MIM Notes

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.

The following articles are missing from the electronic version of this issue:
"Under Lock and Key", "Clinton, Rabin on Palestine: What did you expect?" Movie reviews: "Ground Hog Day" and "Falling Down"

I N T E R N E T ' S M A O I S T M O N T H L Y

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THE MAOIST INTERNATIONALIST MOVEMENT

MIM Notes 75 APRIL, 1993

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. AMERIKA INTENSIFIES VIGILANTISM
2. LETTERS
3. SOMALIS RESIST AMERIKAN INVASION
4. PERU'S PCP DEFENDED IN BELGIUM
5. THE BLACK PANTHERS REPAINTED
6. ALLIANCE FORMS TO STOP THE REVOLUTION
7. NATIONAL SERVICE, NATIONAL SERVITUDE
8. BLACK BUSINESS IN CAPITAL CRUNCH
9. ANOTHER UPRISING BREWING IN MIAMI?
10. CLINTON ON HAITI: WHAT DID YOU EXPECT?
11. CHINA ADDS CAPITALISM TO ITS CONSTITUTION
12. PIG LET OFF EASY IN CHICAGO TORTURE
13. NO TAXATION; REAL REVOLUTION!
14. FORM AND CONTENT REVISITED
15. HARVARD LABOR STRUGGLE
16. REVIEW: THE CRYING GAME

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

* * *

AMERIKA INTENSIFIES VIGILANTISM

In February, President Clinton blessed the Amerikan economy with
the magic wand of pork barrel spending. Newsprint and newspeak,
"expert" opinion and whines of approval spewed out from the
government-controlled media.

"We must generally support the President's proposals and
programs," said Jesse Jackson, summing up public opinion for the
bourgeoisie.

Patriotic Amerikans are being asked to take pay cuts, wear
sweaters, and create vigilante groups working under local police
direction. Youth of oppressed nationalities are being set up to be
drafted by the millions into labor-brigades forced to clean up the
waste dumps left behind by the closure of useless military bases
sitting on prime real-estate.

A hundred thousand white college students get free educations
while ghetto youth are pressed into service in new urban chain-
gangs.

And the oppressor nation closes ranks.

In Detroit, the Alliance for a Safer, Greater Detroit has pledged
to make Detroit the "safest city in America." The Alliance is a
coalition of law enforcement agencies, multinational corporations,
big labor unions and Black petty-bourgeois Uncle Toms. Their
target is the revolutionary potential of inner city Black and
Latino youth.

Ford, Chrysler, banks and utilities, the Urban League, the NAACP,
the AFL-CIO and Trade Union Leadership Council, and others,
represent the state-supervised alliance to imprison more and more
members of oppressed nationalities, particularly young Black men.

The imperialists are fighting a losing battle. Scared by the
rebellions of 1992, and overshadowed by looming international
contradictions, they are battening down the hatches for a long,
brutal war against the oppressed. But their defensive actions are
the basis for revolutionary advances. And their fears represent
the potential for the people's victories.

* * *

LETTERS

MIM REPLIES TO AMERICAS WATCH ON SHINING PATH

ITAL The following is a part of an Americas Watch press release
and a subsequent debate between MIM and Americas Watch. END

America's Watch Women's Rights Project

In a report released today [Jan 8, 1993], Americas Watch and the
Women's Rights Project, both divisions of Human Rights Watch,
charge both the government of Peru and the insurgent Shining Path
with the blatant and illegal use of violence against female non-
combatants [including Maria Elena Moyano] as a form of tactical
warfare. The 62 page report, entitled "Untold Terror: Violence
Against Women in Peru's Armed Conflict," documents more than 40
cases of rape of female non-combatants during interrogation or in
the emergency zones, and many others that occurred during security
force sweeps or massacres. It also details the Shining Path's
systematic political assassination of at least 10 women community
leaders since 1985 and the guerrilla group's routine use of such
violence, or its threat, to terrorize women-led groups and
feminist organizations.

MIM replies: MIM has no reason to dispute that the Communist Party
of Peru (whom you call "Shining Path") might have killed 10 non-
combatant women in 7 years of armed struggle. We would like to see
any comparison to revolutions or non-revolutions elsewhere in
which 10 civilian women were not killed in seven years.

Women in the United States would be fortunate to fare so well.
Typically in any major city in the United States several times
more women will be killed by men in just one year.

Based on the murder of 10 women in a country that has seen 27,000
killed, MIM finds it opportunist of Americas Watch to say the PCP
"targets" women, especially when those women are government
officials.

If revolution struck England and someone killed Thatcher, Americas
Watch is free to interpret that as "an attack on women." And if
someone knocks off the hypocrite gay in the Pentagon who was
explaining why the military doesn't accept gays, opportunists
could say the assassination was "an attack on gays."

MIM is left wondering how systematic terror against women produced
a PCP that is half women. It might never occur to Americas Watch
that it is actually defending a vastly male-dominated fascist
regime by treating it "equally" with the PCP, which is one of the
best shots women have at equal governance in the world.

There is very little by way of factual dispute between Americas
Watch and MIM. There is a dispute over interpretation and
ultimately, a choice of value systems--the idealist one that
criticizes, on one hand, all violence everywhere without regard
for degree or context; and the materialist approach which puts
primacy on real world forces and choices.

Then there are the facts where supporters of Americas Watch are
simply SILENT. There's no dispute. But just in case, we give them
another chance to dispute the following about Maria Elena Moyano,
whose murder by the PCP is on America's Watch list of "violence
against women t

1. Moyano was a vice-mayor of Villa El Salvador.
2. She ran government programs for a fascist military regime
including the glass of milk program.
3. Moyano was a member of a Movement for Socialist Affirmation
(MAS) that supported Fujimori in elections and took portfolios in
this fascist's cabinet.
4. The army and the political parties running the regime used the
glass of milk programs to distribute food by soldiers and
politicians seeking good will (votes in required elections).
5. The government-supported newspaper Caretas reported that Moyano
was in fact organizing "patrols" to "confront Sendero" and that
Moyano was a "national civic heroine" according to Caretas.
6. Such "patrols" killed 222 "presumed subversives" in 1990 alone
according to official figures and that the Army runs at least 526
"patrols."
7. The far right newspapers, generals and politicians lauded her
before and after her death.
8. She said herself her goal was to "defeat" the PCP.
9. The PCP won an election in her own town of Villa El Salvador.
Moyano denounced the victors as "Senderistas," which in other
circumstances was a signal to death-squads to round up the people
so accused and kill them.
10. MAS called for "an agreement among all the political parties
in order to develop the urban patrols as a form of self-defense."
11. The political coalition she belonged to arranged for the
legalization of such patrols in February 1992.

If the Americas Watch wants to say "reliably" that Moyano was a
"non-combatant," sure, no problem we say. After all Weinberger and
Cheney were "non-combatants" too.

MIM responds to Americas Watch: II, Feb. 7, 1993

ITAL The following are excerpts from Americas Watch reply to our
criticism. Then comes the MIM rebuttal. END

Americas Watch and the Women's Rights Project defend the right of
all people to a fair and prompt trial and oppose torture and other
cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment without reservation. We have
repeatedly urged the Peruvian government to end "disappeared"
Peruvians who may have had ties to this insurgency.

The Shining Path, its leader, Abimael Guzman (known by his "war
name," President Gonzalo) and its international apologists
celebrate violence--murder, torture and terror--as a means to
further their quest for power. Issues of justice, fair trial and
human rights are, for them, "bourgeois" concerns, irrelevant
beside the cause of revolution. Political enemies, even those who
simply refuse to join, are by definition enemies. To kill--or in
the Shining Path argot, "selective annihilation," "behead,"
"liquidate"--is not seen as a crime but rather a revolutionary
duty.

The following represents a random sampling of sayings and quotes
by the Shining Path. I post them for information purposes and as a
response to this message. The Shining Path has not just killed 10
women. It has killed thousands. The ten detailed in "Untold
Terror: Violence Against Women in Peru's Armed Conflict" were
highlighted because we believe they were hunted down and murdered
largely because they were women and active in opposing the Shining
Path's cynical brutality.

MIM replies: The above by Americas Watch is an admission of sorts.
MIM believes the original Americas Watch press release was
muddled, because it could not decide if it was talking about
oppression of women generally or what Americas Watch considers
"feminist" in the context of Peru. We argued that it was absurd to
argue based on ten cases of women killed that the PCP
systematically killed "female civilian non-combatants."

In the above we learn that Americas Watch does in fact take
political sides in Peru. It admits its press release focussed on
women resisting the PCP. Here and elsewhere it also takes the
liberty of interpreting what the PCP "intends"--an inherently
political act.

Americas Watch continued: Not once has the Shining Path or its
fans delivered one single solitary shred of evidence linking Maria
Elena Moyano to any illegal activities while she led FEPOMUVES or
served as vice-mayor. To the contrary, the work of this woman was
inspirational and exemplary.

MIM replies: MIM never claimed Moyano did anything "illegal." In
fact, MIM went to great lengths to show that her party had a hand
in writing the very "laws" of the military regime in Peru. We
remind the readers that Moyano's party in particular joined the
cabinet of the Fujimori regime after supporting Fujimori in the
elections.

Americas Watch continues: Born in poverty, Moyano fought to get an
education and help her community, the people of Villa El Salvador.
She was a radical feminist, a brilliant, articulate woman who
believed in peace. Yes, she supported the formation of local self-
defense groups, though never at the behest of the Armed Forces.
That is a lie and a calculated misrepresentation. Her plan was to
have self-generated, self-organized groups to protect people from
the Shining Path murder squads as well as common thieves, rapists
and gangs.

MIM replies: The above again contains some valuable admissions
especially for the readers without the time to do the research.
Americas Watch has now conceded some key points we made in our
criticism:

1) Moyano was a government official. 2) She was involved in armed
struggle against the PCP, albeit not necessarily as a combatant
herself. Neither of these two points were made in the original
press release. MIM asks the reader how much it trusts a "human-
rights" group that a) takes sides politically and uses judgmental
terms like "popular" and "feminist" the way political activists
do; b) omits to mention that Moyano was a government official and
organizer of armed "patrols;" and c) admits as such only under
public pressure and in a backhanded way?

In contrast, MIM does not try to hide behind neutral-sounding
blather about "human-rights." We tell our readers straightaway our
values and what bourgeois sources we use to contradict bourgeois
propaganda.

Finally, MIM would like to point out the consistent lack of
standards used by our critics. In the early 1980s, many of us
including MIM's founders were able to see through the lie that
death squads in El Salvador were not connected to the government.
We were not so naive and neither was most of the world's "human-
rights" community.

But when it comes to Peru and its armed patrols THAT ARE OPENLY
ORGANIZED BY GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS IN A GOVERNMENT SUPPOSEDLY
GUILTY OF SYSTEMATIC HUMAN-RIGHTS ABUSES, then Americas Watch
believes the propaganda that the "patrols" operate on their own!
While conceding that Moyano was a government official organizing
armed struggle against the PCP, Americas Watch doesn't think this
is the same as the army!

Just as the United Left used to claim it was independent of the
regime (until it actually supported Fujimori and took cabinet
positions in some instances like the case of Moyano's party in the
United Left), now the Americas Watch continues to act as if
government officials organizing "patrols" are somehow independent
of the regime. Americas Watch should just come out and endorse the
United Left and be honest about it.

Americas Watch continues: Whether such a plan would work is an
open question. But that's not really why the Shining Path killed
her. They killed her because she stood up to them and was very
effective in marshalling opposition to their campaign of terror.
No slander, especially from parlor revolutionaries like MIM,
changes that. Guzman--that old white middle-class philosophy
professor--told them that killing a poor black woman in front of
her children was a revolutionary deed.

Welcome to the Shining Path "utopia."

MIM replies: Here again Americas Watch obscures the whole social
character of the revolution in Peru. Perhaps it would care to deny
that indigenous people of the PCP majority are pitted against a
predominantly white ruling class? Would Americas Watch deny that
the PCP is 40-50% women? Once again Americas Watch fails to
examine the aggregate; it only selectively analyzes individuals.

The confusion of Americas Watch, Amnesty International and others
relates to their lack of a principled conception of "human-
rights." As principally middle-class based organizations based in
the imperialists countries, these activists only care about what
would seem to threaten them; hence, they do not count starvation,
homelessness and lack of health care as human-rights violations.
In contrast, MIM agrees with President Gonzalo of the PCP that you
have to count a lot more than political violence as "human-rights"
violations.

Currently, Americas Watch and Amnesty International believe it is
a "human-rights" violation to shoot someone who denies you and
others food and shelter. For example, Americas Watch and Amnesty
International encourage resistance to the PCP when it uses
violence to secure land or shelter for the oppressed. MIM does not
believe that property owners have the right to deny the homeless
shelter to live and land to live on. We do not believe there is a
"right" to resist efforts to abolish starvation.

If the landlords gave up their land to the starving and the
homeless, there would be no armed struggle. People like Americas
Watch believe property-holders have the "right" to live free from
violence, even if that "right" deprives others of life itself.

MIM disagrees, because MIM has a more thoroughly humane conception
of "human-rights." As Comrade Gonzalo has pointed out, a lot more
Peruvian children die from starvation and related diseases in ONE
YEAR than the 27,000 killed in 13 years of civil war. But Americas
Watch doesn't count the starving. It only cares about what the
middle-class can see--armed struggle against the perpetrators such
injustices.

FAMILIAR WITH FUJIMORI

To MIM:

If it had not been for the fact that I am Peruvian and have
recently lived near the Castro-Castro prison, I would have been
more skeptical of MIM thought and ideas. The horrors of the
genocide committed by Fujimori's fascist government upon the party
[PCP] people is repulsive. Having met many of these young comrades
I can say that they are true examples of bravery and creative
spirit. Inside the prison, they are meticulously clean,
organized, etc.; outside, the same.

