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.
MIM Notes 265 · September 1, 2002 · Page 1
MIM Notes
September 1, 2002, Nº 265 The Official Newsletter of the Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM)
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On the web: www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext
P
hilippine President Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo ordered
troops operating against the Abu
Sayaaf bandit gang to move against the
Communist-led New People's Army on
August 5. She also threatened militant
trade unions: "We will wage war against
criminals, terrorists, drug addicts,
kidnappers, smugglers and those who
terrorize factories that provide jobs."(1)
Macapagal-Arroyo unveiled her new
all-out war policy at a news conference
reminiscent of Corazon Aquino's "I will
unsheath my sword of war" speech. Both
Macapagal-Arroyo and Aquino came to
power making verbal concessions to anti-
fascist mass movements such as
promising land reform or sincere peace
talks with the Communists. Both have
now reneged on those promises.
The August 5 news conference came
just after U.$. Secretary of State Colin
Powell visited Macapagal-Arroyo. The
U.$. Attorney General placed the New
People's Army on a list of so-called
"terrorist groups" after September 11.(2)
Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal,
spokesperyn for the Communist Party of
the Philippines, said the party would
"intensify the armed struggle" in
response to the declaration of all-out war
and the threat of Amerikan intervention.
He attributed Macapagal-Arroyo's
CPP Information Bureau
August 6, 2002
C
ommunist Party spokesman
Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal
today declared that the
revolutionary movement "will defeat the
all-out war of the US-Macapagal-Arroyo
regime."
In a statement released to the media,
Rosal said that the CPP will "intensify
the armed revolution nationwide." The
revolutionary forces, he added, will
"continue expanding and strengthening
the revolutionary mass base and launch
tactical offensives especially against the
weak points of the reactionary enemy."
"It will launch a patriotic war the
moment American troops directly
intervene in the counterrevolutionary war
and enter the territories of the People's
Revolutionary Government," Rosal
declared.
"Macapagal-Arroyo's [regime] will
definitely suffer a backlash from her
declaration of all-out war against the
revolutionary forces," Rosal said. "The
correctness of the Party and the
revolutionary forces' stand against the
pro-imperialist and fascist policies of the
current reactionary regime is becoming
ever clearer to the people."
"Even before this declaration," Rosal
reveals, "there has been a marked
increase in the number of people, both
in the countryside and cities, wishing to
join the New People's Army and other
revolutionary organizations led by the
Party."
Rosal further stated that "Macapagal-
Arroyo's declaration of an all-out war
against the revolutionary movement is in
conformity to US instructions dictated to
her by US State Secretary Colin Powell
in their talks the other day."
Rosal said that such a declaration is
part of the "US-designed publicity
U.$.-Arroyo regime launches
`all-out war' on communists
Philippine
Communists:
We will defeat
reactionaries'
all-out war
aggressive policy to her Amerikan
handlers. "This declaration is tied to the
objective of ensuring the permanent
presence of American troops and paving
the way for their direct intervention in
the counterrevolutionary war." (See
articles on this page and page 4.)
It has been clear since hundreds of
Amerikan troops arrived on the
Philippine island of Mindanao in January
to "train" Philippine soldiers to fight the
The revolutionary forces are aligned against Arroyo and her Amerikan puppet-masters.
The mayor of Hiroshima criticized the
United $tates on August 5 while
commemorating the 57th anniversary of
the Amerikan nuclear attack on his city.
"Mayor Akiba Tadatoshi lamented the
world's growing tendency to forget the
horrors of the atomic bomb and told his
audience that the dangers of nuclear war
were rising.
"Akiba invited [U.$. President] Bush
to Hiroshima `to confirm with his own
eyes what nuclear weapons can do to
human beings' and lashed out at
Washington.
"`America has not been given the right
to impose a `Pax Americana' and to
decide the fate of the rest of the world,'
Akiba said. `Rather, we, the people of
the world, have the right to insist that we
have not given you [the United $tates]
the authority to destroy the world.'"(1)
MIM agrees with Mr. Akiba. MIM's
politics are driven by the simple
conviction that humyn survival rights--
including the right not to have the humyn
race blown up by crazy militarists--
come before
the supposed
right to
profit.
Capitalists
profit off of
war and the
divisions that
lead to war.
Their profits
even make
them willing to risk nuclear war, which
some of own spokespeople believe is
inevitable.(2)
Only the alternative of communism--
as difficult as that will be to achieve--
can eliminate the root problems of humyn
conflict: production for profit, the class
system, conflicts over
land etc.
Japan's defeat in World War II and the
nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and
Nagasaki in particular taught the
Japanese people some harsh anti-
militarist lessons. Mr. Akiba's charge that
the United $tates is risking world
destruction is one example of that, as is
the city of Hiroshima's museum
dedicated to eliminating nuclear
weapons.(3)
The United $tates is bound to suffer
similar defeats--indeed it already has, as
in Vietnam. These future defeats will
destroy the imperialists' ability to make
Mayor of Hiroshima blasts `Pax Americana'
C ontinued on page 5...
C ontinued on page 7...
C ontinued on page 4...
MIM Notes 265 · September 1, 2002· Page 2
MIM Notes
The Official Newsletter of The Maoist Internationalist Movement
MIM Notes is the bi-weekly newsletter of the Maoist Internationalist Movement. MIM
grants explicit permission to copy all or part of this newspaper for any reason. Please
credit MIM Notes where appropriate. The paper is free to all prisoners. Overseas airmail
is $2 per issue. MIM Notes is the official Party voice. Material in the paper is the Party's
position unless noted to the contrary. MIM Notes accepts submissions and critiques from
anyone. The editors reserve the right to edit copy unless permission is specifically denied
by the author. Back issues of MIM Notes are available for $1 per issue. A bound volume
of the original MIM Notes 1-34 and MIM Theory 1-13 (old numbering) is available for
$15, post-paid. MIM has a complete literature list of progressive books and pamphlets.
Send $2 for a copy. MIM's ten point program is available to anyone who sends in a
SASE. MIM is an underground party that does not publish the names of its comrades in
order to avoid the state surveillance and repression that have historically been directed at
communist parties and anti-imperialist movements. MCs, MIM comrades, are members
of the Party. RCs are RAIL Comrades. The Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League (RAIL)
is an anti-imperialist mass organization led by MIM. MIM runs a books for prisoners
program which provides Maoist and general political material to prisoners for free. Make
checks or money orders payable to "Books for Prisoners, Inc." Federal EIN: 04-3475938.
Send to: Books for Prisoners, Inc. c/o the address below. Donations and books can be
sent to the address below. Send cash or check payable to "MIM Distributors".
MIM
P.O. Box 29670
Los Angeles, CA 90029-0670
eMail: <mim@mim.org>
WWW: <http//www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext>
What is MIM?
The Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM) is the collection of existing or emerging
Maoist internationalist parties in the English-speaking imperialist countries and their English-
speaking internal semi-colonies, as well as the existing or emerging Maoist Internationalist
parties in Belgium, France and Quebec and the existing or emerging Spanish-speaking
Maoist Internationalist parties of Aztlan, Puerto Rico and other territories of the U.$. Empire.
MIM Notes is the newspaper of MIM. Notas Rojas is the newspaper of the Spanish-speaking
parties or emerging parties of MIM. MIM upholds the revolutionary communist ideology
of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism and is an internationalist organization that works from the
vantage point of the Third World proletariat. MIM struggles to end the oppression of all
groups over other groups: classes, genders, nations. MIM knows this is only possibly 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 humyn history. (3) As Marx, Engels and Lenin formulated and MIM has
reiterated through materialist analysis, imperialism extracts super-profits from the Third
World and in part uses this wealth to buy off whole populations of oppressor nation so-
called workers. These so-called workers bought off by imperialism form a new petty-
bourgeoisie called the labor aristocracy. These classes are not the principal vehicles to
advance Maoism within those countries because their standards of living depend on
imperialism. At this time, imperialist super-profits create this situation in the Canada, Quebec,
the United $tates, England, France, Belgium, Germany, Japan, Italy, Switzerland,
Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Israel, Sweden and Denmark. 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.
Editor, MC206; Production, MC12
MIM is looking for distributors and
sponsors to step forward. Sponsors pay for
papers; distributors get them onto the
streets and officers do both distribution and
financial support:
Distribute
Cost per year
12 (Priority Mail)
$120
25 (Priority Mail)
$150
50 (Priority Mail)
$280
100
$380
200
$750
900 (Express Mail!)
$3,840
900 (8-10 days)
$2,200
If you know you have some good places
distribute, we suggest starting at 200 and
working your way up. If you are not willing
to distribute, just send money. If you are
not willing to pay, then request papers after
somehow proving to the party that you are
serious (words won't count). You who will
cough up/raise the money to distribute 900
papers each issue and then do the
distribution -- you are what drives this party
forward.
Make anonymous money orders payable
to "MIM." Send to MIM, attn: Camb.
branch, PO Box 400559, Cambridge, MA
02140. Or write mim3@mim.org.
A call for MIM Notes sponsors and distributors!
Letters
Attention subscribers
MIM now sends MIM Notes
subscriptions to individuals in monthly
mailings, third class mail. If you have a
subscription and would like a refund for
the remaining months, please write to
MIM,PO Box 29670, Los Angeles, CA
90029-0670.
MIM Theory
calls for
articles,
testimonials
MIM's theory magazine is preparing
for future issues. We are looking for
well-researched articles on Nazi
Germany and eastern Germany,
especially in the 1945 to 1953 period.
Please follow some footnote format.
Another area we are working on is
research on psychics. If you stopped
paying psychics, please send us a letter
telling us how you did so and give us
your permission to use your statement
as a testimonial. We also would
appreciate any statistical research or
articles on the subject of the
effectiveness of psychics.
Stop UC Berkeley's
inquisition
A New York prisoner wrote the
following letter to Chancellor Robert
Berdahl of the University of California
at Berkeley.
Dear Chancellor,
I recently read in MIM Notes
publication an article in regards to your
"zero-tolerance policy" at the University
of California. It seems that this policy
was directly targeted at the (SJP)
Students for Justice in Palestine
organization that were holding political
demonstrations to educate the public of
your university's direct contribution
through financial aid to the Israeli
occupation of Palestine. The Constitution
of the U.S. (Const. Amendment I) gives
the citizens of the country the absolute
right to petition for redress of grievances
and freedom of speech. These are two
distinct clauses within the First
Amendment. By arresting numerous
individuals and threatening suspension
from school to students these are fascist
acts that one could expect from Hitler or
Mussolini in order to quiet popular
dissent.
I'm asking that the charges brought
against these individuals be dropped, the
Inquisition put to a cease. Additionally,
I'm asking that any aid given to
companies such as Raytheon, Lockheed
Martin, General Electric Corp., etc. be
discontinued because these same
individual corporations are turning
around and using these funds to supply
Israel with the military capability to carry
out it's on going repression of the
Palestinian freedom movement for self-
determination. The senseless taking of
land ever since 1948 and displacing of
Palestinians has to stop. The hunger,
devastation, disease and hopelessness
that is caused by the Israeli occupation
has to cease. You can do your part in this
internationalist movement by advocating
and promoting the right to free speech
without worry of repression and the
divestment of all financial dealings with
companies named above and those that
support the Israeli occupation. I thank
you for taking the time out to read my
petition. God bless.
Respectfully submitted,
[a New York prisoner]
On June 7th all criminal charges
against the students were dismissed in
court and each protestor is to receive a
"factual findings of innocence." On
campus, the UC administration has lifted
the suspension of SJP thanks to many
supporters who expressed their disgust
at the administrations actions. However,
they continue to threaten 41 UC Berkeley
students who participated in the sit-in
with harsh student conduct charges and
severe academic sanctions, including a
year of academic suspension. So letters
such as the one above are still needed.
