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         THE MAOIST INTERNATIONALIST MOVEMENT

     MIM NOTES 121              SEPTEMBER 1, 1996


MIM Notes speaks to and from the viewpoint of the 
world's oppressed majority, and against the 
imperialist-patriarchy. Pick it up and wield it in 
the service of the people. support it, struggle 
with it and write for it.


IN THIS ISSUE:
1.  DAY OF PROTEST: MASSES RALLY TO SUPPORT SISON
2.  "ALTERNATIVE" VOTE IS NO ALTERNATIVE TO
    IMPERIALISM
3.  LETTERS TO MIM AND RAIL
4.  APACHE CASINO DEFIES COURT ORDER TO CLOSE:
    FEDERAL COURT BACKS DOWN
5.  RAPE CASE PROVOKES PSEUDO-FEMINISTS TO
    RECOGNIZE POWER DIFFERENTIALS ARE HEART OF RAPE
6.  PRIVILEGED KANADIANS DENY FIRST NATIONS HAVE IT
    WORSE
7.  HOUSE PASSES ENGLISH-CHAUVINIST LAW
8.  REPUBLICANS AND DEMOCRATS UNITE: WELFARE CUTS
    TARGET NON-WHITES
9.  WHAT DID YOU EXPECT? FBI PROMOTES XENOPHOBIA
10. MISUARI CAPITULATION IS A BAD EXAMPLE (JOSE
    MARIA SISON)
11. U.S. GOVERNMENT IS THE STRONGEST POWER
    INTERVENING IN MY ASYLUM CASE (JOSE MARIA
    SISON)
12. UNITED SNAKES RECRUITS SPIES TO MONITOR
    MILITANT GROUPS BEFORE APEC MEETS
13. PETITIONING IN AMERIKA FOR THE SISONS:
    RESPONSES TO U.S. IMPERIALISM FROM WITHIN THE
    BELLY OF THE BEAST
14. APPEAL FOR THE GRANT OF ASYLUM TO PROF. JOSE
    MARIA SISON AND FAMILY
15. UNDER LOCK AND KEY: NEWS FROM PRISONERS AND
    PRISONS
16. MLM ONLINE: 'DON'T CUT FUNDING FOR SPECIAL
    NEEDS CHILDREN'


* * *


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


* * *


DAY OF PROTEST:
MASSES RALLY TO SUPPORT SISON

LOS ANGELES, August 14--MIM joined supporters of 
the national democratic movement in the Philippines 
today in protesting the Dutch Ministry of Justice's 
decision to refuse Prof. Jose Maria Sison asylum 
and expel him from the Netherlands. The rally in 
front of the Dutch consulate was part of a 
worldwide "Day of Protest" against the expulsion. 
Protests were also held in Manila, The Hague, 
Brussels, Berlin, Oslo, Milan, Toronto, Vancouver, 
San Francisco, Tokyo, Hongkong, Sydney, Melbourne 
and Wellington.

The Los Angeles Protest was organized by the 
Friends of JoMa Sison and BAYAN International 
(USA).

The Dutch Ministry of Justice informed Prof. Sison 
on July 18 that he would have to leave the 
Netherlands in four weeks, on August 15. The 
inJustice Ministry is using trumped up charges of 
terrorism as its excuse for denying Sison asylum. 
Yet these charges say that Sison was committing 
acts of violence or organizing campaigns while he 
was either in prison or traveling outside the 
Philippines.(1)

Activists participating in the Day of Protest 
support Sison's position stated in a July 27 press 
release that "It is a matter of duty for me to stay 
on in the Netherlands, if only to pursue the asylum 
case to its conclusion. Were I to give up this 
case, then I would be allowing the false claims and 
arguments of the Dutch justice ministry to go 
unopposed and look as if they were true."(2)

Speeches at the event stressed the fact that the 
Dutch Ministry of Justice was simply doing the 
bidding of the United Snakes and the Philippine 
government by expelling Sison. A statement 
distributed at the rally stated: "If carried out, 
the expulsion order will seriously disrupt the 
formal meetings of the Government of the Republic 
of the Philippines (GRP) and the National 
Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) in the 
Netherlands, in which Prof. Sison plays an integral 
role. The interference by the U.S.-Ramos Regime in 
the Jose Maria Sison asylum case is a ruthless 
scheme to frustrate the Filipino people's 
aspirations for genuine freedom and peace in the 
Philippines."

A supporter of BAYAN International spoke with MIM 
about the hypocrisy of bourgeois "rights" -- the 
bourgeoisie gives lip service to all sorts of fine 
ideals, but whenever these ideals get in the way of 
what they want, they trample on them. MIM and this 
supporter agreed that sometimes it is important to 
fight a winnable battle to "hold the bourgeoisie to 
its word" (in order to free a prisoner, fight 
censorship, etc.)

MIM adds that ultimately oppressed nations cannot 
count on the imperialists to honor or support their 
"rights" -- some of which (e.g. the right not to be 
exploited) the imperialists do not even recognize. 
Revolutionary armed struggle against imperialism 
and for socialism such as that waged by the NDF 
under the direction of the Communist Party of the 
Philippines is needed in order to end the 
oppression and violence of imperialism.

Activists also collected signatures on the "Appeal 
for the Grant of Asylum to Prof. Sison and Family."


NOTES:
1. MIM Notes 120 August 15, 1996, p. 1.
2. Press statement by Jose Maria Sison July 27, 
1996.


* * *


"ALTERNATIVE" VOTE IS NO ALTERNATIVE TO IMPERIALISM

*Elections update*:  Bob Dole announced his running 
mate, Jack Kemp, who considers Ronald Reagan his 
role model. Bill Clinton continues to sign bills 
into law that further the oppression of Blacks, 
Latinos and other oppressed nations while also 
pushing for passage of a bill that would give 
"anti-terrorist" wiretapping freedom to the FBI so 
that they could even more freely conduct covert 
operations (often against leftists) in Amerika. 
Through all of this many leftists are wondering 
what kind of choice it is to have to pick between 
the imperialist reactionaries and the moderate-
posing imperialist reactionaries. Some people have 
turned to the alternative of Ralph Nader or other 
"leftist" candidates.

MIM does not support voting in the United Snakes 
federal or state elections as an effective strategy 
at this time. The majority of people eligible to 
vote in this country do not have a material 
interest in opposing imperialism so there is no 
chance of an anti-imperialist winning. But MIM also 
knows that electoralism can not eliminate 
imperialism because the imperialists will not leave 
power peacefully. In countries where the majority 
really does oppose imperialism, the ruling class 
resorts to fraud or even eliminating elections 
entirely. MIM does not want to send the message 
that electoralism is an effective strategy, we want 
people to be putting their time and energy into 
work that will create revolutionary change both 
today and in the future.


TAKING ON RALPH NADER


None of Ralph Nader's supporters claim that he 
opposes imperialism. Nader is more of a kinder-and-
gentler-at-home brand of imperialist that is not so 
far off from the national chauvinism that underlies 
Buchanan's politics. One of Nader's agenda 
statements from his 1992 campaign for president 
included the following: "The American people should 
assume reasonable control over the assets they have 
legally owned for many years so that their use 
reflects citizen priorities for a prosperous 
America, mindful of the needs and rights of present 
and future generations of Americans to pursue 
happiness within benign environments."


"ALTERNATIVE" VOTE IS NO ALTERNATIVE TO IMPERIALISM


Compare this with the Buchanan rhetoric pushing for 
more for the Amerikan citizens and you will find a 
lot of similarities. Both ignore the profits 
created through the exploitation of the proletariat 
of the world and instead focus on the distribution 
of these profits in the United Snakes where the 
workers are benefiting from imperialism. Nader's 
rhetoric generally does not mention redistribution 
of these profits even within this country to the 
oppressed nationalities who are much worse off than 
the whites. It is likely that Nader would say he 
wants to end "racial" discrimination if he were 
pushed on it. But he does not offer any plan for 
how to accomplish this, and he certainly would not 
include the Third World in this redistribution 
equation.

Nader's big "leftist" policies include pushing for 
a 12 year term limit, campaign finance reform and 
easier voter registration as well as reforms that 
will empower consumers (in this country) relative 
to corporations. Nader does not talk about the 
evils of Capitalism because he believes in 
Capitalism. He believes that the consumers in 
Amerika need to be protected from the big 
businesses but does not care that the products 
these businesses are producing are killing the 
people in the Third World who work long hours for 
low wages, suffer environmental destruction, endure 
repressive dictatorships, and live in appalling 
conditions. He also does not put his energy where 
it should be: fighting the worst consumer abuses of 
all, those that happen in the Third World where 
Nestle tricks mothers into feeding their children 
formula rather than breast feeding among other less 
public but equally horrible consumer abuses.

Anyone supporting Ralph Nader needs to take a close 
look at the message this sends. This will not tell 
the winning imperialists that you want progressive 
reform to the system. It will tell them that you 
believe the system works and at the very most it 
will push for reforms that are not progressive 
within the context of imperialism: more for the 
white workers of Amerika, ignore the people outside 
of these borders. Anti-imperialists should not be 
fighting for chauvinist policies that say that 
Amerikans deserve more, they should focus on 
fighting alongside the proletariat of the world 
against imperialism and chauvinism.

There are a few policies that Nader has pushed that 
we can agree with. Most prominent among these is 
the freedom of information work he has done trying 
to make more information accessible to the public. 
This is something that helps progressives and MIM 
does take on winnable battles like this. But when 
this kind of work is balanced with Nader's overall 
support for imperialism and Amerika-first 
chauvinism, calling on people to vote for Nader is 
still incorrect and will not help the revolutionary 
movement.


THE "SOCIALIST" ON THE BALLOT


The other electoral strategy of leftists opposed to 
the Clinton/Dole ticket is to vote for a 
"socialist" candidate. (Socialist is in quotes here 
because none of the parties that run these 
candidates today are Socialist). MIM disagrees with 
the strategy of running anti-imperialist candidates 
in federal or even state level elections. First, it 
is not a winnable battle and the only thing people 
can learn from this is that the so-called 
socialists leading these campaigns can't win within 
the electoral arena they have chosen to fight. But 
before they lose, their campaign sends the 
incorrect message that reform, or even revolution, 
can gain ground in electoral battles within Amerika 
today. This is not the case for our current 
conditions.

One example of this incorrect strategy is the 
Workers World Party (WWP). They say "We look at the 
campaign as an opportunity to bring working-class 
politics to a broad audience. Our message is 
simple: elections don't change anything--a fighting 
working-class movement will. Every vote for Workers 
World Party sends a message to the capitalist 
class: Your days of exploitation are coming to an 
end. The socialist movement is reawakening." 

As an attempt to make use of the electoral 
discourse to talk about our politics, this would be 
a better argument for MIM to run electoral 
candidates than for MIM to support Nader. But the 
reason for telling people to vote has no meaning. 
If the only point is to tell the capitalists that 
their days are limited, why not make one phone call 
on the behalf of everyone and save all the time and 
expense of this electoral campaign? The fact is 
that telling people to vote is also telling them 
that some kind of good can come from this action. 
This statement from WWP can only mean that they 
hope to influence the imperialists by showing them 
the support a "Socialist" organization can gain. 

