment, come to realize
the nature of u.s. imperialism behind bars. The lack of
rehabilitation programs and fair legal treatment are just
two examples that expose the criminal injustice system for
the system of social control that it is. The criminal
injustice system is the most fascistic element of u.s.
society and the fight against this system gets at the heart
of imperialism. (For more on the criminal injustice system
order MIM Theory 11, Amerikan Prisons on Trial, for $6
postage paid.)
MIM hopes the comrades on death row in Pennsylvania will
win this battle with minimal damage to themselves. We will
continue to publicize this battle as we are sent
information. In particular, we think that this struggle is
not only a winnable battle, but a clear indictment of a
system that has no interest in justice, just oppression.
NOTES:
1.Mumia 13 Apr 1998 11:58:41 -0400 (EDT)
Hunger Strike Reinstated at SCI Greene DOC reneged on
Agreement; SPG 16 Apr 1998 18:11:17 +0200,
Mumia Joins Hunger Strike April 13th at SCI Green
2.cerg.org
* * *
STATE COURT RULES NO FREEDOM OF SPEECH IN PUBLIC MALL
The Minneapolis state court of appeals ruled in early April
that animal rights protesters were not entitled to hold
signs inside the shopping mall there even though public
money was used to build the mall. The ruling reversed a
lower court decision that said the protesters' free speech
rights had been violated in 1996 outside a Macy's store at
the Mall of America.
The Mall of America, which includes a college, police
substation and two public schools along with an indoor
theme park and more than 500 stores, was built five years
ago for $700 million. The city of Bloomington provided $186
million.
The four protesters stood indoors in the courtyard in front
of Macy's holding signs and distributing literature
opposing the sale of furs. They were told to take the
protest outside and when they refused they were arrested.
The protesters claimed that public funding of the mall made
it a public place where such protests should be legal. The
court of appeals ruled that there was an alternative spot
where the protesters could exercise their rights.
This decision overruled Hennepin County District Judge Jack
Nordby who wrote that the mall must allow protests inside
because public money was used to build the shopping
complex. But he also refused to dismiss the trespassing
charges because the protesters didn't seek the mall's
permission for their protest.
Larry Leventhal, the attorney for the four defendants, said
they likely would appeal. He said: "The right of freedom of
speech requires that people should be able to speak to one
another where they're gathering, and overwhelmingly now
people are gathering in malls."
This ruling also contradicts a previous ruling at the same
level which means that this decision may end up in the
Supreme Court. MIM fully recognizes the contradiction
within bourgeois society that bourgeois laws generally only
defend the bourgeoisie and its privileges. That is one of
the many reasons that the masses must seize state power and
create laws which serve the interests of the international
proletariat and not that of the oppressor. Anti-
imperialists must carefully monitor increasingly draconian
laws which overtly prevent progressives from organizing. At
this point in time, MIM is waging a battle of building
support for revolution through agitation and independent
peoples' institutions, MIM is not engaged in armed
struggle. So, we take seriously the legal means through
which the state suppresses protest.
Note: Associated Press, 7 April 1998.
* * *
FILIPINA SPEAKS ON GENDER OPPRESSION IN THE PHILIPPINES
Down with imperialism!
Down with bureaucrat capitalism!
Down with feudalism!
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA -- Lualhati Abreu, a long-time national
democratic activist from the Philippines, gave several
public speeches here on the condition of wimmin and
children in the Philippines from the perspective of the
national democratic movement. She emphasized that the
principal problems facing Filipino wimmin were feudalism,
imperialism, and bureaucrat capitalism.
As she said, "Wimmin and children of the oppressed classes
suffer the same forms of exploitation and oppression as
their men and adult counterparts suffer." Wimmin and
children also face particular problems which men, in
general, do not face -- such as prostitution -- and feudal
ideas continue to subordinate them to men. While the
national democratic movement struggles against these evils,
it mainly mobilizes wimmin on the basis of their class and
national oppression. This is in direct contrast to
bourgeois feminists, who seek to restrict wimmin's activism
to so-called "wimmin's issues."
All issues are wimmin's issues!
The vast majority of the population of the Philippines and
the vast majority of the 26 million wimmin and 22 million
children in the Philippines live in the countryside as
peasants. There they suffer under the burdens of high land
rent, usurious loans, and all the other problems in a semi-
feudal society.
About 15% of Filipino wimmin are workers, and they are
often the "last hired, first fired." In some export
processing centers -- where Nike, Reebok and others have
set up shop -- wimmin make up 80% of the workforce, because
thanks to feudal discrimination they can be paid less than
men. In some enterprises, wimmin and children workers are
not paid at all for their labor.
Abreu linked the economic and political oppression of
wimmin and children to their gender oppression. "We can say
that gender oppression of wimmin, and sexual oppression of
children, can all be linked to poverty, brought about by
imperialist-planned, comprador greed on our social system,
in all fields; [the] economy, politics, social and cultural
[fields]..."
Specifically, she linked the problem of prostitution to
poverty. "Saddled in these miserable kind of conditions,
wimmin and children more often than not find themselves in
the landlord's home to pay for the debt incurred by their
families. If not, wimmin are put into prostitution or mail-
order bride schemes and children into child labor working
under hazardous conditions and even into prostitution.
Today we have 600,000 wimmin prostitutes in the
Philippines. In fact we rank second in Southeast Asia,
second only to Thailand. A conservative estimate [of the
number of child prostitutes] is 100,000." That figure
(600,000) includes 200,000 wimmin involved in prostitution
outside of the country.
Since the gender oppression of wimmin and children is so
closely tied to their class and nation oppression, Abreu
argued that gender oppression could only be overthrown by a
movement to overthrow class and nation oppression. "There
are different responses to these conditions. There are
reformist NGOs (or Non-Governmental Organizations) on
children or wimmin and wimmin's concerns, each dealing on
one issue for the wimmin or children.... But then, they do
not see the root of all these problems, they are just
dealing on generalities or the result of poverty, and as I
have said earlier, poverty results from the imperialist and
feudal grip on our social system. But there are also
progressive responses to these social problems. They see
that wimmin's problems... are part and parcel of the
overall national democratic movement."
This is the thrust of a slogan which MIM has long put
forwards, namely, "All issues are wimmin's issues." Not
only should wimmin struggle against those who restrict them
to predefined "wimmin's issues" and imply that wimmin have
no interest in or nothing to say about economics or
military matters, but the majority of the world's wimmin
cannot truly overcome gender oppression without
overthrowing imperialism.
At another forum, Abreu described how certain sectors of
the national democratic wimmin's movement came under the
influence of bourgeois feminism, which was imported into
the Philippines by First World "feminists" and the United
Nations. For a time, the national democratic wimmin's
organizations began to focus exclusively on so-called
"wimmin's issues." At one point things got so bad that when
the national democratic movement launched a campaign to
free all political prisoners, some people only took up the
call to free wimmin political prisoners. Over the last few
years the national democratic wimmin's organizations have
struggled to defeat bourgeois, reformist feminism and
regain their founding principles.
Corrupting influence of super-profits in Amerika
Abreu pointed out that many of the former leaders in the
national democratic support movement in the united states
did not significantly integrate among the Filipino workers
and peasantry. Evidently Walden Bello, now a hard core
social democrat and anti-communist, only spent a few days
in the countryside. Abreu went on to connect this lack of
knowledge of conditions in the Philippines to the
corrupting influence of decadent Amerikan culture:
"Especially here in the united states, my god, the
workers... their lifestyle is like that of the upper middle
class in the Philippines. You have everything here.
Education is not a problem for you people here because you
can avail of loans... In the Philippines it's only the
elite or the upper-middle, or those who have relatives
abroad who can send them dollars who can study. But not the
sons and daughters of peasants and workers... They cannot
avail of loans because of their social conditions."
This is the correct perspective, one which MIM seeks to
propagate among anti-imperialist activists here --
especially students. While we have tactical unity with some
student demands -- like those opposing armed campus police
or calling explicitly for money for schools, not guns or
prisons -- we also recognize that these demands are in
themselves not revolutionary.
