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  BI-M O N T H L Y

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         THE MAOIST INTERNATIONALIST MOVEMENT

     MIM NOTES 123              OCTOBER 1, 1996


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.  U.$. ATTACKS TO INCREASE GULF OIL CONTROL
2.  CHICAGO CONVENTION REEKS OF REPRESSION AND
    IMPERIALIST RHETORIC
3.  LETTERS TO MIM
4.  STRUGGLE CONTINUES FOR THE SISON FAMILY
5.  HOW TO FIGHT FOR YOUR RIGHT TO DISTRIBUTE THE
    PEOPLE'S LITERATURE
6.  PROTEST AND TEACH-IN SUPPORTS KOREAN STUDENTS
7.  STOCKHOLM CHILD SEX ABUSE CONFERENCE MISSES THE
    POINT: IMPERIALISM
8.  CHIPPEWA WIN TEMPORARY VICTORY AGAINST TOXIC
    TRAINLOAD
9.  MARCIA CLARK SHOWS BANKRUPTCY OF PSEUDO-
    FEMINISM
10. PATRIARCHY: KEEP THE WIMMIN'S HAIR CLEAN AND
    GET THE DANGEROUS MEN AWAY FROM OUR PROPERTY
11. IRAQ: A LIITLE HISTORY OF AMERIKAN IMPERIALISM
12. STUDENT PROTESTS PRISON SLAVE LABOR
13. EXPOSED CORRUPTION IN PHILLY PIGS LEADS TO
    SMALL REFORMS
14. MORE KORRUPT KKKOPS EXPOSED IN NYC
15. BOURGEOIS ACADEMICS DEFINED
16. AMERIKAN KULTURE: TRAINSPOTTING AND WARPED
17. MARXISM-LENINISM-MAOISM ONLINE: WORLD WIDE WEB
    REVIEWS, AFFIRMATIVE ACTION
18. UNDER LOCK AND KEY: NEWS FROM PRISONERS AND
    PRISONS



* * *


WHAT IS MIM?

The Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM) is a 
revolutionary communist party that upholds Marxism-
Leninism-Maoism, comprising the collection of 
existing or emerging Maoist internationalist 
parties in the English-speaking imperialist 
countries and their English-speaking internal semi-
colonies, as well as the existing or emerging 
Spanish-speaking Maoist internationalist parties of 
Aztlan, Puerto Rico and other territories of the 
U.S. Empire. MIM Notes is the newspaper of MIM. 
Notas Rojas is the newspaper of the Spanish-
speaking parties or emerging parties of MIM.

MIM is an internationalist organization that works 
from the vantage point of the Third World 
proletariat; thus, its members are not Amerikans, 
but world citizens.
MIM struggles to end the oppression of all groups 
over other groups: classes, genders, nations.  MIM 
knows this is only possible by building public 
opinion to seize power through armed struggle.

Revolution is a reality for North America as the 
military becomes over-extended in the government's 
attempts to maintain world hegemony.

MIM differs from other communist parties on three 
main questions: (1) MIM holds that after the 
proletariat seizes power in socialist revolution, 
the potential exists for capitalist restoration 
under the leadership of a new bourgeoisie within 
the communist party itself. In the case of the 
USSR, the bourgeoisie seized power after the death 
of Stalin in 1953; in China, it was after Mao's 
death and the overthrow of the "Gang of Four" in 
1976. (2) MIM upholds the Chinese Cultural 
Revolution as the farthest advance of communism in 
human history. (3) MIM believes the North American 
white-working-class is primarily a non-
revolutionary worker-elite at this time; thus, it 
is not the principal vehicle to advance Maoism in 
this country.

MIM accepts people as members who agree on these 
basic principles and accept democratic centralism, 
the system of majority rule, on other questions of 
party line.
"The theory of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin is 
universally applicable. We should regard it not as 
dogma, but as a guide to action. Studying it is not 
merely a matter of learning terms and phrases, but 
of learning Marxism-Leninism as the science of 
revolution."
-- Mao Zedong, Selected Works, Vol. II, p. 208


* * *


U.$. ATTACKS TO INCREASE GULF OIL CONTROL


President Clinton ordered two sets of cruise 
missile strikes at Iraq at the beginning of 
September, intended to increase Amerikan military 
control over southern Iraq, and control over the 
Persian Gulf region in general. After the attacks, 
which were supposed to weaken Iraqi air defenses, 
Amerika expanded its zone of air-based occupation 
by about 100 miles north into Iraq, almost all the 
way to Baghdad.

The public reason for the attacks was to penalize 
the Iraqi government led by Saddam Hussein for its 
military strike into southern Kurdistan, which lies 
within Iraq's northern borders and within Amerika's 
imposed northern "no-fly" zone of air-based 
occupation. "When you abuse your people, or 
threaten your neighbors, you must pay a price," 
Clinton said.(1) Clinton was careful to direct the 
comment at Iraq only - but that did nothing to 
cover up the obvious hypocrisy of the Amerikan 
position.

Bourgeois analysts were quite willing to give the 
real reasons for the Amerikan attack because 
Amerikans would never support military intervention 
just to help an oppressed nation such as the Kurds. 
So Defense Secretary William Perry made a point of 
saying Iraq posed a "clear and present danger" to 
nearby countries and to "the flow of oil in the 
world." And the ABC News military expert talking 
heads admitted the strikes on air-defense systems 
were long-intended, with the Kurdistan incident 
providing a justification.(2)

Protecting the flow of oil is not really Amerika's 
goal, the goal is really to control that flow for 
Amerikan imperialist interests. Why else would the 
attacks have come just as Iraq was ready to 
implement a food-for-oil exchange that would have 
reintroduced Iraqi oil to the world market? That 
deal is now on hold.


AMERIKA IS NOT PROTECTING KURDS


The imperialists will not protect the oppressed 
nations of the world. Imperialism is the cause of 
the oppression and exploitation of these nations. 
The Kurdish people and all other oppressed peoples 
will only achieve self-determination through 
struggle against the imperialists. But even 
Clinton's high principle is revealed as meaningless 
rhetoric by  the large Turkish invasion of that 
same Kurdish region within Iraq , against the 
Kurdish Workers Party (PKK), which is fighting for 
Kurdish liberation in Turkey.(3) This happened the 
same week Klinton ordered the air strike of Iraq. 

Turkey's bombing of Kurdish territory in Iraq 
doesn't offend Clinton's important humanitarian 
principles. The U.S. State Department said the 
Turkish incursion was OK, but Iraq's was not.(4) 
This is particularly revealing of the hypocrisy of 
the imperialists since Turkey crossed a recognized 
national border while Iraq acted within its own 
borders (a distinction which does not matter to MIM 
when we are talking about borders used to oppress 
people and enforce the imperialist world order.) In 
fact, Turkey has announced it will annex a strip of 
land on the Iraqi side of the border between the 
two countries as  a "security zone," like Israel 
has in Lebanon.(3)

This all fits the U.S. pattern of supporting 
Turkey's genocide of the Kurdish people, as in 
March 1995 when Turkey launched a major attack 
across Iraq's border. In that attack they struck 
mostly civilian targets, although they claimed to 
be after the "terrorist" PKK. The U.S. military 
cooperated by removing its patrolling aircraft from 
the area. As we wrote at the time: "The U.S. only 
cares for the Kurdish people when they are 
available for use as political pawns."(5)

The U.S. government portrays itself as the would-be 
agent of Kurdish liberation, valiantly trying to 
get the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the 
Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) together to oppose 
Iraq's government. In the latest dispute, the KDP 
has gone to Iraq for help against the PUK, which 
was getting help from Iran.

U.S. government sources have been telling the press 
that the KDP was working with the CIA to oppose the 
Iraqi government, and the KDP's invitation to Iraq 
to intervene against the PUK has undermined U.S. 
efforts there. One group getting money from the CIA 
is the Iraqi National Congress, which includes the 
KDP.(6) By some accounts the KDP's Massoud Barzani 
was the CIA's main contact there.(7)

When MIM covered the Kurdish uprising in 1991 in an 
interview with a representative of the KDP, we 
warned of the dangers of accepting aid from the 
imperialists,(8) but at the same time it's not for 
us to say who they should or should not accept help 
from as long as they do not compromise the armed 
struggle against imperialism. If they are 
successfully manipulating the opposing powers of 
Iraq and Amerika for the benefit of Kurdish 
liberation - which we do not have evidence of at 
the present - then more power to them. At the 
moment it is hard to see how Kurdish liberation has 
benefited from the latest developments.

Amerika has no problem with Iraq hampering Iran's 
attempts to gain influence within Iraq. Amerika 
does not want to see Iraq fall apart -- Amerika 
just wants to control Iraq itself. Still, 
government officials told the press that they were 
upset that Iraq disturbed their covert operations 
based in the north. Iraq's military assault on 
Erbil, in Kurdistan, undermined a CIA operation to 
overthrow the Iraqi government, Clinton 
administration officials told the New York Times. 
That operation had grown since January, when 
Clinton signed a secret order for increased CIA 
efforts, which went up to about $20 million this 
year from about $6 million the year before. The CIA 
operatives supposedly fled the country when Iraq 
attacked, leaving behind their Iraqi 
accomplices.(6)


OPPOSE AMERIKAN IMPERIALISM 


While Saddam Hussein is no friend of the oppressed, 
MIM opposes all attacks by Amerikan imperialism. 
The terror inflicted on the Kurds by Saddam Hussein 
is nothing new, back when Amerikan imperialism was 
funding Hussein he was attacking the Kurds and 
Amerika did not mind that this was done with 
Amerikan weapons. The suffering of the Kurdish 
people must end, but this end will be brought about 
by the people themselves, not by imperialists who 
pretend support for the oppressed when it serves 
political interests while at the same time 
attacking oppressed nations around the world.

In typical chauvinist reporting, Amerikan radio and 
press echoed the white house's joy that no Amerikan 
lives had been lost. No one tried to count the 
Iraqi lives lost in this "successful" air strike. 
The kind face Klinton tries to put on imperialism 
is just a cover for political maneuvering. The real 
message from this attack is that nations should not 
attempt to resist imperialist domination. But when 
imperialism means suffering and death for the 
majority of the world's people, another imperialist 
offensive in World War III is nothing new. This war 
is being fought in the Third World where the 
imperialists and their lackeys carry out constant 
low intensity warfare against the proletariat and 
peasants. These attacks don't make it into the news 
very often but they wreck constant genocide on the 
oppressed nations of the world. One more overt 
attack will not stop the oppressed from resisting 
imperialist domination and the majority of the 
world's people will eventually defeat the 
dictatorship by the minority and stop them from 
abusing all people.


NOTES:
1. ABC New, 9/3/96.
2. Nightline, 9/3/96.
3. The New York Times, 9/7/96, p. A6.
4. The New York Times, 9/6/96, p. A1.
5. MIM Notes 100, May 1995.
6. The New York Times, 9/7/9696, p. A1.
7. Jim Hoagland in the Washington Post, 9/6/96, p. 
A23.
8. MIM Notes 51, April 1991.


* * *


CHICAGO CONVENTION REEKS OF REPRESSION AND 
IMPERIALIST RHETORIC


This year's Chicago Democratic Party convention was 
marked by lots of Amerikan chauvinist rhetoric and 
campaign-speak inside the well guarded walls along 
with lost of protests outside the walls. Many of 
these protests were liberals who did not even 
pretend to oppose imperialism including Rainbow 
Coalition rallies and labor aristocracy marches. 
But alongside these less political activities, 
large crowds turned out to protest anti-immigration 
repression, to oppose the criminal injustice 
system, to fight against the so-called drug war 
which is really a war on the oppressed, and to 
protest police brutality among the most prominent 
anti-imperialist causes.

