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.
Under Lock and Key is missing from this issue.--mim5@mim.org
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THE MAOIST INTERNATIONALIST MOVEMENT
MIM Notes 76 MAY, 1993
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. LETTERS
2. WAKE UP HUD! THE PEOPLE OWN GENEVA TOWERS
3. THE SPECTRE OF COMMUNISM HAUNTS AZANIA
4. RADIOACTIVE WAVES BEAMED AT OPPRESSED NATIONALS
5. BORN CRIMINALS
6. PIGS, POLITICIANS AND LABOR JOIN FORCES
7. VIRTUAL FASCISM
8. HANNIBAL THE JUDGE
9. PUERTO RICO MOVES CLOSER TO THE HEART OF WHITENESS
10. HUNGER STRIKE FOR HAITI
11. FUJIMORI'S PROMISE: DEATH & TERROR
12. REVIEW: DUEL IN PERU: A 3-ACT ON THE SHINING PATH
13. FOOD NOT BOMBS HARASSED IN BOSTON
14. GUERILLA TEACHER TELLS IT LIKE IT IS
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
* * *
LETTERS
ISLAM IS A REVOLUTIONARY RELIGION
Dear Victorious MIM,
I have read your March 9 issue of MIM Notes; as usual, it is to
the point and justly accurate, and sensible.
However, the response to the letters by MC12 reveals some of the
the rigidity of its ideologues. Now MC12 says "We urge this writer
and all other religious readers not to rely on God, but on the
science of revolution..." (p.8--"Amerikan Culture")
We, Islamic Revolutionaries, are in solidarity with the PCP. Islam
is ideal for a revolution--any pedagogy, for it gives the believer
the divine permission to fight in the event of oppression and
tyranny (Sirra 4:74, 75).
The key to the success of the spread of any ideology or any force
of change is in its ability to exist with the customs and
traditions of the people or countries it seeks to spread to or in.
The "radical rupture" dynamic of Marxism has caused it to be
unacceptable in many cases.
What MC12 doesn't realize is that Islam is a scientific religion.
As a matter of fact, the so-called "liberation theology" is
nothing more than Catholicism seasoned with the concepts of Marx
and Lenin. We, Jihadians, do not entirely agree with Marx, but we
do agree about his scientific approaches to combating capitalistic
oppression and economic exploitation.
This formalism, and doctrinairism is what caused the weakening of
the communism of the Soviets, and the party rifts of the Maoists
of China.
--Maryland prisoner
March 1993
MC17 & MC86 respond: This letter is a good example of the
revolutionary stance many Islamics take. Just as this comrade
allies with the PCP, we ally with this comrade and other Islamic
revolutionaries in fighting imperialism.
But while this comrade is quick to criticize the Maoists and
Stalinists for their failures, s/he does not provide us with any
examples of more successful Islamic revolutions. Nowhere has there
been an Islamic revolution that has advanced conditions for
oppressed people as the revolutions in the Soviet Union and China
did.
In fact, where Islamic politics has successfully seized state
power--as in Iran or Libya or Iraq--the results have been the
essential continuation of the rule of the ancient regime. Bowing
humbly towards Mecca five times a day is but an empty gesture if,
in between prayers, the worship of money and male supremacy reigns
supreme.
Furthermore, so-called "liberation theology" is a force for the
oppression of the struggling masses; not for their liberation. It
is in no way "Marxist." Liberation theology is a theological-
political-economic exercise in moderating the ideologies and
effects of patriarchy and capitalism. The reactionary Catholic
Church seeks to keep its grip on the minds of the oppressed (and
their property!) by tailoring its opportunist commandments to fool
the people and water down their revolutionary aspirations to
overthrow imperialism and the patriarchy. Liberation theology is
just a "kinder, gentler" version of the same old lies.
MIM believes that worship of any form or name of "God" does not
belong in the sphere of politics. Appreciation of higher powers is
best left to art, culture and leisure. Marxist revolutionaries may
be personally motivated by a spiritual perception of a "higher
good," or "liberation of the masses." But we base our real-world
actions on rational knowledge.
REVOLUTIONS LIBERATE NO ONE
The following is a continuation of the debate between MIM and an
FMLN supporter first printed in MIM Notes 73.
Dear MIM,
I wouldn't share the view that Maoist revolutions have actually
liberated peoples from oppression. There is no specific example.
China is not a particular example. How can it be when it has to
repress students who disagree with the government's line? When it
has also been supporting the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, responsible
for the murder of about 2 million people. Peru is not yet free.
And the revolution there is not just Maoist inspired. The ITAL
Tupac Amaru END Revolutionary Movement is fighting against the
regime too. Where else have Maoist revolutions been successful?
True, so far there have not been much advances through elections.
But in some specific examples socialists have formed governments
after being voted in by the people. Salvador Allende in Chile,
socialists in Guyana, The Olof Palme Government in Sweden, the
Sandinistas in Nicaragua in 1984, and many local governments in
India, Italy, Cyprus.
More recently, the socialists won the elections in Mongolia and
Lithuania, countries where capitalism had been nearly restored. Of
course, the problem has always been that socialist governments
have been short-lived, as the United States government has tried
to get rid of them. For instance, in Chile, Allende was overthrown
in a coup d'etat organized by the Chilean Armed Forces and the
CIA. And there is always the risk of the left losing the
elections, as in the case of the Sandinistas in 1990 and the
Swedish Social Democratic Party. But they still remain the main
opposition parties in parliament. The ballot box is not a
guarantee for winning a revolution. But it is a ITAL form END of
struggle.
The FMLN is ITAL not END proposing electoral struggle as the ITAL
only END form of struggle. The FMLN uses electoral struggle as one
ITAL more END form of struggle, alongside the diplomatic and if
necessary the military struggle including the struggle inside the
Armed Forces. This has to be combined with mass struggle at every
level, the people have to take power from below. Every social
group must carry out their own particular struggles against the
oppressive capitalist system. Their collective action is what
makes it a revolution. That's why it is called a ITAL Democratic
Revolution END.
The FMLN does not discard ITAL armed struggle END as a legitimate
form of struggle. In most cases ITAL it is necessary END. But why
keep an armed struggle going when you can achieve the same
objectives by waging other forms of struggle? And the FMLN has a
lot of accumulated experience in waging a successful ITAL armed
struggle END. Even the CIA had to acknowledge that the FMLN was
the most formidable guerrilla force they have ever had to contend
with.
I do not share the view held by the MIM that armed struggle is the
ITAL only END answer. If so, why is the MIM not fighting a
guerilla war in the United States? The MIM could for instance,
begin attacking police headquarters and army barracks, carrying
out acts of sabotage against the U.S. economy, getting rid of the
Ku Klux Klan, perhaps giving Bush a heart attack, etc.
The fact is that MIM is not waging an armed struggle inside the
United States. You are waging a ITAL political struggle END which
you combine with other forms of struggle. If you start an armed
struggle in the United States you wouldn't survive for much
longer. The CIA, the army, the police, the whole state apparatus
would crush you and most of you would end up in jail with life
sentences or in the electric chair. So you have to stick to ITAL
political struggle END and give a talk here and there, organize a
conference, publish a newspaper, etc. Wouldn't it make the MIM
less revolutionary than it is now, does it make you a capitalist
roader, how do you reconcile your theory with your practice?
But you can say that the Western countries are quite a different
society, that after all, armed struggle is out of context here.
You know, the West is not the Third World. How could armed
struggle happen here, Americans killing Americans? Australians
killing Australians? No way. The American Civil War was enough;
the Black Wars were enough.
But in El Salvador yes, "hang out there you guys. Keep killing
each other. Armed struggle is the way to go. Come on don't give
in."
