This is an archive of the former website of the Maoist Internationalist Movement, which was run by the now defunct Maoist Internationalist Party - Amerika. The MIM now consists of many independent cells, many of which have their own indendendent organs both online and off. MIM(Prisons) serves these documents as a service to and reference for the anti-imperialist movement worldwide.
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 147 OCTOBER 1, 1997 MIM Notes speaks to and from the viewpoint of the world's oppressed majority, and against the imperialist-patriarchy. Pick it up and wield it in the service of the people. support it, struggle with it and write for it. IN THIS ISSUE: 1. REPRESSIVE ALLIANCE ATTACKS PALESTINIAN MASSES 2. INNOCENT TEXAS BLACK MAN DENIED PARDON 3. LETTERS 4. U.$. CAPITAL FEEDS ON PERU; PROPPING REGIME 5. UPS TEAMSTERS GET THEIR PIE IN STRIKE 6. 'TRUTH' COMMISSION PERPETUATES INJUSTICE 7. LIGHT AS A FEATHER: FORMER ZAIRIAN DICTATOR MOBUTU DIES 8. PUPPET ARAP MOI GOVERNMENT STEPS UP ATTACKS ON THE PEOPLE OF KENYA 9. RESEARCH SHOWS CULTURAL REVOLUTION SUCCESS 10. MOTHER TERESA: FRIEND OF POVERTY, NOT OF THE POOR 11. IMPERIALIST UNITED NATIONS TO SET UP INTERNATIONAL COURT 12. LA UNIVERSITY PIGS AIM FOR SUBMACHINE GUNS 13. GOVERNMENT BUILDS COALITION TO CENSOR INTERNET FOR CHILDREN 14. FBI WANTS ENCRYPTION CRACKDOWN 15. BOOK REVIEW: RESURRECTION, THE STRUGGLE FOR A NEW RUSSIA 16. UNDER LOCK AND KEY: NEWS FROM PRISONERS AND PRISONS * * * WHAT IS MIM? The Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM) is a revolutionary communist party that upholds Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, comprising the collection of existing or emerging Maoist internationalist parties in the English-speaking imperialist countries and their English-speaking internal semi-colonies, as well as the existing or emerging Spanish-speaking Maoist internationalist parties of Aztlan, Puerto Rico and other territories of the U.S. Empire. MIM Notes is the newspaper of MIM. Notas Rojas is the newspaper of the Spanish- speaking parties or emerging parties of MIM. MIM is an internationalist organization that works from the vantage point of the Third World proletariat; thus, its members are not Amerikans, but world citizens. MIM struggles to end the oppression of all groups over other groups: classes, genders, nations. MIM knows this is only possible by building public opinion to seize power through armed struggle. Revolution is a reality for North America as the military becomes over-extended in the government's attempts to maintain world hegemony. MIM differs from other communist parties on three main questions: (1) MIM holds that after the proletariat seizes power in socialist revolution, the potential exists for capitalist restoration under the leadership of a new bourgeoisie within the communist party itself. In the case of the USSR, the bourgeoisie seized power after the death of Stalin in 1953; in China, it was after Mao's death and the overthrow of the "Gang of Four" in 1976. (2) MIM upholds the Chinese Cultural Revolution as the farthest advance of communism in human history. (3) MIM believes the North American white-working-class is primarily a non- revolutionary worker-elite at this time; thus, it is not the principal vehicle to advance Maoism in this country. MIM accepts people as members who agree on these basic principles and accept democratic centralism, the system of majority rule, on other questions of party line. "The theory of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin is universally applicable. We should regard it not as dogma, but as a guide to action. Studying it is not merely a matter of learning terms and phrases, but of learning Marxism-Leninism as the science of revolution." -- Mao Zedong, Selected Works, Vol. II, p. 208 * * * REPRESSIVE ALLIANCE ATTACKS PALESTINIAN MASSES by MC53 and MC45 written 15 September 1997 Amerikan Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's recent visit to Palestine marked the latest in a series of meetings between U.$. imperialism, its Israeli protégé and Israel's comprador partner in repression of the Palestinian people -- Yasir Arafat's Palestinian Authority (P.A.). The alliance among Amerikan imperialism, Israeli settler terrorism and the puppet collaborationist P.A. continues to deny the Palestinian masses self- determination. On the eve of Albright's visit, the Palestinian Authority rounded up 200 militant Palestinian revolutionaries.(1) The Palestinian people's just struggle for national liberation has been under constant attack on both military and economic fronts. The Palestinian Authority is defined as a comprador regime by the fact that it depends on the imperialists, and not the people for its power and its survival. Israel and Amerika have Arafat doing their dirty work for them -- repressing the Palestinian people and depriving them of the rights due to independent nations. Unfortunately for lackey Arafat, the Palestinian people see clearly through his collaborationist tricks to the imperialists who hand him his orders. The people reject imperialist interference in their lives and see alternatives to collaboration active around them. Arafat has no right to political leadership that is not granted to him by the Palestinian people, and he faces a power struggle as the masses continue to look toward and work for their own national liberation. IMPERIALIST ORDERS: DEFEAT THE NATIONALIST STRUGGLE, BUT MAKE IT LOOK GOOD During her visit to imperialist protégé Netanyahu and sell-out henchman Arafat, Albright went back and forth between the imperialist and his collaborator trying to orchestrate maneuvers which would make each side look good to its constituency while moving toward the ultimate goal of stripping the Palestinian nation of national sovereignty. Albright made the token suggestion that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu implement a time-out for Israeli national aggression and settlement expansion, and warned that the settler nation should refrain from settlement expansion, land confiscation, home demolitions and I.D. confiscation. In response, Netanyahu offered token adherence to the staged pretense of cutting back Israeli terror.(2) Albright went on to pressured the P.A. to intensify security cooperation with the CIA and the Israeli General Security Service (GSS, also called Shabak or Shin Bet). On September 10, Albright said that "the Palestinian Authority must take unilateral steps and actions to root out the terrorist infrastructure." And explained that "evidence provided by an American intelligence officer who sits with the Israeli and Palestinian security chiefs when they meet"(3) had revealed that the P.A. has not been doing enough to repress its own people. Albright then met with Arafat in Ramallah on September 11 and convinced the Palestinian mis- leader to further cooperate with imperialism.(2) Arafat said, "We do not believe in violence or terrorism."(2) Along with the collaborationist PA, the Mukhabarat (Gaza counterintelligence), civil police in Gaza and the West Bank and the Preventative Security Service serve as the armed wing in the collaborationists' contribution to the war against the Palestinian people.(5) Albright's imperialist rhetoric reiterated the notion that, above all, peace is most important. The placement of the peace rhetoric on the imperialist pedestal covers the fact that the initial so-called peace agreement was created at the expense of the Palestinian people. Israel and its Amerikan masters only agreed to talk with the Palestinians after years of the people's struggle for national liberation. Yet the so-called peace talks gutted this goal -- depriving the Palestinian people of genuine control of their own land and national affairs. Amerika uses the rhetoric of peace to obscure the fact that any cessation of armed struggle will by definition mean a neo- colonized Palestine. This is not peace. When the imperialists refer to terrorism, they are talking about armed opposition to their own violence. If peace means solidifying Israel's power to dominate Palestine without protest, this is not true peace but an agreement to cement an unequal power relationship. As Amerika pushes rhetoric like democracy, freedom and peace to build support for its interests, it raises the question: democracy, freedom and peace for whom? When the 'final status talks' include the discussion of whether a Palestinian state will exist, the masses understand that these so-called peace talks are not being held in their interests. How can the existence of Palestine be a question of negotiation for Palestinians? Under the guise of national security, the Israeli settler state has withheld millions of tax dollars from the Palestinian Authority, about 60 percent of the P.A.'s annual budget. Netanyahu is dangling the money over the P.A.'s head to pressure for more extensive crackdowns against the Palestinian masses, Hamas and Islamic Holy War.(2) The settler state also holds out the possibility of free movement of the Palestinian people as an incentive for Arafat to succumb further to imperialist demands, saying that extensive cooperation would convince Netanyahu to lift some restrictions on Palestinian travel out of the West Bank. But Netanyahu said that the lifting of restrictions would not include the movement of cement. He claims that this cement is being used to build a Gaza seaport and so he does not want it taken out of Palestine.(2) While Afarat may bite at the chance to relieve protests of his servitude. A true representative government would not be heed to such restrictions. The Israeli settler state has put forward a list of demands before it takes a token step back in the domination of the Palestinian people. Earlier in the year, the settlers pulled out a whopping 2.7 percent of Israeli troops stationed in the recognized-as-Palestinian territories. (4) The list of demands constitute Israel's newest justification for refusing the redeployment of troops previously agreed to for Sept 7. Israel wants the PA to: - confiscate all illegal weapons; (There are roughly 30,000 to 40,000 Palestinians officially bearing arms.(5)) -dismiss alleged terrorist elements from PA police; -dismantle the infrastructure of the revolutionary nationalist organizations; -outlaw Hamas, Islamic Holy War and other militant groups; -"administrative, legal and police action against military, political, civilian, religious and economic infrastructure" which struggles for national liberation of the Palestinian people.(4) In essence, the P.A. must agree to impose martial law against the Palestinian people before the settler state will implement further redeployment and halt other repressive measures. True revolutionary nationalists know that conceding the imposition of martial law and its tactics shows that the Palestinian people do not really have power and self-determination. REPRESSION BREEDS RESISTANCE Arafat's true nature is revealed in the fact that he will discuss whether the chicken of repression or the egg of resistance comes first. It is this collaborator's position which leaves him struggling to do enough damage to the Palestinian people only to prove himself a true enough sellout to the enemies of his nation. When Netanyahu says that Israel would talk about halting settlement expansion after an end to so-called terrorism has been achieved, he pretends there is no connection between the theft of Palestinian land and the revolutionary nationalist liberation struggle. When Arafat agrees to discuss such matters and equates Israeli crimes against Palestine with Palestinian self-defense, he is only begging to have himself removed from power by the masses. As part of the series of arrests on the eve of Albright's visit, the PA launched an attack to shut down the Islamic Bloc Youth Union in Gaza which represents thousands of students and is identified with Hamas.(3) While Hamas has the support of at least 20 percent of the Palestinian population (according to the bourgeois media) and provides necessities to the masses without Amerikan aid the Arafat regime has been accused of using more that $300 million for its own benefit.(5) Israel is continuing its front to rationalize its refusal to pull troops out of Palestine. Netanyahu has claimed that these round ups are not enough. He had wanted more members of the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, arrested.(4) Netanyahu claimed that it was only junior militants who were arrested and that the round up was cosmetic. Netanyahu further pushed for the arrests of the specific militants on the Israelis' list. In an attempt to assure it was a genuine kowtow, Arafat said that the arrests included members of the political and military wings of Hamas and had been made to trace sources of the recent bombings.(4) Col. Jibril Rajoub, the leader of the secret police apparatus on the West Bank, the Preventative Security Service, frequently meets secretly with CIA officials and Israeli intelligence officials to negotiate the tactics of the war against the Palestinian people.(5) Just prior to the round up, Rajoub said "we can't arrest hundreds of people without cause. ... We are not going to go to war against Hamas."(5) This statement was exposed as a lie during the round ups. When questioned about his alliance with the Israelis, Rajoub defended his collaboration saying that he was part of the PLO when it was engaged in armed struggle from the beginning. He stated that cooperation is not the term to describe working with the Amerikans and Israelis because cooperation is "mashtap" which is used by the Shin Bet to describe the Palestinian informers. He is trying to have it both ways: telling the people that he would never collaborate with the imperialists while cooperating with them in practice to repress the Palestinian people. Rajoub along with the rest of the cooperators says that armed struggle is not correct now. "The armed struggle was never an end in itself for me. The target the whole time was to live in peace and security in an independent state next to Israel."