This is an archive of the former website of the Maoist Internationalist Movement, which was run by the now defunct Maoist Internationalist Party - Amerika. The MIM now consists of many independent cells, many of which have their own indendendent organs both online and off. MIM(Prisons) serves these documents as a service to and reference for the anti-imperialist movement worldwide.
I N T E R N E T ' S M A O I S T BI-M O N T H L Y = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = XX XX XXX XX XX X X XXX XXX XXX XXX X X X X X X X XX X X X X X X X V X X X V X X X X X X X XX XXX X X X X X X XX X X X X X X X XXX X X X V XXX X XXX XXX = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = THE MAOIST INTERNATIONALIST MOVEMENT MIM Notes 142 JULY 15, 1997 MIM Notes speaks to and from the viewpoint of the world's oppressed majority, and against the imperialist-patriarchy. Pick it up and wield it in the service of the people. support it, struggle with it and write for it. IN THIS ISSUE: 1. IMPERIALIST PLUNDER: POVERTY CLIMBS FOR WORLD'S MAJORITY 2. HUNDREDS DEMONSTRATE FOR PUERTO RICAN INDEPENDENCE 3. LETTERS 4. NIKE WORKERS PROTEST IMPERIALIST STOMPING: THOUSANDS STRIKE IN INDONESIA AND VIETNAM 5. BETTY SHABAZZ DIES IN VICTORY FOR WHITE SUPREMACY 6. TOBACCO SETTLEMENT SLAPS CANCER PIMPS ON WRIST 7. DEATH MERCHANTS OF IMPERIALISM 8. DWB: DRIVING WHILE BLACK AN OFFENSE IN FLORIDA 9. INJUSTICE, THE AMERIKAN WAY 10. PIGS KILL CHINESE MAN, FBI PIGS TO INVESTIGATE 11. MERCURY NEWS DEMOTES WEBB 12. AMERIKAN WAR AGAINST OGLALA CONTINUES 13. NATIONALIST PEQUOT ART TARGETED FOR CENSORSHIP 14. U.C. AFFIRMATIVE ACTION BAN MAKES ALLIES FOR THE INTERNATIONAL PROLETARIAT 15. 1997 COLLEGE GRADS ON EASY STREET 16. IMPERIALISTS AND THEIR LACKEYS DIVIDE AND THEN STARVE THE KOREAN PEOPLE 17. IMPERIALISTS REACT TO THREAT OF AFRICAN UNITY 18. MOVIE REVIEWS: CHILDREN OF THE REVOLUTION AND THE LOST WORLD 19. UNDER LOCK AND KEY: NEWS FROM PRISONERS AND PRISONS * * * WHAT IS MIM? The Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM) is a revolutionary communist party that upholds Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, comprising the collection of existing or emerging Maoist internationalist parties in the English-speaking imperialist countries and their English-speaking internal semi-colonies, as well as the existing or emerging Spanish-speaking Maoist internationalist parties of Aztlan, Puerto Rico and other territories of the U.S. Empire. MIM Notes is the newspaper of MIM. Notas Rojas is the newspaper of the Spanish- speaking parties or emerging parties of MIM. MIM is an internationalist organization that works from the vantage point of the Third World proletariat; thus, its members are not Amerikans, but world citizens. MIM struggles to end the oppression of all groups over other groups: classes, genders, nations. MIM knows this is only possible by building public opinion to seize power through armed struggle. Revolution is a reality for North America as the military becomes over-extended in the government's attempts to maintain world hegemony. MIM differs from other communist parties on three main questions: (1) MIM holds that after the proletariat seizes power in socialist revolution, the potential exists for capitalist restoration under the leadership of a new bourgeoisie within the communist party itself. In the case of the USSR, the bourgeoisie seized power after the death of Stalin in 1953; in China, it was after Mao's death and the overthrow of the "Gang of Four" in 1976. (2) MIM upholds the Chinese Cultural Revolution as the farthest advance of communism in human history. (3) MIM believes the North American white-working-class is primarily a non- revolutionary worker-elite at this time; thus, it is not the principal vehicle to advance Maoism in this country. MIM accepts people as members who agree on these basic principles and accept democratic centralism, the system of majority rule, on other questions of party line. "The theory of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin is universally applicable. We should regard it not as dogma, but as a guide to action. Studying it is not merely a matter of learning terms and phrases, but of learning Marxism-Leninism as the science of revolution." -- Mao Zedong, Selected Works, Vol. II, p. 208 * * * IMPERIALIST PLUNDER: POVERTY CLIMBS FOR WORLD'S MAJORITY One fourth of the world's population lives in conditions of poverty, according to the publication Human Development, produced by UNDP (United Nations Development Program), released in mid-June. In imperialist-labeled developing countries (poor countries that are colonies or neo-colonies of imperialism), 1.3 billion people survive with less than a dollar a day. The director of the office of the ONU in Spain, Isel Rivero, said "The money that is lacking -- 80,000 million dollars -- is the equivalent of the fortune netted by the seven richest people in the world, or 10% of the amount spent annually on arms. For what it costs to make a Disneyland park, 5,000 million dollars, it would be possible to end poverty in the five most marginalized countries on the planet."(1) STATISTICS UNDER IMPERIALISM According to the UNDP report, poverty is increasing for the world's people. The poorest 20% of the world's population, who in 1960 received 2.3% of wages worldwide, now only receive 1.1% and this continues to drop. There are still one billion illiterate people, 160 million malnourished children and 110 million children deprived of any schooling in this world. Only two to five per cent of the 500 million poorest households worldwide have access to institutional credit. Without this, they are unable to seize market opportunities or build up savings to survive crises.(2) It's important to keep in mind that the majority of working people in imperialist countries have access to credit and take this ability to survive swings in their financial situation for granted. In fact, the poverty reported on in the UNDP report is largely unfelt by residents of the imperialist countries. In the United Snakes, the majority of the workers enjoy conditions that place them in the wealthiest portion of the world's population. The poverty line varies according to the region, but the World Bank generally uses a dollar a day as the poverty level in developing countries, two dollars a day in Latin America and the Caribbean, four dollars a day in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet states and 14.40 dollars a day for industrial countries -- which is the income poverty line in the United Snakes.(3) This raises other questions about the measurement of poverty in different countries (which MIM addresses more thoroughly in issues 1 and 10 of its theory journal). Marx pointed out that the cost of living will vary in different areas of the world, and we have to take this into account when measuring poverty. Within a country, the report pointed out that some groups of people suffer more than others. Children, wimmin and the aged were singled out as the groups most affected by poverty. This year the UNDP introduced a Human Poverty Index (HPI), which measures the percentage of the population expected to survive to age 40, the percentage of illiterates, and lack of access to healthcare, safe water and reasonable nutrition. Trinidad and Tobago, Cuba, Chile, Singapore and Costa Rica score highest. On the lowest rankings, where the UNDP estimates that humyn poverty exceeds 50%, six out of the bottom seven countries are in Africa: Niger, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Mali, Cambodia and Mozambique. This index helps demonstrate the swings in development under imperialism which lead to different countries and regions developing at different rates. In subsaharan Africa and in the south of Asia there is the greatest incidence of poverty which affects 40% of the inhabitants and this continues to grow. Compared to 1970, it is more likely now that poor people are African or Latin American instead of Asian. These statistics are underscored by a report released May 20 from the Fundacion Salvadorena para el Desarrollo Economico y Social (Salvadoran Foundation for Social and Economic Development) which states that 65% of the rural population of El Salvador lives in poverty. Two million people in rural areas of the country live in these conditions and 400 thousand of these people fall in the group of "extreme poverty". The Foundation attempted to blame the problems on agricultural failures but the real culprit is capitalism.(4) THE PROBLEMS ARE SYSTEMIC The UNDP report provides some useful information on the causes of poverty. Human Development reports that annual losses to developing countries from unequal access to trade, labor and finance are estimated at US$500 billion, 10 times what these countries receive in foreign aid. Debt relief from the Group of Seven and Bretton Woods institutions by 2000 for the 20 worst-affected countries would cost between US$5.5 billion and US$7.7 billion -- less than the price of one Stealth bomber.(5) While the world economy stands at 25 trillion dollars, the ratio between the richest and poorest people on the planet has gone from 30 to one in 1960 to 78 to one in 1994, the report said. Meanwhile the world's 10 top billionaires account for a wealth of 133 billion dollars, or 1.5 times the total revenue for the world's least advanced countries. Of the world's 100 largest economies, 50 are mega-corporations. The 350 largest firms control 40 per cent of global trade, with a turnover that exceeds the gross domestic product of many countries.(5) All these numbers point to one thing: a systemic problem of disparities between wealthy and poor that is perpetuated by those in power who hold the wealth and guns at the expense of the majority of the world's population. SOLUTIONS The UN Development Program insists that "it is well within our grasp" to reduce severe poverty in the first decades of the next century. The UNDP argues that recent advances in the world are proof of the potential to reduce poverty: "Few people realize the great advances already made. In the past 50 years poverty has fallen more than in the previous 500." The report cited facts that since 1960, or slightly more than one generation, child mortality rates have dropped by more than half in developing countries while malnutrition has been trimmed by almost a third. It is important that communists make clear that as dialectical materialists we understand the advances possible under capitalism. But we also understand its limitations. We understand the elimination of poverty is not going to happen within capitalism precisely because it exists off the exploitation of labor of the proletariat. When faced with the question of how to eradicate poverty within the imperialist system, the UNDP suggests that extreme poverty could be eradicated over the next 20 years, as long as countries implement policies that are "pro-poor". This would entail addressing structural inequalities in the distribution of assets, such as land, housing and social services; institutional and policy reforms to promote better access and greater security of tenure for wimmin and greater support for agricultural productivity, promoting micro- enterprises and the informal sector, as well as labor-intensive manufacturing.(6) The report put a price tag on reducing world poverty, which it said would cost the planet 80 billion dollars or less than 0.5 percent of global income, or in other terms, less than the combined wealth of the world's seven richest people or 10 percent of world military expenditures for 1995. Even recognizing that this is merely "reducing" poverty, the very fact that such reduction is well within reach but yet is not accomplished should alert socially conscious people to the fact that imperialists don't want to eliminate poverty. The institutional reforms the UNDP is proposing will not be implemented by imperialist countries that benefit from inequalities. Reforming imperialism will not eliminate the basis for exploitation and oppression. REAL SOLUTIONS: CHINA VS. INDIA The UNDP report attempts to make the comparison between China and India to point out some of the differences in development in different countries over the past several decades. The report points out that "almost all Chinese children" go to school now, adult illiteracy dropped to 19 per cent from 50 per cent in 1950 and infant mortality dropped to 42 per 1,000 live births from 200 per 1,000 in 1950. "Progress in recent decades (in China) has been remarkable" despite setbacks and advances, the report said. These advances are all measured since the revolution in China which overthrew Japanese imperialism in 1949. While some measurements of wealth continued to increase under the state capitalist dictatorship of Deng Xioping, others have fallen. The report pointed out that China's national poverty line, those living on 60 U.S. cents (0.60 dollar) a day, fell from 33 per cent in 1978 to 9 per cent in 1985. But in the late 1980s, the number of rural poor increased as a result of a shift in development strategy away from agriculture to industrial and export sectors.(7) And regardless of the changes since the late 1970s, clearly tremendous advances for the Chinese people can be attributed to the Chinese revolution and the Maoist leadership in building socialism for almost 30 years. (For more information and statistics on the advances in China under Mao see MIM Theory #4, A Spiral Trajectory: The failure and success of communist development, available for $5 from MIM). India is a good country to use for comparisons between the accomplishments of capitalism and those of socialism. In 1949 both India and China were poor countries facing many similar problems. China then began socialist development while India remained capitalist. In India, the report said, "the record is mixed and India remains a country with stark contrasts and disparities" after decades of trying to improve living conditions. The report said that currently 53 per cent of children, or 60 million, are still malnourished despite a four-fold boost in grain production from 1991 to 1995; half of the population is still illiterate, with 45 per cent of children not reaching grade five. The infant mortality rate has been halved to 74 per 1,000 live births in 1995, but still each year 2.2 million infant deaths have been reported.