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 No. 46 November 1990
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. REVOLUTIONARY ENVIRONMENTALISM
2. WAR MACHINE MARCHES ON IRAQ
3. APARTHEID ISRAELI STYLE
4. POLICE AND COURTS ATTACK GREENSBORO BLACKS
5. NOT A POLITICAL CAMPAIGN
6. LETTERS
7. CORRECTIONS
8. MASSACRE IN THE HOLY CITY
9. SEXUAL HARASSMENT REPORTED AT INS DETENTION CENTER
10. CONGRESS PLAYS "LET'S MAKE A DEAL" WITH EL SALVADOR
11. MANDELA PUSHES INTEGRATION OF U.S. AFRICAN AMERIKANS
12. LOCAL JOURNALIST TIPS OFF THE COPS: BORDER PATROL RAIDS SOUTH
TEXAS SHELTER
13. BOOT-LICKING NICARAGUAN CAPITALIST REGIME DECAYS
14. SECTARIAN REVIEW: WORKERS VANGUARD; BULLETIN; PEOPLE'S DAILY WORLD;
OFF OUR BACKS
15. UNDER LOCK & KEY: NEWS FROM PRISONS AND PRISONERS
16. MUSIC REVIEWS: PUBLIC ENEMY; ICE CUBE; MAZZY STAR,
17. MOVIE REVIEWS: GOODFELLAS
18. MASS ADVERTISING: CAPITALISM WANTS TO SWALLOW US WHOLE.
19. LET THE FREE MARKET CENSOR IT
20. POWER GAMES
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
* * *
REVOLUTIONARY ENVIRONMENTALISM
by MC12
Class society is society which produces more than is actually
needed--an advance made possible by technology. Classes are the
mechanism for deciding who gets to have the extra commodities, and
who will toil to produce those luxuries. Under a class system--
whether it is slavery, feudalism, capitalism or imperialism--
production is based on the desire for profit, not on actual human
needs.
Beyond perpetrating the direct oppression of working people, the
class system also develops an unsustainable relationship with the
environment, as natural resources are drained from the earth to
fuel the ruling classes increased consumption of luxuries. There
is no evidence that resources were used at an unsustainable rate
before class societies emerged.
Class societies have developed into a system of world capitalism
and imperialism. The science of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong
Thought has shown that only the truly oppressed have both the will
and the strength to overthrow the systems of capitalism and
imperialism and begin building a classless society under the
leadership of the proletariat.
Marxists realize that classless society--the end of production for
profit--can only be a product of class struggle resulting in the
victory of the proletariat over the bourgeoisie.
Environmental movements have flourished in the First World for
more than 20 years. After billions of dollars and years of fierce
struggle for reform, some small victories have been won. During
this time, environmental conditions have grown immeasurably worse
for the vast majority of the world's land and population--the
Third World and oppressed internal nations.
Out of all that effort the people and the environment of the world
have suffered a net loss. And the worst environmental problems--
soil erosion, deforestation, overpopulation, starvation, and the
causes of the greenhouse effect--remain worst in the Third World,
though they are caused by imperialist greed.
MIM does not mean to tell First World environmentalists that more
efficient cars or pollution control devices are bad; less
pollution is a good thing. And environmentalism has increased our
understanding of the relationship between humanity and ecology.
But with no active understanding of the root causes of, and
solutions to, environmental problems--and no revolutionary
practice to bring about real change--it remains an ineffective
movement and a First World fetish.
* * *
WAR MACHINE MARCHES ON IRAQ
by MC12
Oct. 28--With cold calculation, the United States is marching
deliberately toward all-out war with Iraq--preparing a massive
attack force for a show-down which may be expected at any time. At
press time, war has yet to break out.
More than 210,000 U.S. troops are already in the area known as the
Persian Gulf, most near the Saudi Arabian border with Iraq and
Kuwait, and now the government has announced that as many as
100,000 more will be shipped in.(1)
As war becomes more certain, members of the U.S. Congress are
demanding the privilege of declaring war on Iraq, while the Bush
administration insists it won't ask permission from anyone before
ordering a strike.(2) Now military analysts are pushing for
action, saying the best weather conditions in the Saudi and Iraqi
deserts are from November to February.(3)
The first signs of discontent with the war among the Amerikan
people are emerging. A wave of anti-war protests was held on Oct.
20, with protests in more than a dozen cities, including
Washington, New York, Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San
Diego, Chicago, Birmingham, Honolulu, Houston, Portland, Seattle
and Minneapolis. The biggest was in New York, where organizers
said 15,000 marched, chanting, "Hell no, we won't go. We won't
fight for Texaco!"(4)
The war for more
The original public goal--to drive Iraq's invading forces out of
the tiny oil country of Kuwait--is disappearing amidst the Bush
administration's foaming desire for a big war--a real war--with a
more thorough military victory and longer-lasting shifts in power
relations.
William Webster, the director of the U.S. Central Intelligence
Agency (CIA), explained that he has "no real confidence that that
area will ever be secure again," as long as Iraqi President Saddam
Hussein is still there, unless there is a "countervailing force
present in the area" or Saddam is "disassociated with his
instruments of mass destruction."(5)
"If we are to have stability in the gulf, we need more than just
Iraq's withdrawal," said one "senior U.S. official." And England's
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, a key ally in the military
effort, agreed, insisting that the allies need to "get him out,
make him pay and see that he is never in a position to do these
things again."(6)
Iraq now has 430,000 troops ready in Kuwait and Southern Iraq,
according to the Pentagon, while allied forces and U.S. troops
combined are nearing 400,000 troops.(7)
The contributions of allied forces are picking up, especially from
Britain and Syria, who have both committed hundreds of tanks to
the Saudi desert.(8)
Further, the demand for war comes from the realization that the
economic blockade is not yet forcing Iraq to quit Kuwait. The CIA
says the embargo isn't hurting the Iraqi military enough, and
Webster is disappointed the United States hasn't been able to
better infiltrate Iraq to control former-puppet President Saddam
Hussein. "We had all that in place in Panama," but not in Iraq, he
moaned.(9)
The United States is so bent on war that it's been squelching any
possibility of a compromise. After word got out that Iraq might be
prepared to get out in exchange for two Kuwaiti islands, which
would give formerly landlocked Iraq port access to the Gulf, Bush
said: "I am more determined than ever to see that this invading
dictator gets out of Kuwait with no compromise of any kind
whatsoever." And the United States rushed to insist that Saudi
Arabia not consider any compromise; by now the so-called mission
to protect Saudi Arabia, at its request, has been largely
dropped.(10)
Problems at home
In addition to the still-small outspoken protest among Amerikan
activists, new polls are showing more concern over the course
toward war.
A Wall Street Journal poll showed 69% of voters still approve of
Bush's course of action so far, but that number is down from 78%
in September.(11) Newsweek did a poll which showed that support
had dropped from 77% in early August to 61%.(3) These still show
majority support among those polled for the course toward war, and
Newsweek further found that 21% favor military action now. The
Journal also reported that 48% predict war will occur, and 47% say
the United States should initiate it if Iraq doesn't leave Kuwait.
But we must keep in mind the different reasons for opposing the
war. The most popular reason given is that the war will become
"another Vietnam," in the sense of a major loss for the United
States--diverting resources from "domestic needs" and throwing
away the "peace dividend."
The truth is that the war could have damaging effects on the U.S
empire--including the big bourgeoisie and the white labor
aristocracy--especially if it loses. But the essential drive
behind the war--to maintain U.S. control over the international
oil market, preserve the Third World for U.S economic expansion
and consolidate control over weaker allies--is in the interest of
all those in Amerika who currently benefit from U.S. imperialism.
This does not prevent the emergence of disagreement over tactics
in the Middle East--even the far right wing is split over whether
or not direct attack will be profitable--but the convergence of
interests must be kept in mind. (See Sectarian Review, p. 8 for a
discussion of the various forms of opposition.)
Economic pressures mount
The current recessionary trend in the U.S. economy is putting
increased pressure on the government to produce a profitable
outcome from the war. The best response to recession is
international expansion.
In the meantime, the war buildup and crisis is having a negative
effect on the economy, which was already slumping. Inflation was
up to an annual rate of 9.5% in September, mostly as a result of
higher oil and gas prices.(12) Orders for durable goods--an
important indicator of long-range economic growth--dropped by 1.7%
in September, the second monthly drop in a row.(13) In all,
500,000 industrial sector jobs have been lost since January
1989.(14)
Some major economic trends are apparent in a recent earnings
report for Sears, Robuck & Co., which reported a 30% drop in net
income for the third quarter of this year, as compared to the same
time last year. Sears is a major multinational corporation with a
diverse spread of investments.
The worst hit division was real estate (Coldwell Banker), which
had a drop in earnings of almost 98%. The insurance division
(Allstate) also lost 14%. And the company had to stash away an
extra $50 million in expectation of people defaulting on credit
card loans.
But when international operations and charge card profits were
included, the Sears produced a 7.6% increase in net income,
overall. So real estate was down, insurance was down; but credit
usage was profitable (though dangerous), and international
operations were essential in turning a total profit.(15)
The defense industry also plays an important part in the economic
cause and effect of war. In the last four years, for example,
General Dynamics stock has fallen in value by 75%--but now people
are buying it cheap as war looms. Despite the fall in stock
prices, the company has produced profits of $7-$9 per share for
the last four years; so one millionaire, who's planning to buy
more General Dynamics stock--has been "earning" $7-$9 million per
year on the million shares he owns. This company produces the very
profitable M-1 tank, Trident submarine and F-16 fighter jet.(16)
The importance of the war in the economy is further underscored by
the wild fluctuations in the various international markets since
the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. The price of oil on commodities
markets has risen from below $30 to $41.15, and fallen back below
$30 before climbing up again toward $40.(17)
The vulnerability of these markets to the crisis--although very
little has happened to change any real conditions for Amerikan
companies--shows both the artificial character of the definitions
of value under capitalism, and the importance of economic
expansion and international control to the future of imperialism.
Short term economic impact is perhaps greatest on Third World
countries which are deeply dependent on imported oil. But the
agents of imperialism are there to help pick up the pieces, as
both the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank are
prepared to issue new loans for eternal dependency, especially to
those puppet states who are trying to attract investment from the
capitalist core countries.
Michel Camdessus, managing director of IMF, said the new aid was
"to insure that in all cases courageous growth-oriented programs
are not interrupted because of external economic shocks."(18)
Suffering in the Middle East
Of course, the crisis has produced grave consequences for the
masses in the Middle East. Besides the hundreds of thousands of
migrant workers who have been forced to flee Iraq and Kuwait--
cutting off family incomes which had been crucial in communities
from Palestine to Pakistan--the fallout has spread to workers
outside of the direct conflict as well.
Saudi Arabia, angry at the Yemeni government for sticking up for
Arab unity against the United States, has kicked 500,000 Yemenis
out of the country, and is moving to boot another 1.5 million.
These workers (including many bourgeois professionals) send $2
billion per year back to neighboring Yemen, making that Yemen's
largest single source of income.(19)
One consequence of shifting power relations in the Middle East has
been the reassertion of control over Lebanon by Syria. At a cost
of at least 750 lives, including 200 civilians, Syria beat the
rebellious Gen. Aoun out of East Beirut last month. Aoun was an
ally of Saddam Hussein, who has been in perpetual conflict with
Syria--the only Arab country to openly support Iran against
Iraq.(20)
Representing the new U.S. interest in Syria's control, the State
Department said that after the invasion, it hopes Lebanon "can now
move toward reconciliation and the rebirth of a united, sovereign
and independent Lebanon."(21)
Some independence. Syria still has at least 40,000 troops in
Lebanon. One of Aoun's reasons for turning against his government
was his insistence that Syria leave; the Lebanese government in
turn asked Syria to bomb him to hell.(22) Despite massive loss of
life, Aoun himself skipped out and at press time is still alive,
though one of his close allies, Dany Chamoun, was
assassinated.(23)
Increased backlash against pro-U.S. governments is also on the
rise, especially in Egypt, where Speaker of the Parliament Rifaat
al-Mahgoub, was assassinated, on Oct. 12.(24)
Outbursts against imperialism
MIM welcomes efforts by those Amerikans opposed to the war in the
Middle East, and urges all those who are truly concerned with the
plight of the oppressed the world over--not just the living
standards of relatively rich Amerikans--to study the roots of
world war, and organize to put a stop to imperialism in all of its
forms, including the capitalist imperialism of the United States
and the state capitalist social-imperialism of the Soviet Union.
MIM recommends the following readings for a better understanding
of the roles of imperialism and world war:
Arms and Empire, by Richard Krooth. CITE? AMY TOOK OUR LAST COPY.
Available from MIM for $7, postage paid.
Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism, by V. I. Lenin. CITE
Available from MIM for $2.00 postage paid.
Send only cash or check with name section left blank.
