Inside this issue: Masses kick CIA butt, A2 pigs target Black nation, Pigs
                   execute 14-year old, KIDS review
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   RAIL Notes  RAIL Notes  RAIL Notes  RAIL Notes  RAIL Notes  RAIL Notes
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   A publication of the Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League -=- FALL 1995

***
*** What is RAIL?
***

Thr Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League (RAIL) is a mass organization of
anti-imperialists led by the Maoist Internarionalist Movement (MIM). RAIL
is for anyone who supports self-determination for all peoples including the
necessity of armed struggle against imperialism. The only requirement for
joining RAIL is the recognition that RAIL will be led by MIM. RAIL members
should not attempt to conceal this fact when working amongst the masses.
In practice, accepting MIM leadership will mean that RAIL chapters do not
accept the leadership of other organizations or worked out lines.
RAIL, P.O. Box 3576 Ann Arbor, MI 48106-3576

***
*** Newspaper employees strike for piece of pie
***

	Two thousand, five hundred employees of the Detroit News Agency (DNA)
have been on strike since July 13th. At least one Trotskyist front group, the
National Women's Rights Organizing Committee (NWROC), is organizing to help
the strikers. MIM takes the Maoist line and upholds the perspective of the
international proletariat: the Labor Aristocrat strikers are in a bloody
alliance with the big corporate capitalists. The DNA employees want better
benefits in exchange for their service, even though these benefits can only
be proffered at the expense of the Third World proletariat.
   After the contracts for these printers, press operators, mailers,
photoengravers, and newsroom and maintenance workers expired April 30th of
this year. The unions and DNA have been firing accusations of bargaining in
bad faith back and forth ever since; with disputes over pay raises, company
supplements to pensions and job security blocking a settlement.(1) In June,
the labor board ruled against the Newspaper Guild Union 22 for failing to
bargain in good faith on an overtime proposal by management. Now the National
Labor Relations Board is considering union complaints that the newspapers
bargained in bad faith.(4)
   There is nothing heroic about workers who already have benefits and
pensions arguing over more benefits and pensions while other workers don't get
enough to eat. The strikers have solicited funds from the AFL-CIO to support
their strike,(5) and were promised up to $1 million.(6) This is the same
AFL-CIO that got its money by opposing the struggles of Japanese and Mexican
farm workers in California(8) and supported the UAW's fight against Black
nationalists and oppressed nationals in Detroit.(9)
   The NWROC has tried to build support for the strikers by asking subscribers
to drop their subscriptions to the DNA papers and protested stores that carry
them, like Border's Bookstores.
   MIM supports the struggle of Third World workers for survival wages and
working conditions. We work to build public opinion in favor of national
liberation struggles, independent institutions of the oppressed and anti-
imperialism and anti-militarism. If the striking workers in this country would
strike in favor of these goals, MIM would support them in that. But history
tells us not to tail after struggles that ignore the interests of the Third
World proletariat. We will continue to struggle scientifically against those
who would subjugate the just struggles of the oppressed to bogus First World
chauvinist goals.

Notes:
1. The Michigan Daily 7/19/95, p. 3.
2. The Detroit News 8/6/95, p. 6A.
3. The Detroit News and Free Press 8/10/95, p. A1, A11.
4. The Detroit New and Free Press 8/9/95, p. A1, 9A.
5. The Detroit News 8/2/95 p. 4A.
6. The Detroit Free Press 8/3/95, C1.
8. See Racial Fault Lines: The Historical Origins of White Supremacy in
   California by Tomas Almaguer.
9. See Detroit: I Do Mind Dying, A Study in Urban Revolution by Dan
   Georgakas and Marvin Surkin.

***
*** People's picnic rallies in support of prisoners
***

by a member of the Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League (RAIL)

July 4, St. Louis, Mo.-As US imperialism celebrated its birthday this year,
more than 130 people gathered at Tower Grove Park in support of political
prisoners and prisoners of war being held hostage by the US government.
The Second Annual People's Picnic was organized by the Coalition Against
US Imperialism (CAUSI), a coalition based on the agreement that Amerika is
an illegitimate nation built on the stolen land, labor and resources of
captive nations.
   Revolutionary politics dominated a festive atmosphere of food, games and
music. A representative of the Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League (RAIL)
hosted the rally: "Welcome to the only patriotic picnic in town today on
behalf of those who work and fight for freedom. Those who are now imprisoned
because they oppose the U.S. capitalist-imperialist state which invaded this
land, killed and enslaved its indigenous people, kidnapped and enslaved
Africans to build its economic base, invaded and annexed northern Mexico
and Puerto Rico and dictates to other nations what types of government they
will or won't have. While Amerika celebrates its treacherous acts today and
dares call it freedom, we say 'no'. Instead, we celebrate the fact that
freedom loving people have always resisted Amerika. Today there are hundreds
of political prisoners in the U.S. because they dared to oppose imperialism
and support self-determination and socialism. They are Puerto Rican freedom
fighters, native amerikan Indians fighting for self-determination, members
of the Black Panther Party for self-defense and proponents of the Republic
of New Africa."
   One of the featured speakers, a representative from Citizens United for
the Rehabilitation of Errants (CURE), pointed out that not just political
prisoners, but all prisoners deserve our support and consideration. Prisons,
the courts and the pigs are politicizing many prisoners by exposing them to
the class struggle. The speaker noted that "there are prisoners being denied
their basic human rights in these concentration camps. My husband is
imprisoned at the Potosi correctional facility, a control unit prison which
is nothing but a legal torture institution. This government is not fighting
crime but committing the crime of repression and genocide against poor and
working people."
   The hosting RAIL representative, following MIM leadership, organizes
around the line that all prisoners are political prisoners. People in
America's penitentiaries have been judged by an outlaw state that has no
authority to determine "criminality." Just as the RAIL speaker listed
America's treacherous acts against all people who lived on this land
before Europeans came here, RAIL demands America correct its own injustices
before it sets out to place people in its department of corrections.
   A sister from the Eastern Missouri Coalition to End the Death Penalty
spoke about Missouri's last two executions. In May, the state executed a
man by lethal injection at the Potosi control unit prison. It took over
35 minutes for him to die. To most civilized people, this is torture or
"cruel and unusual punishment;"  but to the state of Missouri it is a
common way of intimidating and controlling Blacks, Latinos, indigenous
people and the poor. "The U.S. is the only industrialized country to use
the death penalty...it has proven to be a weapon by an elite ruling class
against people of color and the poor. It must be abolished." On June 20,
the state executed William Griffin, accused of murder for a drive-by
shooting in 1980. The defense had four witnesses testify that Griffin did
not do the shooting, and was not in the car. The prosecution had one
witness who was given a deal to testify. The prosecution witness admitted
in private that he perjured himself, but he feared the wrath of the court.
Governor Carnahan, a Democrat chose not to pardon Griffin because he
feared political reprisal from voters.
   Speaking for the All-African People's Revolutionary Party, an enthus-
iastic sister brought revolutionary greetings explaining that the fourth
of July is "...a lie! All of Amerika's actions run against freedom and
liberty." Referring to Pennsylvania Governor Ridge's signing Mumia
Abu-Jamal's death warrant she charged "They use sacred dates from the
people's movement to carry out their diabolical actions. They use Martin
Luther King's birthday to start bombing Iraq. Now they are using the
birthday of Marcus Garvey, August 17, to murder Mumia Abu-Jamal. But
listen, struggle is a two-way street. A people's tribunal was recently
held where people from all over the world condemned the u.s.a. for its
repeated use of genocide against the world's people. The U.S. government
was sentenced to death at a date which WE will choose! Death to
imperialism! Death to capitalism!"
   CAUSI provided all participants at the picnic with postcards to send
to Governor Ridge demanding an end to all executions and a new and fair
trial for Mumia Abu-Jamal. More than 100 were collected and mailed the
next day. A meeting was planned to build a huge local demonstration on
behalf of Mumia calling for a stay of execution and his release from
prison.
   Revolutionary greetings and statements of support were sent from the
Crossroad Support Network in Chicago, a group which works with New African
political prisoners and prisoners of war; and the Maoist Internationalist
Movement, [the] revolutionary communist party [whose line and leadership
RAIL follows]. Additional speakers presented statements of support
including: the Midwest Anti-Fascist Network, the Gateway Greens,
Anarchist Youth Federation, industrial workers of the world, the
Organizer and the Organization for Black struggle. All the statements
and greetings were greeted with enthusiastic applause and cheers.
Despite a bout with rain, people stayed to hear local hip hop group
"Eleven-fifty-five" and to eat, talk and have a good time. When the rain
stopped, the sun came out and someone mentioned that the rain is considered
cleansing in indigenous cultures. Like the rain, a truly revolutionary
movement led by the proletariat will cleanse the world of imperialism
and establish communal unity of the peoples of the world.

