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.
Maoist Internationalist Movement

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

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         THE MAOIST INTERNATIONALIST MOVEMENT

     MIM Notes 102                       July 1995


Get MIM Notes 102 from the Maoist Internationalist 
Movement (MIM), and get the latest in Maoist news 
and analysis - put a revolutionary weapon in your 
hands.

This issue features a special section of articles from 
correspondents in Korea. Also, news and analysis of 
Mumia Abu-Jamal case, including writing by other 
prisoners. The Philippines, Ireland, youth repression 
in Amerika, letters to MIM, more from prisons and 
prisoners, and the all the rest of the revolutionary 
recipe you've come to expect from MIM Notes email 
edition, the Internet's Maoist monthly.

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. LETTERS TO MIM
 2. RAIL DENOUNCES U.S. SECURITY ADVISOR AT RALLY
 3. WHO BENEFITS FROM SUBJUGATION OF EAST TIMOR?
 4. ENVIRONMENTALISTS BEWARE:
    RECYCLING MAY HURT MORE THAN IT HELPS
 5. ISRAEL: PROMISES, PROMISES
 6. ISRAELI GOVERNMENT EXCUSES MURDER
 7. MAY FIRST IN THE PHILIPPINES
 8. MIM HOSTS FORUM ON ANTI-IMPERIALIST STRUGGLE
    IN THE PHILIPPINES
 9. REVIEW: TALES FROM THE HOOD
10. L.A. CROWD LEARNS ABOUT PERU'S PCP
11. THE VAMPIRE PROJECT: NOT CONTENT WITH EXPLOITATION,
    IMPERIALISTS GO FOR FIRST NATIONS' GENES
12. URBAN CURFEWS MEAN WAR ON YOUTH
13. ENGLAND AND AMERIKA SABOTAGE TRUE PEACE IN IRELAND
14. "WAR ON CRACK" = WAR ON BLACKS, LATINOS
15. MUMIA ABU-JAMAL FACES DEATH WARRANT
16. POLICE ARRESTED FOR ATTACKS AGAINST BLACKS,
    LATINOS IN NEW YORK
17. SPECIAL MIM NOTES SECTION ON KOREA
    - PROLETARIAT IN "MIRACLE" COUNTRY SQUEEZED HARD
    - STUDENT AND WORKER POLITICS FLAME IN SOUTHERN
      KOREA
    - OUTRAGE AND PROTEST AGAINST JAPANESE IMPERIALISM
    - DANKOOK STUDENTS REBEL: EDUCATION SYSTEM
      CRITICIZED
    - KIM SUN-MYUNG: GOOD COMMUNIST IN PRISON
    - HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT-TEACHER ROMANCES COMMON
    - FOOD POLITICS
    - STUDENTS AND UNIONS SUPPORT TELECOM WORKERS
    - KOREA TELECOM UNION LEADERS ARRESTED
    - REVOLUTIONARY PARAPHERNALIA FOR SALE
18. UNDER LOCK AND KEY


* * *

LETTERS TO MIM

THIS COUNTRY IS SICK

Under Lock and Key from MIM Notes 100 was posted on the 
Internet and generated this response: I just read this 
very long post and was sickened by the actions of the 
american criminal justice system. These inhumane beasts 
(the criminals who run the so called "justice system") 
are not human. This country is sick.

--an East Coast Reader

GPCR LIBERATED PEASANTS FROM SUFFOCATING FEUDALISM
AND GROWING BUREAUCRATISM

I'm a history graduate student [in the United States] 
currently studying Chinese history here. I'm interested 
in your Notes and keep reading almost every issue. The 
principles that MIM insists sound particularly 
interesting for me. In fact I was shocked when I 
happened to read the Notes for the first time. I cannot 
imagine that here, in the United States, the heart of 
capitalist world, there exists a newspaper like this, 
which upholds the Cultural Revolution in China as "the 
farthest advance of communism in human history."

Although I cannot completely agree with your 
principles, my perception of the Cultural Revolution is 
admittedly somewhat different from those prevailing in 
China and the outside today. The reason is simple. The 
Chinese perception of the Cultural Revolution today is 
shaped after Mao's death by those who suffered from the 
Revolution. But I belong to the post-Cultural- 
Revolution generation, this allows me to think of the 
Cultural Revolution without prejudice.

Since I grew up in China's countryside, I also know how 
Chinese peasants, the majority of Chinese people today, 
think about the Revolution. Simply put, I don't think 
that Chinese people at the bottom of society treat the 
Cultural Revolution as a "bad" thing. Rather, I believe 
it was this revolution which really liberated Chinese 
people from the suffocating feudal custom and the 
growing bureaucratism in the 1960s. It also provided 
people the sense of liberation, the sense of being the 
master of the society. Also I believe it was during the 
Cultural Revolution that China's economic 
reconstruction really took up. This is quite the 
reverse from those who portrayed the Cultural 
Revolution as the years of economic disasters. I just 
write these words to you, and let you know the fact 
that a new generation is now growing in China; they 
perceive the world in their own way.

-- Chinese student


AN OPEN LETTER FROM A MIM ASSOCIATE
TO OBERLIN ACTIVISTS

DEAR OBERLIN ACTIVISTS AGAINST PRISONS (OAAP):

This letter is to thank you for inviting the Maoist 
Internationalist Movement (MIM) to your Ohio Prison 
Activist Conference, April 28-30, at Oberlin College, 
Ohio. However, MIM was not able to attend, and passed 
the invitation on to some MAs (MIM Associates), 
including myself, who are also members of the 
Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League (RAIL) in Ann 
Arbor, Michigan. MIM is a revolutionary vanguard party 
whose members (MIM Comrades, MCs) are official 
representatives of MIM line and uphold democratic 
centralism. RAIL, on the other hand, is a mass 
organization that is led by MIM and works with MIM; 
RAIL agrees with MIM on many political issues, but does 
not follow democratic centralism, so RAIL members 
cannot officially represent MIM line. When we visited 
Oberlin, the other MA and myself were not completely 
clear about this distinction, and I wanted to explain 
it in this letter.

This conference was a great opportunity for us to learn 
from and interact with members and supporters of OAAP 
and other Ohio prison activists. RAIL does anti-
imperialist work on many issues, including prison 
issues. In fact, RAIL in Ann Arbor recently co-
sponsored a film-series with MIM including a film on 
the Attica prison uprising in 1971. RAIL also works on 
MIM's "Books for Prisoners" Program, which encourages 
donations of revolutionary literature and money or 
stamps to support sending this literature to prisoners 
who are interested in initiating revolutionary study 
groups in prison. The goal of this program is to assist 
prisoners in educating and organizing themselves around 
revolutionary issues.

I support MIM's recognition of the progressive 
potential of movements to free certain political 
prisoners, and support MIM's view on the injustice 
committed against ALL prisoners. However, through work 
in educating the masses about prisons and assisting 
prisoners in organizing themselves as a revolutionary 
force, MIM and RAIL try to emphasize the global context 
of prisons and "law and order." MIM and RAIL do this 
instead of focusing on individuals, because clearly the 
release of a few "political" prisoners would not really 
change the system in any meaningful way.

On April 29, Jana Schroeder, of the American Friends 
Service Committee (Dayton, Ohio), gave an excellent 
overview of Ohio Prison conditions:  As of April 1995, 
there were 42,448 people in Ohio prisons which were 
designed to hold 24,526 people. That's 173% capacity, 
with some prisons even more crowded since certain 
prisons are single-celled; for example, inmates were 
sent from Lucasville after the uprising so that inmates 
would not share cells. Her sources said 55% of people 
incarcerated are oppressed nationals--but that these 
figures are not well-documented--compared to only 10% 
of Ohio's population which is Black.  Ohio prisoners 
are 94% men; there are three female prisons in the 
state.

Approximately 21% of all incarcerated people and 33% of 
all incarcerated women are there solely because of drug 
charges. About 75-80% have a history of drug/alcohol 
dependency. About 44% of the increase in the number of 
people in prison from 1986-1993, is solely due to 
changes in drug laws; less than half of people 
incarcerated are there for "violent" crimes.

A member of OAAP read their definition of Control 
Units: 

"A control unit (or 'supermax') is a prison or a part 
of a prison that is in a state of permanent lockdown. 
("Lockdown" is a temporary condition used to control 
and suppress disruptions within a prison by severely 
restricting prisoner's rights.) This once-temporary 
condition has been increasingly adopted as the new 
model for U.S. prisons.

"In theory, control units are protective. In practice, 
control units are prisons within the prison system that 
are used to isolate and punish those people who present 
a threat to the established power; for example, those 
who have filed lawsuits against prison officials, 
participated in work stoppages, or actively pursued 
their religious and/or political beliefs. In certain 
cases, political prisoners, such as American Indian 
Movement organized Leonard Peltier and Black Liberation 
Army member Sekou Odinga, are sent to control units 
directly from trial, thereby disproving the claim that 
prisoners in control units have earned their punishment 
by their own violence or disruption once in prison."

Schroeder also spoke of the National Campaign to Stop 
Control Unit Prisons, which monitors and documents 
abuses. She said that this focus on specific individual 
political prisoners is not helpful to most prisoners. 
Also, although this emphasis of the "worst evils" that 
occur in prisons is important because it could happen 
to anyone who is incarcerated, it's also vital to focus 
on general issues that are relevant to all prisoners 
now.

Schroeder eloquently explained the huge injustice of 
the prison system and hinted at some of its connections 
to maintaining capitalist society. But she only 
mentioned a few specific actions that the masses can 
take against this system--such as writing letters or 
civil disobedience. So I asked her about the ultimate 
goals of her organization: She said that in the 1970s 
they used to call for an end to all prisons, but that 
they decided this was a too radical position; in order 
to gain wider support, they changed their tactics.

Schroeder referred me to some literature explaining 
"alternatives to incarceration" such as community 
service, restitution, employment assistance/job 
development, third party advocacy, alcohol and drug 
treatment, and mental and other health services.

Another speaker emphasized that any person could at 
some point become caught up in the system:  "no one is 
immune...any one of us could be incarcerated..." While 
it is true that this argument might help draw sympathy 
for prisoners from a large audience, it misses the 
point and over-individualizes the issue. I support 
MIM's view that the criminal injustice system 
terrorizes certain groups of people--oppressed nations 
and those in poverty--as part of maintaining 
capitalism; it is definitely NOT an equal-opportunity 
system. Plus, people can recognize the injustice of 
this system and decide to do revolutionary work to 
change it--regardless of whether or not they personally 
might be imprisoned.

One speaker stated that all prisoners could be 
considered "political" prisoners in a way, because 
politicians need to fill quotas in order to get votes 
with their "tough on crime" platform. I said what I 
understood to be MIM's line on this issue:  that ALL 
crimes are politically-induced by capitalism-enforced 
poverty, drugs injected into communities to keep the 
potentially-revolutionary sedated, and the police 
occupation of these communities.

The American Friends Service Committee also puts out a 
pamphlet called "The Fortress Economy: The Economic 
Role of the U.S. Prison System" which explains the 
political basis and consequences of the prison system. 
This is an advanced document that includes a discussion 
of who goes to prison, jailing of the unemployed, 
prisoners as cheap labor, and alternatives to prison.  
[$2 each, 10-50 copies $1.50 each; free to prisoners; 
Criminal Justice Program Community Relations Division, 
AFSC, 1501 Cherry St., Philadelphia, PA  19102]

Overall, this conference was an excellent opportunity 
for some MAs/RAIL members to interact with other prison 
activists with different tactics, explain MIM's "Books 
for Prisoners" Program, and start to build a working 
relationship with the Oberlin Activists Against Prisons 
(OAAP).

-- an MA who is also a member of RAIL in Ann Arbor, 
Michigan June 12, 1995

***Oberlin Activists Against Prisons (OAAP) can be 
contacted at 207 E. College, Oberlin, Ohio 44074, (216) 
775-5326 e-mail: pjaquescs@oberlin.edu***


SELF-DETERMINATION FOR OUR PEOPLE NOW!

25th commemoration of the August 29th, 1970 Chicano 
Moratorium August 26th, 1995 East Los Angeles, Califas 
Belvedere Park to Salazar Park

Thousands of Raza will march for power and liberation.

Organized by the National Chicano Moratorium Committee. 
For more information contact the San Diego Region of 
the NCMC at (619) 280-8361

Somos un pueblo--sin fronteras!


SOJOURNER APPRECIATES MIM

Comrades,

I ask for receive, if it is possible, your magazine MIM 
Notes and Maoist Sojourner, in particular the number 
publicized by ASAPC which contained news on the 
Peruvian and Philippine revolutions.

I'm a communist political prisoner, arrested in October 
1983 (or 93) for fight action against USAF base in 
Avioans, of Rouges Brigades for the constitution of the 
Fighting Communist Party (BR-PCC) and condemned for 
these.

I'm prisoner in a special prison (block 8) of Novara, 
with other twenty comrades. I wait for your notices, 
and thank you.

Revolutionary regards,

--a prisoner in Italy


* * *

RAIL DENOUNCES US SECURITY ADVISOR AT RALLY

by a member of the Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist 
League (RAIL)

On May 28, 1995 RAIL distributed leaflets at UMASS 
Amherst's commencement where National Security advisor 
Anthony Lake was the keynote speaker. RAIL's leaflet 
"Anthony Lake, U.S. Imperialism, and the University" 
was the product of the Teach-In discussed in MIM Notes 
101. It included a discussion of Liberalism, Quotes and 
Facts about Anthony Lake, and the RAIL petition 
condemning Lake's choice as commencement speaker.(1)

The local Friends of Bosnia (FOB) chapter organized a 
more visible protest outside the UMASS football stadium 
including posters, flyers, and a plane that flew over 
commencement with the message "Stop Bosnian Genocide-
Lift the Arms Embargo." Another sign said "U.N.-Get 
tough or get out." Lake, surrounded by a herd of pork, 
argued with the demonstrators for a few minutes before 
speaking. RAIL thinks FOB has a poor understanding of 
imperialist foreign policy. Amerika and its public 
relations branch, the U.N., are not interested in 
stopping genocide or being humanitarian. Telling the 
U.N. to get tough is never the right thing to say. 
Activists should expose the U.N. as a tool of 
imperialism which opposes oppressed nations' 
sovereignty.

The student commencement speaker, who condemned RAIL's 
efforts against Lake, urged Lake to defend the upcoming 
Haitian elections and to let the "Haitian people decide 
their own fate." Publicly criticizing Lake was more 
than RAIL had expected from the speaker, even though 
the criticism played into Lake's hands, giving him the 
chance to promote the elections as a product of the 
U.S. invasion. Neither the student nor Lake mentioned 
that imperialist-imposed "democracy" is only a 
different form of coercion. The U.S. military is 
working with rightist Haitian death squads against the 
Left, and the CIA has admitted that it planned to spend 
$1 million "influencing" the elections.(2) That's not 
democracy, but it is what the U.S. intended when it 
invaded in September.

In 1791, when our "Founding Fathers" were trying to 
short-circuit the popular government in Haiti in favor 
of neocolonialism; and 1915, when the u.s. instituted 
20 years of military rule in Haiti (starting 
progressive reforms like the corve'e system of forced 
labor), the u.s. has always used Haiti for cheap 
products (sugar, indigo, etc.), an export market (fish, 
lumber, toxic waste) and cheap labor. As a Haitian 
student said, the u.s. has never been a friend of the 
Haitian people. An enemy is more like it.