For a complete MIM reading list, send a .45 cent stamp to MIM
Distributors, PO Box 3576, Ann Arbor, MI 48106-3576.
Notes:
1. New York Times 10/26/90, p. A1.
2. NYT10/18/90, p. A1.
3. Newsweek 10/29/90.
4. L.A. Times 10/21/90, p. A10.
5. Wall Street Journal 10/26/90, p. A14.
6. Newsweek 10/29/90, p. 29.
7. NYT 10/26/90, p. A6.
8. L.A. Times 10/21/90, p. A9.
9. NYT 10/26/90, p. A6.
10. NYT 10/23/90, p. A6.
11. WSJ 10/26/90, p. A1.
12. Detroit Free Press 10/19/90, p. E1.
13. WSJ 10/25/90, p. A2.
14. DFP 10/25/90.
15. WSJ 10/25/90, p. A4.
16. WSJ 10/25/90, p. C1.
17. NYT 10/26/90, p. C6.
18. NYT 9/17/90, p. C7.
19. NYT 10/26/90, p. A7.
20. NYT 10/19/90, p. A1.
21. AP in Ann Arbor News 10/14/90, p. A12.
22. AP in AAN 10/21/90, p. B2.
23. NYT 10/22/90, p. A3.
24. NYT 10/13/90, p. A1.
* * *
APARTHEID ISRAELI STYLE
by MC44 and MC12
On Oct. 8, Palestinians demonstrating against the rumored
destruction of both the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque in
Jerusalem were massacred by "unprepared" Israeli police forces.
The government then reacted to the international outcry by closing
Jerusalem to Palestinians from the Occupied Territories, sealing
off the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The body count--from the bloodiest single incident since the
outbreak of the intifada in December 1987--has been debated and
finally set at 21 killed, and over 150 wounded. One thousand
Palestinians were arrested for either organizing or participating
in the riots. Among them was Faisal al-Husseni, a moderate
representative from the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).
Much has been made of who or what initially incited the violence--
whether Palestinians had premeditated an attack on Jewish
worshippers at the nearby Wailing Wall, thus provoking the police,
whether the attack was planned for the Israeli police themselves
and not the worshippers at all, or whether the Israelis themselves
were the provocateurs.
Among the factors that account for consistent undercounting of
dead and wounded in Palestine are the unreported martyrs who are
immediately taken by their families who don't want the authorities
to "confiscate" them, which appears to be the case in this
incident.
A prominent Israeli daily newspaper, Ha'aretz, originally reported
the police propaganda as news. The paper said that the the PLO and
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein planned the riot as a joint action
to deflect world attention from the Gulf crisis and bring the
Palestinian uprising back to the front pages of the media. Later,
the paper rescinded that position, and instead contended that only
the demonstrations against the destruction of the mosque were
planned, but the violence was a spontaneous response to the
actions of the Israeli fundamentalist group Temple Mount Faithful,
placing Palestinians on the defensive.(1)
Temple Mount Faithful is an organization of settlers who want to
rebuild the Jewish Temple (last destroyed in 70 A.D.) on the site
of the third holiest place in Islam, the Dome of the Rock. The
government radio of Israel also suggested that the violence and
rioting were provoked by the police.(2)
Police reacted to the Palestinians' stones and bottles with live
ammunition, rubber and plastic bullets, and tear gas. The
government reacted to the incident at large by imposing immediate
and total curfews in the Gaza Strip and much of the West Bank, and
by closing the city of Jerusalem to any incoming Arabs. During a
curfew, people who leave their homes can be shot. This is the
first time since the 1967 seizure of Jerusalem that the city has
been closed.(3)
The world responds
The PLO drafted a resolution to the United Nations--formally
proposed by Yemen on Oct. 9--which condemned Israel's brutality in
the Jerusalem massacre. The resolution emphasized the use of live
ammunition in a crowd and demanded a U.N. delegation to Palestine
to monitor and report human rights abuses. The delegation would
not be limited to gathering facts on this isolated incident, but
would serve as a permanent presence in the formally occupied
territories and eventually have a role in "bringing about a peace
process."(4)
The United States immediately drafted a counter proposal which
condemned Israel's excessive use of violence and called for a U.N.
delegation which would investigate this incident only. The counter
proposal also included a condemnation of the violence against the
Israeli setters at the Wailing Wall.(5)
The PLO's proposal posed a significant threat to the alliances
that the United States has made with some Arab countries--
especially Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Syria--over the use of military
force against Iraq. As the United States buys greater influence in
the Arab world through economic incentives to participate in the
Gulf effort, its need for the Israeli iron fist may diminish, the
Israeli government fears. The United States has walked a tightrope
in the region recently, with a strategy which has hinged on Israel
keeping a low profile--thus allowing the sell-out Arab governments
to go on pretending that taking aid from the United States to help
put down another Arab country does not represent a betrayal of
Arab unity against Israel.
As far as the allegations that Israeli agents incited the violence
on Oct. 8, it is not hard to identify their interest in fracturing
these U.S.-Arab alliances. Similarly, in order to debunk the
analogy between the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait and the Israeli
occupation of Palestine, Israel needs to provide reasons why the
Palestinians are a hostile force and not innocent victims, as in
Kuwait.
PLO Information Office Director Jamil Hilal called the United
States out on its hypocrisy: "The United States got three
resolutions on Iraq out of the Security Council in five days, and
it spent five days obstructing a Palestine proposal."(6)
Israel responds to the world
Israeli Prime Minister Yitzchak Shamir and his cabinet announced
that Israel would not cooperate with any delegation from the
U.N.(7) In further defiance, Housing Minister Ariel Sharon
announced a new housing plan which would settle Soviet immigrants
in the West Bank and East Jerusalem in a more overt, direct manner
than the United States wants to publicly endorse. He told
reporters that in order to strengthen Israel's political position
he would need to "strengthen the Jewish population" in
Jerusalem.(8) Israel had previously agreed that the $400 million
housing loan from the U.S. earlier this year would not be used to
settle Soviet immigrants in either the West Bank and Gaza Strip or
East Jerusalem.
Notes:
1. Detroit Free Press 10/12/90.
2. AP in Ann Arbor News 10/18/90.
3. AP in Ann Arbor News 10/9/90.
4. Detroit Free Press 10/22/90.
5. New York Times 10/12/90.
6. New York Times 10/18/90.
7. AP in Ann Arbor News 10/15/90.
8. New York Times 10/16/90.
* * *
POLICE AND COURTS ATTACK GREENSBORO BLACKS
by MA20
B.J., a 17-year-old African American of Greensboro, NC, was
convicted last month of misdemeanor assault charges, disorderly
conduct and resisting arrest. This is one more example of the
oppression that Black people in the United States face today.
This particular trial is significant because of the incident that
led up to it. On Saturday, July 23, 1990 Lorna Johnson, B.J.'s
mother, came home after receiving a call from her son that her
home was on fire.
No one was in the house at the time the fire started, but the fire
inspector, William Williams, said things to B.J. that made him
think that he was being accused of setting the blaze. Plus, B.J.
was distraught after witnessing his house burning. (It sustained
$25,000 worth of damage.)
A friend, Michael Stimpson, who had comforted B.J. prior to the
arrival of the fire and police departments, came into B.J.'s house
after the fire department inspector began to talk to B.J. and his
mother. Michael took B.J. outside again to comfort him.
Two white Greensboro cops, K.B. Nabors and J.A. Hafkemeyer, saw
B.J. and Michael. The cops then rushed B.J. and "pushed him to the
pavement and began beating him with a nightstick and spraying mace
in his eyes...."(1)
"Angry neighbors of Lorna Brown Johnson said... that (she) was
only trying to protect her 17-year-old son... from an unwarranted
beating when police dragged her in handcuffs to a police car....
Johnson's 12-year-old daughter, Amanda, was handcuffed after
grabbing her mother."(1)
"The only crime she committed was being a mother,"(1) Beulah
Sharpe said. "They weren't showing any compassion to them, and
their house had just burned down."(1)
The city dropped the charges of assault and obstructing an officer
against Lorna Johnson during the trial, after a motion was made by
her attorney. The judge, Thomas G. Foster, chided B.J. for
"behavior and language and overall demeanor (that) gave rise to
getting us here today."(2)
In essence, the judge told B.J. and other African Americans that
they have no right to defend themselves against police attack.
After the trial, MIM learned that Greensboro cop K.B. Nabors
reportedly maces all people he arrests.
The assault on the Johnson family catalyzed the Black community to
recall incidents that they or friends had faced at the hands of
the Greensboro Police Department. It also rekindled memories of
how the police and the federal intelligence agencies helped the
KKK murder five Communist Workers Party members in 1979. The
Klanspeople were never convicted on state or federal charges.
The trial outcome also made it clear that the courts routinely
clear police of any wrongdoing. No charges were ever brought
against any of the cops involved in the beating of the Johnsons.
The Greensboro police internal affairs division cleared all the
cops of any wrongdoing in the Johnson beating incident.
Since the June incident, the Greensboro NAACP has been demanding
that the local city council institute a civilian police review
board to investigate incidents of brutality by police on people.
The city and the police are opposed to this proposal, but on Aug.
28 a hearing was held at Greensboro's city hall to voice people's
comments about the police.
During the Aug. 28 hearing, 19 of 21 speakers who spoke came out
forcefully against the Greensboro Police. Beatrice Paschal, who is
white, told the council that after she was injured in a wreck with
a police car Sept. 5, 1989, an officer dragged her to a squad car
despite severe rib and foot injuries.
John Pollard, who is Black, told the council that after his car
rolled downhill and struck a gas meter September 1989, he was
handcuffed and his wife, Tamara Robinson, was brutalized by
officers when she protested. Officers "were kicking her, shoving
her by the hair, about to tear the girl apart," he said.
Romallus O. Murphy, Johnson's lawyer, who is Black, told the
council that about 11 a.m. Monday, his wife was stopped near the
Morningside Homes public housing community and ordered to open her
trunk. When she did, he said officers emptied her Avon samples
onto the street and then said, "Are you one of those who're going
to shout 'police brutality?'"(3)
From the Johnson trial and the city council hearing and from other
events that have occurred, it is clear that the Black community
has a determined foe in the Greensboro Police Department. Their
actions clearly show that they are not friends, but are hired
thugs whose job it is to serve and protect the rich, white folks
and keep the Black people in check.
No matter what anti-crime or anti-drug messages or programs the
police might organize, their true nature is exposed in incidents
like these.
The only solution to this problem is to organize against police
brutality. The police, as an institution, do not and cannot have
the people's interest at heart, since they are representatives of
the capitalist-imperialist local government.
Undoubtedly this will take much work and effort, but it is work
that is well worth the task, since police attacks are a
fundamental pillar of the oppressive apparatus used against the
Black people as a whole and against the Black progressive
movements in particular.
Unfortunately the reformist demand for a police review board will
not give African Amerikans in Greensboro adequate or even useful
control over the police. The principle of accountability behind
such a practice--that citizens be able to direct their own police
and military--is a sound one but cannot be implemented by the same
system of injustice which brutalizes the Black community. Without
a revolution lead by a Maoist party, these demands will result in
elegant propaganda for the police. Mechanisms whereby the Bull
Connors of the world can say, "Of course we don't discriminate. We
have police review. The citizens sanction the police."
Notes:
1. Greensboro News and Record 7/24/90.
2. Greensboro News and Record 10/9/90.
3. Greensboro News and Record 8/29/90.
* * *
NOT A POLITICAL CAMPAIGN
by MC44
On Wednesday, Sept. 26, students of the University of District
Columbia (UDC), Van Ness campus, seized the administration
building in a successful effort to shut down the school. The
administration building was actually the second building to come
under student control, after Building 38, which contains the
campus radio station. Students from the campus radio station and
the school newspaper were key organizers in the protest.(1)
Holding the University Board of Trustees accountable for the
history of instability of the 13-year-old university, students
called for the resignation of 11 of the 15 board members and the
student representative, who they say, had not kept them adequately
in touch with the administration. Specific demands included
extending the school library hours beyond 9:00 p.m. and
reinstating funds for the athletic department, out of which the
football, women's basketball, and volleyball programs had been cut
without consultation with coaches or teams.(2)
The other major point of contention was the university's
acceptance of a piece of artwork called "The Dinner Party" which
some members of Congress have labeled "obscene." Students were
objecting not to obscenity perse, but because renovations to house
the artwork would cost the $1.6 million from the university's
existing budget. This would further threaten their academic
programs.(2)
Students also felt that due to the rapid turnover of university
presidents and general instability at the top, UDC's accreditation
was impaired. After meeting with the protesters (and classes had
been closed for two days), Washington D.C. Mayor Marrion Barry
agreed to "urge two key trustees"--including the student
representative--to resign. Barry claimed he didn't have the
authority to fire the Board members, only to appoint them.(2)
In addition to the slogans that read "No Justice, No Peace,"
students carried signs that said, "This Is Not A Political
Campaign, This Is A Revolutionary Struggle." Students and youth
everywhere should recognize their historical role in revolutionary
struggle. Said Chairman Mao of students, "If we do not unite in
order to attend to our own 'self-instruction,' then what are we
waiting for?"(3)
Notes:
1. The Hilltop 9/31/90.
2. The Washington Post 9/31/90.
3. Mao Zedong, "The Great Union of the Popular Masses," translated
in The China Quarterly, Jan.-March 1972, No. 49.
