This is an archive of the former website of the Maoist Internationalist Movement, which was run by the now defunct Maoist Internationalist Party - Amerika. The MIM now consists of many independent cells, many of which have their own indendendent organs both online and off. MIM(Prisons) serves these documents as a service to and reference for the anti-imperialist movement worldwide.
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THE MAOIST INTERNATIONALIST MOVEMENT
MIM Notes 163 PART I June 1, 1998
MIM Notes speaks to and from the viewpoint of the
world's oppressed majority, and against the
imperialist-patriarchy. Pick it up and wield it in
the service of the people. support it, struggle
with it and write for it.
IN THIS ISSUE:
1. INDONESIAN PEOPLE CHALLENGE IMPERILAIST PUPPET REGIME
2. NAIRN REPORTS ON EAST TIMOR
3. JUVENILE INJUSTICE SYSTEM MURDERS CHICANO YOUTH
4. LETTERS
5. FILIPINO YOUTH CONFRONT IMPERIALISM AT CONFERENCE
6. POLITICAL ASYLUM FOR THE SISON FAMILY NOW!
7. MASSACHUSETTS EXTRACTS BLOOD FROM PRISONERS
8. CALIFORNIA D.O.C.: $450,000 FOR A BUS, $0 FOR EDUCATION
9. CULTURE: SLAVEMASTER DALIA LAMA HAS HIS SAY
KUNDUN: THE AMAZING STORY OF THE 14TH DALAI LAMA
10. RAIL AND NBUS HOST FIRST NATION DELEGATION
11. PRISONERS RIOT TO PROTEST LOCKDOWN AT WALPOLE
12. ISRAELI-AMERIKAN IMPERIALISM TURNS 50
13. D.C. LOTTERY PREYS ON BLACKS
14. RWANDAN GENOCIDE TRIALS DIVERT ATTENTION FROM TRUE
CAUSE: IMPERIALISM
15. SUPREME COURT DENIES CITIZENSHIP TO SOME CHILDREN BORN
ABROAD
16. 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
* * *
INDONESIAN PEOPLE CHALLENGE IMPERILAIST PUPPET REGIME
by RC784 and MC17
As the capitalist crisis deepens in Asia, creating even more
poverty and unemployment, the Indonesian masses continue to
challenge imperialism by the tens of thousands through
demonstrations and rioting.
University students have been calling for the government to
reinstate price supports for necessities like food and fuel
and for President Suharto to resign his post. Students were
relatively safe when demonstrating on campus, but they felt
the full force of the state's armed repression when they
tried to take their demonstrations off campus and into the
masses. On May 13, Indonesian state security forces killed
six students taking part in nonviolent demonstrations.(1)
As the people felt the impact of rising prices resulting
from Suharto's recently imposed austerity measures the
protests moved off the campuses and into the streets where
the Indonesian people took up the struggle with a passion as
they attacked anything that symbolized the government that
has kept them poor, hungry, and living under a military
dictatorship.
U.$. Imperialist backing
In 1997 the US congress allocated an additional $4.5 million
in aid to the Indonesian dictatorship, with $100,000 aimed
at military training alone.(2) In addition to brutally
repressing and offering up for exploitation its own people,
Indonesia occupies East Timor, an occupation infamous for
the brutality and oppression the East Timorese have
undergone.
In all, the United States has sold more than $1.1 billion in
weaponry to Indonesia since its 1975 invasion of East Timor;
the sales have gone on in Republican and Democratic
administrations alike, regardless of the rhetoric espoused
by the President at the time. According to the U.S. Arms
Control and Disarmament Agency, from 1992 to 1994 (the most
recent years for which full data is available), Indonesia
received 53% of its weapons imports from the United States.
If the proposed sale of the F-16s goes ahead as planned, the
Clinton Administration will have approved roughly $270
million in arms sales to Indonesia in just over 4 years, or
an average of over $67 million per year. This represents
more than twice the level of arms sales to Indonesia
concluded during the Bush Administration, and allowing for
inflation, it represents the highest level of U.S. sales
since the second Reagan term or the early Carter period.(3)
The people rebel
While the military is patrolling the streets with armored
personnel carriers and troops in riot gear carrying M-16
rifles, shooting into crowds, and attacking demonstrators,
Suharto is pretending to oppose violence claiming he will
not use armed force to stay in power: "I will not use force
of arms."(4) This false pacifism is laughable coming from
the man who led his military to massacre the Indonesian
Communist party and its supporters in 1965. Suharto has
headed the military dictatorship in Indonesia, kept in this
position with significant u.s. economic, military and
political support, for 32 years.
One reporter wrote in mid-May: "Shops and banks that were
torched smoldered, roads were strewn with broken glass, and
security forces had blocked off entire streets. Burned out
vehicles were everywhere."(4) One group attacked a police
station. There are reports of deaths on all sides.
The house of Indonesia's richest man, Liem Soei Liong, an
ethnic Chinese billionaire with close links to Suharto, was
trashed and burned. Even those not joining in the rioting
have been seen cheering as buildings are smashed and burned.
As one reporter wrote: "Everywhere, at every fire and
smashed window, crowds clapped and shouted approval as
rioters raged. ... One officer even waved and gave the thumbs-
up sign to teenagers smashing a huge glass window."(5)
The Washington Post reported that at least one unit of
Marines, in scarlet berets and holding swagger sticks,
briefly marched alongside the protesters, to cheers and
handshakes from the protestors, and then engaged in a tense
stand-off at a key intersection with helmeted riot policemen
who fired tear gas and rubber bullets in an attempt to
disperse the crowds."(6)
While extent of the split in the military forces in
Indonesia is not yet clear, this is a sign that Suharto's
power is facing a significant challenge. Although the
imperialist and comprador military must be seen as an enemy
of the people, in times of revolutionary uprising,
individuals and even whole branches of the military can be
convinced to change to the side of the people.
Imperialism: the real enemy
Comments by Indonesian security forces indicate that the
ruling class fears a political solution to the suffering of
the masses that would limit bourgeois enrichment.(7) Reports
suggest that most of the people's attacks have been against
Chinese petit-bourgeois shopowners, because that is where
they witness the price increases. Chinese people make up a
tiny fraction of Indonesia's 200 million population but
dominate commerce and industry.(5) But the petit-bourgeois
are not the source of this economic crisis.
National and international finance capital caused this
crisis, and replacing imperialism with socialism is the only
viable option to liberate the world's masses from
exploitation and oppression. Looting shops is a short-term
solution; it will put food on the table. But the Suharto
regime benefits if the Indonesian masses believe that
Chinese petit-bourgeois are their chief enemy, not the
Suharto regime and the imperialism for which it stands.
Recently the Suharto regime has complied with a number of
the International Monetary Fund (IMF) demands in return for
an economic bailout package, and so the IMF has agreed to
dole out the $40 billion in stages pending further
subservience to imperialism.(8) Approval from the IMF means
that the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, Japan,
Malaysia and Australia will also provide loans to bankrupt
Indonesian capitalists who, if they do not receive this
bailout, will not be able to pay loans from oppressor
nation's banks.(9)
But these changes are not designed to nor will they produce
fundamental improvements in the material living conditions
of the Indonesian masses. In fact, their effect is the
opposite: the "structural adjustments" required by the IMF
have lead to significant price increases in basic
necessities like food and fuel. But these imperialist
solutions only "pave the way for more extensive and
destructive crises."(10)
The bourgeois media has acted surprised at the news that the
U.$. has decided to release more IMF money despite Suharto's
continued violent crackdown on political opposition. MIM is
not the least bit surprised; subverting the will of the
Indonesian masses is essential to imperialism.
The open conflict between the masses and the ruling class in
Indonesia has not run this high since 1965, when Suharto
presided over the mass murder of over half a million
Communists and their supporters amongst the peasantry and
proletariat. But the Indonesians lack effective leadership,
mass organization and ideology to unify the people's
opposition to imperialism.
Megawati Sukarnoputri, the daughter of the former President
overthrown in 1965 by General Suharto, is Indonesia's most
well-known opposition candidate. She remained silent
throughout this whole crisis until Wednesday, May 13, when
she gave a speech calling for Suharto to step down. She has
identified herself as a suitable replacement. But so have
others, such as Ahamn Ries, one of Indonesia's most well-
known Muslim intellectuals.
Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous nation, once had
the third largest Communist party in the world, the PKI,
before it was decimated and driven underground by Suharto in
1965. MIM is unaware of the existence of an Indonesian
proletarian vanguard party at this time. But it is exactly
capitalist crises like this one which contribute to
proletarian class consciousness and revolutionary action. It
is the duty of MIM and RAIL to build support for the
Indonesian masses' resistance to imperialism, while we push
for the development of a Maoist vanguard party. And within
u.s. borders we will continue to struggle for an end to U.$.
support for the Indonesian dictatorship. We know that
without imperialist backing, the puppet rulers in many
countries will quickly fall to the strength of the
revolutionary struggle of the masses.
NOTES:
1. NPR News, May 14, 1998.
2.http://amadeus.inesc.pt:80/~jota/Timor/TimorNews/Mar97/Ind
o.not.concerned.with.US.proposal.to.stop.aid
3.http://amadeus.inesc.pt/~jota/Timor/TimorNews/Mar97/US.arm
s.transfers. to.Indo.I
4. Boston Globe, May 14, 1998, p.A2.
5. Associated Press, May 14, 1998 06:46.
6. Washington Post, May 14, 1998.
7. Christopher Torchia, "Violence erupts in Indonesian town
as fuel and transport prices go up," Associated Press, 5-5-
98.
8. See "Indonesia's economy collapsing: imperialist bailout
rejected," in MIM Notes 159, April 1, 1998, p. 9 for more on
this.
9. Cindy Shiner, "Indonesia warns protesting students;
military threatens 'stern action'; new round of price
increases announced," Washington Post, May 5, 1998, p. A16.
10. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, "Manifesto of the
Communist Party," 1848.
