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 177              January 1, 1999



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.  AMERIKA'S WAR AGAINST THE OPPRESSED RAGES ON:
    KALIFORNIA PRISON GUARDS SHOOT PRISONERS
2.  ROBBER BARONS RING IN THE END OF THE CENTURY AS THEY 
    REIGNED AT ITS BEGINNING
3.  TROTS CALL THEM LAYOFFS, MIM CALLS IT CLASS 
    MOBILITY
4.  LETTERS
5.  INDONESIAN REPRESSION IN EAST TIMOR CONTINUES
6.  REVIEW: THE NEW FINANCIAL CAPITALISTS:
    KOHLBERG KRAVIS ROBERTS AND THE CREATION OF 
    CORPORATE VALUE
7.  CAMPAIGN TO EXPAND MIM NOTES DISTRIBUTION
8.  ADDRESSING HIV GLOBALLY REQUIRES DICTATORSHIP OF 
    PROLETARIAT
9.  DON'T BE FOOLED BY U.$. MILITARY CUT BACK
10. COMRADE TAKES INITIATIVE TO GIVE HEALTH AID TO 
    PRISONERS
11. PRISONERS' HEALTH WATCH: PRISONERS, INFORMATION AND    
    HIV/AIDS
12. SCIENCE OF THE PEOPLE DESPERATELY NEEDED
13. OBSCURING REALITY: WORKERS WORLD CLAIMS NBA PLAYERS    
    ARE OPPRESSED
14. NEW YORK DATA BACKS NEED FOR STUDENT-PRISONER 
    ALLIANCE
15. ANN ARBOR PIGS PROTECT AND SERVE WHITE HYSTERIA
16. ESCAPED DEATH ROW PRISONER FOUND DEAD
17. BOOKS ON BLACK REVOLUTIONARY NATIONALISM 
    IMMEDIATELY AVAILABLE
18. 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


* * *




MIM Notes 177
January 1, 1999

AMERIKA'S WAR AGAINST THE OPPRESSED RAGES ON:
KALIFORNIA PRISON GUARDS SHOOT PRISONERS

In a practice unheard of in every other U.$. state, 
Kalifornia prison guards shoot prisoners with assault 
rifles to stop fights. This policy has resulted in 12 
deaths and 32 seriously injured inmates since 1994. In 
all other states, six inmates were fatally shot by 
guards during the same period.

A report published in the Los Angeles Times revealed 
that only one of the 44 murdered or seriously injured 
inmates was armed with a weapon or inflicting serious 
injury to another inmate at the time. No korrections 
officers were being threatened, nor were any inmates 
trying to escape during any of the shootings.

More than three-quarters of the shootings were deemed 
proper by the department of korrections review board 
and only three Department of Corrections thugs were 
given any sort of discipline. Two were given 
reprimands and one was given an 180-day suspension. 
"It's just the way they've been trained," said Lanson 
Newsome. Newsome is a former deputy commissioner of 
Georgia state corrections and now a consultant who has 
reviewed dozens of Kalifornia prison shootings. 
Training guards to simply kill inmates is an explicit 
sign that the system intends to kill.

While the shootings occurred at prisons up and down 
the coast, none of the recent shootings occurred at 
Corcoran State Prison, where seven prisoners were shot 
dead between 1989 and 1994. During those five years 
Corcoran was the deadliest prison in the u.$.

Prisoncrats tried to paint Corcoran as an aberration. 
However during the same time period Kalifornia DOC 
thugs murdered 24 inmates and wounded 175 statewide. A 
majority of the shootings occurred during fist-fights 
and other altercations in which inmates were unarmed.

Because the number of deaths had dropped from 24 
between 1989 and 1994 to 12 from 1994 to 1998, state 
(in)corrections director Cal Terhune said, "I am very 
pleased in the direction that it has gone." "We're 
going to continue to push...to really make the use of 
lethal force the absolute minimum, as a last resort." 
But, he also said, "Unfortunately, we are doing it at 
absolutely the worst time, we've had an upturn in gang 
activities, [and] skirmishes." In other words, because 
there are fights in prison the pigs should be allowed 
to continue blasting away until they are quelled.

Kalifornia has 33 prisons with 159,000 inmates. The 
pigs are notorious for instigating brawls between 
prisoners. Antagonism exists between individuals and 
groups of prisoners. These antagonisms are 
predominantly caused by imperialism. It is to the 
benefit of the pigs when the masses fight against one 
another because it lessens their organized struggle 
against the oppressor. And as prison comrades point 
out in this issue of Under Lock and Key, prison guards 
and pigs generally instigate violence between the 
masses. DOC thugs have no qualms about placing 
prisoner rivals in situations where hostilities can 
easily explode into violence. This is why MIM sees 
that violence between prisoners is state sanctioned 
brutality and murder.

The state's prison guard union contends that guns are 
a necessary equalizer because Kalifornia has the 
lowest prisoner to guard ratio. They are basically 
asking for more prison guards and free license to 
brutalize prisoners, in what amounts to more money and 
political power for the guard's union.

Some other states increase brutality against prisoners 
under the guise of stopping inmate fights. Emergency 
response teams armed with pepper spray and wood 
bullets are used by many states. One Ohio 
incorrections pig said, "We've never had an officer 
killed, and I can't recall any [officers] who were 
severely injured while breaking up a fight." The Ohio 
corrections department houses 50,000 inmates, the 
fifth-largest number in the u.$.

Even in Texas, a prison system notorious for its 
brutal treatment of inmates, officially, only one 
prisoner was shot and killed in the last four years. 
Officially, this was in response to an escape attempt. 
MIM knows from reports from prisoners that masses are 
killed by prison guards in other ways -- denied 
medical care, fake accidental deaths and fake suicides 
-- nonetheless, it is important to note that even the 
notoriously cruel prisons in Texas do not official 
sanction shooting prisoners with such frequency.

All of Kalifornia's 26 maximum security lockups are 
supposed to follow the same policy that allows deadly 
force only as a "last resort." But, the Los Angeles 
Times' investigation found that the policy only exists 
on paper and most Kalifornia prisons make up their own 
policy. For example, despite state policy, some of the 
pig's gunners didn't fire a warning shot before firing 
the fatal shot.

State policy also says that officers must have a 
"clear shot," however gunners routinely fire into a 
tangle of combatants. The LA Times found that in at 
least 10 cases over the past decade gunners have 
missed the intended target and killed or injured the 
wrong inmate. None of the 24 fatal shootings from 1989 
to 1994 were found improper by department review 
boards. And, though four of the 12 fatal shootings and 
six of the injuries since 1994 have been found "not in 
compliance," discipline has amounted to two reprimands 
and one suspension. This goes to show that we can't 
count on the system to police itself.

Kalifornia guards added fire power after the rise of 
militant Black inmates and prisoner groups in the 
1960s and 70s. The guards' union that built up around 
this policy of brutal repression has become one of the 
most powerful political forces in the state. Around 
that time an integration policy designed to make rival 
prison inmates get along was developed at Tehachapi 
security housing unit. Guards began mixing rival gang 
members into the same small exercise yards. The policy 
backfired.

Or did it? Exacerbating divisions between prisoners 
justifies the prison system's bloated budget and 
ability to crack heads. The policy baited gang members 
into fights, which the guards put down with deadly 
force. The Times said this policy created a "siege 
mentality" amongst the guards. The guards' role in the 
policy is to exploit prisoner divisions and bust heads 
as much as possible.

According to official reports, four inmates were 
subsequently shot by guards from 1989 to 1993. One 
prisoner who witnessed a shooting said, "It was like 
that guard took aim on an animal. Just like he was 
hunting. Aimed at his head, his temple, and fired."

In 1992, a few Corcoran staffers decided to try an 
approach similar to the Ohio emergency teams. They 
managed to successfully break up fights without firing 
a shot. "The higher ups in Sacramento heard about it 
and said, "You will not do that again.' You will not 
put staff in jeopardy," said Steve Rigg, a former 
lieutenant who revealed abuses at Corcoran to the FBI.

The liberal reformism contained in the L.A. Times 
article doesn't get around the fact that prisons 
themselves are a form of violence. Though the Times 
doesn't say what percentage of murdered prisoners were 
oppressed nationals, Amerika mainly makes use of 
prisons in its war on its internal colonies. Only by 
solving the broader problems of national oppression 
can the problem of brutality in Amerikan prisons be 
solved. Until then, the status quo will always be 
brutality in prisons.


* * *


HAPPY NEW YEAR:

ROBBER BARONS RING IN THE END OF THE CENTURY AS THEY 
REIGNED AT ITS BEGINNING

by MC45

Exxon and Mobil have agreed to merge, reuniting the 
two largest sections of the former Standard Oil 
Company of robber baron John D. Rockefeller. You 
remember the robber barons. They were the men you 
leaned about in high school Amerikan history classes. 
The frontiersmen of capital, conquerors of raw 
materials and the stock market, the men who built 
businesses in the time before anti-trust laws in the 
United Snakes.

We studied the robber barons as heroes in high school, 
as the men who possessed everything that made Amerika 
great -- ambition, cutthroat competitiveness, and 
greed. They had what made this country grand, the kind 
of drive that can only be born of an exaggerated self-
interest. We also studied the robber barons as people 
who, under unrestrained capitalism, pushed toward 
building their companies into ever-more complete 
monopolies. Capitalism can think of no better way to 
control production relations than competition so the 
Amerikan state -- which Marx called the executive 
committee of the Amerikan bourgeoisie -- enacted anti-
monopoly laws and split up the growing monopoly of 
Standard Oil.

But Marx and Engels had firmly established the 
principles of capital's tendency toward monopoly by 
the time Standard Oil was split in 1911. Only five 
years later in 1916, Lenin profoundly expanded our 
understanding of these principles to include the 
extension into imperialism -- the domination of 
monopoly even across state borders. So the 
recombination of Mobil and Exxon 87 years after their 
split demonstrates only capitalism's ability to 
prolong its own life and the suffering it causes the 
earth and its population. More important than greater 
monopoly, in the united snakes we are seeing the 
inevitable end to a near-century of pretension that 
anti-trust laws were ever anything but a stopgap 
against imperialism's tendency to stifle and destroy 
itself.

Big, big numbers

Mobil brings imperialist interests to Qatar, Western 
Australia, Indonesia, Singapore, Nigeria, Guinea and 
Turkmenistan and other countries. At the end of 1997, 
it was exploring in or extracting resources from 25 
countries -- this included interests in 19 refineries 
in 10 countries. Mobil netted $3.3 billion in 1997, 
with $26.5 billion in capital employed. This means it 
spent $26.5 billion on sustaining and expanding its 
production of oil, gas and chemical products, and 
shows that the smaller of these two industrial giants 
had $26.5 billion to bully the Third World into giving 
up raw materials for extraction.(1)

Mobil operated roughly 15,500 service stations 
worldwide in 1997. These service stations contributed 
to sales of 4 million "tons of product" (including 
gas, oil and chemicals). (2) The service stations also 
employed some of Mobil's 42,700 employees around the 
globe.

The executives of both Exxon and Mobil have crowed 
about the way their holdings "complement" each other. 
Exxon currently owns pieces of 31 refineries in 17 
countries. These countries include Angola, Congo, 
Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Azerbaijan and 
Trinidad and Tobago. MIM says Exxon and Mobil have 
complementary roles in grand theft from all the 
countries they do business in. If there were any 
justice in the Amerikan prisons system, the CEOs of 
these two corporations would be serving time for the 
felony robbery and mass murder -- using armed force 
and war to preserve their access to other countries' 
raw materials.

