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

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

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         THE MAOIST INTERNATIONALIST MOVEMENT

  MIM Notes 164  PART I           June 15, 1998


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.  INDONESIA: SHAM REFORMS IN THE FACE IF CRISIS AND MASS 
    STRUGGLE
2.  UCLA STUDENTS DENOUNCE PROP. 209 & CHAUVINIST CHANCELLOR
3.  LETTERS
4.  FORMER BLACK PANTHER PARTY MINISTER OF INFORMATION 
    ELDRIDGE CLEAVER DIES
5.  FIGHT FASCISM: ORGANIZE AGAINST PRISONS
6.  MORAIL AND NBUF HOST FIRST NATION DELEGATION
7.  SERVE THE PEOPLE: BUILDING ASIAN-DESCENDED NATIONALISM
8.  SENTENCE IS DEATH FOR STANDING NEAR PICKUP TRUCK
9.  BOGUS IRISH REFERENDUM:
    IMPERIALIST-BROKERED PEACE DEALS NEVER MEAN PEACE
10. PRISONS USED TO CRACK DOWN ON ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS
11. IN SUPPORT OF THE INDONESIAN PEOPLE'S JUST STRUGGLE FOR 
    SOCIAL AND NATIONAL LIBERATION
12. NEW YORK WAGES WAR IN SCHENECTADY
13. UNDER LOCK & KEY: NEWS FROMS PRISONS AND PRISONERS


* * *


WHAT IS MIM?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


* * *


INDONESIA: SHAM REFORMS IN THE FACE IF CRISIS AND MASS 
STRUGGLE

by MC17

The tremendous outrage of a people facing the devastation of 
capitalist economic crisis and imperialist supported 
military dictatorship forced former Indonesian head dictator 
Suharto's resignation in late May. However, the imperialist 
puppet government is still in place. B.J. Habibie, a close 
friend and protege of Suharto, assumed the presidency of 
Indonesia after Suharto was forced to step down in the face 
of widespread public protest and a potential overthrow of 
the entire government and military. The quick switch of 
figureheads may temporarily save the comprador government 
from total overthrow in the absence of strong and 
revolutionary leadership of the people.

Shortly after assuming power, Habibie said that he would be 
only a transitional figure and would hold an election before 
his term expires in 2003. That right there could give the 
government and the military almost 5 years to recover their 
firm grip on the country. After 32 years under the 
dictatorship of Suharto, with the imperialist puppet 
government and military controlling every aspect of the 
economy and political life in Indonesia, change will require 
more than a new name in charge. In fact, Habibie is an old 
friend of Suharto who served as Cabinet minister for 20 
years and was an integral part of a corrupt and repressive 
regime, not only as a Suharto protege but as an official 
whose family and close relatives themselves control or 
partly own 80 enterprises, according to the Jakarta Post.(1)

In a long and detailed speech televised Monday, Habibie 
called for widespread reforms of the economic, political and 
judicial system. But this lip service, although necessary in 
the aftermath of widespread uprisings and protests against 
the existing system, promises nothing more than pretty 
words. Suharto along with his six rich and powerful 
children, remain in Jakarta. By taking over much of the 
country's economy for themselves -- from banks to power 
plants to toll roads to automobile factories to agricultural 
cartels -- Suharto and his children accumulated as much as 
$40 billion by some estimates. Earlier this year, Forbes 
magazine put Suharto's personal wealth at $16 billion, 
making him the world's sixth richest man. It estimated that 
his children are worth another $14 billion.(2) Habibie's 
family and those of other government and military officials 
have enjoyed similar privileges.

Minor reforms not major changes

The Indonesian military-political dictatorship is walking a 
fine line, retaining the wealth and power while appearing to 
implement reforms to keep the people pacified. The armed 
forces announced that a preliminary investigation into the 
shooting deaths of six student demonstrators at Trisakti 
University revealed that eight soldiers were involved in the 
shooting and that six officers are "suspected of supporting 
the incident."(3) 

This statement should strike any reasonable person as 
ridiculous given that the Indonesian military has imprisoned 
and killed opponents of the dictatorship for 32 years under 
Suharto's rule. The shooting of six student demonstrators 
was not an error on the part of a few soldiers, it was the 
result of a systematic policy of military repression. Those 
soldiers were doing a good job of carrying out the orders 
and the will of their leaders. If a few individuals take the 
fall for the military dictatorship this will only confirm 
the military-government's fear of the people's strong desire 
for justice. They hope that by throwing the people a few 
reforms the military dictatorship will be able to go on 
pretty much unchanged.

The government is making other small changes in an attempt 
to prevent future popular uprising and ensure their future 
in power. Habibie and his armed forces chief, Gen. Wiranto, 
have both asked their family members to resign from 
positions gained through nepotism. Ending nepotism was a key 
demand of the student protesters.(4) The new government also 
claims to be investigating the Suharto family wealth but few 
in power have an interest in any move against Suharto that 
might also threaten their own financial and political 
standing. In fact, Gen. Wiranto stated, "the military will 
protect all former mandated presidents, including Mr. 
Suharto and family."(16)

On May 26th the government announced that it would begin 
releasing political prisoners on a case-by-case basis, 
releasing first those it considers least threatening. The 
fact that the current government still has something to fear 
from political activists reveals the lack of fundamental 
change.

The first two released were a former parliamentarian, Sri 
Bintang Pamungkas, who was jailed in 1996 for insulting the 
then President Suharto in a speech, and labor organizer 
Muchtar Pakpahan, who was sentenced to four years in prisons 
in 1994 for inciting workers and charged under the anti-
subversion law.(5)

"It's just a trick, just to release those who are not 
considered dangerous, for insulting Suharto," said Gustaf 
Dupe, 61, a leader of a prisoners aid group. He was 
sentenced to four years in prison in 1967 as a communist 
sympathizer.(5) 

Justice Minister Muladi specifically excluded the one dozen 
activists of the People's Democracy Party who received heavy 
sentences for setting up an unrecognized political party, 
calling for a multi-party political system. Muladi said they 
could not be released because they were 'communists' and had 
violated the Constitution. The Justice Minister has also 
said that thirteen men convicted in the late 1960s for their 
alleged involvement in events in Jakarta in October 1965 
which brought Suharto to power would not be released. Some 
were members of the Communist Party which was outlawed by 
Suharto while others were members of the Indonesian army.(6)

The change in dictators in Indonesia is not without 
potential benefit for the people even if this is all the 
protests accomplish. The increased freedom of the press may 
make it easier for the long repressed communist movement to 
organize. Mainstream newspapers are now able to report on 
the Suharto family wealth and even criticize the president's 
speech, something that never would have been allowed in the 
past.(7) This freedom for the mainstream media may translate 
into an opportunity for the people's movements to organize 
more openly as well. The change in figure heads and the 
scrutiny of the world may also give the people of East Timor 
a greater opportunity to advance their fight for freedom 
from Indonesian occupation.

U.$. financial and military support

The united snakes aided Suharto in his 1965 coup against the 
Sukarno government. During the coup the military killed 
hundreds of thousands of activists including a large portion 
of the Indonesian communist party which was decimated by the 
massacres after gaining significant strength and numbers in 
the 1960s. 

Habibie's pronouncements about planned reforms came the day 
before a team from the International Monetary Fund was due 
to Indonesia to begin negotiating terms for the release of 
the latest installment of a stalled $43 billion bailout 
package.(3) The IMF has suspended payment of $3 billion that 
was due in March as part of a $40 billion bailout plan. The 
money was earmarked to help Indonesia begin paying back $70 
billion in international loans as well as about $60 billion 
in government debt. Indonesia's total foreign debt is 
approximately $110 billion. The IMF package will increase 
this debt to more than $140 billion. In the last 30 years 
about 90 Third World countries have received loans from the 
IMF, 48 are no better off and 32 are actually poorer. 

The Indonesian government must pay huge amounts of interest 
to the big US, European and Japanese banks every year. These 
interest payments will leap again in the next few years, 
ensuring greater dependency and sucking up any funds that 
could otherwise be used to provide for the needs of the 
people. This is a typical international imperialist 
financing scheme which leads to greater impoverishment for 
the people in the imperialist colonies and neo-colonies and 
riches for the imperialist and their lackeys.

Indonesia is the fourth largest country in the world with 
202 million people who are growing poorer every day. The 
currency is worth a quarter of its 1997 value, factories 
have stopped working and unemployment is skyrocketing. 
Habibie has pledged to adhere to the economic restructuring 
program approved by the IMF.(1) But this program was what 
brought about the increased economic hardship for the 
Indonesian people. 

On March 24, before the uprisings and overthrow of Suharto, 
the United Snakes announced an offer of $56 million in food 
and medical supplies to Indonesia. This offer expanded on 
$45 million in what the imperialists like to call 
"developmental assistance": money used to keep puppet 
governments stable and loyal and their economies under firm 
imperialist control. The u.s. has a number of economic 
programs in Indonesia which total close to $490 million 
according to the Under Secretary of State, Stuart 
Eizenstat.(8) 

In a nifty trick designed to ensure u.s. economic 
prosperity, $25 million has been offered by the US 
Department of Agriculture earmarked for purchase of U.S. 
food (and the quantities and products will be determined by 
the USDA). This is a common policy of u.s. aid to Third 
World countries. It ensures dependency while keeping the 
money within the U.$.(8) The Export-Import Bank of the 
United States (Ex-Im Bank) has offered to provide short-term 
export financing of up to $1 billion for U.S. exports to 
Indonesia to further back up this dependency strategy. 
According to the Ex-Im's own description "Ex-Im Bank is an 
independent U.S. government agency that helps to sustain 
American jobs by financing U.S. exports to emerging markets 
that otherwise would not go forward. In fiscal year 1997, 
Ex-Im Bank supported $15 billion in U.S. exports."(9)

To justify past and continued U.$. economic and military 
support to the Indonesian regime, US government officials 
have been scrambling to demonstrate the necessity of u.s. 
involvement. On May 7th senior representatives of the US 
State Department and the US Department of Defense testified 
before hearings in the House of Representatives about the 
u.s. security concerns in Indonesia.

Stanley Roth, Assistant Secretary of State for Asia and the 
Pacific tried to paint a picture of grave security threats 
in Indonesia while making clear the U.$ economic interests 
in the country. "The vast, ethnically diverse nation of 
Indonesia is of broad strategic significance for the United 
States. It is the world's fourth most populous nation and 
boasts the world's largest Muslim population; it contains 
over 13,000 islands which span important sea lanes and 
airways; and it possesses vast natural resources, including 
oil and natural gas. Moreover, whereas the Indonesia of 
yesteryear championed an assertive nationalism which 
unnerved its smaller neighbors, the Indonesia of recent 
decades has played a crucial role in fostering regional 
stability."(10) 

This Indonesia that he praises as fostering regional 
stability is the same government that, with U.$. support and 
training, seized power in a military dictatorship and 
massacred hundreds of thousands of communists and other 
opponents. Under the military dictatorship of Suharto, 
Indonesia has massacred over a third of the population of 
East Timor in a violent attempt to keep the country as a 
colony of since invading it in 1975. The initial invasion of 
East Timor was conducted with the approval and weapons of 
the united states.

Walter Slocombe, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy made 
clear the extent of the u.s. military involvement in 
Indonesia: "Our cooperation with the Indonesian military, in 
training activities and through the acquisition of U.S. 
defense systems, enhances interoperability...We foresee a 
continued growth in our mutual security interests, and view 
Indonesia as an increasingly important and constructive 
strategic actor.... Our bilateral military activities with 
Indonesia, while not extensive, have incrementally increased 
in recent years. Combined with our other bilateral defense 
activities in the region, they offer a good foundation for 
the continued long-term U.S. military presence..."(10) 

East Timor

For 22 years East Timor has suffered under the military 
occupation of Indonesia. The active resistance of the 
Maubere people has been met with brutal repression. Many 
remember Nov. 12, 1991, the date that Indonesian soldiers 
fired upon a defenseless crowd of thousands of East Timorese 
pro-independence demonstrators at a cemetery, killing more 
than 250. But this was just one of many murders and 
imprisonments by the Indonesian military dictatorship in its 
attempts to control East Timor.