* * *
NAIRN REPORTS ON EAST TIMOR
A RAIL comrade recently attended a lecture at a Midwestern
university given by Allan Nairn, a progressive Amerikan
activist and journalist who has covered the struggle in East
Timor for years. The event was sponsored by the local
chapters of Amnesty International and East Timor Action
Network. Nairn is well known for his writing on behalf of
the East Timorese struggle for national independence from
the Indonesian government of General Suharto. Before
focusing on Indonesia and East Timor, Nairn also reported on
the anti- apartheid struggle in South Africa and the anti-
imperialist struggle in El Salvador. While Nairn presented
some useful information on the East Timorese struggle, his
activism continues to be hampered by his reformist ideology.
Nairn's eye witness experience in Indonesia and East Timor
confirmed what MIM Notes has previously reported: the U$
military is continuing to train and supply the Indonesian
military despite the U$ Congressional ban on such
activity.(1)
During the Q&A, a RAIL comrade asked Nairn if FELANTIL, the
East Timorese armed movement for national liberation, had
considered how they would transform their imperialist-
organized economy after national liberation. The RAIL
comrade was interested in such information because it has
been reported that FELANTIL had a Maoist orientation in
earlier years. Nairn could only report that national
liberation leaders were discussing the issue, and that it
would be one of the greatest challenges a free East Timor
would face.
Nairn also announced that he would be forming a human rights
umbrella organization called Justice For All to coordinate
the various activities of single issue groups like ETAN and
the Free Tibet movement. He argued that the U.$. human
rights activist community currently consists of "about
15,000 upper and middle class liberals," but that there was
no reason why it shouldn't include "20 or 30 million working
class Americans." Nairn added that, at one time, Amerikans
could have argued that U.$. workers benefited from
imperialism, an idea he attributed to W. E. B. DuBois, but
that was no longer the case.
After the formal discussion, the RAIL comrade approached
Nairn to challenge him on this last point. The comrade
presented evidence to the contrary: Amerikan workers no
longer create surplus value but are bought off by the
superprofits imperialists derive from the oppressed nations.
Furthermore, the comrade told Nairn, DuBois learned of the
labor aristocratic theory through his study of Lenin's work.
Nairn said that the comrade was "thirty years behind the
times," to which the RAIL comrade responded, "No, you are at
least thirty years or more ahead of the times."
Nairn and a Teamster chided the RAIL comrade, assuming that
the comrade was a college student due to his/her youthful
appearance and therefore would not know what the work world
was like, which is not the case. The RAIL comrade in
question is not a college student and works for his/her
living. Besides, this kind of personal dismissal would not
disprove the economic statistics presented by MIM even if
the comrade was a parentally-funded college student. Facts
are facts, regardless of the messenger.
The RAIL comrade was pretty ticked at Nairn's definition of
the social base for "progressive foreign policy," which is
the term Nairn used. Those may be the people who have the
money to bankroll AI, ETAN, and American Friends Service
Community (a pacifist group), but the audience proved that
those of high school and college age perform the majority of
the footwork. Despite Nairn's myopia, attending the event
beat a night in front of the TV. The local RAIL chapter has
good relations with local Amnesty and ETAN activists, who
allowed RAIL to distribute MIM Notes. At the very least, the
RAIL comrade was able to challenge Nairn's line and get the
audience thinking in a more revolutionary way.
As Chairman Mao said, prior to the proletarian seizure of
state power, reformist progress is made by uniting all who
can be united on the smallest of issues. MIM calls upon
advocates of real "progressive foreign policy" -- anti-
imperialism - - to join an already existing group which
coordinates Amerikan opposition to imperialism: RAIL!
NOTES: 1. "U.$. teaches torture to Indonesian military," MIM
Notes 160, p. 3.
* * *
JUVENILE INJUSTICE SYSTEM MURDERS CHICANO YOUTH
Oracle, AZ. -- On March 2, 1998, Micholaus Contreraz, a
Chicano youth, died of a massive lung infection while
incarcerated at a privately-run juvenile Koncentration Kamp
known as Arizona Boys Ranch. He had complained weeks earlier
of difficulty breathing, but he was branded a malingerer and
denied medical care. He was required to perform forced labor
and calisthenics and when his illness had made him too weak
to obey, he was beaten and forced to carry a pail full of
his own feces and vomit. Despite the tremendous risk of
retaliation, eleven other inmates of Arizona Boys Ranch came
forward during the investigation of the death of Contreraz
to accuse their tormentors of repeatedly kicking, stomping
on, punching, and choking them.
As a consequence of the investigation, the director of
Arizona Boys Ranch, Peder De La Rambelje, was replaced by
another employee of the koncentration kamp system, Carl
Prange. Prange promises to be no better as he was criminally
charged with similar abuse of children in 1987. And even if
he hadn't been charged with this abuse, the system demands
employees who will follow the rules and maintain a system of
social control by torturing the inmates. Institutions like
this one fit into the large system of social control
maintained by a criminal injustice system which reigns in
any anti-authoritarian tendencies on the part of youth and
oppressed nations within u.s. borders.
The charges were dismissed due to "lack of evidence" when
the political backers of Arizona Boys Ranch intervened. Even
if this new pig is slightly less brutal than the old one,
the problems of juvenile injustice will not be solved by
changing pigs. Some of these young men may have engaged in
truly anti-social behavior, but no one was ever reformed by
being brutalized. The system of criminalizing Third World
youth must be overturned, and that can only be done by
revolution. Only after a Maoist revolution will we be able
to put in place a system of true peoples justice, socialism,
where anti-social actions are responded to with education
and nations will not oppress other nations.
Note: The Arizona Republic 29 April, 1998. See also MIM
Theory 11 "Amerikkkan Prisons on Trial" for more on the
criminal injustice system as a tool of social control.
* * *
LETTERS
PRISONERS, LITERATURE ADN REVOLUTION
Dear MIM,
Prisoners and criminals are not going to be the focus,
motive force or key participants in any revolution. They
never have been and never will. They are deluded to think
so, and you are irresponsible in fostering this delusion.
They'd do better to read great novels and poetry, histories
and biographies--readings that would give them better
insight into questions of human nature, justice, honesty,
nature and moral behavior. Such reading could also help them
go on to get an education and job after they serve their
terms. If they are lifers, they will benefit also. I don't
say this as someone unsympathetic to them. Violent,
delusional, self-aggrandizing pipedreams is not what they
need.
--A reader in the midwest
April, 1998
MIM responds:
The above is typical of responses MIM gets from mainstream
academics when we ask for help with our political Books for
Prisoners program. When these people find out we focus on
political education in the prisons with a revolutionary
perspective, they lose interest in a program that they would
otherwise support if it were just a charity.
MIM's Books for Prisoners program is brutally honest about
the world. We offer prisoners no pipedreams or delusions
about rehabilitation and the so-called justice system.
Instead we provide information about the history and current
political situation in the world so that prisoners can
figure out for themselves what their role in society has
been and should be.
If we were to run a program just sending in "great novels"
(which are proclaimed great by the imperialist education
system) and mainstream history, we would be providing a very
biased view of the world to the prisoners. And we would be
failing to offer them the perspective of the majority of the
world's people. This kind of charity program might help to
teach a few prisoners some useful skills but would do
nothing to attack the system which currently houses 1.7
million prisoners (more than any other country in the
world!) and perpetuates national oppression to the tune of a
higher proportion of Blacks in prison than was found even in
Apartheid South Africa.
MIM seeks to change the world, not just adjust to the
oppression that imperialism perpetuates. We don't want to
teach prisoners how to get by in a system that was set up as
a means of social control. We want to offer the information
to both prisoners and non-prisoners alike so that they can
analyze the world and draw conclusions based on an anti-
imperialist perspective.
People in this country have been inundated with the
imperialist perspective from birth and no one complains
about censorship of alternative points of view. But as soon
as MIM tells people we are selectively sending in literature
from the perspective of the oppressed people of the world,
academics in the united snakes get very defensive. We
challenge all academics who claim to be sympathetic to
prisoners to read the Under Lock and Key section in MIM
Notes for a few months and then come back to us with an
argument about why we should not be offering these prisoners
revolutionary anti-imperialist literature.
Prisoners in Amerikkka face repression and brutality daily
on top of primarily being targeted based on nation or
position in society. Because of the material reality
prisoners face, contrary to what the writer asserts, MIM
finds that prisoners are quite interested in developing a
new society that is just.
By no means do we expect prisoners or academics to agree
with all of the positions which MIM takes. But we expect
anyone genuinely promoting justice and the betterment of
society to struggle with us to develop programs which
actively fight against oppression. In Michigan at this
point, prisoners are far more active in struggling against
oppression than the majority of the people claiming to be
liberals in the University. The prisoners get actively
involved despite brutality and censorship whereas many
people criticize RAIL and MIM's work from the campus
computing center.
OPPOSING APEC: REACTIONARY OR PROGRESSIVE?
Dear MIM,
I also received my January issues of MIM Notes last week. I
came across a viewpoint I am struggling with. I quote from
MIM Notes 153, page 3: "MIM can not lead a revolutionary
class alliance against treaties like APEC at this time
without unleashing a fascist movement we would prefer stay
sedated.... In the Philippines, opposing APEC is correct
because it is the fastest road to revolution. This is not
true in the First World societies..."
First of all, if we worry about the backlash that will be
caused by our opposition, then we might as well not ever
think about initiating an armed struggle. We cannot be
afraid of reactions to our opposition -- imperialist are
reactionary by nature! We cannot expect to take action and
think that our oppressors are not going to retaliate. If
this is the scenario you are waiting for then you will be
waiting forever! However you advocate the Filipino
opposition to APEC. This sounds like a double standard to
meet. It also sounds like the reluctance to take initiative
and a willingness to wait for a others to do all of the work
for us. I want know why we should distance ourselves from
the just opposition to imperialist agreements. Please shed
some light on me in this matter.
