This is an archive of the former website of the Maoist Internationalist Movement, which was run by the now defunct Maoist Internationalist Party - Amerika. The MIM now consists of many independent cells, many of which have their own indendendent organs both online and off. MIM(Prisons) serves these documents as a service to and reference for the anti-imperialist movement worldwide.
I N T E R N E T ' S M A O I S T BI-M O N T H L Y = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = XX XX XXX XX XX X X XXX XXX XXX XXX X X X X X X X XX X X X X X X X V X X X V X X X X X X X XX XXX X X X X X X XX X X X X X X X XXX X X X V XXX X XXX XXX = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = THE MAOIST INTERNATIONALIST MOVEMENT MIM Notes 164 PART I June 15, 1998 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. INDONESIA: SHAM REFORMS IN THE FACE IF CRISIS AND MASS STRUGGLE 2. UCLA STUDENTS DENOUNCE PROP. 209 & CHAUVINIST CHANCELLOR 3. LETTERS 4. FORMER BLACK PANTHER PARTY MINISTER OF INFORMATION ELDRIDGE CLEAVER DIES 5. FIGHT FASCISM: ORGANIZE AGAINST PRISONS 6. MORAIL AND NBUF HOST FIRST NATION DELEGATION 7. SERVE THE PEOPLE: BUILDING ASIAN-DESCENDED NATIONALISM 8. SENTENCE IS DEATH FOR STANDING NEAR PICKUP TRUCK 9. BOGUS IRISH REFERENDUM: IMPERIALIST-BROKERED PEACE DEALS NEVER MEAN PEACE 10. PRISONS USED TO CRACK DOWN ON ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS 11. IN SUPPORT OF THE INDONESIAN PEOPLE'S JUST STRUGGLE FOR SOCIAL AND NATIONAL LIBERATION 12. NEW YORK WAGES WAR IN SCHENECTADY 13. UNDER LOCK & KEY: NEWS FROMS PRISONS AND PRISONERS * * * 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 * * * INDONESIA: SHAM REFORMS IN THE FACE IF CRISIS AND MASS STRUGGLE by MC17 The tremendous outrage of a people facing the devastation of capitalist economic crisis and imperialist supported military dictatorship forced former Indonesian head dictator Suharto's resignation in late May. However, the imperialist puppet government is still in place. B.J. Habibie, a close friend and protege of Suharto, assumed the presidency of Indonesia after Suharto was forced to step down in the face of widespread public protest and a potential overthrow of the entire government and military. The quick switch of figureheads may temporarily save the comprador government from total overthrow in the absence of strong and revolutionary leadership of the people. Shortly after assuming power, Habibie said that he would be only a transitional figure and would hold an election before his term expires in 2003. That right there could give the government and the military almost 5 years to recover their firm grip on the country. After 32 years under the dictatorship of Suharto, with the imperialist puppet government and military controlling every aspect of the economy and political life in Indonesia, change will require more than a new name in charge. In fact, Habibie is an old friend of Suharto who served as Cabinet minister for 20 years and was an integral part of a corrupt and repressive regime, not only as a Suharto protege but as an official whose family and close relatives themselves control or partly own 80 enterprises, according to the Jakarta Post.(1) In a long and detailed speech televised Monday, Habibie called for widespread reforms of the economic, political and judicial system. But this lip service, although necessary in the aftermath of widespread uprisings and protests against the existing system, promises nothing more than pretty words. Suharto along with his six rich and powerful children, remain in Jakarta. By taking over much of the country's economy for themselves -- from banks to power plants to toll roads to automobile factories to agricultural cartels -- Suharto and his children accumulated as much as $40 billion by some estimates. Earlier this year, Forbes magazine put Suharto's personal wealth at $16 billion, making him the world's sixth richest man. It estimated that his children are worth another $14 billion.(2) Habibie's family and those of other government and military officials have enjoyed similar privileges. Minor reforms not major changes The Indonesian military-political dictatorship is walking a fine line, retaining the wealth and power while appearing to implement reforms to keep the people pacified. The armed forces announced that a preliminary investigation into the shooting deaths of six student demonstrators at Trisakti University revealed that eight soldiers were involved in the shooting and that six officers are "suspected of supporting the incident."(3) This statement should strike any reasonable person as ridiculous given that the Indonesian military has imprisoned and killed opponents of the dictatorship for 32 years under Suharto's rule. The shooting of six student demonstrators was not an error on the part of a few soldiers, it was the result of a systematic policy of military repression. Those soldiers were doing a good job of carrying out the orders and the will of their leaders. If a few individuals take the fall for the military dictatorship this will only confirm the military-government's fear of the people's strong desire for justice. They hope that by throwing the people a few reforms the military dictatorship will be able to go on pretty much unchanged. The government is making other small changes in an attempt to prevent future popular uprising and ensure their future in power. Habibie and his armed forces chief, Gen. Wiranto, have both asked their family members to resign from positions gained through nepotism. Ending nepotism was a key demand of the student protesters.(4) The new government also claims to be investigating the Suharto family wealth but few in power have an interest in any move against Suharto that might also threaten their own financial and political standing. In fact, Gen. Wiranto stated, "the military will protect all former mandated presidents, including Mr. Suharto and family."(16) On May 26th the government announced that it would begin releasing political prisoners on a case-by-case basis, releasing first those it considers least threatening. The fact that the current government still has something to fear from political activists reveals the lack of fundamental change. The first two released were a former parliamentarian, Sri Bintang Pamungkas, who was jailed in 1996 for insulting the then President Suharto in a speech, and labor organizer Muchtar Pakpahan, who was sentenced to four years in prisons in 1994 for inciting workers and charged under the anti- subversion law.(5) "It's just a trick, just to release those who are not considered dangerous, for insulting Suharto," said Gustaf Dupe, 61, a leader of a prisoners aid group. He was sentenced to four years in prison in 1967 as a communist sympathizer.(5) Justice Minister Muladi specifically excluded the one dozen activists of the People's Democracy Party who received heavy sentences for setting up an unrecognized political party, calling for a multi-party political system. Muladi said they could not be released because they were 'communists' and had violated the Constitution. The Justice Minister has also said that thirteen men convicted in the late 1960s for their alleged involvement in events in Jakarta in October 1965 which brought Suharto to power would not be released. Some were members of the Communist Party which was outlawed by Suharto while others were members of the Indonesian army.(6) The change in dictators in Indonesia is not without potential benefit for the people even if this is all the protests accomplish. The increased freedom of the press may make it easier for the long repressed communist movement to organize. Mainstream newspapers are now able to report on the Suharto family wealth and even criticize the president's speech, something that never would have been allowed in the past.(7) This freedom for the mainstream media may translate into an opportunity for the people's movements to organize more openly as well. The change in figure heads and the scrutiny of the world may also give the people of East Timor a greater opportunity to advance their fight for freedom from Indonesian occupation. U.$. financial and military support The united snakes aided Suharto in his 1965 coup against the Sukarno government. During the coup the military killed hundreds of thousands of activists including a large portion of the Indonesian communist party which was decimated by the massacres after gaining significant strength and numbers in the 1960s. Habibie's pronouncements about planned reforms came the day before a team from the International Monetary Fund was due to Indonesia to begin negotiating terms for the release of the latest installment of a stalled $43 billion bailout package.(3) The IMF has suspended payment of $3 billion that was due in March as part of a $40 billion bailout plan. The money was earmarked to help Indonesia begin paying back $70 billion in international loans as well as about $60 billion in government debt. Indonesia's total foreign debt is approximately $110 billion. The IMF package will increase this debt to more than $140 billion. In the last 30 years about 90 Third World countries have received loans from the IMF, 48 are no better off and 32 are actually poorer. The Indonesian government must pay huge amounts of interest to the big US, European and Japanese banks every year. These interest payments will leap again in the next few years, ensuring greater dependency and sucking up any funds that could otherwise be used to provide for the needs of the people. This is a typical international imperialist financing scheme which leads to greater impoverishment for the people in the imperialist colonies and neo-colonies and riches for the imperialist and their lackeys. Indonesia is the fourth largest country in the world with 202 million people who are growing poorer every day. The currency is worth a quarter of its 1997 value, factories have stopped working and unemployment is skyrocketing. Habibie has pledged to adhere to the economic restructuring program approved by the IMF.(1) But this program was what brought about the increased economic hardship for the Indonesian people. On March 24, before the uprisings and overthrow of Suharto, the United Snakes announced an offer of $56 million in food and medical supplies to Indonesia. This offer expanded on $45 million in what the imperialists like to call "developmental assistance": money used to keep puppet governments stable and loyal and their economies under firm imperialist control. The u.s. has a number of economic programs in Indonesia which total close to $490 million according to the Under Secretary of State, Stuart Eizenstat.(8) In a nifty trick designed to ensure u.s. economic prosperity, $25 million has been offered by the US Department of Agriculture earmarked for purchase of U.S. food (and the quantities and products will be determined by the USDA). This is a common policy of u.s. aid to Third World countries. It ensures dependency while keeping the money within the U.$.(8) The Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank) has offered to provide short-term export financing of up to $1 billion for U.S. exports to Indonesia to further back up this dependency strategy. According to the Ex-Im's own description "Ex-Im Bank is an independent U.S. government agency that helps to sustain American jobs by financing U.S. exports to emerging markets that otherwise would not go forward. In fiscal year 1997, Ex-Im Bank supported $15 billion in U.S. exports."(9) To justify past and continued U.$. economic and military support to the Indonesian regime, US government officials have been scrambling to demonstrate the necessity of u.s. involvement. On May 7th senior representatives of the US State Department and the US Department of Defense testified before hearings in the House of Representatives about the u.s. security concerns in Indonesia. Stanley Roth, Assistant Secretary of State for Asia and the Pacific tried to paint a picture of grave security threats in Indonesia while making clear the U.$ economic interests in the country. "The vast, ethnically diverse nation of Indonesia is of broad strategic significance for the United States. It is the world's fourth most populous nation and boasts the world's largest Muslim population; it contains over 13,000 islands which span important sea lanes and airways; and it possesses vast natural resources, including oil and natural gas. Moreover, whereas the Indonesia of yesteryear championed an assertive nationalism which unnerved its smaller neighbors, the Indonesia of recent decades has played a crucial role in fostering regional stability."(10) This Indonesia that he praises as fostering regional stability is the same government that, with U.$. support and training, seized power in a military dictatorship and massacred hundreds of thousands of communists and other opponents. Under the military dictatorship of Suharto, Indonesia has massacred over a third of the population of East Timor in a violent attempt to keep the country as a colony of since invading it in 1975. The initial invasion of East Timor was conducted with the approval and weapons of the united states. Walter Slocombe, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy made clear the extent of the u.s. military involvement in Indonesia: "Our cooperation with the Indonesian military, in training activities and through the acquisition of U.S. defense systems, enhances interoperability...We foresee a continued growth in our mutual security interests, and view Indonesia as an increasingly important and constructive strategic actor.... Our bilateral military activities with Indonesia, while not extensive, have incrementally increased in recent years. Combined with our other bilateral defense activities in the region, they offer a good foundation for the continued long-term U.S. military presence..."