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 145 SEPTEMBER 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. ARMY HELPS ARM LAPD AGAINST MASSES 2. NYC PIGS TORTURE HAITIAN MAN 3. LETTERS TO MIM 4. MILITARIZATION OF U.S. ILLEGIT BORDER INCREASES 5. ISRAELI SETTLER GOVERNMENT CRACKS DOWN ON PALESTINIANS 6. MIT PIGS HARASS AND ARREST ACTIVIST 7. ANTI-ASIAN CHAUVINISM REARS UGLY HEAD 8. MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS IN AZANIA SEEK SECRECY 9. INTERVIEW WITH A MILITANT HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST FROM THE PHILIPPINES 10. JAPANESE AND U.$. IMPERIALISTS GUILTY OF GERM WARFARE IN CHINA AND KOREA 11. NEW YORK INCREASES PRISON CONSTRUCTION 12. NEW YORK UPS MEASURES TO OPPRESS IMPRISONED YOUTH 13. FORMER PIG FBI DIRECTOR DIES 14. NEW DOCS SHOW FBI ROLE AS ENEMY OF CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT 15. ANOTHER BLACK MAN STRUCK DOWN BY THREE STRIKES: PIGS PLANTED PCP 16. CELLUCCI TO REVOKE MASS PRISONERS' VOTE 17. MARXISM-LENINISM-MAOISM ONLINE 18. UPS WORKERS WANT BIGGER PIECE OF PIE 19. TOBACCO KILLS OPPRESSED NATIONS IN RECORD NUMBERS 20. UNDER LOCK & KEY * * * 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 * * * ARMY HELPS ARM LAPD AGAINST MASSES by a RAIL comrade The notoriously brutal Los Angeles Pig Department will soon receive 600 free M-16 rifles from the u.s. Army in order to further terrorize and oppress the masses. These surplus automatic assault weapons -- a standard issue in the military -- are being shipped from an Alabama storage depot. These weapons -- renamed "urban police rifles" -- will be converted to semiautomatic before being given out for storage in squad car trunks in case of "emergencies". The pretext for obtaining the assault weapons was a February shootout in North Hollywood with two armed gunmen. Dave Hepburn of the LA Pig Protective League whines that if they had had assault weapons, then less civilians and pigs would have been hurt in the shootout, "and it would have been over a lot sooner." MIM knows that this is a red herring -- a ruse to distract the masses. The LAPD has the guns and the power provided by Amerika. It is the poor and oppressed who consistently fall prey to Amerika's violence and therefore need the protection. The conflict between the cops and the poor was made evident five years ago when Los Angeles was the site of major oppressed nation rebellion. The LAPD wants these M-16s to advance their offensive position in the war against the resisting oppressed nations. The only outcome of this intra-pig deal will be an increase in the butchering of oppressed nationals. Collaboration between the two armed forces of the imperialists, the Army and the pigs, is not unusual. It just underscores the fact that the police are a military force occupying the ghettoes and barrios. MIM sees this move as a joint military effort to murder more oppressed nationals in order to maintain imperialist bourgeois control. The threat of resistance requires constant use of repressive forces. The imperialists are growing bolder and more toward fascism in imposing a police state in the oppressed nation communities with the wholehearted support of the white nation labor aristocracy. In the face of this repression, resistance will only grow stronger among the oppressed nations. After the February shootout, the Pig Commission approved the use of higher powered weaponry like .45-caliber handguns and increased pig training for shotguns and assault weapons. Already, 700 trigger-happy LA pigs have finished the training and can buy their own .45s. But conveniently enough, the department "does not track how many [pigs] have switched to the more powerful handgun." MIM says come on, who are you trying to kid? This is not a marketing taste- test! Pigs are only too delighted to obtain guns that kill faster. The facade of ignorance on the part of the department is a way to avoid direct responsibility for the slayings that will result from this new policy and their new assault arsenal. Interim Pig chief Bayan Lewis oinks that the M-16s shows pigs that "we [the bureaucrat pigs] were serious" in supporting their brutality. He further grunts "To criminals [sic: pigs are the real criminals], it tells them... We have diligently sought these weapons and will now be able to defend ourselves." MIM does not deceive itself that the pigs are the victims under attack, but rather they are the true criminals. Victimization of the pigs and the criminalization of oppressed nation youth is used by the bourgeois media to justify the continual bloody repression of the internal colonies. The oppressed must organize and liberate themselves with the proven methods of Marxism-Leninism- Maoism in order to stop this wholesale genocide. NOTE: LA Daily News.30 July 1997, p. 1, 7. * * * NYC PIGS TORTURE HAITIAN MAN After picking Abner Louima at a nightclub for disorderly conduct, New York City pigs shouted racial slurs as they beat him and shoved the wooden handle of a toilet plunger into his rectum and then into his mouth. They then put the Haitian victim into a holding cell until other prisoners protested that he was bleeding profusely. He was finally taken to the hospital. Following surgery to repair a puncture in his small intestine and injuries to his bladder, he remains in the hospital in critical condition as MIM Notes goes to press. Even at the hospital, a pig was stationed outside Louima's door and initially prevented his uncle from taking a reporter in to hear the man's story. The repulsive behavior of the pigs reveals the nature and tactics of patriarchal imperialist domination. When white officers rape Black men, they show who has power in the nation and gender hierarchy. Rape, a gender issue, is about power and not biology. Even though the officers and Louima are the same biological sex, the pigs are gender oppressors because the pigs control the sexuality and reproduction of oppressed nation men. It is not possible to eradicate gender oppression and national oppression like this or in general without the seizure of state power by the oppressed. Until the oppressed seize state power, the pigs, the imperialist army, and the gender aristocracy will continue to control the oppressed through gender, national and class power. Until that day, we expose the tactics used by the oppressors without expectations that systematic oppression will stop even if the pigs use less gruesome tactics or if the whole 70th precinct is replaced by new oinkers. We expose the filth of imperialism and settler colonialism to end the Amerikan lockdown and to organize for revolution. If you think that pig brutality must stop, you shouldn't seek a pseudo- solution through getting new pigs or through bringing individual pigs to trial, you should be organizing for total national liberation of oppressed nations and for the end of the settler nation reign of terror. NOTES: New York Times August 13, 1997, A25. * * * LETTER TO MIM AMERIKKKA'S HYPOCRISY REGARDING CHINA The Amerikkkan government has declared China as a "violator of human rights" because China (allegedly) is using prisoner labor. Amerikkkan businesses are complaining and the politicians claim it is in violation of the trade agreement they have with China. However, Amerikkka is speaking with a fork tongue. Amerikkka has the nerve to hypocritically blast China about their internal affairs (prisoners making products) while in the U.$. Amerikkka is using prisoners to work in state and federal prison factories at "slave" wages and under hardship conditions. The U$ doesn't want to have China use prisoner labor because Amerikkka is in competition with the world. Amerikkka wants to make all the calls on what is and isn't right, or what does or doesn't violate human rights, yet Amerikkka leads the world in incarcerating her citizens. In fact, Amerikkka leads the world in racist tactics. Prisoners in Amerikkka are making everything from military parts/ammunition to clothing and furniture, but Klinton and the politicians do not see this as wrong. To them it is "business." The U$ even goes as far as to justify their abuse and using Amerikan prisons to make products by laying claim to the 13 Amendment, which has the clause declaring slavery legal if one is convicted by the state/government for a crime. This clause allows Amerikkka to justify their repulsive actions toward prisoners and let them hide behind the guise of "punishing lawbreakers." China is trying to produce and maintain their government. They are trying to become independent and self-dependent. Naturally Amerikkka sees China as a big business opportunity and have even gone as far as to place some of their kompanies there. [Without doubt some of these kompanies are also spies for the National Security Agency]. But Amerikkka also sees China as a threat. A threat to their world domination and control. To make China out to be the violators of human rights would also mean that the united snakes are violators of the world and they are not going to claim that. They are going to continue telling you and I that they are the "defenders of democracy." But what type of democracy is this? What type of freedoms are the Amerikkkan government showing the people? Amerikkka has become a police state; a fascist state; a tyrant that bullies the world into submitting to their views under the threat of war, food blockades, trade restrictions, and other non-humanitarian acts. This is the government that had the nerve to call for "War Crimes Trials" against Nazi Germany for what Hitler and his goons had done to the Jewish people, yet Amerikkka has done the same thing to her citizens, especially black people and [members of] First Nations. Black people are in war now and have been for centuries. First Nations are in war now and have been since the first yankee settler set foot over here. Who have held them up for war crime trials? So haw can a victimizer of human beings call someone else a violator? We of PPWC [Political Prisoners of War Coalition] see this as a smoke screen to have us direct anger to a people who are not our enemies but the enemies of kkkapitalists; of this sick system pervertedly called Amerikkka. Home of the KKK, police brutality, kkkourt korruption, gender bashing, homelessness, high unemployment, racism, and every type of political scandal one can imagine. It is time that the people come from up under these hypnotic trick of words this government offers. We have to stop Amerikkka's perpetual aggression and "word wars" against other nations that do no act in accord with Amerikkka's politics. In the trenches, -- A Michigan Prisoner, 23 May 1997 MIM RESPONDS: We agree with much of this letter. The one point we think it is very important to clarify is that neither China nor the United Snakes deserves any defense as progressive countries. Both are imperialist nations seeking profit through the exploitation and oppression of the world's people. The letter writer states that China is "trying to become independent and self-dependent" as a reason for its use of prisoners as slave labor. But this is no more of a justification for China's practice than it would be for Amerika's practice (which the letter writer correctly condemns.) The exploitation and torture of prisoners is unacceptable in both countries. China's system of state capitalism only differs from Amerika's more free market oriented capitalism in that there is more centralized state control in China. Under neither system do the people benefit: both systems are based on profiting from the exploitation of the labor of the world's oppressed. We also disagree with the writer that Amerika is currently fascist. The injustice system in general and the prisons system in particular is the most fascistic part of Amerikan society. But we do not conclude that the united snakes is currently under a fascist system. This is an important distinction in that we must correctly analyze the enemy and current conditions. We suggest anyone with criticisms of this to study MIM Theory 11, "Amerikkkan Prisons on Trial: Guilty." * * * MILITARIZATION OF U.S. ILLEGIT BORDER INCREASES by MC17 The Immigration and Naturalization Service(INS) is sending 69 agents to Brownsville Texas from other parts of the country to increase the repression on the Texas-Mexico border. This transfer, which was to take place by August 25, is just a small part of Operation Rio Grande, an INS plan to crack down on illegal immigration with hundreds of new agents and sophisticated equipment being sent to the border.(1) By January, more than 100 agents will be in place in Brownsville, with a total of 270 new agents in the McAllen sector of the Border Patrol. And more agents might be on the way in 1998. Legislation that would authorize 1,000 more Border Patrol agents, more than half of whom would be stationed in Texas, is pending in Congress.(2) The excuse for this increased militarization of the border: illegal immigration and illegal drug crossings. As MIM Notes reported in the August 1 issue, the war on drugs is the newest call to arms for the imperialists. By the end of this fiscal year, the number of immigration agents will have increased to 2,693 from 1,756 in 1993.(1) The INS has become one of the fastest growing federal agencies. Its annual budget, now $3.1 billion, has nearly doubled in four years.(3) Furthering the anti-immigrant hype, after two illegal immigrants were charged with plotting to blow up subways the Mayor of New York City attacked the INS for failing to patrol the borders sufficiently.(3) The imperialists benefit from the labor of immigrants but at the same time want to keep all the wealth in Amerika for the Amerikans. MIM fights for open borders and an equal access to resources and wealth for all people in the world. NOTES: 1. The New York Times, July 28, 1997, p. A9. 2. Austin American-Statesman, July 27, 1997, p.B2. 3. Austin American-Statesman, August 6, 1997, p. A14. * * * ISRAELI SETTLER GOVERNMENT CRACKS DOWN ON PALESTINIANS by RC 343 written on 9 August, 1997 On 30 July, a bomb exploded in an Israeli market killing 13 Israeli settlers and two as yet unidentified bomber- suspects. Responsibility for the bombing is still indeterminate, despite initial Israeli claims that Hamas, the Palestinian revolutionary nationalist force, was responsible. Jumping on the double suicide bombing as justification, the United Snakes-backed Israeli aggressors are further escalating their savage oppression of the internal Palestinian colony. In the eight days since the explosion, the settler Israeli government has rounded-up suspected Palestinian activists in pre-dawn raids, imposed stringent economic sanctions and has the Palestinian territories of West Bank and Gaza Strip under lock-down conditions. Two leaflets allegedly written by Hamas circulated in the West Bank immediately after the bombing. The leaflets take credit for the bombing and call for more suicide bombings as the "most realistic option for resisting occupation and liberating the land."(1) However, even Israeli authorities admit it is unlikely that Hamas wrote the leaflets. MIM does not know who wrote the leaflets or what their true intentions were, but we recognize what the outcome will be nonetheless: the Israeli settler state will use the incendiary language in the leaflets and the specter of "terrorism" to justify more repression of the Palestine territories and nationalist organizations. Already, the Israeli pigs have arrested 188 Palestinians from the West Bank. Israeli Army Chief of Staff Amnon Shahak oinked that "since our working assumptions are that Hamas or Islamic Holy War are behind this attack, we are arresting anyone that can help us solve who sent the bombers and who is behind it."(1) In other words, the Israeli aggressors are using the situation to mass arrest and terrorize the Palestinian populace and quell resistance. THE DARK DAYS OF OCCUPIED PALESTINE Israel has controlled the Palestinian Occupied Territories since 1967 with Amerikan and French patronage -- money and arms. The Israeli settlers have steadily and brutally disenfranchised Palestinians of their land and their sovereignty in the following decades. As of 1990, Israel had "confiscated over 52 percent of the West Bank and 30 percent of the Gaza Strip for military use of settlement" by reactionary Israeli settlers.(2) In the seven years since, Israel has not slacked its expansionist thirst for Palestinian lands. Israeli military settlements violently spread throughout the Palestinian Occupied Territories and corral the Palestinian people in ever-smaller areas. The Palestinian national liberation movement was sparked in the struggle against the Israeli aggressors and is a justly militant tide of resistance. The former representative of the movement, the Palestinian Liberation Organization(PLO), was originally formed in 1964 by the Arab League to control Palestinians. But in 1967, the Palestinians seized leadership of the organization. The PLO was then a coalition of different political and guerrilla organizations with different ideologies united around national liberation for Palestine. Since 1968, Yasser Arafat -- head of the largest member- organization, Fateh -- has been the PLO chairperson.(2) The PLO in its prime was revolutionary nationalist. It has gradually degenerated to its current position of collaborationist and has lost the support of the militant member-organizations and the masses. In September 1993, the capitulationist Arafat sold-out the Palestinian people's right to self-reliance, self- determination and national liberation in the Oslo "peace" agreement in exchange for neo-colonial domination by Israel (see MN 81). Traitor Arafat now heads the counter- revolutionary Palestinian Authority(PA), the puppet organization controlling the Palestinian territories -- the isolated Palestinian "self-rule" areas encircled by Israeli military. The capitulationist PA has consistently but fearfully shown itself to be the enemy of the Palestinian people and the servant of the Israeli aggressors and their Amerikan patrons. After this most recent bombing, the collaborationist PA, eager to show obedience to its Israeli and Amerikan masters, announced compliance with their "anti-terrorist" demands. The PA running-dogs stated their intentions of rounding up all Palestinian militants but, afraid of the people's armed resistance, failed to carry through with mass arrests. The PA exerted what little power it has over the Palestinian masses -- that of the gun, not of legitimacy -- to ask Aziz Rantisi and Ahmed Rantisi, leaders in Gaza, to show up for interrogation at the PA pig headquarters.(1) NATIONAL LIBERATION FOR PALESTINE 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 their own expansionist "manifest destiny" plans, the Israeli aggressors don't hesitate to massacre the Palestinians with imperialist support. The United $nakes eagerly funnels "foreign aid" and arms to their Israeli fledgling. However, in spite of their seeming power, they 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. MIM believes suicide bombings while expressive of the just fury of the dispossessed, disenfranchised Palestinian masses are self-defeating and ultimately suicidal to the liberation movement as well. National liberation will never be achieved if the most advanced revolutionaries kill themselves. Martyrs cannot lead revolutions. (Suicide bombings also unwittingly serve as a double boon for the Israeli settlers: leaders of Palestinian resistance die, and Israel has more excuses to oppress all Palestinians under the pretext of "terrorism.") To lead the way to the self-determination and nationhood which are rightfully theirs, the revolutionary Palestinian forces must shoulder the proven methods of Marxism-Leninism- Maoism and launch Protracted People's War against the collaborationists, the Israeli oppressors and their Amerikan financiers. PALESTINE UNDER SIEGE In conjunction with the round-ups, the Israelis imposed a security and economic siege of the Palestinian territories until the PA delivers the militants responsible for the bombing and disarms the populace. "Israeli soldiers maintained one of the strictest closings ever of the West Bank, with virtually the entire population [of two million Palestinians] barred from leaving their towns and villages.... while not even newspapers were allowed to enter the Gaza Strip and its border crossing to Egypt at Rafah was shut down."(1) Israel is withholding $25 million in tax revenues from the collaborationist PA which it collects on the PA's behalf under the capitulationist "peace" agreement of 1993. Because of the lock-down, over 100,000 Palestinian day-laborers are prevented from crossing the Israeli ramparts to work for the settlers.(3) In all, the Israeli blockades are costing the Palestinian Authority $9 million per day.(4) This is Israel's punishment to the PA for not oppressing Palestinians to its satisfaction. Regarding the desperate economic situation created in the territories, Maher al Masri, Palestinian Minister of Trade and Economy whimpered, "There is no foreign trade, tens of thousands of workers are being kept from their jobs, industrial production has stopped, the agricultural sector is paralyzed and transportation has been halted. The result is total collapse."(4) This shows how dependent the powerless Palestinian Authority collaborators are on the Israeli settler government and its imperialist backers. The people of Palestine cannot look to the PA counter- revolutionary sell-outs and puppet Arafat to "negotiate" independence, but must organize to seize state power. COLLABORATIONIST PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY IS A SINKING BOAT In the face of international "censure", Israeli Prime Sinister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that food and medical supplies are allowed through the blockade.(3) However, doctors outside the urban areas protested their inability to visit patients and the prices of basic food supplies are steadily escalating.(1) Hypocrite Netanyahu refuses to end the siege until the PA toes the line and suppresses all resistance by "fighting the men of violence."(3) In reality, the true "men of violence" are the Israeli aggressors who have brutally colonized the Palestinian nation. The Palestinian militants are the true heroes resisting the bloody Israeli occupation. The Arab League calls this latest Israeli ultimatum "a declaration of war against the Palestinian people."(4) True enough, but the war has been on the field since Israeli settlers first carved up Palestine. Israel's ultimatum put the PA puppets in a precarious position between the economic sword and the oppressed masses. The PA counter-revolutionaries are discredited in the eyes of the masses and have tenuous power at best. Now that the source of that power -- Israeli support -- is suspended, the PA collaborationists are extremely vulnerable. If the PA tries to comply with Israel's demands for disarming the masses, it will surely be cutting its own throat. It will completely expose itself as an Israeli and Amerikan puppet and the roiling fury of the masses will be fully unleashed. If the PA does not obey Israel, the economic noose will tighten. Mass discontent will peak as supplies and patience run low. Like rats fleeing a sinking ship, 16 of the 18 PA Cabinet members have already submitted resignations, alleging Arafat's need for decision-making flexibility.(1) IMPERIALISTS TREMBLE AT PALESTINIAN RESISTANCE As public opinion builds in support of the Palestinian struggle and Palestinian resistance itself grows ever stronger, the imperialist powers are scrambling to put on a deceptively pleasant face by "pressuring" Israel to be nice oppressors. The general international consensus is that Israel is asking too much of the PA; it doesn't have the authority nor the power to disarm the revolutionaries.(4) Nervously eyeing the rebellious Palestine masses, Amerikan imperialists scolded their Israeli protÈgÈ about its "counter-productive" economic sanctions. Without the tax revenues, the PA cannot pay the "public employees" including the PA pig force. Fully exposing u.$. interests in oppressing the masses and in counter-revolutionary activity under the banner of "anti-terrorism", an Amerikan diplomat chided "if you want a highly-motivated police force to round up terrorists [sic], you've got to pay them."(3) Europe's Middle East "peace" envoy whined that Israel's pressure tactics "instead of bringing security are bringing insecurity."(4) The imperialists clearly are frightened of the revolutionary fervor fermenting in Palestinian territories. MIM welcomes the "insecurity" of ripening revolution. It will be the dawn of a new era for Palestine. But the march forward to national liberation, self-reliance and self-determination lies on the path of proletarian feminist revolutionary nationalism. The resistance movement leaders must choose this path to serve the Palestinian people most effectively. NOTES: 1. NY Times Aug 2, 1997, pp.1, 3. 2. "Palestine for Beginners," The Weekly News Nov. 1, 1990, pp15-17. 3. The Independent (London) Aug 7, 1997, p.10. 