Boycotting the elections and encouraging others to 
do so is a more correct strategy because it makes 
clear to the people that we do not hold out any 
false hope of victory within the electoral arena. 
Boycotting the elections sends a clearer message 
and it is a message that many in this country are 
already sending: we don't believe reform can be 
achieved through these imperialist elections and we 
are going to fight this battle in a more effective 
way. People are less likely to vote the less income 
they have.(1) This means that many in this country 
already understand that voting can not make 
revolutionary change. We don't seek to change this 
behavior, instead we want to show people what kinds 
of actions can make a change and how people can 
fight imperialism.

MIM tells its supporters not to waste that hour 
voting and instead to put that time into organizing 
for revolutionary change. We do not believe that 
carrying out an electoral campaign puts out the 
message that electoralism is a dead end. It just 
reinforces the belief that people can change 
imperialism through the ballot box. No where in 
their campaign materials does the WWP call for 
armed revolution and this just reinforces the idea 
that voting can win revolution. 


WHAT IS THE ALTERNATIVE?


MIM says don't waste your time voting. But do spend 
your time campaigning this election year. Campaign 
against all votes for imperialism. Put up posters, 
hand out flyers, give talks, hold debates, set up 
literature tables, and do anything else you can to 
take advantage of the debate about the elections 
going on and to turn it into a discussion about how 
to end imperialism. Tell people why the Democrats 
are just like the Republicans and why anyone who 
wins a federal or even state level election has to 
support imperialism. Educate people about the 
alternative of revolutionary struggle and get them 
involved in more than just pulling a lever on 
election day.

MIM's alternative involves fighting for winnable 
reforms possible under imperialism that will make 
the battle against imperialism easier while 
fighting for revolutionary change. We are 
organizing a Maoist party capable of leading the 
revolutionary struggle and we are educating people 
and building support for progressive causes both 
within US borders and around the world.


NOTE:  New York Times, Week in Review, 8/11/96.


* * *


LETTERS TO MIM AND RAIL

FIRST NATIONS SHOULD PAY THE KANADIAN GOVERNMENT 
SALES TAX TOO

**After MIM posted an article from MIM Notes 117 
"First Nations win victory against Canadian taxes" 
to Usenet, we received the following letter:**

"The views and opinions expressed here are my own 
and not those of the Department of Canadian 
Heritage or the Government of Canada."         

Over the past several years I have had the 
opportunity to work along side several of our 
countries First Nations people and have found them 
all to be very intelligent and reasonable folks. 
Their stories and approaches to dealings in every 
day life are not all that different from our own 
and in general people up here in the North get 
along just fine.

This is of course until someone comes along and 
tells one group or the other that they are entitled 
to certain privileges and benefits merely because 
of their nationality or racial background. The 
continued separation of our the people in this 
country on issues such as the [Goods and Services 
Tax (GST)], which is intended for Goods Services 
provided by Canadians to whoever decides to utilize 
them, is causing severe problems in certain areas 
of this country and does little for the 
preservation of the national sovereignty of the 
First Nations people.

If the people do not want to pay the GST they don't 
have to, but if they wish to utilize the benefits 
of Canadian suppliers there is no reason why they 
shouldn't. I am a strong believer in the 
recognition of our native friends' culture and 
heritage, but I also recognize that along with the 
issue of self-government comes certain fiscal 
responsibilities. No body of people in the world 
today can exist without at least a minimal level of 
monetary income to help sustain all the necessary 
social programs.

This is especially true in the North where the 
access, to certain items that people have gotten 
used to, is limited. (Thus the import/export 
industry) We all realize that we don't live in a 
perfect world, but I think that in order to improve 
the system we have today, we all need to pitch in. 
Not just a select few. The few dollars you may save 
today by being successful in having certain native 
bands exempt from the GST will cost you much more 
in the long run. The traditional rights of the 
native people have already been protected for the 
most part, modern benefits do not fall into this 
category.

Thank you for your time.

 -- an Internet reader in the North

MIM RESPONDS: Thank you for writing to MIM.

First, your premise that everyone gets along fine 
*until* a group claims special privileges denies 
the rights and privileges claimed and seized by the 
Kanadian people as settlers on First Nations land 
in the first place. This is the "normal" situation 
from the perspective of the privileged -- and it 
only looks special when rights are claimed or 
seized by First Nations (or other oppressed) 
peoples, such as the right to exemption from 
foreign taxation. Introducing nationality or "race" 
(a pseudo-scientific category MIM rejects) to say 
that these categories should not be divisive 
similarly assumes that the Euro-descended people in 
North America do not organize and identify as 
nations -- in opposition to First Nations living 
within Kanada's borders. You see First Nations as a 
minority group which is part of Kanada, whereas MIM 
supports the full self-determination of First 
Nations people and national independence from 
Kanada and the United Snakes.

Your concern with the preservation of national 
sovereignty of First Nations people is seriously 
undermined by your notion that "our people" are 
divided by such issues as the GST, and that when 
First Nations engage in trade with Kanadian 
suppliers they should be subject to a Kanadian 
government sales tax. National sovereignty includes 
the ability to engage in international trade. When 
France or Belgium buys goods from Kanadian 
suppliers, are they subject to the GST? Why then, 
should a sovereign nation enclosed within the 
borders of Kanada be subject to a Kanadian tax? If 
you believe in First Nations' "self" government, 
why do they have special fiscal responsibility to 
Kanada? Why should First Nations peoples fund 
social programs for Kanada?

As for pitching in and improving the system -- MIM 
is not interested in improving the system of 
imperialism, but of overthrowing it and creating a 
socialist society. Hence our support for 
revolutionary national liberation struggles. 
Finally, the so-called scarcity of resources in 
Kanada, which are massively subsidized by super-
profits from Third World labor-power, should not be 
enhanced by sucking resources from First Nations in 
the form of taxation.


CORRECTION

The notes were missing from MN120 article 
"Netherlands threatens to expel leader of Filipino 
struggle."

NOTES:
1. Reuters, July 27, 1996.
2. Filipino Refugees in the Netherlands (FREN), 
"Statement of Protest
Against the Dutch Justice Ministry' order to expel 
the Sison family."
3. Luis Jalandoni, Press Statement, 24 July, 1996.
4. Reuters, July 27, 1996.


* * *


APACHE CASINO DEFIES COURT ORDER TO CLOSE:
FEDERAL COURT BACKS DOWN


When a federal court ruled that New Mexico's 
governor's word was not good enough, and the state 
legislature had to be in on whether the Apache 
could run their gaming as they pleased, president 
of the Mescalero Apache, Wendell Chino, declared 
that his casino would defy the order to close.

The court subsequently backed off a bit, granting a 
stay while the tribes surrounded by New Mexico 
appeal the ruling. The courts, legislature, and 
government of New Mexico or the United Snakes have 
no legitimate right to determine what Apache or 
other nations do to earn money. Self-determination 
is the heart of this conflict.

Governor Gary Johnson signed compacts with the 
First Nations which officially allowed them to 
continue their practice of the past nine years of 
supporting themselves by running casinos. The 
legislature says it's not the governor's turf and 
the compacts should be invalidated. The legislature 
and anti-gambling groups urged the judge in the 
case to close the casinos immediately, without the 
slightest reference to the people who actually 
should be in control.

The tribes were not allowed to appear before the 
New Mexico Supreme Court or the federal court on 
their own behalf, and the lawyer appointed by the 
federal government did not represent the tribes. 
According to Chino, "He has joined the other power 
brokers against what is rightfully due to the 
Indian tribes."(1)

According to the co-chair of the New Mexico Indian 
Gaming Association "The series of broken promises 
made by the United States and the state of New 
Mexico gives the state virtual veto over Indian 
gaming. It was precisely this outcome that we 
feared when we opposed state involvement in the 
Indian Gaming Regulatory Act."(2)

According to Chino, "For over four-hundred years 
the Indian tribes have fought these imbalances and 
we will continue to do so."(1) He stated 
unequivocally that the casino run by his tribe 
would not close regardless of what the white man's 
court said. Likely afraid that the nations would 
respond with great resistance if the state tried to 
stop their now-illegal casinos, the court offered a 
stay on the enforcement. That means that during the 
appeal, the casinos can stay open. It is a 
temporary victory.


THE REACTIONARIES ARE REELING


State Representative George Buffet said: "I thought 
the stay was unbelievable. The idea of a judge 
saying, 'What you're doing is illegal and 
felonious, but I'm going to allow you to keep doing 
this' just doesn't make sense. It's like telling a 
bank robber, 'Well, it's against the law to rob 
banks, but while you're appealing this, since 
you're from a low-income area, we're going to let  
you keep on robbing banks.'"(3) Well, the First 
Nations of New Mexico are not robbing banks. And in 
principle, there is nothing wrong with First 
Nations reclaiming a little piece of what was 
stolen from them. But there is a huge hypocrisy 
when one part of the occupying imperialist 
government says that the First Nations obeying 
their agreements with another part are egregious 
criminals. The real criminals are the occupying 
governments, both federal and state.

Richard Hughes, lead attorney for the nine tribes 
in the case, said, "The tribes have long memories. 
They have a very distinct sense that whenever they 
find something that looks too good to the white 
man--land, water, minerals, whatever it happens to 
be -- there's going to be a backlash, and 
somebody's going to find a way to grab it."(3) The 
state is going to have to do more than renege on 
its pieces of paper to deny First Nation people 
their business. Repression will breed resistance.


NOTES:
1. Indian Country Today, July 29-Aug 5, 1996, pp. 
1-2.
2. Indian Country Today, July 22-29, 1996, pp. 1-2.
3. Los Angeles Times, August 4, 1996, p. A20.


* * *


DEBATE SURROUNDING FIRST NATION GIRLS' RAPE 
PROVOKES PSEUDO-FEMINISTS TO RECOGNIZE POWER 
DIFFERENTIALS ARE HEART OF RAPE


by MCB52

The popular imagination across Kanada has been 
provoked to think critically about exactly what 
sorts of power define rape by a court case: a 
Catholic bishop was convicted in July of one count 
of rape and one count of sexual assault 30 years 
ago of First Nation teenagers at a boarding school 
where he was principal. Two facts that are 
undisputed have stirred thinking about "a question 
of rape": the sex acts occurred, and the women did 
not say No. By looking at opinion editorials and 
subsequent letters in the somewhat liberal rather 
snooty Toronto Globe and Mail, we will form a 
Maoist critique that pushes the boundaries to 
recognize that in an unequal world, all sex is 
rape.

The Globe and Mail's own op ed piece was titled 
with the question: "But was it rape?"(1) It's 
answer is No, because it is fearful of the 
implications. It recognizes the power imbalance 
that the court cited in considering it rape, but 
says that that only "makes what Bishop O'Connor did 
thoroughly reprehensible"--not rape. On the one 
hand, its analysis might be better than that of the 
pseudo-feminists, since it maintains that it wants 
to minimize the number of people in prison. If 
calling all sex rape means that it all has to be 
prosecuted, well that is a problem (inherent in 
pseudo-feminism which calls for pig "protection" of 
wimmin). MIM does not support going to the pigs to 
stop rape.