(7) If we want to truly wipe out poverty, oppression and suffering in the world we are going to have to do more than advocate that countries adopt "pro- poor" policies. Historically, socialist revolution has been the greatest force for wiping out poverty and increasing the wealth and well being of the world's population. For all those hoping to fight for a more just and equal system MIM encourages serious study of the history of revolutionary struggle compared with the failures of capitalist development. And for those already convinced that imperialism will never solve the problems of poverty that it perpetuates, fight with MIM to overthrow this rotten system. NOTES: The text of highlights of this report can be found at http://www.undp.org/undp/hdro 1. 13 June, 1997: http://www.eurosur.org/rebelion/ 2. New Straits Times 16 June 1997, p21. 3. Agence France Presse 12 June 1997. 4. 21 May 1997, San Salvador. Agencia Púlsar found at: http://www.eurosur.org/rebelion/internacional/salva dorpobreza.htm 5. New Straits Times 14 June 1997, p.21. 6. Africa News 13 June 1997. 7. Deutsche Presse-Agentur 12 June 1997. * * * HUNDREDS DEMONSTRATE FOR PUERTO RICAN INDEPENDENCE On June 19 and 20 hundreds of people gathered in New York to support Puerto Rican independence and the release of Puerto Rican prisoners captured and imprisoned for their independence activities. On June 19 the colonial case of Puerto Rico was discussed before the United Nations Decolonization Committee. This committee has put on the pretense of addressing colonialism and since 1972 the case of Puerto Rico has been on its agenda. While organizers of this demonstration recognize that gaining the support of a UN committee will not achieve independence for Puerto Rico, they understand that the pressure from such an organization can help in the anti-imperialist struggle. There was a sense of urgency around this year's hearing because the United States Congress is currently considering the Young Bill ("The United States-Puerto Rico Political Status Act") which recently passed a committee in the House of Representatives. The result of this bill would be a referendum in 1998 in Puerto Rico similar to the illegitimate referendum held in Hawaii recently where the imperialists put on the pretense of allowing the people to decide when in reality they are forcing a colonized people to chose between forms of colonization. The National Committee to Free Puerto Rican Prisoners of War and Political Prisoners put together the following points of unity for the vigil in front of the United Nations office: 1. Unconditional Amnesty For The Puerto Rican Political Prisoners And Prisoners Of War; 2. Independence For Puerto Rico; 3. Affirmation Of The Right Of The Puerto Rican Diaspora To Participate In The Decolonization Process Of Puerto Rico. An organizing flyer for the demonstration stated: "The majority of the Puerto Rican Political Prisoners have endured inhuman treatment and isolation in U.S. jails for more than seventeen years. . . Their crime is their passion for freedom, their love and commitment to see their nation stand sovereign among the nations of the world." A rally held in the afternoon of the 19th included the keynote speaker Lolita Lebro'n, a hero of the independence movement for her participation in the storming of congress. Many people spoke at the UN committee hearings, all stressing the importance of independence for Puerto Rico and the need for the freedom of the Puerto Rican political prisoners. The speakers drew parallels between the occupied status of the Puerto Rican nation and the holding of people fighting for liberation of their country as criminals in the Amerikan injustice system. MIM interviewed an activist with the National Committee who pointed out that the UN Decolonization Committee does not consider First Nations or Blacks colonies in spite of their obviously colonial status within US borders. In fact, the UN committee only recognizes a few territories as colonies and this reveals one of the many limitations of an organization that is part of an arm of imperialist power: the United Nations. Although the UN committee did not take up any resolutions in favor of Puerto Rican independence or the freedom of the prisoners, they also did not take up a resolution to create a new republic out of Puerto Rico and this was considered a victory. The activist said such a proposal was brought to the committee and it would have only couched colonialism in another form. The United States has been pushing to close down the UN Decolonization Committee, saying that it has no purpose. Of course, to an imperialist power, an organization that focuses on decolonization has no purpose. As the Puerto Rican activist noted, this "forum can not bring independence but at least it puts pressure" on the imperialists. The U$ wants to remove any avenue that anti- imperialists find useful as a part of their larger struggle. The activist noted that the U$ "doesn't want to fully solve the status of Puerto Rico. It is a colony that provides the greatest benefit. They just want to undo the political problem [of Puerto Rico] without acknowledging that they have a problem and without admitting any crimes." To achieve independence the activist stressed that all imperialist troops must be removed from Puerto Rico. Nominal independence will not bring sovereignty and the Puerto Rican people are demanding their right to self-determination, something that can only be achieved once imperialist power has been removed from their country. "Once we have sovereignty we want the people to decide. And hopefully they will decide that we will be a socialist country run by the proletariat serving the people of the world" said the activist. The activists hope to pressure other Latin American countries to support Puerto Rican independence and they believe this is a winnable battle because the Latin American countries would lose little from taking such a stance. These countries act as good neo-colonies of Amerikan imperialism and the activist MIM interviewed suggested that it was fear over losing free trade status with Amerika that is one of the biggest obstacles to these countries supporting Puerto Rican independence. MIM sees the value in targeting institutions like the United Nations to pressure the imperialists as a part the Puerto Rican liberation struggle, so long as we always are clear that this battle will not win the war. And we also agree with the importance of drawing connections between the colonial status of Puerto Rico and the holding of revolutionary activists in Amerikan prisons for their political crimes. But we take this further and also recognize the Puerto Ricans who are held in Amerikan prisons for other imperialist-defined crimes as political prisoners who were not judged by a jury of their peers and who had the entire system stacked against them from the cops to the courts. When over 90% of prisoners held in control units in some states are Latino, the political nature of crime, as it is defined and prosecuted in this country, is very clear. We join the National Committee to Free Puerto Rican Prisoners of War and Political Prisoners in calling for complete sovereignty for Puerto Rico starting with a removal of the US military. The liberation of Puerto Rico is an important part of the struggle against Amerikan imperialist domination around the world. NOTES: The National Committee to Free Puerto Rican Prisoners of War and Political Prisoners * * * LETTERS WHAT TO DO ABOUT THE LUMPEN AND COPS Dear Comrades, I am curious as to what MIM's line is on organizing the lumpen proletariat. You accurately characterized them ( in MIM Notes 130) as "a difficult class to organize," and thus I do not believe they can be effectively organize in the same manner as the proletariat. I would also like to know what action MIM thinks communities should take in dealing with killer cops? -- An Iowa Prisoner, 20 Mar. 97 MIM RESPONDS: The reason that Marxists distinguish between the lumpen proletariat and the proletariat is because they can not be organized in the same manner, so MIM agrees with you on this question. In "The Communist Manifesto" Marx referred to the lumpen as "the dangerous class" and remarked that as the group on the bottom of society, "thrown off by the lowest layers of old society, [it] may, here and there, be swept into the movement by a proletarian revolution; its conditions of life, however, prepare it far more for the part of a bribed tool of reactionary intrigue."(p92, Penguin edition) The important point is recognizing the material difference between the proletariat and the lumpen proletariat. While the proletariat is an organized force of workers whose relation to production is established through its productive role, the lumpen have been forced into a position of non- productivity where crime is often the only way to survive. As a result, in this country we can see examples of what Marx discussed in lumpen who are willing to sell themselves as snitches to the pigs. Crucial to materialist analysis is the distinction between the bought off working class in imperialist countries at this stage of imperialist development, and the proletariat. The workers, particularly among the white nation, in Amerika have been bought off so that they do not have a material interest in revolution. So when we contrast the lumpen and the proletariat we are not talking about the majority of the workers in this country. As for dealing with killer cops, MIM believes that overthrowing imperialism is the best defense against killer kops. But in the short term, one way to organize against imperialism is educating people about the problems with the kops and giving them tools to fight these problems by setting up community watches where folks watch out for one another while at the same time educating and organizing about the need to overthrow imperialism. There is no way we are going to reform this system to eliminate killer kops and national oppression so it is important that we involve communities in the anti-imperialist revolutionary struggle. The Black Panther Party attempted to protect the community against kops by arming themselves. While this confrontation with imperialism ultimately led to the state destroying the Party, we can not give up on the possibility of organizing communities in self-defense. We have to take lessons from the experience of the Black Panthers and continue to organize. LAZY CRITIC SAYS MAOISM IS "BAD" Dear MIM, I was a former member of the Students for a Democratic Society (Lunar Rosa) at a college in Greater Boston. And what a mistake it was. They used Maoist propaganda and after all these years, I found out how bad it was. Hey look at the world today. There is no more soviet Union or Soviet Blocks. North Korea is starving as is Cuba. So what is left, China? They are getting more capitalist every day. They may fall too. Now I have read several issues of your MIM Notes and have come to the conclusion that you people are nothing but a bunch of fucking assholes that need to be reamed out. Wake up shit heads communism is dead. Why don't you morons die too. Thank you. --a critic in the east P.S. My friend agrees too. And by the way, a pig saved my friend's life and he is Black too. MIM RESPONDS: This is a good example of someone who wants politics spoon fed to them because they are too lazy to study for themselves. If an organization you are involved in is claiming Maoism, you have a responsibility to find out what that means. How could it take years to find out that Maoism is bad unless you are too lazy to do a little investigation? Of course branches of SDS or any other organizations claiming Maoism have a responsibility to be clear about why it supports Maoism but even if this critic's SDS branch failed to do this, that does not excuse the laziness of the critic. MIM does look at the world today, and clearly we look at it more carefully than this critic. We have always been clear that the Soviet Union was state capitalist from the time Kruschev took power, and since Mao died the same is true for China. MIM is, in fact, one of the few anti-imperialist organizations in this country that has never claimed that Cuba is socialist. If this critic reads MIM Notes so slopily that s/he missed these very important points (several of which are listed in the What is MIM? Box on page 2 of every issue), it is no wonder it took him/her years of membership in an organization claiming Maoism before s/he decided Maoism was bad. It is no surprise that this lazy critic feels the need to resort to identity politics arguments and examples of one person's experience: if the agreement of one friend is enough to support the argument that Maoism is bad, the imperialists have already won. Fortunately, MIM knows that not all readers of MIM Notes are so lazy and uninterested in serious political study and struggle. * * * NIKE WORKERS PROTEST IMPERIALIST STOMPING; THOUSANDS STRIKE IN INDONESIA AND VIETNAM by a RAIL comrade Recent strikes in sneaker factories have brought attention to the Nike Corporation's ongoing labor exploitation. Two recent strikes involved 10,000 workers in Indonesia and 1,300 in Vietnam.