This is an archive of the former website of the Maoist Internationalist Movement, which was run by the now defunct Maoist Internationalist Party - Amerika. The MIM now consists of many independent cells, many of which have their own indendendent organs both online and off. MIM(Prisons) serves these documents as a service to and reference for the anti-imperialist movement worldwide.
Maoist Internationalist Movement

  I N T E R N E T ' S  M A O I S T  M O N T H L Y

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         THE MAOIST INTERNATIONALIST MOVEMENT

     MIM NOTES 110                 MARCH 1996


GET MIM NOTES 110 FROM THE MAOIST INTERNATIONALIST 
MOVEMENT (MIM), AND GET THE LATEST IN MAOIST NEWS 
AND ANALYSIS - PUT A REVOLUTIONARY WEAPON IN YOUR 
HANDS.

IN MIM NOTES 110, FIND CONTINUING COVERAGE OF 
STUDENT ACTIVISM AGAINST NATIONAL OPPRESSION AT 
EASTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY; RAIL'S PROTEST OF GULF 
WAR KILLER NORMAN SCHWARTZKOPF; MIM'S VIEWS ON THE 
TELECOMMUNICATIONS ACT AND THE 1996 PRESIDENTIAL 
CAMPAIGN, AND MORE LETTERS FROM PRISONERS IN 
AMERIKAN GULAGS. ALSO NEW THIS MONTH: READ M-L-M 
ONLINE -- NEWS AND ANALYSIS DEVOTED TO THE 
INTERNET.

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.

FOR A FREE ISSUE MAILED TO YOUR INTERNET ADDRESS (A 
LARGE TEXT FILE), SEND A MESSAGE EXPLAINING YOUR 
INTEREST TO: MIM@MIM.ORG.

MIM NOTES 110 INCLUDES:

IN THIS ISSUE:

1.  MASSACHUSETTS UPS THE ANTE ON CRIMINAL
    INJUSTICE
2.  EMU ADMINISTRATION SANCTIONS NATIONAL
    OPPRESSION
3.  LETTERS TO MIM AND RAIL
4.  CPUSA MEMBER EDUCATES ABOUT PHILIPPINES,
    PROMOTES NIHILISM OVER CPP
5.  HOW THE "AID" GAME WORKS
6.  MONEY BEFORE HUMANITY
7.  M-L-M ONLINE: AN INTERNATIONAL ARENA OF
    POLITICAL STRUGGLE
8.  PARENTAL RIGHTS AND CHILD PROTECTION:
    CHILDRENATTACKED BY BOTH PARENTS AND GOVERNMENT
9.  BOURGIE MEDIA DEFEND THE STATE
10. BUILD INDEPENDENT MEDIA; SUPPORT INDEPENDENT
    POLITICAL ACTION
11. UNDER LOCK AND KEY: NEWS FROM PRISONERS AND
    PRISONS
12. BLACK PANTHER PARTY HISTORY: SEALE LIES TO
    STUDENTS: "WE DID NOT SAY ANYTHING ABOUT
    SOCIALISM"
13. ALLIANCE FOR JUSTICE FIGHTS NATIONAL OPPRESSION
    AT UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
14. RAIL PROTESTS GULF WAR VILLAIN
15. STATE-CAPITALIST RULE BETRAYS CHINESE WOMEN'S
    LIBERATION
16. BOSNIA LIE EXPOSED
17. ECONOMIST MAGAZINE: THE PCP IS STILL IN
    BUSINESS
18. FASCISM GAINS GROUND IN LOUISIANA
19. FLORIDA CRACKS DOWN ON ANTI-PRISONS ACTIVISTS
20. THAT VOTING DOLLAR: AMERIKAN PRESIDENCY GOES TO
    THE HIGHEST BIDDER.


***JOIN MIM AND RAIL IN PRISONS AWARENESS WORK

The Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM) and the 
Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League (RAIL) are 
working with other organizations that oppose the 
Amerikan criminal injustice system across the 
Continent. Our work to expose oppression and 
brutality within Amerikan prisons includes 
reporting and agitation here in MIM Notes, RAIL 
Notes and other RAIL publications; educational film 
showings and discussion series; rallies and more. 
To get involved in this anti-prisons work in your 
area, write to your regional contact (see address 
on this page) or to one of the addresses on page 
two. Work with MIM and RAIL to expose the 
injustices of the Amerikan prisons system!


BUILD PUBLIC OPINION IN SUPPORT OF
THE PHILIPPINE REVOLUTION

MIM and the Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League 
(RAIL) are organizing a continental campaign to 
educate people about the revolution in the 
Philippines. Work on this campaign includes writing 
for and distributing Maoist Sojourner (a monthly 
publication by and for Third World exiles led by 
MIM), MIM Notes and the RAIL publications; film 
series about various aspects of the Philippine 
revolution including medical work in the 
countryside and treachery of the so-called 
democratic Philippine governments; discussion 
sessions about the meaning of the revolution in the 
Philippines and how people living in Amerika can 
best support it. To get involved in this anti-
imperialist work in your area write to your 
regional contact (see address on this page) or to 
one of the addresses on page two. Work with MIM and 
RAIL to popularize the Filipino people,s just 
struggle! Oppose Amerikan intervention and the 
Amerikan-backed government in the Philippines!***



* * *


MASSACHUSETTS UPS THE ANTE ON CRIMINAL INJUSTICE 



On January 22nd, the Massachusetts State House and 
Senate both unanimously passed a bill to fund more 
prison and jail cells, providing money for 3,000 
new and renovated cells. In a publicity trick to 
get this bill passed, Massachusetts Governor 
William Weld took 299 prisoners hostage, sending 
them to Texas to illustrate the supposed 
overcrowding problem in Massachusetts prisons. Weld 
wants to build more prisons, so he created an 
overcrowding problem by moving prisoners from lower 
security to higher security prisons to make it look 
like there was a lack of high security facilities. 
These state-sponsored criminals play games with 
prisoners' lives in the newspaper and the 
legislature, all to boost their own 'law and order' 
images and improve the state's economy.


The bill authorized a total of $486,255,860 in new 
expenditures for the Massachusetts criminal 
injustice system. Rehabilitative services such as 
education, family visits, drug and alcohol 
programs, and even medical care have been cut 
recently, yet in this close to $500 million bill 
the only rehabilitative services of any kind are 
new "boot camps" being built for 
juveniles. The 
bill included provisions to pay for police 
facilities and grants for "publicly owned 
capital 
projects" as an incentive to communities 
building 
more prisons. 


OPPRESSED NATIONALS PRONE TO CRIME?


Another measure hidden in this bill was the 
following: "...the department of correction, 
in 
conjunction with the department of public health 
and the department of education, shall conduct a 
study into the biological causes of crime based on 
the premise that scientists have been studying 
biological risk factors which they believe 
predispose individuals to criminal behavior; 
provided further, that said study should 
incorporate these findings to work toward a more 
effective approach toward criminology..."

Since Blacks and Latinos are locked up at a 
disproportionate rate relative to their numbers in 
the population, this so-called study will find that 
race determines criminal behavior. Capitalist 
society does not recognize the murder, theft, rape 
and pillage conducted by our government against 
peoples of the Third World and oppressed nations 
within U.S. borders as crime. This "more 
effective 
approach toward criminology" just means 
expanding 
the lockdown in communities of oppressed 
nationalities.

RAIL held a rally in Springfield, Massachusetts on 
February 10. The really marked the second 
anniversary of the police execution of Black 
motorist Ben Schoolfield, the February 7 national 
day of action for Mumia Abu-Jamal and protested the 
expansion of the police in Springfield. Springfield 
already has the second largest police force in New 
England with 500 armed oinkers, but it is far from 
the second largest city. Apparently the masses of 
Springfield are not adequately locked down, and the 
city's new mayor wants to spend $3 million adding 
100 new cops to the force. See the next issue of 
MIM Notes for an article about this rally.


* * *

LETTERS TO MIM AND RAIL:

CASH FOR COMMIES


DEAR MIM: Enclosed is a check in response to your 
funds appeal. I am increasing my monthly dues.

--a friend in the midwest

January 1996

MIM RESPONDS: Thank you! Your contribution will 
help us in our efforts to publish Maoist newspapers 
weekly. (see MIM Notes 109, January 1996 for 
details.) we hope other readers will follow this 
comrade's example and contribute articles, money 
and distribution efforts to help us advance to this 
goal.


OBSERVING MLK DAY IN THE SPIRIT OF RESISTANCE

***In response to a flyer announcing RAIL/MIM's 
recent rally against Prison Expansion in Boston, 
one prisoner wrote back:
***

I will fast on MLK day and not eat the Fried 
Chicken, Collard Greens, etc., etc., meal which is 
served. I think that in and of itself is 
denigrative of all that my ancestors have died in 
struggle to rid the world of. If you can sacrifice 
your time to stand in the cold I can go without 
food in congruence with your endeavors. Please send 
any paperwork evolving from the Jan. 15th protest 
event. Thanx and stay strong of spirits--forever 
keep the faith.

MIM RESPONDS: Thanks for writing and for your 
solidarity! MIM Notes and activist information is 
hard to get into the prisons, and so consciousness-
raising from within is vital. We'll keep you 
abreast of the goings-on in our prison campaign, 
and hope that you will reciprocate with news from 
the inside.

HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT WANTS AN INTERNSHIP

Dear MIM,

Hello. I'm a senior in high school... I'm wondering 
if I can come work for you for my Senior May 
project. To explain what Senior May project is, 
I'll quote from the letter I got in school: 
"The 
Senior May Project is a school sponsored activity 
that encourages second semester seniors to 
participate in a work experience in a field that 
they are considering as a college major or as a 
profession....Senior May Project students are 
expected to work with their employer supervisor to 
create a work experience that is as close as 
possible to the professional tasks that the 
employer does each day, i.e., an intern experience. 
Students are expected to work a full work day and 
to be responsible to schedules and duties as if 
they were actually working as a paid employee. 
Students, however, cannot be paid for their work on 
these projects. ..."

That's basically what the project is. As for myself 
and how I thought of the idea of working for MIM 
Notes as my Project... I found out about MIM notes 
when I used to go to the Barnes and Noble bookstore 
by my house, and see a stack of them sitting in the 
newspaper section. At the bookstore, I would always 
pick up a copy for me and one for my friend. What 
interested me to read MIM notes was the stories on 
current native american Indian affairs.

--A reader in the Midwest

MIM RESPONDS: Thanks for writing. We would very 
much like to figure out some working relationship 
with you that would meet both of our needs. We'd 
like to explain the major points of how working 
with MIM would be very different structurally from 
working with any non-communist organization or 
newspaper so you can better evaluate whether you 
want to work with us for your project. 

In general, we need as much help as possible 
building public opinion in favor of the oppressed 
and in favor of Maoism, so in that context we are 
delighted and flattered by your offer. It's not 
every day someone offers us 40 hours/week worth of 
their labor. Since you've read our newspaper you 
already have an idea of the size of our goals and 
the scope of our work; there is definitely no 
shortage of interesting and challenging work to be 
done.

The major aspect of our work we need to talk with 
you about before deciding to go forward is 
security. We welcome any questions you have about 
this and hope you will follow up if any of this is 
unclear because we would very much like to be able 
to establish a working relationship with you.

You may have noticed in the staff box of MIM Notes 
(page 2, directly under the "What is 
MIM?" box) 
that we make a policy of not publicizing the names 
of our members or associates in our newspaper or 
anyplace. This is because we have learned valuable 
lessons from the Amerikan government's brutal and 
illegal (even by its own standards) treatment of 
the Black Panther Party and the American Indian 
Movement, as well as other revolutionary 
organizations and individuals. The same rule 
applies to our willingness to talk about some of 
the mechanics of our work: we do not tell people 
where we print our newspapers for example, or the 
size of our print run, number of members in the 
organization, etc. The reasons for this are clear: 
politically, we want to be judged on our line, not 
on our size or other factors; in terms of security, 
we do not want to invite state repression by 
cavalierly sharing information about ourselves and 
making the cops' job easier.

