This is an archive of the former website of the Maoist Internationalist Movement, which was run by the now defunct Maoist Internationalist Party - Amerika. The MIM now consists of many independent cells, many of which have their own indendendent organs both online and off. MIM(Prisons) serves these documents as a service to and reference for the anti-imperialist movement worldwide.
Maoist Internationalist Movement

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         THE MAOIST INTERNATIONALIST MOVEMENT

  MIM Notes 170              September 15, 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.  U.$. IMPERIALISM CONTINUES WORLD WAR III
2.  NUMBER IMPRISONED IN AMERIKAN CONTINUES TO RISE
3.  LETTERS
4.  ALBANY PIGS & ALL PIGS ARE AMERIKKKA¹S MILITARY ARM FOR 
    NATIONAL OPPRESSION; REPORT INCRIMINATES ALBANY POLICE
5.  ALBANY COPS IMMUNE TO ASSAULT CHARGES
6.  PROTESTS CONTINUE AGAINST U.$-BACKED INDONESIAN GOVERNMENT
7.  PUERTO RICO SETS DATE FOR PHONY PLEBISCITE 
8.  SPIES TAKE $44 BILLION IN U.$. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
9.  REACTIONARY DOING TIME, DOING VIPASSANA TELLS PRISONERS:
    "FIND PRISON OPPRESSIVE? DON'T ORGANIZE, MEDITATE!"
10. U.$. BOMBS IMPORTANT PHARMACEUTICAL PLANT IN SUDAN
11. CONTINUED U.$. ATTACKS AGAINST IRAQI PEOPLE
12. U.$. IS BIGGEST TERRORIST IN AFGHANISTAN
13. DOWN WITH IMPERIALISM!
    U.$. BOMBINGS SHOW IMPERIALIST LUST FOR WAR
14. PEOPLE PROTEST IMPERIALIST MILITARISM
15. CIA TERRORISM GROWS IN ANGOLA
16. WHAT'S THE BIGGEST ORGANIZED CRIME FAMILY?
    THE FBI
17. GUATEMALA SUES U.$. TOBACCO FIRMS
18. OUTRAGE OVER RAPIST'S UNREPENTANT FRIEND:
    DON'T RELY ON IMPERIALIST COURTS AND COPS TO END 
    PATRIARCHY!
19. PIG COLLECTION OF PRISONER'S DNA HALTED
20. RAIL RAISES CONSCIOUSNESS AND FUNDS AT WARPED TOUR
21. HAND-WRITING ANALYSIS IS LATEST MANAGEMENT 
    HOCUS-POCUS
22. WHEN YOU ROLL SNAKE EYES, THE WHITE HOUSE WINS
23. UNDER LOCK & KEY: NEWS FROM PRISONS AND PRISONERS


* * *


WHAT IS MIM?

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

MIM is an internationalist organization that works 
from the vantage point of the Third World 
proletariat; thus, its members are not Amerikans, 
but world citizens.

MIM struggles to end the oppression of all groups 
over other groups: classes, genders, nations.  MIM 
knows this is only possible by building public 
opinion to seize power through armed struggle.

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

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

MIM accepts people as members who agree on these 
basic principles and accept democratic centralism, 
the system of majority rule, on other questions of 
party line.

"The theory of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin is 
universally applicable. We should regard it not as 
dogma, but as a guide to action. Studying it is 
not merely a matter of learning terms and phrases, 
but of learning Marxism-Leninism as the science of 
revolution."
-- Mao Zedong, Selected Works, Vol. II, p. 208


* * *


U.$. IMPERIALISM CONTINUES WORLD WAR III

The United Snakes of Imperialism dealt its most recent military 
blow of World War III on August 20, 1998 with its bombing of 
Sudan and Afghanistan. Imperialism economically, politically 
and militarily dominates oppressed nations throughout the 
world. The purpose of imperialist hegemonic control is to 
extract wealth and exploit labor to increase the wealth and 
power of the imperialist nation. 

The most recent military strikes and the intensified so-called 
anti-terrorist campaign is part of a war long ago launched 
against the majority of the world's peoples -- World War III. 
This war is the primary cause of death, starvation, poverty, 
illness, crime and social problems. MIM supports the growing 
anti-imperialist sentiment and organizing among oppressed 
nation masses. We denounce the recent military attacks and MIM 
strongly denounces the real terrorist: Amerikkkan imperialism.

In the official Amerikkkan rhetoric immediately following the 
strikes against Sudan and Afghanistan in which 75 Tomahawk 
cruise missiles were used, the United Snakes claimed that there 
was "compelling," yet classified, information which linked 
Osama bin Laden to the bombing attacks against the Amerikkkan 
embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The United Snakes used this as 
reason for bombing alleged training camps of Islamic rebels in 
Afghanistan and a pharmaceutical plant in Sudan.

A CNN-USA Today poll following the bombings stated that the 
majority of Amerikkka supported these imperialist attacks with 
65% of parasitic imperialist masses in the country supporting 
the use of further action including ground deployment to 
allegedly stamp out Islamic terrorism.

Immediately following the bombing, Pakistan announced that one 
of the never-miss missiles landed in its territory and injured 
a half dozen people. Clinton quickly called the Pakistani 
president. Afterward, Pakistan retracted its statement that a 
missile had hit its territory.

Several days after the bombing, protests around the world, and 
compelling and well-documented information made clear that the 
U.$. had struck a genuine pharmaceutical plant. The constantly 
changing and contrived justifications that the u.s. uses to 
justify invasion of other countries, such as the claim that 
this plant was manufacturing a deadly nerve gas, do not 
convince MIM. And even if this were true MIM would not support 
the biggest terrorist organization in the world invading other 
countries as a self-appointed global police.

As MIM Notes goes to press, the people of Sudan as well as many 
other countries have called for a fact-finding committee of the 
United Nations to prove that the factory had nothing to do with 
the production of chemical weapons components. The United 
Snakes says that this is not necessary and refuses to turn over 
the evidence which supposedly justifies the direct military 
invasion of two nations.

MIM calls on all anti-militarists, pacifists and progressives 
to work with RAIL and oppose the direct military attacks 
against the Third World people. MIM calls on all anti-
imperialists to organize against this particular campaign and 
imperialism in general and build genuine anti-imperialist 
organizations as strong forces within the United Front against 
imperialism. The MIM-led United Front against imperialism 
carries out education campaigns while developing independent 
institutions of the oppressed. We build towards the day when we 
will tear down the current illegitimate Amerikkkan government 
through armed revolutionary struggle to ending oppression and 
construct a society which represents the interests of the 
masses.


* * *


NUMBER IMPRISONED IN AMERIKAN CONTINUES TO RISE:

Trend towards fascism against oppressed nations continues
The number of people in Amerika's prisons and jails rose to 
1,725,842 in 1997 - an increase of 5.2 percent. By 1997, the 
number of incarcerated Black men passed the number of white men 
in prisons and jails. Close to ten percent of Black men aged 25 
through 29 were in prison last year. The imprisonment of Black 
men at eight times the rate of white men is an example of how 
the prisons system is a tool for the repression of oppressed 
nations within u.$. borders.(1)

As the Bureau of Justice Statistics report citing these figures 
is being publicized, we are also learning that all the talk of 
decreased crime rates in Amerika may be just that. Several 
major U.$. cities have recently been exposed for tampering with 
their own crime rate statistics, especially downgrading 
felonies to less serious crimes to reduce the number of crimes 
that get reported to the federal government.(2)

MIM likes to point out that despite the wildly growing number 
of prisoners in this country in the past 30 years, the crime 
rate remained steady. So Amerikan prisons do nothing to end 
crime. The fact that several police departments tampered with 
their crime rate statistics goes to show that crime rates are 
irrelevant to imperialism. In 1998, lower crime rates sell 
police departments and so lower crime rates are what the 
departments deliver. The important thing is to keep up some 
justification for increased fascism against oppressed nation 
communities.

MIM calls the growing prison system and the police departments 
that feed off of putting people in prison all part of emerging 
fascism in Amerika. While we hold that Amerika is not fascist 
at this time, there are elements of fascism in this country, 
specifically in the prisons. Fascism is defined as the 
combination of the state and capital for the extraction of 
forced labor, and we see fascism in the pay-for-imprisonment 
systems that prisoners are being subjected to around Amerika. 
We see fascism particularly in prisons growth, complete with 
private capital investment in prisons.(3)

Texas has the highest rate of imprisonment in the u.$. - 717 
prisoners per 100,000 population. The nearest competitor is 
California, with 672 per 100,000. When it comes to regions, the 
South "wins," with 506 prisoners per 100,00 throughout the 
region.(1) Coincidentally, the two largest private prisons 
companies in Amerika are based in the South -- Corrections 
Corporation of America (CCA), in Tennessee (4) and Wackenhut in 
Florida. Business is booming for private prisons as Amerika 
cracks down on the oppressed.

States all over the country are contracting with private prison 
companies to build pieces of their state system. Earlier this 
year, 100 Indiana prisoners were sent to a CCA-run prison in 
Tennessee. They are to remain there indefinitely. Contrary to 
the usual argument that private prisons are so great because 
they cost the state less money, it will cost roughly the same 
to house these 100 men in the Hardeman County Correctional 
Facility as it would have cost to keep them in Indiana.(5)

More recently, CCA has signed agreements to open new prisons 
and jails with the state of Montana, and the county of Tulsa, 
Oklahoma. The Montana agreement calls for a 500-bed men's 
prison that will cost $25 million. The prison will be 
expandable to house 1,500 prisoners and will be built and then 
run for four years by CCA from the time it is completed in 
August 1999. This contract is supposed to bring in $9 million 
per year for CCA while it houses 500 prisoners.(6)

In Tulsa, CCA will build a 1,440-bed multi-security-level jail 
of which 1,100 beds will be used immediately. The Tulsa 
facility should be open by April, 1999. After signing the Tulsa 
deal, CCA was running and building a total of 79 repressive 
facilities with 64,946 beds in the U.$. and other countries. 
The Tulsa contract will bring in more than $17 million for CCA 
when the jail is filled to capacity.(7)

The state of Georgia recently built its first private prison - 
contracting with Cornell Corrections Corporation. The prison 
cost $38 million to build and will imprison 750 people. The 
town where the prison is located, Folkston, is apparently 
thrilled that it can now take part in the prisons boom. It is 
expecting to double its population from 2,400 to 4,800 because 
it can now support more citizens who will live off the 
repressive institution.(8)

Just as we see emerging fascism in private corporations opening 
and running their own prisons for profit, we see it in state 
prison systems charging prisoners for their own imprisonment. 
One such pay-for-imprisonment is Ohio's recently adopted plan 
to squeeze $3 from a prisoner each time s/he makes a non-
emergency visit to a doctor or other medical personnel. The 
state claims that the policy is intended to discourage false 
claims of illness -- so that prisoners will not try to skip 
days of work by claiming they are sick when they are not.

But with inmate pay scales averaging to $18 per month, and 
needing that money to buy things like stamps, envelopes and 
soap, $3 per medical visit looks a lot more like extortion or 
an ultimatum to keep prisoners from seeking care than it looks 
like a deterrent to skipping work. An Ohio prisons spokesperson 
claims that prisoners who do not have money in their accounts 
are not denied care.(4) And possibly this is true, but MIM 
already knows that prisoners in Michigan have debits placed on 
their accounts regardless of whether the money is there when 
they make a charge or not.

