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 128 DECEMBER 15, 1996 PRISON AWARENESS WEEK CULTURE EVENT On November 22, RAIL and MIM held the final event of Prison Awareness Week at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. It was designed to be a Revolutionary Cultural event and fundraiser for the MIM books for prisoners program. While the event did not meet up with our expectations in terms of turnout and fundraising for a variety of reasons, we did have an active struggle over the importance of producing revolutionary culture and the meaning of the works presented. One RAIL comrade performed a song by Bob Dylan about George Jackson and his murder by prison guards at San Quentin prison in California. This sparked a discussion about why MIM calls all prisoners political prisoners. George Jackson was imprisoned for a small time crime--the theft of $70. Within the walls he became a revolutionary leader, and joined the Black Panther Party. He wrote 2 books that were very influential to the revolutionary movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. George Jackson was causing Amerika too many problems with his anti-imperialist organizing so they had him killed. When MIM says that all prisoners are political prisoners, we do not mean that all prisoners were arrested for openly political acts or are openly political. What MIM looks at, however, is the unjust political system that calls some people and their actions "criminal", and calls other people who harm their global neighbors to greater degree "chairman of the board" or "President of the United States." A system that enforces poverty for a targeted population has no legitimacy to complain about the lack of morality in people breaking the imposed rules. Furthermore, MIM would call the daily war against the Third World, be it in the form of IMF imposed starvation, Clinton raining bombs on Iraq, or Union Carbide poisoning the people of India the largest crimes in the world. Stealing seventy bucks doesn't even come close to this level of "crime." The next performance was Doctress Neutopia who read an essay about her being denied access to the UMass computer system last year. Doctress Neutopia is a post-modern Internet activist, known for starting a pacifist religion and promoting "lovolution" over revolution. The December 1 issue of MIM Notes covered a talk by the Doctress that was ostensibly about human rights in Turkey. As MIM has already spelt out its differences with Doctress Neutopia, we chose to instead focus at the event and in this article on issues that come up more often: the role of intellectuals and the future of socialism. Last year, Doctress Neutopia had an Internet account at UMass to use for research purposes, although she was no longer affiliated with the school. When she took some copyrighted news articles from one part of Usenet (a network of discussion groups within the Internet) and posted it to another, she had her Internet access revoked. UMass pays for access to some wire service news reports from ClariNet, and the Doctress spread a few articles around the world for free. ClariNet, the owners of the information, demanded "justice", so UMass pulled her plug. MIM has no doubt that the Doctress was turned in to the owners of the material because some vigilante didn't like her politics, and that the University found her politics distasteful and therefore choose the most severe of the possible penalties. But that doesn't mean that we want to get caught up in arguments about her "deserving" Internet access. There are no rights, only those things we can organize to seize and maintain. We expect nothing from Amerika except its eventual defeat. As MIM as explained previously, copyrights and the ownership of ideas is a reactionary part of capitalism that holds back progress. ClariNet has useful information, but withholds access to it to only those who pay for it. This keeps information away from those who can use it productively. This is why MIM Notes is given free to those-- principally prisoners--who can not pay for it. MIM Notes is not copyrighted for a similar reason. Some libraries restrict the photocopying of archived literature in order to protect the publishers copyright. While some capitalist publications might want to withhold information, MIM would like to see our information spread as widely as possible, so we explicitly do not copyright material and encourage people to copy it. Neutopia is correct that in a just society people would have equal access to the tools of mass communication, including the Internet. So in that sense, a criticism of Amerika's Internet policy for excluding the great majority of the world would be correct. At best, it's opportunism of the worst sort for someone with a Ph.D. to scream oppression because they have to pay for Internet access. Part of the Doctress's defense is that she gets "only" $900 a month from her father so that she can sit around and develop reactionary lovolution philosophies with her time. The Doctress responded to this criticism by demanding Internet access for the world. When RAIL hammered Doctress Neutopia to admit that food, safe water and getting imperialist nations out of their country were important, she meekly said of course, and then added "and Internet access", with the emphasis on the Internet access. Fundamental behind Doctress Neutopia's line is an intellectual elitism. She believes she deserves to sit around all day and philosophize about future societies, archologies and the lovolution. She wants peasants to slave in the fields all day so she can jet around the world to criticize revolutionary movements where she can't even speak their language. A RAIL comrade explained the Maoist view that the division of labor in society is social. This comrade posed a rhetorical question, asking if the Doctress thought that some people dug ditches and plowed fields, and others sat around in coffee shops talking about philosophy because of biological differences. The Doctress exposed her belief in biological determinism answering that some people are big and like physical work, and some people don't. MIM does not waste time developing reactionary philosophies that lead the people of the world down dead ends. Instead we organize for socialist revolution to liberate the people of the world from the oppression and exploitation of imperialism. One of the most important stages in global liberation will be the former parasites of the united states and other imperialist countries paying reparations to the Third World. Such a scenario would offer great material aid to the Third World, and lower the standard of living for Amerikans to something globally sustainable. For an Amerikan to do physical labor all day and end up with the Doctress's "oppressive" $900 a month might be quite lucky indeed. MIM Notes is not copyrighted. Please credit MIM when redistributing or referring to this material. Subscriptions are $20 for 24 issues, U.S. mail or e-mail. Send cash, stamps or check made out to "MIM Distributors." Write: MIM Distributors, PO Box 3576, Ann Arbor MI 48106-3576. E-mail: mim@mim.org. http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext