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

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         THE MAOIST INTERNATIONALIST MOVEMENT

     MIM Notes 155          FEBRUARY 1, 1998



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.  AMERIKAN COINTELPRO CONTINUES:
    PUERTO RICAN INDEPENDENCE MOVEMENT INFILTRATED, 
    LEADER FRAMED
2.  FREEDOM AND AMNESTY FOR PUERTO RICAN INDEPENDENCE 
    LEADERS: ORGANIZE JERICHO AND BEYOND
3.  LETTERS
4.  AMERIKA EXPANDS MILITARY ROLE IN LATIN AMERICA
5.  WELFARE CUTS LEAVE IMMIGRANTS HUNGRY
6.  NEW YORK POLICE FATALLY SHOOT OPPRESSED NATIONALS 
    MORE THAN 3-TO-1
7.  MICHIGAN TRANSFERS PRISONERS TO FEDERAL KKKAMP
8.  MICHIGAN TRANSFERS AID ENGLER'S PLAN FOR 
    OPPRESSION: BUILD MORE AND MORE PRISONS
9.  DC POLICE CORRUPTION EXPOSED
    ANSWER IS REVOLUTION - NOT MORE PIGS!
10. IMPERIALISTS TIGHTEN GRIP ON CRISIS-RIDDEN KOREAN 
    ECONOMY
11. SANTA CLAUS IN BAGHDAD?
12. MEXICAN RULING PARTY MURDERS 45 IN CHIAPAS
13. CALIFORNIA PRISONS REPRESS FIRST NATIONS, MUSLIMS, 
    SIKHS
14. MARXISM-LENINISM-MAOISM ONLINE
15. ASIAN COMMUNITY MOBILIZES AGAINST PORNOGRAPHY
16. AMERIKAN APARTHEID: ENFORCED HOUSING SEGREGATION
17. UNDER LOCK & KEY: NEWS FROM PRISONERS AND PRISONS



* * *



AMERIKAN COINTELPRO CONTINUES:
PUERTO RICAN INDEPENDENCE MOVEMENT INFILTRATED, 
LEADER FRAMED

***MIM received the article below from the National 
Committee to Free Puerto Rican Political Prisoners 
and Prisoners of War originally titled "Order for 
the Extradition of Solís:  A Desperate Action by 
FBI.***

On Wednesday, December 10, 1997, Federal 
Magistrate, Aida Delgado Colon, declared in Federal 
District Court in San Juan, Puerto Rico, that Dr. 
Jose Solis Jordan, is the person who authorities in 
the State of Illinois have indicted in relation to 
a bombing of a military recruitment complex in 
Chicago, in December of 1992. Solis was charged at 
the hearing with conspiracy, possession of a 
weapon, of maliciously causing destruction to 
property of the United States, and attempted 
malicious destruction to property of the United 
States.

Dr. Solis, a former professor at DePaul University, 
and graduate of The University of Illinois at 
Champaign-Urbana, is currently a faculty member of 
The University of Puerto Rico Education Department 
in Rio Piedras.

Several interesting points were revealed at the 
hearing. First of all, the FBI is relying almost 
exclusively on testimony by Rafael Marrero, who 
they identify as a cooperating witness but who in 
fact has worked as an agent provocateur serving the 
FBI as far back as 1988. The FBI's other 
cooperating witness is a man by the name of Eddie 
Brooks, who Marrero himself recruited to work at 
his side during the period he was working as editor 
in chief of LIBERTAD, a periodical dedicated to the 
release of the 15 Puerto Rican political prisoners.

Rafael Angel Marrero, arrived in Chicago in 1989, 
at the age of 23. One of his first moves was to win 
the affection of the sister of two of the political 
prisoners, Evelyn Rodriguez, 22 years his senior. A 
few months later they married placing him at the 
center of the campaign to release the prisoners. 

By 1992 Marrero, who had built an image of the 
ultimate self-sacrificed cadre, was always willing 
to do the hardest and most time consuming tasks in 
the campaign to free the prisoners. On his own he 
also put together a clandestine armed organization, 
using young idealists and trusting individuals whom 
he organized, incited and led to commit the act he 
is now trying to attribute to Dr. Solis and other 
undisclosed persons.

Marrero's actions in Chicago eerily mirror those of 
agent Gonzalez Malave, which led to the massacre of 
two pro-independence university students at Cerro 
Maravilla in Puerto Rico, on July 25, 1978. 

Marrero's plan in Chicago was to involve as many 
people who were involved in the campaign to release 
the political prisoners in his ill-named Frente 
Revolucionario Boricua, in order to undermine the 
campaign's efforts precisely when the campaign 
began to attract support from broader sectors than 
just the pro-independence movements.

Shortly after his failure to organize his 
fabricated armed clandestine movement from inside 
the campaign, he left Evelyn Rodriguez, their child 
Alicia, and the work in the campaign to free his 
sister in laws and the other 13 political 
prisoners. Accusing that the campaign had become 
reformist and no longer represented the 
revolutionary ideals the prisoners had upheld.

Marrero wins over his wife Evelyn Rodriguez shortly 
before he resurfaces in 1997 as one of two sources 
that fueled a slander campaign against pro-
independence supporters published in the Chicago 
Sun Times, and repeated for about a week in every 
TV and Radio news program. The unfounded reports 
accused pro-independence supporters of using state 
funds to promote the release of the prisoners. The 
other source in the Sun Times slander campaign was 
his sister Militza Corps.

It is no coincidence that this slander campaign 
took place two weeks after Marrero visited Dr. Jose 
Solis in Puerto Rico. During this visit which he 
made in the company of his wife Evelyn, sister of 
two of the political prisoners, the FBI recorded 
several conversations between Marrero and Dr. Solis 
through a recording device concealed on the person 
of Marrero. The FBI alleges that these recordings 
contain the information necessary to incriminate 
Dr. Solis.

Currently under the Federal Witness Protection 
Program, Marrero is the principal collaborator in 
the Grand Jury which investigates the 1992 bombing 
which he himself organized, orchestrated and 
directed, and now leads to the arrest of Dr. Jose 
Solis.

In Chicago, several pro-independence activists have 
received subpoenas to appear in front of this Grand 
Jury investigation, including former political 
prisoner Felix Rosa, Family Learning Center teacher 
Everlydis Cabrera, and Roberto Clemente High School 
teacher Juan Marcos Vilar. Interestingly, even 
though the three have not appeared to their 
assigned hearings, the authorities have not 
enforced their subpoenas, making it evident that 
their case is extremely weak.

Marrero has also worked as author and editor of the 
anonymously published rag, El Pito, which targets 
community leaders, activists and elected officials 
who have supported the release of the Puerto Rican 
political prisoners and attacks them with 
unprecedented vulgarity and slander.

Marrero is also the star witness in an Illinois 
State Legislative Investigation whose goal is to 
prove an alleged conspiracy by pro-independence 
forces to utilize state funds to promote the 
release of the Puerto Rican political prisoners. 
This investigation is in reality a witch hunt 
spearheaded by state representative Edgar Lopez, 
who supports statehood for Puerto Rico. It serves 
Lopez in two ways: first, it attacks his 
ideological nemesis---independence, second, it 
serves as a smoke-screen to his corrupt activities 
and indulgences such as gambling free chips in 
exchange for his vote in favor of gambling 
interests.

In an affidavit made public at Dr. Solis' hearing 
in San Juan, rookie FBI agent Troy Buckles 
confirmed that Rafael Marrero was a leader of the 
ill named Frente Revolucionario Boricua, the group 
that claimed responsibility for the December 1992 
bombing. Buckles further confirmed that Marrero 
participated in the recruitment of individuals into 
the group, that he participated in constructing and 
placing the explosives at the military recruitment 
complex in Chicago. The affidavit alleges that Dr. 
Solis participated in the attack on the complex.

However, Buckles affidavit leaves out that Rafael 
Marrero has worked for the FBI for over 10 years. 
It also fails to state that after spending millions 
of dollars in an operation to destabilize and 
destroy the independence movement and the campaign 
to gain the release of the Puerto Rican political 
prisoners, his agency, the FBI, is running like a 
chicken without a head trying to formulate false 
charges before the White House decides to release 
the Puerto Rican political prisoners and prisoners 
of war.


MIM ADDS: We hope that activists everywhere will 
learn from this example of FBI infiltration and 
extensive destructive attacks on revolutionary 
movements that we can not take the government 
lightly. At this point in the struggle the 
government is stronger than the revolutionary 
forces within u.s. borders and we must take 
appropriate precautions based on this reality. No 
amount of security procedures are going to protect 
us against infiltrators who do such extensive work 
to convince genuine revolutionaries of their 
devotion to the anti-imperialist struggle.

Lenin had a cop on his central committee and many 
believe that Lenin was aware of this but that he 
allowed the man to retain his position because of 
his extensive contributions to the communist party. 
We must insist that our comrades prove themselves 
through honest hard work rather than through 
informal friendships or romance. And there are many 
FBI tactics that can be foiled by simple security 
precautions. For this reason MIM takes security 
seriously while also judging our comrades by the 
work they do and the consistency and correctness of 
their political line.



* * *



FREEDOM AND AMNESTY FOR PUERTO RICAN INDEPENDENCE 
LEADERS: ORGANIZE JERICHO AND BEYOND

The Counter Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO) began 
in 1956 as a coordinated effort by the FBI to 
undermine the Communist Party USA. COINTELPRO 
subsequently intensified its attacks against 
progressive and revolutionary leaders and 
organizations. COINTELPRO has been used to 
infiltrate, split and smash various Black, Puerto 
Rican, Chicano, First nation, and anti-imperialist 
organizations. Through COINTELPRO, the FBI has 
harassed, wrongfully arrested, framed and 
imprisoned leaders of the people's movements. 
Leaders have been murdered outright as a result of 
COINTELPRO operations. This imperialist program 
intensely repressed the people's movements in the 
1960s and 1970s but continues today. And as then, 
the aim of the imperialists is to dismantle the 
people's struggles to achieve justice and 
liberation.

During the 1980s, the Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación 
Nacional (FALN) and other organizations devoted to 
Puerto Rican independence were the target of some 
of the FBI's most intense covert operations. Many 
Puerto Rican activists and the general public of 
Puerto Rico suffered massive raids lead by the FBI 
COINTELPRO. The article written by the National 
Committee to Free Puerto Rican Political Prisoners 
and Prisoners of War shows the most recent example 
of the FBI's operations against the Puerto Rican 
independence movement.

The purpose of the Jericho march on March 27, 1998 
in Washington, D.C. is to call attention to the 
many prisoners languishing in Amerikan gulags after 
receiving unjust trials and extremely long and 
disproportionate sentences as punishment for their 
political beliefs and actions. The march calls for 
the Amnesty and Freedom of these prisoners and will 
help to mobilize further opposition to Amerika's 
unjust incarceration of the leaders of the people's 
movements. (See page eight for more info on RAIL's 
Criminal Injustice teach-in following the Jericho 
march.)

Puerto Rican independence movement leaders and 
activists accused of being members of the FALN have 
received sentences of 35 to 105 years in prison. 
There are still currently 15 Puerto Rican activists 
in the gulags for the absolutely bogus charges of 
seditious conspiracy and alleged membership in the 
FALN - not one of them was charged with or 
convicted of any action which resulted in 
bloodshed.


OSCAR LÓPEZ RIVERA TORTURED BY AMERIKKKA


Oscar López Rivera is one of the 15 men and wimmin 
accused of membership in the FALN. He was arrested 
in 1981 and is serving a sentence of 70 years in 
the Amerikan gulags. "At one time or another during 
their lengthy imprisonment, most of them have been 
subjected to brutal psychological or physical 
abuse, including assault, multiple strip-searches, 
body-cavity searches, and extended periods of 
isolation and sensory deprivation. But because 
government authorities perceive Oscar to be a 
leader, they have singled him out for the harshest, 
most continuous attack. They hope to break the 
other political prisoners, as well as the Puerto 
Rican independence movement as a whole, by breaking 
his spirit."

For the last eleven years, Oscar has been 
incarcerated in a small isolated cell with no 
contact visitations allowed. "Oscar has also been 
framed with false disciplinary charges and 
subjected to sting operations which used desperate 
prisoners as informants and provocateurs." In a 
1986 operation, he was falsely accused of 
conspiring to escape from prison which resulted in 
the pigs sentencing him to an additional 15 year 
sentence. Oscar has been continuously placed in 
isolation despite compliance with rules and despite 
similarly situated prisoners being allowed to move 
to lower security levels. This is specifically 
because Oscar is a leader among the Puerto Rican 
people.

