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.
I N T E R N E T ' S M A O I S T BI-M O N T H L Y
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THE MAOIST INTERNATIONALIST MOVEMENT
MIM Notes 89 June, 1994
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. NEOCOLONIALISM AT LAST:
AZANIA INAUGURATES NEW ERA OF STRUGGLE
2. LETTERS
3. REPARATIONS FOR ROSEWOOD
4. RICHARD M. NIXON, IN MEMORIUM
5. MUMIA ABU-JAMAL ASSAULTED AGAIN
6. CORRECTIONS
7. BUILDING INDEPENDENT POWER
8. SEXUAL HARASSMENT HYPOCRISY
9. THE "FACTS" OF THE PAULA JONES CASE
10. MAOIST COMMANDOS ARRESTED
11. MOTHER JONES SHOWS ITS IMPERIALIST COLORS
12. VIVA ZAPATA!
13. ON DEADLY GROUND
14. JOHNNY DAMAS AND ME
15. UNDER LOCK AND KEY: NEWS FROM PRISONS AND PRISONERS
16. ANTI-FASCISTS MARCH IN BOSTON
17. PRIVATE PROPERTY HOLDS BACK SCIENCE
18. MAOIST JOKE
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
* * *
NEOCOLONIALISM AT LAST:
AZANIA INAUGURATES NEW ERA OF STRUGGLE
by MC12 and MAZ10
With the election of the African National Congress (ANC) and
its leader Nelson Mandela's inauguration as president,
neocolonialism has arrived in Azania (South Africa). In
name, Black rule was achieved with the country's first all-
race elections. But the new political system and government
does not represent a real challenge to the basis for white
minority rule and imperialist domination: capital, property
and land.
In political terms, Mandela's government is bourgeois-
democratic. His inauguration speech described the South
African people as being "assured of their inalienable right
to human dignity--a rainbow nation at peace with itself and
the world." In this society, he added: "Let each know that
for each the body, the mind and the soul have been freed to
fulfill themselves."(1)
Economically, the ANC promises on the one hand that little
will change--international trade, foreign investment, open
markets, and so on--but on the other hand the ANC promises
increases in social welfare, such as schools, sewage and
hospitals. Any increases in social welfare will be welcome
among the poverty-stricken population, but this is not the
stuff of liberation in the long run, without socialist self-
reliance, such advances will be neither deep nor
sustainable.
On average, South Africa's income per capita is similar to a
country like Argentina's; but that conceals the deep
inequality in which white incomes are 10 times Black
incomes, and almost half of Blacks have no formal
employment. Blacks occupy only 5% of managerial
positions.(6)
Foreign investment
In a May 3 PBS interview, Mandela said clearly that the ANC
wants foreign investment in South Africa, that they intent
to protect private investment and the right to repatriate
profits out of the country. And he said he is in close,
friendly contact with the International Monetary Fund.(2)
The ANC, which once promised to nationalize key industries,
negotiated away popular ownership of the means of production
in its backroom deals with the white government.
Mandela talks like a social-democrat who plans to spread
wealth around without uprooting the ruling classes. Such
schemes have had success in oppressor countries such as the
United States or Switzerland, but the South African state
has no such resources (it's currently in debt 7% of GDP);
and any move to increase taxation or nationalize will only
drive away the foreign investors upon which the state is
dependent. That leaves the state with the options of
increased debt, foreign "aid"--or leaving promises
unfulfilled.(6)
The new government will try to increase the strength of the
Black bourgeoisie. Capital ownership is incredibly
concentrated right now, with four groups of investors owning
three-quarters of all stock value on the Johannesburg stock
exchange. The new ANC labor minister says the government
will consider selling state-owned companies to Black
entrepreneurs--thereby moving some Blacks into positions of
relative power but leaving big capital untouched.(6)
The Azanian group AZAPO recently criticized the ANC's ties
to international finance capital: "It is common knowledge
that Mandela and de Klerk have together asked [the IMF and
the World Bank] to come and operate in South Africa and have
requested assistance from them. The U.S. administration has
indicated its willingness to be both guarantor and also
provide collateral for South Africa in this regard. AZAPO
has clearly voiced its opposition to the IMF and the World
Bank, on the basis that the two organisations represent the
greatest danger to the oppressed and exploited people of
Azania. And that, wherever the IMF and the World Bank have
been involved, the struggle for true self-determination has
been completely undermined."(3)
In "a measure designed to reassure business," according to
the New York Times, Mandela named a white National Party
leader to head the finance ministry in the new cabinet. The
National Party gets six seats out of 27, and its stooges the
Inkatha Freedom Party get another three. The National Party
will hold the ministries of minerals and mining (so much for
nationalization), finance, as well as constitutional
development and relations with the provinces--and F. W. de
Klerk is deputy president. Inkatha's Buthelezi is minister
of home affairs, which includes overseeing elections, and
Inkatha also holds the ministry of correctional services.
The ANC controls the top ministries of defense (an ANC
guerrilla commander), safety and security (a Communist Party
leader), and foreign affairs. Communist Party, South Africa
leader Joe Slovo is minister of housing.(4)
Suppressing class struggle
The ANC, having achieved its position through years of
compromise which brought it closer to the white rulers and
further from the Black masses, stressed reconciliation as it
preserved the existing power structure.
Mandela went so far as to say the ANC and the white
government had much in common because they were both outlaws
under apartheid: the ANC in the eyes of the apartheid
government, and the government in the world community. He
said: "That spiritual and physical oneness we all share with
this common homeland explains the depth of the pain we all
carried in our hearts as we saw our country tear itself
apart in terrible conflict, and as we saw it spurned,
outlawed and isolated by the peoples of the world, precisely
because it has become the universal base of the pernicious
ideology and practice of racism and racial oppression. We,
the people of South Africa, feel fulfilled that humanity has
taken us back into its bosom, that we, who were outlaws not
so long ago, have today been given the rare privilege to be
host to the nations of the world on our own soil."(1)
MIM argues: National liberation struggles must tear their
countries apart in terrible--and beautiful!--conflict if
they are to achieve meaningful freedom in newly-constructed
societies. And "hosting" nations may be fine, but
imperialist powers that exploit labor and tear profits from
the earth and the blood of the masses are not good guests!
As a result of these capitulations, whites are said to be
feeling reassured of their future on top of the heap. The
New York Times writes of a woman who, like many others,
"keeps her ANC membership card just behind her American
Express Gold Card."(4)
The ANC decline has been a long one, beginning in 1955 with
the advancement of the Freedom Charter. Still MIM and other
anti-imperialists supported the ANC in its struggles against
imperialism and white rule, even as we criticized its non-
revolutionary approach. MIM eventually said the masses would
have to overthrow the ANC and put proletarian politics in
command of the national liberation struggle if it was to be
successful.
Neocolonialism means imperialist domination through a local
national government. In the ANC, the Azanian masses have a
government that appears ready to serve the interests of
international imperialism. Mandela made that clear in 1990
on his tour of the United States, when he told a group of
investors: "We are sensitive to the fact that ... you will
need to be confident about the security of your investments,
an adequate and equitable return on your capital and a
general climate of peace and stability." (5) Such promises
are not compatible with Azanian liberation and the
development of the people's living standards and self-
determination.
The Azanian struggle has definitively entered a new phase.
The need for a communist-led national liberation struggle
will become increasingly clear as the neocolonial nature of
the ANC develops in the coming months and years. It is the
responsibility of Maoists and all revolutionaries to support
and contribute to that struggle--without falling victim to
the blindness and self-congratulation promoted by the hype
around the ANC's rise to power. Everyone says "the struggle"
is far from over, but it is the task of revolutionaries to
point out that not everyone is engaged in the same struggle,
that the "rainbow" is a farce, and that true liberation is
not on the agenda of neocolonial leaders.
Notes:
1. NYT 5/11/94, p. A8.
2. PBS 5/3/94.
3. "AZAPO's letter to the International Workers Liaison
Committee." The Organizer, 4017 24th St. Suite 19, San
Francisco, CA 94114. January 1994.
4. NYT 5/12/94, p. A8.
5. MIM Notes 43, August, 1990.
6. Economist 5/14/94, pp. 45-46.
* * *
LETTERS:
GUN CONTROL IS A WEAPON
Once again we are aiding our enemy in the destruction of our
own race. This time it is by means of gun control. The enemy
oppresses the masses and starves its victims; we then
exchange our weapons for food coupons worth twenty-five
dollars.
Does this actually curb violence? No! The enemy is solely
responsible for the violence. They have created the
conditions which breed violence. Thus, the answer is not in
exchanging our tools to counter the violence of the
government's agents of repression. The answer lies within
us. The question is: when will we correct the illegitimate
system and its U.S. imperialist powers which have
orchestrated the gang wars, the drug war, the senseless
killing for commodities as well as all the small wars that
inflict our communities?
Enemy collaborators have encouraged us to exchange our
weapons for toys, food tickets, concert tickets, etc. This
is sad and must no longer continue!
What will we use to protect ourselves when the enemy comes
to kill off entire communities of non-white people? What
will the Uncle Tom neo-slave Negroes, enemy collaborators
and the petty-bourgeoisie do when the enemy puts forth the
effort to actually re-enslave the African man and other non-
whites within current U.S. borders? What will we use to
fight against our enemies when they begin to have community
sweeps which will result in the masses of rebel youth being
forced into modern-day concentration camps?
We have been tricked once again! The enemy is moving
progressively forward in establishing their New World Order.
We are without question aiding them in establishing this
ultra-superpower at the cost of our ignorance.
We are uneducated in American politics, in World Government,
or in war. As a result of this ignorance, we are blindly
traveling to our own doom. Our ignorance is viciously being
exploited by the enemy and their puppets. Also we must not
give in to the enemy collaborators' plea for us to turn in
our weapons. And we must violently oppose those that come to
take our weapons. We must correct the wrong that has been
perpetrated by the enemy and their Black neo-slave puppets!
We must correct them by violently opposing their existence.
Their existence is detrimental to our people, our existence
and our survival! They must go! When the puppets and their
masters come to kill us, we must be able to identify them
and drop them first. Gun control is a weapon which is geared
toward the eventual disarming of all American citizens who
are not soldiers for the government. All people who are
concerned about their future survival should keep their
weapons and oppose gun control. On this note, purchase as
many weapons as you can, "legally" or by other means. We
must not give in to this reactionary law that attempts to
disarm the people in America!
--an Oklahoma prisoner, 1/10/94
MC206 responds: MIM certainly agrees that buy back programs
do not even begin to address the root of these problems and
that these problems will not disappear until we eliminate
the system which allows people to profit from drug and arms
sales. MIM also agrees that those who promote these programs
as a solution to the violence in the ghettos are misleading
the people about their situation--often consciously.