If you agree with and/or understand these 
constraints in theory, we have ideas about how we 
could work around them and still help you with your 
project in practice. The worst thing that can 
happen is that you will wind up working with us in 
your spare time and on weekends and doing something 
else for your school project, if you are interested 
in our politics we would very much like to start 
working with you before May. But there should be a 
way for you to work with us to get your project 
done. If you disagree with or don't understand 
either of these points, we hope you'll write back 
with questions; we don't want a misunderstanding to 
keep you from doing work with us.


TROTSKYISTS ATTACK THE PCP, AGAIN

In the January 18 issue of the Spartacist League 
newspaper Workers Vanguard, in an article titled 
"Down with Police-State Repression In 
Peru!" The 
Sparts mourn over the capture and sentencing to 
life terms of some Tupac Amaru Revolutionary 
Movement (MRTA) members and U.S. supporter Lori 
Berenson. This article continues the Sparts' long 
tradition of repeating bourgeois lies about the 
Communist Party of Peru (PCP) without 
documentation. The WV is a mouthpiece for 
imperialist slander against the Maoist PCP.

The Spart article paints the PCP as "anti-
worker," 
saying "over the last decade, [the MRTA] has 
mainly 
struck at military installations and foreign-owned 
businesses, in distinction to the Maoist Sendero 
Luminoso movement, which has often launched 
murderous attacks on workers and peasant unions as 
well as armed clashes with the MRTA." 
According to 
the Sparts the PCP kills workers and the MRTA is 
the real anti-imperialist.

MIM is still waiting for the documentation behind 
these statements. We have carried out serious 
investigation of the practice of the PCP and we 
know that the source of these lies is the desk of 
Peruvian President Fujimori and the Peruvian 
military, who delight in massacring the masses and 
then blaming it on the PCP. The PCP has led strikes 
in Peru's cities and has significant influence in 
many unions in addition to its support in the 
countryside. The Sparts ignore the tremendous 
successes of the PCP, which controls much of the 
countryside and has reached a stage of strategic 
equilibrium in its fight against the imperialists. 
The MRTA, on the other hand, has never moved beyond 
focoist attacks and retreats, and its failed line 
and strategy have not gained the support or respect 
of the Peruvian people. (Send $4 to MIM for our 
Peru Pamphlet for more information.)

The Sparts don't even address the clear 
contradiction in their support for the MRTA after 
admitting that the MRTA supports the "United 
Left" 
electoral front. In the last elections the United 
Left had renowned imperialist puppet Javier Perez 
de Cuellar as its presidential candidate and 
supported Fujimori before that. MIM thanks the 
Sparts for not equivocating in choosing the MRTA's 
electoral version of Castro/Guevarism, a failed 
strategy, over Maoism, the successful line of the 
PCP. 

MIM does agree with the Sparts on one point: we too 
mourn the arrest of the Amerikan activist Berenson. 
Although she chose the wrong side in the revolution 
in Peru, she is currently under attack by the 
imperialist-backed Peruvian state and will be 
unjustly imprisoned alongside the many hundreds of 
captured Maoists. Her public statements that she is 
a revolutionary contribute to the consciousness of 
the people in Amerika who would like to pass her 
arrest off as the actions of a silly girl who must 
have been coerced and brainwashed into this work by 
some big strong men. The failure of the Amerikan 
government to act on her behalf is a damning 
indictment of the Amerikan imperialist support for 
the fascist government in Peru. MIM expects that 
Berenson will be further educated in Maoist theory 
and strategy by the very well organized Maoist 
comrades in prison, and we hope she will dedicate 
herself to future struggle behind the correct and 
successful line and strategy of the PCP.

It is important to choose sides correctly in the 
struggle against imperialism. Attacking the 
revolutionary organizations of the people is 
supporting the military attacks on the people. 
While the fascist Peruvian government hands down 
harsh sentences against members of both the PCP and 
the MRTA in military tribunals led by anonymous 
hooded judges, Amerikan Trotskyists dance around 
the real issues and uphold the lies of the 
imperialist media. In 1995 at least 75 people were 
sentenced to life in prison for crimes of 
"aggravated terrorism" in Peru. 

The people of Peru continue to live below the 
poverty level suffering from malnutrition, lack of 
medical care, unsanitary water, outbreaks of 
preventable diseases like Cholera, inadequate 
housing and unemployment. In areas liberated by the 
PCP, the people have been organized to farm 
collectively, provide for their own needs and 
educate the members of their communities. They are 
able to live without the daily suffering and fear 
that haunts life under the Fujimori dictatorship. 
These seeds of a new society demonstrate the 
correct and successful program of the PCP and these 
successes will not be destroyed by the lies of the 
academic Trotskyists who criticize everything and 
never accomplish anything but support for the 
status quo of imperialism.

NOTES: Reuter Jan. 16, 1996. 


* * *


CPUSA MEMBER EDUCATES ABOUT PHILIPPINES,
PROMOTES NIHILISM OVER CPP

Cambridge, MA, February 10--Former CPUSA member 
Daniel Boone Shirmer gave a talk entitled 
"Philippines ten years after democracy." 
Most of 
the talk was devoted to discussing the changes in 
the 10 years since the overthrow of the Marcos 
regime. Shirmer now works with a small group in 
Cambridge called "Friends of the Filipino 
People" 
and claims to not take sides on the revolution 
going on within the Philippines. But MIM knows that 
it is impossible to not takes sides without 
supporting the bourgeoisie in practice.

Shirmer's analysis of the different movements 
within the Philippines makes it clear that he 
supports the Philippine social democrats and not 
the successful struggle of the Maoist Communist 
Party of the Philippines (CPP). Shirmer correctly 
fights U.S. intervention in the Philippines. He is 
also clear that he does not believe Amerikans 
should be interfering in the Filipino affairs, but 
instead should be supporting Filipino people's 
right to self-determination. But Shirmer's stance 
on the internal struggles in the Philippines does a 
disservice to the people. 

Hailing the resistance of the masses, Shirmer 
pointed to the September 16, 1991 Philippine Senate 
refusal to renew U.S. military bases in the 
Philippines as an historic advance. Shirmer was 
careful to point out that Amerika has continued to 
maintain its military domination and use of the 
Philippines after Marcos, but the removal of these 
bases was a victory for the people. Shirmer pointed 
out that Ramos, the current Amerikan puppet ruling 
the Philippines, publicly supported the Acquisition 
and Cross-Servicing agreement (ACSA) which was to 
be signed in 1994 and which would have given the 
United Snakes back the military access it lost in 
1991. Ramos went so far as to say that ACSA would 
allow U.S. military troops to enjoy rest and 
relaxation in the Philippines--Amerikan soldiers 
could would be able to enjoy the prostitution of 
Filipino women.

Shirmer made it clear that the Ramos regime is not 
a government of the people. The vast majority of 
members of congress are millionaires, and the 
appointed heads of branches of government are 
leaders of the capitalist industries. 76% of the 
population lives in poverty as defined by the 
Filipino government: 1/2 of the urban population 
and 3/5 of the rural population. 1/11 of the 
Philippine population, approximately six million 
people, are driven abroad to work and live by 
poverty. 60% of these people are women working 
primarily as domestic servants.

Shirmer touched on the failure of Structural 
Adjustment Programs in the Philippines, but his 
analogy to Newt Gingrich's programs in the U.S. 
congress does not describe the misery created by 
these programs. Republican-Democrat maneuvering 
around U.S. domestic programs don't approach the 
devastation that SAPs cause to the welfare of the 
populations of Third World countries.

Shirmer credits the CPP with leading the masses to 
overthrow the Marcos dictatorship. He praised the 
party's ability to organize and inspire the 
resistance. But he incorrectly describes the 
current situation as an even split into three 
factions: Sison supporters who "played a 
splendid 
role in resisting the Marcos regime;" 
rejectionists 
who want to "pay more attention to the 
cities;" and 
the "democratic socialists" who want to 
break away 
from communist organization altogether. 

Shirmer, a social democrat himself, did not mention 
the rectification movement in the CPP or the 
overwhelming support of the people for the CPP over 
the "rejectionists" or "democratic 
socialists." MIM 
spoke up at this talk to clarify the history of the 
CPP and point to the importance of its recent 
theoretical and strategic advances. MIM also 
pointed out the error in the characterization of 
the CPP as ignoring the cities, noting the 
participation of many unions and city organizations 
in the National Democratic Front (NDF), the United 
Front against imperialism led by the CPP in the 
Philippines. Following a correct Maoist strategy of 
surrounding the cities from the countryside, and 
ignoring the cities entirely, are two very 
different things.

Ultimately Shirmer exposed his support for 
imperialism when he answered a question about what 
he believed was the correct solution to the evils 
of imperialism by saying "the Third World 
needs 
capital to develop" but we just need to 
"put 
controls over this capital." "Don't 
prevent 
corporate capital, just put limits on it." 
While 
Shirmer says that he believes in not taking sides 
and letting the people of the Philippines decide 
for themselves how to liberate themselves from 
imperialism, He supports capital over the most 
progressive anti-imperialist movement.

As one audience member pointed out, the Philippine 
government has used the existence of non-CPP 
organizations as a tool against the CPP in the 
current peace negotiations, claiming that these 
other small organizations are the "true" 
representatives of the Philippine people. By not 
taking a clear stand in support of the CPP, Shirmer 
leaves the people confused about these government 
machinations and sows confusion and doubt rather 
than support and solidarity with the people of the 
Philippines.

MIM is organizing film showings and talks about the 
Philippines in the Boston area and around the 
country. Write to your local MIM contact or the 
address on page 2 for information about these 
events. For a copy of MIM's new pamphlet, 
"Support 
the National Democratic Front of the 
Philippines" 
send $1 cash, check or money order to the address 
on page 2. 


* * *


HOW THE "AID" GAME WORKS 

The International Development Fund and the World 
Bank have been exposed, once again, as a cloak for 
imperialist domination. Even within its own 
confines, the "aid" game is designed to 
benefit 
Amerikkka directly. "The International 
Development 
Agency (IDA) [is] the World Bank's soft-loan 
arm....[T]he IDA brings plenty of benefits to the 
United States. For a start, every dollar America 
spends on the IDA results in a dollar's worth of 
contracts for American firms on third-world 
projects. More important, perhaps, it is a cheap 
way of influencing foreign policy: every dollar 
that Americans contribute to the IDA brings $4 more 
from other donors, yet America retains the most 
powerful voice within the World Bank."(1) 
Amerika 
increases its international hegemony through eager 
participation in its own self-serving institutions. 
People in the Third World will be able to create a 
thriving, self-sustaining economy only after their 
success in defeating all the faces of imperialism.  

NOTES: The Economist Oct. 14, 1995, p. 93. 


* * *


MONEY BEFORE HUMANITY

Exposure of the real motives beyond the bombing of 
Hiroshima is nothing new. Howard Zinn, for example, 
documented in 1970 in the Politics of History that 
Japan was close to agreeing to an unconditional 
surrender in the summer of 1945. Yet MIM is happy 
to see new sources reconfirming what we already 
know.

Manhattan Project participant turned anti-Bomb 
activist, Joseph Rotblat, "heard U.S. General 
Leslie Groves, the Manhattan Project's supervisor, 
say that the real reason for continuing was to keep 
the Russians in line after the war...."(1)

Islands in East Asia were and are a prime source of 
raw materials for the United Snakes. Amerika saw 
fit to murder over 200,000 people to ensure further 
extraction of this wealth.. Amerikan economic 
interest has always taken precedence over the lives 
of non-Euro-Amerikans. Just ask the First Nations, 
Panamanians, Haitians, Peruvians, Guatemalans, 
Filipinos.

NOTES: Time Oct. 23, 1995, p. 84. 


* * *


M-L-M ONLINE:
AN INTERNATIONAL ARENA OF POLITICAL STRUGGLE

WHY M-L-M ONLINE

Starting this month, MIM will be devoting one page 
per month to coverage of politics and culture on 
the Internet. Since the Fall of 1993, MIM Notes has 
been distributed electronically both by 
subscription to individuals and for free by 
individual article on Usenet news groups and by e-
mail. With M-L-M Online, MIM strengthens its 
commitment to this rapidly expanding forum of 
political debate and struggle.

Just as we are relying on our readers to help us 
achieve biweekly production of MIM Notes (See 
"Maoist Publications Go Weekly" MIM Notes 
109, Feb. 
1996, p. 3), we are appealing to our readers of 
both print and electronic MIM Notes to sustain our 
coverage of news on the Internet. Write to us about 
your favorite political site on the World Wide Web, 
a discussion you've had on Usenet, or your views on 
the new telecommunications act.

Like any powerful resource under imperialism, the 
Internet embodies the parasitism and decadence of 
bourgeois culture, in pornographic Web sites and 
the enormous bandwidth devoted to commercial 
enterprises and ideology such as interactive CNN 
and the New York Times. But it also contains the 
seeds of the destruction of bourgeois culture; 
thousands of students and youth treat the Internet 
as a serious, international political forum and a 
source for alternative information. M-L-M Online 
will bring you a Maoist analysis of these 
developments, and encourages your participation. 
Please write to mim@nyxfer.blythe.org with your 
submissions. 



STRIKING NEWSPAPER WORKERS FIND PHONY
MAOIST ALLIES ON THE INTERNET

In the past few issues of MIM Notes, MIM and RAIL 
have been covering the ongoing 6-1/2 month long 
Detroit newspaper workers' strike. We have exposed 
the reactionary class nature of the workers' 
demands for more money, more superprofits, more 
subsidies--more of the wealth that already binds 
them tightly to imperialism.

One Usenet news reader claiming to be a Maoist 
responded to our posting of "Update on the 
Detroit 
Newspaper Strike: An Amerikan Proletariat?" 
(MIM 
Notes 108, January 1996)insisting that real 
revolutionaries should support the Detroit 
newspaper strike. This same reader argued that 
there is an Amerikan proletariat, which is paid 
"an 
extremely small amount in return for their 
labor" 
and who "do not make decisions in the 
workplace." 
The reader challenged MIM to define concretely who 
comprised the labor aristocracy, insisting that a 
white temporary worker making $4.50 an hour should 
be considered proletarian.

The reader argued that since the proletariat is an 
international class, Marxists need to "fight 
against the narrow nationalist outlook, while also 
fighting even more resolutely against national 
chauvinism" and accused MIM of 
"abandoning Marxism 
for nationalism."

MIM pointed out that "From Engels to Lenin to 
the 
Comintern at key points in its history, the 
possibility of a whole nation's workers being 
bought off has been acknowledged by Marxism. ...

"MIM is glad to see this objection raised, by 
someone claiming Maoism and in an international 
arena such as the Internet," we wrote. 
"The crisis 
of leadership among revolutionaries in general 
requires all those in the Marxist tradition to 
confront this very question, to reclaim the true 
meaning of PROLETARIAN from the vulgar apologists 
for imperialist parasitism, to resolutely apply a 
CLASS analysis, and to learn from rather than give 
lipservice to, the lessons of labor aristocracy 
history. ...

"A worker making $4.50 an hour for a short 
time, 
whose parents and brother own houses and have 
better jobs, is not the same as a CLASS of people 
who are exploited. This is important to the 
question of consciousness. ... As MIM has 
documented over and over, the overall condition of 
whites in the United Snakes has continued improving 
even during these supposedly dark days. The 
relatively few, very highly publicized cases of 
white workers being laid off pales in actual 
comparison to the growth of the parasitic middle 
classes. The whites who are in trouble, relatively 
speaking, are those without high school education. 
What proportion of whites don't finish high school? 
Very few. ...

"Historically, where was the white working 
class on 
the proletarian revolutionary struggles of the 
Black Panther Party, the Young Lords, or the 
Vietnamese? Or, for that matter, on the Zapatistas? 
Fighting NAFTA and crying out for more militarized 
borders, that's where.

"You want to look at an individual worker, 
divorced 
from CLASS analysis and divorced from HISTORICAL 
analysis, and use that to promote politics PROVED 
suicidal for oppressed-nation proletarians for 300 
years. The Maoist Internationalist Movement did not 
liquidate the proletariat in  favor of nations. The 
imperialist nations have turned their former-or-
potential-proletarians into fat parasites and made 
national oppression the principal contradiction in 
the world today."


POLICE STATE: VERY FUNNY?

The Washington Post reports in its gossip/cute-news 
column, that when a young Rochester, N.Y.  computer 
artist put up a World Wide Web page depicting Bob 
Dole's head blowing up in comic-book  style, the 
Secret Service "came to call. ... Two  agents 
visited Burford at work, to make sure he wasn't a 
security threat, then asked him to headquarters for 
a little chat about his mental  health, arrest 
history and firearm ownership."

The Post headline ("He Has a Head for the 
Web") and 
photo caption ("a headache for Dole?") 
make  light 
of the fact that the Secret Service patrols  the 
Web and intimidates and interrogates people whose 
speech it doesn't like. Taking this kind of 
crackdown lightly is the privilege of those who  
slavishly to support the system. For those of us 
who oppose it, this just isn't funny.

One lesson we learn from this experience is that 
anyone making this kind of "threat" on 
the 
Internet--even in jest--is inviting the same kind 
of treatment by the pigs. MIM encourages people to 
channel their anti-Amerikan energy into more 
productive, revolutionary agitation, and to take 
politics as seriously as the bourgeoisie. The state 
pours billions of dollars into its own political 
propaganda. The best way for progressives to combat 
this is to work, study and struggle with MIM.

Source: Washington Post Jan. 25, 1996, p. C3.



TELECOMMUNICATIONS BILL MEANS MORE
CONCENTRATION OF CAPITAL

When the new, repressive telecommunications bill 
swept both Houses of Congress only to be embraced 
and signed by President Clinton, Internet 
progressives immediately began protests of the new 
restrictions on "indecent" material, 
which includes 
a ban on information discussing abortion. Some 
World Wide Web pages were darkened the day the bill 
was signed, and people forwarded electronic 
messages of protest of the bill on First Amendment 
grounds. Activists have reason to be alarmed. 
Sanctions for violating the indecency restriction 
can be "two years in prison and up to $250,000 
in 
fines."(1)

Bourgeois liberal organizations like the American 
Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier 
Foundation are on the case, and there are likely to 
be some successful court challenges to this latest 
assault on so-called free speech. But communists 
know that there are no rights, only power 
struggles, and the right to free speech is always 
constrained by the power of those controlling the 
means of expression--whether it is print, broadcast 
media, or the Internet. This means that the courts 
will give in to the liberals on this issue to the 
extent that doing so does not threaten the 
bourgeois order. Genuine free speech requires 
equality of power, which cannot be granted by the 
Amerikan court system.

But there are broader and ultimately more lethal 
implications to the bill than curtailment of 
specific speech. The bill allows 
"competition" 
among "cable firms, telephone companies, and 
television broadcasters,"(2) which means 
mergers 
and even further monopolization in the 
communications industry are imminent. Monopoly 
capital, an essential component of imperialism, is 
characterized by "more acute and cruel" 
competition 
between monopoly and non-monopoly enterprises.(3) 
The monopolization resulting from this bill will 
further entrench the bourgeoisie's hegemonic 
control over culture--a development more 
comprehensive than the reactionary restrictions on 
"indecency."

But monopoly also hastens imperialism's inevitable 
demise. When the proletariat seizes power, it will 
seize all resources, including the means of 
communication, to place them firmly in the service 
of the people. The proletarian feminist party will 
get rid of pornography through resolute political 
struggle and the liberation of women. So while MIM 
hails the protests of this bill and calls out the 
lie that patriarchal structures can protect women 
and children from the evils of pornography, we have 
our eyes on the bigger picture. We are fighting for 
the liberation of humanity, not the rights of 
bourgeois speech. 

NOTES:
1. Washington Post Feb. 5, 1996, p. A8.
2. Washington Post Feb. 8, 1996, p. V3.
3. The Fundamentals of Political Economy, 
(Shanghai: Shanghai People's Press), 1974, p. 161. 

Send print submissions to M-L-M Online to MIM 
Notes, Box 3576, Ann Arbor, MI 48106-3576, or send 
us electronic submissions, articles, letters, etc. 
to mim@nyxfer.blythe.org.

* * *

"PARENTAL RIGHTS" AND "CHILD 
PROTECTION"
CHILDREN ATTACKED BY BOTH PARENTS AND GOVERNMENT

There are two movements currently working to 
increase the repression of children in North 
America. The first is for more government 
involvement in oppressed families a-la-Child 
Welfare League, the second is for a restoration of 
more unquestioned parental authority a-la-Christian 
Coalition. In the bourgeois democratic discourse, 
these reactionary proposals masquerade as the 
"left" and right. Revolutionaries must 
expose both 
tendencies as reactionary. We recognize that real 
empowerment of children lies outside the 
imperialist state and the patriarchal family.

A number of recent cases of children killed by 
their parents has fed an awareness of the abuses by 
parents, which is a good thing, but has been used 
negatively in a trend toward more state power over 
children. MIM interviewed the policy director of 
the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of 
Cruelty to Children. She said that "people are 
fighting nonstop to give children their 
rights."(1) 
This argument correctly recognizes that children 
are being harmed and that other members of society 
have a responsibility to prevent that. However, she 
said that the solution for the extreme violence 
against children in this country is more funding 
for the Department of Social Services: a solution 
that works against the real empowerment of 
children.

In this context, people fighting for more state 
control over children are not fighting for their 
rights. In the real world, children who are abused 
know that the DSS cannot be counted on to offer 
anything better. And children of oppressed nations 
also know that their parents are targets of 
suspicion regardless of their actions. More 
government control is not progressive for children 
because it transfers them from one adult oppressive 
authority to another.

The DSS is not the only enemy of children's rights. 
KKKristian conservatives around the country have 
begun to promote a "parental rights 
amendment" 
which most commonly reads: "The right of 
parents to 
direct the upbringing and education of their 
children shall not be infringed."(2)

The practice of the parental rights advocates 
differs from the DSS-supporters only in who has 
control over the children. Despite their different 
vantage points, they lead to the same end: 
increased repression of children.

It is no coincidence that the parental rights 
advocates are the very same people who call for 
uninhibited property rights in general. The 
executive director of a group called Of the People, 
that has worked full-time for the amendment for two 
years, said "Opponents immediately leap to 
horror 
stories. It shows the level of distrust of parents 
of the elitist so-called experts who want to raise 
our children. Whose kids are they, anyway?"(3)

There is actually a nugget of a good criticism of 
the liberals in this statement. Their reliance on 
horror stories does distract from the basic 
conditions of childhood in Amerika. However, MIM 
maintains that those conditions are exploitative. 
Children are their own people, and should not 
belong to the elitist experts or to the patriarchal 
families. In revolutionary China, child care was 
collectivized and parents and other caregivers were 
held accountable for their actions by the entire 
society. This is a very different thing from a 
stronger tie between the patriarchal family and the 
imperialist state.

