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 306 · Sept. 1-14, 2004 · Page 1
MIM Notes
Sept. 1-14, 2004, Nº 306
Official Newsletter of the Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM)
Free
INSIDE: Fort Bragg interviews * Pope on feminism * Una Página en Español...
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On the web: www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext
KERRY TAKES "MORE
MILITARISTIC THAN
THOU" POSITION
In August President Bush announced
a plan to withdraw tens of thousands of
U$ troops currently stationed in other
countries including Germany and Korea.
Bush said this will enable the U$ military
to respond more quickly to threats around
the world. He also said this will allow the
troops to remain close to family and
friends longer.
While MIM doubts that either of these
points will prove true, Bush's
announcement shows that a section of
the ruling class is worried about imperial
overstretch. This is a matter of both
having too few troops to do the messy
work the imperialists need done and
working those troops too hard and too
long. As we've reported in earlier issues
of MIM Notes, the U$ military has
extended the tours of thousands of troops
in Iraq--who, along with troops stationed
in Afghanistan, are not affected by Bush's
proposed withdrawal--hurting morale
and lowering re-enlistment rates.
We can imagine the Kerry campaign
secretly thanked Bush for the opportunity
to steal some militaristic thunder. Kerry
foreign policy advisor and former
assistant secretary of state Richard
Holbrooke immediately hit the radio and
television talk show circuit, arguing
Bush's plan would decrease the
Amerikan military's readiness. Bases in
Europe were needed to shuttle troops and
supplies to the Middle East, he said; the
wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have already
strained Amerikan logistics to the
breaking point. He also stoked up the anti-
north Korea fires in order to justify the
presence of U$ troops in south Korea.
(Ironically, the very day Holbrooke started
his media blitz thousands of students
marched in the south Korean capital
demanding U$ troops leave Korean soil.)
Holbrooke also said that cutting troop
strength abroad would weaken Amerika's
alliances--even though a recent poll (1)
found more Germans supported U.$. troop
reductions there than opposed reductions
(to say nothing of the Koreans). Some
MIM NOTES
DISTRIBUTOR
ARRESTED
AT THE DNC
Police confiscate
reporter camera
and recorder
BOSTON
July 30, 2004
Boston Police arrested a MIM Notes
distributor at Roxbury Community
College during an event called the
"Progressive Democrats Convention" on
July 29th. Howard Dean and Dennis
Kucinich were among the main attractions
as speakers. The police backed Roxbury
Community College's claim that they are
"private property" where MIM Notes
cannot distribute on their outdoor
property.
Activists with Kucinich had bombarded
the public including the MIM table with
flyers for their event all week. In fact,
the Kucinich activists were the best
organized of any activists seen on the
streets this DNC week, not that we think
that is all good since there should have
been more radical activists around.
We showed up at 1:30 pm, and an event
organizer in the parking lot told us we had
not missed the action, because it was
going to last till 5pm. We handed out copies
of MIM Notes and interviewed the Utah
Progressive Democrats Caucus, Kucinich
Imperial overstretch spurs
Bush withdrawal plan
BOSTON
July 27, 2004
The Greens' Nader/David Cobb
debacle is the fate awaiting all parties that
allow themselves to become subverted
in the name of "ideological diversity" and
"freedom of expression" within a party.
Corporations know how to use that
breathing room to spread the oh-so
underrepresented corporate point of
view.
In the days leading up to the
Democratic National Convention and
during the DNC, MIM has struggled
mightily to do the research to bring the
truth to our readers about the foggy
Greens and their "decentralized"
allegedly "democratic" procedures. To do
this we attended a speech by Ralph Nader
and have spoken with several Green
activists. It is now clear that there is a
ton of lying going on in Green circles about
Nader, Cobb and Kerry.
In the fog of that sort of politics, the
corporations easily carry the day. They
are the status quo after all, and it is
incumbent on challengers to offer a clear
alternative to overcome the status quo.
Confusion, fuzz, vacillation and cross-
cancellation only benefit the status quo.
The story goes back to 2000 and the
Ralph Nader campaign on the Green
ticket for president. Reading between the
lines in Nader's book, we'd say it was
More coverage of the DNC
and anti-DNC protests inside!
Reactionary Amerikan veterans criticize Kerry,
whine for more war; MIM talks to the Falun
Gong; thousands march in pre-DNC
anti-war rally; and more!
Some Greens start `Greens for Kerry'
Cobb supporters make themselves liars
Continued on page 5...
Continued on page 4...
Continued on page 8...
MIM Notes 306 · Sept. 1-14, 2004 · Page 2
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
Letters
MIM Notes
The Official Newsletter of The Maoist Internationalist Movement
ISSN 1540-8817
MIM Notes is the bi-weekly newsletter of the Maoist Internationalist Movement. MIM
Notes is the official Party voice; more complete statements are published in our journal,
MIM Theory. Material in MIM Notes is the Party's position unless noted. MIM Notes
accepts submissions and critiques from anyone. The editors reserve the right to edit
submissions unless permission is specifically denied by the author; submissions are
published anonymously unless authors insist on identification (prisoners are never
identified by name). 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. The Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League (RAIL) is an anti-
imperialist mass organization led by MIM (RCs are RAIL Comrades). MIM's ten-point
program is available to anyone who sends in a SASE.
The paper is free to all prisoners, as long as they write to us every 90 days to confirm
their subsciptions. There are no individual subscriptions for people outside prison.
People who want to receive newspapers should become sponsors and distributors.
Sponsors pay for papers, distributors get them onto the streets, and officers do both
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tains thousands of documents, with ordering information for many more.
MIM grants explicit permission to copy all or part of this newspaper for any reason, as
long as we are credited.
For general correspondence, contact:
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WWW: <http//www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext>
I am overwhelmed at hearing about the
abuse of Iraqi prisoners, as if the abuse
is isolated
to only Iraqi prisoners.
The U.S. government is basically only
concerned about diplomatic relations with
Arab countries over U.S. military
personnel's abuse of prisoners. Please
don't get me wrong. I am sickened from
what I heard happened.
President Bush has stated that the Iraqi
prisoners abuse does not reflect the ways
of a democracy. American prisoners are
treated with just as much inhumanity and
abuse. The only reason that the abuse of
prisoners in Iraq is creating such
controversy is because of the graphic
photos.
President Bush really doesn't care
about the human rights violations! If he
did, he would put an end to the human
rights violations in the prisons in the
United States. The human rights arm of
the United Nations repeatedly cites
American prisons for abuses, and
tortures.
Many of the U.S. military personnel
guarding Iraqi prisoners were employed
as prison guards in the United States,
before being deployed to Iraq. What they
are doing to Iraqi prisoners, is basically
what is taught to them right here in
America in our state prisons. If they
would have been caught doing the same
things to u.s. prisoners, they would have
been patted on the back for doing their
job.
--A Washington prisoner,
August, 2004
The Imperial States
are a global threat
There was a lot of talk about what this
week's handover of "sovereignty" to Iraq
meant. For the imperialists, it means
another poorer state to die and slave for
them.
Half a world away, there's another
"handover" from the U$ imperialists to
the UN capitalists forces. Again, the
future is unclear. This time we ask can
the Haitians build a proletarian
government that meets their basic needs
and above all, offers security to them
instead of the U$?
The U$ poses a threat [to the people
of Iraq and Haiti]. Not [only] from
adversarial power and weaponry, but
from its inability to control what happens
in its own prisons, and states. Prime
example: the Abu Ghraib incident. The
imperialists couldn't even control their
own employees. They remain a threat, in
themselves and in Iraq and elsewhere--
places like Afghanistan, Somalia, Liberia.
There is a broad band of imperialist
states that can harbor "terrorists" and
"drug traffickers," spark humanitarian
disasters, and undermine global economic
growth. They can be an immense and
powerful state like Texas, where
uncontrolled, corruption, conflict, chaos
and communal violence by the bourgeoisie
and agencies help turn states, instead of
a powerhouse for the proletariat, just look
at president $nake Bushit - he came from
that devilish pit of breeding.
But Amerikans "don't do the foresight
thing." They pay a terribly high price for
their actions of oppression against the
masses: in an overextended military, drugs
in our inner cities, preventable
humanitarian tragedies, and ultimately the
loss of lives as "collateral damage."
--A California prisoner
MIM comments: This writer raises
a good point. Not only do the Amerikans
consciously apply a double standard to
international events--according to
themselves alone the right to preemptive
war while denying other countries even
the right to arm themselves in response
to perceived threats from the United
$tates--but the political realities of
capitalism make it impossible for them to
crack down on those Amerikans who
would profit from war. The
representatives of the capitalist class in
Washington DC may decide its best to
ban certain narcotics or the manufacture
or export of certain weapons. But within
capitalism they cannot prevent some
opportunist from taking the risk, breaking
the law and selling drugs, guns or bio-
warfare agents on the black market.
It's analogous to the case of "Jack"
Idema, the Amerikan mercenary accused
of torturing Afghan men and leading out
his own private war in Afghanistan. Even
if the United $tates was not giving Idema
direct orders, it created an atmosphere in
Afghanistan that made an Idema
inevitable. The wild west atmosphere--
complete with bounties for Osama Bin
Laden, dead or alive--suited their
interests. They cannot disown Idema;
unintended or not, he is there creation.
Bush's reaction to Iraqi prisoner abuse is hypocritical
MIM Notes 306 · Sept. 1-14, 2004 · Page 3
June 2004
The Leonard Peltier Defense
Committee and the Boston Area -
Leonard Peltier Support Group were cut
off by PayPal, the web based payment
processing service, for violation of its
"Acceptable Use Policy." In their press
release the groups reported that PayPal
justified the action "Designating Leonard
Peltier as being `notorious for committing
murderous acts' .... PayPal also claims
to have done an exhaustive evaluation of
the LPDC & Boston sites for `offensive'
material." PayPal closed their accounts
and froze all funds collected for up to 180
days.
The committees explain Leonard
Peltier's case well. "An Indigenous
Rights activist & prisoner of conscience,
Leonard Peltier has been imprisoned for
the past 28 years for a crime he did not
commit. U.S. prosecutors have admitted
that they did not & cannot prove that
Peltier committed the crime of which he
was accused. In fact, it was proved long
ago that Leonard Peltier was convicted
through the use of fabricated evidence
& false testimony. Under nonpolitical
circumstances, the courts would have
Demographic
data for police-
state repression
The U$ Department of Homeland Security
recently asked the Census Bureau for a list of
how many people of Arab descent live in each
ZIP code of the country and a list of cities
with 1000 or more people of Arab ancestry.
The Census Bureau gave it to them. When
the Census analyst's supervisor realized this
could be a political problem later, she asked
Homeland Security--after the information was
already turned over--what they had wanted
it for.
The response was laughable: "My reason
for asking for U.S. demographic data is to aid
the Outbound Passenger Program Officer in
identifying which language of signage, based
on U.S. ethnic nationality population, would be
best to post at the major international airports.
Some cases this would identify multiple copies
needed of a specific language sign versus other
cities only one copy."