Both Salvadoran revolutionaries and army soldiers are sentient
beings made of flesh and bones. 100,000 people have died as a
consequence of the civil war. Most of our dead have been from the
working class and the peasantry, even if they are army soldiers
they still come from the poorest classes. Most of them do not have
class consciousness, therefore they are easily convinced by the
military to join the social group that offers them financial
security and social mobility. Could you blame them? Perhaps you
could, but shooting at them won't resolve the problem.
And the guerillas? Living in the mountains for 12 or even 22 years
is not easy, even less if you go hungry, have no house, are ridden
with tropical diseases, and are under fire all the time. Living in
a TATU when A-37 aircraft are dropping cluster bombs on you
everyday is not fun at all.
If we as revolutionaries cannot feel that, then where is our moral
ethics? Are we any different to the people in the US Military who
by pushing a switch can launch a missile that kills 1,000 Iraqi
people in one bombing? It is easy to say, ITAL yes armed struggle
END. Fighting a war is another matter.
When there is no other alternative even the church speaks of the
right of the people to insurrectional violence that can only be
carried out through armed struggle. But it has to be at the right
time, as a mechanism of self-defence and response of the masses
against ITAL state terrorism END. The MIM calls the FMLN's
negotiated settlement of the armed conflict "ahistorical
idealism," which indicate that the MIM disagrees with the concept
of Democratic Revolution....
In El Salvador history has not finished yet. We don't know what is
going to happen. Maybe the peace accords will be fully respected
and implemented by each side, maybe not. But as Salvador Sanchez
Ceren has said, if the Salvadoran people are deceived once more,
if the government violates the peace accords and the army
unleashes a new wave of repression, then there is no doubt that
the Salvadoran people will rise up in armed struggle again.
In 1941, Mao Tse-Tung wrote:
"Without doubt, the present revolution is only the first step, and
a second step--the step to socialism--will be developed in the
future. It is only when China arrives at that stage, that she can
be called really felicitous. But for the present, it is not the
time to practise socialism. The present task of China's revolution
is the task of anti-imperialism and anti-feudalism, before the
accomplishment of which, it is empty verbiage to talk about
socialism. China's revolution must be divided into two steps, the
first being that of New Democracy, the second that of socialism.
Moreover, the period of the first step is by no means a short one.
It is not a matter that can be achieved overnight. We are no
Utopians. We cannot isolate ourselves from the actual conditions
right before our eyes."
(See "Politics and Culture of New Democracy," in the magazine ITAL
Chinese Culture, END January 15, 1941. Reprinted as ITAL China's
New Democracy END by Current Book Distributors, Sydney, Australia,
August 1945, p. 27).
Of course, ITAL Mao's END writings apply only to ITAL China, END
her ITAL culture and reality END in a particular historical epoch,
the 1940s. Is this "ahistorical idealism?"
The FMLN in El Salvador moves in quite a different reality,
culture, international context and historical epoch: the 1990s, a
period when the Berlin wall has crumbled, the USSR no longer
exists, and Japan and Germany have re-emerged as new economic
empires challenging United States hegemony throughout the world.
Inside El Salvador, the domestic context has changed too. There is
a real opportunity for the left to engage in national politics and
keep up the mass struggle at every level. The Salvadoran social
structure has changed, people's experience and political awareness
is different. They know what they are doing and where they are
heading to. The Salvadoran people are not passive agents of
history. On the contrary, they are building up their own future,
struggling, smashing the old and creating their own models of
socio-economic development aimed at resolving their most immediate
problems and at the same time pushing a revolutionary process
forward through different forms of struggle and political
alliances. Is this not a dialectical materialist interpretation of
history?
--FMLN supporter
February 1993
MC17 responds: The writer begins by suggesting that the current
Chinese government under Deng Xiaoping should be considered
Maoist, but MIM is clear that since the death of Mao, China has
pursued capitalism, not socialism, and MIM in no way supports Deng
or the current Chinese government. In addition the writer suggests
that the Tupac Amaru compares with the Communist Party of Peru,
ignoring that the Tupac Amaru is not a significant force in Peru
because they support an ineffective, pro-Castro ideology.
The writer asks what examples we give of the success of Maoism.
MIM provides many books and essays detailing the success of China,
the Soviet Union and other countries as well. In China after the
revolution there was enough food so that no one starved to death
(in stark contrast to before the revolution), everyone was
provided with housing, productivity increased dramatically, health
care was provided for all, and life expectancy increased.
The writer attempts to demonstrate that the ballot box is a
legitimate forum for struggle by recounting all the "successes" of
past elections. The first problem with these examples is the
author's failure to define socialism. Just because a government
calls itself socialist does not mean that it is. MIM does not
consider Chile under Allende or Nicaragua under the Sandinistas to
have been socialist, for example.
The quote that the author cites from Mao is a good example of what
MIM believes is a correct practice. Mao argued that New Democracy
could be achieved after military victories, not instead of them.
The FMLN is making a deal to work with the imperialists who have
absolutely no interest in relinquishing their power. The writer
asks why it is that MIM is not actively engaging in armed struggle
now if we so strongly advocate it in El Salvador. MIM does believe
that it will come down to armed struggle in Amerika, as in all
other countries. But it is important to know when to pick up the
gun. Right now in Amerika the majority of the people are on the
side of the imperialists.
Without the strength of an outside army, this is not a situation
that would be tactically winnable. For that reason we continue to
gather strength as we fight winnable battles. In the Third World
on the other hand, where the opposition is strong and well
organized, oppressed people can confront and defeat imperialism
now.
But the question of the situation in Amerika is really a
peripheral issue as the FMLN is not saying that they have to put
down their arms because they can not win right now, they are
saying that they put down their arms because they have won and
will continue to win at the ballot box.
We are not heartless to the real life conditions of the people
dying in El Salvador and elsewhere. On the contrary, it is because
of these deaths that MIM so strongly advocates revolution.
Historically, revolutions, most importantly Maoist revolutions,
have done the most to reduce the kind of suffering the author
describes.
* * *
WAKE UP HUD! THE PEOPLE OWN GENEVA TOWERS
by a comrade
In March, the people of the Geneva Towers Tenant's Association
(GTTA) ITAL overthrew END Geneva Tower's flunkie government. A
mass movement to drive the Department of Housing and Urban
Development (HUD) from Geneva Towers sprang to life.
Geneva Towers is a HUD-owned and government "subsidized" asbestos-
filled, locked-down housing project on the edge of San Francisco.
Since July 1992, MIM Notes has been covering GTTA's many battles
against forced evictions and armed terror.
In 1991 GTTA began issuing propaganda and agitating at great
personal risk to expose The Man's plan to seize the Towers and
cash in on the land. By March 1993, 11 of 16 units on many floors
were vacant. People watched their neighbors disappear into the
night.
Slum-lord John Stewart and a collection of city employees calling
themselves the Housing Conservation & Community Development
Corporation had created a controlled Geneva Towers Resident
Council Board that methodically signed away the civil and property
rights of the tenants in secret. Suddenly ITAL $50 million END
became available for a proposed three-to-five year
"rehabilitation" of the Towers. Over two years, Stewart/HUD
forcibly evicted more than 60% of the residents through terror and
bureaucratic tricks.
Quiet support from behind closed doors grew to a roar. New forces
joined GTTA and created a strength that seized the time to ITAL
recall and abolish END the treacherous Board. Now the people's
actions may compel HUD to withdraw a $200,000 grant fraudulently
awarded to (HCDC) under the HUD-approved pretense that HCDC
represented tenant ownership interests. The tenants now demand
that HUD recognize: ITAL "the people already own Geneva Towers."
END
Sensing movement, bourgeois politicians on the San Francisco Board
of Supervisors jumped on GTTA's bandwagon. These pollsters in
sharp suits and liberal make-up are looking to drown any sparks of
real political protest with white lies and false promises of
economic support.
