This is an archive of the former website of the Maoist Internationalist Movement, which was run by the now defunct Maoist Internationalist Party - Amerika. The MIM now consists of many independent cells, many of which have their own indendendent organs both online and off. MIM(Prisons) serves these documents as a service to and reference for the anti-imperialist movement worldwide.
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THE MAOIST INTERNATIONALIST MOVEMENT
MIM Notes 138 MAY 15, 1997
MIM Notes speaks to and from the viewpoint of the
world's oppressed majority, and against the
imperialist-patriarchy. Pick it up and wield it in
the service of the people. support it, struggle
with it and write for it.
IN THIS ISSUE:
1. FIGHT SETTLER NATION DOMINATION!
SENECA NATION PROTESTS NEW YORK TAXES
2. COPS AND IMPERIALISTS ARE THE REAL CRIMINALS:
MORE PIGS WON'T DECREASE CRIME
3. LETTERS
4. VOLUNTEER FOR REVOLUTION, NOT STATE-BACKED
REFORM
5. NEW YOUNG LORDS PARTY DOCUMENTARY CELEBRATED;
TAKE UP THEIR REVOLUTIONARY LEGACY
6. MASSES PROTEST PIG HYPOCRISY ON VIOLENCE
7. POLICE SHOOT BLACK TEEN IN HIS BACK
8. L.A. PIGS MAY BE BROUGHT TO JUSTICE BY FELLOW
PORKERS
9. BRUTALITY AT TRENTON KONCENTRATION KAMP
10. PIGS BEAT MENTALLY CHALLENGED BLACK MAN IN HIS
HOME
11. U.$ IMPERIALISM IN ZAIRE: AMERIKA CHANGES SIDES
TO STAY IN THE MONEY
12. PERUVIAN SOLDIERS STORM DIPLOMATIC RESIDENCE
13. U.$.-RAMOS REGIME BALKS AT PEACE TALKS
14. CAPITALISM BREEDS UNREST IN ALBANIA
15. OBITUARY OF HARVARD ANTI-IMPERIALIST
16. HISTORICAL ORIGINS OF A PSEUDO-FEMINIST LEGAL
THEORY SEEP OUT
17. SE MICHIGAN TURNS OUT TO SUPPORT PRISONERS AND
LEARN ABOUT CIA
18. UNDER LOCK AND KEY: NEWS FROM PRISONERS AND
PRISONS
* * *
WHAT IS MIM?
The Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM) is a
revolutionary communist party that upholds Marxism-
Leninism-Maoism, comprising the collection of
existing or emerging Maoist internationalist
parties in the English-speaking imperialist
countries and their English-speaking internal semi-
colonies, as well as the existing or emerging
Spanish-speaking Maoist internationalist parties of
Aztlan, Puerto Rico and other territories of the
U.S. Empire. MIM Notes is the newspaper of MIM.
Notas Rojas is the newspaper of the Spanish-
speaking parties or emerging parties of MIM.
MIM is an internationalist organization that works
from the vantage point of the Third World
proletariat; thus, its members are not Amerikans,
but world citizens.
MIM struggles to end the oppression of all groups
over other groups: classes, genders, nations. MIM
knows this is only possible by building public
opinion to seize power through armed struggle.
Revolution is a reality for North America as the
military becomes over-extended in the government's
attempts to maintain world hegemony.
MIM differs from other communist parties on three
main questions: (1) MIM holds that after the
proletariat seizes power in socialist revolution,
the potential exists for capitalist restoration
under the leadership of a new bourgeoisie within
the communist party itself. In the case of the
USSR, the bourgeoisie seized power after the death
of Stalin in 1953; in China, it was after Mao's
death and the overthrow of the "Gang of Four" in
1976. (2) MIM upholds the Chinese Cultural
Revolution as the farthest advance of communism in
human history. (3) MIM believes the North American
white-working-class is primarily a non-
revolutionary worker-elite at this time; thus, it
is not the principal vehicle to advance Maoism in
this country.
MIM accepts people as members who agree on these
basic principles and accept democratic centralism,
the system of majority rule, on other questions of
party line.
"The theory of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin is
universally applicable. We should regard it not as
dogma, but as a guide to action. Studying it is not
merely a matter of learning terms and phrases, but
of learning Marxism-Leninism as the science of
revolution."
-- Mao Zedong, Selected Works, Vol. II, p. 208
* * *
FIGHT SETTLER NATION DOMINATION!
SENECA NATION PROTESTS NEW YORK TAXES
by MCB52
written 28 April 1997
On Sunday April 20, one thousand Seneca Nation
members and their supporters closed down I-90, New
York 5, and US 20, in a protest of New York State's
efforts to impose taxes on the sovereign nation.
The pigs responded with force.
As of this writing, negotiations have broken down
because of the state's hypocritical refusal to deal
with the Seneca as a sovereign nation. An anti-tax
rally at the capitol on April 24 again demonstrated
the Seneca commitment to resisting New York
colonial entrenchment. This is an important
struggle for anti-imperialists to support as we
expose the United Snakes cheating and repressing
oppressed nations within its borders and around the
globe.
The bourgeois press, especially the New York Times,
has repeatedly tried to mask the protests of the
Seneca as intra-nation disputes.(1) However, the
content of the protests makes it obvious that the
core issue is anti-imperialism and the fight
against the tentacles of New York attempting to
squeeze out Seneca Nation wealth.
Last year, MIM wrote extensively on New York
Governor Pataki's moves to declare war on First
Nations in order to collect tax receipts.(2) The
invasion came when New York blocked shipments of
oil and cigarettes to nations which had refused to
sign agreements to pay taxes or raise prices. For
the Seneca, that meant a virtual blockade.
"On April 1, the day the taxes were supposed to go
into effect, we were swarmed with state police and
tax people," said Rose Patterson, spokeswomyn for
Seneca President Michael Schindler. "When we would
not sign an agreement, they stopped all deliveries
of gasoline and cigarettes into the reservations.
They even stopped heating oil from coming in."(3)
The April 1 blockade was especially harmful because
the Seneca economy relies heavily on these stations
and shops -- which were forced to close and lay off
40 people. Within weeks, grocery stores and other
shops closed for lack of business. In the last
month, 200 people were laid off in the Seneca
territory of 3,500 people.(4) The Seneca responded
with a blockade of their own -- a thousand people
closing down roads that cross their territory.
If the Seneca were trapped before, their protest
brought about further state repression. In response
to an announcement of a non-violent closing of the
roads through Seneca land to protest New York's
blackmail, the state sent troopers by the hundreds.
One protester shouted at the troopers, "You don't
have the authority to come through here. This land
belongs to the Seneca Nation." (5) Rather than back
down in the face of what the U$ and New York
treaties say, however, New York responded with an
intensified blockade.
According to Chief Schindler, "We were a nation
under siege for more than seven hours Monday. From
5 a.m. until after 2 p.m., no one, including the
media, was allowed to enter or leave our
Cattaraugus Reservation. Troopers had every road
leading into our territory blocked. They not only
stopped people who were trying to get to jobs both
off and on the reservation, they even stopped
dialysis specialists who visit patients regularly,
and warned parents if they left our land to take
their children to school, they would not be allowed
to re-enter."(6)
The state cried crocodile tears about the violence
between its invading force and the Seneca
protesters. The bourgeois press described it this
way, "Deploring the violence over the weekend, Mr.
Pataki said yesterday: 'We have enormous respect
for the Indian nations. We have negotiated as
sovereign state to sovereign state. The interim
compacts we have worked out with six of the Indian
nations reflect that respect.'"(7)
That is a complete lie. Recognition of a sovereign
nation does not include repression and blockades.
Instead, this is how colonial powers refuse to
truly recognize the Seneca.
The violence was very one-sided, for obvious
reasons. "We weren't armed," Snyder said after the
confrontation, sporting a swollen, blackened eye.
"We weren't looking for a confrontation. All we
wanted them to do was leave our territory." (5)
Several wimmin were assaulted without provocation,
a dozen protesters arrested, while the troopers
sustained no major injuries.(6)
NO DEAL ON NEGOTIATING AWAY SOVEREIGNTY
Pataki entered into negotiations with the Seneca on
April 23, but in bad faith. First, the state said
the Seneca could charge their own taxes for an
amount less than the New York tax and that would
suffice. The same day the state changed its tune
and wanted direct control over the First Nation
revenue.
"I spoke with Gov. Pataki myself at 11 a.m. on the
telephone, and he did say these words to me, that
this [our own taxes] is what we would be able to
do," Schindler said of Wednesday's agreement. "By
four o'clock," Schindler said, "things had changed,
and we were resorting back to some of their
original plans where they wanted to regulate our
affairs on our nation, and that's where we stand
now." (8)
"If New York State is allowed to get its foot in
the door, eventually it will lead to the
termination of our federal status as a tribe and
the assimilation of our people into the white
society, which is nothing short of genocide,"
Schindler said at a anti-tax rally outside the
Capitol.(9)
"What they've been asking is for information
sharing," Schindler said. "We have to tell the
state who is in business, their phone numbers,
names, addresses, the volumes that they sell, even
invoice numbers," he added. "To me, that's
regulation and we feel we shouldn't be regulated by
the state. We regulate our own affairs."(9)
MIM has continuously struggled to organize and
educate people to recognize and support the
struggles of Amerika's internal colonies for self-
determination. Imperialism is still the swarming
beast which rips the wealth, natural resources and
labor from oppressed nations. The people cannot put
a total end to oppression without first achieving
the power to build their own societies free from
imperialist extraction. We support the struggles of
the national bourgeoisie and activists within the
Seneca nation and all oppressed nations when they
fight against the domination of the settler nation
empire. We also urge our friends and comrades to
study and build upon the legacy of Mao and learn
from the lessons of revolutions that have succeeded
to achieve true liberation in the shortest amount
of time.
NOTES:
1. The New York Times. 22 April 1997.
2. MIM Notes 109. Feb. 1996, p. 1.
3. The Plain Dealer. 22 April 1997.
4. The Plain Dealer. 24 April 1997.
5. The Buffalo News. 21April 1997.
6. The Buffalo News. 22 April 1997.
7. The New York Times. 22 April 1997.
8. The Buffalo News. 25April 1997.
9. Gannett News Service. 24 April 1997
* * *
COPS AND IMPERIALISTS ARE THE REAL CRIMINALS:
MORE PIGS WON'T DECREASE CRIME
by a RAIL Comrade
The fact that crime rates have declined recently in
many major U$ cities has led police officials,
federal agencies and criminologists to speculate on
which crime fighting strategies are responsible for
the trend. Although Boston, Detroit, Houston and
other major cities have all experienced a drop in
crime, New York has received the most attention.
The explanation for decreased crime rates most
often put forward by the police is a combination of
more cops on the streets and the highly promoted
community policing programs. The New York Police
Department (NYPD) has turned the drop in crime into
a public relations campaign in which they claim
full credit for the crime statistics -- and cities
like New Orleans are now turning to the NYPD for
training and advice. Detroit's 1996 murder rate
declined by almost 10 percent from 1995 figures.(1)
New York experienced an even more dramatic drop of
15.6 percent during the same period after having
posted between 19 and 24 percent drops in previous
years.(2)
Unlike the bourgeois criminologists, MIM knows that
crime rates are driven by social conditions and
that the only way to bring down crime is to improve
social conditions. The Amerikan government in not
in a position to do either, as it is the greatest
perpetrator of crime. According to the U$
government, it is a more serious crime to steal a
white man's wallet than to steal an entire nation's
land. A system which was designed to preserve the
benefits of the ruling class cannot be forced to
serve true justice. MIM supports models such as the
Black Panther Party in the late 1960s which chose
not to rely on the Amerikan in-justice system, but
to build independent institutions of the oppressed.
