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 180 February 15, 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. PRACTITIONERS OF MAO'S PEOPLE'S WAR UNITE
2. EVIDENCE THAT UNSCOM SPIES:
IRAQIS DIE WHILE U.$. BLOWS SMOKE
3. MAOISM GAINS MOMENTUM IN RUSSIA
4. LETTERS
5. REVIEW:
THE WAR AGAINST IRAQ: A HANDBOOK FOR ANTI-IMPERIALISTS
6. "SNITCH" EXPOSES INJUSTICE SYSTEM'S USE OF INFORMANTS
7. STATEMENT BY THE MAOIST INTERNATIONALIST MOVEMENT ON
MLK DAY
8. CIA OPERATIONS EXPOSED
9. RAIL STATEMENT ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE SECOND
MENDIOLA MASSACRE
10. YOUNG LORDS FOUNDER RECALLS MAOIST HISTORY:
CHA CHA JIMENEZ HIGHLIGHTS MLK DAY EVENTS
11. PROSECUTORS LIE, SAYS BOURGEOIS STUDY
12. COURT SUPPORTS PROSECUTORS BUYING TESTIMONY
13. NEW PRISON DATA SHOWS EFFECTS OF ANTI-PAROLE TREND:
BLACK PRISONERS DO MORE TIME THAN WHITES
14. COMRADES: BE SECURITY CONSCIOUS!
15. NEW ORLEANS DA OINKS THE BLUES,
FORCED TO DROP SHAREEF'S MURDER CHARGES
16. UNDER LOCK AND KEY: NEWS FROM PRISONS AND PRISONERS
* * *
WHAT IS MIM?
The Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM) is a
revolutionary communist party that upholds
Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, comprising the collection
of existing or emerging Maoist internationalist
parties in the English-speaking imperialist
countries and their English-speaking internal
semi-colonies, as well as the existing or emerging
Spanish-speaking Maoist internationalist parties
of Aztlan, Puerto Rico and other territories of
the U.S. Empire. MIM Notes is the newspaper of
MIM. Notas Rojas is the newspaper of the Spanish-
speaking parties or emerging parties of MIM.
MIM is an internationalist organization that works
from the vantage point of the Third World
proletariat; thus, its members are not Amerikans,
but world citizens.
MIM struggles to end the oppression of all groups
over other groups: classes, genders, nations. MIM
knows this is only possible by building public
opinion to seize power through armed struggle.
Revolution is a reality for North America as the
military becomes over-extended in the government's
attempts to maintain world hegemony.
MIM differs from other communist parties on three
main questions: (1) MIM holds that after the
proletariat seizes power in socialist revolution,
the potential exists for capitalist restoration
under the leadership of a new bourgeoisie within
the communist party itself. In the case of the
USSR, the bourgeoisie seized power after the death
of Stalin in 1953; in China, it was after Mao's
death and the overthrow of the "Gang of Four" in
1976. (2) MIM upholds the Chinese Cultural
Revolution as the farthest advance of communism in
human history. (3) MIM believes the North American
white-working-class is primarily a non-
revolutionary worker-elite at this time; thus, it
is not the principal vehicle to advance Maoism in
this country.
MIM accepts people as members who agree on these
basic principles and accept democratic centralism,
the system of majority rule, on other questions of
party line.
"The theory of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin is
universally applicable. We should regard it not as
dogma, but as a guide to action. Studying it is
not merely a matter of learning terms and phrases,
but of learning Marxism-Leninism as the science of
revolution."
-- Mao Zedong, Selected Works, Vol. II, p. 208
* * *
PRACTITIONERS OF MAO'S PEOPLE'S WAR UNITE
On January 11th, the Communist Party of the
Philippines released a document prepared in December,
1998 by the existing practitioners of People's War.
The document was proof of the unity of parties
practicing Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. It is also the
single greatest step forward in international
communist movement unity since the death of Mao in
1976.
In the world today, the most advanced communist
parties are all to be found in the Third World. For
this reason it was a brilliant stroke for them to meet
and unify. The exchange of experiences in fighting
imperialism alone would make this a greatly
significant event in the history of the international
communist movement.
The document hailed Mao's theories on protracted
people's war, new democratic revolution, socialist
revolution, and the continuing revolution under the
dictatorship of the proletarian. It also hailed the
practitioners of people's war for their persistence,
and recognized that the practitioners of people's war
are the leading elements in the struggle against the
imperialist "new world order."
The document lists the following practioners of the
People's War in the world. Seminar organizers
attempted to reach the Central Committee of the PCP
("Sendero Luminoso") in Peru, but failed. They hope to
add the PCP soon. The two organizations with asteriks
next to them also were not present, but participated.
1. Proletarian Party of Purba Bangla (PBSP) -
Bangladesh*
2. Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist)
People's War
3. Maoist Communist Centre - India
4. Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist)*
5. Communist Party of the Philippines
6. Communist Party of Turkey/Marxist-Leninist
The leaders of the international communist movement
agreed on the following:
"1.We honor Mao Zedong as the great exponent of the
theory and practice of people's war in the new-
democratic revolution in China against imperialism,
feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism. The historical
experience proves that Mao's theory and practice of
people's war is in consonance with the teachings of
Marx that the class struggle must lead to the
dictatorship of the proletariat. Mao's proletarian
revolutionary line consistently runs from people's war
and the new democratic revolution through socialist
revolution and construction to the theory and practice
of continuing revolution under the proletarian
dictatorship--which is his most outstanding
contribution to the development of Marxism-Leninism.
2.We acknowledge Mao as the master strategist of
people's war. His development of the strategy and
tactics of people's war remains unsurpassed to this
day. His works on people's war involve the application
of materialist dialectics and the revolutionary class
line in the process of revolutionary war. Mao's theory
and practice of people's war consistently carries
forward the fundamental principles of Marxism-
Leninism. It is a further development of Lenin's
theory and practice of the two-stage revolution, in
which the socialist revolution follows the bourgeois-
democratic revolution of a new type.
3.The strategic line of protracted people's war,
involving the encirclement of the cities from the
countryside, is the revolutionary expression of the
fundamental democratic alliance of the proletariat and
peasantry. It is applicable in many countries, like
those where the peasant masses are the majority among
the basic producers and fight for agrarian revolution
as the main component of the democratic revolution.
4.There are a number of Communist parties
successfully carrying out the strategic line of
protracted people's war in accordance with the
teachings of Comrade Mao. They avail themselves of the
inexhaustible participation and support of the people.
They have built or are preparing to build democratic
organs of political power.
They have consolidated and expanded the organized
strength of the masses in the course of fierce
revolutionary struggle. They have overcome all kinds
of enemy offensives including the enemy's use of the
"low intensity conflict'' strategy , the anticommunist
ideological and political offensive related to the
fall of the revisionist regimes, the misrepresentation
of armed revolutionary movements as terrorism and, in
certain cases, offers of peace negotiations and the
sham calls for "peace and development''. In
maintaining their revolutionary position, they have
outlasted the armed movements previously enjoying the
support of revisionist-ruled countries as well as
bourgeois mass media hype. Such movements have been
betrayed by opportunist leaders and led astray to
capitulation and neocolonial compromise.
5.The people's wars and the revolutionary uprisings
constitute the most advanced detachment of the
struggle against the "New World Order". Objectively,
they are inflicting severe blows against imperialism,
are showing that the people's resistance cannot be
suppressed, and are strengthening the self-confidence
of the masses. They are giving the general signal for
the advancement of the struggles against contemporary
imperialism, and they are playing a crucial role in
the reconstruction of the communist movement. They
answer the central question of revolution, which is
the seizure of political power."
* * *
EVIDENCE THAT UNSCOM SPIES: IRAQIS DIE WHILE U.$.
BLOWS SMOKE
By MC12
The Amerikan press has documented new evidence that
the United Nations weapons inspectors in Iraq, known
as UNSCOM, have been acting as spies for the U.$.
government and military. UNSCOM's job has really been
to spy all along -- to collect information about
Iraq's military operations -- but the new evidence of
a direct link between Amerikan military operations and
UNSCOM "monitoring" undermines the U.$. talk of "law
enforcement" in Iraq and makes it clear that UNSCOM
has been part of the U.$. plot to overthrow the Iraqi
government. It blows the United Nations as the U.$.
cover.
Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands if not millions of
Iraqis have died as a result of the military
destruction from the U.$. war in 1991 and the economic
sanctions enforced ever since. In 1996, UNICEF
estimated that deaths among Iraqi children were
running at 3,900 more per month than they had been
before the war.(1) That would be 374,000 extra
children dead over eight years.
The Washington Post reports that, "The United
States for nearly three years intermittently monitored
the coded radio communications of President Saddam
Hussein's innermost security forces using equipment
secretly installed in Iraq by U.N. weapons inspectors,
according to U.S. and U.N. officials."(2)
At first, the Post reports, UNSCOM "inspectors"
used simple scanners and recorders to monitor Iraqi
government transmissions, then relayed them to
intelligence operations in Britain, Israel, and the
U.$. Then, the UNSCOM became worried, and the U.$.
replaced the equipment with automatic monitors they
wouldn't have to carry around, and the data was
relayed by satellite to the U.$. National Security
Agency. Then, "information, including material that
might be helpful to the United States in destabilizing
Saddam Hussein, was retained by Washington."(2)
The U.$. originally denied the reports, but then
they admitted it, knowing they could count on the
Amerikan press to help them make it seem low-grade and
relatively innocent -- just a minor extension of the
"legitimate" work of UNSCOM. And the press did their
best: "U.S. officials have said the purpose of the
radio intercepts was to help UNSCOM do the job
assigned to it by the U.N. Security Council. To the
extent the operation provided additional information
was a bonus that did not deviate from UNSCOM's
mandate, the officials said." In fact, the Post even
admitted that it had the story for months, but "agreed
last fall not to publish details about sources and
methods used to gather the information after U.S.
officials said the disclosure would damage national
security."(2) (A great feature of Amerikan "democracy"
is the secret collaboration between the government and
the bourgeois media, deciding together which "free"
speech will be published.)