The change in comprador dictators brings potential hope to 
the struggle. With the Indonesian government's energy 
focused elsewhere, the Timorese people may have a chance to 
win their freedom. And with the international focus on 
Indonesia, it is possible the new government will find East 
Timor too much of a liability of both resources and 
international public opinion.

The u.s. administration currently observes a ban on the sale 
of small armed, armored personnel carriers and helicopter-
mounted weapons to Indonesia (weapons frequently employed in 
the repression of the East Timorese people) as a result of 
public outcry after publicity of the 1991 massacre. But the 
U.$. continues to supply spare parts, ammunition and other 
military equipment to the Indonesian regime. The US 
government Export-Import Bank has also financed helicopter 
sales to the Indonesian military. 

In addition, the U.$. has carried out ongoing training of 
Indonesia's notorious military units in spite of a 
congressional ban after the 1991 massacre in East Timor. 
This program, known as the Joint Combined Exchange and 
Training (JCET) program run by the US Department of Defense 
found ways around the congressional ban to continue training 
the Indonesian Armed Forces. On March 8th the Defense 
Department was forced to suspend the JCET when their 
activities were revealed to the public.(11)

The fight for self-determination goes on in East Timor. On 
May 23rd the Indonesian military killed one person and 
wounded three in a shoot out with Fretilin, the armed wing 
of the East Timorese independence movement which has been 
fighting Indonesia since its invasion in 1975.(12)

The new Justice Minister Muladi announced he would be asking 
President Habibie to grant what they call Indonesia's 27th 
province a special status. "We ought to change our 
attitude," Muladi said. "If we can make East Timor a special 
territory, that would give us a better bargaining position 
with the military."(13) This change of status is a likely 
outcome if one of the more liberal presidential candidates 
should win. But East Timor will not be free until it is 
granted full independence, all outside military and economic 
forces withdraw, and the Maubere people of East Timor have 
the opportunity to decide for themselves how to run their 
country. 

The Justice Minister also announced that Xanana Gusmao, a 
military leader of the Fretilin resistance forces who was 
sentenced to 20 years in prison in 1993, didn't fit the 
criteria for potential release as a political prisoner.(13)

The indigenous Acehnese nation and the West Papaun nation 
are also demanding self-determination and fighting 
Indonesian domination.

New elections, same old system

Under the current laws, the president is not elected 
directly, but by an assembly whose candidates are approved 
by the government in advance. In the seven elections held 
after Suharto took office, he was the sole presidential 
candidate of all three parties.(7)

Even if the entire electoral system is fundamentally 
reformed to resemble imperialist "democracy" this will not 
change who controls the money and political power. This 
control and power is what wins elections and without it the 
people will never enjoy true democracy. 

Sukarnoputri, the daughter of former president Sukarno, has 
announced her candidacy in the next election.(3) Sukarno was 
the president before being overthrown by the Suharto 
military coup. He led a coalition government that included 
the Communist Party of Indonesia which has since made self-
criticism for their failure to lead the masses in opposition 
to imperialism and instead tailing the bourgeois democracy 
of Sukarno. Sukarnoputri likely represents the most radical 
of the potential presidential candidates but she does not 
offer the people and end to the exploitation and oppression 
of imperialism, just a kinder and gentler face for the 
system with possibly a less brutal military.

The Former parliamentarian, Sri Bintang Pamungkas, recently 
released from prison, is also planing to run for presidency. 
Although he was imprisoned by Suharto, he does not represent 
any significant difference from the current government.(14)

Revolution is the only solution

The people's mass struggle against the government-military 
dictatorship in April and May was not led by a revolutionary 
party with the demand of overthrowing imperialism. This lack 
of leadership made it easy for the change in figureheads to 
allow the government to regain control over the country.

One organization that played a prominent role in the student 
and worker's protests was the Peoples Democratic Party 
(PRD). Many of those arrested during the rebellions reported 
being questioned about membership in this organization. The 
PRD operates entirely underground since a severe crackdown 
last July 27 and focuses its work on publishing leaflets and 
building their mass organizations. 

The PRD represents a broad mass movement willing to operate 
within capitalism. They called for the overthrow of Suharto 
but do not offer an alternative to capitalism to put in his 
place. According to the PRD, "The mass political struggle 
must be developed and must be able to build a country with a 
multiparty, democratic and popular-based nature, to replace 
a country of exploitation and oppression with all their 
instruments of violence, such as the military, the courts 
and the police."(15) They demand "the military must return 
to the barracks" but do not demand a dismantling of the 
imperialist backed military.

As mentioned above, movements for formal democracy such as 
the PRD can be progressive, in the sense that they unite all 
who can be united against the current puppet government and 
give the people more freedom to organize for real 
revolutionary change. But movements for formal democracy 
cannot fully address the basic social and political problem 
facing the Indonesian people: imperialist domination. There 
is no way that capitalism can be reformed into a just system 
that serves the people. And because of this, the overthrow 
of imperialism, the highest stage of capitalism, is 
necessary and inevitable. 

In spite of tremendous repression the people of Indonesia 
have been fighting for years. During 1994, the Indonesian 
workers demonstrated (on strike) 1,130 times. This was a 
350% increase on the figure for 1993 when there were 312 
strikes recorded.(15) But these widespread protests and 
strong sentiment of discontent needs the leadership of a 
vanguard party to offer the people the necessary analysis of 
history and the line, strategy and tactics that can defeat 
their enemy, imperialism. MIM commends the people of 
Indonesia for their successful protests against the 
imperialist backed military dictatorship. And we point to 
the lessons of history so that the Indonesian people will 
not have to suffer another year under imperialist rule.

NOTES
1. Washington Post 25 May 1998, p A26.
2. New York Times 25 May 1998.
3. Washington Post 26 May 1998, p. A01.
4. Associated Press 26 May  1998.
5. Washington Post 26 May 1998, Page A11.
6. TAPOL, Indonesian Human Rights Campaign, press release, 
May 25, 1998 TAPOL, Indonesia Human Rights Campaign, 111 
Northwood Road, Thornton Heath, Surrey CR7 8HW, UK Phone: 
0181 771-2904 Fax: 0181 653-0322 email: tapol@gn.apc.org. 
7. New York Times May 26, 1998.
8. http://www.indonesiatoday.com/a3/j6/y2mar98.html
9. http://www.indonesiatoday.com/a3/j6/y2apr98.html
10. http://www.indonesiatoday.com/a3/j6/y1may98.html
11. East Timor Action Network press release, May 12, 1998 
from etan-outreach@igc.apc.org
12. AAP NEWSFEED May 25, 1998, Monday available via etan-
outreach@igc.apc.org
13. Deutsche Presse-Agentur May 25, 1998, Monday, BC Cycle.
14. BBC, Tuesday, May 26, 1998 Published at 09:20 GMT 10:20 
UK.
15. Statement from the National Committee of the PRD, 
Jakarta, 22 July 1996.
16. Philippine Daily Inquirer 23 May 98.


* * *


UCLA STUDENTS DENOUNCE PROP. 209 & CHAUVINIST CHANCELLOR

by a MIM Comrade

On May 19, over 1,500 UCLA students rallied against 
California's Proposition 209, which prohibits consideration 
of race, ethnicity, or sex in public sector hiring, school 
admissions, or other accomodations. About 400 students also 
occupied UCLA's Royce hall for several hours, demanding that 
newly-appointed Chancellor Albert Carnesdale declare that 
UCLA will not comply with Prop. 209. Because of Prop. 209, 
the admissions rate for Black, Latino, and First Nation 
students at UCLA dropped drastically this year.

The intensified activism around Prop. 209 is the inevitable 
response to the crass chauvinist maneuverings of 
California's reactionary bourgeoisie and its allies in the 
white petty bourgeoisie and labor aristocracy. The 
discrimination contained in measures like Prop. 209 and the 
infamous Prop. 187 are part of the larger picture of 
national oppression in California. This larger picture also 
fuels the protests. Indeed, as student leader Kandea Mosley 
said, "Our opposition to Prop. 209 ... is not a result of a 
skewed perception of affirmative action as a cure-all for 
all of our communities and the racist, classist violence 
perpetuated on our people daily. Rather, the reasons behind 
raising a political struggle in this university is created 
out of our understanding that organized struggle ... is 
necessary on every level."(1)

When students link up with the broader struggles of the 
oppressed masses, inside and outside of u.$. borders, they 
become a powerful force for change.

The rally, which also commemorated the birthday of Malcolm 
X, gathered force throughout the morning of the 19th. In the 
early afternoon, the protestors marched around the campus, 
calling on students and other observers to join them. Many 
did, and others cheered the marchers on. One participant 
reported that the crowd of protesters tripled in size during 
the march. The rally then turned to Royce hall, which some 
protesters occupied, draping banners over the upper-story 
balcony and giving speeches.

Besides denouncing Prop. 209 and criticizing Chancellor 
Carnesdale for not clearly opposing it, the students 
denounced Carnesdale's bourgeois, Amerikan-centered approach 
to university education. According to one observer, the 
students were particularly outraged by Carnesdale's comments 
that they should learn something useful, not "the Queen of 
Sheba," a reference to African history.(2) Students -- 
especially students from Amerika's internal colonies -- have 
a hunger and thirst for knowledge of their own history, the 
roots of their oppression, and the means to overturn it. 
They should be allowed to determine their own curriculum. 
Carnesdale's comments show that he is a lackey for a so-
called educational system, which does not educate but 
instead assimilates students into the economic and political 
status quo.

The campus authorities eventually called out more than 50 
LAPD riot police because, in the words of Chancellor 
Carnesdale, "we must not establish a precedent that students 
can stop the functioning of a university."(1) When the riot 
pigs showed up behind Royce hall, about 100 protesters 
formed a human barrier in front of them and shouted: "This 
is our campus."(1) The police eventually arrested more than 
80 of the students who refused to leave Royce hall.

Unfortunately for Carnesdale, the protesters' actions that 
day did show that students can disrupt university business. 
Historical and international precedent show that students 
can not only disrupt the functioning of a university, they 
can also lead revolutionary change. Witness current student 
struggles in Indonesia, student struggles in south Korea in 
the late 80s, the "First Quarter Storm" in the Philippines, 
the anti-Vietnam War movement within the United Snakkkes. 
The Black Panther Party, the Communist Party of China, the 
Communist Party of the Philippines, and many other 
revolutionary and anti-imperialist movements and 
organizations all grew out of student activism.

Oppressed nation students lead resistance

The core of the protest leadership was Black, Latino, and 
Asian/Pacific Islander -descended students. No surprise 
there, since they come from the communities most affected by 
the recent spate of anti-oppressed nation referenda in 
California. 

The group of applicants admitted to the UC system for Fall 
1998 was the first group to be affected by Prop. 209's "race 
blind" policy. Despite an increase in the number of Black, 
Latino, and First Nation applicants, the number of students 
admitted from these groups dropped sharply.(See Table 1) 
Black, Latino, and First Nation students made up 23.1% of 
the students admitted to UC Berkeley in 1997, but only 10.4% 
of the students admitted in 1998. The same figures for UC 
Los Angeles were 19.8% and 12.7%.(3) All this despite the 
fact that Blacks, Latinos, and First Nations make up 35% of 
the population of California(4), so the higher 1997 figures 
already showed gross discrimination in University 
admissions.

Latinos and some Asians have also been caught up in a wave 
of anti-immigrant sentiment by measures such as Prop. 187, 
which would cut off all public services (such as emergency 
health care and education) to undocumented immigrants.

This all goes to show that in its quest to humor the yahoos 
in California's predominantly white labor aristocracy and 
petty bourgeoisie, the bourgeois state is creating allies 
for the proletarian struggle within u.$. borders. There's no 
denying that the principal goal of a UC education is to 
assimilate its students comfortably into the status quo, 
maybe even make them administrators over the status quo. But 
as the UCs deny this future to more students, and as the 
crass chauvinist nature of the existing system becomes clear 
to those students already enrolled, the number of students 
with less to lose and more resolve to fight increases. 

Table 1: Admissions to the entire UC System, by year and 
nationality(3)

           Black   First Nation   Latino	   TOTAL

1997        3198    711            11818     15727 
1998        2255    574             9907     12736 
% change	-29%   -19%             -16%      -19%

NOTES:

1. Daily Bruin, 20 May 98.
2. Interview with rally participant, 22 May 98.
3. New York Times, 1 Mar 98.
4. Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1996.



