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 116 JUNE 15, 1996 MIM Notes speaks to and from the viewpoint of the world's oppressed majority, and against the imperialist-patriarchy. Pick it up and wield it in the service of the people. support it, struggle with it and write for it. WORLD MOBILIZATION TO DEFEND THE PERUVIAN REVOLUTION ***The Peruvian comrades abroad who asked MIM to cease our work supporting the Peruvian revolution have retracted this request. While MIM works to reach greater clarity in our relationship with the Communist Party of Peru (PCP) and a better understanding of what work they would like done to support their revolution (aside from the most important task of building revolution in our own country), MIM prints the following statement and hails the development of this advance in the support for the peoples war in Peru.*** WORLD MOBILIZATION COMMISSION CALL FOR MOBILISING FOR STRUGGLE The undersigned reaffirm our most fervent support and solidarity with the victorious People's War that the Communist Party of Peru is leading since 1980. We are convinced that the Peruvian revolution is a first class contribution to the world proletarian revolution. The armed struggle taking place in Peru is an example of true combat against imperialism and revisionism. And in this context, we salute the great revolutionary condition and the fundamental role of Chairman Gonzalo, the leader of the PCP and the revolution. PERU: CALL FOR MOBILISING FOR STRUGGLE Since 1993, the Peruvian regime in cahoots with US imperialism has intensified their misinformation campaign against the People's War, against the PCP, and against Chairman Gonzalo. The counter- revolutionary objective is to isolate the Peruvian revolution and create the conditions for their commission of barbarous crimes against the war prisoners, and to be able to destroy entire populations in order to kill in mass the militants and supporters of the revolution. This is a Psycho- social warfare strategy in which they have enlisted the support of capitulationists, infiltrated agents and groups and personalities disguised as "revolutionaries" and "big time Maoists". The present political situation, at the national and international level, compels all who are truly willing to lend their militant solidarity with the Peruvian revolutionaries, to unify our efforts under the common objective of defending the Peruvian revolution from the imperialist onslaught, and the activities of revisionism and opportunism. With this aim in mind, we submit the following document to your consideration: BRIEF INTRODUCTION: The forces of imperialism, revisionism and opportunism, have, in various occasions and using multiple strategies, attempted to destroy and wipe out all traces of good will towards the People's War and the Communist Party of Peru (PCP). In order to succeed, a revolutionary process needs favourable public opinion, and concretely, it needs a movement of support and solidarity from the revolutionary organisations and parties, as Chairman Gonzalo has already noted. This is one of the reasons why the enemies of the Peruvian revolution have dedicated ample resources to the infiltration and undermining the support movement for the Peruvian revolution. In foreign countries, a number of individuals and organisations appear from time to time claims themselves to be the "representatives of the PCP", and proclaiming themselves as the "greatest Maoists on earth", while in practice they carry out activities aimed at undermining this support while at the same time trying to exact capitalist profits from the revolution. These enemies of the Peruvian revolution have adopted varied masks and draped themselves in different guises. At times, they perform their abject tasks in the open, and sometimes they work underhand without showing their true face. Here are two concrete examples illustrating these counter-revolutionary phenomena: The first relates to those individuals who played a role in making propaganda for the police fraud of "peace agreement" in 1993. The second, relates to those who claim to "support the people's war" and even express their opposition to the "peace letters' fraud", but who in practice are working for the same strategic designs of US imperialism. Revisionists and opportunists, together with those agents directly linked to the Peruvian police's Secret Services, share the same objectives: 1. To depict the PCP as an organisation weakened by an acute internecine and "life or death" struggle centred around "two lines" regarding the "peace" fraud. 2. To deny that the "peace letters" plot is a police fabrication engineered by the National Intelligence Service of the Peruvian state (SIN), and supported by US intelligence experts. 3. To depict Chairman Gonzalo as a vulgar capitulationist who, from inside his cell, is leading the "peace agreement" plot. 4. To deny and obscure the analysis and position of the Communist Party of Peru regarding the "peace agreement" plot which was from the word go repudiated and denounced by the Party as a counter- revolutionary fabrication engineered by US imperialism and its lackeys. They also try to slur over the spirited defence by the Party of Chairman Gonzalo's revolutionary integrity. 5. To promote the disorganisation of the international political movement in support of the armed struggle and the PCP, and to lead it into a quagmire. FIGHTING OPPORTUNISM THROUGH TO THE END A principle of Marxist theory teaches us that in order to fight imperialism with success and from a position of advantage, it is necessary to distinguish clearly between enemies and friends. That once the class enemy is clearly identified, we must fight it through to the end. It is true that the capitulationists and police agents (abroad) were represented by the heads of the Peru People's Movement (MPP), and they were fought against and smashed without qualms. They were unable to resist the burden of the People's War, and currently (in Peru and abroad) they have no longer any significance in the Peruvian process, existing only as figments of the imagination in Fujimori's plots. On the other hand, the revisionists and opportunists were represented - and still are - by the leadership of the International Committee of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement (Co- Rim), and by the heads of the International Emergency Committee (IEC). This current, isolated and despised by the true friends of the People's War and the PCP, are crawling like snakes loudly hissing their "support for the people's war" and even screaming that their "red flag is flying over Peru". Adopting this phoney revolutionist position, they are attempting to continue to profit from the People's War. This is precisely what now must be stopped. We must not allow vulgar opportunism to continue to capitalise and profit from the heroic struggle of the Peruvian revolutionaries. The opportunist leadership of Co-RIM, is the main cause of immobilism in the international movement of support for the People's War in Peru. Since October 1993 their nefarious activities have been geared to paralysing any show of support for the People's War and to cast doubts upon the revolutionary condition of Chairman Gonzalo. Both bureaucratic organisms, the Co-RIM and the IEC, are not in any way politically and morally capable to call upon the masses and political organisations to the defence of the Peruvian revolution. No working class individual would listen to or follow the calls of an eclectic leadership who took a conciliatory position towards the police fraud for over a year and a half and kept during that time secret relations with the promoters of the police and capitulators' plot abroad, a leadership, moreover, that took steps to pigeonhole documents of the PCP. No political organisation abroad can take seriously the proclamations of the International Emergency Committee (IEC), while the bureaucracy in charge of that organism is the same bureaucracy in charge of the Co-RIM. No one with elementary political sense would want to offer their support and solidarity to Chairman Gonzalo if this must pass through the IEC, an organism in whose "leading body", three individuals who are working and coordinating actions with the Peruvian government remain. UNITE ON THE BASIS OF UPHOLDING THE REVOLUTIONARY PRINCIPLES Given the ideo-political considerations above, we issue this call to set up and organise a WORLD WIDE MOBILISATION COMMISSION (WWMC) to defend the Peruvian revolution. This organisation would be directed linked to the Peruvian process and will undertake the task of organising, guiding and promoting all activities in support of the Peruvian revolution abroad. Its tasks would be geared to the following objectives: 1. To defend the life of Chairman Gonzalo and his powerful Thought. 2. To defend without reservations the People's War, the Communist Party of Peru (PCP) and its leadership. 3. To defend the life of the war and political prisoners. 4. To defend Maoism as the new, third, and superior stage of Marxism, within the context of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism taken as a unity in development. 5. To struggle against imperialism, revisionism and opportunism and all counter-revolutionary forces. 