The arguments reveal their base in gender 
privilege. The head of Of the People said that even 
if the amendment fails, it will have brought the 
need for more old-fashioned patriarchal control to 
national attention. He compares it to the Equal 
Rights Amendment, which failed but raised 
consciousness about women's rights. He opposes 
equality before the law for both women and 
children, and says that his amendment "is a 
way to 
put the other side [those who supported the ERA] on 
the defensive."(4)

However, the "other side" that Of the 
People vilify 
are not a real opposition. A real opposition stands 
behind children, for a social reorganization to 
empower children to the greatest extent possible. 

Gender oppression--control over bodies, sexuality 
and reproductive labor--is what supporters of the 
amendment are after. Governor George Allen of 
Virginia is a supporter of the amendment because, 
he says, "Parents have the right to know, to 
be 
involved, if their young daughter is undergoing the 
trauma of an abortion."(4) The issue of 
abortion 
and reproductive health in general is a hot spot 
for many of those behind the amendment. This 
underscores the gendered relationship between 
parents and children.(6)

The amendment and the movement is not something of 
the lunatic fringe. Even though progress on 
amendments to state constitutions has been limited, 
legislation has been progressing in many states' 
legislatures and has begun to be heard at the 
federal level. Senate majority leader--and 
potential president--Bob Dole is one of the co-
sponsors of the parental rights bill introduced in 
both houses of Congress last year.(5)

The supporters of the legislation and of the 
amendment are clear that they resent having any of 
their repressive power taken by the state. A 
Washington State Representative contends that 
"Over 
the last 25 years, parents have seen the government 
take over the role of parenting. They [parents] 
want their rights back."(4) Revolutionaries 
are 
going to give them a fight for it. Rather than 
calling on the state to their aid, we work to build 
a new society where children can develop their 
skills and independence alongside their parents, 
not as property of their parents.

NOTES:
1. MIM interview Jan. 22, 1996.
2. The text of the "Contract With the American 
Family" of which this amendment is part, can 
be 
found at the Christian Coalition's website: 
http://www/cc/leg/contract.html.
3. NYT Jan. 15, 1996.
4. Christian Science Monitor June 7, 1994.
5. International Herald-Tribune Jan. 16, 1996.
6. See MIM Theory 9: Psychology and Imperialism for 
an analysis of the oppression of children. 


* * *


BOURGIE MEDIA DEFEND THE STATE

On January 16th, the Boston Globe ran a very short 
story about RAIL and MIM's January 15 rally against 
prisons. The rally opposed funding for new prisons 
and demanded the return of prisoners held hostage 
in Texas for this budget battle. The Globe did not 
mention the object of the rally and instead focused 
on the statements of one mother of a prisoner 
transferred to Texas without mentioning the context 
of her comments.

The article did mention the terrible conditions 
these prisoners are facing in Texas, but concluded 
by saying: "Gov. William F. Weld ordered the 
prisoners transferred to Texas to relieve prison 
overcrowding in Massachusetts." RAIL and many 
individuals sent letters to the Globe criticizing 
this article, none of which have been printed to 
date. The following is the text of the RAIL 
response to this article.

*** Dear Boston Globe,

Your January 16th article about the prisons rally 
the day before left out some important facts and 
hence misled your readers. This rally, organized by 
the Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League, was held 
not only to protest the transfers to Texas, but 
also prison expansion. The combination of the two 
is important to expose the lie of prison 
overcrowding that Gov. Weld has used to justify 
taking the 299 prisoners hostage, holding out for 
more prison funds. As speakers at the rally pointed 
out, there are empty beds in Massachusetts prisons 
at the minimum security level. These are not filled 
because prisoners are over-classified into higher 
security ratings.

The Globe has quoted Gov. Weld as saying the prison 
expansion in Massachusetts is for "capital 
investment." This has nothing to do with crime 
or 
overcrowding. In fact, the dramatic increases in 
imprisonment rates in all states over recent years 
has shown that there is no association with crime 
rates. Those few programs that Massachusetts had to 
actually rehabilitate prisoners have been discarded 
for isolation units. With out-of-state transfers, 
prisoner's tenuous stake in the community is 
severed. This shows that prisons are not interested 
in helping individuals to rejoin the society 
productively. ***


* * *


BUILD INDEPENDENT MEDIA; 
SUPPORT INDEPENDENT POLITICAL ACTION

The Boston University Daily Free Press ran a great 
quarter-page article covering the rally against 
prison expansion in the first issue following 
winter vacation. While student newspapers don't 
generally enjoy real independence from school 
administrations, they often offer progressives a 
forum more willing to print stories that don't make 
it into the mainstream media. But student 
newspapers can not be counted on to publicize the 
causes of the oppressed. We must build independent 
media to reliably reach the people and educate 
about and agitate for revolutionary change.

The bourgeois press is an arm of Governor Weld's 
public relations apparatus; it hammers out the 
message that Massachusetts needs more prisons and 
that prisoners have it easy living off the state. 
These are the most common objections we hear when 
we ask people to sign petitions to shut down the 
control units or to oppose prison expansion. Many 
U.S. citizens believe these lies because they want 
to hear that prisoners--mostly poor Blacks and 
Latinos--deserve their lower position in society. 
Amerikans, and even oppressed members of Amerika's 
internal colonies, are enjoying the by-products of 
oppression in the form of a drastically higher 
standard of living than the majority of the world's 
population. It is our job to confront Amerikans 
with the grotesque truth about oppression in their 
society, and to persuade them to join in the 
struggle against oppression.

We need our own newspapers, our own TV stations, 
our own radio station, and our own Internet news 
services to counter all the lies put out by the 
mainstream media. MIM needs your support to build 
these institutions and build public opinion in 
support of the oppressed of the world. Our most 
immediate goal is stepping our newspapers up to 
weekly publication; write to any of the contact 
addresses on page 2, or your regional contact 
(address on page 1) to find out what you can do to 
help.

NOTES: Coverage of our January 15 rally and another 
one on January 3 is in MIM Notes 109 Feb. 1996, p. 
8.


* * *

UNDER LOCK AND KEY:
NEWS FROM PRISONERS AND PRISONS


A REVOLUTIONARY ALERT!

A Revolutionary Alert to all prisoners held captive 
in North Carolina's state prisons! I am a 
revolutionary prisoner presently being held at the 
Maximum Control Complex (MCC) in the state that 
always smells like straight up shit, Indiana. I am 
here to warn my long-distance fellow prisoners in 
North Carolina that y'all are in danger, 'cuz your 
state's politicians and prison administrators (i.e. 
pigs) are up to their trickery.

Just about an hour ago [10:00am October 24, 1995], 
I was working out on the recreation pod, and I saw 
one of the most sickening sights: a crowd of pigs 
in suits and ties being escorted around the pod for 
about half an hour. They were being given a tour of 
MCC. It just so happens that these pigs were from 
North Carolina, and were here in Indiana touring 
this prison camp because they now want to build a 
control unit in your state and were here to get 
ideas.

So all you state prisoners in North Carolina, if I 
were you, I'd keep my ear close to the ground and 
start organizing both prisoners and people on the 
streets. Make inquiries and make a plan of action, 
so when the pigs let it out about their plans, 
y'all can counter them and shut them down before 
they get it off the ground.


BECOME ACTIVELY POSITIVE, PROGRESSIVE AND 
PRODUCTIVE!


Also, to all the prisoners presently at the MCC 
here in Westville, Indiana, and to all prisoners 
nation-wide, I'd like to quote Chairman Mao Zedong.

"Recently there has been a falling off in 
ideological and political work among students and 
intellectuals, and some unhealthy tendencies have 
appeared. Some people seem to think that there is 
no longer any need to concern oneself with politics 
or with the future of the motherland and the ideals 
of humankind. It seems as if Marxism was once all 
the rage but is currently not so much in fashion. 
To counter these tendencies, we must strengthen our 
ideological and political work. Both students and 
intellectuals should study hard. In addition, to 
the study of their specialized subjects, they must 
make progress both ideologically and politically, 
which means that they should study Marxism, current 
events and politics. Not to have a correct 
political point of view is like not having a 
soul." 
("Quotations From Chairman Mao Zedong", 
page 142)

What I just quoted is very applicable to the 
present situation here at MCC, which is very sad! 
When I was first brought to MCC back in February 
1994, the atmosphere on this set was one of nothing 
but straight-up consciousness. Every section I was 
on or around, people were unified as a whole, 
people were striving to become re-educated and 
progressively conscious and we were working 
collectively to challenge the numerous violations 
committed by the prison administrators and state 
politicians.

Now it is rare, I mean very rare, to see any of 
this. All I hear is people rap'n about now days is 
that same old-ass penitentiary bullshit, such as 
who's a fag, or who's a coward, etc. People are 
walking around doing nothing but searching for 
reasons to disrespect someone or assassinate 
someone's character. And I could go on. Why is 
this? Here people are sitting in these cement 
crypts partaking in activities which are negative, 
not progressive and these are counter-productive.

What ever happened to collective struggle? I'm not 
saying that this is everyone, because there are a 
few of us prisoners who are still struggling with 
and challenging the pigs every time they violate 
those who do attempt to remain actively progressive 
and attempt to help people re-educate themselves. 
But the majority of prisoners on this set have 
become so damn pacified and negative-minded that it 
makes me sick.

I do not knock people for listening to the radio, 
watching television, or eating commissary, 'cuz 
there is nothing wrong with that per-se. But there 
is something wrong with these items when they allow 
you to become lazy and blinded, to where that is 
all you want to do. You dudes are pathetic; you 
need to get your lazy asses out of bed and learn to 
discipline yourselves. Start shedding that bullshit 
"convict" mentality, and become actively 
positive, 
progressive and productive.

Then there are those who are in fact progressively 
conscious, but who have become discouraged, 
depressed and withdrawn 'cuz of the level of 
unconsciousness that now infests this set. I say to 
you, do not allow yourselves to lose sight of hope 
and slack from your responsibilities. Stay strong, 
and continue to be actively progressive and 
productive, and to attempt to bring the unconscious 
and negative-minded into a conscious and positive 
mind-frame. Pass these words of consciousness down, 
the range, so all can once again become unified and 
productive.

--a Indiana prisoner, Oct. 24, 1995


FEDERAL PRISONERS FACE LOCKDOWN


Dear Comrades,

In my last two letters, I forgot to mention that I 
have been receiving your MIM Notes unhindered. 
Please be aware that I will never lose interest in 
your work, but as you say, policy is policy.

What do you think about the national shutdown of 
nearly all federal prisons? Within this state 
(South Carolina), they have moved all inmates into 
a security system called "control 
movement". 
Instead of allowing us to go to the recreation 
field, which was probably an area of one square 
mile, they have placed us in an area of maybe 250 
square yards behind our dormitories. One dorm alone 
houses about 300 inmates.

We are not allowed to go from the A-side to the B-
side of the dorm any longer. Whatever side you are 
on, that's the side you stay on. They are really 
making it a cattle stall now....Until next time, 
may we all struggle as one against the beast!

--a South Carolina prisoner, Oct. 30, 1995


ONE YEAR LATER...REMEMBER AJAMU NASSOR
(AUG. 12, 1951-DEC. 8, 1994)


"I REFUSE TO APOLOGIZE FOR BEING SOMETHING 
OTHER 
THAN A MODEL INMATE... A BEHAVED SLAVE" - 
AJAMU 
NASSOR

One year ago today the state of Indiana murdered a 
proud New Afrikan warrior by the name of Ajamu 
Nassor. Ajamu is remembered by many, especially 
those who he worked with and helped guide in the 
kamps of Indiana. We should not forget this 
brother--we must let his death be a constant 
reminder of why we continue our work.

--an Indiana prisoner, Dec. 8. 1995


IT'S OVER?

