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         THE MAOIST INTERNATIONALIST MOVEMENT

  MIM Notes 92             September, 1994


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.  POPULATION CONTROL IS PEOPLE CONTROL
2. LETTERS
3. (SOME) AMERIKAN MASSES CONCLUDE: ARMED STRUGGLE FOR LIBERATION
4. MIM HITS L.A. AIRWAVES
5. VENDING BOXES MAKE WAY FOR MIM NOTES 
6. SINN FEIN STRUGGLES OVER PEACE DEAL 
7. THIRD FORCE 
8. DOMESTIC VIOLENCE: MIM BLAMES PATRIARCHY, NOT DEVIANCE 
9. ANI DIFRANCO
10. COMPLACENCY THEN, COMPLACENCY NOW! 
    MIM AT WOODSTOCK '94
11. IMPERIALIST SMOKESCREEN TO EXTERMINATE THIRD WORLD PEOPLES
12. THE ENVIRONMENTAL CRISIS: A PRODUCT OF IMPERIALISM, NOT 
    POPULATION
13. POPULATION CONTROL IN THE U.S.: AMERIKA TAKES AIM AT INTERNAL 
    COLONIES
14. UNDER LOCK AND KEY: NEWS FROM PRISONS AND PRISONERS


WHAT IS MIM?

The Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM) is a 
revolutionary communist party that upholds 
Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, comprising the collection 
of existing or emerging Maoist internationalist 
parties in the English-speaking imperialist 
countries and their English-speaking internal 
semi-colonies, as well as the existing or emerging 
Spanish-speaking Maoist internationalist parties 
of Aztlan, Puerto Rico and other territories of 
the U.S. Empire. MIM Notes is the newspaper of 
MIM. Notas Rojas is the newspaper of the Spanish-
speaking parties or emerging parties of MIM.

MIM is an internationalist organization that works 
from the vantage point of the Third World 
proletariat; thus, its members are not Amerikans, 
but world citizens.

MIM struggles to end the oppression of all groups 
over other groups: classes, genders, nations.  MIM 
knows this is only possible by building public 
opinion to seize power through armed struggle.

Revolution is a reality for North America as the 
military becomes over-extended in the government's 
attempts to maintain world hegemony.

MIM differs from other communist parties on three 
main questions: (1) MIM holds that after the 
proletariat seizes power in socialist revolution, 
the potential exists for capitalist restoration 
under the leadership of a new bourgeoisie within 
the communist party itself. In the case of the 
USSR, the bourgeoisie seized power after the death 
of Stalin in 1953; in China, it was after Mao's 
death and the overthrow of the "Gang of Four" in 
1976. (2) MIM upholds the Chinese Cultural 
Revolution as the farthest advance of communism in 
human history. (3) MIM believes the North American 
white-working-class is primarily a non-
revolutionary worker-elite at this time; thus, it 
is not the principal vehicle to advance Maoism in 
this country.

MIM accepts people as members who agree on these 
basic principles and accept democratic centralism, 
the system of majority rule, on other questions of 
party line.

"The theory of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin is 
universally applicable. We should regard it not as 
dogma, but as a guide to action. Studying it is 
not merely a matter of learning terms and phrases, 
but of learning Marxism-Leninism as the science of 
revolution."
-- Mao Zedong, Selected Works, Vol. II, p. 208


* * *

POPULATION CONTROL IS PEOPLE CONTROL

People who want to save humanity and the environment by reducing 
the number of people are barking up the wrong tree. But they're 
also playing into the hands of imperialists who want to control 
the people, not just the population.

When you think of the population "crisis," think of a slave ship. 
The advocates for population control would look at a slave ship 
and say that the reason the slaves are starving and dying of 
preventable disease is that there are too many of them on the 
ship.

MIM, on the other hand, would ask: "Who decided how much food to 
bring along and who gets it, what to do about medical care, how to 
arrange the living quarters?" And we would ask: "Where is this 
ship going, and why?"

It's not the population of the planet--or of the slave ship--that 
determines the fate of its inhabitants. It's the social relations 
under which they live.

When use the resources of the planet in a rational way to meet the 
needs of the people on it, and if we use the political power of 
the people to change the course of our development, then 
population itself will fade as a central issue.

But the population control zealots and their imperialist backers 
are using this issue to further their ambition: control the 
world's oppressed, keep them in check and keep them at work, 
producing the wealth and decadence that surrounds us in Amerika.

--MC12

For more, see the articles below:
Imperialist smokescreen to exterminate Third World peoples, 
The Environmental crisis: a product of imperialism, not 
population, 
Population control in the U.S.: Amerika takes aim at internal 
colonies.

* * *

LETTERS

LIBERAL REVOLUTION?

Thank you for the free copy of your newspaper. As for the prison 
library, that's where I work and I'll give the newspaper you send 
me equal time on the rack.

With regard to your political ideology, I'm not quite sure where I 
stand. I truly believe there is room for considerable change in 
this country, but I am not sure that Communism or Socialism will 
be any more productive. The theory behind the two is pure, but, as 
we have seen, its practical application differs. In any form of 
government someone is directing the people. These directors never 
live by the same standards as those they direct. Why? Because 
absolute power corrupts absolutely. The hierarchy will always 
exist above the means of the common masses. A capitalistic society 
may have its faults, but it is one of the only forms of government 
where one can go from rags to riches by one's own abilities.

The average U.S. citizen has been bamboozled with propaganda for 
so long they don't know which way is up, and have lost the ability 
to think independently without the aid of the daily newspaper. I 
believe it is time for revolution in this country, but I believe 
that the revolution should push to return to the liberal 
constitution and not that which has evolved from a series of 
conservative courts.

Americans will always feel the yoke of one form of oppression or 
another simply because of their apathetic lifestyles. This country 
once had a great war machine. Peace has made the war machine 
obsolete. So, in order to survive, the powers that be have given 
the country a new means of monetary income, and a new enemy for 
its people. This enemy will provide jobs for our nation's people. 
It will put food in the belly of our nation's people. This new 
enemy, the salvation of our nation, is the war against crime. One-
point-four million people are now incarcerated in the United 
States. These numbers will continue to rise because prisons are 
big business. Crime control is big business. And this translates 
into jobs and dollars. It's the way it is, and people just don't 
care as long as there is food for their bellies, clothes for their 
bodies, and a place to rest their heads. Besides, they're helping 
to get violent criminals off the streets. They don't realize, nor 
would they care if they did, that the present administration has 
made it so that every crime can now be construed as a crime of 
violence. The term "violent felony" means any crime punishable by 
imprisonment for a term exceeding one year; or any act of juvenile 
delinquency involving the use or carrying of a firearm, knife, or 
destructive device that would be punishable by imprisonment for 
such a term if committed by an adult, that -- (i) has as an 
element the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical 
force against the person of another; or (ii) is burglary, arson, 
or extortion, involves the use of explosives, or otherwise 
involves conduct that presents a serious potential risk of 
physical injury to another.

What this means in layman's terms is that if you have more than 
one felony speeding ticket and two felony-DUI's, you can now be 
sent to prison for 15-years-to-life if you are in possession of a 
bullet, much less a firearm. Isn't that amazing? Other than a few 
traffic violations, you have been an upstanding citizen, right? 
Not! The federal government can send you to prison for the rest of 
your life. Don't like that? Well that's just tough! The American 
public, in its blissful ignorance, gave Congress carte blanche to 
deal with the rising problem of crime. This is the result. And, 
within the next 60 years, or by the year 2050, if this continues 
to go unchecked by the American public, 50% of this country's 
population will be incarcerated and the remaining 50% will be 
employed with keeping them there.

However, taking all this into consideration, I often wonder if 
going with another form of government is not bargaining with the 
lessor of evils. Like I said, I advocate revolution. But a 
revolution which restores the Constitution to that standard for 
which it was principally established. Give the people back their 
rights and make the entire propaganda process illegal. Maybe then 
the true criminals would find themselves where they truly belong: 
behind bars.

Very truly yours,

Joseph J. Schepis, Jr. #83380-071 / USP Atlanta

P.S. if you elect to publish this letter, please use my name and 
address. Anything I say, I am not ashamed of. Besides, my life, or 
most of it, is fully disclosable under the FOIA anyway.

MC18 replies: Thankfully letters to MIM do not fall under the 
FOIA--MIM is not the government (yet) and the FOIA cannot be used 
to extract information from entities other than the government and 
its representatives.

On one hand you indicate that capitalist society provides 
opportunities for people to "go from rags to riches by one's own 
abilities." A second later you say that Amerikans have "been 
bamboozled with propaganda for so long they don't know which way 
is up." The latter applies to the former quite well: capitalism 
provides statistically trivial opportunities for advancement 
(people also survive leaping from airplanes without parachutes; 
but don't count on it).

Who you are determines just how trivial those chances are. Most 
Black, Latino, and indigenous people in this country have more to 
worry about than "going from rags to riches." Imprisonment and 
police repression, drug and alcohol abuse, conditions of poverty 
starting at birth, high infant mortality, malnutrition--these 
factors disproportionately affect those populations and make their 
chances for that "rags to riches" opportunity thinner than air.

Ability has precious little to do with it. Being at the right 
place at the right time is one thing, but it's hard to be there 
when you're in prison, or unemployed, or at the wrong end of a 
billy club or a heroin needle. Your counterpart in the suburbs who 
just pulled his dad's BMW into his private high school parking lot 
just has a better chance.

Regarding your comments on Communism and Socialism: although we 
don't speak for all Communists, Maoist theory and practice are 
inextricably bound together. Maoist theory is no more or less pure 
than Maoist practice because each determines the other. If you'd 
like to speak more directly about specific historical issues of 
"purity" or effectiveness of Maoism, we ask that you introduce 
examples to the debate so we can speak to them more directly.

About revolution: you either join one or start your own. There is 
no great Liberal revolution fighting to save the Constitution. Why 
is that? The constitution already serves those whom it was 
intended to serve. It was never an issue of protecting your 
rights. It was always an issue of protecting power.