* * *
LETTERS
100 FLOWERS (AND WEEDS), BUT NO CULTURAL REVOLUTION IN ALBANIA
Dear MIM:
I just finished reading the news article in MIM Notes 45 by MC5
entitled "Albania and Soviet Union normalize relations" and
thought I'd write you a brief letter on it and some of Enver
Hoxha's views on Mao and The People's Republic of China.
First, I would suggest that you read Enver's four booklets of
diary entrances, Reflections on China. Although these booklets
were mentioned in your news article, it left the reader with the
impression that these booklets were written after the death of
Mao.
A thorough reading of them will show that years before Mao's death
or the Cultural Revolution in China, Enver began compiling his
thoughts and views on what was actually taking place in China: the
class struggle.
In his subsequent booklet, "Eurocommunism Is Anti-Communism"
(published in 1980), Enver said Mao's call upon the party for "the
blossoming of a hundred flowers and contention of a hundred
schools of thought" was in theory and practice advocating a hybrid
state, rather than the dictatorship of the proletariat. And that a
hybrid state is something that idealists, social-democrats, etc.,
etc. champion.
In addition, Enver stated that Mao was an eclectic. In his
Reflections on China, he stated that the Cultural Revolution was
anti-Marxist-Leninist because it relied upon the students to smash
and retake the state from the capitalist-roaders and revisionists,
instead of the working class. Hence, he said this is why the
Cultural Revolution failed and Deng Xiaoping and company were able
to seize power after the death of Mao and initiate a process of
dismantling the progress of the revolution.
--Southern reader
October 1990
MC5 replies:
The letter writer is a Hoxhaite, someone who claims to uphold
Marx, Lenin, Stalin and Albania's late leader Enver Hoxha. The
Hoxhaites are closer to Maoism than most trends on the "left" both
because they uphold Stalin and because at least during the
Cultural Revolution, they upheld Mao.
The writer is correct that the diary entries at least appear to be
from before the death of Mao. What the article I wrote pointed
out, however, was that it's one thing to write a diary. It's
another to publish official documents.
All the public documents from Albania before Mao's death backed
the Cultural Revolution and Mao Zedong. So why did Hoxha's public
position change? Was it just that China's revisionists cut-off his
aid?
Did Hoxha have another set of diaries to uncover in case China
restored the aid? However, supposing the Hoxhaites just took a
while to realize that they had erred in supporting Mao, what does
their theory amount to?
MIM believes that without a Cultural Revolution and the theory
developed by the Gang of Four, the society in Albania inevitably
turns state capitalist. Soon we may see Albania go publicly for
free market capitalism. Already business interaction with the West
is increasing as are political ties with the Soviet Union. To the
extent that Albania has not blatantly moved into Western
dependence and free market capitalism, it is a credit to the
popular power of the initial Albanian revolution during World War
II.
As for the "flowers" argument, the Maoists always distinguished
between "flowers" and "weeds." In fact, after his "flowers"
statement, Mao had thousands of rightists executed, deported to
outer regions and marked for life in security files. It is ironic
for the Hoxhaites, who like to pose as the strict upholders of
repression of the bourgeoisie, to oppose the anti-Rightist
campaign.
Finally, MIM has numerous books on its literature list detailing
the concrete role of workers in the Cultural Revolution. Mao
simply observed that in China, as in Russia's case, students
initiated the revolution. Mao did not wish that truth, just
observed it. Hoxhaites, however, have a hard time separating
reality from wishful thinking.
CENSORED PRISONER ASKS FOR BLACK PANTHERS SPEAK
Dear MIM:
I am an African American doing twenty years for striking a blow
against the powers that be. I would very much like a copy of the
book The Black Panthers Speak.
I do consider myself a non-religious socialist; however, I am not
a member of any particular organization. I am interested in
learning more about a number of organizations such as the Black
Panther Militia, Radical Student Union, etc. and, of course, MIM.
I would like to know the primary reason of their existence.
Although I order from many groups because of the institution I'm
in, I usually don't receive the literature and when I do it is
screened.
I have over ten copies of the Revolutionary Worker sitting on the
assistant warden's desk right now. I sort of stand out because
most inmates aren't interested in socialism, rather racial
supremacy, gang banging, drugs, pimping or other self-genocidal
practices that are capitalist in nature.
Although I am insolvent right now, I can at least disseminate
information. But the people will have to be receptive of it;
otherwise, I will be wasting both our time, and my time is
valuable to me, even in here.
--Prisoner
September 1990
1,500 DEAD SINCE 1984 CRISIS AT MEXICAN BORDER
Dear MIM:
Is the "crisis" in Saudi Arabia or on the border? The Border
Commission on Human Rights claimed last March that 1,500 people
have been killed on the border by bandits, vigilantes, the Mexican
police, and the U.S. Border Patrol since 1984. (Harpers, August
1990) We can better help Iraq if we struggle against colonial
violence here within the political borders of the united states.
Since the KKK/Nazis have advocated "race war" on the border we
need to remember that the struggle against border violence is the
struggle against colonial violence. The struggle against colonial
violence is the struggle for Mexican national liberation
revolution which the KKK/Nazis and the U.S. government recognize
as the number one threat to "national security." To combat border
violence is to "reunify" Mexico--not calling for border patrol
sensitivity training or asking the oppressor that immigration laws
be humanely enforced. (Direccion Nacional, Fall 1990)
It's a question of uniting or dividing the Mexican nation.
Anything and everything short of this concept around border
violence such as to identify it as "separatism" within the
amerikkkan context is evidence of the settler (colonial)
mentality. No two ways about it.
--Study and Struggle
98 Wadsworth Blvd. Ste. 127-170
Lakewood, CO 80226
USE MIM REPRINTS TO DEVELOP UNDERSTANDING OF MAOISM
Dear MIM:
Generally it has been impressive to have received the study
material from MIM. The reprints have been quite helpful in
developing a better understanding of MIM and Maoism.
These documents, plus the MIM articles, "Myths about Maoism,"
"What Is a Pig Question?" "Internationalism vs. Single-issue
Solidarity Work," "Notes on Leadership," "Who Is a Maoist," "Who
Is a Communist," "Ideas vs. History -- The Materialist
Method," "Superexploitation in Europe" and "Facts on Prison," have
done a great deal to develop my political understanding and helped
me better understand a few political things that I did not
understand before.
I do think that the core Latino and Black masses make up a
proletariat in the United States. I here include migrant and
undocumented workers.
In a previous letter I discussed the need for quoting sources. I
appreciate your method better now. My only concern is that we not
use the lies and mis- and half- truths put out by the imperialist
press as gospel.
I am enclosing donation.
--MA20
October, 1990
MC5 replies:
The writer refers to theoretical discussion articles available
from MIM for $1 a month. They will come out every 2 weeks starting
in about December and come out sporadically right now.
USE MN40 TO CLARIFY STALIN
Dear MIM:
We appreciated the article by MC11 in MIM Notes 44 "Imperialist
Countries: English-only upheld."
Our scientific communism study group has finished Marx's "Economic
and Philosophic Manuscripts" and now we are bogged down with
"Preface to the Critique of Political Economy" where Marx writes
"ideological forms in which 'men' become conscious of this
conflict (relations of production) and fight it out."
We will distribute MIM Notes 40 to clarify and debunk some myths
on Stalin in one of our "political science" classes after viewing
the anti-Bolshevik video "Czar to Stalin."
--MA21
September 1990
INDIVIDUALS KEY TO SOCIALISM
Dear MIM:
The most favorable conditions and opportunities offered the
individual are insufficient for a practical realization of the
socialist way of life. An important role here belongs to the
individual's own qualities, their world outlook, value orientation
and convictions.
The socialist society helps the working masses to develop a
scientific world outlook, with the Marxist-Leninist theory as its
basis. In our quest for the meaning of life, the individual is
sometimes unable to find the right reference point in view of
their erroneous notions about the world. That prevents us from
"rising to our full stature," impedes our activity, or channels it
along a false road.
Marxism-Leninism is the compass which points the way to a
satisfying life filled out with great social content. There is a
direct connection between the individual's world outlook and
nature of their activity. Those who want to live a vibrant and
interesting life should study revolutionary theory and take part
in the struggle to liberate all the working people, for peace and
social progress. For this the would be educators must be educated.
A study of the theory of scientific communism helps us to
understand the ways and means for a practical transformation of
reality, for the establishment and further progress of a new
world. But the formation of a scientific, communist world outlook
is not only the result of theoretical studies and analysis. It
cannot take shape without the individual's vigorous involvement in
socio-political activity. Actual struggle for the new system
promotes the individual's ideological advance. The United States'
social scientists must play an important role here.
In spite of the old world's resistance, the new system has been
steadily developing in a number of European, Asian and Latin
American countries. The main goal of socialism is the new human
being. Existing socialism, which has asserted itself on one-sixth
of the planet, convinces people that it is the system of the
future, that socialism implies a peaceful and happy life, a life
of creative quests and possibilities. But such a life should be
fought for. The forces of the old, exploitive world will not leave
the historical scene of their own accord, and people should remove
them by taking joint, international action. While we are students
attempting to "study and struggle," we need to remember that
education is a weapon whose effects depend on who holds it in
their hand and at whom it is aimed. The weapons we plan to use are
the continuation of the video program, distributing the Study and
Struggle leaflet, and to start a scientific communism study group.
Let all oppressors tremble at the thought.
--Study and Struggle
August 1990
MC5 replies:
MIM disagrees with the author because MIM believes Marxism-
Leninism without Maoism is not Marxism-Leninism at all. In
particular, history has shown that class struggle continues under
the dictatorship of the proletariat (socialism). Without such
struggle, and even with such struggle sometimes, the result is a
restoration of capitalism. This capitalism has existed in the
Soviet Union since about 1956 and since 1976 in China. We can no
longer boast that socialism covers one-sixth of the planet, but we
have had valuable experience relevant to theory that must be
retained, refreshed and applied again.
JUSTIFY LIBERATION OF A STATE WITHOUT A PROLETARIAT
Dear MIM:
MC5 may want to clarify to readers that the people of Kuwait
should be distinguished from the feudal emir, when she/he goes on
record saying "MIM would support a boycott of Iraqi oil." [MIM
Notes 44] Now I am not aware of a proletariat in Kuwait, and in
the face of such racist anti-Arab propaganda bullshit being
shoveled down our throats by the Amerikan press concerning Saddam
(some of which is true, but the white world didn't care when he
mustard gassed the Kurds in his own population a few years
back.... but then again, he (being now the Hitler of 1990) was
opposing the Hitler of 1979, the Ayatollah Khomeini.
I feel that MC5 could fill us in on one, who to support, two, if
there are Maoist elements in the region and three, if MIM believes
Maoism can surface in such a fundamentalist area of the world, in
the foreseeable future.
I think I've covered everything that I needed to say. MIM Notes 44
was superb, as usual.
--MC16
September 1990
MC5 replies:
Another writer wrote in about the issue of supporting Kuwaiti
self-determination. This other writer thought that Kuwait was not
a legitimate country anyway and was not worthy of any existence.
In MN #44, in the context of an article on anti-militarism, I said
that MIM should support a boycott of oil from Iraq if Kuwaitis
organized a movement for self-determination and asked for a
boycott.
I stand by that position with the following explanations. First,
it is typical Trotskyist or anarchist reasoning to deny the
reality of all nationalism because it is the Trotskyist-anarchist
goal to reach a world without nations in one gigantic leap.
This Trotskyist reasoning is flawed because if one scratches
beneath the surface, there isn't a nation in the world that was
not created out of some fraud or fiction. For example, the Mohawk
Nation is a nation with an internationally recognized and morally
unassailable claim. Yet, even the Mohawk Nation is a creation of
geopolitical reality under imperialism. Without imperialism, the
Mohawks would not have the concept of nation that it is now forced
to accept to survive.
As Stalin pointed out, if a group of people has a common language,
culture, territory and economic system, there is a certain reality
to its existence as a nation, no matter how much deceit and force
came into play in its origins. Kuwait fits this definition of
nation.
Secondly, beyond the issue of the place of nations and nationalism
under imperialism is the fact that a boycott of Iraqi oil does not
require any involvement of the U.S. state any more than a boycott
of environmentally unsound products. Boycotts are not the same as
military-enforced embargoes.
Thirdly, there have been Maoist contenders in the Mideast region.
