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         THE MAOIST INTERNATIONALIST MOVEMENT

     MIM Notes 119                  AUGUST 1, 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.

IN THIS ISSUE:
1.  MOVEMENT FOR HAWAIIAN SOVEREIGNTY GROWS AS
    BOGUS VOTE LOOMS
2.  LETTERS: ANTI-KLAN VERSUS PRO-COMMUNISM
3.  NATIONALISM SIMMERS IN POW-WOWS
4.  NDF ADVANCES ON PEACE NEGOTIATIONS FRONT
5.  ADVANCE THE REVOLUTIONARY FEMINIST STRUGGLE
6.  PSEUDO-FEMINISTS WIN RIGHT TO LEAD IMPERIALIST
    ARMIES: REAL FEMINISTS FIGHT AMERIKA
7.  COPS ARE OPEN WHITE SUPREMACISTS
8.  BEWARE OF ALL AMERIKANS IN YOUR COUNTRY
9.  MUMIA ACTIVISTS RALLY ON YOU LIE FOURTH
10. DON'T VOTE, ORGANIZE
11. UNDER LOCK AND KEY: NEWS FROM PRISONERS AND
    PRISONS
12. MARXISM-LENINISM-MAOISM ONLINE
13. ON PERU AND THE RIM
14. AMERIKA'S NOT PAYING ITS LEASE:
    FIRST NATIONS SUE OVER $2.4 BILLION IN
    MISMANAGED FUNDS
15. MICMAC TRADER SUPPORTS PEOPLE'S WAR
16. SPRINGFIELD MA FIRES RACIST COP FOR ADMITTING
    HIS RACISM
17. ACTIVISTS WIN BATTLE AGAINST UMASS CENSORSHIP
18. PENOBSCOTTS OPPOSE MAINE TAXES
19. PATAKI BACKS DOWN


* * *


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


* * *


MOVEMENT FOR HAWAIIAN SOVEREIGNTY GROWS AS BOGUS VOTE LOOMS


BOSTON, MA--On July 2nd, MIM and RAIL hosted a talk 
by speakers from the Ho'omau of Wahi Ku Moku, the 
political group of an organization of Hawaiians in 
Boston. The presentation focused on the "Native 
Hawaiian Vote" to take place among indigenous 
Hawaiians in August. This State-sponsored pseudo-
plebiscite is being used by the imperialists as an 
opportunity to force Native Hawaiians to choose 
which form of imperialist rule they would prefer 
under the guise of a choice for true sovereignty.

Ho'omau means to persevere. This name summarizes 
the struggle of Native Hawaiians since the 
beginning of the imperialist onslaught in 1778, 
through the overthrow of the country in 1893, to 
the present. The Hawaiian population, like that of 
other First Nations living on the land stolen by 
the imperialists, was decimated. Even now, Native 
Hawaiians struggle to survive:  they are twice as 
likely to be homeless than other ethnic groups in 
the state and are both imprisoned and in poverty at 
the highest rate.(1) Unlike many other First 
Nations, Hawaiians have never been granted the 
status of a nation and instead are considered 
"wards of the state." For centuries, the Hawaiian 
people have been struggling to regain self-
determination. The speakers described a growing 
sovereignty movement since the 1960s that currently 
involves this important fight against the pseudo-
plebiscite vote.


"NATIVE HAWAIIAN VOTE" IS AN IMPERIALIST TOOL


The pseudo-plebiscite asks "Shall the Hawaiian 
people elect delegates to propose a Native Hawaiian 
government?" The Amerikans working for this vote 
are doing all they can to convince Native Hawaiians 
that this is a real vote for self-determination. 
One election brochure states: "We can choose to 
keep things as they are, or we can choose to get 
together as one people and decide to control our 
Hawaiian lands and resources, improve the well-
being of our people and protect our culture and way 
of life."

This vote will likely be taken as the "legitimate" 
expression of self-determination by the Hawaiian 
people. But as *Na Kanaka Maoli,* a publication in 
Boston, points out in a statement seeking to 
postpone the vote: "Hawaiians who wish to pursue 
sovereignty but not through HSEC's Native Hawaiian 
Vote are prevented from seeking an alternate 
process due to the limitations of submitting a 
'yes' or a 'no' ballot." In fact, the speakers 
noted that any ballots submitted, even spoiled, 
will be counted as a yes vote. There is no way to 
express dissatisfaction with the choices without 
playing into the hands of the imperialists. This 
whole process keeps the state government in control 
of the voting process, and ultimately, the outcome.

History teaches the failure of the State-sponsored 
vote as a tool for national liberation. As one Stop 
the Vote brochure points out: "The fraudulent 1959 
statehood 'plebiscite vote' was used by the U.S. 
government to have Hawaii removed from the United 
Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories." 
"This vote will bind us to a State-controlled 
process and the U.S. government can use it to block 
us from pursuing *our own process of self-
determination."*

The State has gone out of its way to ensure that 
this vote only provides the outcome they want. The 
Sovereignty Elections Council (SEC) is overseeing 
the elections. It was created by State law in 1994. 
All of its members are appointees of the ex-State 
Governor. The State House Bill that created the SEC 
also states "Nothing arising out of the Hawaiian 
Convention provided for in this Act...shall be 
applied to supersede, conflict waive, alter, or 
affect" the governmental structures and mechanisms 
of the State. (2)


WHY DOES THE STATE BOTHER WITH A VOTE AT ALL?


In 1993, the U.S. Congress passed the "Apology 
Bill" which acknowledged that the U.S. was wrong in 
1893 when it overthrew the Hawaiian nation. It 
says: "The indigenous Hawaiian people never 
relinquished their claims to their inherent 
sovereignty as a people over their national lands 
to the United States, ...through a plebiscite or 
referendum..." The U.S. Congress now has to take 
some action to back up these words. This pseudo-
plebiscite is the perfect solution. If Hawaiians 
vote yes they will then have to set up a government 
under the parameters set out by the State. If 
Hawaiians vote no they lose because the State will 
then say Hawaiians are satisfied with things as 
they are and they don't want sovereignty. This 
would be used as a justification for the legal 
status as wards of the state of all indigenous 
Hawaiians.


TRUE SELF-DETERMINATION DOES NOT COME FROM THE 
IMPERIALIST STATE


The speakers laid out some minimum demands for true 
self-determination. First, all the military forces 
of the imperialist occupiers must leave before any 
vote can be free and legitimate. At present, the 
United Snakes has military bases on what are called 
"ceded lands," officially belonging to indigenous 
Hawaiians. In addition, as one brochure opposing 
the vote points out, the people need to be able to 
educate themselves and struggle freely over 
politics--a situation that does not exist right now 
under imperialist occupation. One speaker pointed 
out that the people opposed to the pseudo-
plebiscite tend not to be registered to vote. Many 
of these people are very poor and do not have 
housing, meaning no address to send a ballot to. 

MIM believes that all nations deserve the right to 
self-determination and that this can only be 
achieved through national liberation struggles. 
Nations must be freed from imperialist control 
before the people can exercise their right to self-
determination. Only then can a plebiscite be held 
that would truly reflect the interests of the 
people. (For more on the theory behind the 
important of national liberation struggles, read 
MIM Theory #7: Proletarian Feminist Revolutionary 
Nationalism, available for $5).


WHAT ARE THE ALTERNATIVES TO VOTING IN THIS PSEUDO-
PLEBISCITE?


The speakers stressed that this vote is not a real 
choice and that there are many things people can do 
besides participating in the vote. One of the most 
important things to do is educating and organizing 
other people. They are also encouraging people to 
refuse to register to vote. Those who receive 
ballots in the mail should send them to the Stop 
the Vote campaign where these will be counted and 
destroyed in a protest action.

Some people in the audience were skeptical about 
the pragmatism of this strategy. They argued that 
the vote might not be perfect, but at least it 
would allow Hawaiians to have some say in their 
government. One speaker responded "That is exactly 
what they would like us to think." MIM stressed the 
point further. The state says there is no way to 
achieve real liberation so we should settle for 
what the imperialists offer. But this is not true. 
It took many years and much hard struggle to 
overthrow feudalism. The feudal serfs did not give 
up and decide they had to accept the rule of the 
landlords because the going was tough. Likewise the 
struggle for socialism has proved difficult and 
full of setbacks. That does not mean we should give 
up.

Audience members were also not satisfied with "self 
determination" as a goal they wanted to support. 
They wanted a plan, from the speakers, about 
whether they wanted reservation status like other 
First Nations in Amerikan borders, or independence, 
or some other thing. The speakers both said that 
they had opinions on these things, but that they 
could not chart out the struggle in advance. Right 
now, they are focusing their energy on booting out 
the imperialists and organizing the people continue 
with progress afterward. The speakers pointed out 
that people opposing the vote are right now a 
minority among Native Hawaiians and that the 
majority supports the "yes" vote in the plebiscite. 
But they believe that through education and the 
lessons learned through practice, Native Hawaiians 
will learn that relying on the State for 
sovereignty does not provide real self-
determination.

Short term battles can be won now as we fight for 
the ultimate goal of national liberation and 
socialism. The anti-vote forces succeeded in 
postponing the vote several months, arguing that 
the quick pace set did not allow sufficient time to 
educate the voters. The imperialists did not want 
to give the activists time to educate people about 
this vote and so they were trying to move quickly. 
This delay was a victory because it allowed the 
protesters more time to organize opposition.

The imperialists will not grant national liberation 
to the oppressed nations, it must be taken by 
force, and these struggles are taking place all 
over the world. The Filipinos, Peruvians, First 
Nations, people of India and many others refuse to 
accept the repressive hand of imperialist rule. It 
may take many years, but liberation is in the 
interests of the majority of the world's people and 
we will win. 


Notes:
1. The Honolulu Advertiser 4/2/96
2. Brochure from Ka Lahui Hawai'i


* * *


LETTERS:

ANTI-KLAN VERSUS PRO-COMMUNISM


***This is excerpted from a much longer letter 
which attempts to explain why the letter-writer 
wishes not to have contact with MIM. The letter-
writer has already decided that s/he does not want 
to struggle with MIM over h own politics 
(Trotskyist) or MIM's. Therefore we print this 
letter not as a means of struggle with this 
individual, but in the hopes of sparking discussion 
with others who may sympathize with this 
individual's politics without having a worked out 
line against MIM or Maoism or simply want to hear 
more about MIM's activism.***


I would also like to address the comments in the 
letter regarding the Anti-Klan rally on Saturday, 
June 22. You remarked that being "gassed is not the 
quickest path to revolutionary organizing." You 
proposed a solid line on revolutions of the past 
and on the revolutionary possibilities for the 
future as an alternative. What about decisive 
action now?!? How do you expect to gain the support 
of workers without being visible in their 
struggles. Your alternative is to sit in a college 
town and put up flyers on telephone poles. This 
puts you in a great position to lead a revolution 
when you can say to the proletariat, "I read a book 
by Mao Zedong at the University of Michigan and 
that puts me in the position to tell you what's 
best for you." You attack the groups at the rally 
calling them "one day activists" when many of the 
people in AAOAK [Ann Arbor Organizing Against the 
Klan, led by the Trotskyist League--MIM] have been 
involved in revolutionary politics longer than you 
have been alive. After all, better to be a one day 
activist than a no day activist. This reveals the 
petty-bourgeois nature of your organization. Your 
methods of organization are not only not the 
quickest, but the slowest. Build a movement by 
talking, putting up flyers and reading, but not 
through action.