In Iowa and Michigan, prisoners also pay $3 a pop for health 
care visits, and this can be for minimal care or advice.(9) And 
in Illinois, prisoners are provided some health care within the 
prison, but are charged $2 if they have to leave the prison to 
go to the hospital.(10)

Prisons growth

With so much money to be made off imprisonment, it's no wonder 
Amerika is rushing to lock more people up than ever before. But 
rather than admit the real motives for building prisons -- 
national oppression and profit -- the U.$. government and media 
focus on the supposed fact that Amerikans "are safer because 
more criminals are behind bars."(8) 

But the same numbers that show the prisoner population growing 
at a rate that will top 2 million by the year 2000 show that 
most of this growth can be attributed to those under lock and 
key serving longer sentences and being denied parole. Prisoners 
incarcerated for parole violations also now account for 30 
percent of the total prison population, up from 15 percent in 
1980. And all of these changes amount to the same thing: 
prisoners are serving longer sentences for the same 
convictions.(1)

This straight-up lock-em-up approach to prisoners reveals the 
gross hypocrisy of the system that claims it is for 
"corrections," and of those state systems like the one in Ohio 
that use the term "rehabilitation" in their names. By 
criminalizing prisoners, and by arguing that the most correct 
approach to crime is to keep human beings confined to prison 
cells for more years off their lives, the statisticians, 
analysts, policy makers, and the keepers of the keys are 
arguing that once a persyn is convicted of a crime that's it 
for them, bar them from society for life.

MIM agitates against prisons and for prisoners' rights because 
we believe firmly that human potential is infinite, as Mao 
said. And prisons in Amerika do all they can to destroy human 
beings' capacity and will to exercise their potential. We write 
propaganda like this to show that while the bourgeoisie has its 
side of the story that says society is better with people being 
locked down, we have our side too. MIM builds independent 
institutions of the oppressed and builds public opinion in 
favor of the just struggles of the oppressed. We do this 
without any pretensions toward being objective because we are 
firmly subjectively invested in the interests of the oppressed. 
We are working toward the goal of revolution to overturn the 
oppressive institutions of the current imperialist society and 
replace them with institutions run by and in the interests of 
the international proletariat.

Notes:
1. New York Times 9 August 1998, p. 14. (The contrasts between 
the white and Black nations in the prison figures are most 
stark, but part of this is attributable to inaccurate or 
incomplete reporting on Latinos in Federal surveys. Even with 
current reporting, 2.6 percent of "Hispanic" men between 25 and 
29 are in prisons and jails -- compared to 0.8 percent of white 
men the same age. But it is impossible to distinguish between 
Blacks and the Latino nations with these categories because the 
government does not clarify how many Latinos are of African 
descent, etc. The article MIM found on this subject also did 
not list any figures for First Nations.)
2. New York Times 3 August 1998, p. 1.
3. MIM Theory 11: Amerikan Prisons on Trial.
4. Associated Press 10 August 1998.
5. The Evansville Press 10 April 1998, p. 15.
6. CCA press release 22 July 1998.
7. CCA press release 27 July 1998.
8. Savannah Morning News 10 August 1998.
9. Michigan DOC Notice to Prisoners: Prisoner Co-Pay for Health 
Care; An Iowa prisoner 16 July, 1998.
10. An Illinois prisoner 13 May 1998.

(MIM is aware of many other states charging prisoners for 
pieces of their imprisonment, but there are too many instances 
to list in one place. Contact us if you would like to work with 
us on compiling all this information for quick anti-prisons 
activism reference.)

* * *

LETTERS

Black wimmin face national oppression
Dear Editor, I am writing your newspaper to protest and to 
provide a counter-analysis to "Black Birthrate for Single Woman 
the United States," which appeared in the New York Times July, 
1, 1998.

One of the oldest myths of US society is the sexual and family 
irresponsibility of Blacks in America. Whether it be the 
stereotype of the Black man as 'Mandingo' (the sexual stud) or 
the Black woman as a 'baby-making welfare queen' the sexual and 
irresponsibility myths are part of the pack of racist lies, 
slander, and defamation that are at the core of American 
ideology and values.

A society cannot oppress a nationality without having an 
arsenal of ideas that justify that oppression. Newspapers, 
television, radio, movies, and popular culture in US 
imperialist society arc all undercoated with these myths as to 
why imperialism is 'correct and good.' Racist and sexist myths 
are used to justify every embodiment of sexual and racist 
oppression.

In this instance, this newspaper article would have the naive 
reader to believe that if fewer single Black women gave birth 
to children, fewer Black people would live in poverty. Poverty 
is therefore defined by the NYT as a variable that can be 
controlled by the people. And Black poverty is, therefore, 
linked to poor, unmarried single Black mothers.

The unspoken assumption is that Black women, not America, are 
the cause of this poverty.

A revolutionary and historical analysis is the only method that 
can be used to arrive at the truth. We must define 
revolutionary as the set of ideas and values that seeks to 
overturn the power of capital (banking, finance, and 
manufacturing) by the oppressed toilers and masses.

In this situation, the truth is that Black people in the United 
States (the descendants of the slave trade of the 17th, 18th 
and 19th century into the Western Hemisphere) have had a 
relationship to the United States government and the United 
States economy that is one of racism and national oppression. 
Post-slavery America has seen the full development of various 
classes in the Black nation, mostly working class and poor, 
with large numbers of middle class, and a small elite.

Large numbers of Black people in the United States live in 
poverty, both women and men. (The majority of Black people are 
women.) Although this article will not quote statistics, the 
earning power of Black people is less than white people in the 
United States. The earning power of Black women is less than 
Black men. And the majority of Black families are headed by 
Black women. Therefore, the relationship between Black women 
and US imperialism is one of sexual and national oppression 
(also known as gender and economic racism). When these women 
bear children their families are, therefore, more likely to be 
poor than the children of a white American female.

It must be remembered that racist US imperialism systematically 
under-employs Black people. It must be remembered that the 
dirtiest jobs in the economy are often filled by Blacks. It 
must be remembered that there are certain places in the 
American workforce where it is still rare to see a Black face 
(for example, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning jobs, 
or maintenance mechanics or electronic technicians or computer 
software technicians, et et cetera.) But there are many jobs 
where it is quite common to find Black single women (such as 
fast-food jobs, maids in hotels, and employees in dry cleaners, 
supermarket check-out cashiers.) Because of these realities, 
single Black female parents are more than likely to 'feel the 
heel' of the US economy on their neck while they work, live, 
and raise their families.

This truth must be twisted by US imperialism because it is a 
truth that exposes the racist essence of the relationship 
between Black women and US imperialism. Therefore, articles are 
published that promote the myth of "irresponsibility" among 
Black single mothers.

An interesting fact can also be seen by observing a chart in 
this same article. This particular line graph shows that while 
Black childbirths by Black single moms is supposedly 
decreasing, childbirths by white single women is not. No racist 
remarks or analysis is made about single white mothers causing 
white poverty. There is no need for US imperialism to create 
that lie. Why? Because white Americans do not face national 
oppression. The prisons are not reserved for them. And their 
wages are not depressed because of their structural 
relationship to US imperialism. Since this is not the case, 
lies and other myths will not be created to condemn them as a 
segment of US society. But since Black people do face national 
oppression in the United States, and since poor and working 
class Black women's wages are depressed as a consequence of 
their economic relationship to US imperialism, public opinion 
will be created to attempt to marginalize these women within US 
society.

All dictatorships and all oppressive societies attempt to 
create scapegoats in order to hide the real reasons for glaring 
contradictions within their society. Single Black women are 
used as a scapegoat to explain the lingering poverty within the 
Black nation and the Black population.

What can be done? The most important thing is to continue to 
build revolutionary movements, organizations, and theory. 
Without revolutionary movements, revolutionary organization and 
revolutionary theory, the revolutionary truth cannot be spread 
among the proletariat and oppressed masses. Without this trio, 
the power of capital cannot be opposed or overthrown.

In this instance, the truth must be told far and wide. No 
sexist and racist attack on single Black mothers must be 
allowed to go unanswered.

Revolutionaries should not shy away from important ideological 
issues such as the one discussed in this article. The 
imperialists attack their enemies daily, monthly, yearly and in 
each epoch with lies, slander, and myth. The revolutionaries, 
the proletariat, and their allies must spread their class truth 
in the same manner. This is the only way to create the 
conditions for staging winning important battles in the arena 
of ideas and politics. These battles and struggles are very 
important in waging the people's campaign to defeat US 
imperialism and its allies.

--A comrade in the wind. July, 1998

MIM responds: We agree with this comrade's analysis of the 
national oppression faced by Black wimmin. The principal 
contradiction within u.s. borders is the contradiction between 
the oppressed and the oppressor nations. Because of this, the 
oppressed nations, including the Black nation, face the 
repression and oppression described by the writer. Because 
white people in the united snakes enjoy the status of oppressor 
nation, they also enjoy the cultural benefits which include 
propaganda portraying white wimmin as responsible mothers in 
contrast to Black wimmin as in the case of this New York Times 
article.

We agree with the writer's conclusion that the only solution to 
this national oppression is revolutionary struggle. We must 
expose the ideas of our enemies for the lies that they are. And 
at the same time we must build an organization capable of 
overthrowing the imperialists using the lessons of past 
revolutionary struggles. Work with MIM to build this 
organization and expose the lies of our enemies. Send articles 
like the above to MIM Notes to help expose the imperialists.


* * *

ALBANY PIGS & ALL PIGS ARE AMERIKKKA¹S MILITARY ARM FOR 
NATIONAL OPPRESSION
REPORT INCRIMINATES ALBANY POLICE

by an RC
Police brutality and national oppression within the Albany 
Police Department has been brought into the spotlight by local 
mainstream media in response to recent incidents. Two cases 
that occurred last year have been at the forefront of this 
coverage. The first case involved three young Black men who 
were attacked outside a local club by police yelling racist 
names who unleashed an attack dog on them. The second case 
involved a bar fight which ended by two off-duty officers 
bringing Jermaine Henderson to a police garage and beating him. 
In the latter case the court recently decided the pigs were all 
immune (see accompanying article pg. 5).

In light of the recent attention given to police brutality, the 
Center for Law and Justice carried out an unscientific survey 
of Albany residents, and included it in "To Protect and Serve?" 
a status report on the relationship between the community and 
the Albany Police Department. The Center is a progressive group 
that has worked in Albany to advocate a lessening of the police 
state and the prison industrial complex in New York.

For a more thorough history of police activity in the Albany 
area refer to the first section of the report which details a 
history of racism which was acknowledged by state officials and 
the whole police department. But this is not just an Albany 
issue, this history could be of any city in the U.$. where 
police are Amerika¹s military arm for national oppression. 
Oppressed nations and youth don't trust cops
The most incriminating confession in the Center's report may be 
that given by a former Albany police officer who assured that 
being Black, Latino, in an interracial couple, or driving a 
nicer car than an officer are all circumstances that make 
police beatings more likely to occur. "Police brutality has 
been going on forever in the Albany Police Department. It 
starts with the rookies right out of the academy..." 

This statement does not come as a huge surprise to people who 
are the victims of police brutality everyday, as the Center's 
survey indicates. Compared to whites, Blacks and Latinos 
interviewed by the Center had a much more negative attitude in 
general towards the police. Similarly, people ages 16-20 
expected much less from the police than older people who got 
progressively more confidant in the police with age.

These attitudes are evidence of a systematic form of 
oppression. Blacks and Latinos don' t trust the police because 
experiences have taught them that the police are not looking 
out for their interests. On the other hand a majority of whites 
know that the police exist to protect their material interests 
which involve maintaining hegemony over the oppressed nations 
of the world, specifically the oppressed in the U.$. when we're 
discussing the domestic police forces. And it is young people 
who recognize the injustice that exists in a system which uses 
a large militarized force to maintain the wealth of the 
minority over the majority of people of the world. These same 
young people often don't have a large stake in maintaining such 
a system and therefore must be targeted by the police to keep 
them in check for as long as they stay opposed to that system.

As part of their service to the community, the Center for Law 
and Justice collects reports of police brutality from the 
people. From 1996-1997 they received 53 complaints against the 
police:  including 27 for brutality and 16 for harassment.