In all, I praise MIM for its creative spirit and socialist faith
in putting forth their point of view. I will nevertheless
criticize your commercial "adventurism" in the pricing of your
material. As you are aware, the people that are uplifted by your
paper are people of limited resources, working class (many). Keep
the cost reasonable.

Remember what happens to people who commerce with the poverty and
suffering of the people. Keep up the good work.

--a friend in the East

P.S. Try to put out more articles from El Diario. They were hard
to come by in Peru. I am delighted you have access to them.

MC67 responds: We thank the comrade for taking the time to write
to MIM. It is inspirational when we get letters from the masses in
support of the PCP, and state their repulsion of the fascist
Fujimori regime. Through our articles on the PCP, MIM builds
public opinion to support our Maoist comrades in their fight
against fascism and imperialism. As for the prices of our
materials, we barely get any profits from our sales, and with a
few materials we actually lose money. We take our comrade's
suggestions at heart, and will investigate our prices.

A YOUNG SUPPORTER

Dear MIM,

Thank you for the literature you sent me. I have decided to order
other literature from you. Enclosed is a six dollar money order,
and the literature sheet you sent me is filled out.

I'd like to admit I'm 13 years old, believe it or not. But I have
my own copy of the "Communist Manifesto" by Marx and Engels, and I
also believe, just as your organization does, that Mao Zedong was
a great leader who inspired the Chinese workers and peasants, and
also people around the world, and Mao fought against U.S.
imperialism.

I'd like to present some of my views. I believe that, in 1976,
after Mao died, China took a counter-revolutionary move to state
capitalism. You also state that the Cultural Revolution in China
was the farthest advancement of communism in human history. I
agree with you very much.

I'm very glad that you say the Black Panther Party was the Maoist
party of the late 1960s. The Panthers provided breakfast for poor
Black children and free health care clinics. The Panthers inspired
many, Black and white.

Again, thank you for the literature.
Sincerely,
A friend in the East

* * *

SOMALIS RESIST AMERIKAN INVASION

by MC234

On February 4, U.S. Marines shot and killed a 13-year-old Somali
boy. They claim that the boy, Omar Ahmed Mohammed, was about "to
throw something on a military truck, and a United States Marine,
believing it to be a grenade, shot and killed him."

Not only was there no "grenade" (or any other object) recovered,
but the boy was shot in the back. Also, "if the boy had been close
enough to climb on the back of the truck, as military briefers
suggested, there probably would have been powder burns around the
gunshot wound, but none were visible, said Dr. Kevin James, deputy
commander for clinical support at the hospital."(4)

The Marine Corps claims to be investigating the incident, but
witnesses "along the street where the killing occurred said that
no investigators had returned to the scene." The Marine has not
been placed on restrictive duty pending completion of the
inquiry.(4)

"That man is going to have live with this the rest of his life,"
said Capt. Joe Davis. "Lul Mahmoud Mohammed, too, will have to
live with the loss of her last remaining child." Her two other
children were killed by artillery shelling in the imperialist-
generated civil war.

"The way these men [Amerikans] are acting they aren't solving
problems, they're creating them," she said.(4) Twenty days after
Omar's murder, enraged residents of capital city Mogadishu
responded.

Focus on Amerika

On February 24 Mogadishu burst apart "as rampaging mobs shouted
for American troops to leave, pelted U.S. and U.N. forces with
rocks and looted the still functioning Egyptian and French
embassies." The attacks on Amerikan forces were set off by 'fiery'
radio broadcasts by 'warlord' Mohamed Said Hersi the evening
before. He said, in part, "You have to defend your freedom, your
honor and not allow yourselves to be under colonialism."(5)

"By 8 a.m., bands of young men and women were setting up
roadblocks and throwing rocks at ... white U.N. tanks, and armored
cars at the strategic traffic circle."(5)

According to the capitalist propaganda machine, Amerika invaded
Somalia to end the civil war there. But the Somalis know that a
return to colonialism is far worse than civil war.

Imperialists plan to stay

The rioting and other attacks on Amerikan "law and order" in
Somalia has pushed the date back for the transfer of Amerikan
military control to U.N. troops until late May or early June.

In March, there were 15,000 U.S. troops and 14,000 soldiers from
22 other countries policing Somalia. U.N. Secretary General
Boutros Boutros-Ghali plans to replace that force with a 28,000-
member U.N. contingent. He also plans to have the United States
leave a "quick-reaction" force that "will number between 3,000 and
5,000 troops, and will contain attack helicopters and 'highly
mobile' ground troops."(1)

This is a small increase in the amount of troops needed in order
to maintain imperialist control over Somalia. While the flag
giving the orders may change, the overall goal of protecting
imperialist interests (especially that of the U.S.) will be
preserved.

Give with one hand, shoot with the other

MIM is not fooled by the sugar coating that the capitalists put on
imperialist violence in Africa. Amerika is not concerned with
starvation in the Third World or in the oppressed nations inside
its border ITAL except END when that starvation interferes with
the accumulation of profits.

Starvation in Somalia is not a freak of nature; it is a direct
result of Amerikan imperialism and Soviet social-imperialism
during the Cold War. Now Amerika's military is engaged in the
final act of dividing Somalia and its people in order to extract
greater and greater super-profits.

The Amerikan military was sent to Somalia to help non-
governmental organizations (NGOs) complete the destruction and
remaining independence of the Somali economy. "By monopolizing the
sale of foodstuffs and medicines, the NGOs will achieve complete
control of Somalia's distribution system.

"U.S. troops are in Somalia to enforce this NGO-led market
transformation; to kill any dissenters; and to control the exodus
of Somalis. To date, 980,000 people (15% of the population) have
fled Somalia. More than half a million (12%) are projected to die
of starvation.(2) The United States wants enough Somalis alive to
carry out this planned economic subsumption."(3)

Notes:
1. Boston Globe 3/5/93, p. 2.
2. Africa Confidential 8/28/92, p. 2.
3. MIM Notes 72 Jan. 93, p. 8, $1.
4. New York Times 2/20/93, p. 1,4.
5. Boston Globe 2/25/93, p. 2.

* * *

PERU'S PCP DEFENDED IN BELGIUM

by a comrade

BRUSSELS, FEB. 20--An impressive group of speakers addressed a crowd
of 300 at a hearing in Brussels today, on the atrocities committed
by the Peruvian government and the just resistance waged by the
Communist Party of Peru (PCP). The hearing was sponsored by the
Parti du Travail de Belgique (Workers Party of Belgium), the
Comite Sol Peru, and perhaps others.

Speakers included Luis Arce Borja, the editor of El Diario
Internacional; the La Torres, parents-in-law of Chairperson
Gonzalo of the PCP; and Carol Andreas, an U.S. feminist scholar.

The La Torres, Peruvian exiles themselves, spoke of Gonzalo's
imprisonment and the abusive treatment he and other prisoners
receive. Se�ora La Torre eloquently stressed the importance of
Gonzalo's leadership in the revolution, and the importance of the
fight against the Fujimori dictatorship's terror.

"We are all witnesses that the dictatorship is committing a crime
and using terror, prison and death to silence the free press and
all that protest," she said. "All this as part of its infamous
policy of genocide against the people."

Carlos Torres spoke of his persecution by the Peruvian government
while he was in Peru. He was not working with the PCP in Peru, but
the police arrested him many times, beginning in 1986. He and his
colleagues in prison were tortured by government officials who
accused him of participating in assassinations and other actions
committed by the PCP.

After one of his arrests, the PCP announced that La Torres had
nothing to do with the acts he was accused of, but still the
police would not release him.

Torres spoke of the conditions in the jail, where cocaine is
allowed in freely so that prisoners will use it and get addicted.
While he was in prison, he added, Amnesty International refused to
report on his situation. Only the people of his town spoke up on
his behalf--in spite of all the repression they faced--pointing up
a theme all the speakers stressed: the strength of the resistance
of the masses in the face of severe repression.

The PCP's image

Luis Arce Borja discussed media coverage of Peru and the PCP. He
pointed out that the PCP used to be portrayed as just exotic and
fanatic, but as the revolution advanced the criticism changed
radically. Now they are accused of being brutal neo-fascist
narcotraffickers, responsible for all deaths in the country. The
campaign against the PCP and Maoism will only grow, he added.

He called the propaganda about narcoterrorism a prop created to
legalize a U.S. military intervention. The economy of Peru is
sustained by drug money, he added, but instead of reporting this,
the bourgeois reporters accuse him of being funded by drug money
without any evidence. He recounted accusations that El Diario and
the books he edits have been funded with drug money in spite of
clear evidence to the contrary.

Borja talked about Maria Elena Moyano, a woman killed by the PCP
who is now held up by the bourgeoisie as a symbol of PCP
brutality. He pointed out that the PCP does not oppose the glass
of milk programs that Moyano worked with. But it does oppose the
use of these programs to manipulate the masses into peacefully
accepting their oppression.

Carol Andres also spoke about the myth of Moyano's heroism. She
said Peruvian government sometimes gives in to small "feminist"
projects because they are in collaboration with the government--
with a few progressive ideas--and this helps the government. As
Borja noted, Moyano also worked with the government ITAL rondas
END, or anti-PCP death squads.

Andres, who has written extensively about feminism in Peru, noted
that reformists say women can only fight peacefully, but the PCP
has demonstrated in practice that revolutionary feminism works. As
an example, she cited the virtual elimination of domestic violence
against women in the areas the PCP has liberated.

PCP women don't have to prove themselves as more macho than the
men to be respected; instead they are respected for their
intelligence and revolutionary practice. She concluded that women
of the world should be inspired by Janet Talevera and the many
other women of Peru who died, giving their lives to the
revolution.

Struggle rages on

In Peru, the contradictions at the root of the revolutionary
struggle continue to intensify. In recent months, the People's
Guerrilla Army, the armed wing of the PCP, exploded car bombs at a
Coca Cola plant and IBM offices in Lima, causing heavy damage.(1)

The attack on these imperialist icons came as the United States
and Japan were arranging to form a "support group" to help Peru's
regime meet a $400 million balance of payment due to the
International Monetary Fund and World Bank. The payment would
qualify Peru for $1.4 billion in new IMF loans -- to pay back the
United States and Japan.(2)

Despite lip service to a flurry of protests from Amerikan "human
rights" groups, an anonymous State Department official told
Reuters that the U.S. had already decided to back Peru's loans,
and that "...the human rights concerns were expected to cause only
'a little delay.'"(3) Sure enough, two weeks later the Clinton
administration pledged its aid after Peruvian officials promised
to "take steps to improve the rights situation."(4)

Meanwhile, Peru's Industry Ministry reported manufacturing output
dropped 7% in 1992, as did food and drink (7%), clothing (14%),
metals and machinery (17%), fish meal and oil (20%), paper and
printing (40%). Underemployment for Lima is a staggering 78%,
twice what it was five years ago.(5)

The polarization of Peruvian society is increasing directly with
the devastation to Peru's economy caused by the IMF and World Bank
programs. That means an increasing mass social base supporting
revolution. The more imperialist banks loot and rape Peru's
resources and people, the more the people rise up to rid Peru of
imperialism, and overthrow the parasitic and murderous comprador
state that serves it.

MIM agrees with Andres and the other speakers, and takes
inspiration from those who have given their lives in defense of
the revolution in Peru and those who fight daily in the name of
the people. Public forums on Peru such as the one in Brussels are
an important means of informing people and advancing the struggle
against imperialism internationally.

MIM does similar work in the United States. If you are interested
in getting involved with the struggle to defend the revolution in
Peru within Amerika write to MIM.

ITAL --With MCBeta END

Notes:
1. Reuter (nLAMP12803)
2. Reuter (nN2179055)
3. Reuter (nN22106847)
4. Reuter (nN0485465)
5. Latin American Economy & Business, Feb. 1993, p.9

* * *

THE BLACK PANTHERS REPAINTED

by a comrade

"I am still a political revolutionary," said former chairperson of
the Black Panther Party Bobby Seale in February. "More so: I am a
political revolutionary ITAL humanist END."

"Compared to Reagan and Bush," Seale said, "Bill Clinton is ITAL
excellent END," and at least the L.A. cops went to trial for
assaulting Rodney King ...

Seale spoke at Mount Holyoke College in Western Massachusetts on
February 15, as part of the college's Black History Month
celebrations. Seale, who was supposed to appear in a debate with
former Panther Eldridge Cleaver, delivered a long stand-up routine
that showed, mostly by omission, the dangers of associating
revolutionary movements with individuals.

The Seale/Cleaver tour, and the recent round of books about the
Panthers by ex-members, point up the need for more focused
attention on the history of the Black revolutionary struggle.
Seale speaks in the tradition of former movement leaders who,
instead of renouncing their pasts, rewrite history to fit their
current reformist or counterrevolutionary politics.

To hear Seale tell it now, the BPP was a reform-minded party
devoted to winning "political-electoral power" for the Black
people; not a revolutionary nationalist and communist party
studied in the theoretical writings of the Chinese and Russian
revolutions, and the liberation struggles of Third World people
everywhere. He tells it as if the theory of people's war and
national liberation (which he doesn't mention) were just tools
used to win Black votes in local elections.

"At that time, we'd protest anything," he claimed. "We sent a
thousand people to Cuba--for the hell of it."

Rather than criticize the BPP of the past, Seale makes it fit into
his present mish-mash of random politics. The Civil Rights
Movement achieved civil rights for Blacks, he says, the Black
Power movement achieved political rights (Black elected
officials), and now--with all that won--the movement should focus
on economic rights.

First, the civil rights won in the 1950s and 1960s were important
victories, but a sham in the long run. By making possible the
success of a sold out Black middle class, they made way for the
political "rights" of the 1970s and 1980s, when white rule was
handed over to neocolonialists in black-face. Neither of these
developments advances "economic rights." By themselves, they
undermine Black liberation more than further it.

