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

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = 

     XX XX  XXX  XX XX   X   X  XXX  XXX  XXX  XXX
     X X X   X   X X X   XX  X  X X   X   X    X
     X V X   X   X V X   X X X  X X   X   XX   XXX
     X   X   X   X   X   X  XX  X X   X   X      X
     X   X  XXX  X   X   X   V  XXX   X   XXX  XXX

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = 

         THE MAOIST INTERNATIONALIST MOVEMENT

     MIM NOTES 114                 MAY 15, 1996


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.


* * *


RALLY DEMANDS RETURN OF MASSACHUSETTS PRISONERS 
HEALTH CONDITIONS APPALLING: PRISONERS DYING IN 
TEXAS


The Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League (RAIL) 
and the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) 
held a rally May 4th to call for the return of the 
Massachusetts prisoners still being held hostage in 
Texas. This issue became particularly urgent in 
early April when Charles Mosby, one of the 
transferred prisoners, sent a letter to Jill 
Brotman of the AFSC Criminal Justice Program 
describing the deteriorating health of a number of 
the transferred prisoners and their lack of medical 
care and horrible conditions. On the six month 
anniversary of the transfers, the pawns in Governor 
Weld's political game fear they may lose more than 
contact with their friends and family in this 
transfer: they may lose their lives.

One Massachusetts prisoner in Texas has already 
died of AIDS complications undiagnosed prior to the 
transfer (in spite of prison official claims that 
only the healthy prisoners were being transferred). 
Mosby wrote about another inmate, Robert Lena, who, 
only after threats of violence by the prisoners, 
was finally taken to a hospital with a temperature 
of 104. He was returned to the prison the next day 
(April 4) with the promise of antibiotic (which 
they had not given him as of the date of the 
letter, April 6), the doctors still unable to 
figure out what is wrong with him. Mosby described 
how Lena's feet were swollen and turning black and 
red with patches of blood on his feet like he is 
bleeding from the inside of his feet and legs. He 
had a swelling problem in his feet and legs for 
three months that finally worsened to the current 
condition. 

Mosby wrote: "...in the 3 months before his 
condition got like this if he would have proper 
medical attention, he probably wouldn't be in the 
condition that he is in now, I do fear that through 
the lack of treatment, Mr. Lena's life is very much 
in danger: as I have told you, my own feet have 
started swollen about 2 or 3 weeks after Mr. Lena 
and we have both exhibit the exact same symptom, 
only his is in an advance stage, so that means in 
the next weeks I would probably go through the same 
stuff. Jill, I am living in fear of maybe losing my 
feet or my life, each morning when I wake up I wake 
in fear of seeing my feet in worse shape, it is at 
the point where I am not living in fear of dying, 
simply because these people are not providing 
proper medical care, Jill we need help in here and 
if we don't get it, I am very much afraid that me, 
Mr. Lena, and the other inmate who has the same 
problem will not live to be brought back to Mass."

Mosby goes on to say: "We don't want to die here in 
Texas, whatever it is that is wrong with us, we got 
it here, and it is getting to the point where I am 
beginning to believe that it may either be the food 
or something they put in the food, we were 
perfectly healthy when we were taken from prison in 
Massachusetts." The prisoners have also reported 
that the water looks like beer. Conditions in Texas 
are appalling: constant light, no exercise, no heat 
in the cold, and no medical care in addition to the 
problems with the food and water.

As was reported in past MIM Notes, Weld forced 
passage of a $500 million bill to expand prisons 
after shipping 299 Massachusetts prisoners off to 
Texas. But even after this victory for Weld (a 
defeat for the oppressed) the prisoners still have 
not been returned. In response to this plea for 
help by the prisoners in Texas, people showed up in 
downtown Boston to educate themselves and others 
passing by, gather petition signatures, and 
organize people to further action while demanding 
that the governor and legislature return the 
prisoners.

The rally was scheduled for 2 p.m. and the rain 
started just in time for the rally. A number of 
dedicated activists turned out in spite of the 
weather with petitions (covered with plastic) in 
hand. It was harder to talk to people in the rain 
but we did make some new friends, gathered a lot of 
signatures, and were interviewed for a radio show 
on a local station (WMBR). We closed down in time 
to dry off before heading over to Governor Weld's 
house where the American Friends Service Committee 
has led a demonstration of the friends and family 
of the prisoners each week since the beginning of 
the hostage crisis.

As we marked these two six month anniversaries, 
that of the exile of prisoners and the struggle for 
their return, RAIL decided to begin holding an 
informational rally the first Saturday of each 
month 2 p.m. at the Park Street T stop in downtown 
Boston, and afterwards at the Governor's house, 
until the return of the prisoners.


* * * 


MOVE PUTS PHILADELPHIA ON TRIAL FOR MASSACRE


April 23 was the opening day of testimony in the 
trial of the City of Philadelphia, in which ex-
Police Commissioner Gregore Sambor and ex-Fire 
Commissioner William Richmond are facing charges 
that excessive deadly force was used in the attack 
on the MOVE organization on May 13, 1985. This 
attack by the city and their pigs killed 11 people 
including five children and destroyed 61 houses. 
MOVE survivor Ramona Africa, along with the brother 
and sister of the MOVE founder John Africa (who 
died in the bombing), are seeking millions in 
damages.

The city dropped the bomb that destroyed so many 
lives because of MOVE's political line and 
practice. In MOVE's own words: "The MOVE 
organization is a seriously committed family of 
revolutionaries, founded and coordinated by John 
Africa...[It] is made up of many races of people 
(black, white, Spanish, Jewish, Indians) because 
John Africa don't teach prejudice, prejudice is 
against our Belief....MOVE's work is to teach, give 
people the truth, and set the example of revolution 
which simply means to move, to work, to be right."

Putting their beliefs in equality of all beings 
into practice, "MOVE people went into the 
communities to try to put together programs to help 
stop the gang problem in Philadelphia, to help the 
drug addicts get off drugs, to help the pregnant 
teenagers who had nowhere to go and abused women, 
children and the elderly." MOVE brought food to the 
hungry, took in abandoned and injured animals, and 
held peaceful demonstrations "against institutions 
that exploit, abuse and kill children, the elderly, 
animals and the environment."(1)

MIM believes that MOVE's strategy is not the most 
effective one for achieving equality for all 
people. They do not use the science of dialectical 
materialism to analyze the successes and failures 
of historical revolutionary lines and strategies 
and so they don't learn from history. Similarly 
they do not analyze in a scientific way who are 
their friends as a group and who are their enemies. 
Originating in the early 1970s, MOVE had the better 
political line of the Black Panther Party to learn 
from and did not carry forward the revolutionary 
legacy of the BPP. But MOVE's practice taught them 
that the government and its agencies are corrupt 
and the enemy, and on a whole their line and 
practice has been in support of revolutionary 
nationalism and the right of people to self-
determination. So they are definitely on the side 
of the friends of the people and against the 
imperialists.

It is for this anti-imperialist line and practice 
that the city bombed their house and murdered 11 
MOVE members. Ramona Africa spent 7 years in prison 
(her maximum sentence) for surviving the bombing, 
and innocent MOVE members are still in prison.(1) 
This attack was preceded and followed by much media 
hype about the evil well armed MOVE members who 
started shooting at the cops first and left the 
police no choice but to toss the bomb. The truth 
was much less reported in bourgeois media: one 
handgun was found in all the rubble after the fire 
and it belonged to a Philadelphia policeman. MOVE 
members had no weapons.(2)

In this latest chapter of the MOVE bombing story, 
the city is paying Sambor's and Richmond's legal 
fees and has hired former city solicitor Judith 
Harris for a flat fee of $325,000 to head the 
city's defense team.(3) But that the city defends 
its own is no surprise, the real twist to this 
trial is that W. Wilson Goode, mayor of 
Philadelphia during the bombing, was granted 
immunity in the case in exchange for his testimony.     

As Chuckie Africa, MOVE member held in Graterford 
Prison, pointed out in an editorial to the 
Philadelphia Daily News: "The man who said on May 
14, 1985, 'If I had to make the decision all over 
again, knowing what I know now, I would make the 
same decision,' is saying he didn't make the 
decision at all. Goode testified under oath 
Wednesday [April 24th] he was 'shocked' and 
'surprised' to see an 'explosive device' dropped on 
the Osage Avenue house by helicopter. The man who 
in 1985 praised then- Police Commissioner Gregore 
Sambor and then-Fire Commissioner William Richmond 
now says Sambor deceived him about the plans for 
MOVE."(4)

This change of sides has many reactionaries 
attacking Goode for being wishy washy and going 
back on his support for the good guys (a.k.a 
fascist pigs). But this does not make him a friend 
of the people. Goode has his own hide to look out 
for: he could have been prosecuted in this trial 
for being responsible for the attack on MOVE. 
People like Goode can be useful to revolutionaries 
if they can be made to tell the truth and expose 
the enemies of the people, but they should not be 
trusted when their primary concern is covering 
their own asses.

Ramona Africa and the MOVE organization are using 
the criminal injustice system to expose the brutal 
and oppressive system that it supports. This trial 
is keeping the issue of the MOVE bombing current 
and allows for renewed building of public opinion 
around this massacre. Victory for MOVE is unlikely 
in a system that is set up to keep its opponents 
powerless. But revolutionaries can turn the trial 
into a victory by turning people's awareness of the 
issue into understanding about the imperialists and 
the criminal injustice system and support for the 
MOVE political prisoners. It is rare that the 
revolutionaries are able to put the state on the 
defensive in a widely publicized trial. As with the 
case of the Rodney King trial, even a loss can be a 
victory in education for the people.


NOTES:
1. First Day, Issue 5. Publication of the MOVE 
organization. P.O. Box 19709, Philadelphia, PA 
19143. 
2. Philadelphia Daily News April 26, 1996. 
3. The Des Moines Register April 3, 1996. 
4. Philadelphia Daily News April 26, 1996.


* * *


ISRAEL MASSACRES LEBANESE CIVILIANS


When Israel fired more than 40 155mm shells for 12 
straight minutes on a United Nations base in Qana 
on April 18--killing more than 100 Lebanese 
civilians sheltered there--Israeli leaders 
expressed some regret and the U.N. moved to condemn 
the attack, which violated "international 
humanitarian law" and a 1993 accord in which both 
Israel and Hizbollah agreed not to target 
civilians.

The action, while one of the single bloodiest in 
Israel's 14 year occupation of Lebanon, was not 
exceptional. Israel's strategy to defeat Hizbollah 
guerrillas is built on systematic economic 
devastation of Lebanon and the forced relocation of 
its southern population to make way for further 
Israeli expansion. Israel's biggest sponsor in 
crime, the United Snakes, was the only country 
besides Israel itself to vote against the U.N. 
resolution condemning the attacks, and calling for 
an end to Israeli air raids.(6) That makes Amerikan 
credibility to broker a "peace" agreement among 
Israel, Lebanon and Syria a sadistic joke for the 
Lebanese people.

As MIM Notes goes to press, a cease-fire agreement 
is in effect which states that neither Israel nor 
Hizbollah will fire at civilian areas, although 
both sides are allowed the "right of self-
defense."(11) It is ironic for Israel to sign such 
a "self-defense" clause as it occupies a section of 
Lebanon ostensibly as a defensive measure. For the 
Lebanese people, any actions taken to expel foreign 
militaries from their land are justifiable as self-
defense. True peace for Lebanon cannot include 
partial Israeli occupation, but the Amerikan-
brokered agreement contemptuously ignores this 
fact.

