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 177 January 1, 1999
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. AMERIKA'S WAR AGAINST THE OPPRESSED RAGES ON:
KALIFORNIA PRISON GUARDS SHOOT PRISONERS
2. ROBBER BARONS RING IN THE END OF THE CENTURY AS THEY
REIGNED AT ITS BEGINNING
3. TROTS CALL THEM LAYOFFS, MIM CALLS IT CLASS
MOBILITY
4. LETTERS
5. INDONESIAN REPRESSION IN EAST TIMOR CONTINUES
6. REVIEW: THE NEW FINANCIAL CAPITALISTS:
KOHLBERG KRAVIS ROBERTS AND THE CREATION OF
CORPORATE VALUE
7. CAMPAIGN TO EXPAND MIM NOTES DISTRIBUTION
8. ADDRESSING HIV GLOBALLY REQUIRES DICTATORSHIP OF
PROLETARIAT
9. DON'T BE FOOLED BY U.$. MILITARY CUT BACK
10. COMRADE TAKES INITIATIVE TO GIVE HEALTH AID TO
PRISONERS
11. PRISONERS' HEALTH WATCH: PRISONERS, INFORMATION AND
HIV/AIDS
12. SCIENCE OF THE PEOPLE DESPERATELY NEEDED
13. OBSCURING REALITY: WORKERS WORLD CLAIMS NBA PLAYERS
ARE OPPRESSED
14. NEW YORK DATA BACKS NEED FOR STUDENT-PRISONER
ALLIANCE
15. ANN ARBOR PIGS PROTECT AND SERVE WHITE HYSTERIA
16. ESCAPED DEATH ROW PRISONER FOUND DEAD
17. BOOKS ON BLACK REVOLUTIONARY NATIONALISM
IMMEDIATELY AVAILABLE
18. UNDER LOCK & 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
* * *
MIM Notes 177
January 1, 1999
AMERIKA'S WAR AGAINST THE OPPRESSED RAGES ON:
KALIFORNIA PRISON GUARDS SHOOT PRISONERS
In a practice unheard of in every other U.$. state,
Kalifornia prison guards shoot prisoners with assault
rifles to stop fights. This policy has resulted in 12
deaths and 32 seriously injured inmates since 1994. In
all other states, six inmates were fatally shot by
guards during the same period.
A report published in the Los Angeles Times revealed
that only one of the 44 murdered or seriously injured
inmates was armed with a weapon or inflicting serious
injury to another inmate at the time. No korrections
officers were being threatened, nor were any inmates
trying to escape during any of the shootings.
More than three-quarters of the shootings were deemed
proper by the department of korrections review board
and only three Department of Corrections thugs were
given any sort of discipline. Two were given
reprimands and one was given an 180-day suspension.
"It's just the way they've been trained," said Lanson
Newsome. Newsome is a former deputy commissioner of
Georgia state corrections and now a consultant who has
reviewed dozens of Kalifornia prison shootings.
Training guards to simply kill inmates is an explicit
sign that the system intends to kill.
While the shootings occurred at prisons up and down
the coast, none of the recent shootings occurred at
Corcoran State Prison, where seven prisoners were shot
dead between 1989 and 1994. During those five years
Corcoran was the deadliest prison in the u.$.
Prisoncrats tried to paint Corcoran as an aberration.
However during the same time period Kalifornia DOC
thugs murdered 24 inmates and wounded 175 statewide. A
majority of the shootings occurred during fist-fights
and other altercations in which inmates were unarmed.
Because the number of deaths had dropped from 24
between 1989 and 1994 to 12 from 1994 to 1998, state
(in)corrections director Cal Terhune said, "I am very
pleased in the direction that it has gone." "We're
going to continue to push...to really make the use of
lethal force the absolute minimum, as a last resort."
But, he also said, "Unfortunately, we are doing it at
absolutely the worst time, we've had an upturn in gang
activities, [and] skirmishes." In other words, because
there are fights in prison the pigs should be allowed
to continue blasting away until they are quelled.
Kalifornia has 33 prisons with 159,000 inmates. The
pigs are notorious for instigating brawls between
prisoners. Antagonism exists between individuals and
groups of prisoners. These antagonisms are
predominantly caused by imperialism. It is to the
benefit of the pigs when the masses fight against one
another because it lessens their organized struggle
against the oppressor. And as prison comrades point
out in this issue of Under Lock and Key, prison guards
and pigs generally instigate violence between the
masses. DOC thugs have no qualms about placing
prisoner rivals in situations where hostilities can
easily explode into violence. This is why MIM sees
that violence between prisoners is state sanctioned
brutality and murder.
The state's prison guard union contends that guns are
a necessary equalizer because Kalifornia has the
lowest prisoner to guard ratio. They are basically
asking for more prison guards and free license to
brutalize prisoners, in what amounts to more money and
political power for the guard's union.
Some other states increase brutality against prisoners
under the guise of stopping inmate fights. Emergency
response teams armed with pepper spray and wood
bullets are used by many states. One Ohio
incorrections pig said, "We've never had an officer
killed, and I can't recall any [officers] who were
severely injured while breaking up a fight." The Ohio
corrections department houses 50,000 inmates, the
fifth-largest number in the u.$.
Even in Texas, a prison system notorious for its
brutal treatment of inmates, officially, only one
prisoner was shot and killed in the last four years.
Officially, this was in response to an escape attempt.
MIM knows from reports from prisoners that masses are
killed by prison guards in other ways -- denied
medical care, fake accidental deaths and fake suicides
-- nonetheless, it is important to note that even the
notoriously cruel prisons in Texas do not official
sanction shooting prisoners with such frequency.
All of Kalifornia's 26 maximum security lockups are
supposed to follow the same policy that allows deadly
force only as a "last resort." But, the Los Angeles
Times' investigation found that the policy only exists
on paper and most Kalifornia prisons make up their own
policy. For example, despite state policy, some of the
pig's gunners didn't fire a warning shot before firing
the fatal shot.
State policy also says that officers must have a
"clear shot," however gunners routinely fire into a
tangle of combatants. The LA Times found that in at
least 10 cases over the past decade gunners have
missed the intended target and killed or injured the
wrong inmate. None of the 24 fatal shootings from 1989
to 1994 were found improper by department review
boards. And, though four of the 12 fatal shootings and
six of the injuries since 1994 have been found "not in
compliance," discipline has amounted to two reprimands
and one suspension. This goes to show that we can't
count on the system to police itself.
Kalifornia guards added fire power after the rise of
militant Black inmates and prisoner groups in the
1960s and 70s. The guards' union that built up around
this policy of brutal repression has become one of the
most powerful political forces in the state. Around
that time an integration policy designed to make rival
prison inmates get along was developed at Tehachapi
security housing unit. Guards began mixing rival gang
members into the same small exercise yards. The policy
backfired.
Or did it? Exacerbating divisions between prisoners
justifies the prison system's bloated budget and
ability to crack heads. The policy baited gang members
into fights, which the guards put down with deadly
force. The Times said this policy created a "siege
mentality" amongst the guards. The guards' role in the
policy is to exploit prisoner divisions and bust heads
as much as possible.
According to official reports, four inmates were
subsequently shot by guards from 1989 to 1993. One
prisoner who witnessed a shooting said, "It was like
that guard took aim on an animal. Just like he was
hunting. Aimed at his head, his temple, and fired."
In 1992, a few Corcoran staffers decided to try an
approach similar to the Ohio emergency teams. They
managed to successfully break up fights without firing
a shot. "The higher ups in Sacramento heard about it
and said, "You will not do that again.' You will not
put staff in jeopardy," said Steve Rigg, a former
lieutenant who revealed abuses at Corcoran to the FBI.
The liberal reformism contained in the L.A. Times
article doesn't get around the fact that prisons
themselves are a form of violence. Though the Times
doesn't say what percentage of murdered prisoners were
oppressed nationals, Amerika mainly makes use of
prisons in its war on its internal colonies. Only by
solving the broader problems of national oppression
can the problem of brutality in Amerikan prisons be
solved. Until then, the status quo will always be
brutality in prisons.
* * *
HAPPY NEW YEAR:
ROBBER BARONS RING IN THE END OF THE CENTURY AS THEY
REIGNED AT ITS BEGINNING
by MC45
Exxon and Mobil have agreed to merge, reuniting the
two largest sections of the former Standard Oil
Company of robber baron John D. Rockefeller. You
remember the robber barons. They were the men you
leaned about in high school Amerikan history classes.
The frontiersmen of capital, conquerors of raw
materials and the stock market, the men who built
businesses in the time before anti-trust laws in the
United Snakes.
We studied the robber barons as heroes in high school,
as the men who possessed everything that made Amerika
great -- ambition, cutthroat competitiveness, and
greed. They had what made this country grand, the kind
of drive that can only be born of an exaggerated self-
interest. We also studied the robber barons as people
who, under unrestrained capitalism, pushed toward
building their companies into ever-more complete
monopolies. Capitalism can think of no better way to
control production relations than competition so the
Amerikan state -- which Marx called the executive
committee of the Amerikan bourgeoisie -- enacted anti-
monopoly laws and split up the growing monopoly of
Standard Oil.
But Marx and Engels had firmly established the
principles of capital's tendency toward monopoly by
the time Standard Oil was split in 1911. Only five
years later in 1916, Lenin profoundly expanded our
understanding of these principles to include the
extension into imperialism -- the domination of
monopoly even across state borders. So the
recombination of Mobil and Exxon 87 years after their
split demonstrates only capitalism's ability to
prolong its own life and the suffering it causes the
earth and its population. More important than greater
monopoly, in the united snakes we are seeing the
inevitable end to a near-century of pretension that
anti-trust laws were ever anything but a stopgap
against imperialism's tendency to stifle and destroy
itself.
Big, big numbers
Mobil brings imperialist interests to Qatar, Western
Australia, Indonesia, Singapore, Nigeria, Guinea and
Turkmenistan and other countries. At the end of 1997,
it was exploring in or extracting resources from 25
countries -- this included interests in 19 refineries
in 10 countries. Mobil netted $3.3 billion in 1997,
with $26.5 billion in capital employed. This means it
spent $26.5 billion on sustaining and expanding its
production of oil, gas and chemical products, and
shows that the smaller of these two industrial giants
had $26.5 billion to bully the Third World into giving
up raw materials for extraction.(1)
Mobil operated roughly 15,500 service stations
worldwide in 1997. These service stations contributed
to sales of 4 million "tons of product" (including
gas, oil and chemicals). (2) The service stations also
employed some of Mobil's 42,700 employees around the
globe.
The executives of both Exxon and Mobil have crowed
about the way their holdings "complement" each other.
Exxon currently owns pieces of 31 refineries in 17
countries. These countries include Angola, Congo,
Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Azerbaijan and
Trinidad and Tobago. MIM says Exxon and Mobil have
complementary roles in grand theft from all the
countries they do business in. If there were any
justice in the Amerikan prisons system, the CEOs of
these two corporations would be serving time for the
felony robbery and mass murder -- using armed force
and war to preserve their access to other countries'
raw materials.
Exxon had twice as much capital "employed" as Mobil
did in 1997, and spent $52.9 billion to explore,
drill, refine, move and market its goods. Its
operations included 33,000 service stations
internationally, which employed some of its 80,000
employees.(2) As they agree to merge, the companies
together have 123,000 employees around the globe.(3)
The argument Exxon and Mobil give for their
combination, which is subject to review by u.$.
government and international trade authorities, is
that competition has grown, and prices for their goods
have dropped so much that they must combine forces to
stay profitable.(3) MIM agrees, in theory. While the
particular merger between Exxon and Mobil does not
matter to the future of capitalism, it is true that
multi-national corporations and all others must grow
or die. This is the underlying threat of "free" market
competition -- there would be no drive to compete if
all companies could stay in business forever
regardless of their profit-making successes.
Given that forming a monopoly -- a company that owns
an exclusive share of its industry and therefore is
not subject to the pressures of market competition --
is supposedly illegal in Amerika, it may seem strange
that Exxon and Mobil are allowed to make the argument
"well, yeah, we want to monopolize, but we kind of
have to!" Why should a government body that's supposed
to ensure competitive business listen to an argument
like this? It is a classic example of Marx's
definition of the state under capitalism -- the
Amerikan government is the executive committee of the
Amerikan bourgeoisie. This means that the government
cannot just outlaw monopoly on the basis of free
competition. Its job is to back up the Amerikan big
bourgeoisie as the dominant economic force in the
world.
U.$. economic interests laid out for the Africans
During a recent visit to Africa, Amerikan Secretary of
Commerce William Daley accompanied 15 large u.$.
corporations on a mission to the Southern African
Development Community (SADC), a regional economic
grouping of Southern African countries. Daley spoke
about the importance for Africans of welcoming u.$.
investments, talking as if signing away natural
resources by the ton and national sovereignty by the
court order is the best possible future for African
peoples.
Daley threatened the Southern African countries,
saying that Amerikan multi-nationals can always
exploit some other group of people instead of those in
Southern African countries. Encouraging these
governments to open their borders to u.$. capital, he
said "I think it is important to remember as you ask
it, these companies have all kinds of options. Every
area in the world wants their business." Blatantly
stating the need for lower or no taxes, and for other
legal exemptions for Amerikan corporations, Daley
suggested that "the question the leaders of South
Africa and the other SADC nations need to ask is this:
What will it take to attract more trade and
investments?"(4)
The head of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern
Africa (COMESA), another regional economic
organization, echoed Secretary Daley's admonition to
make Africa more attractive to u.$. companies. He said
that "although COMESA is not directly involved in re-
establishing amicable negotiated peaceful settlements
to the various crises in our region, we recognise the
urgency and importance of finding workable and long-
lasting solutions."(5)
Of the COMESA member states, Angola, Namibia and
Zimbabwe all have troops in the Democratic Republic of
Congo, and Eritrea and Ethiopia have a border
dispute.(5) COMESA is encouraging them, as William
Daley is encouraging the SADC, to open their borders
to the level of foreign bidding on the Nigerian
economy. Over the past ten years, foreigners have
invested roughly U$ 830.92 million in Nigeria as part
of a debt conversion program.(6)
The overwhelming portion of this money -- $303.64
million, or 36.54 percent of the total -- was funneled
into manufacturing. By contrast, agriculture got
slightly less than $14.5 million. This debt conversion
program began in 1988, as a means of resolving some of
Nigeria's international debt, which the government
lists as $28 billion in 1998.(6)
Yet the debt conversion program highlights the
opposition of interests of the imperialists and their
lackeys in the Nigerian government on one side, and
the Nigerian people on the other.
While more than 36 percent of money in this program
went to manufacturing, a mere 19 percent of Nigeria's
workforce is engaged in industry, commerce and
services combined. Nigeria's agricultural sector,
which employs 54 percent of the country's working
people,(7) has received less than 2 percent of these
investments. The priorities of a government that makes
room for these gross imbalances are clear: outside
investors dictate Nigeria's domestic economic
decisions.
MIM does not know if Mobil's Nigerian holdings were
financed with part of this batch of debt-conversion
cash. We do know that this one debt-conversion scheme
is a fine case study for the way Amerikan MNCs attack
the resources of the world. The important point to
understand is that Mobil and Exxon operate as two of
the First World multi-nationals around whose interests
Nigeria's and so many other countries' domestic
economic policies are structured. MIM points to the
possible recombination of Exxon and Mobil as a further
step toward the ultimate atrophy and death of the
imperialist beast.
Notes:
1. www.businesswire.com/cnn/mob.html,http://www.mobil.com
/bns98/
2. Mobil Corporation Press Release http://www.mobil.com/bns98/
3. New York Times, 2 December, 1998.
4. "Americans Want to Trade with 'New Africa,' Daley
Says," United States Information Agency 2 December,
1998.
5. "COMESA States Urged To Stop War," PanAfrican News
Agency, 3 December, 1998.
6. "Foreigners Stake 830.92 Million Dollars In Nigeria
Economy," PANA 1 December, 1998.
7. CIA World Factbook 1997.
http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/
* * *
TROTS CALL THEM LAYOFFS, MIM CALLS IT CLASS
MOBILITY
by MC45
The new Exxon Mobil company, if allowed to form, will
employ less people than the two companies combined
currently do. Part of the corporations' argument for
merging is that as a joint company they will be able
to cut costs and this will help them make bigger
profits. For some of the employees this will mean
looking for new jobs.
A New York Times article from November 30 takes a
knee-jerk defend-amerikan-jobs approach to the
prospective downsizing of the two companies'
industrial staffs. The article paints a picture of
these First World industrial workers being laid off
with no place to go and no way to support their
families, promoting the mythology of the 1980s that
Amerikan workers are losing their jobs as the gap
between CEOs and company employees widens. Because
this is the same position that many Trotskyist and
other left-posing groups take, MIM takes the time to
rebut this argument here.
Talk of workers being "downsized" focuses on the
shrinking number of industrial jobs within u.$.
borders. But more important than the question of what
individual blue collar workers do with the rest of
their lives is the question of what is happening to
the u.$. class structure. For years, MIM has pointed
out the facts that while the proportion of Amerikans
working industrial jobs is going down, the percentage
of Amerikans pushing paper for money is going up. As a
group, Amerikan workers are moving into cleaner and
better paid administrative jobs, and are making more
money as a result.(MIM Theory 1)
Even those workers who do not find better jobs after
being laid off have both savings and stocks in their
employer companies to fall back on.(2) The New York
Times points out that the workers at a Mobil plant in
Texas "are either balding or going gray" and
interprets this as a sign that the company "has been
more concerned about how to get rid of workers than
how to attract them." But MIM sees the graying of
Amerikan workers as part of the overall trend in this
country's economy -- which includes a higher
proportion of people with college and higher
educations than ever before. Young prospective workers
at Mobil are not faced so much with a lack of jobs as
they are with opportunities for higher status work.(3)
MIM has not seen much information about what will
happen to gas station workers. Since many Mobil
stations are side-by-side with Exxon stations, some of
these redundant jobs will likely be cut. As described
in MIM Theory 1, white people who have such low paying
menial jobs often only have them for short periods of
time. (Immigrants and the oppressed nations are forced
into these jobs for a long time.) This transitional
use of low-paying work by whites keeps lower-paid
whites from forming a class, as they will each
individually be doing something much better shortly.
Analyzing the potential Exxon-Mobil merger from the
proletarian perspective must mean looking from an
international perspective. The people of Nigeria,
Mexico, Malaysia and many other countries will suffer
the brunt of Exxon Mobil's new profit-sucking power.
In Mexico, manufacturing workers made 16 percent of
the u.$. manufacturing worker wage in 1989. This is
because "the absolute gap between rich countries and
poor countries has steadily expanded to this
state."(1) MIM focuses its efforts on the struggles of
the most oppressed by analyzing broad economic and
political trends, not by trying to isolate First World
struggles in every corporate development.
Notes:
1. MIM Theory no. 1: A White Proletariat? (Spring,
1992).
2. New York Times, 30 November 1998.
3. http://www.census.gov/population/socdemo/education/tab
lea-01.txt
* * *
LETTERS
Dear MIM: I extend my revolutionary love to MIM, all
who audaciously, indignantly defy the standard of life
as determined and defined by the savage and barbaric
individuals who facilitate positions in government,
and oppressive government around the world.
I'm in receipt of two papers, asante sana (thank you
very much). In my initial missive requesting a
subscription I stated I'd be sending some stamps to
aid in the cause. There are no certainties in these
dismal crypts, but it will be taken care of shortly.
If it is three or four, know it was what could be
afforded at the moment.
I don't consider myself learnt in any particular area;
my experience is being "the students". As I read MIM
notes, one quickly realizes, they (I) have a long way
to go. What is revolution, what is the goal? To answer
my own question...Revolution is a science and not a
conclusion. It cannot be packaged...nothing uniform
about it. I say "it", not as an entity, but as a blind
force, et. Cetera. Our goal is to ravage, destroy,
annihilate, eliminate the present government as we
"know" it to be; those who facilitate it; and the
Duponts, Bill Gates, Fords, Kennedys, et. al. All the
institutions (schools, bible class (church, prison,
welfare, media, et. Cetera) which brain wash and
program.
Knowing this is rudimentary, basic and essential, but
is empty without know how and history of successful
and unsuccessful class struggles. We cannot do what
Marx, Lenin, Che, Castro, Mao et. al. did to liberate
their people, we can only use their philosophies,
ideologies as building principles, Right?
In response (per se) to Islam and Afghanistan, in your
letters column [MIM Notes #171, October 1, 1998] "A
reader" stated "Furthermore, the author erroneously
dismisses Islam as nothing more than a religion and
not the targets of the attack..."
I infer from the context the reader believed the real
attack was on Islam all the hype was a disguise, I'm
not disagreeing. Is this "Islam" more than a mere
religion. First I am a "Muslim"... member of the
Melanic Islamic Palace of the Rising Son, a "non-
orthodox religious" sect.
Something I've noticed is we (muslims) fail to
understand the ROLE of Islam in the struggle for
Liberation. Islam is a vehicle, not a stationary
designation. There is no perfect religion. Once you
give definition, or define by labeling, that which has
been defined by a label now has distinct limits. This
perfectness would contradict the cosmocal laws of
nature i.e., everything is in a perpetual state of
motion, evolution. ...
Daily I see individuals abandoning their respective
cultures, heritage in the name of Islam. This "God" is
not restricted to one geographical location. The
omnipotent omnipresent is circumscribed by a 1400 year
old tradition? All pro/phats where staunch nationalist
who brought an universal message, but sent to a
specific people. This continent enslaved ones with the
false interpretations of the Bible. So many are
breaking those chains, to only be shackled to the
"interpretations" of Islam. The key is to know thy
self. If one is not in tune with self they'll never be
able to push a Revolution.
At the moment we have taken on the ways of this whore
called liberty. "Islam" is a guideline, of discipline,
morals, ethics, humbleness, love, righteousness,
justice, peace, truth. All the things we fight for. We
must be what we fight for. And that's the Role Islam
fulfills in this revolution. It detaches our mind from
the illusions, receptive materialistic garbage of this
great whore. ...
We (muslims) are bigger than "Islam"? We are the sons
and daughters of Allah. The only difference from
saying "Islam" and "Submission of ones will to the
"Creator" is predicated on the linguistics. Islam is a
vehicle. A mere religion (way of life). One must be
themselves, in the spirit of the creator. The first
and most important struggle is with self. If we master
self we can master the environment we have been
granted. One needs no books technically, nature is the
best of examples (a pro/phat), study it!!
As controversial as this may be it requires
expounding. The MIM is a revolutionary voice and must
interpret phenomena for the masses. ISLAM IS A
VEHICLE!
Excuse me if I stepped out the boots of the students,
I want you to send me the 10 step program (enclosed is
a stamped self-addressed envelope). Also I would like
some books on G. Jackson, Marx, Lenin, Mao, BPP.
I appreciate your paper! Please be patient with me
don't never separate my intentions from the outcome,
act.
I'm 23 but if you teach me I can teach others my age.
They appear more susceptible to a young bro, it is
easier for them to relate.
MIM responds: We have much unity with this letter
writer. But as we stated in response to the letter in
the October MIM notes that s/he quoted, "In relation
to the centrality of Islam, like the writer says
Muslims and Communists come at this question from
different directions. But in this case we both
categorically oppose u.$. efforts to dominate other
countries."
MIM agrees with those Muslims who see Islam as a guide
for revolutionary organizing. But still we don't
consider the idealism of any religion necessary to a
materialist understanding of the world. This letter
writer is correct in drawing some parallels between
Islam and other religions. All religions are based in
some form of mysticism that replaces a materialist
analysis with blind faith. This only serves to
discourage people from understanding the world and
believing that people are the only ones who can change
the world.
Religion often encourages people to wait for a higher
power to make change rather than seizing the power for
themselves. This is the insidious nature of idealism
and one of the reasons we oppose this kind of
idealism.
But even with these ideological disagreements, we see
that right now many Muslims are an ally of proletarian
revolutionary organizing. And we do not make religion
a dividing line question between anti-imperialists.
MIM seeks to work with all anti-imperialists
regardless of religious beliefs as a part of the
proletarian-led United Front against imperialism. And
we hope that Muslims like this comrade will join in
the struggle to teach other Muslims the importance of
fighting for revolution.
* * *
INDONESIAN REPRESSION IN EAST TIMOR CONTINUES
by MC17
Reports in late November that 44 people were killed in
East Timor by the occupying Indonesian military broke
the relative calm in the country since the downfall of
Indonesian President Suharto. In recent months it
appeared that Indonesia was focusing its military
might and political concentration inside its borders
in an attempt to restore control and as a result the
constant repression against East Timorese, who have
fought for independence since the 1975 Indonesian
invasion, seemed to lessen. Many have suggested that
the downfall of Suharto may give East Timor a chance
at independence.
Indonesian officials deny that there was a massacre
but according to a church group, the army surrounded
the village of Alas and then moved in and burned 36
houses, killing many and forcing others to flee.
In response to this latest attack by the Indonesian
military, the East Timorese people protested in the
capital of Dili. Several thousands students occupied
provincial government buildings demanding withdrawal
of all Indonesian troops.
The UN has been sponsoring talks between Portugal, the
former colonial ruler of East Timor, and Indonesia.
These talks were called off after the recent massacre
but then rescheduled to resume after an Indonesian
human rights group promised to investigate. Portugal
is in no position to pose as an ally of East Timor as
its former colonial master. East Timor needs
independence and the right to self determination. It
is not a child whose kind mother (Portugal) and evil
father (Indonesia) need to negotiate its future. Only
a complete withdrawal of all Indonesian troops and a
turning over of all control of institutions in East
Timor to the people of East Timor will bring peace.
Anything less will not satisfy the peoples just demand
for national self-determination and independence.
Note: The Economist, 28 November 1998, p.42.
* * *
REVIEW: THE NEW FINANCIAL CAPITALISTS:
KOHLBERG KRAVIS ROBERTS AND THE CREATION OF
CORPORATE VALUE
by George P. Baker and George David Smith
Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1998,
257 pp.
reviewed by MC5
Two rent-a-nerds have written a book claiming to have
a new argument why finance capital is not parasitic
and in fact plays a very productive role in the
economy. The book that came out this year is based on
a study of the 1980s mergers and acquisitions craze
with a focus on the investment banking firm known as
"Kohlberg Kravis Roberts" which is just the names of
three partners in the New York and California based
business.
The ghost of Lenin
Karl Marx came up with a scientific distinction
between "productive" and "unproductive" labor. It is a
little different than the popular concept.
Russian revolutionary V. I. Lenin believed that the
popular concept of unproductive labor was quite
relevant when capitalism came to be dominated by
finance capital in the age of monopolies. MIM believes
we are still in the stage of capitalism Lenin called
the "final stage."
The book we are reviewing is substantially an argument
with Lenin's ghost without naming him. Lenin held that
capitalist imperialism was the decadent phase of
capitalism, the stage where capitalism could bring no
more progress to the world, only world wars. According
to Lenin, "coupon-clippers" in imperialist countries
were people who lived without working by owning
stocks, bank notes etc.
Baker and Smith admit that even parasite-friendly
Amerikans have never viewed finance capitalists like
J.P. Morgan or Michael Milken with the same respect as
business leaders like Thomas Edison or Henry Ford who
seem to be connected with invention and massive
reorganization respectively. "The essential populism
of American culture is uncomfortable with financial
schemes, which have so often been associated with
venal fraud and scandal, or worse, unfruitful labor.
In the common caricature, the great practitioners of
high finance have made their money without producing
goods, extracting 'paper profits' as if by sleight of
hand, wringing fortunes from transactions that have no
direct connection to anything productive. This view is
hardly limited to the uninitiated; it is shared among
highly sophisticated business people."(p. 2)
Baker and Smith seek to champion the finance
capitalist.
Sycophantic business pulp fiction
Not only does this book squarely address Lenin without
naming him, it also claims to know that most business
writing is shallow cheerleading of no intellectual
depth or consequence. For this reason we call Baker
and Smith "rent-a-nerds." They are not the kind of
intellectuals who sit in ivory towers. They are the
kind that go to the highest bidder and perform the
functions of corporate public relations departments
but with more intellectual depth than usual.
Baker and Smith are fairly accurate in their self-
assessments. They do a better job than most business
writers. They have some background.
On the other hand, MIM is disappointed that the
premier ivory tower of political economy - Cambridge
University Press - published this book, because it
really does not engage the issues it raised.
For example, if leveraged buyouts linking management
to ownership by giving executive managers stock in the
company are so important, then why did Japan do so
well economically? Japanese companies have always had
abysmal profit rates and their executives are paid a
fraction what U.$. executives make. Baker and Smith
raise this subject in one sentence (p. 36) and they
fail to address it with relevant facts from both the
U.$. and Japanese economies.
A book mainly based on the press releases of a single
investment bank still has a cheerleading feel to it,
no matter how many connected issues are raised,
because the evidence that Baker and Smith concern
themselves with simply cannot address the subjects
they raise. For MIM, this is a basis of some
celebration, as another example of the incompetence of
the ruling class and why capitalism is likely to fall
sooner than later.
From the point of view of Baker and Smith and most
business writers, changing one or two executive
managers makes a big difference. It is one of the
essential ingredients -- retaining or changing the
executives-- that KKR looks at before conducting a
leveraged buyout of a company. Thus much of the book
is talking about how to be more competent members of
the capitalist class -- paying more attention to
loopholes in the tax code, deciding how many workers
to lay off and coming up with a composition of the
company's debt structure -- how much in junk bonds,
how much in bank loans etc.
Rebutting journalists
Baker and Smith attempt to rebut Susan Faludi who won
the Pulitzer Prize for writing about corporate raiders
like KKR. A study of companies bought out by KKR
between 1977 and 1989 shows that employment increased;
capital spending increased and research and
development increased three years after takeover.(p.
37)
The unscientific nature of this argument comes out in
that Baker and Smith felt no compulsion in the book to
come up with statistical generalities about companies
that did not get taken over with leveraged buy outs.
(A leveraged buy-out occurs when a capitalist
successfully offers to buy a company with money he or
she borrowed from others. In the case of KKR leveraged
buy-outs, it also means that the new capitalist in
control gives an ownership stake to executive
management and allows management to run day-to-day
affairs without interference. Managers are given the
goals by finance capitalists, but how they achieve
them is up to them.
The goal that guarantees management performance is
paying off the debts incurred in the purchase of the
company at its new higher stock price.) Hence, we do
not know if employment, capital spending and research
and development increased even faster in companies not
taken over. They only pointed to a study done
elsewhere that shows that layoffs are less frequent
after leveraged buyouts than in the industry as a
whole (p. 218) and that research and development may
or may not have suffered after leveraged buyouts (p.
219). Baker and Smith themselves had no evidence to
bring to bear. That's another reason we call these
business school professors "rent-a-nerds."
New arguments?
We do not believe the authors succeeded in presenting
anything new. They claim that the leveraged buyout the
way KKR does it has never been seen before, but that
is just more marketing hype. Always the hired
prizefighters of the ruling class glorify the most
obvious of profit-oriented decisions as if they were
the brilliance of God. In the case of this book, the
extended press release includes a chapter on the
glories of working for KKR.
The two most important arguments that Baker and Smith
make are these: 1) Ownership and control separated in
Amerikan corporations such that executives and
stockholders had conflicting interests. Baker and
Smith were not the first to argue this as they
acknowledge. 2) The leveraged buyout was not a short-
term profit orientation, but a long-term strategy
increasing stock prices.
What is unique about this book is its portrayal of
diverse labor unions, journalists and executives as
being opposed to finance capitalists. There is a
strong element of truth to this.
Most interesting of all is the claim that executives
managed to run the ship without paying attention to
shareholders -- the exact opposite of what people
studying Japan conclude about the U.$. economy.
According to Baker and Smith, it was the leveraged
buyout that made executives more accountable to
shareholders. Before KKR came around, executives
supposedly sought aggrandizement of their own power
through conglomeration and decadent perks, not profits
for shareholders: "Rank managerial opportunism was
reflected in the erection of monumental corporate
headquarters, the purchase of executive airplanes,
stretch limousines, yachts and resorts, and the
sponsorship of lavish trips and celebrity sporting
events that did nothing to contribute to the bottom
line."(p. 14)
According to Baker and Smith, the law made it
difficult for shareholders to exert direct influence
in companies. In fact, even boards of directors were
usually just the creations of CEOs before the mergers
and acquisitions trends of the 1980s.
By buying a company and then giving managers stock in
the company, KKR supposedly healed a schism in the
capitalist class. Such executives were more willing to
lay off workers or do what it takes to pay off
corporate debts and see themselves to profitability.
Without any proof or evidence about companies not
involved in mergers and acquisitions, Baker and Smith
claim that KKR strategies that influenced the whole
business world are what laid the basis for prosperity
in the 1990s. "In a more fundamental historical sense,
KKR's legacy is this: its management buyouts breathed
new life into a moribund system of financial
capitalism, which in turn stimulated a new era of
sustained economic growth, vibrant securities markets,
and at this writing, nearly full levels of
employment."(p. 206)
As MIM has detailed in "Imperialism and its Class
Structure in 1997," the U.$. boom of the 1990s is
dependent on a massive transfer of surplus-value from
the Third World, especially the increase from East
Asia and Latin America. The paper-shufflers simply
like to claim credit.
Capitalism as a system
KKR is essentially correct about how capitalism works.
Capitalism is a system, not a collection of
sentimental people. If one executive will not obey the
dictates of profit, another will come along and
replace him or her. Hence, the intentions of the
individual executive hardly matter. For a period of
time, KKR was able to make huge profits from
reflecting this truth more accurately than other
capitalists. Then conditions changed.
Capitalists about to lose a fight may agree to be
bribed out by the other side, which is what KKR
generally tried to do: bribe the executive already
there. Other capitalists afraid of losing power or
money will side with labor unions, local communities
threatened with business closings and journalists
against "sharks" and "corporate raiders." This
coalition also succeeded in passing laws and
regulations that made leveraged buyouts more
difficult. The money for junk bonds and this sort of
acquisition pretty much dried up by the early 1990s.
"During the 1980s, the mere specter of the corporate
takeover was prodding more and more executives to
undertake internal reforms-- in some cases for no
better reason than to defend against unwanted
buyers."(p. 43) Although this had struck Baker and
Smith as news (p. x), Marx had already elaborated this
economic law 150 years ago.
* * *
CAMPAIGN TO EXPAND MIM NOTES DISTRIBUTION
MIM Notes is initiating a campaign to expand
distribution of our newspaper in 1999. As the end of
the century approaches we must stress the importance
of summing up the lessons of the 20th century for
communists and of applying these lessons to the
advancing struggle against imperialism.
Independent media of the oppressed is crucial to
building a movement that can take on imperialism.
Right now we don't come close to competing with the
New York Times or the other daily newspapers across
this imperialist country. But with your help we can
expand our distribution and advance the fight towards
the day when we can take on and defeat the imperialist
mouthpieces.
If you live in a city where there is no regular MIM
Notes distributor, your help is crucial. But even if
you live in a city where there are already
distributors, your help will expand our outreach into
more communities in your city. We ask that our
distributors help with the cost of printing and
shipping the paper if possible but whether or not you
have the money we need your help.
Distributors can sell the paper on the streets and at
political events and you can leave copies of the paper
free at colleges, in community centers, in laundry
mats, at libraries, in coffee shops, in bookstores,
and anywhere else that they won't get thrown away and
people will pick them up.
Our goal for 1999 is to expand distribution of MIM
Notes and increase the necessary funding by 25% of the
current total. We can't do it without your help.
Contact your local distributor or send us the form
below to help out.
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* * *
ADDRESSING HIV GLOBALLY REQUIRES DICTATORSHIP OF
PROLETARIAT
by MC5
A study published in November, 1998 estimated that
triple combination therapy for the world's HIV-
positive individuals would cost $65.8 billion per
year. "In 1997 an estimated 5.8 million people were
infected with HIV. On average there were 16,000 new
infections each day during this year. In total, one in
every 100 sexually active adults aged 15-49 years were
living with this virus. Ninety percent of these
individuals lived in developing countries, in
particular, in sub-Saharan Africa."(1)
"Triple combination therapy" (also referred to as
Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART)) includes
the use of a new class of drugs called "protease
inhibitors" that came out in 1996. While these drugs
are not a cure they promise a life without any AIDS or
detectable HIV if the disease is caught early enough.
Since these drugs appear to be able to sustain life
indefinitely, they can also be a bridge while final
cures are developed.
The problem is that HAART costs $10,000 to $14,000 a
year - much too much for the Third World and
indigenous people. Research sponsored by the sinister
"United States Agency for International Development"
attempts to explain to Third World policy-makers that
they should not support HAART, because the per capita
income of their peoples will not sustain it and
because it will take money away from other health
efforts including prevention.
Nonetheless, Costa Rica's Supreme Court has ruled that
the government must provide HAART to those who need
it. Thailand is also endeavoring to provide HAART and
Brazil has actually put aside the money for it.
"While the pharmaceutical companies recognize that
this price is not affordable in most developing
countries, they are also concerned that offering ARVs
[antiretroviral drugs - MC5] for a discount in
developing countries could create arbitrage
opportunities (purchasing ARVs at a lower price in
developing countries and reselling them in developed
countries) that might potentially reduce their profit
levels. They are also concerned that there will then
be demands by health insurance providers and activists
in developed countries to reduce their prices to
levels in developing countries. Some countries such as
Costa Rica have been able to negotiate a price
equivalent to approximately $7000 per patient per year
for invirase, HIVID and AZT. While this is less
expensive than the market price in developed
countries, it still represents nearly three times
Costa Rica's per capita income ($2610)."(2)
While the cost of AZT in the 1980s was originally over
$10,000 a year, it is now $3000.(2) There is some hope
that as time goes on and new drugs are invented, old
ones will become cheaper.
Many will talk about the fact that the Third World is
not receiving proper care for HIV. What distinguishes
us Marxists from the rest is that we believe there is
a non-negotiable "right" to food, shelter, clothing,
medicine and a non-toxic and non-militarist
environment. It is only the political trickery of the
bourgeoisie to foist on the oppressed and exploited
the idea that life itself is negotiable.
In one sense, we Marxists are simply the most extreme
believers in "human rights." Maoist socialism will not
be perfect, but failures will not be on account of the
drive for profit. We are willing to say that we are
for organized force against those who believe the
right to profits or property is higher than the right
to food, shelter, clothing, medicine and a non-toxic
and non-militarist environment. We Marxists calls this
priority of serving humyn needs through the use of
organized force where necessary "dictatorship of the
proletariat." Currently we live under capitalist
dictatorship.
In the imperialist countries, the middle classes focus
only on those humyn rights of interest to the middle-
classes, generally the right to "free speech." Fed,
clothed and sheltered already, these middle classes
fail to see their role in propping up the imperialist
system that denies the world's majority of people its
basic humyn rights to live.
Beyond the fact that we are more thorough in our
conception of "human rights" what distinguishes
Maoists from human rights activists is that we
dedicate ourselves to applying the science of Marxism-
Leninism-Maoism to achieving those human rights goals.
Scientific question number one is to find the social
group most likely to fight for a thorough conception
of humyn rights. Since the proletariat is the class of
people with "nothing to lose but its chains," it is
the class with the most to gain from dictatorship for
humyn needs. We call such dictatorship, "dictatorship
of the proletariat."
The "dictatorship of the proletariat" is the socialist
stage on the way to communism. Contrary to popular
belief, neither socialism nor communism is "equality."
That is one alleged "right" we are not in favor of. We
are not for total equality, but equality of the
minimal non-negotiable rights makes socialism and
communism much more egalitarian in effect than
capitalism.
One problem with dictatorship of the proletariat is
that after the initial socialist revolution, some
relatively easy questions are resolved and then a
bourgeoisie re-organizes itself, right inside the
communist party leading the dictatorship of the
proletariat. Mao's contribution was to fight to
preserve the vehicle of achieving humyn rights we call
dictatorship of the proletariat through a method of
"Cultural Revolution."
Many realize that with dictatorship of the proletariat
in a few rich countries, the whole world could be fed,
because the food already exists and just needs
distribution. The same is true for many
pharmaceuticals including those involved in HAART. The
possibility exists to deliver these drugs to all who
need them.
The bourgeoisie says if it did not make tremendous
profits on drugs too expensive for the poor, then no
one would be spurred on to invent new drugs. MIM
believes that at this time in history, inventors
should be rewarded with exceptional monetary rewards
if their inventions contribute to the abolition of
classes. Certainly inventing anti-HIV drugs qualifies.
However, once a new drug is invented, the motivation
to make profit in its manufacturing should be
eliminated. If there needs to be innovation in
manufacturing, then there can be rewards for that too,
but there is no need for the kind of profits and
restriction of sales seen today.
Executives making tens and hundreds of millions a year
for their alleged innovations are unnecessary. It was
Mao who led a scientific movement of the masses in the
Cultural Revolution that earned the contempt of the
bourgeois intellectuals of the West and China. Those
bourgeois intellectuals hoped to utilize the
scientific side of dictatorship of the proletariat as
an excuse to restore capitalism. Mao realized such was
possible as long as the masses themselves avoided
science. The masses need to make up for the bourgeois
intellectuals who no longer find themselves motivated
under socialism and they need to surpass those
bourgeois intellectuals.
In the West, natural and preventive medicine does not
receive its proper emphasis because no one profits
from it except for those with careers in preventive
medicine. The big profits in imperialist countries
come from inventing and administering new drugs to
cure diseases that could have been prevented. Although
China was very poor, Mao realized very well that
preventive medicine is cheap, and so China doubled its
life expectancy and surpassed the United $tates in
urban maternal care for instance.
The inventions in the rich countries have come at the
expense of the cheap labor of the Third World. It is
not just a question of 400 years of African slavery.
Today, the Third World continues to do a
disproportionate share of the manual agricultural,
mining and industrial work that makes a life of
science and engineering possible. Without food,
shelter and clothing taken care of first, there can be
no scientists. The effects and importance of such
"productive labor" prior to scientific labor can be
examined and analyzed scientifically, as MIM does in
its latest essay, "Imperialism and Its Class Structure
in 1997."
The pharmaceutical companies have invented expensive
drugs to treat HIV with the help of scientists and
paper-shufflers fed, clothed and sheltered by Third
World labor. Prevention does not work in the Third
World as well as it should because the masses have
learned to distrust their imperialist-backed
governments and the medical authorities who seem to be
lackeys of multinational pharmaceutical companies.
In addition, in the Third World as in the United
$tates, there is the debilitating effect of religion
backed by the ruling class. This religion opposes sex
education and needle exchange for drug-users and
thereby contributes to the health problem. The health
of children needing sex education or drug-addicts will
not be sacrificed for "freedom of religion" under the
dictatorship of the proletariat. Adults attempting to
defraud children of their lives in the name of
religion will be shot. After a few such shootings, it
will be much easier to prevent HIV infection and the
cost to society will be much lower.
In conclusion, the "dictatorship of the proletariat"
starts with a sense of political priorities, but it is
not just a new brand of moralism. The Cultural
Revolution will consolidate the dictatorship of the
proletariat by relying on the masses for scientific
advance and innovation thereby providing for the needs
of the people without handing power over to the
bourgeoisie, especially its scientists, engineers and
managers. The dictatorship of the proletariat will
also be a tool to see to humyn needs whether it be by
planning production priorities or punishing religious
reactionaries seeking to spread infectious disease.
Notes:
1. Robert S. Hogg et. al., "One world, one hope: the
cost of providing antiretroviral therapy to all
nations," AIDS 1998, vol. 12, p. 2203.
2. Steven S. Forsythe, "The affordability of
antiretroviral therapy in developing countries: what
policymakers need to know," AIDS 1998, vol. 12
Supplement 2, p. s15.
* * *
DON'T BE FOOLED BY U.$. MILITARY CUT BACK
by MC53
At the end of November when the U.$. imperialist
machine was poised to massacre additional Iraqi
people, the Pentagon sent a report to Clinton which
argued for the cut back of military spending for
nuclear weapons.
The Republocrats portray proposed cutbacks as painless
reduction which helps the U.$. to save money. However,
the recommendation was not to cut back the entire
military budget, recruitment of imperialist soldiers
and spending on warships and missiles.
Much like recent corporation job cutbacks, the
imperialist military seeks the most efficient method
to oppress and control the majority of the world's
people. Job cutbacks in manufacturing areas have not
meant job loss -- instead parasites have more white
collar jobs. Cutbacks in the nuclear arsenal of the
United Snakes of Imperialism has not meant less
oppression of Third World nations -- instead funds are
used to advance the so-called war against drugs and
terrorism which the U.$. uses as a guise to smash
struggles of the people.
Pentagon pigs have stated that continuing the current
level of expenditures for the nuclear arsenal would be
a waste. Further, they argue that Congress should
allow the cutbacks to provide the imperialist military
with "more flexibility." The Pentagon stated that the
money "sapped money from efforts to combat 'newer
threats' like terrorism and ethic wars." The
imperialists concede that the weapons stockpiling was
more than adequate to defend the U.$. but now they
need to put money into fighting revolutionary
movements and the growing anti-imperialist organizing
around the world.
With conventional war machinery or nuclear arsenals --
the victims of the attacks are the masses of oppressed
nations. This is why we put the battle against nuclear
weapons proliferation and anti-militarism in general
in the context of building the foundations for
revolution against imperialism in general. Just
because the imperialists say they are switching
methods of oppression does not mean that they are
stopping the oppression. Work with MIM against
militarism and imperialism's varied methods.
Note: New York Times. 23 November 1998.
* * *
COMRADE TAKES INITIATIVE TO GIVE HEALTH AID TO
PRISONERS
Mobilization of prisoners in the struggle against
imperialist oppression, specifically the use of
prisons as a means of social control and national
oppression, is on the increase. United Struggle from
Within (USW) is the MIM-led anti-imperialist mass
organization of prisoners fighting against oppression.
Prisoners are developing the organization into a
vehicle to coordinate struggles against censorship,
brutality and other forms of oppression against
prisoners. Prisoners are mobilizing together within
USW to increase study and understanding of history,
current events and the path to genuine liberation of
the people.
Part of the United Struggle from Within is the
prisoner-created Serve the People Prisoners' Legal
Clinic. Through the legal clinic, prisoners are
working together with comrades on the outside to
spread legal information and education. Several issue
of MIM Legal Notes have been published as part of
these efforts. Over the course of 1999, USW will focus
much of these efforts on fighting the censorship which
is rampant in kkkoncentration kkkamps through the U.$.
An Illinois prisoner has taken the initiative to start
her/his own Prisoners' Health Watch. The health watch
is not part of the MIM-led USW organization, but is an
excellent example of independent organization among
prisoners to meet their own needs. MIM Notes will
print Prisoners' Health Watch articles alongside other
comrades' articles on prisoner health issues because
we believe that the Prisoners' Health Watch is a much-
needed program for prisoners.
The Illinois comrade has articulated the importance of
collecting information on the exact problems faced by
prisoners. To this end, s/he has collected extensive
amounts of research pertaining to the medical
attention which prisoners have received. S/he has also
stated clearly that the Prisoners' Health Watch should
provide suggestions that are up to date and that will
make a difference to the conditions under which
prisoners live. S/he has emphasized the need for
articles which explain how to determine an illness and
other 'how to' articles.
MIM salutes this comrade's efforts to address health
issues faced by prisoners. MIM Notes also welcomes
other prisoners to follow this Illinois prisoner's
example and submit your own articles on health issues
to Under Lock & Key. Please note that unless otherwise
requested, articles will be edited for political and
medical purposes to best meet the needs of prisoners.
If you would like to discuss the Prisoners' Health
Watch with the Illinois comrade, let us know.
The letter on this page was written for the purpose of
distribution to medical professionals. Look for
upcoming columns of the Prisoners' Health Watch
addressing the issues of "Asbestos and Prisoners;ī "10
ways to beat a cold in prisonī and other articles in
MIM Notes pertaining to politics and health like
coverage of the Treatment of HIV infected prisoners in
South Carolina gulags.
* * *
PRISONERS' HEALTH WATCH
PRISONERS, INFORMATION AND HIV/AIDS
There has been some misinformation circulating about
HIV/AIDS and prisoners. It's a shame that the medical
profession does not pay attention to the needs of
prisoners. It alarms me because if many f the
illnesses are properly treated inside prisons, ex-
prisoners would not be passing on many of the diseases
they catch in prison, which is a method of how
HIV/AIDS is being transmitted in society. The American
Correctional Systems does not want informative
HIV/AIDS, T.B., or Hepatitis information available
because they want prisoners to be in the blind about
such diseases. There is no doubt that passing out such
information would curtail these types of diseases.
I am wondering does society really have an idea of
exactly what goes on inside prisons? Evidently they
don't, and this lack of knowledge is weighing heavy
against prisoners because they have no avenues to gain
adequate medical treatment, and often die for minor
illnesses that a poor person would be cured for in
society.
[The] article entitled "HIV/AIDS Behind Barsī by David
S. MacDougall, printed in the "Journal of the
International Association of Physicians in AIDS Care,ī
April 1998 issue, for the most part touched on the
substantial problem with some good suggestioned as to
prevention and issuing informative data. However,
about three quarter ways through the article, it
referred to the very organizations that use prisoners
as "guinea pigsī without prisoner being aware of
exactly what experiments they are conducting on
prisoners. Isn't this some type of crime? Infected
needles are being used to withdraw blood, when the
solution given to determine if a prisoner has T.B.,
prisoners are not being injected with HIV/AIDS, and
Hepatitis, Why? To test new drugs!
Abt Associations, the Center for Disease Control and
Prevention, American Correctional Association, along
with Illinois, intentionally gave prisoners HIV/AIDS,
T.B., and Hepatitis. The cause and affect was being
watched, while prisoners were at danger. [The AP news
article pertaining to the Illinois Supreme Court's
resurrection of a lawsuit by a prisoner showing HIV
infection by the state] clearly indicates what
happened. [And] the Illinois law makers knew of the
problem. Illinois State Representative Cal Skinner,
said, "Extrapolating the study's findings to the
Illinois adult male inmates individuals over 100 men a
year are receiving what I can 'an unadjudicated death
sentence' each year."
This was an understatement because 200-350 prisoners
die yearly of HIV/AIDS, and Hepatitis. We are explored
without our knowledge just because society and the
medical profession has turned their eyes and turned
off their ears to this alarming problem.
Majority of the drugs society uses are tested on
prisoners before they reach the market for society.
Prisoners are not aware because prison administrators
want them ignorant. Prisoners are exposed to Asbestos'
and Lead Poisoning. Each of these diseases are taken
back to society.
Until society as a whole takes notice of this problem,
and prisoners start refusing to accept withdrawal of
blood, T.B. tests, or any treatment that involves a
needle without seeing the actual needles, or knowing
what they are being shot with, will they receive
adequate medical care. The voice prisoners need is to
shock the public to understand that we are not crash
dummies or guinea pigs.
MIM adds: As the related articles in this issue
articulate, MIM sees that a dictatorship of the
proletariat is necessary to genuinely meet the needs
of all people, including prisoners. The author of the
above letter is correct in the recommendation that
prisoners take care to know what officials are putting
into their bodies. However, even the suggestions above
do not mean vigilance on the part of prisoners will
result in adequate medical care. For example, as many
prisoners have reported to MIM, prisoners now have to
pay mandatory medical fees to receive any medical
attention -- which more often than not is inadequate.
Prisoners have also reported that they are denied
necessary medications for diabetes and severe mental
illness. And as the article on page 4 shows, the
oppressed are denied access to medication like HAART
which can help to sustain the life of HIV infected
individuals. Most importantly, imperialism
systematically denies the needs of the oppressed,
including prisoners, through oppressive living
conditions, resources wasted on decadence instead of
cures and exploitation.
* * *
SCIENCE OF THE PEOPLE DESPERATELY NEEDED
In early December, a panel of four scientists
appointed by a federal court reported findings that
there is no evidence silicone breast implants cause
disease. This scientific finding received top
reporting in the news media in this decadent country
where health problems such as those that might result
from enlarging wimmin's breasts are of top priority.
(1)
This news comes shortly after the United Nations'
demographers released their update of world population
projections on October 28 which demonstrated the
devastating toll of AIDS leading to dramatically lower
projections in sub-Saharan Africa.(2) But this
information barely made it into the news compared to
the excitement over the breast implant findings.
While money and resources are being spent researching
ways to make all wimmin's breasts look exactly like
the barbie doll image that we've all learned is
perfection, thousands of children are dying of
starvation. In south Asia over 50% of children under
age five suffer from malnutrition and the average in
the Third World combined is 36%.(3) People are dying
for lack of clean water and sanitation throughout the
Third World but still breast size is more important to
first world wimmin and men.
There is no logic to a country of wealth, training and
resources wasting scientists on research relevant only
to the vanity of current cultural demands of beauty.
This disgusting focus on the health consequences of
mutilating wimmin's bodies underscores the failure of
capitalist medicine. First the imperialists create the
conditions of poverty by destroying the economy of
Third World countries, installing dictators to act as
imperialist puppets and moving in the multinational
corporations to exploit the people. When starvation
and disease result from these conditions the
imperialists blame it on the "backward" countries and
point to how great and advanced medical research is in
the "advanced" countries (the ones that control the
economy and wealth that is produced).
