This is an archive of the former website of the Maoist Internationalist Movement, which was run by the now defunct Maoist Internationalist Party - Amerika. The MIM now consists of many independent cells, many of which have their own indendendent organs both online and off. MIM(Prisons) serves these documents as a service to and reference for the anti-imperialist movement worldwide.
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THE MAOIST INTERNATIONALIST MOVEMENT
MIM Notes 131 FEBRUARY 1, 1997
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. GENERAL STRIKE ROCKS THE US BACKED REGIME IN
SOUTH KOREA
2. WHO DO THE POLICE "SERVE AND PROTECT?"--NOT THE
OPPRESSED
3. LETTERS
4. PHOENIX PIGS CRACK DOWN ON THE HOMELESS
5. 'NOT GUILTY'? GO TO JAIL
6. HINTON'S GPCR SPEECH STIRS DEBATE
7. MLM ONLINE: INTERNET CRIME HYPE FUELS
GOVERNMENT REPRESSION
8. UNDER LOCK & KEY: NEWS FROM PRISONERS AND
PRISONS
9. ROBERT F. WILLIAMS: FRIEND OF THE PEOPLE (1925-
1996)
10. NEW EVIDENCE FURTHER EXPOSES PIG INFORMER
11. WELD'S PLAN: MA PIGS CAN CHANGE PRISON RULES AT
WILL
12. WELD TO CHARGE PRISONERS FOR THE PRIVILEGE OF
INCARCERATION
13. TEXAS PRISON ACTIVIST LAUNCHES HUNGER STRIKE
14. SDS CO-FOUNDER HAYDEN RUNS FOR L.A. MAYOR
15. BABY FORMULA MARKETING: MULTINATIONALS STILL
BAD FOR PUBLIC HEALTH
* * *
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
* * *
GENERAL STRIKE ROCKS THE US BACKED REGIME IN SOUTH
KOREA
17 Jan 97--Nationwide labor strikes and
demonstration continue to spread and grow since
president Kim Young-sam's New Korea Party
railroaded passage of repressive labor laws through
the National Assembly of the republic of Korea on
26 Dec 96, without any political opposition
present, and circumventing all the legal processes
of the Assembly. Kim's party passed the amendments
to the Labor Law and National Security in seven
minutes with no discussion. Among other things, the
legislation prohibits multiple unions, labor
union's political activities, and third party
intervention. The laws give employers the right to
hire and fire at will without any consultation with
labor unions and do not recognize the basic labor
rights of teachers and civil servants.
The amendments return the right to investigate
politically active progressive south Koreans to the
Department of Intelligence, under the pretense of
"capturing spies." The south Korean governments'
Department of Intelligence is infamous in the
memory of many Koreans for torturing students,
journalists, workers and politicians during the
years of military rule in South Korea.(1)
The imperialists and local reactionaries are not
satisfied with the fact that south Korean workers
are paid less than 37% of what Amerikan workers are
paid and already live under conditions approaching
martial law.(2) They want more. These amendments
serve the interests of local big capitalists as
well as the interests of Amerikan and Japanese
imperialists at the expense of the Korean masses.
As the Communist Party of the Philippines noted in
a message of solidarity with the proletariat and
people of south Korea: "The monopoly capitalist
firms and imperialist countries engage in
competition but they collude to oppress and exploit
the people and shift the burden of crisis to them.
It is the revolutionary internationalist duty of
the proletariat and people of the world to unite
and fight against the imperialists and the local
reactionaries and bring about a world that is
liberated from capitalist oppression and
exploitation."(9) MIM agrees wholeheartedly.
WORKERS "STAND AND FIGHT"
The general strike began the day after these laws
were passed. Students, lawyers, religious groups
and many other people have participated and
continue to participate in protests. By 29
December, in response to a call by the Korean
Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), 182 KCTU-
affiliated unions (223,000 member workers went on
general strike, along with 553 member unions
(156,000 workers) of the Federation of Korea Trade
Unions (FKTU).(3) At a rally of 25,000 workers
before the National Assembly building on 29
December, President Kwon Yong-gil of KCTU said
"President Kim Young-sam should apologize to 12
million workers. Unless the unilaterally railroaded
labor laws and National Security Planning Agency
Act are repealed, the second stage of the General
Strike will be launched right after the New Year's
holiday period." President Dan Byung-ho of the FKTU
said "Workers are forced to choose whether to go
down on their knees completely or to stand and
fight," and "This rally is not just for protest
against anti-workers laws, but against president
Kim Young- sam's government."
On 4 Jan, 90,000 workers at 46 businesses went on
strike.(4) By 7 Jan, the number of striking workers
totaled 212,196 from 176 unions, including metal
workers, auto mobile workers, chemical, clerical,
professional and construction workers. Unionists at
four major television and radio networks joined the
general strike, as well as unionists from 24 major
hospitals in Korea, who made special arrangements
to staff only the intensive care units, emergency
units and emergency (non-pre-arranged) surgery.(5)
In addition, at least 200,000 people, if not more,
have marched in countless demonstrations all over
the country since 26 December. Police have been
confronting demonstrators in Seoul, Ulsan and other
cities, firing tear gas into crowds to stop
them.(6) The crowds have often returned the tear-
gas volleys with volleys of rocks.
ATTEMPTS AT REPRESSION
The KCTU learned that the police were planning on
raiding their offices, and accordingly, moved most
of their important documents to a safehouse, since
Korean police have confiscated whole computers of
the KCTU as "evidence" in the past (5). A few days
later (9 Jan) police did indeed seize and search
their offices.(7)
At the behest of President Kim Young-san, police
have threatened to arrest KCTU leaders. But with
all the worldwide attention, they have not acted on
their threats yet. Arrest warrants have been issued
to 10 KCTU leaders, who remain in the sanctuary of
the Myondong Cathedral in Seoul. Arrest warrants
were also issued for 40 other labor union leaders
in Ulsan, Changwon and other cities.(8) President
Kim's government has provoked this general strike,
and their attempts to end it by legal force are
failing.
The US-backed Korean government is now on very
shaky ground. The New Korea Party chairman Lee
Hong-koo has proposed a televised debate with the
KCTU and FKTU, who have rejected the proposal as a
farce and called again for the nullification of the
repressive legislation of 26 December. On January
16 Kim's party publicly apologized for ramming the
bill through Parliament in a secret session but
they did not repeal the bill. While this apology
showed the tremendous pressure the people of Korea
are putting on the government, the leadership of
the strikes correctly responded that this was not
enough and that the strikes would go on until the
bill is repealed.
As of this writing (14 Jan), the FKTU has called on
its 1.2 million members to enter into a 2-day
strike.(10) This may turn out to be the biggest
general strike in south Korean history. It is a
shining example of proletarian power. MIM and RAIL
stand in solidarity with the people of south Korea
and look forward to the end of US imperialist-
backed phony democracy in Korea and the beginnings
of people's democracy.
-- by a MoRAIL Comrade
NOTES: Visit the webpage General Strike in South
Korea at http://kpd.sing-kr.org/strike/index-e.html
1. http://kpd.sing-kr.org/strike/soli-1.html
2. Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1996,
p. 846.
3. http://kpd.sing-kr.org/strike/report-1.html
4. http://kpd.sing-kr.org/strike/report-2.html
5. http://kpd.sing-kr.org/strike/report-6.html
6.
http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9701/06/briefs/korea.html
7. http://www.kimsoft.com/korea/kct97108.htm
8. http://kpd.sing-kr.org/strike/report-10.html
9. http://www.geocities.com/~cpp-ndf/ndf11.htm,
Message of Solidarity with the Proletariat and
People of South Korea from the Communist Party of
the Philippines, 7 January 1997.
10. http://kpd.sing-kr.org/strike/report-12.html
* * *
WHO DO THE POLICE "SERVE AND PROTECT?"--NOT THE
OPPRESSED
by the Missouri chapter of RAIL
Lots of people agree that our communities need to
be safe from violence and crime. The question is:
Who are the real criminals, who is most responsible
for violence and crime in our communities?
Missouri RAIL (MORAIL) believes that the police who
defend the status quo of exploitation, poverty, and
drugs are the real criminals, not those people
driven to petty crime by hunger or unemployment--
let alone those framed by the police. It is a fact
that oppressed people often steal, beat, even rape
and murder other oppressed people. But this kind of
crime is fostered by an oppressive system and can
only be eliminated once we have pulled down this
system and its lackeys.
True: None of us can live peacefully and
productively when we have to live in fear for
ourselves and our loved ones. Yet many of us refuse
to recognize the facts or become weak-kneed when
confronted with police brutality and murder. Some
look the other way while others apologize for the
criminal activities of those sworn to "serve and
protect."
Apologists for the police tend to justify police
violence by blaming the victim. When Garland Carter
Jr. Was murdered by St. Louis cop "Eddie" Sanchez
the apologists said that it was because he was a
"gang member", therefore guilty and justly
executed. In their eyes, the police have the
exclusive right to act as judge, jury and
executioner. Never mind the fact that eyewitnesses
saw Sanchez take a gun out of the trunk of his car
and plant it on his victim. Although investigators
found Sanchez guilty of violating police procedure
for having guns in his trunk and he resigned the
police department, the murderer is free to walk the
streets. Is that justice? Does it make the streets
safe?
On October 20, 1996, Randolph (Randy) Vance was
brutally beaten to death by white Seventh District
police officers at his home at 5108 Kensington.
After being handcuffed and anklecuffed, he was
KICKED, STOMPED, STRUCK WITH NIGHTSTICKS AND
FLASHLIGHTS. HE WAS FORCIBLY DRAGGED FROM HIS HOME
DOWN 12 CONCRETE STEPS. HIS HEAD STRUCK EVERY STEP.
One month to the day Randy was killed, Michael
Dillard, an eyewitness, was MURDERED. Coincidence?