U.N. spokespeople have said that Israel was 
notified days before the massacre that refugees 
were in all U.N. posts.(2) And in the first 10 days 
of "Operation Grapes of Wrath," as well as the days 
since the Qana attack, Israel deliberately killed 
other Lebanese civilians, with missiles hitting an 
ambulance and a house filled with a family of 12 
people.(3) In the last two weeks of April, four 
hundred thousand people were forced to leave 
southern Lebanon.

"Israeli fighter-bombers demolished a water 
reservoir at Sultaniyeh, a village about 15 miles 
southeast of the port of Tyre. ... [and] the 
airstrike deprived 20 villages of water," forcing 
all but 4,000 to flee the villages.(4) "Israeli 
ships blockaded Lebanon's ports, the source of most 
of its food. Jet fighters and attack helicopters 
repeatedly hit Lebanon's coastal highway and 
alleged Hizbullah positions in Beirut, the Bekaa 
Valley and Sidon. ... Israel destroyed two freshly 
renovated power plants serving Beirut."(5) 
Inevitable deaths resulting from the destruction of 
these economic targets (the New York Times 
conservatively estimates that 11,000 people now 
lack running water or electricity (6)) will be 
added to the death toll in this latest military 
offensive.

On April 25, Israel fired precision missiles at a 
road that extends from the port of Tyre to the 
southeastern town of Ain Baal, bringing the number 
of roads destroyed to "at least a dozen," and 
preventing even more injured people from getting 
medical care or relief.(6)

Israel's bombardment of the southern Lebanese 
coast, as well as its military blockade of sea 
traffic into the southern ports of Tyre and Sidon, 
is ostensibly aimed at cutting off "supply lines 
that might be used by Hezbollah."(7) But according 
to even pro-imperialist sources, only a tiny 
fraction of "supplies" used by Hizbollah are 
military.

Like its Palestinian counterpart Hamas, Hizbollah 
uses the majority of its resources to support 
schools and health care facilities that serve the 
Lebanese population. In fact, the largest source of 
relief from these recent military attacks comes 
from Hizbollah.(8)

History has shown that attempting to defeat a 
guerrilla movement means all out war on the 
civilian population, who are all suspected of 
hiding the guerrillas--the masses are all potential 
guerrillas. With financial backing from the U. S. 
Empire, Israel has insisted it will continue 
bombing Lebanon, and occupying its stolen security 
zone, until its own northern regions (which it 
defines to include the security zone) experience 
"quiet." MIM supports the self-determination of the 
Lebanese people, who appear to support Hizbollah. 
We have no independent sources in Lebanon to 
confirm this, nor do we know of Maoist activity 
there. The most effective strategy for national 
liberation and the overthrow of imperialism is to 
organize a Maoist People's War on the principles of 
socialist self-reliance.

For negative example, Lebanon need only look to the 
nearby neo-colonial Palestinian regime, which 
displayed a tragic sense of timing in the wake of 
the Qana massacre, when the Palestinian National 
Council met and rewrote the famous PLO charter to 
remove references to the destruction of the Israeli 
state.(9) Better proof does not exist that the 
negotiated road to national liberation leads to 
concessions made from the point of extreme 
weakness, as Palestine itself is subjected to 
heightened repression and closure during this 
latest Israeli security crackdown. With the 
exception of some Israeli reports that Hamas had 
planned attacks in retaliation for Lebanon,(10) the 
bourgeois media has paid little attention to Hamas, 
preferring instead to promote the so-called peace 
process.

Within Israel, the talk is on whether bombing 
Lebanon will help the "moderate" Prime Minister 
Peres win reelection at the end of May. For the 
people of Lebanon or Palestine, the outcome doesn't 
matter. Their future will depend on the course of 
their own anti-imperialist struggles. MIM will 
continue to support the oppressed nation masses in 
their struggles for self-determination by exposing 
the Amerikan role in national oppression and using 
our newspaper and other media to build support for 
those struggles within Amerika.


NOTES:
1. Reuters, April 23, 1996.
2. Baltimore Sun, April 24, 1996.
3. The [London] Independent, 4/19/96. p. 1. 
Excerpted in "Middle East Realities," 
MIDDLEEAST@aol.com.
4. Dallas Morning News, April 24, 1996.
5. Newsweek, April 29, 1996.
6. New York Times, April 26, 1996. p. A18.
7. New York Times April 22, p. A6.
8. National Public Radio, All Things Considered, 
April 25, 1996.
9. Washington Post, April 26, 1996. p. A31.
10. Israel Line, April 19, 1996. 
11. New York Times May 1, 1996.


* * *


LETTERS TO MIM

MIM ANTAGONIZES FIRST WORLD FORESTS?


MIM's article "Two Roads for Environmentalism" 
(Mid-April, 1996 MN 112) compares the Maoist line 
on revolution with environmentalists protesting the 
logging of Cove/Mallard, one of the bigger old 
growth forests left in North America. MIM correctly 
emphasizes that activists who want to protect the 
Earth's environment, and not just some part of it 
in the First World, need to focus their efforts at 
defeating imperialism and overthrowing the 
dictatorship of the bourgeoisie. MIM righteously 
upholds the Communist Party of the Philippines 
(CPP) in this regard as those who are waging 
People's War against the U.S. backed Ramos 
dictatorship. The CPP and its mass organizations 
have shown the environmentalist community in the 
Philippines and around the world how to effectively 
stop the clearcutting of forests and rape of the 
environment by the imperialists and their local 
cronies. The key is to organize and arm the 
oppressed masses so they can defend themselves and 
the environment on which they depend.

MIM distinguishes between two roads for 
environmentalism: a privileged First World reaction 
and a revolutionary proletarian offensive. First 
World environmentalists, those who really are 
concerned with defending the earth and not merely 
devouring it, are mostly pacifists or focoists. 
Pacifists rely on some combination of direct-
action, lobbying and electioneering to achieve 
their goals. Some groups, like local not-in-my-
backyard pseudo-environmentalists, merely want the 
nuclear waste, clearcut, or chemical dump in 
someone else's community; almost always the someone 
else is a community of oppressed nationals who 
don't have enough political clout to keep the toxic 
colonialists away. More progressive groups, like 
Greenpeace, take an internationalist stand and 
oppose French nuclear "testing" in occupied Mororoa 
(Tahiti) and Shoshone territory ("Nevada"), dumping 
in Black and Latino communities, and imperialist 
wars like the Gulf War. These groups are good but 
mislead the masses into thinking we can save the 
environment without overthrowing the system. They 
also use lingo like "environmental racism" which 
obscures the actual process by which imperialist 
pigs can destroy the Earth--toxic colonialism or 
neocolonialism and capitalism. Above all, First 
World people can afford to be pacifist (or at least 
they think they can) because they are not 
threatened as directly as oppressed nationals. 
Third World and Indigenous environmentalists know 
that any hesitation surely means death. 

The focoists rely on acts of sabotage to raise 
environmental consciousness or achieve a particular 
goal. Earth First! spikes trees and monkey wrenches 
logging equipment to raise the cost of logging any 
particular forest. Contrary to public opinion, they 
always warn the loggers first, as the point is not 
to kill anyone but dissuade the pigs from coming at 
all. The strategy is sometimes effective at 
stopping a particular clearcut, but doesn't 
decrease the net destruction of forests. Some 
activists contend that, as a result of opposition 
to clearcuts near privileged communities, loggers 
are more likely to pick forests in the Third World 
or on First Nation land where activists can be shot 
with more abandon. On the other hand, Earth First! 
also tends toward internationalism, publishing 
accounts of environmental struggles all over the 
world in their newspaper. Their philosophy, like 
most of the sincere environmental movement, is that 
of direct local-action coupled with global 
solidarity.

[...]

Nowadays the Unabomber is in the news a lot and 
s/he deserves credit as a hard-core focoist who has 
successfully proved that killing individual pigs 
doesn't do a thing but sell bourgeois newspapers. 
Progressive groups inspired by Earth First! focoism 
and Greenpeace pacifism are non- revolutionary and 
will not save the environment, though they build 
public opinion against environmental destruction 
and sometimes get through effective reforms. Our 
only real hope is overthrowing the imperialist 
system of world domination and profiteering. The 
only way that every people can defend their 
environment is through self-reliant socialism . 
That being the case, MIM and RAIL--as the Party and 
mass organization in North America dedicated to 
smashing imperialism and waging self-reliant 
socialist revolution--are presently the best way 
forward for environmentalists in North America.

MIM and RAIL do not yet have an adequately worked 
out environmental line, and the article "Two Roads 
for Environmentalism" made three regrettable 
errors. It is important to keep in mind that 
smashing imperialism and building self-reliant 
socialism are necessary but not sufficient 
conditions for human survival. Therefore, 
revolutionaries must struggle diligently to work 
out the correct environmental line if we are to 
survive to see a world free of oppression.

First, contrary to the claim in MIM Notes, there is 
no "national forest [in the First World] that 
exists at the expense of forests and people around 
the world." First World people can be parasites, 
living at the expense of the plundered colonies, 
but trees cannot. Forests are producers by nature, 
they never leech. What MIM correctly wants to say 
is that it is parasitic and imperialist to save 
trees in North America as a cute national park 
while clearcutting the rest of the world. However, 
environmentalists should not stop protecting North 
American forests. They should just do so within the 
general framework of anti-imperialism and 
revolutionary organizing. Plenty of pseudo- 
environmentalists are guilty of national park-ism 
and Sierra Clubbery, but that is a people-error not 
a forest-error. If we ever get to build self- 
reliant socialism in North America we will need the 
forests, as will our comrades in India, the 
Philippines and Peru.

Second, MIM misinterprets so-called Luddism and 
"the neo-luddite approach" taken by some 
environmentalists and Indigenous activists. Neither 
the Luddites or the so-called "Neo-luddites" were 
ever or are now opposed to all technology or 
change. Rather, like Marx and genuine communists 
everywhere, revolutionary environmentalists oppose 
certain technologies that foster alienation, 
hierarchical divisions of labor, brain vs. brawn 
divisions and ecological degradation. Thus monocrop 
agriculture, nuclear energy plants, and huge 
centralized factories are all out of the question. 
The very scale of the projects--as well as their 
traumatic effects on the ecosystem--make them 
enemies of humanistic labor.

Finally, MIM accuses some environmentalists of 
"offering to die to protect the land for non-human 
reasons." While it is good to tell 
environmentalists more effective ways of dying--or 
better yet, living--to save the environment, it is 
not true that environmentalism depends in any way 
on "non-human" justifications. As Marx and Engels 
repeatedly said, people are of nature. The 
distinction between human and non-human--like all 
distinctions--exists for humanity at a particular 
stage of historical development. Like other 
philosophical constructs, the mind-body distinction 
for example, it pops up and disappears throughout 
human history. Western science--not to mention non-
Western or Indigenous knowledge--recognizes an 
identity and continuum between humanity and 
"nature". Evolutionary biology, ecology and physics 
resist the notion of borders and divides. Minute 
particles are constantly passing through "us" while 
we have the feeling of identity through time. Apes 
are genetically closer to people than zebras are to 
horses, yet people continue to talk of the 
unbridgeable human/non- human divide, or even of 
"races" of people. There are differences of course, 
most importantly for revolutionaries differences 
about how and who to organize (people yes, horses 
no). But that hardly changes the reality of the 
world and the dialectical nature of existence.

