Paper tigers

All reactionaries are paper tigers. In appearance, the 
reactionaries are terrifying, but in reality they are not so 
powerful. From a long-term point of view, it is not the 
reactionaries but the people who are really powerful.

--Mao Zedong

More details arise on European social-fascism

In the first week of April, the Austrian Social Democratic Party 
admitted its historical ties to Nazism officially for the first 
time. Now even the Wall Street Journal has taken note.

The connection was not just during the war, but also after World 
War II in the 1940s when the Social Democrats promoted Nazis 
through the ranks.

Supporters of Stalin through thick and thin are not surprised. 
From the 1930s up through the 1980s, Liberals including most 
Trotskyists criticized Stalin for attacking "social-fascism" in 
the 1930s. Now with every passing day and as more historical 
archives open, Stalin is proving correct.

The difference is that now with the competition from the Soviet 
bloc gone--first as socialist and then social-imperialist 
competitor--the West is becoming more forthright about the 
details.

The release of information is a double-edged sword, because the 
imperialists are attempting to whitewash fascism by mounting a 
furious campaign against communism, as if the two were equal. For 
a new generation, the release of details in that context may 
legitimize Nazism. Many have suffered the imperialist media's 
whitewashing of fascism and do not know that communism stopped 
fascism and that communism advocates internationalism while 
fascism advocates war, national chauvinism and racial 
extermination.

The successes of the Austrian fascists and the Italian fascists 
today are proof that capitalism cannot learn the lesson against 
racial hatred and war. The same day that the Wall Street Journal 
acknowledged the truth about Austrian Social Democrats, it 
admitted that an Italian colonel had to be relieved of duty for 
calling for a coup d'etat.

Source: Wall Street Journal 3 April 2000, p. a21.



CIA awards "distinguished career" to top terror agent

On March 23 the CIA gave Terry Ward, former chief of the Latin 
American Division, one of its highest honors, the Distinguished 
Career Intelligence Medal. Ward was fired in 1995 for covering up 
human rights abuses by paid CIA informants in Guatemala at a time 
when the CIA was pretending to clean up its act.

CIA officials justify the award by pointing out that when Ward was 
fired he did not lose his benefits or "appropriate recognition for 
previous service." Now that there is less public attention on CIA 
torture and murder in Latin America, Ward can be rewarded for his 
service as a part of the CIA global reign of terror and for taking 
the fall for the CIA in 1995.

Ward's "distinguished" career includes service in Laos in the 
early 1960s, during the u.s. bombing and devastation of that 
country. He served in countries throughout Latin American 
throughout the 1960s, 70s and 80s. 

Ward's failures to report CIA actions in Guatemala to congress is 
not the worst of his crimes. Serving in the CIA, actively working 
to prop up military dictatorships and other pro-imperialist 
puppets, financing and promoting torture, murder an exploitation 
are crimes that constitute a "distinguished career" according to 
the CIA. 

MIM is pleased to see the CIA stand up and take credit for the 
terror it promotes. Those who believe the CIA can be reformed 
should learn from this award that this and other imperialist 
institutions must be destroyed by the people through revolutionary 
struggle.

Notes: Washington Post, March 10, 2000. p. a1.



FBI admits to persecuting Puerto Rican Independentistas

In March the head of the FBI, Louis Freeh, admitted that the 
agency actively persecuted Puerto Rican independence activists in 
previous decades. This admission came with the assurance that "we 
want to make sure this does not happen again."

Since its creation under president Hoover, the FBI's mission has 
been explicitly to fight against what the u.s. government 
considers internal threats to security. The struggle of the Puerto 
Rican independence movement against the colonization of their 
island was and is a threat to the stability of u.s. imperialism. 
In the 1960s and 1970s the FBI attacked the Puerto Rican Workers 
Party (Young Lords party) and played a big role in its 
destruction. The FBI did the same to the Black Panther Party, the 
American Indian Movement and many other progressive anti-
imperialist organizations.

In 1976 the Attorney General set up guidelines supposedly 
prohibiting persecution of activists by the FBI. It should not 
surprise anyone that the government failed to police itself. And 
no one should believe Freeh's promise that the FBI's persecution 
of Puerto Ricans or anyone else, will not happen again. The agency 
exists to persecute those who threaten the stability of u.s. 
imperialism. Until the people have power and the agency is 
abolished, anti-imperialist activists should be cautious in their 
organizing.

MIM is an underground party because of the lessons we learned from 
the FBI's destruction of the Black Panther Party and Young Lords 
Party among others. We encourage other activists to take 
precautions, assume the FBI is actively watching your work, and 
make it as difficult as possible for them to infiltrate or harm 
your work.

Notes: Weekly News Update on the Americas, Issue #529, March 19, 
2000. Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York, 339 
Lafayette St., NY, NY 10012. wnu@igc.org.