Contrary to all protestations by the U.$. over the
last eight years, the Post now reports that
"intelligence agents from several countries, including
the United States, were assigned to work on UNSCOM
inspection teams." This policy is said to have
originated with Scott Ritter, the former Marine who
quit UNSCOM last year in a dispute over what he called
Amerikan weakness toward Iraq, but it was approved by
the head of UNSCOM at the time. Now it turns out
Ritter quit because he was not getting access to all
the information they were stealing.(2)
The U.$. has long been using the United Nations as
a cover for its own self-interested machinations. In
the process, they try to convince the other
imperialists that what's good for the U.$. is good for
the whole international bourgeoisie. Usually they have
been successful. The U.N. Security Council has five
"permanent" members who can veto anything -- the U.$.,
England, France, Russia and China. France and Russia
have been agitating for lifting sanctions against Iraq
because their own economic interests outweigh the
threat they perceive from Iraq. When the other powers
won't rubber-stamp the U.$., the press reports that
they are "divided to the point of paralysis."(4)
The inter-imperialist rivalry in the Middle East
underlies these tense negotiations. The U.$. uses its
military superiority to coerce the other imperialists
to bend to the U.$. will. But France and Russia, and
increasingly China, would like to increase the profits
rolling in their direction from the region, and they
are coming to denounce the U.$. insistence on
"security" and "stability" as self- interested, which
it is.
Revolutionaries have at least two duties here.
First, we have to expose the real atrocities going on
in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East. While
profit-making strategy is debated at the U.N., the
Iraqi people continue to suffer and die. Second, we
have to take advantage of the inter- imperialist
rivalries whenever we can. Splits between major powers
can lead to good opportunities for revolutionaries,
and we must be vigilant to this potential.
Notes:
1. Associated Press, August 1, 1996.
2. Washington Post, January 8, 1999.
3. Washington Post, January 7, 1999; Page A18.
4. Washington Post January 9, 1999; Page A14.
* * *
MAOISM GAINS MOMENTUM IN RUSSIA
MIM is happy to report that revolutionaries in
Russia are picking up the theories of Mao Zedong, both
in order to better understand the treachery of the
Soviet revisionist and social-imperialist clique which
took power after Stalin's death, and in order to guide
them in making a correct assessment of their friends
and enemies in the contemporary situation. MIM
recently exchanged greetings with Russian comrades on
the occasions of our respective congresses.
Russian Maoists greet MIM
Letter of thanks from RYCL(b)
In October, 1998 MIM sent greetings to our comrades
in Russia upholding Marx, Lenin and Stalin against
subsequent capitalist restoration. We note with
pleasure that the Congress saw the strengthening of
the Maoist pole in Russia. The Secretary of Ideology
of the RYCL(b) wrote to explain the results of the
Congress and his letter of January 11 is below.
The works of Mao were long forbidden in Russia for
obvious reasons while those of Trotsky and other
revisionists were readily available. For this reason
our comrades struggling in Russia start with some
disadvantages. On the other hand, they have struggled
long and hard and now they have contact with the
Maoist movement outside Russia. So the Russians are
doing their share of the work for revolution!
In fact, the Russian comrades read our work and
other works in English; they have set up multiple web
sites on the INTERNET and they have figured out which
parties in the outside world resemble the ones in
Russia the most. Here we learn that the youth group in
Russia feels more akin to MIM while its parent is more
similar to Workers World Party.
Hi, comrades! I thank you for a greeting to the 2nd
Congress of RYCL(b). The Congress was held on October
25, 1998 in Leningrad. The delegates from two dozen
organizations participated in it. The Congress has
shown, that RYCL(b) had overcome the right deviation,
consisting in denying of an organizational
independence of the Komsomol and expressing in
attempts completely to subordinate it to the party--
Russian Communist Workers Party.
The RYCL(b) is guided in USA by MIM and has
relations with the Socialist Workers Party of
Mauritius. The RCWP is guided in USA by WWP and has
also relations with the Belgian Party of Labor,
Workers Party of Turkey (Dogu Perinchek) and CP of
Greece. The largest "communist" party in Russia CPRF
is guided in USA by CP-USA, in other countries -- by
large opportunist parties like CP of France and CP of
Japan.
For the best understanding it is possible to carry
out an historical parallel--Germany, 1918, the CPRF is
Social-democratic Party, and RCWP-- Independent
Social-democratic Party. Despite of revolutionary mere
verbiage in RCWP, revisionism also has developed. Its
management does not recognize ideas of Mao, considers
the European proletariat is revolutionary, and someone
shows anti-Semitism (but does not wish to cooperate
with revolutionary nationalists!).
The recently arisen strong right wing accused the
proletariat of prostitution and is dragging behind
CPRF, moreover-- cooperates with bodies of security.
Centrist management connives with the rights. The
leader of a RYCL(b) P. Bylevskiy is twice expulsed
from the party.
Therefore, the revolutionary youth was included in
the conflict with the management of the party, but is
not resolved yet on complete organizational break with
opportunists. The Congress has shown, that the line on
independence of a Komsomol is not exposed to doubt.
After a defeat on plenum in November 1997 the right
deviation has came to naught.
Unfortunately, strong influences on the Congress
have various leftish deviations--workerism and
rejecting of work in official trade unions (Gamov),
aspiration "to provoke" revolution (former secretary
of the CC on ideology Buslayev), identification of
socialists from CPRF and revolutionary nationalists
from National-Bolshevist Party with the fascists from
Russian National Unity (Salnikov). However, none of
these deviations has a prevailing rule, though all of
them were reflected in the resolutions of Congress.
One of the successes of Congress has become that it
has strengthened positions of the Maoist current in
RYCL(b). As the new secretary on ideology I openly
declared, that I'm going to use the post for promotion
of Maoism.
One place in the Control Comission also Maoist
Seliverstov from Obninsk has got. Now, after routing
right leningrad-syktyvkar group, basic ideological
tasks in RYCL(b) - struggle of Stalinist current
(Moscow, Perm etc.) against crypto-Trotskiyist (Kirov,
Nizhni Novgorod) and promoting thus Maoism.
There are the significant difficulties on this way
-- Brezhnevist propagation of long years forged the
essence of the Sino-Soviet split.
There are practically no Maoist books in Russian
(as against Trotsky's books, which in a plenty were
issued during Perestroyka). There is no Maoist
organization, and the majority of the enthusiasts
concern to "new left" and anarchists, at last, the
Russian variant of Maoism is not developed. However, I
am sure, that these difficulties will manage to be
overcome. The young communist league armed with
Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, will lift the Russian
proletariat on new revolution!
With companionable greetings,
Oleg Torbasow
The secretary of the RYCL(b)-CC on ideology
RYCL(B) SALUTES MIM'S CONGRESS
I give a comradely salute to MIM's Congress on
behalf of the Revolutionary Komsomol of Russia and
Ukraine--RYCL(b). Despite essential distinctions
between conditions in Russia and in the U$A and the
language barrier, I consider ideology of MIM is the
most correct among ideologies of organizations in the
U$A and closest to our ideology. Your contribution to
the cause of the world revolution--struggle in most
reactionary and powerful capitalist country--is very
important. I wish successful work to Congress and hope
for development of collaboration between our
organizations.
Long live Marxism-Leninism-Maoism!
Oleg Torbasow Secretary of Ideology RYCL(b) January
11, 1999
GREETINGS FROM OBNINSK MAOISTS
Dear Comrades!
The Obninsk City Organization of the All-Union
Leninist Communist Union of Youth (VLKSM) and of the
Revolutionary Young Communist League (RKSM(b)) extends
its fraternal greetings to the 1999 Congress of the
Maoist International Movement (MIM) and wishes it
success in its functioning. Let this Congress become a
major milestone on the road to fulfilling MIM's
principal goal--building a united proletarian-led
front within the borders of the citadel of world
imperialism, the U$A.
Despite MIM's relatively limited numerical strength
and its extremely difficult working conditions, we are
glad to find in your organization's activities the
most consistent and the least dogmatic application of
the science of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism to the
realities of today's world. We sincerely hope MIM will
continue proudly carrying forward the red banner of
proletarian internationalism and world revolution!
Our country, Russia, belongs to the circle of
countries 'intermediate' between the oppressed 'Third
World' and the imperialist nations. On the one hand,
there is the presence of a genuine proletariat in
principle capable of mass anti-capitalist action plus
Russia's heavy dependence on, and exploitation by, the
imperialist countries. On the other hand, there are
survivals of the Khrushchevite-Brezhnevite revisionist
international policy, deprived of its progressive
component (support for national liberation struggles
all over the world) but preserving its essentially
imperialist character; a growing percentage of the
petty bourgeosie and the formation of Westernized,
parasitic enclaves (e. g. the city of Moscow). In
these conditions we hope for the success in Russia
both of traditional Maoism (originally elaborated in
and for underdeveloped colonial countries) and of
newer perspectives on it developed by MIM.
Proletarians and oppressed nations of all
countries, unite!
Long live Marxism-Leninism-Maoism!
Russian Federation, Kaluga Region, Obninsk
Obninsk City Organization of VLKSM and RKSM(b)
Dar ZHUTAYEV, First Secretary, Member of the VLKSM
Central Committee
Denis SELIVERSTOV, Secretary for Ideology, Member
of the RKSM(b) Central Control Commission
* * *
LETTERS
Religion and revolution
The following letters and response were planned to
run in the last issue of MIM Notes. We accidentally
ran an older edition of the letters page in place of
the letters and part of the response. We run the
letters and their response in their entirety here.
Dear MIM and RAIL,
I've received the books and November issue of MIM
Notes which come at a great time. It may sound like
I'm about to contradict my theory of aligning the 5%
with MIM yet I may have spoken too fast because now I
can see a little better the theory and practice of MIM
and 5% movement. By reading MIM Notes 15 November
1998, no. 174 on religious repression etc, MIM said in
brief "When Black Muslim groups talk about white as
being the devil, they are describing in 'mystical'
terms the same thing that MIM describes through
science."
The 5% are taught science is the practical
application of knowledge. So we may be a step behind
in the revolutionary movement. It's true, we are
moving in this direction. Yet at a "snail" pace by
speaking from the theological terms to express a
point. The best word I can describe 5% doctrine is
metaphorical revolution if there is such a thing. Most
of our people are intertwined with some form of
religious ideology.
We teach through each religion ideology to point in
the real direction which is communism. And many 5%ers
go into groups like MIM, the Black Panther Party, New
Afrika Movement and any movement that is teaching
political consciousness and not mystical terms of
expression.
Just from reading the Little Red Book, I've found a
strong quote: "A well-disciplined Party armed with the
theory of Marxism-Leninism, using the method of self-
criticism and linked with the masses of the people, an
army under the leadership of such a Party; a United
Front of ALL revolutionary classes and ALL
revolutionary groups under the leadership of such a
Party - these are the three main weapons with which we
have defeated the enemy." (On the People's Democratic
Dictatorship etc.)
I will continue to make progress with MIM and
5%ers. Many of the advanced "Gods" or 5%ers are
actually students of MIM, I've come to find out. Now
when I think about it, I believe they master 5% terms
and build a language they can relate to, only thing
about MIM is they give it to us RAW! It's not about
God or Devil, it's plain and simple, the empire must
come down! ...
We have a lot to learn yet. My struggle speaks for
itself almost 4 years in solitary. Now, who's the real
political prisoner? We've come to learn that what
really makes us x-criminals to now-political prisoners
is our consciousness of political activities and how
its being systematically implemented upon us to the
lowest elements. Thank you MIM and RAIL. Keep us
informed on the movement progress and so shall we!
-- a South Carolina prisoner, 15 December 1998.
MIM,
Here at this particular institution, we have
somewhat of a MIM class. [The leader] has brought much
insight to our class, which he credits to MIM. I was
traveling with the Nation of Gods and Earths for four
years, studying its MetaPhysical science. But I have
found the science of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism to be
more of a benefit to me in a concrete way.
Not saying that I denounce the Nation of Gods and
Earth, I think that Maoism should be the main focus,
well at least for me right now. Because learning of
what we had, isn't telling me nothing about how to
achieve it again. Thanks to X and his MIM Notes and
Theories, I have become more political minded and wish
to gain more of an insight so that I may teach some of
these brothers who are potential revolutionary
traveling with the Nation of Gods and Earths.
I can't say that I agree with everything you print,
however, I'm not in a position to disagree neither,
because like I said, my political ignorance.
Nevertheless, I am willing to struggle with MIM,
because only through struggle, can I expect to receive
progress.
I just recently ordered: "Revolutionary Suicide" by
Huey P. Newton, from MIM. I am very much aware of your
free Book Program for Prisoners, however, I do receive
state pay from these oppressors, so while I can, I
would rather pay for any material I can afford so that
a comrade who is indigent may receive material he or
she may not be able to afford. But the way the system
is set up, I could lose my state pay too. But while I
have it, I will sacrifice it for the purpose of my
political awareness.
-- a South Carolina prisoner, 25 November 1998.
MIM responds:
MIM prints these letters from our comrades behind
bars to demonstrate through practice the concept of
the Maoist united front. By uniting the progressive
forces against imperialism, through building
independent mass organizations both inside and outside
of Amerika's gulags, we will build a movement strong
enough to overthrow the imperialist oppressor -- as
the first letter says, plainly and simply, to bring
the empire down.
We also print these letters to continue to use MIM
Notes as a platform to struggle over religion, an
important theme in prison organizing.
In addition to the
discussions we carry out over the most effective and
correct way forward in revolutionary organizing, we
use MIM Notes to highlight the oppression faced by
progressive religious groups in prisons who are
labeled as "gangs" or "security threat groups" to
expose the criminal injustice system to our readers on
the outside.
The first letter talks about religious language as
metaphorical. Maoists too understand the value of
metaphor to express a point -- Mao's own writings are
filled with analogies to the physical and biological
world to illustrate social processes. On the
importance of political struggle, for example, Mao
writes that "plants raised in hothouses are unlikely
to be sturdy." ("On the Correct Handling of
Contradictions Among the People," Selected Works, p.
465)
The first letter also points out that by working
with MIM, RAIL, United Struggle from Within (USW) or
other revolutionary nationalist groups -- 5%ers are
practicing in the scientific realm even as they are
participating in a religious movement. As a Marxist-
Leninist-Maoist vanguard, MIM will continue to
encourage people we work with to embrace science over
mysticism, but we do not look upon this as an
antagonistic contradiction with 5%ers or other
religious groups working with USW under MIM
leadership.
USW will work with other groups as long as they are
not revisionist parties -- that is, falsely claiming
Marxism or communism. The success of the united front
depends on the proletarian party's leadership and
independence, both of which are compromised by
concessions to revisionists, but sustainable with
alliances with non-revisionist groups. The first
letter chooses a quotation from Mao that precisely
illustrates this point. MIM also does not expect USW
comrades to quit or denounce other organizations. Some
comrades will have dual membership as individuals in
USW and other groups, and MIM welcomes dialogue and
struggle with other groups in the practice of united
front work. Again, our disagreements with these other
groups' lines, within the context of the united front,
are non-antagonistic contradictions among the people.
Finally, we take this and every opportunity to
reach out to supporters of MIM and RAIL on the outside
who are reticent to give monetary donations out of a
false perception of poverty. Follow this comrade's
revolutionary example -- someone who receives "state
pay" behind bars will give money to a program to fund
revolutionary literature for prisoners working for
less or no wages.
U.$. SECRETLY SPYING ON IRAQ
Dear MIM:
The U.S. government admitted that it has secretly
used the UN weapons inspection system to spy on Iraq
(see article on page 1 -- editor). This came about from
information released by Kofi Annan and Scott Ritter.
Since the Gulf War our government has said that
these inspections are necessary to keep track of
Iraq's weapon's of mass destruction. This, however was
just a ploy to monitor Iraq's internal communications,
to track the movements of it's leaders and to keep the
sanctions in place.
Clinton hoped that he could use this information to
assassinate Iraq's political and military leaders with
the air strikes he launched last December. Butler's
report then was just the excuse and not the reason for
war.
There's a quote in Henderson's book from the war
college report. The quote was made before Aug 1990. It
talks about taking the initiative away from Iraq
during some war in the future. Clinton's no fly zone
serves this purpose. Before Desert Fox U.S. bombers
could fly into Iraq under the guise of patrolling the
no fly zone and get real close to their targets. The
Iraqis wouldn't be aware of any hostile intent until
bombs were dropped. This happened last summer when no
fly zone jets fired a missile at a new water treatment
facility near Basra.
--a friend in the east January, 1999
* * *
REVIEW THE WAR AGAINST IRAQ: A HANDBOOK FOR ANTI-
IMPERIALISTS
by Arthur Henson
Unity & Struggle Publications 1992
With a return to the shooting portion of Amerika's
bombs & sanctions war against the people of Iraq,
interest in the war has increased. This book presents
many important arguments about the war that are worth
reviewing as the anti-war movement gains new life in
face of the recent overt bombing attacks.
The stated goal of Hensons's The War Against Iraq
is to bring theory to the anti-war movement. Henson
correctly explains that the low tide of anti-war
activism after 1991 was "not because the war ended,
but because of ideological weakness: problems of
thought which hinder the ability to act."(p.7)
Henson continues: "For the most part the antiwar
movement has no theory. Most forces within this broad
and diverse movement still have not grasped the
fundamental political contradiction of the war, that
of imperialism versus the national sovereignty of Iraq
in conflict over oil production. This is a problem of
what to think about the war.(p. 7)
In the early 1970s, Iraq nationalized oil
production. This hurt the imperialists because (a) The
giant monopoly oil firms were no longer directly paid
by the Iraqi people to drill and refine oil, and (b)
Iraq was now in a better position to negotiate a price
for its oil, instead of having a price rammed down its
throat.
In the early 90s, Iraq struggled within OPEC to
raise the price of oil. Amerika responded by launching
the Gulf War and splitting the oil-producing states.
The War Against Iraq never clearly discusses the
class nature of the Hussein regime. For example, he
does not discuss Iraq's military strategy:
Conventional war fought on the terms of the
imperialists. This is the only method of war open to a
bourgeois government that does not have the deep
support of the people. Revolutionary people's war is
the only method of warfare that can defeat a better
armed enemy because it uses the support of the people
as a weapon. Bit by bit, the imperialists can be
driven out, as in China and Vietnam. Bourgeois
governments fear arming their populace with such ideas
and arms because the next logical step would be to
sweep the domestic bourgeoisie out of power too.
