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         THE MAOIST INTERNATIONALIST MOVEMENT

  MIM Notes 172         October 15, 1998

MIM Notes speaks to and from the viewpoint of the 
world's oppressed majority, and against the 
imperialist-patriarchy. Pick it up and wield it in 
the service of the people. support it, struggle 
with it and write for it.


IN THIS ISSUE:
1.  INDIGENOUS PEOPLE'S DAY RALLY AT U. OF MICHIGAN, ANN ARBOR
2.  DING, DONG, ABACHA'S DEAD...
3.  MOBIL DUMPS STOLEN OIL
4.  IN ZAMBIA, EXTORTION: COKE IS IT
5.  LETTERS
6.  DC RALLY AGAINST PRIVATE PRISON
7.  MASSES SAY: JUNK THE VISITING FORCES AGREEMENT!
8.  REVIEW: DOCUMENTARY ON ANGOLA PRISON PORTRAYS HUMANITY OF  
    PRISONERS,  DOWNPLAYS INHUMANITY OF THE PRISON SYSTEM
9.  CLINTON'S DEFINITION OF "FREE AND EQUAL"
10. TERRORISM AND EXPLOITATION EXPOSE PALESTINE PEACE BALONEY
11. MICH. SCHOOL OFFICIAL GETS RICH WHILE PRISONERS GET 
    TRANSFERRED
12. REVOLUTIONARY ANTI-IMPERIALIST LEAGUE: BUILDING INDEPENDENT 
    ANTI-IMPERIALIST INSTITUTIONS OF THE OPPRESSED
13. WITH "PROGRESSIVES" LIKE THESE, WHO NEEDS REACTIONARIES?
14. UNDER LOCK AND KEY: NEWS FROM PRISONS AND FROM PRISONERS



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


* * *

OCTOBER 12 IS INDIGENOUS PEOPLE'S DAY
RALLY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN ANN ARBOR, ON THE DIAG  AT 12 
NOON

What do you know about U.$. and Canadian occupation of Indigenous 
Nations?

RAIL joins First Nation peoples around this continent in calling 
for an end to more than 500 years of occupation of their land. 
Amerikan and Canadian settlers live here illegally -- abusing the 
land they live on without permission of the people to whom the 
land rightfully belongs.

In 1990, Quebec Provincial Police blockaded and then invaded the 
Kahnesatake Mohawk Nation territory at Oka. The siege began over 
attempts by the white town of Oka to expand its golf course onto 
Mohawk burial grounds. As the standoff escalated the Province of 
Quebec first offered to buy the land to prevent its use as a golf 
course (the government never said what it would use the land for) 
and then claimed to have purchased the land -- although no one 
ever saw papers documenting the transfer of property. 

In response to attacks on their land, Mohawks set barricades 
around Kahnesatake, and blockaded the Mercier bridge, disrupting 
traffic in and around the city of Montreal. As the Mohawk people 
showed their own will to protect their land, and as Nations around 
the illegitimate United Snakes and Canada showed their support for 
the Mohawks with blockades of their own, the settlers living 
around Kahnesatake and the Quebecois Police grew ever more 
vicious. 

Anti-Mohawk demonstrators harassed and beat Mohawks who tried to 
deliver food and other supplies to the Warriors, wimmin and 
children inside the territory. A pregnant Mohawk womyn was kept 
from moving on to a hospital for 15 minutes while settlers showed 
their concern for justice by stopping the ambulance she was riding 
in. As if setting the local settler loose to attack the Mohawks 
was not enough, the government also took one Mohawk warrior out of 
his community and put him in a New York prison before the summer 
standoff began. Kakwirakeron was imprisoned on nonsense charges 
and hidden in prison out of contact with his family and his people 
when the siege at Oka began.

MIM Notes was there to cover the Oka siege, and we continue to 
expose the genocidal practices of the oppressor nation whenever we 
can.

The siege at Oka, which lasted more than two months, resembled the 
1973 siege at Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Lakota Reservation -- 
surrounded by the illegal state of South Dakota. The people on the 
Pine Ridge reservation endured a three-year campaign of terror 
under the GOON (Guardians of the Oglala Nation) squads of Tribal 
Chief Dick Wilson. The people asked and activists from the 
American Indian Movement (AIM) came onto the reservation to defend 
the people against Wilson's GOONs and to build houses, gardens and 
other institutions for the nation. AIM's presence brought the FBI 
to the reservation, and the FBI instigated a shootout in which a 
G-man was killed and Leonard Peltier of AIM was framed for his 
murder.

RAIL is an anti-imperialist mass organization led by the Maoist 
Internationalist Movement (MIM). RAIL supports anti-imperialism to 
the point of and including armed struggles of the oppressed for 
national liberation and self-determination.

* * *

DING DONG, ABACHA'S DEAD...

by MC45

And the comprador Abubakar is seeing his way free from imperialist 
sanctions. During a visit to England, current Nigerian comprador 
leader General Abubakar met with English Prime Minister Tony Blair 
to discuss the end of European Union sanctions against Nigeria. 
The E.U. had placed limited economic sanctions on Nigeria in 1995, 
after the late comprador General Abacha's military murdered nine 
Ogoni activists for protesting Shell Oil's brutal abuse of their 
land. But imperialists don't like to keep their running dogs 
isolated for too long. So when Abacha died earlier this year, 
England rushed a government minister down to the "dark continent" 
to greet Abacha's crony and successor Abubakar. 

While Abubakar has made promises about democratizing Nigeria, the 
European financiers cannot be credited with caring about Nigerian 
politics or human rights when they consider revoking sanctions. 
Like the executive committee of the international big bourgeoisie 
that they are, these imperialists care only about restoring their 
own countries' full access to Nigeria's resources. MIM guesses 
that their principal emotion on hearing of Sani Abacha's death was 
relief -- with a new face in office in Nigeria they can lift 
sanctions while continuing to claim their bogus moral ground.(1)


* * *

MOBIL DUMPS STOLEN OIL

Meanwhile, a recent oil spill off the coast of Nigeria highlights 
the sordid history of Amerikan and other multi-national oil 
companies wrecking the land in Nigeria and then leaving Nigerians 
to recover the damage done. On 12 January, the head of Mobil Oil's 
operations in Nigeria found out that one of his company's 
pipelines -- a 24-inch pipe intended to carry oil from off-shore 
drilling to the shore -- had burst. The accident spewed 40,000 
barrels of oil into the Atlantic Ocean. The New York Times reports 
that Nigeria's military government, still under Sani Abacha in 
January, kept news of the spill from getting broad press.

Comprador governments have an interest in keeping bad news about 
imperialist exploits in their countries quiet. The comprador 
relationship -- by which a Third World government is propped up 
economically by imperialism in exchange for unfettered 
exploitation of the Third World country's natural resources and 
its people -- is only harmed by exposure. It is best both for the 
imperialists and the comprador lackeys if no critical news gets 
out, as this news only makes it more difficult to make the tax, 
land use and other deals detrimental to the people.

The New York Times article reporting on the Mobil spill raises the 
question of U.$. responsibility for Nigeria's ecological and 
political health. In 1995, writer Ken Saro-Wiwa was murdered for 
his role in bringing international attention to the fact that 
Shell Oil was killing his Ogoni people and destroying their land. 
That was the last time Nigeria's relations with First World oil 
companies made front page news in the U.$.(2)

Repeating a chauvinist understanding of America's role, the Times 
reports that although the Klinton administration did admonish the 
Nigerian government for murdering Saro-Wiwa, Amerika continued to 
invest $7 billion in oil money in the country. Seeing U.$. 
investments in the Third World as a gift is a backwards way of 
understanding the economic relationship between Amerika and its 
neo-colonies. This perspective falsifies the motives for so-called 
investment -- they do not give, they invest, for their own 
returns. It also builds the illusion that Amerikan responsibility 
for Nigeria's problems stems from giving support to the country -- 
so that if the U.$. decides the Nigerian government is getting out 
of line it can pull out its money, walk away and claim to have 
done the right thing. In real life, the United Snakes is 
responsible for the poverty and oppression of Third World nations 
because this country gains its wealth and grotesque standard of 
living at the expense of other countries.

The New York Times article also emphasizes how lucky the Nigerian 
people are that the oil spill was contained so well. Relatively 
little oil reached the shore because of water currents and the 
company's counter-measures. This claim of the Nigerian's being 
lucky about the level of damage comes out in response to coastal 
and near-coastal communities attempting to claim payment for the 
environmental damage from the spill. In reality, the people of 
Nigeria are very unlucky to have the Amerikan bloodsuckers 
invading their land. 

