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.
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THE MAOIST INTERNATIONALIST MOVEMENT
MIM Notes No. 45 October 1, 1990
MIM Notes speaks to and from the viewpoint of the
world's oppressed majority, and against the
imperialist-patriarchy. Pick it up and wield it in
the service of the people. support it, struggle
with it and write for it.
IN THIS ISSUE:
1. A REVOLUTIONARY ANALYSIS
2. ANTIGAY VIOLENCE SWEEPS NATION
3. BUILDING A NEW POWER BLOCK: U.S. CASHES IN ON GULF WAR
4. LETTERS
5. MOHAWKS UNDER SEIGE AFTER INVASION
6. SOUTH AFRICA: MURDER ON THE PEACEFUL ROAD
7. BYE-BYE BRAZIL: AUSTERITY MEASURES HURT POOR
8. EGYPT MISTAKEN, PLO MISCOUNTED
9. QUISLINGS BATTLE IN LIBERIA
10. SINGAPORE: FASCISM FOREVER?
11. JAZZ, GENDER AND JEWS: SPIKE LEE MOVES MONOGAMY
12. BASHING MAO'S GHOST--AN EXPOSE OF CAPITALIST CHINA
13. MONGOLIA ADOPTS LIBERAL CAPITALISM
14. IRAQ: U.S.-SOVIET COLLUSION
15. ALBANIA AND SOVIET UNION NORMALIZE RELATIONS
16. SOUTHEAST ASIAN SUCKER CARTEL ABOUT TO GO BELLY-UP
17. MOVIE REVIEWS
18. BOOK REVIEWS
19. KLAN MARCHES IN D.C.
20. UNDER LOCK & KEY: NEWS FROM PRISONS AND PRISONERS.
The Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM) is a
revolutionary communist party that upholds
Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, comprising 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
Spanish-speaking Maoist internationalist parties
of Aztlan, Puerto Rico and other territories of
the U.S. Empire. MIM Notes is the newspaper of
MIM. Notas Rojas is the newspaper of the Spanish-
speaking parties or emerging parties of MIM.
MIM is an internationalist organization that works
from the vantage point of the Third World
proletariat; thus, its members are not Amerikans,
but world citizens.
MIM struggles to end the oppression of all groups
over other groups: classes, genders, nations. MIM
knows this is only possible 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
human history. (3) MIM believes the North American
white-working-class is primarily a non-
revolutionary worker-elite at this time; thus, it
is not the principal vehicle to advance Maoism in
this country.
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
* * *
A REVOLUTIONARY ANALYSIS
by MC12
In 1926, Mao Zedong asked: "Who are our enemies? Who are our
friends?.... To distinguish real friends from real enemies, we
must make a general analysis of the economic status of the various
classes in Chinese society and of their respective attitudes
toward the revolution."(1)
To avoid leading anyone down a dead-end road, communists always
need to answer these questions.
MIM holds that, at the present, the majority of white workers in
this country--skilled workers, trade unionists, paper-pushers,
etc.--do not represent a revolutionary class. They do not create
surplus value as much as reapportion the surplus which results
from superexploitation of the Third World and oppressed internal
nations. They are not prepared to abandon bourgeois aspirations
and mainly high-paying jobs to drop everything for the good of the
international proletariat.
This is not the result of a lack of correct leadership, or from a
simple failure to develop class consciousness. For the ideology
which leads white workers to seek more VCRs instead of less
capitalists has a material basis which is itself a barrier.
Some people accuse MIM of being "anti-Marxist" for "ignoring the
working class." But is this a new idea in Marxism?
In 1858 (132 years ago), Engels wrote to Marx: "The English
proletariat is actually becoming more and more bourgeois, so that
the most bourgeois of all nations is apparently aiming ultimately
at the possession of a bourgeois aristocracy and a bourgeois
proletariat alongside the bourgeoisie. For a nation which exploits
the whole world this of course to a certain extent
justifiable."(Emphasis added)(2)
In his analysis of imperialism, Lenin further analyzed the role of
this "labor aristocracy." And he wrote: "In the civil war between
the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, they [the labor aristocracy]
inevitably, and in no small numbers, take the side of the
bourgeoisie..."(emphasis added).(2, p. 175)
MIM's class analysis relies heavily on the piercing historical
work of J. Sakai in Settlers: the Mythology of the White
Proletariat, (Morningstar Press, 1983).
The international proletariat has nothing to lose but its chains,
and is therefore fully prepared--with the correct leadership--to
lead proletarian revolution and end class oppression altogether in
the long run.
Notes:
1. Mao, "Analysis of the Classes in Chinese Society," in Selected
Readings from the Works of Mao Tsetung, Peking: Foreign Language
Press, 1971
2. Engels quoted in Lenin, Imperialism, the Highest Stage of
Capitalism, in Selected Works, Vol. 1, New York: International
Publishers, 1971. p. 247.
* * *
ANTIGAY VIOLENCE SWEEPS NATION
by MC11
Adrian, MI Sep-tember 22--The cops wore camouflage and carried
special video equipment able to record in the darkness of the
secluded woods in this small midwestern town. They dug trenches a
short distance away from the sycamore tree, they took cover in
them and they waited. It was the evening of June 12, the end of a
two and one-half month surveillance operation involving three
police departments and the Lenawee County sheriff's department. It
was not a drug seizure. It was not an organized crime bust. The
goal of the operation, of all of the elaborate preparations, of
all the time and money spent on the stakeout, was to arrest some
gay men for having sex. The operation was successful.
Close to 300 demonstrators marched here today to protest the
arrests of the 17 gay men arrested and charged that night with
gross indecency between males. Though the majority of the
defendants are still awaiting trial, one of them was sentenced to
40-60 months in prison by a judge who openly condemns
homosexuality. Organized by the Adrian 17 Defense Committee and
endorsed by 13 local and national organizations, the
demonstration's demands included dropping all charges against the
17 men and repealing the state's sodomy and gross indecency laws.
Members of the Adrian Christian Complex shouting "Get out of our
town. We don't want your kind here!" met the demonstrators at the
courthouse. The trials of several of the defendants are expected
to proceed over the next month.
The Adrian arrests are but one example of typical police behavior
toward gay men and lesbians. A similar incident took place in San
Francisco in June, when police arrested 70 gays during a raid of a
well-known gay meeting place.(1) On July 25, ten gay abortion
rights activists were standing outside a police-precinct station
in Manhattan when a plastic shopping bag filled with water was
dropped on them. The NYC police department has said it is
investigating the incident.(1)
At an April anti-ROTC demonstration at the University of
Wisconsin, police wore rubber gloves as they arrested students who
were occupying a university building (the implication being that
people demonstrating against ROTC's discriminatory practices
against lesbians and gays must have AIDS). Two Wisconsin police
officers are currently being prosecuted for beating up a man while
they were off duty because they thought he was gay.(2)
The U.S. government has unleashed other weapons besides its police
force on gays and lesbians. In a July 24 memo not intended for
public disclosure the U.S. Navy announced a campaign to "root out"
lesbians from its ranks.(3) The memo warned the recipients that it
might be hard, since some lesbians were "top professionals" who
are "willing to put in long hours."
And in yet another forum of government repression, David H.
Souter, nominated by President Bush to the U.S. Supreme Court, may
very well become one of the most dangerous weapons against gay and
lesbian rights. Though Republicans and Democrats alike are trying
to pass Souter off as a "blank slate," a "loose cannon," Souter
has a record of upholding discrimination against gays and
lesbians. In May 1987 Souter voted to uphold the constitutionality
of a bill before the State Legislature prohibiting anyone who had
ever engaged in a homosexual act from adopting a child or serving
as a foster parent, on the basis that a gay parent would be a bad
role model.(4)
Agents of the state are not the only group openly persecuting gays
and lesbians. Violent crimes against gay men and lesbians are on
the rise nationwide.(5) In the first five months of 1989 bias
crime against lesbians and gays had risen 122 percent. At the end
of the year there were a total of 7,000 documented incidents of
violence and harassment against gays and lesbians in the United
States.(6)
All over the country, chapters of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash
Power (ACT-UP), Queer Nation, and other gay rights groups are
staging protests against this sort of violence, while trying to
challenge discriminatory laws and demand more government attention
to the AIDS crisis. On June 16, an anti-bias march in New York
City organized by Queer Nation drew over 1,000 demonstrators.(6)
Anti-ROTC demonstrations are on the rise, spurred by the
Department of Defense's recent refusal to change its policy of
discrimination against homosexuals. And lesbian and gay rights
activists continue to lobby in several cities--Minneapolis/St.
Paul and San Francisco recently--for cohabitation ordinances which
would allow gay and lesbian couples to be given the same rights as
married couples such as health insurance coverage.(2)
MIM supports the reforms gay activists are demanding, but is
skeptical of the apparent integrationist ideology behind some of
the struggles. Gays and lesbians are oppressed in large part
because capitalist society depends on the rigid definitions of
sex, gender and family to maintain its current structure.
Sexual freedom is not possible in the current sexist and
heterosexist Amerikan culture. Although gay and lesbian rights may
ultimately be able to be reformed into the system, getting
ordinances passed and sympathetic politicians elected takes much
time and work, and often fails. (Only eight cities have domestic
partner ordinances, and only 70 places in the U.S., including
cities, states and counties, have explicit gay rights measures).
Gay liberation, with the liberation of all oppressed people, is a
necessary goal of socialist revolution. Having experienced the
high degree of state repression and the lack of effectiveness of
reformist efforts, MIM encourages gays and lesbians to take up the
cause of the international proletariat with their own struggle.
Notes:
1. The Advocate 9/11/90.
2. Heartland 10/90.
3. New York Times 9/2/90.
4. New York Times 9/11/90.
5. New York Times 9/3/90.
6. The Village Voice 8/8/90
* * *
BUILDING A NEW POWER BLOCK: U.S. CASHES IN ON GULF WAR
by MC12
The United States will stop at nothing to control the crisis in
the Middle East which, by now, is almost entirely of its own
creation. The war is reshaping the economic and strategic make-up
of the region, giving the United States a chance to shore up the
regimes it wants in power, destroy those it can do without, and
open up a major outlet for economic expansion in the face of
economic recession. U.S. President George Bush will do this at the
potential cost of any number of Iraqi civilians and soldiers, the
entire country of Kuwait, and hundreds of thousands of U.S.
troops.
All power flows from the barrel of a gun. And the United States is
going for broke. Bush, in his televised speech on Sept. 11, put
it this way: "The world is still dangerous. Stability is not
secure. American interests are far-reaching. Interdependence has
increased. The consequences of regional instability are
global."(1)
To secure that "stability," protect those Amerikan "interests,"
enforce that "interdependence," and cement that "stability," Bush-
-with the backing of all congressional leaders and overwhelming
public opinion--went to war.