We want the truth!
Apologists for the police say that Randy deserved
to die because he was on drugs. Did that give
police the right to play God and kill Randy Vance
while he was handcuffed and anklecuffed?
Amerikkka's police, like an occupying force,
terrorize the Black and Latino community every day
and night. Police selectively choose Blacks and
Latinos for arrest and imprisonment, every day and
every night. These attacks are increasing in an
ugly atmosphere of a police-prison state. The
international community has cited the U.S.
government for violations of human rights
concerning "immigration, police abuse, its prison
system, and the death penalty."(1) The Human Rights
World Report 1997, released by the Human Rights
Watch group, also states that "Police officers in a
number of cities were accused of serious human
rights violations, including unjustifiable
shootings, severe beatings and with many of the
alleged victims asserting that these abuses were
racially motivated."(2)
We have seen time and time again that the police do
not serve the interests of the black, Latino and
other oppressed nations' communities. On the
contrary, they are agents of white capitalist-
imperialist rule. Their job is to protect the
privileged status quo in Amerikkkan society. Let's
ask ourselves this honest question: when have the
police served our community?
Can you trust the police for you protection? Are
you and your family safe if you call on the police
as Randy Vance did? Can we really have safe streets
when police get away with murder?
Silence is complicity. It is time to wake up and
speak out. The people have a right and a duty to
rebel against police terror. If you are truly for
safe streets join RAIL and its efforts to STOP
POLICE BRUTALITY!
Only the people can change the violent oppression
and poverty we are faced with. History proves that
when masses of people organize, unite and act for
change--CHANGE HAPPENS. It is right to rebel
against police terror. Ultimately, the violence
created by capitalism and perpetrated by its
running dogs will only be eliminated by socialist
revolution. The time for talk is done. The time to
mobilize has come.
* * *
LETTERS TO MIM
***In response to MIM's USENET post regarding the
(almost) legalization of gay and lesbian marriages
in Hawaii (MIM Notes 130), one reader sent us the
following: ***
READER CHALLENGES MIM ON MARRIAGE AND MAOISM
MIM,
Who cares? The state should not be involved with
regulating marriages anyway.
In case you didn't know, bub, Mao was a
revolutionary, not a man who concerned himself with
G/L marriages.
Cheers!
--Internet Reader
MIM RESPONDS: We wonder if you are bashing both Mao
and other revolutionaries, or trying to drive a
wedge between Mao and Maoists. Either way, it won't
work. What do you think yourself about this issue?
Mao was very concerned with marriage, the Chinese
state under the Chinese Community Party did in fact
regulate marriages, and that is all correct.
One of Mao's earliest essays was about the suicide
of a young woman who took her own life rather than
face an arranged marriage with a man she didn't
love. One of the very first acts of the Communist-
led government was legalizing divorce, for cause,
which led to hundreds of thousands of women
(mostly) ending oppressive and abusive marriages.
Marriage is an institution of patriarchal society,
and is thus an area of concern for feminist
revolutionaries such as MIM. Under communism
perhaps the concept of marriage will be obsolete.
It is certainly not obsolete now, and it appears to
be a likely feature of socialist society as well.
The idea that "revolutionaries" are not concerned
about gay/lesbian marriage is odd. Are we supposed
to be concerned about personal relationships at
all, but not these? Or are we to ignore personal
relationships, even though they are activities that
most people spend huge amounts of time and energy
on, that many people care about more than anything
else, and that offers a way for the state to
intervene in everyone's lives, for better or for
worse. This is certainly an area which
revolutionaries have to be concerned about. And we
certainly would not agree that we should be
concerned about some marriages, but not those
involving gays and lesbians.
***The following letters demonstrate the potential
for revolutionary study within the context of
bourgeois education -- if students and teachers
take the initiative to seek alternative sources.
MIM is pleased to comply.***
TEACHER LOOKING FOR REVOLUTIONARY MATERIALS
MIM,
I am a Geography teacher at X high school. We are
studying the geography and culture of Asia and I am
in need of resources. I came across your
organization in the back of a book found in our
school library and hope that you could send me more
information about your organization and Asia that I
could use in my classroom.
I look forward to receiving materials about your
organization and China as soon as possible.
Sincerely,
--A teacher in the Midwest
A MIM COMRADE RESPONDS: Thanks for the letter. It's
nice to hear that we can be found in a book in a
high school library. If you are studying Asia there
are a few things I would recommend.
First, we think that studying the Maoist revolution
in China is very important for an understanding of
world history because this revolution did so much
for the oppressed people of China and of the world.
From their ideas about how to change the
educational system to their practice of criticism
and self- criticism rather than punishment of
criminals, from their successes in agriculture and
industry to their ability to learn from their
failures, the cultural revolution was a tremendous
advance in building a society where no people have
power over other people. The Maoist
Internationalist Movement (MIM) does not call China
today a socialist country, instead we see that when
Deng came to power he restored capitalism, albeit a
more state-controlled capitalism than we are
familiar with in this country.
A few books worth studying on the revolution in
China that are pretty accessible for high school
level include (prices are what MIM sells them for,
you may be able to find them in stores as well):
# Jean Esmein: The Chinese Cultural Revolution
($6).
# William Hinton: Fanshen ($15).
# Ruth Sidel: Women and Childcare in China ($5).
# Victor and Ruth Sidel: Serve the People:
Observations on Medicine in the People's Republic
of China ($6).
# John and Elsie Collier's China's Socialist
Revolution ($6).
Another important area of Asian history to study is
the "success" of the capitalist "Four Tigers." We
believe that socialism has been far more successful
than capitalism when the two systems are compared
using the same standards, and that the success of
the "Four Tigers" is due largely anti-feudal land
reform led by communists. MIM has a theory journal
that comes out quarterly and issue 4, "A Spiral
Trajectory: The failure and success of communist
development" ($5) addresses these issues. This
issue of our theory journal also goes into some
depth answering questions about the Chinese
revolution and why we support it as the furthest
advance towards communism in world history so far.
I'm enclosing a copy of "What is MIM?" so you can
get a better idea of what a Maoist organization is
doing in this country and also a copy of our
biweekly newspaper. We sell both of these and we'd
appreciate it if you'd send the $2 for the "What is
MIM?" pamphlet as we have no funding sources other
than ourselves and the people who buy our
literature. I'm sending these now because I
understand that you need this information quickly
and I hope it will be of use in planning your
curriculum.
We'd also be willing to send someone to your class
to do a presentation on any issues regarding Asian
history or current implementation of Maoist
philosophy if you'd like. We have done
presentations in high school classes in the past
and they have been quite successful.
Your letter was pretty broad so I hope this helps.
Please let us know if there are other materials we
can send or questions we can answer.
STUDENT SEEKS REVOLUTIONARY MATERIALS
MIM,
I am a student doing a thesis on the state in
revolutionary societies and trying to gather as
much alternative thinking on the matter. To my
luck, I was able to see a copy of your MIM Notes
near my department. It was issue 85, dated February
1994. I'm interested in buying all sorts of
literature from your organization. I don't know if
the price of your catalogue is still the same
though. Could you send me order information for
your catalogue.
Sincerely,
--a student in Canada
MIM RESPONDS: Two dollars gets a copy of our
complete literature list.
* * *
PHOENIX PIGS CRACK DOWN ON THE HOMELESS
by a RAIL Comrade
We have all heard the line from the bourgeoisie and
its labor aristocracy running dogs that the
estimated three million homeless people in Amerika
have obtained their status either through conscious
choice or otherwise through their own fault. If
they were only willing to work, so the myth goes,
they could have the good life enjoyed by the labor
aristocrats. The same baseless accusations of
laziness are also directed at those third world
peoples who are not homeless but nonetheless endure
squalid poverty.
Recently, the Phoenix City Council and the Phoenix
Pigs have shown that the homeless are just as
resented and repressed whether they are employed or
not. In 1993, Joel Barr established a newspaper
called The Grapevine which he published weekly. To
market the paper, he hired homeless people to sell
it from sidewalks and street medians and in front
of public buildings and stores. The homeless would
keep a portion of the price of the papers as their
income.
Bourgeois elements complained that these vendors
were taking away their business, and many labor
aristocrats resented the presence of shabbily-
dressed vendors by the streets, particularly those
of oppressed nationalities. The members of the city
council looked for an excuse to put an end to this,
which did not take long. The pigs suggested that
selling newspapers from a sidewalk or median to
motorists was a hazard to traffic safety. Although
there had never been a traffic accident caused by a
newspaper vendor, the City Council enthusiastically
acted upon the idea and passed a civil ordinance
against selling newspapers from sidewalks or public
medians.
The penalty for breaking this ordinance was a fine
of not more than $300 per violation, which few
homeless people could pay. The penalty for failing
to pay the fine was suspension of the driver's
license. Since few homeless people had a driver's
licenses, the pigs soon found this was not an
effective deterrent. On December 17th, 1996, the
City Council voted to upgrade this prohibition to a
criminal offense. Although the fine is still $300,
the penalty for failure to pay is to be sent to
jail. Sheriff Arpaio's tent city concentration camp
already contains many homeless people convicted of
criminal trespass the "crime" of finding a place
to sleep and other status-related "crimes." Now
the homeless people who are admonished by the labor
aristocrats to "get a job" can be sent to the tent
city for doing so.
Joel Barr has vowed to continue the struggle with a
court challenge to the ordinance and to send
vendors door-to-door to sell the papers if they are
forbidden to sell by the streets.
The root cause of homelessness in Amerika is
capitalism: the profit- based system which requires
a scarcity of housing to fuel real-estate
speculation. Only a socialist revolution can
eliminate homelessness, because it will create an
economic system which will serve the people's needs
instead of profit.
The repression of the homeless will surely turn
against the pigs who will find that repression
breeds resistance.