The wickedness perpetrated in the name of "rights" didn't start 
with the last few conservative courts. Take it back as far as 
you'd like. Take it back to the framers of the Constitution. It 
was about power then, and it's about power now. Liberals have the 
luxury of historical distortion with which to interpret the 
Constitution. "All men are created equal." How did they define a 
"man"? A man was a white man who owned property. Even landless 
whites did not vote. Did the continuous 200 years of genocide of 
indigenous people after the Constitution was drafted give you any 
pause for thought? That wasn't perpetrated by the Reagan Supreme 
Court. It was perpetrated by the armies of the men who wrote the 
Constitution, and every one that followed in their footsteps.

Do you think the survivors of that process want to join a Liberal 
revolution? Why should they--the Constitution has always meant 
nothing to them.

If you believe that absolute power corrupts absolutely, then would 
you prefer to have power held by the few or the majority? The 
majority of the world is not white, not liberal, and not 
interested in the Constitution. The majority wants food, clothing, 
shelter, land, basic education and health, and freedom from 
oppression by the armies of imperialism--self-determination. We 
see Maoism as the best way forward to meet those needs. It will 
require organization, service to the masses, and taking power from 
those who will never give it away.


MIM CRITICS ATTACK PCP

ITAL In response to MIM's article "PCP responds to allegations: 
revolutionary party is not anti-gay" distributed on the Internet, 
we received this reply, followed here by a response from a MIM 
Associate (MA). END

Despite the seriousness of the subject, this article gave me some 
great laughs. I used to be an aspiring Marxist (I don't know what 
the heck I am any more), and I used to work on a labor newspaper. 
The folks I hung out with were generally more clever than to use 
terms like "masses" and "elements" in a public communication 
(though I'm afraid we probably said "the bosses" far too often), 
and it fills me with a sort of delighted nostalgia to realize that 
there are still doctrinaire, out of touch organizations spending 
busy hours deciding what their line is on every possible question. 
Since they probably don't know any working class people, they 
haven't noticed yet that nobody really likes to be referred to as 
"the masses," or even that high compliment, "advanced worker."

--Internet critic

MAB52 responds: You say that Marxists do not know the language of 
white worker revolution, based on the talk of "Marxists" you used 
to hang out with. You condemn Marxists as doctrinaire, and out of 
touch and state that the intricacies of their line do not affect 
anyone. 

We will call these people you used to work with Trotskyists 
because they exhibit tendencies typically associated with 
Trotskyism: (1) they tail after the labor movement, and (2) they 
reduce all oppression to class oppression (which is why they were 
always talking about "the bosses"). So your argument amounts to 
saying that Trotskyist politics are irrelevant in the United 
States.

MIM grants that Trotskyist ideas do not have much impact on the 
state of oppression. Further, MIM does not consider the white 
American working class exploited. 

Imperialism allows the labor aristocracy in the United States to 
receive wages subsidized by the super-exploitation of Third World 
workers. First world workers receive wages at or above the value 
of their labor power; the imperialists get their profits from the 
super-exploitation of oppressed-nationality workers. Thus, 
Amerikan workers have an interest in preserving imperialism. MIM 
understands that white workers do not like communism because of 
this, and does not tailor its line to get them on board.

You are concerned about white working class people not wanting to 
be called "the masses." Of course labor aristocracy workers do not 
like a label that calls them to a revolution against their 
material interests. MIM calls them a labor aristocracy, but at 
least our term is honest. Furthermore, an argument based on 
personal preference indulges in individualism and is neither 
scientific nor rational--certainly not what one would base a 
revolution on.

See MIM Theory 1, "A White Proletariat?" Send $4 to MIM 
Distributors, P.O. Box 3576, Ann Arbor MI, 48106-3576. Make checks 
out to "ABS."


ANTI-COMMUNIST INTERNET WARS

ITAL A MIM article also provoked this debate between people trying 
to prove who was a fiercer opponent of the Communist Party of Peru 
and other popular movements. A MIM response follows. END

Critic 1: Would any other leftist apologists care to indicate that 
there are limits to their complicity?

Critic 2: I have in fact gone on record on Sendero long before you 
challenged my objectivity...

Critic 1: It's good to hear you don't endorse the [Sendero 
Luminoso], although your disendorsement is a little tepid. Perhaps 
the tepidity is a result of your objectivity. Me, I'm not 
objective. I've met too many people whose lives and families were 
ruined under totalitarian regimes (which, it must be noted, to be 
fair and objective, had universal education (where the history 
books were corrected every couple weeks to reflect the ever 
changing past) and free healthcare (which no sane person would 
ever voluntarily use unless they were on the point of death the 
witch-doctor was out of town) and terrorism to be objective).

Frankly I don't believe in objectivity, really. Honesty, yes, but 
a single person confronted with all the contradictory information 
about, say, Nicaragua, must make judgements based on personal 
insight. So, when I saw a campesino woman standing facing a nice 
house with the FSLN flag on July 18 announcing to her grandchild 
"I'm old and will die soon, so I can say this without fear: the 
Sandinistas are all crooks. They ruined the country. We were 
better off under the Somozas." I tend to take this, in combination 
with other evidence, more to heart than the tirades of the 
"objective" western journalists about the Nicaraguan "deal with 
the devil" in 1990. A while back there was an interesting post by 
some former "objective journalists" who lost their objectivity 
when they were nearly blown up in an assassination attempt on Eden 
Pastora -- they set out to pin this one on the CIA once and for 
all, but found every indicator pointing to the fifth directorate. 
Funny things happen when you stop playing dress-up in objectivity.

Critic 2: ...I'm still not certain where the charge of "leftist 
apologist" comes from. In all of my posts on Cuba, I've argued 
consistently for an honest and objective assessment of the Castro 
regime based on the known facts. Those facts lead me to conclude 
that the regime is a dictatorship that massively violates freedom 
of expression, but that the regime has also made significant 
advancements in health care and education. I have seen no credible 
evidence that the regime massively or even routinely violates the 
right to life, although there is good evidence that torture is 
occasionally conducted in Cuban jails, and some political 
prisoners have been executed.

So tell me, [Critic 1], does stating the facts make me an 
apologist?

Critic 1: I'm sorry if I offend, but I consider the above a 
classical example of an apology for tyranny. I never said you 
lied, at least not intentionally. Really, though, this business of 
balancing body counts against infant mortality rates is ITAL 
really END insufferable. 

MIM MA responds to the debate: Your arguments against objectivity 
(specifically in the case of the Sendero Luminoso) were 
individualistic and unconvincing.

If you do not accept body counts and infant mortality rates as 
measures of the effectiveness of the regime, what do you count? 
Individualistic "freedom of expression?" How does one measure 
that--especially when more potential beneficiaries of this freedom 
are dead?

You use the term "objective" differently from Marx, and your 
meaning is unclear. The PCP is neither objectively nor 
subjectively totalitarian. That is, it neither is responsible for 
most of the killings in Peru nor is public opinion against it. The 
individualism of accepting the word of an old Nicaraguan peasant 
woman is without rational foundation. If the woman had praised the 
Sandinistas, would you have been a convinced supporter of that 
side? You are concerned about the woman only because you happen to 
be aware of her plight. The media controls your sympathies rather 
than criteria we can use for investigation and judgment.

Complete objectivity is limited by our media's gifts of 
information. Take as many objective things as you can, and still 
you will not be able to declare the direction of the revolution 
from the U.S.

* * *

(SOME) AMERIKAN MASSES CONCLUDE: ARMED STRUGGLE FOR LIBERATION

Boston, Mass. -- In August, MIM showed the documentary "Medics of 
the People" to build public opinion for the Communist Party of the 
Philippines (CPP). The film documents the activities of the NPA 
medical units as they travel to various barrios to provide general 
medical care for peasants. The NPA is also shown assessing the 
needs of the villagers to help set up new clinics. This along with 
education enables the peasants to reach a level of self-
sufficiency.

The Boston audience was very responsive and brought up important 
questions for building unity on the most effective path for 
Amerikan leftists to take in support of the liberation of the 
Filipino people.

Overall the discussion following the movie proved why it is 
effective practice for MIM to show movies on national liberation. 
One person said it well: "There is no way that the people of the 
Philippines can rely on the government that is bought off by the 
multinationals to meet their needs." MIM is glad to see so much 
support for the struggle of the Filipino people.

The debate around the necessity for armed struggle did not provide 
any alternative to seizing power by the people and focused on the 
need for structural change and not merely programs run by the 
government to pacify disgruntled masses.

Much of the discussion following the film focused on the need for 
an armed struggle. One person said the NPA were not the only ones 
going through the country-side curing and educating the peasant 
villagers and that these ends have been worked on by other means. 
This person said that various foundations fund other Community 
Health Department programs, but agreed this was not the depth of 
change the NPA was fighting for. While there are many forces that 
make up the struggle of the people of the Philippines, medical 
units in connection to the New Democratic Revolution are the only 
ones that recognize the need for an overall changing of the 
structure and simultaneously work toward that goal.

This person agreed that the issue of structural change was not the 
goal of all the other care givers but at the same time they 
educated the peasants to be more self-reliant. They said the 
solution to the problem goes much further than the immediate needs 
of the people.

Another person was weary about the need for violence as the only 
means for the people to achieve self-determination. The same 
person pointed out that elections are not really fair and do not 
fully represent the masses. As an example, in recent local 
elections for mayors and low-ranking officials there were about 30 
people murdered in connection to election fraud. S/he added that a 
major problem with land reform being implemented by the government 
is that most of the senators who have the power to pass land 
reform laws are also the people who own the land. S/he did not 
want to look at armed struggle as the only solution but really saw 
that there is no way to achieve rights through the present system 
because they have no power within the government. Another person 
added that armed struggle is not pretty, but we must objectively 
look at the alternatives and their historical record of success.