To get involved in the campaign to get
the UC schools divested from Israel you
can download a petition here: http://
www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/cal/
DivestPetition.pdf
Leters can be addressed to:
Chancellor Robert Berdahl
200 California Hall #1500
Berkeley, CA 94720-1500
We constantly update MIM's
coverage of the U.$. war on
our web site, with news and
opinion, agitation materials,
articles in English, Spanish,
French, Chinese and
Russian!
Read and distribute the
newspaper -- and get the
latest:
www.etext.org/ Politics/MIM
MIM Notes 265 · September 1, 2002 · Page 3
MIM Notes has seen a big spike in
circulation since the "war on
terrorism" began. It's not surprising:
MIM Notes is a free and independent
newspaper. Yes, there are especially
now knee-jerk patriots who believe
everything Bush says and pass by a
chance to read MIM Notes. There are
other patriots and internationalists
who realize that at this time papers
like MIM Notes can undo the huge
spectacle that Uncle Sam is creating
for its own benefit.
Sure, you have seen MIM Notes
around, but MIM Notes needs people
to do two simple things: 1) Pay for it
(postage and printing), 2) Distribute
it!
MIM is looking for sponsors,
distributors and officers. Sponsors pay
for papers; distributors get them onto
the streets and officers do both
distribution and financial support.
Distribute # Cost per year
12 (Priority Mail)
$120
25 (Priority Mail)
$150
50 (Priority Mail)
$280
100
$380
200
$750
900 (Express Mail!)
$3,840
900 (8-10 days)
$2,200
If you know you have some good
places to do distribution, we suggest
starting at 200 and working your way
up higher. If you are not willing to do
distribution, just send money. If you
are not willing to pay, then request
papers after somehow proving to the
party that you are serious (words
won't count). You who will cough up/
raise the money to distribute 900
papers each issue and then do the
distribution, you are what drives this
party forward.
A call for MIM Notes
sponsors and distributors!
Make anonymous money orders payable to "MIM." Send to MIM,
attn: Camb. branch, PO Box 400559, Cambridge, MA 02140. Contact
MIM in regards to this campaign by writing mim3@mim.org
Decision comes after
rejecting restrictions
on family visitation
The California Department of
Corrections (CDC) recently rejected
proposed restrictions on prisoners'
contact with family members at the end
of the period for public comment on
August 9. This decision came after
activists loudly criticized the CDC.
The CDC then added new limitations
on prisoners' contact with legal aid
workers. The new regulations limit
attorney-client privilege and bar law
students and legal aid workers who are
not lawyers from visitation. For most
prisoners volunteer legal help from non-
lawyers is essential to maintain their
access to the courts, needed to help fight
against repressive and inhuman
conditions in prisons.
MIM and RAIL collected petition
signatures and letters to send to the CDC
demanding that the CDC allow prisoners
their constitutionally guaranteed rights
to legal representation; that they remove
all new wording of the Attorney
Visitations and Consultations section;
and demanding that a public hearing take
place on these new regulations. However
the CDC approved the limitations after
a short comment period ending August
9 and no public hearing.
The rewrite of California DOC
visitation policies began in March. The
first round of proposed changes in the
CDC visiting rules made it very difficult
for people to visit their relatives and
friends in prison, cutting off visitation
entirely for inmates with more severe
sentences. The rules would have required
preteens to undergo federal background
checks before visiting their parents in
prison; required all inmate visitors,
including minors, to provide a completed
CDC Form 106 and obtain institution/
facility approval before being permitted
to visit an inmate; required minors over
the age of 7 to present picture proof of
identity before being permitted to visit
(only legal ID's, as with adult visitors);
and cut off family visits for higher
custody and life sentence inmates, those
in segregation or secure housing units,
or who have been found guilty of
violating certain regulations. These
restrictions were clearly counter to any
notion of rehabilitation as studies have
shown that regular visits reduce
recidivism among prisoners.
MIM collected hundreds of petition
signatures to protest these new proposed
policies, which were sent to the CDC.
According to the San Francisco
Chronicle, the CDC received more than
2000 letters of protest in response to these
new regulations. Most of the visitation
limiting changes were removed in the
second draft of the visitation proposals
California DOC guts legal aid visitation rights
The final UN report on the Amerikan
raid on the Afghan village of Kakarak
reveals that U.$. troops returned to the
scene right after the massacre to clean
up traces of blood, shrapnel and
bullets.(1) The July 30th report also says
the Amerikans tied the hands of Afghan
womyn behind their backs and filmed
dead bodies.(2) Amerikan planes
bombed a wedding party at the village
on July first, claiming they came under
anti-aircraft fire.(3)
Participants in Afghan weddings often
fire rifles in the air, but witnesses to say
the July first wedding party fired no
weapons. The Amerikans also argued
that the village was a Taliban stronghold.
However, according to the UN report,
"the affected compound [in Kakarak]
belonged to an active anti-Taliban
fighter."(4)
The imperialist military does not care
how many civilians it kills as long as it
accomplishes its mission: to ensure
world hegemony and continue extracting
super-profits from the Third World.
Bombing a wedding and then covering
it up were not just mistakes, they were a
part of the pattern of U.$. military
oppression throughout the world. Nor
was this attack the first to cause civilian
deaths since the so-called "war on
terrorism" began. Independent estimates
of Afghan deaths directly due to the war
range from 1,000- 3,000 people. The
number including deaths due to
starvation, exposure, illness, or injury due
to the war is up to 6,000.(3)
Mao said that "U.S. imperialism is the
adversary of the people of the world." As
proletarian internationalists we must
U.N. report Afghanistan massacre doesn't corroborate U.$. story
continually bring to light the horrific
nature of U.$. imperialism and unite with
the oppressed peoples of the world in
their struggle against it.
Notes:
1. BBC News, 30 Jul 2002.
2. BBC News, 29 Jul 2002.
3. MIM Notes 262, 15 Jul 2002.
4. Reuters. 29 Jul 2002.
MIM runs the foremost website
amongst all those calling themselves
Maoist on the Internet by number of users
and breadth of content. In fact, MIM's
struggle to support the People's War in
Peru and elsewhere has been unparalleled
on the Internet since the late 1980s (and
recorded by Google since 1992.)
The only website calling itself "Maoist"
that could claim higher traffic would be
the "Afghan Liberation Organization,"
ALO, which especially since September
11th has had a hand in web pages that are
in hot demand.
This has not stopped organizations such
as the "RCP-USA" from calling MIM
"small" and "isolated" every chance it
gets--as if size were the issue and not
political line. July comments at the "RCP-
USA"'s website www.2changetheworld.
info/home-en.php are indicative. We at
MIM encourage people not to pay
attention to MIM just because our web
readership is relatively high or highest
amongst the organizations calling
themselves "Maoist."
There are simply not enough MIM
members to be everywhere that they
should be. That is why organizations that
compare size instead of line and party
requirements end up as opportunists,
bourgeois infiltrators. By size alone, and
with the "RCP-USA"'s class line, the
"CP-USA" or the "Democratic Party"
would be better choices.
The "RCP-USA" is not the only small
organization pointing to other small
organizations and asking "where were
you on X day in Y city"? This is also a
favorite tactic of the Spartacist League,
which also demonstrates its opportunism
of reducing questions to one of numbers
of people. Marx, Lenin and Mao called
this kind of approach in general
"empiricism," because it hinges on one
fact (typically a favorite protest) without
generalizing correctly to a level of
principle.
The ONLY principled way for one
small organization to criticize another or
for a large organization to criticize a
small one is to compare party
requirements for membership. If in fact
MIM members do not have high work
requirements relative to the "RCP-
USA"'s, that might be worth discussing.
MIM raised this point on its Yahoo!
group "Maoism" only to receive
deafening silence from the "RCP-USA."
The very fact that the "RCP-USA" has
always raised the "small" thing against
MIM indicates that they are not Maoist,
but rather sizeist pragmatists.
Otherwise, without MIM's scientific
approach to this question, what happens
is that we assume that larger
organizations must be superior, when in
fact, they could be bourgeois
organizations like the Democratic Party.
Such a question has to be determined
scientifically, not by counting bodies.
The "RCP-USA" may be larger in a
membership sense than MIM, but its
influence is bourgeois influence,
influence representing the labor
`RCP-USA' runs from questions at
www.2changetheworld.info
C ontinued on page 9...
C ontinued on page 6...
MIM Notes 265 · September 1, 2002· Page 4
Statement by Gregorio "Ka
Roger" Rosal
Spokespersyn for the Communist
Party of the Philippines
August 6, 2002
Macapagal-Arroyo's declaration of all-
out war against the revolutionary
movement conforms to US orders
dictated to her by US Secretary of State
Colin Powell during their talks the other
day. This declaration is tied to the
objective of ensuring the permanent
presence of American troops and paving
the way for their direct intervention in
the counterrevolutionary war.
This declaration of all-out war is part
of an entire US-designed scheme that will
end with Macapagal-Arroyo
"solicitation" of US assistance in its
effort to fight the NPA.
Even before this declaration, the US
and Macapagal-Arroyo had already
planned the next "exercises" outside the
Abu Sayyaf areas, and in the territories
of the New People's Army and the organs
of political power of the revolutionary
movement.
After allegedly breaking the backbone
of the Abu Sayyaf bandit group, the US-
Macapagal Arroyo regime is now
focusing attention on the New People's
Army. Based on arrangements that have
undergone continuous modifications,
there are bigger openings for direct
intervention by US troops like what had
already been started in Basilan.
"The war on terrorism does not
distinguish between ordinary terrorists
and those espousing a political ideology,"
said chief puppet Arroyo, who insisted
on turning a blind eye to the difference
between the revolutionary people's army
on the one hand, and bandits and criminal
syndicates on the other. Chief puppet
GMA also insinuated that her all-out war
would encompass even the legal and
democratic mass movement. Said the
chief puppet, "We will wage war on
criminals, terrorists, drug addicts,
kidnappers, smugglers and those who
terrorize factories that provide jobs."
We were not at all surprised by
Macapagal-Arroyo's declaration of all-
out war. In fact, the AFP's all-out
counterrevolutionary war has been raging
in the countryside for several months
now.
As soon as she took power in January
2001, Macapagal-Arroyo secretly
ordered massive assaults by the terrorist
AFP and PNP on guerrilla fronts even as
she declared that her government would
pursue the peace talks with the NDFP.
Before long, Macapagal-Arroyo
discarded the peace talks.
Since the third quarter of 2001,
thousands of AFP troops have been
deployed by the Macapagal-Arroyo
regime against the revolutionary
movement. Along with the AFP's
rampage against the people of Basilan,
Sulu and Zamboanga, the fascist troops
have also been wreaking widespread
havoc on hundreds of thousands of
people in Southern Tagalog (particularly
in Laguna and Oriental Mindoro),
Cagayan Valley (especially in Isabela),
Central Luzon (especially in Tarlac and
Pampanga), Central Visayas (especially
in Bohol) and other areas where the
revolutionary movement is widespread
and strong.
In Southern Tagalog alone, hundreds
of ordinary civilians have been
victimized by rampant killings,
massacres and mass arrests and
imprisonment, with the hapless victims
always accused of being NPA members
or supporters. Most of the slain civilians
were activists and leaders of mass
organizations actively fighting for the
rights and welfare of their respective
sectors.
The revolutionary movement is ever
ready for the all-out war declaration of
any chief stooge of the puppet republic.
It has never been fazed by any threat of
brutal attack by the puppet republic's
mercenary troops and even by the
presence of, and threats of aggression
from, American troops.
The Party, the people's army and the
revolutionary movement will respond by
intensifying the armed struggle and
launching tactical offensives on the
weakest sections of the enemy.