Oscar's brother, Jose Lopez, in a speech last fall, 
spoke of the torture which Oscar and other Puerto 
Rican leaders have endured because of their beliefs 
and actions. He explained thoroughly the Amerikan 
history of colonization and domination of the 
Puerto Rican nation. The Amerika invasion of Puerto 
Rico in 1898 has supplied Amerika with super-
profits from the exploited Puerto Rican masses and 
has enabled Amerika to extract resources for its 
profit at the expense of Puerto Rican masses.

To ensure the flow of super-profits and resources, 
Amerika has continuously smashed revolutionary 
independence movements both on the island and 
inside Amerika's illegitimate borders. Amerika has 
carried out this repression and genocide through 
military action, economic warfare, political 
control, forced sterilization and mass migration 
policies and social and cultural domination. As he 
said, we are "instructed in a culture that denies 
the very idea that Amerika is an empire." He 
explained that racism was created to justify 
colonialism. He vehemently stated that we are not 
living in an era of post colonialism, but that 
Amerika continues to repress and dominate her 
internal colonies.


NEO-COLONIALISM CONTINUES AND MUST BE STOPPED


While Amerika hides this lie through massive 
miseducate, lies and settler nationalist 
propaganda, the people continue to struggle to 
teach the truth. And it is for this reason that 
Puerto Rican leaders have been incarcerated and 
tortured. Amerika seems to think that if leaders 
are imprisoned, the masses will be too afraid to 
stand up and fight for the self-determination of 
Puerto Rico and the liberation of the world's 
masses. But the strength and continuous struggle of 
Puerto Rican activists facing repression within 
Amerika's gulags point to the fact that the 
oppressed will not stop fighting until liberation 
is won.

Alejandrina Torres fought to teach the truth of the 
Amerikan domination of the Puerto Rican nation. 
"She was a founding member and later a teacher at 
the Puerto Rican High School in Chicago. She later 
helped found the Betances Health Clinic and was 
active in boycotts of public schools which 
continued to mis-educate children and were hostile 
and racist to their parents." She was sentenced to 
35 years  for alleged membership in the FALN.

Ricardo Jiménez "was a leader in the struggles 
which ultimately led to the creation of Roberto 
Clemente High School." Among many activities to 
stop oppression of the Puerto Rican nation, he 
exposed the Chicago 21 plan to gentrify the area 
and he struggled to institute the first Puerto 
Rican history class at Loyola University. "He was 
arrested in 1980, accused of seditious conspiracy 
and related charges, and sentenced to 98 years.

Luis Rosa was active in the Puerto Rican community 
in Chicago as well and worked specifically against 
police brutality. He faces 105 years in prison.

Ida Luz Rodríguez, facing an 83 year sentence 
wrote:  "We were not and are not criminals. The 
Puerto Rican movement for liberation was not and is 
not a crime. We were and continue to be motivated 
by a deep sense of responsibility to liberation." Š 
"Colonialism is a crime and it must end. Liberation 
is just as necessary today as it was then. Some 
place the burden of responsibility for the use of 
violence solely on the shoulders of Puerto Rican 
revolutionaries while leaving the impression that 
the United States is law-abiding and not a colonial 
power."

Besides the above leaders, there are ten other 
Puerto Rican prisoners for whom activists are 
demanding amnesty and freedom. Carmen Valentín was 
sentenced to 98 years; Alicia Rodríguez to 85 
years; Carlos A. Torres to 78 years; Dylcia Pagán 
to 63 years; Alberto Rodríguez to 35 years; Elizam 
Escobar to 68 years; Adolfo Matos to 78 years; 
Edwin Cortés to 35 years; Antonio Camacho to 15 
years and Juan Segarra to 65 years.

MIM supports and struggles for genuine national 
liberation of the Puerto Rican nation. Continued 
military, economic, political, social and cultural 
domination of the people will only be halted when 
the imperialists are kicked out of Puerto Rico and 
the people are free to develop socialism. We must 
struggle to end the unjust incarceration of Puerto 
Rican leaders and we must continue to expose and 
build opposition to the use of Amerikan gulags in 
general as a tool for national oppression. The 
struggle against unjust incarceration and increased 
imprisonment of oppressed nationals is a necessary 
battle in the path to liberation.

***(For more specific information on the above 
prisoners, contact PRPOWPP and more specific 
information on MIM's work to struggle for national 
liberation, get MT7 on Proletarian Feminist 
Revolutionary Nationalism on the Communist 
Road.)***

NOTES: For detailed information on COINTELPRO, 
order Agents of Repression, by Ward Churchill and 
Jim Vander Wall. South End Press, Boston, MA. $20 
from MIM.

Jose Lopez quotes taken from speech at the Ohio 
Prison Activist Conference in November 1997.

All other quotes taken from the National Committee 
to Free Puerto Rican Prisoners of War and Political 
Prisoners. 2607 W. Division, Chicago, Illinois 
60622, prpowpp@aol.com or check out: 
 
 



* * * 


LETTERS


DEATH PENALTY UNDER SOCIALISM

DEAR MIM: First of all, I would like to say I was 
greatly impressed by the info you sent me. I have a 
question though...

What is MIM's view on the death penalty if it is 
sentenced in the general interest of the people, 
unlike in Amerikkka? I noticed in one article in 
MIM Notes you stated "... people in this country 
are trained to look for retribution for violence 
rather than looking to address the causes of 
violence." (End violence against the oppressed: 
work with MIM, MIM Notes Oct 15, 1997). I've read 
things by Mao, where he was in clear support of the 
death sentence for serious offenders. Is this a 
contradiction? Thanks for you time.

In struggle, A friend in the Midwest
"All Power to the People!"

P.S. MIM book distro is phat! The best prices I've 
seen yet.


MIM RESPONDS:  We see the death penalty under 
imperialism as part of the violence in society that 
we work to eliminate as we struggle to overthrow 
imperialism and ultimately build a communist 
society. But as materialists we recognize the 
necessity of violence in the anti-imperialist 
battle. As a result, we oppose violence by the 
imperialists but consider it necessary as a weapon 
in the hands of the oppressed, both under 
capitalism and under socialism. This means that we 
oppose the death penalty under imperialism but we 
do not oppose the use of the death penalty when it 
is in the hands of the masses.

The criminal justice system under socialism serves 
the people by creating an opportunity for those who 
have committed crimes against the people to learn 
from their mistakes and become contributing members 
of society. But as we can see from the experience 
in China, there were times when the people demanded 
justice for those guilty of murdering, raping and 
exploiting the people of their village for many 
years. These people -- the worst landlords and pro-
Japanese traitors -- were sentenced to death by the 
people of their village for the tremendous crimes 
they had committed. But this violence is temporary 
and something that a socialist society is working 
towards eliminating as we build a society free of 
the oppression of groups over other groups of 
people. In China they made amazing progress towards 
this goal in their criminal justice system. They 
greatly cut down the need for prisons and a court 
system by transforming society to eliminate the 
material basis of crime. After liberation, emphasis 
was placed on struggling with those who committed 
crimes against the people so that they would see 
that what they had done was wrong and so that they 
would want to change their ways. MIM recommends the 
book Prisoners of Liberation for an excellent 
account of the prison system in revolutionary 
China. This book can be ordered from MIM for $10.

MIM shares Mao's position on the death penalty. In 
discussing the executions that took place after the 
seizure of power, Mao said "What harm is there in 
not executing people? Those amenable to labor 
reform should go do labor reform, so that rubbish 
can be transformed into something useful. Besides, 
people's heads are not like leeks. When you cut 
them off, they will not grow again. If you cut off 
a head wrongly, there is no way of rectifying the 
mistakes even if you want to."(Chairman Mao Talks 
to the People, Pantheon Books, 1974, p. 77-78.) 
It's important to note that Mao said in this speech 
that now that power was consolidated in the hands 
of the people, fewer executions would be carried 
out.


MOI AND KENYA

DEAR COMRADES: I would not dispute your contention 
that President Moi is a comprador element who has 
done the dirty work of imperialism for many years 
and has been well paid for doing it. That does not 
necessarily mean he is not playing a progressive 
role now. Manuel Noriega was an American lackey for 
many years, but he repented of this and stood up 
for Panama's national interests. Saddam Hussein 
waged a brutal war against Iran that killed 
hundreds of thousands of Iranian and Iraqi workers 
and peasants with the support of Washington, but 
after this war he turned against imperialism and 
supported pan-Arabism, beginning with the seizure 
of the puppet state of Kuwait. We are seeing such a 
transformation in President Moi. Imperialism has 
endorsed the multiparty system that threatens his 
power, and the only way Moi can hold on to power is 
to combat imperialist control of Kenya. Regardless 
of his past actions, if Moi resists the dictates of 
imperialism, he is de facto struggling against 
imperialism and thus becomes "our son-of-a-bitch".

This is the nature of the third world bourgeoisie. 
Compradors who are betrayed by their imperialist 
patrons can become our allies. Naturally a people's 
government of Kenya is preferable to continued rule 
by President Moi, but as you have said, that is not 
what the current demonstrators advocate. They 
advocate "reform" to a multiparty regime, which is 
exactly what the imperialists have indicated they 
want. There is no evidence that a multiparty regime 
is in the least progressive, and it has never led 
to socialist revolution. A multiparty regime has 
the potential for disastrous division of the 
workers and peasants. My Kenyan friend wrote to me 
that when the multiparty regime was introduced in 
1993 it nearly lead to civil war because the 
parties formed along tribal lines. It should be 
obvious to us how divisive tribalism can be for 
proletarian unity.

Yes, multiparty "democracy" is more favorable for 
imperialism, and that is why the imperialists 
prefer it to the one-party government Moi used to 
have. If Moi willingly went along with this, I 
could see writing him off as a hopeless comprador. 
That Moi is resisting this does not make him a 
revolutionary, but it makes him our ally against 
imperialism. If Moi wins this battle, Kenya will 
either be cut off from imperialist "aid" and thus 
able to chart a more independent course or the 
imperialists will have to cut a more favorable deal 
with Kenya. Either way a victory for Moi is a 
victory for Kenya.

If you consult leftist sources or sources within a 
nation, it would be helpful if you quote them, 
rather than leave your sources to our imagination. 
When we can only see sources from domestic 
bourgeois sources, it is difficult to conclude that 
you have done a thorough investigation.

Comradely Yours,
--a friend in the south


MIM RESPONDS:  This letter continues a debate with 
this reader which began with the MIM Notes article 
on Kenya published in MIM Notes on October 1. We 
take this opportunity to update our readers on the 
situation in Kenya and continue this debate which 
is very relevant to organizers everywhere who must 
always ask the question of who are our friends and 
who are our enemies.

Elections were held in Kenya in late December and 
President Moi won another term in office. As we 
described in the October 1st article, this is no 
surprise since he carried out the same campaign of 
violence against the people in areas known to 
support his opponents that was carried out by his 
party in the 1992 elections. Our critic has 
suggested that our sources from the original 
article should be questioned because they all came 
from mainstream press but MIM has seen no evidence 
anywhere that suggests that Moi did not carry out 
this violence against the people of Kenya and we 
have a lot of evidence that he has. We were unable 
to find any leftist sources, either inside or 
outside Kenya, that said anything other than what 
we reported. Mainstream media does not always lie 
and we can sometimes glean useful facts from it.

As we also pointed out in the October 1 article, 
Kenya receives a tremendous amount of foreign aid 
from the imperialists. As the article stated, over 
the past decade this has totaled more than $8 
billion. This reader is correct to point out that 
Moi is now faced with the need to oppose the multi-
party system that imperialism is demanding in order 
to put a pretty face on the Kenyan dictatorship. 
But little has changed over the past five years. In 
1992 Moi was also opposing this same multi-party 
system and he had no problem getting millions of 
dollars in imperialist aid each year after 
massacring so many of his people to win the 1992 
elections. A lot of the harsh words between the IMF 
and Moi are posturing attempts to look good in the 
eyes of the international community of imperialists 
and it is likely Moi will be back on the 
imperialist payroll.

Saddam Hussein is a good example to look at. He has 
never been a friend of the people. He has murdered 
the Kurds along with many of his own people and has 
certainly not run his government in the interests 
of the people. But once he was faced with 
imperialist military aggression he resisted with 
military force and thus became an ally of the anti-
imperialist movement. This does not mean that we 
support Hussein but it does mean that we support 
Iraq's battle against the imperialists. When 
Hussein and the imperialists were just exchanging 
mean words Hussein was not an ally. It was only 
through the change in material circumstances that 
he became an ally.