However, the Globe and Mail goes on to minimize the 
impact of the power differential. It says that rape 
is only when there is "violence or threat of 
violence," and continues: "There was not even 
threat of dire consequences: firing, demotion, 
public embarrassment. There was only the implied 
threat of the priest's position." MIM would 
challenge this "only." The priest's position, of 
employer, academic official, and patriarch, is 
plenty of threat to make real consent impossible. 
This case is much more obvious than the majority of 
cases which MIM would call rape, wherein 
differentials in power between groups are 
sufficient to make real consent impossible.

A more interesting opinion editorial was published 
the same day, on the opposite page.(2) Pseudo-
feminist columnist Margaret Wente asked the same 
question: "Was it really rape?" She comes to the 
conclusion "Yes, it really was." Her logic is 
mostly correct, and exposes the bankruptcy in 
pseudo-feminism's insistence that not all sex is 
rape.

Wente correctly starts out by pointing out coercion 
in cases everyone can agree on. If a bank robber 
with a gun demands money, there is no doubt of what 
is going on and the pigs won't assume that the 
teller who handed it over was a willing party. 
Similarly, sex at gunpoint is pretty universally 
accepted as rape. 

But the lack of a gun does not answer the question 
of whether it was rape. Wente asks "But what if 
there was no gun? What if he did not physically 
overpower her, or issue threats? What if she could 
have objected but didn't, could have run away, but 
didn't? What if she allowed him to have sex with 
her several more times, over an extended period, 
and kept quiet about it for decades? Could that 
possibly be rape?" Yes, it could, on this she and 
MIM agree. When someone who's No will not be 
listened to does not register that No, it does not 
make the sex consensual.

Wente correctly, if opportunistically given pseudo-
feminists poor track record on listening to 
oppressed nations, brings in the opinions of the 
First Nation people about the rapes. A generation 
of First Nation children was forced far away from 
their families to residential schools controlled by 
the church and/or state, and according to Wente, 
"many members of the native community...regard 
these women's stories as an act of witness against 
the spiritual and physical violence inflicted on a 
generation of native children." 

It is true that these stories are a testament to 
the brutality of the colonialism of the church and 
state in Kanada. However, if First Nation people 
are fooled into believing that this one case shows 
that the Kanadian government itself can right the 
wrongs, they are woefully mistaken. Bringing the 
bishop to a Kanadian court is not correct. Now 
First Nations cannot prosecute the rapes committed 
by bishops themselves--that is Kanada's stolen 
jurisdiction. But they must not rely on the 
imperialists to yield token apologies, and must 
instead struggle to build the independent power to 
determine their own justice. Many, including in 
territory surrounded by British Columbia, are doing 
just that as epitomized in the standoff at 
Gustafsen Lake last year.

Wente concludes her piece by pointing to the 
progress in the general consciousness as a result 
of feminist struggles. "Thirty years ago most 
people would have let the bishop off the hook 
because the 19-year-old secretary didn't say no. 
Today we know that men do not always need weapons 
or even threats to abuse their power, and that sex 
can be coercive without being violent. We know that 
submission is not consent."

Well MIM knows that submission is not consent, but 
we doubt that Wente does. Wente is caught in a bind 
because according to her own analysis, a difference 
in power is sufficient to determine that sex is 
rape. She is correct that if there is a difference 
of power, even if it is not "abused," it is rape. 
MIM would challenge Wente to take this seriously 
and disown the strategy of incarcerating individual 
rapists.
The Saturday after these editorials were published, 
the Globe and Mail printed some responses that were 
also interesting.(3) Two supported Wente's 
position, and one dissented.

The first letter was from a member of the Coalition 
of Concerned Canadian Catholics, a group founded by 
a diocese in Newfoundland in the wake of exposures 
of sexual abuse there. He advocated reform from 
within for the Catholic Church as a further 
rectification after supporting the conviction of 
the bishop in legal court.

His commission concluded that "Sexual abuse is 
clearly not a factor which has infected the church 
alone...but it is a problem in which the church 
shares as an active agent in society. A patriarchal 
(male-dominated) society has been reinforced by the 
authoritarian institutional Roman Catholic Church. 
Historically, as such attitudes became 
institutionalized in the policies and structures of 
the church and society, they provided strong 
cultural and social support for oppression, where 
one person or group dominates or exploits the 
other."

This is a remarkably correct analysis coming from 
the Catholic church, and makes it understandable 
how a minority of Catholic leaders can be 
incorporated into a United Front in places like the 
Philippines. This letter-writer has correctly 
described problems in the Catholic Church and 
society historically, but can only be drawn to the 
right side under feminist proletarian leadership. 
The ideal society he describes can only be achieved 
under communism, an end ultimately incompatible 
with Catholicism and other religion.

The second letter in support of Wente was from an 
Member of Parliament (MP) from Yukon calling for a 
more complete criticism of the residential schools, 
describing them as prisons for First Nation 
members. She relates: "I remember clearly several 
years ago talking with aboriginal friends about a 
film in which prisoners were beaten and killed by 
prison authorities. I was shocked when one of them 
said, and the others agreed, that it reminded them 
of residential schools."

This is a powerful illustration of the context of 
these particular rapes, as MIM readers are well 
aware of the horrors of rape and abuse of 
prisoners. However, her solution is even more 
bankrupt than the Catholic's. She says the solution 
is better policies on the part of Kanada. While 
this might help short-term, the real solution is 
policies put forth by First Nations themselves.

The third and final letter, the only one from a 
random citizen, criticizes Wente. He is pro-
patriarchy posing as pro-womyn, pretending he is 
the one who wants to empower wimmin. He asks "Is 
[Wente] saying that women cannot be held 
responsible for their actions?" He says that since 
the law says that a 14-year-olds can consent to 
everyone except a person "in a position of trust--a 
teacher, police officer, priest" and that 16-year-
olds can give "full consent," the fact that the 
woman who won the rape conviction was 19 proved 
that it was not rape.

He says that her "consenting" was just a matter of 
a "bad decision" on her part. He continues: 
"Regretted sex is not rape, as Ms. Wente and others 
would have us believe. To argue anything else is to 
argue that women are not responsible beings and 
should be returned to the position of being 
considered a ward or a husband's chattel."

MIM does indeed argue "something else," and that is 
in no way advocating chattel status for women. This 
letter suggests that recognizing that power is 
unequal is equivalent to wishing it so, which is 
wrong. MIM recognizes that power is unequal, with 
regard to nation, class, and gender including age, 
in order to abolish that power differential.

NOTES:
1. Toronto Globe and Mail, July 27, 1996.
2. Toronto Globe and Mail, July 27, 1996.
3. Toronto Globe and Mail, August 3, 1996.


* * *


PRIVILEGED KANADIANS DENY FIRST NATIONS HAVE IT 
WORSE


According to a survey commissioned by the 
Department of Indian Affairs, almost half of people 
living in the Kanadian empire, and more than two-
thirds of those living in the Kanadian province of 
Quebec, think that First Nations have a standard of 
living as good as or better than "the average 
Canadian." While other so-called leftist parties 
might call this willful disregard of facts simple 
ignorance, MIM recognizes that the reactionary 
average Kanadian has a stake in denying the misery 
of the First Nations.

According to the United Nations, Kanada is the best 
place in the world to live. When averaging the 
numbers for different groups and regions and 
including internal colonies, Kanada has low infant 
mortality, high literacy, near-universal housing, 
and good nutrition. But for the First Nations 
Kanada surrounds, none of these things are true. 
Nearly half of all First Nation members are 
unemployed. How could they possibly approach the 
standard of living of Kanadians? Their housing, 
schools, and nutrition levels all make the First 
Nations have more in common with Third World neo-
colonies than with white Kanadians.

Kanadians should be aware of this disparity. A 
surge in First Nation radicalism has brought even 
bourgeois media attention as police violently 
squelched protest from Gustafsen Lake, B.C., to 
Ipperwash, Ontario. As First Nation people occupy 
their rightful land, and meet repression with 
resistance, Kanada is forced to pay attention. If 
white people still deny the injustice against First 
Nations, it is because they refuse to face the 
contradictions between their bourgeois ideology and 
the material conditions of oppressed nations within 
KKKanada. "Equal rights" in a country that exists 
on stolen land. "Equal opportunity" in a country 
marked by disparate education. "Equality before the 
law" when First Nation activism is quelled through 
violent repression. This ideological rhetoric is a 
facade which must be exposed so that the white 
nation chokes on the disparity between kkkanadians 
and First Nations.


NOTE: Toronto Globe and Mail, July 25, 1996.


* * *


HOUSE PASSES ENGLISH-CHAUVINIST LAW


In August, the House of Representatives passed a 
law that would make English the official language 
of the United Snakes. The lawmakers argued that 
"America" is splitting apart and that the federal 
government printing ballots in multiple languages 
or helping people apply for a Social Security card 
in Vietnamese was encouraging this separatism. The 
lawmakers feared that the "ethnic" struggle in the 
former Yugoslavia or Quebec's French-speaking 
separatist movement could foreshadow struggle 
within the United Snakes.

Clinton opposes the bill, and the New York Times 
called the fate of the bill in the Senate 
"uncertain." Speaker Newt Gingrich summed up the 
position of the bill's supporters:  "Is there a 
thing we call American? Is it unique? Is it vital 
historically to assert and establish that English 
is the common language at the heart of our 
civilization."

He objected to the fact that California public 
schools teach in 80 languages, and the Chicago 
schools use 100 languages. Gingrich said, "This 
isn't bilingualism. This is a level of confusion, 
which if it was allowed to develop for another 20 
or 30 years would literally lead, I think, to the 
decay of the core parts of our civilization."

The argument that languages other than English are 
signs of decay of our civilization is just pure 
Amerikan chauvinism. While Gingrich is 
overestimating the reach of current government 
multilingual efforts, he is correct that the 
government has an interest in forcible assimilation 
of non-Amerikans into Amerika. Currently, 97% of 
U.S. residents speak English well, and less than 1% 
of Federal documents are printed in languages other 
than English. According to Gingrich, this is not an 
adequate stick to encourage English speaking and 
discourage non-English speakers from passing 
through U.S. borders. That Gingrich uses the word 
"decay" to describe the United Snakes with more 
non-English speakers exposes the chauvinism of his 
position.


NOTE: New York Times, August 2, 1996, p. A10.


* * *


REPUBLICANS AND DEMOCRATS UNITE:
WELFARE CUTS TARGET NON-WHITES


President Clinton succumbed to election-year 
pressure and signed a new welfare reform bill on 
August 1. The bill reduces federal funding for 
social programs for the poor, including food 
stamps, and restricts federal welfare money from 
being used by legal immigrants who are not yet 
citizens. The bill is expected to save the federal 
government $55 billion over 6 years(2). Overall 
federal spending has been reduced, and many 
specific programs are no longer mandated. States 
will now receive "block grants" with which to fund 
their own aid programs, with their own 
requirements. Importantly, however, states will not 
be allowed to use federal block grant money to fund 
programs or aid for families who have been on 
welfare for a total of 5 years. States may set 
shorter deadlines.