We push students to use and frankly give up much of their
privileges in order to lead the anti-imperialist struggle
and temper their resolve. This is analogous to the calls
made by the underground National Democratic Front of the
Philippines for its supporters to integrate in the
countryside and join the armed struggle. MIM, however,
while asking its members and supporters to make sacrifices,
does not ask them to make the ultimate sacrifice and risk
their lives in the armed struggle, as that would be a
futile waste at this time inside the imperialist countries
- see MIM Theory #5 on the incorrect ultra-left line of
armed struggle now inside of imperialist countries.
Abreu has been in the people's movement in the Philippines
for the last 30 years. She organized, researched, wrote,
and published materials about Filipino wimmin, most
specially Moslem wimmin in the Mindanao-Sulu area.
* * *
AMERIKKA'S FORCED STERILIZATION OF DRUG ADDICTS
by RC35
A KKKalifornia group, Children Requiring a Caring
Kommunity, CRACK, is getting lots of attention for
sterilizing drug addicted wimmin, and paying them for it.
The program offers wimmin, with at least two children, $200
if they get a doctors verification of sterilization, via
tube-tying or the surgical contraceptive, Norplant. The
mission statement of CRACK is to stop babies from being
born to addicts, but they do so under the advertisement
"Don't let pregnancy ruin your drug habit."(1)
The program is a blatant attack against the oppressed. This
population control program against the poor destroys
oppressed nation communities. The method of this genocide
program is two-fold: 1) by failing to use resources to
eradicate drug addiction the program only helps to
perpetuate it among the oppressed; and 2) by limiting the
number of births of the oppressed.
The "K" in Kommunity is incredibly fitting to CRACK's Klan-
like practice. Also, a bill in the senate, 5278, is now
under consideration in the Amerikkkan state of Washington
which would require "involuntary use of long-term
pharmaceutical birth control" for wimmin who give birth to
drug addicted babies(2).
The founder of CRACK, Barbara Harris, says "our intentions
are only good." But Hitler had what he called, "good"
intentions as did the Amerikkkan government in pushing
forced sterilization programs in Puerto Rico (and around
the world.) The question that should be asked is not what
people subjectively think they are doing nor what their
propaganda states, but objectively who the program serves.
Like the population control problems sponsored by the
united states all over the world, this program, and the
trend to start more like it, serve to mask the results of
capitalism and serve to further genocide against the
oppressed.
This program has no intention of addressing the problems
that cause drug addiction. National oppression and poverty
are in part not having the interests of the masses
represented by the current dominating government. Without
state power and representation of the masses, the oppressed
have few options under imperialism. With the suppression of
the right to forge self-determined paths, the oppressed are
left with either buying into the system of oppression,
escaping from it, or battling for revolution. With the
strength of the imperialists as it stands, many escape from
the alienation and oppression and use drugs.
Under socialism, the people will determine their own
destinies and will gradually eradicate the problems of
imperialism. The best path forward for the oppressed is to
join with MIM and battle for liberation and end national,
class and gender oppression. Once the masses have state
power, we will be better able to address basic needs and
eradicate drug addiction and other problems stemming from
oppressive systems. In contrast, the CRACK program
emphasizes punishing the oppressed for the problems
Amerikan society created.
To truly address the problem, it is necessary to stop
focusing on how to stop drug babies from being born, and
instead focus on how to stop the current social
inequalities that make drug addiction an response to
oppression. MIM urges wimmin to put struggling for
revolution first. And in many ways this means choosing to
organize instead of starting a family - putting resources
into the revolution instead of creating more people.
However, this is not something that MIM forces wimmin of
the mass base fighting imperialism to do. This is something
that MIM advocates for the current period because expending
resources on new children is costly and it is only bringing
them up in a world of decadence and oppression. We'd rather
see wimmin take hold of the future and fight with every
resource to end imperialism. Asking wimmin to make this
choice is fundamentally different than controlling the
reproduction of wimmin who are predominantly of oppressed
groups.
The U$ government and idolized pseudo-scientists like Dr.
Laura, are perpetuating the coercive programs which offer
money to the penniless. Why not oppose pennilessness? Most
hard-drug addicts are addicted because of the system, not
racial tendencies toward addiction or ignorance.
Addiction is a problem that can only be answered in an
anti- imperialist context. Sex education is necessary, but
it won't end the poverty that makes sterilization
profitable. Needle exchanges help stop the spread of
disease, but they won't stop the lack of access to
expensive medications. No reformist programs are going to
solve social problems. People must actively organize
programs within an anti-imperialist context while building
for the overthrow of the imperialist system.
Every law maker, CRACK member and sterilization doctor is
working within and ultimately for an imperialist system.
MIM calls on all of our readers to look critically at their
actions and judge who these actions serve. Work with MIM to
end society's social problems by attacking the fundamental
basis for these problems: imperialism.
NOTES:
1. Boston Globe 19 April 1998. A6
2. Valley Advocate 16 April 1998. p. 20
For more information, get MIM Theory #2/3 on Gender and
Revolutionary Feminism and MIM Theory 12 on Revolution and
the Environment. Also check out MIM Theory #9 on Psychology
and Imperialism. Each $6.
* * *
RAIL SPREADS REVOLUTIONARY STRUGGLE AT EARTH DAY FORUM
Western Massachusetts, April 18 -- RAIL tabled at an Earth
Day celebration organized by a local MASSPIRG chapter. We
spoke with many people about the need for revolutionary
environmentalism and the key role that national liberation
struggles play in ending environmental destruction. Like
the previous year, our presence at the event us made a
significant number of allies as well as cemented previous
casual relationships between the masses and RAIL.
RAIL gathered many signatures on its petitions to stop
control units and to return the prisoners transferred to
Texas. We also sent a number of postcards to the Dutch
Prime Minister demanding that Jose Maria Sison and his
family be granted political asylum in the Netherlands. RAIL
explained to people why we choose to campaign around the
issues of prisons and the Philippines. The prison campaign
was of the most interest to the people at the rally. Many
agreed with our position that prisons are an important
battleground because the state uses the justice system as a
key weapon in its war against oppressed nations.
Many people we met were interested in, but unable to join
RAIL's contingent to the Jericho March Against Political
Imprisonment and wanted a report. One womyn pointed out the
irony that the same day the Jericho March was ignored in
the mainstream media, Clinton was in the papers touring
Robben Island with former political prisoner (and now
President) Nelson Mandela. This media manipulation
furthered Amerika's lie that political prisoners exist only
in other parts of the world. Many people pledged to work
with RAIL on future campaigns against the Amerikkkan prison
system.
The event was held in a public park and it attracted many
random people. After being asked if she "would like to help
end torture in Mass. prisons", one womyn identified herself
as an employee of the local county jail. First, she denied
that torture happens, then said control units weren't
torture, but were a legitimate way to repress prisoners who
disobey. In MASSRAIL, RAIL had previously published a
letter from a warden to a prisoner that says the prisoner
is being sent to the DDU (Department Disciplinary Unit)
solely for his associations. The only way out of the DDU is
to renounce your associations. When presented with a firm
statement that the DDUs were used as such, and that
international standards ban control units, her only
response was "I'm just doing my job." RAIL explained -- but
at this point she was no longer listening -- that the
defense "It is just my job" was rejected at the Nuremburg
Trials. Another person later added that the United Nations
Charter explicitly forbids such an excuse and requires
people to reject unjust laws and instructions.
RAIL thanks MASSPIRG for the opportunity to table at this
event. Not all of the groups or speakers present were
progressive -- like the "Free Tibet" organization, and of
the Population Committee of the Sierra Club. But RAIL took
the opportunity to talk with the masses about political
line.
State Senator Stan Rosenburg, gave a long speech about the
importance of "Think Globally, Act Locally." Rosenburg
argued that we need to think small, and lots of thinking
and acting small will eventually add up to something
sizable. At this, there was some grumbling within the
crowd, including from a reformist older womyn associated
with an organization opposed to the spread of multinational
corporations. According to this womyn, Rosenburg was once
more radical, but was corrupted by his position. RAIL
doesn't know if that is true or not, but his reputation is
far more liberal than his actual positions in the Senate.