One person talked about the environmental degradation caused by 
the control of the multinational corporations. S/he said that 
Greenpeace was working on a strong campaign against toxic waste 
shipments to the Philippines. The movement to recycle batteries 
has left a toxic scar on the Philippines and s/he said that the 
exposure of multinationals' effect on the country and the Filipino 
people is very important. This person said that President Ramos's 
Philippines 2000 plan is very dangerous because it is the rapid 
development of industry without regard to the environmental 
effect.

S/he said that it was obvious that no other country was able to 
develop industry quickly without environmental degradation and 
that was a real problem for the Philippines now that the 
government is following the model of First World countries so that 
it can raise its profits. Technology developed out of the people's 
control will only be used against them. The industrialization plan 
will not benefit the masses; it only serves to strengthen the neo-
colonial relationship of the Philippines with the Japanese, 
European, and Amerikan multi-nationals.

* * *

MIM HITS L.A. AIRWAVES

On March 6, MIM made an appearance on the weekly student radio 
talk show "Freedom of Voice," on KUCI, the student-operated campus 
radio station of the University of California in Irvine. Irvine is 
in Orange County, known for its reactionary, anti-Communist 
political climate. Nonetheless, MIM found that it had some 
supporters among the callers, as well as a pretty high level of 
unity with the show's hosts.

Some people called in to argue with MIM, about everything from the 
definition of communism to the contradiction between imperialism 
and the world's oppressed nations, proletarian democracy versus 
bourgeois democracy, the role of the imperialist media and the 
question of whether the right to eat and the right to live are the 
most important human rights worth defending--as opposed to 
property rights or free speech rights.

It is rare for MIM to get such an opportunity to reach people 
through the radio, so MIM made sure to get a copy of the 
discussion on audio-tape. For a copy write:
MIM Distributors P.O. Box 29670 Los Angeles, CA 90029-0670
Please enclose $5 in cash, stamps, or check to "ABS" for a copy of 
the tape.

* * *

VENDING BOXES MAKE WAY FOR MIM NOTES 

LOS ANGELES--MIM's efforts to build public opinion for communist 
revolution took a step forward in July when MIM put new newspaper 
vending boxes on the streets here, bringing the total number of 
Notas Rojas/MIM Notes boxes placed in Los Angeles to seven.

MIM bought the vending boxes second hand last autumn, and after 
sanding off the bourgeoisie's ugly brown and making other repairs, 
repainted them bright red and put them where they belong.

MIM seeks to compete with--and ultimately overthrow--the 
bourgeoisie in all areas, newspaper distribution being just one. 
That struggle advances through many small steps. At this stage, a 
handful of second-hand vending boxes is a big step forward.

The first box went out in October in the Los Feliz district near 
Hollywood. From then to July, the masses have fed it more than $20 
for 320 copies of MIM Notes, about $0.7 cents per copy. That 
doesn't cover the cost of the papers, let alone the box, but since 
our goal is to bring Maoism to the people, we consider that a real 
success.

MIM's decision to purchase, refurbish, deploy and maintain vending 
boxes in Los Angeles represents a step forward for MIM's mass 
practice. Such progress requires hard work and money. If you can 
help maintain or expand the distribution network for MIM's 
publications with your time, work, and/or money, please do. Write 
to MIM to get involved.

Write to the address on page 2, or, in Los Angeles:
MIM Distributors
P.O. Box 29670
Los Angeles, CA 90029-0670

* * *

SINN FEIN STRUGGLES OVER PEACE DEAL 

by MAZ10

Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams a great deal of public criticism 
after his highly publicized visit to the United States last 
winter, and the secrecy with which he and Northern Ireland's 
Social Democratic Labor Party leader John Hume constructed the 
Irish Peace Initiative. Much to their credit, the Sinn Fein 
newspaper Saoirse published these criticisms in the April issue. 
Looking to see if Adams has been responsive to these criticisms, 
MIM has scrutinized the Three Motions passed at the Sinn Fein 
delegate convention on July 24.(1)

In an article entitled "Ireland's Unmanageable Sisters," the 
Saoirse writes, "Opposition to the Downing Street Declaration 
continues to grow within the nationalist community, and calls for 
the Hume-Adams document to be published, so that people can make 
up their own minds, are becoming an almost weekly occurrence at 
grass-roots level."

The article backs this assertion with quotes from Mary Ward, vice-
president of Sinn Fein; Bernadette McAliskey, former Independent 
MP (Mid-Ulster); and women from Cumann na mBan (the Republican 
Women's League) and Clar na mBan (Women's Agenda). Saoirse points 
out that women have been "the backbone of resistance" to British 
imperialism since the British partition of Ireland in 1918.(2)

Mary Ward said there were three steps necessary for a "lasting 
peace" in Ireland: first, British declaration of intent to leave 
Ireland; second, a new Ireland negotiated by the Irish people; 
third, general amnesty for all political prisoners.(2) This is 
good criteria for which to analyze Sinn Fein's Three Motions.

Sinn Fein upholds the Irish Peace Initiative as the basis of their 
peace strategy. Among the principles they give in that initiative 
are "[that] the Irish people as a whole have the right to national 
self-determination." They specifically criticize the Downing 
Street Declaration for dictating how the Irish people exercise 
this right, and assert that this is not a right of the British 
government. The Irish Peace Initiative also asserts that the 
unionists "cannot have a veto over British policy or political 
progress in Ireland." All this satisfies Ward's second point.

Ward's first point is covered obliquely in the three motions. 
Among the negative elements in the Downing Street Declaration, 
Sinn Fein points out that "[there] is no ... reference by the 
British government to its constitutional claim as embodied in the 
Government of Ireland Act," and that "Nationalists are locked into 
the British state against their wishes--their consent was never 
sought. The right to give or withhold consent was not and is not 
extended to nationalists."

Political prisoners are not mentioned in the motions. However, 
they do list, among their demands, an end to "repressive 
legislation." This would include the Special Powers Act, under 
which Irish political prisoners were interred. Ward's third point 
is covered.

The principles of the Irish Peace Initiative are outlined in the 
three Motions. MIM does know whether the Initiative has been 
published since April.

And although they handle the Downing Street Declaration very 
diplomatically, pointing out its positive as well as negative 
points, they clearly did not accept it. Sinn Fein is certainly not 
going to campaign for a permanent cease-fire, as the Downing 
Street Declaration demands.

As MIM goes to press, Gerry Adams has said that he has given the 
IRA a detailed analysis of the peace process and is talking with 
them about a three-month cease-fire. A spokesman for the Ulster 
Volunteer Force said "We would welcome the opportunity" to lay 
down their arms is the IRA did. There is a great deal of 
speculation in Ireland that a cease-fire is at hand.(3)

Adams is talking and writing a lot about the peace process. But he 
is correctly maintaining that it is the British government that is 
the military oppressor. At the convention he said that the British 
government represents "the political wing of the largest armed 
faction in our country."(1)

If Adams achieves a multilateral cease-fire, that contains a 
"defense clause" in case of renewed loyalist paramilitary attacks, 
the pressure to come to the negotiating table will be on the 
British government, even though they have said they will settle 
for no less than a permanent unilateral cease-fire from the IRA 
(4) These are good revolutionary tactics.

The last paragraph of the three Motions truly reflects the process 
that Gerry Adams and Sinn Fein have been practicing in their 
campaign for a just peace:

"We recognize the need for effective communications with our 
membership and base. We must strengthen our unity and cohesion and 
improve our political and organizational capacity and our 
resources, so that the party is politically primed to initiate and 
respond in an appropriate and comprehensive way to this developing 
and hopeful situation."

Notes:
1. Irish Times, 7/25/94, p. 6.
2. Saoirse 4/94, p. 5.
3. From The Irish People 8/8/94, "Adams gives IRA cease-fire hopes 
a boost." Obtained from alt.politics.radical-left on the Usenet.
4. New York Times 7/25/94, p. 3.

* * *

THIRD FORCE 
Special Issue on Gender and Sexuality
May/June 1994
Write: Center for Third World Organizing
1218 East 21st Street
Oakland, CA 94606
($4 plus postage)

Third Force's purpose is stated clearly in the editorial column: 
"The job is to reshape the culture and agendas of our communities, 
starting with our most active, powerful, visible organizations of 
color. The job is to understand why people whose experience 
interprets abuse and rejection as central to family life might 
resist organizational structures. The job is to stop responding to 
that resistance with the same old diatribes about individualism 
and betrayal."

It also states, "American society, including communities of color, 
have been forever changed by the feminist and gay/lesbian 
movements."

People in First-World gay/lesbian movements who do not look to the 
plight of the Third World seek an identity politics. This is often 
degrades all struggle against Imperialism into "My sexuality." In 
fact, no word of Imperialism finds its way into Third Force.

It is only by taking up the fight against the oppressor nation 
that a non-white gay/lesbian movement can eventually eliminate 
class oppression and gender oppression plus homophobia. Third 
Force shows a literal avoidance to face the root of the problem 
that effects "people of color" and oppressed in the Third World: 
Imperialism.

Third Force draws many lines to point out that Capitalism does not 
work in, but the solutions proposed are at best progressive. On 
the one hand Third Force is a good magazine because it gives 
information that makes the system look damn oppressive. On the 
other hand it sees the solution in an almost surreal way, making 
all struggles look to be the way out of oppressive Amerikkka--
including integrating into Amerikkkanism.

Third force is worth picking up for its facts about Imperialism's 
exploits, but its conclusions are too varied or wishy-washy to be 
taken as a revolutionary rag. The job is to respond to all 
resistance with concrete analysis of concrete conditions--and 
organize from that basis.