The same would be true for Kenya. Moi is not a 
friend of the people and is not an ally just 
because he opposes some aspects of the imperialists 
plans. Moi being cut off from imperialist aid so he 
can "chart a more independent course" will not make 
him an ally. In all likelihood this course will be 
a continued military dictatorship over the Kenyan 
people. But in a military conflict between the 
imperialists and Kenya, we would certainly side 
with Kenya and oppose all imperialist military 
aggression and support military opposition to the 
imperialists.



* * *



AMERIKA EXPANDS MILITARY ROLE IN LATIN AMERICA

by MC12

News in recent weeks extends the trend of 
increasing Amerikan military presence in Latin 
America, supposedly involved in stopping the drug 
trade but in fact directly targeted at the region's 
revolutionary movements. In Mexico, Colombia, and 
Panama, recent news offers some details of 
deepening U.$. involvement, making clear that 
supposed end of the Cold War has done nothing to 
satiate the imperialist desire to control the 
resources and labor of the oppressed nations of 
Latin America.

The CIA, the State Department and the Pentagon are 
all involved in using Amerikan resources to beef up 
covert operations in Mexico and Colombia, and to 
extend the U.$. presence in Panama beyond 1999, all 
supposedly in the name of fighting the drug trade.


COVERT OPS IN MEXICO


The U.$. is giving the Mexican military covert 
intelligence and support, and training "hundreds" 
of officers "to help shape a network of anti-drug 
troops around the country" according to 
"officials," who spoke to the New York Times. Under 
"advice" from the CIA, the Mexican military has 
created an "elite army intelligence unit that has 
quietly moved to the forefront of Mexico's anti-
drug effort."(1)

Mexico and the U.$. are being quiet about this 
operation because of a bad history in which CIA-run 
anti-drug operations led to the acknowledged death 
of innocents in the 1980s, and the long-standing 
role of the Mexican military in the drug trade 
itself. Like the supposedly defunct death-squads of 
the Cold War era, these are U.$-trained and 
equipped military units that Amerika thinks it can 
count on when push comes to shove. The details of 
their initial assignments -- the pretext for the 
involvement -- are less important than their long-
term allegiance to the U.$. and its agenda for the 
region. Or, in the words of "a Pentagon official, 
'You were looking for general ways to engage, 
military to military.'"

The U.$. says it will train 3,000 Mexican troops by 
fall, with a few hundred as crack officers to 
coordinate the group nation-wide. They also gave 
Mexico 73 "aging" helicopters for operations in 
remote areas. However, the Times reports, "Mexican 
and United States military officials said there was 
nothing to stop the transfer of American-trained 
army officers to similar special forces units that 
might be deployed against leftist insurgents in 
southern states like Guerrero and Chiapas." On top 
of this group, there are also 90 "carefully chosen 
young officers" selected for "a special force of 
the army intelligence section" supposedly against 
narcotics, trained by the CIA.

"Several American officials compared the program to 
the CIA's work in Colombia," the Times reported, 
and MIM couldn't agree more.


COLOMBIAN AID OVER "HUMAN RIGHTS"


The U.$. now admits it worked out an agreement last 
summer to give millions of dollars to the Colombian 
military in fiscal year 1998, for 
"counterinsurgency activities as part of a larger 
program to fight drug trafficking," according to 
the Washington Post. This is supposedly only to be 
used in the southern half of the country, where the 
Post says "the alliance between the guerrillas and 
the drug traffickers is clearest." The money is 
supposed to be used for communications equipment, 
transportation supplies and the like.(2)

For the last few years the U.$. has made noise 
about the human rights abuses of the Colombian 
government and its paramilitary allies in the 
countryside. What the U.$. really opposes, however, 
is apparently the chaotic nature of the Colombian 
government's efforts and the weakness and 
incompetence that is causing them to lose ground in 
the countryside. A "senior administration official" 
told the Post: "The grip of the government on the 
territory in the countryside is loosening 
considerably. About 50% of the territory is not 
under government control, and there is a growing 
nexus between the narcos and many fronts of the 
guerrillas. The government is in trouble." The 
opponents in question are the Revolutionary Armed 
Forces of Colombia and the National Liberation 
Army, both of which are on the State Department 
list of terrorists for this year.

Human rights can't get in the way of that. Despite 
the fact that the military has committed civilian 
massacres, disappearances, and torture, and that 
the president is himself on the payroll of major 
drug traffickers. In the 1970s the Colombian 
military created rural paramilitary groups to fight 
leftists. In the 1980s, however, these groups 
became openly aligned with the drug industry, with 
the government's tacit support, The U.$. apparently 
wants to formalize this role and bring it under 
control of the military.

The U.$. needs "stability" in Colombia and 
elsewhere in the region, which means leftists have 
to be suppressed, and large areas of informal 
economic activity such as the drug trade must be 
under the control of the U.$. or trustworthy local 
governments.


PANAMA TROOPS TO STAY


Finally, in the category of What Did You Expect?, 
the U.$. has announced a deal to keep troops in the 
Panama canal area beyond the supposed return of the 
canal to Panama in 1999. The U.$. and Panama signed 
an agreement to keep troops there as part of "drug 
interdiction" efforts; they will build a new 
military center at the old Howard Air Base, where 
U.$. troops are based.(3)

Whether the U.$. uses drug trade or any other 
pretext for its military involvement, imperialists 
interests in the region are structural and not 
subject to negotiation:  they must fight to 
maintain control -- direct or indirect -- over the 
labor and resources of Latin America. That means 
protecting trustworthy governments, undermining 
governments they can't count on, and resisting all 
movements for self-determination by any means 
necessary.

MIM does not represent any of the leftist movements 
in Latin America, and we won't speak for them on 
the issue of the drug trade or anything else. 
However, it is our internationalist duty to 
unconditionally oppose U.$. military involvement 
anywhere in the oppressed nations of the world, to 
expose the corruption and crimes against humanity 
that they commit, and organize in the belly of the 
beast to oppose U.$. imperialism in all of its 
forms.


NOTES
1. New York Times 29 December 1997, p. A1. 
2. Washington Post 27 December 1997, p. A1.
3. Washington Post 25 December 1997, p. A38.



* * *



WELFARE CUTS LEAVE IMMIGRANTS HUNGRY

by MC17

Under 1996 federal welfare reforms, legal 
immigrants who are not U.$. citizens, or do not 
meet other qualifying criteria, were cut off from 
food-stamp benefits. These changes in federal law 
have pushed nearly 800,000 off the nation's food-
stamp rolls based on immigration status.(1) Welfare 
cuts that hit immigrants were popular in congress 
because of the strong chauvinist sentiment among 
the white nation in the United Snakes. This 
reactionary nationalism leads Amerikans to consider 
immigrants (both legal and illegal) to be stealing 
from the hard earned resources in this kkkountry. 
These chauvinists conveniently ignore the fact that 
the wealth of this nation was built on the backs of 
slaves and is sustained by the theft of resources 
and exploitation of labor in Amerika's colonies. It 
is from the horrible conditions imposed by 
imperialism in these colonies that many of the 
immigrants flee when they come to the u.s.Congress 
rewrote federal welfare rules last year as a part 
of the public policy move to reduce federal 
assistance to individuals (corporations still 
receive plenty of welfare) to save tax dollars. 

For most non-citizens, the food stamps simply 
ended. This, combined with other welfare changes, 
was promoted as saving taxpayers an estimated $3.7 
billion over five years. Under welfare reform, 
legal immigrants can still receive food stamps if 
they have served in the U.S. military or can show 
that they have worked 10 years in the United 
$tates. Otherwise, the lack of U.S. citizenship is 
enough to disqualify an immigrant, no matter how 
needy. (2)Food assistance requests have been on the 
rise for years. And it is not only immigrants who 
are contributing to this rise. But there is a 
disproportionate number of oppressed nationals, 
including immigrants, relying on welfare and other 
public assistance and as a result cuts have had a 
disproportionate impact on these groups. Detroit 
had the second highest increase among 29 major 
cities in requests for emergency food assistance in 
1996. The 34 percent rise in food requests in 
Detroit was three times the average of all the 
cities surveyed. Detroit ranked behind Boston, 
which had a 50 percent increase. Only two cities, 
Norfolk, Va., and Minneapolis, reported drops in 
such requests. Nationally, requests for food aid 
increased by 11 percent.(3)

One out of four requests for food aid in Detroit 
was turned down because of a lack of resources 
according to a report from a task force of the U.S. 
Conference of Mayors. The Hunger Action Coalition 
in Detroit reported turning away 6,200 requests 
during the first six months of the year.(3)

A Tufts University study commissioned by Second 
Harvest estimates the food stamp cuts for citizens 
and noncitizens are equivalent to taking nearly 24 
billion pounds of food from the poor over five 
years -- enough food to provide three square meals 
a day to every Texan for an entire year. Second 
Harvest, which provided 1 billion pounds of food 
last year, would have to increase its output by 425 
percent to meet the shortages, the study 
estimated.(4)

As 1997 draws to a close, unemployment rates have 
sunk to a 25-year low and the nation's economy is 
considered quite strong. Nationally, 86 percent of 
cities surveyed recently by the U.S. Conference of 
Mayors reported an increase in demand for emergency 
food assistance. On average, requests for food at 
soup kitchens and food pantries have risen by 16 
percent. And 38 percent of those seeking emergency 
food aid are employed, according to the Conference 
of Mayors, up from 23 percent in 1994.(5)

Welfare is a pacifying hand-out from the 
imperialist government. Its purpose is to keep the 
people from fighting for more. This is not a case 
of the benevolence of capitalism but rather the 
material interest the system has in keeping the 
people in its own country relatively quiet and 
pacified. The assistance the government hands out 
is stolen from the people the capitalists exploit:  
external and internal colonies of the united 
snakes. When the government cuts welfare it is a 
calculated risk that the majority of the people in 
this country are happy enough with imperialism from 
the super-profits they share through parasitic jobs 
and consumer benefits.When charity organizations 
step in and fill the holes left by government 
pulling out of welfare programs, they do a 
disservice to the people. The money spent by 
charity groups only helps to keep the people 
passive when it is not coupled with political 
education and organizing work. MIM does not wish to 
see anyone go hungry or without shelter but we know 
that offering a few meals to a few people is not 
going to change the system that creates this hunger 
and homelessness. This is a systematic problem of 
imperialism and we encourage all who are outraged 
by these problems to join the fight to overthrow 
the system that causes them.


STATES STEP IN


The cuts hit particularly hard in four states -- 
California, Florida, New York and Texas -- which 
account for three quarters of all non-citizens on 
food stamps. Of these, Texas alone has taken no 
steps to provide relief to its 168,000 immigrants 
on federal food stamp rolls earlier this year.(4) 
While the federal law cut nearly all benefits for 
legal immigrants, almost every state has decided, 
sometimes using its own money, to keep immigrant 
benefits intact.(6)States have stepped in to fill 
some of the gaps in federal assistance but this 
again is not the benevolence of capitalism but 
rather the states understanding the need to keep 
the people under control. Republican Texas governor 
Bush is a good example of this pragmatism. He 
lobbied strongly for a reinstatement of federal 
Medicaid benefits to immigrants who had been cut 
because he saw the large numbers in his state who 
would be affected.

Faced with the new responsibility of deciding who 
qualifies for aid, all but a few states are 
continuing benefits for immigrants who were here 
when the law took effect. And almost every state 
also will provide cash help and Medicaid for 
immigrants arriving after that, once they have been 
in the country five years. Many states are going 
further. It's illegal under the new law for a state 
to use federal money for future immigrants during 
their first five years here. More than a third of 
states are using state dollars to make sure 
immigrants are covered from the day they arrive. 
That includes California and New York, where half 
the country's legal immigrants live. Florida and 
Texas, the third and fourth largest immigrant 
states, are helping replace cuts in food stamps, 
using state money to pay aid once paid solely from 
the federal treasury.(6)These measures to cushion 
the effects of the federal Welfare cuts clearly 
have not eliminated the problem as can be seen from 
the numbers in this article which show a large rise 
in need for food assistance. Those truly interested 
in ending hunger should be working with MIM to 
develop serve the people programs that provide for 
the needs of the oppressed in the context of 
building a revolutionary movement to overthrow 
imperialism.


NOTES:
1. The Miami Herald 29 December 1997
2. Austin American-Statesman 14 December 1997.
3. The Detroit News 17 December 1997.
4. AP 25 August 1997.
5. LA times, Dec 28, 19976. The Detroit News 20 
October 1997.