Police and so-called "community activists" claim
that an increased police presence has the effect of
discouraging criminal activity as well as
incarcerating more criminals. Rep. Bill McCollum
who heads the House subcommittee on crime said "I
can't help but believe that if we lock up violent
felons, it will keep them from committing more
crimes."(3) They believe that it is harsh
punishment and intimidation that drives down the
crime rate despite the fact that the most
comprehensive study ever of crime prevention
suggests otherwise.
The study, conducted by a team of criminologists at
the University of Maryland, puts into serious doubt
the effectiveness of everything from boot camps to
neighborhood watches to prison construction in the
fight against crime. Although the study suggests
that intensified police patrols in high-crime areas
may be a significant factor in bringing down crime
rates, it also found that there was little
rigorous, scientific evaluation of Federal crime-
prevention programs, making them difficult to
evaluate.(3)
These criminologists, and others, question the role
that the police have played in the drop in crime.
Falling unemployment rates, a lower population of
at-risk youths, the decrease in the crack cocaine
market, and regular fluctuations in crime rates are
cited as major factors in the crime rate declines.
Peter Scharf, Director of the Center for Society,
Law and Justice at the University of New Orleans
stated that the NYPD style of crime fighting "...is
leading to the resurrection of the notion that the
arrest is the main tool of policing. But arresting
people is a very blunt instrument in achieving
social control. It may lead to the criminalization
of a large percentage of the population."(4) The
fact is that a large percentage of the U$
population - a higher percentage than any where in
the world -- is already incarcerated and that
Blacks and Latinos make up a disproportionately
large segment of the prison population compared to
their percentage of the U$ population.(See MT11)
In an effort the play down the invasion aspect of
the increased pigs on the street programs, many
police departments are promoting community
involvement in crime fighting activity. This
diverts people's anger away from the system which
is failing to alleviate the forces that cause crime
and diverting it onto the "criminals." The state
sponsored vigilantism gives the middle class a
chance to take out their anger on the lower
classes.
VIGILANTES DO SOME OF THE DIRTY WORK
On April 25, 1997 the leader of a neighborhood
patrol group in Crown Heights, New York attempted
to run down a group of West Indian teenagers who he
claimed had thrown a bottle at him. Although he
claims to have called 911 to report the incident,
there was no record of a call and the teenagers
claim to have only exchanged stares with the
man.(4)
Police departments across the country must be
pleased to have accusations of abuse of power
focused on angry citizens rather than at cops.
Vigilantes not only help with the dirty work, but
help the police justify more spending and more
oppressive tactics. MIM believes that concerned
citizens should re-evaluate their priorities based
on the seriousness of crimes and take action not in
conjunction with the corrupt Amerikan legal system,
but with independent institutions of the people.
A society which perpetrates outrageous crimes
across the globe daily can not expect respect or
cooperation from the oppressed. MIM looks at the
crimes committed against the oppressed by the
imperialist nations as more significant that the
crime rate discussed by the criminologists. We look
at the crimes committed against the people - cases
of police beating members of oppressed nations and
guards beating prisoners under the pretense of
keeping order and stopping crime. We look at the
crimes committed against immigrants and workers in
Third World countries to suck super profits from
their labor to sustain the standard of living in
the imperialist nations. We look at the military
support for comprador regimes waging wars against
Maoist revolutionaries in Peru and in the
Philippines as well as against revolutionaries of
anti-imperialist struggles across the globe. We
look at the systematic poverty, lack of health
care, housing, inadequate education and denial of
representation of the interests of the oppressed as
a crime. Looking at all of these factors and the
long history of genocide, repression and
enslavement, the crimes of the imperialist nations
have not decreased. And by far, these are the most
vicious and numerous crimes committed.
NOTES:
1. Detroit Free Press. 7 January 1997.
2. Times-Picayune. 21 April 1997, pp. A1.
3. New York Times. 16 April 1997, pp. 23.
4. New York Times. 26 April 1997.
* * *
LETTERS
ORGANIZING THE HOMELESS
Dear MIM,
I've been reading MIM Notes, etc., off-and-on for a
few years.... The January 15, 1997 edition ("MIM
launches Serve the People Food Program") interests
me as I have been involved with homeless [people]
for some time.
Recently, the LAPD started a campaign of getting
most everybody on the street "into the computer" by
busting them for extremely petty offenses. (See
enclosed paperwork). By having files and warrants
on street people for not paying fines, etc., they
have a legal way to detain almost all homeless/poor
transients for short (or long) periods of time.
If MIM and/or RAIL would be interested in getting
involved in [confronting] this problem, I think
some homeless/poor/transients might become
interested in MIM/RAIL.
I applaud your efforts to reach homeless [people]
and prisoners (in order to recruit to your Party).
I might respectfully suggest: 1. Make your leaflets
to homeless [people] about ten times more simple!
2. Use art or cartoon(s).
Many, perhaps most, homeless do not read at all
well and/or do not like to read. But I have noticed
that they appreciate political satire that is
simple and relates to their political/economic
lifestyle/reality.
In the seventies, I worked with the BPP in
Pennsylvania raising money and donations of food
for their Breakfast for Children Program.
I would also like to respectfully suggest that
MIM/RAIL keep in mind that: in raw numbers, there
are more poor WHITES in Amerikkka than all others
combined. (I'm on the streets every day and I see
more and more homeless/transient white people. They
tend to be younger , also. Therefore, Mao and/or
the BPP are unknown or ancient history. I, myself,
admire Mao and the BPP.)
At this time, one Black woman is living with me and
I'm supporting one other homeless Black woman with
food, clean clothes, toilet articles, etc., and a
place to stay during emergency times. All the women
in the enclosed paperwork are Black and they trust
me with their valuable stuff (including money when
they want it saved and protected).
Probably a few hundred homeless people know [me by
name]. And thousands have seen me on the streets of
LA, during the last five years, pushing a shopping
cart--recycling.
It is DIFFICULT organizing homeless
[people]!!!!!!!!!!!!! However, I know of nobody
doing it from a revolutionary angle. It takes time
and patience to be known/respected by the homeless.
Homeless [people] are basically anarchists.
I'm open for dialogue.
For revolution,
-- Los Angeles homeless advocate, 3 February 1997
MIM RESPONDS: You recommended that MIM or RAIL get
involved in confronting the LAPD's campaign of
harassment and criminalization of homeless people.
Often MIM and RAIL suffer more from a lack of
available labor-power than from a lack of good
ideas. Yours is certainly a good idea. We hope that
you will work more closely with MIM and perhaps
join RAIL in order to help build a campaign along
the lines you describe.
Our own social practice in leading the Serve the
People Food Program has aided our perceptual
knowledge about homeless people. From our
experience thus far, we agree with you that our
leaflets which go to homeless people should be more
simple. On the other hand, if our leaflets become
too simple, we will have watered down our message.
We would like to work with you to resolve this
contradiction and produce more accessible
literature for homeless people.
You wrote, "In the seventies, I worked with the BPP
in Pennsylvania raising money and donations of food
for their Breakfast for Children Program." We hope
that you will use your skills and experience to
similarly support the Serve the People Food
Program, and perhaps other MIM-led work as well.
You are correct that within U.S. borders, there are
more poor whites than poor people of oppressed
nationalities as far as raw numbers are concerned.
However, the people of oppressed nationalities are
disproportionately represented among the poor.
Furthermore, poor whites often have an oppressor-
nation consciousness which is stronger than their
oppressed-class consciousness. This relates to
MIM's analysis that the principal contradiction
within U.S. borders, as in the world, is the
contradiction between imperialism and the oppressed
nations.
Whether we are dealing with Chinese-descended,
Black, or white people at a given moment, we uphold
Mao and the Black Panther Party. To many audiences,
Mao and the BPP are unknown or ancient history. It
is part of our job to make them known and to help
people draw revolutionary lessons from what is
actually recent history which is quite relevant to
today's struggles. Many of Mao's contributions are
of universal importance, and the Black Panther
Party's contributions are at least of importance to
progressive activists in the imperialist countries,
particularly the U.S. empire.
Since you, yourself, admire Mao and the BPP, and
support at least some of MIM's work, we hope you
will join RAIL. Activism connected to a
revolutionary vanguard party has much more impact
than does isolated activism or acts of charity.
You are correct that homeless people are difficult
to organize. The Serve the People Food Program may
in fact turn out to be more effective at organizing
non-homeless sectors on behalf of the homeless than
at organizing the homeless themselves. At least
initially, this seems to be the case.
* * *
VOLUNTEER FOR REVOLUTION, NOT STATE-BACKED REFORM
The New York Times reported that "it was hard to
escape the spirit of volunteerism emanating from
the start of the Presidents' Summit for America's
Future" in Philadelphia on Sunday, April 27. Well,
MIM agrees it was hard to escape whatever was
emanating from the summit.(1)
MIM attended a rally held across the street in
downtown Philadelphia organized by the National
People's Campaign -- a creation of the neo-
Trotskyist Workers World Party(WWP). Though it was
good that there was protest of the summit because
it had some progressive content, the majority of
the speeches and literature behind the event ranged
from reformist to revisionist to plain old
reactionary. Despite that, many in the crowd were
progressive and MIM had a good response struggling
with people and selling our material.
In the 1980s, when Republicans proposed
volunteerism instead of welfare, Democrats
criticized them, and radicals demanded socialism.
Now both parties propose volunteerism instead of
welfare, and the opposition led by WWP has taken
the role of Democrats from the 1980s, calling for
decent paying jobs and so on. So this represents
the movement to the right of a large part of the
political spectrum, a movement to reform the
system. MIM maintains our revolutionary position,
which is made all the more clear in this new
climate.
MIM joins the rally organizers in exposing the
hypocrisy of the government as it implements a
cruel welfare "reform" at the same time that it
promotes a "volunteerism" designed to divert
attention from the realities of imperialism and
poverty. However, the organizers and most speakers
at the rally undermined this progressive message by
attempting to unite all "Americans" as if they were
all oppressed except for a few rich capitalist men.
We always call out those who describe the bad
things of imperialism as being bad "for everyone,
especially people of color," or "everyone,
especially women," to paraphrase. Usually, there
are a lot of oppressors smuggled into that
"everyone." These illusions are part of the attempt
to be "unified" and "work together" for progressive
causes. But MIM doesn't think the oppressed benefit
from such paper alliances, which have a way of
disintegrating when things look up for the non-
oppressed "allies" in the situation. The quickest
path to true people's liberation is honesty with
the masses after a thorough and scientific
materialist analysis of conditions and the various
interests of groups.
We also don't think people are well served by the
constant doomsday pronouncements, as if everything
is always getting worse for everyone. The flyer for
the rally said, "While the mean-spirited cutbacks
are aimed at the poorest workers, hundred of
billions of dollars go to the Pentagon, the
bondholders, and corporate tax breaks."
This is a true statement, but it leaves out the
very broad middle, who also benefit from the
current system. In 1995, 30 percent of Black
families had total money income below $15,000, as
did 28 percent of "Hispanic" families; compared to
only 10 percent of "non-Hispanic" white
families.(2)
Even beyond the attempt to get white Amerikans
included in the big "us," rallying for more welfare
always has to take an internationalist perspective,
or else we're just talking about spending more
imperialist super-profits on the relatively poor
here, while things do get worse and worse for the
most oppressed victims of imperialism outside the
borders of the U.$.