(1) Stories of Nike's use of super-exploited labor in sweat shops have painted a grim picture of the functioning of imperialism. Despite the oppressive conditions, the workers have risked their well- being to protest low pay, forced overtime, poor working conditions, and abusive management. The most integral part of Nike's exploitation of labor is the low wages -- which allow for higher profits to be extracted benefiting imperialism. The figures blatantly illustrate this strategy -- such as when a worker is paid $5 for labor on shoes that are then sold for $150. In Indonesia, the minimum wage is $2.46 per day, which affords only 90% of one person's necessities. Vietnamese workers can not even afford three meals a day with the wage of $1.60 per day.(1) The stories of oppression and abuse further reveal the nature of the imperialist system. Force against workers is necessary for imperialists to maintain control and to continue sucking profits. People interviewed at shops which supply Nike with its products reported that physical abuse is common. In one instance, fifty-six wimmin, twelve of whom passed-out, were forced to run, until exhaustion, around the factory for not wearing the proper footwear.(2) Many wimmin reported being struck on the head for scuffing the product. Talkative workers have had their mouths taped shut. One worker said, "The only rest you can get is after you collapse at your machine."(3) Through terror tactics, management keeps workers in line. In March 1995, when twelve workers expressed their grievances about their conditions, the company responded by locking the workers in an unused room for a week guarded by the local military. They have since been suspended from work without pay.(3) In 1992, Nike enacted a Code of Conduct in response to complaints of such human rights abuses.(4) They claim to enforce this code by ending business with any contracted manufacturers which break the rules. But recent reports clearly show Nike is only concerned with profits, not human rights. Some argue that Nike doesn't own the factories and it can't control the policies and customs of the local nations. Such an argument aims to blame the barbarities of imperialist operation on the policies of Third World nations which are military, politically and economically controlled by the imperialists in the first place. The case with Nike is not merely a situation where a large corporation has "turned a blind eye." This is what Nike and the thousands of other imperialist corporations depend on to increase profits. The U$ government gladly steps up to ensure that lackey governments have the weapons and power necessary to help control the masses and aid in the siphoning of profit flow to the imperialist nations. Some groups have set out to boycott Nike to protest oppressive tactics. But this will not end imperialist oppression. The idea that "Where Nike goes other manufacturers follow" is ludicrous. Imperialism depends on oppressed workers to perpetuate the accumulation of capital. Nike will continue to put up a front of humanitarianism to quiet complaints. Nike made a recent attempt to improve its popularity among Amerikan consumers by joining the Leave No Trace organization to prevent the degradation of parks and the natural environment from athletic activity. Nike made a $125,000 annual grant to the education campaign.(5) First, the idea that we can save the natural environment by promoting better athletic practice is ridiculous. Recreational environmental degradation is the least of our worries when big industry is destroying the earth at an unsustainable rate by itself. So it seems odd that Nike is willing to give all that money to this program, when it is not willing to pay its workers a livable wage under humane conditions. This program is merely another promotional opportunity. Meanwhile, it is not in the interest of profits to raise wages. Nike is making a profit off of the oppressed through low wages and threatening conditions, while trying to maintain its image back home. But more importantly this is merely one example that illustrates the economic system of imperialism. Therefore it is important to publicize examples such is these in that context. Then it becomes evident that it is not one problem that can be changed with a new law or code of conduct. But it is a systematic problem that must be stopped by changing the system. Notes: 1. The San Francisco Examiner 9 June 1997. 2. The Cincinnati Inquirer 7 June 1997. 3. http://www.essential.org/monitor/hyper/mm0695.html/ #nike 4. Jakarta Post6 June 1997. 5. E-wire 11 June 1997. * * * BETTY SHABAZZ DIES IN VICTORY FOR WHITE SUPREMACY 26 June 1997 -- When Betty Shabazz died from burns suffered in a fire allegedly set by her 12-year-old grandson Malcolm, her death marked another victory for white supremacy, and another call to arms for those who seek an end to the Black nation's oppression at the hands of Amerika. Shabazz was the widow of the late Black leader Malcolm X, who was a target of the FBI's COINTELPRO and was assassinated in 1965. Betty Shabazz raised their four daughters and eventually went back to school, earning a doctorate in education. She became a professor and administrator at Medgar Evers College and hosted a talk show there.(1) She also made public appearances including at the Million Man March in Washington where she was honored by Black supporters as part of the legacy of Black struggle and white repression in this century. She also contributed directly to ongoing reformist civil rights struggles. "Malcolm's agenda was human rights and self- determination," Betty Shabazz said in 1992. "Free people have a right to self-determination, self- defense. Now, a lot of people say, 'Self- defense? Oh, my God, that's violence.' If people think by any means necessary' means violence, what that says is that that individual is violent and hostile. But not my husband."(7) She was correct that Malcolm X was not violent, but he certainly intended "by any means necessary" to include violence if necessary. Shabazz was correct to the extent that Malcolm's point was that the oppressed do not wish for violence or initiate it, but are the victims of violence in the first place. From this quote it sounds as if we may disagree with her that violence is in fact necessary for national liberation. As the line from the Public Enemy song goes: "I got a right to be hostile / my people been persecuted." President Clinton contributed to the violent seizure of Black history in his four-sentence statement of condolence, which didn't even mention Black people or political struggle or Malcolm X. "She devoted a long career to education and to uplifting women and children," he said, attempting to complete her conversion from radical Black nationalism.(8) HISTORY OF REPRESSION When Malcolm X was young, his family came under attack from "social service" agents of the state -- the soft side of the state's national oppression that breaks up families.(3) Where once white slave traders sold family members to different plantations, now the supposedly benevolent agents use selective laws and bogus psychology to break up Black families. Now Malcolm's grandson, son of his daughter Qubilah, has once again been removed from his family, this time for a juvenile detention center, where he is charged with juvenile delinquency and possibly murder.(6) Malcolm has faced many hardships as a result of his grandfather's murder and his mother Qubilah's subsequent problems which include state harassment culminating in an FBI plot to entrap her in a murder plot against NOI leader Louis Farrakhan. After the FBI plot was revealed, the state did not fully prosecute Qubilah, but instead settled for psychiatric punishment and seizing little Malcolm. The disruption and psychological torture brought upon Malcolm are blamed for his actions in New York. The state claimed he started the fire in his grandmother's house there in a protest against living there.(1) MIM does not have anything more than state/media sponsored gossip about Malcolm, but family spokespeople have not publicly denied that he started the fire. MIM is perfectly willing to blame the state and white supremacists for Malcolm's oppressive childhood and subsequent problems based on the information that we do have. The state is now delighted to prosecute and incarcerate the young Malcolm, just to rub their temporary victories in the face of the Shabazz family and the supporters of national liberation. Malcom X's house was firebombed when he was a child, in a racist attack aimed at the family because his father was a Black nationalist activist.(3) The Shabazz home was firebombed in 1965, shortly before the assassination, and the family barely escaped alive. "I won't burn to death," Malcolm X said after the fire. "I'll probably be shot to death on the street one day. Or maybe while I'm speaking."(4) Malcolm was shot a week later. Malcolm had tried to make arrangements for Betty and their children to live in Africa if he was killed.(5) She did not move to Africa, but Betty lived much longer, and was not as lucky in her death: she lived for three weeks after suffering terrible burns over most of her body.(1) MIM takes the moment of Betty Shabazz's death to draw several conclusions. First, from slavery and KKK white supremacist fire- bombing, to state repression, FBI movement infiltration, "social service" repression, psychological torture, traitorous plots, and historical revisionism, Betty Shabazz, Malcolm X and their family -- and the Black nation as a whole -- have suffered millions of unjust deaths. Her death is one more brutal reminder of this legacy. Second, Betty Shabazz in some ways continued her husband's work, but along with the other symbolic civil rights leaders, her work in later years was partial and mostly reformist. We say this not as a personal criticism, but to make the point that it is movements, organizations, and political parties that make revolutions, not individuals and those they leave behind to carry on their memories. The individuals left behind when leaders are killed may or may not be great leaders themselves. We cannot expect them to be, and we cannot put all our eggs in the baskets of any few leaders, however important we know they are; we need to be making new leaders all the time. And although we remember the fallen, we must never substitute the inspiring memory for the current revolutionary struggle. Finally, MIM and all revolutionaries are inspired by and learn from victory and defeat alike. We who oppose all oppression, organize and fight on in the memories of all those who labored and died in oppression -- the famous and the anonymous alike. NOTES: 1. Washington Post 24 June 1997, p. A1. 2. NAACP information from http://www.naacp.org. 3. The Autobiography of Malcolm X, as told to Alex Haley. Ballantine Books, 1964. 4. Peter Goldman, The Death and Life of Malcolm X. University of Illinois Press, 1979. p. 263. 5. Ibid., p. 256. 6. Reuter, 24 June 1997, "Death of Betty Shabazz Ruled a Homicide." 7. The New York Times, 24 June 1997, p. A1. 8. Although the media reported that Clinton "said" these kind words, in fact they were delivered to the media in writing, unsigned. See http://www.whitehouse.gov, press statements for 23 June 1997. * * * TOBACCO INDUSTRY SETTLEMENT SLAPS CANCER PIMPS ON WRIST On June 20, forty state attorneys general reached an agreement with the biggest tobacco companies which would require the tobacco industry to pay more than $368.5 billion over the next 25 years in compensatory and punitive damages for its promotion of smoking. The proposed deal also drastically restricts the tobacco companies' domestic advertising, and forces them to help fund anti- tobacco advertising. Smoking causes more than 1,000 deaths in the u.s. every day.(1) Mississippi attorney general Michael Moore calls this deal "the most historic public health achievement of this century."(2) But even many bourgeois analysts admit that this agreement will do little to curb the tobacco industry or come close to the elimination of smoking-related deaths. For starters, the agreement has to be ratified by congress, and this is by no means guaranteed. There are also major concessions to the tobacco industry in the deal intended to preserve the industry's profitability. And the deal says nothing about the export of tobacco, which the u.s. government encourages. The Amerikan tobacco industry has knowingly profited off of an addictive and life-threatening product and will continue to do so in the future, despite this agreement. The u.$. government remains concerned about the profitability of the tobacco companies even while censuring them for dealing in death. This is another example of Marx's teaching that, "The purpose of capital is not to satisfy needs, but to produce profit."(3) Only socialism -- which organizes production for need, not for profit -- can stop the needless deaths associated with smoking. SMOKING KILLS Epidemiological studies linked smoking to lung cancer and heart disease more than thirty years ago, and recently clinical studies found the biological mechanism behind the smoking/lung cancer connection. According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), 400,000 people die each year from smoking-related causes in the u.$. alone.(1) Despite the clear evidence that smoking causes cancer and increases the risk of heart disease, the tobacco industry consistently denied the link between smoking and these diseases. Many bourgeois analysts see the agreement between the industry and the attorneys general as a tacit admission that cigarettes kill and that the industry is guilty of "moral wrongdoing."(1) Earlier this year, one of the smallest tobacco companies, the Liggett Group, admitted that smoking was addictive and that cigarette companies' advertising targeted youth and children.(1) The CDC estimates that 3,000 teens become regular smokers every day -- meaning they have smoked at least one cigarette per day for a month.