World War Three
The U.S. military machine has dropped more than 140,000 troops
into Saudi Arabia--the staging ground for the war against Iraq--
and peppered the region with a massive naval force.(19) At the
"request" of State Department hit-man James Baker--who's been
making the rounds among the international U.S. puppet-state
community--Amerikan allies have also chipped in, agreeing to cough
up a total of $20 billion to pay for the war, and activating their
own troops, air forces and navies.(3)
Imperialism has now gained new inroads into the other Gulf oil
nations as a result of the crisis, with U.S. war planes finding
new homes in Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Oman.(4)
All this is supposedly the result of Iraq's invasion of the tiny
corporate-state of Kuwait, with which Iraq had several long
standing disputes, including outstanding debts, territorial
conflict, and violations of trade agreements. (See MN44 for a more
on the causes of the invasion and war.)
As all-out war grows nearer, the U.S. Navy has fired on and
boarded ships that it accuses of breaking an international
blockade imposed on Iraq, and an air blockade is being implemented
as well.(19)
The international buildup
But the massive military buildup goes well beyond the deployment
of U.S. forces. The U.S. war machine is almost daily making new
deals to sell weapons abroad.
The biggest score was a historic deal with Saudi Arabia itself.
After first announcing $8 billion in weapons sales to Saudi
Arabia, the Pentagon has now said it will sell $20 billion in
weapons, technical support and training, over the next several
years--starting now. The package includes advanced tanks, planes,
helicopters, trucks and jeeps, missiles and missile launchers, and
the construction of bases and airports. Saudi Arabia will pay
cash.(5)
In the past, weapons sales to Arab countries have been hampered by
people whining about threats to Israel (as with the sale of AWACs
radar planes in 1981).
But not this time. There is token opposition in Congress, and
Israel is complaining, but negotiations are under way to sell them
more weapons too, on credit.(5) At least $1 billion more worth of
planes, missiles and tanks has already been promised.(6)
The military industrial complex is having an international
clearance sale, looking at the new war as the saviour of the
industry after the Cold War. A drooling Stanley Pace, Chairman of
General Dynamics--which makes the M-1 tank and many other weapons
systems--said, "[T]he Middle East crisis will dampen some of the
rhetoric with regard to severe defense cuts in the immediate
future."(7)
Hussein hangs on
Iraq has ignored demands to pull its troops from Kuwait, and has
taken steps to fortify its positions there.(20) Iraqi President
Saddam Hussein has tried to work a split between U.S. allies and
Third World and Arab nations by linking his withdrawal from Kuwait
with an Israeli withdrawal from its own Occupied Territories in
Palestine.
He also offered free oil to any Third World country that could
successfully run the blockade to get it out--an unlikely
proposition.(8)
A token attempt at mediation by the United Nations fell through
when Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar failed to convince
Iraq to leave Kuwait, and then gave up.(9)
Iraq has ordered all foreign embassies in Kuwait closed--declaring
Kuwait a province of Iraq. And some foreign diplomatic missions
have been raided, including one belonging to France, which used to
be one of Iraq's closest allies. France complained, expelled some
Iraqi diplomats, and committed more troops and money to the U.S.
effort to kill Hussein.(3) With a great flair for timing and a
sick sense of humor, the Iraqi ambassador to France said he didn't
know what all the hoopla was about. "There are no diplomatic
missions in a country that doesn't exist," he said.(5)
U.S./Kuwaiti rebels
A rebel resistance has "sprung up" in Kuwait, backed and funded by
the U.S. and Saudi Arabia. The guerillas are said to be "yearning
for a large scale attack by the United States." Some reports say
U.S. Army Special Forces teams are working in Kuwait.(1) The
resistance may be just what the U.S. military needs to justify an
all-out invasion of Iraq--if they bother with any justification at
all.
The resistance, through the coordination of a group of Kuwaiti-
Americans, has hired a Washington public relations firm to do its
publicity. They claim to have several hundred guerillas and
inflict 70 casualties a day on Iraqi soldiers through car bombings
and other guerilla tactics.(4) Some press reports say Green Berets
and the CIA are training and equipping the rebel force, which is
so far too small to be more than a thorn in the side of Iraq's
military force in Kuwait.(6)
The Soviets and public opinion
When Bush went on TV to whip up the masses for war, promising
bloodshed if Iraq doesn't leave Kuwait now. He quoted a U.S.-
Soviet joint statement saying, "No peaceful international order is
possible if larger states can devour their smaller neighbors."(1)
The statement, written at a summit meeting with Soviet President
Gorbachev, marked the new mood of collusion between the two
imperialist powers in their attempts to keep the Third World down.
(See story, page 7)
Those who oppose the invasion are a distinct minority in this
country, reflecting the class breakdown of its society. The New
York Times reports the group with the lowest approval rating for
the invasion is African Americans--of whom the Times says still
56% support the invasion.
The poll, as inaccurate as it may be depending on many factors,
does show the predictable breakdown: the more white, male,
"educated" and rich a group is, the more it supports the invasion.
Income was the biggest determining factor according to the poll,
as 88% of people with yearly incomes greater than $50,000 support
the war.(10)
Organized labor seems to be right behind the President as well.
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters ran a national ad
campaign on labor day--with the slogan: "Dedicate a labor day of
support for Americans in the Persian Gulf."(11)
By contrast, a poll published in the Arab country of Tunisia
showed 90% support for Iraq over the United States.(12) And Egypt
is facing internal discontent as a result of its government's role
in the war on an Arab neighbor. To cover up those conflicts,
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has barred some leaders from
leaving the country. "The average man on the street thinks that
the U.S. is here to destroy Iraq for Israel's benefit," said one
Egyptian opposition leader. Dissent is also rising in Jordan.(2)
Arab League collapse
First, the Secretary General of the Arab League, a Tunisian,
resigned. Then the League's U.N. observer quit, as the same 12
nations who voted to approve the U.S. invasion of Saudi Arabia
voted to move Arab League headquarters from Tunisia to Egypt.(1)
The pro-U.S. faction has broadened to include former enemies such
as Syria. The opposing nations did not even send their
representatives to the meeting on September 10, including:
Tunisia, Algeria, Mauritania, Jordan, the PLO, the Sudan, Libya
and Yemen--and Iraq.(13)
So the United States has already succeeded in the destruction of
the lone forum for a united Arab voice--as weak as it had already
been--and is daily offering major cash rewards to any government
willing to sell out its people to the interests of imperialism.
The "Arab solution"
And the rewards to Arab traitors are great. Bush has announced a
plan to forgive Egypt's $7 billion military debt.(14) This fits in
with the U.S. strategy of getting its allies to contribute to the
war in the form of economic "aid" to nearby allies who are hurting
from the ban on Iraqi trade.
So when West Germany said it would offer planes and ships to the
effort, after being criticized for not chipping in enough, it
included aid to Egypt, Turkey, Jordan and Syria--which is helping
them all "decide" to contribute.(5) Total German aid is said to be
$2 billion.(3)
Also after being criticized, Japan said it would kick in a total
of $4 billion--half for the military effort, half to Jordan,
Turkey and Egypt.(5)
After a meeting between Syrian President Hafez al-Assad and
Secretary of State Baker, Syria agreed to send more money and
troops. They have already sent 4,000 troops to Saudi Arabia.(5)
Baker uses the appearance of a joint effort to influence public
opinion, saying: "[T]his is indeed a largely Arab solution we are
trying to implement."(5) But at the same time the deluge of
economic investment by U.S. allies is being used to shore up a
regional strategic alliance and economic power bloc for years to
come--with the United States at its head. With less economic clout
in a shifting international power structure, the United States is
playing the military trump card--and so far it's working.
Recession looms
The United States and the world capitalist system are looking down
the barrel of an international recession which was on its way long
before the invasion of Kuwait. And so Bush is walking a fine line
between military over-extension and economic power-grabbing.
As nice as paper money is, military control of resources is what
counts in a world war, and everyone knows it.
Most mainstream economists are almost ready to admit that a
recession is already here. The official unemployment figures put
civilian unemployment for August at the highest in two years--
5.6%, up from 5.5% in July.(10)
Retail sales fell 0.6% in August--and will fall more--and energy
costs increased almost 10% overall.(5) Wholesale prices increased
1.3% in August. Also in August prices rose: 16.9% for gasoline,
62.5% for crude petroleum, and 38.8% for fuel oil.(15)
Economic decline in the capitalist core is also playing into an
extremely jittery international oil market. For example, the price
of oil jumped 6% in 10 minutes on September 10.(16) Oil prices are
up almost 50% on the world market since the day before the
invasion of Kuwait.(5)
Meanwhile, in the short term, higher prices and reduced supply are
driving up oil profits for exporting countries, especially Saudi
Arabia, which was expected to rake in an extra $2.5 billion in
September alone--for a total increase over expected income of
$3.78 billion--nearly doubling the expected rate of income for
August and September. So the Saudis are throwing a little money
around: spending at least $20 billion in 1990-91 on weapons, as
well as funding the foreign military operations and giving
economic aid to other countries hurt by the crisis.(5)
The Soviet Union is the number one producer of oil, the United
States is second, but Saudi Arabia exports the most.(12)
Kuwait--the company--isn't doing so badly. The National Bank of
Kuwait is back in the business of generating paper profits from
paper assets at a new office in London.(1) Kuwait's monarchy-in-
exile is coughing up at least $2.5 billion to help with U.S.
military expenses for this year, and $2.5 billion to those hurt by
the embargo.(10) The vast majority of the Kuwaiti labor force,
meanwhile--migrant workers from other countries--are stranded,
starving, or refugees.
The foreign refugees attempting to leave Iraq and Kuwait may be
the hardest hit by the trade embargo so far. Hundreds of thousands
of Asians are trying to get out of Iraq before they starve or are
killed in a war--especially from Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Sri
Lanka, Thailand and the Philippines.(17) But it's only a matter of
time before hunger and shortages are more serious threats for all
poor Iraqis.
The U.N. Security Council (with opposition from Yemen and Cuba)
said food aid to Iraq could only go in with its permission, and
then only supervised by international relief agencies, which Iraq
says it won't allow. So far the worst food shortages are said to
be in Kuwait, where the Iraqi troops have seized supplies,
depriving many of food--especially Asian migrant workers. This may
be to help force Third World countries to oppose the boycott.
India, Sri Lanka and the Philippines have reportedly been told
they have to supply their own people with food.(2)
On Sept. 1, Iraq announced rationing for basic food supplies, and
then reduced rations even more on September 14, but the U.S.
rulers--always worried about the health of the Third World poor--
say Iraq still has big stockpiles of food.(5)
Iran is reportedly exchanging food and medical supplies for oil,
though not nearly enough to replace the amount Iraq used to
sell.(2) Also, the State Department says Cuba and Rumania are
conspiring to break the blockade.(18)
Iraq has made peace with Iran--officially ending the 10-year Iran-
Iraq war--and Iran has publicly denounced the U.S. invasion. Peace
with Iran frees up hundreds of thousands of Iraqi troops for
fighting elsewhere.