The Party stands ready to lead a
patriotic war the moment American
troops wage direct intervention, which
includes entering the territory of the
People's Revolutionary Government.
The succession of out-and-out puppet
regimes-Marcos, Aquino, Ramos and
Estrada - all tried to destroy, crush and
annihilate the revolutionary movement.
They all failed miserably. Filipino
revolutionaries and communists are
certain that the puppet Macapagal-
Arroyo regime will likewise fail to
subjugate the Filipino people's
revolutionary and patriotic struggle.
Arroyo's declaration of all-out war dictated by Colin Powell
Stickers with this graphic on them are available for sale and
distribution. Contact rail@mim.org or write to MIM at PO Box
29670, Los Angeles CA 90029-0670. ("Kills" is red, and there's red
blood on the blade.)
Militarism is war-mongering or the
advocacy of war or actual carrying out
of war or its preparations.
While true pacifists condemn all
violence as equally repugnant, we
Maoists do not consider self-defense
or the violence of oppressed nations
against imperialism to be militarism.
Militarism is mostly caused by
imperialism at this time. Imperialism
is the highest stage of capitalism--
seen in countries like the United
$tates, England and France.
Under capitalism, capitalists often
profit from war or its preparations.
Yet, it is the proletariat that does the
dying in the wars. The proletariat
wants a system in which people do not
have self-interest on the side of war-
profiteering or war for imperialism.
Militarism is one of the most
important reasons to overthrow
capitalism. It even infects oppressed
nations and causes them to fight each
other.
It is important not to let capitalists
risk our lives in their ideas about war
and peace or the environment. They
have already had two world wars
admitted by themselves in the last 100
years and they are conducting a third
right now against the Third World.
Even a one percent annual chance of
nuclear war destruction caused by
capitalist aggressiveness or "greed" as
the people call it should not be tolerated
by the proletariat. After playing
Russian Roulette (in which the bullet
chamber is different each time and not
related at all to the one that came up in
previous spins) with 100 chambers and
one bullet, the chance of survival is
only 60.5% after 50 turns. In other
words, a seemingly small one percent
annual chance of world war means
eventual doom. After 100 years or turns
of Russian Roulette, the chances of
survival are only 36.6%. After 200
years, survival has only a 13.4%
chance.
What is militarism?
campaign that will end with Macapagal-
Arroyo asking for US help in its effort to
fight the NPA."
According to Rosal, the US and
Macapagal-Arroyo governments want to
"justify the incursion of American troops
into the guerrilla zones." He said that this
will take the form of "exercises,"
extension of military support, setting up
of "infrastructures for military
campaigns" and "direct participation in
counter-guerrilla operations."
The all-out war declaration, he said, "is
tied to the objective of ensuring the
permanent presence of American troops
and paving the way for their direct
intervention in the counterrevolutionary
war."
"The US is itching to directly get
involved in the all-out war against the
CPP-led revolutionary movement--one
among those the US dreadfully fears,"
Rosal added.
Rosal said that the CPP and the
revolutionary movement are not at all
surprised by Macapagal-Arroyo's
declaration of an all-out war. In fact, he
added, the AFP's all out
counterrevolutionary war has been raging
in the countryside for several months
now.
He assailed the AFP for "wreaking
widespread havoc on the people" in
Oriental Mindoro, Laguna, Isabela,
Tarlac, Pampanga and Bohol where "the
revolutionary movement is widespread
and strong."
Philippine Communists: We will defeat reactionaries' all-out war
Continued from page 1...
MIM Notes 265 · September 1, 2002 · Page 5
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Politics/MIM
Amerika sends more
military aid to the
Philippines
Just after the U.$. Congress approved
another $55 million in military aid for
the Philippines (1) an Amerikan soldier
shot a Filipino civilian. The soldier was
one of over 1,000 Amerikan troops in the
Philippines engaged in so-called training
exercises with the Philippine military.
Three soldiers armed with Armalite
rifles kicked open the door of the home
to the Isnijal family while they were
asleep in their beds around midnight on
July 25. There were eight civilians in the
house, including a baby, three children
and an elderly woman. The military had
no arrest warrant. One of the soldiers was
Amerikan.(2)
The soldiers ordered Buyong-buyong
Isnijal to lay on his back on the floor.
Without provocation the Amerikan
soldier shot him in the thigh. Isnijal's
wife Juraida then fought with one of the
soldiers and who struck her on her palm
and face with his rifle barrel. The soldiers
fired two more shots and all residents of
the house ran outside except the wounded
man.
According to doctors the Amerikan
soldier who shot Isnijal brought him to
the hospital accompanied by two other
Amerikans and fifteen Filipino soldiers.
The Filipinos later transferred Isnijal to
the Southern Command and he has not
been heard from since. No one is sure of
his whereabouts or whether he is alive.(2)
The International Solidarity Mission
(ISM), a group of 40 people from various
organizations investigating the
misconduct of the Amerikan military in
the Philippines, conducted an emergency
investigation into the shooting incident
and was the first to expose the shooter as
an Amerikan soldier. The ISM also
documented other incidents of human
rights violations perpetrated by the U.$.
troops.(3)
Filipino President Macapagal-Arroyo
accused the ISM and others investigating
the incident of defending the Abu Sayyaf.
The U.$. and Philippine governments
justify the presence of Amerikan troops
in Mindanao, saying they are there to
fight the small "terrorist" Abu Sayaaf
gang.
Philippine congresspersyn Satur
Ocampo responded, "[We] are not
defending the Abu Sayyaf. What we are
doing is defending the right of a Filipino
individual to due process and to be
considered innocent until proven guilty.
What we are against is the blatant
disregard for human rights; and the US
troops' reckless breaking of the Terms
of Reference. An American soldier shot
the unarmed Isnijal and the AFP allowed
it."(4)
The Terms of Reference are rules
allegedly governing Amerikan soldiers'
conduct in the Philippines. The U.$.-
Macapagal-Arroyo regime drew them up
to deflect correct criticism that the
presence of Amerikan troops in the
Philippines violates Philippine
sovereignty. The Terms of Reference
forbid Amerikan soldiers from
participating in combat operations or
firing their weapons, except in self
defense. This incident shows that the
Terms of Reference are a sham.
The lackey Macapagal-Arroyo regime
wants to extend military exercises with
Amerikan soldiers and recently allowed
more than 4000 Amerikan troops onto
Filipino soil. Macapagal-Arroyo and her
Amerikan handlers have
opportunistically used the tiny Abu
Sayaaf and the "war on terrorism" to
justify Amerikan intervention, but the
bigger target is the Communist-led
revolutionary movement. Macapagal-
Arroyo's order to re-deploy troops from
Abu Sayaaf to Communist-controlled
areas is an example of that (see page 1).
There is a strong revolutionary
movement in the Philippines, led by the
Communist Party of the Philippines,
which is fighting an armed struggle
against the imperialists. The Amerikan
government fears their power and pours
more and more aid into its lackey-
Filipino government. But the just
struggle of the people of the Philippines
will not be stopped. And those of us
fighting the battle within U.$. borders
must do our part to help this struggle by
demanding an immediate end to all
Amerikan military aid to the Philippines.
Notes:
1. Manila Times, July 26, 2002.
2. KARAPATAN Press Release,
www.karapatan.org , 29 Jul 29, 2002.
3. ISM News Release, July 27, 2002
4. ISM News Release, July 29, 2002
U.$. soldier shoots Filipino civilian
Abu Sayaaf that the New People's Army
would be next. Philippine General
Angelo Reyes admitted as much.(3) The
general staff of the Armed Forces of the
Philippines does not deny that troops
which operated with the Amerikans will
be deployed against the New People's
Army.(1)
(Amerikan soldiers have not limited
themselves to "training" Philippine
soldiers. They participated in at least one
raid and shot a Filipino civilian. See story
page 5.)
The Communist-led revolutionary
movement has made great advances since
it re-affirmed its Maoist roots in the mid-
1990s. According to the Philippine
military, "Barangays [villages]
influenced by the NPA increased from
445 in 1995 to 1,969 barangays in 2001
and to 2,262 this year. In the first six
months of the year, the NPA added five
new guerilla fronts, according to the
military."(1) The Communist Party of the
Philippines says the number of Red
fighters increased by 222 percent from
1980 to 2001 and 53 percent from 1994
to 2001.(6)
The Communists are not the only ones
wary of Amerikan intervention. Vice
President Philippine Teofisto Guingona
Jr. "said he feared the US military would
use the new doctrine [Bush's `first strike'
policy] to unilaterally go after communist
rebels or Islamic militants in the
Philippine countryside." "What example
U.$.-Arroyo regime launches
`all-out war' on communists
will the US give were she herself to
pursue the pre-emptive strike policy?"
Guingona. "Would this not negate
negotiations and inflame the two
countries (India and Pakistan) into open
conflict with nuclear consequences?"
Guingona recently lost his job as
Foreign Secretary over differences with
President Macapagal-Arroyo on the
presence of Amerikan troops in the
Philippines.
More and more despotic
The May First Movement (KMU), an
alliance of militant trade unions, blasted
Macapagal-Arroyo for equating
kidnappers, smugglers and other
criminals with workers. "Now she
regards legitimate and democratic
workers' activities like strikes and protest
mass actions as acts of terrorism," said
KMU Secretary for Federation Affairs
Joel Maglunsod. "These are brazen
violations of workers rights with
impunity. We are deeply alarmed with her
militarist attitude. She's becoming more
and more despotic everyday."
"But if Arroyo's militarist regime
wishes to inflict brutalities on the militant
workers movement then KMU is ready
to give her a good fight. We will continue
even more educating and organizing
workers. We will launch massive protest
actions until she is ousted from the
presidency."
In fact, if anybody deserves the
"terrorist" label, it's Macapagal-Arroyo
and her thugs who try hard to keep
workers unorganized and wages low.
"When workers try to organize genuine
unions, their leaders and organizers are
instantly removed from their jobs,"
continued Maglunsod. "When they resort
to protest actions and strikes to seek for
economic relief, they are met with the
most brutal forms of police and military
attacks, like getting clubbed, arrested and
detained. Some of their leaders are even
killed."(4)
Philippine police wounded more than
a hundred people as they tried to disperse
demonstrators during Macapagal-
Arroyo's State of the Nation Speech in
July.(5)
Notes:
1. Philippine Daily Inquirer,
www.inq7.net, 6 Aug 2002.
2. MIM Notes 247, 1 Dec 2001.
3. MIM Notes 253, 1 Mar 2002.
4. KMU News Release, 6 Aug 2002.
5. PESANTE Statement, 23 Jul 2002.
6. Central Committee, Communist
Party of the Philippines, Message on the
33rd Anniversary of the New People's
Army, 29 Mar 2002.
Continued from page 1...
MIM Notes 265 · September 1, 2002· Page 6
Despite trying hard to sound like MIM
on the question of identity politics, the
"RCP-USA" could not help using post-
modernism and identity politics to do the
ruling class's work on
www.2changetheworld.info. In July, the
"RCP-USA" said that the only difference
between our positions on the Black
nation's right to self- determination,
despite previous arguments contrary on
the www.2changetheworld.info is that
the "RCP-USA" actually has Black
members. Having baited MIM this way,
the "RCP-USA" on July 22nd, then goes
on to ask the racial background of all
MIM members, saying "correct me if I'm
wrong." The "RCP-USA" then cut off the
thread including postings from a MIM
supporter--as if to leave the impression
that MIM supporters were speechless
after such comments. (Postings continued
on www.yahoogroups.com/group/
Maoism.)
It is always the approach of the post-
modernists and identity politics people
to care about individual demographics
instead of scientific line struggle. The
police find this very useful, especially in
public forums like
www.2changetheworld.info. It is one
way to stir up resentment within
organizations and cause them to split with
college-educated on one side against
those who don't have college education,
gay versus heterosexual, young versus
old etc., etc.