These protests sometimes focus on the Democratic 
convention as if the protesters expect to have a 
better chance of swaying the Democrats to 
progressive change. While the conventions make a 
fine opportunity for a protest, it is important to 
be clear that electoralism does not make anti-
imperialist change and there is no significant 
difference between the parties. MIM does not see a 
difference between the Republicans and the 
Democrats on anti-imperialist issues and our 
campaign this year across the country has told 
people:  Don't vote for imperialism.


PIG REPRESSION STILL THERE IN 1996


Chicago was angling for the kinder gentler 
convention image in 1996 to erase the bad press and 
memories of the 1968 brutal repression of anti-war 
convention protesters. Chicago went all out to 
sanitize and beautify the parts of the city that 
would be seen by convention attendees. The streets 
used for travel between hotels and the convention 
center were renovated, trees were planted, and 
empty lots cleared. But for those in Chicago who 
live in the poorer sections who were not on the 
convention travel route, no new trees were seen and 
the abandoned buildings and empty lots remained. 
Chicago is willing to invest millions in image but 
little in substance.


The security lockdown on the convention site was 
also complete and the pigs patrolling the streets 
kept tight control. At this year's democratic party 
convention the police repression was still there, 
it was just quieter and of less interest to the 
public. In part this was due to the lower level of 
activism relative to 1968 and in part this was 
because the pigs and the state have learned a few 
lessons from 1968. Setting up areas for official 
protests was just one of their many strategic moves 
to marginalize the protesters. In two designated 
protest areas, organizers had to apply for permits 
and were allowed carefully scheduled 30 minute 
segments of stage time. These protest areas came 
complete with a full regiment of police to guard 
against any problems and free ice water for the 
protesters to reinforce the benevolent image of the 
city. All of this planning combined with the lower 
level of activism to create a relative calm that 
was only interrupted by a few arrests.

Several famous names from the 1968 Chicago 
convention were back in Chicago this year with many 
other people protesting prison conditions and the 
criminal injustice system. But when this protest 
ended in a civil disobedience sit-in at the federal 
building, the arrest of a few famous names was what 
made the stories in the media, not the causes they 
were fighting for.


PIGS RAID COUNTER-CONVENTION CONFERENCE


The largest incident of police repression against 
protesters of this year's Chicago convention (that 
MIM has heard about) took place at the same time 
Klinton was addressing the convention. The pigs 
raided the counter-convention conference Active 
Resistance, organized by the organization 
Autonomous Zone, a Chicago anarchist group. Police 
forced their way into the building on West Carroll 
street that served as the central meeting site for 
the conference. People were pepper-sprayed, and 
several were hospitalized. Searches of people's 
personal belongings were conducted and radio 
equipment and papers were confiscated. When 
conference participants asked to see a search 
warrant the pigs told them a search warrant was not 
necessary. The pigs also refused to give out their 
badge numbers. Although they were told they were 
not under arrest, when one woman and her 3-year old 
son tried to leave the pigs told them they could 
not. Police vans then went on to another Active 
Resistance meeting site but by the time they 
arrived the organizers had evacuated the 
building.(1)


There were also reports of attacks on independent 
media makers when several of the videographers 
covering the Festival of the Oppressed procession 
were arrested and their cameras were confiscated 
and film destroyed by arresting officers. One vocal 
camera person had his camera smashed by the 
pigs.(1)


1996 IS NOT 1968


Although some successful anti-imperialist protests 
took place, the 1996 convention protests were not 
nearly as big or as radical as the activism at the 
1968 convention. It's important for activists to 
understand what is different in 1996 compared with 
1968. The media coverage of the convention protests 
focused on the "general apathy" and "general lack 
of interest" as the cause of the much smaller 
protests and change in atmosphere around the 
convention. But it's important to understand the 
role of the Vietnam war in radicalizing the youth 
in 1968 and the class interests of the Amerikan 
population.


WHITE AMERIKA FIGHTS FOR SELF-INTERESTS


People in Amerika are not stupid:  the majority of 
the citizens of this country recognize that they 
have an interest in maintaining the relatively high 
standard of living they enjoy at the expense of the 
Third World. This bribery from the government has 
worked to subdue the anti-imperialist sentiments of 
the people over the past century.

Wars that involve large numbers of Amerikans in 
active combat and therefore actively engage the 
material interests of Amerikans, do a lot to 
radicalize the people. The Vietnam war gave many 
people an important reason to oppose Amerikan 
imperialism and led many, particularly youth, to 
take a closer look at the barbarity of Amerikan 
imperialism around the world. 

But today World War III is being carried out mostly 
in the Third World with most of the casualties 
being from the oppressed nations of the world. And 
when the war is sufficiently removed from the 
interests of the Amerikan public, the compelling 
politicizing force is no longer there. Amerikans 
can slip back into the comfortable life of 
excessive consumerism funded by the exploitation 
and oppression of the majority of the world's 
people. The bribery that created the huge labor 
aristocracy that makes up the vast majority of the 
workers of this country has also infected the youth 
who strive to take their place among their 
successful Amerikan parents. These youth still have 
vacillating interests because of the contradictions 
of age in our society, and they are the most 
revolutionary group among the white nation. But 
even this group is best mobilized when the 
possibility of death (the draft) strikes them in 
the face.


SECTION OF OPPRESSED NATIONS ALSO OFFERED A 
WAY OUT


Oppressed nations face huge inequities in financial 
situations, opportunities, education, health care, 
and imprisonment compared to whites who have it 
better across all these measures. And oppressed 
nations have a history of slavery and exploitation 
that has created a group interest in ending 
imperialism. Revolutionary leaders from 
organizations like the Black Panthers and the Young 
Lords were among those on the forefront of the late 
1960s protests.

But in Amerika the rulers have caught on to the 
benefits of bribing even the oppressed nations. 
Offering strategic positions to enough tokens and 
bribing a large enough group of an oppressed nation 
by giving them the opportunity to take advantage of 
the wealth this country steals from the Third World 
has also bought the alliance of a segment of the 
oppressed nations. This segment includes many petty 
bourgeois individuals who may be allies of the 
revolution in the future but who are willing to 
work within the system when given the right 
incentives.

Reverend Willie Barrow, chairwoman of Operation 
PUSH and an Illinois delegate, attended a 
commemorative rally of Martin Luther King's famous 
"I have a dream" speech that drew several hundred 
people. She said so few Blacks were protesting in 
the streets this year because they are now 
negotiating on the inside of the Democratic Party. 
"Marches like King's put thousands of people in the 
street," Barrow said. "That time, we couldn't get 
in the suites. Now, I am staying in the Drake 
Hotel. That's why we didn't have crowds in the 
streets, because we got them in the suites. Now, we 
have got to demand justice in the suites."(2)

While there is some truth to Barrow's statement 
about the upward mobility of Blacks in Amerika over 
the past 30 years, this has primarily benefited an 
upper segment of Blacks while leaving the majority 
behind. With conditions in the projects, inner 
cities, and prisons still appalling and still 
mostly affecting oppressed nations, Blacks, 
Latinos, indigenous peoples and other oppressed 
nations are still the people within Amerikan 
borders with the interest in ending imperialism. 
The capitulation of a growing number of Black 
leaders who believe that electoralism is the answer 
must be fought by the young leaders both inside and 
outside of prison who have seen the harsh reality 
of conditions for oppressed nations in the United 
Snakes. MIM's work in the prisons and in the 
oppressed nations outside of the prisons has 
confirmed the revolutionary sentiments created by 
the still oppressive material conditions faced by 
the majority of the people from oppressed nations.

The fact is that oppressed nations are already 
protesting Amerikan electoralism and have been for 
years. A disproportionate number of non-whites do 
not vote. And not voting is correlated with income 
so those in the bottom 20% of society are least 
likely to vote:  this is mostly oppressed nation 
people.(3) While Klinton and Dole represent the 
interests of the majority of Amerikans, they do not 
represent the interests of this bottom 20% who 
understand this and don't waste their time at the 
ballot box. It is this correct sentiment that MIM 
is harnessing with the Don't Vote for Imperialism 
campaign this year and we are turning frustration 
with the system into organizing against the system. 
Write to us for more information on our 1996 
campaign and what you can do to get involved.


NOTES:
1. COUNTERMEDIA PRESS RELEASE, August 29, 1996.
2. Chicago Tribune, September 1, 1996, P.3.


* * *


LETTERS


Dear MIM editor,

While I was reading my copy of MIM Notes #120, 
(August 15, 1996), I came across a New York 
prisoner's letter on page 5, "Tour Between Circles 
of Hell". I was upset and disappointed to see this 
letter printed -- especially without a response 
from MIM.

It is understandable that MIM wanted a letter 
relevant to their article on prison transfers. The 
letter does show how a prisoner suffered during a 
transfer, yet this prisoner also caused suffering 
to other prisoners. Would a Maoist have done the 
same? Since no response was along with the letter 
critics of MIM might ask the following questions.

Does MIM condone violence against the masses for 
irritating religious belief or a malodorous smell? 
Does MIM agree that beating up a person for reading 
the Bible out loud is OK? Is this letter truly 
representative of the suffering prisoners face? 
Does this letter demonstrate the tremendous 
revolutionary force of the prison population?

MIM Notes does not advocate for Christianity or 
religion in general. Religion dupes the masses into 
praying instead of acting, waiting for heaven 
instead of working for change. This does not mean 
that MIM condones violence on the masses. No matter 
how irritating, religious behavior from a prisoner 
should not merit violence. Instead possibly this 
could be used a teachable moment for Maoism to 
argue and discuss the idea of religion.

As for the malodorous prisoner, often times 
prisoners are denied showers, toilet paper, 
toothpaste, etc. For all we know this prisoner 
could have be chained naked and spread eagle for 
day(s), forced to urinate on himself and denied a 
shower. This man is a victim of the tools of 
oppression, not a subject of ridicule or criticism.

Yes it is unfortunate that this prisoner suffered 
and the pigs took his stuff. Unfortunately it is 
commonplace for prisoners to have their books, 
legal materials, and personal writings taken by the 
prisoncrats. Often during transfers especially, 
prisoners may lose all their personal belongings. 
MIM, this is an important issue. How did this 
happen?
--a RAIL Comrade, August 17, 1996

MIM RESPONDS: Thank you for your criticism. 
Careful MIM Notes readers keep us on our toes. The 
decision to run the letter without a response was 
incorrect. Though the letter partially pointed to 
the inadequate conditions of prison transfers and 
the harassment of prisoners by the pigs, the letter 
did not correctly represent MIM line. After reading 
your letter it is more clear that the error of 
running the letter lies primarily in the fact that 
the piece does not point out the principal 
struggles against guards, against the pigs and 
against the repressive system. In addition, MIM did 
not take this opportunity to struggle with the 
prisoner to realize as well that he must struggle 
against the oppressor, not his fellow prisoners.

The intended purpose of running the letter was to 
show how the conditions of transfers are 
oppressive, to show the way that the guards harass 
and intimidate prisoners between prisons and bring 
the parallel article pertaining to transfers of 
youth into a more detailed light. Transfers and 
shackles are oppressive and reminiscent of 
Amerikkkan slavery. Being told that you are anti-
social cause you can't handle it is further 
harassment. Pigs encouraging fighting through 
making the conditions inadequate and infuriating is 
a tactic of oppression.

The letter did not expose the principal enemy and 
you are right, it does not demonstrate the 
tremendous revolutionary force of the prison 
population. Additionally, running the letter 
without a response struggling with the prisoner to 
take up revolutionary struggle served the purpose 
of wasting space in the people's newspaper.

