MIM(Prisons) is a cell of revolutionaries serving the oppressed masses inside U.$. prisons, guided by the communist ideology of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism.
Under Lock & Key is a news service written by and for prisoners with a focus on what is going on behind bars throughout the United States. Under Lock & Key is available to U.S. prisoners for free through MIM(Prisons)'s Free Political Literature to Prisoners Program, by writing:
MIM(Prisons) PO Box 40799 San Francisco, CA 94140.
I want to give our readers a brief status update. This is the first
issue in 5 months, and the one before that was about 7 months prior.
Unfortunately, we will be sticking to what we called “plan C” in the
last issue, which was relaunching Under Lock & Key(ULK) on
an irregular basis.
We have went ahead with the new newsprint format, which has reduced
our costs. With this new format, we launched the new logo that was to go
on the new newsletter. Thanks to the USW comrade who drafted, and redrew
the artwork for that. Otherwise, the contents of ULK should
remain about what you are used to.
Before I go on, I want to include one of the appreciative letters we
received from a newer subscriber:
“I want to sincerely thank you all for altering my outlook on the
world and on life in general. Not to mention politics. I don’t know how
to explain it, but just in the relatively short few months that I’ve
been seriously studying the various ULKs and related materials,
I can see and feel so many positive changes in myself, my outlook,
attitude, mindframe, actions, words, thoughts, etc.
“… For example, just navigating the daily struggle in here has become
much easier for me as far as interactions with the guards, etc. I just
feel like I have been equipped with a much more stable mindframe and a
more mature attitude. As I’m writing this I’m actually realizing that
this is probably my reactionary mentality being steadily stripped away
and replaced with knowledge and wisdom of what’s really going on.
“This has even had positive effects on my personal/family life as
well and my ability to express myself and communicate with individuals I
had a difficult time with before. I’m able to control my emotions more
and deal with sense and reason which has produced better results.”
It is letters like this that reinforce the importance of Under
Lock & Key and our determination to keep it going. But we can’t
do so without rallying more support.
Some of the things that go into this one project include: processing
incoming letters to update our mailing list, typing articles, scanning
and editing art, responding to articles, editing, formatting and
proofreading, layout of the newsletter, compiling and processing our
latest mailing list for the USPS, proof reading the laid out newsletter,
folding and packaging the newsletters, bringing them to the post office
for delivery to you, and paying for all that printing and postage. We
know our readers in prison can’t do most of these things. But by
promoting ULK and recruiting others around our work, you can
build the network of support we need.
And many of you can send donations. Thank you to all of you who have
sent in stamps in recent months despite the lack of ULKs. We
are still sending out lots of letters and literature and making good use
of your donations!
In addition to ULK, we are prioritizing responding to
letters, providing resource guides and political literature. We remain
focused on our serve the people Re-Lease on Life program, which has
gained some good experience and seen some setbacks in the last year. And
we are working to develop Anti-Imperialist Prisoner Support, so that we
can expand our work to what it used to be and beyond. Finally, we
continue to put time into engaging with the development of the Maoist
movement here in occupied Turtle Island so that all these programs can
feed into real revolutionary change in the future.
Our readership has always talked about fascism more than the
mainstream because they face some of the most fascistic aspects of
imperialism within U.$. borders. As the dialogue around fascism in
relation to the White House enterslj6 the mainstream, it becomes more
important for us to distinguish our line, and the potential strategies
that follow from that line.(1)
The first draft of an article on the self-determination
of the Lakota people referred repeatedly to the fascism that they
faced. The parallel is certainly justified. As we know Hitler was very
inspired by the Amerikan genocide and colonization of First Nations.
Yet, fascism arose hundreds of years after settlers first came to Turtle
Island. There are many similarities, but also differences, between Nazi
Germany and the early United $tates, and the United $tates today.(2)
Understanding what fascism is is important for fighting it.