4. International Herald Tribune (Neuilly-sur-Seine, France) Aug. 6, 1997, p.6. See related articles MN 81, 114, 135, 136. * * * MIT PIGS HARASS AND ARREST ACTIVIST A long time activist, Richard Picariello, was recently arrested by MIT pigs for the crime of being in the student center waiting for a meeting taking place. This student center has stores and restaurants which are open to the public but apparently sitting in the chairs is a crime if you don't look like a student. Initially, one pig approached Picariello and began questioning him about why he was in the building. Picariello stood up to put some space between himself and the pig and as he did so the pig pushed him back down. This initiated a physical confrontation which ended when backup arrived and maced the activist, clearly using excessive force. There are witnesses to the excessive use of force and Picariello is filing a suit against MIT. But in the mean time the MIT pigs have issued a restraining order on the activist keeping him off MIT property while also bragging that they are going to put him in prison on a conviction of assault with a deadly weapon (the deadly weapon is Picariello's foot.) MIT pigs have a history of harassing people who do not appear to be students. Those working on this case are searching for other witnesses to the confrontation since the pigs failed to interview those in the area and Picariello was handcuffed and was not given the chance to collect names of possible witnesses. Instead, witnesses report that the pigs asked someone who was not even there to testify as a witness to the entire event. Statements are also being sought from others who have been harassed by the MIT pigs to bolster the case. Because Picariello is a former prisoner, the cards are stacked against him and it is important that the MIT community and other activists in the area join in this struggle against the MIT pigs. As MIM has said repeatedly in the past, there are no rights, only power struggles! It is no surprise that the MIT pigs consider MIT property to be the exclusive property of those wealthy enough to afford access. Arguments about public funding and public stores will be lost without a power struggle to demonstrate to the MIT pigs that we will not sit by and passively allow them to harass the people. Pigs and courts can be pushed to back down and MIM and RAIL fight against illegitimate control and gross pig harassment to free up organizing maneuverability. Students and activists should work with us in these power struggles that are necessary ground work for revolution. * * * ANTI-ASIAN CHAUVINISM REARS UGLY HEAD In July in Boston MIM and RAIL showed the film "Who Killed Vincent Chin" about a white worker who murdered a Chinese man, admitted his guilt and got away with it. As we postered for the event in the Harvard Square area we noticed another poster already up. It read only, "Too many orientals at Harvard" and was signed "Community Concern." This anti-Asian propaganda reflects reactionary Amerikan chauvinism which believes that everything of value in this country should be the property of white people only. This is not so different from the propaganda used years ago to keep settler-labeled "Japs" and "Chinks" out of jobs, stores, and other public places. Society may have progressed to the extent that it no longer explicitly bans people of specific nationalities, but white nation chauvinism, and the power the white nation wields, have not been done away with. In the week before the event, we received a number of harassing voice mail messages. The most explicit said "If you don't like this country you can leave you fucking gook." The most threatening said "I'm gonna kill you." The calls were clearly responses to the publicity for an event fighting white supremacy and anti-Asian chauvinism. Participants discussed after the event how the film showed that different people ñ depending on their national interests ñ portrayed various versions of the same story. The white murderer of Vincent Chin repeated how hard his life had been, moving from an agricultural town to the fast- paced Detroit. Other white people paraded before the camera said that the murderer was a fine, decent man. Meanwhile, the mother of Vincent Chin told a story of real hardship. Vincent's murder by this unpunished man was a clear example of national chauvinism: the murderer complained of the "japs" (Vincent was Chinese) stealing Amerikan jobs. It is astonishing that the white man even had the gall to complain. Those present talked about the relationship of this individual story of Vincent Chin to general Amerikans' self- pity. While the masses suffer to the point of death -- often producing goods to benefit Amerikans -- Amerikans whine about hardship if they cannot get that second car. Most supposed progressives here in the belly of the beast insist that the way to get white workers' support is to tell them how oppressed they are. MIM knows that this is not true at all. Tell white workers they are oppressed, and like Chin's murderer and the people who wrote the anti-Asian flier, they will too often turn to fascist methods and beliefs. * * * MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS IN AZANIA SEEK SECRECY by a reader and an MC For many years, evil rotten to the core capitalist corporations, partnerships, joint ventures, sole proprietorships etc. have operated in other nations under multiple names so as to totally confuse the general public and avoid blame for environmental disasters, exploitation of workers etc. This information warfare that results in millions of unwary citizens truly not knowing who to blame is illustrated in a June 5th press release of Gencor that went to stock market investors, speculators and not the general public. Gencor is a multi-billion dollar international conglomerate based in Azania (South Africa.) Gencor has an unsavory reputation in some quarters because of its role in the worst slave labor days -- during the English and Boer rule periods. Gencor holds the controlling interest in Eldorado Gold Corp. and has transferred to it numerous mines and high quality mineral exploration properties plus development properties. Since Gencor operates under the Croesus, Billiton, Eldorado and other names and since these other names conceal assets under the protection of multiple capitalist governments, Gencor is more difficult to attack. This is unlike the situation of the dictatorship of the proletariat where there is a clear structure and everyone knows who is responsible for what without any hiding -- to such an extent that socialist leaders often get criticized for things that capitalist leaders do, but worse. Some of the attacks that the corporations hope to avoid include possible boycotts, political attacks on politicians in the pocket of the master capitalist company and nationalization. The capitalists hope the Azanian people will not nationalize their properties if their property seems to be owned by foreigners, for fear of provoking international intervention. The way it works is that Gencor owns the controlling shares of foreign companies and then forces those companies to buy Gencor assets. Gencor is one example of thousands. We do not mean to say that Gencor needs to be singled out at the moment. We have not investigated whether Gencor is any worse than the others. MIM's approach is not to wage one struggle at a time or one nationalization at a time. We instead attack the whole political system allowing this sort of unaccountability, such that the only time we really know these billionaires and their agendas, is when they buy themselves a presidential campaign, like Ross Perot did. * * * INTERVIEW WITH A MILITANT HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST FROM THE PHILIPPINES Recently MIM had the privilege to interview Marie Hilao- Enriquez, the Secretary General of KARAPATAN, the most militant human rights organization in the Philippines. MIM also attended a public talk given by Hilao-Enriquez. What follows are some excerpts from the interview and a summary of what MIM learned about human rights in the Philippines. KARAPATAN is a militant human rights advocacy organization composed of several mass organizations and individuals.(1) It formed in 1995 when these organizations and individuals left PAHRO, a human rights coalition which separated the struggle for human rights from the broader struggles of the Filipino people for economic, political, and social self- determination. Since then, KARAPATAN has had great success in exposing the human rights violations of the u.$.- supported puppet regime in the Philippines. HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE PHILIPPINES NOW A KARAPATAN report on the u.$.-Ramos regime's human rights record from July 1992 to June 1997 documents the regime's steady move towards fascist rule and its subservience to foreign imperialist powers.(2) In terms of militarization and counterinsurgency, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) is the worst violator of human rights. There were 753 reported cases of abuse by the AFP in the last five years. The Philippine National Police (PNP) are close behind with 533 reported cases. These abuses range from unwarranted arrests and executions to massive dislocation of the peasantry, including Indigenous Peoples.(2) For example, on April 12, 1996, army soldiers riddled three civilians with 975 bullets. Two of the victims were college students. On April 26, 1997, AFP soldiers stormed a farmer's house and killed 8 year-old Cherry Fe Bustamante. The soldiers claimed the house was occupied by members of the New People's Army (NPA), which is led by Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP). In August 1995, the military bombed a village of indigenous Lumads in Agusan del Sur, killing eight civilians, four of them children.(2) Incarceration of people for their political beliefs is a common practice under the u.$.-Ramos regime. KARAPATAN has documented numerous politically motivated arrests under Ramos. Presently there are 166 political prisoners throughout the Philippines. The majority of these were arrested without a warrant and were charged and convicted of common crimes instead of political offenses. There were also 15 "disappearances" in the last five years including the most recent "disappearance" of peasant organizer Romeo Cortez.(2) WHO IS TO BLAME? One common notion associated with human rights is "neutrality." Some human rights organizations claim to monitor human rights abuses over all sectors of society. Associated with this is the notion of "human rights for all." Concerning this notion, Marie Hilao-Enriquez told MIM: "KARAPATAN has studied classes and we have traced the emergence of the concept of human rights in the Philippines and in a world-wide context. Concurrent with the history of classes, human rights has emerged. The state is the source of human rights violations of the people and it has not changed. So long, in the history of classes, when classes emerged human rights were born at that time because it is always the struggle of the oppressed and the exploiter. . .so long as the state exists, [human rights] violations will continue. "The reasons the United Nations and Amnesty International can say 'human rights for all' is because they do not recognize the existence of classes, of inequality in society . . .they say 'all men are born equal' but that is nonsense because it is not so in the concrete life. "The slogan 'human rights for all' means nothing because in class society inequality always exists . . .that is why in KARAPATAN we do not remain 'neutral,' we are always biased and we say so in public. There are those who say 'you are a very political organization' and we say 'yes, because human rights is a very political issue' . . .you talk of exploitation, of powerlessness and you talk about the whole society, the whole structure, so you have to be biased when violations occur. You have to identify who the violators are and who the victims are and in Philippine society we say that the state always violates the rights of the people an the rights professed by the government mean nothing."(1) WHAT ABOUT UN CHARTERS ON HUMAN RIGHTS? Marie Hilao-Enriquez told MIM that the UN charters on human rights have a dual character. The positive aspects of the charters flow from the fact that they were concessions to successful national liberation movements of the oppressed. Although these charters remain abstract and are never realized in practice, they can be used by the oppressed to justify struggle, hold the UN and the signatory states to their own standards, and expose the hypocrisy of oppressive regimes.(1) On the negative side, the imperialists use UN human rights charters to punish oppressed peoples. For example, they may clam that the NPA is causing human rights violations in order to justify the deployment of more troops and police into the general population. Similarly, the u.$ imperialists can score political points against social-fascist China by denouncing China's alleged abuse of prison labor (without mentioning the fact that the u.$. itself is guilty of exploiting prison labor.) KARAPATAN recognizes the UN charters as instruments that can be used against the ruling class, but Hilao-Enriquez said, "we want more. We want to go beyond the declaration. We want concrete enjoyment of those rights." That is why "people's struggle is the inspiration of KARAPATAN, not UN declarations, because you can always change the covenants through people's struggle."(1) ONGOING STRUGGLE KARAPATAN's closing statement in their Report on the Ramos Presidency and Human Rights reads: "In the final analysis . . .the people's enjoyment of their human rights in all its dimensions -- civil, political, economic, social, and cultural -- can only be possible under conditions of national liberation and social emancipation."(10) KARAPATAN struggles alongside legal national democratic organizations against the Ramos puppet regime and its foreign masters.(2) This perspective is consistent with MIM's slogan: "There are no rights -- only power struggles!" Those of us in the imperialist countries who wish to hasten the day when imperialism is torn from the face of the planet must support struggles like those carried on by KARAPATAN and the national democratic movement of the Philippines. We can do this by exposing u.$ imperialism and its role in smashing the self-determination of the Filipino people. A concrete example of u.$ imperialist influence on the Philippines is the case of the alleged killers of the fascist u.