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 130 JANUARY 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. MIM LAUNCHES SERVE THE PEOPLE FOOD PROGRAM 2. AMERIKKKA SUBJECTS INTERNAL COLONIES TO MEDICAL EXPERIMENTS 3. LETTERS TO MIM 4. CULTURAL REVOLUTION SYMPOSIUM HELD IN NEW YORK 5. REMEMBER THE MENDIOLA MASSACRE VICTIMS AND CARRY ON THE FIGHT 6. MIM SALUTES CPP ON 28TH ANNIVERSARY 7. PHILIPPINES: US-RAMOS REGIME ARRESTS AND TORTURES BORJAL 8. CORRECTION 9. REPORT ON THE FINANCIAL STRUGGLE 10. RURAL INDIAN STRUGGLE AGAINST STATE-SPONSORED ALCOHOL 11. TELEVISION DOCUMENTARY PROVOKES MIM RESPONSE 12. S. CAL. POLICE MURDERS SPUR FAMILY LAWSUITS 13. FEDS AND COUNTY D.A. STALL MEXICAN BEATING CASE 14. ANAHEIM POLICE KILL MAN IN HIS CAR 15. BOEING MERGER MAKES IT LEADER IN WORLD DESTRUCTION 16. TWO AMERIKAN LIBRARIANS ATTEMPT TO CLOSE YOUNG MINDS 17. 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 * * * MIM LAUNCHES SERVE THE PEOPLE FOOD PROGRAM LOS ANGELES, 21 December 1996 -- The Maoist Internationalist Movement expanded its practice today by launching the Serve the People Food Program. Active MIM supporters went to a public place known for having a high concentration of homeless people and for being an open marketplace for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)- backed drug trade. There, the MIM supporters handed out peanut butter and jelly sandwiches along with fliers. One side of the flier handed out explains the Serve the People Food Program and its purpose. The other side contains MIM's 10-point program, which is available from MIM to anyone who sends a self-addressed stamped envelope. The recipients of the food were overwhelmingly members of the class known as the lumpenproletariat. This is a class which is made up of the permanently unemployed. Within U.S. borders, lumpenproletarians are disproportionately found in the Black, Latino, and First Nations, as well as among people of southeast Asian origin or descent. Unlike the proletariat, whose members have experience with working as part of a group at the point of production, the lumpenproletariat is characterized by individualist behavior, sometimes expressed as anti-social criminal behavior. Many of the food recipients made no secret of their drug habits. Individualism and addiction to CIA-supplied and other narcotics make the lumpenproletariat a difficult class to organize. The classes characterized by individualism, the lumpenproletariat and the petit-bourgeoisie, are as prone to recruitment by the right as by the left. The proletariat and its party need to work with the lumpenproletariat while struggling with lumpenproletarians to surpass the obstacles of individualism and addiction and transform themselves into proletarian internationalists who serve the people. Ultimately, the lumpenproletariat needs socialism more than any other class within U.S. borders (where there is no peasantry). But the proletariat is the class which not only has nothing to lose but its chains, but which is ready to organize to smash those chains. MIM does not believe that handing out a few sandwiches is enough. Ultimately, for the world's masses to receive proper food, housing, health care, clothing, and education, the people need socialism. And since the imperialists will not give up their power without a fight, this means that the oppressed will need to overthrow the imperialists through revolutionary armed struggle. Handing out small amounts of food is not enough, but propaganda work alone is not enough either. While the Clinton White House demonstrates its determination to deprive people of basic needs by slashing welfare (an act which Clinton calls "reform" of welfare), the vanguard needs to point the way forward towards a society whose basic goal is to meet human needs - - a socialist society -- and away from the current dog-eat-dog capitalist society whose basic goal is to make profits for a parasitic handful. Pointing the way forward includes theoretical work and newspaper work, but the building of public opinion does not end there. Comrades Huey Newton and Fred Hampton, leaders of the Maoist Black Panther Party (BPP), correctly pointed out that the masses principally learn through observation and participation. That's why MIM has launched a free food program. MIM's central task at this time is to build public opinion and independent people's institutions in order to prepare the oppressed and their allies for anti-imperialist revolution. The Serve the People Food Program is an independent people's institution, and a key part of its work is to build public opinion for anti-imperialist revolution. When we say that it is an independent institution, we mean that it is not dependent on such enemies of the people as the U.S. Congress. It relies on the people for its support. Participation in the form of food, money, and labor is necessary and welcome. The new program is largely inspired by the work of the BPP from 1966 to 1970. The BPP used the issue of hunger in Amerika to demonstrate both the need for socialism and the meaning of socialism. The BPP's Serve the People Programs, including the Free Breakfast for Children Program, were independent institutions of the oppressed. The BPP's Serve the People programs were successful in building the independent power of the oppressed and in building public opinion for anti-imperialist revolution. This is why these programs earned the wrath of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The Serve the People Food Program launched by MIM is not the first MIM-led Serve the People program. MIM leads Serve the People programs with lower visibility, such as the Free Literature for Prisoners Program and numerous types of political education work. All of MIM's media outlets -- MIM Notes, MIM Theory, Notas Rojas, Maoist Sojourner, pamphlets, fliers, posters, talks and video showings -- are independent institutions of the oppressed. But this is not enough. MIM seeks to constantly expand its practice to new levels. The oppressed need independent institutions to provide food, clothing, shelter, health care, education, justice and peace for the oppressed nations. If you agree, what are you waiting for? Work with MIM to continue the Black Panther Party's Maoist legacy of free food programs. With your help, we can work with the masses to create independent institutions which can lay the basis for the greatest independent institution of all -- a self-reliant socialist government. * * * **The following is the text of one side of the flier that MIM supporters handed out with sandwiches. The other side contains MIM's 10-point program, available from MIM to anyone who sends a self-addressed stamped envelope.** THIS FOOD BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE SERVE THE PEOPLE FOOD PROGRAM "In short, all the practical problems in the masses' everyday life should claim our attention. If we attend to these problems, solve them and satisfy the needs of the masses, we shall really become organizers of the well-being of the masses, and they will truly rally around us and give us their warm support. Comrades, will we then be able to arouse them to take part in the revolutionary war? Yes, indeed we will." -- Chairperson Mao Zedong, 1934 "Our Breakfast for Children program is feeding a lot of children and the people understand our Breakfast for Children program. We sayin' something like this -- we saying that theory's cool, but theory with no practice ain't shit. You got to have both of them -- the two go together. We have a theory about feeding kids free. What'd we do? We put it into practice. That's how people learn....What are we doing? The Breakfast for Children program. We are running it in a socialistic manner. People came and took our program, saw it in a socialistic fashion not even knowing it was socialism. People are gonna take our program and tell us to go on to a higher level. They gonna take that program and work it in a socialistic manner. What'd the pig say? He say, 'Nigger -- you like communism?' 'No sir, I'm scared of it.' 'You like the breakfast for children program?' 'Yes sir, I'd die for it.' Pig said, 'Nigger, that program is a socialistic program.' 'I don't give a fuck if it's Communism. You put your hands on that program, motherfucker, and I'll blow your motherfucking brains out.' And he knew it. We been educating him, not by reading matter, but through observation and participation. By letting him come in and work our program. Not theory and theory alone, but theory and practice. The two go together. We not only thought about the Marxist- Leninist theory -- we put it into practice. This is what the Black Panther Party is all about." -- Chairperson Fred Hampton, 1969 The Serve the People Food Program was established in December 1996 by the Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM), a revolutionary communist party in the tradition of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin, and Mao. MIM's central task at this time is to build public opinion and independent people's institutions in order to prepare the oppressed and their allies for anti-imperialist revolution. The Serve the People Food Program is an independent people's institution. It relies on the people for its support. Your participation in the form of food, money, and labor is necessary and welcome. For more information, contact: Maoist Internationalist Movement P.O. Box 29670 Los Angeles, CA 90029-0670 * * * AMERIKKKA SUBJECTS INTERNAL COLONIES TO MEDICAL EXPERIMENTS by a comrade From 1932 until the 1970s secret tests were conducted on Blacks in Tuskegee, Alambama. The U.S. Public Health Service signed up 400 illiterate black men to research the effects of untreated syphilis. The agency told the Black nationals that they were being treated. Instead, the agency withheld treatment as it studied the progression of the disease for the next 40 years.(1) During the Cold War, the Amerikan government secretly exposed civilians to radiation to determine the effects of nuclear war. A recent analysis of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reports by The Plain Dealer of Cleveland has shown that medical tests without consent are still common.(2) Since 1977, the FDA has conducted 4,154 routine inspections of researchers testing new drugs on people. Of the researchers inspected, 53 percent did not clearly disclose the experimental nature of the work. In 46 of the federal and pharmaceutical company-sponsored drug trials which used at least 1,000 people, no consent was given by the people. The remainder of the cited problems included misleading information given to subjects about the experimental nature of the treatment and its side effects. While MIM does not have the entire data from the FDA, these examples add to the list of ways the white nation has used its political, economic and military power to force members of oppressed nations to be used as guinea pigs. The white nation has changed its tune to concede that oppressed nations are biologically the same as whites. In part, this serves the white nation's need to have human guinea pigs to test drugs which will be available only for members of oppressor nations and the bourgeoisie. The white nation's material interests lie in ensuring the advance of medical care and technology for use by its own parasites. The interest of the proletariat lies in building its own independent medical institutions which will benefit the broad masses of people and will not use other humans as experimental subjects in the process. The recent articles in the Plain Dealer and the Springfield Union News cite a couple examples outside of the United Snakes. These examples are also of oppressed nationals being experimented on. Vaccines distributed increased death in Haiti and the former "British, French and Portuguese colonies near Cape Verde." The resources also discuss hepatitis vaccine testing on Lakota reservations and a measles vaccine targeting East Los Angeles, West Los Angeles and Inglewood, California. To avoid fanning the oppressed masses distrust of the white nation, the so-called consent forms often fail to explain the real purpose of the research (or that it is even research). In the Lakota nation in 1991 Sacheen White Tail came home with a note from her teacher - an invitation almost too good to pass up. If her mother approved, Sacheen was eligible to receive a free hepatitis vaccination allegedly providing her with lifelong immunity. Hundreds of parents in the Standing Rock Sioux nation got the letter from the "Hepatitis A Vaccine Prevention Program" and the offer of an expensive mousse hair gel if their child participated. What they weren't told, however, was that this drug was not approved by the FDA and was in fact a test for a British drug company to determine it's safety. The true experimental purpose was not disclosed. The words 'experimental' and 'research' were also conveniently omitted in the letter to the parents. The Amerikan legal system - which threw out the parents' lawsuit in 1993 because the drug trials had ended - expressed "grave doubts about the government's conduct" and said "that the government failed to give parents an adequate basis for informed consent." This slap on the wrist means nothing to the children who were used in the testing. The courts can make such a criticism, deny retribution for using humans as lab rats, and wash their hands of the process. It is no surprise that the government continues its legacy of over 500 years to disregard the lives of Indigenous peoples. The