Fascism as
Inter-Imperialist Conflict
“Marxist-Leninists eventually argued that fascism is qualitatively
more evil than ordinary imperialism. First, fascism occupied imperialist
countries and exterminated national self-determination in direct ways
that the other imperialists did not. Second, and less important, fascism
is the open dictatorship of the bourgeoisie instead of just the more
masked dictatorship of bourgeois democracy.” MC5, May 1993, “Historical
applications of Line, Strategy and Tactics: The United Front”, MIM
Theory 6: The Stalin Issue, p.76. ($5)
MC5 goes on to say that the principal contradiction during the period
of the rise of fascism was actually that between the socialist and the
imperialist camps. That the Nazis focused so much on the destruction of
the Soviet Union, undermining their own success, demonstrates the role
of fascism as a response to socialism.
Stalin’s strategy in this period was to divide the imperialist camp.
It’s hard to see how the socialist camp today could employ such a
strategy since we are not operating from the base of power that Stalin
was (the USSR actually had the military might to stop the Nazis). But in
his time, Stalin’s strategy proved correct.
A Global Threat or
Bourgeois Politics
Antifa and the unorganized rebellions against the police in cities
across the country have forced anti-fascism into the mainstream. Yet the
mainstream rhetoric has quickly transformed the “battle against fascism”
in the United $tates into a thinly veiled campaign for the Democratic
Party presidential election in November. The likes of Bob Avakian,
Angela Davis and Noam Chomsky have all called on people to vote for Joe
Biden, citing this battle.
Stopping fascism is a lower level goal than ending imperialism or
building socialism. There are times, like World War II, when stopping
fascism is the appropriate focus for communists. At that time fascism
was waging a military assault across Europe and threatening the first
dictatorship of the proletariat.
Presidential candidate Biden has already promised a significant
increase in military spending, and President Trump has increased
military spending during his term, despite his criticisms of the
self-interest of the military industrial complex. Both candidates are
clearly behind continued U.$. militarism to wage war against the
oppressed peoples of the world. Neither candidate has indicated a
rapacious military campaign to conquer and occupy other nations. Between
the two options offered by the U.$. imperialists, we do not yet see the
principal characteristic that led the communists of the COMINTERN to see
fascism as a greater evil than imperialism.
Those who are crying “fascism” in the U.$. today are arguing that
state repression internal to the United $tates is ramping up. So let’s
look at what MC5 called the “less important” distinguishing
characteristic of fascism.
The
Democratic Struggle Against Fascism in the Third World
“The imperialists export fascism to many Third World countries via
puppet governments. And imperialist countries can turn to fascism
themselves. But it is important to note that there is no third choice
for independent fascism in the world: they are either imperialist or
imperialist-puppets. Germany, Spain, Italy and Japan had all reached the
banking stage of capitalism and had a real basis for thinking they could
take over colonies from the British and French. … The vast majority of
the world’s fascist-ruled countries have been U.$. puppets.” – MIM
Congress, “Osama Bin Laden and the Concept of ‘Theocratic Fascism’”,
2004
Strategy varies from place to place. An example of this from the past
is when the Filipinos waged a campaign against the GATT trade agreement.
In the Philippines this was a righteous campaign against imperialist
control over their economy. However, in the United $tates the campaign
against GATT was one focused on protecting Amerikan jobs, which implies
fortifying imperialist borders against labor from other countries. So
you can see how the same campaign can have very different impacts in
different contexts. It is our responsibility to understand our own
context and organize accordingly.
In a previous
article on this same topic, we mentioned the anti-imperialist
rhetoric of the newly elected President Duterte in the Philippines.
After Duterte’s anti-United $tates rhetoric fizzled, the National
Democratic Front in the Philippines have begun campaigning against the
“fascist US-Duterte regime.” This framing is important. The fascism is
coming from the United $tates and being implemented by the puppet
Duterte. This allows for their propaganda to be consumed within the
United $tates without fueling U.$. militarism for an invasion of the
Philippines to rescue them from fascism.