(1) Much of the $368.5 billion settlement will go to the states, in order to help them recover Medicaid expenses incurred by smokers. The remainder of the money will ostensibly pay for youth anti-smoking campaigns, health research programs, and federal oversight of the tobacco industry. In return, the tobacco industry will be immune from all other class action suits (including many currently pending). Individuals can still sue, but no individual has ever won a lawsuit against the $50- billion-a-year tobacco industry. The Minnesota attorney general considers the settlement money chump change, and estimates that the industry could afford over $800 billion, "without putting a dent in overseas profits, stock dividends, or executive perks."(1) And other bourgeois experts say that the money is not the heart of the deal. After all, most of the money goes to reimburse the states for medical costs already incurred. The real effectiveness of the deal, say these experts, lies in the power it gives the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to regulate the industry.(1) Assuming that is true, then the deal will be pretty ineffective. Public-health advocates argue that the agreement sets conditions on FDA authority which would effectively allow the tobacco industry to fend off regulation.(4) The proposed agreement also restricts the use of human forms and cartoons in advertising, and forbids billboard advertising and T-shirt give- aways. Many of these restrictions and the proposed anti-smoking advertisements will be aimed at youth. But John Garrison, the head of the American Lung Association, believes the industry will find a way around these regulations. He says, "The ability of the tobacco industry to reinvent itself and circumvent such restrictions is remarkable."(1) Another bourgeois expert candidly admits that "teenage smoking will not go away -- the industry's survival depends on it."(1) Finally, even if this settlement is a "tacit admission of guilt," the tobacco industry still has not explicitly admitted that it knows cigarettes cause cancer and are addictive. Part of the settlement allows the industry to keep secret many internal documents which could be damaging to them in court. And even though the agreement mandates the closure of pro-tobacco lobbies like the Tobacco Institute and the Council for Tobacco Research USA (industry-funded organizations which made their living "proving" that cigarettes were harmless or that nicotine was not addictive), this closure may only exist on paper. According to Tobacco Institute vice-president Walker Merryman, "All we're going to do is change the name on the door. We're going to continue to do what we have always done."(5) Ultimately, any strategy which seeks to raise the health standard of the people of the world (see sidebar) by reforming the existing system without overthrowing capitalism and imperialism is doomed. As long as there are immense profits to be made producing and selling a product which makes millions of people ill and causes many to die, some capitalist will make that product. And providing expensive but necessary health care to the broad masses of people will never be a profitable business. Again, only socialism, a system which organizes production to serve people's needs unhindered by the profit motive, can raise the health standard of the broad masses of the world. NOTES: 1. Time 30 June 97, pp. 24-32. 2. Time 30 June 97, pp. 25. Moore is being more than a little chauvinist, narrow-minded, and self- aggrandizing here. Even if this deal does what it purports to do--which it won't--it would not compare to the major public health successes which liberation and the development of socialism in China brought. Expected lifespans doubled from liberation to the end of socialism in China in 1976. 3. The Fundamentals of Political Economy, p. 63. 4. Reuters 25 June 97. 5. Los Angeles Times 24 June 97. * * * DEATH MERCHANTS OF IMPERIALISM The lack of any restrictions on the export of cigarettes in the agreement between the state attorneys general and the tobacco industry clearly exposes the capitalist rationale behind the deal and shows how imperialist monopoly capitalists respond to crises by stepping up exploitation and oppression of the masses in the colonies and neo- colonies. The proposed deal may force domestic cigarette prices up 50%, which could cause a 15% drop in domestic sales. This will force cigarette manufacturers to expand their marketing abroad. Already half of the revenues of some Amerikan cigarette manufacturers come from overseas, and Amerikan cigarette sales abroad are rising 3% to 5% per year.(1) In order to ensure the industry's profitability, the u.$. government supports the tobacco companies' infiltration of overseas markets through subsidies and political lobbying. For example, a pack of Amerikan cigarettes can cost as little as US$ 0.50 in the Philippines. And Amerikan embassies have dissuaded other governments from enacting legislation similar to the deal proposed by the attorneys general. Indeed, as even National Public Radio's senior news toady, Daniel Shore, pointed out, Amerika already has the dubious distinction of being the number one arms merchant in the world. Now it will be the number one cancer merchant as well.(2) NOTES: 1. Time, 30 June 97, pp. 24-32. 2. National Public Radio Weekend Edition, 22 June 97. PAPER TIGERS ***All reactionaries are paper tigers. In appearance, the reactionaries are terrifying, but in reality they are not so powerful. From a long- term point of view, it is not the reactionaries but the people who are really powerful.*** --Mao Tsetung DRIVING WHILE BLACK (DWB) IS AN OFFENSE IN FLORIDA Sheriff Kevin Beary's Crime Patrol Unit -- a drug squad that sets up stopping points on Orlando turnpikes -- is six and a half times more likely to search Black motorists than white drivers according to the findings of the Orlando Sentinel. In reviewing records of 3,800 plus stops and almost 500 searches, the Sentinel found that although only 16.3% of the drivers stopped are Black, they account for 70% of the dog searches and more than half of all searches. Traffic stop records from January 1996 through April 1997 indicate that Black drivers were searched 39.6% of the time, 17.9% of Latinos, Asians and other nationality motorists were searched, while only 6.2% of white drivers were searched. Sheriff Beary oinked in denial "We are not out there targeting any specific race." On the contrary, MIM points out that the criminal Amerikan injustice system disproportionately targets members of oppressed nations. NOTE: Reuters 9 June, 1997. INJUSTICE, THE AMERIKAN WAY 6 June, 1997 Torrance, CA-- In separate trials, Deputy DA Todd Rubenstein successfully prosecuted two different men for firing the one bullet that killed Willie Yen, a supposed drug dealer, in October 1995. John Patrick Winkelman and Stephen Edmond Davis were both convicted for the same fatal shot by two separate juries. Yen was killed by a single bullet in the upper back. Both Davis and Winkelman were allegedly involved in the incident. Ballistics tests were inconclusive. In his closing remarks, DA Rubenstein stated to the Winkelman jury that "it's unrefuted that John Winkelman is the actual killer;" the next day arguing to the Davis jury that it was "quite clear" that Davis was the killer. The presiding judge ruled that Rubenstein's parallel arguments were not grounds for a mistrial. Lawyers for both defendants are appealing. Law expert Robert Pugsley says that legally nothing prevents a prosecutor from arguing different facts to different juries in the same case. The results may be messy, but Pugsley affirms "I'm not sure it's unjust." MIM sees this as further proof that the Amerikan legal system doesn't care about justice. People who demand real justice should work with MIM, PIRAO and RAIL and struggle against Amerikan injustice. NOTE: The Los Angeles Times 7 June, 1997, p. B1, B8. PIGS KILL CHINESE MAN, FBI PIGS TO INVESTIGATE Rohnert Park, CA--Alleging threat in a "martial arts fashion," officer Jack Shields shot and killed Kuanchung Kao at point blank range in his own driveway at 2 a.m. on 29 June 1997. The two officers present prevented his wife, a registered nurse, from administering first aid on threat of arrest, claiming standard procedure (because she might attack the officers with a hidden weapon in derangement). Instead, the pigs "administered" first aid; they turned the still-breathing Kao over, handcuffed him, and waited for the ambulance. Kao died and his body remained in the driveway until noon. His five-year-old daughter witnessed the disturbance from her bedroom window. Kao, an engineer, had gone drinking with friends to celebrate a promotion. Two Rohnert Park pigs responded to complaints of a drunken man waving a broomstick in this small, mostly white city. According to pig spokesman Bob Williams, Kao didn't respond to their commands to drop the stick and wielded it "in a threatening martial arts fashion . . . as people have seen on TV"; therefore Shields was justified in shooting Kao in the chest from less than ten feet away (and in preventing his wife from giving him medical assistance). Local Chinese groups are outraged at "police insensitivity" to Asians. They demanded a federal investigation and have gathered more than 1,000 signatures. Assistant u.s. Attorney Albert Glenn said that only the possibility of undue force will be investigated; "race is irrelevant to that constitutional right." San Francisco supervisor Mabel Teng disagrees, stating "this killing seems (to say) that somehow an Asian American [sic] life is worth less." MIM says that this tragic death is another indication that the Amerikan police state is set up to perpetuate national oppression. Because of its function "to protect and serve" the white supremacist bourgeoisie, police brutality in oppressed nation communities is commonplace. The anger of the Asian community is justified, but FBI probes will do little to effect change. An FBI probe would just scapegoat particular individuals to appease the community while ignoring the fundamental systemic problems. No, MIM recognizes that more is needed. We call on everyone to join us in organizing against the criminal Amerikan injustice system. NOTE: San Francisco Examiner 21 May 1997. MERCURY NEWS DEMOTES WEBB Gary Webb, author of the San Jose Mercury News stories which exposed the CIA/crack connection, has been demoted to a suburban office and have taken him off the story. After the editor in chief attacked the stories, the editors have refused to run follow up stories which Webb points out offer even more proof. They are now hoping to bury the story entirely by forcing Webb to quit so that the paper can go back to claiming objective reporting by printing state department press releases as if they were fact. MIM is not surprised that the SJMN turned on Webb and his stories exposing Amerikan government treachery. What was really surprising was that these stories ran in a mainstream paper at all. In spite of claims of free speech, the media is very tightly controlled by multinational advertising interests and government news sources. When a paper breaks ranks and runs facts damaging to imperialism, it is attacked by both the government and other media. This underscores the importance of independent media. MIM offers to publish Gary Webb's follow-up stories in MIM Notes: a newspaper that is independently produced and funded and that exists only in the interest of serving the international proletariat. We admit that we are biased: we are biased in the interests of the oppressed people of the world, and this newspaper helps us expose oppression and injustice while organizing against the imperialist system behind these problems. MIM encourages all bourgeois reporters and other folks working for bourgeois media to take a lesson from Gary Webb's experience and realize that the truth about imperialism will not be exposed by the mainstream media. You need to put your skills, time and money into independent revolutionary media. NOTE: Boston Globe June12, 1997, p.A14. * * * AMERIKAN WAR AGAINST OGLALA CONTINUES by RC35 The New York Times reports that the Oglala First Nation tribe of Pine Ridge South Dakota is the "Poorest Indians." Though the article correctly notes the conditions of colonialism within the illegitimate borders of the U$, the article's omission of the historical truth of genocide is a perfect example of the pitfalls of bourgeois journalism. The historical settler land grabbing, massacre, FBI attacks, assassinations of leaders and more against the Oglala-Lakota are the foundations for the current conditions. The high rate of poverty and unemployment are the legacy of Amerika's war against the Oglala. Pine Ridge, with about1.3 million people, has an unemployment rate of 49% -- though another statistic says that only 1 in 4 adults has a job. The only source of income for many families comes from federal aid, which is drastically being cut for settler nation greed. The so-called housing is nothing more than shacks, and youth are contracting diabetes from being fed soda rather than milk during infancy because of prices and the fact that most mothers only receive $78 a month in income. The New York Times article claims the problems are partially because the government is cutting aid. The white settler nation attempts to erase the memory of plundered resources from the Oglala and keep more of Amerika's wealth for itself. So though relying on the oppressor for sustenance is not a sustainable practice, it's a way to win partial legal reparations for hundreds of years of murder. The denial of aid with the effect of poverty is nothing more than the continuation of war. Imperialism dangles aid in front of the oppressed in order to quell rising resistance and denies the aid when needed to make Amerikans fatter. The New York Times also blames the lack of resources for the poverty. The fact that all First Nations were systematically uprooted from fertile, bountiful and self-sustaining land and dumped into overcrowded desert-like badlands conveniently gets omitted by the media. Reducing poverty to "terrain [yielding] no