* * *


LETTERS

Revolutionary greetings!

Thank you for providing me with the necessary materials 
aiding in my revolutionary consciousness; they will be put 
to good use, as well as shared with other progressive 
seekers. 

I've been studying political economy for at least 3 or 4 
years now, and as I continue to deeply grasp the principles 
and laws governing these complex structures, I keep in mind 
what Karl Marx said: "Everything starts out difficult. Every 
science is this way." In the concrete analysis of objective 
phenomena, Marxist political economy penetrates the surface, 
grasps the essence, and undertakes scientific abstraction.

But I will be honest, comrade, at times I get bitter when I 
see people behind these concentration camps capitulating to 
capitalist ideology. What I mean by this is the rapid apathy 
for struggle inside these walls, not on a physical level, 
but the struggle on a theoretical and ideological level. So 
many brothers have been duped by "cultural nationalism" to 
the point where political an ideological line, "they 
believe," is unimportant. They are somehow convinced that 
the teachings of revolutionary politics, and the study of 
political science is preaching "practical politics." 

This is attributed on the one hand to the vampire like media 
who insist on convincing New Afrikans that to change the 
current state of affairs is to work within the capitalist 
empire and not through armed resistance. And on the other 
hand, we got flag waving buffer New Afrikans running around 
the empire promoting "everything Black is beautiful" 
philosophy, a philosophy which suggests that our line should 
be: Buy Black, think Black, and live Black... "and 
capitalist America will start to listen in some near 
future."

In Struggle,

--A California prisoner

MIM Responds:

We are always heartened by letters like yours, which show 
both a willingness to struggle for real revolutionary change 
and enthusiasm for a materialist and scientific approach to 
politics. As Stalin wrote, "Theory becomes purposeless if it 
is not connected with revolutionary practice, just as 
practice gropes in the dark if its path is not illuminated 
by revolutionary theory."

We agree with your criticisms of cultural and bourgeois 
nationalism. Bourgeois nationalists promote reform and 
reconciliation with Amerikan imperialism, which MIM rejects. 
And cultural nationalists are ultimately not even 
reformists, but vulgar idealists. According to the Black 
Panther Party, "Those who believe the 'I'm Black and Proud' 
theory - believe that there is dignity inherent in wearing 
naturals; that a buba makes a slave a man; that a common 
language, Swahili, makes all of us brothers... In other 
words cultural nationalism ignores the political and the 
concrete, and concentrates on a myth and a fantasy."

However, MIM is confident that we can win over the most 
oppressed to a revolutionary and materialist perspective. 
There will always be people under the influence of bourgeois 
nationalism, right up to the revolution, because there are 
bourgeois and petty-bourgeois classes in the oppressed 
nations. They pick up the ideology that promotes their 
interests. On the other hand, bourgeois nationalism does not 
promote the interests of the exploited and most oppressed 
sectors of the oppressed nations. Only revolutionary 
politics have relevance for them. We believe that patient 
political and ideological work will counteract bourgeois 
influences among the most oppressed. The work you are doing 
setting up study groups (with the help of the "Free Books 
for Prisoners Program") is part of that process.

Note: Phillip Foner, ed., "The Black Panthers Speak," JB 
Lippincott: Philadelphia, 1970, p. 151.

MORE ACADEMICS OPPOSE POLITICAL EDUCATION FOR PRISONERS

Dear MIM,

I did not mean to imply that only the authors on my list are 
suitable for reading and further enlightenment of prisoners. 
If you choose to send only certain books then YOU ARE 
sending a bias view of the world. Stop arguing with me about 
these things. Some people do not want to know the truth. 
Some people look for a reason to lash out. Everyone wants to 
be able to say their life was hard, but there is always 
someone worse off than you. Don't be satisfied with life, 
but YOU ARE NOT offering an unbias view. 

I did not mean to imply that you should not send what you 
are sending , just that you should send variety. Not 
everyone has access to the authors I have mentioned. I went 
to a school in the suburbs and I am going to a high priced 
public institution. Money buys access!! I did not read some 
of these authors until I got to college. I know that you 
think that I have an over glorified view of the world, but 
don't assume that just because these authors have some 
recognition that everyone has access to them. It's not 
information or enlightenment...it's guidance.

--an academic in the midwest

MIM responds:

This is one more in a series of letters we have received in 
response to our political Books for Prisoners program which 
does discriminate about which books are sent in to 
prisoners. We give prisoners access to political education 
from the perspective of the oppressed of the world. And in 
response to our end of the semester campaign for book 
donations on many college campuses, MIM has received a 
number of letters like the above from well off academics who 
want to preserve the hegemony of bourgeois academic 
ideology.

We readily admit that the MIM Books for Prisoners program is 
offering a biased view of the world to prisoners. We offer 
the bias of the oppressed people of the world. While there 
is the entire educational and cultural system offering 
prisoners and everyone else the bourgeois perspective, there 
are few revolutionaries and even fewer resources on our 
side.

We do think it is worth everyone's time to study the 
reactionary as well as the progressive perspectives. But 
prisoners would not have access to revolutionary political 
education if it were not for groups like MIM. And we hope 
that from this biased view of the world prisoners learn that 
their lives don't have to be worthless and that it is 
possible to fight the imperialist system. 

To make donations to MIM's Books for Prisoners program send 
checks or money orders to the address on page 2.


* * *


FORMER BLACK PANTHER PARTY MINISTER OF INFORMATION ELDRIDGE 
CLEAVER DIES

by MC206

Eldridge Cleaver, former Minister of Information of the 
Black Panther Party (BPP), died of natural causes on Friday, 
May 1, at the age of 62. Eldridge played a leading role in 
the Maoist BPP in the late 1960s, but in the 1970s he 
recanted his revolutionary politics and became a christian. 
According to Reuters News Service, in the 1980s he ran for 
the u.$ senate as a conservative Republican.

While he was in the Black Panther Party under the leadership 
of Huey Newton, Eldridge performed great services for the 
revolutionary movement in the Black nation and for the 
broader anti-imperialist movement in the u.$. He inspired 
and taught many. As Mumia Abu Jamal recently wrote, "It was 
because of his revolutionary audaciousness that I threw 
caution to the winds and joined the party and was assigned 
to the organization's Ministry of Information. He used words 
as weapons and scored the enemy with his acidic tongue."

However, Eldridge himself summed up the last 20 or so years 
of his life, when he wrote in Soul on Ice, "A slave who dies 
of natural causes will not balance two dead flies on the 
scales of eternity." 

The internal causes for Eldridge's degeneration were ultra-
left idealism and individualism. He was upset that existing 
socialist and anti-imperialist countries had failed to 
immediately create a workers' paradise, but instead lagged 
behind in terms of productive forces and what Eldridge 
considered individual freedoms. He also nit-picked them for 
failing to realize what he considered perfect interpersonal 
relationships. 

At the same time, he could not stand up to the significant 
pressures his politics placed on his lifestyle. According to 
an upcoming MIM Theory review of "Soul on Fire," the book in 
which Cleaver explains his degeneration: "[Cleaver] felt 
guilty that his wife and children suffered on account of his 
legal problems with the u.$. government. 'The most powerful, 
single breakthrough, in my Communist-held position, was the 
birth of my children...' (p.135) He was not willing for his 
children to learn French and soccer instead of English and 
football; even though he had complete citizenship rights in 
France.(pp. 208-209). He had witnessed countless 
revolutionaries give their lives, but having his kids grow 
up in France was too much sacrifice for Cleaver." Eldridge 
Cleaver at once became impatient at the steady progress of 
individual states towards Communism, and unwilling to make 
even slight sacrifices in lifestyle for the revolution.

Of course, the external condition for Eldridge's 
degeneration was political persecution by the u.$. 
government. Eldridge had made great personal sacrifices for 
his work with the Black Panther Party in his revolutionary 
political period. He was almost killed in the same shoot-out 
in which the Oakland pigs murdered Bobby Hutton, and he 
faced imprisonment and probable assassination for his 
revolutionary politics. As he became older and saw personal 
enemies falling from power and old comrades becoming mayors 
and influential members of the ruling class, Eldridge "cut a 
deal with the devil," and denounced his revolutionary past.

Even while he was in the Black Panther Party, Eldridge had 
ultra-left and individualist problems. He was associated 
with the "armed struggle now" line in the party. Huey also 
criticized him for being down for big flashy actions, but 
disregarding the day to day details of Party building, such 
as running the party's newspaper, The Black Panther. 

MIM looks at the legacy of Eldridge Cleaver in the spirit of 
Mao's dictum that "one splits onto two." We should learn 
from his mistakes, inside and outside of the movement. 
Eldridge provides a clear negative example of the problems 
of ultra-leftism, liberalism, and individualism. We must 
also uphold his correct legacy within the Black Panther 
Party. The brutalities of national oppression and the 
Amerikan prison system made Eldridge recognize the necessity 
for revolutionary change. And for few years, he put his life 
on the line in order to make socialist revolution here in 
the belly of the beast.

NOTE:

For more on the history of the Maoist Black Panther Party of 
the late 1960s and early 1970s, write to MIM for a copy of 
our pamphlet Maoism and the Black Panther Party, or send $10 
for a copy of Philip Foners' The Black Panther Party Leaders 
Speak. 


* * *

FIGHT FASCISM: ORGANIZE AGAINST PRISONS

On May 9th, organizers of the Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist 
League (RAIL) distributed hundreds of MIM Notes, RAIL Notes, 
and flyers called "Who is the primary enemy of the people?" 
and discussed correct organizing strategies against 
oppression with hundreds of people attending anti-Klan 
rallies, marches and picnics in Ann Arbor, Michigan. RAIL 
emphasized anti-imperialist and pro-national liberation 
struggles to people demonstrating against an Ann Arbor City 
Hall-hosted Ku Klux Klan rally.

Two counter-demonstrations marched through Ann Arbor and met 
at City Hall to oppose the small Ku Klux Klan rally. The 
Klan's rally lasted less than one hour on the steps of the 
Ann Arbor pig department building. The AAPD defended the KKK 
with thousands of dollars worth of fencing and riot squad 
personnel. (Various activists estimated the cost of KKK 
protection to range from $75,000 - $120,000.)

There were three main groupings of counter demonstrators. 
The vast majority were youth who opposed the Klan but agreed 
with RAIL that genuine activism goes beyond physical fights 
with individual fascists. The second group and the main 
organizer of the City Hall counter-demonstration was the 
National Women's Rights Organizing Committee (NWROC). This 
Revolutionary Workers' League (RWL) front-group advocated 
'smashing the Klan' by physically forcing the Klan to stop 
its rally. The third grouping was mostly pacifists and older 
left Ann Arborites who gathered in a separate location for a 
'Unity Rally.' The Unity Rally organizers also formed a 150-
person 'Peace Team' and worked with the Ann Arbor pigs to 
physically maintain the barricade between the Klan and 
counter demonstrators and to prevent violence between the 
groups.

Neither RAIL nor MIM organized the counter-demonstration at 
City Hall or the Unity Rally. The Peace Team spent 18 months 
preparing for its non-violent action. The pseudo-militant 
groups spent a tremendous amount of resources preparing to 
tail the Klan rally. Neither of the groups' anti-fascist 
organizing (if any) rival RAIL's. While RAIL has organized 
for national liberation struggles and against oppression in 
Michigan's prisons, the pseudo-left has been organizing to 
rally against the 37 Klan members who traveled from Butler, 
Indiana to Ann Arbor for one day.

RAIL organizers attended both counter-demonstrations to 
organize progressives to support genuine struggles of the 
masses against imperialism. We offer organizing as an 
alternative both to throwing rocks at pigs (in blue uniforms 
or white sheets) and to apolitical socializing. We found 
many progressives at both gatherings who opposed white 
supremacy but saw that the leadership of the anti-Klan 
rallies lacked a correct analysis and strategy. Many were 
impressed with RAIL's practice and agreed that putting out a 
newspaper and organizing daily with prisoners and anti-
imperialists is more correct than yelling at, threatening 
and beating up white supremacists.