There is a basis in Marx for some of these 
undialectical constructions of theory and, 
regrettably, of practice too. In the Economic and 
Philosophic Manuscripts, Marx describes the 
relationship between humanity and nature as the 
relation between a person's head and their body. 
Marx wants to say that humanity is part of nature, 
yet is able to change nature consciously. In 
reality, however, the head is no more able to 
"consciously" control the rest of the body than 
hormones, genes and the environment let it. More 
precisely, it doesn't make sense any more to talk 
about the mind as separate from the hormones (the 
body) or anything else. Even Marx would have to 
admit that if you shoot a person in the head they 
will die, but nature can get along just fine 
without humanity.

The metaphor is no good, but another point in the 
Manuscript is right on the mark: there is no 
genuine resolution of the conflict between people 
and nature without resolving the conflict between 
groups of people. Today the principle conflict in 
the world is imperialism. There will be no 
environmental progress made until imperialism is 
smashed and every people can safeguard their local 
environment from toxic colonialism. There is no 
time to waste on failed strategies. Smash 
imperialism, defend the earth!


MIM RESPONDS: You make three criticisms, the first 
of which is correct. While Third World people 
should be first in line to stop their forests from 
being injured, there is nothing harmful in trees in 
the First World. However, there is a dangerous 
provincialism in the slogan "Think Globally, Act 
Locally." The imperialists are organizing globally, 
and we need to be organizing globally to oppose 
them. First World environmentalists who focus on 
First World forests are not taking the most 
effective and necessary actions to fight 
imperialism and really save the people and the 
environment. 

The second criticism, regarding whether those MIM 
called Luddites oppose technology per se, feigns 
more unity between Marxists and the anti-technology 
line than is the case. Perhaps you would call those 
who really do oppose essentially all technology 
past the knife revisionist Luddites, betraying the 
original cause. However, we disagree that it is 
Marxist to oppose large-scale production on 
principal. You are correct that ultimately 
communists seek smaller scales of decentralized 
production, but we do not believe that goal can be 
accomplished prior to the transition from socialism 
to communism. In fact, in the development of 
socialism there may be a great need to develop 
large-scale production to meet immediate needs. 
This dialectic was recognized in the Cultural 
Revolution (for more on this see Charles 
Bettelheim's book Cultural Revolution and 
Industrial Organization in China, available from 
MIM for $4).

On the third point, we agree with you insofar as 
genuine environmentalism does not require non-human 
justifications. However, some environmentalists 
think that ignoring human beings is the best way to 
organize. Recognizing that many in the First World 
do not want to help the oppressed in the Third 
World, they pander to reactionary sentiment by 
assuring their supporters that they only care about 
trees, or worse yet only First World trees.

There is a great deal more that can be said about 
revolutionary environmentalism in the context of 
the First World. We encourage you to write articles 
for MIM Notes and for RAIL Notes on this topic so 
that those who read MIM Notes will be more informed 
on the news at the same time that your theory is 
opened for critique as we see how you put it into 
practice.


* * *


INTERNATIONAL WORKERS DAY RALLY AGAINST U.S. 
IMPERIALISM 


by a RAIL comrade

ANN ARBOR, MI, May 1--MIM and RAIL held a rally 
against imperialism at Liberty Plaza on Liberty St. 
at Division. Things started off a little slow, but 
as more people began to show up things got more 
lively.

One comrade started things off by telling people 
about MIM and the importance of an internationalist 
perspective. S/he explained that for this reason we 
chose May first (International Workers' Day ) to 
rally against imperialism. May first has 
traditionally been a day of action, protest, and 
international solidarity. The comrade also 
explained that not all workers have the same 
interest in opposing imperialism. White Amerikan 
workers are a bought off labor aristocracy that 
directly benefits from imperialism.

International solidarity does not mean solidarity 
with the wage struggles of parasitic imperialist 
workers. MIM supports the national liberation 
struggles being waged by oppressed people, like the 
war being fought by the National Democratic Front 
of the Philippines against Amerikan imperialism.

A RAIL comrade then told people about RAIL, anti-
imperialism, and the struggle in the Philippines. 
S/he pointed out that Ramos was a key figure in 
both the Marcos dictatorship and the bourgeois 
democratic Aquino administration, fought for the 
United Snakes in Korea and Vietnam, and graduated 
from Westpoint. Ramos does such a good job of 
licking his imperialist masters' boots that many 
Filipinos call him "Amboy," short for Amerikan boy. 

After these speeches a comrade started off a series 
of anti-imperialist chants, using a bullhorn. 
"National Liberation for the World's Population" 
was the most popular chant, but people also liked 
"Self-determination for all Oppressed Nations" 
"Support the People's Fight Against the U.S. 
Parasite" and "Salt for the Leeches, Land for the 
People." 

The RAIL comrade distributed some signs bearing 
anti- imperialist slogans to the people in 
attendance. The demonstration started in the center 
of the park, then moved to the sidewalk where it 
began to get a little louder and livelier. Moving 
to the sidewalk gave the demonstration much more 
exposure to the heavy mid-day downtown traffic. On 
the sidewalk we were much more conspicuous, it is 
hard to ignore a crowd of people lined up on the 
sidewalk holding signs supporting the New People's 
Army of the Philippines and other anti-imperialist 
struggles, especially when they are all loudly 
chanting and being led by a communist with a 
bullhorn.

The demonstration part of the rally lasted about a 
half hour. RAIL and MIM then led the more 
interested participants to the center of the 
University of Michigan campus to distribute anti-
imperialist flyers and MIM and RAIL literature. For 
about another half hour, a number of activists 
handed out a flyer on imperialism written 
specifically for this event.

The rally provided MIM and RAIL with an excellent 
platform for spreading revolutionary anti-
imperialist ideas. In the process, RAIL made a few 
new friends who helped to educate the masses on the 
nature of U.S. imperialism and the revolutionary 
struggle to eliminate it. 


* * *


AMERIKA THREATENS TO NUKE LYBIA


APRIL 23--The outlaw united snakes threatened to 
drop a nuclear bomb on an alleged weapons plant in 
Libya today. The Pentagon claims that the 
underground plant is "the world's largest chemical 
weapons facility" and says it is "prepared to 
take... drastic preventative measures." According 
to Amerikan government scientists, conventional 
bombs could not harm the underground plant, only 
nuclear weapons could.

The united snakes is the only entity to ever to 
engage in nuclear warfare and continues to engage 
in nuclear terrorism. In 1991 the united snakes 
threatened to use nuclear weapons against Iraq, 
again in order to "deter chemical weapon attacks." 
Of course the united snakes (which has the largest 
chemical and biological weapons arsenal in the 
world) has an interest in and a history of 
fabricating these supposed threats. Plants in 
Baghdad bombed during the gulf war which the u.s. 
claimed were chemical weapons factories turned out 
to be powdered milk factories.

These threats against Libya, which has a history of 
defying the Amerikan government, are meant to send 
a message to Libya and other oppressed nations: 
play ball, or else!

The threat of nuclear war was not confined to the 
old u.s.-U.S.S.R. inter-imperialist rivalry. 
Imperialism breeds war in general as competing 
capitalist conglomerates struggle to control the 
world's resources. The imperialists have waged and 
are currently waging genocidal conventional wars 
against the people of the oppressed nations in 
order to ensure their control; in this context 
nuclear bombs are just one more weapon in the 
arsenal of modern militarism used to oppress the 
colonies and neo-colonies. 

Arguing (as some Social Democrats do) that nuclear 
weapons no longer serve a purpose will not convince 
the Amerikan government to give up its nuclear 
bombs or reduce the risk of nuclear war because 
these weapons continue to serve the evil purpose of 
reinforcing imperialist power and domination. The 
only way to eliminate the danger of nuclear war is 
to replace war-mongering imperialism with 
socialism.  The oppressed yearn for peace and 
justice; their righteous struggle to topple their 
oppressors will stifle the imperialist campaign for 
conquest.


NOTE: Los Angeles Times April 24, 1996.


* * *


UN STUDY: INCREASED POVERTY IN LATIN AMERICA


A new study by the United Nations Economic 
Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean 
concluded that the so-called economic reforms of 
the 1980s have done absolutely nothing to improve 
the lives of the majority of the population in 
Latin America. Even the short quotes and bourgeois 
analysis in the Washington Post paint a picture of 
a widening gap between rich elites and the poor 
majority; economic policies in the way of 
stabilizing prices and decreasing social welfare 
expenditures that make Latin America profitable for 
imperialists but unlivable for the people; and 
comprador governments afraid of imminent revolution 
in many countries.

The study indicated that "the poverty rate in Latin 
America is now higher than it was in 1970." Per 
capita income was $1,820 for Latin America and the 
Caribbean in 1993, the last year for which 
statistics are available. These numbers--which can 
never adequately represent the desperate poverty 
and misery imposed on the Third World by the 
murderous imperialists and their Third World 
stooges--show that no matter how good capitalism 
looks in rich First World countries and a tiny 
minority of hand-picked developing nations (like 
Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the south Korea), it can 
only mean poverty for the majority of people in the 
world.

The study recommends "reforming the way pensions 
are managed to increase savings...using tax breaks 
to increase business investment... making credit 
accessible to small and medium businesses." These 
reforms only benefit the tiny middle class and 
wealthy elite of Latin America and do absolutely 
nothing for the vast peasant majority who need 
sweeping land reform. Land reform can never be 
accomplished under the present imperialist 
dictatorship because it would mean expropriating 
the "property" of the very people calling the shots 
now. In truth, the United Nations and the 
imperialists who fund it, have no interest in 
solving poverty and only want to stall revolution 
so they can keep repatriating their superprofits.

In that line, the study concluded that "the 
principal reason the region has not fared better is 
its modest growth rate, which is around 3 percent 
annually." Gert Rosenthal, the secretary general of 
the commission, "said that the region must achieve 
a sustained growth rate of 6 percent--roughly what 
Chile, the region's role model, has attained." 
Chile has been a haven for imperialist exploitation 
since the U.S. assassinated and overthrew Salvadore 
Allende's progressive, democratically elected 
government in 1973 and installed the Pinochet 
dictatorship. Chile has expanded its middle class 
and enriched its military-neocolonial elite, at the 
expense of its impoverished majority, particularly 
the indigenous peoples of the area. Large houses--
staffed by servants captured as children from 
indigenous groups, renamed and educated to clean or 
cook--sit in close proximity to shanty towns. Poor 
children who attend inadequate government schools 
watch as their wealthier peers walk to British 
schools in their freshly pressed school uniforms.

Not only would doubling the growth rate in Latin 
America do nothing for the vast majority, but 
neither the UN nor any of the countries in the 
region are in a position to administer the kind of 
sweeping environmental regulations and industrial 
reorganizations that are necessary to increase 
production without destroying the already damaged 
ecology. Increasing the number of cars for the 
middle class by planting more cash crops or mining 
more raw materials for export to the First World 
makes life for all but the bottled- water drinking 
minority an impossibility. Only because the 
imperialists own stock in water bottling facilities 
is the idea thinkable at all.

Looming large in the minds of the UN, imperialists 
and comprador elites is the threat of revolution. 
According to the study, "this [poverty and rich- 
poor gap] presents a not too healthy social 
panorama with latent problems that could make it 
difficult to sustain the process of development." 
The Washington Post writer asserts that 
"frustration over the economic model is now one of 
the principle causes of civic unrest in the 
region." The frustration is not merely intellectual 
in origin however, the immiseration is physical, 
overwhelming, and insoluble without revolution. 