$. colonel, James Rowe. Rowe had been an important intelligence officer in Viet Nam and was in the Philippines in order to "advise" the puppet government. In 1987, he was ambushed and killed. The Philippine Department of Justice itself set the alleged killers free in 1993 but the u.$. state department -- with the explicit backing of President Clinton -- effectively vetoed their release. This clearly shows the political character of these arrests and neither can it deny subordinate role of the Manila government to u.$. interests. Of all political prisoners in the Philippines, these two face the gravest charges, for murder.(1) This is just one of many cases around which revolutionaries and anti-imperialists in the imperialist countries can rally in order to build popular support for national liberation struggles in the Third World. Take part in revolutionary campaigns here in the united snakes! Work with MIM, RAIL and the PIRAO in order to hasten the fall of imperialism and work for genuine human rights for the oppressed! NOTES: 1. Personal interview with Marie Hilao-Enriquez, 25 July 1997. 2. "The Ramos Presidency and Human Rights, A report on the Human Rights Record of the Ramos Administration from July 1992 to June 1997" Available from: KARAPATAN (Alliance for the Advancement of People's Rights) #43 Masikap St., Bgy. Pinyahank, Dilman Quezon City, Philippines. Email: tfdp@epic.net * * * JAPANESE AND U.$. IMPERIALISTS GUILTY OF GERM WARFARE IN CHINA AND KOREA by MC206 More than 100 Chinese war victims and their families sued the Japanese government recently, demanding an apology and compensation for germ warfare the Japanese army conducted during World War Two. According to Wang Jingdi, one of the plaintiffs, "Over 390 died from the plague in my village and more than 400 houses were burned down. The Japanese government must acknowledge its war crime and apologize." This was the first lawsuit filed in relation to Japanese germ warfare.(1) The Amerikan military used germ warfare techniques similar to those the Japanese used in China during the Amerikan invasion of Korea, in 1951 and 1952.(2) During World War II, units in the Japanese army code-named "731" and "100" conducted experimental surgery and tested biological weapons on Chinese prisoners. Unit 731 also used airplanes to spread insects carrying bubonic plague and released thousands of infected rats. The resulting plagues killed more than 20,000 Chinese, according to sources cited by Reuters.(1) "My brother died, my uncles and aunts died, even our dog died ... but the Japanese government still does not acknowledge this historical fact. That is impermissible," said He Yingzhen a 63-year-old from Hunan province. At the end of World War II, u.$. authorities granted those Japanese responsible for the biological weapons research immunity from war crimes prosecution in exchange for the results of their research. This mirrors u.$. actions towards German war criminals, many of whom later played leading roles in Amerikan war research.(3) The Amerikan military then used the research provided by Unit 731 during the Amerikan war of aggression in Korea. According to testimony from captured u.$. pilots and international observers, Amerikan planes dropped germ bombs throughout north Korea starting in November 1951.(2) "The germ bombs were filled with flies, fleas, spiders, bedbugs, mosquitoes, lice, beetles, crickets, and other noxious insects infected with various epidemic bacilli such as cholera, pest, and typhus. "Due to the US imperialists' criminal activity of germ warfare, various infectious diseases never known before broke out in places where germ bombs had been dropped and they took a toll of precious lives of people."(2) The u.$. government does not acknowledge its use of germ warfare and claims that the pilots had been "brainwashed." These crimes of the u.$. and Japanese imperialists show that these reactionaries will stop at nothing to preserve their unjust domination of oppressed nations. The u.$. imperialists' protection of war criminals from the defeated fascist powers also shows that the communists were the most consistent anti-fascist forces in World War II. But the imperialists' awful crimes make it clear to the broad masses that compromise with such beasts is suicide and will strengthen the resolve of anti-imperialist revolutionaries around the world. NOTES: 1. Reuters article by Yvonne Chang, 11 Aug 1997. 2. Kim Han Gil, "Modern History of Korea," Pyongyang: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1979, pp. 334-340. 3. For example: Kurt Blome, a high-ranking Nazi scientist who conducted experiments with "plague vaccines" on prisoners in concentration camps, eventually worked for the u.$. Army Chemical Corps. See: Clare Lasby, "Operation Paperclip," Athenaum, 1979. * * * NEW YORK INCREASES PRISON CONSTRUCTION by a RAIL comrade and MIM New York state bureaucrats recently decided to increase prison construction. The bureaucrats struggled over the new budget to determine the most effective way to imprison the oppressed. As negotiations continued, propaganda bolstered support for what will be the largest construction plan of maximum-security cell space in 70 years. The Injustice system and the prison system are tools for social control and repression of the oppressed nations, poor and youth. While profit-seeking white Amerika, which the state serves and protects, reaps jobs from prison construction, the oppressed get prison. Although opposition to Governor Pataki's proposals was not strong, RAIL talked with many individuals opposed to the new prisons as we campaigned against the new construction and the Amerikan prison system. RAIL petitioned against the proposal for 6,950 new prison beds within the context that prisons are a tool of national oppression and that the conditions within super-max prisons are torturous. The agreement over the proposals was official on August 2, but RAIL continued to campaign in light of the decision for new prison construction. Copies of the petition were sent to the governor, the D.O.C. and local assembly members. Though these petitions will not change the oppressive system, we were able to bring the issue to the attention of many people this way. The final plan will create 3,100 new maximum-security beds. These new beds will be used in the context of pig-controlled 'disciplinary housing.'(1) One can get an idea of the kind of discipline that is used in these facilities by reading letters by prisoners that are printed in the Under Lock and Key section of MIM Notes. 1500 of the new beds will become a new maxi-max prison, while the other 1600 will be maximum security additions to other lower security prisons.(1) The new cells will have isolated showers and solitary recreation rooms in order to eliminate contact between prisoners. Even access to these facilities will be controlled by prison officials. Inmates will be under complete lockdown with only one hour for recreation.(2) This facility of sensory deprivation, isolation and psychological torture goes to the furthest extent to eliminate communication with other prisoners and the outside world. This is why MIM sees it as the utmost importance that we provide these prisoners with access to revolutionary newspapers controlled by the oppressed as a form of communication as well as literature from our Free Books for Prisoners program. SETTLERS DROOL OVER JOBS AND CONTROL During the negotiations over the extent of new repression centers, prison pigs lobbied for more jobs. "Over the past several months correctional officers have been unusually vocal about conditions at the state's prisons, particularly the maximum-security facilities."(3) This strong voice from prison pigs was accompanied by a few violent outbreaks in state prisons. As these incidents are being investigated even bourgeois media has suggested that guards have instigated violence in order to convince people of the necessity for more cells. Many upstate towns became excited at the prospect of new construction and jobs. The location of the new maxi-max will be Franklin County. As Altamont Supervisor Dean Lefebvre says of the new construction scheduled for his town, "Out of sight, out of mind."(2) Local residents and businesses aren't concerned about the effects that lock down has on prisoners; their only concerns relate to the effects that a prison might have on property values. But the employment through construction and the possibilities of pig positions quelled any reservations about the new construction. As an example, Senator Ronald Stafford was behind the campaign to build the new maxi-max prison in Altamont. The town was very appreciative, and a local McDonald's even put the message "Thank You Senator Stafford" on the magnetic sign. The $140 million prison will provide 400 new jobs, with a payroll of up to $20 million.(2) Lefebvre justified the construction, "Why not? It's a clean industry with no adverse affect on the community."(2) MIM does not expect the settlers of Altamont to oppose increased repression through the proliferation of prisons. They are bought off with the financial security. But just as this multi-billion dollar industry is creates wealth for the white nation and controls the oppressed temporarily it is creating the basis for revolutionary organizing and rejection of the system as the incarceration rates increase. Even though the state has the money and the media, opposition will continue to grow and become better organized, and the oppressed will eventually overthrow settler colonialism and imperialism. NOTES: 1. Times Union 3 August 1997, p.A-6. 2. Times Union 9 August 1997, p.A-1. 3. Times Union 31 July 1997, p.B-2. * * * NEW YORK UPS MEASURES TO OPPRESS IMPRISONED YOUTH by a RAIL comrade The New York State Division for Youth has established a new Youth Facility Code in response to what has been hyped by bourgeois propaganda and settlers as ìa new generation of troubled youths.î The code will apply to all 2,100 young people in state facilities, including residential-type housing and prisons. The code includes 21 points which restrict the actions of the youth and requires punishment for innocuous common activities. These rules will create a more oppressive and controlling environment for the youth. The prison system serves to control in the interests of the white nation, it does not serve to help youth become productive members of society. Under socialism, prisons will still exist, but as in Maoist China, the prisoners will be engaged in productive activities which help them to better serve the interests of the masses. But under the current system, reform and rectification are not the goal ñ especially when the real criminals are in positions of power and the majority charged with crimes don't even get just trials. There are numerous points in the new code of conduct which seem to be ridiculous excuses to attack young prisoners. Of course, there is a rule prohibiting fighting, but it goes on to include ìsparing, wrestling, body-punching or other forms of horseplay.î This basically gives a license to punish these youth for any sort of physical contact, no matter how innocent. The next rule prohibits riots, but goes on to include ìloud talking... talking after lights out, or playing of radios, televisions, tape players or musical instruments in a loud or improper manner.î Understanding how the implementation of discipline a.k.a. power happens under lock and key, these rules will only give the prison pigs more maneuverability to brutalize and harass the youth. Other rules are more straight out ridiculous. Any form of gambling is prohibited by the code. Tattooing and mutilation is banned as well. The ìtattooing rule is designed to curtail gang activitiesî according to the pigs. As has been illustrated in past MIM Notes this can be translated into the oppression of organizing. Another rule prohibits ìlending, borrowing, selling, trading, or buying any items from other residents or staffers.î In other words youth will be punished for possessing anything that the pigs donít want them to have, or that was not bought at outrageous prices from the prison commissary. As the war against youth forges ahead, it becomes more evident how destructive the u.s. efforts have become. Elie Ward, a youth advocate, noted that the new restrictive code ìcreat[es] an unrealistic environment where almost no kid will be able to abide by every single [rule].î Furthermore, the pigs will have more excuses to say that these youth should get longer sentences, should be put in solitary or should have further privileges denied and the pigs will no doubt use it as a chance to brutalize the youth. The proliferation of prisons, jails and other means of repression are on the rise in the United Snakes. More and more repressive and controlling codes and policies will help the pigs to keep down the oppressed and incarcerate the oppressed for longer periods of time. While the bourgeois media and settler colonizers increase the hype and the myths to bolster support for such repression, we must push forward and continue exposure of oppression to build revolution. End the Amerikkkan Lockdown! NOTE: Times Union 27 July 1997, p.B-2. * * * FORMER PIG FBI DIRECTOR DIES ***"All men must die, but death can vary in its significance... To die for the people is weightier than Mount Tai, but to work for the fascists and die for the exploiters and oppressors is lighter than a feather."