We should defend the sovereignty of countries
attacked by the United States. If the U.$. military
respected the official border of other countries, that
would be progress for the world's people. We must
train Amerikans that "their" military shouldn't be
"policing the world." This is part of our duty to
support the toiling and oppressed masses in the Third
World. It is also our duty to understand that
bourgeois governments in the Third World often collude
with the imperialists to exploit their own people, and
mis-lead the anti-imperialist movement. Only the
proletariat can successfully lead a thorough anti-
imperialist movement, because the proletariat has
nothing to lose but its chains and therefore no reason
to sell-out to the imperialists.
The War Against Iraq was published by Unity and
Struggle (U&S), a phony Marxist-Leninist group. We say
"phony," because U&S cannot even tell the difference
between socialism and state monopoly capitalism: U&S
considers China to be "heading" towards capitalism,
despite the fact that it has been on the capitalist
road since the overthrow of the Gang of Four in 1976.
Unity & Struggle is reviewed in MIM Theory 12 ($6.00)
and 13 ($8.50).
* * *
"SNITCH" EXPOSES INJUSTICE SYSTEM'S USE OF INFORMANTS
Frontline: Snitch
January 12 1999
Ofra Bikel
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/snitch
This new 90 minutes PBS Frontline documentary
exposes Amerikan Justice's use of informants to get
convictions. It traces the use of informants back to
the passage of laws mandating mandatory minimum prison
sentences for drug convictions. The documentary is
especially effective because it contains interviews
with snitches who confess to lying in exchange for
their testimony.
According to the documentary, by the early 1990s,
$100 million a year was spent paying informants, and
many thousands of snitches have had their sentences
reduced. In the last 5 years, one third of those
sentenced in federal drug cases have had their
sentences reduced for snitching.
The documentary argues that the reliance on
informants corrupts the justice system. MIM would
argue however, that the reliance on informants is
merely a sign that the system itself is corrupt. We
argue that the U.$. justice system has always been
about repressing the Blacks, Latinos and First
Nations. The War on Drugs is an escalation in that an
existing imperialist war and not a significant
deviation from the norm.
Snitch explains that the passage of mandatory
minimum sentences for drugs grew out of the Democratic
Party's efforts to claim the title of "tough on crime"
for upcoming (1986) elections. In 1986, the House
Speaker was Democrat Tip O'Neil of Massachusetts. The
college draft pick for the Boston Celtics was Len
Bias, who died from a cocaine overdose before he could
play. With the elections quickly approaching, and the
Boston Celtics fans particularly outraged over the
effects of drugs, the Congress quickly passed laws
requiring mandatory minimum sentences for drug
offenses.
Because of the mandatory minimums, judges can no
longer dole out sentences they deemed "appropriate."
According to one study cited in the documentary,
mandatory minimums are opposed by all defense
attorneys, half of prosecutors, and many judges.
Congress passed the laws without much research or
public input, including from Department of Justice and
Corrections type pigs.
Whether or policies fulfill their stated goal of
"fighting crime" is secondary to getting the simple-
minded anti-crime vote and bolstering the growing
prison industry.
Crime is a real problem, but locking up more people
has proven itself to not be a solution. The war on
crime has however led fulfillment of another
Amerikkkan goal: the repression and control of its
internal Black Latino and First Nations.
Only way out of a mandatory minimum sentence: Snitch
The only way to get out of a mandatory minimum
sentence (besides being found not guilty) is to
snitch. After helping other people go to jail, the
prosecutor will then file a motion to reduce the
snitch's sentence.
The imposition of the mandatory minimums removes
much judicial discretion from sentencing. First time
defendants can no longer hope to be let off with
probation. In order to avoid a long sentence of what
could be 10 years or much more, they snitch.
Many of the cases profiled in the documentary are
that of outright fabrication or entrapment. As long as
the prosecution can get a conviction of somebody else,
they don't care if its true or not. In one case given
prominence in the documentary, a young white man,
Joey, is badgered into selling drugs to a friend who
turns out to be an informant. Because Joey won't turn
someone else in, he gets 10 years. Joey's father
spends $100,000 trying to entrap a drug dealer in a
failed effort to win the favor of the prosecutor.
Legally speaking, entrapment is supposed to be illegal
because the government doesn't want to create more
crime. But with the war on drugs, the prime motivation
is locking more people up, not logic, the law or even
ending drugs.
Conspiracy laws examined
The documentary effectively examines convictions
that legally take place without the siezure of drugs.
For a conspiracy conviction, only one source (an
informant) is required to say that s/he saw drugs or
heard the accused talking about having drugs. Then the
government can manufacture whatever number of
kilograms it wishes to accuse the defendants of
having/distributing/etc.
Do Snitch laws let the king pins off, while
incarcerating the masses?
U.S Attorney J. Don Foster: "We try to go up the
ladder if we can, to get the big fish. But sometimes,
you've got the big fish and you need to come down the
ladder. So it just works however it fits for that
particular case." This last sentence is key to
explaining the incarceration craze and its distance
from actual crime stopping.
The documentary also examines drug forfetiture
laws. It explains how easy it is for the government to
seize property.
The documentary ends on a strong note with an
interview of a juror for a defendant who refused to
snitch. The juror explains that he thought the
defendant should get a short sentence, like 3-5 years.
But jurors in federal cases are not involved in
sentencing. The juror is shocked to learn that his
guilty vote meant, as a result of mandatory minimums,
to 3 life sentences without hope of parole.
"He seemed to be such a promising boy", said the
juror.
The documentary then ends with the text that since
the enactment of mandatory minimum sentencing laws in
1986, the supply of drugs has not changed.
To the millions of Amerikans who saw this
documentary, MIM must ask: Are you ready to break with
the anti-crime and embrace real solutions? Or are you
willing to crush the life out of every "promising boy"
fingered by a snitch?
* * *
STATEMENT BY THE MAOIST INTERNATIONALIST MOVEMENT ON
MLK DAY
PRISONS GUT CIVIL RIGHTS:
AMERIKAN LOCKDOWN UNDERMINES CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT
GAINS
In 1968, the year Martin Luther King, Jr. was
killed, there were around 200,000 total prisoners in
Amerikan prisons. Thirty-one years later, that number
is almost 2 million. There are more than half a
million Black men in prison today, and there will be
4.5 million Black men in prison in the year 2020 if
recent trends continue. In 1996, almost 60% of men in
prison were Black or Latino.(1)
That's a powerful, oppressive contrast to the civil
rights movement demand for freedom. It is not a
coincidence that as the oppressed won some reforms and
freedoms in the legal and social arenas through that
movement, the Amerikan ruling class poured money and
resources into a prison system that would literally
re-enslave a large part of the oppressed population
behind bars. Since the 1970s, Amerika prisoner
population has grown at a much faster rate than the
country's population. As the "crime" rate goes up and
down, the rate of imprisonment goes up and up. Black
men are imprisoned at more than eight-times the rate
of white men.
About 25% of the adult population in the country
has completed college(2), compared to only 2% of state
prisoners; 82% of all adults have finished high
school, compared to 59% of state prisoners. In the
year before their arrest, one-third of state prisoners
were not employed, and more than half had incomes less
than $10,000 per year.(6) The "post Civil Rights"
state takes people who have lower education and lower
income, and then imprisons them in a way that reduces
rather than increases their chances of success when
they get out. This isn't just devastating for the
prisoners themselves. There are also 900,000 children
whose parents are in state and federal prisons,
children who are now more likely to end up in poverty
and prison themselves. Further, in 1991 750,000
prisoners had immediate family members in prison
too.(3) The injustice system increases inequality and
oppression, for prisoners, their families, and their
whole communities and nations.
The Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM) and the
Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League (RAIL) take the
opportunity of the Martin Luther King, Jr. events to
remind everyone that the struggle for freedom is
principally a material struggle. We cannot be content
with "can't we all just get along" politics or
attempts to frame the issue of racism as one of
consciousness or attitude. RAIL organizes around
prisons as a leading manifestation of inequality,
national oppression and social control in the United
$tates.
Under imperialism, the struggle of the oppressed
nations for freedom is a struggle for self-
determination.
Notes:
1. From http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext.
2. U.S. Census Bureau, 29 June 1998.
http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/cb98-105.html.
3. Comparing State and Federal Inmates, 1991. Office
of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. NCJ#-
145864.
* * *
CIA OPERATIONS EXPOSED
Recently the New York Times (NYT) ran a series on
the CIA based on a television series produced for
Showtime and aired in early December entitled "The
Real C.I.A.: Enemies, Secrets and Spies." This is news
worth reporting in MIM Notes because of the
information the NYT presented as fact which until now
was dismissed by the general public as fantasies of
radicals. In their discussion of the history of the
CIA the NYT describes its work to overthrow
governments, back coups, and attempts to kill Castro
and other disliked people in positions of power, all
on orders from the President of the U.$.
"In the 1950's the agency went to work in a hundred
other nations, always seeking to advance American
power, sometimes trying to overthrow governments it
saw as threats. It ran coups in Iran in 1953 and in
Guatemala in 1954, installing pro-American leaders who
ruled, sometimes brutally, for decades.
"In the 1960's the agency worked to overthrow
Cuba's Fidel Castro, running the infamous Bay of Pigs
invasion and even trying to kill Castro. In the
documentary, John McMahon, a former Deputy Director of
Central Intelligence, says the agency was acting on
orders from President Kennedy. Indeed, the C.I.A. very
rarely behaved like a 'rogue elephant.' Almost
invariably, when it ran coups and mounted plots, it
was acting on orders from the President of the United
States."
The NYT further detailed the history of the CIA use
of secret arms sales to finance paramilitary
operations against whichever governments it considered
enemy.
"In the 1980's, the battle over the C.I.A. erupted
again when William Casey, then the Director, went
behind the back of Congress and undertook acts of war
against the left-wing government of Nicaragua.