--An ex-MIM associate in the Midwest June 1996


MIM RESPONDS:  Because of space constraints, we are 
not going to address separately the writer's 
comments on MIM's supposed age, supposed class 
background, supposed schooling and supposed 
location. If there are serious critics out there 
who think that any of these things are relevant in 
criticism of MIM's politics, we welcome their 
criticism and will be happy to respond. In the 
context above, these are pure ad hominem attacks. 
We are not interested in engaging this letter 
writer on our class or age statuses. S/he would at 
least be consistent if s/he argued that Friedrich 
Engels' money or Bobby Hutton's youth were more 
decisive than their political line and practice. 
The letter writer shows more serious errors in 
three false assumptions:


Assumption #1: That throwing rocks at pigs in riot 
gear at a rally, being gassed and arrested 
constitutes "decisive action."


MIM disagrees that provoking pigs qualifies as 
decisive action. Did throwing rocks at pigs defeat 
the Klan? No. Is all the hubbub following the 
protesters' arrests going to hurt the Klan? Better 
yet, is it going to make a dent in the state which 
defends the Klan's so-called right to spread hatred 
and its oppressive ideology?

MIM also opposes the Klan, *because* we oppose 
national oppression and the Klan is out to justify 
and perpetuate national oppression. Anytime MIM 
holds a rally or attends one, we make clear what 
connection the particular event has to our overall 
goals. These anti-Klan rallies the letter-writer 
defends as "decisive action" did no such thing. 
They got a bunch of people arrested, and shifted 
some activists' focus from opposing the Klan to 
getting charges dropped against those arrested. MIM 
asks:  how does that advance anything towards 
socialism?


Assumption #2: That ending national oppression is 
in the interests of the labor aristocracy and that 
MIM bases its line on gaining the support of the 
Amerikan working class.


MIM has devoted two full theory journals (MIM 
Theory 1: A White Proletariat? and MIM Theory 10: 
Coming to Grips with the Labor Aristocracy) to the 
distinction between the exploited proletariat--the 
majority of the world's workers and the labor 
aristocracy--the majority of Amerikan workers. The 
U.S. labor aristocracy supports national oppression 
(white Amerikan supremacy over the Black, Latino 
and Indigenous nations within U.S. borders as well 
as imperialism over Third World neo-colonies) 
because it reaps economic benefits from imperialism 
and MIM has done the math to demonstrate this. Send 
us $5 for either of the theory journals mentioned 
above to check up on our research.

MIM opposes the Klan because the Klan fights for 
white supremacy. Activists pushing to organize all 
workers in the United Snakes together to fight the 
Klan should start digging through history to find 
the labor aristocracy's record on opposing national 
oppression and upholding national minority 
struggles for self-determination. From Bacon's 
rebellion, when white workers fought to seize First 
Nation lands in 1676, through the Klan's inception 
in the reconstruction South, through the recent 
electoral show of Klansman David Duke, they have 
shown themselves to instead be a mass base for 
fascism.

Assumption #3: That it is more "activist" to get 
one's picture in the bourgeois press (or organize a 
rally which helps others achieve the same goal) 
than to build a party based on a solid line on 
revolutions of the past and revolutionary 
possibilities for the future as MIM suggested.

Making revolution is not a light task and Leninists 
have demonstrated that revolution led by a vanguard 
party is the single most effective means of 
combating oppression. For this reason MIM takes 
very seriously the tasks of learning lessons from 
past struggles and using these lessons to build a 
lasting organization for the future.

This letter writer is entitled to blow off 
revolutionary organizing--the ill-gotten privilege 
of living in the First World affords that right. 
MIM's beef is with individuals and organizations 
which poo poo revolutionary activism in favor of 
sexier (and more publicity-getting) politics while 
claiming the banner of Marxism, as this letter 
writer does. That is revisionism and is leading 
people down a false path. Go get your picture in 
the paper, and throw all the rocks you want, but 
don't pretend to be leading the masses in Communist 
politics while you're doing it.


* * *


NATIONALISM SIMMERS IN POW-WOWS


ACADIA, MAINE--Summer is the season for the 
festivity of First Nation pow-wows, but simmering 
below the surface of pow-wows are issues of 
fighting for self-determination. On July 14, MIM 
spoke to a full-blooded Penobscott trader of a 
store called the Turquoise Arrowhead.

When asked if she had any news for MIM Notes to 
report next issue, she said, "I have lots of 
radical, radical ideas." MIM knew we were off to a 
good start.

In fact, the Turquoise Arrowhead (TA) told MIM that 
she walked out of a pow-wow just the week before. 
According to the Penobscotts MIM spoke with, the 
pow-wow organizers were too tolerant of someone 
banished from the nation who was leading the drum-
beating.

"They let a drug-addict, child molester and womyn-
beater on the drum," said the elder Penobscott 
womyn. A younger male added, "he was taking 12, 13 
and 14-year-old girls and getting them on drugs so 
he could go to bed with them, and they [the 
Penobscott authorities] finally got tired of it." 
The man was banished from the nation through 
Penobscott processes according to the TA. Crimes 
including arson and more serious felonies are still 
under the white man's jurisdiction in Bangor, 
Maine.

The pow-wow organizers so angered TA that she 
walked out of the pow-wow and took seven dancers 
with her. However, that is not all. TA has a 
general gripe with the pow-wows these days. "My 
biggest thing is you go to the pow-wows and you 
find non-natives vending and they downright lie." 
She went on to explain how people of slight First 
Nation "blood" or no heritage at all worm their way 
into pow-wows to profit. The pow-wow last week, 
"was a joke," according to TA, so lax were the 
rules for vending. MIM agrees in principle that 
pow-wows should be an enterprise to promote First 
Nation business self-reliance.

In the Penobscott Nation, the rule is that one has 
to have 25 percent blood to count as Penobscott. 
According to TA, there are only 180 full-bloods who 
qualify based on tracking the descendants of the 
landmark 1890 Census. Over three-quarters of the 
Penobscott people have only one-quarter Penobscott 
blood, and still the pressure is on to lower the 
percentage to 12.5 or even lower.

As in the situation with people of Asian descent in 
the united snakes, how one is counted affects 
Congressional appropriations. Formulas for funding 
use the U.S. Census of every decade to determine 
how much money should go to the white organizations 
and how much to self-labeled "minority" 
organizations, including programs for the 
reservations.

When asked what she thought of the whole "blood" 
issue, TA said, "I have very mixed feelings about 
it; my own grandchildren are on that Census." 
[meaning their children will be affected by any 
rules the full-bloods like herself come up with--
ed.] After explaining all the issues, TA said, 
"after all that I'm still for it." [the policy of 
requiring 25 percent blood and no less--ed.]

MIM thought the reasons TA gave were 
unreproachable. Contrary to our mistaken article of 
the last issue on the Ojibwe, [see correction this 
issue] MIM does not automatically support the 
tolerant side of banishing issues, reservation 
residence issues or voting issues. In fact, there 
is definitely a point where the line should be 
drawn against assimilation, and so there can be no 
attacking TA's position or other FN positions 
against children of inter-marriage or relaxation of 
nationality requirements. In the end, we leave it 
to the First Nation to decide who to count as a 
member. All nations will have to make this decision 
about who to include and that decision should be 
made by the people of each nation.

The first thing TA said after mentioning 
grandchildren on the "blood" issue is that "I know 
in some ways it [relaxing the rules--ed.] means 
more money. . . You know it cuts both ways though. 
We have to support non-natives on the reserve; we 
pay for their sewer [and other utilities]; they 
[whites] talk about all the Indians being on 
welfare, but we have white people on welfare on the 
reserve that we're paying for!" MIM would add that 
the goal of obtaining more U.S. government programs 
by increasing the number of people who count as 
natives is a mistake, an error of assimilationist 
strategy.

According to TA, the Wampanoag [surrounded by 
Massachusetts] are relaxing their rules and now the 
Cherokee are going from one-eighth to one-sixteenth 
blood for their official counting purposes. Adding 
"hhhmph," TA said that if one starts looking at it 
that way, "I know some white people who make better 
Indians than Indians do! At least they show more 
respect for our culture than some of these 
"'Indians.'"

At the very end, TA said, "and I'm married to a 
white man, but that doesn't stop me from talking 
about the white man; I don't care; what they did is 
a rip-off." That pretty much was meant as a 
summation of history and the recent pow-wows. MIM 
agrees, the fact that TA is married to a white man 
says nothing at all against the truth of the matter 
with regard to "blood" policies. MIM applauds all 
those who go beyond their narrow individual 
identities and attempt to analyze what is best from 
a larger standpoint. We call it applying the 
scientific method and not taking up identity 
politics.


* * *


NDF ADVANCES ON PEACE NEGOTIATIONS FRONT


by MC206

The National Democratic Front of the Philippines 
(NDF) and the Government of the Republic of the 
Philippines (GRP) resumed formal peace negotiations 
on June 19, 1996 in the Netherlands, one year after 
the GRP unilaterally suspended formal talks. The 
negotiating panels affirmed a list of specific 
topics for discussion under the headings "human 
rights and international humanitarian law and 
social and economic reforms."(1) The Maoist-led NDF 
has been waging revolutionary armed struggle 
against the U.S. puppet regime in the Philippines 
for over 25 years.

An important step towards the resumption of 
negotiations was the GRP's release of NDF 
Consultant Sotero Llamas. Llamas' arrest in early 
1995 violated the Joint Agreement on Safety and 
Immunity Guarantees (JASIG), which both parties had 
ratified. At the time the GRP unilaterally declared 
that the JASIG was suspended, despite the fact that 
JASIG contains no provision for suspension. The NDF 
held informal talks with the GRP's negotiating 
panel beginning in July 1995, which led to the 
release of Llamas in compliance with the JASIG.(2)

Llamas will now participate in the negotiations. He 
said his role in the talks was important because of 
his two decades of armed struggle in the mountains. 
"These experiences qualify me to present the real 
situation taking place in the countryside and this 
will be the core of the peace talks," he said.(3)

In his opening statement at the resumption of 
formal talks, Luis Jalandoni, Chairperson of the 
NDF Negotiating Panellisted some of the crimes of 
the U.S.-Ramos regime against the people of the 
Philippines. "There is the forcible displacement of 
people, under various pretexts, such as the so-
called counter-insurgency or development projects, 
and by the most brutal means, such as bombardments, 
strafing, arson, and bulldozing. This has caused 
the number of internal refugees to rise to 
millions. There is the criminalizing of political 
prisoners and imposing preconditions on the release 
of prisoners that are [in violation] of conscience 
and their rights."(1) This list of crimes that 
continues makes talks aimed at getting the GRP to 
uphold international humanitarian law conventions 
especially important.


* Jalandoni also listed specific repressive laws 
and decrees (some left over from the Marcos 
dictatorship) which attack the Filipino people:

* Memorandum Circular No. 139 which expressly 
allows government troops to impose food blockades 
as part of their so- called "anti-insurgency 
campaigns;"

* Executive Order No. 72 and 129 and P.D. 772 which 
authorize evictions and mass demolition of urban 
poor communities and outlaw squatting;

* Executive Order No. 264 which creates the 
Citizens Armed Forces Geographical Units (CAFGU), 
which are paramilitary groups used to harass and 
assassinate progressives and revolutionaries;

* General Order No. 66 and 67 which authorize 
random checkpoints and searches;

* Legal interpretations which allow warrentless 
arrests, search and arrest without probable cause, 
and the admission of illegally seized evidence;

* The pending so-called "Anti-Terrorism Act," which 
opens the door for renewed Martial Law.