Under a dictatorship of the proletariat there will be
a logical use of medical research devoted to the most
pressing problems of the people. Researching a cure
for AIDS will take precedence over investigating the
effects of silicone breast enlargements. And medical
advances will be made available to all the people of
the world, not just the few privileged enough to buy a
longer and healthier life.
Notes:
1. The New York Times, 8 December 1998
2. Washington Post, 2 December 1998, p.A29.
3. Progress of Nations UNICEF 1993 report.
* * *
OBSCURING REALITY:
WORKERS WORLD CLAIMS NBA PLAYERS ARE OPPRESSED
by MC53
The Workers World Party's (WWP) newspaper claimed that
the NBA "players are considered the owner's property -
they can be bought and sold like chattle, although at
a much higher price." Further, the article entitled
"Basketball's real billionaires" by WWP leader Monica
Moorehead urges readers and NBA fans to side with NBA
players and oppose the owners' call to put a "strict
ceiling on how much a team can pay the most productive
players."(1)
It is no wonder that the WWP and other apologists for
the parasites residing within the wealthiest country
in the world have resorted to organizing such
'struggles'. With the kkkountry's unemployment rate at
a historical low and the majority of workers in
Amerikkka receiving placement in higher-paying and
more technological jobs, revisionists are left
scrambling.
Even liberal commentators on NPR's "All Things
Considered" admit that thousands of pink slips from
Boeing, Exxon, Mobil and Kellogg will not affect the
standard of living of the majority of America. NPR
commentators stated what MIM has documented for years:
the workers being laid off or fired from manufacturing
jobs in Amerikka are well taken care of by placement
in higher paying and even less productive spheres of
paper pushing.(2)
But even if the majority of the workers within
imperialist u.s. borders were exploited, there is no
justification for claiming that the NBA players are
exploited. The Marxist definition states that an
exploited worker is receiving less than the value of
his or her labor. This means that s/he is producing
more than s/he is receiving and so the capitalists are
getting rich by stealing part of the product of
his/her labor. There is no way to argue that
basketball players really produce millions of dollars
a year. Playing basketball is not even productive
labor, it is parasitic entertainment funded by the
wealth this country steals from truly productive
workers around the world. MIM does not oppose
entertainment but we do oppose capitalist apologists
who try to claim that millionaires are some how
exploited just like the starving Third World workers.
And we also oppose spending billions of dollars on
entertainment so that Amerikan couch potatoes can sit
drinking beer and getting fat spending the money this
country stole from the international proletariat.
The call to support the enslaved and oppressed
millionaire NBA players is one manifestation of the
WWP's demands that the majority of the world's people
sweat - and even die - for the benefit of the
imperialist nation labor aristocracy. In MIM Theory
#10, MIM reviewed the WWP political economy in great
detail. We showed that it's call - even for those
making less than the NBA stars - to raise the minimum
wage to $10 an hour cannot come from thin air.
Specifically, the demand can only come from increased
super-exploitation of Third World workers. MIM
disagrees with this call for increased exploitation of
the world proletariat and instead urges people working
with the WWP to organize for Maoist revolution and
reparations paid back to oppressed nations throughout
the world instead of calling for an even higher
standard of living for imperialist nation middle
classes.
In another section of the same issue, the WWP paper
contradicts itself by running an article on historical
materialism. The section explains the difference
between materialist analysis and idealism. Historical
materialism means that revolutionaries should look at
the concrete reality of relations under imperialism,
sum up the material conditions and history, and base
ideology and strategy on what has been most successful
historically to end oppression.
The WWP claims to support Marxism and scientific
socialism without looking at the fact that imperialist
nation workers support higher wages and benefits for
themselves at the same time they vibrantly campaign to
cut welfare, stop bi-lingual education, and only allow
Mexicans to cross the militarized U.$. border when it
is picking season. The WW ignores the fact that the
majority of Amerikkkans became hot and heavy,
salivating at and supporting the U.$. movement to kill
more Iraqi masses in November.
Those claiming to be socialist or Marxist and at the
same time support the fattening of parasites are not
merely benign leftists with simple disagreements with
MIM. These are people and parties which choose
outright to support an alliance of the parasites with
imperialism AGAINST the majority of the world's
people. This makes genuine communists look bad in the
eyes of the oppressed. It continues the history of the
white left supporting struggles of the oppressed only
as a token and only as a means to gain more for the
settler nation middle classes.
Communists who ignore the historical advancement of
the Chinese people led by Mao are similar to the
utopian socialists which the WW says it is not.
Calling oneself communist and not practicing Maoism
and proletarian internationalism is similar to
thinking that reality is or could be a manifestation
of dreams. Material reality is that the vast majority
of the world is oppressed by imperialism and is
already battling U.$. hegemony. And material reality
is that stroking egos of settler nation workers is not
going to mobilize them to stop watching TV and start
fighting for genuine equality.
Notes:
1. Workers World, 3 December 1998, p. 4.
2. National Public Radio. "All Things Considered." 5
December 1998.
3. MIM Theory #10 is an essential piece of reading for
communists in the imperialist nations as well as
critics of MIM's stance on proletarian
internationalism. $6 from the address on page 2. It
includes lessons from the COMINTERN, The Black Panther
Party, 1968-69 and DuBois in History.
* * *
NEW YORK DATA BACKS NEED FOR STUDENT-PRISONER
ALLIANCE
Credit is due to Derrick Z. Jackson for writing on the
trade-off between prisons and education in the Boston
Globe. His article was just on New York State. "Since
1988, state funding for colleges has plummeted by $615
million. Spending for prisons has gone up by $761
million."
"By 1996, annual spending for incarceration, $1.6
billion, surpassed the $1.3 billion in the budget for
colleges."
In a typical state budget, the two biggest items are
education and prisons. Already successive University
of Michigan presidents have spoken out. It is time for
university presidents and students everywhere to speak
out.
There is also a link to the drug problem, a vicious
cycle. "In New York, harsh mandatory sentences have
pushed the cost of keeping nonviolent drug offenders
locked up to $680 million a year, a haunting contrast
to the $615 million drop since 1988 in college
spending." White people are 75 percent of New Yorkers,
but they get caught for only 5 percent of drug
offenses.
The proletariat is opposed to the U$ penal regime,
because the ruling class simply uses it to keep the
oppressed classes and nations in discipline. The
United $tates has the world's highest imprisonment per
capita, contrary to rhetoric about a "free country."
That is proof of the imperialist government's hatred
of the masses.
Nonetheless, some people will side with us on this
question for less than politically pure reasons.
Tuition has risen in SUNY colleges from $6,303 in 1998
to $11,478. There are material reasons for New York
students and their parents and also SUNY researchers
to ally with the prisoners.
People going to college are generally petty-
bourgeoisie, not proletariat. At this time though, MIM
believes it would be better for the petty-bourgeoisie
to go to college than to let the ruling class
implement its hatred of the Amerikan people.
In 1988 it was only 13.5 percent of white median
family income to put a student in SUNY. Today it is 25
percent and that number is 42 percent for Blacks and
Latinos.
Perhaps the most interesting thing about this is that
the Rockefeller Foundation is behind the funding of
the study these figures came out of. It appears that
the ruling class itself is already afraid of feeling
the heat: "'Unfortunately, the politicians' pandering
to people's worst emotions about crime and fear-
mongering has won the day.'"
MIM has been saying this for years. The movement
against the prison craze now has a firm basis in
alliance amongst the proletariat, lumpenproletariat
and students, their parents and researchers. Although
some in the oppressed nations would like to see their
communities rid of the people that are now in prison,
we believe the majority of the oppressed nations
support our struggle.
MIM gladly supports the student petty-bourgeoisie to
get a cheaper college education, because in exchange
we cut into the state's repression. In contrast, most
money struggles in the imperialist countries do not
produce any gain for the oppressed and exploited.
Note: Boston Globe, 2 December 1998, p. a27.
* * *
ANN ARBOR PIGS PROTECT AND SERVE WHITE HYSTERIA
Early in the morning on December 3rd, Ann Arbor police
cars were seen rapidly converging on a Black man
crossing a west side street. At first, the cops talked
with the man who cooperated and suddenly two cars of
police were throwing the man against the cop car.
Immediately a few more pig mobiles rushed to the
scene. The pigs did not find a weapon on the man or
any illegal substances during the first search. But
they violently pushed him around, clearly using
unnecessary force and searched him again. The man
yelled that he had not done anything and the pigs said
that 'you must be in the wrong place at the wrong time
then' in a mocking manner.
The pigs had been looking for a "Black man, shaved or
short hair in his late 20s, early 30s" who was a
suspect in a 'home invasion' earlier in the evening.
The pigs held the innocent Black man for close to an
hour before bringing the female accuser to the scene.
The Black man stood, surrounded by pig mobiles, in the
summary one-man line up. Remember, it was still quite
dark and shadowy despite pig flood lights.
The womyn said that it was not the man who had
assaulted her earlier and the pigs let the innocent
Black man leave. Before leaving, one of the white pigs
stuck out his hand to his prey.
Statistically, one out of every three Black men ages
18-35 are locked up, on probation or parole. Black men
are more likely to receive prison sentences and are
more likely to have longer sentences than whites who
commit the same or similar crimes. Even when the
government admits that whites commit a greater
proportion of the crime, as in the case of crack
usage, it is still members of the Black nation who are
thrown in prison at a higher rate. For instance, the
U.$. government statistics state that 52% of crack
users are white, but only 4.1% of the people charged
which crack use are white and 88% are Black.
The statistics showing that Blacks and other oppressed
nationals are targeted by the cops and unjustly
treated by the entire criminal INjustice system do not
relay a mere coincidence. We argue that the massive
round up of the oppressed into prisons is a effective
imperialist method to thwart the development of the
masses into a strong revolutionary force. The
oppressed do not stand for continued inequalities and
oppressed nations under Amerikkka's control have shown
their potential organizing power. This power is a
threat to the wealth of the settler nation. And
prisons serve as a primary tool to ensure continued
settler existence as parasites.
MIM calls on progressives in Ann Arbor and all other
cities in the U.$. to take the attacks of the
oppressed through police and prisons seriously. There
is no threat which exists which more violently
oppresses members of the Black, Latino and First
nations.
Ann Arbor is a suburban town with a very low crime
rate. In 1998, only two people were murdered there --
and that was not until November in a double homicide.
An older white couple discussing the murder talked
about how they had moved to Ann Arbor because it was
safe, but that they had developed a fear of what might
happen because of the recent murders.
MIM does not take human life lightly. We seek to stop
murder through the most effective way possible --
revolution. The vast majority of murders and deaths
throughout the world are a direct result of
imperialism. And even in the case of the two murders
in Ann Arbor, increased police, hysteria among white
folks, and more patrolling will not help to end
murders between individuals. Increased policing ends
up with more oppressed nationals being targeted by
pigs. Revolution, on the other hand, has been proven
to eradicate drug addiction, resolve inequalities
between groups of people, lessen power struggles and
violence and stop crimes which are related to poverty.
