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 167 August 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. GENERAL STRIKE IN PUERTO RICO:
MASSES FIGHT SELL OFF OF NATIONAL INDUSTRIES TO
IMPERIALISTS
2. RAIL LAUNCHES SISON FAMILY DEFENSE FUND
3. LETTERS
4. MIM'S LATINO NATIONS MINISTRY REBOUNDS
5. CNN-TIME RETRACTS STORY OF U.$. WAR CRIME
6. OPPOSE MEXICAN GOVERNMENT MASSACRES
7. DOWN WITH THE U.$.-SPONSORED MEXICAN MILITARIST REGIME!
8. UNITED SNAKES INSISTS HEGEMONY OVER HUMAN RIGHTS COURT
9. D.C. RALLIES WHITE POT SMOKERS; IGNORES THE "WAR ON
DRUGS" AGAINST THE OPPRESSED
10. MIM LEGAL NOTES: CAIN v. MDOC IMPLEMENTATIONS OF
CENSORSHIP
11. NGUYEN NGOC LOAN OBITUARY:
GENERAL IN SOUTH VIETNAMESE PUPPET ARMY DIES
12. NEW SETTLER BENEFITS GO INTO EFFECT
13. NIGERIA NEWS: DEATHS EMPHASIZE NEED FOR PROLETARIAN
LEADERSHIP
ABACHA OBITUARY: NIGERIA MILITARY DICTATOR DIES
ABIOLA OBITUARY: IMPRISONED BY MILITARY DICTATORSHIP BUT
NOT A PROLETARIAN LEADER
14. FIGHT IMPERIALISM TO WIN! JOIN THE PROLETARIAN LED
UNITED FRONT
15. PIRAO NEEDS LEADERS
16. PRISONERS LOSE LEGAL AID IN NEW YORK WHILE STATE SPEND
MILLIONS IN COURT
17. UNDER LOCK AND KEY: NEWS FROM PRISONS AND PRISONERS
* * *
WHAT IS MIM?
The Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM) is a
revolutionary communist party that upholds
Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, comprising the collection
of existing or emerging Maoist internationalist
parties in the English-speaking imperialist
countries and their English-speaking internal
semi-colonies, as well as the existing or emerging
Spanish-speaking Maoist internationalist parties
of Aztlan, Puerto Rico and other territories of
the U.S. Empire. MIM Notes is the newspaper of
MIM. Notas Rojas is the newspaper of the Spanish-
speaking parties or emerging parties of MIM.
MIM is an internationalist organization that works
from the vantage point of the Third World
proletariat; thus, its members are not Amerikans,
but world citizens.
MIM struggles to end the oppression of all groups
over other groups: classes, genders, nations. MIM
knows this is only possible by building public
opinion to seize power through armed struggle.
Revolution is a reality for North America as the
military becomes over-extended in the government's
attempts to maintain world hegemony.
MIM differs from other communist parties on three
main questions: (1) MIM holds that after the
proletariat seizes power in socialist revolution,
the potential exists for capitalist restoration
under the leadership of a new bourgeoisie within
the communist party itself. In the case of the
USSR, the bourgeoisie seized power after the death
of Stalin in 1953; in China, it was after Mao's
death and the overthrow of the "Gang of Four" in
1976. (2) MIM upholds the Chinese Cultural
Revolution as the farthest advance of communism in
human history. (3) MIM believes the North American
white-working-class is primarily a non-
revolutionary worker-elite at this time; thus, it
is not the principal vehicle to advance Maoism in
this country.
MIM accepts people as members who agree on these
basic principles and accept democratic centralism,
the system of majority rule, on other questions of
party line.
"The theory of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin is
universally applicable. We should regard it not as
dogma, but as a guide to action. Studying it is
not merely a matter of learning terms and phrases,
but of learning Marxism-Leninism as the science of
revolution."
-- Mao Zedong, Selected Works, Vol. II, p. 208
* * *
GENERAL STRIKE IN PUERTO RICO:
MASSES FIGHT SELL OFF OF NATIONAL INDUSTRIES TO IMPERIALISTS
On July 7th the workers in Puerto Rico began a 48 hour
general strike, blocking the main highway to San Juan's
international airport. The strike was organized by over 60
trade unions and a large number of civic, religious, student
and cultural organizations. These organizations protested
the sale of the state telephone company in solidarity with
the 6,400 telephone workers who had been on strike since
June 18.(1) The general strike paralyzed the country.
The general strike was called for by the General Committee
of Labor Organizations which includes workers in the state
water and electricity unions. Annie Cruz, spokesperson for
CAOS, said that the strike had attained the main goals, to
paralyze the industry, the banks and the commerce, and so
she called it a complete victory.(2)
The stoppage was extended to all the country at dawn.
Several businesses announced that they would close for the
strike including all the main commercial malls, the Banco
Popular, several large supermarket chains and restaurants
and a number of independent stores. The University of Puerto
Rico was closed after negotiations with the unions and
student organizations who agreed to allow some critical
operations to continue. The Federation of Teachers picketed
at the entrance to the Education Department.(2) Throughout
the country people reported virtually no activity as the
streets were empty of cars and the few open stores had no
customers.
Among the specific targets of the strike was Eli Lilly, the
u.s. pharmaceutical company.(3) U.$. corporations already
control 90% of the Puerto Rican economy. This attempt by the
government to sell off the remaining national enterprises
has outraged the public -- many of whom refer to this as
"selling the national patrimony."
Masses battle imperialist lackeys in phone strike
Declaring a strike shortly after the decision to sell the
phone company was announced, early in the morning of June
18, the telephone workers were in front of every office of
the company. In the company's headquarters and the main
cellular office the workers established clearly their
intention not to let anybody break the strike. The police,
in open violation of Puerto Rico's Constitution, that
establishes the right to strike, were mainly concerned with
defending the "right to work" of those contracted to break
the strike. So they pushed, hit and used gases against the
workers. A lot of the cops took their identifications off
while at the picket line.(2)
Several acts of sabotage on the Banco Popular, the largest
local bank involved in buying the telephone company, and on
the phone company itself, crippled phone services, closed
down stores and injured a few individuals.(1) In addition
the phone workers' strike shut down many ATM machines
because they rely on the phone service for operation.
The telephone company is only one of many state businesses
being sold off to the private sector by Governor Pedro
Rossello'. Hospitals, prisons, ports, hotels and other
utilities are among the businesses that have already been
sold or are slated to be sold off soon. This privatization
has already led to losses of jobs and decreases in services.
The phone company workers fear for their jobs and the people
fear a return to the terrible phone services to poorer
communities that existed before the phone company was taken
over by the state.
In early July, Rossello' signed a law completing the $1.9
billion sale of the phone company to a consortium led by GTE
corporation and including Citibank financing $1.5 billion of
the purchase.(4)
The telephone workers' union is calling for a general
referendum on the sale. But it would cost the government $25
million to abandon the deal and Rosello has declared his
refusal to even consider such an idea. A national one-day
strike on October 1 last year saw 100,000 workers marching
to San Juan opposing the sale. A survey made public last
week by the main newspaper, El Nuevo Día, shows that 65% of
the population opposes this sale.(2)
Former Gov. Rafael Hernandez Colon tried to sell the
telephone company in 1990 but was dissuaded by massive
protests.(1)
The ongoing strike by state telephone workers had already
drained $100 million from Puerto Rico's economy by the end
of June. Banks, Internet and cellular phone services as well
as long distance services were all affected. The tourism
industry reported losing $700,000 a day in revenue due to
the strike.(4)
The phone workers received support from many other unions in
Puerto Rico including the electrical workers who joined the
strike and donated funds to help the striking workers.
UTIER, the Electrical Authority union, with about 6,000
members, engaged in a three day stoppage; the UIA, the
Independent Authentic Union of the Water and Sewage
Authority, with around 5,000 affiliates held a one day
stoppage; the State Insurance Fund union with about 4,000
and several other unions also joined in the strike. Some
stopped for a day, and some went to the picket lines at
noon. Several religious leaders, moved by the police abuse
scenes showed by TV, went to the picket lines to show their
sympathy with the workers cause. This included one well
known right wing preacher as well as Cardinal Luis Aponte
Marti'nez, the leader of the catholic church in the
country.(2)
*El Nuevo Día* reported that "When confronted by the
newspeople with the photos that clearly show police agents
making undue use of force, and throwing gasses to the
strikers, Toledo, whom in part of the conference looked
nervous, said that the weight of the law will fall not only
in the strikers that break the lay, but also in the
policemen that act in an undue way." But in fact the police
continued with their harassment, brutality, and arrests of
the striking workers. One striker, Raul Santana, remains
hospitalized, after been beaten by the police. In that case,
in Metro Office Park, in Guaynabo, three more strikers
needed attention in San Juan Medical Center.(2)
In the fifth day of the phone worker's strike, at Cellular
Plaza, in Hato Rey, the SWAT team, with their IDs removed,
in open violation of the law, ambushed a group of strikers,
to get the scabs inside. When retiring, the last of the
policemen hit the protesters, initiating a confrontation in
which that policeman was hit. The scenes, showed in the
news, were used all day by Police chief, Pedro Toledo, to
try to look like the victims of violence were the Police.
From there, the police contingent went to Metro Office Park,
in Guaynabo, where they left 6 strikers wounded, 4 grave,
and 4 policemen slightly wounded. The scenes of the police
carrying a worker by his legs, unconscious and bleeding from
his head, served to deny the police chief allegations that
this was all violence initiated by the people.(2)
U.$. maneuvers for stronger imperialist position
The South Command of the U.$. armed forces is planning to
relocate in Puerto Rico, after full change of command in the
Panama Channel. GTE holds a contract with the South Command
to manage their communications. It follows then that one of
the reasons for buying PRTC is to guarantee their service to
the military interests of the U$A in the region.(2)
The government bought the telephone company in 1974 and has
operated it at a profit ever since so this is not an issue
of cutting losses in national industry.(5)
The economy of Puerto Rico, where the average wage is far
lower than in the u.s., suffers from high unemployment and
low paying jobs. Since the Puerto Rican people have never
had the opportunity to develop a self-sufficient economy,
their livelihood is dependent on the many foreign (mostly
Amerikan ) corporations that set up shop for the cheap labor
and good tax deals. As an amerikan colony, Puerto Rico has
provided the u.s. a very strategic military base, a resource
of cheap labor for manufacturing plants, and a vacation
resort close to home.
U.S. imperialism has created a "split in the working class"
in Puerto Rico through its relationship with the island. The
workers are not all sub-minimum wage proletarians and they
are not all labor aristocracy. Because Puerto Rico is a
colony of the united snakes, the people have a strong
interest in national liberation to free themselves of
imperialist domination. But the economic benefits of special
status as a colony which is so closely tied to the U.$. has
convinced many people to support statehood or commonwealth
status in continued colonial subjugation to the u.s.
As the Puerto Rican lackey government moves to sell off what
little of the island is not currently under direct U.$.
control, the people can see more clearly the results of 100
years of u.s. colonialism. The people's outrage and protests
against the selling of the telephone company will contribute
to the struggle for national self-determination and
independence from u.s. imperialism.
At press time the unions were planning general and regional
strikes throughout the rest of the summer and on until the
government agrees to their demand to hold a national
referendum on the sale of the phone company. But the narrow
demands of the strikers do not represent demands for
independence. It is the job of revolutionaries to point out
the connections between u.s. imperialist occupation and the
struggles of the people in Puerto Rico.
NOTES:
1. Associated Press, Tuesday, July 7, 1998.
2. http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Senate/9169/, This
page has been created to make public information and images
related to the PEOPLES STRIKE AGAINST PRIVATIZATION.