Several speakers at the rally decried the "export"
of jobs to lower-paid workers in Mexico or other
places, but in the long run the export of those
jobs has been part of an increase in the standard
of living for most Amerikans, not part of their
impoverishment.
Some members of oppressed nations in the U.$. are
seeing worse conditions in the last five years -
migrant farmworkers and the lumpenproletariat, for
example - but many are not.
Any time people protest specific cuts, movement of
jobs, and so on, without challenging the
foundations of the system and the suffering of the
most oppressed, they are running down an
opportunist road that has been shown to lead
nowhere for the oppressed. Denouncing Clinton is
good, but "Impeach Clinton" (as one sign said)
doesn't help (would Gore be better?). And replacing
"the old system of welfare" with "real jobs at
decent wages" (as the rally demands called for)
doesn't mean a reduction in overall imperialist
oppression.
MIM calls on revolutionaries and anti-imperialists
to take up the best volunteerism there is, the
struggle against imperialism - for proletarian
feminist national liberation struggles and
socialism - not the state-sponsored feel-good
charity work of the new Powell/Clinton army.
NOTES:
1. New York Times 28Apr96, p. A17.
2. U.S. Bureau of the Census, Current Population
Reports, P60-193, Money Income in the United
States: 1995, U.S. Gov. Printing Office,
Washington DC, 1996.
* * *
NEW YOUNG LORDS PARTY DOCUMENTARY CELEBRATED;
TAKE UP THEIR REVOLUTIONARY LEGACY
Mid April -- MIM, RAIL and a Puerto Rican student
organization organized a showing of the new
documentary !Palante, Siempre, Palante!: The Story
of the Young Lords Party. The Young Lords Party --
later called the Puerto Rican Revolutionary Workers
Organization -- was the Maoist vanguard of the
Puerto Rican nation in the late 1960s and early
1970s.
The film begins with Puerto Ricans in the New York
area and with young revolutionary-minded students
studying nationalist history. Inspired by a Black
Panther newspaper article about the Young Lords
Organization in Chicago, the young people in New
York traveled to Chicago to meet the YLO. The youth
returned to form an east coast chapter which later
developed into the Young Lords Party.
The documentary's coverage of the early days of the
Party and its organizing are especially good. While
we recognize this video as the best on the subject,
we disagree with the filmmaker's anti-ideology
stance.
When MIM saw the unfinished video two years
earlier, we criticized it for not talking about the
importance of Mao to the Young Lords Party. Morales
said that others had criticized the video along the
same lines and that would be added. MIM -- and the
BPP and YLP themselves at the time -- hold that the
rise of Third World national liberation movements
and the Chinese battle against revisionism were
prime inspirations for their own movements.
When one Lord mentions weekly political study
classes, the screen shows five revolutionary books
but there is no other overt discussion of the very
conscious application of Maoism to the YLP's
concrete conditions. (Later, sharp video watchers
will briefly see a newspaper containing a photo of
the YLP Party Congress, with speakers sitting in
front of portraits of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin
and Mao.)
As the video explains, the Young Lords Party
organized around a 13 point program and platform,
but the video spends little time on the program
itself, skipping some points and excerpted others.
For instance, point twelve reads "We believe armed
self-defense and armed struggle are the only means
to liberation" but is shortened to just "self-
defense" which is much weaker. The demand for a
socialist society is left in the video, but
opposition to the "Amerikkkan military" [k's in
original] was removed.
Its anti-ideology stance leads the video to claim
the YLP was destroyed by "police infiltration,
shifting political directions, and infighting." It
is correct to criticize the FBI attacks on the YLP
and it may be true that this was the prime cause of
its demise. But one can not blame political
struggle or changes in political line for the
demise. Political struggle is how progress is made,
in fact the word Palante itself means "forward
through struggle".
The YLP grappled with some difficult theoretical
questions, such as the relationship of the people
in Spanish Harlem, NY (and similar communities) to
the island of Puerto Rico. Were these people a part
of the nation of Puerto Rico on the island, part of
new nations formed on the mainland, or merely
national minorities within Amerika? The YLP spent
considerable energy trying to define itself.
Initially it formed as a Party of much more than
just Puerto Ricans (including other Latinos and
Blacks), and the 13 point program reflects this.
The Young Lords attempted to find the correct
answers to these questions and made many mistakes
along the way.
But we can not criticize them for trying, and we
certainly would not encourage the YLP to have
ignored political struggle in the name of
liberalism or eclecticism. Instead of downplaying
theory and context and criticizing the YLP for
trying to find the correct line, it is more
productive for ex-Lords to present their own
analysis of these questions. In this vein, MIM is
trying to find the documents of the Young Lords
Party Congress, which we believe contain more
detailed arguments behind some of their positions.
Its anti-politics line leads the video to celebrate
the current progressive, although reformist, work
of ex-Lords as if it was part of the same
revolutionary work that was begun 30 years ago.
The discussion after the showing centered on the
above issues of political theory and need for
revolutionary work like that described in the film.
Concretely, the struggle of students in local high
school was discussed. The school is 53% Puerto
Rican, but there are very few Latino teachers and
they teach only the bilingual classes.
The bilingual program itself is a joke, as it
doesn't fulfill its stated purpose of teaching the
kids English. But no one cares that the kids don't
learn English, because the expectation is that the
students will go on to do only manual labor. But
the program does succeed in quarantining the
Spanish speaking students up on the second floor of
the building.
The Puerto Rican students are under attack
culturally and militarily as well. Student displays
of the Puerto Rican flag are restricted, but they
are forced to attend long lectures on the treatment
of the Amerikan flag. When students staged walk out
protest, they are met with a huge police presence.
These examples show that Puerto Rican people are
still a colonized people in need of national
liberation and the ability to determine their own
destinies. Institutions should serve the needs of
the people, not oppress them.
MIM agrees with the YLP program point that reads
"We want a true education of our Afro-Indio culture
and Spanish language." This is one of the aims of
the MIM/RAIL video and lecture series. We conduct
public forums to educate people about revolutionary
history as part of our organizing for revolution.
Contact MIM to arrange a showing of "!Palante
Siempre Palante!" in your community.
NOTE: See MIM Notes 101, June 1995 for a review of
the then unfinished film and an interview with the
filmmaker, Iris Morales.
For information on ordering Palante, Siempre
Palante, contact (212) 713 5355, Columbia
University Station, PO Box 250073 NY NY 10025,
palantesi@aol.com
* * *
MASSES PROTEST PIG HYPOCRISY ON VIOLENCE
by the MORAIL study group
JEFFERSON COUNTY, MO, 5 March 1997 -- Sixty people
turned out in front of Jefferson County Courthouse
for Kevin Pelot's preliminary hearing on a murder
charge. The protesters came out to support Kevin
and his family and protest Kevin's railroading on
charges of murdering his mother's boyfriend, who
had abused both Kevin's mother and sister.
On 24 December, 1996, Brian Swann beat Kevin's
mother in front of their two year old son. The next
day, someone shot and killed Swann. Kevin Pelot has
now been kidnapped and incarcerated by the police
and is being held on $250,000 bail for first degree
murder and armed criminal action.
The hypocrisy here lies in the fact that the pigs
have arrested and are now charging a man who has
responded to patriarchal violence. The pig argument
is that the oppressed should not take matters into
their own hands but should instead call on the cops
for help in situations of domestic violence. RAIL
takes MIM's lead in the conviction that we need to
build independent institutions of the oppressed
rather than relying on the patriarchal capitalist
state for help. This includes building independent
revolutionary feminist institutions so that wimmin
are not left relying on one man for protection from
another.
RAIL does not support calling the pigs to intervene
in cases of domestic violence because the police
support patriarchal violence. More than 60,000
police officers have been convicted of domestic
abuse. That's 1 out of 10 not counting the ones who
haven't been caught yet.
The masses know that calling the cops in domestic
violence cases means a likely arrest and conviction
if the accused is an oppressed national. The pigs
who do the arresting have no interest in
eradicating violence against wimmin and children,
they are only interested in carrying out their duty
as an occupying force in the oppressed nations: to
harass and terrorize. The prison system has no
interest in rehabilitating people convicted of
domestic violence crimes. How could it? The system
depends upon patriarchal domination and inherently
perpetuates this.
The rehabilitation programs which do exist aim to
help individuals adjust to living in an oppressive
society. Shrinks and counselors try to change the
individual to stop her or him from analyzing this
society in a systematic way. Materialist analysis
of Amerikan society reveals that from pop culture
to employment laws to child custody policies, the
united snakes is a firm patriarchy. Individuals who
have a genuine interest in changing this should
investigate revolutionary feminism and work with
RAIL and MIM to build an independent feminist
movement to overthrow patriarchy, not adjust to it.
The pigs disproportionately harass, brutalize,
murder and arrest oppressed nationals. The
occupying police forces in Amerika sustain the
current system and sweep the poverty, violence and
inequality under the rug. People are increasingly
learning not to trust the cops. So the masses deal
with violence in their communities themselves. So
when the pigs step in to prosecute a man like Kevin
Pelot for acting in self-defense, this is the
grossest irony. The pigs have demonstrated again
and again that they and their legal system cannot
be trusted; they have no authority to judge
individuals who look out for themselves and their
families.
Protesters and supporters passed out a flyer
asking: "What would you do if someone was
violating, terrorizing and brutalizing your mother,
sister and baby brother repeatedly? You are living
in your house with your family and this violence
goes on year in and year out. Repeated calls to the
police bring no help. What would you do? Would you
act in self-defense of your mother?"
Kevin Pelot found himself in this situation. His
mother had been the victim of terrorizing domestic
abuse at the hand of her boyfriend Brian Swann for
three years. Brian put out a cigarette in Kevin's
sister's face, kicked and beat Kevin's mother with
steel toed boots, beat Kevin's mother while she was
pregnant and hit her with televisions, coffee
tables and chairs. Whether or not Kevin is the
actual killer, the killing was an act of defense.
In patriarchal Amerika, men including the pigs,
look at wimmin and children as their property and
treat them as they see fit. RAIL does not condone
the murder of individual perpetrators of
patriarchal violence, but rather supports anti-
imperialist struggle, and eventually the necessity
of armed struggle to overthrow Amerikan imperialism
which props up and perpetuates patriarchy.
MORAIL calls on anyone to support our call of self-
defense for Kevin Pelot.
* * *
POLICE SHOOT BLACK TEEN IN HIS BACK
by a MIM comrade
DETROIT, MI - Pigs shot Roy Hoskins, a 14 year old
East side resident in his back in the evening of
April 20th. The initial reports from the pig
occupying force stated that Roy was pointing a
weapon at the police and that they shot him in the
chest. They said this to cover up the fact that
they murdered him outright without justification
even according to settler nation law.
A couple months ago, the main stream media reported
that Detroit police officers were caught sleeping
in their cars, eating in restaurants (yum, donuts!)
and hanging out in bars while on duty. The main
stream media pretended to expose this as something
new, something out of the ordinary for Detroit
cops. The general result was complaints from
conservative citizens saying they pay the pigs good
money to protect their stolen land and private
wealth and that cops needed to do their jobs. The
response from the Detroit pig chief was to say that
an internal investigation would be conducted and
police officers would be checked up on. He said
that it was just a few bad apples slacking off and
that the department would improve the efficacy of
the police. At the time, the pig chief slated an
additional increase of about 500 more pigs in the
streets of Detroit to be implemented sometime in
May 1997.