Exxon had twice as much capital "employed" as Mobil 
did in 1997, and spent $52.9 billion to explore, 
drill, refine, move and market its goods. Its 
operations included 33,000 service stations 
internationally, which employed some of its 80,000 
employees.(2) As they agree to merge, the companies 
together have 123,000 employees around the globe.(3)

The argument Exxon and Mobil give for their 
combination, which is subject to review by u.$. 
government and international trade authorities, is 
that competition has grown, and prices for their goods 
have dropped so much that they must combine forces to 
stay profitable.(3) MIM agrees, in theory. While the 
particular merger between Exxon and Mobil does not 
matter to the future of capitalism, it is true that 
multi-national corporations and all others must grow 
or die. This is the underlying threat of "free" market 
competition -- there would be no drive to compete if 
all companies could stay in business forever 
regardless of their profit-making successes.

Given that forming a monopoly -- a company that owns 
an exclusive share of its industry and therefore is 
not subject to the pressures of market competition -- 
is supposedly illegal in Amerika, it may seem strange 
that Exxon and Mobil are allowed to make the argument 
"well, yeah, we want to monopolize, but we kind of 
have to!" Why should a government body that's supposed 
to ensure competitive business listen to an argument 
like this? It is a classic example of Marx's 
definition of the state under capitalism -- the 
Amerikan government is the executive committee of the 
Amerikan bourgeoisie. This means that the government 
cannot just outlaw monopoly on the basis of free 
competition. Its job is to back up the Amerikan big 
bourgeoisie as the dominant economic force in the 
world.

U.$. economic interests laid out for the Africans

During a recent visit to Africa, Amerikan Secretary of 
Commerce William Daley accompanied 15 large u.$. 
corporations on a mission to the Southern African 
Development Community (SADC), a regional economic 
grouping of Southern African countries. Daley spoke 
about the importance for Africans of welcoming u.$. 
investments, talking as if signing away natural 
resources by the ton and national sovereignty by the 
court order is the best possible future for African 
peoples.

Daley threatened the Southern African countries, 
saying that Amerikan multi-nationals can always 
exploit some other group of people instead of those in 
Southern African countries. Encouraging these 
governments to open their borders to u.$. capital, he 
said "I think it is important to remember as you ask 
it, these companies have all kinds of options. Every 
area in the world wants their business." Blatantly 
stating the need for lower or no taxes, and for other 
legal exemptions for Amerikan corporations, Daley 
suggested that "the question the leaders of South 
Africa and the other SADC nations need to ask is this: 
What will it take to attract more trade and 
investments?"(4)

The head of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern 
Africa (COMESA), another regional economic 
organization, echoed Secretary Daley's admonition to 
make Africa more attractive to u.$. companies. He said 
that "although COMESA is not directly involved in re-
establishing amicable negotiated peaceful settlements 
to the various crises in our region, we recognise the 
urgency and importance of finding workable and long-
lasting solutions."(5)

Of the COMESA member states, Angola, Namibia and 
Zimbabwe all have troops in the Democratic Republic of 
Congo, and Eritrea and Ethiopia have a border 
dispute.(5) COMESA is encouraging them, as William 
Daley is encouraging the SADC, to open their borders 
to the level of foreign bidding on the Nigerian 
economy. Over the past ten years, foreigners have 
invested roughly U$ 830.92 million in Nigeria as part 
of a debt conversion program.(6)

The overwhelming portion of this money -- $303.64 
million, or 36.54 percent of the total -- was funneled 
into manufacturing. By contrast, agriculture got 
slightly less than $14.5 million. This debt conversion 
program began in 1988, as a means of resolving some of 
Nigeria's international debt, which the government 
lists as $28 billion in 1998.(6)

Yet the debt conversion program highlights the 
opposition of interests of the imperialists and their 
lackeys in the Nigerian government on one side, and 
the Nigerian people on the other. 

While more than 36 percent of money in this program 
went to manufacturing, a mere 19 percent of Nigeria's 
workforce is engaged in industry, commerce and 
services combined. Nigeria's agricultural sector, 
which employs 54 percent of the country's working 
people,(7) has received less than 2 percent of these 
investments. The priorities of a government that makes 
room for these gross imbalances are clear:  outside 
investors dictate Nigeria's domestic economic 
decisions.

MIM does not know if Mobil's Nigerian holdings were 
financed with part of this batch of debt-conversion 
cash. We do know that this one debt-conversion scheme 
is a fine case study for the way Amerikan MNCs attack 
the resources of the world. The important point to 
understand is that Mobil and Exxon operate as two of 
the First World multi-nationals around whose interests 
Nigeria's and so many other countries' domestic 
economic policies are structured. MIM points to the 
possible recombination of Exxon and Mobil as a further 
step toward the ultimate atrophy and death of the 
imperialist beast.

Notes:
1. www.businesswire.com/cnn/mob.html,http://www.mobil.com
/bns98/
2. Mobil Corporation Press Release http://www.mobil.com/bns98/
3. New York Times, 2 December, 1998.
4. "Americans Want to Trade with 'New Africa,' Daley 
Says," United States Information Agency 2 December, 
1998.
5. "COMESA States Urged To Stop War," PanAfrican News 
Agency, 3 December, 1998.
6. "Foreigners Stake 830.92 Million Dollars In Nigeria 
Economy," PANA 1 December, 1998.
7. CIA World Factbook 1997. 
http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/


* * *

TROTS CALL THEM LAYOFFS, MIM CALLS IT CLASS 
MOBILITY

by MC45

The new Exxon Mobil company, if allowed to form, will 
employ less people than the two companies combined 
currently do. Part of the corporations' argument for 
merging is that as a joint company they will be able 
to cut costs and this will help them make bigger 
profits. For some of the employees this will mean 
looking for new jobs.

A New York Times article from November 30 takes a 
knee-jerk defend-amerikan-jobs approach to the 
prospective downsizing of the two companies' 
industrial staffs. The article paints a picture of 
these First World industrial workers being laid off 
with no place to go and no way to support their 
families, promoting the mythology of the 1980s that 
Amerikan workers are losing their jobs as the gap 
between CEOs and company employees widens. Because 
this is the same position that many Trotskyist and 
other left-posing groups take, MIM takes the time to 
rebut this argument here.

Talk of workers being "downsized" focuses on the 
shrinking number of industrial jobs within u.$. 
borders. But more important than the question of what 
individual blue collar workers do with the rest of 
their lives is the question of what is happening to 
the u.$. class structure. For years, MIM has pointed 
out the facts that while the proportion of Amerikans 
working industrial jobs is going down, the percentage 
of Amerikans pushing paper for money is going up. As a 
group, Amerikan workers are moving into cleaner and 
better paid administrative jobs, and are making more 
money as a result.(MIM Theory 1)

Even those workers who do not find better jobs after 
being laid off have both savings and stocks in their 
employer companies to fall back on.(2) The New York 
Times points out that the workers at a Mobil plant in 
Texas "are either balding or going gray" and 
interprets this as a sign that the company "has been 
more concerned about how to get rid of workers than 
how to attract them." But MIM sees the graying of 
Amerikan workers as part of the overall trend in this 
country's economy -- which includes a higher 
proportion of people with college and higher 
educations than ever before. Young prospective workers 
at Mobil are not faced so much with a lack of jobs as 
they are with opportunities for higher status work.(3)

MIM has not seen much information about what will 
happen to gas station workers. Since many Mobil 
stations are side-by-side with Exxon stations, some of 
these redundant jobs will likely be cut. As described 
in MIM Theory 1, white people who have such low paying 
menial jobs often only have them for short periods of 
time. (Immigrants and the oppressed nations are forced 
into these jobs for a long time.) This transitional 
use of low-paying work by whites keeps lower-paid 
whites from forming a class, as they will each 
individually be doing something much better shortly.

Analyzing the potential Exxon-Mobil merger from the 
proletarian perspective must mean looking from an 
international perspective. The people of Nigeria, 
Mexico, Malaysia and many other countries will suffer 
the brunt of Exxon Mobil's new profit-sucking power. 
In Mexico, manufacturing workers made 16 percent of 
the u.$. manufacturing worker wage in 1989. This is 
because "the absolute gap between rich countries and 
poor countries has steadily expanded to this 
state."(1) MIM focuses its efforts on the struggles of 
the most oppressed by analyzing broad economic and 
political trends, not by trying to isolate First World 
struggles in every corporate development.

Notes:

1. MIM Theory no. 1: A White Proletariat? (Spring, 
1992).
2. New York Times, 30 November 1998.
3. http://www.census.gov/population/socdemo/education/tab
lea-01.txt


* * *


LETTERS

Dear MIM: I extend my revolutionary love to MIM, all 
who audaciously, indignantly defy the standard of life 
as determined and defined by the savage and barbaric 
individuals who facilitate positions in government, 
and oppressive government around the world.

I'm in receipt of two papers, asante sana (thank you 
very much). In my initial missive requesting a 
subscription I stated I'd be sending some stamps to 
aid in the cause. There are no certainties in these 
dismal crypts, but it will be taken care of shortly. 
If it is three or four, know it was what could be 
afforded at the moment.

I don't consider myself learnt in any particular area; 
my experience is being "the students". As I read MIM 
notes, one quickly realizes, they (I) have a long way 
to go. What is revolution, what is the goal? To answer 
my own question...Revolution is a science and not a 
conclusion. It cannot be packaged...nothing uniform 
about it. I say "it", not as an entity, but as a blind 
force, et. Cetera. Our goal is to ravage, destroy, 
annihilate, eliminate the present government as we 
"know" it to be; those who facilitate it; and the 
Duponts, Bill Gates, Fords, Kennedys, et. al. All the 
institutions (schools, bible class (church, prison, 
welfare, media, et. Cetera) which brain wash and 
program.

Knowing this is rudimentary, basic and essential, but 
is empty without know how and history of successful 
and unsuccessful class struggles. We cannot do what 
Marx, Lenin, Che, Castro, Mao et. al. did to liberate 
their people, we can only use their philosophies, 
ideologies as building principles, Right?

In response (per se) to Islam and Afghanistan, in your 
letters column [MIM Notes #171, October 1, 1998] "A 
reader" stated "Furthermore, the author erroneously 
dismisses Islam as nothing more than a religion and 
not the targets of the attack..."

I infer from the context the reader believed the real 
attack was on Islam all the hype was a disguise, I'm 
not disagreeing. Is this "Islam" more than a mere 
religion. First I am a "Muslim"... member of the 
Melanic Islamic Palace of the Rising Son, a "non-
orthodox religious" sect.

Something I've noticed is we (muslims) fail to 
understand the ROLE of Islam in the struggle for 
Liberation. Islam is a vehicle, not a stationary 
designation. There is no perfect religion. Once you 
give definition, or define by labeling, that which has 
been defined by a label now has distinct limits. This 
perfectness would contradict the cosmocal laws of 
nature i.e., everything is in a perpetual state of 
motion, evolution. ...

Daily I see individuals abandoning their respective 
cultures, heritage in the name of Islam. This "God" is 
not restricted to one geographical location. The 
omnipotent omnipresent is circumscribed by a 1400 year 
old tradition? All pro/phats where staunch nationalist 
who brought an universal message, but sent to a 
specific people. This continent enslaved ones with the 
false interpretations of the Bible. So many are 
breaking those chains, to only be shackled to the 
"interpretations" of Islam. The key is to know thy 
self. If one is not in tune with self they'll never be 
able to push a Revolution.

At the moment we have taken on the ways of this whore 
called liberty. "Islam" is a guideline, of discipline, 
morals, ethics, humbleness, love, righteousness, 
justice, peace, truth. All the things we fight for. We 
must be what we fight for. And that's the Role Islam 
fulfills in this revolution. It detaches our mind from 
the illusions, receptive materialistic garbage of this 
great whore. ...

We (muslims) are bigger than "Islam"? We are the sons 
and daughters of Allah. The only difference from 
saying "Islam" and "Submission of ones will to the 
"Creator" is predicated on the linguistics. Islam is a 
vehicle. A mere religion (way of life). One must be 
themselves, in the spirit of the creator. The first 
and most important struggle is with self. If we master 
self we can master the environment we have been 
granted. One needs no books technically, nature is the 
best of examples (a pro/phat), study it!!

As controversial as this may be it requires 
expounding. The MIM is a revolutionary voice and must 
interpret phenomena for the masses. ISLAM IS A 
VEHICLE!

Excuse me if I stepped out the boots of the students, 
I want you to send me the 10 step program (enclosed is 
a stamped self-addressed envelope). Also I would like 
some books on G. Jackson, Marx, Lenin, Mao, BPP.

I appreciate your paper! Please be patient with me 
don't never separate my intentions from the outcome, 
act.

I'm 23 but if you teach me I can teach others my age. 
They appear more susceptible to a young bro, it is 
easier for them to relate.

MIM responds:  We have much unity with this letter 
writer. But as we stated in response to the letter in 
the October MIM notes that s/he quoted, "In relation 
to the centrality of Islam, like the writer says 
Muslims and Communists come at this question from 
different directions. But in this case we both 
categorically oppose u.$. efforts to dominate other 
countries." 

MIM agrees with those Muslims who see Islam as a guide 
for revolutionary organizing. But still we don't 
consider the idealism of any religion necessary to a 
materialist understanding of the world. This letter 
writer is correct in drawing some parallels between 
Islam and other religions. All religions are based in 
some form of mysticism that replaces a materialist 
analysis with blind faith. This only serves to 
discourage people from understanding the world and 
believing that people are the only ones who can change 
the world.

Religion often encourages people to wait for a higher 
power to make change rather than seizing the power for 
themselves. This is the insidious nature of idealism 
and one of the reasons we oppose this kind of 
idealism.

But even with these ideological disagreements, we see 
that right now many Muslims are an ally of proletarian 
revolutionary organizing. And we do not make religion 
a dividing line question between anti-imperialists. 
MIM seeks to work with all anti-imperialists 
regardless of religious beliefs as a part of the 
proletarian-led United Front against imperialism. And 
we hope that Muslims like this comrade will join in 
the struggle to teach other Muslims the importance of 
fighting for revolution.


* * *


INDONESIAN REPRESSION IN EAST TIMOR CONTINUES

by MC17

Reports in late November that 44 people were killed in 
East Timor by the occupying Indonesian military broke 
the relative calm in the country since the downfall of 
Indonesian President Suharto. In recent months it 
appeared that Indonesia was focusing its military 
might and political concentration inside its borders 
in an attempt to restore control and as a result the 
constant repression against East Timorese, who have 
fought for independence since the 1975 Indonesian 
invasion, seemed to lessen. Many have suggested that 
the downfall of Suharto may give East Timor a chance 
at independence.

Indonesian officials deny that there was a massacre 
but according to a church group, the army surrounded 
the village of Alas and then moved in and burned 36 
houses, killing many and forcing others to flee.

In response to this latest attack by the Indonesian 
military, the East Timorese people protested in the 
capital of Dili. Several thousands students occupied 
provincial government buildings demanding withdrawal 
of all Indonesian troops.

The UN has been sponsoring talks between Portugal, the 
former colonial ruler of East Timor, and Indonesia. 
These talks were called off after the recent massacre 
but then rescheduled to resume after an Indonesian 
human rights group promised to investigate. Portugal 
is in no position to pose as an ally of East Timor as 
its former colonial master. East Timor needs 
independence and the right to self determination. It 
is not a child whose kind mother (Portugal) and evil 
father (Indonesia) need to negotiate its future. Only 
a complete withdrawal of all Indonesian troops and a 
turning over of all control of institutions in East 
Timor to the people of East Timor will bring peace. 
Anything less will not satisfy the peoples just demand 
for national self-determination and independence.

Note: The Economist, 28 November 1998, p.42.


* * *

REVIEW: THE NEW FINANCIAL CAPITALISTS:
KOHLBERG KRAVIS ROBERTS AND THE CREATION OF 
CORPORATE VALUE 
by George P. Baker and George David Smith
Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1998, 
257 pp.

reviewed by MC5

Two rent-a-nerds have written a book claiming to have 
a new argument why finance capital is not parasitic 
and in fact plays a very productive role in the 
economy. The book that came out this year is based on 
a study of the 1980s mergers and acquisitions craze 
with a focus on the investment banking firm known as 
"Kohlberg Kravis Roberts" which is just the names of 
three partners in the New York and California based 
business.

The ghost of Lenin

Karl Marx came up with a scientific distinction 
between "productive" and "unproductive" labor. It is a 
little different than the popular concept.

Russian revolutionary V. I. Lenin believed that the 
popular concept of unproductive labor was quite 
relevant when capitalism came to be dominated by 
finance capital in the age of monopolies. MIM believes 
we are still in the stage of capitalism Lenin called 
the "final stage."

The book we are reviewing is substantially an argument 
with Lenin's ghost without naming him. Lenin held that 
capitalist imperialism was the decadent phase of 
capitalism, the stage where capitalism could bring no 
more progress to the world, only world wars. According 
to Lenin, "coupon-clippers" in imperialist countries 
were people who lived without working by owning 
stocks, bank notes etc.

Baker and Smith admit that even parasite-friendly 
Amerikans have never viewed finance capitalists like 
J.P. Morgan or Michael Milken with the same respect as 
business leaders like Thomas Edison or Henry Ford who 
seem to be connected with invention and massive 
reorganization respectively. "The essential populism 
of American culture is uncomfortable with financial 
schemes, which have so often been associated with 
venal fraud and scandal, or worse, unfruitful labor. 
In the common caricature, the great practitioners of 
high finance have made their money without producing 
goods, extracting 'paper profits' as if by sleight of 
hand, wringing fortunes from transactions that have no 
direct connection to anything productive. This view is 
hardly limited to the uninitiated; it is shared among 
highly sophisticated business people."(p. 2)

Baker and Smith seek to champion the finance 
capitalist.

Sycophantic business pulp fiction

Not only does this book squarely address Lenin without 
naming him, it also claims to know that most business 
writing is shallow cheerleading of no intellectual 
depth or consequence. For this reason we call Baker 
and Smith "rent-a-nerds." They are not the kind of 
intellectuals who sit in ivory towers. They are the 
kind that go to the highest bidder and perform the 
functions of corporate public relations departments 
but with more intellectual depth than usual.

Baker and Smith are fairly accurate in their self-
assessments. They do a better job than most business 
writers. They have some background.

On the other hand, MIM is disappointed that the 
premier ivory tower of political economy - Cambridge 
University Press - published this book, because it 
really does not engage the issues it raised.

For example, if leveraged buyouts linking management 
to ownership by giving executive managers stock in the 
company are so important, then why did Japan do so 
well economically? Japanese companies have always had 
abysmal profit rates and their executives are paid a 
fraction what U.$. executives make. Baker and Smith 
raise this subject in one sentence (p. 36) and they 
fail to address it with relevant facts from both the 
U.$. and Japanese economies.

A book mainly based on the press releases of a single 
investment bank still has a cheerleading feel to it, 
no matter how many connected issues are raised, 
because the evidence that Baker and Smith concern 
themselves with simply cannot address the subjects 
they raise. For MIM, this is a basis of some 
celebration, as another example of the incompetence of 
the ruling class and why capitalism is likely to fall 
sooner than later.

From the point of view of Baker and Smith and most 
business writers, changing one or two executive 
managers makes a big difference. It is one of the 
essential ingredients -- retaining or changing the 
executives-- that KKR looks at before conducting a 
leveraged buyout of a company. Thus much of the book 
is talking about how to be more competent members of 
the capitalist class -- paying more attention to 
loopholes in the tax code, deciding how many workers 
to lay off and coming up with a composition of the 
company's debt structure -- how much in junk bonds, 
how much in bank loans etc. 

Rebutting journalists

Baker and Smith attempt to rebut Susan Faludi who won 
the Pulitzer Prize for writing about corporate raiders 
like KKR. A study of companies bought out by KKR 
between 1977 and 1989 shows that employment increased; 
capital spending increased and research and 
development increased three years after takeover.(p. 
37)

The unscientific nature of this argument comes out in 
that Baker and Smith felt no compulsion in the book to 
come up with statistical generalities about companies 
that did not get taken over with leveraged buy outs. 
(A leveraged buy-out occurs when a capitalist 
successfully offers to buy a company with money he or 
she borrowed from others. In the case of KKR leveraged 
buy-outs, it also means that the new capitalist in 
control gives an ownership stake to executive 
management and allows management to run day-to-day 
affairs without interference. Managers are given the 
goals by finance capitalists, but how they achieve 
them is up to them.

The goal that guarantees management performance is 
paying off the debts incurred in the purchase of the 
company at its new higher stock price.) Hence, we do 
not know if employment, capital spending and research 
and development increased even faster in companies not 
taken over. They only pointed to a study done 
elsewhere that shows that layoffs are less frequent 
after leveraged buyouts than in the industry as a 
whole (p. 218) and that research and development may 
or may not have suffered after leveraged buyouts (p. 
219). Baker and Smith themselves had no evidence to 
bring to bear. That's another reason we call these 
business school professors "rent-a-nerds."

New arguments?

We do not believe the authors succeeded in presenting 
anything new. They claim that the leveraged buyout the 
way KKR does it has never been seen before, but that 
is just more marketing hype. Always the hired 
prizefighters of the ruling class glorify the most 
obvious of profit-oriented decisions as if they were 
the brilliance of God. In the case of this book, the 
extended press release includes a chapter on the 
glories of working for KKR.

The two most important arguments that Baker and Smith 
make are these: 1) Ownership and control separated in 
Amerikan corporations such that executives and 
stockholders had conflicting interests. Baker and 
Smith were not the first to argue this as they 
acknowledge. 2) The leveraged buyout was not a short-
term profit orientation, but a long-term strategy 
increasing stock prices.

What is unique about this book is its portrayal of 
diverse labor unions, journalists and executives as 
being opposed to finance capitalists. There is a 
strong element of truth to this.

Most interesting of all is the claim that executives 
managed to run the ship without paying attention to 
shareholders -- the exact opposite of what people 
studying Japan conclude about the U.$. economy. 
According to Baker and Smith, it was the leveraged 
buyout that made executives more accountable to 
shareholders. Before KKR came around, executives 
supposedly sought aggrandizement of their own power 
through conglomeration and decadent perks, not profits 
for shareholders: "Rank managerial opportunism was 
reflected in the erection of monumental corporate 
headquarters, the purchase of executive airplanes, 
stretch limousines, yachts and resorts, and the 
sponsorship of lavish trips and celebrity sporting 
events that did nothing to contribute to the bottom 
line."(p. 14)

According to Baker and Smith, the law made it 
difficult for shareholders to exert direct influence 
in companies. In fact, even boards of directors were 
usually just the creations of CEOs before the mergers 
and acquisitions trends of the 1980s.