* * *



NEW YORK POLICE FATALLY SHOOT OPPRESSED NATIONALS 
MORE THAN 3-TO-1

by MC12

Figures released by the New York City police 
department show that their officers shot and killed 
14 Black and 9 Hispanic "suspects" in 1996. They 
admit to shooting a total of 39 Black and 25 
Hispanic "suspects." By comparison, 7 whites were 
fatally shot, out of 10 shot overall. That means 
New York police kill oppressed nationals over 
whites at a rate of 3.3-to-1, and shoot oppressed 
nationals at a rate of 6.4-to-1. They report no 
Asians shot in 1996. These are deaths and woundings 
from shootings only; other sources of wounding and 
death by cops were not included. Those numbers also 
don't include 11 "bystanders" who were shot, for 
whom a breakdown was not reported in the paper.


NOTES: New York Times 2 January 1998, p. A16.



* * *


MICHIGAN TRANSFERS PRISONERS TO FEDERAL KKKAMP

by the Political Prisoners of War Coalition

While MIM has unity with the PPWC's focus on the 
state increasing repression while drumming up 
support for prisons, MIM does not agree with the 
specific economic analysis of this article.


It has been brought to our attention from that 
prisoners from Jackson, Michigan were shipped out 
to the Federal Correctional Facility in Morgantown, 
West Virginia.(1) The news reported that within the 
next two weeks over 500 prisoners will be shipped 
out of state to help relieve the overcrowding 
Michigan is experiencing. We find this horrific and 
a blatant act of disregard for the prisoner and for 
her/his family and or friends.

Last month (November 1997) it was reported in the 
Lansing State Journal that governor John Engler and 
the legislators were discussing this move but that 
they hadn't made any permanent decisions to do so 
at that time. Also, they had mentioned that if the 
plan were implemented it would not begin until 
sometime in 1998. It appears that the politicians 
couldn't wait. It appears that the temptation for 
money was too great not to move...NOW... these 
prisoners. This is nothing more than a money making 
venture. Making money for the state coffers and 
money made off the backs of prisoner labor. Slave 
labor backed by the 13th Amendment for products 
made by prisoners for profit. With this profit 
never being given to the prisoner or their 
families.

This 13th Amendment [has] allowed prison officials 
and the corporate world to come up with a way to 
abuse this clause in the amendment and make a 
dollar. Michigan's refusal to release prisoners on 
parole has been long debated and argued by 
prisoners, their families and even several ex-MD0C 
employees, most notably, one Robert Brown (a Black 
man that was once the Director of the MDOC). He use 
to argue how the parole board is refusing to 
release men and wimmin, thus creating the 
overcrowded conditions and creating hardships on 
him via ... lawsuits he was named in for being the 
Director of the MDOC. Needless to say Robert Brown 
retired and the Corrections Commission (who once 
over-saw the parole board and made policy or 
recommendations to them) have been terminated under 
governor Engler's leadership so now there is no 
check or balance in regards to how the parole board 
operates. This in itself, have created to the 
overcrowding which has resulted in prisoners now 
being transferred to out of state facilities. It is 
interesting that these first transferred prisoners 
are going to a federal facility.

It is in the federal facility that have the 
majority of privatized factory jobs. And it is in 
the federal facilities that many government 
contracts are fulfilled via prisoner labor.

If the people of Michigan do not NOW protest... if 
the people of every state do not protest this 
action (moving prisoners out of state) then this is 
going to be the new thing for all states. Soon, 
more and more people will find themselves 
incarcerated (on bogus charges and given long 
sentences) so that they can work in these factories 
and make money for the kkkampitalist.


Source:
1. WDIV TV channel 4 news on December 17, 1997.



* * *



MICHIGAN TRANSFERS AID ENGLER'S PLAN FOR 
OPPRESSION: BUILD MORE AND MORE PRISONS

On December 17, 1997, 38 prisoners were transferred 
from the state prison in Jackson to a federal 
prison in Morgantown, West Virginia. This comes on 
the tail of Governor Engler's November request to 
build five new prisons. Engler claims that Michigan 
needs three-$30 million minimum-security prisons 
and two-$70 million multi-security-level prisons. 
If approved, these would increase Michigan's 
capacity to imprison the oppressed with 5,400 new 
spaces. To bolster support for the proliferation of 
prisons, Michigan plans to transfer about 500 
prisoners total over the next few months.

The new prison construction will take a hefty chunk 
of dough which Engler must convince settler nation 
whites to allow the state to spend. The 
proliferation of prisons means that the white 
settler nation benefits from construction jobs and 
jobs in the growing force of pigs. Settlers more 
generally benefit from massive incarceration of the 
oppressed. This is because the oppressed will not 
be out organizing to end settler nation domination 
and because incarceration is a tool of genocide 
against oppressed nations. However, settlers need 
coaxing to allow more money for state plantations. 
These are long term and systematic material 
benefits to the white nation which mistakenly 
believes it needs compensation for paying taxes to 
support prisoners who are supposedly living in the 
lap of luxury.

Engler's propaganda claims that Michigan needs to 
create spaces for 6,400 more prisoners by 2001. The 
claim that Michigan (or any other Amerikan state) 
needs to build more prisons is one of those nasty 
myths created by the oppressor to maintain 
domination over the masses. DOC spokespig Matt 
Davis said, "The transfer scheduled for early today 
marked the first time that overcrowding has forced 
Michigan to send its prisoners out of state." While 
Michigan prisoners are contained in overcrowded and 
inadequate facilities, the transfers are in fact 
only a publicity ploy to gain support for 
increasing money spent on Michigan's slave 
plantations.

In 1996, Engler asked for four and got permission 
to build two new concentration camps. One is a new 
maximum-security adult prison in St. Louis in 
Gratiot County. And the other is a prison for youth 
in Lake County. Michigan is also currently 
expanding existing facilities to add 700 more beds. 
Instead of giving your support to locking up 
thousands of human beings, MIM calls on progressive 
people to work with us to destroy this filthy 
system and build a revolutionary society in which 
people are encouraged to become productive members 
of society and the real criminals are reformed or 
punished.

The problem is not that Michigan is lacking spaces 
for prisoners, rather the problem is that the 
settler nation government is rounding up the 
oppressed and throwing them in prison at record 
rates. The massive round up serves to control 
oppressed populations and ensure that they are not 
on the outside organizing against this oppressive 
disgusting system. Already in Michigan, 59% of the 
prisoner population is Black whereas only 14% of 
the general population is Black.

It is not sufficient for Engler to state that there 
needs to be more prisons when Michigan does not 
provide adequate or equal education and denies real 
opportunities to oppressed nationals. The solution 
is not more prisons, but until we are able to tear 
down the system, we will show that increased 
incarceration of the oppressed is the way in which 
the imperialists deal with the masses instead of 
meeting basic human needs.

The approximate 500 prisoners will be transferred 
to Beckley, W.Va., Manchester, Ky., Duluth, Minn., 
and Leavenworth, Kansas in addition to Morgantown. 
The prisoners who are being transferred are serving 
sentences for non-violent offenses and allegedly 
volunteered for the transfers. That information is 
of course suspect because we don't trust the state 
when it says prisoners are volunteering for any 
form of incarceration.

Contact the address on page two if you have any 
information on the conditions of the prisoners 
transferred and further information on the 
plantations which these prisoners are being 
transferred to. Also contact us if you are willing 
to help MIM and RAIL expose the slave trade between 
states which is on the rise in the United Snakes of 
Amerikkka.


Notes: http://www.freep.com/news/mich/qstate17.htm  
and http://aa.mlive.com/ap/1217prison.htm



* * *



DC POLICE CORRUPTION EXPOSED
ANSWER IS REVOLUTION - NOT MORE PIGS!

DC's white police chief Larry Soulsby recently 
resigned in the wake of a scandal dubbed "fairy 
shaking." This means extorting money from men who 
visit gay bars.

Jeffrey Stowe, Soulsby's fellow pig, resigned first 
after being charged with extortion. Stowe is 
accused of following men who appeared to be married 
(as evidenced by a car with a baby seat) and 
photographing them at gay bars. Stowe used access 
to police information to track the name and address 
(from the car's license plate.) Stowe then 
threatened to expose the men to families or bosses 
if they didn't pay. Stowe was caught because one 
man refused to pay and called the FBI to report 
that a high level DC police officer was engaged in 
extortion.(1)

The DC police force has historically been rife with 
corruption, including brutality, mismanagement, 
embezzling in the form of bogus overtime, and other 
problems. We don't want a more efficient police 
force as more pigs will only mean increased 
incarceration of the oppressed. However, it is 
important to note that the resignations tail 
scandals involving the rich minority and were not a 
result of the more common ways in which these pigs 
used policing power to brutalize, arrest and 
imprison the oppressed.It is especially insulting 
to the residents of DC that the same police force 
that does not investigate and solve street crime 
harasses gay men for money. (See MN 154 for a story 
on how DC's morgue does not rule obvious murders as 
homicides, in part keeping the murder rate 
artificially depressed.) The revelation that high 
level officials in the police department were more 
concerned with extorting money from rich white men 
who visited the bars than they were with solving 
the mysterious murders of five poor Black wimmin in 
the Petworth neighborhood only adds insult to 
injury.

When the Control Board took control of the D.C. 
police department in 1997 it hired a consulting 
firm to evaluate the police department and make 
recommendations for improvements. The firm, Booz-
Allen, found that out of a force of 3,600 officers, 
only 27 officers had made more than 100 arrests per 
year, and in 1996 1,200 officers had not made a 
single arrest.(2) Again, MIM does not advocate for 
more arrests, but the Booz-Allen report exposes the 
hypocrisy of maintaining a large police force that, 
in the end, does not even meet the basic 
requirements for solving the crimes that do concern 
the residents of the city.

Soulsby appeared to take seriously the 
recommendations of the Booz-Allen report, and it is 
no surprise what he did:  "After the consultant's 
report was released, as a temporary measure I put 
400 more police officers on patrol and aimed them 
at high-crime targets. Š First, we are 
significantly increasing the number of officers on 
patrol on the city's streets."(3)A predictable 
response from the pigs is to put more of them on 
the street so that so-called crime can be reduced. 
MIM knows that so-called street crime accounts for 
far fewer murders and rapes than the mass crimes of 
the imperialist state. MIM urges the people of DC 
to expose police corruption, and work with MIM to 
build public opinion and independent institutions 
of the oppressed. MIM does not want to see more 
"community policing", and MIM does not want to see 
the police making more arrests and brutalizing more 
young oppressed-nation men. MIM wants the people to 
protect and police themselves by being more self-
reliant rather than trusting the police.


NOTES:
1. The Washington Post 2 December 1997, p. C4.
2. The New Republic, 19 January 1998, p. 20.
3. The Washington Post 25 June 1997, p. A19.



* * *



IMPERIALISTS TIGHTEN GRIP ON CRISIS-RIDDEN KOREAN 
ECONOMY

Throughout December, Amerikan bourgeois media 
reported on the economic crisis in south Korea and 
the International Monetary Fund (IMF)'s record-
breaking $57 billion bailout loan to south Korea. 
Amerikan capitalists are interested in this story 
either because they could lose money if south Korea 
defaults on its loans, or because they are looking 
to buy up bankrupt south Korean enterprises at 
bargain prices.

MIM reports on this story for two reasons: (a) The 
crisis will further impoverish the Korean working 
class, and (b) The crisis and the terms of the IMF 
loan provide more proof of the bankruptcy of the 
capitalist, debt-driven, and imperialist-dependent 
"Korean model" for autonomous development.

The south Korean economy was slow throughout 1997. 
Domestic machinery orders fell 34.6 percent in the 
year to November, machinery imports fell 21.8 
percent, and domestic construction orders slid 23.3 
percent.(1) This is a sign of capitalist crisis. 
Industrial capitalists have produced too many 
commodities relative to demand, so they are cutting 
back production. South Korean stocks are at 10-year 
lows, thanks in part to a big sell-off by foreign 
speculators.(2)

But the cause for all the recent hubbub and the IMF 
loan was the south Korean foreign debt, which is 
estimated to be $200 billion. $28 billion - more 
than south Korea can currently afford - is due by 
the end of February.(3) The debt crisis is 
exacerbated by the fact that the won (the south 
Korean currency) lost half of its value relative to 
the u.$. dollar in 1997.(3)

Lay offs, plant closures, and "allowing 
uncompetitive firms to fail" are central conditions 
of the of the IMF's loan. President-elect Kim Dae 
Jung, whom the bourgeois media alleges is "labor-
friendly," said, "[W]e must hurry reforms requested 
by [the IMF], and layoffs are inevitable."(4) 
Unemployment is expected to triple to 6% in 1998. 
Unemployment insurance is basically non-existent. 
"It gives jobless workers at most only three 
payments, each amounting to half of their last 
monthly pay."(5) The petty-bourgeoisie is also 
suffering as a result of the current crisis. Some 
university instructors have not been paid in over 
three months.