For awhile, it appeared that Maoists even had a shot at unseating
the Shah instead of Khomeini. To this day, Maoist elements exist
within Iran and the Kurdish nation embedded in Iran, Iraq and
elsewhere. In Iran, they continued to wage armed struggle through
the 1980s. (See MIM literature list.)
Right now it appears that some of the Kurdish armed struggle has
lost its bearings and moved in a Hoxhaite or other supposedly
Marxist-Leninist direction. We don't have good information on
that, but the Marxist-Leninist Party is doing slideshows on that
situation, which it finds encouraging.
Still, the goal of the communists is a world without borders and I
think MC16 raises a good question. If a country does not have a
proletariat, do we care about its liberation? Does such national
liberation help the cause of communism?
Would the liberation of Kuwait really deliver any blows against
imperialism? I think MIM circles should discuss this some more.
When Lenin and Stalin wrote about national self-determination,
they did not say, "only in countries with a proletariat." Maybe
they should have.
Another closely related issue is that some think MIM should
support the defense of Iraq, not just anti-militarism and anti-
imperialism. I disagree because I don't think it helps the anti-
imperialist cause to support bourgeois regimes. It confuses the
class reasons for opposing wars between bourgeois governments.
* * *
CORRECTIONS:
MIM Notes 43
MIM writers made the following errors in their translation of the
interview with Communist Party of Peru Chair Comrade Gonzalo from
the newspaper El Diario. The interview appeared in MIM Notes 43.
First, the phrase "popular war" should read "people's war."
Second, comrade Gonzalo did not say "identifying bureaucratic
capitalism with monopoly capitalism of the state is a revisionist
concept of our party." Instead Gonzalo said, "This interpretation
of identifying bureaucrat capitalism with state monopoly
capitalism is a revisionist concept and in our party it was
supported by the liquidationism of the left."
The thrust of these comments is that in Peru phony Marxists
advocate seeing state monopoly capitalists as progressive. Gonzalo
is struggling against bureaucrat capitalism as a reactionary
phenomenon.
MIM Notes 45
In MIM Notes 45, the first paragraph of the story on China
incorrectly cited 1979 as the date capitalism arose in China.
Rather, where it says 1979, it should say 1976.
* * *
MASSACRE IN THE HOLY CITY
by MC44 and MC12
On Oct. 8, Palestinians demonstrating against the rumored
destruction of both the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque in
Jerusalem were massacred by "unprepared" Israeli police forces.
The government then reacted to the international outcry by closing
Jerusalem to Palestinians from the Occupied Territories, sealing
off the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The body count--from the bloodiest single incident since the
outbreak of the intifada in December 1987--has been debated and
finally set at 21 killed, and over 150 wounded. One thousand
Palestinians were arrested for either organizing or participating
in the riots. Among them was Faisal al-Husseni, a moderate
representative from the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).
Much has been made of who or what initially incited the violence--
whether Palestinians had premeditated an attack on Jewish
worshippers at the nearby Wailing Wall, thus provoking the police,
whether the attack was planned for the Israeli police themselves
and not the worshippers at all, or whether the Israelis themselves
were the provocateurs.
Among the factors that account for consistent undercounting of
dead and wounded in Palestine are the unreported martyrs who are
immediately taken by their families who don't want the authorities
to "confiscate" them, which appears to be the case in this
incident.
A prominent Israeli daily newspaper, Ha'aretz, originally reported
the police propaganda as news. The paper said that the the PLO and
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein planned the riot as a joint action
to deflect world attention from the Gulf crisis and bring the
Palestinian uprising back to the front pages of the media. Later,
the paper rescinded that position, and instead contended that only
the demonstrations against the destruction of the mosque were
planned, but the violence was a spontaneous response to the
actions of the Israeli fundamentalist group Temple Mount Faithful,
placing Palestinians on the defensive.(1)
Temple Mount Faithful is an organization of settlers who want to
rebuild the Jewish Temple (last destroyed in 70 A.D.) on the site
of the third holiest place in Islam, the Dome of the Rock. The
government radio of Israel also suggested that the violence and
rioting were provoked by the police.(2)
Police reacted to the Palestinians' stones and bottles with live
ammunition, rubber and plastic bullets, and tear gas. The
government reacted to the incident at large by imposing immediate
and total curfews in the Gaza Strip and much of the West Bank, and
by closing the city of Jerusalem to any incoming Arabs. During a
curfew, people who leave their homes can be shot. This is the
first time since the 1967 seizure of Jerusalem that the city has
been closed.(3)
The world responds
The PLO drafted a resolution to the United Nations--formally
proposed by Yemen on Oct. 9--which condemned Israel's brutality in
the Jerusalem massacre. The resolution emphasized the use of live
ammunition in a crowd and demanded a U.N. delegation to Palestine
to monitor and report human rights abuses. The delegation would
not be limited to gathering facts on this isolated incident, but
would serve as a permanent presence in the formally occupied
territories and eventually have a role in "bringing about a peace
process."(4)
The United States immediately drafted a counter proposal which
condemned Israel's excessive use of violence and called for a U.N.
delegation which would investigate this incident only. The counter
proposal also included a condemnation of the violence against the
Israeli setters at the Wailing Wall.(5)
The PLO's proposal posed a significant threat to the alliances
that the United States has made with some Arab countries--
especially Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Syria--over the use of military
force against Iraq. As the United States buys greater influence in
the Arab world through economic incentives to participate in the
Gulf effort, its need for the Israeli iron fist may diminish, the
Israeli government fears. The United States has walked a tightrope
in the region recently, with a strategy which has hinged on Israel
keeping a low profile--thus allowing the sell-out Arab governments
to go on pretending that taking aid from the United States to help
put down another Arab country does not represent a betrayal of
Arab unity against Israel.
As far as the allegations that Israeli agents incited the violence
on Oct. 8, it is not hard to identify their interest in fracturing
these U.S.-Arab alliances. Similarly, in order to debunk the
analogy between the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait and the Israeli
occupation of Palestine, Israel needs to provide reasons why the
Palestinians are a hostile force and not innocent victims, as in
Kuwait.
PLO Information Office Director Jamil Hilal called the United
States out on its hypocrisy: "The United States got three
resolutions on Iraq out of the Security Council in five days, and
it spent five days obstructing a Palestine proposal."(6)
Israel responds to the world
Israeli Prime Minister Yitzchak Shamir and his cabinet announced
that Israel would not cooperate with any delegation from the
U.N.(7) In further defiance, Housing Minister Ariel Sharon
announced a new housing plan which would settle Soviet immigrants
in the West Bank and East Jerusalem in a more overt, direct manner
than the United States wants to publicly endorse. He told
reporters that in order to strengthen Israel's political position
he would need to "strengthen the Jewish population" in
Jerusalem.(8) Israel had previously agreed that the $400 million
housing loan from the U.S. earlier this year would not be used to
settle Soviet immigrants in either the West Bank and Gaza Strip or
East Jerusalem.
Notes:
1. Detroit Free Press 10/12/90.
2. AP in Ann Arbor News 10/18/90.
3. AP in Ann Arbor News 10/9/90.
4. Detroit Free Press 10/22/90.
5. New York Times 10/12/90.
6. New York Times 10/18/90.
7. AP in Ann Arbor News 10/15/90.
8. New York Times 10/16/90.
* * *
SEXUAL HARASSMENT REPORTED AT INS DETENTION CENTER
by MA10
A number of female security guards at the U.S. Immigration and
Naturalization Service Bayview detention center reported that male
guards are sexually harassing both female guards and detainees. At
least three former female guards reported that their supervisors
had sexually harassed them. One guard said that the supervisors
used the camp "as their own supermarket for sex from the detainees
or from the guards."(1)
The Bayview guards are employed by the United Inter Investigative
Services Company, which supplies the detention center with 130
guards. While the recent allegations concern supervisors who work
for the security company, the female guards suspect that INS
officers are also involved.
Several women reported that they were dismissed for objecting to
sexual advances. The issue is not a new one: in May, two Central
American women detained at the Brownsville INS center accused
guards there of sexual harassment.(2) The Bayview incident has
been referred to the INS internal investigations department, and
"is being investigated."(1)
Notes:
1. Brownsville Herald September 1990.
2. Valley Morning Star (Harlingen) 5/31/90.
* * *
CONGRESS PLAYS "LET'S MAKE A DEAL" WITH EL SALVADOR
by MA10
On Oct. 19, the U.S. Senate voted to cut military aid to El
Salvador in half, withholding $42.5 million of the $85 million
designated for El Salvador in 1991.
What's the catch? The first amendment to the legislation,
introduced by Senators Christopher Dodd and George Leahy, insures
that President George Bush retains the power to reinstate the full
amount of aid if he determines that the Farabundo Mart’ National
Liberation Front (FMLN) "is walking out of peace talks that are
under way or mounts an offensive that jeopardizes the survival of
the Government."(1) The FMLN is the guerilla group fighting
against the U.S.-backed government of El Salvador under Alfredo
Cristiani.
A second amendment, not voted on as of MIM press time, would add
another condition requiring the FMLN and the Salvadoran government
to accept a United Nations supervised cease-fire within 60 days of
the time the bill goes into effect.(1)
That Democrats and Republicans have been arguing over this issue
for months, describing it as a major partisan conflict, is
laughable. To pretend that the Dodd-Leahy amendment creates
conditions for any resolution of the war in El Salvador is naive
at best. Still, most El Salvador solidarity groups--particularly
the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador
(CISPES)--place great confidence in the congressional cut-off of
aid, rather than self-reliance of the people in El Salvador.
The most recent round of talks between the FMLN and the Cristiani
government ended on Sept. 19. The talks failed to result in their
goal of a Sept. 15 cease-fire. The only agreement they reached was
to meet again sometime before November 4. (2)
The FMLN recently issued a new economic model and political
platform statement. MIM is withholding comment on the new
platform at this time, in anticipation of further information.
Notes:
1. NYT 10/20/90, p. 3.
2. NYT 9/19/90, p. 3.
MIM's response to FMLN
by MC44
It may appear that the Christopher Dodd-George Leahy plan in the
Senate expects the FMLN to abide by a stipulation which directly
contradicts its expressed purpose. Some observers may think that
mounting an offensive which would jeopardize the government is
exactly what the "revolutionary" movement in El Salvador has been
striving to do for the past ten years. MIM disagrees.
The FMLN, strongly influenced by the Communist Party of El
Salvador (PCS), has long supported negotiations with the
Salvadoran government. Back in 1982, the FMLN's plans for
conciliation with the government affirmed the legitimacy of the
military by taking the position that guerillas could eventually
reform the existing army by cleaning out its membership and
joining it themselves. There was no precondition for the
withdrawal of U.S. troops before the talks could begin.(1) The PCS
answers politically to the Soviet Union, which is currently
aligned with the U.S. to issue a joint statement to the government
and the FMLN. The statement calls for the intensifying of their
peace talks and a negotiated settlement.(2)
MIM supports all struggles to overthrow imperialism, but denies
that the reformist tactics of the FMLN and the PCS will ever
achieve this goal. Anything that comes out of negotiations with
Cristiani's fascist Arena party is unlikely to seriously address
the plight of the oppressed Salvadoran people, and the FMLN should
not be wasting its time.
Notes:
1. "Central America: Imperialism and Revolution," pamphlet of the
Central American Solidarity Committee, p. 36.
2. NYT10/19/90, p. A3.
* * *
MANDELA PUSHES INTEGRATION OF U.S. AFRICAN AMERIKANS
by MA20
Nelson Mandela has come and gone. Through his tour in June 1990
Mandela was able to rouse probably the largest number of Afro-
Americans since the Black Movement of the 1960s to rally in
support of a Black issue (an African issue at that). This
indicates that the Black American population is clearly opposed to
apartheid and, contrary to popular opinion in the Black community,
is not hostile to Africans or African issues.
Also, there was the chance for politicians of all stripes to wrap
themselves in Mandela. Whether it was a socialist group selling
its pamphlets or a liberal U.S. Congress representative applauding
Mandela, the Mandela trip was the time for political grandstanding
of the highest order.
Mandela even received support from a number of capitalist sources
such as the U.S. government's National Endowment for Democracy.
"One of the conditions for this money would be a suspension of
violence in the context of negotiations. About $32 million has
already been allocated by Congress and $10 million more would be
available to the South Africans if they meet the conditions."(1)
Should the ANC continue this policy and not promote and organize
for a worker's controlled and managed state, the plight of Black
workers in South Africa will continue.
Message to the United States
The good feelings Mandela inspired aside, hewas unable to provide
revolutionary leadership to the African-American people as to
their national tasks inside "the belly of the beast."
It is difficult to make criticisms of the ANC and a leader such as
Mandela. The freedom fighters in South Africa are under the gun.