advances gained provide a higher living standard for the white nation and the washing of hands fulfills the government's responsibility to look politically correct as it continues tactics of genocide. In Los Angeles in 1990, parents were asked to sign forms "that mentioned something about a 'project' in which 'public health policy-makers' wanted to 'determine the best measles vaccine strain,' and 'the best schedule for age of measles vaccination.'" While the parents were told by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) that the "E-Z vaccine" might protect their children earlier against measles, they weren't told the real reason the vaccine was being tested. One FDA official warned the CDC that "because unpublished data suggested effects on babies' immune systems, and 'since the use of the E-Z measles vaccine is unlicensed in the United States and therefore considered experiment ... it seems imperative that there be a strong warning on the consent form ... that their infants may not be protected.'" No such warning was included. Months before these drug trials started, the truth about this vaccine began to come out. In former British, French and Portuguese colonies near Cape Verde, researchers learned that the vaccine increased overall death rates for young children. The LA tests proceeded allegedly because they thought that children in the healthier Amerika would not be affected. This ignores the fact that health care is not equally distributed within the United Snakes and that health care for Blacks and Latinos is often at Third World levels. Eventually, the drug trials were stopped when more test data came back from Haiti. Common problems found by the FDA in their routine inspections of drug trials has also included falsified data and inadequate or inaccurate records. Despite so many tests containing serious problems, the researchers and their funders are protected. The existence of a clinical trial involving an investigational drug and the identity of the sponsor is confidential information. The names of researchers, too, are closely held. Neglecting to fully inform test subjects and failing to disclose deaths or injuries may bring a letter from the FDA, but that is about it. While an official letter of criticism from the FDA might be a blow to the career of one medical researcher, it does not stop the long and continuing history of testing members of oppressed nations and the poor to benefit the oppressor nations. Small mistakes that lead to accidental deaths by the lower classes can result in murder or "involuntary manslaughter" charges being filed, and can earn jail time. But researchers making many a hundred thousand dollars a year can committed premeditated mass murder or extreme negligence and in exchange the FDA will make it more difficult for them to get federal funding in the future! With the government responsible for ensuring food and medical safety, finding that over half of all clinical drug testing have consent problems, and discovering that many other include deliberate errors that reduce their scientific value, you might expect an uproar. But as the test subjects are disproportionately of the oppressed nations, they are considered expendable in the view of the white nation. NOTES: 1. The Los Angeles Times, 22 October 1996. p. A14: 2. Springfield Union-News, 18 December 1996. pp. A1 & B7. * * * LETTERS TO MIM MIM SLANDERS WORKER'S WORLD PARTY? Dear MIM Notes, The defense minister of the organization to which I belong, Panthers United for Revolutionary Education (PURE), subscribes to MIM Notes, so I enjoy the privilege of reading it whenever it passes censorship. As the prison administration is morbidly averse to any and everything anti- establishment. I, on the other hand, subscribe to the WORKERS WORLD newspaper; supported their candidates for president and vice president; and for this reason beg to differ with MIM's position that "none of the parties today that run candidates are Socialist."(MIM Notes, 1 September 1996) Such an accusation, in my opinion, comes dangerously close to malicious slander. Especially in light of the incongruous and ludicrous distortion of the candidates' physical features by your cartoonist, that were ran parallel with and suggesting a likeness to Ralph Nader. I respect MIM's decision to not run or endorse a candidate at this time. We disagree in strategy, not objective. And this alone is not ground enough to impeach another's sincerity and socialist convictions. More than anything, in my view, it reflects a certain political immaturity, as revolutionaries over the years, and from every corner of the globe, have sought to teach us the critical importance of working through our strategic differences and other differences upon which the capitalists depend to stave off revolution. This is the First Rule. And MIM's attack of the WORKERS WORLD PARTY is a clear violation of this First Rule against division. We like MIM Notes because it carries many articles of interest to prisoners. But in spite of your extensive coverage, MIM seems to be unaware that the presidential elections every four years are by far the most talked about single subject amongst prisoners. So, had not Monica and Gloria run - they even made America's prisons and death rows a part of their campaign itinerary - many prisoners on Texas Death row wouldn't have been seriously discussing alternative politics and religiously reading the WORKERS WORLD, and books by or about Marx and Lenin. For us and our families and friends, the WORKERS WORLD candidates didn't send the message that electoralism can eliminate imperialism, and that the imperialists will leave power peacefully. No! to the contrary, Monica and Gloria highlighted the lies, corruption, and class interest of the imperialists. If we felt that Monica and Gloria were running merely in hope of influencing the imperialists by showing them the support a "Socialist" organization can gain, PURE would not have endorse them. But we never read or heard anything about the candidates seeking to negotiate any deals with Clinton, Buchanan, Nader or any of those bandits. They antagonized them at every opportunity. And to imply that they were attempting to pull off a Jesse Jackson move (Stealing voters away from the Democrats, then selling them back for a concession) insults our intelligence. The lowest point came when you wrote in reference to the WORKERS WORLD PARTY, "No where in their campaign materials does the WWP call for armed revolution," suggesting that they party is a bunch of Gandhi disciples rather than Marxist-Leninist revolutionaries. The time that I have spent dignifying your slander I could have used trying to get some help for Daryl Wheatfall, a death row prisoner who's in solitary confinement, and facing new charges (attempted capital murder) for stabbing a prison guard. He was in fear of his life when he committed this desperate act. And is perhaps more terrified now than when he was when he acted out of fear and panic, being that he's in solitary confinement, separated from the rest of death row. And has been beaten at least twice that we know of. PURE, our families, friends and supporters, the WORKERS WORLD PARTY, and the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty are doing all that we can for him. Should you wish to contact him to offer your support, his name and address is: Daryl Wheatfall #999020, Ellis Unit, Huntsville, Texas 77343. Sincerely, Prime Minister PURE MIM RESPONDS: MIM will address two separate issues in this letter. The first is the Marxist-Leninist credentials of Worker's World Party, and related to that, the writer's proposal that MIM refrain from criticizing Worker's World in favor of "socialist" unity against capitalism. The second is the strategy of running candidates for office to raise any kind of socialist political consciousness -- and MIM's differing strategy of denouncing the electoral system altogether in our "Don't Vote" campaign. MIM does not base our assessment of Worker's World as "not socialist" on the fact that they ran candidates for president and vice-president alone. Rather, we look at Worker's World's liquidation of national oppression in favor of a false unity between the white nation labor aristocracy and the Black, Latino and First Nations. We also look at WW's demand for a $10/hour minimum wage for Amerikan workers as a threat to the international proletariat -- as increased wealth in the First World can only come about through the increased super-exploitation of Third World workers. So in our objectives as well as our strategy, MIM disagrees with Worker's World. We do not serve the oppressed by covering up these differences with Worker's World or any other cheerleader for the reactionary labor aristocracy. For an in depth review of WW's political economy, see MIM Theory 10, "Coming to Grips with the Labor Aristocracy," available for $6 from MIM. On the general strategy of running candidates in the United $tates to raise political consciousness -- MIM disagrees with this use of resources and the message it sends. MIM is well aware of the prominence of presidential campaigns to political discussion among prisoners and on the outside, and we seized every opportunity to explain why voting is a dead-end under imperialism, and why the oppressed should, and do, choose revolution instead. We carried out an extensive campaign to build revolution instead of legitimizing the elections and choose to send out a correct analysis of imperialist elections instead of throwing the resources of the masses away. MIM has been running a free books for prisoners program for years, providing Marxist-Leninist-Maoist and progressive literature to prisoner study groups. Building independent institutions among the oppressed is a superior practice to wasting the people's resources fighting electoral battles which are not winnable and that inevitably send out the message that under imperialism there is something legitimate worth winning - a greater share of Third World superprofits. MIM says, choose revolutionary internationalism instead and DON'T VOTE. * * * CULTURAL REVOLUTION SYMPOSIUM HELD IN NEW YORK On December 14 and 15 the 30th Anniversary Symposium on China's Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution(GPCR) was held in New York City. Presentations were made predominately by academics. William Hinton, author of many books MIM distributes, delivered a keynote address. The symposium was organized by the China Study Group and co-sponsored by Monthly Review Press and the Economics Students Union of the New School. The event brought together a number of interesting people to celebrate the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. Some aspects of the universals of Maoism in general and the Cultural Revolution in particular are not settled in the International Communist Movement, and so MIM had hoped for sharp debate on some of these points of contention such as the role of the so-called "Gang of Four". While the event did bring out some different lines on the GPCR, it was not organized to bring about much in-depth direct struggle between panelists or those present. These structural impediments, and the inclusion of some panelists hostile to the GPCR and Mao's leadership in China made building broad- based unity on the fundamentals of Maoism impossible. MIM learned about this event too late to submit a paper and participate on a panel, but has already dedicated a chapter of an upcoming issue of MIM Theory to the Cultural Revolution. As always, contributions and challenges are welcome and encouraged. GPCR FURTHEST ADVANCE TOWARDS COMMUNISM Several panel members and William Hinton defended the Cultural Revolution as the farthest historical step taken towards Communism anywhere in the world. Other panelists credited the GPCR and the all-out attack it led against modern revisionism with the upsurge in national liberation movements around the world. A professor from Marygrove College credited the Chinese Communist Party and the GPCR with inspiring the formation of Marxist Leninist parties in many countries around the world. Another speaker credited the GPCR and the Chinese battle against revisionism with the formation of the Black Panther Party; and credited the Panthers with spreading Mao and the GPCR to the rest of the u.s. movement. MIM has credited the GPCR (in MIM Theory 7) with the internal and external advances made by the Young Lords Party/Puerto Rican Revolutionary Workers Party-- who learned of Maoism from the BPP. A member of the feminist organization Redstockings credited Mao and the Cultural Revolution with promoting self-reliance as a principle, as well as providing the theoretical tools to advance their movement forward. On Sunday, December 15, a panel was held entitled "Critique of the Mainstream Consensus Verdict on the Cultural Revolution" and was moderated by Harry Magdoff of Monthly Review. Maurice Meisner, author of Mao's China and After, took an anti-GPCR line on this panel. Meisner, who said on National Public Radio in November that he didn't think China was ever socialist, ended his talk by saying "to compare [the Cultural Revolution] to the Holocaust would trivialize the Holocaust." Appropriately, the next panelist was a professor from Tasmania who attacked Meisner's charges of Holocaust and discussed the real advances in the Cultural Revolution. Not just a battle against revisionism, the Cultural Revolution unleashed the power of the people and increased production. He also discussed how education was