April 27, friends and family members of Roy
protested the murder. They stated that they would
fill a lawsuit as well as continue to protest and
march until the murdering pig -- James Woods -- was
brought to justice. The family and friends of Roy
are fully aware that the pigs are attempting to
cover for themselves and that they do not serve the
interests of the people of Detroit. We support the
family and friends of Roy to gain what they can out
of the settler nation courts and applaud their
involvement in exposing this case as it is one
example of the systematic oppression of the Black
nation.
The Black Panther Party exposed similar murderous
actions of the pigs in the late 1960s and 1970s and
now there are many groups that report on the
numerous police actions carried out against the
oppressed nations within the United Snakes. What is
needed to make this exposure a death blow to the
pig occupying forces is the diligent organization
of the masses to show that these actions are
tactics of the systematic genocide and police
occupation of oppressed nations. We must carry out
this exposure with the goal of revolution for
national liberation and ultimately socialist
victory. The cases which are exposed in the pages
of MIM Notes are only a few of the many instances.
The individual incidences of police murderous
actions and brutality will not stop until the
masses have control of their own territory and
control of the state to truly represent their
interests. At this time, we cannot patrol the cops
in the streets but we can continue to expose their
actions to organize enough support to ultimately do
so. Work with MIM and RAIL to expose the actions of
the pig occupying forces on the road to true
national liberation and self-determination of all
oppressed nations!
* * *
L.A. PIGS MAY BE BROUGHT TO JUSTICE BY FELLOW
PORKERS
by Otis
"A federal grand jury April 17 accused two former
Adelanto, CA. police officers of trying to beat a
confession out of one man and forcing another to
lick his own blood off a booking room floor."
Officers Chandler and Gailey have the tedious job
of upholding the brutal system of worldwide
oppression and slaughter that is amerika -- but the
pigs do it quite well.
Both of the suspects were white, which is not the
norm within the amerikan injustice system which
consistently brutalizes members of oppressed
nations. From time to time, the Amerikan injustice
system attempts to punish representatives of
settler nation interests when those reps either get
caught on video tape or the justice system realizes
that the cases will not be allowed to silently pass
by the masses.
Joseph Valdes was accused of beating his child on
the 6th of May, 1994. The cops attempted to beat a
confession out of him the same day. Before beating
Valdes, Chandler allegedly said, "Are you going to
tell us what we want to hear?" This clearly
represents the states willingness to twist both the
truth and lives simply to maintain their barbaric
imperialist system. It is shear hypocrisy that
amerikan pigs beat another man for alleged (Valdes
was never convicted) abuse of children. Those who
wear a badge wear the symbol of worldwide
patriarchal oppression. MIM struggles to destroy
patriarchy and the propertied position of youth
under imperialism. Pigs on the other hand, are the
armed extension of the state perpetuating
patriarchy in a systematic and thorough way by
repressing true representation of the oppressed.
"On October 11 1994, the officers allegedly beat
another man, Henry Easley, who had been brought
into the police station on drug-related
allegations. The pair allegedly beat Easley in
retaliation for spitting on a fellow police
officer." Amerikan pigs are consistently placed
above other human beings.
MIM calls on all people with any sense of
conscience to join together in the total
destruction of this rabid capitalist empire and all
its machinations. Don't wait for the police state
to arise - struggle NOW to bring about liberation
for the majority of the world - oppressed nations.
It is only through the destruction of the Amerikan
empire and its grasp globally that the masses can
take control of their destinies and build systems
which both represent the interests of the oppressed
and build societies based on cooperation, respect
for others and care for the environment and with
thoughtful planning for the future.
NOTES: Los Angeles Times April 18, 1997.
* * *
BRUTALITY AT TRENTON KONCENTRATION KAMP
***This article was written by a friend of MIM and
edited for publication. The name of the prisoner
brutalized by the pigs has been changed in an
attempt to avoid further repression. Those with
interest and concern to stop the retaliation and
brutality against X as well as assist in legal
advice, suggestion or aid can to write to MIM.***
Trenton State prison goons attacked X in late
March. X had been transferred to Trenton after a
pig at the medium security kamp was corrected for
his openly racist and brutal attacks upon New
Afrikan prisoners. X and several other brothas (all
members of the 5% Nation of Islam) were singled out
and charged with institutional infractions that
include rioting, inciting others to riot, conduct
which disrupts the orderly running of the
institution and arson. X was the only one charged
with assault on the guard.
After serving thirty days in the hole at Trenton, X
was to begin the accumulated sanction of three
years ad-seg (lock-up). That morning, several white
guards, along with two knee-grows in uniform, began
processing X for transfer by escort. The pigs
stripped, searched, cinched at the waist with a
belt and cuffed X. While exiting the hole by a
flight of stairs, and out of view from prisoners on
the cell block, the pigs pushed X down a flight of
stairs from behind. The pigs jumped on him and
pounded him with fists and clubs and kicked about
his head and body.
A disturbance code was sounded and a lieutenant
arrived to supervise an escort team of guards to
take X to the prison infirmary. However, in the
corridor leading to the infirmary, the Lt. ordered
the escorts to stop. He then turned to X, made
death threats and assaulted him -- once again by
punching him in the mouth, knocking out two teeth,
splitting his lip and causing two other teeth to be
surgically removed by a dentist at an outside
hospital.
After having to spend the next few days at the
prison infirmary for medical treatment, X was
charged again with assaulting the pigs and was
returned to the hole with a new 30 say sanction.
It should be noted that whenever a prisoner has
been accused of assault upon a staff member, all of
his movements are to be video-taped by an
accompanying internal affairs officer to ensure
that no further harm comes to the prisoner or the
staff. However, this procedure was absent on the
day that X was to be escorted from the hole to ad-
seg which translates into a planned set-up by
Trenton pigs to exact an act of retaliation upon X
due to the assault he was accused of at the medium
security kamp.
* * *
PIGS BEAT MENTALLY CHALLENGED BLACK MAN IN HIS HOME
by a RAIL comrade
A racist street gang called the St. Louis Police
Department, brutally beat an innocent man, adding
one more notch to their nightsticks. This time the
pigs beat a mentally challenged man whom family
members say has the mental capacity of a three year
old. Chief pig, Ron Henderson said the officers
thought they were dealing with a burglar (as if
it's OK to brutalize someone for the redistribution
of property.) The officers were allegedly
"distraught" over their mistake.
According to the pigs, 19 year old Gregory Bell was
home alone when the home's burglar alarm went off
at about 12:54 P.M. Three officers arrived on the
scene to find Bell in the basement. They told Bell
to put his hands on his head then cuffed him.
Confused and unable to explain the situation, Bell
told the officers he didn't want to go to jail.
Since pigs mindlessly brutalize members of the
Black nation and tend to act with force first and
ask questions later, the brutality began. Neighbors
estimated that as many as 20 officers were on the
scene.
The beating started inside the house and ended up
in the yard. A neighbor said "when I got back there
they were pulling him by the head through the
kitchen door and down the steps ... he was bloody
as could be." The witness realized it was Bell,
when he was heard saying, " I'm sorry, I'm sorry."
After the police learned Bell lived in the house
and was mentally challenged, one officer approached
him, pushed him down, and sprayed him with pepper
spray! One witness said, "Even if he was a burglar
the force was too much."
Bell was treated for numerous lacerations to the
head, abrasions on his arm and face and a fractured
ankle. A family member said he also received
stitches in his head, too many to count, and that
"He couldn't talk too much, and one of his eyes is
completely shut."
Police have responded to this by calling for an
internal affairs investigation, which will only try
to find excuses for their fellow officers' brutal
and often deadly behavior. At best, they might give
an apology and a paid vacation for one or two
officers. They've also responded by adding a
training course on how to deal with mentally
challenged or ill people. New recruits will get a
four hour lecture on how to deal with illnesses
such as schizophrenia and manic depression.
Recruits are taught how to recognize such
illnesses, and to learn the symptoms of people who
have not taken their medication. Considering the
classification of mental illness has been used to
incarcerate the oppressed rather than improve the
material reality which causes instability, this
training is more of the implementation of
imperialism through psychology and a systematic
cover up for the results of an oppressive and
alienating society.
RAIL visited the neighborhood where the crime
happened and talked to a couple of young people
there. They expressed that this was nothing out of
the ordinary. They said that their community seems
as if it's under a state of martial law. RAIL sees
that communities such as theirs are under a
situation of all out war, where members of
oppressed nations people and national minorities
are beaten, killed, kidnapped, and incarcerated
everyday. Both inside and outside the "borders" of
this kountry, the Amerikan settler nation uses its
military might to repress the masses and ensure the
white nation's economic and political domination
over oppressed nations. This is why we work to
build public opinion against all forms of
imperialist aggression. By building independent
institutions of the oppressed we will fundamentally
change our societies to meet the needs of the
masses and to ultimately seize state power so that
the state represents the interests of the masses
and not just the interests of the settler nation as
it does now.
DOWN WITH PIG OPPRESSION!
ORGANIZE AGAINST IMPERIALISM!
WORK WITH, FINANCE AND JOIN MIM AND RAIL!
Notes: St. Louis Post Dispatch 16 April 1997 and 17
April 1997.
* * *
U.$ IMPERIALISM IN ZAIRE: AMERIKA CHANGES SIDES TO
STAY IN THE MONEY
by a MIM comrade
***As MIM Notes goes to press, President Mobutu
Sese Seko and rebellion leader Laurent Kabila have
decided to hold peace negotiations on a ship off
the coast of South Africa. The negotiations have
not begun yet.***
The five-month-old civil war in Zaire has given the
United Snakes of Imperialism an opportunity to
renounce its support for dictator Mobutu and to
make noises about supporting rebel forces. Mobutu's
regime, with U.S. support, has severely repressed
the people of this former Belgian colony since
Mobutu seized power in a CIA-sponsored coup against
the martyred Congolese revolutionary Patrice
Lumumba in 1965.(1) Laurent Kabila, a comrade of
Lumumba's, has been leading an armed struggle and
has so far taken military control of the Eastern
half of Zaire.(2)
The CIA began its relationship with Mobutu as early
as 1959 out of fear that a free African state under
Lumumba and his comrades would develop a socialist
economy and society. The more socialism advances
internationally, the more capitalism fears its own
survival. Amerika feared the Belgian Congo would
align with the Soviet Union in the Cold War.(3)
There were two possible dangers to U$ interests in
Africa. On the one hand, the Belgian Congo could
ally with social-imperialist USSR, thus presenting
an inter-imperialist threat. On the other hand,
Lumumba's government could ally with China and
build a self-sufficient socialist state -- which
would present an even bigger threat since the rest
of Africa might see that neo-colonialism was not
inevitable.
The bourgeois media spills much ink muddying the
ideological waters of political struggle in Africa
-- referring to many African wars as supposed
ethnic conflicts to obscure the differences between
oppressors and oppressed. MIM emphasizes the need
to analyze the class and national content of armed
struggles to recognize imperialist interests and
better devote our efforts to supporting struggles
which are in the genuine interests of the
international proletariat.