(5) So while the P.A. and its armed attaches no longer endorse the armed struggle waged by the masses, they engaged in an armed attack against the masses. The Preventative Security Service has been criticized by Palestinians for engaging in torture. One Shin Bet official seconded this accusation, saying "Jibril learned our techniques."(5) Rajoub has led the arbitrary arrests of Palestinian revolutionary nationalists and has "employ[ed] the same techniques on their prisoners that Israel once used on them. These include sleep deprivation and the binding technique known in the interrogation rooms of Shin Bet and preventative security alike as "shabah.""(5) MIM firmly supports the Palestinian struggle for national liberation and self-determination against the treacheries of the Amerikan-backed Israeli occupation. The real terrorist is the illegitimate, imperialist-patronized settler nation. In its own expansionist plans, the Israeli aggressor does not hesitate to massacre Palestinians. The United $nakes eagerly funnels aid and arms to its Israeli fledgling. However, in spite of their seeming power, Amerika and Israel are but paper tigers in the face of the righteously angry masses. The reactionary violence of the oppressors must be met with and defeated by the wholly just revolutionary violence of the masses. To lead the way to the self-determination and nationhood which are rightfully theirs, the revolutionary Palestinian forces must shoulder the proven methods of self- determination against the treacheries of the Amerikan-backed Israeli occupation. NOTES: 1. The New York Times 10 September 1997. pp. A1 and A10. 2. The New York Times 12 September 1997. pp. A1 and A7. 3. The New York Times 11 September 1997. pp. A1 and A8. 4. The New York Times 10 September 1997. pp. A1 and A10. 5. The New York Times Magazine 14 September 1997. pp. 62-69; 74; 102-104. * * * INNOCENT TEXAS BLACK MAN DENIED PARDON by MCB52 It's not often that the prosecutors recommend a pardon of someone they convicted. But in the case of James Byrd, the DNA evidence newly available simply proves that his semen was not the semen found in the accuser. However, Texas Governor George W. Bush refuses to grant a pardon because he wants to be tough on crime -- at the expense of an innocent Black man. This case again shows something MIM has known all along: the criminal injustice system is not about guilt or innocence, it is about oppressing the internal colonies. Byrd's lawyer maintains that Bush is denying the pardon because "He doesn't want to take any risk that Byrd could become his Willie Horton." (William Horton was the Black supposed rapist released from prison on furlough by Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis. President Bush used this case to smear his opponent Dukakis in the campaign for president.) Byrd was initially accused after being seen by the white accuser in a grocery store months after the rape. Even though she had initially claimed her rapist was white, Byrd was readily convicted. So the deal is, any Black man who enters a grocery store can be convicted of rape. Then regardless of the evidence he will have to endure punishment forever to protect the political futures of the likes of Bush who seek the support of white wimmin. In response to questions about Bush's refusal to grant a pardon, the governor's spokesperson repeated a favorite mantra of Amerikan criminal injustice: "The Governor is very leery of granting pardons. His basic philosophy is, if you commit a crime, you should be prepared to live with the consequences." Of course, given as an answer in this case, the hype is absurd. Even the DA says the guy is innocent. What she is really saying is: if you are born a Black man, you should be prepared to face injustice. NOTE: The New York Times, 13 September 1997. p. 23. * * * LETTERS STRUGGLE OVER MIT ARREST CONTINUES Greetings. I just wanted to drop a note about your recent coverage on the arrest of the former MIT activist. Upon first reading your respective publications and flyers [story printed in Sep 1 MIM Notes #145 as well as The Thistle, the alternative student newspaper at MIT], I was somewhat shocked about the incident. However, both organizations failed to report the "full" story; namely, both neglected to mention that said activist was recently released from prison on terrorism charges. Whether or not the MIT police were still justified in their actions in light of this is could be debated, and it is not my intention to do so here. More specifically, I wanted to point out that as "underground" alternatives to the mass media, you have an added responsibility to try to disseminate as much information as possible, even if it may weaken your claims or causes. Perhaps the fact that he had been convicted and incarcerated prior may have been a driving force behind his recent arrest. Of course, his past does not necessarily condone or support what happened recently, but something should have been mentioned ... specifically in the MIM publications where armed conflict is seen as a means to an end. Just about me ... I initiated a brief dialogue with the UCLA MIM group (my alma mater) concerning the CIA's involvement in Guatemala. I do not subscribe to political ideologies since in my opinion they serve only to herd people into cut and dry groups without a chance to think for themselves. Some of my beliefs are "far right" while others are "far left." Despite my beliefs, I am glad to see that MIM is active in this area in addition to the availability of "alternative" news media sanctioned by MIT. Just a suggestion. --MIT student RAIL RESPONDS: You must not have read the literature you were sent very closely. It said very clearly that Picariello was a former prisoner in that first flyer that was sent out and also in the Thistle article. We thought this was a very important point to make and we did not try to hide this. At the same time, we didn't discuss his alleged crime because the criminal injustice system's definition of "terrorist bomber" (which actually is not the name of any crime, just the name that the Globe and Tech chose to use to label Picariello) requires a lot of discussion. If you have not read the issue of MIM Theory on the criminal injustice system, you should check it out. It explains why we do not see this system as legitimate in defining crime. The system's failures range from the discrepancy in crack to powder cocaine sentencing to the condoning of murder and terrorism by our government while condemning what happens on a much smaller scale at home. Many people in prison did not commit crimes but many others did (and these are crimes against the people no matter what social system you put them in.) But in a system that locks up more Blacks (per capita) than the apartheid South African regime, clearly it is not a case of blind justice. The fact that Picariello was convicted of a crime that did not involve harm to people but instead was a crime against property only serves to bolster the case that he is not someone interested in hurting others. But this has to be said in the context that we do not consider it a crime to be fighting against imperialism in spite of the fact that the government will murder, imprison, and frame those who do this (check out Agents of Repression: The FBI's Secret Wars against the Black Panther Party and the American Indian Movement by Churchill and Vander Wall if you think these are just delusions of the communists.)[Available from MIM Distributors for $20.] These are all important issues but not the things we think this recent attack on Picariello should focus on. Clearly we did not hide his prison history: he served the entire sentence and was released a free man (supposedly.) The more important point here is an issue of police brutality and the hypocrisy of MIT for inviting the public to its shopping mall and then harassing and arresting particular people once they arrive. NJ PIG CORRUPTION AND COVER-UP Here at the Trenton state prison, prisoners are presently, as always throughout the past, being abused, disrespected and harassed by correctional staff. This has been allowed to go on simply because administrative officials turn a blind eye and support such officers. Prisoners here who address such complaints are labeled as snitches, trouble makers, etc. by officers and some of the so-called administrators. And these prisoners become targets. Never is any disciplinary action addressed to the officers who create such problems, instead they receive a pat on the back! To the administrators, the officer is never wrong and never lies. Therefore their words are always upheld whether it be disciplinary charges or just simple complaints lodged against them or the prisoner. When a prisoner addresses a letter to the Governor or Commissioner regarding such abuses their complaints are only referred right back into the hands of those being complained about, leaving nothing to be resolved and the problems for the prisoner become more intense. It is also amazing (because of such complaints) how the administrators and their associates have influence with the prisoner's parole hearings. [The Pigs influence] whether or not a prisoner is granted parole simply because they [the prison pigs and parole pigs] work hand in hand with one another here at Trenton state prison. There is widespread corruption within this facility from top to bottom, that is being disregarded while prisoners suffer. I myself have addressed letters to the Trenton newspaper requesting interviews, but there is never a response. However, the chief of custody here had an article in such a newspaper, stating how he wouldn't tolerate any prisoners jumping on his to beat up on prisoners. Nor [was it printed] that they are constantly getting away with it. This clearly shows that even the media only allows society to be made aware of one side of the real picture, with no interest in showing the other side of it. There is, and has constantly been, unnecessary problems that simply take place to make society justify why corrections officers should earn more pay, however, they are presently making lump sums for jobs that rely on simply pushing buttons. Here there are guards who walk around all throughout the day because of nothing to do. Some who work housing units, with a co-worker, which allows them to talk on the phone all day or simply sit in the booth and sleep. Yet they claim to be in need of higher pay. -- A New Jersey Prisoner, 16 June 1997 MIM RESPONDS: This gets at the settler nation ideology of Amerikan injustice. Bureaucracy is implanted in order to stop anyone outside of that bureaucracy from fighting the system. At the same time it creates jobs that pay high wages for parasitical work that produces nothing of value. The guards uphold that system because in the end they benefit with more pay and less labor. MIM realizes that this why prisons exists: to control those not benefiting from the system and to buy off the rest of the country. As the letter correctly shows, a lot of people materially benefit from incarceration and in this country this is disproportionately incarceration of people from oppressed nations. MIM realizes that under the current system prison bureaucrats won't ever be systematically punished for their crimes against the prisoners. Token punishments of individuals happen occasionally when there is too much outcry or publicity around a guard's crime. But this serves the system by individualizing brutality instead of exposing the entire system of imperialism as the cause of prison injustice. The only way to end injustice is to attack oppression head on and build for revolution. MORE PROOF THAT PIGS ARE THE REAL CRIMINALS Thought i'd inform you koncerning the latest news here in the imperialist gulag (Trenton State Prison). On August 18th, several New Afrikan prisoners were exiting the mess hall and were attacked by a group/gang of unprovoked attack [on the pigs by the prisoners], making it appear as though the pigs were attacked first, which is a kommonly used tactic when they want to kover their asses. First of all, the pigs that were involved in this incident attacked first. It is the "right" of anyone to defend themselves. And as a result 6 pigs were korrected. One required multiple stitches to the ear. One received a broken jaw, while the others were treated for injuries. This attack comes as no surprise to many of us. Just hours before this attack, a pig attacked a prisoner and as a result, the pig suffered a broken leg and injuries to the face. Second of all, these latest attacks [by pigs on prisoners] kome as revenge. Ever since a racist pig met his timely death, these pigs have been systematically attacking, harassing prisoners, specifically New Afrikans. An the "head nigga in charge" (the warden) is aware and refuses to take appropriate actions. In fact, when one does komplain, he is met with more repression. This tells us, whatever the pigs do or feel like doing, it will be kovered up and justified. Lastly, i would just like to say that it doesn't end there. More attacks will follow and the repression will intensify. But for the many of us who are organized and have established united fronts, with bases of support, ... will continue to struggle and will kontinue to unite all who can be united. In klosing, as our beloved komrad on death row once said, "The greatest form of sanity that anyone can exercise is to resist that force that is trying to repress, oppress and fight down the human spirit." (Mumia Abu Jamal) -- Another New Jersey Prisoner, 20 August 1997 MIM RESPONDS: This letter accurately shows that there are no "rights," particularly not for prisoners who are "legally" allowed to be enslaved. Instead of "rights" MIM talks about power struggles. Only those with the power, namely the imperialists and their labor aristocracy lackeys, have the ability to live in relative luxury off of the oppression of other nations. MIM unites with this prisoner in his/her resistance to the system and we urge all to fight the power of the white, imperialist structure and build for self determination of all nations. * * * U.$. CAPITAL FEEDS ON PERU U.