***
*** Pigs don't change
***

   Community members from Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti, MI held a protest outside
the Ann Arbor police station  on Aug. 7th over the oppressive tactic used
by local police of forcing random Black men to give blood samples for DNA
analysis, in order to "clear" their names as suspects in the Ann Arbor
serial rapist case. In addition to the 160 Black men forcefully tested,
over 600 Black men were questioned.(1) The rapes happened over a year ago:
one woman was killed. Activists at the protest were demanding that the
DNA samples be returned immediately. The protest was in reaction to a
decision made by the city council the previous week, which gave cops
control over when the samples would be returned, if at all.
   Protesters marched carrying signs for about an hour and afterward attended
a city council meeting hoping to influence the members to change their prior
decision. No formal progress was made and there has been no specific talk
of when or if the DNA samples will be returned. Mumia Abu-Jamal's case was
tied into the demonstration through the announcement of the granting of a
stay of execution-which had been announced earlier that day-and also as a
related issue demonstrating the oppressive nature of the criminal justice
system and its disproportionate targeting of national minorities. While
this was a good issue to relate, participants in general ignored the larger
picture and supported taking the reformist road.
   Missing was the recognition of cops as an oppressive force by nature.
If this protest was from the viewpoint of the oppressed nations, then it
would have recognized the police as protectors of imperialist and bourgeois
interests, thus an enemy of oppressed people. The slogan "no action=no
healing"-which appeared both on signs and on literature given out at the
event-sums up well the dominant view presented that the pigs just need to
use less blatantly oppressive tactics. The underlying philosophy of the
protest was that this action taken by pigs was something that needed to be
rectified through apologies, returning of blood samples, and a promise never
to do it again- then everything would be Ok.
   The police force exists in order to protect the interests of those in
power and to maintain the current system of inequality. Mumia Abu-Jamal
eloquently and correctly states, "The police are agents of white
ruling-class capitalist will-period. Neither black managers or black
politicians can change that reality. The people themselves must organize
for their own defense, or it won't get done."(2) While independent organizing
for self-defense is progressive organizing for reforms of the current
structure is a dead end approach. Community review boards or a few "good"
city council members will not change the nature of the system nor those
whose job it is to protect it.
   RAIL sees the demand to return the blood samples to the men from whom
they were stolen as progressive. Yet we also recognize that this act alone,
if accomplished, does not change for what and for whom the cops will continue
to work.
   The police are an enemy of national minorities. Instead of wasting time
trying to change their attitudes, RAIL advocates creating independent
institutions of the oppressed and educating people about the insidious
nature of U.S. imperialist society and the national oppression it
perpetrates both inside and outside its borders. Occasional concessions
by government officials and pigs serve to pacify single-issue organizations
and to keep the current system intact. Regardless of these occasional
concessions, oppressed nation people will be harassed or killed by police
daily and more young  men will sit in jail cells than in college classrooms.
To fundamentally change the nature of  US society, work to overthrow it by
building independent power of the oppressed.

Notes:
1. From literature provided by the Coalition for Community Unity distributed
   at the protest.
2. Abu-Jamal, Mumia. Live From Death Row, Addison-Wesley Publishing Co.,
   1995 p.148.

***
*** University of California regents abolish affirmative action
***

   On July 20, the University of California regents voted to wipe out gender
and nationality ("race")-based preferences in student admissions, hiring and
contracting. The regents were following the lead of KKKalifornia Governor
Pete Wilson, himself a regent. Wilson in turn was following the demands of
his political aspirations. He understands that nothing brings home settler
votes better than attacks on the oppressed nations, and recently proved it
by immigrant-bashing his way to re-election.
   Affirmative action is part of Amerika's neo-colonial way of minimizing
the threat of national liberation struggles among Amerikkka's internal
colonies. It allows small numbers of people of oppressed nationalities to
"integrate" more easily with their national oppressors, while the majority
in the internal colonies remain colonized.
   MIM sees the emerging student struggle in defense of affirmative action
as progressive, but severely limited. Real affirmative action requires
reparations from the oppressor nations to the internal and external
colonies and neo-colonies. And that requires that the imperialist U.S.
bourgeois dictatorship be overthrown through armed revolution and replaced
by a dictatorship of the international proletariat. Thus, MIM is outraged
that even the token progress of affirmative action was too much for
Californian settlers and their political representatives to allow.
   The fact that 30 years of reform were wiped away in one blow demonstrates
once again the futility of the reformist approach to making progressive
change. The bright side of this latest attack on the oppressed nations is
that it will bring new allies to the side of the international proletariat.
We hope to see-and will gladly assist-students organizing in a way which
will raise the cost of the regents' reactionary decision.

***
*** Masses protest murder in Lincoln Heights: pigs execute 14-year-old
***

   This article was written for Notas Rojas, MIM's Spanish-language
newspaper. To subscribe, contribute to or distribute Notas Rojas write to
MIM Distributors, PO Box 29670, Los Angeles, CA 90029-0670.

   Los Angeles, July 30-Before the eyes of his mother, 14-year-old Antonio
Gutierrez was shot four times by the police-the army of imperialist
invasion. Gutierrez was just one victim of the police readiness and
apparent authority to execute anyone, anywhere, especially Latinos, Blacks
and members of First Nations. Gutierrez's mother and other witnesses to the
execution say that Antonio was not armed, and that after he was shot and
handcuffed, the police shot him again.
   When the community of Lincoln Heights found out about the murder, people
were soon confronting the pigs with rocks and fires. This type of rebellion
demonstrates the oppressed nation masses' spontaneous anti-imperialism, and
MIM supports the people in their righteous anger against the state. But we
call on the masses to turn their anger into organizing energy: work with
MIM to expose brutal murders like this one, build public opinion against
the state and for the oppressed. Most importantly, use your anger to build
a movement that can destroy this system definitively, rather than allowing
arrests and injury in your community with no strategic benefits.