World wars and other fronts
The war is spreading U.S. military and economic forces thin,
raising the possibility of opening up other fronts. Organized
resistance to the war has been incredibly weak at home, and so far
there is little reported in the way of other Third World movements
taking advantage of the situation. But both of these types of
movements will grow as the war intensifies.
World War One made possible the Russian revolution. World War Two
saw the success of the Chinese Revolution. World War Three is
here--so what will we give the imperialist bourgeoisie this time?
Notes:
1. NYT 9/12/90.
2. NYT 9/14/90.
3. AP and Reuter in Detroit News, 9/19/90.
4. NYT 9/4/90.
5. NYT 9/15/90.
6. NYT 9/1/90.
7. NYT 9/10/90.
8. Detroit Free Press 9/11/90.
9. AP in Ann Arbor News 9/3/90.
10. NYT 9/8/90.
11. NYT 9/3/90.
12. NYT 9/6/90.
13. NYT 9/11/90.
14. NYT 9/5/90.
15. Detroit Free Press, 9/15/90.
16. NYT 9/11/90.
17. NYT 9/13/90.
18. AP in Ann Arbor News 9/12/90.
19. NYT 9/18/90, p. A8.
20. NYT 9/19/90, P. A1.
* * *
LETTERS
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE TOO BUSY FOR MAOISM?
Dear MIM:
Many greetings from the gulag.
At this time, I'm not interested in joining MIM as I would not be
able to fully participate in party activities.
My own political efforts now are in supporting the international
anti-imperialist prisoner movements and organizing the struggle
here locally. I've added you to the mailing list of [a prisoner
publication] which POW X and I edit and publish.
We are both Marxist-Leninists and push this line taking into
account much of our readers are still politically uneducated, but
this will come with struggle.
The pigs are trying to involuntarily move me to another state. I
don't know how successful I'll be in halting this repression. In
any case, our propaganda should continue.
I translate and distribute communiques from various parts of the
resistance, mainly GRAPO, ETA etc. Would you be interested in
receiving these in the future?
--In struggle, a prisoner
August 1990
Dear MIM:
Even though I fully uphold MIM positions on nearly everything, I
am currently engaged in a tense battle against the fascist courts
and I cannot at this time involve myself too deeply in the
people's struggle other than superficially through my case.
I greatly have appreciated receiving your paper MIM Notes as it is
a light that cuts through the extreme propaganda of the ruling
class. It has inspired me to "just say no" to this police state
and fight my case with passion as it involves the neglect and
contempt this system has for people in my situation.
I enjoy your reviews of other publications and I feel that MIM
Theory is a vital part of your paper. Thank you very much. Keep up
the struggle.
--East coast prisoner
August 1990
MC¯ replies: A frequent response MIM hears when it asks people who
are doing work that generally supports the party line to join is,
"I am too busy." This may be because our allies are engaged in
other practices, legal cases, in prison, have jobs which take long
hours or many children. And MIM Cadres (MCs) sympathize, as we
suffer from all these forces as well.
In the long run of history, however, MIM argues that Maoism and a
political party operating under democratic centralism are the only
way forward on all of the various issues. The point here is that
those who agree with MIM and oppose Soviet social imperialism,
uphold the Great Proletarian Chinese Cultural Revolution and are
willing to abide by democratic centralism on all other issues
should join the party. "Too busy" is just not an excuse.
Prisoners, for example, while being forced to attend to their own
concrete legal needs as a way of securing some of their freedoms,
can still work within MIM. They can study, hold discussions, write
for the paper, help network and distribute literature and
generally uphold the Maoist line to whatever degree their
conditions allow.
Working people can do even more as they have relatively more
freedom. Being "too busy" for Maoism, but still doing other
political work amounts to supporting other historically less
successful political trends. So while work against, say, U.S.
involvement in Nicaragua is valuable, it is not the most effective
way to create public opinion and seize power for communism.
Rather, it builds an isolated point in the Third World without
addressing all political issues the way a party can.
Those who work on university concerns and community projects are
no doubt well-intentioned, but unless such projects are directed
with the aim of building the party and organizing for revolution,
they generally do not build a movement to smash the state in the
name of the Third World proletariat.
Our aim here is not to present all the evidence why Maoism is the
single most successful ideology in the advance of communism, but
to inform those who already understand this that they should join
MIM, no excuses.
PRISONER, SICK OF UNITED LEFT, ASKS FOR PERU PACK
Dear MIM:
Greetings from the American gulag! A friend of mine on the East
Coast sent me a copy of your magazine. It's good to see that the
Maoist tendency still lives in this country.
About myself: I'm a 35-year-old white male academic (Latin
Americanist) doing time in X for marijuana crime. What a waste!
My girlfriend is a Peruvian resident alien, so I have some
familiarity with the Peruvian Communist Party (PCP), aka Sendero
Luminoso. It was very good to be able to read your analysis of the
Peruvian situation, and especially the interview with Comrade
Gonzalo in #43 (although it seemed the translation was somewhat
garbled.)
While I do not necessarily agree with all your positions (what I
know of them), I applaud your efforts to keep the struggle alive
and to learn from real leaders and not just mere theorists. Keep
up the good work.
I would like to be added to your subscription list. I am also
keenly interested in the PCP and ask that you send me the MIM Peru
Study Pack free of charge -- if you can afford it.
As I'm sure you are well aware, it is exceedingly difficult to
procure good information on the PCP in this country, and
especially in my situation.
My girlfriend's mother is a United Left sympathizer, so I get more
than my share of that perspective, and of course, the trash that
passes for analysis in the mainstream and left media, but I am
very eager to read Comrade Gonzalo's own words.
--Midwest prisoner
August 1990
HUNGRY FOR KNOWLEDGE
Dear MIM:
Peace! (Revolutionary young greetings)
I'm committed to overthrow the government!! I'm very young, but
I'm determine to fight, die if need be to bring justice, freedom,
and independence to our people who's being oppressed and
assassinated in all four corners of the Earth. My reason for
writing is to request some reading material on the Black Panthers
and/or Mao Zedong.
How can I go about contributing to your newspaper? Do you accept
revolutionary poems? Or any kind of Black poems that deal with
Black people and their conditions, even the assassination of us
Black people?
Personally, I'd like to become a part of any active group that
deals with action against the common enemy. So if you can be any
help to me please feed me knowledge for I am hungry!!!
--POW
August 1990
* * *
MOHAWKS UNDER SEIGE AFTER INVASION
by MC44
As MIM Notes goes to press, the imperialist Canadian war against
the people of the Mohawk Nation continues in full force. More than
400 Canadian troops invaded the Kanesatake territory at Oka,
Quebec on September 1. Twenty Mohawk Warrior men and about 30
women and children are currently under siege in one building in
Kanesatake territory.(1) The telephone lines to this building were
severed on September 13 by the Canadian armed forces.(2)
During the summer, the Mohawks, who are defending their land
against the City of Oka's plan to turn parts of it into a golf
course, launched a two point defense. First, they erected
barricades to protect Kanesatake, especially a sacred burial
ground which Oka had slated to become the back nine. On July 11,
500 members of the Quebec Provincial Police (QPP) attacked the
barricades and were repelled; one police officer was killed by his
cohorts' fire. Second, another group of Mohawks, from the nearby
Kahnewake territory, blockaded the Mercier Bridge in Montreal to
support the besieged Indians in Kanesatake. Mercier Bridge is a
central traffic artery for Montreal and the blockade added an hour
or more to many commutes.
In order to fabricate its position as defensive, the government of
Canada has attempted to convince the public that they purchased
the disputed land and have offered to turn it over to the Mohawks.
There are no land acquisition documents to substantiate this
lie.(2)
During the first week of September, Mohawk Indians from the
Kahnewake territory, who had held the seven week solidarity
blockade of Mercier bridge, withdrew and "agreed" to abandon their
positions.(3)
Mohawk Warriors had been locked in a standoff outside the
Kanesatake territory since the July 11 gun battle. The bridge
blockade had been in effect almost as long. The army, acting under
the orders of the Quebec Provincial authorities, finally ended the
standoff by invading Kanesatake territory ostensibly in response
to "factional fighting" behind the barricade. Two Mohawk men,
identified as Chief Francis Jacob and his son Corey, were
supposedly wounded in this infighting.(4)
American Indian supporters of the Mohawk Nation crossed the
Detroit-Windsor Ambassador Bridge on September 14 on their way to
deliver food and clothing to the still-besieged Mohawks. The
convoy was organized by a group called North American Indian
Rights.(1)
Indian responses
This latest incident in a long history of Indian oppression has
sparked gestures of solidarity from Indians across North America.
They have mainly taken the form of road and railway blockades, but
there have also been attempts to sabotage the expansion of Hydro
Quebec's $62 billion dam.
One blockade of a British Columbia Rail line lasted only five days
before the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) received a court
injunction to break it up and arrest the blockaders. Meanwhile, it
cost the company between $500,000 and $750,000 (Canadian dollars)
per day in lost revenues.(5)
Canadian citizens hostile to the Mohawk struggle have been
demonstrating against the Mercier Bridge blockade ever since it
was erected. The hateful violence of those demonstrations
escalated to alarming degrees, with the crowd once stopping an
outgoing ambulance carrying a Mohawk woman who had suffered
complications in childbirth. The ambulance was detained for 15
minutes while it was searched by two of the protesters for
weapons.(5)
On September 4, the Quebec Provincial Police (QPP) called a press
conference to display the weapons they claim to have confiscated
from the Kahnewake reserve. A powerful arsenal, including assault
rifles with firing ranges of 1,500 feet, were supposedly seized
from the Mohawk Longhouse on the reserve. The authorities have no
photographs or witnesses to corroborate their claims.
Mohawks deny ever having had these weapons.
The phony raid was clearly an act of revenge on the part of the
QPP. "Mohawks are aware of a vendetta the [QPP] have for them as
the Mohawks now have kept this Provincial Police Force at bay for
56 days," stated a press release from the Mohawk Nation Office on
September 4.
Police had to break past the resistance of Mohawk women in order
to gain access to the Longhouse, which is in unauthorized
territory. Some women were hospitalized for their injuries.
In anticipation of the invasion promised by the Canadian
Government, elderly men, women and children attempted to leave the
Kahnewake reserve on August 28. They were met with the brutality
of an angry mob of "protesters" who have been inconvenienced by
the blockade of the Mercier Bridge. Not surprisingly, neither the
police or the military did anything to aid the Mohawks during the
attack.
"This illegal and immoral conduct on the part of the Canadian
government is intended to break the spirit of the Mohawks and
force them into compliance," said a Mohawk Nation press release.
At press time, the fate of Mohawks surrounded by Canadian troops
on the Kanesatake reserve is still up in the air. Daily vigils are
being held in Paul Suave Park in Oka in the hope of preventing the
imminent massacre.(2)
Notes:
1. AP in Ann Arbor News 9/14/90.
2. Mohawk Nation Press Release 9/13/90
3. NYT 9/5/90.
4. AP in Ann Arbor News 9/2/90.
5. Maclean's 9/3/90
* * *
SOUTH AFRICA: MURDER ON THE PEACEFUL ROAD
by MC12
The scene described by witnesses is horrific. With faces covered
to hide their race, white men drive 200 members of the Inkatha
movement into an area heavily populated by supporters of the
African National Congress (ANC) in the township of Sebokeng, and
there launch a raid on local residents.