In April, a Wall Street Journal reporter visited Geneva Towers
wearing a Stewart Company hard-hat. As the reporter scribbled down
tenant accusations against management, John Stewart and HCDC
scrambled to round up a few Black faces to tell lies and cajole
and threaten the tenants. In a public meeting, Stewart cried, "We
are talking about F-I-F-T-Y million dollars here!"
GTTA says it has no illusions about the support it may or may not
receive from the Supervisors, Wall Street Journal, and a host of
other elements eager to grab a piece of the $50 million maybe-pie.
But for John Stewart--his luscious dessert turned into rotten mush
in front of his horrified eyes as the tenants stood up and just
said no! An important battle has been won--but the war can still
be lost.
A milestone
The people's fight to resist extinction and to build an
independent power inside San Francisco's Black community has
reached a milestone. Since the mid-1970s, Blacks have been
systematically driven out of San Francisco by gentrification,
arson, police murder, forced relocation and unemployment. Much of
San Francisco's 60,000-strong Black colony now lives sandwiched
between an abandoned radioactive Navy Base and the Cow Palace, an
old and ugly convention center.
After implementing a lock-down in June 1991, Stewart & Co. created
an elaborate charade to fool the 2,500 tenants into believing that
they would ultimately become "owners and managers" of Geneva
Tower's 576 suffocating apartments under HUD's Homeownership and
Opportunity for People Everywhere (HOPE) program. This apartheid-
style master-plan is being implemented ITAL on a national level
END to drive the poor out of subsidized housing and reclaim real-
estate for transfer to private condominium builders and their
bankers.
In the last 30 years perhaps as much as ITAL $1 billion END in
federal money has circulated through the fire-trapped units at
Geneva Towers into the bank accounts of the rich and infamous.
The Road Is Long
MIM supports struggles of this sort. MIM knows that organizations
created by the international proletariat learn the bitter lessons
of politics and warfare from the experiences of the masses.
Economic struggles transform into consciously organized political
battles independently of vanguard parties whose ultimate role is
to lead insurrections and build socialism. The knowledge gained by
the people in these initial skirmishes leads inevitably to but one
political conclusion: the destruction of capitalism is the gate to
the liberation of humanity.
Outbreaks against imperialism do not always take the form of
spontaneous mass rebellions fueled by the people's justified
anger--as at Los Angeles in May 1992. GTTA is an example of a
single-issue mass organization that successfully created broad
support in the community by exposing the enemy in public forums,
local newspapers, community television, and in the street.
GTTA's membership is all the tenants at Geneva Towers. GTTA is not
ideologically uniform and it is far from communist inspired or
communist-led. The people of Geneva Towers have united themselves
solely out of the necessity to survive. Some tenants consider
communism to be evil; some say that Black folks cannot afford to
be associated with communists. Others refer to the political
ferment generated by the urban rebellions of the 1960s as a step
forward.
GTTA based itself in the people and created public opinion inside
Geneva Towers by going door-to-door with documented facts. In what
became an anchor to the struggle, Africa Jr. 391st created Food
For Thought--which operates on donated pennies and foodstamps to
provide sandwiches to hungry children and GTTA's newsletters to
information-hungry adults.
In the Geneva Towers movement MIM sees the force of the oppressed
people in motion. From the chaos of an economic struggle arises
political consciousness and a new awareness of the nature of class
enemies-- ITAL which include END the Black petty-bourgeois
administrators fronting for the white banks and pirates who run
HUD.
When asked to share the most important lesson of this struggle one
tenant said, "Never trust HUD." S/he also said that in the
beginning of the struggle s/he believed in "the myth of a strong
Black leadership" until s/he experienced "only betrayal" from the
NAACP, the Urban League, and a legion of preachers.
Some Geneva Towers tenants believe that the System can be pushed
hard enough to allow Black's, "Our piece of the American pie."
Others realize that the Amerikan consumer's pie has been baked
from the corpses of our Third World brothers and sisters.
"We ITAL can END reform the System," say a few.
"But what if we ITAL can't END run the crooks out of HUD?," ask
others. A youthful chorus echoes in the airless hallways: "Then it
will be a civil war!"
Serve The People
Following the example of the Black Panther Party's revolutionary
practice of striving to serve the people, MIM supports the
proletariat by covering its political evolution in MIM Notes and
by rendering material assistance in the form of investigation.
Maoists share a determination to be with the people through thick
and thin as we all learn from our experiences.
Sometimes individuals make the mistake of confusing the
revolutionary Party's political support with the personal support
of our comrades. MIM urges all revolutionaries and politically
aware people engaged in mass struggles to read and study the MIM
essay "On Single-Issue Organizing."(1)
MIM works ITAL with END mass organizations. We do not infiltrate
or work ITAL in END them. MIM comrades carry out the political
line and policies of the Party under all circumstances. MIM
comrades are obligated to actively solicit criticism and analysis
from the masses.
One activist recently praised MIM Notes as a tool for "separating
garbage from not-garbage." S/he said, "MIM has a new view of
what's going on and a finger on the pulse. We have to expose what
is real because we will always lose as long as the people believe
the lies. As for me, I have had to re-examine the very meaning of
the word 'radical.' Homeboys need to know how to dig behind every
tree."
Notes:
1. Available in the pamphlet "What Is Mim?" for $2 post-paid at
Boxholder, P.O. Box 3576, Ann Arbor, MI, 48106-3576.
* * *
THE SPECTRE OF COMMUNISM HAUNTS AZANIA
by a comrade
In response to the April 10 assassination of Chris Hani, leader of
the South African Communist Party (SACP), on April 15 20,000
Azanian youths smashed downtown store windows, set cars afire,
shot a policeman, stabbed a peace monitor, threw a grenade at
soldiers, derailed two commuter train cars, and assaulted a
prominent African National Congress (ANC) official who tried to
restore order.(1)
Hani, also a member of the Executive Committee of the ANC, was
murdered by a white supremacist gunman outside his home in
Johannesburg. While there have been more than 9,000 political
killings in Azania during the past three years alone, Hani is the
first top liberation movement leader killed since Black
Consciousness Movement founder Steven Biko was killed by the South
African police in 1977.(2)
Hani's assassination is of monumental significance to the
liberation movement in Azania, and is likely to be a turning point
in the struggle. Hani and the revisionist SACP have largely been
the masterminds of the "powersharing" deal being worked out by the
ANC and the ruling National Party.
As the Deputy Commander of the ANC military wing, Umkhonto we
Sizwe (Spear of the Nation) from 1982 to 1987, Hani was "credited"
with being the only ANC member to retain the respect of the
militant Azanian youth--who have grown increasingly impatient with
these negotiations and with the ANC leadership.
The ANC youth have always been the most militant voice in the
organization; they have tended toward armed struggle rather than
the criminal dead-end negotiations of the past several years. Hani
tried to convince the youth to patiently wait for the negotiations
to bring them liberation.
Now that he has been assassinated, the rage of the youth has again
taken center stage. Angry masses have rebelled, causing millions
of dollars in property damage. By April 12 at least 28 people were
dead and 30 injured, and the Washington Post reported stonings,
car burnings, shots fired at motorists, and marches on local
police stations. Also, two whites were burned to death and one had
his tongue cut out, after their cars were stoned and set on fire
near Cape Town.(3)
More than 80,000 people went to Hani's funeral on April 19 in the
Soweto soccer stadium. Outside, thousands of young people engaged
police in rolling combat all day. Inside, Mandela tried to
disassociate the violence from the ANC, claiming that the violence
was caused by agent provocateurs, rather than by the righteous
anger of the masses!(4) Mandela is trying to hide the fact that
his organization has been irreversibly split by the Hani
assassination.
When he spoke on the April 14 "day of mourning," Mandela was booed
when he started to speak of reconciliation with the ruling
National Party. Some in the crowd yelled, "We hate them! We hate
them!" The ANC youth speaker at the rally, Sipho Mavundla, was
more direct, saying, "No more peace. No more talks."(1) It is only
a matter of time before they formally split from the ANC elders
intent on negotiations.