MIM says the Nigerians are correct to call for damage payments, 
and that harm caused by the spill are irrelevant to the question 
of payment due to the Nigerian people. No matter what the real 
environmental damages are today, it is certain that whatever 
problems remain will become the problems of the people long after 
the oil companies have left. MIM and all genuine anti-imperialists 
believe that imperialism owes a debt of reparations to the peoples 
of the Third World. 


* * *

ZAMBIA EXTORTION: COKE IS IT

Zambia's trade and industry minister announced on September 20 
that Coca-Cola had suspended its Zambia Bottlers operation in 
protest over 25% excise taxes. The Zambian government is under 
heavy pressure from U.$.-dominated international aid and lending 
agencies to privatize industry. And because Coke has a lot of 
money engaged in exploiting the Zambian people through such 
private investment, it wields a big stick in negotiations for an 
even less equitable financial relationship with Zambia. 

The nutritionless beverage company employs 19,000 Zambians out of 
a labor force of 3.4 million. With only 6% of Zambians -- 204,000 
people -- working in industry, Coke controls nearly one-tenth of 
the country's industrial jobs. Coke also uses up 25% of Zambian 
sugar produced per year and pays out large electricity bills.

Oh yes, the multi-nationals and their running dogs will tell the 
people, we make big investments, tremendous contributions to your 
national economy. The volume of Coke sales for the second quarter 
of 1998 increased 10% over the second quarter in 1997. In 1997 
stock price and dividends combined rose 28%, after rising 43% in 
1996 and 46% in 1995.

But it's not enough to say that Coca-Cola continues to make 
profits and to increase the volume of sales while it extorts tax 
breaks from forcibly impoverished southern African nations. We 
must also point out that volume increases in the southern African 
division of Coca-Cola were 19% for the second quarter of 1998, as 
compared with increases of less than 10% for the divisions within 
North America. This means that Coke pays little enough to its 
African employees and for the African resources it uses, and gains 
enough in profits, to have far greater expansion there than within 
U.$. borders. Yet Coke still wants to pay less to do business in 
Zambia because it understands the power of its economic position 
there and will thirstily use this position to suck every drop of 
wealth that it can from the Zambian people.

As an Amerikan company that happily invested in Apartheid South 
African rule and in the overall European domination of southern 
Africa, Coke has had an important historical role in the 
impoverishment of Zambia. Imperialism was instrumental in creating 
poor living conditions for the people of the front-line African 
states -- those African countries that border or are close 
neighbors of Azania.

This imperialist relationship has meant profits to Coke, and it 
has meant early death for the people of Zambia. At birth, Zambians 
expect to live less than 36 years. Even in other very poor 
countries, wimmin can expect to live a few years longer than men. 
Many people in the world live only into what Amerikans call 
"middle age" -- into their 40s and 50s. In most places, wimmin 
live longer than men on average because men face more health risks 
earlier in life, and have higher risks for certain diseases later 
in life. In Zambia thanks to the brutalizing hand of the First 
World robber barons, the peoples lives are cut so short that there 
is no difference in the life expectancy of wimmin and men. That 
means risks to wimmin are much higher earlier in life, and the 
people don't live long enough for wimmin to outlive men in old 
age.

Within these living conditions and the realities of where Coke 
slurps its profits from, the corporation and its comprador allies 
in the Zambian government have the gall to refer to Coke as making 
a "contribution" to the Zambian economy. MIM fiercely disputes the 
notion that Coke is making anything other than an investment in 
its own future wealth. And we argue that Coke's activities in 
Zambia represent nothing more noble than the finely honed Amerikan 
practice of growing rich by the labor of the Third World masses. 
Coke's current tactic of making threats to avoid taxes is the 
direct strong-arm approach of a school-yard bully, made vulgar by 
the gross disregard for human lives this behavior reveals.(3)

Eventually, when imperialism is destroyed, the oppressors will be 
made to pay reparations for the land, resources and human lives 
they have taken out of the Third World. Until that day, 
revolutionaries will continue the slow but steady work of building 
public opinion in favor of the just struggles of the oppressed for 
self-determination. If you too believe that imperialists are deep 
in debt to the people of the world, get in touch with MIM Notes at 
the address on page two. You can help us with the twice-monthly 
project of enumerating this debt to all our readers through 
research, writing and art.

Notes:
1. PanAfrican News Agency 23 September, 1998.
2. New York Times 20 September, 1998.
3. Zambia sources: CIA World Factbook, 
http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/country-frame.html; 
PanAfrican News Agency, 21 Sept., 1998, 
http://www.africanews.org/PANA/news/; Coke information at 
http://www.coke.com

* * *

LETTERS

POTENTIAL NEW SOLDIER AGAINST LOCKDOWN

Dear MIM,

I am coming into an awareness of prisons and the prison system. I 
don't know how I feel at this point. But I feel that prisons are 
several things to many people. They are 
1) Think tanks -- some of the best minds are there; if not coming 
they are developed there. This is a resource for us on the 
outside.
2) They are a study on behavior of confined people. Along with the 
military. I would imagine people are placed in solitary just to 
see what happens.
3) A source of cheap labor. I'm not going to criticize the powers 
that be in fact I credit them because they are looking out for 
their own interest. What's important is to be aware of what they 
are doing so you can sidestep their plans, which is total control 
of the populous. Send me more info.

--Internet reader

MIM Responds: Thank you for your letter. We are always eager to 
talk about ways people can support MIM and RAIL's anti-prisons and 
serve the people programs. Have you been accessing information 
from our Web page? In addition to that, we urge you to order two 
pieces of literature from us to learn more about our prison 
agitation and theory. The first is a Revolutionary Anti-
Imperialist League (RAIL) pamphlet, "For the oppressed, Amerika = 
prison: Criminal justice as social control." ($1). The second is a 
MIM Theory journal, "Amerikan Prisons on Trial: Guilty." ($6).

You are right on that prisons are places of serious study. It has 
been our experience that we can't fill orders for literature fast 
enough for the incredible demand for study materials. MIM has 
elsewhere remarked that the United Snakes would be a country of 
geniuses if everyone studied as hard or read as much as the 
prisoners!

And certainly, you are also right that the government has used 
prisons, and Control Unit facilities in particular, as cruel 
experiments in behavior modification and control. We have years 
worth of correspondence from prisoners in Control Units attesting 
to this, and describing conditions (constant bright lights, 
extreme temperatures, etc) that are designed both to torture and 
to study the effects of that torture on prisoners. As for labor, 
you might find our articles in MIM Theory 11 on prison labor 
interesting. One such article from that journal is available on 
our web site, "Prison Labor: Profits, Slavery and the State." 
(http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/mt/mt11/labor11.html) 

So we urge you to check out this literature, to consider making a 
financial contribution to our books for prisoners program, and to 
get involved in our work. We have an ongoing need for research in 
various aspects of "corrections" that we use for our campaigns and 
public speaking events. We also are always in need of people 
willing to distribute our newspapers locally. Are you interested?
Please keep in touch.

E-MAIL READER BALKS AT PROLETARIAN LINE

Dear MIM,

It is so blatantly obvious that all of your articles are basically 
written by the same people. When you print something that was 
supposedly written by "a prisoner in Michigan," it is so obvious 
that it was, in reality, written by someone on your staff. Can't 
you do a better job of deceiving people than that? Obviously, the 
answer is no.

It sure is funny, though. Thanks for all of the entertaining 
writing. I love your sense of humor. You obviously don't take this 
garbage seriously, and neither do I.

--Internet reader

July 1998

MIM Responds: MIM does not bother responding to most of the hate 
mail we get as a result of our Internet agitation -- it is too 
numerous and, frankly, it all sounds the same. Could it be that 
it's all written by the same agents of the state? Or is it just 
that for all their talk about individualism, there isn't a lot of 
creative thinking among Amerikan reactionaries? To such people, 
the life and death struggles of the international proletariat, and 
our comrades struggling behind bars in Amerikkka, are 
"entertaining." We are sickened by the callousness, but provide 
the following explanation to our readers regarding the uniformity 
of our line, speech and tone.

First of all, we welcome our comrades behind bars among the "staff 
writers" of MIM Notes, MIM Theory and RAIL Notes, so that 
distinction is a false one. Second of all, we are not trying to 
hide the democratic centralism that operates in our circles to 
present a coherent and unified political line in our publications. 
So yes, the articles bear that political line in common, and also 
apply similar revolutionary language to articulate that line. 
Finally, what if all our articles were written by the same persyn? 
Would that, in itself, make them incorrect? None of us on the 
outside would write an article and sign it as a prisoner (or make 
any other false claim of authorship of any kind), but then we 
would also argue that MIM and RAIL comrades on the outside have 
enough rational knowledge of prison conditions at this point to 
write from that perspective.

Thanks for the opportunity to dispel some of the more pernicious 
Amerikan-individualist line that passes for "originality."

