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 183 April 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. SMASH IMPERIALIST EXPLOITATION:
STUDENTS INCREASE OPPOSITION TO SWEAT SHOPS
2. U.$. WIDENS ARMED ATTACKS ON IRAQ
3. LETTERS
4. BEIJING UPDATE: IMPERIALIST RIVALRY AND UNITY
5. GHETTO LIBERATION POLITICAL PARTY GREETINGS TO MIM CONGRESS
6. 80TH ANNIVERSARY OF COMINTERN
7. FIGHT CENSORSHIP OF THE PEOPLE'S PRESS AND HISTORY
8. CENSORSHIP IMMEDIATE TASKS:
9. MAN ATTACKED FOR DISPLAYING POSTER OF HO CHI MINH
10. MIM LEGAL NOTES: MICHIGAN CENSORS SPANISH
11. NEW PEOPLE'S ARMY CAPTURES PHILIPPINE ARMY GENERAL
12. REVIEW OF MIM IN 1998 ON THE GLOBAL SITUATION
13. U.$. IMPERIALISTS PAVED PATH TO OCALAN ARREST:
AMERIKA IS THE REAL TERRORIST
14. COMRADES SIGNAL SUPPORT FOR COMRADE GONZALO
15. ARMED ACTIONS CONTINUE IN PERU
16. KHMER ROUGE REPORTED SPLINTERING
17. AMERIKAN HYPOCRISY DEMOCRACY EXPOSED
IN RATES OF BLACKS DENIED VOTE
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
* * *
SMASH IMPERIALIST EXPLOITATION:
STUDENTS INCREASE OPPOSITION TO SWEAT SHOPS
Across the country on college campuses students have been fighting
the involvement of their universities in sweat shop production of
university products. Like the divestment struggles around South
African investment in the 1980s, students are demanding that their
universities divest from sweat shops and adopt a national code of
conduct prohibiting the use of sweat shop labor in the manufacture
of collegiate apparel.
The College Licensing Company (CLC), an industry group that
represents universities in relations with the apparel industry,
has drafted an anti-sweatshop code representing 160 colleges and
universities. The CLC has requested feedback on the code from the
schools it represents. The CLC Code includes requirements of no
forced labor, no child labor under age 14, the right of workers in
the factory to organize, no abuse or harassment, payment of at
least minimum wage, and a maximum work week of 60 hours.
At many colleges students have staged demonstrations and even
taken over administration buildings to push the school to adopt a
code of conduct. In February, at Duke University 21 students
staged a sit in at the PresidentÕs office which lasted 27 hours.
Shortly after the Duke sit-in, students at Georgetown held a
similar protest which lasted for 85 hours and at the University of
Wisconsin, students occupied the ChancellorÕs office for 95 hours.
At some schools where the CLC code has been adopted students
continue to protest, demanding even stricter regulations, hoping
to force their schools to push for a more stringent CLC Code or to
get their schools to adopt additional provisions on top of the CLC
Code. At Boston University, students are demanding a living wage
guarantee (rather than minimum wage), a maximum work week of 48
hours, 6 months maternity leave, infant day care, and
environmental policies in addition to the CLC Code which the
school has already adopted.
Boston University students held a rally in mid February demanding
that the administration have a dialogue with students to discuss
these demands. A week later there was a meeting between
administrators and student leaders accompanied by a rally of
support outside. The meeting ended after administrators told the
representatives that they were not negotiating, merely discussing
and they refused to entertain further proposals to change the
code. It appears that BU was willing to jump on the bandwagon of
the CLC code, but not willing to budge any further and potentially
threaten their profits.
RAIL was at this rally calling for the acceptance of the proposed
code as well as increased student power on campus. Many students
at the rally attacked global capitalism and the ruthlessness of
the u$ as the reason why sweat shops exist. However, no one that
RAIL spoke with had plans to demand an end to this system nor to
create a world where people world-wide receive the same economic
benefits. While RAIL supports the fight for a stricter code, we do
so in the context that the fight continues until our final goal of
equality is obtained.
One key demand added by BU students, as well as those at other
schools, is student involvement in implementation and monitoring
of the code. The CLC code does not include any such involvement
and enforcement is mainly through self-monitoring. Schools clearly
have no economic interest in paying more for the products they buy
so it is the student pressure that is forcing them to adopt these
codes. Without oversight and monitoring, the administrations will
be able to avoid enforcement of the policies.
Another key demand is full disclosure of the factories that are a
part of the manufacturing process. Clothing manufacturers often
subcontract work to smaller factories which means that some of the
production is taking place in sweatshops which are even harder to
trace to the product. Most of the anti-sweatshop activist groups
are demanding that the Code of Conduct require companies that
procure college apparel to disclose the names and locations of all
factories they buy from. This provision will make it very hard for
manufacturing to take place since the Third World, where most of
the clothing production takes place, is filled with sweatshops. It
is the norm, rather than the exception, that factories pay wages
that barely allow workers to survive, require long work days,
offer dangerous and unsanitary work conditions, employ child
labor, and enjoy the cooperation of the government and the
military in crushing any union organizing.
The movement against sweat shop production of college clothing is
progressive and represents a huge step forward in internationalist
and anti-imperialist thinking over struggles that focus on workers
within u.s. borders. The demand that universities stop funding
sweatshops makes a personal impact on students who can make the
connection between their school and the exploitation and
oppression of workers around the world. And the struggle over
provisions that will make it difficult for the CLC to continue
manufacturing and profiting from clothing production helps expose
the true nature of capitalist exploitation.
One important perspective that revolutionaries can offer to the
anti-sweatshop movement is an understanding that this is not a
problem of just a few bad factories. In fact, it is a system of
exploitation and oppression that can not be legislated away under
capitalism because it is the very system that finances capitalism.
While improving working conditions in sweatshops is a progressive
goal, conceding that its ok to exploit the workers so long as they
are not exploited too much is not going far enough.
Communists also need to make clear to the anti-sweatshop movement
that just "buying American" is not a progressive goal. Factories
in the u.s., which generally assemble parts into a finished
products using raw materials and parts manufactured in the Third
World, are able to pay workers well and offer decent working
conditions and good benefits because of the exploitation of
workers in the Third World. The majority of unions and workers in
the united snakes are white workers and do not work in the sweat
shops in Amerika. Sweatshops in Amerika typically employ
immigrants, oppressed nation wimmin and children. Patriotic
Amerikan unions historically and currently do not work in the
interests of the majority of the worldÕs people or in the
interests of workers in AmerikaÕs hidden sweatshops.
It should be telling to activists that the demands incorporated in
the CLC Code, and even the additional demands of many student
groups, do not come close to raising the working conditions or
wages to the average level in the u.s. U.$. factories make their
profits by stealing resources and exploiting the labor in the
Third World: some of these profits are redistributed to workers
within u.s. borders in order to keep them loyal to imperialism.
Because of this, the disclosure provision that students are
demanding is crucial.
Under capitalism it is important to fight winnable battles to
improve conditions for the oppressed and exploited within the
context of the anti-imperialist struggle. The current student
movement against sweatshops is a good example of this. However it
is important for the movement to build an internationalist
strategy to fight for true human rights. The interests of the
world's oppressed people goes much farther than a few reforms in
the imperialist system.
Note: The Student Underground (a Boston University student
newspaper), 22 February1999. Issue 15.
* * *
U.$. WIDENS ARMED ATTACKS ON IRAQ
Over one hundred bombing attacks have been made on Iraq since the
U.$. bombing campaign briefly ceased on December 19. Although
relegated to the back pages, if at all mentioned in the
imperialist press, these attacks are increasing in magnitude.
On March 1, the most extensive attacks were the dropping of "more
than 30 2,000-pound and 500-pound" bombs. The source here is the
U.$.-European command at U.$. bases in Turkey.(1) There have been
repeated reports from Iraq of other bombings that the U.$. does
not comment on. For all of these reasons, the real number of bombs
is unknown but clearly growing.
An attack on February 28 apparently damaged an oil pumping station
in Iraq, ceasing the flow of oil through a pipeline to Turkey.
This is a part of the oil Iraq is allowed by the U.N. to sell for
purchase of food and medicine.(1)
Recently, the U.$. attempted to diffuse criticism from other
imperialists, Third World masses, and Amerikan progressives by
offering to remove all restrictions on the amount of oil that Iraq
can sell for food and medicine purchases. This is an inadequate
response from the perspective of both self-determination as well
as from the liberal perspective of stopping the unnecessary deaths
of Iraqis.
Some detail on the pre-1991 Iraqi economy and the full effects of
sanctions is necessary to expose the Amerikan propaganda for what
it is: a tricky lie determined to divert attention from the scope
of the sanctions on Iraq.
The mortality rate for Iraqi children under the age of five is now
more than six times what it was in 1989, all as a result of the
Gulf War and subsequent embargo. Child mortality was close to 600
in 1989 and had multiplied to more than 4,400 in 1995. 750,000
Iraqi children died as a result of the embargo alone by the end of
1996.(4)
United Nations Resolution 986 allows Iraq to sell $2.14billion
worth of oil every six months. Part of this amount goes as
reparations to Kuwait and to the U.N. for overseeing the oil-for-
food deal, leaving 25 cents per day per Iraqi to buy essential
food and medicine. The U.N. is currently proposing increasing the
amount allowed to $5.26billion per six months.(2)
"However, Iraq says it cannot pump more than $4 billion worth of
oil because of the deterioration of oil field equipment under
sanctions."(2) It is surprising that Iraq can pump that much after
so many years of imperialist war against Iraq. One video made
shortly after the 1991 Gulf War shown by MIM and RAIL is called
"Criminal Murder in the Gulf" which focuses on the damage caused
to Iraqi infrastructure, especially sanitation and electrical
generation in the 1991 air campaign. This infrastructure relies on
imported pumps and generators that are not able to be manufactured
in Iraq. Either destroyed in the bombing campaigns or worn out
through regular use, they can not be replaced.
A team of U.N. experts agreed with the Iraqi statement: "the
deplorable state of Iraq's petroleum industry will prevent it from
exporting the $5.26 billion worth of oil."(3)
In a sense, this issue is distracting from the real question of
the illegitimate and oppressive U.$. intervention. But liberals
who insist on piece-meal solutions must address the inadequacy of
that solution by confronting the extent of the damage caused to
Iraq's economy. Meeting Iraq's medicine needs aren't enough.
Dr. Habib Rejeb, head of the World Health Organization told Voices
in the Wilderness in February 1998 that the U.N. increase in the
oil-for-food program would meet Iraqi medicine needs "but you
would be providing this in vacuum because you don't have the
equipment. If you buy laboratory materials and you don't have the
equipment it's useless.... You give antibiotics but because of the
poor hygiene in hospitals it's unlikely that you can prevent
cross-infections. If you don't provide proper food in hospitals
then you can't enhance recovery. You can't really work without
electricity, you can't really work without water, and you can't
work safely while stepping on sewage which comes out often. To
improve the health situation you don't only need drugs because
that is the tip of the iceberg.... If you want to provide proper
care to the population then you have to rehabilitate the
infrastructure."(3)
The U.N. offer to increase the oil-for-food limit, or the U.$.
proposal to eliminate it entirely are all unacceptable to those
fighting for genuine justice. Without being able to invest in and
redevelop its oil infrastructure, Iraq won't be able to meet it's
medicine needs. And without being allowed to invest in other
social infrastructure such as hospitals and sanitation, all the
medicine in the world will prove inadequate at addressing Iraqi's
health care problems.
