This is an archive of the former website of the Maoist Internationalist Movement, which was run by the now defunct Maoist Internationalist Party - Amerika. The MIM now consists of many independent cells, many of which have their own indendendent organs both online and off. MIM(Prisons) serves these documents as a service to and reference for the anti-imperialist movement worldwide.
I N T E R N E T ' S M A O I S T BI-M O N T H L Y = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = XX XX XXX XX XX X X XXX XXX XXX XXX X X X X X X X XX X X X X X X X V X X X V X X X X X X X XX XXX X X X X X X XX X X X X X X X XXX X X X V XXX X XXX XXX = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = THE MAOIST INTERNATIONALIST MOVEMENT MIM Notes 152 DECEMBER 1, 1997 MIM Notes speaks to and from the viewpoint of the world's oppressed majority, and against the imperialist-patriarchy. Pick it up and wield it in the service of the people. support it, struggle with it and write for it. IN THIS ISSUE: 1. WHITE SUPREMACISTS KILL VIET YOUTH ASIAN COMMUNITY MOBILIZES IN RESPONSE 2. INDEPENDENT MEDIA SHUT DOWN BY FCC: RADIO FREE ALLSTON FIGHTS BACK 3. LETTERS 4. ENGLAND, EUROPE: STOP AMERIKAN INJUSTICE 5. CALIFORNIA GUARDS INSTIGATE VIOLENCE BETWEEN PRISONERS 6. BAYLOSIS SPEAKS ON STRUGGLE OF FILIPINO MASSES 7. AMERIKAN-SINO SUMMIT REEKS OF CAPITALIST HYPOCRISY 8. AMERIKA BUYS BIG WEAPONS SO IRAN CAN'T 9. TACTICAL OFFENSIVES OF THE NPA BECOMING MORE VIGOROUS 10. ENGLAND: STRUGGLE FOR MAOIST PARTY CONTINUES 11. MARXISM-LENINISM-MAOISM ONLINE 12. UNDER LOCK & KEY * * * WHAT IS MIM? The Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM) is a revolutionary communist party that upholds Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, comprising the collection of existing or emerging Maoist internationalist parties in the English-speaking imperialist countries and their English-speaking internal semi-colonies, as well as the existing or emerging Spanish-speaking Maoist internationalist parties of Aztlan, Puerto Rico and other territories of the U.S. Empire. MIM Notes is the newspaper of MIM. Notas Rojas is the newspaper of the Spanish- speaking parties or emerging parties of MIM. MIM is an internationalist organization that works from the vantage point of the Third World proletariat; thus, its members are not Amerikans, but world citizens. MIM struggles to end the oppression of all groups over other groups: classes, genders, nations. MIM knows this is only possible by building public opinion to seize power through armed struggle. Revolution is a reality for North America as the military becomes over-extended in the government's attempts to maintain world hegemony. MIM differs from other communist parties on three main questions: (1) MIM holds that after the proletariat seizes power in socialist revolution, the potential exists for capitalist restoration under the leadership of a new bourgeoisie within the communist party itself. In the case of the USSR, the bourgeoisie seized power after the death of Stalin in 1953; in China, it was after Mao's death and the overthrow of the "Gang of Four" in 1976. (2) MIM upholds the Chinese Cultural Revolution as the farthest advance of communism in human history. (3) MIM believes the North American white-working-class is primarily a non- revolutionary worker-elite at this time; thus, it is not the principal vehicle to advance Maoism in this country. MIM accepts people as members who agree on these basic principles and accept democratic centralism, the system of majority rule, on other questions of party line. "The theory of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin is universally applicable. We should regard it not as dogma, but as a guide to action. Studying it is not merely a matter of learning terms and phrases, but of learning Marxism-Leninism as the science of revolution." -- Mao Zedong, Selected Works, Vol. II, p. 208 * * * WHITE SUPREMACISTS KILL VIET YOUTH ASIAN COMMUNITY MOBILIZES IN RESPONSE Two white supremacist youth who savagely tortured and killed a Viet sojourner in California were both recently convicted for first-degree murder.(1) Normally when the murder victims are oppressed nationals, the bourgeoisie and labor aristocracy collude to free the white nation murderers or give them very light slaps on the wrist. In this particular case, two major factors pushed the convictions through: the response of the outraged Asian community and the danger that these youth pose even to white Amerikan society. On January 28, 1996, Gunner Lindberg and Dominic Christopher assaulted Thien Minh Ly, a Georgetown University medical student, as he was rollerblading at his former high school in Orange County, California. Encountering Ly alone at night on the tennis court, Lindberg stabbed Ly repeatedly while Christopher egged him on. They watched Ly bleed to death and then left. Lindberg later wrote to his cousin and bragged: "Oh, I killed a jap a while ago I stabbed him to Death... I pulled the knife out a butcher knife... I stomped on his head 3 times ... and stabbed him in the side about 7 or 8 times he rolled over a little so I stabbed his back about 18 or 19 times then he laid flat and I slit one side of his throat on his jugular vain... then Domminic said 'do it again' ... so I cut his other jugular vain... [and] stabbed him about 20 to 21 times in the heart... then I wanted to go back and look, so we Did and he was Dying just then taking in some bloody gasps of air ... [and then Dominic] kicked the fuck out of his face... [sic]" (2) The pigs initially believed that Ly was murdered by an acquaintance because "[t]he multiple wounds indicate[d] a lot of hatred and anger was behind it."(3) When it was uncovered that hatred was indeed the prime motive --white supremacist hatred -- the pigs were quick to close ranks and deny any "unsubstantiated" "racial overtones" in spite of the fact that both men were "known white supremacists".(4,5) They then asserted that robbery was the only motive although Ly had no valuables with him at the time of the murder. The local bourgeois media parroted this line, calling the two men "alleged racists" even after the pigs raided their apartment and found Nazi, Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist materials.(6) Pressured by the Asian communities, the pigs and courts finally had to admit -- albeit in a gentle way -- that Lindberg had indicated his deep resentment and dislike for the Asian community."(5) The bourgeoisie, its armed forces and media wings have it within their interests to deny that violence against the oppressed nations targets them specifically because they are oppressed nations. The Amerikan imperialists do not want oppressed nationals to recognize that their oppression is systemic and do something against that very system. White nation workers also benefit materially from hiding this fact. In particular, violence against Asian and Asian-descended nationals is less likely to be acknowledged as a racist act. As a Korean wrote in the Tustin Weekly: "The cover-up of the motive and the selective omission of words printed in the newspaper have made me realize the racism against Asian-Americans [sic] is not considered a serious problem."(7) Amerikan imperialist wars in Asia have hardened Amerikan chauvinism against Asian nationals. In particular, the successful revolution in Viet Nam and the resounding Amerikan defeat there has embittered the settler nation against the recently established Viet and Southeast Asian communities in their midst. Orange County in California has a large population of Viet nationals who have built a vibrant community, Little Saigon, in the middle of reactionary settler chauvinism. Police brutality and the criminalization of Southeast Asian youth have been two outgrowths from the antagonistic national contradiction between the dominant white nation and the Southeast Asians. Anti-Asian sentiment is not a recent trend in Amerikan ideology. It is as Amerikan as slavery, oppression and genocide. During the 19th century, Chinese labor played an essential role in building the economy in the west while Euro-Amerikkkans waged land-thieving and genocidal wars against the First Nations and Mexico. When the white settlers swarmed west, they terrorized, massacred, and disenfranchised Chinese nationals under the banner of white chauvinism. In the book Settlers: The Mythology of the White Proletariat, J. Sakai points out that "the [Amerikan] Empire-wide campaign against the Chinese national minority played a major role in the history of Euro-Amerikan labor; it was a central rallying issue for many, a point around which immigrant European workers and other settlers could unite."(8) This was as true in the 1800's as it was in the 1980's, when Japan-bashing regained currency. Japan was becoming a competitive imperialist power to contend with during the eighties. As Amerikans became more restless and discontented with their perceived economic eclipse, Japan-bashing within the united snakes became a life-and-death matter for the internal oppressed Asian and Asian- descended nations. In June 1982, Vincent Chin, a Chinese draftsman, was brutally murdered by two unemployed white nation autoworkers because he was a "jap" responsible for "layoffs in the automobile industry."(9) In a broad show of labor-aristocratic support, a jury of their peers found these two crackers innocent in spite of overwhelming testimony and evidence of their guilt. The two murderers never spent a day in jail. MIM has stated before that the Vincent Chin case "demonstrates that it is often the white workers at the vanguard of reaction within u.s. borders while the imperialists generally take the lead in extremist reaction abroad. In this case, the imperialists were willing to put the heat on the white workers [by prosecuting them], but the white workers themselves turned out to be unwilling to live without racism."(10) The murder of Vincent Chin and the acquittal of his murderers concretely demonstrates how white nation workers are reactionary national chauvinists. Their dominant economic and social positions of power makes the white nation as a whole opposed to genuine alliances with oppressed nation workers and to revolution. Because they are bought-off with imperialist super-profits, the white nation forms a labor aristocracy within the imperialist countries. They are willing to participate in and condone oppression and murder and will even themselves kill to maintain their privileges skimmed from the exploitation of the Third World. In general the bourgeoisie and its injustice system go to great lengths to support white supremacy and settler terrorism against the oppressed. After all, in the hearts and minds of the white nation, the lives of three million "gooks" is insignificant in comparison to the lives of 200,000 crackers. Amerika rarely punishes its own except when they present a danger to the white nation itself. In this particular case, one of the white supremacists, Gunner Lindberg, had shot a Missouri pig's son, showing himself to be a danger to the white nation as well. But if it had not been for the mobilization of the Asian communities, the bourgeoisie would have been content to lightly punish Lindberg and his accomplice Dominic Christopher for "attempted robbery" without acknowledging their racism.(11) It was the political pressure of the outraged Asian communities which forced the bourgeoisie to categorize the murder as a "hate crime" motivated by reactionary Amerikan chauvinism. The overall white nation chauvinist tendency is to lump all Asian nationals together as a monolithic whole, in complete disregard of the historical antagonisms and material conditions between different Asian nations. White nation chauvinism reacts against Asians as a group and does not differentiate between "gook," "jap" or "chink." This common oppression lends itself to unity between the Asian-descended nations within the u.s., the growth of a pan-Asian political consciousness and ultimately, a revolutionary pan- Asian nationalism. In a letter written to Thien Ly after his murder, his mother writes. "It has been more than a year since you had to leave us -- your parents and siblings -- because of the cruel and discriminatory hands of two wicked people who destroyed our family, forcing you to leave us painfully, leaving us, your parents and two siblings in an immense sadness... I do not understand why their hearts were so cruel and wicked."(12) MIM sympathizes deeply with the Ly family's pain and points to Amerikan imperialism as fundamental root of violence against the oppressed. The Asian masses in the belly of the beast have mobilized against this example of white nation chauvinism. MIM encourages the Asian communities to get angry, organize and take pan-Asian nationalism even further. Racist violence cannot be stopped until the system which underpins it is overthrown. NOTES: 1. Daily Bruin (UCLA) 1 October 1997. 2. LA Times Orange County 4 March 1996. This letter lead to Lindberg and Christopher's arrest. 3. Tustin Weekly2 February 1996. 4. LA Times OC 3 May 1996. 5. Tustin Weekly 3 May 1996. 6. Orange County Human Relations Commissioned reported that white supremacists committed the majority of local hate crimes in 1995: 102 out of 175. In that year, crimes against Asians increased, while crimes against jews decreased. These figures are of course vastly underreported since it does not include the violence of poverty, starvation and disease against the oppressed. LA Times OC 3 March 1996. 7. Tustin Weekly, Letters to the Editor. 8. J. Sakai Settlers: The Mythology of the White Proletariat Morningstar Press: Chicago, 1989, p.31- 37. Available from MIM for $12. 9. W. Wei The Asian American Movement Temple: Philadelphia, 1993, p. 194. 10. "'Asian American' film review" by MIM, as yet unpublished. 11. MIM thinks Amerikan doublespeak is ironic because Amerika has robbed and is continuing to rob the oppressed nations of their resources and freedom but that is considered the Amerikan Dream. 