Out of the 27 brutality charges only 12 had enough confidence 
in the police department to file a charge directly with them. 
Of those 12, most had trouble with the filing process. As of 
the report, 6 had still been unresolved and five had been 
reported as "unfounded" complaints by the department's internal 
investigations. In fact, from 1991-1997 there were a total of 
776 complaints filed with the department; 106 of which were for 
brutality. Of those only two were considered "substantiated" by 
the department itself.

One of the problems dealt with by the Center is the difficulty 
that people face filing charges against police in the first 
place. They criticize the police department for "performing 
much of its work out of the public view and operating as a 
paramilitary operation set apart from the community." While 
this is true, this is inherent in the nature of a force whose 
purpose is to protect the interest of one group (the white 
settler nation) against the interest of another (oppressed 
nations.) They are not there to "serve the people" as the title 
of the report questions. Once one recognizes this, it becomes 
futile to try to turn the imperialist police into a force that 
serves the communities they are occupying.

While organizing for more citizen power in police 
investigations is a progressive action, accepting the existence 
of the police will lead to a reformist strategy that depends on 
the cops to change the cops. MIM upholds a revolutionary 
platform which has the goal of eradicating the police as a part 
of the U$ government that is responsible for violent repression 
around the world.

How to fight criminal injustice

The Center's survey addressed a few possibilities for improving 
the relations between police and the community. The results 
were the following:  63.5% supported more cops on the street, 
76.9% supported more police sponsored education programs, 89.4% 
supported community oversight of internal investigations, and 
95.2% supported officer training in ethnic/cultural issues. 
(One should remember the survey was not carried out 
scientifically, therefore these numbers are probably flawed.)

The worst of these solutions is to increase the number of 
police. It should be noted that only 33% of young people 
supported this option, while 100% of those over 60 did. Many 
people in the U.$. are under the false illusion that more 
police and prisons will bring more order to society by 
isolating the bad seeds. But as the police state of the latter 
part of this century advances, numbers are becoming more 
conclusive that increased police and prisons do not reduce 
crime at all. (See MIM Theory #11 "Amerikkkan Prisons on Trial" 
p.42 and other articles for more information on this. Available 
from MIM for $6.)

The number three choice, more police programs, is also against 
the interests of the people, merely giving the police more 
power and influence over the community. For some reason the 
Center was "surprised" by the 89.4% who supported community 
oversight of the police. It is unclear why this was surprising 
to them. This solution is the only one of the four that could 
be progressive, and serve to help the community in dealing with 
the police. Carried out in the model of the Black Panther Party 
where the revolutionary organization policed the pigs and kept 
them from beating and killing people in the community, police 
oversight can literally save lives. However, this option does 
not stop systematic repression and can further the 
integrationist strategy of trying to get more pigs who are 
Black or Latino, but really represent the interests of the 
oppressor. Under the leadership of the proletariat can 
community policing be a tool against national oppression.

The most popular choice, sensitivity training, is very 
idealistic to think that police can be taught to be nice to the 
people they are programmed to repress. This is why MIM stresses 
the national contradiction here in the U.$., to point out that 
it is not individual's racist ideas that are the problem, but a 
system based on national oppression that creates the problem. A 
materialist view of the situation shows that ideas that stem 
from social relationships. (See MIM Theory #7 "Proletarian 
Feminist Revolutionary Nationalism" for more on the national 
contradiction with u.s. borders. Available from MIM for $6.)

While community oversight can be a good way to organize against 
the police, that does not mean that any so-called oversight 
committee will serve the people by protecting them from police 
brutality. Again the mistake is often made of relying on the 
system to change its ways without changing the system as a 
whole. The Black Panther Party had a program that relied on 
policing the cops, thereby denying the authority of the U.$. 
police by instituting their own protection through force. 
During its time it was a very successful program which looked 
out for the people in the community. The Center's status report 
gives a good example of the very opposite. It looks at the 
Community Police Relations Board, established in 1984 after the 
murder of a handicapped Black man by the Albany police. This 
was not built by the community and not led by the proletariat, 
but set up by the government. The Board has virtually no public 
participation because of inconsistent, last minute scheduling.

Further investigation by the Center proved the Board to be more 
of a police support group than anything else. The minutes from 
meetings showed a "preoccupation with police-sponsored 
activities and programs such as PAL and DARE." Members 
reportedly frequented police academy graduations and police 
retirement celebrations. Their activities proved to be against 
the people when the Board lobbied the New York Court of Appeals 
for stiffer sentencing penalties against defendants.

In fact, the Community-Police Relations Board serves the 
purpose of smoothing over relations between the police and 
those members of the community who are willing to support the 
intensifying police state. It is up to the people to create 
their own organization that will increase the power of the 
people, not of the police. 

The Center's report both looks at the history of police 
activity in Albany and brings forth new evidence to incriminate 
the department. While the report lacked a clear line, it does 
give people a lot of information to use against the injustice 
system. In a high point of the report, they question "whether 
limiting citizen oversight to instances of individual police 
misconduct and discipline is adequate to effectively address 
the problem which is often rooted in the operating environment, 
both political and social, of the department and community." 
However, they do not go on to describe that environment which 
is the imperialist system carried out by the U.$. government. 
It is by recognizing police brutality and criminal injustice as 
a systematic problem, and not a few bad cops like the 
mainstream media suggests, that we can begin to come up with 
ways of ending such violent repression.
Note: 

To Protect And Serve? The Center for Law and Justice, Inc. June 
1998. For a copy send $3 to Pine West Plaza Building 2, 
Washington Ave. Ext. Albany, NY 12205.

MIM and RAIL receive countless direct reports from the masses 
both battling the pigs on the streets and the pigs in prisons. 
We publicize the information to organize against this constant 
terror, but we can use your help in distributing the 
information further and working with MIM and RAIL on a 
compilation project. Contact mim@mim.org to help gather and 
distribute the information gathered from the masses.


* * 


ALBANY COPS IMMUNE TO ASSAULT CHARGES

One of the high-profile brutality cases in Albany last year was 
the beating of a young Black student athlete by two white cops. 
The fight began between Jermaine Henderson and two off-duty 
cops in a local bar. The incident ended in the garage of a 
police station where Henderson was beaten by officers Bonanni 
and McKenna.

The officers were immediately suspended. Soon after, Mayor 
Jerry Jennings released evidence of a cover-up attempt by the 
department. The Albany police responded in full fascist form by 
marching in front of city hall to protest the treatment of the 
two officers. They knew that it was the government's job to 
back up the department in their repression, both legal and 
illegal. Many police also raised money to support their 
colleagues, which brought the attention of many Black groups 
concerned with the power of the Albany Police Officers 
Union.(1)

Mayor Jennings continued to hold strong against the charged 
police to their dismay. However, the court dismissed charges of 
assault against the officers after they testified against 
Henderson without waiving their right to immunity. They dropped 
the charges against Henderson in a similar deal.(2) As a 
result, the courts releasing two guilty cops with the small 
trade off of letting one Black man free.

Meanwhile hundreds of thousands of Black men fill U.$. prisons, 
while cops continue to run the streets free. Even though the 
police have taken some heat in this case, the system has 
succeeded in maintaining the Amerikan status quo. The Albany 
police continue to keep brutality investigations secret so that 
the pigs can cover each other's asses. Until we overthrow this 
system of imperialism we can't expect the pigs to change. Their 
job is to protect and serve the unjust system.

Note:
1. To Protect and Serve?
2. Times Union 13 August 1998, p.A-1.


* * *

PROTESTS CONTINUE AGAINST U.$-BACKED INDONESIAN GOVERNMENT

by MC17
In Indonesia protests continue against the U.$. backed military 
dictatorship. On August 25 police broke up a demonstration in 
support of Megawati Sukarnoputri in the city of Palu.

In 1997 the U$ congress allocated an additional $4.5 million in 
aid to the Indonesian dictatorship, with $100,000 aimed at 
military training alone.(2) In addition to brutally repressing 
and offering up for exploitation its own people, Indonesia 
occupies East Timor, an occupation infamous for the brutality 
and oppression the East Timorese have undergone.

In all, the United States has sold more than $1.1 billion in 
weaponry to Indonesia since its 1975 invasion of East Timor; 
the sales have gone on in Republican and Democratic 
administrations alike, regardless of the rhetoric espoused by 
the President at the time. According to the U.S. Arms Control 
and Disarmament Agency, from 1992 to 1994 (the most recent 
years for which full data is available), Indonesia received 53% 
of its weapons imports from the United States.(3)

Megawati was ousted as head of the Indonesian Democratic Party 
(PDI) in a military-sponsored party congress in June of 1996 
under President Suharto's leadership. Although Suharto stepped 
down in the face of massive protests, his successor was a loyal 
and trained supporter and little has changed since the new 
figurehead, B.J. Habibie, took power.

Over 1,000 Megawati backers converged on the building where the 
congress of the PDI was being held, claiming that Soerjadi had 
been illegally installed as chief of the party.

Megawati is the eldest daughter of Sukarno, Indonesian's 
president prior to the coup by Suharto which led to the 
massacre of hundreds of thousands of communists and other 
activists.

The military seizing control of the PDI is just one more 
example of the failure of electoral politics throughout the 
imperialist controlled world. The PDI never represented more 
than a liberal reformist alternative to the military 
dictatorship. It is far from a radical or revolutionary 
organization. Yet even this alternative is seen as dangerous by 
the dictators.

On the same day, in the capital of Jakarta, police blocked 
about 300 workers from marching in the streets during a protest 
for labor rights injuring a number of the protestors.

It is clear that the people of Indonesia will not be allowed to 
participate in democratic elections under the current 
government. This is not possible while the country is 
militarily and economically controlled by the imperialists. The 
just demands of the people for control of their government must 
be led by a revolutionary line and strategy that can 
effectively take on imperialism and win: Marxism-Leninism-
Maoism.

Notes:
1. Associated Press. 25 August 1998.
2.http://amadeus.inesc.pt:80/~jota/Timor/TimorNews/Mar97/Indo.n
ot.concerned.with .US.proposal.to.stop.aid 
3.http://amadeus.inesc.pt/~jota/Timor/TimorNews/Mar97/US.arms.t
ransfers. to.Indo.I


* * *


PUERTO RICO SETS DATE FOR PHONY PLEBISCITE 

by MC17
On August 14 Puerto Rico's legislature approved holding a 
referendum on whether the island should become a U.$. state. 
The referendum is scheduled to be held December 13 and has been 
pushed forward by Governor Pedro Rossello who is a strong 
statehood supporter. This vote, which pretends to offer the 
Puerto Rican people self-determination, offers three options: 
statehood, independence, or the current "Freely associated 
state" also called commonwealth status.

As a "Freely associated state" or commonwealth, the Puerto 
Rican people have u.s. citizenship but if they live in Puerto 
Rico they can not vote on u.s. ballots. Puerto Rican's can and 
are expected to fight in u.s. wars, and Puerto Ricans sustain 
combat causalities in u.s. wars in numbers far exceeding their 
proportion in the population. Pedro Rossello, governor of 
Puerto Rico and willing lackey of u.s. colonialism, has as his 
goal, like that of other colonial lackeys who desire greater 
access to their master's wealth and privilege, to gain full 
statehood for Puerto Rico as the 51st state.

The United States is not bound by the referendum. In March, the 
U.S. House passed -- by one vote -- a bill allowing for a 
similar referendum and agreeing to work with the island on 
possible statehood. But that bill is held up in the Senate. 
Rossello apparently hopes a strong majority for statehood would 
move Congress to act. 

Rossello refers to a plebiscite as the "self determination 
process," an "orderly method" which would allow the people of 
Puerto Rico to decide what they want with all the definitions 
spelled out clearly for them. But this so-called self 
determination is not real democracy. It is not possible to talk 
about the Puerto Rican people exercising their right to self 
determination with u.s. troops occupying their island and the 
u.s. government controlling the country.