While MIM continues Mao's line that there are no 
rights, only power struggles, MIM also believes 
that legal struggles for bourgeois rights such as 
the right to free speech and assembly or the right 
to a fair trial can be effective tactics. On the 
one hand, victories in this arena can increase the 
maneuvering room afforded to the revolutionary 
forces. On the other hand, the struggles themselves 
expose the hypocrisy of the bourgeoisie, which 
claims to defend "human rights " while it thrives 
on repression.

The NDF views the peace negotiations as "one more 
form of legal struggle waged by the revolutionary 
forces in the context of various forms of 
struggle."(4) It clearly states that "peace 
negotiations cannot substitute for the resolute and 
militant mass struggles of the people. In fact, 
there is greater need for the people's 
revolutionary struggle because the imperialists and 
reactionaries never voluntarily give up their power 
to exploit and oppress the people."(4) The NDF 
maintains that armed struggle is the most important 
form of mass struggle.

In this context, the NDF did not allow the GRP to 
make renouncing armed struggle a precondition to 
the talks. Before the peace negotiations began, the 
NDF and the GRP signed several agreements (such as 
the JASIG) which ensured that the NDF could 
negotiate without betraying its principles or 
compromising its ability to struggle outside of the 
negotiating arena.

In general, the NDF holds that a just and lasting 
peace in the Philippines is possible only if the 
Filipino peoples' demands for national liberation 
and democracy are satisfied. It calls for the GRP 
to end its servile policies towards foreign 
monopolies and end its "counter-insurgency" 
campaigns as crucial and necessary steps in the 
peace negotiations.(5)


NOTES:

1. Press Communique of the National Democratic 
Front of the Philippines on the Resumption of 
Formal Meetings in the GRP-NDFP Peace Negotiations, 
June 16, 1996.

2. Luis Jalandoni, "Opening Statement on the 
Resumption of the Formal Meetings in GRP-NDFP Peace 
Negotiations," June 19, 1996.

3. Reuters, 21 Jun 96.

4. Jose Maria Sison, "Peace Negotiations When 
Properly Conducted Are a Form of Struggle."

5. MIM Notes 103, Aug 1995.


* * *


ADVANCE THE REVOLUTIONARY FEMINIST STRUGGLE


People reading MIM Notes will notice that we have 
changed parts of the English language to meet 
proletarian political purposes. Mao simplified the 
entire Chinese alphabet to make it more accessible 
to the masses. While MIM is not yet in a position 
to make large scale changes in the English 
language, we make small changes in our lifestyle 
and culture which are easy and possible within 
capitalism. These changes advance proletarian 
struggles by drawing attention to the line behind 
them. MIM welcomes struggle over these changes as a 
means of advancing our line on the issues which 
they represent.

First we changed America to Amerika to remove some 
legitimacy from "America." We use "Amerika" to 
refer to the oppressor nation that dominates North 
America. Amerika is an imperialist nation of Euro-
Amerikan settlers and their descendants and 
honorary members.

Later MIM stopped using "African American" to refer 
to Blacks in this country because Blacks are 
neither "African" nor "American." Blacks should 
strive for national self-determination and not 
phony integrationism with Amerika. The term "Black" 
is less than perfect because it implies that we are 
talking about a group because of its skin color, 
but it is the best definition of the nation within 
Amerika. The capital "B" helps to contrast this 
legitimate nation with the "white" fascist settler 
nation. We have changed other words and spellings 
related to analysis on the national question as 
well.

More recently, MIM substituted terminology that 
makes it clear that the "United States" does not 
have a legitimate claim over the territory it stole 
from indigenous peoples and developed with the use 
of slave labor imported from Asia, Africa and Latin 
America. We now substitute "United Snakes" or other 
derogatory forms of the words.

This summer, MIM decided to substitute the term 
"womyn" for "woman" and to use "wimmin" for the 
plural. We want to make the point that wimmin are 
not a subset of men as the word "women" implies. 
MIM is fighting for the end to gender oppression 
and part of this entails recognizing and fighting 
the reactionary elements in our culture that 
suggest that wimmin are less than men.

This decision to use "womyn" followed much struggle 
within MIM because of the term's reactionary 
history. Until now this change in terminology has 
been used by pseudo-feminists who believe in 
lifestyle politics and usually believe that all men 
are enemies. Revolutionary feminists reclaimed the 
term "feminist" from the reactionary white 
chauvinist wimmin who first used the word and MIM 
will not relinquish a progressive change in 
terminology because a few wimmin use the word for 
incorrect political purposes.

As we move forward in our revolutionary organizing, 
MIM will continue to make small changes in our use 
of language to reflect the political line that we 
support. Many of the changes made so far came as a 
result of suggestions from our readers, please 
write to us with your opinions on the subject.


* * *


PSEUDO-FEMINISTS WIN RIGHT TO LEAD IMPERIALIST 
ARMIES:
REAL FEMINISTS FIGHT AMERIKA


by MCB52

After decades of clamoring for a bigger role as 
imperialists, the gender aristocracy has won 
another "victory" that allies it more closely to 
imperialist patriarchy. The Supreme Court ruled 
that one of the last two remaining public all-male 
military institutes, Virginia Military Institute, 
must admit wimmin or go private. According to the 
Supreme Court, private schools may exclude whomever 
they want. Its fellow all-male holdout, the 
Citadel, has announced it is going to admit wimmin.

All this pleases pseudo-feminists, but the 
international proletariat knows that genitalia 
diversity at these training grounds of militarism 
will not advance the position of the majority of 
the world's biological wimmin and biological men 
who are targets of US forces in the Third World.

Both sexes of oppressed nations are gendered-female 
in relation to these prospective applicants to 
bourgeois military institutes. Both men and wimmin 
of oppressed nations have their sexuality and 
reproduction appropriated through First World 
domination. The wimmin admitted to VMI--part of the 
gender aristocracy--are further solidifying their 
alliance with patriarchy against the world's wimmin 
and men. As communists, we do not ally with the 
gender aristocracy We ally with groups oppressed 
because of their nation, class, and gender in 
genuine struggles against capitalism, imperialism 
and patriarchy.

Both conservatives and liberals are fooled by the 
long-standing notion that biology is destiny. Both 
incorrectly believe admitting biological wimmin 
will fundamentally change these institutions. 
Conservatives have moaned the death knell of an old 
and fine bastion of male supremacy. Syndicated 
columnist George Will wrote, "The Supreme Court 
gave [wimmin] the right to enroll in an educational 
institution which, the moment they enter it, will 
essentially cease to exist."(1) Liberals have 
chimed in that the change is a fundamentally 
positive one. Syndicated columnist Ellen Goodman 
wrote, "I don't hesitate to say that women will 
change VMI. Change is, after all, the point."(2)

Goodman likens the change to the one accomplished 
through desegregation of the institutions, which is 
an illuminating comparison. What has this 
desegregation really done for equality? Goodman 
answers this question expressing satisfaction that 
VMI stopped playing "Dixie" on parade after the 
first Blacks arrived in 1968. This minor teak in 
the official presentation is her model for gender-
relations changes to come. That's as high as her 
sights are set because she does not want to rock 
the patriarchal imperialist boat that is serving 
her well.

MIM answers that same question by recognizing that 
desegregation has not changed relations or 
conditions fundamentally and has only opened the 
doors for a few comprador members of the Black 
nation to fight for the white armies against the 
internal colonies. Instead, MIM works for real 
liberation.

Clarence Thomas, reactionary Black Supreme Court 
justice, sat out the case because his son attends 
VMI. This illustrates what desegregation of these 
institutions has brought--a tiny minority of Blacks 
are more fully consolidated into comprador status 
and enforce the oppression of the majority of the 
Black nation and other oppressed nations.

The endurance of patriarchy and national oppression 
through the nominal integration of some 
institutions illustrates the short-sightedness of 
conservatives like Will. Surely he would have been 
whining a few decades ago that an all-white 
institution was necessary to maintain that illusive 
greatness he declines to name:  white supremacy.

History reveals that it is beneficial for the 
powerful to concede some demands and co-opt members 
of oppressed groups. In the case of labor, the 
Amerikan working class has been bought off with 
superprofits drawn from imperialist exploitation. 
First World biological wimmin have also allied for 
these benefits and accepted patriarchy in the 
negotiations. Though members of internal colonies 
have sought comprador status, these nations are 
fundamentally allied against imperialism and white 
nation chauvinism.

Wimmin who are fighting for the right to lead 
imperialist armies are only pseudo-feminists. Real 
feminists are fighting against those armies.


NOTE: 
1. Boston Globe, July 1, 1996, p. 11.
2. Boston Globe, June 30, 1996, p. 69.


* * *


COPS ARE OPEN WHITE SUPREMACISTS


Most whites believe that cops are only oppressive 
in the case of a "few bad apples." Thus, they were 
surprised by the Mark Fuhrman case, the Rodney King 
beating etc. etc.; however, the "good apples" 
tolerate and even promote the "bad apples" as 
proved even in police publications; we refer to the 
Summer/Fall, 1995 edition of *New Hampshire 
Trooper.*

The New Hampshire Troopers Association which 
publishes the magazine "is made up entirely of 
current and former sworn members of the New 
Hampshire State Police."(1) The magazine starts by 
blasting the phony police organizations out there 
which seem rampant in the boonies of New England.

After a letter from the Governor and cop union 
leaders, we learn that New Hampshire troopers are 
urged to learn Spanish.

"Two brothers who were speaking with the Deputy 
suddenly spoke a few words of Spanish to each other 
and then, seconds later, the Deputy was dead of a 
gunshot.

"In review of the tape, it was learned that had the 
officer known a few words, commonly referred to as 
'charged words,' the tragedy may have been avoided.

"In the case of the Texas Trooper who knew Spanish, 
he was able to stay one step ahead of his 
assailants and in the ensuing gun battle, the 
Trooper shot two of the defendants and came away 
unscathed. . . .

"In the last few years, there has been an influx of 
Spanish-speaking persons crossing the borders from 
Lawrence, Lowell, Boston [all in Massachusetts--
ed.] and New York City into New Hampshire.

"Ask any Trooper working the Interstate from the 
Massachusetts line to Manchester on I-93 or the 
Everett Turnpike. You will discover that the 
majority of cocaine and crack coming into the State 
is being transported and sold by Dominicans, 
Columbians, and Puerto Ricans.

"On any given night, a pursuit on Interstate 93 
south of Manchester is probably initiated by gang 
members of the South Side Kings (SSK), License to 
Steal (LTC), or Latin Kings. These gangs are 
predominantly Spanish-speaking and are involved in 
thefts, burglaries, auto theft, drugs and more."

Cops everywhere in the united snakes are 
hypocritical. They tolerate the Fuhrmans and come 
up with their white supremacist ideas of crime. As 
a result, the cops have failed to dent crime 
despite making the united snakes the number one 
prison state in the world based on per capita 
figures for imprisonment averaged the last ten 
years.

It will be the Latin Kings and the like who 
actually stop drug-dealing by taking up the cause 
of national liberation. When the likes of the Latin 
Kings with the Maoist proletarian revolutionary 
ideology finally replace the corrupt national and 
local cops, then we will have a reduction in crime. 
The Oliver Norths bringing the cocaine into this 
country will be stopped cold. The people's police 
will look for drugs in the right places and we will 
emerge victorious in the war on drugs.