PRAISE AND APPRECIATION

Dear Comrades,
Read in e-mail about your activities to expose their terrorism and 
national
oppression that go by the names "justice" and "corrections" here 
in this wonderful milk-and-honey land of Amerikkka. Sadly, I'm 
afraid I can't participate in the upcoming events, but I do hope 
the small donation I've enclosed will help you carry out your 
important work.
Looking forward to hearing about the success of your rally.
On with the revolution!

* * *

DC RALLY AGAINST PRIVATE PRISON

Washington, D.C. -- About 40 people turned out September 14 to 
protest a new prison planned for the city's Ward 8. The D.C. 
branch of the Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League (RAIL) 
attended the rally. As MIM Notes has previously reported, the 
Federal government and its District of Columbia proxies are fixing 
to build a private prison in the city's Ward 8, which is 90% Black 
and the poorest ward in the city. The new prison would go on some 
federal park land.

Ward 8 had a median household income of $26,300 in 1997, one-third 
less than the city median of $39,792 and only two-fifths the 
median income of richest area, Ward 3, which is 79% white. In 1990 
Ward 8 had the highest unemployment rate, the highest number of 
single-parent households, the fewest homeowners and the highest 
proportion of people in public housing projects in the city. Since 
1990, its population has dropped 19%.

This economically devastated area is also the location of several 
large government installations, such as St. Elizabeth's mental 
hospital, Bolling Air Force Base, and the city's wastewater 
treatment plant. In 1994, almost 90% of those who voted cast their 
ballots for Marion Barry.(1)

From the point of view of state and corporate interests, in other 
words, a perfect place for a prison.

The rally, which took place right before local elections, included 
several losing politicians and others hoping to capitalize on the 
not-in-my-backyard flavor of the event (winning politicians stayed 
away -- they support the new prison). DC-RAIL had picked up a 
flyer opposing the prison, distributed by the local International 
Socialist Organization (ISO, a group with Trotskyist origins and 
largely social-democratic politics), but attributed to the Ward 8 
Coalition, which includes many local organizations including 
Republicans, Democrats, Greens, and the ISO.

Although DC-RAIL also opposes the new prison, we disagreed with 
some of the Ward 8 Coalition's arguments on their flyer. DC-RAIL 
distributed a flyer at the rally title "Oppose all U$ prisons -- 
Support prisoners!" which explained our position.

Our main disagreement was with the argument that Ward 8 was the 
wrong location for a prison, and the implication that the 
prisoners were the problem. the DC-RAIL flyer read in part:

"RAIL opposes the construction of anew prison in Ward 8 -- or any 
other ward. The 'not in my backyeard' approach to prison 
construction ignores the real problem of skyrocketing U.$. prison 
populations, especially in D.C. ... While RAIL recognizes the 
injustice of dumping another unpopular project on Ward 8 and 
calling it economic development, we believe that the real danger 
posed to Ward 8 is the government's increased capacity to lock up 
more of its population."

The Ward 8 Coalition flyer noted that the Corrections Corporation 
of America (CCA), which is planning the new prison, recently had 
some escapes in Ohio, where D.C. prisoners have been transferred 
to a CCA prison -- and this was a reason to oppose locating the 
prison in Ward 8. Another flyer passed out at the rally said, "We 
refuse to allow a prison to be built near our homes, schools and 
churches!" The DC-RAIL flyer added:

"RAIL recognizes that prisoners are not the real threat to public 
safety. The danger posed to society by an escaped prisoner pales 
in comparison to the everyday threat posed to the Black, Latino 
and First Nations as well as all oppressed people by U$ 
imperialism. In a just society prisons would not be filled with 
people from oppressed nations and the relatively poor groups in 
society imprisoned for property and drug crimes, while the worst 
criminals, like the people who bomb medicine factories in Africa, 
wield state power."

RAIL opposes CCA, but not because prisoners are more likely to 
escape from CCA prisoners than government-run prisons. Rather, as 
the flyer said, we oppose prison privatization because "when 
oppression of the people becomes a business that goes to the 
lowest bidder, society takes another step towards fascism." 
Likewise, RAIL does not oppose CCA prisons because prison 
privatization does or does not save governments money.(2)

At the rally, some of the slogans were things RAIL could well 
agree with, such as "Educate, don't incarcerate!" and "Money for 
health care, not for jails!" But "Ward 8 prison has got to go!" 
and some other slogans were of the not-in-my-backyard variety, 
with which we do not agree. The flyer concluded: "The people can't 
afford a victory that increases public animosity toward 
prisoners."

RAIL agrees with the other protestors that building a prison is 
not a good answer to Ward 8's local economic problems. Prison jobs 
are parasitic and nonproductive, and draw members of working class 
and middle class into the repressive state apparatus, all of which 
we oppose. But we do not agree with the argument of the leader of 
the rally, Eugene Dewitt Kinlow, who complained that prison guards 
from Lorton prison (the prison for D.C., located in Virginia, that 
is closing) are supposedly being guaranteed jobs at the new 
prison. Kinlow wanted the prison guard jobs to go to Ward 8 
residents. We do not argue that oppressed-nation members should 
get police-state jobs doing the dirty work of neocolonialism for 
the imperialist masters.

RAIL opposes CCA, the new prison, and the whole prison system -- 
but we want to build opposition that furthers the cause of 
undermining U.$. imperialism and building Black nation self-
determination.

Notes:
1. Ward 8 profile from the Washington Post at 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
srv/local/longterm/library/dcelections/wards/ward3p1.htm
2. For MIM's view on fascism and prison privatization, see MIM 
Theory 11, "Amerikkkan Prisons on Trial."

* * *

MASSES SAY: JUNK THE VISITING FORCES AGREEMENT!

LOS ANGELES -- Close to 100 people participated in events in early 
September protesting the proposed Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) 
between the governments of the U.$. and the puppet government of 
the Philippines. The VFA would give U.$. military ships and planes 
porting and landing rights, provide for the deployment of U.$. 
military personnel in the Philippines, and guarantee U.$. military 
personnel immunity for any crimes committed while in the 
Philippines. The agreement overturns the victory the Filipino 
people won in 1991, when the Philippine Senate voted to cancel the 
leases on the U.$. military bases in the country.(1)

Speakers at a public forum on September 10 gave an in-depth 
analysis of the VFA itself, and tied the VFA to larger social 
problems in the Philippines, Asia, and the world. The keynote 
speaker, Arnedo Valera, a consultant to the National Democratic 
Front of the Philippines in its peace talks with the puppet 
government of the Philippines, went so far as to read sections of 
the agreement, in order to demonstrate that it violated the 
sovereignty of the Philippines, even by bourgeois legal standards. 

A speaker representing ACTION and the Okinawa Peace Network-L.A. 
discussed the history of U.$. military presence in Okinawa, which 
is similar to that of the Philippines. The U.$. occupied Okinawa, 
which had been colonized by Japan in the 19th Century, at the end 
of World War II. From 1945 until 1972, the U.$. controlled all of 
Okinawa, and used it as a military training ground and as a base 
for its wars of aggression in Korea and Vietnam. After the 1995 
rape of a 12-year-old by U.$. soldiers, Okinawans voted in a 
plebiscite to remove U.$. bases. But the U.$. military remains to 
this day, and occupies 20% of Okinawa's territory, including over 
40% of its arable farmland.

Finally, a RAIL Comrade gave a short talk presenting the VFA as 
part of the ongoing World War III being waged against oppressed 
nations and explaining why the political and economic system of 
imperialism makes war inevitable. The RAIL comrade used the recent 
U.$. bombings in Afghanistan and the Sudan as examples of the 
imperialist's violence and aggression, as well as their use of the 
false scarecrow of "terrorism" to justify their own real 
terrorism. In fact, the reactionaries in the puppet government of 
the Philippines claim that Osama Bin Laden, supposed target of 
Amerika's recent bombings, has visited the Philippines several 
times in recent years. They are using this bogus threat of 
"international terrorism" to help pass the VFA.

During the question and answer session, members of the Trotskyist-
led group Radical Women asked if the anti-VFA movement could ever 
be successful while the bourgeoisie held state power in the 
Philippines. Mr. Valera answered this bit of idealism effectively 
from the perspective of the legal national democratic movement in 
the Philippines, pointing out that members of intermediate classes 
like the urban petit-bourgeoisie, the national bourgeoisie, and 
some reactionaries oppose the VFA. Mobilizing these forces to 
defeat the VFA and keep the U.$. military out of the Philippines 
would be a victory which would aid the anti-imperialist movement. 
He also pointed out that the National Democratic Front of the 
Philippines, which is led by the Maoist Communist Party of the 
Philippines, recognizes that only armed struggle for liberation 
and the construction of socialism will truly defeat imperialism in 
the Philippines.

On September 16 many of the people who attended the forum 
protested in front of the Philippine consulate, marking the 
seventh anniversary of the decision to terminate the U.$. 
military's leases in the Philippines.