NOTES: Washington Post April 13, 1996. p. A25. 


* * *


PSEUDO-FEMINISM SUPPORTS OPPRESSION

**In April, MIM and RAIL attended two different 
Take Back the Night rallies and marches. Both 
events demonstrated that pseudo-feminism and the 
gender aristocracy objectively support oppression 
of people in the Third World and of oppressed 
nation peoples within U.S. borders. There was no 
mention of imperialism at either rally, although 
imperialism is surely an integral part of the 
greatest patriarchal injustices. This failure to 
mention imperialism underlines the stake the Take 
Back the Night ralliers have in maintaining it.**



DOWN WITH PATERNALIST RACISM;
RISE UP WITH REVOLUTIONARY FEMINISM


by a RAIL Comrade 

AMHERST, MA, April 18--The annual "Take Back Our 
Rights," previously "Take Back the Night," march 
attracted approximately 250 men and women from the 
five-college area to speak out on feminist 
empowerment and violence against women. Many people 
spoke, ranging from a woman whose daughter was 
killed by her abuser to a Black lesbian making a 
film on rape and violence. There were also martial 
arts demonstrations by local women and youth. 
Though we could find some unity among the 
progressive empowerment of self defense and the 
film-maker's criticism of a patriarchal state, 
overall the event amounted to supporting 
patriarchy. 

Self-proclaimed radical and feminist groups such as 
the Every Woman's Center, Radical Student Union, 
Power and Third Wave co-sponsored the event along 
with the University and town police departments and 
the District Attorney's office. In retaliation to 
this inclusion of the pigs, RAIL sent a contingent 
with flyers and posters to the event.

By including the local pigs, the sponsors support 
the role of the police, which is to defend the 
current system--a system which is capitalist, 
imperialist and patriarchal. The police have no 
interest in ending patriarchy, only manipulating 
the reformist "feminist" groups and keeping a tight 
control on any chance of serious social change.

The pig sponsorship determines that these budding 
feminists choose to defend the state and ignore 
imperialism. By doing so they support the 
oppression of the majority of the world's women--
those in the Third World. Hundreds of thousands of 
Third World women are forced by U.S. induced 
poverty to prostitute themselves to Amerikan 
servicemen around the world. The biggest enemy of 
these women is Amerikan imperialism, and to be a 
feminist in the 1990s is to be an anti-imperialist.

Paternalism is inherent to the pig's agenda of 
keeping Amerikan pseudo-feminists in their place. 
The police and their culture tell women--from pro-
fear escort service advertising, to Katie Koestner, 
to the grocery store women's magazines--to be 
afraid and to seek state protection. This 
paternalism works to discourage revolutionary 
sentiments in women to change the entire system, 
and gives the pigs carte blanche to open fire 
(literally and figuratively) on oppressed 
nationals.

One in three young Black men are under the control 
of the injustice system, and the Black imprisonment 
rate in Amerika is four times that of apartheid 
South Africa. This shows that pig inclusion in a 
so-called feminist event is openly racist. 
Regardless of the intent of organizations that 
promote pro-pig approaches to rape, the result is 
more Black men in prison. These organizations 
should either break with their white supremacist 
practice, or be honest and don the Klan robes.

The responses by rally-goers were in line with 
their material interest. One person verbally 
attacked RAIL and claimed that RAIL's criticism was 
"inappropriate." This amounts to paternalism 
because the critic is assuming that women can't 
handle the criticism. An organizer of the rally 
asked the RAIL activists not to march with their 
anti-cop signs with the rest of the group, so as to 
not jeopardize their relationship with the pigs. 
The head of the rape hotline at the Every Women's 
Center at the University of Massachusetts also 
accused the activists of jeopardizing their 
relationship with the pigs, and must we say most 
likely her job. She also criticized the RAIL 
activists for going to an event with signs and 
flyers because we were "disempowering" women at a 
so-called "empowering" event. She called us 
"arrogant" for saying that one option a woman who 
was raped might choose--going to the police--was 
wrong. 

We agree that this is arrogant. It's also arrogant 
to want to go head to head with the patriarchy that 
pushes reliance on the state. If we are going to 
destroy patriarchy and actually stop violence 
against women of the world, we are going to have to 
break the patriarchal rules. On the same note, we 
see it as imperative for ultimate change to 
interject a revolutionary analysis wherever 
possible.

RAIL did gain the support of several new friends 
through distribution of our anti-cop literature. We 
also discussed revolutionary politics with the 
producer of a zine called "amerikkka on Trial".

The solution to violence against women is in 
revolution that eliminates the power of group over 
group, including the power of men over women and 
First World women over Third World women. Anything 
short of breaking with the police and building 
revolutionary feminist power amounts to postponing 
the day patriarchy dies. The 4.5 billion people who 
suffer under and struggle against U.S. imperialism 
need allies. What they don't need is women 
believing the crap about being powerless, and they 
don't need people marching in lockstep with the 
imperialist government that oppresses them.

Third World people will dismantle Amerikan 
imperialism whether the attendees of the rally join 
them or not. To them true freedom through 
revolution is a matter of life or death. We need to 
fight for them by working with RAIL and MIM and 
gaining support for a revolution here in North 
America.

***

SHUNNING THE PIGS IS NOT ENOUGH:
REAL FEMINISTS WORK FOR REVOLUTION


ANN ARBOR, MI, April 20--MIM handed out flyers at 
and struggled with attendees of the annual Take 
Back the Night rally here. Two hundred people 
attended the event, which proclaimed the theme, 
"breaking the backlash against economic, cultural, 
and physical violence" against women. The two hour 
rally included half a dozen speakers, both women 
and men attended. The march which followed was for 
women only.

Pigs did not escort the march, nor were they 
present at the rally. This is an improvement upon 
past practice and is not as openly pro-imperialist 
as working with the police. But the event still 
objectively supported imperialism by ignoring the 
plight of the majority of the world's women, who 
are the victims of U.S. imperialism. Some people 
MIM talked with thought our criticism of pseudo-
feminism made sense and were interested in reading 
our flyer which stated that any movement calling 
itself feminist must be anti-imperialist. 

In a major step back from past Take Back the Night 
practice, rally organizers canceled a planned self-
defense presentation because they wanted to place 
the responsibility of preventing violence against 
women on men. The organizer stated that "if men 
were not committing violent acts then women would 
not have to go to self-defense classes." This 
privileged pseudo-feminist logic reveals the 
material interest of the gender aristocracy, which 
doesn't really want to end oppression and violence 
but wants a higher position in the hierarchy of 
power at the expense of the majority of the worlds 
people. By contrast, MIM believes that women can 
and must take the lead in defending themselves 
against and destroying patriarchal power.

The first speakers were welfare rights activists. 
One woman identified herself as a "welfare 
survivor, domestic violence survivor and U.S. 
citizen survivor." MIM agrees with this connection 
to a larger oppressive social structure. Two other 
speakers stated that rape is not sex. MIM disagrees 
and says all sex is rape, therefore rape is also 
sex. Rape is defined as coerced sex. Because women 
never consented to being born into a world where 
they have unequal power with men, all sex involves 
coercion, therefore all sex is rape.

One woman told of her rape by an eighteen-year-old 
when she was 5. A standing ovation followed this 
woman's speech (most people were sitting on the 
pavement). She spoke about taking back her 
childhood and not allowing her rapist to control 
her ever again. MIM thinks that it is important for 
women to control their own lives, and that they 
have the power to do much more. Women can work to 
change the power relations in society that make 
rape so common by working to overthrow the 
patriarchy.

One speaker openly called for longer prison 
sentences for rapists. This strategy will only 
succeed in incarcerating more Black men and will 
never decrease the number of rapes. Though other 
speakers did not say this directly, they did 
support it indirectly by referring to their own 
personal experiences and their utilization of the 
criminal injustice system.

One speaker marginally addressed national 
oppression by talking about a song written as a 
tribute to women victims of the so-called Ann Arbor 
serial rapist. The song was called "Don't let 
darkness catch you on the edge of town." The 
speaker expressed disbelief at the irony of 
cautioning women in this way, given that this is 
historically a warning to Black folks to not be 
caught on the outskirts of town after dark because 
of the danger of white chauvinist violence. This 
speaker also correctly pointed out that rape is not 
about a "strange Black man lurking." 

One speaker addressed the oppression of disabled 
people, stating that they are "beaten, raped, 
robbed and left to die in their own urine." She 
also spoke of the "incarceration" of disabled 
people in nursing homes and went on to explain that 
the average profit for nursing homes is $600,000 a 
year. 

The last speaker said not to "forget women in 
prisons and jails." She also mentioned that the 
state controls the bodies of women in prison. MIM 
would take this a step further to include men in 
prison. The sexuality of both women and men in 
prison is controlled by the imperialist, 
patriarchal state. We also learned from this 
speaker that the Children's Visitation Program 
(CVP) in Washtenaw county was reinstated. This 
program, which allows women in prison to have 
contact visits with their children, was recently 
threatened.(See MIM Notes 112 for more on the CVP.)

The political line of the event was less openly 
contradictory than other Take Back the Night 
rallies as the call for more cops to stop rape was 
minimal. But the event still ignored the role of 
imperialism in oppressing the majority of the 
world's women. MIM thinks it is an improvement to 
not call for a police state to stop violence 
against women. But the organizers had no plan for 
halting or even decreasing rape or domestic 
violence. MIM is working to build a revolutionary 
proletarian feminist movement which will dismantle 
imperialism and all power of groups over groups. To 
find out more about why we say that an 
internationalist approach is necessary to feminism, 
write to MIM, P.O. Box 3576, Ann Arbor, MI 48106-
3576 or mim@nyxfer.blythe.org.


* * *


KKK=IRS=COPS
SECURITY JUSTIFIED BY CORRUPT STATE


The Boston Globe has reported that IRS employees 
use their access to taxpayer records for their own 
personal purposes. MIM is not surprised that an 
alleged KKK member has been convicted for using his 
access to tax records to snoop on people he thought 
were infiltrating the KKK. Nor is MIM surprised by 
recent stories in the press that the military, FBI 
and IRS have KKK and Nazi members who cannot be 
removed from their jobs by the rules of this 
bourgeois dictatorship known as the U.S. 
Government.

Some employees at the IRS contend that such 
snooping goes on all the time. The only time the 
government cracks down is when police identities 
are threatened or politicians get snooped on. The 
Boston Globe also reported a case where an IRS 
worker used his access to records to help a 
campaign against a candidate for Congress.

The typical, natural and naive conservative 
authoritarian position is that those who have done 
nothing wrong don't need to keep secrets from the 
government. Some reactionaries--especially in East 
Asia--even oppose individualism from this point of 
view, saying that privacy rights are unnecessary. 
These reactionaries accuse communists of believing 
that so-called human nature is "good," but it is 
they who assume everyone in government authority 
will have good behavior--even in the profit-mad 
capitalist-system. While we at MIM oppose 
individualism, we won't whitewash any of the 
current governments in the world to do so.