Lake's speech was a fine example of Orwellian double-
speak. Billing the u.s. as "the world's best hope in 
the fight against the forces of fear," Lake pointed the 
finger at "ethnic conflicts...terrorists who target 
people and peace....nations that hunger for weapons of 
mass destruction ... organized criminals and drug 
traffickers who destroy uncounted lives." The RAIL 
pamphlet identified who is the real best hope and who 
are the real terrorists.

Lake attacked what he termed "backdoor isolations--
people who ... would weaken our country." He supports a 
vision of global pillage in which the U.S. military, 
the U.N., World Bank and IMF enforce Third World 
compliance with First World economics.

The University of Massachusetts showed its support for 
the imperialist vision by awarding Lake an honorary 
doctorate, glowing praises and a multicolored hood 
(we're not sure if they got the idea from the KKK or 
from watching executions). UMass, which employs Lake as 
a 5-college Political Science Professor when he is not 
in Washington, forms part of the state educational wing 
of the imperialist military-industrial-educational 
complex. The other honorary doctorates, a civil rights 
leader, the founder of a drug and alcohol 
rehabilitation program and a "progressive" CEO crowned 
the event with a tiara of political correctness and 
leftism. (The first two were sent letters by RAIL 
asking them to boycott or make a statement against 
Lake. There was no response.)

RAIL hopes that its pamphlet exposed Lake's double 
speak and helped potential anti-imperialists to 
correctly differentiate their allies from their 
enemies.

Power to the people!

Notes:
1. Pamphlet available for $1.
2. See MIM Notes 94, 12/94; New York Times 10/2/94, sec 
4, p. 16.


* * *

WHO BENEFITS FROM SUBJUGATION OF EAST TIMOR?

MIM Notes 101 reported on East Timorese oppression 
under Indonesian rule. Here we explain the 
international context of the imperialist and comprador 
forces arrayed against East Timor: the pseudo bourgeois 
democracy in Indonesia, its omnipresent military, and 
the imperialist interests that direct them. MIM 
recognizes that the Indonesian masses share the 
interest of overthrowing the comprador regime that 
rules Indonesia and East Timor, and we look to growing 
internationalism.

The Klinton administration criticizes Indonesian 
repression of East Timor to gain position in trade 
battles with Indonesia. The U.S. foreign aid bill 
includes a ban on military training, assistance and the 
sale of small arms to Indonesia until that country has 
made ambiguously-defined progress on human rights.(1) 
Yet the united states continues to have a role in 
maintaining a brutal Indonesian rule over East Timor.

President Suharto and the Indonesian military use 
violent repression, exacerbation of poverty, strategic 
migration policies and repression of the press to 
secure comprador- and imperialist-owned profits. 
History teaches us that the Amerikan government will 
ignore these activities as long as they are hidden. MIM 
does not expect the Indonesian regime to protect "human 
rights;" we support the development of independence 
movements both in Indonesia and in East Timor through 
our exposure of imperialist militarism.

GUNS GOTTA COME FROM SOMEPLACE

The Australian government arms manufacturer, Australian 
Defense Industries, exports rifles to the Indonesian 
military.(2) According to the Project on 
Demilitarization and Democracy, U.S. arms sales to 
Indonesia have totaled $641 million.(3) Two decades' 
worth of U.S. arm shipments account for 90% of 
Indonesia's military hardware.(1)

As Indonesia's primary trading partner, Amerika also 
pays well for the right to criticize Indonesian human 
rights policy. Foreign investors planned $23.7 billion 
worth of projects in Indonesia for 1995. In the first 
three months of 1995, imperialist investments surpassed 
$12.2 billion.(4) In November 1994, Klinton signed a 
$40 billion trade agreement with President Suharto--
including juicy contracts for General Electric and 
Exxon.(3) Amerika backs World Bank loans to Indonesia 
for $1.6 billion per year.(5) One loan for $75 million 
will develop special power and marine facilities, and 
help the imperialists deepen trade ties with Indonesia 
and expand the country's military capability.(6)

In 1994, Indonesia increased exports sharply: 
electronic goods exports went up 56.7%, jewelry exports 
by 197% and coffee exports by 197%.(7) Export-led 
industrialization enables compradors to repay 
imperialist loans.

CREATIVE OCCUPATION TECHNIQUES SUPPLEMENT
HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES

The Indonesian government forcibly moves migrant 
traders from Sulawesi to East Timor to further 
domination of that country.(9) Forced migration both 
decreases the number of people within Indonesia and 
increases antagonisms between Indonesians and East 
Timorese. This vacillating group of petty bourgeois is 
now an incipient bourgeoisie in East Timor--preventing 
the development of an East Timorese national 
bourgeoisie.

Indonesia has cut the number of military appointees in 
its House of Representatives from 100 to 75 in an 
effort to appear to be decreasing military rule.(10) 
But the extent of military domination both through 
force and through ownership of corporations central to 
the East Timorese economy, makes the subtraction of a 
few fascists from legislative power inconsequential. 
Indonesia spends 143 times as much money on its 
military as it does on health and education.(11)

In East Timor, Army-owned corporations "have a monopoly 
on every major import and export and business on the 
island." Individual officers gain income from sitting 
on corporate boards of directors, while East Germany, 
Australia and Amerika help the military institution 
defend their interests.(5) $1.6 billion in annual World 
Bank loans is equal to Indonesia's reported military 
budget.(5) "So even if the armed forces are being eased 
off center stage, no one believes dwifungsi (dual-
function) is under threat. The military looks set to 
remain final arbiter of any political crisis."(10)

Notes:
 1. The Christian Science Monitor 10/10/94, p. 18.
 2. Inside Indonesia 3/95, p. 8.
 3. The Washington Post 1/10/95, p. C10.
 4. Far Eastern Economic Review 5/18/95, p. 56.
 5. The Christian Science Monitor 6/3/95, p. 18.
 6. Indonesia Magazine 2/26/95, p. 59.
 7. Far Eastern Economic Review 5/18/95, p. 58.
 8. East Timor Link 3/95, pp. 1, 2.
 9. Inside Indonesia 3/95, p. 6.
10. Far Eastern Economic Review 5/18/95, p. 49.
11. Inside Indonesia 6/94, p. 11.


* * *

ENVIRONMENTALISTS BEWARE:
RECYCLING MAY HURT MORE THAN IT HELPS

Many well intentioned environmentalists tout recycling 
as an important part of a program to save the earth 
from capitalist destruction. But these people rarely 
talk about where the products to be recycled go to be 
processed or what is involved in this processing.

South Asia is becoming the world's toxic trash bin as 
First World countries export waste to be processed 
rather than reprocessing it at home. India receives 
large shipments of old batteries. Reprocessing 
"factories" consist of teen-agers cutting open the 
batteries without masks or protective clothing, risking 
brain damage from the fumes and serious injury from the 
battery acid.

Recyclables are shipped to these countries because 
environmental standards are lower and enforcement of 
these standards is often non-existent. Plastic bags and 
bottles, used car batteries, lead, cadmium, metal scrap 
and radioactive waste all are sent from the u.s., 
Germany, England, and Canada to South Asia for 
processing. For India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, 
hazardous waste is considered a needed source of 
revenue.(1)

Ann Leonard of Greenpeace noted "in the United States, 
supermarkets tell customers that the soda bottles will 
be recycled. But they don't tell them that the bottles 
are being exported to poor countries with rotten work 
safety and environmental regulations." Workers in 
recycling factories earn little more than 30 cents a 
day.

This type of recycling is a hazard to the health of 
entire countries, not just factory workers, as Sulfuric 
acid from recycled batteries is dumped into gutters or 
rivers, and lead-based ash from factories pollutes the 
air.

In 1993, the U.S. sent nearly half its plastic waste 
exports to South Asia. Recycling waste so that Amerika 
will be cleaner at the expense of the people and 
environment of the Third World is not a progressive 
environmentalist program. People who genuinely want to 
save the environment need to take an internationalist 
perspective and work for global change and an end to 
the system of capitalism that is destroying the earth.

Notes: The Korea Times, 6/11/95.


* * *

ISRAEL: PROMISES, PROMISES

The problem with negotiating from a position of 
weakness is there's no way to stick up for the 
agreement after it's done. Israel's "peace" agreement 
with the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1993 
specifically postponed negotiations on the status of 
Jerusalem. Neither side was willing to negotiate and 
each claims the city as its capital.

Now that the agreement stage is passed, it's back to 
Israeli rule, and Israel has no problem declaring the 
issue of Jerusalem a done deal--in its favor.

Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin said to the Israeli 
parliament:

"We are divided in our opinions, on the Left and the 
Right. ... I believe that there is no argument on one 
matter--the wholeness of Jerusalem, and its continued 
existence as the capital of the State of Israel. ... 
There are not two Jerusalems; there is only one 
Jerusalem. From our perspective, Jerusalem is not a 
subject for compromise. Jerusalem was ours, will be 
ours, is ours--and will remain as such forever."

Notes: Israel Information Service 5/29/95. 

--MC12


* * *

ISRAELI GOVERNMENT EXCUSES MURDER

The Israeli justice ministry has determined that 
"criminal responsibility for the death of Abd al-Samad 
Harizat cannot be attributed" to the [GSS] interrogator 
whose violent shaking killed him. The United States 
praises the Israeli government as a leader in the 
"peace process," and supports it with billions of 
dollars of aid per year, while Israeli officers murder 
Palestinians. The Israeli State Attorney has 
recommended military discipline in the killing rather 
than criminal prosecution.

Abd al-Samad Harizat, suspected of having connections 
to Islamic radicals, was killed on April 25. An autopsy 
showed he died from brain damage after being violently 
shaken during interrogation. Violent shaking is a 
preferred technique of Israeli interrogators, because 
it usually does not leave identifiable marks on its 
victims.

The Justice Ministry reported that "the severe damage 
caused by the angular acceleration of the head is rare 
in medical experience--and is generally recognized only 
by physicians and scientists dealing with brain 
diseases and damage, and with forensic medicine." 
Therefore, "the investigator --who shook the deceased 
while grasping his shoulders--could not have, and need 
not have, anticipated the fatal consequences of his 
actions or the irreversible brain damage, given the 
rare incidence of death from these actions, to the 
point that it is known only to physicians and 
scientists specializing in brain diseases and damage."

At press time, the United States has taking no action 
in the case.

Notes: Israeli Justice Ministry press release 6/7/95.

--MC12


* * *

MAY FIRST IN THE PHILIPPINES

By A Visitor To The Philippines

During the first week of May, delegates representing 
militant trade-unions and organizations in solidarity 
with the national liberation struggle of the Filipino 
people gathered from more than a dozen countries and 
met for a week-long conference near Manila, 
Philippines.

The 12th International Solidarity Affair was sponsored 
by the Kilusang Mayo Uno Labor Center (KMU), a militant 
federation of industrial trade-unions which is in the 
forefront of a fight in the Philippines to limit the 
economic devastation wrought through unequal trade 
agreements, such as GATT and its enfeebled child, 
Philippines 2000. The latter is a structural adjustment 
plan to further underdevelop the local economy and 
increase repatriatable super-profits.

Delegates visited many areas of the country, 
integrating with the masses of industrial and 
agricultural workers, at the sites of their strikes 
against monopoly corporations and in their homes. 
Delegates also visited export-processing zones, sweat-
shops, refugee camps, and mega-plantations; and were 
treated to intense political discussions with workers 
and the leaders of their organizations.

HELL ON EARTH

The bad news is that the minimum daily wage in the 
Philippines ranges from sixty pesos ($2.40), for women, 
to 135 pesos ($5.40), for men. This rate was calculated 
by the fascist U.S.-Ramos regime at one-half of the 
cost of daily subsistence--and wages can be much lower 
than the minimum.

The industrial development of the country was 
systematically retarded during the terroristic reigns 
of Ferdinand Marcos and Cory Aquino. Under the 
bureaucrat-capitalist group headed by Fidel Ramos, 
which takes its orders directly from the U.S. ruling 
class, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World 
Bank (WB), and GATT's new World Trade Organization 
(WTO), the country's infrastructure and industrial base 
are decaying at a rate inconceivable to couch-potatoes 
in the First World.

Land-grabbing, tax increases, and the government 
bombing of villages have driven millions of 
unemployable people into the cities: where they starve 
in cardboard and tin shacks as raw sewage runs down the 
streets and their children die from medieval diseases. 
Due to ever-increasing imperialist control of 
technology, and GATT's transnational lock on ownership 
of capital-goods industries, Filipino-owned factories 
have the capability of producing nails, but not screws.

The government entices foreign capital investment and 
strangling loans with the boast that it will provide 
cheap and docile labor; even as it sells off the 
manufacturing and agricultural assets of the people for 
a song to the transnationals and foreign banks. 
Privatization (Philippines 2000) in the Philippines is 
the equivalent of a deluge of neutron bombs: leaving 
antiquated machines standing to await the next wave of 
hungry workers as the current wave expires from the 
effects of super-exploitation. 

All manufacture is oriented towards cheap export goods 
(e.g. garments, telephones, wind-chimes) and the 
country remains dependent on the imperialist blocs for 
expensive imports of food, soaps, and basic 
necessities. The vast natural resources and raw 
materials of the Philippines are being stripped away by 
a hurricane of foreign investors, who leave only desert 
behind.

Foreign-owned blast furnaces are vintage nineteenth-
century; health and safety regulations are non-
existent; surplus diesel engines from Japan, Europe and 
the United States drive the transportation system and 
have smothered the islands in a choking, black fog of 
exhaust. Deforestation of the islands by multi-
nationals has stripped the biosphere of its lungs. 

Children poisoned by carbon monoxide play in blue pools 
of cyanide next to mine tailings polluting tiny farms 
plowed by iron implements pulled by water-buffalo--or 
people. Agriculture is dedicated to producing locally 
useless cash-crops. Semi-feudal relations of production 
dominate the countryside in which 70% of the 65 million 
population groans under the weight of imperialism, 
feudalism and patriarchy.

Meanwhile, according to bourgeois statistics, the 
Philippines ranks 92 out of 173 countries in "human 
quality of life." The gap between rich and poor is a 
global phenomenon. If one sees through Ramos' lies that 
the Philippines is on the road to becoming a "newly-
industrialized country" by the year 2000: what hells 
exist in the "bottom" 81 nations today?

If imperialism were to have its way, eighty percent of 
the world's people would labor uniformly--punching 
United Nations time-clocks--while creating that most 
precious portion of commodities: extractable surplus 
value. Precious commodities: that the creators are 
forbidden to use.

CAPITALISM DOES NOT WORK

It is the proud history and current state of the 
Filipino people's fierce resistance to colonial and 
neo-colonial depredations that distinguish the 
Philippines from other wracked and oppressed nations in 
the world who have not yet picked up the ideological 
and organizational tools of Maoism. 

The good news is that the Filipino people have created 
three weapons for their own salvation: the National 
Democratic Front and its New People's Army, led by the 
Communist Party of the Philippines, which has summed up 
errors, rectified itself, and is in the process of re-
fueling the mass movement and the armed struggle on the 
basis of People's War, communist education, and 
integrating with the masses. Numerous mass 
organizations follow the red flag. Workers everywhere 
discuss international issues, and the root cause of 
their oppression and exploitation: imperialism.

While only 12 percent of the country's 27.65 million 
member workforce is unionized, the KMU is the most 
militant union organization, the union most bonded with 
the people, and the union movement most feared by the 
U.S.-Ramos regime--which slaughters union organizers as 
it desperately attempts to impose no-strike sanctions 
on workers whose response is to strike, strike, strike.

