Coalition Against U.$. Empire hails MIM's platform The CAU$E has studied the Platform of the Maoist Internationalist Movement, and we view it as a very positive development for MIM and the global anti-imperialist/anti-capitalist movement. The CAU$E wholeheartedly endorses the minimum and impossible demands. We would add the following minimum demand: * Eliminate the interest on debt owed to the World Bank by oppressed nations; any payments made by oppressed nations so far should be considered payment on the principal amounted loaned. The Muslim comrades within the CAU$E also wish to add the following qualifications to planks under "dictatorship of the proletariat:" * that the former imperialist nations be granted autonomy by the proletarian UN in all matters not necessary to the securing of international economic restitution for formerly oppressed nations. * that the ban on pornography be total and not just on porn for profit. * that "mandatory sex education" be restricted to "plumbing" (the biology of reproduction) and not include any discussion of value. While some CAU$E comrades (particularly the anarchists) do not, at this point, recognize the necessity or legitimacy of a dictatorship of the proletariat led by a vanguard party, all CAU$E comrades nonetheless endorse the goals of MIM should MIM become that vanguard party. The "minimum demands" portion is particularly timely given the anti-globalization movement. This movement has been (only somewhat accurately) criticized by the capitalist press as not having an affirmative alternative to the bourgeoisie's global agenda. We would love to see protestors at the gates of the next anti-globalization summit with million-signature petitions in their hands calling for MIM's minimum demands. This would help gain support of the middle classes while serving the proletariat. MC206 responds: We appreciate CAU$E's endorsement of our platform planks and its exemplary willingness to work with us on burning issues even while we struggle over political line. We also welcome CAU$E's suggested additions to the platform, although we have concerns about some of them. * Certainly the demand about interest on Third World debt is correct and winnable -- in fact, MIM considers demands for the outright forgiveness of Third World debt winnable (See the MIM Notes article on this topic on our web site: http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/mn/text.php?mimf ile=mn238/bono.txt). MIM branches could immediately launch or support campaigns for interest- and/or debt-forgiveness. * What would autonomy on all non-reparations issues look like? Would it include tolerance for ideas of racial supremacy? Would the dictatorship of the proletariat intervene if Christian Scientists denied their children medical care? At what level does autonomy stop? If the socially conservative "Bible Belt" states wanted to ban homosexuals from teaching, could they, in the name of autonomy? Patriarchy, for example, cannot be reduced to national oppression. Banning pornography for profit -- or banning it completely, as some CAU$E comrades suggest -- is not a matter of ensuring reparations to the former oppressed nations. Would such a measure depend completely on the "autonomy" of former oppressor nations? Capitalism also cannot be reduced to national oppression, although that is its principal manifestation today. Would the dictatorship of the proletariat allow good ol' Amerikan rugged frontier individualism to flourish? * Sex education which only focuses on "plumbing" will leave youngsters vulnerable to adults and perpetuate the power relations underlying romance culture. See for example the interview in this issue with a former citizen of the Soviet Union. Her problems did not arise from ignorance of nuts and bolts, rather from not knowing the different social expectations that accompanied sex. As an analogy, would socialist schools simply talk about the technical details of steel production, or would they also talk about social relations (capitalist or socialist) motivating and affecting steel production? * Considering that pornography is omni-present in Amerikan society -- not just Hustler and Playboy but Cosmo and the 6:00 news as well (e.g. Gary Condit) -- is an immediate total ban on pornography feasible? Will its enforcement just lead to more pornography, of the let's snoop around in people's dirty laundry sort? A ban on porn for profit, together with state subsidies for ideological campaigns against patriarchal ideas and a general push to get people to think of their lives in terms of commitment to the social good (instead of romantic/sexual obsessions) -- these are already powerful weapons. Unlike the current government, we won't be looking for reasons to lock people up on an individual, moralistic basis, in order to justify a huge prisons industry. We look forward to continuing this discussion with CAU$E. Readers should write to us with comments and suggestions for our platform (http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/wim/cong/platfo rm01.html), which lists specific demands including reforms in the capitalist system. The platform is very much a work in progress.