* * *

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE: MIM BLAMES PATRIARCHY, NOT DEVIANCE 

by a MIM Comrade

Boston, Mass.--In the wake of the recent attention given to 
domestic violence by the bourgeois media, MIM sponsored a local 
discussion to expose misinterpretations by the media and the 
misleadership of pseudo-feminists. MIM offered our analysis of 
violence against women and our solution of a revolutionary 
strategy to abolish patriarchy.
4
MIM's solution is to build a party capable of leading the masses 
in the continuous squelching of imperialism, capitalism and 
patriarchy. From history we have learned that focoism is not an 
effective strategy, and we understand a partial answer to why 
women do not stand up now and fight to abolish patriarchy.(1)

First World women are gender-men inasmuch as their interests lie 
in the continuation of patriarchy as it is bound up with 
imperialism. The continuation of patriarchy and the socialization 
to enjoy being controlled are also in their interest because they 
justify passivity. First World men have the social, political, and 
economic power to dominate the world. This type of violence 
benefits the biological females/gender-men.(2)

At the discussion, one person was primarily concerned with the 
reasons battered women do not call the cops more often and do 
something "before the violence gets out of control." Another posed 
the question, "At what level [of violence] do you call the cops?" 
S/he went on to explain that the varying levels of violence in our 
society make it hard to determine what is "reportable."

One person agreed with MIM that our society perpetuates violence 
at the core--that capitalism is based on violence and sexual 
relations follow that basic contradiction. This person pointed out 
that domestic violence centers only solve the problem on an 
individual level. "They are not created to attack the system that 
breeds domination of women." This person said this is the reason 
that you cannot rely on cops--they are a part of the violence, 
part of the patriarchy and have absolutely no interest in 
eradicating the status quo. This person's solution was 
vigilantism--women taking back power by killing their oppressors.

Gender aristocracy

Because the threat of violence against women is narrowly defined 
and obscured, the relatively violent and coerced nature of all 
relationships under capitalist patriarchy is hidden. Murder is not 
socially acceptable, but violence to varying degrees is acceptable 
and even eroticized.

Newsweek explains domestic violence as a cycle of love-hate-love 
that illustrates the interests of the gender aristocracy in the 
preservation of patriarchy as a part of sexual privilege:

"Many abusers can be charming--and the abused women often fall for 
their softer side ... There are three parts to the abuse cycle... 
during [the] last phase, [the batterers] listen to the women, pay 
attention, buy her flowers ... they make love, the sex is good. 
And that also keeps them going."(3)

The bourgeois media--one of the major means of eroticizing 
violence--ask why battered women stay in abusive relationships! 
Under capitalist patriarchy, when social relations are based on 
constant struggle between the oppressor and the oppressed, sexual 
relationships follow the same pattern. Domestic violence is a by-
product of that capitalist-patriarchy system. It is one aspect of 
a system that is built on violence and that continues to dominate 
through violent means.

Women victimized more than men

The rate of violent crimes committed against women by intimates is 
nearly 10-times greater than violent crimes committed against men 
by intimates.(4) Although women are victims of violent crimes 
committed by intimates at a higher rate than men, the total 
victimization of men is much higher.

Among all female murder victims, 29% were slain by husbands or 
boyfriends. Four percent of male victims were killed by wives or 
girlfriends; 383 husbands were killed; 913 wives were killed; 240 
boyfriends were killed; 519 girlfriends were killed. This is out 
of the total of 22,540 murders in 1992.(5) Of those whites killed 
by their spouses 62% are women and 38% are men. Of those Blacks 
killed by their spouse, 53% are women and 47% are men.(9)

Among women who experienced violent victimization, injuries 
occurred almost twice as frequently when the offender was an 
intimate (59%) than when a stranger (27%). Injured women were also 
more likely to require medical care if the attacker was an 
intimate (27%) rather than a stranger(14%).(4)

White and black women experienced equivalent rates of violence 
committed by intimates and other relatives. However, black women 
were significantly more likely than white women to experience 
incidents of violence by acquaintances or strangers.(4)

The anti-crime hype, backed by paternalist pseudo-feminism, says 
that violence against women is a feature of individual deviance of 
the kind that can be stopped by more police and more prisons. The 
result--more police and prisons--does nothing to reduce, much less 
eradicate, violence against women. But it does increase the 
oppression of the non-white internal colonies, and increase the 
privileges of white Amerikans, while strengthening the state. This 
is how white Amerikan women benefit from patriarchy (paternalism) 
and imperialism (exploitation of neocolonies).

The Battered Woman Syndrome

Abuse defenses evolved from cases beginning in the late 1970s 
involving battered women. "Lawyers argued that battered woman 
syndrome prevented their clients from seeking a divorce and in 
some cases long term abuse drove women to become temporarily 
insane and kill" (11)

This defense applies to situations where the murder does not fit 
into the traditional definition of self-defense, but rather occurs 
when they are not in imminent danger and they lash back against 
their batterer. Instead of looking at the cause of violence in our 
society honestly, this defense protects women by claiming that 
they went insane as opposed to making a conscious and justified 
choice to act violently.

Until five years ago, 22 states did not recognize the Battered 
Woman Syndrome defense.(12) Now every state but North Carolina 
allows it in some form. Pseudo-feminists claim this as a victory 
for women. This merely prolongs the exposure of the source of 
violence in Amerika. 

One of the first women to get her sentence commuted from this 
defense is Lisa Grimshaw, part of the Framingham Eight. She now 
helps to train pigs to deal with domestic violence.(14) During 
MIM's discussion, one person said that are cops are more likely 
than men in any other profession to beat their wives.

More females raped by men whom they knew, compared to females 
raped by strangers, did not report the victimization to police 
because they believed it to be a private or personal manner.(4) 
Women are portrayed as the domicile victims of violence. Not only 
are they also capable of violence, but they also show where their 
interests lie when they report the rapes by strangers but accept 
the dominance by spouses.

The media have portrayed domestic violence as a problem caused by 
troubled individuals. MIM sees domestic violence as a product of 
the decaying capitalist system and is tolerated because it is an 
erotic way to maintain the present social relations that reflect 
the capitalist-patriarchy's need for violence.

* * *

ANI DIFRANCO 
out of range
Righteous Babe Records
1994

DiFranco creates no illusion that changing the attitudes of men is 
a solution to violence against women under patriarchy. In "If he 
tries anything," DiFranco  debunks the reactionary socialization 
that women are powerless to protect themselves: "I'm invincible/ 
so are you/ we do all the things/ they say we can't do/ we walk 
around in the middle of the night/ and if it's too far to walk/ we 
just hitch a ride."

While the song recognizes violence as a product of this system, as 
opposed to a tease selected for a few women, this song's solution 
to domination over women ends up just reversing the domination 
into power games. "We got rings of dirt around our necks/ we smell 
like shit/ still when we walk down the street/ all the boys line 
up/ to throw themselves at our feet."

This ultimately leads to confusion because women who defend 
themselves from one type of domination will only encounter more 
unless patriarchy is abolished. "The commoditization of sex" 
presents the idea that as long as she has power in walking down 
the street or power in individual sexual games then she has 
control. "i say i think he likes you/ you say i think he do to/ i 
say go and get him girl/ before he gets you/ i'll be watching you 
from the wings/ i will come to your rescue/ if he tries anything".

The contradictions in this type of thinking result in an 
inconsistent reaction to similar products of patriarchy. The 
pseudo-feminist can choose to defend herself against those types 
of rape that are most offensive and welcome the temporary taste of 
pseudo-power, but following this recipe continues the idea that in 
the end women will lose--they accept the normal domination of 
gender relations in the sex they don't consider to be rape, 
instead of realizing women have the real power to destroy those 
relations too, through revolution.

"We are wise wise women/ we are giggling girls/ we both carry a 
smile/ to show when we're pleased/ we both carry a switchblade/ in 
our sleeves/ tell you one thing/ i'm going to make noise when I go 
down/ for ten square blocks/ they're gonna know I died/ all the 
goddesses will come up/ to the ripped screen door/ and say what do 
you want dear/ and i'll say I want inside".

In a vengeful "How have you been," DiFranco  shows that coercion 
exists in all sexual relationships. Not surprisingly, she buys 
into the petty-bourgeois-scarred-for-life-psycho-babble that says 
she must be hurt and have a boil-your-bunny-mentality to get even. 
"Me and you and your girlfriend makes three/ in the interest of 
numbers I will make myself scarce/ i'll make myself scarcely me/ 
but i'll be outside your window at night/ pull up your shades/ 
leave on your light/ 'cause I don't want to come in between/ I 
just want to know/ how have you been..."

Because it is not in the interests of men to stay in 
relationships, they use lies as coercion and the revenge for power 
that Ani seeks in return is also power through sex. The problem 
here is that the reason it is not in the interest of men to stay 
in relationship rests in their existing strength under patriarchy, 
so the revenge sought through sex once again is a way for women to 
allow themselves not to have the hope and seize power through 
revolutionary struggle. When women are in relationships in which 
they know they are being fucked over, it is a way to permit 
themselves to not reach for more. "And i'd do almost anything 
once/ something about you / i think I'd do you more/ if I had my 
way I'd stay here."

In "Out of Range," Ani DiFranco  cannot decipher the violence 
against women and the reason that it exists, so of course she runs 
away. "Just the thought of our bed/ makes me crumble like the 
plaster/ where you punched the wall/ beside my head/ and i try to 
draw the line/ but it ends up running/ down the middle of me/ most 
of the time."

MIM knows that First World women have the choice to leave their 
partners when abuse is involved, but since DiFranco  sees no 
possibility for real victory the line is skewed.

Despite her attempts to reject socialization, DiFranco  misplaces 
the oppression by the state, to lock up its opposition, and 
confuses the position of First World women. "Boys get locked up/ 
in some prison/ girls get locked up/ in some house/ and it doesn't 
matter/ if it's a warden or a spouse/ you just can't talk to 'em 
you just can't reason/ you just can't leave/ and you just can't 
please 'em."

MIM knows that women can leave their spouses but it is not in 
their short term material interests to do so, but the 3.1% of 
Black males in the country that are locked up by the state cannot 
leave; this much is true.