Iraq should be treated as a sovereign nation, not as enemy to be
annihilated from the face of the earth. But for Amerika, there is
no profit in that.
Notes:
1. Boston Globe 2 March 1999, p. A12.
2. Voices in the Wilderness, Sanctions Page. Myth 6 and 7.
http://www.nonviolence.org/vitw/sanctions.html March 2, 1999.
3. Voices in the Wilderness, Sanctions Page. Myth 6.
http://www.nonviolence.org/vitw/sanctions.html March 2, 1999. VITW
cites the Associated Press April 16 1998.
4. "Embargo Factsheet," http://www.Al-Bushra.org/temp/embargo.htm.
(December 1997).
* * *
LETTERS
RESPONSE TO KWAME TOURE OBIT
Dear MIM: It is well known that Bro. Stokely had a "thing" for
light-skinned black women. I know of at least one, because he
propositioned me when I attended one of his lectures at the W. E.
B DuBois House, University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia) in the
late 1970s. I was married to a very dark-skinned law student who
was the resident advisor at the time. Stokely knew this. I have
been unable to respect him since.
In fact, I became disillusioned with the entire Black Nationalist
movement during that era because of the appalling sexual politics
that were a rampant cancer at the several campuses at which I
resided during the seventies: it went on among and between
students, visiting activist lecturers, and faculty/researchers. I
know I am not the only sister who came to realize all politics is
personal. Frankly, I would not trust my welfare or the welfare of
my children to the personal care and nation-building of the men of
that era who held themselves out as great "leaders" and whose
charisma took them to dizzying heights before the movement
corrupted and fizzled out.
Give me Black leaders with true Christian moral character or let
me continue to survive under the likes of Bill Clinton. I refuse
to endorse a husband or a cultural movement that embraces anything
less than high-minded moral virtue.
MIM responds: It's true that many revolutionary leaders of the
60s and 70s had a personal practice that reflected a bad line on
gender politics. In fact, the same can be said of many activists
today. But these individual failings do no negate the important
contributions of Kwame Toure or other revolutionaries.
The Black nationalist movement would have been more successful if
it had an overall better position on gender oppression and wimmin.
But it is always true that we learn from our mistakes and
continually develop better political positions over time. It is
not fair to expect perfection from leaders or from any political
movement. It is incorrect to pretend that the world is better off
with Bill Clinton than with the Black Power movement. Kwame Toure
overall came down on the side of the people and led important
struggles. Bill Clinton comes down on the side of imperialism Ð
the system which exploits, rapes and commits genocide against the
majority of the worldÕs people.
This reader ends her letter by talking about "a cultural movement"
needing to embrace high-minded moral virtue. But in fact Kwame
Toure was leading a revolutionary nationalist movement, not a
cultural movement. Perhaps it is this incorrect characterization
of Toure as a cultural leader that has led this reader to consider
it a better option to survive under Clinton. Historical
materialists believe that changing from an oppressive imperialist
culture to a revolutionary culture for the people necessitates
liberation and the PeopleÕs struggle to seize state power through
armed struggle. The most effective means of liberating the
oppressed historically has been for the people to seize power and
forge a new society. Genuine liberation of the oppressed has never
come from revolutionaries first focusing on the transformation of
culture and personal relationships as a means to freedom.
MIM came across the following in a newsletter called 6 North which
can be found at the web site:
http://www.umr.edu/~tj6nn/6n1097.html
FREEDOM OF SPEECH
I think freedom of speech is a great thing. It is a right that
only within the last half of the century has been allowed to
bloom. This right has been spelled out in the constitution since
it's ratification in 1789, but has largely been ignored. I think a
good example of this is the communist movement in America. I can't
stand communism, but I recognize it's right to exist. The
communist movement has always been a fringe movement, with very
minor support, and extremely unpopular. Because of it's
unpopularity and it's message of violent overthrow of the
government, it has been excluded from the protection of the
constitution.
Until recently it was illegal to be a member of the communist
party, and during the McCarthy era, you didn't have to even be a
member of the party, you just had to disagree with him. Censorship
of communist publications, and blacklisting of communist
sympathizers, were common things, now things are different. It's
legal to be a communist, you probably will be discriminated by
most people, eg. employers, police, military, etc, but at least
you won't go to jail. The movement is also gaining in popularity
amongst prisoners, people who feel that they have been cheated by
"the system". In fact it's so popular that there is a newsletter
called the MIM notes.
MIM stands for Maoist Internationalist Movement, and the main
theme behind most of their articles is the brutality of the
police, and the prisoners who (they claim) are just poor victims.
With headlines like "MORAIL & masses expose murderous pig
brutality" and "Fighting Fascists the Proletarian Way", most of
the stuff they say seems rather comic, but they have the right to
say it. In fact I laughed the whole way through both of the MIM
Notes I found in St. Louis, but because their view on things is a
little askew from my own doesn't mean I don't respect their right
to have those views. The prisoners letters were especially
humorous, they all seem to feel deprived and oppressed when their
TV's are confiscated. In the past such views as are held by the
people at MIM, were considered scandalous, and anti-American, but
now they can be expressed with out much interference from the
government.
If you want to more about communism or just have a good laugh, go
to the MIM website at www.etext.org. Keep in mind that they are
totally serious (this seems to make them even funnier).
MIM responds: We fight censorship daily. Blatantly we face
censorship in the prisons when we send in letters and literature
and in the streets when we distribute newspapers or publicize
events. More subtly, we face censorship of ideas and news in the
interests of the majority of the worldÕs people in the corporate
funded media which presents a very biased version of news. Because
of this we actually appreciate support like the above. It is
important that even our detractors support our right to exist and
publish our newspapers.
It is because of the censorship of proletarian ideas and news in
the mainstream media that people like the author of the above find
MIM Notes humorous. To these people it is ridiculous to support
the rights of prisoners. These are the same people who buy the
story that the war on crime is doing something good for society
and that only evil people are sent to prison. And they also
believe the media hype about prisoners living in luxury because
these are the only stories that make it into the mainstream media.
We hope that these people continue to read MIM Notes because we
expect that just as the insidious influence of mainstream
imperialist news seeps into everyone's heads and influences their
thinking, the proletarian influence of MIM Notes will seep into
its readers heads. At some point we hope that people like this
reader will realize that the conditions in the prisons described
in the pages of MIM Notes are anything but funny. And that the
U.$. imprisoning a higher percentage of Black men than were
incarcerated in Apartheid South Africa is not something to laugh
at.
In this country where wealth has bought a whole nation of
imperialist allies, the battle for public education is uphill and
very slow. But MIM Notes will continue exposing the truth about
imperialism and reporting on world events from a proletarian
perspective.
* * *
BEIJING UPDATE: IMPERIALIST RIVALRY AND UNITY
The last issue of the Chinese government's top publication--
Beijing Review--in February recognized that there was some
contention between Russia and NATO occurring over Yugoslavia, in
part because of reports that the Serbs want to join the union of
Russia and Belarus.
Also, in the last week of February, the People's Republic of China
vetoed the use of U.N. peacekeepers in Macedonia, which is nearby
Kosovo. Macedonia has just established relations with Taiwan,
which gave $1 billion in aid promises according to USA Today. It
was only China's fifth veto ever in the Security Council.
Not coincidentally, the last week of February saw Beijing laud its
ties to France in the leading official publication called "Beijing
Review." Beijing Review termed its opposition to U.$. hegemony
"multi-polarization." In short, China would like countries like
itself and France to have a say.
On December 17, 1998 China's President Jiang Zemin had joined
Yeltsin in Russia in condemning U.$. attacks on Iraq.
Beijing Review for globalization and the "third way"
Contrary to its Maoist founders, the so-called Communist Party of
China has spoken well of the "Third Way" mentioned by those
seeking to be between socialism and capitalism. Recently, the so-
called Communist Party of China said: "The Third Way has recently
become very popular in the United States and Western Europe. On
top of the tide is US President Bill Clinton and British Prime
Minister Tony Blair. The Third Way, also called the Middle Way,
refers to strategies and policies proposed by the American
Democratic Party and left-wing parties in Western Europe in
dealing with problems of globalization. Clinton, in his
straightforward way, calls it a middle way between liberal
capitalism and welfare state."(1)
Furthermore, according to the so-called Communist Party of China:
"It has helped the left-wing parties to expand their influence and
improve their administrative ability. All these are beneficial to
the spreading of the Third Way. It can be expected that the Third
Way will become more and more popular in the United States,
Western Europe and other regions as well."(1)
Beijing Review also spoke at length for "globalization" in an
unabashedly neo-colonial way. "Globalization is, first of all, an
economic process. It strengthens economic ties and interdependence
between different regions and countries while greatly stressing
the leading role of the market competitive mechanism and modern
information network. It provides greater trading and investment
opportunities, higher living standards, a more open national
economic system and a more powerful comprehensive state
capacity."(2)
MIM does not seek to rally the imperialist country people with
slogans against "globalization." One only needs to read any major
newspaper of March 2nd or March 3rd to see Patrick Buchanan
running for President in New Hampshire calling for a moratorium on
immigration and an end to export of U.$. jobs. Opposition to
"globalization" in the imperialist context primarily means
rallying the labor aristocracy to keep its share of the
superprofits from imperialist exploitation. However, what the so-
called Communist Party of China is saying is also unacceptable
neo-colonialism.
Many issues of Beijing Review would be hard to distinguish from an
openly capitalist magazine from any other Asian country. With the
change of mode of production in China, the Chinese have taken up
Western problems as well. "Psychiatrist's couch no longer shunned"
appeared in the November 30, 1998 issue. Other articles point to
mental health problems arising in China since the restoration of
capitalism in 1976.
Notes:
1. Beijing Review vol. 42, no. 4, 25Jan99.
2. Beijing Review vol. 42, no. 7, 15Feb99.
Beijing Review may be found at http://www.china.org.cn/bjreview/
* * *
GHETTO LIBERATION POLITICAL PARTY GREETINGS TO MIM CONGRESS
MIM received the following greetings just after the completion of
Session I of our 1999 Congress.
To the Central Committee of the Maoist Internationalist Movement:
The Ghetto Liberation Political Party would like to send the
warmest revolutionary greetings to the Central Committee and the
rank and file of Maoist Internationalist Movement. The Ghetto
Liberation Political Party recognizes the common principles
between both of our organizations.
Most importantly we both apply the omnipotent science of Marxism-
Leninism Maoism, the only historically proven ideology that has
enabled the oppressed masses to seize state power and build
socialism while continuing the revolution under the dictatorship
of the proletariat.