6. Work towards convening and implementing a WORLD CONFERENCE to congregate political parties, support groups, mass organisations and fronts, as well as personalities who sympathise with and support the People's War in Peru. To appoint an Organising Commission to this effect. BRUSSELS, 10 MARCH, 1996 * * * CHIPPEWA YOUTHS STABBED, BOATS SUNK: ONTARIO RESPONDS WITH INACTION Over the past year, anti-First Nation violence has escalated in the First Nation territories that Canada considers its own. On paper, Ontario recognizes the rights of the Chippewa people of Nawash to exploit the fish in provincial waters. In practice, the settlers of Ontario are waging a campaign of terror to attempt to prevent the Chippewa from exercising those supposed rights. These incidents have included the stabbing of four First Nation youth, the sinking of a fishing boat, and the burning of a tugboat that was later sunk. Because the attacks have taken place off the reservation, Ontario has jurisdiction. It has yet to bring charges against anyone for last summer's crimes. MIM knows that justice will not come from Kanada; only when the Chippewa determine their own fate will the violence end. The Nawash have attempted to bring attention to police inaction around these cases by issuing a call for help from Kanada's Minister of Indian Affairs. However, the Ministry declined to get into a turf war with Ontario, leaving the Chippewa to deal with the pigs they trust least. Chief Ralph Akiwenzie of the Chippewas of Nawash has made a correct analysis of the situation: "Ontario's police cannot, or will not, protect the people or property of the Chippewa; and all actions taken against the Nawash will go unpunished." The Newspaper Indian Country Today correctly recognizes the internationalist connections of the Chippawas struggle. It paraphrases a lawyer who points out the similarities to the refusal of local law enforcement to follow the United Snakes' own laws toward its internal colonies in the South of the 1960s. MIM would add that no reference to history is necessary to see the similarities between the Black nation and First Nations. Both face constant violence from settlers that goes unpunished. Three years ago, a provincial court ruled in favor of a priority indigenous right to fish around the Bruce Peninsula. It was a reaffirmation of the Kanadian constitution, and directed the province to take a "new approach" to assuring First Nation rights: Ontario was to not only allot the Nawash a good share of the fishery but would also have input in how the fishing was managed. In lieu of an agreement, the waters have been chaos. The Nawash want to reach a fishing agreement to avert more violence, but Ontario won't sit down at the negotiating table. The Nawash want an agreement that would favor species of fish that they traditionally use, rather than the current ones which favor hatchery species. But negotiation seems unlikely. Ontario recently notified the Nawash that they will be issued a communal fishing license which will greatly restrict their rights according to the Kanadian constitution. The Kanadian constitution will not protect the Chippewa of Nawash or other First Nation peoples. Only real self-determination will be a defense. NOTES: Indian Country Today May 7-14, 1996, pp. 1-2 * * * LETTERS TO MIM CRIMES AGAINST THE PEOPLE AREN'T POLITICAL Dear MIM, i am a worker in the New Afrikan Independence Movement. i like your journals and am happy to find much unity in your literature and work. i disagree, however, with your assertion that "all prisoners are political prisoners". i had a nice letter all composed, but fell victim to a glitch, so forgive me for mixing my commentary with quotes from both "Injustice System Convicts Another Latino Youth" (MIM Notes, 113) and the NEW AFRIKAN P.O.W. JOURNALS. You say that "all prisoners are political prisoners" because, "The criminal justice system targets oppressed nationals, arresting them at a higher rate and giving them much harsher sentences than their white-youth counterparts..." (and) "No oppressed national can be given a fair trial in the United Snakes' court system. Every facet of law enforcement, from the pigs to the definition of crime to sentencing guidelines, is about protecting white-nation domination...". All this is true, but it "simply point[s] out the objective colonial relationship" which New Afrikans and other oppressed nationals have to the u.s. empire. We cannot forget that "even reactionary and counter-revolutionary elements within the nation[s] are objective colonial subjects..." [BOOK TWO -- TOWARD CLARITY ON CC'S, PP'S, & POW'S, pps. 24-25] In BOOK SEVEN, "On Transforming the Colonial & "Criminal" Mentality", We see an attempt to "lay out the true, proper, and NECESSARY criteria for Political Prisoners: PRACTICE is that criteria. On the bottom line, Political Prisoners are revolutionaries; they are conscious and active servants of the people. Political Prisoners direct their energies toward the enemies of the people -- they do not commit "crimes" against the people." (p. 21) Finally, "...so far as the struggle is concerned it must be realized that it is not the degree of suffering and hardship involved as such that matters: even extreme suffering in itself does not necessarily produce the PRISE DE CONSCIENCE required for the national liberation struggle." (Amilcar Cabral, REVOLUTION IN GUINEA, p. 63) again, i apologize if the tone of this is pedantic, dry, or academic, but i do think that it's important to enter into this dialogue with y'all. ... in unity & struggle (p.s. -- if you should choose to print this letter, please respect my use of 'i' & 'We', as this is an important aspect of our understanding that "the community is more important than the individual", and that We "believe in collective struggle" and in "fashioning victory in concert with our brothers & sisters".) MIM RESPONDS: Thank you for writing to MIM. It seems we have much unity. We certainly understand that the relationship between Amerika and the oppressed nations within its borders is a colonial one, but are not content to let that (correct) analysis tell the whole story of prisoners. MIM says that all prisoners are political prisoners because we recognize the process by which some people are classified as "criminals" for stealing cars -- and some are classified as legitimate government leaders for stealing whole countries as a political process. We mean to call attention to the criminality of the oppressors in this formulation. So principally we are dealing with the difference between the giant crimes of the oppressor and the lesser crimes of the oppressed. But it's true that prisoners who've given or risked their lives in the struggle are in a different category still, and MIM recognizes that. It's why we agitate specifically about the frame-up and imprisonment of Mumia Abu-Jamal (for example) and support the movement to free him. We recognize that campaigns around political prisoners like Mumia are important for exploiting contradictions with the enemy and actually winning on their terms (unlikely). But also for the revolutionary movement outside of prison to learn from the examples and leadership of prisoners. So we'll continue to insist that no matter what the "crime," the more than one million people behind bars in Amerikkka are there because of the political superstructure that supports imperialism, and are in that sense political prisoners. We also recognize that many ordinary prisoners who were not activists before they got to prison have become very political once they got there, which accounts for the high demand among so many prisoners for revolutionary study material. But all that won't stop us from acknowledging heroes of the people too. Keep in touch! BUCHANAN RIGHT ON THE JEWISH QUESTION? ***This is part of a long theoretical letter. Part of it was printed last month and more is printed here.*** Dear Comrades, [I]t is true that there are many reasons that Buchanan sucks, and I do not berate MIM for criticizing him, but his opposition (at least claim of opposition) to Zionism and international Jewish banking is not among them. It is one of his very few good qualities. These elements are prominent figures in the exploitation of the third world and ought not be defended by Maoists. Criticize Buchanan for the many things he gets wrong, not the few things he gets right. Comradely Yours, A friend in the south A RAIL COMRADE RESPONDS: In this letter and your previous one, it seems like you've essentialized Jews and failed to differentiate between Zionists and Jews. For instance you write " Work at universities... mostly produces Jews, anarchists, environmentalists, pacifists, New Age scum and other elements which are not genuinely leftist..." In your list, you've included Jews who are defined by birth and not political ideology with groups that are entirely defined by a chosen ideology. While it is good to criticize individuals and groups according to their chosen ideology, it is wrong to criticize people by birth. You cannot choose to be born Jewish any more than you can choose to be born a man, a Palestinian or Black. Genuine communists criticize ideologies like Judaism or Zionism and not ethnicities. Also, while MIM and RAIL criticize Zionism, we do it with the understanding that U.S.-backed imperialism and not Zionism is the principal contradiction in the Middle East. We would criticize Amerikans as strongly as Israelis, and Amerikan imperialists as strongly as the "international Jewish banking" community which you separate for condemnation. Why do you make this distinction? Do you think Jews have essential or universal characteristics? Is Zionism worse than Amerikan imperialism? Are Jews less likely to join genuine communist movements than Amerikans, Europeans or Japanese? It is improper for a communist to defend Pat Buchanan when it comes to opposing Israel or "Jewish banking" because Buchanan's slanders are anti-Semitic, i.e. based on criticizing Jews as people and not as Zionists, their chosen ideology. Since Buchanan is pro-imperialist when it comes to Amerika, his anti-Zionism is completely hypocritical and given his following most likely based on racist essentialization of Jews. What sins is Jewish banking guilty of that the Rockefellers didn't initiate? Why separate Jewish bankers out from Episcopalians? * * * ISRAELI ELECTIONS SHOW DIVISIONS OVER "PEACE TALKS" At press time, the votes in the Israeli election for Prime Minister are almost all counted and Likud Party candidate Binyamin Netanyahu has declared victory in a very close race against current Prime Minister, Labor Party candidate Shimon Peres. Peres ran on a platform of continuing the bogus "peace talks" with the Palestinians, which would eventually mean giving up a small bit of land, but no real self-determination for the Palestinian nation. Netanyahu wants to keep all land, and take an even harder military line against the Arabs and Palestinians. Liberal Israelis are mourning the death of the sham peace process along with Peres's