oil or gas, coal or gold, crops or lumber" makes it very easy to blame social inequality on "natural" conditions. There is nothing "natural" about mass murder and dislocation. The large Lakota territory covering the Amerikan states of Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and the Dakotas before the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty was rich in oil, coal, uranium, gold and silver and other minerals, forests and fertile agricultural land. The Lakota Nation led by Red Cloud and later Tesunke Witko (Crazy House) won significant struggles and defeated the land grubbing settlers - - retaining the control over the Lakota territory. It was only through lying that the settlers were able to assassinate the leaders (as the defeated settlers pretended to meet for a peace treaty) and take more control over the territory including the mineral-rich Black Hills. The settlers continued to steel land, massacring hundreds at Wounded Knee in 1890 in order to secure control over the natural resource rich territory and forced the resistance of the entire Lakota nation to organize covertly. As activism rose in the late 1960s (after much of the resources has been depleted and toxic sites placed close to living areas) the Oglala's along with leaders and activists from the American Indian Movement attempted to regain the territory. Through protests, demonstrations and legally proving that the Amerikans had lied and connived, they built support for a rising movement for self- determination. In the 20 point platform of the "Trail of Broken Treaties," AIM leaders and activists and community members and elders demands to recover Lakota jurisdiction and subordinate FBI- backed GOONs which were repressing and killing the masses. Then again, not only were the Oglala denied access to their land and natural resources, the FBI operation against self-determination held Oglala and other First Nation members hostage at Wounded Knee, hauled in 17 tanks, helicopters, Phantom jets, used millons of rounds of ammunition and again killed and wounded the people rightfully belonging on the land. The FBI operations and those of the GOONs backed by the FBI against the Oglala served to reinforce the broken treaties, deny the Oglala access to natural resources and relegate the people to lives under repression and poverty. Now, the only "exploitable" resource the Oglala have is grasslands for grazing cattle sold to keep amerikan's literally fat and the best fed people in the world...all while the U$ internal colonies literally starve. The New York Times article also tried to blame the Oglala'a for their own problems. Historical materialism escapes the bourgeois media once again. Bringing up issues of alcoholism and poor technological planning made the argument rather thin considering the fact that the white settlers would be dead if it weren't for the advanced native farming techniques (oh, yeah, and LAND!!) they stole. However alcoholism is a problem for the oppressed because of desperation, and decadent and patriarchal ideologies from the white social structure. Drug use is something all oppressed nations have to combat via structuring revolutionary activity around creating an alternative to the desperate conditions. The Oglala's tried to follow the lead of the Pequot tribe in Connecticut, but have no savings to put up as collateral to build a casino. Though MIM realizes that casinos are capitalist enterprises, we uphold First Nation's right to take back as much wealth as possible from bought off white settlers through whatever means are available and decided by the peoples of First Nations. Bourgeois journalist will go down in history for basically ignoring it, but the article exposes well the true conditions of Amerika's internal colonies and shuts up those borderline fascist forces who uphold the Ct. Pequot's as the majority and not the minority that they are. We urge all interested in changing the conditions of oppressed people all over the world to work for real change through exposure of bourgeois society and by building up independent institutions of the oppressed to ensure real material change. A good source for the history of repression, murder, set- ups and imprisonment of Oglala fighting for self- determination is Agents of Repression by Ward Churchill and Jim Vander Wall which MIM regularly uses for study and distributions. ($25) * * * NATIONALIST PEQUOT ART TARGETED FOR CENSORSHIP by two First Nation friends Hartford, CT -- Peter Sutton, incoming director of the Wadsworth Atheneum plans to remove an historical exhibit from the museum's lawn. Sutton's position is that the exhibit is too controversial to be displayed in such a prominent location. The exhibit is a result of six years of research and planning by Hachivi Edgar Heap of Birds, professor of art at the University of Oklahoma. The piece, entitled Dunging the Ground, is a tribute to the hundreds of Pequots who died in the massacre of 1637 at Mystic Fort, and includes the following quote from the diary of John Mason; "Thus was God crushing his proud enemies, burning them up in fire, dunging the ground with their flesh. It is marvelous in our eyes!" Mason's massacre of the Pequots at Mystic Fort is a tragic, but essential part of Connecticut's history, as well as that of America at large. With the prevalent political environment in America, it becomes essential that we not let the people forget that America was built on the blood and bones of its first inhabitants. If this work is viewed as controversial, it is because the history of early America is controversial. To deny the validity of Dunging the Ground as art, is to deny the emotions of a people who are beaten, but not defeated. Must art be relegated to the realm of fantasy? Has the expression "art imitating life" lost its validity? Dunging the Ground is an emotional piece representing the emotions of a real event in history. To refuse to consider its artistic merit is to deny its historical significance; to deny the tragedy of the event. Isn't the Holocaust Museum an art gallery representing sorrow and tragedy? Isn't the sorrow and tragedy the basis for the expressions of same as art? There is no real difference except perhaps in size. Dunging the Ground is gut level emotion, expressed in the context of one of Connecticut's darkest moments. The work must remain accessible to the people as an educational experience. All people who believe in revealing the truths that have not been taught to us through our jaded educational system should set Mr. Sutton straight, and urge him to keep the exhibit in place. Write to Peter Sutton at the Wadsworth Atheneum, 600 Main St., Hartford, CT 06103. Carbon copy Andrea Miller-Keller, Curator of Contemporary Art; she supports Heap of Birds exhibit, and can use public support to fuel her struggle. MIM ADDS: The 1634-1637 Pequot War was a key milestone in the settler domination of this hemisphere because it destroyed the leading economic power in the region. Pequot's controlled the currency through wampum, and this fact was recognized by the English. In order to gain an advantage against the Dutch and French, the English almost completely destroyed the Pequot Nation as a way of stealing their trading position. "In late May 1637, three regiments from Windsor, Hartford and Wethersfield under the leadership of Captain John mason, set out for Mystic, Connecticut, along with forces sent by the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Their singular goal was the extermination of the Pequot tribe. Captain Mason vowed to cut off the Remembrance of them from the Earth." In their attack on the Pequot fort atop a prominent palisade in Mystic, the entire village was burned to the ground. Almost all of the nearly 700 inhabitants were incinerated. John Mason himself proudly took full credit for igniting the fire from inside the fort. Those Pequots who sought to exit from the confines of the conflagration were immediately killed or apprehended by a double circle of adversaries that strategically surrounded the perimeter of the fort. Those few Pequots who escaped with their lives were enslaved by colonists and rival Indian tribes, including the Mohegans and Narragansetts, who had actively supported the English in their efforts to vanquish the Pequots. So complete was the devastation, the Pequot nation was officially dissolved by the 1638 Treaty of Hartford, which the remaining Pequots were forced to sign."(1) The Pequot Nation still exists, and as a result of its new casino was able to build a museum for its history, where some of the information for Heap of Birds art installation came from. The reactionaries make their art, such as a statue of John Mason, recently moved from the site of the massacre to Windsor, CT. The people must also have their art, which defends them and advances the people's struggle. Revolutionaries and progressives must do all they can to help develop art for the people. When by chance the people's art gets displayed prominently on the front lawn of a bourgeois museum where thousands see it a day, we should fight to retain it in that place of high exposure. NOTE: Pamphlet from Atheneum for Heap of Birds Art work. * * * UC AFFIRMATIVE ACTION BAN MAKES ALLIES FOR THE INTERNATIONAL PROLETARIAT by a RAIL comrade Law school acceptance has dropped from up to 81% for Blacks and up to 32% for Latinos to the law schools in the University of California system since the UC Regents banned Affirmative Action programs. The new "colorblind" policy forbids the use of "race", ethnicity and/or gender as criteria in admissions. The affirmative action ban applied only to graduate admissions this year, but will be effective for undergraduate admissions beginning next year. UCLA's School of Law accepted only 21 blacks and 73 Latinos, down from last year's 104 and 108 respectively. UC Berkeley's Boalt Hall Law School offered admission to only 14 Blacks (75 in 1996) and 39 Latinos (78 in 1996).(1) The actual enrollment was expected to be half the number offered admission since many had multiple offers, but the final figures are even more devastating. Not one of the 14 Black applicants admitted to Boalt (UCB) accepted; there will only be one incoming Black student this fall semester who had deferred enrollment last year. The two First Nation applicants also declined and only 18 of 48 Latinos have accepted compared to last years figures of 4 and 28 respectively. At UCLA's law school, only 10 Blacks and 41 Latinos have accepted, although the possibility that they may change their minds still exists.(2) UC Regent Richard Russell -- one of three Blacks out of 26 on the Regent board and who was appointed after the ban was approved -- stated " it's obvious that the re-segregation of higher education has begun."(2) A continent-wide study published in the New York University Law Review showed that many Blacks would have been excluded from law school if LSAT test scores and grade point averages had been the only criterion.(1) However, Black students demonstrated no difference in graduating or passing the bar exams than other students. The author of the study concludes that eliminating affirmative action and basing acceptance offers solely on so-called objective factors would "deny a legal education to many minority applicants who were fully capable of the rigors of a legal education and of entering the legal profession."(1) UC Regent and resident Uncle Tom Ward Connerly -- a major proponent of the affirmative action ban -- applauded the drop in Latino and Black admissions as an exposure of an "artificially engineered system of preferences that has been propping up diversity . . . We are too politically correct to reach the conclusion: They are not as competitive to be lawyers and doctors."(1) Similar drops in admissions are expected for the 600 other UC graduate programs, including the five medical programs. Clearly, working within the system has done very little to advance equality for the oppressed nations within the u.s. Reformism has proved itself a failure time and time again. Even, affirmative action, the pacifying token reform from the civil rights era, is being dismantled. So now, the few oppressed nationals who benefited from it are being denied even that. By eliminating affirmative action, the imperialists have pushed the vacillating oppressed national petit bourgeoisie in the direction of revolutionary nationalist and proletarian movements. Self-determination and self-reliance are the only true means for the oppressed to liberate themselves from subjugation. It is time to choose the proven strategy for ending oppression and gaining liberation, and work with MIM, the PIRAO, and RAIL. MIM calls upon those few oppressed national intellectuals and professionals to devote their bourgeois skills to the service of the people. Notes: 1. The Los Angeles Times 15 May 1997, p.A1. 2. The Los Angeles Times 27 June1997. p.A1, A22. See also MT7, "Supreme court makes allies of the international proletariat. * * * 1997 COLLEGE GRADS ON EASY STREET by a MIM comrade As a record number of recruiters have hit the campuses this year, 1997 college graduates are landing jobs easily.(1) Students have had their pick of job offers and many had jobs by mid-senior year. Although Black and white college grads both face good employment prospects, Blacks are both denied that education, and even with equivalent education, get paid less than whites. In 1996, 30.6% of whites age 25-34 had at least a bachelor degrees, compared to 13.7% of Blacks in the same age group. Of those with bachelor's degrees, the median income for whites is $35,559, compared to $29,105 for Blacks in 1996.(2) While white unemployment is at almost its lowest in twenty-five years, Black unemployment is still at least twice as high as white unemployment. Since 1994, there has been a steady decline in white unemployment, while Black unemployment has increased or remained steady.(3) But, in 1996, the unemployment rate for college graduates (no longer in school) under 25 years old was the same for whites and Blacks: 5.3 percent.(4) What this means is that even though college educated Blacks are doing fine in the job market, the children of the labor aristocracy -- college educated or not -- are still doing much better. The graduates with engineering and computer degrees are able to pick and choose jobs more than liberal arts graduates. Overall unemployment is now below five percent, and the job market is booming.(1) Many market analysts believe that the current surge in hiring is in part due to the massive layoffs of the late 1980s -- companies found that with the growth of the economy new employees were needed to fill positions that had been downsized. MIM believes, however, this explanation rings hollow. Unemployment has fluctuated some over the past twenty years, but the vast majority of college graduates have been able to get well-paying jobs. New graduates with degrees in chemical, electrical and mechanical engineering can expect starting salaries at over $39,000, an increase of at least four percent over last year.(5) Starting salaries are up 4.5 percent for computer science graduates, beginning at almost $37,000. Job market analysts say that not only are new college graduates able to pick and choose jobs based on salary, but they are also able to secure generous benefits packages, including stock options.(5) MIM understands that this is further evidence of the fact that capitalism is working for the labor aristocracy. With more and better opportunities in the job market, the college educated white nation is happy to hold on to their degrees and look forward to a bright future of milking the benefits of imperialism. NOTES: 1. New York Times 19 May 1997, p. A1. 2. The Black Population in the United States: March 1996 (Update), U.S. Census Bureau (P20-498), avaible at . 3. Current Population Surveys, Bureau of Labor Statistics. 4. Current Population Survey, 1996, Bureau of Labor Statistics. 5. St. Louis Post-Dispatch 29 April 1997, p. 6C. * * * IMPERIALISTS AND THEIR LACKEYS DIVIDE AND THEN STARVE THE KOREAN PEOPLE by MC45 North Korea recently made an international request for flood and famine relief, following two years of serious flooding in 1995 and 1996, and an extended effort to deal with the famine independently. The Public [food] Distribution System (PDS) in north Korea has kept the famine from hurting too many Koreans until recently.(1) The west criticized north Korea for not calling for aid sooner -- Amerika understands north Korea's reticence on this point as secrecy and reluctance to admit weaknesses, a characteristic imperialism says is typical of socialist countries. But north Korea was able to manage its food production and distribution effectively over the past two years by applying Kim Il Sung's strong notion of the self-reliance of peoples -- Juche. Now that north Korea has asked other countries for help easing its current famine (as it gave aid to south Korea after floods 13 years ago)(2) we can see the necessity of Juche. Amerika has made political differences a consideration in giving food aid at the same time as the united snakes claims that north Korea is making politics a barrier to aid. This conditional aid-giving by Amerika proves the necessity of self-reliance in the face of the option of asking imperialist countries for help. While the united snakes demonizes north Korea as a Communist country, MIM does not uphold north Korea as socialist or communist. We do support the right of the Korean people to self-determination and liberation from u.s. imperialism, and their right to food and basic needs. We also do not criticize the north Korean government for its refusal to prostrate itself to Amerikan demands. Amerika has no business deciding who should live or die on the Korean peninsula.(3) Amerika makes big claims about communist countries killing their people through poor planning and food distribution. But the U.$. is guilty of helping to cause the famine in the first place by splitting the nation, occupying half of Korea and making it impossible for the Korean people to build a total independent economy. Now, the U$ is making the famine worse by stalling on aid. AMERIKAN INTERVENTION AND MANIPULATION Thanks to successful spin doctoring by the imperialist- driven press, north Korea's so-called unwillingness to accept help in easing the famine its people are suffering has received more attention than the famine itself. The accusation that north Korea will not accept aid from supposedly willing donors such as the United Snakes of Imperialism has even obscured the reasons for that famine. So what if Amerika tries to impose its political and economic will on the Korean peninsula through economic blockades? So what if the politically repressive (albeit Western-style democratic) south Korean regime aggressively supports Amerikan propaganda while squashing any indigenous support for reunification it can identify? The government in the north somehow becomes the one politicizing the famine by refusing to surrender its autonomy in exchange for food aid. According to an Amerikan mass organization lobbying for more u.s. food aid to north Korea, it would cost $95.5 million to feed the currently at-risk population there. The United Snakes has been giving fractions of this amount, while it continues to spend $3 billion annually to keep an occupying force of 37,000 Amerikan troops stationed in south Korea. In addition to keeping its own troops in south Korea, Amerika spends hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid to south Korea -- giving $233 million in 1985 alone.(6) The underlying cause of famine in north Korea is an economy crippled by the U.$. military-enforced division between north and south Korea. MIM does not recognize two distinct nations on the Korean peninsula -- south Korea was carved out by Amerikan occupiers immediately following World War Two. Amerikan occupiers keep the south and north separate. Division between north and south, together with a consistent imperialist threat from Amerika and Amerikan-backed forces has kept north Korea with its smaller population and poorer farm land in a weak economic state. U.$. lackey state south Korea has followed Amerikan instruction well, making it illegal for south Koreans to give private donations directly to the north Korean people.(5) This ban is both a means of enforcing the division among the Korean people and a way for the government in the south to exercise greater political control through food aid. Clearly the division among the Korean people is artificial if the southern government has to make it illegal to give food across the so-called border. The Korean people want reunification and have no desire for continued Amerikan occupation. The Amerikan occupiers present the principal obstacle to reunification and self-reliance at this time. CONDITIONAL AID The U.$. Secretary of Defense, making food aid explicitly conditional on north Korea's friendliness to Amerika, has "sternly warned the North Koreans to stop military provocations and to show a willingness to negotiate if it hoped to received more food aid."(7) Even pacifist humanitarian aid givers who would oppose communism generally agree with MIM on this point: "It is inhuman to reach out with a loaf of bread to a starving person and make the gesture conditional on a political agenda."(4) Everyone but the imperialists and their lackeys can see that one's opinion of the north Korean government are not the principal question when the north Korean people are starving. MIM must point out in this discussion that we do not advocate Amerikan food aid generally, because it never comes without political compromise. So while we would not criticize people who are starving by Amerika's hand in the Third World for taking food from the United Snakes, we do not advocate such aid as the solution to Third World hunger. Amerikans should recognize that if food aid from Amerika to north Korea is to be genuinely unconditional, the U.$. must end its occupation of Korea. NOTES: 1. http://shrine.cyber.ad.jp/mrosin/flood/970610/wfp97 0603- 1.html 2. http://shrine.cyber.ad.jp/mrosin/flood/news.html 3. For more of MIM's line on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), see the essays on MIM's website at http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/MIM.essays/korea/ 4. http://shrine.cyber.ad.jp/mrosin/flood/noteveryone. html 5. http://shrine.cyber.ad.jp/mrosin/flood/noteveryone. html 6. "North Korea Famine Factsheet," Campaign to Stop Famine in North Korea. 7. New York Times 16 April, 1997, p. A7. * * * IMPERIALISTS REACT TO THREAT OF AFRICAN UNITY by a RAIL comrade The past few months have marked major power struggles in Africa, including the overthrow of the controlling governments in Sierra Leon and the newly formed Democratic Republic of Congo. Both of these movements opened opportunities for true revolutionary change to occur. Neighboring African nations look on optimistically in hopes of movement towards a free, democratic and self-sufficient Africa. A comrade from the CPL- Zaire praised the movement led by Laurent Kabila in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The comrade stressed the need for national democratic revolution to break from dependence on imperialism, to promote land reform, and for the liberation of local production from imperialism.(1) Museveni, president of neighboring Uganda, has suggested the formation of a united government of democratic forces in Africa, to be guided by Kabila.(2) This possibilities of unity and relinquishing Africa from the chains of imperialism caused Clinton to take recent steps to prevent such actions. While it is not yet clear where Kabila's alliance lies, imperialists are taking action to try to influence him to join their ranks. Clinton announced his great plan to provide 'relief' to the highly indebted countries of central Africa on June 17.(3) He brought attention to this issue just before the "Summit of Eight" where he plans to ask the help of the seven other richest nations in the world to participate in the U.S.-led actions. Any anti- imperialist should shudder at the thought of the world's leading imperialist nations joining in an "effort to bolster capitalism and democracy across the neglected region" of colonialized Africa.(3) Clinton's proposal includes a call for U.S. tariff reductions on some 1,800 exports, allowing the nations involved to export nearly 50 percent more to the United States without duty.(3) This increase in exports only allows for more multinational corporations to increase business and further the exploitation of labor in these countries. The people of these nations will not see an increase in living conditions because these companies are exporting more. They don't need exports ala mono- exports which deplete the possibility of self- sufficiency. They need industry through which they can provide for themselves and create self- sufficiency. Clinton also promised to bulk up Amerikan investment in African nations by setting up an $150 million fund at the Overseas Private Investment Corporation.(3) This also provides more opportunities for Amerikan corporations to go in and exploit these nations. Amerikan investment in a country does not translate into prosperity but rather exploitation of the workers and environmental degradation. The president called for a $500 million fund to finance African infrastructure such as telecommunications and power plants as well.(3) Developing these areas technologically allows big business to operate more efficiently, but most likely, the average African will not see any benefits of this construction. This development will go to help power and link communications in imperialist corporations; not to improving the lives of the oppressed. MIM supports the self-determination of African nations and unity developed by oppressed nations that will force out imperialism. We urge the people of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sierra Leon, and all of Africa to seize the time and take this movement to the next level; socialist revolution. For through socialism the people can guarantee their freedom from imperialism. NOTES: 1. MIM Notes 140. p.6. 2. MIM Notes 140. p.3. 