But MIM does not believe that the main evil of these
programs is that they take away the masses' weapons. Guns
are not the masses' only weapons. Their political
understanding, mass organizations, and vanguard party are
more fundamental weapons. As Mao said: "This ... so called
theory that 'weapons decide everything' ... constitutes a
mechanical approach to the question of war and a subjective
and one-sided view. Our view is opposed to this; we see not
only weapons but also people. Weapons are an important
factor in war, but not the decisive factor; it is people,
not things, that are decisive."(1)
Right now, MIM does not tell people to stockpile weapons. We
do not tell folks to off the pig when he comes to get their
guns. We do tell people to go out and build a Maoist party
and build public opinion for the overthrow of imperialism
through armed struggle. Picking up the gun too soon is as
grave an error as denying the necessity of the gun. For a
discussion of the "Armed Struggle Now" line see MIM Theory
5.
Note:
1. Mao Zedong, Selected Works, vol. II, p. 143.
MIM CAUSES STIR IN IRELAND
Dear comrades...
There are no Maoist organizations here [in Ireland], but
there is a lot of interest within the progressive camp,
something to do with the amount of Trotskyites around.
Anyway, primarily what I am writing you for are some more
MIM Notes... [T]he Notes have been selling very very easily
and the demand far outreaches supply...
Already the MIM have reached the august pages of Workers
Solidarity, a spotty and furious anarchist paper. A bit of
publicity so soon however can't be a bad thing. Obviously I
am going to write them a letter about their hysterical
banter. However I was hoping that an MC might also send a
letter...
Please respond soon.
--A revolutionary friend in Ireland
Here is an excerpt from the article "Zapata Lives!" in
Worker's Solidarity:
Today's [Zapatistas] are not anarchists. They have not said,
in any detail, what sort of Mexico they wish to live in. The
driving force behind their revolt is a burning hatred of
poverty and a semi-feudal oppression. They have yet to spell
out what form their alternative would take. They do not seem
to have learnt from Zapata that the revolution the poor need
is the one which does away with the division of people into
rulers and ruled. This lack of clarity about their goals has
allowed forces as diverse as radical Catholics and the
Stalin-worshipping Maoist Internationalist Movement to
pledge support for the rebels.
And here is MIM's letter in response:
The Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) admits to
having no perfectly defined long term plan, but it does
recognize the Mexican people's most immediate enemies.(1)
Workers' Solidarity, on the other hand, explicitly denies
the political significance of identifying one's enemies.
In Chiapas, poverty and semi-feudal conditions are the bases
for the crassest forms of oppression. The Zapatistas'
program and practice seek to eliminate these bases. They
destroyed the seat of a corrupt municipal government in San
Cristobal and liberated 179 prisoners from a penitentiary
there.(1) They have inspired peasant seizures of land. Towns
sympathetic to the EZLN have replaced local governments
which were collaborating with the Mexican armed forces with
traditional ruling councils.(2)
MIM explicitly works for the elimination of oppression of
groups by other groups. But we recognize that to get there
from here we must pass through many stages, that we cannot
defeat all evils at once but we can defeat them one an a
time. As Maoists, we point to the lessons of the Chinese
revolution, the most successful peasant based revolution to
date. In 1937, the Chinese communists recognized that the
invading Japanese army was the greatest threat to the
Chinese people at that time and allied themselves with
Chiang Kai-shek to defeat the Japanese--even though Chiang's
long term goals were diametrically opposed to theirs.
The EZLN is delivering concrete blows to semi-feudalism and
imperialism and thus deserves the support of all anti-
imperialists. Those who sling mud at the EZLN for garnering
the support of (supposedly) ideologically impure forces do
the EZLN a disservice and harm its chances of being able to
progress to the stage where it can begin to remove the
distinction between "rulers and ruled."
And for the record, MIM does not worship Stalin. We support
and admire him for building socialism in the besieged USSR
and for staving off the restoration of capitalism while he
was alive. But we agree with Mao's "70% correct" assessment
of him. Stalin made some grave errors: he was mistaken to
declare class struggle inside the USSR over, he was mistaken
to approach the problem of internal enemies as purely a
military problem, and he was mistaken to downplay the
creative role of the masses in class struggle. For an in-
depth discussion of Stalin's merits and demerits, send $5
($7 for overseas readers) for MIM's "Retaking History" study
pack.
P.S. Leninists (like Stalin) believed that peasant struggles
against feudal and semi-feudal conditions and for land re-
distribution and democracy were progressive struggles.
Maoists deepened the Leninist line on peasants. In practice,
neither the USSR or China leaped directly to agricultural
collectivization; both saw to it that large private estates
were broken up so that peasants would have decently sized
plots first.
P.P.S. Stalin himself did not particularly care for "Stalin
worshipping." He considered the so-called cult of
personality around him "vulgar and excessive" and most
likely the work of people who wanted to discredit him and
socialism.(3)
Notes:
1. MIM Notes 85, 2/94.
2. Lecture by EZLN/Mexican government peace talks observer,
Ann Arbor, MI, 4/3/94.
3. Bland, The Restoration of Capitalism in the USSR,
Wembley: Selecteditions, 1980, p. vi.
MIM NOTES DEFINITELY WORTH A BUCK
I promised a man handing out your newspapers at [a] Phish
show that I would send one dollar and read the paper if he
let me have one. So, here is your dollar and I did read it.
It was definitely worth it.
Thanks.
--A newly recruited MIM Notes reader
MIM responds: Hey, you're welcome. But don't rely on random
encounters with MIM Notes distributors: Send in $12 for a
whole year of MIM Notes (make checks payable to "ABS"). And
if you liked MIM Notes, wait till you read MIM Theory ($15
gets you all five back issues).
What books for prisoners?
In "Under Lock & Key" 3/94 it was stated that a free books
for prisoner program is being operated and that donation of
books is needed. My question is what books (titles,
subjects, etc.) are desired? I do not have the means to
support the program financially, but I do have some used
book sources which I can tap to get some very inexpensive
(sometimes free) books which I'd be willing to donate.
--Internet reader
MIM replies: Your offer of help is much appreciated. Here is
our literature list. We send any of these books that we can
for free to the many prisoners who write to us for reading
materials.
If you are able to help out with books but not with cash,
that's great. The most requested books are the prison
writings of the Soledad Brothers, Black Panther Party
literature, and Marxist classics including all Mao
literature, Franz Fanon, Chinese, Black and African history,
etc. The demand far outstrips our ability to meet it.
Anything you can send will be that much more that goes out.
We urge you and all others to read and respond to the
prisoner writings that appear in each issue of MIM Notes as
well. Contact MIM if you are interested in working more
closely with revolutionary prisoners.
* * *
REPARATIONS FOR ROSEWOOD
On April 9, 1994, the Florida Senate voted 26-14 in favor of
$2.1 million in reparations for the survivors of the
massacre of the Black town of Rosewood. The House had
already approved the bill. The Governor, Lawton Chiles, said
he will sign the legislation. Shares of the $1.5 million
package, however, are only to be given to the families of 11
or so known survivors of the massacre, and not to other
families who can trace roots to Rosewood. Only those who can
prove they lost property will be able to collect from the
$500,000 set aside to compensate families who lost homes and
land when they were run out of town. One hundred thousand
dollars is set aside for college scholarships.(1)
Survivors of the massacre who hid in swamps and thickets and
who escaped by jumping on passing trains, testified that
they saw family members knifed, shot, beaten, mutilated and
lynched.(2) Eva Jenkins, who lived in Rosewood as a child
said "I have a perfectly clear picture of Rosewood." She
remembers a prosperous place where many blacks were
landowners, ran businesses and lived in big houses.(1) MIM
thinks that this is a good explanation as to why whites in
1923 decided that Rosewood should be wiped out.
The alleged reason for the massacre was that whites were
trying to find a Black man who was accused by a white woman
of raping her. Recent investigation suggests that the woman
was lying to prevent her husband from finding out about an
affair.(3)
Key to Rosewood survivors getting money was the fact that
they are the actual survivors of the massacre. Historians,
lawyers, and state representatives differentiate reparations
for Rosewood from demands for reparations from the 31
million Blacks who descended from slaves because none of
them actually were slaves.(4) They also say Rosewood was
different because it was an action against an entire town
and not "just" an "individual" lynching.(2)
The Rosewood reparations also brought to light a similar
massacre in Ocoee, Florida in 1920. Six people died in Ocoee
because a Black man tried to vote. Twenty five homes, two
churches, and a meeting hall were torched. The people fled,
never to return to their homes.(5)
Attorneys for the Rosewood survivors distinguish Ocoee from
Rosewood because the Ocoee massacre happened in one day (not
a week) and the state did not so clearly intentionally
neglect to protect people and property.(5)
The attorneys for the Rosewood survivors made this
distinction in order to convince the legislature that giving
reparations to the Rosewood survivors would not force them
to redress the potential demands of descendants of other
groups that have faced oppression in Florida such as the
Seminole Indians, Asians, Jews, and other Blacks. In their
argument against giving reparations to Rosewood survivors,
the Florida Attorney General suggested that such claims
would be made by descendants of other groups of oppressed
people and that Rosewood reparations would set a precedent
for those demands.(2) MIM is not surprised that in seeking
redress from the Amerikan legal system survivors of one
massacre are forced to deny the claims of other oppressed
people in order to get reparations from the government for
its abuses.
Notes:
1. Orlando Sentinel 4/9/94, p. D1.
2. Inter Press Service 4/12/94.
3. See MIM Notes 88, May 1994 for more background
information on the massacre.
4. Gannett News Service 4/15/94.
5. Orlando Sentinel 3/27/94, p. B1.
* * *
RICHARD M. NIXON
IN MEMORIUM
Richard M. Nixon, a mass murderer who as head of the
Amerikan state from 1969-74 ordered the slaughter of
millions of Third World people in the name of imperialism,
died on April 22 after having a stroke four days earlier.
U.S. President Bill Clinton joined thousands of other
members of the white nation in mourning, calling Nixon a
"statesman who sought to build a lasting structure of peace"
during a "particularly difficult period of the Cold War."
We're used to bourgeois revisionism, but the outpouring of
love and affection for the renowned war criminal after his
death was truly a sight to behold. Those that offered
criticism were totally hung up on Watergate, a dumb domestic
scandal in which the ex-president stole some funds and
plotted to undermine the "democratic process" in the next
election. Right, so what else is new? Without wasting lots
of revolutionary space on the guy (better to waste it on the
present-day Amerikan president who self-avowedly looks to
his Republican friend Dick as a model) MIM would like to
take this opportunity to celebrate his death with this list
of:
Nixon's top ten war crimes
10. Supported U.S. war against northern Korea while rising
to power on anti-communist platform in 1950s.
9. Orchestrated military coup to overthrow Guatemalan
president Jacobo Arbenz for the benefit of United Fruit Co.,
1954. Encored in 1973 with Chilean President Salvador
Allende.
8. Ordered U.S. troops to invade Kampuchea, April 1970.
Subsequent bombings killed hundreds of thousands.