$. imperialism and consistent capital infusions have propped up the comprador regime in Peru for years. The people of Peru, led by the Communist Party of Peru (PCP, or Sendero Luminoso as it is often called in the bourgeois press), struggle daily against the comprador Fujimori regime and U.$.-supported repression and violence. MIM does not represent the PCP or its line; we instead exercise our internationalist solidarity with the PCP by exposing U.$. imperialism from within the belly of the beast. It is the task of people living and organizing within u.s. borders to understand and expose the integral role Amerika plays in the current social and economic structure in Peru. U.$. imperialism has no business being in Peru, or in determining the affairs of that country and its people. Amerikans need to study and understand their country's stranglehold on Peru as our contribution to breaking that grip. PROTECTING PROFITS: WHY AMERIKA CARES SO MUCH ABOUT PERU In 1994, Amerikan imperialism directly invested $836 million in Peru.(1) Direct investments are enterprises for which Amerikans are directly responsible -- Amerikan owned businesses in Peru. In 1993, the U.$. had only $630 million in private investments in Peru, so Amerikan money is increasingly putting down stakes and the United Snakes continues to develop reasons to support capitalism in Peru.(2) One Amerikan company with operations in Peru is Occidental Petroleum, which does business in a total of ten countries outside the U.$. Occidental plans to suck 60,000 barrels of oil per day out of Peru this year. Compared to 229,000 barrels per day, which was Occidental's total in 1996 for all of its international pilfering, and accounting for increases internationally, this means that the company is expecting to get about one-quarter of its total oil out of Peru this year.(3) Back in 1994, U.S. businesses exported $1,408 million worth of goods and services to Peru and in the following year, in 1995, exports were $1,775.(1) Amerika estimated Peru's total imports as $7.4 billion in 1995, so Amerikan exports were more than 20 percent of Peru's imports in that year. Clearly with this level of money tied in to the stability of the Peruvian economy, both in product and capital exports, Amerika has a tremendous stake in the comprador regime's continued allegiance to imperialism. WORLD BANK LOANS -- INCREASE THE DEBT AND KEEP'EM PAYING Loans granted through the World Bank have been an important means of controlling the Peruvian economy. The Fujimori regime owes its position in power to money and military support from the U.$. and other imperialist lenders and donors. The Amerikan-dominated World Bank has been central to Peru's foreign debt. The Bank's stated purpose is to "reduce poverty and improve living standards by promoting sustainable growth and investments in people." The WB operates by giving "loans, technical assistance and policy guidance to help its developing-country members achieve this objective."(4) Because the World Bank is, in its own words "a lender of last resort," it makes loans principally to very poor countries and makes its money largely off of debt servicing and interest paid out on these loans. The fundamental purpose of World Bank lending is to preserve Third World dependence on foreign capital. The loans are structured to force recipient countries to accept international investments. This in turn means that borrower countries are barred from developing self- sustaining economic structures, because they are constantly paying on debt while their land is used for industry and agriculture which will not benefit the people. Peru's history with the World Bank is a sterling example of how these loans encourage dependence on further lending. Between 1952 and 1987, the Bank loaned Peru a total of $1.7 billion. Lending stopped between 1987 and 1993 when the Peruvian government stopped paying on its debt and started racking up back payments. The World Bank's first re-involvement with Peru in 1993 was with adjustment loans which cleared arrears with other lenders. Since 1993, the Bank has loaned Peru $2 billion.(5) One year following the resumption of World Bank lending in Peru, in 1994, the country held approximately $22.4 billion in external debt. A year later, in 1995, debt was estimated at $31.7 billion.(6) With lending totals continuing to multiply, clearly the relationship between the World Bank and Peru is not aiming to "promote sustainable development." MIM Notes publishes articles like this one because it is our internationalist duty to the people of Peru and to their party, the PCP. MIM's Peru work is MIM's best attempt to follow the leadership of the PCP although the PCP and MIM have no official ties. Organizing within the United Snakes, we have special access to information about U.$. government and capital involvement in Peru, and we can use this to educate people in the u.s. and abroad about the deep cooperation between Amerikan imperialism and Peruvian compradorism. In this way, we build support for the People's War in Peru and for the ultimate victory of the proletarian forces. NOTES: 1. Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1996. 2. MIM Notes 86 March 1994. 3. Occidental Petroleum Corporation 1996 Annual Report, p. 7; Occidental Petroleum Corporation website, http://www.oxy.com. 4. World Bank website, http://www.worldbank.org. 5. WB website, "Peru and the World Bank" October 1995. 6. CIA World Factbook, 1996. * * * UPS TEAMSTERS GET THEIR PIE IN STIKE by RC35 and MC206 UPS Teamsters claimed victory at the conclusion of negotiation talks on August 19th ending the 15-day strike. The new agreement met many of the teamster's demands including increases in full-time jobs, decreased sub-contracting, increased pensions, wages and contract changes.(1) The amerikan pseudo-left hailed this strike as a symbol of progressive organizing and a sign that amerikan labor has become more militant. But the strike and demands behind it did not signify a change in class perspective. The strike was consistent with the amerikan working class' position as a labor aristocracy, bribed with booty of the imperialists stole from oppressed nations.(2) The teamsters and UPS agreed to 4 of the 5 initial demands of the teamsters. Teamsters won an additional 2,000 full-time jobs per year over five years. Currently, part-time workers receive between $8.00 and $10.50 per hour, while full time workers receive $18.50 per hour, so this concession amounts to a substantial raise for many UPS workers. The new contract gives workers per hour wage hikes which will take full effect after 5 years. Part- timers get an extra $4.10/hr; full-timers get $3.10/hr; and loaders get an immediate increase to $8.50/hr. The new contract also keeps the multi- employer pension plan which allows the teamsters to capitalize off of the stock market at a 1987-1994 increase of 60%.(1) For an international comparison, the daily minimum wage in the Philippines in 1994 was $4.10 per hour.(3) A recent speech by an amerikan labor leader summed up the ideology behind the "new" "militant" amerikan labor movement. Amerikan workers, he said, are sick and tired of working for low wages. This makes them poor workers and poor citizens. It may even radicalize the workers, and cause them to reject amerikan "democracy"! That's why, this labor leader said, amerika needs a raise! Compare that speech to the following quote from Cecil Rhodes, architect of British imperialism: "I was in the East End of London yesterday and attended a meeting of the unemployed. I listened to the wild speeches, which were just a cry for 'bread! bread!' and on my way home I pondered over the scene and I became more than ever convinced of the necessity of imperialism... If you want to avoid civil war, you must become imperialists."(4) Indeed, exceptional wages such as those guaranteed to the UPS workers are possible only because of the extreme exploitation and super- exploitation of workers in Third World countries. Apologists for the amerikan labor aristocracy call the new UPS contract a long due reparation to the "hard working" amerikan and imply that amerikan workers created at least $18.50 in value per hour themselves (while workers in oppressed nations produce less than $5.00 of value per hour). These statements, aside from being factually incorrect, stoke up reactionary amerikan nationalism and cement the alliance between the labor aristocracy and the imperialists. The stock benefits included in the workers' pension plan also illustrate how the majority of the working class inside an imperialist country can become "coupon clippers," as Lenin said, and reap the benefits of imperialism without lifting a finger. The u.$. invades Iraq, the stock market goes up, and suddenly these workers have a bigger pension plan. Critics of MIM often complain that our analysis of the amerikan working class ignores the fact that ownership of the means of production determines your class position. The stock benefits in the new UPS deal confirm something MIM has said before: Working class pension funds are among the largest stock holders in amerika. In a very real way, the labor aristocracy does share in the ownership of the means of production in amerika. After the successful UPS strike, Teamster leader Ron Carey pledged to unite all workers, from Washington apple pickers to Federal Express employees, in a movement much like the UPS strike. What Carey fails to see, or mention, is the parasitic nature of his imperialist lap-dog gains. Integrating immigrant farm workers into a movement specifically aimed at sucking more blood, labor, and resources from the Third World Proletariat, does nothing else but force settler nation ideology onto those oppressed nation who have not, and will not, benefit from imperialism. What this false "unity" does is secure settler positions more firmly in imperialism by co-opting potentially progressive movements and groups. The teamsters, and like-minded settler nation organizers, aim to force oppressed nation allegiance to imperialist hegemony -- not equalization of the worlds wealth. If they truly believed in ending class antagonisms, they wouldn't rely on imperialist super profits to fill their petit-bourgeois pockets. MIM works to bring imperialist oppression and exploitation to an end by uniting with those truly oppressed in the Third World and the colonies inside U$ borders. MIM studies history and the nature of labor and work to return the world's wealth to those who actually create it. If you are sick of the continued cry to fill up the pockets of those lucky enough to live within false boarders, unite with the international proletariat and expose the rhetoric u.$. labor uses to secure its place on the imperialist ladder. NOTES: 1. New York Times 20 August 1997, p. A1, A22,23. 2. MIM Notes 145, 1 Sep 1997. 3. PIGLAS, "The Truth About the Ramos Regime," 1994. 4. Quoted in VI Lenin, Imperialism, Chapter 6. * * * AVAILABLE NOW! "IMPERIALISM AND ITS CLASS STRUCTURE IN 1997" This is an unofficial booklet available now for discussion outside the U.$.A. We continue the work started by Lenin of eradicating the influence of the labor aristocracy, a new petty-bourgeoisie in the international communist movement. To do this we must know how extensive the petty-bourgeoisie has become so as to avoid becoming its spokespeople unintentionally. This booklet reviews the concept from Marx to Mao, examines current evidence for the integration of finance capital, the existing trade blocs, the new trends and sources in surplus-value extraction that have bailed out the capitalists and the evidence that there is no surplus-value extracted from the bought-off oppressor-nation majorities in the U.$.A., Japan, Germany, France, England, Italy, Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, Sweden and Australia. We challenge our readers in the imperialist countries to read and support or rebut this booklet and we promise to publish serious replies. Available to residents outside the U.S. borders only! $5 for xerox copy from the address on page two. * * * 'TRUTH' COMMISSION PERPETUATES INJUSTICE by RC343 The neo-apartheid south African Truth and Reconciliation Commission's Amnesty Committee is considering the case of Clive Derby-Lewis, the ultra-right mastermind behind the 1993 assassination of Chris Hani, a popular Azanian leader of the revisionist South African Communist Party. Derby-Lewis admitted to planning the assassination based on a hit list prepared by his wife; to obtaining the "untraceable" murder weapon; and to enlisting the help of Janusz Walus, the gunman. In a move to placate the outraged Azanian masses, the South African state had convicted Derby-Lewis and Walus of the murder. President Nelson Mandela sold the African National Congress (ANC) for nominal power, and then established the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in 1995 to cover-up his collaboration with the white nation supremacists in power. The TRC's stated purpose is to investigate the "gross violations of human rights" and grant amnesty for the political crimes of apartheid. Through these hearings, the TRC and neo-apartheid state hope to promote "racial healing" and "transcend" the conflicts of the past.(1) What this new age, postmodernist doublespeak really means is that disenfranchised Azanians should lick the white settlers' boots and like it, just like Mandela did. The TRC's bourgeois talk of "human rights" ignores the basic class and national inequality within occupied Azania.