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 140 JUNE 15, 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. MAOIST CONFERENCE CELEBRATES TKP/ML'S 25TH 2. AZANIAN YOUTH FACES DEATH PENALTY IN MISSISSIPPI 3. LETTERS 4. SUPPORT FOR BOOKS FOR PRISONERS CONTINUES 5. KABILA LEADS CONGO FORWARD: EXPOSE U.$. IMPERIALISM 6. NEW YORK RESUMES TAX COLLECTION IN FIRST NATIONS 7. MINING COMPANY STEALS APACHE WATER 8. GERONIMO WINS NEW TRIAL: 25 YEARS LATE 9. L.A. RALLY COMMEMORATES 1980 U.$. KWANGJU MASSACRE 10. RAIL COMRADE INTERVIEWS A FORMER KOREAN STUDENT ACTIVIST 11. PAN AFRICANIST CONGRESS LEADER KARRIM ESSACK DIES 12. SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS PLAYS BALL WITH THE CIA 13. SAHARA SONTAG: IDEALISM GIVEN A NEW NAME 14. INVOLUNTARY COMMITMENTS BRING PSYCHIATRIC PROFITS 15. UNDER LOCK & KEY: NEWS FROM PRISONERS AND PRISONS * * * WHAT IS MIM? The Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM) is a revolutionary communist party that upholds Marxism- Leninism-Maoism, comprising the collection of existing or emerging Maoist internationalist parties in the English-speaking imperialist countries and their English-speaking internal semi- colonies, as well as the existing or emerging Spanish-speaking Maoist internationalist parties of Aztlan, Puerto Rico and other territories of the U.S. Empire. MIM Notes is the newspaper of MIM. Notas Rojas is the newspaper of the Spanish- speaking parties or emerging parties of MIM. MIM is an internationalist organization that works from the vantage point of the Third World proletariat; thus, its members are not Amerikans, but world citizens. MIM struggles to end the oppression of all groups over other groups: classes, genders, nations. MIM knows this is only possible by building public opinion to seize power through armed struggle. Revolution is a reality for North America as the military becomes over-extended in the government's attempts to maintain world hegemony. MIM differs from other communist parties on three main questions: (1) MIM holds that after the proletariat seizes power in socialist revolution, the potential exists for capitalist restoration under the leadership of a new bourgeoisie within the communist party itself. In the case of the USSR, the bourgeoisie seized power after the death of Stalin in 1953; in China, it was after Mao's death and the overthrow of the "Gang of Four" in 1976. (2) MIM upholds the Chinese Cultural Revolution as the farthest advance of communism in human history. (3) MIM believes the North American white-working-class is primarily a non- revolutionary worker-elite at this time; thus, it is not the principal vehicle to advance Maoism in this country. MIM accepts people as members who agree on these basic principles and accept democratic centralism, the system of majority rule, on other questions of party line. "The theory of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin is universally applicable. We should regard it not as dogma, but as a guide to action. Studying it is not merely a matter of learning terms and phrases, but of learning Marxism-Leninism as the science of revolution." -- Mao Zedong, Selected Works, Vol. II, p. 208 * * * MAOIST CONFERENCE CELEBRATES TKP/ML'S 25TH Frankfurt, GERMANY -- May 10 - 11, Maoists from around the world met at an international conference convened by the Communist Party of Turkey/Marxist Leninist (TKP/ML) in celebration of its 25th anniversary. The TKP/ML is the representative of the international proletariat and the vanguard of the oppressed masses and the working class in Turkey and Turkish Kurdistan. The first point of the conference agenda included the fundamental discussions on the TKP/ML's experience and practice, its importance within the context of the revolutionary struggle in Turkey and Turkish Kurdistan and also, world revolution and the national and international background within which the TKP/ML was founded. The second item on the conference agenda was the importance of the GPCR, which greatly influenced the founding of the TKP/ML and its process of defining the political, ideological and organizational line. The GPCR represents the highest point of the achievements of the international proletariat. As the TKP/ML stated, "Our party cannot celebrate the 25th anniversary of its founding without giving the precedence to the GPCR, which forms the cornerstone of the thoughts of all communists and revolutionaries of the world and those who aspire towards a classless society without exploitation of man by man. The study of the GPCR is fundamental for all communists who believe that Mao contributed to the development of [Marxism-Leninism] and that he advanced [it] to a new qualitative level. Our party believes that GPCR is [of] enormous value for all communists of the world and [for] the class struggle of the international proletariat. We consider this to be an important step forward to advance our views especially on GPCR and to arm ourselves with deep knowledge on such concrete issues." Over 100 people attended the conference. Most were Turkish and Kurdish people living in exile in Europe. International delegates included representatives of MIM; the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) / Janashakti (People's Strength); the ex-USSR's All-Union Bolshevik Party of Communists; el Partido Comunista Revolucionaria del Argentina (Revolutionary Communist Party of Argentina); the Communist Party of Greece / Marxist-Leninist; the Proletarian Party of Purba Bangla (East Bengal or Greater Bangladesh); the Congre's des Progressistes pour la Libe'ration (Congress of Progressives for Liberation)--Zaire; the Workers' Party of Belgium (PTB); el Partido Comunista de Espan~a (reconstituido) (PCE(r), Communist Party of Spain (reconstituted)); Rossoperaio (Red Workers' Organization)--Italy; Moroccan comrades; a Vietnamese comrade; and a comrade from a country in the Middle East. International supporters present in a less official capacity hailed from Germany's Gesellschraft organization and from Indonesia.(for a complete list of those invited see the upcoming Maoist Sojourner.) There were no noteworthy disputes on the conference floor. The conference was marked by a high degree of unity, and by a desire to seriously examine the positive and negative lessons of the most advanced movements led by communists to date, principally the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. Comrades benefited both from the lectures and from more informal exchanges of ideas and information between conference sessions. MIM was given the opportunity to read a statement of solidarity with the TKP/ML and a statement introducing MIM. We emphasized the responsibility people from the U.S. empire bear to stand in solidarity with Turkish, Kurdish, and other oppressed peoples, and with these peoples' revolutionary leadership bodies. The U.S. government claims to conduct all of its actions in the name of "the American people." U.S. imperialism is the principal military and political enemy of the Turkish and Kurdish peoples. It was the U.S government's Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) which collaborated with the fascist Turkish government to torture the TKP/ML's principal founder and leader, Ibrahim Kaypakkaya, to death on 18 May 1973. As within Turkish borders, the national question is of much significance within U.S. borders. As such, we have learned to pay close attention to it. Likewise, MIM was pleased that the TKP/ML host correctly referred to MIM as being "from North America" instead of incorrectly referring to the "USA" as if it were a legitimate political- geographic entity. A TKP/ML statement explained that Turkey is half capitalist and half feudal. The TKP-ML leads a worker-peasant alliance in a New Democratic protracted people's war against compradors, landlords, loan sharks, imperialists, and the fascist Turkish regime. TKP/ML martyr Kaypakkaya correctly pointed out that the Kurdish people constitute a nation found inside the borders of Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Syria, and the ex-USSR. Kaypakkaya stood for Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution against Modern Revisionism and Soviet- style social-imperialism. He recognized that Mao's contributions constituted a deepening of Marxism- Leninism. His 1973 martyrdom created a leadership vacuum in the TKP/ML for a short time, but in 1974, the Party regrouped. In 1978, it centralized and engaged in ideological and political struggle to demarcate itself from revisionist sectarian groups. The TKP/ML speaker did the same, correctly demarcating against Hoxhaism and Gorbachevism, and standing for the use of revolutionary violence, proletarian dictatorship, and revolution under proletarian dictatorship. Speaking just a week before Laurent Kabila's rebels overthrew Mobutu Sese Seko a comrade from the CPL- Zaire praised Kabila's movement as progressive, democratic, and anti-anti-communist, while noting that it is not anti-imperialist. The comrade noted that Kabila's movement involves the masses and strengthens them politically. Imperialism has left Congo with four currencies of money: the U.S. dollar, the Belgian franc, the old Zairean franc, and the new Zairean franc. The CPL comrade called for national democratic revolution, for breaking dependence on imperialism, for land reform, and for the liberation of the productive forces from imperialism. He said that the united front of the workers, peasants, and petty-bourgeoisie must be developed so it can control the state and the resources of Congo. Congo's mines and location are strategically key for imperialism. Thus, on a tactical level, the CPL seeks to advance without antagonizing imperialism and provoking its direct intervention. The national democratic movement of the Philippines was represented by Luis Jalandoni, the chief negotiator representing the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP)-led National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) in its peace negotiations with the fascist Government of the Republic of the Philippines, and by Professor Jose Maria Sison, founding chairperson of the CPP and current advisor to the NDFP panel in the peace negotiations. Sison spoke on the CPP. Sison emphasized that the Party and its Army both started very small, but have grown significantly. As Chairperson Mao Zedong said, "The correctness or otherwise of the ideological and political line decides everything. When the Party's line is correct, then everything will come its way. If it has no followers, then it can have followers; if it has guns, then it can have guns; if it has no political power, then it can have political power." Lest anyone think the road was easy, Sison stressed that "There were many twists and turns along the way." He explained that he was in particular talking about "left" and right opportunist deviations which held sway in the CPP Central Committee, notably from 1988 to 1992. In 1992, a campaign of rectification began, reaffirming the Party's basic principles of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought or Marxism- Leninism-Maoism and rooting out opportunist and subjectivist petty-bourgeois deviations which relegated Maoism to the back burner. Among other things, reaffirming Maoist principles meant rejecting urban insurrectionism in favor of the Maoist political-military line for the semi- colonies of protracted people's war, surrounding the cities from the countryside. Sison reminded the audience that the essence of Marxism-Leninism is the overthrow of the class enemy and the establishment of red political power. The speaker from the PCR-Argentina explained that his Party was born in 1967 and 1968 in struggle against Modern Revisionism. The PCR-A supports Argentina-born Che' Guevara against the Modern Revisionists of the USSR and Cuba who PCR-A says betrayed him. In 1972, the PCR-A arrived at Maoism. It advances the line of New Democratic revolution. Its principal work is underground, but it leads legal work as well. In the PCR-A's assessment, the left in Argentina and in Latin America is in an upswing. The Proletarian Party of Purba Bangla (East Bengal) is one of three parties upholding Maoism and the GPCR in greater Bangladesh, which includes existing Bangladesh and parts of India and Burma. The PP and Shamabadi Dal are members of the Avakianist (crypto-Trotskyist) Revolutionary Internationalist Movement (RIM), while the East Bengal Communist Party is not. All are underground and trying to launch armed struggle, while taking different approaches to mass front formation. Two other Bengali parties are Mao-sympathisers, but not Maoists. The Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist)- Janashakti discussed the history of its party. The Maoist movement in India has been divided for over two decades now. The CPIML-J called for the reunification of Indian Maoists into one party and for a rectification campaign. The Workers Party of Belgium, like MIM, emerged from student struggles. MIM has disagreements with the PTB over the labor aristocracy question and other questions, but these did not come to the fore in the