Struggling to win,
--A comrade in the SC gulags
2 February 1998
MIM responds:
This is a question about strategy and the analogy to the
initiation of armed struggle is a good one. MIM is not yet
engaged in armed struggle because the balance of forces is
such that we can't win. Within the borders of the U.$
empire, the majority oppose us not only subjectively but
also objectively via their material interests. MIM has
already said, starting in MIM Theory 7, that this is not
likely to change, and that successful revolution in the
belly of the beast will likely require the armed help of the
Third World masses.
Because of this we need to look at the international balance
of forces and we come to the same conclusion, that there is
not yet sufficient subjective leadership by the proletariat
in the Third World to give us the kind of help we need. Many
Third World societies do not yet have a Maoist party, let
alone vibrant armed struggles, and no Third World society is
currently liberated from imperialism and establishing
national democracy or socialism.
So the armed struggle can't start until we are set to win.
In most Third World societies, the armed struggle can start
very soon after the creation of the Party, because the
material conditions are very different. The numbers of the
exploited is much larger, the government is much weaker, and
there significant middle focus that can be won over to the
revolution.
The revolutionary party should only concern itself with the
strength of the imperialists except in comparison to the
revolutionary forces. Perhaps you misunderstood our point:
MIM doesn't fear the imperialists unleashing a fascist
movement, we fear the Amerikan majority masses will turn
from passively against to actively against us. In the
Philippines the majority of the masses are supporters and an
allies of the revolution; but here we have as enemies not
only the imperialists but also the majority of the North
American population.
Opposing the newest GATT successfully would leave you with
the previous GATT. That's not a change in the overall
imperialist system, and would benefit and hurt various
different First and Third world societies and sections
differently. In the Philippines, fighting the newest GATT
allows the revolution to advance, because protectionism in
the Third World has a progressive character. In the First
World, protectionism would only stir up the fascist Ross
Perot and Pat Buchanan supporters.
Here in the belly of the beast, MIM opposes the imperialist
system--not one imperialist agreement over another--as the
best means to advance the revolution here.
* * *
FILIPINO YOUTH CONFRONT IMPERIALISM AT CONFERENCE
[Note: The print version of this article contained a
confusing grammatical error clarified in MIM Notes 165. We
have fixed that error here.]
Newark, New Jersey, May 3--More than 100 Filipino youth came
together at "The Philippine Centennial and Beyond: Telling
the Untold Story" conference. The conference took place in
the year of the so-called 100th Anniversary of Philippine
Independence. The centennial is based in the lie that the
United Snakes liberated the people from brutal Spanish
colonialism, conveniently forgetting that Filipino
nationalists had already liberated almost the entire
country, before the Amerikans landed and the brutal war of
acquisition began. This big lie requires the people to
forget that the Philippines was a direct colony of the
United Snakes for half a century, and that the U.$ continues
to be the dominant power in the country to this date.
The Master of Ceremonies for the event read a newspaper
quote from the Ambassador of the Philippines: "This year
marks 100 years of a special relationship with the United
States." Although this blunt word was not what the lackey
Ambassador would have used, many at the conference cut right
to the chase: imperialism.
Conferences such as this one are an important way to combat
this mis-history as well as struggle to solve the concrete
problems of the Filipino exile community, such as gang
violence. RAIL was invited by the organizers to table in the
main conference room. We thank the organizers for the
opportunity. We distributed a fair amount of literature and
collected a number of postcards to send in support of
political asylum in the Netherlands for Filipino
revolutionary Jose Maria Sison.
Two films were shown. The first, "This Bloody, Blundering,
Business" was about the Philippine-Amerikan war. It vividly
depicted how the Filipino nationalists had defeated the bulk
of the Spanish colonial forces. The U.$. troops took token
part in a final battle so that the Spanish forces could save
face and surrender to another imperialist as opposed to the
colonial subjects who had defeated them. Of course the
Filipino nationalists didn't want the Spanish to be replaced
by Amerikans, and fought back when the Amerikans didn't
leave. A brutal war ensued.
One particularly disgusting war crime was an Amerikan order
that all Filipinos of weapons carrying age were to be
killed. When this officer was asked for an age of
demarcation, the answer was 10. This officer was eventually
tried by the Amerikan courts for this horrible crime and
given a very light sentence.
The video also discusses the anti-imperialist movement
within the United Snakes. The Filipino revolution was
eventually defeated. The video makes the sharp point near
the end that the reason that the Philippines went from being
a direct colony to being a neo-colony after World War II,
was not out of respect for the Filipino desire for self-
determination, but as a result of the sugar lobby. The
Amerikan sugar growers resented the fact that Filipino sugar
could be imported to the United Snakes without import duties
(since the Philippines was a territory.)
The second film was entitled Bontoc Eulogy about the
treatment of Filipinos at the 1904 World's Fair in St.
Louis. While RAIL would like to see this video again before
we form a final opinion on it (in particular, we would like
to examine some of the comments about assimilation) the
video boldly confronts the Amerikan assault on the
indigenous people of the Philippines, and challenges the
audience to confront their own stereotypes.
The filmmaker's grandfather was an Igorot warrior, and was
remembered in his village for two things: having gone to
Amerika for the world fair, and never having returned. One
thousand indigenous (from a variety of tribes) Filipinos
were imported to the Fair and they constructed a fake
village. In this village they performed their religious
ceremonies and dances for the white fairgoers. The video
effectively exposes the paternalism of Amerika towards
Filipinos.
One of the afternoon presentations focused on Black soldiers
in the Philippine-Amerikan war drew RAIL's attention. The
presenter made a case for internationalist solidarity
against imperialism. He discussed Black opposition to the
war, and the general solidarity between Blacks and Filipinos
at the turn of the century.
During the war, many black leaders opposed the use of Black
troops to fight in the Philippines. W.E.B. DuBois directly
exposed the contradiction of using Black troops--who had
their own liberation struggle to fight in the United Snakes-
-to crush the liberation struggle of another nation fighting
the U.$.
The Black newspapers were opposed to the war, but were
unable to fund sending correspondents to the war, so they
recruited Black soldiers to send them dispatches. Solidarity
between Blacks and Filipinos ran deep, but the Black agenda
was split on one hand between an internationalist duty to
help the Filipino liberation struggle & a nationalist duty
to weaken their oppressor, and on the other hand an
integrationist move to perform well in battle in the hopes
of receiving concessions from white Amerika.
The Filipino revolutionaries exploited the contradiction
between the Black nation and Amerikan imperialism
effectively. The leader, Emilio Aquinaldo wrote a leaflet
urging the Black troops to switch sides. This leaflet
referred to a very notorious lynching in the South where the
body was left on public display and the dead man's son was
forced to pose for pictures with the bones.
Some Black soldiers not only deserted, but enlisted in the
Filipino army. One, named David Fagan, was eventually
promoted to Captain and was lovingly referred to by his
Filipino troops as "General". This story was particularly
inspiring because it was the confirmed case we have heard in
U.$. history of soldiers actually switching sides from the
imperialist to anti-imperialist armies. The presenter said
that 6000 Black troops were used by Amerika in the war.
Amerika stopped sending Black soldiers to the Philippines
because Amerika couldn't trust them against another colonial
population. After the war, 1000 Black soldiers decided to
stay in the Philippines.
The presenter lamented the fact that many Filipinos no
longer show the same solidarity towards Blacks, and for this
he blames the Amerikan educational system that was put in
place at the end of the war. At the end of the conference,
there was a cultural performance and a panel discussion
about contemporary issues for Filipino youth living within
the United Snakes. Many youth saw gang violence and suicide
as key problems. One presenter said that in California,
Filipinos youth are the ethnic group with the highest
suicide rate. The youth discussed the various ways that they
had overcome obstacles, including drugs and gang violence to
now be in a position to more effectively serve their
communities.
RAIL sees problems of suicide, drugs and gang violence to be
the products of this imperialist, patriarchal society. The
best way to combat these evils is as part of a larger
revolutionary movement, be it in the National Democratic
Movement led by the Communist Party of the Philippines or in
the MIM-led anti-imperialist United Front here in the First
World societies.
* * *
POLITICAL ASYLUM FOR THE SISON FAMILY NOW!
MIM is soliciting signatures on postcards (pictured here)
demanding political asylum for the Sison family. Jose Maria
Sison, a leader in the national democratic movement in the
Philippines and consultant to the National democratic Front
in its peace negotiations with the Manila Government,
currently resides in the Netherlands and has been denied
political refugee status. Write to the addresses on page 2
for copies of the postcard.
* * *
CRIMINAL INJUSTICE SYSTEM NEWS
MASSACHUSETTS EXTRACTS BLOOD FROM PRISONERS
by a RAIL comrade
The Massachusetts Department of Corrections started
collecting blood samples from prisoners in January of this
year for the purpose of storing records of prisoners' DNA.
After being forced to halt collections by a court order on
February 9, the DOC was allowed to again collect samples in
March after the injunction was lifted. Approximately 1,100
prisoners have been forced to give blood samples which will
be stored indefinitely. The DNA records will aid Amerikkka
in its war waged against the oppressed through massive
incarceration. The DNA collection is yet another tool that
helps the pigs in their anti-crime war. This war is about
social control and the national oppression and we oppose the
war and all its tools.
The collection of prisoners' blood was halted due to efforts
from lawyers and activists who say the collection
compromises a person's right to privacy. We support this as
a tactic because it exposes the contradictions within
Amerika's dictatorship of the bourgeoisie while gaining
protections, though limited, for the oppressed. The masses
understand too well that such laws providing so-called
rights to individuals are normally implemented only when it
serves the interests of the oppressors.
The so-called right to privacy in Amerika is typically used
to ensure the oppressor's ability to maintain power and
privilege. In the case of prisoners, Amerika consistently
states that prisoners do not deserve what other human beings
deserve. Dehumanizing prisoners is a tactic which the
oppressor uses to ensure that opposition does not develop
against the injustice committed against prisoners.
The DNA collection serves to keep prisoners incarcerated by
providing easily accessible false evidence to the
prosecuting pigs. The collection of DNA records is intended
for the pigs to have a record of people who have previously
been convicted [in the white nation's courts] of crimes
ranging from prostitution to murder. Pigs then have access
to the bank and can match crime scene DNA with a "likely
suspect" past offender. This practice allows pigs to have
further control over sentencing. With the DNA records, pigs
have a greater ability to place inaccurate information at
the scene and fudge the evidence to pre-existing statistics.
