Revolutionary Greetings! This is a form letter describing the Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League (RAIL), a mass organization of anti-imperialists led by the Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM). RAIL supports self-determination for all peoples including the necessity of armed struggle against imperialism. RAIL is against the proliferation of prisons warehousing the oppressed, imperialist militarism, imperialist economic domination of the worlds majority, and white settler chauvinism against Amerika's internal colonies of the Black nation and the many Indigenous and Latino nations. RAIL welcomes participation from individuals seeking to further expose the atrocities of imperialism and build opposition to the current system of injustice. RAIL works in the United Front led by MIM to build public opinion against imperialism.
Imperialism is the global economic system that exists today. First World corporations have expanded to the point where they must invest money overseas to continue to grow so they export their capital to the Third World. These foreign investments in Third World economies, safeguarded by military force, stifle the growth of small national capitalist classes. With no national bourgeoisie, or a weak one at best, a national economy is unable to grow. Imperialist investment then ensures its own predominance -- paying dirt wages to workers who have no options, and enjoying the freedom to escape local taxes and environmental restrictions. It is a principle of anti-imperialism that every nation has the right to national self-determination and the right to struggle for liberation. Nations must be free to choose their own economic and political destinies and not have these policies dictated by occupying forces. Where imperialism extends itself into the Third World, it stifles all indigenous economic and political activity. Anti-imperialists hold that all nations should be free to choose their own course.
RAIL sees imperialism in the hundred-years U.$. occupations of Puerto Rico and the Philippines. We see imperialism in Amerikan state-terrorist bombings of Arab and African countries that will not happily submit to u.$. political and economic demands. Imperialist economic domination is evident in the thousands of people who attempt to cross militarized borders without legal papers year by year. These undocumented immigrants and workers know they can find better jobs in the u.$. -- grown wealthy at the expense of their own countries -- than they can at home. And we see imperialism in the exploding Amerikan prisons, whose construction and maintenance provide jobs for the white nation while their cells cage huge segments of the Black and Latino nations.
For all these reasons, RAIL addresses U.$. imperialism as a brutal abuser of the oppressed nations. In the fight against imperialism, we welcome all people who want to see these forms of injustice destroyed.
There is a RAIL e-mail list which receives periodic news articles and information about agitation campaigns as well as information about ways you can get involved. To join the RAIL e-mail list, write to rail@mim.org. If you are receiving this letter in response to your request to join RAIL, you will automatically be added to that e-mail list.
If you would like to learn more about Maoism MIM recommends joining the discussion board It's Right to Rebel. More information about this board can be found here. All interested in learning more about revolutionary politics and discussing ways to implement revolutionary theory can get involved.
RAIL members are anti-imperialists who agree with the necessity of armed struggle against imperialism. (Note: this does not mean armed struggle now in the imperialist countries, RAIL does not take up illegal actions at this stage in the struggle). The only requirement for joining RAIL is the recognition that RAIL will be led by MIM. RAIL members should not attempt to conceal this fact when working amongst the masses. In practice, accepting MIM leadership will mean that RAIL chapters do not accept the leadership of other organizations or worked out lines. RAIL members can be members of other mass organizations. As long as a person doesn't have a worked-out line against any of MIM's three main principles (see below), they can be a voting-member of RAIL. People who disagree with these points are welcome to work with us on common goals. Although RAIL is currently principally in the U.$., we do welcome members from other countries as well.
Outside of existing ministries and local work, MIM will encourage those interested in working with the party and in agreement with the cardinal questions to form cells, either to address particular needs (i.e. mimnotes.info, IRTR) or to take up local semi-public organizing. These cells will be granted recognition by MIM as fraternal through a vote of the Central Committee. This status can be revoked at any time should MIM determine that a cell has degenerated. People interested in working with MIM in the capacity related to an existing cell will be pointed in that direction to work with that cell (i.e. writers should work with mimnotes.info). These cells will be responsible for their own democratic-centralism, and will be encouraged to recognize other cells where they have agreement in political line.
Any RAIL comrades not affiliated with a local MIM branch will be delegated to IRTR. RCs involved only in local organizing with an existing branch may choose to remain affiliated only with that MIM cell but will still be encouraged to work with IRTR. Similarly, RCs who are working with an existing MIM ministry (i.e. the prison ministry) are encouraged to continue that work while also looking to work with other appropriate cells. RCs who develop further at a later date will always be encouraged to figure out what cell they can best contribute to or to form a new cell. There are no restrictions on contributing to MIM's work: people unaffiliated with MIM may take up web work, or prisons organizing, or help with MIM Notes distribution among other things.
Each cell can have it's own Congress. The IRTR is one example of how to start conducting one.
If a dual cell membership arises and a comrade meets the requirements of another cell, the MC cell will accept a dual membership of a comrade from a cell with an identical line to MIM's and meeting of a criteria that sums up something peculiar to the MC cell. Other cells may decide whether or not to accept dual membership.
In practice MIM will be changing the way it works with people interested in RAIL and turning over all interested people to IRTR for ideological and organizing discussions. MIM will contribute to IRTR in the form of proposed actions that we encourage participants to take up (i.e. the Ward Churchill campaign is a good example), and will work with IRTR to appropriately channel people interested in organizing work into appropriate projects and cells.
See here for more information on this resolution and for instructions on forming cells see MIM's Congress Resolutions.
As is mentioned above, there are limitless opportunities for involvement in the anti-imperialist struggle. So the first thing you can do is share with us what ideas you have for work you would like to do. Below are some areas that are already organized but which need help. We encourage you to think about organizing your own cell or joining an existing cell that is focused on work you want to be doing.