The KMU-sponsored international conference focused on 
the issues of the internationalization of production, 
privatization, and the related effects of GATT/IMF/WB 
economic restrictions. In a paper presented to the 
conference, KMU states:

"The KMU's position on GATT is clear. GATT will only 
expose the country further to cut-throat global 
competition that will adversely affect the workers and 
peasants. Engaging in free trade with technologically 
advanced countries that put demands on underdeveloped 
countries to open up, while they are protecting their 
own economies, will only hasten the demise of the 
Philippine economy which is perpetually in crisis."

The KMU is part of a newly-formed progressive bloc of 
militant trade unions, Koalisyon ng Progresibo at 
Makabayang Manggagawa (KPMM), which opposes the 
imperialist imposition on the country. Mainly led by 
the KMU, it stands on the principle that trade unions 
must not limit themselves to rice and fish unionism, 
but must assert the worker's leadership in the 
forefront of the people's struggle for national 
liberation.

On May First, the International Solidarity Affair 
delegates joined the KMU rank and file in a 40,000 
person demonstration in Manila. The disciplined masses 
marched to the KMU slogan for May First 1995:

WORKERS UNITE! STRENGTHEN OUR RANKS. FIGHT ATTACKS ON 
JOBS, WAGES AND WORKER'S RIGHTS.

PEOPLE UNITE! FIGHT AGAINST FEUDAL AND IMPERIALIST 
EXPLOITATION.

ADVANCE THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC STRUGGLE WITH A 
SOCIALIST PERSPECTIVE!

At the rally's conclusion, a contingent of 
revolutionary women staged a dance, flourishing huge 
red flags. The crowd proudly raised fists and the 
Internationale filled the skies.

Note: Human Development Report 1993, United Nations, p.
      136.


* * *

MIM HOSTS FORUM ON ANTI-IMPERIALIST STRUGGLE
IN THE PHILIPPINES

Los Angeles--On May 26, MIM presented a speech by 
Rafael Mariano ("Ka Paeng"), a leader in the anti-
imperialist movement in the Philippines. MIM also 
showed the film "Medics of the People," which documents 
several "Serve the People" programs of the Maoist-led 
New People's Army (NPA) of the Philippines. 

Ka Paeng briefly described the corrupt and oppressive 
character of the government of the Republic of the 
Philippines, which serves U.S. imperialist interests 
and is propped up by U.S. aid. He exposed the 
government's "Philippines 2000" development plan as a 
tool used to increase the penetration of foreign 
capital into the Philippines. He also pointed out that 
the Corazo'n Aquino and Fidel Ramos administrations, 
while attempting to portray themselves as pro-people 
and anti-fascist, have both continued the basic 
policies of the Marcos dictatorship--including an 
escalation of the "total war" in the countryside (see 
MN #94).

Ka Paeng listed the recent accomplishments of the 
people's patriotic movement, including the removal of 
U.S. military bases from the Philippines and the 
release of 41 political prisoners. He emphasized that 
these tactical victories were not the result of the 
Philippine government's sudden kindness, but a response 
to the united and serious struggle of the people.

"Medics of the People" is a fine film which underscores 
the fact that the majority of violence in the world is 
starvation and disease caused by an unjust economic 
system. The medics in the film fight disease on two 
fronts: providing and organizing basic preventative 
health care in poor villages, and fighting to overthrow 
the government which provides no health care in these 
villages and exploits their inhabitants.

After the film, MIM explained the Maoist strategy of 
Prolonged People's War. One audience member asked how 
the FMLN in El Salvador fit into this strategy. MIM 
explained that the FMLN did not fit into the Maoist 
strategy; it was dependent on foreign aid and did not 
couple the development of armed struggle with 
painstaking mass political work. The FMLN failed to 
assess the strength of the reactionary forces 
(especially the strength of U.S. intervention) and 
eventually turned armed struggle into a bargaining chip 
(see MN #71). MIM pointed out that the Communist Party 
of the Philippines (CPP) recently defeated a similar 
adventurist line (see MN #85) and referred the audience 
member to documents on the CPP's recent rectification 
campaign (see ad this page).


* * *

TALES FROM THE HOOD SHOWS THE REAL HORROR: AMERIKKKA

Tales from the Hood
Directed by Rusty Cundieff, 1995

Tales from the Hood is much better than your average 
Hollywood flick. It skillfully co-opts the trademarks 
of the goofier horror movies--action, violence, gore 
and humor--to make some harsh political points against 
patriarchy and national oppression. More so than in 
1995 Amerikkka, the oppressors tend to get what's 
coming to them, just as they will in real life in the 
long run. The audiences' cheers for vengeance are one 
sign that life will imitate art in this regard. By 
using the horror medium, Cundieff is able to keep his 
audience's attention and avoid being accused of being 
"preachy" as are more sober political directors.

Tales from the Hood is composed of four stories, each 
with a strong component of reality. What could make for 
better horror than the real-life monsters created by 
imperialism, capitalism and patriarchy? In the first 
story, a nasty, dope-pushing pig earns his vengeance by 
killing a progressive community activist. Happily, the 
Uncle Tom pig is not spared.

The monster in the second story is an abusive 
patriarch. Cundieff deals well with gender, 
particularly by the inclusion of several strong women 
characters.

The third story centers on a fascist cracker politician 
named Duke Metzger. Once again, the bad guy gets his, 
as does his Uncle Tom advisor. The protagonists here 
are symbols of slavery who call for reparations--or 
else.

The last story brings it all home to the young audience 
Tales from the Hood is made for. Cundieff makes it 
clear that these stories add up to genocide, and that 
fratricidal gang violence is part of this big problem. 
This bit suffers from a line of dialogue that seems out 
of place in this otherwise excellent movie. The awkward 
line says that the government funded a genuine anti-
fratricide program, suggesting that the government 
behind genocide has its sweet side.

Overall though, Tales from the Hood is a great film in 
that it advances a lot of heavy--and correct--political 
points, while staying faithful to the traditions of a 
playful genre.

--MC49


* * *

L.A. CROWD LEARNS ABOUT PCP
AND DEBATES BEST WAY FORWARD FOR PERU

On May 19, MIM showed the documentary "The People of 
the Shining Path" to an audience of mostly 
international students on the campus of UCLA. The film 
provides a good introduction to the People's War in 
Peru being led by the Communist Party of Peru (the PCP, 
also known as the Shining Path). Many of those who 
attended  had an anti-imperialist perspective and were 
interested in learning more about the PCP specifically 
and Maoism in general. All of those who spoke during 
the discussion agreed that the status quo in Peru was 
intolerable, but some questioned whether armed struggle 
was the best way forward. MIM defended its basic 
position that the imperialists will not abandon their 
interests without a fight, and encouraged all to 
continue to study these issues by attending future MIM 
events and MIM study groups.

In particular, one audience member argued that the PCP 
was responsible for the Peruvian military's brutal 
repression because if the PCP had not launched armed 
struggle the military would not have escalated its 
activities. This person also echoed the beliefs of 
human rights groups like Amnesty International by 
stating that the Peruvian peasants are "caught in the 
middle" of the equally violent PCP and military and are 
not actively involved on either side. Other audience 
members quickly refuted this backwards and false 
argument, pointing out that a large portion of the 
peasantry does actively support the PCP. MIM contended 
that the greatest cause of violence in Peru is the 
unjust economic system, which condemns the majority of 
the population to poverty, disease, and starvation. The 
number of children who die of malnutrition in Peru each 
year is far greater than the number of people who have 
died as a result of 15 years of People's War. The PCP 
is fighting to free the Peruvian people from 
imperialist exploitation and to establish a self-
sufficient socialist economy.

Another audience member pointed out that before they 
came to the United States, they thought that the 
Amerikan people were kept ignorant of Amerikan 
imperialism's crimes, and that once they were made 
aware of these crimes they would oppose them. But after 
living in the U.S. for several years, s/he came to the 
conclusion that the misdeeds of U.S. imperialism were 
very apparent to those living here (s/he named 
slaughter of three million Vietnamese during the 
Vietnam war, the overthrow of the Allende government in 
Chile, and the CIA's support of the Shah of Iran as 
examples) and the average Amerikan has too many 
privileges and is too distracted by them to risk 
opposing imperialism. MIM agreed and explained our 
position that the Euro-Amerikan working class is a non-
exploited labor aristocracy, which has made a strategic 
alliance with the imperialists to protect its privilege 
relative to the proletariat in the oppressed nations. 


* * *

THE VAMPIRE PROJECT:
NOT CONTENT WITH EXPLOITATION, IMPERIALISTS
GO FOR FIRST NATIONS' GENES

by MCB52

The Human Genome Diversity Project (HGDP) is working to 
gather DNA samples from 722 distinct indigenous peoples 
all over the globe.(1) The presumption is that, if 
these peoples die out under imperialist oppression, the 
human race will be no less "diverse" for the wear. MIM 
has little use for this brand of biodiversity, which 
celebrates the diversity of cell samples rather than 
the people from whom they are extracted. Humanity will 
be best served when First Nations, DNA and all, rise up 
against their oppressors.

HGDP, an international project working under the Human 
Genome Organization, proposes to collect and catalogue 
genetic samples from indigenous nations classified as 
endangered and facing extinction. HGDP will make the 
samples available to researchers with the goals of 
discovering these nations' histories of migration and 
evolution and the degree of variance in human genes, 
and identifying genetic susceptibility to disease.(2) 
Pharmaceutical companies and others already collect 
genetic material from indigenous peoples, usually 
covertly. HGDP is different in its scale and its 
attempt at legitimacy.

FIRST NATIONS REJECT "PRESERVATION"

Tom Goldtooth, national spokesperson for the Indigenous 
Environmental Network, criticizes HGDP: "I just don't 
trust the very essence of who we are to be in the hands 
of those who historically have not had our best 
interests in mind. Biological warfare has been used 
against our people and there is no assurance that 
genetic sampling is not going to end up in the hands of 
some mad scientist, corporation or government that 
wants us dead to further take claim to our land that is 
rich in natural resources."(3)

MIM knows that the scientists need not be mad to see 
benefits in eliminating what they see as risks of 
furthering the genocide on which they have built their 
societies. We emphasize that the "very essence" of a 
nation is not contained in any of its members' DNA. 
HGDP so disgusting because it discounts the value of 
human life--perpetuating the supremacy of some humans 
over others.

BLOODSUCKERS IN ACTION

HGDP has some laudable sounding claims. One is that 
this will enable development of treatments for diseases 
common to indigenous peoples. This is extremely 
unlikely. If medicine is developed, it will be by 
Western pharmaceutical companies, which have no reason 
to provide medicine for people who cannot pay much for 
it. Expensive gene therapy or drugs would only benefit 
the rich, earning HGDP its nickname: "the vampire 
project."(4)

HGDP also claims it will debunk popular misinformation 
about so-called races. Yet any biological basis for the 
existence of separate races has already been 
categorically disproved, most recently by Stephen J. 
Gould. His new book points out that different black 
African peoples have more genetic diversity between 
them than so-called races have between each other. 
Science cannot be divorced from ideology, and so the 
proponents of national oppression will stick to their 
lies regardless of any catalogue of DNA samples. MIM 
holds scientists accountable for what they do with 
their skills and training just as it does anyone else. 
We condemn research that marginalizes the importance of 
First Nations' survival for the gain of the 
imperialists, in the words of one indigenous 
spokesperson "genetic colonialism."(5)

MAY WE PATENT YOUR DNA?

HGDP doesn't even have guidelines as to who can make 
informed consent for DNA extraction, or for how 
informed those people will be, nor has a standard for 
patenting human genes been established.

Indigenous groups across Latin America recognize the 
importance of biodiversity in the context of self-
determination and sustainability for their nations.(7) 
Communists categorically value human life, and we judge 
HGDP from this perspective. Even if there is some merit 
in learning about resistance to disease through genetic 
study--after the masses have food and basic health 
care--it is disgusting to preserve genetic diversity 
independent of the populations that house it.

Notes:
1. News from Indian Country, late April, 1995, p. 6.
2. Hastings Center Report, January-February 1995, p. 2.
3. News from Indian Country, op. cit., p. 6.
4. Hastings Center Report, op. cit., p. 2.
5. Hastings Center Report, op. cit., p. 2.
6. Abya Yala News, Winter 1994, p. 14.
7. See for example the Resolutions from the
   Coordinating Body of Indigenous Communities of the
   Amazon Basin's Regional Meeting, September 1994.
   "Indigenous communities are well aware of the
   importance of biodiversity... We know that our
   autonomy and assurance of life with dignity will
   depend on the processes of control, conservation and
   development of these resources." Abya Yala News, op.
   cit. p. 17.


* * *

URBAN CURFEWS MEAN WAR ON YOUTH

by MC12

June 11, 1995 - Washington, D.C. is among the latest 
cities to consider a curfew for young people. The city 
council has approved a law which would ban people 
younger than 16 from being on the streets after 11 p.m. 
on weeknights and after midnight on weekends; it has 
not yet been enacted. The law exempts youth who are 
traveling to or from work, religious activities, in 
cars, on their own or a neighbor's stoop, or exercising 
First Amendment rights.(1) Almost 1,000 cities have 
passed youth curfews in the last five years, including 
Phoenix, Newark, Atlanta, Dallas, San Antonio, Little 
Rock and Baltimore.(1)

This law is part of the wide-ranging campaign to 
increase state repression and control over youth, a 
potentially active and subversive force. The harshest 
measures are directed against urban members of 
oppressed internal nations, but the crackdown extends 
to white and privileged youth in some cases.

CURFEW ATTEMPTS TO SHUT DOWN COLLECTIVE ACTION

In May, the official unemployment rate for Black men 
age 16-19 was 40%, for Black women of the same age it 
was 35.1%. That compares to 15.2% and 14.8% 
respectively, for white men and women in the same age 
group. In the last year, the disparity between Black 
and white unemployment decreased for all ages and sexes 
except men age 16-19, where it increased from 2.41 to 
2.63.(2) Washington, D.C., was 66% Black in 1990.(3) A 
large, concentrated population of nationally oppressed, 
increasingly economically isolated and culturally 
alienated youth presents a problem of social control 
for imperialism.

Collective consciousness develops in public spaces. To 
generate revolutionary consciousness, groups of 
oppressed people need interaction to learn of their 
common conditions and develop political action. The 
leaders of the crackdown on youth claim an interest in 
crime prevention to justify separating and 
compartmentalizing young people. They want youth either 
separate and alone (especially watching TV, which 
offers an artificial, non-revolutionary youth culture 
controlled by corporate interests) or participating in 
state-sanctioned pacification activities such as church 
or school functions. They don't want youth socializing 
and interacting in large numbers in unsupervised, 
uncontrolled environments.

IN-SCHOOL SURVEILLANCE

The campaign includes extending the repressive 
apparatus deeper into schools as well. Many schools are 
routinely patrolled by police, who conduct arbitrary 
student searches at the whim of officials.

In April, students at East Aurora High School in 
Chicago arrived at school to find more than 50 school 
officials and pigs waiting for them with hand-held 
metal detectors. No weapons were found in the search, 
but the pigs confiscated some lighters and a cellular 
phone. They claim to have found a pocket knife in a 
nearby trash can. The district plans to extend the 
policy of random searches to middle schools.(4)

In Texas, state education code forbids any student from 
having or using a pager in school or at any school-
related activity. Students caught in violation of this 
code can have their pagers confiscated and face 
disciplinary action at the school level.(5) Pagers 
foster spontaneous and unsupervised communication among 
youth, and are therefore held suspect by the state.