Pigs also can hold the threat of releasing DNA as evidence
over arrested people in an attempt to get coerced
confessions.
This practice also exposes the fact that the pigs hold no
pretense of prisons being institutions which help to reform
or change people who actually committed the crimes for which
they were incarcerated. The Amerikkkan injustice system has
never been interested in stopping crime. Any genuine
opponent of crime starts by attacking the root cause - the
oppressive imperialist system. The Amerikan so-called
justice system disproportionately incarcerates oppressed
nationals while intensifying overall genocidal and
exploitative crimes perpetuated by the imperialist system in
general. The crimes of the imperialists have resulted in
systematic exploitation, starvation, genocide and rape. The
criminals perpetuating these crimes must be put on trial and
prosecuted by the people. The imperialists are the real
criminals.
In addition to pigs using the DNA to increase the
incarceration of the oppressed, there are no restrictions on
whether or not the DNA can be used to test for genetic
predisposition toward disease and crime. The DNA collection
and Amerikkka's subsequent ability to do with it as it
pleases helps to perpetuate bio-determinist analyses about
crime and nationality. Once again falling back to white
nation chauvinist bio-determinism, so-called scientific
studies promulgate the idea that Blacks are more violent and
that whites are genetically superior.
Sounds a lot like Nazi Germany. Well actually it wasn't just
in Germany. The U$ has funded such so-called scientific
endeavors before for the purpose of controlling the health
and lives of the oppressed. The United Snakes of Imperialism
funded the massive sterilization of Puerto Rican wimmin and
experimentation of Third World peoples under the guise of
small pox tests, to give two examples. And the United Snakes
experimented on and prevented treatment for hundreds of men
in Macon, Georgia during the 40 year Tuskegee experiments.
As in the case of the Tuskegee experiments, the collection
of prisoners' DNA can be used for imperialist scientists to
perform studies with the aim of concluding that the
oppressed are more prone to disease or crime.
MIM builds support for prisoners' struggles against
oppression. Specifically, we print this information to
encourage others to continue opposition against the DNA
banks in Massachusetts and to help us publicize this
imperialist tactic that is happening in many states in
Amerikkka. MIM knows that this injustice system will not be
reformed to provide justice to the people, but we can fight
for small reforms while we build the revolutionary struggle
to overthrow imperialism and move forward to socialist
society.
Note: Boston Globe 19 April 1998.
* * *
CALIFORNIA D.O.C.: $450,000 FOR A BUS, $0 FOR EDUCATION
by RC4T4
The California Department of Corrections is requesting
another bus for the transportation of prisoners. It is a new
type of bus which will be tailored for the California
D.O.C.'s specifications. It costs about $450,000 for one of
these specialized buses. The D.O.C has already bought one of
these buses and now it wants two more.
Some of the specifications the D.O.C. is asking for is that
the bus be 43 feet long, bullet proof windows, an elevated
enclosed guard station, three bullet proof isolation cells,
the newest in environmental air conditioning systems, a 400
horsepower engine, and a bathroom with a drinking fountain
in it. The D.O.C. is not requesting this bus because of
their concern for the safety and comfort of their prisoners,
as prisoners are starved, dehydrated, or beaten to death in
prisons across the country. So then why request these
specialized air conditioned, drinking fountain equipped
buses?
With the recent growth of the prison industry and the
senseless game of transferring prisoners, the D.O.C. has
found itself in the transportation business. In California
the cost of shuttling prisoners around the state has reached
a daily cost of $5,500. The California D.O.C. already has 32
buses and is claiming that these buses are not enough. This
is because they are transporting about 20,000 prisoners a
month to and from prison or transferring prisoners to other
prisons.
The California D.O.C. is currently awaiting approval for
their request for a $450,000 bus. The legislative analysis
office is, of course, only concerned with the cost of the
new bus. The fact that budget cuts are taking away education
and rehabilitation programs for prisoners does not seem to
be affecting the budget for transporting prisoners.
MIM knows that the Department of Corrections is not
interested in correcting or rehabilitating anyone. Prisons
are a growth industry in this country and the D.O.C. is only
interested in its cut in the industry. A $450,000 bus is
more important than education programs or libraries in the
prisons.
The D.O.C. and the Amerikan government have a vested
interest in the growth of the prison population and the
oppression this system sets up and perpetuates. And it is
this interest that has propelled the u.s. to its status as
the number one incarcerator in the world. The criminal
injustice system is an integral part of Amerikan
imperialism, work with MIM to overthrow this system and end
the oppression of all groups over groups.
Notes: Prison Connections
For further information about the prison industry in Amerika
and its role in u.s. society, order a copy of MIM Theory 11,
Amerikan Prisons on Trial, for $6 postage paid.
* * *
CULTURE: SLAVEMASTER DALIA LAMA HAS HIS SAY
KUNDUN: THE AMAZING STORY OF THE 14TH DALAI LAMA
Directed by: Martin Scorsese
This film is essentially an autobiography of the Dalai Lama,
spiritual and political leader of feudal Tibet. Predictably,
it paints the Dalai Lama as a reformer, and the People's
Liberation Army as horrible oppressors. Like in "Seven Years
in Tibet" we see that the Dalai Lama had very little contact
with the common people of Tibet. The film repeatedly shows
the Tibetan Court trying to keep the Dalai Lama in the dark
about various political matters (palace intrigue, the
existence of Tibetan prisons and the Tibetan army). (Lest
some of MIM Notes' readers who saw the film be confused, we
deduce that the Dalai Lama was born into a family of the
lower nobility and not into a serf family. We base this on
comparison of dress.)
If MIM was to make a film about Tibet, would base it on the
lives of the majority of the population not on the top
leader. Such a film would focus on the hard work and low
standard of living of the serfs compared to the nobility.
Perhaps we would focus on the former slave woman who became
the leader of Tibet after the Dalai Lama fled. Or maybe we
would tell the story of this former serf:
"I think I was not much different from a yak or any other
draft animal for I could not read or write a word and knew
nothing at all. For generations my family belonged to a big
serf-owner who had five hundred families of serfs, working
both in farming and in livestock. I wore the same sheepskin
winter and summer and it was my only garment. It was so old
that there was no wool on it anymore nor any warmth but only
plenty of lice. I was always hungry."(1)
MIM has no reason to doubt this portrayal of the Dalai
Lama's knowledge of what was really going on in Tibet.
However, our beef has never been with the individual
responsibility of the Dalai Lama, but rather with the slave
society he represents. In the almost 50 years since the
Dalai Lama took office, he has yet to denounce past serfdom
or even say that restoring the Dalai Lama regime will not
mean restored slavery for the Tibetan masses.
In the film, when Dalai Lama flees to India, he laments the
timing of the Chinese "invasion" because his reforms were
just about to take place. MIM has seen no evidence that the
Dalai Lama was or is aware of the scope of the changes that
were necessary.
This film was interesting to MIM in that it portrayed
significant changes in how the Dalai Lama tells his history.
The film says that the Dalai Lama did not approve the 1951
agreement for the "Peaceful Liberation of Tibet", which set
forth the a slow pace of reforms by which the nobility would
give political power to the masses.
Between 1951 and 1959, there were several rebellions of the
nobility. In 1959, 4 of the 6 kaloons (wealthy noblemen) in
the kasha (Cabinet of Ministers) united in rebellion. The
rebellion failed because the Tibetan people did not support
it. According to the Dalai Lama at the time, he was
kidnapped and forced into exile. As MIM Theory 8 wrote, this
claim was suspicious because the Dalai Lama refused an offer
of the Chinese Communist Party to return to power. Instead,
the Dalai Lama remained in India and denounced the 1951
Agreement. This allowed the Chinese Communist Party to
abandon the slow pace of the 1951 Agreement and instead
speed up it's reforms. In the film the story is changed, the
Dalai Lama plays no role in the rebellions--which are only
discussed in the context of rejected CCP requests for the
Dalai Lama to stop the rebellions--but willingly flees to
India.
In the film, we see a scene were Mao says to the Dalai Lama
in a private meeting that "religion is poison." The only
evidence MIM has of this meeting is the Dalai Lama's word
for it, but this is not an incorrect statement even though
it is clearly put in the movie to make Mao look bad.
Religion most definitely is a poison used to dupe the masses
into accepting their class based societies. Even in the
film, we see the young Dalai Lama learning the Buddhist
justifications for suffering. Instead of blaming the
nobility for their poverty, the serf system wanted the
people to blame their ancestors. Instead of making a
revolution and carrying out land reform, Buddhism wants the
people to focus on their next reincarnation.
Communists should and do propagandize against religion as a
part of the old oppressive society. The sentence "religion
is poison" was difficult for most Amerikan audiences to
grasp and for that reason MIM carries out much more
extensive educational work around this issue.
On a related point, the Dalai Lama has a number of
nightmares in the film. In one, he is standing, surrounded
by the bleeding bodies of hundreds or thousands of dead
monks. This was a dream and never happened. One dream,
however, MIM suspects and hopes did happen. In this dream, a
People's Liberation Army general pays a visit to the Dalai
Lama and tells him stories about his own oppression as a
peasant in another part of China. Telling stories like this
is a useful way to get people to make connections to larger
issues than their own circumstances. But for the Dalai Lama,
listening to the story of a peasant's poverty--even one who
lived a thousand miles away--is a nightmare that must be
awoken from immediately.
Note: Anna Louise Strong, Tibetan Interviews. New World
Press: Peking, 1959, p. 30.
* * *
RAIL AND NBUS HOST FIRST NATION DELEGATION
The Missouri chapter of the Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist
League and the National Black United Front (NBUF) hosted a
delegation led by AIM leader Dennis Banks on March 22 in St.
Louis. A crowd of about 60 people gathered for the weekly
Sunday Forum organized by the NBUF which included a video
and talk about the African origins of Christianity.
