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 120 AUGUST 15, 1996 MIM Notes speaks to and from the viewpoint of the world's oppressed majority, and against the imperialist-patriarchy. Pick it up and wield it in the service of the people. support it, struggle with it and write for it. IN THIS ISSUE: 1. NETHERLANDS THREATENS TO EXPEL LEADER OF FILIPINO STRUGGLE 2. REVOLUTIONARY TURKISH PRISONERS WIN HUNGERSTRIKE 3. LETTERS 4. AMERIKAN TERRORISM ON THE RISE: FEDS WANT MORE REPRESSIVE POWERS 5. INDONESIAN MASSES PROTEST REPRESSION 6. ENVIRONMENTAL DESTRUCTION CANNOT BE STOPPED THROUGH ELECTORALISM 7. ENGLER DEPORTS INCARCERATED YOUTH: ACLU FIGHTS BACK, QUICKLY WINS PARTIAL VICTORY 8. PETTY-BOURGEOIS SQUABBLE OVER PROFITS FROM UMASS SLOGAN 9. UNDER LOCK & KEY: NEWS FROM PRISONERS AND PRISONS 10. ON PROLETARIAN LEADERSHIP IN THE IMPERIALIST COUNTRIES 11. LAKOTA SEEK CONTROL OVER REPRODUCTIVE CHOICES 12. ON ANY OFFER OF POSITION FROM THE MANILA GOVERNMENT 13. MAOISTS KNOW SPEECH ISN'T "FREE" BUT DOLE WHINES ABOUT FUNDING PROBLEMS 14. AMERIKAN CULTURE: LALLAPOOLOZA '96: MIM GOES TO LALA LAND AND INDEPENDENCE DAY 1996 15. MARXISM-LENINISM-MAOISM ONLINE * * * 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 NETHERLANDS THREATENS TO EXPEL LEADER OF FILIPINO STRUGGLE by MC206 On July 18, the Dutch Ministry of Justice notified Prof. Jose Maria Sison that it had decided to expel him and gave Prof. Sison four weeks to leave the country.(1) Prof. Sison is currently the chief political advisor for the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDF) in its negotiations with the Republic of the Philippines and was the founding chairperson of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP). He has lived in exile since 1988. The Dutch Ministry of Justice called Prof. Sison a "terrorist" and accused him of several crimes he supposedly committed while being held in solitary confinement by the Marcos government. These vague and untrue charges are based on falsified and secret "evidence" supplied by the Amerikan and Philippine governments.(2) The decision by the Ministry of Justice contradicts earlier decisions by the Dutch Council of State, which gave Prof. Sison "political refugee" status. Prof. Sison is currently appealing the expulsion order, and his appeal effectively suspends the order.(3) After the expulsion order was announced, Philippine president Ramos stated that Prof. Sison was welcome to return to the Philippines and offered him a place in the legislature.(4) Ramos is one of the main architects of the U.S.-sponsored "low intensity war" against the CPP, NDF, and the people of the Philippines. Prof. Sison rejected both offers and called them "psychological warfare" (see press statement page 9). The U.S.-Ramos regime is vainly trying to move the negotiations with the NDF from the Netherlands to the Philippines, where it can more effectively spy on and harass the NDF negotiators. MIM also doubts the sincerity of Ramos' promises of safety for Prof. Sison, since the U.S.-Ramos regime already violated safety and immunity agreements it had signed with the NDF when it arrested Sotero Llamas last year. The Dutch Council of State also refuses to extradite Prof. Sison to the Philippines "for humanitarian reasons."(4) Ramos' offers also inadvertently contradict the charges by the Dutch Ministry of Justice: Surely a "terrorist" would not be offered a seat in the legislature? Prof. Sison was arrested, heavily tortured, and detained for almost ten years by the Marcos dictatorship. President Aquino released Prof. Sison in 1986, but she canceled Prof. Sison's passport while he was abroad on a speaking tour in 1988. He applied for asylum in the Netherlands shortly after. Send letters protesting the unjust decision of the Dutch Ministry of Justice to: The Ministry of Justice, Postbus 30127, GC S-Gravenhage, The Netherlands. * * * REVOLUTIONARY TURKISH PRISONERS WIN HUNGERSTRIKE by MC234 & MC206 On July 27, agreement was reached between hunger striking prisoners and the government of Turkey for improved prison conditions. Two thousand Turkish revolutionaries and 4,000 Kurdish took part in the hunger strike, and over 200 prisoners had pledged to hunger strike until death.(1) Twelve prisoners died in the 69-day strike, and at least a hundred are in comas or critically injured. All demands of the prisoners were met. Hunger strikers were protesting the transfer of roughly 100 political prisoners to Eskisehir prison, 125 miles west of Ankara.(1) Prisoners also demanded an end to torture and beatings, and better access to legal defense and medical treatment. Eskisehir prison is a weapon of the Turkish state against the political organizing of prisoners. As one revolutionary Turk wrote on the Marxism list (an Internet discussion group): "Political prisoners actually control much of what goes on inside the wards. Yes, there is torture, there is indiscriminate killings. But, still the political prisoners continue to live a collective, political existence inside the prisons. They learn, they educate and teach to and from each other. In the words of the Minister of' Justice, Kazan, 'Prisons are Terrorist Education Institutes.' He went from interview to interview today, explaining: 'If we give in to their demands, they will just remain as militant, and they will continue to inflict all the prison population. If we don't move them all to the 'anti-terrorism' Prison in Eskisehir, we are just letting the next generation to take root. So, we have to stop them. We will intervene'. "Now, intervention is no easy thing. They will kill hundreds if they intervene. The prisoners have barricades inside the prisons. For example, Bayrampasa Prison, the center of attention, has a 350m corridor that is 7m wide that all the doors of the wards of political prisoners open to. They can't enter that corridor now. They will not be able to enter it without a big fight. This means more deaths, these people have been on a hunger- strike for 68 days. The Minister claims 'They have cell-phones, faxes, their own medicine. They have their own rule book of how to behave, and they have their own representation system. They elect their own administrators, and they run the prisons. How do we let this go on?' "Eskisehir is designed to put a stop to that. Single-cell layout is designed just for that. It has been about six years now they are trying to move prisoners into that prison. Each attempt has met with fierce resistance. They never managed it. They had to back down each time. This time they were really determined, but the prisoners were just as determined. This is about the most collective resistance since probably early 1980s, during the military coup. Many died then, but not a leaf was moving outside. Even the news wasn't getting out. Now, it affects everything." TURKISH STATE RESPONDS WITH FORCE Demonstrations in support of the prisoners were held across Turkey. According to the Anatolia News Agency, Kurdish revolutionaries set fire to a bus after emptying it of passengers in solidarity with the hunger striking prisoners.(1) The Turkish revolutionary on the Marxism list wrote: "The numbers in demonstrations reached a low in the third day after the deaths, because so many had been detained. Now, they are growing real fast. So, they detain thousands? Tens of thousands? Declare Martial Law?" He argued that the struggle of the political prisoners had a broad politicizing effect upon the masses while also bringing together different revolutionary organizations. In response to the struggle by the revolutionaries, the government increased repressive measures against people both inside and outside the prisons. There have been reports that the Turkish government tried to chain prisoners hospitalized from the hunger strike in spite of a previous agreement that prohibited this action. The prisoners are well aware that they will have to continue their efforts to expose government treachery as they build up their revolutionary power. AMERIKA'S ROLE Turkey is a neo-colony of Amerika and Germany, and the struggle of the Turkish and Kurdish masses is not just against their government, but against these imperialists. Germany is Turkey's largest trading partner, accounting for 15% of Turkey's exports and 18% of its imports. German tourists alone account for almost 1% of Turkey's GDP.(2) The Amerikan government spent about $500 million in military aid to Turkey each year from 1988 to 1991. In 1988 Germany gave Turkey $45 million in military aid.(3) That's on top of Turkey's own military budget of $2-3.5 billion per year. Turkey has one of the highest military spending rates of the countries in NATO, despite being one of the poorest.(2,3) NATO likes to think of the Turkish armed forces as "buffers" (read: cannon fodder). Turkey occupies an important strategic position close to both the Middle East and the ex-Soviet Union. During the "Cold War," the United Snakes stationed nuclear weapons in Turkey and based much of its intelligence services there. There are listening posts near the center of Turkey-occupied Kurdistan, for example.(3) Now these military facilities are used to enforce the "new world order" in the Middle East. Turkish fascism and militarism have been alternately encouraged and overlooked by these imperialist powers seeking to protect their interests. MIM hails this blow by the revolutionaries against the lackeys of imperialism running the government of Turkey. The mass mobilization needed to achieve this victory and the ability of the revolutionaries to mobilize these people are both lessons and inspiration to our struggle. NOTES: 1. Associated Press July 27, 1996. 2. World Economic Data, Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 1991, pp. 206-207. 3. Turkey Newsletter 3/89. Also: DHKC information bureau AmsterdamThis story was written on July 31. Reliable information was several days older than this date. * * * LETTERS MIM READER OPPOSES GAMBLING, MIM DOESN'T Concerning the article: "Ojibwe protest sham election: Tribal dictator responds with violence." This is an excellent article about the dangers of casino gambling in any area of the country. Every American would surely want to know the results of this experiment. Is it working or not? If it's not working, then the government should put a stop to it, and not simply side with the profiteers! -A reader in the East July 13, 1996. MIM RESPONDS: Please see the correction in MIM Notes 119. MIM wrote a self-criticism for taking sides within the Ojibwe nation and portraying this struggle as the principal contradiction instead of exposing Amerikan imperialism. But we can address here why your conclusion that we oppose gambling is not correct. We have written extensively about gambling and its potential for economic self- sufficiency for First Nations. Much of it is summed up in MIM Theory 7: Proletarian Feminist Revolutionary Nationalism, available for $6. While gambling does not produce any value and its very profitability is a measure of its decadence, MIM does not oppose the First Nations setting up casinos on their land and inviting whites in to lose their money. Why does MIM support this First Nation capitalism, given that we are communists? First Nation's must build independent economic institutions. If gambling enables First Nations to achieve this type of independence the decadent nature of gambling turns into a method to strip the parasites of wealth once stolen from the First Nations. It would be reactionary to oppose national bourgeois development since First Nations exist in overwhelming capitalist encirclement and must build self-reliance and independence from the imperialists by any means. First Nation capitalism builds independent power and thus is progress. The national bourgeoisie can then be allies in the struggle against Amerikan imperialism. As the articles in MIM Theory show, whether or not to open casinos is a bitter struggle within many First Nations. In particular, the contradiction is between the money brought in by casinos and the possibility that the nation will not have direct control of the profits from the casino or decisions made regarding it. How the casinos are run, and what type of casinos is a part of this struggle. We encourage you to read this journal and struggle with us over it. We disagree with your conclusion that if gambling "is not working" that "the government," presumably the Amerikkkan government, should "put a stop to this." The First Nations should make their own decisions about how to develop, in whichever ways they see fit. Amerika has no more right to decide whether First Nations run casinos than it does to decide whether Germany does. PSEUDO-LEFT NATION POKES FUN AT MIM The June 10 issue of The Nation magazine, "In Fact..." section reprinted a correction MIM Notes ran in our February issue: ..."Correction. On page 11 of MIM Notes 108 (January 1996) we wrote that MIM [Maoist International Movement] 'requires forever monogamy of our members.' This is incorrect. MIM upholds asexuality as the most advanced sexual practice under capitalism. We also have policies regarding divorce for spousal abuse." --"MIM Notes" 109 (February 1996). MIM RESPONDS: The Nation credited this brilliant reporting to Marion Banzhaf, "MIM watcher". Any good "MIM watcher" wouldn't have lost the "ist" in Internationalist.. We took a while to notice this item in The Nation because the supposedly "left" weekly has become so meaningless to those who are still serious about progressive, radical change. It uses this blurb to mock us, presumably for taking sex seriously as part of gender and feminism, or for suggesting that the social relations of sex have a certain character under capitalism. (Or was it just so funny to have communists talking about sex?) If Banzhaf or The Nation would like to try a more developed criticism of our gender line-or if they wish to argue that analyzing gender is unnecessary- the pages of MIM Theory are open to their submissions. Write us at PO Box 3576, Ann Arbor MI 48106-3576 or mim@nyxfer.blythe.org. ELECTION FAN TEARS DOWN MIM'S SPEECH I'd just like to say I just ripped one of your signs off of a tree and I had a good laugh looking at it and