Texas recently passed the Texas Safe Schools Act, which 
among other things establishes a "zero tolerance" 
policy which seeks to yank "violent or disruptive" 
students out of regular schools and stick them in 
"alternative settings."(6) They should call it "Social 
Control 101--Introduction to Prison."

In a socialist society, in which a progressive 
education system fosters equality and collective 
development, disruptive students will be challenged to 
clean up their acts--to make principled criticisms of 
the school system or reform their behavior in 
conjunction with other students, for the common good. 
Student agitation can be a powerful force for advancing 
socialism.(7) In a society that fosters the alienation 
of all youth, and the oppression of internal nation 
youth, coercing them into "good" behavior is an 
oppressive act of social control.

In imperialist Amerika, oppressed-nation youth are 
potential leaders of revolutionary struggles, and 
white-nation youth are the most likely members of their 
nation to throw away parasitism and join the struggles 
of the people. State repression of youth--whether 
violent, cultural or medical--is designed to stop this 
rebellion. Maoists want to foster collective action and 
rebellion among young people.

[The D.C. curfew has since been enacted -ed.]

Notes:
1. Washington Post 6/11/95, p. B1.
2. Bureau of Labor Statistics 6/2/95.
3. Statistical Abstract of the United States 1994, p.
   46.
4. Chicago Tribune 4/15/95.
5. Texas Education Agency representative in public
   Internet comments.
6. American Teacher 4/95, p. 3.
7. For descriptions of education in socialist China,
   1949-1976, see *Women and Child Care in China*,
   by Ruth Sidel (Penguin: 1973); *China: The
   Revolution Continued*, by Jan Myrdal and Gun
   Kessle, (Vintage: 1970).


* * *

ENGLAND AND AMERIKA SABOTAGE TRUE PEACE IN IRELAND

Despite the Irish Republican Army's (IRA) cease-fire, 
London and its allies in Dublin and Washington continue 
to attack activists working to end the imperialist-
imposed partition of Ireland. The English government 
recently renewed the Prevention of Terrorism Act, which 
allows English security forces to detain people for up 
to seven days without charges or access to a court.(1) 
And the United States continues to extradite people 
wanted for "terrorism" by the authorities in the Six 
Counties, so-called Northern Ireland.(2)

England is offering some false concessions. England 
recently signed a Framework Document with the 
government of southern Ireland which weakens the 
partition of Ireland on paper. In return for limited 
self-rule for the Six Counties' Catholic minority, 
England wants the IRA to surrender all of its weapons.

Sinn Fein--the party politically affiliated with the 
IRA and led by Gerry Adams--responded ambiguously to 
the Framework Document and has indicated that it might 
participate in a new northern parliament. Many 
nationalist activists have criticized Sinn Fein for 
taking the reformist road leading to capitulation. 

A RECYCLED NEO-COLONIAL ARRANGEMENT

The Framework Document signed by the English and 
southern Irish governments in February nominally gives 
the Republic of Ireland more control over certain 
affairs in the Six Counties. The Framework also calls 
for the re-establishment of the Six Counties' 
parliament at Stormont.(3) The Stormont Parliament was 
established in 1922 as part of the partition of Ireland 
and was dominated by Unionists--those who prefer to 
maintain the Six Counties' status as an English colony. 
Nationalist protest overthrew Stormont in 1972; England 
has ruled northern Ireland directly since then.(4)

The Framework upholds the policy nationalists have 
dubbed the Unionist Veto, which dictates that the 
status of northern Ireland will only change by a vote 
of the majority of the people living there.(4) This 
policy guarantees English rule in Ireland, since 
partition designed so-called Northern Ireland as the 
largest area of Ireland with a Protestant majority.

COPPERFASTENING OF THE UNIONIST VETO

Nationalist organizations--including the Irish 
Republican Socialist Party and Republican Sinn Fein 
(which split from the Adams-led Sinn Fein in 1985)--
have denounced the Framework as a "rejigging of failed 
solutions."(5) The Irish in Britain Representation 
Group defends Irish prisoners and does legal work on 
behalf of Irish nationals living in England. This group 
stated that the Framework is "a copperfastening of the 
British/unionist veto, an acknowledgment by the Irish 
government and an acceptance of the British border in 
Ireland, and an attempt to rebuild the failed unionist 
statelet with a few 'be nice to Catholic' clauses."(5)

Sinn Fein has said it is "willing to consider" working 
in a new Stormont as a "temporary arrangement."(5) This 
directly contradicts the position Sinn Fein and the 
Provisional IRA took before the abolition of the old 
Stormont: "In the struggle for civil rights the 
*abolition* of Stormont would, as an interim measure, 
be a step forward. It would make much easier the 
achievement of full rights and would bring us into 
*direct confrontation with Westminster*. English 
imperialism, both in its old and new forms, has been 
the root cause of Ireland's ills."(6) Sinn Fein and 
other revolutionary nationalists also opposed the 1973 
Sunningdale Agreement. Sunningdale--a "cross-Border 
power-sharing" arrangement similar to the current 
Framework--collapsed within five months.(7)

Republican Sinn Fein has begun to openly criticize the 
Adams-led Sinn Fein's implicit acceptance of the 
Framework--as abandonment of armed struggle in favor of 
the parliamentarian Social Democratic Labor Party's 
tired old strategy of negotiating for sovereignty. 
According to one activist quoted in Republican Sinn 
Fein's newspaper, Sinn Fein and the Provisional IRA are 
"not merely switching tactics, they are ceding the 
goal."(8)

ENGLISH REPRESSION CONTINUES

The renewal of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) 
shows that England has given up nothing of substance. 
English authorities have detained 7,000 people under 
the PTA, but have released most of them without charge. 
Of the 153 who were detained under the PTA in 1994, 
only seven were charged with any offense.(1)

MIM Notes recently reported that the leader of the 
Irish National Liberation Army (which has not called a 
cease-fire) was arrested by the southern Irish police 
in April.(9) This is not an isolated occurrence: 
English troops alone staged 216 raids in the Six 
Counties in the last quarter of 1994.(10)

Republican Sinn Fein points out that when the IRA took 
part in bilateral truces in 1972 and 1975, arrests and 
prosecutions of activists were regarded as violations 
of the truce.(2)

U.S. GNAWS ON PIECE OF THE ACTION

The United States has played an active role in the 
recent round of Sinn Fein/English government 
negotiations. President Clinton granted a 48 hour visa 
for travel in the United States to Sinn Fein president 
Gerry Adams, allowing him to build political support 
here despite his connections with the IRA which Amerika 
defines as terrorist. The U.S. put pressure on the 
English government to drop its hard-line "no deals with 
terrorists" line. In return, the United States has been 
pressuring the IRA to give up its guns. 

In May, President Clinton called for more Amerikan 
investment in northern Ireland: "The opportunities are 
excellent, the work force is well educated and well 
motivated. The productivity levels are high." And the 
kicker: "The unit labor costs are low." The U.S. is 
already the largest foreign investor in northern 
Ireland.

Clinton coupled his call for investment with the "peace 
process," saying that "to keep this process going... we 
must make hope real." But behind this pitiful carrot 
remained the stick: "paramilitaries [but not the 
English military--MIM]... must get rid of their bombs 
and guns for good."(11)

WHAT PRICE "PEACE"?

MIM does not dogmatically reject cease-fires or peace 
negotiations. On the contrary, MIM believes that peace 
negotiations are a useful tactic with a successful 
history in the International Communist Movement. But we 
agree with the nationalist critics of Sinn Fein that 
withdrawal of English troops must be at the top of the 
negotiations' agenda. Disarmament in return for a 
"kinder, gentler" English rule would be a giant step 
backward. Imperialists cannot be reformed, negotiated, 
or "power-shared" out of power--they must be booted out 
by armed struggle.

In the last decade many national liberation movements 
which had upheld the necessity of thorough armed 
struggle turned their military power into a bargaining 
chip which they used to buy some reforms. The PLO, ANC, 
and FMLN are all examples of this phenomenon. MIM hopes 
that Sinn Fein has not fallen into this trap. At the 
same time, MIM agrees with Ruairi O Bradaigh, president 
of Republican Sinn Fein, who says: "[T]he lesson of 
Irish history is that as long as Britain remains in 
Ireland there will be a revolutionary movement here to 
oppose them."(12)

Notes:
 1. Saoirse (Irish Freedom--newspaper of Republican
    Sinn Fein) 4/95, p.6.
 2. Saoirse 5/95, p.1.
 3. Saoirse 4/95, p.1.
 4. MIM Theory 7, p.109 ($4.95 from MIM).
 5. Saoirse 4/95, pp. 2, 6.
 6. "Freedom Struggle of the Provisional IRA," 1973,
    p.12, quoted in: Sean Cronin, Irish Nationalism
    (New York: Continuum) 1985, p.206.
 7. Cronin, p.206.
 8. Saoirse 4/95, p.16.
 9. MIM Notes 5/95, p.5.
10. Saoirse 5/95, p2.
11. LA Times 5/25/95; Daily Bruin 5/26/95.
12. Saoirse 5/95, p.3.


* * *

"WAR ON CRACK" = WAR ON BLACKS, LATINOS

Despite evidence that large numbers of whites use and 
sell crack cocaine, federal law enforcement in Southern 
California has waged its "war on crack" almost 
exclusively in the internal colonies, sentencing Blacks 
and Latinos to some of the harshest drug penalties in 
the United States. Prosecutors hammer Black and Latino 
defendants with 10-year mandatory federal sentences 
while whites prosecuted in state courts face a maximum 
5-year sentence.

In the United States, whites account for over 67% of 
people who have ever used crack (2.3 million out of 3.4 
million total) and 53% of those who used crack in the 
last year (488,000 out of 906,000). But less than 4% of 
the defendants prosecuted in federal courts for crack-
related offenses in 1994 were white. Whites accounted 
for 51% of crack users in the Los Angeles metro area, 
but not a single white has been convicted of a crack 
cocaine offense in Los Angeles federal courts since 
1986, and only 4% of those prosecuted in state courts 
were white.

Federal lawyers deny that nation plays any role in 
prosecution patterns--but they openly admit that 
federal and local law enforcement agencies concentrate 
almost exclusively on minority communities. For 
example, 96% of those arrested during a 1989 anti-drug 
sweep of L.A. schools were minorities, because only 
minority schools were targeted. Whites charged with 
possessing enough crack to be prosecuted under federal 
laws are not referred for federal prosecution because 
they are not considered "big enough." They are 
considered to be middle-people while Blacks and Latinos 
are considered to be top dealers.

At the same time, Blacks and Latinos are regularly 
handed over to federal prosecutors for possessing 
similar amounts (or less) than amounts for which whites 
are only charged locally. In many cases, undercover 
agents make larger and larger demands on suspects they 
buy from--entrapping suspects into carrying amounts 
sufficient for federal prosecution.

Note: LA Times 5/21 /95.


* * *

MUMIA ABU-JAMAL FACES DEATH WARRANT

JUNE 4, 1995--Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge has 
reenacted the death penalty in his state, and he has a 
perfect victim: Mumia Abu-Jamal, an outspoken 
journalist and former Black Panther who publicly 
documented police brutality and attacks on Black people 
in Philadelphia. Mumia's supporters are mobilizing 
support to put political pressure on Ridge and the 
courts to stop the execution. Many different groups, 
with differing political views, are joining to oppose 
the execution.

The International Concerned Family & Friends of Mumia 
Abu-Jamal has called for actions on July 3 & July 4. 
These include an emergency response rally on July 3 
from 11am to 4pm at the Liberty Bell on 5th and Market 
Streets, Philadelphia. On July 4 from 10am to 9pm there 
will be an Free Mumia Conference at the Calvary 
Methodist Church at 48th and Baltimore, also in 
Philadelphia. MIM joins in the call for a stop to 
Mumia's murder. See below for how to help.

Ridge signed the death warrant--setting the execution 
for 10 p.m. on August 17 of this year--to preempt legal 
challenges to the execution by Abu-Jamal's defense. 
Mumia's trial was a sham even by bourgeois legal 
standards. His new defense has prepared extensive 
arguments justifying a new trial that could result in 
Mumia's acquittal. Ridge, who campaigned on a promise 
to murder Mumia, remains staunchly set against justice.

Mumia was framed for the righteous killing of a Philly 
cop engaged in an act of police brutality. Someone else 
killed the cop, but the Amerikan system of injustice--
backed up by the fascist anti-crime fever among a great 
majority of whites--demands that someone die for the 
killing of a pig. These fascists prefer to kill Mumia 
than the real killer, because Mumia is an outspoken 
leader who generates public opinion against the system. 
His political views, including his agreement with Mao 
Zedong that "power grows out of the barrel of a gun" 
were used as evidence against him in trial.

Mumia Abu-Jamal's case is one of many crimes committed 
against the people by the imperialist state and its 
murderous Amerikan followers. Every day, hundreds of 
thousands of members of Amerika's oppressed internal 
colonies are held captive behind the bars of one of the 
world's most repressive legal establishments. Most of 
these people were not political activists when they 
were jailed, but more of them are becoming activists 
and revolutionaries every day. The struggle to end 
oppression in Amerika is much bigger than one case.

MIM urges readers to learn about Mumia Abu-Jamal's 
case, and to take action to stop the murderous 
execution. MIM also urges readers to see this case as a 
symbol of the repressive injustice system, which itself 
is a tool for imperialist oppression in the USA and all 
over the world. Every month, MIM publishes letters and 
articles from revolutionary political prisoners all 
over this country. We send free subscriptions of our 
publications, and collect books to send to these 
prisoners. Get involved with this work, and contribute 
to the eventual liberation of millions from 
imperialism.

Here's how to work directly to help defend Mumia Abu-
Jamal:

# Contribute to: Black United Fund/Mumia Abu-Jamal
   Accounts, 419 South 15th St., Philadelphia, PA,
   19146--(215) 732-9266
# Join the emergency response network: (215) 476-8812.
   Leave phone numbers, fax numbers & e-mail addresses
   for updates and info on what to do now.
# To get the racist executioner judge Albert Sabo off
   the case, call and fax these judges, urging them to
   take Sabo off the case:
   Judge Alex Bonavitacola phone: (215) 686-3770 fax:
   (215) 567-7328 Judge Legrome Davis phone: (215) 686
   9534 fax: (215) 686-2865
# Write, call or fax to demand justice for Jamal:
   Governor Thomas Ridge, Main Capital Bldg., Room 225
   Harrisburg, PA 17120 Phone: (717) 783-1198 Fax (717)
   783-3369. If you find the numbers have been changed,
   contact Equal Justice USA at (301) 699-0042. 
# Subscribe to: The Jamal Journal P.O. Box 19709
   Philadelphia, PA 19143 Call (215) 476-8812 for
   ad/sub rates.
# E-mail Mumia at Mumia@aol.com and ask questions and
   show support.
# Order Mumia's new book of essays "Live From Death
   Row," or cassette, from: Equal Justice USA P.O. Box
   5206 Hyattsville, MD 20782 Tel: 301-699-0042 Fax:
   301-864-2182. All proceeds go to the MAJ Defense
   Fund.
# On the world wide web, see
   http://huizen.dds.nL:80/~tank/mumia002.htm for more
   information.
# These people will provide information about upcoming
   rallies and events, or for press kits, photos,
   video- or audio-tapes: Pam Africa: (215) 476-8812;
   Noelle Hanrahan: (301) 699-0042; and The San
   Francisco Bay Area Network for Mumia: (415) 648-4505

EVENTS PROTEST MUMIA'S DEATH WARRANT,
MAKE CONNECTIONS TO LARGER ISSUES

In early and mid June all around Amerika, there were 
events protesting the signing of Mumia Abu-Jamal's 
death warrant. This writer attended several events in 
Western Massachusetts, discussing the significance of 
the government campaign against Mumia in the context of 
general government repression. MIM also spoke with 
several other activists about Mumia on a local radio 
station. 