Other statements by ANC youth have been similar. ANC Youth League
President Peter Mokaba urged protesters to acquire weapons by
whatever means possible to avenge Hani's death. Coux Malik, 20,
said "We'll never get anywhere negotiating, because the regime
will never give up power without being forced." Thabo Morudu, 21,
said "The only answer is insurrection. To combat violence, you
must apply violence." Parcks Slovo, 26, said, "We understand what
Mandela is saying, and we know discipline is important, but the
only way we are going to take power is at the barrel of a gun."(5)
Umkhonto we Sizwe never attempted to liberate territory in which
the ANC and the people would wield political power. It only
engaged in acts of bombings and sabotage aimed at the police and
government, in order to scare them into negotiating powersharing
with the ANC.
It is up to the youth of Azania to forge a new course of armed
struggle--the people's war.
Hani's death commemorated in Amerika
On April 19, the day of Hani's funeral in South Africa, more than
300 people attended a commemoration for Hani held at Howard
University in Washington D.C. Speakers from revisionist parties
such as the CPUSA and the Socialist Workers Party spoke, as well
as African Diplomats, religious leaders and reformist single-issue
groups.
There was only one student speaker in the program--a
representative of the Howard Student Association. He read a tract
from African revolutionary Kwame Nkrumah. The only other inspiring
speakers were Rev. Willie Wilson, a local Black activist minister,
and Steve Mncube, representing the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC)
of Azania.
In Washington D.C. as in Azania, the youth could not be held back
by revisionist leaders. As the long and boring program was ending,
one young Azanian started chanting and moving toward the front of
the room. Soon all the other Azanian youth in the room followed,
as they took over the microphone, and filled the room with
militant chanting and dancing.
The energy of the youth electrified the room, and it became clear
that they are the leaders of the struggle, and the future belongs
to them.
Notes:
1. Washington Post 4/15/93.
2. Washington Post 4/11/93.
3. Washington Post 4/12/93.
4. UPI 4/19/93
5. Washington Post 4/18/93.
* * *
RADIOACTIVE WAVES BEAMED AT OPPRESSED NATIONALS
by a comrade
On October 28-30, 1992 the Amerikan government sponsored an
International symposium on "Contraband and Cargo Inspection
Technology" in Washington, D.C., reassuring us that the
imperialist war on drugs continues in full force. Experts in law
enforcement from 16 countries met to discuss new technological
capabilities that can be used to crack down on international drug
trafficking.(1)
A diagnostic probe system, using ITAL neutron interrogation, END
(2) will be set up at U.S.-Mexican border crossings, but can also
be downsized into portable van units that will drive through
oppressed neighborhoods and beam into cars and houses to detect
drugs in large quantities. Neutron interrogation technology can
detect drugs, explosives, and chemical and nuclear materials, but
the most dangerous domestic use will likely be targeting drug
dealers. The portable vanmobile unit that can zap houses will
detect movement and body heat in different rooms inside the house.
One coordinator of the D.C. Green Panthers! suggested that
portable scaled down versions of this device might be used in
inner city neighborhoods to intensify the campaign against
oppressed nation dealers and users. Blacks and Latinos could yet
be the targets of more advanced and systematic genocide through
carcinogenic poisoning in their own neighborhoods. MIM shares the
Panthers! belief that nothing is too dangerous and reactionary for
this fascist government to do to continue the slaughter and
oppression of oppressed nation communities.
State agents plan to use this new technology to seize illegal
drugs at the border and in barrios. The Green Panthers! are
concerned that not only would fruits and vegetables be nuked
during these searches, but so would illegal aliens trying to get
to Amerika.
A scientist at American Science and Engineering in Cambridge, who
is not connected to the neutron project, speculated that while
regular X-ray systems, such as those found in airport security
checkpoints, will not change the chemical composition of fruits
and vegetables carried in these trucks, the neutron system could
"potentially" cause damage.
The residual radiation that would affect the incoming produce
would then reach the consumers, and no one would be the wiser.
Even more frightening is the fact that Central and South Amerikan
refugees who may be hiding in the trucks will get zapped.
According to the Panthers!, cancer experts at the National
Institute of Health (NIH) believe that persons exposed to this
kind of radiation could show signs of cancer within 1-2 years
after exposure. MIM wonders if Clinton's proposed health insurance
program will cover these immigrants and others who get cancer from
poisoned food?
Notes:
1. E. Rhodes, Argonne National Laboratory and C.W. Peters, Nuclear
Diagnostic Systems, ITAL APSTNG: Neutron Interrogation for
Detection of Drugs and Other Contraband, END ITAL submitted to
above-mentioned symposium. MIM extends great thanks to our friends
at the Green Panthers! who sent us this information.
2. For those scientifically-minded readers, this probe is based on
"a unique associate-particle sealed-tube generator (APSTNG) that
interrogates the object of interest with a low-intensity beam of
14-MeV neutrons generated from the deuterium-tritium reaction and
detects the alpha-particle associated with each neutron." Rhodes,
et al. abstract.
* * *
BORN CRIMINALS
Thirty-four Black youth were arrested on April 8 at a Detroit
middle school after they became too "rowdy" for Detroit police
lecturing the students on gangs. Before being taken to the police
station, the students were lined up for photographs taken by the
pigs. All of them were taken to the police station by a police
bus, with their hands over their heads the entire time.(1,2)
Three Detroit police gang squad officers went to the Cerveny
Middle school to lecture 60 students on the dangers gang
membership. The "gang-prone" students were hand-picked by the
teachers, and they were taken from their classrooms to listen to
the pigs babble about gangs. The school never told parents about
the lecture given to their children.(2)
During the lecture the students became "rowdy, challenging the
officers, swearing at school staff, and shoving each other." The
pigs then arrested 34 of the students, charging one for
interfering with an officer in the line of duty and the rest with
disorderly conduct.(1)
"We told them there's no gang turf, and they wanted to tell us
different," said Lt. Charles Wilson, a gang squad member. "We
couldn't stand for that." Yeah, they couldn't stand Black youth
standing up to the pigs' power, so they arrested the students.
Wilson also said, "If they litter, if they loiter, destroy
property by spray-painting gang graffiti, or if we get information
they're intimidating students, we take immediate enforcement
action and take a zero-tolerance approach to prosecution of those
individuals." He goes on to say, "I think it's too many videos,
too many Ice Cubes, Ice T's and movies glamorizing gangs."(2)
No, it's not too many videos. Rather, it's inner-city oppression
and alienation, of knowing that you're more likely to go to prison
than to college. To pluck these students out of the classrooms and
label them gang wannabes just reinforces them to think that gangs
are their only source of power. And with the zero-tolerance
approach, these agents of the state only instigate the formation
of gangs, the birthplace for revolutionaries in inner-city
Amerikkka.
--MC67
Notes:
1. Detroit Free Press 4/10/93, 3A and 10A.
2. Detroit News 4/15/93, 2B.
* * *
PIGS, POLITICIANS AND LABOR JOIN FORCES
The Illinois task force on crime and corrections recently
recommended the construction of a 500-bed super maximum security
prison. Illinois already has one of the most notorious prisons,
Marion, in the southern part of the state.
The warden of Marion, which currently is Amerika's largest control
unit prison, has been quoted as saying: "the purpose of the Marion
control unit is to control revolutionary attitudes in the prison
system and in society at large."
At a press conference called by the Illinois legislators and labor
officials, prison guards whined about the violent behavior they've
encountered. Mark Bushue doesn't like the idea of prisoners
fighting back against inhumane treatment: "I think we need
someplace to put these people. I think it would be a deterrent to
other inmates that maybe they'd think twice before they assaulted
another officer."