It wasn't over when your first 
invaded and plundered the 
Mother Land

Committed your vicious acts 
and made a vow to annihilate 
the Afrikan man

It wasn't over when you nefariously 
conspired and murdered brother 
Nat, Malcolm, George & Fred

Our anger must never subside 
and should be appropriately 
stored within our heads

And to this day, we refuse to 
allow it to be over 
Even with your attempts to murder 
brother Ziyon and Mumia Abu

And you foolishly thought we 
forgot when you brutally murdered 
brother Ajamu?

--An Indiana prisoner, Aug. 12, 1995


DEATH AFFIRMING REALITY IN INDIANA


The case of Mumia Abu-Jamal is bringing to light 
many other situations of injustice that have been 
glossed over for far too long. Sitting in two 
different Indiana prisons are two men awaiting 
state murder, two New Afrikan men, two soldiers.

The cases of Ziyon Yisrayah (slave name Tommie 
Smith) and Khalfani Khaldun (s/n Leonard McQuay) 
are tied together by a comrade of both men who was 
murdered on August 8, 1995 by the State of Indiana. 
His name is Ajamu Nassor (s/n Gregory Resnover).

Ajamu and Ziyon were co-defendants stemming from a 
pre-down raid on their home on December 11, 1980. 
The raid left Ziyon wounded and a white police 
officer, Sgt. Jack Ohrberg, dead. In a stark 
similarity to the August 8, 1978 raid on MOVE 
headquarters in Philadelphia, Ajamu and Ziyon were 
charged with killing the police officer when in 
fact the officer was shot in the back while facing 
Ajamu and Ziyon. The only people behind the officer 
were other cops. Even the Governor of Indiana and 
the prosecutors of the case have publicly 
acknowledged that Sgt. Ohrberg was shot in the back 
and that neither of the guns found in the house 
could have fired the fatal shot.

Nevertheless, Ajamu and Ziyon were sentenced to 
die. Ajamu was murdered on December 8, 1994, and 
was pronounced dead at 12:13 a.m. Ajamu's family 
was there and claimed the body immediately 
afterward and drove it to Indianapolis where their 
twelve-car procession stopped at the governor's 
mansion.

Prior to his execution, the Indiana ACLU battled 
for Ajamu's life. They presented evidence that in 
the electric chair, one's body temperature goes 
from 98.6 to 117 degrees in seconds, that third 
degree burns are administered while the mind is 
still conscious, and that death takes at least five 
minutes.

In a manner familiar to anyone working around the 
case of Mumia Abu-Jamal, this case has had a well-
oiled machine pushing for Ajamu's and Ziyon's 
deaths from day one--namely the Fraternal Order of 
Police (FOP). The Indianapolis FOP sent a gang of 
cops to the prison who carried signs and chanted 
"Fry him". The police tried to physically 
intimidate the people holding the prayer vigils and 
the bigger anti-death rally sponsored by Amnesty 
International and others. One of the signs carried 
by an Indianapolis FOP demonstrator said, 
"Justice 
is 5,000 volts burning through a body." The 
sadistic nature of the police showing its true face 
once again.


"JUSTICE IS A DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD" --
GEORGE JACKSON.


On December 13, 1994, a corrections officer, 
Phillip Curry, was killed at Indiana State Prison 
where Ajamu had been killed five days earlier. An 
article that appeared in Prison News Service from 
an anonymous prisoner had this to say, "In de 
evening of December 13th, a Black kkkop was stabbed 
twice and later died as a result of his wounds. De 
kkkamp was placed on total lockdown while de 
reality dat justice is a double edge sword settled 
into de minds of other kkkops and state officials. 
Inside sources stated dat immediately afterwards 17 
soldiers quit, resigned." Khalfani Khaldun was 
the 
first prisoner that investigators came after. 
Investigators told Khalfani "I'm putting this 
one 
on you and it's gonna stick."

Khalfani was transferred out of Indiana State 
Prison to the infamous Maximum Control Complex at 
Westville, Indiana. He was charged with the murder 
of Officer Curry on January 31, 1995 and the state 
has promised to seek his death if convicted. Prior 
to these charges Khalfani was scheduled to be 
released in two and a half years.

It is important to realize that all of these 
brothers were/are working for the people on the 
inside. They are working to transform the 
colonial/criminal mentality that they observe in so 
many young men coming into the prison camps. They 
are freedom fighters, fighting for a better life 
for all of us on the inside, and all of us out here 
in the minimum security "free world".

It was the ruling class that killed Ajamu, and it's 
the ruling class that wants to kill Ziyon, Khalfani 
and Mumia Abu-Jamal. It's the ruling class that 
wants all of us to live in a world where we toil 
for their benefit. They're tired of the problems 
that they created by cutting off the inner- cities, 
by burning children out of their homes, by cutting 
wages, by lay-offs, and many other points in their 
pogrom. They are tired and their solution is mass 
incarceration and mass murder. They will say it is 
in the name of the people, it is up to the people 
to stop it.

For more information contact: 

The Human Rights Coalition of Indiana, 508 E. Corby 
Blvd., South Bend, IN 46617

--by the Brew City Anti-Authoritarian Collective 
(BCAC), Dec. 8,1995. BCAC can be reached at P.O. 
Box 93312, Milwaukee, WI 53203.


PRISONER WINS IN COURT, PIGS RETALIATE WITH 
LOCKDOWN


In the October 1995 issue of MIM Notes, we printed 
a letter called "Prisoners fight oppressive 
conditions" dated Jun. 20, 1995. The following 
letter is a continuation of one prisoner's legal 
battle against the pigs in Pennsylvania.

Dear Comrades,

...Thanks for bringing attention to my struggle. I 
received a hung jury on June 30, 1995 for the 
assault charge they gave me on the guard. Well, on 
Dec. 4, 1995, the judge consented to my motion to 
dismiss the case under rule 1100 and the 
commonwealth's violation of Double Jeopardy 
principles.

The judge stated that the District Attorney could 
not prove his case...and that he had had 120 days 
to retry me and had violated that. In addition, all 
my witnesses were threatened, put in the RHU 
(Restricted Housing Unit), etc. The commonwealth's 
violations of my rights were too harmful to ignore. 
In reality the courts did not want to waste any 
more money on this case because the evidence showed 
that I was defending myself against abusive guards.

So I have been sent to the SMU (Special Management 
Unit) twice for cases I won in court. The first one 
was in Huntingdon, on Nov. 13, 1992. I was found 
not guilty, and three days later I was sent to the 
SMU, where I stayed until June 1994 when the courts 
got involved. I stayed locked down from March 27, 
1992 until June 1994, just because they do not like 
my politics. This for a bogus case in which I was 
found not guilty.

This time I was given 90 days in RHU by the hearing 
examiner at Rockview on Dec. 31, 1994. On Feb. 3, 
1995, I was sent back to the SMU where I will sit 
until 1996, 1997 or longer. Again I WON in court. 
What does it matter if you win in court, when the 
prison system can still violate you and retaliate 
against you by locking you down for years under the 
pretense of administrative custody in the SMU, 
where all the conditions are disciplinary and twice 
as bad as the RHU. So the 90 days the hearing 
examiner gave me was immaterial.

Well Comrades, I leave you in the spirit of unity.

--A Pennsylvania prisoner, Dec. 9, 1995


YOU HAVE A LOT OF MEN AND WOMEN ON YOUR SIDE!


***This letter is a response to an article printed 
in the November 1995 MIM Notes called "Does 
relentless activism amount to nothing?"***

Greetings MIM,

From reading MIM Notes and the information that's 
being stressed is an enlightening forum for 
comrades around the world to view, I trust that MIM 
is acting in the best of its ability to make 
comrades aware of MIM theory. I received my Nov. 
issue of MIM Notes and I appreciate what you do and 
did for men like myself, and other comrades that 
are struggling to make a change for the better.

There was a letter from Under Lock & Key dated 
July 
10, 1995 from a comrade subjected to California's 
pig prison plantation. I read and studied his 
letter with great understanding. The conditions 
he's under affect me mentally because I've been 
subjected to his effect and impact.

Brother to brother

More important is that men like us, brother, learn 
to deal with these unnatural conditions of life. 
Brother, nothing is lost until you've given up on 
self. Say Brother, I can attest from your letter 
that you have a strong mind and body, soldier. You 
have the strength to lead a productive group of men 
at your location to deal with those pigs with a 
mindframe of awareness.

Brother, you may not realize it, but you have a men 
[and women] on your side. We can't hand up our guns 
up because when those pigs start rollin' we have to 
be ready to fight them to the grave!

--Maryland prisoners, Dec. 5, 1995


MARION CONTROL UNIT RELOCATED TO FLORENCE


Dear Comrades,

I received the first issue of your excellent paper 
in English and Spanish dated November 1995, ...and 
will see to it that the papers are read by everyone 
that wants to read them. On page 6 of the current 
paper under the heading "Boston-Area event in 
November", you make a reference to a film that 
documents abuses and brutality at the control unit 
of the United States Penitentiary at Marion, 
Illinois (USP- Marion) and further suggest to 
"Shut 
down the control units at Marion prison".

Please be advised that the Bureau of Prisons has 
terminated its control unit at USP-Marion and 
relocated it at the United States Penitentiary at 
Florence, Colorado (ADX-Florence) where I am being 
held. There are several institutions at Florence, 
Colorado involving different levels of security 
classification. ADX-Florence is the control unit 
that officially opened on April 18,1995, 
accommodating all USP- Marion control unit 
prisoners. ADX-Florence control unit is a long term 
segregation unit for Federal Prisoners. We do not 
have access to the main library...

Political consciousness is virtually non-existent 
at the present time. The majority of control unit 
prisoners, although they are from the working 
classes, nevertheless identify themselves either 
from the west or east coast or other locations.

Although I can write fairly well in Spanish, at the 
present time English would be more appropriate to 
evade the ever present censor. It would take the 
lazy prison guards several weeks to censor any out-
going letters written in Spanish for obvious 
reasons....

Luchando Siempre, [In the struggle always,]

--a Colorado prisoner, Dec 17, 1995


A MASSACHUSETTS PRISON CONTINUES TO CENSOR MIM 
NOTES


***One Massachusetts prison has been censoring MIM 
Notes since May 1995. In September 1995, Under Lock 
& Key printed "Massachusetts prisoner 
fights 
censorship" which documents one prisoner's 
struggle 
to receive MIM Notes. This prisoner is continuing 
his legal battle to receive this paper, as the 
prison continues to censor MIM Notes. The following 
is the most recent censorship letter from the 
prison officials.***

Dear Sir/Madam:

Please be advised in accordance with the Department 
of Corrections policy, 103 CMR 481, Inmate Mail 
Regulations, your publication, MIM Notes, shall be 
disapproved for receipt by an inmate at Old Colony 
Correctional Center for the following reasons: 
poses a threat to security and good order of the 
institution.

481.15 (1) (e) Depicts, describes or encourages 
activities that may lead to the use of physical 
violence or group disruption. 

481.15 (1) (f) Encourages, facilitates or instructs 
in the commission of criminal activity.

You may appeal this decision to the Superintendent, 
Paul B Murphy, should you opt to do so.

Respectfully,

Edward Ficco, Deputy Superintendent of Operations, 
Oct.12,1995

Letters of Protest can be addressed to: 
Edward Ficco, Deputy Superintendent of Operations, 
or 
Paul B. Murphy, Superintendent Executive Office of 
Public Safety
Department of Correction Old Colony Correctional 
Center
One Administration Rd.
Bridgewater, MA 02324

Calls can be made to: 
Massachusetts Department of Correction (617) 727-
3400 or 
Old Colony Correctional Center (508) 697-3360.