Many south Korean trade unions are planning to 
strike rather than take the lay-offs lying down.


IMPERIALISTS INCREASE PENETRATION OF ECONOMY


Conditions on the IMF loan also made it easier for 
foreign monopoly capital to enter and dominate the 
south Korean economy. 

At the end of December the south Korean legislature 
increased to proportion of local companies that 
could be owned by foreign investors to 55%. There 
will be no limit to this proportion beginning April 
1, 1998.(3) Foreign banks and security firms are 
now allowed to open wholly owned subsidiaries.(6)

This is not the first time that foreign monopoly 
capitalists have used loan conditions to increase 
their control over the south Korean economy. For 
example, in 1980, when the country was facing a 
similar crisis, Japan stepped in with a $4 billion 
package. "The price Chun Doo Hwan [head of the 
south Korean regime at the time] paid [for this 
"aid"] was to begin to open Korean markets to 
American and Japanese service industries like banks 
and insurance companies, and to American 
agricultural exports of rice, wheat, tobacco, and 
fruit."(7)

South Korea not a model for Third World 
development. Apologists for capitalism have argued 
that the relatively successful industrial 
development of south Korea shows the superiority of 
capitalism to socialism. Even some middle-class 
Koreans argue that what Korea needs now is another 
Park Chung Hee (the fascist who oversaw the so-
called Korean miracle in the sixties and 
seventies). But as MIM pointed out in 1993,

"People should realize that the 'four tigers' or 
'little dragons' -- Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and 
Singapore -- are the exceptions of history of 
development in the dependent capitalist orbit. Even 
if capitalism 'worked' for these four, it would not 
prove anything about the possibilities for 
development under imperialism. The reason is that 
you would have to count all the failures that went 
with the successes... 

"At least 22 capitalist-dominated countries have 
suffered an actual decline in per capita income in 
recent years according to the U.S. Statistical 
Abstract. The imperialists can still exploit most 
countries mercilessly, so a few exceptions are 
allowed by the system to develop while other 
countries decline in the international capitalist 
sweepstakes. The winners and losers change from 
time to time, but the system stays the same."(1)

Indeed, the strategy of Park Chung Hee and his 
successors -- secure massive foreign loans by 
militarily regulating the labor market and 
centrally co-ordinate investment -- has been used 
by many other countries (the Philippines, Mexico, 
Peru, to name a few) with little success. 

What accounts for south Korea's so-called success? 
First, the Korean landlord class was overthrown in 
the 1950s, thanks to the Korean communists, who 
liberated most of Korea at the beginning of the 
Korean war. The landlord class has been a hindrance 
to the development of capitalism in countries like 
the Philippines.

Second, south Korea had a vital geo-political role 
for u.$. imperialism throughout the 50s, 60s, and 
70s. It was a beachhead for aggression against 
north Korea, China, and the Soviet Union. Because 
of this, the u.$. was willing to pour incredible 
amounts of money into south Korea to forestall 
revolution. "[A]id funds alone amounted to 100 
percent of the [south Korean government's] budget 
in the 1950s." Another scholar estimates that u.$. 
"aid" accounted for 30% of the south Korean 
national income from 1945 to 1965.(8)

Significantly, much of the capital which Park used 
to kick-start the economy in the 1970s came from 
war profiteering. U.$. payments for the government 
of south Korea's assistance to the Amerikan war of 
aggression in Viet Nam "annually accounted for 
between 7 and 8 percent of Korea's GDP in the 
period 1966-1969 and for as much as 19 percent of 
its total foreign earnings."(9) Some things have 
not changed since Marx wrote, "Capital comes 
dripping from head to foot, from every pore, with 
blood and dirt."(10)

Finally, the influx of foreign capital and the 
growth of the local capitalist class depended on a 
cheap and reliable labor force. For example, "In 
the early 1960s the labor cost savings for firms in 
the United States willing to move to Korea was a 
factor of 25, since workers were paid one-tenth of 
American wages but were 2.5 times more 
productive."(11) Korean workers were more cheaper 
and more productive (they worked longer hours and 
were "more disciplined," thanks in part to harsh 
anti-union laws and violent repression of labor 
activists.

So we see that the south Korean "miracle" was not 
the result of any one person's policies or the 
superiority of capitalism. Rather it was founded on 
the robbery of oppressed peoples by the u.$. 
imperialists and the extreme exploitation of the 
south Korean working class.

Furthermore, two of the conditions for south 
Korea's success (the willingness of the u.$. 
imperialists to prop up the south Korean economy 
and the relative attractiveness of the south Korean 
labor force to foreign investors) are decaying. On 
the one hand, u.$. and Japanese imperialists view 
the south Korean monopoly capitalists (Hyundai, 
Samsung, etc.) as competitors. On the other hand, 
the Chinese social-fascists have allowed foreign 
monopoly capitalists access to the Chinese labor 
force, which is even more attractive (cheaper).

There is no going "back to the (capitalist) future" 
for south Korea. Only anti-imperialist and 
socialist revolution can solve the basic problems 
of the Korean people and ensure truly autonomous 
industrial development which serves the needs of 
the broad masses.


NOTES:
1. Reuters, 29 Dec 97.
2. MIM Notes 152 and Los Angeles Times, 30 Dec 97.
3. Los Angeles Times, 30 Dec 97.
4. Reuters, 27 Dec 97.
5. Las Vegas Review-Journal and Las Vegas Sun, 1 
Jan 98.
6. Reuters, 25 Dec 97.
7. Bruce Cumings, "Korea's Place in the Sun," New 
York, WW Norton and Company, 1977, p. 335.
8. Cumings, p. 306.
9. Cumings, p. 321.
10. Fundamentals of Political Economy, p. 33.
11. Cumings, p. 310.



* * *



SANTA CLAUS IN BAGHDAD?

by RC 4T4

On December 26, 1997 a plane landed in Baghdad 
carrying medicine and a Santa Claus. This was the 
second U.N. approved aid flight to arrive in two 
days. The group responsible for chartering this 
plane is the Icelandic Charity Peace 2000 
Institute. Iraq is a predominantly Muslim country, 
so the use of a Santa Claus is just another example 
of European ethnocentrism. The U.N. approved aide 
for Baghdad could not be more ironic. As the United 
Snakes, who virtually control the United Nations, 
builds more and more public opinion against Iraq, 
they also use propaganda such as this plane 
carrying aide to convince the people that the u.s 
is really trying to help the people of Iraq. 

Meanwhile the United Nations which approved this 
token aide, is the same United Nations which 
created a trade embargo against Iraq that has 
resulted in extensive malnutrition of the people of 
Iraq. The Iraqi government also points out that it 
was the sweeping U.N. sanctions imposed after the 
1990 invasion of Kuwait which caused the death of 
hundreds of thousands of children. Therefore there 
is much irony in a U.N. approved plane carrying a 
Santa Claus who says "Violence leads to more 
violence. Stop using children in politics."(1) 

MIM does not know much about the Icelandic Charity 
Peace 200 Institute, but we can tell by these 
latest actions that they are not a revolutionary 
group. This group calls for world leaders to stop 
using children as political weapons, while it 
cooperates with the U.N. who are responsible for 
the embargo which is killing many Iraqui children 
through malnutrition and the 1990 attack of Kuwait 
which also killed hundreds of thousands. MIM agrees 
that world leaders should stop using children in 
their power games, but we disagree with the mixed 
message being sent by the Icelandic charity Peace 
2000 Institute. In order to truly help the children 
of Iraq this group and other humanitarian groups 
like it must be clear in their criticisms. They 
must analyze the political situation and choose a 
side and the side they choose must be the side of 
the people. The number one enemy of the children in 
Iraq is imperialism The only way to truly help the 
people of Iraq is to overthrow the imperialism. 
Under Socialism children will no longer be used as 
political weapons and malnutrition will be a thing 
of the past.


NOTES: The Times Herald Record 27 December, 1997.



* * *



CORRECTION:

In MIM Notes 153 we ran a story about the 
Massachusetts Death Penalty in which we discussed 
the pro-death penalty forces who used the killing 
of a young boy, Jeffrey Curley, as a rallying 
point. In this article we incorrectly focused on 
this as a case of stranger molestation which builds 
the property relationship between parents and 
children by distracting from within family abuse. 
In this case the real problem is not one evil of 
imperialist patriarchal society being pitted 
against another. In fact, MIM hopes that people 
will be outraged and frenzied over murder. These 
people should be friends of the anti-imperialist 
movement as this murder is a direct result of the 
imperialist system. It is our job to point out 
these connections as we explain that the death 
penalty will not reduce violence.



* * *



MEXICAN RULING PARTY MURDERS 45 IN CHIAPAS

On December 23, 1997, over one hundred members of a 
government-backed paramilitary organization 
murdered 45 people of the Tzotzil nation in the 
village of Acteal, Chiapas. The victims included 21 
wimmin, 15 children and 9 men.(1) Eyewitnesses 
claim that many of the children were killed as they 
clung to their mothers' backs.(6)

The victims were supporters of the Zapatista 
National Liberation Army (EZLN), which began its 
struggle under the banner of self-determination for 
indigenous people in January 1994. The attackers 
were identified as local residents, backed by the 
ruling party, the Institutional Revolutionary Party 
(PRI).This latest attack had the largest death toll 
since the insurrection in 1994. It reportedly came 
after weeks of increased harassment and oppression 
by government officials and police for money from 
the peasantry to support their struggle against the 
EZLN.

The Mexican police and PRI officials have been 
threatening peasants with death if they refuse to 
pay them to support the repression of the Zapatista 
rebels. In some areas these taxes have been as high 
as 10,000 pesos, which is an unattainable sum for 
most peasants. PRI gunmen have also cut off dirt 
roads that provide food for the local villages in 
many areas. Because of this forced starvation and 
threat of violence thousands of refugees have left 
the villages for Zapatista controlled areas. The 
people of Acteal fled to Polho after the massacre, 
along with hundreds of others. Polho is one of the 
EZLN's greatest strongholds, which have 
institutionalized independent government.(2)

Local peasants reported that the massacre was in 
retaliation to pro-Zapatista activity in the 
village, including efforts to establish independent 
governing institutions. Many of the villagers in 
Acteal are members of las Abejas, a pacifist group 
who supports the goals and efforts of the EZLN. 
Others said that they are Zapatistas. The 
government has tried to disassociate itself from 
the incident, by blaming local religious and tribal 
differences. However, even the bourgeoisie press 
has recognized these efforts to cover up the 
continuing role of the current regime's repression 
of the indigenous people.

The major evidence against the PRI was the arrest 
of Jacinto Aria Cruz, municipal president of 
Chenalho (the district surrounding Acteal), after 
he confessed to providing the arms for this attack. 
He has been charged along with 39 others in for the 
murders of the 45 innocent Tzotzil people.(3) 
President Ernesto Zedillo and the federal 
government continue to treat this as an isolated 
case that they will remedy. Yet it has been the 
strategy of the PRI to hire local people to carry 
out counter-insurgency tactics throughout the 
country. In this case they successfully turned 
Tzotzil people against each other, but they failed 
to wash their hands and have been caught in the 
act. The PRI can continue to pretend to treat this 
incident seriously, but religious groups, 
opposition parties, and human rights officials have 
all recognized this incident as a result of the 
numerous paramilitary groups set up by the 
government to carry out a war against the 
Zapatistas.(4)

Subcommandante Marcos, a leader of the EZLN, gave a 
four-page communique in response to the incident in 
which he stated, "The direct responsibility for 
these bloody acts rests on President Ernesto 
Zedillo... and the secretary of the interior, who 
for years gave the green light to a 
counterinsurgency program presented by the federal 
army."(2) The U$ media has not made such strong 
statements but their indictment of the PRI is 
clear. However, they choose to ignore, and MIM 
would like to acknowledge, the role of U$ and CIA 
backing in making such actions possible.

MIM has reported in the past on the use of the 
guise of the "War on Drugs" to provide military aid 
and training to the ruling Mexican government. The 
CIA is responsible for setting up an elite 
intelligence force in Mexico by providing training, 
equipment and military advice. Meanwhile, the U$ 
has also backed a new civilian police force in the 
country. Such acts have been carried out as 
'temporary help until the 'corrupt' federal police 
clean up their act.' This implies that the new, U$-
backed forces lack corruption. However arrests and 
scandals within the ranks of these 'anti-drug' 
forces continue.(5) It seems unlikely that the goal 
of these forces is to slow drug-trafficking when 
high ranking officials of these forces continue to 
be exposed as complying with drug-traffickers for 
money.