(10) East Timor For 22 years East Timor has suffered under the military occupation of Indonesia. The active resistance of the Maubere people has been met with brutal repression. Many remember Nov. 12, 1991, the date that Indonesian soldiers fired upon a defenseless crowd of thousands of East Timorese pro-independence demonstrators at a cemetery, killing more than 250. But this was just one of many murders and imprisonments by the Indonesian military dictatorship in its attempts to control East Timor. The change in comprador dictators brings potential hope to the struggle. With the Indonesian government's energy focused elsewhere, the Timorese people may have a chance to win their freedom. And with the international focus on Indonesia, it is possible the new government will find East Timor too much of a liability of both resources and international public opinion. The u.s. administration currently observes a ban on the sale of small armed, armored personnel carriers and helicopter- mounted weapons to Indonesia (weapons frequently employed in the repression of the East Timorese people) as a result of public outcry after publicity of the 1991 massacre. But the U.$. continues to supply spare parts, ammunition and other military equipment to the Indonesian regime. The US government Export-Import Bank has also financed helicopter sales to the Indonesian military. In addition, the U.$. has carried out ongoing training of Indonesia's notorious military units in spite of a congressional ban after the 1991 massacre in East Timor. This program, known as the Joint Combined Exchange and Training (JCET) program run by the US Department of Defense found ways around the congressional ban to continue training the Indonesian Armed Forces. On March 8th the Defense Department was forced to suspend the JCET when their activities were revealed to the public.(11) The fight for self-determination goes on in East Timor. On May 23rd the Indonesian military killed one person and wounded three in a shoot out with Fretilin, the armed wing of the East Timorese independence movement which has been fighting Indonesia since its invasion in 1975.(12) The new Justice Minister Muladi announced he would be asking President Habibie to grant what they call Indonesia's 27th province a special status. "We ought to change our attitude," Muladi said. "If we can make East Timor a special territory, that would give us a better bargaining position with the military."(13) This change of status is a likely outcome if one of the more liberal presidential candidates should win. But East Timor will not be free until it is granted full independence, all outside military and economic forces withdraw, and the Maubere people of East Timor have the opportunity to decide for themselves how to run their country. The Justice Minister also announced that Xanana Gusmao, a military leader of the Fretilin resistance forces who was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 1993, didn't fit the criteria for potential release as a political prisoner.(13) The indigenous Acehnese nation and the West Papaun nation are also demanding self-determination and fighting Indonesian domination. New elections, same old system Under the current laws, the president is not elected directly, but by an assembly whose candidates are approved by the government in advance. In the seven elections held after Suharto took office, he was the sole presidential candidate of all three parties.(7) Even if the entire electoral system is fundamentally reformed to resemble imperialist "democracy" this will not change who controls the money and political power. This control and power is what wins elections and without it the people will never enjoy true democracy. Sukarnoputri, the daughter of former president Sukarno, has announced her candidacy in the next election.(3) Sukarno was the president before being overthrown by the Suharto military coup. He led a coalition government that included the Communist Party of Indonesia which has since made self- criticism for their failure to lead the masses in opposition to imperialism and instead tailing the bourgeois democracy of Sukarno. Sukarnoputri likely represents the most radical of the potential presidential candidates but she does not offer the people and end to the exploitation and oppression of imperialism, just a kinder and gentler face for the system with possibly a less brutal military. The Former parliamentarian, Sri Bintang Pamungkas, recently released from prison, is also planing to run for presidency. Although he was imprisoned by Suharto, he does not represent any significant difference from the current government.(14) Revolution is the only solution The people's mass struggle against the government-military dictatorship in April and May was not led by a revolutionary party with the demand of overthrowing imperialism. This lack of leadership made it easy for the change in figureheads to allow the government to regain control over the country. One organization that played a prominent role in the student and worker's protests was the Peoples Democratic Party (PRD). Many of those arrested during the rebellions reported being questioned about membership in this organization. The PRD operates entirely underground since a severe crackdown last July 27 and focuses its work on publishing leaflets and building their mass organizations. The PRD represents a broad mass movement willing to operate within capitalism. They called for the overthrow of Suharto but do not offer an alternative to capitalism to put in his place. According to the PRD, "The mass political struggle must be developed and must be able to build a country with a multiparty, democratic and popular-based nature, to replace a country of exploitation and oppression with all their instruments of violence, such as the military, the courts and the police."(15) They demand "the military must return to the barracks" but do not demand a dismantling of the imperialist backed military. As mentioned above, movements for formal democracy such as the PRD can be progressive, in the sense that they unite all who can be united against the current puppet government and give the people more freedom to organize for real revolutionary change. But movements for formal democracy cannot fully address the basic social and political problem facing the Indonesian people: imperialist domination. There is no way that capitalism can be reformed into a just system that serves the people. And because of this, the overthrow of imperialism, the highest stage of capitalism, is necessary and inevitable. In spite of tremendous repression the people of Indonesia have been fighting for years. During 1994, the Indonesian workers demonstrated (on strike) 1,130 times. This was a 350% increase on the figure for 1993 when there were 312 strikes recorded.(15) But these widespread protests and strong sentiment of discontent needs the leadership of a vanguard party to offer the people the necessary analysis of history and the line, strategy and tactics that can defeat their enemy, imperialism. MIM commends the people of Indonesia for their successful protests against the imperialist backed military dictatorship. And we point to the lessons of history so that the Indonesian people will not have to suffer another year under imperialist rule. NOTES 1. Washington Post 25 May 1998, p A26. 2. New York Times 25 May 1998. 3. Washington Post 26 May 1998, p. A01. 4. Associated Press 26 May 1998. 5. Washington Post 26 May 1998, Page A11. 6. TAPOL, Indonesian Human Rights Campaign, press release, May 25, 1998 TAPOL, Indonesia Human Rights Campaign, 111 Northwood Road, Thornton Heath, Surrey CR7 8HW, UK Phone: 0181 771-2904 Fax: 0181 653-0322 email: tapol@gn.apc.org. 7. New York Times May 26, 1998. 8. http://www.indonesiatoday.com/a3/j6/y2mar98.html 9. http://www.indonesiatoday.com/a3/j6/y2apr98.html 10. http://www.indonesiatoday.com/a3/j6/y1may98.html 11. East Timor Action Network press release, May 12, 1998 from etan-outreach@igc.apc.org 12. AAP NEWSFEED May 25, 1998, Monday available via etan- outreach@igc.apc.org 13. Deutsche Presse-Agentur May 25, 1998, Monday, BC Cycle. 14. BBC, Tuesday, May 26, 1998 Published at 09:20 GMT 10:20 UK. 15. Statement from the National Committee of the PRD, Jakarta, 22 July 1996. 16. Philippine Daily Inquirer 23 May 98. * * * UCLA STUDENTS DENOUNCE PROP. 209 & CHAUVINIST CHANCELLOR by a MIM Comrade On May 19, over 1,500 UCLA students rallied against California's Proposition 209, which prohibits consideration of race, ethnicity, or sex in public sector hiring, school admissions, or other accomodations. About 400 students also occupied UCLA's Royce hall for several hours, demanding that newly-appointed Chancellor Albert Carnesdale declare that UCLA will not comply with Prop. 209. Because of Prop. 209, the admissions rate for Black, Latino, and First Nation students at UCLA dropped drastically this year. The intensified activism around Prop. 209 is the inevitable response to the crass chauvinist maneuverings of California's reactionary bourgeoisie and its allies in the white petty bourgeoisie and labor aristocracy. The discrimination contained in measures like Prop. 209 and the infamous Prop. 187 are part of the larger picture of national oppression in California. This larger picture also fuels the protests. Indeed, as student leader Kandea Mosley said, "Our opposition to Prop. 209 ... is not a result of a skewed perception of affirmative action as a cure-all for all of our communities and the racist, classist violence perpetuated on our people daily. Rather, the reasons behind raising a political struggle in this university is created out of our understanding that organized struggle ... is necessary on every level."(1) When students link up with the broader struggles of the oppressed masses, inside and outside of u.$. borders, they become a powerful force for change. The rally, which also commemorated the birthday of Malcolm X, gathered force throughout the morning of the 19th. In the early afternoon, the protestors marched around the campus, calling on students and other observers to join them. Many did, and others cheered the marchers on. One participant reported that the crowd of protesters tripled in size during the march. The rally then turned to Royce hall, which some protesters occupied, draping banners over the upper-story balcony and giving speeches. Besides denouncing Prop. 209 and criticizing Chancellor Carnesdale for not clearly opposing it, the students denounced Carnesdale's bourgeois, Amerikan-centered approach to university education. According to one observer, the students were particularly outraged by Carnesdale's comments that they should learn something useful, not "the Queen of Sheba," a reference to African history.(2) Students -- especially students from Amerika's internal colonies -- have a hunger and thirst for knowledge of their own history, the roots of their oppression, and the means to overturn it. They should be allowed to determine their own curriculum. Carnesdale's comments show that he is a lackey for a so- called educational system, which does not educate but instead assimilates students into the economic and political status quo. The campus authorities eventually called out more than 50 LAPD riot police because, in the words of Chancellor Carnesdale, "we must not establish a precedent that students can stop the functioning of a university."(1) When the riot pigs showed up behind Royce hall, about 100 protesters formed a human barrier in front of them and shouted: "This is our campus."(1) The police eventually arrested more than 80 of the students who refused to leave Royce hall. Unfortunately for Carnesdale, the protesters' actions that day did show that students can disrupt university business. Historical and international precedent show that students can not only disrupt the functioning of a university, they can also lead revolutionary change. Witness current student struggles in Indonesia, student struggles in south Korea in the late 80s, the "First Quarter Storm" in the Philippines, the anti-Vietnam War movement within the United Snakkkes. The Black Panther Party, the Communist Party of China, the Communist Party of the Philippines, and many other revolutionary and anti-imperialist movements and organizations all grew out of student activism. Oppressed nation students lead resistance The core of the protest leadership was Black, Latino, and Asian/Pacific Islander -descended students. No surprise there, since they come from the communities most affected by the recent spate of anti-oppressed nation referenda in California. The group of applicants admitted to the UC system for Fall 1998 was the first group to be affected by Prop. 209's "race blind" policy. Despite an increase in the number of Black, Latino, and First Nation applicants, the number of students admitted from these groups dropped sharply.(See Table 1) Black, Latino, and First Nation students made up 23.1% of the students admitted to UC Berkeley in 1997, but only 10.4% of the students admitted in 1998. The same figures for UC Los Angeles were 19.8% and 12.7%.(3) All this despite the fact that Blacks, Latinos, and First Nations make up 35% of the population of California(4), so the higher 1997 figures already showed gross discrimination in University admissions. Latinos and some Asians have also been caught up in a wave of anti-immigrant sentiment by measures such as Prop. 187, which would cut off all public services (such as emergency health care and education) to undocumented immigrants. This all goes to show that in its quest to humor the yahoos in California's predominantly white labor aristocracy and petty bourgeoisie, the bourgeois state is creating allies for the proletarian struggle within u.$. borders. There's no denying that the principal goal of a UC education is to assimilate its students comfortably into the status quo, maybe even make them administrators over the status quo. But as the UCs deny this future to more students, and as the crass chauvinist nature of the existing system becomes clear to those students already enrolled, the number of students with less to lose and more resolve to fight increases. Table 1: Admissions to the entire UC System, by year and nationality(3) Black First Nation Latino TOTAL 1997 3198 711 11818 15727 1998 2255 574 9907 12736 % change -29% -19% -16% -19% NOTES: 1. Daily Bruin, 20 May 98. 