By buying a company and then giving managers stock in 
the company, KKR supposedly healed a schism in the 
capitalist class. Such executives were more willing to 
lay off workers or do what it takes to pay off 
corporate debts and see themselves to profitability.

Without any proof or evidence about companies not 
involved in mergers and acquisitions, Baker and Smith 
claim that KKR strategies that influenced the whole 
business world are what laid the basis for prosperity 
in the 1990s. "In a more fundamental historical sense, 
KKR's legacy is this: its management buyouts breathed 
new life into a moribund system of financial 
capitalism, which in turn stimulated a new era of 
sustained economic growth, vibrant securities markets, 
and at this writing, nearly full levels of 
employment."(p. 206)

As MIM has detailed in "Imperialism and its Class 
Structure in 1997," the U.$. boom of the 1990s is 
dependent on a massive transfer of surplus-value from 
the Third World, especially the increase from East 
Asia and Latin America. The paper-shufflers simply 
like to claim credit.

Capitalism as a system

KKR is essentially correct about how capitalism works. 
Capitalism is a system, not a collection of 
sentimental people. If one executive will not obey the 
dictates of profit, another will come along and 
replace him or her. Hence, the intentions of the 
individual executive hardly matter. For a period of 
time, KKR was able to make huge profits from 
reflecting this truth more accurately than other 
capitalists. Then conditions changed.

Capitalists about to lose a fight may agree to be 
bribed out by the other side, which is what KKR 
generally tried to do: bribe the executive already 
there. Other capitalists afraid of losing power or 
money will side with labor unions, local communities 
threatened with business closings and journalists 
against "sharks" and "corporate raiders." This 
coalition also succeeded in passing laws and 
regulations that made leveraged buyouts more 
difficult. The money for junk bonds and this sort of 
acquisition pretty much dried up by the early 1990s.

"During the 1980s, the mere specter of the corporate 
takeover was prodding more and more executives to 
undertake internal reforms-- in some cases for no 
better reason than to defend against unwanted 
buyers."(p. 43) Although this had struck Baker and 
Smith as news (p. x), Marx had already elaborated this 
economic law 150 years ago.


* * *


CAMPAIGN TO EXPAND MIM NOTES DISTRIBUTION

MIM Notes is initiating a campaign to expand 
distribution of our newspaper in 1999. As the end of 
the century approaches we must stress the importance 
of summing up the lessons of the 20th century for 
communists and of applying these lessons to the 
advancing struggle against imperialism.

Independent media of the oppressed is crucial to 
building a movement that can take on imperialism. 
Right now we don't come close to competing with the 
New York Times or the other daily newspapers across 
this imperialist country. But with your help we can 
expand our distribution and advance the fight towards 
the day when we can take on and defeat the imperialist 
mouthpieces.

If you live in a city where there is no regular MIM 
Notes distributor, your help is crucial. But even if 
you live in a city where there are already 
distributors, your help will expand our outreach into 
more communities in your city. We ask that our 
distributors help with the cost of printing and 
shipping the paper if possible but whether or not you 
have the money we need your help.

Distributors can sell the paper on the streets and at 
political events and you can leave copies of the paper 
free at colleges, in community centers, in laundry 
mats, at libraries, in coffee shops, in bookstores, 
and anywhere else that they won't get thrown away and 
people will pick them up.

Our goal for 1999 is to expand distribution of MIM 
Notes and increase the necessary funding by 25% of the 
current total. We can't do it without your help. 
Contact your local distributor or send us the form 
below to help out. 

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Yes, I will help expand the distribution of MIM Notes!

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Send me ______ papers.

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Address ____________________________________

City _______________________ State__________ 
Zip__________


* * *


ADDRESSING HIV GLOBALLY REQUIRES DICTATORSHIP OF 
PROLETARIAT

by MC5

A study published in November, 1998 estimated that 
triple combination therapy for the world's HIV-
positive individuals would cost $65.8 billion per 
year. "In 1997 an estimated 5.8 million people were 
infected with HIV. On average there were 16,000 new 
infections each day during this year. In total, one in 
every 100 sexually active adults aged 15-49 years were 
living with this virus. Ninety percent of these 
individuals lived in developing countries, in 
particular, in sub-Saharan Africa."(1)

"Triple combination therapy" (also referred to as 
Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART)) includes 
the use of a new class of drugs called "protease 
inhibitors" that came out in 1996. While these drugs 
are not a cure they promise a life without any AIDS or 
detectable HIV if the disease is caught early enough. 
Since these drugs appear to be able to sustain life 
indefinitely, they can also be a bridge while final 
cures are developed.

The problem is that HAART costs $10,000 to $14,000 a 
year - much too much for the Third World and 
indigenous people. Research sponsored by the sinister 
"United States Agency for International Development" 
attempts to explain to Third World policy-makers that 
they should not support HAART, because the per capita 
income of their peoples will not sustain it and 
because it will take money away from other health 
efforts including prevention.

Nonetheless, Costa Rica's Supreme Court has ruled that 
the government must provide HAART to those who need 
it. Thailand is also endeavoring to provide HAART and 
Brazil has actually put aside the money for it.

"While the pharmaceutical companies recognize that 
this price is not affordable in most developing 
countries, they are also concerned that offering ARVs 
[antiretroviral drugs - MC5] for a discount in 
developing countries could create arbitrage 
opportunities (purchasing ARVs at a lower price in 
developing countries and reselling them in developed 
countries) that might potentially reduce their profit 
levels. They are also concerned that there will then 
be demands by health insurance providers and activists 
in developed countries to reduce their prices to 
levels in developing countries. Some countries such as 
Costa Rica have been able to negotiate a price 
equivalent to approximately $7000 per patient per year 
for invirase, HIVID and AZT. While this is less 
expensive than the market price in developed 
countries, it still represents nearly three times 
Costa Rica's per capita income ($2610)."(2)

While the cost of AZT in the 1980s was originally over 
$10,000 a year, it is now $3000.(2) There is some hope 
that as time goes on and new drugs are invented, old 
ones will become cheaper.

Many will talk about the fact that the Third World is 
not receiving proper care for HIV. What distinguishes 
us Marxists from the rest is that we believe there is 
a non-negotiable "right" to food, shelter, clothing, 
medicine and a non-toxic and non-militarist 
environment. It is only the political trickery of the 
bourgeoisie to foist on the oppressed and exploited 
the idea that life itself is negotiable.

In one sense, we Marxists are simply the most extreme 
believers in "human rights." Maoist socialism will not 
be perfect, but failures will not be on account of the 
drive for profit. We are willing to say that we are 
for organized force against those who believe the 
right to profits or property is higher than the right 
to food, shelter, clothing, medicine and a non-toxic 
and non-militarist environment. We Marxists calls this 
priority of serving humyn needs through the use of 
organized force where necessary "dictatorship of the 
proletariat." Currently we live under capitalist 
dictatorship.

In the imperialist countries, the middle classes focus 
only on those humyn rights of interest to the middle-
classes, generally the right to "free speech." Fed, 
clothed and sheltered already, these middle classes 
fail to see their role in propping up the imperialist 
system that denies the world's majority of people its 
basic humyn rights to live.

Beyond the fact that we are more thorough in our 
conception of "human rights" what distinguishes 
Maoists from human rights activists is that we 
dedicate ourselves to applying the science of Marxism-
Leninism-Maoism to achieving those human rights goals. 
Scientific question number one is to find the social 
group most likely to fight for a thorough conception 
of humyn rights. Since the proletariat is the class of 
people with "nothing to lose but its chains," it is 
the class with the most to gain from dictatorship for 
humyn needs. We call such dictatorship, "dictatorship 
of the proletariat."

The "dictatorship of the proletariat" is the socialist 
stage on the way to communism. Contrary to popular 
belief, neither socialism nor communism is "equality." 
That is one alleged "right" we are not in favor of. We 
are not for total equality, but equality of the 
minimal non-negotiable rights makes socialism and 
communism much more egalitarian in effect than 
capitalism.

One problem with dictatorship of the proletariat is 
that after the initial socialist revolution, some 
relatively easy questions are resolved and then a 
bourgeoisie re-organizes itself, right inside the 
communist party leading the dictatorship of the 
proletariat. Mao's contribution was to fight to 
preserve the vehicle of achieving humyn rights we call 
dictatorship of the proletariat through a method of 
"Cultural Revolution."

Many realize that with dictatorship of the proletariat 
in a few rich countries, the whole world could be fed, 
because the food already exists and just needs 
distribution. The same is true for many 
pharmaceuticals including those involved in HAART. The 
possibility exists to deliver these drugs to all who 
need them.

The bourgeoisie says if it did not make tremendous 
profits on drugs too expensive for the poor, then no 
one would be spurred on to invent new drugs. MIM 
believes that at this time in history, inventors 
should be rewarded with exceptional monetary rewards 
if their inventions contribute to the abolition of 
classes. Certainly inventing anti-HIV drugs qualifies. 
However, once a new drug is invented, the motivation 
to make profit in its manufacturing should be 
eliminated. If there needs to be innovation in 
manufacturing, then there can be rewards for that too, 
but there is no need for the kind of profits and 
restriction of sales seen today.

Executives making tens and hundreds of millions a year 
for their alleged innovations are unnecessary. It was 
Mao who led a scientific movement of the masses in the 
Cultural Revolution that earned the contempt of the 
bourgeois intellectuals of the West and China. Those 
bourgeois intellectuals hoped to utilize the 
scientific side of dictatorship of the proletariat as 
an excuse to restore capitalism. Mao realized such was 
possible as long as the masses themselves avoided 
science. The masses need to make up for the bourgeois 
intellectuals who no longer find themselves motivated 
under socialism and they need to surpass those 
bourgeois intellectuals.

In the West, natural and preventive medicine does not 
receive its proper emphasis because no one profits 
from it except for those with careers in preventive 
medicine. The big profits in imperialist countries 
come from inventing and administering new drugs to 
cure diseases that could have been prevented. Although 
China was very poor, Mao realized very well that 
preventive medicine is cheap, and so China doubled its 
life expectancy and surpassed the United $tates in 
urban maternal care for instance.

The inventions in the rich countries have come at the 
expense of the cheap labor of the Third World. It is 
not just a question of 400 years of African slavery. 
Today, the Third World continues to do a 
disproportionate share of the manual agricultural, 
mining and industrial work that makes a life of 
science and engineering possible. Without food, 
shelter and clothing taken care of first, there can be 
no scientists. The effects and importance of such 
"productive labor" prior to scientific labor can be 
examined and analyzed scientifically, as MIM does in 
its latest essay, "Imperialism and Its Class Structure 
in 1997."

The pharmaceutical companies have invented expensive 
drugs to treat HIV with the help of scientists and 
paper-shufflers fed, clothed and sheltered by Third 
World labor. Prevention does not work in the Third 
World as well as it should because the masses have 
learned to distrust their imperialist-backed 
governments and the medical authorities who seem to be 
lackeys of multinational pharmaceutical companies. 

In addition, in the Third World as in the United 
$tates, there is the debilitating effect of religion 
backed by the ruling class. This religion opposes sex 
education and needle exchange for drug-users and 
thereby contributes to the health problem. The health 
of children needing sex education or drug-addicts will 
not be sacrificed for "freedom of religion" under the 
dictatorship of the proletariat. Adults attempting to 
defraud children of their lives in the name of 
religion will be shot. After a few such shootings, it 
will be much easier to prevent HIV infection and the 
cost to society will be much lower.