Later, in regard to an interview with
Bob Avakian about whether white
proletarians exist or not, the "RCP-USA"
could not help pointing out that the
individual doing the interview was Black.
There was a special message just on that
point, all the while claiming to oppose
identity politics.
By the way, even if the "RCP-USA"
adopted MIM's line on national self-
determination, which it has not, the
"RCP-USA" would still oppose what we
have called the "re-civilization stage" of
the dictatorship of the proletariat or
preparation for such dictatorship of the
proletariat. We at MIM believe state
power is necessary to undercut the
chauvinism of the white oppressor
nation, by erasing the super-profits that
have caused the white population to be
an enemy of the international proletariat.
In contrast, the "RCP-USA" believes that
the people who let off Vincent Chin's
killer, the people who let off Rodney
King's attackers and the people who in
their 90% have favored bombing Libya,
war on Iraq and destruction of
Afghanistan can really change their
minds by "public opinion" or cultural
work without first erasing the super-
profits and other aspects of the relations
of production that give rise to their
chauvinism. That's why we call the
"RCP-USA" New Age idealists along
with their bolder version, the
"Progressive Labor Party." They do not
think state power is necessary to make
these people truly revolutionary and they
ignore what Stalin told the Germans after
World War II, that they were not ready
or qualified to build socialism right away.
Both the PLP and "RCP-USA" will
simply end up re-labeling reactionary
phenomena as revolution, putting some
new oppressor faces in power and
establishing social-imperialism.
The "RCP-USA" cannot emerge from
identity politics. There are many too
many obstacles for it. One is that it needs
to go on talking about a minority of white
workers in order to justify its overall line
that the majority is exploited. Any real
facts about the white majority would
quickly prove the MIM line, so the "RCP-
USA" needs to tell long and tall tales
about individual oppressed whites.
Secondly, it has always been the "RCP-
USA"'s practice to use the struggles of
Third World peoples to shield their own
revisionism. That is how RIM has
functioned and the "RCP-USA" has
found success in recruiting philistines
this way, people who want to use other
militant struggles for their own ends. The
"RCP-USA" is so used to this approach
that twice in trying to change the subject
from the u.$. class structure in
www.2changetheworld.info, the "RCP-
USA" raised questions about the Russian
Maoist Party. Finally, since the Black
Panther Party already proved the validity
of its approach, the "RCP-USA" needs
to sidestep that history and attack those
whites backing the Black Panther
approach while raising more pragmatist-
empiricist criteria such as whether or not
MIM is small or all-white.
As MIM has pointed out before, in its
web page FAQ, it is a cop tactic to divide
organizations based on identity politics
and demographic differences. People
who cannot keep their mouth shut when
baited with cop-tactics and people who
do not know how to promote unity in
such situations are ready prey for the
ruling class. MIM teaches people this,
while the "RCP-USA" ignores history
and practices something
indistinguishable from what cops have
always done against revolutionaries.
`RCP-USA' identity politics include security risk
aristocracy.
Someone calling him or herself
"Pancho Villa" observed at
www.2changetheworld.info the
following, posted July 25th in the
National Liberation section: "I've been
an activist, on and off, for about 10 years.
I've been involved in green, anti- war,
anti-imperialist, anti-cop, anti-prison,
activities over the years. I know that the
majority of posters here are associated
with the RCP and like to take jabs at those
like MIM or PLP who also claim to be
Maoist. But, claiming that MIM is
`clearly isolated,' implying that they are
an irrelevant sect, seems a bit funny to
us uninitiated folks. I don't consider
myself new to revolutionary politics, I've
been around, and I've never seen any
participation from any maoist groups in
any of our local struggles. Seeing the
RCP imply that MIM is a sect, just seems
like the same old game of the pot calling
the kettle black. Are you sure you aren't
Trotskyists -- arguing about who is and
who isn't a sect?"
The real point of the "RCP-USA"'s
criticisms of MIM on this question was
to change the subject. The "RCP-USA"
criticism occurred in a website thread that
is supposed to be about national
liberation, surplus-value and statistics on
the class structure. The "RCP-USA" has
gone on record refusing to detail the
inflow of surplus-value into the united
$tates through its polemics with MIM.
Several "RCP-USA" members are
members of MIM's Yahoo group on
`RCP-USA' runs from questions at www.2changetheworld.info
"Maoism" and one has even posted an
article there criticizing MIM, but no
"RCP-USA" member has ever posted an
article anywhere answering MIM's
pointed question to it: "how much
surplus-value is coming into the United
$tates from abroad; where does it come
from and what is the effect on the U.$.
class structure, quantitatively speaking."
Again and again, these social-
imperialist "comrades" from the "RCP-
USA" have dismissed the question as
either "academic" or not related to
"practice." Clearly the "practice" they are
talking about is not abolishing
exploitation. Their "practice" also
includes not being willing to disown the
German "workers" of 1943, 1944 and
1945 who never overthrew Hitler, and in
fact, fought for him to the bitter end and
demonstrated their parasitic, not
proletarian nature in the most clarifying
way possible. Quite the contrary, the
"RCP-USA" line pushed out on
www.2changetheworld.info opposes
foreign invasion of the oppressed to bring
down oppressors--a direct slap at Stalin
and also at Mao who had Lin Biao
published on this subject in 1965.
The definition of sectarianism is not
an organization that is "small." Sectarians
as Mao defined them put their
organization's interests above those of
the international proletariat, and in fact,
as the Chinese comrades pointed out over
and over again in their history, they also
started "small."
Sectarians typically break off united
action over bitterness regarding scientific
struggles of principle. Many people
calling MIM "sectarian" are in fact
"sectarian" themselves by this definition.
The "RCP-USA" and the "Marxist-
Leninist Party of Germany" (MLPD) are
both on record as saying that questions
regarding the leadership of the proletariat
affect what they say about the nature of
the class structure. That means they put
the handful in the organization above the
interests of the international proletariat.
The "MLPD" has openly come out to
say that it does not see a massive petty-
bourgeois majority in Germany, "because
that would justify having petty-bourgeois
leaders." Since the current leader of the
MLPD is an industrial worker, who wants
to claim not being petty-bourgeois, the
answer is sectarian, putting the needs of
the organization leaders first and the
scientific understanding of millions of
people second. Likewise, the "RCP-
USA" says it is "irresponsible" to tell the
truth about the U.$. class structure and
that it means that individual leaders of
the organizations are "capitulating."
In any case, we respond to this only
because of the variety of low-level
attacks by the "RCP-USA" on MIM at
the www.2changetheworld.info, attacks
that never enter the real questions of
Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. We are sure
many readers grow tired of this, since
they do not care about the "RCP-USA"
anyway and question MIM on many
levels as well, but we simply conclude
that the only real standard for resolving
such questions is the comparison of party
requirements per member, not by
comparing size of organizations. With
this principle we hope to have provided
a helpful scientific approach to compare
parties that cuts through reformism and
pragmatism.
Continued from page 3...
No "RCP-USA" member has ever
posted an article anywhere
answering MIM's question: "How
much surplus-value is coming into
the U.$. from abroad; where does
it come from, and what is the
effect on the U.$. class structure,
quantitatively speaking?"
MIM Notes 265 · September 1, 2002 · Page 7
On the dangers of nuclear holocaust
The Maoist Internationalist Movement
(MIM) passed the following resolution
at its 2002 Congress.
We of MIM believe that the
Amerikkkan reaction to September 11th
has increased the likelihood of the
explosion of nuclear weapons by those
attacking the United $tates. Rather than
seeing themselves as part of a long-
standing war, Amerikkkans reacted to
September 11th with what they knew
about politics and history, which isn't
much--and thereby angered the rest of
the world even more. Frankly speaking,
this is a weakness in the whole global
situation that the communists must face.
The Japanese population knows the
horrors of facing nuclear weapons
explosions and today any such explosions
are apt to be a thousand times worse
because of advances in weaponry. In
contrast, Amerikkkans really do not
know what the devastation of war is all
about. Amerikkkans know the most about
the benefits of pillage and war in the past
one hundred years, and only suffered a
small number of casualties relative to
other countries in those wars.
The oppressed will not and should not
have to wait for Amerikkkans to grasp
the evil of war. For this reason, the war-
mongering and chauvinism we have seen
from Amerikkkans since September 11th
has only increased the likelihood that
someone will try to teach Amerikkkans
a lesson they will not forget. Try as they
might, there is no way for Amerikkkan
security agencies to trace millions or
billions of people effectively. The scale
of the problem is too big for that. The
generosity of the oppressed and super-
exploited toward the willfully ignorant
exploiters of Amerikkka will not last
forever.
MIM will do its best to expand its
influence within U.$. borders in a last
ditch effort to avoid what is probably
inevitable. Those who see the
weaknesses of Amerikkkans should see
to it that MIM gets financial support to
expand. Even those who focus on more
"moderate" activities should realize that
changing Amerikkkan public opinion is
a multi-faceted task, and what is most
lacking is the determined,
uncompromising but highly visible
presence of MIM in favor of the global
rights of nations to self- determination.
Without MIM to blaze the way, there is
no one who is able to look "moderate" in
the current state of Amerikkkan opinion.
The proletariat must play its leading role
to untwist the minds of the Amerikkkan
public so that the Amerikkkan population
can get along with the rest of the world.
The atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
war and prop up proxy dictators. They
will also give Amerikans some concrete
lessons about war--and the desire and
ability of the oppressed to struggle for
their liberation.
But suffering defeat in war is not
enough to re-civilize parasitic classes--
anymore than recession and depression
will themselves overthrow the capitalist
system. Even the Western allies gave lip
service to the idea that some sort of "de-
Nazification" needed to take place in
Germany after its defeat in World War
Mayor of Hiroshima blasts `Pax Americana'
II. This "de-Nazification" included
stripping Nazis and their supporters of
their political rights and some of their
property--and it extended to "apolitical"
Germans who adjusted to National
Socialism rather than struggle against
it.(4)
The Western powers did not complete
the anti-fascist struggle in either
Germany or Japan--to say nothing of the
anti-capitalist struggle. That is why both
German and Japanese militarism are on
the rise again today. According to Reuters
a "top" Japanese politician recently
suggested that Japan abandon its ban on
nuclear weapons.(1)
MIM believes a dictatorship of the
oppressed over the oppressor imperialist
nations analogous to the "de-
Nazification" struggle will be necessary
to completely defeat imperialism an re-
civilize imperialist-country populations.
Notes:
1. Reuters, 5 Aug 2002.
2. MIM Notes 260, 15 Jun 2002.
3. Hiroshima Peace Site, http://
www.pcf.city.hiroshima.jp/peacesite/
indexE.html.
4. The 50s Hollywood film "Judgment at
Nuremberg" e.g. touches on the issue of the
responsibility of "the common German" for
crimes of the Nazi regime. It also hints that the
United $tates sabotaged the de-Nazification
process because it needed the Nazis and the
Germans as allies in the struggle against the
Soviet Union.
This resolution passed unanimously at
the 2002 MIM Congress.
Pan-Africanism is an ideology for the
unity of Africa. Nkrumah said it was
necessary because the neo- colonialists
would rule in Africa through division of
Africans and because combined Africa
has a population and size more
comparable to the oppressors like the
United $tates. In Pan-Africanist thought,
Africans belong to Africa first, not tribes
or nations.
At least as far back as 1917, the British
imperialists are on record as fearing Pan-
Africanism, because it would make
dividing and conquering more difficult in
Africa. Today, the Zionists continue in the
same mold, by trying to create tensions
between North Africa and the rest of
Africa, by pointing to Arab slave-owners
in Somalia for instance. While there can
be no excusing slavery, opposition to
slavery does not mean that it is necessary
to make friends with I$rael in general.