At all the events, attendees struggled to make a broad 
analysis of national oppression and the political 
nature of crime. Someone would mention that the 
Philadelphia police are notoriously racist, and others 
would add an anecdote about Los Angeles. Discussion 
would then turn to local issues and increased pressure 
on youth by cops under the pretense of fighting 
"gangs". As people noted again and again, the really 
dangerous gangs are the ones in the marble homes and 
the blue and white cruisers.

Mumia's case is a perfect example of the "justice" 
system being an oppressive institution that has nothing 
to do with justice. His persecution is also connected 
to his open revolutionary politics. Mumia's 
revolutionary politics and leadership skills have made 
the injustices done to him public, and helped provide a 
forum for exposure of the entire system. 

The judge in Mumia's trial may be more of an animal 
than most (even earning criticism from Mumia's 
prosecutor), but we should not endorse the rest of the 
system. Mumia addressed the error of looking at 
individual "bad apples" rather than corrupt systems in 
a commentary on the May 13, 1985 police bombing and 
mass murder of MOVE members. (MOVE is a Black 
nationalist back-to-nature group that was singled out 
by the Philadelphia police for extermination.) This 
commentary was read during an educational event at an 
anarchist bookstore in Northampton in mid-June:

"Why did May 13 happen? To look at May 13, 1985 as an 
isolated act of official evil is to fall victim to the 
wave of propaganda that washed over much of America 
since that fiery, fateful day. City officials and much 
of the media have painted a picture of bungling, errors 
of judgment and misfortune. Who can forget the idiotic 
imagery of the Major of the City of 'Brotherly Love' 
defending the carnage of Osage Avenue with the words, 
'Perfect ... except for the fire'?

"The truth points a far more felonious finger at 
authorities and exposes such portraits as pure fraud, 
for the May 13 massacre was not a monumental 'boo-boo,' 
as in the sense suggested by both the politicians and 
press. May 13 was no mere 'mistake,' not a 'bad day' 
nor an incident showing 'bad judgment.' No. May 13 was 
an exercise of *deliberate mass murder*, one *planned* 
and premeditated for months beforehand! For months 
prior to May 13, 1985 police tested high explosives at 
a city facility in its Northeast section. Was it mere 
'coincidence' that a federal agent of the United States 
Department of Justice (FBI) would *give* Philadelphia 
police over 37 1/2 lbs of a potent military explosive 
(C-4)? How about the cop who 'happened' to add C-4 to 
the satchel bomb--William Klein? Was that a 'boo-boo?' 
And what of the commissioners of the Police and Fire 
Departments? When else will people see such 'civil 
servants' as these, who: (a) start a residential fire; 
(b) fail to fight it; and (c) use it as a 'tactical 
weapon' of mass murder and destruction? How does one 
plan, construct, drop and detonate an incendiary bomb 
by mistake? How does one barbecue babies by 'boo-boo'?"

A statement from Chokwe Lumumba, national Chairperson 
of the New Afrikan People's Organization (NAPO) pointed 
out that the MOVE bombing shared history with a similar 
bombing, the only other air bombing ever perpetrated by 
the u.s. government within Amerika. The first bombing 
was in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1921. Black Tulsa residents 
were successfully beating back white mobs during a 
"red-blooded American lynching spree." The person who 
read the statements spoke briefly about the 
significance of the Police Commissioner's warning to 
MOVE moments before the bombing: "Attention, MOVE! This 
is America!"

The artificial parallel between Mumia's planned 
execution and the execution of the Rosenbergs in 1953 
came out at several events. During the radio show, one 
guest criticized reaching so far back in history for a 
comparison with white communists, while ignoring the 
daily repression of the Black Nation through the 1970s 
and 1980s. This guest argued that Mumia's work exposing 
Amerika's oppression of the Black Nation shows his 
revolutionary awareness that the problem is systemic 
oppression, not a problem of individuals.

MIM added that Amerika uses different weapons at 
different times to silence its opponents. Fred Hampton 
had no trial before he was executed by the police and 
the FBI. Mumia Abu-Jamal's case is a bit stretched out, 
and people attempting to save him must turn this into a 
tactical advantage. We also pointed out that prisoners 
who are not openly political suffer from the same 
oppressive society that framed Mumia. Amerika has no 
moral authority to determine what is a "crime" and what 
is not.

FREE MUMIA!
JUSTICE FOR ALL PRISONERS!
ALL PRISONERS ARE POLITICAL PRISONERS!


* * *

POLICE ARRESTED FOR ATTACKS AGAINST BLACKS,
LATINOS IN NEW YORK

by Blooming Tree 

"Youth, Cynics and the 48th precinct" reads one 
headline. "16 Police Officers Are Indicted" reads 
another, and yet another, "...Brutality in the Bronx." 
But what is really happening?

The headlines tell part of the story. On May 3, 1995, 
over a dozen police from New York's 48th Precinct were 
indicted. Charges range from corruption, assault, 
intimidation, menacing, larceny and insurance fraud. 
Big deal, some would argue, we all know cops are pigs! 
But the meat of the matter is the types of stuff that 
these cops are charged with: one person, kicked and 
beaten by police with their flashlights, was left 
unconscious, badly bleeding, and charged with stealing 
a police radio and resisting arrest. A second incident 
involved the man whose pit bull dog and semiautomatic 
weapon were stolen by police, and the person, in jail, 
was terrorized by police (the cop put a gun in the 
man's mouth) because the man was possibly going to 
report incidents of police brutality he had seen in the 
community.(1)

What kind of neighborhoods make up the 48th Precinct? 
Poor communities of oppressed nations. The population: 
107,000, 54% Latino, 42% Black. Unemployment is 
officially 20% with 42.5% of people receiving public 
assistance. Less than half the people have received a 
high school diploma, and the median income is a little 
over $12,000 a year.(2)

People in this area know the deal. Said one teenager: 
"Sure, I once called 911 when there was some trouble, 
but what alternative did I have? If I could have called 
somebody else, *like the Panthers* I, would have."(3)

Indictments sometimes occur when public sympathy is 
going strong against the police, to show that the 
system works. Well, that's bull. The system does not 
work; and Blacks and Latinos face oppression of untold 
proportions. We need a mass need a mass struggle for 
freedom and liberation and we need it now!

1. NYT 5/4/95, p. A18.
2. 1990 Census figures.
3. NYT 5/6/95, p. 16 (emphasis added).


* * *

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

  S P E C I A L  M I M  N O T E S   S E C T I O N

                  O N  K O R E A

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

PROLETARIAT IN "MIRACLE" COUNTRY SQUEEZED HARD:

COST OF LIVING EXCEEDS NEW YORK CITY PRICES
WHILE WAGES REMAIN LOW

by MIM correspondents

It is well-known that Korean wages are low relative to 
those of wages in other countries, but the cost of 
living is not as well understood. The latest data shows 
that the cost of living in Seoul--the largest city of 
southern Korea with 10 million people--is 24 percent 
higher than that in New York City. The difference is 
not affected by the dollar's exchange rate, because the 
Korean currency is more or less fixed by the government 
in proportion to the U.S. dollar.

Other cities that are more expensive than New York to 
live in but with lower wages include Brazzaville, 
Congo; Taipei,China; Buenos Aires, Argentina; 
Singapore, Malaysia; Douala, Cameroon; Rio de Janeiro, 
Brazil; Abidjan, Ivory Coast; Sao Paulo, Brazil; 
Nairobi, Kenya; Dakar, Senegal; Dar Es Salaam, Amman, 
Jordan; Jakarta, Indonesia; Cairo, Egypt and 
Montevideo, Uruguay. Tied with New York in cost of 
living are Bangkok, Thailand and Lima, Peru. Only 12 
cities out of 125 surveyed have costs of living less 
than 80 percent of that in New York. Bombay and New 
Delhi, India are the most important of these, ranking 
in at 76 percent of New York City costs. Another three 
cities in that category are from Canada, which is an 
indication that the difference in costs of living 
internationally is not radical.

There is no denying that Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong 
have industrialized successfully compared with the rest 
of the Third World. For this reason, any difficult 
conditions faced by the working class in these places 
are indicative of even worse situations elsewhere in 
the Third World.

DESPITE MINIMAL GOVERNMENT SUBSIDIES,
COSTS EXCEED WAGES

In Korea, a labor aristocracy of the relative 
importance seen in the United States has not formed. 
Instead, the poor material condition of industrial 
workers remains the reason for the insecurity of Korean 
ruling class.

MIM's research might show that the figure which says 
cost of living in Seoul is 24 percent higher than in 
New York may be low. Food prices in Korea are generally 
at least double what they are in the United States. It 
is possible to buy rice and kimchee prepared at fast-
food restaurants for about a $1.33 for lunch. A 
scallion pancake is about the same price in the lowest-
priced street-market cafeterias. By themselves, neither 
meal would be adequate nutritionally.

A 15 ounce box of raisins is $4. Bananas may go for 50 
cents a piece in the street market while approximately 
a pound of fresh peas costs up to $4. Any meal wi 
mtheat in it enters a price zone unfamiliar to U.S. 
residents. It is also common to see large pizzas sell 
for $20.

The government subsidized Seoul subway costs only 45 
cents. Any service sector consumption is cheaper in 
Korea than the United States: taxis, hair-cutting etc.

The real killer of working class conditions in southern 
Korea is real estate. Speculation in Korea in the last 
decade has rivaled Japanese real estate pricing. A two-
bedroom apartment in Seoul can cost $1000 per month. 
Most Korean families will spend perhaps $700 a month on 
rent--without women working for wages.

There is a substantial class of Korean millionaires who 
have made their fortunes in real estate in recent 
years. They are capable of a lifestyle comparable to 
the nouveaux riche in the West. Their own fabulous 
wealth leads to common stories of spoiled children 
running around with wads of hundred dollar bills and 
leaving $100 tips; this wealth is coming at the expense 
of the working class in Korea.

College graduates at Korea Telecom on semi-strike only 
earn $800 a month. Common lower wage grade workers make 
as little as $400 a month. Workers at comparable 
companies may make 29 to 40 percent more, but it is 
clear that even such better-paid workers are truly 
struggling to make ends meet.

Note: USA Today (International Edition) 6/9/95, p. 2a.


* * *

STUDENT AND WORKER POLITICS FLAME IN SOUTHERN KOREA

Southern Korean students and workers continue to 
demonstrate a high level of ideological awareness 
despite the doomsaying of bourgeois critics. In June, 
it seemed as if every college in Korea was holding a 
demonstration every day and with the arrest of the 
Telecommunications workers' union leader, the number of 
workers raising the stakes in struggle increased.

DOOMSAYERS TRY SPIN CONTROL OF MASS MOVEMENT

Attempting to make use of cultural conformity 
traditions, the capitalist press never stops talking 
about how the progressive movement in Korea is "cooling 
off." The tactic attempts to generate a self-fulfilling 
prophecy by pointing to "what everyone is doing." An 
article in the Korea Times titled "Students Favor Fun 
over Ideology" is a good example. It attempts to pit 
the wealthier supposedly apolitical students against 
the campus activists:

"Then came the 1990s with all the political and social 
changes accompanying the fall of communism and the 
progress in democratization not to mention the 
improvement in the living standards and travel 
liberalization that have undermined the strength of 
student nationalism.

"Ideologically, the college students had very little to 
base their argument on when the Berlin wall came 
tumbling down and domestic political advancement 
finally installed a non-military government for the 
first time in more than three decades.

"Economically, their situation had improved 
dramatically with private tutoring being legalized once 
again and they were able to make bundles of money 
teaching high school students.

"With money in their pockets and restrictions on 
foreign travel alleviated, Korean college students have 
been backpacking or enrolling in language courses in 
the U.S. and Europe during school vacations and 
returning with a much broader view of the world.

"All this has greatly weakened the clout the student 
councils enjoyed over decision-making in campus 
activities. Collegians now prefer less ideologically 
oriented and more fun oriented activities for their 
time off from lectures and books."(1)

The above quasi-government propaganda is wrong on 
numerous levels. First, the collapse of the Berlin Wall 
had little effect on the Korean activists; as MIM has 
reported for years, they were never very pro-Soviet, 
unlike communist-led movements in many countries. 
Through twists and turns and various factions, the vast 
majority profess a respect for Mao Zedong, who was the 
most accurate forecaster of the collapse of socialism 
in the Soviet bloc.

Second, while the Kim Young-sam regime is indeed of 
tame "opposition" background, his election in 1992 did 
not change much that the students were protesting 
against. Students tabling with literature for hours at 
points all across Seoul National University were quick 
to point out to MIM that even setting up a literature 
table to support the labor struggle is illegal in 
southern Korea. Students in an organization called 
Patriotic Young Men continue to admire Stalin and Mao 
and said that the Kim Young-sam regime "is no 
different" than the preceding capitalist governments.

Finally, the students today cannot be apolitical, as is 
proven by the fact that they continue to elect the most 
stout political activists as student government 
leaders. Numerous bystanders told MIM that they 
supported their student activist leaders, even if they 
don't voice their opinions as much. As the author of 
"Students Favor Fun Over Ideology" admits, the student 
government elections are rigorously democratic. The 
student council leaders continue to support protests, 
support each other nationally and get themselves 
arrested for their activities.

MIM knows what it means when students are "cooled off." 
The mobilization of students in southern Korea is at 
such a level that the student governments have power 
beyond the imagination of their U.S. counterparts.

ATTEMPTED DISTRACTIONS ALSO FAIL

The southern Korean regime has done as much as possible 
to distract the students from politics. This includes 
encouraging tours to China and other foreign countries. 
We found banners and posters for China tours and 
learning English on every campus. These were the only 
banners that rivaled those of the political students in 
size and directness. As one China tour guide explained, 
the tours use China to show the students what a failure 
socialism is, because living standards in southern 
Korea are higher. This approach is pure capitalist 
nonsense; China is currently suffering under capitalist 
restoration and has been since 1976 when Mao died and 
the "Gang of Four" was arrested.

MIM recognizes that travel is good for expanding 
people's understanding of other countries and other 
nations' style of life and standard of living. This 
expanded view is important to revolutionary 
internationalists because it improves their ability to 
converse with and work cooperatively with comrades in 
other countries. But the southern Korean government 
aims only to impress students with the wonders of 
capitalism abroad; and to promote travel for 
individualist reasons.

One thing that has increased in Korea, but is not 
mentioned in the "Fun over Ideology" article, is the 
use of MTV-like soft pornography in cultural realms. In 
MIM's 1987 report on the Korean student movement, 
students still did not wear shorts because of a concern 
for traditional sexual morality. Today, a minority of 
women wear shorts and many wear mini-skirts. The regime 
has allowed this trend as ads on television, in the 
subways and on billboards scream at the youth to take 
up the diversion of romance culture.

The writer of the "Fun Over Ideology" article is 
correct that students have more money in their pockets 
than in the past. This is partly a result of the Korean 
economic boom and class polarization creating a genuine 
capitalist class and petty-bourgeoisie. Another part of 
the money comes in the form of frenzied demand for 
private tutoring of high school students. Private 
spending on education exceeds six percent of GNP, while 
public spending is only 3.9 percent of GNP. Parents 
desperately seek to have their children succeed on 
entrance exams for college and college students can 
earn money tutoring high school students for the 
exam.(2)

On many campuses, bystanders will tell the curious that 
until 1987 and the adoption of the pretense of 
democratic presidential elections, students fought 
police every day. Things have "cooled off" since then 
though; not every demonstration held every day ends in 
police fighting students. MIM agrees that the movement 
has "cooled off." But it continues every day and in 
much more diverse forms than we read about in the 
Western press.