Pigs, pacifists & provocateurs react to KKK

NWROC led the larger of the two counter-demonstration 
contingents from the University of Michigan Union to City 
Hall. The contingent contained the groups' pseudo-militant 
base and much tough talk about death to fascists and 
smashing the Klan, but most of the contingent were youths 
not involved in NWROC. RAIL found that most marchers agreed 
with having a counter-demonstration, but not with NWROC's 
overall strategy. When the Klan rally started, some of 
NWROC's group tried to break down the barriers protecting 
the Klan. The Peace Team, which had been trained to non-
violently intervene, worked with the cops to maintain the 
barricades.

A group of counter demonstrators battled the Peace Team at 
the fence and later overcame a different part of the 
barrier. After the pseudo-militants attacked the Peace Team, 
pigs sprayed tear gas and pepper spray, forcing the 
demonstrators to disperse. The demonstrations ended without 
any arrests, but the AAPD vowed to identify some counter 
demonstrators by video tape and prosecute them.

A small group of pacifist youth marched from another part of 
the University of Michigan campus, following a call "to show 
Ann Arbor that we're mad, not stupid." The majority in this 
march wanted to rally against the Klan but remain separate 
from any violence.

Random acts of violence

A loud and irrational minority decided that beating up Klan 
members/supporters, throwing rocks at City Hall, and 
attacking pacifists would be their anti-racist deed for the 
day. Some of these individuals were the only people who 
crumpled up RAIL's literature after learning that our work 
does not include 'kicking someone's ass,' and some beat up 
individual racists on the streets.

Youth are correct to be pissed off at Amerikkkan society, 
but anger is not enough. RAIL works to turn angry youth into 
strong revolutionaries. We urge youth who do not work with 
us to critically examine the leadership of so-called left 
groups that try to get their members arrested. Examine the 
differences between RAIL and groups like the RWL and its 
NWROC front, the Trotskyist League and the Progressive Labor 
Party.

Why do these organizations demand more pay for Amerikkkans, 
ignore the immiseration of the Third World proletariat, 
oppose struggles for national liberation, and organize from 
the same mass base as the Klan does? Why do these 
organizations oppose RAIL's work to support prisoners' 
struggles and anti-imperialist revolutions? Why did the 
Black Panther Party and the Young Lords Party build Serve 
the People programs and publish newspapers? Neither party 
intentionally got its members arrested, and each 
accomplished far more in building public opinion among its 
community than the pseudo-left that tails the Klan.

Oppressed nation youth in Amerikkka are increasingly 
repressed and in prison. More oppressed nation youth are 
studying and building on the legacies of earlier 
revolutionaries like the BPP, YLP, AIM and I Wor Kuen. Some 
white nation youth are also ready to mobilize against 
Amerikkka society. We challenge white nation youth to make 
revolutionary study and struggle much more than a one day 
per summer pastime.

Random acts of non-violence

Approximately 80 different religious, pacifist and other 
community groups formed a coalition with the Ann Arbor City 
administration and cops to organize the Wheeler Park Unity 
Rally, several blocks away from the Klan rally. Organizers 
said that their goal was "to overwhelm [the Klan] with 
positive energy."(1) The pacifist coalition came together 
after the Klan's 1996 rally in Ann Arbor ended in violence; 
the coalition wanted to take a more active role in this 
year's counter-demonstration. The pacifist coalition did 
much to legitimize the system that protects the Klan and 
puts its ideology into practice.

Protecting the Klan's freedom of speech is the state's job, 
and the state does that job well. Radicals, revolutionaries 
and revolutionary nationalists are overwhelmingly denied 
free speech in Amerikkka. With the AAPD on its side, the 
Klan had nothing to fear, it did not need the Peace Team. 
The one positive thing we could say about the Peace Team 
would be if it prevented arrests from taking place. It is 
still too soon to say if there will be less arrests related 
to the rally and counter-demonstrations than there were two 
years ago.

Fight fascism, imperialism and national oppression!

RAIL organizers maintained an emphasis on the need to fight 
the most fascistic element of Amerikkkan society -- the 
prison system. The Amerikkkan prison system now incarcerates 
1.7 million people; it disproportionately imprisons members 
of oppressed nations, and it grows exponentially with 
majority support from the white nation.

Given the example of prisons as a primary tool of national 
oppression and racism, few demonstrators disagreed with 
RAIL's depiction of the white nation as a reactionary group 
whose material interests lie in oppressing the masses of 
Third World nations and Amerikkka's captive internal 
colonies. Many demonstrators were convinced to be more 
critical of anti-Klan organizing when confronted with the 
fact that the white nation as a whole supports the 
proliferation of pigs and prisons and this is far more 
dangerous to the majority of the oppressed nation masses 
within Amerikkka than a few white supremacist extremists.

RAIL sees the white supremacists in the government, military 
and prisons who physically enforce imperialism as more 
dangerous than extremists who spread racist propaganda. 
Exposing the chauvinist policies of the Amerikan government 
is more difficult than yelling and beating up individuals 
because it takes rational knowledge, analysis and day-to-day 
work. It is also the only proven method of achieving 
liberation of the oppressed masses.

White nation apologists fake left, run right

As front groups of the Trotskyist Revolutionary Workers 
League (RWL), NWROC and its sister front group BAMN share in 
the RWL history of infiltrating and splitting progressive 
organizations in Ann Arbor. The RWL and its front groups 
split other organizations by forcing the issue of so-called 
militancy within these organizations.

While the RWL promotes the militancy of throwing public 
tantrums, this does little to organize people into the day 
to day work of anti-fascist, anti-imperialist work. The RAIL 
and other MIM-led mass organizations see the progressive 
potential of liberal organizations. These groups can fight 
for progressive gains and provide young activists with 
exposure to various single issue struggles.

Trotskyists and other revisionists maintain that national 
liberation struggles and anti-imperialist struggles split 
the working class, which they say is the true vehicle to 
ending oppression. But in opposing national liberation, they 
support white nation hegemony.(2)

In the real world, Amerika occupies the Philippines and 
Puerto Rico. Blacks, Latinos and First Nations are 
disproportionately incarcerated more than whites, less 
employed and earn less than whites when they are employed. 
We who call for national self-determination are not 
"splitting" anything. We are simply calling a pig a pig and 
a settler a settler, and arguing that centuries of 
oppression are more than enough. It is time to take up the 
anti-imperialist struggle, the quickest path to end all 
forms of oppression.

Imperialist nation hegemony:
Enemy number one

After an interview with the Klan's lead organizer at the 
rally, the Detroit newspapers said that "Much of their dogma 
- good education, good jobs, strong family values - would 
resonate well with a majority of the country."(3) The Klan's 
mass base is the white settler labor aristocracy. This mass 
base is happy to join anything that calls for protection of 
white nation hegemony. Revisionist anti-Klan demonstrators 
cannot face facts when it comes to white nation chauvinism. 
NWROC called people out to the counter-demonstration arguing 
that this would stop the Klan from recruiting. But reality 
is that the Klan, Aryan Nation, Aryan Brotherhood and White 
Citizens Council are all the same:  white nationalist 
organizations sprung from the white nation's drive to 
protect its own privileges at the expense of the world's 
population.

RAIL campaigns against prisons in Ann Arbor and throughout 
the United Snakes because prisons are the most fascistic 
element in Amerikkkan society. Fascism is the merger of 
state and capital, using force to exploit and extract wealth 
from the oppressed. Fascism is a variety of capitalism, but 
is not pervasive in Amerika. Fascist policies are most 
prevalent in prisons where slave labor is legal. RAIL calls 
on all who want to work for genuine anti-fascism and anti-
imperialism to work with us against prisons. Work with an 
organization that opposes oppression 365 days a year, and 
work towards a society in which no more organizations like 
the Klan or the Amerikan gulag system will form.

NOTES:
1. The Detroit Sunday Journal 12-18 April 1998, p. 1, 5.
2. A revisionist is someone claiming to be Marxist while 
revising Marx's ideas fundamentally. An example is that 
revisionists of the RWL variety refer to the white working 
class in Amerika as a "proletariat," the class that leads a 
revolution. Revisionists make extra work for genuine 
communists -- they spread reactionary ideas and call them 
communist, then genuine communists have to clean up the 
mess.
3. The Detroit News and Free Press 10 May 1998, p. A1 & A7.


* * *


MORAIL AND NBUF HOST FIRST NATION DELEGATION

The Missouri chapter of the Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist 
League and the National Black United Front (NBUF) hosted a 
delegation led by AIM leader Dennis Banks on March 22 in St. 
Louis. A crowd of about 60 people gathered for the weekly 
Sunday Forum organized by the NBUF which included a video 
and talk about the African origins of Christianity. 

In 1968, Dennis Banks and George Mitchell, two Anishinabes 
(Chippewas), founded the American Indian Movement (AIM), 
which was consciously patterned after the Black Panther 
Party's community self-defense model. AIM chapters quickly 
sprang up around the country and came to include 
representatives from at least sixty four First Nation 
tribes. 

When the First Nation delegation arrived they received a 
standing ovation from the audience. Banks delivered an 
inspiring speech which started with; "When the white man 
came here, he had the Bible and we had the land; now we have 
their Bible and they have our land! Christianity has been 
used against us and other peoples to conquer us. They did it 
which their ideology (Christianity) and military (the gun)." 

Banks noted the similarity between the First Nations fight 
for land and Black demands for reparations. In the case of 
all oppressed nations within Amerika, their common enemy is 
Amerikan imperialism. For over 500 years the white nation 
has sided with First Nation genocide and Black Slavery in 
efforts to raise the material conditions of only the White 
Amerikan oppressor nation. This is why MIM says that 
Amerikan oppression is national oppression. The only way to 
take back land and reparations is to unite around national 
liberation struggles and throw off Amerikan Imperialism(1). 
In terms of the current struggle for land rights, Banks said 
that the u.$. government has offered First Nations millions 
of dollars for formal rights to land; under international 
pressure the U$ is trying to make land theft look nice. In 
response he upheld the righteous line that "Our land is not 
for sale."

Making another connection between Amerikan imperialism and 
national oppression, he described Jericho '98 as a movement 
to free prisoners incarcerated for political activism in the 
united snakes. "The first political prisoners in this 
country were indigenous peoples. Eleven Indian couples were 
incarcerated on Alcatraz Island for refusing to send their 
children to the white man's schools." Banks noted the common 
link between Black and First Nations peoples; "They forbade 
us to use our own language, practice our religion and 
continue our culture." The injustice system has been used to 
disproportionately imprison members of the Black, Latino and 
First Nations in efforts to destroy any resistance against 
oppression. 

Banks talked about the past leaders such as Chief Joseph who 
was imprisoned by the united states because he dared to 
fight for justice for his tribe. "Leonard Peltier, he's been 
in prison 22 years when all the evidence points to his 
innocence," Banks said.

The event was productive in exposing Amerikan oppression. We 
call to all those who support the struggle of the First 
Nations to expand their historical vision to the millions of 
other people belonging to the Black and Latino nations who 
have been subjected to the same exploitation and genocide at 
the hands of U$ domestic imperialism. And further, we call 
to all those activists to struggle against the innately 
oppressive nature of imperialism not just in Amerika, but 
also the exploitation and oppression of our comrades abroad. 

Note: MIM Theory #7, p. 72. 


* * *


SERVE THE PEOPLE: BUILDING ASIAN-DESCENDED NATIONALISM

by a RAIL Comrade

A RAIL comrade recently attended "Serve the People: A 
conference on Asian American Community Activism" held at the 
University of California at Los Angeles on May 15 and 16, 
1998. This conference gathered together many Asian and 
Asian-descended activists, elders and youth, with varying 
levels of experience and politics on the left. The 
underlying theme was to serve our communities. The purpose 
was to educate community activists and "develop an analysis 
of the crucial issues facing the Asian communities in the 
U.S. and a progressive strategy for work around these 
issues" through sector-oriented workshops and panels. The 
workshops and panels included environmental and economic 
racism, hate crimes, sexism, international solidarity, 
resisting imperialism, criminalization, queer APIs, student 
activism, and organizing Asian workers. The conference began 
with a cultural performance by Nobuko Miyamoto and ended 
with a powerful revolutionary spoken word performance by a 
member of the League of Filipino Students.