aided by the Cultural Revolution. He argued for a consistent and non-opportunist use of statistics. Students of China should accept or reject government statistics, not pick and choose their use by how well an argument they make. This professor discussed the 16 point Circular which was issued at the start of the Cultural Revolution. The Cultural Revolution was explicitly supposed to be nonviolent, and he put the blame for the violence that did occur were it belonged: on the enemies of the revolution. Other panelists spoke about being supporters of the Chinese people in the 1970s and their visits to China. Now they disavow much of their support and claim to have been misled. These metaphysicians, like an anti-Mao student who challenged MIM, ignore the huge advances made by the Chinese people under the leadership of Mao and the Chinese Communist Party. They don't want to compare the Chinese Communist Party to the Kuomintang, but to utopia. The academics complain in 1996 that twenty or thirty years ago on their visits, they were only shown the good side of China. These academics want to blame socialism in China for not being utopia - which the Maoists never claimed it was - because they were so naive or stupid as to assume that China in the 1970s really was utopia devoid of any errors or shortcomings not yet overcome. This is similar to the metaphysics of Meisner, who blames non-Maoists for "much of the violence" in the GPCR, but still manages to criticize the GPCR as a whole. He does this because, despite the thin veneer of support he wears as a China scholar, he opposes the Chinese revolution and the struggle of the world's majority - which is a majority of peasants and proletarians in the Third World - for control over their own lives, for socialism. During this panel, a statement was read from Jose Maria Sison, founding chairperson of the Communist Party of the Philippines, entitled "GPCR's Impact on the Philippines and Continuing Global Significance". Sison's statement was sent in response to an invitation by the organizers to present a paper. The Filipino activist reading the statement was rudely told to keep it "short" before he began, and was prevented from reading the entire statement by an impatient Magdoff. There are enough reactionaries in the world promoting lies about the GPR, to serve the oppressed people of the world, a conference about the GPCR should exclude people openly hostile to the GPCR and give priority to activists who struggle to uphold the GPCR and apply it to their practice over academics who just talk about the GPCR. GPCR LEGACY EXISTS IN CHINA The final panel discussed whether the GPCR has a legacy in China today. The first panelist made a long presentation based on the incorrect premise that China was still socialist, despite the importation of "market forces." A woman from the Zigen Fund spoke about the decline in education for girls. (The Zigen Fund is a small NGO that gives material aid to Chinese villages.) Peasants make about $20 a year, and tuition costs $15 a year. The peasants are willing to borrow money to send the boys to school, but not the girls. This presenter reported that the famous "barefoot doctors" -- peasants trained as medical workers which greatly expanded the reach of medicine in rural China during the GPCR - are no more. The high point of the symposium was a young Chinese student who spoke on the final panel. He had been a supporter of capitalism and a participant in the 1989 democracy struggle, or as he called it, the 1989 revolution. He stated that after being arrested, he dropped bourgeois ideology, picked up Marxism and dedicated himself to bring about socialist revolution in China. When he said this, the audience broke out into very loud spontaneous applause. He later added that his recognition that democracy was impossible under capitalism spurred his decision. This student came to realize that capitalist development was not sustainable in a country like China. He recognized that the China could not become another south Korea or "a fifth tiger" due to the specifics of the Chinese situation. This student made it clear that China was already a capitalist country, and strongly criticized the first panelist. As MIM explained in MIM Theory 4, south Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore - the four tigers - were able to successfully develop under capitalism. The imperialists and big bourgeoisie in these countries took the unique opportunity created by the end of World War II to smash their own landlords. This helped prevent communist revolution and freed the big bourgeoisie from having to defend the landlords from the peasant majority. These historically rare bourgeois-led land reforms propelled their economies forward compared to other Third World countries. The student cited the increase in contradictions between the rural and urban areas, as well as the growth of income inequality compared to the United Snakes as impetus for another Chinese revolution. Despite the fact that the Chinese economy may continue to grow for another 10-15 years, he predicted stagnation and eventually he declared "The Chinese people will rise up!" READ UP ON THE GREAT PROLETARIAN CULTURAL REVOLUTION! Recommended reading: Jose Maria Sison's contribution to this conference, "GPCR's Impact on the Philippines and Continuing Global Significance", is available online at http://www.geocities.com/~cpp-ndf/intl7.htm For the symposium, the China Study Group has published Manufacturing History: Sex, Lies and Random House's Memoirs of Mao's Physician. The book takes on the outright lies and slanders against Mao in "The Private Life of Chairman Mao", Dr. Li Zhisui who was supposedly Mao's personal physician for 22 years with unimpeded access and a close confidant of Chairperson Mao. Part two of the book reprints documents from individuals who had contact with Mao and Li, during the events discussed in the book or who were quoted as corroborating sources. These documents explain the Memoirs would be better called Fantasies. The book is 203 pages and available from MIM for $10. Capitalist Roaders are Still on the Capitalist Road by the Colorado Study Group is an excellent theoretical treatment of capitalist counterrevolution in China within months of its occurrence. This book, an analysis of official Chinese Communist Party publications during and after the Cultural Revolution, takes on the lies of Hua Kuofeng that the "Gang of Four" were ultra- rightist capitalist-roaders. (Yes! Hua Kuofeng who led the coup against the "Gang of Four", attempted for a time to co-opt the legacy of the GPCR, by calling the "Gang of Four" rightists, not ultra- leftists as is popular -- but incorrect -- today.) In theoretical overviews, and with a focus on education, literature and art, healthcare, industry and agriculture the book shows that the Gang of Four upheld what was then called Mao Zedong Thought; and that the line of Hua Kuofeng was the same revisionist line that had been attacked throughout the GPCR. 111 pages. $10 from MIM. * * * REMEMBER THE MENDIOLA MASSACRE VICTIMS AND CARRY ON THE FIGHT 22 January, 1997 marks the ten-year anniversary of the Mendiola Massacre, when the Philippines Marine Corps murdered farm workers and peasants agitating for genuine land reform in the Philippines. Every year, family members, activists and supporters commemorate the deaths of the people who were killed by the military of then-Secretary of National Defense Ramos under the government of then-president Corazon Aquino. Ten years after the massacre, and having offered no relief to the Mendiola survivors or the victims' families, Ramos has moved up to the presidency of the Philippines and is continuing his reign of violence against the people. As one victim's relative said: "how can we expect justice when the perpetrators are now occupying high government positions? Not only were they not punished, they were even promoted."(1) In Amerika, President Klinton portrays the Ramos dictatorship as a friendly and democratic regime- building up the Philippines as an emerging Asian tiger. But behind the mask of bourgeois democracy, the u.s.-Ramos regime with u.s.-backing has repressed his own people to provide the United Snakes and other imperialists with access to superprofit extraction. MIM supports the Mendiola victims' families' continuing struggle for indemnification, and seizes on this commemoration to build public opinion against the U.S.-Ramos regime's repressive tactics and denial of just agrarian reform in the Philippines. FASCISM WITH A FRIENDLY MASK Commemorating the 1996 anniversary, a speaker for the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (Peasant Movement of the Philippines--KMP) said, "the only difference [between the permanent martial law which Ramos inherited from his two predecessors and the current situation] is that the Ramos government has developed a cunning and subtle way to violate the rights of the people and get away with it by leveling it in the name of peace and development." Ramos has had plenty of time and all the right connections to learn how a comprador can use fascism to imperialism's best advantage. Ramos knows that his cousin and late Filipino dictator Ferdinand Marcos needed martial law to allow the comprador bourgeoisie to exploit the masses. He has also seen how overt martial law inspires mass protest, and he knows u.s. imperialism would prefer to see a democratic facade rather than open draconian repression in its colony. The anti- terrorist act as well as recent attacks against Filipino activists show that Ramos is conducting martial law with a makeover.(2) FASCISTS SLAUGHTER MASSES IN 1987 22 January 1987, 500 heavily armed Philippines Marines fired at peasants from Central Luzon and Southern Tagalog. Organized by the KMP, 30,000 peasants were marching to the Malacanang Palace to seek an audience with then President Aquino. Prior to the march, the peasants had camped out at the gates of the Department of Agrarian Reforms(DAR) to pressure Aquino to implement the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) - which she promised in her presidential campaign. Before the peasants could reach the Palace, the Marines killed 13 peasants, wounded 105 and arrested 15.(3) As fascists attempting to cover their tracks often do, Aquino ordered the Commission on Human Rights(CHR) to investigate the massacre. The investigating committee was abolished even before it identified the murderers.(3) It is no surprise that Aquino did not push for indictment of members of the military, Aquino was a puppet of the military -- she staggered around catering to the demands of the military so it would allow her to retain her figurehead position. Making an order for investigation merely bought the GRP time in their battle to disguise the contradictions within Filipino society. In 1988, the murdered and wounded peasants' families filed a lawsuit for reparations of 250,000 pesos for the family of each murdered victim, and P50,000 for each person wounded in the massacre. This plea was rejected, but each family did receive P25,000 -- roughly $1,000 to cover up the military's murderousness. MILITARY MASSACRES CONTINUE; MASSES STRUGGLE FOR JUSTICE Shortly after the Mendiola Massacre, on 10 February, 1987, the 15th Infantry Battalion slaughtered 17 civilians, including elderly and small children in Lupao, Nueva Ecija. The Manila Chronicle defended the 15th Infantry by blaming the NPA for the slaughter. The newspaper claimed the slaughter only took place after the battalion had lost a soldier to an encounter with the NPA. Aside from the moral bankruptcy of murdering civilians to strike at the New People's Army, this explanation is not confirmed. The fascists often dream up encounters with the NPA so they can blame the revolutionaries for their own murderous actions. In 1989, 24 soldiers involved in the Lupao brutality were acquitted for a supposed lack of evidence.(4) One woman who had lost her mother, father, two brothers and two sisters in the massacre said that the NPA is not the force which brings terror to her area. "To her, the military is the villain because 'they killed my family'."(4) On 22 March, 1994, the families of the massacre victims formed the Kilusang Enero Beinte Dos (January 22nd Movement--KE22). KE22 also includes families of other massacre victims -- families of those killed in Lupao, and at Santa Maria in Bulacan on 13 December, 1991 (another instance of brutality against the people for which the government blames the NPA). KE22 gathers documents on murder cases involving the military. (1) The organization also organizes resources for the victims' families who are struggling to eke out a living. FASCIST MURDERERS AND BIG LANDLORDS COMBINE TO HALT LAND REFORM The day before the Mendiola Massacre Aquino said in a speech, "No one can take away the lands you till- this is clear in the Charter." Her rhetoric was exposed as hypocrisy the following day. Additionally, as of 1996, only 19% of the land targeted for distribution had been given out and tenancy remains in at least 35% of all farms in the country (5) Unfulfilled promises of land reform combine with imperialist agreements, the latest versions of which are the new GATT, Structural Adjustment, APEC and Philippines 2000. Philippines 2000 export orientation forces farmers to convert traditional rice and corn farmland to farm things like asparagus and flowers to export to the First World. Farms producing for export receive government support while rice producing lands are crushed out of business because of competition with subsidized First World farmers. Big landowners can exempt their land from CARP- mandated redistribution by converting their farmland to residential or industrial land. In 1994, 2,428 big landowners applied for land conversion and only 4% of the applications were rejected.