then I had a very enjoyable long walk down the main street in Cambridge and ripped all the signs and threw them away and I noticed someone else had done that already on the other side of the street. Why don't you people take this whole thing seriously and listen to the debate? Have you paid any attention to the Weld/Kerry debate? You'd find out the honest truth about the man instead of hanging up your garbage all over the place. And if you have this meeting this coming week and no body shows up... [cut off by machine]July 17th, 1996 MIM RESPONDS: This message was in response to our poster "Don't vote for injustice" announcing an event which exposed the two Massachusetts candidates for US Senate, Weld and Kerry, as equally bad options on the questions of criminal injustice. The poster contained a lot of factual information about both Weld and Kerry's stands on prison issues. Weld, as governor, has obliterated education in prison and passed a $500 million bond issue for prison expansion. Kerry, as senator, voted for the 1994 Crime Bill which guts the rights of death row inmates to appeal and extends the death penalty from two to 58 offenses (while posing as anti-death penalty). MIM does not support either of these "choices" because we don't support imperialism or the criminal injustice system that supports it. Instead we work for justice for the oppressed of the world. We recognize that voting in one imperialist supporter or another will not change the system, imperialism has to be overthrown and this can only be done through revolution. Right now in this country we need to educate people and organize them to build independent power of the oppressed. We are forced to put posters on poles (we don't put them on trees) because we don't have access to advertising or bourgeois newspapers that come out daily so this is the only way we can inform people about our events. It is no surprise to us that someone who supports this democracy for the bourgeoisie, which is really a dictatorship over the proletariat of the world, would not even pretend to believe in free speech. Free speech in Amerika is only for those who can afford to buy it. This is why we need independent media and other independent institutions of the oppressed. Someone who thinks they know the "honest truth" about Weld and Kerry is afraid of the facts in a MIM poster exposing their reactionary stands on the prison system and they are afraid of other people learning these facts and more by coming to our event. If the supporters of the bourgeoisie find our work so dangerous that they have to remove even the farce of free speech, we take this as encouragement that we are doing a good job of attacking and exposing our enemies. TOUR BETWEEN CIRCLES OF HELL **MIM received this letter describing the transfer of a prisoner from one prison to another** Hey MIM, Gosh did I have a terrible bus ride. It was torture! I was paired off with this religious fanatic who would go into these fuckin' fits everytime we passed a cemetery. He'd start stampin his feet (mind you my right leg is chained to his left leg) chanting and praying in Spanish and English, crossing his heart, kissin his rosary beads, clappin his hands and carrying on. I tried to let him know how annoying that shit is, and is there anyway he could keep that to himself, especially since our legs is cuffed to one another and every time he stamps his feet the leg cuffs cuts into my ankle and that shit hurts like hell. All I said was in vain. The next cemetery we passed he began one of his fits again. So I bent down and yanked the shit out of his leg chain. Now that shut him up. It's like I yanked him right out of his fit. He just stared at me like I committed the worst sin on the planet. I thought that was the end of it, but I was wrong. Me and my bright ideas got me into some deeper shit. He pulls out his pocket bible and begins to read it in a low voice. He closes it and looks at me and starts tellin' me how I need Jesus and God in my life and I need to get rid of the bad spirits within me. I tell him I'm not interested but he keeps on. So we gets into a big argument. I cuss his ass out along with God, Jesus, that slut the "Virgin" Mary, Moses, Adam, Eve, Matthew, Mark, Luke and everybody else I could think of that's in the bible. So he pulls out his bible and starts reading real loud "Devil get thee behind me". Now I'm pissed off beyond explanation and I knock the bible out of his hand onto the floor and starts spitting and stompin it. As soon as we get off the bus I snuff the shit out of him and we start fighting. They break us up and separate us. Thank goodness! But just my luck I get paired off to this other nasty muthafucka! He smell like he shat on himself. He tried to speak to me and his breath was awful. I just held my breath and nodded my head. I thought he was gonna shut up but he just kept right on. I finally told him "Listen money, you don't smell like the sweetest thing on the planet and your breath ain't exactly roses, I'd appreciate it if you said nothing to me". I felt sorry for him and I felt bad tellin' em this. But I had to. I guess he gets highly offended and starts yelling and shit and his funk is growing stronger by the minute. I'm not even arguing back because I'm scared to breath around him. So I tell's him "just open that window, you could beef with me all you want, just open that muthafuckin' window, quick!" So he tells me "You open it, muthafucka. You the one complainin'" So I leans over him to open the window and while I'm doing, he starts pullin' all on my chain. I fell right back in my seat and we get in a chain pullin match. The bus stops and the bus driver (a C.O.) tells me and my mate to step off the bus. When we step off the bus driver starts yelling at ME! he says "What's your problem, boy!? Everybody we shackle you to you have a problem with!" I'm like "First of all I ain't your boy! Second of all I'M not the problem. The PROBLEM is everyone you shackle me to." The driver's like "You're a wise ass, huh?" I say nothing. Anyway they unshackle me from my mate and put me in single seat all the way up front all by myself. As soon as we get here I get called out to see the shrink. I go in her office and sit down, wondering what's all this about. Finally after staring at me for a while she says "We've a report from the bus officers that you display an anti-social behavior pattern. Are you on meds? Or do you have anything to say about this?" Me: "Nope." I couldn't believe these people was actually serious! On top of that, all my property, well almost all of it, is gone. I still have all of the position papers you sent me and 2 of Lenin's books "State and Revolution" and "War and peace". All of my MTs are gone, all my Stalin books including "Another view of Stalin" and "Arms and Empire" I had notes all up in the margins of those books too.... -a New York Prisoner * * * AMERIKAN TERRORISM ON THE RISE: FEDS WANT MORE REPRESSIVE POWERS by MC12 With every terrorist act against Amerikans, the state seizes the opportunity to increase its power. After the bombing of TWA Flight 800 in July, and the bombing of the Olympic park shortly afterward, President Clinton jumped at the chance to justify more powers for the Federal government. He proposed requiring explosive materials to be chemically "tagged" for forensic identification. He wants to allow wiretaps to be "roving," which means they follow a person instead of staying fixed on designated phone lines. He wants to increase the FBI's ability to collect hotel and telephone records, and storage site records. He also wants to be able to prosecute accused terrorists under broad racketeering laws. Looks like there is a Federal wish list of repressive measures, and with each perceived crisis they try to bring them on. At such times, there is more public support. A CBS News poll released on July 30 showed that 80% of those polled agreed that "government should have more authority to investigate terrorists." On the question of wiretapping, there is less support. Only 52% agreed the Feds should have more wiretap authority.(1) The catch with all of these laws is that when it comes to expanded permission to repress based on terrorism, it is only the Federal government that decides who is a potential terrorist-so they set limits and then enforce them on themselves. As we reported in MIM Notes 118 (July 15, 1996, p. 10), the secret court that approves "national security" wiretap requests from the FBI has never rejected a request, while approving thousands. In the forthcoming MIM Theory 11, we report that Federal wiretaps in criminal cases are increasing rapidly along with those for "national security," and Federal wiretaps are becoming a greater and greater proportion of all wiretaps.(2) WHO GAINS FROM THE ARMORED WITCH HUNT? So, the state benefits from terrorism in one way: it gets greater legitimacy in its quest for more power. Private companies also benefit. In MIM Theory 11 we also report that private security firms such as Borg Warner and Wackenhut have seen big jumps in stock prices after such incidents as the World Trade Center and Oklahoma City bombings. Wackenhut, the world's largest private security company, also got a boost from the June 17 TWA bombing. The company's stock, which had fallen more than 40% since the second week of June, jumped 12% in two days, from June 16 to June 18. The turnaround brought the price of Wackenhut stock up to its highest level since the beginning of April.(3) The Atlanta bombing might help the state win political battles with its militia-type factions, who oppose some expansion of wiretapping and chemically tagging explosives. White-nut type bombings help undermine NRA opposition to such measures. There are tactical splits among the bourgeoisie on security questions, some of which revolutionaries can use to good advantage. The militia types oppose wiretaps, for example, and with their powerful political base the government has to move slowly against them. Likewise, some big corporations oppose things like Internet surveillance and restrictions on encryption technology-also putting them tactically on the side of the people. We contribute our part to deepening these divisions and trying to get good results out of them. Some would-be revolutionaries believe terrorist violence, outside of an organized armed struggle, brings on state repression in a way that turns more people against the state. History does not support this theory, however. When such acts of violence do not in themselves accomplish anything positive for the oppressed, revolutionaries have little ammunition with which to challenge increased repression in the battle for public opinion.(4) It is our job to expose the hypocrisy of such repressive measures, but in the current conditions the oppressed do not gain from such incidents. HYPOCRISY REAKS FROM THE CORE OF AMERIKA Reactionary ideologues are also seizing the moment to push their agendas. "How Do You Explain It to a Child?" asked the headline over David Broder's Washington Post column on July 30, about the Atlanta bombing. "How do you explain terrorism to a child?" he wrote. "Or violence? Or the presence of evil in the world?" Broder went on to compare his opposition to terrorism to Martin Luther King's opposition to white supremacist violence. Broder's six-year-old daughter is the victim of miseducation geared toward destroying her very humanity before she has a chance to figure things out for herself. With a real education, she would learn that a bomb disrupting the Olympic party is not an isolated act of "evil in the world." She would learn that her own privileged situation-in this case watching the Olympic party from the 7th floor of a nearby hotel-is a gift from the most evil and oppressive system ever known to humanity: imperialism. And she would learn that Daddy's columns prop up this system behind a guise of liberal humanism. In a parallel act of hypocrisy, New York Times columnist A. M. Rosenthal has used the TWA bombing to repeat his call for bombing the countries whose governments he says support "terrorism." He also wants trade sanctions against such countries (presumably he means Syria, Libya, Iran, Sudan, etc.). Both of these measures are thinly disguised attempts at increasing Amerikan imperialism's economic and military hegemony in the Middle East, a permanent goal unaffected by terrorism. MIM believes that most international terrorism directed against Amerikan targets is a strategically misplaced reaction to Amerikan imperialism, and thus may be blamed on imperialism itself. We do not support these attacks at present, but we continuously point out that imperialism is the greatest system of state-sponsored terrorism of all time. Militia-type terrorism, on the other hand, reflects insurgent white nationalism, angered by the internationalist approach (in the oppressive sense) of the big bourgeoisie and government. While there may be some divisions to exploit here, these white supremacists are vicious enemies of the people and their growth is a challenge to us to get moving! At present, we attempt to turn state repression into political victories for the oppressed through increased popular consciousness. NOTES: 1. CBS Evening News, July 30, 1996. 2. MIM Theory 11, "Amerikkkan Prisons on Trial," $6 from MIM, order now. 3. Stock information from http://networth.galt.com, a free stock quote service. 