The opening roundtable had a panel of four 60s activists 
from the Black and Chicano nations and Asian-descended 
communities. The topic of this panel was "Interracial Unity 
and the Struggle for Liberation." Of the four 
activists/panelists, the two activists from the Black and 
Chicano national liberation movements, Bill Gallegos and 
Leon Watson, maintained the most revolutionary perspective. 
They spoke powerfully of the Maoist inspiration to their 
respective movements. The other two panelists, Grace Lee 
Boggs and Yuri Kochiyama were/are active in the Black 
liberation movement and communities but lacked a consistent 
revolutionary theory.

Gallegos outlined a revolutionary history of the Asian-
descended movement during the 60s and spoke to how the 
"Asian model created modern revolutionary history," how 
China as the first Third World country to launch a people's 
revolution served as tremendous inspiration to the struggles 
of the Chicanos. He stressed the importance of 
internationalism in the movements. "Internationalism is not 
charity... [it is] a strategy." Gallegos went on to explain 
the formation, perspective, and organizing work of 
revolutionary Asian organizations in the u.s. such as the 
openly Maoist I Wor Kuen (IWK) and Red Guards, and the East 
Wind Collective, stressing that from the outset they strove 
to be in solidarity with the Puerto Rican, Chicano and Black 
national liberation struggles. He mentioned also that wimmin 
played an important leadership role in the IWK. Gallegos 
laid out the revolutionary "basis for interracial unity," 
which MIM would call "cross-national unity:" one, from the 
struggles of our peoples emerge a common history uniting us; 
two, we need alternative leadership in our communities in 
opposition to electoral compradors; three, we must maintain 
an internationalist perspective, oppressed nation movements 
are integrally linked together; four, we must have an anti-
capitalist, anti-imperialist, socialist perspective. MIM 
agrees on all four principles, only we would be specific 
about what kind of "alternative" leadership we need: 
proletarian and internationalist leadership.

Watson emerged out of the anti-war and Black liberation 
movements, seeing common links in the Viet struggle against 
Amerikan imperialism and the domestic Black situation. He 
expressed the powerful sentiment of drafted Black soldiers 
that "no Vietnamese ever called me nigger." In his 
presentation, Watson called for unity against imperialism. 
He pointed out that cross-national unity alone is 
meaningless, using the analogy of Dodgers' games which 
succeed in uniting fans of all ethnicities. He clarified 
that we need cross-national unity for national liberation. 
"Unity is built through struggle [for freedom]. It is not 
abstract." Watson went on to outline the Black liberation 
movement in the 60s and spoke of the influence of Marxism 
and Maoism on the Black Panther Party (BPP) and the need for 
serious theoretical study. He emphatically stated, one 
becomes a communist; you are not born communist. One becomes 
a Maoist; you're not born Maoist.

Boggs summarized the revolutionary origins of the "Asian 
American" movement as a response to the Black Power 
movement, a creation of a pan-Asian identity. 
Internationally the impetus was the anti-Viet Nam war 
movement, anti-u.s. imperialism and Third World revolutions 
that were shaking the world. The heroes of the movement were 
Mao Tsetung and Ho Chi Minh. The pivotal questions of the 
time centered around revolution: how to achieve it in the 
u.s. and its objectives. To even begin to answer that 
question, Boggs said we must learn to distinguish between 
rebellion and revolution. "Rebellion centers the anger of 
youth, disrupting ties of society." Revolution requires a 
"leap to consciousness" and institutions of the oppressed. 
During that time period, the BPP was at war with u.s. 
institutions and society. Boggs further stated that racism, 
militarism, materialism (as in consumerism) and technology 
were alienating people and "careerism" was degenerating the 
youth. From this point on, her presentation wavered into 
idealism, metaphysics, and post-modernism.(1) 

Although Boggs presented herself as anti-capitalist, she was 
clearly not communist. "We must move beyond capitalism; it 
is too individualistic. We must move beyond communism; it is 
too collective." This betrays (at best) a fundamental 
misunderstanding of communism, which MIM has addressed in 
articles such as "Maoism on Human Nature."(3) Petty-
bourgeois intellectuals - who value the feeling that "they 
are their own boss," and are not used to the collective 
existence and discipline of the proletariat - often raise 
the shibboleth that there will be no individuality under 
communism, and thereby put more value on "individuality" 
than on the ability of the broad masses to live free from 
hunger, poverty, and war.

Boggs went on to describe local conditions in her hometown 
of Detroit. The loss of the auto industry displaced the 
youth and created a drug community. Casino developers are 
currently seeking to replace the auto industry. This 
situation had lead to what Boggs calls a "most remarkable 
struggle in the history of humanity" where "working people 
and people of color are leading the struggle [against 
casinos]" on the moral principles of "how cities should be 
built." She concluded that the "city is the arena of 
struggle" for the 21st century. Boggs statements take place 
in an idealistic vacuum and could potentially mislead many 
activists away from the correct strategy of struggle against 
imperialism. RAIL points to the on-going and vibrant 
national liberation struggles in the Philippines and Peru 
and the past revolutions in other Third World countries as 
the most remarkable struggles in the history of humanity on 
the principles of how society should be built. These 
people's wars should serve as the inspiration, not just 
empty ideals. To state that the focal point for change lies 
in First World cities blatantly neglects the lessons of one 
hundred years of revolutionary history, totally ignores the 
historical and material conditions of oppression, and omits 
political economy altogether. 

The final panelist, Kochiyama, is an anti-imperialist who 
worked in solidarity with the Black and Puerto Rican 
liberation movements. She reminded Asian activist youth to 
get involved in issues of police brutality, prisons 
industry, immigration and political prisoners, issues that 
cut across ethnic and national lines. "Serve the people at 
the bottom," she exhorted the audience, "the people at the 
top don't need you." Finally, she concluded "unity is 
strength and strength is unity." This last is an important 
in the face of the polarization of Asian communities. It is 
not unity for unity's sake, but a unity based on an anti-
imperialist Third World agenda.

This conference was the first of its kind and was self-
conscious of its place in the history of Asians in North 
America. Much of the history of the Asian-descended movement 
in the u.s. has been lost, neglected or glossed over -- from 
its inception in the revolutionary tides of the 60s to its 
foundering in the 70s. The conference provided a bridge 
between the generation of elder activists from the 60s and 
youth activists of the 90s to interchange experience and 
knowledge. The fact that the conference was organized at all 
is a positive indication of a developing pan-Asian 
nationalism and the progressive direction it is taking 
towards anti-imperialism.(2) The importance of this 
developing nationalism in opposition to imperialism cannot 
be stressed enough despite the complication of differing 
historical and material conditions within Asian communities. 
The MIM has previously stated that "it will be hard to 
understand the politics of the Asian-descended population in 
North America within the paradigm of the Black Panther Party 
or other national liberation organizations . . . [because] 
the Asian and Asian-descended population is both the 
youngest and the most polarized of the national minorities 
in North America."(2) 

In this context, a criticism raised by conference 
participants is significant. Throughout different issue- and 
sector-oriented panels activists independently pointed out 
that the "Asian American" consciousness of this conference 
neglected or excluded the voices of Southeast Asians and 
Pacific Islander immigrant communities. The activists 
pointed out that these communities identify more strongly 
with Blacks and Latinos than with "Asian-Americans." The 
problems confronting Southeast Asian youth and communities 
are poverty, unemployment and welfare dependency, and the 
criminalization of Southeast Asian and Pacific Islander 
youth. Concretely, this is a reflection of the greater 
economic and socio-political forces oppressing these 
communities than the first, second and third waves of Asian 
immigration. The MIM has previously analyzed this fourth 
wave of immigration as "the most economically oppressed 
group in North America. . . [The disparity] contributes to 
the lack of cohesive national culture and consciousness"(2) 

The delicate task facing the building of pan-Asian-descended 
nationalism is to overcome the different historical and 
material conditions and polarization of Asian communities in 
order to more strongly challenge our common enemy, Amerikan 
imperialism. The blanket oppression of imperialism which 
targets Asians as a "race" already kick-started this process 
of politicization and conciousness in the 60s, and continues 
to serve as a catalyst to nationalism. Certainly this 
internal contradiction can be overcome with proletarian 
perspective, dialectical materialism, and the proven science 
of revolution, Marxism-Leninism-Maoism so that Asian and 
Asian-descended peoples united can challenge imperialism. 
The MIM and RAIL look forward to the day when the dragon of 
pan-Asian nationalism overthrows the beast Imperialism.

NOTES:
1. "Postmodernism: Idealism Again" MIM Theory no. 12, pp. 
80-82. "Those postmodernists with a more 'affirmative' view 
. . . are into 'New Age religion and New Wave lifestyles' 
and tend to be 'non-dogmatic' and 'non-ideological'. These 
people failed in the 1960s, and they retreat into their 
inner spiritual selves, albeit in a non-traditional way."
2. "Asian-Descended Nationalism Approaches" MIM Theory no 8, 
pp 89-91, 96.
3. MIM Theory no. 9, pp. 46-47.


* * *


SENTENCE IS DEATH FOR STANDING NEAR PICKUP TRUCK

A Prince George's County, Maryland cop murdered an unarmed, 
42-year-old man on May 20, for the crime of doing nothing. 
The victim, Gary Leonard Sanford, was neither accused nor 
even suspected of any crime. There had been no reported 
crime, nothing illegal at all.

According to the cops, the killer, Cpl. Joseph M. Palmieri, 
saw Sanford and another man sitting in a pickup truck in the 
parking lot of a closed gas station late at night. Palmieri 
says Sanford got out of the pickup truck, and Palmieri 
ordered him to show his hands, which he did. Then -- 
Palmieri, who has no witnesses, says -- Sanford reached for 
something behind his back, so Palmieri shot him twice, to 
death. The police later admitted Sanford was unarmed.

A spokesperson for the police said they had no problem with 
the shooting, since Palmieri had reason to fear for his 
life. Police "investigation" revealed a half-empty beer can 
in the truck, and some urine on the ground nearby. If the 
beer-and-urine story is true, does that make the execution 
more justified? No disciplinary action against Palmieri has 
been reported as of May 27.

Every hyped "crime" story or supposed act of heroics in the 
line of duty on the part of the police played up in the 
media contributes to the whitewash of such murders as this 
one. The imperialist media looks the other way while their 
agents in uniform murder innocents with impunity - - using 
force justified by the mantra of anti- "crime" hype.

NOTES:: Washington Post 21 May 1998.


* * *

BOGUS IRISH REFERENDUM:
IMPERIALIST-BROKERED PEACE DEALS NEVER MEAN PEACE

A bogus plebiscite on the future of the six English-occupied 
counties of Ireland took place on May 22. A parallel 
referendum took place in the neo-colonial 26 counties of the 
Irish Republic. Both referenda passed, with 94% voting in 
favor in the Irish Republic and by a smaller margin, 71%, in 
the occupied Six Counties. This smaller margin in the 
occupied Six Counties reflects the impact of the hard-linee 
pro-English Protestants.(1)

Amerika played a major role in making the agreement, with 
former U.$. Senator George Mitchell serving as a key 
negotiator.

The imperialists and their press proclaim that this 
agreement will bring peace to Ireland. However, MIM has long 
argued that peace will not be possible as long as Ireland is 
divided and under military occupation. Even the bourgeois 
United Nations recognizes in theory that removal of 
imperialist troops is a pre-requisite for an honest 
plebiscites on self-determination. Whether it rises from 
within existing Irish political organizations, or comes up 
from the youth influenced by the International Proletariat's 
opposition to imperialism, a proletarian anti imperialist 
movement will eventually oust England from Ireland and all 
her other colonies.

On April 10, the Good Friday Agreement was signed between 
the English government, the Republic of Ireland, and various 
Nationalist, Republican, Unionist and Loyalists parties. For 
parties linked to paramilitary groups, observing cease-fires 
were an English-imposed prerequisite for attending the 
talks. Of course English military kept up its armed 
occupation of the Six Counties during the negotiations and 
continued to use force against Republican movement through 
the incarceration of POWs. The Agreement restricts 
Republicans from using arms as political tools, but only 
requires English imperialism to "reduce" the number of its 
troops in the Six Counties. 