Secondly, we both correctly acknowledge the Maoist Black Panthers,
which in our Party's opinion, was the most effective, most
advanced revolutionary communist party in the history of the
United States. As well the above mentioned, both of our
organizations view the Euro-Amerikan Labor Aristocracy as a bought
off, co-opted, objectively non-revolutionary working class, who
receives their high wages from the super-exploitation of Black and
Third World oppressed communities around the world.
Building on Comrade Huey P. Newton's concept of Revolutionary
Intercommunalism as taken up and further developed by our General
Secretary, Comrade Iam: independent institutions within our
oppressed communities to initiate counter-dependency and political
mobilization, is the process that our Party, through its mass
organizations, is presently involved in under the slogan "We must
survive first, build Revolutionary Intercommunalism." How else can
the Third World-descent proletariat strategically realign the
masses of people into a position to make revolution in the USA?
Basic necessities such as food, shelter, clothing, and medical
care must be met immediately resulting in the formation of
revolutionary political power rooted in independent community
control our survival infrastructure.
The Central Committee of the Ghetto Liberation Political Party
warmly salutes in fraternal spirit the 1999 Spring Congress of the
Maoist Internationalist Movement and we look forward to comradely
unity in common struggle.
Ministry Of Information
Ghetto Liberation Political Party
* * *
80TH ANNIVERSARY OF COMINTERN
by MC5
March, 1999 marked the 80th anniversary of the foundation of the
Third International (COMINTERN). Conceived of as a global party of
parties and the central headquarters of the international
communist movement, the COMINTERN is what solidified the
distinction globally between Marxism-Leninism and social-
democracy. It was Lenin's victory in the Russian Revolution that
provided the occasion for such an organizational breakthrough on a
global scale.
World War I provided the basis for the split amongst those calling
themselves "Marxist." The COMINTERN did not accept as members
those who would trade support for imperialist war for welfare
state reforms, jobs or popularity with the bought-off workers
called "labor aristocracy" or petty-bourgeoisie. Leninism taught
that World War I was profit for the imperialists and dying for the
proletariat.
The Russian leader G. Zinoviev was the first head of the
COMINTERN. Lenin pushed Zinoviev into the job even though Zinoviev
had betrayed the revolution in October by giving away secret plans
of the party and opposing the seizure of power. Zinoviev obtained
the job, because he had excelled in opposing militarism, the labor
bureaucracy and the labor aristocracy of Europe in the midst of
World War I--jobs that went hand in hand.
Although the COMINTERN helped establish Marxism-Leninism globally,
it's focus was in Europe -- the Russians and Germans being the
largest parties--and it failed in winning the key revolutionary
struggles there in the 1920s. At the time, it seemed that several
relatively close organizations geographically located in Europe
could tip the balance of global history. Lenin spent much time in
his last years of life raising the bar so that holdovers from
Menshevism and social-democracy would not destroy the fledgling
Marxist-Leninist movement in the imperialist countries and eastern
Europe.(1)
According to Mao, the COMINTERN did furnish crucial aid to the
Chinese Communists and its overall accomplishments were great
despite some difficulties in applying Marxism-Leninism to China
through the COMINTERN. In 1943 Stalin and Mao agreed on abolishing
the COMINTERN.
In honor of the 80th anniversary of the COMINTERN's foundation,
MIM has re-typed a 40th anniversary statement by the Communist
Party of China in 1959 (no. 6) to make available to the
international communist movement today.
The Chinese comrades pointed out that "the revolutionary uprisings
of the proletariat in Germany, Hungary, Austria and Czechoslovakia
met with setbacks and defeats" in the early COMINTERN era when it
seemed the Europeans might almost turn history's wheel by
themselves. MIM would point out that no revolution succeeded in
seizing and holding power under COMINTERN leadership.
Later, with the abolition of the COMINTERN, several revolutions
broke through: "the revolutionary task in every country has since
then grown and prospered. Following the Second World War, there
appeared in the continents of Europe and Asia a group of
communist-led people's democratic nations."
Red Flag in 1959 added: "The original pattern of organization
through a union of nations was no longer able to satisfy the
constantly changing conditions resulting from the revolutionary
struggles within individual nations. This type of organizational
pattern became no longer necessary. Its historical mission had
come to an end."
* * *
FIGHT CENSORSHIP OF THE PEOPLE'S PRESS AND HISTORY
by MIM Prison Minister
Within just the past couple weeks, MIM received notices from
prison bureaucrats that 173 pieces of literature we have sent have
been censored and returned or destroyed. This does not count the
censored mail that MIM was not told about. We frequently receive
letters from prisoners indicating that mail has been censored
without notification from the prison bureaucrats to MIM and often
without notification to the prisoner.
MIM calls on comrades in United Struggle from Within, the
Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League, friendly organizations and
allied individuals to help fight the censorship of MIM Notes, MIM
Theory and the books sent to prisoners from MIM's Serve the People
Free Books for Prisoners Program. Fighting censorship is essential
to continuing the development of unity for freedom and liberation
of the oppressed.
Prisons censor the People's news and history under the guise of
making institutions safe and preventing disruptions in the prison
system. This is typical Amerikan hypocrisy when viewed in the
context of guards shooting down prisoners in California, guards
raping wimmin prisoners in Michigan, prisoners being housed in
desert tents in Arizona, and denied medical care in Indiana
prisons. Amerika's prisoners are not treated as human beings by
the prisons themselves. Prisoners are not safe from the wrath of
guards. And the oppressed in Amerika's streets are not safe from
the kops all too excited to see another Black or Latina/o locked
up.
MIM Notes and other literature MIM sends to prisoners for free
serves the purpose of educating prisoners and helping them to
struggle for basic human necessities. The claims that our
literature represents a security threat because it advocates
violence are ridiculous. MIM does not advocate the use of armed
struggle within the United Snakes at this time. What we are doing
now is building to end oppression in the long term. Our strategy
currently is protracted legal struggle, it does not involve the
use of arms against the oppressor at this stage. We also do not
advocate that prisoners retaliate against guards or other
officials because such actions normally bring further repression
against prisoners. The movement is not currently in the position
to defend prisoners (or others) who take up isolated acts of armed
aggression against oppressors.
The literature MIM sends to prisoners educates and organizes. This
is what the prison bureaucrats fear. However, education cannot
legally fall into the category of being a threat to the
institution. Through MIM Notes and other literature, prisoners are
learning politics of population control programs, nuclear weapons
proliferation, poverty throughout the Third World and the history
of military, economic and political hegemony of the U.$. Prisoners
are learning the history of movements which improved conditions of
the oppressed. Prisoners are also learning that they do not face
the future of struggle for basic necessities by themselves.
Prisoners have formed study groups to discuss material and work
together. Intellectual development is an important opportunity
denied to many prisoners by the Amerikan system. Yet brothers and
sisters working with MIM do not treat their self-education as
something that they reluctantly deal with before exams. They even
put themselves in danger to make time to study, discuss and
educate one another. But increasingly, prison officials are
creating obstacles for the men and wimmin in prison who want to
educate themselves.
Part of the protracted legal struggle waged by the oppressed and
led by MIM focuses on serving the educational needs of prisoners.
The oppressed must be aware that their conditions are part of an
overall system of imperialist domination. This is one of the
things prisoners learn from one another and through the free
revolutionary literature. Waging legal struggle also means
educating revolutionaries about the most effective means to end
inequality. MIM has increased our capacity to help prisoners
educate one another about this through increasing the publication
of MIM Notes and the distribution of free books. But the
department of incorrections has met this advance with increased
censorship to try to keep the prisoners from educating and
organizing themselves.
MIM needs prisoner paralegals and jail house lawyers to write
articles for MIM Legal Notes which will show other prisoners ways
to successfully and legally stop censorship. We need supporters on
the outside to take on small tasks such as writing prison
officials and circulating petitions against censorship. And we
need lawyers to help fight these cases and activists to take on
the larger tasks of coordinating work to help prisoners litigate
cases that cannot be won outside of court. We also need organizers
willing to fund distribution of material to prisoners which
outlines ways they can fight censorship.
* * *
CENSORSHIP IMMEDIATE TASKS:
For upcoming issues of MIM Legal Notes, we would like submissions
from prisoners explaining to other prisoners what they can do to
get MIM Notes in. This can be pointers on the legalities of
censorship, a legal argument for prisoners to use when their
material is censored or cases in the past of prisoners going
through the process of fighting and beating censorship. Please
send submissions to the address on page two.
Below is a list of facilities which censored MIM Notes on the
basis that the papers are a "threat to the security of the
facility". We ask that prisoners and supporters on the outside
write professional letters to the institutions stating that MIM
Notes is educational and informational and does not advocate
violence among prisoners or violence by the prisoners against
prison officials. Write the officials and ask that they stop
censoring the mail to prisoners in their institutions. Prisoners,
let us know if you have written letters of protest in your next
correspondence. It is also preferable that outside letter writers
send MIM a copy of the letter sent.
Mailroom c/o D. Dutcher
Carson City Regional Facility
10522 Boyer Road
Carson City, MI 48811
Mailroom Clerk B. Goetz
Chippewa Temporary Facility
4269 West M-80
Kincheloe, MI 49785
Mailroom c/o Capt. Tyler
Riverbend Maxium Security Institution
7475 Cockrill Bend Industrial Road
Nashville, TN 37243-0471
D. Rudd Ð Education Department
Riverview Correctional Facility
P.O. Box 247
Ogdensburg, NY 13669
Media Review Committee
Elmira Correctional Facility
P.O. Box 500
Elmira, NY 14902-0500
B. Rochefort
Alger Max. Correctional Facility
P.O. Box 600
Munising, MI 49862
Library Services Administrator
North Florida Reception Center
P.O. Box 628
Lake Butler, FL 32054
Mailroom
Waupun Correction Institution
P.O. Box 351
Waupun, WI 53963
Mailroom c/o K. Tucker
Muskegon Correctional Facility
2400 South Sheridan Road
Muskegon, MI 49442
* * *
MAN ATTACKED FOR DISPLAYING POSTER OF HO CHI MINH
by MIM
Since January hundreds of anti-Communist protesters have regularly
gathered outside of the video shop of Truong Van Tran in Orange
County, CA, where Tran had hung a poster of revolutionary
Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh and a flag from the Democratic
Republic of Viet Nam. On at least two occasions the protesters
assaulted Tran and sent him to the hospital.
Orange County courts originally forced Tran to remove the poster,
saying that it was a threat to public safety because of the rowdy
crowds which turned out to protest it. Later the courts changed
their minds, and said that Tran did have the right to display his
poster and flag, even if (in the courts' opinion) these were
"obviously offensive." Of course, having the right to do something
and actually being able to do it are two different things. When
Tran initially returned to replace the poster and flag, the
protesters attacked him and prevented him from doing so. He
eventually managed to put the poster and flag up again, but is now
being evicted from his storefront.
According to one local activist, hundreds of anti-Communist
protesters were allowed into the building where the hearing on
Tran's right to display the poster and flag was held. Normally
protesters are not allowed into the building.