4. Order "What Is MIM?" for $2 to read an essay on the pitfalls of focoism. * * * INDONESIAN MASSES PROTEST REPRESSION by a RAIL Comrade On Saturday July 27, protests broke out in the streets of Jakarta, Indonesia's capitol city. The protest size and intensity surpassed that of previous demonstrations. It was spawned by the government's raid of the Indonesian Democratic Party's headquarters. The headquarters were home to supporters of Ms. Megawati and the Indonesian Democratic Party. Megawati was ousted from her position as head of the Democratic Party by the government last month. Her supporters refused to leave the party headquarters, when the military warned them. Police raided the office at 7:00am Saturday morning and forcibly evicted 150 people. Police raids of opposition political parties and spontaneous mass protests for political reform are unheard of in Amerika. In the heart of imperialism, citizens enjoy bourgeois legal rights and most are complacent enough to ignore politics. MIM reports on these Indonesian protests to remind Amerikans of the gross hypocrisy of their own government, which self-righteously mouths off about democracy while supporting repression in its neo-colonies. The Amerikan-supported comprador regime in Indonesia is well-paid for ensuring imperialist access to Indonesian labor and resources. THE OPPOSITION: COMPRADOR WITH A DIFFERENT FACE The Indonesian government engineered the replacement of Magawati with a man more supportive of the overtly repressive policies of the Suharto government. This is a case of a conflict between a repressive dictatorship and a slightly kinder face on an imperialist neo-colony. The slightly kinder face, Magawati and the Democratic Party, are not even allowed to remain in the government, exposing the so-called democracy for the farse that it really is. This democracy is just a dictatorship of the bourgeoisie which is making sure to crush even minor disagreements. Although opposition parties exist in Indonesia, the current president, Suharto, has never had an opponent run against him in his eight victorious elections in the past 30 years. Megawati is the daughter of Sukarno, the founder of so- called independent Indonesia. Indonesia is not independent from imperialist exploitation and control. The current president, Suharto, seized power from Sukarno in 1966. Suharto, Sukarno and Megawati are all part of the imperialist state that Indonesia uses to rule over it's people as well as the people of East Timor while giving up the resources and labor power to the imperialists and their multinationals. It is the genuine desire for peace and liberty that has caused many people in Indonesia to turn to Megawati as an alternative to the repressive practices of the Suharto regime. Putting a kinder face on imperialism will not get rid of imperialism or the brutal repression that goes along with this system. According to the New York Times, masses in the streets chanted Megawati's name and protested military repression-this includes chants opposing repression in East Timor. They also shouted "The military are killers!" and "Hang Suharto!" People threw rocks at the pigs and at one point launched a coordinated attack causing the military to temporarily retreat.(1) Democratic reforms in Indonesia could definitely improve the lives of the Indonesian masses and the East Timorese. However, attaining real independence for Indonesia and for the East Timorese will require more than reforms. The U.S. and other imperialist powers have an interest in keeping the current government-or an equally subservient government-in power. Imperialist exploitation of the Indonesian land, labor and resources is essential for maintaining U.S. and other imperialist support-both military and economic. In exchange for Amerikan approved loans from the World Bank, the Indonesian economy has transformed to an export-led economy and is used for First World profit. The imperialists will not allow this to change without a fight. That is why independent power-political, military, and economic-are necessary to gain real independence for the masses. The overthrow of Suharto by a bourgeois democratic party might bring some facelift improvements, but revolution is necessary for true and permanent change. The United Snakes has provided Indonesia with a total $641 million in arms sales. In 1994, Klinton signed a $40 billion trade agreement with president Suharto, which included juicy contracts for General Electric and Exxon.(2) Putting pressure on the Amerikan government through exposing its role in supporting oppression and murder can make the imperialists' job more difficult. But pressure through exposure alone will not stop the profit- seekers. Most likely it would force them to support Indonesia covertly. Imperialism must be overthrown forcefully to prevent its continuation and growth. How about" "Imperialism must be overthrown forcefully by a party capable of maintaining self- sufficiency and defending against imperialist attacks." An estimated four to seven people were killed in the rebellion and about a hundred were injured. Eight banks were also looted and burned as were other buildings. With tension high in the aftermath, the military prevented further protests by threatening to shoot protesters on sight.(3) Most countries in the world do not allow the bourgeois freedoms which are generally allowed in Amerikkka. This comes as a result of the solid support for imperialism within U.S. borders. But don't let that fool you into thinking Amerika is 'free.' So-called freedom in Amerika comes at a price-which is paid by the majority of the world's people. Slavery brought a few people (comparatively speaking) the freedom to be parasites and now imperialism allows for whole countries to be parasites. It is our duty to exploit the bourgeois freedom of speech in Amerika to expose Amerika. Help MIM and RAIL build independent media of the oppressed. Write for, distribute and subscribe to MIM Notes and RAIL Notes. NOTES: 1. New York Times July 28, 1996. p.5. 2. The Washington Post Jan. 10, 1995. p. C10. 3. New York Times July 31, 1996. p. A6. In addition: The British Broadcasting corporation reported that the government blames the Democratic People's Party for orchestrating the unrest. The BBC analyzed this an attempt by the government to instill terror on the masses who remember the massacres of communists in 1965. MIM is interested in learning more about the DPP or other revolutionaries within Indonesia, please send information to the address on page 2. [cite: BBC World Service, Newshour, July 31 1996.] * * * ENVIRONMENTAL DESTRUCTION CANNOT BE STOPPED THROUGH ELECTORALISM The Salvage Rider, a policy tacked on to a budget appropriations bill which legalized the destruction of protected forests and habitats, was signed into law by President Clinton on July 27, 1995. One year later, MIM hosted a talk by an activist from anti- logging struggles in Oregon. MIM drew the connection between capitalism and the destruction of the environment while pointing out that both the Republicans and the Democrats are a part of the problem so the solution can not be found in electoralism. The activist, a supporter of the Cascadia Forest Defenders, showed a short video on the recent removal of logging protections. The video exposed the government propaganda that it is necessary to cut down and remove trees before they burn as a lie. The video pointed out that burning is part of a natural ecological process but human destruction of the environment is not. The logging operations undertaken as a result of the Salvage Rider have produced cheap timber for logging companies and the destruction of vast stands of forests. The speaker pointed out that timber companies give huge amounts of money to politicians. The history of the spotted owl is a good example of companies' power. In 1991, a judge stopped the sale of forests which were spotted owl habitats because the owl is an endangered species. Between 1991 and 1994, the timber industry paid off politicians until in 1994 Clinton introduced his forest plan that allowed much more cutting of forests, removing previous protections. The timber industry opposed this license to destroy while holding out for a carte blanche. It got that in 1995 with the Salvage Rider. This point about pay-offs led to a discussion of what it will take to stop the destruction of the environment. One person suggested that we need to make it profitable to save forests. Others said that we're not able to fight the logging companies dollar for dollar. The speaker said that the timber companies are not looking for alternatives to cutting trees. MIM said, instead we need people organizing and seizing control of the resources of the land away from the capitalists and using these resources for the good of the people with an eye towards the future. History shows us that this can only be done through communist revolution. Some asked why it was possible to get protective legislation passed in 1991 under a Republican president while in 1994 and 1995 it was repealed under a Democratic president. Others suggested that this was a result of the environmental activism in 1990 and the focus of this activism on one cute little owl. The discussion brought out the problems with electoral activism. Politicians can proclaim to be environmentalists (like Clinton) yet continue to take money from the logging industry and further the interests of the bourgeoisie. People at the event pointed out that the few protective legislative changes that have been made resulted from activism and not lobbying. Another important point raised by the speaker was the inefficient use of trees and the anarchic nature of logging under capitalism. He explained how the logging companies are currently exporting wood to Japan. Japanese capitalists store it in anticipation of the soon-to-arrive day when Amerika will run out of trees to cut down. When that happens Amerikans will need to import more wood for the paper industry and Japanese capitalists can then make a profit. MIM pointed out that problems like this can only be solved by social planning where both production and distribution are run by a state that is run by the people. MIM raised the importance of not seeing the environmental movement just in the context of Amerika. We want to broaden people's understanding to include multinationals that destroy the environment. We emphasize the importance of righteous struggles waged by the people. In the Philippines, people are laying down their lives to enforce a logging ban to save forests on which their lives depend. While the speaker pointed to the Earth First! tactics of civil disobedience to stop logging immediately, MIM emphasized that we can't just consider First World forests and we can't just think short term. Several audience members agreed that the system is the problem and this is not merely an issue of a few bad logging companies or a few bad bills being signed into law. One recent victory in the struggle to save forests in Amerika was achieved just a few days prior to the event. The government cut a deal with activists who had enforced a 300+ day road block at Warner Creek forest in Oregon to stop the logging. The government was so embarrassed by this situation and afraid of even greater activism that they agreed to leave the forest alone. This is a victory that is possible in the First World while activists in the Third World would be killed by the government before it considered negotiating. The speaker also pointed out that some of the forests being destroyed are the homes and sacred lands of First Nations. The government breaks treaties with First Nations in order to strengthen Amerikan corporations. Broken treaties regarding land and the environment expose the opposing interests between First Nations and the white nation. The issue of education and Earth Day was raised in the discussion. The corporate curriculum for Earth Day that teaches consumerism that is "friendly" and argues that we should purchase one kind of product over another is only an attempt to co-op the environmental movement while encouraging the decadent consumerism possible in Amerika. People agreed spreading information about environmental and anti-imperialist struggles is very difficult and that events like this are important. In addition, environmentalist struggles are not covered by the main stream media. As one person pointed out, radical coverage is not profitable for the media because companies would cease advertisement in publications that expose environmental destruction. This event was well-received by those in attendance because they learned a lot about the concrete things going on in the Pacific Northwest, as well as the analysis of both the speaker and of MIM. We encourage other activists looking for a forum to contact your local RAIL or MIM branch. Ideas won't be presented without Maoist analysis along side it, but we can all gain from the discussion. * * * ENGLER DEPORTS INCARCERATED YOUTH: ACLU FIGHTS BACK, QUICKLY WINS PARTIAL VICTORY by a RAIL Comrade Governor Engler of Michigan, potential running mate of Bob Dole, was hit with a law suit by the ACLU in May. The state illegally transferred incarcerated youth from Michigan to detention facilities in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Colorado, and Texas. One- hundred youth were transferred out of state, some of whom had no prior criminal record. The state admitted that it erred by not holding required hearings before the youth were deported and agreed to hold hearings before transferring more. The suit was filed by the ACLU on behalf of four youth who were moved and their parents. Others were shipped out of state without their parents' knowledge. None were given hearings to determine whether the move was in their best interest. Being held in captivity is not in the interests of these young people. Nevertheless, the bourgeoisie creates the pretense that Amerika is not a perverse prison empire maintaining social control through force and that prisoners are held in a humane manner. The bourgeoisie will not make decisions based on the interests of these youth, but should be exposed when they inflict further brutality against prisoners. In addition to determining what is in the best interest of the prisoner, the legally required hearings for out-of- state placement are supposed to ensure that the move does not impose undue hardship and that there are no other adequate facilities within the state. Lutz exposed Republican Party "pro-family" hypocrisy. She argued that families should be part of rehabilitation and thus youth should stay close to their families. She asked "...what kind of family values are these?" It's true that youth should have the opportunity to see their family (if they want) and being close to them is a possible advantage. In fact it is often family members that mobilize to pressure the system to give proper medical care, etc. to their loved ones. As a