(5) Big landlords also use congress-approved exemptions to avoid the CARP implementation. Republic Act 1778, passed by the landlord-dominated congress, exempts fishponds, prawn farms and livestock and poultry farms from CARP implementation and defers CARP implementation in commercial farms for another 10 years. As of September 1995, 56,220 hectares of commercial farms were approved for deferment and 27,732 hectares were exempted.(5) Work with MIM and RAIL to increase propaganda work against the U.S.-Ramos regime. Get in touch with us through one of the addresses on page 2 or our webpage for information about January 22 rallies and other events in support of the just struggles of the Filipino people. NOTES: 1. Manila Times 22 January 1995 p.A2. 2. December 1996 Maoist Sojourner and MIM Notes 127, 128, and 129. 3. Today, 22 January 1995. 4. Manila Chronicle, 12 February 1996. 5. IBON Features, 22 January 1996. * * * MIM SALUTES CPP ON 28TH ANNIVERSARY 26 December 1996 The Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM), a revolutionary communist party based in North America, enthusiastically salutes the arrival of 26 December. This is the anniversary of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), and, not coincidentally, is the birthday of comrade Mao Zedong as well. When the CPP was reestablished in 1968, it correctly upheld the communist legacy of comrades Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin, and Mao. A few months after its reestablishment, the CPP formed the New People's Army and launched the protracted people's war against imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism. In 1992, following a period of "left" and right deviations, the CPP launched a movement to reaffirm its basic principles, rectify its errors, and recover lost ground. Since 1992, the CPP has correctly put renewed emphasis on the decisiveness of ideological and political line generally, and on the importance of studying and applying the line of comrades Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin and Mao in particular. The rectification movement's launching in 1992 and its successes up to the present are among the most important events in the world in the last two decades. Marx taught us to scientifically analyze the world in order to change it. Lenin taught us to organize a leading, conscious force and an armed, fighting force for the seizure of power, stage by stage. Mao taught us to mobilize the masses to struggle against the restoration of capitalism by those phony communists who wave the red flag in order to defeat the red flag. The CPP, through its scientific analysis, its leadership of the protracted people's war, and its struggle against the revisionists who sought to subvert the CPP's work from within, demonstrates the continued relevance of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism as a tool for liberating the oppressed. MIM wishes continued success to the CPP and the national democratic revolution it leads. MIM contributes to this success in the best way it can -- by preparing the masses of North America to make anti-imperialist revolution. LONG LIVE THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF THE PHILIPPINES! VICTORY TO THE FILIPINO PEOPLE'S WAR! LONG LIVE MARXISM-LENINISM-MAOISM! * * * PHILIPPINES: US-RAMOS REGIME ARRESTS AND TORTURES BORJAL by MC53 November 21, Ramos' military goons abducted Danilo Borjal, a National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) Consultant. The arrest and subsequent torture are direct violations of the agreements made in the peace negotiations between the GRP and the NDFP. The US-Ramos regime has completely disregarded the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) which protects participants in peace negotiations from surveillance and guarantees their free and unhindered passage. "In the face of the GRP's prior and repeated violation of the JASIG, the NDFP is considering the termination of the JASIG and its peace negotiations with the GRP."(1) "The NDFP is postponing indefinitely the scheduled meeting of its Reciprocal Working Committee on Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law with its counterpart, unless it is satisfied with the GRP's compliance with the JASIG in the cases of Danilo Borjal, Sotero Llamas and Raymundo Jarque."(5) The NDFP, led by the Communist Party of the Philippines, is engaged in a righteous revolutionary struggle for national liberation and socialism. This newest violation shows that the GRP is not sincere in its agreement to the JASIG. This is further proof that the current government does not work in the interests of the masses and that only a protracted people's war led by the proletariat in alliance with the peasantry can liberate the masses of the Philippines from imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism. MIM exposes this hypocrisy as we organize revolutionary opposition against Amerikan imperialism which supports the Ramos regime to fulfill its agenda of superprofit extraction from the labor of the Filipino masses to perpetuate Amerikan parasitism. The JASIG guarantees immunity from surveillance, harassment, search, arrest, detention, prosecution and interrogation or other similar punitive actions due to involvement or participation in the peace negotiations. Borjal was en route to talks with other NDFP consultants when abducted by men in civilian clothes and taken to a military camp for subsequent days of interrogation and torture.(3) After Borjal was arrested, GRP military agents threatened him with electric shock treatment and extrajudicial execution and repeatedly strangled and beat him as they held Borjal incommunicado for four days.(2) One military agent said to Borjal: "Do you think just because you are a consultant of the NDF or member of the Central Committee (of the Communist Party of the Philippines), we won't torture or kill you? If you don't cooperate, you and your wife will just turn up dead." Borjal was continuously hit in the chest and strangled with controlled but painful force every time he did not answer questions.(3) The GRP planted and fabricated evidence and filed a the criminal charge of illegal possession of firearms and ammunition against Borjal as a further attack against the NDFP and in violation of the JASIG.(2) The .45 caliber firearm and ammunition were planted by GRP military agents, as they done in scores of other instances.(1) "Planting guns and other evidence on 'subversives' is standard military and police practice," admitted Ramos' justice secretary, Franklin Drilon.(3) This fabricated criminal charge against Borjal proves once again that the u.s.-Ramos government is criminalizing political activity. "The NDFP vigorously condemns the GRP's series of gross violations of the JASIG and of the rights of Mr. Borjal. By its continuing refusal to respect the rights of Mr. Borjal, capped by his forcible submission to GRP judicial processes through his arraignment [9 December], the GRP must be held responsible for its de facto unilateral termination of the JASIG and the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations. The Ramos regime thereby has dishonored its own signature on the JASIG and exposed its utter lack of sincerity in pursuing peace talks with the NDFP."(2) "In the face of Borjal's illegal arrest and detention, the government declaration of a two- month truce in deference to the holiday season is an empty promise. It is both an attempt to cover up the military's brutal wrongdoings, as well as a pretense of sincerity towards peace, something which the cases of Borjal and much earlier Sotero Llamas, strongly disprove. Danilo Borjal's continuing ordeal is a big blow to the peace process and human rights. While talking peace, the Ramos government continues to wage counter- insurgency."(4) Amerikan imperialism created the monster currently torturing and imprisoning genuine people's activists, peasants, workers, students and revolutionaries in the Philippines. Get involved in organizing against US imperialism in the Philippines and elsewhere. Check out the websites below for current updates and calls for action. Work with MIM and RAIL to expose Amerikan interests in perpetuating the dictatorship in the Philippines. Work with us to build a strong anti- imperialist revolution within the belly of the beast. Notes 1. http://www.geocities.com/~cpp-ndf/ndf8.htm 2. http://www.geocities.com/~cpp-ndf/ndf9.htm 3. http://www.geocities.com/~cpp-ndf/ndf6.htm 4. http://www.geocities.com/~cpp-ndf/ndf7.htm 5. http://www.geocities.com/~cpp-ndf/peace8.htm [Press Statement 29 November 1996 National Democratic Front of the Philippines NDFP Negotiating Panel "NDFP POSTPONES INDEFINITELY PEACE TALKS WITH GRP"] * * * CORRECTION MIM retracts its front-page slogan of "Junk APEC" as inappropriate for imperialist country audiences while entirely appropriate in oppressed semi-feudal nations. It was a mechanical copying of the national democratic movement Philippines that led to this error. We print the following questions and answers in order to explain the retraction and clarify MIM's stance on "free trade" mechanisms. 1. WHY DON'T YOU OPPOSE GATT/NAFTA/EEC/APEC? Answer: At this time, MIM cannot lead a revolutionary class alliance on the basis of this demand in the imperialist countries. Quite the contrary, the KKK, AFL-CIO bureaucrats--and even more significantly--Ross Perot, Patrick Buchanan and Strom Thurmond all oppose free trade. They represent the Amerika-first bourgeoisie and the labor aristocracy afraid of losing jobs. The proletariat by definition is the class with nothing to lose and it is not threatened by the treaties between ruling classes. Capitalism was bad for the proletariat before any of these treaties existed. 2. WHY DON'T YOU OPPOSE APEC/GATT ETC. FOR YOUR OWN REASONS, THE RIGHT REASONS? Answer: There are no right reasons in the imperialist countries, because these demands unleash the reactionary classes and political movements that we would like to stay asleep. Even if we issue a slogan with our own hearts pure, it's objective impact is all that matters. Given the social material we have dominated by the bourgeoisie, petty-bourgeoisie and bourgeoisified workers, this demand can only lead to national chauvinism of the oppressor nation. For example, in the latest issue of MIM Theory, a former member of the "CP"-USA attests that anti-NAFTA agitation of the "labor" movement came with chauvinist slams on Mexican workers.(1) 3. YOU DON'T MIND IF THE OPPRESSED NATION WORKERS WIN SOME REFORMS SOMETIMES? Answer: That's correct: we don't mind. We wish the oppressed nation comrades success in their use of this issue to rally the national bourgeoisie and petty-bourgeoisie against imperialism. Even without the APEC, they could rally the proletariat and much of the peasantry against imperialism. Economic nationalism plays a progressive role in the oppressed nations, but not in the oppressor nations. Our position boils down to the pivotal classes that make the national question a national question and not just a simple bourgeois vs. proletarian class question --the national bourgeoisie in the oppressed nations and the labor aristocracy of the oppressor nations. 4. CAN'T YOU OPPOSE APEC ON REFORMIST GROUNDS? Answer: Those who recognize that it not a treaty that is bad, but capitalism which is bad ask us to support reforms in the oppressed nations. However, the first duty of the communists is to make revolution. Revolutionaries in the Philippines are correct to oppose APEC not because it brings good reforms to the people but because it is the fastest path to revolution. We are correct not to oppose individual trade treaties in the oppressor nations, because its contribution to the formation of a revolutionary class alliance would be negative. Like Marx we expose the fact that free trade does not mean there is no exploitation underneath the "free trade." That is done by explaining to the masses the full history of these treaties and the fact that they existed in the past as well. Furthermore, we must educate the masses thoroughly on the difference between an economic system and an individual treaty or we are in effect lying to the masses. 