The local bourgeois media vultures promoted the protesters'
outrageous anti-Communist slanders and re-hashed Liberal arguments
about "protected speech" vs. "hate speech." Almost all of the
protesters were Vietnamese exiles who supported the former puppet
south Vietnamese regime. The media told the simple story that
these protesters fled persecution by power-mad, evil communists,
and therefore were "obviously offended" by a poster of Ho Chi
Minh. Of course the media never mentioned the facts that the
former puppet regime lacked the support of the vast majority of
Vietnamese and depended entirely on Amerikan military and economic
support, and that many of the Vietnamese who fled at the
liberation of south Viet Nam were representatives of local
exploiting classes in cahoots with u.$. imperialists and/or on the
CIA payroll.
These incidents reveal the pro-imperialist bias in Amerikan media
and Amerikan courts. Anti-imperialists and revolutionaries cannot
count on the bourgeois media to carry their message, as it will
seek to distort their message and ridicule them. This is
especially true now, given the weakness of the anti-imperialist
movement in u.$. borders. Building independent revolutionary media
is more important at this time than trying to get on TV.
Furthermore, these incidents remind us that our struggles will
ultimately be determined on the streets. The anti-Communists are
prepared to threaten and carry out violence; we must seriously
prepare for this and deal with it by any means necessary.
Lies, lies and more lies
The media and the protesters took advantage of the fact that more
and more people within u.$. borders only know of the Viet Nam war
from what they see in Hollywood movies or hear from reactionary
pundits in order to turn facts upside down.
For example, some of the protesters carried signs blaming Ho Chi
Minh for the deaths of one million Vietnamese. This claim
outstrips even arch-liar Richard Nixon, who claimed that the
National Liberation Front (the revolutionaries fighting in south
Vietnam) killed 37,000 civilians between 1957 and 1973. Meanwhile
the u.$. Army itself claims that it killed over one million
Vietnamese directly in combat. From 1969 to 1972, alone, when
Nixon was allegedly "working towards peace," over 600,000
civilians were killed by the u.$. and puppet south Vietnamese
troops.(1)
Attacks on the civilian population were key to the u.$. strategy
in Viet Nam. Both sides recognized, in the words of Robert
McNamara, u.$. military advisor, that "the population is totally
hostile to the GVN [the puppet government of south Vietnam] and is
probably in complete sympathy with the NLF movement For the Viet
Cong [Amerikan slur for the NLF - ed.] there isn't any
distinction; the Viet Cong are the people."(2) Consequently, the
u.$. viewed the civilian population as a threat and a legitimate
military target, while the NLF and north Vietnamese cherished
their close ties to the people and sought to defend them.
Other protesters held Ho Chi Minh accountable for the Vietnamese
maimed by napalm during the Viet Nam war. Pretty silly,
considering it was the u.$. which used napalm - NLF guerrillas did
not have access to fighter-bomber jets. The u.$., on the other
hand, dropped bombs on Viet Nam totaling twice the explosive power
of all the bombs dropped in World War II.(5) For example, during
the six-week bombing of Khe San in early 1968 u.$. planes dropped
100,000 tons of bombs (that's five times the equivalent of the
Hiroshima atomic bomb) and fired more than 700,000 rounds of
machine gun fire into a circular area about five miles in
diameter. According to a u.$. Air Force colonel: "In Mid February
the area looked like the rest of Vietnam, mountainous and heavily
jungled with very little visible through the canopy. Five weeks
later, the jungle had become literally a desert - vast stretches
of scarred, bare earth, with hardly a tree standing."(3) The
economic devastation, including famine due to the destruction of
agriculture, is incalculable.
The Vietnamese people suffered greatly under French and then u.$.
imperialism. They made great, heroic sacrifices to win their
liberation, sacrifices which to this day are a shining example for
anti-imperialists in the oppressed and oppressor nations.
The tragedy of Viet Nam is not the sacrifices its people made to
win independence, rather the fact that independence has proven
illusory. U.$. imperialism is once again making inroads into Viet
Nam and increasing the exploitation of its people. This happened
because leaders in the Vietnamese Communist Party failed to
recognize the fact that class struggle continues under socialism,
that a new bourgeoisie can arise in the Communist Party itself,
that the Soviet Union was no longer socialist, rather it was
social-imperialist. The restoration of capitalism in Viet Nam and
the ascendancy of bourgeois leadership made concessions to foreign
imperialists inevitable.(4)
Protracted people's war for liberation is still the best path
forward for oppressed nations - but it must be coupled with the
realization that class struggle continues after liberation and the
construction of socialism. The masses must be mobilized to combat
those in authority taking the capitalist road - this tenet of the
Cultural Revolution is one of Mao Zedong's important legacies to
the international communist movement.
Notes:
1. Marilyn Young, "The Vietnam Wars," p. 280.
2. Neil Sheehan, "A Bright Shining Lie," p. 688.
3. Barry Weissberg, ed., "Ecocide in Indochina," p. 7.
4. See e.g. "In support of self-determination and New Democracy,"
in MIM Theory 7.
5. "Remember the Vietnam War," MIM Notes 41.
This article was written on 22 February 1999.
* * *
MIM LEGAL NOTES: MICHIGAN CENSORS SPANISH
The Michigan Department of Corrections(MDOC) has been one of the
states most fiercely censoring the news and history of the People.
MIM has sent things such as "Settlers: The Mythology of the White
Proletariat" to prisoners at the Marquette Branch Prison which
were censored because it is a history book telling the truth of
Amerikan genocide against indigenous and African peoples. Copies
of "Palante: The History of the Young Lords Party" have been
censored and classified as material pertaining to gangs. Note that
Palante is read at the University of Michigan for classes and
details the historical development of a political organization,
not a 'gang'.
But most disturbing is the more recent and systematic censorship
of mail or books written in Spanish. This categorically is a way
to censor MIM Notes because there is always one page of Spanish in
the paper. It is also a way to censor Spanish-English dictionaries
and text books. This means prisoners who speak Spanish as a first
language have little or no means of getting their stories heard or
communicating with the outside world.
The mail of prisoners working with Hispanic Americans Striving
Towards Advancement (HASTA) has been censored repeatedly and MIM
received the following information from HASTA (edited by MIM):
In defending against the Notice of Package/Mail Rejection when a
letter is written in a foreign language, the following is to be
utilized as your foundation.
Under MCL 800.43(1) "The department may prohibit from receiving or
possessing any material that the department determines under this
section is detrimental to the security, good order, or discipline
of the institution, or that may facilitate or encourage criminal
activity, or that may interfere with the rehabilitation of any
prisoner. The department shall not prohibit a prisoner from
receiving or possessing any material solely because the content of
that material is religious, philosophical, political, social, or
sexual, or because it is unpopular or repugnant. Material that may
be prohibited under this section includes, but is not limited to
any of the following:"
"(d) Material that is written in code."
In response to this legislative authority, the department amended
the Prisoner Mail Policy PD-05.03.0118 by adding the following
language:
DD. "Prisoners are prohibited from receiving mail that is a threat
to the security, good order, or discipline of the facility, that
may facilitate or encourage criminal activity, or that may
interfere with the rehabilitation of the prisoner. The following
pose such risks within a correctional facility under all
circumstances and therefore shall be rejected:
15. "Mail written in a foreign language that cannot be interpreted
by staff, thus preventing an effective search of the mail. Mail
written in a foreign language shall not be rejected for this
reason if staff capable of interpreting the mail are readily
available."
Essentially, the department included letters written in a foreign
language in the category of letters written in code. This means
letters will be rejected where no interpreter is readily
available; this goes beyond the scope of the statutory authority
of MCL 800.43(1). Prohibited material must be predicated upon the
following:
1. that the material is detrimental to the security, good order,
and discipline of the institution; 2. that may facilitate or
encourage criminal activity; or 3. that may interfere with the
rehabilitation of any prisoner.
Due process, in accordance with Wolf v McDonnell, 418 US 539,94
S.Ct. 2963, 41 L.Ed.2d 935 (1974), mandates that a prisoner be
given the opportunity to challenge the evidence against him. In
the instant case, the evidence is a letter written in a foreign
language that is being denied solely upon the basis that there are
no staff readily available to interpret the letters, and not
because the contents pose a risk as contemplated by the statute.
Therefore, a prisoner is entitled to have the contents read at a
hearing so that the hearings officer can make a determination
whether the letter is detrimental to the security, good order, and
discipline of the institution, or that may facilitation or
encourage criminal activity; or that may interfere with the
rehabilitation of any prisoner. If the hearings officer cannot
establish this, then the prisoner is entitled to the letter. É
* * *
NEW PEOPLE'S ARMY CAPTURES PHILIPPINE ARMY GENERAL
February 18, 1999 Balitang ng Malayang Pilipinas
Reprinted by MIM
The captive is Brig. Gen. Victor Obillo, 53, commanding general of
the 53rd Engineering Brigade (PA). He was conducting
counterrevolutionary activities within the territory of the
National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) in sitio
Tabak, barangay Carmen, in Baguio district of Davao City in
Mindanao, at 2:15 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 17, 1999. Captured with
Ovillo was PA Capt. Eduardo Montealto, 37. Confiscated from them
were a .45-caliber pistol and two cellular phones.
Upon receiving a brief summary report on the capture of the two
officers of the government's Armed Forces of the Philippines
(AFP), Comrade Luis Jalandoni, chairman of the NDFP negotiating
panel, announced in Utrecht, the Netherlands, that the two
officers would undergo investigation "in accordance with the
judicial and legal system of the revolutionary government".
The report had been made by Comrade Parago Sandoval of the NPA's
Medardo Arce Command in Mindanao.
Jalandoni said the command "assures the public and the immediate
relatives that the two prisoners of war shall be accorded all the
respect and protection mandated by the Guide for Establishing the
People's Democratic Government, the Rules of the New People's Army
(Three Main Rules of Discipline and Eight Points of Attention),
the GRP-NDFP Comprehensive Agreement on the Respect of Human
Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) and the
Geneva Conventions and Protocol I.
The NDFP chief negotiator added:
"There are two negotiating possibilities facing the two prisoners
of war. First, they can be tried and, if found guilty according to
due process, punished as war criminals. Second, their release can
be negotiated in connection with an exchange of prisoners of war.
"The NDFP negotiating panel is authorized by the revolutionary
forces to receive any appropriate approach from the Philippine
reactionary government."
In his communication to Jalandoni, Comrade Sandoval said Obillo
and Montealto "were conducting counterrevolutionary activities
through 'counter-insurgency' operations". Sandoval identified
Obillo's serial number as 0-5169, and Montelato's serial number as
0-125044.
Obillo is the highest-ranking military officer to have fallen into
the NPA's hands. Over the years since its founding on March 29,
1969, the people's army has received the defection of lower-ranked
AFP officers and even whole units of the such paramilitary forces
as the Barrio Self-Defense Unit (BSDU), the Civilian Home Defense
Unit (CHDF), which have become defunct, and their present
counterpart, the Civilian Armed Forces Geographical Unit (CAFGU).