At this time, the plebiscite that most u.s. and mainstream 
Puerto Rican politicians propose would simply show what the 
Puerto Rican people will say with the bribery and arm-twisting 
of Uncle Sam. Only the people themselves in Puerto Rico can 
establish a true plebiscite of the people for self-
determination. After a stage of revolutionary nationalism, the 
Puerto Rican people will be able to decide their future without 
the influence of imperialist power. 

Anti-imperialists must use this opportunity to expose the lie 
of self-determination at every turn. We must remain strong in 
our demand for complete u.s. withdrawal from the island of 
Puerto Rico. 
Notes: AP, August 14, 1998. For more information and analysis 
of U.$. imperialism in Puerto Rican send $1 for a copy of the 
RAIL pamphlet "End U.$. colonialist domination of Puerto Rico: 
100 years is too long."


* * *


SPIES TAKE $44 BILLION IN U.$. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

In the summer of 1997, the U.$. government arrested two Taiwan 
spies trying to steal biotechnology secrets from U.$. 
corporations. The government arranged a sting.

The American Society for Industrial Security said $44 billion 
were stolen in 17 months up to June 30, 1998.

Even though the Cold War is over, the capitalists still have 
high stakes espionage going on. As long as their is a property-
system there will be a reason for such espionage.

So-called intellectual property has become more and more 
important in international economic and political relations. 
While the Third World feeds and clothes the people of the 
imperialist countries, the people living in comfort in the rich 
countries undertake more and more white-collar labor.

Everything from access to life-saving drugs to computer 
software is blocked under the capitalist system thanks to 
property rights. Not only is distribution of good ideas and 
products blocked under capitalism, conflicts between nations 
and ultimately war arise over property.

The corporations say they need a reward for their work; hence, 
they must have patents and the ability to make profits from 
inventions only they control. In contrast, we believe that 
rewards for invention should be distributed once by the 
government. Organizations and individuals can still be rewarded 
and their greed satisfied, but once the reward has been made 
the invention becomes the property of the people. Such will 
speed up the application of everything from software to life-
saving drugs.

The purchase of invention ideas by the government will also 
eliminate the incentive for espionage. It is the same incentive 
under capitalism -- profit -- that inspires both the company 
inventing the new drug and the spy seeking to steal it. When 
the profit system is eradicated, a number of problems disappear 
with it -- arms sales, pornography as big business, pushers for 
addictive drugs and espionage for profit.
Note: Austin American-Statesman 10 May 1998, p. G1.


* * *


REACTIONARY DOING TIME, DOING VIPASSANA TELLS PRISONERS:
"FIND PRISON OPPRESSIVE? DON'T ORGANIZE, MEDITATE!"

Greenfield, MA -- In early August, RAIL attended a screening of 
Doing Time, Doing Vipassana at Greenfield Community College, 
organized by the Vipassana Meditation Center in Shelburne, 
Massachusetts. RAIL attended to organize the participants into 
our campaign against control unit expansion and learn more 
about the movement.

While a large number of people were interested in the MASS RAIL 
and some gave RAIL donations, it was less than should be 
expected at a prison related event. In fact, the organizers 
were so disturbed by our presence that we were offered a bribe 
to go away. They were afraid that we would scare away their 
invited Department of KKKorrection guests and therefore 
sabotage the effort to bring this reactionary movement into 
more prisons.

Doing Time, Doing Vipassana is a 50 minute documentary about 
the introduction of a program of 10-day Vipassana Mediation 
courses in Tihar Jail New Delhi. According to the video, Tihar 
is one of the world's most notorious jails. Tihar is maximum 
security, but an accused pickpocket can spend 6 years there 
waiting to get a 1 year sentence.

Vipassana's response to this injustice? Don't think about it, 
but concentrate on yourself, how you hurt society, and seek 
forgiveness. The introduction of Vipassana mediation into 
prisons is a thick liberal veneer over a terribly reactionary 
core of perpetuating this system.

The liberal veneer can confuse some. For example, the Vipassana 
teachers insist that some guards and prison staff also take the 
course. In Tihar Jail, the warden sent the most corrupt and 
violent guards -- under threat of termination -- to the 
courses. Many supposedly came back improved, less violent 
people.

Which gets us to the next part of the veneer, that the course 
helps people to concentrate and reflect on their actions. Any 
highly structured quasi-voluntary program of doing nothing but 
listening to your breathing for 10 days couldn't but help 
people to focus. The corrupt guards learned that their practice 
wasn't an effective control strategy and it was about to lose 
them their jobs. The course also made many prisoners begin to 
feel sorry for their actions against society.

It is important that people take responsibility for their 
actions. In a just society, crime will have to be dealt with by 
the people and not an occupation government. Criminals will 
undergo a process of self-criticism by which they transform 
their outlook and behavior. But this can only take place when 
the larger society has some moral authority.

The Amerikan government actively imports drugs into the country 
with it's CIA, and yet it has the nerve to call small-time 
dealers and possessors of drugs to be criminals. For Amerika to 
look down its nose at prisoners is hypocrisy at best, and more 
accurately it could be called a carefully packaged program of 
changing the subject.

Crime is without doubt a problem, but the solution to crime is 
increasing social justice. When people live in an honorable 
society and can contribute to society in a socially useful way, 
crime will no longer exist. Focusing on yourself -- to the 
exclusion of society -- merely helps you fit into the dominant 
ideology of imperialism.


* * *


U.$. BOMBS IMPORTANT PHARMACEUTICAL PLANT IN SUDAN

In Khartoum, Sudan, the U.$. bombed a pharmaceutical plant, Al-
Shifa, located on the outskirts of this large city. Although 
the u.s. claims they were bombing a plant that was controlled 
by Osama bin Laden and manufacturing components of a deadly 
nerve gas, all evidence suggests that the U.$. destroyed a 
company that only produced medicine.

The only evidence supporting the u.s. claim is, predictably, 
classified. While Sudan is welcoming any and all visitors to 
inspect the site, the company has produced evidence that the UN 
had authorized Iraq to purchase large quantities of medicine 
from it, and workers and builders of the plant have come 
forward both in Sudan and around the world to state that the 
company did not have the equipment or the secrecy to carry out 
the operations the u.s. alleges.

Al-Shifa was opened in July of 1997. The plant is a private 
joint venture between Sudanese and Jordanian nationals which 
had been partly finances by a Nairobi-based bank owned by the 
Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa.(1) Idris 
Babiker, the Al-Shifa plant manager stated that much of the 
machinery was imported from the United States, Sweden and 
Switzerland and at the time, the English ambassador attended 
the ceremony and since then, the United Nations has approved 
contracts with the factory specifically for the sale of 
pharmaceutical products.(2)

Three Jordanian engineers who oversaw the pharmaceutical 
plant's production and first three months of operation said 
that it would have been impossible to convert the plant into a 
chemical weapons factory. In addition, an English engineer who 
assisted in the construction of the factory and who worked for 
four years as a technical manager for the Baaboud family who in 
part owns the plant refuted the United Snakes' claims that it 
would be possible for the plant to produce chemical weapons.(3)

The fact that the u.s. evidence for the danger posed by its 
bombing targets is almost completely lacking only serves to 
underscore the true militarist and imperialist intentions of 
the u.s. attack. But even if bin Laden did control the camps 
and pharmaceutical the u.s. bombed, this does not give the 
united snakes the right to invade and attack these countries.

Along with the destruction of Al-Shifa, in the process of 
perpetuating peace and democracy, the Amerikkkan missiles also 
damaged two food processing plants during the raid on Al-
Shifa.(1) This is in a country where 2.6 million people are 
threatened with death through imperialist-imposed starvation. 
Where the United Snakes attempts to perpetuate the idea that 
Amerikkkans help starving children around the world through the 
IMF and World Bank and Sally Struthers programs, the reality is 
that the United Snakes desperately needs to prevent the Third 
World from develop self-sufficient means to meet the needs of 
oppressed people. 

If oppressed nations are successful in nationalist development, 
the imperialists lose out on the interest from loans. They also 
lose the ability to exploit and invest imperialist capital as 
well as the political puppeteering power which comes with the 
aid. Though its self-sufficient production of medicines does 
not seem to be the most important reason for the imperialists 
to destroy Al-Shifa, the imperialists battle against 
nationalist self-sufficiency around the globe. If anything, 
this loss of food and medicine production in Sudan further 
benefits imperialist hegemony.

Notes:
1. AFP. 21 August 1998.
2. Reuters. 22August 1998
3. AFP. 22 August 1998.


* * *


CONTINUED U.$. ATTACKS AGAINST IRAQI PEOPLE

Saturday following the U.$. attack on Sudan and Afghanistan, an 
Iraqi newspaper published documents which contradict the 
Amerikkkan story of chemical weapons production. The documents 
showed that Iraq had bought medicines from the plant. The 
purchase of pharmaceutical products and medicine from Al-Shifa 
had been approved by the United Nations. The documents were 
initialed by the U.N. Security Council's sanction committee and 
this was confirmed by the United Nations the day following the 
cruise missile attack.(1)

As a result of the release of this information the United 
Snakes was forced to change its story. It then claimed a link 
between the bombed Sudanese plant and alleged development of 
chemical weapons in Iraq. Countering the growing outrage at the 
bombing, the United Snakes said that it "believes that senior 
Iraqi scientists were helping to produce elements of the nerve 
agent XV at [Al-Shifa]."

The U.N. stated that Al-Shifa had a $200 million contract to 
provide Iraq with medicines.(2) This is under the oil-for-food 
program which allows Iraq to sell limited amounts of oil to 
purchase badly needed basic living supplies.

During the 1991 attack against Iraq, the imperialists killed an 
estimated 200,000 people and virtually demolished the entire 
infrastructure of the country through direct bombings. But the 
war did not end when U.$. troops stopped bombing the people. 
The ongoing warfare waged through the economic blockade and 
continuing military threat has lead to the death and suffering 
of approximately 1.5 million Iraqi people. 

The measly oil-for-food agreement to allow Iraq to sell about 
$2 billion in oil a year to buy basic human necessities is 
severely threatened by the recent events and U.$. proclamation 
to intensify its war. (See MIM Notes #153 for information on 
the affects of sanctions and MIM Notes 152, 157, 158 for more 
information on the continuing U.$. war against the Iraqi 
masses.)

Amerikan policy toward chemical weapons has been inconsistent 
and hypocritical ever since these imperialist snakes first 
refused to participate in the banning of chemical weapons in 
1907. In the Persian Gulf War, Amerika used such weapons as 
napalm and fuel-air explosives against both military and 
civilian targets, in violation of the Geneva Convention. Even 
after the formal end of the war, the United Snakes used 
chemical and biological weapons against retreating Iraqi troops 
and Palestinian, Jordanian and other refugees traveling on what 
became known as the "Highway of Death" at the end of 1991.

While the United Snakes maintains that it is on a gallant 
mission to end the accumulation of chemical weapons and 
terrorist use, the facts show that it is the use of terrorist 
force and such weapons by the United Snakes that has murdered 
more of the world's people than any other organization or 
country during World War III.

Notes:
1. Reuters. 22 August 1998.
2. AFP. August 21 1998.


* * *


U.$. IS BIGGEST TERRORIST IN AFGHANISTAN

Merely the day prior to the U.$. bombing of Afghanistan, the 
United Snakes labeled Osama bin Laden a prime suspect in the 
earlier bombings of the U.$. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya. 
The Afghanistan Taliban stated immediately prior to the 
Amerikkkan raids that if the U.$. produced evidence that bin 
Laden was involved in the embassy bombings, the Taliban would 
negotiate with Amerikan officials on how to diplomatically deal 
with bin Laden.(1)

Osama bin Laden is one of many previously on the CIA pay roll. 
During the 1980s, bin Laden and other groups received billions 
of dollars from the CIA to conduct anti-Soviet operations 
following the 1979 social-imperialist Soviet invasion of 
Afghanistan. It is the military infrastructure that was 
developed during that time which the U.$. has stated is the 
training camp it bombed on August 20.(2)

The United Snakes refused to deal diplomatically with the 
Taliban despite the fact that it controls about 90% of 
Afghanistan. The New York Times quoted one imperialist 
spokesperson who said "they would not trade Mr. Bin Laden's 
capture for American recognition of the Taliban's de facto 
government. But the Administration was weighing other ways to 
persuade the Afghans to cooperate."(3) The U.$. used 75 
Tomahawk missiles within 24 hours of the Taliban offer to 
negotiate to persuade Afghanistan and the rest of the Third 
World that it is a hegemonic power not to be challenged.