As an imperialist nation the U$ uses force to feed 
its own interests in oppressed nations. It is quite 
evident that aid provided to the PRI and other 
forces in Mexico is an effort to combat the 
uprising of the oppressed indigenous people. In 
1995, the U$ gave 73 UH-1H helicopters to transport 
drug forces to locations in Mexico. Both the 
Mexican and U$ governments stated that there was no 
reason that the choppers could not be used to 
transport troops trained in the U$ into Guerrero 
and Chiapas in order to repress leftist 
insurgencies.(5)

MIM mourns the recent massacre in Chiapas, and 
tallies it up on the long list of victims of 
imperialist violence. MIM considers the struggle of 
the indigenous peoples and peasants of Chiapas to 
be just. However, the EZLN has tied its hands and 
put on a blindfold by scorning class analysis and 
hoping for the advent of true democracy in Mexico 
without overturning the ruling economic system. We 
urge all those who want to stop oppression to make 
a serious study of the theories of Marx, Engels, 
Lenin, Stalin and Mao, and apply their theses to 
the situation in Mexico, to secure victory of the 
oppressed masses in Mexico.


NOTES:
1. Washington Post 25 December 1997, p. A1.
2. Los Angeles Times 25 December 1997, p. A1.
3. International Herald Tribune 29 December 1997, 
News, p.2
4. New York Times 29 December 1997, p. A10.
5. New York Times 29 December 1997, p. A1.
6. La Opinion, 24 Dec 97.



* * *



CALIFORNIA PRISONS REPRESS FIRST NATIONS, MUSLIMS, 
SIKHS

by MC234

Governor Pete Wilson's California Department of 
Corrections has launched another attack on 
prisoners in the name of "personal appearances." In 
an effort to break the will of the prisoners, the 
prison is banning beards and long hair and will be 
replacing the current uniforms of blue jeans and 
denim shirts with all white uniforms stenciled with 
"CDC Prisoner" in black.

California has 156,000 prisoners in 33 prisons. 
Already California has cutback education programs 
and banned media interviews with prisoners. Weights 
and barbells are also being removed as part of a 
stated effort to keep prisoners from "bulking up", 
but the real reason to remove an enjoyable (and 
healthy!) recreational activity for the prisoners. 
Controlling prisoners dress and recreation is a way 
to break the will of individual prisoners as well 
as preclude progressive organizing.

In addition to the "grooming" restrictions 
mentioned above, the new Penal Code 3062 "forbids 
earrings, long sideburns, mutton chop whiskers, and 
the shaving of letters, numbers and designs onto 
the head." This means that the new Penal Code is an 
assault upon the democratic freedoms of First 
Nation, Sikh and Muslim prisoners. First Nation and 
Sikh prisoner's religions require long hair, and 
Muslims require beards.


NOTES: Boston Globe 4 January 1998, p. A20.



* * *



MARXISM-LENINISM-MAOISM ONLINE


JERICHO '98 ORGANIZERS LAUNCH NEW WEB PAGE

http://jericho98.togdog.com

peace-  first, i would like to thank you for your 
efforts in creating this [MIM's -ed.] website -- it 
is both informative and necessary. second, i would 
like to know if you would please link to the new 
jericho '98 website which is still under 
construction but is the main informational source 
for the march 27, 1998 protest in washington d.c. 
that will demand amnesty and freedom for all u.s. 
political prisoners. additionally, if there are any 
suggestion, updates or additional information that 
you may have, please contact me at 
jericho98@togdog.com lastly, please feel free to 
forward this message and url to your mailing lists, 
organizational contacts and other interested 
parties -- clearly we need to get the word out! 


MIM RESPONDS:  Thanks for the note. We did make the 
link to our website. We hope that you will also 
link yours to ours. And if you have not added an 
announcement to your web site, please include a 
note that RAIL is organizing a teach-in on the 
criminal injustice system for Saturday the 28th for 
Jericho '98 attendees. If you or any other Jericho 
'98 organizers are interested in presenting at a 
session at the teach- in, we would welcome your 
participation. Please let us know and we can 
discuss the topics and the specifics of the agenda.


RAIL TEACH-IN ON THE CRIMINAL INJUSTICE SYSTEM
Saturday, March 28
Washington DC

The Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League (RAIL) 
will host a teach-in on the criminal injustice 
system the day following the Jericho '98 march. 
This is part of the general work that is necessary 
to build support for incarcerated comrades and 
prisoners' struggles against oppress. We must free 
the People's leaders from Amerikan gulags! We must 
expand support for all prisoners' struggles against 
oppression!

We are hosting this teach-in to broadly educate and 
mobilize activists to expose the Amerikan Injustice 
system as the tool of national oppression and 
genocide that it is.

The tactics of COINTELPRO and the imprisonment of 
political leaders and revolutionaries have been 
tools to perpetuate oppression. These tactics, both 
previous and current, must be exposed. We mobilize 
support for the estimated 150-200 prisoners 
incarcerated specifically for political beliefs and 
actions because these are valued leaders whose only 
crimes were actions or beliefs aimed at the 
liberation of the People.

Beyond support for specific individuals, we build 
support for all struggles against oppression. We 
see that the disproportionate imprisonment rate of 
oppressed nationals alone necessitates a broad 
struggle against the current Amerikan prison system 
in its totality. All imprisonment is political 
because of current inequality in Amerikan society, 
poor representation in the court system, 
disproportionate convictions and sentence lengths 
handed down to the oppressed and because of 
conditions in prisons which extend sentences as 
opposed to helping people to become productive 
members of society.

The teach-in will include sessions on the nature of 
the criminal injustice system as well as various 
organizers providing information on local and 
continental campaigns to build support for national 
liberation struggles and prisoners' struggles. A 
preliminary agenda will be available shortly. 
Contact us if you or your organization is 
interested in presenting at the teach-in. For more 
information, e-mail us at rail@mim.org


CYBER-CRIME WATCH:
PIGS USE INTERNET TO COMMIT CRIMES AGAINST THE 
PEOPLE

For months, MIM has reported on ways that law 
enforcement, capitalists like Amerikkka Online, and 
the bourgeois media have worked together to portray 
the Internet as a mode of communication needing 
special surveillance and policing. The bourgeois 
press routinely plays up criminal activity that 
involves the Internet (such as finding a recipe for 
a bomb online) or other behavior deemed anti-social 
(such as ignoring your children or marriage because 
of time spent surfing the Web.) MIM has pointed out 
that these activities are not unique to the 
Internet, and the motivation behind their 
vilification is to promote more law enforcement, 
more privatization, and less of what we currently 
enjoy as "free speech."

While making a big deal out of online crime among 
the people, the pigs are also using the Internet to 
commit crimes against the people. MIM provides a 
few examples below:


FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTION:
http://www.dc.state.fl.us

This site provides information on inmates who have 
been released from the Florida gulags. Calling it 
"in the interest of public safety," in addition to 
release date the site is replete with photographs, 
birth dates, aliases, and a list of "current 
offenses" (for which prison time has already been 
served!). It is searchable by "race" so that with 
no information you can do a search, for example, 
for all Asians released this year. This is just 
part of a larger trend that under the guise of the 
"public's right to know" aims to keep people in 
prison for life, even after they are released.


U.$. MARSHAL'S SERVICE: "WORLD'S MOST WANTED"
http://www.MostWanted.org

Provides names and photographs, like the ones in 
the U.$. Post Office, of fugitives. Provides links 
to many state Drug Enforcement Administration 
agencies that also list names and photographs of 
fugitives. Only quantitatively worse than the low-
tech Post Office mug shots, which at least were not 
broadcast across global networks and turned into 
video games for the settler masses.


MASSACHUSETTS DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS
http://www.magnet.state.ma.us/doc/

Here the Massachusetts DOC boasts of and markets 
quality products made with exploited prison labor 
through "MassCor" Industries, and posts press 
releases bragging about the state of the art 
vehicles used to transport prisoners from 
Massachusetts to Texas.


TENNESSEE DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS
http://www.state.tn.us/corrections

This site topped them all. In addition to such 
things as a "Myths and Facts" section which debunks 
the popular misconceptions about prison life being 
easy or comfortable by bragging about how 
oppressive it really is, this site includes a "Kids 
Fun Zone." There, kids can take a trivia test with 
questions like "Tennessee prisoners are fed... a) 
only rice and beans, b) only bread and water, c) 
the same food you eat" implying that the food in 
Tennessee's prisons is adequate. It also quizzes 
kids humorously on crimes, possible punishments, 
and all around makes jokes at the expense of the 
people it locks up.

Work with MIM and RAIL to expose the injustices of 
Amerikkkan prisons and to organize to protect the 
limited freedoms we have to use the Internet and 
all communications technologies to build public 
opinion on behalf of the international proletariat, 
for socialism.



* * *



ASIAN COMMUNITY MOBILIZES AGAINST PORNOGRAPHY

by a RAIL Comrade

On December 3, over 150 students and faculty 
members at UMass, Boston protested the pornography 
in Mass Media, the conduct of the student senate, 
and the inadequate response from the UMass 
administration.

On November 20, the UMass, Boston student 
newspaper, Mass Media, ran an article exposing the 
UMASS student senate's use of school computers to 
view pornography on the Internet. The Mass Media 
article entitled "Senate Undresses Asian Concerns" 
was accompanied by three partially blacked out, but 
obviously pornographic pictures of Asian wimmin. 
The blackening did not leave much to the 
imagination.

Student senate president, Joe Fernandez, admitted 
that he knew student senators were viewing 
pornography on the senate computers. He claims that 
he asked them repeatedly to stop, but other student 
senate members gave conflicting reports. Senator 
Michael Gervais said some senators have been 
viewing pornography on the state funded computers 
since the fall of 1996. He claims he threatened the 
other senators and they stopped viewing the 
pornography at school. 

An anonymous source delivered evidence to The Mass 
Media, who then published the pornography. The 
publication of this pornography, which was 
primarily pictures of naked Asian women, was a 
sensationalist stunt to get people to pay attention 
to The Mass Media's article. The use of pornography 
by the student senate and then by the student 
newspaper outraged many on campus.

The Asian Student Center at UMass, Boston organized 
the rally that was held on December 3, 1997. The 
rally was attended by many oppressed nationals and 
progressive whites standing before a banner 
proclaiming "Rally Against Sexism and Racism." To 
the side of the rally stood three representatives 
of The Mass Media holding signs proclaiming their 
right to free speech. A few other white nation 
youth wandered around behind the rally heckling the 
speakers. The rally speakers demanded the immediate 
resignation of all student senate members, 
denounced the manner in which The Mass Media 
exposed the situation in the senate, and asked for 
"an open publication of the results of Chancellor 
Penny's Fact-Finding Committee."(1)

A list of demands was drawn up by the Asian Student 
Center and has been given to the student senate, 
The Mass Media, and the administration. One of the 
demands asks that there be a student advisory 
committee as well as an academic advisor appointed 
to supervise the editorial policies and practices 
of the student newspaper.

While MIM agrees with the protesting students, we 
do not consider the formation of oversight 
committees or administration actions an effective 
way to fight this gender and nation oppression. 
Giving any further power to the administration is 
just asking for an institution that is already 
steeped in patriarchal and imperialist ideology to 
take over the greater enforcement of thought 
control. Asking for a student advisory committee is 
better than suggesting that the administration 
should step in. But under imperialism any moves to 
control media are going to end up serving the 
powers that control them. Because the Mass Media is 
a university funded and controlled newspaper, the 
progressive students on campus would be better off 
forming their own alternative newspaper and 
demanding that the university also give them money 
for this project. Only by having complete control 
over the content can activists ensure that they are 
fighting patriarchy and national oppression.

The local bourgeois media parroted The Mass Media's 
approach, displaying the pornography from the cover 
of the Mass Media on local television news 
programs. They condemned the school newspaper's use 
of pornography in words and then parroted The Mass 
Media's sensationalism by showing the same pictures 
they condemned.

MIM and RAIL oppose pornography. It is one of the 
most obvious examples of the unequal power relation 
between people based on gender. The incidents 
involving pornography at UMass, Boston clearly 
demonstrate the role of patriarchy and imperialism 
in this growing industry of oppression. The 
patriarchal culture of Amerikkka creates and 
perpetuates an environment of exploitation for 
wimmin, particularly oppressed nation wimmin.

The UMass Student Senate members and The Mass Media 
staff readily participate in this imperialist 
patriarchal system. The writers at the Mass Media 
used a typical imperialist approach in their 
article, instead of giving a clear political 
analysis. They sensationalized the incident as an 
isolated one, while at the same time claiming 
"pornography is here to stay"(2) The Mass Media was 
right to expose the senate for viewing pornography 
on state funded school computers, but the manner in 
which they exposed the senate was completely wrong. 
The use of pornography to get the people's 
attention is nothing more than the extension of 
gender oppression. 