The events in Los Angeles and other cities (e.g., San Francisco) 
mirrored rallies and protests in the Philippine opposing the VFA. 
For example, peasants and fisherfolk picketed the U.$. embassy in 
Manila. According to a press release from the Peasant Movement of 
the Philippines, "They brought with them mongrel puppies 
representing President Joseph Estrada and defense secretary 
Orlando Mercado. [The puppies] were held with leashes by an 
activist dressed as Uncle Sam."

Notes: 1. MIM Notes 169, 1 September 98.

* * *

DOCUMENTARY ON ANGOLA PRISON PORTRAYS HUMANITY OF PRISONERS, 
DOWNPLAYS INHUMANITY OF THE PRISON SYSTEM

The Farm: Angola
Gabriel Films
Directed by Jonathan Stack and Liz Garbus
Review by WMass RAIL

Springfield College, Sept 24.--RAIL attended a showing of The 
Farm: Angola to distribute literature and to build support for our 
campaign against control units in Massachusetts. We hoped that a 
film about a maximum security prison would inspire people to work 
with us on this campaign. 

Angola is the largest prison in Amerika, covering 18,000 acres. Of 
its 5,000 prisoners, 77% are Black. Most of the prisoners are 
sentenced to "natural life" or extremely long sentences, leading 
to the warden's estimate that 85% of the current population will 
die behind the walls of Angola. Angola was transformed from an 
old-style slave plantation into a modern day slave plantation 
(prison) after the Civil War. The old plantation was also called 
Angola, after the place of origin of so many of the slaves who 
worked there.

The film, winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 1998 Sundance Film 
Festival, effectively talks about the effects of a life sentences 
on prisoners and really brings out the humanity of the prisoners. 
For example, the film tries to portray the loneliness created. The 
average prisoner at Angola never receives a visit from the outside 
after the first 3 years of incarceration. But it fails to talk 
about the systemic brutality of prison, nor does it address beyond 
mentioning the history of Angola as being one of Amerika's most 
violent prisons. What makes Angola so notorious is the brutality 
of armed guards, not the fact that the prison is so large. This 
effort to focus so much on the specifics of Angola and six 
prisoners who are profiled downplays Angola's role in the whole 
Amerikan injustice system. The film certainly prepares RAIL to 
talk about the reality of prisons in a public forum, but it is not 
an effective stand-alone presentation. And it is without RAIL 
intervention that hundreds of thousands of people had the 
opportunity to see the film recently on A&E cable TV.

RAIL doesn't know anything about the politics of the filmmakers, 
and we can imagine they had to cut a deal with the prison 
administration to get such access to the prison. This is the only 
explanation as to why the administration is treated in such a 
gentle fashion. RAIL much prefers the approach taken by the makers 
of The Last Graduation about the end of Pell grants for prisoners. 
Instead of just following prisoners and educators, The Last 
Graduation broadens the issue. First the rise of higher education 
as a response to the Attica prison rebellion is covered. Then the 
video explores the bogus arguments from politicians to abolish 
prisoner education. The kid gloves used in The Farm make the film 
much less effective.

Prison labor

Angola uses 1,800 non-prisoner workers to run the prison. Two 
hundred families of employees live on the grounds of the prison. 
Early in the video, we see one guard boast of the great job 
security working in a prison brings. This reactionary statement is 
quite accurate, as prisons are one of Amerika's leading growth 
industries. 

Unlike the armed pigs on horseback, the real work on the Angola 
plantation is done by the prisoners. Most prisoners work in the 
fields for 4 cents an hour. The best jobs in the prison pay only 
20 cents an hour.

Prison profiles offer chance to relate to the incarcerated

The film interviews six prisoners for their stories. One prisoner 
is a trustee, one on death row, one an old man dying from cancer, 
and another an old man turned religious leader. 

One of the most effective things about the film is showing the 
arresting mug shots of the prisoners interviewed. These photos are 
from 1972, or 1959. The prisoner incarcerated in 1959 was 24 at 
the time. The prisoner on death row reports that since age 12 he 
has spent all but four years in prison. Due to the Amerikan 
injustice system, prison is all some residents of North Amerika 
will ever know. 

The most amazing part of the film to RAIL is the segment on one 
prisoner's parole hearing. A Black man was sentenced 20 years ago 
for the rapes of two teenagers. When the "victim" was interviewed 
by police, she was asked "Would you be able to identify the 
assailant?" No, she said, because "All niggers look alike." But 
she was able to identify one person in the line-up -- the one in 
handcuffs. The photograph of the lineup shown in the film verifies 
this fact.

At the parole hearing the prisoner presented new evidence, 
suppressed from the defense at the time of trial, that the medical 
report after the rapes reported that the teenagers were virgins. 
Therefore, not only was this Black man framed, but the rapes 
didn't even happen. 

There is more. At his parole hearing, the "victim" is told that 
the parole board is very sympathetic to her, and one parole board 
member identifies himself as the president of a "victims rights" 
organization. Two board members are old white men, and one is an 
old Black man. The "victim" is still a racist, saying that she 
fears all Blacks, and while she doesn't fear the Black pig on the 
parole board, she wouldn't be alone with him either.

All on camera, the parole board decides to deny the application 
before the prisoner even enters, and when he leaves, they forget 
about the camera and make their bias even clearer.

The warden of Angola claims his job is to spread hope that 
prisoners will "win the lottery" and be allowed to leave the 
prison. As the film ends, updates are given on each prisoner. No 
pardons are given, and appeal hearings are denied. This applies to 
even the elderly religious prisoner, who has a pardon 
recommendation on the governor's desk.

After the main film, a short ABC News clip was shown about the 
annual rodeo at Angola. Again lacking in political focus, it at 
least showed how poorly prisoners are treated. Prisoners, many 
untrained, ride bulls and horses for prize money to the delight of 
outside spectators. Even ABC News, which was more concerned with 
issues such as "safety to the public" or the wisdom of offering 
"fun" to prisoners, had to report that the rodeo is likened to the 
barbarity of the Roman gladiator games and the throwing of 
Christians to the lions for sport. RAIL would like to get a copy 
of this video to show to people, especially the portion in which 
prisoners try to remove a poker chip from between the horns of a 
rampaging bull to the delight of the audience.

Encouraging activism

After the film and video, a short discussion was held in which the 
presenter argued for the audience to become active for social 
change and to speak to the various groups that had tables in the 
back room of the room. Neither the film nor the discussion 
addressed the fact that prisons do not stop crime. This is 
unfortunate, as the detailed information about the individual 
prisoner's cases makes it clear that no societal purpose is served 
in locking up someone forever for mistakes supposed deeds decades 
ago.

The presenter argued that people should start from the perspective 
of a quotation attributed to Nazi Holocaust victim Pastor Martin 
Niemoller: "First they came for the Jews and I did not speak out -
- because I was not a Jew. Then they came for the communists and I 
did not speak out -- because I was not a communist. Then they came 
for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not 
a trade unionist. Then they came for me -- and there was no one 
left to speak out for me."

The Niemoller quotation makes an attempt to get privileged people 
to act in their own self-interest to aid others. While the 
oppressed should certainly work together against common enemies, 
it would be naive to pretend that large groups of people do not 
benefit from Nazism or the prison system.

RAIL puts so much work into the prison issue because the prisons 
and police are key weapons in Amerika's imperialist war against 
its internal Black, Latino and Indigenous colonies. This 
perspective offers an explanation as to why the incarceration rate 
for Blacks is eight-times that of whites.

A significant part of the audience consisted of Springfield 
College students there not out of voluntary desire to learn about 
prisons, but for extra course credit. Most students left after the 
The Farm, not staying for the rodeo video or the discussion. Those 
who left were completely uninterested in signing a petition 
against Massachusetts control units.

While RAIL was impressed with the portrayal of injustice in the 
film, we thought the necessary indictment of the whole Amerikan 
injustice system was far too subtle. This was too subtle to reach 
these students, and the lives of the Blacks incarcerated in Angola 
so foreign, that the video just didn't affect them.

RAIL will likely show this film in the future, adding it to our 
arsenal of documentaries about prison. We will be sure to 
emphasize the weaknesses of this film in our introductory remarks 
as well as the discussion in order to present a more revolutionary 
view of the Amerikkkan Lockdown.

Note: The Last Graduation is available from Zahm Productions, 101 
West 79 Street 4C, New York NY 10024 Tele/Fax 212-595-5002. 
bzahm@interport.net .Institution price: $199 (call for individual, 
grass-roots and activist discount). RAIL does not know the 
availability of The Farm: Angola. 