defeat. This is the first time that Israelis are directly electing their prime minister--it used to be that people voted for parties, and the prime minister would be the leader of the winning party. In this case, voters can vote for either Peres or Netanyahu, and also cast their votes for Knesset (Israeli parliament) members for many of the smaller parties in Israel, which is what happened on Wednesday, May 29. Both Labor and Likud lost about 10 seats in the Knesset, and those went to ultra-Orthodox religious parties and new Russian immigrant parties. These smaller parties vehemently oppose any "land for peace" deals, and the new prime minister will have to pander to these parties in order to gain the 61 (out of 120) required Knesset seats to form a majority government. Israeli Arab voters turned out in record numbers, casting their ballots for the Labor Party. The bourgeois press is claiming that this incredibly close race, shows that Israelis are divided over the peace talks with the Palestinians. Ultimately Israel will win either way, even if there are more suicide bombings and if a small bit of land is given up for a Palestinian territory. But until imperialist Israel is smashed, it will have the financial and military support of the United Snakes, and will continue to control the Palestinians and their territory. The majority of Palestinians live in the West Bank and Gaza, and are currently under the rule of the Palestinian Authority (PA), led by Yasir Arafat. The PA is negotiating with Israel, in the so-called peace talks brokered by the United Snakes, over the land on which the Palestinians live, but have no real control. Israel holds the major cards as far as what happens to the West Bank and Gaza, and under the current talks those territories will never grow into an independent Palestinian nation. MIM knows that the division among Israeli voters is really meaningless for the Palestinians who want self-determination--their own land, nation, government, and army--above all else. MIM supports Palestinian self-determination, and recognizes that only revolutionary struggle will make this happen. No matter what the outcome of the Israeli elections, Palestinians are the losers until Yasir Arafat is pushed out of the way and a true leader of the people rises up to struggle against Israel, rather than negotiate with it, and lead the Palestinians to freedom. NOTES: Washington Post May 30, 1996. p. A1. * * * MIM NEWS: PEOPLE'S FINANCE DEVELOPS The people have taken ever more committed steps to financing the MIM-led revolutionary movement. Several exciting projects await support. An interesting idea can be found in the Workers Party of Belgium's (PTB) newspaper called Solidaire. The PTB sponsors people's bonds in which the party borrows money for projects and pays back interest rates higher than what the masses can get elsewhere, but lower than what the PTB would otherwise have to pay. Here at MIM we too have the need for gathering financial support for projects that require up- front financing. *Approximately $3000 is needed to finance the reprinting of the Filipino book by Amado Guerrero titled Philippine Society and Revolution. This book examines conditions of the revolutionary struggle in the 1960s, most of which are still true today. It also connects the struggle in the Philippines to the Cultural Revolution and Maoism. MIM would like to give some of these books to the Filipino people, North American prisoners and also sell some ourselves. *Another $3000 is needed to publish a book titled The Political Economy of Counterrevolution in China: 1976-1989. This book makes a factual examination of the revisionist restoration of capitalism in China. *$500 is needed to purchase copies of a book by Indian comrades reprinted from 1963 titled, "The Great Debate: The Polemic on the General Line of the International Communist Movement." MIM is much inspired by the efforts of the Indian comrades to reprint this book and would like to do its share to sell it. *$500 is need to buy a good quantity of the new selected works of Mao, beyond volume 5, also published by Indian comrades. MIM would also like to assist with the purchase and sale of Ludo Martens's book "Another View of Stalin" which is coming out in English soon and which MIM hopes to help expedite. Other books including Ludo Martens's book the Velvet Counterrevolution may be appropriate for distribution to prisoners along with MIM's written criticism of it. It is important not to let great books go out of print or sit unpublished. For this reason, MIM sees to its financial development. The more money we can muster up-front, the more we can see to timely distribution of revolutionary literature. In imperialist societies where we are not yet ready for armed struggle, we have a special internationalist duty to finance the books of our fraternal comrades. Anyone interested in assisting with finance can write to MIM. * * * CORRECTIONS: We apologize to our Irish comrades for the following paragraph that appeared in the April, 1996 MIM Notes 111. "The bomb showed that with more than 2,000 officers from both MI5 and the police available for intelligence-gathering and infiltration, the British Security Forces have been unable to penetrate the higher levels of the IRA, or they are trying consciously to provoke discord in IRA ranks by claiming the ceasefire was still on." This paragraph should not have appeared in the story and is in error. In MIM Notes 113, May 1, 1996, the article "Nisga'a land deal product of First Nation radicalism" made several errors of language that liquidated the nationhood of the Nisga'a. We should have referred to the Nisga'a nation as being geographically within Canadian borders, not as a "Canadian indigenous nation". In MIM Notes 113, May 1, 1996, a sentence in the article "House votes to screw immigrant workers" read "As MIM Notes reported in November some farms prefer to employ welfare mothers, Mexicans or Puerto Ricans already within U.S. borders, while other growers and segments of the government prefer to import temporary laborers." MIM meant to say that the growers prefer imported workers, but that the government is split. * * * BOSTON GLOBE FUELS CRUSADE AGAINST "SEX OFFENDERS" This May has marked unprecedented strides in the general movement toward repression of pig-defined sex offenders. "Megan's Law," mandating registration of pig-identified sex offenders, notifying their neighbors, and making that information available publicly, has been the rule in New Jersey for a year and is now being made federal. Here in Massachusetts, the crusade to demonize this group has been overwhelming. Outrageously reactionary Governor Weld has been accused of being soft on pig-defined sex offenders by both his "liberal" opponent in the senatorial race, Senator Kerry, and the "liberal" Boston Globe. All of this legislating and posturing will not stop the abuse of children, a group highly sexualized in this society. In a culture in which power is eroticized, children are common victims of sexual violence since they are the most powerless group in society. This sexualization of children is obvious in pornography and general media representation. The sex offender scare-tactics reinforce incorrect analyses of rape, including rape of children. This use of gender to beef up the police state is a trade mark of pseudo-feminism. Pseudo-feminists make gender the principal contradiction and ignore the ramifications the legislation they advocate has for oppressed national minorities. The first sensationalist story in a recent series of the Boston Globe's campaign against sex offenders was printed on May 1. It told the tale of a man who had recently served a brief term for a sex offense who was accused of another, the rape of a fourteen year old girl. Never mind that he was not yet convicted, the Globe had already decided that he was guilty because he had a prior conviction. The bourgeoisie likes to pretend that the problem of child sexual abuse is one of deranged individuals who are destined for derangement their whole lives. The neighbors of this man were convinced of his guilt, and of the primacy of past convictions in determining that. They were also quick to absolve themselves of any cultural unity with him. One man said "I had no idea he had a problem like that. I don't know what a man who did something like that is doing out." There is a great hypocrisy in a society in which child sexual exploitation is constantly portrayed in both pornography and mainstream media but people feel so uncomfortable talking about it that they use euphemisms like "a problem like that." It is an impossibility for anyone awake and alive walking down the streets of billboards to miss the fact that Amerika sanctions child pornography and unquestioned parental control. Those who uphold the system which protects speech for the powerful (which includes pornography) but decry the products of that speech cannot avoid hypocrisy. The man, a community leader, continued with his erroneous understanding saying: "We are very upset about the situation. I just want the tenants to know we're doing everything we can to make this a safe place to live."(1) News flash: the vast majority of children who are sexually abused are abused by their own parents or other family members. The vast majority of them, *especially* those who are white, are never caught. If the man really wanted to make the place safe, he would have no choice but to work for the abolition of the patriarchal family and create real social responsibility for the care of children. Instead, he invents monsters to target and avoids the ninety-nine percent of child sexual oppression. The Boston Globe used this story to support its conclusion that we need registration of pig- identified sex offenders here in Massachusetts. The director of the American Friends Service Committee Criminal Justice program, Jill Brotman, has pointed out that telling sensationalist stories of child molesters is a deceptive technique used to vilify all pig-identified sex offenders: "All these bills are sold as child molesters but the population affected is very heterogeneous."(2) That group includes men who have been convicted of soliciting prostitutes, raping their wives, or statutory rape just across the magic age line. None of these are really the "threat to society" that the Globe says they are: these actions are fully in accord with patriarchal society. Additionally, not all of these groups pose the same threat to women and children, even assuming they are guilty as charged. The issues are very distinct gender issues threatening different groups, though you would never know it from reading the Boston Globe. The second pro-registration piece in the Globe came the next day, this time accusing Weld of letting sex offenders out of prison eventually.(3) The Globe whined that Weld's scathing indictments of those incarcerated for these crimes did not jive with the fact that a minority of them do get parole. Weld has no grasp of the real situation, and so his statements don't mean much anyway. For example, he says "There's quite a lot of evidence that the recidivism rate is so high for sex offenders, particularly child molesters, that you're almost better off concentrating on bars as the form of treatment."(3) According to the AFSC's Jill Brotman, however, the recidivism rate for those who participate in programs is just 15%, a very low rate relative to many other crimes.(2) But Weld does not really care about decreasing recidivism. Crime is a big industry for him. So he just resorts to criticizing programs on moralistic grounds: "Philosophically, I don't think treatment programs are terribly effective for sex offenders, particularly for sex offenses involving children. That's not where I'd put the bulk of my money if I had a limited amount of resources."(3) RAIL activists know this well: Weld would rather spend millions of dollars on transferring prisoners to Texas and building super-maximum prisons than on preventing crime, however defined. The programs are not without their problems. They still focus on individual offenders rather than social reformation. However, their biggest problem is that taking advantage of the programs dooms an individual to a life of registration and notification, thus a never-ending sentence. In order to take part in the programs, they must sign a paper declaring that they are sex offenders and have a lifelong illness.(2) There are very real penalties for failing to sign on when programs are available. One mother of a prisoner who was convicted of a sex offense he did not commit explained that her son cannot get parole because every time his case comes up he refuses to sign the paper declaring that he has this supposed disease.(4) The bill in Massachusetts is ex post facto, meaning that it applies to people convicted before it was passed. That means that the school officials would be notified that children in their schools have a parent who was convicted of a sex crime and signed one of these papers to get parole 20 years ago.(2) The third article in the barrage by the Globe was more of the same: using the boogey-man of the child rapist to justify big-brother political ends.(5) A Democratic State Rep out to get more support from patriarchs "was outraged" and complained: "I don't know of a more vicious crime than the rape of a child."(5) Jill Brotman pointed out, and MIM and RAIL have long maintained, that this is a skewed understanding. She asks: "Is a pedophile more of a monster than someone who drops a bomb on Iraqi women and children?"(2) The political definition of crime prevents an objective ranking of monsters except by material analysis which makes Amerikan imperialism the biggest raper, child molester, murder, and general criminal.(6) As society portrays children in a way that is increasingly sexualized and violent, their abuse will continue to be endemic. But following the reactionary tide toward the boogey-man stranger child-molester and away from the far more dangerous family would be a great disservice to children. Instead, we must get the debate about prisons back on track when reactionaries harp about child molesters. We must insist on looking at the larger issues of the incarceration of huge numbers of people acting just as pornography and advertising preach and the society allows.(7) NOTES: 1. Boston Globe, May 1, 1996, p. 19. 2. Jill Brotman, director of the Criminal Justice Program at the American Friends Service Committee, May 22, 1996. She and the mothers of prisoners spoke to this reporter after a meeting of the Coalition of Prisoner Families, which meets on Wednesdays at 6:30 PM in Cambridge. For more information, call (617)661-6130. 3. Boston Globe, May 2, 1996, p. 1. 4. Anonymous mother of a prisoner, speaking at the Coalition of Prisoner Families on May 22, 1996. 5. Boston Globe, May 3, 1996. 6. See the RAIL Prison Pamphlet, available for a dollar from RAIL PO Box 3576 Ann Arbor MI 48106. 7. See "The Oppression of Children Under Patriarchy" in MIM Theory 9: Psychology and Imperialism, available from MIM for $4.95. * * * AMERIKAN TROOPS STILL IN THE PHILIPPINES Amerikan Marines stormed a beach near Manila last month as part of military exercises conducted with the Armed Forces of the Philippines. Two U.S. frigates, a submarine and an amphibious landing ship with a total of 1,500 American soldiers took part in the exercises. The Filipino people have made it clear that they will not allow the Amerikan military to use Philippine territory as a base to launch attacks against them or other peoples. A mass movement led by revolutionaries recently forced the Philippine Senate to evict the Amerikan military from its Clark and Subic Bay bases. The recent military exercises and the negotiations around ACSA (an agreement which would re-open the Philippines to u.s. ships and troops) show that Amerikan imperialists are willing to force their soldiers on to Philippine soil whether the people like it or not. The United Snakes has had a major military presence in the Philippines since it invaded the Philippines and launched a bloody war against the Filipino people in 1899. After the u.s. granted nominal independence to the Philippines in 1946, several unequal treaties between the United Snakes and the Republic of the Philippines guaranteed a direct u.s. military presence in the Philippines as well as indirect u.s. control of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). Amerikan imperialism needs its military in the Philippines both to control its Philippine neo- colony and to control the South Pacific. The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDF) are currently waging a Protracted People's War against the u.s. puppet regime in the Philippines and the u.s.-supported AFP. Both the CPP and the NDF see their struggle as essential to the liberation of the Filipino people and as an internationalist duty. NOTE: Reuters, May 6, 1996. * * * TURKISH MAOISTS UNVEIL VIDEO OF ARMED STRUGGLE Cologne, GERMANY--Upon the 24th anniversary of the death of their founder-leader, I. Kaypakkaya, the Turkish Maoists of Turkey and T.Kurdistan (Turkish Kurdistan) showed the world a video of their organized armed struggle in Turkey. Over 5000 Turkish people attended the showing at a sports arena in Cologne on May 18th. With CIA aid, the Turkish regime tortured Kaypakkaya to death on May 18th, 1972. The Communist Party of Turkey/Marxist-Leninist (TKP/ML) holds a commemoration ceremony every year in Germany. The TKP/ML unveiled a video of determined fighters of the army led by the TKP/ML fighting in the mountains against the Turkish fascist regime. We learn that what really looks like an ordinary hill of snow is in fact a TKP/ML base. Fighters train in the snow and icy water. In one scene we see fighters swimming in an icy stream for the purpose of training. The soldiers also climb ropes, do somersaults, run through snow, lie face down in the snow to avoid detection, practice rifle formations, fire missiles, track the enemy and study politics. It is difficult to convey the determination of this army in words, so MIM asked for a copy of the video and we hope to see a version dubbed in English soon, so that the world may be informed of the armed struggle in Turkey. As in the case of apartheid South Africa where the state appeared heavily prepared and armed while widely hated, we believe the future of the Turkish fascist state is not very long. True, the Turkish revolutionaries cannot defeat the state in a frontal assault any time soon. On the other hand, whenever the hatred of the ruling class's state is so widespread and deep as it is in Turkey, it is only a matter of time before the regime finds itself with clay feet. Stay tuned for more lengthy coverage of our Turkish Maoist comrades in an upcoming Maoist Sojourner. * * * UNDER LOCK AND KEY: NEWS FROM PRISONERS AND PRISONS AD-SEG ISOLATION INCREASED IN SOUTH CAROLINA Greetings comrades, Hope all is well for you on the front lines. Life inside is still a constant struggle to maintain the fight, but it only makes us stronger and more dedicated to rising above our oppression.... As for dealings at this camp, things are still on a downhill roll. As you can see from the enclosed memo, we now have even more hassles on Administrative Segregation (ad-seg) status. [The memo reads in part: "Per the directive of Mr. William D. Catoe, Deputy Director for Operations, all solid steel doors and window flaps will be secured effective November 21, 1995" --MIM] They claim that all cell doors and window flaps are closed for security, but it's not true. This is simply an attempt to eliminate conversation between us, and to try to make us suffer with limited air- flow into our cells etc. Because if we still desire to punish a pig it is not difficult. All we have to do is wait for chow, or get a roll of tissue or something, then do what you have to do, when they open the flap to serve you. So it's punishment for all South Carolina Department of Corrections lock-ups. But we can't be broken; we'll only get stronger. --a South Carolina prisoner, Feb. 28, 1996 WHAT'S UNDER THE TABLE OF THE INDIANA PAROLE BOARD? Just because a person is sitting in a position of authority does not make that person right without question. Frequently that person is more criminal and corrupted than the person he is sitting in judgment of. The Indiana Parole Board's favorite reason for denial of parole is "nature and circumstances, seriousness of offense". Yet recently the Indiana Parole Board released the following prisoners: a man convicted of murder and sentenced to life, who while serving that sentence was convicted of kidnapping the warden and the warden's wife and children in an escape attempt; a man convicted of killing a police officer and sentenced to life, who while serving that sentence escaped from custody; a man convicted of murder and sentenced to life who while serving that sentence was convicted in the death of another prisoner; and a man who was originally sentenced to death. I was convicted of second degree murder for a shooting death during a robbery, carried out when I was 16 years old. I have served 23 years of my life sentence. I have never tried to escape, nor have I killed another prisoner. Yet I am continually denied parole. To deny me parole while freeing the men I listed above is a mockery of justice and a slap in the face to any progressive and humane human being. I have been denied parole for "nature and circumstances, seriousness of offense" for something I did as a 16 year old. How have these men been granted parole? Did these men bribe the Indiana Parole Board? Is the attitude of the Parole Board that "the worst come first"? Since my confinement I am virtually without biological family. An attorney sat in at my November 17, 1995 parole hearing and listened as the Indiana Parole Board members mocked me concerning one of the prisoners they had released, who earlier had stabbed me in prison. At this hearing, the Chairman of the Parole Board, Joseph Smith, was not even present. Since he is African American, and I am African American, and the victim of my crime 23 years ago was white, racism may be a factor in the behaviors and actions of these parole board members. Smith is no longer chairman of the Parole Board. I request the assistance of any person or organization active for the cause of justice. You can assist by writing letters to the Chairman and Lt. Governor asking for a rehearing and parole: Chairman Indiana Parole Board 302 W. Washington St. Indianapolis, IN 46204 Lt. Governor Frank O'Bannon 100 North Senate Avenue Indianapolis, IN 46218 In solidarity, --an Indiana prisoner CALIFORNIA, NEW JERSEY AND IOWA PRISONS CENSOR MIM NOTES Salutations, My esteemed comrades in struggle, I am forwarding this communique to inform you that MIM Notes #110 was censored citing pages 1,5-7, & 12, objectionable. As you are aware, all material is now censored and this unauthorized institution exercises its discretion at determining what it appropriate or not. A consequence of struggle in which the beast seeks to suppress the undying voices of resistance. Please continue to forward papers until it becomes a futile endeavor. Continue to Build. --a California prisoner, Apr. 17, 1996 Letters of protest can be sent to Pelican Bay State Prison, 5905 Lake Earl Dr., PO Box 7500, Crescent City, CA 95531. Greetings, My Brothers, Sisters, Revolutionary workers and Comrades-at-war, I greet you on this glorious day with the utmost respect and with the universal sign, "As-Salaamu-Alakium." I just received my first edition of MIM Notes which, I truly find excellent, educational, resourceful and most of all very inspiring. But unfortunately and reluctantly, I must sadly report that the additional forward of MIM Notes will be confiscated. The New Jersey Youth Correctional Facility claims, "It's not authorized and it poses a threat to security." What they failed to mention was: "We are afraid that the prisoners will organize."... But nevertheless, reluctantly I must respectfully request that you discontinue to mail me MIM Notes. My spirit will always be with the struggle of the Revolution. --a New Jersey prisoner, Apr. 26, 1996 Letters of Protest can be sent to: State of New Jersey Dept. of Corrections, Albert C. Wagner Youth Correctional Facility, PO Box 500 Ward Ave, Bordentown, NJ 08505. Mail Clerk: W. Guest. Dear MIM, I'd like to inform you that I am no longer allowed to receive your publications, by reason of retaliation. The prison has stopped me from receiving MIM Notes.... These actions are due to another prisoner's suit that has not yet been to court/trial yet regarding the prevention of receiving anti-right/capitalist publications (at the prison). I enjoyed MIM Notes and appreciate the news that you provided through MIM Notes. Thank you much. In struggle, --an Iowa prisoner, Apr. 29, 1996. Letters of protest can be sent to: Iowa State Penitentiary, PO Box 316, Fort Madison, IA 52627. PRISONER LOCKED UP FOR EXPOSING "TYLENOL TECHNICIANS" Dear Comrades, ...in your letters from Under Lock & Key in the Mid-April 1996, issue #112, I saw myself. I am the person that one of my comrades wrote about....The one doing two years ad-seg time for a bag of chips!! ["South Dakota: Passing Snacks equals two years ad-seg time"--MIM] As you probably already know, this was only a cover excuse to lock me down. My problems started in late July of 1995. When I was lifting weights. As my comrade said, I am a fairly large man and had done a lot of time on the iron pile. An accident happened and 550 pounds fell on me, squashing me like a bug into the pavement. As a result of this accident I have two herniated discs that I know of. I have been refused even the simplest of treatments. It has been nine months now and I haven't even gotten a complete x-ray of my back. Since the accident, I've been forced to live with the pain. Pain so bad that at times I've had to crawl around on my belly like a snake to get to the john. At one time the pain was so bad that every time I moved a certain way I passed out.... When I was able to make my way to Health Services to see the "Tylenol Technicians" and report my problems and the pain I was having, I was placed in Disciplinary Segregation. Twenty minutes after seeing Health Service, I loaned a Brother-at-arms a bag of chips! Boom! That was their excuse to throw me in the hole. I had been speaking out against the Health Services and the administration felt I was a threat to the security, but they had nothing to lock me up for. This is their "valid" reason to deny me medical attention and give me the proper treatment I need. If I am housed in the administrative segregation of the prison, which I am, then I am a security risk and not allowed to see the doctors like the general population. I am in with the Death Row inmates and treated the same as, if not worse than any of them. For borrowing a bag of chips! My only crime in here or violation of their petty rules is having a voice against the wrongs I see, and helping out fellow brothers down on their luck. Well that is about it here. Keep up with the good work you guys are doing and may the powers that wish to repress you Fall!! --a South Dakota prisoner, Apr. 26, 1996 P.S. My medical condition has not improved and as of Apr. 17, the day of my ad-seg review, I am still officially an unstable individual and security risk to the prison. I was told to do my two years in ad- seg. TENNESSEE PRISONER SACRIFICES HIS "X" Dear comrades, I was really happy to hear from you and to have received my issues of MIM Notes. I'm very sorry that I have taken so long in replying to you. But I really have been going through some changes because of the "X" in my name. It is a political thing here in this prison. Since I have taken up the "X" in my name, prison officials have branded me a Communist, radical etc. But through it all I remain strong in the struggle and will never give up. I had a talk with the warden and he has informed me that I may still receive my issues of MIM Notes as long as I remove the "X" from my name. So please remove the "X" from my name, so I can keep getting my issues of MIM Notes. And know that I am always with you. Always in the struggle. --a Tennessee prisoner, Apr. 25, 1996 A CALL TO UNITE AND QUIT UNICOR Dear friends, ...I have been seriously thinking of means to knock the prison industry off its foundation. And the only way I can see it, is for prisoners to quit working for UNICOR [Federal prison industries -- MIM]. This would have to be a plan implemented through out all the U.S. prisons. I'm sure that the results would be devastating to the prisons themselves in six months or less. Prisoners would have to gradually quit the UNICOR. Unfortunately the ones who are paying for incarceration, assessment, FRP, etc., would be hit the worst. They could be subjected to segregation, put on refusal status, or face being shipped to another facility. But you could only do this with so many prisoners. Mass shipment to me is highly unlikely especially with the prison space growing more scarce each day. The prisoner would also have to use a backup buddy system. The backup friend, if you can find someone you trust, would receive money on their account, small amounts, to buy for that friend his personal needs at the commissary. If a person tried to stock up on many items before quitting UNICOR, if that person was to be shipped, they would lose everything, since everything is now being shipped home to your family. We have been receiving many women from other institutions and their attempts to stock up on items and clothing has backfired. I realize that this would cause a lot of hardship for people. But as I see it, it would be a temporary setback, for a short time, in comparison to the many years that many prisoners have received on petty drug charges. I feel strongly that this plan will work. We need to pull together and knock the wheels off and take the money out of this slave labor operation. Crack the foundation of the prison drug war. Quit UNICOR. --a West Virginia prisoner, Mar. 18, 1996 PIGS HOLD THE TOILET PAPER IN SOUTH CAROLINA **Below is a Policy Bulletin from Vaughn Jackson, Captain at South Carolina Department of "Corrections"' Kirkland "Correctional" Institution, to all Maximum Security Unit (MSU) prisoners:** "MSU is experiencing a shortage of toilet paper in the unit. This is occurring because the toilet paper is not being used for what it is designed for. The paper is being wasted by cleaning the sink, and wiping the cell down instead of one's backside. "Effective Sunday 2/11/96 - 2 rolls of toilet paper will be issued to you. If you don't have any tissue. If you have one roll you will be issued one. If you have 2 rolls you will be issued none. If by chance you need more during the week, you must fill out a request form, "--Signed, Captain V. Jackson, Feb. 7, 1996." RCG1 responds, This "correctional" institution is punishing prisoners for trying to clean their sinks and cells with the only materials available to them, "because the toilet paper is not being used for what it is designed for." The pigs re punishing prisoners for the pigs' own failure to provide prisoners with the necessary and desired cleaning supplies. PRISON OFFICIALS STEAL LEGAL DOCUMENT ...While prison officials are not censoring material such as the MIM Notes, they are stealing legal documents with the same objective in mind: to keep the truth from as many as possible, to attempt to frustrate and discourage those willing to stand and fight by any means available, etc. These prison officials allege that three pounds of legal documents sent to me on July 11, 1995 were misplaced (lost) due to a medical emergency. I say that is bullshit. But the United States District Court thinks that what said prison officials state is up to par and have dismissed my lawsuit as being moot....This shows the degree to which these pigs will go.... In struggle, --a Maryland prisoner, Feb. 29, 1996 PRISONERS ARE SLAVES ...Yes, the guards are corrupt. I remember one time three weeks ago where two inmates got into a fight, one was Caucasian and one was Black. The white inmate never got a chance to hit the Black inmate. But when they were taken to the hole, the Black inmates' face looked as if he was hit repeatedly in the face with five pound dumbbells.... Last week a Black inmate informed a guard that he felt an epileptic seizure coming on and need to see the doctor. The guard said, "that's too bad," and he said the inmate would have to write a note to the clinic and see the doctor tomorrow. At that moment, the inmate fell to the ground, eyes in the back of his head and shaking convulsively, meaning he started having a seizure. The media does not cover these things. Why? because prison doesn't allow surprises. They know ahead of time who is coming to visit the concentration camp, and therefore, make preparations so everything seems just like it does when you are on the outside looking in. Inside prison, the prisoners are slaves, the warden is the slave master, the guards are the overseers, the jobs are the product that we slave over. In prison one makes 25 cents an hour, some much less. This prison has contract with big corporations. We make sofas, chairs, desks, nightstands, etc. for a quarter an hour. Then they are sold in stores for hundreds of dollars, but you wouldn't know this because you're on the outside. You probably don't believe that prisoners are slaves, but doesn't it make sense? I mean, we are treated like dogs. Matter of fact, if we were treated like dogs, it would be much better. But for those who refuse to believe that slavery still exists in the United Snakes of Amerikkka, the Thirteenth Amendment of the of the United Snakes Constitution states: Section 1- "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, EXCEPT as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States or any place subject to their jurisdiction." Prison is wrong. It in no way helps an individual to stop committing crimes, but the opposite. Slavery is wrong.... --a Michigan prisoner, Apr. 5, 1996 VISIONS If i could i would reach out and touch the burning sun i would glide across the moon in slow motion...then run i would gather up all my family members under one roof And share with them Afrikan culture & stories that some have forsook At the wave of my hand i would rid the crack from the ghetto streets And i would reach out to the Motherland and pull her under my feet i would chase uncle sam until the murderer had tired Place a tire around his neck and set it on fire Arrest oppression and continue to educate to liberate Break the prison gates for the politically conscious prisoners' sake And if i could i would bring back all the great Afrikan martyrs and encourage them to lead the way And allow our youth to enjoy the beginnings of a new day --an Indiana prisoner, Nov. 7, 1995. In memory of Ajamu M. Nassor 8/12/51 - 12/8/94 TEXAS PRISONER SPEAKS OUT AGAINST GUARD-INFLICTED TORTURE ...On Nov. 14, 1992, I was attacked and injured by [prison guards] Arthur Pina and Robert Vela. I was struck in the head and body, brutally lifted from the ground and dropped head first into the concrete floor during the conquest of these two attackers. I was injured and in great pain, to the point of mental shock to my mind. Also during this attack I was afraid and in fear for my life as well as permanent health, as both attackers verbally made known their intent to do such. Not only did both attackers isolate me, but further caused serious mental stress and anguish by threatening to take my life and injure me further if I spoke a word of my attack to anyone. At which time, others arrived to aid. Arthur Pina is a prison officer who out of personal interest and deliberate intent, attacked me. He attacked me in retaliation for a past conflict which was stopped by a warden due to my family's as well as my own complaints about his daily abuse. He has conspired with one Robert Vela to risk my life. I believe he has also attempted to take my life and intentionally cause serious bodily injury to me. Both to intimidate and punish me for "bad faith" and personal gain. Not only because of the out-of-duty actions against me, but also to ensure other friends of his attack and injure me. Because of his status and the intentional premeditated and trumped up story and investigation which he and Robert Vela used to hide the attack yet at the same time having me, after seeking help, attacked by several other of their friends. Both of these attackers are shielding and falsely applying information to the records and going to find other friends who weren't present to write up incident statements. But sworn to other officials on such, to insure me being locked away and isolated from witnesses and aid thereof because of the attacked nature and actions, treatments, punishments by others as well as other retaliation. I've suffered mental anguish, physical abuse, segregation and lose of property, in which due to constant fear for my life I've been placed in such terror. To where I'm under psychiatric care and medication and constant counseling with weekly treatment, and daily fear for my life and safety. --a Texas prisoner, Mar. 5, 1996 POLITICIAN USES PRISONERS TO PRINT HIS CAMPAIGN LITERATURE Dear comrades, I'm sending you a copy of the McCollum Report [Bill McCollum, U.S. Representative, Eighth District-- Florida, Campaign Newsletter--MIM]. But best of all, I've posted through the Federal Security with evidence that Congressperson McCollum is violating the law by using prison labor in our print plant, a UNICOR Federal Prison Institute, to print newsletters for his political campaign. Friends, I am for the cause. I can not risk mailing this to the press myself. Enclosed is a mail tag. The political campaign mails tags and prints transmittal forms showing the cost of the slave labor where federal inmates are printing for his political campaign. He is against Habeas Corpus and wants the death sentences carried out. Please see that you print this and mail copies to CBS, NBC, or any newspaper which will print this. Federal prisons are working for the Congressman's political gain. This is the type of evidence the press is crying for. I could trust no one else to get the news out to the public. This information is high on the list of our struggle. These documents must get into the hands of the press. --a Virginia prisoner, Apr. 16, 1996 MIM replies: We do not agree that the corporate media "is crying for" chances to expose corruption in Amerikkka's federal prison system. Instead, we build MIM Notes as an independent tool of the oppressed. Thanks for writing. * * * MIM WINS FIRST BATTLE AGAINST "MPP-USA" POLICE PLOT As we go to press, MIM has foiled a police plot conducted in the leadership of the "MPP-USA," which stands for Popular Movement of Peru, U.S.A. branch. In May, the misleaders of the "MPP-USA" made the public mistake on the INTERNET of calling for the overthrow of Luis Arce Borja, the editor of El Diario International and a genuine leader in the People's War in Peru, most known for interviewing comrade Gonzalo at length in a famous PCP document that MIM has been distributing for some years now. A year ago, MIM sent a message to the PCP (Peruvian Communist Party or "Sendero Luminoso") through possibly defective channels to tell it that at least one of the leaders of the "MPP-USA" was a cop and that another one or two people had serious problems of honesty. MIM stopped reprinting New Flag articles in Maoist Sojourner and adopted a policy of total silence on the New Flag. We waited for a PCP reply in the meantime. Many honest people criticized MIM for adopting silence on the New Flag in the year from May, 1995 to May, 1996. MIM does not know how the PCP handled what MIM is trying to tell it, but a centrist Peruvian sojourner did get MIM's message without taking it seriously. Finally, on May 1st, 1996, various centrist and wavering elements working with the infiltrator leader of the "MPP-USA" received some information that started them wondering. Previously, they had all been working together on the "Marxism List" to set up a pole of support for the People's War in Peru--all in fact following the MPP-USA leaders in denouncing MIM. On that day, a person in Malmoe, Sweden noticed that someone working for the revisionist Co-RIM (Committee of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement) was distributing leaflets against Luis Arce Borja. This started a chain of events which caused the "MPP-USA" leaders going by the name of "Luis Quispe" to attack various wavering, centrist and honest proletarian elements in the movement to support the People's War in Peru. On May 3, "Luis Quispe" started a provocation by asking if someone in his own camp was a "a plant of the intelligence services"? The suddenness of this change of opinion shows in that weeks earlier, Quispe was trying to defend the same person in the camp to MIM. On May 10th, a bogus Maoist in Detroit spoke for the New Flag against Luis Arce Borja, and said to Luis Arce Borja that he should just learn to live with the idea that no one will support his Worldwide Mobilization Call (WMC) to support the People's War in Peru (see reprint of the WMC in this issue). Yet, on May 11th, a New Flag supporter rose to call for self-criticism from "Luis Quispe." Another New Flag supporter started referring to the New Flag as "lumpen"-led. At that time, some information about the financial support for the New Flag leader from pro-Cuban revisionists arose. As of May 12, the centrist leader of the camp opposing New Flag leaders admitted he had only convinced two people of the error of their ways. At that time, he made a point of saying he was unwilling to "cry wolf" and call the MPP-USA leaders cops. However, on May 15th, rhetoric heated up and lines started to harden. Another Maoist sympathizer lined up with Quispe, but so did a die-hard Trotskyist fool who criticizes all alliances. (He is the type who should note his collaboration with the bourgeoisie for having a bank account.) Quispe started becoming bolder, calling for the overthrow of Luis Arce Borja. Later he called Luis Arce Borja a "traitor" and said the "proof" was that Luis Arce Borja never distributed PCP documents from 1994 to 1996. A little over a week later, MIM pointed out that Luis Arce Borja's job was never mainly to circulate PCP documents, and that was true in the years before 1994 as well. Quispe was simply trying to fool the newer supporters of the People's War who didn't know that Luis Arce Borja is a journalist first and foremost. On May 22, we have a response from Quispe about MIM's stand, and from then on the battle-lines became increasingly clear. On the one hand is someone who called for the split of MPPs (ordered by Quispe not to support the WMC) and the overthrow of Luis Arce Borja for no new reasons of any political importance. On the other hand, we had the camp that recognized that Quispe was someone who had infiltrated the movement after the arrest of Gonzalo, at a bad moment for the PCP. Quispe had gained credentials by doing translating work and editing of the New Flag. Now he was using them to gather information on a wide variety of organizations in imperialist North America, including Committees of Correspondence, CP-USA, SWP, PLP, WWP, RCP and MIM--while claiming to be buddy-buddy with all of them, unlike anything the real PCP would do. It came to light that Quispe fabricated the positions of MIM for his own purposes, and created documents out of thin air for several people not in MIM, including CP-USA. For this kind of reason, MIM said it was important for the supporters of the People's War abroad to break with people like Quispe, whether they claimed to have PCP authorization or not. The PCP is not able to see everything that goes on abroad and so it's real supporters can't just sit back and watch its supposed representatives do things they hide from the PCP back home. People in the camp to support the People's War in Peru started to realize that despite our fundamental political differences, having cops in our midst could only cloud everything we were arguing over and that we had to unite to throw cops out, and then thrash out our differences and maybe even split over real (as opposed to cop-instigated) issues. For this purpose, the centrist leader spoke of MIM as part of "revolutionary unity." To unite with people even in revisionist organizations, MIM distinguished between "cops wearing revisionist masks" and revisionists. There are many, many small things we should learn to overlook in each other for the purposes of unity in this movement and others. When it comes to fabricating positions, fabricating documents, double-dealing for the purposes of setting groups trying to support the People's War against each other while claiming to be for both by word-of- mouth and for gathering intelligence--at that point we have to say, such a person is a fraud, not a representative of the PCP. Then we must find a way to let the PCP know the damage caused but also the tempering experience gained from such struggle. As we go to press, MIM is happy to report that new converts have been won to the cause of smashing the police plot and only one person in the last week was remaining willing to put in a paragraph supporting Quispe. Some went so far as to say we should all ignore Quispe and continue talking about things like the national bourgeoisie, the labor aristocracy and theory issues generally, because "no one could possibly take him seriously." There remains much work to be done to crush the police plot in the "MPP-USA" however. This "MPP- USA" gained political prestige by working with MIM circles and among other supporters of the Peoples War in Peru and has done extensive work to infiltrate these circles, starting in 1993 by use of sugar-coated bullets. In fact, in 1994, Quispe named MIM a member of the "red fraction of RIM," which is the highest honor the PCP can bestow on MIM from the PCP's own political view. Fortunately, MIM never quite believed this character 100 percent, and discovered him as caught up in a host of un-Maoist activities, including denouncing MIM as "counterrevolutionary" when he needed to depending on what audience he was speaking to. MIM's Party Congress approaches this summer. MIM is already looking for greetings, ideological challenges and suggestions for its program for the middle-classes--semi-proletarians and petty- bourgeoisie. Now MIM would also like to hear from our comrades everywhere supporting the WMC and MIM's line. From our point of view, the main task of the WMC is to clear away some debris blocking the movement to support the People's War and also to be heard by the PCP-CC and then to follow the PCP-CC. Already the call has resulted in uncovering a major police plot lasting at least three years which was confusing the world's movement to support the People's War in Peru. More details will be forthcoming in Maoist Sojourner. If the only thing the WMC does is to mobilize the masses to carry through in clearing out the police plot and raise our voices in support of the PCP so that it knows it does have supporters abroad, despite the confusion cops have sown, then the WMC will have justified its existence as far as MIM is concerned. If we succeed in globally mobilizing people with the proletarian line of Marxism- Leninism-Maoism on questions of classes and international organization, the WMC may have a very bright future indeed. (To reach the "Marxism List" with Netscape or some such browser, do an INTERNET search for "Marxism List." To reach it by gopher, go to jefferson.village.virginia.edu under public discussions lists under "spoons.") * * * KOREAN VICTIMS OF AGENT ORANGE STILL DENIED COMPENSATION by MCB52 Back in 1984, Western soldiers returned from Vietnam won a $240 million settlement for harms caused by Agent Orange. Soldiers sent from southern Korea, however, were not included in the suit and are still struggling for some compensation for their suffering as a result of Amerikan brutality. Amerikans have been aware for quite some time of the harms caused by defoliants used during the Vietnam War. But the extreme censorship under repressive military dictators in southern Korea has left those suffering from health problems including skin diseases, urological disorders, birth defects, and soft-tissue cancers in the dark until very recently. Agent Orange was an herbicide sprayed on the forests of Vietnam in the late 1960s with the intention of destroying the foliage that hid communist troops from imperialist troops. In a spraying operation known as "Operation Range Hand," the US dumped more than a 11 million gallons of the poison on that tiny country. Its use was discontinued in 1971, but not before causing untold disease for Vietnamese people and the soldiers fighting there. The country of "South Korea" was created by the United States following the Korean War fought to quell the communist revolution in Korea. This constructed country sent 312,000 troops to fight against the communist revolution in Vietnam. These troops constituted the second-largest foreign contingent in Vietnam, but those veterans were left out of the 1984 settlement for Agent Orange victims from the US, New Zealand, Australia, and Canada. The right-wing newsmagazine *Far Eastern Economic Review* says "It isn't clear why the South Koreans were left out of the original settlement or why most veterans were not included in [the] 1984 class action suit." What that magazine chooses to ignore is the fact that puppets of the US do not make demands of their boss. Korean people are not deemed worth of compensation by Amerika, which poisons them in innumerable ways on a constant basis through its companies' destruction of their environment. The legal means Agent Orange sufferers are now using have successfully gained some health services from their government, but if they want real justice and freedom from poison they will have to overthrow imperialist domination entirely. MIM would focus on the suffering of the Vietnamese people who deserve compensation for the destruction of their health as well as their country. Agent Orange is just one example of the imperialists blatant disregard for human life and suffering. The Amerikan empire owes huge blood debts around the world and these debts will only be paid when imperialism has been overthrown. NOTES: Far Eastern Economic Review, May 9, 1996, p. 30. * * * PEASANT MASSACRE IN BRAZIL Military police in the state of Para, Brazil, fired on 2000 peasants demonstrating for land reform on April 17, killing 23. The victims were members of the Movimento Sem Terra (Movement of Landless Peasants or MST). The Brazilian government's