Notes:

1. New Hampshire Trooper Summer/Fall, p. 1.
2. Ibid., p. 21.


* * *


BEWARE OF ALL AMERIKANS IN YOUR COUNTRY


On July 17, the Senate Intelligence Committee had a 
rare debate about who the CIA can use to gather 
information, and about what types of "covers" are 
acceptable for the CIA to use. Current law 
prohibits the CIA from recruiting journalists, 
Peace Corps volunteers, and clergy, and prohibits 
the agency from using those careers as covers for 
it's agents and officers.

The current law allows the CIA director to grant 
exceptions in "exceptional circumstances". Ted 
Koppel, of Nightline, and Terry Anderson, a former 
Associated Press reported held hostage in Lebanon 
for 7 years argued that the ban should be absolute. 
Anderson reported that his captors told him they 
thought he was CIA.

The Congresspersons, including prominent Democrats 
like Senator John Glenn and John Kerry disagreed 
and wanted to give the CIA as many options as 
possible. But Kerry summed up the issue well as he 
expressed concern about discussing the issue 
publicly:  "if they [journalists] weren't tainted 
before, they will be now."

We hope that our readers outside of U.S. borders 
keep in mind the *legal* loopholes in CIA strategy.


NOTE: Boston Globe July 18, 1996, p. A18.


* * *


MUMIA ACTIVISTS RALLY ON YOU LIE FOURTH


by a comrade

PHILADELPHIA, PA--July 4, hundreds of people 
rallied in defense of Mumia Abu Jamal continuing 
the campaign to push for a new trial and his 
ultimate release. Mumia was sentenced to death for 
supposedly killing a Philly cop.

MOVE member Ramona Africa spoke at the rally. She 
recently won a lawsuit against the city for its 
bombing of the MOVE house in 1985--which killed 11 
people and destroyed 61 homes. Others on the podium 
included South African revolutionary poet Dennis 
Brutus, representatives of the Black Panther 
Collective, and other progressive organizations 
like the Christian peace activists from the 
Bruderhof Church.

As has become common at Mumia events, the majority 
of the crowd were political activists of many 
affiliations. At times it appeared that more people 
were distributing literature than were collecting 
or buying it. However, many participants bought MIM 
Notes and struggled with comrades over such issues 
as the labor aristocracy and MIM's differences with 
other self-identified communists or socialists.

For example, one person who bought the paper 
struggled at length over MIM's line on the white 
working class. This person argued that MIM should 
not attack the white working class since it is not 
the "main enemy" in the fight against imperialism. 
Instead s/he advocated MIM using education to make 
the white working class understand that imperialism 
hurts it as well. MIM countered that the white 
working class stands to lose economically by the 
destruction of imperialism. We do not expect them 
to oppose imperialism as a class, although 
individuals may come over to the side of the 
people.

Another participant objected to MIM's use of "pig" 
to describe cops, and "United Snakes" as a term of 
disrespect for the oppressor nation's state. This 
person said such language unfairly tainted the 
reputations of these animals, who are already 
oppressed enough. MIM replied that we do not wish 
any harm to these animals, and only use those terms 
because their symbolism is easily understood by the 
masses. Ultimately we hope that using the names of 
animals in a negative way will become obsolete.

There were also representatives of the "MPP-USA" 
(Popular Movement of Peru, USA) present at the 
rally. MIM has extensively exposed the leadership 
of this organization for conducting police plots 
among the international movement in support of the 
People's War in Peru. At the rally, "MPP-USA" 
members distributed pamphlet a called "Counter- 
Attack And Defeat All Reactionary Lies!" attacking 
MIM as "A Zinoviev Sect of Suspect Origin." This 
pamphlet contains many lies and distortions about 
MIM, including assertions that MIM does not support 
the people's war in Peru, that MIM supports the 
bogus "peace talks" proposal put forward by the 
Peruvian state, that MIM is "a likely creature of 
the Yankee intelligence services," that MIM "openly 
attacks Lenin, Stalin, Mao and President Gonzalo," 
and so on.

All of these are baseless charges launched to blow 
smoke over MIM's extensive documentation of "MPP-
USA" fraud. MIM is committed to exposing the 
dangerous lies and manipulations of this 
organization, which we have done most extensively 
in the June 1996 issue of Maoist Sojourner (which 
MIM distributed at the rally as well). Contact MIM 
for a copy of this and other important publications 
related to current Peru-movement struggles 
(subscriptions to Maoist Sojourner are $12 per 
year).

The movement to free Mumia Abu-Jamal is important 
because it exposes the nature of the reactionary 
Amerikan regime and its bloodthirsty "anti-crime" 
supporters. Many people who learn about the 
corruption of justice in this case may have cause 
to consider the system as a whole. So MIM hopes the 
movement will continue to try reach beyond the 
already-committed activists who dominate the 
rallies, and we publish these articles toward that 
end.


* * *


DON'T VOTE, ORGANIZE


by a RAIL comrade

AMHERST, MA--On June 29th, MIM and RAIL led a rally 
to raise public awareness about the fruitlessness 
of voting in this "democratic" kkkountry and to 
bolster the struggle for revolutionary change. The 
glorified tradition of Amerikan voting consists of 
choosing between pig tweedle-dum and pig tweedle-
dee. Both options result in more oppressive laws 
imprisoning the masses in the imperialists hands.

Do womyn have a choice in being born into a 
patriarchal society? Do Latino youth have the same 
choices that white youth have? Do one in three 
Black men choose to be harassed, beaten, arrested 
and denied a just trial?(1) The answers are no. The 
current system thrives from national, class and 
gender oppression. From Bill Clinton's economic, 
military, and political control of Third World 
peoples to Bill Weld's proliferation of control 
units, it boils down to the same unjust 
imprisonment in a system working for one slave 
master.

When this truth was brought to people in the town 
center, the general reply was "I'm not interested." 
Living in a utopian microcosm of academia, it's 
easy to ignore the truth. All the bourgeois 
propaganda about making a difference and "rocking 
the vote" succeeds to keep many people content. 
This apathy materially benefits the white nation 
because toppling systemic oppression means that the 
wealthy and the bought off will be cut off from 
their pirated loot.

One person brought up the Green Party, led by Mr. 
Liberal himself, Ralph Nader. Nader merely plans to 
use this system for his own advantage. He's 
attempting to replace one man for another through 
elections in a system that exists because of 
international domination. The corrupt system would 
stay intact. National oppression, patriarchy and 
class oppression would not be crushed and massive 
global oppression would continue.

One student passed by the rally but wasn't 
interested in our literature. He was interested in 
taking photographs of the activists. When asked to 
stop, he got very defensive. MIM has no idea if 
this person is a cop or if the photos were taken to 
be given to the pigs. At a minimum, however, this 
is cop behavior.

An idealist we spoke with argued that the ending 
oppression can't be done through a movement. This 
person advocated, and supposedly practiced, 
speaking to people individually to change their 
views. It is not possible to end systematic 
oppression of groups over groups individually. We 
must organize a movement led by the proletariat to 
smash the imperialists, who have big guns.

The idealist's rationale was that the oppressive 
forces--mainly cops and the state--will do 
everything in their power (including violence) to 
stop the truth from spreading. We agree that the 
oppressor will use violent measures to stop the 
spread of opposition. But that has not stopped 
successful struggles in the past. We disagree that 
state repression means that the masses should 
passively give up just struggles.

We also don't underemphasize the capacity of the 
state to squash revolutionaries--we get that one 
from history. That is why MIM and RAIL take 
security issues seriously. But building an 
underground revolutionary movement does not inhibit 
us from working and struggling with the masses. 
Mass work is essential to raise public opinion for 
revolution, which means educating to organize. Mass 
work also enables revolutionaries to learn from the 
masses through struggle.

The person ultimately said we were young and would 
realize some day that violence cannot end violence. 
In response to that is a quote from Mao:  "You have 
to take up the gun in order to put down the gun." 
The imperialists will continue to fight and kill to 
protect their material interests. Their power 
cannot be wished away, nor abolished through the 
missionary-style of "spreading the word." To build 
a society where the gun is no longer needed, the 
oppressed must seize control. This is a dialectical 
materialist approach to resolve the contradiction 
between the imperialists and oppressed nations. The 
only successful revolutions have occurred through 
armed struggle led by communists. That is the only 
way for the oppressed to gain control of their 
economies, and political and cultural structures.

RAIL and MIM do not have a tidy little alternative 
to the bourgeoisie's vote, because revolutionary 
change does not come easily. If you want change 
that is in the interest of all people, don't vote, 
organize against imperialism with revolutionary 
politics.


NOTE:

Sentencing project via associated press in 
Massachusetts Daily Collegian 10/5/95, p.2. More 
information on conditions in Amerika's gulags can 
be found in RAIL's prison pamphlet, available from 
the address on page 2 for $1.


* * *


UNDER LOCK AND KEY: NEWS FROM PRISONERS AND PRISONS

POLITICIAN USES PRISONERS TO PRINT HIS CAMPAIGN 
LITERATURE


Dear Comrades,

I'm sending you a copy of the McCollum Report 
[Campaign Newsletter for Bill McCollum, U.S. 
Representative, Eighth District, Florida--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 cannot 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


LATINOS PERSECUTED IN NEW YORK


Dear MIM, 

I come to you my comrades as it is my custom and 
duty....I am a member of the Almighty Latin King 
Queen Nation and a constant warrior of the Third 
World Oppressed People....I enjoy reading your 
material for as a Latin King I am faced by a 
frivolous administration whose capitalism has raged 
war upon all Latin people in the system. 

I am presently at Southport Correctional Facility, 
which is a box for all inmates who are being 
punished for not adhering to prison rules and or 
regulations. Seems that they have waged war on all 
Latins doing time. They know the Latin Kings speak 
against all injustices so they have made a rule 
called 105.12 (Unauthorized organizations not 
recognized by the administration). 

The have used this rule to place Latinos in 
solitary confinement. Actually if one [pig] is in 
the yard and it so happens that four or more 
Latinos are in a group, right away [the 
prisoncrats] write you up for unauthorized 
organization. 

It is incredible how we as a Latino people have 
been attacked and oppressed in society and now we 
are feeling it even more in this system of 
injustice....
 
Your comrade,

--a New York prisoner, June 10, 1996


A SOLE BLACK PRISONER FACES PIG ABUSES IN INDIANA


Greetings, Friends

I'm held in captivity in a very small rural county 
jail in Petersbury, Indiana. What I've picked up 
from other inmates here is that I'm the first Black 
person in this jail. There are no other Black 
inmates in here with me. All this makes sense to me 
because I've been through some of the meanest, 
cruelest, inhuman treatments a man can be put 
through. Before I explain what happened keep in 
mind my alleged crimes are against a white woman.

On January 2, 1996, the third day after my arrival, 
the trouble started. When I came here I was put on 
24 hour a day lock down because they thought I was 
dangerous to other inmates. Well I was sleeping on 
the floor and the jailer at the time told me to put 
my mattress back on my bunk. Of course I said no, 
because there's no rule against sleeping on the 
floor. He was just picking me out for special 
treatment.

So he told me that they were going to come take it. 
So I said fine. Remember I was on 24 hour a day 
lockdown. Well, an hour later, the Sheriff and ten 
white cops were standing outside my cell door. (I 
said nothing to these devils.) The sheriff asked me 
if I wanted to get maced. Of course I said no. Then 
he ordered me to lay face down and they shackled me 
and dragged me at least 100 feet like I was a piece 
of shit. Remember I said nothing to these devils. 

I ended up in front of the rubber room laying face 
down. The Sheriff left and returned with a pair of 
scissors to cut my jumpsuit off. While he was doing 
this he said, "If you move I will cut you!" So 
there I was lying naked in the rubber room, cold as 
ice, humiliated and not knowing what to expect 
next, because, shit, all I did was refuse to put my 
mattress on my bunk.

While I laid there, I heard all the staff laughing 
and congratulating the sheriff. I look at it this 
way: he did this because I'm Black, big and he was 
scared of me (Blacks)! But I will get the last 
laugh. I am currently trying to file charges and 
lawsuits and I told it to his face. Prison will not 
break this African. Black Fist and Afro-Picks! 
Peace.

--an Indiana prisoner, June 11, 1996


FIRST NATION PRISONER PUNISHED FOR SUING RACIST 
GUARD


Dear MIM,

Enclosed is a racially discriminatory document that 
was given to me on December 21, 1995, by one of 
Alaska's finest, a DOC prison guard. [The document 
was a racist "joke" that depicts people of the 
First Nations in a demeaning manner. --MIM]

I am an American Indian (Chippewa-Cree). I am an 
enrolled tribal member of the Rocky Boy's Indian 
Reservation, POW Camp.

After the guard gave me this document, he stood and 
laughed at me. He thought it was a very funny act. 
After I filed a grievance against him, and my 
attorney contacted the governor's office and the 
commissioner of the Alaska Department of 
Corrections, I was hauled in front of a surprise 
treatment team where I was put on trial for filing 
a grievance against the officer who gave me the 
document. I was removed from the general population 
and then transferred to a mental health unit for 
four days until my attorney succeeded in getting me 
out of the mental health unit.

I did not provoke the officer to give me a racially 
discriminatory document. He did so of his own free 
will. Instead of punishing the guard, the DOC 
turned the issue on me and made me out to be the 
bad guy. The only thing that happened to the guard 
is a written reprimand put in his file that will 
disappear after six months if he has no further 
incidents. I, on the other hand, was removed form 
the general population, was sent to a mental health 
unit , was transferred twice, lost two boxes of 
legal work, and was made out to be the malcontent.

The words in this document give clear and 
convincing evidence just what the Alaska DOC thinks 
of Native prisoners it has locked up within its 
walls. In any other instance I would not request 
the document to be printed, but due to the way this 
issue was handled I think it is appropriate that it 
be printed so others can see how repulsive and 
discriminatory this piece of prose really is to 
Native American culture. [MIM trusts that our 
readers have seen or heard racist jokes before, and 
will be able to get the idea here without us having 
to use valuable space to spread the filth 
ourselves. --MIM] I have suffered many forms of 
discrimination while serving my sentence over the 
past four years, but this is the first time I have 
clear and convincing evidence that racial 
discrimination does indeed exist in Alaska's 
prisons. I think the readers of MIM, and especially 
Native American people, have a right to see what in 
hell is going on up here. I hope that after reading 
the document, awareness is increased and that 
people will become enraged enough to voice their 
opinions that what happened up here is not okay and 
that it will not be taken lightly. This is just one 
more act of oppression against American Indian 
culture by the fascist pigs who try to control us.

I have filed a lawsuit in federal court regarding 
this issue; I am requesting letters of support that 
I can show to a jury so that they know that this 
issue is an outrage and that society will not stand 
for it. I will answer anyone who writes to me.

In Total Resistance,

--a Chippewa-Cree prisoner in Alaska, June 10, 1996

Letters of support can be sent to MIM Notes, PO BOX 
29670, Los Angeles, CA 90029-0670 and will be 
forwarded to the above Chippewa-Cree prisoner in 
Alaska.


ARIZONA PRISONER STRUGGLES TO RECEIVE MIM NOTES


To My Comrades,

I would like to express my gratitude to your 
organization for continuing my subscription to your 
publication. I don't know if you remember, but the 
institution I am incarcerated in previously 
contrabanded your publication and scrutinized all 
my mail afterward. I grieved this issue, preparing 
to litigate in the Arizona U.S. District Court. I 
had to grieve the issue to the central office of 
the Arizona DOC because the grievance coordinator 
and deputy warden negated my resolution to the 
problem.

Apparently, central office has rescinded this 
institution's decision because for the last two 
months, I have been receiving MIM Notes as if 
nothing happened. Central office has not responded 
to my grievance appeal but I await their response. 
I may submit a complaint anyway because of the 
retaliatory tactics I have been subjected to 
throughout the grievance process. I was a legal 
clerk and legal assistant employed by this 
institution as a law clerk. I was suspended as a 
law clerk and had to fight to retain my status as a 
legal assistant, a non-paying position. They know I 
help a lot of people with their legal matters and 
persevere....

In every state I went to during my incarceration, 
the incarcerated thought their oppression was 
unique to that state. It is not so. Incarceration 
is incarceration. I do admit some prisons are 
rougher than others, but there is over-zealously 
implemented oppression in just about every prison. 
Especially since there is a fervor prevailing the 
notion to get tough on prisoners. The mass media 
and politicians would have the public believe we 
are living lavishly, but the average convict can 
tell you otherwise.

Which brings me to my next point. The people out 
there need to get involved in true and just prison 
reform. To deprive a prisoner of everything is not 
in the best interest of the public. Yes, it does 
increase the recidivism rate because there are 
people who allow this deprivation and oppression to 
elicit bitterness in them and their reactions. Plus 
to release a person from prison with no further 
education, vocation, money, or hope is to increase 
that person's chances of returning. Only with these 
"two or three strikes, you're out" policies that 
are sweeping the nation a lot of perpetrators will 
be leaving no witnesses to decrease their chances 
of being caught....

--An Arizona prisoner, Apr. 29, 1996.


PRISONERS FIGHT PIGS' DIVIDE AND CONQUER TECHNIQUES


Dear MIM comrades,

Greetings in Revolution. First I would like to 
express my appreciation for the MIM Notes and 
Maoist Sojourners I have recently received. In such 
an environment that breeds defeatism in our 
mentalities it is uplifting to hear ideas that give 
hope of a better condition. They have proved 
invaluable to me and my comrades here in 
understanding how to struggle within the confines 
of these prison walls.

But we have suffered setbacks here recently. Two of 
our comrades have been locked up and have had their 
custody statuses changed. One in blatant measures 
of retaliation for his litigation against officers' 
brutality against prisoners. He was one of our 
leaders and most well-informed brothers, so that 
has hurt our educational resource very seriously.

Our other comrade was railroaded in a Kangaroo 
Court for a fabricated assault on an officer case. 
He was the instructor of our martial arts and Self-
Defense class, which has been attacked and 
interrupted on several occasions. We were meeting 
on a "passive" rec. yard every night for hours and 
the administration began passing policies to cut 
off our access to them. Now only three or four of 
us are allowed at a time. Christians can go and 
have 20 to 30 people. 

We are now attempting to gain our leader's release 
from Ad-Seg (Administrative Segregation) and our 
other comrade has appealed the decision of his 
disciplinary case. He has witnesses in his favor, 
but these pigs seem not to care. 

I have a question. What is MIM's position on the 
struggle to overthrow and gain control of an 
institution such as this? Marx made a statement 
once that "Basing a revolution on prison reform is 
like basing a slave revolt on better food for the 
slaves." I hope to hear from you soon. Any advice 
you may have will be welcome....

Sincerely in solidarity,

--a Texas prisoner, June 11, 1996

MIM REPLIES: The answer to your question has three 
parts. 

First, on strategy here and now, we oppose armed 
struggle in the imperialist countries until such 
time as the bourgeoisie is really helpless. We 
advocate the scientific approach of fighting 
winnable battles one at a time, as opposed to the 
idealistic, moralistic approach of fighting all 
battles at once without concern for whether they 
are winnable. On the other hand, prisoners face a 
special dilemma: You can get killed for a 
nonviolent prison takeover as was the case in the 
Attica prison rebellion, but you also can't go on 
increasingly repressed by fascism forever. The 
Attica rebellion was repressed and the place is 
still a hell-hole, but that losing struggle did 
have an incredible impact. Prison conditions and 
the situation of genocide are difficult to work 
into a strategy of winning battles. 

Second, in the medium term, we support the 
revolutionizing of prisons as part of the 
construction of new democracy and socialism. We see 
China 1949-1976 as a model in this regard. We do 
not advocate the immediate abolition of prisons, 
but we do advocate an immediate end to prison's use 
as a tool of national ("racial"), class and gender 
oppression.

Third, in the long run, we advocate the abolition 
of prisons as part of the construction of 
communism, a stateless, classless society free of 
oppression.


ARIZONA MEAT PATTIES--FOR TEST PURPOSES ONLY


Dear MIM, 

Please keep MIM Notes coming. If there was any 
doubt before, I now realize I'm in the same boat as 
many of the people who write in to UL&K. Recently, 
I was shown a sticker that came from a box of meat 
patties that are fed to us regularly. Among other 
things, the sticker said, "Not For Sale--For Test 
Purposes Only". One of the ingredients listed as 
being in the meat is Silicon Dioxide. 

Another con showed a copy of this same sticker to 
one of the prison staff. The staff member 
immediately went to check on the rest of the boxes 
of meat. When he returned, he demanded to have the 
sticker returned to him. Said sticker was hidden 
and secured before it could be returned to the 
staff member. The excuse the staff member gave the 
con for the sticker was that the meat was a 
"promotional gift," yet he still demanded to have 
the sticker returned.

Since the sticker was found, people on the outside 
have been notified, including loved ones and 
lawyers. Many of these people are looking into what 
type of test this meat is intended for. (The lot 
number was also on the sticker).

I can only imagine what the long-term effects would 
be had we not found the sticker. And since there 
was no USDA stamp on the packages, I can only 
assume these products were not originally intended 
for human consumption. This is worse that the 
radiation tests done on cons at Oregon State Pen. 
in the early seventies. At least those cons were 
paid, semi-informed volunteers. What's next, 
military ammunition testing? I wasn't sentenced to 
do ten years as a lab rat.

I suggest that any con reading this look into what 
your jailers are feeding you. Especially anyone in 
one of the new corporate prisons like Corruptions 
Corp. of Amerika. That's not to say that any 
state's Department of Corruptions won't be involved 
in immoral testing too.

--an Arizona prisoner, June 14, 1996


PIGS' TACTICS OF OPPRESSION


VIRGINIA

...The Department is forcing inmates to get rid of 
their typewriters by 1/1/97. Their justification 
for this measure is that the typewriters pose a 
"security risk". Several months ago an inmate on 
Death Row was allegedly storing a gun within his 
typewriter....

--a Virginia prisoner, May 29, 1996

TEXAS

...The pigs are trying to ride down on us here. 
They have dramatically reduced activities and 
educational opportunities. Harassment of vocal 
revolutionary cadre here continues. The favorite 
method is to plant a contraband item in your cell 
during a "routine search". The pigs are also trying 
to deny access to legal material by scheduling 
bogus doctor's appointments, etc., instead of your 
rightful library time....

--a Texas prisoner, June 4, 1996

SOUTH DAKOTA

...Last month two inmates from my pod were shot 
with rubber bullets and maced because they refused 
to lock up. Both required a trip to the hospital. 
Prison claims the inmates were drunk. Isn't it nice 
that in the most secure area of the prison, inmates 
can still make their own booze? All the top staff 
do weekly checks of our cells and guards do a daily 
count....

--a South Dakota Prisoner, June 10, 1996.

ORGANIZATIONS WHICH OFFER LEGAL ASSISTANCE TO 
PRISONERS

NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND 
99 Hudson Street, 16th floor, New York, NY 10013, 
Tel: (212) 219-1900
Limited number of Habeas cases for death-row 
inmates 

HISPANIC AIDS COMMITTEE FOR EDUCATION AND RESOURCES 
1017 N. Main, Suite 208, San Antonio, TX 78212, 
Tel:(512) 227-2204

SOUTHERN CENTER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
83 Poplar Street, N.W., Atlanta, GA 30303-2122, 
Tel:(404) 688-1202
Civil rights actions affecting prison conditions in 
the South, representation of people facing death 
penalty 

LEGAL SERVICES FOR PRISONERS WITH CHILDREN 
1535 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA 94103, Tel: (415) 255-7036
Legal assistance to incarcerated parents, their 
children, families, etc. Does not have resources to 
represent individuals, but responds to hundreds of 
inquiries per month

CHICAGO LEGAL AID TO INCARCERATED MOTHERS 
205 W. Randolph Street, Suite 830, Chicago, IL 
60606, Tel: (312) 332-5537

CALIFORNIA: 

LAW OFFICES OF ALAN ELLIS, P.C.
265 Miller Avenue, Mill Valley, CA 94941, Tel: 
(415) 383-3862

NEW YORK: 

PRISONERS' RIGHTS PROJECT OF THE LEGAL AID SOCIETY 
15 Park Row, 23rd Floor, New York, NY 10038, Tel: 
(212) 577-3530

POST-CONVICTION REPRESENTATION OF FEDERAL 
DEFENDANTS. 
Jackson, MI 49201 Tel: (517) 788-7560



PRISONS ARE NOT DESIGNED TO REHABILITATE


I am currently a prisoner in the Michigan 
Department of Corrections (Chippewa KTF). I have 
become a true believer that these prisons are not 
designed to rehabilitate inmates. The prisons here 
in Michigan promote hostile atmospheres for the 
inmates to reside in, by stacking inmates--full 
grown men--on top of each other. For example, here 
at KTF, 120 men are housed in a pole barn, which is 
designed to hold only 60 inmates. 

These facilities offer hardly anything positive for 
the inmates to involve themselves with. Then, when 
an inmate joins an organization to give himself 
something positive to occupy his time with, he gets 
harassed and accused of belonging to a gang! The 
institution does not allow these organizations to 
participate in any positive activities. All 
proposals submitted are being denied. It seems like 
the DOC is no longer interested in whether an 
inmate receives rehabilitation, or in the education 
he/she needs to become a productive member of 
society upon his/her release.

Instead, Governor Engler stopped inmates from 
receiving financial aid to further their education. 
An inmate is only allowed the luxury of obtaining 
his GED in this facility...and we all know that is 
only the beginning of the road to success 
concerning education. 

They are constantly passing new policies which are 
making it more and more difficult for inmates to 
communicate with the outside world, which is a 
vital part of rehabilitation. They have restricted 
our telephone calls by giving us only ten phone 
numbers to call. These numbers can only be changed 
every six months. These phone calls are being 
recorded and monitored. The have done the same 
thing with our visits. They have made us send our 
loved ones visitor applications which invade their 
personal lives with questions that are not 
applicable, but which are nonetheless required to 
answer if they wish to visit. 

These prisons in Michigan are nothing more than an 
economy-saver. We prisoners in Michigan are 
steadily working for slave wages. We are also being 
subject to all kinds of diseases by being forced to 
live in such crowded quarters. Then, when an inmate 
requests health services, he usually does not get 
the attention he needs until he has naturally 
recovered! If an inmate does not have financial 
support from the outside world, he is a lost cause! 
These people know this. That is why they are making 
it so hard for a person to have contact with the 
outside world.

--a Michigan prisoner, Mar. 11, 1996


***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.


***WHAT PRISONERS CAN DO TO BUILD MIM***

*1. Start a study group. This is the best way to 
share materials and ideas. In groups, prisoners can 
better benefit from the limited resources MIM has.
*2. Get MIM Notes and MIM Theory into your library. 
This allows one copy of the paper to be seen by 
many comrades.
*3. Contact people on the outside. MIM needs 
comrades and allies everywhere. Maybe you know 
people on the outside who want to subscribe to MIM 
Notes or distribute it.
*4. Share materials. If MIM sends books or 
periodicals, please make sure that as many people 
as possible get a chance to read them.
*5. Write MIM at least every three months. 
Otherwise, you will be dropped from our mailing 
list. There are many cases where your keepers throw 
out MIM Notes, so we need to know that you actually 
get it.  Also, comrades are moved around a lot, 
especially those who are known to be political. 
Please let us know of any address changes as soon 
as you know them.
*6. Make MIM Distributors an official distributor. 
Many prisons require registration before MIM can 
send books or other materials. Usually we can 
comply with these bogus rules. It helps immensely 
to have someone there do the reasearch and send us 
the proper forms.
*7. Send money or stamps. 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. 
Please make all checks payable to "MIM 
Distributors."
*8. Write for MIM Notes or Notas Rojas. Prisoners 
write almost all of Under Lock & Key.  We don't 
care if you know how to spell or write good English 
or Spanish. Write on any topic you like, it does 
not have to be a prison story.
*9. Translate. If you can read and write English 
and another language fluently, let us know.  Any 
translation work you do will help us make Maoist 
ideas accessible to more people.
*10. Fight censorship. When you know of censorship 
of books or newspapers, investigate.  Write to MIM 
to confirm what has happened, then see what you can 
do about it.
*11. Keep in touch after your release. Many 
comrades stop doing political work after their 
release.  Write to MIM as soon as you know where 
you'll be so we can hook you up with comrades on 
the outside.


* * *


MARXISM-LENINISM-MAOISM ONLINE


FIGHTING AMERIKAN ABUSES IN PUERTO RICO ON-LINE:
WORLD WIDE WEB REVIEW


Committee For The Defense of Pedro Albizu-Campos 
(CODEPAC) http://www.njservice.com/albizu


by a RAIL and a MIM comrade

Dr. Pedro Albizu-Campos, the revolutionary 
nationalist leader for Puerto Rican independence--
and the radiation experiments which were conducted 
on him in retaliation for his political practice--
are the subject of a World Wide Web homepage 
operated by Committee For The Defense of Pedro 
Albizu-Campos (CODEPAC). The homepage opens with 
the statement "This page is open to accuse the U.S. 
Government in the death of Dr. Pedro Albizu-
Campos." CODEPAC urges its readers to spread the 
word about radiation experimentation in Puerto Rico 
and to write letters to Congresspeople urging them 
to support the independence of Puerto Rico, and an 
investigation into the death of Albizu-Campos.

Pedro Albizu-Campos was a revolutionary leader who 
was convicted by the United Snakes of "seditious 
conspiracy" in 1936 for his work with the anti-
colonial Nationalist Party. He spent seven years in 
a Federal prison for this "crime" of fighting for 
self-determination, and the rest of his life 
fighting U.S. imperialism and being viciously 
repressed by the United Snakes government. He was 
arrested and imprisoned again in 1950, after the 
Nationalist insurrection in Puerto Rico, and the 
attack by two Nationalists on Washington D.C.'s 
Blair House, where Amerikan president Truman was 
temporarily living. Dr. Albizu-Campos was tortured 
with radiation poisoning in prison, and he was also 
the first to confront the U.S. government on the 
radiation experimentation it conducted in Puerto 
Rico between 1951 and 1953. CODEPAC is seeking more 
information about and organizing support for an 
investigation into these experiments which killed 
Albizu-Campos.

The homepage contains many photos showing the 
tissue damage and debilitated physical state from 
which he suffered as a result of the experiments. 
As a result of the release of classified documents 
by the Office of Human Radiation Experiments of the 
U.S. Department of Energy, many original documents, 
including FBI memos, which expose Amerikan 
government involvement are available for viewing or 
downloading. It should come as little surprise that 
the United Snakes has used Puerto Rican citizens as 
guinea pigs in radiation experiments and tortured 
imprisoned revolutionaries. Ever since Amerika 
violated the sovereignty of Puerto Rico and made it 
a colony, Puerto Ricans have fought many forms of 
forced medical testing including forced birth 
control experiments. Amerika also further 
impoverished Puerto Rico by forcing a change to 
sugar as the main export crop in the first decades 
of this century.

Imperialist policies sucked off the island's 
resources and fostered a revolutionary nationalist 
movement which Amerika had to repeatedly crush with 
money and bombs. In addition to buying off 
politicians and installing puppet leaders, Amerika 
bombed the town of Jayuya in 1950, arrested 
thousands of nationalists, and built up a self-
serving economy in order to silence the cries of 
revolt from Puerto Ricans.

CODEPAC is continuing the righteous tradition of 
Puerto Rican resistance to U.S. imperialism. It is, 
however, unfortunate that the organization does not 
see the futility of their tactics, even though it 
states that "U.S. policy has always been against 
the independence of Puerto Rico." No amount of 
letter writing or protesting to the Amerikan 
government will change the nature of imperialism, 
and Amerika will not give up imperialism without a 
fight. Token apologies, if won, will not prevent 
Amerika from torturing again, or crushing other 
leaders like Albizu-Campos who will fight for 
national self-determination.

CODEPAC should study the contributions of the Young 
Lords Party (YLP) to the liberation movement. 
During the 1970s, YLP, a revolutionary party 
modeled after the Black Panther Party, was the 
vanguard for Puerto Rican revolutionary 
nationalism. The Young Lords organized to improve 
the quality of life for Puerto Ricans living in 
Amerikan slums, to fight for the independence of 
Puerto Rico, and for the establishment of a 
socialist society. The book Palante explains the 
history of the Young Lords Party and its struggle 
for Puerto Rican power. YLP didn't rely on Amerika 
to help Puerto Ricans, but built its own support 
systems and made alliances with other organizations 
with shared goals. CODEPAC should not waste its 
time on reforming imperialism;  instead it should 
work on building independent power of the 
oppressed.


Notes: J. Sakai, *Settlers: The Mythology of the 
White Proletariat.* Morningstar Press, 1989; Ronald 
Fernandez, *Prisoners of Colonialism: The Struggle 
for Justice in Puerto Rico.* Common Courage Press: 
Monroe, Maine 1994.


* * * 


MIM PACKAGED INTO "ACTIVIST WEB-STARTER'S KIT"


Hey folks,


Just writing to tell you about your inclusion in 
"The Activist's Web-Starters Kit" 
(http://www2.portal.ca/~comprev/webkit.html), and 
to give you a bit of information about it.

As you may (or may not) know, the Vancouver 
Progressive Homepages have been actively promoting 
progressive causes, organizations, business and 
individuals on the internet. The VPH Progressive 
Clearinghouse is one of the best progressive 
resources on the net, offering hundreds (soon 
thousands) of links to various progressive causes, 
including your own. We have taken this invaluable 
resource and converted it into a downloadable 
database that can be plugged into popular web-
browsers, The Activist's Web-Starters Kit, thus 
giving individuals immediate access to the best 
resources on the web.