Among the more recent captives of the NPA was the police chief of
Rodriguez town (formerly Montalban) in Rizal province, not far
from the Philippine capital Manila. He was Police Chief Inspector
Rene Francisco, who held the rank of major. Captured with him was
M/Sgt. Joaquin Melad of the 2nd Infantry Division (PA). The two of
them were later released upon the government's representation
through its negotiating panel under former Ambassador Hward Dee.
Francisco and Melad were captured on Oct. 30, 1977, during a raid
by a contingent of NPA guerrillas on the Philippine National
Police (PNP) headquarters in Montalban's municipal hall. Through a
ruse, the Red fighters were able to enter the municipal hall and
confiscated six M-16 rifles, four shotguns, and 23 short firearms,
including .38-caliber, .45-caliber and 9-mm revolvers and pistols.
Also confiscated were 3,000 rounds of M-16 ammunitions and other
military equipment, and important PNP documents. Another
policeman, SPO Guillermo Espiritu, was shot dead by the guerrillas
when he tried to fight despite warnings. The raiders were elements
of the NPA's Melito Glor Command in Southern Tagalog.
During the negotiations between the NDFP and the GRP (Government
of the Republic of the Philippines), the two panels approved the
Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) to
ensure the security of personnel on both sides who are needed
either as negotiators or consultants, advisers, staff, and others
needed by the negotiating panels.
The NDFP has a list of such personnel under lock and key. The GRP,
however, refused to avail itself of this privilege. The GRP's
Howard Dee did not avail of the guarantees either for himself or
for other GRP personnel. Thus neither Brig. Gen. Ovillo (or
Obillo) nor Capt. Montealto had any JASIG identification papers in
his possession when they were captured by NPA guerrillas in
Mindanao on Feb. 17.
Source: http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/2078/index.htm
MIM adds: The u.$.-puppet GRP has refused to negotiate with the
NDFP for the release of Gen. Obillo. The GRP stubbornly denies the
truth and insists that Obillo was a "non-combatant." According to
Luis Jalandoni,
"Gen. Obillo is the commander of the Philippine Army's 55th
Engineering Brigade. This brigade is an integral part of the war
machinery of the AFP. It sets up the physical infrastructure for
the military offensives of the AFP, destroys communities with
bulldozers and explosives, and conducts psychological warfare and
intelligence operations.
"Gen. Obillo's record demonstrates his role in the AFP machinery:
He was a recipient of a Mindanao Anti-Dissident Campaign Medal and
Ribbon, besides having been an assistant of the Office of the AFP
Deputy Chief of Staff for operations (J-3). He also collaborated
with General Ramos in using 'peace and order' councils for psywar
and intelligence purposes."
The NPA is waging Protracted People's War for the liberation of
the people of the Philippines from feudalism, imperialism, and a
corrupt puppet government. It is led by the Maoist Communist Party
of the Philippines.
* * *
REVIEW OF MIM IN 1998 ON THE GLOBAL SITUATION
[This is not a review of the entire global year of 1998, just
MIM's part of it.]
International situation
The end of 1998 marked a great victory for the international
communist movement as six Maoist parties practicing People's War
signed a document upholding Mao's People's War and started the
process of exchanging experiences on a formal basis.
Prior to the 1999 Congress, MIM also received its first fully
fraternal greetings from any organization in our history. The
Russian comrades belonging to youth groups (Revolutionary Young
Communist League (RYCL(b)) and the Obninsk branch of the All-Union
Leninist Communist Union of Youth (VLKSM) sent in their fraternal
greetings, thus breaking MIM's international isolation.
At the same time, in the past year, MIM consciously scaled back
its international work for reasons outlined in the section labeled
"the subjective factors."
The United Front
MIM took some baby steps in setting up the proletarian-led united
front in the past year. We still seek input from comrades
throughout the world on how to do this.
We sought to forge a student-lumpen alliance by seeking to rally
public university students against higher tuition bills caused by
the prison craze of the United $tates. This was most notable in
MIM's willingness to support an economic demand of the imperialist
country petty-bourgeoisie in the context of a direct fight against
the state.
MIM has also started to phrase environmental demands in the
interests of the proletariat in language pleasing to the petty-
bourgeoisie. MIM has determined that the environmental movement is
something that the imperialists cannot successfully divert through
a redivision of surplus-value. By its nature, the environment
cannot be individualized and hence the environmental movement is a
natural to overcome Anglo-Saxon individualism so deeply rooted in
the imperialist bourgeoisie and petty-bourgeoisie including the
labor aristocracy.
First and foremost of classes within U.S. borders responding to
the MIM line is the lumpenproletariat. Organizations within the
prison arose to fill in the need for a united front in addition to
MIM's existing RAIL organization which continued to enjoy success
across the continent. In the prison, MIM attracted many conscious
Muslims willing to join a united front led by MIM both as
individuals and organizations.
MIM has also struggled to form a united front with the Almight
Latin Kings Queens Nation, which is probably the most important
and advanced organization of Latino youth inside U.$. borders. Of
course, the lumpenproletariat must seek to undergo proletarian
ideological remolding to really focus its rebellion, but MIM is
not put off from this work the way other parties are because of
the millions of threads connecting them to the labor aristocracy
and thus imperialism.
Also notable within united front work, MIM had to lay down the
line against anti-Semitism during the year both within U.S.
borders and internationally. Opposing the oppressor white nation
and its parasitism is good. Opposing only the Jewish section of it
is falling for a Nazi diversion to bail out imperialist parasites-
-the oppressor nation.
MIM's work suffered setbacks in the First Nations, but on the
whole many baby steps were made on the united front. United front
work could have developed further except for a shortage of Maoist
comrades.
The international united front versus the North Amerikan
one
MIM continued to face pressure from organizations across the world
to drop its third cardinal principle on the fact that the working
class of the imperialist countries has been converted en masse
into a petty- bourgeoisie. Of course, that is impossible by MIM's
Constitution and the nature of cardinal questions versus other
questions.
No international forum of the past year put forward a sense of the
international united front. In the past, the Seventh Congress of
the COMINTERN was known for being a Congress indicating how the
parties of the whole world should work together in one strategic
plan.
MIM does not have a specific strategic plan for the international
united front and would not attempt to form one beyond what is
implicit in allying oppressed nations against imperialism. That is
in accordance with Mao's views. An initiative for a specific
strategy of resolving the principal contradiction would have to
come from the parties in the Third World practicing People's War,
not MIM. As MIM has outlined in previous Congress resolutions, we
oppose the reformation of a COMINTERN.
The nature of communist advance is that it is best to take one
approach and succeed or fail. At this time, MIM is accelerating
its efforts to clarify the position of the international communist
movement with regard to MIM's third cardinal. This has become
necessary because of advances in the international communist
movement. It is better to oppose liquidationism in the imperialist
countries than to fail to resolve the third cardinal question for
or against MIM. If the international communist movement unites
without MIM that fact should be on the historical record so that
it can be learned from.
It is possible to make nationalist errors by putting too much
emphasis on the needs of revolution in one place versus the needs
of revolution in another place. MIM is in danger of making a
nationalist or "American exceptionalist" error by ignoring the
demands of the many organizations internationally opposing our
third cardinal with the exception of the Russian comrades.
Yet from examining MIM's current social base and the history of
the Black Panthers, Young Lords, I-Wor- Kuen, Red Guard Party
etc., MIM has added reason to stand by its scientific analysis of
the international flow of surplus-value in the form of
superprofits. With the exception of our Russian comrades belonging
to a semi-imperialist country, there is no party in the
imperialist countries taking up Maoism and MIM's third cardinal.
The best amongst our critics are vague vacillators who mention the
existence of the labor aristocracy and superprofits but have
failed to calculate both their quantitative and qualitative
extent. The others find even a mention of a labor aristocracy and
superprofits as too extreme. The oppressed nations within U.$.
borders and internationally are correct not to trust parties
unwilling to get into this question inside-out, upside-down,
backwards and to the very bottom.
Most of the international pressure on MIM comes from imperialist
countries and it cannot be said that the Third World parties face
MIM's quandary in quite the same way. Hence, MIM does not believe
the risk of nationalist error by MIM is high. Bringing down U.$.
imperialism is very important, and not a matter of nationalist
pride. Hence, we will favor building our own united front at the
expense of uniting with revisionists internationally.
The PTB (led by Ludo Martens in Belgium) aided the Unity &
Struggle organization formed in New Jersey opposing the MIM line
and already it has collapsed in its short existence. It seems that
the European-minded comrades do not absorb the fundamental lessons
of the Black Panthers and put pressure on MIM without regard to
historical facts. We call on the imperialist country organizations
to mend their ways and show the Almight Latin Kings Queens Nation,
the Mohawk Nation and the Five Percenters that MIM is not leading
them into a chauvinist swamp dominated by oppressor nation worker
concerns.
Avoiding the Progressive Labor Party error
Staking out MIM's position in relative isolation in the
imperialist countries risks putting MIM on the road to oblivion of
the Progressive Labor Party--our forebears in the 1960s. Whatever
happens in the international communist movement, MIM resolves to
avoid the PLP error. We will never go to the extent of criticizing
actual People's Wars the way the PLP did unless better People's
Wars arise.
The possibility of an alliance of the national bourgeoisie and the
labor aristocracy on an international scale to redivide surplus-
value with the imperialists might tempt MIM into complete idealist
isolation of the PLP sort. That is to say our third cardinal might
tempt us to form another version of PLP, which sees one world and
one party. Although our reasons would be different than PLP's we
could conceivably put more of an emphasis on attacking the
national bourgeoisie the way the PLP has, if we saw a significant
danger of the national bourgeoisie taking over the international
communist movement in an alliance with the labor aristocracy.
What will save MIM from PLP's fate is MIM's basic training in
materialism. Unless People's Wars arise that are led by parties
agreeing with MIM's third cardinal, there is no reason not to give
fraternal support to the Third World People's Wars that arise that
do not agree with MIM's third cardinal.
Today PLP is in the position of criticizing Mao as a capitalist,
but PLP leads armed struggle no where in the world. It views the
parties upholding the "Gang of Four" as "centrist." Hence, the PLP
attitude toward the six parties that just signed a communique on
People's War is negative.
Most ultraleftists in the imperialist countries are 5 percent
tough conscious ultraleft rhetoric covering up 95 percent dogshit
right reformism. The PLP might be 30 percent tough "Marxist-
Leninist" ultraleft rhetoric, but it is still 60 percent parasitic
reformism and 10 percent sub-reformist lifestyle politics. Its
willful placing of itself outside of armed struggle or concrete
support for it should be a dead giveaway as to its bourgeois
nature-- if the fact that anarchists in Montreal were publishing
their essays and those of Trotskyists on China was not the clue.
MIM will not go down this PLP road and MIM calls on the
proletarian scientific element in PLP to make a break for MIM. We
are correct about surplus-value and superprofits. PLP made errors
in the 1960s and 1970s, but not for the reasons PLP thought. By
failing to even rebut MIM on international surplus- value flows
and calculations, PLP is on the pragmatist road. It may have
started its isolation from Mao's international communist movement
for subjective reasons that seemed like the defense of
revolutionary science, but by now PLP is surrendering even its
scientific cudgels by refusing to polemicize with MIM or at least
calculate international transfers of surplus-value and the extent
of the labor aristocracy for itself.