In conclusion, the "dictatorship of the proletariat" 
starts with a sense of political priorities, but it is 
not just a new brand of moralism. The Cultural 
Revolution will consolidate the dictatorship of the 
proletariat by relying on the masses for scientific 
advance and innovation thereby providing for the needs 
of the people without handing power over to the 
bourgeoisie, especially its scientists, engineers and 
managers. The dictatorship of the proletariat will 
also be a tool to see to humyn needs whether it be by 
planning production priorities or punishing religious 
reactionaries seeking to spread infectious disease.

Notes:
1. Robert S. Hogg et. al., "One world, one hope: the 
cost of providing antiretroviral therapy to all 
nations," AIDS 1998, vol. 12, p. 2203.
2. Steven S. Forsythe, "The affordability of 
antiretroviral therapy in developing countries: what 
policymakers need to know," AIDS 1998, vol. 12 
Supplement 2, p. s15.


* * *


DON'T BE FOOLED BY U.$. MILITARY CUT BACK

by MC53

At the end of November when the U.$. imperialist 
machine was poised to massacre additional Iraqi 
people, the Pentagon sent a report to Clinton which 
argued for the cut back of military spending for 
nuclear weapons.

The Republocrats portray proposed cutbacks as painless 
reduction which helps the U.$. to save money. However, 
the recommendation was not to cut back the entire 
military budget, recruitment of imperialist soldiers 
and spending on warships and missiles.

Much like recent corporation job cutbacks, the 
imperialist military seeks the most efficient method 
to oppress and control the majority of the world's 
people. Job cutbacks in manufacturing areas have not 
meant job loss -- instead parasites have more white 
collar jobs. Cutbacks in the nuclear arsenal of the 
United Snakes of Imperialism has not meant less 
oppression of Third World nations -- instead funds are 
used to advance the so-called war against drugs and 
terrorism which the U.$. uses as a guise to smash 
struggles of the people.

Pentagon pigs have stated that continuing the current 
level of expenditures for the nuclear arsenal would be 
a waste. Further, they argue that Congress should 
allow the cutbacks to provide the imperialist military 
with "more flexibility." The Pentagon stated that the 
money "sapped money from efforts to combat 'newer 
threats' like terrorism and ethic wars." The 
imperialists concede that the weapons stockpiling was 
more than adequate to defend the U.$. but now they 
need to put money into fighting revolutionary 
movements and the growing anti-imperialist organizing 
around the world.

With conventional war machinery or nuclear arsenals -- 
the victims of the attacks are the masses of oppressed 
nations. This is why we put the battle against nuclear 
weapons proliferation and anti-militarism in general 
in the context of building the foundations for 
revolution against imperialism in general. Just 
because the imperialists say they are switching 
methods of oppression does not mean that they are 
stopping the oppression. Work with MIM against 
militarism and imperialism's varied methods.

Note: New York Times. 23 November 1998.


* * *


COMRADE TAKES INITIATIVE TO GIVE HEALTH AID TO 
PRISONERS

Mobilization of prisoners in the struggle against 
imperialist oppression, specifically the use of 
prisons as a means of social control and national 
oppression, is on the increase. United Struggle from 
Within (USW) is the MIM-led anti-imperialist mass 
organization of prisoners fighting against oppression. 
Prisoners are developing the organization into a 
vehicle to coordinate struggles against censorship, 
brutality and other forms of oppression against 
prisoners. Prisoners are mobilizing together within 
USW to increase study and understanding of history, 
current events and the path to genuine liberation of 
the people.

Part of the United Struggle from Within is the 
prisoner-created Serve the People Prisoners' Legal 
Clinic. Through the legal clinic, prisoners are 
working together with comrades on the outside to 
spread legal information and education. Several issue 
of MIM Legal Notes have been published as part of 
these efforts. Over the course of 1999, USW will focus 
much of these efforts on fighting the censorship which 
is rampant in kkkoncentration kkkamps through the U.$. 

An Illinois prisoner has taken the initiative to start 
her/his own Prisoners' Health Watch. The health watch 
is not part of the MIM-led USW organization, but is an 
excellent example of independent organization among 
prisoners to meet their own needs. MIM Notes will 
print Prisoners' Health Watch articles alongside other 
comrades' articles on prisoner health issues because 
we believe that the Prisoners' Health Watch is a much-
needed program for prisoners.

The Illinois comrade has articulated the importance of 
collecting information on the exact problems faced by 
prisoners. To this end, s/he has collected extensive 
amounts of research pertaining to the medical 
attention which prisoners have received. S/he has also 
stated clearly that the Prisoners' Health Watch should 
provide suggestions that are up to date and that will 
make a difference to the conditions under which 
prisoners live. S/he has emphasized the need for 
articles which explain how to determine an illness and 
other 'how to' articles.

MIM salutes this comrade's efforts to address health 
issues faced by prisoners. MIM Notes also welcomes 
other prisoners to follow this Illinois prisoner's 
example and submit your own articles on health issues 
to Under Lock & Key. Please note that unless otherwise 
requested, articles will be edited for political and 
medical purposes to best meet the needs of prisoners. 
If you would like to discuss the Prisoners' Health 
Watch with the Illinois comrade, let us know.

The letter on this page was written for the purpose of 
distribution to medical professionals. Look for 
upcoming columns of the Prisoners' Health Watch 
addressing the issues of "Asbestos and Prisoners;ī "10 
ways to beat a cold in prisonī and other articles in 
MIM Notes pertaining to politics and health like 
coverage of the Treatment of HIV infected prisoners in 
South Carolina gulags.


* * *


PRISONERS' HEALTH WATCH
PRISONERS, INFORMATION AND HIV/AIDS

There has been some misinformation circulating about 
HIV/AIDS and prisoners. It's a shame that the medical 
profession does not pay attention to the needs of 
prisoners. It alarms me because if many f the 
illnesses are properly treated inside prisons, ex-
prisoners would not be passing on many of the diseases 
they catch in prison, which is a method of how 
HIV/AIDS is being transmitted in society. The American 
Correctional Systems does not want informative 
HIV/AIDS, T.B., or Hepatitis information available 
because they want prisoners to be in the blind about 
such diseases. There is no doubt that passing out such 
information would curtail these types of diseases.

I am wondering does society really have an idea of 
exactly what goes on inside prisons? Evidently they 
don't, and this lack of knowledge is weighing heavy 
against prisoners because they have no avenues to gain 
adequate medical treatment, and often die  for minor 
illnesses that a poor person would be cured for in 
society.

[The] article entitled "HIV/AIDS Behind Barsī by David 
S. MacDougall, printed in the "Journal of the 
International Association of Physicians in AIDS Care,ī 
April 1998 issue, for the most part touched on the 
substantial problem with some good suggestioned as to 
prevention and issuing informative data. However, 
about three quarter ways through the article, it 
referred to the very organizations that use prisoners 
as "guinea pigsī without prisoner being aware of 
exactly what experiments they are conducting on 
prisoners. Isn't this some type of crime? Infected 
needles are being used to withdraw blood, when the 
solution given to determine if a prisoner has T.B., 
prisoners are not being injected with HIV/AIDS, and 
Hepatitis, Why? To test new drugs!

Abt Associations, the Center for Disease Control and 
Prevention, American Correctional Association, along 
with Illinois, intentionally gave prisoners HIV/AIDS, 
T.B., and Hepatitis. The cause and affect was being 
watched, while prisoners were at danger. [The AP news 
article pertaining to the Illinois Supreme Court's 
resurrection of a lawsuit by a prisoner showing HIV 
infection by the state] clearly indicates what 
happened. [And] the Illinois law makers knew of the 
problem. Illinois State Representative Cal Skinner, 
said, "Extrapolating the study's findings to the 
Illinois adult male inmates individuals over 100 men a 
year are receiving what I can 'an unadjudicated death 
sentence' each year."

This was an understatement because 200-350 prisoners 
die yearly of HIV/AIDS, and Hepatitis. We are explored 
without our knowledge just because society and the 
medical profession has turned their eyes and turned 
off their ears to this alarming problem.

Majority of the drugs society uses are tested on 
prisoners before they reach the market for society. 
Prisoners are not aware because prison administrators 
want them ignorant. Prisoners are exposed to Asbestos' 
and Lead Poisoning. Each of these diseases are taken 
back to society.

Until society as a whole takes notice of this problem, 
and prisoners start refusing to accept withdrawal of 
blood, T.B. tests, or any treatment that involves a 
needle without seeing the actual needles, or knowing 
what they are being shot with, will they receive 
adequate medical care. The voice prisoners need is to 
shock the public to understand that we are not crash 
dummies or guinea pigs.

MIM adds:  As the related articles in this issue 
articulate, MIM sees that a dictatorship of the 
proletariat is necessary to genuinely meet the needs 
of all people, including prisoners. The author of the 
above letter is correct in the recommendation that 
prisoners take care to know what officials are putting 
into their bodies. However, even the suggestions above 
do not mean vigilance on the part of prisoners will 
result in adequate medical care. For example, as many 
prisoners have reported to MIM, prisoners now have to 
pay mandatory medical fees to receive any medical 
attention -- which more often than not is inadequate. 
Prisoners have also reported that they are denied 
necessary medications for diabetes and severe mental 
illness. And as the article on page 4 shows, the 
oppressed are denied access to medication like HAART 
which can help to sustain the life of HIV infected 
individuals. Most importantly, imperialism 
systematically denies the needs of the oppressed, 
including prisoners, through oppressive living 
conditions, resources wasted on decadence instead of 
cures and exploitation.

* * *


SCIENCE OF THE PEOPLE DESPERATELY NEEDED

In early December, a panel of four scientists 
appointed by a federal court reported findings that 
there is no evidence silicone breast implants cause 
disease. This scientific finding received top 
reporting in the news media in this decadent country 
where health problems such as those that might result 
from enlarging wimmin's breasts are of top priority. 
(1)

This news comes shortly after the United Nations' 
demographers released their update of world population 
projections on October 28 which demonstrated the 
devastating toll of AIDS leading to dramatically lower 
projections in sub-Saharan Africa.(2) But this 
information barely made it into the news compared to 
the excitement over the breast implant findings.

While money and resources are being spent researching 
ways to make all wimmin's breasts look exactly like 
the barbie doll image that we've all learned is 
perfection, thousands of children are dying of 
starvation. In south Asia over 50% of children under 
age five suffer from malnutrition and the average in 
the Third World combined is 36%.(3) People are dying 
for lack of clean water and sanitation throughout the 
Third World but still breast size is more important to 
first world wimmin and men.

There is no logic to a country of wealth, training and 
resources wasting scientists on research relevant only 
to the vanity of current cultural demands of beauty. 
This disgusting focus on the health consequences of 
mutilating wimmin's bodies underscores the failure of 
capitalist medicine. First the imperialists create the 
conditions of poverty by destroying the economy of 
Third World countries, installing dictators to act as 
imperialist puppets and moving in the multinational 
corporations to exploit the people. When starvation 
and disease result from these conditions the 
imperialists blame it on the "backward" countries and 
point to how great and advanced medical research is in 
the "advanced" countries (the ones that control the 
economy and wealth that is produced).