A "problem" officer

   The rebellion lasted for two days, at which point the bourgeois
media-public relations servants of the pigs and the state-reported on it.
They wait until there's an event they can try to blame on the oppressed and
then they start writing. These vultures will never report on a murder like
this one to expose the state, which is why MIM builds independent media so
that we can publicize the truth about imperialism.
   The media and the pigs say that the officer who murdered young Antonio,
Michael Falvo, was a "problem" officer, since he had a violent record of
abuses and brutality. To that MIM responds: the whole police is a filled
with "problem" officers because the police exist in order to assault and
take advantage of Latinos, of Blacks and Indigenous people. In cooperation
with the FBI, the CIA, and the U.S. army abroad, the police defend and
perpetuate imperialist aggression. Falvo is not an exception, he is just a
concrete example of the police fulfilling their role.

The war on gangs & drugs

   For the Amerikan imperialists and their allies in the white nation, all
Latinos and Blacks are suspected of being gangsters. The "war on gangs,"
"the war on drugs," "the war on (so-called) illegal immigration," "the war
on crime"-these are all deceptive names for the war on the oppressed
nations within U.S. borders.
   The Amerikan pigs have absolutely no right to apply justice to anybody,
because their presence in Aztlan and in all North America is the product of
murder, robbery, genocide, betrayal and all types of injustices. The white
man arrived in this hemisphere and stole the land of the First Nations and
exterminated their people; they constructed their empire with the work of
Black slaves; they expanded their empire by attacking everything that got
in their way. The imperialists are the real criminals. Their abuses won't
stop until they are defeated.

True justice requires revolution

   The family of Antonio Gutierrez has filed a lawsuit against the police.
Together with those who protested the murder, MIM demands justice for young
Antonio, just as MIM demands justice for the more than one million
prisoners trapped in the dungeons of the U.S. empire. MIM believes true
justice will only be possible once Amerikan imperialism and its pigs have
been defeated and political power is in the hands of the people. That's why
we work for socialist revolution.
   There are many groups that say that Latinos should unite with whites and
fight for white demands. These groups fail to see that the interests of the
oppressor white nation are fundamentally opposed to the interests of the
oppressed nations. Other groups say that the best way of improving the
situation of Latinos is voting. Voting for whom? The Democrats and the
Republicans are all racists; they are the leaders of imperialism. Latino
politicians who are Republicans or Democrats have the same intentions as
their white counterparts. Some people only want to advance their political
careers on the backs of the oppressed. MIM says that Aztlan is a legitimate
nation that must be freed from the claws of the United Snakes, and we warn
the masses against those that say there are no internal colonies within
U.S. borders.
The fight for reforms is also deceiving, for those reforms could disappear
whenever the white nation wants. There are no guarantees. The only real
long term improvement of the life of the oppressed can come from
revolution. In Aztlan (the territory which Amerika stole from Mexico) we
are talking about national liberation with the goal of self determination,
and of socialism. The people of Aztlan should liberate Aztlan, to later
rule Aztlan, in order to have a police that truly serves the people: a
police that will protect the poor from the abuses of the rich. A police
that is not corrupt or racist. To try to improve the relationship between
the current police and the Latino community is a deceiving lie that can
only perpetuate suffering.
   Power must be seized from the oppressor. Revolutionaries in Aztlan will
eventually need to take up arms against the invaders - not just
spontaneously in response to individual police actions, but organized as a
Maoist Party. It is only through national liberation and socialist
revolution that we can get to a society in which guns and political power
of groups over groups are relics of this dying system.
Down with integration!
Down with traitors!
Down with the pigs and the government!
All Power to the People!

Note: We use "United Snakes" as a translation of "Estamos Hundidos,"
      which is a pun on "Estados Unidos," or "United States." "Estamos
      Hunidos" literally means "we're doomed," and is often used in the
      context of, "Look what they've done to us: We're ruined."

***
*** Live From Death Row
***

Live From Death Row
by Mumia Abu-Jamal
Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1995
reviewed by a RAIL associate

   Mumia Abu-Jamal's book, Live from Death Row, is for the 90's generation
what George Jackson's Soledad Brother was for the 60's generation. It could
be sub-titled "The Political Economy of Amerika's Oppression of Black
People."
A composite portrait of Amerika's prisons and courts emerges from
Abu-Jamal's essays, through statistics (40% of death row inmates are Black,
while 11% of the population is Black), first-hand accounts of
state-sponsored torture and murder, increased use of isolation
units/lockdowns, a chilling portrait of Pelican Bay Prison, and the
systematic regularity of miscarriages of "justice" in the courts. All of
this confirms MIM's analysis that Blacks are an oppressed nation and
Amerikan courts and prisons are instruments of that oppression. "It ain't
about law it's about politics by other means."
Abu-Jamal's education began with his experience in the Black Panther Party.
His perspective has remained revolutionary and critical. His essay on
Malcolm X is insightful, putting his finger on the principal contradiction
within the Black nation, petty-bourgeois reform vs. revolution.
   "While the eloquent, soaring oratory of Dr. King touched, moved, and
motivated the southern black church, middle and upper classes, and the
white liberal predominantly Jewish intelligentsia, his message did not find
root in the black working class and urban north...
   "...Northern-bred blacks preferred a more defiant, confrontational, and
militant message of Malcolm X."(pp. 134-135).
   "The police are agents of white ruling class capitalist will - period.
Neither black managers nor black politicians can change that reality. The
people themselves must organize for their own defense or it won't get
done."(p. 148)
   Abu-Jamal's confrontation with Jesse Jackson exposes Jackson's impotent,
reformist, elitist tendencies. His essay on Nelson Mandela is just as
insightful.
   "When, or if, the African majority takes power in South Africa, US
business wants friends there. If one reads the names of corporate sponsors
of the award [to Mandela and de Klerk], it sounds like a roll call for the
chamber of commerce."
   Abu-Jamal's experience with the Black Panther Party and MOVE, as well as
his analysis of both of them are material for further development of
revolutionary strategy. As a tool to agitate public opinion in favor of
Black revolution, Live from Death Row is vitally important. He uses the
best ammunition there is - facts and honest historical analysis.
   Unlike Bobby Seale, Abu-Jamal has not sold out. "The Black Panther
program... still cries out for implementation almost thirty years
later."(p. 155) To implement the Black Panther program we need a Black
Panther party, i.e. a revolutionary Black nationalist party. To be
successful, it must be a part of a revolutionary, internationalist
movement. These are the challenges of today. Live from Death Row can
inspire readers to face these challenges, develop questions and investigate
how to accomplish them.
   With Mumia having been granted a stay of execution, the struggle spirals
to a new level. Abu-Jamal's life or death will affect the concrete course
of struggle. Given this new phase of struggle, I propose a new word to
replace the word "pig". Mao said strategically, we treat our enemies with
contempt, while tactically we take them very seriously. These people live
small, miserable, violent  lives. They are trained to be assholes.
Strategically they will lose. So let's  not call them "pigs," let's call
them "losers."

Editor Adds: While most people working with or in RAIL would agree that
most pigs are also losers, "pigs" connotes a tie to a larger system, as
opposed to just insulting one individual law enforcement officer.