Most of all, revolution is the only solution for
eradicating the biggest murderer of them all --
imperialist butchers.
Books for Prisoners: Copies of John Gurley's "China's
Economy and the Maoist Strategy" are available to any
prisoners willing to start a study group and organize
at least one theory journal article involving the
material. Copies of "The Geopolitics of Hunger" are
still available. And limited copies of Kitty Warnock's
"Land Before Hanour: Palestinian Women in the Occupied
Territories" are available for prisoners willing to
write a book review and essay for MIM Theory.
* * *
ESCAPED DEATH ROW PRISONER FOUND DEAD
by MC53
For the first time in 64 years, a prisoner on death
row, Martin Gurule escaped from a Texas prison on
November 26. One week later, Gurule's body was found.
The Harris County medical examiner stated that Gurule
had died from accidentally drowning in a swollen
river. Despite the 500 person hunt for Gurule, it was
two corrections officers -- allegedly off-duty on a
fishing trip -- who accidentally found Gurule.(1)
MIM writes that Gurule was found dead as a result of
an accident only to report what the mainstream press
has stated. We do not take what the imperialists, pigs
and the imperialist mouth piece media say for granted.
However, regardless of the manner in which Gurule was
found, we know that prisoners are beaten and killed by
their slave masters throughout Amerikkka, and Texas is
the biggest prison state in the United Snakes.
One result of the escape is increased justification
for making Texas an even more draconian prison state.
Governor George Bush has mandated an investigation
into the escape. Such investigations by the state
typically result in forcing prisoners to endure
harsher conditions.
Following the discovery of Gurule's body, prison
spokesman, Larry Fitzgerald stated "We have a clean
record of all our escapes now. We have all our people
back in custody."(1) Of course the pigs don't care
about the death of Gurule as it will save the state
money in one of its executions.
Texas is murdering prisoners legally through the death
penalty faster than any other state. The climate in
Texas and in the majority of Amerika is to increase
the frequency of death sentences and legal executions.
In fact, by Christmas of 1998 the U.$. will have
executed its 500th prison inmate since the death
penalty was reinstated in 1976.(2)
Historically, the death penalty has been used to
legally lynch Black nationals. Liberals generally
agree that Blacks were lynched in the south prior to
the civil rights movement even when a crime did not
occur and even when a Black person did not commit the
crime. Liberals also generally agree that pre-civil
rights era, Black men were lynched for fictitious
rapes of white wimmin.
In 1998, 42% of the people on 3,300 people on death
row in Amerikkka were Black despite the fact that
Black nationals are only 12% of the population. In
Philadelphia, where Mumia is being held as a prisoner
in the war against the Black nation, Black nationals
have been sentenced to death eight times more than
whites since 1978.(3)
The death penalty is used to protect the white nation
and as a tactic of genocide against oppressed nations.
82% of prisoners executed since 177 were sentenced
because of a death of a white person -- even though
the number of murders of whites and Blacks were about
equal.(3) MIM doesn't support increasing death
sentences to even this out, but this aspect of the
death penalty shows how it is white justice which is
sought in Amerikkka.
The death penalty in Amerikkka serves the interests of
the settler nation government and majority. It is not
used as a mechanism to put to death the more vicious
murderers. In fact, Bill Clinton, one of the world's
most vicious murderers, used the death penalty to kill
a mentally retarded man just prior to his election as
a means to gain support and dispel the "Democrats are
soft" image. Putting humans to death because of their
crimes and killing humans during revolutionary war to
stop their continued oppression of masses are
decisions which should only be in the hands of the
oppressed. Only when the oppressed are genuinely
represented in government can the government make a
decision about human life which sincerely protects
society.
Notes:
1. CNN. 5 December 1998.
2. The Economist, 28 November 1998, p.29.
3. Amnesty International "Rights for All" campaign
information.
* * *
STUDY, STRUGGLE AND BUILD OPPOSITION TO
IMPERIALISM!
BOOKS ON BLACK REVOLUTIONARY NATIONALISM
IMMEDIATELY
AVAILABLE
"The Making of Black Revolutionaries" by James
Foreman. [$15]
"Seize the Time: The Story of the Black Panther Party
and Huey P. Newton" by Bobby Seale (before he sold
out). [$15]
"The Black Panthers Speak" by Philip S. Foner [$12]
"Maoism and the Black Panther Party" by MIM. [$2]
"Soledad Brother: The Prison Letters of George
Jackson" by George Jackson. [$7]
"Agents of Repression: The FBI's Secret Wars Against
the Black Panther Party and the American Indian
Movement" by Ward Churcill and Jim Vander Wall. [$20]
"Revolutionary Suicide" by Huey P. Newton. [$10]
"To Die for the People" by Huey P. Newton [$10]
The above prices reflect increased printing costs as
many are photocopied books. The prices include postage
inside the United Snakes. If received before December
15th, orders for above literature will be sent within
one week upon receipt.
YOU CAN PURCHASE THESE BOOKS FOR DONATION TO A
REVOLUTIONARY PRISONER: these are among the most
requested books by prisoners to MIM and RAIL. Better
yet, you can buy the book for yourself and a comrade
under lock and key and study together.
* * *
UNDER LOCK & KEY: NEWS FROM PRISONS AND PRISONERS
EXPOSING BRUTALITY IN PRISON
I'm in Ad Seg. [after being] attacked and assaulted
while both of my hands were handcuffed behind my back.
Lt. X grabbed me around my throat and started choking
me until I fell to the cement pavement in the dark
hallway of the prison... He [then] slammed me up
against the chain fence, kicked and stomped me in my
back, then he jumped up and started hollering use of
force! ...I was then surrounded by 9 more white racist
pigs....
...In Ad Seg. they are literally starving the
prisoners...they are only putting a dab of this and a
dab of that on the trays, a lot of times we don't get
the same amount that [general population prisoners]
get on their trays. You can see all the prisoners' rib
cages back here... I have asked all of them to help
ourselves, we must stage a hunger strike to get the
prison administration's attention, as well as the
media, as to what is really going on back here.
...Right now my back is in constant pain [from the
attack]...but they refuse to give me treatment...
Hopefully they will put my $3 back so I will be able
to pay for my high blood pressure medication, it's the
last $3 I have to my name, and I didn't know that
until yesterday. Here on ALLRED, this all white race
hating unit, they got this stuff they call food loaf.
They use it primarily for abusing the prisoners, and
for punishment. Will you look into the way the food
loaf is to be used. A guard told the rank that an
inmate assaulted him with a food tray, when the food
tray fell off the bean slot, they put him on food
loaf. They use this food loaf as a tool against all
Latinos and Africans... Each white, race hating
officer tried his best each day to get 2 to 3 inmates
on food loaf, it's a new game they all are playing
against the inmates... Yes, they are watching the mail
real hard around here. Today my letter came back. It's
the 7th time I have sent out mail and it came back.
They want more postage because I show the continent of
Africa on the face of my envelope and color it in with
the colors of red, yellow and green. They will send it
back and ask for a surcharge. Well, I don't know what
a surcharge is, will you please look into that.
In the struggle until I die,
-- A West Coast Prisoner.
Prisoner Gassed and Attacked
I've received your newspapers for the month and was
indeed pleased to learn about the jive attack in the
Middle East. The devils will continue to attack the
oppressed and keep the masses ignorant. I'm not a bit
surprised about the devils actions. Then you got this
white voting class, praising Bill KKKlinton's fake ass
moves. It was a trick to take us off the real
criminals.
At Allendale Koncentration Kamp these pigs attacked a
young God because he demanded to speak to someone
higher up! It was medical problems, so it ended up
that they gassed him four times and shocked him five
times. All this because he refused to put his hands
inside the cell. We flooded the mutha fukah down.
Kicked the doors until we couldn't kick no damn more
because the shit was dead WRONG! Later the punk ass
pigs tried to act like they didn't want to do it? Yeah
right....
Stand Up,
-- A South Carolina Prisoner, 23 October 1998
Virginia Conditions
...It's like this. Prisoners in Virginia had their
chance to setup and voice their oppositionary
grievances when Ron Angelone (the Director) took
office and started charging us $5.00 to see the doctor
and $2.00 for medication. He took office in 1993/94
and made us send home all of our personal clothing and
some of our electronics and some other things
including typewriters. When he put a limit on the
things that we could order and our visitation hours.
When he canceled beneficial programs -- I mean
something should've been done then. It is too late to
argue about that now. Of course these changes took
place over a period of time. I don't know what
would've happened had he done it all at one time.
So with that said, but also acknowledging that things
are a lot worse in other prisons and those conditions
are right around the corner for prisoners in Virginia.
We have to be concerned with how our lives and living
conditions are being regulated. People have either
given up, or haven't been paying any concern toward
things, have the go with the flow attitude, fight
unsuccessfully in spurs with the administration, or
end up handling matters solo. ...Things could be
better if there were a trustworthy bond amongst us. I
think our egos keep us from putting faith in others
because it takes away that in us which is secondary
and places priority at the top of the list.
Here in Virginia they haven't had to result to
transferring men and women out of state in the past
few years. They did for a while, but they've gotten
private contractors to house inmates and have built a
few new ones including two Maximums and two Super
Maximums...
The mailroom and personal property allows us to have
all our religious literature, but we have a problem
with our Chaplain. He's jive and arrogant. He thinks
yoga is a threat to the institution. The only thing
we're not really allowed to have is hardcore
pornography. From my dealings with them and my legal
mail, I've had no problems. I've been receiving it at
my door unopened. As far as MIM literature is
concerned, I think you'll have a good run until the
wolves get a whiff of it.
Healthcare and the food are about the only things that
I can think of that I have a problem with -- that and
education. The doctor here, Dr. Barnes, has a tendency
to purposely neglect the health of his patients.
They're making money off us and they are not tending
to our problems. Recently this kid I know got stabbed
either 13 or 21 times with an ice pick. The doctor saw
him and said that he was all right, even though he got
stabbed in the mid and upper body. A while later, he
got the sergeant to send to get X-rayed. They found
that one of his lungs was punctured. Two guys are
building legal suits against him [the doctor] now.
Vegetarians catch hell. The regular meals are
mediocre. Before my neighbor and I started grieving
the kitchen managers, they were serving us 5 different
kinds of beans daily, for lunch and dinner, as main
courses. Now I believe they're a little mad because
we've been getting peanut butter for dinner and cheese
for lunch, or they'll switch it up. For instance on
the 11th they served peanut butter for lunch and
cheese for dinner. On the 12th they served peanut
butter for lunch, and cheese for dinner. On the 13th
they served peanut butter and cheese for lunch, and
cheese for dinner. On the 14th they served peanut
butter for lunch, and cheese for dinner. On the 15th
they served beans for lunch, and cheese for dinner. On
the 16th they served peanut butter for lunch, beans
and cheese for dinner.