3. El Nuevo Dia, July 8, 1998
4. AP, June 30, 1998.
5. Washington Post, July 8, 1998; Page A02
* * *
RAIL LAUNCHES SISON FAMILY DEFENSE FUND
RAIL proudly announces the founding of the Sison Family
Defense Fund. The SFDF was officially launched on June 11,
1998 at the Anti-Imperialist Solidarity Night organized by
BAYAN - International. The purpose of the SFDF is to raise
money for the legal expenses involved in the Sison family's
petition for political asylum and to raise awareness of
their case in the broader context of the Filipino people's
struggle for economic and political freedom.
Jose Maria Sison and Julieta de Lima-Sison are both
prominent anti- imperialist activists from the Philippines
who have been living in exile in the Netherlands since the
late 80s. De Lima-Sison has been very active within the
national democratic movement. She has been in the
Netherlands since 1988, but has been denied legal permit to
reside there. Only this year was she and their son Jasm
granted residency on humanitarian grounds although the Dutch
government does not recognize her status as a political
refugee. This in spite of the fact that she is on the "order
of battle," the hit list of the Armed Forces of the
Philippines (AFP), and that her colleagues had been
kidnapped, tortured and murdered by AFP personnel.
Sison was a leader within the national democratic movement
from its inception. He was the founding chairperson of the
reconstituted Communist Party of the Philippines. Because of
his political activity, he was subject to intense state
repression by the Government of the Republic of the
Philippines (GRP). He was imprisoned and brutally tortured
from 1977 to 1986 for his involvement with the national
democratic movement. He currently is serving as consultant
to the National Democratic Front-Government of the
Philippines peace talks. The Dutch refusal to grant him
political asylum in accordance with international
conventions is an obvious attempt at derailing the peace
talks.
After Sison's release from prison, he was doing a university
lecture tour in west Europe when the Aquino government
canceled his passport and falsely charged him under the
Anti-Subversion Law. In 1988, Sison applied for political
asylum in the Netherlands. The following year, the Manila
government placed a million peso bounty on his head and a
half million peso bounty on the head of de Lima-Sison,
although no charges were made against her. In 1992, the Raad
van State (RvS) -- Council of State, the highest
administrative court in the Netherlands -- nullified a prior
negative decision made by the Dutch Justice Ministry and
decided in Sison's favor.
In the Philippines the anti-subversion law was repealed and
the charges against Sison became groundless. Nevertheless,
the Dutch Justice Ministry continued to decide against
Sison. In 1995, the RvS ruled that Sison is a political
refugee with a justified fear of persecution in the sense of
the Refugee Treaty of Geneva, that he cannot be sent back to
the Philippines and needs protection under Article 3 of the
European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and
Fundamental Freedoms.
In September 1997, the Dutch Rechtseeheidskamer (REK) agreed
with the RvS ruling, but insisted that Sison cannot be
legally be admitted to the Netherlands as a refugee because
he is liable for crimes on the basis of "maintaining the
credibility of the Dutch state to its allies" and CIA secret
intelligence dossiers. However, in recognition of the
primacy of the NDFP-GRP peace talks, the Philippine justice
secretary issued Sison a certificate stating that there is
no pending criminal charge against Sison; previous charges
were dismissed or nullified. But in contradiction to its own
court and in defiance of international law, the Dutch
Justice ministry and Dutch Alien court continue to refuse to
grant the Sison family political asylum.
The prime instigator in this attack on their basic rights as
political refugees is not the GRP but actually its
imperialist puppeteers, the u.s. and its Dutch ally. Sison's
role as chief political consultant to the NDFP-GRP peace
negotiations in The Hague is a prime motivation in his
family's persecution by the Dutch and Amerikan governments.
The u.s. has a vested interest in seeing national liberation
struggles fail. The victory of the Filipino national
democratic movement would be a devastating blow to the
corpulent imperialists. The vibrant and dynamic nature of
the national democratic movement in the Philippines already
has forced the GRP to the peace tables as an equally
belligerent force.
This international recognition of the strength of the
Filipino national democratic struggle has earned the wrath
of the u.s. imperialists. BAYAN International states "it is
necessary to keep up the legal struggle of Prof. Sison in
order to keep up the political struggle. Which is the
international mass campaign in defense of his rights. For
this reason, the Sison Family Defense Fund must be seriously
undertaken."
RAIL encourages concerned and progressive people to
contribute to the struggles of the Filipino masses against
oppression. Get involved in the Sison asylum case and help
build the Sison Family Defense Fund by donating money and
labor, hosting events and publicizing this case.
* * *
LETTERS
SPREADING MAOISM IN RUSSIA
June 1, 1998
Dear Comrades!
Thank you very much for your letter and for our acceptance
into MIM! We hope that in close cooperation with you we will
be successful in spreading Maoism in Russia!
In our opinion, the best (in the given circumstances) and
the most democratic way of constructing the Russian branch
of MIM will be setting up by us an Initiative Group for the
preparation of the Founding Congress of the Russian
organization of MIM. Besides our own comrades from the
Obninsk VLKSM organization we are planning to attract
comrades from other places: Moscow, Leningrad (now St.
Petersburg), etc.
As a first step to this, we have begun constructing the
homepage of this Initiative Group (tentative Internet
address: http://members.tripod.com/~MIM_RU/index.html,
tentative e-mail address: mim_ru@hotmail.com). The page will
be centered round five cardinal points (four of yours, all
of which we accept, plus a fifth, which we consider of
paramount importance in the conditions of present-day
Russia: no toleration of the oppression of national and
sexual minorities and - as a consequence - the complete
inadmissibility of any manifestations of nationalism,
chauvinism, sexism, and clericalism).
In addition, we are planning to use this page to launch a
wide discussion with Leftist comrades of various opinions
about the applicability of Maoism to Russian conditions
(both past and present). In this connection, we would be
very grateful if you could provide us with factual
information on the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution,
either in English or in French (especially documents,
speeches of the period, photographs). Undistorted data about
the Cultural Revolution are very hard to get here.
Besides, we are very much in need of information
(unclassified, of course) about the history and present-day
condition of MIM, as we want to give MIM as much publicity
here as possible. This information would also be useful in
case we could arrange the invitation of your
representative(s) to the XXV Congress of VLKSM. Now we are
working in that direction and this will be possibly decided
at the Plenary Meeting of VLKSM Central Committee in the end
of June. Are you interested in this proposal?
With proletarian greetings and hopes of fruitful
cooperation,
P. S. Our work of getting the Russian translation of the Red
Book on line is under way, but owing to technical reasons
has delayed a bit.
RUSSIAN COMRADES DESCRIBE COMMUNIST ORGANIZING SITUATION
*Editor's note: The cardinal principles and scientific
weaponry of Maoism are very powerful. Although Maoism is
unpopular and undeveloped in the U$A, the potential exists
for a quick breakthrough with the Russian proletariat, a
breakthrough reaching thousands of comrades in many
different time zones. By holding line to be decisive, the
leadership of the communist movement bears a heavy burden in
the face of temporary obstacles.*
May 18, 1998
Dear Comrades! Thanks a lot for your detailed letter and for
somewhat clarifying the situation on the international
Maoist scene for us. As far as we understand, you have only
a vague idea of the situation in the Communist movement in
Russia today. So a little information. As stated in our
previous letter there are eight parties calling themselves
communist. The largest is the Communist Party of the Russian
Federation (Russian abbreviation KP RF, membership circa
200,000, leader Gennady Zyuganov). It is made up mostly of
aged people - ex-Party apparatchiks or middle-rank
industrial managers. In its economic program the party is
close to the Social-Democratic parties in Western Europe. On
the political plane nationalism and social-chauvinism
predominate.
The next one is the Russian Communist Workers' Party
(Russian abbreviation RKRP, membership circa 60,000, leader
Viktor Tyul'kin). It is an extremely dogmatic ultra-
Stalinist (in the worst sense of the word) organization. The
age and social make-up is similar to that of KP RF, with a
larger share of the lumpen-proletariat. The once-famous RKRP
public figure, Viktor Anpilov, recently seceded and formed a
party with the "unpretentious" name of CPSU (KPSS in
Russia). Its basis is the most extremist-minded sector of
the former RKRP. Its nationalist and chauvinist tendencies
(more pronounced than in RKRP proper) have allowed it to
form a bloc with the National-Bolshevik Party of Eduard
Limonov which is openly semi-fascist. The social make-up of
the latter is several intellectuals trying to shape the
political consciousness of the milieu of punks and other
marginal youth groups using its slogans of protecting
national Russian capital, "purifying" Russia of national and
sexual minorities, etc.
The Russian Communist Party-CPSU (Russian abbreviation RKP-
KPSS, membership circa 5,000, leader Dr. Alexei Prigarin).
One of us (X Y) so far continues to belong to that party.
The relative attractiveness of the theoretical positions of
the Party leadership is counterbalanced by the dogmatism of
aged rank-and-file members whose ideology is close to that
of RKRP.
Pretty much the same could be said about the Russian Party
of Communists (Russian abbreviation RPK, membership circa
5,000, leader Dr. Anatoly Kryuchkov). The exception is that
the ideology of the leadership is closer to Trotskyism
("pure" Trotskyism is represented by tiny groups of Western
origin having practically no influence).
Similar to RKRP is the All-Union Communist Party of
Bolsheviks (Russian abbreviation VKPB, membership circa
1,000, leader Nina Andreyeva). This party is much more
consistently internationalist than RKRP and has more
widespread international ties, but its influence within
Russia is extremely limited. RKRP, RPK, RKP-KPSS, and VKPB
form a vague coalition called the Russian Communist Union
(Roskomsoyuz in Russian). There are two more parties (Sergei
Stepanov's Union of Communists and A. Lapin's VKPB) which
are gradually fading out of the political arena and of which
practically nothing can be said at present.
As to the purely young communist movements, the main ones
are our own organization, VLKSM, (led by Andrei Yezersky,
overall membership in the former USSR circa 26,000), and
Pavel Bylevsky's Revolutionary Communist Union of Youth
(Russian abbreviation RKSM(b), membership circa 500, this
organization is a collective member of VLKSM).
The old VKLSM, which was one of the chief promoters of
bourgeois restoration, collapsed in 1991. In 1992 a new
young communist organization bearing the same name and
covering a large part of the old USSR territory was forged
at the XXIII VLKSM Congress in 1992. The XXIV Congress in
1995 adopted a new Political Program drafted by the Moscow
organization. You can find its Russian text at
http://www.aha.ru/~mgo. This text is, in our opinion, a
Marxist-Leninist one, but having serious omissions as to the
explanation of the contemporary situation and as to the
political status of VLKSM (a separate party or a youth wing
of some other party). We are rather of the opinion that
VLKSM should eventually become a separate party with a
revolutionary Marxist-Leninist internationalist line. The
Programme is currently being attacked by pro-KP RF and pro-
RKRP milieus within VLKSM. In our point of view, this
Program does not contradict the four (or rather three for
Russia) cardinal points suggested by you, and we try to
defend it against dogmatically and revisionistically-minded
comrades.
At the next, XXVth, Congress of VLKSM, scheduled for
December this year, we would like to try to alter this
Program in a Maoist, internationalist spirit. If MIM
representatives are interested in visiting the Congress as
guests, we could try to arrange this. RKSM(b) has ambiguous
relations with RKRP, the latter desiring to turn the former
into its own youth organization. RKSM(b) leaders Pavel
Bylevsky and Dmitry Kostenko would like to turn RKSM(b) into
a town guerrilla organization (similar to RAF, MRTA, etc.).
Last year they made some attempts into that direction
(blowing up the Czar Nicholas II monument, etc.). However,
virtually all the militants are imprisoned by now.