The Amerikan Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees
council 31 represents 7,500 prison guards in Illinois. Their
spokesman Henry Bayer said: "... we will take this step to build a
super-maximum facility in order to help bring our prisons under
control." Thus the true interests of the white labor aristocracy
are revealed: aiding the oppressive capitalist state apparatus by
imprisoning oppressed nationals. What else should be expected from
government-controlled unions?
No matter how many concentration camps they build, they will never
be able to hold back the revolutionary spirit of the people.
--a MIM Associate
Notes: The Catholic Worker 3-4/93, p. 3. and St. Louis Post-
Dispatch 3/31/93, p. 14A.
* * *
VIRTUAL FASCISM
Lurking inside the glossy pages of a Housing and Urban Development
(HUD) manual, MIM has discovered that a San Francisco Bay Area
consortium of land-pirates led by the John Stewart Company
(currently on the run from the wrath of the people at Geneva
Towers) has set-up a local data-base called the National Tenant
Network (NTN) for convenient use by Public Housing Authorities and
other HUD-subsidized scumlords.
HUD is promoting this cyber-fascism as a model for Amerika.
The NTN computerized "reporting service [presents] a clear picture
of a potential resident: a credit report, an evictions report, and
a resident performance report based on landlord information."
Currently the data-base contains 600,000 names of "risky renters"
from the Bay Area (10% of the total area population).
"NTN staff visit Bay Area courthouses daily and record all
evictions filed ... Subscribers are provided with the names and
telephone numbers of the plaintiffs and attorneys in the
complaints ... [The database] helps subscribers sift through the
information and analyze the cash flow and historical facts
regarding prospective tenants."
NTN geek Lindquist says, "The report will not say that the
prospective renter is a drug dealer, but there will be a notation
in the report to talk to the previous landlord [who] may say that
there was constant foot traffic in and out of the apartment, or
that the police raided the unit, or that hypodermic needles were
found there after the resident moved out." (Or that the tenant is
Black or Latin ... or ITAL political END.)
Lindquist estimates that "More than a third of applicants for
public housing and assisted housing prove to have had recent
evictions." The Oakland Housing Authority, "uses NTN as an alert
system ... the managers reject [at least] 10% of applicants and the
NTN information is an important part of their reasons for denial."
Marie Tustin (John Stewart Company Vice-Pirate) comments,
"Ultimately, ITAL the managers must be character judges. END"
Corporate oinker John Stewart owns and manages 70 properties with
7,500 units in Northern California. He is notorious for using
every lie and trick in the book to evict tenants-for-profit.
If you are evicted from subsidized housing in 1993--for whatever
reason--you will probably now be denied the opportunity to pay
outrageous rents in toxic hellholes along with the chance to
inhabit even a pitiable shelter.
Begging these pigs for mercy will only elicit mocking laughs as
they trundle the loot to the bank. The only answer is to stop them
dead in their tracks and create revolutionary people's socialism.
Under the dictatorship of the proletariat the people might even
use databases to screen and eliminate capitalist-roaders ....
--a comrade
Notes: ITAL Together We Can ... Create Drug-Free Neighborhoods END
Office of Policy Development and Research, HUD, August 1992, pps.
32-40.
* * *
HANNIBAL THE JUDGE
An imprisoned Black man with AIDS was forced to wear a hockey-
style mask and a blue surgical mask, leaving only his eyes
unobstructed, at his appearance in district court, ordered by
Judge James Justin.
The prisoner, Robert Williams of Detroit, Mich, was arraigned in
the district court in Michigan on charges of attempted murder of a
prison employee and assault with a deadly weapon. Williams
allegedly threw a cupful of urine at a prison employee in December
in the Jackson State Prison.
The Jackson County prosecutor, Dennis Hurst, requested the masking
order because an unmasked Williams could have a "dramatic chilling
effect" on witnesses, lawyers, guards and court staff.
The AIDS virus is not spread through the air, spitting or biting,
said Evan Wolfson, an attorney with the Lambda Legal Defense Fund.
He said the masking order "shows a manifest ignorance about HIV
and certainly invites a challenge based on denial of the due
process [of law] and a fair hearing."
Being a Black man, a "criminal" and a person with AIDS was just
too much for the presiding judge, so it was not difficult to
accept the prosecutor's request. By accepting the prosecutor's
motion for a masking order, the judge all but decided the verdict
for the jury. But then again, what else is new for the Black man?
The most dramatic and chilling effect the Black nation is going to
have on Euro-Amerika is yet to come.
--MC67
Notes: Detroit News, 4/15/93, 2B.
* * *
PUERTO RICO MOVES CLOSER TO THE HEART OF WHITENESS
The officialization of the English language recently passed the
Puerto Rican legislature (controlled by the New Progressive Party-
-which supports Puerto Rican statehood) and the governor's desk.
This makes it inevitable that government documents will soon be
written in English despite the fact that nearly three-fourths of
Puerto Ricans speak little or no English. This means that three-
fourths of Puerto Rican people will not be able to understand the
language in legal, government, business, and labor transactions
that govern their lives.
The New Progressive Party won control of the legislature in 1991.
Changing Puerto Rico's official language to English makes the
colony a more eligible candidate for statehood; only a colony that
speaks English can become a state. The move to English
demonstrates the puppet government's willingness to push the
island's population into statehood.
The focus on the official language issue shows the New Progressive
Party's apathy towards the real problems that face the people. The
Party allows inhumane social conditions to continue and, like good
running dogs for U.S. imperialism, deny every attempt to change
the lives of the people. The pro-statehood administration recently
signed an agreement with the FBI which places police powers on the
colony in the imperialist hands, giving them a supervisory role
over the local police.
The leaders of the Puerto Rican Independence Movement met at the
beginning of this year to call for the Second Pro-Independence
Congress. The call intended to form a cohesive movement outlining
the conditions for achieving the liberation of Puerto Rico. These
conditions include freedom for all Puerto Rican political
prisoners and prisoners of war. One hundred fifty thousand
demonstrators gathered in San Juan to protest officializing
English.
For more information contact the Puerto Rican National Liberation
Movement; 1671 N. Claremont Street; Chicago, Illinois 60647 Phone:
312-342-8027
--an associate
Notes:
1. La Patria Radical, January 1993.
2. Bandera Roja (Newspaper of the Movimiento por Liberacion
Nacional), February 1993.
3. Grito Cultural No. 6, 1991.
* * *
HUNGER STRIKE FOR HAITI
by a comrade
Deposed Haitian President Jean Bertrand Aristide spoke at
Georgetown University on March 22, lavishing praise on a recent
student hunger strike movement which started at Yale University
and has continued at elite schools all over Amerika. Aristide's
presence inspired Georgetown hunger strikers to organize, even
though, as one student leader later told MIM, "I thought his
actual speech was tempered to the Georgetown crowd ... I thought
it was disappointing because he was so 'political.'"
"Working in partnership with the U.S., Haiti's problems can be
solved very quickly," Aristide said, calling for foreign business
opportunities and a free and open market economy in Haiti. Of Bill
Clinton, Aristide said, "There is a very deep sense of humanity in
him ... We trust President Clinton. We believe with him we can
restore democracy to Haiti."(1)
The hunger strike
The student hunger strike movement started on March 3 at Clinton's
alma mater, Yale Law School. Blending Amerikan military lingo with
appropriated revolutionary Black history, the law students named
their campaign "Operation Harriet Tubman." Thirty students went on
a hunger strike for seven days, taking shifts at a mock
concentration camp they named "Camp Clinton."(2)
On March 10, Yale law students passed the strike onto Harvard Law
School. Harvard passed the strike to Brown University on March 17,
which passed it to the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor on
March 24. Nearly 200 students joined the hunger strike in Ann
Arbor. On March 31, Michigan passed the strike to four schools at
once: Columbia University, Penn State, Georgetown--where more than
450 students fasted--and Howard University.(2)
In early April, students at the following schools went on hunger
strike: New York University, American University, George
Washington University, University of California at Berkeley, San
Francisco State, Catholic University and University of Maine. A
national meeting of students in solidarity with Haiti was planned
at Columbia University in New York for May 1.