And many South African conservatives, Afrikaners, and even some
Blacks (i.e. Inkatha) oppose the freedom fighters in their work to
end apartheid. The U.S. government itself helped to capture
Mandela 28 years ago. So, any criticism of Mandela is made with
respect and with the understanding that all of us make political
errors, and we should be open to receive constructive suggestions
and criticisms if we want our strategy for revolution to be
successful.
Mandela claimed that Afro-Americans do not live under "the grip of
white supremacy."(2) Nothing could be further from the truth.
Mandela "preferred not to discuss the social and economic status
of Blacks in the United States."(3) However, he did make a general
statement supporting the Native struggle.
Mandela and the ANC's implicit message to Black Americans was
that, while it is very helpful to support the anti-apartheid
struggle, Black Americans should follow a strategy of achieving
civil rights and strive to integrate into the U.S. capitalist
society.
Malcolm X, the progressive Black nationalist murdered in 1965,
told the Black masses an opposite message. Malcolm X called for
African-Americans to oppose U.S. imperialism.
The ANC's implicit strategy vis-a-vis Afro-Americans is wrong. In
an unbelievable statement in Los Angeles, Mandela said that,
"having met President George Bush and Secretary of State James
Baker we would like to say that they are also a part of the anti-
apartheid forces of this country." (4)
Nonsense. Bush and Baker want to end sanctions and act against the
interest of the freedom fighters. This is plain in both in the
U.S. moves at the United Nations and the policies of the U.S.
Congress.
Mandela had a golden opportunity during his U.S. tour to encourage
the Afro-American people to oppose U.S. imperialism at home and
abroad. Instead, he took what could at best be called naive and
uninformed or at worst an opportunist posture in his U.S. tour by
limiting his call for Americans to continue to oppose apartheid.
It is somewhat useless to speculate as to what the reasons are for
the ANC's tactics on this question. Was it to protect its access
to U.S. donations? Was it to keep its relations with the U.S.
government smooth, not wanting to "interfere in the internal
affairs of another country"? (That is what sanctions are though.)
Is it all just political maneuvering, using the Macheavellian
strategy of "the ends justifying the means"?
The support for the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa
(Azania) must continue. We, in the United States, must continue to
support freedom for Nelson Mandela. We must support the demand for
an end to the state of emergency. We must support the release of
the 1,000 political prisoners and the return of 20,000 political
exiles that the ANC has made to the South African government.
We must oppose the hypocritical demand that the U.S. government
makes that the Black South Africans stop their armed struggle,
while the U.S. government arms contra armies and
counterrevolutionary governments worldwide.
Notes:
1. New York Times 6/26/90.
2. AP 7/28/90.
3. AP 7/12/90.
4. AP 7/20/90.
* * *
LOCAL JOURNALIST TIPS OFF THE COPS: BORDER PATROL RAIDS SOUTH
TEXAS SHELTER
By a comrade
On Thursday, Sept. 27, Border Patrol agents raided Casa Romero, a
Catholic Church-sponsored shelter for Central American refugees in
the Rio Grande Valley. The Valley is that 100 mile stretch of
Southern Texas which extends up from the Rio Grande River.
Operating under the pretense of national security, the Border
Patrol claimed that they were in search of Iranian or "Iraqi-
connected terrorists."(1)
The Border patrol did not find the persons they were supposedly
looking for, but took the opportunity to arrest 35 other
immigrants, mostly Mexicans and Central Americans. The five
Indians and two Pakistanis arrested were taken to the county jail
in Brownsville, while the others were taken to the Bayview
detention center of the Immigration and Naturalization Service
(INS).(2)
This marks the first time that Casa Oscar Romero, named for the
Salvadoran Archbishop murdered by the Salvadoran army in 1980, has
been raided. The shelter, established in San Benito Texas in 1982,
moved to Brownsville in 1987.
Local TV reporter Bill Young said he received a tip that there
were 37 Indians at Casa Romero. He went to the shelter and
videotaped interviews with "individuals at Casa Romero who
identified themselves as Indian nationals illegally in the United
States."(2) Young then took the video to the Border Patrol "for
comment."
Young said that the Border Patrol agents watched the interview
tape, and "Something they saw in the tape set them off, they left
right away," he said."(2, p. 10) Young then returned with the
Border Patrol to the shelter, and covered the raid itself. A
virtual create-your-own-story coup.
The Patrol arrived at the shelter with a warrant for 22 Indians.
Unable to locate any persons of Indian descent, they proceeded to
arrest Central Americans at random. "It's hard to tell the
difference, so we talked to anybody who looked like they might be
Indian," said Jerry Hicks, deputy chief for the McAllen Border
Patrol.(2) In addition to the arrests, the Patrol stole records
from the shelter, including I.D. records of the refugees and a
roster of the shelter residents.
Shelter director Sister Pimentel described the agents' treatment
of the refugees: they "were very rough, violent. They would grab
them, push them, in some cases grab their hair and push them
forward...."(1, p. 10)
Notes:
1. Valley Morning Star (Harlingen, TX) 9/29/90, p. 1.
2. Brownsville Herald, 9/28/90, p. 1.
* * *
BOOT-LICKING NICARAGUAN CAPITALIST REGIME DECAYS
by MA10
fter 10 years of war in Nicaragua between the Sandinista Party,
which overthrew the Somoza dictatorship in 1979, and the U.S.-
backed contras (counterrevolutionaries), it appeared that the
economic situation couldn't get much worse. But the first five
months of President Violeta Chamorro's National Opposition Union
(UNO) government proved that it could. Nicaragua now faces perhaps
its worst economic crisis of the last decade.
UNO's main goal after its victory in Nicaraguan elections last
February was to privatize the economy and convince the United
States to lift the long-standing trade embargo of the country. The
economy was in bad shape before Chamorro came to power and now
appears to be getting worse.
The contras, made up of remnants of Somoza's national guard, were
created under the Reagan administration to fight the Sandinista
government. Although the United States regarded the Sandinistas as
Marxist-Leninist and part of the spreading red tide, their
government was actually a broad coalition, including petty
bourgeoisie, land owners and many avowed non-Marxists.
Last February, Nicaragua held elections which the majority of
observers considered to be "free and fair," at least on the
surface. To the total astonishment of the Amerikan left, UNO
defeated the Sandinista Party. While the economic power of the
United States--and the threat of continued war if the Sandinistas
won--certainly helped UNO secure victory (Bush backed the
coalition with more than $17.5 million), the Sandinistas
themselves relied on cheap electoral opportunism such as the
slogan "everything will be better" and calling themselves the
"party of love."(1)
After the Sandinista loss, many Nicaraguans hoped that the United
States would end its economic blockade and the economy, which is
suffering from 1,000% inflation, would improve. While the Bush
regime approved aid and lifted many sanctions, the Nicaraguan
economy has not benefited from free market capitalism (no
surprise).
Immediately after the Sandinista defeat, many observers feared
civil war and questioned whether the contras would disarm and
whether the Sandinistas would abdicate control of the army. The
contras, at least some token number of them as far as MIM can
tell, have relinquished their arms to be integrated into society,
while the Sandinistas have retained control of the army.
Privatization lowers
living standards
In the current economic crisis, armed confrontations between
disgruntled former contras and Sandinista cooperative workers, who
run large farms repossessed from the bourgeoisie, have stifled
production. Massive strikes in the cities have played into the
decline in industrial and agricultural production. The
unemployment level is at an astounding 40% with 500,000 workers
unemployed.(2) Real wages have dropped and there have been large
lay-offs in the public sector. Health care has been privatized and
educational services have declined.
A recent poll by the Augusto CŽsar Sandino Foundation (FACS) in
Nicaragua documented the decline in Nicaraguans' standard of
living. Of those interviewed, 84% reported that their buying power
had declined in the last three months. An average wage, which
covered 88% of a family's basic needs in May, only covered 49% by
July 1990.(2, p. 12) Diets have become more sparse, and meals
fewer and farther between.
Chamorro's government has made the pursuit of "social stability"
the cornerstone of its new economic policy, which includes the
elimination of "superfluous employees," a reduction of social
service subsidies, an increase in public service rates and a tax
increase. These translate into the harsh economic situation
reflected in the survey's findings.
UNO's drive toward what it calls "social stability" includes the
privatization of formerly state-owned businesses. Workers, arguing
that they have rebuilt and revitalized state-owned enterprises,
want the companies to be sold directly to them.
Masses respond with strikes
On Sept. 25, the government announced a plan to reduce the size of
the state-owned sector by 25%. As part of the plan 16 state-owned
enterprises would be returned to their original owners. At the
urging of the National Workers Front (FNT), workers took over
production at four of the factories.(3)
The UNO government also wants to return property confiscated from
the bourgeoisie after the revolution. Two recently-issued
government decrees make possible the return of such properties and
the leasing of state-owned lands to their previous owners.
Though one of the decrees,10-90, does state that land confiscated
from owners with ties to Somoza is not eligible, Somocistas
(contras and other followers of the late dictator) are currently
returning to Nicaragua and trying to claim the land.
Conflicts over land ownership are not the only problems facing the
agricultural sector. A severe drought, estimated to cause between
30-60% losses in the first planting cycle, and the absence of an
economic policy encouraging the production of basic grains, have
hurt basic food production. The National Farmers and Ranchers
Union (UNAG) is predicting that 136,080 tons of basic grains will
be produced in the 1990-91 cycle, versus the 281,233 produced in
the previous cycle of 1989-1990. UNAG represents those 125,000
families of small and medium scale agricultural producers who
produce 80% of the country's basic grains.(5)
The taking over of businesses about to be privatized, and the
resistance to the enactment of decree 10-90, occurred within the
context of continuing strikes and protests across the country. On
Sept. 24, the FSLN (the Sandinista National Liberation Front, the
Sandinistas) announced strikes to pressure the UNO government to
support health, housing and education programs, and to suspend
plans to privatize 400 state-run companies and dismiss 25,000
public employees.(5) At the same time, the FNT called for civil
disobedience, including strikes, demonstrations, workplace
occupations and a boycott on payment of energy and water bills.
These actions follow a summer of massive strikes which paralyzed
entire sectors of the economy. Scant media attention in the United
States was given as tens of thousands of workers blocked and
barricaded streets in protest of the government's new policies.
Almost 40,000 employees in the state sector went on strike in May.
Two months later, 3,000 workers in the textile companies were laid
off as a result of a "technical work stoppage"--and industrial
and agricultural workers joined striking textile workers. By July
5, 80,000 workers were on strike; state industries, the Central
Bank, the Finance System, most customs offices, various
ministries, and dozens of agricultural businesses were shut
down.(6) University and high school students joined the strike in
response to the government's suspension of public transportation
subsidies.
Opposition won't cooperate
The government's failure to comply with agreements reached
following the summer strikes resulted in the FNT decision in
September not to take part in the cooperation (concertaci—n)
process. The government has failed to follow through on seven of
the eight points in the agreement reached May 16 between the
government and the workers organizations.(7) Barricada
Internacional reported that the FSLN proposed that the
concertaci—n talks be postponed for at least 30 days, in order for
the government to work to "reestablish the climate of trust
necessary" with the workers.(7) Such a feat hardly seems likely,
as the class interests of the government and the workers are very
different.
Tension is mounting in the countryside as well as the cities.
Confrontations between demobilized contras and Sandinista
cooperative members are increasing. When the contras demobilized
and disarmed the UNO government promised them land, but this has
not been delivered. As a result, former contras are invading
cooperatives.
In Waslala, 400 kilometers north of Managua, at least 200 contras
invaded the farm cooperative and took over the town. (Nicaragua
Network reported that 200 contras invaded; Barricada Internacional
reported that the figure was 2,000.) At least 6 people died, and
10 were wounded. Five to seven campesinos were also killed in a
confrontation between former contras and Sandinista supporters in
San Juan del Rio Coco in late September.(8)
Health care deteriorates
Antonio Lacayo, the minister of the presidency, returned from a
trip to Washington in September to announce drastic austerity
measures which would include cuts in both health care and
education.(9) This was followed by Finance Minister Emilio
Pereira's introduction to parliament of a proposal which would cut
the health care budget "to a minimum."
Sixty-three percent of those interviewed in the FACS survey said
that they were in worse health than they were before the election.
They cited both the shortage and high cost of medicine as
causes.(10)
The effects of such a cut can already be seen in the infant
mortality rate, which has risen to 61.7 per 1,000 children. This
figure shows the effect of cuts to the mother-infant care programs
which have almost completely disappeared since Chamorro took
office.
Health care centers across the country are receiving only 59% of
their allocated funds, rendering them incapable of providing the
necessary medical services, and in some cases unable to maintain
even basic operating levels.(10, p. 6) Some health care centers
have begun charging for health care and medicine. After 10 years
of health care being so widely accessible, that too will soon
become a luxury for the rich.