2. Interview with rally participant, 22 May 98. 3. New York Times, 1 Mar 98. 4. Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1996. * * * LETTERS Revolutionary greetings! Thank you for providing me with the necessary materials aiding in my revolutionary consciousness; they will be put to good use, as well as shared with other progressive seekers. I've been studying political economy for at least 3 or 4 years now, and as I continue to deeply grasp the principles and laws governing these complex structures, I keep in mind what Karl Marx said: "Everything starts out difficult. Every science is this way." In the concrete analysis of objective phenomena, Marxist political economy penetrates the surface, grasps the essence, and undertakes scientific abstraction. But I will be honest, comrade, at times I get bitter when I see people behind these concentration camps capitulating to capitalist ideology. What I mean by this is the rapid apathy for struggle inside these walls, not on a physical level, but the struggle on a theoretical and ideological level. So many brothers have been duped by "cultural nationalism" to the point where political an ideological line, "they believe," is unimportant. They are somehow convinced that the teachings of revolutionary politics, and the study of political science is preaching "practical politics." This is attributed on the one hand to the vampire like media who insist on convincing New Afrikans that to change the current state of affairs is to work within the capitalist empire and not through armed resistance. And on the other hand, we got flag waving buffer New Afrikans running around the empire promoting "everything Black is beautiful" philosophy, a philosophy which suggests that our line should be: Buy Black, think Black, and live Black... "and capitalist America will start to listen in some near future." In Struggle, --A California prisoner MIM Responds: We are always heartened by letters like yours, which show both a willingness to struggle for real revolutionary change and enthusiasm for a materialist and scientific approach to politics. As Stalin wrote, "Theory becomes purposeless if it is not connected with revolutionary practice, just as practice gropes in the dark if its path is not illuminated by revolutionary theory." We agree with your criticisms of cultural and bourgeois nationalism. Bourgeois nationalists promote reform and reconciliation with Amerikan imperialism, which MIM rejects. And cultural nationalists are ultimately not even reformists, but vulgar idealists. According to the Black Panther Party, "Those who believe the 'I'm Black and Proud' theory - believe that there is dignity inherent in wearing naturals; that a buba makes a slave a man; that a common language, Swahili, makes all of us brothers... In other words cultural nationalism ignores the political and the concrete, and concentrates on a myth and a fantasy." However, MIM is confident that we can win over the most oppressed to a revolutionary and materialist perspective. There will always be people under the influence of bourgeois nationalism, right up to the revolution, because there are bourgeois and petty-bourgeois classes in the oppressed nations. They pick up the ideology that promotes their interests. On the other hand, bourgeois nationalism does not promote the interests of the exploited and most oppressed sectors of the oppressed nations. Only revolutionary politics have relevance for them. We believe that patient political and ideological work will counteract bourgeois influences among the most oppressed. The work you are doing setting up study groups (with the help of the "Free Books for Prisoners Program") is part of that process. Note: Phillip Foner, ed., "The Black Panthers Speak," JB Lippincott: Philadelphia, 1970, p. 151. MORE ACADEMICS OPPOSE POLITICAL EDUCATION FOR PRISONERS Dear MIM, I did not mean to imply that only the authors on my list are suitable for reading and further enlightenment of prisoners. If you choose to send only certain books then YOU ARE sending a bias view of the world. Stop arguing with me about these things. Some people do not want to know the truth. Some people look for a reason to lash out. Everyone wants to be able to say their life was hard, but there is always someone worse off than you. Don't be satisfied with life, but YOU ARE NOT offering an unbias view. I did not mean to imply that you should not send what you are sending , just that you should send variety. Not everyone has access to the authors I have mentioned. I went to a school in the suburbs and I am going to a high priced public institution. Money buys access!! I did not read some of these authors until I got to college. I know that you think that I have an over glorified view of the world, but don't assume that just because these authors have some recognition that everyone has access to them. It's not information or enlightenment...it's guidance. --an academic in the midwest MIM responds: This is one more in a series of letters we have received in response to our political Books for Prisoners program which does discriminate about which books are sent in to prisoners. We give prisoners access to political education from the perspective of the oppressed of the world. And in response to our end of the semester campaign for book donations on many college campuses, MIM has received a number of letters like the above from well off academics who want to preserve the hegemony of bourgeois academic ideology. We readily admit that the MIM Books for Prisoners program is offering a biased view of the world to prisoners. We offer the bias of the oppressed people of the world. While there is the entire educational and cultural system offering prisoners and everyone else the bourgeois perspective, there are few revolutionaries and even fewer resources on our side. We do think it is worth everyone's time to study the reactionary as well as the progressive perspectives. But prisoners would not have access to revolutionary political education if it were not for groups like MIM. And we hope that from this biased view of the world prisoners learn that their lives don't have to be worthless and that it is possible to fight the imperialist system. To make donations to MIM's Books for Prisoners program send checks or money orders to the address on page 2. * * * FORMER BLACK PANTHER PARTY MINISTER OF INFORMATION ELDRIDGE CLEAVER DIES by MC206 Eldridge Cleaver, former Minister of Information of the Black Panther Party (BPP), died of natural causes on Friday, May 1, at the age of 62. Eldridge played a leading role in the Maoist BPP in the late 1960s, but in the 1970s he recanted his revolutionary politics and became a christian. According to Reuters News Service, in the 1980s he ran for the u.$ senate as a conservative Republican. While he was in the Black Panther Party under the leadership of Huey Newton, Eldridge performed great services for the revolutionary movement in the Black nation and for the broader anti-imperialist movement in the u.$. He inspired and taught many. As Mumia Abu Jamal recently wrote, "It was because of his revolutionary audaciousness that I threw caution to the winds and joined the party and was assigned to the organization's Ministry of Information. He used words as weapons and scored the enemy with his acidic tongue." However, Eldridge himself summed up the last 20 or so years of his life, when he wrote in Soul on Ice, "A slave who dies of natural causes will not balance two dead flies on the scales of eternity." The internal causes for Eldridge's degeneration were ultra- left idealism and individualism. He was upset that existing socialist and anti-imperialist countries had failed to immediately create a workers' paradise, but instead lagged behind in terms of productive forces and what Eldridge considered individual freedoms. He also nit-picked them for failing to realize what he considered perfect interpersonal relationships. At the same time, he could not stand up to the significant pressures his politics placed on his lifestyle. According to an upcoming MIM Theory review of "Soul on Fire," the book in which Cleaver explains his degeneration: "[Cleaver] felt guilty that his wife and children suffered on account of his legal problems with the u.$. government. 'The most powerful, single breakthrough, in my Communist-held position, was the birth of my children...' (p.135) He was not willing for his children to learn French and soccer instead of English and football; even though he had complete citizenship rights in France.(pp. 208-209). He had witnessed countless revolutionaries give their lives, but having his kids grow up in France was too much sacrifice for Cleaver." Eldridge Cleaver at once became impatient at the steady progress of individual states towards Communism, and unwilling to make even slight sacrifices in lifestyle for the revolution. Of course, the external condition for Eldridge's degeneration was political persecution by the u.$. government. Eldridge had made great personal sacrifices for his work with the Black Panther Party in his revolutionary political period. He was almost killed in the same shoot-out in which the Oakland pigs murdered Bobby Hutton, and he faced imprisonment and probable assassination for his revolutionary politics. As he became older and saw personal enemies falling from power and old comrades becoming mayors and influential members of the ruling class, Eldridge "cut a deal with the devil," and denounced his revolutionary past. Even while he was in the Black Panther Party, Eldridge had ultra-left and individualist problems. He was associated with the "armed struggle now" line in the party. Huey also criticized him for being down for big flashy actions, but disregarding the day to day details of Party building, such as running the party's newspaper, The Black Panther. MIM looks at the legacy of Eldridge Cleaver in the spirit of Mao's dictum that "one splits onto two." We should learn from his mistakes, inside and outside of the movement. Eldridge provides a clear negative example of the problems of ultra-leftism, liberalism, and individualism. We must also uphold his correct legacy within the Black Panther Party. The brutalities of national oppression and the Amerikan prison system made Eldridge recognize the necessity for revolutionary change. And for few years, he put his life on the line in order to make socialist revolution here in the belly of the beast. NOTE: For more on the history of the Maoist Black Panther Party of the late 1960s and early 1970s, write to MIM for a copy of our pamphlet Maoism and the Black Panther Party, or send $10 for a copy of Philip Foners' The Black Panther Party Leaders Speak. * * * FIGHT FASCISM: ORGANIZE AGAINST PRISONS On May 9th, organizers of the Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League (RAIL) distributed hundreds of MIM Notes, RAIL Notes, and flyers called "Who is the primary enemy of the people?" and discussed correct organizing strategies against oppression with hundreds of people attending anti-Klan rallies, marches and picnics in Ann Arbor, Michigan. RAIL emphasized anti-imperialist and pro-national liberation struggles to people demonstrating against an Ann Arbor City Hall-hosted Ku Klux Klan rally. Two counter-demonstrations marched through Ann Arbor and met at City Hall to oppose the small Ku Klux Klan rally. The Klan's rally lasted less than one hour on the steps of the Ann Arbor pig department building. The AAPD defended the KKK with thousands of dollars worth of fencing and riot squad personnel. (Various activists estimated the cost of KKK protection to range from $75,000 - $120,000.) There were three main groupings of counter demonstrators. The vast majority were youth who opposed the Klan but agreed with RAIL that genuine activism goes beyond physical fights with individual fascists. The second group and the main organizer of the City Hall counter-demonstration was the National Women's Rights Organizing Committee (NWROC). This Revolutionary Workers' League (RWL) front-group advocated 'smashing the Klan' by physically forcing the Klan to stop its rally. The third grouping was mostly pacifists and older left Ann Arborites who gathered in a separate location for a 'Unity Rally.' The Unity Rally organizers also formed a 150- person 'Peace Team' and worked with the Ann Arbor pigs to physically maintain the barricade between the Klan and counter demonstrators and to prevent violence between the groups. Neither RAIL nor MIM organized the counter-demonstration at City Hall or the Unity Rally. The Peace Team spent 18 months preparing for its non-violent action. The pseudo-militant groups spent a tremendous amount of resources preparing to tail the Klan rally. Neither of the groups' anti-fascist organizing (if any) rival RAIL's. While RAIL has organized for national liberation struggles and against oppression in Michigan's prisons, the pseudo-left has been organizing to rally against the 37 Klan members who traveled from Butler, Indiana to Ann Arbor for one day. RAIL organizers attended both counter-demonstrations to organize progressives to support genuine struggles of the masses against imperialism. We offer organizing as an alternative both to throwing rocks at pigs (in blue uniforms or white sheets) and to apolitical socializing. We found many progressives at both gatherings who opposed white supremacy but saw that the leadership of the anti-Klan rallies lacked a correct analysis and strategy. Many were impressed with RAIL's practice and agreed that putting out a newspaper and organizing daily with prisoners and anti- imperialists is more correct than yelling at, threatening and beating up white supremacists. Pigs, pacifists & provocateurs