7. Ordered bombing of Laos, February 1971.
6. Supported New York state's massacre of prisoners at
Attica, Sept. 1971.
5. Attempted to crush American Indian Movement by sending
federal troops to wage war against the Lakotas at the Pine
Ridge reservation, 1973.
4. Murdered and imprisoned leaders of Black Panther Party,
ordered massive FBI sabotage campaign COINTELPRO against the
party.
3. Propped up military dictatorships in dozens of Third
World nations including Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines
and the Somozas in Nicaragua so U.S. capitalists could
continue to reap superprofits on the backs of their people.
2. Sent sons and daughters of Amerika's oppressed nations to
die by the tens of thousands in Indochina as cannon fodder
for white nation imperialism.
1. Ordered Christmas 1972 bombing of Hanoi, capping four
years of brutal warfare against the Vietnamese people in his
administration alone.
In closing, allow us to offer this heartfelt benediction:
May Nixon burn in hell along with the imperialist interests
he represented so well for so long.
--MC11
* * *
MUMIA ABU-JAMAL ASSAULTED AGAIN
The executive producer of National Public Radio's "All
Things Considered" wanted to air a regular commentary by
former Black Panther Party leader Mumia Abu-Jamal from death
row. Public announcements had gone out, earning the network
valuable attention. But Philadelphia's Fraternal Order of
Pigs and NPR's higher echelons thought otherwise.
Managing Editor Bruce Drake said he had "serious misgivings
about the appropriateness of using as a commentator a
convicted murdered seeking a new trial." He pulled the rug
out from under Abu-Jamal.
Abu-Jamal's political consciousness and eloquence are
powerful. With his appeals currently exhausted, his best
hope for survival may be clemency, which could in turn be
affected by the kind of public opinion a regular NPR
commentary would have generated, even though NPR said he
would not discuss his own case.
And that made airing the commentary too risky for the
liberal public radio empire. Specializing in sorrow and
poignancy, the network has no use for a convicted cop killer
who may yet survive.
MIM has long argued that the oppressed need independent
media, media that can be trusted not to cynically manipulate
them for self-serving purposes. MIM Notes publishes hundreds
of letters and articles from political prisoners across the
country--most of whom have no name recognition, no Ed Asner
to back them up--and we will never censor them to please Pig
Central.
To end the mass incarceration and murder of political
prisoners in Amerikan gulags, distribute, struggle with,
support and write for MIM Notes.
--MC12
Notes: New York Times 5/16-5/17/94.
* * *
CORRECTIONS:
The Rwanda article in MIM Notes 88, May 1994 was written by
MC6T and MC86.
The address on the inside cover of MIM Theory 5 advertising
Communist Party of the Philippines literature is incorrect.
The address should be PO Box 3576, Ann Arbor, MI 48106-3576
The address in the ad for MIM Theory 5 in the last MIM Notes
had the incorrect zip code. It should be 48106-3576.
* * *
BUILDING INDEPENDENT POWER
On April 19 and 20, a powerful people's demonstration took
place in the Bayview Hunter's Point area of San Francisco.
As the Black population of San Francisco is driven out of
town at the rate of 1% of those remaining every year, people
are organizing themselves to fight for power.(1)
The Bayview Hunter's Point has a Black male unemployment
rate of 60%.(2) The community is inundated by light industry
and sewage and electrical plants, in which the residents of
the area are denied employment. Thousands of trucks from all
over Amerika rumble like smokey buffalos down Third Street,
a main artery into San Francisco on which truck traffic is
illegal. Well-paid workers from all over the Bay Area
commute every day to the plants and industrial parks off
Third Street--past the eyes of hundreds of unemployed men
and women.
The resources of the once-vibrant community are being sucked
dry. All that is left behind are toxic wastes and poverty
program funds that stick only to the poverty pimps.
The idle Hunter's Point shipyard is an EPA Superfund site,
full of radioactive and toxic wastes, sitting on a billion-
dollar piece of real-estate. Before it can be developed, the
toxics must be removed. Hundreds of millions of dollars have
been allocated by the Navy to clean it up for profitable use
by developers who are cutting deals with the corrupt San
Francisco City government and the Navy to buy the land for
pittances.
The straw that broke the camel's back occurred when people
became aware that all of the shipyard clean-up funds were
being distributed to firms from Utah and elsewhere; and that
work had begun with no local hiring. Local media blacked out
the news. The Mayor sent experienced Black bureaucrat
capitalists to the protest to try to buy off the leaders.
False promises of jobs have been made, while the police,
city bureaucrats and their HUD and Department of Defense
advisors buy time to figure out how to either co-opt or
physically destroy the protest movement.
In early April this leaflet was distributed on Third Street
and throughout the Bayview Hunter's Point projects:
Let's fight for our rights!
Either-Or!!!
Either we get our rights or we fight!!!
We want full employment on all jobs in our community!
We want land! We want to own the land and homes being built
in our community!
The landless must lead the fight to secure land for the
landless!
The jobless must lead the fight to secure jobs for the
jobless!
The hungry must lead the fight to secure food for the
hungry!
We must unite now!
Aboriginal Blackman Unlimited
April 8, 1994
After the first set of protests, MIM received this dispatch
from Aboriginal Blackman Unlimited:
The time has come around for the African-American
communities to come together. $26 million is now being spent
in the Hunter's Point shipyard.
1. Have any of the Bayview Hunter's Point African American
people been hired? No.
2. Have any African American contractors been awarded any
bids on the jobs that need to be done? No.
3. Has there been any community participation in the
discussion? No.
We know that there wasn't any community permission given to
the kind of chemicals that are being illegally transported
through the streets of our community. We had no knowledge of
the danger.
Aboriginal Blackman Unlimited (ABU). The name means "my
father" in Arabic. Father: whose position is head of the
household. Head of the family, head of the community in
which he lives.
ABU staged a two-day demonstration at the entrances to the
Hunter's Point shipyard on April 19 and 20. The second day
stopped all traffic at all three gates for six hours. What
gave us the courage to protest, to demonstrate? The news
that $26 million has been spent to clean up the shipyard
and, once again, the Black community has been excluded! Not
one Bayview Hunter's Point resident has been hired.
Twenty years ago, more than 10,000 African Americans from
our community worked at the shipyard. The people working
there now don't even live in San Francisco! Why can't the
African American people of Bayview Hunter's Point be hired?
One hundred people came out to protest: young men and women,
jobless, landless, and hungry. They stood their ground when
a white woman deliberately drove through the line of
demonstrators trying to hit them. She did this not once, but
four times. She succeeded in hitting three African American
men and one woman. One of the men was seriously injured and
had to be taken to the hospital in an ambulance.
Police stood by watching and took no action to stop the
driver or to take her into custody. The police lieutenant
just shrugged his shoulders and said, "These types of things
happen in demonstrations." He also refused to take a report
from the victims; who had to go to the police station to
make a report which was never acted upon.
Amerika. The land of free-dom, opportunity for all--Except-
Us. Justice is for all of those who write the laws to
protect Just-Them, the powers-that-be.
Supervisor Willie B. Kennedy told the protestors their
efforts would not be for nothing. A week later, Mayor Jordan
said he would come up with 25 (minimum wage) jobs--which did
not materialize. On April 30, the Mayor held a meeting with
the protestors in his office to announce that a ship
dismantling operation creating 300 jobs would start in six
to nine months at the shipyard. What the Mayor did not say
is that there is a long waiting list of part-time union
ship-workers already waiting for these jobs. An ABU
spokesperson said, "We can't be happy, our community is on
guard and ready to resume what could be some very explosive
picketing."
The protestors are continuing to gather and strategize. They
are getting more and more support from community
organizations and more are joining the group every day. We
refuse to be excluded anymore. The fight is on and we're on
the move. Now is the time to show this system that we are
going to take back our own control.
Aboriginal Blackman Unlimited
May 14, 1994
While MIM disagrees with the gender analysis of the above
document, MIM fully supports all movements for national
self-determination. The liberation of oppressed
nationalities and the occupied colonies from Amerikan
imperialism is--and will continue to be--a step by step
process. When people get hip to the reality that "rights"
are built only on factual power, liberated national
territories may spring up in the most unexpected places as a
dying imperialism restricts the ability of the masses and
their national bourgeoisies to share in Amerika's hideous
standard of living built on super-profits ripped from the
Third World.
The long-term and ongoing genocidal diaspora of Blacks and
other exploited and oppressed nationalities means that
people will take militant stands on small territories. When
the enemy becomes truly weak, the oppressed will be able to
seize control of the stolen resources at hand. MIM's job is
to help the people realize the necessity of uniting in a
common interest with the international proletariat and use
the revolutionary tool of Maoism to save the people of the
Bayview Hunter's Point, and the world, from extinction by
the monopoly profit-beasts.
Notes:
1. 1990 Census.
2. New Bayview Newspaper, 5/6/94, p. 1.
* * *
SEXUAL HARASSMENT HYPOCRISY
A woman named Paula Jones has stepped forward to accuse
President Bill Clinton of sexual harassment. The resulting
media reaction has been so contradictory that MIM only
addresses the opinions of the matter in this article. The
facts as reported by the respectable bourgeois press are
widely varying. (See sidebar).
For the Boston Globe, two men openly pleaded confusion and
contradiction. First David Shribman noted that the press
kept the story buried for months while many of the same
reporters and columnists jumped all over Clarence Thomas.
(See MIM Theory 2/3 for MIM's views on Anita Hill vs.
Clarence Thomas.) Shribman concludes "There are so many
competing claims of fairness that the word is fast losing
its meaning, and so is the work we do."(1)
Later Clarence Page openly pleaded "mea culpa" in his column
on the Boston Globe opinion page. He admitted he was gungho
to get Clarence Thomas with Anita Hill, but did not want to
attack the left-leaning Bill Clinton with Paula Jones.(2)
The reporters agree that Paula Jones got national attention
once she went forward in a partisan press conference
sponsored by the Conservative Political Action Committee.(1)
Apparently the first borderline establishment media
organization to report the case was the right-wing fanatic
American Spectator.
Next a liberal woman from the press made no bones about
jumping all over Clarence Thomas while letting Clinton off
the hook. Anna Quindlen tried to argue that Paula Jones's
claims had no merit relative to Anita Hill's, but she left
out one difference: the fact that Paula Jones's public
claims were late, but much less late than Anita Hill's. What
Jones is talking about happened only three months before
Clinton declared his candidacy for president.
Here's what Anna Quindlen admitted: "There's no doubt
liberal ideology plays a clear role in all this, making
feminists less eager to embrace the accuser of a pro-choice
President than that of a conservative jurist. There's no
doubt feminist ideology should make us demand that Ms. Jones
not be crucified on the altar of rumor and sexual innuendo,
as Ms. Hill was."(3) Also notice that she didn't say she
would let off all pro-choice men, only pro-choice
presidents. (MIM would read leaving all pro-choice men alone
as a strategy of making "choice" the principal contradiction
within gender oppression, something we don't agree with.)