What would have been correct is to struggle with 
the prisoner to find the reasons for these 
conditions. Like the religious prisoner -- the 
source for that is not the one individual, but a 
specific ideology the prison authorities sanction. 
Above all, Maoists must always focus on shackles 
being completely inhumane and focus on the pigs' 
reaction to the writer. We can use that struggle 
for a group analysis then as strong agitational 
material to address other prisoners with similar 
misconceptions.


* * *


STRUGGLE CONTINUES FOR THE ASYLUM OF THE SISON 
FAMILY


For the time being, the order of the Dutch 
Government to expel Prof. Sison, his wife Julie and 
14-year-old son Jasm from the Netherlands on 14 
August has been pushed back by their appeal to the 
Aliens' Court and by the mass protest actions in 18 
cities of the world.

But the danger of expulsion of the Sison family 
from the Netherlands remains. It is a distinct 
possibility that, while the court case is still 
pending, Prof. Sison is detained in order to compel 
him to look for another country to transfer to. 

We should not underestimate the power of the Dutch, 
US and Manila governments to deny asylum to the 
Sison family in the Netherlands. They have already 
prevented them from getting asylum status  for 
eight years and are now determined to expel them.

We should not underestimate their capacity to use 
propaganda and their influence to misrepresent 
advocates and fighters for national liberation as 
"terrorists" in order to deny them asylum.

It is therefore of crucial importance and necessity 
to arouse, organize and mobilize the support of the 
broad masses of the people. It is not enough that 
the juridical merits of the asylum application of 
the Sison family is strong. Powerful forces are out 
to lay aside the just grounds for the asylum of the 
Sison family.

The International Campaign for the Asylum of the 
Sison Family urges the people to remain vigilant 
and militant in supporting the Sison family.

1. Demonstrations and pickets far bigger and in 
more cities than already held in August are 
proposed for the second week of October 1996.

2. The campaign to collect signatures on the appeal 
on behalf of the Sison family aims at collecting at 
least 50,000 signatures in as many countries as 
possible.

3. Statements from organizations and personalities 
are also being solicited in support of the Sison 
family.

4. The International Campaign for the Asylum of the 
Sison Family is producing printed, electronic, and 
audio-visual materials on the Sison Asylum case.

5. Meetings are held to present the facts and 
significance of the Sison Asylum case and the 
Philippine situation, especially the deplorable 
human rights situation.

6. Committees in support of the Sison family in 
their appeal for asylum are being formed in many 
cities of the world in order to promote the 
foregoing activities and raise funds for the work 
of the undersigned International Campaign for the 
Asylum of the Sison Family

7. An international team of lawyers and 
representatives of major international lawyer's 
organizations is being formed in order to support 
the Sison family, observe and intervene in court 
proceedings, hold an international conference on 
the Sison case and conduct a fact-finding mission 
to investigate the human rights situation in the 
Philippines. 

The International Campaign for the Asylum of the 
Sison Family will continue until the Sison family 
get their asylum in the Netherlands and the 
procedure for granting asylum to all political 
refugees is facilitated and freed from neocolonial 
political and economic pressures and maneuvers, 
including malicious attempts to vilify and 
criminalize fighters for national liberation and 
democracy.

The International Campaign for the Asylum of the 
Sison Family is encouraging the committees in 
support of the Sison family to consider becoming 
simultaneously or eventually committees in 
solidarity with the Filipino people's struggle for 
national liberation and democracy. Thus, the 
committees can take a long-term interest in what 
the Sisons stand for--the just cause of the 
people's struggle for liberation and social 
emancipation.


--The International Campaign for the Asylum of the 
Sison Family 22 August 1996


* * *


HOW TO FIGHT FOR YOUR RIGHT TO DISTRIBUTE THE 
PEOPLE'S LITERATURE


When Ross Perot needs publicity, he buys television 
time and doesn't worry about distribution. 
Movements of the oppressed have to fight for their 
right to distribute literature when almost all 
property where lit can be distributed is considered 
private property and the rest is a fiefdom of some 
bureaucrat.

Those who attempt distribution know that reality is 
much different than the legal fiction of rights 
that exist on such pieces of paper as the 
"Constitution" or Supreme Court rulings. 
Nonetheless, Mao said we in the imperialist 
countries must fight "long, legal battles" until 
the day the imperialists have been so weakened that 
they are "really helpless."

TARGETS OF WINNABLE BATTLES:

1. Public libraries cannot refuse to allow you to 
leave your literature for free distribution.
Example: New York City Public Library must create a 
place for you to leave literature, whether such 
places exist or not already.

2. Any host of a public official's or public 
figure's speech or appearance whether public or 
private must allow you to distribute literature on 
the grounds where and if the public has been 
invited.
Example: Leonard Jeffries speaks at Private U. 
which publicized the event and invited the public. 
You cannot be stopped from handing out literature.

3. Shopping malls must allow you to distribute 
literature free.

4. Police must not stop you from any of the above.

TACTICS FOR VICTORY IN THE THREE ABOVE GOALS:

1. Attempt distribution once.

2. Retreat from distribution when asked to stop but 
ONLY after the following: a) Taking note on the 
TIME and PLACE you were stopped. b) Getting the 
name of the person who stopped you and the name and 
address of the librarian, forum host or mall 
management if you don't already know it. c) Give 
the relevant people copies of documents proving 
your rights if you have the documents with you. d) 
Take notes on any evidence that other people or 
organizations were allowed to distribute 
literature. Take copies of said lit if possible.

3. Go home and write a letter noting the above 
facts addressed to the head librarian, forum host, 
mall management, police chief or other bureaucrat 
in charge.  a) Request a written response in which 
you are guaranteed the right to distribute 
literature and not just for a specific instance but 
as a matter of policy. (If you get a favorable 
written response, bring a copy next time you 
distribute.) b) Inform the bureaucrat that should 
this matter have to go to court, you will not only 
obtain your right to distribute, but also you will 
ask for legal expenses and a sum of money to make 
an example of the bureaucrat's organization for 
violating your supposed civil liberties. c) Enclose 
relevant news clippings or legal documents relating 
to your supposed rights, so that they cannot claim 
their  subsequent action was unintentional and 
uninformed. Note what you enclosed in the body of 
the letter. d) Note that any future use of force 
against distributors of the organization you sign 
the letter with will be regarded as criminal and 
the subject of a civil suit.  e) Keep a copy of the 
letter and documents you sent.

4. Send the letter and documents and get the post 
office to register the mail in order to obtain a 
return receipt from the relevant bureaucrat.

5. If less than your full "rights" would be 
sufficient for you practically-speaking, inform the 
bureaucrat verbally.

Example: You would settle for unimpeded parking lot 
access, but you will be in the mall itself handing 
out flyers if management doesn't capitulate 
immediately. Tell the bureaucrat this verbally, but 
do not commit yourself to giving up rights on 
paper.

6. Publicize the case; do fund-raising for the 
battle.

7. If response is unsatisfactory obtain real legal 
help. Use your letter to the bureaucrat and any 
written responses as information to give your 
lawyer. If the lawyer shows any hesitancy or lack 
of aggressiveness, get another one. The ACLU and 
National Lawyers Guild are two places to go. 90% of 
lawyers are involved in more financially involved 
matters and have no clue what you are talking 
about.


* * *


PROTEST AND TEACH-IN SUPPORTS KOREAN STUDENTS

LOS ANGELES, September 2 -- More than twenty people 
gathered outside a dinner for south Korean 
president Kim Young Sam in order to protest his 
governments recent brutal repression of protesting 
university students. The protesters carried signs 
with slogans like "Down with civilian dictatorship" 
and "All Koreans want one Korea." They also chanted 
in support of reunification.

Flyers from the "Korean-American Coalition Against 
Political Repression in south Korea," which 
organized the protests, carried the headline "Kim 
Young Sam: New Civilian President, Same Military 
Repression" and described the students' demands as 
well as the violent response of the south Korean 
government. The students demanded abolishment of 
the National Security Law, removal of U.S. troops 
from Korea, and peaceful reunification of Korea. 
Kim's government responded by sending in 10,000 
riot police who brutalized and arrested the 
students [See MIM Notes 122].

The rally in Los Angeles included a spontaneous 
teach in. Several eyewitnesses explained that the 
Y.S. Kim government used nerve agent (poison gas) 
on the students and that government troops sexually 
harassed wimmin students they had detained.

Some of the coalitions flyers and posters claimed 
that the students were "not anti-State" (and 
therefore the violent crackdown was unnecessary). 
From MIM's perspective, the existing south Korean 
government is defined precisely by the facts that 
it houses the Amerikan troops and implements 
fascism in order to prevent re-unification, so the 
student protesters were objectively anti-(puppet)-
State. They have the honor and obligation to oppose 
any organized force which prevents the self-
determination of the Korean people.

The protest in Los Angeles also attracted some 
agents of repression. Protest organizers were 
harassed by the Secret Service. Additionally, 
Amerikan and south Korean government agents took 
many photos of the protesters. Although these pigs 
did not violently attack the masses this time, MIM 
reminds anti-imperialist activists that the pigs' 
role is to harass and eventually violently repress 
activists -- especially those connected to 
advancing struggles in the oppressed nations. 
Activists should take this tactical threat 
seriously and take appropriate precautions.


* * *


CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE DISCUSSED AT STOCKHOLM 
CONFERENCE: ANALYSIS BANKRUPT

by MCB52

At the end of August, thousands of delegates mostly 
from non-governmental organizations (NGOs) 
participated in the first World Congress Against 
Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in 
Stockholm. Though they did succeed in raising some 
awareness of the oppressive and often brutal 
treatment of oppressed-nation children, their 
analysis and solutions were fundamentally bankrupt 
as they could only urge poor countries to save 
their children from oppression -- implicitly 
ignoring the conditions of the imperialist-
dominated nations as a whole.

The conference organizers correctly realized that 
most of the commercial oppression of children is 
done in the Third World, a correct view relative to 
some on the anti-kiddie porn crusade who pretend 
that all children are equally likely prey.

But their answer, "stiffer legislation" cannot 
solve the problem. Part of their solution was to 
encourage Third World governments to prosecute 
those who sexually abuse children. How the Ramos 
regime of the Philippines, for example, could 
possibly track down every marine who buys sex with 
a 12-year-old pimped from Malaysia, is left unsaid. 
But they also don't recognize that the Ramos regime 
does not protect its citizens in general, children 
or otherwise. The Ramos puppet government is going 
to go right on appeasing the marines until the 
youth and other oppressed force them to stop. 

A more interesting piece of policy the NGOs were 
pushing was to increase prosecution of First World 
men in their own countries for crimes sex committed 
abroad. At least then they are telling governments 
that have power over First World men to control 
them. But this actually only serves to legitimize 
the police state, and does not stop the crimes. The 
proposals also included the creation of paedophile 
registers, international criminal courts, and 
special police forces to deal with the issue. These 
all individualize the problem, ignoring the fact 
that in imperialist patriarchy, power is 
eroticized. Condemning individual men for acting 
just as advertising and porn tell them to is 
hypocritical.

Even if the laws were enforced, one man is put 
behind bars for a few months or, on a fluke, years. 
But locking up the predators one by one is like 
obstructing a deluge with buckets. So few 
individual men could possibly be caught that such 
laws are just hypocritical. Several Scandinavian 
countries already have them, but don't enforce 
them. They won't start enforcing them until the 
power shifts.

The conference followed the great Western tradition 
of hyping sexual oppression to the exclusion of all 
else. Gotta save the kids from rape, they plead, 
which is somehow more important than saving them 
from starving. Sweden's own Queen Silvia closed the 
conference calling for "forceful action" at "all 
levels of society" to stamp out the "atrocious and 
horrifying business with innocent children around 
the world. As long as there is any child being 
sexually exploited, there is work to do." For 
revolutionary feminist communists, as long as there 
is any power of groups over groups, which is the 
precondition of all exploitation, there is work to 
do.