The purpose of the welfare system is to pacify the 
oppressed. Unable to find jobs to feed themselves 
or their families, the government avoids revolution 
by giving the poor money--up to two-thirds of the 
government poverty line.

Subsidies to the poor are unpopular with the 
Amerikan settlers and in an election year, Clinton 
was forced to reverse himself and sign a bill that 
was similar to two he had vetoed previously. This 
isn't the first time Clinton bent to settler 
pressure. During his 1992 campaign, he pledged to 
"end welfare as we know it." The struggle between 
the Republicans and the non-election year Democrats 
on issues like welfare is not an issue between 
"cruel" and "kind" but a struggle over different 
ways to maintain an oppressive system.

The white working class serves as the mass base for 
fascism in North America. Normally they are 
apathetic politically in exchange for their bloated 
wages. Not having a direct role in leading 
imperialism they have a distorted view about the 
proportions of government spending. Taking the view 
that serves their own narrow interests, the labor 
aristocracy is more likely to see "welfare" 
parasitism in poor people than in military 
contractors, who take a bigger piece of the federal 
budget. Another purpose of welfare is to serve as a 
subsidy to urban landlords and agricultural 
corporations. Cutting welfare will force the 
government to redirect some of the welfare 
"savings" towards direct subsidizes to these far-
from-oppressed individuals and groups.

According to a New York Times poll, 78% of 
Amerikans favor "limiting  how long mothers with 
young children can receive welfare benefits."  When 
the question was changed to add the words "If this 
meant that many children would be living in 
households with no income...", 33% still favored 
it.(1) This is the mass base for the Republican-
backed bill and Clinton's signature on it. The 
result of this bill will mean further misery for 
the oppressed and will push them closer to 
revolution. This is the contradiction that the 
bourgeoisie has gotten itself into: making 
concessions to maintain labor aristocracy support 
that will destabilize Amerika's hold on the 
oppressed nations.

The labor aristocracy believes incorrectly that the 
majority of people on welfare are Black women with 
lots of kids living high on the hog. The chauvinist 
phony-left in Amerika responds to this garbage by 
arguing that the majority of people on welfare are 
white, so good racists should support welfare, 
because so many welfare recipients are white.

This is a factually incorrect view that only 
encourages more white nation chauvinism. Whites are 
the majority within U.S. borders, but they are 
disproportionately not represented on welfare. Most 
importantly, the position of whites on welfare is 
most often transitory, whereas oppressed nations 
are more likely to be trapped below the poverty 
line.

Blacks are 13% of the people within U.S. borders, 
and they make up 23%  of those on welfare for 2 
years or less, and 34% of those on welfare for more 
than 5 years. "Hispanics" (a government and New 
York Times word and distinction) are 10% of the 
population, 13% of those on welfare for 2 years or 
less, and 23% of those on welfare for 5 or more 
years. This means that Blacks and "Hispanics" are 
more than twice *over-represented* in those on 
welfare for more than 5 years.(2,3)

The bourgeoisie cleverly seized upon this fact and 
legislated a "legal" way to cut oppressed nations 
off of welfare without having to admit they were 
doing that. By targeting families on welfare for 
more than 5 years over their lifetimes, more white 
people are excluded from the cuts. Once again the 
bourgeoisie cements it's alliance with the settlers 
by further increasing the distance between the 
white nation and oppressed nationals.


NOTES:
1. New York Times August 2, 1996 p. A19.
2. New York Times August 1, 1996, p. A1, A23.
3. World Almanac and Book of Facts 1996, Funk and 
Wagnalls, Mahwah  NJ, p. 382.


* * *


WHAT DID YOU EXPECT? FBI PROMOTES XENOPHOBIA


The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation and local 
Amerikan pig departments are intensifying suspicion 
of non-Amerikans in the United Snakes. The Los 
Angeles County Board of Supervisors has approved a 
plan marking immigrants and visitors as primary 
targets of the defense against the supposed threat 
of terrorism from the Third World.

"After hearing an overview from the FBI and county 
Sheriff's Department, the [Los Angeles County Board 
of Supervisors] unanimously endorsed formation of a 
multi-agency, anti-terrorist working group that 
will immediately review security measures at 
airports and develop plans to train and equip 
emergency response units....  " The board acted 
after Charles H. Middleton, assistant special agent 
in charge of the FBI's Los Angeles office, and 
Helena Ashby, chief of detectives for the Sheriff's 
Department, told the supervisors that the terrorist 
threat is heightened by this region's diversity.

The pigs accurately note that where First and Third 
World meet, there will likely be violence. But the 
law and order bigots' talk of a "threat" from 
outside, and their necessary "response" is a gross 
misrepresentation of imperialist reality. The 
United Snakes exploits proletarians and steals 
resources the world over. Third World people who 
move to Amerika are following their own countries' 
resources into U.S. borders. So the notion of 
Amerika being threatened by Third World peoples is 
false:  the only threat is that the international 
proletariat will some day topple U.S. imperialism, 
ending parasitic Amerikan hegemony.

"'The threat to the Los Angeles area...is based on 
the diverse ethnic makeup of Los Angeles,' 
Middleton said. 'Nearly every segment of violent 
worldwide conflict is represented here in L.A.' 
Middleton said the region's geographic location as 
an 'international door to the world' makes it more 
vulnerable...."

MIM opposes closed-border policies as an extension 
of the division between U.S. imperialism and its 
victims. As a country built by the labor of non-
citizens, Amerika belongs to the people it is 
working so hard to keep out.


NOTE: Los Angeles Times, 8/7/96, p. B1.


* * *


MISUARI CAPITULATION IS A BAD EXAMPLE


**By Jose Maria Sison
Chief Political Consultant,
National Democratic Front of the Philippines
July 17, 1996**

I wish to respond to the so-called challenge of Mr. 
Ramos that I return to the Philippines in order to 
follow the example of Nur Misuari and thereby prove 
my sincerity.

I do not wish to follow the bad example of Misuari 
who has totally exposed himself as a 
capitulationist, abandoning the revolutionary 
struggle of the Moro people for self-determination 
and democracy, and scrambling for positions and 
money under the Manila government.

Misuari is a puppet not only of Mr. Ramos but also 
of the US and certain pro-US member-states in the 
Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC). These 
states are interested in exploiting the people and 
the oil and other natural resources in Mindanao.

As a result of satellite findings by the US 
National Aeronautics and Space Administration 
(NASA) that Asia s largest oil deposit lies in 
Mindanao, the US has pressed the Ramos regime and 
the pro-US member states in the OIC since 1992 to 
compel Misuari to capitulate.

The US oil companies are already exploiting the oil 
resources in Northwestern Palawan and plan to do 
the same in the Sulu Sea. Malaysia s Petronas is 
already exploring the Cotabato basin. 
The surrender of Misuari and his flagrant 
conversion into a traditional politician or trapo 
and warlord can only result in the aggravation of 
problems and the intensification of armed 
resistance in Mindanao. The Moro and non-Moro 
people, all the revolutionary forces among them and 
the other armed Moro organizations are determined 
to resist the Ramos-Misuari combine.

I will certainly return to the Philippines for 
reasons totally different from those of Misuari. I 
will do so under circumstances decided by the NDFP.

The NDFP is a revolutionary force of the Filipino 
people for national liberation and democracy. The 
leaders of the NDFP are entirely different from the 
capitulationist type like Misuari.

I wish to remind Mr. Ramos that under The Hague 
Joint Declaration of 1992 there is the provision 
about mutually acceptable principles and no 
surrender of any side to the other.

I also wish to remind him that under the Joint 
Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) 
of 1995 the formal meetings of the GRP and the NDFP 
negotiating panels and reciprocal working 
committees must be in a neutral venue abroad.

The NDFP is eager to finish the work on the 
comprehensive agreement on respect for human rights 
and international humanitarian law, which is the 
first item of the substantive agenda. But the GRP 
is the one delaying the work.



* * *


U.S. GOVERNMENT IS THE STRONGEST POWER INTERVENING 
IN MY ASYLUM CASE


**Press Statement
By Jose Maria Sison
August 4, 1996**

By bending to the pressures of Manila and 
Washington to deny me asylum in the Netherlands, 
the Dutch justice ministry violates not only the 21 
February 1995 decision of the Dutch Council of 
State but also the treaty obligations of the Dutch 
state under the Refugee Treaty of Geneva and the 
European Convention on Human Rights on Human and 
Fundamental Freedoms.

In order to continue treating my asylum case as a 
political case rather than as a juridical case, the 
Dutch justice ministry uses unfounded and malicious 
claims already abandoned by the Manila government 
and repeatedly nullified by the Dutch Council of 
State.

The Dutch government is overeager to please the 
Manila government because of the enormous interests 
of such Dutch monopoly firms as Shell, Unilever, 
ING-Barings and Philips in the Philippines. But the 
strongest power unlawfully intervening in my asylum 
case is the US government, which has far larger 
interests in the Philippines than the Dutch 
government.

In 1991 an agent of the US Central Intelligence 
Agency (CIA) and an officer of the Dutch 
intelligence service (BVD) jointly approached a 
Filipino asylum-seeker, Nathan Quimpo, and asked 
him to become an intelligence asset of the CIA with 
the principal task of spying on me in exchange for 
a monthly salary in US dollars, approval of his 
application for asylum in the Netherlands and a US 
travel grant.

At that time, Quimpo refused to become a CIA asset 
and cooperated with journalists of a Dutch TV news 
program in videotaping and exposing his meeting 
with the CIA and the BVD agents in Amsterdam. 
However, he started to write articles against me 
personally and against the National Democratic 
Front of the Philippines (NDFP) in early 1992.

In 1993 Quimpo was able to travel to the US despite 
his participation in the exposure of the CIA and 
BVD agents, which had caused quite a stir in the 
Netherlands and merited an inquiry in the Dutch 
parliament. In early 1994 he was able to get his 
status as political refugee in the Netherlands. His 
anti-Sison and anti-NDFP articles were used as 
attachments to the brief submitted by the Dutch 
justice ministry to the Dutch Council of State in 
1994.

One of the false claims made by the Dutch justice 
ministry against me is responsibility for 
Kampanyang Ahos, a bloody witchhunt, which took 
place in Mindanao in 1985 and 1986 when I was still 
under maximum security detention by the US-Marcos 
regime. It is widely known in the Philippines and 
abroad that I have strongly condemned this crime 
and those chiefly responsible for it. It is 
preposterous that the Dutch justice ministry would 
blame me for this crime and at the same time grant 
Quimpo with asylum in the Netherlands. Quimpo is 
notorious in the Philippines for having been a 
member of the so-called caretaker committee which 
launched and carried out Kampanyang Ahos in 
Mindanao from 1985 to 1986.



* * *


UNITED SNAKES RECRUITS SPIES TO MONITOR MILITANT 
GROUPS BEFORE APEC MEETS


**BAYAN HITS US FOR RECRUITING SPIES TO MONITOR 
MILITANT GROUPS IN CL, METROBEFORE APEC MEET
(written by Bayan)**


Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) and KMU chairman 
Crispin Beltran yesterday exposed what he termed as 
"direct intervention by the United States in an 
attempt to stifle legitimate dissent in the 
country."