Sometimes at events like this, that are more musical/social
then political, RAIL has a difficult time convincing people
of the relevance of revolutionary activism. However, these
three reactionary nuggets -- and the political lines they
represented -- were brought up in discussion with many of
the most advanced people we spoke with. Often in fact, it
was the masses who brought up these comparisons.
RAIL used the Stan Rosenburg speech in its discussions
about Governor Weld's sick 1995 publicity stunt to expand
prisons. Weld manufactured an overcrowding problem, and
then shipped 299 prisoners to Texas when the legislature
didn't respond quickly enough to Weld's pleas for more
prisons. Weld got $585 million, thanks in part to Stan
Rosenburg, but the prisoners are still in Texas.
RAIL also used the MIM slogan "Think Globally, Act
Globally" to explain that imperialism is a global
phenomenon and must be fought globally. The solution put
forth by Rosenburg and similar reformists is to fight only
the symptoms, which ensures that the root causes of
injustice and environmental degradation continue forever.
The Population Control crowd take a similar approach. RAIL
had a long discussion with one activist doing work to
expand the Endangered Species Act. RAIL explained that the
capitalist system is concerned only with profits, not with
long term issues of bio-diversity or environmental
sustainability. However, it's entirely possible that
imperialist super-profits could be used to shore up the
local environment through expanded export of polluting
industries. This is of course a short sighted solution as
the environment is a global system. RAIL warned this
activist of the dangers of faking left but supporting First
World chauvinism using the name of global justice to
advance the interests only of the First World.
One key point in this discussion was the efforts of people
like the Sierra Club to promote population control around
the world. In fact, the Sierra Club is currently preparing
for an internal vote about whether they should oppose
immigration. During this discussion, the RAIL comrade asked
the additional people who joined the conversation: "And
just which planet does the Sierra Club think immigrants
come from?" Later, RAIL extended its perennial -- and
always declined -- offer to publicly debate the local
Sierra Club Population Committee on whether the question
for the environment was one of population size or of access
and control of resources.
RAIL argues that it's obscene to discussion population
size, or promote coercive population control practices in
the Third World while leaving the disproportionate
consumption of resources in the First World untouched. (The
Sierra Club does polemicize against First World
consumption, but their action revolves around limiting the
number of Third World peoples.) Simply put, one white kid
in the 'burbs does more harm to the planet than a whole
village in Africa.
There was some discussion about Tibet and the Free Tibet
movement. One Free Tibet activist RAIL spoke to was unaware
as to the Dalai Lama's role as the spiritual head of a
slave society. She did create several distracting questions
about "the meaning of slavery", but more significantly did
not impress us with her willingness to research the cause
she supports. RAIL argued that if the people of Tibet want
to be free of China, they should; but under no
circumstances should the Dalai Lama and his system of
slavery be restored. A number of activists who are aware
that Tibet under the Dalai Lama was slave society expressed
to RAIL disgust that the pro-Dalai Lama movement passes
itself off as progressive. As RAIL suggested to one Dalai
Lama supporter, just because the Dalai Lama is a religious
figure he shouldn't be exempted from criticism. After all,
the Catholic Church and various Popes benefited directly
from the trade in African slaves, and there the Church role
was more subtle than in Tibet.
The Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League is a mass
organization led by MIM to organize progressives to attack
the principal problem - imperialism. RAIL struggles to
build support for liberation of the oppressed -
specifically to throw off the chains of imperialist
domination. Tabling, handing out anti-imperialist
propaganda and struggling with people attending progressive
or liberal events helps to build this support. This is one
of the many small tasks that anti-imperialist individuals
can do to start up cells of progressive activism in their
areas. Write to MIM and RAIL at the address on page two to
learn more about the agenda of the MIM-led United Front
against imperialism and the tactics RAIL uses to strengthen
this movement.
* * *
ONONDAGA ACTIVIST TAKEN PRISONER OF WAR AT PLYMOUTH PROTEST HEARING
April 15, Court House in Plymouth Mass., -- The Amerikkkan
states of Massachusetts and New York kidnapped one of the
24 defendants, an Onondaga Nation activist, at today's
preliminary hearing. The activist rightly considers himself
a prisoner of war.
Resulting from an police attack on peaceful marchers
protesting the Thanksgiving myth and 400 years of genocide
against the First Nations, the defendants are charged with
disorderly conduct and assaulting police officers.
The United Snakes of Imperialism is currently waging a war
against oppressed nations throughout the world and within
its illegitimate borders. The Amerikan settler nation
dominates internal semi-colonies just as an occupying
military force in Third World nations. As the war of
genocide, mass imprisonment, forced poverty, slavery and
repression continues, the Amerikkkan imperialists have
captured yet another prisoner of war.
The Onondaga activist was arrested because he missed a
court date in New York that he was never notified about.
Despite trying to contact the NY court for information on
this trial, and willfully showing up for the Plymouth court
date, the judge accepted the prosecution's argument that
the activist was a flight risk and the bail was set at the
outrageous sum of $5000 cash. As of this evening, less than
$1000 had been raised, and the activist is awaiting
extradition to New York from Massachusetts. After the
hearing, when the activist was brought out to the Sheriff's
van in leg irons and a waist chain, he was met with many
raised fists and loud cheers.
MIM Notes has received word that the activist is on a
hunger strike until he is released.In 1784, the Onondaga
signed a treaty with the white nation called the Two Row
Wampum. This treaty allowed for each nation to live
together "like two canoes on a river," separately without
disturbing each other. The treaty expired in 1984, and due
to Amerika's violation of the treaty, no efforts have been
made to renew it.
This activist, arrested for walking in Plymouth, is part of
the First Nations dominated by Amerika which have a far
greater claim to land than Amerikkka. In addition, he is a
diplomat of his nation sent to contact other nations and
build support for self-determination. The white nation
courts regularly grant diplomats immunity, but not in this
case. In a broader sense, MIM argues that the white nation
courts should have no jurisdiction over other nations.
Justice can only be accurately served when people are tried
before a jury of their peers. MIM has no doubt that the
activist's nation would consider his activities to be
patriotic, not criminal.After the arrest, one defense
attorney requested that his arrested client be returned to
the courtroom for the Plymouth-related hearing. The judge
ruled his presence wasn't necessary, since this was only a
preliminary hearing. However, the judge ruled against
defense motions for this hearing and the next one, asking
that the 24 defendants not be forced to commute back to
Plymouth for hearings where they weren't needed. The judge
in this case has no interest in justice, but in further
repressing people who stand up for their nation.
Note: See MIM Notes 153, 1 January 1998, p. 1, 4 for
information about the pigs assault on the marchers at
Plymouth.
* * *
NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC FRONT OF THE PHILIPPINES SIGNS
AGREEMENT WITH THE GRP
On March 16, the negotiating panels of the National
Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and the
Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) signed
the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and
International Humanitarian Law in the Netherlands. The
agreement includes provisions protecting non-combatants
from attack, torture, forced relocation and other acts of
violence; defending the rights of the victims of human
rights violations during the Marcos regime; calling on the
GRP to repeal repressive laws authorizing warrantless
searches, paramilitary death squads, etc.; and many other
provisions "relevant to the current situation on human
rights and international humanitarian law and responsive to
the needs and demands of the people," according to the
NDFP.However, there are already signs that the U.$.-Ramos
regime will not abide by the agreement or pursue its goals
in good faith.(1) On March 27, only eleven days after the
agreement was signed, wounded New People's Army member Ka
Ritchie was tortured and summarily executed by elements of
the Philippine National Police. This blatantly contradicts
the international standards for treating prisoners of war
and wounded laid out in the comprehensive agreement and
agreed to by the GRP panel. (See the statement from the NPA
on Ka Ritchie's death in this issue).
(2) The U.$.-Ramos regime still refuses to admit there are
political prisoners in the Philippines. The NDFP had asked
for a release of prisoners as a sign of good faith before
the official signing of the agreement by the principals in
the Philippines. Last year, the U.$.-Ramos regime reneged
on its promise to release 29 political prisoners after the
New People's Army released several prisoners of war.