"Congress cut off funds for the C.I.A.-backed
contra rebels in Nicaragua, so officials of the White
House and the intelligence agency began schemes to
raise millions of dollars in secret. Among other
things, they secretly sold weapons to Iranian radicals
to get cash for the contras, setting off the worst
foreign-policy debacle of the decade. But meanwhile,
halfway around the world in Afghanistan, the C.I.A.
was conducting a huge gun-running operation, sending
billions of dollars of weapons to the Islamic rebels
fighting the Soviet Army."
None of these details are new, but the fact that
they are now being presented in the New York Times
should help those readers of MIM Notes who didn't
believe our statements about the CIA's role in
destabilizing unfriendly governments.
It is interesting that the New York Times had no
problem running this story while the stories in the
San Jose Mercury News in 1996 about the U.$.
government involvement in drug sales within u.s.
borders caused such controversy and ultimately ended
the career of the reporter who investigated the
stories. Reporting in mainstream media, which takes
its cues from the government and the corporations who
feed it news stories and pay for its production,
reflects what the government considers safe
information to give to the general public. Apparently
the level of outrage at U$ intervention in other
countries is low enough and the chauvinist support for
white supremacy and global dominance is strong enough
that the government believes it is now safe to
publicly take pride in its imperialist plunder.
We ask those who would claim that the majority of
the people in this country are just miseducated and
would oppose the u.s. government if they were given
the information about what it does, where is the mass
outcry against this public information about the CIA?
MIM does believe that by getting this information into
the hands of the people we will win over allies who
will be unwilling to sit by while the u.s. government
murders and steals around the world. But we don't
expect the majority of the u.s. population, which has
been bought off by superprofits stolen from the Third
World, to immediately stand up and join the
revolutionary struggle. Instead we expect many of them
to be proud of their government for this work the CIA
did just as the majority supports the ongoing overt
bombing of Iraq.
Notes: These reports on the CIA can be found at:
http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/index-cia.html
* * *
RAIL STATEMENT ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE SECOND
MENDIOLA MASSACRE
On January 22, 1987 troops loyal to newly installed
"democratic" president Corey Aquino opened fire on
peasants demanding that Aquino honor her promise to
undertake genuing agrarian reform. The troopers killed
13 demonstrators and wounded 63 more. RAIL delivered
the following statement at a commemoration organized
by BAYAN-International US and PESANTE-USA.
The Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League
commemorates and salutes the struggle of the Filipino
masses against the three mountains which oppress them:
Feudalism, bureaucrat capitalism, and imperialism. We
take their willingness to make tremendous sacrifices
in the struggle for true self determination -- even to
the point of shedding their own blood -- as an
inspiration and example. We recognize that they -- and
all other people in the colonies and neocolonies
struggling against imperialism -- are in the forefront
of the anti-imperialist struggle. They bear the
heaviest load. In turn, we offer them our support,
both directly, by publicizing their struggles to the
peoples of North America and helping out where we can,
and indirectly, by struggling against u.$. imperialism
from within Amerika's borders.
The Mendiola Massacre is an example of the evil
nature of u.$. imperialism and the local reactionaries
in the Philippines. It clearly exposed the puppet
nature of the u.$.-Aquino regime. Although the u.$.
imperialists tried to sell Corey Aquino as a promoter
of democracy, her regime actually surpassed the Marcos
regime in human rights abuses.
But we and the struggling masses of the world are
not scared by the brutality of u.$. imperialism,
either abroad, or here within u.$. borders, where the
u.$. imperialists are threatening to assassinate Mumia
Abu Jamal, and where the u.$. imperialists lock up
more and more of the masses for petty "crimes" simply
to keep a lid on the masses' discontent. We are not
afraid of their reactionary violence, because we know
that it springs from their ultimate weakness and their
fear of the oppressed masses. The vast majority of the
world's people in the colonies and neocolonies are
oppressed by u.$. imperialism. Repression and
oppression breed resistance. It follows that u.$.
imperialism's days are numbered.
Down with imperialism!
Long live international solidarity!
* * *
YOUNG LORDS FOUNDER RECALLS MAOIST HISTORY:
CHA CHA JIMENEZ HIGHLIGHTS MLK DAY EVENTS
Ann Arbor, Mich. -- Cha Cha Jimenez, founder of the
Young Lords Organization in Chicago, was the highlight
of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day events at the
University of Michigan. Other events included some
progressive historical lectures and a student rally in
defense of affirmative action polices.
Ever since a student strike and protests
successfully won University recognition of MLK Day at
the University of Michigan, the occasion has seen a
host of presentations and events around civil rights
issues. Most of these are apolitical or liberal
reformist events, but this year there were some
notable exceptions.
Cha Cha Jimenez gave a speech on the history and
origins of the Young Lords Organization (YLO), founded
in 1967 in Chicago. The Young Lords Party (YLP) in New
York City and the Puerto Rican Revolutionary Workers
Organization (PRRWO) grew from the YLO. These
organizations formed the Maoist pole among Puerto
Ricans at the same time as the Black Panther Party
exerted Maoist leadership among Blacks.
Jimenez's parents were part of a big wave of Puerto
Rican immigration in the early 1950s. Many of them
were fruit-pickers, but when they moved to Chicago,
settling in the Lincoln Park neighborhood, many worked
in the hotel industry in bottom-rung jobs. His father
was in a "street gang" that fought discrimination and
defended the Puerto Rican community. His uncle and
grandfather were soldiers for the U.$. in previous
wars.
Chicago Mayor Daley's urban renewal program drove
all the Puerto Ricans out of Lincoln Park, which
helped spark a political consciousness in the
community. "What got us involved was not the
independence of Puerto Rico," Jimenez said, "but that
they were taking our neighborhood from us. . . .
Everyone else thought urban renewal was good. They
still think it's good. Urban planners all over the
country emulate what they did in Chicago."
His involvement with local street gangs and drug
use got him in trouble with Chicago police, and landed
him in jail as a young man. There he saw the guards
beating up the undocumented immigrant workers they
were hauling in. His early activism was helping these
immigrants with translating. While in jail, he started
reading Martin Luther King, and then Malcolm X. "Then
I wanted to go to confession," he recalled. "And after
confession I wanted to overthrow the government."
His early reading also included material from the
Brown Berets and the Black Panther Party. With this
influence, he helped turn the Young Lords, then a
street gang, into a political organization. They read
Marx and Lenin and Mao. "Some of it related to us, you
know," he said. "The Red Book was pretty good. We
could relate to Mao because he could relate to the
community."
Their early actions were very militant, and they
didn't realize how much trouble they would get into.
They took over a local police station, and the urban
renewal office: "We trashed it . . . It got shut down
for a few months" because of the damage they caused,
he said. They also took over the McCormick Theological
Seminary and held it for a week, demanding investments
in public housing. And they took over People's Church,
and it became national headquarters. They gave free
day care, health clinics, lead poisoning screening,
and legal advice. "We needed a lot of lawyers," he
said.
Jimenez met with Fred Hampton, the local leader of
the Black Panther Party (BPP), and Hampton told him
that they were going to be in big trouble from the
takeovers, and they would need better organization. So
they created more formal organization, including
ministries like the Panthers had. Then the Young
Patriots, BPP and the Young Lords together created the
original "Rainbow Coalition," whose name was later
stolen by Jesse Jackson.
Jimenez said such alliances were essential for
them. "One of the things in the Red Book, Mao said,
'United the many to defeat the few.'"
The FBI's COINTELPRO program targeted the Rainbow
Coalition for destruction. Fred Hampton was murdered
by the Chicago Police in a raid on his apartment in
late 1969. The raid was made possible by the work of
an FBI infiltrator named William O'Neal, who provided
the pigs with floor plans and schedules of who would
be where (see Agents of Repression, by Ward Churchill
and Jim Vanderwall, South End Press, Boston, 1990).
According to Jimenez, O'Neal, who was in charge of
security for the BPP, was also in the Young Lords
offices. Jimenez was also targeted, though not killed.
He was arrested on a bogus hostage- taking charge,
which was eventually thrown out after he spent nine
months in jail. He was arrested many times by the
Chicago police, who also arrested people just for
wearing Young Lords buttons.
Jimenez was not uncritical of the early Young Lords
work, for example with regard to gender. "In terms of
women, we were just like the rest of the community,"
he said, "and we were very discriminatory. We were
macho . . . We're the first ones to admit that."
However, like the YLP, they had a separate women's
group, "They [the wimmin] had a group called 'Mothers
And Others' - - MAO -- and they met separately." The
wimmin's work also led to the day care and breakfast
programs: "We just put programs in place -- you know,
we didn't do a lot of analysis of the woman question,"
Jimenez said. From what MIM knows of the YLP and the
PRRWO, they did do explicit analysis of the role of
wimmin in society and in the revolution. In fact, the
wimmin in these organizations stepped forward and
siezed positions of leadership (see MIM's review of
the YLO, YLP, and PRRWO in MIM Theory 7).
* * *
PROSECUTORS LIE, SAYS BOURGEOIS STUDY
A Chicago Tribune study of court records has shown
what MIM has long said: convictions matter to pig
prosecutors more than punishing those guilty of
crimes.
"The records show prosecutors have won convictions
against Black men, hiding evidence that the real
killers were white. They also have prosecuted a wife,
hiding evidence that her husband committed suicide.
And they have prosecuted parents, hiding evidence that
their daughter was killed by wild dogs."
Being a prosecutor is a stepping stone to higher
elected office in Amerika. A MIM Notes 176 study
reported that of the 50 state governors and 100 U.$.
senators in 1997, 30 were former prosecutors.
According to the Tribune, "at least 381 defendants
have had a homicide conviction thrown out because
prosecutors concealed evidence or presented evidence
they knew to be false" since 1963.