12. "Letters to Thien" webpage * * * INDEPENDENT MEDIA SHUT DOWN BY FCC: RADIO FREE ALLSTON FIGHTS BACK On October 28, Radio Free Allston was shut down by the Federal Communications Commission for operating illegally. Radio Free Allston (RFA) is a low-power FM radio station that, "was formed to provide the greater Boston community in general and Allston- Brighton in particular, with access to the 'public airwaves' access which is now prohibitive because of cost and Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations." They broadcasted for eight months at 106.1 FM without a license from the FCC. On October 28th two agents from the FCC showed up at the station and ordered them to shut down or face fines and arrest. The station operator, Steve Provizer, decided to shut down in the short term while they fight the legal battle to reopen. RFA was well known in the community for traveling to political events and providing live coverage where other media were conspicuously absent. The live coverage of political activism around Boston and its willingness to broadcast political commentaries and announce events along with the alternative play list and wide array of foreign language and other alternative programming distinguished Radio Free Allston from the mainstream radio on the rest of the dial. The operation of RFA was entirely public. RFA publicized the station address and offered contact information on their web page. This was a political decision to fight for support for small watt stations. In July, it even managed to get the Boston City Council to pass a resolution supporting the station. There was a complaint lodged with the FCC against Radio Free Allston by WROR-105.7. WROR is a 50,000 watt station owned by Greater Media, a New Jersey- based corporation that has 15 stations in five markets.(1) But there is no evidence that RFA interfered with WROR's broadcasting, this is just an excuse for the corporate controlled media to get the FCC to crack down on independent media. In 1978, the FCC stopped licensing stations smaller than 100 watts. It appears that the FCC is stepping up enforcement. The day after shutting down RFA, the FCC shut down WDOA, a 60-watt pirate music station in Worcester that had been operating for almost two years. While the FCC is running around shutting down tiny community stations, corporations are allowed to own as many as eight radio stations in a market. And it is the pressure from these corporations that is leading part of the driving force behind the FCC crack down. According to the Boston Phoenix, "The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), a powerful lobby that worked to weaken the ownership restrictions on radio stations two years ago, has been urging the FCC to crack down on pirate stations." As RFA pointed out: "Have you ever wondered why there are no stations that speak for communities? The answer, of course, is money." RFA's philosophy that they should be fighting the corporate ownership of media has put them in the leadership of this battle on the radio front. RFA's literature describes the monopoly of radio and offers compelling arguments for the importance of this battle: "Last year, because of deregulation mandated by Congress, fully half of America's small radio station owners were swallowed up by a small, powerful group of enormous corporations. Didn't know that Disney and Westinghouse were in the radio business? Last year, these two corporations alone picked up radio stations worth 224 million dollars. "If you're thinking about getting into the radio business -- aside from the cost of the station -- you'll have to fork over at least $50,000 to undergo the licensing process demanded by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). This is big money for you and me, but chump change to these conglomerates, who pay each other the big money privilege of playing ring-around-the rosy with America's media." That chunk of money goes toward lawyers and engineers who are part of a small circle familiar with how the game has to be played. "Because of this centralization of power, there's a lot of news that never sees the light of day. Knowing that information gets funneled through the news bureaucracies of GE, Fox, Westinghouse, Warners and company (owners of thousands of radio stations, CBS, NBC, etc..), how likely does it seem that these litigious companies will sanction news that may be controversial, let alone say anything bad about themselves?" RFA estimates that there are about 200 illegally operated small radio stations across the country. MIM would add to this estimate of alternative radio stations the many small alternative newspapers also operated around the country. These alternative media sources are key to the fight against imperialism and need our support in the struggle against corporate media control. There is no free speech under imperialism, only power struggles. For this reason MIM supports RFA's struggle for greater access to free speech. The American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts is planning to fight on behalf of RFA to argue that the FCC's ban on low-power licenses violates free- speech protections.(1) It is worthwhile to take up these battles in court whenever possible. There is a court battle going on in Berkeley, California over the operation of Free Radio Berkeley which is challenging the FCC on First Amendment grounds. These legal battles may force the FCC to change its rules. But these battles will always have to be fought as long as we live under imperialism because this political system allows for the financial control of the media. This is why MIM sees these battles for access to free speech as part of a larger struggle to overthrow imperialism and establish a system of socialism that is run by the people, not the corporations. RFA is encouraging supporters to sign petitions and write letters to local newspapers. For more information or to sign a petition you can reach RFA at www.tiac.net/users/error/radiofreeallston. NOTES: 1. Boston Phoenix, November 6 - 13, 1997. 2. All other information in this article was taken from the Radio Free Allston Web page. * * * LETTERS ***The following is excerpted from a letter responding to the article in the November 1st MIM Notes on the Serve the People Food Program (STPFP)"Repudiate 'charity' -- promote revolution!"*** Dear MIM, The MIM Notes article stated: "The STPFP distributed sandwiches to homeless men and wimmin on an irregular and limited basis." By omission, this sets up a straw STPFP: the STPFP distributed sandwiches and fliers containing MIM's program. The basis was irregular, but for a good while it was weekly. As for the limited basis of the program, at this point it would be good to publicize the actual numbers, which are an accomplishment MIM can take credit for even while backing away from the STPFP: over 500 sandwiches were distributed, each with a copy of MIM's program. This article really begs the question of why MIM rejects the STPFP as charity work, while MIM criticizes those who say the same of the Black Panther Party's Serve the People Programs. It has been acknowledged that, bending to pressure from FBI poison-pen campaigns, the BPP made sure to not propagandize while distributing food. Another question begged: what will create "an already vibrant political movement"? A partial answer: "In short, all the practical problems in the masses' everyday life should claim our attention. If we attend to these problems, solve them and satisfy the needs of the masses, we shall really become organizers of the well-being of the masses, and they will truly rally around us to give us their warm support. Comrades, will we then be able to arouse them to take part in the revolutionary war? Yes, indeed we will." (Mao, 1934) Whatever the STPFP's shortcomings, it was not significant enough an experiment to justify your broad dismissal of its potential. What we can sum up are such things as what was ineffective about the flier used. And the fact that we can now better sum up the form propaganda work among drug-addicted homeless people should take is an accomplishment of the STPFP. The question raised in the article is what kind of work the party should lead: agitation and propaganda only? Organizing only the organs of revolutionary warfare and the future ruling PolitBuro? No, the party also needs to become an organizer of the well-being of the masses. Else, there will be no party to speak of, no army, no united front, no revolutionary war, no state power. You wrote: "The [CCP] and the Red Army did not go into the countryside to hand out PB&J sandwiches, they went there to mobilize the peasantry to solve their pressing political needs themselves. In particular, the CCP organized the peasants into the armed struggle to seize state power." First of all, again here you flog a straw dog by omitting the fact that all sandwiches came with MIM's program and a call for involvement. Addressing the masses' needs via sandwiches does not preclude mobilizing the masses to solve their own needs; taking the lead in problem-solving is a necessary prerequisite for involving the masses. I am concerned about your use of the word "political." Are you trying to counterpoise sandwiches with politics, so that the sandwiches look like pitiful charity work? Mao from 1934's "Be Concerned with the Well-Being of the Masses, Pay Attention to Methods of Work'' again: "I earnestly suggest to this congress that we pay close attention to the well-being of the masses, from the problems of land and labour to those of fuel, rice, cooking oil and salt." More: "If we only mobilize the people to carry on the war and do nothing else, can we succeed in defeating the enemy? Of course not. We must lead the peasants' struggle for land and distribute the land to them, heighten their labour enthusiasm and increase agricultural production, safeguard the interests of the workers, establish co-operatives, develop trade with outside areas, and solve the problems facing the masses -- food, shelter and clothing, fuel, rice, cooking oil and salt, sickness and hygiene, and marriage." I recommend a careful re-reading of this essay, which opposes "bureaucratic leaders" who "talk only about expanding the Red Army, enlarging the transport corps, collecting the land tax and selling bonds [but pay] not the slightest attention to the well- being of the masses. . . . We should convince the masses that we represent their interests, that our lives are intimately bound up with theirs. We should help them to proceed from these things to an understanding of the higher tasks which we have put forward, the tasks of the revolutionary war, so that they will support the revolution and spread it throughout the country, respond to our political appeals and fight to the end for victory in the revolution. The masses in Changkang say, 'The Communist Party is really good! It has thought of everything on my behalf.'" You are correct that armed struggle was the broad context of this Mao essay. But the particular context was the existence of the "bureaucratic" line which, in my opinion, yours resembles. The article errs by incorrectly calling the STPFP "beyond our reach" -- again, it was a problem of collective will, not resources. As for a "concrete impact", on the one hand, 500+ sandwiches isn't much; on the other hand, by similar standards, MIM Notes frequency, size, and distribution isn't much either. And I dare say that a sandwich will do more than a MIM Notes to address the practical problems in the masses' everyday life. (Dialectically, the MIM Notes will have its impact, but for concrete impact, the sandwich wins. And when the sandwich comes with MIM's program and contact info, it's no longer really a contest.) -- a comrade in the west MIM RESPONDS: This letter does a good job of demonstrating how it is possible for a Maoist party to carry out a relatively large program that is led by incorrect political line. The letter also shows us how divorcing the study of theory from the realm of practice can make for lazy theory and ultra-left practice together. The author is correct to raise the example of the Black Panther Party as the BPP was the Maoist vanguard in this country from 1966 through to the early 1970s. The BPP's Serve the People programs were carried out in the context of a vibrant movement to free political prisoners, oppose pig activity generally, and oppose the U.$. war in Vietnam among other things. MIM is building these same activities against prisons, police brutality and imperialism, but without such a movement, it is not the right time to initiate such far-reaching STP programs. The article "Repudiate 'charity'" in MN149 made clear that propaganda work among drug-addicted homeless people is not a form of activism we have the resources to be taking on right now. Any lessons learned in the course of this project came at the expense of getting ahead of ourselves, devoting resources to this program instead of to programs we could follow-through on, and misleading the masses into thinking that this is the correct form of revolutionary organizing at this time -- all of these things point to the fact that this program was wrong for us in 1997. The letter writer promotes a lazy approach to theory in saying that even if we made avoidable mistakes, at least we learned something. MIM consistently struggles to apply the theoretical lessons of past revolutionary struggles and not to repeat errors. Maoists do not pat themselves on the back for learning through ultra-leftism, we do not say "hey, we wasted the people's time and money for a few months but at least we got some practical experience doing it." We must take responsibility for understanding our material conditions well enough to not make egregious ultra-left errors. We will make honest mistakes at times but as the article in MN149 pointed out, this was not one of them. It was a mistake we could have prevented and we plan not to make similar mistakes in the future. The letter writer wants to equate the "particularity" of a supposedly bureaucratic line existing in Amerika today with one which Mao struggled against in China in 1934 -- to argue that MIM harbors a bureaucratic line because it is not doing work in 1997 which Mao insisted the Chinese Communist Party do in 1934. Yet the letter writer wants to dismiss the Chinese armed struggle as mere context for the CCP's work! The background to the masses in Changkang saying "The Communist party is really good!" is that "when fire broke out in a poor peasant's house destroying one and a half rooms, the township government appealed to the masses to contribute money to help him. In another instance, three persons were starving, so the township government and the mutual-aid society immediately gave them rice."(Be Concerned with the Well-Being of the Masses, Selected Works Vol.1, p. 148-49) Without the armed struggle defensible gains are by definition much smaller. The armed struggle is the only thing that can make a mutual aid society and a benevolent township government possible. It is also the prerequisite for making these things worth supporting because without it the township government is necessarily feudal or bourgeois at best. The method the CCP used to help the masses see that the party's interests were bound up with their own was to take leadership in work the masses could participate in. On the question of "leading the masses to solve their own problems," the article on the STPFP argued that this program offered no such leadership. In the passage quoted by the letter writer, Mao refers to "heighten[ing the peasants'] labour enthusiasm and increas[ing] agricultural production," but the letter writer says nothing about how MIM handing out sandwiches and a copy of our program is even the beginning of mobilizing the masses to participate in caring for their own basic needs. Again, this represents the theoretical sloppiness of the ultra-left, which wants to take the spectacular and most public aspects of past movements while ignoring the years of arduous struggle which went into building those movements. No one is disputing Mao on the necessity of paying attention to the well-being of the masses; what we are arguing is the question of whether under current conditions such a program could amount to genuinely effective work for the masses' well- being. Even in the Mao essay which you quote, which was written when the CCP was at a higher stage of struggle than MIM is today, Mao talks about mobilizing the peasants, not about mobilizing the lumpen to meet its own needs. The STPFP was rightist in doing charity work rather than holding out for the vibrant political movement that would allow this work to expand into independent organizing for the masses' needs, it was leftist in asserting that the party public- opinion building apparatus was sufficiently strong that this program could effectively organize the lumpen into meeting their own needs. To call one sandwich per week addressing the practical problems of the masses' everyday life makes a joke out of hunger, especially when it is combined with an argument which guts the importance of building sustainable and expandable independent institutions of the oppressed. MIM does have many effective Serve the People programs including our revolutionary Free Books for Prisoners program, prisoner re-lease program, the educational work we do through literature distribution and organizing events, and the many struggles we carry out on behalf of the prisoners in Amerika. MIM now seeks to expand these programs as we build others. It is important that we don't get ahead of ourselves and waste resources on programs that we can not properly sustain or develop to effect the masses well-being. At the same time we need to think big and work towards the day in the not too distant future when we will be able to sustain programs on the scale of our Filipino comrades who provide medical care for the people, organize them to defend their land, and help them to become self- sufficient while fighting armed revolution against imperialism. * * * ENGLAND, EUROPE: STOP AMERIKAN INJUSTICE We the prisoners, communists and progressive individuals, including some Quakers, fighting the unjust court system in Amerika generally have our backs against the walls. The U.$. criminal INjustice system churns out convictions without regard for the supposed principles of "innocent until proven guilty" or "beyond a reasonable doubt," while the white nation trails along with the tough-on-crime bandwagon. MIM calls on Europeans who have recently noticed Amerikan injustice in action, and to organizers within U.$. borders who oppose brutality and injustice, to take up our fight against the entire sprawling and oppressive Amerikan justice system. The recent au pair court case has shown many Europeans that the Amerikan court system is not about justice. MIM urges those who are watching to look deeper into the Amerikan system and see that au pair's case is one in a system which does not bring about justice -- this is the one case which was turned around, but what about all the less famous ones? Many Amerikan whites have realized the same thing in the wake of Louise Woodward's conviction and release -- but what about Geronimo Pratt, what about Mumia Abu-Jamal, and what about all the captives whose words fill the pages of MIM Notes' Under Lock & Key? What about those prisoners who have not yet found such anti-prison forces as MIM Notes but who live under the thumb of the prison guards every day? MIM directs its fire at the U.$. criminal injustice system as a whole and we call on all genuine anti- imperialists to do the same. We call for sustained and increased opposition to the system which imprisons the oppressed nationalities at rates many times their percentages in the population, and which arrests oppressed nation youth for hanging out with their friends. We call on all progressive-minded people in Europe to support and distribute MIM Notes, which is the most censored newspaper in the U$A. It is being censored in the U.$. prisons, because we report the real conditions of prisons -- including the crimes of wardens and guards. It is being censored because we consistently report many examples of injustice and even murder being carried out by the Amerikan legal system. ANTI-PIG COMRADES IN EUROPE: UNITE WITH MIM AGAINST PRISON CENSORSHIP We know that many progressives in Europe can work with communists like us. Even if we disagree on important principles, we're pushing for the support of progressives in Europe to fight the battle only MIM and a few individual progressives are fighting. In Europe, many people do not believe that being a communist is a crime. Here in the U$A, they ban our literature and invent charges against prisoners who read it. While MIM advances literacy by distributing free books, magazines and newspapers in prison, the state prison authorities often confiscate the literature and throw it out. Only sometimes do prison authorities follow the law and inform us that our literature has been confiscated. There is often no pretense in allowing prisoners to rehabilitate themselves by learning to read interesting and intelligent material. The reactionary view is that prisoners should leave prison as ignorant and sick as possible, to have no economic future and to spread infectious diseases. Consistently, we have brought cold, hard statistics and reason to people within U.$. borders through publications, educational events, posters and other organizing. While we find some anti-prisons activists we can ally with, the majority of settlers only line up for more emotional responses to crime. They do not listen to communists or Quakers or the prisoners themselves. That is why it is so important for Europeans to work with MIM in the struggle to turn the tide against the largest prison state in the world. The presence of anti- prison activism is stronger in Europe than in Amerika and we must add this voice to our own. MIM and Amerika's prisoners need more English and other Europeans to aid in the struggle to criticize the white settler nation of Amerika and build more opposition to the use of prisons as a tool for oppression. For every censored MIM Notes covering prison conditions in the U$A, let there be 10 new readers of MIM Notes in Europe! Then let there be 10 new signatories to petitions sent to MIM Notes to ease these conditions. Libertarian and anarchist friends: distribute MIM Notes as retaliation until the censorship stops! The forces of reaction will be weaken as more unite with MIM against the Amerikan INjustice system. FACTS OF AU PAIR CASE On October 30, a jury in Middlesex County, Massachusetts found Louise Woodward guilty of second degree murder in the death of a baby. The prosecution claimed the baby's head was so damaged that the au pair must have thrown the baby hard enough to cause as much damage as a high-speed car accident. The defense brought medical authorities who argued that the baby had already been injured some days earlier and it did not take much for the baby to die. MIM claims no special knowledge on this case. But this case of conflicting hard evidence only adds to our proof that Amerikans view criminal defendants as guilty until proven innocent, and that they will happily ignore a clear and reasonable doubt. Anything a cop says is worshipped in our sick society -- to the point where a videotape in Simi Valley could not convict cops of beating Rodney King while entirely circumstantial evidence put forward by cops can convince a jury to convict an au pair. On this or that case, one might be wrong, but overall the statistics tell no lies: the U$A is the world's number one prison state. While complaining about Jiang Zemin, the U$A is imprisoning more people per 1,000 than China is, and with equally lame excuses. While China executes more people than the U$A, the U$ prison system is still responsible for more total wastage of lives per 1,000 people. CAMBRIDGE BACKGROUND: LIBERAL "LEFT" SWINGS RIGHT In the Cambridge political region a spate of crimes has unleashed the mystic side of this liberal town, an emotional side open to rightist demagoguery. Even a concentration of tens of thousands of liberals in one place is no defense against reactionary demagoguery, only Marxist science can fully defeat reaction. Now with the defeat of rent- control by a narrow state-wide vote, increased petty-bourgeoisification has pushed Cambridge politics even further into the mainstream. It seems that in this area of approximately 100,000 there has been shock after shock in the last few weeks. In September, Cambridge court handled the murder of a girl in neighboring Somerville, which is filled with ethnic whites of older ages and wannabe Cambridgeites of younger ages who could not find housing for rent in Cambridge. Then there was the case of the 10-year-old boy Jeffrey Curley apparently killed and then raped. Post-modern liberal City Council member, Katherine Triantafillou has turned the murder into an issue of language. Triantafillou questioned whether we know for sure that Curley's killers were a gay couple, writing to the Cambridge Chronicle objecting that a womyn was verbally insulted on the street after the publicity surrounding the murder for being a "dyke child molester." This is typical of what infuriates MIM so much about post-modern liberalism. People are dying and these post-modern liberals are mostly concerned about language. Triantafillou's knee-jerk reaction shows how shallow her support for lesbian and gay issues is. She implies that if Curley's murderers really were gay, then bigotry against gays and lesbians is justified. MIM does not deny that there are very sick people in this decadent society. No one social group has a monopoly on sickness because the sickness is systematic and so we do not condone bigotry except for bigotry against people defending the system. This focus on language makes the struggle against oppression look hopelessly ineffective and skewed in its priorities. Triantafillou could be thinking of tactical things to do in the struggle and capturing the emotional energies of the people for effective action. The focus on Curley's death does nothing to aid the struggle for an end to patriarchal violence. MIM connects this rabid crime hype with patriarchal violence -- one form of oppression is aimed at the oppressed nationalities, the other at children. Whatever the sexual orientations of the sick people who killed Curley, the review of anti-death penalty law in Massachusetts is a reactionary outcome of the hype. Today in Cambridge, there are city workers pulling down posters from utility poles around the clock at huge taxpayer expense. This hurts MIM organizing because we cannot afford television time or space in newspapers to publicize our public events. Yet the Cambridge Chronicle's only concern with this policy (October 30, 1997) is that it is affecting crime notices being posted. BRIGHT SPOTS AND LESSONS FOR FURTHER STRUGGLE MIM marveled when the au pair Louise Woodward gained the support of her whole hometown in England, including $22,000 for her parents. While this case is an exceptional one: a white European convicted of murder in the white nation courts of Amerika, MIM is still glad for the attention it has drawn to the court system generally. The ease with which Woodward's charge was reduced and her sentence practically eliminated to time served should prompt those in Europe who were watching this case to investigate how many others could or should have the same outcome. Could this really be a one-time accident? Or is it true as MIM argues that all prisoners in Amerika are political prisoners, because the pigs who arrest them and the courts which convict them are thoroughly abusive and corrupt? Such support is rather rare in the U$A, even in the Mumia case which has received such celebrity even in the liberal newspapers. The few disoriented socialists and communists in Amerika only get the courage up to speak out on a handful of cases already approved by the liberal bourgeois media. That is how impossible it has become to challenge the political climate, the climate MIM calls labor aristocracy politics. MIM looks to turn the criticism of the handling of the Louise Woodward case into prolonged criticism and attention on the criminal INjustice system generally. PATRIARCHY'S MURKY AREAS HIDE REACTION Self-contradictory patriarchal reasoning led to much public criticism of the dead baby's mother, even from liberal Cambridge wimmin. They say the mother put her career above her child and none of this would have happened if it had not been for her. The U$A is just not set up to support two-career families with children. So fearful of communism, the public including the majority of workers opposes government handling of infants. Hard-core Christians easily invent stories about child molesters in day care centers as if there were none in Christian families where mothers stay at home. Whether through private care or public care, children are currently victims of patriarchy. Under socialism, we will rid ourselves of reaction and move forward with careers for wimmin, public and collective care of children and ever-greater independence of children from adult authority as they are taught to care for themselves. GIVING WORKERS MORE JOBS TO PROTECT THE PRISON STATE There is no question workers are getting jobs from a repressive political and intellectual climate. MIM says the white nation is privileged enough, without working directly in the service of imperialism. In Cambridge, people obtain jobs to pull down posters full time. Others get jobs turning college campuses into armed camps complete with barbed wire. In nearby Hartford, Connecticut, a billboard for union politics stands. "Ah, finally the U$A is unionizing," says the social-democrat in Europe? No, this is a billboard showing criminals leaving prison if the public does not increase the prison budget to hire more union prison guards and raise their wages. The traditional labor movement is behind the prison and crime hysteria here, as are rank-and-file workers. We must understand the economic interests of the labor aristocracy which fuel this class alliance of capitalists and workers. The hysteria is directed at an expanding group being turned into a lumpenproletariat -- immigrants, oppressed nationals and even a section of settlers. Even the white imprisonment rate in the U$A is far above European norms except in Russia. The organizations in the U$A that must cater to workers -- who are mostly labor aristocracy as Lenin defined it -- these organizations cannot and do not take a firm stand against the prison craze and white crime hysteria. They are too worried about appeasing their chauvinist constituents and paralyzed themselves, by their own labor aristocracy connection. MIM does not need our friends to agree with us on this issue. There is no need to understand Amerikkkan politics to know that the reactionary movement on crime in the U$A must be stopped. We know our European allies will realize that if they do not help to defeat the forces of the reactionary prison-state in the U$A, it will come for them next. * * * CALIFORNIA GUARDS INSTIGATE VIOLENCE BETWEEN PRISONERS By a rail comrade Two California prisons infamous for their bad conditions and inhumane treatment of prisoners are being investigated by the white nation's Federal Bureau of Investigations. The California Department of Corrections (DOC) tried to cover up internal reports that guards were staging fights among inmates at Corcoran Prison in Kings County and Pelican Bay Prison in Crescent City. At Pelican Bay Prison the guards instigated fights by passing rumors about prisoners who were convicted of molesting. The guards also bribed prisoners with alcohol and money, to start conflicts with those convicted of molesting in the white nation's courts. At Corcoran the guards exploited racial and gang tension to bring about violence between prisoners. Prisoners from rival gangs were sent into the yard together and then the guards would shoot at the prisoners if they failed to stop fighting on cue. According to the Kings County Chronicle, over fifty prisoners have been shot through this kind of set up since 1988, when the prison opened. In the 1980's a prison edict issued the integrated yard policy which required yards to be integrated by gang and race affiliation, officials responsible for the edict claimed they wanted to teach rival gang inmates to get along. In reality they saw this integration as the perfect scheme to cause prisoner on prisoner violence so that they could support their requests for billions of dollars in new facilities. Prisoner on prisoner violence became a source of entertainment to the guards, they bet money on who would win a fight. One prisoner at Corcoran reported that the guards gave him extra sandwiches for winning a fight. These disgusting details have only been revealed after a prison videotape of such a staged fight where a prisoner was shot dead by guards, and reports from one guilt stricken guard. Lieutenant Steve Rigg complained to the Warden that the integrated yard policy was not working. In response, Rigg was threatened by the Warden, who saw that the integrated yard policy was indeed working toward proving that there was a growing problem of prisoner violence. The reports of prisoner violence were to be used in a request for more government funding for the prison facilities and staff at Corcoran prison. Lieutenant Rigg then turned to the F.B.I. with stolen prisoner files and prison log books in which there were many inconsistencies about the fights that preceded guards shooting prisoners. The DOC then tried to block investigations. The F.B.I. claimed they would investigate the issue. This means they will treat it as an isolated incident. The F.B.I. solution to this systematic problem might be to fire a couple of guards. At Pelican Bay, one guard has been accused of giving alcohol to prisoners to bribe them into fighting prisoners convicted of molesting. The guard would make certain prisoners aware that certain other prisoners were convicted in the white nation's courts of child molestation, instigating fights, and even instructing prisoners how they could kill someone without a weapon. The mainstream press, the DOC and the F.B.I. have tried to make this kind of atrocity look like an isolated incident. They charge one or two guards with something which is systematic inside the white nation prison system. According to California DOC reports, seven prisoners have died from shots fired by guards during prisoner fights at Corcoran. At Pelican Bay, prison officials have managed to put all the blame on one Latino guard by bribing prisoners to testify against him. MIM does not believe that justice can be served in the corrupt injustice system of the United Snakes. These incidents of guards staging prisoner fights are just one example of the psychological and physical torture of the people incarcerated by the injustice system. The conviction of those responsible for supposedly isolated cases of misconduct can only help to partially expose the injustices inherent in this imperialist system. We urge all who are oppressed by this imperialist system to understand the Amerikan history of using any justification to infiltrate and smash revolutionary or nationalist organizations. The current system is one in which the laws are not applied equally. So while MIM believes it is important to expose the DOC for breaking its own rules, we assert that revolution is necessary to achieve true justice. Only when the people obtain power over their economic, political, judicial, educational, and military systems can we truly have justice and equality for all people. * * * BAYLOSIS SPEAKS ON STRUGGLE OF FILIPINO MASSES ***Over the last two months, MIM and RAIL helped organize a continent-wide speaking tour for radical Filipino activist Rafael Baylosis to bring a deeper understanding of the national democratic struggle in the Philippines to a broad audience. BAYAN International USA, a legal, multi-sectoral national democratic organization based inside u.$. borders, initiated and co-sponsored the tour. Rafael Baylosis is an experienced activist in the national democratic struggle in the Philippines. He participated in the "First Quarter Storm" of 1970 which mobilized thousands of Filipino young people against the Marcos regime, and he later joined the revolutionary movement in the countryside. He was arrested and imprisoned twice for his revolutionary political conviction and activities, for a total of more than eight years. First, in 1973-76 during the Marcos regime, and second, from 1988 to 1992 during the Aquino administration. Released temporarily on bail July 1992 with an inconclusive case in court for alleged "illegal possession of firearms and explosives in furtherance of rebellion." Since his release, Baylosis has been giving political and theoretical education to mass leaders and members of progressive people's organizations. He is currently a consultant to the National Democratic Front of the Philippine (NDFP) panel for socio-economic reforms in the NDFP-Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) peace talks and a consultant to BAYAN (New Patriotic Alliance), a legal, multi-sectoral national democratic organization. The following article summarizes the political and economic situation in the Philippines loosely based on several of Baylosis' talks. MIM takes full responsibility for the editorial content.*** SEMI-COLONIAL AND SEMI-FEUDAL NATURE OF PHILIPPINE SOCIETY Philippine society is semi-colonial because it is politically and economically dominated by foreign powers, even though the Philippines is nominally an independent country. The dominant foreign power in the Philippines is u.$. imperialism, but Japanese, Australian, and European imperialism all participate in the exploitation of the Philippines. Philippine society is semi-feudal because the main mode of production in the Philippines remains agrarian and backwards, and because the problems of landlessness and severe exploitation of the peasantry by a handful of big landlords persist. 75% of the people in the Philippines are peasants and 70% are landless. Because Philippine society is semi-colonial and semi-feudal, the majority of people of the Philippines face poverty, unemployment, lack of heath care, and exploitation. In general, the current political and economic situation denies the people of the Philippines their right to self- determination. The economy of the Philippines is an import dependent, export-oriented economy. The Philippines exports raw materials and semi-finished products. The products which are produced in the Philippines are heavily dependent on foreign inputs, such as steel and capital goods. The Philippines does not have a steel industry, chemical industry, or petroleum industry, all of which are essential to any modern economy. No steel means that the people cannot develop capital goods. No chemicals denies the Filipino people the ability to produce pharmaceuticals and fertilizers. No petroleum means that control over energy and transportation is not in the hands of the people. The lack of national industrialization is perpetuated by comprador Ramos' kowtowing to imperialist contracts which only send super-profits plumping the imperialist nation economies and line the pockets of the comprador bourgeoisie. U.$. MILITARY OCCUPIES THE PHILIPPINES One of the clearest examples of u.$. imperialism's political dominance in the Philippines is the u.$. military's continued occupation of Philippine territory. Despite the fact that the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) terminated the u.$. military's lease on Subic Bay Naval Base and Clark Air Force Base in the early 1990s in response to a mass movement to kick the bases out of the Philippines, several current and proposed treaties give the u.$. military free rein in the Philippines. For example, the Status of Military Forces Agreement (SOFA) grants u.$. soldiers immunity from prosecution during port calls and joint exercises with the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). The proposed Access and Cross Servicing Agreement (ACSA) would grant u.$. troops, planes, and ships access to Philippine ports and airfields. The u.$. Navy is currently lobbying for access to 22 ports around the Philippines. This would give the Navy more access to the Philippines than when Subic Bay Naval Base was open. The u.$. military is also lobbying for a base in southern Mindanao, where both the New People's Army (NPA) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) are waging armed struggle against the GRP. The u.$. military already financed the construction of an airfield there. The Philippines is important to the u.$. military because it gives them a base for operations against East Asia. The Philippines was used as a staging area for the predatory Korean and Vietnam wars. RECTIFICATION CAMPAIGN STRENGTHENS THE MOVEMENT The struggle against imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism in the Philippines has made great gains in the five years since the second great rectification campaign. Baylosis explained that, since the CPP-led rectification, the movement has greatly expanded its influence in the countryside, expanded its mass base in the cities, and purged itself of the military adventurists and urban insurrectionists who had greatly weakened the movement, especially in the 1980s. The adventurists had prematurely attempted to develop major military operations, without regard to the NPA's capabilities and mass base. This led to losses at the hands of the U.S-backed regimes. And the urban insurrectionists had attempted to turn every political action in the cities into an armed uprising, which resulted in needless destruction and alienation of the movement from the masses. With these two tendencies purged, Baylosis said the movement has been able to make great advances, while the movement members who splintered off have degenerated into obscurity or outright collaboration with the reactionary ruling classes. NEGOTIATIONS WITH THE GRP Baylosis also explained the role of the NDFP's legal strategy, including negotiations with the GRP. He was joined at the podium in Washington, D.C. by Arnedo Valera, the former main counsel regarding the Mediola Massacre of 1987, chair of the Washington Human Rights Forum, and also a consultant to the NDFP on international law and human rights. Baylosis and Valera spoke at length about the NDFP's ongoing negotiations with the GRP. Baylosis explained that the negotiations where one part of the NDFP's legal struggle, which is secondary to the armed struggle of the people's war. The negotiations are taking place at a time when there is a power imbalance between the parties, with the government having an advantage over the people's forces. As long as that is the case, Baylosis said, the NDFP does not expect to reach a final settlement, and during this time the NPA does not suspend its military operations. At the same time, the negotiations can be used to win some concessions from the GRP that might reduce repression in the country, or lessen the negative impacts of the war on the people. However, Valera described many instances in which the GRP has gone back on its word in the negotiations and has not lived up even to the agreements which have been signed by both panels at the talks. In the process, the GRP is exposed as an obstacle to a just and lasting peace in the Philippines. Baylosis and Valera also reported on the recent capture of two military officers by the NPA in a tactical offensive. They said that the NPA was treating the officers humanely, as prisoners of war, and that they would probably release them after a formal request from the government in accordance with the Geneva Conventions on the conduct of war. The government has not yet made such a request, which would acknowledge that the conflict is a legitimate one, not a criminal matter or a case of government versus alleged terrorists. In the meantime, the GRP has said that it will not resume negotiations until the POWs are released. Audience members, who were mostly supportive of the national democratic movement, asked several important questions, and a productive discussion followed the talk given in D.C. One audience member wanted to know what the NDFP hoped to finally achieve in the peace negotiations, suggesting that a sharing of power with the government or a division of territory might be reasonable outcomes. Baylosis explained that the NDFP does not expect a settlement with the government as long as it is in power and the people are not. Another person asked why, if the government was so repressive, there were other candidates for president besides the U.S.-backed former-general Fidel Ramos. Baylosis explained that as long as there had been bourgeois democratic elections in the Philippines, the outcome had never been to the benefit of the people, because the candidates and the election process were controlled by the ruling classes, and -- increasingly -- by the military and former military officers now in civilian positions. However, he added that the NPA does attempt to influence some elections, especially local elections in areas where the people's movement has a lot of support, and where the outcome might result in limited progressive developments for the people. Several people also asked for clarification of the rectification movement, and in particular the consequences of the errors by the revisionists and opportunists. MIM considers this leg of the speaking tour a success because it contributed to a greater understanding of the national democratic movement in the Philippines among activists and potential activists who have an important role to play in the United States as well as in the Philippines. The event also demonstrated the solidarity that exists between MIM and RAIL and the revolutionary movement in the Philippines, and provided MIM with an opportunity to do its internationalist duty in support of Third World movements against U.S imperialism and its puppet regimes. Exposing the atrocities of U.S. imperialism, in the Philippines and elsewhere, is an important part of MIM's principal task, which is building a revolutionary movement in the imperialist countries. * * * AMERIKAN-SINO SUMMIT REEKS OF CAPITALIST HYPOCRISY The u.s.-China summit held the first week of November was little more than a publicity stunt for both capitalist countries. One main summit goal was expanding economic cooperation that will increase the profits of the big capitalists and ruling class in both countries. Jiang and Clinton also used the summit to posture on human rights issues. The United Snakes is most interested in relations with China for financial reasons: representing a quarter of the world's population the country offers a huge potential market as well as a vast reserve of labor to exploit. This year, Amerikan exports to China hit an all-time high. The u.s. government and corporations view access to China's markets as a key point of negotiation. Using admission to the World Trade Organization as a bargaining chip, Clinton said "We strongly support China's admission into the World Trade Organization, but in turn China must dramatically improve access for foreign goods and services."(1) In a deal timed to coincide with the summit, Chinese officials signed a $3 billion order for 50 jets made by Boeing Co. -- the biggest Chinese planes order ever. Clinton agreed to allow exports of u.s. nuclear energy equipment in return for Chinese assurances that China will no longer provide nuclear assistance to Iran. The Chinese also said they would join a global initiative on information technology that would cut tariffs on $1.4 billion in u.s. exports of computers and software to China from 23 percent to zero. Such a move would lower prices for u.s. high-tech exports to China, and result in higher sales.(2) China went the route of state-capitalism in 1976, but unlike the plumped up labor aristocracy in the imperialist united snakes, the majority of China does not benefit from super-profits extracted from Third World nations. The moves to ease tariffs and trade for the Amerikan imperialists only means that the over one billion Chinese rural poor, the over 100 million jobless masses in China will continue to be denied control over their nation's economy and development. When Amerikan capital-intensive goods flood the market without tariffs, the Chinese people are not able to compete and develop self- sufficient industrialization as was one project of Maoist China. Though the big capitalists thriving after the sale of state enterprises and mutual imperialist deals will get fat off the Amerikan- Sino diplomacy, the masses will continue to be subjected to super-exploitation and poverty. CRITICISMS TARGET JIANG AND IGNORE AMERIKAN LOCKDOWN Jiang Zemin's tour around the united states was marked with demonstrations at every stop as Amerikans, Chinese, Tibetians and others turned out to express their views. The majority of the demonstrations were protests against China's rule in Tibet and human rights violations in mainland China. But at each stop there was also a group of supporters who turned out to welcome Zemin. Most of these supporters were Chinese nationals but in Cambridge, Massachusetts the Workers World Party was spotted with a large banner supporting "Chinese communism," demonstrating that some so-called communist groups are still hopelessly confused about the difference between communism and capitalism. MIM calls China state capitalist to distinguish it from the free market capitalism of many imperialist countries. Under state capitalism the economy of a country is centrally controlled. But in both forms of capitalism a few individuals are getting rich at the expense of the majority of the people who are exploited. With state control this exploitation is often hidden under the guise of ownership by the people, but taking a close look at the economy of China reveals that it has been on the capitalist road since the death of Mao. Those who defend China as if it were not capitalist look more and more foolish as even the so-called communists in China admit that they are in fact implementing capitalism. (See MN148 article "Chinese leaders run from socialism" and "The Capitalist Roaders are still on the Capitalist Road.") The summit included some verbal sparing over the question of human rights violations in China. Clinton obviously felt the public pressure to take a hard line on China while Jiang stood his ground and defended his government. The sum total of it was a lot of verbal posturing that made both leaders look good to the people of their countries. Clinton told Jiang that they have "fundamental differences" over human rights and that China is "on the wrong side of history" by refusing to permit free expression. Jiang said that jailed religious leaders were law breakers and that Tibet lived in "happiness and contentment." Jiang's overall answer to criticisms: "In terms of structural reform, we will expand democracy, improve the legal system, run the country according to law and build a socialist country under the law.''(2) Jiang made an interesting comparison between China's actions in Tibet and Abraham Lincoln's emancipation of Blacks from slavery in the u.s. civil war. "It was our democratic reform that emancipated some one million serfs and slaves." While MIM does not support Jiang or the Chinese government which restored capitalism after Mao died, we agree with Jiang that Tibet under the rule of the Dalai Lama meant suffering for the majority of Tibetians forced to live as serfs and slaves. The current situation for Tibetians under capitalist Chinese rule mirrors the situation for Blacks in the united snakes in that both governments do not offer the people self- determination. MIM supports the right to self- determination of all nations and we recognize the struggle fought by the Tibetian communists to overthrow feudal rule as a tremendous advance for the Tibetian people. The aid given by communist China helped the people of Tibet end feudalism in their country. But we recognize that state- capitalist China is not operating in the interest of the people of mainland China or the people of Tibet. Members of Congress pledged to adopt a prisoner of conscience in China or Tibet on Oct 28 in preparation for Jiang's visit. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jesse Helms greeted dissidents expressing concern about the summit, saying, ''As we meet, hundreds and thousands of Chinese and Tibetan citizens are locked away by the Chinese regime, some in labor camps, others in prison, for exercising their rights. The treatment they receive is horrific.''(3) Helms pressured Clinton to use meetings with Jiang to push for the release of prominent Chinese dissidents. But while there was much outcry over China's imprisonment of political activists and their poor treatment of prisoners, nothing was said about the situation in the prisons in the united snakes. The u.s. is number one in imprisonment per capita in the world. This country has a greater proportion of Blacks in prison than apartheid South Africa. There are a number of people in Amerikan gulags imprisoned explicitly for their political beliefs and activism. And prison conditions in this country can only be described as torture. In a country where prisons are run for profit and used as a means of social control, the indignation expressed by government leaders and activists over Chinese prisons underscores the hypocrisy of these people as they ignore the more than million lives being wasted behind bars in Amerika. NOTES: 1. Text of Clinton's speech from AP 25 October 1997. 2. San Jose Mercury News 6 November, 1997. 3. San Jose Mercury News 18 October 1997. * * * AMERIKA BUYS BIG WEAPONS SO IRAN CAN'T by an MC The united snakes just pulled off a deal to buy 21 MIG-29 fighter jets from Moldova, a former Soviet republic. Neither country will say how much the u.s. paid, but Pentagon officials are reportedly pleased with the price. The deal includes promises of future so-called humanitarian aid to Moldova, among other things. MIG-29 jets are single-seat fighter planes that launch nuclear and other missiles. The going rate is around $30 million per plane, but the secretary of defense claimed to have paid much less than that for the fleet of 21 (plus spare parts and more than 500 non-nuclear missiles for the planes). The imperialist united snakes learned that Iran was interested in buying some of the planes from Moldova, and had apparently sent a team of inspectors to examine the planes. Pentagon officials said that while there were other nations who were interested in the MIGs, it was the Iranian interest that triggered the Amerikan purchase. This massive purchase of weapons of mass destruction marks the second time in recent history that Amerika used this tactic of buying weapons before an enemy nation could. Defense secretary William Cohen defended the purchase by saying that not only that Iran should not have access to sophisticated weapons capable of launching nuclear missiles, but also that, "[w]e're going to analyze them. And I'm sure that the Air Force may come up with some utilitarian use of them."(1) The united snakes has spent $1.8 billion since 1993 helping Russia and other former Soviet republics dismantle nuclear weapons, so that Amerika could be sure that the weapons do not fall into the hands of alleged terrorists. Under the same program, the united snakes bought enough uranium to build 25 nuclear weapons in 1994 from Kazakhstan, in order to prevent the uranium from falling into the hands of imperialist-labeled rogue nations. MIM and its supporters know that it is the imperialist united states that is the rogue nation, and revolutionaries and progressives all over the world and in Amerika are most fearful of Amerika having weapons of mass destruction. MIM does not feel protected knowing that the Amerikan government now has 21 new fighter jets, and MIM does not believe that it is okay for people to starve while more than $50 million was spent on these MIGs. NOTES: 1. The New York Times, 5 November 1997 p. 1. 2. The Washington Post, 5 November 1997 p. A23. * * * TACTICAL OFFENSIVES OF THE NPA BECOMING MORE VIGOROUS ***MIM Notes prints the following excerpts from an article by the New People's Army of the Philippines (NPA) in order to refute the lies that communism is dead and armed struggle for national liberation is a thing of the past. Even the reactionaries have to admit that the NPA, which is under the absolute leadership of the Communist Party of the Philippines, is advancing. This is due to two reasons. (1) The basic problems of Philippine society persist. In particular, landlessness and armed reaction drive many peasants to accept that armed struggle is necessary to solve their problems. (2) The rectification campaign inside the NPA and the CPP have made great strides in rejecting all sorts of erroneous and anti-people ideas and reaffirming their adherence to Marxism- Leninism-Maoism. MIM Notes will print the second part of this article in the next issue. The second part documents the increasing abuses of the reactionary armed forces in the Philippines.*** In the face of the isolation of the US-Ramos regime from the people due to the crisis created by the semi-colonial and semi-feudal condition of the country, the New People's Army is launching more vigorous tactical offensives and is continuing the expansion of its mass bases. Even the Chief of Staff, General Arnulfo Acedera, was forced to admit that the NPA is becoming more vigorous with its armed struggle. Before this, on August 31, no less than the former Department of National Defense Secretary Renato de Villa admitted that "The movement was able to generally recover by the end of 1996 and in the first half of 1997. This is still the primary threat to the security of the country. The NPA was able to recover 597 villages (or 12% increase) and the NPA forces increase because of the Rectification Movement in 1996-1997. The NPA are in the Cordilleras, Central Luzon, Southern Tagalog, Bicol, Central Visayas and 3 regions in Mindanao." Following the examples of his AFP [Armed Forces of the Philippines - MIM] Chief, Northern Central Luzon Command (NOLCOM) Major General Ismael Villareal employs psywar tactics with statements that "the military was able to confiscate 50 firearms from the NPA in Isabela" to cover the tactical offensives of the NPA. Yet he also admitted that "there is an active expansion and strengthening of the NPA in Northern and Central Luzon. And the NPA is able to launch tactical offensives in the provinces of Abra, Apayao, Benguet, Kalinga and Ilocos Sur and it is able to expand in Tarlac, Pangasinan and Aurora." (PDI, April 11, 1997, p. 15) This is also the tone of General Renato Aguda of the Cordillera Regional Command (CRECOM). He boasted that "the NPA in the Cordilleras is already crushed because their leaders are already coming down (from the hills) to surrender." But last May, NOLCOM formed and trained 2 companies of "Cordillera Indigenous Peace Keeping Unit" or CIPKU from the 176 troopers of CPLA of Conrado Balweg who are the "Special CAFGU" of NOLCOM against the NPA in the Cordilleras. [The CAFGUs or Civilian Armed Forces Geographical Units are paramilitary units infamous for their savage attacks on the people, especially political activists. - MIM] Even in Central Luzon, the Philippine National Police (PNP) is using psywar propaganda in making such statements that "there is a split of the NPA due to unsettled issues about money collected from progressive taxation." This is done since to cover the frustrated military operations against the NPA in the Zambales-Pangasinan and Bataan since March. In the Visayas, the NPA continues to recover previous guerrilla zones that were neglected for one reason or the other. The tactical offensives of the NPA in the Visayas refuted the statement of the Visayas Command (VISCOM) that the "NPA is already crushed ion the Visayas." The NPA in Mindanao is taking advantage of the sporadic fighting between the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the AFP that happens from time to time in Central and Southwestern Mindanao. On April 22, Jorge Madlos of NDF Mindanao made a statement that "since 1995, the areas recovered reaches to hundreds of villages, there was an expansion and increase to few hundreds the number of full time forces and an increase in thousands of the organized masses." According to Madlos, "the territories in the provinces of Zamboanga, Lanao, Budidnon, Agusan, Surigao, Cotabato, and Sarngani have expanded and continue to expand. The support of the masses to the NPA continues to expand and also that of the sector of the professionals and the mass movement in the urban areas. These successes disprove the enemy propaganda that they are victorious. This also proved the bankruptcy of the contras and revisionist traitors." THE TACTICAL OFFENSIVES The NPA launched more than 35 tactical offensives from March to October, 1997. The NPA killed or wounded 10 officers of the AFP and PNP which include 2 majors, 5 lieutenants among others. More than 50 enemy troopers were killed and dozens of them wounded. The NPA also confiscated several dozens of firearms and thousands of ammunitions as well as other military materials. OCTOBER 12 - The NPA punished 1Lt. Bito Solima, Commanding Officer of the HQ Support Unit of the 19 IB in front of the University of Eastern Philippines in Catarman, Samar. This was confirmed in the report of the Philippine Army HQ. [...] OCTOBER 5 - The 68 IB and the PNP Intelligence Group, "Spider," punched the air when they attacked an empty NPA camp in Barangay Batang, Infanta, Pangasinan. SEPTEMBER 26 - A unit of the NPA was able to escape from the encirclement of the AFP-PNP troopers in Barangay Wangal, Kasibu, Nueva Viscaya. Because of this, 5 enemies including 2 soldiers of the 77 IB, Philippine Army, one PNP and two intelligence agents of MIG2 were killed in the ensuing mis- encounter among them. Last October 7, to avoid embarrassment, the AFP and PNP tried to conceal the incident by disseminating a statement to the bourgeois press and said, "the encounter happened between the AFP-PNP against a criminal syndicate and those MIG agents killed were criminals." The 502 Brigade of the PNP in RECOM 2 intensified military operations in the borders of Nueva Viscaya-Quirino because of the present construction of the Casecnan Dam that started there last July 21. [...] AUGUST 26 - The NPA raided the police station in the municipality of Bansud, Oriental Mindoro. Two security guards were killed. Before this, on July 30, the NPA punished and killed an abusive police officer, PO2 Faustino A. Reyes in Barrio Alag, Baco, Mindoro Oriental and confiscated his firearm. AUGUST 10 - The NPA raided a PNP camp in Barangay San Jose, Antipolo, Rizal, and killed 2 abusive police elements and wounded another 2 policemen from the Regional Mobile Force Company. This was a warning by the NPA to abusive policemen in Antipolo and nearby towns who became instruments in land confiscation by big business companies in the provinces of Rizal-Quezon and Laguna. AUGUST 5 - The NPA raided the municipal hall on the island of Jomanlig, Quezon and took away 2 M16 Armalite rifles, 3 revolvers, and on communication radio. The NPA were in army uniforms so they were able to disarm the policemen without engaging them in a gunbattle. [...] JULY 31 - A patrol unit of the Regional Mobile Force of CRECOM was ambushed by the NPA and [the NPA] killed two policemen in Barangay Tumalunog, Flora, Apayao. The RMF CRECOM provides protection to STII and Taggat, logging companies partially owned by [former General] Juan Ponce Enrile in the Paco Valley. [...] JULY 15 - The NPA sabotaged a quarry company in Angat, Bulacan. This quarry business destroys the environment and scrapes gravel and sand along the river of Remedios Trinidad and Angat, Bulacan. The NPA destroyed the quarry equipment and burned down one back hoe, 3 bulldozers and 3 sand gravel trucks. JULY 5 - The NPA put a stop to the destructive project of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Watershed Rehabilitation Project in the towns of Bulalacao and Puerto Galera that cost P40 M, but will only serve the tourists in Puerto Galera, Oriental Mindoro. The NPA banned the workers from going back to work so that the project cannot be finished. [...] MARCH 26 - The Alvarez Peralta Command of the NPA ambushed 5 policemen and 3 CAFGU in Palauig and confiscated their firearms. The Chief of Police of Palauig, Manuel Alop, was killed as well as 4 other policemen. Before this, the 703rd Brigade, 68 IB and PA launched military operations in the boundaries of the Pangasinan-Zambales which was highlighted by bombings, artillery and mortar fire as well as hamletting last March and June. ***New People's Army October 14, 1997*** * * * ENGLAND: STRUGGLE FOR MAOIST PARTY CONTINUES London, ENGLAND -- A cyberspace mailing list based in England to discuss Marx and Lenin has fallen apart. The so-called "Leninlist" was an offshoot from the "Marxism List" administered by SPOONS at jefferson.village.virginia.edu. The last straw for the split was apparently the question of Cuba. When the 1980s-style revisionists on the list found out that Maoism considered Cuba's Castro to be enemy, they kicked out some people, including Adolfo Olaechea based in London. Adolfo Olaechea apparently sped up the process by calling Cuba "fascist" and "social-fascist." The Leninlist formed initially to avoid the social- democrats and Trotskyists on the "Marxism List." Initially Leninlist invited MIM participation, but Adolfo Olaechea purged MIM that same month in June, 1997. The backbone of the organization is the so-called Communist Action Group. MIM held high hopes for the Communist Action Group as it initially formed, but as time goes on, it is clear that it is a warmed over version of 1980s revisionism. By holding up defense of Castro as more important than Mao's theory of class struggle against the bourgeoisie in the party, the Communist Action Group demonstrates that it has learned nothing from the evermore blatant restoration of capitalism in the old Soviet bloc. The duty of someone such as Castro who criticized Mao and Maoism on behalf of the Soviet Union is to look back and say honestly that Mao was right and Castro and his pro-Soviet line were wrong: there really is a bourgeoisie in the party in this era of socialist revolution. Yet Castro goes on singing the same song as if nothing had changed in the last 30 years. For this alone, Castroism is an enemy ideology. No amount of charity to the Third World or holding of international conferences gives Castro the right to avoid the fundamental duties of communist leaders today. In England, Adolfo Olaechea has been associated with several failures of Maoist organizing. In this latest round, he offered the Leninlist to put a 1990s face on revisionism. Adolfo Olaechea had the role of protecting the Khruschevites in Leninlist from Maoist criticism. To do this, he used his credentials of association with the Peruvian Revolution and banned MIM in June. In a posting to marxism- general@lists.village.virginia.edu on October 1, Adolfo Olaechea was so good as to make clear that he rued the loss of his pact with Castroite and Khruschevite revisionism. "It is now evident that he has opened wide the doors to all the caricatures of Maoism we had formerly kept out of LeninList by the legitimate moderators process." This is how Adolfo Olaechea points out to the revisionists that they are losing their cover by ditching him. Now surely MIM will attack he warns them. Leninlist also long ago banned Paul Cockshott, according to an October 2nd, marxism- international@jefferson.village.virginia.edu message. MIM does not find this surprising considering that Cockshott has an idea about the flow of surplus-value and agrees with MIM that the majority of English workers are not producing surplus-value. A November 8 statement by the practical owner of Leninlist re-iterated that there would be no return to the status quo, because of the issue of Cuba. It made favorable references to various revisionists and social-democrats including the CPI and CPI-M in India. MIM reiterates that it is the vanguard organization of England and other English-speaking imperialist countries. Comrades should stop wasting time with warmed over revisionists. NOTE: gopher://jefferson.village.Virginia.EDU:70/0R937232 -943620-/pubs/listservs/spoons/marxism- international.archive * * * MARXISM-LENINISM-MAOISM ONLINE MIM'S ELECTRONIC HATE-MAIL BAG: WHITE SUPREMACIST CLAIMS AFRICANS HAVE NO HISTORY Before MIM launched its own web site in February of 1996, a friend of MIM created a page for the Party which included the text of the Black Panther Party Program of 1966, something you can also find on MIM's current web site along with the full-text of some BPP newspaper articles and MIM's own party program. Of all our online materials, it is the BPP portion of the site that has prompted the steadiest flow of white supremacist hate-mail to MIM. In general, we simply delete such garbage from our mailbox, but occasionally we print examples of such mail with a response. The following letter is the most recent addition to MIM's e-hate-mail bag. We reprint it here in order to expose, respond to and discredit it. It is a good example of the white supremacist national oppressor position, which claims that oppressed peoples have no history -- and hence no nation and no claim to national self-determination. It is fitting the BPP -- the vanguard of the Black struggle for self-determination in the late 1960s and early 1970s and avowed internationalists -- still inspires the white supremacists to write: "Dear MIM: I understand you are interested in education on African History. First such a lesson is impossible do to the fact that your ancestors never developed a written language, the first factor in a peoples' having history. But I can tell you the African Negro never developed a road, a cart, a wagon, a system of numbers, an alphabet, a form of government beyond local tribary, pottery, a structure beyond the mud hut, agriculture, or any piece of technology (advanced or basic) that would bring any significance to the GREAT subject of the African History. :-) ... "I'm sorry but when I stated the African Negro never developed pottery I meant to say a bridge, a system of measurement, or domesticate a single animal (even though numerous docile beasts abounded him). :-)" MIM Responds: It is the height (or depth) of cowardice to write this unsubstantiated filth in a private e-mail. Why won't you say it in a public forum, with an address that the masses can respond to directly, with some accountability! We are printing your letter in a continentally circulated newspaper to expose your lies and your agenda to the masses. This writer upholds a theory that white Europeans introduced language, agriculture, government and manufacturing to Africa. This would mean that none of these activities existed before the 15th century (the first point of contact with European colonialism) -- a patently absurd proposition. The theory exists both to deny oppressed peoples' right to self-determination, and to claim that all progress in oppressed nations has come from their oppressors. Readers who are interested in a good, brief history of African societies before the 15th century should pick up Walter Rodney's "How Europe Underdeveloped Africa," available from MIM for $11. The first chapter outlines developments in pottery, pre- industrial manufacturing, trade and agriculture -- including advanced techniques such as crop rotation, terracing and mixed farming -- on the African continent before the arrival of European colonialists. Rodney is careful to demonstrate the uneven levels of development in different regions, and to insist on evaluating the concrete conditions of each. Rodney's fundamental thesis is that European colonialism (later imperialism), actively under- developed Africa by violently subjugating its people and setting up an economic system based on the super-exploitation of labor and the theft of resources. The practical application for revolutionaries reading this work is to organize to overthrow the system that created such global inequality and to build socialism. PRISON CONNECTIONS: LOTS OF VALUABLE INFORMATION AND SOME MISGUIDED REFORMISM http://persephone.hampshire.edu/wmpig/prisoncon.htm l wmpig@persephone@hampshire.edu PO Box 9606 North Amherst MA 01059-9096 Prison Connections is both a print and online publication of the Western Mass Prison Issues Group. It contains articles about prison struggles in Massachusetts and elsewhere, as well as information about political prisoners and prisoners of war. The publication's purpose is to "inform and connect people, while offering points of view on prisons from people not usually heard from. We are interested in printing material which actively combats the forces of oppression keeping us separated and offers life-affirming alternatives." In the most recent issue, there are articles about sentencing disparities for cocaine and crack, the struggle of Massachusetts prisoners to establish a political action committee, and book reviews. The current issue of Prison Connections was among the first to bring to MIM's attention a new postage policy at Walpole Prison that greatly reduced the ability of prisoners to write letters. The web page is continually updated with action alerts and events around North America, including a number of prison and POW-related events led by RAIL. Their link page is an extensively put together list of many different resources on prisons, from activist groups to the Department of Corrections in most states. There is also a search engine to search the site. MIM and Prison Connections have a lot of practical unity in recognizing that the current incarceration craze doesn't affect the crime rate, and that the current system targets Blacks and Latinos. Our disagreements, however, are shown the most clearly in the article "Volunteers Sought: Alternatives to Violence Program." Alternatives to Violence Program (AVP) (not associated with the Western Mass Prison Issues Group) started in 1975 when some prisoners in New York "working with youth gangs and teenagers at risk were having difficulty communicating their message about the consequences of violence," contacted the Quakers to conduct a workshop. Out of that organizing, a movement was born. Now AVP needs more volunteers from the outside to assist in the anti-violence workshops. Masses-on-masses violence, as well as unfocused violence against the oppressor, sets back the people's struggle and so MIM opposes it. But the problem with the AVP approach is that it puts the focus on prisoners' individual actions. Instead, they should focus on the larger society that encourages violence among the oppressed for the sake of keeping the oppressed nations down through internal strife and selective prosecution. Some of the other articles in Prison Connections support the formation of prison Political Action Committees as an effective way to make social change. In one book review, Prison Connections correctly criticizes a book for focusing only on the illogical Amerikan practice of incarcerating large numbers of people for non-violent drug offenses, but ignoring violent crime. However, Prison Connections also criticizes the book for not discussing "cost effective alternatives to incarceration for violent offenders," such as so- called "community-based" intervention programs or other forms of state surveillance. MIM thinks the corporate and Amerikan government leaders are among the most violent criminals offenders in the world. As such, these pigs have no moral authority to condemn the perpetrators of smaller crimes as "criminals." Violent crimes amongst the people exist because we live in a violent society and there is nothing we can do within this society to change that. This is why MIM is organizing for a revolution to eliminate the roots of injustice and crime: capitalism, imperialism and patriarchy. The system's rules have proven themselves incapable of curing the ills of this system. We publish this review to alert others to this useful web site, and in the hopes of opening a dialogue with Prison Connections about the most effective ways to aid prisoners and to stop crime. * * * UNDER LOCK & KEY AMERIKKKA THE BEAUTIFUL by a Pennsylvania prisoner You play with life, lost your heart and soul, When you can't take what you want, You use lies and manipulation to gain control. Threats and Intimidation is the secret behind your power, Those you can't frighten, violence becomes the hour. The existence of your system is coming to a close, Your treachery and deceit we the people begin to expose. You pass unjust laws to lock a nation down, You assassinate the character of our leaders or plant them in the ground. The man was naked lying in his bed, How was the pig justified shooting him in the head? Nine MOVE members remain in prison and one on death row, Free our political prisoners let them all go. You manufacture drugs for your own people and them give them time, Tell me who is the one committing a crime? The East is gaining power the West is losing hers, Beware of the media for she plays colorfully with words. You sell poison as a means of birth control, You put guns in the hands of children to collect more souls. Michigan subjects prisoners to neo-slavery ***The below excerpt was written in response to a RAIL May Day Pamphlet, "Celebrate May Day: Support Prisoner Workers", Factsheet of Michigan Prisoner labor, Thursday, May 1, 1997. For a copy, send s.a.s.e. to MIM.*** ...Your Michigan factory pay information is a little misleading. Nowhere in the MDOC [Michigan Department of Incorrections] do prisoners earn $2.00 to $5.00 per hour at any job unless employed with some outside business. To insure the veracity of this statement, I have spoken with five inmates all employed at MDOC farms. They said they made $3.00 to $5.00 dollars per day for 8-10 hours of backbreaking labor and only in certain types of jobs, of which there are very few. The majority of inmates have no job at all and the majority of those employed make about $20.00 per month. Once employed they no longer receive free over the counter medications or free cosmetics, thus they must purchase all their living needs, except regular, "meals". This does not include all the other financial burdens imposed upon us, such as laundry. If you want to get your laundry done right and to make sure you get it back, you do not send it out to the state laundry, but instead pay a worker to personally machine wash it for about $4.00 per month. Hope that clears up some confusion regarding Michigan slave wages. With Strength and Wisdom in the Struggle, -- A Michigan Prisoner, 9 October 1997 IMPERIALISTS ARE THE REAL ENEMY ... I was transferred to this plantation in KKKolorado. The oppression and domination in the mountains of KKKolorado is basically the same but, more cynical at a higher altitude. The air is thinner, and so is the humanness of the treatment of the prisoners. The racial hatred and police tyranny pollutes the atmosphere. The Willie Lynch syndrome is in full effect on this plantation. Division and disorder is the rule among prisoners. There are many gang members and gangs here. Many of which continually and perversely assault and injure each other over trivial and banal differences. As expected many fall into the genocidal trap created or put here by the oppressors. Many are mentally and spiritually dead and oblivious of the enemy devices and plantation plots. In fact many of the prisoners in bondage here fail to realize exactly who the real enemy is. Especially, those who deem themselves as hardcore bonafide gang members. Their reasoning has been clouded with violence and ignorance, and obscures their ability to see who the real enemy is. Some of them see their fellow prisoners as the enemy, and yet the police as not. It is a strange situation. Un[til] we deal with the ultimate enemy can we deal with each other, because when we are continually warring with one another, never will we be successful in defeating the enemy. ... -- A Federal Prisoner, 15 July 1997 MIM ADDS: The above letter describes how the lumpen proletariat can be confused about who are their enemies. The imperialist pigs are the real enemy. The pigs try to pit different groups against one another in effort to divide and conquer the masses. Prisoners should unite and work with MIM and RAIL toward revolution. Expose the crimes of the imperialists and organize to end oppression. UNITY IS POWER ... I am in a Maxi, Maxi, Max Prison in New York State, Southport Correctional Facility. This facility, years ago, was turned into what is called the box or hole. This is the main isolation box for all the New York State prisoners who violate the co-called prison/slave rules. We are locked down 23 hours a day. There are no contact visits with our families or friends. Whenever we step out of cells, we must be handcuffed and chained to the waist. The yard is nothing but a yard full of 1-man cages, which is where we have our 1 hour of recreation. There are prisoners who go against the next prisoner. All they are doing, without knowing, is helping the oppressors do their psychological torture. It is very doubtful that there will ever be unity in the New York State Prison system, the way there was unity on September 13, 1971, "The Attica Riots" These Prisoners died to attain what we are losing today. Today the oppressors are taking back everything the Prisoners of the Attica Riots died for. Soon, little by little, we will not have anything at all. The sad thing is, we are letting the oppressors take everything, and do nothing to stop it. The way things are going today in the New York State Prison system -- prisoners going to war against each other. So I may not sound like a hypocrite, this has included me in the past. Giving the real enemies a show to watch, as the oppressors sit and bet on which prisoner is going to stab or knock-out the next one first. To all Prisoners in New York State locked down, in the box or population: If you are reading this letter Please wake the hell up! And realize who is our real #1 enemy. I wear the same greens and have a state number just like you. You are not my enemy! The New York State DOC is our enemy! The Governor of New York State is our enemy. The Government of the United Snakes of Amerikkka is our enemy. They are the ones who do not want us to see light again. And if we are seeing light, freedom, want to lock us up like dogs. Please, lets stop fighting each other and unify as one to overthrow our real enemy - the oppressors who oppress us morning, afternoon and evening with: their psychological mind games, playing with our food, disrespecting our visitors, letters and pictures. Please do not misunderstand me. I am not saying pick up the sword, No! Pick up the pens to fight the oppressors. ... Remember the pen is mightier than the sword. Let's wake up once and for all. ... Let's stop the war against each other, and unite against our real enemies - the oppressors. Remember Unity is Power. ... Respectfully, -- A New York Prisoner, 15 July 1997 MIM ADDS: The legacy of the Attica Rebellion proves that prisoners have the ability to unify toward revolution. Exposing the pigs for the criminals they are and knowing your enemies are revolutionary accomplishments demonstrated by this letter. The masses outnumber the imperialists, so we are confident that victory is inevitable with time. Keep up the struggle. ATTICA ASSASSINATION DAY FAST Revolutionary Greetings Comrades, This is the 26th year of Attica Assassination Day, and I have been fasting with two other brothers. And let me say this, I have never in the eight years that I have been down on this bid, be around the most cowardice people I have ever been around in my life. I explain to these punks what this fast is for and everybody says, "I'm with that." until the day came for us to fast. What's important is that me and my Afrikan brothers stuck it out. I find it very sad that brothers are not willing to stand strong for brothers that died in the struggle for all prisoners. These crackers have these brothers so petrified that it's pathetic. What makes this even more sad is that this is the facility right next to Attica. Some people tell me that I'm living in the past because of my rebellious ways, but that's just their justification for being a sorry ass Negro and having fear of this imperialist system that we live in. I never mind these cracker ass canines, because I am more concerned with my own kind. This was not just a fast for the Attica brothers. It's a fast for all the brothers and sisters who stood up for us and struggle for us to make things better. It's also for my wife that I adore so much for standing by her husband all of these years. ...So I will always be a revolutionary with the struggle for the rest of my life. -- A New York Prisoner, 13 September 1997 MIM ADDS: Thank you for informing us of your commemoration of Attica Prisoner Struggle. It is essential to learn from our revolutionary brothers and sisters whose legacy we are carrying on. We are quite willing to help by sending MIM Notes and other materials so that you can educate prisoners around you. Organizing takes a lot of work to build strong foundations for acts of defiance, we must first educate and struggle. Don't give up on your fellow prisoners who are afraid of the pigs. You are leading by example