Schooling stops
The educational situation is just as bleak. 19% of the homes
interviewed in the FACS survey reported that at least one student
in the family had stopped going to school in the last three
months.(10, p. 12) They pointed to the elimination of subsidies
for education, increases in the cost of school supplies and
transportation fares, which have risen 3,000% in recent months,
and the need for students to work to contribute to the family
income as factors in leaving school.(11) Universities' budgets
have been cut, and literacy and adult educational programs have
stopped.
An important part of the new government's educational policy is to
rid it of the "taint of Sandinismo." Some teachers were told at
the formation of a pro-government teachers union that "Your
highest purpose is to exorcise from the books, classrooms and
schools all the evil taught during 10 years of revolution."(12)
On Sept. 28, the National Assembly voted to make school director
positions considered to be "of confidence." This allows school
directors to be fired for political reasons. The entire FSLN
delegation walked out in protest.(13)
U.S. blackmail continues
Where is the U.S. government in the midst of all this? It is
frantically trying to blackmail the UNO Nicaraguan government in
order to remove a nasty blemish from its record.
In 1984, the Sandinistas filed a suit against the United States,
citing the CIA mining of the Port of Corinto harbor in Nicaragua.
The World Court found the United States guilty in 1986, and
ordered it to pay reparations. The amount was not specified, yet
is currently estimated at $17 billion. The United States refused
to recognize the World Court's jurisdiction (again, no surprise)
and has vowed never to pay the reparations.
Last May, Congress voted to send $300 million in aid to Nicaragua
this year. By mid-September Nicaragua had received only $60
million. Nicaraguan officials say that the Bush Administration
told Chamorro that future U.S. aid to Nicaragua will depend on
whether or not she agrees to abandon the World Court claim.(14)
Blackmail at its best.
Notes:
1. MIM Notes 41, p. 5.
2. Barricada Internacional 10/6/90, p.15.
3. Nicaragua Network Hotline 10/5/90.
4. Barricada Internacional 9/8/90, p. 8.
5. Barricada Internacional 9/25/90, p. 6.
6. Barricada Internacional 7/14/90.
7. Barricada Internacional 10/6, p.15.
8. Nicaragua Network Hotline
9. Guardian 9/19, p.15.
10. Barricada Internacional 10/6/90, p. 12.
11. Barricada Internacional 7/14/90, p. 5.
12. Barricada Internacional 9/8/90, p. 5.
13. Nicaragua Network Hotline
14. NYT 9/30/90, p. 15.
* * *
SECTARIAN REVIEW
by MC12
The sectarian review is an occasional feature in MIM Notes, in
which we attempt to illuminate the errors and achievements of
various socialist, communist, communist-anarchist, feminist or
social-democratic groups and publications. In this special World
War edition, we examine and criticize some of the prevailing
leftist approaches to the war in the Middle East.
As world wars give rise to the new shapes of imperialism, they
also offer windows of opportunity for revolution--which require a
thorough analysis and a correct approach by communists and their
party, if they are to be taken advantage of.
The following is an incomplete survey.
WORKERS VANGUARD
September 21, 1990
No. 510
41 Warren Street
New York, NY 10007
$7 for 24 issues
This paper, produced by the Spartacist League of the United
States, is one of the more sophisticated Trotskyist newspapers.
Still, its analysis of the Middle East war reflects some serious
day-tripping on the role of U.S. and Arab workers, and--as usual--
a false understanding of the role and status of the Soviet Union
in particular.
Wishful thinking predominates the news analysis here. For example,
in noting the widely reported deal supposedly made between Iran
and Iraq, to trade oil (only 200,000 barrels a day) for food and
medical supplies, the paper claims: "This will make a shambles of
the UN 'sanctions.'"
First, little or no evidence has been published to prove the deal
is actually taking place. Second, that quantity of oil would do
little to shatter the international sanctions. The W.V. lauds this
act, however, to lend credence to the demand, "Break the Blockade
of Iraq!" which it hopes will unite Arab and U.S. workers to hurt
the United States.
In addition, the W.V. sees the U.S. military buildup as a secret
plot to attack the Soviet Union: "imperialism's main target for
the last 70 years." (Tell that to the Vietnamese.) Except for the
"sellout Kremlin misleaders who from Stalin on have betrayed the
heritage of Red October," the Sparts still see the Soviet Union as
a workers' state, albeit a corrupt one.
How big will the Soviet bourgeoisie have to paint the word
CAPITALISM across the land before the Trots realize that without
continued revolution under socialism--cultural revolution--the
forces for capitalist restoration will prevail? And--evidence that
the Soviet Union is not only capitalist but imperialist--in the
current crisis the Soviets have been a key ally.
Finally, the W.V. asserts that the U.S. working class must be
united with Arab workers to defeat U.S. imperialism, overthrow
oppressive Arab regimes, etc. The fallacy here is the claim that
U.S. workers and Arab proletarians have the same interests. The
W.V. says: "Black or white, American working people have no
interest in this oil war." This is simply not true, and the lack
of evidence provided to back it up belies the claim as empty
rhetoric and wishful thinking. Bush's action in the Middle East
stands to benefit the majority of white workers in this country
directly through lower oil and gas prices, lower inflation, and
the continued dominance of foreign markets which provides the
profits to pay off the white workers for imperialism. African
Amerikans are certainly in a different boat, and polls show a
relatively high degree of dissension from the road to war among
them.
Generally, the Trots hide behind vague definitions of the working
class to obscure their anti-materialist analysis of worker
oppression. But in this paper the definition is made clear when
they assert: "This blood-drenched and war-driven system must be
destroyed through the revolutionary struggle of the American
working class supported by the black and Hispanic poor."(emphasis
added) Here Black and Hispanic proletarians are not even included
in the Amerikan "working class."
The Sparts are calling for the mobilization of the white working
class to stop the war, and correctly note that the working class
was conspicuously absent from the anti-Vietnam War movement. They
attribute this treachery to the failure of the New Left to try
"seriously" to "mobilize" the working class. The white working
class gets VCRs from the oppression of Third World nations and
oppressed national minorities, and they know it. MIM invites
anyone who doubts this to hold their breath until the white
working class produces the one-day general strike to oppose the
war, which the W.V. assures us "is a very real possibility from
the outset."
This same delusion shows up in the slogan for Palestine, in which
the W.V. screams: "Israeli workers: throw off your genocidal
Zionist rulers! Defend the Palestinian masses in the struggle for
their national rights!" Anyone who thinks the liberation of the
Palestinian nation is going to come from the Israeli working class
shows a profound lack of understanding of Israeli society, and the
role of colonial settlers in general.
BULLETIN
October 5, 1990
Vol. 26, No. 1871
PO Box 33023
Detroit, MI 48232
Weekly, $10 for six months
On the subject of Trotskyism: this paper--the organ of the Central
Committee of the Workers League--dreams the same dreams, but more
openly professes to defend the wealthy living standard of Amerikan
workers in comparison to the masses of the Third World, including
the "Arab class brothers" of the white working class.
A report on a Workers League official's speech notes: "She said
that the mobilization of the working class to defend jobs, living
standards and trade union rights was inseparable from the struggle
against imperialist war." Another speaker predicted mass
opposition to a shooting war, and that "that opposition will be
centered in the working class, among factory workers, unemployed
and youth, who are not going to sacrifice their living standards
for the oil companies and big business."
While correctly pointing toward the need for a class analysis of
the conflict, the Bulletin is unable to see beyond its trade-union
orthodoxy to get at the real root of the class conflict. As
Amerika slips in international economic prominence, it increases
its desperation to further the oppression of the Third World, in
order to keep up the salaries of its lackeys. The whole point of
the war is to defend the living standards of Amerikan workers, so
that imperialism will continue to have a material buffer between
itself and its domestic working class.
Defending the living standards of the majority of Amerikan workers
means furthering the oppression of their Third World victims. In
fact, in a just world, the Amerikan white working class is going
to have to take a severe pay cut.
PEOPLE'S DAILY WORLD
August 18, 1990
Vol. 5, No. 5
235 W 23rd Street
New York, NY 10011
$15 for one year
You know the PDW--it's the one with the red, white and blue cover.
This organ of the Communist Party USA is not worth dwelling on,
except that its line on the war is very similar to a broad array
of pseudo-left publications from the Nation and In These Times to
the most seriously reformist Trotskyist groups.
One of the tell-tale features of a compromised line in favor of
reform through electoral struggles is the use of "we" when
referring to the people and the U.S. government together. "Are we
about to plunge into a vast quagmire of desert sands?" the paper
asked in a front-page editorial after Bush dispatched troops to
Saudi Arabia. Really putting its foot down, the CPUSA added:
"...surely some serious national debate is called for before the
fateful decision is made."
The basic complaint here is that Bush is violating the
Constitution and the War Powers Act by sending troops without
permission, as if there was any doubt how Congress would have
voted. Of course, there were some pushing matches on the podium
for who would get to lead the attack....
More faith should be put in the U.N., goes this argument, which
has shown, "in dealing with the Middle East conflicts in 1956,
1967 and 1973, that it is an effective instrument for peace." The
not-so-subtle difference between imperialist-defined "stability"
and real peace apparently eludes these politicians.
To really get down to doing something about the war, the CPUSA
politely suggests that voting Amerikans make phone calls to the
President and Congress, and the PDW even gives the phone numbers
in a little box. The invitation to hold one's breath is in this
case withdrawn for fear of liability lawsuits from MIM Notes
readers.
OFF OUR BACKS
October 1990
Vol. 20, No. 9
2423 - 18th Street NW
Washington, DC 20009
$17 for 12 issues
This eclectic journal dedicated to the exposure of women's
oppression and struggle offers an interesting series of articles
on the war, without any political resolution or direct stand. An
editorial worries that the war and split among Arab countries will
increase the power of Islamic fundamentalism and women's
oppression in the Arab world; and also fears more anti-Arab racism
(already apparent) and more ravenous oil-drilling by Amerikan oil
companies.
While these are good criticisms, the most interesting article here
is the one detailing the subordination of women in Saudi Arabia--
supposedly the object of U.S. defense efforts--the strictest
enforcer of Islamic law in the form of state power.
Under the heading "sexual apartheid," the article notes everything
from separate (and unequal) schooling to repressive marriage laws,
limits on women's inheritance and testimony in court, to the state
approach to female adultery--which is "punishable by stoning to
death"--and seclusion laws.
And noting the restrictions placed on the behavior of Amerikan
servicewomen in Saudi Arabia: "Imagine the outcry," OOB adds, "if
a black soldier were ordered to bow his head when passing a white
racist who he was also ordered to defend with his life."
Given also that OOB makes the point elsewhere in the paper that
the USA perpetrates an endless series of similarly repressive
measures, this article may safely escape the criticism reserved
for those who backhandedly praise the U.S. version of capitalist
patriarchy in their condemnation of Islamic patriarchal practices.
Exposing the extent of oppression which U.S. imperialism is
willing to support is a worthwhile endeavor. But in another
article OOB relegates women to the harmless backwaters of the
revolutionary tide. Here, in "An Israeli Perspective" on the Iraqi
invasion of Kuwait, the writer bemoans how she will "never forget
how war forces a society into totally male constructs. How
completely men and their brutality determine the tone and content
of all of our lives."
This writer is a member of Women In Black, a pacifist group which
holds weekly (weakly) vigils against the military presence in the
Israeli Occupied Territories. The article--and Women In Black--
essentially advocates women standing tall and saying, "We hate
this war and we hope it ends soon, you terrible men."
Where is the power? Men will not hand women their right to self-
determination any more than capitalists will voluntarily turn over
their riches to the people. By perpetuating the role of women as
resistors to any war--without distinguishing between the
imperialist war which seeks to kill and dominate the oppressed
masses, and the revolutionary war which ends in the liberation of
all people--these women effectively seek to remove women from the
process of revolutionary change, and retard our progress toward a
world without patriarchy.
Still, falling short of a thorough analysis of the implications of
this new phase of world war, OOB has illuminated some important
aspects of the crisis which too many leftists are leaving out.
* * *
UNDER LOCK & KEY: NEWS FROM PRISONS AND PRISONERS
PRISON EXPANSION IN THE 1990S: PRISONER POPULATIONS RAPIDLY
INCREASING
by MC11
Things are getting out of hand. It's almost more than the state
(the U.S. government) can handle. So many people need to be locked
up in order for capitalist society to function smoothly, it's hard
to find space for them all. The state and federal prison
population topped 700,000 this month (that's not counting people
in jails), and there is no place to put them. The state's answer
to this not-so-little problem? Build more prisons.
Take the state of California for example: during the 1980s, the
number of prisoners in California rose from about 20,000 to more
than 90,000. The California state prison system was originally
designed to hold about 50,000. In order to more than double prison
capacity by the 1990s, the California Department of Corrections
has planned major prison construction programs. In every general
election since 1984, people voting in California general elections
have approved prison bonds. Another prison bond proposal on this
November's ballot calls for $450 million worth of bonds, and
Republican Gov. George Deukmajian has said that in order to reach
the DOC's goal, voters will probably have to approve bond issues
in every general election between now and the year 2000.