react to KKK NWROC led the larger of the two counter-demonstration contingents from the University of Michigan Union to City Hall. The contingent contained the groups' pseudo-militant base and much tough talk about death to fascists and smashing the Klan, but most of the contingent were youths not involved in NWROC. RAIL found that most marchers agreed with having a counter-demonstration, but not with NWROC's overall strategy. When the Klan rally started, some of NWROC's group tried to break down the barriers protecting the Klan. The Peace Team, which had been trained to non- violently intervene, worked with the cops to maintain the barricades. A group of counter demonstrators battled the Peace Team at the fence and later overcame a different part of the barrier. After the pseudo-militants attacked the Peace Team, pigs sprayed tear gas and pepper spray, forcing the demonstrators to disperse. The demonstrations ended without any arrests, but the AAPD vowed to identify some counter demonstrators by video tape and prosecute them. A small group of pacifist youth marched from another part of the University of Michigan campus, following a call "to show Ann Arbor that we're mad, not stupid." The majority in this march wanted to rally against the Klan but remain separate from any violence. Random acts of violence A loud and irrational minority decided that beating up Klan members/supporters, throwing rocks at City Hall, and attacking pacifists would be their anti-racist deed for the day. Some of these individuals were the only people who crumpled up RAIL's literature after learning that our work does not include 'kicking someone's ass,' and some beat up individual racists on the streets. Youth are correct to be pissed off at Amerikkkan society, but anger is not enough. RAIL works to turn angry youth into strong revolutionaries. We urge youth who do not work with us to critically examine the leadership of so-called left groups that try to get their members arrested. Examine the differences between RAIL and groups like the RWL and its NWROC front, the Trotskyist League and the Progressive Labor Party. Why do these organizations demand more pay for Amerikkkans, ignore the immiseration of the Third World proletariat, oppose struggles for national liberation, and organize from the same mass base as the Klan does? Why do these organizations oppose RAIL's work to support prisoners' struggles and anti-imperialist revolutions? Why did the Black Panther Party and the Young Lords Party build Serve the People programs and publish newspapers? Neither party intentionally got its members arrested, and each accomplished far more in building public opinion among its community than the pseudo-left that tails the Klan. Oppressed nation youth in Amerikkka are increasingly repressed and in prison. More oppressed nation youth are studying and building on the legacies of earlier revolutionaries like the BPP, YLP, AIM and I Wor Kuen. Some white nation youth are also ready to mobilize against Amerikkka society. We challenge white nation youth to make revolutionary study and struggle much more than a one day per summer pastime. Random acts of non-violence Approximately 80 different religious, pacifist and other community groups formed a coalition with the Ann Arbor City administration and cops to organize the Wheeler Park Unity Rally, several blocks away from the Klan rally. Organizers said that their goal was "to overwhelm [the Klan] with positive energy."(1) The pacifist coalition came together after the Klan's 1996 rally in Ann Arbor ended in violence; the coalition wanted to take a more active role in this year's counter-demonstration. The pacifist coalition did much to legitimize the system that protects the Klan and puts its ideology into practice. Protecting the Klan's freedom of speech is the state's job, and the state does that job well. Radicals, revolutionaries and revolutionary nationalists are overwhelmingly denied free speech in Amerikkka. With the AAPD on its side, the Klan had nothing to fear, it did not need the Peace Team. The one positive thing we could say about the Peace Team would be if it prevented arrests from taking place. It is still too soon to say if there will be less arrests related to the rally and counter-demonstrations than there were two years ago. Fight fascism, imperialism and national oppression! RAIL organizers maintained an emphasis on the need to fight the most fascistic element of Amerikkkan society -- the prison system. The Amerikkkan prison system now incarcerates 1.7 million people; it disproportionately imprisons members of oppressed nations, and it grows exponentially with majority support from the white nation. Given the example of prisons as a primary tool of national oppression and racism, few demonstrators disagreed with RAIL's depiction of the white nation as a reactionary group whose material interests lie in oppressing the masses of Third World nations and Amerikkka's captive internal colonies. Many demonstrators were convinced to be more critical of anti-Klan organizing when confronted with the fact that the white nation as a whole supports the proliferation of pigs and prisons and this is far more dangerous to the majority of the oppressed nation masses within Amerikkka than a few white supremacist extremists. RAIL sees the white supremacists in the government, military and prisons who physically enforce imperialism as more dangerous than extremists who spread racist propaganda. Exposing the chauvinist policies of the Amerikan government is more difficult than yelling and beating up individuals because it takes rational knowledge, analysis and day-to-day work. It is also the only proven method of achieving liberation of the oppressed masses. White nation apologists fake left, run right As front groups of the Trotskyist Revolutionary Workers League (RWL), NWROC and its sister front group BAMN share in the RWL history of infiltrating and splitting progressive organizations in Ann Arbor. The RWL and its front groups split other organizations by forcing the issue of so-called militancy within these organizations. While the RWL promotes the militancy of throwing public tantrums, this does little to organize people into the day to day work of anti-fascist, anti-imperialist work. The RAIL and other MIM-led mass organizations see the progressive potential of liberal organizations. These groups can fight for progressive gains and provide young activists with exposure to various single issue struggles. Trotskyists and other revisionists maintain that national liberation struggles and anti-imperialist struggles split the working class, which they say is the true vehicle to ending oppression. But in opposing national liberation, they support white nation hegemony.(2) In the real world, Amerika occupies the Philippines and Puerto Rico. Blacks, Latinos and First Nations are disproportionately incarcerated more than whites, less employed and earn less than whites when they are employed. We who call for national self-determination are not "splitting" anything. We are simply calling a pig a pig and a settler a settler, and arguing that centuries of oppression are more than enough. It is time to take up the anti-imperialist struggle, the quickest path to end all forms of oppression. Imperialist nation hegemony: Enemy number one After an interview with the Klan's lead organizer at the rally, the Detroit newspapers said that "Much of their dogma - good education, good jobs, strong family values - would resonate well with a majority of the country."(3) The Klan's mass base is the white settler labor aristocracy. This mass base is happy to join anything that calls for protection of white nation hegemony. Revisionist anti-Klan demonstrators cannot face facts when it comes to white nation chauvinism. NWROC called people out to the counter-demonstration arguing that this would stop the Klan from recruiting. But reality is that the Klan, Aryan Nation, Aryan Brotherhood and White Citizens Council are all the same: white nationalist organizations sprung from the white nation's drive to protect its own privileges at the expense of the world's population. RAIL campaigns against prisons in Ann Arbor and throughout the United Snakes because prisons are the most fascistic element in Amerikkkan society. Fascism is the merger of state and capital, using force to exploit and extract wealth from the oppressed. Fascism is a variety of capitalism, but is not pervasive in Amerika. Fascist policies are most prevalent in prisons where slave labor is legal. RAIL calls on all who want to work for genuine anti-fascism and anti- imperialism to work with us against prisons. Work with an organization that opposes oppression 365 days a year, and work towards a society in which no more organizations like the Klan or the Amerikan gulag system will form. NOTES: 1. The Detroit Sunday Journal 12-18 April 1998, p. 1, 5. 2. A revisionist is someone claiming to be Marxist while revising Marx's ideas fundamentally. An example is that revisionists of the RWL variety refer to the white working class in Amerika as a "proletariat," the class that leads a revolution. Revisionists make extra work for genuine communists -- they spread reactionary ideas and call them communist, then genuine communists have to clean up the mess. 3. The Detroit News and Free Press 10 May 1998, p. A1 & A7. * * * MORAIL AND NBUF HOST FIRST NATION DELEGATION The Missouri chapter of the Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League and the National Black United Front (NBUF) hosted a delegation led by AIM leader Dennis Banks on March 22 in St. Louis. A crowd of about 60 people gathered for the weekly Sunday Forum organized by the NBUF which included a video and talk about the African origins of Christianity. In 1968, Dennis Banks and George Mitchell, two Anishinabes (Chippewas), founded the American Indian Movement (AIM), which was consciously patterned after the Black Panther Party's community self-defense model. AIM chapters quickly sprang up around the country and came to include representatives from at least sixty four First Nation tribes. When the First Nation delegation arrived they received a standing ovation from the audience. Banks delivered an inspiring speech which started with; "When the white man came here, he had the Bible and we had the land; now we have their Bible and they have our land! Christianity has been used against us and other peoples to conquer us. They did it which their ideology (Christianity) and military (the gun)." Banks noted the similarity between the First Nations fight for land and Black demands for reparations. In the case of all oppressed nations within Amerika, their common enemy is Amerikan imperialism. For over 500 years the white nation has sided with First Nation genocide and Black Slavery in efforts to raise the material conditions of only the White Amerikan oppressor nation. This is why MIM says that Amerikan oppression is national oppression. The only way to take back land and reparations is to unite around national liberation struggles and throw off Amerikan Imperialism(1). In terms of the current struggle for land rights, Banks said that the u.$. government has offered First Nations millions of dollars for formal rights to land; under international pressure the U$ is trying to make land theft look nice. In response he upheld the righteous line that "Our land is not for sale." Making another connection between Amerikan imperialism and national oppression, he described Jericho '98 as a movement to free prisoners incarcerated for political activism in the united snakes. "The first political prisoners in this country were indigenous peoples. Eleven Indian couples were incarcerated on Alcatraz Island for refusing to send their children to the white man's schools." Banks noted the common link between Black and First Nations peoples; "They forbade us to use our own language, practice our religion and continue our culture." The injustice system has been used to disproportionately imprison members of the Black, Latino and First Nations in efforts to destroy any resistance against oppression. Banks talked about the past leaders such as Chief Joseph who was imprisoned by the united states because he dared to fight for justice for his tribe. "Leonard Peltier, he's been in prison 22 years when all the evidence points to his innocence," Banks said. The event was productive in exposing Amerikan oppression. We call to all those who support the struggle of the First Nations to expand their historical vision to the millions of other people belonging to the Black and Latino nations who have been subjected to the same exploitation and genocide at the hands of U$ domestic imperialism. And further, we call to all those activists to struggle against the innately oppressive nature of imperialism not just in Amerika, but also the exploitation and oppression of our comrades abroad. Note: MIM Theory #7, p. 72. * * * SERVE THE PEOPLE: BUILDING ASIAN-DESCENDED NATIONALISM by a RAIL Comrade A RAIL comrade recently attended "Serve the People: A conference on Asian American Community Activism" held at the University of California at Los Angeles on May 15 and 16, 1998. This conference gathered together many Asian and Asian-descended activists, elders and youth, with varying levels of experience and politics on the left. The underlying theme was to serve our communities. The purpose was to educate community activists and "develop an analysis of the crucial issues facing the Asian communities in the U.S. and a progressive strategy for work around these issues" through sector-oriented workshops and panels. The workshops and panels included environmental and economic racism, hate crimes, sexism, international solidarity, resisting imperialism, criminalization, queer APIs, student activism, and organizing Asian workers. The conference began with a cultural performance by Nobuko Miyamoto and ended with a powerful revolutionary spoken word performance by a member of the League of