This kind of bias toward allying with the powerful is most
evident in this case in the bourgeois press, but if Clinton
doesn't like being accused of crimes or civil injuries, he
should try talking to some of the prisoners without his
class background, against whom he has been whipping up a
frenzy.
The Wall Street Journal was most consistent. It opposed
Anita Hill's claims and it opposed Paula Jones's claims and
concluded that all losers in civil suits should pay their
opponents' legal expenses. A letter-writer softened that
stance saying a loser should persuade at least 20 percent of
the jury or pay costs.(4) This is a policy approach to cut
down legal claims of all kinds, an admirable stab at what is
possible within the capitalist system, but the Wall Street
Journal has not persuaded the rest of the ruling class on
this yet. In our opinion, the most progressive variant of
this thinking would be to reimburse criminal defendants when
a jury finds them innocent as is already required in some
charges in some localities. (The rich, white William Kennedy
Smith unfortunately benefited from this idea in Florida, but
he is not the typical defendant.) This might help cut down
some of the political grandstanding of prosecuting attorneys
seeking to win settler votes by accusing and convicting as
many oppressed people as possible.
The only thing inconsistent about the Wall Street Journal is
that it blamed Catherine MacKinnon and others for a presumed
guilty stance on sexual harassment while the Wall Street
Journal generally takes a hard-line anti-crime and pro-
conformity stance. Hence, we can see that the Wall Street
Journal is consistent in its imperialist-patriarchal
ideology if not in its anti-crime rhetoric. Like other
bourgeois mouthpieces, the Wall Street Journal raised doubts
as to whether a president should have to answer to such
accusations at all. In the sense that MIM would prefer the
masses to focus on presidents for what they generally do to
oppress people not their individual behavior, MIM agrees,
but this is not what the Wall Street Journal has in mind.
The liberal and pseudo-feminist hypocrites are now sharply
divided by Paula Jones. Likewise, the conservative
hypocrites are also divided. The more pragmatic
conservatives want to use anything to get Clinton in order
to advance their own faction of the capitalist class. The
more ideology-bound patriarchs don't want to attack Clinton
if it means giving legitimacy to feminism or pseudo-
feminism.
The liberals and conservatives are all divided and in
confusion because they all share the ideology of Liberalism-
-individualism. Once again the Wall Street Journal is most
honest, saying the problem is that there are "no standards,"
so there is no point in accusing anyone of hypocrisy on the
question. The bankers' scribes are correct on this point
too, because it is true that gender relations like all
social relations in the imperialist countries are in a state
of decay. Old social structures are no longer relevant, but
new ones with their own rules have not arisen to take their
place. Only socialism can provide new structures with new
consistent rules.
The bourgeois press has admitted its confusion on the issue.
In contrast, the longer one reads MIM Notes, the more one
realizes that MIM takes unpopular but consistent stands that
only make more sense over time. MIM held that Anita Hill
like all women in interaction with men is sexually harassed
and likewise unless Paula Jones was a hermit on an island we
don't know about, she was part of a system of sexual
harassment where all sexual contact is rape because no one
gets a chance to consent to the unequal power between men
and women in society, and rape is fundamentally about
consent.
MIM is taking the only feminist position on this question.
We are not interested in the subjective details and
individual differences between Anita Hill and Paula Jones.
In fact we point out the counterproductive strategies of
Hill and now Jones in trying to fight on the system's terms,
if what they want is really change and not just a narrow
political, monetary or prestige goal. The oppressed must
have their own press and organizations for power or they
will always make concessions to the System.
Rape and sexual harassment have nothing to do with
individual consent or "unwanted advances" the way the
Liberals claim. We won't let the imperialist patriarchy
decide what "unwanted" advances are. We insist on an
objective standard, a materialist standard, one
scientifically ascertainable by all. Such is not possible in
the decay and agonizing torment of a dying system. Work with
MIM toward power for the oppressed so that we can eliminate
the coercion currently underlying all sexual interaction in
the world.
Notes:
1. Boston Globe 5/6/94, p. 3.
2. Boston Globe 5/10/94, p. 19.
3. New York Times 5/1194, p. A25.
4. Wall Street Journal editorial page 5/10/94.
* * *
THE "FACTS" OF THE PAULA JONES CASE
There is very little factually clear about the Paula Jones
case. Not even what Paula Jones has alleged is clear.
MIM has found newspapers including the Boston Globe and
Boston Herald that claim that Jones alleges Clinton showed
her his genitalia on May 8, 1991 in a hotel. Others articles
make light of this and say the claim was that he opened his
shirt buttons.
Most papers are saying that she did not get notice for her
case until the American Spectator reported it and a
conservative action group arranged a press conference for
her. Other columnists claim she did speak out in public and
the press ignored her during the campaign because everybody
hated Bush.
Some have claimed Clinton had no influence over Paula
Jones's employment. She was a clerical worker in the state
government. Apparently she claimed she received no raises
because she turned down Clinton's sexual advances, but the
state office says she received four raises including one for
merit.(1)
It does appear that Paula Jones is 27 based on common
assertion.
Notes:
1. Boston Globe 5/1294, p. 5.
2. Except for (1), these facts are from the Boston Herald
5/7/94, p. 1.
* * *
MAOIST COMMANDOS ARRESTED
The fascist Peruvian government announced in April that it
had arrested the Maoists responsible for the execution of
one of the government's most useful supporters: Maria Elena
Moyano.(1) Moyano was lauded in the Peruvian and
international press as a feminist and leftist leader who
offered the peasants an alternative to the Communist Party
of Peru (PCP, called Sendero Luminoso or Shining Path in the
bourgeois press). In reality, she had proven herself to be a
supporter of the oppressive government and an enemy of not
only the growing Maoist revolution but of the Peruvian
people as a whole.
The Plain Dealer reported that Alvaro Espejo Sebastian and
Liliana Raquel Espinoza Figuero and six others were arrested
for the Feb. 15, 1992 assassination. MIM doesn't know
whether those arrested executed Moyano or not. If they did
do it, though, they are heroes of the people.
Maria Elena Moyano has been painted in the imperialist media
as a popular feminist who was killed because she opposed the
PCP. The Plain Dealer used the passage of time to try to
rewrite history and Moyano's popularity: "tens of thousands
of residents of the poor Villa district south of Lima
attended Moyano's funeral." Directly after her funeral, the
Peruvian magazine Oiga reported that only 3,000 persons
attended.(2) Among the attendees was the vice-president,
the interior minister, military and police officials, and
soldiers.
Moyano was no popular leader. The term "Mother Courage"
itself didn't come from the 5 million masses in Lima's
shantytowns. Rather, it came from the December 1992 issue of
Caretas. Caretas is a magazine with "well known links to the
anti-terrorist police and the paramilitary groups of the
APRA party."(3)
Nor was she poor. She was vice-mayor of Villa El Salvador,
and she "cashed in on land sales in the seventh district in
order to finance her electoral campaign in a wild and
ambitious race for a seat in parliament. She had for
herself: a cheese factory (Villa Cheeses) a grain factory as
well as other hidden businesses...."(4)
Three thousand pigs from Lima mourned Moyano. Thirty
thousand people--one half of the population--attended the
funeral of PCP martyr Edith Lagos in the smaller town of
Ayacucho in 1982.(5)
Moyano was executed not because she was a "leftist" who
disagreed with the PCP, but because she was actively working
to militarily defeat them. She denounced her political
opponents as "Senderistas" in the official media, resulting
in the arrest, kidnapping and assassination of dozens.(6)
Moyano's political party, the MAS (which sits on Fujimori's
cabinet), supported Chamber of Deputies decree number 1716
which authorized the creation of military armed and
commanded civilian self-defense committees and urban patrols
(rondas).(6)
Organizing peasants to fight the PCP with the backing of the
military made Moyano a military target.
Last year some pseudo-feminists in Peru celebrated "No
Violence Against Women Day" with the posthumous release of a
book by Moyano.(1) This is very hypocritical. Moyano was no
pacifist, but an advocate of the genocide of the Peruvian
people. The publication of this book is a paternalist
message that women should not be killed in revolution
regardless of their line or their actions.
Revolutionary feminists realize that Maoist armed struggle
is the only way to a better society. Enemies are enemies
regardless of their biological sex.
Notes:
1. The Plain Dealer 4/26/94, p. 5E.
2. Oiga 2/24/92, p. 11-25.
3. El Diario Internacional 4/92, p. 11.
4. El Diario Nacional No 620, 3/1/92, p. 8-9.
5. Wall Street Journal 1/4/83 p. 33.
6. El Diario Internacional 4/92, p. 15.
* * *
MOTHER JONES SHOWS ITS IMPERIALIST COLORS
Mother Jones should win a prize for lying so much about the
PCP in so little space. In their May/June 1993 issue, Mother
Jones ran a photograph of a captured PCP soldier and these
words:
"CHOOSING SIDES--A bloody, twelve-year-old civil war has
caught Peruvian peasants between the brutal guerrilla
insurgency of the Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso) and a
dictatorial government unable to protect them and suspicious
of their allegiances. An estimated 26,000 Peruvians have
fallen victim thus far. Villagers in Apurimac Valley have
created a third option: DECAS, an acronym for "civil defense
against subversion." To celebrate DECAS's sixth anniversary,
peasants dragged a captured guerrilla though the street. But
the third choice is proving equally deadly: like the
guerrillas, the peasants are increasingly dependent on the
coca trade to buy weapons, and like the guerrillas, they've
been accused of executing those who refuse to join them."(1)
MIM responds: Mother Jones is wise to point out that the
government has very little besides continued and increased
oppression to offer the Peruvian people. The masses
recognize that it is the PCP which protects them from the
government, not the other way around. It is this support
from the people that has enabled to the PCP to advance to
controlling about 40% of Peru.(1)
Mother Jones points out that 26,000 Peruvians have died in
the struggle, but fails to mention that most (24,000) of
these deaths have been of peasants or PCP comrades at the
hands of the government.(2)
Rondas, or "self defense" patrols like DECAS are designed to
fight the PCP. Even its name: "Civil Defense Against
Subversion" makes that clear. Who are the subversives? Hint:
It's not the government. But somehow Mother Jones tries to
paper over the truth.
As for the claim that people are forced to join the PCP,
this doesn't make any sense. If people are forced to join
the PCP, then why do the PCP comrades resist so strongly
talking under government torture in the prisons?
Finally, it's a lie that the PCP deals drugs to buy weapons.
The PCP is waging a people's war, and one of the fundamental
tenets of Maoist strategy is self-reliance. The PCP, like
other Maoist revolutionaries, get their weapons from the
troops they defeat in a battle.
The rondas aren't dealing drugs to buy weapons either. The
rondas are set up and armed by the government with the
explicit purpose of fighting the PCP.