Beltran made the statement following the discovery 
of a plan by the US Embassy to recruit eight agents 
to monitor militant groups in Central Luzon and the 
National Capital Region (NCR), five months before 
the holding of the fourth summit of the Asia-
Pacific Economic Conference (APEC) in Subic this 
November.

The Bayan chairman said last June 17, the Embassy 
sent out a notice to US citizens and Filipino 
agents about its need for four intelligence agents 
in Metro Manila to "gather information on 
activities of militant students, labor groups, and 
similar organizations utilized by subversive 
elements whose activities are directed against the 
US Mission."

The same notice, Beltran revealed, also called for 
applicants to "monitor the peace and order 
situation in urban areas as well as in the 
provinces, and to keep the Regional Security Office 
informed."

Rafael Mariano, chairman of the Kilusang Magbubukid 
ng Pilipinas (KMP), said KMP sources in Central 
Luzon have gathered that at least four agents were 
already recruited in that region, where militant 
labor, student and farmer organizations are 
mounting campaigns against the US-led APEC summit.

Citing a document obtained from the US Embassy, 
Mariano stressed the agents to be recruited will 
also be tasked to "assist the Regional Security 
Office in establishing and maintaining effective 
liaison between the US Embassy and local 
authorities.

Mariano explained the discovery of the document 
came days after a former agent of the Central 
Intelligence Agency (CIA), Brian Jenkins, told the 
House defense committee led by Tarlac 
[unintelligible] 100 percent probability of a 
terrorist attack during the APEC summit."

Bayan said the revelation "confirms our worst fears 
that the US is again on a rampage, creating a 
situation of terror in the Philippines to justify 
strict security measures that could include 
crackdowns and sabotage activities against 
legitimate people's organizations like Bayan, KMU, 
KMP, GABRIELA, the League of Filipino Students 
(LFS), and other militant organizations.

"It is bad enough that the Ramos government has 
historically chosen to equate militancy and 
legitimate dissent with subversion. But to have a 
foreign government like the United States directly 
take a hand in the systematic prosecution of a 
sovereign nation's people's organizations is 
totally outrageous and should not be condoned," 
Beltran stressed.

Jenkins had suggested US involvement in the 
planning of an elaborate security system for the 
APEC meeting, saying that since the US is the only 
superpower left in the world, then it must exercise 
control over the security of the APEC summit.

Beltran slammed the US Embassy for starting another 
hysteria to justify Washington's direct 
intervention in the Ramos regime's plan to sanitize 
the country of so-called "terrorists" and set the 
stage for a crackdown, months before the APEC 
meeting.

Bayan called the US Embassy's Regional Security 
Office (RSO) a front for a Central Intelligence 
Agency (CIA) station and urged nationalist 
legislators in Congress to immediately launch a 
thorough investigation on the activities of the 
RSO.


* * *


PETITIONING IN AMERIKA FOR THE SISONS:
RESPONSES TO U.S. IMPERIALISM FROM WITHIN THE BELLY 
OF THE BEAST


CITIES ACROSS THE UNITED SNAKES, August 12-14 -- 
MIM and RAIL activists collected signatures on the 
"Appeal for the Grant of Asylum for Prof. Sison and 
Family." MIM and RAIL are petitioning to stop to 
unlawful expulsion of the Sison family from the 
Netherlands as a means of organizing the masses in 
the United Snakes against their own government's 
support of brutality internationally. Here we 
report and comment on some of the responses we have 
gotten to the petition.

MIM participates in winnable battles like the Sison 
asylum case because they can be instrumental in an 
eventual revolutionary victory. As MIM Notes has 
reported, branding Prof. Sison as a terrorist gives 
the Dutch government a bogus excuse to expel him 
from the Netherlands, which interferes with peace 
negotiations between the National Democratic Front 
of the Philippines and the Government of the 
Republic of the Philippines. Sison would also be in 
potential physical danger if he is forced back to 
the Philippines.

As activists working within U.S. borders, MIM and 
RAIL have a special responsibility to our comrades 
struggling to win national self-determination 
against U.S. imperialism and its compradors. As 
Prof. Sison said in a press statement on August 4, 
"the strongest power unlawfully intervening in my 
asylum case is the U.S. government, which has far 
larger interests in the Philippines than the Dutch 
government." 


THE MASSES RESPOND TO THE APPEAL


In one city, Third World exiles we spoke to about 
the petition were both willing to listen to our 
discussion of the Sison case because of our work in 
the interests of the international proletariat, and 
also interested in getting involved in future work 
around the Philippines. In another city, a visitor 
from the Netherlands, where Sison is applying for 
asylum, signed the petition.

One womyn MIM and RAIL spoke to was very interested 
in the petition because s/he had heard about the 
case of Sara Balabagan and became interested in the 
Philippines.(1) This womyn agreed with us that 
feminism should encompass Third World wimmin's 
struggles and not be restricted to First World 
wimmin's concerns.

We ran into one major problem with some wimmin we 
spoke to:  while they agreed that this was an 
important case and were willing to sign the 
petition, they insisted that they did not know 
enough about the Philippines to get involved in 
activism opposing U.S. imperialism there. MIM 
struggles with wimmin to investigate revolutionary 
activism and take up politics rather than 
succumbing to the belief that they do not know 
enough. Patriarchy teaches wimmin to think that 
they cannot make decisions and that they are 
stupid, and buying into this socialization gives 
First World wimmin an easy way out of political 
struggle. MIM calls on progressive First World 
wimmin to combat patriarchal socialization and take 
up revolutionary politics.


A large group of Black youth in one city were 
initially uninterested in this case but became 
convinced that there is a link between Black 
struggles within U.S. borders and struggles of 
oppressed nations against U.S. imperialism abroad. 
Some of these young people signed the petition for 
asylum with the understanding that just as white 
government pigs have no legitimate authority in the 
Black community, the U.S. military has no place in 
the Philippines.

By far the most negative response to our requests 
to sign the petition was from people who refused to 
investigate the Sison case because of MIM's 
involvement. This is classic sectarianism:  
refusing to investigate an organization's politics 
because of immutable opinions about the 
organization itself. Sectarianism is both a 
politically dangerous and decadent practice.

MIM argues that revolutionary politics are much too 
serious to be impeded by sectarian nonsense. In 
this case, an individual who has no criticism of 
the Philippine revolution chose to ignore an 
important case with consequences that could 
endanger a family's life in the name of not taking 
up activism that MIM is involved in.

One person we spoke to about the petition, and 
about U.S. imperialism in the Philippines suggested 
that as a political party, MIM should run 
candidates in the Amerikan government elections. 
MIM opposes voting and participation in bourgeois 
elections generally because these activities are an 
exercise in choosing between different imperialists 
and different imperialist policies. This is a waste 
of time which diverts political energy from real 
political issues. No Amerikan president is going to 
oppose U.S. imperialism in the Philippines, so 
instead of messing in presidential races, MIM works 
to support the revolution in the Philippines as we 
know that the Filipino people are the only ones who 
will be able to liberate themselves from 
imperialism.

Many people MIM talked to gained an understanding 
of Sison's case and the Filipino struggle 
generally, and of the relationship between the 
United Snakes and the Philippines. Those 
individuals who wondered why they had not heard 
about Sison's case through the Amerikan media 
agreed with MIM that it is necessary to build 
independent media of the oppressed to get out 
information about revolutionary struggles. MIM 
calls on all people who agree with us on the 
importance of Jose Maria Sison's case to get 
involved:  sign and distribute copies of the 
petition on page six, write to us for more 
information on the revolution in the Philippines, 
read MIM Notes and Maoist Sojourner.

NOTE: Sara Balabagan was a 16-year-old Filipina 
domestic worker in the United Arab Emirates when 
she was sentenced to death for killing her employer 
who had attempted to rape her at knife-
point.(Maoist Sojourner no. 6 November 1995, p. 7) 
The Ramos regime, in an effort to camouflage its 
own role in the degradation of Filipino laborers, 
later hired a lawyer for Balabagan. But as a 
reporter asked when publicizing this case, "what 
kind of system ... can drive away even a 15-year-
old girl to work as a maid in a far-away 
land?"(Maoist Sojourner no. 8 Feb. 1996, p. 4) It 
was after protests swarmed that the court held a 
retrial and Sara's family was allowed to buy her 
life for US$40,000.


* * *


APPEAL FOR THE GRANT OF ASYLUM TO PROF. JOSE MARIA 
SISON AND FAMILY

To: 
Office of the Prime Minister 
c/o Dutch Parliament 
Postbus 20018 
2500 EA s'-Gravenhage 

Ministry of Justice 
Postbus 30127 
2500 GC s'-Gravenhage 

We hereby appeal to the government of the 
Netherlands to respect and follow the February 1995 
and 21 February 1996 decision of the Raad van State 
on the asylum case of Prof. Jose Maria Sison and 
family. The decision lays down the following 
points: 

1.   Prof. Sison is a political refugee with a 
well-grounded fear of persecution in the sense of 
the Refugee Treaty of Geneva. 

2.   He cannot be sent back to the Philippines and 
is entitled to protection under Article 3 of the 
European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental 
Freedoms. 

We protest the 04 June 1996 negative decision of 
the Dutch justice ministry which seeks to violate 
or circumvent the above decision of the Raad van 
State. If the justice ministry is allowed to 
overturn the Raad van State decision, who else can 
qualify for asylum status in the Netherlands? 

The negative decision of the Dutch justice ministry 
pays lip service to the decision of the Raad van 
State but repeats the same false accusations and 
false arguments which the Raad van State has 
already heard and considered; and denies asylum to 
Prof. Sison in the Netherlands in particular. 

What seems to be the only new argument of the Dutch 
justice ministry is its own argument that Article 3 
of the European Convention does not necessarily 
mean the grant of asylum. But the justice ministry 
conveniently forgets that Prof. Sison has already 
been recognized as a political refugee by the Raad 
van State. We demand that the Dutch justice 
ministry cease to obscure the Raad van State 
decision that Prof. Sison is a political refugee by 
endlessly repeating false claims and false 
arguments already considered worthless by the Raad 
van State. 

At this point in time, the Dutch justice ministry 
must realize that while it continues to slander 
Prof. Sison, who is already adjudged a political 
refugee, the high officials of the Manila 
government which has fed defamatory information 
against him are publicly offering high positions to 
him in a futile attempt to lure him back to the 
Philippines under their terms.  

The Dutch justice ministry must also realize that 
Prof. Sison has been active in the ongoing peace 
talks between the National Democratic Front of the 
Philippines (NDF) and the Philippine government. It 
is ridiculous that while the Dutch foreign ministry 
hosts these talks, the Dutch justice ministry is 
trying to undermine the talks by expelling the NDF 
chief political consultant who has been fulfilling 
a crucially important role in the talks. It is a 
matter of justice that asylum be granted to Prof. 
Sison in the Netherlands. 

It is also a matter of general interest that the 
Dutch government fulfill its obligations under the 
Refugee Treaty and the European Convention on Human 
Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. This general 
interest concerning political refugees is even 
higher than the narrower political and economic 
interests involved in bilateral relations between 
the Dutch government and the Philippine government 
or even with the U.S. government. 