revolutionary Party, MIM does not support the patriarchal family structure, which treats children as the personal property of their parents. We also recognize the contradiction in the injustice system deciding what is in the best interests of the oppressed. The best interest of the oppressed is revolution, but you won't see prison hearings suggest that. But in this case, Engler is in trouble for skipping the rubber-stamping. It is a positive step to expose contradictions within the current system to illustrate the true interests of the bourgeoisie. It is progress to win better conditions for the oppressed even if they are limited under imperialism. ACLU attorney Sharon Lutz stated that overcrowding in Michigan juvenile facilities was a "manufactured crisis.." Manufacturing overcrowding in prisons can help expand prisons in a state, as Governor Weld of Massachusetts proved with his shipment of 299 prisoners to Texas due to "overcrowding." In return, he received almost half a billion dollars to expand Massachusetts prisons (see MIM Notes 112). Detention centers may fall into a different category for state funding, but the actions show there was a motive beyond lack of space. The lawsuit brought some successes almost immediately. Two weeks after the lawsuit was filed, 68 beds were reopened at facilities in Michigan. Exposing the state for violating its own guidelines is useful in mobilizing people to stop trusting the state. While the state does not have the interest of the youth in mind, transfer hearings would make trampling incarcerated youth's lives more difficult. Such winnable battles strike blows against imperialism in addition to creating favorable public opinion for the oppressed in the process. For liberation youth need revolution to change their position in society. * * * PETTY-BOURGEOIS SQUABBLE OVER PROFITS FROM UMASS SLOGAN University of Massachusetts basketball coach John Calipari recently left UMass to coach the New Jersey Nets. He took the profitable "Refuse to lose" slogan, which he had borrowed from the UMass football team while still at UMass, with him. Calipari now hopes to profit from licensing the slogan. According to one of his agents, Calipari is now negotiating a $1.5 million deal with Champion, a maker of athletic t-shirts and sweatshirts. The fact that some jock can make millions off owning the rights to a slogan without lifting a finger to produce anything of value highlights the parasitic existence of the petty- bourgeoisie in Amerika. Besides not coming up with the slogan, Calipari wasn't even the first person to try to get the slogan trademarked. A small sportswear company owner named Hyden came up with the idea in 1988. Hyden produced only small quantities of t-shirts with the slogan because he was afraid someone would steal it. In four years, he made a thousand dollars and got the slogan trademarked. When Calipari started to market the slogan, Hyden cited his own earlier use of the slogan and demanded some piece of the profiteer's pie. Calipari's lawyers successfully argued that because Hyden wasn't using it enough commercially compared to Calipari, the trademark on the slogan should belong to Calipari. Not able to compete with Calipari's high-powered lawyers, Hyden sold the trademark for $3,500. MIM doesn't care which petit-bourgeois collects more, since all these profits are stolen from the Third World proletariat. We do see this as yet another indictment of imperialism that the imperialist-country bourgeoisie and petit- bourgeoisie waste time and money haggling over dumb slogans while their government concerns itself with pursuing exploitation internationally. Neither Hyden nor Calipari is claiming to have earned money by producing any sportswear. Their argument was over who should profit from selling gear made by other people who work sewing machines. This case simply illustrates the role of the state in aiding First World individuals in their parasitic pursuits. UMass, a state institution, doesn't mind that its former coach is making a bundle off of something associated with the University. The school only wants payment for 200 long-distance phone calls the basketball team's academic advisor made while running the marketing campaign for the slogan out of UMass offices. This case also illustrates the ridiculous nature of ownership of ideas. Laws protecting individuals' ownership of their ideas needlessly slow the development of new ideas, and this hurts the international proletariat. Harm done to the proletariat is not immediately apparent in this case, because the slogan is useless. But these types of laws also apply to technical innovations such as efficient car engines which are impounded by competitors. Under socialism, we will eliminate the ownership of ideas. While individuals of the petty-bourgeoisie squabble to gain profits off of old ideas, the proletariat continues its struggle to destroy capitalism and build a society in which innovative ideas will be shared. The masses will use innovative technologies to improve their own standard of living, and use innovative ideas to overthrow the governments which help parasites like Calipari to profit from the ownership of ideas. NOTE: Boston Globe July 18, 1996, p. A1, A23. * * * UNDER LOCK & KEY: NEWS FROM PRISONERS AND PRISONS ALABAMA CHAIN GANGS KILL YOUNG BLACK MEN Dear MIM Notes: No one can say that Governor Fob James has not kept his promise that chain gangs will decrease the prison population and curb overcrowding. It is simple and guaranteed to work. Just arm prisoners with deadly weapons and chain them together, and if they don't kill each other fast enough, not to worry, the guards will simply shoot them down where they stand. On Wednesday, May 15,1996, one of the chain gang prisoners here in Alabama was shot and killed by one of the guards. This shooting took place at Staton Correctional Facility near Montgomery, Alabama. The DOC has already "determined" that the murder of this prisoner was "justified". No one will ever know what actually happened, but the official story is pretty straight forward. Two prisoners began fighting. One of the prisoners had a bush ax. The prisoner with the bush ax went after another prisoner who was unarmed at the time. The guard fired a warning shot, but the prisoner with the bush ax kept going at the unarmed prisoner. The guard then shot the prisoner with the bush ax supposedly to protect the other unarmed prisoner. A bush ax is a tool with a handle similar to, and about the same length as a shovel handle. There is a curved knife-like steel blade on the end of the handle. However, the steel blade is about eighteen inches long and five inches wide. You could easily slice a person's head off with one swing of it. Each prisoner on the chain gang is usually given a bush ax or some other weapon just as deadly. Common sense leads to the conclusion that it was unnecessary to shoot to kill this prisoner. The guard was armed with a piston and a shotgun, and was at close range, within ten or fifteen feet of the prisoners. The guard could have just as easily shot the prisoner in the lower body to wound him instead of just murdering him. They have "justified" this murder but the real reason for it was a sadistic desire to kill. This will not be the last murder to take place on the chain gang. Fights are routine on the chain gang between the prisoners there. Whoever heard of giving prisoners deadly weapons and chaining them together, and then thinking everything is alright? Things are not alright. Will the guard simply gun down both prisoners the next time there is a fight and both prisoners are armed instead of just one of them being armed? It sounds like something from the days of the Romans and the reign of Caesar. This practice is medieval in the worst way. The DOC had previously been considering extending the time that a prisoner spends on the chain gang to one year from its present, six months. However, a couple of week before this recent murder they were already considering reducing the time spent on the chain gang to three months. If the DOC does decrease the amount of time a prisoner must spend on the chain gang, it will not stop these kind of murders from happening. It will only increase each prisoner's individual chance of not being murdered on the chain gang because he will be there a shorter period of time. Nevertheless, someone will be on the chain gang and someone will be murdered again and again, for just as long as the chain gang continues, for just as long as prisoners are chained together and given deadly weapons in such a medieval practice. Ironically, the name of the mascot for the Limestone Correctional Facility's sports teams is the Gladiators. The DOC is making this pretty realistic by arming these prisoners with deadly weapons and chaining them together. They are Gladiators in every sense of the word and they will continue to be murdered in one way or another until the chain gangs are stopped. By condoning the murder of prisoners on the chain gangs in Alabama, Governor Fob James tells us that it is a time to kill. This summer in Alabama is the season for killing young Black men on the chain gangs. We are left to wonder: When will be a time to heal. -an Alabama prisoner, May 20, 1996 VICTORY OVER CENSORSHIP IN CALIFORNIA From: Inmate Appeals, PBSP (Pelican Bay State Prison) Subject: The enclosed publication has been GRANTED by Second Level decision. Please return the publication to the inmate. "MIM NOTES" (Sep. 95) Please return the enclosed memorandum with the inmates signature to the Appeals Office. Thank You. -J. Briddle, CCII, Appeals Coordinator, June 11, 1996 Greetings- I wrote you a couple of letters over a year ago offering some debate on several issues such as National Socialist Revolution, "anti- racist" contractions of National Liberation, etc. I don't know if you received my letters or publish any replies. The pigs were prohibiting your papers, but I just received the September 1995 issue with the enclosed notice [printed above - MIM]. I want you to know, I would like to continue receiving MIM Notes and MIM Theory, and I am open to further correspondence and debate with MIM. Nationalist Revolution is the only solution! Our race is our nation! Self-Determination for all! -A California Prisoner, June 25, 1996. WASHINGTON STATE PRISONERS, ACLU SUE OVER CENSORSHIP Dear MIM, I hope this finds you well. As you know, the pigs continue to reject MIM Notes. I did recently receive the latest MT [MIM Theory] though. Anyways, the ACLU is going to litigate the matter. They just sent the snout director a six page letter on the censorship of PLN [Prison Legal News] and MIM Notes, with a February 29, 1996 deadline to resolve the problem.... I think it's unlikely the pigs will back down at this point. So litigation is pretty much assured....PLN's publisher will be a plaintiff. With me as a party to the MIM censorship we should do just fine. I have litigated and won the communist literature issue twice before in this state. So it looks like the snouts just want to give me more money. On the last one I settled for $300 and expungement of the infraction. I donated $50 of it to the PFLP [Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine] in Damascus, which really got the snouts going. (smile) Anyways, we will eventually make Washington safe for communism. So far no political publications other than MIM Notes and Black Autonomy have been affected.... Needless to say, keep sending me MIM Notes and we'll see what happens. I am sending the rejected issues on to the ACLU after the snouts deny my appeals.... In struggle, -a Washington state prisoner, Feb. 11, 1996 SOUTH CAROLINA CENSORS MIM NOTES Dear MIM, Please remove may name from your mailing list. This institution has a "S.T.G. Policy" All mail is open and read- both outgoing and incoming. I attempted to return all the newspapers and the MIM Theory and the book by John Reed, but they have all been confiscated. Thank you for understanding. -a South Carolina prisoner, May 31, 1996 Letters of protest can be sent to: SCDC, PO BOX 2951202, Bennettsville, SC 29512. MIM Adds: In addition the K.C.I./M.S.U. (Kirkland Correctional Institution / Maximum Security Unit) in Columbia, South Carolina has been rejecting all MIM correspondence in recent weeks, claiming they are unauthorized items. This includes MIM Notes, Maoist Sojourner, Notas Rojas, MIM Theory, censorship letters and political books. Letters of protest can be sent to: K.C.I./M.S.U., 4344 Broad River Rd, Columbia, SC 29210. THREE ILLINOIS MAXIMUM PRISONS ON INDEFINITE LOCKDOWN Comrade, Received June issues of MIM Notes today. Still on lockdown, since January 12. All three max joints (Pontiac, Stateville and Menard) in Illinois are on indefinite lockdown under direct order of Illinois Governor faggot-ass Jim Edgar. The elections are November 2 and his coward-ass know what time it is when ever they roll these doors. Keep them comin' (MIM Notes). In Struggle -An Illinois Prisoner, July 16, 1996. MIM adds: MIM agrees with the thrust of the prisoner's letter, but disagrees with the prisoner's use of faggot as an epithet. There is nothing wrong with being gay. In contrast, there is something wrong with being a fascist pig and making prisoners' lives more hellish in exchange for more political power. EFFECTIVE GRIEVANCE SYSTEM "TEXAS TERROR" As an inmate here in the Texas Prison System. Living in oppression each and everyday after I was ordered by Co III Officer Barry Goins to come with him to the unit infirmary to sign a refusal for medical care, all in the wee hours of April 13, 1995. As the officer and I were walking toward the infirmary on said date, my life took a drastic change. Within the next thirty to forty-five minutes, it was conspiracy, deception and "terror" because my use of the Prison Grievance Procedure her in "Texas". I was brutally beaten, kicked and smashed by Sargent Kirkendall, Sargent Tomlin, Officer Goins, Officer L. Asher, and Officer Bearden. I was beaten for utilizing the Greievance on Sargent Kirkendall on the 7th day of April 1995. All said officers retaliated with a major use of force that was totally unneccessary. All above stated pigs were