Forty people are killed, and then the police show up, killing 11
more in the name of law and order.(1)
Then, a group of young Black men board a Black commuter train near
Johannesburg, and begin killing passengers. More than 100 are
injured, at least 26 die, and many people leap from the train in
panic.(5)
What is going on here?
South Africa is at war.
White death squads with as-yet unconfirmed connections to the
white government are organizing and executing mass violence in
South Africa. Their actions take advantage of the vacuum left by
the ANC's abandonment of armed struggle and reliance on
negotiations with the foot-dragging government. Perhaps this death
squad activity is an attempt to bring down the government, destroy
coordinated Black organizations, or both.
In one incident the ANC reported that military vehicles were used
to transport Inkatha members to their killing grounds.(5)
The ANC officially suspended its armed struggle against the
government on Aug. 6, but now leader Nelson Mandela says it may
have to be resumed, as he charges the white government with
complicity in the violence.
"If the government wants war, we will give it war," Mandela
said.(2)
The Zulu Inkatha movement, under the leadership of chief
collaborator Mangosuthu Buthelezei, was essentially created by the
white government to wage "black-on-black" war on the ANC. The
Zulu-led fighting has killed 4,000 people in the Natal province in
the last three years.(2) Usually passed off as "tribal warfare,"
the violence has also been a continuous excuse for the government
to intervene with violence on its own, impose a state of
emergency, and ensure chaos in the Black townships.
Police and army forces have openly sided with Inkatha in the
fighting, according to ANC supporters.
The ruling National Party--which created the apartheid system--has
been trying to dilute ongoing negotiations by bringing in other
parties, while trying to resolve supposed differences between more
and less extreme right wing factions of the government.
Buthelezei has been nagging to be let in to the negotiations,
while the Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC)--a more rural-based
liberation movement--has denounced them and refused to
participate.(3)
President F. W. de Klerk has promised that if white voters reject
a proposal for a new constitution, he will renegotiate and
resubmit it.(3) In other words, he will drag out the process until
a constitution can be agreed upon by white voters--about whether
Blacks can vote. This goes perfectly with his decision in August
to open up the National party to Black members: but Blacks still
can't vote even in party primaries, because of national laws.
The negotiated road to power is coming apart at the seams. ANC
supporters are demanding a military response.
One ANC supporter is reported to have said, "If the ANC doesn't
take a stand, they are going to lose support. They must stop the
negotiations. Talking doesn't help. They must support us with
arms." And the ANC military's chief of staff has said that, "Our
duty now is to mobilize the masses and reconsider our
strategies."(5)
"If the people continue to demand to be armed, we will find it
difficult to oppose that demand," Mandela said.(4) That may be the
best alternative for the ANC--whether the South Africa's pacifist
"supporters" like it or not. And if they don't do it, someone else
probably will.
Notes:
1. New York Times, 9/11/90 p.A5
2. Detroit Free Press, 9/11/90 p.A1
3. NYT, 9/6/90 p.A10
4. NYT, 9/12/90 p.A3
5. Detroit Free Press, 9/14/90 p.A1
* * *
BYE-BYE BRAZIL: AUSTERITY MEASURES HURT POOR
by MC89
When strapped for a buck, the U.S. government mugs someone,
usually a Third World nation. In fact, as the world's biggest
debtor, Amerika has made itself the biggest bully, having pounded
everyone into a stupor to rob them of money they don't have.
By all rights, Brazil, also a capitalist country, should be able
to find someone to extort money from in order to pay its
International Monetary Fund (IMF) debts. But the country is so
immobilized by imperialism--the crime of battery and theft
committed by Amerika--that it cannot lift a hand even to steal.
That's why capitalist economists who predict Brazil's "emergence"
to the top of the world order, joining Amerika, Japan, and Western
Europe, are wrong.
So, like someone selling blood to have enough to live on, the
Brazilian government attempts to extract capital from itself. In
order to rein in the 5,000% annual inflation, new President
Fernando Collor has announced possibly the most austere austerity
plan the world has ever seen. Even the capitalist class has been
hit, with Collor freezing some 90% of bank deposits. The working
class suffers a little more--hundreds of thousands have been laid
off in private companies, and one-fourth of Brazil's 1.6 million
civil servants will lose their jobs by the end of the year, Collor
has announced.(1) And if the rich lose money, and the middle class
lose jobs, the poorest see little change in their lives, except
that more of them lose them.
Following a pattern of public behavior which increasingly smacks
of fascism, Collor asked citizens on Sept. 10 to join "a grand
alliance" against inflation. He blames inflation (the government
has stopped keeping figures, but private estimates put the rate at
45% per month) on virtually all extra-governmental bodies which
effect the economy--unions, clubs, businesses.(2)
In rising tones, he spoke of what his plan had to offer: "Reform
of the state, privatization, deregulation, free wage bargaining, a
floating exchange rate... have created a new mentality. The war
against inflation is already a conquest."
Amnesty International reports that the inflation-war's foot
soldiers have mobilized. On the same day as Collor's speech, they
issued an emergency report accusing the government of abetting the
execution of small children by parents too poor to care for
them.(2)
Despite the still-runaway inflation, and a recession that deepens
with every lay-off, an IMF team visiting Brazil in June was
cheered by the progress they saw, issuing a brand-new $2 billion
loan the country badly needs, can never hope to repay, and will
have to kill to service.
Many mainstream economists also allege that Brazil has secretly
bought back a large part of its outstanding debt--taking out new
loans to pay off the old ones which were too big to ever be
paid.(3) Say a bank lends someone $100. Years later, as the
borrower struggles just to make interest payments, the banker
realizes it will never see that $100, so it sells the loan to
another bank at a discount of 50%. Now the lucky borrower only
owes $50, still too much to pay back, but the interest payments
might be more manageable.
That's a win-win deal for capitalists, and it's the mechanism
behind the U.S. government's "Brady plan," versions of which have
been hammered out for Mexico, Chile, Costa Rica, the Philippines,
and Venezuela; the fad is sweeping the southern hemisphere of the
globe. And by renegotiating secretly, Brazil may be showing how
the game will be played in the next decade--pretending to be as
strapped as ever.
If this practice becomes commonplace--and why shouldn't it?--
imperialist creditors may decide to go back to the old method of
extorting payments, or icing the debtor (example: Mexico in the
mid-1980s, buried six feet under by wrathful Amerikan
capitalists). For Brazil, the worst may well be yet to come.
Notes:
1. Left Business Observer 38, June 1990.
2. Financial Times 9/11/90.
3. Economist 9/8/90.
* * *
EGYPT MISTAKEN, PLO MISCOUNTED
by MC44
Thanks to a U.S. puppet country, Egypt, the Palestine Liberation
Organization (PLO) received some bad press following the Arab
League's vote to send a Pan-Arab force to Saudi Arabia--a decision
backed by the United States. Egyptian officials had notified the
press that the PLO voted against the resolution, thereby exposing
"its true radical stripes."(1) But the PLO, in fact, abstained.
Part of the damage done by that lie is the unsurprising
reinforcement of Israel's refusal to negotiate with the PLO. Of
course, it doesn't matter to Israel how the PLO voted. The PLO's
gall in absaining from a vote which invited Amerikan imperialist
intervention was enough for the U.S. to reverse its public
criticism of Israel's consistently stubborn position against
negotiations. U.S. officials have been candid in revealing their
expectations with regard to their client state in the Middle East,
wanting a "guarantee against any unilateral Israeli action and...
insurance that they can count on Israel's support in the
crunch."(2)
Soviet Immigration
Soviet immigration is as strong as ever in spite of the Gulf
situation. Israel's biggest worry is a possible threat to its
fundraising, which is necessary to absorb, house and employ the
thousands of Soviets who arrive each month. The immigrants are
creating a huge demand for new settlements, further displacing
Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. Israel has
been relying primarily on Amerikan Jewish support for the
absorption effort, and are now worried that the Gulf crisis will
affect the Amerikan economy badly enough to halt that cash
flow.(3)
Proposals in the Israeli parliament (Knesset) that a special tax
be levied so that Israelis will pay for the absorption themselves
have not received any support.(3)
When the U.S. and Israel got together, supposedly to discuss
moving forward with a peace plan, Secretary of State Baker
disappointed Israeli officials by not offering to forgive Israel's
military debt. Bush did extend such an offer to Egypt however,
relieving it of its $7 billion debt in exchange for supporting the
U.S. invasion of Saudi Arabia. Egypt is the second largest
recipient of U.S. aid after Israel.(4)
Notes:
1. NYT 9/4/90.
2. NYT 9/6/90.
3. NYT 9/3/90.
4. NYT 9/6/90.
* * *
QUISLINGS BATTLE IN LIBERIA
by MC89
On Monday, September 10, rebel leader Prince Johnson captured
Liberian President Samuel Doe at his headquarters in Monrovia.
Recent issues of MIM Notes have covered the power struggle between
Johnson, Doe, and another rebel, Charles Taylor, in this country
that was established by Amerikans as a haven for freed slaves.
None of the three has shown signs of seeking anything but
authority, leading even neo-conservative (and former Trotskyist)
columnist Irving Kristol to comment drily, "A Mr. Doe is being
replaced by a Mr. Johnson or a Mr. Taylor."
An estimated 400,000 Liberians are now refugees. Following
Kristol's throw-up-your-hands-at-the-problem-you-created approach,
Amerika sent in 220 Marines, apparently only to evacuate U.S.
nationals.
Johnson continues to keep whatever plans he may have secret. As
president, he appears to be seeking help from neighboring Nigeria
in return for the release of Nigerian nationals.
Nigeria has gone ahead and made plans for intervening under its
own mandate, working through a regional trade organization, the
Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which it wants
somehow to install as a government. Nigeria, Africa's most
populous country, has been under military rule since 1984.
To stop a Johnson-Nigeria accord, Taylor has reportedly begun
systematically executing as many of the 7,000 Nigerians awaiting
evacuation from Liberia as he can.
Despite Nigeria's and Liberia's long-standing participation, the
United Nations and the Organization of African Unity have refused
to take any initiative to settle things. It is expected that
Nigerian President Babangida will soon become Liberia's de facto
head-of-state.
Notes:
Financial Times 9/10/90
Financial Times 9/11/90
* * *
SINGAPORE: FASCISM FOREVER?
by MC89
After serving for 25 years, Singapore top-dog Lee Kwan Yew may be
getting ready to step down. Lee has named a successor, Goh Chok
Tong, and is working on forcing a bill through the legislature to
give him wide-ranging powers for curbing subversion, religious
extremism, and corruption, and presumably leaving him to determine
just what those are.
The kicker in the new presidency package is the statement of
qualifications for office. Any candidate must have held a cabinet-
level office for at least three years, or--the best part--must run
a company with paid assets of Singapore $100 million (about U.S.