*** -- Mao Zedong, "Serve the People," 1944. Clarence M. Kelley died on August 5 at the age of 85. From 1973 to 1978, he was director of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). This fascist's life and death were lighter than a feather. Kelley was the first official FBI director following J. Edgar Hoover's 1972 death.(1) Many people are aware of the FBI's abuses under Hoover, including provocations against the Black Panther Party which left dozens of Panthers dead. However, many of these same people are not aware that Hoover's death did not change the FBI's nature. To this day, the FBI remains a counterrevolutionary political police force. On 8 March 1971, a group calling itself the Citizens' Commission to Investigate the FBI broke into the FBI's Media, Pennsylvania office and liberated thousands of pages from classified files. This is how the public first found out about the FBI's longstanding series of Counterintelligence Programs, collectively known as COINTELPRO.(2) COINTELPRO was aimed at left and progressive forces, but its main target was the Black liberation movement. In 1967, Hoover wrote in a memo, "The purpose of this new counterintelligence endeavor is to expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit, or otherwise neutralize the activities of black nationalist, hate-type organizations and groupings, their leadership, spokesmen, membership and supporters."(3) The 1971 revelations tarnished not only Hoover's reputation, but also those of the FBI and the U.S. government (USG). The USG response following Hoover's death was to portray COINTELPRO as Hoover's doing, and as a deviation from USG business-as-usual. Kelley, therefore, was chosen to head the FBI because he had a "clean" image. He did not foam at the mouth about communist subversion the way Hoover did. Image notwithstanding, Kelley was an active counterrevolutionary. His treatment of COINTELPRO operative Richard G. Held illustrates this fact. Held ran the cover-up of the 4 December 1969 assassinations of Chicago Black Panthers Fred Hampton and Mark Clark. On 27 June 1975, Held took charge of all FBI operations, some fatal, against the American Indian Movement. Among other atrocities, Held was responsible for a reign of terror against AIM and the Oglala nation in July and August 1975 and for the fraudulent extradition of AIM activist Leonard Peltier from Canada. Within a year, Kelley rewarded Held by promoting Held to second-in-command of the FBI.(4) NOTES: 1. Los Angeles Times, 6 August 1997, p. A12. 2. Ward Churchill and Jim Vander Wall, Agents of Repression: The FBI's Secret Wars Against the Black Panther Party and the American Indian Movement, South End Press, Boston, 1990, pp. 39-40. 3. Ibid., p. 58. 4. Ibid., pp. 246, 303-304. * * * NEW DOCS SHOW FBI ROLE AS ENEMY OF CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT by two RAIL comrades The files of the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission, a state-funded pro-segregation organization, are to be released later this year. The documents include memos between the FBI and the Commission showing the sharing of intelligence information. The Mississippi Sovereignty Commission was set up by the "state legislature in 1956 to maintain segregation and guard against 'encroachment by the federal government.' The release of these documents -- to people named in the documents in August, and to the public in the fall ñ augments the exposure of the FBI role in the repression of the civil rights movement. The Globe tamely reports that "in the early 1960s, many of the FBI agents based in Mississippi were close friends of local law enforcement officers who were openly hostile to the [Civil Rights] movement." In reality, the FBI was actually involved in many attacks on Civil Rights workers and played a leadership role in the media campaign against the movement. The video "FBI's War on Black America" states that one quarter of the KKK members in the South were "undercover" FBI. This means that the FBI was involved in the planning and carrying out of attacks on civil rights workers. This is different than the story told in the film "Mississippi Burning". The popular film says that the FBI successfully investigated the local police and the KKK for their roles in the murder of three Civil Rights workers during "Freedom Summer." In reality, the FBI was in cahoots with the KKK and local police. The only federal investigating was done reluctantly by the Justice Department as a result of the righteous pressure of the people. The movie also depicts the local sheriff as finding the perpetrators after one beat his white wife. In the real world, the Justice Dept offered $10,000 reward and one of the perpetrators turned on his friends. The film also downplays the scale of Amerikkka's war on the Black Nation during this period. For example, during the investigation and the hunt through the Mississippi swamps for the bodies of Cheney, Goodman and Schwerner, many other bodies of Black lynching victims were discovered, but this was not mentioned in "Mississippi Burning". The full release of Sovereignty Commission files may bring more information about these murders to light. Boston Globe sources report that the files indicate that Civil Rights worker Michael Schwerner was under surveillance before he was murdered. The Commission has been accused of "infiltrating civil rights groups and stealing membership lists and other documents to help the state agency compile a list of people to be watched." Documents from the files leaked several years ago indicated that the Commission helped the defense team for Byron De La Beckwith, murderer of NAACP leader Medgar Evers, with jury selection at his second trial. (The second trial, as the first, ended in a hung jury. He was finally convicted in 1994 and the story serves as the basis of the recent film "Ghosts of Mississippi.") MIM supports the release of these documents as they will further show the deadly treachery of Amerikkkan justice. We work to expose this history while showing how the same oppressive apparatuses, although sometimes under different names, are here today. NOTE: Boston Globe 30 July 1997, p. A1, A4. * * * ANOTHER BLACK MAN STRUCK DOWN BY THREE STRIKES PIGS PLANTED PCP by a RAIL comrade Alfonso Johnson is currently serving 25-years-to-life under the three strikes law in Cocoran State Prison. He was convicted in May 1996 for possession of PCP, his seventh felony arrest. He was framed by the pigs in a case that clearly demonstrates the nature of the criminal injustice system. Johnson wrote to a San Diego county Black newspaper and explained the circumstances surrounding his arrest. At the time of his arrest, Johnson was under the influence of PCP and was naked. A pig ordered a womyn in the room to put a pair of shorts on him. The shorts were searched before and after they were put on and were found empty. Johnson was then hog-tied and taken to the police station. He was cuffed to a chair by the wrists and ankles. Pig-officer Derrough then placed a vial of PCP in Johnson's pocket. This information was omitted in the police report and the trial. Because of a bruise on his face, Johnson was refused admission to the county jail and taken to the Harbor View Hospital. As he was exiting the hospital, he threw the vial at pig Derrough and stated, "you forgot something." This was entered into the police record as "here, forgot something." Johnson pointed out in his letter that his lawyer failed to ask the crucial questions which would have raised considerable doubt about the authority of the police record. The questions that should have been asked in Johnson's words are: "Where did the vial come from. If you are saying [he] was naked on your arrival, then you authorized a person that isn't in law enforcement to put a pair of short pants that had one pocket on the prisoner. There was nothing in the pants because you state they were fully searched. Where did the vial of PCP come from?" Johnson closes the letter with a reflection on his life and his sentence: "In all reality, I was just under the influence of PCP. I am a victim of my past, not of the charge. I have done things in my past that I am not proud of. I grew up with several different relatives and never had a strong father figure while growing up... I was very much confused and lost to the street way of life. I started using PCP at the age of 12 or 13. But all the bad I've done, I own up to it and paid my price to society. All that was looked at was my past, not the controlling facts in this case. For any man to receive a life sentence in this case where the facts speak for themselves is not justice." MIM says that in this white chauvinist imperialist society, the cards are stacked against members of oppressed nations in the Amerikan legal system. As this Black newspaper pointed out, since it passed in November 1994, the three strikes law "has cut a wide swath among California's Black male population with prison being their destinations." The three strikes law is being used to further oppress Blacks and other oppressed nationals and keep them locked down in Amerikan dungeons. Johnson's history is not unique to him, but is the product of the historical and material on-going conditions of brutal exploitation and oppression of the Black nation by the Amerikan imperialists. But repression breeds resistance and the struggle continues. The bourgeoisie's fear of the oppressed is palpable. MIM, the PIRAO and RAIL are building towards the day when another Maoist-led Black Panther Party phoenixes from within the Black nation to lead to true Freedom from the shackles of oppression. NOTE: The San Diego Voice & Viewpoint, 7/17/97, A1, B6, B10. * * * CELLUCCI TO REVOKE MASS PRISONERS' VOTE by a RAIL comrade and MIM In July, Paul Cellucci took over as Massachusetts acting governor following Bill Weld's resignation to take a step up the imperialist career ladder as nominee for ambassador to Mexico(1). Changing the face doesn't mean the policies will be any different. Following in the wake of Weld's infamous midnight Massachusetts inmate deportations to Texas, Cellucci has already begun to show that the oppressors shoes won't be difficult to fill. Reacting to organizing by Massachusetts prisoners to start a political action committee(PAC), Cellucci announced that he will file an amendment to the state's constitution that will revoke prisoner voting rights. (Currently Massachusetts, Maine and Vermont are the only states that allow prisoners to vote.) Cellucci justified this by saying, "[w]hen you sentence someone to prison, they lose their liberties for a reason." He also went on to blur the definition of crime to say "let's think about the victims of crime, instead."(1) He certainly did not mean the victims of settler nation domination and imperialism. Since the majority of prisoners are from oppressed nations and are subject to inhumane and oppressive material conditions at the hands of the state apparatus, prisoners are one of the most revolutionary groups in the United Snakes. This is the real reason Cellucci and the other "tough on crime" advocates turn to neo-fascist measures to hold down the oppressed. This is also the reason to restrict prisoners basic privileges as it effectively shows who is in control. When prisoners educate themselves about the nationally oppressive character of the U$ injustice system and organize themselves against it, they pose a real threat to amerika's stolen power. Cellucci and others, like Sen. J. P. Jajuga(D - for "don't see any difference"), oppose prisoner organizing to keep the white U$ majority bought off by keeping the U$ internal nations segregated and under lockdown. Joe Labriola, the PAC spokesperson, said the objectives are to raise funds for outside elections and promote awareness of issues like poverty and poor education as fundamentals that help crime flourish.(2) This could expose the bio- determinist stance of prison advocates that blame individuals for "crime." MIM takes it further and say that "crimes" certainly can not be decided on by a government which commits crimes and gets away with it via imperialist Third World domination and oppressed nation occupation. Nor can individuals be blamed and locked up for petty crimes when society does not value them as humyns or provide the necessities for existence, like food, housing and education. Though the PAC has sparked settler reaction, it aspires to electoral influence and thus will not help the oppressed to achieve liberation. Nevertheless, the denial of such organizing illustrates the hypocrisy of Amerikan so-called rights. The PAC's goal to work within the system limits its chances of true change. Though the PAC points out that candidates normally win on small margins, this is because of the similarity between the party agendas. When it comes time to vote, it is a choice between which oppressor the white nation masses think will best represent its material interests. No matter what individuals win elections after making promises they may or may not keep to certain groups, voting under imperialism is not an effective method to achieve self-determination and liberation of oppressed nations. There are separate nations in the United Snakes. The only nation which is represented in electoral politics is the white settler nation. In the United Snakes, the majority ñ the settler nation ñ supports imperialism. This majority will stop at nothing to ensure that imperialism continues and Amerika will not concede to pull its fangs out of the oppressed nations without a fight. Many on the left have attempted to use electoral politics to achieve their goals, and none have been successful. When working within the system, we must choose winnable battles which allow us more mobility to organize for revolution, we cannot spend the energy of revolutionaries and the oppressed to fight battles which will gain little or nothing on the road to build revolution. We urge prisoners to work with MIM to expose the bullshit inequalities and brutalities faced by prisoners with the ultimate goal of gaining support for revolution. It's a long path that we must stay tight to. Some people may have hoped that with Weld gone, the Massachusetts injustice system would get better. But the change to Cellucci was just a change of one imperialist figure head for another. A change of one pig isn't going to clean up the shit. NOTES: 1. Boston Globe, 5 August 1997. 2. Boston Globe, 2 August 1997, A1&A9. * * * MARXISM-LENINISM-MAOISM ONLINE "PROGRESSIVE" ISP CENSORS PRO-BASQUE SITE At the end of July, faced with world-wide protests and aggressive mail-bomb attacks on its service, the left- liberal Internet Service Provider IGC, or Institute for Global Communications, agreed to censor a pro-Basque independence Web site that was hosted on its server. The protests, which initially took the form of letter- writing and then escalated to "forged and invalidly formatted email as well as other methods to jam up IGC" came "in response to ... the Euskal Herria Journal, which advocates 'self-determination'" for Basques in Spain and France.(1) Protesters said they were reacting against the site's support for the Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA), an organization that has claimed responsibility for the recent assassination of Spanish politician Miguel Angel Blanco. IGC acting executive director Scott Weikart had first declared "'We don't want to legitimize attempts to bring our service to its knees by censoring one site or another just because attackers don't want it ... We don't want to be controlled." But according to Weikart, when the organization appealed to other ISPs to help trace the source of the attacks, their counterparts ignored them, "suggesting instead that IGC simply drop the Basque site."(1) So that's just what IGC did. In its press release announcing that it was suspending the EHJ site "under protest" and for review, IGC explained that "the suspended Web site was for ... a New York-based organization supporting Basque independence in Spain and France, whose goal was to publish 'information often ignored by the international media, and to build communication bridges for a better understanding of the conflict.'"(2) "The site also contained articles on human rights," the press release continued, "politics, language, and lawful Basque groups working for autonomy, as well as a collection of hyperlinks to sites with views opposed to the ETA."(2) But the press release was careful to point out that as a "humanitarian organization" IGC would have taken the views of legitimate protesters into account, implying that they might have taken the same course of action without the electronic attacks. The IGC thus makes it clear that as a "humanitarian" resource they would censor political speech that offended its interests. Censorship for so-called humanitarian reasons is nothing more than the middle-class censorship of the proletariat as we have seen repeatedly in the struggle to win allies in building public opinion in favor of revolution. The IGC is merely upset that they were forced to make the decision to censor for pragmatic reasons, fearing that it sets a "bad precedent" for the Internet if the attackers think their actions caused the site's suspension. But faced with similar pressure from the Spanish government (albeit minus the attacks on its service), even the bourgeois media conglomerate CNN refused to remove its links to an ETA Web site -- explaining that it was standard practice for their online news stories to provide direct links to organizations they referenced! Last summer, MIM struggled with its ex-ISP, NY Transfer, to suspend service to the cop outfit "MPP-USA" which falsely claims to be the voice of the Communist Party of Peru, and attempts to split and wreck the international support for the Peruvian People's War under that banner. NY Transfer, which claims to be a service for the oppressed, refused on principle to suspend service to anyone for "political reasons." But they incorrectly equated police actions with "legitimate political expression" and thus erred on the side of Liberalism. The IGC, by contrast, makes it clear that as a "humanitarian" resource they would censor political speech that offended their values, but is upset that they were forced to make the same decision for pragmatic reasons. The IGC also published several statements of support for their actions, all of which denounced the violence of the ETA but called for "free speech in cyberspace." Some, such as Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR) helped to provide mirror sites with increased security for the censored site's content.(3) The Association for Progressive Communications (APC), of which IGC is a member, stated that "'Bombing' a site ... carried out from anonymity and whose eventual success does not depend on the force of the arguments but on the mere power of computers and bandwidth available to the aggressor as compared with that of the victim is an illegitimate use of force." These statements reveals the naivete of Internet-based, speech-centered politics -- and underscores the Maoist belief that there are no rights, only power struggles. The reality of the Internet is not, as liberals claim, a great big democratic space -- but a fairly centralized network controlled by governments and capitalists. Revolutionaries should capitalize on the relative freedom of communication we currently enjoy, but we also understand the difference between resources used by the people and resources controlled by the people. And until the people are in control, inequality will rule, and attacks like the one on IGC will be possible. MIM does not currently have enough information to argue that the Basque struggle is a progressive struggle against imperialism. We welcome further information and readers who will take initiative to work out a solid proletarian position. MIM supports the struggles of all oppressed nations which are at battle with the imperialists for genuine revolutionary nationalist gains which will not come at the expense of the international proletariat. NOTES: 1. http://www.news.com "IGC under attack for Basque site" July 17, 1997. 2. "IGC Press Release" July 18, 1997 3. CPSR Statement, July 29, 1997. PARTY PROGRAM & ARCHIVE OF BPP & MIM LIT ***MIM received the following letter from a visitor to an old web site maintained by a friend of MIM.*** Dear MIM, I recently came across your website about The Black Panther Party Platform and Program, and at the top of the page, it said October 1966, and I was wondering if the list of WHAT WE WANT and WHAT WE BELIEVE are still the ones that you share today, and if there is still a Black Panther Party today... Please e-mail me back if it is or isn't... Thank-you, An Internet Reader MIM RESPONDS: Thanks for writing. You should check out MIM's own program, which is on our new web site (http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext). The structure of our program is based on the old BPP program, and is similar in some ways. On our site, you will also find an archive of old BPP newspaper articles (http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/bpp) from the late 1960s. This is era of the Black Panther Party that MIM looks to as the Maoist vanguard in North America at that time. There are various groups that use the Panther name today, but to our knowledge none of them are true to the party's Maoist roots. After 1970 the BPP degenerated, check out our lit list to learn more. On our web site you can also read our views on the subject in much greater depth, which we encourage you to do -- and then tell us what you think, too. We always welcome opinions and responses to our work. WORLD WIDE WEB REVIEW NEW SITE OPENS FOR SERIOUS STUDY OF MARXIST CLASSICS From Marx to Mao http://gate.cruzio.com/~marx2mao/ Released to the public on International Workers' Day of this year, "From Marx to Mao" is a growing electronic archive of classic texts of Marx, Lenin, Stalin and Mao. In the site's statement of purpose, the author acknowledges other Web- based libraries devoted to collecting the works of Marx and Engels, and writes that s/he wanted "to provide an on-line version of very important texts, most especially by Lenin, which are long, long overdue." In a letter to MIM, the site's author wrote, "As of now, there are more than 40 listings, mostly from before the October Revolution, which include many of Lenin's most important texts, which other sites have avoided (either out of a lack of familiarity or because these texts are very long). There are also a dozen texts from Stalin and about the same from Mao. I will begin to turn my attention increasingly toward the latter as time permits." MIM applauds this effort and looks forward to the continued development of the site. We do think, however that the author goes too far in pitting Mao against Stalin in the opening quotation of the Mao section, which criticizes Stalin for not paying attention to the superstructure. In fact, Mao believed that overall Stalin was about 70% correct, and while the CCP made serious advances over the Soviet Union's approach, Mao credited Stalin with "creatively [developing] Lenin's theory that socialism can first be victorious in one country, ... the theory of the general crisis of the capitalist system, ... the theory of the fundamental laws of present-day capitalism and socialism ... [and] the theory of the revolution in colonial and semi- colonial countries."(1) NOTE: Mao Zedong, "The Political Thought of Mao Zedong" ed. Stuart Schram, Schreager, 1969. * * * UPS WORKERS WANT BIGGER PIECE OF PIE by RC35 and MIM August 3rd, in yet another display of labor aristocracy pie- hoarding, employees at United Postal Service (UPS) went on strike to demand more full-time jobs and continuation of past pension plans.(1) Strikers expressed sentiments of being "a machine" and worrying that once the "strength in your back...goes out of whack, it's over"(2). While work under a capitalist system is alienating, Amerika is at the top of the imperialist ladder and has voraciously hoarded Third World super-profits to buy off its working class and to avoid exploitation of the Amerikan working class. At this stage of capitalism, the settler nation working class is part of the Amerikan labor aristocracy and ceased to be defined as the proletariat specifically because the settler nation working class is not exploited, and hence, not revolutionary at this time. The UPS teamster strike is a prime example. THINLY PACKAGED PARASITISM As settler nation rhetoric has repeated in the past, this strike focuses on getting more "out of upper management" so that labor can "survive financially." One of the main demands of the teamsters is for the part-time employees that start at $8, $10.50 after 5 years, get more full-time jobs starting at $18.50/hr(1). This huge demand doesn't clearly show where this increase will really come from or why the U$ workers deserve it more then the rest of the world. One worker said "for every $1000 in business she brings in for UPS...she is paid $26."(3) But this womyn left out the profit created by the labor of others including those who manufactured the boxes and other materials used by UPS, and other workers along the line. Just because one worker solicits $1000 in business does not mean she created this entire profit herself. And if you include the other perks amerikan workers get just for being on the right side of phony borders, this exploitation teamsters allude to is quickly proven false. UPS is at the center of the shipping industry, delivering about 80% or 12 million parcels a day,(1) which, with the whining of businesses over delayed packages, puts the teamsters in a pretty strong bargaining position. They say they want to take it out of the "men in suits [who] are making all the loot,"(2) but they chose to ignore that the majority of U$ wealth comes directly out of Third World and oppressed nation super-profits. The UPS workers seem to think that because they lift up the box, or sort the packages, that they are the only ones doing any productive labor. They don't see that the trucks, the boxes, the goods they are shipping are produced with Third World labor, and the money used to pay their salaries and create their First World pension plans come directly from the super- exploitation of oppressed nation workers. The fact that Third World workers are exploited or super- exploited is exactly why imperialist nation workers can get away with arguing for more money and pension plans and frequently win. It is that wealth squeezed from the Third World that lines the pockets of imperialist nation pockets. This intentional oversight proves more clearly that the teamsters, and the labor aristocracy in general, have no wish to overthrow imperialism, but only want more wealth stolen from the Third World. TIGHTLY SEALED REACTIONARIES The workers are crying that they don't have enough to get by in Amerika, but in reality they reap the benefits of imperialism. The white nation in particular is doing very well in this country. 