In 1968, Dennis Banks and George Mitchell, two Anishinabes
(Chippewas), founded the American Indian Movement (AIM),
which was consciously patterned after the Black Panther
Party's community self-defense model. AIM chapters quickly
sprang up around the country and came to include
representatives from at least sixty four First Nation
tribes. Despite murderous U.$. government repression, AIM
fights on for the political, economic, and cultural self-
determination of First Nation peoples.
When the First Nation delegation arrived they received a
standing ovation from the audience. Banks delivered an
inspiring speech which started with; "When the white man
came here, he had the Bible and we had the land; now we have
their Bible and they have our land! Christianity has been
used against us and other peoples to conquer us. They did it
which their ideology (Christianity) and military (the gun)."
Banks noted the similarity between the First Nations fight
for land and Black demands for reparations. In the case of
all oppressed nations within Amerika, their common enemy is
Amerikan imperialism. For over 500 years the white nation
has sided with First Nation genocide and Black Slavery in
efforts to raise the material conditions of only the White
Amerikan oppressor nation. This is why MIM says that
Amerikan oppression is national oppression. The only way to
take back land and reparations is to unite around national
liberation struggles and throw off Amerikan Imperialism(1).
In terms of the current struggle for land rights, Banks said
that the u.$. government has offered First Nations millions
of dollars for formal rights to land; showing the U$ under
international pressure to make stealing of land look nice.
In response he upheld the righteous line that "Our land is
not for sale."
Making another connection between Amerikan imperialism and
national oppression, he described Jericho '98 as a movement
to free prisoners incarcerated for political activism in the
united snakes. "The first political prisoners in this
country were indigenous peoples. Eleven Indian (SIC) couples
were incarcerated on Alcatraz Island for refusing to send
their children to the white man's schools." Banks noted the
common link between Black and First Nations peoples; "They
forbade us to use our own language, practice our religion
and continue our culture." The injustice system has been
used to disproportionately imprison members of the Black,
Latino and First Nations in efforts to destroy any
resistance against oppression.
Banks talked about the past leaders such as Chief Joseph who
was imprisoned by the united states because he dared to
fight for justice for his tribe. "Leonard Peltier, he's been
in prison 22 years when all the evidence points to his
innocence," Banks said.
The event was productive in exposing Amerikan oppression. We
call to all those who support the struggle of the First
Nations to expand their historical vision to the millions of
other people belonging to the Black and Latino nations who
have been subjected to the same exploitation and genocide at
the hands of U$ domestic imperialism. And further, we call
to all those activists to struggle against the innately
oppressive nature of imperialism not just in Amerika, but
also the exploitation and oppression of our comrades abroad.
Notes: MIM Theory 7, p. 72.
* * *
PRISONERS RIOT TO PROTEST LOCKDOWN AT WALPOLE
by a RAIL comrade
Conditions at Walpole prison in Massachusetts have been
getting worse and worse over the past year: prisoners are
being killed, tortured and harassed. Walpole prison has
several blocks that have been locked down since last summer,
these are called gang blocks. Six prisoners have died under
these conditions which have been medically proven to cause
sensory deprivation. The inmates of Walpole have been
receiving phony disciplinary tickets more and more recently.
"Gang" block inmates have been repeatedly attacked by guards
and instances of guards accompanied by attack dogs, going
into individual's cells to beat prisoners have increased
recently. Books and other personal items have been
confiscated for no reason other than harassment. And
prisoners have even complained of being verbally attacked on
their way to the health service unit.
On March 5, 1998 guards in riot gear shook one of the "gang"
blocks down and took ten inmates from their cells to the
segregation units where they were locked down without
recreation, exercise, showers, or phones. The next five to
six days following this incident this entire "gang" block
was locked down, meaning all the prisoners within the block
went five to six days without sheets, towels, jumpsuits, or
clothing of any kind other than their underwear. Prisoners
reported that a door was left open somewhere on the block to
let in a cold breeze, many prisoners are sick as a result.
On March 11, 1998 after days of the above-mentioned
mistreatment, the prisoners rioted. The prisoners who had
previously been allowed to leave their cells for food pick-
up rebelled by refusing to leave their cells. They threw
what little food they had out of their cells and trashed the
block. These inmates demanded the food be brought to them as
the law requires for prisoners "awaiting action". Within two
hours after the riot started the special operations guards
came in wearing masks and carrying shields and billy clubs
accompanied by attack dogs. The guards beat prisoners and
took what little private property they had left in their
cells. This riot then turned into a two and a half day
hunger strike. During this time many prisoners were taken
out of their cells and severely beaten and/or bit by the
guards and their dogs. For three days following the initial
riot, during the hunger strike, these inmates were kept in
their individual cells with one pair of boxers, one t-shirt,
a pair of sandals, one bed sheet, one pillow case, and
nothing else.
On March 13, 1998 a few prisoners were removed from their
cells and negotiated with the administration in order to
"restore calm" and so that they would be allowed to pick up
their meals once again. The same day these negotiations were
being made, a number of prisoners were transferred to the
segregation units. The next day the prisoners remaining in
the "gang block" were allowed their first shower in nine
days. A couple days later they were given towels, jumpsuits,
blankets, and allowed recreation.
Later that same month prisoners were taken out of their
cells and interrogated by administration and guards. They
were asked if they were planning anything, if they wanted to
go the superintendent about anything. Prisoners responded
saying that they wanted those inmates who had been
transferred to segregation to be transferred back.
A man in a suit offered prisoners a deal, claiming they
would be transferred to Program level 4, if they cooperated
and renounced membership to the Netas, historically a Puerto
Rican organization that works on behalf of prisoners. The
DOC in Massachusetts and other states likes to call Neta a
dangerous and criminal gang and uses membership in it as an
excuse to oppress prisoners. The result is that in
Massachusetts, Puerto Rican prisoners face tremendous
repression and make up over 90% of those locked down in the
"gang" block.
The prisoners were threatened with worse conditions if they
declined the offer. When prisoners refused the offer, the
man in the suit ordered that those prisoners be taken to the
gym. Prisoners were shoved down stairs while handcuffed and
shackled. They were punched and dragged or lifted by the
neck, while guards also shouted derogatory remarks and
racial epithets toward them. Once in the gym the prisoners
were told to stand with their faces pressed against the wall
and told not to turn around. Prisoners stood and listened as
each one was taken from the wall and beaten by guards and
bit by dogs. This is a type of torture tactic that has been
used many times throughout the history of military-state
terrorism.
After over an hour of terrorizing beatings the prisoners
were told not to tell the medical staff if they had any
injuries. A few weeks after the beatings, prisoner rights
activists gained access to this gang block and interviewed
some of those who had been beaten. Pictures were taken of
the injuries which prisoners received from the beatings as
proof that the beatings occurred. The DOC still claims they
know nothing about the incident even when asked how these
injuries occurred. The pictures reveal chain bruises on
prisoner's ankles and wrists, strangulation bruises around
their necks, general bruises on their arms and legs, and
many prisoners had chunks of skin bitten off by the dogs. A
nurse who reportedly tried to intervene and help prisoners
was told this incident and its results were a security
matter.
This latest repression at Walpole just serves to underscore
the use of prisons as a tool for national oppression and
social control in the united snakes. Prisons are not being
used to rehabilitate criminals and create better people,
prisoners are beaten and tortured as the system attempts to
convince them not to fight the system by meeting any
resistance with repression.
The prison system in the u.s. is a political system that
serves imperialism. MIM fights to overthrow the entire
system of imperialism and replace it with a system of
justice by the people. Those who commit crimes against the
people should be dealt with by the people not by an
imperialist government. MIM looks to the example of
socialist China under Mao as a model for developing a
justice system run by and for the people (for more
information on the prison system in China send MIM $10 for a
copy of "Prisoners of Liberation").
Join MIM and RAIL in this fight against the criminal
injustice system as we work to improve conditions for the
$1.7 million behind bars while we struggle to overthrow
imperialism.
Note: Interview with prisons activist organization. For
further information on the criminal injustice system see MIM
Theory 11 "Amerikkkan Prisons on Trial" available for $6
from MIM Distributors.
* * *
ISRAELI-AMERIKAN IMPERIALISM TURNS 50
The organization Palestine 50 held a rally April 25 in
Boston to protest 50 years of Israeli occupation of
Palestine. "50 years ago Palestine was destroyed," their
flier read, declaring that those who celebrate the birth of
the Israeli state also "celebrate the destruction of
Palestine. In 1948, Israel was carved out of 77% of
Palestine, the homeland of the Palestinian people. This
conquest resulted in the destruction of over 500 Palestinian
communities and caused more than half the world's
Palestinians to be exiled to refugee camps."
Pigs fear anti-imperialists
At the Justice for Palestine rally there were many cops, on
motorcycles, in cars, on foot and undercover. So many pigs
to control a crowd of about 300 people. While at the Israel
celebration where tens of thousands of people were in
attendance with many literature tables, performances and
live music, few cops were visible.
The cops are correct to fear the anti-imperialists and
consider the pro-Israeli crowd to be allies of Amerikan
imperialism. Backers of the Israel celebration included Bank
Boston and the City of Boston. While the city bent over
backward to make it possible for the Israel celebration to
be held on public property, they went out of their way to
try to interfere with and control the Palestine rally. And,
demonstrating the strength of the forces on the side of the
state of Israel, the organizers spent $170,000 to stage the
celebration.
The Palestine 50 flier went on:
"Israel has used terror, military force, and law to repress
the Palestinian people. Israel's Supreme Court legalized
torture (Criminal File 201/93) and determined that the price
of a Palestinian life is worth 1 cent (1. Badran Case Nov.
96). Methods that Israel has employed in order to rule
include assassination, deportation, arbitrary imprisonment
without charge or trial, confiscation of land, demolition of
houses, and the strangulation of economic, educational and
cultural life.