$200 million).(1)
Singapore is a South East Asian city-state that does half of its
trade with the United States.(2)
Notes:
1. Economist 9/8/90.
2. 1988 Statesman's Year-Book.
* * *
JAZZ, GENDER AND JEWS: SPIKE LEE MOVES MONOGAMY
CULTURAL CRITICISM AND THE POLITICS OF THE PERSONAL
by MC44 and MC12
African American filmmaker Spike Lee has produced another
controversial movie which few (if any) critics have correctly
analyzed. Like his others, it's been called sexist. And now anti-
semitism has been added to his crimes, according to the critics.
Cultural criticism is a useful vehicle for discussion and analysis
of social practices and how they are influenced by political-
economic factors. Here we examine Mo' Better Blues in the context
of a monogamy versus free love debate, given the overall
oppression of women by men, and the economic realities of women
and power under the capitalist patriarchy.
What the critics are calling sexist in this movie is the assertion
that, as a result of white Amerikan oppression and domination,
Black men are in such a state of moral crisis that they
essentially don't deserve Black women, who are held in a higher
moral esteem. There is a differentiation here between the state of
Black men and women in Amerika today, and this makes a lot people
uncomfortable.
This whole idea of crisis is not to be confused with the "state of
crisis in the Black family" which Daniel Patrick Moynihan believes
to be the cause of suffering of African Amerika, instead of the
symptom it is.
Expose the patriarchy
People who are so eager to ascribe the label sexist to Lee's
protective and paternal attitude implicitly maintain that under
the current circumstances women can and will attain genuine power,
if individual men clean up their personal practices.
MIM counters: Is it inherently sexist to create a female character
who is upfront and honest about the way she gets what she wants,
(a singing career) by sleeping with a man who promises her just
that? Spike Lee is exposing an ugly reality, which is that
although women (in this case, the character Clarke) have the
talent to succeed in powerful positions, the system is not set up
for them to attain that power based on those merits. That is what
patriarchy is. Just because movies like Mo' Better Blues portray
that doesn't necessarily mean they uphold it.
Of course, just showing oppressed women is not in itself a
progressive thing; if it were, pornography would rule. But in Mo'
Better Blues the women recognize and challenge that oppression,
and the man with the misogynous practice meets a fable-like,
poetic justice--to a point. This shows a much more conscious
realization of the systematic oppression on the part of the movie.
Likewise, showing women succeeding in impossible, fantastical
ways--what some mainstream feminists might clamor for--suggests
that women could make it if they try hard enough, within the
patriarchal status quo. No apologies, please.
Bleek Gilliam, the trumpet-playing hero played by Denzel
Washington, leads a self-centered life as a fiercely dedicated
musician, subordinating all other aspects of his life to that. In
one scene Indigo, one of Bleek's two womanfriend/sex objects,
tells him that her mother warned her that getting involved with a
musician would surely mean a broken heart. This is a particularly
soft scene which begins with Bleek's morning prayer toward Mecca.
He assures her that he's not the guy her mother was talking about.
As both she and the other woman (Clarke) reach the end of their
tolerance for Bleek and dump him, the movie becomes the story of
Bleek's decline and fall.
Bleek, in retribution for his selfish, sexist lifestyle, gets
dumped (by both women) and then has his mouth broken in a fight.
His precious career is ruined.
But the movie, and especially the ending, is ambiguous. He is
rewarded in the end when Indigo agrees to "save his life" by
marrying him and having his son. Why is Indigo still waiting for
him a full year later, and why should she save his life when he
seemed set on ruining hers?
One could infer from the rather vague and hurried last few scenes
(did Lee just run out of time?) that Mo' Better Blues is
encouraging a life of monogamy/marriage. MIM doesn't want to put
words in Lee's mouth that he didn't intend. But if this is indeed
the message then MIM supports it as the most progressive one for
women next to advocating asexuality.
Time with the kids
Although MIM recognizes child rearing as an important tenet of
Black nationalism--part of the effort to rebuild strong community
bonds--the party maintains that women will not be revolutionaries,
nor be in a position to seize state power, while their time is
almost fully consumed by children. Because MIM insists that Black
women are an important revolutionary force, this line extends to
them as well.
In an unexpected and disappointing clichŽ of an ending, a scene
from Bleek's childhood is re-enacted with his son as the same
impatient kid that he was, who would rather play outside with his
friends than practice the trumpet all day. Although Indigo and
Bleek are more lenient parents with Miles (cute name for a future
jazz trumpeter), it remains unclear exactly what legacy the child
is supposed to carry on. Just how much has Bleek reformed, and how
should he have? Granted this ambiguity is partially attributable
to the hurried nature of the end, with minimal time left to
develop the point; the course of action is dramatically sped up in
the last few minutes of the film.
As far as the charges of anti-semitism are concerned, MIM agrees
with Spike Lee's own response as articulated in his Aug. 23 letter
to the New York Times. How does 10 minutes of screen time devoted
to a real phenomenon compare with the long history of Hollywood's
racist depiction of African Americans? There have in fact been
some Jewish capitalists who have made money off the direct
exploitation of Black entertainers. Having two such Jewish
characters does not imply that this is the way all Jews are.
Again, another ugly reality is exposed and hammered home in the
name of the night club: "Beneath the Underdog." Jews as a group,
including owners Mo and Josh Flatbush, may be an underdog overall
in Amerika, but Blacks are beneath them--clearly worse off as a
group in this country than Jews. Would the critics who are hurling
the label of anti-semite at Lee really insist that the characters
of Mo and Josh represent the top of the power structure in this
society?
Why monogamy?
As stated, Mo' Better Blues comes closest to MIM's proposed theory
that monogamy is the best interim alternative to asexuality--a
personal practice of no sexual relationships--under capitalism and
the patriarchy.
The capitalist mode of production pits groups against each other
in the form of classes--these divisions are inseparable from the
class system. Under the capitalist patriarchy, men as a group
oppress women as a group. Because women, with few exceptions, are
economically dependent on men, this oppression is inseparable from
class struggle. A a communist party MIM seeks the abolition of all
group power and oppression.
Men as a group have more money than women do, and it is mens'
interest not to share money with women, thus not to have forever-
commitment relationships in which this would be required.
It is upper class women who have defined the feminist position as
anti-monogamy because they do have other economic resources, and
indeed other choices. They just don't want the emotional and
psychological domination of one man. The freedom they are
advocating is a privilege few can afford, and it is a dubious
freedom anyway. In other words, the overall sexual paradigm under
capitalism is still one of eroticization of power and
subordination even if in some individual couples both partners are
economically independent. MIM refers readers to Catharine
MacKinnon's Feminism Unmodified for a more in depth explanation of
the eroticization of power theory.
Audre Lorde, Black Feminist Lesbian "Warrior," puts it this way:
"Poor and third world women know there is a difference between the
daily manifestations and dehumanizations of marital slavery and
prostitution, because it is our daughters who line 42nd
Street."(1)
Economic security
More revealing evidence is found in infant mortality rates, which
are higher for single mothers than for married women in Amerika.
According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) statistics, this
is true for both whites and Blacks. The CDC proposes that "...the
principle benefits of marriage to infant survival are economic and
social support."(2)
Right now--and conditions are getting worse, not better--women as
a group are more economically secure in monogamous relationships
than in either serial monogamy (one relationship at a time, but
without forever commitment) or free love situations.
MIM is not telling single women to go out and get married. Nor is
MIM encouraging battered women of any class to stay with their
assailants. The theory on monogamy is rooted in wanting to secure
the immediate material interests of women, and challenging the
notion that in non-monogamous relationships women have any kind of
freedom from sexual exploitation. What is the freedom in sexual
exploitation from a series of men who make no commitments, and
provide no financial support? Those who insist, "We don't want
men's f---ing financial support!" are, most likely, able to
support themselves under the patriarchy.
Under communism, when power of groups over other groups is
abolished, conditions will be correct for sex and romance to mean
something other than dominance and subordination--and then maybe
we can have really free love.
Right now, the best choice is still to be a love-slave of the
international proletariat.
Notes:
1. "The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle The Master's House,"
Comments at "The Personal and the Political" Panel (Second Sex
Conference, October 29,1979).
2. AP in Ann Arbor News 8/3/90.
* * *
BASHING MAO'S GHOST--AN EXPOSE OF CAPITALIST CHINA
by MC¯, MC5 & MC89
Mainstream media, bourgeois China scholars and the rest of
Amerika's anti-communists blame everything that has happened in
China since 1979 on Mao Zedong and communism. MIM maintains that
1979 was the year China took the capitalist road.
It was in 1979 that Deng Xiaoping took power at the head of a
military coup against Mao's successors, the Gang of Four. Since
then he has been lauded by the West for his implementation of
capitalist market reforms and the so-called "liberalization" of
the Chinese economy.
A good example of the willingness to bash Mao's ghost is a feature
in the June 4, 1990 Newsweek entitled "The Death of Democracy."
This article mainly consists of five color pictures which, frame
by frame, show the public execution of two men who were said to
have participated in the Democracy Movement demonstrations at
Tiananmen Square during the summer of 1989.
The text says: "Out on the killing fields, an application of
Chairman Mao's axiom that power comes from the barrel of a gun."
This is a gross distortion. It does not point out that Mao opposed
the people currently in power and that his successors were purged
by force. Moreover, Mao himself argued against using force when it
was unnecessary. As testament to this commitment, one of his
greatest adversaries and the current ruler of China, Deng, lives
today--even though the Maoists in the 1970s sent him to
reeducation camp. Mao also said that only the far right feared
the student movement.
"Who is it who suppressed the student movement?" asks Mao. "Only
the Pei-yang Warlords. [In reference to the reactionary warlord
dominated government of Peking, which in 1919 attacked the student
movement.--MC¯] It is anti-Marxist for communists to fear the
student movement. Some people talk daily about the mass line
serving the people, but instead they follow the bourgeois line and
serve the bourgeoisie. The Central Committee of the Youth League
should stand on the side of the student movement."(1)
Moreover, Newsweek does not tell its readers about the general
policy of executions enacted in China since Mao's death. In a
crackdown on crime, 1,100 people received the death sentence in
the last year, according to Amnesty International. China denied
the report.(9)
This of course is only one example and there are many other places
where China is steadily integrating itself into the world
capitalist market while, internally, it builds its system of
private property. What follows is a round-up of current examples.
China checks flow of ideas
Seeking readmission to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
(GATT), China has passed its first copyright law.(2) GATT monitors
international trade and finance. Membership is regarded as
essential for development of capitalism.
Copyright law is often mistaken for a sort of guarantee of
privacy--preventing others from stealing your thoughts. In fact,
it only protects "thoughts" once their creator has decided that
they are commodities. In this way, it is like any other law
protecting private property.
Class identity is passed from generation to generation in the
bourgeoisie through laws of inheritance. Like those of other
countries, Chinese copyrights are valid for 50 years beyond the
death of the author, during which time his or her heirs oversee
their distribution.