We want to clarify a couple points. First, if
Homeland Security wanted to know what
language to make signs in, they could have
asked for data on what language people speak
at home, which Census also collected in 2000.
And if they wanted information for airport
signage, there was no reason to request data
at the ZIP code level, because city or county
data would be more appropriate.
Second, if Homeland Security was more
adept at data analysis, they could have compiled
their own lists from the data available to the
public on the Census website. So it's not as if
Census provided them with some dark and
dirty classified analysis. That was not the case
in WWII, when the Census Bureau used its
brand-new mapping capability to provide the
War Department with information about where
people of Japanese descent lived on the West
coast, for use in rounding them up for
internment. At that time, only Census could
have provided the analysis.
What do we learn from this? First,
Homeland Security is using ethnic profiling to
target communities based on their ancestry
composition. This is not surprising, though of
course they would have preferred to be able
to deny it. Second, demographic data collected
by the state will be used by the state for its
own purposes. We at MIM sometimes use
Census data--such as incomes by "race" or
unemployment rates--but we never kid
ourselves that such data is untainted by politics.
We just know that the imperialists have
reasons to try to make it both accurate and
available, and we take advantage of that.
Those civil rights and privacy groups that
are pressuring the Census Bureau to limit such
activity are doing a good job of exposing these
practices, but trying to keep the government's
demographic data out of the hands of the
repressive state apparatus is a losing battle.
On the other hand, a campaign to boycott
Census data collection efforts--just like
boycotting national elections--could be
justified.
Source: Electronic Privacy Information Center,
www.epic.org, has the original emails back and forth
from Census and Homeland Security, and some of
the data files, on their website.
by PIRAO chief
July 17, 2004
We have a five digit figure of radical
books and magazines that in some cases
we must give or in most cases should give
to prisoners. Although we have the largest
prison operation of its kind, we need more
large prisoner lists--from any English-
speaking country. If you can assemble a
list of prisoners who would read radical
literature, please send it to us. We plan to
unload this material this year.
Likewise, if you can assemble money
for the postage to mail books &
magazines, contact us. We're looking for
people who are new to MIM to step
forward, not people who have worked
with us before. We aren't trying to tire
out or bankrupt all our supporters, which
is why this message goes into the public.
Contrary to what many people believe
and expect, the major bourgeois
foundations have never been any use in
assisting us with prison literacy projects.
We've even had proposals that we can
say contain a design of self-defeat for
funding this activity. By encouraging
people to dream of manna from heaven
instead of getting the economics of
activism from the ground up, the
imperialists accomplish much more than
their piddling donations to a few
controlled "progressive" foundations
could ever accomplish.
To those who would say they can
donate to non-profit organizations for a
tax deduction, I would say you have a
point, but not really. If you give $1000 to
a tax deductible charity and manage to
get $400 back from the government in
taxes for argument's sake, then you have
given $600. The question is whether your
money actually went further than if you
gave MIM $600. Since MIM has no paid
staff, the answer is no, your money does
not go further with one of those non-profit
organizations paying for staff, office-
space, phones etc.
I have to warn people that we are not
good at "have it your way" like Burger
King. We get people writing to us with
specific requests as if we are going to
go to a bookstore and buy every
individual item they ask for. That's not
possible. We are looking for people who
want to read radical literature in prison.
Unfortunately, it is literature with a
disproportionate share of material about
the United $tates, but we do have some
variety.
So the first question is whether we can
find prisoners who want to read radical
literature--with a range from
progressive to revolutionary and
Maoist. The second question is what
the prisoner, organization organizing
the prisoner or group inside a prison
wants. We do not have enough of
Marx, Lenin, Mao, Black Panthers
or Malcolm X or anything else to be
able to promise people that they
would get exactly the books they
want, but we will try as best we can
to take into consideration general
requests--political economy, Black
or whatever topic/fill in the blank.
We can pretty much guarantee that
prisoners will NOT get EXACTLY
what they want.
On other subjects--we see a lot
of backlog cleared for the web
page. That's good news. We've
added help from some new people,
but we need still a few more. There
are also plans in the works to make
it easier for more people to
participate in discussion and MIM
work. So again, we know people are
frustrated, but there is a backlog of
stuff we've had to get done and we
do think about how to make it easier
to work with us.
WANTED: English-speaking prisoners to receive radical literature
been compelled to release Peltier due to
prosecutorial misconduct & a flagrant
abuse of power. Instead, 28 years later,
Peltier languishes in the maximum
security prison in Leavenworth, Kansas."
Just as the imprisonment of Leonard
Peltier is a political act of social control,
these actions by PayPal are also political.
While the capitalists roam around the
world stealing resources and exploiting
the labor of Third World peoples for
profit, activists fighting imperialism are
stopped from raising money for their
work.
"We consider this policy & PayPal's
actions to be an attack on our political
beliefs, interference with our right to
participate in the `democratic' political
process, & an intentional effort on the
part of PayPal & its parent company
eBAY to interfere with our (and your)
constitutional rights. Such corporate
actions--as taken at the behest of the
U.S. government, or not--are an affront
to activists everywhere & threaten our
basic freedoms."
MIM is reminded of our interactions
with the web search agent Google in
December of 2002 when they pulled
MIM ads with a bullshit justification
about a policy of refusing
advertisement of websites that
advocate against an individual, group
or organization. (Among the MIM
ads pulled was one for a review of
the movie Star Trek: Nemesis.)
Google freely runs ads from the
Democrats and Republicans which
attack each other, along with ads
from the U.S. military and other
government organizations. Google
also singled out a few keywords in
our ads as improper including
"oppression of children"--taken
from documents opposing the
oppression of children.
MIM agrees with the Peltier
committees that we should use
capitalist institutions like Google,
eBay and PayPal to aid our work
and fundraising. But clearly we can't
count on them, in fact we need to
build independent institutions of the
oppressed that we can rely on
wherever possible.
Notes:
http://www.peltiersupport.org/
Welcome/Boycott.html
PayPal censors Leonard Peltier support groups
Prisoner, lawyer
discuss settlement with
California prisons
Some gains made;
many abuses continue
The United Front to Shut Down
Security Housing Units (SHU) held the
second in a series of California-wide
educational events on 22 July. This event
was in San Jose, hosted by the Barrio
Defense Committee, and focused on the
recent settlement agreement around a
lawsuit brought by a SHU prisoner
against the Department of Corrections,
Castillo v. Alamida.
The event opened with a former SHU
prisoner describing conditions he called
comparable to the torture of prisoners in
Abu Ghraib. This included 3 minute
showers every other day, half the
food given to prisoners outside the
SHU, guards placing bets on fights
between prisoners, little to no
exercise time (even though the law
mandates 10 hours per week), and
virtually no resources to help
prepare prisoners for the streets.
This man reported the difficulty he
experienced socializing when he got
Continued on page 6...
MIM Notes 306 · Sept. 1-14, 2004 · Page 4
clear that Nader believed Greens had
gone soft after the Bush election and
were throwing up procedural roadblocks
to a future Nader campaign--essentially
because as MIM has said, too many
Greens are just moonlighting Democrats.
Because of this softness and Democratic
Party attempts to bribe the Greens, Nader
knew he would have to get on the ballot
himself and could not count on the Greens
to put themselves on the ballot--pathetic
indeed for a party interested in the
electoral process and which received as
many votes as Nader did in 2000.
During the Democratic National
Convention in Boston, MIM interviewed
a Nader campaigner who contradicted
what the Massachusetts Rainbow-Green
Party said, namely that they endorse the
Cobb campaign and not Kerry in states
where the Bush/Kerry result is close. The
Nader campaigner also believed that
Cobb supporters are supporting Kerry.
(.wav format, 700kb)
An example is on the votecobb.org
website. On June 25th, the Cobb admin
for the website said, "Peter Camejo has
said that David's website tells people to
`vote for Kerry.' That phrase does not
exist on this site." Then as of July 27th,
the second article on the home page says
plainly "Vote Kerry and Cobb," in
reference to the strategy of voting for
Cobb in most states while voting for
Kerry in swing states. It goes to show
how dishonest the Cobb campaign is.
Anyone involved in politics much can see
that this whole result was inevitable from
the way the Greens went about their
politics.
Purging parties leads to clarity and
honesty. Not purging parties results in
immediate duplicity as when corporate
politicians take them over and claim they
have not. These corporate politicians can
easily form their own parties; yet the
foolish Liberals believe they should allow
all points of view in their party instead of
purging those who disagree with their
main points. The Greens should realize
that there is no issue of "repression" yet
when they do not hold state power. The
corporate point of view is not
underrepresented.
The Greens' picking someone like
Cobb--who the public has never heard
of--is a dream-come-true for the
corporate parties. It shows that even a
pile of disaffected Democrats can do no
better than to put someone forward that
is unknown in a bourgeois electoral sense
and also ambiguous in response to Kerry.
MIM is not the only one to notice this.
The mainstream press has also reported
it.
Thanks to the lack of purging in the
Green Party, there are now conflicting
cross-currents.
1) We have the Democrats pushing for
Kerry in the Green Party.
2) There are Greens who deny pushing
for Kerry out of fear of legal
repercussions via campaign laws.
3) There are Greens pissed off as hell
that this all happened but who have to
put up a solid front for the benefit of their
party. They may even find themselves in
the position of having to lie on behalf of
their party's maneuvers for Kerry.
A party should stand for something.
That is how to encourage political
participation in the imperialist countries.
The clouded politics, lying and corporate
maneuvers mean that the Green political
spectrum has been disenfranchised by the
Greens' own organizational political line.
People can dedicate their time and money
to a Green party and have it end up
supporting Kerry anyway. That is real
disenfranchisement of the real Greens.
MIM opposes Kerry, Cobb and Nader.
Yet we have self-interests in these
contests. The lack of political clarity of
Greens makes it harder for everyone else
working outside the two main parties. It
becomes impossible to draw political
lessons from political activity when a
party does not stand for anything to begin
with. We cannot draw a contrast with
Greens when the Greens themselves are
all over the political map. Meanwhile,
people such as our friends the imperialist-
country pacifists have no party to go to.
On the other hand, MIM and its circles
do benefit from these ugly and negative
Some Greens start `Greens for Kerry'
Green organizational experiences
vicariously. From watching the Greens
and seeing what happens without purges
and also from seeing what the Democrats
are willing to do to subvert their
competitors we learn lessons of a
universal nature. Anyone reading
Nader's book and hearing about his
difficulties getting on the ballot who did
not realize that the Greens became weak-
kneed after Bush's election in 2000--
count yourself naive and politically
inexperienced.
Note:
Sources saying Cobb won't run in
states with close Kerry/Bush races: http:/
/news10now.com/content/all_news/
?ArID=24466&SecID=83 ; http://
www.commondreams.org/views04/0721-
02.htm ; http://www.registerguard.com/
news/2004/07/27/ed.edit.nader.0727.html
; "When pressed, Cobb admitted that
different rules apply in the swing states.