Seale's approach to "economic rights?" He proposes renovating
abandoned cars in the ghetto and outfitting them with electric
motors. In the process, he reasons, there will be good money to be
made, and the cars will end up more environment-friendly!

All this is good reason to drop the tired old leaders, learn from
the lessons of their former practice, and move on to make
revolution.

MIM censored: truth not told

In that spirit, MIM attended the Seale talk to sell MIM Notes and
pamphlets on the BPP and struggle with students. Against that
spirit, the organizers of the Black History Month events kicked
MIM out of the building for selling literature, and the campus
police ordered MIM to stop selling literature anywhere on campus.

The final straw for police and event organizers was selling Seale
a copy of the MIM pamphlet "Maoism and the Black Panther Party"
for $1. MIM is in the hard position of trying to tell the truth
about the BPP in the face of the misleading personal testimonies
of sold-out former leaders. Given the choice between the MIM
pamphlets and the electric-cars idea, the state went with Seale
and censored MIM.

The BPP was not a perfect party. They had not learned many of the
still-new lessons of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in
China. They had not learned the dangers of focoism, and they did
not have a completely consist line or practice. (For a detailed
critique, send $2 for a copy of the pamphlet postpaid, cash or
check payable to "ABS.") As time went by, their own internal
contradictions and a massive, murderous campaign of state
repression whittled away at their revolutionary force.

But the BPP was the vanguard of the revolution in the United
States at the end of the 1960s, and many of their ideas remain
crucial today. Communist leadership of the revolutionary national
liberation struggle of the internal colonies is still the best
approach to revolution in Amerika.

Like the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), the dominant history of
the Black Panther Party was written first by the (temporary)
victors--the bourgeoisie, patriarchy and the state. Then the
losers who give up enough of their old politics to be granted a
hearing by the victors get a chance.

The main stories of the Cultural Revolution heard in Amerika are
told by the petty-bourgeois intellectuals who fled socialist China
at the time, or who write memoirs as representatives of the anti-
communist regime in power now. The voices of the millions who
fought for socialism and for a communist future are largely
suppressed.

When it comes to the Black Panther Party, the history was first
told by the white press. It was a history of random violence,
crime, misogyny and death. Now come the histories of the ruined
individuals who were leaders enough to be recognized today, who
have sold out enough to be palatable to the bourgeois publishers
and media hacks.

New revisions

Two former Panthers, Elaine Brown and David Hilliard, recently
published autobiographical accounts of their time in the party,
and their works have gotten some attention in the bourgeois press.
Both books follow the authors' psychotherapy treatments.

Elaine Brown led the BPP from 1974 to 1977, after Huey P. Newton
was arrested and then went into exile. Under her leadership, the
BPP ran her for the city council in Oakland, unsuccessfully, ran
free breakfast and other community service programs, and created
the Oakland Community Learning Center. They also helped get
Oakland's first Black Mayor (Lionel Wilson) elected.

A New York Times Magazine article on Brown shows how the Amerikan
press and the ex-leaders work together to rewrite history. The
article summarizes the "underlying assumptions" of the BPP like
this: "that black life and culture have an intrinsic value that
must be acknowledged and communicated to others, that blacks in
America must seize both rights and respect, even at the risk of
white anger ..."

Described that way, the movement is no more and no less
revolutionary than Oprah Winfrey or Jesse Jackson. Brown herself
damns the party with false praise: "I loved the fact that we took
it to the wall and that we were willing to die for everything that
we said and that some of us did. Certainly there were many, many
flaws. But this was a group of heroic people, and I was part of a
very heroic effort."

Brown's psychotherapist, according to the Times, helped her "find
her way out of the morass of anger that had trapped her" after she
left the party. The result was her book, ITAL A Taste of Power: A
Black Woman's Story. END

Revolutionary feminism

The Times review of Brown's book quotes her as writing, "A woman
in the black power movement was considered, at best, irrelevant."
This is an common accusation that is most often used to denounce
the idea of Black national liberation.

The Panthers and other movements contained anti-feminist elements
in practice. But to say that women in the movement were
"considered ... irrelevant" is to deny that women largely ITAL were
END the movement. That Brown herself was the leader of the party
reflects that, as do the contributions of countless women to the
political work of the party at all levels from its start.

If men in the movement were sexist, which many were, that makes it
part of this misogynist society. Black women mostly worked in the
BPP and other Black organizations instead of in the white feminist
movement or white anti-war movement. That is a strong testimonial
that the BPP was a better alternative for Black women than the
pseudo-feminists who criticize it now offered. To call the BPP as
a whole sexist is to deny the revolutionary work of the women who
made it possible.

As much as Brown bashes the party, the bourgeois reviewer is not
satisfied: "One might also have hoped for more self-criticism and
analysis, for a greater sense that she sees the error of her
violent ways."(2)

This is part of playing up the supposed current radicalism of the
ex-leaders, and it's how the press and the ex-leaders work
together. Bobby Seale still wears a beret and says "power to the
people." Their posed radicalism now only serves to discredit the
revolutionary movement that ITAL created them END.

Seale, who made an appearance in the movie ITAL Malcolm X, END
claims to be working on a screenplay for a sequel on the Panthers.
Half the time he seemed to be describing the already-fictionalized
pictures he imagines for the box office smash to come, in which he
intends to play the role of his father.

Before Seale's dream comes true and the revisionist history of the
BPP follows the re-killing of Malcolm X onto the silver screen,
MIM urges readers to join us in writing and distributing the
revolutionary alternative--a people's history that serves not to
glorify individuals and whitewash revolution, but to uphold the
heroic struggles of the past and learn from their hard-fought
lessons for the future.

Notes:
1. NYT Magazine 1/31/93 p. 21. David Hilliard's book is ITAL This
Side of Glory: The Autobiography of David Hilliard and the Story
of the Black Panther Party END. Boston: 1993. MIM does not yet
have full reviews of these books. If you've read them, why don't
you write a review and send it in?
2. NYT Book Review, 1/31/93.

* * *

ALLIANCE FORMS TO STOP THE REVOLUTION

by a comrade

In early March, the Alliance for a Safer, Greater Detroit (ASGD)--
a coalition of community, business and law enforcement agencies
formed in May 1992 to make Detroit the "safest city in Amerika"--
organized a day-long "crime prevention" conference in downtown
Detroit.

Divided into committees such as the Fugitive Task Force, vehicle
etching, identification of dangerous (abandoned) buildings and
uniting neighborhoods, the ASGD is a fascist alliance of the
government, bourgeoisie, white working class and Uncle Tom
organizations from Detroit's Black petty bourgeoisie, united to
keep down the revolutionary aspirations of oppressed
nationalities.

Michael Walker, executive director of the Task Force on Violent
Crime, set the tone for the conference as its keynote speaker.
Walker is a special advisor to the Amerikan Bar Association's
committee on the drug crisis, a member of the California and
Midwest Gang Investigators, and the Center for Adolescent Health's
Task Force on Adolescent Violence. He has "training" in the areas
of cocaine and crack usage, drug-use forecasting and gang
behavior.