MIM supports privacy rights against capitalist 
governments and we go a step further and advocate 
that activists protect their identities. The 
Greensboro, North Carolina shootings of five 
Communist Workers Party members on November 3, 1979 
was a perfect example of why such security is 
necessary. Because of the infiltration, many 
members of the Klan were police officers, which 
means the pigs were participating in these Klan 
activities, but they did nothing to stop the Klan 
from shooting communists. Since the government 
cannot protect the citizens against anything 
ranging from spying to murder, the citizens must 
preserve their privacy rights against the 
government.

The same is true of the police beating of citizens-
-again videotaped in Los Angeles in the case of 
Rodney King and the two Mexican immigrants and also 
Worcester, MA where police lied about choking a man 
to death only to have been videotaped doing it.

The reactionaries always say that "it's just a few 
bad apples." It turns out a few bad apples can kill 
you, so even if the reactionaries are correct, it 
doesn't mean people should not protect themselves 
against the government's law-abiding officials and 
its rogue officials.

In reality, the reactionaries are not correct, 
because if it were just a "few bad apples," the 
good apples would have the integrity to stop the 
bad apples. Yet police are taught the "code of 
silence" to protect each other. Hence, those who 
put the code above integrity are all "bad apples."

Under the proletarian dictatorship, the highest 
standards will apply to government officials. Cops 
and other government officials who don't want to 
serve the people will be fired and we will be able 
to do that without resistance, because everyone 
will be guaranteed a job.

The highest standards of proletarian morality will 
be exercised from the top down so that no cops or 
other government officials will get the idea they 
can get away with racism, national chauvinism, 
sexism, selling drugs etc.


NOTE: Boston Globe Apr. 14, 1996, pp. 91, 97.


* * *


PIGS CAUGHT ON TAPE BRUTALIZING MEXICANS


On Monday April 1, 21 Mexican nationals riding in a 
truck were chased and stopped by riverside 
sheriffs. The chase lasted for about 80 miles. The 
pigs took out their batons immediately after the 
truck stopped, ran towards the riders, and without 
first saying a word started bashing people. 
Meanwhile a local news TV camera was taping the 
whole thing from a helicopter, and broadcasting 
live. It can be clearly seen on the video that 
these pigs were very eager to break somebody's 
bones. 

The liberals from the ACLU label that behavior 
"High Speed Chase Syndrome" MIM just calls it pig 
brutality. These pigs hadn't noticed that there was 
a TV news helicopter taping the whole thing, which 
is why they went on beating the victims as they 
would have anyhow. It is anti-immigrant furor and 
Amerikan chauvinism that fuels violent pig 
brutality, not this bullshit psychological 
"syndrome" that just got invented. Apparently the 
Riverside Sheriffs had been told to relinquish the 
chase over to the California Highway Patrol, but 
they pursued it anyway.(1)

A lawsuit for $10 million has been filed by one of 
the victims. MIM hopes he wins. Taking money from 
the imperialists and giving it back to the people 
from whom they stole it (the exploited masses 
forcibly kept outside of the artificial US borders 
so that they can't compete for the high paying jobs 
given to the parasites inside these borders) is 
progressive.

The AFL-CIA was quick to speak out in favor of all 
cops and say that these two were just "rogue 
officers" and "bullies." We don't expect the AFL-
CIA to do any better, they are pigs and firmly 
stand behind their fellow pigs that haven't been 
caught on tape.(2)

An investigation is being set up by the pigs 
themselves. The two pigs who are more directly 
visible in these beatings, Kurt Franklin and Tracy 
Watson, were placed on paid leave. Here's what 
LAPD's head of the Bureau of Special Investigation, 
including internal affairs, Deputy Chief Bernard 
Parks had to say about this incident: "From what's 
on the tape, there's justification for the force 
that was used."(1) So much for protect and serve. 


ASSAULTS TRIGGER PROTESTS


The day after the beating was aired live on L.A. TV 
a protest was held in front of the Riverside county 
sheriff station, several other protests were held 
across Los Angeles and the rest of Southern 
California. The biggest one MIM attended was on 
Saturday April 6, when approximately 13,000 people 
marched through downtown L.A. demanding justice, 
and condemning the pigs. The march was something of 
a lightning rally organized by liberals; although 
not everyone in attendance was a liberal. Our organ 
Notas Rojas sold like hotcakes to crowds that 
practically got in lines to buy it.


SETTLERS VOICE THEIR REACTIONARY MINDS
(WITH HELP FROM THE MEDIA)


At the same time that march was taking place in 
Downtown L.A., another "protest" was taking place 
in front of Westwood's Federal Building. We 
would've never known about it had the media not 
given it so much coverage. They were effective in 
emphasizing the views of the settler demonstrators: 
"They [immigrants] have no human rights 
whatsoever," "They broke the law and should be 
treated like criminals." etc. etc. The only good 
thing that comes out of these anti-immigrant 
rallies is that they make it easier for the 
oppressed of Aztlan to discern who their enemies 
are, the parasitic white nation (Amerika) whose 
very existence depends on the oppression and 
exploitation of the majority of the world's people.

Join with MIM in fighting to open the borders and 
smash imperialism. We don't just oppose individual 
pig violence, we oppose the system that sets up the 
pigs to enforce artificial borders that keep the 
people of Aztlan (and other oppressed nations 
around the world) working in jobs that do not pay 
enough for adequate food, housing and medical care 
so that the imperialists and their parasites can 
afford a second car and a vacation to Disney Land.



NOTES: 
1. Los Angeles Times April 5, 1996, p. A22. 
2. LA Times April 6, 1996, A15. 


* * *


REPUBLICANS PRACTICE PHONY SOCIALISM


Long Island Lighting Company (LILCO) is on the 
verge of a takeover by New York State. "In the 
governmental equivalent of a hostile takeover, New 
York state wants to seize LILCO, whose annual 
revenue, at $3.1 billion, ranks 15th among U.S. 
power companies."

The leaders of this movement are not social-
democrats. They are staunch Republicans: Governor 
Pataki and Senator Alfonse D'Amato, who led Bob 
Dole's presidential campaign in the New York 
Republican primary.

The reactionaries are turning toward what they call 
"socialism," in order to protect rate-payers. 
Typical family of four LILCO rate- payers pay 
double the national average for electricity. They 
have given up on other methods of reform, because 
the company has already had one takeover that only 
fixed its problems by gouging the rate-payers.

The current management of LILCO has pleased its 
shareholders. Now the Republican leaders of New 
York are going to fix their wagon. This leaves the 
Wall Street Journal wondering aloud, because 
usually the politicians are praying to the gods of 
Mammon.


IF THE SOCIAL-DEMOCRATS CAN'T DO IT, THE 
CAPITALISTS CAN


Ordinarily the capitalist class saves this kind of 
dirty takeover work for social-democrats to do. 
That way, they can get done what has to be done and 
then blame it on "socialism," so that everyone will 
be sickened by what the bourgeoisie invented and 
called "socialism." In this case, the nature of 
capitalism has been so exposed, that the New York 
ruling class does not have time to put together a 
social-democratic party, an example of which is the 
Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) or the 
German Social-Democrats, which is the most famous 
social-democratic party. 

MIM has always maintained that incremental 
takeovers are no threat to the capitalist class, so 
we have to have a revolution. Now we see the proof 
in New York. Far from disapproving, the 
reactionaries are leading the movement for a 
government takeover.

It is already regular government practice to take 
over failed banks to prevent the whole banking 
system from falling like a house of cards. 
Sometimes companies like Chrysler get government 
bailouts too.

In most cases these government takeovers are 
intended to force taxpayers to make the companies 
profitable again. Once they are profitable, the 
companies are sold to the rich again--at a loss to 
taxpayers. That's what happens if the company is 
important enough that it can't just go out of 
business.

The government doesn't just let companies like 
LILCO go out of business because of the political 
pressure from its mass base: the majority of the 
people served by LILCO, who might support another 
wing of the bourgeoisie if the one currently in 
power does not serve the class well enough. In 
addition, the mess created by companies like LILCO 
leads to even more blatant than usual exposure of 
the failures of capitalism.


REAL SOCIALISM


In the late Yugoslavia, localities had control of 
their businesses, under so-called market socialism. 
Such socialism is not internationalist, because it 
does not account for unfair historical advantages 
or natural resources. If one locality happens to be 
sitting on an oil reserve, it gets fabulously rich 
in the Yugoslavian solution of old. Such is now 
happening in China too where privatization of 
agriculture has resulted in some locales getting 
fish farms while others get land barely fit for 
rice. Under socialism, the proletarian party must 
thoroughly squelch provincial interests in order to 
build unity amongst the people.

Real socialism demands proletarian leadership at 
the society-wide level and the local level. 
Otherwise, the government or local leaderships 
simply imitate the capitalist businesses they are 
in competition with, because they are forced to. 
LILCO found itself in the position of having to 
please stockholders. So even though it is under 
extreme governmental pressure, it still has to 
imitate the other capitalists to retain its 
shareholders.

When we are speaking to young bourgeois types, we 
can even use the language of the Wall Street 
Journal. Socialism is "the governmental equivalent 
of a hostile takeover" but for the whole country, 
with the workers in control of production with 
politics led by a proletarian line.

Ordinarily a takeover specialist like T. Boone 
Pickens or some other billionaire takes over a 
company by telling people that the current 
management is not squeezing out enough profits. If 
you let Pickens in there, he will get the job done, 
so give him control of the company. Then 
shareholders will get higher dividends and their 
stock price will go up higher the takeover 
specialist says.

Communists say that these capitalists are unfit for 
running society, because they degrade and exploit 
the proletariat, destroy the environment to obtain 
fabulous private profits, subvert Third World 
governments with bribery and CIA-types in the 
imperialist governments. These capitalists sell 
weapons, drugs and pornography for profit, get into 
world wars where the victor sets the business 
terms. They also create tens of millions of paper-
shuffling jobs whose product does nothing to 
advance society--jobs like settling disputes 
between property-owners (lawyers, judges, 
accountants), jobs protecting private property 
(security guards and police), jobs attacking other 
countries (the Pentagon and military-industrial 
complex) and jobs scheming up ads for 
technologically advanced and earth-shattering 
products like fizzy water with color in it called 
Coca-Cola. 

Older people with their fat salaries in meaningless 
jobs are pacified as long as the people of the 
oppressed nations do all the hard work, but young 
people have a chance to make a change in their 
lifetimes and have it make a difference. When the 
communists gain state power and take over the 
LILCOs and other businesses, it won't be to please 
shareholders or local politicians. No one will be 
allowed to make profits, so that the motivation to 
oppress and exploit will be gone, and so we can 
attempt to organize LILCO for the people.


NOTE: Wall Street Journal April 26, 1996, p. 1.


* * *


ECONOMISTS CATCH UP WITH MIM


The chairperson of the Council of Economic Advisers 
in the Clinton Administration, Joseph E. Stiglitz 
has noted in a study this year what MIM pointed out 
four years ago in MIM Theory 1. Stereotypes about 
service jobs in the united states have picked up 
political momentum, but they are false.

"The cartoons might make you think these new jobs 
are all hamburger flippers," said Stiglitz. "The 
big growth in service sector jobs has not come at 
McDonald's but at mutual funds and hospitals, 
software companies and accounting services," said 
the New York Times in a paraphrase.