`John Kerry is a corporatist and a
militarist,' Cobb said. `But if you live in a
swing state, hold your nose and vote for
Kerry.'" http://msnbc.msn.com/id/
5518334/site/newsweek/
A pro-Cobb writer believes that Greens
are better served by him: http://
w w w . c o u n t e r p u n c h . o r g /
reiter07202004.html
Nader supporter on how Greens
wanted to start too late in 2004. (.wav
format, 460k)
Continued from page 1...
BOSTON, July 28, 2004--In the early
evening Wednesday on the sidestreets
leading to the Democratic Convention, a
group of early high school age students
approached silently, followed by an equal
or greater number of cops on bicycles.
About 10 minutes later, a different group
showed up and they could be heard from
blocks away. However, cops did not
follow these boisterous demonstrators.
Only those cops already standing on the
corner as the demonstrators passed would
intersect with the demonstration. As the
demonstrators passed, at the last
intersection before the left turn to the
thoroughfare leading to the Fleet Center
the police just shut their truck door to get
out of the way.
About 150 demonstrators this summer
day in 2004 were chanting "Ho, Ho, Ho
Chi Kerry." It was mostly Vietnam
Veterans (late middle-aged white men)
and a sprinkling of twinkies. The chant
echoes that of anti-war militants from the
1960s who chanted "Ho, Ho, Ho Chi
Minh is going to win!" The chant referred
to the fact that the leader of the
Vietnamese resistance war was going to
physically defeat U$ troops. Just as the
demonstrators in the 1960s predicted, that
is what happened. Unfortunately, there
is still a portion of Vietnam Vets who don't
get it. They can be found at the backbone
of reactionary organizations advocating
things like genocide and nuclear war,
which is what they would have gotten had
the United $tates "tried" any harder to
win that war, since Mao had nuclear
weapons and a people willing to fight U$
aggressors if given the chance. This never
stops reactionary Vietnam vets from
saying the United $tates didn't "try hard
enough" to win in Vietnam.
What these particular vets are trying
to do by chanting "Ho, Ho, Ho Chi Kerry"
is to name presidential candidate John
Kerry a traitor or communist, just because
Kerry changed his mind after serving and
took an active political role against the
Vietnam War. It's classic scumbag red-
baiting tactics on behalf of genocide and
nuclear war.
We interviewed a handicapped womyn
from Oklahoma who is an official Kerry
delegate on the veterans against Kerry
demonstration. She restricted herself to
saying that they have a right to
demonstrate. There is an interesting point
here, because many of these same
Kerry and Vietnam Vets
A tale of two rallies
Police closely followed
this protest by silent youth
at the DNC (right), while
ignoring the protest by
Amerikan veterans
against Kerry (above).
Continued on page 9...
MIM Notes 306 · Sept. 1-14, 2004 · Page 5
delegates and even a pair of pre-voting
age kids carrying signs to repeal the
"Patriot Act" and some others. We asked
many of our interview subjects if they
were aware Kerry had co-authored the
"Patriot Act" and we asked them to tell
us what they believe they can accomplish
as individuals inside the Democratic Party
that they can't accomplish outside it.
The trouble started when the director
of the center came outside to tell us we
were on private property. We told him
more than once that he had invited the
public to his building, and not only that,
with big-name speakers and that he was
not entitled to apply usual rules concerning
"private property" in that context. We
explained further and repeatedly to the
Boston Police that such a claim does not
MIM NOTES DISTRIBUTOR ARRESTED AT THE DNC
even fly in shopping malls, never mind
publicly-funded colleges hosting multiple
public figures. This was a classic case of
wanting to "have it both ways." If
Roxbury Community College had wanted
a private event, it should have organized
it "invitation only." Once the RCC invited
the public, that public does not surrender
any free speech rights on RCC grounds.
A red-tag delegate to the DNC had
gone in the building and come out as she
had promised to interview with MIM
Notes. Just as MIM Notes finished that
interview, Boston cops assembled on the
city sidewalk some meters away to
prepare to arrest the MIM Notes
distributor.
The RCC and Boston cops had asked
us to leave RCC property and go onto
city streets, but there was no way that
MIM could have covered the city
sidewalks efficiently to hand out
newspapers, because people funnel in
from the sidewalks covering hundreds of
yards to the doors leading into the
convention. This is MIM's second run-in
with RCC, and Northeastern is also under
the impression that it can invite the public
and then disinvite them when they hand
out newspapers. That's why we need to
take the legal offensive to get this squared
away in Massachusetts. MIM Notes
absolutely relies on being able to get out
its newspaper at big-name political events.
We are looking for legal help obtaining
restraining orders on college
administrations in the Massachusetts
area.
If you saw MIM handing out papers at
RCC, we would like to hear from you as
a witness at bosmim@mim.org.
Had the issue stayed at the level of what
college administrations can and cannot do
in inviting the public, it would have been
a ho-hum case that we nonetheless needed
to win and follow-up on in agreements
with colleges in Massachusetts. The
Boston Police were wrong in interpreting
the law in RCC's favor, but the whole
arrest became another matter when
Boston Police forcibly took the recorder/
camera with the day's interviews and the
evidence from the arrest.
MIM is currently pursuing return of the
digital recorder via legal means. The fact
that police took the recorder is an outrage
to all journalists and photographers.
Continued from page 1...
BOSTON, July 25
Protesters marched past the Fleet
Center, site of the Democratic National
Convention (DNC) despite FBI and police
harassment before the event and a police-
state atmosphere that included the threat
of random bag searches on public
transportation. Organizers insisted on their
right to march past the DNC and
succeeded in securing a permit just hours
before the scheduled start time.
Police presence was heavy, but (from
what we saw) police did not obstruct the
permitted rally or march. We did not see
any bags searched during the march, and
many groups set up literature tables
unhindered. MIM suspects some of the
more draconian "security measures" that
did not materialize were leaked to
dissuade people from attending. Another
reason to "dare to struggle:" the cops
might be bluffing.
On the other hand, bags in the subway
had been searched and the actual DNC
had not started yet. We saw plenty of
police harassment and obstruction during
the DNC (see the article this issue on the
arrest of a MIM notes distributor).
The march passed by the
Massachusetts State Hall, a beacon of
Amerikan liberty that served as an
observation post for cops with binoculars.
The march went by, but did not enter,
the infamous "protest pen" set up by the
City of Boston as a "free speech" area.
This pen was surrounded on three sides
by metal barricades topped by razor wire
and covered by an abandoned rail line
(seen here with police). Organizers sued
to have the pen dismantled and a better
site chosen, calling it an "internment
camp." A judge denied their request, at
the same time noting, "One cannot
conceive of what other elements you
would put in a place to make a space more
of an affront to the idea of free expression
than the designated demonstration zone."
The overwhelming majority of
protesters agreed that Democratic
presidential candidate John Kerry was
complicit with Bush in the war on Iraq. A
speaker at the kick-off rally pointed out
that Kerry has called for more U.$. troops
in Iraq, increased funding for Special
Forces, and believes the occupation of
Iraq should continue for the rest of the
decade. However, even though the
"anybody but Bush" crowd stayed away
from this march, there was still a range
of political trends present. Electoral
politics was by no means absent. Some
marchers were DNC delegates, hoping
to influence the Democrats' program
"from the outside." Others supported
third-party candidate Ralph Nader (see
other articles in this issue about the Nader
campaign).
MIM supporters passed out about 600
copies of MIM Notes. The response was
generally encouraging, although a not-
insignificant proportion of protesters still
dismissed the paper out of hand. Several
said, "I'm not a Maoist, so I don't want
it." Hey: If you're not a Maoist, you
should want it! (And you're who we're
writing for. Only a miniscule portion of
MIM Notes readers considers itself
Maoist--or Communist, for that matter.)
As we've written before, a progressive
outlook requires non-stop efforts at self-
improvement. Those in the anti-war
movement need to look around and see
what is working and what isn't. Pandering
to the usual liberal electoral claptrap is
decidedly not working--last we checked
U.$. troops still occupied Iraq and
Afghanistan while the draft still looms on
the near horizon.
MIM's report on the pre-DNC anti-war rally
This was arguably both the
most interesting and most
correct sign at the pre-DNC
rally. Indeed, the Iraqi people's
resistance is the principal
factor undermining support for
the war among Amerikans
and stretching the U.$. war
machine towards its breaking
point.
There is an interesting
parallel between the trial of
Saddam Hussein and the trial
of Jack Idema, the "former"
U.$. Green Beret charged
with torture in Afghanistan.
(The capture of Idema was
the cover story of the August 1st issue of
MIM Notes handed out at the march.)
Both argue that they committed their
crimes with the support of the United
$tates. Although both are trying to
exonerate themselves, the tribunals in Iraq
and Afghanistan should investigate these
links thoroughly. That would be in the best
interests of the Iraqi and Afghan peoples
and be sign of true sovereignty. We are
skeptical that either tribunal will uncover
full U.$. culpability in these cases, as they
have been set up by U.$. puppet
governments.
Police
surveillance on
roof of
Massacusetts
statehouse.
Barriers to keep
protestors from the
site of the DNC
The "protest pen."
MIM Notes 306 · Sept. 1-14, 2004 · Page 6
The Maoist Internationalist Movement
(MIM) is batting censorship of MIM
Notes at Corcoran State Prison in
California. MIM Notes is a newspaper
reporting on events around the world from
an anti-imperialist perspective. It includes
two pages written by prisoners across the
U$ reporting on conditions behind the
bars. MIM faces censorship in many
prisons across the country including of
our newspaper, our theory journal (MIM
Theory) and of political books that we
send to prisoners.
In this case the reasons given for the
censorship have changed over time and
include: that MIM advocates violence and
can disrupt prison programs, and that the
paper has letters from prisoners and thus
establishes unauthorized communication
between prisoners. Both of these
justifications are just a cover for the
prison's fear that MIM Notes is providing
revolutionary education and organizing
prisoners to fight for their legal rights. In
this country that claims to have free
speech, MIM's so-called rights are being
denied by the Criminal Injustice System
to suppress anti-imperialist views.
One prisoner at Corcoran is leading the
fight against this censorship. He updated
us in June: "Just to let you know the latest
on my prison appeal, regarding censorship
of MIM Notes in Corcoran, I have 2
appeals out. In one, the prison states that
MIM advocates violence and can disrupt
prison programs. The other states that the
paper has letters from prisoners and thus
establishes unauthorized communication
between prisoners. In neither case did
they contend or cite a rule violation as
the cause of censoring. I will take the
appeals to the director in Sacramento.
They are using flimsy reasoning to deny
us the paper and I anticipate winning the
case. Many other leftist pro-revolution
materials are being received and no
objections are made."
In February MIM sent a letter to the
Director of Corrections, as well as
Warden Adams at Corcoran responding
a letter we received from the Warden
justifying the censorship of MIM Notes.
We wrote:
"[W]e believe this censorship is a result
of inappropriate bias against MIM's
ideological beliefs. ... On December 8,
2003, we were notified by Warden Derral
G. Adams that material, specifically the
publication MIM Notes, would not be
allowed to its intended recipient because
federal case law says that institutions can
censor such publications like ours if they
are a risk to institutional security.