There is no neutral position in revolution. There is the
revolution, and there is reaction. Mother Jones picked the
wrong side.
Notes:
1. Gordon McCormick, Prepared Statement before the House
Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere Affairs, 3/11/92, p. 6 in
Covert Action Information Bulletin, no. 42, p. 60.
2. El Pais, 9/20/92.
* * *
VIVA ZAPATA!
by MC11
"This is your land, but you must protect it. It won't be
yours for long if you don't protect it. Don't discount your
enemies. They will be back. If your house is burned, build
it again. If your corn is destroyed, replant it. If your
children die, bear more. If they drive you out of the
valley, live on the side of the mountains, but live! You've
always looked to leaders, strong men without faults. There
aren't any. There are only men like yourselves. They change.
They desert. They die. There are no leaders but yourselves.
A strong people is the only lasting strength."
--Emiliano Zapata to the peasants of Morelos in the movie,
"Viva Zapata!"
In the absence of news, there's always the movies.
Well, sort of. Actually that is not generally the line of
reasoning MIM would have you pursue. But news of the Mexican
rebellion that began on New Year's Day is harder and harder
to come by. With Mexico's government scrambling to
legitimize its upcoming bogus elections and convince
Amerikan investors that the capitalist state, profoundly
shaken by decades of gross inequity, is actually stable, it
is increasingly difficult to tell what the peasant-led
Zapatista National Liberation Army, (EZLN) is up to.
So if you're mired here in Amerikkkan culture and you're
pretty much forced to consume it anyway, the 1958 movie
"Viva Zapata!" is available at most video stores and you
should rent it. Directed by Elia Kazan and starring Marlon
Brando, it's the story of the rebellion from which today's
Mexican revolutionaries take their name. Aside from some
obvious Hollywood romanticization and romance stuck in, it
is as far as MIM can tell relatively faithful to the basic
historical facts--and its politics are pretty damn good.
The film opens in 1910 as a delegation from the southern
state of Morelos comes to Mexico City to petition
imperialist Spain's puppet president, General Porforio Diaz.
As with the Mayans of Chiapas, where the EZLN is based,
their complaint has largely to do with their land, seized
from them by Spanish ranchers. Diaz tells them that if they
have the right papers showing their boundary lines, their
claim will be validated in court. "Give it time," he says.
To which one of the peasants replies: "These men have no
time." They need to plant their corn so that they have
enough to eat, he explains. And the ranchers have staked
armed guards at the borders of the land they have stolen.
"What is your name?" Diaz demands. "Emiliano Zapata," the
peasant replies. Diaz circles the name on the petition, and
tells them to get out, he's busy. Now Zapata goes back to
Morelos and proceeds to arm the peasants. They win a few
victories. Zapata gets taken prisoner, and the people help
him escape. A good part about the movie is that it shows how
much pressure is on him to sell out. He wants to get
married, for example, and his girlfriend's father won't
accept him unless he has a good job and can prove that he'll
make a good life for his daughter. A wealthy "patron" helps
to clear his name and offers him work. He takes it, telling
his comrades "I don't want to be the conscience for the
whole world." But soon he is back in the saddle again,
organizing train robberies and building an army.
Between Zapata in the south and Pancho Villa in the north,
Diaz is driven from the country. Francisco Madero, who takes
over, gives lip-service to the peasant demands for land
redistribution, but he is controlled by the Diaz' former
military and eventually--before he is assassinated--orders
Zapata's forces destroyed. Zapata regroups and continues the
battle against a new general, Huerta, with the constant cry,
"Tierra y libertad!"
Zapata's is a disciplined army. Traitors are tried in a
military court and executed. In one scene, one of Zapata's
oldest comrades-in-arms is found to have met with enemy
forces, possibly resulting in the death of 240 Zapatistas
who had planned a surprise attack. The comrade was an ally
of Madero, who believed he could persevere against his
military puppetmasters, and said he had met with him to
discuss how to carry out the peasant's demands. But 240 men
are dead as a result. Zapata shoots him himself. MIM can't
vouch for the historical accuracy of the scene, but the fact
that such discipline against spies and traitors is portrayed
positively in the movie--Zapata is shown as pained by the
act, but resolute about its necessity--is one of its
strengths.
And whether or not Zapata actually shot one of his oldest
comrades, he certainly did impose a strict discipline in his
army, which is one of the roots of his success.
One problem with the movie--and possibly with Zapata's and
Villa's movement, although MIM has not studied the Mexican
Revolution carefully enough to know--is that once they oust
Huerta and seize Mexico City, they are apparently unable to
set up an effective revolutionary government. In the film,
Zapata briefly rules as president. Like Diaz, he sits in a
room and receives delegations from around the country. One
day a delegation from Morelos comes to tell him that his
brother has seized their land. Zapata tells them he will
look into it when he has time. One peasant speaks up: "These
men don't have time." Zapata demands to know his name, and
begins to draw a circle around it, just as Diaz had marked
him by drawing a circle around his name. He realizes what he
is doing and instead takes his gun and goes back to Morelos.
The moral being something like, power corrupts. Not true.
Seizing political power is a crucial part of revolution. In
an anarchist world, as the movie shows, power reverts back
to the status quo. Thus the importance of a revolutionary
party, with a worked-out political line, in addition to a
revolutionary army. In reality, Zapata apparently returned
to the field because the federal army was still not
destroyed, even after the defeat of Huerta. That is not
shown in the movie. But his enemies do seize the presidency
after he abdicates.
The movie redeems itself in a speech (quoted above) that
Zapata gives the peasants shortly before he is killed in a
government trap. Fresh from the disillusionment of seeing
his brother renege on the promises they had both fought for
so long, he tells them in a message full of Maoist mass line
overtones, that they must be able to lead themselves. They
must not depend always on strong leaders, but must see the
correct path and take it themselves, finding new leaders if
the old ones did not live up to their promises. Emiliano
Zapata was no personality cultist. By taking his name, the
EZLN is invoking what Zapata stood for. MIM hopes they can
learn from his mistakes, as well as his successes.
* * *
ON DEADLY GROUND
In his directing debut, Steven Segal presents a fairly
progressive movie. In addition to directing On Deadly
Ground, he plays a mercenary for an oil company paid
$300,000 per year to set fire to evidence of the company's
negligence in maintaining its rigs. By mid-film, Segal turns
against the company and decides to destroys its newest
facility so that the company will have to evacuate the
Indian land.
Segal usually plays a pig in his movies, whether a cop in
Out For Justice or a U.S. Navy SEAL commando in Under Seize.
But On Deadly Ground is a step forward since Segal doesn't
just turn out of mere revenge against the big pigs who
betray him, but for a political purpose to save Indigenous
people's land from oil exploration. Of course, blowing up
one rig won't really save the land when there are hundreds
of other rigs, and the oil companies will simply rebuild a
new one.
The best line in the movie came from, ironically, the oil
company's spokesperson, who said, "Alaska is a Third World
country." In most indigenous areas in North Amerika,
Indigenous people live in Third World conditions. Many folks
say it was terrible what happened to the Indians in the
colonial days, but then they say that's history. On Deadly
Ground reveals that the exploitation of indigenous people
and their land continues today. Amerikan imperialism
continues to abuse their land, break treaties and haul them
into concentration camps.
We also see more of Segal's excellent Aikido skills. In one
scene, he cracks bones of numerous white chauvinist rig
workers in a bar, after defending an Indigenous man from an
abusive rig worker. While Segal moralizes the incident,
asking the rig worker why he has to abuse the Indigenous man
to "be a man," MIM likes it since it is shows the material
interests of white workers. It also shows the importance of
self-defense and the power of learning Aikido or other
martial arts.
John Trudell, former spokesperson of AIM (American Indian
Movement), partakes a token appearance in the movie. He
plays a friend of Segal who had lots of weapons that Segal
needed to defend himself against a posse of mercenaries on
his trail. It is ironic that Trudell plays the gun-supplier
since in real life, he openly opposes the well-worn phase by
Chairman Mao that political power grows out the barrel of
the gun.
While Segal is not openly sexist in On Deadly Ground like he
was in previous movies, his gender politics leaves much room
for improvement. Throughout the whole second half of the
movie, Segal drags around a young indigenous woman; she
doesn't participate in any dialogue nor does she do
anything, yet she is always with Segal. The only time she
really speaks, she opposes Segal's violent agenda to
sabotage the oil rig and destroy anyone that gets in his
way, but Segal snorts with an anarchist and focoist rage to
justify his actions. She quickly changes her mind and
decides that a focoist attack on an oil rig is the best way
to save the land.
On Deadly Ground is a good movie for the masses to
understand the relationship between capitalism and
indigenous exploitation. Artistically, we can forgive the
shoddy movie flow since it's Segal's directing debut. You
leave with a hatred of oil companies, despite his horribly
moralizing speech at the end.
--MC67
* * *
JOHNNY DAMAS AND ME
John Trudell
Rykodisc, 1994
John Trudell's second album offers the same powerful
combination of spoken verse and rock music as AKA Graffiti
Man.
Johnny Damas and Me is weighted more towards gender issues
than the earlier album. Much of the material describes the
connection Trudell sees between women and the land. This is
not some sort of mystical connection between women and
mother earth; rather, he sees the similarity of men's
relations to both women and the land. "Shadow over
Sisterland" describes how men's money, authority, church and
state prohibit any chance of a true partnership between the
genders and keep women in a subordinate position to men, and
it also describes how landlords' desire for ownership
destroys the partnership between humans and nature.
Trudell condemns the confluence of gender and class
oppressions, and looks at the way gender relations are
colored by class and national structures. In "See the
woman," he writes: "In some nations/She is delicate
strength/In some states/She is told she is weak/In some
classes/She is property owned."
As in AKA Graffiti Man, Trudell exposes "democracy" as a
bourgeois scam, designed to make the masses think they are
participating in politics when they are not. "The emperor
sang/A song about sacrifice/Sacrifice who?/Sacrifice
what?/Sacrifice you/Sacrifice me/The alter of democracy"
In the title song Trudell shows how giving becomes the same
thing as taking in a bourgeois society (which he quaintly
calls a "Nazi Babylon"), because all benefits gained within
this system are based on extracting wealth from other
people.
Trudell muses about growing old and other "essential human
experiences" throughout much of the material, and about one-
third of the songs on the album lack explicit political
content. But his perspective--even when broad--remains
rooted in human relations: men and women, landlords and
tenants, international rulers and the ruled.
--MC45 & MC206
* * *
UNDER LOCK AND KEY: NEWS FROM PRISONS AND PRISONERS
MIM Notes censored in Pennsylvania
The publication you sent me has been disapproved by the
Publication, Local Channel Screening, Movie and
Entertainment Committee. I was told to within ten days,
submit a DC-138A (cash slip) to the mailroom for postage and
address of whom it should be sent to, or it will be turned
over to the property office to be destroyed.