The mission of the Fugitive Task Force is to coordinate resources
of all Alliance members to investigate and apprehend fugitives
wanted for serious felonies. The coordination of this operational
personnel is the responsibility of the FBI violent crime
supervisor in Detroit.

Formed in July 1992, the goal of the Fugitive Task Force is to
arrest 300 of the worst offenders/felons. So far in 1993, the
force has arrested 152 "fugitives," and located another 38. The
force consists of seven FBI agents, two Wayne County deputy
sheriffs, two officers from both the U.S. Marshal's Office and the
U.S. Secret Service, and one officer from the Michigan State
Police.

Other law enforcement agencies represented in the ASGD are the
U.S. Attorney's Office, Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), and the
U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms (ATF). The heavy
involvement of ITAL federal END agencies is consistent with the
federal government's increased involvement to prosecute drug-
related crimes, ever since former President Bush declared a war on
drugs in 1989.

The executive committee of the ASGD consists of John Broad,
Chairman of the Greater Detroit Chamber of Commerce Public Safety;
John O'Hair, Wayne Country Prosecutor; Horace Sheffield, civil
rights activist, union leader and newspaper columnist; and James
Trent, President of Citizens Coalition against Crime.

Blacks and Detroit business

Business interests in the ASGD include Ford Motor Co., Chrysler,
NBD Bank, Manufacturers Bank, Detroit Bar Association, Consumers
Power Co., and Detroit Edison Co.

Completing the alliance between the Black petty bourgeoisie and
the white working class to imprison more and more members of
oppressed nationalities, particularly young Black men, the Detroit
Urban League, NAACP, Detroit AFL-CIO, and the Trade Union
Leadership Council also participate in the AGSD.

With the prison rate of Black males at 3,109 per 100,000 in
Amerika, compared to 729 in South Africa, MIM sees the
contradictions in Amerika increasing to explosive levels between
white Amerika and the oppressed nationalities, and these
contradictions will have their organizational manifestations in
operations like the ASGD.(1)

The ASGD, like numerous other "alliances" or task forces in other
cities, was created to eliminate drugs by further attacking and
destroying communities of oppressed nationalities. The
establishment of these fascist organizations indicate that white
Amerikkka is scared of more urban rebellions of the kind that
swept Los Angeles in 1992.

Notes: Perdue, William Dan, ITAC Systematic Crisis: Problems in
Society, Politics, and World Order END ITAC (NY: Harcourt Brace
Jovanovich College Publishers, 1993), pp. 515-516.

* * *

NATIONAL SERVICE, NATIONAL SERVITUDE

by MC86

On March 1, President Clinton unveiled a National Service plan to
students at Rutgers University, living up to the praise of his
economic advisor Rudiger Dornbusch, who remarked in February,
"Clinton says, 'Let's try changing culture, not just spending
more.'"(1)

Clinton that in return for student loans, a first-strike force of
2% of Amerika's college students will: "Help our police forces
across the nation, training members for a new police corps, that
will walk beats, and work with neighborhoods and build the kind of
community ties that will prevent crime from happening in the first
place; we'll ask young people to work to help control pollution
and recycle waste, to paint darkened buildings and clean up
neighborhoods, to work with senior citizens and combat
homelessness and to help children in trouble."(2)

What about the homeless whom these vigilantes "combat?"

The National Service is to distribute the proposed $3.4 billion
through 1997 to the already existing poverty-pimp organizations in
the ghetto/colonies. These groups were "unable" to spend $267
million of the $500 million Bush made available to them for
"summer jobs" after the Los Angeles rebellion in 1992.(3)

The reason this money was not spent is because it would have
pumped too much independently useable capital into the internal
colonies before Amerika figured out how to police and control such
potential power.

The first phase of National Service allocates "$15 million for
eight-week 'Summer of Service' programs for roughly 1,000
teenagers from poor neighborhoods or broken homes in up to 10
communities." The teenagers will receive minimum wage for
"administering immunization programs for young children and test
for lead paint..."(3)

MIM gets it: 100,000 white college students will receive a free
education in advanced technology in return for staffing armed
patrols of locked-down ghettos. One thousand ghetto youth will get
chump-change for inoculating dark children with whatever new
disease the Center for Disease Control has decided to unleash upon
the permanently unemployed. Education for brown youth will come in
the form of learning how to clean up radioactive toxic waste
dumps.

These are ITAL precedents END that are being set up for drafting
oppressed youth into Pentagon-run forced-labor camps. These youths
are being downsized out of the armed forces--where they could
receive military training and get their hands on automatic weapons
and explosives--and into surplus-value producing infrastructure-
repairing chain-gangs.

National Service is part of Clinton's plan to wrap the Amerikan
ruling class's ongoing, profit-heavy economic restructuring in a
new suit. The president's "deficit-cutting" plan is a web of
deceit.

Newsweek whispered that the "five year [deficit] cut of $473
billion is slightly less than the much-maligned Bush budget
agreement in 1990 of $482 billion."(4) According to another
"expert," "The Bush presidency was a grand experiment in the
Clinton national economic strategy."(5) Clinton's economic
"miracle" is basically the same economic program that the Bush
administration had been practicing for more than two years.

Clinton wants to end welfare payments to "able-bodied" people
after they have been mauled by the welfare system for two years.
The "earned income tax credit"--touted as "eliminating" family
poverty--will be available only for those who work 40 hours a week
and, in effect, will only subsidize two-parent families.

War industry jobs are being converted to jobs in the financial,
marketing and technological service sectors; some pay better, some
pay worse. Corporate downsizing of several million private-sector
jobs has put a minor squeeze on the white working class; but the
capitalists and their retainers--as a group--are doing
extraordinarily well.

The very lucrative deficit is not a problem for capitalism--its
growth indicates the good health of a drunkenly profitable
financial industry. Keeping the public focussed on the mysterious
"deficit" has the political advantage of letting the "deficit"
absorb all the blame for problems caused by ordinary capitalism.
Imperialism is not harmed by the deficit--although it will be
overthrown by the desperate.

Who's desperate?

As Clinton spins his web, the Department of Housing and Urban
Development is forcibly removing members of the Black and Latino
Nations from public housing and Section 8 "subsidized" housing
stock through outright terror and phoney "economic development"
and "resident management and homeownership programs" calculated to
"privatize" the physically ruined projects.

A project tenant commented to MIM, "No wonder they are kicking us
out! They need someplace for all those unemployed whites to go!"

Advances in computerization have put "at risk ... 16.7 million back-
office workers who process orders and track inventories."(6) These
are the very jobs that non-white females were allowed to have
during the bubble preceding Amerika's restructuring.

Profit does not arise from machines. It arises like smoke from a
fire of sacrificed and burning poor people. The global market
sucks it's actual cash profit primarily from the militarily
occupied and deliberately devastated Third World.