5. WOULD YOU OPPOSE A REQUEST BY YOUR FRATERNAL COMRADES TO OPPOSE THE APEC/GATT ETC? Answer: If our fraternal comrades of several oppressed nation parties upholding Marx, Lenin, Stalin, Mao and the "Gang of Four" asked us unanimously to take the risk of unleashing the fascist movement of the nativist sort and if these comrades would publish their strategic vision of how this problem can be dealt with later, we might concur. On the other hand, if the fraternal comrades don't understand the decadent and parasitic but dominant role of classes such as the labor aristocracy in the imperialist countries and if they have illusions that MIM is about to defeat the internationalist bourgeoisie and then take out the Perot/Buchanan/AFL-CIO/KKK nativists, it is our duty to disabuse them of those illusions. They cannot count on an anti-NAFTA/GATT/APEC movement as an ally or component part of the necessary dictatorship over the u.s. imperialists. We would like to remind our comrades where Marx stood on this question and have them answer what is new that has invalidated Marx's concern with national chauvinism in the advanced capitalist countries: "If the free-traders cannot understand how one nation can grow rich at the expense of another, we need not wonder, since these same gentlemen also refuse to understand how within one country one class can enrich itself at the expense of another. "Do not imagine, gentlemen, that in criticizing freedom of trade we have the least intention of defending the system of protection. "One may declare oneself an enemy of the constitutional regime without declaring oneself a friend of the ancient regime. "Moreover, the protectionist system is nothing but a means of establishing large-scale industry in any given country, that is to say, of making it dependent upon the world market, and from the moment that dependence upon the world market is established, there is already more or less dependence upon free trade. Besides this, the protective system helps to develop free competition within a country. Hence we see that in countries where the bourgeoisie is beginning to make itself felt as a class, in Germany for example, it makes great efforts to obtain protective duties. They serve the bourgeoisie as weapons against feudalism and absolute government, as a means for the concentration of its own powers and for the realization of free trade within the same country. "But, in general, the protective system of our day is conservative, while the free trade system is destructive. It breaks up old nationalities and pushes the antagonism of the proletariat and the bourgeoisie to the extreme point. In a word, the free trade system hastens the social revolution. It is in this revolutionary sense alone, gentlemen, that I vote in favour of free trade..."(2) From the above, we can see that in countries where feudalism is still at issue, even protectionist elements of society like the emerging national bourgeoisie are progressive. However, in imperialist society where there is no feudalism, protectionism is worse than free trade. If MIM had the upper-hand militarily speaking over the Amerika-first bourgeoisie and the labor aristocracy, MIM could oppose both protectionism and free trade in practice. Currently, we would be lying to our comrades internationally to say we have that kind of power: only protectionism versus free trade is on the agenda. The best of intentions cannot change that. NOTES: 1. MIM Theory 10, p. 66. 2. Karl Marx, January 9, 1848 Speech to the "Democratic Association in Brussels," Selected Writings, ed. David McLellan (Oxford University Press, 1977), pp. 269-70. * * * REPORT ON THE FINANCIAL STRUGGLE In the past year, MIM has initiated new campaigns for a new outlook on financial development of the revolutionary movement. Since Mao Zedong wrote articles on the subject of financing the movement, we are safe in saying that there is a science that needs to be applied to the question. At first, a revolutionary struggle relies on the contributions of supporters to print literature and undertake other projects. At the other end of political development, the Chinese Communists had to decide what tax rate to set and how much rent should be reduced for peasants in the base areas while China was still capitalist and semi-feudal. We should seek to go beyond making appeals for funding on a strictly emotional basis and understand how it is best to finance the revolutionary movement. MIM has found in its campaign so far that petty-bourgeois and labor aristocractic thinking block MIM's finance campaigns. By 1990, MIM members faced requirements for financing the party based on income and a realistic allowance for living. Such requirements also have the effect of ensuring that the party only retains the best proletarian elements available. Since 1990, MIM's thinking on finances has developed further to see the imperialist countries' movement as playing or developing to play a distinct financial role in the international communist movement. This thinking goes along with the arrival of a new publication called Maoist Sojourner which focuses on the exiles from the semi-feudal oppressed nations. Through Maoist Sojourner, we make the imperialist country audiences aware of the real revolutionary struggles happening in the Philippines, India, Peru and Turkey. This gives the would-be proletarian elements something to compare their own work with. For example, those holding the false theory that there is an oppressor nation proletariat in the United $tates can compare their work in union struggles for higher wages so workers can buy more VCRs to the same effort dedicated to supporting the revolution in the oppressed semi-feudal countries. MIM hopes to win away some people who are currently wasting their time on economistic struggle for the oppressor nation working class. An example of a telling difference is that in the Philippines and India today the masses cannot get enough revolutionary literature and the movements are constantly out-of-stock, while the oppressor nation workers will not look at the literature. Many of our same comrades who wish to uphold the revolutionary armed struggle in the oppressed semi- feudal countries will not put themselves on the line--even slightly--for a financial goal. When the party asks comrades to take slight or non-existent risks, we find that many comrades--especially those from conservative lower-middle class (labor aristocracy) backgrounds-- will not take the risk. It is the outlook of the labor aristocracy to hold on to its scraps from the imperialist plate and put stability and security above all else. These comrades invent all kinds of fears about change, even more than peasants in countries experiencing collectivization. Even when faced with proof of the efficacy of a method of financing the movement, some people continue to deny facts out of profound fear. While we do not have the crucible of armed struggle to remold our comrades, many who can't face the commitments of building the independent institutions of the oppressed and financing them can undergo at least that much remolding in the imperialist countries. Another problem we have is the petty-bourgeois mode of thinking. Petty-bourgeois minded comrades often won't have consistent reasons for opposing the party finance line. Their class background is to vacillate between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. Often the petty-bourgeois mode of thinking will include some proletarian elements and at crucial moments introduce completely inappropriate bourgeois assumptions. The following are examples of these middle-class lines that MIM has encountered. 1. If working with the party does not provide a big petty-bourgeois lifestyle or corresponding salary, then the party is to blame. Such comrades demand parasitic lifestyles immediately or they won't give their time to the revolution. 2. Some comrades with their own finances taken care of in terms of their needs for housing and food etc. still expect the party to direct their every move. We call this the "employee mentality." It's connected with the lower middle-class's need to follow capitalist orders and fear that doing otherwise would be fatal. 3. If the party does the research and has the connections to get someone a cushy job leaving time for the revolution, some comrades will refuse out of fear that the job will disappear. They then go off to their own alternative and make no contributions to the revolution. 4. If a comrade takes a job suitable for making contributions to the revolutionary movement, the comrade blames the party for "coercing" him or her into taking it and any unpleasantness though it be less than on normal jobs gets blamed on the party as if the party were doing the job for them. 5. If a comrade loans another comrade money to build a business, the one making the loan blames the party for "screwing" them as if the party was a vacation agency taking people's money and going to the Bahamas. This is both a labor aristocracy line given that people in the imperialist countries are parasites who can't be "screwed" and it is also anarchist distrust of all organization of power. These comrades are not saying there are better businesses to be started; they make no such complaints and wage no such struggles on how to best fund the revolution. These comrades just trust the bourgeoisie more than the party or comrades. They'll leave money in the bourgeoisie's banks or conservative investments, but they won't trust their comrades trying to do something better. On the positive side, MIM has had many successes in funding its work, which is why we have so many publications. The success comes at such a pace that the doubts of the "conservative peasants" who fear all risks or imagined risks look that much more petty. We ask our readers who can be rational about money matters and supporting the revolution to step forward. Some comrades who find it difficult to get it together to do anything for the revolution nonetheless fund it. There are many in the imperialist countries who can get beyond their debilitating fears and figure out how to fund the revolution. * * * RURAL INDIAN STRUGGLE AGAINST STATE-SPONSORED ALCOHOL Review When Women Unite CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Co-Director Shabnam Virmani from the North-Western Indian city of Ahmdebad has just wrapped up a tour of the showing of her film When Women Unite: the Story of an Uprising. A MIM correspondent went to showings in several cities and found it very inspiring. It captures on film the struggle of wimmin of the villages of Andhra Pradesh, in South India, to get the state to stop selling a cheap liquor known as arrack. Along the way, it reveals a lot about the need for mass struggle in the face of a government without the masses' interests as its own. The film opens with an introduction to the atmosphere of the crisis that was coming to a head in the late 80s in rural Andhra Pradesh. Because of the so-called modernization of agriculture, rice paddies were largely replaced with sugar-cane. This contributed to the rise in the price of rice, increasing the hunger of the rural people. It also removed employment possibilities for wimmin, who were simply not hired at the new big farms. So wimmin had to rely on their husbands' income. At the same time, however, husbands were becoming a less reliable source of income. The government, in order to make money, was contracting out the sale of cheap liquor known as arrack in small cachets (packets) easily accessible to the poor people. This not only took money away from the family's food budget, it also increased violence against the wimmin of the village. The wimmin, meanwhile, were becoming gradually more conscious of the nature of their problem with arrack. In a government-funded literacy program they gathered and discussed what was going on in their lives. Peasants, especially peasant wimmin, are often isolated from each other and this program allowed them to politicize each other as a group. Like proletarians whose material circumstances of group work allow them to recognize that their oppression is an oppression of their group, not an individual oppression, the wimmin were able to take the first steps to organize to change their conditions. Specifically, one of the literacy primers contained a story with an anti-arrack message. Later, when the government discovered what was going on with their literacy program, they removed this essay so as to put the interests of the government more clearly into the program. When one womyn was killed by her drunken husband, it sparked a movement in Nellore District. Wimmin began, fairly spontaneously at first, to protest outside the arrack stores. When they managed to close down the daytime sales, the stores moved to selling at night. So the wimmin began to stop the trucks bringing arrack into the village, and destroyed the cachets. The movement grew and by 1991, 50,000 wimmin marched in Nellore to demand that the state stop contracting out the sale of arrack, and instead ban it. It gained support from many different quarters, including the Marxist-Leninist left that had engaged in similar struggles elsewhere and middle- class organizations like writers' guilds. Local governments were largely run by the contractors of arrack. In one town, 11 of the 13 council members were arrack contractors. So clearly the state did not want to listen to the anti-arrack movement. But when the government was trying to hold auctions to figure the contractors' deals, tens of thousands of protesting wimmin prevented them from convening. So the government decided to start selling arrack directly. This made the people's enemy even more clear — the government, not its delivery system. The government's hypocrisy is clear in the video. One hand the government was always saying to the poor people, "don't drink it's bad for your health", while at the same time the making huge profits by selling it to the people. First, the movement won a ban on arrack sales in Andhra Pradesh. But the government wasn't going to let such a huge income source and social control mechanism go so easily, so the government dyed the arrack, put it in bottles and called it something else. But the people rebelled against that too. At this point the mainstream TDP promised total prohibition within 2 minutes of getting elected and were elected on that pledge. The opportunism of the TDP was not lost on the wimmin of the movement, as they knew during a previous term of office, the TDP was the party