Filipino Students. The opening roundtable had a panel of four 60s activists from the Black and Chicano nations and Asian-descended communities. The topic of this panel was "Interracial Unity and the Struggle for Liberation." Of the four activists/panelists, the two activists from the Black and Chicano national liberation movements, Bill Gallegos and Leon Watson, maintained the most revolutionary perspective. They spoke powerfully of the Maoist inspiration to their respective movements. The other two panelists, Grace Lee Boggs and Yuri Kochiyama were/are active in the Black liberation movement and communities but lacked a consistent revolutionary theory. Gallegos outlined a revolutionary history of the Asian- descended movement during the 60s and spoke to how the "Asian model created modern revolutionary history," how China as the first Third World country to launch a people's revolution served as tremendous inspiration to the struggles of the Chicanos. He stressed the importance of internationalism in the movements. "Internationalism is not charity... [it is] a strategy." Gallegos went on to explain the formation, perspective, and organizing work of revolutionary Asian organizations in the u.s. such as the openly Maoist I Wor Kuen (IWK) and Red Guards, and the East Wind Collective, stressing that from the outset they strove to be in solidarity with the Puerto Rican, Chicano and Black national liberation struggles. He mentioned also that wimmin played an important leadership role in the IWK. Gallegos laid out the revolutionary "basis for interracial unity," which MIM would call "cross-national unity:" one, from the struggles of our peoples emerge a common history uniting us; two, we need alternative leadership in our communities in opposition to electoral compradors; three, we must maintain an internationalist perspective, oppressed nation movements are integrally linked together; four, we must have an anti- capitalist, anti-imperialist, socialist perspective. MIM agrees on all four principles, only we would be specific about what kind of "alternative" leadership we need: proletarian and internationalist leadership. Watson emerged out of the anti-war and Black liberation movements, seeing common links in the Viet struggle against Amerikan imperialism and the domestic Black situation. He expressed the powerful sentiment of drafted Black soldiers that "no Vietnamese ever called me nigger." In his presentation, Watson called for unity against imperialism. He pointed out that cross-national unity alone is meaningless, using the analogy of Dodgers' games which succeed in uniting fans of all ethnicities. He clarified that we need cross-national unity for national liberation. "Unity is built through struggle [for freedom]. It is not abstract." Watson went on to outline the Black liberation movement in the 60s and spoke of the influence of Marxism and Maoism on the Black Panther Party (BPP) and the need for serious theoretical study. He emphatically stated, one becomes a communist; you are not born communist. One becomes a Maoist; you're not born Maoist. Boggs summarized the revolutionary origins of the "Asian American" movement as a response to the Black Power movement, a creation of a pan-Asian identity. Internationally the impetus was the anti-Viet Nam war movement, anti-u.s. imperialism and Third World revolutions that were shaking the world. The heroes of the movement were Mao Tsetung and Ho Chi Minh. The pivotal questions of the time centered around revolution: how to achieve it in the u.s. and its objectives. To even begin to answer that question, Boggs said we must learn to distinguish between rebellion and revolution. "Rebellion centers the anger of youth, disrupting ties of society." Revolution requires a "leap to consciousness" and institutions of the oppressed. During that time period, the BPP was at war with u.s. institutions and society. Boggs further stated that racism, militarism, materialism (as in consumerism) and technology were alienating people and "careerism" was degenerating the youth. From this point on, her presentation wavered into idealism, metaphysics, and post-modernism.(1) Although Boggs presented herself as anti-capitalist, she was clearly not communist. "We must move beyond capitalism; it is too individualistic. We must move beyond communism; it is too collective." This betrays (at best) a fundamental misunderstanding of communism, which MIM has addressed in articles such as "Maoism on Human Nature."(3) Petty- bourgeois intellectuals - who value the feeling that "they are their own boss," and are not used to the collective existence and discipline of the proletariat - often raise the shibboleth that there will be no individuality under communism, and thereby put more value on "individuality" than on the ability of the broad masses to live free from hunger, poverty, and war. Boggs went on to describe local conditions in her hometown of Detroit. The loss of the auto industry displaced the youth and created a drug community. Casino developers are currently seeking to replace the auto industry. This situation had lead to what Boggs calls a "most remarkable struggle in the history of humanity" where "working people and people of color are leading the struggle [against casinos]" on the moral principles of "how cities should be built." She concluded that the "city is the arena of struggle" for the 21st century. Boggs statements take place in an idealistic vacuum and could potentially mislead many activists away from the correct strategy of struggle against imperialism. RAIL points to the on-going and vibrant national liberation struggles in the Philippines and Peru and the past revolutions in other Third World countries as the most remarkable struggles in the history of humanity on the principles of how society should be built. These people's wars should serve as the inspiration, not just empty ideals. To state that the focal point for change lies in First World cities blatantly neglects the lessons of one hundred years of revolutionary history, totally ignores the historical and material conditions of oppression, and omits political economy altogether. The final panelist, Kochiyama, is an anti-imperialist who worked in solidarity with the Black and Puerto Rican liberation movements. She reminded Asian activist youth to get involved in issues of police brutality, prisons industry, immigration and political prisoners, issues that cut across ethnic and national lines. "Serve the people at the bottom," she exhorted the audience, "the people at the top don't need you." Finally, she concluded "unity is strength and strength is unity." This last is an important in the face of the polarization of Asian communities. It is not unity for unity's sake, but a unity based on an anti- imperialist Third World agenda. This conference was the first of its kind and was self- conscious of its place in the history of Asians in North America. Much of the history of the Asian-descended movement in the u.s. has been lost, neglected or glossed over -- from its inception in the revolutionary tides of the 60s to its foundering in the 70s. The conference provided a bridge between the generation of elder activists from the 60s and youth activists of the 90s to interchange experience and knowledge. The fact that the conference was organized at all is a positive indication of a developing pan-Asian nationalism and the progressive direction it is taking towards anti-imperialism.(2) The importance of this developing nationalism in opposition to imperialism cannot be stressed enough despite the complication of differing historical and material conditions within Asian communities. The MIM has previously stated that "it will be hard to understand the politics of the Asian-descended population in North America within the paradigm of the Black Panther Party or other national liberation organizations . . . [because] the Asian and Asian-descended population is both the youngest and the most polarized of the national minorities in North America."(2) In this context, a criticism raised by conference participants is significant. Throughout different issue- and sector-oriented panels activists independently pointed out that the "Asian American" consciousness of this conference neglected or excluded the voices of Southeast Asians and Pacific Islander immigrant communities. The activists pointed out that these communities identify more strongly with Blacks and Latinos than with "Asian-Americans." The problems confronting Southeast Asian youth and communities are poverty, unemployment and welfare dependency, and the criminalization of Southeast Asian and Pacific Islander youth. Concretely, this is a reflection of the greater economic and socio-political forces oppressing these communities than the first, second and third waves of Asian immigration. The MIM has previously analyzed this fourth wave of immigration as "the most economically oppressed group in North America. . . [The disparity] contributes to the lack of cohesive national culture and consciousness"(2) The delicate task facing the building of pan-Asian-descended nationalism is to overcome the different historical and material conditions and polarization of Asian communities in order to more strongly challenge our common enemy, Amerikan imperialism. The blanket oppression of imperialism which targets Asians as a "race" already kick-started this process of politicization and conciousness in the 60s, and continues to serve as a catalyst to nationalism. Certainly this internal contradiction can be overcome with proletarian perspective, dialectical materialism, and the proven science of revolution, Marxism-Leninism-Maoism so that Asian and Asian-descended peoples united can challenge imperialism. The MIM and RAIL look forward to the day when the dragon of pan-Asian nationalism overthrows the beast Imperialism. NOTES: 1. "Postmodernism: Idealism Again" MIM Theory no. 12, pp. 80-82. "Those postmodernists with a more 'affirmative' view . . . are into 'New Age religion and New Wave lifestyles' and tend to be 'non-dogmatic' and 'non-ideological'. These people failed in the 1960s, and they retreat into their inner spiritual selves, albeit in a non-traditional way." 2. "Asian-Descended Nationalism Approaches" MIM Theory no 8, pp 89-91, 96. 3. MIM Theory no. 9, pp. 46-47. * * * SENTENCE IS DEATH FOR STANDING NEAR PICKUP TRUCK A Prince George's County, Maryland cop murdered an unarmed, 42-year-old man on May 20, for the crime of doing nothing. The victim, Gary Leonard Sanford, was neither accused nor even suspected of any crime. There had been no reported crime, nothing illegal at all. According to the cops, the killer, Cpl. Joseph M. Palmieri, saw Sanford and another man sitting in a pickup truck in the parking lot of a closed gas station late at night. Palmieri says Sanford got out of the pickup truck, and Palmieri ordered him to show his hands, which he did. Then -- Palmieri, who has no witnesses, says -- Sanford reached for something behind his back, so Palmieri shot him twice, to death. The police later admitted Sanford was unarmed. A spokesperson for the police said they had no problem with the shooting, since Palmieri had reason to fear for his life. Police "investigation" revealed a half-empty beer can in the truck, and some urine on the ground nearby. If the beer-and-urine story is true, does that make the execution more justified? No disciplinary action against Palmieri has been reported as of May 27. Every hyped "crime" story or supposed act of heroics in the line of duty on the part of the police played up in the media contributes to the whitewash of such murders as this one. The imperialist media looks the other way while their agents in uniform murder innocents with impunity - - using force justified by the mantra of anti- "crime" hype. NOTES:: Washington Post 21 May 1998. * * * BOGUS IRISH REFERENDUM: IMPERIALIST-BROKERED PEACE DEALS NEVER MEAN PEACE A bogus plebiscite on the future of the six English-occupied counties of Ireland took place on May 22. A parallel referendum took place in the neo-colonial 26 counties of the Irish Republic. Both referenda passed, with 94% voting in favor in the Irish Republic and by a smaller margin, 71%, in the occupied Six Counties. This smaller margin in the occupied Six Counties reflects the impact of the hard-linee pro-English Protestants.(1) Amerika played a major role in making the agreement, with former U.