* * *

CLINTON'S DEFINITION OF "FREE AND EQUAL"

On the day President Clinton's "Advisory Board on Race" finished 
it's "great and unprecedented conversation about race," he 
declared: "This board has raised the consciousness and quickened 
the conscience of America. They have moved us closer to our 
ideal."(1)

The board held hundreds of meetings in order to reach the shocking 
conclusion that Clinton's original proposals are correct: some 
federal government money to schools in the hopes of reducing class 
size, more enforcement of current civil rights laws, and more 
Small Business Administration loans to "minority" businesses. 
These ideas, piddling though they are, are stalled in Congress 
anyway and not going anywhere.(1) Unspoken as part of Clinton's 
"healing" agenda, too, is the program for ever-increasing 
repression and imprisonment of the Black and other oppressed 
nations -- this part of the agenda is proceeding much more 
smoothly.

Their plan is to lock up the bottom rungs while they integrate the 
top rungs into a new "diverse" Amerika. But we are not fooled. 
MIM's ideas are much better: proletarian feminist revolutionary 
nationalist struggles to create real self-determination for the 
oppressed nations of North America. We think this plan -- an 
extension of the original Black Panther Party program -- makes 
much more sense than a string of small programs designed to speed 
integration of the Black middle class and deepen the dependence of 
the Black potential bourgeoisie.

On the day of the report from his advisory board, Clinton declared 
that "our country is more free and equal than ever before."(2)

Is the country getting more "free and equal"? No -- and even 
Clinton's own liberal advisory board showed that it's not. Look at 
the prison system. If the country is getting "more free" then the 
number of people in prison should be decreasing. Obviously it is 
not. In fact, the number of people in prison and jail has 
increased 30% since 1992, when Clinton was elected. With more than 
1.7 million people in prison now and still rising, "more free" 
doesn't cut it.(3)

That is a slower rate of growth in the last five years than they 
had in the 1980s, but the increase has been disproportionately 
among Black and Latino prisoners. Since 1990, the number of men in 
prison (sentenced to a year or more) increased by 55% for Blacks, 
53% for Latinos, and 46% for whites. Since 1993, for the first 
time, the total number of Black men in prison outnumbers the total 
number of white men. For 1996, the imprisonment (sentenced to a 
year or more) rate per 100,000 men in the population was 3,098 for 
Black men, 1,278 for Latino men, and only 370 for white men.(4) 
That's the last year the government has the numbers by "race," and 
it doesn't include people in prison or jail for less than a year. 
With the rates increasing faster for oppressed nation members, 
that means "more equal" also doesn't cut it.

So, Clinton lied.

Notes:
1. Washington Post September 19, 1998; Page A08 
2. Remarks By The President To The Advisory Board On Race, 
September 18, 1998. www.whitehouse.gov
3. 1997 from June, New York Times 1/19/98, p. A10. Total 
incarcerated 1996 and rate of growth are from U.S. Department of 
Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics Bulletin, "Prison and Jail 
Inmates at Midyear 1996," Jan. 1997, NCJ #162843. 1980-1994 
imprisoned populations are from The Real War on Crime: The Report 
of the National Criminal Justice Commission, edited by Stephen R. 
Donziger (HarperCollins, 1996), p. 34.
4. U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau 
of Justice Statistics Bulletin, "Prisoners in 1997," August 1998, 
NCJ #170014. http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/p97.htm

* * *

TERRORISM AND EXPLOITATION EXPOSE PALESTINE PEACE BALONEY

by MC12

The Israeli army is still on a rampage, Israeli settlers still 
commit murder in Palestine, the Palestinian people still travel, 
and work for superexploitation wages, at the whim of the Israeli 
government -- and "U.S. Middle East Envoy Says He Is Making 
Progress."(1) So goes the Israeli-Palestinian "Peace Process," 
which has been used to attempt to stall the Palestinian liberation 
movement for the past five years, since the "Oslo accords" between 
Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

The Israeli army launched a commando raid in the second week of 
September to kill two men, Imad and Adel Awadallah, who were 
allegedly leaders of the Hamas organization. To offer proof that 
the killings prevented a terrorist attack, the army showed off a 
small stash of weapons and a few wigs. After the killings, the 
Israeli army immediately attempted to seal off the West Bank and 
Gaza Strip, keeping tends of thousands of Palestinians from their 
jobs, as well as health care and many other resources they need in 
Israel (see below).(2)

After the killings, thousands of Hamas supporters demonstrated in 
Palestinian territory, drawing more Israeli fire. To add insult to 
injury, Israeli authorities then announced that they would not 
release the bodies of their two victims, because the funerals 
would be "a generator of violence."(3)

A few days later, on September 17 -- while Israeli-occupied 
Palestine was still under "closure" supposedly to prevent 
terrorism in Israel -- two Israeli settler-terrorists in a drive-
by shooting opened fire on a group of Palestinian high school 
students on their way home from school, killing 17-year-old Iyed 
Karabseh and wounding several others. As Israeli terrorists ran 
rampant, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu announced the upcoming 
construction of 600 new homes at a settlement near Hebron, 
deepening the permanent occupation of Palestinian land.(4)

The "closure" of Israel's occupied territories takes a huge 
economic toll on the Palestinian people. Normally, more than 
130,000 Palestinians cross into Israel proper, many of them for 
work. Closing the borders not only denies them their work, it also 
denies them access to services from the colonial government. Even 
in "normal" times, military checkpoints are permanent cites of 
harassment, and jeopardize health and wellbeing. When curfews or 
closures are in effect, the results are even worse. For example, 
in August, Fadwa Alam was in labor in the backseat of her car when 
Israeli soldiers stopped them on the way to a hospital 10 minutes 
past the checkpoint. After a long delay, and eventually having to 
drive a much longer route, her baby daughter was born on the side 
of the road, and died at the hospital they reached more than an 
hour later. The army says they didn't notice that a woman was in 
labor in the car, and anyway they deny there is proof the baby 
died because of the delay.(5)

Three days earlier, as the Washington Post reports, "a three-
month-old baby, vomiting and running a high fever, died in his 
mother's arms in Hebron. Shirin Hadad, the child's mother, begged 
Israeli soldiers to allow her to walk to a taxi stand just up the 
street from her house so she could go to the hospital. After 
nearly an hour of pleading, Hadad finally slipped away, walking 
through a vineyard to elude the soldiers. ... What would have been 
a 10-minute trip to the hospital took an hour and 40 minutes. When 
she finally arrived, doctors in the emergency ward could not 
revive the infant."(5)

The system also serves direct economic interests, as would-be 
Palestinian capitalists are forced to hire more expensive Israeli 
trucking companies so their products can get through checkpoints 
more reliably. One textile factory manager told the Post, "This 
increases our costs and creates big problems. We cannot 
compete."(5)

The persistence of roadblocks and checkpoints -- besides the power 
to close the territories at will -- makes a mockery of the so-
called autonomy practiced by Palestinians since the Oslo accords 
in 1993. As President Clinton's representative Dennis Ross claimed 
"I think we are making headway" on the latest minutia, Israeli 
soldiers were pummeling Palestinian youth with rubber-coated 
bullets.(1)

The Oslo accords have been a tool to silence or divert true 
movements for Palestinian independence. They have revealed the 
bankruptcy of the approach by Yasser Arafat's PLO, which 
capitulated in the hope of taking power as neocolonial 
administrators. For all their dickering, the PLO and Israel are 
together trying to undermine Hamas and any other organization that 
seeks Palestinian independence instead of the bogus "autonomy" 
cooked up under Oslo.

While imperialists make hay out of Pakistan, India, and north 
Korea advancing missile programs, the Israeli state escalates its 
militarism without drawing a word of mainstream complaint. While 
all this was going on, Israel tested a new missile system 
supposedly designed to intercept in coming missiles, raising the 
stakes in Middle East conflicts. Funded jointly with the U.$., the 
new Arrow system cost $1.6 billion.(6)

While the imperialists pour military money into Israel and the 
region, the Palestinian people are suffering economically as never 
before.

According to the Post, "well over a third" of Gazans are looking 
for work. Since the Oslo accord, concludes the latest report: 
"Incomes, buying power and private investment have plunged while 
the numbers of families living in poverty have swelled." 
Meanwhile, Israel's economy has been more healthy in the 1990s.(7)

Tens of thousands of Palestinians cross over to work in Israel, 
where they earn more than they could in Gaza. But the number with 
such permits has been cut in half by the Israelis since Oslo. The 
loss in earnings has been devastating -- making it possible to pay 
workers even less, and helping Israel regulate its internal labor 
market to its own advantage, largely through the importation of 
workers from Eastern Europe. Every time there is a "closure" of 
the territories, incentives are increased to hire non-Palestinian 
immigrants, whose labor supply is more reliable.(7)

Incredibly, under the so-called autonomy, Israel still controls 
the flow of money and people between the two Palestinian 
territories of Gaza and the West Bank. Only 800 business owners, a 
small fraction of those who want to, are permitted to travel 
between the two areas, greatly limiting their mobility and 
opportunities to expand and trade.(7)

For Gaza businesses, the checkpoints and travel restrictions make 
it cheaper to buy products from Israel than from the West Bank. 
This guarantees a market for Israeli exporters even as it retards 
the development of the Palestinian national bourgeoisie. Awni 
Hasham, who owns an office furniture business in Gaza, told the 
Post, "Now we are living in a very high-security jail. We live in 
a very closed area, paying every penny we have for electricity, 
water, a place to live. This jail is the responsibility of both 
sides -- the Palestinian Authority [PLO] and Israel. They put us 
in this situation."(7) The Israelis are protecting themselves by 
developing a politically obedient labor aristocracy, which is 
dependent on Israel's imperialist-backed colonialism for its class 
survival. The PLO strategy has played right into this development.