The agreement sets up a 108-member "power-sharing" body for 
the occupied Six Counties. According to the Agreement, 
paramilitary prisoners will be freed within two years if the 
signed parties uphold nonviolence. A number of Republican 
prisoners were also furloughed by the English government to 
attend a Sinn Fein meeting and do other work in support of 
the agreement. This adds an additional coercive aspect to 
the agreement in that only prisoners (and their 
organizations) who support the Agreement are eligible for 
release. This is further evidence that the Irish people by 
definition cannot consent to a peace when their leaders are 
imprisoned if they don't agree to the other side's political 
positions. To MIM, the Agreement has 3 significant 
additional implications:

First, it treats Northern Ireland as a legitimate political 
entity. This is the term used by the imperialists to 
describe the occupied Six Counties of Ireland. The bulk of 
Ireland won its independence in 1920 after an armed struggle 
and negotiations. The English kept control of the Six 
Counties as the largest contiguous piece of land where the 
majority of the population is pro-English Protestants. This 
move explicitly carved out the largest chunk of territory 
over which England could continue to exercise direct rule. 
It is important to note that in the 17th century these pro-
English Protestants were placed in Ireland as a settler 
population that would support the colonial power. The 
settlers are wary of the agreement because it means they may 
be hung out to dry as England opts for a more distant neo-
colonialism.

Second, the Agreement requires a change in the Republic of 
Ireland constitution to eliminate the Republic's claim to 
the Six Counties. This provision requires the Irish state to 
sanction England's claim to the Six Counties. This 
officially turns the question of a unified Ireland from an 
Irish question into an English one. Historically, the Six 
Counties' Protestant population's occupying majority 
nullified any electoral or military end to the occupation. 
When Republicans raised the correct question of national 
self-determination and national unity for Ireland, the 
settlers had a standing veto. With this provision, the 
question of Irish unification is constitutionally nullified 
before it can be asked.

Third, while the Agreement does not demand disarmament, it 
does excludes organizations who are linked to violence to be 
excluded from the new assembly. The IRA has stated very 
clearly that it will not turn in its weapons. The complete 
disarmament of the Republican movement, along with a 
continued English blind eye to Protestant paramilitary 
violence, would leave the Catholic majority with no 
advocate. In describing the reality for the international 
proletariat living under imperialism, Mao Zedong said 
"Political power flows out of the barrel of a gun." 
Imperialism rules by the gun and so any people who are to 
have a say in what happens to them under imperialism must 
have their own guns. Leaving all of the guns in the hands of 
the oppressor would leave the oppressed with no recourse 
against the daily violence of imperialism. 

There currently exists no proletarian party in Ireland other 
than MIM. Only a proletarian party can successfully lead a 
national liberation struggle that does not end up back in 
neo-colonialism. An article on Ireland in MIM Theory 7, back 
in 1995 warned: "Sinn Fein is showing its will for peace by 
engaging in talks with the British government despite 
continued violence from the Protestant settlers. The concern 
is that, as it realizes the shortcoming of focoist 
strategies, it will abandon the people's demand for self-
determination. History is at a turning point."

Sinn Fein claims that this Agreement is a step towards a 
United Ireland. MIM is not aware of the full Sinn Fein 
strategy, or whether the IRA expects to continue the cease-
fire indefinitely, so we will not comment more than we did 
above. Principally, it remains to be seen how recognizing 
Northern Ireland as a legitimate entity makes the struggle 
an easier.

Note: Boston Sunday Globe 24 May 1998, p. A1, A30-31. 


* * *


PRISONS USED TO CRACK DOWN ON ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS

by RC93 and MC206

The U$ Justice Department recently budgeted $492 million for 
an effort to lock up more undocumented immigrants.(1) This 
has come in reaction to recent reports alleging that poor 
immigrants are contributing to crime in the u$. Putting 
aside money for the specific purpose of incarcerating 
immigrants only further encourages national oppression. With 
Mexicans making up more than one-third of undocumented 
immigrants to the u$ and Latin Americans as a whole 
accounting for almost two-thirds,(2) Latinos have been and 
will increasingly be targeted by immigration officials and 
police. 

The labor aristocracy in this country claims that these 
immigrants are taking away "their" jobs at lower pay. 
However, most of those who come to the u$ from Central and 
South Amerika end up serving the labor aristocracy in low-
paying, productive jobs that Amerikans don't take. 

In Los Angeles, for example, more than 72% of the non-Latino 
population is in the white-collar sector 
(managerial/technical/sales), while less than 20% of the 
Mexican/Central American population is in the white collar 
sector.(3) There is also increasing dissimilarity in the 
occupations of immigrant Latinos (documented and 
undocumented) and the occupations of whites.(3) In 
California as a whole, half of all farm workers are 
undocumented aliens.(4) In the past, workers were herded 
into the u$ from Mexico like slaves to produce food for 
Amerikan tables.(4) Salvadorans and Guatemalans are over-
represented in the private service sector (as in household 
workers, including cleaners and child care workers in 
private homes) by factors of 12 and 13, respectively.(3) 
Without these workers Amerikans would have to get their 
hands dirty, produce their own food, and clean up their own 
mess. 

The labor aristocracy also complains that these immigrants 
are using "our" tax money to survive. But, as MIM Notes 
reported in December 1994, they are pissing and moaning over 
pocket change. According to the Urban Institute, the 
services which undocumented immigrants received from 
California were worth about $1.09 billion more than what 
California received in taxes from undocumented immigrants - 
that's about $40 per California resident. That's nothing 
compared to how much food and clothing bills would double, 
triple, or quadruple for lack of immigrant labor. And more 
than one-third of that $1.09 billion was the cost of locking 
immigrants up and calling it a "service."(5)

Greedy Amerikans complain about paying for a third car, 
while people in the third world can't afford to eat. In a 
socialist society everyone will be provided with what they 
need to survive, rather than be forced to starve so that the 
wealthy can have more. When u$ corporations expatriate 
billions from the third world each year it is obvious that 
the people who risk their lives to sneak into the united 
snakes are only trying to get back what was stolen from them 
in the first place. That is why MIM believes in open 
borders, so that one nation cannot use military blockades to 
contain their wealth from other nations. 

The increase in funding to incarcerate immigrants shows how 
the injustice system is used to oppress those who do make it 
past u$ military blockades. Latinos are specifically 
targeted by the police, and this new award will encourage 
such activity, especially in states such as California, New 
York, and Texas who are receiving large portions of the 
money.(1) The anti-immigration fervor that exists among 
Amerikans reeks of the fascist belief in the oppression and 
genocide of other nations for the betterment of one's own. 
This is indicative of the reactionary nationalist sentiments 
of the white nation in Amerika, and is why MIM recognizes 
that the oppressed nations must use revolutionary force to 
free themselves from Amerika's clutches. 

Notes:
1. Associated Press.
2. Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1996.
3. Waldinger and Bozorgmehr, eds., "Ethnic Los Angeles," New 
York: Russel Sage Foundation, 1996, pp. 256, 194-296.
4. MIM Theory 7:Proletarian Feminist Revolutionary 
Nationalism.  
5. MIM Notes #95, p.1.


* * *


IN SUPPORT OF THE INDONESIAN PEOPLE'S JUST STRUGGLE FOR 
SOCIAL AND NATIONAL LIBERATION

[MIM reprints the following article from BAYAN - 
International USA to show that the Indonesian people's 
struggle against fascism and imperialist domination has 
found support throughout the world - especially in the 
oppressed nations, which face similar struggles. BAYAN - 
International USA is a legal, multi-sectoral organization in 
the broad national democratic movement of the Philippines.

MIM would only add the following comments to this article: 
(1) The World Bank - IMF are tools of imperialism, 
principally u.$. imperialism. The crises created by the WB-
IMF policies are the inevitable results of imperialism. (2) 
A strong Maoist Party and People's Army - alongside a broad 
United Front - are ultimately necessary for the true 
liberation of the Indonesian people. 

The Indonesian people have a long history of militant 
struggle (Indonesia had the largest Communist Party outside 
of China and the USSR in the 60s). MIM is confident that the 
broad masses will overcome setbacks and ultimately overthrow 
the rapacious Indonesian puppet regime. 

This article was written before Suharto resigned.]

The BAYAN International USA together with the peace-loving 
broad Filipino American community in the US condemns in the 
strongest terms the brutal repression perpetrated by the 
corrupt and fascist Suharto regime against the Indonesian in 
the recent weeks. 

The current fascist barbarities highlighted by the anti-
Chinese pogroms fanned and orchestrated by the Indonesian 
fascist police-military exposed to the whole world the 
rottenness of the Suharto fascist regime. Suharto's regime 
that is being propped up by the World Bank - IMF $43 million 
bail-out aggravates the hardship of the Indonesian people. 
The so-called WB-IMF bail out is nothing but another 
quagmire of oppression and exploitation of the Indonesian 
masses.

The Indonesian crisis is only an offshoot of the WB - IMF 
disastrous and usurious policy in Asia and worldwide. The 
whole of Asia is now reeling under the WB - IMF economic-
political impositions such as structure adjustments and 
bail-out programs. Indonesia, Korea, Thailand, and the 
Philippines are now convulsing due to imperialist schemes 
against the masses of workers and the peasants in the third 
world.

Economic miserableness, extreme poverty, deprivation of 
basic people's needs is the order of the day prescribed by 
the IMF-WB to fleece the third world nations of needed funds 
to pay the new and old piled up debts. The result is 
increased oppression, heightened exploitation and escalating 
people's resistance as in the case of Indonesia, South 
Korea, and the Philippines.

In Pakistan, India, South Korea and the Philippines, so-
called "democratic" transition through bourgeois managed 
elections were held to divert the people's energy towards 
peaceful means as a safety valve to people's indignation. 
But the Indonesian fascist regime is bent to rule in the old 
way - through armored cars, rifle butts, and the rule of 
fixed bayonets.

Therefore, it is not surprising that Indonesia is now the 
flash point of protest and resistance to imperialist's 
imposition and fascist suppression and will be the bourgeois 
media's center of attention. The Indonesian upsurge is but a 
symptomatic result of [...] the failure of the US policy of 
sponsorship of fascist regimes while paying lip service to 
"democratic principles."

The long running Suharto regime that was built on the 
corpses of more than a million Indonesians in 1965 and 
hundreds of thousands of East Timorese and Papuans who 
struggled for self determination is vulnerable after all. We 
wholeheartedly support the just struggle of all the 
Indonesian democratic forces and people for waging bold 
resistance against the Suharto regime. We especially admire 
the Indonesian workers and peasants and the youth who now 
realized their revolutionary potential in the service of the 
people and their class.

Building a broad legal democratic movement is necessary to 
arouse, organize and mobilize the broadest of people's 
forces against the narrowest target - the fascist enemy of 
Indonesia. We believe that with a broad united front, the 
Indonesian people will finally shatter the more than three 
decades of fascist terror that Suharto has been bragging 
about in the whole of Asia for the last years.

As in the case of the Marcos fascist regime in the 
Philippines, the ruling Suharto regime will be overthrown if 
the Indonesian people unite and persist in their just 
struggle for social and national liberation. We are 
confident that the Indonesian people and the broad 
democratic and progressive forces will continue to push 
further the upsurge of the people's movement as a result of 
the rapidly worsening crisis of the world capitalist system.

Down with the Suharto military fascist regime!
Long live the Indonesian people's just struggle!
Long live international solidarity!

National Coordinator
BAYAN International - USA
May 17, 1998 BAYAN International - USA
PO Box 8625546 Los Angeles CA 90086-2546


* * *


NEW YORK WAGES WAR IN SCHENECTADY

by an RC

The New York Army and Air National Guard has increased its 
activities in Schenectady including the use of helicopters 
to spy on inner city areas.(1) The Guard has been increasing 
its role by adding more of what it refers to as "peacetime 
activities." However, MIM points out the u$ is currently 
waging low-profile warfare around the world as well as in 
certain areas within its own illegitimate borders. 