68.2% of whites own homes (compared to 43.4% of Blacks)(4), and whites are 50% more likely to get mortgage loans than blacks (the numbers are even worse for First Nations)(5), which they can easily use as collateral for purchasing more assets. In addition to access to capital, the white settler nation benefits from imperialism's subsidies in the form of pension plans. In the current context, the teamsters are attempting to increase pension plans for labor aristocrats despite their low level of productivity. Even at $8 an hour Amerikan workers can get by just fine. Mexican workers earn 0.15 to every $1 an amerikan makes,(4) white income brackets are steadily increasing,(4) and long term white unemployment is much less then that of the oppressed nations(6) which makes it relatively easy for workers like the teamsters to go out and find other jobs. All this coupled with the fact that many goods are cheaper in amerika while the rest of the world survives (or barely survives) as oppressed nations are unable to sell goods because of imperialist product dumping. And the teamster argument goes no where but to selfish national chauvinism. Labor organizers like the Teamsters ignore the facts of national oppression and Third World super-exploitation and continue to fight on for more pie. Imperialist hegemony focuses on only getting more for the imperialists and imperialist nation labor aristocracies -- not changing the social structure and relations. The drive for more pie for the labor aristocracies leads to fascism because the more that is being demanded by Amerikans comes at the expense of Third World workers' forced exploitation. Instead of fighting along side white nation individualism and reactionary nationalism, MIM urges those within the movement to turn 180 degrees toward real change. If you want to end unequal distribution for good, unite with the international proletariat in a movement struggling against systematic injustices of imperialism. Fight against the exploitation of the majority of the world's people which only benefits the imperialist nations and their working classes and imperialist lackeys. NOTES: 1. Boston Globe 4 August 1997, p. A5. 2. The New York Times 6 August 1997, p. A16. 3. Boston Globe 11 August 1997. 4. MIM Theory #10. "Coming to Grips with the Labor Aristocracy." $6 from MIM. 5. Boston Globe 5 August 1997, p. D3. 6. MIM Theory #7. "Proletarian Feminist Revolutionary Nationalism." $6 from MIM. * * * TOBACCO KILLS OPPRESSED NATIONS IN RECORD NUMBERS MIM recently reported on the so-called historic tobacco settlement between giant companies and 40 states.(MN 142) In this follow-up article, we focus on the effect of the deal (which does not limit export in any way) on Third World nations, who will increasingly become the dumping grounds for the Amerikan tobacco companies being closed out of the u.s. market. "Tobac-colonialism" is the newest form of colonial drug dumping.(1) The British used Opium as a weapon to control China in the 1800s, and the united snakes as well as the European Union is now filtering tobacco products into Third World nations. In many European nations, as in Amerika, public health campaigns and government initiatives are driving down the rate of tobacco consumption, while the tobacco companies are producing the same quantities of tobacco that must be sold somewhere to maintain their profit margin. Tobacco companies will insist on a strong foothold in the Third World, where there are some legislative initiatives to control tobacco consumption but not nearly the resources to stem the tide of increasing smoking-related deaths.(1,2) For example, in 1992 Viet Nam prohibited the use of the mass media for cigarette advertising. The Viet Nam government also imposed a fixed-rate consumption tax on all cigarette plants.(2) China is by far the largest consumer of cigarettes -- China's 350 million smokers consume thirty percent of the world's total cigarette production each year.(2) Over 4.4 million Chinese die of smoking-related illnesses each year.(2) The united snakes is stepping up its efforts to promote tobacco products overseas. Amerikan government initiatives and as well as private company actions include targeted advertising campaigns, investments, and threatening u.s. sanctions if Third World markets are not opened up to u.s. tobacco companies.(2) The health consequences of this Amerikan imperialism are devastating. By the year 2000, tobacco consumption is expected to be the leading direct cause of death in the Third World.(2) Just as with deaths caused directly by starvation, malnutrition and infectious diseases in the Third World, smoking-related deaths are increasingly imposed upon the masses by the imperialist nations. Even with the efforts of oppressed nations at restricting foreign tobacco imports, Amerikan companies are finding ways to enter into joint ventures with local manufacturers in order to spread the death and disease due to tobacco products. "[E]ven though faced with significant trade barriers, foreign tobacco firms are penetrating the markets of developing countries."(2) Nothing short of abolishing capitalism will begin to alleviate the devastation of tobacco consumption. Tobacco is the embodiment of capitalist production for profit rather than socialist production for need. It is not only Amerikan capitalism that kills by tobacco--China, capitalist since 1976, has recently attempted to raise the quality of Chinese tobacco in order to encourage consumption of Chinese rather than foreign tobacco.(2) But while China may benefit economically by the increase in the national market of tobacco, those benefits "are outweighed by the economic loss due to treatment for smoking-related diseases and death."(2) MIM is working toward a society where cash crops are abolished and food for local consumption -- not export profit -- replaces fields of tobacco. Stop the leading cause of death: fight imperialism! NOTES: 1. New Straits Times Press, 31 May 1997 p. 1. 2. "The export of U.S. tobacco products to developing countries and previously closed markets", Law and Policy in International Business, 22 Sept. 1996, p. 217. * * * UNDER LOCK & KEY BRUTALITY AND GENDER OPPRESSION IN PRISONS ARIZONA PRISONER EXPOSES GAY-BASHING AND MURDER ***MIM mourns the deaths of Carl Wayne Howard, James Dixon, and Billy Balance who were killed while incarcerated in Arizona prisons.*** Dear Maoist Internationalist Movement, I am presently incarcerated in the Arizona Department of Corrections(ADOC). Due to my sexual orientation I have suffered many hardships. I am a homosexual and sadly most of my abuse has directly or indirectly come from prison staff members. I am contacting your organization out of sheer fear and desperation for my health and safety. I am hoping that you can help bring an end to my torture by writing letters of concern on my behalf to ADOC central office and government and officials, (names and addresses enclosed). The acts of abuse that I have been subjected to is nothing short of "hate crimes". I have been physically struck while being called, "bitch, faggot, punk, and sissy". I have been spit on while being called "faggot." I have had both my personal and legal mail tampered with, lost, delayed for up to six months, and returned to sender for no reason. I have had my personal property lost and stolen. I have even had my very life endangered when inmates were falsely told [by ADOC staff members] that I am a "confidential informant" and "that fucking faggot has more pull up front than I do." The last statement could have gotten me killed, and did in fact lead to me being brutally beaten by two inmates on Feb. 6, 1997. The worst part of all these acts of abuses was at the hands of the ADOC staff members. The list of abuse goes on and on. . . and I must say considering the track record of ADOC when it comes to protecting inmates from being stabbed or killed, I really do have something to worry about. I'm enclosing a copy of a newspaper article about a gay inmate who was killed. [The murderer] used the defense [that the] "inmate was a gay man with AIDS so I killed him". This reflects the total attitude of most ADOC staff members that I have encountered. It's this type of open homophobic hatred of gay/transgender inmates that puts us at risk of being hurt or killed daily. When other inmates see that prison staff members will openly abuse inmates like myself it gives them the green light to do the same. I have even went so far as to try to get a court order granting me protection against abusive ADOC staff and inmates. So far this effort has been to no avail. I have filed two law suits in federal and state courts, and for some reason I'm not getting through to these people that this is a life and death situation. I want to share some situations that have happened due to neglect by ADOC staff which has caused inmates in their custody to lose their lives. In 1994 at the South Unit in Florence, AZ, inmate James Dixon was stabbed to death. The reason inmate Dixon isn't alive today is because ADOC staff sent him back out on the yard after he requested protective custody. Not only did they send him back out on the yard, they told the inmate population about his request for protection. A few days later her was found stabbed to death in the tool shed. I'm telling you about this because while I was at the South Unit I was raped. Since my crimes are non-violent/non- dangerous, and non-repetitive, that I should have ever been sent to South Unit. Knowing what happened to James Dixon I was too afraid to report my being raped for fear ADOC staff would tell the inmates that I had told. The next act of neglect happened on Feb. 7, 1997. It was at the Douglas Unit and inmate Billy Balance was stabbed to death. It's my understanding that he too had asked for protective custody and was refused. I tend to believe this due to the fact that my requests have fallen on deaf ears. Then on Feb. 12, 1997, at the Tucson Complex, another inmate by the name of Inmate F was stabbed while in the same lockup unit that inmate Howard was killed in. Inmate F had also requested protection and thank God he is living proof that ADOC neglect doesn't always end up in the death of an inmate. Inmate F is, however, in the intensive care unit at a near by hospital, my prayers are with him.. The abuse that I've suffered has left many scars. I'm now on three different medications for mental health problems related to stress and depression. When I say that I'm at the end of my rope, I mean just that. The Psychiatrist has even put it right in my mental health file "NO GROUP HOUSING". ADOC doesn't care about the Doctor's orders, and is in fact trying to send me to the Echo Unit where I would be housed in tents with 11 other inmates. If 12 inmates isn't group housing, what is? Please send some letters on my behalf soon. I don't want my name to be added to the long list of lives lost behind these walls. I know that we are living in a time when getting tough on crime is the rage. In keeping with that thought I feel that everyone should be held accountable for their actions, even if it's the keepers themselves. -- An Arizona Prisoner, 21 February 97 Letters of protest can be sent to: Mr. Daniel G. Knauss, First Assistant U.S. Attorney, District of Arizona, Tucson Division, 110 South Church St. Suite 8310, Tucson, AZ 85701 tel. (520) 602-7300 Mr. Grant Woods, Attorney General State of Arizona, State Capitol Building, 1275 W. Washington St., Phoenix, Arizona 85007 Mr. Terry L. Stewart, Director, Arizona Department of Corrections, 1601 West Jefferson, Phoenix, AZ 85007 MIM RESPONDS: This letter does a good job of demonstrating the gender oppression faced by gay men in prison. And as the letter writer points out, this oppression is mainly at the hands of the DOC. But there is also a problem in our society in general that leads many people to believe that gays are inferior and deserve to be abused. Because of this, guards are able to use a prisoner's sexual orientation against him and create conflict among the inmates. There is no more basis for considering gays inferior than there is for considering wimmin or Blacks or Latinos inferior. MIM deplores violence amongst the people and calls on all prisoners to fight the imperialists' attempts to pit inmates against inmates. It is good that this prisoner