$. Senator George Mitchell serving as a key negotiator. The imperialists and their press proclaim that this agreement will bring peace to Ireland. However, MIM has long argued that peace will not be possible as long as Ireland is divided and under military occupation. Even the bourgeois United Nations recognizes in theory that removal of imperialist troops is a pre-requisite for an honest plebiscites on self-determination. Whether it rises from within existing Irish political organizations, or comes up from the youth influenced by the International Proletariat's opposition to imperialism, a proletarian anti imperialist movement will eventually oust England from Ireland and all her other colonies. On April 10, the Good Friday Agreement was signed between the English government, the Republic of Ireland, and various Nationalist, Republican, Unionist and Loyalists parties. For parties linked to paramilitary groups, observing cease-fires were an English-imposed prerequisite for attending the talks. Of course English military kept up its armed occupation of the Six Counties during the negotiations and continued to use force against Republican movement through the incarceration of POWs. The Agreement restricts Republicans from using arms as political tools, but only requires English imperialism to "reduce" the number of its troops in the Six Counties. The agreement sets up a 108-member "power-sharing" body for the occupied Six Counties. According to the Agreement, paramilitary prisoners will be freed within two years if the signed parties uphold nonviolence. A number of Republican prisoners were also furloughed by the English government to attend a Sinn Fein meeting and do other work in support of the agreement. This adds an additional coercive aspect to the agreement in that only prisoners (and their organizations) who support the Agreement are eligible for release. This is further evidence that the Irish people by definition cannot consent to a peace when their leaders are imprisoned if they don't agree to the other side's political positions. To MIM, the Agreement has 3 significant additional implications: First, it treats Northern Ireland as a legitimate political entity. This is the term used by the imperialists to describe the occupied Six Counties of Ireland. The bulk of Ireland won its independence in 1920 after an armed struggle and negotiations. The English kept control of the Six Counties as the largest contiguous piece of land where the majority of the population is pro-English Protestants. This move explicitly carved out the largest chunk of territory over which England could continue to exercise direct rule. It is important to note that in the 17th century these pro- English Protestants were placed in Ireland as a settler population that would support the colonial power. The settlers are wary of the agreement because it means they may be hung out to dry as England opts for a more distant neo- colonialism. Second, the Agreement requires a change in the Republic of Ireland constitution to eliminate the Republic's claim to the Six Counties. This provision requires the Irish state to sanction England's claim to the Six Counties. This officially turns the question of a unified Ireland from an Irish question into an English one. Historically, the Six Counties' Protestant population's occupying majority nullified any electoral or military end to the occupation. When Republicans raised the correct question of national self-determination and national unity for Ireland, the settlers had a standing veto. With this provision, the question of Irish unification is constitutionally nullified before it can be asked. Third, while the Agreement does not demand disarmament, it does excludes organizations who are linked to violence to be excluded from the new assembly. The IRA has stated very clearly that it will not turn in its weapons. The complete disarmament of the Republican movement, along with a continued English blind eye to Protestant paramilitary violence, would leave the Catholic majority with no advocate. In describing the reality for the international proletariat living under imperialism, Mao Zedong said "Political power flows out of the barrel of a gun." Imperialism rules by the gun and so any people who are to have a say in what happens to them under imperialism must have their own guns. Leaving all of the guns in the hands of the oppressor would leave the oppressed with no recourse against the daily violence of imperialism. There currently exists no proletarian party in Ireland other than MIM. Only a proletarian party can successfully lead a national liberation struggle that does not end up back in neo-colonialism. An article on Ireland in MIM Theory 7, back in 1995 warned: "Sinn Fein is showing its will for peace by engaging in talks with the British government despite continued violence from the Protestant settlers. The concern is that, as it realizes the shortcoming of focoist strategies, it will abandon the people's demand for self- determination. History is at a turning point." Sinn Fein claims that this Agreement is a step towards a United Ireland. MIM is not aware of the full Sinn Fein strategy, or whether the IRA expects to continue the cease- fire indefinitely, so we will not comment more than we did above. Principally, it remains to be seen how recognizing Northern Ireland as a legitimate entity makes the struggle an easier. Note: Boston Sunday Globe 24 May 1998, p. A1, A30-31. * * * PRISONS USED TO CRACK DOWN ON ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS by RC93 and MC206 The U$ Justice Department recently budgeted $492 million for an effort to lock up more undocumented immigrants.(1) This has come in reaction to recent reports alleging that poor immigrants are contributing to crime in the u$. Putting aside money for the specific purpose of incarcerating immigrants only further encourages national oppression. With Mexicans making up more than one-third of undocumented immigrants to the u$ and Latin Americans as a whole accounting for almost two-thirds,(2) Latinos have been and will increasingly be targeted by immigration officials and police. The labor aristocracy in this country claims that these immigrants are taking away "their" jobs at lower pay. However, most of those who come to the u$ from Central and South Amerika end up serving the labor aristocracy in low- paying, productive jobs that Amerikans don't take. In Los Angeles, for example, more than 72% of the non-Latino population is in the white-collar sector (managerial/technical/sales), while less than 20% of the Mexican/Central American population is in the white collar sector.(3) There is also increasing dissimilarity in the occupations of immigrant Latinos (documented and undocumented) and the occupations of whites.(3) In California as a whole, half of all farm workers are undocumented aliens.(4) In the past, workers were herded into the u$ from Mexico like slaves to produce food for Amerikan tables.(4) Salvadorans and Guatemalans are over- represented in the private service sector (as in household workers, including cleaners and child care workers in private homes) by factors of 12 and 13, respectively.(3) Without these workers Amerikans would have to get their hands dirty, produce their own food, and clean up their own mess. The labor aristocracy also complains that these immigrants are using "our" tax money to survive. But, as MIM Notes reported in December 1994, they are pissing and moaning over pocket change. According to the Urban Institute, the services which undocumented immigrants received from California were worth about $1.09 billion more than what California received in taxes from undocumented immigrants - that's about $40 per California resident. That's nothing compared to how much food and clothing bills would double, triple, or quadruple for lack of immigrant labor. And more than one-third of that $1.09 billion was the cost of locking immigrants up and calling it a "service."(5) Greedy Amerikans complain about paying for a third car, while people in the third world can't afford to eat. In a socialist society everyone will be provided with what they need to survive, rather than be forced to starve so that the wealthy can have more. When u$ corporations expatriate billions from the third world each year it is obvious that the people who risk their lives to sneak into the united snakes are only trying to get back what was stolen from them in the first place. That is why MIM believes in open borders, so that one nation cannot use military blockades to contain their wealth from other nations. The increase in funding to incarcerate immigrants shows how the injustice system is used to oppress those who do make it past u$ military blockades. Latinos are specifically targeted by the police, and this new award will encourage such activity, especially in states such as California, New York, and Texas who are receiving large portions of the money.(1) The anti-immigration fervor that exists among Amerikans reeks of the fascist belief in the oppression and genocide of other nations for the betterment of one's own. This is indicative of the reactionary nationalist sentiments of the white nation in Amerika, and is why MIM recognizes that the oppressed nations must use revolutionary force to free themselves from Amerika's clutches. Notes: 1. Associated Press. 2. Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1996. 3. Waldinger and Bozorgmehr, eds., "Ethnic Los Angeles," New York: Russel Sage Foundation, 1996, pp. 256, 194-296. 4. MIM Theory 7:Proletarian Feminist Revolutionary Nationalism. 5. MIM Notes #95, p.1. * * * IN SUPPORT OF THE INDONESIAN PEOPLE'S JUST STRUGGLE FOR SOCIAL AND NATIONAL LIBERATION [MIM reprints the following article from BAYAN - International USA to show that the Indonesian people's struggle against fascism and imperialist domination has found support throughout the world - especially in the oppressed nations, which face similar struggles. BAYAN - International USA is a legal, multi-sectoral organization in the broad national democratic movement of the Philippines. MIM would only add the following comments to this article: (1) The World Bank - IMF are tools of imperialism, principally u.$. imperialism. The crises created by the WB- IMF policies are the inevitable results of imperialism. (2) A strong Maoist Party and People's Army - alongside a broad United Front - are ultimately necessary for the true liberation of the Indonesian people. The Indonesian people have a long history of militant struggle (Indonesia had the largest Communist Party outside of China and the USSR in the 60s). MIM is confident that the broad masses will overcome setbacks and ultimately overthrow the rapacious Indonesian puppet regime. This article was written before Suharto resigned.] The BAYAN International USA together with the peace-loving broad Filipino American community in the US condemns in the strongest terms the brutal repression perpetrated by the corrupt and fascist Suharto regime against the Indonesian in the recent weeks. The current fascist barbarities highlighted by the anti- Chinese pogroms fanned and orchestrated by the Indonesian fascist police-military exposed to the whole world the rottenness of the Suharto fascist regime. Suharto's regime that is being propped up by the World Bank - IMF $43 million bail-out aggravates the hardship of the Indonesian people. The so-called WB-IMF bail out is nothing but another quagmire of oppression and exploitation of the Indonesian masses. The Indonesian crisis is only an offshoot of the WB - IMF disastrous and usurious policy in Asia and worldwide. The whole of Asia is now reeling under the WB - IMF economic- political impositions such as structure adjustments and bail-out programs. Indonesia, Korea, Thailand, and the Philippines are now convulsing due to imperialist schemes against the masses of workers and the peasants in the third world. Economic miserableness, extreme poverty, deprivation of basic people's needs is the order of the day prescribed by the IMF-WB to fleece the third world nations of needed funds to pay the new and old piled up debts. The result is increased oppression, heightened exploitation and escalating people's resistance as in the case of Indonesia, South Korea, and the Philippines. In Pakistan, India, South Korea and the Philippines, so- called "democratic" transition through bourgeois managed elections were held to divert the people's energy towards peaceful means as a safety valve to people's indignation. But the Indonesian fascist regime is bent to rule in the old way - through armored cars, rifle butts, and the rule of fixed bayonets. Therefore, it is not surprising that Indonesia is now the flash point of protest and resistance to imperialist's imposition and fascist suppression and will be the bourgeois media's center of attention. The Indonesian upsurge is but a symptomatic result of [...] the failure of the US policy of sponsorship of fascist regimes while paying lip service to "democratic principles." The long running Suharto regime that was built on the corpses of more than a million Indonesians in 1965 and hundreds of thousands of East Timorese and Papuans who struggled for self determination is vulnerable after all. We wholeheartedly support the just struggle of all the Indonesian democratic forces and people for waging bold resistance against the Suharto regime. We especially admire the Indonesian workers and peasants and the youth who now realized their revolutionary potential in the service of the people and their class. Building a broad legal democratic movement is necessary to arouse, organize and mobilize the broadest of people's forces against the narrowest target - the fascist enemy of Indonesia. We believe that with a broad united front, the Indonesian people will finally shatter the more than three decades of fascist terror that Suharto has been bragging about in the whole of Asia for the last years. As in the case of the Marcos fascist regime in the Philippines, the ruling Suharto regime will be overthrown if the Indonesian people unite and persist in their just struggle for social and national liberation. We are confident that the Indonesian people and the broad democratic and progressive forces will continue to push further the upsurge of the people's movement as a result of the rapidly worsening crisis of the world capitalist system. Down with the Suharto military fascist regime! Long live the Indonesian people's just struggle! Long live international solidarity! National Coordinator BAYAN International - USA May 17, 1998 BAYAN International - USA PO Box 8625546 Los Angeles CA 90086-2546 * * * NEW YORK WAGES WAR IN SCHENECTADY by an RC The New York Army and Air National Guard has increased its activities in Schenectady including the use of helicopters to spy on inner city areas.(1) The Guard has been increasing its role by adding more of what it refers to as "peacetime activities." However, MIM points out the u$ is currently waging low-profile warfare around the world as well as in certain areas within its own illegitimate borders. Schenectady was chosen as the test site for the program developed by Governor George Pataki and Co. The plan brings military equipment, including helicopters, into chosen localities to fight the "War on Drugs," or any other battle deemed appropriate. The stress in the bourgeoisie press has been under the cover of the "War on Drugs." This has continuously been used to justify military actions at home and abroad in the last two decades. However, MIM has shown in many instances how this war has been used to destroy people's movements and maintain u$ hegemony over both internal and external colonies, while maintaining drug trafficking profits for u$ imperialists.