The economic content of Pan-
Africanism is unity of exploited people
against exploiters--whether its advocates
or detractors know it or not. More than
95% of the people united by Pan-
Africanism are exploited or super-
exploited people. The target of Pan-
Africanism is those enemy oppressors
who would use divisions amongst
Africans against them.
MIM believes that Pan-Africanism
should be thought of as a strategic concept
like "Third Worldism." It is not worth
splitting communist forces over strategic
concepts. Comrades with good ideological
principles may nonetheless disagree on the
existing balance of forces in the world and
what is possible for progress, and we
believe Pan-Africanism is one of those
concepts, if properly conceived by
communists.
Historically, Pan-Africanism has been
the rallying cry of more progressive and
revolutionary forces in Africa. The
opponents of Pan-Africanism usually
oppose it for the wrong reasons and fall
into the reactionary camp much more
often than the supporters of Pan-
Africanism.
In particular, in southern Africa, the
conception of the revisionist "Communist
Party" of South Africa and the African
National Congress has stressed unity of
white and Black workers in opposition to
Pan- Africanism. In contrast, MIM would
say there is a qualitative difference
between the white petty-bourgeoisie
mistakenly referred to as "workers" and
the Black workers making 3 or 5% of what
whites make per hour.
While the rise to power of the ANC in
what we call Azania is progressive-- only
because what was in place before was the
extremely repugnant and backward
apartheid regime--it is now clear that the
ANC's approach of uniting with the white
petty-bourgeoisie and imperialists on an
equal plane has limited the ANC's ability
to drive the situation further forward in
southern Africa. For this reason, while
ANC rule is certainly more "normal" than
apartheid rule, it is Pan-Africanism that
correctly identified the economic basis for
socialism in Azania and elsewhere in
Africa. It hardly matters whether activists
call themselves Black African trade
unionists or Pan-Africanists, the economic
content of their struggle is the same.
Opposing or supporting Pan-Africanism
should not be a dividing line question,
unless we speak of the extremes. On the
one hand, the ANC and phony
communists oppose Pan-Africanism,
because they really believe there is a
united "working-class" composed of
Africans and settler whites who make 20
times as much per hour as the Africans.
These phony communists and their allies
have long ago abandoned the labor theory
of value, so their opposition to Pan-
Africanism must be attacked as a matter
of ideological principle. There will never
be global peace until all peoples
acknowledge each other's labor correctly.
On the other hand, the number of
reactionaries posing as Pan-Africanists is
much smaller in number than the number
of reactionaries opposing Pan-Africanism
on behalf of the exploiters. To be sure, as
with any idea, there are those who take it
up and ruin it. When Pan-Africanism turns
into cultural tokenism and opposition to
universal truth production through
science, then Pan-Africanism becomes
simply a wing of reactionary post-
modernism.
In application, it is the Trotskyists who
are most apt to take up the simplistic
approach that all nationalism is bad and
even Pan-Africanism is bad. These
Trotskyists have abandoned the labor
theroy of value and that is why they are
apt to equate white settlers and African
workers as classes to such an extent that
the Trotskyists see the whites and Blacks
in one class. Such Trotskyists really know
nothing about Marxism's approach to
class or nations.
How tribal, national and Pan-Africanist
questions appear in African conditions is
something for the African Maoist
scientists to determine. MIM does not
have any branches in Africa, and so it only
raises those questions of universal validity
and understanding. There is a long
historical tradition of Maoist Pan-
Africanism.
Note: A.M. Babu African Socialism or Socialist
Africa? London: Zed Books, 1981.
Resolution on Pan-Africanism
Continued from page 1...
MIM Notes 265 · September 1, 2002· Page 8
"Capitalism II"
by Trevor Chan
2001
www.ubisoft.com
Reviewed by mim3@mim.org
The user's manual for this computer
video game depicts a golden dollar sign
at the end of a major road leading into a
city. The advertising boasts that
"Capitalism II" is the business game for
people "who mean business" and though
it is written from the point of view of a
naive chief executive officer (CEO), the
game does have considerable value--
something that could be used in socialist
training in economics.
As the CEO of a company, in this game
players will try to make profit by
expanding their lines of business
including food items such as bread,
clothing items such as jeans, housing
complexes and luxury goods including
lipstick, eye shadow, toy dolls, gold rings
and televisions. CEOs can issue stock,
set dividend rates, borrow money, repay
loans and buy all sorts of buildings and
plants including the media.
Since there are no politicians and no
weapons or war in this simulation, one
may wonder why MIM would
recommend this game. There are also no
labor strikes (realistic for the united
$tates) and no complications from
borders while one operates in several
countries. We do not see military aid
arriving for death squads who kill trade
union organizers and keep wages down
to 50 cents an hour in most parts of the
world.
While it is true that "Capitalism II"
promotes a somewhat naive point of view
regarding capitalism, what it does focus
on it does well. The intention of the game
was to focus on the production process
from the point of view of corporate
executives in multinational corporations.
From the capitalists' point of view, the
CEO heroically detects and resolves
bottleneck problems for the company
including bottlenecks caused by
suppliers, technology, lack of corporate
training, marketing and sales.
Trevor Chan thought big and allowed
players to become CEOs of multinational
corporations that may own everything
from the supplier of iron ore to the TV
station advertising the final product--a
car for instance. If a player succeeds on
a colossal scale, s/he is bound to
understand that the economy is like a
gigantic set of algebra equations.
Resources cannot be wasted on factories
that do not produce anything desired and
there also cannot be too few producers
so that bottlenecks in supply develop.
Otherwise, competitors will make more
profit and drive you out of business
completely--and this aspect of modeling
business competition by computer
simulation is alone reason enough to
endorse this game.
Playing this game, one would be hard-
pressed not to feel that in fact there is
some element of competence in
organizing production in either socialism
or capitalism. In the Soviet Union, the
people proved able to develop rocket
launchers to defeat a Nazi invasion in
progress. Even much after the war
though, the Soviet people launched the
world's first satellite, but they were not
able to go anywhere to buy a loaf of bread
off a shelf without waiting in line. Even
in a state-capitalist country as under
Khruschev and Brezhnev, the problem
was not a lack of wheat to make bread
usually. What "Capitalism II" does is
make people think about the particular
competence of their leaders. While we
do not hold the heroic view of CEOs, it
is true that if a leader who happens to
come to power does not have certain
skills and drive, then elementary supply
problems may show up. Although the
quality of leadership is a political
problem, it is a problem for both
capitalism and socialism.
It probably was not the intention of the
author to provide any lessons in
socialism. There is little class struggle
evident in the game. However, it is still
possible to play the game in ways that
get at what socialists must do.
First of all, taking over from monopoly
capitalists is very similar to taking over
from the CEOs simulated in "Capitalism
II." These multinational corporations
could easily be the chaebol of southern
Korea for instance.
Secondly, this game allows one to vary
the conditions of economic competition.
When one has reached a monopoly
stage--probably by having a
technological edge and by having enough
retail outlets for one's product and when
one has enough monopoly advantages in
enough products, it becomes possible to
give away food, medicine, clothing and
shelter--even in "Capitalism II." Yes,
total profits will go down, and no there
is not a way to determine if advertising
free bread in a department store helps sell
other products there. Nonetheless,
monopoly advantages in luxury goods
make it possible to subsidize necessity
goods to the point where they are free.
Highly motivated people are willing to
pay high prices for wine, lipstick and
video cameras--compared with the labor
and resources that go into making these
products. By taking over a market in these
luxury goods and making enough profit
in them, it becomes easy to give away
milk, eggs, bread etc. In fact, this was a
question that Stalin insisted on turning
to in his leadership circles in the last two
years of his life. He called it "restricting
the operation of the law of value," which
is the proper Marxist terminology. He
instructed that it was not correct to run
the economy simply by where profit
could be made. Humyn needs should be
subsidized at the expense of luxury goods
according to Stalin, and the beauty of
"Capitalism II" is that it helps players to
see why this is not something a small
capitalist can do "out of his/her good
heart" and it is in fact something that
comes to mind more easily and within
the realm of probability once the stage
of monopoly capitalism has been
reached.
Providing necessities free or at
subsidized prices is akin to the capitalist
strategy of dumping, especially in this
simulation which knows no difference
between capitalist-minded and socialist-
minded CEOs. Even in the "Capitalism
II" world of no borders and various
competitors ranging from small local
"mom-and-pop" operations to foreign
countries not seen in the game itself, a
socialist chaebol leader has no one to stop
him or her. In fact, even a medium or
small corporate competitor--say a small
imperialist country--may continue to
exist while a socialist economy expands
its list of free or subsidized goods. A
small or medium sized competitor simply
cannot alter the terms of the economy to
stop a business/company/country with
the most advanced technology and largest
size.
When food and clothing are free, there
is no way for a capitalist to compete in
that area any longer. S/he must attack in
the luxury good sector to undermine
profits to such an extent that subsidies
have to be cut back. A capitalist-minded
competitor attacks by producing goods
and cutting prices in the luxury good
sector. That is why as Marx noted and
all Marxists noted until the early 20th
century when imperialism changed the
rules that it is easier to institute socialism
in the most developed economies.
Economies that are extensively
developed, high-tech and profitable in
many industries cannot be derailed from
a socialist path by smaller or more
backward competitors. Quite the
contrary, the smaller, more backward
capitalist competitors can be gobbled up
by a socialist economy--within a
bourgeois legal context by buying the
stock of the backward competitors.
The dynamics of luxury good
production in the game remind MIM of
how the imperialists set out to conduct
psychological war against the socialist
bloc. To demonstrate that socialist
lingerie was unstylish or shoddy was to
strike a blow for the whole capitalist
system. Commodities like designer
perfumes become key to the capitalist
strategy of restoration of capitalism and
this can be seen even in "Capitalism II,"
if one plays the socialist strategy I outline
here.
In fact, while socialists are giving away
bread in my simulation run in
"Capitalism II," some people still prefer
to buy it. Again, through no intention of
Trevor Chan, in the simulation I ran, we
see that free and superior quality bread
will not take 100% of a city's market
when the competitor uses extensive
advertising for inferior quality bread with
a price that makes its owner a profit! The
lazy and stupid will continue to be
conned by advertising, even if bread is
free and higher quality elsewhere. This
is something that again favors the
capitalist competitor. It raises the
question whether or not socialist
economies must advertise the obvious in
some commodities. One bright side to
this question is that the enemy cannot
make the most profit in this way. Rather
it is something to watch out for in the
overall culture of luxury goods.
Where there is demand and a legal
situation permitting, no moral conduct
can prevent profits in cigarettes or other
self-destructive commodities. If one
corporation refuses to produce and
advertise cancer-sticks, another will.
That is the nature of the capitalist system.
However, there is nothing saying that a
large and diversified socialist competitor
could not buy out the competitors or the
politicians and bring an end to cigarettes
that way. In the simulation I ran, I refused
to produce cigarettes, and the result was
that my main corporate competitor made
his/her largest profits there. Even driving
him out of business or attempting to buy
him out became more difficult because I
was not in the cigarette business. It shows
that there is no substituting for an
uncorrupted People's Army that can
really shut down harmful businesses.
People who think we are ever going to
solve the drug problem within a capitalist
system without an uncorrupted
communist police and army are just
talking like they were high on drugs
themselves.
In many regards, the development of
the leisure culture in the imperialist
countries comes as a set back or an
indication of the setback in the class
struggle. Emphasis on the luxury goods
in the culture and minute differences--
imagined or real--were an important part
of the imperialist attack and attempts at
capitalist restoration. An irrational
advertising culture is a distinct advantage
to pro-capitalist competitors. On the other
hand, "Capitalism II" holds out some
hope, because it proves possible to
motivate people with luxury goods and
then subsidize humyn needs production
with the revenue from luxury goods.