This is in sharp contrast to the rhetoric around “islamo-fascism” in
Afghanistan following the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the
Pentagon. This framing was of course propagated by the Pentagon, but
also by many calling themselves “communists.” It fueled anti-Muslim
sentiments in support of U.$. militarism in Central Asia.
The framing of fascism in the form of puppet regimes is useful for
the national democratic movements in the Third World to unite all who
can be united. But these puppet regimes do not signify a shift in the
global balance of power that warrant a strategic re-orientation like the
rise of fascism within an imperialist country would.
Don’t Vote, Build Bases of
Power
Another important point to note is that there is an active People’s
War in the Philippines. The National Democratic Front is led by the
communist party. The united front to get Trump out of office is led by
the Democratic Party, in other words, the imperialists. The imperialists
are not facing the threat of a communist revolution in the United $tates
like they are in the Philippines that would warrant a shift to outright
bourgeois dictatorship.
The imperialists responded to the 9/11 attacks with a series of
changes in law, such as the Patriot Act, which legalized some of the
things Trump has been doing domestically. Initially, MIM was part of the
movement to oppose the Patriot Act. However, they decided to leave that
movement when it was clear it was dominated by libertarians. Other
“communists” tailed this movement with calls to “Drive out the Bush
regime” often referring to Bush as a fascist. These same “communists”
who were effectively campaigning for Obama’s election by offering no
other alternative to Bush, because they have no power, are now openly
endorsing Biden.
When the Soviet Union allied with the United $tates, and the Filipino
communists ally with the bourgeois forces, they do not put down their
guns, or give up their goals of building socialism. To be real players
in the anti-fascist struggle, we must first build power like the Soviet
Union did and the Filipinos are doing. Stalin did bite his tongue about
U.$. imperialism to defeat German fascism. To bite our tongue today
about Joe Biden’s militarism and targeting of oppressed nations with
mass incarceration is to abandon the oppressed nations of the world.
It is good to see those in the imperialist state defending bourgeois
democracy. That is their role. Our role is to build public opinion
against imperialism and build independent institutions of the oppressed.
As Trump attempts to frame Biden/Harris as the radical left, it is
important to demonstrate real revolutionary politics in this country.
And the target of the revolution is imperialism. Imperialism must be
overthrown before we can really begin the task of building a society
without oppression. To put this goal to the side to focus on getting
Trump out of office, especially at a time when more and more people are
looking for systemic change, is to stop representing the international
proletariat. In this era in the United $tates, anti-imperialism is the
radical position, while anti-fascism and anti-racism are the reformist
positions.
Notes: 1. order MIM Theory 5: Diet for a Small Red
Planet ($5) for an in-depth look at the relationship between line,
strategy and tactics 2. order our Fascism and Contemporary Economics
($3) for a deeper look at the history and economic of
fascism
by MIM(Prisons) August 2020 permalink A Critique of Maoist Reason J. Moufawad-Paul Foreign
Languages Press 2020
A Critique of Maoist Reason serves as a follow up to Continuity
and Rupture, as a way to both sum up the different trends in Maoist
thought within occupied Turtle Island and to respond to the critiques of
the earlier book. As the latest book gives a more proper address to MIM
Thought, we thought it important to read and respond.
Again on Maoism-Third
Worldism
In a recent interview, JMP flippantly rejects our complaint that MIM
Thought was referred to as “Maoist Third Worldism” in Continuity and
Rupture. To reiterate from our last review, this is an ahistoric
application of the term. As we said in one of our founding documents, Maoism
Around Us, we opposed the term for two reasons. The first is
fundamental to the arguments made in Continuity and Rupture as
to the path of development of revolutionary science. We argued that
there could be no new stage without new practice that supersedes the
past. MIM has never suggested such a thing, and the term was coined
after the original MIM dissolved.
The second reason, that recent works by JMP and the online journal
Struggle Sessions seem to take advantage of, is that by calling
our line something other than Marxism-Leninism-Maoism you can otherize
it and make it seem more fringe. This new book from JMP serves to place
the RIM strain of “Maoism” as the most legit one, and paints MIM as a
“shadow Maoism.”