LEADERS MOVE WITH THE PEOPLE

The Korean mass movement's leaders are skilled in 
swimming in the sea of the masses. They make the regime 
pay for every inevitable mistake it makes, and always 
take the high ground of opposition to colonialism and 
support of redistribution of wealth.

On June 6th, the regime arrested labor leaders on 
church grounds. Within 72 hours Christian and Buddhist 
leaders denounced the government; students at Seoul 
National University, the leading university collected 
7,000 signatures in a student body of 30,000; 
university workers at Seoul National University went on 
strike; and a group of chanting students advocated 
unified national health care in place of the current 
system of "chaos." Demonstrations not necessarily 
directly in support of the labor leaders took place on 
every campus. This was the same day that students 
firebombed the Japanese Cultural Center; and a 
demonstration against U.S. troops took place at the 
Seoul Subway Station along with a one-man sit-in by the 
person beaten in the subway.

Students MIM interviewed who did not take part in the 
demonstrations expressed support for these student 
actions. When asked why they and others did not 
participate, one student said "Police intimidate 
others; most students [are] afraid."

MOVEMENT MUSEUM

The regime may survive temporarily by telling the 
Korean people lies about crazy, randomly violent 
students, but millions of people have seen the truth up 
close and it is not likely that this generation of 
political leaders will ever enjoy the political 
stability they desire. Something so inconvenient as a 
photograph or videotape quickly punctures the regime's 
lies.

One of the most militant of the demonstrations for the 
labor leaders took place at Yonsei University on June 
9th. About four hundred students listened to sharply 
punctuated speeches, chants and songs. They raised 
their fists together, distributed photograph books of 
past regime repressions and staged a virtual movement 
museum complete with a sample tear gas canister for 
people's education. Another item on display was a 
Molotov cocktail constructed by a female university 
student. Helmets, gloves, protective kneepads and other 
demonstrator clothing were all on display.

The earnestness of the Yonsei youth is just one warning 
to the regime that there is only so far it can go 
before a true explosion of the people brings the regime 
down. Symbolizing the difficulties of the regime, one 
gray-haired and one white-haired man wearing clothes 
from another generation asked MIM to distribute 
leaflets to the people. Anti-government politics thrive 
outside the student movement as well; the regime will 
have to do more than repress students to kill these 
politics.

Campuses throughout Seoul were thoroughly politicized 
as enlarged photographs of regime brutality against the 
people lined the roads on campuses in the aftermath of 
labor union leader arrests. It would be impossible for 
a Korean student to avoid this political struggle 
despite the steady drumbeat of regime lies and quasi-
governmental news media.

Even CNN contributed slightly by admitting that Korean 
police attacked the June 4 demonstration by students in 
solidarity with the labor movement before students used 
force. Over 10,000 people attended this demonstration, 
according to student leaders. No wonder the people so 
widely support the students wielding Molotov cocktails 
and sticks. Many times and in public places outside 
campuses, it is not possible to hold demonstrations any 
other way.

FOLLOWING ARRESTS, DEMONSTRATIONS CONTINUE

June 7th, after the arrests of the labor leaders in the 
churches, the students held another solidarity 
demonstration which was attended by over 1,000 people 
to protest the government actions in the churches. At 
this demonstration 80 students were arrested.

June 9th there was an all night demonstration at Korea 
University in protest of the arrests of the students 
and the following day a memorial service and 
demonstration at Sungkyunkwan University in solidarity 
with labor movements. The memorial service at 
Sungkyunkwan was attended by thousands of people 
filling a football stadium commemorating the many 
people killed by government repression. Student 
contingents from universities across Seoul attended 
carrying bright flags, many with pictures of raised 
fists or other revolutionary symbols or words, proudly 
displaying the activism of their campuses.

Not far away from this memorial, a smaller group of 
students held a demonstration in solidarity with the 
labor unions. This demonstration did not feature the 
sophisticated loud speaker system of the memorial 
service, but these radical students wore red arm bands 
of solidarity and also carried flags with school names 
on them and enthusiastically chanted slogans with the 
speakers. The rally was organized by the national 
student council and attended by the more class 
conscious of the students, contributing to the 
radicalism on the campus of Sungkyunkwan University 
that Saturday.

WOMEN'S UNIVERSITY LESS POLITICIZED

MIM talked with a number of student leaders at Ewha 
University, the largest women's university in southern 
Korea. These student council members said that women in 
their organization make up the majority of the active 
students on campus. In spite of their small numbers, 
these women are a strong part of the progressive 
movement. Five of the 80 students arrested protesting 
the government action in the churches were from Ewha 
including their student council president and vice 
president.

When asked why more women were not active they 
explained that it is related to the culture and 
position of women in society. Even women who attend 
college can not expect to get a job when they graduate. 
Most women are encouraged to study at a university so 
that they can find a good husband because many of the 
"best men" search for wives at the universities. This 
attitude is reflected in the selection of majors at 
Ewha which includes "Home Management." Women who want 
to get a job after graduation generally have to move to 
another country to pursue a higher degree and get a job 
there. The united states and Canada are top choices for 
these women.

The women expressed a conviction that there is a need 
for feminism and change in women's role in southern 
Korean society. They pointed out that many prominent 
feminist speakers come to their campus and they, along 
with other radical student councils, are struggling for 
equality of the genders as a part of their overall 
goals.

HIGH IDEOLOGICAL LEVEL OF STUDENTS

The student council at Hongik University opened 
discussions with MIM saying that "students involved in 
student union look for socialism." All of the students 
there agreed in their support for Marx, though there 
was disagreement over Lenin, Trotsky, and Mao. These 
students uphold themselves as the left wing of the 
student movements as Marxists and internationalists 
organizing for revolution.

One student responded to a question about the goals of 
the recent student demonstrations saying "Our campus, 
surrounded by capital and violence, is struggling...in 
spite of problems, our common future is forever" 
expressing the anti-capitalist sentiments of the 
movement and the strong solidarity felt for the masses 
in Korea. Another student said "[the] working class 
movement is [the] essential problem" expressing the 
strong class consciousness of the students.

The majority of students MIM spoke with said that the 
U.S. army should go home. There was a minority of non-
active students who believed the government propaganda 
that the U.S. army is necessary to guard against war 
with northern Korea. But even these students 
demonstrated a high level of ideological awareness on 
other issues. One such student expressed support for 
the recent student demonstrations saying "the 
demonstrations are connected with redistribution of 
wealth. Some day conditions will be much better. Now 
redistribution of wealth is not enough."

Students lead the struggle for reunification of 
northern and southern Korea. A Hongik university 
student said "I think that unification is working class 
movement." Several students made it clear that they 
don't support talks between two presidents as a means 
to achieve reunification because this would not be an 
action on behalf of the working class. 

A woman from Seoul National University who was not 
active in the demonstrations expressed support for the 
actions saying that the demonstrations force "people to 
think about affairs more. The nation needs to accept 
students' thought." She went on to explain that even 
the less active students are constantly studying social 
affairs. "Studying social affairs is important and 
then, [after studying, students] act. Action is based 
in thought." This student concluded the interview by 
saying "Thank you for writing about our State," a 
sentiment of the importance of internationalism that 
was common among the people MIM spoke with.

Many student activists were as interested in learning 
about politics in the U.S. as they were in describing 
their own struggles. We had discussions about the labor 
aristocracy in Amerika, MIM's position on feminism and 
on homosexuality, the significance of revolutionary 
nationalism to communists and other topics. The 
students were clear about their interest in solidarity 
with U.S. progressive movements and at the end of the 
discussions at Hongik University students presented MIM 
with a gift of a bag they had made that says on it 
"small effort big distribution, student welfare 
committee" which they used to collect clothing for the 
poor in a recent campaign on their campus.

Notes:
1. Korea Times 6/9/95, p. W-1.
2. Korea Herald 6/9/95, p. 3.


* * *

OUTRAGE AND PROTEST AGAINST JAPANESE IMPERIALISM
IN SOUTHERN KOREA

by MIM correspondents

As Japan's parliament worked to formulate and approve a 
resolution of regret for its colonialist actions in 
World War II, the Socialist Party president in power 
had to threaten resignation and the collapse of the 
government to obtain the resolution. At this 50th 
anniversary of the end of the war, many members of the 
Japanese government opposed any statement admitting 
Japanese wrong-doing.

Yet the southern Korean government thinks this apology 
is important because it wants to offer its people up to 
exploitation by Japan again while putting on an anti-
imperialist face. The southern Korean government is 
forced to appear anti-Japanese by the masses of 
southern Korea who will not be so easily fooled into 
accepting Japanese colonization.

One of the lies that the capitalist internationalists 
tell the world is that capitalism brings peace through 
expanding world trade, and that this creates economic 
harmony. As they inch toward world government, the 
capitalist internationalists attempt to lull the 
proletariat with false promises of peace.

Watanabe ignores trade concerns; antagonizes the Korean 
and Chinese people

Former Japanese foreign minister Michio Watanabe, a key 
politician of Japan's most powerful political party--
the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)--opposed the 
resolution of regret before being forced to concur with 
the Socialists. In early June, he justified Japan's 
invasion and annexation of Korea between 1910 and 1945 
as an action that was concluded "amicably, not by 
force."(2) Every incident like this inflames the 
peoples of Korea and China against Japan, because both 
countries suffered under Japanese invasion and colonial 
rule before Japan's loss in World War II. Watanabe is 
aware of this fact, but he persists in his reactionary 
nationalism anyway.

Even as a leader in the LDP--which has had power the 
longest in Japan, and is an important bourgeois faction 
in a country heavily reliant on trade--Watanabe does 
not express peaceful internationalism in the name of 
promoting trade. Instead he allies himself with redneck 
reactionaries in Japan instead.

MASSES' RESPONSE OVERSHADOWS GOVERNMENT TALK

Anti-Japanese imperialism sentiments are strong in 
Korea as the memory of exploitation and oppression 
under Japanese occupation is clear in the people's 
minds. The southern Korean government strongly 
condemned Watanabe's remarks but their response in 
words was nothing compared to the outrage and action of 
the masses of southern Korea.

On June 6th, members of the group Sochongnyon, the 
activist federation of student councils of Seoul 
universities, fire-bombed a Japanese Cultural Center in 
Seoul, destroying part of the building. The students 
were chanting slogans that included "Repent Colonial 
Atrocities," and "Stern Warning to Conspiracy to Revive 
Colonialism" and scattered leaflets accusing Japan of 
"trying to whitewash its brutality in the past."(3)

The students had to fight their way past riot police 
already guarding the building to get close enough to 
throw the fire bombs. (These riot police guard all 
potentially controversial buildings at all times in 
addition to many random street corners and areas around 
universities.) 58 people were arrested.(2) The Korea 
Times reported that 13 university students were being 
held and prosecuted on charges of violating the Law on 
the Use of Firebombs.(4)

Members of an association of bereaved families of those 
who died fighting Japanese imperialism protested 
Watanabe's remarks on June 5th in downtown Seoul. In 
addition, other organizations held rallies to condemn 
Watanabe's statements and call for apologies.

WITH MINOR APOLOGIES, IMPERIALISM CHARGES AHEAD

In response to the protests, Watanabe apologized and 
retracted the key word "peacefully" from his earlier 
statement "Japan peacefully took over Korea in 1910" 
but he did not go any further in retracting his 
remarks.(2)

This resolution leaves the Japanese government 
apologizing for past imperialism while charging full 
speed ahead as a modern imperialist on a global scale. 
The apology was necessary because past imperialist acts 
were taken against countries that Japan now wants as 
allies. No apology was made to Peru or any of the other 
current colonies which remain politically powerless and 
hence unimportant to Japan's international image.

The government even plans to tear down a building in 
Seoul that used to be the Japanese administration 
headquarters but which was since converted into a 
museum. They say that this is in response to the 
memories of Japanese imperialism that this building 
invokes. But token actions of tearing down unused 
buildings and criticizing Watanabe's statements do not 
change the comprador nature of the southern Korean 
government which is now servant to a different master: 
U.S. imperialism.

Notes:
1. The Korea Times, 6/10/95, p.1.
2. The Korea Times, 6/7/95, p.4.
3. The Korea Herald, 6/7/95, p.1.
4. The Korea Times, 6/9/95, p.3.


* * *

DANKOOK STUDENTS REBEL:
EDUCATION SYSTEM CRITICIZED

by MIM correspondents

In early June, students at Dankook University in Seoul, 
Korea, rioted against their conditions at the 
University. Hundreds of Korean riot police with 
shields, batons and tear gas were posted to control the 
demonstration. Riot police throughout the city and the 
occasional Korean Army grouping protected government 
buildings. Dankook scared the Korean regime, because of 
its proximity to foreigners, especially U.S. citizens. 
Across the street from the Dankook demonstration, U.S. 
troops sat on rooftops watching the Korean police and 
students. The U.S. troops were to "protect" a nearby 
residential compound composed largely of foreigners, 
especially U.S. citizens.

The Dankook students have a gripe with the University 
administration's plans to move the school to new 
physical locations and change admissions requirements. 
Two separate students said that it "was very 
complicated" to explain the problems of just "our 
university." Several Korean college administrations are 
moving to admit students if their parents make a 
sufficient donation to the college. Yonsei University 
has come out in favor of using any admissions process 
that will increase its own prestige, including the 
donation route.

The students rallied late into afternoon and finally 
were filing out to the sounds of classical music over 
loudspeakers. Nonetheless, formations of Korean riot 
police continued to guard key intersections.

LOCAL CONDITIONS AT UNIVERSITIES

The idea of purchasing admissions is not unique to 
Korean universities. MIM has heard Harvard University 
admissions officers argue that the last few seats of 
every college class should be auctioned to the highest 
bidders so that the funds could be used to support 
poorer students. In capitalist education there really 
can be a rationale for selling college admissions. 
Sogang University in southern Korea has adopted this 
line of thinking for itself.(1)

Today in southern Korea, some have argued that adopting 
a more American approach to education would be more 
humane and encourage better-rounded students. And 
college administrators have taken advantage of 
dissatisfaction with the examination system to make 
admissions decisions based on money or other 
confidential criteria.

One student from Hangik University referred to the 
spring demonstrations as Korean students rallying 
against the effects of capitalism on education. A week 
after the Dankook demonstration on local conditions, 
Hangik had its own. At Hangik, a large nine-story 
building is under construction right in front of the 
gate to the college. Students say that the fact that 
the building is for bars and dancing while there is no 
bookstore in the neighborhood shows that capitalism 
cannot rationally address the needs of education.

About 100 students marched at Hangik on June 9. 
Simultaneous demonstrations across the city supported 
striking workers, opposed Japanese imperialism and 
grieved against the U.S. colonial presence of 38,000 
troops still under U.S. command.

CONFUCIAN AND NEO-CONFUCIAN EDUCATION

The Confucian tradition has been to have a single 
standardized national examination to determine one's 
future, in terms of college admissions and also in 
terms of the eventual ability to obtain jobs in both 
the civil service and in the corporations of Confucian 
cultures. The examination process in Korea and China is 
clearly linked to suicide among high school seniors, 
whose lives depend on a score sufficient to get into 
college.