"Warden Adams' ... appears to disagree
with MIM's characterization of prison
conditions as `unjust and brutal to prison
inmates.' The California Code Of
Regulations (CCR) Title 15, sec: 3135(b)
states: `Disagreement with the senders
or receivers apparent moral values,
attitudes veracity, or choice of words will
not be used by correctional staff as a
reason for disallowing or delaying mail.
Correctional staff shall not challenge or
confront the sender or receiver with such
value judgments, nor shall such value
judgments be considered in any action
affecting the correspondents.'...
"Warden Adams cites the regulations
correctly, but does not state how MIM
Notes `incites violence' or is `otherwise
`reasonably deemed to be a threat to
MIM Notes censored at Corcoran State Prison
legitimate penoligical [sic] interests.'' The
Supreme Court [has] insisted that an
individualized determination be made that
a publication violates the rules."
MIM Notes is being targeted for
censorship as a publication advocating
liberation for the world's oppressed. The
prisons in Amerika are a key tool of social
control, particularly targeted at oppressed
nations within U.$. borders. The vast
majority of the population in long term
solitary confinement cells like those at
Corcoran are Mexican. Blacks are also
disproportionately represented throughout
the prison system. The prisons offer
virtually no educational programs but put
staff time and money into censorship of
literature sent free to prisoners from
organizations like MIM. We can not stand
by and allow this to happen. Please send
protest letters to Warden Adams at the
address below, and send MIM a copy of
your letter:
Warden Adams
PO Box 5248
Corcoran, CA 93212
out of prisons, going straight from isolation
to the streets. He also described the health
consequences of the SHU including vision
problems because of the constant dark,
and headaches when exposed to sunlight.
On top of all this, the guards are abusive,
trying to mentally break down the
prisoners.
Charles Carbone, a lawyer with
California Prison Focus, was the keynote
speaker at this event. He has worked on
Steve Castillo's lawsuit against the DOC
for the past two years, a case that has
been around for 9 years. Castillo has been
in the SHU for 10 years and is a very
proficient jailhouse lawyer.
Castillo's case made three claims.
1) The SHU denies prisoners equal
protection because it allows discrimination
against Latino prisoners. 60% of the SHU
prisoner are Latino.
2) Long term SHU confinement (5+
years) is cruel and unusual punishment
under the 8th Amendment.
3) Gang validation regulations are used
as retaliation and not based on real
evidence.
The Department of Corrections was
worried about this case. They filed five
separate motions to get the case
dismissed, an action that is very unusual
for a department that can count on the
courts to defend it.
In spite of the strong legal and moral
arguments on Castillo's side, Carbone
described an injustice system that was
certain to rule against them. Prisons are
given wide reign to create and enforce
policies as they see fit, and the courts back
them up. As Carbone himself explained,
Prisoner, lawyer discuss settlement with California prisons
"the legal process is very flawed when it
comes to social change."
In spite of this likely loss at trial, the
DOC offered a settlement to Castillo.
They wanted to buy some peace, a
reaction Carbone attributed in no small
part to the widespread protests against
the SHU both behind bars and on the
streets in California.
The settlement, which will be finalized
at the end of August, included four major
points:
1. The process of validating prisoners
as gang members and thus giving them
an indeterminate SHU sentence must
now include informing the prisoners of
all evidence against them and giving them
a chance to challenge this evidence. This
includes presenting all evidence every 6
years that a prisoner is up for inactive
review while in the SHU.
2. The department can't rely on
confidential informants just naming
names. If an informant claims Jack is a
gang member, he must provide evidence
of what he personally knows Jack did on
behalf of the gang. In the past confidential
informants just naming names was a
favorite way of validating people as gang
members. This "evidence" was very
difficult to challenge and easy to falsify.
3. Corrections officers must explain
why they think evidence demonstrates that
a prisoner is a gang member. It is no longer
sufficient to say that signing a get well
card or talking to someone in the library
constitutes gang membership without
offering some reason that this shows the
prisoner is in a gang.
4. A $20,000 litigation fund for prisoners
challenging gang validation was
established. This fund will be
administered by California Prison Focus.
This settlement is not retroactive, so
current SHU prisoners will not benefit
until they are up for inactive review.
Of course, Carbone noted that the DOC
can still follow these rules and continue
to validate prisoners as gang members
for whatever political reasons they want.
But the value of this settlement is twofold.
First, it achieves some wider education
about the unjust policies used by the DOC
and forces some changes to these policies,
and second, when the DOC screws up
and fails to follow these procedures, the
court still retains jurisdiction over the case
and can hold the DOC in contempt.
Activists both behind the bars and on the
outside will be monitoring the DOC
closely.
One audience member asked why we
can't just go to court and prove the SHU
is cruel and unusual punishment. Carbone
explained that this argument was used
with the Three Strikes law and failed
because it is difficult to prove this
punishment is "unusual" when it is normal
practice in many states. With control units
so widespread in the criminal injustice
system, it is true that torture is not
"unusual" in Amerikan prisons.
Carbone is a lawyer with a clear sense
of the limitations of the legal system.
During discussion he stressed that legal
battles are only one part of the larger
battle to shut down the SHU. We must
keep pressure on in the streets, in the
media, and through educational forums
like this one.
A discussion of the recent prison
agreement signed by Governor
Schwarzenegger in California exposed
the prison system as a tool of social
control. This agreement states that guards
will not be cut unless the prison population
is cut. This directly pits the white
population of the central valley, where
most of California's prisons are located,
against the oppressed nations housed in
the prisons. The white guards enjoy high
salaries and a nice standard of living, but
only if the prisons continue to lock of tens
of thousands of Black and Latino men
and wimmin.
After the event MIM spoke with a
Latina womyn whose son was being
released from the California Youth
Authority (prison) the next day. After five
years in CYA (from age 15), she was
worried about how he would function on
the outside. He was given five years
parole. As Carbone noted, parole is
designed to fail so that people will be
locked back up again. This womyn
became active in the prison movement
after her son was locked away, and she
described her disillusionment with the
Amerikan system that she used to believe
in. After five years fighting the CYA she
was saying clearly that the only answer
is revolution.
Many people at this even in San Jose
recognized the limitations of fighting for
reforms to the criminal injustice system.
This is why MIM puts our agenda of
taking down imperialism front and center
as a part of any of our reformist battles.
We don't want to mislead people into
thinking that shutting down the SHU will
fix the system. But we see battles like
this one as necessary under capitalism,
to expose the injustice and fight for better
conditions for the two million people
behind bars in Amerika.
Continued from page 3...
MIM Notes 306 · Sept. 1-14, 2004 · Page 7
August 7 -- MIM and RAIL held our
regular San Francisco monthly protest to
shut down the prison Security Housing
Units (SHU), a part of the state-wide
protests of the United Front to Shut Down
the SHU. At our regular location, in
downtown San Francisco, we once again
found support among the tourists and
former prisoners who pass through the
area. We were joined by two former
prisoners who came to the protest to help
fight torture in prisons. The group of
protesters had a literature table with a
few people asking passers by to sign the
petition, people walking around with
posters encouraging people to come over
to the table, and roving petitioners
approaching people on the sidewalk. In
the two hour protest we gathered more
than 60 signatures and distributed a many
copies of MIM Notes and the MIM
pamphlet on the SHU.
Relatives of prisoners, and former
prisoners, were quick to stop and sign the
petition, thanking us for protesting prison
torture. Several people commented on the
similarity between what happened in the
Amerikan prisons in other countries and
Amerikan prisons at home, eagerly taking
a copy of the August MIM Notes which
had a cover story exposing Amerikan
prison abuses in Afghanistan.
One of our new allies, who has seven
years of experience with the California
Department of Corrections, agreed to an
interview after the protest. He said that
he's never spoken out about the abuses
he's endured, but he was compelled to
do so when he saw that MIM was
fighting prison torture and focusing on the
same kinds of issues he is fighting: "Your
Maoist Internationalist Movement is
dealing with the CDC now on a level that
is consistent with what I'm going through,
torture."
Our new ally, who we will call John,
has been in and out of prisons for years,
never on the streets for more than a
month in a year. His revolving door
experience with the prisons is typical of
the injustice system that is not set up to
rehabilitate people or offer them
alternatives but instead encourages
recidivism. The problem started when he
was young, in the juvenile system. Instead
of trying to help John, they released him
at age 16 and told him to move out of the
state and not come back until he was old
enough to be charged as an adult
(because they assumed he would be back
in the system).
John has a problem with drugs and
alcohol, a problem that continued behind
bars. He has been clean and sober since
his last release, but in the past his drug
addiction led to minor offenses like petty
theft, or drug possession, which got him
locked back up again. A system focused
on rehabilitation would offer John services
to help him get off drugs, but instead he
was rejected for a program because of
his parole status. As John states "it's not
about rehabilitation, it's about
warehousing."
John speaks of harassment by the San
Francisco Police, the prison guards, and
the entire DOC which are all part of a
system that is set up to target people like
himself. He says the prisons "politically
speaking, are a mess ... the [guards union]
are very powerful, too powerful for
anyone to mess with." He spoke of fights
set up in the prison by the guards, attacks
on himself and others. Many people talk
about prisoner gangs, but John speaks
about the prison guard gang, "The Green
Wall Mafia, a gang of guards which is
about a code of silence." They won't let
anyone speak out about the abuses within
the prison. "The [prison guards union] is
politically impossible to touch....San
Francisco won't fuck with them, the court
system won't fuck with them."
John is concerned that the police or the
DOC will try to kill him because he won't
conform and he wouldn't play their games
in the prison. He talks about "the
California DOC, Prison Industries
Authorities, CCPOE [prison guards
union], the private prison firms are all
interconnected, it's all a game, it's all
about money."
He is homeless now, the typical
condition of released prisoners, who have
no resources when they get out, and no
support or opportunities for employment.
John is living in a homeless shelter which
has a curfew of 7pm every night. He is
clean and sober because when he was
paroled just over a month ago, his sister
(who we will call Sophia) told him they
were both going to go clean and sober
together starting that day.
John and Sophia are part of the
Cheyenne indigenous nation. This is one
of the First Nations that wiped out
General Custer at the Battle of the Little
Big Horn. As they say, they've had a bad
deal of it from the beginning. Sophia says
"that's why we're on their shit list from
Did you know?
There are more than 200
back issues of MIM Notes
available on the MIM
website? Not only can you
browse more than 15 years of
the newspaper, you can also
keep up with the very latest
on MIM agitation campaigns,
prisoner news, all the latest
on the U$ war, and much
more. MIM's website is an
indispensable tool for the
revolutionary movement. Get
involved!
www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext
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?
Monthly Cali. SHU protests continue, gain new allies
Former prisoners step forward, speak of their experiences
the start." This nation, which has
supposedly autonomous land surrounded
by Montana (a.k.a. a reservation), is
fighting the government about fiber optic
cables run through their land without their
permission. John says the government
claimed "eminent domain" which means
it can do whatever it thinks is necessary
on what it considers federal land, even
though "we're supposed to be
autonomous." But this is like Amerika
running fiber optic wires through Canada
without asking the permission of the
Canadian government. First Nations
deserve the same independence granted
to any other sovereign nations, not to
mention restitution for the history of
genocide.