Schenectady was chosen as the test site for the program 
developed by Governor George Pataki and Co. The plan brings 
military equipment, including helicopters, into chosen 
localities to fight the "War on Drugs," or any other battle 
deemed appropriate. The stress in the bourgeoisie press has 
been under the cover of the "War on Drugs." This has 
continuously been used to justify military actions at home 
and abroad in the last two decades. However, MIM has shown 
in many instances how this war has been used to destroy 
people's movements and maintain u$ hegemony over both 
internal and external colonies, while maintaining drug 
trafficking profits for u$ imperialists.(2)

The expensive technology being employed in this small city 
seems almost ridiculous, at first. The helicopters are used 
to map out areas that are to be raided. Using infrared 
technology they can determine the number and location of the 
people in the local. Meanwhile, ion scans are used to detect 
cocaine residues.(1) The use of such equipment shows the 
serious repressive potential of the u$. The u$ continues to 
produce warfare technology during supposed peace times, 
maintaining a multi-billion dollar military-industrial 
complex, and keeping the oppressed in their place. They use 
force against the people, claiming to be eradicating poisons 
that they fed into the communities in the first place.

In a previous MIM report exposing Amerikan militarism under 
the "War on Drugs," we quoted the Nation: "[T]he majority of 
the L.A.P.D.'s computer-enhanced surveillance concentrates 
on the same neighborhoods in which local schools lack basic 
P.C.s--not to mention adequate textbooks. But the social 
causes of crime, such as poor education and lack of jobs, do 
not concern the National Institute of Justice(NIJ) or most 
police forces. Thus the N.I.J.'s director of science and 
technology, David Boyd...is often quoted saying, 'This 
[police use of military high-tech] is the real peace 
dividend.'"(2) So internal law enforcement welcomes these 
new technologies, while oppressed nations don't have the 
equipment to get an education. The police will argue that 
this high-tech equipment is not superfluous. MIM would agree 
from the perspective of the oppressor nation which needs to 
use force in order to maintain its position in the world, 
but for the proletariat this equipment is a waste of energy 
that could be used to better the many social-ills. MIM also 
recognizes that it is the continuous militarization of 
imperialist countries that makes it necessary for violent 
revolution to overcome these ills. 

NOTES:
1. Times Union, 21 May 1998, B-1. 2. E.g. MIM Theory no. 10, 
p. 47.
2. The Nation. 3 February 1997.
3. MIM Notes 143, 1 August 1997. 


* * *


UNDER LOCK & KEY

LET'S TALK ABOUT CHANGE

Many prisoners speak about change;
But there will never be any change;
until we as prisoners, combine our brains;
   All else is futile
   As the prison keepers continue to smile
   The worst of criminals continue to run wild
While we continue to cry for relief
As our grief
Continues to mount
So does the prison count
We need to find a way to overcome and surmount
   But talking about it
   Isn't gonna help one bit
So what are we going to do?
   Fight for our rights
   Combine our minds and unite
Or keep letting the oppressors oppress
Us with their discriminatory and abusive mess?
   We can't wait to plan tomorrow
   We have to do it now
   But how?
Remains a mystery 
And secret unbeknownst to me.
-- A Prisoner

MIM responds: The most effective way forward in this fight 
does not have to be a secret unbeknownst to the people. 
Through a careful study of history and politics we can come 
up with an effective line and strategy to fight the system 
of imperialism. It was this study that led MIM to the 
conclusion that Maoism is the ideology that has made the 
greatest strides towards communism.


BIASED PAROLE OFFICER

...I am a parole violation. I didn't get a new charge. I got 
a banishment for a five county area. And the parole man 
wrote lots of bad things up on men, and sends me back to 
prison, because I was making more money legally (in the 
roofing industry) than he was....

 --A Georgia Prisoner, 1 March 1998


AMERIKKKA'S LEGAL SLAVERY

...This system of prisons throughout the US is nothing short 
of redeveloped legal slavery. Read the 13th Amendment in the 
Amerikkkan Klanstitution! Why else is it necessary to put 
one hundred thousand police on salary in the urban Black, 
Brown and lower income White neighborhoods, if their task 
isn't to capture fresh slaves for the prison industrial 
complex. And the rebel, or the educators, people who demand 
what small rights are due them? [They get] Punishment! 
Sensory deprivation, psychological trauma, drug therapy to 
correct the trauma and continued isolation.

You! You, must stop this. They are putting babies in prison. 
10, 12, 14 year old children are being tried as adults and 
no one is protesting this! Unemployment in the nation is 3% 
but the in the Black community it is 32%, and they claim 
that we don't need affirmative action and racism is dead!? 
The police kick, beat and shoot people at will and it's 
alright, after all didn't we see them do it on New York 
Undercover? It must be cool, right?! WRONG! We are being 
subjected to social engineering on a massive scale. Wake up! 
Join the coalition for the eradication of control units. 
Join the fight to save your children from slavery.

In Solidarity,

--A California Prisoner, 11 March 1998

MIM responds: Slavery has never been fully outlawed in the 
United Snakkkes, as the constitutional amendment this 
prisoner cites states that slavery "as a punishment for a 
crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted" is 
quite alright. MIM and RAIL are working to expose this 
modern-day slavery in Amerika's gulags and we regularly host 
public events and print articles in our press exposing the 
details of Amerikan slavery. We agree with this comrade's 
assessment that the police on the streets exist to lock up 
more oppressed nationals in the prisons, but we believe that 
imperialist control of these nations takes first seat over 
any other concerns. Imperialism demands that the oppressed 
be locked up, where they cannot organize most effectively 
for revolution. This includes locking up children before 
they even have a chance to learn the history of their 
people's oppression by and resistance to imperialism. 

We call on all comrades who oppose imperialism, 
disproportionate imprisonment and unemployment, slave labor 
in prisons, and brutality in the form of police and control 
units to join in the fight to build independent institutions 
of the oppressed. Help build this Under Lock & Key section 
of MIM Notes and our newspaper as a whole; it is the first 
organizing step to building a revolutionary movement that 
will topple imperialism.


AMERIKKAN SENSORY DEPRIVATION CHAMBERS

I sit here and watch the proliferation of these new Control 
Unit Correctional Facilities across these United States. 

I see a political consensus among the White Power Elite to 
carry out a massive program of genocide against the Black 
male population. It's just that instead of using bullets and 
poison gas, they have decided to use prisons. This is how 
they have decided to resolve the Black Underclass problem: 
To incarcerate as many young, unskilled, troubled Black 
males as they can, for as long as they can.

...There is another sinister component to this covert 
program of genocide that brings the real murderous intent of 
the White Power Elite to the surface. It is the insidious 
practice in the Correctional Facilities of segregating 
[prisoners] Black males in particular, for basically the 
duration of their prison sentence in deprivation chambers 
called "Segregation Units" once they arrive at the prison 
facility.

This segregation practice, along with poor, minimum dietary 
practices, woefully inadequate access to health care, mental 
health and exercise opportunities are having a powerfully 
sinister effect on the mental and physical health, life 
expectancy and morality rate of long term segregated 
inmates.

In Correctional Facilities all across these United States, 
Black males are falling dead in these Segregation Units. In 
the Segregation Unit that I am in at the El Dorado 
Correctional Facility here in El Dorado, Kansas, an average 
of two Black males a year die from stress, or from stress-
related diseases and/or complications caused by the 
cumulative effect of these practices and inadequate health 
care over time. And even more are attempting suicide, and 
losing their minds as a result of being segregated in these 
deprivation chambers (units) for extended periods of time.

On average, after about five years in segregation, an inmate 
starts to exhibit physiological and psychological 
abnormalities.

Most black males have always believed that if given the 
right cover/pretext, that the American White-Power-Elite 
would do something to make the German Nazis look like choir 
boys. 

Is this our fear being realized, or is it just the first 
step of something more ominous to come? It is time to holler 
loud and clear and expose what is going on behind the walls 
of these "Correctional Facilities" in American NOW!

Don't wait 'til they build the incinerators.

In Hope and Struggle,

--A Kansas Prisoner, 24 April 1998


EXPOSING NEW GANG UNITS IN NEW JERSEY

...On March 13, 1998, about 80 prisoners were transferred 
from Rahway and shipped here to Northern State Prison to a 
new gang unit. Here they are housing Latin Kings, Netas, 
5%ers and some white hate groups. They have us all separated 
and want us to deny any membership before letting us out of 
this unit. 

I as a member of the Latin Kings refuse to do such a thing. 
Therefore I will remain locked down in these new kages. 
These Pigs are only trying to break the band of Brotherhood, 
which will not work. And the reality is putting us all 
together they only make us stronger....

Our Struggle Continues,

--A New Jersey Prisoner, 5 April 1998


OPPRESSING LATINOS IN MASS

Que Pasa Comrades?

...I'm a Prisoner in the Maximum joint. I'm Puerto Rican and 
have been in this toilet for fifteen years. Right now these 
low-lifes [guards] are hitting the Latino people hard. 90 
percent of all Latinos are being accused of being a gang 
member, so they made four special blocks for the Latino 
people. You come out of your cell one hour a day, not 
everyday. Three showers a week. One hour a week in the yard, 
outside. 

The racist low-life cops just harass everybody, and most 
dudes don't even speak English. No jobs, no nothing. Now we 
can't even take their so-called education program. We get 
two hours a week in the law library. There are no Spanish-
speaking people down there to help anybody out. 

This started back in April of 1995. I was there [Latino 
Segregated Block] for two years. Then I was transferred to 
DDU [Disciplinary Detention Unit]. You know the DDU is much 
better than those Plymouth Blocks.

I just filed a lawsuit, but I can't even get the right help. 
I don't have access to anything. I'll keep you posted on 
things. Y'all stay strong....

In the struggle!

--A Massachusetts Prisoner, 10 April 1998

MIM responds: A RAIL Comrade's article on protests against 
the so-called gang blocks at Walpole prison ran in MIM Notes 
163, page 7. The "gang" block prisoners have been locked 
down since last summer, off and on they have been denied 
their property (including clothing) and food, beaten and 
verbally harassed. In March of 1998 a group of prisoners was 
told that they could be transferred to a level four facility 
if they would renounce Neta membership. When the prisoners 
refused they were shoved down stairs while in cuffs and 
shackles, and then beaten by guards and bitten by guard dogs 
one by one. 

The Massachusetts DOC has claimed total ignorance of these 
attacks even on seeing photos of the prisoners' injuries. 
MIM will continue to use our newspaper to publicize the 
pigs' indifference to and abuse of human life. We work to 
expose these atrocities while we build MIM Notes as an 
independent institution of the oppressed, because such 
institutions are the basis for overthrowing imperialism. All 
people who are righteously outraged by this brutality should 
work with RAIL and MIM to oppose imperialism in the U.$. 
criminal INjustice system and in all its other ugly forms.


ATTACKED IN MANACLES

Dear Under Lock and Key,

I am writing this letter to inform you that I am a prisoner 
who has been assaulted in full manacles, off and on for the 
past three and a half years. I was attacked coming back from 
sick call. I was brutally beaten with a baton and pushed and 
kicked for no reason. In asking for medical treatment I 
received from this beating a broken nose, two injuries to 
both knees, and broken hand/wrist. 

Another time, I was in full manacles in my cell and an 
extraction team ran in on me. I received injuries to my 
face, nose and ankles. I had not been doing anything but was 
accused by prison officials so they would have a reason to 
assault me. They are trying to scare me from filing the 
paperwork on a lawsuit I have pending in the court. 

Just recently I was attacked while in a recreation area. Two 
correction officers accused me of hitting an officer. This 
is a lie he didn't have any injury at all. It was just an 
excuse to get the extraction team to run in on me. The goons 
intimidate me in retaliation against me for filing several 
lawsuits in the courts. I received another broken nose and 
injuries to my lower back, hand and wrist, while being in 
full manacles. 

I can not move my neck at all. A goon put his elbow in the 
back of my neck, while they [the other pigs] tried to break 
my arm and wrist. I received a black eye and another broken 
nose. 

They have covered it up through the Correction 
Department.... My main reason for writing you is to let the 
public know what these evil people have done to me....

 --An Indiana Prisoner, 23 March 1998


DELAWARE BRUTALITY

...I'm in the Delaware Correction Center (DCC). This has to 
be the worst prison on the East Coast. I have seen things 
here no man should be faced with. Inmates are beaten and 
maced, not to mention handcuffed for hours at a time, for 
the mere reason the C.O. [Correction Officer] wanted to do 
so. I have been called out of my name by this face ass 
police many times. Yet that is only a small part of the 
corruption going on here at DCC.