A big part of building public opinion is spreading educational information. MIM and RAIL don't have corporate funding, or even enough money to put out a daily newspaper, much less TV and radio news shows. But MIM does produce a revolutionary newspaper every two weeks which provides valuable news and analysis from an anti-imperialist perspective. This is information you can't get anywhere else. So it is very important that we get this news into the hands of as many people as possible. You can print copies of articles or even the whole paper from our web site, and hit the streets with them, or if you want to have a really big impact, you can print the newspaper locally and distribute lots of copies of it.
MIM and RAIL have a lot of posters that can be put up on bulletin boards and poles throughout your city. They address issues ranging from feminism to the revolution in the Philippines. This is another good way to build public opinion. You can download some of these posters from our flier archive online and others can be found on MIM's agitation pages. On the RAIL web site you will find an imperialism kills sticker that you can order as well. We also need help producing more and better flyers. So if you have skills with art or design, we need your help. We can provide you with the text and art ideas or work with you to come up with these.
MIM and RAIL engage in a lot of battles within the legal system under imperialism. This means we take on the enemy on their own turf. Sometimes this means taking them to court to demand rights for the oppressed. Sometimes it means gathering petition signatures, writing letters, holding demonstrations or organizing in other legal ways.
An example of this would be our anti-censorship battles. MIM runs a books for prisoners program which provides revolutionary educational material to prisoners across the country. Many prisons censor the literature and letters that we send in. We fight this on several fronts. First we and the prisoners affected appeal the censorship with the prison. Second, if we lose the appeal we ask the prisoners to file lawsuits fighting the censorship. And third, on the outside we organize people to send postcards and letters targeting the prisons that are censoring us, protesting the censorship. Many RAIL branches are involved in this campaign. They will set up tables with educational information about imperialist prisons and ask people to sign the postcards protesting the censorship. Or they will stand on the streets with clipboards and postcards and stop people to ask them to sign. This serves two purposes: First, it helps support the anti-censorship battle which is frequently won because of outside pressure. Second, it builds public opinion because we use this opportunity to talk to people about why they should oppose the criminal injustice system and how it is a part of imperialism.
Many petitions can be downloaded from MIM's agitation pages along with flyers about the topics that you can hand out to people to help educate them. Campaign information will also be sent to the RAIL mailing list so you can jump in on any of the campaigns that inspire you.
RAIL also organizes demonstrations to protest imperialist actions and educate the public. These can focus on smaller winnable battles like holding a protest at California prisons in opposition to the CA Department of Corrections attempts to limit prisoner visitation rights. Or these can focus on larger anti-imperialist battles like opposing the Amerikan troops that were sent to the Philippines under the guise of fighting terrorism. Not all protests that RAIL participates in are organized by RAIL. RAIL also sends contingents to demonstrations organized by other groups. At these events we frequently distribute MIM Notes to the participants to provide a clear and needed anti-imperialist analysis. Or we may print up a flyer providing participants with RAIL's take on the issue in question. Some RAIL members make up signs with RAIL's anti-imperialist position on the topic to carry at the demonstration. This work is important because we want to make sure the anti-imperialist perspective is represented and not just tag along to a rally because it is opposing something that we oppose. RAIL is filling an important role in political organizing by providing a revolutionary and anti-imperialist voice.
A good way to reach people who are interested in learning about anti-imperialist politics is to hold public events. RAIL focuses its events on educating and organizing. We want to tie in the educational information with actions that people can take. For instance, we might hold an event about fighting prison censorship which will include a speaker or video about censorship in prisons (or injustices in prisons in general) and then a discussion about how we can build the anti-censorship campaign followed by a letter writing session where everyone writes letters to the prisons that are censoring the MIM Books for Prisoners program.
To hold public events you need to do some preliminary work. First you need to pick a topic and come up with a rough outline of what you want to accomplish in the event. You can get help from the RAIL coordinator in this so feel free to ask. Then you need to find a place you can do it. Many public libraries provide rooms to local organizations for free. On campuses groups can get classrooms for events. And many coffee houses are willing to allow use of their space. Check out where other people are holding their events for ideas. The next step is to talk to other groups and try to get co-sponsors for the event. You will need to bring them a clear description of the purpose and content of the event as well as an argument for why they should want to get involved. If you are organizing on campus, this is also a good way to find a group that can get you a room to hold the event. Once you have a day, time and location set as well as some co-sponsors on board you can start advertising for the event. Putting up posters in the area is a good way to do this, but also be sure to get it listed in the calendar section of local publications and announced on local radio shows, and send announcements to any organizations that you think would be interested in the topic.
If you are interested in organizing events in your area contact the RAIL coordinator at rail@mim.org for more information, ideas and support.
MIM and RAIL both need help expanding our web presence. If you have skills in web design, we can use your help in this area.
If you speak another language, we need help getting revolutionary materials translated so they are available to more people.
There is always a need for more anti-imperialist literature. If you see a topic you think needs to be addressed, write an article about it. You can submit articles to the RAIL web page for publication and/or to MIM Notes.
RAIL or MIM can help connect you to other RAIL members in your area. Sometimes there are RAIL members working alone in their area at first, but then as they do some projects they bring in more interested people.
RAIL does not have any membership cards. As it says above, RAIL is comprised of activists. Pick some areas to get involved in and write to the RAIL Coordinator at rail@mim.org to get started. We will hook you up with the appropriate cell or MIM ministry.
We welcome your questions, comments, and struggle over the important political issues raised in this letter, particularly from those who are serious about doing what they can to fight imperialism.