On the streets and clean now for over
a month, John and his sister are committed
to staying clean and out of prison. They
support each other every day spending
their spare time before curfew together,
and speak of getting an apartment
together some day. But they laugh
mentioning San Francisco Mayor Gavin
Newsom's "Care Not Cash" program
which made it harder for Sophia to get a
bed in a shelter, limiting her stay to seven
days and not telling her when her time
had run out. The odds are all stacked
against John and Sophia, who both have
prison records. But they are determined
to fight back and are excited to have
hooked up with MIM so that they can
get involved with the campaign against
torture in prisons. John noted that staying
busy doing work like this is what will help
him stay clean and sober.
MIM Notes 306 · Sept. 1-14, 2004 · Page 8
German bourgeois politicians have
expressed concerns that U.$. base
closures would cause some Germans to
lose their jobs. This is the same twisted
dynamic that drives the discussion of base
closures in the United $tates and in itself
is enough to show the economic and
moral bankruptcy of imperialism. There
are so many things around the world that
need doing--hungry to feed, sick to treat
and cure, homeless to shelter--yet the
only jobs the bourgeois leaders of Amerika
and Germany can create are tied to the
predatory Amerikan military.
Military overstretch is the hot potato
issue of this presidential campaign.
Neither candidate can talk about
reinstating the draft, despite the fact that
the military's "stop-loss" amounts to a
draft (restricted to those who volunteered
for the military) and calls by some
Congresspersyns for an official draft.
Instead, each tries to sell Amerikan voters
their own snake-oil scheme on how to
preserve Amerikan military dominance
without instituting a draft. Bush apparently
Imperial overstretch spurs
Bush withdrawal plan
is still pushing "Secretary of Defense"
Don Rumsfeld's "transformation" line: the
idea that high technology can solve the
U.$. military's problems. This was the
idea behind the Iraq war--and the
"success" of which can new be seen on
the streets of Fallujah and Najaf. Kerry
wants to up the number of special forces
(look to Afghanistan to see the success
of that approach) and promises help from
Amerika's allies. Of course, it takes two
to tango, and more and more of Amerika's
allies appear happy to let Unkle $am do
the heavy lifting in Iraq.
Both Bush and Kerry want to appear
to be doing everything possible to make a
draft unnecessary. Yet we warn our
readers that the economic system that
caused the wars against Iraq is still in
place. The for-profit motivations to trade
in weapons of mass destruction are still
there. Capitalism cannot bring real long-
term stability no matter how many troops
are moved around or Security Council
resolutions end up passing.
Notes: 1. http://www.time.com/time/
europe/eu/daily/0,13716,436088,00.html
Continued from page 1...
Fort Bragg, NC
The mood at Fort Bragg seems sullen.
Few people wanted to talk, even before
they knew MIM Notes is communist. In
one case, MIM Notes spoke with one
soldier just back from Iraq who just
stared straight forward and said "I don't
want to talk about that." In an odd way, it
was also like talking to some Arab youth
in Amerika who also had opinions, but are
afraid to say anything right now.
We spoke with another soldier who had
toured all over the world except Iraq and
said he had read MIM Notes before. He
chided us "it would be a whole lot better
if people would just vote." This same
soldier told us that most of his military
buddies "don't care at all" about politics
yet and he told us this disturbed him
greatly. With regard to the vote and
freedom we responded that the United
$tates does not bring freedom to other
countries and in fact has the highest
imprisonment rate in the world. "You
don't have to tell me that. I know," said
our critic. He went on to say there is the
freedom to leave the country (and this
led to a discussion of U$ "aid" to other
countries and u.$. backing for dictators).
We pointed out to this patriot that George
Washington stayed, fought and changed
America.
The critic of MIM went on to say that
the soldiers in Iraq should fight harder to
get done sooner and come back. (You
can hear part of our interview on our
website: www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/
agitation/iraq/fortbragg07162004.html.)
However, his military comrade said, "the
main thing is that everyone comes home
as soon as possible as safely as possible."
We spoke with two people who were
not happy at all about the Iraq War. (You
can also listen to the interviews at the
same website.) Something we heard from
these two and another womyn soldier in
a family with multiple members in the
armed forces was not so much concern
for themselves as concern for their
families. They did not like the idea that
some of their relatives might fight and die
in Iraq.
Our longest conversation was with an
Army soldier who actually had many
revolutionary views already. According
to him, the United $tates is going to break
up into pieces regionally. He said there
were too many cynical special interests
getting their piece out of the military from
outerwear contracts to Iraq contracts. He
recounted how "war f*s people up" and
went on to tell us about a World War II
veteran in the area who still wakes up in
the middle of the night. Oddly, no one
made a point of Abu Ghraib or prisons in
Afghanistan, but we found soldiers
reading MIM Notes on the subject. In
Amerika, we have a heavy duty.
Depending on the outlook of recruitable
youth of this one country with 5% of the
world's population, the transition to a
world without imperialism will be more
or less bloody. In fact, it may turn out
that anti-militarist work could make the
difference between species survival and
species destruction. Most of the rest of
the world can already see it, so we have
to bring internationalist perspective to
places like Fort Bragg.
Talking with the
troops at Fort Bragg
On August 1, the Vatican released a
statement against feminism. That the
Pope doesn't like feminism isn't news,
but the Vatican's summary of the
problems with feminism is interesting,
giving feminism a very materialist spin.(1)
For example, the statement says, "A
first tendency is to emphasize strongly
conditions of subordination in order to give
rise to antagonism: women, in order to be
themselves, must make themselves the
adversaries of men. Faced with the abuse
of power, the answer for women is to
seek power."
MIM agrees with this partial description
of feminism. Politically, however, it is a
mistake for wimmin of oppressed nations
to concentrate principally on opposing the
men of oppressed nations, because
imperialism is the first-order problem that
both men and wimmin of oppressed
nations face. However, as a statement
of the principle of gender oppression and
the correct response to it, we agree.
We also agree with the description of
the "second tendency," which the Vatican
says goes like this: "In order to avoid the
domination of one sex or the other, their
differences tend to be denied, viewed as
mere effects of historical and cultural
conditioning. In this perspective, physical
difference, termed sex, is minimized, while
the purely cultural element, termed gender,
is emphasized to the maximum and held
to be primary."
Right. That is: while there are biological
differences of sex, what matters most,
and what is within the realm of the social
control of humanity, is how we socially
organize people. We need to accord social
roles to people based on their biological
sex about as much as we do based on
their genetic tendency to be tall or short.
Where does this lead? "This theory of
the human person, intended to promote
prospects for equality of women through
liberation from biological determinism, has
in reality inspired ideologies which, for
example, call into question the family, in
its natural two-parent structure of mother
and father, and make homosexuality and
heterosexuality virtually equivalent, in a
new model of polymorphous sexuality."
And further, "According to this
perspective, human nature in itself does
not possess characteristics in an absolute
manner: all persons can and ought to
constitute themselves as they like, since
they are free from every predetermination
linked to their essential constitution." This
is similar to Mao's statements about
humyn nature, except the idea that
individuals can "constitute themselves as
they like" is more a statement of a
communist ideal than a reality under
conditions of inequality. Still, we agree that
humyns should not be considered fixed
by an "essential constitution."
Ultimately, the Pope is upset because
this threatens the patriarchal power of the
Church. As the statement says: "This
perspective has many consequences.
Above all it strengthens the idea that the
liberation of women entails criticism of
Sacred Scripture, which would be seen
as handing on a patriarchal conception of
God nourished by an essentially male-
dominated culture. Second, this tendency
would consider as lacking in importance
and relevance the fact that the Son of
God assumed human nature in its male
form." Right. We are not persuaded of
the importance of the "fact" that Jesus
was supposedly male. On the other hand,
the fact that the Church says God is male
is of enormous importance.
Amerikan pseudo-feminists were quick
to say that the Pope was going too far in
this characterization of feminism. The
Washington Post reports that Frances
Kissling, president of Catholics for a Free
Choice, said: "The demonization of
feminism is most disturbing. It takes
extreme positions that may have been
historically held by five people and casts
them as if they were held by every
woman. The feminism I know is all for
partnerships and is all for empowering
both men and women. The feminism I
know does not ignore the fact that there
are sexual differences."(2)
Maybe the Vatican statement will help
motivate pseudo-feminists to keep selling
wimmin short. But MIM is not afraid to
say we favor complete equality between
men and wimmin.
Notes:
1. The Vatican posted the full statement
at: http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/
congregations/cfaith/documents/
rc_con_cfaith_doc_20040731_collaboration_en.html
2. Washington Post 1 Aug 2004, p. A16.
Pope condemns feminism
MIM Notes 306 · Sept. 1-14, 2004 · Page 9
What questions do YOU have?
Wasn't Mao a butcher? Why do you spell it "Amerika"? Shouldn't
you try non-violence first? What is internationalism? Isn't hating white
people reverse racism? Why don't you leftists work together? Why
don't you tone it down? What is a cardinal principle? What is your
program? What is necessary to join MIM? What concrete actions can I
take? How do I write articles for MIM? What is your copyright policy?
Go to http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/faq
and get real answers to these and other questions.
troglodytes do not support the First
Amendment as evidenced by their calling
people traitors with regard to the Vietnam
War.
This particular Oklahoma delegate
while opposing the draft went on to
support a larger military as Kerry has said
by calling for a doubling of "special
forces." In her discussion of this we can
almost hear her saying there is no other
way to employ the people of this country
without a military to absorb everyone. To
MIM, this is an example of how this
country has ruined itself--by hiring too
many troops, cops and prison guards. And
to do what? Fight fascism? End slavery?
Quite the contrary, we have slave labor
in our prisons. No, there is no great goal
in hiring all these repressive personnel that
is going to move forward Amerika or the
planet. It's simply making up for what is
wrong with our economy. If the
Kerry and Vietnam Vets
A tale of two rallies at the DNC
BOSTON
July 28, 2004
We hope you like our coverage of the
Democratic National Convention. Part of
the convention includes the negative
comments MIM received and we'd like
to tell you about some of them.
As MIM handed out thousands of
copies of the August 1 MIM Notes
featuring a lead story on U$ torture of
prisoners in Afghanistan, a few people
said that the Afghans "deserved it after
what they did to us."
Such reasoning obviously is part of an
endless spiral of violence with no great
goal. We told them that they had the wrong
people, that Osama Bin Laden appears
to have escaped anyway and that
children tortured in Iraqi prisons by
Amerikans had done nothing to
Amerikans.
We also had to explain to a few people
the difference between Mao and Deng
Xiaoping, namely that Mao wanted to win
students over with his lofty goals and
political zeal while Deng used
bureaucratic methods such as locking
students into cafeterias in 1966 and
shooting demonstrators in 1989. We hope
to persuade our readers that Mao's
method of political disorder combined with
political zeal was the right approach. We
even had one older Kerry delegate admit
that Amerikans were pro-Deng until 1989,
so there should be no reason for
Amerikans to try to blame Mao for Deng.