* * *
'NOT GUILTY'? GO TO JAIL
by MC12
The U.$. Supreme Court has ruled that judges should
increase criminal sentences based on charges for
which defendants were found not guilty in the past.
They said that although the burden of proof in a
criminal trial is "beyond a reasonable doubt," that
standard does not have to be reached for alleged
"crimes" to be counted as prior offenses in
sentencing.
They said an acquittal by a jury "does not prove
that the defendant is innocent; it merely proves
the existence of a reasonable doubt as to his
guilt." And all that should be needed to treat the
person as guilty when it comes to future sentences
is a "preponderance of the evidence."
As if it didn't mean little enough already, a so-
called trial by a jury of one's peers resulting in
acquittal is now not even a formal protection
against punishment for the crime.
One judge, John Paul Stevens, called the decision
"perverse," and another, Anthony Kennedy, said it
"does raise concerns about undercutting the [jury]
verdict." Those two were the only votes out of nine
against the ruling.
The injustice system is on a roll, rolling back
anything that could be interpreted as a protection
against the incarceration and enslavement of
potential prisoners. The Constitution supposedly
bans punishment more than once for the same
"crime," but the Supreme Court said it wasn't
punishing people for their previous acquittal, it
was just changing the punishment for the later
conviction. Uh-huh. Those who would look to the
Constitution for protection of their "rights"
should see decisions like this as more proof that
there *are* no rights - only power struggles.
NOTES: Washington Post, Jan. 7, 1997. p. A3. (From
http://www.washingtonpost.com)
* * *
HINTON'S GPCR SPEECH STIRS DEBATE
On Dec. 14, 1996, William Hinton, author of
Fanshen, Turning Point in China and other books on
the Cultural Revolution, gave the keynote address
at a 30th Anniversary of the Cultural Revolution
Symposium in New York City. Hinton reported that on
his recent trip to the Philippines and India, at
each stop people wanted to talk about the Cultural
Revolution.
Hinton has always puzzled MIM because he attacks
Deng Xiaoping as an unrepentant capitalist roader
very strongly, but he does not defend Jiang Qing
and the so-called "Gang of Four" (GOF) who were the
targets of Hua Kuo-feng's and Deng's anti-socialist
coup. We had never seen Hinton explain this
criticism before.
Hinton put the GPCR in the context of the struggle
against revisionism within the party. Summing up
this historical period, Hinton called the GPCR the
"highest level of political theory and action." He
said that while "Overall, it [the GPCR] did not
succeed" its "lessons arm people for the future."
This is a correct summation. While it is true that
communism was not achieved before capitalism was
restored, the fundamental advances of this battle
should be celebrated and the mistakes turned into
lessons for improvement. But we can not agree with
Hinton on the cause of the defeat of the GPCR and
the resulting restoration of capitalism. He says
the GPCR was "diverted by factionalism and
ultraleft violence" led by the Gang of Four (GOF).
To MIM, the GOF issue is not one of "the enemy of
our enemy is our friend." Rather it is an analysis
that the GOF line was fundamentally that of Mao and
the GPCR. While there were some line differences
between the "Gang of Four" and Mao, these were
contradictions among the most progressive forces of
the revolution, not contradictions between the
people and the enemy. To uphold the GPCR, we must
defend the GOF. The best defense of the political
line of the GOF is in "Capitalist Roaders Are Still
on the Capitalist Road," which was published just
months after the coup.
It is incorrect to link all factionalism and ultra-
left violence to the GOF as Hinton did. His own
book, Hundred Day War, about a struggle at Tsinghua
University, explains how factionalism and ultra-
left violence were a product of the right to
destroy the revolution.
Hinton leveled a number of charges of ultra-leftism
at Jiang Qing, including promoting violence. He
said the Jiang statement "Attack with reason, but
defend with force" prepared the conditions for
armed struggle during the Cultural Revolution. Of
Hinton's charges, this one was directly rebutted by
a professor from Tasmania. This panelist said that
Jiang could not have made such a statement without
authorization, and he explained the context after
the Wuhan Incident, in which the rightists had used
the army and had armed peasants to attack rebels.
And as a member of the audience stated, this slogan
was withdrawn in the September 5, 1977 Circular,
because the slogan confused contradictions among
the people with the enemy. So while the statement
was misused and potentially dangerous because of
that context, it was not the reactionary effort of
sabotage that Hinton makes it out to be.
More positively, Hinton argued that during the
Cultural Revolution many people were not convinced
that capitalist roaders existed within the party.
Now, with the benefit of hindsight, it is clearer
to more people and a foundation for a new Chinese
revolution is laid. This would appear to be a
plausible theory and one with which MIM can have
more unity.
William Hinton also criticized his daughter's new
movie about the massacre in Tiananmen Square. The
younger Hinton claims her movie represents "all
sides." According to Hinton, the movie fails to
represent the important side: the Maoist side. MIM
has not yet reviewed the movie (and welcomes
reviews from readers).
* * *
MLM ONLINE
INTERNET CRIME HYPE FUELS GOVERNMENT REPRESSION
by MC12
The Amerikan media and U.$. government - always a
great team - are working hard together to justify a
repressive crackdown of "criminals" on the
Internet. MIM knows that we have access to the
Internet and all its benefits for organizing only
at the discretion of the government at the moment.
We know we can't guarantee Internet as a tool for
the people without having state power to protect
it.
The Washington Post's "Navigator" column recently
joined the crackdown club, with an article about
"Revolutionaries, counterrevolutionaries, extremist
groups, radical wings, separatist movements, so-
called cults, and their critics and sympathizers
[who] are aswarm on the Net."(1)
Referring to a link to the Tupac Amaru
Revolutionary Movement maintained by Arm the Spirit
in the Toronto, and to the Committee to Support the
Revolution in Peru (CSRP) - a front for the
Revolutionary Communist Party-USA, a crypto-
Trotskyist group that calls itself Maoist - the
Post says "These are prime spots for unfiltered
propaganda."
There is typical mockery of radical groups here,
which is not remarkable for this article. But
worse, after quoting the CSRP as saying "hook up
with, support and/or join us," the article leads
into an interview with an unnamed "staffer" at the
U.$. Department of State and someone from the
Justice Department.
The State staffer, "who was reluctant to talk about
the government's monitoring of any Web pages" and
spoke "only on background," was quoted as saying
that "Terrorist fund-raising is illegal in this
country." The Post paraphrased the staffer as
saying "extremist Web sites are mostly posted by
U.S. citizens and are viewed as domestic material,
which is under the jurisdiction of the FBI and the
Justice Department." Finally, the staffer was
quoted as saying, "There is genuine international
concern that this information is freely available-
and that it's legal." Meaning foreign governments -
such as Peru's - are also encouraging a federal
crackdown.
Turning to the Justice Department, the article
quoted "John Russell of the Justice Department,"
who said, "There are First Amendment considerations
and there are legitimate law enforcement concerns."
The article added, "The Justice Department, he
said, would like 'to find a legal and acceptable
procedure' to discover who is posting the
information. He said several law enforcement
agencies, including the FBI, ATF and DEA, are
planning a joint meeting soon to discuss the
proliferation of such rabble-rousing pages."
Law enforcement already operates freely on the
Internet. What bothers them about the Internet is
not that it allows people to do things they
couldn't do before, but that it is so efficient a
means of reaching so many people, which makes it
time consuming or expensive to police compared to
old-fashioned organizing.
WHO'S WHO?
In the background of this debate, however, is the
important problem of legitimacy and accuracy of
information on the net. For example, the Navigator
column writer also wrote: "As always with the Net,
we must assume that people are who they say they
are." A remarkable comment for a journalist - to be
so unconcerned with the accuracy of her sources.
(This sentence appeared in the on-line version of
the article, but was apparently cut from the print
edition.) When she adds, "Such sites are so devoid
of humor that it seems likely these people really
are who they say they are," we know how she can be
so cavalier: the bourgeois media does not care
about the accuracy of reporting on radical groups.
But, as MIM has remarked before with regard to the
bogus "MPP- USA" organization, the Internet makes
it easy for people to pass themselves off as
representing others - especially groups such as the
Communist Party of Peru (PCP) which do not have an
independent Internet web site. The CSRP, which MIM
does not support, does not even claim to be an
"official" site for the PCP, and yet the Washington
Post calls their site "the Shining Path page" and
calls this "assum[ing] people are who they say they
are"!
Collaboration between the bourgeois media and the
state multiplies the risk here. The media can
falsely identify people as criminals, and then the
state can use that reporting to publicly justify
cracking down on people. There was no evidence in
the article or even mentioned of anyone doing
anything illegal. Even the CSRP's request for
support was for them, not for the Communist Party
of Peru (PCP), whom the paper and government refer
to as terrorists. But the Post said it was "the
Shining Path page," which implies that their
fundraising could be illegal.
At present, we are lucky to be able to get on the
Net ourselves and give our interpretation and
evidence of these various groups and claims, and
let people try to judge for themselves. But with
the government threatening crackdowns on Internet
use, we cannot guarantee we will be able to keep
this up.
AN EASY IN FOR THE STATE
The state makes inroads for its repression with
patriarchy-defined sex offenders, and pedophiles in
particular. A recent New York Times articles
explains that, because some people use the Internet
to coordinate their sex offenses, the Federal
government is working on new policies for
restricting Net access to parolees, including those
charged with "hate crimes," a bogus category that
usually includes revolutionaries.
The United $tates Parole Commission has "approved
restrictions on use of computers by some federal
parolees." The commission now holds the honor of
being the first parole authority (no states have
done this) to attempt to control the activities of
convicts on the Internet.
The Times wrote: "The prohibitions address the
growing national concern that criminals,
particularly sex criminals, are using the Internet
to gather information for criminal purposes and to
hook up with other criminals. Recently, a convicted
pedophile who was still behind the walls of a
Minnesota state prison used the Internet to compile
a data base containing the names and addresses of
thousands of children who could be potential
targets of sex crimes.
"The new restrictions, which parole officers can
put into use as they see fit immediately, will
range from prohibiting offenders from owning a
computer to installing monitoring equipment on
their computers that will keep tabs on where they
roam on line."
Now, based on anecdotal reports of pedophiles on
the Net the Parole Commission has authorized parole
officers to take away the computers, or install
monitoring equipment on the phone lines, of all
federal parolees. MIM opposes all rape, including
the rape of children, but we also oppose the
bourgeoisie's pretensions that child sexual abuse
is a problem of a few deranged individuals, rather
than a problem of a society which eroticizes
powerlessness. These restrictions will do nothing
to end child sexual abuse, but they will increase
the state's control over all federal parolees.
On this "slippery slope" of Internet censorship,
the bourgeois media is more than willing to provide
additional lubrication.
NOTES:
1. Washington Post January 9, 1997. Page C5. 2. New
York Times January 5, 1997, sec. 4, p. 5.
* * *
UNDER LOCK & KEY: NEWS FROM PRISONERS AND PRISONS
ARIZONA PRISONER MAKES CONTRIBUTION TO MIM NOTES
Revolutionary Greetings to the Comrades of MIM,
Thought I'd send you a news story from the
Imperialist Gulag of Arizona. I'm not sure if you
want to use it. I'm not very good at such writings.
Just thought I'd make some contribution. I so wish
to make a difference, comrades. And I feel so
helpless from in here. You do so much for me and it
seems that I do so little for you. I'm sorry for
that. Enclosed you will find a couple of stamps. My
study group sends them. We'll send more soon. It's
been a little tight around here lately.
All Power to the People!! Your Comrade in
captivity,
--An Arizona Prisoner, 19Nov96
MIM RESPONDS: Thank you for your article, it is
printed below. This article is good example of
solid revolutionary work. Writing articles and
submitting them proves that prisoners are not
helpless, but a potentially powerful revolutionary
force. Exposing oppressive forces in prisons,
publicizing victories of the oppressed and studying
revolutionary theory are all valuable contributions
to the struggle against imperialism. Keep up the
good work!
In Struggle,
--RCG1 13Jan97
SECOND TRIAL FREES ARIZONA DEATH ROW PRISONER
On November 6, 1996, a man who spent five years on
death row for the 1989 death of a Tucson investment
broker, was released from prison. (1)
Pina County Superior Court Judge Bernardo Velasco
freed 38 year old David W. Grannis by dismissing
the murder charges in a retrial. (2)
Public Defenders stated they hoped this ruling
helps people see the danger in federal laws like
last year's anti-terrorism bill, which reduces a
convicted felon's rights to appeal.
Grannis and Danial Webster were convicted of the
stabbing death of Richard Sutcliffe along with
theft and trafficking of stolen property. But
prosecutorial over-zealousness caused jury
prejudice, as determined by Pima County Superior
Court, and in retrial freed Grannis. (3)
David stated for local news crews that he wishes to
become a lawyer in order to aid other death row
inmates and also desires to play in active role in
the crusade to abolish the death penalty. (4)
Rosemary Marquez, a federal public defender was
contacted by a reporter for the Arizona Daily Star
while celebrating the positive ruling in a downtown
pub. During the short interview, Marquez relates
some very disturbing statistics regarding the death
penalty. She said studies of death-row convictions
show from 1900 to 1991, there have been more than
400 convictions of people who later proved to be
innocent, and 24 of those people have been
executed. (5)
The harsh reality of state-sanctioned murder is all
too frightening. The public has been duped by this
imperialist nation for far too long regarding
prisons, the death penalty and the "injustice"
system. I can only hope that David Grannis uses his
experiences to open the eyes of the citizens of
this country to the atrocities being perpetrated
against them by the state and what can be
accomplished by the people in a Maoist society. All
Power to the People!
--The same Arizona Prisoner, 19Nov96
NOTES: 1,2,3,5: The Arizona Daily Star, 7Nov96,
page 1B.
4: KVOA channel 4, Eyewitness News, NBC affiliate,
Tucson.
CHAIN GANGS CONTINUE IN ALABAMA
Dear MIM,
This is just a note to keep in touch and ask that
you please keep me on you mailing list to receive
your publication. As you know, I am an indigent
state prisoner struggling to stay alive and get out
of the Alabama prison system.
Just so you will know, contrary to many published
reports nationwide during the months of June and
July of this year, the chain-gang HAS NOT been
abolished in Alabama. They have simply stopped
chaining the prisoners on the chain gang in groups
of five (5). These prisoners are still individually
chained for other reason than humiliation and
degradation.
These prisoners are still denied visitation,
canteen privileges, adequate medical care, TVs and
any type of educational and self-help programs, all
of which other prisoners in the system have access
to.
Back in the 1920's, 30's and 40's little black
children grew up playing a game called "chain gang"
where they pretended to be in prison working on the
chain gang. It was something they simply grew up
expecting to experience. I wonder how long it will
be before our little black children of today here
in Alabama will again be playing this "game" called
"chain gang" and expecting and looking forward to
experiencing it.
It is sad to think that the chain gangs in Alabama
will only end when some "good" white citizen
notices little white children playing the "game"
called "chain gang". It is ironic to think that one
day we will have to thank little white children for
ending this aspect of our torture, an will only
have to live in fear of what degradation it will be
replaced with.
As always, I remain, because I have no other
choice, and even if I did have another choice, I
would still remain...
In Struggle,
--An Alabama Prisoner, 12Nov96
MIM RESPONDS: While it is true that the vast
majority of the white nation will not become
thoroughly anti-imperialist and revolutionary until
they begin to experience the kind of fascist
repression which oppressed nations currently
experience, this does not mean liberation for the
oppressed nations has to wait for the white nation
to become revolutionary. Oppressed nations can and
must struggle for their liberation from imperialism
in a self-sufficient manner. While any and all aid
from "mother country" revolutionaries will be
accepted, oppressed nation revolutionaries cannot
depend on such aid--they must only depend on the
oppressed country masses, who are much more ready
for revolution than their "mother country"
counterparts.
SOUTH CAROLINA PRISONER CONFRONTS PIGS PRACTICE OF
GENOCIDE
Greetings Soldiers!
MIM:
Thank you for sending MIM to me at that rustic
prison kamp. But I think I must tell you that I've
been transferred to another kamp. I was transferred
basically because of my political conscience. I've
been to 3 different kamps January [96]. I'm at this
camp because I expressed my personal feeling to the
warden about him and his lackeys and his black
collaborators. Well let me explain to you all what
happened.
I was taken off SSR (Substantiated Security Risk)
status, which meant I didn't have to always walk
with leg irons and belly chains on. The reason I
was taken off was because I stayed disciplinary
free for 7 1/2 months. But I had a next cage
neighbor who those fascist pigs didn't take off
SSR. He told me that they took him in front of a
classification board and placed him on ML6 custody,
which meant he had to go back to SuperMax.
Now this solider hasn't had any disciplinaries for
close to a year and a half. I asked why did they
place him on ML6 custody and he showed me a
document from the classification board that was
signed by the warden. And basically what it was
saying is that he was placed on ML6 custody because
of his "past history".
When I saw that my mind exploded with rage! So I
wrote the Warden a missive. I told him that I see
that he, along with his lackeys, have come
accustomed to using prisoners' past histories
against them. Then I said if that's true then WE
ALL are guilty, because WE ALL have bad past
histories. But since we are talking about bad past
histories, how do you feel about you ancestor's
past history!, knowing that they have raped,
murdered and exploited my ancestors and other
peoples of color and as a matter of fact they're
still doing it today.
I asked him how did he feel knowing that his great,
great grandfather was an Indian killer and an
Afrikan Woman raper. And I said a couple of other
things also. But to make a long story short the
next day I got transferred. But it doesn't matter
because I see all pigs (male and female) as the
same, all prison kamps are the same (oppressive
institutions) in my eyes also. So they can never
get rid of me unless I'm fully extricated from
behind these dark walls.
...The Struggle Will Continue!
--A South Carolina Prisoner, 19Nov96
A CALL FOR PRISONER UNITY
Dear Friends,
Please excuse me for not writing sooner to let you
know that I have been receiving my copies of MIM
Notes. One of the things that caused the delay on
my part was that we just came off of an
institutional lockdown. Some of our Chicano Bothers
can't seem to get along, and they are constantly
killing each other over here.
It hurts me to see this, not only 'cause they are
both of the same race, but because it seems that
this is what our oppressor's want. They get us
killing each other. It opens the door for them to
come out with new and improved ways of oppression
and mental torture.
Also, those actions stereotype us. They already
figure all Chicanos are in a gang, and this just
reinforces their bogus theory. But, since we've
come up, they've come out with new rules every day.
If a Chicano gets in a small wreck with the pigs,
they don't give out a disciplinary case, they just
have him pack his stuff and put him on one of 2
pods that they still have locked down. Reason? Gang
investigation.
So once again, the Charles T. Terrell unit is under
direct ATTACK by the warden and all his Punk Ass
Klansmen. Word going' around is that they're
trying' to make us go off on them so they can have
a reason to lock us down. Unfortunately, I see that
happening pretty soon. I see some really hungry
holiday's ahead.
But please keep the MIM Notes coming. And any other
books that you may be able to send. I've met a few
like minded people around here and they wanna read
them too. I'll keep you posted on the happenings
here on Terrible Terrell and on the lengths the
Pigs here will go to to keep us down. Till, next
kite, I remain sincerely your friend in struggle.