***
*** Vietnam Facts
***

Number of Vietnamese killed by American military: 1,000,000.
Pounds of American explosives dumped on South Vietnam for every one
civilian living there: 250.
Average daily cost of Vietnam war: $72,000,000.
Number of walls the size of the Vietnam Memorial it would take to list all
the names of Vietnamese who died in the war: 69.
Chances that a Vietnam veteran has suffered from post-traumatic stress
syndrome: 1 in 3.
Vietnamese infant mortality rate before Ho Chi Minh's revolution: 30%.
Vietnamese infant mortality rate after Ho Chi Minh's revolution: 3%.
Number of American Soldiers killed by South Vietnamese peasants, most of
whom in reality bitterly hated the South Vietnamese regime: up to 25,000.
Number of times the Pentagon changed its story before admitting that
hospitals had been deliberately bombed during a 24-hour bombing campaign in
1970: 2.
Number of months Nixon had already been secretly bombing Cambodia before
"announcing" to the electorate that he was "going to" start attacking the
country: 14.
Until victory in 1975, number of years Vietnam had been fighting to drive
out foreigner-backed puppet regimes: over 1,000.
Number of years America pledged to fight to remove left-wing Vietnamese
nationalists when Japan had invaded the same area in 1940 (and would have
fought had Japan not attacked Pearl Harbor a year later): 0.
During its 100-year rule over Vietnam, France's average yearly ratio of the
amount of wealth it drained from Vietnam to the amount it spent on Vietnam:
5:1.
Number of political prisoners in U.S.-supported South Vietnamese
government's jails at heights of the Thieu regime: 80,000.
Percentage of total Vietnamese population who would have voted for Ho Chi
Minh for president in 1956, had the U.S. not illegally blocked the
elections in violation of the Geneva Accords: 80.
Percentage of South Vietnamese Army (ARVN) soldiers that deserted their
posts in 1964 (most of whom then sold their arms to the Vietcong: 1/3.
Percentage of South Vietnamese villages occupied ("liberated" was the term
used by the U.S.) by American forces during the war that were secretly
still cooperating with the Vietcong): 80.
Percentage of Cambodian population killed by its Khmer Rouge regime, which
the U.S. had armed, funded, and supported in its 1975 takeover of Cambodia
simply because it was enemies with Vietnam: from 25-50.

***
*** Masses kick CIA off UCLA campus
***

   Los Angeles--Many progressive people were dismayed to hear that the CIA
was coming to hold a recruiting session at UCLA. Independently of each
other, two organizations, the Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM) and
the Network for Public Education and Social Justice (NPESJ) mobilized a
progressive response which ultimately succeeded in canceling the CIA's
planned two-day visit.

Prior to the CIA's arrival, MIM issued the following call:

"CIA OFF CAMPUS

   "Despite its name, the main purpose of the U.S. Central Intelligence
Agency (CIA) is to wage war on the world's oppressed nations by means of
covert operations involving economic warfare, rigged elections,
assassinations and genocide. Its goal is to gain and maintain U.S. control
over Third World peoples and economies. In short, the CIA is an agent of
U.S. imperialism and an enemy of the people.
   "The CIA was behind the fascist coup in Chile which brought Pinochet
into power. The CIA's 'Operation Phoenix' killed 40,000 Vietnamese. The CIA
recruited its own mercenary army to combat the Laotian electoral left, and
covered up the massive U.S. bombings of Laos and Cambodia which killed over
600,000 and created a devastating famine. And the CIA continues its covert
wars, funding the Contra-guerrillas in Nicaragua and propping up dictators
like Manuel Noriega.
   "From 5:00-7:00 pm today (Wed., March 1, 1995) and all day tomorrow, the
CIA will be holding an 'Information Meeting and Reception' in UCLA's Plaza
Building, at which they will conduct interviews for internship positions.
   "Take a stand on the side of the world's oppressed peoples! Rally
against the CIA outside UCLA's Plaza Building 5:00 pm TODAY, Wed. March 1

"Notes: The CIA's Greatest Hits, by Mark Zepezauer, Odonian
Press, 1994. Available from MIM for $6.

According to the UCLA Daily Bruin, 3/3/95, p. 8, "Organizers tried to find
peaceful solutions, but...the assistant director of the Expo Center,
decided to cancel the meeting. Yesterday's recruitment meetings...were also
canceled, irritating students who had appointments."

The same Daily Bruin article contained some inaccuracies and some
unrebutted reactionary statements from a CIA spokesperson, so MIM responded
with the following:

March 4, 1995

Dear Editor,

   "Thank you for printing the article 'CIA visit canceled due to protests'
(UCLA Daily Bruin, 3/3/95, p. 1). Although this article contains unrebutted
reactionary statements from the CIA, it will show many readers that
progressives can get significant things done when we get ourselves
organized. Those who came out to protest the CIA's presence can take pride
in canceling their visit.
   "There were, however, some inaccuracies in this article. We take this
opportunity to set the record straight. First, it is untrue that "[m]ost of
the protesters were members of the Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM)"
or that the CIA meeting "was disrupted by about 20 MIM members."
   "MIM visibly helped to organize the rally. But credit needs to be given
where credit is due. Independently of MIM, the Network for Public Education
and Social Justice (NPESJ) organized to protest the CIA visit. MIM is
unsure how many of the protesters came in response to MIM's call and how
many came in response to NPESJ's call. But we can safely say that the
majority were not MIM members. Those present undoubtedly had varying
degrees of unity with MIM. We were all united on one point-opposition to
the genocidal CIA.
   "The CIA spokesperson quoted in your article claimed, 'We're looking for
people who want to serve the country and do some research, analyze and
collect information.' This is The Big Lie about the CIA. As we stated in
our flier announcing the rally, 'Despite its name, the main purpose of the
U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is to wage war on the world's
oppressed nations by means of covert operations involving economic warfare,
rigged elections, assassinations and genocide. Its goal is to gain and
maintain U.S. control over Third World peoples and economies. In short, the
CIA is an agent of U.S. imperialism and an enemy of the people.'
   "The CIA spokesperson also claimed that "the students who were present
at the meeting...had their rights infringed." MIM doesn't know whether to
laugh or cry at this ridiculous statement. The CIA is concerned about
people's rights?! The same CIA which was behind the fascist coup in Chile
which brought Pinochet into power? The same CIA whose "Operation Phoenix"
killed 40,000 Vietnamese? The same CIA which recruited its own mercenary
army to combat the Laotian electoral left, and covered up the massive U.S.
bombings of Laos and Cambodia which killed over 600,000 and created a
devastating famine? The same CIA which continues its covert wars, funding
the Contra-guerrillas in Nicaragua and propping up dictators like Manuel
Noriega?
   "Since the CIA is responsible for depriving hundreds of thousands of
people of their right to life, any CIA spokesperson who talks about
"rights"-particularly the "right" to work for a genocidal
organization-needs to shut up. MIM salutes the activists who kicked these
creeps off campus. The CIA spokesperson says, "we don't know if we will be
coming back to UCLA." Progressive people need to organize to make sure the
Conductors of Imperialist Aggression do not return.

In struggle,

Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM)
P.O. Box 29670
Los Angeles, CA 90029-0670"

MIM disregards CIA's "rights"

   On March 8, the UCLA Daily Bruin printed a short version of MIM's March
4 letter (see accompanying article). Alongside it was a letter from UCLA
student Rebecca Toth. Following are Toth's letter and responses from MIM
and a student.

Rebecca Toth wrote:

   This letter is to the members of the Maoist Internationalist Movement
who participated in protesting CIA recruitment on campus and caused the
cancellation of an informational meeting and interviews:
I am not writing to object to the validity, or lack thereof, of the
information you were presenting; that is a debate for another time and I
support your right to present it. However, I do object to the manner in
which you chose to present it. Your actions effectively denied others the
very rights of freedom of speech and assembly that you yourselves were
exercising.
What gives you the right to impose your opinions on others and to take away
the ability of each individual to make their own life choices? So you don't
want to work for the CIA. Fine. But that doesn't give you the right to
withhold that opportunity from others.
   Perhaps democracy and the right to self-determination, issues on which
you are quick to criticize the CIA, should only be permitted on those
topics with which you agree. Or maybe you should just choose for me which
information I listen to and which jobs I take. Actually, I'm in the market
for a good five-year plan. Next time, I suggest you take a good look at
yourselves and your actions before you accuse others of authoritarian
tendencies.
   In conclusion, allow me to offer you a little advice. The next time you
want to get a point across, I suggest you try a different tactic. Your
gross hypocrisy and complete disregard for the rights and opinions of other
students completely discredited yourselves and your organization,
irrespective of the validity of your position. In spite of this, I support
your rights to freedom and peaceful assembly; it's just too bad you don't
support mine.