Under a dictatorship of the proletariat there will be 
a logical use of medical research devoted to the most 
pressing problems of the people. Researching a cure 
for AIDS will take precedence over investigating the 
effects of silicone breast enlargements. And medical 
advances will be made available to all the people of 
the world, not just the few privileged enough to buy a 
longer and healthier life.

Notes:
1. The New York Times, 8 December 1998
2. Washington Post, 2 December 1998, p.A29.
3. Progress of Nations UNICEF 1993 report.


* * *


OBSCURING REALITY:
WORKERS WORLD CLAIMS NBA PLAYERS ARE OPPRESSED

by MC53

The Workers World Party's (WWP) newspaper claimed that 
the NBA "players are considered the owner's property - 
they can be bought and sold like chattle, although at 
a much higher price." Further, the article entitled 
"Basketball's real billionaires" by WWP leader Monica 
Moorehead urges readers and NBA fans to side with NBA 
players and oppose the owners' call to put a "strict 
ceiling on how much a team can pay the most productive 
players."(1)

It is no wonder that the WWP and other apologists for 
the parasites residing within the wealthiest country 
in the world have resorted to organizing such 
'struggles'. With the kkkountry's unemployment rate at 
a historical low and the majority of workers in 
Amerikkka receiving placement in higher-paying and 
more technological jobs, revisionists are left 
scrambling.

Even liberal commentators on NPR's "All Things 
Considered" admit that thousands of pink slips from 
Boeing, Exxon, Mobil and Kellogg will not affect the 
standard of living of the majority of America. NPR 
commentators stated what MIM has documented for years: 
the workers being laid off or fired from manufacturing 
jobs in Amerikka are well taken care of by placement 
in higher paying and even less productive spheres of 
paper pushing.(2)

But even if the majority of the workers within 
imperialist u.s. borders were exploited, there is no 
justification for claiming that the NBA players are 
exploited. The Marxist definition states that an 
exploited worker is receiving less than the value of 
his or her labor. This means that s/he is producing 
more than s/he is receiving and so the capitalists are 
getting rich by stealing part of the product of 
his/her labor. There is no way to argue that 
basketball players really produce millions of dollars 
a year. Playing basketball is not even productive 
labor, it is parasitic entertainment funded by the 
wealth this country steals from truly productive 
workers around the world. MIM does not oppose 
entertainment but we do oppose capitalist apologists 
who try to claim that millionaires are some how 
exploited just like the starving Third World workers. 
And we also oppose spending billions of dollars on 
entertainment so that Amerikan couch potatoes can sit 
drinking beer and getting fat spending the money this 
country stole from the international proletariat.

The call to support the enslaved and oppressed 
millionaire NBA players is one manifestation of the 
WWP's demands that the majority of the world's people 
sweat - and even die - for the benefit of the 
imperialist nation labor aristocracy. In MIM Theory 
#10, MIM reviewed the WWP political economy in great 
detail. We showed that it's call - even for those 
making less than the NBA stars - to raise the minimum 
wage to $10 an hour cannot come from thin air. 
Specifically, the demand can only come from increased 
super-exploitation of Third World workers. MIM 
disagrees with this call for increased exploitation of 
the world proletariat and instead urges people working 
with the WWP to organize for Maoist revolution and 
reparations paid back to oppressed nations throughout 
the world instead of calling for an even higher 
standard of living for imperialist nation middle 
classes.

In another section of the same issue, the WWP paper 
contradicts itself by running an article on historical 
materialism. The section explains the difference 
between materialist analysis and idealism. Historical 
materialism means that revolutionaries should look at 
the concrete reality of relations under imperialism, 
sum up the material conditions and history, and base 
ideology and strategy on what has been most successful 
historically to end oppression.

The WWP claims to support Marxism and scientific 
socialism without looking at the fact that imperialist 
nation workers support higher wages and benefits for 
themselves at the same time they vibrantly campaign to 
cut welfare, stop bi-lingual education, and only allow 
Mexicans to cross the militarized U.$. border when it 
is picking season. The WW ignores the fact that the 
majority of Amerikkkans became hot and heavy, 
salivating at and supporting the U.$. movement to kill 
more Iraqi masses in November.

Those claiming to be socialist or Marxist and at the 
same time support the fattening of parasites are not 
merely benign leftists with simple disagreements with 
MIM. These are people and parties which choose 
outright to support an alliance of the parasites with 
imperialism AGAINST the majority of the world's 
people. This makes genuine communists look bad in the 
eyes of the oppressed. It continues the history of the 
white left supporting struggles of the oppressed only 
as a token and only as a means to gain more for the 
settler nation middle classes. 

Communists who ignore the historical advancement of 
the Chinese people led by Mao are similar to the 
utopian socialists which the WW says it is not. 
Calling oneself communist and not practicing Maoism 
and proletarian internationalism is similar to 
thinking that reality is or could be a manifestation 
of dreams. Material reality is that the vast majority 
of the world is oppressed by imperialism and is 
already battling U.$. hegemony. And material reality 
is that stroking egos of settler nation workers is not 
going to mobilize them to stop watching TV and start 
fighting for genuine equality.

Notes:
1. Workers World, 3 December 1998, p. 4.
2. National Public Radio. "All Things Considered." 5 
December 1998.
3. MIM Theory #10 is an essential piece of reading for 
communists in the imperialist nations as well as 
critics of MIM's stance on proletarian 
internationalism. $6 from the address on page 2. It 
includes lessons from the COMINTERN, The Black Panther 
Party, 1968-69 and DuBois in History.


* * *


NEW YORK DATA BACKS NEED FOR STUDENT-PRISONER 
ALLIANCE

Credit is due to Derrick Z. Jackson for writing on the 
trade-off between prisons and education in the Boston 
Globe. His article was just on New York State. "Since 
1988, state funding for colleges has plummeted by $615 
million. Spending for prisons has gone up by $761 
million."

"By 1996, annual spending for incarceration, $1.6 
billion, surpassed the $1.3 billion in the budget for 
colleges."

In a typical state budget, the two biggest items are 
education and prisons. Already successive University 
of Michigan presidents have spoken out. It is time for 
university presidents and students everywhere to speak 
out.

There is also a link to the drug problem, a vicious 
cycle. "In New York, harsh mandatory sentences have 
pushed the cost of keeping nonviolent drug offenders 
locked up to $680 million a year, a haunting contrast 
to the $615 million drop since 1988 in college 
spending." White people are 75 percent of New Yorkers, 
but they get caught for only 5 percent of drug 
offenses.

The proletariat is opposed to the U$ penal regime, 
because the ruling class simply uses it to keep the 
oppressed classes and nations in discipline. The 
United $tates has the world's highest imprisonment per 
capita, contrary to rhetoric about a "free country." 
That is proof of the imperialist government's hatred 
of the masses.

Nonetheless, some people will side with us on this 
question for less than politically pure reasons. 
Tuition has risen in SUNY colleges from $6,303 in 1998 
to $11,478. There are material reasons for New York 
students and their parents and also SUNY researchers 
to ally with the prisoners.

People going to college are generally petty-
bourgeoisie, not proletariat. At this time though, MIM 
believes it would be better for the petty-bourgeoisie 
to go to college than to let the ruling class 
implement its hatred of the Amerikan people.

In 1988 it was only 13.5 percent of white median 
family income to put a student in SUNY. Today it is 25 
percent and that number is 42 percent for Blacks and 
Latinos.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about this is that 
the Rockefeller Foundation is behind the funding of 
the study these figures came out of. It appears that 
the ruling class itself is already afraid of feeling 
the heat: "'Unfortunately, the politicians' pandering 
to people's worst emotions about crime and fear-
mongering has won the day.'"

MIM has been saying this for years. The movement 
against the prison craze now has a firm basis in 
alliance amongst the proletariat, lumpenproletariat 
and students, their parents and researchers. Although 
some in the oppressed nations would like to see their 
communities rid of the people that are now in prison, 
we believe the majority of the oppressed nations 
support our struggle.

MIM gladly supports the student petty-bourgeoisie to 
get a cheaper college education, because in exchange 
we cut into the state's repression. In contrast, most 
money struggles in the imperialist countries do not 
produce any gain for the oppressed and exploited.

Note: Boston Globe, 2 December 1998, p. a27.


* * *


ANN ARBOR PIGS PROTECT AND SERVE WHITE HYSTERIA

Early in the morning on December 3rd, Ann Arbor police 
cars were seen rapidly converging on a Black man 
crossing a west side street. At first, the cops talked 
with the man who cooperated and suddenly two cars of 
police were throwing the man against the cop car. 
Immediately a few more pig mobiles rushed to the 
scene. The pigs did not find a weapon on the man or 
any illegal substances during the first search. But 
they violently pushed him around, clearly using 
unnecessary force and searched him again. The man 
yelled that he had not done anything and the pigs said 
that 'you must be in the wrong place at the wrong time 
then' in a mocking manner.

The pigs had been looking for a "Black man, shaved or 
short hair in his late 20s, early 30s" who was a 
suspect in a 'home invasion' earlier in the evening.

The pigs held the innocent Black man for close to an 
hour before bringing the female accuser to the scene. 
The Black man stood, surrounded by pig mobiles, in the 
summary one-man line up. Remember, it was still quite 
dark and shadowy despite pig flood lights.

The womyn said that it was not the man who had 
assaulted her earlier and the pigs let the innocent 
Black man leave. Before leaving, one of the white pigs 
stuck out his hand to his prey.

Statistically, one out of every three Black men ages 
18-35 are locked up, on probation or parole. Black men 
are more likely to receive prison sentences and are 
more likely to have longer sentences than whites who 
commit the same or similar crimes. Even when the 
government admits that whites commit a greater 
proportion of the crime, as in the case of crack 
usage, it is still members of the Black nation who are 
thrown in prison at a higher rate. For instance, the 
U.$. government statistics state that 52% of crack 
users are white, but only 4.1% of the people charged 
which crack use are white and 88% are Black.

The statistics showing that Blacks and other oppressed 
nationals are targeted by the cops and unjustly 
treated by the entire criminal INjustice system do not 
relay a mere coincidence. We argue that the massive 
round up of the oppressed into prisons is a effective 
imperialist method to thwart the development of the 
masses into a strong revolutionary force. The 
oppressed do not stand for continued inequalities and 
oppressed nations under Amerikkka's control have shown 
their potential organizing power. This power is a 
threat to the wealth of the settler nation. And 
prisons serve as a primary tool to ensure continued 
settler existence as parasites.

MIM calls on progressives in Ann Arbor and all other 
cities in the U.$. to take the attacks of the 
oppressed through police and prisons seriously. There 
is no threat which exists which more violently 
oppresses members of the Black, Latino and First 
nations. 

Ann Arbor is a suburban town with a very low crime 
rate. In 1998, only two people were murdered there -- 
and that was not until November in a double homicide. 
An older white couple discussing the murder talked 
about how they had moved to Ann Arbor because it was 
safe, but that they had developed a fear of what might 
happen because of the recent murders.

MIM does not take human life lightly. We seek to stop 
murder through the most effective way possible -- 
revolution. The vast majority of murders and deaths 
throughout the world are a direct result of 
imperialism. And even in the case of the two murders 
in Ann Arbor, increased police, hysteria among white 
folks, and more patrolling will not help to end 
murders between individuals. Increased policing ends 
up with more oppressed nationals being targeted by 
pigs. Revolution, on the other hand, has been proven 
to eradicate drug addiction, resolve inequalities 
between groups of people, lessen power struggles and 
violence and stop crimes which are related to poverty. 
Most of all, revolution is the only solution for 
eradicating the biggest murderer of them all -- 
imperialist butchers.