MIM is used to ignorant comments,
usually very short ones that their makers
cannot back up with a factual argument.
In contrast, the Falun Gong present on
the Boston Common July 28th told us that
they found all Amerikans to be
compassionate and in solidarity with the
Falun Gong. So while MIM found very
many people relieved to see that
communists are still active--partly as a
check on the state of Amerikan political
conditions--the Falun Gong reported
more universal love from the population.
Before we spoke with the Falun Gong,
we had a pair of people show a real humyn
interest in what happens when Maoists
cross paths with the Falun Gong. The
Falun Gong was staging a very graphic
art exhibit of Chinese torture enacted by
Chinese with convincing costumes and
blood. The exhibit followed a march
against Jiang Zemin. We told one persyn
interested in our opinion that we wished
the Falun Gong would not do this exhibit
in the United $tates or England, that they
could probably do it in 200 countries
without provoking war but that there is
already a war climate against China in
the United $tates that exists among a
portion of Amerikans.
Later, MIM went further and went to
talk to the Falun Gong to tell them about
some comments we received and also our
own experience as Amerikans. We came
prepared to ask the Falun Gong if they
did not believe this exhibit is contributing
to a war atmosphere against China. When
the Falun Gong spoke of humyn rights,
we asked them if the war against Iraq
did not come couched in terms of Saddam
Hussein as a dictator violating humyn
rights. When they said China was worse
than Iraq, we asked if that did not justify
Amerikans in thinking war against China
was more just than war against Iraq.
The Falun Gong stressed that it does
not advocate war or violent means. You
can listen to their full response on the web
at www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/
elections/falungong.html.
We stressed that many people could
look at these exhibits and not take them
the wrong way, but there would be a
portion of Amerikans who already have
reasons they want a war with China. We
said there are some already upset about
trade. Other really backward Amerikans
believe China is taking over California and
still others would like to go to war with
just about any country still calling itself
communist.
We're happy to have had a reasonable
discussion with the Falun Gong. We had
advocated including Afghan and Iraqi
prisoners in their exhbit to make the
message clear if they want to oppose all
prison torture. That's part of why we
offered that if they came with us they
would see some of these comments about
Afghan prisoners and about China, made
by the same Amerikans who support the
exhibit on the prisons in China. These
Amerikans believe the "other guy" is to
blame for humyn rights violations and
"humyn rights" rhetoric is just a mask for
their aggression.
We also tried to convince the Falun
Gong that they are political and they
should just go all the way in their politics,
even though politics is inevitably "dirty."
After all, they talked to us about Chinese
trade, what the Chinese embassy did to
threaten certain U$ localities with a
reduction of trade and how the Chinese
bought off some countries globally to keep
them from voicing solidarity with Falun
Gong. To us, it would seem that coming
up with a strategy to counter trade and
embassy moves is political, not just
something spiritual. Since they are already
thinking along those lines, they should just
go the whole way into politics. Once we
realize that we are in the realm of politics
and humyn frailty, we realize that we
cannot ask politicians to be god-like. We
are confident that when they compare
politicians objectively, they will find that
Mao was the greatest politician in the
Third World since World War II--for
doubling China's life expectancy, bringing
universal education and health-care and
eliminating foot-binding and restrictions
on divorce.
Democrats and Republicans cannot think
of anything productive for people to do
other than join the military, build more
prisons and follow kids around on the
streets, we'd suggest they hand power
over to us and we'll get the economy
moving on serving global humyn needs
and undertaking scientific and technical
research.
The problem with a lot of these
reactionaries is that they don't know what
a real job is anymore. We'll show them
how to organize real jobs and they won't
have to spend all their time campaigning
for candidates to lock up more people in
the United $tates while getting overtime
gravy at Abu Ghraib.
The whole demonstration by these
particular vets and all their bitter
involvement in politics is just another great
reason never, ever to volunteer for the
U$ military, because if you do serve in
the military like Kerry did, the troglodytes
will criticize you and dishonor your service
within their own reactionary logic if you
ever decide some day that perpetual war
is not a good idea. In fact, these particular
genocidal maniacs are so political that
they would rather support Bush and
Cheney who did not serve in Vietnam at
all, so it goes to prove what the founding
fathers of the United $tates said about
Continued from page 4...
how a country with too many veterans
goes down the drain as exemplified by
the European countries of the 1700s
which had too many wars. It's not that
these vets can possibly say Bush &
Cheney did better service than Kerry.
What they are saying is purely political--
that they did not get enough war.
Maoists meet the Falun Gong at the DNC
Once we realize that we are in the
realm of politics and humyn frailty,
we realize that we cannot ask
politicians to be god-like.
MIM Notes 306 · Sept. 1-14, 2004 · Page 10
MIM on
Prisons & Prisoners
MIM seeks to build public opinion
against Amerika's criminal injustice sys-
tem, and to eventually replace the bour-
geois injustice system with proletarian jus-
tice. The bourgeois injustice system im-
prisons and executes a disproportionately
large and growing number of oppressed
people while letting the biggest mass mur-
derers -- the imperialists and their lack-
eys -- roam free. Imperialism is not op-
posed to murder or theft, it only insists that
these crimes be committed in the interests
of the bourgeoisie.
"All U.S. citizens are criminals--
accomplices and accessories to the crimes
of U.$. 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
Texas monopolizes
prisoner skills
Regarding the information you sought
concerning the money Texas Dept. of
Corrections makes off of prisoner slave labor:
In the furniture factory we are constantly
being forced to fill orders paid for by TDC
employees. The factory will refinish, upholster
and even rebuild items brought in by
greyshirts and administrative employees.
These items range from bed frames to
complete bedroom and dining room sets. Do
we, the workers, receive any benefits for our
labor and efforts? Absolutely not!
What really sucks is that those inmates able
to work on some sort of craft, e.g., leather,
woodcrafts, art crafts, etc., are allowed to
make work contracts with TDC employees,
but are prohibited from establishing work
contracts with outside businesses who could
market the prisoners' crafts. Instead, the
prisoner is forced to either sell his wares to
TDC employees, or mail them home, hoping
their family can find buyers. Is this fair? I think
not.
I know of a fellow, a Catholic, who wrote a
book and had it published. TDC punished
him for this. Is this justified? Hell no.
In my situation, I am a tattoo artist, yet I'm
not allowed to work my craft to keep myself
in much needed personal hygiene stuff. TDC
won't supply me with these items either.
Instead, if I'm caught tattooing, or with
paraphernalia, I am punished, locked up,
loose good time (not that good time really
matters).
--A Texas Prisoner, April 2004
MIM responds: This prisoner wrote in
response to our request for information
exposing the exploitation of prisoner labor in
Texas. This information shows that it is not
only unskilled manual labor, but also skilled
craft labor, that Texas prison officials exploit
for their own gain. We encourage others, in
Texas or elsewhere, to help us expose these
practices to other prisoners and to the outside
world.
Political repression
in Texas
Though it has been a minute since I last
wrote to MIM, know that my mind and heart
stays securely focused on the revolution to
come. Nature dictates it and the masses want
it. These past few months I've been battling
with my oppressors, which has gone to the
physical, where I was placed in isolation for a
while.
It all started with one arrogant officer
throwing my literature away during an annual
unit lockdown. The pigs reason to justify this
was that the literature was old. And they
didn't hesitate to throw away my MIM Notes,
even a MIM Theory (the date was 1996), some
Panther papers, as well as various magazines.
Then I get hit with a bogus disciplinary
infraction and sometimes some things make
you wanna holler.
In the end I got caught up and landed in
lockup. But while I was there I was grateful to
receive encouraging news in he recent MIM
Notes, especially your stand to shut down all
control units (here in TX they are called high
security). There are other interesting articles
as well that explain and inform from another
point of view aside from those capitalist media
puppets who wish to be called respected
journalists.
In the meantime until the overthrow of
imperialism I'm feeding these hungry young
soldiers food for the mind in Marxism-
Leninism-Maoism as given by MIM. And you
know Malcolm X, George Jackson and Black
Panther Party never go out of style here in
these dungeons.
Our concern right now is the outlawing of
pornography to come next June 2005. Because
I know if they get porn out of the system, the
pigs will target radical literature next. Then
we will be stuck with trash like Stephen King
and Anne Rice.
The imperialists aren't playing games and
we communists shouldn't either.
--A Texas Comrade In Struggle, June 5,
2004
MIM responds: You are right that we need
to oppose all forms of censorship in prison.
Of course, they are already going after
revolutionary lit, like your old MIM Theories!
The porn crackdown just gives them more
opportunity to provoke people and target
them for lockdown.
MIM over CP-USA in
South Dakota
Just received first issues of MIM Notes.
Hungrily await more. I understand that with
the kind of activism you are doing comes
many sacrifices. Know that at the very least
you are empowering those who feel they have
little hope -- this is in itself a sort of
revolution. Thank you; your work is greatly
appreciated at this end. Convicts, some hardly
able to read, are discussing dialectics in the
rec yard. Something beautiful is happening.
Also know that I have since canceled my
subscription to People's Weekly World.
A Marxist-Maoist study group is needed
[at this prison]. Many after having viewed
your paper express interest in gaining a deeper
understanding of their incarceration and the
underlying causes of oppression in general.
Another prisoner and myself are willing to
take leadership/instructional roles, only we're
not sure where to start. Does MIM follow a
study group format?
I am enclosing an article on Native Amerikan
prisoners and imperialism. Feel free to edit for
grammar, clarity, politics, etc. I am still young,
but as I mature, become more educated and
familiar with the MIM party line my writing
will improve.
--a South Dakota prisoner, July 2004
MIM responds: It's great to hear that MIM
Notes has so inspired you to organize and
start a study group. We sent a flyer on how
to start a MIM study group and an article
from MIM Theory to get you started. Keep
us posted on your progress, and keep
sending articles, and we'll continue to send
you literature for your study group. We look
forward to working with you.
Repression in
Oklahoma SHU
I am a female Segregation Housing Unit
(SHU) inmate, and this is my fourth time on
Administrative Segregation (A.S.). I have
spent a total of eight years on lockdown. As
of May, 2004 I have been on SHU for one
year and seven months, for an alleged battery
without a weapon on another inmate. The
inmate that I battered has a paper filed on me
that keeps us separated on a yard divided
from mine by a brick wall.
Nail clippers are not allowed in this facility,
so I am charged $2.00 to see the doctor and
fill out a form, and $2.00 to use the clippers.
This leads me to ask where is the money that
is supplied to run this facility? Has it been
reduced? Even as an indigent inmate, I must
pay for any doctor visit, plus medications.
Where does inmates' money go and what
is it used for? Starting May 3,2004, we are
going to be charged for any form we need for
in-house mail. We are charged for copies of
cases from the law library, legal-sized
envelopes to mail to the courts, etc. Being on
the SHU it is almost as if I am cut off from the
world completely. I have no resources to raise
hell about injustice.