China experiences recession?
Evidence is accumulating that China is experiencing a recession.
While previous reports spoke of recessions when growth merely
slowed, it appears that China's economy has actually shrunk in
parts of 1990. January and February of 1990 saw industrial
production 0.9% lower than the same period of the previous year.
Since January and February, growth appears to have recovered, but
at a low rate. In addition, all of 1989 saw only 6.8% growth in
industrial production.
The latest figures show industrial production growth slowing down
again in July so that annual growth will only be 2.9% if the July
rate continues.(5)
CCP officials have admitted that unemployment increased by 500,000
in the last year up to 11 million in the cities. Others say the
figure is really 20 or 30 million--and 120 million in the
countryside.
Three million private businesses were supposedly closed in the
last 18 months. There may be new pressure to allow individual
capitalism in addition to state capitalism now that the CCP papers
are saying unemployment is the worst in China's history.(12)
The counterrevolutionary regime took power with the promise that
its program would bring faster growth than China's Cultural
Revolution policies. MIM has admitted that capitalism can bring
faster growth in the short-run, but in the long run, capitalist
economies give in to cyclical growth, meaning recessions and
depressions are inevitable. For this reason among others,
socialism is a superior economic system.
Tibet massacre precedes Tiananmen
The Deng regime had more than 450 Tibetans killed in protests in
March, 1989. Police fired from rooftops into crowds on March 6,
1989, shooting 300 in 10 minutes. According to a Chinese
journalist the regime also arrested thousands more and tortured
others.(6)
Reports note the use of boiling water and electric prods in
torture, and regular house-to-house searches.(7)
There are six million Tibetans in Tibet, but there are more non-
Tibetan Chinese in Tibet.(11)
The plight of minorities
The various nationalities in China itself also suffer from
repression. This is one of the many natural results of the uneven
growth and race and gender divisions fostered by capitalism.
In the province of Xinjiang, where a majority of the people are
Moslems, over 2,000 people started a "holy war" to set up a
country called Turkestan. 50 civilians and 8 people died.
In response the Deng Xiaoping regime arrested 6,490 people in the
first six months of 1990.
According to the CCP, a majority of China's people below the
official poverty line are in ethnic minorities.(10)
Moonies invest in China
Sun-Myung Moon's Unification Church is setting up a 100-square
mile industrial complex in China.(8)
Support for Dengist regime
While the Tiananmen massacre created an immense amount of bad
press for the current government and rumors of Deng's death
complicate the response, overall Chinese capitalism is weathering
the storm. That is both U.S. President George Bush and Soviet
Party Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev continue trade and political
relations with China.
China recently received the lowest rating of 10 Asian countries
evaluated by an investors' analysis group. Investors are still
feeling the effects of the rebellion in Tiananmen in 1989. They
expect political and economic instability in the near future.(13)
China's trade with Japan declined 41% from 1989 to $2.7 billion in
the first six months of 1990.(14)
Still, just as the United States could not stop the new Soviet-
German flirtation in matters of business, so too it did not stop
Japan from making a $5 billion loan to the Chinese government at a
time when other Western governments were stopping their loans to
show displeasure over the Tiananmen massacre. Spain followed (3)
and now the Western European and U.S. governments have given up on
stopping loans to the Deng Xiaoping regime.
Amoco also signed an exploration contract in August, another
indication that business is as usual in China.(4)
Meanwhile, China is scheduled to hold a mini-Olympics called the
Asian Games on September 22. Thirty to seventy thousand troops are
prepared for political disorders in Beijing.(15)
Capitalist policies
In all, China has moved a long way down the capitalist road since
Mao's death in 1976. , Even neo-classical (mainstream) economists
will admit that the establishment of private property laws and
cyclical fluctuations in the economy, such as recessions, are
signs of the functioning of capitalism.
And why is it that the Dengist government must repress the
movements of students and national minorities? Because they are
mass movements against the harsh conditions of state-run
capitalism, the creation of which Maoism opposed in the Cultural
Revolution from 1966-1976.
Notes:
1. Stuart Schram, ed. Chairman Mao Talks to the People (New York:
Pantheon Books, 1974) p.253.
2. Financial Times 9/11/90
3. UPI 8/10/90.
4. Business Wire 8/9/90.
5. UPI 8/9/90.
6. South China Morning Post 8/13/90.
7. The Globe and Mail 8/21/90.
8. World Press Review, September 1990.
9. UPI 9/13/90.
10. AP 9/11/90.
11. AP 9/12/90.
12. Reuter 9/14/90.
12. Globe and Mail 9/4/90.
14. South China Morning Post 9/12/90.
15. UPI 9/14/90.
* * *
MONGOLIA ADOPTS LIBERAL CAPITALISM
by MC5
Copying events in Eastern Europe, Mongolia's Communist Party gave
up any pretense to Leninism in July by holding elections and
surrendering party leadership of the society.
Prior to elections, however, the so-called communists granted
herdspeople the right to private ownership of livestock. Mongolia
is a predominantly agricultural society where cattle-breeding is
very important.
Out of 799 victorious candidates, "18 were workers, 51 cattle
breeders and 720 intellectuals."(1) It appears that the Mongolian
People's Revolutionary Party (the revisionists) won the vast
majority as the three largest opposition groups combined only won
101 of the 799 seats.
Opposition democrats charged that the communists, "have more
money, more access to media and a much better developed party
apparatus" in the paraphrasing of a bourgeois newspaper.(2) If so,
then at least that is to the credit of the revisionists.
Meanwhile, 80% of Soviet troops were gone from Mongolia in a
reflection of the lessening of a conflict between China and the
Soviet Union which made Mongolia a hotspot.
Notes:
1. South China Morning Post, 7/25/90.
2. UPI 7/26/90.
* * *
IRAQ: U.S.-SOVIET COLLUSION
by MC12
The United States and the Soviet Union issued a joint statement on
the war in the Persian Gulf on Sept. 9. The statement, which
followed a meeting between Bush and Gorbachev, was symbolic of a
new period of collusion between the two major imperialist powers.
Both countries are facing economic problems, but right now the
Soviet Union is in the deeper of the two holes, especially with
the risk of losing control over internal nations such as
Azerbaijan and Georgia, as well as losing economic influence over
its sphere in Eastern Europe. These compound the problems caused
by the contraction which has followed the economic changes in that
country.
As the Soviets' ability to confront Third World revolts against
its social-imperialism is weakened, the United States moves in.
Gorbachev can only try to hang on and ride out the economic storm
and hope for scraps from the imperialist feast of world war.
Gorbachev's reluctance to cooperate with the United States was
occasionally apparent in the joint press conference he gave with
Bush. He said, for example: "Whether we want it or not, history
dictates that a lot is going to depend on whether the two
countries can work together. That's not our ambition, it's just
the way that history has gone." In other words, the Soviet Union
must temporarily stoop to accepting U.S. leadership in this and
other crises.
Gorbachev's hope for emerging from the war with some influence in
tact remains in part with the Soviet stance on the Palestinian
issue--one area in which the Soviets have been able to maintain
alliances with Arab nations. But that avenue to influence has been
hurt by Syria's willingness to jump in bed with the United States
in order to further the destruction of Iraq and get in on a piece
of the economic reward.
For the United States, any mention of Israel or open involvement
by the Israelis brings up the possibility of re-united Arab
action--which has thus far been successfully avoided, at great
expense. And so we get Bush saying, about the Iraqi versus the
Israeli occupations: "The thing that I feel strongly about is that
these issues are not linked."
Gorbachev still has friends to keep over the issue, and he sees a
possible opening. Thus: "[I]t seems to me there is a link here
because the failure to find a solution to the Middle East at large
also has a bearing on the acuteness of the particular conflict
we've been talking about here."
But on the Iraqi war and other Third World conflicts, the USA and
the USSR are now admitting to share a common interest in
"stability," meaning imperialist domination. They both face the
same Domino Effect from national liberation struggles.
That's where the best line of the two countries' joint statement
came from: "No peaceful international order is possible if larger
states can devour their smaller neighbors." A joke on any scale,
from them, but telling of the fears they share.
Source: New York Times 9/10/90.
* * *
ALBANIA AND SOVIET UNION NORMALIZE RELATIONS
by MC5
In July, Albania restored diplomatic relations with the Soviet
Union after a 30 year hiatus. The embassies had closed originally
because China under Mao Zedong and Albania under Enver Hoxha
opposed the Soviet government's switch to capitalism in the late
1950s.
Previously Albania had claimed it would have no diplomatic
relations with the Soviet Union. Pro-Albania communists in the
United States may have some explaining to do soon.
Albania is a small country in Eastern Europe that borders
Yugoslavia and Greece. It has a population of 3 million people,
who are mostly farmers. Politically, Albania is an important
country in communist history. Today it claims to have the only
communist government in the world.
Recently, 6,000 Albanians left the country of 3 million people.
The government also announced reforms to take into account the
situation in Eastern Europe.
The pro-Albania communists believed a Cultural Revolution--a
mobilization of the masses against the capitalist-minded leaders
in the communist party running the state--was unnecessary to keep
Albania on the socialist-road. The time may soon be approaching
where it will become obvious that Albania is no longer socialist.
A communist history
In 1939, Italian fascists occupied Albania and Albanians initiated
an armed struggle for independence. In 1941, they formed the
Communist Party of Albania.
The Albanians organized the defeat of the Italians and then the
Germans who invaded in 1943. Out of the countries in Eastern
Europe liberated from the Nazis with the help of Stalin's
offensive against the Nazis, Albania did the most to gain its own
independence.(1)
Upon independence in 1944, Enver Hoxha led Albania till his death
in 1985. Most notably under Hoxha, Albania was the only communist
government to side with China in the Sino-Soviet split in 1960.
From 1960 to 1976, Hoxha was the only communist government leader
to side completely with Mao.
During those years, China's and Albania's communist parties issued
joint communiques condemning Soviet phony communism and Albania
supported the Cultural Revolution in China. Governments in North
Korea, Vietnam and Cambodia, not to mention those in Eastern
Europe either took positions between the Soviet and Chinese
Communist parties or sided with the Soviets against China and
Albania.
Since the two communist parties of Albania and China were thought
to be alike, it was with great disappointment that communists
found Enver Hoxha breaking with Mao after Mao's death. In his book
Reflections on China (1979), Hoxha claimed that Mao was only a
progressive nationalist figure.
Offering no explanation for why he changed his political stance
after the death of Mao, Hoxha changed his theory on the
dictatorship of the proletariat and claimed to uphold Stalin but
not Mao.
In 1976 Mao died. In 1978, China cut off all military and civil
aid to Albania. Hoxha's criticisms of Mao came after the aid cut-
off. Even the anti-Maoists of the U.S. Progressive Labor Party and
Kansas City Marxist-Leninist Cell called out Hoxha for this:
suddenly Hoxha said that China's revolution was never a socialist
one at all, just a bourgeois one. Why did he wait so long to speak
up?(2)
What has been the concrete situation of the masses within Albania?