"In 1967, under the guise of security, Israel occupied the
remaining 23% of Palestine. Consequently, all Palestinians
became victims of Israeli terror. Today, approximately 5
million Palestinians live in exile while 3 million live
under occupation in the West Bank and Gaza. In 1987, after
decades of organized resistance against the occupation,
unarmed Palestinians confronted and defied Israeli soldiers
in the popular uprising known as the Intifada. The Intifada
sought to obtain for Palestinians their right to self-
determination, to an independent state, and to return to
their homeland.
"In 1993, the Oslo Accords claimed to usher in an era of
peace. Instead, a new type of occupation has been
legitimized. Israel forced the Palestinian Authority to act
as its surrogate against the Palestinian people. This new
type of occupation and oppression has created a series of
ghettos, where economic growth is blocked, humanity is
denied, and where justice and peace are rendered
impossible."
Protests such as this one are particularly important in this
country because of the significant financial, military and
political aid the u.s. gives to Israel. "Israel could not
continue its reprehensible conduct without support from our
government. Israel is the largest U.S. aid recipient. Since
1981, much of its economic and military assistance has been
awarded in the form of outright grants. Every year over $3
billion of our tax dollars are sent to Israel and Israel is
not required to account for how this money is put to use."
Reactionary policy of censorship
MIM supports the Palestinian people's struggle for self-
determination and a MIM distributor attended the rally in
solidarity with the message and to distribute flyers about
an upcoming local event on another aspect of u.s.
imperialism: prison slave labor.
After handing out only a few flyers the MIM distributor was
told by an organizer that s/he was not welcome at the rally.
The group, Palestine 50, had decided on a policy of not
allowing other organizations to distribute their literature
or carry their signs. When the MIM distributor tried to
struggle over the issue the organizer just walked away.
This policy treats people like they are too stupid to figure
out for themselves which politics are progressive. And it
discourages the expansion of the struggle beyond one
specific issue, leaving the global implementation of
imperialism to the Amerikan government while the activists
can only talk about one issue at a time.
A few people with the Workers World party showed up with a
banner. They were told they could only stay if they got rid
of the banner. When they tried to struggle over this with
the organizers, one of the leaders apparently told an
undercover cop to get rid of the WW people. The other
leaders did put a stop to this ridiculous use of the pigs
but stood by the policy of no banners or literature from
other groups.
MIM condemns any policy that restricts political struggle
and debate among those opposed to imperialism. For its part,
MIM pays to print literature of other groups in its theory
journal so that our readers can judge for themselves which
side of the debate is correct. And at our events we allow
literature distribution from other organizations.
Palestine 50 is limiting the ability of the anti-
imperialists in this country to strengthen their political
line and unite their practice around common opposition to
imperialism. A number of people at the rally told MIM they
oppose this practice of censorship and MIM encourages the
membership of Palestine 50 to change the policy.
* * *
D.C. LOTTERY PREYS ON BLACKS
By a comrade
Across the U.$., lotteries had $36 billion in sales in 1997.
That's more than $130 per person, which is more than the
total per capita income of some poor countries. After
expenses and prizes, governments profited to the tune of $12
billion.
Two articles by the Washington Post gave us some good new
information. In the Washington D.C. area, like elsewhere,
there is an inverse relation between education and lottery
spending, for very good reason: playing the lottery is a bad
investment. People with less education are more likely to
play the lottery, and more likely to waste more money on it
once they do play. In 1997, D.C. reaped $69 million in
profits from $203 million in sales. That's a good incentive
for the government not to improve education: it's a $203
million tax on poor education.
The Post listed D.C. lottery sales by zip code. MIM got the
percent of Blacks in the population for each zip code from
Census data, and checked the relationship between percent
Black and lottery spending: It's clear. Seven zip codes are
less than 10% Black, and none of them produced more than $5
million in lottery spending last year. The seven zip codes
between 40-80% Black all had between $4.8-$10 million, and
all the zip codes with more than $10 million lottery
spending were more than 80% Black. (No zip codes are between
10- 40% Black.) See the graph.
The Post compared lottery spending with income levels, but
MIM analyzed both income and Black population for the zip
codes. We found that the proportion of the population that
is Black is a much bigger factor in lottery spending than
income. It looks to us like it's not just that people with
lower incomes want to play the lottery more to get rich, but
that lottery marketing toward Blacks is paying off, and the
lower quality of education for Blacks is not teaching people
that the lottery is a waste of money.
Anthony Williams, D.C. chief financial officer, said it's
"troubling" that there are "people who make less than
$15,000 a year and a huge percent of their income is going
for playing." Maryland Gov. Parris Glendening said it was
"sad." Yet D.C. and Maryland have plans to specifically
target Blacks and Latinos in lottery marketing campaigns.
Overall, vast lottery spending in the country is a sign of
parasitism and decadence in the country. However, poor
members of the internal colonies, especially Blacks, spend
more of their money on them, which is just another way that
the government increases inequality and national oppressed.
Notes: Washington Post articles from May 3 and May 4, 1998.
Zip code data are from the Census Bureau at www.census.gov.
MIM's analysis also controlled for population size, in case
the Black zip codes just had more people living in them. To
see the details of MIM's statistical analysis, go to
www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/dc/DCRAIL.html.
* * *
RWANDAN GENOCIDE TRIALS DIVERT ATTENTION FROM TRUE CAUSE:
IMPERIALISM
by RC784
The Rwandan state recently executed four individuals found
responsible for acts of genocide during the Rwandan civil
war (1990-94). The Rwandan civil war of the early 1990s
killed over a million Hutus and Tutsis and was undeniably a
human tragedy. But the purpose of the International Tribunal
for Rwanda (hereafter referred to as 'the Tribunal'),
created by Western imperialist nations in the UN, is not
about establishing justice and preventing genocide in
Africa. The Tribunal's real purpose is to dupe the masses
into believing that imperialist oppressor nations really
"care" for the Afrikan masses.
The nations which are known today as Rwanda and Burundi were
once colonies of Belgium. Prior to 1916, Ruanda-Urundi were
two kingdoms of similar ethnic composition - 85% Hutu, 14%
Tutsi, and 1% Twa - ruled over by a common Tutsi king. While
Tutsis were the dominant group, Hutus and Tutsis spoke the
same language and fought together against common enemies.(1)
The Rwandan civil war cannot be properly understood without
its imperialist context. As was the case throughout Africa,
the colonial master picked one group, the Tutsis in this
case, to rule over the other ethnic groups in the interest
of the oppressor nation. Belgium called the shots, and the
Tutsi administration pulled the trigger. The Belgians
offered adequate incentives to turn the Tutsis against the
Hutus and created the justification that the Tutsis are
biologically superior to the Hutus, thus creating previously
unknown chauvinism between these two groups (1)
Though the Belgians were forced to grant nominal
independence to Rwanda in the 1950s, the Rwandans inherited
an imperialist-designed economy. As late as 1989, the
Rwandan economy received 80% of its foreign exchange
holdings from one crop - coffee. But the global economic
price of coffee dropped that year, and the Rwandan peasant
found his/herself producing 45% more coffee for 20% less
income.(2)
With Rwanda in crisis, Hutu leader Juvenal Habyarimana
agreed to accept a structural adjustment loan from the IMF
(on the nature and impact of IMF structural adjustment
loans, see the article on Klinton in Afrika, MN 161). But
IMF loans only made things worse: Rwanda's GDP fell by 8% in
1993, its' national debt rose from $189 million in 1980 to
$941 million, 85% of the population lived in poverty, and
one-third of all children were malnourished.(2)
In this context the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA) decided to
seize state power since the Tutsi exiles had been squeezed
out of power by the imperialist backed Habyarimana's Hutu
clique in 1973.(2) Many of the RPA leadership had held high
positions in the Ugandan state apparatus under Yoweri
Museveni including Paul Kagame, an Amerikan-trained general
(at the U$ army staff college in Leavenworth, Kansas) and
current defense minister and vice president of the Rwandan
state. According to bourgeois media sources, Kagame is "just
about the best friend Washington has in Africa these
days."(3) It should be noted that the RPA, though having
some Tutsi supporters within Rwanda, never had support of
the Rwandan masses. The RPA did not build an alternate
civilian political infrastructure in the regions under its
control.(4)
What the imperialists try to sell as a solely fratricidal
war between Hutu and Tutsi was, in fact, a war of
imperialist rivalry. The RPA and Rwandan army served as
proxies for either side. From 1989 onwards, Great Britain
and the United Snakes supported the RPA while Belgium and
France supported Habyarimana's ruling party and the National
Republican Movement for Democracy and Development (MRNDD).
Though Belgium and France would sell arms to both sides
before the war was over to guarantee that whoever won would
serve France's imperial interests. Unlike the French role in
Rwanda, the U$ government is able to pretend that it had no
hand in this affair because RPA supplies were routed through
the Ugandan state as aid to Museveni's government.(4)
With its back against the wall, the MRNDD agreed to the
Arusha (Tanzania) accords in August 1993 which would have
required MRNDD to split government posts with the RPA. But
the RPA, believing their victory was assured, refused to
accept the accords. The MRNDD, knowing that the Rwandan
National Guard could not hold back the RPA, distributed
weapons to the Interhamwe and Imuzamugambi militias and
municipal authorities to attack suspected RPA supporters.
Killings and mass arrests occurred on both sides.(4)
In December 1993, The UN Security Council deployed troops to
Rwanda (UNAMIR), not to "prevent genocide," but to be
present when the capital Kigali, was seized by the RPA.
Habyarimana was assassinated the day after the UN Security
Council agreed to keep their troops in Rwanda (April 5,
1994) long after the RPA victory was assured.(4)
This is the way the oppressor nations tell their puppets,
"Remember, you don't take power without our say-so." The
imperialist-sponsored Tribunal has defined the civil war in
Rwanda not as such but as a case of genocide. This provides
the UN Security Council with a legal pretext to intervene in
what would otherwise be considered a matter of Rwanda's
national sovereignty. Even though the civil war began at the
end of 1989 with an imperialist backed RPA invasion, the
Tribunal is prosecuting only those Hutus who, during the
last stage of the war (1994), killed those civilian Tutsis
they considered RPA. In this way, the U$ can appear to be
concerned about the death of everyday Afrikans and wipe out
Habyarimana's clique, the puppets of Belgian and French
imperialism.