Books for Prisoners: Copies of John Gurley's "China's 
Economy and the Maoist Strategy" are available to any 
prisoners willing to start a study group and organize 
at least one theory journal article involving the 
material. Copies of "The Geopolitics of Hunger" are 
still available. And limited copies of Kitty Warnock's 
"Land Before Hanour: Palestinian Women in the Occupied 
Territories" are available for prisoners willing to 
write a book review and essay for MIM Theory.


* * *


ESCAPED DEATH ROW PRISONER FOUND DEAD

by MC53

For the first time in 64 years, a prisoner on death 
row, Martin Gurule escaped from a Texas prison on 
November 26. One week later, Gurule's body was found. 
The Harris County medical examiner stated that Gurule 
had died from accidentally drowning in a swollen 
river. Despite the 500 person hunt for Gurule, it was 
two corrections officers -- allegedly off-duty on a 
fishing trip -- who accidentally found Gurule.(1)

MIM writes that Gurule was found dead as a result of 
an accident only to report what the mainstream press 
has stated. We do not take what the imperialists, pigs 
and the imperialist mouth piece media say for granted. 
However, regardless of the manner in which Gurule was 
found, we know that prisoners are beaten and killed by 
their slave masters throughout Amerikkka, and Texas is 
the biggest prison state in the United Snakes.

One result of the escape is increased justification 
for making Texas an even more draconian prison state. 
Governor George Bush has mandated an investigation 
into the escape. Such investigations by the state 
typically result in forcing prisoners to endure 
harsher conditions.

Following the discovery of Gurule's body, prison 
spokesman, Larry Fitzgerald stated "We have a clean 
record of all our escapes now. We have all our people 
back in custody."(1) Of course the pigs don't care 
about the death of Gurule as it will save the state 
money in one of its executions.

Texas is murdering prisoners legally through the death 
penalty faster than any other state. The climate in 
Texas and in the majority of Amerika is to increase 
the frequency of death sentences and legal executions. 
In fact, by Christmas of 1998 the U.$. will have 
executed its 500th prison inmate since the death 
penalty was reinstated in 1976.(2)

Historically, the death penalty has been used to 
legally lynch Black nationals. Liberals generally 
agree that Blacks were lynched in the south prior to 
the civil rights movement even when a crime did not 
occur and even when a Black person did not commit the 
crime. Liberals also generally agree that pre-civil 
rights era, Black men were lynched for fictitious 
rapes of white wimmin.

In 1998, 42% of the people on 3,300 people on death 
row in Amerikkka were Black despite the fact that 
Black nationals are only 12% of the population. In 
Philadelphia, where Mumia is being held as a prisoner 
in the war against the Black nation, Black nationals 
have been sentenced to death eight times more than 
whites since 1978.(3)

The death penalty is used to protect the white nation 
and as a tactic of genocide against oppressed nations. 
82% of prisoners executed since 177 were sentenced 
because of a death of a white person -- even though 
the number of murders of whites and Blacks were about 
equal.(3) MIM doesn't support increasing death 
sentences to even this out, but this aspect of the 
death penalty shows how it is white justice which is 
sought in Amerikkka.

The death penalty in Amerikkka serves the interests of 
the settler nation government and majority. It is not 
used as a mechanism to put to death the more vicious 
murderers. In fact, Bill Clinton, one of the world's 
most vicious murderers, used the death penalty to kill 
a mentally retarded man just prior to his election as 
a means to gain support and dispel the "Democrats are 
soft" image. Putting humans to death because of their 
crimes and killing humans during revolutionary war to 
stop their continued oppression of masses are 
decisions which should only be in the hands of the 
oppressed. Only when the oppressed are genuinely 
represented in government can the government make a 
decision about human life which sincerely protects 
society.

Notes:
1. CNN. 5 December 1998.
2. The Economist, 28 November 1998, p.29.
3. Amnesty International "Rights for All" campaign 
information.


* * *


STUDY, STRUGGLE AND BUILD OPPOSITION TO 
IMPERIALISM!
BOOKS ON BLACK REVOLUTIONARY NATIONALISM 
IMMEDIATELY 
AVAILABLE

"The Making of Black Revolutionaries" by James 
Foreman. [$15]

"Seize the Time: The Story of the Black Panther Party 
and Huey P. Newton" by Bobby Seale (before he sold 
out). [$15]

"The Black Panthers Speak" by Philip S. Foner [$12]

"Maoism and the Black Panther Party" by MIM. [$2]

"Soledad Brother: The Prison Letters of George 
Jackson" by George Jackson. [$7]

"Agents of Repression: The FBI's Secret Wars Against 
the Black Panther Party and the American Indian 
Movement" by Ward Churcill and Jim Vander Wall. [$20]
"Revolutionary Suicide" by Huey P. Newton. [$10]

"To Die for the People" by Huey P. Newton [$10]

The above prices reflect increased printing costs as 
many are photocopied books. The prices include postage 
inside the United Snakes. If received before December 
15th, orders for above literature will be sent within 
one week upon receipt.

YOU CAN PURCHASE THESE BOOKS FOR DONATION TO A 
REVOLUTIONARY PRISONER: these are among the most 
requested books by prisoners to MIM and RAIL. Better 
yet, you can buy the book for yourself and a comrade 
under lock and key and study together.


* * *


UNDER LOCK & KEY: NEWS FROM PRISONS AND PRISONERS
EXPOSING BRUTALITY IN PRISON

I'm in Ad Seg. [after being] attacked and assaulted 
while both of my hands were handcuffed behind my back. 
Lt. X grabbed me around my throat and started choking 
me until I fell to the cement pavement in the dark 
hallway of the prison... He [then] slammed me up 
against the chain fence, kicked and stomped me in my 
back, then he jumped up and started hollering use of 
force! ...I was then surrounded by 9 more white racist 
pigs....

...In Ad Seg. they are literally starving the 
prisoners...they are only putting a dab of this and a 
dab of that on the trays, a lot of times we don't get 
the same amount that [general population prisoners] 
get on their trays. You can see all the prisoners' rib 
cages back here... I have asked all of them to help 
ourselves, we must stage a hunger strike to get the 
prison administration's attention, as well as the 
media, as to what is really going on back here. 

...Right now my back is in constant pain [from the 
attack]...but they refuse to give me treatment... 
Hopefully they will put my $3 back so I will be able 
to pay for my high blood pressure medication, it's the 
last $3 I have to my name, and I didn't know that 
until yesterday. Here on ALLRED, this all white race 
hating unit, they got this stuff they call food loaf. 
They use it primarily for abusing the prisoners, and 
for punishment. Will you look into the way the food 
loaf is to be used. A guard told the rank that an 
inmate assaulted him with a food tray, when the food 
tray fell off the bean slot, they put him on food 
loaf. They use this food loaf as a tool against all 
Latinos and Africans... Each white, race hating 
officer tried his best each day to get 2 to 3 inmates 
on food loaf, it's a new game they all are playing 
against the inmates... Yes, they are watching the mail 
real hard around here. Today my letter came back. It's 
the 7th time I have sent out mail and it came back. 
They want more postage because I show the continent of 
Africa on the face of my envelope and color it in with 
the colors of red, yellow and green. They will send it 
back and ask for a surcharge. Well, I don't know what 
a surcharge is, will you please look into that.

In the struggle until I die,

 -- A West Coast Prisoner.

Prisoner Gassed and Attacked

I've received your newspapers for the month and was 
indeed pleased to learn about the jive attack in the 
Middle East. The devils will continue to attack the 
oppressed and keep the masses ignorant. I'm not a bit 
surprised about the devils actions. Then you got this 
white voting class, praising Bill KKKlinton's fake ass 
moves. It was a trick to take us off the real 
criminals. 

At Allendale Koncentration Kamp these pigs attacked a 
young God because he demanded to speak to someone 
higher up! It was medical problems, so it ended up 
that they gassed him four times and shocked him five 
times. All this because he refused to put his hands 
inside the cell. We flooded the mutha fukah down. 
Kicked the doors until we couldn't kick no damn more 
because the shit was dead WRONG! Later the punk ass 
pigs tried to act like they didn't want to do it? Yeah 
right....

Stand Up,

 -- A South Carolina Prisoner, 23 October 1998

Virginia Conditions

...It's like this. Prisoners in Virginia had their 
chance to setup and voice their oppositionary 
grievances when Ron Angelone (the Director) took 
office and started charging us $5.00 to see the doctor 
and $2.00 for medication. He took office in 1993/94 
and made us send home all of our personal clothing and 
some of our electronics and some other things 
including typewriters. When he put a limit on the 
things that we could order and our visitation hours. 
When he canceled beneficial programs -- I mean 
something should've been done then. It is too late to 
argue about that now. Of course these changes took 
place over a period of time. I don't know what 
would've happened had he done it all at one time.

So with that said, but also acknowledging that things 
are a lot worse in other prisons and those conditions 
are right around the corner for prisoners in Virginia. 
We have to be concerned with how our lives and living 
conditions are being regulated. People have either 
given up, or haven't been paying any concern toward 
things, have the go with the flow attitude, fight 
unsuccessfully in spurs with the administration, or 
end up handling matters solo. ...Things could be 
better if there were a trustworthy bond amongst us. I 
think our egos keep us from putting faith in others 
because it takes away that in us which is secondary 
and places priority at the top of the list.

Here in Virginia they haven't had to result to 
transferring men and women out of state in the past 
few years. They did for a while, but they've gotten 
private contractors to house inmates and have built a 
few new ones including two Maximums and two Super 
Maximums...

The mailroom and personal property allows us to have 
all our religious literature, but we have a problem 
with our Chaplain. He's jive and arrogant. He thinks 
yoga is a threat to the institution. The only thing 
we're not really allowed to have is hardcore 
pornography. From my dealings with them and my legal 
mail, I've had no problems. I've been receiving it at 
my door unopened. As far as MIM literature is 
concerned, I think you'll have a good run until the 
wolves get a whiff of it.

Healthcare and the food are about the only things that 
I can think of that I have a problem with -- that and 
education. The doctor here, Dr. Barnes, has a tendency 
to purposely neglect the health of his patients. 
They're making money off us and they are not tending 
to our problems. Recently this kid I know got stabbed 
either 13 or 21 times with an ice pick. The doctor saw 
him and said that he was all right, even though he got 
stabbed in the mid and upper body. A while later, he 
got the sergeant to send to get X-rayed. They found 
that one of his lungs was punctured. Two guys are 
building legal suits against him [the doctor] now.

Vegetarians catch hell. The regular meals are 
mediocre. Before my neighbor and I started grieving 
the kitchen managers, they were serving us 5 different 
kinds of beans daily, for lunch and dinner, as main 
courses. Now I believe they're a little mad because 
we've been getting peanut butter for dinner and cheese 
for lunch, or they'll switch it up. For instance on 
the 11th they served peanut butter for lunch and 
cheese for dinner. On the 12th they served peanut 
butter for lunch, and cheese for dinner. On the 13th 
they served peanut butter and cheese for lunch, and 
cheese for dinner. On the 14th they served peanut 
butter for lunch, and cheese for dinner. On the 15th 
they served beans for lunch, and cheese for dinner. On 
the 16th they served peanut butter for lunch, beans 
and cheese for dinner.