white. After they depensed the physical pain, the mental torture was seeing a Black female (reject) official with the video camera and she didn't even bother to turn it on to witness the beating. Her name is officer Shaawanna Allison. I never got a chance to sign a refusal, but I did make it to the infirmary, after experienceing Texas Terror. Revolution is the only Solution. -A Texas Prisoner, June 10, 1996. CALIFORNIA VISITING RIGHTS REPEAL The California State Legislature has repealed large portions of Penal Code section 2601, removing statutory protections afforded prisoners. The provisions deleted include rights to workers compensation, to make a will, and to receive personal visits. Workers compensation has proven to be an important protection. It has provided at least some measure of relief for prisoners who are seriously injured on prison work assignments. However, the biggest impact of the bill is the deletion of the right to visit. Visitation has never been recognized as a constitutional right. However, California law has long-protected it. Under former law, visits could only be restricted as required by prison security or public safety needs -- and the prison had to use the least restrictive alternative. (This alternative could include full body searches or noncontact visiting as less restrictive than complete suspensions.) The new law will reduce visiting to a privilege. The Department will be free to restrict visits as long as it is not done in an arbitrary fashion. This could have enormous impact on friends and families of prisoners throughout the state. SB 1221 is now before Governor Wilson, who is expected to sign it. -Prison Law Page, http://www.wco.com/~aerick/ July 1, 1996 MICHIGAN DIVIDE AND CONQUER Recently the administrators within the death kkkamp at the Charles Egeler Correctional Facility, placed a fellow comrade in a perilous situation by attempting to have him "labeled" as a "snitch" among the prisoner class. These administrators/officials made a claim that a comrade made a statement accusing another prisoner of giving him drugs. However, the comrade who have been accused NEVER made such a claim. The pig who created this "lie" made this statement in writing and the prisoner ended up receiving a copy of this pig's statement, thus placing this innocent comrade's life in (possible) danger and ruining his name and reputation. PPWVC (Political Prisoners of War Vanguard Coalition) condemns this type of cowardly act of "divide and conquer" tactics being employed by pig- shit administrators. Not long ago we recall when the FBI and their COINTELPRO acted in such a manner to destroy the Black Panther Party and other revolutionary/progressive liberating, militant groups, organizations, and individual comrades from speaking out against the government. Some of the acts regarding COINTELPRO were/are: (1) Prevent a coalition of political groups, especially those of black nationalist; (2) Prevent the rise of a powerful spokesman who could unify and electrify a coalition of groups/movements; (3) Prevent violence on the part of coalition groups, black nationalist and other political movements. (4) Prevent coalition groups, black nationalist and movement leaders from gaining respectability by discrediting them; (5) Prevent the long-range growth of coalition groups, black nationalist, an other movements, especially among the youth; The national COINTELPRO program adapted various tactics to destroy/neutralize the BBP and discredit them among the "liberal" whites, and among Afrikans, as well. (This is still going on today with mostly, if not all, revolutionary groups and individuals on political paths. I should be mentioned that many people fell for this type of intelligence attack and are still falling for it, as one of our comrades have been targeted by the administrators of the Michigan Department of KKKortuptions at the Egeler KKKroruptional Facility in Jackson, Michigan. Comrades, we need to be careful of this and not allow pigs to put out lies on another so that "you" will act upon their lies and do their dirty work, i.e. "assassinate". Be mindful that the tricks of government (whether state or federal) are always trying to disrupt, confuse and destroy. -a Michigan Prisoner, May 21, 1996. NAZI FOOD POLICY IN TEXAS Dear MIM, Enclosed find the latest crock of administrative bullshit being inflicted upon us prisoners at the new wave bus'em in "state of states prison" [printed below - MIM]. Down here in the South the oppressors have appropriately named its system to Texas department of criminal justice -- institution division. Which means the criminal acts carried out here are always justified no matter what, at the institution divisions. The latest is on your knees, hands locked behind your head (Hitler assassination style) or no food will be served to your been-slot, Plexiglass covered cell (all administrative segregation cells). My personal defiance against the oppressors have resulted in delaying, tampering and intercepting my personal mail. This doesn't faze me. It's a compliment of accomplishment that can not be stopped. Staying down 4 Revolution -A Texas Prisoner, Jun 26, 1996. Texas Department of Criminal Justice: Institutional Division Inter-Office Communication May 28, 1996 To: Captain R. Tarver, Ad Seg Captain, Stiles Unit Thru: Lt. B. Forrest From: Sgt. C. Perrio Re: In Cell Feeding Revised: June 7, 1996 Effective June 1, 1996, During feeding procedures, all offenders assigned to Level III status in Administrative Segregation will be required to do as follows: 1) Officer will instruct the offender to retrieve his cup, face the back of his cell, back up to the cell door, kneel down and cross his feet, place his cup in front of him, and place his hands behind his head, interlocking fingers and not to move. 2) Officer will open food tray slot and move back a safe distance (3 feet minimum). 3) Officer will instruct the offender to place his cup in the food tray slot (while still kneeling down). 4) Officer will place the food tray in the food tray slot and serve the beverage. The officer will then step back a safe distance (3 feet minimum). 5) Officer will instruct offender to pick up his tray and cup and place it on his table in the cell. 6) Officer will instruct offender to pick up his tray and cup and place it on his table in the cell. 7) Once the offender is in the prior position, Officer will then step up, close and secure the food tray slot. 8) After slot is secured, the Officer will instruct the offender to move as the Officer proceeds to the next cell. Retrieving the food tray: 1) Officer will instruct the offender to retrieve his food tray, face the back of his cell and back up to the cell door, kneel down and cross his feet, place his tray in front of him, and place his hands behind his head, inter-locking fingers and do not move. 2) Officer will open the food tray slot and step back a safe distance (3 feet minimum). 3) Officer will instruct offender to place his tray in the food tray slot (While still kneeling down.) 4) Officer will instruct the offender to assume the prior position (face the back of his cell and back up to the cell door, kneel down, hands behind head, inter-locking fingers.) 5) Officer will then step up and retrieve the food tray, close and secure the food tray slot. 6) After the slot is secured the Officer will instruct the offender to move as he proceeds to the next cell. Each offender who is to be served a meal the Officer will repeat steps 1 thru 8. At any time an offender fails to comply with any instruction of the above steps given by an Officer during the feeding procedure the offender will automatically FFP-Failure to Follow Procedures, thus terminating feeding and result in a disciplinary action, the Officer will go to the next cell. These procedures will be enforced, no exceptions. Failure to adhere to will result in Disciplinary action. PRESSURE IN COLORADO PRISONS LEADS TO MURDER AND SUICIDE Revolutionary Greetings, ÉOn June 16th of this year, a fellow prisoner was murdered. The circumstances surrounding this incident is still being investigated. Also I've just been informed that another prisoner committed suicide in the seg. [segregation] unit. This happened June 23, 1996. From what is being passed on is that this individual could not take the pressure of being locked in the seg. unit. Pressure is being placed on the inmate population on all sides. There is no release an some units take the pressure that is being placed on them by this fascist establishment. Most inmates will not strike out against those who are applying the pressure, instead this is turned on other inmates or themselves. Such is the case of the two deaths that have occurred (my thoughts). We have a new warden here who has turned this institution upside- down. I believe this guy supports the ideology of Wisconsin's Governor and his prison reformation system. Many of the things that he says are already being instituted here in the Feds [Federal Prisons]. If a weight is broken it is taken off the yard, never to be replaced. In October, Prisoners (we) will lose cable television. At one time the inmate population had videos, no longer do we have these here at FCI Florence [Federal Correctional Institution at Florence, Colorado] And the population is becoming more violent. Instead of making this joint better it is becoming the worst. I get into many debates with other prisoners over the issue of what means a revolution should take place in this country. Some of these Dudes profess to have an understanding of this country and its political system. Yet I don't think they know the history of this country or how it became so powerful because they say that change in this country can not come about through the barrel of a gun, yet that is what they use to keep the people suppressed. I believe in what Malcolm X believes, the ballot or the bullet, but in different word usage, (the ballot and the bullet). I believe it is going to take armed struggle as well as a diplomatic process to bring about a true government for the people by the people, that represents all the people in this country.... -A Colorado Prisoner, June 24, 1996. RCG1 responds: Your letter clearly demonstrates how prison is used as social control. The pressure builds up and prisoners can become violent toward others and themselves. It seems that political study and the study of revolution has become a positive outlet for you, instead of lifting weights or watching television. We suggest you continue your study of politics and start a study group to help others deal with the pressure of prison. In Struggle. July 27, 1996. REAFFIRM, RECOMMITT, REDEDICATE, REVOLUTION: IN REMEMBERANCE OF ZIYON YISRAYAH (TOMMIE SMITH) i'm getting letters this week from folks caged in Indiana asking me how i was feeling last wed/thurs during Ziyon's murder and i want to tell them that it re-lit a dying flame - did it? will it? i cried on wednesday night for Ziyon, but more for Our collective inability to see him again on the weekend. i was able to see Ziyon a few days before they murdered him - he's alive and strong - his hands were solid and firm as he clasped with mine thru black-boxed cuffs behind his back. i got a letter today that reads in part: "you know man, We can never allow Ourselves to forget days + times like these. Days like these are a time for reflection, introspection and reaffirmation as well as action (when one is in a position to engage in such) As my days have been filled with Ziyon. i have also been thinking about you and other folks out there. Wondering what yall are thinking right now, doing, feeling, etc. On one hand i feel powerless and on the other i know i've got power. why else would men with bombs, guns and clubs be so freaked? Feel so threatened?...." REAFFIRM RECOMMITT REDEDICATE REVOLUTION "don't stand by my grave and cry, i'm not there i never died" ZIYON IS IN THE AIR ABOUT YOU AJAMU IS IN THE AIR ABOUT YOU rev love, -a BCAC (Brew City Anti-Authoritarian Collective) Activist, July 23, 1996. NEW NEWSLETTER FOR PRISONERS: DAILY MAIL We have started a prison pen pal organization and would like your help in spreading the word. We are a pen pal service for prisoners. We are writing organizations like yours to let you know we are a new newsletter published quarterly, dedicated to information and enrichment and to helping prisoners help themselves receive daily mail. Seeking prisoners who would like a copy of our newsletter or prisoners who would like an application to place a free ad in our newsletter. For a free newsletter or an application for an ad in our newsletter, please send us a Self-Addressed Stamped Envelope, (SASE) If you want both a newsletter and an application to be in our newsletter send two SASE's. --Daily Mail, 8139 Sunset Avenue, Suite 190, Fair Oaks, CA 85628. MIM REPLIES: We are happy to print items like the above which advertise services provided for the benefit of prisoners. We occasionally get requests to print similar-appearing items from organizations which describe their work as a service for prisoners, but which in fact are clearly aiming to profit off of prisoners and their plight. The difference between providing free or low-cost services to prisoners like the above and selling similar "services" to prisoners is the difference between serving the people on the one hand and being an "imprisonment pimp" or profiteer on the other. * * * ON PROLETARIAN LEADERSHIP IN THE IMPERIALIST COUNTRIES MIM reaffirms its support for its 1995 Congress Resolution called "Reject the Outdated Idea of an Emerging International Center." Already in the past year, the application of that resolution in struggle has proved fruitful in varied and numerous circumstances. The reorienting of the international communist movement on the basis of Maoism and its unification within those parts that already uphold Maoism turns on questions of varying degrees of universal significance. Those questions of absolutely universal significance include Deng Xiaoping, Hoxhaite, Khruschevite, Brezhnevite, Gorbachevite and Hua Guofeng revisionism. Also, the earlier generations of revisionism and social-democracy including Trotskyism in the