The subjective factors
MIM suffered some serious setbacks in the past year, mostly in
connection to the subjective factors needed for revolution.
Political degeneration resulted in the loss of veteran comrades.
Kim in Korea has also spoken on the lack of the subjective
element, but MIM believes the problem to be more narrowly focused.
Some people might think the arduous tone of struggle in MIM
stifles the subjective element needed for revolution. However, MIM
has rejected this line of thinking, because keeping imperialist
country parties on the Maoist road is a jarring task. There is no
getting around that the vanguard party must be the one place where
science is valued more highly than ego or "self-esteem."
Political degeneration is common in the imperialist countries and
may not seem noteworthy, but in the past year it hit especially
hard. We can only remind ourselves of many of Lenin's statements
in the early 1900s about petty-bourgeois influences and
intellectual vacillation causing wreckage and waste. The state
smashed Lenin's party a couple times, but it came back.
The subjective factor hurt our work in the Spanish language and
international relations. Shortages of seasoned comrades also
screamed out in PIRAO and Maoist Sojourner work.
The economic boom and unparalleled U.$. imperialist supremacy may
actually be increasing degeneration pressures on our comrades.
Imprisonment of the most oppressed people also continues to
increase, further undermining our work in some ways, while
generating an increase in resistance and consciousness at the same
time. At the same time, we believe that two other factors
underlying the subjective factor must be examined as more specific
and central.
One is that MIM arose without the kind of cultural fermentation
typical before successful parties arise. It remains true that
MIM's overall cultural work lags. MIM has identified the
scientific nature of the problem compounded by the enemy's
chokehold on pseudo-feminism and pseudo-environmentalism--the
general approach that says all problems can be resolved by a
change of lifestyles. Identifying the problem and finding cultural
workers to undo it are not the same thing.
Secondly, the collapse of Maoist Sojourner points to MIM's
failures in organizing sojourners. Because of the historical
chokehold of revisionism in imperialist countries, temporary
immigrants or permanent first generation and even second
generation immigrants do not give themselves much of a role in
bringing down U.$. imperialism within U.S. borders. MIM's theory
points to the essential role of having a sojourner backbone in the
party that has the subjective umph to direct and carry out
revolution.
The historical fact that the punk rock and rap music movements are
the best elements of cultural fermentation we have in North
Amerika is something we probably cannot fix through our own
efforts. However, MIM has identified advanced elements in the
sojourner community. Let history note that MIM has put the
question of anti-party liquidationism to these elements and has
offered to create leadership roles for the sojourners as MIM has
done before for teenagers and wimmin. There is no reason that the
core leadership of MIM could not be sojourners. While the Third
World may be able to put off the question of imperialist country
class structure for a strategic length of time, sojourners must
not.
As time passes, comrades become more efficient in their work. This
has shown in all areas of work-- finance, the web, journalism,
tabloid production and distribution. Even a party of just one
comrade can get a lot done in North Amerika. We will prefer that
outcome to getting in the way of the struggle of the international
proletariat, the way many degenerates and revisionists of U.$.
history have.
We expect 1999 to be a year of some continuities but also a year
of decisions by our fraternal comrades, some new and some old.
This document is to mark for historical purposes the international
context MIM is in and the difficulties it faces as well as
summarize some of its areas of success. 1999 will be a year where
sojourner and immigrant questions are squarely addressed and more
steps are taken to split away the middle classes away from
imperialism within North America.
* * *
U.$. IMPERIALISTS PAVED PATH TO OCALAN ARREST:
AMERIKA IS THE REAL TERRORIST
Turkish commandos, acting on information supplied to them by u$
"intelligence and law enforcement officers," captured the leader
of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) on 15 February 1999. The PKK
has been waging armed struggle against the u$-backed Turkish
fascist regime for over a decade. Turkey denies the Kurdish people
their right to self-determination. Until very recently the Kurdish
language was illegal. And Turkey's military repression of the
Kurdish struggle has reached genocidal proportions (see e.g. MIM
Notes 95, Dec 1994).
The u$ denies "direct involvement" in the arrest of PKK leader
Abdullah Ocalan. At the same time it boasts that u$ diplomatic
pressure forced Ocalan to leave Syria, where he had been living in
exile since 1980. Furthermore, u$ agents spied on the Greek
embassy in Kenya where Ocalan had sought refuge and monitored
Ocalan's phone calls.
According to the u$ State Department, the u$ "did not apprehend or
transfer Ocalan or transport him to Turkey." Perhaps, but the u$
knew that Turkey desperately wanted to capture Ocalan and gave the
notoriously brutal Turkish police all the information they needed
to do so.
U$ policy towards the Kurdish people is terribly hypocritical. On
the one hand, the u$ claims that it is protecting Kurds in Iraq by
enforcing the "no fly zone" in northern Iraq. On the other, the u$
supplies the Turkish military with the equipment it uses against
the Kurdish people. This goes to show that u$ policy is driven by
u$ imperialist interests, not the interests of the Kurdish people.
The Communist Party of Turkey / Marxist-Leninist, Communist Party
of Greece (marxist leninist), and the Communist Party of the
Philippines released the following joint statement on the capture
of Ocalan.
The imperialists have temporarily succeeded! They turned over,
with the help of the Greek government, the leader of the PKK to
the hands of the Turkish fascist state. The so-called civilized
West denied political asylum to Ocalan, showing once more its real
nature. It showed its class hatred for the just struggles of the
Kurdish people and its collusion with the fascist brutalities of
the Turkish state. In this, the conspiracy among the US's Central
Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Federal Bureau of Investigation
(FBI) and Zionist Israel's Mossad with the Turkish intelligence
services is very clear.
US and European imperialists, in their own greedy interests, are
incorrigible terrorists and murderers. The government of Ankara
and all the reactionary forces in Turkey are gloating, believing
that it is time to defeat the peoples' armed struggles of the
Turkish and Kurdish peoples. But they will fail again. The anger
and hatred of the Turkish and Kurdish peoples will certainly
heighten and the revolutionary movements will intensify. The Greek
people are also very angry over the turnover of Ocalan to the
blood-drenched hands of Ankara. They detest the social-democratic
government and the American and European imperialists. The massive
demonstrations which took place in Athens and other Greek cities
is an expression of that anger. There have also been militant
people's protests in other European and Middle Eastern capitals
and cities.
The capture and turnover of Ocalan to the government of Ankara is
relevant to what is happening in the Balkan region, especially in
Kosovo. This is a region which has become the target of US and
European imperialists who, through the disintegration of countries
and the massacres of peoples, aim to dominate the whole region.
In this dirty game, the Greek and Turkish bourgeoisie, despite the
contradictions between them, cooperate and completely line up
behind the US and European imperialists against the interests of
the peoples in the region. Under these conditions, the Greek and
Turkish peoples, having to fight against the same enemies, must
strengthen their common struggles and express their solidarity
towards each other in the most decisive manner.
The peoples' national liberation struggles are revolutionary
struggles against imperialists and their local partners, and the
people should not have the slightest illusion about this. Any
retreat in the struggle against imperialism sets up obstacles to
people's revolutionary struggles.
We condemn the turnover of Ocalan to the Turkish fascist state and
denounce all who contributed in this despicable and disgraceful
act. We decisively support the struggle of the Kurdish people and
fight for guarantees for Ocalan's life. We condemn the imperialist
interventions in the Balkans and declare our solidarity with the
peoples of the region. Let's fight to save Ocalan's life! Down
with the imperialists' new world disorder! Down with all schemes
against the struggles of the Turkish and Kurdish peoples! Long
live the struggles of the Turkish and Kurdish peoples!
Communist Party of Turkey / Marxist Leninist
Communist Party of Greece (Marxist-Leninist)
Communist Party of the Philippines
* * *
COMRADES SIGNAL SUPPORT FOR COMRADE GONZALO
In December, 1998 at a conference of the practitioners and
supporters of People's War, several organizations signed a
resolution supporting Comrade Gonzalo in Peru.
"The undersigned propose this declaration in solidarity and
support of the People's War, with the Communist Party of Peru
(PCP, and with chairpersyn Gonzalo, leader of the revolution in
Peru."
Comrades from Turkey (TKP/ML), Greece(A/Synechia),
Brazil(Revolutionary Communist Party), Argentina(Revolution
Communist Party), Catalunya(Communist Party(Marxist-Leninist-
Maoist)) and representatives from five other countries signed.
Luis Arce Borja of El Diario Internacional signed and distributed
the resolution in his journal of December, 1998--El Diario
International #49.
The resolution also attacked the police plot concerning the plan
for "peace accords" in Peru. Also of note it attacked those who
seek to deny the prestige of Comrade Gonzalo by associating him
with the "peace accords" idea put forward by the Peruvian regime
and the CIA.
MIM continues to uphold the leadership and works of Comrade
Gonzalo in Peru who is suffering under detention. Comrade Gonzalo
led the party that initiated an important armed struggle in 1980,
one that influenced the whole world at a time when a stout example
was needed. Since that time, we have learned of several other
People's Wars in the world inspired or already underway when Peru
caught the attention of genuine communists everywhere.
* * *
ARMED ACTIONS CONTINUE IN PERU
There were 436 armed actions in Peru in 1996 and 500 in 1997. It
appears that the first half of 1998 saw about 200.
The People's War in Peru is led by the PCP armed with Marxism-
Leninism-Maoism-Gonzalo Thought. Among other reasons they wage a
People's War, 3,000,000 children suffered physical deterioration
from malnutrition in 1990. Thousands die from malnutrition and
other preventable maladies each year.
Source:
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Congress/8062/
* * *
KHMER ROUGE REPORTED SPLINTERING
Pol Pot, the original leader of the Khmer Rouge of Kampuchea is
dead. On March 6 the regime in power arrested Ta Mok, the supposed
military leader of the Khmer Rouge, who USA Today said had been
the one to put Pol Pot under house arrest before he committed
suicide.
Now the USA Today speaks openly of the demise of the Khmer Rouge
and says that even Ta Mok only had 100 soldiers left when the
regime arrested him. Other soldiers and leaders reportedly had
mutinied and joined the Hun Sen government.
Hun Sen has been the leader of Kampuchea (called Cambodia) since
Vietnam invaded and installed him.
As usual for stories about Kampuchea that have to sell newspapers
somehow, there was a picture of skulls and bones piled up. They
say that the Khmer Rouge committed genocide against the Kampuchean
people, but that is not something that a picture of skulls can
prove.
The Khmer Rouge also massacred Vietnamese and paraded pictures of
their skulls to scare Vietnamese invaders out of Kampuchea.
Separating that fact from the genocide count alleged to be 1.7
million from Khmer Rouge rule 1975 to 1979 would not be easy and
USA Today admits (without recognizing its significance) both the
Vietnamese invasion and the presence of Vietnamese ethnics within
Kampuchea.
