This is an archive of the former website of the Maoist Internationalist Movement, which was run by the now defunct Maoist Internationalist Party - Amerika. The MIM now consists of many independent cells, many of which have their own indendendent organs both online and off. MIM(Prisons) serves these documents as a service to and reference for the anti-imperialist movement worldwide.
Maoist Internationalist Movement

Asian-unAmerikan publications need more grist for their mills

"The Public Asian: A Voice for the Asian Pacific American Community at the University of Maryland, College Park"
April 2007

*Against hyphen-nation

"What's in a Name?" is the lead story of this publication. It's about lengthening a name to have something worth signing--that's all. An Amerikan teacher gave someone a hard time for having the last name "Ran," another factor in name changes. It's an example of a harmless story, not threatening to anyone. Even the issue of chauvinism regarding how names sound did not get much attention in the story.

"What's in a Name?" fits into the dominant political correctness culture. It is harmless yet just barely complaining about something. MIM would say it is an example of copying the dominant Liberal culture instead of taking up Asian-unAmerikan politics.

There are two stories about the "comfort women" story that has run several years about Koreans used by Japanese soldiers during World War II as sex slaves. The Japanese soldiers were in countries all over Asia in World War II. The issue is definitely an Asian-unAmerikkkan issue, because a Japanese-descended U.S. Congresspersyn Mike Honda decided to demand Japan apologize for the "comfort women" issue. Honda has taken a progressive stand on Muslim civil liberties as well.

The "comfort women" issue is coming up again because of contentions that Japan is backsliding on apologies for World War II. Korea and China in particular monitor Japanese textbooks very carefully regarding teachings on Japanese militarism in the 20th century. MIM does support the Korean and Chinese side of this question and sees in it glimmerings of the joint dictatorship of the proletariat of the oppressed nations of the future. Some day, the oppressed nations will also be able to raise an effective ruckus about how whites are brainwashed on international issues in schools. The Germans and Japanese people are imperialist populations further down the road than the U.$. population, because they lost in World War II and some internationalist and pacifist ideas made some headway in Japan and Germany as a result.

There is a sense that the "comfort women" issue has gone on forever. We are not surprised to see a second writer in "The Public Asian" say that Japan should be forgiven. The article does not really discuss the timing of Japan's moves on the question, and questions of backsliding, but thanks to a lack of real grist from the Asian-unAmerikan agenda, it could easily appear to people that the "comfort women" issue keeps resurfacing as if it were heard for the first time.

There is a half-page article on an anti-Chinese "ching chong" slur by a band. A band member defended the slur by saying she had a gay parent--another example of the whole point of political correctness. Sadly, there has not been enough criticism of political correctness as a white cookie-cutter solution for ethnicity issues. Nor has there been enough criticism of how whites use any political capital they can find to justify national chauvinism or racism. At the same time, we also have to admit that business success in U.$. music comes from outrageous abuses of ethnic groups and wimmin. It's not just one band.

There are five articles in "The Public Asian" publicizing individuals and cultural events that are totally normal and bourgeois.

There were two more articles with social value. Theodore J. Sawchuck wrote an article about suicide of 11 youths from the Asian-unAmerikan community in five years in Maryland. Mao wrote very similar articles. The article discusses Confucian parental discipline as harsh in enforcement of academic achievement.

Our only gripe about Sawchuck's article would be that for Mao to order depressurizing of youth on academic achievement questions in China is one thing. To go along with Amerikan psychological authorities on questions of parenting inside U.$. borders is another thing. We need to put up a stiff fight in defense of most unAmerikan parenting techniques. The bourgeois nonAmerikan parenting methods have their drawbacks, and Asian-unAmerikans have not done away with patriarchy yet, but Amerikan parenting is obviously depraved. Asian-unAmerikans should give no credence to psychological or educational authorities in the united $tates relative to their own authorities.

Lastly, an article by Tim Wong argues that "Pageant event in place to empower APAs." There is some turmoil about whether a wimmin's pageant just objectifies wimmin or whether Asian-unAmerikans can do it differently. Wong says the pageant will raise money to oppose humyn trafficking. The opposition is dubbed culturally "conservative." MIM would say to hold a dance and put the proceeds to the anti-humyn trafficking cause. In that way the "conservatism" of culture issue is sidestepped, because people can dress at the dance any way that they please, given U.$. norms, but the gender issue is successfully muted by giving up on the pageant idea. It's not just a Liberal versus conservative issue. We revolutionaries also oppose the pageant idea for different reasons.

For the Asian-unAmerikan publications not to fall into political correctness emptiness and forever repeating a small handful of issues such as Vincent Chin and comfort wimmin, the proletarian camp is going to have to prime the pump. We need some creative proletarian articles to play a yeast role for the Asian-unAmerikan publications for those Asian-unAmerikans who are inclined to draw distinctions with the oppressor nation.