"MIM Notes, Feb 1994, No. 85, distributed by MIM
Distributors, 4521 Campus Dr, #535, Irvine, CA 92715,
violates DC ADM 814, IV Section A, 3, all pages."
I looked in the Commonwealth of PA Dept. of Corrections
Inmate Handbook under DC ADM 814:
"IV. Criteria:
A. Requests for and receipt of publications may be
disapproved when the publications contain the following:...
3. Writings which advocate violence, insurrection or
guerrilla warfare against the government or any of its
institutions or which create a clear and present danger
within the context of the institution."
Any additional literature please forward to my home address.
--a Pennsylvania prisoner, 3/9/94
"Racially Inflammatory" MIM Notes banned in Missouri
Dear friends at MIM Notes,
My name is X, and I'm a prisoner at Potosi Correctional
Center in Mineral Point, Missouri, where the KKK and neo-
Nazis have struck again.
Today I received a censorship notification telling me that
MIM Notes #86 (March 1994) will be censored because it
contains racially inflammatory articles. It was received
here on April 12, 1994. They sent a case worker to get me to
sign papers stating that I will not sue, and that they would
send the MIM Notes to whatever address I wanted, but that I
cannot have that paper. I didn't sign the no-sue statement,
of course.
I'm just writing to let you know that MIM Notes #86 was
censored, so I won't get to read it. Write me just to let me
know whether or not you received this letter.
As for the censorship of MIM Notes, I'm going to sue!
Take care.
--a Missouri prisoner, 4/25/94
More on: "Are All Prisoners Political Prisoners?"
A couple of months ago, someone placed an article in MIM
Notes dealing with the definition of a political prisoner.
[MIM Notes 86, 3/94, p. 11, "Are All Prisoners Political
Prisoners?" Available from MIM for $1 cash, stamps, or check
to "ABS."] The individual stated that if the person was
arrested for a legitimate crime such as robbery, theft or
drug dealing, then he's not a political prisoner, but a
legitimate criminal, and should not be classified as a
political prisoner, and should not be thought of as such.
Well, MIM, there are a lot of men and women who go to prison
for so-called legitimate crimes, and while in prison become
politically conscious. There's a lot of revolutionary
material in prison. Malcolm X went to prison for a so-called
legitimate crime, a robbery I believe, and became
politically conscious in prison.
I know men who came to prison for a crime, but became
politically conscious while in prison, so now the parole
board is denying them parole because of their anti-
government views.
Of course, the parole board won't admit that they are
denying these men parole because of their political views.
They just claim they won't parole them because of the
seriousness of their original crime or because the prisoner
has not "adjusted" to the point where they are ready to go
back to society.
In Missouri prisons, most prisoners go along with the
prisons' programs, and they run from newspapers such as MIM
Notes, because they fear that they won't be able to make
parole if prison officials view them as radical, anti-
establishment, anti-capitalist, anti-cop. It's like this in
*all* of Missouri's prisons.
So you see, one does not have to have committed a
politically-motivated crime to *become* a political prisoner
while in prison. I've been in prison 14 years now, and all
politically conscious prisoners are harassed more than other
prisoners, and are kept locked down in isolation more than
other prisoners. A whole lot of them have been held so long,
being denied parole, that they now have been broken by the
system, so a lot of them have become informers, snitches for
the prison administration, in the hopes of making parole. So
to the writer who wrote that only prisoners who got locked
up for political crimes can be political prisoners, a lot of
revolutionaries are born in prison.
--a Missouri prisoner, 3/24/94
MC44 responds: Like this comrade, MIM believes that all
prisoners in Amerikkka's dungeons are political prisoners.
The letter the comrade is responding to is from an
individual with whom MIM is struggling over this question.
It was not a representation of MIM line.
Dime down
The lockdown at the U.S. Penitentiary at Marion, Illinois,
is now a decade old. The magnitude of the decades in human
experience is obvious in the marking of cultural epochs--the
sixties, the fifties, the eighties. It even emerges in
popular music as the definition of a long time--"...ten
years has got behind you..." and "...ten years burnin' down
the road...." And if ten years is a long time in the real
world, imagine what it is in a repressive sarcophagus such
as the control unit prison Marion has become.
For seven years I was a shadow in the dark concrete corners
of dungeon Marion, from February of 1985 to March of 1992. I
learned the prison was and is an experiment in social
manipulation and control that was and is carried out with
zero concern for the welfare of the experimental subjects or
the communities into which all but a very few of them will
eventually be released.
I was shown there is not even a pretense that the regimen is
intended to be constructive for prisoners, though swine
putulantly insist they are not guards but correctional
professionals. I found that to the extent anyone
accomplishes anything positive at Marion, it is despite
rather than because of the conditions and can be only a
shadow of what is possible. I saw that people survive
Marion, but they carry from it psycho scars and other
baggage they may never transcend.
This tenth year may be the last full year of lockdown at
Marion, but the lockdown is to be passed on, reputedly in
the spring. The federal government has built a 484-cell
lockdown mausoleum at Florence, Colorado, to which it will
transfer the "mission" of Marion--for $122,000 per cell,
exclusive of exorbitant operating costs.
Already transferred has been the decade-long habit of
official lies about control units, as evidenced by
repetition of the same old, tired, discredited
disinformation about who is consigned to Marion that has
appeared in Southern Illinois media and in Colorado papers
with respect to Florence. The new dungeon promises to be
even more repressive than Marion, with virtually total
isolation and for longer periods than at Marion.
Public wealth was squandered on this instrument of
oppression even though no evidence says Marion has fulfilled
its alleged purpose and much says it has been counter-
productive. And the deeper and darker the concrete corner,
the looser the reign on official brutality, both active and
passive.
Ten years ago, Marion was the only control unit prison in
the country. Since then, at least 36 states have joined the
trend to increasing repression, and the federal government
has reaffirmed its commitment to perpetual lockdown with the
construction of Florence ADX (Administrative Detention
Lockdown Facility).
Ten years of official dishonesty--and the failure of
lockdown repression to correct--show that lockdown dungeons
like Marion are a threat to everyone, regardless of how
remote prison may seem to anyone's place in the struggle.
Humanity should commit us to struggle against it for as much
of the next ten years as may be required.
--a prisoner in Prison Legal News, 1/94
A brief history of Marion
Dear MIM Comrades,
There are various rumors going around that we will soon be
transferred to the new Federal prison complex at Florence,
Colorado. Some say we all won't be transferred there; some
say only those of us who are classified as "sixes," which is
the highest security level in the Bureau of Prisons (BOP).
We hear that we will be isolated from other convicts, and
then we hear we will participate in recreation in groups of
nine men. Some say the transfer will begin in September;
other indications are that it will be sooner.
We won't know for sure until it happens, and that's the way
the BOP wants it--shrouded in mystery.
Whatever happens here in regards to the transfer to
Florence, CO, this marks the beginning of a new era in
repression of the ever-increasing, restless and angry prison
population in the U.S.
With the closing of Alcatraz in 1962 and the simultaneous
opening of Marion in Illinois, the Federal BOP has had 32
years to study Marion prisoners, and has shared this
knowledge with the state prison systems and prison systems
throughout the world. They concentrated what they called
High Security Level prisoners here at Marion and began their
experiments. For years it was common knowledge that Marion's
water was contaminated with PCBs. Several ex-Marion
prisoners have died or still suffer from various forms of
cancers and central nervous system disorders such as
multiple sclerosis.
In 1972, after an institution-wide work strike [and,
notably, after the 1971 Attica prisoners' rebellion --MC49],
150 prisoners were put in disciplinary segregation. Sixteen
months later, 36 prisoners were still in what had been
officially designated the control unit. The control unit on
H-unit was a mini-Alcatraz. There, in that strictly-
regulated environment, Marion concentrated its most
"disruptive" inmates and, of course, the system's
revolutionaries.
Today, there are many control units in prisons throughout
the United States and the world, and they have been
perfected for the purpose of burying any activist, POW,
political prisoner, and any prisoner the administration
doesn't want to influence other prisoners.
Repression is mounting throughout the world, as the powers
that be attempt to contain and silence the just grievances
of the oppressed peoples who are doing what is necessary to
survive in a world where greed is king and is protected by
the power of the gun. "Power comes from the barrel of a
gun," said Mao, and today we see how right he was.
Peace and power,
--a Marion prisoner
Indiana pigs vamp on asthmatic prisoner
On March 17, 1994, the doctor at MCC let it be known that he
would no longer be here. On March 20, one of my comrades, X,
had a seizure. He was informed by Nurse Gott that his
inhaler was empty and that it would take an hour to get him
another inhaler. He then stated that he could not wait an
hour; that he needed it now. Gott began to walk away
laughing.
At this time, the pigs were all in front of the cage that my
comrade was in. They would not leave, so X started kicking
on the door telling them to get him some help because he was
having problems breathing. Once again, the nurse came back
not to avail him of his problem, but only to make things
worse for him. Around 8:35 PM, they told X to cuff up. He
said, "No. Are you going to get me a doctor?" The pigs
refused to answer him at this time.
Captain Hyatt said, "Fuck him. Let them kick the
motherfucker." They came back and this time told him he
would receive medical care, so he cuffed-up only to be tied
to the door to wait for the goon squad. When they came, they
threw him to the ground while he was in cuffs and leg irons.
They put him in trip gear. Once in trip gear, they took him
to see the same nurse who had taken all this to be a joke.
I don't know if he received the adequate health care needed
that night, because they moved him to another pod. But we
must let the public know of this. In February, Doctor Motley
had it published in the paper that he would no longer be
employed by the DOC due to his opening of a full-time
clinic. This gave Charlie Wright and the DOC enough time to
find a new doctor for the prison, but we have none at this
time. I was informed that it may be at least another month
before we have one.
We need for you to contact the following people to let them
know that they must get us a doctor before someone dies at
this kamp!
Power to the struggle.
Uhuru sasa.
Please write to:
H. Christian De Bruyn
Commissioner of Indiana
DOC E. 334 Indiana Government
Center South 302 W. Washington St.
Indianapolis, IN 46204
Charles E. Wright
MCC PO Box 557
Westville, IN 46391-0557
--an Indiana prisoner, 3/21/94
Reactionary tactics employed by Westville's Maximum Control
Complex
Dear Comrades,
I have a feeling that these pigs are once again gonna be
putting their reactionary tactics down. In fact, these pigs
have already been doing it lately as a result of this so-
called "Entry" arising out of a major class-action lawsuit
they had to submit to, which turned out to work better for
the pigs than for us.
One of the biggest reactionary tactics has been taking place
right here on the B-Pod of death camp MCC. Now let us
understand something: death camp MCC is what these pigs call
a "control unit," just like the death camp in Marion,
Illinois for federal prisoners. It is not supposed to be a
disciplinary segregation unit, but the boot-licking pig who
runs death camp MCC has recently come up with some new-and-
improved reactionary bullshit. He has made a disciplinary
segregation here at death camp MCC for prisoners here on a
permanent status, such as myself.