Why Haiti?
The U.S. government has detained more than 250 Haitian refugees in
a concentration camp on Guantanamo Naval Base in Cuba for 15
months. The Haitians were forcibly brought to Guantanamo while
trying to flee political and economic repression in Haiti after
the military coup against President Aristide.
The Haitians were picked up by U.S. Naval patrols to keep them
from arriving on U.S. shores. At first thousands of Haitians were
interned at Guantanamo. Most were fingerprinted, and then sent
back into the hands of the Haitian military regime from which they
were fleeing in the first place. Those remaining were tested for
the HIV virus, believed to cause AIDS. The Haitians who tested
positive for HIV--or are relatives of those who tested positive
for HIV--have been interned at Guantanamo ever since.
On January 29, the imprisoned Haitians went on a hunger strike to
dramatize their conditions. The press largely ignored the action,
showing only a moment of interest when the opportunist Jesse
Jackson joined them in February. But many Amerikan law students
have been working on the Haitians' legal defense since refugees
began fleeing Haiti's shores following the coup. The hunger strike
movement grew out of this informal network of law students
sympathetic to the Haitians' plight.
A hunger strike is not a revolution
The students' demands are very limited and reformist in nature.
Allowing the 250 Haitians at Guantanamo into the United States
would not alter Amerikan dominance over Haiti, although it would
be a small victory against Amerika's reactionary immigration
policy barring HIV positive immigrants.
MIM believes that all oppressed Third World peoples fleeing the
effects of Amerikan imperialism should be allowed into Amerika. As
internationalists, MIM doesn't acknowledge the borders that
Amerika has erected. These borders serve to lock out oppressed
peoples, and allow Amerika to artificially inflate the wages given
to people inside these borders. Challenges to immigration are
challenges to the system of imperialism itself.
While the law student hunger strike movement is based among some
of the most privileged people on the planet, MIM is happy to see
First World youth organizing to support Haitian self-
determination, and to allow persecuted Haitians to cross the
militarily fortified U.S. border.
While MIM is most interested in liberation movements of oppressed
people, we work among all sectors of society to promote the
interests and demands of the Third World proletariat. Students at
elite Amerikan schools who are interested in the plight of
oppressed Haitians should join MIM, and understand that the best
way to help Haitians is to help overthrow Amerikan imperialism.
"I don't know really if I agree with even the grounds that we're
arguing this on," said one of the more radical students involved
in the Georgetown strike. "That according to international law or
according to U.S. law the Haitians should be allowed into this
country. I'm really using that as an argument which people might
accept ... I don't really accept that argument in other instances."
The student also cited internal divisions in the movement over how
broadly to focus as the reason they chose to focus only on the 250
Haitians detained at Guantanamo. The student leaders have chosen
to take the pragmatic approach and argue on the lowest common
denominator, rather than attempting to explain to other students
the broader imperialist context. This type of organizing may get
larger crowds in the short term, but will not create movements
that will move beyond that lowest common denominator to actually
understand and challenge imperialism.
Notes:
1. Speech by Haiti's President Jean Bertrand Aristide at
Georgetown University, March 22, 1993.
2. Press release from Operation Harriet Tubman: The National
Student Campaign to Shut Down Guantanamo, April 2, 1993.
ITAL A good source of information on Haiti's history and the
current political situation is a 24-page newsletter called "Haiti:
A Look at the Reality." It is available for $2.50 postpaid from
the Quixote Center, P.O. Box 5206, Hyattsville, MD 20782. END
* * *
FUJIMORI'S PROMISE: DEATH & TERROR
by MCBeta & MC12
The Peruvian government is reaching around the globe to attack
revolutionary opponents of its murderous state.
The Fujimori regime is asking England to extradite Adolfo
Olaechea, spokesperson and head of the Committee Sol Peru, a
London, England organization dedicated to defending and
"explain[ing] the true character of the People's War in Peru,"
under Peru's 1907 treaty with England. Fujimori charges him with
"apology of terrorism."(1)
Olaechea has received a death threat mailed from Oakland, Cal.
carrying only one word: "USTED" (Spanish for "you"). It bore a
skull-and-crossbones, the signature of the organized death squads.
errorism."(1)
Olaechea has received a death threat mailed from Oakland, Cal.
carrying only one word: "USTED" (Spanish for "you"). It bore a
skull-and-crossbones, the signature of the organized death squads.
____ the extradition request in the context of the quickening pace
of the People's War.Communist Party of Peru leader Abimael Guzm‡n
(and the parents of a slain revolutionary in her own right), who
were recently in Brussels defending the Peruvian revolution as
reported in MIM Notes 75. The La Torres live in Stockholm.
The extradition campaign is also extending to Chile, France,
Germany and Spain. Peru is asking those governments to extradite
four people, two of whom they say are in Europe raising money for
the PCP. The two alleged PCP supporters are Maximilano Durand
Araujo, supposed to have been in France since 1982, and Jorge
Mujica Contreras, who they say is in Spain. The other two are said
to be supporters of the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement
(MRTA).(2)
In a March 24 interview with London's Asian Times, Olaechea
explained the extradition request in the context of the quickening
pace of the People's War.(3)
"In Peru, the People's War continues to develop and the tempo of
the struggle has more than doubled since the capture of Chairman
Gonzalo [Guzm‡n] by the regime's anti-terrorist police. Moreover
the stability of the mass-murderer regime of Fujimori is more and
more precarious due to deep divisions in its only local prop, the
armed forces of the reactionary state ... they have resorted to
demand the extradition of a number of Peruvian democrats living
abroad on a variety of bogus charges ... Principally they fear that
in May, June, July and August of this year, the traditional months
in which the revolutionary forces go on to the offensive, their
regime will finally collapse. This extradition ploy shows clearly
the degree of desperation they have reached."
Olaechea also explained why the British government, in collusion
with Fujimori and the U.S. funded drug trade, would not "proceed
with impartiality" in his extradition case. He pointed to the
financial support Britain has given to the so-called war on drugs,
and to a BBC report of last year which showed "the complicity and
participation of the highest echelons of the Fujimori regime in
the drug trade."
"In fact, in the last of the Newsnight programs, Fujimori's own
vice-president, Maximo San Roman characterized the current regime
as 'the rule of a drugs mafia.' In my opinion, both Garel Jones
[Foreign Office Minister for Latin American Affairs] and Kenneth
Clarke [Home Secretary] are totally disqualified to act
impartially in this case. They have hopelessly compromised
themselves with the dictator and his cronies, including the drug
baron Vladimiro Montesinos, the presidential 'adviser' in direct
control of the regime's anti-drug program."
MIM stands firmly in solidarity with Adolfo Olaechea, not because
his "civil liberties" or "international law" are being violated
(for MIM knows these "rights" are merely privileges granted by the
bourgeoisie to itself), but because of his internationalist
proletarian ideology and practice.