In our opinion, these abortive attempts demonstrate the fact
that contemporary Russia is unprepared for the appearance of
organizations concentrating on armed action against the
regime. The RKSM(b) newspaper, "BUMBARASH-2017", tried
(before those events) to propound Maoism, but exclusively as
one of "Third-World" revolutionary ideologies (in the same
vein as Kim Il Sung, Khmer Rouge, MRTA, etc.), and the whole
newspaper has an unpleasant "postmodernist" tinge, that of
"playing at revolution."
On our side, we would be very much obliged if you informed
us in more detail about the political layout both in the
Communist and pseudo-Communist movement in the U$A and on
the Maoist scene internationally. If you have any more
comparatively small programmatic papers (like the
gay/lesbian and the Trotsky papers we read on your server)
and if you can send them to us, we could translate them into
Russian and publish them in our newsletter (it has an
English name, "Power to the People") and place them on our
homepage.
With proletarian greetings,
X Y
P. S. Do we understand you correctly that from now on we can
consider ourselves a branch of MIM? Or is a decision of your
central bureau (committee?) necessary?
North American MIM comrade replies:
Comrades,
Thank you again!
You touch on another important subject. No, we do not need
Central Committee approval to declare you part of the Maoist
Internationalist Movement. I am empowered via the Congress
for international affairs (outside N. America).
There is again a difference of opinion internationally on
this. The RCP-led RIM believes that parties have to prove
themselves to central international leaderships, while we
have rejected (through Congress resolution), the idea of an
"emerging international center."
There is no Maoism without its application to concrete
conditions, and that is simply beyond our capacity at this
time in any international center. It will have to be up to
the ex-Soviet proletariat to decide if your organization is
living up to Marxist-Leninist-Maoist principles.
As to the layout of U.$. politics, you should find some
interesting information in "What's Your Line?" on our web
page.
The one good thing we can say about U.$. politics is that
relative to social-democracy, communism is strong. Our DSA
(Democratic Socialists of America) commands little respect
unlike the situation in Europe. The Black Panthers and other
real communist groups quickly surpassed our social-
democratic tendencies. So there is some hope that if the
people here ever get to wanting the job done, they may want
to do it thoroughly.
* * *
MIM'S LATINO NATIONS MINISTRY REBOUNDS
MIM makes self-criticism for lack of leadership in Spanish-
language work, begins rectification, calls for mass
participation
Over the last seven months, MIM's work among Spanish-
speaking masses inside u.$. borders dropped dramatically.
The biggest example of this is that MIM ceased to correspond
with Spanish-speaking prisoners over that time period. The
amount of original MIM propaganda being written in or
translated into Spanish also dropped over this period. This
is truly a criminal error on MIM's part. The masses will
make revolution, when effectively led by a proletarian,
internationalist Party. MIM's failure to maintain or expand
its work among the Spanish speaking masses cut the link
between the masses and the Party's leadership.
Indeed, many of the letters written to MIM by Spanish-
speaking prisoners over the last six months acknowledged the
Party's leadership role. Some explicitly said that they
wanted revolution, but were not sure how to wage it, or what
they should be doing. It is exactly the Party's role to
provide those answers.
The main reason for the drop off in Spanish-language work
was MIM's failure to effectively mobilize and lead activists
who were willing to aid MIM's Spanish-language work. MIM
comrades gave these relatively inexperienced activists very
responsible positions - nothing wrong with that per se - but
failed to explicitly lay out what their main tasks should
be, and, more importantly, failed to check up on their work.
When it became clear that important work was not being done,
the main Party contact for these activists did not move
quickly to make sure it would get done - either by the
activists who were technically in charge or somebody else.
This was clear liberalism and paternalism on the Party
contact's part: On the one hand, S/he did not want to
strongly criticize or remove these activists from their
positions, because s/he thought that they would quit if s/he
did. On the other, s/he judged these activists by their
claims that they would do work tasked to them by the Party,
and not by their actions: lack of Party-led work. This kind
of behavior will not do: We must be up-front with our
criticisms and encourage our close comrades to develop
"thick skins," and we must also be materialists and judge
people by their actions, not their pretty words.
MIM has already begun to rectify its errors, however. First,
by recognizing them. Second, by recovering its lost practice
and improving its leadership. With the valuable help of some
RAIL comrades, MIM has already published a new edition of
Notas Rojas, its Spanish-language newspaper, which had not
been printed in over nine months. MIM has also re-started
its correspondence with Spanish-language prisoners, and
improved its ability to translate and write articles in
Spanish.
Get involved!
But MIM's renewed leadership is not enough - as always MIM
needs people who will step up and help with revolutionary
tasks. One of the most important tasks right now is the
development of the Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League's
(RAIL's) work among Spanish-speaking masses. From public
educational events exposing Amerikan imperialism to
circulating anti-prisons-brutality petitions to building a
Spanish-language Books for Prisoners Program - these are all
projects we need your help with. If you can translate
materials, distribute Notas Rojas, circulate petitions, or
go on-line and encourage people to support these practices -
do it! Together, we can win!
* * *
CNN-TIME RETRACTS STORY OF U.$. WAR CRIME
The previous MIM Notes reported on a CNN and Time Magazine
report that the U.$. used nerve gas in Laos in 1970 in an
attack on a civilian village containing Amerikan defectors
from the war in neighboring Vietnam. Such use of poison gas
would be considered a war crime, although at the time the
U.$. had not signed the Geneva Protocol against such
weapons.
After the story broke, a firestorm in the bourgeois press
was launched against the CNN/Time story. MIM commented on
this in its story:
"The current Pentagon denies any knowledge or record of the
use of nerve gas in the Vietnam War. However, the very
nature of these operations required that very little written
record be kept, so it is to be expected that the Pentagon
can't find "proof" of this war crime."
Since then, CNN/Time has retracted the statement that sarin
gas was used in the attack, and that Amerikan defectors were
the target in Operation Tailwind. With defectors not a
target, the CNN/Time retraction makes MIM ask: Then just
what where Amerikan troops doing massacring civilians in
Laos, where they weren't supposed to be?
"From 1965 to 1973, the U.S. dropped over two million tons
of bombs on Laos, far more than all sides dropped in World
War II. The bombing was so ferocious that over a quarter of
the population became refugees, with many people living in
caves for years at a time." And on the subject of lying
about whether sarin gas was used in Laos, for years the
United Snakes denied the war in Laos even existed.(2)
The CNN/Time retraction emphasizes the lack of written
records and the statements of other Amerikan military
leaders who claim to have no knowledge of gas use or an
attack on defectors. MIM considers the original story to be
believable based on the evidence presented and the lack of
evidence in the retraction.
Even if it were true that the reporters working on the story
were "overzealous" in trying to get evidence of sarin gas
use, and stretched their evidence and testimony to that
effect, that would not justify the widespread reaction and
condemnation of the story -- as if the retraction proves the
opposite, that no gas was used.
At best, critics of the original reporting should still be
saying, "there is considerable evidence that sarin gas was
used, even if it is not decisively proven, which is unlikely
to be possible because of the nature of the operation." That
would not be reason to celebrate the Tailwind death-squad
and rule out such murderous actions on the part of Amerika.
It is likely that this chain of events could make it harder
for people to use the imperialist press to expose the evils
of imperialism. Many reactionary pundits are arguing that
when exposing "black operations" for which a paper trail
does not exist, reporters should be required to find more
evidence than they would be required to find for a story
about aboveground operations. This is clearly nonsense, and
a standard ignored when the imperialist system wants to
slander the revolutionary movements. The high profile CNN-
Time retraction, like the lower profile retraction of the
San Jose Mercury News from the story about the CIA role in
the crack epidemic, also serves to discredit the exposure of
the system that does go on.
CNN apologized to viewers and said that CNN "owes a special
apology to the personnel involved in Operation Tailwind."
The apology that's actually being made is from CNN/Time to
the imperialist system for bring to light yet another
embarrassing detail of Amerika's dirty war against Southeast
Asia. The true apology that should be made is from the
Amerikan imperialist system to the people of Southeast Asia.
The oppressed masses of the world will only get that apology
long after their revolutions and the United Snakes is put
under the dictatorship of the international proletariat.
NOTES:
1. Boston Globe 3 June 1998, p. 3., Time Magazine 13 June
1998, p. 6.
2. Zepezauer, The CIA's Greatest Hits, Odonia Press, p. 42-
42.
* * *
OPPOSE MEXICAN GOVERNMENT MASSACRES
Several RAIL comrades recently attended a rally protesting
massacres carried out by the reactionary Mexican government,
from the massacre of students in 1968 to recent massacres in
the state Chiapas. The RAIL comrades passed out the
following flyer from MIM at the rally.
The rally was sponsored by the Comite Pro-Democracia en
Mexico, and put forward the slogans "Castigate those
responsible for the massacres! Liberty for political
prisoners! No to US military assistance! Reinitiate the
dialogue in Chiapas! End the war of low intensity!" MIM does
not believe that negotiations with the Mexican government
will bring true peace or democracy to the peasants of
Chiapas - as the MIM flyer makes clear. MIM also has some
fundamental criticisms of the strategy of the EZLN
(Zapatista Army for National Liberation), the main guerrilla
group operating in Chiapas. But despite the fact that the
rally's organizers were predominately pro-EZLN, they
explicitly allowed the RAIL comrades to distribute the MIM
flyers. The RAIL comrades in turn supported the rally's
efforts to expose the atrocities of the u.$.-backed Mexican
government and build opposition against u.$. intervention in
Mexico.
Several days after the rally, while soliciting signatures on
an anti-prisons-brutality petition, these RAIL comrades ran
into several people who were at the protest rally. These
people refused to sign the anti-prisons-brutality petition,
because they claimed that the RAIL comrades had distributed
"anti-Zapatista literature" at a "pro-Zapatista rally." When
MIM heard about this, MIM thought that this was a classic
case of "anti-sectarian" sectarianism.
First, the rally was not advertised as a "pro-Zapatista
rally," but rather as a protest against the anti-people
massacres in Mexico. Second, these individuals argued that
it was incorrect for RAIL to distribute a flyer with
ideological criticisms of the Zapatistas at the rally, but
then they turned around and refused to sign RAIL's anti-
prisons-brutality petition, because this ideological
difference with RAIL! This behavior is rooted in the
Menshevik logic that "revolutionary sentiment alone" can
bring unity among anti-imperialist or so-called left
activists. The fact is that there are different ideologies
and parties out there representing different class
interests. Our critics actually have recognized this
implicitly by putting their weight behind the Zapatistas and
against MIM's line. But they hide this fact beneath a muddle
of righteous sounding "unity at all costs" rhetoric.(1)
This Menshevik confusion can lead to some absurd and
dangerous results. Take the Worker's World Party, for
example. The Trotskyist WWP claims to support the Maoist
Communist Party of Peru (PCP), while at the same time
supporting the petit-bourgeois "revolutionists" in the Tupac
Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA).
This despite the fact that the MRTA was supported by soviet
social imperialism and clearly favor "negotiated solutions"
to Peru's problems which will be implemented more or less
under the current reactionary governmental framework. But
here is what Comrade Gonzalo from the PCP had to say about
negotiations:
"The idea of talks is being bandied about, and it is also
part of the superpower's game, especially the social-
imperialists. We see the situation this way: there is a time
in the development of a people's war when relations and
diplomatic dealings become necessary and do occur... But we
must start from the understanding that in diplomatic
meetings agreements signed on the table only reflect what
has already been established on the battlefield, because no
one is going to give up what they have not obviously lost...
Well, one could ask, has that moment arrived in Peru? That
moment has not arrived. So why raise the issue of talks?
Such talks are simply aimed at halting or undermining the
people's war, that's what they are aimed at and nothing
more... And who talks about talks? The revisionists,
opportunists, and those who have hope for the APRA [the
then-ruling party], for this demo-bourgeois order, for this
reactionary order."(2)
So by "supporting" both the PCP and the MRTA the WWP is
calling on people here to, on the one hand, support peace
talks with the reactionary government, and, on the other, to
reject talks. What does this accomplish except confusion?