to put the popularized arrack via the cachets. The TDP did enact prohibition, but they exempted toddy; and didn't try very hard to stop smugglers. A strong point of the video is the way in which is shows how some wimmin who initiate the movement in their village are able to win over the rest of the village. In one scene, after the arrack shops have been destroyed by activists, the government tried to pressure the men of one village to store government-distributed arrack in their homes. One womyn refused to join the protest of the "negotiations", because she didn't want to see her husband betray her. When he comes back to the house, she confronted him, but he told her he didn't take the arrack. He told her, "I might be stupid when I'm drunk, but not when I'm sober." In many villages, everyone refused to aid the government sale of arrack. The importance of this anti-arrack movement and the video's coverage of it is that it stresses self reliance, not dependence on the government. When the arrack ban was announced, the wimmin organized to ensure that arrack and other alcoholic replacements stayed out of their village. The wimmin did not allow their movement to be co-opted and destroyed by the government. The video and the wimmin in it state quite clearly that the government doesn't really want to enforce prohibition, so the people must do it themselves. So while the movement has subsided, it's because the wimmin won. Now the wimmin are struggling to consolidate their victory and preserve it. The wimmin in the video were clear on this important point. Many of the wimmin in the video are radicals, who appear to recognize the limits of reformism, but the video doesn't delve into the issue of how complete liberation and the ability of people to determine their own destinies can be accomplished without a revolution. There is also no discussion of the organization necessary to achieve this transformation. As Maoists, we support this movement as one of self-determination, and we celebrate the battles won while warning against the limits of spontaneous organizing. In fact, MIM was impressed with the radical foundation of the organizing that prevented, at least for now, its co-optation and destruction by the government. The anti-arrack movement brought about a winnable battle that protects the people from more damage. Free from arrack, we hope to see the people of Andhra Pradesh work with Maoists in India for communist revolution against capitalism, patriarchy and imperialism to once and for all end the oppression of the people by a government that doesn't share the interests of the people. When Women Unite is a Drishti-C DIT production available from Media for International Development, 55 East 92nd Street, 4th Floor, NY NY 10128. * * * TELEVISION DOCUMENTARY PROVOKES MIM RESPONSE On December 22, television viewers of the Discovery Channel saw a documentary on transsexuals and transvestites with testimony from medical and psychology experts. The Discovery Channel markets itself in a niche popularizing scientific curiousity. Transsexuals are people who are attempting or who have made the switch from being male to female or vice-versa. The television documentary described some cases of surgery and hormone treatment of people wishing to undergo sex change operations. Transvestites are people who prefer to dress in the ‘traditional’ clothes of the opposite sex. MIM will not remark on the factual accuracy or generalizability of the Discovery documentary on transsexuals and transvestites. For MIM instead, this documentary sparks a general theoretical response. In the interviews, we learn of people tormented by maintaining a facade of a gender identity they don't believe in. In many cases teasing and social pressure for conformity started in elementary school. In one case, a gay man preferred to believe he was really a womyn than to believe he was gay and he undertook an operation to change sexes that he later regretted. Social pressure against homosexuality made a medical operation to remove the penis more acceptable than being homosexual. Others spoke of being in suicidal pain for not quite "fitting." MIM would point out that something that is naturally prevalent is not necessarily good. In fact, in many cases society values the statistically deviant. Champion athletes are statistically rare and perform human feats that are by definition "abnormal." It is only politics that makes the abnormal "bad." Sometimes the abnormal is also bad from a proletarian ideological standpoint. Such is not the case in transsexuality or cross-dressing. These issues have become more marked in recent years in declining u.s. imperialism, because with no forward-looking agenda or capability for higher goals, white nationalist Christians stand out more than usual. In Colorado and Oregon they have put such issues on statewide ballot referenda in an attempt to legalize hatred of anything but the most common sexual interactions amongst heterosexuals. In their own way, many of these Christians have made gender the principal contradiction or the fundamental contradiction with their reactionary movements on abortion and gays. From their standpoint these issues are absolutely central to their whole agenda. Such would not be possible in a society dedicated to food, clothing, shelter and other basic human needs both in North America and the whole world. The genuine communist movement finds it a secondary matter what clothes people choose to wear, their gender identities and even their choice of biological sex or cosmetic surgery. That so many people invest their "self-esteem" in gender identities to the point of fomenting hatred against others only points out to MIM the pettiness of the system, including its gender aristocracy. The pettiness of the subject stands out when one considers that the Maoists in China took care of many of these issues by having everyone wear Mao suits – not designated pink and blue ones. Many of the issues of cross-dressing, sexual harassment and gender identity --China wiped out in a single stroke. The state did not lend its power to accentuating gender identity differences and for this reason many people lived more comfortably and with lower suicide rates than found in the West. The battle for progress on the gender front will not occur first by confrontation with the Christians. Ironically, we in the feminist camp must first clean house before we can move forward. The many pseudo-feminists who apply no science in their efforts and who put the gender contradiction as fundamental or always principal are contributing to the social conformist chokehold affecting transsexuals, transvestites and some gays and lesbians. Pseudo-feminism of the West propagated by gender bureaucrats found in government sponsored rape- crisis centers, domestic violence centers and wimmin's studies departments does not clearly put forward that important issues are food, shelter, clothing and prevention of war. These gender bureaucrat misleaders of the feminist movement put forward the opposite pole of the same Christian stupidity by placing sexual conflict (and it is often just a form of verbal masturbation) above life itself. By placing such a value on gender conflict, for example by arguing that millions of men should go to prison for rape and harassment, the pseudo-feminists again send the message that a rarified romance culture is all-important. If instead we were able to clean house and get the feminist movement going so that it recognized that these issues are in fact secondary, those tormented by gender identity issues might rest just a little easier. It would also enable this sector of the population to make greater contributions to the proletarian agenda. A solid proletarian-led feminist movement would create saplings of progressive culture that could grow to maturity under communism. * * * POLICE BRUTALITY ALERT! S. CAL. POLICE MURDERS SPUR FAMILY LAWSUITS Oxnard, Cal., policy killed Fernando Herrera Jr., 25, on July 18, while supposedly suspecting him of committing a burglary. Handcuffed, face-down, with six cops sitting on his back, he died of cardiac arrest, according to the Ventura County coroner, who refused to call it police murder, noting Herrera had traces of cocaine in his blood and an elevated body temperature (hardly fatal conditions) at the time of his death. The state sentenced Herrera to death on suspicion of burglary. MIM charges the state with murder based on oppressed-nation nationality. In July, Raul Madera, 23, died from tonsillitis while in the Ventura County jail, according to the coroner. He was supposedly being treated for the tonsillitis at the time. Death from a tonsil infection is a preventable death, in MIM's opinion and the opinion of Madera's family and lawyers. Madera was serving a 13-month sentence for drug possession. The state condemned Madera to death for personal possession of illegal drugs. MIM charges the state with criminal negligence and withholding medical care, as well as criminal incarceration based on oppressed-nation nationality. Luther Thomas Allen, 55, died Oct. 1 after a drunk- driving arrest by Oxnard police. The coroner said he died of internal injuries resulting from an accident earlier in the night. Police arrested him under suspicion of drunk driving. Police say he refused treatment by paramedics and showed no signs of injury. The state condemned Allen to death for drunk driving. MIM charges the state with criminal negligence in failing to administer medical care to injured prisoners - and criminal incarceration of an oppressed-nation national. Internal white-washes of each case determined that the state was not responsible for any of the deaths. The families of the three victims are suing the local authorities for violating the civil rights of the victims. MIM thanks the families for exposing these cases and hopes they win their lawsuits. Such exposure is an important part of building public opinion for revolutionary solutions to imperialism and national oppression. NOTES: Los Angeles Times, 3 December, 1996. * * * FEDS AND COUNTY D.A. STALL MEXICAN BEATING CASE Remember the TV footage of Riverside County Sheriff's deputies brutally beating two Mexican nationals, Alicia Sotero Vasquez and Enrique Funes Flores, they had pulled over on the side of the road? As of the beginning of December, seven months after the incident, no criminal indictments have been handed down against the police by either federal or local county prosecutors. In any just system, the beating would be an easy prosecution. The victim's lawyers point out that not only is there video and audio tape of the beating, but there are also witnesses willing to testify. However, the only consequence so far is the dismissal from his job of one of the beating deputies and the suspension of a California Highway Patrol officer who lied about the audiotape he made of the beating. Sotero and Funes also have civil lawsuits pending that are being undermined by the long delay, their attorneys say. While the feds stall, county D.A. Gil Garcetti, who also has jurisdiction, has not pressed charges either. State law will prevent him from going ahead with a case if the feds file first, so his stalling is probably terminal. It also comes after formal protests from the Mexican-American Bar Association that Garcetti's office consistently ignores police shootings of Latinos.(1) MIM shares the outrage of those who see no justice being done in this and many other cases of brutality against immigrants and Latinos. Even if the feds do single out a few cases for public prosecution, however, the border system, with its enforced separation of over- and under-paid workers, and the rampant national oppression perpetrated by the state and its many Amerikan agents, are not seriously threatened by individual prosecutions. Instead, revolutionaries use these and other cases to build consciousness and public opinion for revolutionary solutions to imperialism and national oppression. In another case, in which the Border Patrol did bring charges against five agents accused of throwing rocks at immigrants and then leaving them injured without help (in 1993), a federal arbitrator ordered that the agents be reinstated for lack of evidence against them. The arbitrator said he could not give any credibility of the accuser because he was an illegal immigrant with a record of being an illegal immigrant in the past. Even in this case, however, which may end with the five pigs getting back pay for their several years off, has led the state to pat itself on the back for acting so justly. The arbitrator agreed the officers should have four-month suspensions, so the chief of the Border Patrol's San Diego sector said: "The arbitrator has clearly agreed that the five agents acted improperly and that this type of conduct is unacceptable and must be dealt with sternly."