--A Texas Prisoner 7Nov96
NEW YORK CONTINUES REPRESSIVE CONDITIONS, PART II
I have just finished reading MIM Notes, October 1,
1996, Issue Number 123. In said issue in the
Section "Under Lock & Key" you printed a letter
from a prisoner in the Southport Correctional
Facility [called "New York Continues Repressive
Conditions" - MIM]. I strongly agree with the
points he raised, however I feel he missed a few
very important ones.
Firstly, this prison is a disciplinary one. The
total prisoner population is approximately 828. Of
the 828, 618 are on SUH (Special Housing Unit)
Status -- All 618 doing box time! After the "91"
Southport Riot the department of Corrections
decided to build "one-man cages" for the sole
purpose of the box time prisoners doing (1) one
hour daily rec. One look at the set-up of these
cages and the first thing that pops up in someone's
mind is - What's this a "dog kennel"?! That's what
it is a "Human Dog- Pound!"
The set up for visitors is also similar, however
there is a small difference. The visiting room
consists of (4) four cages, (8) eight men to a
cage. The visitors must sit on the outer-part of
the cages (not bars, but holes). There is no
contact between visitor and the visited. If you
want to kiss your loved ones, you must kiss through
a little hole no bigger than (1) inch in length and
width.
To Humiliate and oppress prisoners more, we must
spend the entire visit ((8) eight hours) with
handcuffs and waist chains that goes through the
cuffs. Some prisoners must even wear leg shackles.
Furthermore, ANY MOVEMENT is done in restraints!
Showers are given 2 to 3 times a week, even then
you must have cuffs and sometimes even leg
restraints. There are many pigs who will spit on
prisoners and then claim (lie) that the prisoner
spit on him. For a prisoner - that's an automatic 2
1/2 to 5 years added to his current prison time.
Shit is rough and it will get rougher especially
with the up and coming "New World Order"...
Due to the above mentioned, with 618 prisoners here
doing box time, we don't have access to the general
library so I don't try nor attempt to get the
facility librarian to purchase MIM Notes. However I
personally speak to interested prisoners about the
conditions we must suffer and what we can do to
correct them. I also speak of daily current events
in politics and what the oppressors of the US (the
world) continue to do to keep the people oppressed
both in the so-called "Free Society" and in
Prison....
Lastly I would appreciate if you would place me on
your mailing list and begin to furnish me with MIM
Notes. For MIM Notes is what keeps the Men behind
the walls (Modern Day Plantations) strong in the
struggle and on point what's evolving around us!
Thanking you in advance for your time and
cooperation while I await your most prompt
response. Continue your great work there at MIM and
keep in mind -- "You have a comrade in the fight
with me!"
Respectfully,
--A New York Prisoner, 9Nov96
MIM BATTLES CENSORSHIP IN PA
***In August, MIM received a letter from a prison
in Pennsylvania, reporting that the July MIM Notes
were censored at his institution. The stated reason
was: "violation of DC-ADM 814, section IV.,
subsection A., Number 3, Writings which advocate
violence, insurection [sic] or guerrilla warfare
against the government or any of its institutions
or which create a clear and present danger within
the context of the correctional institutions. Also
writings which advocate, assist or are evidence of
criminal activity or institutional misconduct."
The prisoner asked for information about the
contents of the July MIM Notes because he wished to
file a lawsuit against the prison for infringing on
his right to correspond. We were also asked to
write a letter to the Superintendent. A letter
written by a MIM supporter to the Superintendent
follows. The name of the prisoner has been replaced
with an X, and the MIM supporter's name with a Y in
this correspondence.***
Kenneth Kyler Superintendent
PO Box 200 Camp Hill PA 17001-0200
Dear Mr. Kyler:
We are in receipt of a notice from Sgt. L Diehl to
X notifying him that MIM Notes 117 and 118 were
denied him by the Incoming Publications Committee.
Regarding the stated "reasons" for this act of
political censorship: The publications in question
most definitely do not advocate violence, etc. at
the current time. In fact, they advocate the
complete opposite. I am baffled as to what
"criminal activity" your committee believes MIM
Notes "advocate[s], assist[s] or are evidence of",
unless talking about-- and opposing--the rash of
racist church burnings counts as a "evidence of a
crime"!
It would appear that your committee's decision was
not based on the law, but in opposition to the
political positions of MIM Notes. The Supreme Court
has found such actions to unconstitutional, and
furthermore has found individual bureaucrats liable
when they overstep their authority for personal
reasons.
I trust that you will look into this matter and
correct the actions of your Committee immediately.
Sincerely,
Y
***Eleven days later, the Superintendent wrote
back***
Pennsylvania Department of Corrections State
Correctional Institution at Camp Hill
P.O. Box 8837, Camp Hill, PA 17001-8837
(717) 737- 4531
October 31, 1996
Dear Y:
A review of your recent letter on behalf of inmate
X, indicates that you obviously are unsatisfied
with our banning of MIM Notes 117 and 118 by our
Incoming Publication Review Committee. My review of
these publications confirms the decision of the
Incoming Publication Review Committee. The issues
advocate the armed overthrow of the government and
as written fall under the guidelines set forth by
DC ADM 814 "Incoming Publications" policy.
Inmate X has the option to appeal my decision to
the Central Office Review Committee. To my
knowledge, he has not submitted any appeal to date.
Your belief that I've overstepped my authority is
incorrect. These publications were banned in
accordance with existing Department of Corrections
policy and not by some whim of either institution
staff or myself. If inmate X appeal is submitted
and subsequently won at his next level of appeal,
the publications will be permitted in the
institution.
Sincerely,
--Kenneth D. Kyler, Superintendent
MIM RESPONDS: This is a good example of how
censorship can be fought, and a good example of the
kind of stalling that the prison will do.
Initially, a comrade wrote to the prisoner advising
him that: "It would appear that you have good
grounds for a lawsuit. While "free speech" and
other rights don't really exist, sometimes you can
win a small battle getting the pigs to stick to
their own rules. It is unclear what was in those
particular issues of MIM Notes that got them
censored. The July 1 issue had a picture of a
Klansman on page 1 and on page 3 (illustrations
about the electoral system the church burnings).
Sometimes taking on the Klan that directly gets
more attention from the censors.
"In some prisons, the appeal process allows you to
examine the material in order to research your
appeal. I don't know if you are allowed to do that
at 'your' facility."
Readers should note that the response from
Superintendent Kyler does at least two things:
First, he takes responsibility for the decision to
ban MIM Notes, and secondly, he narrows down the
long quotation from the Pennsylvania regulations to
just the one portion about overthrowing the
government. It's useful, legally speaking, to have
one specific target, the claim about armed struggle
against the government.
It is possible that a lawyer could make an
effective argument against this remaining ruling
against MIM Notes. In particular, MIM Notes
discourages armed struggle at this time, but
presumably the Declaration of Independence--a
document written to codify existing armed struggle
against the current government--is allowed into the
prison.
The day after this letter from Kyler, on November
1, the Incoming Publications Review Committee met
again at Camp Hill, PA and banned MIM Notes issues
121-124. This time there was no mention of
"criminal activity" or "institutional misconduct"
in the censorship note.
Some states allow the publisher to appeal
censorship, although this is apparently not the
case in PA. MIM will do what it can to fight
censorship, but it is most practical for prisoners
to take the lead. Most importantly if prisoners can
research their local laws and regulations, and then
send us requests on how we can help. If there is
more MIM can do at Camp Hill, please notify us. In
particular, if turns out that the prisoner has
filed an appeal but it was suppressed by the pigs,
please write MIM so we can expose it.
MIM is currently putting together a resource guide
for prisoners who wish to challenge the censorship
of MIM Notes or other mail and we welcome help from
prisoners and lawyers. In addition, we need the
help of jailhouse lawyers and lawyers on the
outside who are willing to offer advice to
prisoners pursuing these cases.
***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.
* * *
ROBERT F. WILLIAMS: FRIEND OF THE PEOPLE (1925-
1996)
"All men must die, but death can vary in its
significance.... To die for the people is weightier
than Mount Tai, but to work for the fascists and
die for the exploiters and oppressors is lighter
than a feather." -- Mao Zedong, "Serve the People,"
1944
Robert F. Williams died on October 15, 1996, in
Grand Rapids, Mich. at age 71. He was a friend of
the people, and his death is weightier than Mount
Tai.
Williams was a revolutionary Black nationalist who
led the masses in Monroe, N.C., in the practice of
armed self-defense against settler-inflicted terror
while civil rights reformism and passive resistance
were in vogue. He was not a communist, but he was a
friend of the communist movement and a staunch
fighter against imperialism. And imperialism took
notice. Williams faced attempts on his life. The
FBI and other authorities hounded him for 15 years
on a phony kidnapping charge that ultimately didn't
stick in court. He spent eight of these 15 years in
exile.
WILLIAMS AND THE NAACP
Williams wrote, "Before the Supreme Court
desegregation decision of 1954, the NAACP [National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People]
was not a primary target of segregationists. In
many places in the South, including Monroe, racists
were not too concerned with the small local
chapters. But the Supreme Court decision
drastically altered this casual attitude. The Ku
Klux Klan and the White Citizens Councils made it
their business to locate any NAACP chapter in their
vicinity, and to find out who its officers and
members were. Threats of violence and economic
sanctions were applied to make people withdraw
their membership. Chapters, already small, dwindled
rapidly."(1)
In 1955, "The local Klan had threatened the small
Union County NAACP chapter, which was the only
local civil rights group. So the petty-bourgeois
NAACP leaders wanted to dissolve the chapter in
order to save themselves. When Williams, a new
member, objected, they voted him in as president
and then they resigned. Only Dr. Albert Perry, an
older physician, agreed with Williams. Together
they rebuilt the chapter by going to the grass-
roots, always stressing the need for armed self-
defense. ... To get inexpensive U.S. Army rifles,
Williams formed a branch of the National Rifle
Association. ... By 1957 the Monroe self-defense
guard got its baptism of fire, driving off a Klan
assault on Dr. Perry's house. Day and night New
Afrikans kept an eye out for settler intruders,
phoning reports into a self-defense headquarters
which would alert armed units into full
readiness."(2)
The October 1958 "'Kissing Case' ... began when a
young [7 year-old] Euro-Amerikan girl kissed a
nine-year-old New Afrikan boy on the cheek as a
greeting. When the girl's parents found out about
it, they went to the Monroe police. The nine-year-
old boy and a companion were arrested and
eventually sentenced to 14 years in prison for
rape. Unable at first to free the children, the
Monroe Movement struggled to wake people up about
the case. Newspapers in Europe and then Afrika
started writing about it. Soon it became an
international scandal exposing U.S. colonial
injustice. Enraged crowds stoned U.S. embassies.