MIM calls on our critics to thoroughly study our positions
(and their own) and judge whether or not they are actually
anti-Zapatista (let alone anti-the peasants of Chiapas). We
also call on them to openly state their criticisms and
allegiances - give the masses a chance to make up their own
minds.
NOTES:
1. Lenin, "The tasks of the revolutionary youth," in VI
Lenin on Youth, Progress Publishers (Moscow), 1970, pp. 87-
102.
2. Interview with Chairman Gonzalo, CSRP (Berkeley). pp. 65-
66. END
* * *
DOWN WITH THE U.$.-SPONSORED MEXICAN MILITARIST REGIME!
The government of Mexico is a puppet of u.s. imperialism. As
it further sells away its resources and labor to the highest
bidder, and at the same time draws itself closer to the
united states with military aid and monetary loans, the
economic situation of the Mexican people gets worse each
day. In the countryside, the paltry gains of the 1910
revolution are rapidly being liquidated which leads to the
formation of huge foreign-owned plantations. The small
peasant as a result faces poverty and a life of hardship. In
the city, where there is a high percentage of unemployment
and street crime, workers in factories are brutally super-
exploited and face even worse living conditions as the
reactionary state is moving towards the privatization of
many public services, such as education. Since the current
lackeys of u.s. imperialism usurped power in 1917, Mexicans
have been on the receiving end of poverty, misery, hunger,
massacre, repression and corruption.
What are the people of Mexico to do? The people of Chiapas
and Guerrero have demonstrated that the only solution to a
fascist dictatorship is armed struggle. The heroic attempts
of the Chiapaneco peasants on January 1, 1994 demonstrated
to Mexico that there can be another answer to solve the
problems of corruption and oppression besides the electoral
booth: the just raising of arms. There is no other way to
dissolve the ties between Mexico and u.s. imperialism, since
the u.s. has a huge stake in maintaining Mexico a
militarized, regionally-stable country.
Build the anti-imperialist movement!
For those who live inside the belly of the beast, one of the
main tasks right now is to expose the crimes Amerikan
imperialism and its lackeys. Information about crimes such
as the massacres in Mexico should be spread throughout the
u.$. empire, and these crimes should be presented as what
they are: inevitable outcomes of the backwards, bloodthirsty
system of imperialism. MIM calls on all genuine anti-
imperialists to work with MIM and the Revolutionary Anti-
Imperialist League, a MIM-led mass organization.
Study and apply Protracted People's War!
As communists, we raise the question of whether it is enough
to pick up the gun to have as the ultimate goal a chance to
reform the present reactionary state. For this we criticize
the Zapatistas. This does not mean that we communists scorn
the people who give support to the Zapatistas. No. It simply
means that we believe that the Zapatistas need to re-
evaluate their perception of the current Mexican state and
society to see that there can be no talk of negotiation
unless the rebel forces have a strategic advantage. The pro-
imperialist puppet state has proven itself not to want peace
and negotiation. It is also relatively stronger at this
point in history than any serious opposition. It does not
want to solve the economic and political problems facing the
Mexican people. We criticize the Zapatistas for wanting to
share power with the local imperialist lackeys, and not
wanting to seize state power in the interests of the Mexican
workers and peasants.
We hope that the brutal, but very real, lessons drawn from
the state's repression will help all well-intentioned people
of Mexico realize that the state held by people subservient
to foreign interests does not want to negotiate. We hope
that revolutionaries in Mexico raise the banner of Marxism-
Leninism-Maoism applied to the concrete conditions of Mexico
as the guiding thought of their struggle. For only Maoist
People's War in a semi-feudal, semi-colonial country can be
the answer to state massacres. People's War builds
independent support bases amongst the people in the
countryside as it protractedly encircles the cities. Thus we
repudiate the focoist and sensationalist strategy of the
EZLN for refusing to recognize the real nature of the enemy.
We cite the historical examples of China and Vietnam and the
contemporary examples of the Philippines and Peru as shining
examples of People's War. Only through People's War can
their be a guarantee that the state's actions will not go
unchecked. Only People's War can destroy imperialism and
reaction in Mexico.
Long Live the Struggle of the Mexican People! Long Live
Maoist People's War!
* * *
UNITED SNAKES INSISTS HEGEMONY OVER HUMAN RIGHTS COURT
by MC53
A five week conference is currently being held in Rome to
set up procedure, standards and rules to prosecute
individuals for genocide and crimes against humanity. The
United Snakes is pushing for stiff control of the
prosecutorial power. The u.$. wants only the permanent UN
Security Council member nations to determine which crimes
and which defendants should be prosecuted.
Worried that imperialist soldiers may face scrutiny for
carrying out crimes against the masses, United Snakes
representative to the UN, Bill Richardson, said "Soldiers
deployed far from home need to do their jobs without
exposure to politicized proceedings."(1) This June 17
statement was made in response to proposals to develop an
independent prosecutor to investigate war crimes within the
UN international criminal court.
The other nations and human rights groups at the conference
reportedly oppose the position of the United Snakes. The
majority of conference participants have pushed for a fully
independent prosecutor with the power to start
investigations without approval by the Security Council and
without formal complaints by a nation's government. Human
rights groups like Human Rights Watch argue that insistence
on referrals or consent by the Security Council members or
governments will obstruct genuine investigation of crimes.
While the conference majority seek open-ended power to
conduct investigation and prosecute, the United Snakes has
openly stated its fear that Amerikkkan footsoldiers may be
taken before an anti-Amerikkkan judge if the imperialists do
not keep tight reins over the international court. The u.s.
is even being honest about its willingness to tolerate
crimes against the people in order to defend imperialism.
Richardson said, "This court... should not address every
crime that goes unpunished, no matter how horrific or
atrocious..."
MIM believes it is better to have independent investigators
because they may serve to expose genocide by the US. But
these investigators working for the UN are not going to give
the masses power to control genocide by imperialists. The UN
itself has a history of participating in genocide as a
puppet of u.s. imperialism. The UN actions in Iraq and
Somalia provide just a few examples of this reality. Real
accountability must come from governments of the people.
This will only be achieved through communist revolution.
NOTE: 1. The New York Times 18 June 1998. p. A12.
* * *
D.C. RALLIES WHITE POT SMOKERS; IGNORES THE "WAR ON DRUGS"
AGAINST THE OPPRESSED
July 4, Washington DC -- A few hundred people turned out for
this year's "legalize marijuana" rally across the street
from the White House. As usual, DC-RAIL cadre showed up to
sell newspapers and, this year, to try to engage the masses
in what should be a very relevant issue to the drug
legalization movement -- prisons. DC-RAIL was there to
collect signatures against the transfer of DC prisoners into
the federal prison system and distribute our literature.
Though mixed, the response to the petition and the
newspapers was better then either the speakers or the
literature of the rally would indicate.
Some enthusiastically signed the petition and bought the
newspaper. Even those that wanted to draw a sharp
distinction between "drug offenders" and "violent offenders"
were persuaded that current prison conditions, including
profit-driven transfers, were inhumane. And many were simply
grateful for something to read and open-minded enough for
that something to be a communist newspaper. It is that basic
distrust of authority that gives MIM and RAIL an in at these
gatherings.
The speakers ranged from, at best, those who promoted free
needle exchanges in the interest of public health, to, at
worst, those who insisted that the movement of pot-smokers
was as patriotic and Amerikkka-loving as anyone else. "We
love you, Bill Clinton," said one, seriously!
As we circulated through the crowd, in which many of the
almost all white participants smoked marijuana, we couldn't
help notice the absence of police that were so present at
that same park a few months earlier for the Jericho '98
rally to free political prisoners. So-called laws
prohibiting selling anything in the park were not enforced
at the pot rally as they had been for Jericho, and police
were not strolling through the park hassling people as they
had in March.
It's not that we want to see the pot-smokers arrested or
hassled by the pigs. But we would love to see an
acknowledgment by this First World youth movement of its
privilege relative to oppressed nation peoples, and we
challenge the better elements of this group to champion the
struggles of those who are actually oppressed. Why don't
they openly charge the pigs with hypocrisy for allowing the
smoke-in to take place, while arresting and incarcerating
oppressed nation youth for drug charges all the time? Why
not force the pigs to admit that it's not the drugs they
want to eliminate, but the oppressed nations?
The drug war, with the vast discretion it puts in the hand
of police-state agents, allows them to crack down on whoever
they want -- mostly but not exclusively oppressed nationals.
That also means they can leave alone most whites who smoke
pot, and just use drug laws to persecute those who cause
trouble in other ways. But this reactionary movement
portrays itself as representing an oppressed pot-smoking
population, and as the real victims of the war on drugs. One
speaker, Marvin Marvin, likened pot- smokers to Jews in Nazi
Germany, to the cheers of the crowd.
Two aging self-described libertarians attempted to discredit
a RAIL comrade by repeating all kinds of bourgeois lies
about Mao, including that Mao shot all drug users. The RAIL
comrade tried to explain that every criticism they had of
Mao and the Chinese Communist Party contained a vicious
defense of something the libertarians claimed also to oppose
-- feudalism (free Tibet!), inequality (oppression of
intellectuals!) and poverty (we oppose all force!). "I knew
an intellectual who had to work on the railroad for 10
years!" one exclaimed. The RAIL comrade asked what was wrong
with intellectuals working on the railroad -- especially if
it meant that peasants could then go to school. The
libertarian had no response.
MIM and RAIL hope to hear more from people who attended this
rally who will read our newspapers and who are willing to
think about the drug- legalization issue -- and any other
issue -- from the perspective of the international
proletariat.
* * *
MIM LEGAL NOTES:
CAIN v. MDOC IMPLEMENTATIONS OF CENSORSHIP
by a Michigan prisoner
10 June 1998
*MIM is proud to introduce MIM Legal Notes, a forum for
prisoners and others to help us agitate in favor of
prisoners and against oppression. This issue deals with
censorship in Michigan prisons. MIM has the full legal brief
written by the prisoner, and it is available to our comrades
under lock and key who are fighting censorship in their
koncentration kamps. The following has been edited for
clarity and space, with a response from MIM at the end. The
initator of this regular column wrote this column*
What are the implications of Cain v. MDOC on censorship of
prisoner mail in the penal concentration camps of Michigan?
Censorship is defined as: A review of publication, movies,
plays and the like for the purpose of prohibiting the
publication, distribution, or production of material deemed
objectionable as obscene, or immoral. Such actions are
frequently challenged as constituting a denial of freedom of
press or speech. Blacks' Law Dictionary, West Publications,
6th edition, 1990. p. 22
In the case of Cain v. MDOC, the court dealt a devastating
blow to prisoners' constitutional rights on December 5, 1997
when it denied relief for many of the prisoner's claims. The
plaintiffs (prisoners) were challenging the Michigan DOC
policy of cutting back their rights to receive mail, books,
and other printed materials. A Michigan statute provides
that: "In a correctional facility having a security
designation of IV,V or VI, not more [property] than the
amount that can be contained in one duffel bag and one
footlocker is approved by the department of corrections."
In Cain v. MDOC, the court upheld this statute, and ruled
that the department of corrections may legally declare what
items of property prisoners will be allowed to possess or
acquire in a correctional facility. In November 1997, Prison
Legal Services of Michigan (PLSM) filed a motion seeking a
preliminary injunction to stop MDOC from implementing the
new policy directive. While the judge denied the motion (and
thus allowed the censorship policy, in the guise of a
limitation on amount of property, to be implemented), he did
rule that books, magazines, newspapers, and catalogs from
approved vendors are "mail" and need not be ordered through
the institution. The judge also ruled that calendars from
books, magazines, newspapers or catalogs are permissible;
added five paperback books as allowable items at level VI
facilities (previously was limited to 10 books); allowed
possession of personal correspondence and photographs at
level VI facilities. The judge also ruled that prisoners are
entitled to a Notice of Intent (NOI) for prisoner property
taken by MDOC, unless the prisoner waives this notice in
writing.