3.Times Union 18 June 1997. p.A-2. * * * MOVIE REVIEWS: CHILDREN OF THE REVOLUTION LACKS HISTORICAL ANALYSIS The Australian film Children of the Revolution creates the bizarre story of an Australian labor leader who sleeps with Stalin just before he dies and later raises his son. The movie relies on biological determinism and individual personality traits to create bourgeois criticisms of Stalin as an evil tyrant and leader of a personality cult. In the 1950's Joan, the womyn, led the Australian communist party. She supposedly put the cause of the people above all else but the film makers portrayed it as a weird personality trait. Stalin, in this movie, is portrayed to be a crazy, dumb, but sly dictator who uses this womyn's admiration for his leadership of the Soviet revolution to get her into his bed, thereby incorrectly reducing all liberation movements down to struggles for individual and patriarchal power. The whole picture of the Soviet Union is a spoof on history, but clearly is meant to reflect what the bourgeoisie sees as reality. The extreme images of Stalin as a lunatic, the dopey yes-men and the Australian spy, who is also a KGB agent working for Stalin, are all opportunistic insults to the communist state. It benefits those trying to stop all progressive revolutionary movements by discrediting the leaders as no more than personality cults and ignoring the true facts behind mass participation in peoples liberation. Stalin died after having sex with Joan in the movie. As she was leaving the country she asked the KGB/Australian agent why Kruschev and the other yes-men were so happy when millions of people of the country had filed past Stalin's dead body crying. Just as Joan's conviction to communist ideals and the importance of devoting her life to changing the world is portrayed as a weird fluke, this reaction of the Soviet people is also dismissed. By turning all eyes to an individual, the masses are discredited and all personal responsibility is absolved from the international community. In the same way that it makes Stalin out to be nothing more than a virulent dictator, it discredits the entire Soviet revolution as a truly progressive historical movement that can be used as a lesson for today. The movie also suggests that Stalin's portrayed evil was genetic and therefore his son was doomed to be a BAD man too. The biological determinist ideas of evil were shown with (little) Joe's inclination for prison games as a child, his reluctance in protesting with his mother and his eventual leadership in the Union of Prison Workers and Police. Though this correctly puts the injustice system on the side of the bad guy, it doesn't recognize the material conditions that create group alliances. Joe's position gave him so much power that it became a near takeover of the country from behind the scenes, again alluding to Stalin's alleged cult of personality as being the only reason why he became head of the Soviet Union -- ignoring Stalin's election based on his correct line on Soviet liberation. The movie also plays into the favorite anti-Stalin complaint that Stalin was responsible for all the evils that happened all around the world to this day. The man that Joan married when she learned she was pregnant joined the communist party to be near her. He was never interested in politics, just the womyn. When Joe became so powerful and evil that he was having his political enemies killed, his mother decided she had to tell everyone that he was Stalin's son to stop the evil that he was doing. Her husband left her saying that Stalin had destroyed his life. Overall there is little progressive in this movie. The strong conviction of Joan to the cause of the people and her correct assessment that Gorbachev was not a communist were high points. Joan's failure to assess the nature of the working class in Australia in the 1990's and the reasons behind its lack of interest in revolution was one reason for the demise of the communist movement, as opposed to the film maker's direction of the blame at Stalin. Her son Joe laughs at her for believing the people will get up off the beaches, shake the sand out of their shoes and overthrow the government. It is likely that this criticism is correct since white Australians are settlers living off of stolen indigenous land and third world super-profits. The movie was another bourgeois attack on Stalin offering nothing more then patriarchally-grounded criticisms and a complete ignorance of historical materialism. We urge those with doubts about Stalin's leadership to ask the question, what else could have been done given the time in history and social knowledge? With study of the context it is easily found that Stalin DID do all he could for the Soviet People and kept it on the socialist road. We offer MIM Theory 6, "The Stalin Issue" as a good alternative to this bourgeois trash. If you are interested in seriously taking up study of the history of socialism in the Soviet Union, don't settle for pithy spoofs on history which just repeat all the bourgeois lies and one liners, history is complicated and we have a responsibility to study it thoroughly. * * * PSUEDO-ENVIRONMENTALISM HOLLYWOOD STYLE IN SEQUEL THE LOST WORLD by MC17 The Lost World, sequel to Jurassic Park, tried to make it as a big movie on reputation and a few special effects, and it seems to have worked. Little plot, lousy characters, and fewer dinosaurs than Jurassic Park have led lots of people to walk out of the theater but still has created a box office hit. The main political message in the movie is a pseudo-environmentalist, preserve nature theme. One of the main characters is an Earth First! activist, who was under cover as a photographer on the trip to the island of dinosaurs just in case the bad guys showed up. Of course, the bad guys did show up, but the Earth First! activist did little more than cut a few locks with a wire cutter he brought along for the occasion and stuff some blanks into a shot gun so that one of the bad guys could not shoot a T-Rex. The environmentalist message is confusing because the island of dinosaurs was created by humyns but is being defended by its creator as a natural haven that needs to be preserved and left alone by humyns. There were the obvious questions about an island with Pterodactyls which seem like they might be able to reach humyn inhabited land. But this movie also raises the question of what should be considered a natural resource. There was little justification given for the importance of preserving the dinosaur island and MIM does not agree with this mystical approach to environmentalism. MIM does not wish to eliminate humyn influence on the environment because we know that all animals on this planet (including humyns) will have an influence on the environment. Instead we recognize that humyns are going to have to live with the environment and it is in our interests to preserve it. We advocate preserving natural resources because of the value this has for all life on this planet. Along these lines, humyn-made resources may also be worth preserving because of the value it has for furthering life on this planet. But similarly, if it was clear that this island of dinosaurs was going to lead to death and destruction of humyns, MIM is not afraid to make decisions about containing or eliminating such dangers. The real Earth First! organization generally does more politically progressive actions with more than just mystical justifications although, as their name implies, the organization does believe that the earth is more important than humyns. True environmentalists recognize the interconnectedness of humyn and environmental life and strive to create a beneficial balance between the two. This can only be done by recognizing the systematic destruction that imperialism brings to the earth and struggling to liberate all people from its system of exploitation and oppression. * * * UNDER LOCK AND KEY: NEWS FROM PRISONERS AND PRISONS PRISON BRIEFS NO TIME FOR APATHY Revolutionary Greetings, Be advised, even a superficial look at history reveals that no social advance rolls in on the wheels of inevitability. Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering and struggle; tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals. This is no time for apathy or complacency. This is a time for vigorous and positive action. All Power To De People!!! -- A South Carolina Prisoner, 15 January 1997 500 TRANSFERRED TO PRIVATE PRISONS IN TEXAS i was caught up in a "shuffle" by the kkkolorado department of kkkoruptions that resulted in the placement of 500 prisoners of war into "private prisons" in tekkkas. After a month of being "in transit", i remain behind enemy lines in kkkolorado and am now being "permanently housed" at a new (to me) facility. The plans to begin a revolutionary study group at my "old" facility, must now be revised. The search for conscious comrades here is proving tedious and in all likelihood I will have to educate and recruit first. Nonetheless, it's ever-forward, never back! -- A Colorado Prisoner, 27 March 1997 INSUFFICIENT FOOD SERVICES Got an interesting story for you about FCI Bastrop. About 2 months ago they decided to remodel the floor in food service because the tile wasn't the right color. Now we have to eat off paper plates and cold food for the last two months. Now they have a make-shift kitchen that can't feed the whole institution and are dumping the cleaning water for the dishes into storm drains and are polluting Bastrop lake with refuse and garbage. Hopefully someone will give them up here to OSHA or EPA or Greenpeace. Perfect for Earth Day, but I'm still hanging on by a thread. -- A Texas Prisoner, 21 April 1997 CENSORSHIP DOESN'T STOP STUDY GROUP MIM Comrades, Revolutionary Greetings! I am writing to you from the Gulags here in Pennsylvania, to bring you up to date on the latest form of oppression. The literature you sent to me has been denied, claiming that it advocates violence and is a clear and present danger to the orderly running of this institution. The literature that was sent to me was MIM Theory #7, #8, #9, #10, #11, #12. All were denied. I am currently appealing this decision, so I will keep you posted on the situation. We have started a study group here, with about eleven fellow comrades with the number growing every day. It is hard to educate without enough literature, and these people denying MIM Theory only makes it harder. But what these PIGS fail to realize is that all of us have dealt with such treatment and oppression all our lives. We've struggled this far through life and we'll continue to strive and over come! The Prisoncrats have not tried to censor MIM Notes yet, and hopefully they won't. We understand the Struggle will be a hard and long fight, and we are prepared to go the distance!!! I will include the names of those responsible for censoring MIM Theory, so letters of protest can be sent. Maybe once they see that we have outside support, they will stop this censorship. --A Pennsylvania Prisoner, 21 March 1997 Letters of Protest can be sent to: Acting Superintendent, Ben Varner, SCI Greene, 1040 E. Roy Furman Hwy, Waynesburg, PA 15370-8090 and John J. D'Eletto, Chairperson, Publications Review Committee, SCI Greene, 1040 E. Roy Furman Hwy, Waynesburg, PA 15370-8090 MORE CENSORSHIP IN PENNSYLVANIA Dear MIM, I previously sent you a letter concerning the censorship of MIM Notes by Prisoncrats in Pennsylvania. My efforts to resolve this matter with prisoncrats has been largely unavailing. Therefore I intend to initiate legal action against them. As you well know, prisoncrats cannot censor a publication because it contains views unfavorable to the penal system or because they disagree with the philosophy of the organization that publishes it. You may send letters of protest to the following individuals. Commissioner, Martin F. Horn, Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, PO Box 598, Camp Hill, PA 17001-0598 Superintendent, Kenneth D. Kyler, SCI Camp Hill, PO Box 200, Camp Hill, PA 17001-0200 I will keep you abreast as things develop. -- A Pennsylvania Prisoner, 14 April 1997 EDUCATION IS A SECURITY THREAT IN AMERIKAN GULAGS IN NEW YORK Receiving MIM Notes is an absolute honor for me. I in turn encourage other prisoners within these boundaries (hole) while sharing the informative pages of your paper. However, these pigs are very sure to render some kind of burning bridge that would urge a divide and conquer maneuver for the action of stopping educational books, newspapers, pamphlets, etc, that will expose the filth embedded in this colonial system. They disapprove entirely of one as myself who's action is illustrated from a solid mind-frame -- but they are most certain to shake in their pants when a selected few inmates get together and bring the light (true knowledge) amongst the masses. -- A New York Prisoner, 4 April 1997 IN SOUTH CAROLINA For according to the mentality of SCDC [South Carolina Department of Corrections] workers they will never promote such education [i.e. MIM Notes] to prisoners. My experience with America's Prison Institutions have shown me that the clowns who run them from high positions along with their pawns who enforce their will, do not want prisoners to educate themselves. They prefer to keep [prisoners] illiterate, angry and doing all the wrong things (such as dealing in homosexual activities and telling on fellow prisoners). This causes disunity, one never knows who to trust. Also I'm considered a threat because they claim that because I'm one with an extensive amount of knowledge (According to how much literature I had in my possession). I pose a security threat to their operations, even thought I never committed any violation of their rules and regulations I have been pre-judged only because of what I study!!! Thus I've been on lock-up until I max out unless their judicial system follows its guidelines pertaining to discrimination and due process. As far as study groups on lock-up it is pretty much impossible. Being that inmates are kept apart with the exceptions of one hour of recreation. But even then we are not allowed to bring anything out of our cells. -- A South Carolina Prisoner, 23 April 1997 MIM ADDS: Though prisoncrats may encourage prisoners to focus on sexual activities in order to divert people from political activism. It is our assertion that homosexual activities are not wrong. It is patriarchal dominance that is wrong and it is the bourgeois, patriarchal power structure which perpetuates the ideology that only white settler, heterosexist interests must be served. FLORIDA KENNEL CONDITIONS After reading Under Lock and Key, I'm here to comment on the writings of a prisoner in New York who speaks of the new dog kennels they have [MIM Notes, 1 Feb 1997, #131, Under Lock and Key article, "New York Continues Repressive Conditions"]. I'm at the Washington Correctional Institution and have been a guest of the new kennels they have here since Sept. 10, 1996. We however only get 2 hours of recreation time a week and spend the rest of our time in the cell. This is called CM, Close Management, and lasts up to 36 months, this is due to change to a minimum of 36 months and up to 60 max in the near future. They have CM in almost every prison in the state now and have just opened New River which is nothing but CM and will house about 1,000. If you treat bad people good, then some will turn good themselves, treat bad people bad and all will get worse. I just don't see the point. Prisoners everywhere, beware this is the