Finally the White House had to intervene to release
the young children and end the publicity. Williams
and the Monroe Movement had to fight the 'Kissing
Case' without any support from the National NAACP,
which was trying to isolate or silence militants
any way they could. Finally, in 1959, the National
NAACP announced that it had suspended Williams for
six months for publicly stating that New Afrikan
men in Monroe would defend ['our women and
children, our homes and ourselves'] against settler
attacks."(3)
On June 23, 1961, a settler attempted to take
Williams' life. On August 27, Monroe police chief
A. A. Mauney told him: "In thirty minutes you'll be
hanging in the courthouse square." Williams was
courageous, but he was no fool. Facing Mauney's
threat and a phony kidnapping charge from the FBI
(which was dismissed in court in 1976 -- 15 years
later), Williams fled the country, initially to
Cuba.
WILLIAMS AND CUBA
While the Cuban regime's claims to socialism were
and are false, Fidel Castro's regime has done some
progressive things in its contention with U.S.
imperialism. One of these progressive acts was
allowing Williams to stay in Cuba and helping him
start "Radio Free Dixie," which broadcast Williams'
Black nationalist message to North America.
In 1966, Cuban officials demanded to censor his
newsletter and radio program, so he went to live in
then-socialist China. On August 8, 1966, he spoke
bitterly of state-capitalist Cuba, which he
incorrectly called socialist: "To our
consternation, we have discovered that the
bourgeois-oriented power structure of some
socialist states, even one with a black and white
population, would prefer to preserve a white
reactionary anti-communist power structure in
racist America."(3)
WILLIAMS AND MAO
On August 8, 1963, Comrade Mao Zedong issued a
"Statement Calling on the People of the World to
Unite to Oppose Racial Discrimination by U.S.
Imperialism and Support the American Negroes in
Their Struggle Against Racial Discrimination." Its
opening words were, "An American Negro leader now
taking refuge in Cuba, Mr. Robert Williams, the
former President of the Monroe, North Carolina,
Chapter of the National Association for the
Advancement of Coloured People, has twice this year
asked me for a statement in support of the American
Negroes' struggle against racial discrimination. On
behalf of the Chinese people, I wish to take this
opportunity to express our resolute support for the
American Negroes in their struggle against racial
discrimination and for freedom and equal
rights."(5) Mao's statement correctly noted, "In
the final analysis, a national struggle is a
question of class struggle."(6)
Mao's statement was not entirely correct, however.
Mao incorrectly said, "In the United States, it is
only the reactionary ruling circles among the
whites who oppress the Negro people. They can in no
way represent the workers, farmers, revolutionary
intellectuals and other enlightened persons who
comprise the overwhelming majority of the white
people."(6)
WILLIAMS ON THE LABOR ARISTOCRACY
Williams knew better. While in Cuba, he wrote that
as long as white workers "have jobs and can buy
automobiles and homes, they've got no real reason
to rise up against the capitalists. Only those,
like us Blacks, who are the victims of severe
economic discrimination and racism, have the
motivation to want to overthrow the system."(7)
On August 8, 1966, at a mass rally in Beijing
celebrating the anniversary of Mao's statement in
support of the Black struggle, Williams told the
crowd: "We have some white Americans with us in our
struggle ... [but] some so-called socialists, whom
we thought to be our comrades and class brothers,
have joined the international Ku Klux Klan
fraternity for white supremacy and world
domination. ...
There is a mighty tendency, promoted by the
sinister American devil himself, to engender more
sympathy and fraternalism for the so- called 'good
reasonable American' than for the wretched victims
of vicious and brutal U.S. imperialism...What is
the motive of those who plead for the exemption of
liberal Americans whose feigned liberalism merely
serves as a cloak and shield around the naked power
of savage and racist U.S. imperialism? ... The myth
of the good reasonable American who is yet to be
heard is a ruse perpetrated by the psychological
arm of the imperialist forces of tyranny... A good
man who is silent and inactive in times of great
injustice and oppression is no good man at all. He
is no ally to freedom and justice, but is a silent
partner to tyranny and oppression... Those who are
without principle and conviction to declare
themselves for the righteous cause of the oppressed
must be prepared to suffer the consequences of the
gathering storm of violent and turbulent...
retribution."(8)
PRESIDENT-IN-EXILE
At the end of March 1968, 500 Black nationalists
attended the Black Government Conference convened
in Detroit by the Malcolm X Society. This
conference established the Provisional Government
of the Republic of New Afrika (PGRNA), which to
this day seeks to govern over the "Black Belt"
territory in what is currently known as the U.S.
southeast, particularly what is currently known as
Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and
Louisiana. The conference named Williams its first
President-in-exile.(9)
In 1969, Williams returned from what was then
People's China to the U.S. empire, despite facing a
continuing legal threat. He settled in Michigan,
and North Carolina officials sought to extradite
him on the old, phony kidnapping charges.
In 1976, the phony charges against Williams were
finally dropped.
"Robert Williams never gave up on the goal of
liberating Black people from imperialist oppression
and until his death, he continued to be involved in
local struggles against things like police
brutality and discrimination in education."(10)
The most basic lesson we can learn from Williams'
life is that the best way forward for the oppressed
is to organize and defend themselves by any means
necessary. "Self-defense prevented bloodshed and
forced the law to establish order. This is the
meaning of Monroe and I believe it marks a historic
change in the life of my people."(1)
LONG LIVE THE SPIRIT OF ROBERT F. WILLIAMS! LONG
LIVE REVOLUTIONARY ANTI-IMPERIALISM!
NOTES:
1. Robert F. Williams, Negroes with Guns, Marzani
and Munsell, New York, 1962, as excerpted by the
Trotskyist Spartacist League's Workers Vanguard, 8
November 1996, p. 7.
2. E. Tani and Kae Sera, False Nationalism, False
Internationalism: Class Contradictions in the Armed
Struggle, Seeds Beneath the Snow, 1985, p. 171.
Tani and Sera here cite Williams, op. cit., p. 111.
3. Tani and Sera, op. cit., p. 172.
5. Statements by Mao Tse-Tung Calling on the People
of the World to Unite to Oppose the Aggressive and
Bellicose Policies of U.S. Imperialism and Defend
World Peace, Foreign Languages Press, Beijing,
1964, p. 1.
6. Ibid, p. 5.
7. The Spartacist League's Workers Vanguard, 8
November 1996, p. 11.
8. Edwards, op. cit., pp. 298, 301.
9. Chokwe Lumumba, Chairperson of the New Afrikan
People's Organization, "The Roots of the New
Afrikan Independence Movement," Jackson, MI, 1991,
pp. 3, 10.
10. The crypto-Trotskyist Revolutionary Communist
Party, USA's Revolutionary Worker, 17 November
1996, p. 7.
* * *
NEW EVIDENCE FURTHER EXPOSES PIG INFORMER
In California, a hearing for a retrial of former
Black Panther Party leader Elmer "Geronimo" Pratt
brought to light new evidence that a key witness in
Pratt's 1972 murder conviction in Santa Monica was
a state informant who collaborated with the FBI to
frame Pratt.
The Black Panther Party was the Maoist vanguard
within u.s. borders from 1966 until 1970. The
violent repression of the party, in which at least
thirty Panthers were killed by the state or state-
provocation, is clear evidence that the "right to
free speech" in Amerika does not apply to those who
seriously challenge the oppressive status quo.(6)
MIM studies the brutal repression of the Black
Panthers in order to expose the hypocrisy of the
imperialist state and in order to be prepared for,
and survive, the kind of repression the state is
still capable of -- and still perpetrates.
Julius Butler, who was central to the prosecution's
case in Pratt's original trial for the 1968 killing
of Caroline Olsen, testified on December 18 of last
year that he was "acting as an informant" for the
LAPD in 1969. Butler later recanted this testimony,
but added that he would "not dispute [certain LAPD
officers'] belief that he was an informant."(1)
According to the Los Angeles Times, "at Pratt's
original trial in 1972, defense attorneys and the
jury did not know that Butler had been providing
information to the FBI for 2 1/2 years before
Pratt's conviction. Butler denied in the witness
stand [in 1972] that he had ever been an informant,
but FBI documents released in 1979 disclosed that
he had more than 30 documented contacts with agents
before Pratt's trial."(1) Several of the former
jurors for the Pratt case have said that if they
had known Butler was working with the FBI, they
would not have voted to convict Pratt.
Members of the LAPD and the LA County District
Attorney's Office also gave testimony confirming
Butler's role as an informant.