conference. The PTB used its floor time to talk about recent events in Belgium. In 1996, the disappearance and murder of Belgian children provoked a massive democratic movement. This movement, said the PTB, has improved the Belgian masses' consciousness regarding the bourgeois state. For one thing, the masses learned that elements of the Belgian ruling class were involved in child pornography and the like. For another, the state exposed itself as a tool of the ruling class: the police serve the rich and powerful, but sat on their hands when poor and immigrant workers' children were stolen. The state also banned the distribution of a PTB pamphlet to a mass rally around this issue. (The PTB distributed 100,000 pamphlets anyway). The Belgian Central Bureau of Investigation investigated every single Turk in Belgium, but did not really investigate the kidnappings. Instead, they used the kidnappings as an excuse to create a new "anti-crime" (anti- progressive, anti-people) law. Italy's Rossoperaio, a supporter of the Avakianist (crypto-Trotskyist) RIM, noted its opposition to Italy's intervention in Albania, where the masses are engaging in just and righteous rebellion. It was a pleasure to hear a Vietnamese comrade stand up for Maoism, including the GPCR and the continuation of class struggle under the dictatorship of the proletariat. The Vietnamese people demonstrated the validity of Mao's military strategy of protracted people's war, but failed to demarcate against Soviet social-imperialism and thus failed to build socialism. In Morocco, the Maoist forces are undergoing a process of reconstituting a Party. A Moroccan comrade defended Maoism as the third stage of Marxism. He pointed out that the Arab world is the battleground of a fierce inter-imperialist struggle between French imperialism and U.S. imperialism, with most Arab regimes obeying French imperialism. The Moroccan comrades seek the overthrow of imperialism, principally French imperialism, as well as the overthrow of the comprador bourgeoisie, the big bourgeoisie, feudal remnants, and the bourgeoisie's reactionary regime. DAY TWO: LEGACY OF THE GPCR The second day was dedicated to the question of the GPCR. MIM used its time on the floor to read a statement on the historical role of "Gang of Four" leader Jiang Qing, who faced sexist and other slanders and died under house arrest, all for her efforts to continue the GPCR and keep China on the socialist road after Mao Zedong died in 1976. The TKP/ML pointed out that comrade Stalin made errors which aided capitalist-restorationist Khrushchev's rise to power. Also, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union did not fail alone in the 1950s when it dropped the red banner of socialism. Except for the CP of China and the Party of Labor of Albania, the International Communist Movement failed. Professor Sison read "The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution: Impact on the Philippines and Continuing Global Significance" [http://www.geocities.com/~cpp-ndf/intl7.htm], adding some new comments. Of particular note were Sison's new comments on Hua Guofeng. In MIM Theory #5 (1994), MIM wrote, "It is an area of concern that MIM has no statement from the CPP on Hua Guofeng." At the conference, Sison spoke clearly, correctly, and in some detail about Hua's counterrevolutionary role. Not only did Hua have the "Gang of Four" arrested, said Sison, but Hua was one of the four people who moved against the left in the CCP after Mao's death. This counterrevolutionary gang expelled 30% of the CCP in order to attain its rightist ends. Hua's "left" face, said Sison, "was only a matter of form." Sison also recommended the "10,000-character text" by Ding-Li Chun, a Chinese leftist under Deng, as one of the better texts from China available in English. Two resolutions were brought to the floor. MIM signed both. The first, from the TKP/ML, regarded the situation of the people in Turkey and Turkish Kurdistan. The second, from the Communist Party of Greece / Marxist-Leninist, regarded the situation in Albania.[For the text of these, see the upcoming Maoist Sojourner.] Between sessions, many comrades were curious to learn MIM's assessment of the crypto-Trotskyist RCP-USA and the RCP-USA-led RIM. Opinions on the RIM varied. Some vigorously agreed with MIM's assessment of RIM as hegemonist and crypto- Trotskyist-led. Some requested more information from MIM. Others defended RIM and the hegemonist RIM line that a new Comintern is needed. For the TKP/ML's part, one of the newspapers it distributes contains a criticism of RIM by El Diario Internacional's Luis Arce Borja. The conference ended as it began with the Internationale. The conference provided an excellent opportunity for comrades from different parties and different local conditions to get to know each other ideologically and politically. It also illustrated that the world's revolutionary tendencies are recovering from past mistakes and setbacks and are moving forward. [For complete text of conference report, conference statements and resolutions, send us $1 and we'll send you the upcoming issue of Maoist Sojourner.] * * * AZANIAN YOUTH FACES DEATH PENALTY IN MISSISSIPPI by RCG1 Azikiwe (Azi) Kambule, an Azanian teen, sits in jail in Canton, Mississippi and faces the death penalty for "being an accomplice to capital murder" (1, 2). As MIM has explained before, the real murderers are the imperialists, but Azi's case illuminates the specific repressive nature of the imperialist injustice system. The DA has vowed to seek the death penalty against Azi as an accomplice despite the fact that Azi was not at the crime scene, fully cooperated with the police and has no past criminal history. The DA has coerced the primary defendant into testifying against Azi in exchange for a lesser sentence. On January 26, 1996, Azi found himself in the middle of the car-jacking and murder of Pamela McGill. According to several reports of Azi's statement, he was riding in a car driven by Santonio Berry. At gunpoint, Berry forced McGill into the passenger seat of her car and told Azi to get in the back. Berry then took McGill into the woods telling Azi to stay in the car. Berry then came back without McGill. When Berry attempted to sell McGill's car, both he and Azi were arrested. Azi was cooperative with police, even making several attempts to locate McGill's body. After two months, of police pressure, Berry confessed to murdering McGill in the woods and eventually led police to her body. The police violated Berry's rights during the investigation. The evidence of this could have jeopardized the DA's ability to force a death penalty verdict. Because of this, the DA made a deal with Berry. He will get life imprisonment with no parole for pleading guilty to capital murder -- in exchange for testifying against Azi.(3) The DA has made a conscious effort to secure a death sentence because "[DA]Kitchens sees his political future intimately linked with his ability to get harsh sentences in well publicized cases."(1) Promoting the death penalty and this "tough on crime" posturing is typical of Amerikkkan politicians, especially in Mississippi. It is another form of social control for the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie which monetarily benefits the bourgeoisie and kills or locks up oppressed nationals in the U$. The Hinds County prosecutor, Ed Peters, purposely moved Azi's trial to Madison County to increase the chance of a death sentence. As reported in the local paper, Peters stated that he was moving the trial because the "jurors in Hinds County have a reputation for refusing to vote for the death penalty."(1) DA Kitchens bragged to a local paper how he was a force behind this trial's change in venue.(4) Hinds County is predominantly Black whereas Madison County has become a refuge for white police and civil servants seeking to create an exclusively white environment. Law enforcement in Madison County has historically served only the interests of the white nation.(5, 1) In 1971, the Mississippi Supreme Court documented clear instances in which Madison County officials had systematically excluded Blacks from jury rolls -- decades after the United States Supreme Court declared the practice unconstitutional. Civil rights groups and defense attorneys say that prosecutors in counties like Madison still routinely remove Blacks from juries in capital trials.(1) The campaign to support Azi in his battle for his life has been strong. Many South African and anti- death penalty organizations have been publicizing this case and encouraging people to flood the DA's office with statements of protest.(3) Dennis Brutus, a South African poet and political activist, is chairperson of the Azi Kambule Committee for Justice. He has been touring college campuses across Amerika speaking about the case and against the death penalty. Recently, Brutus was the featured speaker at RAIL events to raise money for MIM's Books for Prisoners Program and spoke of the hypocrisy of the Amerikan injustice system. Many organizations have used this case to publicize the truth about the use of the death penalty against youth. In the past ten years, only five countries are known to have executed people for crimes they committed when under 18-years-old. Of these five, Amerika has executed the most. Of youth sentenced to death in Amerika, 66% have been oppressed nationals.(1,4,2) In this century, 75% of youth sentenced to death have been Black. Of the nine female youth sentenced to death in the history of Amerikkka, eight were Black nationals and one was a member of a First Nation. These statistics show that the death penalty is a tool of social control for the Amerikkkan settler nation.(1,3) We don't advocate that youth be treated with paternalism which says that they are not as intelligent or can not be as productive as adults: this has been the basis for the patriarchal system which keeps youth subservient to adults. But we will use the hypocrisy of this system to point out that youth are denied power and at the same time are punished like adults. While the death of Pamela McGill is a tragedy, one must keep in mind that the police are the real criminals here. They legally murder people. They daily harass and brutalize people and get away with it. MIM does not recognize the Amerikkkan Injustice system as fit to judge who are the criminals and who can be executed. Join the campaign in support of Azi. Help MIM and RAIL support prisoners everywhere by providing them with books, newspapers and tools to organize to overthrow this system which benefits the oppressors. For more information on Azi's struggle and how you can help out, contact: Azi Kambule Committee for Justice c/o Rev. Robert Abrams, Chairperson Prison Ministries Committee Mississippi Conference of the United Methodist Church 216 North Azalia Drive Wiggins, MS 39577 NOTES: 1. http://dialup.oar.net/~Pcarelli/azi.html 2. http://www.otap.com/opeace/progressive/16- 12/deathpenalty2.html 3. Wall Street Journal, 20 February 1997. pp A1 & A6. 4. MIM Notes #126 : November 15, 1996. 5. http://mainstreet.t5.com/newsnt.html * * * LETTERS ANARCHIST DOESN'T LIKE MIM LITERATURE Greetings from the frosty city of Boston, Recently I found myself reading "MIM Theory" (out of complete boredom of course, normally I never touch such rubbish!) and was quite disturbed by all the anarchist bashing within its pages. I'm not sure how "revolutionary" MIM/RAIL is in Ann Arbor, but here in Boston it's a pathetic lecture sponsoring group that is run by shitty rich M.I.T. students (who also make sure there are stacks of "MIM Notes" unread in every trendy coffee house in town). Granted some lectures are quite good, but hardly "revolutionary". Quite honestly, anything that remotely challenges "the system" with any sort of opposition (aside from the 3 R.C.P. members and 1 Refuse and Resist member) comes from an anarchist or anti-authoritarian direction, at least here in Boston anyways. Food Not Bombs, Homes Not Jails, Industrial Workers of the World, Anti-Racist Action, Earth First!, Animal Liberation Front, Lucy Parsons Center, Etc. Etc. Are all based on anti- authoritarian principles. I guess its clear why MIM/RAILs find the need to bash anarchists--to try and bait the only "revolutionary" elements (outside of rich sociology students idealizing third world countries and "proletarian" dictators) within the cities into joining it's little college social club. (Sorry I'm too poor to pay the tuition to be a proper Maoist) before you condemn others you should consider leaving your "theory" in the lecture halls and join the rest of us in the streets! (We might take you a wee bit more serious). P.S. Anarcho-trots?? If confronted by a trot, any self respecting anarchist should wave a fist in the air with shouts of "remember Krondstat"! MIM RESPONDS: We wonder what this anarchist thinks constitutes revolutionary work. Clearly distributing literature that exposes the evils of imperialism and the work we are doing to fight it is not valuable work to this person. We are glad to hear this person has found MIM Notes in many places around town, and we can assure