As value-producing Amerikan-owned enterprises have been re-sited
into cheap Third World labor-markets--including social-fascist-run
China--technological advances in Amerika have made it possible to
increase productivity by temporarily displacing millions of non-
productive "working" Amerikans. In order to keep the bought-off
settler population fat and sassy, room for a slightly reduced
expansion-rate of living standards must be seized by the white
working class under government guidance.

Clinton's continuation of Bush's economic agenda is not so much
intended to remedy the symptoms of inevitable cyclical recessions;
as it is intended to further the ITAL resettlement END of Amerika.
It is designed to further liquidate the internally oppressed
nationalities and to keep the bulk of Third World immigrants
locked in economic stagnation outside the borders of Amerika's
exclusionary free-trade paradise.

Notes:
1. San Francisco Chronicle 2/20/93, p. A3.
2. New York Times 3/2/93, p. A10.
3. SFC 2/20/93, p. A3.
4. Newsweek 2/28/93.
5. Stephen Moore, Cato Institute, SFC 2/20/93, p. A3.
6. Wall Street Journal 3/10/93, p. A8.

* * *

BLACK BUSINESS IN CAPITAL CRUNCH

Most participants at a conference on Black business in Atlanta in
February agreed that the biggest thing blocking the progress of
Black business is lack of access to capital.

A recent poll of 500 Black entrepreneurs found that 83% said
raising capital was a "very serious" problem.

There is not much evidence that Black business is improving,
overall. Black consumers spent 3% of their money at Black-owned
businesses last year. Black businesses took in 1% of total
national sales, and make up only 3% of the total number of
businesses. Blacks are about 12% of the population.

The "progress" that is reported is not good, either. The current
generation of successful Black-owned businesses is getting ahead
by getting out of Black residential areas, and away from Black
customers. The top five Black-owned businesses, which rake in 60%
of the top 25's sales, all rely on white customers.

More serious than a dependence on white business, though, is
dependence on the state. Of those Blacks who are "middle-class,"
by the definition of sociology professor Bart Landry, half of the
men, and two-thirds of the women, work for the government in one
way or another. Many of these are employed in the bureaucracies
that are supposed to look like they are helping Blacks: another
cost of liberal reform programs.

The real "Black bourgeoisie" is tiny and insignificant. In
reality, most well-off Blacks are petty-bourgeois bureaucrats,
service-providers or civil servants who are totally dependent on
the state or white economy. The few real Black capitalists are of
two kinds: either totally wrapped up in the white economy; or else
tiny and struggling in small businesses.

--MC12

Notes: Economist 2/27/93, pp. 33-34.

* * *

ANOTHER UPRISING BREWING IN MIAMI?

The trial of the four cops who beat Rodney King is not the only
killer cop re-trial going on now. Miami cop William Lozano is also
being retried for allegedly killing two Black men on a motorcycle
in Miami's Overtown neighborhood. Those killings touched off the
1989 Super Bowl Week riots, which left one person dead and more
than $100 million in damage. That riot was the fourth in Miami
since 1980. All four were sparked by white or Latino cops beating
or shooting Blacks to death.

Lozano, a Columbian immigrant, was convicted of manslaughter and
sentenced to seven years in prison in 1990. But he won a new trial
when an appeals court ruled that the 1990 Miami jury feared there
would be riots if Lozano was acquitted.

It hat not gone unnoticed by Blacks in Miami that the retrials of
Lozano and the L.A. cops are occurring at the same time. Many
believe that back-to-back acquittals would lead to Miami's fifth
riot since 1980.

The bourgeoisie has learned some lessons from previous riots, and
is organizing in advance to nip another outbreak in the bud. Their
strategy consists of community meetings between cops and the Black
community, and preparing street patrols with police, Black
ministers, and residents to walk the streets and calm people down
as the verdict approaches.

While MIM believes that creating public opinion for communist
internationalism will better ensure a revolutionary victory in the
long run for the people of Miami and Los Angeles than spontaneous
rebellion ITAL today END, we have nothing but contempt for Black
misleaders who work with the cops to squelch the people's just
rage.

--MC251

Notes: Atlanta Journal/Constitution 3/1/93, p. A2.

* * *

CLINTON ON HAITI: WHAT DID YOU EXPECT?

Secretary of State Warren Christopher now says flat-out that
Clinton's criticisms of Bush's Haiti policy during the campaign
were "ill-advised." During the campaign, Clinton called Bush's
policy "a callous response to a terrible human tragedy," and
claimed he would reverse the policy if elected.

The Clinton administration reneged on changing the policy before
Clinton even took office, instead continuing the immediate
repatriation of Haitians fleeing by boat to escape economic and
political repression.

Trying to justify Clinton's about-face to confused liberals,
Christopher insisted that Mr. Clinton has "stayed consistent with
his themes of having a more activist American foreign policy."(1)

A "more activist" Amerikan foreign policy really means a more
imperialist, more belligerent, and more repressive Amerikan
foreign policy, directed against oppressed nations within Amerika
and the Third World.

--MC251

Notes: Atlanta Journal/Constitution 3/1/93.

* * *

CHINA ADDS CAPITALISM TO ITS CONSTITUTION

Revisionist China will soon be revising its constitution to
provide a "legal basis for market oriented economic reforms." The
constitutional amendments have been approved by the Central
Committee and are expected to be adopted soon after March 15.

The amendments "will eliminate a part of the existing
constitution, adopted in 1982, that declares 'The state practices
economic planning on the basis of socialist public ownership.'
This will be replaced with a reference to China practicing a
'socialist market economy.'

"Another revision will replace a reference to the 'state economy'
with the term 'state-owned economy.'"

The bourgeoisie seized power after the death of Mao and the arrest
of the Gang of Four in 1976. A "state owned economy" is not
socialism, but state capitalism. MIM is working to defeat
capitalism in all its forms, and the only way to prevent bourgeois
restoration is through a successful Cultural Revolution during the
dictatorship of the proletariat.

--MC234

Notes: Boston Globe, 2/16/93, p. 2.

* * *

PIG LET OFF EASY IN CHICAGO TORTURE

The Chicago Police Board has just fired Commander Jon Burge for
torturing a murder suspect 11 years ago. Murder suspect Andrew
Wilson reported that "his confession was the result of coercion.
He said that he was beaten, nearly suffocated with a plastic bag,
given electric shocks, and handcuffed to a hot radiator.

"The case drew years of protest from civil rights groups and an
investigation by Amnesty International." Neither the question nor
the solution achieved was worth 11 years of study. All pigs are
the enemy, and cases like these are just clearer examples of the
repression that occurs every day against the oppressed nations.

MIM calls on these civil rights groups and Amnesty International
to stop wasting time and start building independent power for the
oppressed.

--MC234

Notes: The Boston Globe 2/12/93, p. 17.

* * *

NO TAXATION; REAL REVOLUTION!

"Queen Elizabeth II will pay income taxes just like any commoner,
but the government said it will not collect inheritance taxes from
the next monarch." Prime Minister John Major said that the royalty
will be exempt from the inheritance tax because "there would be
the danger of the assets of the monarchy being salami-sliced away
by capital taxation through generations, thus changing the nature
of the institution."