Is it a capitalist society and if so, when did it start being one?
While MIM has some information on this subject, it needs much
more. In the meantime, MIM can say that Albania's leadership
grossly errs in detracting from the Chinese Revolution (1949) and
the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976).
Notes:
1. "New Albania: A Small Nation, A Great Contribution!" (NY:
Albania Report, 1984)
2. "The Race to the Right," PL Magazine (NY: PLP, Spring 1979);
"Towards the Development of the International Marxist-Leninist
Trend," (Kansas City: KS Marxist-Leninist Cell, 1980)
* * *
SOUTHEAST ASIAN SUCKER CARTEL ABOUT TO GO BELLY-UP
by MC89
When the European Community--Western Europe, including unified
Germany--becomes a single market in 1992, the Association of South
East Asian Nations (ASEAN) will be a quarter-century old. ASEAN is
a group of countries--Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines,
Singapore and Thailand--that works to advance "international
trade," particularly Western oriented exports and cheap labor, in
South East Asia. With 300 million customers, and economic growth
rates higher than Europe's across the board, ASEAN should be
leading the world, as Europe is expected to--so what went
wrong?(3)
ASEAN countries have a simple formula for business: keep the
populace cowed with state police and make sure every order to the
U.S. or Japan goes out on time. At a rough MIM estimate, ASEAN
governments have killed two million of their own since the
organization was founded. The two imperialist countries have
responded warmly to the resulting stability by moving factories
into ASEAN territory. Japan now houses 25% of its productive
capacity there.(1) Indonesia, dwarfing the rest of ASEAN with a
population of 180 million, receives $6.27 billion in aid annually.
Indonesia's "absolute poverty" level is a soaring 40%, among the
highest in the world.(2)
Notes:
1. Financial Times 9/11/90.
2. Far Eastern Economic Review 4/26/90.
3. Population figures projected from 1988 Statesman's Year-Book.
* * *
MOVIES
LYNCH'S FINE LINE
Wild At Heart
It is hard to tell what David Lynch is up to. Do the scenes in
Wild at Heart that so disturbingly link violence to eroticism make
a critical statement about how sex is defined as rape in Amerikan
culture? Or are they simply meant to eroticize violence, to get
the audience turned on--with a touch of titillating horror at
itself--at the sight of women's sexuality being molded and
dominated by violence?
If it is the former, Lynch is certainly wildly inconsistent in his
critical outlook (so long as sex and true love coincide, he
infers, it's okay). And the fact that such a fundamental question
exists seems evidence for the latter explanation: if he wanted to
make a critical statement, he could've made it emphatic enough to
expunge such doubts. Nevertheless, Lynch's overt connection of sex
to violence is sufficiently more discomforting than the run-of-
the-mill misogyny of most commercial movies to warrant some
examination.
Lula, our 20-year-old heroine, leaves her hometown with her
boyfriend Sailor to escape her mother's jealous clutches. She's
already been raped once, by her uncle, and had an abortion (we see
both events through bad-dream flashbacks). Hot in their pursuit
are a gang of hit-men and women, controlled by a man named
Reindeer, about whom we know only that he is very rich and likes
to surround himself with topless sex-slaves. (Sex is overtly
portrayed in the flashback rape scenes and in the Reindeer scenes
as a manifestation of and a means to enforce women's
subordination. The links between sex and physical violence and
economic coersion are hard to miss).
While Lula is lying in bed in a hotel room that stinks of vomit
(she has just figured out she's pregnant), Bobby Peru, a Vietnam
vet in the employ of Reindeer, knocks and asks to use the
bathroom. Lula, uncomfortable, gets out of bed and lets him in. He
assaults her. She struggles, but he forces her to press against
him. He holds her chin up so that his lips almost touch hers. "Say
'f--- me,'" he says, "and I'll leave. Say it. F--- me, f--- me, f-
-- me." And he repeats it until Lula, trying to resist, whispers
"f--- me," and has an orgasm. Peru laughs and leaves the room.
Lula, stricken, stares at herself in the mirror and goes back to
bed.
Feminist author and lawyer Catherine MacKinnon says women are
socialized to enjoy their subordination. What better an example of
the twistedness of capitalist society's construction of gender
than a woman who, despite her effort at struggling against it,
orgasms as she is raped?
In an eqaully vivid portrayal of what MacKinnon calls the
eroticization of power, a woman who has been commissioned by
Reindeer to murder Lula's mother's boyfriend (he too is pursuing
Lula and Sailor, and Reindeer's gang wants him out of the way)
counts off as her lover and accomplice aims a gun at their
victim's head. She gets increasingly agitated as she counts-- "I'm
so hot," she says-- and as she utters "one" and the shot rings
out, she orgasms. It's fitting here that she does not fire the
shot, she does not wield the actual power, but that nevertheless
it is violence and power that sexually excite her.
Scenes like this paint an ugly and all-too realistic picture of
gender relations in Amerikan culture, but no matter how accurately
they reflect reality, they deserve criticism for bordering too
closely on a glorification of the power dynamic they portray. Any
critical edge the movie may have on the subject of sex inequality
is also significantly dulled by the steamy and apparently equally
earth-shaking sex scenes between Lula and Sailor.
And the movie has the usual happy ending disease of most Hollywood
films: instead of concluding that organizing for revolution is the
only way to change the ugly and alienating world it does such a
good job of portraying--or at least showing the characters living
unhappily ever after in an unchanged one--Wild At Heart offers
love as a refuge. It ends with the reunion of the star-struck
lovers, and the literal message "don't turn away from love."
So--surprise, surprise--Lynch hasn't made a revolutionary feminist
movie. But he has made a thought-provoking one, and MIM would
recommend it over most other mindless and oppressive Hollywood
goop out there.
--MC11
PUMP UP THE ANARCHY
Pump up the volume
Mark is an alienated high school youth who hates his parents, his
school, the suburbs, and the system.
Fortunately, he has a creative outlet for his anger. His 60s-
children-turned-yuppie parents are considerate enough to supply
him with the equipment to set up his own pirate radio show. (And
then never notice their son's little secret; Mark engineers sort
of a Batcave effect, and manages to hide his set-up from the
folks). "Happy Harry Hard-on" goes on every night at 10:00,
attracting a rapt and devoted audience of fellow-teens who dig his
anti-authority ramblings.
Which is about all they are. Happy Harry's healthy rebellious
streak fades considerably when it comes to offering explanations
for or solutions to the woes of teenage life. The blatant
anarchism of his message leaves his listeners with no vision of a
better world or a way to get out of the one with which they are
unanimously dissatisfied. One comforting thought he offers is that
the teenage years are the worst, so if one can get through them,
things can only get better.
When one of Happy Harry's listeners commits suicide, as though
acting on the erstwhile rebel's assertions that life sucks, he
almost decides to call the whole thing off. But someone (the love
interest) has already figured out the anonymous DJ's identity, and
convinces him that he owes it to his audience not to give up or
give in. Back on the air, Harry tells his schoolmates not to take
the easy way out. Instead, he says, they should "get angry," and
express their outrage.
Which they do. To a predictable end: nothing changes. The popular
girl with good grades whose rich father is sure she's safely on
her way to Yale takes her pearls and her Yale banner and blows
them up in the microwave. Other similar acts of aimless rebellion
spread throughout the school, until the principal teams up with
the cops and the Federal Communications Commission to find and
arrest the guy who was inciting all the trouble.
The movie's portrayal of the state (as embodied by the FCC agents
who hunt the DJ down and silence his defiant voice), and its
connection to school authority is probably the best part of the
movie. Hundreds of teenagers gathered in the field where the
reception is the best witness Mark's arrest. And that's it, he
gets taken away. Not a bad ending for a Hollywood movie.
We are, however, left with the message that Mark's story should
serve as an inspiration to teens all over to "seize the air" and
create their own pirate radio stations. (Voices pipe up after the
screen goes black, little points of sound in the darkness). It is
hard not to wonder why, after what happened to our hero, we should
feel inspired by similar spontaneous, individualist actions.
Pirate radio is a neat idea, but, as the movie itself shows,
anarchy isn't going to change the rigid school system of childhood
disinformation, and cool music alone isn't going to change the
mainstream kulture they are trained to participate in. Teens have
good reason to be alienated from Amerikan society, as it becomes
more repressive every day. (14 states now require parental consent
for abortion for women under 18). MIM celebrates rebellion, and
recommends joining a revolutionary party with the correct line
(guess which one) to organize for change that will be significant
and lasting.
--MC11
* * *
BOOKS
INDONESIA: WHY A CULTURAL REVOLUTION?
Indonesia: Law, Propaganda and Terror, by Julie Southwood and
Patrick Flanagan. Zed Press 1983. 272pp.
The Suharto regime's body-count is staggering: 750,000 communists
killed in its first two years in power (1966-68); 660,000 dead
from the 1976 invasion of East Timor. There is no competitor for
the title of most genocidal single government since the Nazis. And
the reason for the deaths is clear. Like South Africa, where the
mountains are riven with gold veins and peppered with diamonds,
Indonesia has something the imperialist world wants--oil.
Familiar terms. Death and oil are the products, imperialism the
producer. But that hardly tells a communist where to fight, and
the bloodiness could easily convince one that the situation was
hopeless. An understanding of the fascist state--the machine that
makes the whole system tick--is necessary for a correct analysis.
Indonesia has a population of nearly 180 million now--it is the
world's fifth largest country--climbing towards 235 million in 15
years. Life expectancy at birth is 58, and other standards of
health are similarly lagging, even behind the rest of the Third
World.(1) Significantly, 78% of the population are Muslims.(2)
It is a simple truth that brute force alone could not keep
Indonesia's population down, yet President Suharto has been in
power for nearly a quarter-century and shows no signs of being
ousted. Indonesia: Law, Propaganda and Power explains his
stability. Stability means the ability to postpone revolution. For
revolution is inevitable. Its opposite is the steady maintenance
of a system of extraction.
The Dutch were the original colonizers of Indonesia, lasting until
Japanese occupation during World War II and Amerikan efforts to
wrest the country from the Dutch between 1946 and 1950. That's
when the United States backed a nationalist leader, Sukarno,
starting a chain of events which was transparent to one person at
least, John K. Fairbank. In 1947 he said:
"Our fear of Communism, partly as an expression of our general
fear of the future, will continue to inspire us to aggressive
anti-Communist policies in Asia and elsewhere, [and] the American
people will be led to think and may honestly believe that the
support of anti-Communist governments in Asia will somehow defend
the American way of life.... Thus, after setting out to fight
Communism in Asia, the American people will be obliged in the end
to fight the peoples of Asia."(p.21)
Sukarno turned out to be pesky for the United States. In 1963,
realizing what a neo-colonial shambles his country was in, he told
President Kennedy, "To hell with your aid." Two years later, the
CIA had convinced some Indonesian generals to attempt a coup. They
were promptly put down, not by Sukarno, but by a hero the United
States had made, then-general Suharto. Without supplying any
evidence, Suharto declared that the mutinous forces were members
of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) and began a purge of all
communists from the government. Guided expertly, the purge spilled
out into the streets and onto the campuses, where vigilante gangs
of Muslim nationalists students were quickly organized. The
slaughter began. Even a military officer who supervised killings
could not reckon their scale. More than half of the murders were
committed by people who had no direct with the government, but
were merely inspired by it.