On 3/8/95, MIM responded:

   Rebecca Toth's March 8 letter accuses the Maoist Internationalist
Movement (MIM) of "gross hypocrisy and complete disregard for the rights
and opinions of...students." MIM values others' opinions. But this won't
stop us from working to deny people the "right" to join the genocidal CIA.
Toth objects "to the manner in which" MIM opposes the CIA." But our
confrontational manner reflects the serious nature of the matter at hand:
imperialist genocide.
Toth's charge of hypocrisy is misinformed. MIM disagrees with Toth's
rhetoric of "rights." There are no rights, only power struggles. The CIA
deprives hundreds of thousands of people of their "right" to life. Toth
defends the "right" to work for a genocidal organization. Progressives must
do more to deprive imperialists of the "right" to build genocidal
organizations.
MIM's criticism of the CIA is not that it is authoritarian, but that its
authority is reactionary, repressing the world's majority. MIM's ultimate
goal is a world without authority or oppression-a communist world. But in
this era, we support any means necessary-including authoritarianism and
armed struggle-to smash imperialism, capitalism and patriarchy. MIM will
gladly choose a job for Toth before allowing her to join the genocidal CIA,
if we have any say.

As of 3/13/95, the UCLA Daily Bruin did not print MIM's response, but did
print a 3/10/95 response from a student. MIM has much unity with the
response, which follows:

   This is in response to Rebecca Toth's March 8 viewpoint regarding the
canceled CIA interviews on campus. Toth asks the protesters at the CIA
recruitment meeting, "What gives you the right to impose your opinions on
others and to take away the ability of the individual to make their own
life choices?"
   Let me respond by reminding that when someone makes a "life choice" to
work for the CIA, this choice has repercussions far beyond whether you are
able to afford the new BMW. All of us, as social beings, must take
responsibility for the inherently social nature of our actions.
   It is important to turn that question around. What gave the United
States, through the CIA, the right to "take away the ability of each
individual to make their own life choices" by: 1) overthrowing the
democratically elected government of Guatemala in 1954 and funding death
squads in subsequent years to protect the right-wing government; 2) working
closely with the Chilean military and U.S. multinational corporations to
oust democratically elected leader Salvador Allende in 1973, and set up a
brutal military dictatorship; 3) or by playing a prominent role in the
Indonesian military coup in 1965 which led to more than 100,000 Indonesians
being murdered?
   I support the CIA's right to speak in public about what they do
(although it is something I doubt they would ever do).
   What I don't support is their supposed "right" to actively recruit
people in their continuing effort to maintain U.S. political and economic
hegemony at any cost. Complete individual freedom is a nice idea in the
abstract.
   In reality, sometimes rights conflict and I have no hesitation about
violating your right to contribute to mass murder and military
dictatorships in my larger effort to protect the rights of the people from
other parts of the world who struggle to better their own lives, free from
the often brutal, undemocratic intervention of the United States.

Amerikkka: love it or leave it

The following letter from Chemistry student J.D. Tovar appeared in the
3/13/95 UCLA Daily Bruin:

   I would like to address the Maoist Internationalist Movement protesters
and their hippie friends who stormed the CIA informational meeting I
attended on March 3.
   First and foremost, by thrusting their ideological beliefs upon those
present, they quite possibly took away the many rewarding careers in
science and technology available in the CIA from our fellow Bruins. They
entered in an extremely immature fashion-by blowing whistles in the
speaker's face-and they told us of the atrocities being committed by the
CIA in small countries such as El Salvador and Guatemala.
   My objective here is not to refute those claims since they are most
likely true; however, that does not change my interest in the CIA. In fact,
I take pride in what they do; namely, in helping to preserve the American
way of life. By dealing with foreign militants toting anti-American
beliefs, they are protecting the very ideals upon which this country was
founded.
   This may sound harsh or cruel...that is because it is. Sure, it would be
great if we all could live in the happy-go-lucky world the protesters dream
of, but that just is not possible. Revolutionaries may be able to change
the laws of society, but they cannot change the laws of nature. Maybe our
liberal friends have not heard of such terms as survival of the fittest and
natural selection, but for millions of years, the strongest individuals are
the ones favored to live and reproduce. The weak are preyed upon, killed by
their own or left to die.
   This is a cold, hard fact of nature from which man will never be able to
run away. We as Americans should be proud that we are one of the stronger
societies on this planet. As an intelligence agency, it is the CIA's job to
find out who says or knows what about whom. One such thing they may
discover is who is circulating anti-American thoughts (e.g. Libya and Iraq).
   In other words, our "terrorism" prevents theirs. Accept it or don't, but
America is our home and we should be supportive of any efforts to preserve
her greatness. If one feels so emotionally for a poor and oppressed third
world country, why not relocate there and join a guerrilla movement to help
bring down the CIA and America? We sure as hell do not need you here.

On 3/13/95, MIM replied:

   J.D. Tovar's 3/13/95 letter explicitly accepts the fact that "atrocities
[are] being committed by the CIA in small countries such as El Salvador and
Guatemala." Despite his/her code words, Tovar upholds genocide: "By dealing
with foreign militants toting anti-American beliefs, [the CIA is]
protecting the very ideals upon which this country was founded." As
Amerikkka was founded on genocide, Tovar's statement rings true.
   Rather than deny the CIA's bloody legacy, Tovar trots out the tired lie
that "the laws of nature," not the laws of patriarchal capitalist
imperialism, cause oppression. Like competition, cooperation is a part of
human nature. Tovar should put aside his/her Darwin and read Peter
Kropotkin's work on the natural phenomenon of "mutual aid." Furthermore,
Tovar's "might makes right" argument cuts in more than one direction. Will
Tovar still uphold it when the world's oppressed majority exercises its
dictatorship over Amerikkka?
   Tovar asks, "If one feels so emotionally for a poor and oppressed third
world country, why not relocate there and join a guerrilla movement to help
bring down the CIA and America?" No place is safe from U.S. imperialism. We
need not relocate to work for socialist, anti-imperialist revolution.

***
*** Bruin doesn't bother to publish the truth on Peru
***

Letters Editor / Viewpoint Editor
UCLA Daily Bruin

August 18, 1995

Dear Editor,

   The item "Peru goes to bat over birth control" on page 6 of the August
14-20 issue of the Summer Bruin is in need of correction. The item, based
on a report from a pro-imperialist wire service, began "LIMA, Peru-After
defeating leftist guerrillas and taming astronomical inflation in his first
term, President Alberto Fujimori is confronting the Roman Catholic Church
as he begins his second term."
   The claim that the revolution in Peru, which is led by the Maoist
Communist Party of Peru (PCP, known in the press as Shining Path or Sendero
Luminoso), has been defeated is simply untrue. This claim is a self-serving
lie spread by Peru's U.S.-backed, fascist dictator, Alberto Fujimori.
   From the media white-out of the revolution in Peru, the casual reader in
North America might believe Fujimori's lies. This censorship extends to the
Daily Bruin, but it does not have to. You and your readers can get the
truth about the success of Maoism in Peru by sending $1 for a copy of
Maoist Sojourner to our below-listed address.