Since the NGOs do not address the need of the 
youths for money from some other source if not sex, 
they leave all the players in the trade just as 
they are -- optionless Third World children and 
eager, moneyed First World men. The only way to 
change the situation is either give options to 
Third World children -- not just feel-good 
"rehabilitation" to a society which only oppressed 
them in the first place or take away the money and 
sexual privilege from First World men. This is, of 
course, exactly what the actual progressive forces 
are doing. Where non-governmental organizations are 
putting brittle band-aids on the wounds of the 
oppressed, revolutionaries like the Communist Party 
of the Philippines are building their independent 
power.


NOTES: Agence France Presse, August 31, 1996.

Read a Maoist analysis of child abuse in MIM Theory 
9-"Psychology and Imperialism", available for 
$4.95.


* * *


CHIPPEWA WIN TEMPORARY VICTORY AGAINST TOXIC 
TRAINLOAD

MIM reported last issue that the Ogitchida 
Ashinishabe (Protectors of the People) of the Bad 
River Chippewa were blocking the tracks to stop a 
trainload of highly corrosive sulfuric acid from 
going across their land. That occupation has ended 
on August 12 when trains were allowed to pass that 
contained no hazardous materials and an agreement 
was reached with the US government's Environmental 
Protection Agency to do an assessment of the 
proposal to both move the toxins along unsafe 
tracks through pristine wetlands and its subsequent 
use to flush out mines just five miles from Lake 
Superior.

The Bad River and other Chippewa tribes in the 
region rely heavily on wild rice that grows in the 
wetlands and fishing for their sustenance, and so 
their radicalism on the issue is no surprise. But 
they are also winning over segments of the mostly 
reactionary populations of their neighbors in 
Wisconsin and Michigan, who are having their 
consciousness raised to think about the long-term 
effects of development projects like this one. 
Subsequent to the demands of the Bad River council 
and others, Wisconsin and Michigan have joined the 
call for a more thorough analysis of the project 
underway.

NOTES: Indian Country Today, August 19-26, 1996, 
pp. 1-2.


* * *


MARCIA CLARK SHOWS BANKRUPTCY OF PSEUDO-
FEMINISM

by MC12

Marcia Clark, the lead prosecutor of the O.J. 
Simpson murder trial, was presented with clear 
evidence that Black wimmin were the most likely 
group of jurors to vote to acquit Simpson, and yet 
she insisted on trying to get Black wimmin on the 
jury because she believed they would feel a common 
bond with Simpson's ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, 
whom he was charged with killing.

A recent article in the New Yorker shows that a 
high-price jury-consulting outfit working for the 
prosecution (for free) conducted telephone surveys 
in the Los Angeles area, assembled mock juries, and 
interviewed people - some of them right in front of 
Clark - all demonstrating that Black wimmin were 
most likely to vote for acquittal. The firm, 
DecisionQuest, did a telephone poll that showed 
that while Black men and wimmin were more like to 
believe Simpson than whites, Black wimmin were the 
most likely to believe him.

"Moreover," wrote Jeffrey Toobin in the New Yorker, 
"black women responding by phone felt 
overwhelmingly that, even if Simpson had engaged in 
a pattern of violence against Nicole, doing so 
didn't make him more likely to have killed her."

"On the eve of jury selection," he concludes, 
"Clark had all this to consider - the focus groups, 
the telephone survey, the demographic analyses, the 
whole jury-consulting package. She also knew black 
women - and she knew they were disproportionately 
victims of domestic violence themselves. As far as 
this case went, Nicole Brown Simpson was really one 
of them." And so Clark helped select a jury that 
had eight Black wimmin out of twelve people on it, 
much more than was representative of the jury pool.

Why do we bring all this up? Because it's a lesson 
on pseudo-feminism.

Marcia Clark apparently believed that Black wimmin 
would see Nicole as another womyn, just like 
themselves. Because Nicole had no national or class 
oppression to contend with, just a gender 
disadvantage, gender was her principal concern, in 
Clark's eyes. And because Black wimmin share 
Nicole's anatomy, Clark believed they would see 
things the same way, that they would see gender as 
principal in the situation. That is pseudo-feminism 
- imposing the gender views of privileged wimmin on 
all other wimmin. As an ideology it doesn't lead to 
liberation for the oppressed, and here Marcia Clark 
demonstrated that up against hard evidence, this 
ideology fails empirically as well.

MIM does not know if O.J. Simpson committed the 
murder of Nicole Brown Simpson or not. And we don't 
know the thinking of the jury that acquitted him. 
What interests us about the case are all the 
lessons it holds for understanding national 
contradictions and gender in the united states. 
More than anything, the case showed the bankruptcy 
of pseudo-feminism and its uselessness for 
Amerika's oppressed nations.


NOTES: The New Yorker 9/9/96.


* * *


PATRIARCHY: KEEP THE WIMMIN'S HAIR CLEAN AND 
GET THE DANGEROUS MEN AWAY FROM OUR PROPERTY

The view that gender oppression is simply additive 
to national oppression received another blow in 
Alabama. The Governor Fob James fired his Prison 
Commissioner Ron Jones, not for bringing back the 
chain gang, rock-breaking and 12 hour shifts in 
shared bunks in prison cells.

No, Governor Fob James drew the line when Ron Jones 
announced that he was going to start putting female 
prisoners in the chain gangs too.

If it were a simple matter that wimmin prisoners 
had to break rocks four hours instead of three 
hours for men, we could say gender oppression is 
just added in oppression. However, as MIM has 
pointed out, gender has a life of its own which 
makes it simply different than other oppressions, 
and prison repression is not principally aimed at  
females. This can cause an important gap in 
understanding of state power between females and 
males.

Gender roles in patriarchal society include 
protecting wimmin and thus keeping them accessible 
and humble. The Governor huffed in his best 
Hollywood role, "There will be no woman on any 
chain gang in the state of Alabama today, tomorrow 
or anytime under my watch."

NOTE: The Chicago Westside Journal 29Aug96-
5Sept.96, p. 3.


* * *


IRAQ: A LITTLE HISTORY OF AMERIKAN IMPERIALISM


To understand current Amerikan machinations, we 
have to remember what the U.S. military is doing 
there in the first place, and that means returning 
to the 1991 war against Iraq.

That was more than five years ago, and we can't 
count on Amerikan media or schools to teach this 
history in an honest way. To hear them tell it, 
Amerika has reluctantly accepted the difficult 
responsibility of being parent to the Persian Gulf 
region. Columnist Stephen Rosenfeld, for example, 
wrote: "this episode may soon fade into a 
background littered with past efforts by the United 
States and others to manage the oil-crucial and 
unruly Persian Gulf."(1)

In January 1991 we reported that the U.S. had begun 
an economic push into the Gulf region before the 
Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in August 1990, which 
supposedly triggered the war. Iraq was part of a 
network of client states the U.S. was developing in 
its expansionist push for hegemony over the region 
in the wake of the Soviet power's collapse. Saudi 
Arabia had plans to double its oil exports, and 
increase capital-intensive purchases from U.S. 
companies, and Kuwait was on the same course. But 
Iraq attempted to become a regional power, and 
threatened the U.S. plans. By invading Kuwait, 
however (which Amerikan diplomats subtly 
encouraged) Iraq also provided the U.S. with the 
opportunity to convert military power into economic 
and political power, as the war eventually did.(2)

We wrote: "From early on, the United States saw the 
crisis as an opportunity to gain more control over 
Middle East oil supplies, to tie client states into 
a system of dependency on Amerikan imperialism 
through material incentives and coercion, and in 
general to use its military might to gain advantage 
over economically growing imperial powers such as 
Germany and Japan."(2)

President Bush piously declared: "No nation will be 
permitted to brutally assault its neighbor." This 
is even more laughable than Clinton's remarks, 
given the U.S. record of brutally assaulting not 
just its neighbors, but people around the world, 
from Vietnam to Nicaragua. We said: "The United 
States has gone to war to maintain and extend its 
economic power over Iraq, the oil reserves in the 
Persian Gulf and the entire region. Victory in this 
war will increase Amerika's strength as the world's 
most powerful nation."(3)

The war against Iraq marked the beginning of a 
period of open Amerikan violence in the Gulf-oil 
region. In April 1991, we quoted a congressman who 
said, after the war, "The power has shifted . . . 
the world is a different place today." And George 
Bush said at the same time:  "Now, we can see a new 
world coming into view. A world in which there is a 
very real prospect of a new world order. The gulf 
war put this new world to its first test. And my 
fellow Americans: We passed that test."(4) Theyalso 
killed several hundred thousand people, depending 
on accounts.

Amerikan power was increased by the war against 
Iraq and the collapse of the Soviet Union. The 
imperialist competition for hegemony over the 
Middle East is relatively light at the moment. The 
"coalition" of countries that supposedly fought 
Iraq was a sham from the beginning, with no country 
providing even one-tenth the number of troops that 
the U.S. sent to Iraq.(5) It was an Amerikan war, 
and to Amerika went the spoils. There are some sour 
grapes, especially in France, which has lost 
economically from the Amerikan seizure of control 
over Iraq's oil. That's why France was cool about 
endorsing these latest attacks, and why they are 
refusing to participate in the new, bigger air-
occupation zone.(6)

Imperialism expands to survive, and in its 
expansion it also sows the seeds of its own 
destruction. To convert imperialist wars into 
revolutionary victories for the people, we have to 
vigilantly learn the lessons of the past in order 
to direct our energies in the best possible way. At 
present, our principal weapon is information. We 
urge readers to work with MIM to get out the true 
story of Amerikan aggression and imperialism, and 
build public opinion for the revolutionary 
struggle.


NOTES:
1. Washington Post, 9/6/96, p. A23.
2. MIM Notes 48, January 1991.
3. MIM Notes 49, January 18, 1991.
4. MIM Notes 51, April 1991.
5. MIM Notes 50, March 1991
6. New York Times 9/6/96, p. A17.


* * *


STUDENT PROTESTS PRISON SLAVE LABOR


On August 28, a University of Massachusetts 
graduate student won an appeal against a ticket the 
pigs issued for his protest of slave labor in the 
Massachusetts prison system. In March, the student 
turned his licensee plate upside down and painted 
on his back car window "Slave Labor Made This 
Plate".

The student described, as many prisoners and 
readers of MIM Notes will know, prison labor as 
"brutal, repetitive, meaningless work." In May, he 
was pulled over by the police who issued a ticket 
for displaying an upside-down plate.  The student 
restored the plate to its normal position, pending 
appeal of the ticket.

On August 28, the Northampton District Court ruled 
that there was no law against having your plate 
upside down and that such speech was protected by 
the First Amendment.

MIM supports the efforts of people to publicize 
prison conditions and the treatment of prisoners. 
We do recognize the tactical value of First 
Amendment arguments, while we recognize that 
dissident speech that is not backed up by an armed 
populace exists only at the discretion of the 
government.

Finally, MIM would caution against actions that 
bring extra attention from the police onto 
activists. While it is without doubt that the 
"upside down" plate has raised consciousness and 
sparked some useful discussions, it might not be so 
productive to be spending a lot of time on the side 
of the road, trying to explain prison labor to the 
cop who pulled you over. 

NOTE: Weekend Hampshire Gazette August 31-September 
1, 1996, p. 9.