I'm in the process of pushing papers now to have this
changed. But my partner gave up on me. He was the only
one that could attest to the fact that they
discriminate against us by not feeding us as they do
the rest of the population.
The issue of education is very important to me because
I would like to be able to work and pay for may to
take college correspondence courses. From what I've
heard, we won't be allowed to do much of anything at
the Supermaxs. Education should be priority number
one. This is supposed to encourage a positive change
but it's doing nothing but keeping us high on an
illusion.
Respect,
-- A Virginia Prisoner, 17 August 1998
Brutal SuperMax Conditions
...Last year sometime Virginia built three super
maximum security prisons: 1) Sussex I & II, and 2) Red
Onion State Prison, which are now operational. 3)
Wallens Ridge which opens sometime this year or in the
early part of 1999.
This place reminds me of some of the harsh treatment
that I read about in the MIM Notes that dudes in
Texas, Michigan, North Carolina and Pennsylvania have
been receiving. Red Onion, the institution that I'm
housed at and Wallens Ridge are level 6 prisons, the
worst of the worst. Sussex I and II are level 5. Red
Onion is like a SHU in the sense that the whole
institution is special housing.
...Upon arriving at this place last month, certain
dudes have suffered from attempts by the
administration to degrade their manhood and lower the
standards of principles of anybody who "gets out of
line".
The whole workforce with the exception of three (from
what I've seen) is white. The c/o's (correction
officers ...who've been assaulted in the past set-up
different dudes for a beat down. The c/o's asked them
to strip-down, squat, cough and turn around. Then with
their back toward them [the pigs], bend over and
spread their ass cheeks. Nobody here that has been in
a maximum security prison in supermax status ever had
to go through that. So naturally the prisoners (the
one's targeted) questioned the procedure and instantly
got shot with taser guns, stun guns, maced, hit with
electric shields and/or got straight up surrounded,
attacked and dragged across the compound naked by the
cocky, redneck racists.
A brother of mine went on a hunger strike trying to
make the administration transfer him to another spot.
He's known for beating down c/o's. In fact a few of
his victims work here and they have threatened his
life. The medical officials have to check and record
the blood pressure and vital signs of dudes who go for
a certain amount of days without eating. He's refused
food for six days now.
Last night the goon squad suited up because he refused
to be seen by the nurses. The c/o's came up with a
game to try to get him out of the cell, and at the
same time cover their asses, so that they could be
justified for their actions. They say that he wasn't
going for it so they maced him, shot him with a taser
gun, hit him with an electric shield, and ruffed him
up with some body blows.
Did they do all of that because he didn't want to see
the nurse and they had to go in and get him? Were
they, eleven men [c/o's] scared of a man 5'8'', 160
pounds? Or was this beating done in retaliation for
assaulting their partners? All of the above! This is
just the beginning. With all of the guns around here
and the tension in the air, who knows what's next?!
-- A Virginia Prisoner, 7 October 1998
West Virginian Working Conditions
In response to inquiries made from MIM
Work conditions: Usually a prisoner will be held at a
pay of $5.25 per month, as long as possible. If that
individual has a high school degree or GED, then
eventually they will be posted to making 12 cents per
hour or grade 4 pay as it is called. This can take up
to six months to achieve. Standard grades run from 4
up to 1 pay. Grade one pay is at 36 cents per hour.
If an individually has a fine to pay, they are
automatically put in UNICORE to pay into FRP
(Financial Responsibility Program).
-- A West Virginia Prisoner, 2 August 1998
Texas Conditions
...As for the conditions here within the Texas slave
camps, things are only getting worse, and from what I
see unless those on the outside take a stand and get
involved, they will get even worse. They are not only
making us pay $3 for medical care, they are even now
speaking upon making pay for room and board, and the
fact still remains they are no way and no how going to
pay us for our labor. All this boils down to is making
our family pay, so not only do we suffer our family
does also....
-- A Texas Prisoner
Blacks sentenced to institutional death
So the vast majority of the creative black minds in
america who are males are locked up in prisons during
their most productive years. In the years when most
Euro-American males are present in universities,
colleges, and training institutions, gaining skills
that are necessary to ensure that they can run the
world the way that they have been running the world,
our future leaders, future learners, future advocates,
future directors can be found in the prisons of
america locked away, unable to think, under the daily
watchful eye of sick minds who would rather see them
dead than learning.
Those who show the greatest promise of thinking, self-
direction, understanding comprehension are the least
likely to ever get paroled. When they get paroled,
they are stigmatized in such a way that they can never
get the effectiveness in this society that they need
to utilize what they know. They have been essentially
removed not by physical death, but by institutional
death... Power to the People.
-- A Michigan prisoner, 25 November 1998
Speak Out in Solidarity against Oppression
I myself am a proud member of the Almighty Latin King
and Queen Nation. It is for the struggle my people
have gone through and go through now. In the few MIM
articles I have read, I have observed many of my
brothers and sisters being locked up. Even here in the
heartland of Iowa I and others can relate to their
situation. There is something about the whole system
in America that chooses to oppress us. People need to
start waking up and I believe your newspaper is
speeding the process up.
... I would like to send a strong show out to my King
Brother in the New Jersey prisons, for he speaks much
truth... "Any person who denies his or her membership
to this nation is a coward and therefore not of my
nation." I hear you bro. As Latinos we were blessed
with a crown from birth. Now let's united and fight
for this crown -- Amor de Rej of Corona.
-- An Iowa Prisoner, 28 November 1998
A Call for Unity
...I would like to address all so-called gangs and
gang members of Amerikkka and all around the nation,
whether you're Black, Brown, or Yellow, to listen, or
read this proposal and accept the truth as it is! What
is the truth? The truth is that we genocide each other
and it must stop! We as the oppressed people of
Amerikkka are under attack. We're not under attack by
the government alone, but the worst part is we're
under attack amongst ourselves! I myself along with
you are a gang member I've banged and I've done my
share of genociding (not just that alone). I realize
that truth now and i feel like a fool!! Just as
Malcolm X once said; we've been bumped aside! Yet,
unlike most once I've realized the truth i didn't lay
my flag down! No! I chose to spread the truth. Black
Liberated Unity (BLU).
Unity is what we need and what i want to stress. Most
of the crimes Blacks and Mexicans commit are against
each other and ourselves... If the unjust government
kills wrongly so Blacks and Mexicans or Latinos
throughout the country, as an outgrowth of their
racial brutality, the minority will correctly express
their outrage. However, if within the same year we
kill 10,000 of each other the resulting silence is
deafening! It is just as if we feel it's o.k. and
natural to kill each other. Well! It's not!
Many of my homies have tried to ridicule me for my
beliefs. They don't want a peaceful unification with
their believed to be enemies for two reasons: 1) It's
all they know about and they've been victims to the
divide and cover up scene put down by J. Edgar Hoover
and his piglets, they have become content with it and
have made it their way of life (gangsta lifestyle). 2)
Because they say one of their believed to be enemies
killed one of their homies. When in fact the
government and J. Edgar Hoover were and are the ones
behind all our homies dying and us killing each other
the way we do. I expose these truths to them along
with the fact that we can't be revolutionized against
our oppressor when we're busy going to war with each
other. This is a contradiction to what Crips, Bloods,
5%, Disciples, Latin Kings, Vice Lords and any other
revolutionary organization stand and was organized and
originated for. We can't uplift our communities and
our people if we keep destroying it in the process.
I'm a Texas political prisoner incarcerated in the
Texas Department of Criminal Injustice now, and i feel
from what i have learned this is the most organized
slave plantation in the U.S. As far as unity among the
oppressed is concerned, Mexicans are led to hate
Blacks, each other and the system...they'll kill each
other and Blacks, but never will they rebel against
the government, arch deceiver, the slave master, the
oppressors. The same apply to us Blacks... For
instance: they took away the weights, TV's and took
away educational privileges... Nothing was done. The
same for segregation offenders. They don't allow
offenders with aggravated sentences to have their
sentence good time added to their flat time which
would lead to an early release, still nothing was
done. We do free labor and have to pay for our medical
expenses, still nothing was done. The list goes on and
on.
It's time that we unite and represent the true cause.
Settle our differences and let the past be the past
and look at the present problem with each peacefully
and in private. Then direct all our energy, mentally,
physically with our anger and resources towards the
true enemy.
-- A Texas Prisoner.
Officers threaten and abuse prisoners
...First of all, there's this sgt....[who is] a gang
member, he belongs to a prison gang called TS, this he
told me from his little piggy mouth!
...I belong to a political organization called Nuestra
Raza, it's considered a prison gang by the gang
intelligence at the T.D.C. system. I've got proof that
I'm NR, they have it on my gang file, but still this
officer thinks I'm T.C.B. ...I told them in the
grievance that my life is in danger because the G.I.
locked me up in between the two gangs that are at war,
TS and T.C.B. Both think I am on the other side,
making me the enemy to both sides, now both sides want
to kill me....Now I got this sgt... trying to kill me,
because he thinks I am a T.C.B. member, and he's
spreading that rumor here to get me hurt, every time
he comes to this section he messes up my house by
shaking it down. A lot of my things come up missing
every time. Every time I try to write a grievance to
report this it never goes through, I've tried
everything but he's got a lot of friends here on this
unit like he said, he's connected to another prison
"officers" gang called the "Blue Bandannas." They've
killed inmates all over the system by beating them to
death. They got "Blue Bandannas" here on this unit,
they are all officers, they carry these bandannas with
them and they show it to you and try to scare you...I
saw a Blue Bandanna beat and choke my ex-cellie in the
hallway, but nothing was done. These pigs always get
away with everything!
-- A Texas Prisoner
Exposing Human Rights Abuses
First I would like to commend you and your staff for
the great head-strong determination and direction of
your movement. It is always a pleasure and honor to
read your literature...
...I was listening to the radio one day and Slick
Willie (Clinton) made a very clear statement to the
people about human rights over in another country. It
just bothers me to see our government so concerned
about other countries when right here in the United
States are some of our most prominent political
prisoners, activists and civil rights protesters
who've been wronged in trying to seek justice in this
injustice state. Although you have stated the ways I
can be of assistance, I still find these options hard
to conquer without placing myself in harms way.
-- A Texas Prisoner
MIM responds: There are a number of things that our
prison comrades can do without putting themselves in
great additional harm. Of course, any work with MIM,
including just receiving MIM Notes, is going to bring
potential repression because the pigs don't like the
ideology of the oppressed. But some of the things that
our prison comrades can do that won't add to this
danger include writing articles for MIM Notes and MIM
Theory. Write about conditions in your prison, ask us
for some research material and books to write theory
articles on. Contact friends on the outside and ask
them to become MIM Notes distributors. Pass on your
copy of MIM Notes to other inmates. Start a study
group with other prisoners if possible. And even if
you can't start a study group you can read and study
yourself and arm yourself with the tools of knowledge
for revolution and liberation.
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