PRISON BRIEFS

We've been facing down attacks from various 
plantation "administrators" because of 
our 
political activities. Our press has been withheld 
from captives at different kamps. One brother was 
put in the "hole" for a piece that he 
wrote on the 
Oklahoma City bombing by the right-wing 
reactionaries. Another brother was placed on 
"phone 
restriction" for calling the media. So these 
are 
some of the things that we must contend with. And 
this isolation isn't helping one bit. Nevertheless, 
just thought I'd "plug in". Press on and 
keep up 
the good work.

Stand Firm 

--a Michigan prisoner, Sep. 17, 1995


The Texas prison system has gotten tougher on its 
inmates.... TDCJ is taking our locks, and if we 
want another we have to buy it for $10.50, at a 
$5.50 increase. After 20 years of selling locks in 
the Texas prisons, now they are dangerous. ...Price 
Daniels Unit also makes its own policy outside of 
TDCJ rules. Such as, prisoner are not allowed to 
have everyday cold pills or headache pills without 
a doctor's prescription. Yah right, as if the 
doctor will write one. Last week the doctor took a 
man's leg till he proved he needed and owned the 
leg. Like we steal legs every day.

--a Texas prisoner, Nov. 25, 1995

Graterford Prison just had a major breakdown and 
shakedown. Dogs were jumping on the inmates' beds 
and other personal effects while the inmates stood 
outside their cells, butt-naked. They were treated 
like animals. Animals in a zoo are treated better, 
although I don't agree with locking up animals 
without a trial by jury.

--a Pennsylvania prisoner, Dec. 7, 1995


VEGETARIAN HUNGER STRIKE

...As I have stressed to these people more than 
once, my diet cannot include "meat" since 
I am a 
strict vegetarian. These people have deliberately 
placed meat on my tray. MCC officials continue to 
disrespect my religion. Due to this strange but 
known tactic by officials, I have chosen not to eat 
until some kind of comprehensible understanding can 
be reached. I know without my medication and food, 
I will be seriously damaged for a long 
time....Standing Strong.

--an Indiana prisoner, Dec. 8, 1995

PRISONER RECEIVED MIM NOTES AFTER BEING CENSORED

I am in receipt of the latest MIM Notes.... I was 
contemplating whether or not I should inform you to 
discontinue forwarding the paper because of the 
prison's censorship policies. They have refused to 
allow the last two issues of MIM Notes to come in. 
However, I was blessed to receive the latest one 
that is now circulating amongst the other captives 
in this section. Our appreciation and solidarity 
always.

--a California prisoner, Dec. 8, 1995


* * *


ALLIANCE FOR JUSTICE FIGHTS NATIONAL OPPRESSION AT
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

The Alliance for Justice led a Unity March on MLK 
day, January 15. MIM congratulates the organizers 
for not relying on the pigs as students marched 
through the streets. Instead, students were 
organized to stop traffic and protect the marchers. 
The Unity march and rally marked the public 
announcement of the formation of the Alliance for 
Justice.

The Alliance for Justice is made up of minority 
student organizations--the Black Student Union, 
Alianza, the University of Michigan (UM) chapter of 
the National Association for the Advancement of 
Colored People, the Native American Student 
Association and the United Asian American 
Organization. The coalition group publicized its 
demands to UM on January 19th. The demands center 
around the criticism that the UM has failed to meet 
the needs of national minority students on campus, 
the lack of student input involved in decision-
making, and the failure to develop ethnic studies 
programs.(1)

The Alliance for Justice states that the University 
must focus on the retention of national minority 
students. The Alliance is demanding specific ethnic 
housing to be established immediately. Trotter 
House is not large enough to meet the needs of 
national minority students either for housing or 
for organizing events. Similarly, the immediate 
establishment of ethnic specific cultural centers 
is being demanded because currently national 
minorities are lumped together in inadequate 
facilities. The spokesperson for the BSU said that 
Trotter House has not gotten any larger but the 
Black population of students alone has doubled 
since the house was established.

Another demand of the Alliance is to give money 
directly to national minority student 
organizations. The current problem is that the 
Office of Academic and Multicultural Initiatives 
and Minority Student Services leeches off the work 
of minority student organizations. For example, the 
University is supposed to put on a certain number 
of events dealing with education of national 
minorities. The student leaders from organizations 
work with the University and the above two 
university organizations to sponsor events, but the 
students are the ones doing the work when it is 
supposed to be the University increasing its 
education about oppressed minorities, not claiming 
credit for events that students are already 
organizing.

The Alliance for Justice wants the University to 
create a student-picked student advisory board to 
meet with Minority Student Services once a month. 
At a forum held by the Alliance to discuss with 
students ways to support the Alliance and advance 
their demands, spokespeople for the Alliance said 
the office for Minority Student Services could not 
even describe its accomplishments in response to 
direct questions. Students should be able to see 
what MSS is doing for them, but they can't. The 
Alliance for Justice wants to revamp MSS to provide 
and increase services to students and 
organizations.


LEARN FORM THE PAST AND EXPOSE THE HYPOCRITES


MIM applauds the Alliance's statement that national 
minority students on campus have been ignored for 
too long and that it is time for demands to be met. 
The letter stating the Alliance's demands refers to 
gains won and lost by previous generations and 
correctly criticizes the University for dismantling 
students' victories from the past. MIM believes 
that it is essential to learn from past mistakes 
and to improve practice for the future so that 
activists today don't have to waste valuable time 
repeating the mistakes of our predecessors. For 
this reason, MIM sees it as essential that students 
fighting Universities must continue to expose the 
Universities' role in perpetuating oppression, at 
the same time as these students work to achieve 
immediate demands.

MIM supports strategies to tie the University up in 
its own public image by pointing out that it 
babbles about multiculturalism while doing nothing 
to educate people about anything other than white 
history, culture, etc. and we emphasize the need to 
simultaneously develop foundations for students to 
understand the nature of the University's interests 
and the limits that these interests cause on the 
advancement that the Universities are willing to 
allow national minority students.

In order to organize future student leaders to 
carry on struggles, the true nature of the 
University as an arm of the imperialists must be 
exposed. The University is a state institution 
which earns money for militarist research and for 
training militarists and entrepreneurs who will 
become rich through operating the high end of an 
unjust system. The University can temporarily 
redeem itself by meeting a set of demands (however 
stringent) for national minority education but it 
is up to younger leaders to keep the University in 
check and to advance the struggles of future 
national minority students. 

Revolutionary anti-imperialists have to keep in 
mind that reforming their universities is only 
effective as a means to create more room for 
education and organizations of the oppressed. This 
education and organization must be used in the 
struggle to dismantle the imperialist system that 
perpetuates the white supremacy of these 
educational institutions. Join MIM and RAIL in 
fighting to smash the imperialist system. 

NOTES: Write to MIM for a copy of the "Open 
letter 
to the University Community" for a detailed 
list of 
demands of the Alliance for Justice.


* * *


BLACK PANTHER PARTY HISTORY:
SEALE LIES TO STUDENTS: 
"WE DID NOT SAY ANYTHING ABOUT ... 
SOCIALISM"

***Bobby Seale, co-founder of the Black Panther 
Party (BPP) spoke at the University of Michigan's 
Ann Arbor campus on January 15th as part of the 
University's Martin Luther King, Jr. Day programs. 
Seale gave students an animated retelling of the 
BPP's struggles and emphasized that the young 
generation of activists must study and learn to use 
technology as a way to organize, educate and dispel 
lies about Black history. MIM agrees with Seale 
that the lessons of history are important, this is 
why we study the history of the BPP, our most 
immediate Maoist predecessors. Because we have 
studied the history of the Panthers, we know that 
much of what Seale now says about the Party is 
untrue and that he is in fact reversing many 
positions he took in his own book about the Black 
Panther Party, Seize the Time, published in 1968. 

Many former Communists now disavow Communism 
because they have much to gain materially from 
doing so. In Seale's case this material gain means 
speaking tours and book sales, and living a normal 
bourgeois life after having been a Maoist activist 
for many years. It is very important for genuine 
Maoists to be vigilant about degenerations such as 
Seale's because the bourgeoisie will use these 
people to its greatest advantage to discredit 
Communism and if we sit back and are slack in our 
responsibility to write our own history, we may as 
well be inviting the bourgeoisie to write it for 
us. MIM reviews Seale's speech here as part of our 
ongoing effort to educate and build public opinion 
in favor of Maoism in Amerika. We hope readers will 
join us in studying the true history of the Black 
Panther Party and building on the Party's legacy, 
rather than joining the BPP co-founder in trashing 
the Party's revolutionary history.***

Bobby Seale plugged his own work on a new movie 
about the BPP. He criticized Mario van Peebles, 
film Panther, saying that "90% of what was 
portrayed never happened." Seale charged that 
Panther "catered to the racist pattern of 
portraying us as hoodlums" by portraying 
Panthers 
as a bunch of street gang members. He emphasized 
the need to stop perpetuating myths about Black 
history in general and the Panthers specifically. 
MIM Notes reviewed the movie Panther when it came 
out and wrote that while it was not fully accurate 
(and included some dramatized fiction) it was 
better for people to watch that film than nothing 
at all about the BPP. The story line for the first 
half of the movie bears a striking resemblance to 
Seize the Time, so if Seale really thinks this 
stuff never happened, we'd be interested in hearing 
what he was trying to do when he wrote the book. 


REWRITING HISTORY TO SERVE THE BOURGEOISIE 


Seale explained that the BPP grew out of the Black 
intelligentsia. He explained that the BPP's 
consciousness developed from tracing the real 
history of Blacks in the United Snakes and Africa 
and developing a criticism of the education of 
Black history as historically inaccurate. Seale 
said that human liberation is 50% knowledge, 
meaning we must understand our history to change 
it. MIM can't account for the percentage, but 
understanding the history of class struggle, 
colonialism, imperialism and patriarchy is 
essential to the development of revolutionary 
change. 

Even while he advocates revolutionary struggle as a 
means of advancing political activity, Seale is 
working to derail this process. Seale argued that 
if you want to end police brutality, you have to 
capture the imagination of the people and organize 
electorally. He also said that this was the plan of 
the Panthers all along: "Notice that we did 
not say 
anything about command economies or 
socialism." 

The program for Seale's talk said: "Seale 
changed 
the agenda of the Black Panthers from that of 
revolutionary activism to one of community action 
programs." This is not true, the Black Panther 
Party was the Maoist vanguard in Amerika in the 
late 1960s and early 1970s. The Black Panther Party 
had a Ten Point Platform and Program of 
revolutionary activism which ran in every issue of 
The Black Panther, the Party's weekly newspaper. 
The Program was composed of goals of national self-
determination: exempting Black people from trial 
and judgment by a white injustice system, granting 
Black people the right to decent housing and an 
education which "exposes the true nature of 
this 
decadent American society." 

The BPP's work included some revolutionary reforms 
in the shape of the Free Breakfast for 
Schoolchildren Program, free grocery distribution, 
free community medical care programs and Freedom 
Schools which educated Black children about Black 
history. The Party showed the people through 
practice that communal activism was an effective 
way to meet their needs when capitalism failed. The 
Communist Party of Peru (PCP) and the Communist 
Party of the Philippines (CPP) are surviving 
vanguard parties that simultaneously meet the needs 
of the People and work to tear down terrorist 
regimes. The Panthers were the first party in 
Amerika to apply Mao's understanding that 
revolutions are only won by organizing the power of 
the masses. 

MIM also criticizes the manner in which Seale 
portrayed Huey Newton. Seale said that Newton was 
not involved in the rapid growth of the BPP because 
Newton was in jail and it was Seale who was 
organizing Black communities. Seale portrayed 
Newton as a man who could recite the law well, but 
degenerated because he was not out organizing the 
people. Given Seale's revisionism on the rest of 
the Panthers' history, MIM doesn't buy his analysis 
of how Huey degenerated, though it is clear that 
Huey did degenerate because he was not doing good 
work for 15 years preceding his death. 