Rather than avoiding luxury good
production in the fear that it will corrupt
the proletariat, it appears that there is a
case to be made for plunging right in to
be able to expand subsidies for humyn
needs. Unless most people can be
motivated as communists, it may be that
luxury goods are important to the solution
of humyn needs problems.
In the real world, people who could be
fighting for a better world read Cosmo
magazine and play computer video games
instead. At the same time, games like
"Capitalism II" do have a major silver
lining for us scientific communists: what
would take several chapters in a book to
explain with mathematical formulas can
now be placed in a game simulation. This
is a major advantage that Karl Marx
never had. In the past, socialist
economists would have to labor in such
Virtual monopoly for fun and (educational) profit
Continued on next page...
MIM Notes 265 · September 1, 2002 · Page 9
a way as to garner themselves the
equivalent of the Nobel Prize to
understand the impact that solutions of
simultaneous algebraic equations could
have in running the economy. Now much
of what was only of detailed concern to
planning experts and academics can play
itself out on a computer screen while
entertaining its user. While there is no
hard proof yet that computer video games
are improving education, "Capitalism II"
makes a good case that such a trend is
inevitable.
The problem with a large portion of
simulation computer video games is that
they simply crash and then the developers
or company disappears. Business has
found that it is possible to sell poorly
programmed games and then run with the
money before anyone returns the games
or realizes that they will crash before the
completion of very long simulations that
take days or weeks to run.
"Capitalism II" did not crash in the
simulation we ran, and thus seems better
than average in the programming
department. Used in proper context,
"Capitalism II" can provoke much useful
thought.
Sweet dreams no
consolation for bitter
reality
Happy Times (2002)
Directed by Zhang Yimou
After establishing himself with a series
of lushly-filmed, epic period pieces (Red
Sorghum, Raise the Red Lantern, To
Live, etc.) director Zhang Yimou's last
three films have focused on everyday
people in contemporary China and been
shot in an unobtrusive, naturalistic
manner. Like 1999's Not One Less,
Happy Times criticizes the Chinese
regime's capitalist reforms and the
accompanying development of capitalist
interpersonal relations.
Happy Times starts out following a
retired bachelor on his quest to find a
wife. It's clear his latest prospect is only
interested in getting money for herself
and her spoiled son--and getting rid of
her blind step- daughter. Our bachelor
pretends to be a rich manager at a rich
luxury hotel and agrees to hire the step-
daughter. He and his out-of-work friends
build a fake massage parlor for her in an
abandoned factory and then pretend to
be upscale clients. At first they do this to
keep up the bachelor's charade, but then
they become attached to the girl and can't
bear to send her back to her exploitative
step-mother. Of course, this can't last for
long, and doesn't.
The deus ex machina ending in Not
One Less told the audience that happy
Dear Sirs/Madams [in the California
Department of Corrections],
The Communist Party of the United
States of America's, Frederick Douglass
Club of Washington, District of
Columbia, and the State of Virginia, has
recently been informed by Comrades of
the Maoist Internationalist Movement,
that you are now demanding onerous
obligations in order that family and legal
representation be acquired by prisoners
in your charge.
For what reason do you pursue such
obstinacy? We know that many inmates
are guilty as charged, but we also know
that many may well be innocent; or,
subjected to penalties too harsh due to
poverty and race. Moreover, is our penal
system only to punish, or to reform? Your
brutality administered in prison will only
serve to justify the repeated hostility of
the inmates -- both in prison and upon
release.
Of course you must "control" your
Facility, but what good does it do to
appear so vindictive? We've got to "fix"
our already too large prison population,
not simply "smack heads."
Our Party thanks you for your kind and
released in mid-July. But they were
replaced by equally egregious changes
limiting prisoners access to legal help.
These regulations particularly target
prisoner-advocacy organizations.
Organizations and individuals who work
on prisoners appeals and prisoner rights
cases, such as fighting abuse in prisons,
rely on law students and legal aids. Even
full time employees of attorneys and
students who have been certified by the
State Bar of California to do legal work
will be denied access to prisoners to
discuss legal issues without an attorney
present. Those who can not afford
lawyers rely on these services.
According to the San Francisco
Chronicle, "Senate President Pro Tem
John Burton, D-San Francisco, said he
was concerned about the proposals and
was looking into them. Burton, chairman
of the Senate Rules Committee, approved
the confirmation of Edward Alameda as
director of the Corrections Department
in May after Alameda promised to scale
back the first proposed rule changes.
California DOC
guts legal aid
visitation rights
Monopoloy
from last page...
endings are the rule in film, but not
today's China. Similarly, the only happy
times in Happy Times require elaborate
deceptions; reality is decidedly less
cheerful. Unlike the Not One Less,
however, Happy Times can be quite
funny, and the bachelor's resourceful
friends have a warm camaraderie.
The careful viewer can also pick up
some concrete criticisms of
contemporary China, such as the fact that
the bachelor and his able-bodied friends
are out of work (and not getting any
pension) while a local factory stands idle.
patriotic attention.
MIM replies: We thank the CPUSA
and affiliated organizations for taking a
stand on this important issue. Although
MIM does not consider the "Communist
Party USA" a representative of
communist line or practice, we welcome
their support for the just battles of the
oppressed. We note a few disagreements
with them in this letter which we will
comment on here for our readers. It is
the nature of Amerika that patriotism
amounts to support of imperialism. And
with prisons used as a tool of social
control in this country, it is "patriotic"
for the California DOC to impose
repressive visitation rules. In fact,
keeping the prison population large is
also a part of the patriotism. Of course,
it is worthwhile to point out the
contradictions in the rhetoric and practice
of prison administrators (e.g. the rhetoric
of rehabilitation and the practice of
repression). But we should be clear about
their true interests and the real purpose
of the criminal injustice system: service
to imperialism.
Letter from "CPUSA" against
CDC's restrictive policies
`Why do they keep screwing around with
these things?' Burton said."
The Department of Corrections works
as a part of the Criminal Injustice System
as a whole. Prisons in this country are
used as a tool of social control. Building
more prisons, restricting prisoners legal
access so that they are locked up longer
and can not appeal their sentences, and
limiting prisoners ability to fight the daily
repression they face behind bars--this is
all part of the system. We should not be
surprised by the new proposed
regulations in California. But it is clear
that public protest can affect these
regulations. Many prison activists
including MIM and RAIL successfully
removed the family visitation
restrictions.
While collecting petition signatures
MIM and RAIL were frequently asked
why the CDC would want to enact this
restrictive regulation. This led to
interesting discussions about the nature
of the criminal injustice system. On the
face this policy makes no sense. A fair
prison system would want prisoners to
have access to legal help when needed.
A system devoted to rehabilitation would
encourage visitation. But the Amerikan
criminal injustice system is serving
imperialism, a system that causes
starvation, medical neglect, murder,
environmental destruction, unlivable
work conditions, and militarism
throughout the world. At home
imperialism locks up a vastly
disproportionate number of Blacks and
Latinos in prisons and then continues to
lengthen sentences, reduce access to
appeals, and increase repression within
prisons. Cutting off legal access to all but
the wealthy prisoners is a great way to
perpetuate this system.
For more information on the conditions
prisoners face, including lack of medical
care, physical abuse by guards, lack of
educational materials, restricted access
to legal research, censorship of mail, and
much more, check out the Under Lock
and Key section of MIM Notes (the
newspaper of the Maoist Internationalist
Movement). Back issues can be found
here: http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/
mn/index.html.
Notes:
SF Chronicle, July 25, 2002
MAOIST MOVIE REVIEW
Dong Jie in Happy Times.
Continued from page 3...
MIM Notes 265 · September 1, 2002· Page 10
MIM on
Prisons & Prisoners
MIM seeks to build public opinion
against Amerika's criminal injustice sys-
tem, and to eventually replace the bour-
geois injustice system with proletarian jus-
tice. The bourgeois injustice system im-
prisons and executes a disproportionately
large and growing number of oppressed
people while letting the biggest mass mur-
derers -- the imperialists and their lack-
eys -- roam free. Imperialism is not op-
posed to murder or theft, it only insists that
these crimes be committed in the interests
of the bourgeoisie.
"All U.S. citizens are criminals--
accomplices and accessories to the crimes
of U.$. oppression globally until the day
U.$. imperialism is overcome. All U.S.
citizens should start from the point of view
that they are reforming criminals."
MIM does not advocate that all
prisoners go free today; we have a
more effective program for fighting
crime as was demonstrated in China
prior to the restoration of capitalism
there in 1976. We say that all prisoners
are political prisoners because under
the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, all
imprisonment is substantively
political. It is our responsibility to
exert revolutionary leadership and
conduct political agitation and
organization among prisoners --
whose material conditions make them
an overwhelmingly revolutionary
group. Some prisoners should and will
work on self-criticism under a future
dictatorship of the proletariat in those
cases in which prisoners really did do
something wrong by proletarian
standards.
Under Lock & Key
News from Prisons & Prisoners
Slow death in cages
The struggle continues in my fight to break
the chains of oppression for me and my
people. Death is death and the worst kind of
death is a slow death in these caged KKK
prison cells. Your newspaper is a voice for
the trapped and caged brothers and sisters
whom the rulers of this country are trying to
keep silent... My sincere advice to the staff
there, keep up your good work and keep
pushing to inform the oppressed people of
the world.
--a Missouri prisoner, July 2002
Censorship in Elkton
I'm writing you to request your help in the
fight against the censorship in this prison (FCI
Elkton -- a federal prison located in the
imperialist-conquered land called Ohio). A
staff member has removed numerous
periodicals from the leisure library (the
Advocate, A&U, Burn, Coalition for
Prisoners' Rights Newsletter, FAMM Gram
newsletter, Fearless Mountain, Forest Sangha
Newsletter, Freedom, Gym, Modern Heros,
Out, the People, Snow Lion, Tibet News,
Tibet Press Watch, Tibetan Bulletin). I work
as a librarian in here so I can testify that all
these were donated by the inmates, already
came through censors in the mail room, were
all reasonably up to date, and were requested
frequently. I have already started the remedy
process (BP-8.5) but so far the only action
was the staff removing all the donated
periodicals from the library leaving but 14
for the prison of more than 2000 persons. ...
Please assist me in any way you can, but I
specifically ask for the letters to be written to
the following person with the demands to end
the censorship.
--a federal prisoner in Ohio, July 2002
People to send protest letters to:
David M Rardin, Director
Northeast Regional Office
US Custom House -- 7th Floor
Second & Chestnut Streets
Philadelphia, PA 19106
RL Morrison, Warden
FCI Elkton
P.O. Box 89
Elkton, OH 44415
Philip Geistfeld, Education Supervisor
FCI Elkton
P.O. Box 89
Elkton, OH 44415
A friend of MIM adds: MIM Notes has
long reported on the draconian censorship in
united snakes prisons. This is not because
Maoists are Libertarians who argue for the
principal of freedom of speech; it is because
we see that censorship in Amerikkka --
imperialist censorship -- is perpetuated as
part of the militarist campaign against the
oppressed. This sort of censorship assists the
imperialists in covering up everything from
the number of victims killed during the
bombings in Afghanistan, to the brutal wrath
of Amerikan police, to denial of basic needs
in prisons, to the collusion of banks and
corporations in billion dollar robberies.
Censorship is used by the imperialists to
thwart revolutionary organizing. This is the
reason that it must be fought fiercely.
This writer does not know about the content
of all of the magazines listed above -- at least
Tibet Press Watch and Tibetan News are
reactionary magazines. In this case, it looks
as if the prison wants prisoners to have less
access to information, regardless of the
content. In this case we are not so much
concerned about prisoners access to the
reactionary magazines as the censorship of
progressive magazines including several of
those mentioned above. In addition the
censorship policy of the prison should be
fought because it is the policy that can be used
against revolutionary newsletters. MIM Notes
has been censored at this prison in the past,
though it is not listed in the prisoner's letter.