(2) In the words of south African Minister of (in)Justice Dullah Omar, the TRC does not "distinguish between ANC wounds, PAC wounds [Pan-Africanist Congress] and other wounds. "(1) That is, abstract talk of human rights does not distinguish between the vicious crimes against the people committed by the reactionary white settlers and the Azanians' revolutionary violence. In this view, all violence -- except the violence of poverty, starvation, and disease -- is condemned without regard to who initiated it and who has the power. This is a counter-revolutionary, anti-people belief which cloaks the capitalist intentions of the bourgeoisie under the guise of humanism. Reactionary violence must always be countered with revolutionary violence. For national liberation, for self-determination, for freedom and true justice, the Azanian masses must seize state power -- and that doesn't mean the neocolonial pseudo- power that a few Azanians now hold in concert with the white settlers. This struggle is always met with savage repression from the bourgeois state to maintain itself in power. Revolutionary violence is therefore necessary. In the words of Mao Zedong, "political power grows out of the barrel of a gun." The retreat from armed struggle advocated by collaborationist Mandela means continued subjugation for the Azanian masses. The Truth and Reconciliation (to the status quo) Commission offers not justice but pacification. Having sold the Azanian struggle for national liberation down the river for a neo-apartheid deal with the white settler nation, Nelson Mandela would like the masses to grieve for injustice rather than revolt against it. The TRC is firmly entrenched in the white supremacist mold of the government; reactionary assassins are pardoned, while revolutionary political prisoners remain imprisoned. Even bourgeois political analysts admit that amnesty is an inadequate process. "Perpetrators fully confess, but do not have to admit what they did was wrong." Stephen Friedman, director of the Center for Policy Studies, argues that "reconciliation" will not be achieved just by listening alone, but there has to be repentance and "some kind of community service to right the wrongs of the past."(3) He is correct to a point - - serving the people is a step forward. But it is not enough to feel bad about injustice. The imperialist structure of inequality must be overthrown so the conditions for true justice can be built. That is why Azania (and all oppressed nations) must organize for revolution. Under the dictatorship of the proletariat, revolutionary justice goes beyond such simple token gestures such as repentance. Redeemable reactionaries will undergo thorough self-criticism through which they will come to understand their mistakes and change their thinking, even as society itself undergoes massive social transformation.(4) The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and the neo-apartheid government, cannot even promise that injustice will be prevented in the future, because injustice and inequality are necessary for the bourgeois state to maintain its power. The true road to freedom is the revolutionary nationalist proletarian feminist line, not reconciling with and embracing the oppressor. The ease with which the leadership of the movement has been co-opted by the settler bourgeoisie should serve as a warning to be ever-vigilant in studies and organizing. Maintaining the correct line -- that of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism -- is the best strategy for freedom and justice. NOTES: 1. Excerpt from the Interim Constitution http://www.truth.org.za/back/justice.htm 2. For more on revolutionary approaches to human rights, see "MIM Interview: Marie Hilao-Enriquez, militant human rights activist" in MN144 8/15/97, p.5. 3. http://www.truth.org.za/sapa9708/s9708/s9700825b.h tm See also the article 4. For an explanation of self-criticism, see Prisoners of Liberation by the Ricketts. Available from MIM for $10. * * * LIGHT AS A FEATHER: FORMER ZAIRIAN DICTATOR DIES by a MIM comrade Mobutu Sese Seko, who dominated the country which is today once again the Democratic Republic of Congo and who served U.$. and French imperialism, finally left the Congolese people's lives for good. In Mao's words, MIM says that Mobutu's death was as light as a feather, since it came at the end of a life lived in the service of the reactionaries. Mobutu will not be mourned by any friend of the international proletariat. President Mobutu's life was distinguished by stealing from the masses in the form of pilfering his country's funds, serving imperialism both by overthrowing the people's leader Patrice Lumumba in his own country and by aiding pro-imperialist forces in fledgling democracies all over Africa, and upholding the appearance of genuine nationalism as a means of disguising his own allegiance to the Western imperialists. True to the definition of a comprador, the New York Times described Mobutu as a ruler "who grew fabulously rich by providing a bulwark against Communism." Mao defined the comprador class in the oppressed nations as that part of the bourgeoisie which rules under direct orders from the imperialists and which derives all its wealth from its relationship to imperialism. A comprador's job in the era of neo- colonialism is to look like an indigenous leader while opening her/his country to extraction of raw materials and exploitation of labor by the imperialists. Mobutu did this job so well he was frequently compared with King Leopold, the Belgian who ran the colonized Congo as his own personal territory. Leopold was known for physically mutilating subjects who did not serve him well. Mobutu faced continuous rebellion from the genuine democratic forces in what he called Zaire throughout his rule. In recent issues, MIM Notes has written about the rebellion in the newly renamed Democratic Republic of Congo, and about Mobutu's long and exploiting history in Zaire. While MIM still has little information on Laurent Kabila, who led Mobutu's overthrow and has since taken up the leadership of the Democratic Republic, Communist comrades in that country have called Kabila a genuine democrat. And while we know that Kabila has not completely shunned imperialist intervention in his country, we are happy to see the Amerikan death-grip on the republic loosened by the fall of Mobutu. During his rule, Mobutu claimed that "before him there was no Zaire, and that his country would not survive him either." If the second part of this statement proves true, it will be at least in part because Mobutu led the 30-year campaign to destroy his own country. The Nkrumah- influenced revolutionary Patrice Lumumba won national liberation from Belgium in 1960 and renamed what had been the Belgian Congo the Democratic Republic of Congo. With CIA-sponsorship, Mobutu (who led the new military under Lumumba) seized power in a coup in 1961. After having his own army torture Lumumba, Mobutu turned him over to a group which had been unsuccessfully fighting to secede from the new republic. These rebels killed Lumumba. Since Mobutu's inauguration as a CIA stooge in Africa, the people who only briefly tasted revolution between Belgian colonialism and Amerikan neo-colonialism fought against his oppressive rule. MIM joins its voice with the voices of the people who suffered under the CIA-Mobutu reign of terror. We celebrate the victory against imperialism that was Mobutu's downfall and we look forward to the Congolese people's struggle for an ever more just and democratic society, free from all imperialist domination. NOTES: New York Times 8 Sept., 1997; Mark Twain, King Leopold's Soliloquy; MIM Notes 140 15 June, 1997; MIM Notes 138 15 May, 1997. * * * TOO BUSY TO STUDY MAO? BUSIER THAN THE PAN-AFRICANIST CONGRESS IN 1968? "Illuminated by the brilliant thought of chairman Mao Tse-Tung, the path of the Chinese revolution has reached new heights unprecedented in the revolutionary history of mankind. The great proletarian cultural revolution is a glowing testimony to the Chinese people having been aroused to a scale unprecedented in the mass movement anywhere in the world. . . . "Revolutionary China is a bastion of the world revolutionary movement towards the overthrow and elimination of imperialism. At a time when imperialism is in its death throes, U.S. imperialism has assumed leadership of all reactionary forces in the world. With the connivance of and bolstered by modern revisionism, the U.S.-led imperialists have become more ferocious than ever in brazenly kindling counter- revolutionary wars throughout the world, especially in Africa, Asia and Latin America. At this moment, Chairman Mao's teaching is dearer to us when he points out there is only one way to eliminate it (war--editor) and that is to oppose war, to oppose national counter- revolutionary war with national revolutionary war, and to oppose counter- revolutionary class war with revolutionary class war. We Azanian people are positively responding to the clarion call of Chairman Mao that 'political power grows out of the barrel of a gun' and we have taken up arms." --Victor Mayakiso, Chief representative in Cairo of the Pan-Africanist Congress of Azania NOTES: The Black Panther, October 12, 1968, p. 12. * * * PUPPET ARAP MOI GOVERNMENT STEPS UP ATTACKS ON THE PEOPLE OF KENYA Government sponsored violence against the people increased in Kenya during the summer of 1997, and the people of Kenya responded with anti-government strikes and protests. Kenya's government presents a facade of democracy but is actually a military government which serves foreign economic and political interests. Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi has been "elected" to four 5 year terms as President and recently announced that he plans to seek a fifth term in elections scheduled for later this year. ELECTION YEAR VIOLENCE The violence in 1997 was similar to violence that took place around the elections in 1992. Bands of armed thugs paid by the government attacked the ethnic groups most likely to be in opposition to Moi. These attacks are disguised as "tribal violence." The violence and resulting fear has caused tens of thousands of poor people to flee their homes. Moi sets up this upheaval in order weaken any coordinated opposition and in order to portray himself as the only one capable of maintaining order in Kenya. The 1992 government-sponsored clashes eventually left thousands dead and hundreds of thousands homeless, mostly in central Kenya. They were aimed at driving the Kikuyu tribe, Kenya's largest, from the Rift Valley region; the Kikuyu have been among Moi's most unrelenting critics since he took power in 1978.(1) This summer the violence involved Kikuyus, Luos and other tribes that have lived on the Indian Ocean coast for decades. These groups tend to oppose Moi. Marauding gangs of up to 500 people used guns, clubs, machetes, and bows and arrows in their attacks, which began August 13.(1) The violence is clearly planned. Many of those attacked have moved to the coast from central Kenya in recent years. Those indigenous to the area fear for their jobs in a country where unemployment is very high, and the government uses this economic instability to create hostility between the newcomers and the longtime residents. One of Moi's ministers was accused of taking money to the attackers the weekend after violence broke out. As one Kenyan political analyst explained, "... just a few months before the election, a group of thugs hits the minority group. The security forces, who know everything about everybody, can't get to the scene for hours and hours.... The whole thing just doesn't look right. It's a government operation."(2) "If you create what appears to be ethnic violence, then it looks OK to crack down on all dissidents," said John Githongo, director of the African Strategic Research Institute, a privately run think tank in Nairobi, the capital. MIM adds that calling these attacks "ethnic violence" also obscures the complicity of foreign imperialists, who are the ones who back thugs like Moi. ELECTIONS DO NOT MEAN DEMOCRACY Moi won the last election with only 36% of the vote, certainly not an overwhelming statement of popularity. The main opposition parties combined won more than 60% of the vote. Legal manipulations, election fraud and military force played helped Moi get the small portion of votes that he did receive. In Kenya, the president has the power to legally block opposition assemblies and control television, and there are laws allowing police to detain suspects without filing charges. This makes the campaign for president anything but democratic.(3) The bourgeois opposition in Kenya demanded constitutional and legal reforms before this year's elections. The opposition said that if no reforms are made they would boycott the elections. Moi refused their demands.(2) THE IMPERIALISTS SUPPORT MOI According to the Financial Times of London, Kenya's foreign aid in the decade beginning in the mid-80s totaled more than $8 billion.(3) In addition to foreign aid, tourism is an important part of the Kenyan economy. Last year, 770,000 tourists -- 60 percent of them beach- bound -- earned Kenya $465 million in foreign exchange.(1) The election year government-sponsored violence could backfire for Moi, since his government is so dependent on imperialist aid. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) froze a $220 million loan on July 31, refusing to release the money until the Kenyan government cleaned up its act. As a way of further controlling the country through foreign aid, the IMF set a series of conditions that Moi must meet to get this money. In particular they must combat graft and strengthen management of the energy sector. These demands have nothing to do with the well being of the Kenyan people but everything to do with the well being of foreign business operating in Kenya.(4) The imperialists need corrupt thugs and dictators to run their neo- colonies, since the majority of the people in the neo-colonies are oppressed and exploited by imperialism and regularly rise up against it. Sometimes these thugs and dictators displease their masters -- maybe because they demand too much of a cut (Noriega in Panama), or maybe because they are exposed as brutal toadies (Marcos in the Philippines). Then the imperialists are willing to allow some formal "democratic" reforms while hand-picking a "cleaner" leader (e.g. Aquino in the Philippines). But the imperialists retain control of the economy and the government through massive bribes and loans. The imperialists often also control the military, which has the last say in who runs the country. This is why the people in oppressed nations need to kick the imperialists out through armed struggle. PROTESTS GROW On September 7 Kenyan police detained opposition legislators, broke up an open-air market and fired tear gas in the western city of Kisumu to stop an anti-government rally. Police and paramilitary units sealed off the center of the city and barred five opposition lawmakers from leaving the local airport to attend a demonstration calling for legal and constitutional reforms. The legislators (member of Forum for Restoration of Democracy-Kenya) were detained for planning to attend an illegal rally. Police also fired tear gas at young people arriving at the local bus station to attend the demonstration.