imperialist countries remain of absolutely universal significance. Regardless of national or local conditions, Maoist party members must be unanimous in their opposition to Chinese and ex-Soviet revisionism. MIM refers to this as a matter of its first two cardinal questions, one each for the Soviet Union historically and the Cultural Revolution in China. We refer to these questions as absolutely universal because they do not vary by national conditions. As Mao explained, there is no Marxism-Leninism that is not integrated with national conditions. Hence, it will not suffice to be fully Maoist by taking the correct stand on questions of universal historical significance within the international communist movement. The first two cardinal questions are a very important first step to make and likewise, those comrades most able to integrate Maoism with national conditions are more likely to have the stand on the first two cardinals correct. Restating Mao, the Peruvian Maoists employ the concept of "Guiding Thought" as a convenient phrase to refer to the integration of Marxism-Leninism- Maoism with concrete national conditions. While comrade Gonzalo was still free, the PCP Central Committee wrote: "Thus, each revolution must specify its own Guiding Thought, otherwise there is no application of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, nor development of a revolution." MIM's third cardinal on the white working class of the imperialist countries is an example of "Guiding Thought." At the first level, the question of class formation is a universal one. All Maoists must use the same definitions of classes. However, in the end, the breakdown of classes in a society and what to do with them is a question for the formation of a Guiding Thought. In Volume One of the Selected Works, Mao sets forth definitions of the classes he will analyze in Chinese society in the first essay. The second essay in Volume one is already the application of those definitions in an analysis of Chinese society. Such questions as the breakdown of society into classes, the existence of a class as opposed to scattered elements of a class, the particular class content of the national question, whether or not a society is still semi-feudal--these are matters of the Guiding Thought and cannot be answered by way of quotation from the classic works of Marxism- Leninism-Maoism. As an example where attention to particular detail is necessary, we can point to Ancient Rome, where Marx said there was a still- born property-less proletariat. Likewise in Ancient China of almost 1000 years ago, there was a manufacturing sector and a proto-capitalist class. Yet though the definitions of proletariat and capitalist might apply to some elements of society in Ancient Rome or China, we cannot really say that the proletariat as a class existed, especially in the way we understand that term scientifically as a class today. That is a matter of integrating Marxism-Leninism-Maoism with the concrete conditions. In the imperialist countries, there is not a single organization other than MIM that seeks to apply the definitions of proletariat and semi-proletariat. Hence, there can be no question as yet as to whether any but MIM is a Maoist organization in the imperialist countries. There is no point over arguing which Guiding Thought is correct for which imperialist country when there is no organization other than MIM starting from definitions appropriate for the era of imperialism that Lenin analyzed and named. We can name the major obstacles to taking up the universal aspects of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism in the imperialist countries. In order of declining importance they are bourgeois democratic prejudice, post-Modernism, hegemonic dogmatism and populism. The significance of bourgeois democratic prejudice is that many who set out to conduct a scientific analysis of classes in the imperialist societies recoil when they learn that the proletariat can only be a tiny minority in the imperialist countries. They then turn around and alter the definition of proletariat or take-up outright social-democracy in order to achieve a "majority" as the vehicle for progress within imperialist countries, conveniently by omitting the question of opening borders to obtain a majority of proletarians or former peasants. Social-democracy has not vanished as a trend in the world today, principally because it is based in an actually existing class, the semi-proletariat. Over time, the task of separating from the social-democracy of the Second International in the imperialist countries has become more urgent and more difficult, not less. The second major obstacle seen is post-Modernism, which is often mushed together with bourgeois democratic prejudice. Where post-Modernism is not merged together with bourgeois democratic prejudice, it does not seek a majority for its own sake, but it takes advantage of Marx's process of defining the proletariat to redefine the proletariat to include white-collar workers, "pink- collar" workers and other such inventions of the intelligentsia including those related to environmentalism, feminism and anti-racism. Such post-Modernist attempts to change the definition of proletariat are anti-Leninist in that they deny that imperialism is an historical era that we are still in and that the definition of proletariat remains unchanged since Lenin's day. Post-modernism is also counter to the MLM understanding of the world as divided into nations, and the fact that today the principal contradiction is between imperialism and the oppressed nations--a contradiction of utmost violence and not just a matter of language reform or tolerance psychology instruction for instance. Hegemonic dogmatism is the third obstacle to a correct development of Maoism in the imperialist countries. Dogmatists take up quotations from the classics of MLM without regard to concrete conditions. They quote Mao on the united states and other societies in a way that Mao abhorred. They escape an analysis of concrete conditions by quotation. Such dogmatism by itself is nothing new, but gains dangerous force when backed by the prestige of Maoist revolutions not in the imperialist countries. Hegemonic dogmatism is then the denial of the need for a study of concrete conditions combined with the denial of a need for a Guiding Thought. Finally, there is populism as a roadblock to development of Maoism in the imperialist countries. Often indistinguishable from bourgeois democratic prejudice, it becomes distinguishable when those comrades who define and apply the definitions of the classes correctly, nonetheless never seek to mention them again. Instead, such populists always speak of the "people" and their just demands via the environment or education, where there might be a congruence between the interests of the proletariat and the middle-classes combined which form the people. In practice, this is a way to lead comrades into being swamped by middle-class concerns and drag us back to the Second International. The way to separate from populism right now is to put the principal emphasis on setting up the proletarian pole in the imperialist countries. That entails as its corollary the destructive side of attacking revisionism and social- democracy as principal over allying with the middle-classes- -until that time we can be sure there are Maoist parties with the four cardinals set up in the imperialist countries. This does not mean we do not "walk on two legs," but we must be sure to ensure proletarian leadership by carrying out the destructive phase of clearing out revisionism and social- democracy as a higher priority for us now than allying with the middle classes. -Unanimously adopted at 1996 Congress * * * LAKOTA SEEK CONTROL OVER REPRODUCTIVE CHOICES In response to Indian Health Service (IHS) disregard for First Nation women's interests, health care workers on the Cheyenne River Reservation are calling on the tribal council to ban birth control that has had bad effects on women there. The idea is currently being investigated by the tribal council, and brings up sovereignty issues. The council seems to be able to ban Norplant and Depo-Provera, but the federal government could decide to overrule that and distribute them anyway. According to Charon Asetoyer, executive director for the Native American Women's Health Education Resource Center, the IHS does not usually inform women of the drawbacks of Norplant and Depo Provera. Side effects include: hair loss, prolonged and irregular menstrual cycles, weight gain, depression, and severe headaches and stomach aches. Risks include: increased chance of breast cancer, osteoporosis, and cervical cancer. Serious side effects are ignored as the products are recommended uncritically. On paper, women who want either Norplant or Depo- Provera are required to take a pregnancy test and sign a consent form. In practice, First Nation women are not tested for pregnancy. And, according to Asetoyer, the IHS assumes that any woman who shows up at the clinic shows her consent. Women on the reservation who want to have their Norplant devices removed are "strongly encouraged" by IHS workers to leave them in. Some First Nation women have been refused treatment when they go to the clinic, and are told by the IHS that the government has their best interests in mind. But, as Asetoyer points out, "You don't give a healthy woman a drug that will make her unhealthy and say you have her best interests at heart." The heart of the issue is reproductive choice as a reality for First Nation women. According to Colleen Brown Wolf, tribal health educator at Cheyenne River, "When it comes to birth control, women don't really have a choice. I think women should be able to control their reproductive freedom." While the Lakota at Cheyenne River cannot control their own health care for now-only those with Medicaid or private insurance can even get Norplant or Depo- Provera from HIS-they are doing what they can to prevent harmto First Nation women. First Nations should be able to decide for themselves which drugs present too high a risk, and not just be subjected to the federal government policies. Notes: News From Indian Country, July 22-29, 1996, pp. C1, C3. * * * ON ANY OFFER OF POSITION FROM THE MANILA GOVERNMENT Press Statement by Jose Maria Sison July 27, 1996 I cannot accept any offer of position from the Manila government for the simple reason that to accept it is to violate my principles and my firm position to stand for the people's struggle for national liberation and democracy. Such an offer is insulting and is a vain attempt at psychological warfare. However, those officials of the Manila government who make such an offer unwittingly run counter to the Dutch justice ministry which tries to depict me in the most unflattering terms. As I have earlier pointed out, my asylum case in the Netherlands is quite strong because of the February 21, 1996 decision of the Dutch council of state that I am a political refugee and that I cannot be sent back to the Philippines. It is a negative decision of the Dutch justice ministry that is baseless and weak. Thus, I have the confidence to fight it in court. It is a matter of duty for me to stay on for a while in the Netherlands, if only to pursue the asylum case to its conclusion. Were I to give up this case, then I would be allowing the false claims and arguments of the Dutch justice ministry to go unopposed and look as if they were true. Another strong reason why I must stand my ground is that I must frustrate the scheme of the Manila government to separate me from the NDFP negotiating panel and then to lure the panel to Manila. I observe that some of those who express the wish that I return to the Philippines have long tried to demonize me. These few elements do not really wish me to return to the Philippines. They think that they have found one more occasion to make snide remarks against me and against what I stand for. Let me remind everyone that the revolutionary movement and its collective leadership in the Philippines are steadily strengthening themselves, especially because of the rectification movement. That is why the Manila government is compelled to negotiate with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines. RAMOS REGIME MUST NOT RIDE ON UNJUST DUTCH JUSTICE MINISTRY DECISION Press Statement by Luis Jalandoni Chairperson, NDFP Negotiating Panel July 24, 1996 The Ramos regime dishonors its own signature by seeking to ride on the unjust decision of the Dutch justice ministry re Prof. Jose Maria Sison's asylum application and attempting to draw the GRP- NDFP peace talks to the Philippines. On February 24, 1995, the GRP and NDFP negotiating panels signed the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG), which stipulates that formal meetings between the two parties shall be held in a neutral foreign venue. This was approved by the principals of the two panels, Mariano Orosa for the NDFP and Fidel Ramos for the GRP, in April 1995. This latest attempt of the Ramos regime to undermine the JASIG under the pretense of welcoming Prof. Sison and the NDFP Panel is most condemnable. The NDFP has consistently upheld the significance of a neutral foreign venue for the formal meetings of the GRP- NDFP peace negotiations. Our experience in the 1986-87 peace talks with the GRP, wherein General Ramos and Ileto boasted they had greatly increased their "intelligence stocks", proves the importance of a neutral foreign venue. Moreover, the NDFP has opposed the GRP's attempt to depict the 27-year-old civil war as a mere internal police problem. The NDFP has upheld its status as a co- belligerent in a civil war, whose prolonged character and intensity necessitate the application of the Geneva Conventions, the Protocols additional thereto and other international humanitarian law. The Dutch justice ministry decision is unjust and self- contradictory. It admits that Prof. Jose Maria Sison has the right to thestatus of political refugee according to the Geneva Convention on Refugees, as the Dutch Council of State declared in its decision of Feb. 21, 1995. Yet it denies him the right of entry as