(3) Ramos will not approve the agreement himself, despite
the fact that NDFP chairperson Mariano Orosa approved it
"in toto, without any condition, qualification or
reservation whatsoever" on April 10. Ramos will not approve
the current agreement unless the NDFP agrees to rush to
sign the Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic
Reforms before he leaves office. The NDFP holds that unfair
and unrealistic position to be a breach of earlier
agreements.The NDFP negotiating panel worked hard to ensure
that the agreement was truly consistent with the demand of
the people for a just and lasting peace (for example, the
U.$.-Ramos regime initially did not want to include an
article recognizing the fact that human rights abuses
occurred under the Marcos regime) and was consistent with
the NDFP's own principles. The NDFP engages in these talks
as an equal, and will not accept pre-conditions such as
recognizing the GRP as the legitimate government of the
Philippines or unilaterally laying down its weapons.
The NDFP was founded and is led by the Marxist-Leninist-
Maoist Communist Party of the Philippines. Recognizing that
the imperialists and their lackeys are armed to the teeth
and will not give up their stolen booty without a fight,
the NDFP has waged armed struggle (via the New People's
Army) as the principal form of struggle. The legal mass
movement and the on-going talks in the Netherlands play an
important, but secondary role.
A copy of the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human
Rights and International Humanitarian Law as well as other
pertinent documents are available on the World Wide Web at:
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/2078/update.htm
* * *
U.$-RAMOS REGIME TORTURES AND MURDERS NPA COMRADE
STATEMENT OF THE NEW PEOPLE'S ARMY REGIONAL OPERATIONAL
COMMAND ON THE MARCH 19 CATIGBIAN ENCOUNTER AND KA
RITCHIE'S DEATH
by Isagani Silang NPA-ROC Political Officer 27 March 1998
The entire revolutionary movement in Central Visayas mourns
the untimely death of comrade Reynaldo Millan, known to the
peasant masses of Bohol as Ka Ritchie, a day after his unit
was ambushed by elements of the 1st Provincial Mobile Force
of PNP last March 19 at barangay Bagtic in Catigbian town.
Through the New People's Army Regional Operational Command
(NPA-ROC), we also condemn the cruel and inhuman treatment
inflicted upon Ka Ritchie who, as our investigation shows,
died after more than five hours of heavy torture and
maltreatment by his captors even as he had repeatedly
pleaded for medical attention for the gunshot wound in the
leg he got from the ambush.
While we condemn the cruel and inhuman treatment of our
fallen comrade, we challenge General Fidel Ramos and the
GRP peace negotiating panel headed by Ambassador Howard Dee
to address this latest violation of international
humanitarian law by the elements of its reactionary armed
forces.
For while the NPA, Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP)
and other revolutionary organizations belonging to the
National Democratic Front (NDF) have been vigorously waging
the national democratic revolution since 1968, it has
consistently adhered to existing human rights and
international humanitarian law standards in the course of
its protracted people's war.
This latest ambush of the PNP fascist forces against the
NPA unit in the guerrilla zone happened amidst the Red
Army's ongoing campaign on the reactionary May 11 elections
and the heightening land problem among the peasant masses
in Catigbian and in many areas in Central Visayas.
Ka Ritchie was hit in the leg right at the start of the
brief firefight at around 7:30 in the evening of March 19.
Captured and rendered incapable of further resistance, the
NPA fighter by then had become a hors d' combat (non-
combatant) under the Geneva Conventions and its Additional
Protocols of 1977. International humanitarian law dictates
that the GRP armed forces accord him the rights due of a
prisoner of war, including immediate medical treatment and
humane treatment.
Instead, as a number of peasant masses in barangay Bagtic
and in Catigbian poblacion have declared, the fascist PNP
chose to remain deaf to the persistent request of Ka
Ritchie for immediate medical attention. Worse, he was for
several hours subjected to torture and maltreatment as can
be proven by rib fractures, facial hematomas, contusions in
the skull and other evidences of cruel and inhuman
treatment upon Ka Ritchie's person.
The 19-year old Ka Ritchie was of peasant class origin.
Having become familiar with the lingering land problem and
military abuses in Bohol province, he was among those who
joined the Red army early last year. As an NPA fighter, he
organized peasants and performed several other
revolutionary tasks to advance the interests of the
oppressed classes in Catigbian and neighboring towns. He
was also involved in the imposition of revolutionary
punishment against the notorious criminal element "Maymay"
Lamoste of Catigbian town last December 7, 1997.
It is ironic, even tragic, that the inhuman treatment and
untimely death of Ka Ritchie came just a few days after the
Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and
International Humanitarian Law was signed by the peace
negotiating panels of the GRP and the NDF in The Hague,
Netherlands. The breakthrough agreement binds both parties
in the civil war to respect the rights of all civilians
(those not directly taking part of hostilities) and
protected individuals (including, but not limited to,
wounded and captured combatants rendered incapable of
further fighting).
The NPA has repeatedly proven its seriousness in observing
international humanitarian law as it periodically launches
military tactical offensives. The Red fighters' conduct
during its ambush of a PNP patrol last November 13 in
barangay Villaflor in Carmen town is its most recent proof.
In that successful military action, the people's army
spared the lives of the PNP men who surrendered their high-
powered firearms.
The fascist PNP, on the other hand, exposes through its
brutal pacification drive the continuing insincerity of
General Fidel Ramos in the ongoing peace talks. In August
15 last year, it salvaged the wounded and already hors d'
combat NPA fighter Ka Benzar and then senselessly shot
civilians Felix Pamat and his three children in barangay
San Roque, Sagbayan town. This time, its torture and cruel
treatment of our brave comrade Ka Ritchie led to his
untimely death.
The New People's Army Regional Operational Command (NPA-
ROC) will not let these international humanitarian law
violations go unaddressed. As in the past, we shall elevate
this incident to responsible comrades involved in peace
talks. More importantly, we shall ourselves seek out and
punish the GRP elements responsible for this latest
incident of international humanitarian law violations.
Authenticated By:
(Sgd.) Isagani Silang NPA-ROC Political Officer 27 March
1998
* * *
POL POT DIES:
IMPERIALIST PROPAGANDA MARCHES ON
by MC17
In early April, 1998 Pol Pot died. The leader of the Khmer
Rouge ruled in what was previously called Cambodia from
1975 through 1978. Pol Pot has become infamous as a symbol
of the supposed genocidal actions of communists and Maoists
specifically. But as with all history, it is important to
examine the perspective of the information we are fed in
imperialist Amerika. Although Pol Pot was no Maoist, he did
lead a group that considered itself communist in a war
against the u.s. imperialists and the reactionary Cambodian
government. While MIM does not defend Pol Pot or the Khmer
Rouge as any kind of model for revolutionary struggle or
state power, it is important to dispel the imperialist lies
upon the death of Pol Pot so that we can learn from the
true history of Kampuchea.
u.s. devastation of Cambodia
By 1975, an estimated 10 percent of the Kampuchean
population -- 600,000 -- had already died as a result of
the Vietnam War. Those 600,000 deaths were caused by u.s.
efforts to track down Vietnamese communists. According to
the Peter Jennings documentary "The Killing Fields",
Cambodia specifically absorbed 500,000 tons of u.s. bombs
in the early 1970s.
Nixon's ordering of the bombing of Cambodia, and u.s. troop
forays into Cambodia, were a turning point in the movement
against the Vietnam War in the united states. The national
guard killed four students at Kent State on May 4, 1970
because of a protest against the u.s. war in Cambodia.
Today, however, many people who never opposed the u.s. role
in Indochina are complaining about Pol Pot's violence. That
hypocrisy is increasingly easy to get away with as people
forget about the u.s. war in Indochina.
The u.s.-instigated war -- and the bombings in particular
-- also caused the creation of 2 million refugees, who
flooded the cities. The cities then came to depend on the
u.s. food aid to live because of the war and the
inefficiency of the right-wing Lon Nol regime.
Hence, Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge seized power from Lon
Nol in 1975 in the worst possible situation: The people
were starving, Kampuchea was the poorest country in the
world and one-third of its people were refugees.