Neocolonialism is a system in which oppressed nations govern 
themselves on paper, but true national self-determination is 
denied. The economy is controlled by imperialist powers, the 
national bourgeoisie cannot develop, and the poverty of the people 
is used to keep the price of labor down to superexploitation 
levels. For example, teenagers who still live in giant refugee 
camps work in a Gaza sweatshop 12-hour days, six days a week, 
sewing denim skirts and make 45 cents per hour.(7)

People who backed the PLO before the Oslo accords thought it would 
lead to political independence, the Palestinian national 
bourgeoisie could develop, with political "democracy," and the 
people would prosper. But the dream of Third World countries 
building independent capitalism has been shown to be just that, a 
dream. Maoists, on the other hand, know that real national self-
determination can only be won with both national liberation and 
socialism -- breaking with dependence on the imperialist powers 
and unleashing the productive power of the people for their own 
wellbeing. Even as the PLO strategy has melted into a thin air, 
making a mockery even of the most well-intentioned of their 
supporters, the Maoist argument has been vindicated many times 
over.

Notes:
1. Reuters September 18.
2. Washington Post, September 12, 1998; Page A22.
3. Washington Post Monday, September 14, 1998; Page A13.
4. Washington Post September 18, 1998; Page A23.
5. Washington Post September 19, 1998; Page A01.
6. Washington Post September 16, 1998; Page A37.
7. Washington Post September 14, 1998; Page A14.

* * *

MICH. SCHOOL OFFICIAL GETS RICH WHILE PRISONERS GET TRANSFERRED

by Ann Arbor RAIL

The school superintendent in Ionia, Mich has recently become an 
example of how prisons are reserved for the poor and oppressed -- 
while ever greater wealth and leisure are for the well-off and the 
privileged. The superintendent is resigning this year, taking all 
of his pension and retirement benefits, following his second 
arrest for drunk driving. Drunk driving arrests are a hot topic 
for Michigan anti-prisons activists right now, as drunk driving 
offenders are among the top candidates for being transferred to 
out of state prisons against their will.

The Michigan Department of Corrections (DOC) is currently doing 
everything it can to release no prisoners and expand its prisoner 
population. Michigan's Gov. John Engler was recently granted $186 
million to increase the prisons capacity in the state this year. 
The DOC is keeping up its end of the bargain by transferring 
thousands of prisoners across state lines to dramatize the so-
called overcrowding in the prisons. Prisoners with drunk driving 
convictions are likely candidates for transfer, because with 
relatively short sentences they are less likely than others to 
protest being moved far away from loved ones and legal assistance. 

That the resigning superintendent is an Ionia official is a bitter 
irony for prisoner advocates. Ionia has one of the greatest 
concentrations of prisons and prisoners in the state of Michigan. 
As far as RAIL knows, this superintendent has been arrested twice 
but has served no time. 

RAIL does not work for increased imprisonment of any group of 
people under the current illegitimate prisons system, and so we do 
not call for this one pig to serve prison time. Instead we call on 
all people who care about justice to note that justice will not 
come from Amerikan prisons. A system that locks up some people for 
drunk driving, and then quietly piles on them the additional 
sentence of being shipped out of their home state -- without 
additional trial or opportunity for arguing in their own defense -
- this system will not bring justice for anyone. RAIL calls on all 
people who believe in the possibility of justice to work with us 
in exposing the brutalities of the current injustice system, and 
in building independent institutions that can institute true 
justice of the people.

Sources: Michigan Radio News 26 September, 1998. 

* * *

REVOLUTIONARY ANTI-IMPERIALIST LEAGUE: BUILDING INDEPENDENT ANTI-
IMPERIALIST INSTITUTIONS OF THE OPPRESSED

by RAIL

In December 1994, the Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League (RAIL) 
was founded to support struggles of oppressed nations against 
imperialism. RAIL sees that nations must have the power to 
determine their own destinies without the claws of imperialism 
stuck in their backs. We fight for the liberation of all oppressed 
nations from imperialist military, political, economic and social 
domination. Oppressed nations have every right to throw off the 
yoke of imperialism and determine their own political systems, 
land and resource management, equitable economic structures, just 
judicial systems, equitable gender relations, pro-people 
educational systems and health care. Liberation from imperialism 
is necessary to any people determining the course of their own 
lives. RAIL's activism takes the form of educating and agitating 
around U.$. occupation of Third World countries abroad, and 
occupation of the internal colonies cordoned by U.$. territory.

In the Philippines, the United Snakes dictates economic policy. 
Under the Philippines 2000 plan, U.$. and other multinational 
corporations enjoy special perks of land use. The direct result of 
multinational investments in the Philippines is poverty and 
worsening living conditions for the Filipino people. Their land is 
stolen in favor of industrial corridors -- which turn into slave 
plantations on which the people who should rightfully be owners 
are lucky to work for less than subsistence wages. Stripping land 
from the peasants results in 40% unemployment for them. Two-fifths 
of the Filipino population cannot afford to eat three meals each 
day, and 75 percent lives below the government-defined poverty 
line. 

As RAIL continues the daily work of building support for the 
national liberation struggle of the Filipino people, the United 
Snakes is promoting a Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) with the 
newly-installed President Estrada of the Philippines. The VFA will 
grant the U.$. direct military control over Philippine territory 
by allowing Amerikan forces to conduct operations throughout the 
Philippines, by granting military access to many Filipino ports, 
and through special legal provisions for military personnel who 
commit crimes while in the Philippines. Because of this theft, 
enforced poverty and outright violence, RAIL works to expose and 
propagandize against U.$. imperialism. The Filipino people are not 
free to determine their national destiny when Amerika controls 
large segments of their land through industry and military grants.

Living within U.$. borders, we bear responsibility for the actions 
of a military and government that act in our name. Activists in 
this country must learn more about the struggles of the national 
democratic movement of the Philippines and learn from its 
successes in organizing the masses in fervent opposition to 
imperialism. We must learn from our Filipino brothers and sisters 
and work to build opposition here, in the belly of the beast, to 
imperialist control which kills Third World masses while plumping 
up imperialist nation coffers.

The Philippines is but one example. RAIL sees militaristic control 
here as well, on the streets of this so-called democratic country. 
The military in the Philippines is much like the pigs on the 
streets in Amerikkka's cities -- both are occupying forces that do 
not represent the interests of the masses.

Today there are more than 1.7 million people in Amerikkka's 
prisons. Hundreds of them are leaders of revolutionary struggles-
from the Maoist Black Panther Party, the Puerto Rican independence 
organization FALN and the American Indian Movement and other 
organizations -- as well as leaders developed in prison. Hundreds 
of leaders are in prison because their nations' liberation 
struggles threaten the Amerikan standard of living and hegemonic 
position internationally.

In Michigan, Gov. John Engler has added an astounding $186 million 
dollars worth of prison space to the state budget. In a state 
where 59% of prisoners are Black (compared to 14% of the general 
Michigan population), this is a gross addition to the most 
fascistic part of this state's control of the masses.

The Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League will work with any 
individual or organization that opposes all or part of Amerikkkan 
imperialism. We will work with you for an hour on our Sison Family 
Defense Fund, which is important to the Filipino struggle for 
national liberation. We will spend two hours with you, collecting 
funds for the Serve the People Books for Prisoners Program. If you 
want to give prisoners material aid, you can help out with typing 
and distributing briefs for the Serve the People Prisoners' Legal 
Clinic. We also encourage you to participate in regular RAIL 
educational events on issues that are most compelling to you.

As the imperialists suck more and more resources, labor and life 
out of the oppressed nations, we work to build a better society 
which does not build itself off the backs of the oppressed. Work 
with RAIL to criticize and expose imperialist treachery and build 
independent institutions that politicize, organize and meet the 
needs of the people.

To get involved contact rail@mim.org, or the addresses on Page 2.

* * *

WITH "PROGRESSIVES" LIKE THESE, WHO NEEDS REACTIONARIES?