It is totally reprehensible for the Dutch justice 
ministry to convert the asylum procedure from a 
juridical process to a political process in the 
case of Prof. Sison. The justice ministry has 
blocked his asylum request for nearly eight years. 
It must cease to delay or even try to deprive him 
of his right to asylum, which has been decided as 
duly belonging to him by the Raad van State. 

Stop the expulsion of the Sison Family! 
Protect and advance the rights of all political 
asylum-seekers!

NAME:     SIGNATURE:      ADDRESS:         DATE:

________________________________________________

________________________________________________

________________________________________________

SUPPORT THE SISON FAMILY -- DOWNLOAD, COPY 
DISTRIBUTE, COLLECT SIGNATURES FOR, AND SEND IN THE 
ABOVE APPEAL!


* * *


UNDER LOCK AND KEY: NEWS FROM PRISONERS AND PRISONS


IN REMEMBRANCE OF ZIYON YISRAYAH


The following two letters were written in 
remembrance of Ziyon Yisrayah (slave name(s/n) 
Tommie Smith) who was legally murdered by the State 
of Indiana in the early hours of July 18, 1996.

On December 11, 1980 the police made a pre-dawn 
raid on the home of Ziyon, Ajamu and Kondo Nassor 
(s/n Earl Resnover). As a result, one police 
officer was killed and Ziyon was wounded. Ziyon, 
Ajamu and Kondo were politically active, and had a 
history of exchanges with the local police because 
of their stand against social injustices 
perpetrated against Blacks in the community.

Both Ajamu Nassor and Ziyon Yisrayah were sentenced 
to be executed, even though there is strong 
evidence that the police officer was shot by 
someone else. Ajamu Nassor was legally murdered by 
the State of Indiana on December 8, 1994 and Ziyon 
Yisrayah was legally murdered by the State of 
Indiana on July 18, 1996.


IN DE STORM

*July 18th, 1996, 12:00 midnight*

There came a storm. A storm that rocked de tombs of 
Michigan City Prisons disciplinary segregation unit 
and "X-Row" (death row) that was so profound and so 
heartfelt that mere words are too inadequate to 
express de electricity that flowed throughout de 
dark cave.

Convicts, particularly Afrikan men, expressed our 
Black rage in solidarity against de racist murder 
of our Brotha and comrade Ziyon Yisrayah by de neo-
kkkolonialist state. As it stormed inside de tombs, 
so too did it storm outside. [É]
i recall wondering as i kicked and shook de bars, 
if Ziyon could hear or feel us. Diz made me put all 
my energy into it, b'cuz i wanted him to hear and 
feel us, in spite of distance between Us and de 
murder room. i remembered comrade Ajamu Nassor, 
Ziyon's rapy, whom de fascist pigs had murdered in 
December of 94, and de storm grew. You could feel 
de pain from de westside of seg. and even from 
beneath us in X-Row. It was as if We were trying to 
send a message out to Ziyon and We were all writing 
with de same pen. De message read: "We luv you Bro. 
and We will continue to struggle for liberation. 
Your blood and de blood of those before you will 
not go unavenged! For diz is de day of de guerrilla 
-- de final call!"

Ziyon was pronounced dead at 1:21 A.M. by de 
imperialist state, but de people pronounce him 
forever alive. There is no doubt in my mind that 
Ziyon got our message or felt our luv for him. 
Nope, no doubt at all.....for it was written in de 
storm.

'In remembrance of Ziyon Yisrayah' Let his last 
words forever be written upon our hearts: "All that 
is necessary for evil to prevail, is for man to do 
nothing"

Abolish de death penalty. Free all P.P./P.O.W.'s 
Uhuru Sasa!!!
--An Indiana Prisoner, July 18th, 1996


REFLECTIONS


Today is the day that a comrade, a brother and 
friend name Ziyon Yisrayah is scheduled to be 
murdered. As i sit at my make ship desk of 
cardboard, sitting a top a folded mattress drafting 
motion after motion in an attempt to defeat the 
bogus charges of conspiracy to riot and 
threatening, my head is filled with thoughts of my 
brother, friend and comrade. 

[É]

As i sit here i gaze through the bars at the many 
filled sack lunches strewn across the floor, thrown 
and rejected by approximately 104 men of all 
nationalities housed on this lock up unit, who 
refused to eat for the next 2 days in protest of 
premeditated murder. i think about the sacrifice 
these men are making who have been on total 
lockdown for 47 days only receiving two cold sack 
lunches a day. And then any thoughts return back to 
my/Our brother, friend and Comrade Ziyon and the 
larger sacrifice he has made. [É]

As i sit here reflecting with simmering rage i 
listen to the silence of the unit and the whisper 
of oppression. Quiet because approximately 104 men 
refuse to speak for the next 2 days in protest of 
premeditated murder. Hearing nothing but an 
occasional shout/alarm of "One time!" warning 
others that a kop, a potential murderer is in the 
area on patrol.

As i sit here thinking and observing this New 
Afrikan womyn kop who goes out of her way to be 
liberal rationing out toilet paper, she seems so 
far removed from today's scheduled events. As she 
leans over with a smile to place two rolls of 
toilet paper in the cell door, her eyes show she 
does not overstand why i do not acknowledge her, do 
not acknowledge her smile. In my mind i ask her 
what if it was your brother, friend and comrade who 
just two floors below was scheduled to be murdered? 
Would you be so quick to smile, to flirt? Would you 
be so far removed from this reality in which you 
find yourself?

i often think about the kops who try to befriend Us 
and yet are a part of the death squad/execution 
team and you never knowing it. Imagine being on 
death row and befriending a kop who secretly 
belonged to the death squad, who was secretly 
conspiring to help murder you and you never know it 
until the last night of your life when he 
approaches the cage you in with handcuffs in hand 
and says "It's time". How would that make you feel 
And yet they charge me and my brothers with 
conspiring to riot! Conspiracy to stop a 
premeditated murder! 

[É]

i think about this saturday on July 13th as i sat 
in a 2 by 3 foot sweltering non-contact visiting 
booth, visiting with a comrade from BCAC [Brew City 
Anti-Authoritarian Collective] through bullet proof 
glass with thick steel bars across the front of it. 
This sweltering booth with the solid steel door 
with slit window and 6 by 6 inch hole set in the 
middle of it and red telephone. In my minds eye i 
see the symbolism of this day as 40 to 50 friends, 
comrades, allies and supporters demonstrated at the 
front prison gate demanding the re-opening of 
Ziyon's case and the dismissal of the bogus charges 
filed against myself and a total of 12 others. [É]

Damn!

People the price of our lives must increase. 
Burning candles have never saved any of Us and 
burning candles over Our corpses have never stopped 
the next one from being murdered. As you sit in the 
comfort of your homes and return back to you 
"normal" lives, put yourself in Ziyon's place and 
ask yourself if it was you what would you want 
someone on the streets to do for you?

Just as comrade Ajamu Nassor's, murdered by the 
state on 12-8-94, spirit continues to live and 
inspire Us so shall comrade Ziyons. Brother, friend 
and Comrade from those of Us who cared and gave a 
damn may you rest in peace.

The Struggle Continues!!
--An Indiana Prisoner, July 17, 1996


PRISONERS SENT TO SUPERMAX FOR SILENT PROTEST


Dear Friends,
The National Campaign to Stop Control Unit 
Prisons/Midwest Region is asking that as many of 
you as possible respond to the following and 
participate in our emergency response network:

Recently, 150 prisoners organized a silent mealtime 
vigil at the Indiana State prison in Michigan City, 
Indiana. The vigil was to protest the upcoming 
execution of Ziyon Yisrayah (Tommie Smith). Ziyon 
Yisrayah was subsequently murdered by the State of 
Indiana on July 18, 1996. Shortly after this vigil, 
ten New Afrikan prisoners were transferred to the 
supermax prison in Westville, Indiana and charged 
with a variety of serious offenses, including 
conspiracy to riot, threatening a guard, and 
physically resisting a guard.

These trumped up charges were clearly an attempt by 
Superintendent Al Parke to show he's boss and break 
the spirit of solidarity growing in D Cell House. 
It is also a classic case of how the more political 
prisoners get sent to the supermax. At issue is 
prisoners' rights to protest the death penalty. In 
addition, the fact that all ten prisoners charged 
are black reveals the racist nature of the Indiana 
State Prison system.

Of these ten prisoners, six were found guilty in an 
internal prison hearing and sentenced from one to 
five years in the cruel torture chambers known as 
supermax prisons in Indiana.

The National Campaign to Stop Control Unit Prisons 
asked people to call or fax Supt. Al Parke at (219) 
874-7256 (phone) and (219) 874-9001 and demand that 
the charges be dropped against the Indiana 6.


CALL FOR PRISONERS TO BECOME POLITICALLY MOTIVATED

*"...If we Afrikan Men do not get ourselves 
together NOW by preparing for battle then, the 
destruction and annihilation of our people will be 
our doing." -- Che (Hopp X) Assari*

The powers of racist amerikkka within the state of 
michigan, are determined to 'destroy' the 
encaptured Afrikan male/female, who are languishing 
within one of these states many death kkkamps. New 
psychological warfare is being applied (daily) to 
oppress and repress those of us under this yoke.

Recently the m.d.o.k. [Michigan Department of 
Corrections] has been implementing a lot of "self-
righteous" (illegal) policies in which to continue 
sadistic measures of control, but in reality, 
'punishment'. The m.d.o.k. have instituted a so-
called "gang coordinator/monitor" for purposes of 
identifying those who are considered "leaders" 
within the death kkkamps. Or those who are 
political agitators and jailhouse lawyers. This 
blatant attack against the prisoner-klass is one 
that has no substance other than to cause 
psychological pain and emotional damage and 
aggression. Aggression which these nazis and uncle 
toms know will increase prisoner on prisoner 
violence.

It is time that we (as prisoners within the state 
of michigan) stop the violence among ourselves and 
become violent with our captors. It is time that we 
become serious about wanting to make change and 
stop merely talking about it among our respective 
groups and/or friends. It is time that we look at 
the examples left to us from other rades, e.g., 
rade George Jackson; Malik El Haqq Shabazz (aka: 
Malcolm X); JiJu (aka: Geronimo Pratt); Leonard 
Pelter; Mumia; John Africa and countless others.

The pig governor and his grand shit-head piglet 
kkklansmen, are out to destroy us whether we are 
willing to believe/accept it or not.

The prisoner-klass within michigan must become 
politically motivated and stop being pacified with 
cheap tokenage hurled at us with such things as 
basketballs, baseballs, weights, various catalogs 
in which to order gym shoes and other clothing 
items. Its cool to do these things, but in proper 
perspective. We aren't in a fashion ballroom so the 
need for that shouldn't be priority. And no one is 
walking out of here becoming the next Michael 
Jordan, Darryl Strawberry, or Mike Tyson...so the 
perspectives should be put into its rightful place. 
We are in war, and in war you fight and learn from 
your commanders on the application of warfare.