Seale said many times that we should "make 
sure 
that ideas correspond to reality." He argued 
that 
the world is too interconnected to advocate 
separation of peoples, but did not say to what 
extent he was advocating integrationism. MIM 
believes that the primary contradiction today is 
between the oppressed nations and imperialism. This 
means that it is the revolutionary duty of 
oppressed nations to fight for national self-
determination. We work to develop independent 
institutions of the oppressed because we know that 
integration without liberation only perpetuates the 
dictatorship of the imperialist bourgeoisie which 
is currently in power. 


LITERATURE FOR LIBERATION 


Bobby Seale has written a cookbook, Barbeque'n with 
Bobby, whose proceeds go to neighborhood renovation 
in Philadelphia. Given Seale's current approach to 
politics--electoralism and integrationism--MIM 
doesn't think buying this cookbook to help forward 
the former Panther's political agenda is much of a 
political investment. Readers who are interested in 
advancing progressive politics in Amerika should 
support MIM's Free Books for Prisoners program 
instead. We are working to meet the educational 
needs of comrades under lock and key because the 
Amerikan prison system denies them access to 
materials for studying history, economics and 
theory: send revolutionary reading materials, cash, 
check or money order to either address on page 2. 

We have asked Bobby Seale to help get us copies of 
the new edition of Seize the Time free or at a 
discount in order to send them to comrades in 
prison. You can get a copy of Seale's book from 
Bobby Seale, P.O. Box 4138, Philadelphia, PA 19144. 
MIM asks that you also write him to convince him to 
help with MIM's Books for Prisoners program.


* * *


RAIL PROTESTS GULF WAR VILLAIN

***On January 31 a crowd of activists protested 
outside a speech given by Amerika's Gulf War 
commander, Norman Schwarzkopf, on the campus of the 
University of Southern California. The protest was 
organized independently by the Revolutionary Anti-
Imperialist League (RAIL) and USC's Muslim Student 
Association.

The protesters defied rain and the pro-militarist 
audience in order to demonstrate their opposition 
to the Gulf War and the continued Amerikan presence 
in the Persian Gulf. Protesters carried banners 
which said, "U.S. is Guilty of War 
Crimes," and 
"700,000 killed for profit;" RAIL 
supporters also 
passed out informational flyers and discussed the 
reasons for the protest with audience members and 
passers-by.

A supposedly "progressive" and 
"alternative" weekly 
with a large circulation, the Los Angeles Reader, 
exposed its true colors. Not only did the Reader 
fail to publicize the information on the rally 
which RAIL sent them, but it instead gave free 
publicity to Schwarzkopf's lecture itself, complete 
with ticket prices and purchasing information.(1)

The following article is an edited version of the 
flyer the RAIL activists distributed.***


U.S. OUT OF THE PERSIAN GULF!


Five years ago in January the United Snakes of 
Amerika launched its largest military operation 
since Vietnam: The Gulf War. Like the war in 
Vietnam, the invasion of Panama, and 
"covert" U.S. 
intervention in Chile, El Salvador, and Nicaragua, 
this war was fought to extend U.S. economic and 
political power--in this case, power over the oil 
reserves in the Persian Gulf and the whole Middle 
East. More than 200,000 people died as a direct 
result of the bombing and the invasion and more 
than 500,000 Iraqi children have died because of 
damage to the civilian infrastructure and the 
economic embargo on Iraq.(2)


THE MYTH OF AMERIKA'S "ALTRUISTIC" 
MOTIVES EXPOSED


The United Snakes claims that it besieged, bombed 
and invaded Iraq in order to "oppose 
aggression and 
dictatorship." This is not true. The United 
Snakes 
itself has a history of aggression and invasion 
(Vietnam, Panama, etc.) and regularly turns a blind 
eye when one of its allies invades a neighbor. 
Turkey invaded Cyprus, displacing 200,000; Israel 
invaded Lebanon and killed 20,000; Indonesia 
invaded East Timor and killed 200,000--the United 
Snakes had nothing to say about its friends acts of 
aggression, and continues to send them lots of aid.

The United Snakes also has a long history of 
supporting dictators in foreign countries and then 
ousting them when they become too independent or 
too ineffective: Ngo Diem in Vietnam, Marcos in the 
Philippines, Noriega in Panama, and of course 
Saddam Hussein himself. The United Snakes had 
nothing to say when Hussein killed 20,000 Kurds 
with poison gas (Amerika was supporting Iraq in the 
Iran-Iraq war at the time), but when Hussein 
invaded Kuwait (500 people died, according to 
Amnesty International) and threatened to disrupt 
Amerikan control of Middle East oil reserves, the 
United Snakes sent in its troops.(3)


THE GULF WAR WAS AN ATROCITY


Once the United Snakes decided to defend its 
interests in a big way, a negotiated settlement 
could not be enough. The U.S. military planned and 
carried out a brutal operation against the Iraqi 
military and people.

The Pentagon admits that army bulldozers buried 
thousands of Iraqi soldiers alive during the first 
hours of the ground offensive.(4) Thousands of 
retreating soldiers were killed when Amerikan 
planes bombed the highway leading north from Kuwait 
City. The carnage was so great that even the 
Amerikan pilots called this highway the 
"Highway of 
Death"(5) The Iraqi soldiers had nothing to 
gain 
from this war--even if they won--but they lost 
everything anyway. 


UNITED SNAKES IS NO FRIEND OF THE IRAQI PEOPLE


The economic and political situation for the 
majority of the Iraqi people has worsened. Even 
before the war began, international doctors' groups 
claimed that the economic blockade of Iraq had 
doubled the infant mortality rate.(6) Now doctors 
estimate that the infant mortality rate has 
quintupled.(2) U.S. bombers directly targeted water 
and sewage treatment plants during the war, which 
caused outbreaks of cholera and typhus.(7) The 
bombings and the blockade have also caused a severe 
food shortage, and as many as 3.5 million people in 
Iraq suffer from malnutrition.(8)


TO THE VICTORS GO THE SPOILS


After the Gulf War, U.S. imperialists deepened 
their ties with allied states in the region and got 
juicy new economic deals. Aside from renewed 
Amerikan investment in the oil industry in Kuwait 
and Saudi Arabia, U.S. companies got 70% of the 
contracts for the rebuilding of Kuwait.(9) The U.S. 
military was guaranteed a massive presence in the 
Middle East and used the war to justify its role as 
"world cop," which allows it to threaten 
"Rogue 
Nations" (read: Third World countries which 
refuse 
to take Washington's orders) with invasion. In 
fact, the U.S. military recently expanded its 
presence in the Persian Gulf, saying that the Iraqi 
"threat" could only be minimized "as 
long as the 
United States is there."(10) Currently, about 
13,000 Amerikkkan military personnel and 40 U.S. 
warships are stationed in the Persian Gulf. Every 
day, Amerikkkan aircraft fly more than 100 sorties 
over southern Iraq.(11)


THE REAL CULPRIT: IMPERIALISM


The Gulf War was part of Amerika's struggle to 
defend the political and economic system which 
sucks raw materials and labor out of the Third 
World and leaves it impoverished. For example: U.S. 
companies encourage the production of cash export 
crops like coffee and bananas instead of staples 
like rice or beans, to the point where entire 
countries cannot feed themselves. As a result, 14 
million children die of malnutrition every year in 
the capitalist Asian countries alone.(12) And in 
order to preserve "stable" conditions for 
Amerikan 
investment, the U.S. government sends money and 
military advisors to repressive regimes waging 
"low 
intensity war" against their own people. The 
U.S. 
is currently involved in such wars in the 
Philippines, Palestine, and Kurdistan, to name a 
few.

The oppressed peoples of the world can work 
economic and political miracles when they are 
allowed to manage their own affairs and develop 
economies to suit their own needs, not the whims of 
international finance. U.S. military intervention 
serves to bolster the exploitation of these nations 
and cannot bring democracy or peace--not in Iraq, 
not in Somalia, not in Haiti, not in Bosnia.

Build public opinion against the Gulf War and all 
imperialist wars! 

Take a stand on the side of the majority of 
humanity and oppose Amerikan imperialism and its 
lackeys! 

NOTES:
1. Los Angeles Reader, Jan. 26, 1996, p. 33.
2. New York Times, Dec. 1, 1995.
3. Z Magazine, Feb. 91, p. 55.
4. Detroit News, Sept. 31, 1991.
5. PBS Documentary, Jan. 14, 1996.
6. Washington Post, Dec. 15, 1990.
7. BBC World Service, Mar. 22, 1991.
8. UNICEF Report, Sept. 1995.
9. NYT, Feb. 28, 1991.
10. Daily Bruin, Jan. 15, 1996.
11. Daily Bruin, Jan. 16, 1996.
12. World Military and Social Expenditures, 1987-
88, p. 25.


* * *


STATE-CAPITALIST RULE BETRAYS CHINESE WOMEN'S 
LIBERATION

Since China changed course after 1976, heading away 
from socialism and toward capitalism, things have 
gotten worse for women in many ways; patriarchy 
there is growing continuously more acute.

Last August, as the revisionist Chinese regime 
hosted the United Nationsí conference on women, it 
released a "Program for the Development of Chinese 
Women," no more radical than most bourgeois 
democratic governmentsí goals for equality of 
women, and full of lies. Although it pledges that 
"Chinese women will be more involved in decision-
making and management of state and government 
affairs," Chinese womenís minimal representation in 
China's governing political bodies shows that the 
opposite is happening. The Program also talks about 
increasing women's employment and equal pay for 
equal work, the numbers contradict that lie as 
well. With regard to family relations, rather than 
fundamentally changing patriarchal family relations 
and collectivizing the work done by women, as was 
widely attempted in the socialist era, the Program 
merely calls for husbands and wives to share 
housework.(5)

Politically, women are losing representation in 
leading governing bodies. The percentages of women 
in the National People's Congress, formally the 
highest governing body in the country (established 
after 1949), and the NPC's Standing Committee, 
peaked during the Great Proletarian Cultural 
Revolution (GPCR). But womenís position in the NPC 
has declined since Maoís death.(1)

NPC  NPC-SC

1954	12.0	5.0
1959	12.2	6.3
1964	17.8	17.4
1975	22.6	25.1
1978	21.2	19.4
1994	21.0	12.3

The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (GPCR: 
1966-1976) was the greatest attempt ever at 
eliminating patriarchy and liberating women. Many 
advances made during this time have been rolled 
back by the capitalist-roaders who came to power in 
1976. By the time of the Women's Congress held in 
1978, the shift was clear. "Strikingly absent [at 
the Congress] was discussion of the need for women 
to struggle against wide historical, social, and 
economic forces that perpetuated female inequality 
in Chinese Society."(2) By 1980, Phyllis Andors 
concluded: "The present attempts to identify women 
with home and family and certain kinds of jobs . . 
. must be considered a retreat from the goals of 
female emancipation . . ."(3)

In the new attempts to develop a "socialist market 
economy,î women are suffering disproportionately, 
although of course most men are as well. "Women are 
taking it on the chin in China's new, profit-
oriented workplace," reports the Toronto Globe and 
Mail. "With the cracking of the renowned 'iron rice 
bowl' of guaranteed employment, they're the first 
fired and the last hired by firms worried that 
potential maternity benefits and time off for 
breast feeding will affect their bottom line. Women 
now account for 70% of layoffs in China." Further, 
"There are no women on either the powerful 
Politburo or the Standing Committee of the State 
Council. Only 12 of the Communist Party's 189-
member Central Committee are women."(4)

President Jiang Zemin has supported the continued 
burden of reproduction on women. Xinhua reported of 
Jiang: "He also stressed the work of women who, he 
said, have the dual responsibilities of social 
production and reproduction of the mankind." For 
"women's liberation," he recommended family 
planning rather than fundamentally altering women's 
roles.(6) Family planning is a good thing, but 
womenís liberation requires comprehensive 
structural and social change. In contrast to the 
phony Maoist program of the reactionary Chinese 
regime, MIMís revolutionary feminist line demands 
that we work to lift the burden of reproduction 
from women, as it is a cornerstone of gender 
oppression. This is possible to a great extent even 
as long as women remain child-bearers, but it 
requires a revolutionary feminist struggle against 
patriarchal social relations--a task long since 
dropped from the agenda of the reactionary Chinese 
regime.