(5) The rally in Kisumu, an opposition stronghold 185 miles northwest of the capital, was to kick off a series of nationwide demonstrations announced Thursday by the National Convention Assembly, a coalition of opposition leaders, civic rights activists and lawyers.(5) Nairobi University closed Kenya's largest campus in mid-July after hundreds of rioting students took to the streets to protest the fire death of a student leader, Solomon Muruli. Muruli was involved in demonstrations against police brutality and living conditions on campus last November and had spoken out publicly after police of kidnapped and tortured him in retaliation for his political activism. He was scheduled to identify the police officer suspected in his torture and had received a death threat the week before he was killed.(6) On July 15, Students clashed with police in downtown Nairobi after demonstrating outside the High Court building where 14 of their colleagues were scheduled to appear in connection with the previous day's violence. Police used clubs to disperse the students, sending them running through downtown Nairobi.(7) In August, advocates of constitutional reform called for a nationwide strike. The strike was marked by rallies where activists, many of them youth, shouted "Moi must go" and blockaded the streets until the police broke up the demonstrations. Many demonstrators were prevented by police from joining the rallies. Opposition politicians were arrested for "inciting people to strike".(8) The National Convention Executive Council (NCEC)--a loose alliance of political opposition groups, civil rights activists and clergy has urged Kenyans to observe general strikes Sept. 18 and 19, and Oct. 8 and 9. A protest rally also is planned for Oct. 10, the day Moi is scheduled to publicly commemorate taking office in 1978. This display of disrespect for President's Day is expected to lead to confrontation.(9) These actions are aimed at reforming a corrupt system rather than overthrowing imperialism, but they show how the brutal nature of imperialist domination creates unrest and opposition even among the bourgeoisie and petit- bourgeoisie of oppressed nations. It is the task of proletarian revolutionaries in oppressed nations to recognize the anti- imperialist sentiments of these classes and win them over to revolutionary anti- imperialism as much as possible. REVOLUTION IS THE ONLY SOLUTION In early September Amnesty International announced a campaign against the Kenyan government. This campaign involves calling on international aid agencies to hold Moi's government responsible for abuses of power and mobilizing its membership in a publicity campaign.(9) While Amnesty is correct that the Kenyan government's abuses against the people are deserve outrage and action, their strategy for ending human rights abuses in Kenya is a proven failure. It is the imperialist backing that encourages Moi's dictatorship by providing the financial support that sustains a willing puppet in power for economic exploitation and military oppression. These agencies are only going to cut off aid or pressure for change when it is in their financial and military interests. The IMF's conditions for release of aid are a good example of this. Rather than calling on the imperialists to tame the results of colonialism, Amnesty supporters should be working to overthrow imperialism and end the military and economic support that sustains dictators in power. It is only by overthrowing imperialism that a government that serves the people will be established in Kenya. The people learn this through political activism and from the actions of the puppet government itself. Because imperialism oppresses the majority of people in Kenya and the imperialists inevitably defend this oppression with the most brutal means, the majority of Kenyans will one day rise up and secure national liberation. NOTES: 1. The Washington Post, Aug. 21,1997, P. A21. 2. Detroit Free Press Sep. 8, 1997. 3. The Washington Post, July 27, 1997, P. C08. 4. The Star Tribune, Aug. 29, 1997. 5. The Star Tribune, Sep. 8, 1997. 6. Nairobi campus closes after student riot in Kenyan capital By PATRICK MAJUTE Associated Press Writer 7. San Francisco Examiner, July 15, 1997, P. A11. 8. Houston Chronicle Aug. 8, 1997. 9. LA Times, Sep. 11, 1997. * * * RESEARCH SHOWS CULTURAL REVOLUTION EDUCATION SUCCESS review by MC12 New research by non-communist sociologists shows that the intergenerational transfer of educational attainment was all but demolished in China's Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (GPCR, 1966-1976), more than in state-capitalist or imperialist societies. In capitalist societies, the education system is the most important way to allocate people to unequal positions, and the class system is perpetuated by the transfer of educational credentials from one generation to the next. In the nitty-gritty work of building socialism, redistributing the advantages of educated parents to all children is one of the hardest and most important tasks. In the imperialist countries, published work on the GPCR is dominated by intellectuals and capitalists who fled China while it was socialist or left after capitalist-roader Deng Xiaoping came to power in 1976. These people hate the GPCR for what it did to their class privileges, and their perspective is embraced by liberal intellectuals in the West. On the other hand, a handful of studies by sympathetic Western intellectuals have documented the progress for China's great majority during this period. But these have been dismissed by anti-communists because they are often based on selective visits to certain areas of the country, or evidence from the communist government. This new study uses data from China's first modern national census in 1982 - a nationally representative sample conducted by the reactionary state-capitalist government. The census asked people how much education they had, and Deng and Treiman compared the education levels of grown men with their fathers to see how much intergenerational transfer there was. By looking at education for people of different ages, they are able to see the effects of education policies at different times. (As is typical in many studies, they only look at men, which in this case is more understandable because in China sons are much more likely to live with their parents than daughters.) MIM recommends this article, by Zhong Deng and Donald Treiman, as a documentation of China's socialist era educational policies and their outcomes, even though the authors are not communists and in some ways are anti-communist. This review outlines their research, and points out MIM's differences with the authors. DENG AND TREIMAN SUMMARIZE THE COMMUNIST EDUCATION POLICIES: "At various points over its first 30 years of rule but particularly during the Cultural Revolution, the Chinese government introduced strong policies to favor people of working class and peasant origins. One set of policies structurally expanded the educational system, raising the educational level of the population in general, and of the peasantry and proletariat in particular. . . . other educational reforms promoted the educational achievement of the children of peasants and workers at the expense of those from classes normally considered of higher status. By substituting students of 'good' class background (which, from a numerical standpoint, was composed mainly of those from working-class backgrounds) for those from 'middle' and 'bad' class backgrounds (who consisted mainly of the former bourgeoisie and intelligentsia), this set of reforms was specifically designed to reduce the effect of social class origins on educational attainment" (p. 401). MIM would add that the "former bourgeoisie and intelligentsia" often maintained advantages from pre-socialist times in China, although there was also some discrimination against those children whose parents were from oppressing classes. There was a tremendous increase in schooling, especially for peasants, among people born from 1935 to 1962 or so: that is, people who did much of their education from 1949 to 1976. Educational was extended to hundreds of millions of people who had never had it before. "Among those born at the beginning of the century only 30% had any schooling at all whereas among those born in the 1960s more than 96% had at least some primary schooling. Among the farm population the expansion of primary education is particularly marked, from about 30% among those born in 1917 to about 95% among those born in 1964" (p. 412). During the socialist period, there were differences as well. In the countryside, a lot of people did not advance in school during the Great Leap Forward, and some people did not advance while a lot of schools were closed at the beginning of the GPCR. But in the later years of the GPCR, the greatest gains were made. There was a sharp drop in education as the policies of the capitalist roaders kicked in during 1976- 1978. That is when, under the "household responsibility system," many peasants were pulled out of school because they needed to earn money for their families, like in all poor capitalist countries. In terms of intergenerational transfer of education, the authors first compare China to studies of other countries, including the state- capitalist countries of Eastern Europe, who extended education to more people, but did not break the intergenerational link. In all research on other countries, children's education level is more tied to their parents than it was in China during this time: "So, all in all, China appears to be an unusually egalitarian society with respect to educational opportunity" (p. 419). Second, they look at the effect of class background. These advantages dropped dramatically. "Thus, initially the Cultural Revolution had its intended effect - to reduce inequality of attainment on the basis of social origins" (p. 420). Third, found that the intelligentsia lost their advantages dramatically during the GPCR in particular. The children of Communist Party cadre also lost parental advantages during this time, but not as much as the children of intelligentsia. This helps confirms to MIM, though not to the authors, that there was a significant threat of a new capitalist class in the communist party, something the GPCR reduced but did not eliminate, and which returned with a vengeance under state-capitalist rule beginning in 1976. Deng and Treiman conclude that "For nonfarm men from normally advantageous backgrounds, the Cultural Revolution was a disaster. Specifically, the advantage usually associated with coming from an educated professional or managerial family was substantially reduced during this period" (p. 424- 5). MIM notes that despite all the belly-aching of profit-making Chinese intellectual authors who complain about the GPCR, children of professionals and intellectuals did not lose all their advantages in education; even during the GPCR the children of intelligentsia got more education than other children. The gains from socialist education policies in the countryside were more constant over the 1949-1976 period, and less specifically affected by the GPCR. Overall, "the Cultural Revolution succeeded - temporarily - in dismantling a reemerging stratification system for the benefit of the peasantry. The Cultural Revolution was probably the most drastic attempt the world has yet seen to reduce the intergenerational transmission of advantage" (p. 425). By the end of the GPCR, the old system of parental advantage was coming back. MIM disagrees with Deng and Treiman, who don't think the "disaster" for formerly privileged classes, or the "drastic" attempts to egalitarianism were necessary. MIM thinks these were the great accomplishments of the GPCR. Deng and Treiman, with their Liberal ideology, appreciate the expansion of the whole education system from 1949 to 1976, but don't think that "policies favoring one group over another" were necessary or valuable (p. 425). But MIM looks at their own evidence and sees the return to power of a new bourgeoisie in 1976, and from this we see that despite the heroic efforts of the GPCR, it was not enough to stop the return of capitalism. NOTES: Zhong Deng and Donald J. Treiman, "The Impact of the Cultural Revolution on Trends in Educational Attainment in the People's Republic of China." American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 103, No. 2, September 1997. * * * MOTHER TERESA: FRIEND OF POVERTY, NOT OF THE POOR by MCB52 Mother Teresa's funeral on September 13th gave everyone an opportunity to see who her true friends were. As the foreign dignitaries poured in, the poor were kept off the streets by the strong-handed Indian military. While most everyone who has access to media--even pseudo-leftists and secularists usually critical of missionaries--praises this nun, MIM takes this opportunity to point out that those offering only spiritual goods, denying the importance of material ones, are not true friends of the poor. Mother Teresa, and the thousands of members of the order she leaves behind, are friends of the imperialists. The beef that MIM has with Mother Teresa is most clearly expressed in the words of her successor, Sister Nirmala, the day before the funeral: "Poverty will always exist. We want the poor to see poverty the right way--to accept it and believe that the Lord will provide." Much has been made of the point that Mother Teresa took in dying people and orphans, supposedly "regardless of caste or creed." Most media imply that this means she did not try to convert. But considering the quote above, it becomes clear that this is a lie. Those without religious thinking of any sort were and will be