Sixty-seven of the 381 had been sentenced to death.
Some came within hours of being executed.
These are of course only the cases that were
exposed. Many prisoners can not afford a lawyer to
properly appeal their conviction and so can not ever
be released or add to the statistics above.
Furthermore, convicted murderers are only a tiny
portion of those in prison. The number of other
innocent prisoners is likewise much higher, especially
since some other crimes (such as drug crimes) require
a much lower standard of so-called evidence than
murder.
That prosecutors lie and cheat to get a conviction
is more evidence that the Amerikan Justice system is
about Amerikan Just-Us.
Note: Boston Globe 11 January 99, p. A5.
* * *
COURT SUPPORTS PROSECUTORS BUYING TESTIMONY
On 8 January the full 10th U.$. Circuit Court of
Appeals overturned a previous ruling that declared the
common practice of exchanging plea bargains for
testimony to be illegal. A three judge panel of the
same body had ruled in August against the practice.
This January ruling is a big victory for the
government in its war against the Black, Latino and
First Nations.
When a defense attorney offers a witness money in
exchange for favorable testimony, it's called bribery
and it's against the law. But when prosecutors do it
with money or something far more valuable--freedom--
it's acceptable to this system. According to a Dallas
Morning News study, 86% of federal criminal cases in
the Dallas and Forth Worth area between 1995 and 1997
"involved the use of informants or co-conspirators who
received deals from prosecutors in return for
testimony."
Sonya Singleton was arrested in 1998 as part of an
alleged money laundering and cocaine distribution
conspiracy. Singleton's specific charge was aiding in
a wire transfer from Kansas to California. Singleton
denies the charge, but one witness at her trial
identified her as part of the conspiracy: Napolean
Douglas, a convicted coke dealer who cut a deal. His
prison sentence was reduced from 15 years to 5 years.
Singleton was convicted and sentenced to 4 years.
Federal bribery law prevents "'whoever' from
giving, offering or promising 'anything of value' to a
witness in exchange for testimony. The law doesn't
exempt prosecutors." Referring to Douglas, Singleton's
attorney said "With the deal he got, he was going to
tell the government anything they wanted to hear, even
if that meant lying."
The August victory for Singleton put hundreds of
thousands of the government's criminal cases at risk,
and the pigs quickly mobilized against it. Dallas u.$.
attorney Paul Coggins said "This case makes every
prosecutor, every judge, every defense attorney co-
conspirators in a federal bribery case. I don't think
that can be allowed to stand." Not taking any chances
that the courts wouldn't right the reactionary
applecart, the Justice Department immediately began
lobbying Congress to exempt prosecutors from the
bribery statutes.
Declaring the practice illegal, Paul J. Kelley Jr.,
wrote in August: "If justice is perverted when a
criminal defendant seeks to buy testimony from a
witness, it is no less perverted when the government
does so." The Judges said in August that if Congress
wanted to exempt prosecutors from bribery, they should
change the law.
The August ruling put the U.$. Injustice System had
gotten into quite a pickle. It got itself out by
reversing the horse and the cart of law authorship and
law application. The January ruling said that "if
Congress had intended to overturn the accepted
practice, 'it would have done so in clear,
unmistakable and unarguable language.'"
Of course, that Congress could have changed the law
to formally exempt prosecutors from the law further
proves MIM's point that the government is the real
criminal conspiracy. Already the pigs have little
reason to follow their own laws, and when forced to
(as they almost were in this case) they can change the
laws.
Note: AP 8 Jan 99, 17 Nov 98.
* * *
NEW PRISON DATA SHOWS EFFECTS OF ANTI-PAROLE TREND:
BLACK PRISONERS DO MORE TIME THAN WHITES
By MC12
As of this year, 15 states have eliminated parole.
New York Gov. Pataki is proposing eliminating parole
in his state, too. And many other states are cracking
down on granting parole. Texas, for example, paroled
just 20% of eligible prisoners in 1998, down from 57%
in 1988.(1)
The trend toward denying parole, or even
eliminating parole, is contributing to the boom in the
fascistic explosion of Amerikan imprisonment. Some new
data released by the Injustice Department demonstrates
this.
A big part of the growth in prison populations is
because people are serving longer portions of their
sentences. State prison populations increased 57% from
1990 to 1997, but admissions only increased 17% in
that time. So the population is increasing partly
because more people are being locked up, but also
because fewer people are being released. In 1990, 37%
of state prisoners were released, but in 1996 it was
only 31%. The release rate for people convicted of
murder fell from 10% to 5% in that time -- meaning in
1996 one-in-20 people convicted of murder was released
-- and the rate fell from 24% to 15% for people
convicted of rape.
The drop in release for prisoners convicted of
rapes showed up in a big Black-white difference in
time served for rape convictions. Among people
released from state prisons in 1996, Blacks convicted
of rape had done an average of 70 months in prison,
compared to 56 months for whites, so Blacks serve 25%
longer sentences for rape than whites. Black prisoners
also served 20% longer sentences for assault. (For
murder, however, the time served was about the same).
For all types of convictions, Black prisoners released
in 1996 did an average of 26 months, compared to 24
months for whites.(2)
MIM has previously explained that Black men are
much more likely to be arrested for rape than white
men. Now we see that they also do longer prison terms
on rape convictions. Rape is endemic in patriarchal
society. Who gets arrested and jailed for rape is a
political decision made by the imperialist patriarchy.
The prison system is a social control mechanism for
national oppression, as both arrest and prison term
figures show.
Notes:
1. New York Times, 10 January 1999, p. A 11.
2. Paula M. Ditton and Doris James Wilson, "Truth in
Sentencing in State Prisons." U.S. Department of
Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice
Statistics Special Report, January 1999 (NCJ #170032).
* * *
COMRADES: BE SECURITY CONSCIOUS!
At a recent anti-prisons event organized by RAIL,
RAILers passed around a sign-up sheet for the local
RAIL mailing list but failed to collect it after it
had passed around the room. An audience member came up
to the RAILers after the event and cautioned them to
keep a closer eye on the mailing list, as anybody
present could have copied down or memorized the names
and addresses on the list.
This is a correct warning, which the RAILers
present took to heart, as should all comrades
organizing public events. We take great pains to keep
our home addresses and other sensitive information
from the eyes of the state and other reactionaries --
we must take even greater pains to protect the masses
and set an example in security-consciousness.
There is no guarantee that everybody who shows up
at a RAIL event is friendly to RAIL. We should learn
from the example of Malcolm X, who often started his
public speeches with the words, "Greetings, brothers
and sisters, friends. . . and enemies."
In fact, an enemy of RAIL and the people disrupted
the very event in question (luckily he left before
RAIL had passed the mailing list around). A member of
the so-called Aryan International Movement (AIM) -- an
organization of white supremacists, fascists, and
other execrable cretins -- surreptitiously engaged a
RAILer in a discussion about prisons before suddenly
passing out his hateful literature and encouraging the
(minority of) white people present to join his group.
Met with scorn from all, he quickly turned tail and
fled. AIM, however, has a practice of spying on anti-
fascist events and following the organizers home.
A lesson that not all pigs wear blue uniforms and
badges.
* * *
NEW ORLEANS DA OINKS THE BLUES, FORCED TO DROP SHAREEF'S
MURDER CHARGES
Just three days before Shareef Cousin's retrial for
murder, New Orleans DA-type pig Harry Konnik abruptly
dropped all charges on January 8. Oinking that his
office of injustice really "had the right man" when he
sent Shareef to Angola's death row in 1996 for the
killing of a white man in 1995, Konnik was unable to
explain why suddenly there's "not enough evidence" to
try Shareef again. Or why he had "disciplined" the
chief prosekutor in the case. But the pig slop didn't
end there. Hours later the New Orleans Pig Department
announced that it had "reopened" the investigation
into the killing that Shareef was railroaded for, and
that they'd be rutting around "seeking new leads."(1)
All this porky manuvering resulted in a victory for
Shareef Cousin against the criminal injustice system
that makes all prisoners political prisoners. And it
exposes once again the vile purpose of that system as
the domestic military arm of imperialism set to
terrorize and intimidate oppressed nationals into
submission.
As commandant of that oppressive force, Konnik is
the darling of white New Orleans, which looks to him
as protektor of their hard won privileges, i.e., hard
won through settler genocide and plunder. And this was
an "important" case because a white boy was killed
while with his white girl "date" just outside the Port
O'Call Restaurant in the French Quarter. This is just
the area where Konnik likes to stop in and croon some
tunes like his famous son and join in the general
merrrymaking and celebration with his white
konstituents. And if you can't celebrate being an
oppressor, where's the fun? It was Konnik's job to
send a message to the Black nation in New Orleans:
threaten our privilege and we'll murder one of you
with poision in your veins while you're strapped on a
white porcelain table in a tiny room with a big window
for us all to watch.
Of course for Konnik, being the pig he is, this job
was a snap. Just use the trickkks of the criminal
injustice trade. First you get a snitch and threaten
him till you get a name, any name. Then you get some
"tentative" identifications, while making sure your
"star" witness lies big and on point. And you keep
quiet about any witnesses that point in other
directions. Then you go to trial and do everything to
keep Black nationals off the jury. And, oh yeah, you
use your goon squad to kidnap defense witnesses that
provide an alibi (Shareef was returning from a
basketball game with his coach and teammates at the
time of the killing). Throw in some witness
intimidation here and there, and quicker than you can
say "David Dukkke," you've got yourself another
sacrifice for amerikkka's peace of mind.(2)
Konnik's office is well oiled for national
opprression. From 1990 until 1995, all the people
sentenced to death in New Orleans were Black. Konnik
seeks the death penalty almost three times as often if
the victim is white. If a Black national is charged
with the murder of a white settler, he goes after the
death penalty 72.7% of the time. But he asks for the
death penalty in only 21.4% of the cases in which
whites kill Blacks.(3)
Oh, it hasn't been all smooth sailing for New
Orleans' singing storm trooper. In 1995 Konnik was
slapped on the wrist by another wing of the injustice
system, the "supreme" kourt, for withholding evidence
favorable to the defendant in a kapital kase.(4) In
this way the injustice system appears "fair" in
getting the "right" oppressed national to hold out as
an example in its campaign of terror. And in 1998
"Time" magazine was out to make a buck by painting
Konnik as some kind of rogue wart-hog type pig rather
than the regular all-amerikan type pig he actually is.