THE WAR AND THE REGION
Earlier in this war, U.$. Secretary of State
Madeleine Albright personally warned Uganda's
President Museveni that his country should stay out
of the war in Zaire. The U.S. State Department also
singled out Rwanda and Burundi and told them to
respect Zaire's borders.(4) The warning continued
Amerika's proud tradition of protecting Mobutu from
the will of the people. The U.S. Secret Service
has, during the terms of seven U.S. Presidents
including Klinton, protected the Mobutu regime from
being overthrown.(3)
That Mobutu now looks like a prime target for
destabilization from the other side of Zaire's
borders is ironic because of the effort his regime
has put into supporting rebellious movements in
countries bordering Zaire.(5)
Imperialist Albright only warned Zaire's neighbors
when Amerika was voicing concern over
destabilization of its puppet Mobutu. Kabila has
threatened a "bloodbath" if Amerikan soldiers
intervene on Mobutu's side of the war, and since
Albright's warning and Kabila's justified threat,
Amerika has changed its position slightly. The U.S.
government has made quiet friendly noises toward
Kabila(3) and Amerikan "miners, bankers, lawyers
and communications companies" are talking about
investing in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the
portion of Zaire which is under Kabila's
control.(6)
In the middle of April, America Mineral Fields,
Inc. signed a $1 billion contract with Kabila's
forces to explore copper and cobalt mining in the
Southern part of the Democratic Republic, to open a
zinc smelting operation and to jointly run
Gecamines with the Democratic Republic. Gecamines
has been the Mobutu-state-run mining company in
Zaire, under this new contract it will be owned 51%
by the Amerikan company and 49% by the new
government.(7)
THE ANTI-MOBUTU FORCES
If Kabila institutes any level of democracy greater
than what Mobutu has allowed, this struggle will be
a step forward for the people of Zaire. For this
reason, MIM does not outrightly condemn Kabila's
apparent friendliness towards Amerikan capital. The
principal contradiction in the world at this time
is between imperialism and the oppressed nations.
For MIM, this means that if Kabila seizing more
democratic power from the jaws of the Mobutu
dictatorship is a successful move to unclamp
Amerika's grip on Zaire, and if Kabila succeeds in
keeping more distance between himself and the U.$.
imperialists than Mobutu has, then this will be a
positive change for the country.
Some of what Kabila is doing looks pretty good. He
has made many references to Lumumba, who was
murdered by the Mobutu regime in 1961(2) and to
Lumumba's aborted revolution in the late 1950s and
early 1960s when much of Africa was going through
anti-colonial revolution. Mobutu renamed the
country "Zaire," so Kabila is calling the liberated
territory the Democratic Republic of Congo in
reference to Lumumba's revolutionary government.(6)
But we need to make the clear distinction that
Kabila is not fighting a Maoist People's War. To
whatever extent he is a genuine revolutionary, we
will continue to have criticisms of his lack of
self-reliance and lack of emphasis on building
independent institutions of the oppressed as a
means of seizing power. For all his references to
Lumumba's revolutionary struggle, Kabila has signed
a $1 billion contract with one Amerikan mining
company and already allowed a subsidiary of that
company to do hundreds of thousands of dollars in
diamond business in the first two weeks of
April.(7)
While it is difficult to be sure what Kabila's
agenda is and to what extent the masses support
him, MIM knows that the masses are opposed to the
Amerika-backed dictator Mobutu and that they dearly
wish to support the struggle for democracy in Zaire
and topple the current regime. We know this because
scientifically and historically it is true that the
oppressed prefer true democracy and mass rule over
rule over the many by the few. This is what the
U.$. capitalists are responding to when they make
nice with Kabila - and of course they don't want to
invest capital in the losing side of a war.
***MIM invites any readers with knowledge of the
situation in Zaire to contribute their analyses.
Our goal in this article with such limited
information on Kabila's politics is to encourage
anti- imperialist analysis of the situation and to
expose the U.S. role in repressing the people of
Zaire and impeding that country's democratic
development.***
NOTES:
1. Financial Times of London 24 April, 1997, p. 6.
2. Financial Times of London 16 April, 1997, p. 4.
3. Kelly, Sean, America's Tyrant: The CIA And
Mobutu Of Zaire.
4. New York Times 6 Feb. 1997, p. A10.
5. New York Times week of 20-26 April, 1997.
6. Deutsche Presse-Agentur 11 April, 1997.
7. Washington Post 17 April, 1997, p. 1.
* * *
PERUVIAN SOLDIERS STORM DIPLOMATIC RESIDENCE
by Adolfo Olaechea
It is extremely regrettable that precious people's
blood - both from the rank and file MRTA victims
(assassinated by the fascist hyena Fujimori AFTER
they had been disarmed and captured, applying their
criminal "take no prisoners" policy) and privates
of the reactionary Peruvian Armed Forces - who are
also the sons and daughters of the people - has
been shed so uselessly and predictably in a hare-
brained counter-revolutionary adventure at the
service of the class enemy in Peru.
In this adventure, and for the blood shed, the
fascist dictatorship, as WELL as those anti-
communist leaders and demagogues of the MRTA
"leadership"(among others - particularly the Church
in the person of the Opus Dei raven-priest "Bishop
Cipriani" and the craven "United Left" leaders and
the Apra party "social-democrats" and whose filthy
role in this affair we shall analyse in the days to
come) ALL bear heavy responsibility.
However, I see above that that despicable
charlatan, Isaac Velasco - the MRTA's "Spokesman
Abroad", is already blaming the people of Peru for
"having wasted an opportunity for peace" by not
"supporting the MRTA action". Would these people
ever learn? Do not those comrades who - out of
sentimental considerations - gave these people even
the time of day also bear some responsibility too
for this predictable outcome?
These are important themes that can serve the
revolutionaries to grasp well the lessons of this
fracas, and to lend their solidarity to the
Peruvian people in their courageous, complicated
and extremely acute struggle, thus contributing
effectively to make the pro-imperialist old
Peruvian state and the hyena Fujimori and his
hideous military gorillas, a thing of the past.
Down with the fascist Fujimori regime and the
butcher armed forces of the old Peruvian state!
Down with the US and other imperialist hyenas of
world reaction!
Down with the mis-leaders using naive and
idealistic youths for reactionary political
purposes!
Down with those who would deliver the people to the
fascist butchers in a silver platter!
Down with the MRTA mis-leaders and all anti-
communist cretins!
Long Live the People's War and the leadership of
the proletariat and its Communist Party in the
Peruvian revolution!
Long Live invencible Marxism-Leninism-Maoism,
Gonzalo Thought!
Long Live the Proletarian Revolutionary Military
Line of the PCP!
Long Live Chairman Gonzalo!
The People's War will be victorious, you shall
witness it!
* * *
U.$.-RAMOS REGIME BALKS AT PEACE TALKS
by a MIM comrade
The u.s.-Ramos regime derailed the peace
negotiations between it and the National Democratic
Front of the Philippines (NDFP) recently by
essentially demanding that the NDFP capitulate
before any substantive talks could begin.
Both sides had agreed to meet in mid-April in order
to "complete the work on respect for human rights
and international humanitarian law and some short
agreements on security, on socioeconomic projects,
indemnification of victims of human rights
violations and political prisoners." However, the
u.s.-Ramos regime's negotiating team arrived late
and refused to participate in substantive talks
until the NDFP agreed to ultimately submit "to the
constitutional and legal processes of the
Government of the Republic of the Philippines
(GRP)."
According to Luis Jalandoni, the Chair of the NDFP
Negotiating Panel, this new demand seeks "the
outright and immediate capitulation of the NDFP to
the political authority and jurisdiction of the GRP
even before any agreement can be concluded on the
substantive agenda of the peace negotiations...
[T]he GRP has placed another serious, if not
insurmountable, impediment to the GRP-NDFP peace
negotiations."
The NDFP is an alliance of progressive and
revolutionary forces led by the Communist Party of
the Philippines (CPP) that has fought for national
liberation and genuine democracy for more than
twenty-four years. The CPP-led New People's Army
has been waging protracted people's war against the
pro-imperialist and reactionary puppet state in the
Philippines since 1969.
The NDFP views the peace negotiations as a legal
tactic to unite middle forces and possibly even a
sector of the reactionaries in order to advance the
demand for national liberation and democracy. At
the same time, the NDFP is not willing to abandon
its revolutionary principles, nor does it expect
the GRP to give up its counter-revolutionary
principles. Unlike recent peace talks in Guatemala
and El Salvador, the NDFP refuses to lay down its
arms as a precondition for talks. In fact, the New
People's Army has expanded its mass base and its
ability to launch tactical offensives since the
start of the latest negotiations. This is in
accordance with the principle, "without a people's
army, the people have nothing."
To ensure that current peace negotiations did not
negate the NDFP's revolutionary principles, the
NDFP signed the Hague Joint Declaration and several
other documents outlining security precautions with
the u.s.-Ramos regime. "The Hague Joint Declaration
sets forth the framework of 'mutually acceptable
principles of national sovereignty, democracy and
social justice' and 'no precondition shall be
imposed by one side on the other to negate the
character and purpose of peace negotiations.' It
also stipulates the substantive agenda in the
proper sequence."
The recent demand by u.s.-Ramos regime that the
NDFP submit to the constitution of the GRP clearly
violates the Hague Joint Declaration. It also
ignores the fact that because the NDFP has won the
support of the people throughout the Philippines
(which makes the expansion of people's war
possible), the NDFP has earned the right to be
regarded as an autonomous, belligerent force. Even
the European Parliament recognizes the NDFP and
puts it on an equal footing with the GRP.
The u.s.-Ramos regime has also balked at the first
substantive heading of the talks: human rights and
international humanitarian law. The NDFP has made
its commitment in these areas clear, for example by
unilaterally declaring its adherence to the Geneva
Convention. The u.s.-Ramos regime, however, will
not even admit that thousands of people were
tortured under the Marcos dictatorship -- despite
the fact that the torture victims won a class
action suit against the Marcos estate filed in the
u.s. court system. The u.s.-Ramos regime has not
come close to admitting that its record of abuses -
- including forced relocation of more than one
million peasants and the conscious bombing of non-
combatants -- already surpasses that of the Marcos
dictatorship.
In the field, carrying out anti-feudal and anti-
imperialist revolution, and in the conference room,
carrying out principled negotiations, the NDFP has
shown that it is committed to a just and lasting
peace in the Philippines. On the other hand u.s.-
Ramos regime has shown itself to be committed to
violence and exploitation. In the field, it wages
"total war" on behalf of the u.s. imperialist, and
in the conference room, it stalls and deceives.
Sources and further reading: "According to Dee,
Ramos is Wrong," Press Statement, Jose Maria Sison,
24 April 1997.
"GRP Makes June 30, 1997 deadline impossible,"
Press Statement, 23 April 1997.
Above documents available at the CPP/NDF website --
http://www.geocities.com/~cpp-ndf
"The People's Struggle for a Just Peace: Two
Articles by Jose Maria Sison." Available from MIM,
$4.
* * *
CAPITALISM BREEDS UNREST IN ALBANIA
by MIM comrades
Armed protests in response to collapsed pyramid
savings schemes left the capitalist government in
Albania powerless throughout much of the country in
April. More than 300 Albanians were killed and 700
were wounded in the violence, during which perhaps
as many as 500,000 weapons were siezed from state
arsenals.(1) The current unrest is a direct
consequence of the fact that capitalism was
restored in Albania, which became definitively
state capitalist in 1985, and then private
capitalist in 1992. Albania had been socialist for
several decades after World War II.