At this prison, slave labor is in full effect.
Inmates work at a planthere called Oklahoma
Corrections Industries. They handle
Department ofMotor Vehicles-related
paperwork. They're paid a few cents an
hour,according to how many huge boxes they
sort through.
There are 37 rules for the SHU that we must
comply with or have ourexercise (which is a
right) terminated.
[From the prison's handout, these rules
include:
"9. Materials will not be allowed to hang
over the cell door to obstruct observation. ...
"15. Magazines, newspapers, and catalogs
are not allowed for DU/PI/PD/TD/TS inmates.
...
"17. Library books cannot be traded
between inmates, left outside of the cell, or
placed in the windowsill. ...
"22. Inmates are subject to urinalysis testing
at any time. ...
"30. All inmates shall be allowed one hour
of exercise outdoors, weather permitting, five
days per week. The Shift Supervisor may
cancel outdoor exercise for security reasons.
If exercise is indoors, inmates will be
restrained in belly chains, hand cuffs, black
box, and leg irons ..."]
If an A.S. inmate receives a misconduct for
not having our shirts tucked into our pants,
we must spend more time on A.S.
Your Notes are an informative inspiration. I
am now being transferred to another yard. I
will fight for my beliefs if I am sent to hell.
Sincerely,
--an Oklahoma prisoner, 5 May 2004
Three Strikes and the
Walking Dead
Thomas Jefferson, the third President of
the United States, felt that slavery was a moral
wrong. Yet, unlike George Washington, the
first President, who freed over 200 of his
personal slaves at his death, President
Jefferson believed that if the African slaves
of the United States were freed, they would
rise up and seek revenge on their former
masters. History has proven that Jefferson's
fears were unfounded; on the contrary, it was
the freed slaves of America that suffered
persecution for decades after they were freed.
The proponents of the draconian "Three
Strikes" law have tried to terrorize the people
of California with doomsday scenarios, of
thousands of violent, bloodthirsty felons
being set free to prey on a helpless society.
These fears are also unfounded. Currently,
there are five to six thousand three-strikers in
prison for 25 years to life; none of the men/
women who would be affected by the
Amendment are in prison for violent crimes.
The irony of the law is that some of the so-
called violent or serious crimes are 10, 15, 20,
and even 30 years old. Yet, the law was written
to get around outmoded ideals such as the
United States Constitutional guarantees
against double jeopardy, ex post facto
violations, and, most importantly, cruel and
unusual punishment meted out for minor
crimes (many of them misdemeanors prior to
1994). Men/women, whose average age is 40
years old, being sent to prison for the rest of
their lives is especially evil when the average
life expectancy is 63 years for Blacks and even
lower for Hispanics, which make up the vast
majority of those sentenced under 3 strikes.
In the months before the November 2nd
election, there will be those who will lie, twist
the truth, give the public another does of
MIM Notes 306 · Sept. 1-14, 2004 · 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.
Join the fight against
the injustice system
While we fight to end the criminal
injustice system MIM engages in
reformist battles to improve the lives
of prisoners. Below are some of the
campaigns we are currently waging,
and ways people behind the bars and
on the outside can get involved. More
info can be found on our prison web
site: http://www.etext.org/Politics/
MIM/agitation/prisons
Stop Censorship in Prison: Prisons
frequently censor books, newspapers
and magazines coming from MIM's
books for prisoners program. We need
help from lawyers, paralegals and
jailhouse lawyers to fight this
censorship.
Books for Prisoners: This program
focuses on political education of
prisoners. Send donations of books and
money for our Books for Prisoners
program.
End the Three Strikes laws: This
campaign is actively fighting the
repressive California laws, but similar
laws exist in other states. Write to us
to request a petition to collect
signatures. Send articles and
information on three strike laws.
Shut Down the Control Units: Across
the country there are a growing number
of prison control units. These are
permanently designated prisons or cells
in prisons that lock prisoners up in
solitary or small group confinement for
22 or more hours a day with no
congregate dining, exercise or other
services, and virtually no programs for
prisoners. Prisoners are placed in
control units for extended periods of
time. These units cause both mental and
physical problems for prisoners.
Write to us to request a petition to
collect signatures. Get your
organization to sign the statement
demanding control units be shut down.
Send us information about where there
are control units in your state. Include
the names of the prisons as well as the
number of control unit beds/cells in
each prison if that is known. Send us
anti-control unit artwork.
MIM's Re-Lease on Life Program:
This program provides support for our
comrades who have been recently
released from the prison system, to help
them meet their basic needs and also
continue with their revolutionary
organizing on the outside. We need
funds, housing, and job resources. We
also need prisoner's input on the
following survey questions:
1. What are the biggest challenges
you face being released from prison?
2. How can these problems be
addressed?
3. What are the important elements
of a successful release program?
disinformation, as they did to get the law
passed in 1994. After the death of an innocent
little girl, the public was led to believe that
violent felons would receive 25 years to life;
while in reality, people were sent to prison,
and are still in prison, for petty crimes--e.g.,
a drug addict having drugs worth no more
than $2.00 in his pocket, shoplifters, petty
thieves, and those who failed to register as
drug offenders.
Even our new Governor in one televised
debate acknowledged that "the wool was
pulled over the eyes of California voters,"
concerning the three strikes law. But now he
has put on the mantle of all the other career
politicians, trying to justify an unjust law by
saying it prevents violent crime. While violent
crime rages in our cities, those of us who are
the peacekeepers in prison, model inmates,
wait to die slowly, for minor infractions.
People convicted of 1st degree murder are
eligible for parole in 17 years, and for 2nd
degree murder, parole is available after 12
years. But those sentenced for what we may
do in the future must serve 25 years before
we are eligible for parole; if parole is granted
most of the men and women will be 70 plus
years old. So in reality it would have been
more humane and much cheaper to send all
three-strikers to death row, because most of
us will die in prison, our children grow up
without mothers or fathers. As Jefferson
feared, another generation may be worse
without us who belong to the ranks of the
walking dead. It will be virtually impossible
for a 70-year-old woman/man on being
released after 25 years of prison to find a job.
The public will have to care for us with
welfare, SSI, etc., when our productive years
have been wasted. None of us have killed,
raped, robbed, high jacked, assaulted, or
maimed anyone. Yet, our lives are forfeit
simply because like Jefferson, the powers that
be are more worried about admitting a mistake
than acknowledging the unjust wrongs of this
law.
Revenge is frowned on in the American
system of justice. Mike Reynolds, a grieving
father whose daughter was killed in a
senseless act of violence, has done just that.
He has avenged the death of his daughter by
writing and vigorously promoting a law that
punishes minor crimes with a life sentence. It
would be the same if the family of victims in
Court proceedings were allowed to sit on the
jury during trial.
In interviews Mr. Reynolds makes
statements such as "keeping even non-violent
strikers in prison is saving lives." Or that the
Hillside Strangler, who killed 19 women, if the
law were weakened would only have been
convicted of one murder--which is blatantly
false, yet these are the kinds of scare tactics
that are being used to bolster the law. Mr.
Reynolds says that "a few may not deserve
life in prison, but the courts will weed them
out." But in truth, the law has in fact tied the
hands of the Courts.
In conclusion, we that are sentenced to die
implore the voters of California to spare our
lives, give us the chance to serve some useful
purpose in the life that's left to us. The district
attorneys, prison guards union, and the police
have a vested interest in keeping prisons full
to capacity -- which is nothing more than
job security! What does it say of a nation
that has turned the misery of its citizens into
a cottage industry? We that are sentenced to
die are also shocked and saddened by images
of murder and violence. We too believe that if
our crimes were that type, then the
punishment should fit the crime and there
would be no argument from us. But this law is
wrong and unjust: we strikers are in our
desperate hours, praying that the voters of
California will see the injustice of the three
strikes law.
-- A California prisoner, Pleasant Valley
State Prison, July 2004
3 strikes and Child
Protection Act of 2004
In the upcoming elections of November
there is a proposed change in the infamous
California 3 Strikes Law. The proposed new
law is designated as the 3 Strikes and Child
Protection Act of 2004 and will be voted on in
November. Once again, the politicians,
professional jailers, and prison-keepers are
attempting to mislead Californians, as well as
distorting the facts.
If this new law is approved by California
voters there will not be a release of violent or
serious offenders. The newly proposed law
states this clearly. What the passage of this
law will do is eventually release prisoners who
were sentenced under the existing draconian
3 Strikes Law. Again, this law will release non-
violent, non-serious offenders only. It also
increases the severity of punishment for
crimes against children. It may also be pointed
out that many prisoners who are in prison
under the current 3 Strikes Law have already
served years in prison.
The people of California are being asked to
right a serious wrong in November. Many
prisoners were sentenced for relatively minor
non-violent, non-serious crimes. The
resulting sentences were often as long, or, in
some cases longer than received by
individuals whom were actually convicted of
murder and other heinous crimes.
There are people in California who value
their pizzas, or CDs, to the point of agreeing
that the theft of such articles justifies
sentences of 25 years to life, or more. Others
feel that the theft of golf clubs would also
merit such sentences.
Courts, state and federal, including the U.S.
Supreme Court, have ruled that the 3 Strike
Law as applied in California, is not "Cruel and
unusual punishment!" It is possible that these
courts would not consider boiling a prisoner
in old as "cruel and unusual punishment."
These views can not be a true representation
or reflection of most Californians idea of
justice. The California 3 Strikes Law violates
every principle of the punishment fitting the
crime, politicians and lawyer's sophistry not
withstanding.
Finally, we can address the myth that the
extremely harsh 3 Strike Law of California has
reduced the crime rate. Statistical data is
available that shows that counties that have
employed the 3 Strike Law less than Los
Angeles or Sacramento counties, (which have
employed the law more than other counties)
have actually had less crime, rather than the
opposite, as politicians and prisoner-keepers
would have the public believe.
It is beyond the scope of this writing to
produce lengthy statistical data - it is out there
and available if one cares to look for it. To
bring this myth to a close, it can be asked,
how is it that other states with no 3 strike law
have actually had their crimes rates reduced
more than California or other states with some
form of this law.
It is the hope of many that the people of
California will not be duped by posturing
politicians, professional jailers and their
minions into no approving this act of justice
on the November ballot.
-- a California prisoner, June 2004
MIM adds: We have received many more
articles from our comrades behind bars urging
people to vote to modify the California Three
Strikes Law in November. MIM believes the
proposed new law does not go far enough,
and it contains some significant errors,
including keeping the Three Strikes law in
any form, and specifically leaving "serious
felonies" (non-violent) under the Three
Strikes law (see MN304, July 2004). But any
decrease in imprisonment would be progress.
We just need to be careful not to advocate in
favor of this ballot proposition as if everyone
not covered by it deserves the criminal
injustice they receive. Decreasing the
application of the Three Strikes Law will be
progress, but it will not stop the ongoing
injustice of the system.