own investigator concluded that the victims were specifically targeted because of their organizing activities and executed. Militant peasant organizations from around the world denounced the massacre. The Second International Conference of Via Campesina, with delegates from 40 countries, released the following statement: "Once again, violence and assassinations are being used by the government in response to the just demands millions of landless farmers in Brazil, where land is more concentrated than practically anywhere else in the world. Barely 1% of rural landowners are in possession of 46% of the land, while 90% of all landholders possess less than 20% of all property. Furthermore, only a little more than 50% of all arable land is under cultivation, while some five million families of agricultural workers are landless. "Since the concentration of land ownership brings with it the concentration of economic and political power, Brazil suffers from permanent conflicts between the landholding minority and the majority of the population, which has led to an unleashing of violence against rural women and men who are struggling to democratize the land." MIM agrees with this analysis and would only add that Amerikan imperialism has an interest in defending the economic and political status quo in Brazil-in fact, Amerikan imperialism is responsible for the status quo. On the one hand, Amerikan agribusiness companies are themselves large landowners, exploit Brazil's natural resources and farmers, and depend on the political support of the large Brazilian landlords; on the other hand, Amerikan industrial concerns can hire the expanding "surplus population" very cheaply. Amerikan imperialists also frankly admit that militarization of the Brazilian state and the repression of the masses are necessary to create a "stable investment climate." The CIA designed the fascist tactics of the Brazilian Military Police-- which include torture, "disappearances," and random terror--during the 1960s and 70s, when Brazil was ruled by an Amerikan-backed military government. U.S. puppet regimes like the Philippines and El Salvador later implemented these tactics as well. The Peasant Movement of the Philippines (KMP) and the May First Movement (KMU) also denounced the massacre. The KMP and KMU are legal mass movements of peasants and workers respectively working to free the Philippines from the shackles of U.S. imperialism. NOTE: Associated Press, April 24, 1996. * * * BLACK CHURCHES TARGETS OF TERRORIST ATTACKS: UNITED SNAKES PART OF THE PROBLEM by MCB52 Since 1989, a new wave of terrorist attacks has struck Black churches across the South. One organization, the Center for Democratic Renewal, documents 57 cases of arson or serious vandalism at Black churches since January 1990. Half-ass and inadequate Federal investigations have been accompanied by the participation of Federal investigators in racist gatherings with local law enforcement. Though a couple of the overt racists were dismissed from the case, dozens remain. And the very notion that the United Snakes is solving the crimes against the oppressed is suspect as they deny the nature of the attacks as instruments of national oppression. The head of the Congressional Judiciary Committee in charge of the investigations, Henry Hyde, says he is unsure whether the attacks are of a "racial" character. "You know, burning churches can be a statement by people who are angry at God, not necessarily trying to send a message to the parishioners or the pastor," he said.(1) He ignores the many cases which prove otherwise, for example the presence on a back door of a burned church the painted words: "Die Nigger Die!" and "White Is Right."(2) But Hyde invited plenty of white groups to testify at the Congressional hearing, for example the Kkkristian Coalition, and he excluded prominent Black groups like the National Council of Churches.(1) This shows his complete denial of the national character of the burnings. If the burnings are not anti-Black, why have no white churches been targeted? Liberals have one response to that question. Dr. Joseph E. Lowery, president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, said: "We're not surprised by the feeble response to the church burnings. It just represents the 51st state in this nation: the state of denial."(3) What he fails to understand is the material basis of that denial: national oppression. The Amerikan government and the white-supremacist arsons are on the same side. Revolution for national liberation is the only way such violence against oppressed nation people will end. Malcolm X stated in 1963; "How are you going to be nonviolent in Mississippi, as violent as you were in Korea? How can you justify being nonviolent in Mississippi and Alabama, when your churches are being bombed, and your little girls are being murdered, and at the same time you are going to get violent with Hitler, and Tojo, and somebody else you don't even know? "If violence is wrong in America, violence is wrong abroad. If it is wrong to be violent defending Black women and Black children and Black babies and Black men, then it is wrong for America to draft us and make us violent abroad in defense of her. And if it is right for America to draft us, and teach us how to be violent in defense of her, then it is right for you and me to do whatever is necessary to defend our own people right here in this country."(4) Falling far short of a revolutionary analysis, Jesse Jackson and other liberals are raising criticism of the Federal investigation. "There's a clear pattern and practice now, and there's not the vigorous pursuit of these arsonist terrorists that we deserve," he said.(1) MIM does not cheer-lead the investigators and urge them to do their job "better." Jackson is useful for exposing the hypocrisy of the United Snakes supposed devotion to "justice for all," but fails to understand that equal justice is not possible under imperialism. The alliance between the Federal government and the arsonists has been illustrated in this case by the conduct of the investigators in the South. Federal officials admit that twelve of the Federal agents now investigating arsons at Black churches in the South attended one or more of the annual "Good Ol' Boy Roundups," where even they admit that "racist" activities "sometimes" occurred.(5) Two of the agents were symbolically removed, but what of the rest of them?(2) And what about the other racist scum who are conducting the investigation? There will be no real resolution to these crimes against the people until the people have their own courts and their own power of sanction. NOTES: 1. The New York Times, May 21, 1996, p. 12. 2. Los Angeles Times, May 5, 1996, p. 1. 3. The New York Times, May 22, 1996, p. 14. 4. Malcolm X, Message to the Grass Roots, Nov. 10, 1963, Detroit, printed in Malcolm X speaks, George Breitman, ed., Grove Weidenfeld New York, 1990 p. 7-8. 5. The San Francisco Examiner, April 3, 1996, p. A- 13. * * * PEOPLE'S CONFERENCE AGAINST IMPERIALIST GLOBALIZATION The Bagong Alyansang Makabayan or BAYAN (New Patriotic Alliance), a multisectoral alliance of people's organizations in the Philippines will host a PEOPLE'S CONFERENCE AGAINST IMPERIALIST GLOBALIZATION on November 18-23 in Manila to counterpoint the Fourth Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leader's Meeting, which will be held November 25 in Subic Bay Freeport, site of the former u.s. naval base. APEC represents Amerikan imperialism's attempt to consolidate its control in the Asia-Pacific region, which is the number one export market for the United Snakes. APEC pushes neo-liberal "free trade" policies, which leave Asian-Pacific neo-colonies backward, non-industrialized, and poor. The theme of the BAYAN conference will be "Strengthen International Solidarity and Advance the People's Struggle against Imperialism." It will highlight Third World peoples' continuing struggle against U.S. imperialism and will be a venue for anti-imperialist organizations and individuals to learn from each other's experiences and struggles and identify areas of cooperation. For more information, please contact: People's Conference Secretariat Attn: Dayling Java, coordinator Rm. 214, FMSG Bldg., 1823 E. Rodriguez Ave. corner New York St., Cubao, Quezon City, Philippines * * * ANTI-IMPERIALIST WORLD PEASANT SUMMIT "Oppose APEC and Imperialist Globalization: Land, Food, Jobs, and Freedom for the Toiling Masses of the Soil!" Imperialist policies like liberalization, import- dependency, and export specialization have resulted in massive unemployment, chronic food crises, landlessness, the displacement of peasants, environmental destruction, and political rights abuses. The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) is a tool and symbol of these policies. DEFEND THE EXPLOITED PEOPLES OF THE WORLD! Say NO! to imperialism's offensive to conquer the world. STRENGTHEN LINKAGES with genuine anti-imperialist peasant organizations and people's movements and carry forward the struggle for a truly free, just, and democratic world. PARTICIPATE in an historic international conference: The Anti-Imperialist World Peasant Summit (AIWPS) will be attended by delegates from peasant movements and organizations in Asia, Latin America, Africa, as well as solidarity organizations from Europe and North America. The program includes presentations and discussions on imperialist globalization and its effects on agriculture, the political and ideological offensives of imperialism, and case studies of peoples' resistance movements from around the world. November 10-12, 1996 Quezon City, Philippines For more information, contact: AIWPS Convenors c/o KMP 18 Alley 1 Road 6, Project 6 Quezon City, Philippines Telefax: (632) 926-7449 The AIWPS was convened by the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP, the Peasant Movement of the Philippines), the All Nepal Peasant Association (ANPA), the Bangladesh Agricultural Union (BALU), the Bangladesh Agricultural Farm Labor Federation (BAFLF), the Asia Peasant Women Network (APWN), and the Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais sem Terra.