The result of DiFranco 's weak analysis and perpetuation of 
reactionary stereotypes leaves her only an escapist alternative.

"I was locked/ into being my mother's daughter/ i was just eating 
bread and water/ thinking nothing ever changes/ then i was 
shocked/ to see the mistakes of each generation/ will just fade 
like a radio station/ if you drive out of range/ if you're not 
angry then you're just stupid/ or you don't care/ something's so 
unfair/ when the men of the hour/ can kill half the world in war/ 
or make them slaves to a superpower/ and then let them die poor."

Then when she begins to recognize the relationship between the 
system and the individual manifestations of patriarchy, she turns 
the song into a sad victim of love song. "Baby i love you that's 
why I'm leaving/ there's just no talking to you/ and there's just 
no pleasing you/ and i care enough/ that i'm mad/ that half the 
world don't even know what they could'a had".

In "Letter to a John," DiFranco  again advocates the anarchist 
revenge that many pseudo-feminists opt for. Her hard-ass attitude 
is her way of saying that she is in control of the situation and 
her life as she rationalizes that prostitution is the way to take 
back the control she lost as a result of being sexually abused as 
a child.

"I'm just gonna sit on your lap/ for five dollars a song/ I want 
you to pay me for my beauty/ I think it's only right/ 'cause I 
have been paying for it all of my life/ I'm gonna take the money i 
make/ and I'm gonna go away/ I was eleven years old/ he was as old 
as my dad/ and he took something from me/ I didn't even know that 
I had/ So don't tell me about decency/ Don't tell me about pride/ 
Just give me something for my trouble/ 'cause this time it's not a 
free ride."

The solution that DiFranco  proposes is reactionary because she 
seeks the power that will benefit herself only. MIM knows that the 
best revenge for violence against women is to build a 
revolutionary struggle. With her younger, more anarchist take, 
DiFranco  ends up advocating the same that rich yuppie women 
advocate--"Now I just want to take/ I'm just gonna take/ I'm gonna 
take / and I'm gonna go away"--she just doesn't have it yet.

When First World women are enraged at the relative inequality 
within the white nation and seek revenge against the violence 
against women, they must also take a step further. Unless First 
World women are willing to fight against patriarchy and 
capitalism, they are accepting that they benefit from the status 
quo.

The most disgusting display of women being socialized to enjoy 
their submission on this album is where DiFranco  sings: "we are 
made to fight/ and fuck and talk and fight again/ and sit around 
and laugh until we choke." When women are fascinated with violence 
and eroticize their loss of control, it only makes sense to find 
solace in the fact that you do not have to stand up and fight 
because you know you will not win.

Women have less economic and political power. In order to justify 
their passivity toward this, pseudo-feminists and anarchist 
feminists must play the game that they have some sense of power. 
Both groups are also actively on the side of the patriarchy when 
they do not organize and fight against the system itself.

Individual acts of power are temporary and revenge against all men 
is reactionary. It must come also with the understanding that the 
enemy is the system and the ally to the struggle of women are 
revolutionary feminists. MIM warns the revengeful anarchist 
feminists out there that you are not solving the origin of the 
problem if you are taking power back for the momentary image of 
control it gives. Feeding into this is feeding into the fact that 
anarchist feminists are merely taking advantage of their relative 
privilege under patriarchy.

* * *

COMPLACENCY THEN, COMPLACENCY NOW! 
MIM AT WOODSTOCK '94

There are many myths about the masses taking a stand against the 
system merely because they gather to get stoned and have an excuse 
to take off their clothes. Woodstock was a microcosm of the 
decadence of First World capitalism and patriarchy.

"Woodstock itself did not draw many from the ghetto, but that 
mostly white crowd was powerfully affected by the Black Liberation 
movement. How could someone want a suit and tie life at Plastics 
Inc. after seeing troops march down the streets, again and again, 
to suppress the struggle of Black people?"(1)

This question posed by the Revolutionary Worker was answered by 
one yuppie who told a MIM comrade, "You guys will grow out of your 
idealism. I was at the original Woodstock and I was idealistic 
too, then, but you will grow up when you have some real 
responsibilities."

MIM is not surprised that the masses paying $135 per ticket were 
not in the mood to think about revolutionary politics. One person 
agreed with MIM and said, "The reason people in Amerika really get 
into concerts where they can smoke pot and drop acid is so that 
they can pretend that they are bucking the system for a day or two 
so that they can stomach their non-productive, paper-pushing, 
corporate jobs."

One woman in the herd of senseless Woodstockers yelled, "Hey, I'll 
show my tits for a cigarette!" When MIM asked if anyone was 
interested in revolution, many replied, "Yeah, the sexual 
revolution," or, "Hey, yeah the marijuana revolution." Most just 
looked as if to ask, "Could you repeat that, only slower?"

One thing the old and new Woodstocks have in common is the 
escapism from reality through drugs. Drugs provide an escape for 
white people from the ugly things in the system that they are 
willing to tolerate for the privileges it gives them.

The War on Drugs is a justification for the strengthening of 
imperialism in Latin America and Asia and the rationale for the 
fascism in the ghettos, barrios and reservation inside Amerika. It 
really is not surprising that the cops do not crack down on drug 
sales and use at Dead shows, Lollapoloza, or at Woodstock. Their 
objective is not to take away the pacifier of the white nation, 
the objective is to imprison and weaken the oppressed nations.

Notes: See The Revolutionary Worker's Article "It was right then 
and it's still right now! The Spirit of Woodstock and the Fire the 
Next Time," 8/14/94, pp. 8-10.

* * *

IMPERIALIST SMOKESCREEN TO EXTERMINATE THIRD WORLD PEOPLES

Writing and research by MIM associates and comrades.

Imperialists and their lackeys are gearing up for the 1994 
International Conference on Population and Development, to be held 
in Cairo, Egypt September 5-13. They claim that the Third World is 
too poor for more people, and the conference is to plan the 
decade's strategy.

Don't be fooled by the grim Malthusian picture being painted by 
the imperialists and their media. There is no "population 
problem." The Third World masses are not destroying the Earth 
through overpopulation. Imperialism, principally U.S. imperialism, 
is the real problem facing the majority of the world's people. 
Population control is just another way to control Third World 
peoples. 

Population control--controlling the people

The Cairo Conference will mark an intensification of efforts to 
control the masses who have an interest in revolution. The United 
States, planning to spend $585 million in 1994, is the largest 
contributor to population control projects. Population Action 
International estimates that another $3.5 billion is needed 
annually from the First World.(1) Third World neo-colonies 
currently spend $3.6 billion.(2) Until now, the imperialists have 
been too thrifty to spend more than a combined $1 billion.(1) 
Cairo may change the First World's priorities. 

Despite the "shortage" of funds, population control has increased 
in recent years. In 20% of couples in the Third World where the 
woman is in her child-bearing years, the woman has been 
sterilized. Thirteen percent of women use IUDs.(3) By 1976 24% of 
all Native American women had been sterilized, and by 1986 35% of 
all women in Puerto Rico were sterilized. Most of this is done 
without the knowledge or consent of these women, with the 
knowledge and funding of the U.S. government.(4)

Other forms of "permanent birth control," like Depro-provera and 
Norplant, receive increasing attention from family planning 
research and development. Under the guise of woman's empowerment, 
they promote forms of birth control that reduce reproductive 
discretion.

Oppose imperialism; not population

The population control view sees the Third World as poor because 
it is overpopulated. The bourgeois apologists say that there just 
isn't enough food produced or wealth created for that many people 
to survive. Marxists instead look at the wealth the laboring 
masses produce for the exploiting and parasitic classes, and we 
expose the population controllers. 

First, the world produces enough food to feed more than the 
current population, but the international division of labor 
ensures that almost one-fifth are chronically undernourished.(5) 
Imperialism, through the World Bank and the International Monetary 
Fund (and the military when necessary), forces Third World 
countries to stop subsistence farming and switch to cash crops for 
export, while importing food. The imperialists and the comprador 
classes get wealthy from this arrangement. The First World working 
classes also benefit in the form of subsidies on food. The labor 
of coffee, sugar, cotton, fruit and mineral producing masses make 
life what it is for these millions of parasites.

But are the poor living standards of the majority of the world 
also attributable to imperialism? Yes. The imperialists fund and 
instigate the wars fought on Third World soil. The imperialists 
extract the wealth that could create a better society, and 
politically and military retard political progress.

Saying that population is the biggest danger to the world today 
plays right into the imperialists' hands. This allows people to 
ignore issues of equity, exploitation, patriarchy, and the role of 
imperialism in perpetuating a system that makes it impossible for 
a majority of the world's people to feed, house, and provide 
health care for themselves.

Forty thousand children--most of them in the Third World--die 
every day from preventable causes.(1) First World countries spent 
$789 trillion in 1988 alone.(2) Three-quarters of illnesses in the 
Third World result from unsafe water and poor sanitation. Ruth 
Sivard estimates that $12 billion would solve that problem.(3) But 
the imperialists aren't interested.

Expose "women's empowerment" lies

The Cairo conference gives significant space to acknowledging 
gender oppression. To read the list of things the U.N. wants to 
see happen, you would think they were seriously thinking about 
abolishing patriarchy by 2015. However, like the 1992 Rio summit 
and the U.N.'s Decade of the Woman, this conference is full of 
cheap, pseudo-feminist talk. MIM uses the term pseudo-feminist 
because the U.N. has no intention of abolishing patriarchy or 
moving towards gender equality. The U.N. is using the language of 
helping women to target them specifically for increased 
oppression.

When the U.N. was a sounding-board for the anti-Amerikan politics 
of socialist states and Soviet neo-colonies, it took more of a 
feminist position, and the United States often opposed it. Now, 
with Amerika's increased hegemony in the U.N., it has taken a turn 
for the worse. 