So they ran an issue with Shareef on the cover and a
story that tells what all Konnik's little piggys have
really been up to in concocting this "case."(5)
Then shortly after the "Time" story the louisiana
"supreme" kourt overturned Shareef's conviction and
"granted" him a new trial. That meant Konnik would
risk further exposure of his pig tricks in the
daylight of public opinion. And by the time the trial
rolled around several progressive and reformist groups
had taken up Shareef's cause and the bourgeois press
was ominously reporting representatives of these to be
"in town."(4) On the other hand, as a good
representative of the white settler nation, Konnik had
to satisfy the imperialist bloodlust that protects
this empire. Solution? Drop Shareef like a hot potato
and round up the pig possee for another night ride
through the Black nation. Konnik to white amerika:
"Don't worry, we'll get another one, and quick."
Konnik can take some temporary consolation in the
fact that Shareef is still in his plantation cell at
Angola, the result of having been coerced into a plea
"bargain" when he was fighting for his very life. But
his attorneys expect these to meet the same legal end
as his bogus "conviction." Shareef will be free!
But Konnik remains free. The criminal amerikan
injustice system remains free. Imperialism remains
free to dominate, exploit, and terrorize the Black
nation and all Third World nations in the name of
insatiable settler greed.
Shareef was the youngest persons on amerika's death
row, having been railroaded at age 16. Imperialism in
white amerika is ruthless and respects no age
boundries in its desperation for hegemony. Among
youth, the criminal injustice system is most vicious
in its attacks on oppressed nation youth. Two thirds
of youth sentenced to death by this system are from
the oppressed nations, for instance.(6)
Dismal, brute facts, to be sure. But oppression
does breed resistance. That's brute fact also. As
Amerika extends its undeclared war on the oppressed
nations to the youth, the youth will respond by
resisting. By themselves, paternalistic slogans like
"Stop killing the children!" are counterproductive and
detached from reality. The "children" themselves are
capable of understanding the imperialist and
patriarchal nature of the system which oppresses them,
and organizing against it. The Black Panther Party,
which many members joined in their teens, was a
vanguard Maoist party with a strong presence in New
Orleans. One youthful Panther is wiser of heart in
revolution, more mature in the struggle of the truly
oppressed, than ten thousand thousand oinking Konnik
pigs. And Harry, your oppression is breeding more than
one, trust us.
Notes:
1 The Times-Picayune, January 9, 1999, p. 1
2 Shareef Cousin Fact Sheet, http://www.shareef-cousin.com/
3 Ibid.
4 Ibid.
5 Dead Teen Walking, "Time," January 19, 1998
6 Shareef Cousin Fact Sheet
* * *
UNDER LOCK AND KEY: NEWS FROM PRISONS AND PRISONERS
Exposing Indiana Isolation
...Here in the Supermax conditions are the most
oppressive, in which there is no set requirement of
why we are placed here and when/if we'll leave here.
We are locked down most days for 24 hours a day for
our first 90 days. With the exception of an hour out
twice a week on a very small recreation pen fully
enclosed. The only way to see the sun is to look up.
The most we'll ever be able achieve is an hour a day
out of cell time after six months. In that time no
audio-visual privileges of any kind. No phone
privileges as long as you are here.
To get a visit your prospective visitor must send a
written request two weeks in advance. This policy
greatly discourages visitors. We are only allowed one,
three-person visit, per month anyway. So it is their
intention to try to isolate us from all outside
support and communication. This way they [the pigs]
will have more success in applying ever more
oppressive tactics and measures....
-- An Indian Prisoner 19 July 1998
Pigs Maintain Racists
...My harassment and abuse by staff at this prison has
ranged from spitting in and denial of food; verbal
abuse; and outright physical attacks. This abuse is
escalating and is being supported by top officials at
this prison (e.g. Mark Levenhagen, Captain William
Hyatte, and Sergeant Anderson.).
I am confined on a "control unit" where security is
the main focus of all activities. I am handcuffed and
shackled whenever I am moved from my assigned cell. On
October 13, 1998 the "corrections officers" left the
cuff-port (it is a locked door that is cut into a cell
door used for passing food and handcuffing.) of a
known racist opened. This person conveniently had a
razor and as I was being escorted to the shower he
reached out and cut my arm open requiring 25 stitches.
Too many things fell into place at the right time for
this to have been a coincidental mishap. Out of 52
prisoners his cuff-port was the only one left open. He
was the only one with a razor at the right time. He
knew when I was going to the shower, ad infinitum.
This was clearly planned with the help of prison
staff.
...Historically, the prison administration has
supported the existence and maintenance of racist
inmates and in exchange for petty privileges they are
used as a buffer against those of who are committed to
consciousness raising and righteous change. These
racists have been provided with weapons and
opportunities to attack and even kill those who have
dedicated themselves to social change. Since these
racists are never subject to any type of punishment it
sends a message that the administration supports these
acts. In this case, the inmate who cut me is receiving
only one year of segregation time. He doesn't care
about this because he will go home before the time is
up. In contrast, a black guy recently got 20 years
added to his sentence just for possessing a razor
affixed to a pencil.
To add insult to injury, I did not see a doctor for
six hours after the attack. Staff members (Monzon and
Ketchup) attempted to conceal the administration's
role in this assault by trying to refuse photos and
saying that this inmate somehow unlocked his own cuff-
port! [In transporting me to medical care] these
officers purposely and repeated rubbed the seatbelt
across the wound. In addition, they handcuffed,
shackled and chained me in a manner that caused me
extreme pain. I understand that because I have
dedicated my life to struggle, that these happenings
are par for the course. But the contradictions must be
addressed.
Peace and Solidarity,
-- An Indiana Prisoner, 16 October 1998
Isolation Tactics
"The government you have elected is inoperative." --
KRS One, I forgot the title of the rap and year, but
never the words and meaning. "The government you have
elected is inoperative." I hope I spelled the word
inoperative correctly. I've been in seg [segregation]
for two years without a dictionary. These modern day
slave owners are well aware of the fact that Malcolm
Little studied the dictionary and political books in
seg and became Malcolm X. So it comes as no shock when
these oppressors never have dictionaries to loan to
us.
I understand the concern over prisoners' right to
vote. It's the first step. However, voting is
senseless as long as we have a two parts system of two
evils to choose from. This is why the government is
always inoperative.
It's cold inside our cells. No heat. In fact the air
condition is still on. The was supposed to get sick
now that we have to pay, just to see a doctor, even if
no medical treatment is given. That is if we have the
money. Dirt poor people like myself are often not
brought to see a doctor, or we see one two weeks and
twelve request slips later because we don't have the
money.
After people get sick, and a prisoner freezes to
death, we'll have heat and a cover up. The prisoncrats
will say. "He covered his vents with wet toilet paper
and prevented the heat from coming out." When actually
he did so to block the air condition from coming in
his cell.
I've witnessed four prisoners get murdered by goon
squads and improper or denial of medical or
psychiatric care. I've read the lies and cover- ups.
In one case, I saw dogs clean up the murder scene
before the investigators arrived. But who could I
tell? The state police? Ha! They probably would have
charged me with "perjury". May those comrades rest in
peace.
Northern is a high tech super maximum security
restrictive segregation prison, where modern day slave
owners conduct a behavior modification brain wash
phase program on Connecticut's Nat Turners and John
Browns. We are without tv, radios and newspapers. A
decent book is rare. Pussy books are plentiful. Psych
medication is encouraged. These oppressors cut us off
from the outside world through disciplinary sanctions:
loss of visits, loss of phone access, and loss of mail
(yes, loss of mail.) All at the same time and beyond
our prison discharge dates in most cases.
Under loss of mail, they hold our mail hostage and
give us our mail on the last Wednesday of each month.
If a relative dies on the 3rd and notification of the
death is sent to me by letter on the 4th, I'll be
given the letter on the 25th, long after the mourning
began. It happened to me last year. This loss of mail
discourages free people from writing to us. In the
last letter I received from my mother in February 1998
she wrote, "I love you very, very much and would never
abandon you. You must always believe that." Why
haven't I heard from my mother since? Is she alive?
...
-- A Connecticut Prisoner, 2 November 1998
No medical care in prison
What is a medical emergency? I was bleeding for 3 days
out my anus. I had blood in my stool and was suffering
from discomfort in my insides. The medical staff is
telling me to put in a request for this just to get
$3.00...
...I was using the bathroom and there was blood in the
stool. I was concerned because there was a lot of
blood. I pushed the so-called emergency button. The
C/O [Correction Officer] said he called medical; and
medical said to put in a request.
There aren't any nerves in your colon, so the only way
to know if there's a problem is the presence of blood
in the stool. So I was nervous and covered the window.
During count I said nothing. So the lieutenant said
either get tied up or take the paper off. He said he
would call medical. So they [medical staff] came
personally and said put in a request. Then I talked to
Captain Corey. Major KKK came out and said I don't
care about your rights or anything else.