MIM Notes 306 · Sept. 1-14, 2004 · Page 12
Notas Rojas
sept 1-14 2004, Nº 306 Fragmento del Periodico Oficial del Movimiento Internacionalista Maoista
Gratis
Escrito por mim3@mim.org y
mousnonya
Traducido por Células de Estudio
para la Liberación de Aztlán y América
Latina
El 24 de mayo, Bush salió en la tele
con fin de preparar al público para las
semanas y los meses que tocan en Irak.
"Nuestros comandantes han estimado que
menos de 115,000 tropas resultarían
suficientes en este momento del
conflicto"- dijo Bush. "Dado el reciente
crecimiento de la violencia,
mantendremos el actual nivel de tropas-
138,000- por el tiempo que sea
necesario".
"Si los comandantes necesitan más
tropas"- dijo Bush,- "las mandaré". (1)
El mismo día el senador demócrata Joe
Lieberman se puso del lado del presidente
diciendo en el CNN que la guerra en Irak
era "una prueba generacional". En vez
de señalar que esta guerra ha fomentado
el odio hacia el imperialismo
estadounidense, Lieberman declaró que
habría más ataques en el suelo
estadounidense si las tropas no se quedan
en Irak.
Mientras tanto, los senadores Hillary
Clinton (D-NY) y Lindsey Grahan (R-
SC) hicieron un llamado abogando por
unas "fuerzas militares más amplias".
Hillary Clinton expresó dudas en cuanto
al financiamiento de las mismas pero dijo
que no había otra opción. (2) Es posible
que Grahan vea la guerra como una
oportunidad de trabajo para los blancos
jóvenes rurales de su estado, ya que
Carolina del Sur ha perdido muchos
puestos de trabajo, pero se niega a
implementar cambios.
Los múltiples escándalos alrededor del
tema de torturas de los prisioneros en Irak
y Afganistán significan que otros
imperialistas como la ONU están en una
mejor posición para negociar. En este
momento los gobernantes
estadounidenses están tratando de
aparentar flexibles ante el público.
Nosotros pensamos que esta apariencia
se dirige más que nada hacia la opinión
pública estadounidense, y no tanto hacia
otros líderes estatales.
La diplomática de Hillary Clinton,
Madeleine Albright, dijo que apreciaba el
reconocimiento del valor de la ONU por
parte de Bush el 24 de mayo. El hecho
de que Bush está dispuesto a fomentar
las ilusiones de la población electoral
demócrata indica que existe una unidad
bipartidista.
El MIM anticipa la introducción de un
servicio militar obligatorio después de las
elecciones a menos que los iraquíes u
otros luchadores del Medio Oriente
obtengan una enorme victoria militar o a
menos que haya una desesperada lucha
radical en contra del servicio militar
obligatorio durante los meses que vienen.
Por el momento paree que la posibilidad
de sacar a EE. UU. de Irak es mejor que
nunca: 1) Bush está "recibiendo palizas"
a nivel internacional y hasta cierto punto
dentro de EE.UU.; 2) Bush y Blair
aparecieron ante la ONU buscando una
bendición para la ocupación. Hay que
enfatizar que si bien es cierto que EE.
UU. están recibiendo palizas militares y
latigazos verbales por parte de la opinión
pública internacional, y que pronto Bush
se enfrentará a las elecciones, es posible
que dicha búsqueda del apoyo de la ONU
tenga como su meta una consolidación
de la opinión pública estadounidense con
respecto al tema del servicio militar
obligatorio. A los imperialistas les gusta
decir que ellos "hicieron un intento" con
la ONU y fallaron, de modo que necesitan
implementar un servicio militar obligatorio.
(Desde nuestro punto de vista, no importa
si el Tío Sam decide arruinar el país
mediante gastos de déficit para expandir
las fuerzas militares o implementar el
servicio militar obligatorio. De cualquier
manera el imperialismo estadounidense
está condenado a ser parte del basurero
de la historia. Cuanto más luchan los
iraquíes y los afganos, menos eficaces
serán los mercenarios que llevan a cabo
reclutamientos.)
Los imperialistas jugarán las cartas de
la ONU. Otra carta podría ser la Liga
Árabe, una asociación de lacayos
gubernamentales árabes. El 23 de mayo,
los lacayos árabes sugirieron la idea de
mandar tropas a Irak como parte de la
fuerza internacional respaldada por la
ONU. (3) Un milagro diplomático llevaría
tropas árabes a Irak, y Bush podría lanzar
un grito de victoria para las elecciones
de noviembre.
Nosotros pensamos que es muy
probable que todos estos esquemas se
implementen con el fin de demostrar al
público estadounidense que Bush "hizo
el intento", y de darles a los senadores
Clinton y Lieberman las excusas que
necesitan para respaldar diseños más
agresivos. Es posible que Inglaterra sea
uno de los pocos países que se nieguen a
contribuir muchas tropas a los
imperialistas estadounidenses. Un 66%
del público electoral inglés se opone a que
se manden ni siquiera 3000 tropas más a
Irak. (4) Los imperialistas
estadounidenses carecen de personal
militar hasta tal grado que no son capaces
de continuar sus operaciones ofensivas
contra Irán, Siria o Corea del Norte.
Cuatro hechos sobre los movimientos de
tropas enemigas y la "estructura de sus
fuerzas" demuestran porqué la capacidad
militar de los imperialistas ha llegado al
extremo, dada la ausencia de un
reclutamiento militar obligatorio.
En primer lugar, las tres divisiones
(alrededor de 50,000 soldados)
recientemente retirados de Irak están
clasificadas como "no preparadas para
luchar". (5) Hasta que no se reemplace
o se repare su armamento, en lo cual se
tardarán unos cuantos meses, estas tropas
no estarán disponibles para su uso en el
extranjero. Estas divisiones han sido
reemplazadas por reservistas y guardias
nacionales. Con menos entrenamiento y
un armamento inferior estos soldados
serán menos eficaces.
En segundo lugar, el enemigo ha tomado
la decisión de retirar sus tropas del Corea
del Sur para mandarlas a Irak, y no es
para que los soldados del frente coreano
obtengan una "auténtica" experiencia de
combate. (6) La desesperación del
enemigo es suficiente para que éste
arriesgue un frente (Corea) por otro
(Irak).
En tercer lugar, EE. UU. han empezado
a buscar miembros de la Reserva Individual,
en otras palabras, soldados que durante los
últimos ocho años han estado en servicio
activo o pasivo. Están sujetos a la
posibilidad de una movilización a base de
aviso, aunque no estén pasando por un
entrenamiento junto con la guardia activa
o unidades de la reserva pasiva. (7) Si bien
los funcionarios frecuentemente se han
negado a dar de baja a personal militar en
servicio activo de acuerdo con el programa
"paremos las pérdidas", una activación de
la Reserva Individual es el último paso que
el gobierno puede dar para incrementar el
número de tropas, si se evita la
introducción del servicio militar obligatorio.
En cuarto lugar, EE. UU. también están
planeando mandar a Irak sus unidades de
entrenamiento de la fuerza de oposición
("OpFor"). (8) OpFor son los mejores
soldados de las fuerzas militares. Su trabajo
consiste en entrenar nuevas unidades de
acuerdo con los estándares más altos. La
presencia de estas unidades en Irak
significa que los reclutas recién entrenados
no tendrán ni idea sobre cómo pelear, de
modo que logros a largo plazo (algunos de
los mejores soldados de las fuerzas armadas
en Irak) resultan en pérdidas a largo plazo
(reclutas no entrenados serán aplastados
como moscas el año que viene, y sus
compañeros fastidiados o indispuestos a
luchar terminarán matando a oficiales).
Estos cuatro hechos indican que EE. UU.
no tienen el personal adecuado para llevar
a cabo sus planes, lo cual implica la
introducción de un servicio militar
obligatorio después de las elecciones,
independientemente de que facción
imperialista obtenga el poder estatal. El
servicio militar obligatorio no es más que
otra forma de opresión de los jóvenes, aún
en países imperialistas. Los imperialistas
estadounidenses se han dado cuenta de que
no obtendrán apoyo material de los
imperialistas alemanes y franceses, y ni
siquiera de la ONU. Los socios de un crimen
con derechos iguales se respetan a sí
mismos. Así que EE. UU. implementarán
un reclutamiento obligatorio: los problemas
presupuestarios apuntan a la misma
posibilidad.
El capitalismo promociona una actitud
de "vivir en el momento". Este hecho
envenena el razonamiento capitalista en
cuanto a la guerra. Esta es una de las
múltiples razones por la cual el MIM tiene
confianza estratégica en el proletariado
mundial. Los imperialistas siguen
cometiendo errores en esta guerra (9)
debido a una sobreestimación de su poder
y no pueden admitir la verdad- el hecho de
que su imperio está construido sobre el
sudor y la sangre de la mano de obra
tercermundista robada por los imperialistas.
Sin considerar el insano tratamiento de
los prisioneros y los abusos de los civiles
documentados en previos artículos de MIM
Notes, está claro que nuestros enemigos
están extendidos más allá de su capacidad
y están cometiendo errores. Si se suman
sus cálculos erróneos de fuerzas militares
y sus atrocidades contra el pueblo de Irak,
se obtendrá un resultado claro: los
imperialistas perderán la guerra en Irak.
Cuanto antes sea la derrota, mejor para
todos nosotros.
Estos hechos confirman la predicción del
MIM de que los países imperialistas
desesperadamente necesitados de recursos
tercermundistas, terminarán
expandiéndose más allá de su capacidad e
involucrándose en difíciles guerras por
recursos tercermundistas. El enemigo está
cometiendo graves errores diarios. Pero
nuestra victoria no será rápida:
desafortunadamente, los imperialistas
matarán a muchos proletarios antes de que
sus errores estratégicos se manifiesten en
sus propios países. Tenemos que minimizar
nuestras pérdidas hasta el máximo grado
posible mediante la organización de una
resistencia a la guerra. No tarden en
oponerse al imperialismo: la vida que Uds.
salven puede ser la suya.
Fuentes consultadas:
1. http://www.cnn.com/2004/
ALLPOLITICS/05/24/bush.iraq/index.html
2. http://www.cnn.com/2004/
ALLPOLITICS/05/23/senate.military/
index.html
3. http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/world/
story/0,4386,252691,00.html
4. http://politics.guardian.co.uk/iraq/
story/0,12956,1224003,00.html 45%
5. 15 de mayo, 2004, por Esther Schrader
http://www.latimes.com/news/
nationworld/iraq/compl ete/la-
naready15may15,0,7845126.story?coll=lairaq-
complete
6. 19 de mayo, 2004 por JOSEPH
L.GALLOWAY Detroit Free Press http://
w w w . f r e e p . c o m / n e w s / n w /
troops19_20040519.htm
7. http://www.sltrib.com/2004/May/
05132004/utah/166102.asp
8. 24 de mayo, 2004 http://
www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/
Artic les/000/000/004/
100ctzvm.asp
9. Por Jim Lobe, Asia Times, 21 de mayo,
2004 http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/
FE21Ak02.html
Bush reitera lo mismo: es posible un aumento de tropas en Irak