Socialism provided for Albania's people better than
any other social system to date. For example,
before the Marxist-Leninist revolution in Albania,
wimmin were sold as child-brides, and only a few
hundred worked outside the home. By 1978, hundreds
of thousands of wimmin worked outside the home, and
wimmin made up one-third of the deputies in the
highest body in the government.(3)
In 1978 Albania's leadership reversed its previous
line and rejected Mao's theory that class struggle
continues under socialism. While this initial line
change may have been an honest socialist error, in
1985 Albania's formerly socialist governing party
took to the capitalist road.(4) The current pro-
capitalist government, headed by Sali Berisha, is
the ultimate result of this betrayal of the
dictatorship of the proletariat. Berisha's
government allowed the crooks behind the pyramid
schemes to walk off with the Albanian people's
money. As a result most Albanians mistrust Berisha.
The people are now are unwilling to surrender their
arms, which they see as a means of self-defense
against the government.
CAPITALIST VULTURES CIRCLE
Under the pretext of "peacekeeping," several
capitalist countries invaded Albania in mid-April.
Almost 6,000 troops from eight countries are
expected to participate in the Italian-led
operation.(1) Troops from France, Italy and Spain
have been conducting annual maneuvers for several
years preparing for military action in poorer
Mediterranean countries. They are ready and willing
to use guns to defend their borders from
immigration or expand their illegitimate interests
in the region.(2)
The foreign troops set the goal of holding
parliamentary elections by June 30th. However, Genc
Pollo, the new secretary general of the ruling
Democratic Party, announced that elections are out
of the question until rebel revolutionary
committees claiming to run many southern localities
disband and turn in their arms.(1)
Italy's principal motivation for invading Albania
is to keep immigrants out of Italy. Italy closed
its border weeks before sending troops to Albania.
Many Albanians have been fleeing the country
seeking refuge in Italy. Since they come with
little money, they are considered an undesirable
burden. Much like Amerikan nationalism -- which
opposes immigration as a drain on the fascist
rights to wealth at the expense of oppressed
nations -- Italy is preserving its wealth for its
own citizens.
The Albanian government, like all capitalist
governments, is clearly corrupt and not working in
the interests of the people. The recent protests
reflect the Albanian people's desire for a more
just society. But MIM sees no evidence that these
protests have moved beyond the initial demands that
people want back the money they lost. People
fighting for a more just society will make little
progress if they stop at the goal of a kinder
capitalist state. Instead, Albanians should learn
from the history of their country as well as that
of other former socialist countries so that the
fight against capitalism can be taken on in the
most effective way: through revolutionary anti-
imperialist struggle. Only a Maoist revolution will
overthrow capitalism in Albania and restore
socialism on the road to communism.
NOTES:
1. Washington Post, April 16, 1997. p.A20.
2. Washington Post, April 15, 1997. p.A20.
3. MIM Theory 2/3, p. 20.
4. MIM Theory 2/3, p. 4, MIM Notes 134, 15 Mar 97,
p. 4.
* * *
OBITUARY OF HARVARD ANTI-IMPERIALIST
The 1967 Nobel Prize winner in Medicine or
Physiology, George Wald died on April 12 at age 90
after 43 years of teaching at Harvard.
Wald was known to MIM predecessors as an accessible
person, one who spoke at one of the earliest
rallies to cut-off U.S. aid to the death-squad
regime in El Salvador in 1981.
Prior to MIM's knowledge of Wald, he was known for
opposing the Vietnam War and the arms race. He made
it on Nixon's "enemies list" and said "'there is
nothing worth having that can be obtained by
nuclear war.'"
Also attempting to fulfill internationalist duties,
he went to Iran during the hostage crisis of 1980
against the dictates of the U.S. government. Thus
at a time of frenzied Amerikan chauvinism, Wald
stood tall and brought his fame to bear on the
issue.
In 1981, Wald said at a rally organized partly by
MIM predecessors that he was encouraged by the
speed with which students reacted to the escalating
U.S. intervention in El Salvador. He said it had
taken years longer to organize such opposition to
the Vietnam War and said he was hopeful that the
intervention in El Salvador would be stopped much
more quickly this time.
It was a thrill to hear a man in his 70s continue
the spirit that motivated the anti-War movement of
the 1960s.
NOTE: Harvard Gazette 17 April 1997.
* * *
HISTORICAL ORIGINS OF A PSEUDO-FEMINIST LEGAL
THEORY SEEP OUT
A Moroccan man has spent five years in prison for a
crime the alleged rape victim never claimed in
court. A fifteen inch Boston Globe story oozing
with paternalism and lynch-mob sentiments finally
revealed this fact four inches from the bottom of
the story.(1) Massachusetts Attorney General Scott
M. Harshbarger found this case worthy of creating a
legal precedent in 1994 that used state civil
rights law to bar men from harassing wimmin.
Harshbarger intends to run for governor on the
Democratic ticket. He has run for office before and
has a solid "progressive" record of going after the
tobacco industry, white-collar crime and
malfeasance and favoring the creation of a
progressive income tax and a tax cut for people on
the bottom. Pseudo-feminism is a weak spot for most
white progressives found getting on board with the
lynch-mob.
Harshbarger has proved to be popular among the
people leaving Governor Weld's camp, since Weld is
leaving to become Ambassador to Mexico. According
to recent polls, Harshbarger is a better candidate
against future Republicans than Congressperson Joe
Kennedy. Harshbarger just pulled into a dead heat
with Kennedy and he has always known how to make
good headlines for himself. He points out, "I've
always been perceived as the underdog -- I was 40
points behind in 1990."(2) With the polls on his
mind, what better way to move ahead than to take
advantage of an immigrant who can't even vote while
consolidating both the fascist anti-crime movement
and the "wimmin's vote"?(3)
It's not enough for the Boston Globe that the
immigrant Aboulaz is subject to deportation and
that the United $tates is number one in the world
in imprisonment per capita: the Globe wants
Aboulaz behind bars, so it goes on at length
quoting the alleged victim. There are no direct
quotes from either Aboulaz or his attorney. There
are four lines in the whole story paraphrasing
Aboulaz's side of the story, and those four lines
are not attributed (which is fine if the Boston
Globe itself is the source having witnessed the
trial, but if that is the case, again we suspect
the selection of quotes.) Apparently Aboulaz
claimed the alleged victim was trying to discredit
him for revealing that she was trying to hire a
hit-man to kill her father who abused her. Her
psychiatric records apparently backed his story up
enough that the jury let him off for three counts
of rape while convicting him of attempted anal
rape.
It was up to a Black district attorney Ralph C.
Martin to concur that somehow lawyers, judge and
jury convicted Aboulaz for attempted anal rape,
when not even the alleged victim mentioned that in
court. The closing argument of the prosecutor was
the main mention of the charge in the whole trial -
- that's when it is impossible to go over a charge
in detail, because it's the last word of the trial!
It's a very slimy prosecutor tactic to wait till
the end.
Even the quotes from the victim are revealing. She
says she is afraid of this man who was her
boyfriend. The story is titled, "Overturned
attempted-rape conviction revives woman's fear."
The usual pattern of the lynchmob media is to print
such fears repeatedly as a justification for lynch-
mob justice and everything else is a "technicality"
-- including the alleged victim's own testimony in
this case. This delivers the message to wimmin that
they should play a role and they will be supported
for doing so.
Fascists and pseudo-feminists alike agree that it
is incorrect to question the victim's account, but
in that case, MIM would like to know who is the
victim here! The court system is based on the idea
that criminals should be punished and left to rot
in prison. Hence, the idea is supposed to be that
if there is a "reasonable doubt," then we should
not use this extreme form of punishment -- that
according to the justice system itself. How can a
reasonable doubt be formed if the individual
victim's version is not questioned? If victims are
going to go to the court system for justice instead
of working for revolution, then they should not be
hypocritical and should accept that their version
should be questioned.
Alternatively, people should work for revolution,
but not so that their individual cases can be
"validated" without scrutiny. Too many
organizations already exist to boost so-called
self-esteem. They should be called mutual
opportunism societies. In contrast, acting for
revolution may appear selfless, but people who know
they have faced oppression will at least be
improving their own lives if they succeed in making
revolution -- because revolution actually works in
mitigating oppression while the case-by-case crime
approach to social change only makes matters worse.
The people need to resolve individual cases when it
involves a contradiction with the enemy, including
the state. The state charges against the Black
Panthers were a case in point. In those cases, the
Party and the people are going to get involved in
the details. The Party and the people are also
going to get involved in deportation cases and
opposing various chauvinist and anti-communist
winds that the state takes advantage of.
Of course, if Party members are witnesses to crime,
the Party will also take action. From time to time,
the Party may even charge the bourgeoisie with
crimes or civil injustices in its own courts -- in
accordance with Mao's theory that we in the
imperialist countries must engage in "long, legal
struggles" until the government collapses.
It is in rape and harassment cases in particular
where the case is often based on one person's word
or interpretation versus another's. If they can be
investigated, the Party will investigate them as a
matter of justice, not as a matter of being able to
stop future such crimes within this rotten system.
However, if circumstantial evidence creates
"reasonable" doubt, or if the case remains at the
level of one person's word against another's, MIM
is not going to out-fascist the fascists on crimes
among the people, because fascism and this system
have proved themselves incapable of stopping crime
anyway.
We take responsibility for saying our lack of
belief in the system means that we will concur with
defense attorneys in their tactics for raising
"reasonable doubt." The newspapers reported Tyson
went around the day of the alleged rape of beauty
queen Desiree Washington and literally and publicly
asked many wimmin to fuck him that night, including
the alleged victim. If that is true, just as a
hypothetical, then that would be evidence that
Tyson indeed asked consent. Being afraid of Tyson's
crude language and his being heavyweight champion
at the time are no reason to put him in prison. The
same is true in the Aboulaz case. Fear is not a
reason to put someone in prison. Such fears become
self-evident in cases like Aboulaz's where everyone
seems to have gone along with a conviction without
questioning it even in the most superficial way.
This is not surprising considering that in
practice, a vast majority of Amerikans in polls
claim to support "guilty till proven innocent."
In feudal Europe, the word of an aristocrat was
enough to have a peasant legally punished. Today
the same reactionary ideas provide the basis for a
fascist movement. Whatever a white person says
should be good enough to imprison someone these
fascists say.
Likewise for some pseudo-feminists, they believe a
womyn's words should be enough to convict. The
beliefs of this type of pseudo-feminist can be
brought to the surface with a simple question:
"What circumstantial evidence would you accept as
proving innocence in a case of a man's word against
a womyn's on rape?" The pseudo-feminist will answer
none, because s/he will refuse to "sell out" the
womyn's individual account -- oddly enough while
these same pseudo-feminists are liable to deny that
there is systematic group oppression in need of
radical change. (See MT2/3 for more details on this
question including the statistical nature of rape
accusations.) Before advocating that we live in a
society like that, the pseudo-feminists should
advocate strict separation of the sexes, because if
policing of the sort the pseudo-feminists want is
necessary, then separation would be more just.
Harshbarger had no problem going after Aboulaz, but
lest pseudo-feminists think MIM is exaggerating
that it is who is doing the accusing and not what
the accusation is or its merits, MIM also puts
forward the following testimony from Stephen
Donaldson:
"And while I'm on that Supreme Court case, I must
note that the Commonwealth filed an amicus brief
also. To Attorney-General Scott Harshbarger: shame
on you! You put the name of the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts on an argument that prison officials
cannot be held responsible for failure to protect
their charges unless the prisoner can prove an
intent on their part to injure him in particular.