As bourgeois articles go, the USA Today article was one of the
better ones. It did not claim that the Khmer Rouge was Maoist and
it did point out the Vietnamese angle.
Apparently some Khmer Rouge leaders wanted to surrender to be
ordinary Cambodian citizens, but there was a debate whether they
should be tried for war crimes and so they returned to their
jungle hideouts. The U.N. team on the subject recommended an
international tribunal, but Hun Sen wants a "truth commission" as
in South Africa where admissions and details of guilt are traded
for amnesty.
In the historical summation of the Khmer Rouge, it is important to
separate three different things: 1) war battles against Vietnamese
2) starvation 3) executions. The Khmer Rouge should only be blamed
for the third. The Kampuchea people were already starving to death
when the Khmer Rouge took power in 1975 and the United $tates
hastened that process by withdrawing its food aid, not to mention
by its previous bombing.
The long-standing war between the Vietnam-backed Hun Sen and the
Khmer Rouge should also be attributed in no small measure to the
Sino-Soviet split--the coming to power of Khruschev who blasted
Stalin and parted ways with Mao. Although the Vietnamese
government and the Kampuchean governments called themselves
communist, the Vietnamese leaned toward the Soviets and
Khruschevism and the Khmer Rouge leaned toward China whatever
leaders were there. Had Khruschev stayed on the communist road and
united with Mao, it is unlikely that there were would have been
much violence in Kampuchea, other than recovering from the U.$.
bombing and starvation. The war situation between Kampuchea and
Vietnam would have been averted and tension much defused had there
been a united communist bloc.
Source: USA Today 8March99, p. 10a.
* * *
AMERIKAN HYPOCRISY DEMOCRACY EXPOSED IN RATES OF BLACKS DENIED
VOTE
by MC17
Recently the fight to restore voting rights to people with a
criminal record has gained ground as several states have
introduced bills to cut back on voting restrictions of people who
have served prison sentences. The fuel behind organizations like
the NAACP who are pursuing these bills is the tremendous numbers
of Black men being barred from voting in what these liberal groups
like to think of as a democracy.
13% of Black men are not eligible to vote because of criminal
convictions, according to a recent study from the Sentencing
Project and Human Rights Watch. ÒIn 10 states, more than one in
five Black men are barred from voting.Ó
ÒIn 46 states and the District of Columbia, felons are prohibited
from voting while in prison.Ó In addition, 32 states prohibit ex-
prisoners from voting while on parole and 29 bar voting while on
probation. ÒFelons are barred for life from voting in 14 states, a
prohibition that can be waived only through a gubernatorial pardon
or some other form of clemency. Only four states -- Maine,
Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont -- allow prison inmates
to vote.Ó
In Florida, where 31% of Black men are barred from voting, Òa bill
has been introduced in the state legislature that would allow
felons to regain their voting rights automatically one year after
they complete their sentences, including probation. Currently,
felons in Florida are barred for life from voting unless their
rights are restored by a governor's pardon.Ó
Republican Gov. Jeb Bush, who benefited from support of some high-
profile Blacks during his election campaign last year, Òsupports
the measure as long as it leaves the state with the discretion to
withhold rights from felons whose crimes were deemed particularly
egregious.Ó Presumably he thinks this would save him political
face whenever necessary for a media stunt to appear really tough
on crime.
ÒTexas, where an estimated 4.5 percent of the adult population and
21 percent of the black male population can not vote, has
eliminated the two-year waiting period previously required before
a felon could apply for restoration of voting rights.Ó
Last year in Alabama, where 7.5 percent of adults and nearly 31.5
percent of Black men are banned from voting, Òlegislation to make
it easier to restore voting rights for felons failed on a tie
vote.Ó A similar measure has been introduced to the legislature
again this year.
The proportion of black men who are incarcerated has increased 10
times faster than for whites over the past decade. AmerikaÕs
increased incarceration of the oppressed has come under the label
of being tough on drugs and crime. MIM sees that the imperialist
system will use whatever means are available to commit genocide
against the oppressed nations to thwart the development of
revolution. AmerikaÕs war on drugs has nothing to do with stopping
the sale and use of drugs, but has everything to do with creating
a pretense to increase militarization and incarceration.
Even the Amerikan government research has shown that whites use
and sell drugs, but are not sentenced to prison as often as Blacks
committing the same crimes. ÒBlacks are arrested for drug crimes
at six times the rate of whites.Ó The Department of Justice showed
that cocaine use of whites and Blacks is about equal to each
groups proportion in society. Yet, the arrest, conviction and
sentencing for Blacks was disproportionate to the Black
population. The rate for drug related imprisonment for Blacks is
higher than the Black proportion of documented drug crimes.
ÒAccording to the Justice Department, from 1990 to 1996, 82
percent of the increase in the number of Black inmates in federal
prisons was due to drug offenses.Ó
The number of Black men being denied a vote just further exposes
the farce of democracy in this country with the highest
incarceration rate in the world. But the restoration of voting
rights to former prisoners or even to prisoners will not create
democracy in the U.$. It will just allow more Black men the
opportunity to choose between two identical candidates serving
white imperialist interests.
While MIM supports the right of all people in the u.s. to vote
(including so-called illegal immigrants as well as prisoners), we
do not pretend that voting is a progressive act that will result
in anti-imperialist change. Instead, we see this power struggle as
an opportunity to expose the U.$. system and organize the people
outraged by these facts to overthrow of the system that exists off
of such disparity.
Note: Washington Post, February 22, 1999; Page A1.
* * *
UNDER LOCK & KEY: NEWS FROM PRISONS AND PRISONERS
Attention Prisoners:
Make sure that you write MIM at least once every three months to
ensure that we keep you on the mailing list for MIM Notes. If it
is your first time receiving MIM Notes, you need to write within
one month and then write every three months after that. MIM Notes
is often censored and comrades are transferred continuously. The
mailing list policy is necessary to avoid wasting limited funds.
We no longer include reminders within your envelop. If the envelop
label has a number (1) on it, our last record of your
correspondence was from January and the April MIM Notes will be
the last until you write us again. Similarly, if the envelop has a
(2), unless you write the May issues will be the last mailed to
you.
And remember that mail gets returned unless we have your full
legal name, number and address.
Open letter to South Carolina prisoners
On behalf of myself and my New Afrikan Islamic Forces in South
KKKarolina, we ask for reprint of the enclosed article to exchange
revolutionary tactics, info and motivation, within the United
Struggle from Within. Enclosed, list of 40 prisoners in support of
the message and united struggle. [from a South Carolina prisoner,
January 1999.]
ÒCan you see the division among us, and its effect? This is our
greatest obstacle... before we can effectively face down the foe,
we must learn to share, trust and communicate with each other."
(George Jackson)
This is an open letter to the inmate population of South Carolina.
I would like for every inmate who reads this letter to contemplate
its validity and its application to you.
I will start by saying that I believe that it is time for a
reality gut check as far as the inmate population of this state is
concerned.
We have all experienced the adverse effects of this new system
that is desired to instill a sense of servitude upon us and make
us useless and underclass members of society who are prepared to
fail if we are ever released.
Many of us have accepted this situation as being one that is
unalterable. We are content to be treated as slaves and respond
accordingly. We don't find it inhuman to be chained like an animal
and marched to fields like cattle. We are satisfied to have people
who are straight out of the same environments that many of us are
from, who with their new found affluence and social acceptability,
constantly verbally, and in an increasing number of cases,
physically abuse us. They abuse, humiliate and disrespect our
families and do everything in their power to dissuade them from
visiting or caring about us.
Across the state, there are reports that prisoners are being
denied medical attention, deliberately misdiagnosed, and in many
cases left to suffer for days, weeks and months, and in some
cases, they have died. We have instances where female prisoners
are being abused at the hands of guards and administrators. Yet we
who know what should be done to address and correct these
situations are suddenly without voices and unwilling to agitate
for change.
[É] We all know that the mainstream media in this state, both
print and electronic, have turned a blind eye and a deaf ear to
prison conditions in general. They want prisoners and the public
to think that the lid is on tight and there is nothing that can be
done about it.
There is something that can be done about it. We do not have to be
treated like this, nor do we have to allow ourselves to be subject
to the constant indignities.
Instead of pleading to a public that for the most part has been
desensitized to care anything about prisoners, and who see prisons
as economic upliftment for their depressed local economies, we
need to face reality and accept the fact that there are only two
alternatives left open to us: violent or non-violent resistance.
Of the two, the latter at present is most appealing and promises
to be more productive.
We are under a system that is designed to exploit us for our labor
under the color of law and has the blessing of the public to do so
at whatever cost to prisoners that prison administrators desire to
exact. We are seen as no more than cattle, as were the early slave
laborers of this country. The only difference being that they did
not have a choice as regards their free labor, but we do.
We don't have to work in these prisons. We do not have to make the
license plates that this state depends on yearly, we do not have
to work in fields, prison maintenance, prison industries and all
of the other areas that are fattening the pockets of prison
administrators and corporate leaders who have moved operations
into prisons to utilize free prison labor. No, we can take a stand
statewide and let SCDC and its plantation minded supporters know
that we do have a choice and the will to resist this form of
servitude.
We are not animals and should not willingly submit ourselves or
our loved ones to be treated as such. We have a choice and can
force a change. The question is are we willing to take the
initiative or just complain. Think about the alternative.
Pigs on an oppressing mission nation wide
As I sit here on my cell reading MIM Notes, I come across two
letters written to Under Lock and Key by ALKQN brothers in New
Jersey. They are going through the example same thing as me and my
King brothers here. Since 1995, I have been confined to [Security
Threat Group] 23 hour lock down units with no windows or any view.
This seems to be the newest persecution on our already oppressed
nation and against those who struggle for true justice.
We have a suit going under Haverty vs. Dubois and this lame Dubois
happens to be the same involved in [locking down] Marion, IL. He
is also involved in the California suit, Madrid vs. Gomez (Federal
Supplement 889 (1146)). My heart goes out to the Chicano and
Blacks in California system as well as my King brothers in the
same circumstances in NJ, NY, Conn and Penn.
Judges tend to believe the side of the story from the DOC. For
example, Latinos who are not Kings or Netas are classified as STGs
and labeled as a King or whatever without proof and stuck in the
STG units -- now numbering 180 cells. Parole is automatically 95%
denied.
Recently a brother was brought to the STG unit for playing
baseball at a medium security prison. There were two teams playing
for the play off within the prison. One team had 'state issued
jerseys' in blue. The other wore yellow jerseys. This brother was
brought a year ago because the administration said he was wearing
gang colors because the yellow jersey had black numbers. But the
rest of the team, some who were not Hispanic (sic) were wearing
the same Jerseys. None of them is in STG lockdown.
The psychology and physical torture are imminent. Not to mention
having to see your family through glass, three years since I last
hugged them. Since this seems to be the newest tool of torture...
And since they are using the STG system nation wide, why don't we
unify our cause and put a federal motion together? An interstate
motion with plaintiff names ranging from the east to west coast...