...Not only that, men are dying in here like crazy. I got to 
the point, I had to call my family to come down here, so 
this department of corruption could see I have loved ones 
and they [the pigs] cannot just do anything to me.

...Surprisingly you don't have a lot of guys going to the 
hole for homo acts, but get caught with a sandwich you just 
might get your good time taken. Delaware is an alone state, 
meaning no one questions the things that go on here and 
there is nothing to help the prisoners here.

I am in the struggle because my children need a better 
chance at life, and I want for my brother what I want for 
myself. The pigs that run this system here are KKK without a 
doubt and the bullshit needs to cease quick fast and in a 
hurry.

In the Struggle for Life,

--A Delaware Prisoner, 12 March 1998

MIM responds: MIM says that all prisoners in Amerika are 
political prisoners for just the reasons this comrade 
describes. When prison pigs can beat, poison and murder 
prisoners with legal impunity, serving a prison term is a 
political sentence. The real criminals are those in the 
government and prisons system who brutalize prisoners and 
call it justice. Whether prisoners are punished for having 
their own food or for their sexuality, the DOCs have no 
legitimate authority to be handing out such punishment. 
Prisons serve imperialism by controlling the bodies, labor 
and political and educational activities of oppressed nation 
men who commit the crime of trying to live within U.$. 
borders. 

MIM looks to revolutionary China (1949-1976) for a 
progressive example of how to run a prison. For a prison to 
enjoy true authority --that which is bestowed by a majority 
of the people who may be imprisoned --it must promote 
justice and social consciousness for all people equally. 
Revolutionary Chinese prisons included criticism-self-
criticism for those who had been judged guilty of crimes by 
the people. Chinese prisoners were encouraged to work and 
study together as well and to see the value of their own 
contributions to society. MIM works towards a society in 
which all prisons will function on these basic principles. 
To learn more about prisons in revolutionary China, send $10 
for a copy of the book Prisoners of Liberation.


PIGS SPRAYING CHEMICAL IN TEXAS

I am writing this letter in regards to the continued use, 
practice and unconstitutional experimentation of chemical 
agents and other forms of excessive force, abuse, assaults 
and conspiracy against persons confined in state first 
maximum security segregation plantation in Huntsville, 
Walker County, Texas and in this facility. I have witnessed, 
experienced and suffered from the experimental practice of 
chemical agents upon us (prisoners) by Texas prison 
plantation officials and their administrators ... 

On a daily basis, mostly minority prisoners are being 
sprayed with gases of an unidentified nature which so burns 
the skin for several hours and has internal side-effects 
(causing difficulties in breathing, thought functioning and 
chronic excretory functions/dysfunction's).

... But despite all the knowledge given through prisoner 
legal assistant foundations to governmental officials, the 
abuse, unconstitutional practices and chemical 
experimentations that exist in this facility and other 
prison plantations in this system have not been addressed.

... Today March 15th, 1998 fourteen prisoners of the Estelle 
High Security Plantation in Huntsville took brief control of 
the food slots on the cell doors. Only after requesting to 
speak to supervisors, in protest to the continued denial of 
adequate food [the] prisoners were only given one fried egg, 
two flour tortillas and a container of milk.

... With no form of resolution being offered, immediate 
supervisors began a series of assaults upon prisoners with 
the use of chemical agents and a five man use of force team 
totaling some one thousand plus pounds of body weight. 
Twelve prisoners were gassed and four of that twelve were 
additionally attacked by the use of force team.

... There was no form of adequate medical clearance by UTMB 
staff nor was there a UTMB staff member present during the 
first two assaults. In addition there were no examinations 
or treatment given to any of us prisoners (with the 
exception of the first two who were taken off the cell block 
for several hours). ... After being gassed we were placed 
back into the same contaminated cells with no clothing, 
necessities or property (stationary, legal materials, etc. 
etc.). And each prisoner was denied yet another meal some 
six hours later with correctional staff stating we prisoners 
refused to comply with procedures.

... Institutional officials Wayne Scott (Executive 
director), Gary Johnson (director) and Chairman of the board 
Allan Polansky along with Region 1 director Ed G. Owens have 
been previously informed of the abusive unconstitutional 
conditions here and yet no one had addressed these issues 
... 

Again the "Emergency Action Center" has been put on notice 
of the events that have occurred on this date by way of my 
pen (and others') to obtain some form of immediate 
resolution and for assistance in putting society on notice 
...

 --A Texas prisoner, 15 March 1998


RULES CHANGE BUT GUARDS' BRUTAL BEHAVIOR CONTINUES

The requirements I need to have is a Line 1 or an S4. These 
are level categories and as of right now I am at the bottom 
of the list at a line 3 & the highest a person can get is a 
S1. Yet they keep changing laws and regulations so that now 
an offender has to do a year with no cases before we are 
able to get any type of upgrade in status. Every time we get 
a major case, it starts over from that day. So it really 
ain't up to our behavior as much as it is to the officials 
that might decide to give you a case all because you don't 
want to play some kind of silly game such as indulging in 
name-calling or horse playing. 

In some cases even when a person indulges in the officers' 
game and the prisoner gets the best of the officer; he may 
retaliate by giving the prisoner a case of some kind. There 
are at least 45 different offense codes to write a prisoner 
up for and in most cases it's the offenders word against the 
officers. So in those types of situations prisoners never 
beat the case. So as you can see the law was made to keep 
prisoners locked up ...

On the issue about paying for medical ... well they have 
recently started charging us $3 just to get us checked out 
where in most cases the nurse will tell us to take some 
Tylenol and we'll be alright. I'll send you a little 
something about this. As of right now I'm in Administrative 
Segregation and we don't have no type of god or educational 
programs whatsoever. They do have a general library with 
reading and learning materials but only level 1s can use the 
library ...

On the Wynne Unit they have a lot of inmate brutality where 
prisoners are being slammed and beaten while in handcuff 
restraints, which ad seg [administrative segregation] 
prisoners are required to wear anytime they leave the cell. 
I myself have been slammed and beaten and I am seeking legal 
action for the official's unjustifiable acts of unnecessary 
use of force. 

The majority of the unnecessary use of force is done on 
illiterate offenders who don't know how to read or write. 
They're sometimes jumped on for spitting on officers, 
cursing officers but the majority of the time it's for no 
reason at all. Like when prisoners file grievances on 
officers. Later on down the line the officer will retaliate 
in that way. So the treatment is very bad in most of the 
Texas prisons. Not to mention the use of chemical agents 
which in some cases has killed prisoners. And if the gas 
doesn't the 5-man suit up team might. For when they first 
make contact with the prisoner that's been sprayed with 
chemical agents they start punching, kicking, kneeing, 
twisting body parts and in a lot of times they dig into your 
eyes and squeeze your testicles. 

There are also cases where prisoners are retaliated on in 
other ways. Such as the officer throwing urine into the 
cell. Or turn water off for the whole shift, where you have 
no drinking or toilet water and a lot of the times they 
refuse your meal, recreation or shower. Go into your cell 
and throw everything around and give you a case for having a 
milk carton in your cell or something as simple as that. 
Sometimes we keep our milk cartons because they only give 
you a cup at mealtime and take it back when they pick up 
trays. And we are stuck to drink milk from our hand. Yeah 
that's the type of treatment we receive in some of these 
Texas prisons. Some worse than others like this unit has the 
worst racial discrimination I ever seen. 

 --Texas prisoner, 5 April 1998


TEXAS PLANTATION CONDITIONS

In my last letter I conveyed some information to you 
concerning the conditions of this particular slave 
plantation. For some reason, I believe that the unit 
mailroom intercepted my missive due to its potency. 
Nevertheless, the sub-human treatment cannot be justified. 

You may have recently seen a news segment on ABC Nightline 
where I had a chance to demonstrate how we had to drink 
water because the administration won't allow us to have our 
own personal drinking cups. I also demonstrated how I have 
to write letters because we do not have desks in our cells 
to write on. These are the things that the tax payers are 
unaware of. They are unaware of the fact that these 
capitalist swine are denying us the basic necessities of 
life such as toothpaste, deodorant, hairbrushes and other 
grooming supplies under the guidelines of the A.D.03.50. 

Under the A.D.03.50 we are denied the right to library 
privileges also which means the right to education. People 
in society are always reading or hearing something about 
recidivism. But recidivism means job security for these 
bakkkwoods rednekkks. So what's more important, job security 
or a bunch of convicted felons trying to uplift themselves 
in the belly of the beast? At any rate I am going to survive 
as well as educate these young brothers that I have 
influence over ...

 --A Texas Prisoner 


THE MISERY DEPARTMENT OF OPPRESSION

After throwing urine into the faces of several imperialist 
flunkies who destroyed personal property of mine during a 
"routine cell search," I was transferred to a maximum 
security facility. I never knew the plight of my comrades 
and brethren until transferring to Missouri's newest gulag.

After the uprising of the oppressed (described in MIM Notes, 
Jan 15th Edition, "Concentration Camp in Missouri), the 
administration (pigs in suits) created new rules allowing 
only a single unit out of six to recreate on a rotating 
schedule. Thereby oppressing us even more and making a 
unified stand impossible.

I was in general population until I filed a civil complaint 
against superintendent head pig, Mike Kemna, and Misery 
Department of Oppressions Director, Dora Schriro. Now I'm in 
segregation (the hole) for "Organized Disobedience" for 
playing touch football in the snow. 

Since I've been in the hole I've witnessed the continual 
oppression of my black, white and latin comrades. I've seen 
my brothers assaulted and beaten while cuffed behind their 
backs. I've watch comrades being maced for banging on their 
doors in attempt to alert the pigs that their cells were 
being flooded by water and feces by the cell above. Large 
canisters of pepper mace which are normally used for crowd 
control are sprayed until empty in the confines of a six by 
twelve foot cell, virtually suffocating those inside. These 
and many more human rights violations occur daily by mace-
toting, jackbooted, hireling pigs.

We are denied access to legal material and sharpened pencils 
so often it's almost policy. (I'm writing to you with a pen 
smuggled in.) The pigs came and confiscated everyone's 
toothbrushes last week. Claiming that they may be used as 
weapons (against cavities and plaque, maybe.) We were then 
given thimbles with bristles and they expected us to brush 
our teeth with those. Several men have already choked on 
them.

While I am serving a 10-year sentence for assaulting the 
person who assaulted my wife, many of my comrades are here 
for life. The Misery Department of Oppression is a billion 
dollar industry, through which the capitalist state regime 
finances itself by the warehousing and exploitation paid for 
by taxing the masses and by funding from the imperialist 
federal government.

Your Comrade in cuffs,

--A Missouri Prisoner, 6 February 1998


WHO'S THE REAL CROOK?

I am writing to inform MIM of the conditions and the overly 
long duration of stay here at X complex Arizona state prison 
that are being enforced upon not only myself, but all other 
prisoners that get placed here, for good reason or not. That 
includes smoking in a building, the reason I am here, which 
goes to show the ridiculous application or usage of their 
re-classification system.

... They try to modify our behavior with placement in this 
facility. I'm of the opinion that being single celled 
without physical association with other humans tends to add 
to, or bring out pent up animosity. Whether directed at DOC 
employees or other prisoners. (From my understanding the 
average stay is 10 months and up.)

... The warden took hot lunches and replaced them with cold 
sack lunches 5 days a week; our food portions have seemed to 
become strictly rationed at breakfast and dinner. We no 
longer get hot cereal in the morning, nor cake with our 
dinner. He took away soda purchase from the store. He took 
razors from the store, which makes it extremely hard to 
comply with DOC policy of being clean-every day.

The warden has brought out the ire of his inmate population 
towards his staff with the institution of these policies. I 
understand that if I mess up in prison I am subject to the 
punishment of isolation in a super maximum facility for a 
term of 180 days. My objection is the unnecessarily cruel 
punishment for trivial SHIT!!!

 --An Arizona Prisoner, 3 February 1998


THE REAL CRIMNALS RUN THE PRISON

...Everyone seems to be scared of the MDOC [Michigan 
Department of Incorrections]. This facility I am at now is 
one of the worst in Michigan. The guards spit and piss in 
our food. Set us up. Gas us. Steel our property. Deny us 
legal books.

...These pigs bring weapons, drugs and so in here. They have 
sex with prisoners. ...

 --A Michigan Prisoner

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