Liberal columnist Bob Scheer recently vigorously defended 
President Clinton's decision to bomb a Sudanese pharmaceutical 
plant. On the local radio show, "Left, Right, and Center," Scheer 
allegedly represents the "left," and his columns regularly 
criticize the Amerikan arrogance and militarism that contributed 
to the Vietnam war.

Ariana Huffington, the show's far-right representative, quoted a 
New York Times article which showed there was no substantial 
evidence to back up the Clinton administration's claim that the 
Sudanese plant was being used to produce chemical weapons. She 
pointed out, as MIM has done, that thousands of children will die 
as a result of the destruction of this plant, because they will 
not have access to necessary medicines. Of course, Huffington is 
no friend of the world's oppressed masses, she was only using this 
incident to attack Clinton and his Democratic clique and promote 
her own Republican clique.

Scheer responded by flatly stating there was clear evidence that 
the plant in Sudan was connected to "international terrorism," 
that President Clinton had responded firmly and correctly to send 
a message to "terrorists" who had blown up "our" embassies, and 
blah blah blah... Of course, he did not bother to address the New 
York Times article directly, nor did he give any evidence backing 
up the administration's claim that the plant was producing 
chemical weapons.

Scheer proved that in order to defend their nominal access to the 
White House, even "left"-liberals will gladly spout war-mongering 
lies. It was as if Scheer had been transported back in time 34 
years, and was saying, "Why yes those dirty yellow bastards 
attacked our ships in the Gulf of Tonkin, so we need to send more 
guns, soldiers, and bombs to Vietnam." The Johnson administration 
used lies about attacks by north Vietnamese PT boats to cover up 
its escalation of direct Amerikan aggression in Vietnam.

Just another example of how the "left" wing of the Democratic 
party (and the reformists who tail it) is so accustomed to losing 
and compromising, that it has forgotten what winning is.

Notes: KCRW's "Left, Right, and Center," 23 Sep 98.

* * *

UNDER LOCK AND KEY: NEWS FROM PRISONS AND FROM PRISONERS

DENIED MEDICAL TREATMENT

MIM,

It's all one big conspiracy. The prison doctors, nurses, mailroom, blue shirts, 
white shirts, schoolteachers, and administration. Check it. I was on my way for 
parole months ago. The state van I was in ran head on into a car. The ambulance 
came and checked everyone but me. I told them on the spot that I could barely 
move my back, but this political pig "major stucky" said that I was just lying 
and I'd be all right. They refused me legal phone calls and medical treatment. 
Since this happened, my back has given out four times. Two of those times I 
fell and busted my head open. But they still insist I'll be all right!

Two other people (officers) from the van were hurt and went straight to the 
hospital, and then stayed home for three weeks!!! But they keep insisting that 
I'm just faking and don't need a legal call because I'll be all right. What's 
up with poor excuse for a system...[T]he way they're dragging me, it will 
probably turn into a permanent injury for life!

Just trying to keep everyone else on point, and let them know how South 
Carolina's department of Incorrections is at Evan's. The pigs that run it are 
the same everywhere! Just be strong and maintain.

 --A Victim of South Carolina's Prison System, 3 August 1998

SENTENCED TO 50 YEARS AT AGE 15

I'm a Chicano artist, poet and revolutionary warehoused here in Prison X. In 
1995 at the extremely young age of 15 I was unjustly sentence to 50 years in 
prison by a racist judge, a "righteous" representative of the criminal 
Injustice system here in the United Snakes of Amerika.

They justifies this evil punishment by saying that the three years it would 
take before I turned 18 was not sufficient time to "rehabilitate" me. They 
failed to consider that the mandatory 10 years I would serve by far exceeded 
the amount of time necessary for "rehabilitation". Maybe, just possibly, it was 
my Brown skin. I couldn't help but notice the numerous pink and pasty skinned 
young boys step in front of the "judge" and receive breaks one after another. I 
was sure I was at the Rodney King or Anthony Baez trial. As the judge looked at 
these pale children, that's exactly what he saw -- children, his children, 
grandchildren -- the children of Amerikkka. Is not the child of this bourgeois 
society accepted as the public image of the "all Amerikan boy"? Of course he 
could not be expected to condemn his own child to the concrete jungles and 
valley of deaths that plague this country.

As I left the classification center on that bus headed for nearly 2,000 inmate 
maximum security prison the faces I saw were those of young Black and Brown 
warriors -- not just 18 years old -- some scared, some impassive in their 
naivete. Once we arrived we were overlooked with a lack of concern by the 
administration. On my tenth day I eagerly applied for school and was 
immediately turned away due the overcrowding, lack of teachers and funds. 
Because of Clinton's "Crime Bill" I could not apply for financial aid for 
college.

My story is just one of the many Mexican, Afrikan and Native misguided and 
vulnerable youths entering the prison system every day. They are locking us up 
and throwing away the key. Fortunately I took it upon myself to get educated 
and politically active. But my revolutionary consciousness and activities have 
not come cheap. For I've been in the hole under very oppressive conditions for 
18 months. The Klan has no intention of letting me out. They have fabricated 
lied and absurd stories to keep me silent and in this status. In one incident 
they were claiming I was a member from the Mexican Mafia and going on to say I 
was from another gang! The struggle continues...

I am in the need of assistance. There are a great deal of comrades here who are 
ready to learn but don't have the resources to obtain the materials they need 
to begin their path to enlightenment and revolutionary consciousness. We need 
Spanish and English materials (i.e. MIM Notes, Notas Rojas, MIM Theory, etc.) 
including back issues of MIM Theory. It will be greatly appreciated and 
anything sent will be spread throughout the prison underground railroad. I 
thank you for taking the time to read this letter.

-- An Iowa Prisoner, 19 July 1998

THREE PENNSYLVANIA PRISONERS EXPLAIN HOW YOUTH ARE TARGETED 

I'm another young strong survivor in the modern day slavery shit that they 
krackers call the Penitentiary. At the age of 20 and being here since the age 
of 17, I began to express the true things the young brothers go through in this 
chest of Leviathan. 

It's very difficult for the young brothers to get paroled outta here because 
the system looks upon us and says to themselves that we're still young so we 
haven't changed. It's not so much of if we've changed or not, it's do we have 
enough strength and sense to avoid these kamps? See they want to keep us in 
here as they are doing because we are fresh and young. We are capable of making 
plenty of babies and enhancing the Black population. Just take a look at how 
many Black Brothas are locked up now. As time goes on they are putting even 
larger amounts of youths in the adult system, and giving them buckets full of 
time. 

I have a Rappy (co-defendant) in another warehouse. He was 15 when he got 
impounded. Instead of placing him in a juvenile facility, they gave him 21 to 
42 years and sent him to one of their plantations. That's Fucked Up! That's is 
an example of what I'm talking about when I say they, the system, the wicked 
foul corrupted system is putting us young brothers away for a long time and 
there is no stop. 

So far their plan is working but I have developed the mindset of getting around 
them krackers. It's all about beating them at their own game. Do you readers 
understand where I, this strong black man, is taking your minds? Don't be 
blinded brothers, through the trial and tribulations of the jail's hectic 
situations. We gotta stay focused on what they are putting down.

It's beyond our belief. I'm awake brothas and sistas. The importance of this 
serious information is to open your eyes and let our people in on what the 
young brothers have to share concerning the program the krackers got set for us 
your brothers. 

...Please brothas wake up and don't continue to be victims to this multibillion 
dollar business that's designed to make the krackers rich off us and do away 
with the Black seed at the same time.

-- A Pennsylvania Prisoner, June 1998

I'm another Black Brotha, 21 years of age that is currently housed at SCI-Pittsburgh. I feel as though the whole correctional system is designed to 
destroy and do away with the Black Nation. A lot of us are in jail for crimes 
that we had to commit in order to survive and take care of our families. These 
racist krackers know this. They are the beast that places our people dependent 
upon them. They know exactly what they are doing. They are the ones that build 
bars on adjacent corner of our neighborhood. They are the ones that fashioned 
the drug cartels and disgorge them in our communities.

No one knows anything about the co-co leaves in the ghetto slums of Philly. The 
government doesn't support our school program financially. They are constantly 
locking up fathers from households. This affects the children directly. There's 
nobody there to provide for children. Lack of funds cause kids to be 
inappropriately clothed for the weather. Kids mock their attire, which makes 
the child uncomfortable in school. They start to pay less attention in class, 
which begins to decimate their grades. Next thing the kids stop attending 
school. That's another Black mind that falls victim to the crazy, sadistic 
system these krackers put together. It's a chain! Can't you see?

...My brothas, we are the ones who built this Thing called Amerikkka, with our 
sweat, blood and tears. I know for a fact that we are naturally smarter than 
the Beast, that's why they try their best to keep the Black mind oppressed with 
enticing substances called drugs and alcohol. 