An influential book by Harry Braverman at our 
favorite academic press called Monthly Review held 
the hypothesis called the "degradation of work." 
According to Monthly Review political economists 
inspired by Marxism, the development of capitalism 
in the united states involves ever greater 
"deskilling" of work. For this reason, everyone 
would end up in service jobs akin to McDonald's. 
Braverman attempts to apply the universals of 
Marxism to Amerika as if Amerika were a capitalist 
economy unto itself. But really Amerika keeps the 
bulk of its proletariat outside the borders so that 
deskilling doesn't carry the same implication as it 
did when Marx talked about it. Monthly Review also 
suggested we update Marx and Lenin by accepting 
these degraded white-collar workers as proletarian 
and thus gather our line from this class.

Democrats and now Dole and Buchanan have been 
spreading a similar image, because it is safe for 
them to pander to the class interests of the 
bought-off workers here. However, according to the 
Stiglitz report, hamburger-flipping jobs actually 
declined between 1994 and 1995.

Furthermore, 68 percent of the growth in employment 
in the last two years has been in jobs that paid 
above the median of $480 a week. Hence, we again 
have evidence of a stabilization of the labor 
aristocracy, not an imminent revolutionary crisis 
for that class. If we tie ourselves up with that 
class now in the expectation that it will soon 
become revolutionary, we will only corrupt our own 
lines and turn against the international 
proletariat, the way some Detroit newspaper workers 
did recently by inventing a story about Mexican 
scab workers. (See May 1 MN113.)

MIM has in the past pointed out the fallacy of 
generalizing to all service sector jobs with regard 
to pay by using statistics that apply only to the 
shortest-term service sector jobs that most white 
workers move out of while they are still in their 
20s.

Monthly Review's "degradation of work" hypothesis 
is an apt description for the world's majority of 
workers. In the imperialist societies, however, the 
degradation of work is its increasing parasitism. 
Forward-looking workers in the imperialist 
countries do not seek to protect their parasitic 
jobs, but seek to change them to work that goes 
beyond paper-shuffling waste.


NOTE: New York Times April 24, 1996, section D. 


* * *


EVIL EMPIRE 

RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE 

1996 Sony Music Entertainment


rage against the machine is holding strong to anti-
imperialist politics but still has not given up the 
anarchism that marked the group's past CDs. This 
latest release opens with "People of the Sun," a 
reminder of oppression and exploitation "since 
1516:" "Neva forget that the wip snapped ya back, 
ya spine cracked for tobacco, oh I'm the marlboro 
man." The answer: "Now you found a gun/This is for 
the people of the sun." Righteous armed struggle is 
the answer, but this struggle must be organized and 
led by an organization with a political line and 
strategy that can win and make progressive change.

"Tire Me," "Vietnow," "Without a Face" and other 
songs also bring up the history of imperialist 
repression the world's people have suffered. Other 
tracks defend the right of people to self-
determination. "Wind Below" upholds the struggles 
of the women and men from the south, including 
armed struggle. This song ends with "They force our 
ears to go deaf to the screams in the south."

One theme to this release is the miseducation of 
the masses which is attacked in many of the songs. 
The song getting the most play on the radio, "Bulls 
on Parade," takes on the right wing hypocrisy: 
"They rally round tha family/with pockets full of 
shells/weapons not food, not homes, not shoes." It 
goes on to attack the miseducation system: "I walk 
tha corner to tha rubble that used to be 
a/library/line up to tha mind cemetery/what we 
don't know keeps tha contracts alive an/movin'." 
This suggests that it is just lack of information 
that keeps the masses from fighting back. "Vietnow" 
carries on the attack on the masses as miseducated 
sheep forced to listen to misinformation, duped by 
religion and ends by asking "Is all tha world jails 
and churches?"

While miseducation has always played a role in 
keeping the oppressed down, in Amerika there is the 
important question of material interest that keeps 
the majority of the people so readily willing to 
accept and support imperialist bullshit. 
Miseducation is rampant in all countries controlled 
by imperialism but it is not just misinformation 
that is keeping the majority of the people in 
Amerika from rising up in revolutionary struggle. 
The white parasitic labor aristocracy doesn't 
resist the miseducation because they want to hear 
that the brown people down below are inferior and 
terrorists and stealing their jobs because they 
want to continue to benefit from the exploitation 
of the world's majority. It is not just lack of 
information that has made white Amerika non-
revolutionary, it is their benefit from the 
exploitation of the people of the world that has 
created a labor aristocracy willing to support 
fascism before thinking about supporting just 
struggles for national liberation.

"Down Rodeo" points out "A ballots dead so bullets 
what I get". This is one of the best tracks on this 
CD and suggests that maybe rage against the machine 
understands the national contradiction in the 
United Snakes and why the whites have been bought 
off into passivity:

"So make a move and plead the fifth 'cause ya 
Can't plead the first 
Can't waste a day when the night brings 
A hearse 
So now I'm rollin' down rodeo wit a 
Shot gun these people ain't seen a 
Brown skin man since their grandparents bought 
One 
Bare witness to tha sickest shot while suckas 
Get romantic 
They gonna send us campin' like they did my man 
Fred Hampton


Year of tha Boomerang lays out the revolutionary 
plan just short of a call for Maoist organizing, 
invoking the memory of Mao's comment that a death 
for the people is as heavy as Mount Tai:


So I grip tha cannon like Fanon and pass tha 
Shells to my classmates 
'Cause tha bosses right ta live is mine ta die 
So I'm goin' out heavy sorta like mount tai 
Wit tha five centuries of penitentiary so let 
Tha guilty hang 
In the year of tha boomerang 
I got no property but yo I'm a piece of it 
So let tha guilty hang In tha year of tha boomerang 
An now it's upon you


But in the end rage against the machine is still 
calling on people to take up guns and not offering 
them any leadership or organization to work with in 
this country. They seem to be leaning towards the 
Revolutionary Communist Party, acknowledging 
several of their front groups as comrades on the 
jacket of the CD, whose influence could explain the 
failure to adequately distinguish between the white 
nation parasites in Amerika and the oppressed 
nation allies of the revolution as well as the 
derogatory attacks on the masses as miseducated 
sheep.

In spite of these failings, overall this is an 
excellent anti-imperialist attack on the Evil 
Empire of Amerika so long as the listener bears in 
mind that the Amerikans (a.k.a white labor 
aristocrat parasites) are a part of this Evil 
Empire and want to continue to be a part of it. And 
in order to really make our deaths as heavy as 
Mount Tai we must work together in an organization 
that can lead the revolution and make every life 
and death count.


* * *


YOUTH GATHER TO DISCUSS THEIR RIGHTS


On April 13-14, the National Children's Rights 
Coalition held its second annual Youth Summit at 
Hampshire College in Massachusetts. Some RAIL 
activists were there, handing out RAIL and MIM lit 
and attending informative workshops. We found many 
allies at the conference, even as we recognized the 
differences that existed between the various groups 
in attendance. 

The groups involved were as diverse as Empowered 
Youth Educating Society (EYES), a group of teenage 
youth bringing attention to the anti-youth 
legislation in Seattle and the complicity of many 
reformist groups with anti-youth aims; and the 
Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors who 
held a talk on "The Military Invasion of our 
Schools" about opposition to JROTC. There were 
plenty of revisionists (people who call themselves 
Marxist but revise Marx's ideas fundamentally) in 
attendance as well.

Workshops were informative despite the often 
incomplete analysis of those holding them. For 
example, in one workshop on "Homelessness and 
Youth" participants asserted (to the facilitator's 
agreement) that layoffs at AT&T were the cause of 
homelessness. Actually, white-collar workers' 
layoffs usually result in their employment in other 
white-collar jobs. 

Paper-shufflers do not usually become homeless, 
especially those educated enough to milk the social 
system for all they can use their privilege to get. 
In spite of this incorrect assertion, the 
facilitators, representing an Atlanta-based high-
school group called Youth for Justice (which is 
affiliated with Empty the Shelters) provided lots 
of information about the situation in their city. 
They talked about the labor pools, which are 
basically temp agencies organized to hire homeless 
people to set up for the Olympics. They are 
extremely exploitative and wind up paying barely 
enough for a night in a shelter and some food.

Some of the most interesting discussions took place 
outside of the workshops, where RAIL was tabling. 
MIM is one of the few communist groups out there 
with such a complete gender analysis, including 
talking about children's situation, and the 
attendees appreciated this. One woman who had seen 
MIM's article concerning the Parental Rights 
Amendment (March, 1996) on the Internet was glad to 
meet people distributing more literature. She said 
that she was thrilled to read our call for youth 
liberation as she has been telling "the Left" to 
talk about child abuse as a political issue since 
1965. Most of the participants were far too young 
to be doing such things since the sixties, as most 
were high-school aged. However, many were receptive 
to finding out more and interested in both MIM and 
RAIL newspapers. They liked our recognition that 
youth are the main revolutionary vehicle within the 
white Amerikan nation, unlike most groups that keep 
looking to bought off workers to choose the 
progressive activism youth are embracing. 


* * *


UNDER LOCK AND KEY:
NEWS FROM PRISONERS AND PRISONS


THE POWER OF REVOLUTION



Living in oppression each day is a vision of Hell.
I wake up daily and my physical rebels.
Refusing to submit, I'll never bow to defeat.
I walk with shackles on my feet,
My waist is chained, my wrist cuffed,
Still the oppressor can't get enough.
He spews out mental torture and dispenses physical 
pain.
My Comrades know him by many names:
Imperialist, capitalist, fascist, Commander in 
Chief,
Speaker of the House, psychopathic beast.
Faces of the Enemy, No! they can't hide,
Revolution is on my side.
Yes! Revolution is the key,
The only way oppressed nations will be Free.

--a New York prisoner, Mar. 4, 1996.



FLORIDA CENSORS MIM NOTES



In early January, a prisoner from the DeSoto Corr. 
Inst. asked MIM to send subscriptions to nine of 
his friends at this same institution. A few weeks 
later, all nine issues of MIM Notes were refused 
and returned to MIM.

--RCG1



WASHINGTON STATE CENSORS MIM NOTES


According to a letter sent to MIM from the 
Washington state Department of Corrections, MIM 
Notes was censored because it is a publication 
unauthorized by policy, per memo issued by 
headquarters.

To protest this censorship, write to the Director, 
Division of Prisons of Community Corrections, PO 
Box 41100, Olympia, WA 98504-1100.



TEXAS PRISONER DIES OF NEGLECT



On October 6, 1995, in Beeville, Texas, in 
McConnell Unit, ad-seg area, a brother named Rufus 
Green 586875 was found dead in Cell-1, Pod-F, 
Section-C at approximately 8:45 am.

Brother Green died from a ruptured hernia, which 
caused blood poisoning, resulting in death. From 
Oct. 2, 1995 until his death, Brother Green pleaded 
with prison officers and nurses.

The first, second and third shifts for medical 
assistance could see that he was suffering in 
severe pain, but they just totally ignored and 
disregarded his and our complaints.

Just to name a few among the officers and nurses 
who showed a deliberate indifference toward his 
medical needs were: Eric M. Lang Co. 3, Charles A. 
Bridges Co. 3, Regino A. Quintero Co. 3, Eric D. 
Wood, Sgt. Philippa A. Lang, Sgt. Wesley W. 
Hemphill, Garca Pablo Co. 3, Jose R. Garcia Co. 3, 
Medical Nurse Sylvia Tapia, LVN.

I have written to many state and local 
organizations requesting their support but it seems 
that the whole world has ignored my cry, while all 
those involved are getting away with the death by 
neglect. I am requesting the support and advice 
from prisoners and outside comrades in my quest to 
see that justice is brought upon those involved in 
the death by neglect of Rufus Green.