him/her that the papers are being read as we frequently replenish the stacks. If this person ever traveled to the poorer parts of Boston s/he would find MIM literature available there as well because we distribute MIM Notes everywhere that we can find a place to leave them that people will pick them up. We do, in fact, target students and oppressed nations because we recognize the importance of understanding who has a potential interest in supporting revolutionary work, but that would probably be too much theory for this person. It is likely that this person has never read MIM Notes nor MassRAIL (RAIL's Massachusetts publication) which details the rallies, petitioning work, and other actions we have combined with our educational work, particularly focusing on prisons over the past year. While our comrades are standing on the streets, sometimes in blizzard conditions, protesting prisons conditions, gathering petition signatures, handling out literature, and talking to people about what's going on and what we can do to change the injustice system, we wonder where this person has been. And while we are holding events that educate people about the system and organize them into work fighting imperialism, we again wonder where this person has been. Perhaps fighting imperialism in the way that has been proven most effective through history is not something this anarchist would consider "revolutionary." After all, the anarchists have never ended starvation in a country, overthrown imperialism, or built a society based on the principles of equality, collective work, and social justice. Those who genuinely wish to achieve an anarchist society should be working with the communists to overthrow imperialism and build a society where no groups of people have power over other people. SHINE REVIEW SMASHING Dear Comrades, I have a comment on an article "Looking for Lessons in Shine: Art & Suffering" [MIM Notes 132, p. 10]. I found the article to be smashing, as well as very truthful because art by emotionally tortured people can be very compelling. And I think I'm living proof of that, because I am a music writer and poetry writer. And I found my work to be way before my time, sometimes. I must say under the circumstances that I compose some of the most extraordinary arts that an ear can ever receive. But nothing hurts more than a shattered dream by the hands of the oppressors. Thus, the article was a smash. I have one more comment before breaking this correspondence. I think those who publish "News of the Weird" are mentally disturbed, especially with the tabloid on the prisoners who caused their deaths. It shows the world what people do for money, and how the long arm of the law somehow gets their man, even at our own fault. So until next time, --A New York Prisoner MIM RESPONDS: We encourage you to send your art to MIM and RAIL for publication. While we can't publish everything, we do have a duty to support proletarian art while we criticize that of the bourgeoisie. We wouldn't go so far as to call the publishers of News of the Weird to be mentally disturbed, as this distracts from your (and MIM's) main point: that capitalism breeds a disgusting disregard for the humanity of the oppressed. * * * SUPPORT FOR BOOKS FOR PRISONERS CONTINUES In the wake of RAIL's and MIM's book drive to benefit MIM's Free Books for Prisoners program, activists have continued to contact RAIL with books they want us to send to prisoners. We've additionally received another 100 or so books in one week. One activists told RAIL s/he's sold on our program, and that "the Public Library gets enough donations from liberals." Public libraries are good things in general, but good things under imperialism are only good if they facilitate revolutionary organizing to overthrow imperialism. RAIL and MIM collect and send books to prisoners because in many cases revolutionary reading material is not available in prisons and this stands in the way of our ability to organize with prisoners. So we are happy to take some of the books that would have been added to the library collections outside the walls and divert them to prisoners who will use these books to advance their own revolutionary practices. After the benefit hosted in Boston with Dennis Brutus many people who saw the flyers but did not attend have contacted us about donating books. One large academic bookstore wants to donate their remainders and damaged books. Many people who contact us are aware of MIM's long history of work in prisons and understand the importance of making such donations a part of apolitical struggle rather than just an act of charity. RAIL and MIM continue to accept donations in books, cash or stamps. Send donations to whichever address on this page gets you cheaper postage. * * * KABILA LEADS CONGO FORWARD: EXPOSE U.$. IMPERIALISM by a comrade Last month, MIM Notes reported that Congolese rebellion leader Laurent Kabila was getting close to taking over the former Zaire, and that he was about to enter talks with then-Zairian president Mobutu Sese-Seko. Since then Kabila and Mobutu have signed a peace agreement; Kabila has taken over government of the former Zaire, renaming it the Democratic Republic of Congo; the people of the Democratic Republic of Congo are celebrating; the United $nakes has stepped up its efforts to lure Kabila into bed with Western imperialism; and revolutionary nationalists the world over are looking to this new government and wondering how far it can go to advance the cause of world revolution and world peace. On the side of African self-determination, or at least the side of stability in central Africa, Museveni, president of neighboring Uganda, has advised Kabila to form a broad coalition government based on the unity of democratic forces which toppled Mobutu. Museveni's emphasis has been that Kabila needs to retain power for the democratic forces and make it impossible for Mobutu's allies to come back into power. Museveni has been accused by Western governments of being a key supplier for Kabila's movement.(1) On the side of imperialism, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan of Ghana (a long-time ally of reaction and imperialist intervention in Africa) is saying that Kabila should form a coalition government that would include forces from the old regime.(2) The foremost United Snakes print media mouthpiece, the New York Times, has suggested that involvement of bordering countries in the Democratic Republic of Congo is dangerous at this time because this could lead to instability.(3) The real concern of the New York Times and its puppet masters, of course, is that too much African solidarity will mean a less welcome climate for international investment. The imperialists do not want to leave the Democratic Republic of Congo alone to run its own affairs, they only want a monopoly on foreign intervention. This issue of MIM Notes also prints a report on the international conference in Frankfurt, Germany, where a CPL-Zaire comrade called Kabila's movement "progressive, democratic, and anti-anti-communist" and also said that this movement "involves the masses and strengthens them politically." MIM Notes is happy to have this assessment from a Congolese comrade, as our earlier article had been published based solely on reports from imperialist-country news agencies. The CPL-Zaire comrade also called for a program of land reform and advancement of the masses' control of their country without antagonizing imperialism. MIM supports the just struggles of all oppressed nations against imperialism and for this reason we support Laurent Kabila's government to the extent that it is progressive and democratic, and to the extent that it puts more political power in the hands of the people. MIM devotes most of its energies to working within the belly of the exploitative beast to expose and build public opinion against its crimes. The struggle against imperialist investment and intervention is a matter of life and death for the people of the oppressed nations worldwide, as the imperialist countries with their militaries and their multinational corporations sap resources which should be the livelihood of the local people. The type of foreign investment which the dictator Mobutu welcomed, and with which Kabila's democratic forces have made deals, has caused severe resource depletion in other African countries. The Franceville Uranimum Company (COMUF), in Southeastern Gabon (the comprador-controlled country Mobutu went to visit after leaving talks with Kabila) has just announced it will close uranium mining operations in 1999, after it has depleted all reserves in the mines it owns. In 36 years of operation so far COMUF, which was set up by French occupation forces in 1958, has extracted seven million tons of ore from which it produced 27,000 tons of uranium.(1) Given policies like these, it is no wonder Mobutu saw government office staff celebrating when he was finally ousted from office. The staff at the formerly Zairian embassy in Zimbabwe, which had not had electric or telephone service for the past year, quickly took down the Zairian flag and put up a sign reading "Welcome to Democratic Republic of Congo" in front of the embassy. Embassy staff reported that they had not been paid in five years and had raised chickens and sold them to survive.(2) MIM extends revolutionary greetings and hopes for the success of a more progressive and democratic government to the people of the new Democratic Republic of Congo. And we call on the people of the Congo to take this revolutionary movement further to a socialist revolution because we know that only by building socialism in their country will the people of the Congo be able to liberate themselves from imperialism and build a society both interested in and equipped to meet the needs and desires of the people. We call on all progressive and anti-imperialist people in Amerika to uncover and expose U.$. imperialism abroad and to build a movement to oppose imperialist intervention. Notes: 1. Panafrican News Agency(PANA) 22 May, 1997. 2. PANA 20 May, 1997. 3. New York Times 21 May, 1991 * * * NEW YORK RESUMES TAX COLLECTION IN FIRST NATIONS by a RAIL comrade On May 22 Governor George Pataki asked New York Legislature to support the First Nations' 'right' to tax-free retail of gasoline and tobacco. The New York petroleum industry quickly filed against Pataki's proposal which would permanently exempt First Nations from sales tax. The court issued a temporary restraining order forcing continued collection of taxes on First Nation sales to U.$. residents.(1) Pataki's announcement came after the blockade of the Seneca Nation that intercepted all gasoline and tobacco shipments. The nation's refusal to pay taxes and protests of the two month blockade led to the heavy deployment of state troopers on and around the Cattaraugus territory. Armed troopers attacked, beat and handcuffed the unarmed protesters. During the police attack on May 18, eighteen protesters were arrested for trespassing, unlawful assembly, and resisting arrest.(2) STRUGGLE PROVES RIGHTS EXIST ONLY FOR OPPRESSORS This 'right' Pataki pretends to support is not a new concept. It is a settler nation lie that has been promised to the First Nations repeatedly for three centuries. Yet New York State has continuously denied the sovereign rights of the First Nations, proving that such rights don't exist and that First Nation demands will only be met through struggle. The Seneca Nation refused to face their oppressors silently, which is how they pressured Pataki's wavering on this issue. The protests and bad press pressured Pataki to back down on his illegal demands. In reaction to Pataki's proposal, many members of the Seneca nation recognized he was merely backing down due to a negative media image and in hopes of passing the responsibility to the legislature. A legal battle fought one week prior to Pataki's proposal illustrates the contradiction between justice and the economic interests of the white nation. On May 15, the Senecas won a legal battle against New York in a state court. The judge ruled that the state had no right to seize shipments heading for the Cattaraugus territory.(3) She also ordered state troopers be removed from the territory. But the state appealed, resulting in a stay of the court order the following day. This permitted the settler blockade to continue.(4) HISTORY PROVES STRUGGLE IS THE WAY FOR SURVIVAL This recent court hearing was not the first time this issue was brought to court. A quick look at history proves that this struggle is continuous, and as long as the imperialist empire exists it will deny the sovereignty of oppressed nations and profit off of the rest of the world. Most relevant to the current events between the Seneca Nation and New York State is the battle that occurred in 1993. After protests by local merchants, the settler government decided to tax First Nation sales to U.$. citizens and a state court ruled the taxes were legal. Only that time the state Court of Appeals(the highest court of the state) overturned this ruling in a final decision.