Send letters to the above prisoncrats
explaining your opposition to the prison's
censorship practice and asking for legal
justification for it. On top of that, prisoners,
work with MIM to get genuine revolutionary
lit into the prison and supporters on the
outside, send money to help make that
happen.
MIM victory in
Oregon
Most mail sent by MIM to prisoners at
SRCI and TRCI prisons in Oregon (including
MIM Notes, MIM Theory and regular letters)
was being rejected by those prisons
throughout the summer. Working with
prisoners on the inside and supporters on the
outside we sent numerous letters of protest
to the mail administrators (some of which
were rejected without being opened). After
several months of returned mail and numerous
protest letters we received the following:
Dear MIM:
This is in response to your letter dated Jun
3, 2002 regarding MIM publications that have
been rejected from SRCI and TRCI. ....
MIM has been authorized to send
publications they publish. This was discussed
at a monthly mail operations meeting. SRCI
and TRCI incorrectly rejected MIM
publications, as they correctly understood
MIM was not an authorized distributor.
Although MIM is not an authorized
distributor, MIM is a publisher authorized to
send materials they publish. This oversight
has been corrected. We apologize for any
inconvenience.
You have requested permission to send in
new and used books to Oregon inmates. Our
Mail Rule (Inmate) requires new books to be
received directly from the publisher. We do
permit suppliers and distributors who have
been approved to send in publications, but
these cannot be open to the public.
We have the above requirement to mitigate
the possibility for the insertion of contraband
in the publications. We will be unable to
accommodate your request to send in new or
used publications that you do not publish...
Sincerely,
Jacy Duran, Central Mail Administrator
Oregon DOC
2575 Center Street NE
Salem OR 97310-4667
MIM responds: Forcing the prisons to
abide by their mail policies and stop
censorship of MIM literature is a significant
victory. However, we are still pursuing our
request to be approved to send in literature
not published by MIM to Oregon prisoners.
We responded to this letter explaining that
MIM Distributors has a 15 year history of
running a Books for Prisoners program in
prisons across the country, including
throughout the Oregon DOC, without a single
incident of contraband insertion into a
publication. In fact, we have a long track
record of helping prisoners to educate
themselves and reduce violence and
confrontation between prisoners. MIM's
Books for Prisoners program is one of only a
few in the country and we provide an
invaluable service of political education to
prisoners in Oregon and throughout the
country. We also requested a list of approved
distributors so that we might use this to further
our argument for allowing MIM onto the list.
We ask our readers (both inside and outside
the Oregon DOC) to write letters to Jacy
Duran at the address above, requesting that
MIM be added as an approved distributor.
Censorship in Oregon
continues
This is just a quick note to let you people
know I've been denied my April 15th issue
of MIM Notes.
Your news doesn't seem to go over too well
with the gal down in our mailroom here at
SRCI. As a matter of fact, the staff here at the
prison are real negative about handing out my
MIM Notes to me.
Now the inmates here are a whole different
story. I pass my MIM Notes off to at least 40
different people to read when I finished with
them. Your news is uplifting to all my close
friends, and their friends also.
Anyway, I thought I'd send you people a
copy of one of my mail violations that shows
what's going on around h ere. This is how
these people confiscate our mail. They call it
a mail violation. "A rule violation."
- a prisoner in Oregon, July 2002
MIM adds: This prisoner's mail violation
for MIM Notes #256 stated that it "Contains
STG-related material. Inside back page
portrays anarchist symbol." This is an
example of prisons attempting to censor MIM
literature for one reason, losing that battle,
and switching tactics to claim it must be
censored for other reasons. MIM clearly does
not advocate anarchism, in fact we are clear
that we think anarchism represents a failed
line and strategy. In fact, the issue of MIM
Notes in question has an anarchist symbol as
a part of an article on prison censorship of
MIM literature because of use of that symbol.
We also question how an anarchist symbol
could represent Security Threat Group (STG)
material. Especially when the content of the
material does not advocate anarchism in any
way.
Washington prison
covers windows and
gasses prisoners
Below are two grievances submitted by
prisoners to prison administration in
Washington after the prison guards covered
the cell windows and then sprayed gas
(presumably at some prisoners in a pre-
meditated attack) in the hallway.
I am claustrophobic and was
hyperventilating with chest pains due to the
exposure to C.O. gas and the emotional stress
of 3rd shift staff covering up my cell door
window and every inmates in the c-pod unit.
On 7/23/02 at approx 5:30pm and on 7/26/
02 at 7:30 with a magnetic cover so that we
could not see out our cell doors to be
witnesses to staff procedures at that time.
[Stafford Creek Corrections Center
Intensive Management Unit] F-unit staff are
violating their own WAC policy (1) not being
able to view in a cell at all times (2) not to
cover or place any items on windows. This
practice is in direct violation of DOC policy
and inmates due process to have or be on sight
MIM Notes 265 · September 1, 2002 · Page 11
Facts on U$ imprisonment
The facts about imprisonment in the United $tates are that the United $tates has been the world's leading prison-state per capita for the last
25 years, with a brief exception during Boris Yeltsin's declaration of a state of emergency.(1)
That means that while Reagan was talking about a Soviet "evil empire" he was the head of a state that imprisoned more people per capita.
In supposedly "hard-line" Bulgaria of the Soviet bloc of the 1980s, the imprisonment rate was less than half that of the United $tates.(2,3)
To find a comparison with U.$. imprisonment of Black people, there is no statistic in any country that compares including apartheid South
Africa of the era before Mandela was president. The last situation remotely comparable to the situation today was under Stalin during war
time. The majority of prisoners are non-violent offenders(4) and the U.S. Government now holds about a half million more prisoners than
China; even though China is four times our population.(5)
The rednecks tell MIM that we live in a "free country." They live in an Orwellian 1984 situation where freedom is imprisonment.
Notes: 1. Marc Mauer, "Americans Behind Bars: The International Use of Incarceration 1993," The Prison Sentencing Project, 918 F. St. NW, Suite
501, Washington, DC 20004 (202) 628-0871 Reference: SRI: R8965-2, 1994
2. Ibid., 1992 report.
3. United Nations Development Programme, "Human Development Report 1994,:" Oxford University Press, p. 186.
4. Figure of 51.2 percent for state prisoners there for non-violent offenses. Abstract of the United States 1993, p. 211.
5. Atlantic Monthly December, 1998.
From the MIM "Frequently Asked
Questions" page, http://www.etext.org/
Politics/MIM/faq.
Internationalism is the ethical belief or
scientific approach in which peoples of
different nations are held to be or assumed to
be equal. Internationalism is opposed to
racism and national chauvinism.
We Maoists believe the nationalism of
nations experiencing oppression of
imperialism is "applied internationalism." We
oppose nationalism of oppressed nations
directed at other oppressed nations, because
the economic content of such nationalism is
intra-proletarian conflict. We seek a united
front of oppressed nations led by the
international proletariat against imperialism.
"I must argue, not from the point of view
of `my' country (for that is the argument of a
wretched, stupid, petty-bourgeois nationalist
who does not realize that he is only a plaything
in the hands of the imperialist bourgeoisie),
but from the point of view of my share in the
preparation, in the propaganda, and in the
acceleration of the world proletarian
revolution. That is what internationalism
means, and that is the duty of the
internationalist, of the revolutionary worker,
of the genuine Socialist."
V. I. Lenin, "What Is Internationalism?"
The Proletarian Revolution and the
Renegade Kautsky
(Peking: Foreign
Language Press, 1965), p. 80.
What is internationalism?
witnesses other than staff who are present to
a medical, criminal, or infraction incident that
needs to be documented. This practice is an
obstruction of justice and a noted practice of
staff as a green light to do any criminal act to
inmate or non-staff, violating civil rights
without any inmates witnesses that could
dispute their reports and be credible.
Suggested remedy: that this practice and
procedure be stopped immediately, staff can
not have visual observation into any inmates
cell with windows covered.
-- a prisoner in Washington, July 2002
The cops were gassing an inmate who had
his window covered. On 7-26-02 at about
8:05 pm I had a medical emergency. I was
coughing up blood from the C.O. gas that the
F-unit IMU cert team was discharging into
an inmates cell F-N-C-1. I pushed my
emergency call button numerous times
without getting any response from the booth
offices. My cell door window had been
covered. Inmates on the tier had to yell "man
down in cell #C-10, medical emergency" for
over five minutes still staff did not respond. I
was choking and suffocating and f-unit staff
neglected my emergency medical needs.
-- another prisoner in Washington, July
2002
The prisoners at this institution ask for
support on this issue from people MIM Notes
readers. You can write letters protesting this
practice and asking why it is used in the first
place to:
Deputy of Corrections Eldon Vail
PO Box 411118
Olympia WA 98584-1118
OCO officer of correctional operations,
regional admin
Thomas Mackintyre
Southwest region
4317 6th Ave S.E.
Olympia WA 98504-1120
Superintendent Douglas Waddington
SCCC Stafford Creek Corr. Center
191 Constantine Way
Aberdeen WA 98502
Iowa prisons cut out
education and
rehabilitation
Fellow Comrades in the Struggle,
Since the terrorist attack on Sept. 11 the
Iowa prison system (and possibly other states)
have been cutting the budget to modify how
much money is spent on the prisoners. Just
recently the D.O.C. closed the school in the
prison and the drug treatment facility in the
other maximum security prison in Anamosa,
Iowa.
Yet this state continues to complain about
over-crowding and repeat-offenders, so the
obvious question that comes to mind is why
take out a drug treatment facility if the main
factor of a convict's crime deals with drugs
in some fashion or another? It goes to show
with this circumstance and closing of the
school that nobody involved in the
administration is trying to rehabilitate any of
us.
For example a "lifer" or "long term"
prisoner being given no education and unable
to transfer to another facility due to over-
crowding and security issues. By the time the
prisoner is available for transfer his hopes to
get a GED will be slim! Education used to be
state law for any prisoner without a GED.
Now education isn't too important.
This is a prime example of how we are
oppressed as prisoners. Then when we seek
and find means to a higher education through
organizations who wish to teach us about
reality, our books get denied and the only
excuse is "security risks."
Here and now we need to educate one
another, help one another and stop fighting
one another. Its not about race anymore, its
about social acceptability and as long as
Amerika can keep us ignorant and on drugs
then we all will stand as one and the bottom
while our oppressors remain on top of the
game they play.
Keep the fight alive.
-- In struggle, a prisoner in Iowa, July 2002
MIM replies:We join this prisoner's call
to stand together and fight back. And MIM
agrees this battle is not about race. However
the prison system is inherently a part of the
system of national oppression in Amerika. We
see the disproportionate imprisonment of
Blacks, Latinos and other oppressed
nationalities and we know that national
oppression must be in the forefront of our
battle.
IDOC clamps down on
prisoners' voices
written by an Indiana prisoner
In the aftermath of the 37 day hunger strike
waged by prisoners at the Westville, Indiana
Maximum Control Complex on September
23, 1991 to call local, national and
international attention to the human rights
abuses that were ramparn at this "supermax"
prison, those who controlled the IDOC
(Indiana Department of Corrections) had to
create new methods of censorship. This
censorship consisted of preventing prisoners
from effectively communicating about the
inhumane, exploitative, oppressive and
repressive aspects and conditions inside
prisons to society, their families and those
who provide moral support.
The Westville hunger strike of 1991 was
one of the most significant prison
demonstrations in Indiana prison history
because it brought attention to the prison
system. Prison officials and politicians alike
had never experienced something quite like
this and for the first time state politicians were
forced to question the legitimacy of the
counter-productive practices promulgated
and enforced throughout the prison system.