Now, if a prisoner is put on this new disciplinary
segregation unit, he gets nothing like he would have if he
were in other pods. We on this new disciplinary segregation
unit get no phone calls, no state pay, no access to the law
library, no regular commissary, and only half an hour of
recreation per day. This is not disciplinary segregation,
but disciplinary solitary confinement.
Also, we have been restricted to only being able to visit
with our immediate family. Which means one cannot see a
girlfriend, an uncle or aunt, or a good friend. Naw, these
pigs ain't playing that. They're pulling their thing all the
way down.
Furthermore, these pigs have got a New Afrikan brother, X, a
few cells down from me who they have really been playing
reactionary with. He ain't allowed to come out of his cell
for anything (e.g., showers, recreation, visits) unless he
submits to letting these pigs place a hockey-type mask on
his face. This mask is much like that mask old boy had to
wear on that movie called "Silence of the Lambs." But the
plate covering his mouth and nose is Plexiglas, not steel.
There was an occasion about two weeks ago where the pigs
said X had to come out of his cell, and he was willing,
except he refused to wear the mask like he had been doing.
So the pigs got their goon squad and shields and ran into
his cell. The brother was hanging with them for a minute,
but the pigs finally got him and strapped him down to the
bed spread four-way for about three hours. After they came
back and let him up, they strapped him back down because he
wouldn't stop talking.
Well, we on the disciplinary segregation unit felt that if
that's how the pigs wanted to play that brother, then they
were gonna have to strap up on everyone. So a demo was put
down. The pigs was working through two consecutive shifts on
us. Out of eight people on this set (not including X), four
of us were gassed down and then strapped to our beds in
another pod. The pigs ended up allowing the brother to come
out of his cell without the mask, but a few days later they
came up again, saying that he has to wear it.
A couple of days later, one of my carnals ("carnal" means
"buddy" or "pal" in Spanish--he and I are Chicanos; we're
Raza) got a visit from some investigators and the state
pigs. They pulled up on my carnal's cell rapping about they
wanted to rap with him and get his fingerprints. But he
refused, so they went and got the goon squad, gassed my
carnal down, then pulled him out of the cell and took him
somewhere, then brought him back and strapped him down to
the bed. He told me they had taken him and read a warrant
off for attempted murder on a pig who had been stabbed to
shit at another death camp, and then had held him down while
the state pigs stole his fingerprints.
Just recently, a new tactic was put down, where the pigs
spraypainted the outside of the cells' windows black in the
"blue section" in this pod so that prisoners can't see
outside.
These are just a few examples of the reactionary bullshit
that has been going on here at death camp MCC in Westville,
Indiana, united snakes of amerikkka.
One more thing: Lately, the pigs have been putting up
warning signs saying our water is 20% lead, and that we have
to flush our toilets for about a minute before we drink the
water, and even then we will still be subject to some lead
contamination. Ain't that sweet! They're letting us know
that they're trying to kill us for real! Fuck 'em! They
can't break this here. I expect it will get worse, but like
Comrade Fred Hampton said, "They can kill a revolutionary,
but they can't kill the revolution!"
Keep sending MIM Notes.
Que viva la revolucion!
Que viva Aztlan!
Que viva la Raza!
--an Indiana prisoner, 5/9/94
"From a Genocidal Chamber": Their governmental bodies
As once again
Clearly showing
No values on human lives
As it's a favorite pastime
It seems
"Three strikes, you're out"
So sad
Sound just what it is
Devaluing still more
Of human lives
Into a game they play each day.
It started so long ago
The natives of this land,
The joke's on them today
It's a favorite pastime
Sporting events named after
Cultures, Nations, Defeats
At da hands of those whom always shown
Contempt, contempt for the masses
And yet we unconsciously are cheering them on
Losing ground of life each day.
"Three strikes, you're out"
A shame
Where have you heard this before?
Life is not a game
Yet and still this, their governmental bodies
A system that so titles
Caging people behind concrete and steel
Forever and ever and ever
Cannot have our, the masses', best interest--
As it's being clearly demonstrated once again--
Nowhere, nowhere at heart.
--by an Indiana prisoner, 4/4/94
"The world's salvation may come from prison"
...I am presently incarcerated in one of the many
plantations in Pennsylvania. My every waking moment finds me
housed in isolation for what was termed a breach of
security. But above all because of my dreadlocked hair and
its cultural and religious significance.
Many indigenous people and Blacks across this country find
themselves in the hole for no other reason. We have been in
the holes as much as seven years with no information about
when we would be released. Now Amerikkkan politics has
decided to decide again if there is such a thing as
religious freedom. Whether they rule favorably or not,
warriors have taken the right to be themselves, regardless
of the consequences. So much aggression caused by mere
growth of hair.
There are many developments in our world. And we find ten
percent of the world's population controlling the entire
planet. To revolutionize or change, we must first identify
and isolate the problem. Few can find time in their mere
pursuit of living. This is truly by design, and the world's
salvation may very well come from prison. For here we can
educate ourselves under a cruel task-master....
--a Pennsylvania prisoner, 2/27/94
Oklahoma's Death Row is a high-tech dungeon
Greetings.
A friend has shared several issues of MIM Notes with me over
the past year. I enjoy, in particular, the section "Under
Lock & Key."
I'm a death row inmate and have been incarcerated on death
row for over nine years. The last two years have been the
worst; I now live in a high-max facility, H-Unit.
Corrections officials call it "state of the art," but the
fact is it's nothing more that a high-tech dungeon. The
facility is underground, has windowless cells, and each cell
is equipped with an intercom system. Even the shower has an
intercom.
Every place within this quad is equipped with either
intercom or video camera or both. Except the attorney/inmate
visiting area. And we had to file a class action suit and go
through a civil trial (Mann v. Reynolds--Case No. CIV-92-
893-C) to get confidential contact with attorneys.
Apparently, when DOC designed this facility, confidentiality
between inmate and attorney and the need for it never
entered their minds. Of course, they are part of the same
system that is trying to kill us, so maybe it was
intentionally left out of the design.
The first year or more, no way could we effectively fight
for our lives. No convict in his right mind would open up
and give sensitive information to his attorney with the cops
monitoring every word.
Due to the windowless, closed front cells and nearly
constant lockdown (we get five hours of recreation time per
week), the conditions here are harsh to say the least.
Inhumane is a better description.
The so-called rec-yard we are allowed to use five days a
week is nothing more than a cement box. It's 20 feet wide,
20 feet long and 20 feet high with wire fencing material
stretched over the top. If you're fortunate enough to go out
in the afternoon and try real hard, standing against one
wall of the cement box, maybe, just maybe, you can catch
some direct sunlight.
Lighting in the cells is provided by two fixtures on the
back wall containing 140 watt bare bulbs, just the right
height to blind you while sitting or standing. Yet when you
move to the front of the cell, it's so dark that you can't
actually utilize the space for any reading, writing, etc.
Over the past 13 years, I've been incarcerated and have
spent time in various prisons. I have never seen or
experienced anything like this place. Without question, the
overall conditions we are subjected to are slowly destroying
the physical and mental health of every prisoner on the row.
Over half of this facility's 400 inmates are designated "in
transit" or administrative-segregation (ad-seg). All will
eventually transfer out of this dungeon. But for the death
row inmate, it's permanent. That is, until you're murdered
by the state or your sentence is overturned.
My point is that most of us are going to be subjected to
these conditions for many years. Average appeal for death
row inmates in Oklahoma is approximately 12 to 13 years.
After two years, many are broken in spirit; I predict that
in the near future, some will "volunteer" to be executed in
order to escape these totally inhumane conditions.
Maybe that's part of the logic behind this facility--make it
bad enough and men will choose death rather than living like
this, thus saving the state millions in court costs and
making the Attorney General's job easier.
There is much more I could say in regard to conditions and
treatment (e.g., medical and psych services are a joke) and
about the injustice of the criminal justice system as it
relates to death penalty cases (or anyone, for that matter;
it's racist and discriminates against the poor and
uneducated) in general. For now, I won't take up any more of
your time.
I realize your space is limited, but if you can print any of
what I've related regarding our circumstances in this
dungeon, it would be very much appreciated. We need
publicity; we need to expose this place for what it is.
Otherwise it will never change, and more and more of these
facilities will be built and put into use.
Also, would you please put me on your subscription list for
MIM Notes? As soon as I'm able, I'll send a contribution to
help support your publication. I appreciate you telling the
truth and allowing prisoners to share the realities of
prison life. It's extremely rare for any publication in
America to do that.
Thanks for your time and any consideration you may give to
my requests.
Sincerely,
--an Oklahoma prisoner, 4/5/94
P.S. Enclosed is a flier describing a project that was born
out of the need to bring about change in H-unit. It
describes conditions in more detail. I am a director and
incorporator of SHEOL Fund. Anything you can do to help
promote this project would be appreciated.
SHEOL Fund (Support Humanity and Equality of Life)
The purpose of the SHEOL Fund is to provide funds to remedy
the inhumane and unconstitutional living conditions and
treatment of the men and women living on death row. SHEOL's
initial project is supporting the defense fund to address
the unconstitutional living conditions on Oklahoma's death
row at H Unit in Oklahoma State Penitentiary at McAlester,
Oklahoma.
The new H-Unit facility in McAlester is proclaimed as a
"state of the art" facility by corrections officials. In
reality, it is nothing more than a modern-day "high-tech
dungeon." H-Unit is underground. There are no windows in
cells. Virtually no natural light filters into the cells
from the only central skylight window in the center of the
unit.
No fresh air enters the cells. A central heat and air system
recirculates air which enters cells through one 7 x 7 inch
vent. Even after more than two years in this unit, concrete
dust and other debris continuously blows into the cells.
Walls are unpainted gray concrete. Cells are closed front
with boxcar type doors, which prevents any air circulation.
Requests for medical, psychological or dental treatment go
unanswered for weeks at a time or are ignored completely.
Those with chronic illnesses such as heart problems are
unable to exercise even though that is prescribed by
doctors. Other documented medical needs often go untreated.
H-Unit is designed for non-contact and for isolation. Forced
double-celling has two men confined in a cell together 24
hours a day. Other than a cell partner, the men are almost
totally isolated from all prison personnel, from other
inmates and from the outside world. The only contact is
strip-searching before entering the recreation "yard." All
other communication between inmates and staff is over the
intercom located in the cell and to which the inmate has no
access for turning on or off. Closed front doors make
communication with neighboring inmates or anyone passing by
virtually impossible.
Even though H-Unit is designed to hold up to almost 400
inmates, no kitchen facilities were designed into the unit.