The Tribunal consists of Afrikan judges, but it is largely
funded by the U$, staffed with Amerikan prosecutors and
investigators, and assisted with Amerikan intelligence
information.(4) NGOs (non-governmental organizations) like
Amnesty International, Africa Watch and Oxfam have been
lending credibility to the UN effort despite the fact that
their own reports state that no such ethnic massacres would
have occurred had it not been for the RPA invasion.(4)
The bourgeois media ignores these facts, and it is up to MIM
to expose imperialist lies to the masses. Human Rights Watch
is concerned not with ending imperialism, just imperialist
rivalries, as they expose the fact that France, Zaire, South
Africa, and China are rearming the defeated Hutu faction
while ignoring U$ military support for Kagame and President
Pasteur Bizimungu in Rwanda.(5) The Tribunal is intended to
support the notion that, "so long as Hutu and Tutsi are left
to themselves, the killing will continue."(6) But MIM knows
that imperialism is the principal cause of murder in the
world today. Imperialists should be put in trial by the
people for their role in the genocide in Rwanda and around
the world. Only when the people overthrow imperialism and
seize power to build socialism will this justice be
possible.
NOTES:
1. Andrew Purvis, "Roots of Genocide: Why Hutu and Tutsi
Cannot Live in Peace," Time, August 5, 1996, p. 57.
2. Barry Crawford, "Rwanda: Myth and Reality,"
http://www.africa2000.com/indx/rwanda1.htm
3. Marcus Mabry, "An American Empire?," Newsweek, December
2, 1996, p. 46.
4. Barry Crawford, op. cit.
5. Human Rights Watch, "Rearming With Impunity:
International Support for the Perpetrators of Rwandan
Genocide, 05/29/95,"http:\\www.sas.upenn.edu/
African_S.../Urgent_Action / DC _ Hrite _Rwnda.html.
6. Andrew Purvis, op. cit.
* * *
SUPREME COURT DENIES CITIZENSHIP TO SOME CHILDREN BORN
ABROAD
The Supreme Court recently dismissed a challenge to a law
governing the citizenship status of children of unmarried
u.$. citizens born abroad. The law grants citizenship to
such children if their mother was a u.$. citizen but not if
their father was. According to the Supreme Court, "The
biological differences between single men and single women
provide a relevant basis for differing rule governing their
ability to confer citizenship on children born in foreign
lands." This is a patriarchal excuse for national oppression
and imperialism.
The patriarchal part of the logic behind the Supreme Court's
Argument is that "boys will be boys." U.$. men can take
advantage of the booming prostitution industry in the Third
World, for example, and never know about the existence of
children fathered by them.
Imperialism requires that the u.$ state be zealous about
defending the integrity of u.$. citizenship. The Supreme
Court is frightened by the prospect of wimmin from oppressed
nations claiming that their children were fathered by u.$.
men - whether or not such a prospect is realistic.
As MIM explained in MIM Theory 10 and investigates further
in an upcoming MIM Theory, Amerika's militarized border and
its support for repressive governments abroad create the
conditions for the super-exploitation of workers in the
Third World. Because the "Amerikan way of life" depends on
this super-exploitation, the Amerikan imperialists and their
allies in the labor aristocracy are choosy about who they
allow to enjoy the perks of u.$. citizenship.
One of the key tasks of socialism in North America will be
to open the borders. Allowing workers from the Third World
to move here unhindered and take jobs will strengthen the
dictatorship of the proletariat and help make the principle
of proletarian internationalism concrete.
Note: Boston Globe, April 19, 1998
* * *
UNDER LOCK AND KEY:
TORTURE IN PRISONS: COMMON TREATMENT
TRIPLE CUBED IN ALABAMA
...They have a UNICOR factory here, but I work mopping up in
the dorm and make $12.00 a month. Because this is a Camp,
they try to send as many of us as possible to work at the
army base in Ft. McCollum which is Anniston, Alabama.
Inmates on that detail have to get on an army bus at 7 a.m.
and ride for one hour. They work doing landscape and stuff
and then at 2 p.m. head back to the camp. That detail is the
pits.
...There are some legal materials here but this facility has
the worst law library out of the five or so places I have
been. Only one typewriter works for 400 people that are
here. We are triple cubed here. Meaning three men to an
eight by ten foot cube with three lockers and a desk -- not
much room. Six toilets in a dorm for 100-110 guys and the
showers have no doors or curtains for privacy.
-- An Alabama Prisoner, 22 March 1998
PIGS ATTEMPT TO ISOLATE PRISONER FROM THE OUTSIDE
...Every time I get shipped somewhere now, my property gets
raped. This time, they got me for my main legal/research
notebook. It also contained all my addresses and phone
numbers, various data, business plans and ideas and more
accounts of prison atrocities.
I guess their subliminal message was, "Forget about your
family, dreams and trying to get out."
...They won't allow me to get legal documents copied to send
to lawyers, officials or journalists. Only to the courts
they say. This "policy" is contrary to ALL the laws in the
land and even other Florida prisons.
They're trying to keep me in a pro se status. When I
submitted legal mail to attorneys and legal organizations,
they sent them back to me saying I needed to put stamps on
them.
When I filed a complaint, citing rule/laws entitling
indigents to free legal mailings, they then replied that I'd
have to go through a "counselor". Their own handbook says
nothing of this, nor does state institution law or other
prisons. Legal letters are supposed to be mailed promptly
and unhindered. Since these "counselors" rarely come by my
dungeon, I guess they want me to beg. I'm in Isolation
(without a disciplinary report and no investigation), and
it's hard to get them to bring a request form, so calling a
counselor is a joke.
On a trip to medical, I managed to speak to some of my
fellow felons. They say I'm being singled out for something,
because they're not having this problem.
In addition, officers wouldn't verify that my stamped
letters to the media were mailed. I'm not allowed to use the
phone. I can't even call you. Where's freedom of speech?
Inmates say I must have done something to become a threat to
the administration. I can't imagine what. All I'm trying to
do is get their laws applied to my sentence so I can go
home. It's hard enough trying to get out by the law. Yet, I
have these myrmidons creating their own policy. I have
little hope....
-- A Florida Prisoner, 22 March 1998
"MISBEHAVIOR" SURCHARGE
...In all the prisons [in New York], the prison
administrators in Albany set up a system to rob prisoners of
five dollars. It is the so-called surcharge on misbehavior
reports. From every misbehavior report the prison guards
write against a prisoner, it cost the prisoner five dollars.
So the prison guards go out of their way to look for
unnecessary fault or trouble.
Gathered together, 15 to 20 prison guards jump on one
prisoner and then charge him for assault on them, and put
him in punitive segregation for many years.
Now, with control of all inmate accounts, the people who
administer over it rob us for at least two to three thousand
dollars a day. And remember we are supposed to be the
criminals.
With the commissary, every commissary purchase they rip off
at least two thousand dollars from us. People, your sons and
daughters are not safe in the hands of the people who are
supposed to be protecting us....
-- A New York Prisoner 27 February 1998
LOSING WEIGHT DUE TO INADEQUATE FOOD
...Recently I was transferred to Wabash Valley Correctional
Facility in Carlisle, Indiana. I was given a bogus court
report and sent to the SHU [Segregated Housing Unit]. I was
given a year disciplinary segregation, a month commissary
restriction and loss of credit time earned.
Since being on the SHU I have lost 10 pounds. This is
because the correctional institution feeds us with outdated
and expired food. Non-nutritional food it precooked three
days in advance and then reheated and served to us. And the
oppressive regime that runs this place condones and
contributes to the systemic problems here. This "Good Old
Boy" Network is out of control!!!
The struggle continues,
-- An Indiana Prisoner, 9 February, 1998
PIGS DENY FOOD TO GAY PRISONER
Dear Friends in the Struggle,
...I sit here in this dungeon of the TDCJ, better known by
the oppressed and tortured as the Texas Department of
Corruption's and Injustices. Yes, sitting here and having to
put up with having my food denied to me. Because these pigs,
swine, and so-called setters of "upright" ways have decided
that just because I am a homosexual and because I practice
my preferred sexual practices. They who are so "upright" in
their own eyes will punish me, in violation of their own
laws, by refusing me food -- not just one meal but all three
meals.
These pigs are only trying to correct me, when they are
themselves are acting in an incorrect and lawless way. In
effect pigs are saying, "You will obey, not by our example,
but by what we say you should do."
So what they are trying to say in words and actions is that
they think they have the right (given to them by God) to
make rules and have us abide by them while they do just as
they wish.
In the struggle for Liberation,
-- A Texas Prisoner, 7 April 1998
INADEQUATE MEDICAL CARE IN TEXAS
The U.$. Supremacist Court in the past has ruled that when
the government incarcerates a citizen in jail or prison, it
is bound to the provision of adequate treatment of medical
problems. As with all rulings favoring the rights of
citizens, that one has been blatantly violated from the day
it was first written. Across the nation, citizens spend
hundreds of millions of dollars each year to pay and
maintain the best medical equipment on the market for prison
clinics, tons of medications, and wages exorbitantly high
for people who call themselves doctors, nurses and physician
assistants. Though some of the "nurses" and "doctors"
actually have managed, with aid of prison pressure upon
licensing agencies to obtain licenses, the sad fact is that
the vast majority of prison "health care" staff are ignorant
of actual medical problems and medical care. They do not
know how to use the expensive equipment. They do not know
how to use the medications. They could not hold a medical
job in the free world more than a few weeks at a time. They
steal the medications and sell them on the free-world black
market. They purposely torture, and even kill the prisoners
who seek medical help. And now, despite the Supremacist
Court's prior rulings to the contrary, they have passed laws
and made rules such that in the future every time a prisoner
asks for medical help he/she will be required to pay for
asking. Note carefully: We must pay for asking for medical
help, not for getting it! We still do not get any medical
treatment, pay or no pay.