(2) Let justice ring! NOTES: 1. L.A. Weekly, Nov. 29, 1996 2. Los Angeles Times, Nov. 28, 1996. * * * ANAHEIM POLICE KILL MAN IN HIS CAR Three Anaheim police officers shot and killed a man they say was a fugitive after he attempted to flee an arrest. They gave no evidence that the victim was armed or had attempted to harm the police in any way. Police said the victim was surrounded by unmarked police cars at a gas station when he hopped into his truck and appeared to prepare flee. They didn't identify the victim except to say he was on parole and a fugitive. An investigation into whether the shooting was justified was supposedly underway. NOTES: Los Angeles Times, 27 November1996. This information was distributed by People Against Racist Terror, Box 1055, Culver City CA 90232-1055. * * * BOEING MERGER MAKES IT LEADER IN WORLD DESTRUCTION by MC31 On December 15th the Boeing Company announced that it planned to acquire the McDonnell Douglas Corporation for $13.3 billion. This merger comes just nine days after Boeing bought Rockwell International Corporation's "defense" and space business. Boeing is now the world's largest aerospace enterprise. Boeing's closest competitor is the European Airbus Industrie consortium, which controls 35 percent of the world market in commercial airliners. Boeing now ranks second only behind Lockheed Martin as the biggest military contractor in the United $tates. McDonnell Douglas was ready for the takeover - they just got knocked out of the running for the largest Amerikan military contract for combat jets. Boeing and Lockheed Martin will now compete in 2000 for the coveted $200 billion contract to build the Joint Strike Fighter. With no chance of getting the golden opportunity to employ thousands of Amerikans in the production of huge war toys with which to destroy the Third World, McDonnell allowed Boeing to take it over. The increasing consolidation of the "defense" industry means that the government will pay more for its war-making machines because there are fewer companies to compete for bids. This is the happy marriage of government and corporate industry at its best! With mergers like this, the corporations lose their facade of "free market" competition. And it is this corporatism which was the definition of fascism according to its founder Mussolini. The war industry has provided Amerikan imperialism with a nice opportunity to bribe its working class with well paying government-sponsored jobs. It is the higher prices that government pays to corporations that have little competition that helps fuel this parasitism. Boeing chief executive Philip Condit said layoffs would be minimal. But even if there are layoffs, there are plenty of jobs in the growing prison industry or among the growing police force to employ labor aristocrats who like to make their money in industries of human destruction. The war industry clearly demonstrates the waste of capitalism where money is poured into the production of implements of destruction that are necessary to keep the majority of the people of the world under oppressive and exploitative conditions. And at the same time, this industry in Amerika is a further parasitic waste in the high wages it pays its labor aristocracy employees - doing its part to keep the Amerikan working class on the side of imperialism. NOTES: Washington Post, 16 December 1996. p. A1 & 21 December 1996. p. D1.; New York Times, 16 December 1996. p. 1. * * * TWO AMERIKAN LIBRARIANS ATTEMPT TO CLOSE YOUNG MINDS PHILADELPHIA, PA -- On December 10th, the librarian of a leading liberal arts school -- Swarthmore College -- attempted to stop MIM from handing out newspapers on Swarthmore campus grounds. "Please don't hand out papers around the library," the white-haired womyn said and then added " [students] have better things to be doing than reading newspapers." Despite the reception of the librarian, students at Swarthmore College were relatively receptive to MIM Notes, even compared with students in general. Not to be outdone at nearby Widener College, the librarian said she would have to ask permission to leave newspapers free in the library she works in. As students get more serious about resisting militarism and environmental degradation, they will have to clear the way of such obstacles to their work. They shall have to demand the right to speak to whom they choose and read the newspapers of their choosing. College administrators have used the bogus excuse of "security" to decide who students should speak to while doing nothing to reduce crime statistically on the campuses. Student government leaders in particular should shoulder the responsibility of securing for students the concrete ability to digest politics for themselves. * * * UNDER LOCK & KEY: NEWS FROM PRISONERS AND PRISONS *** MIM ON PRISONS AND PRISONERS *** MIM seeks to build public opinion against Amerika's criminal injustice system, and to eventually replace the bourgeois injustice system with proletarian justice. The bourgeois injustice system imprisons and executes a disproportionately large and growing number of oppressed people while letting the biggest mass murderers -- the imperialists and their lackeys -- roam free. Imperialism is not opposed to murder or theft, it only insists that these crimes be committed in the interests of the bourgeoisie. MIM does not advocate that all prisoners go free today; we have a more effective program for fighting crime as was demonstrated in China prior to the restoration of capitalism there in 1976. We say that all prisoners are political prisoners because under the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, all imprisonment is substantively political. It is our responsibility to exert revolutionary leadership and conduct political agitation and organization among prisoners -- whose material conditions make them an overwhelmingly revolutionary group. Some prisoners should and will work on self-criticism under a future dictatorship of the proletariat in those cases in which prisoners really did do something wrong by proletarian standards. * * * MEDICAL "CARE" IS TOOL OF OPPRESSION BEHIND BARS IN AMERIKKKA IMPROPER MEDICAL "CARE" CAUSES 13 DEATHS Revolutionary Greetings Rades, I write from the Belly of the Beast, hoping this letter finds you in high Revolutionary spirits, thoughts and struggle. I write to notify the rades that I was transferred from the Maximum Control Complex (MCC) in Westville, to another control unit prison in Carlisle, Indiana, which is twenty-five miles south of Terre Haute. The repression has basically increased at this new prison where I reside now. They call it Wabash Valley Correctional Institution, but don't allow the name to fool you, the act of genocide is very common here. Within the last three years this genocidal tomb has been open, over thirteen prisoners have died from serious medical problems. [This is] due to the improperly trained Medical Personal and the Department of Colonialism's (IDOC) refusal to build a medical facility in this prison to attend to the serious medical needs of prisoner. The food here is so inadequately proportioned that an adult male from the age of 23-50 can not sustain his physical well being. Prisoners who need hygiene [items] such as soap, toothpaste, deodorant, [and] shampoo must submit a written request to a counselor in order to receive it. Instead of toilet tissue and soap being provided to prisoners when they need it, they are forced to wait on these colonialist enforcers to give it to them, when they want to. No showers are provided to prisoners who need them. The cells are doubled celled, but they are only large enough for one individual. No ink pens or paper are given to prisoners at state expense. This prison forces prisoners to buy certain hygiene [items], clothes, stationary, over the counter medication that the state is obligated by law and their own correction polices to provide to prisoners. All other penal facilities in Indiana provide prisoners with free hygiene [items], clothing, stationary, etc. except this one in Carlisle. This is supposed to be [general] population [where] I am housed, but we are being are being treated as if we were on disciplinary segregation. There are many wicked crimes occurring here and once I am finished compiling all the data about this prison, I will be back at the rades with an update on the situation. There is supposed to be a class action filed against the conditions of confinement on the infamous lock-up unit the SHU, which the Indiana Civil Liberties Union is handling, but the strange part about this said class action [suit] is that it is not being filed against the conditions of confinement in [the general] population at this prison, why? It is time for all principled revolutionaries and progressive rades out there to support our struggle against the colonialist enforcers.... -- An Indiana Prisoner, 14 October 1996 TEXAS PIGS WATCH PRISONER COMMIT SUICIDE In Tennessee Colony, TX on Coffield Unit last night, a TDCJ officer watched an inmate commit suicide in his cell by hanging himself. This officer is at work tonight. The officer is insisting that he never tried to stop the inmate. He even stopped the inmate when one of the SSI walked up. After that he said go ahead, I never seen this before. Yes, the officer had a front row seat. After the body started jumping he just smiled. Are you thinking what I am thinking. Yes, you are right, the officer is white and the inmate is Black. See that is what made it so good to the officer. Just like the old days. Go for it. Anyway, when the body jumped again he walked slow to the sergeant. One is hanging himself. He called the infirmary. They are very slow. It takes them well, about 6 to 8 minutes. And when they made it to the inmate they didn't know what to do. It's like telling a dog to fly. Well, about the time they removed the sheet from around his neck, he was dead. The inmate hung himself with a white sheet, and it takes you at least 10 to 20 minutes or longer to do. The sergeant told the officer to walk the run every 10 minutes because something could happen. All the inmates on that end are suicidal. The officer said yell, OK. It's not the first time this has happened. I remember about 3 years ago there was an inmate who was having chest pain. He told the officer, the officer said yell, OK. He did, he called the infirmary and he said they told him to put a sick call in. See sick call or red tape in other words, ain't nothing happening for you. We don't have time, it's almost time to go home. Anyway the inmate had a heart attack. So they have to come to the wing to get him, you know, 6 to 8 minutes later I can see them coming, walking very slow. So when they finally made it there, he was really having one. They didn't know what to do. So they put him on the bed with wheels and started down the hall. They said he's not breathing and he needs CPR. I'm not putting my mouth on no inmate. So they ran the shower and said anyone know how to give CPR. No one said anything. So they ran out of the shower and headed down the long hallway. About the time they made it to the infirmary he was dead. But they wrote it up as if he died on the way to John Sealy Hospital. The man was dead before they left the unit. Well I just wanted you to know it's happening in the system. It's even worse on Ferguson unit, an inmate hang themselves and they are the closest to going home. I never understood that... -- A Texas Prisoner, 19 November 1996 PRISONERS HEAVILY DRUGGED IN THE NAME OF MEDICINE Peace Comrade, I hope this message finds self in the best of health mentally, physically and spiritually. I enter your realms in effort to have my name added to your mailing list. Up until now I was sharing MIM Notes with another brother who was transferred due to changes here. This used to be a prison which housed convicts, now that the whole population has been converted to a medical facility, all cons that were stable are now heavily sedated with some type of psychotropic drug. Other than the cycle of continuous mind abuse, all is going as the neo- colonialistc correctional elite planned. -- A South Carolina Prisoner, 21November 1996 MEDICAL BILLS FOLLOW PRISONERS AFTER RELEASE Greetings Comrades, ...Life inside a South Carolina Ad-Seg unit is continuing to be more oppressive every day. No telling what will be next. I've enclosed the most recent tactic by the South Carolina pigs to get more from us.