The Committee Sol Peru is raising money for its Fighting Fund
Appeal, in order to cover the legal, printing, campaigning and
other costs of Olaechea's extradition. People interested in
contributing to this fund, by check or international money order,
can write to the Adolfo Olaechea Fighting Fund at LLoyds Bank
(Walham Green Branch) account number in London: 7167762 - Olaechea
A. ISA.
Repression
* As part of a media crackdown in Peru, the government has
convicted a Peruvian reporter for compiling a television special
on human rights abuses. The judge also ordered the arrest of the
show's director--in Spain.(4)
* When Fujimori launched his coup last April, one of the things he
wanted was to increase the efficiency of political repression. Now
the U.S. State Department estimates that as many as 500,000 people
are awaiting trial, as the backlogged sham-justice system bogs
down under the weight of mass arrests.(5)
* Reuters reports that: "Fujimori, who seized near-dictatorial
powers last year, said on Tuesday he supported a constitutional
measure empowering him to dissolve Peru's Congress in times of
national crisis."(6)
Resistance
* On March 28, "thirty-two inmates, most of them Maoist Shining
Path guerrillas, broke out of a jail near Cuzco after a car bomb
exploded at the facility, and four died in a shootout that
followed."(7)
* The guerillas of the PCP struck at government forces in April:
The PCP killed the governor of the Alto Biabo area, Hector Lopez,
and seven other soldiers in an ambush.(8) Earlier, guerillas
ambushed an army truck on the Santiago de Chuco-Trujillo highway,
killing 10 members of the security forces and wounding eight
others.(9)
* Public sector workers led a wave of strikes in March,
challenging government economic policies. Strikers were to include
65,000 health care workers at 2,000 clinics, and 4,500 doctors
striking in sympathy with them. At the same time, 4,000 railroad
employees struck, costing the mining industry alone at least $1.5
million. Then, 200,000 public school teachers planned a strike to
protest falling real wages that have dropped to $75 per month.(10)
And economic crisis
Peru's economy officially shrank by almost 3% last year. The
monthly minimum wage at the end of the year was about $42. Twelve
million of Peru's 22 million people are counted below the official
poverty line.(11)
The oppressed in Peru have no friends in the imperialist capital
business. But the government does. With no base of support among
the people, the Peruvian government has no choice but to belly up
at the bar of dependent addiction.
The International Monetary fund has cleared $1.4 billion in new
loans to Peru. Almost all of the money will have to be turned
around to service existing debts, but in the process "old" debts
will become "new" debts, and Peru's ability to get even more loans
will improve. And so on.(12)
Notes:
1. The Guardian 3/20/93.
2. Agence France Presse 3/6/93.
3. Asian Times 3/24/93.
4. UPI 3/16/93.
5. Washington Post 3/22/93.
6. Reuters 3/30/93.
7. Reuters 3/29/93.
8. UPI 4/9/93.
9. L.A. Times 4/6/93.
10. Notimex Mexican News Service 3/16/93.
11. Washington Post 3/14/93.
12. Daily Report For Executives 3/19/93.
* * *
REVIEW:
"DUEL IN PERU: A 3-ACT ON THE SHINING PATH"
S. Colman
1993
MIM applauds S. Colman's efforts in this play. While the Peruvian
revolution has most anarchists these days falling to agnosticism
or pacifism, Colman--a self-described anarchist--is working to
popularize the fact of the revolution. "Duel in Peru" demonstrates
a commitment to developing the level of debate between anarchists
and communists, on the tactics and strategy of revolutions.
MIM's criticism of this play includes a critique of anarchism as
an ideology and a center of organization, as well as Colman's thin
treatment of Marxism. This review is written as part of what we
hope will be a continuing debate between anarchists and Maoists on
the questions of world revolution, and towards the most effective
means of organizing in the interests of the people of Peru and the
world.
Marxism and anarchism
Colman is attempting to develop and strengthen the connections
between Marxism and anarchism. Colman takes on the title of "a
hyphenated anarchist--like anarcho-Marxism (along with anarcho-
pacifism, anarcho-feminism, etc.)."(1) MIM calls people like
Colman, who recognize the need for dialectical analysis and for
the elimination of oppression, communists in ideology.
Materialists, such as Colman, recognize that anarchism is an ideal
at this stage, not a means of eliminating oppression.
"Anarchism's strength is in its ability to provide an idealistic
utopian vision. Without a vision, change cannot happen. But a
vision is not enough. The communist method of materialism can get
us from here to the stateless, classless society. Idealism alone
will get us nowhere. Keep fighting the power--one winnable battle
at a time," said one ex-anarchist turned Maoist.(3)
Colman spends a lot of time playing with the tension between
individualist ideology and revolutionary analysis. Individualist
theory is used as a prop for capitalism and is difficult for
revolutionaries to get rid of entirely. This tension becomes the
principal contradiction in the play--superseding the political
debate and focusing on the personal. This approach discounts the
importance of revolution and political struggle. But MIM's
cultural tastes dictate that people starting political projects
should finish them--to do otherwise is to demean the political
struggle you intend to help.
The duel
The plot centers on the debate between Marxism--in the form of
Vera, a former student at the University of Ayacucho, and a member
of the Communist Party of Peru (PCP)--and anarchism, represented
by Jamil, a wealthy Jordanian anarchist slumming it in a Lima
shantytown. Jamil persistently tries to pick Vera up.
Vera spends much of the play arguing why political commitment is
essential. Jamil, on the other hand, is happy to criticize all
political movements from the standpoint of pacifist, animal-loving
individualism. Representing a privileged and adventurist ideology,
Jamil is the son of a formerly feudal and increasingly bourgeois
family.
"Duel in Peru" culminates in a saber duel between Jamil and the
chief of the local anti-terrorism police precinct. The duel boils
down to a combination of machismo and the remaining decadence of
"honor" in the old feudal society. The chief of police (from a
land-owning background himself) sees a social equal in Jamil, and
calls on Jamil to help him re-live the good old days of land-
owning glory. Jamil, the righteous anarchist, obliges.
Synthesis
The romantic backdrop muddles the debate between anarchism and
Maoism. The political content suffers somewhat from the format as
well--political struggle makes for less than graceful dialogue.
In Act I, Vera hears out some of Jamil's idealist criticisms of
the PCP, and pushes him to offer them to the party as constructive
criticism. He proves to be a nihilist, unwilling to struggle or
engage in principled debate. (He's been there, done that, doesn't
have the energy.) Vera continues to meet with him and talk
politics, while Jamil continues to use these meetings to try to
get her into bed. This sexual dynamic cripples the attempt at
political synthesis.
The play does not hold any struggle sharp enough to demarcate
between anarchism and communism. Nor does it arrive at the most
correct answer on any of the strategic questions it raises (animal
rights, pacifism, state capitalism, fascism, free love,
individualism).
Discussion of these issues amounts to bandying back and forth the
stereotypes each actor has of the others' ideology. It's one thing
to take this as an artistic approach to a random anarchist
character--making him a composite of assorted ideologies
associated with anarchism. But it's irresponsible to take the same
approach to representing the PCP, a long-standing organization
with a published line on many of the questions raised here.(2)
Both Vera and Jamil take a disproportionate number of instances
from Amerikan history as illustrations for their arguments. The
examples that are not out of Amerikan history and culture were
popularized enough in the U.S. to have a high recognition factor
for most Amerikans. It doesn't do much for realism, but this is a
nice touch in a polemic. It gives the play's most likely audience
an easy frame of reference to work with so that they can
concentrate on struggling with the politics at hand.
"Duel in Peru" gets credit for being closer to a synthesis of
Maoist and anarchist theory than many anarchist are willing to
think about. It loses out in portraying both theses as less
developed than they really are, lowering the level of unity it can
hope to inspire. Colman has the anarchist side raising criticisms
of Marxism that have been answered historically since before the
Russian revolution. So while the play recognizes the need for a
synthesis of theory, it has missed the boat on honestly defining
the parts it is trying to synthesize.
--MC45
"Duel in Peru" and a catalog of other writings by the same author
are available from Dawn Press, P.O. Box 02936, Detroit, MI 48202.
Notes:
1. "Marxist Communism" ("Synthesis of Anarchism and Marxism"),
Freedom, Vol. 52, No. 17. Reprinted in "Duel in Peru."
2. Write to MIM for "Fundamental Documents" of the Communist Party
of Peru, $5, and for a listing of other literature on the PCP and
the political situation in Peru.