recognizes that the violence is principally coming from the DOC staff. But calling on the staff for protection is clearly not a solution when they are perpetrators of much of the violence. Instead we must organize for our own protection. Comrades on the inside and on the outside can help out this prisoner and many others by getting involved in the struggle. On the outside we should be writing letters on behalf of the many prisoners cases covered in these pages. And on the inside prisoners must work together to defend themselves and to organize and educate others behind the bars. GULAG KOP RAPES PRISONER: NO SURPRISE, PIG ESCAPES PRISON Dear Comrades, I read about RAIL in the MIM newsletter.... The reason I am writing you is becuz I was sexually assaulted by a prizon kop named Alan Reuben Collard in March of 1996. I had to go through a bunch of krap and even pass a lie detector before they would investigate it. It took them over a year to even arrest the pig. Had I been accused of raping a kop, I would have been arrested the next day. Anywayz, they have tried their best to kover this up. They are gonna let the pig plead guilty to reduced charges, and he won't do a day in jail. This same kop has messed with other POW's in the past they knew about it as early as 1992, but they kept him on the job. I am in a max prison, even though I was only sentenced for fraud. Since I got this pig arrested, my life has been hell. All the other kops are always on my ass, trying to intimidate me. They give me bogue write ups, trying to mess up my changes with the parole board (who I see in October). I am hoping that you can help me out, and bring this case to the attention of the people. As long as the Michigan Department of Korruptions can sweep this under the rug, nothing will change, and more POWs will be abused. I have no problem standing up to these fux, but I would certainly appreciate some support. I hope to hear from you soon. NO SURRENDER, -- A Michigan Prisoner 28 July 1997 MIM ADDS: The way we see it is that the settler nation of Amerika is at war with internal colonies. In a systematic manner, Amerika brutalizes, oppresses and commits genocide against oppressed nations. The systematic terror is easily seen if you examine the police and the prison system. Within the prisons where the masses are kept in order to quell revolutionary opposition to settler domination prisoners face brutality, unjust and inhumane treatment, slave labor, rape and even murder at the hands of the prison guards. The fact prisoners are raped and assaulted by the guards shows that under the current imperialist and patriarchal system, the oppressors use gender privilege to exert force and power as a way to oppress the masses and further dominate and cement the power of the oppressor. MIM and RAIL do not expect that pigs like this will be punished. When they are, it is only a token and irregular circumstance. Their brutal actions are part of the systematic domination of the settler nation. The only way to end this shit is to build opposition to the system in its entirety and build support for revolution. PRISON WORK & ECONOMIC REALITY PRIVATIZATION, EXPLOITATION AND REBELLION "Prisons in this country are overflowing and conditions, worsening, with ruling class officials pushing for more prison construction and throwing more and more Black, Latino, and Native youth into prisons. To work in the factories of Big cooperation at cheap low-wages." I'm a prisoner being held captive in Virginia where the introduction of privatized prisons is being formed. This is a move at industrialism from within prisons nationally instead of moving the jobs to other countries, just put them in the prisons. With the abolition of parole and the governor's (George Allen) Truth Sentencing Act (meaning 85% of your sentence will be served), the sentences are still 20, 30, 40 and 50 years. [This act] says a prisoner would have to serve 17 years on an 20 year sentence, with no time off for good behavior. The plan is to have as many potential workers [in prison] as possible. These conditions aren't new. After the Civil War, which left the majority of the South devastated, the South replaced slavery with sharecropping. The devious system which kept poor farmers bound to the land by perpetual debt to the landowner, and the introduction of Prison Farms, by 1871 state prisoners were laying railroad tracks and mining coal from Memphis to Knoxville. Their urine was collected and sold to tanneries by the barrels. Their bodies where sold often to medical schools after they died so the medical students could practice on them. "In a waste not, want not campaign." The most notorious example of this institution design was the Parchman Penitentiary on the Mississippi Delta opened in 1905, turned a $185,000 profit in its first year, and kept pumping out cash by Reviving the Basics of Plantation Slavery. (V.C.E, Virginia's Correctional Enterprise, made a profit of $24,638,000 in 1996) 1996 was a year of rebellion against increasing policies of denial and the racketeering of prisoners' funds. The hiring of Ronald Angelone as Director of Virginia's Department of Corruptions, who has several lawsuits pending in Nevada (where he was the Director there as well) for his "Shoot first ask questions later" policy. He has now brought this same slogan here. Dec. 26, 1996 at the Buckingham (In)Correctional Center the warden, Eddie Pearson, was stabbed, the Canteen liberated, gym and law library set ablaze, and four (unarmed) prisoners are shot. The governmentally, backed media says it was just an isolated incident, and no need alarm. The new policies of taking and limiting privileges via: no college programs, only vocational training in the prison factories, denial of legal accesses in the form of a $120.00 filing fee, and the limiting of visiting hours. In some cases, families drive 4 hours to spend 2 hours with the relative, then four hours back. Also, the monitoring of all phone calls, taking away of personal property, then selling it right back through commissary at much higher rates. With public opinion being "We don't want the Bad Guys around, we want them locked away and gone from our midst for good." So they're all right with the increasingly restrictive conditions. Deprived and Oppressed people, packed together in not so nice surroundings. That's a time bomb ticking -- and the clock is showing seconds. -- A Virginia Prisoner, 3 February 1997 NEW JERSEY PRISON INDUSTRY EXPOSED As you can see I'm a Prisoner of New Jersey State. Actually, I'm now in the so-called infamous, East Jersey State Prison (formally Rahway State Prison). As I've been incarcerated here in this fascist state for the past [#] of years, I've seen my share of changes within the prisons and outside far as politics are concerned. I'm more concerned with the political aspect of things, at this time, because of the new bill of laws about to be put into effect. At first, it was the "3 strikes you're out law". Now it is the "do 85% of your sentence law". New Jersey has a total of 8 prisons, one of them a sex offender prison. There's also another one being built -- Regular KKKoncentration KKKamp. East Jersey State Prison will become a double max as the infamous Trenton State Prison. Prisoners with 10 years or less will be packed in the newly built kkkamp, while the lifers and other prisoners with large stips (stipulated sentences) will occupy the maxs. Not only that, there was a program speaking on the use of New Jersey state prisoners sentenced to life as sacrificial lambs in scientific research and development of biochemical testing of drugs and viruses. From what I understand, this has already been placed into law. Right now we face the reality of paying for medical and dental expense, while most prisoners have accepted inmate state decreases. [The wages] weren't much to begin with. Governor Christie Whitman had the audacity to lie to the public concerning the living status of New Jersey Prisoners as well as the state pay rate. The starting rate went from 35-40 cents per hour down to 28-30 cents per hour. It urkes me to watch fellow prisoners sit back and watch our situation become more and more deplorable. Others who are released from behind these walls, go out and forget about the warriors who've sacrificed time, material of consciousness, and to some extent their very lives. Unbelievable - In any case continue to send me MIM Notes. I need the inspiration. Peace, love, Respect and Unity. -- A New Jersey Prisoner, 24 March 1997 PRISONER WAGES CUT Greetings and I wish you health and happiness! I would like to bring my problem to your attention. The department of Corrections has instituted a new policy that targets certain detail and it don't effect the entire population. The inmates in the Institution, in the Chapel, and the Act. Dept. were getting paid for working eight hours a day. Starting April 4, we will only be compensated for seven hours which is a very serious demotion considering the fact that we inmates haven't had a pay increase in the last three years and everything keeps going up all of the time. I would like to know if anything at all can be done about this unfair policy? The inmates in this Prison have been complaining about the cable in this prison for years. I made an attempt to get everyone to cancel their subscription so that we could get a better contract however everyone would not cooperate. I was told by my superiors, as they refer to themselves, that this directive will effect all of the state prisons. If this is true I wish to call a massive work strike until this unconstitutional policy has been recalled. Inmates must stick together, we must refuse to live in double cells. Simply refuse to take a celly. As long as we permit these prison officials to have their way, they will continue to warehouse us human beings like animals. We inmates at Camp Hill pay for our own medication. Our cable just went up and we were not given any new channels. We pay twenty dollars a month for five channels. Every prison in the state of pennsylvania gets more for their money. The cable is not my primary concern. My primary concern is the fact that this prison could not function without inmate work crews and we are being stepped on and mistreated. Everything in the inmate store has gone up and the prices just keep going up all of the time. I supposed this is the reason Prison industries are so very profitable. The commissary store here makes 5,000 dollars a day, that alone says it all. -- A Pennsylvania Prisoner, 27 March 1997 P.S. The guards and the staff are still being paid for eight hours and we inmates do all of the work. PRISON BRIEF: AMERIKAN OPPRESSION TACTICS ARIZONA REMOVES LAW LIBRARIES FROM PRISONS MIM, As of July 1997 the state of Arizona has decided to remove all law libraries from its prison system. I would like to be able to keep up with the law concerning prisoners rights. Therefore could you send me any information concerning other publications that I can receive. -- An Arizona Prisoner, 28 Jun, 1997 PIGS CHARGE PRISONER I would like to inform you that an officer here at this prison had brought an assault and battery charge against me. But the problem is that the evidence in the case is no good, because the evidence is a picture that was taken a minute before the alleged assault took place. I went to an all white jury trial on [date] and was found guilty after the jury deliberated for six (6) hours. The first time the jury sent their decision to the judge it was a deadlock, and the judge sent them back into deliberation. I still have to go back to be sentenced as they think. When I return to the judge I am going to give my defense. I understand how the political system had done Mumia wrong and they're doing me that way. I seriously hope that Mumia will go free. The capitalists and imperialists are to be totally destroyed by any means necessary. --A Michigan Prisoner, 10 March 1997 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; 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 DON'T EAT THE FOOD Dear MIM: ...I'm a prisoner at the Moberly Correctional Center in Missouri. And to show you the shit that is going on in this place, I was recently sent to the hole due to the fact that I would not eat the food from a cook who didn't have the proper equipment to serve the inmates. (1) No hair net, (2) No gloves, (3) No chin guard. So I took it upon myself to get my own tray and I was put in lockup at that point. Then I was released the next day. Prior to release from lock-up, I was seen by the [Administrative Segregation] Committee. They told me that I was wrong for getting my own tray. So I told them pigs that I don't care what they say. If the cook won't put on the proper gear to serve the food, then I will get my own food from the table myself, even if it means going to the hole each time. I don't care, my health comes first and the health of my brothers as well. This goes to show you that these pigs don't care if you live or die in these KKKamps. So someone has to stand up for what's right. Respectfully Submitted, -- A Missouri Prisoner, 20 May 97 * * * 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.
Return to MIM Notes Page
Return to MIM Homepage