* * *


EXPOSED CORRUPTION IN PHILLY PIGS LEADS TO 
SMALL REFORMS; EVEN THE MAYOR SAYS IT ISN'T 
ENOUGH


The Philadelphia Police Department is the target of 
a federal corruption investigation. This has 
included $8 million dollars in settlements for 
civil rights violations in August alone, and the 
overturning of over a hundred wrongful criminal 
convictions based on concocted arrests by the pigs. 

On September 4, Mayor Ed Rendell (D) announced, in 
agreement with civil rights groups, a series of 
reforms in the police. Most cases of police  
brutality are completely ignored and don't lead to 
any reforms. But this time the  exposure of 
corruption, wrongful arrest and brutality was so 
severe it forced Rendell to enact reforms so that 
he could say his reforms would end the problem.

Rendell said that there will be police corruption 
as long as drug trafficking is profitable, but he 
denies that corruption is systemic in the 6,000 
member force.  Rather than indicting capitalism for 
breeding corruption, Rendell (no surprise) is 
excusing it.  If it was not for the exposure of 
wide-spread corruption, Rendell wouldn't even have 
made this bold of a statement.

Falsified evidence led to the convictions of a 54-
year-old West Philadelphia grandmother as a drug 
dealer who served 3 years in prison, and "a 
furniture store salesman" was sent "to death row 
for 14 months for a double murder he didn't 
commit."

"The 12 reforms include the creation of a task 
force to review police misconduct, computerization 
of citizen complaints and records, and the creation 
of a new Integrity and Accountability Office to 
watch Internal Affairs." The ACLU represented two 
civil rights groups (Police-Barrio Relations 
Project and another group) and threatened to sue 
the City for "unfairly targeting Blacks and 
Latinos."

The ACLU argued that the police promise to monitor 
race bias "sends a strong message that you can't 
have law for the Caucasian community and law for 
everybody else." The ACLU argued on constitutional 
grounds that the United Snakes is a "nation of one 
law and equal protection for all." Actually, the 
United Snakes is an apartheid society, with many 
nations under the oppressive thumb of white 
Amerika. The Constitution doesn't say that 
directly, of course, and sometimes small battles 
can be won on those grounds.

Pressure put on the City of Philadelphia by the 
ACLU exploiting this contradiction has led to the 
12 reforms. The Police-Barrio Relations Project, 
one of the civil rights groups represented by the 
ACLU, said that the computerization of records of 
police complaints will make it more difficult for 
the police to deny knowledge of complaints. 
However, MIM could see this backfiring and allowing 
more accurate record keeping on residents who file 
complaints.

The limited nature of these reforms is exposed by 
the fact that the "new task force on corruption 
will not have the power to subpoena officers." This 
is key. For the people to control the police, the 
community members themselves must have the actual 
ability--not just on paper--to subpoena officers as 
well as fire them. This is an example of why 
working to reform the  police under capitalism will 
never work: they have the power and are not about 
to  grant it to a community that does not have an 
interest in letting them use this  power.

That small reforms aren't enough becomes clear when 
you listen to the head of the Fraternal Order of 
Police, Richard Costello: "We have more people 
watching police than we do police watching members 
of the public right now in Philadelphia, and we're 
approaching the theater of the bizarre."

If Philly pigs were really outnumbered by people 
watching them, that would be progress, although it 
would take more than cameras and lawyers to compete 
with the heavy armament of the Philadelphia Police. 
In addition to 6,000 sidearms attached to 6,000 
pigs, as of 1985 at the attack on the MOVE house 
alone, the Philadelphia police had "deluge houses, 
tear gas, stun grenades, M-16 rifles, 12 gauge shot 
guns, 30.06 sniper rights with silencers, Thompson 
machine guns, 9mm Uzis, explosives, 50 caliber 
machine guns, 20mm armor piercing anti-tank guns, 
M-60 machine guns and a bomb made of a military 
explosive called C-4." Plus the police used a 
helicopter to drop the bomb.(1) Who knows what 
kinds of military hardware the City of Philadelphia  
has purchased in the 11 years since the bombing of 
Move. When the Black and Latino masses of 
Philadelphia have that kind of armament, then 
perhaps Costello might have some sort of case that 
he's being controlled and we look forward to that 
day.

MIM supports the self-determination of oppressed 
nations and the exercising of dictatorship over the 
colonizing Amerikan nation. To Costello that would 
be bizarre. Or in the more immediate sense Costello 
might also be finding it "bizarre" that criticism 
of police "misconduct" would move beyond 
publications like MIM Notes or the writings of 
Mumia Abu-Jamal and make it into the city 
government itself. MIM would find that bizarre too, 
if we actually thought the announced reforms would 
make a big difference in the colonial occupation of 
Philly's ghettos.

Costello has threatened to sue if the reforms 
infringe on the police contract. Costello also 
objects to the police being "stereotyped." On NPR 
he got some support from Sociologist Nancy Rhodes, 
of the National Coalition on Police Accountability:

"We can go through city after city after city, and 
there are very, very serious problems in the United 
States with both brutality and corruption. It would 
be a very, very big mistake to focus only on police 
and say they're the only ones doing it. That's 
certainly not the case. The system very much 
supports them doing it."

It is correct that the police are not the only 
problem. They are merely the occupying force in 
Amerika' internal colonies. Revolutionaries must 
oppose not only the hired goons of imperialism but 
also work to expose and defeat the whole system, 
from the pigs, to the mayor's office, to the White 
House to the corporate board rooms.

What we would object to is Rhodes, and  NPR, saying 
the problem is bigger than the police as a group 
but failing to take on larger institutions. This is 
nihilism that lets everyone--including the pigs--
off the hook.


NOTES:
1. First Day, the Move Organization Issue 7, PO Box 
19709, Philadelphia, PA 19143
All other facts and quotes from "All Things 
Considered" on National Public Radio, September 4, 
1996.


* * *


MORE KORRUPT KKKOPS EXPOSED IN NYC


On September 5, New York City was preparing to 
arrest 4 officers on felony theft charges. The 
officers are from the 34th Precinct in 
predominantly oppressed national territory. This is 
another public relations ploy about "bad apples" 
and purifying another otherwise Ok police force.

One police official was quoted in the New York 
Times "We're not talking about another 30th 
Precinct." In 1994, more than 30 officers were 
arrested "on charges of drug trafficking, brutality 
and perjury." Two years ago it was so many bad 
apples that it was pretty clearly systemic and a 
conspiracy. Now it's a much smaller cleansing.

Police officials did not give much information to 
the New York Times other than that this wraps up an 
internal investigation into the 34th precinct. 
Apparently the NYPD feel that enough cleansing has 
happened to restore legitimacy to the force. MIM 
recognizes that the police are an occupying force 
in the internal colonies and we would target the 
systemic nation of police oppression, not just the 
"bad apples".

NOTE: New York Times 9/10/96, p. B5.


* * *


BOURGEOIS ACADEMICS DEFINED


Someone at a big Amerikan research corporation 
recently finished putting a powerful computer 
through a lot of cycles to find a new prime number. 
The significance of this discovery is twofold: 
academia in some cases is defined only as finding 
things no one else has the energy or equipment to 
find; and bourgeois academia often has substantial 
military or intelligence applications.

As National Public Radio reported this discovery, 
it serves no useful purpose and only one useless 
purpose:  temporary notoriety for the individual 
and the company with enough money and CPU cycles to 
waste to find this new and big number. But in real 
life, algorithms used to find new numbers can be 
used to improve cryptographic technology. When the 
research for this is funded in an imperialist 
country -- either by a large corporation or by the 
government -- it is being funded for the purpose of 
improving imperialist security.

Under socialism, research will not be masked as 
supposedly "pure" intellectual curiosity taking its 
natural course. Military research will of course be 
hidden from the enemies of the proletariat, but it 
also will not be used to promote individual fame 
and fortune of researchers. Research will benefit 
the masses' quality of life and the masses will 
lead in identifying research projects of genuine 
social value. All research, whether clandestine or 
open, will be guided by these principles.

NOTE: National Public Radio's "All Things 
Considered" Sept. 4, 1996.


* * *


AMERIKAN KULTURE

TRAINSPOTTING:
FALSE ALTERNATIVES

The Scottish film Trainspotting is getting lots of 
press and talk because of its realistic 
representation of the intense high of a hit of 
heroin. But anyone who comes away from 
Trainspotting thinking it advocates or is focusing 
just on heroin use is not listening. The movie says 
there are two alternatives:  boring labor 
aristocrat life or miserable junkie life. It is 
critical of both, but the thing it's missing is 
that there are other options, too. Social change is 
mentioned in passing, only to be dismissed. That is 
the real solution to the emptiness posed by these 
young men's alternatives.

The opening section of the film is going to capture 
the attention of young radicals of whatever 
persuasion, including Maoists. The main character 
recites a little bourgeois plug to the extent of:  
Choose life, choose a job, choose health insurance, 
choose a big fucking television. Then he asks "Why 
would I want to do that?" This is exactly the 
question of a whole lot of youth. The decadent, 
individualist, imperialist tailing petty bourgeois 
lifestyle is so meaningless, might as well reject 
it. The film portrays this vacillation, between 
rejecting labor aristocracy and seizing it, 
provocatively. With a simple change of clothes and 
venue, the temporarily off heroin hero becomes a 
real estate agent for London yuppies. There is no 
pretense that the hero is a product of miserable 
circumstances -- his parents are very loving, he 
has a "good" bourgeois education and can succeed at 
a petty bourgeois life if he wants to. Peddling 
stolen goods for smack is presented as no more 
morally reprehensible then peddling apartments for 
rent money. The former just means you'll probably 
die sooner. Both the labor aristocracy and the drug 
scene are portrayed as a waste of time and energy 
of the youth -- and they are. Neither creates a 
sustainable society for the lives of the future.

The hero almost gets what an alternative to all 
this might be. As he and his friends are off in the 
countryside of Scotland, pretty as a postcard, 
someone disses the English. Mark responds that 
hating the English Imperialists is not good enough. 
"The British are wankers, but we are colonized by 
wankers." He says he hates the Scottish for 
accepting their alienation more than the English. 
The realization is that the main enemy is not just 
the settlers who took land and liberty, in this 
case the English, but also those buying into the 
colonization for their own material interests. This 
is like all the labor aristocrats who gripe about 
their lack of control but don't do anything about 
it for fear of rocking a pretty good boat. 
Unfortunately, rather than creating change around 
that analysis, Trainspotting takes the apathetic 
route and says fuck it, do whatever you want, 
accept being a pathetic labor aristocrat or accept 
being a worthless punk. Lacking in scientific 
analysis and organization, the complacent attitude 
that Trainspotting advocates just turns around to 
support the imperialists and labor aristocracy that 
it complains about. MIM would respond instead by 
saying accept neither, overthrow the entire 
oppressive system and organize to create 
revolutionary alternatives.


* * *


WARPED TOUR -- AMERIKKKAN ANARCHISM


On June 30, Northampton, MA. was host to Warped, a 
tour of punk bands and skateboarding and roller 
blading athletic events. Seeing this event as no 
more righteous then every other Amerikan leisure 
time activity, MIM and RAIL still saw it as an 
opportunity to engage in politically revolutionary 
discussions with First World youth. The decadent 
culture that Amerikan imperialism produces attracts 
and lays ground work for complacency toward 
oppression, which just creates a support group for 
reactionary imperialist politics. However, while 
still being born into the oppressor society, youth 
have more to lose from imperialism and form a 
potentially large revolutionary group.