Until this is done we will continue to suffer (as 
collective prisoner-klass) within the kkklans death 
kkkamps.

In the trenches,
--A Michigan prisoner, June 29, 1996.


RCG1 responds:  This letter clearly shows how 
prisons are used as a form of social control. It 
demonstrates how prisoncrats attempt to "divide and 
conquer" prisoners especially by singling out the 
leaders, old heads and jailhouse lawyers.

We agree that prisoners should be politicized and 
not pacified. Their focus should be on building a 
revolutionary party. We also agree that prisoners 
should stop violence among themselves. It is 
destructive to revolution and is how the pigs want 
prisoners to act. Prisoncrats benefit when 
prisoners fight each other because then prisoners 
can not organize against the principle problem:  
the imperialist system.

MIM disagrees with the above letter in that we not 
advocate prisoner violence against their captors at 
this time. Violence against prisoncrats only leads 
to more repression of prisoners. We suggest that 
prisoners look at historically revolutionary 
figures such as George Jackson, and Malik El Haqq 
Shabazz (aka: Malcolm X) and learn from history of 
the FBI's COINTELPRO war against the Black Panther 
Party.

MIM argues this is the time to organize, study and 
expose the atrocities of the imperialist system 
that oppresses people. Help MIM build a strong 
revolutionary party that will eventually overthrow 
the oppressive capitalist government.


UPDATE OF MASSACHUSETTS PRISONERS IN TEXAS


Thanks for the good reading and information your 
newspaper offers. I usually read it right away and 
pass around its good news to other inmates.

We are no longer allowed to write letters or send 
any correspondence to other Massachusetts prisons. 
This was started last month. All our mail is 
stamped on the back that the contents are from a 
prison and the Commonwealth is not responsible for 
is contents....The Department of Correction doesn't 
want anyone having long time commitments and 
friendships. This is unfair. Your paper helps me 
keep in touch even more as I write to as far as 
Texas to some of my friends.

On October 31, 1995, 299 inmates were kidnapped 
from Shirley, Massachusetts. Most are still there. 
About 60 have returned for health or similar 
reasons. They were supposed to be sent because of 
overcrowding. Most of the minimums are half filled. 
They just want more mediums and maxes, but most of 
these people here belong in a minimum.

The move was all a publicity stunt to get the 
public to want more prisons built. Enclosed is what 
was sent to the guys who got sent to Texas [The 
document describes the effects of the transfer on 
participation in the sex offenders program which is 
"voluntary", but if a prisoner does not participate 
or confess to some crime they will not be eligible 
for phase IV of the program, which will transfer 
them back to Massachusetts.-ed]. They were supposed 
to stay one year but they renewed the contract for 
another year. When I was in the service I thought 
the government wasted taxpayers dollars more than 
anyone else. Now I know the Department of 
Corrections wastes the most. Half of the staff work 
double shifts, and the benefits are the best ever 
for them. Well thanks for listening. Keep up the 
good work.

-- A Massachusetts Prisoner, July 15, 1996


PRISONER RECEIVES LONGER SENTENCE FOR MAINTAINING 
INNOCENCE


Dear MIM Notes,
I'm writing to you from a Pennsylvania State 
Correctional Institution. I have just received your 
June 1st and June 15th issues. I just read an 
article in the June 15th issue in which I find to 
be very interesting.

First let me say that your paper is not being 
screened here at this Institution. And I wish that 
a lot more of my fellow inmates would write to 
receive your paper. I show your paper around every 
time I receive one and a lot of the guys write down 
the address, but I'm not sure on how many people 
receive your paper.

What caught my interest is the article in the June 
15th paper, It was called "Boston Globe Fuels 
Crusades Against Sex Offenders". I'm in search of 
as much information I can find and any cases and 
case law if any pertaining to this so called 
Megan's Law. I'm serving a 6 to 36 month sentence 
for an indecent assault charge, in which I have now 
served 28 months on because of the DOC [Department 
of Corrections] and the PA parole boards refusal to 
parole me.

I was told by the Parole Board to Max my sentence 
out for refusal to complete a SOP [most likely 
stands for sexual offenders program -ed] they have 
here, because I refuse to sign papers admitting my 
guilt. I pleaded not guilty in a jury trial and was 
found guilty. Now I have an appeal pending in court 
in the form of a (PCRA) Post Collateral Relief Act, 
which is being dragged out by the courts for the 
last two years.

I'm being told by the DOC that upon my Max date I 
must sign this so called Megan's Law in order to be 
released on my Max date. I was sentenced in April 
1993 before this law was passed. So how can I be 
forced to sign these papers if I wasn't sentenced 
under this law? Any info or case you may refer me 
to or print in your paper will be a great help to 
me and my family. Thank you.

--A Pennsylvania Prisoner, July 9, 1996.


RCG1 RESPONDS:  Megan Kanka was killed in 1994 by a 
convicted sex offender in New Jersey, who lived 
across the street from her. The Kankas did not know 
their neighbor was a convicted sex offender(1). 
After Megan's death, New Jersey passed Megan's Law, 
and Congress passed the Violent Crime Control and 
Law Enforcement Act of 1994(1994 Fed Act). Both 
laws require states to inform communities when 
convicted sex offenders move into the area(1). The 
1994 Fed Act requires people convicted of a sex 
offense to register with the state for ten years 
after their release from prison. This law requires 
states to punish people who do not register(2).

In addition, state law enforcement agencies must 
transmit a copy of the convict data and 
fingerprints to the FBI. Failure to do so would 
result in the state's loss of 10% of special 
federal grant money(3).

Clinton signed the 1996 Federal Megan's Law which 
requires states to inform the public when 
"convicted sex offenders" are released and to 
establish a system of warning the public by 
September 1997 or states may lose federal "anti-
crime" money(1). Fifteen states already have these 
warning systems in place(4).

This legislation focuses upon the release of 
convicted sex offenders, it is unclear whether 
people convicted before the signing of Megan's Law 
are required to register with states. If anyone has 
more information please write to MIM.


NOTES:
1.CNN/Time, 
http://allpolitics.com/news/9605/17/clinton.sign/
2.Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 
1994, http://gopher.usdoj.gov/crime/crime.html
3.Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 
1994: Substantive Criminal Provisions, 
http://gopher.usdoj.gov/crime/crm_brf.html
4. CNN/Time, 
http://allpolitics.com/news/9605/08/sex.offenders/i
ndex.shtml


PRISONER EXPOSES THE CREATORS OF DRIVE-BY SHOOTINGS


Dear MIM,
I recently received your letter informing me of the 
censoring of some materials you sent me. I did 
receive MIM Notes in May and the administration 
didn't give me notice barring anything. However it 
should come as no surprise that these 
"pekkkerwoods" will interfere with anything they 
see as a threat to the state of ignorance they have 
founded here in Texas prisons.

I see Playboy, Penthouse and Playgirl ... coming in 
faster than the speed of light. These publications 
are unhindered due to the effect is serves upon an 
already brain dead mass of ignorance.

Recently I was watching a film with "Clinton the 
Crookkk" and he was expounding on how the 
gangbangers were/are such cowards for doing drive-
by shootings. And the "all-white but never right" 
audience was agreeing lock stock and barrel.

First of all most non-European ethnic groups have 
been continuously drilled and indoctrinated by the 
white owned media and societal fads into living the 
"Amerikkkan" way. In other words the evil, wicked 
lifestyle of the whiteman.

Incidentally white-folks invented the drive-by 
shooting. A drive-by is no more than an unsuspected 
surprise attack on a person or persons. I am sure 
if we ask the Indians and Afrikans of this country 
about this issue they will readily confirm that the 
whiteman has been driving-by on them for hundreds 
of years.

The funny thing is when black gang-bangers (who 
need guidance and who will play a major role in the 
armed struggle) commit a drive-by, they are thugs 
and cowards. But white-boys in the 20's and 30's 
who drove-by and gunned other humans down 
unsuspectingly, are hailed as heros in the 
whitemans gangster movies. And white-boys who 
unsuspectingly burn down black churches only need 
to be caught to add that extra edge to some devils 
political career, but are not cowards or thugs, is 
simply the "Amerikkkan Way"....

2 STRONG, 2 BLACK, 2 BE BULLIED.

--A Texas Prisoner, July 1,1996.


LOUISIANA FORCES PRISONERS TO PAY FOR MEDICAL CARE


**The following policy memorandum was sent to MIM 
by a prisoner who wanted to see more news about his 
state. This demonstrates the repression against 
prisoners that extends even into their health care. 
Charging prisoners for health care when they have 
no source of income (or are working for the prisons 
earning slave wages) forces them into debt and 
means that any money they are sent from the outside 
will be confiscated by the prisoncrats.**


As of August 1, 1996, medical co-payments will be 
applied to all new medical incidents occurring 
after the implementation of date of revised 
Department Regulation No. b-06-001, "Health Care". 
...Inmates will be charged a $3.00 fee for each 
unscheduled, self-initiated request for medical, 
dental and mental health service. ...After release 
from care for an injury or illness, subsequent 
unscheduled, self-initiated requests for treatment 
for that injury or illness, may be chargeable.

No inmate will be charged for any contact that is 
scheduled by the Warden or designee (medical/mental 
health personnel). Additionally, no fees will be 
charged for any contacts that are mandated by 
departmental or institutional policy [or]...When 
the fee is waived by the Warden or designee.

...Inmates will be charged a sum of $2.00 for each 
new prescription written and dispensed with the 
exception of psychotropic medications. There will 
be no charge for refills of prescriptions where the 
effects of the illness or injury are chronic or 
long-term.

...Indigent inmates will be assessed of all current 
funds available in their account, and will owe the 
balance. The account will then be placed on "hold" 
pending future receipt of funds.

--Michael L. Phillips, Warden, June 7, 1996


***WHAT NON-PRISONERS CAN DO TO SUPPORT 
PRISONERS***

*1. Struggle with, work with, finance and join MIM. 
The best way to support prisoners is to overthrow 
the system under which capitalists profit from the 
exploitation of prisoners. History shows that the 
best way to do this is to build a Marxist-Leninist-
Maoist party. The oppressors will not give up their 
power without a fight.
*2. Finance MIM's prison work. Our biggest bill 
each month is postage. Most of the prison comrades 
who read MIM Notes have no way of paying for it. So 
if you have money, send what you can afford. Every 
cent helps, and stamps are as good as cash to us.
*3. Distribute MIM Notes and Notas Rojas. Bring the 
voices of prisoners and their supporters to as 
large and wide an audience of people as possible. 
Contact MIM for bulk rates and distribution tips.
*4. Start or join a prison support group. MIM can 
provide advice and resources to help you build 
public opinion for prisoners and their struggles.
*5. Fight censorship, beatings, torture and other 
fascist outrages. Under Lock and Key often features 
the addresses of prisoners' friends and enemies. 
Work with the friends and let the enemies know 
you're watching. (Don't expect to win the fascists 
to the side of humanity, however. See #1 in this 
list).
*6. Stay in touch. Keep us informed of pro-prisoner 
work you do. Our readers might find it educational 
or inspirational.