Many international organizations, such as
Amnesty International, the British Human
Rights Organization, Human Rights Watch
and various religious denominations came to
the aide of the hunger strikers and issued
letters, etc., of condemnation to the IDOC,
demanding change and the closure of all
existing supermax prisons.
The impact and influence this hunger strike
had in society caused alarm amongst the
oppressors. For this reason, the IDOC saw
the need to keep a similar disturbance from
ever happening again. They must have said
to themselves: "The more the prisoners are
allowed to freely communicate with society
about what goes on in prisons, the more
people on the outside will grow aware of the
conditions inside Indiana prisons that exist
on a day to day basis. If people outside grow
aware, then they'll act and engage in struggle
to change the prisons." [MIM adds: besides
the fear of public outcry against brutal prison
conditions, prison guards and wardens fear
the loss of jobs should the current exploitative
system change. The amerikan prison system,
according to MIM, is widely supported by
the labor aristocracy that operates it because
it sustains their parasitism.]
In order to clamp down on the prisoners'
capacity to communicate with society, the
IDOC intensified their program of
systematically withholding incoming and
outgoing mail. Prisoner political activists
were seriously targeted. When this practice
became all too obvious, the IDOC started
implementing arbitrary visitation policies to
discourage and prevent prisoners' families
and friends from visiting. When this policy
failed to do the job, the IDOC set up a new
telephone system in 1992 that was designed
by Science Dynamics based in New Jersey.
The system was first implemented at the
Indiana State Prison before becoming a state-
wide measure. The measure prevented calling
or accessing the phone unless the prisoner
acquired an approved personal identification
number (PIN). Phone timing limited calls to
less than 20 minutes, after which a computer
system terminated the call. Prison authorities
could block any phone number they
disapproved to prevent the prisoner from
communicating. A recorded announcement
warned the callee that the incoming phone
call came from within a prison. In February
2000 the IDOC, still not satisfied with the
current restrictions on phone calls,
implemented a phone list procedure, so that
now prisoners not only required a PIN
number, but an approved phone list as well.
No more than 20 phone numbers were
permitted on the list at one time, and the
addresses and relationship to the inmate had
to be included. A computer data base kept
track of the names and addresses of each name
on the list. This list was then forwarded to all
state and federal police agencies.
The current restrictions on prisoners'
ability to communicate via phone isolate
inmates from the masses and smothers their
so-called rights to speech and expression. The
restrictive measures also keep the outside
world ignorant of what transpires behind
prison walls, the inhumane conditions
prisoners are subject to. Furthermore, the
control of communication by the IDOC
attempts to hinder the creation and growth of
an anti-imperialist movement amongst the
prisoner masses. MIM, SLALA and RAIL
struggle on a daily basis to promote prisoners'
rights to free speech, holding the imperialist
to their own crummy constitution through
winnable legal battles. The result of this
struggle to inform and alert the outside
masses, we hope, will be the growth of United
Front against the u.$. injustice system.
MIM Notes 265 · September 1, 2002· Page 12
Notas Rojas
setiembre 1, 2002, Nº 265 Fragmento del Periodico Oficial del Movimiento Internacionalista Maoista Gratis
¿Que es el MIM?
El Movimiento Internacionalista Maoísta (MIM) es un partido revolucionario
comunista que ejerce el Marxismo-Leninismo-Maoísmo. El MIM es una organización
internacionalista que trabaja desde el punto de vista del proletariado del Tercer Mundo;
es por esto que sus miembros no son amerikanos sino ciudadanos del mundo.
El MIM lucha para acabar con la opresión de todos los grupos sobre cualquier otro,
naciones por naciones, clases por clases, y géneros por géneros. La revolución es una
realidad para los Estados Unidos mientras su ejército continúa extendiendose en su
esfuerzo por asegurar la hegemonía mundial.
El MIM difiere de otros partidos en tres puntos basicos: (1) El MIM sostiene que
después que el proletariado conquiste el poder estatal, existira aún el potencial para una
restauración de tipo capitalista, bajo la dirección de una burguesía nueva dentro del
mismo partido comunista. En el caso de la Unión Soviética, la burguesía se apoderó del
gobierno después de la muerte de Stalin, en 1953; y en China después de la muerte de
Mao y del derrocamiento de la llamada "banda de los cuatro' en 1976. (2) El MIM
sostiene que la Revolución Cultural en China es la fase ms avanzada a la que llegó el
comunismo en la historia. (3) El MIM afirma que la clase trabajadora blanca de los
EE.UU. es primordialmente, una élite trabajadora no revolucionaria en el presente. Es
por esto que no es el principal vehículo para avanzar el Maoísmo en este país.
El MIM acepta como miembro a cualquier individuo que esté de acuerdo con estos
tres puntos basicos, y que acepte al centralismo democrtico, el método de gobierno por
la mayoría en lo que se refiere a cuestiones de línea del partido. El MIM es un partido
clandestino que no publica los nombres de sus miembros para evitar la represión estatal
dirigida históricamente contra los movimientos revolucionarios comunistas, y anti-
imperialistas. Si Ud. desea una suscripción para cualquiera de nuestros periódicos o
libros teóricos, en español o en inglés, por favor mandar dinero en efectivo o un cheque
al nombre de MIM a esta dirección:
MIM · P.O. Box 29670 · Los Angeles CA 90029-0670
Traducido por Células de Estudio
para la Liberación de Aztlán y
América Latina
A lo largo de los últimos dos anos el
MIM se ha referido a aliados reforimistas
dentro de "la social democracia
internacionalista". El ano pasado el MIM
aprobó una plataforma capaz de interesar
a la social democracia internacionalista
a costa de la social democracia chovinista
tradicional. Sin embargo, los aliados
mencionados por el MIM han sido
actvistas con un enfoque unidimensional
que formaban parte del movimiento por
la protección del medio ambiente, el
movimiento por servicios médicos
accesibles y otras organizaciones. Un
grupo de expertos llamado Foro Mundial
Fabian de socialdemócratas fundado en
Inglaterra en mayo de 2002 ha estado
respondiendo al llamado de reorganizar
la social democracia europea.
Glenys Kinnock, un miembro del
Parlamento europeo, abogó por una
aceptación del comercio global exigiendo
al mismo tiempo que las reglas que
existen hoy día dejaran de favorecer a
los países ricos. Según dijo, "Los países
ricos deberían abolir las restricciones en
forma de tarifas y cuotas sobre
exportaciones provenientes de todos los
países pobres, así como reformar de una
forma radical el uso de subsidios a las
exportaciones, sobre todo referentes a
productos agrícolas. La iniciativa de la
Unión Europea denominada "Todo salvo
armas" aprobada en 2001 permite que
todos los productos excepto armas
procedientes de los países más pobres del
mundo entren los mercados europeos sin
impuestos ni cuotas. Este es un paso en
la dirección correcta, pero está claro que
habrá que tomar otras medidas para
asegurar una participación eficaz en el
proceso de globalicación por parte de los
países en desarrollo." (1)
Aunque el socialdemócrata Martin
Shaw y otros muchos se expresan sin
parar a favor de la defensa y la
exportación de "la democracia", ninguno
de los contribuidores del foro reconoció
el pasado de la social democracia desde
hace 80 años a partir del momento en que
intensificó el conflicto entre los países
imperialisas europeos en torno a
colonias.
Los socialdemócratas
internacionalistas pisan los terrenos del
MIM y del proletariado internacional
conforme van naciendo, pero lo hacen de
una forma diferente, por lo cual se
convierten en aliados ocasionales y no
en "camaradas". La grieta divisiva fue
la primera guerra mundial, cuando
activistas socialdemócratas asumieron el
papel de "representar" a los trabajadores
de Alemania, Francia, Inglaterra, etc. que
se habían convertido en aristocracia
obrera, así como decidieron respetar la
opinión de la mayoría de esos últimos a
favor de la guerra, mientras que los
comunistas se adjuntaron a una
definición científica de "proletariado" y
respaldaron una perspectiva
internacionalista a costa de votos en las
elecciones. Como resultado, los
socialdemócratas de cada país votaron
por la guerra que hizo que se chocaran
unos trabajadores de Europa contra otros.
Desde entonces, los socialdemócratas
han proclamado su apoyo a la democracia
en el sentido de la mayoría, mientras que
los comunistas han actuado a favor del
principio internacionalista aun a costa de
la popularidad y "democracia".
Hoy día, conforme vamos entrando en
una época donde la social democracia
internacionalista quizás tenga un limitado
grado de éxito, sería negligente fallar
mencionar la competencia implícita entre
Europa y Estados Unidos. Ya que hasta
"los conservadores" de Europa tienen
más respeto por la social democracia que
los políticos yanquis, una globalicación
encabezada por EE.UU. contempla una
dirección mientras que la enérgica Unión
Europea implica una perspectiva distinta
en torno a la política global. El
vicepresidente del Parlamento europeo
de Escocia se refirió a la visión yanqui
de la forma siguiente: "un libre mercado
sin restricción, en el que el capital es el
rey y se roba a los pobres mediante una
liberalización, privatización y un robo
por parte de brutas corporaciones
internacionales y políticos corruptos." (2)
Si uno considera el lío en que Europa
metió al presidente yanqui W. Bush en
torno al tratado de calentamiento global
rehuido por EE.UU. gracias al apoyo de
Bush, uno nota que los capitalistas
europeos deciden competir con EE.UU.
usando una fachada social democrática.
Mientras los yanquis respaldan la
contaminación con fines lucrativos, los
europeos toman un paso para atrás
diciendo que sabrán competir como
hombres de negocio respetando al mismo
tiempo regulaciones internacionales. Los
yanquis sostienen que la existencia de
regulaciones es una cosa negativa,
mientras la social democracia
internacionalista sabe apreciar su valor.
Los socialdemócratas
internacionalistas se encuentran en una
posición difícil. Mientras que brinden su
apoyo tradicional a Le Pen y "el ala
derecha", su alianza no será de mucha
confianza debido a su respeto por la
mayoría. Buscan carreras profesionales
en el Parlamento europeo, por lo cual
necesitan asegurar un voto mayoritario
en las elecciones y al fin acabarán
sacrificando los intereses del proletariado
internacional con fin de obtener un
respaldo de la mayoría gracias a su interés
y respeto por "la democracia".
El MIM está de acuerdo con la mayor
parte del argumento de Martin Shaw a
favor de la necesidad de reorganizar la
social democracia. Concluyó su artículo
en la nueva página de Internet de los
Fabianes de la forma siguiente: "La
social democracia llegará a ser
verdaderamente global sólo si deja de
considerarse como un rincón seguro y
relativamente cómodo de la política
europea e imagina su papel y el mundo
de una forma muy distinta. El desafío
global a la social democracia es profundo
y potencialmente incómodo. Habrá que
ver si puede ser entendido".(3) A la social
democracia le resultará bien difícil
alcanzar su pleno potencial
internacionalista sin que se respalden
guerras populares del tercer mundo. Eso
será un desafío; sin embargo, la social
democracia internacionalista tiene el
potencial de romper el velo fascista
tradicional en Europa. Si bien la social
democracia tradicional es nuestro
enemigo irreconciliable, tenemos muchas
posibilidades de aliarnos con la social
democracia internacionalista en torno a
nuestra plataforma compuesta por la
demanda de un salario mínimo
internacional, un límite internacional
sobre horas de jornada, derechos
internacionales a la educación, subsidios
internacionales a precios agrícolas, etc.
Notas:
1. http://www.fabianglobalforum.net/
global600/article001.html
2. http://www.fabianglobalforum.net/
global600/article002.html
3. http://www.fabianglobalforum.net/
forum/article001.html
Nace social democracia con
conciencia internacionalista