The reactionary grip the imperialist have already 
taken on First World youth manifested itself with 
responses such as "I can't read". Most likely a lie 
for the majority, that acted as an easy, and 
seemingly funny, escape from talking politics. If 
any of these people were illiterate, or for that 
matter not falling friend to imperialism, they 
might want to take a look at all the Chinese 
peasants who had no choice in taking the "easy" way 
out and taught themselves to read with Mao's "On 
Contradiction", a thirty page essay on the meaning 
behind dialectics. It discusses the scientific 
reasoning behind contradictions and their unity in 
society, and was applied across the board from 
improving rice cultivation to ending the gendered 
roles people were being forced to play in society.

Some others proclaimed themselves as anarchists 
100% against communism. When asked what they were 
doing now to end the oppression in the world, one 
responded with, "I listen to Rage (Against the 
Machine), that's enough." This just exemplifies, 
yet again, the decadent attitude that plays so well 
along side Amerika's imperialist power. It's also 
seriously offensive to the true motives behind Rage 
Against the Machines songs. They don't talk about 
sitting around and listening to their music, but 
rather are trying to use their music as a 
motivating force for revolutionary politics. This 
person has it all wrong, or should it be said, all 
right in favor for imperialist oppression.

Others agreed with MIM and RAIL's line on armed 
struggle. However the reactions were more in favor 
of just randomly killing people rather than 
realizing the tactical necessity behind picking up 
the gun. The imperialists are not going to give up 
the power without a long and all encompassing 
battle, which they have begun with years of 
starvation, land stealing and colonization. Armed 
struggle is not a blood fest like the pseudo-
anarchists were advocating, but a necessity for 
finishing the battle in the favor of the masses 
that Imperialism began ever since the beginnings of 
colonization.

A few discussions on communism versus anarchism 
took place, and a bunch of zine addresses were 
exchanged. On person was starting a zine on 
anarchism, tribal living, anti-racism and anti-
sexism who, on the address printed, "remember this 
is a zine for intelligent well informed punks. not 
fuckups with nothing to rebel against except the 
ever climbing prices of stussy wear." (Stussy wear 
is clothing manufactured "copying" the 
alternative/punk culture and now available, for a 
high price, on every trendy store shelf. Yet 
another example of capitalism's commodity 
fetishism.) At least someone out there is taking 
the end of oppression seriously and can see the 
true decadence and aristocratic position that a 
majority of Amerikkkans are adopting at a young 
age.

Amerika's youth does form a group of possible 
revolutionaries able to unite with the world's 
proletariat to overthrow imperialism. By adopting 
an ultra-left stance like anarchism, youth only 
work themselves into the hands of US imperialists 
by ignoring the principle contradiction, failing to 
organize around and against imperialism, and 
relying on metaphysical escapist ideas like 
individuality to change the world. The oppressors 
rely on youth to take such paths, because in the 
end they just produce another mystified supporter 
of US imperialism. If you favor a society without 
oppressive conditions as they exist today, the only 
route to change is uniting with the international 
proletariat and overthrowing imperialism by working 
with MIM and RAIL and revolutionary politics.


NOTE: For the zine mentioned above, write to Zach 
Lihatsh 131 Lyme rd. Hanover, NH, 03755


* * *


THE VOICE OF OPPRESSION IS NOT A LIE


by a New York Prisoner

Black Churches are burning on urban streets
Oppressed nations are being lied to with promises,
      progress, pure deceit.

The fascists have formulated a plan, to oppress
      the masses within every land.

the Third of the World is being tricked by
      the International Monetary Fund (IMF),
The Central Intelligence Agency is the supplier of 
the guns.

Division is the order of the day, the Imperialist
      intend to stay.

Exploitation, fortification, capitalism is a crime,
      the fascist have you to think, everything is 
fine!
Extracting minerals, polluting every inch of the 
land,
The oppressed nations must take a final stand.

To win we must first all unite, the masses as one
      putting up a diligent fight!


* * *


M-L-M ONLINE

AMERIKAN CRITICS DENOUNCE AFFIRMATIVE ACTION, 
UPHOLD SLAVERY

When MIM posted an article to Usenet about 
affirmative action in Texas ("Affirmative Action 
Setback in Texas," MIM Notes 118), we elicited some 
hostile comments from Amerikan readers who 
understand clearly that their privileges rest 
entirely on group oppression, and are willing to 
defend anything if it means protecting that 
privilege -- even slavery:

The MIM Notes article had quoted a University of 
Texas student saying, "Given that slavery lasted 
more than 200 years, shouldn't we give affirmative 
action an equal time span to prove itself 
effective?"(1)

"Slavery," wrote one Usenet reader, "as evil as it 
was, at least *produced* something in this country. 
There is nothing productive in affirmative action 
other than a socialistic method of punishing one 
group of people in favor of another group of 
people. There is NO guarantee that A.A. will lead 
to productivity or betterment of our society."

To which MIM responds, "which society?" These kinds 
of reforms will bring some material benefit, in the 
form of access to education, to oppressed nation 
peoples. The reader is only concerned about the 
betterment of the white nation. Objecting to our 
contrast of white educational privilege, including 
private tutors, with the disadvantages of Black and 
Latino students who went to worse-funded high 
schools and probably worked part-time, the reader 
indignantly replied "Most white kids do not have, 
nor do they need private tutors."

To MIM's point that any policy benefiting Blacks 
and Latinos to the detriment of whites, in this 
case in the educational system, is a good thing, 
the same reader told the oldest settler lie in the 
book -- that whites as a nation have been the most 
productive. This lie is told by the white bourgeois 
as well as the white working class and its 
Trotskyist defenders:

"Typical socialist thinking, take everything away 
from the people who worked hard to produce it and 
give it to those who did nothing."

This is a typical settler bind -- defending slavery 
as productive on one hand but then turning around 
and calling oppressed nations non-productive.

Finally, the reader uttered his spin on the magic 
Amerikan words "love it or leave it:"
"Oppressed nations? I thought we were talking about 
Americans here. There are NO members of nations 
that are citizens of this country. If they are, 
then they are expatriates and I have no sympathy 
for their ability to even survive here."

Fortunately, the oppressed do not rely on sympathy 
from the oppressor -- but work toward self-
determination by organizing to seize power from the 
imperialists.

Notes:
1. The University Review, The Independent Student 
Journal at The University of Texas at Austin, May 
15, 1996., in MIM Notes 118, July 15, 1996.


* * *


WORLD WIDE WEB REVIEW:
ISLAMIC ASSOCIATION FOR PALESTINE
http://iap.org/

We always need good sources of anti-imperialist 
information about the Middle East. The Amerikan 
media is as restrictive of information regarding 
Palestine as anything, if not more so in MIM's 
experience. For people with good speed connections 
and browsers, we highly recommend the homepage of 
the Islamic Association for Palestine. No doubt MIM 
has many disagreements with the politics of this 
group, but they have assembled an incredible 
collection of information sources regarding 
Palestine and the Middle East, including many 
Arabic language cites, local publications, and 
organizations of many stripes.

For example, we found this picture of a wounded 
child taken after the Israeli army's deliberate 
shelling of a refugee camp in southern Lebanon 
earlier this year.


* * *


THE ANTI-CAPITAL WEB
http://www.webcom.com/maxang/

This mostly anarchist site makes some good 
critiques of decadent capitalist culture and the 
so-called information age -- including the majority 
of the Web itself, which it aptly compares to 
television -- but like typical anarchists, stops 
short of providing an alternative theory or 
practice to supporting the status quo. Its goal is 
clear enough: "Abolish wage labor, commodity 
production, the state and capital." But its 
proposed action, at its clearest, is "subversion" 
and the site says "They gave us enough rope. 
It's time to hang them with it."

*Against Sleep And Nightmare,*(ASAN) "a marxist and 
Situationist influenced" zine housed on this site, 
identifies the oppression of neo-colonialism in 
Palestine and El Salvador, the bourgeois media-
supported campaign lies of Republicans and 
Democrats, and the general evils of imperialist 
culture. But in its critique of culture, ASAN makes 
little distinction between the material and the 
cultural realms of society. While it states that 
"War is a continuation of social peace by more 
extreme means," it lapses into a culture-driven 
explanation for that. "Social peace is based on 
most people's acceptance of the 'mundane' daily 
routine of the modern world. Dull work, television 
and the police create a world that is already 
militarized."(1)

MIM also says "World War III is on," referring to 
the ongoing imperialist aggression against the 
Third World. And we agree that television supports 
militarist ideology and the imperialist agenda. But 
blaming television implies that if we just create 
revolutionary culture in the present political 
economy, we can combat militarism. We need to 
create revolutionary culture so we can build the 
revolutionary forces and overthrow imperialism.
Speaking of culture, the Anti-Capital Web says, 
"every new tool is a two-edged sword. Capitalist 
society needs the free-flow of information even if 
Senate crazies try to reign it in. This gives 
revolutionaries a chance to gnaw at the guts of the 
rotten corpse of America. But we will only succeed 
if we attack the very fabric of system. Starting 
with the web itself."(2)

Again, revolutionaries should absolutely use this 
still cheap technology to spread anti-imperialist 
material as widely as possible -- but we cannot 
fall into the same information fetish that the 
imperialists promote. We produce revolutionary 
literature so we can build the revolutionary 
forces.

The Anti-Capital Web is also anti-nations and anti-
nationalism. While this is not particularly new for 
anarchists, they also claim that "every racial 
nationalist is willing to stand with every other 
racial nationalist. And every nation is based on 
the ideology of race." Maoists, by contrast, 
recognize that with the principal contradiction 
between imperialism and oppressed nations, the 
proletarian led national liberation struggle is the 
most effective strategy for overthrowing 
imperialism. For MIM, the concept of nation is not 
based on a "racial" ideology -- it replaces the 
bourgeois, pseudo-scientific category "race" with 
an analysis of a material formation, nation.

So without an analysis of nations, the Anti-Capital 
Web cannot correctly analyze class oppression, and 
rails against "consumer culture" and "suburbia" as 
the death knell of class consciousness among white 
workers, rather than recognizing their alliance 
with imperialism based on their share of Third 
World superprofits.

NOTES:
1.http://www.webcom.com/maxang/ASAN/welcome.html
2. http://www.webcom.com/maxang/ANTI-
WEB/welcome.html


* * *


UNDER LOCK AND KEY: NEWS FROM PRISONERS AND 
PRISONS


CONTINUED REPRESSION AND RETALIATION IN 
MASSACHUSETTS

...We dealing at this kkkamp to back off the 
repressive tactics of these fools and its touch and 
go. Winning some rulings from the kourts, but these 
clowns just disregard rulings and continue with 
their fucked up retaliation and abuse of 
discretion. Many dudes are giving up and going 
along with their behavior modification so they can 
get somewhere soft, its joke. Many comrades are 
still holding the line and are giving as well as we 
are taking. The joint is still locked down 22 and a 
half to 23 hours a day in the max end. They are 
getting ready to build a 1,000 man joint in the 
hills near Shirley and   Gardner, these people want 
the jobs and money off our suffering!...
-- a Massachusetts Prisoner, July 28, 1996.


OHIO GETS TOUGH ON "CRIME"


...Things here in the Ohio penal system are very 
bad. The population at this place is steadily 
increasing with younger black males mostly. The 
population at L.O.C.I. is about 2,800, but 
construction is underway and they plan on housing 
5,000 by 1999.
So the theme here is get tough on crime: Lock them 
up for as long as possible.
-- an Ohio Prisoner, June 17, 1996


POLICE INCITE VIOLENCE IN MARYLAND


...On July 13, 1995, we (housing unit #3) were 
locked down after the police incited a small riot. 
The lockdown lasted until July 19, 1996, during 
which time we received no showers, visits, or hot 
meals (bag lunches only). A few of the officers 
were hurt, unfortunately, all of the prisoners (at 
least 5) didn't get away as others did. However, 
their sacrifice is appreciated, praised and won't 
go in vain.