Retired LAPD sergeant Dwayne Rice has said that he
was "set up" when Butler gave Rice a letter
containing accusations against Pratt. According to
prosecution lawyers in the 1972 trial, that letter
was only to be opened in case Butler died. Butler
supposedly intended to keep the information in the
letter secret, allowing the prosecution to claim
that Butler had no reason to falsely accuse
Pratt.(2)
But according to Rice, the contents of the letter
were never kept secret. "Seconds after Butler gave
him the letter, Rice said, two men who identified
themselves as FBI agents approached him and
demanded the letter as Butler walked away, saying
it was evidence... 'How did they know it was a
letter?,' Rice asked... 'The envelope could have
contained money. How did they know it contained
evidence?'"(2)
The Los Angeles DA's office--besides finding
Butler's name in a file of its own confidential
informants--released a report last summer which
said Butler admitted he was an informant. "In his
report of an interview with Butler... on May 17 of
last year, district attorney investigator Steve De
Prima wrote: 'When Butler was asked if he had ever
been paid as an informant for any law enforcement
agency, he replied, "yes." '"(3)
PRATT STILL PERSECUTED FOR BEING A REVOLUTIONARY
On the night of the Santa Monica killing, Pratt was
in Oakland. According to then-FBI Agent Wesley
Swearington: "My supervisor and several agents on
the racial squad knew that Pratt was innocent
because the FBI had wiretap logs proving that Pratt
was in the San Francisco area several hours before
the shooting ... and that he was there the day of
the murder." Pratt's defense and the jury did not
have access to this information in 1972.(4)
Despite the fact that in California the average
time served for a first-degree murder conviction is
4.5 years, Geronimo Pratt has been in prison for
more almost 25 years. He is consistently denied
parole because according, to the Los Angeles DA's
office, "he is still a revolutionary man."(4)
Pratt's frame-up was part of an FBI-led campaign to
"neutralize" the leadership of the Black Panther
Party, in which the state also contributed to the
murder of southern California party leaders Bunchy
Carter and John Huggins. Carter and Huggins were
murdered on UCLA's campus on January 18, 1969. The
FBI certainly played a role in provoking their
murders, and may have been directly responsible.(5)
NOTES:
1. The Los Angeles Times, 24 Dec 96.
2. The Los Angeles Times, 31 Dec 96.
3. The Los Angeles Times, 9 Jan 97.
4. "The FBI's War on the Black Panther Party's
Southern California Chapter," in: MIM Theory 11, p.
78.
5. For more information, see "The FBI's War on the
Black Panther Party's Southern California Chapter"
or Ward Churchill and Jim VanderWall's Agents of
Repression: The FBI's Secret War on the Black
Panther Party and the American Indian Movement,
available from MIM for $15. 6. "The FBI's War on
the Black Panther Party's Southern California
Chapter," in: MIM Theory 11, p. 80.
* * *
WELD'S PLAN: MA PIGS CAN CHANGE PRISON RULES AT
WILL
As part of Massachusetts Governor William Weld's
pledge to cut two-thirds of the state's 20,000
pages of regulations, the Massachusetts Department
of Corrections will be eliminating many regulations
regarding the treatment of prisoners. Weld
represents a wing of the bourgeoisie that believes
that less government (such as a smaller welfare
system) is better for capitalism.
Unlike with welfare, Weld is not proposing to scrap
the prison system and let the prisoners go. He's
also not proposing that Massachusetts junk its love
affair with incarceration. Instead, he plans to
liquidate the state government's oversight over the
prison system.
Previously, the Massachusetts public had little or
no say over prison regulations. That will only be
worse under the new plan. Weld proposes to further
hide from public view half of the 29 regulations
that govern prisoner "safety and welfare." While
the majority of Massachusetts Amerikans are prison-
hating settlers whose "say" in prison regulations
would not benefit prisoners anyway, this new
"streamlining" of prison management is steamrolling
prisoners.
For instance, regulations will be replaced with
prison rules. Rules, unlike state regulations, can
be changed at whim and can be kept secret.
Regulations are public documents and require public
hearings to be changed. Two Massachusetts prisoners
are currently suing the Department of Corrections
to stop the abolition of regulations.
THERE ARE NO RIGHTS, ONLY POWER STRUGGLES
RAIL and MIM organize in defense of prisoners
because we recognize their status as victims of
Amerika's war against the internal colonies. Prison
struggles are one area in which we can fight
"winnable battles" that improve people's lives
while bringing us closer to successful national
liberation.
An early battle in the struggle of prisoners to
defend their so-called "rights" is getting the
prison to stick to its own rules. On one hand,
Amerika gives out a lot of "rights" on paper, but
then these rights are often taken away with the
other hand -- "rights" that were never intended to
apply to the oppressed nations in the first place.
Sometimes prisoners can win small battles in court
by exposing the contradictions between the stated
theory and practice of the Amerikan state.
Sometimes prisoners can win temporary, small
victories when they can prove technical violations
of, or contradictions in, prison regulations, thus
ending cases of censorship, a transfer, or guard
brutality. But when they occur, Maoists understand
these victories to be successes in power struggles,
not the enforcement of some illusory "rights."
BOGUS APPEALS PROCESS REMOVES FACADE OF PRISONER
PROTECTION
The Weld plan includes abolishing regulations
regarding "[guards] use of force, schooling, ...
work release programs ... "sentence computation,
inmate funds, deductions from sentence, furloughs
and library services." "As policies, these
regulations could no longer be challenged by
inmates, inmates' families or prison advocates at a
hearing."
A DOC spokesperson said that the proposed changes
"were not a violation of prisoners' rights because
they would still be overseen by the
commissioner.... The public can still make their
views known by writing to the Commissioner", which
MIM knows he can of course ignore.
Last year, MIM wrote to the prison superintendent
to protest and appeal censorship of MIM
publications from Bridgewater State Prison. The DOC
had labeled MIM publications as "encouraging
violence." MIM asked the superintendent: "Please
explain how our publication violates these rules
[103 CMR 481.15 (e) and (f).]" We also asked him to
explain "whether it is the whole publication or
just some articles that you find offensive."
In reply, the DOC restated its original bogus claim
-- that MIM publications violate rule "103 CMR."
When we protested again, the DOC just ignored it.
Logically, an appeals process should involve a
higher body looking at the facts and determining if
the correct decision was made at the first level of
complaint. But appeals to the Massachusetts DOC are
just verified to have *happened*, they are not
evaluated to see if the decisions rendered were
correct. In any case, the appeals process for
prisoners and their allies is a complete sham.
The purpose of Weld's "streamlining" of the prison
bureaucracy is straight and simple an attack on
prisoners. "Writing to the Commissioner" is simply
a much weaker option than the previous, pretense of
a public review of enforcement of prison
regulations. And "rights" supposedly enforced by
the Constitution are obliterated. Weld and the DOC
have further proven that there are no abstract
"rights", only power struggles. Mass Rail and MIM
Notes welcome reports from prisoners about their
experiences with "justice" within the walls.
* * *
WELD TO CHARGE PRISONERS FOR THE PRIVILEGE OF
INCARCERATION
According to the January 15 Boston Herald, Governor
Weld will announce during his State of the State
address a plan to make prisoners pay for some of
the costs of their confinement. Weld expects that
charging prisoners for medical care, workouts and
increasing the fees charged to ex-prisoners on
parole will raise $4 million a year.
This new attack on prisoners will no doubt be
popular with Amerikan settlers. Most Amerikans
think that prisoners are parasites who beef up in
prison so they can get out and commit more crimes.
The Boston Herald, which leans towards the
nationalist bourgeoisie and the labor aristocracy,
seized upon this perspective, putting this story,
under the large headline "Make them pay" on the
front page. This is typical of the nationalist
bourgeoisie, which is willing to do self-
destructive things in order to appease the more
chauvinist and jingoist wings of the labor
aristocracy. Like Buchanan and Perot, who believe
or pretend to believe that Amerika's wealth
generation is internal and then propose to end
NAFTA and seal the border with Mexico, resulting in
the destruction of the Amerikan economy; this wing
of the bourgeoisie doesn't mind shooting itself in
the foot.
In most states, prison recreation facilities
(shared TVs, weight rooms) are paid for out of
profits from the prison commissary. In one state
where this was the case, prisoners are suing the
Department of Corrections for closing the weight
rooms. RAIL is not familiar with the ownership
issues (DOC, Prisoner Trust. Fund, or some other
arrangement) of prison recreational facilities in
Massachusetts. Hopefully readers will education us
on this subject.
Like televisions, prison weight rooms are used by
the system as control mechanisms. It gives
prisoners something to do and is something that can
be taken away in retaliation for behavior the
prison does not approve us. Weight rooms also allow
prisoners to channel their frustrations in a
direction other than at the guards or other
prisoners. Abolishing these weight rooms seems
contradictory for Weld and the prison
administration but when we recognize that prisons
are a business of social control, this hypocrisy is
no surprise.
RAIL organizes for independent power of the
oppressed, and we struggle to win "winnable
battles" against imperialism. Prisons are a key
weapon of the imperialists against the oppressed
nations, and we defend prisoners as part of our
larger struggle for national liberation. And on
this basis, we oppose the efforts of Weld to make
both medical care and recreation more expensive for
prisoners.
NOTE: Boston Herald January 15, 1997. p.1.
* * *
TEXAS PRISON ACTIVIST LAUNCHES HUNGER STRIKE
Texas Penal Colony -- On January 1, in response to
inhumane conditions in the Texas Department of
Corrections, the founder of the Texas Prison Labor
Union (TPLU), an inmate laborer political
collective, began a month-long hunger strike. The
protest is in response to the prisons' violations
of the United Nations Universal Declaration of
Human Rights, the American convention of Human
Rights, the UN International Conditions on Civil
and Political Rights, and all other applicable laws
and statutes.
The TPLU is demanding that an impartial judicial
body investigate the murder of Texas prisoner
Daniel Avellaneda by prison guard Neal Harms. The
group is further demanding that that all jury
members, the Committee of Senior Wardens and all
others involved with the Avellaneda case be
investigated in their relationship to the case, and
all findings be made public.
The TPLU is also calling for the establishment of a
non-partisan committee to investigate guard
brutality against prisoners and an end to such
brutality. They also want an end to all racial
practices, a standard to be set for chemical agent
use, and a minimal standard of treatment to be
upheld as passed in previous u.s. justice cases.