(2) The expensive technology being employed in this small city seems almost ridiculous, at first. The helicopters are used to map out areas that are to be raided. Using infrared technology they can determine the number and location of the people in the local. Meanwhile, ion scans are used to detect cocaine residues.(1) The use of such equipment shows the serious repressive potential of the u$. The u$ continues to produce warfare technology during supposed peace times, maintaining a multi-billion dollar military-industrial complex, and keeping the oppressed in their place. They use force against the people, claiming to be eradicating poisons that they fed into the communities in the first place. In a previous MIM report exposing Amerikan militarism under the "War on Drugs," we quoted the Nation: "[T]he majority of the L.A.P.D.'s computer-enhanced surveillance concentrates on the same neighborhoods in which local schools lack basic P.C.s--not to mention adequate textbooks. But the social causes of crime, such as poor education and lack of jobs, do not concern the National Institute of Justice(NIJ) or most police forces. Thus the N.I.J.'s director of science and technology, David Boyd...is often quoted saying, 'This [police use of military high-tech] is the real peace dividend.'"(2) So internal law enforcement welcomes these new technologies, while oppressed nations don't have the equipment to get an education. The police will argue that this high-tech equipment is not superfluous. MIM would agree from the perspective of the oppressor nation which needs to use force in order to maintain its position in the world, but for the proletariat this equipment is a waste of energy that could be used to better the many social-ills. MIM also recognizes that it is the continuous militarization of imperialist countries that makes it necessary for violent revolution to overcome these ills. NOTES: 1. Times Union, 21 May 1998, B-1. 2. E.g. MIM Theory no. 10, p. 47. 2. The Nation. 3 February 1997. 3. MIM Notes 143, 1 August 1997. * * * UNDER LOCK & KEY LET'S TALK ABOUT CHANGE Many prisoners speak about change; But there will never be any change; until we as prisoners, combine our brains; All else is futile As the prison keepers continue to smile The worst of criminals continue to run wild While we continue to cry for relief As our grief Continues to mount So does the prison count We need to find a way to overcome and surmount But talking about it Isn't gonna help one bit So what are we going to do? Fight for our rights Combine our minds and unite Or keep letting the oppressors oppress Us with their discriminatory and abusive mess? We can't wait to plan tomorrow We have to do it now But how? Remains a mystery And secret unbeknownst to me. -- A Prisoner MIM responds: The most effective way forward in this fight does not have to be a secret unbeknownst to the people. Through a careful study of history and politics we can come up with an effective line and strategy to fight the system of imperialism. It was this study that led MIM to the conclusion that Maoism is the ideology that has made the greatest strides towards communism. BIASED PAROLE OFFICER ...I am a parole violation. I didn't get a new charge. I got a banishment for a five county area. And the parole man wrote lots of bad things up on men, and sends me back to prison, because I was making more money legally (in the roofing industry) than he was.... --A Georgia Prisoner, 1 March 1998 AMERIKKKA'S LEGAL SLAVERY ...This system of prisons throughout the US is nothing short of redeveloped legal slavery. Read the 13th Amendment in the Amerikkkan Klanstitution! Why else is it necessary to put one hundred thousand police on salary in the urban Black, Brown and lower income White neighborhoods, if their task isn't to capture fresh slaves for the prison industrial complex. And the rebel, or the educators, people who demand what small rights are due them? [They get] Punishment! Sensory deprivation, psychological trauma, drug therapy to correct the trauma and continued isolation. You! You, must stop this. They are putting babies in prison. 10, 12, 14 year old children are being tried as adults and no one is protesting this! Unemployment in the nation is 3% but the in the Black community it is 32%, and they claim that we don't need affirmative action and racism is dead!? The police kick, beat and shoot people at will and it's alright, after all didn't we see them do it on New York Undercover? It must be cool, right?! WRONG! We are being subjected to social engineering on a massive scale. Wake up! Join the coalition for the eradication of control units. Join the fight to save your children from slavery. In Solidarity, --A California Prisoner, 11 March 1998 MIM responds: Slavery has never been fully outlawed in the United Snakkkes, as the constitutional amendment this prisoner cites states that slavery "as a punishment for a crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted" is quite alright. MIM and RAIL are working to expose this modern-day slavery in Amerika's gulags and we regularly host public events and print articles in our press exposing the details of Amerikan slavery. We agree with this comrade's assessment that the police on the streets exist to lock up more oppressed nationals in the prisons, but we believe that imperialist control of these nations takes first seat over any other concerns. Imperialism demands that the oppressed be locked up, where they cannot organize most effectively for revolution. This includes locking up children before they even have a chance to learn the history of their people's oppression by and resistance to imperialism. We call on all comrades who oppose imperialism, disproportionate imprisonment and unemployment, slave labor in prisons, and brutality in the form of police and control units to join in the fight to build independent institutions of the oppressed. Help build this Under Lock & Key section of MIM Notes and our newspaper as a whole; it is the first organizing step to building a revolutionary movement that will topple imperialism. AMERIKKAN SENSORY DEPRIVATION CHAMBERS I sit here and watch the proliferation of these new Control Unit Correctional Facilities across these United States. I see a political consensus among the White Power Elite to carry out a massive program of genocide against the Black male population. It's just that instead of using bullets and poison gas, they have decided to use prisons. This is how they have decided to resolve the Black Underclass problem: To incarcerate as many young, unskilled, troubled Black males as they can, for as long as they can. ...There is another sinister component to this covert program of genocide that brings the real murderous intent of the White Power Elite to the surface. It is the insidious practice in the Correctional Facilities of segregating [prisoners] Black males in particular, for basically the duration of their prison sentence in deprivation chambers called "Segregation Units" once they arrive at the prison facility. This segregation practice, along with poor, minimum dietary practices, woefully inadequate access to health care, mental health and exercise opportunities are having a powerfully sinister effect on the mental and physical health, life expectancy and morality rate of long term segregated inmates. In Correctional Facilities all across these United States, Black males are falling dead in these Segregation Units. In the Segregation Unit that I am in at the El Dorado Correctional Facility here in El Dorado, Kansas, an average of two Black males a year die from stress, or from stress- related diseases and/or complications caused by the cumulative effect of these practices and inadequate health care over time. And even more are attempting suicide, and losing their minds as a result of being segregated in these deprivation chambers (units) for extended periods of time. On average, after about five years in segregation, an inmate starts to exhibit physiological and psychological abnormalities. Most black males have always believed that if given the right cover/pretext, that the American White-Power-Elite would do something to make the German Nazis look like choir boys. Is this our fear being realized, or is it just the first step of something more ominous to come? It is time to holler loud and clear and expose what is going on behind the walls of these "Correctional Facilities" in American NOW! Don't wait 'til they build the incinerators. In Hope and Struggle, --A Kansas Prisoner, 24 April 1998 EXPOSING NEW GANG UNITS IN NEW JERSEY ...On March 13, 1998, about 80 prisoners were transferred from Rahway and shipped here to Northern State Prison to a new gang unit. Here they are housing Latin Kings, Netas, 5%ers and some white hate groups. They have us all separated and want us to deny any membership before letting us out of this unit. I as a member of the Latin Kings refuse to do such a thing. Therefore I will remain locked down in these new kages. These Pigs are only trying to break the band of Brotherhood, which will not work. And the reality is putting us all together they only make us stronger.... Our Struggle Continues, --A New Jersey Prisoner, 5 April 1998 OPPRESSING LATINOS IN MASS Que Pasa Comrades? ...I'm a Prisoner in the Maximum joint. I'm Puerto Rican and have been in this toilet for fifteen years. Right now these low-lifes [guards] are hitting the Latino people hard. 90 percent of all Latinos are being accused of being a gang member, so they made four special blocks for the Latino people. You come out of your cell one hour a day, not everyday. Three showers a week. One hour a week in the yard, outside. The racist low-life cops just harass everybody, and most dudes don't even speak English. No jobs, no nothing. Now we can't even take their so-called education program. We get two hours a week in the law library. There are no Spanish- speaking people down there to help anybody out. This started back in April of 1995. I was there [Latino Segregated Block] for two years. Then I was transferred to DDU [Disciplinary Detention Unit]. You know the DDU is much better than those Plymouth Blocks. I just filed a lawsuit, but I can't even get the right help. I don't have access to anything. I'll keep you posted on things. Y'all stay strong.... In the struggle! --A Massachusetts Prisoner, 10 April 1998 MIM responds: A RAIL Comrade's article on protests against the so-called gang blocks at Walpole prison ran in MIM Notes 163, page 7. The "gang" block prisoners have been locked down since last summer, off and on they have been denied their property (including clothing) and food, beaten and verbally harassed. In March of 1998 a group of prisoners was told that they could be transferred to a level four facility if they would renounce Neta membership. When the prisoners refused they were shoved down stairs while in cuffs and shackles, and then beaten by guards and bitten by guard dogs one by one. The Massachusetts DOC has claimed total ignorance of these attacks even on seeing photos of the prisoners' injuries. MIM will continue to use our newspaper to publicize the pigs' indifference to and abuse of human life. We work to expose these atrocities while we build MIM Notes as an independent institution of the oppressed, because such institutions are the basis for overthrowing imperialism. All people who are righteously outraged by this brutality should work with RAIL and MIM to oppose imperialism in the U.$. criminal INjustice system and in all its other ugly forms. ATTACKED IN MANACLES Dear Under Lock and Key, I am writing this letter to inform you that I am a prisoner who has been assaulted in full manacles, off and on for the past three and a half years. I was attacked coming back from sick call. I was brutally beaten with a baton and pushed and kicked for no reason. In asking for medical treatment I received from this beating a broken nose, two injuries to both knees, and broken hand/wrist. Another time, I was in full manacles in my cell and an extraction team ran in on me. I received injuries to my face, nose and ankles. I had not been doing anything but was accused by prison officials so they would have a reason to assault me. They are trying to scare me from filing the paperwork on a lawsuit I have pending in the court. Just recently I was attacked while in a recreation area. Two correction officers accused me of hitting an officer. This is a lie he didn't have any injury at all. It was just an excuse to get the extraction team to run in on me. The goons intimidate me in retaliation against me for filing several lawsuits in the courts. I received another broken nose and injuries to my lower back, hand and wrist, while being in full manacles. I can not move my neck at all. A goon put his elbow in the back of my neck, while they [the other pigs] tried to break my arm and wrist. I received a black eye and another broken nose. They have covered it up through the Correction Department.... My main reason for writing you is to let the public know what these evil people have done to me.... --An Indiana Prisoner, 23 March 1998 DELAWARE BRUTALITY ...I'm in the Delaware Correction Center (DCC). This has to be the worst prison on the East Coast. I have seen things here no man should be faced with. Inmates are beaten and maced, not to mention handcuffed for hours at a time, for the mere reason the C.O. [Correction Officer] wanted to do so. I have been called out of my name by this face ass police many times. Yet that is only a small part of the corruption going on here at DCC. ...Not only that, men are dying in here like crazy. I got to the point, I had to call my family to come down here, so this department of corruption could see I have loved ones and they [the pigs] cannot just do anything to me. ...Surprisingly you don't have a lot of guys going to the hole for homo acts, but get caught with a sandwich you just might get your good time taken. Delaware is an alone state, meaning no one questions the things that go on here and there is nothing to help the prisoners here. I am in the struggle because my children need a better chance at life, and I want for my brother what I want for myself. The pigs that run this system here are KKK without a doubt and the bullshit needs to cease quick fast and in a hurry. In the Struggle for Life, --A Delaware Prisoner, 12 March 1998 MIM responds: MIM says that all prisoners in Amerika are political prisoners for just the reasons this comrade describes. When prison pigs can beat, poison and murder prisoners with legal impunity, serving a prison term is a political sentence. The real criminals are those in the government and prisons system who brutalize prisoners and call it justice. Whether prisoners are punished for having their own food or for their sexuality, the DOCs have no legitimate authority to be handing out such punishment. Prisons serve imperialism by controlling the bodies, labor and political and educational activities of oppressed nation men who commit the crime of trying to live within U.