Masses fight censorship in Wisconsin Dear MIM, Enclosed is $10 for 1/2 year subscription to MIM Notes. Also enclosed is copy of letter to Warden Gerald Berge as suggested in MIM Notes 227. The one to the warden was more legible, but as I write, my hands become more disabled. Symptoms of MS, I wrote to you last week regarding poor health care at [the prison I was incarcerated in previously]. Back to censorship, I used to send notices to the bureaucrats in which I included the quote by Philip K Dick, with one change. In his quote, the last word was persecution which I changed to censorship. Such is my humor. "the essence of the evil government is that it anticipates bad conduct on the part of its citizens. Any government which assumes that the population is going to do something evil has already lost its franchise to govern, the tacit contract between a government and the people governed is that the government will trust the people and the people will trust the government. But once the government begins to mistrust the people it is governing, it loses its mandate to govern because it is no longer acting as a spokesman for the people, but is acting as an agent of [censorship]. -- Philip K Dick In solidarity, -- a released prisoner, 1 February 2001. Text of letter to Warden: Well, we have heard of the practice of censorship occurring there in Boscobel, all the way here in Connecticut! I urge you to respect the First amendment rights of both the prisoners and those sending their publications, specifically, I refer to MIM Notes. There is not anything in MIM Notes urging prisoners to violence or use of weapons. Seems what you'll end up with are better educated inmates and as you are likely aware, educated persons can be reasoned with if your position is plausible. I write you on this matter because where I see something wrong, I know it is important to speak out. Sure, I get corrected sometimes, but that's part of the learning process, eh? Thanks MIM adds: These letters emphasize that the prison officials are not only censoring MIM's newspaper, but they are censoring education. Prisoners should have the power to educate themselves within prison. They should have the ability to learn the history of the oppressed and the news regarding struggles to end oppression. MIM Notes is censored in facilities around the kkkountry. Prisoncrats do not censor the paper for legitimate reasons as their paperwork states, but because prisoncrats want to stifle prisoners' access to information. MIM Notes prints articles regarding the poor treatment of prisoners (among other topics). It is important that prisoners have clear access to outside press without censorship to fight for humane conditions. The above letters deal with our campaign to end censorship at Boscobel prison in Wisconsin. Letters of protest can be sent to: Warden Gerald Berge Supermax Correctional Institution PO Box 1000 Boscobel, WI 53805-1000 For more information on the campaign see MIM Notes 226 and 227. We also take this opportunity to respond to the Philip K Dick quote above by saying that we believe that as long as classes exist, governments act as a dictatorships. In the case of capitalist society this is a dictatorship of the bourgeoisie (the minority of wealthy capitalists) over the proletariat (the majority of the world's people). In the case of a socialist society this is a dictatorship of the proletariat over the bourgeoisie. In both cases the government anticipates bad conduct on the part of those over whom it dictates. We fight the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie because we want to see the majority of the world's people represented in a government acting in their interests. This dictatorship of the proletariat will assume bad conduct on the part of the bourgeoisie and will serve to enforce a societal structure that ensures equal access to resources for its people. It will repress harshly those who attempt to reinstall a dictatorship of the bourgeoisie. Ultimately the goal of the dictatorship of the proletariat is to make itself unnecessary. At that time when the government is no longer needed to repress bad conduct the need for that government will disappear and we will have reached communism. "Black Book of Communism" is ancient history? Dear MIM: I still think the more important question is "who dropped more bombs on Vietnam than on all of Europe during world war ii." I.e. I really think we're better off pointing out capitalism's "shortcomings" than focusing on the past; i.e. far away countries long ago in time and dealing with statistics that can neither be confirmed nor denied. I will keep looking for critiques of the "black book" (which by the way was a title of a book written by a jewish persyn on germany which was written maybe ten years ago). --A RAILer March, 2001 mim3@mim.org replies: The RAIL comrade is writing in response to our campaign to correct Harvard University Press's "Black Book of Communism." MIM does not agree on short-changing the study of history and this shows in our cardinal principles which have to do with events of the 20th century, often 25 or 50 years ago. The main reason for that is we believe once someone accepts the agenda of eradicating hunger, homelessness, war, pollution and premature deaths of all sorts that we call institutional violence, there is a scientific road forward best learned from analyzing history. Too often people proceed by reinventing the wheel. Some of our readers may be thinking that they will never have the time to get into all the issues, especially those of us who are weak readers or who do not read English or French in the case of this book. Yet, when it comes to our class as a whole, it has boundless energy and infinite influence for all practical purposes that we can imagine. Hence, while some people will not be looking into these issues, MIM is sure that there is a group of people who want to look at this issue; indeed, some people have a full-time profession to look at this issue. Most are dedicated full-time to defaming Stalin and Mao, but there are others who can become involved in the issues besides those on the usual CIA short lists. Intellectuals as a group themselves are worth working amongst. We are after all setting up independent institutions to create public opinion. It is ironic that the reader wants to move away from history, but says a black book came out only 10 years ago. Actually, the black book on Nazi crimes against Jews was an immediate product of World War II and came out in 1946. (The Black Book: The Nazi Crime Against the Jewish People) Other similar titles on the Holocaust came out as early as 1943. The "Black Book of Communism" is trying to make us forget and coddles Nazis and their sympathizers, the likes of which can still be found on the Internet in 2001 denying the Holocaust. Stalin and the Marxist-Leninists of his day said there were such people including in Ukraine for instance, and the contemporary proof of this problem is available for all to see.