strongly encouraged to adopt it. In the care of her order, a Hindu is allowed to die a Hindu, but nuns will try their damndest to let no one die without God. Pushing people to believe in a God encourages them to see the world as unchangable which means that the poor will always be poor and the imperialists will always have power. This is not a progressive way of looking at the world. But not all people who believe in a higher power so are enemies of the people. Some religious people, especially those from oppressed nations, are part of United Fronts to seek national self-determination. Many can be united with because they agree with materialists that the oppressed need to be liberated through social change. Mother Teresa was not one of these forces. She was not silent about social change to help the poor, she opposed it and polemicized against it. She told all people not to look at the real world and stop the suffering, but to instead look at the "beauty" in poverty and await bliss in an imaginary world beyond. Looking to an external savior, rather than real world forces, is a common feature of most all religions. Marxists' alternative to religious thinking, materialism, maintains that there are no causes or purposes outside the real world and that making the real world a better place is the most important goal. Materialists are not included in Mother Teresa's happy family of "all people regardless of caste or creed." All her life, she claimed we had incorrect approaches toward poverty and the poor. Where she wanted everyone to believe that poverty is inevitable, we want people to see that it can be eradicated. Where she wanted the poor to placidly accept their position, we want them to fight against it. Mother Teresa did far more than hold dying people in her arms. She also campaigned against birth control and other reproductive freedoms and then ran part of the insidious practice of baby-shipping that oppresses poor wimmin in many parts of the world. She encouraged poor wimmin to use what little calories and nutrients they could acquire on bearing babies, which they could then leave at her orphanages. Most of the infants in those orphanages are sent on for adoption in the United Snakes--for modest bureaucratic fees. It is hard to know whether Mother Teresa understood the baby-shipping as we do, whether she consciously planned to exploit the religiously-induced hardships of the wimmin in her adopted city of Calcutta. But even if she did not calculate so cynically, the result was the same. And there is no doubt that many of her decisions, of whom to appoint where and when to open barely-staffed outposts so that her organization could look stronger on paper, were extremely political. While MIM will always oppose religious ideology, not all religious people are enemies as the Missionaries of Charity are. But whenever someone says it is good for the poor to be poor, whenever someone says that imperialism must not be fought, they are an enemy of the people. There will be no true peace without justice, and so it is justice we anti-imperialists are fighting for en route to lasting peace. NOTES: New York Times, September 14, 1997, p. 14. * * * IMPERIALIST UN TO SET UP INTERNATIONAL COURT by MC234 Diplomats at the United Nations are completing negotiations to establish the world's first permanent International criminal court. If the remaining problems can be sorted out, they expect to finish this effort within a year. The court builds on previous efforts such as the tribunals to try war criminals in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. In these instances, judges were brought together from different legal systems and managed to come up with rules of procedure and evidence that "met the needs of all [participating] systems." The Clinton Administration supports the idea of creating a court to "judge the most terrible of mass crimes--including genocide and the massacres that have come to characterize the ethnic conflicts of recent decades", but the Republican-led Congress may object. Issues that remain to be debated are "on what crimes take on ... how crimes would be taken to court, in particular whether a chief prosecutor would have the authority to originate cases." When Amerika is under the dictatorship of the international proletariat, there will be a court to try the worst criminals of the old regime. This court will be set up by the standards of the proletariat and will serve proletarian justice. The proposed International Court is not a step in this direction, instead it is another bourgeois court set up to serve bourgeois purposes. In the late 1960s and early 1970s the United Nations General Assembly was a sounding board for the newly independent states to bash imperialism diplomatically and in the media. Now such real dissent is much rarer, although differences in opinion between the different imperialists or between the imperialists and their subjects will still be aired at the U.N. It is around these differences and not around the needs of the oppressed that the debate on the proposed International Court is taking place. The assumptions underlying the court and it's temporary predecessors are bourgeois, and that eliminates any hope of finding real justice for the people. The genocide in Yugoslavia and Rwanda were not ethnic conflicts, but imperialist manipulated ones. The biggest war criminals are the imperialists for setting the stage for the bloodshed, Karadzic et. al. are just the willing pawns. The highest U.N. body, the Security Council has always been firmly in the grip of the imperialists, as four of the biggest imperialists, Amerika, Great Britain, France and Russia each have permanent seats and veto power over the council's decisions. Amerika, mostly by itself, wants the security council to decide which cases will go to the Court. This would give Amerika and the other permanent members of the Security Council the ability to protect themselves and their allies from prosecution under this treaty. (And some neo- colonies are nervous that the Court will lessen the power of their own comprador rulers.) If the reader has any doubts about the neo-colonial nature of the United Nations, the fact that the biggest killers on the planet (the imperialists) want to build in a mechanism to exempt themselves from prosecution should make it clear that this Court is not about justice but just-us. There is more, however. Amerika wants to limit the court's jurisdiction to "cases of genocide, crimes again humanity and war crimes, with sexual assault built into the definitions" and excluding terrorism and organized crime. David Scheffer, Clinton's special envoy dealing with war crimes explained that he doesn't want to see the court used against Amerika itself: "There is a reality, and the reality is that the United States is a global military power and presence. Other countries are not. We are. "Our military forces are often called upon to engage overseas in conflict situations, for purposes of humanitarian intervention, to rescue hostages, to bring out American citizens from threatening environments, to deal with terrorists. We have to be extremely careful that this proposal does not limit the capacity of our armed forces to legitimately operate internationally. "We have to be careful that it does not open up opportunities for endless frivolous complaints to be lodged against the United States as a global military power." Complaints of terrorism and racketeering against Amerika would be entirely justified and not frivolous. Regardless of whether the mostly-puppet version supported by some imperialists comes to exist, or the fully puppet Amerikan version, such legitimate claims against the imperialist system will likely be quickly dismissed as frivolous. To the imperialist system, that the roots of war and genocide are in Washington D.C., Paris and London is just a frivolous little detail. NOTE: New York Times 13 August 1997. * * * LA UNIVERSITY PIGS AIM FOR SUBMACHINE GUNS The University of California at Los Angeles Police "Community Safety" Department (UCPD) is looking to stock their armory with MP5 submachine guns capable of firing 30 rounds without reloading. Cal State University Los Angeles(CSULA) pigs set the precedent and will get six Heckler and Koch MP5s in November. The MP5s will replace shotguns as CSU campus pigs' secondary "backup" weapons. What prompted the change? According to firearms expert Alex Reyes, "it is easier to teach a person to be [deadly] accurate with an MP5 than a shotgun." Military agencies such as the SWAT team, the FBI, the LAPD, and German Border Patrol already have the MP5s in their weaponry. CSULA pig chief Gerald Lipson claims that the MP5 submachine guns will only be used when the campus pigs back-up the LAPD. CSULA is located in East Los Angeles, a predominantly Latino area. NOTES: Daily Bruin 11 Aug - 17 Aug, 1997, pp. 1, 9, 11. * * * MARXISM-LENINISM-MAOISM ONLINE GOVERNMENT ASSEMBLES COALITION TO CENSOR INTERNET FOR CHILDREN The White House has ordered all federal agencies to release special web pages geared toward youth (grades K-12) by October.(4) The White House says they want "family friendly" web sites -- by which they apparently mean the Department of Defense and Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, which they cite as positive examples. The new web sites are supposed to include classroom materials for teachers to use as well. This youth-oriented government propaganda, designed as force-feeding kits for teachers to impose on their students, is combined with an increased federal effort to combine law enforcement, capitalists and new technologies to censor the Internet for children. Using analogies to food safety labeling and seatbelts, the White House has been promoting Internet censorship as a necessary measure to protect Amerika's children. Not coincidentally, the outcome is both increased paternalistic oppression of children by parents and educators, and an Internet that is increasingly unsafe for revolutionaries and the oppressed. Speaking at a press conference on the White House's commitment to a "family-friendly" Internet in July, Clinton said: "After the Supreme Court struck down the portion of the Communications Decency Act last month affecting this as an abridgement of free speech, we brought together industry leaders and groups representing teachers, parents, librarians to discuss where to go next." Heralding the "E-Chip" (actually not a chip, but blocking and filtering software for the Internet) as that next step, Clinton raved, "[These tools] give parents the power to unlock - or lock the digital doors to objectionable content."(1) "Family-friendly," in imperialist-speak, means patriarchy-friendly -- a virtual mandate to parents to control their children's access to online materials. But the government mandate does not stop at parental power. Throughout his speech, Clinton called for a "combination of technology, law- enforcement and parental responsibilities."(1) He said: "Beyond technology, we must have strict enforcement of existing laws - the anti-stalking, child pornography and obscenity laws as they apply to cyberspace. In the past three months alone, the FBI has expanded by 50% the staff committed to investigating computer-related exploitation of minors, and established a task force to target computer child pornography and solicitation. In the past six months, the Department of Justice has increased the number of lawyers working in its Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section by 50%."(1) Vice-President Gore added: "Our challenge is to make these blocking technologies and the accompanying rating systems as common as the computers themselves. . . . We need to keep bringing public values and private actions together."(2) And what do you know, the major Internet service providers and software developers are right on board with the youth crackdown. Both Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Netscape Communicator are incorporating filtering based on ratings systems in the newest releases of their Web browsers. Netscape, for example, will use what's called "Platform for Internet Content Selection" which "allows parents to choose from a variety of ratings systems to block sites" that they don't want their children to see.(3) According the White House press release, "all major commercial online services, as well as over 145 regional and local Internet Service Providers in more than 40 states, now offer their customers filtering software either for free or for a small fee. This software allows parents . . . to limit the amount of time that a child spends online, or prevent a child from typing personal information . . . in an online chat-room. Major computer manufacturers such as Acer, Apple Computer, Compaq, IBM and Packard Bell are also bundling home PCs with filtering software."(3) Parental and government powers recognize that their knowledge and ability to exploit the power of the Internet lags behind the skills and dedication of youth. So their measures become more authoritarian (beefed up law enforcement) and more costly (new and improved software), in a constant ratcheting up of restriction and resistance. Like revolutionaries, all youth have an interest in unfiltered access to information on the Internet and elsewhere. As is always the case under imperialism, most available information is designed to serve reactionary interests: youth and revolutionaries share an interest in maintaining as open an information system as possible. Youth: visit www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext to get involved in the fight for independent media for the oppressed. NOTES: 1. "Remarks by the President at Event on the E-Chip for the Internet" July 16, 1997. 2. "Statement by Vice-President Al Gore" July 16, 1997. 3. "President, Vice-President Announce Strategy for Family Friendly Internet" July 16, 1997. 4. "Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies" April 18, 1997. * * * FBI WANTS ENCRYPTION CRACKDOWN Speaking to the 13th Annual Software Publishers Association in September, Vice-President Gore outlined the central imperialist challenge regarding new Internet technologies, specifically encryption: "We must be able to strike a balance between the legitimate [sic] concerns of the law enforcement community and the needs of the marketplace."