Anti-war organizers brave chilly atmosphere on 
campus

September 26 -- MIM and RAIL were out on the UC 
Berkeley campus September 24th with a sign that 
read "No Invasions, Oppose U.$. Militarism," 
handing out copies of the MIM Notes special 
edition on the World Trade Center attack and 
talking to people about what we can do to fight 
u.s. imperialism. The Berkeley campus was the site 
of an anti-war rally that drew thousands of 
students the week before, and this is historically 
one of the most politically aware and active 
campuses in the country. But although a lot of 
people stopped to take a flyer, the overwhelming 
majority of passersby looked uninterested or 
indicated that they disagreed with us.

Some of those who did stop to talk to us expressed 
that they felt isolated in their opposition to the 
latest war effort. One womyn even said that it 
seemed the most progressive action she could take 
right now was to not be waving an Amerikan flag.

A few people stopped to argue tactics with us: 
they disagreed with our approach to anti-
imperialist education. One man thought we should 
stop spelling Amerika with a "k" in this time when 
many people are starting to think differently 
about politics after the WTC attack. MIM agrees 
that we need to be targeting our message to a wide 
range of people, but this doesn't mean we need to 
sacrifice our political line. As a MIM supporter 
pointed out to him, his argument would suggest 
that we should drop the name "Maoist" or the 
ideology of communism as well. Instead MIM 
believes that the non-communist groups play an 
essential role in educating and organizing those 
who are not ready to hear the communist message.

Another man thought that our message needed to be 
more targeted towards making the people of Amerika 
feel good about themselves. He argued out that 
this is how the far right achieves its strong 
appeal among white Amerika. MIM thinks this is 
true: white Amerika gets a national chauvinist 
message from the far right that says it is worth 
more than anyone else. But MIM is not about 
telling people they should feel good for who they 
are. We tell people they should feel good for what 
they do. If you are white and wealthy or Latino 
and poor what matters is which side of imperialism 
you join. As a group white people should not feel 
good about their role in imperialism, but those 
who commit class suicide and join the 
revolutionary movement should feel good about the 
actions they are taking to end oppression and 
exploitation.