The U.$. claims show that it would rather murder innocent 
people, destroy a medicinal factory, damage food processing 
plants and launch military strikes than hold talks with a 
government it opposes. The U.$. still clings to the imperialist 
recognized lackey government of Afghanistan which stated that 
"it supported the fight against terrorism" but that it "doubted 
that air strikes could totally eliminate all terrorist training 
centers in Afghanistan."(2)

Insofar as it opposes imperialism, the Taliban can be a 
potential ally of the oppressed during this stage. However, 
genuine representation of the masses must come through armed 
struggle and seizure of state power by the masses led by a 
Marxist-Leninist-Maoist party. As with all nations with dormant 
or developing Maoist centers, MIM anticipates greater 
politicization and Maoist-led anti-imperialist organization to 
facilitate the quickest victory against imperialism. 

The Chinese people led by Mao and the CCP showed that a 
proletarian-led battle against imperialism is the quickest path 
to liberation. There are times when Islamic revolutionaries and 
other elements of the oppressed nation bourgeoisie can be 
allies of the proletariat, but genuine liberation has only 
occurred with the proletariat leading because other classes 
vacillate in their opposition to imperialism.

Notes:
1. The New York Times. 20 August 1998. p.A1.
2. The New York Times. 20 August 1998. p.A6.
3. AFP. 21 August 1998.


* * *


DOWN WITH IMPERIALISM!
U.$. BOMBINGS SHOW IMPERIALIST LUST FOR WAR

by MC45
A Sudanese lawyer and member of the ruling Islamic party of 
Sudan posed the question:  why does the United Snakes attack 
Sudan and Afghanistan to get to a Saudi businessman? If 
shutting down the supposed terrorist operations of Osama bin 
Laden is the genuine and only concern of the U.$. military, 
"why don't you say everything he invested in in Saudi Arabia 
should be bombarded?"(1)

While the Sudanese lawyer is not a representative of the 
proletariat, he shows an instance in which the bourgeoisie of 
the oppressed nations can have the same interests as the 
proletariat -- the bourgeoisie too wants to expunge imperialism 
from its midst. As MIM examines the recent bombings of Sudan 
and Afghanistan by the U.$. navy, we ask the same questions as 
this Sudanese bourgeois:  why is Amerika bombing Sudan and 
Afghanistan? And can Amerika's motives really have anything to 
do with the claims it makes in public?

The answer is "No," imperialism is not concerned with what it 
calls terrorism. It is concerned with exporting capital for the 
purpose of repatriating profit, to dominate the world economic 
system. The Amerikan imperialists are not distracted as they 
seem to be by bombs exploding here and there. Cloaked in the 
language of "making the world safe for democracy," the U.$. is 
focused on a straight-line approach to unifying the world 
economy in a way that makes the dollar stronger and U.$. 
profits greater.

Just as anti-Communism and the supposed Red Menace were the 
excuses for Amerikan imperialism following World War Two, 
fighting terrorism is the excuse today. MIM calls out U.$. 
imperialism -- export of capital and theft of Third World labor 
and natural resources, supported by military domination -- as 
the real terrorism. Imperialism is an international economic 
and military system through which monopoly capitalists extract 
wealth from Third World countries for the sake of enriching 
First World countries. This system is propped up by military 
force when it is necessary to kill resistance to this economic 
plunder. 

Imperialism is the real and only reason for the U.$. attacks on 
Sudan and Afghanistan; Amerika resorts to state military terror 
whenever oppressed nations show signs of getting out of line, 
and of not acquiescing happily to the theft of their own 
resources. MIM opposes imperialism in all its forms, and we 
hold the struggle between imperialism and the oppressed nations 
to be principal in the world today. So when we talk about 
opposing two bombings in August 1998, we are talking about 
opposing two events in an ongoing hot war that the imperialists 
are conducting against the oppressed nations of the world.

Afghanistan -- finding a regime that will protect the oil

The U.$. has direct and specific economic interests at stake in 
Afghanistan, in the form of the Central Asia Gas Pipeline--a 
project still in the planning and negotiating stages that will 
carry gas from Turkmenistan to Pakistan for sale to the West. 
While Afghanistan has no significant tapped petroleum resources 
of its own, it is strategically located between a wealth of 
central Asian gas to its north and the ports from which this 
gas will ship to the south. This anticipated $2 billion project 
represents a large chunk of change even for the monopoly 
capitalists, and will mean much transfer of wealth from the 
oppressed nations of central and south Asia to the U.$. and 
other partners in this project.(2)

The Amerikan company, Unocal, heads the CentGas consortium of 
seven big oil companies that will build the pipeline through 
Afghanistan. But CentGas and the U.$. government have made 
clear that they will not build the pipeline until Afghanistan 
has a government that they are convinced is stable. Meaning 
that until Afghanistan's government is willing to lick Amerikan 
boots, Afghanistan will not have the benefit of hosting a 
profit-making venture for the U.$.

Unocal officials have already met with Taliban representatives 
to negotiate the pipeline deal. So while Amerika refuses to 
recognize the Taliban, those with dollars to spend may be more 
direct in negotiating with the people imperialists think will 
make their profit possible.(3)

While Amerika and Amerikan-based multi-national corporations 
manipulate and bully Afghanistan over future compliance with 
imperialist orders, the system of imperialism continues to 
exploit the Afghan people. The population, much of which is 
still returning to Afghanistan after fleeing the social-
imperialist Soviet invasion of the 1980s, has a life expectancy 
of only 46 years -- testimony to inadequate food, medicine and 
other basic needs.

Regardless of whether the U.$. invests in specific new projects 
in Afghanistan, that country is in a very weak economic 
position relative to Amerika. Afghanistan's currency, the 
Afghani, is traded on the "free" market at 17,000 per one U.$. 
dollar. This 1997 figure is up from 7,000:1 in 1996, and 1,900 
in 1994, showing that true to imperialism, Amerika's strength 
continues to rest on the weakness of the oppressed nations' 
economies.

Sudan -- lassoing an uppity Islamic state

In the case of Sudan, many people in authority there are openly 
speaking out in defiance of U.$. terror. In response to 
Amerikan economic sanctions on Sudan, the Sudanese President 
Omar al-Bashir announced a policy of boycotting the Amerikan 
dollar in transactions within Sudan. When he made this 
announcement, he also pointed out that the American dollar 
"owe[s] its existence and strength to the labours of Africans 
and other oppressed people."(4)

Amerika cannot tolerate Third World countries that do not 
behave as they are supposed to. So when Third World peoples 
take the stance that "we will not be a puppet for another 
country like the United States," that is cause for military 
action.(1)

Like the rest of the Third World, Sudan is important to 
imperialism for its inanimate resources and for the labor of 
its people, both of which can bring wealth to the imperialist 
nations. The largest African country, whose area is more than 
one-quarter that of the U.$.,(5) Sudan has natural and human 
resources that Amerika sees as potentially exploitable and is 
generally a sore spot for the Amerikan imperialists as a Third 
World country that will not give itself over to easy 
domination.

Adding insult to the injury Amerika already perceives from 
Sudan, Sudan has taken loans from the Islamic Bank for 
Development in Saudi Arabia, while having rocky relations with 
the U.$. The loans, totaling $23.4 million, were given to 
rebuild a dam on the Blue Nile and to build health centers.(6) 
The U.$. is only showing its murderous colors when it attacks 
Sudan, a country that already suffers an estimated 133% annual 
inflation rate, and whose official unemployment rate stood at 
30% early in this decade.

Attacking the Third World, not Islam

MIM believes Amerika's insistence that it is not out to attack 
Islam per se.(8) But we argue that there is more than a passing 
coincidence between religious affiliation and these bombings. 
Many peoples in oppressed nations are drawn very strongly to 
Islam because the religion represents something that is very 
different from the West. To align themselves with a non-Western 
ideology is a correct and anti-imperialist impulse for the 
majority of the people of the Third World.

Amerika seeks to dominate the Third World militarily and 
economically, and Third World peoples righteously resist the 
imperialist drive in many ways. Islam the religion is not the 
specific target of imperialism, just like Islam as a religion 
is not going to topple imperialism for good. But it is 
definitely the goal of imperialism to quash the peoples and the 
countries that are most drawn to Islam because these peoples 
and countries are in many cases opposed to imperialist 
domination.

In Sudan and Afghanistan today, we can see that as Mao said, 
the reactionaries and the imperialists are only paper tigers. 
They may make scary faces, but in the long run they will be 
destroyed and it is the people who are truly powerful. We can 
see this as people all over the Arab world in particular have 
held anti-Amerika rallies since the bombings, and have burned 
Amerikan flags in a direct rejection of U.$. imperialist 
aggression.(8, 9)

A leader of Hamas in Palestine reminded demonstrators that 
Amerika will "reap the harvest of its aggression,"(8) the 
analog to our Marxist observation that capitalism in the form 
of U.$. imperialism is building the tools of its own 
destruction. In our support for national liberation struggles, 
MIM supports all calls for genuine anti-imperialism, and 
recognizes as correct all statements that draw attention to 
Amerika's dominant role in stifling the self-determination of 
the peoples of the world. We call on all genuine revolutionary 
nationalists, Marxists and anti-imperialists to support the 
peoples of the Third World in their struggles for liberation 
against imperialist hegemony.Notes: 1. New York Times 23 August 
1998, p. 9.2. "Trans-Afghan pipeline suspended," British 
Broadcasting Service 22 August 1998. 3. "Taleban in Texas for 
talks on gas pipeline," BBC 4 December, 1998; "Proposed Central 
Asia Gas (CentGas) Pipeline Project," 
www.unocal.com/globalops/asiapipe.html 21 August 1998.4. "Sudan 
to boycott Dollar," BBC 18 November 1998.5. CIA World Factbook, 
1997.6. PanAfrican News Agency (PANA) 29 April 1997.7. New York 
Times 25 August 1998, p. 6.8. New York Times 22 August 1998.9. 
PANA 22 August 1998.


* * *


PEOPLE PROTEST IMPERIALIST MILITARISM

Daily protests have followed the U.$. strike against Sudan and 
Afghanistan. Friday following the bombings, Sudanese masses 
stormed the empty residence of the u.$. ambassador and stoned 
the English embassy. The protesters tore down and burned 
imperialist flags. "Foreign office staff in Britain contacted 
the Sudanese authorities to urge them to draft extra police to 
the building."(1)

Saturday, thousands demonstrated in Khartoum against U$ 
imperialism. Protesters shouted anti-imperialist slogans and 
burned imperialist effigies and flags. Protesters also 
delivered a memorandum to the UN office for Kofi Annan which 
demands a fact-finding commission to investigate the U.$. 
charge that Al-Shifa produced chemical weapons.

During Saturday's rally, Sudanese president, Omar Hassan al-
Bashir, promised to "retaliate against aggression" and stated 
that Sudan is "ready to return the blow in double." He compared 
the fight against Amerikan imperialism to the battle which was 
fought and won against English imperialism in the last century.

The Arab League held an emergency meeting on Monday following 
the attacks. Sudan asked for an urgent meeting of the United 
Nations Security Council. Sudan has withdrawn its diplomats 
from the United Snakes and the imperialists still refuse to 
show the evidence to justify (in the eyes of the imperialists) 
the military strikes.

Even if the United Snakes produces fabricated or partially-
genuine evidence to show that Al-Shifa had the capability of 
producing chemical weapons, its links to bin Laden or that the 
bases in Afghanistan were really training camps for Islamic 
revolutionaries, MIM opposes this and all imperialist military 
attacks against foreign nations and attacks against nations 
held captive within the United Snakes. Militarism enforces 
Amerikan imperialist interests in economically controlling 
other nations and using exploited labor and stolen wealth to 
plump up Amerikkkans.

Progressives should also oppose all forms of intervention by 
imperialist Amerika. Amerika does not represent the people of 
the world that it controls and MIM supports the people around 
the world in their protests against U.$. imperialism.
Notes: 1. AFP. 22 August 1998.
 

* * *


CIA TERRORISM GROWS IN ANGOLA

by RC68
The CIA financed terrorist organization UNITA has remobilized 
in Angola. UNITA has begun forcibly conscripting men and wimmin 
between the ages of 13 and 30 to serve in its army. It has also 
resorted to killing people opposed to UNITA. Hundreds of 
Angolan people have been murdered by these jackals. Over 64,000 
Angolans have fled into Zambia to escape the slaughter being 
carried out by the U$ backed UNITA terrorists.(1)

UNITA's renewed terrorist violence shows the shortcomings of 
negotiated peace with U.$. backed terrorists. In 1994, in 
Lusaka Zambia, the United Nations sponsored peace talks called 
the Angola Joint Commission for Peace. Subsequently, an 
agreement called the Lusaka Peace Protocol was reached and the 
20 year long Angolan civil war was formally ended. But the war 
was really only ended on paper.(2) Amerikan backed criminals 
like UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi can hardly be expected to keep 
any agreements they make.

As part of the peace process, the UN imposed an arms embargo on 
UNITA. This has not stopped UNITA from re-arming itself. The 
terrorists in the U$ government and organizations which it 
finances will never respect peace and will almost never abide 
by signed treaties.

Some of the weapons UNITA is currently using to massacre 
Angolan people are from Bulgaria.(3) The recently privatized 
Bulagarian arms manufacturers, with no Soviet social-
imperialists in power to supply with insane amounts of 
murderous technology, are seeking new markets for the deadly 
products.

UNITA has been bragging that it is now better armed than before 
the Lusaka Peace Protocol.(2) This indicates that UNITA is not 
the only group violating this peace agreement. UNITA was never 
self-sufficient and has no legitimate economic base. It does 
not have any real mass base of support and is not capable of 
establishing its own independent means of production. UNITA's 
income could only be from banditry and outside aid. UNITA has 
in fact been raiding diamond miners and stealing money, food, 
and equipment from African peoples.(4) 

UNITA also has a long history of working directly with the CIA, 
the world's #1 sponsor of international terrorism. The CIA has 
proven in the past that it has no problem finding ways to 
finance murderous militarists. One of the CIA¹s favorite ways 
to do this is by smuggling drugs and using the profits to buy 
weapons. On August 4, Angolan police seized 30kg of cocaine at 
a Luanda airport being smuggled from Brazil.(5)

Like all U$ sponsored terrorist organizations, UNITA's campaign 
of ghastly atrocities is horrifying. In one town, 200 people 
were murdered by UNITA.(6) 88 of these people were burned 
alive. The attack was carried out by 440 heavily armed men that 
robbed the population of 700.(4) In another town, UNITA 
soldiers murdered 145 people, including some foreign 
citizens.(7) So far over 600 hundred people have been murdered 
this summer by UNITA terrorists.

Besides the U$, particularly the CIA, UNITA's allies include 
some of the most notorious criminals in Africa. UNITA is allied 
with Mobutu's old guard and extreme right-wing former South 
African security forces.(4) Any place Jonas Savimbi and UNITA 
control will be a safe haven for these murderous terrorist 
criminals, just as they provided UNITA with safe hiding places 
when they were in power. In fact, Savimbi and Mobutu were such 
good friends that UNITA tried to help Mobutu when Laurent 
Kabila led a movement to topple the tyrant Mobutu. For several 
years Savimbi, Mobutu, and the South African extreme right were 
allies of the U$ in the crusade to rid the world of communism.

UNITA, the Israeli army, and other U$ backed terrorist 
organizations show the urgent need for the people in the world 
to oppose terrorism. The number one perpetrator of terrorist 
violence is the United Snakes of Imperialism. People around the 
world must not be fooled by amerika's hypocritical propaganda 
against terrorism. Amerika's bombs in the Sudan and Afghanistan 
did not discriminate between civilian and military targets. 
UNITA terrorists do not either. Neither did the amerikan backed 
Death Squads in El Salvador in the 1980s. 0pposing terrorism 
means exposing the criminal anti-human behavior of the U$ 
government and its terrorist allies.

Notes:
1. The Times of Zambia. 3 August 1998.
2. Afrika News Network. 5 August  1998.
3. The Post of Zambia. 7 August 1998.
4. The Mail & Guardian. 7 August  1998.
5. Panafrican News Agency (PANA). 14 August 1998.
6. PANA. 4 August 1998.
7. The Mail & Guardian. 14 August 1998.


* * *

WHAT'S THE BIGGEST ORGANIZED CRIME FAMILY?
THE FBI

Over the last year, the Boston Globe has provided several days 
a week of coverage of a Mafia-FBI soap opera. It seems that 
Irish FBI agents were working with Irish mobsters to crush the 
Italian mafia. At best, the Irish mobsters were just as bad and 
put into power by the FBI.

But it gets better. First, Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi (who 
is in police custody) and James "Whitey" Bulger (whereabouts 
unknown) were long time informants for the FBI. Flemmi and 
other Globe sources say the pair were allowed to commit any 
crime short of murder, and the Globe has uncovered evidence 
that the pair were killers and the FBI knew about it and did 
nothing. Flemmi and Bulger regularly socialized with the Irish 
FBI agents and gave them expensive gifts, including cash. The 
FBI agents then scuttled or sabotaged other police agencies' 
investigations of Flemmi and Bulger.

And as if the connection between "legal crime" and "illegal 
crime" wasn't thin enough, Bulger's brother is former Senate 
President and current UMass President William Bulger. William 
Bulger is reported to have walked into social/business meetings 
with his brother, Flemmi and the FBI.

Flemmi's revelations that he and Bulger were informants--a 
story first publicized by the Globe in 1988--also jeopardizes 
previous government convictions of mobsters. In the past, 
accused mobsters would argue in their defense that the Mafia 
doesn't exist. But in the last few years the FBI was able to 
use a "roving wiretap" to tape an alleged Mafia induction 
ceremony. But the police only got permission to use such a 
wiretap by misleading a judge that they did not in fact have 
informants inside the mob.

In 1995, indictments came down for Flemmi and Bulger. But 
somebody tipped off Bulger and he disappeared. For the first 
two years, the FBI could hardly be said to be seriously looking 
for Bulger and who had appearances across the country.

August 20, Flemmi revealed who tipped off Bulger: FBI 
Supervisor John Morris. 

Flemmi is currently arguing in court that the charges against 
him should be dropped because of his immunity agreement with 
the FBI. RAIL doesn't care whether individual mobsters go to 
jail when the FBI is a far more corrupt, violent and dangerous 
enterprise. Prosecutors are trying to convict Flemmi anyway, 
saying the immunity deal--if it even existed--was created by 
"rogue agents" and shouldn't bind the government. This should 
serve as a warning to potential informants within our own 
movement: You might get some short term gain from the pigs, but 
they'll leave you out to dry when they are done with you.

The largest lesson we can draw from this soap opera is that the 
FBI and the Amerikkkan government have no moral authority to 
say what's a crime and who deserves punishment, since they are 
the biggest criminals of them all.


* * *


GUATEMALA SUES U.$. TOBACCO FIRMS

Guatemala is seeking $2.4 billion from U.$. tobacco firms for 
smoking-related illnesses in Guatemala. 10.6 million people are 
affected in that Central American country.

MIM has never had any reason to say anything good about the 
Guatemalan ruling class, but we agree with Attorney General 
Acisclo Valladeres Molina on this point.

Under the dictatorship of the proletariat, such reparations to 
the Third World will be carried out across-the-board by the 
socialist government and not piecemeal as in lawsuits.
Note: USA Today 13 May 1998, p. 11a.


* * *


OUTRAGE OVER RAPIST'S UNREPENTANT FRIEND:
DON'T RELY ON IMPERIALIST COURTS AND COPS TO END PATRIARCHY!

By late August over 20,000 petition signatures had been 
collected urging prosecution of a man who failed to stop or 
report the rape and murder of a 7-year-old girl by his friend 
at a Nevada casino. People are outraged that this University of 
California, Berkeley student could have walked away from this 
crime and done nothing. MIM shares this outrage, but we 
strongly oppose any effort to increase prosecution within the 
Amerikan criminal injustice system.

Prosecutors say they can't punish this student, named Cash, 
because there is no law in Nevada that makes it illegal to fail 
to report a crime. Among the plans of the activists in this 
case is a new petition supporting a "Sherrice Iverson Memorial 
Bill," making it a crime for anyone who witnesses or has 
knowledge of a sexual attack against a minor to fail to report 
it to police.

Activists fighting sexual assault frequently fall into the trap 
of the criminal injustice system and seek greater police and 
court involvement as a solution to gender oppression. But this 
is no better than calling on the Klan to help stop violence in 
Black neighborhoods. The end result is greater numbers of 
Blacks and Latinos locked up and killed by the state in the 
name of protecting wimmin and children.

The man who is the object of the petition drive has said in 
interviews that he hasn't lost any sleep over the killing, and 
that the notoriety has actually helped him get dates. MIM is 
not surprised by this in a culture that eroticizes violence. It 
is this sickening patriarchal culture which leads to the 
violence rampant in romantic relationships and encourages men 
to enjoy forced sex with young girls.

It is not help from the imperialist state that we need to fight 
the patriarchy, we need to take on these battles without 
looking to the current state for protection. Remember that this 
is the same state that locks up Blacks and Latinos in 
tremendously disproportionate numbers with disproportionate 
sentences for the same crimes as whites. This is the same state 
that condones rapes committed by its armed forces in Third 
World countries in the name of the fight for democracy. Any 
protecting done by this state will only be in the interests of 
furthering the imperialist patriarchy.

We need to replace the current state, which serves the 
interests of the imperialists and white supremacy, with a state 
which truly serves the interest of the majority of the world's 
people. Such a state would be able to prosecute the real 
criminals - militarists, war profiteers, big-time pornographers 
and the like - and also be able to effectively struggle against 
patriarchal, anti-social creeps like Cash.

Notes: Associated Press, 24 August 1998.


* * *


PIG COLLECTION OF PRISONER'S DNA HALTED

On August 14, Massachusetts prisoners won a victory in the 
courts, with Superior Court Judge Isaac Borenstein ruling that 
the state's DNA database was unconstitutional. Forty-seven 
other states have similar laws, and the prisoner's and 
probationer's attorneys hope that precedent has been set to 
strike down these other laws.

The principal grounds by which the law was struck down was of 
privacy rights based on the Fourth Amendment. The judge argued 
that "[r]egardless of the state's compelling interest, an 
unjustified random bodily intrusion without any indication of 
individualized suspicion is unreasonable and intolerable."

Typically privacy "rights" are reserved for those with power 
and prestige to protect. We put rights in quotation marks 
because unlike the bourgeoisie, we don't pretend that there are 
certain rights that people have. Rather, we believe, as Mao 
Zedong said, that "there are no rights, only power struggles." 
The only thing that we can count on in this world is what the 
masses themselves can fight to gain and retain. 

The Bill of Rights in the U.$ Constitution claims to speak for 
all citizens, even thought it is rarely that way in practice. 
But it is a good tactic for progressive lawyers to try and get 
the Bill of Rights to apply to everyone, especially prisoners. 

An additional weakness of the Massachusetts law is that it did 
not restrict what the DNA could be used for. It would have been 
totally legal for the pigs to use it in their current state-
funded racist quest for a "crime gene." Nor was information 
gleaned from the DNA--such as disease susceptibility--required 
to be shared with the person from which it was snatched.