This is why they have me on administrative 
segregation pending investigation at this time. 
Because I refuse to allow what happened to be swept 
under the rug so easily. They are afraid that I'm a 
threat to the security of this institution. They, 
however, haven't decided as to whether they are 
going to keep me on ad. seg. for a while or send me 
out of the prison....
-- a Maryland Prisoner, July 29, 1996


OPPRESSION IS ROUTINE IN ILLINOIS


...Most of the info that I would offer is already 
being covered by other prisoners' mail...negligent 
medical care resulting in prisoners' deaths, bad 
food, appeals routinely denied by the courts, 
grievances routinely denied by the prisoncrats, sex 
between guards and inmates, guards bringing in 
drugs while they lord it over inmates who are in 
prison for drugs, psychotropic drugs being 
prescribed by the psychiatrist as if they were 
Tylenol... nothing new here....
-- An Illinois Prisoner, Aug. 5, 1996


BASKETBALLS INSTEAD OF BOOKS IN NORTH 
CAROLINA


Comrade,
...Regarding this new prison, presently there is 
not much going on as far as programs are concerned 
cause they are really behind in everything 
educational, something that could really benefit an 
incarcerated person. But we do have, or they made 
sure that we had plenty of basketballs, weights and 
weights in the gym. 

Unfortunately the area of, or the classroom of 
higher learning are empty. This is why I always try 
to teach myself the important things I need to 
know. Also my teaching of the Nation of Islam 
require all striving brothers to seek knowledge 
from the cradle to the grave, so that's my quest to 
the end....
-- a North Carolina Prisoner, July 21, 1996.


GEORGIA PRISONER WORKS TOWARD REVOLUTION


Dear Comrades,
...Myself and three others have been in segregation 
for almost two months for some BS about being a 
threat to security because of our study group. The 
oppressor has put his foot down on the Little man 
once more. Our study group is going very well. But 
at this time I've had to start all over because the 
other two have been transferred to other prisons. 
All in the world we've done is continued our group 
after being told to stop.

The prison pigs don't like your newsletter and have 
a difficult time with the truth....It's really 
funny the pigs don't like the revolutionary 
politics, and yes, they keep a very close eye on 
me.

As far as my lawsuit, things are well. The United 
States judges have handed down an order to the 
Department of Corrections that all inmates will 
have access to the law library materials in 
lockdown areas. As well as for indigent inmates who 
need paper, envelopes, pens and carbon paper can 
complete a request form and get his supplies, after 
being verified to be indigent. It's not much, but 
it's a start. Really they just tried to take the 
access to see if they could get away with it.

Comrades please remember me, down here the 
oppressors have it in for me Big Time. But the 
struggle will never end for me, the battles will be 
many. I'm Iron-Clad and will sacrifice to bring 
down the oppressors.

MIM you're my heart. You stand for everything I 
believe in....Respectfully in Struggle.
--a Georgia Prisoner, July 31, 1996


PSYCHOLOGY AND SEX USED TO CONTROL PRISONERS 
IN CONNECTICUT 


Warm revolutionary greetings,
I am writing so that you will know that I am still 
alive, and I wish for my papers to continue. I 
apologize that I have not been in touch, or sent 
any of my essays or writing lately, but I have been 
trying to survive a situation which developed here. 
I'm enclosing a copy of a report that I wrote 
[printed below]. I am hoping you could write up an 
article on this report, because I am sure that this 
tactic is much more widespread that we are aware. 
The purpose of it is to kill the desire of 
leadership, through psychotropic drugs...

If they are unable to break your spirit one, they 
try another. So when they realized that the 
isolation (almost complete), the repression of all 
my emotional ties and community support, and all of 
the other means they have attempted to get maximum 
control over me, failed, they sent this mental 
health woman at me, bringing me to the brink of 
destruction.
I would like to see if others have been approached 
by these means, to get them on some type of 
psychotropic drugs. I have been successful in 
locating at least 10 to 15 people that are now on 
some type of psychotropic, mind controlling drug, 
and I'm confined to a cell 24 hours a day. 

All of the persons I've located, had some type of 
contact with this person [the mental health woman]. 
She used the same basic approach, the higher your 
profile, the more sexual games she played with you. 
Even to the point of having sex with a few 
[prisoners]. 
This issue is being swept under the rug by the DOC 
[Department of Corrections] and mainstream papers. 
It needs to be brought out of the darkness....
-- a Connecticut Prisoner, July 1996.


[SEXUAL MANIPULATION] REPORT JUNE 19, 1996


I have just emerged from a very traumatic 
experience. I was involved with a personal 
relationship with my therapist. She is a female by 
the name of Joan Mason who has since resigned from 
the DOC as of June 6, 1996. I truly believe that 
she was sent to snare me, [sent] by whom, I'm not 
sure. But I believe that the purpose was to get me 
introduced to some type of psychotropic drug in 
order to suppress my revolutionary ideology and 
philosophy. There are many reasons that I believe 
the above statement, too numerous to go into, 
completely at this writing.

The plot and scheme was a typical Samson and 
Delilah machination. To have me fall in love with 
her, [and have her] manipulate me into taking some 
type of psychotropic drug and thereby killing my 
tendency to fight. [Killing] my revolutionary drive 
and spirit.

The scheme was so shrewd and sophisticated I was 
unable to recognize it as such, until it was too 
late. But I accidentally stumbled upon it due to my 
stubbornness and beliefs that a man is not supposed 
to be led like a sheep, by a woman. The details of 
this whole experience are so intricate and complex, 
I'm not sure I'll be able to put it on paper. I 
believe that there is a protracted effort by 
elements in the Mental Health Department and DOC to 
medicate and zombitize "High Profile Individuals", 
and the record will support by theory.

The process works by getting female staff to 
befriend you, and gain your confidence by whatever 
means necessary, even enticing you sexually. I was 
not any easy mark, thereby making it necessary to 
go beyond her normal call of duty, leaving me with 
a lot of material evidence, which I initially was 
destroying until my ESP caused me to start saving 
certain evidence.

I did eventually fall in love with her. She had me 
in a constant state of flux, an emotional roller 
coaster. She was on the verge of succeeding at her 
task. She constantly had me angry, hurt, 
frustrated, upset and in a disturbed state of mind. 
She would come to my door, tell me lies and bring 
me bad news; tell me she would call me out, then 
not do it; tell me she would answer my letters, and 
then have all kinds of excuses. She would tell me, 
"Oh I'm just causing you too many problems. Maybe I 
better step back.", knowing full well that would 
evoke my fear of loss....

Then she would suggest that I take an anti-
depressant. I resisted taking any drugs, and she 
would be very persistent. By no means am I weak, 
but when it comes to matters of the heart, it is my 
Achilles heel. Coupled with being in this 
environment which is devoid of human compassion and 
feelings. [Since I was] never allowed any real 
social intercourse, it was not hard for her to trap 
me with her sexual games and innuendos.

But my resistance to taking psychotropic drugs was 
still strong. My principle of love is one of trust, 
and I caught her in lie after lie. And this 
actually saved me in a way, because while I was in 
love with her, the animosity created by her lies 
was just strong enough to keep me from being "all 
in". 

She came to my door with something some guard said, 
but would not tell me who. Something I didn't need 
to know. Anyway it ended with me giving her an 
ultimatum, if she left my cell without telling me 
... either who the pig was, or at least why she 
would not tell me, [I would break off the 
relationship with her]. 

She was so confident in the thought that she had a 
ring through my nose, she left. I did what I had to 
do. She came to my cell the next day and told me 
that she loved me. I told her it was too much, too 
little, too late. She could resign or stay and be 
disgrace and fired. She resigned.

In the aftermath of her resigning, I got feedback 
from through-out the prison. Learning that my 
suspicion of other relationships were true. Another 
prisoner whom she had done the same to, unlike me 
had cut his throat (he did survive). There are some 
6 or more men she had [treated] like this.

I am at present trying to get an attorney so that I 
can sue her and the state because it is now known 
she has a history of inappropriate behavior. She 
was my therapist and she violated every rule and 
code of ethics that exist. And the state knew of 
her past or should have known. She was disciplined 
on April 18, 1996 for unauthorized contact with 
another prisoner. She has left me mentally scared 
for life.
-- the same Connecticut Prisoner, June 19, 1996


LAWYERS AND PRISONCRATS HAVE THE SAME 
INTERESTS


...Check this out, I went to my pre-trial hearing 
and I wasn't allowed to take a B.M. I was forced to 
wear leg irons and chains were run through my 
handcuffs. My attorney never said one word to the 
prison official about our privacy. They were 
looking down our mouths. I told one of the prison 
officials to get out of my mouth. I was in chains 
from 5:00 am until 2:00 pm.

My family came to the courthouse in Brazoria county 
to see me but were not allowed to visit me nor talk 
to me. Them SOB's pulled guns on me and talk shit 
to my family, my attorney didn't say a word. She 
[the lawyer] was busy trying to undermine me to cop 
out for 20 years.

Mrs. Barbara Landes, Staff Attorney for Inmate 
Legal Services. This woman is my lawyer. See I told 
her that the Asst. Warden, Norman E. McClure, put 
me or tried to set me up to kill a friend of mine, 
an inmate named "T." He is a writ-writer and has a 
civil rights lawsuit against Warden McClure. I 
refused to take [my friend's] life for this snake 
[McClure].

Mrs. Landes is trying to cover up for Warden 
McClure. She has not told the District Attorney or 
the judge that I was pressured into cutting "T" up 
with a homemade knife (a razor blade on an ice 
cream stick), but "T" cut me first.

Mrs. Landes works for the prison system, as staff 
attorney. She is real transparent and you can see 
through her lies. I had to tell you that because it 
is absolutely disgusting. She has not done one 
thing to defend me, but to have me in for a plea 
bargain.
-- a Texas Prisoner, June 26, 1996


FLORIDA PIGS HARASS PRISONER BY TEARING UP 
MIM NOTES


Dear MIM,
I've come to realize that the prison staff not 
allowing MIM Notes in, or the confiscation of after 
it's let in, is not always censorship. In my case 
it was pure harassment.

You recently sent me MIM Notes 117 and 118. I'd 
already read and passed on 118, but was still 
reading 117. I am in the Special Housing Unit (SHU) 
for "security concerns" whatever that is. No one 
will tell me and I'm using the grievance procedure 
to try to get out. 

Anyway, last week our prisoner (want-a-be-federal-
agents) guards came in to shake down my cell. On my 
table was MIM Notes 117, which on the cover has a 
picture of a KKK person. Well, they took it saying 
I couldn't spread my "racial hate" in here. I tried 
to explain that the paper and article was not pro-
Klan. I also pointed out that despite me being 
white I believe in the causes of MIM, which is a 
supporter of all minority causes. But they would 
hear none of it and accused me of being a racist. 
They promptly tore up the copy and threw it in the 
trash.

While I'm sure the guard was only trying to harass 
me, as is the norm in the SHU, I still wanted to 
share with you how MIM Notes was accused of being 
Klan literature. Until now, I've never had a 
problem getting MIM Notes. So don't think their 
censoring you, [they were] just harassing me.

I look forward to getting my next copy of MIM 
Notes, as it's the one of only a few papers to 
print the truth and support those that are in need 
of support....
In Struggle!
 -- a Florida Prisoner, July 31, 1996.


TENNESSEE PLAYS CENSORSHIP GAMES


MIM has received another notice from Mr. Howard 
Carlton, Warden at the Northeast Correctional 
Center in Mountain City, Tennessee. The letter 
claims that "Under Tennessee Department of 
Corrections policy, this material [MIM Notes] is 
not allowed into this penal facility." 