Executions and other deaths
The Boston Globe coverage of Pol Pot's death contained the
typical characterization of the Khmer Rouge: "When the
Khmer Rouge marched into the capital on April 17, 1975 to
establish their agrarian society, they chased out city-
dwellers at gunpoint, killed anyone suspected of being an
intellectual, forced millions into labor camps, and
demanded that children inform on their parents. People were
often arrested simply for wearing glasses or knowing a
foreign language. Money and private property were
abolished, schools and temples were shuttered, and medicine
and food became scarce. During a nearly four-year reign, as
many as 2 million people died of starvation, execution,
illness or overwork."(1)
Imperialists like to suggest that Pol Pot had two or three
million people executed so the above is slightly more
accurate in that it does not claim all of these people were
executed. Pol Pot did execute between 75,000 and 150,000
people between 1975 and 1979. Vietnam invaded in 1978 and
threw the Khmer Rouge out of power.
The commonly heard but unreliable figure of 2 or 3 million
comes from counting all deaths in the 1975 to 1979 period
based on estimates of population. A Finnish inquiry
commission concludes that 1 million or fewer people died in
the Pol Pot period. The commission documented that at least
several thousand of those were because of direct military
battles with Vietnam. Part of the discrepancy in death
figures comes from those who fail to account for the
decrease in births that inevitably happens when a
population is lacking adequate food and fighting a war.
These missed births get counted as deaths in population
projections that assume the birth rate did not change.
Indeed, most of the Pol Pot executions were committed in an
atmosphere of war (if not actual battle). The famous skull-
pile pictures from Kampuchea come from a policy especially
aimed at the Vietnamese. Today the newspapers and
television stations reprint such photos without historical
explanation.
Serious famine followed again after the final Vietnamese
invasion of December 1978, and by the time international
aid started it was too late for many. A total of 2 million,
or 30 percent of the population, died in the 1970s from the
u.s. war, the Pol Pot period and Vietnamese invasions.
One of the main charges from imperialist critics is that
Pol Pot oppressed the people by forcing them out of the
cities. It is true that Pol Pot had Phnom Penh emptied;
however, given that these people were starving and that the
economy was in a shambles, it was not a bad move,
economically. It seems likely to have saved lives,
something not usually considered by Khmer Rouge critics.
Even so, the Khmer Rouge admitted that 2,000 or 3,000
people died in the process of migration out of Phnom Penh.
Had Pol Pot come to power and allowed his people to starve
to death in Phnom Penh, and allowed his people to be
slaughtered by the Vietnamese, no one would be calling him
a draconian, psychotic, genocidal, former dictator as the
press does today. What Lon Nol did was right, say the
Amerikan liberals and conservatives: let the people starve
and beg for u.s. aid as a solution. Certainly Pol Pot's
strategy was debatable. Unfortunately, the u.s. media does
not allow for that debate of how to save lives. Instead it
propagates simplistic lies about communism.
Pol Pot was not a Maoist
Pol Pot never called himself a Maoist while Mao was alive
nor did Maoist china recognize the Khmer Rouge as Maoist.
In fact, Pol Pot only took up the banner of Maoism after
Mao died when he needed aid from China to fight the
Vietnamese invasion. This opportunism has confused many who
only look at the labels and ignore the practice of Maoism
as a measuring stick.
It is true that there was a relationship between the Khmer
Rouge and China under Mao. The Maoist press at various
times praised the efforts of the Vietnamese, Cambodian and
Korean peoples to struggle for self-determination and the
rebuilding of their countries, but never called their
communist parties Maoist.
China also gave aid to Vietnam, Cambodia, Korea and other
governments -- like Tanzania's in Africa, which did not
even claim to be communist. The only government that Mao
recognized as genuinely communist was Albania's.
Anyone who want's to condemn Mao's aid to the Khmer Rouge
will have to condemn the u.s. government in the same
breath. The united states aided the Khmer Rouge in the
1980s, because they were enemies of u.s. foes, the
Vietnamese, who had invaded and ousted them in 1979.(1)
Imperialist reaction
The imperialists seem saddened by the death of Pol Pot,
expressing dismay at the lost opportunity to capture him
and put him on trial for all of the deaths during his brief
rule in Kampuchea. Many people, particularly imperialist
historians, say they feel robbed of a tribunal to hold Pol
Pot and others accountable for their actions.
The Khmer Rouge is still in existence but its size and
strength are significantly diminished and many believe they
are close to total defeat. This prediction from the
imperialists must be taken with a grain of salt as the same
people have been predicting the imminent defeat of
revolutionary movements around the world even as some have
maintained strength and even gained ground over the past
century.
Last year, Pol Pot's officers turned against him after he
ordered deputy Son Sen and his family murdered. Pol Pot was
condemned in a show trial and given house arrest, but not
turned over to outsiders.(1)
According to bourgeois sources, just a few weeks after Pol
Pot's death, the Khmer Rouge radio station called for
national reconciliation with the government. They declared
the Khmer Rouge dead with Pol Pot and renamed themselves
the National Solidarity Party. Noun Nou, a spokesperson for
the Khmer Rouge said after Pol Pot's cremation: "The Khmer
Rouge ended today at 9:52 a.m." According to Nou, the
reason for the new party "is the change from being a
dictatorship to a democracy. We believe in democracy and
freedom." If this new party means that the Khmer Rouge or
even just a section of the group is joining the bourgeois
political machine this is not progress. The imperialists
have not brought prosperity or democracy and freedom to the
Third World. They have brought dictatorship and death.
The fight goes on
The united states war in Southeast Asia killed 600,000
people in Cambodia according to the Finnish Inquiry
Commission. The total u.s.-caused deaths in Indochina run
into the millions. But the imperialists still evaluate that
as a legitimate war while calling Pol Pot a genocidal
killer. These double standards come from Amerikan's failure
to analyze history from the perspective of the majority of
the world's people: the proletariat and peasantry. If it is
assumed that the imperialist's actions are always justified
in the name of capitalism and democracy, history will
always be written from the perspective of the imperialists.
This is why alternative media and alternative history is so
important. Where else will the people learn the truth about
history and gain a different perspective on events? MIM
encourages everyone who is serious about the study of
history to support the people's media by financing and
writing for MIM Notes and MIM Theory.
NOTES:
1. Boston Globe April 17, 1998.
2. Many of the facts are taken from MIM Theory printed
inside MIM Notes 41, May 18, 1990. For a complete copy of
that issue of MN send $5 (rare back issue price).
* * *
CULTURE:
LOST IN INDIVIDUALIST, UNSCIENTIFIC SPACE
movie review by MC17
Lost in Space is a takeoff of the 1960s scifi TV show comes
with the latest in special effects, movie stars and action
packed adventure, but it sticks to the reactionary plot
common to many science fiction movies: subversives and
aliens = evil; humans not working with subversives (who
are always only Amerikans) = good.
The earth has reached the point where it will no longer
sustain human life within two decades as a result of all
the environmental destruction and the only solution is to
find another inhabitable planet. The closest one located is
a 10 year journey away and the only way to shorten the trip
is to build a hyperspace jump gate at both ends: earth and
the new planet. The Robinson family sets out to the new
planet to do the construction work on that end.
The nice nuclear family of the Robinsons comes complete
with the problems of Amerikan decadence and patriarchy that
does not value children. The parents are off at work
"saving the world" while the kids are being ignored and
feeling worthless. The tremendous abilities of the youngest
Robinson (Will) who, still in elementary school, was
building time machines, demonstrates the incorrect approach
of the patriarchy towards children. While Will was being
ignored and treated as a worthless chore by his parents he
wasted a lot of time getting into trouble by doing silly
stunts at school. Someone with his skills clearly could be
of great value to society, regardless of age.
Giving him a position of usefulness on the spaceship was a
much better model for treating children as people rather
than as objects. Children do not have to excel in science
to be treated as valuable members of society. But the
patriarchy encourages parents to see children as burdens
that they own. It is this ownership and worthlessness which
makes child abuse and incest a rampant problem in Amerikan
society.
The underlying theme of conflict between individuals
"saving the world" at the expense of "saving" their family
ultimately came out on the wrong side for humanity as well.
Both mom and dad Robinson are portrayed as bad people for
giving up so much of their time to a project that would
save the world from imminent destruction at the expense of
spending time with the family. Their oldest daughter also
devoted three years of her life to the project at the
expense of a social life and she is criticized by one of
the male heroes in the movie who asks what value there is
in saving the world if they can't have any fun.