prison of the future! -- A Florida Prisoner, 6 March 1997 FLORIDA OPPRESSION CONTINUES I just finished reading MIM Notes for February 1, 1997. I read "New York Continues Repressive Conditions Part 2". Well, I'm almost in the same predicament as the brother from New York only I'm in the prison system in Florida. They are making most of the prisons in Florida, "lock-down" 24 hours a day. Any inmates that don't agree with this system are placed on the Close Management for 37 months. There was a time when only very few inmates were placed in this type of housing, but now if you even receive a minor write-up, they are putting us on this "Max Lock-Up" and there is nothing that can be done. They are building so many prisons with this in mind, that they are in need of clients. Any movement is done in restraints, legs as well as hands. Showers are 3 a week in still restraints. Visits are the same, cuffs and leg irons. -- A Florida Prisoner in the injustice system, 5 March 1997 FEDERAL GANG UNIT MIM, First and foremost, I'd like to commend you all at MIM for the relentless struggle you all have maintained in the direction of socialism and proletariat revolution. My most sincerest hopes are that one day we shall all share in the fruits of the fight! I am one of fifty prisoners, segregated on one of the many concentration camps here in corporate ameriKKKa - namely, the USP at Leavenworth, infamous building #63. I am writing you in the highest of hopes of some assistance in the unveiling of some of the health threatening, and repressive practices under which we reside. On February 15, 1996, I along with about 45-50 other Mexican inmates were rounded up and placed in administrative segregation under the motive of an investigation, and guise of gang activity. We were placed in building #63 here at leavenworth, a building over one hundred years old, and long ago condemned to closure along with the holdover unit at El Reno in Oklahoma in 1993 by Attorney Janet Reno. Since then building #63 has been utilized for assumed emergency reasons on an on again, off again basis. However, never has anybody or any group, at one time resided in health hazard condemned building #63 for such a long period of time as we have for 'over one whole year now!' The reason the Attorney General shut down this building, along with the holdover unit at El Reno in Oklahoma, was due to the fact that said buildings are infested with Toxic Agents, namely Asbestos; "this is our prime concern here among us'. Also the plumbing in this building is so deteriorated that pipes are constantly bursting, some individual go months without adequate plumbing when such happens. The sewer lines are also always backed up and the foulest of odors has kept the air in a constant state of pollution. To top things off, there is no adequate system of ventilation - remember this building is over one hundred years old! In the summer time, we are left to deal with the heat in the best way we possibly can, for there is no sort of air conditioning what so ever. We are left to sweat like dogs in cages at a K9. Inmates have been injured by flying pieces of the ceiling falling upon us, and inmates have been infected by spider and various insect bites one too many times. This building is clearly a health hazard and must be condemned and further demolished once and for all. When we were first placed in segregation building #63 and under investigation status, we were denied all privileges and warrant conditions forthcoming us: proper medical attention, adequate recreational facilities, laundry and clothing exchange, visitation, full commissary ability, phone usage, and we are still not able to participate in education programs or programs of such, otherwise available to the general population. Over a year behind us now, one hunger strike, two brief uprisings, exhaustion of all institutional remedies, various letters to our respective state representatives, and the request for assistance in an effective transfer to our regional director - and we are still here under the same ongoing investigation, and under the same health threatening conditions! Sure enough - yet needless to say - we have gained some concession amenities, such as: extended recreational periods, an expanded commissary ability, and other peace meals as such. But we are all aware that these are merely psychological straight jackets, constraints to keep us repressed. We are asking that an end be given to this exhausted investigation, and that inference be made based on the collected information. If the conclusion is determined that we are to remain under segregation status, then make arrangements for effective transfer for appropriate segregational facility, so that we can be given every detailed condition we got forthcoming to us. Due Conditions that are here at Leavenworth Building #63 will never become feasible! Power to the Peoples! Always a Comrade In Struggle! -- A Federal Prisoner, 16 March 1997 PSYCHOLOGICAL PROFILE TEST OR TRICK There is a new trend that's sweeping through these corruption mechanized slave kamps. This genocidal tactic is under the disguise called a "psychological profile test". However, this tactic is directed toward the militant brothers who have been singled out by the prison keepers and placed in control units and long term ad-seg. for their political, cultural and religious understandings. Here in the Slave Delta of South KKKarolina, myself along with a number of other brothers have been in these units for 2, 3, 4 and some for 10 years with no institutional infractions. And since April 27, we have been placed on ML5 status, meaning permanent isolation until otherwise deemed by the prison keepers to replace us back into general population. But in order to be eligible to be placed back into population we must undergo this psychological profile test. Keep in mind comrades, that this test is being administered by the same prison keepers that initially placed us on these units to begin with. And agreeing to this test, once you're deemed psychologically unfit (in which we will be), then these corrupt prison keepers advance into a position to further restrict us from the general population as well as placing us on "mind altering drugs" that decreases the mental powers. This is a tactic that's being carried out under the banner of protecting the greater imperialist capitalist society. And to eradicate the prison masses of political cultural and religious conscious that would enhance resistance. So, in actuality, this psychological profile test is being implemented as a behavior modification tactic that's designed to mentacide and genocide a whole breed of militant resisters who are within those deprivation kamps. Those who have been deemed psychologically unfit by a so called psychologist, would be placed in long term isolation unit until otherwise cleared or cured. Also comrades we must remember that our enemies will use every method available to discredit and eliminate the opposition that opposes their oppressive capitalist rule. The history of COINTELPRO proves this. "A final goal should be to prevent the long range growth of militant Black nationalist organizations, especially among the youth. Specific tactics to prevent those groups from converting young people must be developed." (COINTELPRO sub-sec. No. 51) From closely observing this, it's clear that this psychological profile test is only a tactic to eradicate militants through mentacidal and genocidal tactics. So remain steadfast in the struggle to free the land, through stiff resistance. -- A South Carolina Prisoner, 20 February 1997 IN PRISON PSYCHOLOGY = TORTURE Things are pressured in on all sides. Yet, I'm not crushed in my struggle to keep my head above the waters of sanity. I stand firm and tall in what I represent as truth and justice. As expected in a Texas Prison, that's a major no no. Due to my strong remission against bowing down to injustice, the unit warden referred me to a psych Doctor, who sent me to Rusk, Texas, TDC, Psych Treatment Center, where I've been for nine months. They had me tagged as being in a structure program that would shape my mind, where I could comply with the prison regulations. They us the tactics of drugs and severe mental anguish in order to break a person's spirit to maintain control in part of the program. Yet I withstood it and came out gracefully without a scratch. I refused to bow down and didn't swallow their poison. I will never bow down. I am a true soldier 'til my death. Meanwhile so many women are dying in the Texas Prison system - mostly from lack of medical attention and horrid treatment and housing. At this time on Murray Unit they have over 600 women locked in a big warehouse like building with the windows nailed down, no air conditioning. More than 6% of us are sick. Unfortunately, Texas women usually are very weak, simple minded with no backbone, two faced, scary, ass hoes. Who spend more time breaking each other down and jealousy. They can't seen when their looking. --A Texas Prisoner, 17 February 1997 MIM RESPONDS: We agree that psychology is another word for torture in prison. Remember that the prisoncrats are your principle enemy, not your fellow prisoners. The pigs are the ones torturing people by denying medical care and breaking people's spirits. Others around you may not be as strong as you, that is why you must lead by example. Calling names and making broad generalizations about your fellow prisoners does not help the struggle for revolution. It only helps to divide you, which is exactly what the pigs want. Instead try to educate and lead. Remember you are not alone. There are many serious revolutionary prisoners out there facing similar problems. Do not give up hope in your fellow prisoners, help them change for the better. Work with MIM to educate and organize for revolution. NOT ALONE IN THE STRUGGLE ...I was surprised to acknowledge in [MIM] Notes 134 that other prisoners have responded to my article in [MIM] Notes 126 titled, "Unity in Michigan Prisons Questioned". I was especially pleased to know that my voice did not fall upon deaf ears and has been heard as far as Wisconsin. I thank all the comrades that have responded to my article and letting me know that I am not alone in my struggle. Being encouraged by you brothers is a good thing and helps serve to uplift my spirits. But the reality of my environment - the unity of a forward, intelligent and rational struggle is still in question. I know that there are brothers who are real with this struggle such as I am. (even some at my location) But these such brotha's are kept separated and divided from a brotha as myself, for the fear that we my come together and unify our minds, movements, methods and "intelligent" tactics to move our struggle forward, progressively for positive change. And so, they keep the serious revolutionaries separated in an attempt to deviate and dismantle change. The plot is to discourage and weaken us by separating us as one of their transparent tactics to break our spirits, so that we will begin to feel (psychologically) that we are in this struggle alone. With these feelings the mind and heart begin to program itself into giving up hope and struggle for change. Thus allowing himself to become broken, passive and submissive. Because it is known that often when one begins to feel the effects of aloneness in his/her struggle, one begins to give up hope and starts thinking that the possibility for change is impossible. And with this thought the spirit is broken, the mind is broken, the struggle is broken. Once this circle of spirit, mind and struggle is broken, then the programming of the beast has claimed you to think, act, walk and do as a man-made robot would do - modified, dictated and controlled by the beast that created you. With only one single thought -- If you can't beat 'em join em'. Now the circle is broken and the beast has successfully completed his goal. But this my brotha's, irregardless of how alone, separated and divided from real brotha's like you, will never become me. I could and will never become broken and programmed into submitting, downing down, giving in and giving up the struggle to be free. My struggle for justice and to live in human dignity. The beast agenda for psychological , social and institutional programming will not affect me to change backward in a self-destruction direction. No matter how alone I may feel in this struggle I will still keep it real! Thank you whole-heartedly for your distant support. -- A Michigan Prisoner, 15 April 1997 * * * MIM ON PRISONS AND PRISONERS MIM seeks to build public opinion against Amerika's criminal injustice system, and to eventually replace the bourgeois injustice system with proletarian justice. The bourgeois injustice system imprisons and executes a disproportionately large and growing number of oppressed people while letting the biggest mass murderers - the imperialists and their lackeys - roam free. Imperialism is not opposed to murder or theft, it only insists that these crimes be committed in the interests of the bourgeoisie. MIM does not advocate that all prisoners go free today; we have a more effective program for fighting crime as was demonstrated in China prior to the restoration of capitalism there in 1976. We say that all prisoners are political prisoners because under the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, all imprisonment is substantively political. It is our responsibility to exert revolutionary leadership and conduct political agitation and organization among prisoners – whose material conditions make them an overwhelmingly revolutionary group. Some prisoners should and will work on self-criticism under a future dictatorship of the proletariat in those cases in which prisoners really did do something wrong by proletarian standards. ***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.
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