3. MIM Notes 62, March 1992. p.2.
* * *
FOOD NOT BOMBS HARASSED IN BOSTON
by a comrade
On April 17, Food Not Bombs of Boston rallied against an April 2
police attack on their food distribution on the Boston Common,
during which the Boston police seized a folding table and a pot of
hot soup. Food not Bombs in Boston has been serving these free
meals for the hungry for 13 years and this was the first such
police attack. Apparently the city recently decided this activity
is against the law.
In response to the police action, the Boston Globe ran an
editorial defending the right of "people of all races and classes"
to enjoy the parks. The Globe was really defending those races and
classes (all the nice white businesspeople and tourists) who would
like to be spared the sight of homelessness. The city park
commissioner made this position clear, saying that food
distribution "must not impinge on the rights of other people."
This is the message from our government: the hungry should be left
to go hungry if feeding them is going to make a stroll in the
public park less pleasant for the wealthy.
At the April 17 rally, which had about 50 people in attendance,
MIM spoke with a few of the Food not Bombs supporters. "I
understand that people don't want to see homelessness," one person
explained, "It is upsetting to see others in a state of
destitution. But if you don't want to see homelessness, please
don't shove us off in a corner, do something about it. We can
quench peoples hunger by feeding them and that in itself is a
tremendous act. But if we ever want to solve the problem on a
large scale we need to make it visible."
Another participant in the rally explained that they think this
harassment is related to other poverty-related problems in
Amerikan society such as the mental health industry. "I'm involved
in the movement for survivors of the mental health system. When
I've been short of dollars I've eaten at Boston Common. The right
to food is so basic and the mental health system enslaves people
because they are poor. Mental health and psychiatry are calling
people ill because of things that have to do with poverty."
The city of Boston does not like Food not Bombs because their
mission is "feeding people in the most public way, keeping the
problem of homelessness in the public eye."(1) This group in
Boston attracts a lot of youth with energy and interest. The
members of Food not Bombs are learning about the way society is
set up and teaching others about the problems inherent to this
structure.
MIM agrees that feeding people is an important task, and we
applaud those who do this in a more political way than the soup
kitchens set up by the state to keep people dependent. But MIM
would take this model a step further and looks to the Black
Panther Party for an example. They set up breakfast programs that
provided food as well as political education and a structure
through which the people could take control of their lives.
MIM does not agree with the inherently pacifist message of Food
not Bombs. While we would like to solve society's problems without
violence, history has already demonstrated that the imperialists
will not step down without a fight. If we truly want to eliminate
hunger first we have to eliminate the structure that keeps some
people poor and hungry in order to keep others wealthy. MIM calls
on Food not Bombs and all other people interested in real equality
and justice to study history and take the most successful road
forward towards a society where no one ever goes hungry: the
revolutionary road.
Notes: Food not Bombs member quoted in the Boston Globe.
* * *
GUERILLA TEACHER TELLS IT LIKE IT IS
by a correspondent
Not all is bleak for the prisoners of Amerika's miseducation
system. Recently, a group of mostly Black and Latino junior high
school students got their hands on a revolutionary history lesson-
-and they ran with it.
Schools in oppressed communities have been turned into holding
pens for the jails and prisons. "Educators" deliberately define
oppressed people right out of existence. Curriculum designers
attempt to brainwash the youth into believing that the only way
out of poverty and national oppression is to join ranks with their
colonial oppressors. Fortunately, the youth are much smarter than
their teachers.
Real world history
Recently a revolutionary "guerrilla teacher" taught World History
in a locked-down junior-high school on the West Coast. Ninety
percent of the students trapped inside this leaking and filthy
facility are Black and Latino. Ninety-five percent of the staff
and teachers are white and unionized.
The students' history textbook features one of Columbus' ships on
the cover. The youth had just been graded on this test:
1. On average 1 out of 8 blacks died along the middle passage.
Determine what percentage of slaves made it to the New World and
what percentage died along the way. Show your work!
2. In your opinion, was the percentage who died along the middle
passage a large number? If so, why?
3. As a captain of a slave ship, what dangers would cause you to
worry about the health of the slaves?
4. What methods could the slave traders come up with to prevent so
many slaves from dying along the trip?
5. Every ship captain had to answer whether to loosely pack his
ship or to pack it tightly. Choose one method for your ship and
explain why you chose that method.
The guerrilla teacher began by tearing up this test--and the
seating charts--in front of the classes, and freewheeling
discussion ensued.
The youth produced these brief (unedited) essays in response to
questions of their own choosing:
"What would you do if you in Africa and someone tried to capture
you to make you a slave?"
*If I was a person trying not to get caught by people and if it
was a man, I'd kick him in his balls and run like fuck. Now if it
was a woman I'd grab her by her hair and fuck that bitch up. I
ain't gonna be a slave. Fuck that shit, if I did get put a slave,
I'd have them kill me because I'm not having that.
*If somebody came and try to take over my country, I'd beat them
down.
*I would have tried to fight back and say bad words to them. If
they would kill me I would be happy. I'd rather die then be a
slave for the whites and suffer with no food, no water and not
that much sleep.
*If someone made me or tried to make me a slave I'd probably
escape and go somewhere where no one could find me. I would never
be a slave and be forced to do something I don't want to do. I
don't even do the things my older brothers tell me to do.
*The thing I would do if I was a slave in Africa would be escaping
out of Africa. I would never work for the white man. I don't think
that will be fair and it is cruel for white people to treat blacks
as dogs and walk all over them and spit on them. I wish it would
be other way around when the blacks walked all over the white
people and spit on them and make them work.
*If there were some people trying to take me as a slave I would
get a boat and go to a far away country where they could not find
me. I wouldn't want them to take me as a slave and they wouldn't
want me to take them as a slave.
*I would be very very angry at the people who took me there which
is the white man. I would make shore that my children and my
grandchildren would not have to go threw what I had to go threw
wich was slavery. I would make shore my children would be free.
*If I was in Africa in the 1500s and someone tried to make me a
slave I would fight hard as I could to get away. Even if I died
trying to get away. If they did get me on the boat I would try as
hard as I could to kill those MothaFuckers. If I could they would
have to kill my ass.
*I would not listen to them and use profanity. I would run away
from them and take a weapon and try to defend myself. If I had to
become a slave I would just kill myself. They would come to my
house I would try to kill them. I would use a spear to stab him on
the throat until they would die. If they took me then I would just
let them kill me.
*If I was about to get taken to slavery I would throw my spear at
the man's head. If he would fight back I would pull out my trusty
sword and shoot them. If the swine has 3 people come to fight me,
I know the blind guy saw it all and will tell the rest of the
tribe.
*If they try to make me a slave I'm going to scape and I go in the
other country or I will tell the president or governor that they
tried to make me a slave.
*I would have tried to run away at night to a far away land so
that I can't become a slave but if they still try to catch me I
guess I would have a disguise and start to kill soldiers with my
bow and arrow when the others are not looking.
*I will say bitch you better not. If you do I will kill you. Chop
off your head.
*I would scream and holer for my mom and dad and almost die.
*If they would turn me into a slave I would scape before they got
near me or I would die first before they catch me. I would rather
be dead than be a slave. No guy would take me alive, nobody. If
they turn me into a slave I will disguise myself to be a white
men.
*I think that if I was a slave I wouldn't scape because when you
scape you have like 80% that you are going to die. So when you are
a slave you have where to sleep once you get to eat.
*But for another part, I would try to escape because being a slave
you don't have a life. The people just use you.
*In my part of me I think that that was wrong to treat slaves like
they did. I think that when a female slave had a kid, the kid
would turn out to be a slave too. So that would never stop. That's
why they had alot of maids.
*I think that when people talk about Africa they shouldn't get mad
because some people want to know more about Africa. Nobody makes
fun of them because there black.
* * *
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