What kind of culture would not see saving the people of the
world as a job of inherent value and enjoyment? A
reactionary individualist imperialist culture that produces
movies like Lost in Space is the obvious answer.
The portrayal of "subversives" is typically Amerikan as
well. Subversives are attacking the space stations and
attempting to sabotage the mission which will save the
world. But we are never told why the subversives are
attacking or what they oppose or what they would do
instead. They are just made out as evil, ugly, crazed
killers. The one subversive we meet up close gives some
speech about his actions not being selfish but being a
choice based on his analysis of the world. But this only
makes the whole thing worse because it sounds sort of like
stale dogmatic communist rhetoric, making the whole
"subversive" movement look dumber and more evil and
reflecting badly on communists everywhere.
The human (read Amerikan) centric approach of the movie
meant that assuming the aliens are evil was, of course, the
right decision. Even before the aliens attacked, the humans
"knew" it was dangerous. As if it is possible to determine
whether a species is good or evil from its smell, this
approach tosses science out the window.
It is unfortunate that science fiction movies often only
deal with science as a field that produces space ships and
robots in a calculated and logical way. Communist science
fiction includes the science of dialectical materialism as
a way of analyzing the world. Some mainstream science
fiction does a better job of this than others. Lost in
Space is truly lost in individualist unscientific space.
* * *
SOCCER ZINE MOCKS MAO
Sports review by a MIM comrade
Pictures of Chairman Mao
310 Franklin St.,
DLD 335
Boston, MA 12110
maopix@aol.com
Pictures of Chairman Mao (maopix) is "The fanzine by and
for New England Revolution supporters." Attracted by the
name and big Mao picture on the masthead, MIM checked out
the March-April 1998 issue. The Revolution is the New
England soccer team and considering how soccer has, so far,
failed to really catch on in this country, it is no
surprise that this fanzine is relatively low tech. Maopix
contains more political content than most sports magazines
including appeals by the (self-identified) white zine
producers for the Revolution to get some Latino players to
attract the Latino crowd at the games, discussions of the
politics behind player trading and financing and calls for
greater media coverage of soccer. But the only references
to Maoism are the editors attempts to turn it into a joke.
Somewhere along the line the zine editors did catch enough
info about the revolution in China to scatter references
through the pages. They have a "Revolutionary Gang of Four"
who are in charge and on the back page they print a quote
from Mao: "The strength of a revolutionary movement is
best measured by its cadres' ability to step up and replace
comrades wounded in the course of our glorious struggle."
On the letters page of this issue we find a Chilean soccer
fan writing to say that s/he is a communist supporter and
noticed the e-mail name (maopix) and wanted to know if
these were like minded revolutionary soccer fans.
The response from the editors: "Sorry to disappoint you,
but when you heard the Party was our top priority, I think
you got the wrong idea. Cheer up comrade, we will continue
the glorious struggle against the rightist oppressors and
counter-revolutionaries. If you haven't heard, in a move of
wealth distribution that would make the Chairman proud,
we've stripped the running-dog lackeys at DC United of one
of their prime assets, Raul Diaz Arce"
MIM's got no problem with a little humor, but the Pictures
of Chairman Mao editors clearly don't take the history of
communist China seriously. When we are talking about the
life and death of a quarter of the world's population, we
at MIM take history a little more seriously. Unfortunately,
relatively apolitical zines like this one help to create
negative public opinion about communism by treating it as a
joke. In this way cultural influences help shape people's
political views.
* * *
ATTENTION PRISONERS:
CORRESPONDENCE INCORRECTLY SUPPORTED OPPRESSION
MIM has long experienced various forms of mail tampering -
whether that has been pigs opening or snatching or damaging
mail or whether that has been when some
counterrevolutionary has posed as MIM incorrectly in
correspondence with masses. It is always essential that
comrades under lock and key struggle with MIM and RAIL
about the content of letters which they disagree with
because such tampering is always a possibility and more
difficult to monitor with prisoners' mail than with mail to
people out from under the spike of the oppressor's dagger.
In addition to malicious sabotage of MIM's work from
outside of our circles, recently a prisoner brought to MIM
and RAIL's attention that someone actually working with
RAIL had written correspondence which does not correctly
reflect RAIL's practice with prisoners and which, if left
alone, has the potential of damaging RAIL's relationship
with our valued comrades under lock and key.
Specifically, an individual posing as a friend of RAIL
wrote letters to prisoners which genuinely represented the
interests of the imperialist oppressors. The letters to
prisoners sent monthly had comments which criticized prison
comrades and told them to "stop complaining [about prison
oppression]." In addition, the individual sabotaging our
work with prisoners wrote that "prisons aren't really at
all like concentration camps."
MIM and RAIL vehemently disagree with such statements, as
they are directly counter to the work we do to bring down
the walls of the corrupt and nationally oppressive
injustice system. MIM and RAIL will continue to work
against oppression through the prison system and continue
to intensify the current campaigns to build support for
prisoners' struggles against oppression. And beside our
continued work, RAIL will make changes in the process
through which prisoners' letters are responded to correct
this problem and avert it in the future.
The comments perpetuating the bourgeois rhetoric were made
by a person working with RAIL. RAIL organizes many liberal,
progressive or anti-imperialist sympathizers to respond to
prisoners' letters. Generally, this practice teaches people
on the outside the importance of the struggles being waged
under lock and key. And in general, this allows RAIL and
MIM to build broader support for prisoners' struggles
because people on the outside learn from the masses in
prisons. This is one of the ways that RAIL leads people
just joining the struggle to engage in mass practice.
Generally, prisoners and people on the outside can teach
one another, learn from one another through things like
setting up study groups or struggling over specific aspects
of line. Having individuals help with correspondence has
enabled MIM and RAIL to dive deeper into addressing
specific battles of prisoners concerning censorship,
brutality or release.
The general practice of RAIL working with people of varying
political views and commitments is not the root of this
problem. The real problem was RAIL's failure to oversee
this work that was being done in RAIL's name. RAIL comrades
in charge of our prisoner correspondence are charged with
ensuring that these letters going out to prisoners
accurately reflect anti-imperialist line and practice.
We encourage prisoners to struggle firmly against incorrect
line or practice that are either coming from RAIL or people
working with RAIL. We hope that those prisoners who may
still have letters from this writer recognize that RAIL
does not agree with the writers' perpetuation of national
oppression through the injustice system, and we hope to
hear from all prisoners in the future in such matters. RAIL
and MIM will continue to provide a forum and agitation to
expose all levels of imperialistic injustice and struggle
to bring liberation to the hands of the oppressed.
*This was written and edited by the RAIL comrade making
self-criticism and the MIM Prison Minister.*
* * *
DEATH OF JAMES EARL RAY LETS FBI OFF HOOK
by MC234
23 April 1998 -- James Earl Ray died today of liver
disease. Ray was a white supremacist convicted of murdering
Martin Luther King. In the past, MIM has written obituaries
for heroes of the people who died or obituaries for
revolutionaries who have sold out and have and become
irrelevant. MIM has written obituaries for reactionaries
who died, and even a few for reactionaries we wished were
dead. This obituary is none of these.
MIM mourns the death of James Earl Ray only in that it
removes a great deal of pressure on this imperialist system
to examine its own role in the assassination of Martin
Luther King.
James Earl Ray confessed to the killing and then recanted,
saying he was set up by a shadowy man named Raoul. That
Raoul was some kind of government spook who arranged for
the murder (or carried it out himself) and then framed Ray
is somewhere between plausible and likely. What is fact,
however, is that the FBI openly wanted to get rid of Martin
Luther King, and they had King under strict surveillance.
In the last few years, various King family members,
including Coretta Scott King, have joined Ray's call for a
new investigation and a new trial.
Legally speaking, much of this question is now moot. There
are many unanswered questions about the assassination of
Martin Luther King, but little chance the state will
investigate itself or that the private attorneys (such as
Ray's) will uncover new information.
The system could never successfully investigate itself, but
useful information is often uncovered in the process of
such charades. The death of James Earl Ray greatly reduces
the chances such will happen.
More evidence is always useful to indict this system, but
in this case the people may very well have to be content
with the fact that the U.$ government wanted King dead.
Whether James Earl Ray acted alone, or whether the U.$
intelligence services played a direct role is immaterial.
There is certainly no evidence that says that the FBI would
have tolerated King to live and work as an effective
political leader of Black people for much longer,
particularly as he was beginning to strengthen his
opposition to imperialism and become more radical.
* * *
UNDER LOCK AND KEY
STRUGGLING TO SURVIVE IN TEXAS
... On level 3 (the lowest level), we are not allowed to
have the basic necessities of life such as toothpaste,
deodorant, skin cream, hair grease, hair brush, shampoo or
shaving products. We are not allowed to have our own
personal drinking cups nor are we allowed to have reading
materials other than a Bible or Koran, pornographic
magazines, propaganda magazines and newspapers. We are not
allowed to have regular reading novels (soft or hardback),
educational books or dictionaries.
Can you imagine the torture of being confined in a 5'x8'
cell 23 hours per day with no food to feed the mind or the
soul with? Being issued a powder equivalent to AJAX to
brush your teeth with? Which leaves the gums raw and
bleeding? Unable to conduct regular hygiene and grooming
habits? We are to live under those barbaric conditions even
though a vast majority of us have not committed the types
of offenses that constitute a level demotion to level 3
(i.e., assaultive behavior, escape risk or chronic rule
violations).
Many of us are currently on level 3 by way of so-called
being "checked." I wish to make this known so as to get
some outside support. You have several prisoners on level 3
for such simple things as cursing, making excessive noise
(yelling or banging to get an officer's attention) and many
other "minor" infractions. In other words, if you are not a
programmed nigger Charlie and speak out against this
capitalist, oppressive administration, then you will more
than likely be a level 3. So, should I mention that out of
400 some add seg. prisoners only about 10 Caucasian are
level 2 or level 3.
... Here in Tekkkas we are not paid "slave wages," we are
paid in good time credits. Days credited each month for
those who display "good behavior" (i.e., be a nigger
Charlie or snitch). Being that we do not receive wages, we
cannot purchase toiletries or pay the recently (Jan. 1,
1998) imposed medical expenses. This unit alone grosses an
average of $5 million per year. Prisoners don't see a
single red cent.
... Another issue that I wish to address prior to closing
out this notation is the excessive amount of brutality.
These pigs have an obsession with "bashing heads." These
pigs assault us while we have on handcuffs with our hands
cuffed behind our backs or sending a 5-man "gang" in full
body armor into your cell after they have sprayed you with
a chemical agent to hinder your breathing, and irritate
your eyes. I have organized a few brothers here at this
slave plantation in Tekkkas to write families and
organizations to bring some heat down at this site. But we
need outside help/support in order to abolish this
brutality that we are subjected to.
They always use the excuse that, "the prisoner made a
threatening move towards me," "the inmate attempted to kick
me," or "the prisoner tried to jerk away from me."
Nevertheless, if a prisoner is simply "placed" on the
floor, how can they explain the black eyes, busted heads,
busted noses, busted lips, broken arms, dislocated hips,
fractured jaws, etc...???
Struggling to Survive,
-- A Texas Prisoner, 23 January 1998
TEXAS LOCK DOWN
I salute all of you in the name of THE BLACK STRUGGLE.
First of all, I received a letter from MIM concerning
questions about the brothers and sisters imprisoned in the
Texas prison. Sir I will try to reveal to you all facts
that are going on in this Kamp that I'm confined to. ...[The
prison] is 95% White owned and White operated, with
approximately 8% Black and 2% Hispanic. This Kamp is
nothing but a lockdown unit, there is no factory, only a
kitchen job, laundry job, SSI, and a few maintenance jobs
given to privileged prisoners.
Since I have been in Texas Kamp, they have never paid a
Texas inmate to do slave labor, or of yet I don't know, nor
have I seen or heard anyone say that they have started
paying inmates to work. Close custody inmates don't get to
go to school, or go to the law library. We stay in the
building all day and all night. We don't get to leave the
building unless we have to go to the main clinic to get
dental work or an X-ray.
Everything from food to shoes they keep us locked in our
cells, and bring everything to us. There is no dayroom, no
TV, only 2 hours of recreation daily and that's it. I'm
receiving MIM Notes without any problems and hope it stays
that way. I have to share my MIM Notes with others here,
some act like, "so what is MIM gonna do for me or all our
problems we have in all these U$A prison Kamps." A lot of
brothers act like they have given up, and have joined gangs
to rebel not against the prison authority, but against one
another. It's the same old story, why young blacks have
fallen off into this trend against one another is truly
beyond me. I'm going to do my homework, and do a little
research on my own, and in my next letter to MIM I will be
able to give you all more information that might be
worthwhile. Until next time. More power to the Struggle.
-- A Texas Prisoner, 29 January 1998
EXPOSING TEXAS SLAVE LABOR
... As far as that 24 cents an hour, they don't do that no
more. We don't receive no wages. All we get is good time,
which we have to give back when we get out. They don't pay
us but they charge $3.00 every time we go to medical. - A
Texas Prisoner, 17 January 1998
... I don't know who told that lie, but no one in Texas
state prison gets paid one red cent for their work -- if
they work in an industry or in the hoe squad. And if you
don't go to work you will lose class and good time, which
will stop you from going home. We work 6 days a week for
about 10 hours a day.
-- A Texas Prisoner, 12 January 1998
... Labor is hard as hell --T.D.C. officers drive you to
the point that is inhuman-- [they] call us names, talk
about our families and we aren't allowed to talk back.
... No wages for work here-only $50 when we get out and
another $50 when we see our parole officer. Prisoners work
8 hours or more, usually more, 5 days a week.
... I'd like to know why so much happens in prison that the
world is unaware of? Men and women dying or should I say
being killed ... and thrown in the trunk or van like a dog!?
... How does this happen? Why doesn't anyone ever see or
know? If enough get together, hell they can't all be
killed. Are our brothers and sisters that selfish?
-- A Texas Prisoner, 17 January 1998
REVOLUTIONARY STRUGGLE CONTINUES UNDER LOCK AND KEY
Below are some letters and excerpts from prisoners'
writings that were solicited by RAIL earlier in the year.
RAIL asked prisoners incarcerated for their political
beliefs and actions to write speeches or letters to be
reprinted and used in RAIL's agitation against the prison
system and specifically for RAIL teach-in on the Criminal
Injustice System in Washington D.C.(See MIM Notes #161.)
KNOWLEDGE IS THE SQUARE ROOT OF POWER
To my Brothers and Sisters:
On a never-ending struggle we must stay strong (firm) and
we will overcome through AmeriKKKa's mistakes. All people
of color and poor people have the very same oppressors, no
matter what their race is, creed, or belief. We got to keep
coming together "by any means necessary" to overpower all
transgressions/capitalism/sectarianism/oppressions/etc.
These incidents join a long list of others which
demonstrate that the legal system in AmeriKKKa is not made
up of "natural law." Some of the human beings who are
sometimes more human than humane are the authors of this
Hodgepodge of codes and regulations, this system regulates
every aspect of human behavior in ways that are arbitrary
and capricious at best, and counterintuitive at the worst.
The people who enforce it--police officers and judges--do
often go beyond these laws, further compounding the
situation. There is no shortage of individual cases lacking
logic by judges, or lacking heart by cops. The criticisms
deserve to go beyond and be directed not just at the
individual perpetrators, but also at the legal institutions
themselves. We must strive forward against being falsely
accused of crimes/to have our culture/families/religion
insulted, and forced to sit and watch our families
tortured/to undergo several hardships, while we sit frozen
in isolation and prisons.
Knowledge is the square root of power, though the noises
have changed with the passage of time, the same penchant
for 'local justice' (law meshed with outdated
prejudices/racism) hangs thick in the air. It is incumbent
on righteous and politically thinking peoples to recognize
and take action to help in reversing the numerous
violations that have and will continue to take place,
whether against the laws or against common-sense decency.
Ona Move!