The Commonwealth is thus on the record as believing
that if a guard watches a rape take place in front
of his eyes and does absolutely nothing to stop it,
he should not be liable under the law. It is just
such attitudes that allow rape to infest your
prisons. Mr. Harshbarger, you have brought shame,
shame, shame to Massachusetts."(4)
In other words, according to Harshbarger, prisoners
can be raped without even the recourse of suing the
witnessing guard while Moroccan men can be put in
prison and have other restrictions on their rights
through criminal court procedures when there were
no witnesses. For this reason, according to a
bourgeois definition of rape involving use of
physical force, more biological men are raped each
year than wimmin thanks to the fact that 290,000
men are raped in prison each year.(4) Once again,
we ask the pseudo-feminists, whose sexuality was
appropriated, that of the Aboulazs of the world or
that of the unnamed "Laura"s of the world
protected, sympathized and paternalized by the
likes of the Boston Globe?
To MIM it is clear that a real feminist line is
that the Third World biological men are turned into
wimmin by the court system and the rest of the
imperialist patriarchy while the system is set up
for imperialist country biological wimmin to
oppress.
To Aboulaz we say, we don't have the evidence on
your case. In all interactions, men should question
their own attitude toward and cultural
understanding of wimmin. We oppose your being
deported, but at the same time, you may have
overestimated the fairness of this country and its
romance culture. It was not ready for you in any
case, whether you were guilty or not.
NOTES:
1. Boston Globe 29 April 1997, p. B2.
2. Boston Globe 1 May 1997, p. B1.
3. For some more material on Harshbarger and
wimmin, see
http://www.magnet.state.ma.us/ag/ago125.htm. Child
support is also enforced above average in
Massachusetts.
4. Stephen Donaldson of Stop Prisoner Rape,
http://www.spr.org/docs/testimony.html. Also (213)
257-6164
* * *
SE MICHIGAN TURNS OUT TO SUPPORT PRISONERS AND
LEARN ABOUT CIA
ANN ARBOR, MI, 22 April, 1997 -- Throughout the
day, many stopped and donated literature to a MIM
and RAIL-organized book drive to aid MIM's Free
Books for Prisoners Program and build further
support for the struggles of prisoners in Amerika's
gulags. We accumulated over 100 books even though
at least three charity organizations were also
collecting books. Though charity work is more
appealing to many, MIM's programs serve the needs
of the oppressed while building independent and
self-reliant institutions of the oppressed.
Some conservatives donated books and cash to our
program after being convinced of MIM's and RAIL's
arguments about national oppression and the
disproportionate numbers of oppressed nationals in
prison. Anti-imperialist students dropped off books
and thanked activists for developing a program to
meet the needs of prisoners and build toward a
deeper development of revolutionary organization.
Many students participating in Earth Day activities
stopped by our table to talk about the relation
between environmentalism and prisoner struggles.
Comrades explained that we weren't out there to
celebrate Earth Day, but that genuine
environmentalists must support the just struggles
of the masses to achieve national liberation,
socialist development and control of their own land
for food and sound agricultural development.
One environmentalist who donated books said that he
was more interested in promoting the idea that
humans cannot control the earth and that the earth
is not human property. As we talked about the
struggles of Indigenous peoples to fight multi-
national mining and logging corporations, we found
some points of unity. But the environmentalist
student could not grasp that respect for the earth
and its resources will only come from people
building a better society. Under socialism, people
will plan for land use and development according to
long-term needs and the understanding that we must
sustain resources if we want to continue to draw on
them. Such thought and planning will certainly not
happen if the imperialists maintain control over
oppressed nation territory.
The next day, at RAIL's largest event this
semester, a good size crowd turned out to see
"Guns, Drugs and the CIA" and to discuss the nature
of the Amerikan government and its agencies. Some
people were surprised to hear that many on the left
do not recognize the existence of separate nations
within the United Snakes. It was obvious to
participants in the discussion that only the white
nation's interests are represented in the Amerikan
government. Most people who stayed to talk agreed
that the instances of the Amerikan government using
gun and drug trade to prop up repressive
governments in the Third World is only one example
of systematic imperialist abuse of Third World
peoples' autonomy.
One older person said that he had exposure of CIA
imperialist tactics and rhetoric similar to MIM's
and RAIL's in the 1970s. But the younger people in
the audience were more interested in studying the
successes and failures of now-defunct left
organizations to develop a successful path forward,
than in nostalgia and gossip. RAIL was happy for
the chance to rebut one backward-thinking
individual in front of an audience of young
activists. We want people to do more than learn
about imperialist oppression in theory, we want
people to organize and actively oppose the
atrocities.
Many participants stressed the importance of
newspapers to spread the truth and to control the
spin on the news. RAIL and MIM agree with this as a
priority. Inside the belly of the beast at this
time, it is not appropriate to take up arms against
the Amerikan government. This is our time to
constantly increase our level of support for
national liberation and socialism. We need people
who are willing to forego dramatic attacks on the
state and do the less romantic work of building an
organization to fight successive winnable battles.
MIM Notes was our first regular independent
institution of the oppressed. This newspaper allows
us to reach prisoners and people in places where we
are not organizing in person. It is the means
through which we can publicize the atrocities of
imperialism and the youth at the event realized the
importance of this and vowed to work to expand our
distribution.
MIM and RAIL are working to build the same level of
support we have seen for exposure of the CIA's
crimes for the righteous struggle of the Filipino
masses against the U.S.-Ramos regime. Earlier this
year, MIM and RAIL sponsored a series of events on
the New Democratic struggle in the Philippines.
These events were not nearly as well supported as
our more recent work in support of prisoners in the
U.$. and in opposition to the Amerikan spy agencies
FBI and CIA.
Many who MIM Notes distributors talk with don't
know where the Philippines is, or that Amerika has
dominated the Filipino government, society and
culture to the point that schoolchildren in the
Philippines have been forced to sing the Star-
Spangled Banner. Many people who do understand the
history of U.$. hegemony prefer reformist
organizing like collecting books to send to people
in Nicaragua. Others ignore Amerikan-imposed
suffering in the Third World and choose to support
labor aristocracy struggles like that of the
Detroit Newspaper strikers at the expense of
supporting internationalism.
MIM and RAIL will continue our organizing efforts
in support of the just struggles of the oppressed.
We pledge to continue our work on those anti-
imperialist struggles which are closest to
Amerikans -- those in support of prisoners and in
opposition to United Snakes law enforcement. We
further pledge to tirelessly struggle to elevate
the Amerikan masses' understanding of the
undeniable chains binding the struggles of
prisoners and oppressed nations in the U.$. to
national liberation struggles in the Third World.
***See MIM's website for updated information on the
education events which MIM and RAIL organize in our
campaigns to build support for national liberation
of the oppressed nations and to build opposition to
imperialism.***
* * *
UNDER LOCK AND KEY: NEWS FROM PRISONERS AND PRISONS
PRISON BRIEFS
MIM IS IN!
MN APPROVED IN FLORIDA
Dear MIM, I have gone through the proper channels
to have MIM Notes approved to be sent to me. Until
this point, about two MIM Notes newspapers have
been sent back. But please be enlightened to the
fact that they have now been approved.
-- A Florida Prisoner, 24 Feb. 97
PELICAN BAY VICTORY STILL STANDS
***Pelican Bay State Prison has censored MIM Notes
for the past several months. Through prisoners'
dedication and lawsuits Pelican Bay officials have
reversed their censorship policy. Many prisoners
from Pelican Bay have renewed contact with MIM
after being censored for so long. For more details
check out ULK in MIM Notes 133.***
Esteemed comrades in Struggle, I am forwarding this
missive to inform you that MIM Notes has been
passing censorship and arriving as intended. ....
Remain resolute in your just endeavors and please
continue forwarding me the inspiration of
engagement as contained in MIM Notes.
-- A California Prisoner, 12 Mar 97
NO LIBRARY IN THE GULAG
Dear MIM, ...There would be no possible way to get
the library here to purchases a subscription, as we
don't have one. Although this is a maximum security
institution, budget cuts took away our leisure
library. They are making an attempt to take away
the law library as well. I will share what copies
that I have....
-- A Florida Prisoner, 11 Mar. 97
PACKIN' THE PRISONS
DOUBLE CELLING: TWO FOR THE PRICE OF ONE
Dear Comrade, ...I just came from the card room,
and one of the card rooms was taken for double
bunking. We have two hundred and fifty prisoners
jammed into a unit that was built for one hundred
and eighty prisoners.
-- A Michigan Prisoner, 7 Mar 97
SETTING UP TENTS IN KANSAS
Dear MIM, ...Your paper was received by other
brothers in the struggle for "justice", with praise
and enthusiasm. Here in El Dorado Supermax Facility
we are constantly being bombarded with new
regulations that eradicate us of what little
personal freedom we do have. It's bad enough that
we are locked down 24 hours a day without them
imposing excessive restrictive sanctions against
us.
By July of this year tents will be erected in an
endeavor to house the overflowing population until
the legislation acquires their approval of over 121
million dollars to build and expand new facilities.
These facilities will be built by prison laborers
receiving 60 cents a day. If the money isn't going
into the labor to build the facilities, then whose
pockets are being fattened?
-- Two Kansas Prisoners, 16 Mar. 97
PAYING FOR MEDICAL CARE
MICHIGAN MEDICAL COSTS
We printed a letter in MIM Notes 130 from a New
Jersey prisoner talking about how prisoners are
required to pay for medical care. As of early this
year, Michigan prisoners are required to pay for
all non-emergency medical and dental care. When
Public Act 234, which requires this payment, was
proposed as a bill, a fee of $3 or $4 per medical
visit was suggested. For prisoners working for 45
cents/day (which is the average at Ionia) that's
between 6 and 9 days' pay to get one
prescription.(Source for the bill: Battle Creek
Times 30 March, 1996. Source for the law is the
state government)
ARIZONA MEDICAL PROBLEMS
...We do have an ongoing problem with being able to
obtain Medical care. We are being charged now $3.00
per visit and the care is on a constant decline.
You are charged more than one time for the same
problem,
In order to get proper care you need to file an
action in the courts. Then and only then will they
deal with the problem....
-- An Arizona Prisoner, 4 Dec. 97
FEDS BREAK UP THE FAMILY
Dear Friends in the Struggle, ...I noticed that you
concentrate mainly on prisoners in state prisons.
I'm sure you're aware that prisoners are struggling
in federal prisons as well and if you are receiving
any letters from them I'd hope you'd print them.
I am a federal prisoner doing time at Federal
Correctional Institution (FCI) McKean. The Warden,
John Hahn, decided that is wasn't necessary to have
a children's play room inside the visiting room so
he locked it up. He said, "We are not babysitters
here." In essence what he is attempting to do is
break apart the family unit. You see, because if
the children can't sit still then the entire visit
shall be terminated!
At this moment one of my fellow inmates has filed
action in US District Court in attempts to stop the
Warden from being permitted to keep the children's
room closed permanently. I will keep you informed
of the outcome of our misfortunate situation at
hand.
My heart goes out to all my fellow inmates in look-
down who are fighting for our rights.
In Struggle,
-- An FCI McKean Inmate, 11 Mar 97
MIM RESPONDS: Thank you for the information and
your insight about lack of child care at FCI
McKean. Please keep us apprised of the situation..