[See below.] From my understanding any/all medical bills will follow prisoners to the streets, so now prisoners who max-out etc, will be hassled upon release, and all bills for medical etc will re-establish upon any prisoner who gets out and then returns to the system. Just more South Carolina Bullshit as usual. -- A South Carolina Prisoner, 23 October 1996 The South Carolina Department of Corrections (SCDC) has the authority to charge prisoners for the costs of state property they allegedly damaged or destroyed intentionally. Now under Section 24-13- 80, South Carolina Code of Laws, 1976, the SCDC's amendment gives the pigs authority to charge a prisoner to re-pay the costs of the following: "1. Medical treatment for injuries inflicted by an inmate(s) on him/herself or others; 2. Quelling a riot or other disturbance in which an inmate(s) is unlawfully involved; and 3. Searching for and apprehending an inmate(s) who escapes or attempts to escape." These additional items prisoners will be charged for went into affect August 1st. This sham to get money out of prisoners makes the prison-proliferating-settlers satisfied that they are not footing the entire bill to maintain tight control over Amerikan prisoners and serves as a legal billy club to keep prisoners - disproportionately of oppressed nations - unhealthy, quiet and silent. MEDICAL FEES ADD TO ABUSE IN PRISON ...Police on my end are scared of Latinos due to the Latino unity and love. There is no secret that the same way another inmate will feel the Latino's wrath, so will the police. We do not play what-so- ever on my end, police get beat up constantly by the inmates, but you can imagine the outcome when the inmate is hauled off by ten white C/O's [Corrections Officers] into a single cell behind closed doors. We also face the problem of having to pay for medical care. Inmates are required to pay $5.00 for each visit to the doctor. Medication is $2.00 and aspirin, rolaids, medicated ointment, and sudafed are sold on canteen only, and will not be given to us free. If you have any money in your account, trust me when state pay comes, it will be reduced from the door. Also this ad-seg is so pitiful that lights out is at 11:00. We are not allowed baby oil, lotion, soap, state soap will be provided. And recently all B and D batteries were banned. Envelopes are not sold anymore unless they are bought with stamps, anything for a profit... -- A New Jersey Prisoner, 25 October 1996 BLACKS AND HISPANICS ACT NOW TO INCREASE AWARENESS OF THE AIDS EPIDEMIC by a New York Prisoner 11 November 1996 The AIDS epidemic is worsening amongst our people. I want to reach as many as I can with my message. "It's about saving lives for me." We are living in a time where the world is over- populated, 5.7 billion people. There's a war against our brothers and sisters. Bodies are dropping at an alarming rate. AIDS is just another weapon used to destroy us. Wake up! Blacks and Hispanics have been in denial about this crisis. In part because of a traditional homophobic tendency in our culture, in part because of ignorant stereotypes about HIV and AIDS, our people have been in denial about AIDS in Black and Hispanic communities. The Harvard AIDS Institute released figures projecting that by the year 2000, more than half of all AIDS cases in Amerika will be amongst Blacks and Hispanics. Wake up! By that same year a Black or Hispanic person will be nine times as likely to be diagnosed with AIDS as someone who is White. The institute estimated that nearly 100 Blacks and Hispanics are diagnosed with AIDS every day in Amerika. This is not a coincidence, it is part of an overall plan. I am a prisoner in New York State. The numbers of prisoners with AIDS is incredible. "I am HIV POSITIVE." However I don't live with AIDS -- AIDS lives with me! I am in charge of my life today. I have a story to share with my younger brothers. Hopefully I can save as many as I can, before I am taken out by the Amerikan Plan. We must educate our young brothers and sisters. Dr. Alvin Pouissant, a clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School said, "Prevention programs have not been as strong in the black community as in the white community." This is not a coincidence! There is a taboo about talking about AIDS. And there is still a lot of despair. This is one more problem. We've got crime, violence, teen- age pregnancy, homelessness, now we've got AIDS. We must wake up! Study, and you will see right through the smoke screen. We are the target. It's time to fight back! Wake up! I beg you! I have more alarming figures. The Centers For Disease Control and Prevention released more than a year ago: AIDS kills twice as many Black men aged 25 to 44 as homicide. Black women constitute two thirds of all women infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. More children with AIDS are Black than all other races and ethnic groups combined. WAKE UP! THIS IS NO FUCKING COINCIDENCE! By the year 2050 the world population will be an estimated 10.4 billion. That's about double the population today. Senator Bob Dole called prisoners, "Undesirable Parasites". Study and you will learn that all prisoners don't wear chains and locks. "We are all prisoners of the oppressor. We are the target, brothers and sisters. With us they will attempt to balance out the population. Africa alone is estimated to have 14 million people suffering with AIDS. This is a human tragedy of monstrous proportions. And that's what this is all about. They have a plan. We must put a stop to the oppressors! Wake up! The time is now! MIM ADDS: We wholeheartedly agree with the overall article and its push for action to stop genocide against oppressed nations. AIDS as well as other deadly diseases affect members of oppressed nations disproportionately because of the way that imperialism works. Imperialism sucks the labor, wealth and resources from oppressed nations. Imperialism denies the oppressed access to medical and educational resources for prevention and for cures. The problem with the above article is that it states that the number of people is one of the problems. This is a myth perpetuated by the bourgeoisie to support its tactics of oppressed nation genocide like population control programs, war and forced migration. The problem is not that the world is over-populated but that imperialism is sucking it dry of resources and hoarding the wealth and profits from the labor of the international proletariat. We encourage you to check out MT12 on Revolutionary Environmentalism coming out soon. The most effective method to stop the genocide of oppressed nations through AIDS and inadequate access to medical care is to build revolution to smash imperialism. Only true independent institutions will serve the needs of the people. Getting the facts together and the word out is a necessary first step. Its impossible to have equal and adequate education or medical treatment for oppressed nations within Amerikan borders. The people must do the work ourselves. Building educational programs and medical facilities are more effective under proletarian leadership - China and the BPP prove that - so we must strengthen the Party and expand the Serve the People programs. At this point, we can help with resources you need to build educational programs for other prisoners on AIDS. Please keep us up to date on your work. PRISONER EXPOSES SOCIAL WORKER AS AGENT PROVOCATEUR These people at this prison think that they are so slick. Today about 6 social workers came in lockup trying to get everyone to take a mental evaluation screener. It's a test with about 60 true or False questions on it. I looked at it and seen that it was a serious joke. I read only 7 questions before I threw it on the floor. What made me throw it on the floor, was question number 7. It asked, Did you ever have any problems with the police? That had to be the stupidest question of 1996. I told the social worker that I didn't want to participate in their prison games. See it really pissed me off because the only reason their giving these guys the test is so they will know how these guys react in certain situations. The social worker told me that the test is to help us. I told him that if they really want to help us, then they should let us set up social groups that will prepare us to go back to general population. Because you have Brothers who've been on lockup in these sensory deprivation cages for 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, years. You can't really expect a Brother to do all that time in a cage by himself, then tomorrow just blend into general population. Now don't get me wrong, some can do it, but many can't. I told the social worker, aka Agent Provocateur that we need groups where we could get out of lockup for a couple of hours and have little group sessions among ourselves. The agent-provocateur locked at me and said he had to go. And that was the end of our conversation. But he knew that I knew that his or rather their phony little test wasn't put out to help anybody but them.... Well Sisters and Brothers, as you know, the Struggle Must Continue! -- A South Carolina Prisoner, 27 November 1996 SALVI'S SUICIDE PROVOKES QUESTIONS ON PSYCHIATRIC TREATMENT OF PRISONERS by a comrade On November 29, John Salvi, was found dead in his prison cell from an apparent suicide. Salvi murdered two receptionists at Boston abortion clinics on 30 December, 1994. His parents have requested state and federal investigations into his death, arguing that the prison system ignored his mental illness. Salvi's mother "had been telling people for a long time and no one wanted to listen that her son suffered from long-term mental illness." The Walpole prison superintendent responded that "Salvi was not under any mental health watch at the time of his death because 'he was deemed by the court not to be insane.'" Statements by Salvi's parents sparked a debate within bourgeoisie about the role of mental health services in the prison system. They ask: Was Salvi insane? If he was, why didn't the prison system know it? and How can the prisons treat the mentally ill within its walls? MIM believes these to be the wrong questions. Instead of looking at problems individually, we look at social causes of individual problems. The bourgeoisie defines "sanity" as living happily within imperialism. This is an unreasonable expectation of some people because imperialism is too much to adjust to. To MIM, the question is: How can we change society so as to remove the stresses of unequal and inadequate material conditions. Governor Weld and state Sen. James Jajuga (D- Methuen) want to abolish the state's "not guilty by reason of insanity" defense and replace it with a new verdict -- Guilty, but insane. This verdict would mandate psychiatric treatment and then when deemed "cured" the rest of the sentence would have to be served. MIM opposes this change because it is anti-defense and would increase convictions in the injustice system. Likewise, the plan to add "guilty but insane" and not scrap the current insanity verdict, as discussed on National Public Radio would also increase convictions. MIM expects such a change or addition to take place because the settlers who sit on juries demand not only the right to send people away but to pass judgment on their ability to cope with this disgusting system. NOTES: The New York Times 30 November 1996; The Boston Globe, 3 December 1996. p. B1. *For more information, see "Psychological Practices in the Chinese Revolution", part of MIM Theory 9, "Psychology and Revolution."* ***WHAT NON-PRISONERS CAN DO TO SUPPORT PRISONERS*** *1. Struggle with, work with, finance and join MIM. The best way to support prisoners is to overthrow the system under which capitalists profit from the exploitation of prisoners. History shows that the best way to do this is to build a Marxist-Leninist- Maoist party. The oppressors will not give up their power without a fight. *2. Finance MIM's prison work. Our biggest bill each month is postage. Most of the prison comrades who read MIM Notes have no way of paying for it. So if you have money, send what you can afford. Every cent helps, and stamps are as good as cash to us. *3. Distribute MIM Notes and Notas Rojas. Bring the voices of prisoners and their supporters to as large and wide an audience of people as possible. Contact MIM for bulk rates and distribution tips. *4. Start or join a prison support group. MIM can provide advice and resources to help you build public opinion for prisoners and their struggles. *5. Fight censorship, beatings, torture and other fascist outrages. Under Lock and Key often features the addresses of prisoners' friends and enemies. Work with the friends and let the enemies know you're watching. (Don't expect to win the fascists to the side of humanity, however. See #1 in this list). *6. Stay in touch. Keep us informed of pro-prisoner work you do. Our readers might find it educational or inspirational. ***WHAT PRISONERS CAN DO TO BUILD MIM*** *1. Start a study group. This is the best way to share materials and ideas. In groups, prisoners can better benefit from the limited resources MIM has. *2. Get MIM Notes and MIM Theory into your library. This allows one copy of the paper to be seen by many comrades. *3. Contact people on the outside. MIM needs comrades and allies everywhere. Maybe you know people on the outside who want to subscribe to MIM Notes or distribute it. *4. Share materials. If MIM sends books or periodicals, please make sure that as many people as possible get a chance to read them. *5. Write MIM at least every three months. Otherwise, you will be dropped from our mailing list. There are many cases where your keepers throw out MIM Notes, so we need to know that you actually get it. Also, comrades are moved around a lot, especially those who are known to be political. Please let us know of any address changes as soon as you know them. *6. Make MIM Distributors an official distributor. Many prisons require registration before MIM can send books or other materials. Usually we can comply with these bogus rules. It helps immensely to have someone there do the reasearch and send us the proper forms. *7. Send money or stamps. Our biggest bill each month is postage. Most of the prison comrades who read MIM Notes have no way of paying for it. So if you have money, send what you can afford. Every cent helps, and stamps are as good as cash to us. Please make all checks payable to "MIM Distributors." *8. Write for MIM Notes or Notas Rojas. Prisoners write almost all of Under Lock & Key. We don't care if you know how to spell or write good English or Spanish. Write on any topic you like, it does not have to be a prison story. *9. Translate. If you can read and write English and another language fluently, let us know. Any translation work you do will help us make Maoist ideas accessible to more people. *10. Fight censorship. When you know of censorship of books or newspapers, investigate. Write to MIM to confirm what has happened, then see what you can do about it. *11. Keep in touch after your release. Many comrades stop doing political work after their release. Write to MIM as soon as you know where you'll be so we can hook you up with comrades on the outside.
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