NOTES:

1. NPC from Wei Chang-ling, Status of Women, China. 
Bangkok: Unesco Principal Regional Office for Asia 
and the Pacific, 1989. NPC-SC from Elizabeth Croll, 
Chinese Women Since Mao, (London: Zed), 1983. 1994 
figures from "The Situation of Chinese Women," 
Information Office of the Chinese State Council, 
June 1994, as distributed over Internet by Zhiwei 
Xu (zxu@monalisa.ucs.edu).
2. Phyllis Andors, The Unfinished Liberation of 
Chinese Women 1949-1980, (Bloomington: Indiana 
University Press), 1983. p. 153.
3. Ibid., 169.
4. Toronto Globe and Mail Aug. 30, 1995.
5. Xinhua News Agency Aug. 7, 1995.
6. Xinhua News Agency Mar. 19, 1995. 


* * *


ECONOMIST MAGAZINE: THE PCP IS STILL IN BUSINESS


One is more likely to find some truth in The 
Economist than in the average pro-imperialist news 
source. The reason is that The Economist aims to 
provide useful information to its core audience, 
bourgeois internationalist investors--information 
they can use to make educated business decisions. 
Notably, the Economist is based in London, the 
world center of bourgeois internationalism (that 
is, more international trade is conducted in London 
than in New York, Tokyo, or elsewhere).(1)

So while most of the imperialist media 
unquestioningly spreads the Fujimori regime's lie 
that the Maoist Communist Party of Peru (PCP or 
Sendero Luminoso) has been defeated, The Economist 
qualifies the usual lies with the following: "We're 
still in business. That is the message from Peru's 
Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) guerrillas....[T]he 
[Peruvian] government appears rattled. It has used 
its influence to play down reports of Shining Path 
attacks....[The PCP] and the fierce counter-
insurgency measures they inspire are clearly not 
finished yet."(2)

--MC49

NOTES:

1. The Economist September 23, 1995, p. 64. 
2. The Economist July 29, 1995, pp. 30-31. 


* * *


BOSNIA LIE EXPOSED 


"Gen. Charles Boyd, recently retired from the U.S. 
Air Force and deputy commander in chief of U.S. 
European Command between 1992 and July of this 
year, has a striking piece...in the 
September/October issue of Foreign Affairs. The 
arms embargo on Bosnia, Boyd observes, has long 
been a fiction, with the United States insuring a 
steady flow."(1) The selective enforcement of the 
arms embargo, or the existence of it in theory 
only, is a policy which allows the United Snakes to 
formally claim neutrality. In practice however, the 
US has been backing the Muslims to ensure 
themselves economic control in the Balkan region. 
The arms embargo is a way to impede the supply of 
arms to enemies of US interest (the Serbs and at 
one time the Croats). In addition, Amerika can use 
the so-called embargo as a political safety net 
nationally and internationally to perpetuate its 
fictitious image as world protector of "democracy" 
and human rights. 

NOTES: Alexander Cockburn, The Nation Magazine Oct. 
16, 1995, p. 411. 


* * * 


FLORIDA CRACKS DOWN ON ANTI-PRISONS ACTIVISTS


***As revolutionary consciousness grows among the 
more than one million people held captive in 
Amerika's gulags (evidenced by recent continent-
wide prison uprisings), and support for their 
struggle against daily brutality and exploitation 
grows on the outside, the Amerikan state takes 
notice and retaliates. In Jacksonville, Fla. the 
state is targeting activists from the Jacksonville 
Anarchist Black Cross, a group which has been 
active in support of political prisoners. MIM first 
redistributed the following article by the Brew 
City Anti-Authoritarian Collective on the Internet, 
and reprints it here as a statement of support for 
all forces fighting the imperialist aggression of 
the prison system.***


POLITICAL PRISONER SUPPORT GROUP
ARRESTED IN JACKSONVILLE, FL

by Brew City Anti-Authoritarian Collective


On January 12, 1996 more than 22 SWAT and 
Jacksonville tactical police raided the home of 
members of a political prisoner support 
organization, Jacksonville Anarchist Black Cross, 
and arrested Robert Cluesman. During the raid 
Jacksonville police searched the entire house 
without a warrant and without the consent of 
Cluesman or the other three persons inside the 
house. The police detained the three other 
occupants in one room while confiscating 2 legally 
owned shotguns, political literature, computer 
disks, spray paint and stencils. Officials claimed 
that all of these items were being held as evidence 
in an ongoing investigation.

Aside from very legal support for political 
prisoners, Jacksonville ABC and the Youth Action 
Movement have been noted for their positive work in 
the community. They have regularly operated a free 
food and literature distribution in the city of 
Jacksonville. The local media ran several 
supportive interviews after the initial raid.

On January 24 at around 8:15 pm, the Jacksonville 
police re-raided the home. Unlike the first raid, 
this time the officers came with warrants for the 
arrest of three Jacksonville ABC members, Rob 
Cluesman, Justin Tichy and Chris Herndon. Police 
arrested Cluesman at their home and arrested Tichy 
and Herndon at the workplaces. All three have been 
charged with Criminal Mischief which is a felony in 
Florida. They face over $3,500 in fines and 2 years 
in prison each. Their bail has been set at $10,000 
each or 10% of that amount cash each. A request has 
been made for people to please forward donations to 
NJ ABC at the address below to help secure bail and 
start a fund for legal fees. At present they are 
without legal representation and it is needed -- if 
you can offer your help please contact NJ ABC at 
the phone number below.

This is a very serious situation. This repression 
comes as a direct result of the political activity 
and efforts in the community by Jacksonville ABC 
and the Youth Action Movement. Most of Jacksonville 
ABC are currently being held by the state so all 
inquiries and funds for now should be directed 
toward NJ ABC at:

New Jersey Anarchist Black Cross, Post Office Box 
8532, Paterson, NJ 07508-8532. 

Office phone: 201-357-0994. email: pacnjabc@aol.com


* * *


FASCISM GAINS GROUND IN LOUISIANA


Patrick Buchanan won the Louisiana Republican Party 
caucuses on February 6th and gained 13 out of 21 
delegates. To do so, he had to beat the better-
funded Senator Phil Gramm.

One card that Buchanan had up his sleeve was the 
endorsement of fascist and former Nazi and Klan 
leader David Duke. Buchanan is also the only 
Republican candidate for president who opposes 
NAFTA and the latest GATT treaty.

As MIM Notes pointed out in February (See "Buchanan 
steals phony Marxist thunder"), Buchanan believes 
the best strategy to preserve the status quo is to 
oppose "free trade" and support the middle-class 
workers MIM calls "labor aristocracy." As the 
perfect anti-feminist, Buchanan puts preserving the 
family institution above the usual capitalist 
shibboleth of "free trade" as the center of his 
reactionary strategy.

Buchanan television commercials emphasize "Keep 
American jobs on American soil." As MIM has said 
all along, the phony Marxists can be seen doing the 
same thing as Buchanan and David Duke. They openly 
attack Mexican workers with regard to NAFTA and 
they encourage Amerikan workers to pit themselves 
against all the world's workers with regard to GATT 
treaties.

The phony Marxists are not really fighting the far 
right. They are clearing the way for it. Now David 
Duke gains legitimacy not just from the majority of 
whites in Louisiana who voted for him for governor 
in the second-to-last governor's election, but also 
his message gets added vindication from phony 
Marxists who avoid the reality that the majority of 
workers here are bought-off allies of imperialism. 
The reason the Amerikans want to keep "their jobs" 
is that they know they have the white-collar work 
at overpaid salaries that is gained at the expense 
of the world's majority of workers.

NOTES: New York Times Feb. 8 1996, p. B12.


* * *


THAT VOTING DOLLAR: 
AMERIKAN PRESIDENCY GOES TO THE HIGHEST BIDDER


FEBRUARY 15--It appears that Steve Forbes, 
publisher of Forbes Magazine--a self-proclaimed 
"capitalist tool"--is close to winning the U.S. 
presidency. After decades of proclaiming that greed 
is good and that inheritances like Steve Forbes's 
should not be taxed away, the Republican candidates 
losing ground to Forbes, who has spent over $10 
million in television ads, are complaining about 
the presidency being "for sale."

For decades candidates Buchanan, Dole and Gramm 
have been telling us that capitalism is good, that 
the money one earns through using the system is 
indicative of one's worth and that the capitalists 
should be able to spend their money any way they 
please without government regulation. Now that they 
might be losing an election to a rich newcomer, 
these candidates talk like they are the most 
oppressed proletarians on the face of the earth. 
Dole said: "'what we're trying to do is defend 
ourselves. . . I'm playing a little defense after 
10 million dollars worth of Bob Dole bashing.'"

Most of the candidates already knew that the 
government is for sale or rent, as proven by their 
own assiduous fund-raising. Bob Dole has received 
his largest sums from gambling interests and has 
been Mr. Agrofuel for decades. Phil Gramm receives 
his largest donations from medical interests 
opposed to national health insurance and from the 
National Rifle Association. Lamar Alexander is the 
trickiest of them all: he appears on the surface to 
be funded by various Tennessee interests who just 
want a president from Tennessee, but his donations 
are the largest from individuals of unnamed 
sources. 

Now Steve Forbes spends his personal wealth on 
television ads and the columnists all rise up to 
say he is "rewriting the rules" of presidential 
campaigns. He seems to have had little activist 
Republican support, just a way with television ads.

Ross Perot did the same thing in 1992, before he 
lost credibility by quitting the race for 
president. Phony Marxists would say the "working 
class" voters are being fooled by Perot and Forbes, 
but MIM says everyone knows how highly Perot and 
Forbes rank among the rich. The labor aristocracy 
knows that Perot and Forbes are blatantly pro-
capitalist, and chooses them with the thought that 
only the super-rich cannot be bought-off by 
particular interests.

Phil Gramm, Alan Keyes, Richard Lugar, Lamar 
Alexander and Patrick Buchanan all would cut or 
eliminate estate taxes. At the same time these 
candidates are now complaining that Forbes is 
buying the presidency. Former candidate Senator 
Arlen Specter from Pennsylvania says, "'somebody is 
trying to buy the White House, and apparently it is 
for sale.'"

New Right theorist Kevin Phillips noticed the same 
thing a long time ago and has written books and 
essays on the subject. Jerry Brown made it an issue 
in his campaign in 1992, but none of these 
politicians admit that the socialists are correct 
about how so-called democracy works under 
capitalism. They give us no reason to believe that 
this is not a permanent and inherent problem of 
capitalism.

One of the largest reasons political democracy does 
not work in Amerika is that money talks. In 
practice, the capitalist class gets what it wants, 
and we call it a dictatorship of the bourgeoisie. 
From MIM's point of view, since more than half the 
federal government spending is on the military and 
foreign policy related to meddling in other 
governments' affairs, the oppressed masses of the 
Third World should get a vote too. That would be a 
step forward for so-called democracy.

NOTES: Boston Globe Jan. 31, 1996, pp. 8, 10-11, 
13.

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