In spite of the above "relaxation" of the harsh censorship
policies, prison officials have wide discretion in the
regulation of how much, and a large extent, what types of
reading material any prisoner can possess under the
provisions. The constitutional implications surrounding
MDOC's censorship of prisoner property/mail rights under
these enactments are certainly issues of critical contention
and grave concern for all Michigan prisoners, book
publishers and distributors, newspaper columnists who
reports on prison conditions, etc.
Another Michigan court recently addressed the issue of
prison officials' censorship of prisoner mail in Winburn v
Bologna. In Winburn a prisoner brought suit under Title 42
U.S.C. Sec. 1983, against MDOC officials alleging violations
of his United States Constitutional First and Fourteenth
Amendment rights, where a prison mail regulation allowed
corrections officials discretionary authority to censor and
ultimately ban his receipt of certain objectionable racially
inflammatory reading materials.
In this opinion, the court used the Turner standard (a 1987
united snakes supreme court decision) of "reasonableness"
regarding restrictions on prisoners rights. The Turner test
is as follows:
(a) Whether there is a "valid," rational connection between
the regulations and a legitimate and neutral government
interest put forward to justify it, which connection cannot
be so remote as to render the regulation arbitrary or
irrational.
(b) Whether there are alternative means of exercising the
asserted constitutional right that remain open to inmates,
which alternatives, if they exist, will require a measure of
judicial deference to the corrections officials expertise.
(c) Whether and the extent to which accommodation of the
asserted right will have an impact on prison staff, on
inmates' liberty, and on the allocation of limited prison
resources, which impact, if substantial, will require
particular deference to correctional officials.
(d) Whether the regulation presents an "exaggerated
response" to prison concerns, the existence of a ready
alternative that fully accommodates the prisoner's rights at
de minimis cost to valid penological interest being evidence
of unreasonableness.
While the Michigan department of corrections advances the
hypocritically false proposition that prisoner
rehabilitation is one of the main objectives of the statue
and the policy, we have all witnessed the gradual whittling
away of prisoners' constitutional rights and civil liberties
by corrections officials and governmental bureaucracy. With
the decision in Cain, the curtailment and censorship of
prisoner mail rights under the constitution clearly came
into focus. Available educational reading material and
literature made accessible to political prisoners warehoused
in close custody facilities will be sparse at best, while
the illusion of so-called rehabilitation fades into
oblivion.
Nevertheless, a successful challenge by prisoners to
government censorship can be reached. A case in point is
Amatel v. Reno, a federal case brought in D.C. In this case,
federal prisoners and various publishers brought suit under
42 U.S.C. sec 1983 against the Federal Bureau of Prisons
(BOP) challenging the constitutionality of a statute which
prohibited the BOP from using Federal funds to "distribute
or make available" to prisoners "commercially published
information or material" known to be "sexually explicit or
featuring nudity."
The "legitimate" penological interest advanced by the BOP
(to be "balanced" against the "rights" of prisoners) was the
"rehabilitation" of prisoners. The Supreme Court has already
identified security, order and rehabilitation of prisoners
as "substantial" government interests. When the court
identifies the government interest as "substantial", then
the prisoners' "rights" are given much less weight in the
balance. The Amatel court addressed whether the BOP's statue
drew distinctions between publications based solely upon the
basis of their potential implementations for rehabilitation,
and concluded that the statutory regulation's "distinctions
on the basis of content were not drawn with a view to the
implications of rehabilitation." The court found the statute
was content-based with a sole focus on a publications'
sexual content. Questioning the regulatory scheme, the court
identified curious distinctions between the BOP's banning
magazines such as Playboy and Penthouse as sexually counter-
productive to prisoner rehabilitation, while allowing other
such publications as the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue
and Victoria Secret catalogue. Through its analysis the
court struck down the regulation's discriminatory
selectivity: "If rehabilitation was the content neutral goal
of the [statute], then presumably it would ban all non-
rehabilitative publications." Amatel. The court questioned
the BOP's reasoning for concluding that publications such as
Playboy and Penthouse could be considered any more or less
rehabilitative than the other two publications. The Amatel
court found that the statute was not "neutral" pursuant to
the reasonableness standard of Turner v. Safley and further
found the regulation facially violative of the First
Amendment.
With this view in mind, and through further research,
prisoners may be better equipped to challenge the Cain court
order on the censorship issue. One final note: mail delays
that are brief, occasional or accidental are seldom found
unconstitutional, especially if there are not harmful
consequences. If your MIM Notes is held up by officials for
weeks you should first file an administrative grievance to
find out why MDOC held up your privileged mail. [Again, MIM
has the full legal brief with citations from which this
article was excerpted, for those comrades working on
censorship campaigns in their prisons.-ed.]
MIM supports winnable battles against censorship and other
repressive prison policies. MIM is leading a mass
organization of prisoners to work against repression in any
way we can at this time. We gather information from
prisoners and distribute this information, as well as books
and other literature, back to our comrades under lock and
key. We also agitate on the outside against prisons and
prison conditions. Write to MIM or RAIL if you want to get
involved in the struggle against censorship and other
repressive conditions of confinement under this oppressive
imperialist system!
* * *
NGUYEN NGOC LOAN OBITUARY:
GENERAL IN SOUTH VIETNAMESE PUPPET ARMY DIES
On July 14, Nguyen Ngoc Loan died of cancer in Virginia. He
was a general in the U.S. puppet army in south Vietnam. A
photograph of Loan executing a Viet Cong prisoner in the
streets of Saigon was circulated around the world, and
symbolized the brutality of the war.
"On Feb. 1, 1968, ... Loan led the prisoner, his hands
bound, onto a street corner and in front of a group of
journalists pulled his pistol and show the prisoner point-
blank in the head. The general told the newsmen that the
prisoner was a known Viet Cong captain."
When the people's army seized control of the entire country
of Vietnam in 1975, Loan fled to the United Snakes and
opened a restaurant. Neo-colonialist lackey pigs have always
served imperialism well, and not all will die lucky deaths
from cancer.
NOTE: Boston Globe 16 July 1998, p. B7.
* * *
NEW SETTLER BENEFITS GO INTO EFFECT
U$A--On July 1, 1998, new tax code provisions went into
effect which allow tax credits for 20% of the expense of
going back to college or skill training.
MIM has been talking about these plans of the imperialists
for quite some time. Vice-President Gore took credit for the
program in Iowa, as part of his presidential campaign for
the year 2000.
Contrary to some internationalist social-democrat friends of
ours who hold that funding for college is a matter of class
struggle, we at MIM believe it is a class struggle amongst
parasitic classes in the imperialist countries. There is no
G-8 conspiracy to attack college education on the financial
front.
While Third World workers do the heavy agriculture, mining
and manufacturing work, people in the U$A, Western Europe
and Japan go to college. After they get to college and
graduate having been fed and clothed by the Third World, the
parasites turn around and justify their squeezing the Third
World for the products of imperialist country mental labor.
Note: USA Today 9July1998.
* * *
NIGERIA NEWS:
DEATHS EMPHASIZE NEED FOR PROLETARIAN LEADERSHIP
ABACHA OBITUARY: NIGERIA MILITARY DICTATOR DIES
by RC68
MIM is happy to report some of the best news to come out of
Nigeria recently. Ruthless military terrorist dictator and
boot licking dog of U$ and English imperialism, Sani Abacha,
died at age 54 of a heart attack early in the morning of
June 8th. The Nigerian people are not reported to be sad for
the loss.
Sani Abacha dedicated his entire miserable life to the
service of imperialism and the oppression of African people.
He became an infantryman at age 18. Just after Nigeria's
independence from the English empire in 1960, Abacha was
admitted to the Nigerian Military Training College in
Kaduna. In 1963 he received his commission as 2nd Lieutenant
after study at Mons Defense Officers Cadet Training College
in Aldershot, England.(1) Apparently Abacha knew at an early
age exactly where to go for training in ruthless military
terrorist repression of decent civilized human beings.
In 1967 pig Abacha took a break from studying oppression to
put some theory into practice and advance the cause of
western imperialism by fighting to crush the Biafran
liberation movement. After gaining some practical experience
in massacre, Abacha went back to school. He continued his
terrorist training in Monterey, CA and England. He was so
well educated in his area of interest by the Anglo-Amerikan
imperialist pigs that he played a leading role in three
different military coups. Abacha was a good dog. The
amerikan and english pigs gave him a big bone.(1)
Before Abacha and his thug associates began their campaign
of violence, terror, and imperialist backed repression of
all things human, Nigeria was exceptionally prosperous.
Nigeria's oil exports financed major economic recovery in
the 1970s and 80s. Nigerian art flourished. Nigerian
currency was worth twice the U$ dollar. Nigerian press was
relatively free and Nigerian diplomats challenged the
empires of England and the United Snakes over issues like
apartheid.(1)
Abacha and his bandit friends in the military, in true
faithful service to their imperialist masters in the U$ and
England, made sure to scrap all of that without hesitation.
Thanks to Sani Abacha's sellout misleadership and faithful
service to imperialism, Nigeria is still in steep decline.
Water and electrical supplies are unreliable in most cities.
Unemployment has soared in recent months, and inflation has
cut the purchasing power of most Nigerians to bare
subsistence levels. Pig Abacha was thorough.(1)
For 15 straight years and 27 of the last 37 years Nigeria
has suffered under brutal military terrorist regimes backed
by England and the United Snakes. Until global public outcry
over Abacha's murder of political activist Ken Saro-Wina,
both empires were wholehearted in their support of these
violently repressive regimes. Even since then the majority
of foreign aid given directly to the Nigerian military
terrorist dictatorship has come from the U$, England, and
France. Abacha and his predecessors cranked Nigeria's
foreign debt up to $34.7 Billion. Over $19 Billion of that
is owed to the Paris Club of official creditors.(2) Of
course this should not be a surprise as these three rogue
terrorist empires are responsible for arming and financing
every single military terrorist regime on planet earth. Not
coincidentally Amerika and western Europe also receive the
majority of Nigeria's oil exports.(2) Mobil, Chevron, Shell,
Texaco, Tenneco, Total, Amoco, and Exxon all own oil fields
in Nigeria. The Nigerian people own none.
Sani Abacha was not only a cancer on the people of Nigeria.
He was also a menace to the safety and freedom of all of the
peoples of west Africa. Sani Abacha has tried to use the
Nigerian Army to take over parts of Cameroon and Equitorial
Guinea.(2) When pig Abacha died, he was chairman of the
Economic Community of West African States. The ECOWAS
Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) is essentially the Nigerian Army
under a different name. As the leading force in ECOMOG,
Nigeria has done much to wreak havoc and spread military
terror throughout that part of the world, especially by
intervening in recent civil wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone
and ensuring outcomes that met with the approval of england
and amerika. RAIL joins the people of Nigeria and all of
Africa in the hope that Nigeria's role as terrorist agent of
Anglo-Amerikan imperialism will be diminished now that Sani
Abacha is dead. Unfortunately it is highly unlikely without
a true revolutionary national liberation movement in
Nigeria.
Even though pig Abacha is dead, his replacement General
AbdulSalam Abubakar, is not likely to be much better for the
Nigerian people. The English, French, and Amerikan investors
are not going to leave. It is very important to the U$
imperialists and their ruthless allies to preserve the
status quo of military terrorism in Nigeria. The comprador
Nigerian Army is the 1 paid protector of first world rape
and exploitation of Africa for profit. The Nigerian army is
also the imperialists' key player in checking any liberation
movement in the region. This works well for the imperialists
because Africans are much more expendable to the U$ than
their own troops. It also keeps larger numbers of their own
terrorists invasion forces available to oppress and murder
innocent people in other parts of the world. The sad truth
is, this will likely not change now that Abacha is dead.