In struggle,

The Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM)
P.O. Box 29670
Los Angeles, CA 90029-0670

P.S. We have enclosed the April 1995 issue of Maoist Sojourner, a monthly
publication by and for Third World Maoist exiles led by the Maoist
Internationalist Movement (MIM). Pages 4, 5 and 8 of this issue contain
news briefs demonstrating the continued success of Maoist revolution in
Peru. You are welcome to reprint any or all of these news briefs, as well
as any other MIM literature you would like to reprint. We only ask that you
credit MIM as your source, preferably alongside MIM's address so readers
can contact us directly.

The Bruin never published our letter.

***
*** MIM presents revolutionary feminism at
*** Michigan Womyn's Music Festival
***

   The Michigan Womyn's Music Festival is a week-long gathering of several
thousand women, mostly lesbians, for music, socializing and (identity)
politics. Workshop topics range from "recovering" from racism 12-step
style, to the Lesbian Avengers. This year MIM held two workshops of its own
to advance revolutionary politics in the struggle for women's liberation;
MIM stressed that patriarchy cannot be abolished without the destruction of
capitalism through the fight against imperialism. Women at the festival
supported MIM's analysis of gender short of the actual practice of national
liberation for internal colonies and support for Third World Revolutions.
The first workshop focused on a Maoist Revolutionary Feminist Perspective.
MIM opened the discussion by explaining that when we talk about gender, we
are talking about power, not genitalia. The speaker said that throughout
the talk, she would use the un-sisterly words of "right" and "wrong,"
unabashedly declaring that those who favor the continued oppression of
women are not "valid," and this set the tone for a lively debate.
   MIM pointed out that gender oppression is relative. Biological women can
wield oppressive gender power based on their nation and class. MIM
emphasized the importance of looking at the appropriation of
sexuality-instead of just reproductive labor-for an analysis of how
lesbians fit into the analysis. The women at the discussion seemed to agree
that lesbians are not outside the patriarchal paradigm as they recognized
that lesbian battering, sado-masochism, and pornography are obvious
manifestations of the eroticization of power among women.

Upholding psychology with the myth of the Black rapist

   To illustrate some of the power that First World women have, MIM pointed
out that white women have the power to put Black men in prisons by crying
"rape." A member of the audience asked the MIM speaker what she would do if
she was raped by a Black man. To the questioner's great annoyance, the
speaker prefaced her response with a qualifier as to how preposterously
unlikely that was. MIM pointed out that Black men are not all lurking
behind bushes looking for a woman to rape-and that this is an insidious
myth used to justify repression against the internal colonies by Amerika.
   The audience member insisted on knowing what the individual MIM member
would do in that case however hypothetical it was. MIM members work to
abolish the disgusting society that makes rape routine-not to get
individuals locked up in a prison system that does nothing to change acts
that are harmful. MIM pointed to the book Prisoners of Liberation and the
way that China dealt with criminals prior to 1976 as good examples of a
correct practice. Thought Reform coupled with criticism and self-criticism
is a way for people to see what they have done and why it is wrong.
   The discussion focused primarily on psychology. One woman said that MIM
had a contradictory line because MIM does not advocate sending men to jail
for rape while at the same time we say abolish psychology. She said that
psychology is the only way to ensure that the Black man does not rape again.
MIM disagrees. People commit crimes under capitalism for material reasons
and these reasons must be addressed in order to find the solution.
Reformists who advocate therapy for Black rapists of white women want only
one-sided change-they want continued privilege for white women while Black
men endure oppression in a more "civilized" manner. And if they advocate
therapy for the white women as well, it is just a way to feel better about
nation, gender, and class privilege while not changing the constant rape
inherent in patriarchy.
The audience asked whether 12-step programs were also in the objectionable
realm of psychology. MIM talked about our own experiences in addressing
problems among Maoists in our circles such as substance abuse and
depression. MIM maintains that it is superior to deal with such problems in
the context of independent power. MIM directed the audience to the upcoming
issue of MIM Theory, which will focus on psychology. Another woman pointed
out that you really have to look at who brings the drugs into the
ghetto-the CIA-and punish those people instead of those addicted.
   The discussion turned to reproductive rights and MIM upheld its support
of abortion on demand without apology. One audience member was not
satisfied with this because she thought that she should have control over
women who have "too many" children. Another audience member correctly
pointed out that the flaw in the logic was that a rich woman could have 10
kids but that the woman is putting down a poor woman having 10 kids. She
pointed out that you have to look at and understand the reason why poor
women have many children. The problem is not "too many" children per se,
but unequal distribution of wealth and gender, class and national
oppression. Overall this first workshop got a very positive response from
the women in attendance.

Festival audience rejects revolutionary feminist practice

   The second workshop that MIM facilitated, focusing on revolutionary
feminism as applied in Peru, was less welcomed by the women at the
festival. MIM started out explaining how it is important to work from the
vantage point of the International Proletariat. In this, women's liberation
is not true liberation if it is gotten off the backs of women from the
Third World. A good example is how birth control First World women use to
control their own reproductive lives is tested on women in the Third World,
and in Peru specifically, who do not control their own reproduction.
   One woman MIM would label a pseudo-feminist said that there was no
reason for her to look at struggles outside Amerika. MIM agrees with this
woman's assessment of her own objective interests and explained that First
World women, who as a group are part of the gender aristocracy, can achieve
relative gender privilege by fighting within the system. But true
liberation for women of the world is not going to come through First World
women climbing the capitalist ladder and continuing to support oppression
of Third World women. If women want real equality instead of imperialist
patriarchy then we need to fight a subjective battle as well. First World
feminists must struggle to understand that overthrowing imperialism is a
correct and necessary feminist goal, and they must be convinced to commit
gender suicide and renounce their gender privileges to help achieve this
goal. Patriarchy cannot be abolished without overthrowing capitalism
through the fight against imperialism. Peruvian women are currently engaged
in that battle.
   MIM explained the history women's importance and power in Peru to
illustrate the necessity of overthrowing imperialist powers. Gender
stratification and military repression in Peru are products of imperialism.
The Spanish, English and the Amerikans have all forcefully changed the
indigenous culture and power structure. (MIM recommends and distributes
Carol Andreas's book When Women Rebel for more on this.)
   Women were very sympathetic to MIM's assessment of the travesties of
imperialism and Amerikan economic domination. But when it came to what to
do, women asked if MIM's idea was to kill other people. They showed a
complete inability to grasp materialism as a measuring stick of gains for
Third World women. They could see no difference between women starving with
no autonomy and women being in command of the local people's committee and
able to feed their children. The essence of the matter seemed to be that if
PCP Chairperson Gonzalo himself did not change into a biological woman or
was not replaced by one, the PCP could not really be feminist.
   The women in the audience made the same mistake that women in Peru made
in their earlier stages of struggle: they drew the lines based on
biological sex as opposed to material interests. It is important to
understand the significant role that imperialism has played in exacerbating
the contradictions between indigenous men and women and also to understand
that relative to both men and women in oppressor nations, indigenous men
are gendered female. The fight for liberation must not set gender aside and
reduce all struggles to class or nation, but this does not make gender the
principal contradiction. This faulty analysis obstructs discovery of the
real principal contradiction and serves a reactionary purpose.
   One woman said that she has never seen Maoists that did not oppress
women within the organization. She scoffed at the fact that the PCP leads
the revolution in Peru with many women leaders and ignored the biological
gender of the MIM facilitator. MIM encourages women hold this line to stop
complaining about the lack of power that women have in revolutionary
parties, engage in struggle and seize leadership in organizations and
parties that work to abolish patriarchy.
   MIM tried to elicit from these women some kind of response as to whether
revolutionary violence was ever justified, or if, in fact, they believed
that it was "just as bad" as reactionary violence waged against Third World
women and men every day under imperialism. The women at the workshop
professed that they wanted something "new," but didn't propose anything
specific. MIM upholds the PCP as the best thing going in Peru. Advocating a
non-existent idealist alternative to revolutionary violence amounts to
siding with reactionary violence.
   MIM hopes that the many women who took copies of MIM Notes and took
notes at our workshops will continue to study the ideas that we discussed
and join the struggle for women's liberation on a global scale.