(1) So while encryption technology is necessary for the comfort of the Amerikan public and their credit card information, the pigs don't want encrypted information out there that they can't read. According to Interactive Week magazine, "current federal law bans the export of cryptographic technology that relies on keys of 56 bits or higher. Until January, the limit was 40 bits. Law enforcement officials argue that the limits are necessary to allow them to gain access to communications among terrorists, drug dealers or others involved in criminal conspiracies."(1) The more bits used, the longer it takes a computer to crack the code. MIM knows that the pigs also want access to anyone advocating threatening ideas - such as socialism and equality for the oppressed. "The FBI has proposed that all developers whose software relies on public-key/private-key cryptography provide the government with a copy of the private key."(1) If FBI Director Louis Freeh has his way, "all domestic data- scrambling technology would include mechanisms for law enforcement to unscramble computer files, e-mail and telephone calls when agents have a court order to allow it."(2) As if the government has always complied with such constitutional measures in the past! In the relatively low- tech days of COINTELPRO, the FBI illegally stalked and murdered revolutionaries from the Black Panther Party and the American Indian Movement. While revolutionaries should take advantage of new technologies like the Internet and encryption to build public opinion for revolution, we have to know that the pigs will use technology at their disposal to continue suppressing revolutionary thought and action. MIM urges anyone using the Internet for revolutionary purposes to obtain and use existing - and currently legal -- encryption software to protect themselves and their organizations from the government. NOTES: 1. Interactive Week, September 9, 1997. 2. Interactive Week, September 4, 1997. * * * BOOK REVIEW: RESURRECTION: THE STRUGGLE FOR A NEW RUSSIA by David Remnick NY: Random House, 1997, 398 pp. review by a comrade This book is a dialogue with the petty-bourgeoisie of the old pro-Soviet communist parties. Much journalistic information can be gained with a view to the petty-bourgeois struggles in the Cold War that were aimed at aiding the new bourgeoisie in the USSR. Remnick notices a lot that could vindicate the revisionists of the Soviet Union. First, the Yeltsin regime and some others replacing the USSR (p. 4) he admits are more "authoritarian" and use much more force than the recent patsy revisionist regimes. Having tanks fire at the Parliament in 1991 was revealing for most of Russia on Yeltsin. It is also clear that Yeltsin roughs up political opponents in the streets. (p. 191) He admitted he would not honor a "communist" election victory; (p. 338) and he banned the social-democrats calling themselves communist from the airwaves during the campaign. (p. 336) Secondly, Remnick notices things in the conditions of the common person, including that life expectancy for men fell to 59 in 1993 from 65 in 1987 under revisionism. (p. 46) Thirdly, when it comes to writers, the perennial complaint was that they were suppressed. Today they are starving, because there is no money for writers. (p. 222) Hence, there is no intellectual life anymore just the mad-dash for profit in a free market system. One writer admits to wishing for Brezhnev suppression back, because then there was intellectual life. (p. 227) The whole book is about the bourgeois democrats and the wistful petty- bourgeoisie like this writer who wish for the old state-capitalist system back. When it comes to the coup of 1991 that supposedly was a hard-line Marxist-Leninist coup, it turns out the coup had many more people in the streets supporting it than the Yeltsin regime had supporting it. Furthermore, contrary to images, the coup plotters were the ones unwilling to use extensive violence and it was only the military that finally bailed out Yeltsin. Backing MIM's line on the pull of the gender- aristocracy is an interesting tidbit Remnick found. Who is running Cosmopolitan magazine in Russia? A degenerated Maoist turned capitalist is. (p. 162) We see thus the pull of the patriarchy's privileges and its widespread support amongst the gender- aristocracy that makes it difficult to attack the patriarchy. We communists have not paid enough attention to this issue and have lost many to the patriarchy's snares. Remnick helps us to understand the combination of mafia and monopoly capital that is Russia today. "If it were to be ranked by the Global Fortune 500, Gazprom would be second in profits, behind only Royal Dutch Shell. Gazprom is responsible for 5 percent of the entire Russian economy and is the country biggest taxpayer, pouring $4 billion annually into the state. In fact, Gazprom does not pay nearly the amount of taxes it should." (p. 178) Of course, it has bought-off key government officials. The war to suppress the Chechen ethnicity is also covered in depth. Here is a gem: "'During the Cold War, you Americans used to go wild over one or two political prisoners,' one man said. 'But when an entire city is wiped out there is hardly a word from you! Would President Clinton have come to Moscow for the V-E Day parade if Sakharov were alive and in prison?'" (p. 284) Such comments abound in the book. There is no lack of reason for cynicism about Russia. People are seeing through the many cheap political stunts of U.$. imperialism in its Cold War. Remnick is aware of the grist for those with "something of the social democratic orientation." (p. 296) He understands and mentions Zyuganov who ran for president and got 40 percent of the vote. Zyuganov sought the coalition with the fascists and came up with the traditional Nazi garbage about finance capital being Jewish. (p. 315) Fortunately, Remnick informs us that the more hard-line communists distance themselves from anti-Semitism, and not just Molotov's circles either. (p. 325) Also, Remnick interviewed another person whose parents were killed by Stalin but who considered himself a staunch communist not unfriendly to Stalin. (p. 327) The petty-bourgeoisie does not understand the essentials of class politics and is distracted by the mountain of lies it has to dig itself out from under. To avoid a simply cynical type of politics easily manipulated by fascists and bizarre nationalists, the Russians must return to an understanding of the proletariat, Lenin and Stalin. Most of what passes and has passed for communist politics is not. * * * UNDER LOCK & KEY MEDIA COVER UP: PIGS SHOOT OVER 200 PRISONERS Dear MIM, I am a South Carolina prisoner in the Allendale Correctional Institution. I was placed on lock down in July 1996 for a riot that took place here. They shot so many inmates. When the media came they only said that they fired 4 rounds (warning shots), when they actually fire over 400 rounds. The buckshot penetrated the skin of myself, and over 200 inmates, but yet they [claim they] only fired 4 shots in the air. Again South Carolina, the worst and most corrupt prison, succeeded in a cover up. All the officers got their rocks off by shooting us unarmed inmates up. This whole SCDC [South Carolina Department of Incorrections], system is corrupted by Michael Moore. The whole legal system of America does nothing but suppress people. It is a military state. The United Snakes feeds off other little countries to make itself look big and get rich quick. Well I am tired of it. Something should be done before it's too late. ... -- A South Carolina Prisoner, 6 May 1997 MIM ADDS: We agree that the U$ is an imperialist nation that feeds off many countries and dominates the oppressed nationals within its borders. We advocate exposing these atrocities. MIM works to build public opinion on the subjects toward the end of the masses seizing state power. Thank you for your contribution. We hope others will follow your example and work with MIM against imperialist repression. OHIO PRISONERS RESIST OPPRESSION Revolutionary Greetings! I am writing from the Orient Correction Institution, in Orient, Ohio. After many months of harassment, repressive restrictions, mass shake downs, verbal abuse and beatings -- prisoners begin to fight back. Yesterday (July 9, 1997) prisoners who had just been moved to a newly implemented punishment program, set the building a fire. As clouds of smoke rolled across the yard, the rebellion spread through the prison. Prisoners in other dormitories began tearing up the dorms. The goon squad moved in wearing full riot gear and body armor. As the firemen extinguished the fires outside, the good squad chained prisoners together and began loading them onto buses to disperse the rebellious prisoners to other prisons throughout the state. So far over 400 hundred prisoners have been moved from the prison in the past 18 hours, and the prison is now locked down. Prisoncrats aren't telling the corporate news media that the reason prisoners set fire to the building, that housed the punishment program, was that prisoners who were being moved into this program had already been punished long ago for alleged rule violations! Some of the alleged rule violations took place as far back as a year or two, and these prisoners were punished at that time with months of isolation in the "Hole". Now without any provocation the pigs decided to punish these prisoners again -- without any due notification. This rebellion was clearly orchestrated by prisoncrats themselves. Even the guards admit the administration was trying to start a riot. Sporadic rebellion is likely to continue here since the pigs are still using repressive tactics. Prisoners are fully aware that the roofs burn easily, and may set fires to more dormitories. Prisoners here will no longer accept these gestapo tactics, since we have nothing left to lose but the chains of oppression! In the revolutionary struggle, -- An Ohio Prisoner, 10 July 1997 FEDERAL CONDITIONS WORSEN ... I am one of the federal prisoners from Dublin who was falsely accused of participating in the fall 19995 riots. I am writing you to enlighten you on present conditions in Marianna. Earlier this year, they took out our closet spaces, cut out half the counter and bolted down the lockers. Recently, we just found out that the doors with food slots have arrived and they are going to begin hanging them at the men's FCI [Federal Correctional Institution] first. This unit already has begun to ship out as many persons with low security or with clear conduct. All of their actions tend to lead toward a lock down facility. The warden, Sal Seanez, claims that it is only in case of an "emergency situation", but I find that doubtful -- A Federal Prisoner, 9 June 97 P.S. In the latest issue of MIM Notes [MN 138], you included part of one of my letters regarding our lack of leisure library [Under Lock and Key, Briefs Section, "No Library"]. You printed that I am a Florida prisoner. Although I am in the state of Florida, I am a FEDERAL inmate in a FEDERAL institution in the state of Florida. I feel that emphasis on federal is important, as the general public thinks that federal prisoners live it up, as though these federal institutions are country clubs. We don't even have a leisure library, or newspapers from the outside, unless someone sends them to us. MIM ADDS: Your point about being a federal versus a state prisoner is well taken. Being a federal prisoner is different from being state prisoner. We agree with you and regret this error. The federal prison system incarcerates the third largest number of people in the United Snakes, with California and Texas being first and second respectively. Thank you for noting this important point. Often people forget that the federal prison system is so large. It is easy to get confused, since federal prisons and prisoners are scattered throughout the U$ and not concentrated in one place like Texas. THE STG PHENOMENON [SECURITY THREAT GROUP] i can remember first reading about the above policy and practice in the California prison system employed against captives who were identified as "gang" members. After being so identified, captives would be tossed into Administrative Segregation or an SHU [Segregated Housing Units]. Here they would languish until they either "paroled, debriefed, or died." I recall thinking how diabolical this scheme was. How it could be used - twisted-to be a tool of political repression. I was still in the fetus stage of my studies when I first read about the situation in California prisons. I hadn't then realized that the repressive policies and practices were designed form the start to neutralize political activism behind the barbed- wire. The disguise of `fighting "gang" activity' was used for legitimacy. If exposed to the public, the people would support it. Who doesn't want an end to the high rate of crime and violence that is commonly associated with "gangs"? Since my first exposure to STG ("security threat group") policies and practices in the California prison system, I have learned that it has spread to prisons across the u.s. And as of December 16, 1996, the state in which I am held captive had enacted its own political policy: 04.04.113, "Identification and Management of Security Threat Groups and Members." Comrade George [Jackson] taught Us that "Power responds to all threats. The response is repression." Have We learned from history? COINTELPRO, NEWKILL, etc. If We are not prepared to deal with the Paper Tiger, then it will force its claws deeply into Our efforts at educating to liberate. STG can be defeated. We ain't got to be forced into a corner with Our only option being to either debrief, to denounce Our political associations, or fact repression. However, the only chance We got to defeat STG is to end Our isolation. We got to reach outside these kkkoncentration kkkamps into the communities from which We came and of which We represent in our organizing and educating efforts. When