***WHAT PRISONERS CAN DO TO BUILD MIM***

*1. Start a study group. This is the best way to 
share materials and ideas. In groups, prisoners can 
better benefit from the limited resources MIM has.
*2. Get MIM Notes and MIM Theory into your library. 
This allows one copy of the paper to be seen by 
many comrades.
*3. Contact people on the outside. MIM needs 
comrades and allies everywhere. Maybe you know 
people on the outside who want to subscribe to MIM 
Notes or distribute it.
*4. Share materials. If MIM sends books or 
periodicals, please make sure that as many people 
as possible get a chance to read them.
*5. Write MIM at least every three months. 
Otherwise, you will be dropped from our mailing 
list. There are many cases where your keepers throw 
out MIM Notes, so we need to know that you actually 
get it.  Also, comrades are moved around a lot, 
especially those who are known to be political. 
Please let us know of any address changes as soon 
as you know them.
*6. Make MIM Distributors an official distributor. 
Many prisons require registration before MIM can 
send books or other materials. Usually we can 
comply with these bogus rules. It helps immensely 
to have someone there do the reasearch and send us 
the proper forms.
*7. Send money or stamps. Our biggest bill each 
month is postage. Most of the prison comrades who 
read MIM Notes have no way of paying for it. So if 
you have money, send what you can afford. Every 
cent helps, and stamps are as good as cash to us. 
Please make all checks payable to "MIM 
Distributors."
*8. Write for MIM Notes or Notas Rojas. Prisoners 
write almost all of Under Lock & Key.  We don't 
care if you know how to spell or write good English 
or Spanish. Write on any topic you like, it does 
not have to be a prison story.
*9. Translate. If you can read and write English 
and another language fluently, let us know.  Any 
translation work you do will help us make Maoist 
ideas accessible to more people.
*10. Fight censorship. When you know of censorship 
of books or newspapers, investigate.  Write to MIM 
to confirm what has happened, then see what you can 
do about it.
*11. Keep in touch after your release. Many 
comrades stop doing political work after their 
release.  Write to MIM as soon as you know where 
you'll be so we can hook you up with comrades on 
the outside.


* * *


KULTURE REVIEW: CYCLO

directed by: Tran Anh Hung
1996
reviewed by MC206

*Cyclo* portrays contemporary urban Vietnamese 
bicycle-taxi gangs and should infuriate anti-
imperialists and anti-capitalists. It shows the 
results of an economic system which is concerned 
with securing profits for foreign imperialists and 
local elite but not meeting the needs of the 
majority of the people: oppressive poverty, fatuous 
decadence, dog-eat-dog competition, violence, 
prostitution, escapism, drug abuse, despair and 
suicide. But because of its petit-bourgeois focus 
on individuals and their "inner motivations," 
*Cyclo* fails to offer an alternative to despair 
and hopelessness. By contrast, MIM emphasizes the 
fact that imperialism creates the conditions for 
its own destruction and encourages people to turn 
their rage against imperialism, capitalism, and 
patriarchy and work to overthrow oppression.

*Cyclo* also inadvertently offers evidence that 
Vietnam is not a socialist country. Instead of 
undertaking improvements in the urban 
infrastructure or sponsoring collective kitchens or 
such the government offers "small business loans" 
to individual workers -- after a thorough credit 
check at that! This policy, the obvious attempts to 
lure foreign capital to Vietnam with big expensive 
Western hotels, and all the typical capitalist 
problems listed above are symptoms of the fact that 
Vietnam is a state-capitalist country with a 
revisionist (socialist in words, capitalist in 
deeds) government.


* * *


MARXISM-LENINISM-MAOISM ONLINE:

'DON'T CUT FUNDING FOR SPECIAL NEEDS CHILDREN'


**In response to an article on MIM's website from 
MIM Theory 9, "Psychology and Imperialism," on the 
abuse of children under patriarchy, a reader 
wrote:**

"Revolutionary Young Greetings. I am curious about 
[what] MIM's policies are regarding treatment of 
special needs children, particularly those with 
autism and attention deficit disorder. Right wing 
politicians have consistently tried to cut funds 
for their therapy, which these children need to 
become able to live independently as adults. I 
would like to see this discussed in MIM Notes."

We are happy to take up the topic. Communists are 
concerned about the alienation of youth, and 
support their liberation from both parental and 
state oppression. But it is precisely because we 
support their ability to live independently that we 
do not share the writer's enthusiasm for the 
standard "treatment" of children diagnosed with 
attention deficit disorder (ADD), including the 
addictive and harmful drug Ritalin, and we do not 
want to see more government funding for therapy 
which amounts to outright social control of youth. 
At the same time we understand the reactionaries' 
opposition to the growth of ADD diagnoses, and the 
current plans to reduce funding for special 
education, as a clamoring for more patriarchal, 
parental power in place of the medication. MIM has 
not studied autism, but there appear to be some 
diseases with both physical and mental components 
that may need medical treatment. In these cases, we 
look to the example of China under Mao for guidance 
on integrating social and medical treatments. (See 
MIM Theory 9.)

ADD was inaugurated by the psychiatric industry in 
the 1980s, and the number of children diagnosed 
with, and medicated for, the disease has 
skyrocketed since then. The Department of Education 
officially recognized it as a disorder in 1991, 
protecting people with the diagnosis under the 
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). 
With adults now also diagnosed with ADD, and mental 
health "experts" claiming that the majority of 
cases can be improved with medication, 
"prescriptions for Ritalin have increased more than 
600% over the last five years, according to the 
DEA."(1) The Department of Education estimates that 
4 million people now take the drug.(2)

"In the last five years, the number of students 
receiving federal special education aid has leaped 
from 4.8 million to 5.4 million. Education 
Department officials say the increase is occurring 
largely because school administrators nationwide 
are identifying many more students with problems 
such as attention-deficit disorder."(3) The 
reactionaries may be right that schools are 
diagnosing and medicating children in order to get 
more money for themselves and the psychiatric 
establishment, which is well represented in 
schools. Also, children who score poorly on bogus 
standardized tests don't have to be counted if they 
are diagnosed with ADD -- so the diagnosis can also 
be used to beef up "success" figures for schools.

The promotion of Ritalin has been a combined effort 
by Ciba-Giegy, the manufacturers of the drug, their 
mouthpiece advocacy group Children and Adults with 
Attention Deficit Disorders (CHAAD), the coercive 
powers of parents and the school system, and the 
official recognition of the disorder by the state 
and the American Psychiatric Association. Parents, 
especially of oppressed nations, often do not have 
a choice about medicating their children if they 
want them to remain in the public school system, 
and the drug thus becomes a measure of their social 
control as well.

Anti-psychiatry psychiatrist Peter Breggin has 
correctly denounced Ritalin as social control of 
youth. He is now joined in his denunciation of ADD 
-- as well as the profit motive driving the 
diagnosis up and extending it to adults (one group 
estimates that between 8 and 15 million adults have 
the disorder) -- by the reactionary Phyllis 
Schlafley. While the reactionaries must be exposed 
for their promotion of non-medical oppression of 
youth -- including behavior modification, stricter 
parenting, state-enforced curfews, etc. -- 
communists do not oppose cutting funding for 
existing coercive measures.

On the other hand, special education funds that go 
to real education, including extra teachers and 
other resources that improve conditions in poorer 
schools, are a potentially good "side-effect" to 
this pernicious growth of ADD diagnoses. Schools 
already disadvantage children from birth depending 
on the wealth of the family they are born into, and 
MIM does not oppose funding that helps provide 
actual material benefits to children in school. In 
theory, the laws protecting students with ADD are 
supposed to provide them with specialized 
instruction, which can be good.

The same legislation proposing the restructuring of 
special education funds to schools (which means 
cutting money) also proposes to remove restrictions 
on disciplining special education children through 
suspension and expulsion.(3) In other words, in 
place of drugging children, the reactionaries want 
the ability to get rid of them altogether from the 
school system, and go back to explanations of bad 
parenting for "hyperactivity" in young people.

MIM believes the principal contradiction in the 
imperialist nations is age -- and that youth are 
the most likely anti-imperialist force to emerge in 
the white nation. Although youth from oppressed and 
oppressor nations suffer different forms of 
oppression, there are similarities in their 
domination by patriarchal authorities.

Most of what passes for mental health "care" and 
"therapy" for youth is a blatant system of 
oppression and social control. The biggest problems 
youth face are not their own behavior, but the 
rape, violence, alienation and domination they 
experience at the hands of their elders, which in 
the case of the poor includes the effects of 
poverty. However, we do not pretend that these 
negative forces do not have bad consequences for 
mental health. Everything from rape and alienation 
to TV, junk food and environmental toxins can and 
does negatively affect children in terms of 
physical and mental health.

The squabbles within the imperialist patriarchy are 
over how best to oppress and repress children. MIM 
supports reforms when they are progressive -- and 
chief among those are changes that will help youth 
gain independence as much as possible -- without 
holding out hope for salvaging the system.


Notes:
1. 
http://www.drugs.indiana.edu/pubs/factline/ritalin. 
html 
2. http://www.bergen.com/health/db/ritalin.html
3. Washington Post, June 26, 1996.


ONLINE ACTIVIST RESOURCE WANTS HISTORY OF MAOISM


**In MIM Notes 119, we printed a letter from the 
Activists Web Starter's Kit, a hotlinked World Wide 
Web database of "progressive" groups. While we were 
glad to be included in the site, we also criticized 
the inclusion of outright reactionary groups like 
the National Organization for Women and the Anti- 
Defamation League. We got the following response:**

"Thank you for your response. I found your remarks 
very interesting, and fair. Although you may 
disagree with some of the organizations that are 
present in the clearinghouse (I certainly do), I 
try to cover the bases in a broad way to promote 
different perspectives, not because I believe that 
all perspectives are right, but so that people can 
come to rational conclusions about their political 
and ethical beliefs well informed. Obviously, a 
certain amount of censoring is necessary, and I do 
tend to let my own political values come through in 
the writing of the blurbs, but I don't see this as 
necessarily bad. People are free to follow the 
links and decide for themselves. I also believe 
that the personal touch adds a sense of lightness 
and fun to serious political endeavors, values I 
adhere to. Although I am not affiliated with any 
socialist or communist organization, I believe 
firmly that we may learn valuable lessons of 
community and selflessness and intellectual rigour 
from communism, both living and historical.

"As Maoism has become a marginalized political 
stance in North America, I think it would be a 
lovely thing if you put a broad and comprehensive 
history of the movement on your site. In keeping 
with my own purposes of augmenting radical and 
progressive political discussion, I believe that 
such a site would be of great value on the 'net. 
Peace."


MIM RESPONDS: MIM's Web site does contain a history 
of MIM, founding documents of the party, and essays 
by Mao Zedong. You can also find a history of the 
Black Panther Party's (BPP) Maoism. We would be 
happy to take submissions of broad histories of 
Maoism for inclusion in our Web site, and encourage 
our readers to take on this challenge. By the way, 
Maoism has never grown beyond "marginal" status in 
North America, but we disagree with the implication 
that it is becoming more marginal. MIM's history is 
also the history of the resurgence of Maoism in 
North America since the BPP's day. The "history" of 
Maoism is important -- but the most important part 
of that history is now!