Food is transported from the old kitchen facility behind the
"walls" at the old prison in McAlester. By the time the food
reaches H Unit, it is usually cold. Hair and other debris is
frequently found in the food, including roaches and roach
parts. Remains of previous meals are also found on the trays
from unsanitary washing. Food portions are much smaller than
proper, and because H-Unit is so far removed from the
kitchen, second helpings are not provided.
Inmates have no outdoor recreation area. Five days a week,
one hour a day, five men are allowed to go to an indoor
"yard" which is a cement enclosure approximately 20' x 20'
with 20' walls. This cement box is open to the air at the
top with a fence covering the opening. The only recreation
is handball. Yard is frequently canceled. There are no
facilities on the yard for drinking water or bathroom.
In a nation that proclaims its civility and adherence to
human rights, this facility is an embarrassment since it
does not provide the most basic essentials to life that we
provide for stray animals.
Please help us: contribute generously! Your money will go to
end the inhumane treatment of men who are treated more
harshly simply because they live in H-Unit. Corrections
officials around the country agree that death row inmates
are the best behaved and most easily managed inmates in the
prison system. To house them in this dungeon within the
prison is not only unnecessary but is inhumane.
Your donation will go toward legal and investigative
expenses; community organizing costs such as fliers, mailing
costs, phone/fax and traveling expenses; and media-related
costs.
Send membership fees ($15/yr. Inmates: $1/year (stamps ok)),
donations, and offers to help to:
SHEOL Fund
P.O. Box 5726
Norman, OK 73070
Prisoners fight fires in California
When brush fires threatened upper class neighborhoods in
California last fall, one important fact never made it onto
the evening news: 4,000 of California's firefighters are
prisoners. Twenty percent of the 8,000 firefighters used to
fight last fall's brush fires were prisoners.(1)
"More than any other state, California has relied on
carefully selected and trained prisoners to fight the forest
fires that strike nearly every fall. The inmate firefighters
were especially tested last October when a hot, dry summer
combined with arsonists and the Santa Ana winds to imperil
and destroy hundreds of homes in the Los Angeles region."(1)
The prisoners are paid like other California prisoners: $1
per day. When they are fighting fires, however, their pay
"jumps" to $1 an hour. "Professional firefighters earn $10
to 15 an hour."(1)
When not fighting fires, the prisoners live in 40 remote
camps and do conservation work.
Forest firefighters work at high altitudes on steep terrain.
They work "15-hour shifts digging up brush and dry grass"
and removing dead wood to stop the spread of the fire. The
work is dangerous: "three prisoners have been killed
fighting fires in the last few years and many others
injured."(1)
With prisoners risking their lives for a buck an hour, where
is the labor aristocracy?
A grand jury is set to convene on May 16 to investigate
charges that two volunteer firefighters set last fall's
blaze. "Investigators believe the two men set the fire on
Nov. 2 in order to put it out and be hailed as heroes,
thereby winning full-time firefighter jobs."(2)
--MC234
Notes:
1. Inside Journal Easter 1994, p. 1, 5.
2. Reuters 5/7/94.
Ohio to build super-max prison
In the wake of the April 1993 rebellion at the Southern Ohio
Correctional Facility (SOCF) which left 10 dead, Ohio
prisoners and prison activists had hoped the state would
examine its policies which resulted in Ohio having the
highest level of overcrowding in the nation at 178%. The
state's response has been one of more repression.
The state has announced plans to build a super-max prison
similar to the facilities at Pelican Bay in California and
the federal penitentiary at Marion, IL. These super-max
prisons have prisoners locked in their cells 23 hours a day,
deprived of human contact and virtually all communication
with the outside world. These prisons have been criticized
by human rights groups and are the focus of extensive
litigation concerning both conditions of confinement and
brutality that occurs within them.
The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (DRC)
has formed a committee to develop plans and recommend a site
for the new super-max prison. If the general assembly
approves the funds, the prison will have 550 beds. Since
Marion became a lockdown prison in 1983, some 37 states have
built super-max prisons. This trend is now reaching Ohio
which already has a super-max control unit at Lucasville.
--reprinted from Prison Legal News, 3/94
Maryland prisoner assaulted while in chains
Dear MIM,
You have my deep and earnest apology; I had intended to
write before now. I have been very busy here on this front
in a battle with the prison officials at this Maryland
"Super Mess." I was recently assaulted while in chains by
two of this Super House of Doom's prison guards; all I was
able to do was to spit in one of their faces.
I did nothing to provoke said attack other than to speak out
against the cruel and inhumane way that we are being treated
here in MCAC and to file several suits in the state and
United States Federal Courts, United States Supreme Court
included; I guess they don't like me very much. But I
couldn't care less!...
--a Maryland prisoner, 5/4/94
No money, no medicine
Effective immediately, all offenders must purchase over-the-
counter medications through the commissary. The DOC will not
provide any more over-the-counter medications for offenders.
This includes medications for colds, ulcers, flu,
hemorrhoids, etc. The DOC will not provide shampoo,
toothpaste, etc. Offenders are expected to purchase these
items out of their state pay of $12.50 per month. But the
DOC fails to pay about 30% of the offender population....
--a Westville, Indiana prisoner, 11/25/93, in the 1/94
Coalition for Prisoners' Rights Newsletter
Aux prisonniers politiques...
Dans le but d'e'tendre a' l'ensemble des prisonniers
politiques communistes, anti-impe'rialistes, anti-facistes,
le be'ne'fice du travail d'information re'alise' par
l'Association des Parents et Amis des Prisonniers
Communistes au profit des prisonniers des Cellules
Communistes Combattantes, l'APAPC met a' la disposition de
tous les camarades emprisonne's un bulletin d'information
mensuel en langue franc'aise comprenant un dossier de
presse, une revue des revues militantes et des documents
politiques annexes. Ce bulletin sera envoye' aux camarades
emprisonne's qui en feront la demande a' l'adresse suivante:
B.P.6; Saint-Gilles 1; B-1060 Bruxelles; BELGIQUE.
--Association des Parents et Amis des Prisonniers
Communistes (APAPC), 1/3/94
* * *
ANTI-FASCISTS MARCH IN BOSTON
On Saturday, May 7 the white supremacist Nationalist
Movement was scheduled to march in Boston. In response, a
coalition (led by the Workers World Party and its front
groups) called for a protest rally that drew 400 to 500
people. In response to all of this, the police department
sent out 800 troops. The Nationalist Movement never made it
to the event, or at least no more than 18 of its supporters
showed up. The city spent $800,000 to fund this event and
many people, including the local press, built it up for a
big exciting conflict.(1)
The anti-fascist protesters were encircled by the police
throughout their march through the historically (and
currently) reactionary South Boston on their way to the high
school where the Nationalist Movement had promised to march.
Using tactics that should not surprise leftists, the city of
Boston attempted to diffuse the anti-fascist rally by
calling for its own rally the day before the fascists
planned to march. This rally drew the endorsement of the ADL
and a few other groups, but few people showed up.
Throughout the anti-fascist march the residents of South
Boston lined the streets to shout insults (and occasionally
throw things) at the marchers. The cops did little to try to
restrain these residents, but at the smallest sign that one
of the marchers might respond to these residents, the cops
were quick to respond, clearly showing which side the cops
supported.
In spite of the strong police threat, this rally was an
important statement against fascism and a clear defeat for
the Nationalist Movement.
Notes: Boston Globe 5/8/94.
* * *
PRIVATE PROPERTY HOLDS BACK SCIENCE
In April, a federal grand jury charged an MIT student with
aiding in the transmission of stolen software. We believe
the legal case against the student is weak, but more
importantly the whole approach of the government and
academia to the situation demonstrates why capitalism is
doomed.
As any computer programmer knows from experience, copyright
laws are the bane of a more productive existence. The MIT
student is being charged with making society more
productive--nothing more, nothing less.
Under the system we live in now, the owners of software and
other scientific implements argue that they need to be paid
for their goods through royalties or other private property
arrangements or there would be no incentive to produce
scientific advances. In contrast, we say hogwash, and if
necessary the government should bribe engineers and
programmers with millions of dollars to invent products
useful to society; although we also think that many
inventors would like to make inventions for a living because
of the interesting nature of the work and the prestige
associated with helping others through inventions.
Increasingly in the future, money will have less to do with
productivity, especially as the ability to invent things
such as software becomes less and less the preserve of the
educated elite and more and more the ability of the masses
as educated in a socialist system where advanced education
is the norm and not a privilege of the upper and middle
classes.
Once an invention has been created, the society has no
interest in keeping it to a limited circulation. It is only
the institution of private property that keeps scientific
inventions from being proliferated more rapidly. Yet,
everywhere the corporations sing the praise of capitalism by
talking about "security" on the Internet computer networks.
Even the academic institutions praise capitalism and
corporate profit in the name of security. One would think
that universities would be the one place to realize that
what advances scientific knowledge and its application is
not always what produces profit for a capitalist. The reason
universities don't seem to realize this is that the people
who sit on boards of universities are also people who sit on
the boards of corporations, and increasingly in recent
years, university presidents and boards have come to the
conclusion that universities are for-profit institutions
after all--businesses just like any other. Being a part of
the capitalist system, there could be no other result for
the universities, much as they try to hide it from the
students and scholars.
Boston University serves as an example of university
concerns about "security" nationally: "The same people who
have access to the MIT computer systems also have access to
certain aspects of Boston University's computer resources."
And so it is that we the readers of such capitalist
propaganda are supposed to go into white fright with regard
to the activities of supposedly criminal hackers--based
partly on the public's ignorance of computers and partly on
the real need of the capitalist class to go on the offensive
to justify its own outdated existence.
As a result, Boston University has hailed the development of
methods to cut back public access to the computer system
with fascism. "Smartcards to sniff out trespassers on UIS,"
reads the front page headline of its administration
newspaper.
The capitalist class will settle for nothing less than the
perfect 1984 repressive machine that keeps it in power. It
wants to know everything about the enemies of private
property and is willing to violate the supposed rights and
privacies of everyone else to do it. Yet, computer software
and the Internet are one arena of class struggle where the
imperialists risk alienating the petty-bourgeoisie--the
middle classes--in the pursuit of "security." When a few
people stand up to point out that the emperor has no
clothes, millions will see that capitalism is holding back
the advancement of society.
Note: Boston University Today 4/18-4/24, 1994, p. 1.
* * *
MAOIST JOKE:
How is electricity generated in China today?
Mao Zedong spinning in his grave.
Don't get it? Read about the restoration of capitalism in
China.
Order:
China Since Mao, Charles Bettelheim. $4 The most well-known
demonstration
that a revisionist and capitalist coup took place in China
in 1976.
The Capitalist Roaders are Still on the Capitalist Road. $10
Colorado Study
Group, An excellent treatment of the capitalist
counterrevolution in
China written within months of its occurrence. Excerpts from
the best of
Cultural Revolution arguments against Deng and company.
Political Economy of the Counterrevolution in China. $10.
Traces the restoration
of capitalism from 1976 to 1986.
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