The Activist's Web-Starters Kit will be updated 
monthly with any new additions to the VPH 
Progressive Clearinghouse 
("http://www2.portal.ca/~comprev/list.html").

We are pleased to include your site in this 
resource, and hope that it raises awareness about 
your site and what you're doing. ...


MIM RESPONDS: MIM is glad to be included on this 
list of "progressive" Internet sites. The creators 
of the site, in a little blurb about MIM, point out 
that we support the Cultural Revolution in China 
(1966-1976), and note that Sartre belonged to a 
Maoist group.

This site is part of a group of efforts by people 
who specialize in providing links to other 
"progressive" groups within a very broad conception 
of that term. Such efforts are useful in the sense 
that they help people get to certain information or 
groups quickly or find groups they didn't know 
about. MIM, for example, is listed in the category 
of "left-socialist" as well as in the category of 
prisons activism. We certainly would like to be 
found by people interested in either of these 
categories.

On the other hand, there are a lot of judgments 
made in such a project that have political 
implications with which we don't agree. For 
example, MIM is not listed under "feminist-women's" 
issues, while the reactionary National Organization 
for Women, and the social-democratic/Trotskyist 
Solidarity, do appear there. Likewise, under "anti- 
racist" activism, innocent browsers may stumble 
upon the Anti-Defamation League, a right-wing, pro- 
state repression organization that covers itself in 
a cloak of "tolerance" and "diversity," but will 
not find MIM.

On the flip side, most people who make lists of 
"progressive" efforts are much more anticommunist 
than the creators of the Activist Web-Starter's 
Kit, so even if we would have done it differently 
ourselves, we acknowledge the positive contribution 
they make.


* * *


CAPITALIST PRODUCTION CHOKES INTERNET POTENTIAL


Electronic Frontier Foundation Chairperson, 
Internet publisher and investment capitalist Esther 
Dyson recently spoke to the New York Times Magazine 
about intellectual property and the future of the 
Internet. Her argument, that the World Wide Web 
will increasingly be a place for people to freely 
distribute and advertise content that they will 
have to sell in other formats, typifies the short- 
sightedness of capitalist production. Social 
resources that can and should be easily distributed 
online are held captive by the production relations 
of capitalism and the necessity of making a profit. 
The current bourgeois obsession with preserving 
copyright on the Internet (which Dyson calls a 
"moral" issue) serves as another reminder of the 
forces of creativity and progress that socialism 
and communism will inevitably unleash.


Note: The New York Times Magazine July 7, 1996. pp. 
16-19.



* * *


ON PERU AND THE RIM

With the participation of some of the RCP-USA 
influenced organizations in the RIM, *A World to 
Win* published a magazine on Peru. It has already 
proved to be the work of the center-right in our 
movement--those like Hua Guofeng waving the red 
flag to conciliate with counterrevolution. Although 
the document is marked as published in 1995, MIM 
only just received it in recent months of 1996.

Italicized in the document is a statement summing 
up the centrist approach to waving the red flag. 
"In the actual circumstances and given the relation 
of class forces at this stage in Peru, there is, 
from the standpoint of the proletariat, no need for 
and no correct basis for negotiations leading to 
the end of the People's War. There is no basis--in 
terms of the freedom and the necessity of the 
revolutionary camp on the one hand and the 
reactionary camp on the other--for achieving a 
peace accord that would not represent abandoning 
the revolutionary road and compromising away the 
fundamental interests of the people. Under these 
circumstances, the only kind of peace accord which 
would be accepted by the Fujimori regime--and more 
generally by the ruling classes in Peru and their 
imperialist masters--is an agreement to end the war 
on a basis that could not benefit but would harm 
the revolutionary process in Peru. Therefore, a 
proposal for peace accords to end the war could 
only lead to opportunism and must be combatted."(p. 
15)

On the same page that it refers to itself as the 
"emerging political centre of the international 
communist movement," the RIM says, "those who have 
been confused by the right opportunist line or 
stumbled off the revolutionary path should 
repudiate this line, oppose and counter the damage 
being caused by this line and its adherents, and 
retake the revolutionary road."(p. 17) Therein lies 
the essence of the problem of the *A World to Win* 
stand. We take the stand that of course there is a 
two-line struggle at all times in the party, but in 
the instances that the RCP-USA is pointing to in 
this document, what we see is not right opportunism 
but counterrevolution. Furthermore, those 
conciliating with these counterrevolutionary forces 
while maintaining the appearance of a different 
line also lose their credibility as Maoists. Unlike 
the RIM, we do not suggest to the PCP-CC to 
conciliate with these counter-revolutionaries and 
police to the extent of keeping them in the party. 
We find it unlikely that the PCP could have kept 
such people in the party and maintained its 
progress with the armed struggle and it also seems 
likely to MIM that whatever discussions were about 
the "peace accords" were done years ago, at least 
in relation to this type of most fundamental 
question in which a party such as the PCP would 
have achieved unity very quickly.

The statement "it was important that the masses, 
and especially some of the middle strata, realize 
that Mao had gone to great efforts to reach a 
reasonable accord with Chiang" (p. 25) is correct. 
Those who deny this aspect of the peace sentiments 
of the masses are metaphysicians. However, it is a 
different question when it comes to the party and 
what is permissible for a party member to believe, 
and this is the crux of the problem with the RIM 
line on the People's War in Peru.

MIM never saw one of the documents released on 
pages 64 and 65 before. In the "Outline for a Basic 
Document," we see a clear call for 
counterrevolution. "Ending the people's war 
represents neither surrender nor abandoning the 
revolution, but rather continuing the struggle 
under new conditions." In addition, the document 
continues, "II. Basic Approach 1. Sign a peace 
agreement whose application would lead to the 
ending of the war the country is experiencing. 2. 
End the people's war begun 17 May 1980, in all its 
four forms of guerrilla actions. Disband the 
People's Guerrilla Army, destroying its arms and 
combat material; likewise, dissolve the People's 
Committees and the revolutionary base areas of the 
People's New Democratic Republic."

Going back as far as statements released in 1994, 
MIM said it would never be permissible to advocate 
laying down arms. "Outline for a Basic Document" 
does exactly that, but the RIM calls it "written in 
the latter part of 1993 by leaders of the Right 
Opportunist Line."(p. 64)

Whatever right opportunism there might be in the 
PCP pales in comparison with this 
counterrevolutionary document. Without MIM ruling 
on questions unique to Peru or determining Peru's 
Guiding Thought, MIM can clearly say that the 
universal aspects of Maoism in the oppressed, semi-
feudal countries include never laying down arms 
except for partial and limited symbolic gestures, 
not as across-the-board action or strategy. The 
conditions do not matter. There is nothing about 
Maoism to integrate with the conditions on that 
question. The document cannot be called Maoist, no 
matter what conditions in Peru might be.

Hence, even though MIM does not know the conditions 
or pretend to have a Guiding Thought for Peru, MIM 
knows that that document went too far. Its signers 
can not be members of the PCP. The whole affair of 
pretending otherwise is a montage of the police and 
its press lackeys.

RIM talks about "stumbling," but this goes further 
than that. This kind of "stumbling" removes one 
from the party. Perhaps these people can take up 
work in the new democratic forces. Others may prove 
themselves in the people's army, but they cannot be 
immediately trusted. A well-publicized example of 
this is in the Philippines with the case of General 
Jarque whose story is told in Maoist Sojourner, May 
1996. If someone clamors to join the proletarian-
led forces that is good, and we must let them, but 
in the case of someone like Jarque with a history 
of bloodshed on his hands, caution and step-by-step 
struggle is necessary. Furthermore, those saying 
they want a "peace accord" and would conciliate 
with the signers of "Outline for a Basic Document" 
to the extent of keeping those signers in the 
party--such conciliators should also be thrown out 
of the party. The core of the party must be with 
those who recognize the "Outline for a Basic 
Document" as counterrevolutionary. Abroad, this 
means the line of Luis Arce Borja has been 
vindicated by the publication of *A World to Win.*

On the INTERNET, those defending the RIM line have 
reminded MIM of its own internal purge of the 
anarchist wind. They speak of "not casting out" 
people, blather about going on the offensive 
through outreach with everyone vaguely included in 
the Maoist forces and emphasize how their approach 
is "practice." Those unwilling to purge the party 
go against what Lenin taught on how purges 
strengthen the party. This is to leave aside the 
whole issue of police infiltrators, which is also 
connected up with a reluctance to purge and a 
happy-go-lucky approach to unity.

Other defenders of the RIM are a case in point of 
how difficult it is to break with the RCP-USA's 
revisionism without the MIM line on the imperialist 
countries. Already some ex-RCP USA circles are 
crawling back to the RCP-USA line as the struggle 
intensifies.

In light of these documents in *A World to Win,* 
and also other press reports about RIM-sanctioned 
people attacking the PCP-CC as "totalitarian," MIM 
sees that this struggle has gone beyond the 
confines of what is acceptable within the universal 
principles of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. We do not 
seek to present a Guiding Thought for Peru from 
here in the imperialist countries. We will not 
march through Peru's conditions the way *A World to 
Win* did as if we should form the Guiding Thought 
from here--though it is certain that the blow to 
the leadership and the lack of inter-imperialist 
war will make the People's War more protracted than 
would otherwise be the case.

We recognize instead of trying to form the Guiding 
Thought, we abroad should follow Luis Arce Borja in 
his approach. He has warned against RIM centrism 
and conciliation with counterrevolution and police 
plots. Meanwhile, he has rebuffed the obviously 
non-Maoist attacks on the PCP including the recent 
police plot activities of the New Flag aimed at MIM 
and Luis Arce Borja himself, and Luis Arce Borja 
has earned MIM's trust in these matters including 
detailed questions that MIM cannot know much about. 
Meanwhile, the RIM belies its claim to be fighting 
the "right opportunist line" by distributing 
leaflets against Luis Arce Borja internationally. 
If one is conducting a struggle against the "right 
opportunist line" for the peace accords, one does 
not proceed against those like Luis Arce Borja who 
have steadfastly opposed them. Such is the tell-
tale sign of the center-right:  wave the red flag 
to attract adherents, but attack the left and base 
oneself in the support from the right. In such a 
way it is possible to confuse the left momentarily, 
strike down its forces and achieve counter-
revolution, whether subjectively intended or not. 
This is the outcome we must now struggle to avoid.


*Adopted unanimously 1996 MIM Congress*


* * *


AMERIKA'S NOT PAYING ITS LEASE:
FIRST NATIONS SUE OVER $2.4 BILLION IN MISMANAGED 
FUNDS


by MCB52

On June 10, the Native American Right fund and the 
Blackfeet Development fund filed the largest class 
action lawsuit ever against the federal government. 
The groups are waging this legal battle on behalf 
of the 300,000 account holders of Individual Indian 
Money Accounts.(1) They demand that the federal 
government account for $2.4 billion for which it 
lost or destroyed records. They demand payment to 
those who have not received the promised proceeds 
from land leased to the government for mineral and 
other resources.

There is no doubt legally that this money belongs 
to the First Nation people. Much of it was 
allocated to individuals and tribes in the 1880s as 
compensation for land. For example, when stealing 
the Black Hills of South Dakota and huge tracts of 
western land, the government alleged that the First 
Nations were not using them anyway. It promised to 
give a share of the extracted resources to the 
First Nations who relocated.