Brothas we must stay strong and get our mind, body and soul together. For us 
who are doing time in these penitentiaries make yourselves the ultimate 
warriors. Brothas Read! Read about your oppressor so that you can learn about 
his mind set. The more we learn about them, and the more we strive to lose 
their ways and actions the more effective we become in the struggle.

Ulimwengu (Free the World!) -- A Pennsylvania Prisoner, June 1998

MIM responds: We can't afford to count on the oppressed being "naturally 
smarter" than the oppressor. That same genetic superiority argument has been 
used by the white chauvinist system to put down Blacks, Latinos, First Nations 
and anyone else who they want to control. We know that the oppressed will rise 
up and overthrow this murderous system and create a society of equality and 
justice. This is not because of natural intelligence, it is because of the 
situation of the oppressed in a system that creates the need for revolutionary 
change to serve the justice demanded by the majority who are oppressed by the 
minority.

Under socialism we strive to reeducate even the oppressors and ultimately 
integrate them into society to serve the people alongside all of humanity.

Dear MIM,

I'm a 21 year old Black minded Youth whose currently dealing with the 
atrocities and mental obstacles set forth by the Tyranny of Pennsylvania DOC 
[Department of "Corrections"]. I'm currently housed at state correctional 
institute at Pittsburgh [SCIP] where these guards are psychologically chewing 
upon the mind of youth with sports and play. Employees of young age are 
exercising their authority upon us with bogus misconduct and physical abuse.

This institution has been formulating asinine policies that aren't a part of 
the DC-ADM. Just recently inmates' families were being subjected to in-house 
imprisonment, stress and pressure from their neighbors. The superintendent, Mr. 
James Price instituted a policy within the womb of SCIP where all inmate mail 
leaving the prison must have written on it, "Inmate Mail - PA Dept. of 
corrections. This places our family on house arrest and violates our families' 
privacy. This is a psychological weapon to ward off the support of prisoners' 
families and friends.

The prison system in Amerikkka is a direct reenactment of slavery. They take 
the foundation of the family and auction them off to the highest bidder. They 
take us in their grip and whip -- now called handcuffs and nightsticks. Then 
drive us off in their horsepowered vehicles to be stripped and searched from 
the wisdom teeth to the anal cavity. These acts were those that were exercised 
upon Blacks during slavery. The mental ownership is more deadly than that of 
the physical.

-- A Pennsylvania Prisoner, June 1998

PRISONS WEAKEN FAMILY SUPPORT

Strong family support has a lot, To do with one's Rehabilitation.

During the American Slave Trade, the Slavemaster went to all extremes to 
destroy family relationships. Mothers were separated from their newborns. 
Fathers from their only child. Children were raised on plantations thousands of 
miles away from loved ones. The purpose of this was to destroy any kind of 
family bonding. The human being is a social being whose growth depends upon 
having a relationship with others. Family is what we're linked to emotionally 
and spiritually. That family support gives us the physical and mental vigor. 
Family makes us the individuals we are today and tomorrow.

We can see these Modern Day Prison Slave camps across this country. 
Particularly, South Carolina Slave camps have emulated the American Slave Trade 
by going to all lengths to ruin any kind of family relationship an inmate has 
with loved ones. The prison Director of South Carolina Slave camps has designed 
policies prohibiting conjugal visits, holding hands inside the visitation room. 
Inmates are forced to sit across the table from his wife. At one time inmates 
were allowed to have food visits with family members during the holidays. The 
food visit promoted family togetherness. These policies are designed to destroy 
relationships with family members. Inmates are transported outside of their 
region, hours away from home exclusively to destroy family bonding.

Having that family bonds gives one the incentive to change. You'll notice those 
who still have that family bond, regardless of hours of distance. Their 
disposition is totally different from those who don't have that family bond. 
That family bond has a tremendous impact on the individual, and the modern day 
slavemasters understand this. The family assist's in getting the inmate 
prepared for returning back to society. 

Some of you may say, "Those inmates deserve to be treated in that manner." I do 
understand what some of those inmates have done, and I can empathize. Something 
you must consider is that 95% of the inmates will return back to society. If 
they're denied rehabilitation -- and a great portion of that comes from family 
support. What is going to be the inmate's condition? Apparently the Prison 
Director doesn't care about the family relations, but you should! Many of those 
95% percent could be coming to a community near you.

Respectfully,

-- A South Carolina Prisoner, 13 August 1998

FIGHTING CENSORSHIP IN FLORIDA

RAIL my fellow brothers,

Thanks for your letter. I received your newsletters No. 163 and No. 164 but the 
institute did not let me have it due to a statement inside the newsletter, "The 
real criminals are the officers." Which is true. I've been here for several 
months and it has been pure hell. I've been place on CM (Close Management). I'm 
in a cell myself but I talk to other inmates. 

This prison is one of the most fucked up camps. These pigs assault us on a 
daily basis. The come in our cells tearing shit up and spitting that chewing 
tobacco everywhere. I tried to go on a mental health transfer but the mental 
health doctor is down with the pigs! I went as far as slicing my forearms! 

This whole "institution" is fucked up! I've been trying to get away from here 
but these pigs ain't having it. I even gather several men back here (in CM) and 
had a riot.... But we don't let these pigs break us down!... It's time to shut 
this concentration camp down cause these pigs ain't rehabilitating me!...

 --A Florida Prisoner, 23 July 1998

LEGAL VICTORY FOR PRISONER

MIM,

I'm updating you on the outcome of my trial. I am located at X facility because 
the state claimed I incited a riot. This led up to several officers claiming 
that I was the reason that they were stabbed the next day. They never talked 
about how the punk officers beat me up.

I had a jury trial and was found not guilty of all accounts. I had a great paid 
lawyer. He knew from the start that the state tried to railroad me. The state 
said they don't know what happened to the videotape. My attorney said that the 
reason why the state can't find the tape because the tape would prove that I 
was assaulted first.

All these officers said that I am in big trouble. I said to myself, y'all in 
trouble if I don't win -- you get the picture. When the verdict was read, "not 
guilty", one white mutha fucker got read as apple. The White Ass officer almost 
died. The state hates me, but they know if they fuck up that I have help on the 
street. My case is in the Federal Court. The shit the state got away with in 
the State Court they can't do in the Federal Court.... 

 --A Maryland Prisoner, 12 July 1998

MIM responds:

Unfortunately the shit the state pulls in the State Court is no different from 
the shit the prosecutors (the State, the federal government, or an individual) 
pull in Federal Court. There is no haven of justice in this system. We applaud 
any legal victory such as the one this Maryland prisoner describes, but we know 
that the only way to create a just system will be to overthrow imperialism and 
build a socialist society.

ATTORNEY SOLICITS TEXAS BRUTALITY REPORTS

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice [TDCJ] is experiencing their guards 
body slamming and dunking prisoners at an alarming rate. This has caused 
serious injury or death. And this injustice of brutality is being justified as 
"Major Use of Force".

Because of this recent rampage of brutality of by TDCJ guards, the severe 
injuries to prisoners and the TDCJ Administration's order in the Ruiz Lawsuit, 
is cause for an investigation by the Law Office of Donna Brorby!

Should any TDCJ Prisoners witness an assault, or major use of force by any 
official on their assigned unit, they should obtain the inmate name and number. 
Record the date, time and location of the incident. Acquire the name and title 
of all parties involved, state who did what, when and how. Make sure that all 
information and facts are carbon copied and sworn to be true and correct to the 
best of your knowledge.

Such documents thereafter can be forwarded as Legal Mail to the following 
address: Ms. Donna Brorby, Attorney at Law, 660 Market St., Suite 300, San 
Francisco, CA 94104.

In the Trenches!

--A Texas Prisoner, 23 July 1998

PLEA FOR READING MATERIAL

I am very pleased to see that more than myself is aware that the criminal 
injustice system is nothing more than a tool for social control wielded against 
the oppressed nations. And I would like to thank you for your genuine concern 
to those of us who are less fortunate and held captive behind these walls. 
Today I received my first issue of MIM Notes and after studying them and 
re-reading them, those of us that are held captive in the womb of our enemy 
down here in Texas are in much need of your enlightened material and I have 
many fellow brothers who are dedicated to the struggle, but due to the lack of 
doe they pay us in the Texas injustice system makes it hard for us to provide 
food to feed the mind or soul, and if something is not fed daily it will die 
slowly from starvation, so I ask of you to please continue sending me MIM 
Notes, as well as literature and books! If possible books on the Black Panther 
Party, Marxism-Maoism, Lenin, political, and about economics as well as of 
Malcolm X. These materials I not only ask on my behalf but on many other 
brothers' behalf as well.

Your brother in the Struggle,

-- A Texas Prisoner, 15 May 98