Please write or call the following agencies below 
and request that the above-listed officers and 
nurses be investigated regarding Brother Green's 
death. Write or call:

Alvin J Bronstein, Attorney, National Prison 
Project, 1875 Connecticut Ave., NW, Suite 410, 
Washington, D.C. 20004.

American Civil Liberties Union, PO Box 3629, 
Austin, TX 78764-3629, Tel. (512) 441-0077.

Attorney David Deutch, Special Litigation Service, 
Civil Rights Division, U.S. Department of Justice, 
320 First St, NW Room 944, Washington, D.C. 20534.

--a Texas prisoner, Jan. 31, 1996



THE STRANGE DEATH OF DONALD WOODS



...Remember the September 1990 death of Donald 
Woods at the Waupun Correctional Institution? There 
was no video, the media did not do a front page 
story on the broken bones and extensive wounds 
inflicted on Woods, but the fact remains, he died 
as a result of the actions of the Waupun staff.

On September 8, 1990 at 6:00 p.m., five correction 
officers forcibly removed Woods from his cell for 
disturbing other inmates in his block with "bizarre 
noises." This cell-extraction was accomplished by 
cornering Woods with a plastic shield, handcuffing 
him and gagging him with a towel. Woods was gagged 
because he was tested HIV positive and allegedly 
spat at officers in the past.

Once out of his cell, Woods was thrown into a 
laundry cart, like a sack of dirty clothes and 
transported to the "Adjustment Center," where he 
frantically struggled against the officers trying 
to place him in restraints. Their adrenaline 
pumping from the heat of battle, the officers 
lifted him onto the bed and began the process of 
subduing him. One officer applied pressure on the 
towel over Woods' mouth to keep his head in place, 
while a 200 pound officer dug his right knee firmly 
into Woods' chest, preventing the manacled inmate 
from arching his back. Stripped of his clothing and 
placed tightly in restraints, Woods urinated on 
himself and slowly drifted into 
unconsciousness....At 3:30 a.m. he was found dead.

A four month investigation by the Dodge County 
District Attorney concluded that there were no 
grounds for criminal prosecution against the Waupun 
staff because they did not "knowingly" contribute 
to Woods' demise.

The bottom line is that Woods died of asphyxiation 
brought by the restraining methods of the state, 
therefore someone has to answer for his death....

A Wisconsin Prisoner responds: This document 
represents the death of a prisoner by correctional 
officers who were not charged. They suffocated this 
prisoner, murdered him and got away with it!!!

Pigs need to learn they have no right to take 
another life, or even to mistreat lives. However, a 
great percentage of pigs like their job as it is 
their legal way to relieve their hate. Prisoners 
are merely "Hate Rocks" for society-- for those who 
cannot portray hate in their personal lives. We are 
the Hate Rocks, a route for their negativity to 
flow into!

Here in Wisconsin prisons, the only things that 
protect an officer are the 10 years for the crime, 
6 more years for the repeater law, then another 
strike towards three strikes and you're out. Surely 
pigs don't think they themselves protect one 
another? They're foolish, so they likely do.

Pigs must stop their actions. Some of us just can't 
keep holding back, time after time, year after 
year. We don't want to hurt anyone...

--a Wisconsin prisoner, 10/23/95



INEFFECTIVE COUNSEL REMOVED FROM PRACTICE OF LAW



In the case of Francis Dole Burke, Attorney vs 
Kentucky Bar Association, Case No. 94-SC-267-KB 
(May 26, 1994) of the Supreme Court of Kentucky, 
the Supreme court rendered Attorney Francis Burke 
to be unethical and unprofessional to his 
client.... Mr. Burke was put on suspension for 59 
days, made to pay a $953.80 disciplinary fee and 
removed from the practice of law. It should be 
noted that Francis Burke was under multiple 
disciplinary complaints for misrepresenting 
prisoners. ...any prisoner who had Francis Burke as 
an attorney from the state of Kentucky should 
contact MIM or the Supreme Court law book, 
published May 26, 1994, Case No. 94-SC-267-KB. This 
case may be of great importance to people who have 
had Mr. Burke as their attorney and are fighting 
for ineffective assistance of counsel cases.

--a Virginia prisoner, Feb. 22, 1996



 IN WISCONSIN, WE SAIL



"Governor Tommy Thompson, known to many state 
residents as "King" Tommy, has announced that "if 
keeping criminals off our streets means sending our 
prisoners to Texas--bye, bye...they're going 
South."

That's just one of the proposals set forth in the 
State of the State address delivered by Wisconsin's 
chief executive on Tuesday, January 30, in Madison. 
He means it about the deal with Texas. "We have 
talked with Texas corrections officials. They have 
room for our prisoners. They have agreed to take 
them. And we're working out the details."

According to Tommy Thompson, "Wisconsin is Working 
-- better and stronger than at any time in our 
history." To this governor, a "better and stronger" 
state is one that shows "zero tolerance for crime." 
Here are the latest anti-crime proposals he 
unveiled:

Building a SuperMax prison: "Prisons work," said 
Tommy Thompson. "They keep violent people from 
harming good people. It's that simple. So tonight I 
am committing to build a SuperMax prison. If we 
don't get federal funding, we must build it 
ourselves. And once this plain, stark and austere 
facility is built, that's where Wisconsin's most 
vicious criminals will go. The SuperMax will be a 
criminal's worst nightmare."

Building a new "sexual predator" prison: 
"Statistics show that 50 percent of violent sexual 
offenders commit more sex crimes once released from 
prison untreated. That's why we joined together to 
pass a ground breaking sexual predator law... 
Tonight, I am proposing construction of a new 
sexual predator facility."

Sale of Prison labor to three selected 
corporations: "We're putting prisoners to work, 
both inside our prison walls and alongside our 
roadways. Next month I will announce the first 
three companies that will come into our prisons and 
put inmates to work in activities no other workers 
want. No more sitting around. Prisoners are going 
to start working. And they're going to help pay 
their keep."

Creation of the Office of Gang Intervention: "We 
struck a blow against gang crime recently when we 
toughened our laws so gang members can't hide 
behind their birthdays and be coddled by a weak 
juvenile justice system."

Creation of a victim information system at the 
Department of Corrections: "This Victim Security 
Card puts the status of criminals in the hands of 
their victims... Court dates. Sentencing. Prison 
Location. Release Date... the victim will know it 
all. And will never have to wonder when the 
criminal gets out or where he or she is. We need to 
start worrying more about protecting our families 
than about the confidentiality of convicted 
criminals."

Providing broader access to criminal data: The 
state will now employ a Mobil Data Terminal System 
to make it "easier for law enforcement agencies 
throughout the state to keep tabs on criminals."

Banning pornography and movies in prisons: "...we 
are banning pornographic materials from our prisons 
and removing all movies. Prisoners won't have time 
for these things anyway. They'll be too busy 
working."

Nan Brian, a spokeswoman for the Wisconsin Council 
on Children and Families gave her reactions to the 
speech: "It's all really a crime and punishment 
plan. When people in Wisconsin think about 
security, they think about stable jobs, family 
supporting wages, affordable health care, good K-12 
education for their kids, and the opportunity for 
higher education for their children later." She 
added that the governor's security plan focused 
entirely on building more prisons... and treating 
criminals more harshly. [See The Capital Times, 
Madison, WI 1/31/96.]

Wisconsin already has eliminated many educational 
programs in prisons, has a three strikes law, has 
restricted property allowed to prisoners [including 
books, hobby supplies or educational materials], 
has eliminated free weights and may also eliminate 
all weights, has double celled about one- third of 
prisoners, has added new segregation units, has 
moved to restrict the rights of prisoners to 
request public information or file lawsuits, has 
eliminated the position of an attorney in the 
Public Defender's office who was responsible for 
investigation of complaints about conditions of 
confinement, has introduced monitoring of prisoner 
telephone calls and stamping of all outgoing mail, 
and has plans to add chain gangs of a "high-tech" 
variety [the proposed "chain gang" program would 
use stun belts and shackles instead of chaining 
prisoners together].

The prison waiting lists for treatment programs are 
years long. There is an inadequate grievance 
system, and complaints about lack of medical care, 
denial of legal rights, mail tampering, racism, 
abuse and other forms of mistreatment abound. Tommy 
Thompson vetoed a bill that would have established 
an Inmate Death Investigation Board. There is no 
independent citizen oversight of the Dept. of 
Corrections, and services for women prisoners are 
truly limited in a prison system designed primarily 
for men. Requests by families of prisoners for 
improved visitation conditions have gone unheard 
for decades, and Wisconsin is transferring juvenile 
offenders from supervision by human service 
agencies to the control of the Department of 
Corrections. The state has just begun to enforce a 
new law that sends violent juveniles to adult 
courts. But all these measures are not deemed 
punishing enough by Tommy Thompson, the Department 
of Corrections, or the get-tough legislators in 
Wisconsin. A bill to re-instate the death penalty 
has also been introduced, and the governor says 
he'll sign it if it reaches his desk.

Tommy Thompson built his national reputation by 
pushing for "workfare" and "learnfare" under the 
label welfare "reform" -- the safety net for 
Wisconsin's families is full of gaping holes. He 
uses his veto power to change the intent of bills 
with the stroke of a pen. He is dismantling the 
Wisconsin educational system. He has blurred the 
line between church and state. He and his 
associates have reaped untold millions in profits 
from prison contracts and highway construction, and 
he is prepared to assist corporations to loot 
mineral and natural resources with little 
accountability for the social and environmental 
consequences. Virtually all state agencies have 
been forced to tighten their belts, but one agency 
has been getting fat budget increases: the 
Wisconsin Department of Corrections.

Near the end of his speech, Tommy Thompson left his 
audience with these words: "In Wisconsin, we sail. 
We sail toward our dreams... Good night, and God 
Bless Wisconsin." To some of us, it sounds like we 
sail toward a nightmare.

Watch this man, folks. He could be sailing your way 
any time, and his dangerous ideas have already 
sailed on ahead of him. He claims to have no 
national aspirations, but he acts like a man who 
would be King.

For full text of the State of the State address by 
Tommy Thompson, see: 
<http://www.wisgov.state.wi.us>

For local articles about the speech see: THE 
CAPITAL TIMES, Madison, WI 1/31/96 (email: 
tctvoice@captimes.madison.com) THE WISCONSIN STATE 
JOURNAL, Madison, WI 1/31/96 (phone: 608/252-6110)"

-- A Dissident in Dairyland, Feb. 2, 1996



REMOTE PRISONS MAKE LIFE TOUGHER


The Ely State Prison (ESP), a state of the art 
maximum- security institution located in the barren 
mountain region of eastern Nevada, stands as a 
symbol of prosperity and long-term employment for 
the little village of Ely, Nevada.

To the inmates of ESP, their stay here is similar 
to being sentenced to a prison in Siberia. Most 
prisoners, after arriving at ESP, succumb to the 
harsh reality of just how desolate an area this 
governmental monument is. Free world contact is 
virtually non-existent, family visits are few, 
phone calls to loved ones are costly, and abuse of 
power is an everyday occurrence.

This is an all-too-common story shared by thousands 
of inmates sentenced to prisons in remote areas 
across this nation. Like so many other prisons 
built around small town economic revival, ESP 
offers prison officials an enormous opportunity to 
misuse their authority.

We prisoners have rules and regulations, not to 
forget state and federal laws me must follow. If we 
fail to abide by these written rules, we get 
punished. Prison staff members also have written 
rules and regulations to follow, but because of the 
isolated location of ESP, they tend to disregard 
their own written policies.