the Paper Tigers attempt to attack, We got to have an outside base of support. Do Our people on the outside know Us? Do they know what we care about? Or, will they be left to believe whatever spiel the Paper Tigers wish to say about Us? If because We have no roots on the outside We are left vulnerable to unbridled repression, it is no one's fault but Our own! Myself and others in Michigan want to expose the STG Phenomenon. However, We want to do so based on how it has spread across the u.s. We are asking for captives from any state in amerikkka that has some form of STG policy and/or practice to forward information and documentation to Us. You may forward such information/documentation to: [MIM and] N.I.S. & G. Publishing, c/o Mbwa Wa-Kulindi, 654 Franklin Road, Pontiac, MI 48341 -- A Michigan Prisoner, 19 May 97 OLD DEATH ROW = NEW CONTROL UNIT ALERT!!! S.C. Prison Administrators clandestinely seek to convert old death row unit into state's second control unit! Revolutionary Greeting Comrades: Be advised that SCDC [South Carolina Department of Corruption's] Officialdom is in the process of modifying the old death row unit here in the Broad River Prison Colony, entitled Edisto Unit, into what appears to be the state's second control unit. Because ever since the doydens transferred all the death row prisoners to the Liebra Prison Colony, major alterations continue to be made. Including the application of mesh wiring to most cell doors and the erection of beams and walls - apparently for separation purposes. This unit was open as a regular lock-up component on April 19,1997, but on July 1, 1997 Supermax procedures come into effect here. Last week five high security prisoners (ML5) were brought in from surrounding Ad-Seg. [Administrative Segregation] Units. I was selected for placement here in April 1997 despite the 2 years of repression i endured at SC Maximum Security Control Unit at [location]. So all aggressive agitating militants, paralegals, anarchists, Black Nationalists, Anti-Imperialists, Theoreticians, Propagandists, Revolutionaries and Communists, BEWARE! -- A South Carolina Prisoner, 17 June 97 SEGREGATION SHUFFLE Dear MIM, ... I have not received anything since March. Being in D.D.U., I would have guessed that my mail was being help up or turned away. But I have a bit of a story for you. On July 2, 1997, I was released from D.D.U. at 9:00 am. I was assigned a cell out in population. I cleaned this cell's walls, floor and the toilet before I fixed up my stuff in the places I wanted it to be placed. At 2:30 in the afternoon, I was done. And no sooner had I sat down than 7-10 officers were at my cell door ordering me to cuff up. I asked why and was ignored. I asked to see the captain and was denied. After a while, I cuffed up and I was brought back to D.D.U. for no reason, with no explanation. That's how dirty they are here in Walpole State Prison. In Struggle, -- A Massachusetts Prisoner, 6 July 1997 P.S. I even got the same cell back in D.D.U. (How nice) THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES DESPITE BRUTALITY Comrade MIM: Once again I find myself in a very unique political position of significant repressive subjugation as the fascist Bastards continue their effort to neutralize my political consciousness. But my ambitions to move forward as a crucial thinker, a doer and a Revolutionary Soul-jah will proceed without capitulating the principles of our vital struggle. ... Bro. MC be advised that the Doyen Bastards have heightened their repression directed at progressive prisoners here at Lee Corruptional Institutional Colony. Oh, yes, I was targeted for and became the victim of the state sponsored terrorism. On May 2 1997, I was restrained in the torture chair for four hours. The torture chair is employed for disrespect to a prison official, and prisoners talking cell to cell. [Also used] to enforce intimidation upon ASU [Administrative Segregation Unit] prisoners and to make them go along with the rampant human rights abuses that are routinely practiced in the ASU. The pseudo reason I was placed in the torture restraint chair was the librarian (Randall Forton) claimed that I had his glasses that I supposedly grabbed from his face. In addition Randall told several representatives that he, Randall had honestly misplaced some legal copies that he was to deliver to me, and to this day those copies have not been located. The goons immediately had cuffed me and tore up the cell/cage -- but no glasses were found. About 2 hours later I was in the shower and was told by Lieutenant Stuckey that the Associate Warden, Ms. Robertson, informed them to put me in the torture chair. Subsequent to an individual enduring 4 or 8 hours in the torture chair, he is further deprived of food, a bed/mattress, all clothes, all bed linen, soap, tooth paste/brush, toilet paper and writing/reading materials. This deprival of hygiene necessities is enforced for 7 to 12 consecutive days. I was also charged for their gestapo tactic for assault, battery and disrespect - and I was found guilty based on supportive statements in narrative written by, of course, Randall Forton, the librarian. The move itself is a confirmation of how much a threat I pose to the colonial occupational personnel because this move also affirms that I'm hurting the adroit fascists somehow. But I will never submit to these Racist Caucasian oppressors who run this apartheid type system. Rage On, -- A South Carolina Prisoner, 28 May 1997 WISCONSIN SLAVE WAGES Revolutionary Salutes Comrades, I shout at you from the bowels of the Green Bay KKKoncentration KKKamp which is under neo-KKKolonialist rule by Master Tommy Thompson. I would like to give you my Revolutionary thanks to all `rades that are lending support to my brother Kalphani Khaldun who is still fighting for his right to live in the oppressive KKKamp of Pendleton, Indiana. Revolutionary Shout out to you by brother. I am down to the end, if they come for you tonight, they will come for me in the morning! Presently Master Thompson has come up with more profitable slave plan within the KKKoncentration KKKamp. He has a contract with an outside glove company and he uses the prisoners/slaves to make the product. The bait is minimum wage pay by the hour, but after the master takes out for room & board, and medical costs, the slave is left with less than $1.00 of that minimum wage. By stressing the money, Master Thompson tried to make it sound like he he's looking out for the prisoners/slaves best welfare but yet he is actually getting more if all the prisoners/slaves could work in his sweatshops. These shops are run in 2 shifts from 8 am to 9 pm. He is trying to get as many workers/slaves as he can to fill his shops. The question is: If the rent and medical bills are already paid for by the taxpayers, where does all the money that they take out actually go? Those that work within the sweatshops must still pay $2.50 to see the nurse even though medical is taken out of their pay. I refuse to make Master Thompson's pockets fatter, so I don't participate in the sweatshops. There was an investigation with the company because it is believed that people on the street were fired so that the slaves on this plantation could take their spots. These jobs of course do not offer any placement once one is released, it is only for the KKKamp. This is just another way that the Neo- KKKolonialist state is getting over, and like I said before Nobody here is saying anything. . I leave you in Revolutionary love. -- A Wisconsin Prisoner, 8 July 1997 FREEZING FUNDS Revolutionary Greetings Comrades and MIM and RAIL, ... I am totally indigent because of the new policy that this institution has adopted. No inmates on lock-up will be allowed to write a check out of their account, except for legal fees. Thus freezing my account to all publications and personal bills, which I may need to pay. I have been subject to such harsh treatment Because the chief of this Dept. of Corruptions has classified myself as well as others, as being a threat to security because of our membership or affiliation with a group known as the 5% Nation of Islam, or that Nation of Gods and Earth. In this case these capitalists have shown their true colors for we have done no wrong in our conduct, yet we are all punished because of our extensive amount of knowledge we are a threat. (Sound Familiar?) I recall MIM Notes stating there are no rights just power struggles. That is 100% correct. ...We (myself and a couple of comrades) have strived to form a study group. Our communication is very limited, but the important thing is we have started. ... Strengthen the Struggle. Always your comrade, -- A South Carolina Prisoner MEDICAL AND HYGIENE ABUSES Dear MIM, ... As you know I've spent already almost seven years in solitary confinement isolation and I have stood up for the cause of the struggle and Prisoner's rights both in prisons and on the streets all the way. Because of me being able to mobilize thousands of prisoners, I have been subject to barbaric corporal punishments in large doses. 31 months of bread and cabbage only and three-piece, full restraints, always leg irons cuff behind the back to waist chain. Yet I suffer from epilepsy and asthma attacks, and 10 other medications I take for disabilities etc., coming to a total of 12 medications. At the present time I'm also on deprivation of shower/yard exercise, haircut, cell cleanup and a pillow. I'm dying. My blood sugar count is only 29. Extremely low blood pressure 100/60, gastritis, chest pains, dizziness, seizures, asthma, migraine headaches, infections, allergies, sinusitis, upchucking blood, etc. The beastly pigs even urinate on the bread and cabbage. If you wish, send complaints to: M. McGinnis, Superintendent, Southport Correctional Facility, PO Box 200, Pine City, NY 14871 Dr. Wright, MD, Chief Medical Officer, Department of Correctional Services, State Office Campus Building #2, Albany, NY 12208 Respectfully, -- A New York Prisoner, 10 July 1997 MICHIGAN OVERCROWDING ... As you may know, Michigan Prisons are well beyond their capacity. They have brothers sleeping on the floors and in the day rooms at this particular camp in the heart of Detroit. ... -- A Michigan Prisoner 24 May 97 KALIFORNIA GOONS PANICK & REPRESSION ... I've been getting your publication for over a year now, with no problems, until issues #133 & #134, where page 2, 6, and 10 were censored for violent content. Then I received issues #135 & #136, with no problems. Please continue to sent me issues, Here in the Kalifornia prisons, the pigs have been slammin' us down `cause a convict with AIDS escaped from the Vacaville prison near here. Anybody with life or escapes or their record is getting locked down after 4:00 p.m. The goons are panicked. In the struggle, -- A California Prisoner, 10 May 1997 INVOLUNTARY PROTECTIVE CUSTODY I'm not in the hole anymore, ... they have me in involuntary protective custody until they ship me to another joint. They claim that my behavior disrupts the proper runnin' of the facility cause I beat the tickets they served on me on appeal. They can't put me in the box and they don't want me in general population here so they put me in IPC which is almost like the box. You just have all your privileges and instead of 1 hour rec. [recreation], you get 2 hours rec. in the regular yard. So I'm basically waitin' to get shipped to another joint. ... --A New York Prisoner, 16 June 1997 * * * MIM ON PRISONS AND PRISONERS MIM seeks to build public opinion against Amerika's criminal injustice system, and to eventually replace the bourgeois injustice system with proletarian justice. The bourgeois injustice system imprisons and executes a disproportionately large and growing number of oppressed people while letting the biggest mass murderers - the imperialists and their lackeys - roam free. Imperialism is not opposed to murder or theft, it only insists that these crimes be committed in the interests of the bourgeoisie. MIM does not advocate that all prisoners go free today; we have a more effective program for fighting crime as was demonstrated in China prior to the restoration of capitalism there in 1976. We say that all prisoners are political prisoners because under the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, all imprisonment is substantively political. It is our responsibility to exert revolutionary leadership and conduct political agitation and organization among prisoners ñ whose material conditions make them an overwhelmingly revolutionary group. Some prisoners should and will work on self-criticism under a future dictatorship of the proletariat in those cases in which prisoners really did do something wrong by proletarian standards. ***WHAT NON-PRISONERS CAN DO TO SUPPORT PRISONERS*** *1. Struggle with, work with, finance and join MIM. The best way to support prisoners is to overthrow the system under which capitalists profit from the exploitation of prisoners. History shows that the best way to do this is to build a Marxist- Leninist- Maoist party. The oppressors will not give up their power without a fight. *2. Finance MIM's prison work. Our biggest bill each month is postage. Most of the prison comrades who read MIM Notes have no way of paying for it. So if you have money, send what you can afford. Every cent helps, and stamps are as good as cash to us. *3. Distribute MIM Notes and Notas Rojas. Bring the voices of prisoners and their supporters to as large and wide an audience of people as possible. Contact MIM for bulk rates and distribution tips. *4. Start or join a prison support group. MIM can provide advice and resources to help you build public opinion for prisoners and their struggles. *5. Fight censorship, beatings, torture and other fascist outrages. Under Lock and Key often features the addresses of prisoners' friends and enemies. Work with the friends and let the enemies know you're watching. (Don't expect to win the fascists to the side of humanity, however. See #1 in this list). *6. Stay in touch. Keep us informed of pro- prisoner work you do. Our readers might find it educational or inspirational
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