...Prison labor in Texas is compulsory and any and all hints
of resistance are immediately and severely punished. After
all, this is not a system of criminal justice, but a high
profit money making corporation, even if it is costing the
taxpayers billions.
I don't know who told you that some Texas prisoners make 24
cents an hour, but I highly recommend that you not let that
person in on any of your business. S/he is a flat out liar
and probably on the TDC's payroll. NO prisoner in the Texas
slave plantations is paid even a single cent - EVER - for
the slave labor we are forced to perform!! Anyone who tells
you differently is lying, just like the TDC industries lie
on their annual budgets about the thousands of dollars each
is paid by the taxpayers "for inmate labor." No inmate ever
sees any of that money, and it is never returned to the
treasury. You'll just have to guess where it goes. Yes, we
have to pay for our own toiletries, but not for medications-
which are virtually non-existent. I am not currently
assigned to a prison industry job, but I have been.
Prisoners are required to work from 5 to 7 days a week, from
8 to 12 hours a day- rarely more than 12 depending on job
and circumstances. Working conditions are: You do what you
are told, when you are told, and how you are told, no matter
how unsafe or dangerous, no matter how stupid, no matter how
unproductive, no matter how illegal, and you do not question
orders, or else!
There are profit industries on every Texas prison unit....
The guards treat us, for the most part, as if they have been
carefully taught to believe that we are their personal
property, to be treated however they please. One of the
primary requirements a person must meet before being hired
to work in a prison is to prove he/she is a sado-masochist
whose greatest pleasures in life are hurting and degrading
people. They are then told when hired that in prison they
can exercise all their fantasies without fear of reprisal.
It is virtually impossible to start any real study group
because if the guards see three or more men talking together
at a time, they quickly act to break it up.
-- A Texas Prisoner, 12 January 1998
STATEMENT FROM JAAN LAAMAN, OHIO-7 POLITICAL PRISONER
* The following statement was sent to RAIL to be read at the
Criminal Injustice System teach-in. Look for more of these
statements in Future issue of Under Lock and Key *
Comrades, friends, fellow anti-imperialists,
Let me send a very warm, sincere and Red salute out to each
and every one of you here today at this RAIL teach-in in the
aftermath of the JERICHO rally. I am one of the listed
political prisoners that JERICHO was organized around. I am
part of a group of women and men who came to be known as the
Ohio-7. We were captured in 1984 and convicted of being
members of the United Freedom Front (UFF), which was a
clandestine anti-imperialist organization active in the 70's
and 80's. The UFF took responsibility for assaulting racist
and repressive institutions like apartheid era South African
government offices, U.S. military installations, and war
profiteer corporations like IBM, GE, and Union Carbide, that
support and benefit from U.S. imperialism.
We, the 200 or so political prisoners whose release this
JERICHO rally demanded, come from numerous movements and
organizations. The central issue that unites all of us, and
that makes it so appropriate for me to be sending you these
words, is that we all see U.S. imperialism as our common and
deadly enemy. The majority of political prisoners come from
the struggles of oppressed nations fighting for self-
determination and freedom. BLA members in captivity for the
struggle to liberate the oppressed African Nation within the
U.S. Independentistas of the FALN fighting to end
colonialism in Puerto Rico, AIM and other Indian
organizations members continuing the battle against genocide
and for sovereignty of Native Peoples and Nations.
Additionally organizations like Red Guerrilla Resistance and
the UFF explicitly and concretely supported these national
liberation efforts, as well as other freedom struggles like
the war against apartheid, support for the Palestinians, and
for the Nicaraguan and El Salvadoran people in their battles
against U.S. imperialism.
This anti-imperialist worldview, which includes resisting
the injustices and exploitation of all poor and oppressed
people within the USA, continues to unite us political
prisoners behind these walls. This is also why I am
especially pleased to be here, even if only in spirit and
yea, I definitely would rather be here in person, with you
righteous anti-imperialists of the RAIL. Speaking as a
captured guerrilla and political prisoner, I want to stress
that unity along a core analysis of anti-imperialism, with
other similarly oriented organizations, either strategically
when possible or at least tactically on specific issues, is
the way we should further build our Freedom Struggle. The
fight for human rights and freedom for political prisoners
is closely tied to the overall struggle against the U.S.
prison system. With over 1.7 million people in prisons and
another 4 plus million on bail, parole or probation, prisons
and the entire so called justice system in America is
becoming an ever more important and ugly part of the
repressive machine that keeps this system rolling.
Political prisoners are often subjected to the most
horrendous types of imprisonment: kept for years in control
and isolation units, exiled far from families, brutalized,
and of course given huge sentences. But even if all of the
200 JERICHO named people were to be released immediately, we
would still need to wage a serious battle against the U.S.
prison system. Because America is a racist, oppressive, and
unjust system, based on economic, social and political
inequality, the prisons are packed full of Blacks, Latinos
and Native Americans, in huge disproportion to their numbers
in society. That's not to say that there are not hundreds of
thousands of poor whites in prison also -- there are, but
the colonial nature of the U.S. is clear in every prison in
America. And the prisons of course, are but the last car in
a long railroad that begins with laws, police, prosecutors,
courts and judges, that all are geared to single out, trap
and confine people from oppressed nations. And of course
this entire justice system is but one facet of the overall
injustice and inequality of U.S. imperialist society.
So in closing, let me extend my solidarity and the
solidarity of all Political prisoners. We have a lot of
struggle ahead and I look forward to continuing to work with
you all. Let us recognize that JERICHO 98 is an historic
event, the first national rally to demand the release of all
political prisoners by a broad coalition of the left in the
U.S. Let's build on this as we develop further revolutionary
unity in the battles against the prison system and U.S.
imperialism overall.
FREEDOM IS A CONSTANT STRUGGLE
Jaan Karl Laaman - Ohio-7 political prisoner, Leavenworth
federal prison, February 1998.
CENSORSHIP BATTLE CONTINUES
MIM NOTES CENSORED DUE TO SPANISH LANGUAGE
I would not address this situation except that I truly want
the news you print. I noticed you wrote of COINTELPRO still
being in business.
Anyway, I was denied MIM Notes because the last page was
written in Spanish. According to Army Regulation 190-47,
USDB Reg. 28-1 and USDB reg. 600-1, of the reasons to reject
mail is "is a non-English publication." page 32 of the MGI
(Manual for the Guidance of Inmates).
In accordance with regulations I submitted a request to the
Director of Inmate Affairs (DIA) asking to be allowed your
paper. They answered, "I do not approve your request.
Foreign Language material is not authorized except
dictionaries."
The MGI had stated on page 14 that, "[E]xceptions will be
granted where adequate safeguards can be employed without
disruption to the facility....Exceptions will be approved in
writing by DIA."
A 10th Circuit Federal Court (Kansas, 10th Circuit) found
that, "the English language rule seriously infringed upon
protected First and Fourteenth Amendment interests without
being necessary to any legitimate penalogical purpose."
...Maybe you could write to the Commandant Col. Marvin L.
Nickels at: United States Disciplinary Barracks, 310
McPherson Ave, Ft. Leavenworth, KS 66027-1363.
-- A Military Prisoner, 8 April 1998
CENSORSHIP IN CONNECTICUT
Greetings from the Mind Control Kamp (Northern Correctional
Institution). I'm in receipt of all literature and papers
sent. Unfortunately I could not respond due to
correspondence sanctions.
I did receive your packet informing me of material being
rejected. Yes, I did file a complaint, and it has been
resolved by the Mail Room Supervisor. At first she tried to
tell me that nothing had been rejected, but upon showing her
your letter, she quickly recanted. Since that time I have
received MIM Notes.
...No reason was ever given as to why the you sent was
rejected, but I'm trying to find out why....
In struggle,
-- A Connecticut Prisoner, 4 March 1998
NEW YORK BANS MIM NOTES
Thank you for forwarding me the newsletters dated February 1
and 15, 1998 (No. 155 and 156). I still have not received
them because these fascist individuals and their so-called
"Facility Media Review Committee" have held them up. They
have found the following two articles unacceptable: "Oppose
the Amerikan Lockdown - Michigan Prisoner Raped by His
Captors" and "Brutal Beating in Missouri - Expose the Pigs".
I am in the process of challenging this issue due to the
violation of my 14th Amendment and infringes upon my rights
under the 1st Amendment. This only goes to show that they
don't uphold their own laws....
-- A New York Prisoner, 6 April 1998
PIGS BREAKING THEIR OWN RULES AGAIN
...I was written up for allegedly passing your papers along
with my revolutionary writings. As a result your papers were
banned.
Cornell v. Woods 69 F3d 1383 8th Cir. 1995: Prisoner was
transferred in retaliation for exercising his first
amendment right by talking and cooperating with the prison
internal affairs division. Between him and his attorney the
won an award of over 31,000.
...The level of censorship can be measured in this
institution but the level of racism is astronomical. I filed
grievances and they were not even processed according to
policy. They were simply stamped and returned without a
grievance number. Thereby inmates cannot remedy staff
violations.
I'm left with no logical alternative than to sue this
institution to right a terrible wrong and insure that all
inmates will be entitled to a safe, secure, and harassment-
free environment. Where all can enjoy the right to breathe
freely.
...I was written up for expressing my own political views
and for having papers which this institution let come into
the jail. When I left the hole, I asked for my mail. I was
informed that it was destroyed. That alone denied me access
to the courts.
Guards here seem to have some kind of quota to make when it
comes to filing misconduct reports. One inmate was written
up for looking at a guard. Another was written up because a
guard spoke to him and he did not speak back. Another for
hanging his clothes line. Misconducts for the most part are
frivolous. Inmates are written up for the most trivial
incidents.
Most misconducts are unwarranted and routine. Captains,
Lieutenants, and Sergeants provide officers with
instructions on how to describe an incident. They encourage
officers to lie in order to magnify the incident to make the
misconduct sound more serious than it is to the hearing
examiner. These frivolous write-ups will have an enormous
impact on inmates when they come up for parole....
-- A Pennsylvania Prisoner, 5 February 1998
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