Nothing ever happened, I was NOT seen by medical
staff. So I filed a bunch of sanctions and
grievances...
-- A Connecticut Prisoner, 1 November 1998
Health Hazards in Wimmin's Prison
A lady slipped and fell behind the food service line
in the central dining hall last week because there
were no mats on the floor. She fell with a scalding
hot pan into the hot water. She suffered second and
third degree burns. She was denied to go to the
outside hospital.
Seizes and asthma attacks are not considered medical
emergencies. The inmates and guards are left to
"medically" care for the prisoners. The nurses do not
come according to this prison policy.
There is no health care outside the prison.
Emergencies cost $2.00 to pay to go.
There are no safety measures in the kitchen. People
suffer falls, and burns. The prison officials have
prisoners with AIDS, HIV, TB exposure working in the
kitchen. Kitchen staff is paid $15.00 to $20.00 a
month. The pay for cooks is $60.00 - $65.00 a
month....
Female guards are allowed to wear wigs, hairpieces,
weaves and acrylic nails (some as long as three
inches). My complaint is that these nails (claws) can
endanger both the health and safety of the guards and
prisoners. If a guard needs to stop a fight, shakedown
(touch) a prisoner, and/or assist a seizure patient.
In any of these circumstances these sharp implant
nails can cut a prisoner....
-- An Illinois Prisoner, 16 July, 1998
Plea for help against Medical Abuse
...Prisoners need to boycott the phone system. They
are robbing our families the rates they charge. I'd be
more than willing to draft up some work with the
network with all prisons. The institutions receive
free phone services and kickbacks based on the calls
prisoners make.
The second thing prisoners in the US need is a uniform
medical association. I have been sending scores of
memorandums out, but no one wants to help. The rate of
prison deaths is going higher as we speak -- and will
continue unless we Prisoners do something.
...Many prisoners have been sentence to an
unadjudicated death sentence due to unprofessional
medical treatment, and experimentation without their
knowledge. It's a sad affair when prisoners' families
don't have adequate funding to get independent
autopsies done to determine the cause of death. It is
probably for the better because their family would
find that their loved one died due to the
experimentation and/or intentionally given diseases or
cancers. This is one of the realities that prison life
carries with it, unadjudicated death.
...To that end, we prisoners need immediate help in
combating the mistreatment of prisoners. We need a
not-for-profit organization that would provide
informative data by prisoners themselves based on
prisoners' actual need.
We prisoners need doctors to help edit the articles,
and we need a printer, post office box number, and a
person to pick up and send out information. With this
help, we can arm ourselves to fight for ourselves.
In conclusion, I have a "Prisoners Health Watch"
Manual being edited/checked for misinformation by a
doctor. Nonetheless, I have no support base to reach
the 1.3 million prisoners who would best use the
information....
I continue in the struggle,
-- An Illinois Prisoner, 8 August 1998
MIM responds: The tasks that this prisoner proposes
are exactly the kinds of projects United Struggle from
Within (USW), the MIM-led prisoner activist
organization, is taking on. And we encourage all
prisoners interested in working on these and other
important struggles to contact us and get involved. We
have the infrastructure and network to help get things
like a Prisoners Health Watch Manual to the prisoners
who need it while at the same time incorporating this
work into the overall anti-imperialist struggle.
Illinois prison conditions
...In 1996 all Maximum's were locked down for seven
months. During that time changes were made in a
drastic fashion. Property was taken from prisoners, no
more contact visits, restricted phone calls, mass
beatings and tortures, and new more Draconian rules
were established.
...If you initiate contact with a nurse verbally,
you're arbitrarily charged $5.00. If you fill out a
health care request form, be ready to pay $5.00, and
additional $2.00 if a quack (doctor) has to see you
and prescribe a hard drug like Tylenol.
Regarding WVCF [Wabash Valley Corr. Facility] medical
staff being private. That has yet to be validated.
I've heard many different medical staff proclaiming to
be state paid and regulated (not privatized). But I
have heard prisoners stating that PHS (Private Health
Services, centralized from California) is the agency
WVCF staff is leased from. More investigation is
needed on this.
GED classes are arbitrarily allowed! This sinister,
diabolical system of education here at WVCF works like
so: A prisoner who is in general population, must have
one year clear to participate in any educational
programs. The same rule applies for the slave-wage
irrelevant jobs. The prisoncrats constructed WVCF
whereby it's contained and concentrated with
strictness. General population mirrors that maxi-maxi
control unit environment with very little exceptions.
Thus prisoners' activities are pre-determined and
calculated under these harsh extraordinary
circumstances.
The psychological stress levels are always high.
Double bunking in shoebox cells only intensifies the
effect. Thus exploding reactionary activities are
calculable. For the most part the manmade environment
of WVCF has been constructed to make it virtually
impossible to get a year clear without any
infractions. However, if you happen to catch an A or B
conduct report and are sent to the SHU [Segregated
Housing Unit] and have two years or more left, Then
you are placed on "long-term" segregation. Note, no
handbook, criteria or policy exist for long-term or
short-term housing of prisoners on the SHU. It's a
ghost policy that is arbitrarily enforced.
If you keep 30 days clear of any conduct reports, then
you may submit a request to your assigned counselor to
partake in the GED program. But if you're short-term
with less than two years, then you're fucked on any
type of educational program. Long-term is looking
appealing to a lot of prisoners when compared with the
brunt of sensory deprivation suffered by short-term
SHU prisoners.
...Phone calls are twenty minutes for general
population and SHU prisoners. However, SHU prisoners
are only allowed phone calls every 14 days. The only
exception is if you have your attorney call the prison
and/or send your counselor a request. You may also get
a court order warranting additional phone contact with
attorney.
The SHU law library is nonexistent. What does exist is
a law book list of limited law books that may be
requested from your counselor. If you need help, tough
luck! If you need case cites, you must request if from
the WVCF main law library by citation. The law library
system is merely a paging-system that is not
adequately run either! A law library clerk comes to
the SHU three times a week. This person who hasn't a
clue about the law can only communicate with you via
phone, in a security max booth. The passing of items
is not allowed.
The food service here is inadequate and does not meet
the nutritional regulations. You would think the
prisoncrats would rush to allow SHU prisoner to order
from the commissary, in order to reap more profits
from the prisoners. But this hasn't been done because
they would rather starve us instead.
-- An Illinois Prisoner, 19 July 1998
Illinois economic conditions
...The highest you can get paid at this institution is
$45.00. The medical treatment is really bad. Reading
material is at times censored, even personal mail.
Emergency health care visits to outside hospitals are
$2.00. Inmates are not allowed to receive stamps
inside the institution. They stopped giving out free
envelopes that inmates could mail free of charge. They
have taken the majority of the can good out of the
store due to a security threat. Access to the law
library and coping has been made much harder for
inmates.
...The only jobs in this institution are those
considered institution jobs. This institution has a
boot camp that does all the outside work. Jobs range
from $15.00 -$45.00. There are some inmates that make
up to $65.00, but they are few in number. There is no
work for outside companies here. The working
conditions are not bad because contractors come in and
do all the major work. There are no jobs that would
harm an inmate from working it. The worst job in this
institution is riding the tractors to cut the grass.
In this institution, a person has a lot of room to
move around and do what is necessary for the cause.
If the prisoner has a certain amount of money, say for
example $2,500.00 on the books they [the prisoncrats]
might try to take him to pay room and board....
I continue in the struggle,
-- An Illinois Prisoner, 11 May 1998
Anti-Muslim treatment
...Let me run down to you brothers what's been going
on here at Wayne Correction Center in Goldsboro, North
Carolina. Well as the market for prison continues to
grow, fair and proper treatment of those incarcerated
seems to be taking a continuous decrease.
Wayne Facility is a state institution that is unjust
and discriminatory against inmates in their facility.
Though Christianity is embraced and supported, Muslims
at Wayne are closely supervising and receive limited
amounts of Islamic literature.
The only thing we've been provided is harassment. When
any Muslim walks down the main hallways he is asked to
take off anything Muslim related. We are not allowed
to order from the Muslim Institution's Direct, thus we
have no such books for in-depth research. Our services
are closely monitored.
Also religious diets are not being provided to
incarcerated Muslims. We are being subjected to eat
only what the facility provides for us. According to
the Prisoner Handbook of the North Carolina Department
of Cowards, facilities should provide religious
artifacts and other Islamic materials. This is just
another classic example of the wicked oppressing the
righteous.
Respectfully yours,
-- A North Carolina Prisoner, 6 October 1998
Illinois censorship
I recently received the notification from the mailroom
here at the Illinois River Corr. Center. They informed
that they withheld two of your newspapers from me, as
it constituted "gang related correspondence". Needless
to say, I am in the process of challenging this
confiscation, as the mailroom conveniently "forgot" to
send it to the Publication Review Committee, and
instead, just chose to refuse to admit it on their own
initiative. I'll keep you informed as to the progress
of my grievance. I did receive your papers of July 1st
and 15th -- go figure.
In Solidarity,
-- A Illinois Prisoner, 5 August 1998
Indiana censorship
The prisoncrats proclaimed that last MIM Notes you all
sent me contain and promote violence. We know any
words of opposition to the oppressive state are
considered to be the promotion of violence. It is
psychological warfare striking to silence any
resistance, even if it's an idea.
More so, they're not letting me view the papers. Thus
my defense to argue particular contents is feeble!
However, send me info regarding the subjects of the
last papers you sent me. The STG [Security Threat
Group] Coordinator, Sargent Black, here confiscated
the newspapers. Are y'all getting my complaints about
the prisoncrats confiscating these latest MIM Notes?
-- An Indiana Prisoner, 6 September 1998
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