MIM disagrees with the Mass Media when they say 
"what is clear is that pornography, whether in 
print or on the Internet, is here to stay."(2) 
Pornography may be here to stay under patriarchy, 
but under communism patriarchy and all of its vices 
will be ended. MIM and RAIL conclude that 
patriarchy is alive and kicking in Amerikkkan 
society. We support the Asian community at UMass, 
Boston for organizing against the recent events at 
UMass but we must remember that patriarchy is built 
into this oppressive imperialist system. Therefore 
the only way to fully rid wimmin and all oppressed 
nationals of oppression is to overthrow this 
imperialist patriarchal system. Under a Socialist 
revolution all wimmin will free themselves from 
oppression.


NOTES:
1. List of demands by UMass, Boston Asian Student 
Center.
2. The Mass Media volume 32, number 13.



* * *



AMERIKAN APARTHEID: ENFORCED HOUSING SEGREGATION

by MCB52

When MIM explains that the white nation in this 
country is set apart and above other nations, young 
white folks often try to deny they have benefited. 
They often counter that their families came long 
after slavery and built themselves up, implying 
that Blacks and other oppressed nations could have 
done the same. But the fact of the matter is that 
whites have continued to get special help in 
pursuing the Amerikan dream. The fiftieth 
anniversary of the construction of Long Island's 
Levittown, where white returning GI's got access to 
affordable housing while Black returning GI's were 
excluded, gives us the opportunity to illustrate 
just how the Amerikan version of apartheid has come 
to be.The New York Times does not get this at all, 
and says that it is a "paradox" that "although 
Levittown was built for World War II veterans, who 
had fought tyranny and racism, its doors were 
opened to at least one former German U-boat 
soldier, while black American soldiers were turned 
away." MIM knows that there is nothing paradoxical 
about it. Amerika joined World War II not to fight 
"racism," but to fight for control of resources for 
itself and its allies. That included colonial 
wealth. As internal colonies of the U$, it is no 
more surprising that Black and other oppressed 
nations did not share the fruits of Amerikan 
prosperity than that the neo-colonies of the Third 
World did not share them.The late 1940s and early 
1950s were when the white nation became, in large 
part, suburbanized. While Blacks had moved north 
with the increasing industrial output, the 
migration of whites out of the northern cities 
created a new segregation. This new segregation 
required two things: first, whites had to be able 
to afford to buy the suburban houses, and second, 
Blacks had to be kept out.The houses of Levittown 
and many other suburbs were mass-produced and very 
cheap. Levitt, the developer, was renowned as a 
"visionary," the "Henry Ford of housing" as he 
built 36 two-bedroom houses a day on 60-foot by 
100-foot plots. The price was low, just $7000, or 
monthly payments of $60. Crucially, no down payment 
was required. That meant that even white people 
with no capital could become home owners. This was 
a huge boost to what was becoming the increasingly 
entrenched labor aristocracy of white workers who 
shared the interests of the imperialists.

There was not only an implicit desire among 
builders and agents to sell to white folks, but 
also very explicit prerequisites for those who 
could move in. The standard lease at Levittown, 
which included the option to buy, included this 
clause: "The tenant agrees not to permit the 
premises to be used or occupied by any person other 
than members of the Caucasian race. But the 
employment and maintenance of other than Caucasian 
domestic servants shall be permitted."

In the words of Barbara Kelly, a Hofstra University 
professor of Long Island Studies: "Because 
Levittown promised affordable housing, with no 
downpayment, it offered hope to the African 
American working class when no other community did, 
but that hope was quashed. After the war, blacks 
thought things had changed, but they hadn't, and 
Levittown became a microcosm of that frustration."

Where white workers were given a leg up after World 
War II, Black workers were left behind. Most white 
people live in homes they own, giving them access 
to much more wealth than other nations within U$ 
borders. Differences in income between nations in 
this country are fairly well known, but the depth 
of the difference can only be understood with 
reference to other factors. 

The disparity in income does not reveal the 
disparity in wealth. The latter is much greater in 
a society where people's most valuable asset is 
their home because Blacks are far less likely to 
own homes because of segregation and discrimination 
in banking.(2) While the per capita income of 
Blacks was nearly 60% that of Whites in 1988, their 
net wealth showed a much higher discrepancy.(3) The 
per capita net worth of Blacks, in 1988, was only 
21% of that of Whites.(4)To this day, whites make 
up the overwhelming majority of the 53,000 
Levittown residents, and Blacks less than 1% (only 
0.26%). This is a situation mirrored all over 
suburbia, creating an extreme level of segregation 
across class. Within the study of segregation of 
urban populations, the most comprehensive measures 
of segregation take into account many different 
figures. For example, one multidimensional index 
charts five factors, to show presence of 
"hypersegregation." Ten cities meet these criteria 
for hypersegregation of Blacks. These ten cities 
house 23% of the Black population. In contrast, 
Blacks living in cities with low segregation on at 
least four of the indices comprised only 1.5% of 
all Blacks in the U$.

The days of the no-downpayment house are over, now 
that most white folks have homes, and the only way 
for oppressed nations to change that situation is 
to organize for independent power. When imperialism 
is crushed, the oppressed nations will control the 
land and the wealth they create.


NOTES:
1. New York Times 28 December 1997, p. 23
2. Massey, Douglas S., and Nancy Denton. American 
Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the 
Underclass. Cambridge:  Harvard University Press. 
1993.
3. Tidwell, Billy, Ph.D., ed. 1993. The State of 
Black America 1993. New York: National Urban 
League, Inc. p. 149.
4. Ibid, p. 138.              



* * *



UNDER LOCK & KEY: NEWS FROM PRISONERS AND PRISONS


AMERIKKKAN PRISON EXPLOSION IS OUT OF HAND

The Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC) have 
consistently denied prisoners any form of civil or 
human rights, and have only followed the courts 
many orders to do so grudgingly.

The right to have access to the law library, which 
was successfully won in the case Bounds v Smith, 
430 US 817, 97 S. Ct. 1491 (1977) allowed state and 
federal prisoners the right to be able to challenge 
their convictions, as well as the conditions of 
their confinement. This case, however, have been 
sadly reduced and sliced (by the Supreme Courts 
recent ruling in Lewis v Casey, 1165 S. Ct. 2174, 
1996) whereby prisoners are told they no longer 
have a right of access to the courts. And now the 
prisoners housed in Arizona's Department of 
Corrections (ADOC) are feeling the brunt of this 
ruling (for it was in Arizona that this case 
arose). It is only a matter of time before this 
ruling spreads to other states and throughout the 
United $tates.

Ironically, the U.$. Justice Department has ruled 
(in an investigation into the conditions of Arizona 
and Michigan prisons) that female prisoners at the 
Arizona Center for Women and at state facilities in 
Alhambra, Perryville, and Tucson, have been 
subjected to sexual misconduct and unlawful 
invasions of privacy, including prurient viewing 
during showering, toileting, and dressing.

At Michigan's Scott and Crane (women's) 
correctional facilities, female prisoners have been 
subjected to the same sexual criminal behavior as 
the women in Arizona facilities. And the 
authorities in Michigan have refused to allow 
Justice investigators access to its prisons and 
refused to negotiate to resolve the problem, as 
well as Arizona's department of corrections.

What we find is that the prisoncrats are not 
willing to confess and own-up to known violations 
and criminal behavior within its departments and 
among their employees. Yet, prisoners are 
continuing to lose more and more rights fought and 
died for through the years. This is what the revolt 
at Attica was all about. Prison reform, 
constitutional, civil and human rights. This is 
what so many have suffered trying to obtain.

No one has ever revolted claiming, "We want out of 
prison." All the revolts and prison unrest revolved 
around the inhumane treatment we must suffer while 
paying some debt to society, not to mention that 
many are in prison and were in prison for acts they 
did not commit, but suffered anyway until they were 
able to go back to court to prove themselves with 
the help of prison law libraries and the ability to 
utilize these law libraries.

The prison explosion across Amerikkka has gotten 
totally out of hand as law enforcement reaches out 
to incarcerate children 12, 13, and 14 as adults. 
Refusing to recognize that children this young have 
some behavioral problems that created their 
pathology in the first place. And instead of trying 
to deal with the problem they band-aid it with this 
'lock up' mentality, thus never healing the 
behavior. And the creation for this behavior is 
stemmed from the way society operates and feeds 
upon itself. That is, what is seen on TV, the 
movies, what is read in print or drawn in pictures 
plays a role. Also, mind you, the economic, social 
and political climate of the country, which filters 
down to the very community one lives in, and also 
play a vital role on behaviors, actions and 
reactions.

Michigan has more people locked up than ever before 
and are working overtime to restrict even more 
basic rights from those who are locked up. Already 
Michigan prisoners are not allowed to see their 
children unless they are accompanied by an adult 
and in some cases, can't come into the prison until 
they are 18 years old. [This creates f]urther 
erosion of an already fragmented family structure 
thus adding to the delinquency of young children 
and their involvement with law enforcement.

The Child Welfare League of America Examined the 
arrest records of 75,000 children ages 9 to 12 in 
1996. It found the arrest rate for abused children 
was 60 per 1,000 compared to 0.89 per 1,000 for 
non-abused children. So what does this tell us 
about the status of the prison system? What does 
this say about the hundreds of thousands of 
prisoners in Michigan and the millions across the 
country? There is a social ill at hand and the 
politicians are only interested in building prisons 
because prisons have become the "new kid on the 
block" on Wall Street's stock market.

In the trenches, -- A Michigan Prisoner, 10 
November 1997


HOLIDAY FOOD BASKETS BANNED

...Well, the pigs took our food boxes that we used 
to have sent in during the Christmas season. Now 
we're able to spend a C-note a week. Yeah right, 
huh?! Fools in prison ain't got that kind of money.

I figure it's just a bunch of bullshit to bring the 
DOIC [Department of Incorrections] more money. 
'Cause we were allowed three 25-pound boxes of 
food. And stuff's cheaper on the street than in 
here, you know, despite what lies the public is 
told.

The pigs are going to make a lot of money selling 
some jive ass shit. Before this year, convicts 
hardly bought from the pigs' store during 
Christmas, and the pigs hardly made shit. So that's 
why I think they took the food boxes.

From the looks of it, no one's going to do shit 
about it, or really seems to care that it's fucked 
up. Cause that is what the pigs want so they can 
keep on taking shit from us....

 -- An Arizona Prisoner, 22 November 1997


UPDATE ON 200 PRISONERS SHOT BY PIGS

DEAR MIM, In response to one of your articles under 
lock and key titled, "Pigs Shoot Over 200 
Prisoners". I am one of the inmates who these 
jinn's and uncle tom's shot up. I still have bird 
shot in me, due to lack of medical attention.

Also we given 720 days lock-up time in August 1996. 
Which half of us got our time reduced to 540 days 
by the time our lock-up time was up in January 
1997. We were placed in Maximum Custody for six 
months, which detained us on Administrative 
Segregation until July 1997. When July came we were 
denied release out of Maximum Custody and were 
placed in Security Detention also known to us as 
Security Threat.

We do not meet the requirements for any of the 
above. Every time it's time for us to be released 
back into general population they come up with 
bourgeois excuses not to free the people of 
repression. The whole grievance system here is 
corrupted by these jinn's. South Carolina 
Department of Corrections is in the stage of 
genocidal torture by no other than Texas Klansman 
Michael Moore.

 -- A South Carolina Prisoner, 21 November 1997


FEDS SQUEEZE INDIGENT ACCOUNTS

The federal courts have begun placing holds on 
indigent inmate prison accounts for law petition 
filing fees.

The Florida D.O.C. [Department of Corruption's] is 
also now placing holds on indigent accounts for 
legal copies made for court.

These recent financial holds serve as a deterrent 
to poor prisoners who seek access to the courts. 
What this all boils down to is: "How much justice 
can you afford?"

If the U$ Government squeezes us to death with 
these capitalist sanctions, then the so-called 
little man has to strike back by any means 
necessary!

 -- A Florida Prisoner, 22 October 1997


HARASSMENT AT NEW MISSOURI GULAG

... Now as you may or may not know, the 
corruptional center I'm at is not even a year old 
yet. I've only been here for about 50 days, but I 
see already that shit is top of the line fucked up.

They got me in a cell that is more like an ICEBOX 
but they just turned on the heat yesterday. Yah, 
Right! It's so cold around here that I have a cold. 
I got my cold within 24 hours. We do have blankets, 
but shit they should just call it a damn sheet too. 

