MIM attends Amherest anti-militarist rally

AMHERST, MASSACHUSETTS--MIM attended a rally of 
150 people against the war in Afghanistan and Star 
Wars on October 13th. The organizers included a 
variety of local organizations, including Buddhist 
"Nam myoho renge kyo,"(?) Quaker and local peace 
groups. Also in attendance was the International 
Socialist Organization (ISO).

A theme uniting the rally is the belief that a 
better world is possible. Activist leaders 
correctly state that this war in Afghanistan will 
not solve anything. Also, half of the criticism of 
the rally targetted the "missile defense" or Star 
Wars program--again as a false solution for the 
world's problems.

Of particular note was the older cast of the 
organizers of this rally. It was heartening to see 
that people with white hair could still say that 
they could imagine a better world.

Like many peace rallies in the united $tates, this 
one lacked a sufficient level of aggression 
against war crimes, the biggest ones being carried 
out by Uncle Sam. Typically, on display was an 
exhibit regarding Jeanette Rankin, the first 
elected womyn in the U.S. Congress. She was famous 
for saying: "You can no more win a war than win an 
earthquake."

MIM considers such a view to be correct in the 
long run. In the short run though, it would be a 
mistake to deny that the end of slavery took a 
war. Likewise, the war-profiteers will not give up 
their lifestyles without a fight. Rally organizers 
did note repeatedly the people who are profiting 
from this war, but they did not draw any 
conclusions about how this sort of persyn would be 
willing to give up his or her profits.

For this reason, we Maoists are scientists. The 
scientific aspect of this rally is that its 
participants could see through the government's 
false solutions as doing no good. On the other 
hand, the belief that we can eliminate the causes 
of war without war is also unscientific at this 
stage in history.

We see stages of humyn progress and we do not make 
the perfect the enemy of the good. People who 
criticize the good with the perfect of their minds 
are religious dogmatists whether they know it or 
not, and often such dogmatists are the first to 
criticize scientists for dogamtism. Likewise, 
those who criticize the U.S. Civil War for its 
violence are actually taking the side of the 
prolonged violence inherent to slavery.

MIM handed out the November 1st issue of MIM Notes 
hot off the presses. The local population 
including the University of Massachusetts students 
walking the streets received the paper well and 
seemed glad to see it coming out.