Regardless of the fact that Abacha died of a heart attack,
the death of a single pig will never change anything. There
is no doubt that Abacha was a murderous criminal agent of
imperialism that deserved to die. But his death has not
given any power back to the Nigerian people, such as the Ibo
people, whose lands and lives are wrecked without remorse by
Shell, Mobil, Chevron and the rest of the major U$ oil
companies. The people can and likely will liberate
themselves, but they will only do it through a self-
sufficient national liberation movement.
NOTES
1. New York Times, June 9, 1998.
2. United $tates Energy Information Administration
http://www.eia.doe.gov/emue/cabs/nigeria.html
* * *
ABIOLA OBITUARY:
IMPRISONED BY MILITARY DICTATORSHIP BUT NOT A PROLETARIAN
LEADER
by RC784
Mashood K. O. Abiola, winner of the 1993 Nigerian elections
which were annulled by the military regime of General Sani
Abacha, died in prison Wednesday, July 8, 1998 after five
years of solitary confinement. Nigerians rioted in the
streets of the capital, Abuja, to protest the military
dictatorship that brought about the death of an elected
president before he was allowed to take power. Whether or
not Abiola was murdered, it is clear his five years of
imprisonment contributed to his early demise as the Abacha
regime frequently denied him medical attention. But MIM
questions the importance of Abiola: what difference might he
have made for the masses of Nigerians?(1)
There is no question that the Abacha regime was brutally
repressive and that the profits from Nigeria's oil were
going into the pockets of imperialist oil companies and
Abacha's cronies. Nigeria has clearly suffered at the hands
of these comprador thugs. But Abiola worked for the
imperialists as well. He received an imperialist education
in England, and "although from a modest family, he rode the
crest of Nigeria's oil boom in the 1970s, and through
involvement in a series of massive telecommunication
projects with the Amerikan multinational, ITT, he became
very wealthy..."(2) ITT is a U$ corporation involved in
manufacturing electronic automobile parts, military
equipment, and electronics, and the Sheraton hotel chain is
one of their subsidiaries (Sheraton has 29 hotels throughout
Africa and the Middle East including hotels in Abuja and
Lagos).
Aside for securing the contract for the Nigerian telephone
system with ITT, MIM does not know exactly what Abiola was
responsible for as an employee of ITT, nor what business
they have in/with Africa aside from their hotel chain,
although some Nigerians have complained that the telephone
system is "second rate."(3) ITT is a global corporation with
its claws in many oppressed nations, and was implicated in
supporting the 1973 military coup in Chile that toppled the
elected Socialist president, Salvador Allende; cooperating
with the fascists (Mussolini, Histler and Franco) during
World War II; sabotaging production in its Hungarian plant
during the Cold War at the behest of the CIA; monopolizing
forest land in the U$ and Canada, and making phenomenal
profits off of a substandard phone system in Puerto Rico.(4)
Furthermore, the 1993 election did not reflect the will of
the Nigerian people. This was a military-supervised election
which only allowed two parties to run: Abiola's Social
Democratic Party and the National Republican Convention
whose candidate, Bashi Tofa, was also a rich businessman.
Clearly, Abiola was some kind of threat or his victory
wouldn't have been annulled. But this was not a contest
between a proletarian led government of the people and an
imperialist led one.
Clearly, though, Abiola was some kind of threat or his
victory wouldn't have been annulled, and the Nigerian masses
would have preferred his rule to that of the military. After
his electoral victory had been annulled by the Nigerian
military, Nigeria erupted in nationwide strikes which ended
with the arrest of union leadership and a brutal military
crackdown.(5)
The Nigerian masses preferred Abiola to Babangida (head of
Nigerian military at the time), but the 1993 election cannot
be described as expression of the true will of the Nigerian
masses. The pro-democracy opposition which generally backed
Abiola is not proletarian led and is pursuing petit-
bourgeois and bourgeois demands. While opposition to a
military dictatorship is progressive, only with proletarian
leadership will the movement stand a chance of seizing power
for the people in Nigeria and creating a government that
truly represents the people.
NOTES:
1. R. W. Apple, Jr., "Jailed Nigerian Leader Dies Amid
Envoy's Visit," and Michael T. Kaufman,"Mashood K. O.
Abiola: From Wealth to Troubled Politics to Flawed Leader,"
New York Times, July 8, 1998, pp. A1 and A8.
2. www.bbcnews.org/hi/english/world/africa/newsid_119000/
119333.stm
3. Ejike E. Okpa II, "Abiola should not return to power,"
The Black Business Journal," www.bbj.com/NewTalent.html
4. Anthony Sampson, The Sovereign State of ITT (NY: Stein
and Day, 1973).
5. Christopher Day, "Strike Movement Challenges Military
Rule,"
http//:au.spunk.org/texts/pubs/lr/sp001714/nigeria.htm
* * *
FIGHT IMPERIALISM TO WIN!
JOIN THE PROLETARIAN LED UNITED FRONT
A successful United Front which liberates the masses from
oppression is a broad mobilization of various classes and
interests which is led by the proletariat. Only United
Fronts which have been led by the proletariat are successful
in reacting to the strategies of the enemy. Only United
Fronts which have been led by the proletariat are successful
in ensuring that it is always the interests of the oppressed
which are being pursued.
Historically, social movements have whimpered away from
proletarian leadership in a variety of ways. These movements
are usually led by interests of classes whose members
vacillate depending on the conditions. The national
bourgeoisie membership vacillates depending on the depth of
imperialist plunder. The petty-bourgeoisie membership
vacillates depending on the individual interests, some of
which are progressive at times and some of which are not.
But the proletariat does not vacillate because by
definition, the proletariat is the class for which
revolution is the only possible path toward liberation.
It is the proletariat that is able to keep social movements
which include various other class elements on the
revolutionary path.
Many of the privileged classes claim that proletarian
dictatorship eventually and proletarian leadership in the
here and now is oppressive in itself. Many are anarchist and
anti-leadership. But in every movement, there is leadership,
the question is whether we are going to build a movement
which is strong, headed in the correct direction, and
fiercely opposed to imperialism - even if such a feat in the
imperialist countries seems insurmountable. Or should we
succumb to gathering many petty bourgeois or otherwise non-
proletarian masses in one place for a watered down cause and
appease them by relegating the proletariat to leadership of
its only temporary allies?
First World liberals, anarchists, post-modernists, and petty
bourgeois activists tend to work toward the goal of building
coalitions. These coalitions have no stated leadership
though there is always a line which wins out, goals which
are developed, and general direction that is taken. These
come from the exertion of leadership. The issue is whether
or not the line, goals and general direction which result
from this hidden leadership is proletarian. Generally in the
United Snakes, the coalitions succumb to extreme compromise
and the watering down of genuine anti-imperialism.
MIM is happy to see various coalitions which from time to
time accomplish progressive tasks to unmask imperialism and
settler nation domination. MIM and RAIL work with
organizations and individuals when they do not include
revisionists and when they allow independence of initiative
for the communist led forces. MIM and RAIL join these forces
in United Front organizing when genuine proletarian
leadership is allowed to exert the correct line and
leadership.
Part of correct line and leadership is carrying out the
fight against all enemies of the people. Imperialists and
revisionists are the main enemies of the People's movements
for genuine socialist revolution. MIM includes revisionists
in the enemy camp because the agenda of revisionists - to
mislead and ultimately destroy the battle of the proletariat
by putting forward their own class interests - is normally
hidden and sugar-coated as a benevolent revolutionary
Marxist force. Revisionists destroy the work of the
proletariat (see historical examples of the destruction of
the People's advancements by revisionists in the U.S.S.R.
and China) all the while pretending to represent the
interests of the people in the name of Marxism.
MIM wades upstream in the battle against imperialism and
revisionism within the belly of the beast. But MIM uses the
universal lessons by Marx, Lenin and Mao and works among the
masses to wage a successful battle against the enemies of
the people. We invite organizations and individuals who are
not communist to work with us on various campaigns against
imperialism, settler nation domination of internal semi-
colonies, various aspects of oppression through the prison
system, gender oppression, environmental destruction and all
evils created by imperialism. We will insist that all work
which is done by MIM, MSG or RAIL foremost and always puts
first the interests of the international proletariat. We
encourage struggle through practice at both theoretical and
practical levels. But we will not water-down the work
undertaken in the struggle against imperialism.
* * *
PIRAO NEEDS LEADERS
by PIRAO chief
PIRAO faces an ongoing crisis for lack of leadership, which
is part of what is called the subjective factor in making
revolution.
The support from the masses for PIRAO continues to be
stronger than what PIRAO can muster the ability to weave
together in one powerful web. For this reason, we need those
of appropriate shrewdness and ruthlessness to step forward
and take up PIRAO's logistical work. People willing to be
central business, technical or medical leaders should step
forward and not wait for PIRAO leaders, unless already
working with PIRAO leaders.
Centralism
For many, the discussion of PIRAO has hinged on a sharp
reminder and lesson in centralism. Recently, an old friend
donated $1500 to party causes out of recognition of the need
for centralism.
There are many progressive and radical people being held
back from making a full contribution to revolution by a
failure to appreciate centralism. PIRAO hits this question
right on the head.
Can there be any question anymore amongst progressive anti-
imperialist people that there is need for material aid to
the proletarian pole in the Third World? Many argue with MIM
over many issues, but where does such debate begin--before
or after minimal action?
PIRAO seeks to tap into the recognition of many that things
have to get done while we struggle over matters of theory
and line. There are many points of unity in action possible
in MIM circles.
Acting first, arguing second
The individualism and anarchism rampant in Amerika push us
all in an argumentative direction that ends up supporting
armchair ideology. Furthermore, as we have pointed out
before, MIM has no organized body engaged in armed struggle.
This is another factor in vitiating the discipline and
training of ourselves.
Often we sidetrack ourselves on issues of trifling
significance. Under true centralism, comrades carry out
orders whether they agree with them or not. Learning from
practice does not mean learning only from practices we
happen to like subjectively at a moment. It means learning
from other comrades' practices, historical communist
practices and even enemy practices.
When we carry out centralism on issues that are not of
cardinal significance, we speed up the learning cycle--even
when we disagree with the leadership. It is only on issues
of cardinal significance where we must hesitate in following
leadership that could very well be revisionist. MIM
considers the Cultural Revolution, Soviet revisionism, the
labor aristocracy and yes, democratic centralism itself to
be cardinal issues.
The persynality cult practiced by the RCP-USA around Bob
Avakian or the Moonies around Rev. Moon causes many to throw
out the baby with the bathwater when it comes to centralism.
However, even in following a leader such as Bob Avakian it
is possible to learn some things from practice.
Failure to understand or "lack of explanation" is not a
reason to oppose centralism. Comrades should take action
first according to leadership instructions and understand it
later. This means doing the best one can to prove the
leadership right. When everyone tries to carry out existing
policy, we can learn from practice. Nothing is learned of
value when we spend more time debating non-cardinal issues
than we do cardinal ones.
There is some petty-bourgeois thinking that reasons that
because of the example of Bob Avakian or because science is
accessible to all people, that we should wait to observe
centralism until after we understand policy or the
leadership. Yet, especially in PIRAO logistical work, it is
not worth debating details in the abstract. The science of
advancing scientific understanding accords a large role to
action.
Imperialist country conditions
In the imperialist countries, we would prefer that the
masses stay asleep rather than learn politics. When aroused,
the majority of the oppressor nation will tend towards
reaction. Nonetheless, those of us with anti- imperialist
and anti-militarist inclinations should step up our activity
while letting reactionaries sleep. For most people,
effective activity means recognizing the need for
organization and centralism.
PIRAO has had many setbacks in the past year, along with
some victories. However, the setbacks PIRAO faces are
nothing compared with the difficulties seen in setting up
communist armed struggle or watered-down populist movements
in the legal sector.
There are those who would have us debate whether now is
right for armed struggle in the imperialist countries.
Others want MIM to relax its line on single-issue
organizations and revisionism in order to focus on numbers
of people involved in politics. Both these traditional
orientations misjudge the balance of forces in the
imperialist countries.
A good imperialist country communist cannot be good at armed
struggle (without Mao's theories of People's War which he
wanted carried out in the Third World) and also cannot be
good at leading popular movements. Both armed struggle and
popular legal movements can only form in a given class
context and they are not subject to the will of parties or
individuals.
Right now, in the context of the imperialist countries it is
ultraleft to seek organized armed struggle and it is
rightist to tailor slogans and organization with the
expectation of forming majoritarian movements. Where MIM has
intervened is applying Maoism to the conditions of our day.
Although gold does not pave the streets of the United
$tates, it is much easier to make money there and in other
imperialist countries than it is in the oppressed or semi-
imperialist nations. We communists are supposed to be
dedicated and ruthless enough to take up armed struggle.
Hence, we should also be willing to be dedicated and
ruthless enough to spend time on boring and mundane details
of setting up businesses and other independent institutions
of the oppressed.
These institutions worked on directly cannot be stopped.
Meanwhile the armed struggle, the traditional union
struggle, the electoral struggle and other forms of "united
front" usually conceived of as some kind of compromise--all
these are dead-ends relatively speaking. Swimming as fish in
the sea in the imperialist countries does not just mean
yelling for higher wages garnered off the backs of Third
World workers.
The PIRAO is one of MIM's key contributions to the
application of Maoism in the imperialist countries. It is a
"recognition of necessity" as the basis of freedom. We are
not good at armed struggle or forming massive proletarian
parties in the imperialist countries. Those who expect this
of the Maoist in 1998 are like an albatross around our
necks. The sooner the old orientation dies, the sooner we
will enjoy communism.
Lest we be armchair intellectuals or Mensheviks, however, we
imperialist country comrades must be good at something. Our
ruthless determination to serve the international
proletariat must help to make up for the many advantages the
imperialists have in the struggle. There is much logistical
work in building independent institutions of the oppressed
that needs to be done.
Backward ideas in the imperialist countries
Now that MIM has a press and there is regular struggle over
theoretical and line issues, we can pinpoint what exactly is
backward ideology in not supporting that work of building
public opinion.
Unfortunately, many people attracted to communism in the
imperialist countries are in reality petty-bourgeois
escapists. They seek to "drop out" or take up lifestyle
politics.
Along these lines are various ascetics who believe in
Buddhism or its Western equivalents. Yet, MIM needs money
and lots of it. It also needs technical knowledge and lots
of it. Some proclaim their willingness to kill and be killed
for communism while failing to take a sufficiently ruthless
attitude toward raising money for comrades at the front-
lines.
Some who would probably study guns fired at them won't make
the same effort to understand all the other practical things
we need to be successful revolutionaries and not just empty
talkers. We at PIRAO must seek to make ideological remolding
apply in all worldly affairs, not just armed struggle or
political debate.
* * *
PRISONERS LOSE LEGAL AID IN NEW YORK
WHILE STATE SPEND MILLIONS IN COURT
The Prisoners' Legal Service (PLS)is a program set up by New
York State to help prisoners with civil grievances. However,
Governor George Pataki cut the program this month. The
government claimed there was no need to provide $4 million a
year for the program when prisons have law libraries.(1)
However, New York State wasn't able to defend their own
cases with hundreds of legal assistants and unlimited access
to legal documents. Governor Pataki, Attorney General Dennis
Vacco, and Comptroller H. Carl McCall spent a combined $1.3
million to hire outside firms to defend the state on top of
what is already spent to employ hundreds of state
lawyers.(2) Yet they claim individuals with no legal
experience or money can plead their own cases.
Anyone who reads Under Lock and Key regularly will know that
where libraries do exist they are usually very poor, and if
you happen to be locked down you can't access them anyway.
Meanwhile many inmates are illiterate or wouldn't even know
where to begin to plead their own case. You can bet that the
DOC does not provide inmates with info on how to file
complaints.
Karen Murtagh-Monks, a co-manager of PLS's Albany office,
notes, "We were created as a safety valve." She is referring
to the fact that the PLS was created in 1976 in response to
the Attica prison uprising five years earlier. Some
government officials oppose cutting the PLS in fear of more
prison uprisings as a result of the lack of ability of
prisoners to better their conditions.
While MIM supports the benefits of such programs as the PLS,
we would prefer an independent group that can not be cut at
the whim of the government. Right now the PLS is searching
for independent funding to continue their work. MIM urges
those interested in providing inmates with legal
representation to contact MIM and work with us to set up an
independent legal infrastructure to serve the people rather
then to maintain passivity.
NOTES:
1. Times Union, 29 June 1998, B-1.
2. Times Union, 1 July 1998, A-1.
See MIM Theory 11 "Amerikkkan Prisons on Trial" for more on
the criminal injustice system as a means of social control
and its intentional failure to rehabilitate people
incarcerated.
* * *
UNDER LOCK AND KEY
WHY WE TAKE ALL THE TROUBLE TO GET MIM NOTES TO PRISONERS
I received your letter... The message was new to me, but
this is why I wrote you, to learn how this oppression began
and how it's still being orchestrated today!
-- a California prisoner
POLITICAL PRISON IN OHIO
[A major issue dominating Ohio's prison system] is the new
super maximum political prison that just opened in
Youngstown. This prison has 500 cells but has not yet
started receiving prisoners. All prisoner activists are
being targeted for 23-hour/day lockdown at the supermax.
-- An Ohio prisoner, 8 May, 1998
FOUGHT CENSORSHIP AND WON
I am writing you this letter to inform you of the ways and
actions of these New York State Incorrectional Pigs and as
you might already know, when I was in Attica Incorrectional
Facility I was being lied to about the incoming mail. I was
being told MIM Notes was not sending me any literature. (I
was told this because of the complaints I made about MIM
Notes being censored.) Since then I've been transferred to
the present facility and all my back issues of MIM Notes
followed me. So now I've been caught up since February to
May.
I would like to thank you for the information you sent me on
how to fight censorship. Not only have I been given my back
issues of MIM Notes, but I've also been moved out of what's
undisputedly the worst Incorrectional facility in New York.
In Struggle,
--A New York State Prisoner, 31 May 1998
NEW YORK PRISONER DRIVEN TO SUICIDE
To Whom It May Concern:
Last night about 1:30 in the SHU, Daniel Horn, committed
suicide by hanging himself. He and I had gotten close during
the time he was here. Below is a list of the facts
surrounding his death: Sometime in January or early February
of 1998 Horn had a disciplinary hearing which was conducted
by Captain Kahaifa. During which Kahaifa stated on tape that
he was certain that Horn had a serious mental condition.
Horn was taken to the mental hygiene unit [MHU] directly
from the hearing without returning to his cell. Then MHU
transferred him to Marcy's Central New York Psychiatric
Center.
Horn returned from Marcy about the second week of March. He
was my neighbor. Horn was informed that he was being
deprived of all out of cell activities and on full
restraints (i.e. handcuffs and shackles).
Horn only had the clothes he came in with. He was without
the state issue pants, shirt, undershirt, or T-shirts. Nor
did he have a sheet or blankets. It was two weeks before he
received another pair of underclothes, pants and shirt. He
had to wait 24 hours to receive sheets and blankets.
From the day Horn got hereon this company, he was constantly
asking for his property that was packed up the day he was
taken to MHU from the hearing. He was given the run around
for three weeks before sergeant Roxanne Arnone informed him
that his property had been thrown in the garbage. Horn
became very stressed because he said his property contained
his eyeglasses, 2,000 pages of trial transcripts, family
photos, history books, etc.
Throughout his time next door, Horn was continuously
harassed and tormented by officers from the third floor who
would mock him and stand in front of his cell mimicking his
pleas for help. They would verbally repeat his accounts of
delusions and tell him how pathetic and worthless he was as
a human being. He would become very disturbed by this and
the officers would laugh.
Horn expressed deep sadness about his prison sentence, which
he said was 35 years. Horn repeatedly sought counseling from
Dr. Melendez, but they would just keep putting him on hold
without giving him an appointment to speak with her in
private. Horn became more and more depressed as the days
went on and began constantly asking to be transferred from
this jail because of this mistreatment. He asked the
counselor, Mr. Waiter, Deputy Conway and Mental Health
Staff. He insisted that he could not continue to put up with
the harassment of the officers or the medical staff's
indifference to his medical needs.
On occasion, Horn's sister called the facility to speak with
Daniel Horn's counselor, Mr. Waiter, about Horn's well-
being. Mr. Waiter was very familiar with the problems that
Horn was experiencing but instead of sharing this
information with her, Mr. Waiter told her that everything
was fine. Mr. Waiter's statement to her was very misleading.
In late March or early April, Daniel Horn went to a hearing
conducted by Housing Officer Schellkopff. At the hearing
Horn repeated yelled and screamed on tape about the
harassment he was being subjected to. During this time, Horn
made approximately three unsuccessful attempts to kill
himself. Each time Horn would be removed from his cell and
taken to MHU [Mental Housing Unit] and then placed in the
SHU [Segregated Housing Unit] strip cell for a few days
before putting him back in the same cell. Each time he would
be brought back wearing only undershorts and full
restraints.
The last time they took him to MHU, they had him in a cement
floor room without a "sleeping mat" for several days. The
metal health chief of staff told him he would not be given a
"sleeping mat" unless he agreed to take a needle. Horn took
the needle and was told that the drug would remain active in
his system for 20 days. Horn returned back to his cell (SHU)
and began complaining that the drug was making him restless
and he could not seem to get any sleep, day or night. Horn
asked the medical staff for something to counter the effects
of the drug to make him sleep. They started giving him
Benadryl to help him sleep but they also began trying to
force him to take another pill along with the Benadryl. Horn
repeatedly protested this other pill but the nurse would
always tell him that if he didn't take the other pill then
they would not give him the Benadryl.
On May 3, 1998, the nurse did not give Horn his medication
at all. (See gallery videotape.) Horn kept asking for his
medication all day. Monday morning about 1:00 to 1:30 am, I
heard Horn making a very, very loud slamming noise about 3
to 4 times. I then heard a rapid frantic like banging
against the gate. About five minutes later the CO
[corrections officer] came and said, "Shit." He left and
returned about ten to fifteen minutes later with another CO.
They stood in front of Horn's cell a couple of minutes
looking at the string and the way it was tied. Then they cut
the string, had the cell opened and they dragged Horn out on
the company by his arms, bumping his head on the floor and
wall. They did not give him CPR!
...A corrections officer told me to mind my business.
However, I spoke to officer X from the Inspector general's
office about how Horn was being both tormented and neglected
by staff prior to his death. But I noticed that the officer
was not writing everything down that I was telling him. This
officer said that the CO's took Horn out of his cell within
six minutes. I disagree. I would like you to view the
videotape of the gallery, the octagon, the dayroom, the
kitchen, the elevator and the hospital as he was taken
through these areas.
Horn's death was a wrongful death that could have been
avoided had he NOT been tormented by officers and neglected
by the staff and physicians.