The U.N. notes the severe oppression of Third World women. For 
example, two-thirds of the 960 million illiterate adults are 
women.(6) They also report the types of work and long hours that 
women work. The U.N. calls for full equality for women, increased 
women's role in politics, universal primary education, eliminating 
legal barriers to equality by 2015, stopping violent and sexual 
abuse, etc. all by the year 2015. MIM says those are all worthy 
goals, but the only concrete actions proposed by the U.N. involve 
more population control.

Women throughout the world want greater access to a variety of 
contraceptive choices--to reproductive control--but oppressed 
women need political power, resources, food, health care, shelter, 
sanitation, and other necessities for survival. Imposing 
population control on Third World women while and not addressing 
these other shortages will only increase suffering.

The situation of Third World women is dire. Each year, 500,000 
women die from childbirth, complications or illegal abortions: 90% 
of those are Third World women. In Northern Europe, nine or 10 out 
of every 100,000 women die in childbirth; in Niger and other parts 
of West Africa, 700 of every 100,000 women die from childbirth.(7)

The types of population control being promoted expose the 
shallowness of the U.N.'s "feminism". The trend in birth control 
research is towards technologies that are virtually irreversible.

Since 1981, Norplant has been inserted in to the arms of about a 
half-million Indonesian women alone.(7) Both IUDs and Norplant 
require medical personnel and sterile conditions to remove. If a 
woman is suffering side effects--especially common with Norplant--
or wishes to have children, she must convince, and possible pay, a 
doctor to remove the devices. If she can get to a doctor.

Health conditions are poor in the Third World, increasing the risk 
of complications with birth control. Women are not always told of 
possible side effects, and they may meet economic or physical 
resistance to having their birth control removed prematurely.(8)

Because the imperialist's interests are opposed to women, it is 
even more important that women retain control over their bodies. 
This means access to resources, and it means ability to reverse 
their decisions. The only people being "empowered" here are the 
imperialists.

Immigration

The imperialists expose themselves when they talk about 
immigration as a result of "over-population." First World people 
are particularly concerned about the immigration of poor people 
into their wealthy societies. The U.N. Population Fund estimates 
that 100 million people are on the move, fleeing war or 
exploitation.(9)

The U.S. National Report on Population, prepared for the Cairo 
conference, openly admits Amerika's hatred of the poor. Amerikans 
ranked immigration second as a "serious problem of the future," 
and residents of Southern California and similar places with a 
high number of non-white immigrants ranked it first.(10)

Immigration scares Amerika, so it militarizes the border with its 
exploited neighbor to the south.(11) Unable to stem the tide, the 
next step is to reduce the numbers at the source, through 
population control. Amerika has no interest in ending the wars or 
economic exploitation that cause people to leave their homes 
because Amerika's very wealth is built upon this Third World 
misery.

Haiti is an excellent example. Timothy Wirth, the State Department 
Undersecretary for Global Affairs, and champion of population 
control, spoke at a winter town meeting sponsored by the U.S. 
Network for Cairo '94. He used Haiti as an example of a country 
that had too large of a population to be sustained economically. 
Instead of addressing the causes of Haitian oppression (U.S.-
backed dictatorship), he proposes limiting the number of Haitians.

Self-reliance

Wirth also used the recent invasion of Somalia to promote 
population control. According to the bourgeois media, Somalis were 
starving last year because they were too stupid to control their 
own numbers or stop their own wars. 

Western manipulation of the Somali economy weakened its ability to 
feed itself. The wars funded by U.S. military aid made that task 
more difficult. Then scores of non-governmental organizations, 
backed up by the U.S. and U.N. military dumped tons and tons of 
food on Somalia, destroying the domestic food production economy. 
Until the imperialists can be ousted from Somalia, the masses will 
continue to need U.S. "aid" now that their economy has been 
destroyed. By controlling the numbers of Somalis, Wirth and the 
U.S. hope to preserve the ability to extract surplus, while 
preventing anti-imperialist revolution. 

The imperialists have a difficult task ahead. They need to extend 
the life of a dying system by increasing profits from the Third 
World, but they need to control the numbers of the revolutionary 
classes. To carry out this evil plan, they need progressives to be 
fooled into believing that population control is "helping" people.

The imperialists are an enemy; not a friend. We expose the enemy, 
then we destroy them.

Notes:
1. Los Angeles Times 9/21/93, p. H6.
2. The Wall Street Journal 5/17/93, p. A13.
3. United Nations, Review and appraisal of progress made towards 
the implementation of the world population plan of action. 3/1/94, 
p. 55.
4. U.N. report cited in L.A. Times, 2/26/89, p.2.
5. Ruth Leger Sivard, World Military and Social Expenditures. 
Washington D.C: World Priorities, 1991. p. 5.
6. U.N.'s draft programme of action of the international 
conference on population and development. Third session. 4/22/94, 
Chapter IV.
7. Tapol Bulletin: The Indonesian Human Rights Campaign 4/91, pp. 
21-22.
8. The Population Council, Norplant Worldwide, New York 4/86, p.2.
9. Washington Post 7/7/93, p. A1.
10. Population Reference Bureau, U.S. National Report on 
Population 10/93, pp. 32-33.
11. See MIM Notes 84 1/94, and MIM Notes 87 4/94, for more on 
Operation Blockade and Operation Hold the Line.

* * *

THE ENVIRONMENTAL CRISIS: A PRODUCT OF IMPERIALISM, NOT POPULATION

ITAL "Never before have the pressures of an expanding population 
been so clear--from water shortages and deforestation to increased 
hunger and poverty."
--Zero Population Growth, a reactionary research organization. END

The Preamble to the 1994 Conference on Population in Cairo 
announces that the leaders of the world are in "general agreement" 
that environmental degradation is linked to population growth.(1) 
But this lie collapses before the facts that the imperialists use 
to justify their claims.

The environmental crisis includes global, regional and local 
problems, each with their own origins. An analysis of these 
various "little crises" shows that population growth is not the 
cause of environmental degradation.

Global problems

The United States alone consumes nearly 25% of the global energy 
used. Per person, Amerikans consume 15 times as much energy as the 
average person in the Third Word.(2) Because the burning of fossil 
fuels is one of the principle contributors to carbon-dioxide 
production, the resulting "green-house effect" is largely a 
product of the First World.

Insofar as Third World energy consumption has increased, it 
largely reflects production for First World markets and companies.  
First World over-consumption and decadence--not Third World 
peoples--need to be terminated.

The same is doubly true of ozone layer depletion. Cars with air 
conditioning, refrigerators and industrial processes that employ 
chloroflorocarbons, are mostly located in the First World or in 
imperialist-controlled sectors of production.

Regional problems

Acid rain is perhaps the best example of a regional environmental 
crisis. It too, is largely the product of First World 
industrialism, affecting the surface water and forest resources of 
First World countries. While this might change if coal consumption 
in countries like China increases (coal burning releases sulfuric 
acid, the chemical responsible for the formation of acid rain), at 
present acid rain is a First World problem that has no business 
being included in the discussion of "acceptable" sizes of Third 
World population.

Desertification, surface water and aquifer depletion, forest 
destruction, and other forms of regional degradation are all 
complex problems that are over simplified when population control 
advocates blame Third World peoples for these problems.

For example, desertification in the Sahelian region of Africa has 
been linked to human activities like the search for ever scarcer 
fuel wood. However, the imperialists ignore that much of the wood 
in countries such as Senegal is used to make charcoal for Third 
World urban markets. And a large portion of Senegal's water supply 
has been used for export-oriented peanut and cotton crops since 
the 1970s.(3)

Likewise, rainforest destruction is generally the work of either 
multinational capitalist companies, or the last-ditch survival 
efforts of the peasants made landless by those companies and the 
countries that back them up.

Local problems

Local problems like low-lying air pollution, hazardous waste 
contamination, and so on, have historically been First World 
affairs. This is changing rapidly with the imperialist 
orchestrated industrialization in countries like Mexico, Brazil, 
and India. Overwhelmingly, local problems as stressors on the 
environment correlate closely to the industrialization and other 
chemical intensive forms of production, like agriculture. These 
too, are mostly a product of imperialism and the profit motive--
not of population growth.

The majority of the problems associated with the "environmental 
crisis" have very little to do with the growth of human 
population, but instead have more to do with the mode of 
production and lifestyles of imperialist countries, whose effects 
far outweigh their numbers (See graph.)

Population controllers say over-population is responsible for 
every stressor, crisis and environmental ill. The bourgeoisie is 
trying to duck the blame by dumping it on the poor. It is the task 
of revolutions to put the blame where it belongs: on the 
capitalist system. And then work to end it.

Notes:

1. Draft program of action of the international conference on 
population and development. Third session. 4/22/94, Chapter III.
2. Zero Population Growth, cover letter sent with a packet of 
information for the concerned citizen, 8/94.
3. Francis Moore-Lape and Joseph Collins. Food First: New York, 
Ballentine Books, 1977.

* * *

POPULATION CONTROL IN THE U.S.: AMERIKA TAKES AIM AT INTERNAL 
COLONIES

Population control is a weapon used against the oppressed within 
U.S. borders as well. In this country, racism, eugenics and forced 
sterilization have all been justified in the name of women's 
rights and aid to the poor. The introduction of new "reproductive 
technologies," specifically Norplant, has allowed the imperialists 
to expand their reach.

Population control in general, and Norplant in particular, is a 
continuation of the imperialist's attempts to control oppressed 
people.

Norplant is a relatively new birth control drug that makes a woman 
sterile for five years. It consists of six tubes inserted under 
the skin by a doctor. The tubes must be removed after five years 
or if the woman wishes to stop the drug's effects. Only a doctor 
or other trained person can remove the tubes.

This form of birth control is promoted more because, unlike the 
pill, there is no pill to forget. This gives effectiveness to 
people considered unreliable, or to those hostile to the drug. The 
drug is dangerous to those with diabetes, liver disorders, blood 
clots, breast cancer, high blood pressure, heart or kidney 
disease, and to smokers.(1) Five hundred women, with 50,000 more 
expected, have entered a class-action suit against the 
manufacturer.(2)

Norplant was originally tested on hundreds of thousands of Third 
World women, often without their consent or understanding of what 
was involved. It originally appeared to be a convenient new method 
for rich women, but since the bad side effects started coming out, 
it has been used more as a means of coerced population control.