Instead the government hoards the profits while 
First Nations people suffer malnutrition and lack 
of basic services like health and education. "The 
price for this government negligence and 
malfeasance is being paid by individual Indians who 
are required by [federal] law to maintain the 
federal government as their bank." John Echohawk, 
one of the filers of the suit.

Linda M. Calbom, Director of Civil Audits for the 
General Accounting Office(GOA), stated that a total 
of $2.4 billion for 32,901 transactions could not 
be traced and only 10 percent of the leases 
selected for reconciliation could be verified.

In April 1994, the GOA ordered the Bureau of Indian 
Affairs(BIA) and the Department of the Interior to 
find a resolution, but they failed to do so. They 
did create an agency to oversee trust fund 
management, however they did not fund it. "As a 
result, the BIA does not know the total number of 
leases that it is responsible for managing or 
whether it is collecting revenues from all active 
leases," according to Calbom.(2) Based on the BIA's 
history of fronting for imperialist interests, MIM 
expects no action from the BIA that will provide 
reparations for the First Nations. This deliberate 
bureaucratic staggering is another tactic to 
perpetuate national oppression..

In response to this new suit, Congress has made a 
task force. But when the GOA, BIA, and so many 
other acronyms have talked the talk so much before, 
why should we believe this time they are walking 
the walk?

This suit appears to be on very strong legal 
ground. That is unusual for claims by the oppressed 
since the oppressors make up the laws. The tactic 
of suing is a good way to expose hypocrisy of the 
government ignoring its own laws. The government 
may concede these funds if it serves its interests 
of maintaining domination,. but will never concede 
power.

NOTES:
1. Indian Country Today, June 18-25, 1996, p.p. 1-
2.
2. Congressional Press Releases, June 18, 1996.


* * *


MICMAC TRADER SUPPORTS PEOPLE'S WAR


ACADIA, MAINE--A militant businessperson of the 
Micmac nation surrounded by Canada told MIM the 
victory of the People's War in Peru "is inevitable" 
despite all the propaganda of the white man's 
government against it.

"I'm for Mao, because he pretty much did for his 
people what our people have to do against the 
Amerikan government, the Canadian government, the 
white man's government."

"The united states with all their propaganda 
controlled news twisted what he did, distorted it. 
I don't understand why they did that. . . . In the 
end, I think it's all money."

Asked if he meant it all boils down to money, he 
said, "yes, right money, like in Latin America 
where one country, seven families own the whole 
damn country, and control the military."

According to this Micmac trader, "they say the 
labor is communist, but that is wrong. We 
[indigenous peoples] are the communists."

MIM replied that Marx got his ideas about communism 
from anthropological studies of indigenous peoples. 
There was nothing in the modern white man's culture 
that Marx could adapt, so he took the communist 
idea he called "primitive communism" and attempted 
to fashion it for use in modern, industrial times.

According to the Micmac trader all his First Nation 
peoples are communists, "but the government turns 
it into something evil; they make it out like it is 
all repression, but Mao was a freedom-fighter."

Linking together Mao's fight, his own fight and the 
oppression of Jews, he went on, "Hitler studied the 
Indians; looking at the Indians, Hitler got the 
idea for concentration camps from the reservations, 
because that's what it is, a concentration camp; 
that's what they call it, but it's really a 
concentration camp." He went on to say that the 
government sets up programs to make people 
dependent on them. Then he explained how Hitler had 
the Jews marked with numbers and he took out his 
identification card from Canada and pointed to the 
bottom line to show MIM his number" "The only 
difference is it's not on my wrist."


* * *


SPRINGFIELD MA FIRES RACIST COP FOR ADMITTING HIS 
RACISM


On July 16, the Springfield Massachusetts Police 
Commission fired a police officer "who admitted 
leaving a racially charged message on the answering 
machine of Black minister Talbert Swan II." Ten 
year veteran Officer Joseph Bradley was on duty 
when he made the phone call with a fake black 
dialect and the name "Leroy Washington" and "left 
two crude expletives on the minister's machine" in 
reference to the rash of Black church burnings.

Bradley is not new to accidentally exposing white 
supremacy in the Springfield Police. In 1994, after 
Officer Donald Brown was cleared by the injustice 
system of any wrongdoing in the killing of unarmed 
Black motorist Benjamin Schoolfield, Bradley helped 
organize a party to congratulate Brown on a "job 
well done (keep up the good work)". At the party 
Bradley presented Brown with a ham--an old Southern 
custom to reward the killer of a Black person. This 
party was the source of protests, and not a part of 
this Police Commission hearing.

Reverend Swan said he wasn't pleased with the 
"quick and decisive action" by the Police 
Commission. He was "skeptical that this is ... a 
political ploy to say 'Look how we can be tough on 
incidents or crimes involving racism.'"

According to the NAACP and Swan, a few weeks ago 
the Springfield police used excessive force on a 
"78-year-old Black woman--spraying her with Mace 
and verbally abusing her."

According to Commission Chairperson Gerald A 
Phillips, "It was pretty cut and dried.... He 
admitted making the call, and he was on duty, which 
is totally unacceptable behavior." It appears that 
the problem was that Bradley got caught and then 
admitted it, making more bad public relations for 
the police. It's unclear from Phillips' statement 
whether it is acceptable for Springfield pigs to 
harass Blacks off duty.

Unlike other incidents of brutality by the 
Springfield police, there is very little in the way 
of excuses that can be made by the police to 
explain it away. But here the Police Commission's 
message to the 500-member force is clear:  Leave 
the Klan robes at home, and allow your job 
description and the injustice system to wage war on 
the internal colonies.

According to Philips, Bradley's action hurt the 
image the police are trying to build. "Community 
policing" has gotten a big push from the new police 
chief, Paula Meara, and actions like Bradley's hurt 
that. Community policing is where the police walk 
beats and try to get to know the community more 
closely. This allows for more effective control on 
the part of the police. If the Springfield police 
were looking for a motto, perhaps we could suggest 
"Kinder, gentler, and really fucking deadly". 
Officers like Bradley hurt community policing 
because it makes it harder for the police to gain 
the "trust" of the communities occupied by the 
police.

The Police Commission that fired Bradley has 
ordered "all Springfield police officers to undergo 
race sensitivity training." It's essential to the 
police department that its officers cease with 
diversionary activities like ham-giving and prank 
calls and get back to the business of "gang 
suppression" and other anti-Black and Latino 
oppression.


WILL A WOMYN POLICE CHIEF HELP?


In January, Mayor Albano named Paula Meara police 
chief. Some community leaders hoped that her 
history of battling sexism within the police 
department might make her more "sensitive" to 
"issues of discrimination."

President of the Springfield NAACP, Mickey Harris 
has remarked "Certainly she's talking the talk, but 
can she walk the walk?" As if to answer, Swan told 
the Advocate that he wondered if the police would 
have responded so quickly if an officer less 
notorious than Bradley had made the call. So while 
Meara didn't have a choice here, this wasn't a real 
test.

Harris also compared the Bradley phone call to the 
Rodney King incident:  common occurrences that 
brought outrage from the state because luck had 
them recorded.

If any doubts remain about Meara's "tolerance", one 
need only to look at what the Advocate reported 
about their conversation with her about the elderly 
Black woman abused by the police:

"Meara declined to say much about the incident, 
other than that the Internal Investigations Unit is 
looking to the charges of impropriety. The woman, 
Meara added is still a defendant in a criminal 
case." It doesn't take a defense attorney to 
understand that to Meara, if you have been charged 
with a crime, being maced and verbally abused is 
within the realm of acceptability.

Springfield Mayor Albano is "arranging for 
Springfield's religious community to observe a day 
of reflection on racism." If Albano was truly 
interested in reflection on racism (or more 
accurately, national oppression) he should start by 
looking in a mirror.


Notes: All quotes from Boston Globe July 17, 1996; 
Valley Advocate July 18, 1996, p. 8-9.
Other sources: MIM Notes 91, August 1994 p. 5; 
Springfield Union News July 7, 9 and 11, 1994.


* * *


ACTIVISTS WIN BATTLE AGAINST UMASS CENSORSHIP


AMHERST, MA.--On July 17, student activists 
sympathetic to RAIL have won a battle against 
censorship at the University of Massachusetts. The 
July 15 issue of RAIL Notes reported that students 
were banned from tabling at in the student-funded 
Campus Center/Student Union complex--which is one 
of the few high traffic areas in the summer--while 
large corporations like Baybank, Fleet Bank and 
Peter Pan bus lines as well as the police 
department where allowed to set up informational 
tables.

In just a few days, the activists gathered over 160 
signatures defending their right to distribute 
literature. As RAIL Notes reported, the University 
wanted to keep the activists away from the 
"impressionable" incoming students and their 
parents. The activists took their petitions 
directly to the new students and their parents.

According to the student bureaucrat responsible for 
overseeing tabling in the Campus Center/Student 
union, neither pressure from the New Students 
program nor the petitions swayed her decision to 
allow student organizations to set up tables. She 
says that she just changed her mind.

Twice the activists were able to table with a 
minimum of harassment in the last week. However, 
the activists have received no written assurance 
that they can table freely, and it is unknown 
whether the student bureaucrats' letter to 
administrators asking them to stop the activists 
from tabling is still in circulation. Finally, a 
meeting of the student-led Campus Center/Student 
Union Commission to announce the new policy has 
twice been scheduled and then moved or canceled, 
leaving the activists to wonder how solid their 
"victory" actually is.

The most important lesson from this small struggle 
is the necessity of not bowing down before the 
self-serving and self-imposed reactionary 
regulations of bureaucrats. The student bureaucrat 
had raised all kinds of objections to the activists 
setting up tables or to changing her regulations, 
ranging from the work it would take to oversee the 
activists, to the fact that she didn't have 
authority to change her organization's policy.

It is an important Maoist principle that "There are 
no rights, only power struggles." Not only did the 
activists earn the ability to distribute their 
literature, they also took this principle a step 
farther: "There are no regulations, only power 
struggles." Don't back down because the 
reactionaries wrote rules to support themselves!


* * *

FIRST NATIONS:

PENOBSCOTTS OPPOSE MAINE TAXES

ACADIA, MAINE--On July 14th, MIM spoke with several 
traders from the Penobscott nation and other First 
Nations sometimes linked to the Wabanaki 
Confederacy. Only one spoke for the policy of 
paying taxes to Maine.

"I have nothing against it," he said. When asked if 
he thought of himself as a citizen of Maine, he 
nodded yes. However, even his partner in business 
disagreed with him and said, "the Mohawks don't 
have to pay it on their reserve. I don't see why we 
have it to pay it."

Another Penobscott from the Turquoise Arrowhead 
store was more adamant. "I don't believe we should 
be charged taxes no matter where we live. . . 
there's a whole bunch of taxes, starting with the 
land tax; what a rip-off." When told about the one 
who said he was a citizen of Maine, "citizen of 
Maine. Paying taxes to Maine, that's for the white 
people. Maine is for the white people."


PATAKI BACKS DOWN


SENECA NATION TERRITORY--The office of New York 
State Governor George Pataki has backed down from 
threats to collect the New York State tax by 
invading Seneca territory. Originally his goons 
were to arrive this summer on First Nation 
territory.

One Seneca had this to say about it, "If they want 
to go through with it, we're just going to put a 
toll booth on both sides of the highway [passing 
through Seneca territory--ed.] . . . 25 cents a car 
or whatever it takes, if that's what they want to 
play with."