In answer to your comment about MIM's focus on
state prisoners, there are a few reasons why one
might think Under Lock & Key focuses on state
prisoners more than federal prisoners. One reason
is that often prisoners from Federal Prisons don't
mention it in the letter, and (as a rule) MIM only
identifies prisoners by state, for security
purposes. Thus a person identified as a Ohio
prisoner, may actually be a federal prisoner in
Ohio. So ULK may be representing more federal
prisoners than you think.
Since there are less federal prisons than state
prisons in the U$A, numbers alone would provide
more letters by state prisoners. Another factor
involved is that many Federal Prisons have been
blanket censoring MIM Notes. Unfortunately this
means that MIM Notes is not reaching many federal
prisoners and thus less are writing to Under Lock
and Key.
For MIM, all prisoners are political prisoners,
whether state or federal prisoners. It is our aim
that Under Lock and Key represent all those behind
bars in the United Snakes and to work for the end
of their oppression.
SOUTH CAROLINA'S OPPRESSION OF FIVE PERCENTERS
Peace Brothers and Sisters, ...I would like to use
my time to speak on a situation that's been going
on since April 95. At one institution in South
Carolina was a riot because of a new "grooming
policy", in which the inmate had to cut their
beards, goatees, dreadlocks, afros , box style
haircuts. This policy is statewide but at this one
institution several inmates took hostages. Later
they found out that these inmates were Five
Percenters (Considered an off-branch from the
Nation of Islam).
The director of South Carolina Department of
Corruptions (SCDC), Michael Moore, has it now,
whereas anyone associated with or has any Five
Percent literature is to be placed on
administrative segregation until they denounce
their association with the Five Percent.
He is also trying to get the Five Percenters
categorized as a "security threat group" just like
these Latino brothers at Walpole in Massachusetts.
There are still some brothers on the yard who have
yet to be identified, but the clock is ticking.
Legal action is in the process. The ACLU of
Atlanta, Georgia is helping out. Several of the
inmates got there families to get lawyers to help.
Even still, we need as much help as we can get.
Power comes in numbers, right?...
Peace and Blessings!
-- A South Carolina Prisoner, 18 Dec. 96
Peace MIM, ...Governor David Beasley has hired a
racist pig by the name of Michael Moore, who is
from Texas to run SCDC (South Carolina Department
of Corrections). Director Moore, on April 28, 1995
ordered an attack on the Nation of Gods & Earths
known as the 5% Nation of Islam. He placed 301
inmates on lock-down, he ordered all 5% literature
to be taken and classified it as contraband. He has
banned any 5% literature that is sent through the
mail. He has also banned some religious and
political books.
Mr. Moore has told the public through the newspaper
and the TV news, that we are a gang who has
attacked staff and who mobs white inmates, but yet
he has not proven this or has any of us been
charged or brought in front of a judge. He has
labeled us a security threat group and placed us on
(ML5) which is a custody that keeps us on lock-down
for security reasons.
He has forced 254 inmates to sign papers denouncing
any affiliation with the 5%ers. If you refuse to
sign those papers you'll remain on lock-down
indefinitely. 47 of us have filed a lawsuit with
the Southern Center for Human Rights. Our attorney
is Robert Bensing. The state SCDC has failed to
show any burden of proof that we committed any
crime, but yet the judge is dragging his feet,
prolonging the due process of the law. While we
remain on lock-down.
Each time we go to classification we are turned
down and kept in ML5. Some of us are not even being
called for reclassification. Some of us have been
shipped from Institution to Institution every other
six or seven months. Some of our visitors have been
turned away. Some of our phone calls are being cut
off. Who knows, they might even be reading our
personal mail. At this plantation they are trying
so hard to keep us form the outside world and our
families that we are not allowed to receive
pictures of our families or anybody.
Political prisoners in the struggle,
-- Another South Carolina Prisoner, 8 Jan. 97
ANTI-PRISONER LEGISLATION IN MICHIGAN
...The Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC)
and state policy makers coming out with a plan to
have prisoners pay for electricity if they own any
type of electrical appliance.
According to the Chronicle Lansing Bureau by Sara
Scott, Saturday, December 7, 1996, "lawmakers
believe Michigan will save millions of dollars by
curbing inmates' rights."
There is a package of oppressive... bills being
presented and (possibly) implemented to cause
prisoners in the death kkkamps of michigan, more
harm and stress. One of the package issues on the
agenda is to stop prisoners form receiving sexually
orientated magazines and such materials and legal
fees.
According to Senator Phillip Hoffman, R-Horton,
this is a good thing. This racist pig says, "For so
long, liberal judges have been giving prisoners
more and more. But when is enough, enough?" Pig
Hoffman's co-partner in oppression, Senator William
Van Regenorter agrees and has endorsed that
prisoners pay for their legal fees in order to file
into the courts. He claims that prisoners file too
many frivolous lawsuits, but he doesn't mention
that prisoners file suits because they can find no
other recourse for the injustices prisoncrats place
upon them. [He also excludes] that the mdoc's
grievance procedure is not worth wiping your ass
with. And if one looks at all the suits filed by
prisoners one would see that the complaints are
legitimate. Because the courts are anti-prisoner,
they routinely side with the prisoncrats.
In the Muskegon Chronicle it is reported that
governor (shit-head) engler has endorsed the
building (of what he terms) a "punk prison" to
incarcerate youthful offenders. Plans are in the
making to build a 480 bed maximum security facility
near Baldwin, Michigan....
Michigan lawbreakers have voted earlier this year
(1996) to have a private company build and operate
the prison. Then, accordingly, the date would lease
beds back from that company. (An obscene waste of
taxpayers money.) The Michigan Correction Officers
(MCO) union president, Fred (greedy-ass) Parks,
says he will try to recruit private employees.
Naturally he wants to do this because it brings
more money into their coffers and makes him even
more powerful in the process of dictating what
oppressive tactics will be used on prisoners.
Also in the makings was a memo that come out
directing all state Corrections Department
officials (from the director of the mdoc, Kenneth
McGinnis) not to speak to any lawbreakers in the
Legislature agency. This memo dated December 3,
obtained by the Associated Press tells managers in
the department's field operations division to make
sure that neither they nor their staff give any
have any direct contact with lawbreakers,
legislative staff or analysis at the House and
Senate Fiscal Agencies "Without specific
authorization from the director, (department
legislative liaison) Dick McKeon or myself."
All of the above shows the growing need for the
people to take serious notice and get involved in
ensuring prisoners are not being dogged out. It is
a fact that many of the incarcerated will be coming
back into society one day and if they have been
dogged-out by prisoncrats and lawbreaker policies
for a number of years it will only be a matter of
time before that ex-prisoner explodes his/her rage
on someone not deserving of it.
PPWVC [Political Prisoners Of War Vanguard
Coalition] is committed to exposing the actions and
secret plans of prisoncrats and lawbreaker
oppression. But we can not do it alone. We need the
support and voices of the people in order to insure
justice. We need to make all of our voices heard
and come together with a viable plan to defeat all
the schemes aimed at oppressive actions lodged
against those of us who are defenseless and without
power....
In the trenches,
-- A PPWVC, Michigan Prisoner, 20 Dec 97
IN HONOR OF PRISONER LABOR:
RAIL CELEBRATES MAY DAY
ANN ARBOR, MI, -- In celebration of International
Workers' Day, the Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist
League held an educational event on the conditions
of prisoners laboring in Michigan's gulags. RAIL
works from MIM's line that the Black nation within
U.S. borders is a nation separate from, and
oppressed by, the white Amerikan nation.
RAIL chose to honor Michigan's prisoner laborers on
May Day because prisoners are one of the main
genuinely oppressed groups of workers in Michigan.
Unfortunately, because so much of Michigan's
population (and the people of the United Snakes
generally) cannot relate to prisoners or to genuine
oppression, not many showed to talk to RAIL about
working conditions in prisons or about organizing
in support of prisoners.
Discussion at the event centered on what activists
who are not in prison in Michigan and in the U.$.
generally should do to organize around prisons
issues. RAIL already does work with MIM's Free
Books for Prisoners program - sending books to
prisoners who cannot afford them, corresponding
with prisoners, working on the Under Lock & Key
section of MIM Notes, and organizing petitions and
rallies around local and regional prison struggles.
RAIL organizes Amerikans to give freely of the
resources they have -- books, money, time -- as
benefits of living in the wealthiest country on the
planet. We would like to see Amerikans donate some
of their ill-earned wealth to the cause of
developing institutions and a society in which
wealth is distributed evenly among the masses
rather than horded by a privileged few.
One activist at the event suggested that we should
share information with Amnesty International to
help convince that organization to change its
charter and allow chapters to work on prisons
issues within their own countries. (To avoid
government harassment, Amnesty only works on
international issues -- so activists in Europe can
work on U.S. prisons injustice, and activists in
the U.$. can work on China.) RAIL agrees that
activists should be able to organize around
conditions within their own countries, and sees
this as an important responsibility because we are
best able to collect information and respond to
conditions where we live. RAIL welcomes the
opportunity to share information on Amerikan
prisons with Amnesty members, to help them and
their organization understand the importance of
organizing locally and regionally as well as
globally.
A factsheet and the presentation pointed out that
while Blacks are less than 14% of Michigan's total
population, they are a whopping 59% of Michigan
prisoners. When we couple this statistic with the
Michigan Department of Korrections admission that
"we don't know whether prisons rehabilitate people"
it is clear that the state uses prisons as a means
of locking up the Black nation for no good reason.
The MDOK Information Kit goes on to say that
"retribution has its place too. ... there must be a
way to extract 'just desserts' and often, prison is
that way." Combine this rationale for prisons with
the fact that prisoners in Michigan earn as little
as 24 cents an hour for unskilled factory labor,
while Michigan State Industries (MSI--Michigan's
prison enterprise) netted $973,997,000 in 1991-92
and we see that the state will happily use
prisoners as slave labor for a profit.
Sources: Michigan Department of Corrections
Statistical Report for 1992, Michigan Department of
Corrections Information Kit (formerly the MDOC
Speakers' Kit) for 1989, Michigan Department of
Corrections Statistical Report for 1994. Injustice
Line http://home.earthlink.net/~ynot/
***WHAT NON-PRISONERS CAN DO TO SUPPORT
PRISONERS***
*1. Struggle with, work with, finance and join MIM.
The best way to support prisoners is to overthrow
the system under which capitalists profit from the
exploitation of prisoners. History shows that the
best way to do this is to build a Marxist-Leninist-
Maoist party. The oppressors will not give up their
power without a fight.
*2. Finance MIM's prison work. Our biggest bill
each month is postage. Most of the prison comrades
who read MIM Notes have no way of paying for it. So
if you have money, send what you can afford. Every
cent helps, and stamps are as good as cash to us.
*3. Distribute MIM Notes and Notas Rojas. Bring the
voices of prisoners and their supporters to as
large and wide an audience of people as possible.
Contact MIM for bulk rates and distribution tips.
*4. Start or join a prison support group. MIM can
provide advice and resources to help you build
public opinion for prisoners and their struggles.
*5. Fight censorship, beatings, torture and other
fascist outrages. Under Lock and Key often features
the addresses of prisoners' friends and enemies.
Work with the friends and let the enemies know
you're watching. (Don't expect to win the fascists
to the side of humanity, however. See #1 in this
list).
*6. Stay in touch. Keep us informed of pro-prisoner
work you do. Our readers might find it educational
or inspirational.
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