The name of this corruptional center is Crossroads. 
The head beast is crazy, but that ain't strange. 
I'm on lock down now. I came from X Correctional 
Center 50 days ago. I haven't had a write up in all 
that time, and the head beast gave me 60 more days 
after I did my 30, for getting too many write ups. 
He also told me that he might just keep me in Ad. 
Seg. [Administration Segregation] for twelve 
months. What kind of shit is this? I ain't got no 
more write ups, but time will tell.

I have seen people in their cells pass out in the 
C.O.'s, Corrupt Officer, eyes and they just walk 
away from the cell. Just think, this is going on 
now at a new born baby corruptional center. What's 
really going on at the old heads of Corruption?

Your Comrade in the state of Misery (Missouri) 
Corruptional Center

 -- A Missouri Prisoner, 17 November 1997


MISSOURI PRISONERS FED UP WITH BRUTALITY

... The department of corruption in the state of 
misery is preparing to open a new maximum security 
prison, and two more are planned.

On 28 August 1997, at crossroads correctional 
center, the black prisoners got fed-up with the 
guards beating prisoners and macing them while in 
their hand-cuffs. So three prison housing units 
rose up and attacked prison guards. Prisoners 
taking away guards' mace cans and spraying them 
with their own chemical mace, and beating five 
guards to a pulp -- two of them high ranking prison 
guards called white shirts. One sergeant was on the 
operating table for eight hours, and the entire 
prison was locked down for two weeks.

On 29 August 1997, 25 prisoners were transferred to 
potosi correctional center, and 60 more remain on 
Lock-down, even though general population is back 
open. 

This incident showed the potential for the 
oppressed to come together in unity to battle the 
common oppressors of us all. Members of the nation 
of Islam, crips and bloods, gang members and 
moores, ALL came together in unity and ran the pigs 
off the yard. Three housing unites were under the 
control of the prisoners. prison pigs were so 
afraid they called the local police from out in 
society to come and help them retake control of 
crossroads.

Of course prisoners who did not participate were 
also locked down, falsely accused and transferred 
to potosi as well. The missouri department of 
corruption was so shook-up over this up-rising that 
the sent military advisers from jefferson city 
correctional center to show crossroads' pigs how to 
operate its slave plantation and teach them tried 
methods of oppression.

Prison officials are now saying that when the new 
prison, Bowling Green, opens that they are to send 
their problems there.

In Solidarity, -- another Missouri Prisoner, 18 
November 97


TEXAS HIGH SECURITY LIFE

I'm writing to you from Texas' newest High Security 
Unit. This unit was built to hold Texas' worst 
prisoners. Well let me tell you that it is a big 
joke! A big joke on the taxpayers' whose money paid 
for this.

I'm on this unit because I was slammed with 
handcuffs on! Most of the people who are over here 
are mental people who came from mental units. They 
were sent here because Texas is cutting back on 
Mental Care.

We are in a cell that has no windows at all. Behind 
a steel door with windows. The officers deny our 
food, recreation, even giving us a change of 
clothes. We are being gassed inside the cells, for 
putting up a sheet or banging on the door to get 
something.

We filed grievance complaints to Warden Figueroa to 
no avail. We are constantly being written bogus 
disciplinary cases and the hearings are a joke. 
Everyone is found guilty, even when it is shown 
that the rules of the disciplinary itself are 
violated [by the pigs]. Then when we come up to 
moved to a better level status, the disciplinary 
Captain denies us our level upgrade because of a 
disciplinary case. And he's the one who finds us 
guilty!

Since I've been over here I've been threatened by 
several officers. My food has been spit in. All 
behind the officer who slammed me. The food is not 
worth anything. I've lost over fifteen pounds since 
I've been over here.

We inmates in Texas have no help. Most of us were 
once in Ad. Seg. [Administrative Segregation]. I'm 
an ex-crip now since I will not do their job for 
them in beating other inmates. The pigs put me in 
segregation, in which I believe they will try to 
kill me! Not only me, there are so many who are 
being messed over and don't even know how to write 
a grievance. And whenever someone else says 
something for them, then they are messed over. It's 
hell over here....

 -- A Texas Prisoner, 13 November 1997


A PLEA FOR HELP

... I am 25 year old inmate in the MDOC Michigan 
Department of Corrections and I write to you on 
behalf of the (PDTRT). It's an organization for the 
betterment of prisoners doing the right thing....

...It is horrible in here. I have been beaten by 
staff. [I have been] refused water, clothes, 
medical attention, protection, food, [use of] the 
phone. I've been spit on called nigger, fag, fuck 
boy, pouch monkey, slave boy and worse. 

I have witnessed several of my friends beaten to 
death by staff. A c/o [corrections officer] paid 
another inmate to stab me. There has been a total 
of four attempts on my life. I live in fear, but 
keep the faith.

I have almost been raped twice. The administration 
doesn't listen or care about us inmates. Staff 
writes fake tickets on us and we have no say in the 
matter. My mother has called to check up on me and 
they hung up on her.

At times I feel like killing myself is the only way 
out. Death can't be as bad as this. I've written to 
so many groups and it is all the same. We need our 
cries for help published. We need to find a group 
of lawyers that are willing to help....

...I have been denied parole for no reason. I am 
begging you for your assistance. Me and many of our 
PDTRT members that are in prison have been put in 
the hole for nothing. We can't use the phone at 
all, we are losing hope.

A brother stopped eating. He is trying to die. He 
has given up, so staff gassed him and beat him. 
Another inmate was begging to see a shrink doctor, 
and they pulled him out of his cell and beat him 
down. His is here at SMF [Standish Maximum 
Facility] where I am. He is only 21 years old, 
first time down. I wrote his family, now one of his 
legs is permanently out of place. 

There isn't much I can do besides try to talk to 
people. But the public needs know what happens in 
here. We are brothers, sons, fathers, uncles, 
cousins, sisters, mothers, aunties, daughters.

They stole my tv, radio, legal papers, clothes, 
shoes, and tapes. But what am I to do? I cry myself 
to sleep like crazy. There are times I wish I could 
lay in my mothers lap and have her kiss my 
forehead, rub her fingers through my hair and make 
everything better. But it's just a dream.

...I've never been the violent type. I couldn't 
kill a fly! But I know I don't deserve this foul 
treatment. Denied razors and my personal hygiene 
products: soap, toothpaste, and deodorant.

It is not just a Black thing. I am for the 
betterment of the millions of all color inmates: 
white, Black, Blue, Green, Yellow, Brown, Chinese, 
Mexican, male, female, gray, bisexual, etc. That is 
what the (PDTRT) is all about. Even reaching our 
inner city youth before they become inmates. People 
say they want to help us. Give us their word, but 
never do anything. Actions speak louder than 
words.... There are a lot of talented men and women 
in prison who really deserve a chance to be 
free....

 -- Another Michigan Prisoner, 8 October 1997

MIM RESPONDS:  Thank you, comrade, for your 
revolutionary work in the struggle. You have been 
organizing prisoners and exposing the truth about 
the atrocities of the prison system. Keep up the 
good work. Please keep us updated on the pig 
brutality so we can continue to expose the truth.

Remember that the imperialists use prison to 
control potential revolutionaries. The pigs will 
try to divide prisoners, pitting one group against 
another, to distract you from targeting the pigs as 
your real enemy.

Don't give up hope. You are not alone in this 
struggle against imperialist domination. There are 
many people outside fighting oppression. When you 
or others feel like killing yourselves, remember 
that's how the pigs want you to feel. You have 
nothing to lose but your chains. Don't give up, 
work for revolution.


MICHIGAN PRISONER BATTLES CENSORSHIP

...As you can see by this rejection notice, that I 
am sending you, I am no longer allowed to receive 
MIM Notes. When I received this notice, I requested 
a hearing so that I could be shown why I'm no 
longer allowed your publication, but was my request 
was denied.

Then today, my cell was searched. Which was not 
unusual. But what was unusual about this search was 
the only things were looked at was my reading 
material and letters, or I should say the addresses 
on my letters. None were taken but, they did a lot 
of writing in their notebooks.

Since for years they've label me a troublemaker and 
an unmanageable convict, it seems that once again 
shit is about to hit the fan, so to speak. But as 
usual, I won't take it lying down. I've filed a 
grievance to the warden and one to the MDOC 
[Michigan Department of Corruption's] in Lansing. I 
won't win the grievances because here in Michigan, 
you never do. But at least in the end someone will 
have to answer my questions of why all of a sudden 
I can't receive MIM Notes anymore.

Other news from here is this prison is closing in 
December by Federal Court Order for repairs that 
will take place about years. At present there are 
less than 300 of us here behind the walls and those 
numbers are dropping every day. The big question on 
everyone's mind is, where are they finding all the 
bed space when all we hear about is the 
overcrowding. With the closing of this facility, 
there are 1,420 less bed in the state. 

There are plans being made to transfer Michigan 
prisoners to Ohio and West Virginia, which brings 
thoughts of attack dogs and sadistic guards as in 
Texas to all of our minds. But so far all transfers 
have been within the state. I'm told I'll be sent 
across the street from here in the next week or two 
but since this problem I had with my choice of 
reading material, maybe I'll be one of the first to 
go out of state.

Right now the MDOC has their back against the wall. 
Taxpayers have said no to more money for 
corrections and the county jails are filled with 
people sentenced to prison. But the receiving 
center here in Jackson is filled so the counties 
are having to hold them until bed space comes open. 
And as usual the parole board refuses to grant 
parole to us in the higher levels. Last year's 
[1996] figures of paroles denies was 57% and this 
year [1997] hasn't been any better as far as I can 
see. 

It is common in this state to do at least 2 flops 
of 12 to 24 months before getting a parole if 
you're in a level 4 or 5 prison. Since Michigan is 
well known for handing out long prison sentences to 
begin with, added to the flops from the parole 
board, most people in level 4 or 5 end up doing 12 
to 15 flat years before being released.

It's just a matter of time before these high level 
joints explode. They've taken all of our programs 
away from us and we're in court right now trying to 
stop them from taking our personal property. Our 
futures here behind these walls are looking dim. 
Even though I can't receive MIM Notes anymore, I'll 
continue to be with you in spirit and will pass on 
any new information about what's happening in 
Michigan's prisons. Stay strong and don't forget 
about us and me.

 -- Another Michigan Prisoner, 19 November 1997

***Letters of Protest can be sent to the warden: 
4008 Cooper St., Jackson, MI 49201-7510***


ILLINOIS PRISONER FIGHTS CENSORSHIP

These no good corruptional officers have 
confiscated the literature I had of MIM Notes and a 
month later I was transferred to another 
corruptional center called pontiac.

Well at the time the literature was confiscated, I 
was at the stateville corruptional center. A month 
later in August 1997 I was transferred here at 
pontiac! They sent me a notice stating that the 
publication was not allowed and that it was a 
threat to the environment I was in. And it was a 
threat to the highest ranking pig there which was 
the fat warden (George E. Detella) at the 
stateville corruptional center. So I'm asking all 
comrades that in the corruptional systems to stand 
for the rights to have MIM Notes in all the 
corruptional centers in the united snakes!

I'm also going to write a grievance to the 
Grievance officer concerning this issue and would 
like for comrades to understand that these no good 
systems are trying to stop us from receiving MIM 
Notes. We have to stand strong in these injustice 
systems and stand up for the people who stand for 
us, my brothers -- I'm talking about MIM Notes! So 
to all my comrades in the system and out please 
stand for something that's worth standing for and 
for someone who is on our side not against us OK?. 
Stand strong my brothers. ...

 -- An Illinois Prisoner, 11 September 1997

***Letters of protest can be written to the warden: 
P. O. Box 99. Pontiac, IL 61764.***



* * *


MIM ON PRISONS AND PRISONERS

MIM seeks to build public opinion against Amerika's 
criminal injustice system, and to eventually 
replace the bourgeois injustice system with 
proletarian justice. The bourgeois injustice system 
imprisons and executes a disproportionately large 
and growing number of oppressed people while 
letting the biggest mass murderers - the 
imperialists and their lackeys - roam free. 
Imperialism is not opposed to murder or theft, it 
only insists that these crimes be committed in the 
interests of the bourgeoisie.

MIM does not advocate that all prisoners go free 
today; we have a more effective program for 
fighting crime as was demonstrated in China prior 
to the restoration of capitalism there in 1976. We 
say that all prisoners are political prisoners 
because under the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, 
all imprisonment is substantively political. It is 
our responsibility to exert revolutionary 
leadership and conduct political agitation and 
organization among prisoners -- whose material 
conditions make them an overwhelmingly 
revolutionary group. Some prisoners should and will 
work on self-criticism under a future dictatorship 
of the proletariat in those cases in which 
prisoners really did do something wrong by 
proletarian standards.


***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.

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