and not living in the past. HELL ON EARTH IN TEXAS ... In 1996, i was personally refused treatment by an RN [Registered Nurse] at Ellis One Unit in Huntsville. Three days later, unconscious and near death i was sent to Sealy Hospital via Emergency Air ambulance. i was rushed unconscious to surgery to remove a porta-cath device from my right pectoral. Not a life or death surgery, it had nothing to do with my diabetic keto-acidocious, or pneumonia, which were the causes of my illness. i had already refused previous attempted to remove it so prison doctors and nurses would not have to service it monthly. During this minor surgery i died on the operating table. Was i too weak, had too much anesthetic, who knows? Records were altered, info left out. They covered their asses. i was on life support for four days, until someone read in my medical file that i had a no recessitation clause. Thinking here is a way out, to cover their asses, they disconnected the machine breathing for me, covered me up and pronounced me dead for good. Fuck that said my brain. It's not time to go and i started breathing on my own, though still unconscious for three more days... On the 7th day in intensive care i woke up. i could not move, and barely speak. In days to come i could not walk or feed myself, could not remember my family, etc. ...The Prison Chaplain told my family every day that i was fine, and recovering with no problems. I have scars at my Achilles tendon on both feet from leg shackles while unconscious in my coma state. Scars on my spine from whatever apparatus i was confined in also. I was in the hospital from August 96 to November 96. Now I have to use a walker due to paralysis in right arm and leg. To date, 10 June 97, I have had no physical therapy, and not one treatment that was ordered by Sealy Hospital. I was sent to a unit (i am almost 50) where the average age is 25, for "Better Medical care than i could get at Ellis One." First thing the prison doctor told me was no pain meds or therapy are given here. So here i sit. In six months i have gained 40 plus pounds. Had no treatment other than basic diabetic needs. In constant pain, no care, no lawyer, no shit, with 16 years to parole date. Don't get me wrong. i'm not crying, even though i'm dying here. I just thought people should know what's going on. I didn't hear this shit somewhere, i am living and dying it everyday, Hell on earth in Texas, one day at a time. -- A Texas Prisoner, 10 June 1997 CHAINED TO A BED FOR FIVE DAYS Dear MIM, This is a situation I went through within the confinement of Atlanta, USP [United Snakes Penitentiary] On July 1, 1997 my celly was kicking on the door of our cell in administrative segregation. My celly wanted to be moved to another cell. But a Lt. Cortrette and 4 other officers came to the door and told my celly that if he kicks the door again he will chain both of us down. I then asked the Lt. Why would he chain me down? He then said, "Shut Up!" I then told him to shut up. He told me and my celly to cuff-up. We both complied. After I was handcuffed and the door was opened, Lt. Cortrette and the other officers wrestled me to the floor and put feet shackles around my ankles. Once I had handcuffs and feet shackles on lying face down, Lt. Cortrette gets on my back and bangs my head on the bottom of the bed leg, made out of steel, until my forehead was busted. I had to have 3 stitches in my forehead. Then Lt. Cortrette had me chained to the bed on my back for 5 days straight. Then wrote me a false incident report saying that I assaulted him while in handcuffs. He did this to justify my injury. I presently have litigation in court against Lt. Cortrette. This same Lt. Cortrette has assaulted a very large number of prisoners, only after they were handcuffed. I believe that if we don't get rid of this sadistic animal he will soon kill a fellow prisoner. I'm asking the readers to write to: Director of Bureau of Prisons, Kathleen Hawk, 320 First St. NW, Washington, DC 20534 Ask for an investigation into the assaults at Atlanta United States Penitentiary, PO Box PMB, Atlanta, GA 30315. Thank you, -- A Federal Prisoner, 12 August 1997 MIM RESPONDS: We commend the above prisoner for exposing the brutality of the Amerikkkan injustice system. In addition we hope that your litigation may provide you with some temporary relief from the brutality. But remember that this Pig is only one minor cog in the huge machine of oppression. He is supported by the imperialists and most likely rewarded for his brutality. Often imperialist pigs will try to single out individuals as bad cops or rogue officers to distract people from the criminal system that breeds these individuals. They want people to believe that police are good and just and only a few are brutal. This is not true. The cops and prisoncrats make up the social control branch of the oppressive imperialist system. It is their job to be brutal and to oppress the masses. So file lawsuits, or write letters of protest, but keep in mind these are short-term reformist battles that must be waged in the context of revolution. The oppression will continue until the imperialists are eventually overthrown. MICHIGAN PRISONER FACES RETALIATION FOR EXPOSING ABUSES Dear Mao Comrades; ... The MIM Notes, in fact, have been such a great learning experience and inspiration that I was kidnapped and placed further in the belly of beast, called rats holes, cages or detention blocks. [This was] for sending out a letter to local authorities expressing the will and suffering of dead spirit-prisoners here in Adrian, MI. This letter was sent also to the Michigan Department of (IN)Corrections exposing the European Supremacy via the Guards wearing KKK Head garments; the constant subtle harassment, and unreasonable lockdowns with no explanation. The letter was vague but it revealed all the tactics this facility has been using to mount tensions creating an atmosphere for an uprising. Mind you I am the Assistant Minister of an Islamic organization and I hold some very strong views which I conveyed to the modern day Roman Administration and they brought me up on some trumped up, bogus, insane charges of conspiracy to incite a riot. This was in February that I was placed in the death of hell, as a way of retaliating against me. Thus they sought to mind- torture me for using what they consider unflattering words. Well say not truth breed hatred and I will avoid it; dissimulation raise friends and I will follow it. Are the enemies made by truth better than the friends obtained by flattery? I can not please man and please my Creator. To displease man very often pleases the Creator-Allah. ... Using the phrase, "Possibility of a riot." was that which they used to write this major misconduct [report so] that [I] could have a traumatic experience. ... My statement did not imply a riot or was organizing a riot. But I forgot these fascist dictators are taught what to think and not how to think. Thus reason is not even a topic of discussion. After evaluation we concluded that this whole process was used as a tool to neutralize good bold effective leadership by targeting and labeling them as a "SECURITY THREAT GROUP". Which is a new policy in Michigan prisons. Basically its a policy program like the one created under J. Edgar Hoover who sought to destroy any courageous leaders "By any means Necessary." They tortured my comrade and me for 10 days; knowing that we were innocent of these charges and never have been associated with be gang members. ... They thought they were going to break our struggling spirit by sending us to the torture chamber... However Allah teaches us that no weapon formed against the righteous will stand. Thus in March 1997 we were vindicated. But I am sure they are going to keep trying until we are in a secure maximum dungeon or dead. That still won't prevent me from exposing these repressive snake grawlers they are. Trying to put themselves up as some law living citizens when they are modern day Herod killers attempting to destroy the Afrikan leadership in these kkkoncetration kkkamps. The families and the public need to know about these carpet-hidden truths of oppression that are overwhelming in prisons. And we, as the rejected and forgotten in prison, are not using this as a crutch for attention. This shit repression is real and I hope one day you begin to understand the nature and intent of these kkkoncentration kkkamps termed prison. Even if you do not understand our pain and suffering we still need your support. Please help us here in Michigan prisons but particularly in Adrian, MI. Or all hell can break out and your uncles, sons, daughters, cousins, brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, etc will be altered mentally and spiritually from this experience or perhaps totally annihilated. ... The Roman Guard just brought a letter to me written by the inspector requesting for a re- hearing. As he believes the charges should be sustained and wants us found guilty. I told you that they would not stop short of trying to kill our reputation as good leaders.... Yours in the Struggle, -- A Michigan Prisoner, March 9, 1997 OHIO PRISONERS' STRIKE AGAINST OPPRESSION ***The call went out through Ohio gulags for all state prisoners to remain on their lock, or cells and to refuse to participate in any and all prison activities on November 1, 1997. Prisoners have organized this peaceful protest to oppose proposed legislation which does not halt 'multiple flops' handed down by the Parole board to force prisoners to endure "indeterminate sentences" to several thousand Technical Parole Violators (TPVs). Since the call originated, prison officials have retaliated against individuals whom the prisoncrats claim organized the stoppage. MIM fully supports the struggles of prisoners languishes in the Amerikan gulags to expose and organize against national oppression, social control and specifically, long, indefinite and purposeless sentences. We currently have limited information on the status of the Ohio work stoppage and resulting events. We urge prisoners to use the pages of MIM Notes to expose the atrocities in Ohio prisons and prisons across Amerika. The below was released by prisoner organizers of the stoppage.*** WHAT PRISONERS WANT... 1. Prisoners want all prisoners who have been placed in isolation as a result of this work stoppage released from isolation, and any conduct reports for refusal to work removed from their records. We want an investigation into any use of force that results from this peaceful work stoppage by state legislators. 2. We want TPVs who have been back in the system more than 9 months, released on parole, as would be the case if these prisoners were under the new sentencing laws of S.B. 2, which became law in 1996. 3. We want an end to multiple flops which extends the amount of time a prisoner serves far past what would be served if prisoners were serving time under S.B. 2. 4. In regards to "life" sentences, lifers want a meaningful halftime review, and not a meaningless "paper" review. Lifers want hearings where they are actually present. There is nothing in purposed legislation that would remedy the abuses from the parole board concerning life sentences. 5. In general, prisoners want sentences modified to reflect what we would have if we were under S.B. 2. 6. We want the phones turned back on so we can verify that the state government has agreed to the above. If the phones aren't turned back on we can't contact our outside representatives. PRISONERS WANT EQUAL JUSTICE! * * * MIM ON PRISONS AND PRISONERS MIM seeks to build public opinion against Amerika's criminal injustice system, and to eventually replace the bourgeois injustice system with proletarian justice. The bourgeois injustice system imprisons and executes a disproportionately large and growing number of oppressed people while letting the biggest mass murderers - the imperialists and their lackeys - roam free. Imperialism is not opposed to murder or theft, it only insists that these crimes be committed in the interests of the bourgeoisie. MIM does not advocate that all prisoners go free today; we have a more effective program for fighting crime as was demonstrated in China prior to the restoration of capitalism there in 1976. We say that all prisoners are political prisoners because under the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, all imprisonment is substantively political. It is our responsibility to exert revolutionary leadership and conduct political agitation and organization among prisoners ñ whose material conditions make them an overwhelmingly revolutionary group. Some prisoners should and will work on self-criticism under a future dictatorship of the proletariat in those cases in which prisoners really did do something wrong by proletarian standards. ***WHAT NON-PRISONERS CAN DO TO SUPPORT PRISONERS*** *1. Struggle with, work with, finance and join MIM. The best way to support prisoners is to overthrow the system under which capitalists profit from the exploitation of prisoners. History shows that the best way to do this is to build a Marxist- Leninist-Maoist party. The oppressors will not give up their power without a fight. *2. Finance MIM's prison work. Our biggest bill each month is postage. Most of the prison comrades who read MIM Notes have no way of paying for it. So if you have money, send what you can afford. Every cent helps, and stamps are as good as cash to us. *3. Distribute MIM Notes and Notas Rojas. Bring the voices of prisoners and their supporters to as large and wide an audience of people as possible. Contact MIM for bulk rates and distribution tips. *4. Start or join a prison support group. MIM can provide advice and resources to help you build public opinion for prisoners and their struggles. *5. Fight censorship, beatings, torture and other fascist outrages. Under Lock and Key often features the addresses of prisoners' friends and enemies. Work with the friends and let the enemies know you're watching. (Don't expect to win the fascists to the side of humanity, however. See #1 in this list). *6. Stay in touch. Keep us informed of pro- prisoner work you do. Our readers might find it educational or inspirational

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