Medicaid covers Norplant for free in most states, although its 
removal is not, unless medically necessary.(2) In 1991, Louisiana 
state Rep. and former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke introduced 
legislation pushing Norplant use for women on welfare.(3) Twenty 
states have now introduced legislation linking welfare to Norplant 
use.(2) Some of these proposals would have provided a material 
incentive to use Norplant. At least nine of the states propose 
requiring it for benefits.(4)

Norplant is also distributed in some ghetto high schools. In the 
primarily Latino San Fernando High School in California, Norplant 
has been distributed since September 1993.(5) Norplant is also 
distributed in the primarily Black school district of Baltimore, 
and is extensively marketed on First Nation reservations.(1)

Punitive use

Judges have also used Norplant in exchange for plea bargains or as 
conditions for parole. The stated reason is to protect the 
children. This is merely window dressing for an anti-oppressed 
nation, anti-poor effort. 

A proposed law in Ohio would have required women convicted of drug 
use while pregnant to undergo drug treatment, to be sterilized, or 
to participate in a five-year birth control program. This is not a 
pro-child policy, but a plan intended to target Black women. Drug 
use by pregnant women is as prevalent or more prevalent in white 
women, yet Black women are 10 times more likely to have their 
toxicology reports turned over to government officials.(6)

The big picture

Population control has entered a new phase both globally and 
within the United States: the pseudo-feminist phase. Overtly anti-
woman plans are no longer acceptable. New forms of coercion carry 
labels like "choice" and "freedom," but little has changed.

Planned Parenthood's ancestor, the Birth Control Federation of 
America, is credited as a birth control pioneer, but it was 
explicitly a eugenics movement. They claimed Blacks were 
"breed[ing] recklessly" and were "that portion of the population 
least intelligent and fit, and least able to rear children 
properly."(7)

In the 1950s, women in the U.S. colony of Puerto Rico were used as 
guinea pigs to test the new birth control pill.(8) By 1982, 24% of 
Black women had been sterilized, 35% of Puerto Rican women, and 
42% of indigenous women. 

The scope of U.S. population control efforts aimed at internal 
colonies may shift slightly due to different technologies or to 
different bourgeois needs for the proletarian workforce, but the 
trend remains consistent. Regardless of the rhetoric about 
expanding women's choices, if a decent standard of living is not 
one of the "choices" then everything else is coercion.

Notes:
1. Amicus Journal Winter 1994, p. 29.
2. USA Today 7/15/94, p. A15.
3. Washington Post 5/29/91, p. A14.
4. Los Angeles Times 9/26/93, p. 24.
5. Washington Times 12/1/93, p. C5.
6. Berrien, ITAL Yale Journal of Law and Feminism END 1990. p. 
468.
7. Linda Gordon, ITAL Woman's Body, Woman's Right. END New York: 
Grossman Publishers, 1976. p. 332
8. The Independent 9/19/94, p. 24.

* * *

UNDER LOCK AND KEY

North Dakota prisoner brutally tortured

X is a North Dakota state prisoner. In 1988 X and three other 
prisoners attacked a guard in the North Dakota Penitentiary 
segregation unit. After the attack, X cooperated with guards and 
was taken to the prison's observation unit. Once there, he was 
stripped naked and placed face down. His hands were handcuffed, 
his feet shackled and a chain run between the two, resulting in 
his spine being arched.

This lasted for almost eight hours, during which the restraints 
were removed only for a 40-minute meal break. Unable to use any 
bathroom facilities during this period, X was forced to urinate on 
the bunk. For the next 23 hours, X was handcuffed with the 
handcuffs chained to one leg, after which he spent an additional 
seven and a half days in handcuffs and leg irons within the cell. 
During this period he was kept naked, without a blanket, 
toothbrush, toothpaste, toilet paper, in a cell lit 24 hours a 
day. This occurred with no medical supervision and with the water 
to his toilet disconnected.
--from Prison Legal News, 6/94

Colorado control unit prisoners rebel

Florence, Colo., is the future site of the federal government's 
new supermax prison. Eventually Florence will have a minimum, 
medium, maximum and supermax prison within one big complex. The 
minimum and medium sections are already opened and operational. 
PLN has reported on the control unit aspect of Florence in the 
past.

At about 7:30 PM on February 26, 1994, prisoners began to riot in 
the outdoor recreation area and it spread to the indoor 
recreation, education, chapel and living units. One guard and an 
undisclosed number of prisoners suffered minor injuries during the 
melee. The prison suffered fire, smoke and water damage but BOP 
officials did not provide a dollar estimate on the damage. The 
medium security prison was originally designed to hold 700 to 800 
prisoners but currently holds 1,200. It opened in January of 1993.

The February 28, 1994 article from the Canon City Daily Record did 
not cite the causes or reasons behind the riot. However, a 
separate article in the February 27, 1994 issue of the Rocky 
Mountain News stated that the BOP was already investigating 
mismanagement and unrest at FCI Florence. Nineteen staff members 
and supervisors signed a petition asking Senator Ben Nighthorse to 
investigate racial discrimination, harassment and unfair labor 
practices against staff at the prison. Four prison supervisors, 
three of them Black, have been placed on indefinite suspension for 
allegedly challenging decisions by the prison warden.

The suspended supervisors claim that due to mismanagement, 
prisoners have: stolen hand tools left by landscapers working at 
the prison and fashioned them into weapons; organized and carried 
out two hunger strikes and a work strike; set fires in segregation 
and housing units and refused to allow guards to handcuff two 
prisoners after a beating between gangs. The prison spokesperson 
claimed to have no knowledge of any of these events.
--from Prison Legal News, 6/94

Texas starvation captured on videotape

Comrades, I greet you in solidarity. At this time, I'm 
incarcerated in one of Texas' KKKoncentration KKKamps. And at this 
time trying my best to get my brothers to understand the meaning 
of the word "sacrifice." But only a few comprehend and adhere to 
what I'm advocating day in and day out on how we prisoners can 
undermine some of the injustice that goes on in this racist, 
dehumanizing and degenerate atmosphere of irrational pigs. 

As I write this missive, I'm sitting in what they call 
Administrative Segregation, and physical, mental and psycho-
emotional warfare is at its extreme. For example, I'm on a pod 
that's supposed to be for assaultive prisoners. Now on this pod 
our every move is videotaped. 

We are forced to live in extreme heat (no air conditioning) and 
the only cold drink we are allowed to have is a pint of milk. All 
the meals are so skimpy they are equivalent to semi-starvation or 
shall I say starvation, period! 

This penal coercion has been designed to weaken your most 
rebellious brothers, and to force them to submit to this injustice 
with open arms. Last but not least, it's racially motivated, and 
in your most subliminal way, designed for the Blackman. True, 
there are other races, but the percentage is very low. So 
therefore this pod wasn't really intended for the other races, no 
way, because they are the least rebellious.

I can go on and on on this subject, but have to cut it short until 
next time due to a heap of other things I have to do, like think 
of solutions. In conclusion, I must stress my sole purpose for 
sending you this missive: to let you all know that I've been 
turned on to MIM Notes by one of my most politically inclined and 
revolutionized comrades ... Please add my name to your mailing 
list ...

Peace!

--a Texas prisoner, 6/30/94

MIM Notes welcome in Oklahoma's UFO Tomb

Dear comrades,

Let me acknowledge my receipt of your recent letter inquiring as 
to whether or not I am receiving your paper. I am receiving your 
paper and on time. I find it truly inspiring and trust that you 
will continue to mail it to me.

I am now "buried alive" in the state's "Supermax Underground UFO 
Tomb"--a high-tech control unit that puts Marion to shame! This 
McAlester Control Unit is straight out of Star Trek! It features 
all of the latest in prison fascist technology: in-cell high-
powered water guns, a square block of concrete with round-the-
clock video-audio called a rec area, in-cell censors to monitor 
any and all conversation, etc., etc. This all comes complete with 
humanoids trained in fascist psychology to run their UFO Tomb.

So of course, your paper is welcome reading down under in this UFO 
Tomb!

Love, strength, struggle,

--an Oklahoma prisoner, 6/3/94

Utah prisoners leashed, cuffed to boards

... In the Uinta II Intensive Management Unit, Sec. 4 of Super 
Max, every time we leave our cell, they put us in full restraints 
and tie a dog leash to us like they are walking their own dog 
around. They do not allow us the newspaper or magazines in this 
section and when we ask for a legal call, they deny us for weeks 
at a time. No pens are allowed and we have to ask the correctional 
officers to sharpen our pencils and half the time we never see 
them again.

They are constantly housing mentally ill inmates in this section, 
cuffing them down to a 4-point board and then forgetting about 
them, but keeping a strip cell log to cover themselves like 
nothing is going on. They force-catherize so they do not have to 
clean urine ...

All this happens day in and day out and they still get away with 
it...

--a Utah prisoner, 3/17/94

Coalition for Prisoners' Rights Newsletter, 5/94.

Prisoner Union Agenda

1. Minimum wage for all prisoner workers.
2. The right to organize without retaliation.
3. The right to collective bargaining.
4. The right to a safe workplace, with proper safety equipment, 
clothing, and extensive training on dangerous machines that 
prisoners operate.
5. Overtime pay for any time over 40 hours worked in a one week 
period.
6. One week paid vacation a year.
7. Workman's compensation benefits that are the same as free 
workers who are hurt on the job.
8. Elimination of tying job performance to earned good time.
9. Never have more than 50% of a prisoner's pay deducted for 
taxes, trust accounts, or room and board.
10. The creation of hiring practices that ensure racial fairness, 
and ensure that the same job programs are available in women's 
prisons as in men's.
11. And above all the right to strike over any working condition.