This brings us to why the Nevada Department of 
Prisons has so many lawsuits filed against prison 
officials in the U.S. District Court. Per capita, 
Nevada inmates file more lawsuits against prison 
staff than any other state prison system. When 
prison officials fail to follow the procedures set 
down in writing by the lawmakers who oversee state 
prisons, it is the given right of all inmates to 
sue prison officials so that they will discontinue 
this practice of disregarding and avoiding written 
policy and making up rules as they go. It seems 
here at ESP, there are no rules for staff to 
follow, so we file many lawsuits.

For the inmates at the Ely State Prison, relief in 
most instances can only be found through judicial 
litigation. You, too, can find relief from the 
constitutional violations caused by prison 
officials by using title 42 U.S.C. 1983; its your 
avenue to relief....Use it! Don't abuse it!

--a Nevada prisoner, written May 1993, sent to MIM 
Jan. 4, 1996.


MIM RESPONDS: We too say "use it!" but while some 
legal battles are winnable, we do not agree that 
litigation spells relief. If Amerikkka's legal 
system weren't stacked against the oppressed, there 
wouldn't be so many prisoners in the first place. 
This is why MIM says that only revolution will give 
the oppressed full relief. 


* * *


FBI NAMES UNABOMBER SUSPECT; FBI-CONTROLLED MEDIA 
CONVICTS 


by MC234

In early April, the FBI announced it had a suspect 
in the Unabomber case and arrested Theodore 
Kaczynski. Unabomber is the code name applied to 
the case by the FBI, as initial targets were mainly 
universities and airlines.

The organization behind the bombings appears to 
call itself FC, and holds an anarchist, anti-
technology ideology, of which MIM has considerable 
criticisms in the realms of line, strategy and 
tactics. Principally, we see technology as merely 
the tools held by the ruling class. Under 
socialism, technology--and society--itself will 
cease to be alienating to the masses of people. 
Like the Luddites who attacked machines--and not 
the capitalists--as the root of their oppression, 
the Unabomber mistakes the symptoms and tools of 
capitalism for the system. The Unabomber seeks a 
more harmonious relationship between humans and the 
planet by the destruction of the technological way 
of life. In contrast, MIM seeks the liberation of 
the world's people, and a resulting realignment of 
society, which will include a sustainable 
relationship with non-human species and matter.

In the realm of strategy, we disagree with the 
approach taken by the Unabomber. Maoists hold that 
armed struggle should only be undertaken when the 
bourgeoisie is really helpless and the people can 
make concrete gains through its use. Scattered acts 
of sabotage or executions are useless--or even 
counter-productive, bring repression down on 
everyone--because they are not tied into the direct 
and increased politicization and participation of 
the masses. The Unabomber type strategy relies on 
the bourgeois media to convey one's message and 
results in increasing the split between the masses 
and the political line being advocated. This last 
point MIM makes only in reference to how Maoist 
organizing works and is less important than the 
overall line difference between the Unabomber and 
MIM on the role of technology and imperialism.

While the FBI claims that FC is one person, the 
documents from FC that MIM is familiar with refer 
to "we" so we will refer to FC as an organization. 
MIM doesn't know for sure if Kaczynski is FC or 
related to FC.

The arrest of Kaczynski has been characterized by 
extreme manipulation of the media, and this has 
been the case all along. For years, the FBI has 
decided what information and letters (and portions 
of letters) from FC are fit for print. MIM says 
"assumes" or "allegedly" on some of the "facts" in 
this case because it is difficult to know exactly 
what is going on when politics is filtered first 
through the enemy FBI and then through the enemy 
mouthpiece media.

As NPR reported, U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno 
refuses to comment on the on-going investigation, 
but "unnamed sources" in the FBI are leaking a 
Niagara Falls of information to the media. This 
should be a sign of concern to all. While there are 
reasons to keep people's names secret, the FBI is 
currently using a policy of "press conferences by 
leaks". This gives the FBI maximum control over 
what information it gives out and in what context, 
and allows it maximum deniability in cases of 
incorrect information or outright lies. Already 
small things like the fact that Theodore Kacznski's 
brother (who allegedly turned him in) sought 
assurances that the death penalty would not be 
sought, have turned out to not be true.

It is impossible to know what more significant 
things are being hidden. FC is an underground 
organization that only communicates with it's 
victims directly and via the censored media, 
Kaczynski (according to unnamed sources) isn't 
talking, and the FBI is "unnamed". So this all ends 
with the public not really knowing anything at all.

As time has progressed since the arrest, it has 
only gotten worse, with the media obviously 
becoming increasingly subservient in exchange for 
this increased "access" to informal briefings (the 
leaks.) In fact, to read news articles in the front 
of the New York Times only a few days after the 
arrest, one would think that Kaczynski had been 
convicted already.

There is a lot to criticize in the FC line 
(assuming we are being given accurate information 
in the "Industrial Society and its Future" (the 
"Unabomber's Manifesto") published in the 
Washington Post. But what really galls MIM is the 
mainstream media's attempts to de-politicize this 
case and individualize it. The syndicated column by 
LA Times columnist Peter H. King is an excellent 
example of this.

Before the arrest, "Industrial Society and its 
Future" was boring, rambling, etc. to King. In 
addition, it wasn't politically valid, because as a 
"sneaky assassin" FC hadn't earned a "seat at the 
debate." Now, however, "Industrial Society and its 
Future" is important to King because he can 
psychologize its politics to the profile of 
Kaczynski. Instead of reaching individuals wishing 
to work against a society bent on it's own 
destruction--in this MIM has unity with FC--by 
exposing the controlling nature of society's 
reactionary socialization, King sees a criticism of 
Kaczynski's parents.

FC falls into a lot of psychological arguments 
him/herself, but s/he correctly exposes a major 
tactic of the ruling class against it's enemies: 
"The concept of 'mental health' in our society is 
defined largely by the extent to which an 
individual behaves in accord with the needs of the 
system and does so without showing signs of 
stress." King takes this as the defensive posturing 
of someone afraid of being called crazy. Saying 
that you are crazy if you don't enjoy your own 
alienation from society and you are crazy if you 
point out the fact first is a particularly common 
form of attack for the patriarchy. The next step, 
of course, is to lock you away.

MIM disagrees with all the bourgeois pundits 
criticizing FC for using technology to force a 
break from technology. This is a is perfectly 
dialectical thing to do. It can be a cover for 
hypocrisy--which we don't think FC was doing--such 
as Ronald Reagan's peace-through-strength arms 
buildup which saw criticism only from the left.

King's final statement is that "the manifesto's 
importance is not whether it made points about the 
evils of technology. It is whether the document can 
be matched to manual typewriters found in 
Kaczynski's cabin." If Kaczynski typed the 
document, had the typewriter or didn't it doesn't 
change the political value of the ideas.

Reading between the lines of the political pundits 
and media servants to the FBI, the case of the 
Unabomber has become an excellent example of why we 
need alternative press and why focoism (the 
strategy of individual armed attacks) is not the 
most effective way to attack an enemy. MIM builds 
independent media while also building an 
organization based on Maoist line and strategy: the 
most effective way to attack and overthrow 
imperialism.


NOTES: Syndicated column by LA Times columnist 
Peter H King, April 12, 1996; National Public 
Radio, April 8, 1996; 
http://www.envirolink.org/orgs/coe/resources/fc/coe
vspf.html


* * *


IMPERIALISTS TIGHTEN GRIP ON PHILIPPINE ECONOMY


The U.S.-Ramos regime in the Philippines recently 
passed several new laws which further subject the 
Philippine economy to the imperialist policies of 
the World Trade Organization (WTO) and U.S. 
imperialism. These laws include the Mining Act of 
1995, the Agricultural Tarriffication Act, the Oil 
Deregulation act, and the Home Consumption Value 
Act. Together, these laws benefit local 
reactionaries and big landlords and allow foreign 
monopolies to invest in broader sections of the 
Philippine economy and repatriate more 
superprofits.(1)

These laws are part of the U.S.-Ramos regime's 
"Philippines 2000" economic plan. President Ramos 
claims that this plan will turn the Philippines 
into a "newly industrialized country" by the turn 
of the century, but the plan only encourages 
further imperialist domination which will only 
bring greater poverty to the nation and increases 
the exploitation of the working class and 
peasantry.(2)


MORE MARKETS, MORE SUBSIDIES FOR FOREIGN MONOPOLIES 


The Foreign Investments Act removes restrictions on 
foreign ownership and foreign owned enterprise, and 
the Home Consumption Value Act changes the 
determination of tariffs on imported goods from 
local prices to the prices in the mother country. 
The new tariffs are a hidden subsidy since prices 
in the mother country are cheaper than prices in 
the Philippines (or at least they would be reported 
to be cheaper).(1)

These new laws will especially hurt the small 
entrepreneurs in the retail trade who will not be 
able to compete with large foreign monopolies. The 
May First Movement (KMU), a legal national 
democratic organization, also pointed out that the 
new policies would result in further unemployment, 
"due to the closure of many local industries under 
the onslaught of foreign domination and monopoly 
competition."(1)


DEREGULATION = MONOPOLY CONSOLIDATION, INCREASED 
EXPLOITATION


The U.S.-Ramos regime claims that the Oil Industry 
Deregulation Act will increase competition among 
oil companies by allowing new investors into the 
industry. According to the regime, this will cause 
the price of oil to fall. Actually, full 
deregulation will simply allow the three companies 
which currently control the oil industry (Shell, 
Caltex, and Petron) to set prices at will without 
prior government approval. Deregulation places 
local oil prices directly under the control of U.S. 
monopolies.

The Mining Act opens up vast new tracts of land to 
foreign mining companies and allows them to use the 
highly destructive method of open-pit mining. 
Amerikan and Japanese (and to a lesser extent 
Australian and Canadian) monopolies already control 
the industry through their local comprador partners 
(in one case the local partners own only 23% of 
"their" mines). More than half a million people 
work in the mining industry, but only 28,000 are 
unionized. Safety conditions in Philippine mines 
are among the world's worst; cave-ins and 
landslides are common, and workers are regularly 
exposed to dust, chemicals, and toxic gas.(1)

Increased penetration by imperialist mining 
interests can only increase the exploitation of 
Filipino miners and the destruction of the 
Philippine environment.


FOOD "SHORTAGE"


Like in other semi-feudal and semi-colonial 
countries, food production in the Philippines is 
dictated by the profit margins of agribusiness 
monopolies and their big landlord allies but not by 
the needs of the people. 

Last summer the price of rice in the Philippines 
reached record levels. Even the pro-imperialist Far 
Eastern Economic Review concedes that the price 
hike was due to hoarding on the part of the rice 
cartel in the Philippines.(3) According to the 
Peasant Movement of the Philippines (KMP), a legal 
national democratic organization, the rice cartel 
made $4.3 billion in profits during the so-called 
"rice shortage."(4)

The Agricultural Tarriffication Act will make this 
situation worse by driving more small food 
producers off of their land. The Act lifts 
quantitative restrictions on foodstuffs and 
replaces them by tariffs. This allows foreign 
monopolies to flood the market. Filipino peasants, 
many already landless, with small plots of land, no 
modern machinery, facing usurious loans from local 
landlords and violence from landlords and the 
military, will not be able to compete.(1)

As more peasants cannot make a l