Under Mao Zedong in China, examination grades as the 
criteria for getting ahead were downplayed in favor of 
a process of political recommendations from one's peers 
and superiors. The line behind this was that only those 
with a demonstrated desire to serve the people and 
apply their knowledge to this purpose should obtain the 
scarce resources for college education that were 
afforded to one percent of the population. A movie on 
this topic available in some Amerikan video stories is 
titled "Breaking with Old Ideas."

In the process of capitalist restoration, Deng Xiaoping 
and crew have restored the national examination system 
in China. Now southern Korea and China have similar 
neo-Confucian approaches to education.

THE U.S. CONNECTION

Some incidents between U.S. soldiers and the Korean 
people have outraged Koreans from all different 
classes. In one incident in a subway on May 19, Koreans 
alleged that a U.S. soldier was sexually harassing a 
Korean woman. The words "violated" and "assaulted" were 
used by some Koreans simultaneously with "teasing." The 
press used the words "sexual harassment" and 
"fondling."(2)

The U.S. soldier most directly involved in the incident 
claimed the woman was his wife and hence the Korean 
"mob" that rose to "protect" a "violated" Korean woman 
has a dubious gripe. He received some substantiation 
when the woman failed to step forward to prosecutors. 
The troops were prosecuted for beating the Korean 
bystanders.(3) Further indicating the possibility that 
the U.S. soldier was telling the truth, prosecutors 
also indicted his wife for helping in the brawl.(2)

This incident could just be a bad reflection on both 
the American and Korean sides of the conflict, as is so 
often the case with patriarchy. MIM was not on the 
scene of the incident and it is not MIM policy to base 
an argument on a single case. The truth in the Korean 
discussion of this incident--even as political metaphor 
or symbol--is that U.S. troops answer to U.S. 
authorities. One student at the Dankook demonstration, 
who was kindly explaining why U.S. troops were looking 
at the demonstration pointed out that if U.S. troops 
commit a crime against Koreans, "we cannot punish 
them."

In an incident which demonstrates that the Korean 
masses are correct, on June 8th, the press learned that 
a U.S. employee of the Eighth U.S. Army legally fled 
Korea on April 13, after being convicted of "beating up 
his Korean girlfriend." The incident is embarrassing to 
the southern Korean regime, because it underscores its 
U.S. puppet status. The southern Korean ruling class 
has considerable independence relative to many poorer 
Third World comprador regimes, but the united states 
has failed to bring the convicted man back to Korea for 
justice thus far.(3)

Oppressor country citizens' immunity from the laws of a 
colony is a mark of colonialism. In China, Mao broke 
the imperialists' hold on China's cities and forced 
foreigners to obey Chinese laws. Although Korea is in 
many ways very powerful and modern, the Koreans have 
yet to gain the power for themselves that Mao Zedong 
seized in 1949 at the expense of imperialists and their 
lackeys.

MIM believes one interviewed Dankook student that it is 
likely that such incidents "always happen; we like the 
Americans, but not the troops." The most radical 
activists always carefully distinguish between the 
American people and U.S. troops. The ruling class media 
tries to make the issue one of simple "anti-
Americanism," as a way to aggravate various 
nationalisms to their own benefit. Yet surveys show 
that Koreans are not anti-American. Perhaps the issue 
should be anti-Amerikanism. But the real issue in the 
Korean people's minds is anti-colonialism.

U.S. TROOPS ARE NOT COMPLETELY IN THE DARK

Some in Korea and Amerika already regard the 38,000 
troops as an anachronism given Korea's evident economic 
muscle and ability to run its own affairs. The troops 
themselves are not immune to these thoughts. One former 
GI has already called for the troops to be sent home, 
partly to make up the U.S. budget deficit.(4)

The troops in Korea can have a good time at the bars 
and dance clubs made for Americans. Apart from having 
fun shopping, dancing, smoking and whoring in the post-
Cold War world, the U.S. soldiers live out a bundle of 
contradictions in Korea.

There are numerous Black troops in Korea and one bar 
for Americans flies the Puerto Rican flag for its 
clientele. One might wonder how the youth from the 
Puerto Rican colony feel about serving in the Korean 
colony. There must be strong feelings of ambiguity, 
especially after incidents like that on the subway, 
where it will seem that the troops got something 
different than what they bargained for.

Another contradiction the troops face is that while 
some Koreans support their presence there and Americans 
are generally well-liked, politics and law enforcement 
are very different in Korea from the united states. One 
member of the U.S. military we spoke with openly 
expressed his sardonic appraisal of the ever-present 
Korean riot police. In Amerika there is not such a 
powerful worker and student movement and riot police 
are not on the street everyday.

Notes:
1. Korea Times 6/6/95, p. 3.
2. Korea Times 6/11/95, p. 3.
3. Korea Times 6/9/95, p. 3; Korea Times 6/11/95, p. 3.
4. Korea Times 6/10/95, p. 6.


* * *

KIM SUN-MYUNG: GOOD COMMUNIST IN PRISON

Surpassing the Nelson Mandela-era political prisoners 
in South Africa, Kim Sun-myung has been in southern 
Korean prison since 1951 for refusing to renounce his 
belief in communism. Now there is a movie about him and 
other prisoners called "Perfect Encounter."

Kim's 44 years in prison appear to be the world record 
for political prisoners. He is in solitary confinement 
and the regime allows him no attorney.

Notes: Korea Times June 6, 1995, p. 10.


* * *

HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT-TEACHER ROMANCES COMMON

A spate of stories about romance between high school 
teachers and students emphasizes the decadence of 
romance culture in Korea. "In a 1993 national survey, 
25 percent of girls and 10 percent of boys in grades 8 
through 11 said they had been sexually harassed by a 
member of the faculty or staff during high school.

"In an earlier survey of North Carolina high school 
graduates, 13.5 percent said they had had intercourse 
with a teacher."

Notes: Associated Press in Korea Times 6/6/96, p.11.


* * *

FOOD POLITICS

"Even food has become a weapon in the bitter rivalry 
between North and South Korea. The South warned Japan 
not to grant the North's request for emergency 
shipments of rice until the North responds to the 
South's offer for help."(1)

According to Japan, the U.S. and their puppet media, 
northern Korea has asked for rice to feed starving 
people. Southern Korea is crowing over this alleged 
fact and making propaganda of it every day in the 
press.

To draw out the issue over time, the southern Korean 
regime initially approved rice aid unconditionally. Now 
it is attaching political conditions. The new policy of 
politicking with food started May 27 and there is still 
nothing that the press reports new of the north 
Koreans' response. It's just the same old stale news 
recycled from Japanese news services again and again. 
As of June 11, the southern Koreans' newspapers are 
still reporting the same old thing.

Notes:
1. USA Today (International Edition) 6/9/95, p. 5a.
2. Korea Times 5/28/95, p. 2.


* * *

STUDENTS AND UNIONS SUPPORT TELECOM WORKERS

A measure of Korean union and student leaders' close 
relationship to the masses is their ability to deliver 
on threats to organize. So far, they have delivered on 
all the threats they have made in connection to the 
Telecom struggle.(see "Korea Telecom workers arrested" 
in this issue)

On June 6, a national labor alliance threatened to hold 
anti-government rallies on June 10 and engage each of 
its unions in the struggle the following week if the 
regime didn't back down.(1) On June 10, one anti-
government rally at Sungkyunkwan University filled a 
stadium. Even the Korean government television covered 
the unrest.

As at other universities, the Sungkyunkwan 
demonstration on June 10 featured long rows of enlarged 
pictures of missing, dead or injured activists 
repressed by the U.S.-backed regime. The parents and 
other relatives of the victims of government repression 
had special seats in the stadium.

Huge banners featuring workers and people from both the 
North and South in a smiling unity were further proof 
of the professional nature of the organizing. A Korean 
band of traditional drummers also entertained the 
audience as did several guitar players.

At this rally, petitions for imprisoned workers 
circulated. MIM sent the organization behind that drive 
a token sum just over $50 and a statement from MIM 
mentioning prisoners here in the "United States" as 
well.

As MIM Notes goes to press it is apparent that other 
unions realize that the position of the Telecom union 
is related to their own situation. Subway workers 
sprang into action before the week was out with 77 
percent of 8,046 people participating in a meeting that 
voted for collective struggle. Only 21 percent opposed 
the actions.(2) Seoul National University workers also 
went on strike.

Notes:
1. Korea Times 6/7/95, p. 3.
2. Korea Herald 6/11/95, p. 3.


* * *

KOREA TELECOM UNION LEADERS ARRESTED

The Kim Young-sam regime arrested 13 leaders of the 
Korea Telecom union of 50,000 workers on June 6th. They 
had taken refuge in Buddhist and Christian temples and 
churches, where the religious authorities refused to 
turn them over. For two weeks they had successfully 
protested the regime's attack on their union.(1)

The quasi-governmental Korea Times reported that "the 
13 union leaders are suspected of masterminding the 
seizure of the office of information-communications 
minister in April and the assault against senior 
officials of Korea Telecom to demonstrate their 
defiance against the government's policy to open the 
telecommunications market to foreign service providers 
and limit the wage increase rate to under 3 
percent."(1)

According to the quasi-governmental Korea Herald, "it 
was the first time that police forces have been sent in 
to the Catholic church in its 98-year history."(2)

Telecom workers' union chair Yu Tok-sang is still at 
large underground. He called for demonstrations in 12 
places to step up the struggle. The workers had already 
begun "work-to-rule" procedures: denying state 
employers the usual overtime while unleashing a 
campaign of politeness to the public to win its 
sympathy. The workers make it clear that they are on 
strike against their employers, not the public. Under 
the best of circumstances, southern Korean workers 
average 44 hours per week and work on Saturdays.

CAPITALISTS CALL WORKERS' POWER STRUGGLE "ILLEGAL"

The Korean capitalist class rarely expresses itself 
honestly and clearly, because many disagree with its 
view that workers are not entitled to demand as much 
pay as workers in Japan or other imperialist countries. 
The capitalists believe paying the workers more is 
"illegal" and "harmful" to the national economy.

In 1990 the Korean Supreme Court ruled that it is 
illegal for workers to stop working overtime if 
employers are used to having them work overtime, which 
workers do in most of Korea.(3) When the press inveighs 
against "illegal" union activities, this includes any 
power struggle of workers against their employers. 
Conformity with employers and legality are synonymous.

MIM finds it ironic that the bourgeois propagandists, 
who call for rational dialogues between workers and 
employers in the national interest, argue that 
employers deserve their position under the natural law 
of survival of the fittest. The government is expected 
and allowed to privatize Korea Telecom, demand 
overtime, allow foreign competition, pay less than 
other exploiting employers, wonder why there is so 
little order and so much unrest and then expect workers 
not to engage in a power struggle. MIM believes that 
such a short-sighted class is doomed to extinction. The 
capitalists use their ideology of economic Liberalism 
to try to persuade workers not to organize 
collectively, but to go one-on-one against the 
capitalist class. This hopeless method is the 
capitalist class' only means of survival.

OPPORTUNIST ENEMIES ATTEMPT TO BANK ON THE STRUGGLE; 
CHURCHES ARE SUPPORTIVE

Opportunists in the opposition Democratic Party opposed 
the arrest of the union leaders, but held that the 
issue should be settled through dialogue and not power 
struggle. The Democrats claimed to fear that the 
government would win public support at the local 
elections on June 27 if the workers did not restrain 
their demands.(4)

The churches' reactions were friendly to the workers. 
The Catholic church at Myongdong Cathedral rang funeral 
bells at 4 p.m. every day and protested the arrest of 
demonstrating students at their Cathedral. "20 church 
men and nuns blocked police vans carrying the students 
at the cathedral gate."(5) In response to this 
opposition, the police reportedly apologized and 
released the students.

The Catholics then started a sit-in protest and gained 
the endorsements of the National Catholic Alliance for 
Justice. On June 9, Cardinal Kim Sou-whan said such 
occurrences did not happen under the worst of past 
military dictatorships, echoing the students' 
conviction that Kim Young-sam is no better than those 
military dictators. The National Alliance for Democracy 
and Unification also denounced the police.(5)

MIM stands with the Korean telephone workers against 
privatization and the opening of the economy to 
imperialist competition. We also sent a token sum of 
about $35 to support the struggle and we are 
undertaking a campaign to sell T-shirts bearing a 
likeness of a Korean Telecom union leader; most of the 
revenue will go to support the Korean workers, the rest 
will go to postage and publicity of the Korean workers 
here. Though we may have some disagreements with the 
organizers of the struggle, there is no question that 
MIM supports the Korean proletariat against the U.S.-
backed Korean regime.

We call on our readers to help us with this campaign to 
support the Korean workers' struggle by buying T-
shirts. Let the success of this campaign be one of many 
for international solidarity with the exploited workers 
of the world, each campaign an example for the next 
successful campaign. Residents of the united states 
have a special responsibility in this matter, as the 
Korean regime is a product of U.S. invasion and 
colonialism.

Notes:
1. Korea Times 6/7/95, p. 1.
2. Korea Herald 6/7/95, p. 1.
3. Korea Times 5/28/95, p. 3.
4. Korea Herald 6/7/95, p. 2.
5. Korea Herald 6/9/95, p. 3; Korea Times 6/10/95, p. 
1.


=============================================
BUY REVOLUTIONARY T-SHIRTS, TUNES AND POSTERS
ABOUT KOREAN LABOR STRUGGLES
=============================================

SOLIDARITY T-SHIRTS
-------------------

Limited edition T-shirts in solidarity with southern 
Korean labor struggles. T-shirt displays picture of 
labor leader who is currently in prison for his 
activism. Blue on white and gray on white available. XL 
or XXL sizes.

$10 with a year subscription to MIM Notes ($12) or 
purchase of any issue of MIM Theory ($5).$12 without 
subscription or MIM Theory purchase.

REVOLUTIONARY MUSIC
-------------------

Tape/CD of songs from labor leaders in southern Korea. 
All music in Korean. Three different tapes available, 
one on CD as well. Limited copies, first come first 
serve. 

$10 for tapes with year subscription to MIM Notes ($12) 
or purchase of any issue of MIM Theory ($5)$15 for CDs 
with year sub to MIM Notes or purchase of any issue of 
MIM Theory

With no other purchase Tapes: $15;  CDs: $20

Posters 
-------

Solidarity poster of labor march superimposed on globe, 
blue on black. Limited copies.

$5 with one-year subscription to MIM Notes ($12) or 
purchase of any issue of MIM Theory ($5) $7 with no sub 
or MIM Theory purchase


* * *


                UNDER LOCK & KEY


NOTIFICATION OF DISAPPROVAL--PUBLICATIONS

Title of publication: MIM Notes #97 Publisher: Maoist 
Internationalist Movement Pages which meet disapproval 
criteria: various pages Description of material that 
meets disapproval criteria: Calif. Code of Regulations, 
title 15: Any matter of a character tending to incite 
murder; arson; riot; or any form of violence or 
physical harm to any person, or any ethnic, gender, 
racial, religious, or other group. AB-95/1

--Pelican Bay State Prison, California, 3/29/95


IOWA CENSORS MIM NOTES

MIM Notes #95, 12/94, ... has been reviewed by the 
Publications Review Committee and found to be in 
violation of Standard "4A" of this committee's 
standards.

This standard is: "Is likely to be disruptive or 
produce violence."

This publication is being returned to the institution. 
You will have five days to advise where you want it 
sent. After that time, this publication will be 
disposed of by the institution....