***
*** Kids' subculture replicates patriarchal imperialist values
***

Kids
Directed by Larry Clark

   Kids is a stark look at the lives of a group of mostly white nation
youth in NYC. The movie clearly presents a case for a larger indictment of
imperialist, patriarchal society. Larry Clark's Kids is a realistic and
disturbing fictional portrayal of a youth subculture which mimics the power
relations and gender oppression of reactionary Amerikan society. Though the
movie's scope is limited to looking at privileged Amerikan youth, it
illustrates why Amerikan youth should work not just to rebel against the
values of their parents, but to fundamentally change the society from which
they attempting to escape. Overall, this movie excellently portrays that
for white nation youth, there is a contradiction between their material
interests and the reasons they find bucking the system compelling. The
manifestation of this contradiction is the creation of a subculture.
   Youth subcultures serve as a temporary oasis from the form of bourgeois
culture embraced by their parents. Yet this strategy, which puts this
lifestyle on hold for white kids, amounts to propping up imperialist
patriarchal society by ignoring the necessity of organizing for structural
change and a seizure of power.
   Don't get us wrong-the youth in this movie are privileged because of
their ultimate freedom, including leisure time. Seventeen year-olds in the
First World are viewed as kids, while in many poorer countries, 17 is years
into adulthood. Age is relative depending on material conditions. Thus,
while white-nation youth are faced with difficult contradictions,
recognizing their relative national privilege is of contextual importance.
   Amerikan patriarchal society gives youth no power to determine their own
lives or to influence the larger workings of society. Many youth, seeing
the emptiness of bourgeois society, opt for escapism through drugs or
alcohol. Clearly, late teen-aged youth are capable of wielding significant
power and responsibility. This fact is reflected in the creative and
elaborate ways in which youth establish separate havens and subcultures.
   The Amerikan system emphasizes individualism and dominance of groups
over other groups. So youth have two bourgeois choices-to accept adult
culture or to reject it and form their own subculture. Both options are
doors to parasitism. Creating a separate culture does not separate youth
from the imperialist interest of oppressing other nations.
   This is clear when the group of skaters beat a Black youth to the point
when after leaving they do not know if they have killed him. Kids
exemplifies the fact that alternative culture does not in fact have
separate values from the larger society. The contradictions youth face
because of this are difficult and impossible to resolve without the
attainment of power to adequately challenge and change society and to
determine their own lives.
   The main contradiction for white nation youth is that their material
interests lie in supporting and perpetuating imperialism and reactionary
bourgeois culture. Yet because of their youth, they have the vision to step
outside of that and to work for change.
   In capitalist society, 'Kids' are property of their parents. The
production relations of the system create the framework for this inequity,
which allows youth to relate to the oppression of other groups and to the
contradictions in power relations.
   In the movie, AIDS and gender oppression are the main forces that could
make the youth realize the bankruptcy of the present system. Telley, the
youth that "likes to fuck virgins" is HIV positive. Throughout the movie,
one of his latest conquests searches through the city to tell him. This
woman's experience illustrates the contradictions that youth face in
decadent Amerika and the reason they should work to change them.
   The youth in the movie are content with simply having power to determine
and adhere to fashion and drug trends and to use their First World
privilege for the freedom of self-indulgence.
   Ameriakan adult culture influences the specific characteristics which
youth subculture adopts. However, the production relations ultimately
determine that youth have no alternative but to react to adult culture and
form a microcosm of it. Bourgeois society offers no substitute for the
subcultured-bourgeois-decadent-spinoff, and legitimizes it. So parents and
other "concerned" adults shouldn't complain when they don't like the form
that such a culture takes, since they do nothing about the structure of
society which dictates and essentially requires this youth contradiction.
   For those who want to harp on individual criticisms of the
characters-their attitudes and role in oppression-there is much to be
criticized. However, what good is criticizing the individual aspects of
these 'kids' when the movie clearly presents a case for a larger analysis
of social relations?
   One clear example of society's values manifesting among the characters
is patriarchy. The males in the film treat women as objects, as ground to
be "conquered." Fucking women is seen as a victory and in one character's
case, fucking virgins is the ultimate prize. While this is a sick way to
view women and sex it also is not opposed to how women are viewed in
society as a whole. Pseudo-feminists most often want to indict individuals
and ignore systemic analysis, they conclude that changing attitudes or
finding a man with the "right" attitude is the key to escaping patriarchy.
   Women are depicted as objects in Amerika. They lack political and
economic equality with men but they are mostly gendered male when compared
with women and men in the Third World. Indicting one person who interprets
the values so prevalent in society in a way which people find particularly
offensive is opportunist. It is criticizing the effect and ignoring the
cause. It is also paternalist because it amounts to thinking that women are
fragile and will be hurt and scarred from such a horrible experience. (This
is not to excuse some of the behavior, but to enlarge the scope and
criticize the system). While First World women may be hurt by
manifestations of patriarchy, it can also be a call to revolutionize their
thinking so they ask why these things happen and why their sexuality is
controlled by men.
   Many women simply chalk up bad sexual experience to innocence or a bad
choice and go find a coercive relationship they like. In this sense they
are giving credibility to the existence of those who use coercive behavior
in a way they don't like. But attacking patriarchy at the roots is often
too risky for those who want to continue to give up control of their own
sexuality in exchange for control over the sexuality of others. If women
didn't agree to this exchange, then they would all be fighting in the name
of the Third World proletariat and for the liberation of all women.
   Another example of the subculture continuing the gender relations of
Amerikan society is when a group of the 'kids' go swimming. The men are
astonished that the women have kissed one another before. The women then
kiss. The men watch and start jumping around like apes. This same group of
men earlier in the day harass two gay men in the park but get turned on by
the women kissing. It escalates to the point where the men are not just
watching but encouraging the women. They then jump in and physically take
over.
In both cases, the group of heterosexist men treat gay and lesbian actions
as wrong. The difference is that they are turned on by the women. Yet only
for a brief time. They couldn't stand to watch the women continue. They had
to jump in and take control of the situation.
   Sex is power, and if there is no man in the situation exerting power,
then to most men it is not sex. After the women kiss, the men jump in and
throw them around in the pool. The women do the typical pseudo-feminist
thing:  they giggle and eroticize the power that is being exerted over them.
   White nation youth do not have an interest in changing the parasitic
system. But the sickness of this system prompts them to search for
alternatives. That is why generation after generation kids rebel against
their parents; only to later buy into the system and create their own
property who do the same thing and so on. Thus to end the fate of children
as property, to fight against the new generation taking on the same
patriarchal values of oppression, to fight for better research of AIDS,
youth should join the revolutionary movement which works to build public
opinion of the oppressed and to seize power and eventually eliminate the
existence of private property, including children.