The above is only a rough outline. In this day and age of "three 
strikes, you're out," something needs to be done before matters 
get worse than they are.

Prisoner workers of the world unite!

--by a prisoner in Prison Legal News, 6/94

Ohio targets activists as "gang members"

The Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections (DORC) has 
instituted a regulation prohibiting "gang related activity." This 
was implemented to fall in line with their overall intention to 
follow in the footsteps of California, Texas, Illinois and other 
states that have built "Super Max" prisons and focused on alleged 
"gangs" and "gang leaders" in prison. Ohio has gone so far as to 
manufacture gang members.

The DORC's latest tactic has been to target political activists 
and jailhouse lawyers for "gang related" charges when prisoners 
engage in lobbying the legislature. X, a political and prison 
activist working toward prison reform by lawful means such as 
lobbying the state legislature, was charged with the infraction of 
"gang related activity" for advocating an Ohio Prisoners' Rights 
Union and receiving American Corrections Association material from 
Citizens United for the Rehabilitation of Errants.

X was placed in Local Control, six months of solitary confinement, 
for this at the Madison Correctional Facility. He began a hunger 
strike in protest and after 38 days was transferred to Lebanon 
Correctional Institution.

We have drafted a citizens lobby letter protesting the 
implementation of a Supermax prison in Ohio along with a fact 
sheet. Copies of these were made and sent, along with ABC 
proposals, to X at Lebanon. These items were confiscated and X was 
again infracted for "gang related activities" and placed in 
segregation. X again began a hunger strike and as of February 11, 
1994, had 14 days on it. He will refuse to eat until he is 
released from segregation.

The blatant political repression by use of a "gang related 
activity" rule infraction must be stopped. Litigation is pending, 
but we call on all activists, inside and out, to take the time to 
write a protest letter regarding the distorted use of this rule 
and X's treatment.
Protest letters should be sent to:

Governor George Voinavitch
Vern Riffe Center
77 South High St.
Columbus, OH 43215

Reginald Wilkenson
Director, DORC
1050 Freeway Drive N.
Columbus, OH 43229

--an Ohio prisoner in Prison Legal News, 4/94

Loved one in prison?

As a writer and spouse of an incarcerated man, I am putting 
together a book to help people deal with the problems involved in 
having a loved one in prison. Through the initial detainment, 
trial, jail time and resulting imprisonment, the family on the 
outside first goes through shock and denial, but must, finally, 
come to the reality of the daily struggle to survive outside, 
provide for their family and to maintain relations with their 
loved one in prison while facing the yawning years ahead. How do 
they do it?

I hope to provide them some answers as how others have done it 
before them. My book will be edited from anonymous questionnaires 
and personal interviews to combine the coping techniques of 
hundreds of individuals. I need to reach as many as I can of those 
who already have experience with this. To obtain questionnaires or 
information, write:

Coping
268 Bush Street
Box 3125
San Francisco, CA 94104

Prison rape survivors sought

Stop Prisoner Rape (SPR) is a non-profit organization dedicated to 
stopping the all-too-common practice of sexual assaults within 
prisons and jails. SPR has recently received numerous media 
requests where television programs, magazines and journalists are 
seeking prison rape survivors to interview for news stories. If 
you are a prison/jail rape survivor and interested in speaking 
publicly about it, please contact:

SPR
3149
Broadway #4,
New York, NY 10027
(212) 666-0344.

New journal of prison literature wants submissions

Inner Voices, a new journal of prison literature, invites 
submissions of prisoners' creative writing, including poetry, 
raps, short stories, and one-act plays. We welcome a variety of 
topics and writing styles. Submissions will each be reviewed by 
three readers culled from a pool of willing writers and scholars. 

But this does not mean that only slick, stylized, or conventional 
work will be accepted: energy, sincerity, and originality are 
usually at least as important as polish. Since poems are usually 
shorter, there'll be room for more poems than for stories and 
plays. We will also welcome graphic art work, especially on the 
covers and to accompany poems.

By publishing their work in Inner Voices, our contributors will be 
making an important statement to both friends and strangers about 
prisoners, their abilities, and their identities. And you'll be 
making a statement that will probably be heard: So far, people 
from literary and popular culture studies, academic libraries and 
departments, historical societies, museums, and more have been as 
enthusiastic about this as have prisoners, prison educators, and 
other people willingly and unwillingly involved with the 
Department of Corrections. We feel strongly that this publication 
is something that can and should happen. You can make it so.

Inner Voices will run about 50 pages and be published twice 
yearly. Since at this time (December 1993), we're still putting 
together the first issue, those willing to place orders in advance 
of the first publication get a rate that we probably won't be able 
to maintain: $10 a year for institutions, $8 for individuals, and 
$5 for prisoners. (Standard discount applies for resellers and 
subscription services.) The first issue will sell for $4. After 
the first issue we'll be better able to assess what sorts of bulk 
printing and mailing rates we'll be able to use, and institutional 
rates will probably go up a little. Any profits will be passed on 
to the readers in the form of reduced prisoner subscription rates 
or more pages.

Send your best original creative writing to Inner Voices. We 
understand that many of our authors don't have ready access to 
typewriters--just make sure we don't need a decoder ring to figure 
out what you've written. 

Authors are also invited to enclose a short(!) biography to be 
included with their work, and are welcome to use pen-names if they 
like. Just keep in mind that many prisons restrict access to 
material that they feel teaches readers to commit crimes. Since we 
want this journal to be available to as many prisoners as 
possible, we will give preference to work that stays on the safe 
side of this limitation. Sorry. There is no restriction in 
attitude or language, though. Contributors will be paid in copies 
of the journal.

--Inner Voices
P.O. Box 4500 #219
Bloomington, IN 47402

In defense of courtroom activism  

...You state that you do not understand the campaigns that are in 
the legal sector (e.g., "free political prisoners"). This is a 
good indication that you've never been in prison doing sentences 
from 20 to life. I'm not sure what you mean by "legal sector." I 
assume you mean the courts, parole boards, etc. Again, I must stay 
with the short answer. First, I don't think that utilizing the 
legal system precludes a parallel political effort/strategy. The 
minute a prisoner steps into a courtroom, s/he is utilizing the 
legal system to some degree. If so, why not exhaust appeals as 
well?  

In my/our cases, we sought to turn our trials into political 
forums while concurrently doing political work in the community 
and as far beyond as possible. In order to better advance our 
political agenda in the courtroom, I've always gone pro se 
(represented myself; acted as my own lawyer). I think we've 
reached far more people by utilizing all the available tools given 
the time, place and conditions (including effective use of 
mainstream media during the sedition trial).

But I have no illusions about the legal system. I currently have 
no appeals or other legal matters pending, nor will I appear at 
the parole board for my first 10-year eligibility. On the other 
hand, I don't chastise those who've been able to gain some 
advantage--or thought they could--through some chink in the legal 
system or through some legal defect they've uncovered that's 
particular to their case (just look at [former New York Black 
Panther] Dhoruba [Bin Wahad]'s case and release after 19 years). 
Unfortunately, Dhoruba is the exception. More common are 
situations like Leonard Peltier's (a recent 15-year parole denial) 
and Sundiata Acoli's (recent 20-year parole denial).

The fact that many prisoners try legal tactics to secure their 
release does not necessarily reflect any faith in capitalism--most 
often it does not. It merely reflects a situation where they're 
stuck between a rock and a hard place. Capitalism is dominant and 
resistance in this country is weak. Very weak indeed. And what 
little remains of the left could care less about political 
prisoners--or any prisoners, for that matter. It's more of a 
situation where "hope springs eternal," which is a very human 
sentiment found throughout the world where people have their backs 
against the wall....

Recent word from Colorado is that the High Security Prison will be 
opened in February and the Administrative Maximum ("Supermax"--to 
replace Marion) will be opened in the "Spring or Summer." I'll 
settle for High Security, but the BOP [Bureau of Prisons] designs 
on me are Ad. Max. So we're getting short here, but no one is 
looking forward to the new chamber of horrors.

Appreciate the offer of literature and books. I'll take a 
raincheck on the books as my current stash will probably get me 
through whatever time remains in Marion. Interesting literature is 
always welcome....

Viva Zapatista!

Venceremos,

--a Federal prisoner in Illinois

MC12 responds: MIM agrees that important gains may be won through 
the legal system, making some of these efforts worthwhile. MIM 
uses some of these tactics to fight for distribution in prisons, 
for example.

Pre-Election Quiz

1. Who gave Pete Wilson more than $1 million for his last 
governor's campaign?
A. Prison employees' union
B. The Willie Brown Foundation
C. Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
D. The Flying Wallendas

2. Who benefits from more prison construction?
A. Prison employees with more jobs and promotions
B. Coast Guard Auxiliary
C. American Cancer Society
D. Siskel & Ebert

3. Who benefits if therapeutic programs are not available in our 
prisons and most parolees return to prison?
A. Prison employees with job security
B. McDonald's manager trainees
C. American Association of Retired Persons
D. Penn and Teller

4. Who claims state prisons are run humanely, according to state 
and federal laws, in the public interest?
A. Prison employees with sincere expressions
B. Federated Department Stores
C. American Civil Liberties Union
D. Beavis and Butthead

5. Who benefits from Wilson-appointed parole board commissioners 
denying parole to thousands of rehabilitated prisoners?
A. Prison employees smiling on the way to the bank
B. Prisoners' spouses and children
C. Save the Whales Foundation
D. Regis & Kathy Lee

6. What state agency has the worst misnomer title?
A. California Department of "Corrections"
B. California Department of Fish and Wildlife
C. California Division of Forestry
D. California Department of Motor Vehicles

7. Who hopes Wilson is reelected in November?
A. Prison employees
B. Illegal Immigrants Association
C. Homeless Persons for a Better California
D. Rocky & Bullwinkle

--a California prisoner, April 1994
North Coast Xpress
P.O. Box 1226
Occidental, CA 95465.