We oppose the DNA database because it is a potential weapon in 
Amerika's war against the internal colonies. The database could 
be (mis)used in many ways, but even as it relates to the fight 
against actual crime, we don't want to see the pigs gain any 
additional tools. As sixty years of government statistics show, 
locking more people up doesn't affect crime. 

We aren¹t saying that violent crime is Ok, although we rarely 
fail to point out that such crime is a small portion of what 
prisoners are incarcerated for. But we can't let this system 
and its leaders point fingers at street crime when they are 
guilty of far larger and more violent crimes each day.

Note: Boston Globe 15 August 1998, p. B1, B8.


* * *


RAIL RAISES CONSCIOUSNESS AND FUNDS AT WARPED TOUR

July 29, Northampton, MA -- RAIL attended the Warped Tour 
concert in force this year. The Warped Tour is a skateboarder-
culture concert that annually stops in Northampton and other 
cities across North America. RAIL was able to set up an 
information table inside the concert, and a MIM Notes 
distributor sold a large number outside the gates. This was the 
first year that we had a presence inside the show, and it 
represented a qualitative leap in terms of the quality of 
political discussions we were able to have compared to when we 
had a presence only outside the gates.

Inside, we had a lot of positive feedback and many good 
discussions with the anarchist-inclined youth audience. Many 
people stopped by to sign petitions to stop control units in 
Massachusetts prisons as well as to bring back prisoners sent 
to Texas. While we brought many blank sheets with us, we 
underestimated the crowd and filled up all the petitions we 
brought.

One concert-goer from Oklahoma responded to our appeal to aid 
the prisoners transferred to Texas with the report that 
prisoners from his state are also being transferred to Texas. 
The list of states sending (or that have sent) prisoners to 
Texas includes MO, MI, MA, LA and OK.

We talked to several anarchists from around New England who 
want to work with RAIL in the fight against the prison system 
which serves as a means of social control against the oppressed 
nations within U.$ borders. Within Massachusetts, about 90% of 
prisoners in the control units are Latino and put there because 
they speak Spanish -- which the guards don't understand -- or 
they have tattoos, which are taken to mean gang affiliation, 
even if no affiliation exists.

Overall, the crowd was comprised of white anarchist-leaning and 
non-political youth, many of whom responded to RAIL's message. 
Being able to table inside the concert increased the quality of 
our political interactions with the people, and we will expand 
this type of effort in the future.


* * *


HAND-WRITING ANALYSIS IS LATEST MANAGEMENT 
HOCUS-POCUS

In a country where the people live off all the hard-work 
of other countries, it is no surprise that management 
has a hard time figuring out how to be more effective. 
After all there is no link between management and 
getting more work done in the imperialist countries like 
the U$A.

Two trends have arisen as a result. A high-tech firm in 
Natick, Massachusetts named Cognex asks all prospective 
employees to undergo handwriting analysis. According to 
USA Today a Dallas public accountant agrees with the 
practice: "'It's so accurate.'" 

The handwriting analysts charge $75 to $250 per persyn 
analyzed. These analysts are yet another parasitic 
profession helping the ruling class choose who to spoon 
out the gravy to.

Another trend has a mystical name "Six Sigma"-all 
marketing hype. The concept is simply 99.9997% 
perfection. Under capitalism, such a goal is impossible 
because management has profit and career motives to lie.

A truly scientific approach to the economy would require 
central planning and a thorough examination of work 
organization. Such is impossible under capitalism.

The reason for the success of a company -- its ability 
to tap into surplus-value, especially from the Third 
World -- is shrouded behind many veils of secrecy and 
ignorance. For this reason, not even the management of a 
company really knows why it succeeds or fails. It comes 
up with various stories not much different in writing 
style and fictive imagination than the how-to-get-a-
boyfriend stories running in Vogue or Cosmopolitan.

Handwriting analysis and other management fads are all 
examples of the mythology of the ruling class and its 
labor aristocracy allies. It is necessary filling where 
it would be dangerous to the property system for the 
bright light of science to shine too much. MIM opposes 
superstition everywhere including in so-called "business 
school" where such mythologies of individualism and no 
statistical analysis reign supreme.

Note:
USA Today 21 July 1998, p. 1B, 2B. 


* * *


When you roll Snake Eyes, the white house wins
Review Snake Eyes 1998

This film starring Nicholas Cage stinks. Cage is a 
corrupt Atlantic City cop. There are lots of corrupt, 
scheming military officers. There is one boxer who takes 
a dive. And behind it all is a military contractor who 
kills just to get his weapons built and purchased by the 
military. This movie stinks because even though the pigs 
are portrayed in a justly negative fashion, it still has 
patriotism at its core.

The military officers then have the Secretary of Defense 
assassinated when the boxer pretends to fall. 
Predictably for an Amerikkkan movie, the shooter is a 
Palestinian nationalist, and everybody is willing to 
believe the initial lie that he acted alone.

The Secretary of Defense was close to stopping 
production of a missile defense system. The system is 
flawed, but the contractor and some military officers 
think the system is an improvement and can be fixed 
later, so the flaws are covered up. To protect the 
system, the Secretary is killed.

When Cop Cage starts to uncover the plot, he overcomes 
his history of looking the other way for a bribe and 
fights for the truth. There is no discussion of why 
other countries want to shoot missiles at Amerikan 
Navy ships. That's the appropriate question, not 
whether the missile defense system--and the military 
officers/contractors methods--are correct.


* * *


UNDER LOCK & KEY: NEWS FROM PRISONS AND PRISONERS

Exposing False Security Threat Group (STG) System

...A struggle inmates have to deal with in the Michigan Prison 
system is the administration and this fake program they started 
called STG (Security Threat Group). I'm in an organization and 
all someone (an enemy of mine) has to do is write a letter to 
any officer (or administrator) saying I want to inflict injury 
on them, or just say I hold rank. And for no reason the police 
will put a person in this program. 

The problem is once you are in this program; you can't get out 
until you sign some renunciation papers (saying you won't be a 
member no more). But when you sign these papers (if you do) 
then you could get into a fight or anything that is not related 
to gang activity and they'll place you in a Max joint for two 
to five years. And if you don't sign the papers the same thing 
occurs. So it's really a no-win situation. ...the way it's 
designed in inmates get no justice. 

There are two levels to this STG program - Level I and II. 
Level II is supposed to worse, if you're in Level II STG you 
can never go to a Level I prison until you sign those papers. 
If you never sign these papers and you're released from prison, 
the institution is supposed contact the nearest police station, 
to where you are being released, and tell them that you're a 
security threat....

 -- A Michigan Prisoner, 9 May 1998
New Jersey Prisoners Targeted

I am writing this letter to enlighten the public on the 
situation of the gang member unit at Northern State Prison 
named the Security Threat Group Management Unit (STGMU). Over 
300 inmates were targeted for this unit. Many inmates including 
myself have not demonstrated any patterns of gang activities 
inside the prison, yet were placed this status simply because 
of being identified as a member. The administration's main 
targets were Latino. 80% of the isolated inmates here are 
Latino. 

This program is NOT working. It's causing mental and emotional 
anguish in a stressful environment. This program was designed 
to segregate so-called "gang members" from the general 
population for their beliefs. This is a violation of the 1st, 
4th, and 14th Amendments of the U.S. Constitution. In reality 
it's causing more hardships than creating resolution. For 
example all sorts of violations against their own rules with no 
remedy of matters. The administration is violating all sorts of 
due process in the handling of the hearing procedures....

Meals that are called for to be served hot are served cold. No 
social workers are assigned the unit STGMU to attend to our 
personal matters. Inmates are being denied medical treatment. 
Showers are given every three days. Visits with family are a 
non-contact visit once a month. Phone calls are once a week. 
The programs were supposed to start March 4, 1998 and now it's 
May 5, 1998 and still there is no orientation or any types of 
programs given. We are like dogs in a kennel cage waiting for 
when they are ready. Recreation is in a fenced cage 26 feet by 
24 feet for ten inmates at a time. 

Officers are stealing and/or destroying the inmates' property. 
In one instance, officers stole $700.00 worth of prisoner 
property. And officers damaged a personal radio. Inmates are 
NOT allowed to obtain educational, religious, or personal books 
of any sort. The officers and administration are NOT treating 
inmates respectfully, impartially or fairly. Officers are 
taunting and antagonizing inmates, instigating incidents where 
the inmates fall victim and pay for it. The officers are 
causing an intensified atmosphere in this unit. 

When an inmate requests for a shift supervisor to remedy the 
situation with the officer, inmates are denied. If one is seen, 
the supervisor justifies the wrongdoing of the officer. 
Administrative remedies are filed without answer or avail of 
rectifying the matter. Rights and privileges are being denied 
and taken without due process procedures. Internal Affairs and 
the Administrators (Mr. Barke and Mr. Sherver) are fully aware 
of all this and yet they refuse to intervene but instead 
condone what the officers are doing. 

The officers are also interfering with outgoing and incoming 
mail. Mail being sent out is not reaching its destination and 
letters being mailed to us are not reaching our hands. Stamps 
inside the envelope end up missing. These people are abusing 
their authority in these matters, and nothing positive is 
flourishing from this except spending funds and taxpayer's 
money.... 

Respectfully,

 -- A New Jersey Prisoner 5 May 1998
Threatened with STG for speaking out

...I've been threatened by the prisonkrats with being placed on 
their STG (Security Threat List) for basically speaking out 
against the system. I will continue to speak out and be active 
by raising political awareness and engaging in activities of 
struggle against oppression, injustice, brutality, etc. Even 
though this is an uphill battle, the struggle will be endless 
until be are able to revolutionize this korrupt system and 
replace it with a humane system (socialism)....

i am, i remain relentlessly in struggle,

 -- A New Jersey Prisoner, June 1998
Gulags use "Gangs" as excuse to Repress Latinos

In January 1998 the Hispanics were locked down on this unit!! 
After investigation of (2) months all were released from not 
[being] gang members. Thereafter all were put in field, forced 
to work; as time went many were set up with cases for bullshit 
set up lock ups. I will not give lists of names for their lives 
are now in danger. I seek help for each of the men who are 
suffering. In March a new round up was done; many of the same 
offenders were locked back up even after being found not to be 
gang members but it doesn't matter, they are Hispanic and that 
alone makes them guilty!!! The warden has no proof, nothing to 
show reason for the lock up of these men!!! The system says it 
has not to answer to anyone, it does not have to go by any laws 
be them federal TDCJ or any other law.

-- A Texas prisoner
Gang Label Used To Oppress Prisoners

I was furious about the article that I read in your newsletter 
titled "Exposing New Gang Units in New Jersey" in the June 15, 
1998 MIM Notes issue number 164 on page 10. It states that the 
5%ers are a gang, which is not true. I know firsthand because I 
am a 5%er. Also because the dungeon I am locked up in now 
(Northern Uncorrectional Institution, NCI) just did a similar 
investigation on the 5%.

Three pigs raided my cell, mishandled all of my property and 
confiscated my 5% lessons. The excuse was we (the 5%) were 
being investigated for gang classification. I argued that we 
are not a gang, which our lessons even state so. And the Devils 
who did the so-called investigation said that they were not 
going to designate the 5% as a "Security Risk Group".

In addition, "Exposing New Gang Units" is also a false 
statement because the Latin Kings originated in Chicago in the 
early 60's or 40's. They are there to help the Latino Race. 
...I know about the Latin Kings because I have friends who are 
associated with them. As far as the NETA's, they originated 
from Puerto Rico. So there's nothing new to them or the 5% 
which came into existence in 1964. It's just the Devils who 
need a reason to start building new control dungeons. It's a 
divide and conquer technique to keep us fighting against each 
other so they can start their poli-trick-ing. 