(5) Even though the decision was made only four years ago, the state remains determined to enact the same oppressive measures. A protester from the Mohawk Nation said, "They've stolen everything from us, and now they're trying to tax us."(6) New York State residents should look at this situation and realize that this is how an imperialist empire works everyday, worldwide. It must be recognized that these atrocities won't stop until the people unite led by a vanguard party together taking the empire's power to exploit away for good. The United $tates has promised sovereignty to First Nations in numerous treaties, including the Buffalo Creek Compromise and The Canandaigua Treaty of 1794. Article 1 of this treaty states that "peace and friendship" between the U.S. and the Six Nations "shall be perpetual."(7) Article 2 promises that the U.$. will not disturb the Six Nations "nor their Indian friends."(7) The deployment of state troopers on First Nation land is not peaceful to say the least. Threatening the livelihood of the Seneca Nation through taxation and trade blockades only shows that the settler nation continues its war against oppressed nations despite the deceptive rhetoric of the treaties. Causing the unemployment of over 400 of its citizens is a tactic of genocide, not in the development of perpetual friendship. The Buffalo Creek Compromise of 1842 returned First Nation territory in western New York four years after the Buffalo Creek Treaty of 1838 which attempted to transport those people from their land to a reservation just west of Missouri.(8) "Article 9 of the 1842 treaty says "the parties... mutually agree... to protect such of the lands of the Seneca Indians, within the State of New York, as may from time to time remain in their possession from all taxes and assessments for roads, highways or any other purpose" until the Indians relinquish ownership of the land."(9) Members of the Seneca Nation have noted this agreement, stating that if New York breaks their end of the deal then the treaty is null. If this is true, the Seneca nation should be entitled to (some of) their territory -- which is now the city of Buffalo. But under imperialism only the imperialist nation has the power to go back on their treaties when they want to. The imperialist nation takes from the rest of the world, promising things in return which it might concede only if it will not cost the empire. The struggle for sovereignty and protection from U.$. imperialism has been a continuous fight for First Nations in North America. The struggle will not end until imperialism is crushed. This must be done by uniting all progressive forces against imperialist expansion and settler colonial domination. NOTES: 1. Times Union. 24 May 1997, p. B-2. 2. Times Union. 19 May 1997, p. B-2. 3. Times Union. 16 May 1997, p. B-2. 4. Times Union. 17 May 1997, p. B-2. 5. http://bioc09.uthscsa.edu/natnet/archive/nl/9306/01 77.htm 6. Times Union. 11 May 1997, p. B-2. 7. http://www.localnet.com/~sni/treaty1794.htm 8. http://www.tuscaroras.com/jtwigle/pages/1838treaty. html#1 9. Times Union. 21 May 1997, p. B-2. * * * MINING COMPANY STEALS APACHE WATER by a friend of RAIL and an MC San Carlos Apache Nation Territory -- In 1944, Phelps Dodge Corporation, a major copper mining company based in Arizona, convinced the Secretary of the Interior to steal the Black River Pump Station from the Apache nation on its behalf. Until July of 1996, Phelps Dodge continued to extract the water and pay a trivial use fee of $20 per month to the Apache nation, the only charges mandated by the Department of the Interior. Only after the tribal government threatened legal action did Phelps Dodge agree to pay the Apache a more generous fee of $20,000 per month. Even so, Phelps Dodge has filed suit in superior court to prevent the Apache from evicting them from the reservation. In 1944, Phelps Dodge claimed that the water was necessary for copper mining and that copper production was essential for the war effort. We at MIM support having prioritized the war against the Nazis, but the war ended the following year while the theft of Apache water did not. In the semi-arid climate of the San Carlos Reservation water is a scarce and precious resource. The agricultural and industrial use of the water from the Black River by the Apache certainly was worth more than that $20 per month they received in compensation during the 52 years of this forced presence of the Phelps Dodge. This flagrant plunder of Apache resources shows that the Department of the Interior, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and other government agencies that claim to benefit First Nations are in fact the willing servants of corporations seeking to exploit First Nations peoples. The under development and consequent poverty and unemployment on reservations are not accidental, but a deliberate strategy of oppression against First Nations peoples. For over 400 years, the white nation has used force to impoverish the First Nations and keep them dependent. The struggle of First Nations peoples is the struggle of land and the struggle to achieve real national liberation. Phony leftists and Uncle Toms claim that the betterment of the First Nations peoples lies only in spirituality and superstition, but this only diverts the struggle into avenues that are harmless to the capitalists and the dominant white nation. The struggle must be to develop Apache resources for the benefit of the Apache people. Industry, mining, and mechanized agriculture must be welcomed, but not on the terms of the imperialists. Through mass struggle, and where winnable, bourgeois legality, the First Nations and their supporters must ensure that the benefits of industry, mining, and agriculture on the Apache territory go to the Apache people on Apache territory. Wherever possible, the masses should compel tribal governments to practice self-reliance in economic development. To accomplish this a vanguard party must form to deal with the white nation's class system and especially its lackeys within the First Nations. No First Nation people is uncontaminated by the settler nation's imperialism. For this reason, the lackeys and others seeking assimilationist genocide should be excluded from the vanguard party while the rest lead the fight to return to communist ways found in most First Nation peoples. The scientific idea of a vanguard party was started by white men seeking to modify the communist ideas of the First Nations for use in the white man's society that had strong class stratification and little cultural or historical reference for cooperative living in recent centuries. Everywhere vanguard parties are necessary, to preserve and strengthen communist values until that time when we can return to the humyn race's original values adapted for modern day realities. NOTE: The Arizona Republic, 16 May 1997. * * * GERONIMO PRATT WINS NEW TRIAL Former Black Panther Party (BPP) leader Geronimo Ji Jaga Pratt won a new trial from a California superior court judge on May 29, 25 years after he was framed and convicted of murder. Pratt was one of many victims of the FBI COINTELPRO operation which murdered or framed and imprisoned many of the key leaders of the BPP (for more information on COINTELPRO get a copy of the book Agents of Repression by Ward Churchill and Jim Vander Wall from MIM for $22). Pratt was convicted of a murder in San Francisco in spite of the fact that he was in Los Angeles the entire day of the killing and had witnesses to prove this. He has been turned down for parole 16 times. Pratt won the new trial because of evidence that crucial information was suppressed by prosecutors during the original trial. Chief witness for the prosecution, Julies Butler, claimed Pratt confessed to the murder, but FBI documents and retired police officers testified that Butler was an informant, not an impartial witness as he was portrayed in the original trial. One juror from the original trial said that testimony from Butler was crucial to her decision to convict Pratt and she stated clearly that it was not a fair trial and that she now believes Pratt is innocent: "We made a mistake based on bad information. Not only bad information but incomplete information." Johnny Cochran, Pratt's lawyer since the original trial, said that this new trial proves that "there is integrity in the system". MIM instead understands that this new trial is only the result of sustained public outcry and exhaustive legal work on the part of Pratt's advocates. It is sometimes possible for progressives to win individual battles like this within the belly of the beast, even at this stage in the struggle when the imperialists are stronger than the revolutionaries. The very fact that Pratt spent 25 years in prison for the crime of being a leader of the Maoist Black Panther Party makes it clear that there is no integrity in the criminal injustice system. The prison system serves as a tool for social control for the imperialist state. MIM applauds this victory in Pratt's case and reminds everyone that there are over 1.5 million other people languishing behind bars including many political leaders imprisoned for their political work and beliefs. We have to be careful to always place these important cases of repression against political leaders in the context of a system that criminalizes poverty and defends imperialism. While fighting for the freedom of political leaders like Pratt we must also fight against the repression of the entire criminal injustice system. We can not give the imperialists the victory of calling Pratt's case unusual as if such repression were not a common part of the criminal injustice system. NOTES: NPR 30 May 1997. * * * L.A. RALLY COMMEMORATES 1980 U.$. KWANGJU MASSACRE According to the Los Angeles Times, approximately 300 college students gathered on May 16 to mourn and remember the thousands of civilians killed in the infamous "Kwangju massacre" of 1980. The recent student protests centered on Chosun University, well known for its consistent student movements and protests. The current south Korean regime, which has tried to distance itself from the regime responsible for the original Kwangju massacre, sent riot police to break up the commemoration. The students fought back using crow bars and Molotov cocktails. AMERIKAN ROLE IN MARTIAL LAW & KWANGJU MASSACRE During October 1979, former south Korean president Park Chung Hee, who had ruled as a military dictator for eighteen years, was assassinated by his closest advisor, the director of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA). By December 1979, a military coup d'etat devised by General Chun Doo Hwan and his fellow army cronies forcibly seized political and military power. The troops involved in the coup were under the command of the amerikan General John Wickham, who was Commander of the US-ROK Combined Forces. Wickham ordered other units not to oppose Chun's forces. Wickham later said that the role of the south Korean military includes "being watch-dogs on political activity that could be destabilizing, and in a way making judgments about the eligibility and reliability of political candidates that may have some adverse influence stability." In the spring of 1980, Chun Doo Hwan imposed martial law and cracked down on groups who opposed his military dictatorship. All those who opposed Chun's fascist agenda -- ranging from students, workers, religious leaders to journalists -- were arrested, detained, and tortured. In the forefront of these resistance movements were the students of Kwangju. Chosun University harbored mass student demonstrations that laid the foundation for the people's resistance in Kwangju. On May 18, 1980, the people of Kwangju rose up in mass protest against the brutalities of Chun Doo Hwan's corrupted government. As many as 200,000 people took to the streets, and by May 22 the people of Kwangju controlled the city. On the same day, the amerikan Pentagon announced that it was releasing 10,000 south Korean troops from the border region in order to retake Kwangju. One hour before troops invaded Kwangju, the u.$. State Department said "we recognize that a situation of total disorder and disruption in a major city cannot be allowed to go on." Residents say the south Korean military killed more than 2,000 people while putting down the rebellion. Despite the past denials made on behalf of Washington concerning any type of involvement in the Kwangju massacre, the people of Korea have always recognized that Chun Doo Hwan's regime was continuously supported by the u.s. After all, Chun was the first leading head of state to be invited to the White House by President Ronald Reagan. As a result of the fact that u.s. backed puppet rulers in Korea direct the nation's business to cater to the interests of amerika, anti-Amerikan sentiment in Korea has increased. On February 27, 1996, an Amerikan publication titled The Journal of Commerce revealed the true pig role which the u.s. played in supporting the Kwangju massacre. The journal uncovered that leading officials in the Carter administration were fully aware that Chun Doo Hwan and his followers were planning mass murder. Despite this fact, William Gloysteen, who had been acting as the American ambassador to Korea at the time, gave assurances to Chun's regime as to the guaranteed support of the u.s. in Chun's actions. This shows the hypocrisy of the fabled American Creed of justice, equality and democracy for all. The very people who were massacred in Kwangju were in effect pro-democracy demonstrators who were calling for eradication of political corruption and bribery which characterize Korean power politics. The Journal of Commerce quoted recently de- classified information concerning the u.s. involvement in the Kwangju massacre. According to the journal, at a White House meeting, "plans were discussed for direct U.S. intervention if the situation go out of hand." The Kwangju massacre clearly demonstrates the puppet nature of the south Korean government. * * * RAIL COMRADE INTERVIEWS A FORMER KOREAN STUDENT ACTIVIST RAIL: What is your knowledge concerning the Kwangju massacre? S/he: Well, at the time in 1980, there were nation- wide demonstrations everywhere because people were so discontent with the Chun regime. I believe Chun Doo Hwan specifically targeted the Kwangju providence for a couple of reasons. One is that Kwangju is strategically located so that the region can be effectively isolated as a whole. When the massacre was going on, the whole region was blocked off by the army so that no person could enter or exit without getting noticed. During that time, the mass media was completely controlled by the Chun regime, so no information about the massacre was being disseminated out to the rest of the country. No one knew that people were being killed until much later. The second reason for specifically targeting Kwangju was that during the Korean War, the mountains surrounding Kwangju were supposedly inhabited by the Communists. Chun attempted to generate support for sending troops into the region to quell the initial student uprisings by saying he was doing away with Communist support. RAIL: What was the role of students involved in the Kwangju massacre? S/he: The upheaval in Kwangju was initially started by students protests growing from Chosun University. Soon enough, the police came in to stop the protests. When the students proved to be stronger than the police, Chun sent down the army. However, even the army proved to be unsuccessful, because the fervor of the demonstrations went up as mothers, grandmothers, and everyone else became involved as soon as the people saw that their sons and daughters were getting killed at the hand of their own government. RAIL: So, the student movement grew in Kwangju into a people's movement? S/he: Correct. Everybody was involved. When the people started taking over police stations and arming themselves with those weapons, Chun responded by sending in the Korean Green Berets who essentially functioned as Chun's' own personal army. Soon enough, things erupted into complete chaos and violence. Tanks were rolling into the towns, and everywhere, civilians were being shot at. RAIL: How did the massacre end? S/he: The students had taken over City Hall, and had barricaded themselves in there with guns. They were the ones actively defending the town. Meanwhile, the elders were busy making them food and getting them clothing. Everything ended early one morning when the army launched a surprise attack into City Hall. Those who weren't killed in the raid were arrested and incarcerated with ridiculous sentences. Overall, there were more than 200 people killed. [Official sources admit to more than 200 deaths, but local residents estimate as many as 2,000 were killed--MIM] Thousands of others were wounded, raped, and tortured. RAIL: Do you believe amerika had played any role in the massacre? S/he: Definitely. There is no doubt about it. There is a lot of talk that says that the amerikans encouraged the massacre, the repression against the masses. Most of these dictators here who call themselves presidents inevitably are spoon fed by the u.s. In a way, I feel bad for them, since they basically have no other choice but to yield to Amerikan pressure. But on the other hand, I think that it truly is time for the self-determination of our people. I say, Korea for the Koreans! Get the Yankees out. Get the u.s military out. NOTES: 1. http://www.knj.com/KReport/KOREAR2.html 2. Los Angeles Times, 17 May 1997 "Violence Mars Memorial of South Korean Massacre." 3 http://www.kimsoft.com/korea/kwangju3.htm 4. "Chun Doo Hwan's Military Coup, Massacre in the city of Kwangju, and U.S. Responsibility," flyer by the Coalition for the full disclosure of the U.S. role in the Kwangju Massacre. * * * PAN AFRICANIST CONGRESS LEADER KARRIM ESSACK DIES MIM is surprised and saddened by the sudden death of Pan Africanist Congress leader Karrim Essack. He was to attend the 25th anniversary celebration of the TKP/ML Turkish comrades in Germany, but he died of a heart attack just a few days earlier. MIM met Karrim Essack in Gelsenkirchen in Germany at a 100th year celebration of Mao's Zedong's birth in 1993. At that time, Karrim Essack offered personal remembrances to MIM of China's internationalist aid to Tanzania. While Mao was alive, the Chinese government offered aid to other Third World countries, communist or non-communist. In the case of Tanzania, the Chinese helped build a famous railroad that would allow more trade amongst independent African countries without using the intermediaries of South African imperialist or other imperialist transportation. Such aid was proof that Third World countries need not follow Cuba's road of sacrificing political principles by allying with the Soviet Union -- which had explicitly abandoned the armed struggle of the Third World. Karrim Essack was himself a great force in the struggle. He pushed MIM for unity and action, and we do not doubt that he made a large contribution to the proletarian balance of subjective forces needed for revolution. In Africa, he assisted MIM in distributing MIM literature. At the same time, MIM had its disagreements with Karrim Essack on issues of principle. For this reason we regret that we were not able to struggle with Karrim Essack longer. We find it most appropriate to put forward what unity we did have with Karrim Essack, especially in those areas he was pushing MIM to take action before his death. ESSACK ON GATT Karrim Essack was one of those who understood clearly that once the Soviet bloc fell apart there was a question of new imperialist blocs and contentions. Already in 1993 in his paper on GATT-- "The Dunkel Draft and its Implications" he was speaking of a tripolar economic world composed of Germany (leading Europe), Japan and the United $tates. Right in page one, Karrim Essack says what MIM has also been saying about the phoniness of free trade as it exists under capitalism. Indeed, in trying to calculate the total superprofits extracted from the Third World, MIM too has found that "'Export from one country to another is almost like transfer from one branch of a transnational corporation to its unit/affiliate or subsidiary. . . . Prices cannot reflect free market conditions. They would be decided by the internal accounting considerations of the multinational corporations.'" This is a very important point to understand, because the imperialist economists and their social-democratic allies say that Third World workers and peasants are not super-exploited, because their goods sell at their free market price. In fact, much trade occurs within multinational corporations at whatever low price is convenient for the multinational corporation to utilize. In such a situation, the Third World workers are coerced by their lackey governments to take low wages and sell their product to only one buyer -- a foreign affiliate of the same multinational corporation. That is far from free trade which only exists when there is a multiplicity of suppliers, buyers and negotiations. It is at most a trade between imperialist lackeys on the one hand and imperialists on the other hand. Hence, the imperialist countries import Third World goods at a small fraction of their true value and then resell them or re-finish them in the imperialist countries. This leads the imperialist country workers and businesspeople to tell tall tales of their productivity or marketing genius -- when all they are doing is living off the labor of starving Third World workers kept in line by U.$.- puppet military regimes. Karrim Essack was also quick to realize that as it stands now, the next inter-imperialist rivalries are taking shape around the regional free-trade zones constructed at the expense of global free trade -- NAFTA, EEC, APEC etc. These agreements he called, "free trade amongst the signatories and protectionism against others." Also like MIM, Karrim Essack was careful to point out the history since 1934 of the GATT including seven rounds of agreements before the most recent GATT agreement. Reformists seeking to tail after the most reactionary and nationalist sections of imperialist capital speak of GATT as if knocking down the most recent agreement is all there is to GATT and the capitalist system, when in fact capitalism is a system and previous GATT treaties were also predatory. On the subject of "intellectual property," which is now the big buzzword and business of the imperialist countries, Karrim Essack correctly defended meager laws in India that prevent patents on agricultural goods and medicine. Now the imperialists wish to force India to allow free market competition in these goods, even if the result is that Indian people will have less to eat and less access to medicine. He points out that the GATT is moving to set up international organizations to enforce the provisions of the GATT, which themselves are often literally just sections of U.S. law extended to the world. "True enough, this body like the UN will be based on one country one vote, but in practice the commands that will emanate from this body will be the voices of the industrialized countries. What this body proposes will have the force of law and will be binding on all the Third World countries." ESSACK ON THE UN In 1994, at age 55, Karrim Essack struggled to draw MIM's attention to Somalia and Rwanda. What he said to the Pan Africanist Congress Youth Secretariat was typical of his line. According to Karrim Essack the military defeat in Somalia and the discrediting of the UN in Rwanda showed that Africa would not give in to the New World Order so easily. "These two historical events completely destroyed the strategy of the international monopolies working through the UN for the recolonisation of Africa and placing certain countries under direct UN trusteeship." "And if Rwanda were to come under UN trusteeship, just what type of rule would there be under personnel knowing nothing about Rwandan history, culture, language, and above all not sympathetic to the aspirations of the Rwandan people?" ESSACK ON RWANDA Karrim Essack was busy promoting a book on Rwanda, and took time to select a section of the book to re-publish and send to MIM. In this pamphlet, we learn that the teaching, medical and religious professions all assisted in the genocide of a six- digit number of Tutsis and their friends amongst the Hutus in Rwanda in 1994. This included silence or participation in genocide by Anglican Protestants and Hutu Catholics. The people with the most success in protecting the Tutsis from genocide in the 100 days after April 6, 1994 were poor Hutu farmers. Although the Hutus and Tutsis lived in relative peace before colonialism, the imperialist media told the lie of inter-tribal conflict to explain why extremist Hutus carried out genocide against men, wimmin, children and babies. This also helped to justify the UN's inaction. While offering the promise of global stability and an international police force above local ethnic conflicts, the UN troops failed to stop the massacre: "UNAMIR did very little to help people when the crisis began. People telephoned them in desperation. They had armored carriers and tanks. What did they bring these weapons for if they are going to stand by when people are being butchered in front of their very eyes?" Karrim Essack explained that the issue was difficult enough for the people of Rwanda, but the imperialists had no chance of understanding the realities of preventing genocide there. Relying on the UN only slowed the Rwandans themselves from solving their own problems. Pointing to the reactionary Spectator in the United $tates, Karrim Essack explained precisely why the media presents stories of violence by Africans against Africans by quoting Paul K. Johnson: "Most African governments are not fit to govern themselves. . . The helpless Somalis can have no hope of a safe, prosperous future except as a colony of one of the civilized powers." He recommended UN trusteeship. MIM agrees with K. Essack that the Western media is still motivated by national chauvinism and racism in its coverage of Africa. For this reason, it is false to rely on the major media to build the necessary movements to oppose "a new form of imperialism -- collective imperialism through international bodies." NOTE: African Rights, Rwanda: Death, Despair and Defiance, 11 Marshalsea Rd., London SE1 1EP * * * SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS PLAYS BALL WITH THE CIA On May 13, major U.S. media's headlines were as usual filled with distortions -- this time, aiming to cast doubt on Gary Webb's August 1996 series "Dark Alliance" in the San Jose Mercury News.(1) Webb's series illuminated the role of U.S. Central Intelligence Agency-backed Nicaraguan counterrevolutionaries in the genocidal crack cocaine trade and shed light on the CIA's protection of the Contra thugs and their genocidal operations. "CIA Series 'Fell Short,' Editor Says," said the Washington Post. "Expose on Crack Was Flawed, Paper Says," read the New York Times. The next day, the imperialist media's editorial boards issued editorials based on the previous day's distortions: "The Mercury News comes clean" (New York Times); "A destructive newspaper series" (Scripps Howard News Service); "A newspaper says 'mea culpa'" (Chicago Tribune). This chorus was the imperialist media's response to San Jose Mercury News(SJMN) Executive Editor Jerry Ceppos's statement which contained distortions of its own. But his statement was not as one-sided as the imperialist media's headlines suggested. For instance, part read: "It [Gary Webb's series] was important work on a significant issue....Our series solidly documented disturbing information: A drug ring associated with the Contras sold large quantities of cocaine in inner-city Los Angeles in the 1980s at the time of the crack explosion there. Some of the drug profits from those sales went to the Contras. Given our government's involvement with the Contras, I believe this is a major public policy issue worthy of further investigation." But the slant of the headlines and articles focused attention away from the most important issues at hand. CEPPOS'S DISTORTIONS Ultimately, Ceppos's statement is a dishonest attack on Webb's work, an attack whose very dishonesty suggests that it was written at the behest of the CIA. As one example, Ceppos wrote, "We made our best estimate of how much money was involved, but we failed to label it as an estimate, and instead it appeared as fact....[S]ome of the evidence suggested that millions in profits were sent to the Contras from sales of cocaine to Ross and others. Webb is confident that the estimate was entirely accurate. But the figure depended on our best estimates based on interviews, trial testimony and other documentary information." In a radio interview, Webb explained that while his research failed to provide a precise dollar amount before submitting his series, "millions" was accurate, and that that word's very vagueness makes it clear to readers that the number is an estimate.(2) Ceppos wrote, "Although members of the drug ring met with Contra leaders paid by the CIA and Webb believes the relationship was a tight one, I feel that we did not have proof that top CIA officials knew of the relationship." In response, Webb has explained that Ceppos's SJMN has thus far refused to print a follow-up series of four articles which Webb submitted in early 1997. This shelved series contains new information detailing CIA and NSC knowledge of CIA-connected drug trafficking as well as the involvement of individuals from the CIA and NSC with the genocidal drug trade. Webb has uncovered direct evidence that the CIA knew profits from the drug ring (covered in Webb's first series) were being funneled to the Nicaraguan counterrevolutionaries.(2, 3) Ceppos continued, "We also did not include CIA comment about our findings, and I think we should have." But until the public outcry sparked by Webb's series forced the CIA to switch from a "stonewall" cover-up strategy to a "limited hang- out" cover-up strategy, the CIA had refused to comment!(2) Ceppos's arguments are mostly specious. The remainder are nitpicks. A critical reader cannot help but wonder who -- or what agency -- put Ceppos up to writing such garbage. A brief examination of the history of CIA manipulation of the media is in order. CIA'S HISTORY OF MEDIA MANIPULATION "Since the CIA was formed in 1947, publishers and executive management have eagerly volunteered their services for the benefit of the Agency. . . Debriefing journalists has always been one of the CIA's most effective ways of getting intelligence. Time-Life publisher Henry Luce, a close friend of CIA director Allen Dulles, was debriefed by the CIA after traveling overseas, and he privately encouraged his correspondents to cooperate with the Agency. Malcolm Muir, editor of Newsweek during much of the Cold War, was also regularly debriefed after visits abroad. . . "[Reporter Carl] Bernstein estimated in 1977 that at least 400 journalists lived double lives, maintaining covert relationships with the CIA that went beyond the normal give-and-take between reporters and their sources. Media professionals were paid for their CIA-related services. Some even signed secrecy agreements while they performed non- journalistic tasks for the Agency, such as keeping an eye out for potential recruits and passing messages or money to CIA contacts. Trusted reporters were dispatched on special undercover assignments, almost always with the consent of their editors. "The CIA cultivated high-level contacts within the most prestigious media in the U.S., including the three TV networks and the newspapers of record. More than 20 other American news organizations occasionally shared a bed with the CIA, including AP, UPI, Scripps-Howard, the Hearst papers [of which the SJMN is one], Reader's Digest, Wall Street Journal, Christian Science Monitor and the Mutual Broadcasting System. . . "Washington Post owners Philip and Katharine Graham were best friends with Frank Wisner, a pivotal figure in the Agency's worldwide propaganda apparatus. . . 'There have been instances,' admitted publisher Katharine Graham, 'in which secrets have been leaked to us which we thought were so dangerous that we went to them [U.S. officials] and told them that they had been leaked to us and did not print them.' . . [T]he New York Times. . . provided press credentials and cover for more than a dozen CIA operatives during the Cold War."(4) THE SOLUTION: INDEPENDENT MEDIA AND ANTI-IMPERIALIST REVOLUTION While progressive people should be outraged at the U.S. mass media's subservience to U.S. imperialism, they should not be surprised. It is not surprising that the SJMN has retreated from Webb's first series. Nor is it surprising that the paper is sitting on Webb's second series. Gary Webb said, "I'm just baffled about this turnaround."(2) But in fact, the bigger surprise is that the SJMN ran his series in the first place. "In his letter, Ceppos implied that the 'Dark Alliance' series was published inadvertently, noting that the stories were approved for publication while he was away on vacation."(3) Despite bogus claims of "objectivity," the U.S. mass media has an ideological and political line -- a line upholding imperialism, capitalism and patriarchy. MIM Notes makes no claims to objectivity. MIM Notes, too, takes a stand on class, national and gender questions. MIM Notes takes the stand of the oppressed against the oppressors. We stand with the Black, Latino, and First Nations against the white Amerikkkan nation which wages genocidal chemical warfare against them by pumping narcotics into the ghettos, barrios and reservations. We stand with the oppressed nations of Asia, Africa, and Latin America against which the imperialists, led by U.S. imperialism, wage World War III. The U.S. mass media is so dishonest that it doesn't even admit to taking a class stand, a national stand, or a gender stand. And imperialism is such a disgusting system that the pro-imperialist media has to lie repeatedly in order to prettify it. Readers who want honest media need to look to anti- imperialist media like MIM Notes and RAIL Notes. And people who want anti-imperialist media need to support MIM Notes by providing help with writing, art, distribution and finance. Working with MIM to build its anti-imperialist media is only a start. Anti-imperialist media alone will not end oppression. Nor will it ferret out all the grisly facts that imperialism works overtime to keep hidden. MIM and MIM Notes are tools for preparing the masses to make anti-imperialist revolution. Only through an armed overthrow of U.S. imperialism will all the details about its disgusting deeds be known. One of these days, the oppressed will bust down the doors at CIA headquarters. They will liberate the files from secrecy, and will stop the CIA's reign of terror once and for all. NOTES: 1. http://www.sjmercury.com/drugs 2. Gary Webb interview, 14 May 1997, on "Up for Air," KPFK, 90.7 FM, Los Angeles Stonewalling is keeping your collective mouths shut. "Limited hang-out" is the strategy of releasing some but not all relevant information, in the hopes that doing so will have a pacifying effect which will protect the remainder of the relevant information (and thus also protect the institutions whose reputation would be damaged by said information). 3. LA Weekly, 23 May 1997, p. 14. 4. Lee, Martin A., and Norman Solomon, Unreliable Sources: A Guide to Detecting Bias in News Media, Carol Publishing Group, New York, 1990, pp. 114- 116. FOR MORE INFORMATION ON CIA MEDDLING WITH THE MASS MEDIA, SEE: # NameBase NewsLine #17, April-June 1997, http://www.pir.org/newsline.17 # Carl Bernstein, "The CIA and the Media," Rolling Stone, 20 October 1977, pp. 65-67. # "The CIA Report the President Doesn't Want You to Read," Village Voice, 20 February 1976, p. 40. # Sean Gervasi, "CIA Covert Propaganda Capability," Covert Action Information Bulletin, No. 7, December 1979 - January 1980, pp. 18-20. # Chamorro, Edgar. Packaging the Contras: A Case of CIA Disinformation (New York: Institute for Media Analysis, 1987), 78 pages. * * * AMERIKAN CULTURE SAHARA SONTAG -- IDEALISM GIVEN A NEW NAME review by a RAIL comrade ***The following is a review of the play Sahara Sontag sent to MIM by playwright S. Coleman for review. For more reviews on Coleman's work on Peru see past issues of MIM Notes.*** Along with the play, MIM received a letter remarking on the "multiple" roads to revolution and socialism. It said that "yes, the Marxist/Maoist [road is] one" but that there is at "least one more -- the pacifist road." Coleman is referring to what s/he chooses to call radical pacifism that takes an interactive role instilling pacifist ideas in people. Coleman proposed this transformation from inactive, complacent pacifism to radical pacifism as the thesis of h play. Trying to propose two, or more, roads to liberation, Coleman upholds the actions of Gandhi, Tolstoy, Dorothy Day and Thoreau. But what successful revolution did any of these figures lead? The answer is that they did not have any major impact on people's liberation. What Coleman is effectively doing is upholding their words rather than the concrete actions they took toward liberation. MIM instead compares both theory and the practice that stems from it to decide who leaders should be. In Maoist China, the people actually saw and experienced true liberation, not just figurative words and little concessions. Illiteracy was nearly abolished, wimmin made up 22% of the top government positions, agricultural communes were set up virtually eliminating hunger, and all industry was nationalized where the workers themselves played interactive leading roles in production and output. The time and people that should be upheld for bringing about the conditions for true pacifism should be Maoist. China accomplished the furthest advances toward a society without group oppression which is integral for true pacifism and peace. The play itself narrates Carol Sontag's, later Sahara Sontag, journey into Algerian desert where she and a fellow American meet up with a native desert tribe called the Tuaregs. Neither Carol nor her companion, Khalid, know of them and Khalid treats them as savage desert pirates coming to loot their now broken down car, typical of First World consciousness. They all end up going back to the Tuareg camp for food, water and festivities where the Amencol, chieftain, brings up his dilemma of supporting the rebel fundamentalists while also being an Islamic pacifist. Khalid and Carol experienced like dilemmas being Christians and basically sitting back and watching the world's oppression and not having the strength to fight it. Khalid dropped Christianity, right in line with american complacence to world oppression when the struggle gets "too hard", and the Amencol realized this was reality and supported the fundamentalists cause of national liberation. The Amencol has the line closest to MIM's. He evaluated the world around him, realized that the only way to liberation was by liberating one's entire nation from the clutches of oppression, (or supporting those working for liberation) and put idealist ideas into a real world context choosing to support the group whom he saw was getting closer to reaching that goal. However the play puts his ideas into the Christian context that humyns are evil to begin with so you