***
*** The bombing of Hiroshima: a Maoist analysis
***

by a member of RAIL

   With the 50th anniversary of the Amerikan bombing of Hiroshima in
August, Newsweek reviewed the event in its July 24 issue to re-justify it.
The article "Why we did it" takes on some recent challenges by liberal
historians who say it wasn't necessary to drop the atomic bomb, since Japan
was about to surrender. "The real reason we dropped the bomb," they [the
liberal historians say "was  not to finish off Japan but to intimidate our
next enemy-the Soviet Union."
   The usual justifications are brought out:  top U.S. policy-makers were
under a lot of pressure to end the war; the Amerikan public was war weary;
the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor was fresh in the Amerikan public's
memory. Newsweek can accept the imperialist containment of the Soviet Union
as part of the justification for Hiroshima. However, the article puts the
"humanitarian" reason of saving Amerikan lives, first.
   None of these liberal arguments or reactionary counter-arguments are
new.  Howard Zinn documented them as early as 1970 in The Politics of
History. He clearly showed that in the summer of 1945, the Emperor of Japan
and the Japanese Inner War were very close to agreeing to an unconditional
surrender which was called for at the July 26 Potsdam Conference. Japan's
foreign minister was discussing terms of surrender with the Soviets. All
that stood in the way was the question of whether Japan's emperor would
have to step down.
Zinn attempts the "what if" analysis of finding other possible ways the war
could have been ended within the framework of bourgeois democracy. This
"what if" type of reasoning is Trotskyist in nature, because it compares
reality with ideal possibilities, instead of comparing reality with
reality. He does not examine communist  revolution as a realistic or moral
method of fighting imperialism.
   Neither Newsweek nor Zinn examine the origins of the Amerikan/Japanese
conflict in World War II.  This was an inter-imperialist war. At stake were
the economic and military interests both imperialist nations had in
Southeast Asia.
   The Council on Foreign Relations, an Amerikan brain trust that worked
closely with the Roosevelt administration before and during World War II,
was instrumental in developing Amerika's imperialist goals and strategy.
It issued a memorandum to President Roosevelt and the Department of State
on 15 January 1941 (almost a year before the bombing of Pearl Harbor) which
said, "The Philippine Islands, the Dutch East Indies, and British Malay are
prime sources of raw materials very important to the United States in peace
and war.  Control of these lands by a potential hostile power would greatly
limit our freedom of action." The council also considered Japanese
occupation of Southeast Asia a threat to Britain's Asian source of supply
and its war effort against Hitler.
   Considering the Japanese military occupations of China and Indochina and
the Amerikan economic embargo, which included oil, in July 1941, Pearl
Harbor was not such a "surprise" to the Amerikan government. War was simply
a matter of where and when.
   The real reasons why Amerika dropped the atom bomb on Hiroshima and
Nagasaki were economic interest and inter-imperialist rivalry.  Over
200,000 lives were lost, mostly civilian.  It is morally justifiable only
if you accept Amerikan imperialism as morally acceptable, and if you value
the lives of the Amerikan working class (which fights in Amerika's
imperialist wars) more than the non-white human beings in other countries.
   If you do not accept imperialist "morality," the communist revolutions
of the Soviet Union until 1956 and China until 1976 are the most successful
attempts to oppose and overcome imperialist parasites on the labor and
resources of the Third World.

Sources:
Newsweek, 24 July 1995, pp. 22-38.
Zinn, Howard, The Politics of History, 1970.  pp. 250-258.
Sklar, Holly, ed., Trilateralism, "Shaping a New World Order:
   the Council on Foreign Relations' Blueprint for World Hegemony"
   pp. 135-156.

***
*** End parasitism!
***

by a member of RAIL

   RAIL recognizes that the most important issue facing revolutionaries
today is the growing economic and political hegemony of  a few wealthy
nations over the poorer nations; arising from the system of imperialism.
This economic system superexploits-through super low wages for the
production of First World consumptive products-certain groups of people
(mainly in the Third World) for the benefit of others (mainly in the First
World). In working to build public opinion to end imperialism and in favor
of the revolutions fighting against it, RAIL realizes that it must organize
from the viewpoint of the international proletariat. This means ignoring
the demands of some groups of people who think they are exploited, but
actually are living decadent lives because of the superexploitation of
others. RAIL does not spend its time organizing for the interests of white
workers in the US because, as a group, they are not exploited workers (i.e.
they make more than the value of what they produce) and organizing in their
interests amounts to demanding a bigger piece of the imperialist pie.
   It is essential to organize in the interests of the most severely
oppressed class, since overlooking this perspective amounts to propping up
imperialism-the enemy of Third World peoples. Imperialism superexploits the
workers in the Third World in order to reap superprofits in the form of
capital and cheap products such as coffee, oranges, bananas, clothing,
etc., while smothering movements for independence and backing any fascist
or dictatorial regime which will bow to U.S. interests. The peoples of the
Third World have an interest in overthrowing this volatile system which
enslaves them. In the First World, we must recognize that organizing in the
interests of white workers serves to strengthen the power of the
imperialists, as these workers have a material interest in maintaining the
system of superexploitation which fuels their decadent lives.
   Anti-imperialist work aims at exposing the exploitation which shamefully
occurs in the name of "democracy", "free markets" and development, all the
while benefiting not only the capitalist class but also the workers [esp.
white workers] of the imperialist nation. The leading role the U.S. plays
in exercising  hegemonic control globally is reason people living in the
belly of the beast should resist the plunder perpetrated in their name.
   People should work against their material interests and at ending the
system which denies self-determination to a majority of the world's people.
Working to end imperialism means working against your own material
interests because an end to imperialism would mean a decline in the
Amerikan living standard. The Third World would no longer produce cheap
commodities for First World consumption while being paid less a week than
an Amerikan makes per hour. Thus multinationals would lose these profits
causing a decline in First World wages and Amerikans would lose out on
cheap commodities.
   But the initial material loss would be outweighed by the moral
advantages of a system which was not perpetuating death, destruction,
starvation and slavery. The material conditions for a socialist revolution
in this country would be closer at hand with the elimination of parasitic
existence and people living in neo-colonies would have economic and
political control over their lives and the opportunity to determine their
own destiny.
   Revolutions in Third World countries are being waged as we speak. In
Peru and the Philippines, Communist parties are engaged in armed struggle
against their U.S. puppet regimes and their imperialist-backed armed
forces. While the U.S. media likes to portray the Peruvian Communist Party
as terrorists, anti-imperialists know that the Peruvian's are fighting a
war for self-determination against a vicious comprador government which is
desperate to build public opinion in its own favor (esp. in the US where
the government can attain support to fund and arm the Peruvian military
under the guise of fighting the "war on drugs".) These revolutions are
evidence of the inevitability of the imperialist system's ruin. Supporting
these revolutionary movements is a way to build public opinion to end
imperialism.
   The alliance the imperialists have with white workers amounts to giving
them a chunk of the profits sucked out of the Third World. This ensures
their support for the bombings of Third World countries and wars waged
against anyone who presents a barrier to U.S. economic interest. Organizing
white workers as a group can only result in white-nation chauvinism.
Progressive organizing must be done from the vantage point of the Third
World Proletariat. RAIL works to expose the insidious nature of imperialism
and support the revolutionary movements opposing its domination. Work with
RAIL to end the parasitic system of imperialism!

END -=- RAIL Notes -=- Fall 1995