refugee and stay in The Netherlands. Its accusations against Sison have already been declared unfounded by the Dutch Council of State. The NDFP stands firmly behind Prof. Sison's appeal, confident that his strong legal position will be upheld. In the meantime, the appeal effectively suspends the Dutch justice ministry decision. This unjust decision to expel Prof. Sison if carried out will have enormously negative effects on the GRP-NDFP peace talks. Since 1989 up to June 1996, there have been fifteen formal and informal meetings between the GRP and NDFP. In all these meetings, which have resulted in the signing of five agreements and one additional document, Prof. Sison has played a crucially important role. Moreover, his presence in the Netherlands, where the NDFP Negotiating Panel is based, is essential to the peace talks. Twelve of the fifteen GRP-NDFP meetings have taken place in The Netherlands. The resumption of the formal meetings in the GRP-NDFP peace talks, after a one-year disruption due to the GRP's unilateral suspension, was in fact held in The Hague. It was officially hosted by the Dutch Foreign Ministry. *** DID YOU KNOW? *** *.. that the Philippines has been a colony or a neo-colony of the United Snakes for the last 100 years? *.. that the Amerikan military supplies intelligence, training, and supplies to Armed Forces of the Philippines, which are waging an anti-people "low intensity war," which has displaced more than one million people? *.. that U.S. puppet regimes in the Philippines kow-tow to Amerikan and other foreign monopoly capitalists, encouraging them to exploit Filipino workers and allowing them to produce goods for export while the majority of Filipinos live in poverty and hunger? *.. that the peoples of the Philippines have a long history of resistance to oppression, culminating in the protracted people's war being led by the Maoist Communist Party of the Philippines? NO? Well isn't it about time you found out? READ: "Support the National Democratic Front of the Philippines," an 8 page RAIL pamphlet. $1. "The Philippine Revolution: The Leaders View," by Jose Maria Sison. $10. "Philippine Society and Revolution," by Armado Guerrero. Classic application of Marxism-Leninism- Maoism to the Philippine including an excellent brief history of Amerikan imperialism in the Philippines. $7. All available from: MIM Distributors, PO Box 3576, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109-3576. * * * MAOISTS KNOW SPEECH ISN'T "FREE" BUT DOLE WHINES ABOUT FUNDING PROBLEMS MIM knows all about having limited access to distribution of our speech because we lack the funds. Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole doesn't. He said: "I'm the only person in America who's denied my First Amendment rights." He claims that because he does not have enough money, he cannot get his message out. Actually, he is using every trick in the book in order to get around the hurdles of campaign spending limits and in the meantime absolutely inundating Amerika with his garbage. For decades, progressive people who believe in electoralism have been pushing legislation to limit the amount of money used in political campaigns. They think that if the government tinkers with the way campaigns are financed, the senators won't be as beholden to corporate interests and will not have large disparities between amounts spent on campaigns. The limits are also intended to allow folks with less money in their coffers to run for office, presumably to change the world. These progressive groups have successfully enacted policies that provide public funds for campaigns and limit the spending of those who accept those funds. The policies are rife with loop-holes, which is only logical when you understand that the people in power have no interest in limiting their own speech, even as they accepted sham laws purporting to do so. All they do is prop up a pretense of equal-access democracy. MIM and the international proletariat know that whatever money is spent by candidates-Republican, Democratic or Independent-in imperialist elections it is meant to bolster public opinion for imperialist Amerika. The millions of dollars spent on Amerikan election campaigns are plundered from the Third World proletariat, and whoever is elected will continue to uphold imperialist policies that devastate the Third World. Campaign finance policies were established in the face of strong judicial support for the idea that since political speech deserves the highest protection under the constitution, it should not be regulated by laws limiting the money one can spend on making speech. In 1976, the Supreme Court ruled in Buckley v. Valeo that money is a form of speech when it struck down a law limiting campaign expenditures. It said that amount of money you spend spreading your speech around cannot be limited by the government. Dole is lying about being forced to limit his pre- convention spending to $37 million. He only has that limit imposed because he is accepting federal matching funds-$10 million for now, $62 million plus to come after the Republican convention-to pay for his campaign. That aside, by charging all sorts of TV time and travel to organizations other than his campaign (for example, the Republican National Committee), he is spending several times more than he is "in theory" limited to. Dole thinks he is shortchanged relative to Clinton because Clinton also gets $10 million from the federal matching funds before the convention, despite the fact that Clinton has no real primary challengers. So Dole spent lots of dough defeating Buchanan, Forbes, et al., while Clinton gets to aim all his attacks at Dole. He thinks he should be able to both get federal funds and raise more than Clinton, a combination which he is not allowed to do openly because of the pretense of campaign finance controls. Of course, Clinton and Dole are spending all this money saying the same thing. The cash comes from a combination of the imperialist federal government and imperialist corporations and individuals, and is spent propping up imperialism. Dole has probably never heard of MIM. We can challenge neither his reactionary agenda nor that of Clinton on TV. We criticize both of them instead in media we can afford: newspapers, fliers, and talks. We are still building for the day when the people can watch MIM TV to learn about what's going on in the world from a Maoist perspective. We gladly rely on the people's finance to spread our messages, including "Don't Vote! Smash Imperialist Capitalist Patriarchy!". So MIM readers, give generously: we're up against some big opposition. NOTE: Boston Globe, July 14, 1996, p. 7. * * * LALLAPOOLOZA '96: MIM GOES TO LALA LAND POWNAL, VT-July 9 MIM expected Lollapalooza would be reactionary, but not quite as bad as it was. Lollapalooza is an annual tour of an all-day musical outdoor concert. Once part of the "alternative" music scene, Lollapalooza has gone mainstream and started attracting an even more decadent crowd than usual. One driver en route to the show pledged to run over an elderly womyn if she wasn't out of the road when the light turned. Obnoxious disregard for other people should be expected at gatherings of large numbers of Amerikans. Despite this, MIM attends concerts or other opportunities with large crowds to raise funds for political work and spread revolutionary propaganda to young people. We'd like to win a few away from the escapism of drugs and alcohol and to convince white nation youth that they should side with the international proletariat. While we did make a significant amount of money, the masses were so hostile and dangerous, MIM would think twice before going again. The crowd was disproportionately white males. MIM counted nine Blacks the entire day, and one of those was in police custody. (We saw no whites under police custody.) The people at Lollapalooza were explicitly anti-communist and patriarchal as well. Many people yelled at MIM for being communists, and the two distributors-a man and womyn-had vastly different experiences. The womyn had many more positive encounters and made five times as much money as the man in the same time period. The man received threats he considered serious enough to decline ideological struggle. The masses made it explicit that the womyn was getting money because she was "cute" and a "chick" but that the male distributor should be killed or tossed in a dumpster or river. Both distributors had a difficult time getting the attention of the men away from a womyn who was conducting a strip tease for money on top of a car. A surprisingly high number of people objected to the cover graphic on MIM Notes 117, which pictured a collage of Tweedledum and Tweedledee Clinton and Dole in front of an Amerikan flag with a Klansman where the stars used to be and a sign saying "Don't Vote." As expected, there was objection to MIM insulting Amerika by calling it one with the Klan. A picture serves a thousand words and so the graphic was useful. But we weren't prepared for so many people to object to MIM Notes by expressing open support for the Klan. At one point a confederate-bandanna-wearing-white male started waving his arms and yelling derogatory remarks at one of the distributors after finding out that MIM was against the Klan. Many other masses objected to the Black nationalism expressed in a t-shirt about the Amerikan lockdown a distributor was trying to sell. One distributor tried selling only t-shirts and sold a "Fuck the Vote" t-shirt to a man who turned out to be some kind of white power fascist, judging by the cassette tape he gave the seller. In spite of the incredible amount of alcohol, and soft and hard drugs, MIM did manage to have some good conversations. Some of the best of those conversations centered on exposing the decadence in Lallapooloza and the hypocrisy of the Amerikan justice system. One person started to agree with MIM on all sex being rape, but the conversation ended early when a large drunk male jumped off his truck and pushed the distributor out of the way saying "We don't want to hear any of your shit!" This shows just how far the patriarchy will go, attacking anything or anyone trying to take that sexual power away. At other times the paternalist attitude of the white males toward the female distributor manifested itself through asking personal questions about her own sex life. One man even offered to buy all the MIM Notes in her hand for a kiss and a beer! Though she didn't take up his offer and was completely bombarded by patronizing remarks, she collected large sums of money from the sexist pig population to fund political work. MIM however did find some unity with people by explaining the inherently political and nationally oppressive nature of incarceration. Blacks and Latino communities are under incredible surveillance and are sent to prison in disproportionate numbers to their population or even their drug use. But whites can smoke or get high in the suburbs, the bathrooms of Wall Street or at outdoor concerts and be totally immune because they are not targeted by the state. One group of people-who turned out to be law enforcement officers from Maine-agreed with this contradiction. One thought the situation was purely military, that the young people would riot if the cops stopped the drugs. Had the Vermont State Police set up a roadblock at the entrance, they could have cut down significantly on the illegal drugs and alcohol consumption at the concert. But the Vermont State Police were not interested in hassling white youth. This is in sharp contrast to the road blocks and pig surveillance present in Black, Latino and First Nation areas. The other officer said that he thought it was wrong for police officers to hassle young people for partying and hanging out-especially if it was because they were not white youth. He said that even a simple arrest or police citation can ruin a person's life by staying on their record. Therefore, it's not fair to punish people for life for having fun for one evening. He implied that he didn't target minority youth for such harassment, but readily agreed that the allocation of police patrols and police priorities is beyond his individual control and in the control of the system. While we don't think we made any change in this person's consciousness, the conversation has given MIM a useful example about how the unjust political system directs the actions of individual cops and it doesn't matter if they are liberal. MIM didn't make as much progress with a man who turned out to be a guard in the Massachusetts Korrectional System. He thought that Blacks and Latinos were naturally hostile to whites for no reason. He thought it was unbelievable that Blacks at his college would object to him calling them "Boy" when he sees Black students call each other that, or even "nigger." He strongly argued that Blacks commit more crimes. MIM had this man all caught up in his contradictions, but he ran from them by turning on the air conditioning and raising the window to his car. We hoped to make progress with his drunk female friend who argued that we should stop concerning ourselves with Clinton, Dole, and prisoners and instead focus on ourselves. We were trying to explain that there was no difference between Clinton and Dole and the parasitism inherent in such individualist analysis when the conversation with this friend of a correctional officer was interrupted by her need to approve a cocaine sale. Overall MIM's experience can be summed up in the catch phrase of the concert, "We're going to la la land!" In essence that is exactly what Lollapalooza was, a total escape from the reality the rest of the world has to live in everyday. The decadent lifestyle inherent to today's "alternative" culture was in full concentration and completely unwilling, and most of the time too drugged up to be able, to struggle over any political issues facing the imperialist affected world. Most agreed with how "good" we have it here as compared to the rest of the world, but believed Amerikan's deserved it. Those few who thought this whole system should be changed thought sitting on their butts, like good bourgeois imperialists, was all