better just learn to deal. While Khalid drops Christianity in order to not be called a hypocrite (so it's better to just be an outright, open mouthed supporter of oppression?!?), the Amencol just accepts being called a hypocrite?!? The big revelation comes when Carol drops her "hypocritical" veil by standing between and preaching about non-violence when Khalid and the Amencol's son are about to duel. It is true that such battles just serve the oppressor by killing off potential revolutionaries, but her reasoning was one of pure anti-violence, in any form. This ideology will not liberate the masses to the fullest extent. The imperialists have functioned and grown in power specifically through violence and will not give up that power without a fight. Only when the majority of the world's people are truly in power can any steps be taken toward ending all violence against the people since the people themselves will be making the decisions. Carol-type "liberation" only functions as a cover up of the true power struggles that exist behind any sort of violence or armed resistance. The revival of the "Christian Ideal" can be compared to a Cultural Revolution struggle, criticism of "Water Margin". In Water Margin, Sung Chiang is a member of the landlord class who worms his way into the ranks of the peasant uprising. He ultimately receives an offer of amnesty and enlistment form the imperial court which he quickly grabs up. This poem from the novel exposes Sung Chiang's line: I wish the Son of Heaven would soon issue an edict for our enlistment, Only then will I rest content. Sung Chiang would go against corrupt officials, but not the emperor, God's reign on earth. He, like Carol, was "carrying out the right way on behalf of Heaven" but still putting themselves at the service of oppressive ideologies. Even though Carol will fight the corruption of violence, she won't fight the system, mainly Christian ethic ideals of capitalism, that perpetuate violence. Coleman manages to uphold one of the most oppressive ideologies in the world, that of Christianity, which places all people into the basket of evil and leaves all matters of change and liberation in the hands of an unknown "god" and his chosen on earth. Rather than revert to an ancient ideology that is responsible for more murders and violence than any other, and also a clear basis for imperialist ideology, MIM looks to concrete gains and liberation struggles from history and today. If you really want a society without violence, work with MIM and RAIL in a revolutionary movement making real steps toward real-life liberation and power of the oppressed masses. * * * INVOLUNTARY COMMITMENTS BRING PSYCHIATRIC PROFITS After the Boston Globe exposed how psychiatrists ordered two "normal" people into institutions for the mentally ill, the Massachusetts state legislature considered taking action against psychiatry. In one case, police put a man face down on the ground and handcuffed him for remarks displeasing to one psychiatrist and in another case a self-avowed feminist went to an institution, because Massachusetts law grants such discretionary power to psychiatrists. Doing its occasional public service, the Boston Globe drew attention to the cases and the huge profit motive -- particularly in today's managed care environment -- for psychiatrists to seek reimbursement from government or insurance companies for provision of psychiatric "services." Even the state senate President said, "I'm always distressed to discover that financial incentives and profits lead to inappropriate decisions or even policies. I hate to think that any citizen's civil liberties are at risk because someone wants to show a dramatic return on the bottom line." The Governor has agreed to sign whatever law the legislature deems necessary to correct this problem. From MIM's point of view, the correction necessary is to remove the profit incentive from all professions. Already the public is aware that the profit incentive results in the sale of lethal weapons to warring countries and the sale of narcotics, pornography, manufactured goods that pollute the environment, cigarettes and the like. What this case proves is that other aspects of the economy are distorted by the profit incentive too. When a mode of production is antiquated, the economy goes into what we call its "decadent" phase. In this phase, we witness 911 calls botched in Boston while emergency service agencies fight over who will get the money for answering the call. Psychiatrists make huge profits for providing no useful services and differ from other professionals only in that they sit around all day dreaming up ways to make money while having the power to deprive a person of his or her liberties. When there was a Soviet Union, the U.$. propagandists used to brag how "this is a free country" while there is psychiatric confinement for political belief in the Soviet Union. In actuality, the United States has always used the mental institution to confine those with radical or feminist politics. For the past seven years, a simple bill to guarantee patients' rights has failed in Massachusetts and one former legislator admits that the original arbitrary laws were passed in order to reduce court loads. The bill that has failed seven years "would guarantee patients in private mental hospitals access to a telephone, the ability to send uncensored mail, reasonable visitation with family and friends, privacy while using the bathroom, and access to legal assistance." NOTE: Boston Globe. 21 May 1997, p. 1. * * * UNDER LOCK & KEY: NEWS FROM PRISONERS AND PRISONS A RETALIATORY KILLING At the current time we are locked down due to an inmate stabbing. Mysteriously an inmate who has recently brought a $200,000 lawsuit against this facility gets stabbed while everyone else is at breakfast and he's in his cell asleep and only the prisoncrats have access to rolling the bars open! Coincidence? I don't think so! -- an Indiana prisoner, 21 April 1997 SLAVE'S WAGES i would very much like to contribute to MIM but my slave salary ain't nothing. i only make $1.20 a day. After i get my necessities i am broke. -- a New Jersey Prisoner, 24 April 1997 RESISTANCE TO TORTURE TACTICS I would like to correspond with you to give you an insight into the mechanics of the prison system. I have several administrative documents, detailing the various methods used to punish, control or outright liquidate "rebellious" prisoners. I have been subjected to every form of corporal punishment conceivable: chemical agents (C587 "irritant dust/gas"), overnight shackling (hands and legs), anti-psychotic drugs, straight jackets, four-point beds, beatings with night sticks (always by more than one officer -- they never come alone), strip cells, etc. That I am still alive is a testament to the Divine Will. I fought with officers, alone, on the offensive and defensive, for 9 months straight before securing a transfer (this occurred at Wende Correctional Facility, a facility next to Attica). -- a New York Prisoner, 24 April 1997 THE PIGS JUST HAVEN'T GOTTEN CAUGHT YET Nothing major happens, only A LOT of little things. I find a lot of unprofessional events happen. Officers write bunk cases, we call them "Haters". I say their job description is not to come make us miserable. We are already being punished. The only difference between the men and women in this prison is the corrections officers (the men in gray) haven't gotten CAUGHT yet! Prison life is a real trip. Rules change every day, every shift. It's real confusing. -- a Texas prisoner, 10 April 1997 CHOO-CHOO The gravy-train never stops building prisons, hiring cops. Its boxcars filled both day and night with desperate men in endless fights. Silver bracelets, lock-up time, laser-printed budgets climb, El Reno builds new "mega-max" to shore-up Public Income Tax. So just act crazy, build up steam, you're working for The American Dream. -- a Florida prisoner, 24 February 1997 TEXAS DENIES ACTIVIST PRISONER MEDICATION To: the Honorable MIM ...I am being denied my heart medication, because of my legal activities in assisting other prisoners in filing their grievances, civil rights complaints and criminal appeals. Because I refuse to stop assisting other prisoners with legal matters, the Alfred D. Hughes Unit Medical Department is retaliating against me. And one of their retaliatory acts is to deny me my heart medication. The law has been well established that it is unconstitutional to harass and retaliate against any prisoner for his past or present legal activities, as in this case. But the Alfred D. Hughes Unit Medical Doctors and personnel have decided to put me to sleep. And their deliberate indifference with malicious intent to cause harm with disregard for life will work unless you print this letter. And even then it may be too late to help me. But if in my death I can stop other prisoners from experiencing this cruel and inhumane treatment, then my death will not be in vain!... Respectfully Submitted, -- a Texas prisoner, 7 March 1997 **Letters of Protest can be sent to: The Warden, Alfred D. Hughes Unit, Route 2, Box 4400, Gatesville, TX 76597.** TEXAS DEATH CAMPS I was shipped to death camp, French Robertson Unit. I do not call it Death Camp for no reason. In 1996 the guard shot one inmate in the field due to [the prisoncrat's] marital problems. Then they beat another to death. Two guards just got indicted in court for that. The Head Warden tried to cover their asses. As he did, other killings have happened on this unit. The Head Warden has not run this unit by humane standards. He has let the CO'zzz [correctional officers] run wild and all over [Texas Department of Criminal Justice] Policy. The Captains on this unit clearly stated to me when I got here, and put in isolation then solitary, that Federal nor State law apply on this unit. Many of my medical restrictions have been taken. My special brace and limb have been taken. I have been threatened if I keep speaking out to the people in the Free World, I would end up Dead as others have on this unit. My MIM Notes and my last letter sent to your office were not sent. I am keeping a record to file in Federal Court on the mail room as I did on the my last unit. In which the Mail Room Supervisor has been not only fired but blamed by TDCJ. The Head Lady of the mailroom has also been brought up on Federal charges. Much of my legal mail has not left this unit. When I get enough, I'll be in Federal Court and will press Federal Charges on the Head of the mailroom for mail tampering. [I'm] not saying the United Snakes is the way to go, we need a change. We are building in Texas for a new way. -- a Texas prisoner, 15 April 1997 STUDY GROUP MEMBERS FACE REPRESSION The library staff here is against MIM Notes, so there is no way to get MIM Notes into the library here. As for study groups, small groups have formed and we discuss MIM Notes and other materials. Yet staff is plotting against these groups and many have been threatened with tickets or transfers to a high security joint. I will try to encourage prisoners here to write about the threats and mis- treatment going on here, yet that task may not succeed and I may up in the hole. --A Michigan Prisoner, 15 April 1997 CALL TO STUDY AND UNITE FOR REVOLUTION Since my last letters, I have been in segregation. My oppressors have beaten me and others as a result of my Study Group. I've had the pigs beat me for refusing to relinquish my love for the tremendous struggle we face. I will sacrifice my life for what I believe and if my oppressor, Mr. Wayne Garner, thinks that revolutionary politics is a threat to security, planning/conspiring to participate a disturbance or strike then so be it. Comrades unite with your brothers and sisters. Stand strong nationwide. Struggle together in revolutionary change. Frustrations and disappointments will come, the battles will be many, sacrifice will be high, but my dear Comrades in the end the oppressive, repressive regime of Capitalism will fall. Comrades in prison continue your fight when you leave the walls. Start study groups outside as I have. Continue your study groups inside as well. Never let the oppressor get control and power over you or your study group by threats, intimidation, harassment, manipulation or humiliation. Let MIM be your heart. Stand Iron-clad and be willing to sacrifice. I call on everyone in the struggle with me to fight censorship of MIM and Unite. It will never be said my revolution was a pastime. Respectfully, In Struggle, -- a Georgia prisoner, 14 April 1997 FLORIDA PRISONER FIGHTS CENSORSHIP My grievances about MIM Notes being censored continue to fall on deaf ears. I've learned however, despite what the institution claims, it's not your paper, but the person who reviews it. Enclosed you'll find my attempts to resolve this problem. Funny how each level of grievance was answered by the same person. It took me three months of them doing nothing to finally realize how futile my lone fight with them really is. On the brighter note, your last mailing DID make it passed the censors! In Struggle, -- a Florida prisoner, 20 March 1997 MICHIGAN PRISONER FIGHTS CENSORSHIP