Southwood and Flanagan show how inspiration travels. Noting that
power in Indonesian is not monolithic, but a balance between
Suharto and his cronies, an immense security-intelligence
apparatus, and financiers who operate in and outside government,
they show how a fascist state can arise and function without
totalitarian consolidation of power.
There is, first of all, an intelligence agency with extraordinary
powers--KOPKAMTIB (Operational Command for the Restoration of
Security and Order) which has constitutional authority over the
defense department and the military's high command, answering only
to President Suharto, and it stands in place of local police
forces, which exist, but are weak. A general described the
situation in an interview:
"People in Indonesia tend to be terrified when they hear the name
KOPKAMTIB. The general feeling is that KOPKAMTIB can do whatever
it likes. And that means, in the first place, they can arbitrarily
arrest people."(p. 84)
Direction of the military is a trait of the Amerikan CIA, as the
Iran-Contra affair revealed. Police power calls to mind the Nazi
Gestapo. But in Amerika, the CIA, the FBI and the local police are
not coordinated; and the Gestapo competed with the military
police, the SS. Indonesia has no such divisions of armed
authority.
Still, KOPKAMTIB, which operates chiefly through force, or the
threat of force, is not the hub of Indonesian stability. An
ideology binds Indonesia together and keeps it down. Southwood and
Flanagan call it the "fetish of law."
Indonesians are not litigious like bourgeois Amerikans, who live
in a swirl of malpractice and divorce suits (though the aim of
protecting property is a hallmark of both legal systems). An
example shows the distinction. Insonesia has a press code, known
by its acronym MISS SARA:
"M--don't instigate; I--don't insinuate; S--don't speculate; S--
avoid sensation; S--don't exploit ethnic differences; A--don't
exploit religious differences; R--don't exploit social
differences; A--don't exploit ideological differences."(p. 85)
These aims--smothering any spark of struggle or tension among the
people--are furthered through volumes upon volumes of civil and
criminal code, by a vast network of courts, and by prisons which
hold a higher percentage of the population than anywhere else in
the world. The quickest way for a citizen to climb in Indonesian
society is to inform on another.
The "fetish of law" that is produced amounts to a culture--the
real enemy of communist revolution in Indonesia. At its height,
the pro-Maoist PKI had 10 million members. Though reduced in size
by murder and fear, it is an easy match for all the muscle the
Indonesian state can muster--but guns are not enough.
Turn to Indonesia: Law, Propaganda and Terror to understand how
the fascist state operates to perfection. Turn to Mao's China to
see how it can be overthrown.
--MC89
Notes:
1. Far Eastern Economic Review 5/17/90.
2. Statesman's Year-Book 1987-88.
* * *
KLAN MARCHES IN D.C.
by MA9& MC5
Washington, DC--On September 2nd, 15-30 members of the Ku Klux
Klan attempted to march. In response, 1,000 to 5,000 people
rallied throughout the afternoon in different places to fight the
police protecting the Klan.
The Klan never marched where the police had cordoned off the
streets. When it became evident that they would never confront the
Klan, the anti-Klan militants took to street-fighting with police.
To take their case to the capitol grounds, the anti-Klan people
broke through several blockades set up by the police of four
different departments. Many of the police covered up their badge
numbers and names to avoid detection in the fighting.
One officer yelled, "come on fucker let's fight" while holding up
a club. The anti-Klan people had no weapons, but they fought the
police anyway.
This break-out against the system was definitely one of the most
militant in recent memory. It left various so-called leftist
groups tailing after the people.
The All-People's Congress (APC) (a reformist front group of
pseudo-Trotskyists) had an organized contingent with microphones.
Yet, as events proceeded, it was clear that the APC was not a
significant organization.
Another organization, radio station WPGC had publicized the
confrontation for days in advance. No doubt many people had heard
about the event this way, but the radio station itself did not
show up at the outbreak in any visible or organized fashion.
The participants did not march under any one banner. As usual,
militant sentiment against the Klan is not the monopoly of any one
organization.
Rather one can always detect opportunist politics when an
organization claims it rallied anti-Klan sentiments. A large
portion of the masses does not need an organization to hate the
KKK.
In the street-fighting, contradictions amongst the people arose
quite sharply. Someone at a microphone claimed that Black men were
not in the front lines, only white men and Black women. The call
went out to "protect your sisters."
Others were calling the pigs homosexual names as if it were an
insult to be homosexual and not just fighting for the KKK.
In addition, the officers themselves were predominantly Black;
although the commanding officers were mostly white. The fact that
the police were Black did not stop the demonstrators who were
themselves largely Black.
What this outburst against the system showed is an inkling of the
future of the dying system of imperialism. Those who say there is
no work to be done because the masses are not ready for revolution
need only look at Washington DC.
The police spent millions of dollars defending the KKK that day
according to a city council person. It was Labor Day weekend
overtime for the 300 to 400 police. There was also the expense of
a helicopter that buzzed over the crowd every fifteen minutes and
the temporary fences made to protect the major buildings in the
capitol. These expenses are just an indication of how far the
imperialists had to go to try to stop just a few thousand people.
MIM played a negligible role in the events. It was a case where
the revolutionaries were not ready for the masses, not the other
way around.
* * *
UNDER LOCK & KEY: NEWS FROM PRISONS AND PRISONERS.
NEUVIC IS FRENCH FOR FASCISM
by MC89
Ordinarily, prisoners rise up against their captors--the guards
the state puts on the front line of oppression. At France's newest
prison, Neuvic, a September uprising was triggered in part by a
lack of guards. Like something out of Aldous Huxley's Brave New
World,
Neuvic is a completely-automated facility. Prisoners are required
to carry a "smart-card," which they use to open doors on the way
to the yard, the mess hall, or the shower--at every moment, and
the location of every prisoner is monitored by a central computer.
Surprised by the prisoners' angry action, the jail's designers,
with an Orwellian turn of phrase, pleaded that they had intended
for the system to give an added sense of responsibility, since the
prisoners would not have to ask their keepers for permission every
time they wanted to pee. The truth is, any guard who was
approached would simply adhere to the computer program. If it said
the prisoner was supposed to be in bed, that is what would be
enforced--period. Many prisoners went hungry when they missed the
five-minute window in which they were supposed to use their card
to exit for meals.
And the deeper truth is that the new technology represents the
latest in de-humanization--the function of prisons--rather than
the other way around. Ever since the English utilitarian
philosopher Jeremy Bentham devised the panopticon ("all-seeing")
architecture of modern prisons, with one constantly-manned
watchtower in the center of a courtyard ringed by cells, designers
have been working to find new and better ways to deny prisoners
all semblance of privacy.
There's no privacy, but there's privatization. More and more,
prison-operation is being contracted out to the highest bidder
(see "Sumptuous rooms--only $30 a night," MIM Notes 43). To pay
for the computers, prices are 20% higher at the Neuvic canteen
than at other French prisons. Neuvic cost 400,000 francs
(U.S.$75,000) per prisoner to build, and costs 120 francs ($22.50)
per prisoner per night to maintain. The French government plans to
build 30 new Neuvic-style terrordomes in the next three years.
Notes: Economist 9/8/90.
PRISON DIGEST
by MC12
BABYLON, RIKERS STYLE
Prison guard officials know better than to predict a decrease in
the violence at Rikers Island. Guards went on a rampage in late
August, supposedly in response to the beating of a fellow guard,
and 300 prisoners were injured in the ensuing assault.
Rikers is packed beyond capacity--its prisoner population more
than twice what it was 10 years ago--and the guards were making a
public show for more money and more freedom to use violence
against prisoners.(1)
One guard is reported to have said: "We're literally dealing with
the scum of the earth in there. They're just not normal human
beings like you and me, and it doesn't make sense to treat them
that way."
Guards at the prison are complaining about "losing control" over
the prisoners, who vastly outnumber them. But the prisoners have
no emergency button to press, no goon squad to call up when they
lose control.
MIM asks: who's the real scum?
Notes: New York Times 9/1/90
FOCOISTS COP A PLEA
Three of the Amerikan kingdom's political prisoners have pleaded
guilty to being involved with a bombing at the U.S. Capitol. Not
that their guilt or innocence had anything to do with their time
in jail, which they served before ever being convicted.
Marilyn Buck, Linda Evans and Laura Whitehorn were imprisoned
after the bombing in 1983--which did some damage but didn't kill
anyone--intended to protest the invasion of Grenada.
Political prisoners (what many "criminal" prisoners should be
called) face harsh treatment at the hands of the imperialists. But
blowing up buildings is unfortunately no way to go about making a
revolution right now. Thinking that the masses will rise up in
instant revolt after a few isolated terrorist acts is called
focoism, and it doesn't work. Real revolutionaries know that
without building public opinion, an insurrection won't have
popular support, and that armed struggle before its time means
suicide and wasted life.
Notes: AP in Ann Arbor News 9/8/90
GAY PRISONERS MARKED
Prison officials in Texas--at Fort Worth Jail--were embarrassed
last month when there was some flap about their policy of forcing
gay prisoners to wear bracelets identifying them publicly.
In entrance interviews, prisoners can choose to be given
"protective custody" if they tell the guards they are gay. That
means they get housed with other gay prisoners, but take their
meals and recreation with the rest of the inmates--where their
special gray bracelets clearly identify them.
The set up allows prisoners to be divided by their guards, and
played off each other. While some gay prisoners might lie about
their orientation, others could easily be falsely labelled. The
idea of "protective custody" in prison is a false one to begin
with, as the greatest threat to prisoners is from the guards and
the state. Who's protecting who?
Notes: New York Times 9/10/90
MARION'S BAD REPUTATION
The government of Colombia is looking into charges that U.S.
prison officials are mistreating Colombian nationals in Amerikan
jails. The interest comes, not surprisingly, from Marion,
Illinois, where a supposed Colombian drug baron is in jail for
life.
Carlos Lehder complained to his government, and now the Colombians
are asking for information about the rights of 3,000 Colombians in
jail in the United States. They won't have to look far to find the
violent repression, especially if they start at Marion.
Notes: Detroit Free Press 9/13/90
DEATH
The state of Illinois has carried out its first (legal) execution
in 28 years. The victim was 50-year-old Charles Walker, who was
convicted of killing two people in a hold-up. Illinois is one of
several states jumping back on the death penalty bandwagon, riding
a public opinion wave of reaction against crime--part of the
increasing fanaticism which follows the U.S. descent toward
fascism. Walker was killed by lethal injection.(1) Florida
executed James Hamblen on Sept. 21. 140 people have been executed
since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.(2)
Notes:
1. Detroit Free Press 9/13/90
2. NYT 9/22/90
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