$. borders. MIM looks to revolutionary China (1949-1976) for a progressive example of how to run a prison. For a prison to enjoy true authority --that which is bestowed by a majority of the people who may be imprisoned --it must promote justice and social consciousness for all people equally. Revolutionary Chinese prisons included criticism-self- criticism for those who had been judged guilty of crimes by the people. Chinese prisoners were encouraged to work and study together as well and to see the value of their own contributions to society. MIM works towards a society in which all prisons will function on these basic principles. To learn more about prisons in revolutionary China, send $10 for a copy of the book Prisoners of Liberation. PIGS SPRAYING CHEMICAL IN TEXAS I am writing this letter in regards to the continued use, practice and unconstitutional experimentation of chemical agents and other forms of excessive force, abuse, assaults and conspiracy against persons confined in state first maximum security segregation plantation in Huntsville, Walker County, Texas and in this facility. I have witnessed, experienced and suffered from the experimental practice of chemical agents upon us (prisoners) by Texas prison plantation officials and their administrators ... On a daily basis, mostly minority prisoners are being sprayed with gases of an unidentified nature which so burns the skin for several hours and has internal side-effects (causing difficulties in breathing, thought functioning and chronic excretory functions/dysfunction's). ... But despite all the knowledge given through prisoner legal assistant foundations to governmental officials, the abuse, unconstitutional practices and chemical experimentations that exist in this facility and other prison plantations in this system have not been addressed. ... Today March 15th, 1998 fourteen prisoners of the Estelle High Security Plantation in Huntsville took brief control of the food slots on the cell doors. Only after requesting to speak to supervisors, in protest to the continued denial of adequate food [the] prisoners were only given one fried egg, two flour tortillas and a container of milk. ... With no form of resolution being offered, immediate supervisors began a series of assaults upon prisoners with the use of chemical agents and a five man use of force team totaling some one thousand plus pounds of body weight. Twelve prisoners were gassed and four of that twelve were additionally attacked by the use of force team. ... There was no form of adequate medical clearance by UTMB staff nor was there a UTMB staff member present during the first two assaults. In addition there were no examinations or treatment given to any of us prisoners (with the exception of the first two who were taken off the cell block for several hours). ... After being gassed we were placed back into the same contaminated cells with no clothing, necessities or property (stationary, legal materials, etc. etc.). And each prisoner was denied yet another meal some six hours later with correctional staff stating we prisoners refused to comply with procedures. ... Institutional officials Wayne Scott (Executive director), Gary Johnson (director) and Chairman of the board Allan Polansky along with Region 1 director Ed G. Owens have been previously informed of the abusive unconstitutional conditions here and yet no one had addressed these issues ... Again the "Emergency Action Center" has been put on notice of the events that have occurred on this date by way of my pen (and others') to obtain some form of immediate resolution and for assistance in putting society on notice ... --A Texas prisoner, 15 March 1998 RULES CHANGE BUT GUARDS' BRUTAL BEHAVIOR CONTINUES The requirements I need to have is a Line 1 or an S4. These are level categories and as of right now I am at the bottom of the list at a line 3 & the highest a person can get is a S1. Yet they keep changing laws and regulations so that now an offender has to do a year with no cases before we are able to get any type of upgrade in status. Every time we get a major case, it starts over from that day. So it really ain't up to our behavior as much as it is to the officials that might decide to give you a case all because you don't want to play some kind of silly game such as indulging in name-calling or horse playing. In some cases even when a person indulges in the officers' game and the prisoner gets the best of the officer; he may retaliate by giving the prisoner a case of some kind. There are at least 45 different offense codes to write a prisoner up for and in most cases it's the offenders word against the officers. So in those types of situations prisoners never beat the case. So as you can see the law was made to keep prisoners locked up ... On the issue about paying for medical ... well they have recently started charging us $3 just to get us checked out where in most cases the nurse will tell us to take some Tylenol and we'll be alright. I'll send you a little something about this. As of right now I'm in Administrative Segregation and we don't have no type of god or educational programs whatsoever. They do have a general library with reading and learning materials but only level 1s can use the library ... On the Wynne Unit they have a lot of inmate brutality where prisoners are being slammed and beaten while in handcuff restraints, which ad seg [administrative segregation] prisoners are required to wear anytime they leave the cell. I myself have been slammed and beaten and I am seeking legal action for the official's unjustifiable acts of unnecessary use of force. The majority of the unnecessary use of force is done on illiterate offenders who don't know how to read or write. They're sometimes jumped on for spitting on officers, cursing officers but the majority of the time it's for no reason at all. Like when prisoners file grievances on officers. Later on down the line the officer will retaliate in that way. So the treatment is very bad in most of the Texas prisons. Not to mention the use of chemical agents which in some cases has killed prisoners. And if the gas doesn't the 5-man suit up team might. For when they first make contact with the prisoner that's been sprayed with chemical agents they start punching, kicking, kneeing, twisting body parts and in a lot of times they dig into your eyes and squeeze your testicles. There are also cases where prisoners are retaliated on in other ways. Such as the officer throwing urine into the cell. Or turn water off for the whole shift, where you have no drinking or toilet water and a lot of the times they refuse your meal, recreation or shower. Go into your cell and throw everything around and give you a case for having a milk carton in your cell or something as simple as that. Sometimes we keep our milk cartons because they only give you a cup at mealtime and take it back when they pick up trays. And we are stuck to drink milk from our hand. Yeah that's the type of treatment we receive in some of these Texas prisons. Some worse than others like this unit has the worst racial discrimination I ever seen. --Texas prisoner, 5 April 1998 TEXAS PLANTATION CONDITIONS In my last letter I conveyed some information to you concerning the conditions of this particular slave plantation. For some reason, I believe that the unit mailroom intercepted my missive due to its potency. Nevertheless, the sub-human treatment cannot be justified. You may have recently seen a news segment on ABC Nightline where I had a chance to demonstrate how we had to drink water because the administration won't allow us to have our own personal drinking cups. I also demonstrated how I have to write letters because we do not have desks in our cells to write on. These are the things that the tax payers are unaware of. They are unaware of the fact that these capitalist swine are denying us the basic necessities of life such as toothpaste, deodorant, hairbrushes and other grooming supplies under the guidelines of the A.D.03.50. Under the A.D.03.50 we are denied the right to library privileges also which means the right to education. People in society are always reading or hearing something about recidivism. But recidivism means job security for these bakkkwoods rednekkks. So what's more important, job security or a bunch of convicted felons trying to uplift themselves in the belly of the beast? At any rate I am going to survive as well as educate these young brothers that I have influence over ... --A Texas Prisoner THE MISERY DEPARTMENT OF OPPRESSION After throwing urine into the faces of several imperialist flunkies who destroyed personal property of mine during a "routine cell search," I was transferred to a maximum security facility. I never knew the plight of my comrades and brethren until transferring to Missouri's newest gulag. After the uprising of the oppressed (described in MIM Notes, Jan 15th Edition, "Concentration Camp in Missouri), the administration (pigs in suits) created new rules allowing only a single unit out of six to recreate on a rotating schedule. Thereby oppressing us even more and making a unified stand impossible. I was in general population until I filed a civil complaint against superintendent head pig, Mike Kemna, and Misery Department of Oppressions Director, Dora Schriro. Now I'm in segregation (the hole) for "Organized Disobedience" for playing touch football in the snow. Since I've been in the hole I've witnessed the continual oppression of my black, white and latin comrades. I've seen my brothers assaulted and beaten while cuffed behind their backs. I've watch comrades being maced for banging on their doors in attempt to alert the pigs that their cells were being flooded by water and feces by the cell above. Large canisters of pepper mace which are normally used for crowd control are sprayed until empty in the confines of a six by twelve foot cell, virtually suffocating those inside. These and many more human rights violations occur daily by mace- toting, jackbooted, hireling pigs. We are denied access to legal material and sharpened pencils so often it's almost policy. (I'm writing to you with a pen smuggled in.) The pigs came and confiscated everyone's toothbrushes last week. Claiming that they may be used as weapons (against cavities and plaque, maybe.) We were then given thimbles with bristles and they expected us to brush our teeth with those. Several men have already choked on them. While I am serving a 10-year sentence for assaulting the person who assaulted my wife, many of my comrades are here for life. The Misery Department of Oppression is a billion dollar industry, through which the capitalist state regime finances itself by the warehousing and exploitation paid for by taxing the masses and by funding from the imperialist federal government. Your Comrade in cuffs, --A Missouri Prisoner, 6 February 1998 WHO'S THE REAL CROOK? I am writing to inform MIM of the conditions and the overly long duration of stay here at X complex Arizona state prison that are being enforced upon not only myself, but all other prisoners that get placed here, for good reason or not. That includes smoking in a building, the reason I am here, which goes to show the ridiculous application or usage of their re-classification system. ... They try to modify our behavior with placement in this facility. I'm of the opinion that being single celled without physical association with other humans tends to add to, or bring out pent up animosity. Whether directed at DOC employees or other prisoners. (From my understanding the average stay is 10 months and up.) ... The warden took hot lunches and replaced them with cold sack lunches 5 days a week; our food portions have seemed to become strictly rationed at breakfast and dinner. We no longer get hot cereal in the morning, nor cake with our dinner. He took away soda purchase from the store. He took razors from the store, which makes it extremely hard to comply with DOC policy of being clean-every day. The warden has brought out the ire of his inmate population towards his staff with the institution of these policies. I understand that if I mess up in prison I am subject to the punishment of isolation in a super maximum facility for a term of 180 days. My objection is the unnecessarily cruel punishment for trivial SHIT!!! --An Arizona Prisoner, 3 February 1998 THE REAL CRIMNALS RUN THE PRISON ...Everyone seems to be scared of the MDOC [Michigan Department of Incorrections]. This facility I am at now is one of the worst in Michigan. The guards spit and piss in our food. Set us up. Gas us. Steel our property. Deny us legal books. ...These pigs bring weapons, drugs and so in here. They have sex with prisoners. ... --A Michigan Prisoner

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