-- Ibrahim Abdus Salaam(Mr. Terry G. Yant), A New York
Prisoner, Feb. 06, 1998
THROWN IN SUPERMAX FOR SERVING THE PEOPLE
Revolutionary Greetings,
...I've been a hostage of the state of Ohio's prison system
for eleven years now, and during this whole time I have
been constantly harassed by prison officials because of my
revolutionary beliefs and activism, which according to the
United State's constitution, is supposed to be my right. I
am now in administrative control waiting to be transferred
to Ohio's new super maximum political prison in Youngstown
as soon as they can get it open.
Because of my belief in Afrocentricity and my willingness
to serve the people, I was helping other prisoners to get
their names legally changed and for this the prison
administration accused me of "giving instructions," "trying
to portray myself as a leader," and "trying to form an
unauthorized group" which to them makes me one of the worst
of the worst. They say it will take five years of good
behavior to get out of the supermax and placed back into a
lower security prison, and I go back to the parole board
this year, but you cannot be paroled from the supermax,
which of course is their true reason for sending me there.
Uhuru I Amandla to all political prisoners and prisoners of
war!
-- Kunta Kenyatta, An Ohio Prisoner, 2 February 1998
FIGHT AGAINST PRISON PROFITEERING OFF OF OPPRESSED
"Know yourself, know your enemy. A hundred battles, a
hundred victories" -Chairperson Mao Zedong
Fervent Revolutionary Greetings from the Bowels of
Amerikkka!
Fascism in its most advanced form: is alive and well here
in Amerikkka. With these unadulterated words I greet each
and everyone of y'all with, and the most reverent words
that I can muster.
Before I begin on this journey, I like to pay tribute to
all the comrades that finds themselves fighting this war
against "imperialist" oppressors.
To understand prisons in Amerikkkan society, it is not only
necessary to make distinctions between right and wrong,
good and evil, lawful and unlawful, we must also look at
poverty and fear, politics and economy, and race and
racism. It is clear that the root of crime lie deep in the
social structure and kulture of this kkkountry. The current
attitude is like a cancer in the blood, and like polluted
water, is deadly to us all.
Prisons have become a big enterprise whose largest
commodity is the poor and people of color. Prisons have
become so profitable and demanding that most of the large
corporations are beginning to invest such as Goldman Sachs
& Co., Prudential Insurance Co. of Amerikkka, Smith Barney
Shearson Inc. and Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. underwrite
prison construction bonds, while Westinghouse Electric
Corp., Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Co. and Alliant
Techsystems Inc. adapt and sell their technology to fight
crime.
The fact is prisons fit in with a master plan that is based
on the limitation and complete genocide of the poor and
people of color. The purpose of prisons nowadays is to
isolate, exploit, and eliminate etc. Those who are here
today, I am asking for each of y'all to help and support
the fight in the kkkolonial arena that's founded on racist
politics/white supremacy. If we are going to be successful
in overcoming the many obstacles which we are constantly
confronted with, we are going to have to start forming a
united front and establish bases of support through which
we can collectively support each other and combat enemy
aggression.
In closing, I would like to leave y'all with this thought:
"We must continue to struggle together, because if there is
NO struggle, there is NO progress, if there is NO
resistance to oppression there will be NO progress towards
revolutionary to overthrow this "IMPERIALISM." I request
y'all here today become involved either in, or with the
prison struggle. I commend all of y'all who came out today
to support the POWs and PPs and to make Jericho 98 a
reality and success, We thank each and every one of y'all.
Stiff resistance! All power to the people!
RAIL AND PRISONERS STEP UP AGITATION AGAINST MICHIGAN
PRISONS
Michigan steps up its censorship of MIM Notes
MIM Notes allowed after Hearing
"After careful review of rejected item #2566, it does not
meet the criteria for rejection as outlined in PD
05.03.118. Hearing done in accordance with applicable
policy, procedure and administrative rules."
--Hearing Officer Gorton
MIM,
...The MDOC [Michigan Department of Corrections] rejection
of MIM Notes was overturned. MIM Notes was allowed in after
almost a full-month review to deny it by MDOC prison
officials.
When I ran into this problem in the past, and it seems like
an every month thing now to get MIM publications.
Eventually they'll get tired of doing hearings, grievances,
and costing them money to do all these hours of
paperwork....
A little news from MDOC system, the MDOC plans on taking
all our personal clothes by 5/13/98 in all levels from 3-6.
As well as taking a lot of other personal property items
like hobby, craft, etc. Of course this is an easy action
for the MDOC to accomplish when we have our own sell-out
brothers working for massa charlie in the prison system.
They are sewing all our new clothes cause they want to get
paid, and do their time, and all that soft stuff.
-- A Michigan Prisoner, 11 January, 1998
STATE-WIDE CENSORSHIP IN MICHIGAN
I am writing to let you know that myself and ALL prisoner
subscribers in Michigan received a rejection notice for MIM
Note issues 1/1/98 and 1/15/98. MDOC officials in Lansing,
Michigan have only placed these two issues on the
restricted list. MIM Notes can be received by us captives
in Michigan, except the individual papers the MDOC restrict
-- A Michigan Prisoner, 12 February, 1998
As you may or may not know MIM Notes has been put on the
MDOC's restricted list. On 3/2/98 my new issues were
rejected and all past issues were taken from me in a search
of my cell along with a letter I was at the time writing to
MIM Notes.
...I don't know how legal the taking of this letter was
since it wasn't in an envelope yet ... from what little I
have heard, unless the letter violated a breach of security
-- a planned act of violence or other criminal acts which
it didn't -- then it shouldn't have been taken. If you know
of any laws that explain this please let me know because as
it stands now they're saying we can't even write to people
unless the MDOC says it's okay which puts my reach to the
outside world at 0.
-- A Michigan prisoner, 10 March, 1998
MIM responds: We had heard that MDOC Deputy Director Dan
Bolden placed MIM Notes issues 149 and 150 on the statewide
"Restricted Publications List." We think it's despicable
that a single pig in a central office can decide that no
prisoner should be able to read two issues of our
newspaper.
While this is disgusting, it's not surprising given that
issue 149 includes a letter from a Michigan prisoner whose
MIM Notes was snatched in the yard one day, and issue 150
includes a letter from a prisoner who won a censorship
grievance regarding MIM Notes, but is still struggling for
justice after being raped by a MI Koruptions officer.
As this prisoner points out, part of confiscating your MIM
Notes was clearly an attempt at keeping you from
corresponding with MIM since at the same time the guards
snatched our address from you so you could not let us know
what was going on.
MIM calls out to other prisoners who are receiving MIM
Notes to make even better use of your newspapers than you
have been: pass them around to other comrades in the
struggle against imperialism. Exercise your rights to write
to us and send us information about what's going on behind
the walls. Help us to publicize the Department of
Kkkorruptions' tactics of national and political repression
ever more broadly.
To people on the outside reading this, we say let this be
your call to get involved in distributing MIM Notes to more
and more people. Help the prisoner and us by showing the
Michigan DOC that one censored MIM Notes or even a whole
state prison system's worth of uncensored MIM Notes will
only toughen our will to fight the system which attempts to
deny prisoners their right to political struggle.
MIM NOTES CENSORED BUT BOOKS ALLOWED
I am writing to inform MIM that one of the Pilgrims in the
Mailroom has stopped my MIM Notes. However, I received a
political book about one and a half months ago to write a
review. I wrote the review and returned it to MIM and
requested a few more books. I can still receive the books
so I am requesting that MIM forward me some books for
review. The Pilgrims will not derail my motivation for my
Sisters and Brothers.
Bulletproof Love,
-- An Ohio Prisoner, 4 February 1998
![[About]](/archive/etext/gifs/0_about.gif)
![[Contact]](/archive/etext/gifs/0_contact.gif)
![[Home]](/archive/etext/gifs/0_home.gif)
![[Art]](/archive/etext/gifs/art.jpg)
![[Movies]](/archive/etext/gifs/movies.gif)
![[Black Panthers]](/archive/etext/gifs/blackpanther.gif)
![[News]](/archive/etext/gifs/0_hotnews.gif)
![[RAIL]](/archive/etext/gifs/0_rail.gif)