...Additionally, as a result of a Federal Class Action
brought before the United States Western District Court of
New York by Prisoners Legal Services, Buffalo Office on
behalf of inmates housed in Attica's SHU. The settlement
agreement mandated that "seriously mentally ill inmates must
not be housed in SHU." (See Eng v. Goord Civ. 80-3856)
Daniel Horn was never even supposed to be held in SHU in the
first place. He was trying to reach out and he did not
really want to die but he just wanted to escape his
problems. They could have helped. The SHU staff as well as
the medical staff violated Daniel Horn's 8th Amendment
Constitutional right to be free from cruel and unusual
punishment, as well as federal criminal codes.
It would be greatly appreciated if someone from your office
would investigate the facts and circumstances surrounding
the death of Daniel Horn. Thank you very much.
Sincerely,
-- A New York Prisoner, 4 May 1998
PIGS MURDER PRISONER
On April 28, 1998, the SCDC [South Carolina Department of
Corruption's] Pigs and medical collaborators killed a
comrade by the name of Born Messiah God Allah (slave name
John Green). A medical collaborator by the name of Joe
Attman came to Comrade Messiah's cell on April 24, 1998 at
approximately 4:00 in the afternoon. He told a pig named CO
Green that he [Attman] was coming back. Attman could see
that Brother Messiah was dying from starvation but that
medical collaborator never came back. Attman is supposed to
be a nurse for SCDC but he's a cold-blooded killer.
That's how the SCDC works. The staff all witnessed this
brother dying slowly and they never tried to get some help
from a higher official. Their disregard and deliberate
indifference was an act of murder. As such, those medical
collaborators should pay for their heinous crime. They are
trying to avoid this crime from being exposed to people so
they can dodge persecution and the truth about life in
behind the prison walls for Blacks and other oppressed
nationals.
That's what makes other comrades at Lee Correctional
Institution Prison upset, is the way those pigs refused to
call the news people. Those pigs and medical collaborators
didn't put anything in the newspapers nor on television
about the cold blooded murder of Comrade Messiah. That's why
I know they are happy killing Comrade Born Messiah God
Allah.
Comrade Born Messiah God Allah never asked the pigs for
anything. He relied on self. They couldn't understand the
brother just like other comrades in the US prison system who
the pigs kill in cold- blood and try to keep from being
known by the masses. I would like MIM to help me expose this
brutal murder.
I could see the brother was dying slowly, and i was telling
the pigs but they just didn't care. All they want is to see
another comrade die in the hands of the unjust. On April 27,
1998 was the last time I saw Comrade Messiah. When I was
being taken to the shower I stopped by his cell. He was
lying on his bed, eyes popping out of his head. He had lost
about 150 pounds. The brother was about 215 pounds, but when
I when I saw him hew looked like he weighed about 110
pounds. So if I saw it, the pigs and medical collaborators
saw it too. But they wanted the brother to die. ...I would
like MIM to request an outside investigation regarding this
cold-blooded killing of Comrade Born Messiah God Allah
(Slave name John Green). You can contact Warden Benjamin
Montgomery at Lee Correctional Institution, 1204 East Church
St, Bishopville, SC 29010.
-- A South Carolina Prisoner, 12 May 1998
EXPOSING CONDITIONS IN FLORIDA
As always I write to thank you for the excellent coverage of
our struggle to survive in this oppressive setting they call
prison. Please know that though I can't support you
financially, I do support you morally.
I continue to see the goals of Florida's Dept. of
Corruptions turn more repressive. Here in this prison we
have gain-time taken away for wearing our ID's wrong, not
lining up our sheet straight enough, not shaving close
enough (though we only get two low quality, throw away,
razors a week), or even for not getting out of bed quick
enough in the morning. We are even sent to "lock-up" for
being late to a call-out (appointment with staff/medical)
when another staff person held us up.
But worse yet is that we have no unity here. Everyone tries
to say how terrible it is, but does nothing to change it. If
we would fight back, by joining together, trying to reach a
united goal, rather than fighting against each other, trying
to reach a separate goal, we would see changes. The system
can conquer one of us, and maybe two, but what about the 1.8
million of us? And how often do we hear from the other 4
million out on parole or probation? It's time to speak up
and be heard!
In Struggle, but with hope!
--A Florida State Prisoner, 11 May 1998
MIM Responds:
You are right on in calling for greater unity against
continued oppression. The systematic torture, separation and
the disproportionate imprisonment of oppressed nations has
divided the masses. MIM and RAIL struggle continuously to
unite against the principle oppressive force in the world
today, imperialism, in efforts to build stronger ties
amongst the people to build for revolution and an end to
oppression.
We also recognize that right now one of the biggest
obstacles we have to overcome is ignorance. Now is the time
to unite the masses through education about the history and
oppressive tools of imperialism in an effort to build a
strong, mass based movement to bring a final end to
oppression. For many prisoners, study groups have been one
of the best ways to educate and organize, as well as
publicizing prisoner struggles in Under Lock and Key.
MIM's books for prisoners program has many books to send to
prisoners, and with further financial support from those on
the outside, we can continue to send them to prisoners for
free. MIM and RAIL encourage prisoners to know your enemy
and unite to defeat imperialism through education, legal
battles and revolutionary resistance.
THE TRUTH OF INJUSTICE IN NEW JERSEY
My reasons for writing this letter is to share with you and
the general public the many human injustices that has taken
place within the adult prison facilities in the state of New
Jersey.
I am a hostage in the New Jersey Prison System, locked
presently at New Jersey State Prison, formerly called
"Trenton State Prison".
The population in these New Jersey Prisons (human
warehouses) are predominantly young Blacks, Hispanics,
Jamaicans, Whites, Asians [who are] subjected to inhumane
conditions, disrespect, dehumanization, harassment,
ridicule, mental and spiritual abuse - all which are
perpetuated by Custody (guards), Administrators, Staff
members at every level.
I was handcuffed, shackled and kidnapped from Rahway in the
morning of [month] 1997 and brought here to NJ State Prison,
for reasons unknown. I had to wait three weeks before
receiving my personal property from Rahway and upon it
arriving most of it was stolen, lost and damaged, and no one
here wants to address this problem which is forcing me and
all the others to take it to a Small Claim Court.
Rahway like so many of the prisons here in the state of New
Jersey has been making these randomly shipments, dating back
two years ago. They are telling the news media and our
families and loved ones that these transfers are the result
of gang involvement (with not a thread of evidence to
support their claim), jail overcrowding, time calculations,
or one of their malicious rumors they concocted. All which
is a bald face lie!!
The truth of the matter is, if you Black, or Hispanic or
even White in some cases, and you are not running in the
Chief Office after your duty of neighborhood watch and
polishing his shoes, (boot licking) as you snitch and dime
out the next fellow prisoners, you are a target of one of
these mysterious transfers. They are quick to label you as a
troublesome prisoners if you do not engage in their game of
"tell me something". Many of those inmates there are walking
around with Internal Affairs phone numbers in their pockets,
and the numbers of various top ranking pigs in their stash,
waiting to dial the hotline "giving up information". Their
stool pigeon network runs that prison, and a stand up
prisoners has not a chance of surviving in that atmosphere.
...A few years ago "Rocky" and John Amos made part of the
movies "lock up" there and last year Spike Lee brought
Denzel Washington there to do the "He got Game" new block
buster movie. NJ State Prison on the outside has always been
on the map but what the public doesn't know, it has an ugly
history. They are still beating inmates there at an alarming
rate and covering the assaults up. They are letting inmates
die from poor medical neglect and nothing is being done.
Inmates are being set up with drugs and weapons by certain
guards and if you don't fold your hand and become their
stool pigeons, they will burn you. Administration
Segregation is full of prisoners who refused to become their
snitch and they were set-up with faulty urine tests, or re-
used shanks, or bogus threatening charges. Their Internal
Affairs Investigators are made up of former guards there who
will not believe a prisoner over a guard or staff member
They are cowards parading around in their J.C. Penny suits
looking to nail another prisoners but turning a deaf ear and
blind eye to all the misconduct prisoners are subjected to
by custody and staff.
Now sitting here today in NJ State Prison which is the only
prison in the state of New Jersey that has a death row and a
room set up to administer the lethal injection, I feel the
walls are about to come crumbling down throughout the entire
NJ prison system. We have on our hand, a new jack guard,
going under the name of a Correctional Officer, a new Jack
Administrator dress in his/her suit, who underneath has the
mind of a cruel, wicked demon, far worse than Hitler could
have ever been, and of course we have a new jack inmate not
prisoner but inmate who feels no shame that he told on his
co-defendant, and is still telling in here and who will not
stand up to nothing that the enemy, the oppressors, does to
him.
He isn't mad at how poorly they feed him, or how they are
constantly raising the prices on their out-dated commissary
list. Or how they took away his right to make a decent
collect call that is not going to be monitored or listened
in on, or charge an outrageous rate, and don't have to use a
nine name calling list that you can't change for ninety
days. Or the fact that he hasn't seen a state-pay raise in
years, and he can't get food packages on the weekend, or a
better visiting program so his children, his families and
friends wouldn't mind participating in, or better programs
so one can better himself while incarcerated and be better
prepared to go back into society as a contributor instead of
a beggar, or the fact they took away his computers, college
programs, and now his personal clothes are being taken away!
I read once, that, "if a man has nothing to die for he has
nothing to live for."
Those are just a few things everyone entering these
warehouses in New Jersey should be mad and angry about and
want to do something positive and collectively to bring
about a change. If we're not careful, like down south, we
too, will be on the chain gangs by the year of 2000.
I am asking the support of the communities to see that their
family members, friends who are incarcerated receiving
rehabilitation and treatment, training and education, and
civilized punishment as they serve out their sentences. I
need you to support the struggles of prisoners they oppose
the unjust prison system in New Jersey.
Print this letter so that our families and the public at
large can write their politicians, clergymen, and anyone
that is concerned for human rights to tour East Jersey State
Prison and New Jersey State Prison and investigate the
steady stream of abusive treatment of prisoners and
incidents of violence going on unchecked as "reports
indicated". Come in and speak to us, the downtrodden, the
despised, the condemned prisoners and you will learn, we're
all not crazy as the newspaper and media tends to portray
us!
Today I am in here, tomorrow I may be your next door
neighbor.
--A New Jersey State Prisoner, 30 March 1998
OPPRESSED NATION GUARDS
Dear MIM,
I'm still in the hole in this slave camp but that doesn't
prevent me from being able to see what's taking place. My
most recent observation has been how members of oppressed
nations get jobs at so-called correctional facilities and
immediately accept views and opinions that the settle nation
pigs have toward prisoners.
These lost members of oppressed nations evidently do not see
and are not aware of the origin of these oppressive and
racist views and opinions. The origin being capitalism and
imperialism.
These members of the oppressed nations who walk around so
proudly in their correction officer uniforms with their
copycat badges do not understand that the oppressed nations
that they are members of are exploited, murdered, tortured
and imprisoned in the very concentration camps where they
are employed. [These individuals are employed] in order to
contain and control those oppressed nationals who lash out
at this criminal government. [Oppressed nationals] have had
enough of being exploited and seeing their brothers and
sisters murdered and their people tortured and imprisoned by
this illegally formed government so that it can continue its
capitalist and imperialist activities. The unconscious
members of oppressed nations who work in the prison system
have not come to the realization that the settler nation
pigs who happen to be their coworkers, do not truly see a
difference between them [oppressed nation guards] and their
oppressed nation brothers and sisters who are imprisoned.
The settler nation pigs and their government see all members
of oppressed nations as being one and the same. They view us
all as second class citizens who must be exploited,
murdered, tortured and imprisoned in order for capitalism
and imperialism to survive in this country. Because if
capitalism and imperialism are wiped out in this country
this government will fall into ruin and this country and the
world will be rid of one of the most oppressive regimes the
world has ever known.
In Revolutionary Love,
-- A Missouri Prisoner, 20 March 1998
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