Overcrowding isn't limited to prisons. Space is so scarce in
federal jailsWHAT'S THAT?? that U.S. Marshals spend $27.5 million
a year just moving inmates around between jails and courts. It's
typical for a prisoner to be placed in a jail several hundred
miles from where he or she must appear in court simply because
there are no open beds. The average daily number of federal jail
inmates skyrocketed from 3,618 in 1981 to 13,916 in 1990. Marshals
expect 16,000 additional daily inmates by 1995.
Again, the solution is to build more jails, according to the
state. $35 million are slated for a federal jail construction
program in 1991. Somehow, the imperialists who run the state have
to find a way to lock up one-third of all the Black men in this
country. Somehow a hugely disproportionate number of poor people
need to be put behind bars each year. Somehow, revolutionaries who
seek to overthrow the oppressive imperialist state--especially
members of oppressed nationalities within the U.S.--must be taken
into the protective custody of the state. Prisons are indeed a
powerful coercive tool necessary to keep capitalism going, and the
ruling classes of the U.S. know that. That's why they keep
spending more money to build them.
SLAVERY BY ANY OTHER NAME...
by MC11
Prisoners are just not being exploited enough, some California
capitalists believe, and as innovative entrepreneurs, they've come
up with a way to exploit them some more: make 'em work. A
proposition on the California state ballot this November would
amend the state Constitution to allow the Department of
Corrections and county officials running local jails to enter into
joint ventures with private companies that would hire inmate
labor. The companies would lease property on prison grounds well
below market rate, and would get a tax break of 10% of the amount
of wages paid to each inmate. Yes, the prisoners will get paid,
with just one hitch: the director of the Department of
Corrections still be authorized to deduct up to 80% of the
prisoners' pay to "defray the cost of their incarceration."
PRISON GUARDS' UNION MAKES REACTIONARY DEMANDS
by MC11
In October, a union representing Indiana state prison guards
called for permanent, six-member shake-down crews to move
prisoners from cells, search for contraband and perform other
unspecified functions. The union also demanded additional training
in use of weapons and more screened-in cells.(1) These demands are
similar to those of the guards who went on strike at Riker's
Island, New York. The August Riker's Island strike demanded that
guards be able to use more force on prisoners. Three hundred
prisoners were injured at Riker's after the guards went back to
work with their demands fully met.(2)
MIM maintains that the prison guards are part of the bought-off
white working class. The majority of guards are white, while
prison populations are predominantly Black and Latino.(3) Prisons
create high-paying, non-productive jobs which secure the privilege
of the white working class at the expense of national minorities.
MIM has argued before that prison guards are a good example of why
MIM says revolution will not come from the U.S. white working
class. (See MIM Notes 44.) True, as paid agents of the state, they
may be more bought off than the average white worker. The white
prison guards, who agitate for more repressive measures against
the Black and Latino prison population, are similar to white
workers in any other industry, who agitate for war, imperialism,
and the oppression of Third World workers so that they can
continue living their $30,000-a-year lives of privilege.
Notes:
1. Chicago Tribune, 10/16/90 p.3
2. New York Times, 9/1/90
3. According to the 1989 Corrections Yearbook, almost 80% of
prison guards are white and their average starting salary is
$18,213.
THANKS FROM ANGOLA
Dear MIM:
I'm writing this letter in behalf of the "Campaign of Exposure" to
thank you for your Aug. 1 (MIM Notes 43) article titled, "Klan
Guards Murder Prisoners in Angola." This article did a great job
of exposing and publicizing the murder of fellow prisoner Johnny
Augustine.
We (the "Campaign of Exposure") thank you for your support in this
cause. Continue to keep up the good work for it's all about
defeating this oppressive and deplorable system.
--Angola prisoner
September 1990
* * *
MUSIC REVIEWS
What music (if any) is politically correct is an ongoing debate in
MIM circles. Questions asked include whether certain rockers or
rappers are interested in revolution or just what sells and even
whether Madonna is part of a resistance culture. So to address a
hot topic and to analyze the popular culture that everyone can
have an opinion on, MIM is adding record reviews to its regular
cultural-criticism line-up.
For starters, there are a few things to keep in mind. First, there
is no major Maoist musical group in Amerika. (And not even any
minor ones as far as the party is aware.) The Gang of Four, an
English band which named itself after Mao's sucessors and borrowed
Maoist rhetoric, is long defunct. There are no bands that the
party considers politically correct, 100%.
In general, the reaction to the decay of capitalism manifests
itself faster in the arts, where there is a wider variety of ideas
than in, say, academia or print media. While there are no Maoist
groups, there are many which represent some form of advanced
thought. The majority of these are anarchist or nationalist.
Second, monopoly capitalism controls music, like all other media.
Perhaps the music industry is even a little more restricted than
print media, but not quite as dominated as the three-network
television system. When groups like Public Enemy or Consolidated
bring us their "revolutionary" message it is because record
industry analysts have decided that they can make money off the
message.
Of course, there are independent labels that provide some of the
more political music and less homogenized sounds. In the future
MIM will pay increased attention to the work and politics of the
"indies."
For the most part, our reviews will not be concerned with the
music as much as the lyrics. Much powerful, creative music is
reactionary. These reviews aim to get around the typical nihilism
of rock and roll and discuss the politics of music, particularly
the lyrics.
Good music can strengthen a political message the way
sophisticated layout and printing make MIM Notes better than if it
were xeroxed. Still, it's the substance that counts, so if you are
looking for wonderful prose on melodic qualities, upbeat rhythms,
tonal vibrato or whatever, read Rolling Stone or CMJ.
PUBLIC ENEMY, FEAR OF A BLACK PLANET (CBS RECORDS, 1990)
P.E.'s biting nationalist rap punches the white establishment
square in the face. The record attacks the police, the "anti-
nigger machine," and exposes Amerika's war on Blacks.
The line is straight Nation of Islam right down to the members of
the band pictured on the back of the album wearing FOI (Fruit of
Islam) hats. "Burn, Hollywood Burn"--a song that takes the racist
media to task for the negative portrayal of Blacks as servants and
criminals--comes out with the familiar Black culture analysis.
That is, the brothers choke when the go to see Driving Miss Daisy
and decide the people need to make their own movies--like Spike
Lee.
True enough--the masses will need to create their own movies and
culture after the revolution--but just making movies or music will
never get us to that point. Spike and P.E. can't escape capitalism
with the power of their art. They can make valuable contributions,
but Amerika is not going to allow the Black nation to simply walk
away and create its own world free of exploitation. If that were
possible, the lot of us would have done it already.
P.E. is frequently attacked as sexist or anti-Semitic or plain
hateful. The band answers most of these charges in the first few
cuts. "I think that white Liberals, like yourself, have difficulty
understanding that Chuck D represents the aspirations of the
majority of Black youth out there today," says one supporter in
"Incident at 66.6 FM."
The anti-Semitism charge is the most out-to-lunch. Even when
dealing with movie-making, a business others ignorantly stereotype
as being run by Jews, P.E. sticks to the point: It's time to burn
the place down because Hollywood has made war on Blacks.
MIM can find no anti-Semitic lyrics on P.E.'s tracks. People
associated with the band have said outrageous things, and been
raked over the coals by the media for it, but they have recanted,
apparently sincerely. Debate now seems to center on the line
"Crucifixion ain't no fiction" from "Welcome to the Terrordome,"
the meaning of which is hazy.
The sexism charge carries more weight. On their first album, Yo!
Bum Rush the Show, P.E. had a track called "Sophisticated Bitch."
"Revolutionary Generation," on the new record, attempts self-
criticism with lines like "R-E-S-P-E-C-T / My sister's not my
enemy." But when they mention the "Bitch" song, all rapper Flavor
Flav can muster is, "Don't be one."
P.E. is coming from a Black male point of view that says money (a
white male province) and Amerikan culture (white is good, Black is
bad) divide Black men and Black women. Still, Fear of a Black
Planet represents an improvement over their previous record, It
Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (1988). The song
"Pollywannacraka" tells the story of a Black women who chases
money and a Black man who gets rich and forgets his people,
chasing white women. Money corrupting national identity cuts both
ways here, whereas in "She Watch Channel Zero" (1988) a woman
looses her identity by "watching that garbage," TV.
P.E. has never rhapsodized rape the way NWA or 2 Live Crew do, and
they seem to be moving forward in their line on women, but it's
anyone's guess what they might say in the future.
The most unambiguously hateful part of this album is "Meet the G
that Killed Me," about a man with AIDS who spreads it around with
a needle and a whore. This rap attacks gay life and gay sex with
the typical epithets: "Man to man/I don't know if they can/From
what I know/The part don't fit/Ahh shit." MIM calls P.E. out on
this homophobic, stupid analysis of AIDS.
ICE CUBE, AMERIKKKA'S MOST WANTED (PRIORITY RECORDS, 1990)
This junk gets the big thumbs down. Ice Cube just can't get beyond
blaming the world's problems on women who he wants to drill hard
any which way he can.
"You Can't Fade Me" shows the depths of Ice Cube's women-hating.
It's Ice Cube's story of how a neighborhood "whore" tries to dupe
him into accepting responsibility for her pregnancy. At first he
does, and he is ridiculed. The thought of the child support pushes
him: "I though deep about giving up the money/What I need to do is
kick the bitch in the tummy."
Of course, you can't fade Ice Cube. When the kid turns out to look
like his neighbor, he's off and running and all the better for it.
Superstud hype glances sidelong at its damage and never looks
back.
Much like the crap from NWA, AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted rages against
the police with a rap that glorifies violence for its own sake.
It's more macho than revolutionary. "Fuck the Police" is fine, but
it never takes us anywhere, no analysis.
Wayne County (Detroit) cops and the FBI rushed an NWA show last
year, perhaps showing that they fear the band. But pigs vs.
poseurs is not the same as state vs. revolutionaries.
MAZZY STAR, SHE HANGS BRIGHTLY (ROUGH TRADE, 1990)
This record is a disappointment from a label that has many
political bands. Mazzy Star is singing about how she never wanted
your heart. "Ride it on baby." Not much here but strummy, strummy
status quo love songs.
Naturally, the guitar work and blend of country and rock is
interesting, just one of the many talented musicians who needs an
infusion of substance.
MIDNIGHT OIL, BLUE SKY MINING (COLUMBIA RECORDS, 1990)
This disc is good as far as it goes. It says oppression exists and
alienates, but not much more. The lead cut, "Blue Sky Mine,"
covers the plight of mine workers who must toil in the Blue Sky
Mine to put bread on the table. There are only obscure allusions
to what should be done to end the mine workers' pain: "Who's gonna
save me?/I pray that sense and reason brings us in/Who's gonna
save me?/We've nothing to fear."
This lack of analysis plagues the album as a whole. While the
words are clear and meant to be understood, Midnight Oil doesn't
have a vision of revolution. It's certainly a benefit that the
lyrics are included, and indication that their songs are to be
read and thought through.
There are songs against bourgeois technology, hero worship and
opportunist politicians. But others wander into Christian-type
utopia. "Bedlam Bridge" talks about a captive city, but waits for
God or somebody to save it. Who knows?
Midnight Oil shows some concept of history in "Forgotten Years." A
revolutionary reading of this song says it sings about society
after the revolution (sometime in the future) and warns that
"Seasons of war and grace/These should not be forgotten years."
Revolutionaries no that there will have to be an ongoing, probably
bloody struggle to achieve permanent peace
As with most of their tunes, "Forgotten Years" could be a naive
peacenik song condemning war and politics; Midnight Oil never
tells us. The line "It reeks of politics" is heartening in that
career politicians give political thought a bad name with the
masses, but it doesn't show much substance.
"Mountains of Burma" is the group's most progressive song. "We
vote for a government/With axes in its eyes.... We feed an
economy/It's got blood on its hands/Mountains of Burma." These are
lyrics that speak to Third World oppression and colonialism in
general.
Still, the song is not specific to Burma, leaving the critical
listener wondering. Midnight Oil brings the message of the
oppressed without the solution of revolution. Maybe they'll figure
it out. Or maybe they're full of crap like the people who promote
Third World clothes and green buying at their concerts.
--MC¯
BAD RAP
In MIM Notes 44, MA20 supported his or her story of a police
attack on a Black man with lyrics from Ice Cube, a rap artist who
openly hates women. Ice Cube's new album, AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted
is reviewed above.
MA20 should be careful when choosing whom to quote from when
writing. If one listens to Public Enemy's song "Burn, Hollywood
Burn" (on Fear of a Black Planet), guest-rapper Ice Cube makes the
disturbing declaration, "[I] am down with the P.E./ now every
single bitch [wants to] see me." This by no means is to take out
of context the quote that MA20 uses--"Every cop killing goes
ignored. They just send another nigga to the morgue...."--but I
feel no misogynist should ever be cited in MIM Notes, unless there
is a recanting or an apology for contributing to violence against
women.