I have a message to all those out there being oppressed in 
these dungeons: Focus on the oppressor himself, not your 
brother or fellow prisoners. Direct your energy into changing 
things, not complaining about your environment. Because all the 
complaining in the world is not going to change nothing. Action 
and Revolution is what will change your environment. So stop 
crying and start fighting your oppressors.

 -- A Connecticut Prisoner, 18 June 1998
MIM Responds:  Thank you for your letter and your criticism. We 
agree that the term "Gang" is being used by prisoncrats to 
target progressive, active and revolutionary prisoners. The 
pigs use "gang units" and "security threat group" labels to 
encourage prisoners to fight each other instead of the pigs. We 
agree that prisoners should unite against their common 
imperialist oppressors.

But the letter you criticize was exposing the "Gang Units" 
which are being newly built in many prisons, not the 
organizations they are built to house. The fact is that these 
units really are built to contain members of groups such as the 
Latin Kings and the 5%ers specifically because these 
organizations pull together members of oppressed nations. This 
is considered a serious danger and the prisons use the name 
"gang unit" to justify the repression. New "gang units" are 
being built in many prisons across the country. (Note, "new" 
refers to the lock-up units, not to the organizations being 
housed in these torture chambers.)

You are correct to criticize the prisoncrats for labeling 
groups as gangs in order to repress them. We encourage all our 
comrades behind bars to join in the effort to expose this 
criminal injustice.
Experimental Drugs Offered for Isolation Induced Depression

...I'm angry because I'm disavowed the opportunity to be 
individually productive among the population. Yet, I don't 
cause any problems for my oppressor in which they can perceive 
and use to justify their keeping me locked down. 

However the psychological effect of this form of isolation is 
counter productive to the conditions in which much displayed in 
order to be released by their review board. To be released from 
security detention one must stay disciplinary free from six to 
twenty-four months, endure harassment from the pigs in every 
form imaginable physical and psychological; yet remain obedient 
and submissive and not let this be a cause of changing ones 
actions. Yet this doesn't mean you will be taken off security 
detention. After enduring this for 6, 12, 18, 24, 30 or 36 
months -- only to be reviewed every six months as a possible 
return.

...Even though the written policy is for inmates who display 
assaultive behavior, the practice is to destroy those of us in 
these units mentally and psychologically. [Their policy is] 
kill the head and the body will fall.

I did a little testing of the system recently. I requested to 
speak with a mental health worker. I explained to them that I 
was very depressed due to being held in isolation for over 20 
months. I told her this problem was caused by being isolated 
and no other reason. As I expected she offered me some 
experimental psyche medicine to alleviate the problem. Yet I 
informed her that she had yet to understand. The alleviation of 
the problem would only come with the removal of myself from 
this depressive condition. She then stated that she had not the 
power to change my condition physically but she could offer 
psychological change. This is how I left her office a second 
later.... 

 -- A South Carolina Prisoner, 9 July 1998 
Exposing Oppression in Massachusetts

...I have filed [a suit] against these swines to shed light on 
the injustice that is oppressed upon us as prisoners on a day 
to day basis. I'm a Rastafarian prisoner who is currently 
confined to the Departmental Disciplinary Unit (DDU). Which is 
a separate building inside the MCI Cedar Junction- Walpole 
State Prison Facility. About 120 other prisoners and me are 
confined in this building.

...Each tier has ten cells and a dirty shower stall at the end 
of the tier, which is seldom cleaned by correctional staff. We 
are in leg shackles and handcuffed behind our back every time 
we leave the cells. We are allowed one hour a day, five days a 
week to go outside into fenced in dog kennels. We are allowed 
no contact with any of the other prisoners

Prior to coming out of the cells we are subjected to strip-
searches which is nothing more than blatant sexual harassment. 
After we put on our clothes and are handcuffed behind our backs 
and leg shackled, we are then subjected to what they call "pat 
searches" where we are groped by these pigs. I seldom go out of 
the cell because of these harassment tactics. In addition, 
while we are out of the cells the guards tear up our legal 
documents, which is the only way out for those doing life 
sentences.

The department of corrections allows them to sanction prisoners 
to be confined in the DDU for up to ten years in one cell. 
That's MADNESS! ...You have not even heard half of the shit 
that goes on in this place! ...

Sincerely,

 -- A Massachusetts Prisoner, 18 June 1998
New Policy Threatens Prisoners' Lives

I scribe you to introduce to you the new (Neo) DOC Policy 
number: DC-ADM 201. Policy Subject: Use of Force. Below is an 
excerpt from the Policy Bulletin:

IV. Definitions

Five Yard Rule: Staff Equipped with fire arms may use force, 
including deadly force, if an inmate is within five yards and 
is believed to be in a act of aggression, which will compromise 
weapons retention.

V. Policy B-3-e Maintain weapons retention when an inmate is 
within five yards.

The above is a death penalty for those the government missed on 
its lethal injection list. With these robots (correctional 
officers) in possession of firearms it is a forum of 
megalomania for these weak minded and sadistic so- called 
correctional officers (c/o's) providing the ability to exercise 
their inner fantasies of their childhood icons such as Al 
Capone, John Wayne, etc.

The inmates who have several bogus misconduct reports contrived 
by the policy executioners (c/o's) such as threatening staff 
assault (whistling too loud) will be legal target practice for 
these Go-Bots (c/o's).

If you take a good look at this policy it states "if an 
inmate...is BELIEVED to be in an act of aggression..."[emphasis 
added by prisoner.] This asinine policy is legally stating that 
actual fact doesn't have to be apparent--just assumption or 
paranoia on the behalf of the over-worked, underpaid, sexually 
agitated, low self-esteemed, biased and prejudiced young 
correctional officer who is in dire need of counseling. This is 
death at the hands of the already dead (mentally). It seems the 
DOC is the real gangsters. They attempt murder and have 
murdered under the banner of their own laws.

I guess there will be a lot more George Jacksons and Soledad 
Brotha's in Pennsylvania's DOC in the upcoming years.

 -- A Pennsylvania Prisoner, 6 July 1998
Police-Coerced Confession Puts Woman In Prison For 17+ Years

I was sentenced to a term of 60 years in 1983, for the murder 
of X in 1981. I was found guilty by an all-white jury with the 
exception of one African American man--not a jury of my peers. 
In this trial, no physical or scientific evidence from 
fingerprints, weapon, or eyewitness existed. The only evidence 
against me was an unsigned, un-court-reported statement, a 
statement by Chicago police alleging that I confessed. I 
testified at Court that I was detained by Chicago police who 
had me held in interrogation with my children of ages 1, 4, and 
9 years old, when the police assaulted me and threatened me 
that if I did not confess, I would never see my children again. 
I testified that at that point I had no access to an attorney 
or any way to know that the police would not do as they 
threatened unless I agreed. 

At trial, I testified falsely that Y, a male suspect questioned 
by Chicago police, was not at the crime scene. After my trial, 
I testified that during my trial, Y and his family members had 
contacted me and made threats upon my family's lives. I 
presented the letters [containing these threats] to the Court. 
After several years, Police Captain Z notified the Dwight 
Correctional Prison and informed my counselor that Y had been 
murdered and that his family members had confessed that he 
committed the crime I was and am being held for. In spite of 
appeals and testimony even to the Illinois Prison Review Board 
after seventeen years both the Illinois Judicial System and 
Governor Jim Edgar refused to investigate the case, in spite of 
the credible witness--a police officer of the law.

I have served seventeen years of my 60 year sentence and would 
like public support to assist me to get an investigation into 
the case.

-- A Womyn Prisoner in Illinois
Prisoner Denied Medical Care, But Required to Pay For It

I have required medical assistance on more than one occasion 
and been denied. I was in administrative segregation at a 
previous prison (Michigan Reformatory). I had overdone myself 
with push-ups and messed my bone up in my elbow. Every time I 
moved my arm, the bone in my elbow would pop. The fake nurses 
told me since I have belly-chains on (which Michigan 
Reformatory requires you to wear when going to Health Service 
while in the hole), they can't do nothing about it, so they 
denied me medical care, but surely took my three dollars.

--A Michigan Prisoner, 27 May 1998
More to Offer Than a Life in Prison

I'm sorry I haven't written sooner, but it was impossible 
because I've been at court. I have received the MIM Notes, and 
I do share them with others as well as discuss the topics.

It's sad to say these pigs are forcing me to take one and a 
half to three years more in prison. It's not much; it's the 
principle of their injustice system that makes me so angry. I 
really do wish to remain on the mailing list for MIM Notes.

The MIM Notes are very useful tools of education. In the New 
York [state] prison system, there's been an outbreak of war 
between Latinos and the Bloods. It's sad and I try through 
educating the brothers about this "divide and conquer" 
attitude. It seems at times things go smoothly, but it never 
lasts for long.

It doesn't help that the pigs are using physical and 
psychological torture to do as they wish. They only get away 
with that shit because we are locked in our cells 23 hours a 
day and we are in handcuffs and waistchains any time we leave 
our cells. They play with the food and the grievance procedure 
does not work, and it's impossible to get access into the 
courts unless we go through their administrative avenues which 
are impossible. You get the picture.

It just pisses me off that society thinks prisons are resorts 
or country clubs. That's so crazy. The brutality is out of 
control and when we defend ourselves we get more prison time. 
My rage is boiling and it's only a matter of time before I lose 
control. I know it will be and would be counterproductive. I 
have more to offer to the cause than spending my life in 
prison.

Well, comrades, I'll close for now. Peace to all those 
oppressed.

--A New York State Prisoner, 4 June 1998
Notes on a South Carolina Prison

...I am on lockdown, so I don't have first-hand info on the 
labor here, but I do know per order of the dictator 
(commissioner) that no one gets paid for work anymore except 
those who had a job before the new year, and if they lose their 
job, they don't get paid anymore when they start back work, and 
the law in this state is now mandatory 85% service of sentence, 
so slavery is in again!

They just implemented the new system for health care this 
month, and we're supposed to pay for all service and any 
medical damage we do to someone else!

I don't know about AIDS medication and all that; that is 
confidential, and those who do have the disease don't talk 
about it. However, when I was on the supermax wing here, they 
allegedly had an AIDS patient back there and they treated him 
worse than a dying animal. He could not talk or focus well 
enough to carry on a conversation. He was in need of serious 
health care, but they gave him the opposite. Stripping him out 
with no tissue or clothing or hygiene items and turning the air 
conditioner wide open.

There is no educational materials on this lock-up that is 
furnished by this prison. There was previously a book cart, but 
it stopped coming around when the new system and changes came 
in effect.

The only legal materials available is digests. Other books 
(supplements, U.S. reporters, etc.) are only made available if 
you request a specific book in that category. We are not 
allowed to go to any law library room. They have law clerks who 
often misinform people of the law, or they try to find ways to 
hustle us.

The guards here are continuously assaulting brothers in cuffs. 
I fear the same, not because of the pain, but because of the 
response I may make that could enhance my sentence.

Recreation here has been very disturbing recently. They've been 
constantly denying us our one hour recreation for no reason at 
all (though they always create one).

The latest wave of condition or treatment that I've found 
inconsistent with state practice in other prisons in this state 
is mace/gas. Recently they have been macing prisoners for 
hitting the door or stagging on the food flap hole in the cell 
door, and they refuse to give us a shower afterwards. I've been 
maced twice in the last two weeks. They allege it's a new 
policy, but no one has it [in writing].

They will mace prisoners without even inquiring into the 
problem that led to the hitting on the door or stagging on the 
flap, and they refuse to get a supervising official. What's so 
bad about this is, if you file a grievance, they will dismiss 
it because of the write-up against the prisoner that has 
nothing to do with him being denied a shower to get mace off of 
him.

...We do not want to waste our energy or yours begging the 
oppressor. We would rather channel this energy into building 
and organizing a stronger force.

Pamoja Tutashinda! (Together We Will Win!)

Re-Build, --A South Carolina Prisoner, 8 June 1998






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