I think it's time we stop believing our local state is the only
state with this type of discrimination and work as a whole. I have
been under lockdown 97% of my 6 years and would not back down
under further oppression if we as a whole put a federal case on
the books even when the Federal government is as cruel.
I salute the brothers in NJ and a strong king love to those
hundreds of brothers who went to the UN building to show support
against the 100th anniversary of American colonialism on my Puerto
Rican soil.
Viva La FALN Puerto Rico Libre!
-- a Mass King 360 degrees SKW.
PA prepares for war against prisoners
Hotep (peace) comrades, I am an incarcerated brother in need of
MIM's newspaper to enlighten myself and share it with fellow
comrades in the belly of the beast.
[Enclosed was a newly amended policy from the PA DOC allowing the
use of deadly force against prisoners.]
I've included this policy that was just passed or issued about
"the use of force" in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Department
of Corrections. They are implemented this new policy because they
are preparing for the final showdown in which the end results will
be a blood bath. We need help and we need it now!
In this plantation called "Smithfield" I've witnessed several
incidents of abuse by staff, and excessive force by staff. It is
evident that these people are evil and are the criminals of the
world.
-- a Pennsylvania prisoner, June 30 1998.
Imprisoned Anti-Imperialists Awake!!
Those of us who possess pride, respect, honor and an anti-
imperialist fundamental mind for our people and our nations, are
truly Brothers and Sisters; but we are few. So few that we are
almost totally unaware of the fact that there are others among us
who are our Brothers and Sisters. This unawareness is very
damaging to us, and we bring it upon ourselves. Petty personality
conflicts that stem from misplaced pride and arrogance of ones
personal preference of life-style cause us to be blind to others
who are our Brothers and Sisters. We all fall in with a clique
that adheres to our personal preference of life-style and by doing
this we become blind to other that are our Brothers and Sisters
who are struggling for the same cause, simply because they are not
in the same clique.
...We are all being forced to exist in a mentally and morally
degrading concentration (DOC) environment and as captives we
witness at one time or another during our captivity every form of
degeneracy on earth and imperialist actions...In an environment
where homosexual rape, assault, robbery, petty assault, nickel and
dime games and murder are commonplace, convicts and other
organizations who are against imperialism are almost always the
first choice of prey. The number one victim, Blacks, Latino and
those whites who side with us, because they see as we do. As anti-
imperialist, revolutionary organizations, we are all subjected to
this and not a day passes that some unfortunate, unconnected
Brother or Sister doesn't have one or more of these crimes
committed against him or her. This environment breeds fear and
fear is a weapon.
...By the same method that fear is used as a weapon we must learn
to use this morally and mentally degrading concentration
environment as a weapon to strengthen our selves and each other
instead of allowing it to be used against us.
...Together, in every kamp in DOC there are even some of us who
will die in this captivity. But we don't have to live or die
alone. There have already been too many of us who died needlessly
at the hands of the "Imperialist Savage Pigs", both in and out of
uniform. We should all take this time to learn what fortune
Brotherhood and Sisterhood can be and nurture that fortune by
increasing our brother's and sister's around the world in every
concentration kamp, as well as outside the walls. Only then will
be able to do our true duty to the pride and spirit of our
ancestors and our people.
How weak and fruitless it is to sit idly by and watch the years
come and go, minding our own little worlds, our inconsequential
dreams and fantasies, fearfully ignoring the goings-on around us,
hoping we don't become the next victim, just another statistic of
"pigs on convict" crimes between the fences.
Collectively as a unit, a squadron, a battalion...we can band
together as our heritage calls for us to do and move to make our
stay a stand and give it an immense meaning. There we can all live
a die with not only an awareness but a knowledge and the
experience of winning our struggle, love, pride, respect, strength
and the honor that we have had for each other as Brothers and
Sisters during our struggle. For those of us who know it, there is
no emotion to compare to Brotherhood and Sisterhood tried and
true!
-- a Florida prisoner, 1 September 1998.
Political repression in Maryland
MIM Warriors, From the "Revolutionary Core," that center of
strength which MIM stands upon, I draw from it the basic
necessities of life -- knowledge, wisdom and the means by which to
eliminate the dominating imperialist government. Or should I be
more accurate and say "System of Korruptment."
Comrade, I am in one of the dirties, nastiest Supermaxes in the
kountry. Some of the prisoners here, along with myself are
subjected to deliberate, degrading, inhuman treatment by these
mace toting pigs.
If you can recall, a few months back, I wrote to you about my
being jumped on by human swine. Because I filed charges against
the President and two former presidents. Since such time, things
has gotten much more worse.
I'm just returning to health from a brutal beating delivered to me
by five pigs. The offense damn near took my life. For more than a
half-hour, these slave-making devils practiced their 'nonviolent'
tactics on me by beating me while I was shackled and in chains. I
couldn't help but think about my ancestors who were brought over
here to Amerika in chains and beaten to death. I felt their pain
along with my own.
After being unconscious for I don't know how long, they sprayed me
with pepper mace. The mace these pigs use here is lethal! When it
touches your skin, it feels as if it is eating a hole through your
body. They sprayed me with this mace and left me in a cell for
four days, handcuffed and shackled, with no mattress or blanket. I
was made to slep on a cold slab of concrete. Because of my
political views, I am punished and violated in such a cruel
manner.
It is highly known here by prisoners and pigs that I am a Black
communist in total agreement with building a Marxist-Leninist-
Maoist Party, whereever I am at -- because I believe in liberation
of the oppressed and the annihilation of Amerikan hypocrisy and
imperialist domination.
After being beaten half to death and maced, the pigs sent me to
Patuxant in Jessup, Maryland for a 'psychological evaluation.'
These crazy muthafuckers jump on me and beat me down and call me
crazy. And what really gets me is the doctors at the hospital.
They were told by the pigs that I beat myself up, that they had to
mace me to stop me from further hurting myself. They said that I
was trying to kill myself.
There I was, eyes swollen shut, lips swollen, smelling like mace,
thinking these doctors were going to help me. But I found out fast
just how much they work together. How can you rehabilitate a man
when you beat him and keep him in chains! There's no such thing as
rehabilitation.
The doctor asked me why I hurt myself. I just looked at him and
said "It wasn't me, it was your wife. The bitch is crazy." Two
days later, I was back here at the Supermax. Psychological profile
reads "A very angry and mean person. He's diabolical and a
"communist" with a strong desire to blow up the world." I don't
know where he got all that from. All I said was that his wife beat
me up.
Comrades, I am in need of your help.... We have much work to do in
so little time. We need to bring these Kontrol Units down.
Comrades, I want the weapons and I want them Now! I am in great
need of something to read. Something to study. I would also like
to write a book review on these books...
With this matter I need your approval. I have taken the liberty to
place together a book, using articles from back dated MIM Notes
and articles from MIM Theory. I have compiled these writings
bringing forth what I feel is a must read book. The book depicts
the nature of Amerika...
--a Maryland prisoner, 20 December 1998
MIM responds: Anyone is welcome to copy and distribute articles,
essays etc which MIM has published. You are also welcome to use
the information and research in other writings. We only ask that
people credit MIM when reproducing or quoting from MIMÕs
publications. We also encourage prisoners to help us distribute
our literature on the outside (as well as under lock and key)
through helping us make connections with allies and sympathetic
friends and family. It is probably cheaper to distribute the
newspapers and already printed material from MIM than to reproduce
it in another version. Contact us if you want to help with
distribution.
NY prisoners wins censorship battle
I am honored to say that I am proud of MIM for making the
responsibility of corresponding back with a comrade in need [of]
priority.
...I had dropped a very short letter to your distributors on the
ending of August mainly to see if I'll get an answer. By the time
the first two weeks passed by, I kind of thought I was not going
to receive a response, until of course, Dec. 17,1998. Actually I
received a notice on Dec. 3, 1998 stating I received a news
lettering which the administration here refused to forward to me
using some poor depreciated excuse which said that institutional
rules claim I can not receive articles proclaiming disobedience
and or rebellion. I was given the opportunity though to appeal the
case to the media review committee.
I won the appeal and when I received these articles which I was
fighting for I saw they were MIM Notes. I felt very proud. After
receiving the notes I had in the mailroom, package room and
administration to forward a memorandum stating that MIM Notes can
now be reviewed here in this facility due to the appeal [I] won.
Hopefully comrades are doing the same in other facilities where
the same problem occurs.
--A New York Prisoner, 22 December, 1998.
State involved in petty theft
The new law of deducting 22% from inmates pay numbers and trust
deposits should be banned for one, it is a burden for an inmate to
make payments from his prison pay number when the average pay
number is no more than $19.00 per month, two, it is also a burden
for an inmate's family to send extra money to make up for the
theft of the state. Third, the sender of the money, whether on a
fixed income or steady income pays taxes to the government from
the start when the sender receives his/her income, and for the
state government from the start when the sender receives his/her
income and for the state government to tax the senders money a
second time when it is in fact a gift to help support the inmate
is unconstitutional. Another issue to focus on is the capitalism
of the special purchase vendors that are owned by correctional
officers and has developed into a monopoly of marked up prices and
the only approved vendors that an inmate may order from.
- A CA Prisoner, 22 August 1998.
Asian immigrants sentenced to life in prison for not
having green card
There is an issue that I really need help on and I'm kind of at a
dead end. I'm an immigrant from Vietnam, and a lot of my Asian
brothers that is locked up in Texas prison are also in this
situation. They had issue a detain for all those that don't have
an American citizenship, once we get released we have to go to one
of them detain facility, a lot of my fellow Asian brother had
wrote to me and said that they will not let them go and they won't
send us back to our country because our country won't accept us,
so we have to stay there until our country change their mind or
the law change. We are at a no win situation. I would like to know
if you can help us or know something that we can do. Because it's
hard for me and my people to just sit here and let these people do
us any kind of way they want to. I really appreciate you taking
your time to read this letter.
- A Texas Prisoner, July 1998.
PrisonersÕ Legal Clinic request
I am presently filing a civil action in state court against an
officer for damages resulting from assault and battery. Please put
some information on this aspect of prisonersÕ rights in your Legal
Notes section. Being that I am on lock-up, it is hard for me to
get legal materials in a timely manner.
-- a South Carolina prisoner.
When will Amerika be punished?
I am one sick and tired "Black Brotha" because this government in
the United Snakes of Amerikkka always looks for the window of
vulnerability when it comes to their dealings with us black
people. With these Devil-Americans, the issue is not simply of
getting power, but of becoming aware of how they use the power
they have. Then developing expertise to make an impact on Black
communities to reduce the threat of Blacks for good. And there is
a historical context in this nation to reduce the threat of
Blacks. And the effects of crony-capitalism shows a movement for
and by affluent whites to oppress black communities all around the
world. And comrades, I am sick and tired of the psychological
coercion. Comrades, you know Amerikkklans use democracy as a decoy
to hide the real intentions and capabilities of the United Snakes.
So when will Amerikkka be punished for her wrongs and evils?
--a Pennsylvania prisoner, 7 January 1999.
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