they should/could do. MIM would have to say that Lollapalooza is just an example how fully the imperialists have bought off today's youth. Until imperialism and the bourgeois ideology that runs with it is overthrown, decadent culture will be an absolute and a breeding ground for future world oppression. If you want to end the power of groups over groups, reject bourgeois culture and work with MIM to create a society and culture that serves the masses of people and not solely the interests of the police, drug dealers, pornographers and oppressive white nation. * * * INDEPENDENCE DAY 1996 The movie Independence Day contains surprisingly little flag waving and relatively large amount of internationalism. That is, once the principal contradiction had shifted from imperialism vs. Third World to Planet Earth vs. The Space Aliens, a lot of old enemies saw themselves working together against the new enemy. Of course, in typical Amerikan chauvinism, this Hollywood, made in Amerika movie makes it clear that the Amerikans are the smart ones who have to lead the fight against the space aliens, figure out how to destroy them, and do most of the work. This movie opens up the interesting question for proletarians of what strategy to pursue in a situation of war like this. Sometimes inter- imperialist rivalries provide the proletariat with the opportunity to ally with one imperialist to overthrow their principal enemy before turning the struggle against other imperialist forces. The same could be true of the struggle between the world's military forces (controlled by imperialist or neo- colonialist powers) and the invading space aliens. But in this movie, the aliens are clearly bent on the annihilation of all humans and are not willing to negotiate with anyone over anything less than complete destruction. In this situation, the proletariat will need to ally with the imperialists (and with all humans) against the principal enemy: the space alien invaders. Proletarians with fighter planes at their disposal should join in the air war against the space invaders rather than trying to use this opportunity to turn against the imperialists. Turning against the imperialists when defeating the space aliens, which is the principal contradiction, would be the same counter revolutionary strategy that Trotsky advocated when he called for the overthrow of the socialist Soviet state on the eve of the invasion of Hitler. Once the aliens are defeated, the principal contradiction would likely again return to that existing between the imperialists and the oppressed nations. This may be a potential revolutionary opportunity because the space aliens in ID4 focused all their forces on the major cities of the world as well as the military bases. This would have decimated most of the imperialist military forces and infrastructure clearing the way for communist revolution. While it was correct for proletarians to unite with the Earth imperialists under this circumstance of space alien invasion, we should ask: Who wrote this scenario? Right now, aliens are imaginary cultural beings created by the bourgeoisie to serve their ends. If this was a movie written with proletarian politics, technically advanced aliens would likely be communists, not evil imperialist scum. Or in a different-as yet unwritten revolutionary alien attack movie-the aliens are potentially good, and the proletariat unites with the space aliens behind the bourgeoisie's back. Then, at the crucial moment, when the bourgeoisie is totally committed in one direction, they realize they have been outflanked by the combined forces of the space aliens and the proletariat. Then, the aliens and what's left of humanity peacefully coexist. While we support the message of ID4 about the principal contradiction, we aren't willing to concede the potential of proletarian imagination producing revolutionary culture. MIM hopes to see revolutionary film makers put out ID4 part 2 where the proletariat seizes power from the imperialists and achieves independence for the oppressed of the world. But they won't do this because the film makers are just bourgeois internationalists. Under their bourgeois internationalist system of imperialism, it will take a super space alien invasion to bring unity, including unity of the proletariat with the bourgeoisie. That's the only way that imperialist system can bring peace to all peoples. By itself this is a strong damnation of the system we live in, which profits again and again from militarism, including this movie which broke the record for grossing $150 million in the shortest amount of time since release. The bourgeois internationalists are dreaming of such unity under their leadership and no doubt their professional opportunists are scheming the equivalent of super alien hoaxes to get the proletariat to go along with bourgeois internationalist rule. Under socialism, we won't need an invasion of superior space aliens to bring about unity. * * * MARXISM-LENINISM-MAOISM ONLINE INMATE CLASSIFIED--PIMPS PROFITING OFF OF PRISONERS' MISERY by MC49 & MC44 In the Under Lock and Key section (pages 6&7), we responded to an item with the following comment: "We are happy to print items like the above which advertise services provided for the benefit of prisoners. We occasionally get requests to print similar-appearing items from organizations which describe their work as a service for prisoners, but which in fact are clearly aiming to profit off of prisoners and their plight. The difference between providing free or low- cost services to prisoners like the above and selling similar 'services' to prisoners is the difference between serving the people on the one hand and being an 'imprisonment pimp' or profiteer on the other." An example of an outfit which pimps off of prisoners is Inmate Classified: http://www.inmate.com, 9710 Zelzah Avenue, Ste. 105, Northridge, CA 91325, 818-829- 1250. We received a letter from this organization asking us to print something about their "service", along with a pamphlet describing their work. The pamphlet reads in part, "INMATE Classified is a World Wide Web site dedicated exclusively to publishing prison inmates['] home pages on the Internet.... "You can use your home page to: publicize your case look for a pro bono lawyer look for new friends that can either write you directly or mail electronically (E-mail) to your private E-mail box advertise your skills to potential employers that might want to hire you upon release publish your writings or art work ...the only limitation is your imagination.... "E-mail contents (if any) are printed and mailed to you once a week.... "Circle your selection Plan A. Price: $70.00. Plan B. Price: $95.00. "Please include one picture or art work and text of your Home Page. (for additional text, art work or photos ask for a quote)" This price gouging itself should tell the reader that Inmate Classified is not a "service", despite its claims to the contrary. But it was by refusing to live up to the agreement in its own pamphlet that Inmate Classified earned public exposure here in MIM Notes. The pamphlet reads: "E-mail contents (if any) are printed and mailed to you once a week." But it turns out that this only applies to e-mail that Inmate Classified chooses to send. We tried to send copies of the electronic version of MIM Notes to the prisoners whose e-mail addresses we found at Inmate Classified's website. But instead of forwarding them on, Inmate Classified's webmaster John started the following exchange: John: If you want to send your newspaper to inmates please do so by regular mail. You can get their addresses from their home pages. MIM: Our newspaper is available electronically, and we would prefer to send it that way if possible. Is there a limit to the size of the messages that prisoners can receive at this site? Will the first issue we sent be forwarded to them? John: Inmates don't have access to Internet. Once a week we download their e-mail boxes and send the contents via regular mail, and that is max 3 pages. We did not forward the first issue. You'll have to do it by mail. Also, we don't forward advertising ... only personal messages. [MIM adds: None of the above caveats are mentioned in the pamphlet advertising the "service."] MIM: Precisely because the prisoners do not have independent access to the Internet, we think your policy of censoring their mail by denying them free literature or an advertisement for our free literature is deplorable. Are you willing to defend this policy in public? Because we plan to write a story about "services" like yours. John: What is deplorable is your attitude. If you really want to send your message across the prison system do it in a professional manner with a professional mail package. But, it looks to me that you are too cheap to do that so I won't waste my type responding to any of your messages. MIM happily takes webmaster John up on his offer to let us get in the last word. For the past decade, MIM Notes has sponsored free subscriptions for prisoners who request them. We also run a free Books for Prisoner program, sending as much free political literature to prisoners as our resources will allow. We publish "Under Lock & Key"- news from prisons and prisoners twice monthly. Each issue contains two pages worth of writings by prisoners and about their struggles. Finally, we run a web server including much of this material electronically. We do all this for free and with donations of stamps or cash from prisoners and individuals sympathetic to their struggles. Compare that to webmaster John and his homepage plus 12 pages of e-mail per month for $70 and tell us: who's cheap and who's the imprisonment pimp? * * * WORLD WIDE WEB REVIEWS AFRIKAN FRONTLINE NETWORK http://www.webcom.com/nattyreb/network.html The Afrikan Frontline Network(AFN) is a "not for profit collective of communicators working to utilize today's resources to provide accurate, timely, and uncensored information to tomorrow's leaders." Full color, interactive and graphical, the AFN site is hard to access without a 28,800 baud modem or other high-speed Internet connection. If you can get such access, it is well worth a visit for up to date information on important struggles of the Black nation. The page has a strong collection of Black anti- imperialist articles, cultural reviews and statements from organizations like the Malcolm X Grassroots Coalition and MOVE. Frontline news articles denounce police brutality and the expansion of the prison system, among other things. African symbolism and a large photograph of Marcus Garvey decorate the red, green and yellow homepage- putting cultural nationalism out front. Garvey's enduring appeal as a symbol of Black nationalism is his success in mobilizing, by some counts, millions of Blacks to build institutions and economic independence from white Amerika. But as a communist Party supporting revolutionary nationalism, MIM struggles to move forward with the most advanced examples of activism which supersede Garvey. MIM takes its lessons from the Maoist vanguard of the Black nation of the 1960s-the Black Panther Party, not the capitalist Garvey. The AFN's electronic newsletter, Dread Times, is updated weekly. The issue we review here included an article about the July Mumia events (see MIM Notes 119 for our coverage), the formation of the Los Angeles Coalition Against Racist Child Experimentation (LACCARE)-which is confronting a research study in which oppressed nation children were injected with deadly experimental measles vaccines. Other articles encourage people to participate in protests against the Olympics which take place in a city with a high homeless population, massive policy brutality and in a region with growing prison populations, low wages and disproportionate infant mortality. Dread Times is a current and informative resource that includes important agitation material. A portion of the site is dedicated to efforts around the defense of Mumia Abu-Jamal, including announcements of upcoming activist events and reports on recent legal news. This aspect of the site shows most clearly the coalition approach of the AFN-which enthusiastically reports the participation of "Pan Afrikanists, Animal Rightists, Ecologists, Liberals, Friends, Social Reformers, etc." in the pro-Mumia camp. The site also provides a link to Amnesty International with no criticism of that organization. Maoists believe in uniting all who can be united against imperialism, and we welcome the participation of liberals around clearly defined goals, but leadership means asserting the most correct path, which means criticizing the pro-imperialist aspects of Amnesty's work. The AFN also provides information about the cases of and activist efforts around Eddie Conway, Khalfani Khaldun, Leonard Peltier and Sundiata Acoli "because we have to save the lives of our warriors." MIM agrees wholeheartedly with proletarian defense of revolutionary warriors in prison-but not to the exclusion of the important work of organizing all prisoners. We do not agree with the AFN, for example, that there are only about 150 political prisoners in the United Snakes. We see more than one million and growing, since we see that all prisoners, no matter what the crime they've been convicted of, are political prisoners of imperialism.(Stay tuned for MIM Theory 11, Amerikkkan Prisons on Trial. Order now, $6, from the address on page 2.) There are other resources for prisoners in general, such as the proposal from the Prison Issues Desk calling for the formation of the New Afrikan Prisoners Militia Network (NAPMN). The NAPMN proposes to monitor legislation and protest anti- prisoner bills-with the reformist aim of ridding the criminal injustice system of specific individuals who draft and vote for repressive legislation. The injustice system cannot be reformed. Small victories can and should be fought for, but we cannot settle for anything less than revolution to bring justice to Amerikkka's imprisoned. MIM builds public opinion and independent power on the outside and organizes support among prisoners to smash imperialism and its prison system altogether. NOTE: http://www.webcom.com/nattyreb/network.html