MIM first received this notice in April 1996. Soon 
after, the prisoner who was being censored said 
prison officials would allow him to receive MIM 
Notes if the "X" was removed from his name on the 
address label. MIM then removed his "X". Then the 
July 1996 issues of MIM Notes were returned to MIM, 
with a note from prison officials stating, 
"insufficient address". August 5, 1996, MIM 
received the above notice again with the same 
prisoner information as the envelope marked 
"insufficient address". What will these prison 
officials think of next?

Letters of protest can be addressed to: Howard 
Carlton, Warden, Tennessee Dept of Corrections, 
Division of Adult Institutions, Northeast 
Correctional Center, PO Box 5000, Mountain City, TN 
37683-5000.
-- RCG1, August 13, 1996.


WASHINGTON CENSORS MIM NOTES STATE-WIDE


MIM has received several notices from the State of 
Washington Department of Corrections stating that 
MIM Notes is being "rejected statewide per 
headquarters". The specific reasons differ with 
each institution. 

For example Clallam Bay Corrections Center claims, 
"mail advocates that any ethnic, racial or 
religious group is inferior for any reason and 
makes such a group an object of ridicule and scorn 
and may reasonably be thought to precipitated a 
violent confrontation between the recipient and a 
member of the target group." On the other hand 
Airway Heights Corrections Center took the shorter 
route. It claims "the mail or publication is a 
threat to legitimate penological objectives." 

The following is a letter protesting the censorship 
of MIM Notes by a prisoner at the Washington State 
Reformatory in Monroe, WA which has also been 
censoring MIM Notes. It is addressed to the 
director of Washington state Division of Prisons.
 -- RCG1 Aug. 13, 1996


Dear Mr. Rolfs:

I am appealing the "Offender Mail Rejection" I 
received on July 19, 1996 at the Washington State 
Reformatory. No file number was given on the form.

The rejection was for the MIM Notes (a political 
newspaper) No. 116, June 15, 1996. The reason for 
the rejection alleges it "Promotes the seizing of 
power through armed struggle. Since that is the 
stated purpose the Division has rejected this issue 
statewide."

I contend this censorship is discriminatory and 
violates my First Amendment Rights to Freedom of 
the Press and Freedom of Expression. Every major 
political entity in history has promoted the "as an 
extension of politics" --- Clautzwitz on War. Even 
the Declaration of Independence of the U.S. has 
promoted the same. The purpose of MIM Notes is not 
to promote violence in prisons, as it would serve 
no political purpose, but to express the range of 
politics under the communist philosophy.

The U.S. Supreme Court has found Washington State's 
anti-communist statues unconstitutional on their 
face. The mail rejection of MIM Notes by WSR, DOP 
or DOC policy can not circumvent the Supreme 
Court's decision.
I therefore appeal the mail rejection as violative 
of my rights to freedom of expression and freedom 
of the press.
-- a Washington state Prisoner, July 22, 1996

RCG1 ADDS: It is MIM line that there are no rights 
under capitalism only power struggles. Continue the 
struggle.

Letters of protest can be addressed to: Tom Rolfs, 
Director, Division of Prisons, PO Box 41123, 401 W 
5th, MS:1123, Olympia, WA 98504-1123.


NEW YORK CONTINUES REPRESSIVE CONDITIONS


To whom it may concern:
In 1991, May 28th and 29th...there was a major 
rebellion at Southport Correctional 
Facility...where numerous prisoners suffer severe 
injuries as well as state officers who operate the 
facility. Such a rebellion was caused by the 
barbarous treatment and inhumane conditions 
prisoners were being subjected to by members of the 
Ku Klux Klans.

Today the situation in Southport Prison is 
unchanged. In fact it is even worse. The prison's 
response to demands for basic human rights have 
been to increase repression, oppression, depression 
and suppression in the name of "security" and beat 
up on prisoners for no reason whatsoever, while in 
mechanical restraints, waist belts and leg irons.

The number of guards has doubled since 1991. Racist 
guards, staff and employees, which many believe to 
be Ku Klu Klan [members] harass, beat and threaten 
the lives of prisoners daily. Southport is in a 
very high tension right now as the racist, 
unprofessional and prejudiced officers continue to 
push, press, destroy personal property, sexually 
assault prisoners, tamper with food and mail, frame 
prisoners up, steal prisoners' photos, harass 
visitors and beat up prisoners.

The menu that was sent from Albany (statewide 
supposedly)... [portions are] drastically reduced, 
i.e. fruit juice, fresh fruit and the main course 
are usually cut in half... Any religion other than 
Christianity is heavily scrutinized by chapel staff 
and the guards...The store prices here are about 
20-40% higher than any other facility....

The staff here is disoriented, ...related to each 
other and make sure to cover each others tracks. 
None of the staff follow the NYCRR (New York Codes 
Rules and Regulation). They make up shoe string 
policies daily... Prisoner's property is 
consistently stolen by the guards and there is 
constant misuse of the inmate betterment fund.

The grievance system is a joke. No steps are ever 
taken within the institution to correct any 
problem. Any prisoner complaint of staff misconduct 
results in the prisoner being infracted and harshly 
punished. Counselors never make any attempts to 
work with prisoners to help them better themselves. 
All they do is push through miscellaneous paper.

Personal mail is unlawfully read by guards and 
constantly stolen. Harassment of visitors is 
commonplace. The guards are ... constantly 
physically and verbally abusive toward visitors and 
prisoners. Prisoners have limited access to the 
legal library. Sanitary supplies which are given to 
clean our cells contain feces and urine...While 
institutional investigations are being held guards, 
staff and employees ... conspire ...to cover up the 
barbarous treatment prisoners face daily.
-- a New York Prisoner, May 25, 1996


PRISONER EXPOSES CA PRISON "BENDING THE 
RULES"


Dear MIM Notes,
They did it again! A you can see, this fine 
institution that I'm blessed to be housed in denied 
delivery of your publication again. Now, instead of 
stating which pages are offensive they say the 
"entire publication meets disapproval criteria". 
What can be done to ensure that mine, and your, 
right to free speech is not taken away?

This prison seems to bend a lot of rules concerning 
our rights. Just last month I went to 
classification for an annual review and at that 
time I requested a transfer to a prison closer to 
my family. Penal Code 5068 clearly states that 
inmates have every right to be housed at a facility 
close to home. The Penal Codes obviously don't mean 
squat to Pleasant Valley State Prison! I was denied 
and given a lame excuse of: "Sacramento sent out a 
memo stating that inmates will no longer be 
transferred to other prisons unless the inmate's 
points change their level of custody." When I asked 
if I could see this so called "memo", I was flatly 
denied again!

My question is: Why do certain inmates have the 
luxury of being housed in prisons close to home, 
and in prisons where the inmates are able to earn 
enough money to buy hygiene products (that the 
state won't give indigent inmates) and other items 
to make their sentence more bearable, and I'm not? 
I have remained write-up-free for the entire 3 
years of my incarceration and for what? I'm stuck 
away from my family and their potential visits. I'm 
forced to survive on the meager state issue and 
unable to get a paying job because of the 
vocational training that I was basically forced 
into. 

Oh, I didn't tell you about that! I signed up for a 
computer training course when I arrived here in 
January of 1994. They said the waiting list was 6 
months. At my annual review (my second one since 
I've been here) in April, I was told that I had to 
get off the computer training list because that 
list was now 2 1/2 years long! It was only 6 months 
when I signed up, over a year ago! So without my 
consent I was put on the consumers electronics 
class list. I've been a blue collar worker all my 
life and can't see myself trying to get a job at 
the age of 42 trying to repair TV's or radios. But, 
can I get out of that class? Not unless I want to 
go to the hole and subsequently have my points 
jacked back up so I could never leave this 
cesspool!

I feel the action of PVSP [Pleasant Valley State 
Prison -MIM] need to be brought to somebody's 
attention. If there's anything you can do, or 
perhaps you have an idea for me to use, I'd greatly 
appreciated it. Have a great day and I apologize 
for dropping all this in your lap. I wish there was 
a way I could get your publication! I feel PVSP is 
out of line in denying me to read it. I hope to 
hear from you soon.

Respectfully yours,
 -- A California Prisoner, June 18, 1996.

Letters of protest can be sent to: Pleasant Valley 
State Prison, PO Box 8500, 24863 W. Jayne Ave, 
Coalinga, CA 93210.


***WHAT NON-PRISONERS CAN DO TO SUPPORT 
PRISONERS***

*1. Struggle with, work with, finance and join MIM. 
The best way to support prisoners is to overthrow 
the system under which capitalists profit from the 
exploitation of prisoners. History shows that the 
best way to do this is to build a Marxist-Leninist-
Maoist party. The oppressors will not give up their 
power without a fight.
*2. Finance MIM's prison work. Our biggest bill 
each month is postage. Most of the prison comrades 
who read MIM Notes have no way of paying for it. So 
if you have money, send what you can afford. Every 
cent helps, and stamps are as good as cash to us.
*3. Distribute MIM Notes and Notas Rojas. Bring the 
voices of prisoners and their supporters to as 
large and wide an audience of people as possible. 
Contact MIM for bulk rates and distribution tips.
*4. Start or join a prison support group. MIM can 
provide advice and resources to help you build 
public opinion for prisoners and their struggles.
*5. Fight censorship, beatings, torture and other 
fascist outrages. Under Lock and Key often features 
the addresses of prisoners' friends and enemies. 
Work with the friends and let the enemies know 
you're watching. (Don't expect to win the fascists 
to the side of humanity, however. See #1 in this 
list).
*6. Stay in touch. Keep us informed of pro-prisoner 
work you do. Our readers might find it educational 
or inspirational.


***WHAT PRISONERS CAN DO TO BUILD MIM***

*1. Start a study group. This is the best way to 
share materials and ideas. In groups, prisoners can 
better benefit from the limited resources MIM has.
*2. Get MIM Notes and MIM Theory into your library. 
This allows one copy of the paper to be seen by 
many comrades.
*3. Contact people on the outside. MIM needs 
comrades and allies everywhere. Maybe you know 
people on the outside who want to subscribe to MIM 
Notes or distribute it.
*4. Share materials. If MIM sends books or 
periodicals, please make sure that as many people 
as possible get a chance to read them.
*5. Write MIM at least every three months. 
Otherwise, you will be dropped from our mailing 
list. There are many cases where your keepers throw 
out MIM Notes, so we need to know that you actually 
get it.  Also, comrades are moved around a lot, 
especially those who are known to be political. 
Please let us know of any address changes as soon 
as you know them.
*6. Make MIM Distributors an official distributor. 
Many prisons require registration before MIM can 
send books or other materials. Usually we can 
comply with these bogus rules. It helps immensely 
to have someone there do the reasearch and send us 
the proper forms.
*7. Send money or stamps. Our biggest bill each 
month is postage. Most of the prison comrades who 
read MIM Notes have no way of paying for it. So if 
you have money, send what you can afford. Every 
cent helps, and stamps are as good as cash to us. 
Please make all checks payable to "MIM 
Distributors."
*8. Write for MIM Notes or Notas Rojas. Prisoners 
write almost all of Under Lock & Key.  We don't 
care if you know how to spell or write good English 
or Spanish. Write on any topic you like, it does 
not have to be a prison story.
*9. Translate. If you can read and write English 
and another language fluently, let us know.  Any 
translation work you do will help us make Maoist 
ideas accessible to more people.
*10. Fight censorship. When you know of censorship 
of books or newspapers, investigate.  Write to MIM 
to confirm what has happened, then see what you can 
do about it.
*11. Keep in touch after your release. Many 
comrades stop doing political work after their 
release.  Write to MIM as soon as you know where 
you'll be so we can hook you up with comrades on 
the outside.

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