Dear Friend: In response to your questions regarding my receiving the paper, I have not received any papers since my arrival at Lakeland Correctional Facility. This matter has been exhausted thru the Grievance procedure and was denied access to the paper, and it has been placed on the permanent restriction list. Enclosed you'll find a copy of a court Order [I] recently received. I sent a copy of all the documents pertaining to the rejection of MIM Notes and the telephone Rip-Off. So I have not been idle in what I consider a blatant disregard for First Amendment Rights under the guise of security. -- a Michigan prisoner, 8 April 1997 ***Letters of Protest can be sent to: Warden, Lakeland Correctional Facility, 141 First St., Coldwater, MI 49036 or Frank J. Kelly, Attorney General, Corrections Division, PO Box 30216, Lansing, MI 48909, (517) 335-7021*** ISOLATION AND OPPRESSION IN ILLINOIS Comrades, Revolutionary Greetings to one and all. My Brothers, here is an update on the situation at the Pontiac Correctional Center in Illinois. As of yesterday indigent inmates and people, like myself, who are short of monetary funds will no longer be able to write or mail letters to our families unless we have some kind of money in our trust fund. And as you already know, we have no phone usage either because of a new policy prohibiting the use of phone privileges by residents in C-grade. (Too bad we are all in C-Grade in Pontiac) Well here goes a new oppressive move by these prisoncrats. As on Jan. 1st, 1997, Pontiac Correctional Center (PCC) will be made into an All Segregation Facility. We will be denied contact visits, as a glass partition will be placed in the segregation visiting room. We also have a condemned unit visiting facility. Through the c/o [correctional officer] grapevine it has been heard that all our clothes (jeans, shirts, color-striped socks, and any other accessories) will be confiscated and we will be made to send it home. We will be given "state gear" (3 jumpsuits, 3 T- shirts, 3 pairs of underwear, 3 all white socks, 1 pair of boots) till we leave, this segregation facility. When we leave here we may again purchase our clothes at whatever facility we arrive at! This plan is going to be executed because of all the money they will be losing by turning PCC into a Seg-Facility (without the inmate organizations, phone calls and with a limited commissary, this facility will lose millions per year) And this plan is also being executed to anger the already oppressed into giving them more reason to request more money from the state to oppress us further because of assaults. They try to pull Brothers here into doing something that will hurt us and put money in the hands of these turn keys. (out of respect for the animal I will not refer to these assholes as pigs) As of now, their motives are plain to see. All we are to them is expendable.. In total Resistance, -- An Illinois Prisoner, 2 January 1997 MEGAN'S LAW UPDATE Dear MIM, Wanted to respond to your request for info on the fascist "registration laws," commonly known as "Megan's Laws." [This is a reference to an Under Lock & Key letter in the Sept. 1, 1996 issue of MIM Notes entitled, "Prisoner Receives Longer Sentence For Maintaining Innocence"] As of July 1996, every state in Amerika except Massachusetts required sex offenders to register their addresses with the police. In Maine, Vermont, Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, South Dakota, Kansas, Colorado, Idaho, and Arkansas the public can go to the police and learn about neighborhood offenders. Rhode Island, West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, Michigan, Wisconsin, Montana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, New Mexico, Wyoming and Hawaii have no notification provisions. In the remaining states police are required to notify community or designated groups about "dangerous" offenders. Federal kourts in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut have held that notifications in cases of those convicted prior to passage of each state's Megan Law is unconstitutional and have banned implementation of those provisions. They have allowed, however, police to compel them to register and pigs began arresting people for failing to register even in cases of those whose "crimes" occurred years before passage of the new law. The word "crime" is in quotes because "child sex abuse" has been so broadly defined to include everything from violent rape-murder to seeing your child naked. Virtually every citizen could be convicted of a sex offense, including grandmothers (who may possess the classic infant photo of us lying bars-assed on a bear rug) as child pornographers. Parents of offspring who 20 or more years later at the hands of "dys-psychotherapists" are convinced that all their current life problems stem from suddenly "remembered" abuse requiring hospitalization until their insurance runs out. Clergy (are targeted) for whom some ex-parochial school student figures s/he can hit up the church's deep pockets. An even more blatant abuse of pig power are the new civil commitment laws which will make it possible to keep sex offenders indefinitely, even for life, AFTER they have served out their criminal sentences! You can serve time for murder and not be subject to commitment or even registration. Is the message we should take from this that it's OK to go out and kill your pig oppressors but, but don't dare jerk them off. -- a Connecticut prisoner, 12 March 1997 P.S. Regarding the Pennsylvania Prisoner who wrote, he should be maxing out about now. He does not need to sign anything to be released. Pennsylvania however is in the Third Circuit with New Jersey, so he will have to register with his local pig department upon release or be subject to re-arrest. MIM ADDS: We agree that the word crime should be in quotes, but for slightly different reasons. We recognize that the Amerikkkan imperialists are the real criminals and do not think they are fit to judge the guilt or innocence of others. It is true also that so-called "criminal behavior" targets oppressed nationals with in this country. At the same time it is our goal to expose the myth that most rapists are black and strangers. The facts prove that most sexual abuse is done by family member and trusted adults, like clergy members. We oppose Megan's law because it perpetuates a myth that people don't know their sexual abusers and it criminalizes oppressed people. MIM does not think Megan's Law is a joking matter. Just because there isn't an equivalent law pertaining to murder, doesn't mean there may not be one being drafted up. The police and these laws are used to as social control to support the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie. MIM would not encourage anyone to murder the pig oppressors at this time in Amerikkka. ***Additional information about Megan's Law was printed in September 1, 1996 issue of MIM Notes.*** POLICE PERSUADE COMMUNITY TO RAT ON LEBANESE YOUTH by a comrade DEARBORN, MI -- Police here are notorious for patrolling the streets, harassing any Arab or Black youth they can find. Now, they're excited that people in east Dearborn are willing to help arrest and imprison more youth in their neighborhoods. "Arab neighbors generally have been reluctant to involve police in crimes involving members of their own community."(1) And there's good reason for this. The Dearborn cops have a long history of enforcing the white supremacist politics of Ford Motor Co. and the white nation chauvinists of west Dearborn. When kids of rich whites on the west side chase after and beat up Arab youth, pigs look the other way. But when Arab youth merely drive through the west side, they are pulled over and harassed. When the west side fathers teach the techniques of imperialist and labor aristocrat plundering of the wealth of the oppressed to their kids, it's lauded as the Amerikan dream. And when Arab youth are suspected of robbery, "there must be an arrest." The Dearborn cops are also virtually clueless about the cultures of the Lebanese, Caldean, Yemen and other Middle Eastern communities here and have no respect for the way that the communities themselves solve internal problems. Three Lebanese youth were captured by the cops recently -- allegedly for committing a string of robberies. This came after an official meeting where Dearborn city officials convinced some Arab 'leaders' to cooperate with the pigs. This aid to the cops opens up the Arab youth to increased harassment. The pigs said that there are another 17 Arab youth that they are looking for in connection to the robberies. No doubt stopping what the pigs call 'home invasions' will be a chance to increase the discrimination and harassment. And with a list of 17 youth this is virtually free license to pick up any Arab youth the pigs can find. Amerika's push for increased community involvement in policing will only result in more arrests and convictions of oppressed nationals and national minority youth. The community policing push urges people to aid the pigs rather than let the people themselves deal with the problems within their communities. The people know that problems of these youth are linked to the discrimination they face: receiving inferior education, being harassed by the cops, having their culture and language attacked and repressed. Only by overthrowing imperialism will it be possible to end the discrimination and harassment of national minorities. MIM fights for the overthrow of imperialism so that the people will be able to achieve real justice in dealing with problems among the people and problems with the capitalists and their lackeys. Those who are concerned about problems within the Arab communities should work with MIM to overthrow the main source of these problems, imperialism, rather than working with the pigs to increase the injustice and repression. NOTE: The Detroit News. 13 May 1997, p. 3C. ARM YOURSELF WITH KNOWLEDGE OF THE ENEMY The Monitoring Project of the National Campaign to Stop Control Unit Prisons has produced an interim report, The Use of Control Unit Prisons in the United States, which provides a great resource of information on these torture units. The report is organized by state with information on how many control units each state has, the conditions of confinement, placement criteria, exit criteria, location of the control units and contact information for both the DOC and monitoring activists when available. Anyone interested in finding out what is going on in their state, or interested in looking at the systematic use of control units across the U$ should get a copy of this report. The National Campaign to Stop Control Unit Prisons was formed in December of 1994. As they state in the introduction "We all understood that we were looking at a galloping and dangerous trend, but none of us knew its extent." The group is both an activist and monitoring organization. The introduction to the resource gives some important background on control units: "It is clear that the use of isolation has expanded considerably. It is equally clear that the behavior modification control unit experiment has resulted in the building of thousands and thousands of isolation/sensory deprivation cages in "Supermax" prisons. This report does not identify who is housed in these units, but our anecdotal information is revealing. Currently this form of isolation is clearly used for political prisoners and prisoner activists, and for jailhouse lawyers. We are also seeing a disproportionate number of the mentally ill, including young people whose emotional state has become critical as a result of this enforced desolation. Isolation is also frequently used for death row prisoners. Perhaps the fastest growing population to find themselves suddenly living in these control unit-model cells are the very young who have received extraordinarily long sentences. They are often charged with alleged "gang-related" activity. We have also had reports of one such unit in a juvenile facility, and another in a county jail. Clearly then, we are looking at a deliberate and concerted movement to force an increasing number of men and women prisoners to live in the most unnatural and unimaginable conditions." There are only five states in the country that do not appear to operate control units. (This is not certain because the classification methods used by various states made it very difficult for the activists to collect accurate information in many states). These five states are Georgia, Montana, Nebraska, North Carolina, and Vermont. MIM agrees with the National Campaign activists on the importance of fighting the repression of control units and a crucial part of this fight is having information on the enemy. To get involved in MIM and RAIL activism against the criminal injustice system contact your local distributor. To get a copy of this report or to participate in this monitoring project write to Bonnie Kerness at the American Friends Service Committee, 972 Broad Street, Newark, New Jersey 07102. ***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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