I know of few rap artists who have more feminist leanings, but
MA20 could certainly let me know if there are others. I can think
of Queen Latifah, for one. Another group, Boogie Down Productions,
featuring KRS-1, has come out with some great songs concerning:
(1) who the drug war is really being waged on (the underclass, of
course), (2) distorted, Eurocentric history in public schools, (3)
Afrikans altering their appearances through skin bleaching and
hair straightening (e.g. Michael Jackson) and how that reflects a
poor self-image, (4) the benefits of living a vegetarian lifestyle
(as well as the hazards of flesh-eating), and (5) an overall
accurate view of the parasitic nature of profit-maximizing
societies. Despite these politically advanced lines, the group
cannot get over retaining a Judeo-Christian ethic and the "women
as whores" mentality that pervades the rap scene today. Those
negative views were enough to ruin the albums by the group that
I've heard.
Certainly with the racist-fed hype and backlash that corporate
(white) Amerika has been feeding the masses about groups like
Public Enemy and 2 Live Crew, a redress is in order, in fact long
overdue! Believe me I know there is more to rap than anti-
feminism, anti-Semitism, pro-nationalism and homophobia too!
But the masses need pro-feminism, pro-internationalism and
environmentalism. The best I've heard yet has been KRS-1, and that
still is not far enough. If I hear of anything better, I'll let
MIM know.
MA20 is day-tripping if she or he thinks the fair citizens of
Greensboro are going to give retribution to the Paschal family and
suspend cops. For killing a Black man they'll receive promotions!
MA20 should be aware that the Afrikan masses in this country have
yet to receive anything but the poorest of living standards from a
country that their ancestors built. Maoism is the only way they
and the rest of the oppressed will obtain justice.
--MC16
* * *
MOVIE REVIEWS
Goodfellas
Critics are praising this movie to the skies, and it's hard to see
why. Even if they didn't have to pay, they must have found the
two-and-a-half hours tedious.
Perhaps it was the tedium that impressed them. Mechanically
translated from the autobiography of a "wiseguy"--a mobster--
GoodFellas portrays the deep emptiness in the lives of men who
said of themselves, "We were wiseguys. We could have anything we
wanted. We could do whatever we wanted." In one memorable shot, we
follow the central character and his date with a wide angle lens,
down into an airless blind pig, past one, two, three bouncers,
through the kitchen, behind the waiter carrying a special table
while other patrons give salutes, to the best seat in the house
for a show featuring Henny Youngman and his dismal "Take my
wife...please." Some high life.
In the twenties, good citizens were outraged when boy scouts
visiting Wrigley Field broke rank to get autographs from Al
Capone, their hero. But the mafia no longer has that allure, so
its myth didn't need debunking in a 1990 movie. Today, would-be
criminals can find plenty of straight jobs to satisfy cravings for
violence and power.
--MC89
* * *
MASS ADVERTISING: CAPITALISM WANTS TO SWALLOW US WHOLE.
Amerikan mass culture is a culture of advertisement. Every break
during "The Simpsons" includes at least one cartoon commercial
featuring Bart -- eating a candy bar, hawking t-shirts emblazoned
with his image. Nintendo hypes a sugar-coated "cereal system" on
Saturday morning TV to kids taking a break from their Game Boys.
Weeks before its debut, a new Madonna "video" is the subject of
15-second teases. But when "Like a Prayer" comes out, it's not a
video at all. It's a Pepsi commercial. A "real" video -- whatever
that may be -- premieres later.
It's not that the lines between ad and vehicle are blurred.
They've been erased. And the capitalists are cashing in on the
seamless, unceasing world of consumption they've created. Nintendo
aims at nothing short of having children planted in front of the
TV around the clock -- except for quick trips to the kitchen for
another bowl of Nintendo cereal. Or Teenage Mutant Ninja Cereal,
which has a cartoon tie-in.
For an adult audience, United Technologies, Exxon and Mobil, and
Philip Morris (see below) provide ready-made political analysis.
The copy they run -- so smooth, so compelling with its invocations
of "freedom" -- at the bottom-right corner of the New York Times
op-ed page, is better than the columnists'. Politicians are taking
note. Listen to speech by Senator Newt Gingrich for an example of
how mainstream political discourse is being shaped by
multinational corporations' ad staffs.
In this issue, MIM Notes inaugurates a new column, conceived in
disgust and dedicated to the proposition that capitalism wants to
swallow us whole.
PHILIP MORRIS: PR CAN'T VIEL DEADLY AIMS
Philip Morris Companies Inc., manufacturers of the cigarette that
outsells the rest combined, Marlboro, is the target of a boycott
because of the company's support for Sen. Jesse Helms. Recent
issues of MIM Notes have explored the pros and cons of Neighbor to
Neighbor's Folgers boycott -- Folgers uses Salvadoran coffee --
and concluded that however admirable boycotters' goals, capitalism
being the real problem, corporate reform can't accomplish much.
Unsurprisingly, then, Philip Morris moves steadily along. The
death-peddlers, who also own Kraft and Miller Brewing, ran a
center spread in the September Harper's Magazine bragging about
their STRIVE program, which gives inner-city kids jobs or
cigarettes or something. The ad showed three Black men sitting on
milk-crates outside a corner store, with another white man
airbrushed into their company, and was headlined, "Without STRIVE,
this is the only corner office these kids will ever know." The ad
explained further, "The problem is not a lack of jobs, but a lack
of self-esteem."
Philip Morris is interested in public relations, not public
service, and the way they work a white audience (like that of
Harper's) shows what ideology the audience is likely to consume --
what the Amerikan ruling class is thinking. The plight of the
inner cities troubles some whites, apparently. They wish that
Blacks weren't excluded from the white world of "corner offices."
They dream of peaceful assimilation and are troubled by the
difficulties and failures of affirmative action (Liberalese for
"tokenism"). If such (weak) attempts at systemic change have
broken down historically, they reason, the problem must be
attitudinal. Not that whites are racists -- oh no, not them.
Rather, Blacks don't respect themselves. Time for bootstrap-
pulling, and Philip Morris is here to help. No skin off my back,
thinks whitey, turning the page and feeling good about his or her
brand of smokes.
The problem is a lack of jobs. Capitalism can't employ everyone.
If everyone worked, everyone could demand more pay, and employers
would have no way to replace them, no way to turn them down.
Unemployment keeps wages low. And when workers are paid less than
the value of their labor-power, employers profit. That's how the
system works. So a lack of jobs is a hallmark of capitalism.
Actually, members of the white working class in Amerika make more
than the value of their labor-power. They are still being
exploited by their employers -- execs still profit big-time -- but
they are also benefitting from the unemployment and suffering of
others, namely people of color in this country and in the Third
World. And when push comes to shove, the white working class lines
up on the wrong side.
No, Philip Morris -- or capitalism in general -- can't give corner
offices to Blacks, not even to a statistically relevant number of
them. (As if the whole world could have desk jobs!) Philip Morris
has thought of that, and they have a plan. Genocide. More and
more, cigarette companies are aiming at inner-city audiences with
obscenely successful plans. If STRIVE doesn't get 'em, lung cancer
will.
MADONNA SAYS VOTE FOR CAPITALISM
Capitalism moves fast. Take Madonna, whom Forbes magazine recently
called "The Canniest Businesswoman in America." Even some MIM
cadres, armed with the correct line, were fooled into arguing that
Madonna professed liberation of women. Wrong. Here's a sample of
Madonna's latest, called "Vote!" and sung to the tune of her hit
song "Vogue":
Dr King, Malcolm X,
Freedom of speech is as good as sex.
Abe Lincoln, Jefferson Tom,
They didn't need the atomic bomb.
We need beauty, we need art,
We need government with a heart.
Don't give up your freedom of speech,
Power to the people is in our reach.
Ever the ambiguity-lover, Madonna comes out draped in Old Glory.
Is it desecration? The Veterans of Foreign Wars think so, and
they've complained about the spot, which is being aired on MTV.
But they really don't need to worry. Madonna sure isn't burning
the Amerikan flag, much less challenging the system it represents,
with her confused medley of personages and concepts that have no
business together in one song.
According to the New York Times' description (10/20/90 p. 9),
"Madonna raps in the 60-second message as two flag-waving male
dancers spank her from behind. 'And if you don't vote, you're
going to get a spankie.'"
If you're reading this paper you've probably long since given up
on Amerikan electoral politics, a sham system that offers two
choices so evil neither could be called "lesser." Madonna and MTV
have targetted a more vulnerable audience, expecting "millions of
young people" to register to vote before November's elections.
These millions are already champion consumers; and with Madonna's
help they're learning to laugh at and enjoy violence against
women; now get 'em voting: hook, line, and sinker. Nothing
ambiguous about that.
--MC89
* * *
LET THE FREE MARKET CENSOR IT
Civil libertarians all over Amerika can heave a sigh of relief.
The U.S. House voted on Oct. 11 against scrapping the National
Endowment for the Arts. If Congress ever gets it together to make
those wrenching decisions (should we tax the obscenely rich 1%
more?) and votes on a budget, the NEA will be guaranteed three
years to live and annual funding of $170 million.
That's not the only "victory" for the liberal-to-the-core free
speech movement to have happened last month. In October, Dennis
Barrie, director of the Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center, was
found innocent of obscenity charges brought against him for
displaying Robert Mapplethorpe's homoerotic photographs. A week
later, 2 Live Crew was acquitted of obscenity charges, too.
What a relief. The evil far-right forces have been beaten back by
the gallant defenders of liberal capitalist ideology, and
Amerika's economically and culturally enforced censorship is again
veiled in legalisms and state support for "the arts."
It's not that MIM doesn't support funding the NEA. It's not that
MIM isn't happy about the Barrie and 2 Live Crew verdicts.
Fighting for reforms which will make it easier for political
expression and organizing to take place is useful. It's just that
too often those reforms are viewed by the pseudo-leftists as ends
in themselves.
When the top half-percent of the people own more than the bottom
90%, there can be no free speech. Twenty-six corporations control
almost 100% of the media in the U.S. The culture industry is also
dominated by a few large corporations, and the amount of
censorship that goes on before the state or the courts ever get a
chance to crack down on potentially subversive material is
tremendous.
Whatever small battles may have been won recently against the
incursions of the far right into the liberal capitalist system
only serve to demonstrate that overt acts of censorship on the
part of the state or its agents are not necessary to maintain the
high level of censorship inherent to capitalism. Such small
victories can lull people into believing that the system's own
checks and balances are enough. No. Speech is not free in the USA,
and won't be until communists seize state power and help to build
an egalitarian society.
--MC11
* * *
POWER GAMES
Gary Kasparov, the world chess champion, has begun his third
defense against Anatoly Karpov in a 24-game match in New York and
Lyons. The world's eyes are upon them, not so much because of the
beauty of their games, but because they are portrayed as political
opponents, forces of light and darkness.
When Amerikan Bobby Fischer wrestled the title away from the
Soviet Boris Spassky in 1973, Western media vaunted Fischer's
brilliance against the automaton. Now Fischer wanders around
Pasadena, CA muttering anti-Semitic bile. And Spassky has defected
to France, where he lives the life of a playboy.
Cold-warriors found more convincing images of themselves in the
next two contenders, the young Karpov, who assumed the title when
Fischer refused to defend and Viktor Korchnoi, a paranoid
defector. Korchnoi lost lopsidedly twice. He said a Soviet witch-
doctor in the audience had hypnotized him.
With his patient, airtight game, Karpov held the title until he
was bested by the slashing Kasparov. Kasparov called Fischer "the
real champion" even after he had won the title himself. This was
good, and the media wanted more. They ignored the fact that
Kasparov had twice changed his name, first from Weinstein (he does
not talk about his Jewish father), then from Kasparyan (his
Armenian family fled their home in Baku, Azerbaijan last year), to
the present, Russianized version. And they ignored his joing the
Soviet Young Pioneers at the early age of 13, a transparent bit of
social climbing. Kasparov was the new man of freedom.
Now Kasparov speaks of a future in politics. He is deputy chairman
of the new anti-communist Democratic Party of Russia, and he plans
to run for a seat in the Soviet Parliament. With a flair for the
dramatic, he is playing the match under a pre-revolution Russian
flag rather than one of the Soviet Union and he says things like
"My country is burning. You think I worry about games?"
The New York Times found someone to say that Kasparov is putting
his life on the line with his activism. But Kasparov, pictured on
the cover of the Times' Sunday Magazine (10/7/90) with his hands
clasped in what could easily be mistaken for prayer, has earned
himself a guaranteed purse of $1.3 million, a sum that would be
unthinkable if chess was the only issue in the match: he knows
what sells.
--MC89
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