I'm in the process of pushing papers now to have this 
changed. But my partner gave up on me. He was the only 
one that could attest to the fact that they 
discriminate against us by not feeding us as they do 
the rest of the population.

The issue of education is very important to me because 
I would like to be able to work and pay for may to 
take college correspondence courses. From what I've 
heard, we won't be allowed to do much of anything at 
the Supermaxs. Education should be priority number 
one. This is supposed to encourage a positive change 
but it's doing nothing but keeping us high on an 
illusion. 

Respect,

 -- A Virginia Prisoner, 17 August 1998

Brutal SuperMax Conditions

...Last year sometime Virginia built three super 
maximum security prisons: 1) Sussex I & II, and 2) Red 
Onion State Prison, which are now operational. 3) 
Wallens Ridge which opens sometime this year or in the 
early part of 1999. 

This place reminds me of some of the harsh treatment 
that I read about in the MIM Notes that dudes in 
Texas, Michigan, North Carolina and Pennsylvania have 
been receiving. Red Onion, the institution that I'm 
housed at and Wallens Ridge are level 6 prisons, the 
worst of the worst. Sussex I and II are level 5. Red 
Onion is like a SHU in the sense that the whole 
institution is special housing. 

...Upon arriving at this place last month, certain 
dudes have suffered from attempts by the 
administration to degrade their manhood and lower the 
standards of principles of anybody who "gets out of 
line".

The whole workforce with the exception of three (from 
what I've seen) is white. The c/o's (correction 
officers ...who've been assaulted in the past set-up 
different dudes for a beat down. The c/o's asked them 
to strip-down, squat, cough and turn around. Then with 
their back toward them [the pigs], bend over and 
spread their ass cheeks. Nobody here that has been in 
a maximum security prison in supermax status ever had 
to go through that. So naturally the prisoners (the 
one's targeted) questioned the procedure and instantly 
got shot with taser guns, stun guns, maced, hit with 
electric shields and/or got straight up surrounded, 
attacked and dragged across the compound naked by the 
cocky, redneck racists.

A brother of mine went on a hunger strike trying to 
make the administration transfer him to another spot. 
He's known for beating down c/o's. In fact a few of 
his victims work here and they have threatened his 
life. The medical officials have to check and record 
the blood pressure and vital signs of dudes who go for 
a certain amount of days without eating. He's refused 
food for six days now.

Last night the goon squad suited up because he refused 
to be seen by the nurses. The c/o's came up with a 
game to try to get him out of the cell, and at the 
same time cover their asses, so that they could be 
justified for their actions. They say that he wasn't 
going for it so they maced him, shot him with a taser 
gun, hit him with an electric shield, and ruffed him 
up with some body blows. 

Did they do all of that because he didn't want to see 
the nurse and they had to go in and get him? Were 
they, eleven men [c/o's] scared of a man 5'8'', 160 
pounds? Or was this beating done in retaliation for 
assaulting their partners? All of the above! This is 
just the beginning. With all of the guns around here 
and the tension in the air, who knows what's next?!

 -- A Virginia Prisoner, 7 October 1998

West Virginian Working Conditions

In response to inquiries made from MIM

Work conditions: Usually a prisoner will be held at a 
pay of $5.25 per month, as long as possible. If that 
individual has a high school degree or GED, then 
eventually they will be posted to making 12 cents per 
hour or grade 4 pay as it is called. This can take up 
to six months to achieve. Standard grades run from 4 
up to 1 pay. Grade one pay is at 36 cents per hour.

If an individually has a fine to pay, they are 
automatically put in UNICORE to pay into FRP 
(Financial Responsibility Program).

 -- A West Virginia Prisoner, 2 August 1998

Texas Conditions

...As for the conditions here within the Texas slave 
camps, things are only getting worse, and from what I 
see unless those on the outside take a stand and get 
involved, they will get even worse. They are not only 
making us pay $3 for medical care, they are even now 
speaking upon making pay for room and board, and the 
fact still remains they are no way and no how going to 
pay us for our labor. All this boils down to is making 
our family pay, so not only do we suffer our family 
does also....

 -- A Texas Prisoner 

Blacks sentenced to institutional death

So the vast majority of the creative black minds in 
america who are males are locked up in prisons during 
their most productive years. In the years when most 
Euro-American males are present in universities, 
colleges, and training institutions, gaining skills 
that are necessary to ensure that they can run the 
world the way that they have been running the world, 
our future leaders, future learners, future advocates, 
future directors can be found in the prisons of 
america locked away, unable to think, under the daily 
watchful eye of sick minds who would rather see them 
dead than learning. 

Those who show the greatest promise of thinking, self-
direction, understanding comprehension are the least 
likely to ever get paroled. When they get paroled, 
they are stigmatized in such a way that they can never 
get the effectiveness in this society that they need 
to utilize what they know. They have been essentially 
removed not by physical death, but by institutional 
death... Power to the People.

 -- A Michigan prisoner, 25 November 1998

Speak Out in Solidarity against Oppression

I myself am a proud member of the Almighty Latin King 
and Queen Nation. It is for the struggle my people 
have gone through and go through now. In the few MIM 
articles I have read, I have observed many of my 
brothers and sisters being locked up. Even here in the 
heartland of Iowa I and others can relate to their 
situation. There is something about the whole system 
in America that chooses to oppress us. People need to 
start waking up and I believe your newspaper is 
speeding the process up.

... I would like to send a strong show out to my King 
Brother in the New Jersey prisons, for he speaks much 
truth... "Any person who denies his or her membership 
to this nation is a coward and therefore not of my 
nation." I hear you bro. As Latinos we were blessed 
with a crown from birth. Now let's united and fight 
for this crown -- Amor de Rej of Corona.

-- An Iowa Prisoner, 28 November 1998

A Call for Unity

...I would like to address all so-called gangs and 
gang members of Amerikkka and all around the nation, 
whether you're Black, Brown, or Yellow, to listen, or 
read this proposal and accept the truth as it is! What 
is the truth? The truth is that we genocide each other 
and it must stop! We as the oppressed people of 
Amerikkka are under attack. We're not under attack by 
the government alone, but the worst part is we're 
under attack amongst ourselves! I myself along with 
you are a gang member I've banged and I've done my 
share of genociding (not just that alone). I realize 
that truth now and i feel like a fool!! Just as 
Malcolm X once said; we've been bumped aside! Yet, 
unlike most once I've realized the truth i didn't lay 
my flag down! No! I chose to spread the truth. Black 
Liberated Unity (BLU). 

Unity is what we need and what i want to stress. Most 
of the crimes Blacks and Mexicans commit are against 
each other and ourselves... If the unjust government 
kills wrongly so Blacks and Mexicans or Latinos 
throughout the country, as an outgrowth of their 
racial brutality, the minority will correctly express 
their outrage. However, if within the same year we 
kill 10,000 of each other the resulting silence is 
deafening! It is just as if we feel it's o.k. and 
natural to kill each other. Well! It's not!

Many of my homies have tried to ridicule me for my 
beliefs. They don't want a peaceful unification with 
their believed to be enemies for two reasons: 1) It's 
all they know about and they've been victims to the 
divide and cover up scene put down by J. Edgar Hoover 
and his piglets, they have become content with it and 
have made it their way of life (gangsta lifestyle). 2) 
Because they say one of their believed to be enemies 
killed one of their homies. When in fact the 
government and J. Edgar Hoover were and are the ones 
behind all our homies dying and us killing each other 
the way we do. I expose these truths to them along 
with the fact that we can't be revolutionized against 
our oppressor when we're busy going to war with each 
other. This is a contradiction to what Crips, Bloods, 
5%, Disciples, Latin Kings, Vice Lords and any other 
revolutionary organization stand and was organized and 
originated for. We can't uplift our communities and 
our people if we keep destroying it in the process. 

I'm a Texas political prisoner incarcerated in the 
Texas Department of Criminal Injustice now, and i feel 
from what i have learned this is the most organized 
slave plantation in the U.S. As far as unity among the 
oppressed is concerned, Mexicans are led to hate 
Blacks, each other and the system...they'll kill each 
other and Blacks, but never will they rebel against 
the government, arch deceiver, the slave master, the 
oppressors. The same apply to us Blacks... For 
instance: they took away the weights, TV's and took 
away educational privileges... Nothing was done. The 
same for segregation offenders. They don't allow 
offenders with aggravated sentences to have their 
sentence good time added to their flat time which 
would lead to an early release, still nothing was 
done. We do free labor and have to pay for our medical 
expenses, still nothing was done. The list goes on and 
on. 

It's time that we unite and represent the true cause. 
Settle our differences and let the past be the past 
and look at the present problem with each peacefully 
and in private. Then direct all our energy, mentally, 
physically with our anger and resources towards the 
true enemy.

 -- A Texas Prisoner.

Officers threaten and abuse prisoners

...First of all, there's this sgt....[who is] a gang 
member, he belongs to a prison gang called TS, this he 
told me from his little piggy mouth!

...I belong to a political organization called Nuestra 
Raza, it's considered a prison gang by the gang 
intelligence at the T.D.C. system. I've got proof that 
I'm NR, they have it on my gang file, but still this 
officer thinks I'm T.C.B. ...I told them in the 
grievance that my life is in danger because the G.I. 
locked me up in between the two gangs that are at war, 
TS and T.C.B. Both think I am on the other side, 
making me the enemy to both sides, now both sides want 
to kill me....Now I got this sgt... trying to kill me, 
because he thinks I am a T.C.B. member, and he's 
spreading that rumor here to get me hurt, every time 
he comes to this section he messes up my house by 
shaking it down. A lot of my things come up missing 
every time. Every time I try to write a grievance to 
report this it never goes through, I've tried 
everything but he's got a lot of friends here on this 
unit like he said, he's connected to another prison 
"officers" gang called the "Blue Bandannas." They've 
killed inmates all over the system by beating them to 
death. They got "Blue Bandannas" here on this unit, 
they are all officers, they carry these bandannas with 
them and they show it to you and try to scare you...I 
saw a Blue Bandanna beat and choke my ex-cellie in the 
hallway, but nothing was done. These pigs always get 
away with everything!

 -- A Texas Prisoner

Exposing Human Rights Abuses

First I would like to commend you and your staff for 
the great head-strong determination and direction of 
your movement. It is always a pleasure and honor to 
read your literature...

 ...I was listening to the radio one day and Slick 
Willie (Clinton) made a very clear statement to the 
people about human rights over in another country. It 
just bothers me to see our government so concerned 
about other countries when right here in the United 
States are some of our most prominent political 
prisoners, activists and civil rights protesters 
who've been wronged in trying to seek justice in this 
injustice state. Although you have stated the ways I 
can be of assistance, I still find these options hard 
to conquer without placing myself in harms way.

 -- A Texas Prisoner

MIM responds:  There are a number of things that our 
prison comrades can do without putting themselves in 
great additional harm. Of course, any work with MIM, 
including just receiving MIM Notes, is going to bring 
potential repression because the pigs don't like the 
ideology of the oppressed. But some of the things that 
our prison comrades can do that won't add to this 
danger include writing articles for MIM Notes and MIM 
Theory. Write about conditions in your prison, ask us 
for some research material and books to write theory 
articles on. Contact friends on the outside and ask 
them to become MIM Notes distributors. Pass on your 
copy of MIM Notes to other inmates. Start a study 
group with other prisoners if possible. And even if 
you can't start a study group you can read and study 
yourself and arm yourself with the tools of knowledge 
for revolution and liberation.

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