Sincerely,

--Jim McKinney, Iowa Dept. of Corrections (sic) Deputy 
Director--Institutions, 1/27/95

MIM RESPONDS TO THE PRISONCRATS AT PELICAN BAY AND IOWA 
STATE: We plead not guilty on all counts. We believe 
that the masses will have to resort to armed struggle 
to end imperialism, capitalism and patriarchy, because 
oppressors like you will give up your power without 
violence. But far from inciting murder, arson, riot or 
violence, we make it clear that such actions here and 
now are counterproductive. Instead, we encourage people 
to organize with MIM to build public opinion for the 
construction of a world without oppression.

MIM Notes readers can send letters of protest to 
Mailroom, Pelican Bay State Prison, P.O. Box 7500, 
#SHU-C9-122, Crescent City, CA 95532-7500 and 
Publications Review Committee, Iowa State Penitentiary, 
Fort Madison, IA 52627. Please send a second copy to 
MIM.


POLITICAL MURDER 

On December 6th, I lost a friend--killed by police on 
the streets of Kansas City. He was Black, 38, born in 
Chicago and moved to Birmingham, Alabama at age 14. 
Other than the spirit of Cinque in his heart there was 
no advance notice of his death. It's taken me four 
months to connect with someone in Kansas City that can 
help me find out why Mike Turner died so violently and 
what happened with his body.

Also in December, a young Dominican man was beaten and 
choked to death by police officers in the Bronx. 
Anthony Baez succumbed to the blue terror while his 
family and friends looked on in horror.

February, in Patterson, New Jersey an unarmed 16-year-
old manchild--Lawrence Myers--had his brains blown out 
by a housing project cop working for federal dollars. 
The shooter was white. The victim was Black.

The only warning any of them got was color and class. 
The list is endless.

For Mumia Abu-Jamal there was an additional warning. 
The state has proclaimed loud and clear its intention 
to kill him. The state is backed in its warning by the 
Philadelphia Police Department, judicial compliance, 
and a sickening apathy on the part of too many people.

The facts demonstrate that Mumia was beaten and shot by 
Philadelphia police in a city notorious for police 
murders and brutality. They show that Mumia's trial was 
fundamentally unfair and that he was framed by a 
hanging judge. The fact is this system places no human 
value on Mumia's life but does place symbolic value on 
killing a principled and courageous defender of the 
Black Nation. Mumia has been made a target of 
opportunity in a political climate rancid with racism 
and reaction.

It's often said that it is better to light a single 
candle than to curse the darkness. That's fine as far 
as it goes but it is presently not deep or strong 
enough to deter the State's executioners. We are at a 
point beyond candle vigils that reflect little besides 
moral indignation. We are beyond the point of watching 
and staring in disbelief.

Protest must continue and increase, but it is the fire 
of resistance that must be ignited. And I don't mean 
the path of least resistance. I mean resistance that 
fires from the heart rather than a sense of obligation. 
I mean sacrifices that compensate in some meaningful 
way for the shameful indifference that afflicts so many 
who should be supporting Mumia. Political murder grants 
nothing to moderation.

We live in a country that passed a "crime bill" 
imposing the death penalty for 50 new offenses at the 
same time a national day of mourning was declared for a 
war criminal like Richard Nixon. We all bear some 
degree of responsibility for this American nightmare. 
We are all responsible for rectifying it.

The Law functions as an ethical sanction of state 
violence. It's the government's trump card; the 
corporate ace in the hole. Cops kill us with impunity 
and we are hurled into the world's largest prison 
system while the quality of life gets pulled from under 
us by King Capitalism. Those who rule have the law and 
most of the guns on their side.

Mumia's lifeblood and political activism have roots in 
the Middle Passage and Black bondage. The law has its 
own bloody roots in supporting genocide, slavery, 
racism and the penitentiary system. The use and abuse 
of the law from the patrol car to the Supreme Court 
only adds to the debilitating effects of lives rubbed 
raw by oppression--an oppression Mumia has resisted 
since his formative years with the Black Panther Party.

To respect and defend Mumia is to act....

I'm reminded of Ida B. Wells and her hard-fought 
campaign against lynching. Throughout her many years of 
activism she was dismayed with the large number of 
professionals who put their positions and comforts over 
the needs of a community under attack. And for the 
uninitiated let me add that Ida B. Wells possessed a 
big pistol which she acquired after seeing enough men 
lynched to know that bitter fruit is most often Black, 
and the system attacks the most vulnerable.

It is my view that the rights due us by virtue of our 
humanity and labor are continuously violated, and that 
no comprehensive relief or solutions lie with the 
courts. However, this is not to say that battles cannot 
be won through the law. For this reason, every avenue 
of the law should be pursued to save the life of Mumia 
and others. What I am saying is that it may not be 
enough, and for THAT reason other avenues need to 
utilized in local, national, and international efforts 
to stop this execution.

We need to go beyond the merely acceptable to another 
level of energy, commitment and possibilities. Every 
neighborhood, every workplace, union, church, mosque, 
NAACP chapter, Leonard Peltier Defense Committee--every 
National Lawyers Guild member--needs to get down in a 
serious way with this campaign. No one should claim 
immunity or prior commitments: it's going to take sweat 
and maybe pain. It's going to take a big noise and 
maybe confrontation. This is a commitment that requires 
whatever it takes for as long as it takes. 

--a federal prisoner in Colorado, 4/95

For more information about the railroading of Mumia 
Abu- Jamal, the "Voice of the Voiceless," contact:

Pennsylvania Committee To Free Mumia, Box 10174, 
Pittsburgh, PA 15232-0174, (412) 361-2889
Noelle Hanrahan, Equal Justice USA (301) 699-0042
Coalition To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal (212) 330-8029

Write: Mumia Abu-Jamal, AM 8335, SCI Greene, 1040 E. 
Roy Furman Highway, Waynesburg, PA 15370-8090

International Political Prisoners unite to save Mumia 
Abu Jamal: Art and writings against the death penalty

Sisters and brothers, more than 90 politic palrisoners 
from the United States, France, Germany, Chile, 
Belgium, Denmark, Spain and Peru have contributed art 
and work, crafts and writings to our collective 
project: Art and Writings Against the Death Penalty.

We are grateful to everyone inside who has contributed 
and to those on the street who have given our work a 
means of expression. The response from prisoners was 
perhaps no surprise, but the project has also been 
enthusiastically embraced by many people outside. The 
art and performance aspects of this unprecedented 
effort are reaching into new communities with our call 
for solidarity with Mumia and every person on death 
row.


WE ARE BEING HEARD!

The art show recently concluded a month-long exhibition 
at the Art Gallery of the Adam Clayton Powell State 
Office Building in New York. The show will be on 
display in various American cities during the year and 
will be in Toronto in August.

Many of the art pieces contributed in the first call 
have already been sold with the condition that they 
will continue to travel with the exhibit. None of us, 
however, expected this project to carry on through the 
entire year and there is a practical need to deliver 
some of the artwork by June to those who have already 
purchased it. There will be more opportunities to sell 
more artwork and crafts during the upcoming tour and 
funds for Mumia's defense are still urgently needed.

If, due to the deadline of the original call, you 
haven't had the chance to contribute, you can do so 
now. If you have already contributed, please consider 
contributing additional pieces of artwork....You can 
contribute works to:

Political Prisoners Unite 164 Lexington Jersey City, NJ 
07034 (201) 420-9434

--reprinted from Prison News Service, 3/95. PNS can be 
reached at P.O. Box 5052, Stn. A, Toronto, Ont., Canada 
M5W 1W4


PRISONER USES MIM'S SPANISH-LANGUAGE WORK
AS AN ORGANIZING TOOL

Dear MIM,

I just wanted to keep you up to date with what's 
happening in the Washington Correctional (sic) Center 
for Women.

The last time I wrote you, I told you that the 
mattresses were being taken away down in segregation. 
This has been stopped. I've been down there twice since 
I last wrote--due to the fact that I won't kiss the 
pigs' asses. But while I was there, I noticed a lot of 
favoritism going down. I saw a half-Black, half-
Cambodian sister being refused the book-cart and room-
cleaning privileges--just because she didn't have her 
glasses and couldn't see the book titles. The pig 
didn't feel like pushing the book-cart closer to her 
cell--so she was denied a book.

But on a lighter note, a Latina woman just noticed the 
Spanish writing on the back of my Feb. issue of Notes 
and asked if she could read it. After reading that 
issue, she wanted more. I'm taking her the 8/94-1/95 
issues, including the 16-page special you sent in 
August. My September issue was denied. But I'm very 
excited about having someone to share my "Notes" with.

These women here just seem to think if we ignore 
something it will go away. Tell that to my Samoan 
friend who was beat up by seven male pigs. Supposedly 
she was resisting. Most of the women here in Maximum 
(CCU--Closed Custody Unit) saw the whole thing. Only 
four of us, including myself, wrote letters to the 
Superintendent stating what really happened. They 
didn't want to bring attention to themselves. Of 
course, the video cameras didn't show up until she 
really was resisting. But it didn't start off that way.

I try to get these women interested in what happens 
here, but they seem to not want to be bothered. I am 
making progress, though, like with this Latina woman.

And they took a sister to the hole this morning for 
refusing her medications and cussing out the guard. Not 
two hours later, I saw a white girl cuss out the same 
guard and disobey a direct order. What happened to her? 
Not a fucking thing. But we struggle on.

Please keep sending me my papers!

Your sister in the struggle,

--a Washington state prisoner, 3/8/95


PRISONER UNITY SCARES PRISONCRATS

... An interesting event took place about the second or 
third week of March, I believe. At the medium-maximum 
prison at Baker one evening, a group of about fifty 
Nation of Islam inmates gathered together for a fitness 
run around the compound. They sang cadence and chanted 
as well, as they made their way around the camp.

The very next morning, they were all packed up and sent 
to various prisons in the state. This was witnessed by 
my brother who said they looked like a regular Army 
platoon and that it was apparent they scared the shit 
out of the administration, I bet.

Needless to say, they have all been moved, which puts 
each and every one of them in a position to teach and 
gather at new places. I'll be willing to bet the 
administration has no idea what it's done.

As for myself, I do try to discuss Maoism as well as 
articles I read in MIM Notes with others. When I 
mentioned reaching population, I meant sending my old 
MIM Notes to the library out there and saying a few 
words to those who pass by back here, mostly laundry 
personnel. I feel even just a few words will give them 
something to think about, even if it's something along 
the lines of, "hey, let me go back and ask that cat 
about this or that," you know?

Well, my friends, that's the latest from this 
Auschwitz.... Thank you again for sending MIM Theory 
and Maoism and the Black Panther Party. I enjoy reading 
them and will see that they get around.

In struggle,

--a Florida prisoner, 3/31/95


SUPREME COURT ATTACKS PRISONERS

The Supreme Court has upped the ante of fascist 
repression against prisoners in Amerika's gulags. A 5-4 
decision (Sandin v. Conner) written by Chief Justice 
William Rehnquist held that prisoners do not have a 
"liberty interest" protected by the 14th Amendment's 
due process clause if they face repression that is not 
"atypical" in the prison.

The prisoner in this case, DeMont Conner, was thrown in 
solitary after supposedly insulting a guard during a 
strip search. Conner was not permitted to call 
witnesses at the hearing that sent him to solitary. He 
sued, arguing he was deprived of liberty without due 
process, as supposedly guaranteed by the 14th Amendment 
(which was supposed to end slavery).

But Rehnquist said that because the Halawa prison in 
Hawaii was so often under lockdown, "disciplinary 
segregation ... did not work a major disruption in his 
environment." He added, "The regime to which he 
[Conner] was subjected was within the range of 
confinement to be normally expected for one serving an 
indeterminate term of 30 years to life." Finally, "We 
hold that Conner's discipline in segregated confinement 
did not present the type of atypical, significant 
deprivation in which a state might conceivably create a 
liberty interest."

That means that the worse the "normal" conditions are 
in a prison, the more severe a restriction of liberties 
will have to be before it can be considered "atypical 
and significant," the new standard Rehnquist set. This 
fascist subjective standard allows for continuously 
increasing repression justified by the "rule of law."

Fourteenth Amendment challenges have been a useful 
tactic for prisoners challenging their conditions. With 
that avenue largely shut down, prisoners will need to 
raise challenges under the 8th Amendment ("cruel and 
unusual punishment"). But the Supreme Court has also 
been toughening the standard for offenses under the 8th 
amendment as well.

Lawsuits won't end the genocidal oppression of 
Amerika's prison system, but they are important 
tactical tools. This setback in legal tactics should 
redouble the dedication of revolutionaries to overthrow 
the system that perpetrates this oppression.

-MC12

Notes: Supreme Court decision transcript, Sandin v. 
Conner (No. 93-1911) 6/19/95. New York Times 6/20/95.


MODERN INSTRUMENTS OF TORTURE

... These people ... in their disciplinary unit have 
instruments of torture and ... use these instruments of 
torture on a regular basis. They have something called 
a "four way." This is a medieval type of device in 
which the prisoner is shackled to a bed and is 
stretched as far as his body will allow. Then these 
evil people open the windows and turn on the fans in 
the dead cold winter...

--an Indiana prisoner, 1/26/95, in the 3/95 Coalition 
for Prisoners' Rights Newsletter, which can be reached 
at P.O. Box 1911, Santa Fe, NM 87504-1911.


CASE OF THE KILLER CLERGYMAN

Raymond Carl Kinnamon was murdered by the state of 
Texas on December 11, 1994. His final statement was cut 
short. He was speaking like an intelligent, feeling 
human being, like a man, and it was feared by his 
killers that he might start to seem human to the rest 
of the world. That wasn't to be tolerated. When the 
warden stepped in to hold him down, shut him up and 
begin the lethal poison, an attending clergyman 
assisted, placing his hands on Carl's chest to help 
kill him.

We know that Texas prisons are a sham that only pay 
lip-service to rehabilitation, and that everything that 
goes on in Texas prisons is a sham to fool the public. 
We know that on death row, the unwritten goal is to try 
to break the spirit, destroy the manhood, sever family 
ties. But must a murdering preacher be tolerated? At 
the point when a man lies down on the gurney, that's 
the ultimate and irreversible punishment. Why can't he 
be attended by a minister who...is there for him..., or 
attended by no minister at all if that is his choice, 
instead of a minister who sucks up to the prison 
system, even so far as to assist in the execution?

--Coalition for Prisoners' Rights Newsletter, 3/95


YARD TIME

I run miles in squared circles 22 strides long by 11 
wide, Brushing the walls with my shoulders, Nudging 
them outward ... pushing against my confinement. Flying 
in my mind's eye, challenging their oppression. I 
daydream of loved ones and glance at the sky On the 
straight-aways ... 22 strides long by 11 wide. I fight 
all the battles we won on the streets, I breathe with 
the cadence I set with my feet. And when I tire before 
I'm ready to stop My mind recalls the story I've read 
so often to my kids. I think I can, I think I can, I 
think I can ... As the little engine struggles to the 
top, And the joy of the children as they change the 
chant ... I thought I could, I thought I could, never 
say can't. So the pain melts from my lungs And settles 
in my heart As my stride opens up To the pace at the 
start, A new cadence grows as I cover the distance, One 
we all know ... Repression Breeds Resistance Repression 
Breeds Resistance Repression Breeds Resistance

--by a federal prisoner, now in Illinois, while in 
Control Unit, Trenton State Prison, New Jersey. Written 
1990. Reprinted from North Coast Xpress, 10/94. North 
Coast Xpress can be reached at P.O. Box 1226, 
Occidental, CA 95465.

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