The group further demands that the board of
corrections be replaced by a Texas government-
appointed body, and that pay programs be upheld and
implemented. In all, the TPLU is protesting for
compliance with basic "human rights." While MIM
agrees with the TPLU protest, rather then turn
one's attention to standards set up by some of the
biggest violators of human "rights" -- the UN and
amerika -- MIM exposes the imperialist system in
order to build independent power of the oppressed,
not gain token concessions from the oppressor.
MIM would expand the TPLU protest, which includes
the demand to end the State of Texas' creation of a
social group which has remained "chained to the
revolving door" of the penal system through
oppression, inhumane and brutal conditions, to the
entire penal and injustice system of Amerika.
In its imperialist system, Amerika creates a
population of lumpen proletarians whose main
function is to act as a reserve army of the
unemployed. This exclusion and oppression of a
large population, specifically nationally
oppressed, helps create the conditions for
rebellion and the development of revolutionary
ideologies. The Amerikan injustice system targets
the oppressed nations in order to curb their
revolutionary tendency, create prison jobs for the
white labor aristocracy, and to expropriate their
labor power in prison.
In the TPLU's founding document, the group
acknowledges the economic role of the penal system
under imperialism -- but not its function as
national oppression. This is the TPLU's principal
error. Rather than expose the system and its true
purpose, the TPLU focuses on ideas of rights and
ethics in the treatment of prisoners. But under the
Amerikan system of national oppression, concepts
such as rights and ethics are only upheld when they
serve the imperialists in power.
The end to oppression that the TPLU calls for can
only come when each nation has the power for self-
determination. True power can only be created
through an overthrow of the current power structure
with proletarian revolution, and the end of
oppression through building a communist society.
MIM agrees with the TPLU that supposedly
rehabilitative practices within the penal system
are a sham. Again, we expand this analysis to
expose the entire purpose of the Amerikan injustice
system. We need to destroy the focus on individual
punishment within an oppressive social structure
before anyone can speak of an institution having
"rehabilitative quality."
The TPLU is bringing attention to the plight of the
prison population, exposing in a limited way the
injustice system and its systematic contradictions,
and working to win immediately valuable concessions
for the prison population (such as wages for work).
This, as well as providing a political forum for
inmate laborers, is progressive at this time.
But to reach the goal the TPLU claims it seeks --
the end of oppression and barbarous treatment in
the prison system -- requires a materialist
analysis of society and a strategy to attack
oppression at its core, imperialism. Maoists
believe that strategy requires the leadership of a
vanguard party.
We call on all those working to end injustices both
within the prison system and in overall society, to
work with MIM and RAIL to build public opinion
against imperialism.
For more information on MIM's line and practice on
Prisons send $6 to MIM and receive MIM Theory #11:
"Amerikan prisons on Trial".
* * *
SDS CO-FOUNDER HAYDEN RUNS FOR L.A. MAYOR
LOS ANGELES, January -- On January 5, KKKalifornia
state senator and co-founder of Students for
Democratic Society (SDS) Tom Hayden officially
announced that he is running for mayor. A Democrat,
he is challenging current Mayor Richard "Richie
Rich" Riordan. "Hayden...is a millionaire, although
his wealth pales compared to Riordan's."(2)
Behind Amerikkka's facade of "democracy" lies the
reality of bourgeois dictatorship. All the major
contenders in a big city election are by necessity
millionaires. A Los Angeles Times editorial stated,
"Other politicians have shied away from challenging
Riordan because of his immense personal wealth --
he spent $6 million of his own money in his last
campaign...."(2)
And the millionaire Hayden is expected to lose
because Riordan is an "even bigger millionaire."(1)
Since MIM activists aren't close to being
millionaires, and since we know how the bourgeois
electoral system is designed to maintain bourgeois
dictatorship, we do not run candidates in such
electoral farces. Nor do we endorse one pro-
imperialist millionaire candidate over the other.
To do so would be to implicitly endorse the
bourgeois imperialist dictatorship and its
electoral facade.
The imperialist bourgeois press describes Hayden as
a "former student radical" and "a man who once
epitomized the radicalism of the 1960s."(1) Hayden,
too, cultivates this image. In announcing his
candidacy, he said, "I went to jail with Martin
Luther King. I carried the coffin of Cesar Chavez."
MIM disagreements with the reformist liberals King
and Chavez notwithstanding, MIM does not fault
Hayden for these claims.
But Hayden continued, "I helped bring Soviet Jews
to Israel. I helped protect the workers in Poland
in the Solidarity movement."(2) So Hayden helped
the U.S.-backed Israeli settler state use Soviet
Jews to displace Palestinians, and he helped
advance Reagan's Cold War objectives in Poland --
weakening Soviet satellite states to bring down the
social-imperialist Soviet Union and advance Western
imperialist hegemony. Makes for a rousing campaign
speech.
While Hayden was a left-liberal, and at times made
progressive contributions, he was never a radical.
When he co-founded SDS in 1961, he did not
anticipate that by the late 1960s, the majority of
its members would be Marxist-Leninist communists in
the tradition of Stalin and Mao. In June 1962,
Hayden was the principal author of an SDS statement
of principles called the Port Huron Statement,
named after the city in Michigan in which it was
written. The social-democratic statement reads, "As
democrats we are in basic opposition to the
communist system....The communist movement has
failed, in every sense, to achieve its stated
intentions of leading a worldwide movement for
human emancipation."
The thrust of the Port Huron statement was
opposition to the alienating and dehumanizing
aspects of Western culture in the age of industrial
capitalism, and a vision of a world without such
alienation. Hayden's vision was not radical. By
definition, a radical analysis gets to the root of
a problem like alienation. Hayden was dealing only
with the symptoms. Alan Adelson writes in his book
SDS, "All of this vision, people were later to
point out, is formalized in the idea of socialism,
but socialism spells out how it would be attained
and Hayden didn't."(3)
Hayden says he wants to beef up the size of the
notorious Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD).(4)
He also is a defender of police chief Willie
Williams, whose helmet-clad pigs' used rubber
bullets, tear gas and batons on anti-fascist and
revisionist protesters in September. Several
protesters were injured, including a man who was
hospitalized for head wounds caused by a baton
blow. Williams said this was "the LAPD at its
best....I am extremely pleased with our
response."(5)
Finally, a central part of Hayden's campaign is
opposition to expansion of the new subway. Critics
of the subway expansion claim they oppose the
project because of corruption. MIM is not surprised
that the Metropolitan Transportation Administration
(MTA) is corrupt -- such is the nature of
capitalism. It makes an easy target for Hayden, the
LA Times and various liberals.
But the biggest critics of the project are likely
General Motors, Ford Motors and Chrysler Motors.
General Motors previously ran a largely clandestine
campaign to destroy L.A.'s trolley system. This led
to increased reliance on buses and cars, and
therefore to decreased mobility and increased
health problems for millions.(6) Rather than just
picking on corruption in the MTA, people should
question Hayden's political alliance with these
giant capitalists in opposing the subway, and
further question whether he receives funding from
any of these sources.
DON'T VOTE, ORGANIZE AGAINST IMPERIALISM,
CAPITALISM AND PATRIARCHY!
NOTES:
1. Los Angeles Times editorial, 7 Jan 1997, p. B6.
2. Los Angeles Times, 6 Jan 1997, p. A14.
3. Alan Adelson, SDS, Charles Scribner's Sons, New
York, 1972, pp. 206-208. This book is available
from MIM for $10.
4. Which Way, L.A.?, KCRW-FM, 13 Jan 1997.
5. "Pig brutality pleases LAPD's Chief Williams,"
MIM Notes 125, 1 Nov 1996, p. 9. Available from MIM
for $1.
6. "Taken for a Ride," a documentary aired on PBS's
P.O.V., 1996.
* * *
BABY FORMULA MARKETING: MULTINATIONALS STILL BAD
FOR PUBLIC HEALTH
The United Nations released a report on January 8
which described wide-spread violations of the World
Health Organization (WHO) code mandating that all
infant formula promotions inform mothers that
breast feeding is their best option. The report was
based on interviews conducted in Poland, Thailand,
South Africa and Bangladesh where women reported
getting information that promoted bottle-feeding or
discouraged breast feeding.
The WHO code tells baby formula manufacturers to
monitor their own promotions so it is no surprise
that this does not work. Corporations are
interested in making a profit, not in promoting the
good health of the public when the health is best
served by NOT using a product the corporation
produces.
This report is important for activists as a lesson
about the ineffectiveness of boycotts. In the
1970s, INFACT, a reformist group which currently
targets tobacco companies for marketing to
children, led a large boycott of Nestle to protest
Nestle's practice of misleading wimmin in the Third
World in order to promote their baby formula. Many
participants in the boycott proclaimed it a success
when it attracted WHO attention and led to the
adoption of this WHO code in 1981. The main
companies involved in the latest misleading baby
formula distribution include Nestle, Gerber, Wyeth,
Milco and Nutricia. This demonstrates that
expecting an organization run by imperialist
countries (the WHO) to intervene in the profit-
making practices of multinational corporations is
unrealistic idealism. The fact that boycotts
generally target multinational corporations and
expect the corporations to change in response to
public outcry ignores the system of imperialism.
Because of this, these boycotts will never achieve
lasting change to improve the conditions of the
people.
Without a complete dismantling of the imperialist
system that supports the profit seeking
multinational corporations, it will not be possible
to enforce any oversight of these corporations.
This is why a dictatorship of the proletariat is
necessary. We must have a dictatorship over the
evil anti-people practices of the imperialists
until we have restructured society so that there
are no imperialists trying to make money by killing
people. Organize against multinational corporations
which destroy the health of the people, work with
MIM to fight for Maoist revolution.
NOTES: The Boston Globe, Jan 9, 1997. p.A5.
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