MIM, in conjunction with Maoist parties around the world, is
working to changing the very structure of the planet. MIM supports
the destruction of the monarchy and all forms of institutionalized
power. But the way to do this is through revolution, not taxation.

--MC234

Notes: The Boston Globe 2/12/93, p. 2.

* * *

FORM AND CONTENT REVISITED

A study reported to the "annual meeting of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science" confirmed yet again
that the issue of form and content in communications is central to
the liberation of women. According to the study done by a Linda L.
Carli, men are more persuaded by women speakers "who speak in a
tentative style--with such phrases as 'I kind of sort of think,'
or 'I'm really not an expert'--than by women who speak
competently."

Researchers asked 40 men and 40 women their opinion of a videotape
of men and women presenters trying to get across a message. The
women found warm and competent women persuasive but they also
found stiff and competent women persuasive. Men found serious and
competent men persuasive but they did not find serious and
competent women persuasive.

Unlike many scholars, this one took a relatively good line and did
not advise women to speak incompetently to gain the good graces of
men. Prof. Carli recognized that women should not adjust; instead
society should change.

A typical bourgeois feminist would have said to play by the rules
of the game to get ahead. Bourgeois feminists don't stop to ask
what is lost by playing by the rules.

This study is yet another confirmation that it is women who have
the most to gain by seeing scientific reasoning abilities spread
throughout society. Currently men discount the content of what
women say and examine only the tone, form and style of what women
say. This fact has devastating implications for both academic and
political education work.

Like the revolutionary feminist Redstockings before us, MIM is
often assailed for its tone of argument. When reason fails our
critics, the only thing left is to attack our style. This is a
result of the regressive influence of religion in our schools, the
ruling class's efforts to spread mysticism of all kinds (including
astrology right from the White House) and plain old sexual
privilege. The ruling class benefits from spreading ignorance
among the masses and men end up restricting women to the role of
sexual objects by discounting what they say.

At MIM we stress first of all that the tone or form of an argument
does not matter: examine the content first. Then, if one
understands the content of a communication it would be nice if the
tone of its expression reflected proletarian morality. In other
words, news and analysis of genocide and starvation should be in a
sad, angry or bitter tone, but which side of the leaflet to staple
is a more neutral tone issue.

MIM does not believe that First World women are going to rise up
in revolution because men discount what they say in
communications. The sexual conditions of First World women are too
good--which is why there is such an absence of revolutionary
feminist struggle in the First World. On the other hand, even the
secondary contradiction of women's oppression in the First World
helps us to see the intertwining of ignorance, power and sex.

--a comrade

Notes: Boston Globe 2/15/93, p. 29.

* * *

HARVARD LABOR STRUGGLE

by a comrade

A recent report by the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical
Workers/AFSCME indicates some typical views of the imperialist
labor aristocracy--the set of workers that is no longer
proletarian. A newsletter of 3,500 workers argues that "at Harvard
we average $23,000 a year and find ourselves struggling to take
care of the basics." Not surprisingly the report is entitled
"Creating a New Middle Class in America."

The report hits on all the trendy factoids of the "left"-wing of
the labor aristocracy. "Eighty three percent of the Harvard
support staff is female ... the entire American workforce is being
'feminized.' The service sector, long the realm of women workers,
is now the fastest growing part of our economy ... Men taking these
jobs are moving backwards economically ... in the past twenty years,
the median income of young families has dropped 30%." Before
concluding, the report offers lip-service to minority workers who
face economic challenges "especially fierce."

So we learn that an income 10-20 times that of Third World
proletarians is barely enough for the "basics"--by which the labor
aristocracy means a new television every year, a VCR, a car every
few years, etc. As usual for organizers of the labor aristocracy,
this particular union mobilizes oppressed groups and oppressor
groups together to join the middle class. They use the imagery of
oppression on behalf of the middle class.

For MIM's refutation of white nation working class myths, send $3
cash for a copy of MIM Theory #1. Suffice it to say we think the
Harvard Union of Clerical & Technical Workers is honestly
representative of its workers' interests. It seeks to expand the
middle-class in alliance with the imperialists. It does not seek
an end to the system of oppression. All the various cheerleaders
seeking to move the union and its workers toward revolution will
fail until material conditions change drastically.

At this time, organizing this group of workers for its economic
goals will end up doing two things--using workers who are
genuinely oppressed and proletarian and prolonging the life of the
imperialist-labor aristocracy alliance and hence preserving U.S.
imperialism's global apartheid system.

Notes: "Creating a New Middle Class in America: A O Local report"
Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers/AFSCME, Dec.,
1992.

* * *

REVIEW: THE CRYING GAME
1992

In bourgeois espresso bars across Amerika, everybody who talked
about ITAL The Crying Game END talked about ITAL the secret. END

The secret is that this academy-award nominated British film
portraying the struggles of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), is a
reactionary picture of gender and national conflict.

The movie opens with the IRA capture of a Black British soldier
who says the only reason he's in Ireland is that he needed a job.
Rather than trying in any principled way to struggle politically
with this soldier, the fictionalized, caricatured IRA holds him
for three days with a bag over his head and a gun held to it.

Fergus, the main character and IRA comrade, befriends Jody, the
hostage, something that his comrades warn against. Through the
interactions of Fergus and Jody, ITAL The Crying Game END imparts
pithy metaphors on the meaning of life and human nature.

According to the film's human nature theory--which sets up two
kinds of people, oppressors and complicit dupes of oppressors--the
IRA is a self-destructive organization that threatens to bring
everyone else down with it. The movie sets the IRA up as a
vengeful, hateful organization that randomly terrorizes people.

A revolutionary watching this movie should see Fergus's renegade
decision to befriend the soldier as a dangerous move against his
comrades; but instead, the movie sets it up so that betraying the
IRA is the only humane decision.

The audience was supposed to sympathize with Fergus's "good human
nature" and support his efforts to distance himself from the
revolution. Maoists believe that revolutionaries should struggle
politically with their prisoners, and try to recruit them whenever
possible.

After Jody is killed, Fergus feels compelled to track down Jody's
girlfriend (Dyl) in London. The big media-hyped secret was that
the girlfriend is a biological male, which is supposed to sicken
the audience as well as Fergus.

Unaware that his love interest has a penis, Jimmy (Fergus's
underground name) vomits when he discovers this in the throes of
passion. While showing the social construction of gender, which is
accurate, the film undermines this message with its portrayal of
transvestism as "disgusting."

Jimmy continues on his quest to cleanse his spirit and conscience
by taking care of the person that Jody deeply loved. Eventually
Jimmy tells Dyl that he was in the IRA, and that he was
responsible for Jody's death. An angry Dyl kills the first IRA
member she finds, and Fergus is helpless to stop it. But he does
take the rap for this last murder, and gets sent to jail.

The point of the movie seems to be that it was simply not in
Fergus's nature to kill and be a revolutionary, so he bagged his
commitment to the IRA (which was never presented as strong or
clear in the first place) for love and, ultimately, sex.

--MC31