A Falsifiable Thesis
Other than making some of the common arguments made against MIM’s
thesis on the labor aristocracy, JMP’s philosophical argument against
our line is that it is not falsifiable. This appears to be a
tautological argument based in some of the lines shared by JMP and
Struggle Sessions. Yet, it would be easy to falsify our thesis
by organizing petty bourgeois First Worlders (who they call proletariat)
to overthrow imperialism; the very thing such projects claim to be
working towards. We’ll gladly follow the leadership of anyone who does
this.
JMP writes,
“What ultimately disqualifies MTW [Maoism-Third Worldism] from
correctly representing Maoist reason is that it has no logical basis
upon which to develop its theoretical insights. If there is no
proletariat in the imperialist metropoles, and thus no proletarian
movement, the first world third worldist cannot make a correct
assessment of anything since it cannot practice the mass line. With no
revolutionary masses in which to embed a revolutionary movement (because
these revolutionary masses are elsewhere) how can it test its ideas,
struggle with the masses, and thus develop theory through practice?
Considering that MTW disagrees with the assessments of the most
significant third world Maoist movements regarding the first world
proletariat, it is not as if it is learning from the revolutionary
masses it claims to valorize, either. Thus, even if MTW is correct it
has no way of knowing it is correct, or developing a theory regarding
its correctness, since it has no means of testing these ideas in
practice. That is, MTW is not falsifiable and thus not scientific. And
if it is not scientific then it is disqualified from Maoist
reason.”(p.91)
JMP is saying that since MIM(Prisons) asserts that the First World
has no masses to do mass line with, we cannot come to the correct
position to guide communist practice.
Our claims however, are far from this. Our claim is that the masses
here are a minority force: they are oppressed nation, they are migrants,
they are prisoners, etc. We have been saying this for many years, yet
JMP ignores this line and claims that we do not believe that anyone is
oppressed in the First World. We don’t claim that there is no masses
here, we claim that the constantly dying imperialist system needs to
fall in order for proletarianization of the labor aristocracy to
happen.
To support our claims we look at history, not just abstract economic
models as JMP implies. It’s been over a hundred years since the first
successful revolution leading to a dictatorship of the proletariat. Of
all the efforts since then, that reached different levels of success,
how many occurred in an imperialist country where most people own homes
that value 6 digits in U.$. dollars, automobiles, have access to any
food from around the world, not to mention unlimited clean water and
practically uninterrupted electricity? Zero. So let’s flip the challenge
on our comrades who believe that there is a majority proletariat in the
First World and ask them to falsify our thesis by waging a revolution
from within these countries. Because from where we’re standing, the
historical evidence seems to be on our side so far.
Second, as the prison ministry (the most public cell representing MIM
line at this time), we can say that developing mass line is central to
what we do. A typical MIM(Prisons) cadre will interact with 100s of
imprisoned lumpen a month. And we synthesize the best ideas through our
newsletter and other work, providing ideological leadership for a prison
movement that is true to anti-imperialism and the international
proletariat. Our practice quickly dispenses with the premise that we
cannot develop mass line in the United $tates.
Assuming that our critics cannot achieve a successful First World
proletarian revolution, the question then becomes how will socialism
come to countries like the United $tates? How will proletarianization of
the labor aristocracy happen? Our movement has offered some theories on
how that might transpire. And the future will either validate or falsify
those theories. If there is a significant delinking of the exploited
countries from the imperialist system before any revolutions happen in
the core countries, then we must conclude that their thesis has been
falsified. If revolutions in the core countries requires military
support from the existing socialist countries to install a dictatorship
of the proletariat in those core countries, then certainly we will have
falsified their thesis.
These are some examples of how our line will either be validated or
falsified in the future. It is a dogmatic position to put some universal
model for how revolution must occur onto all countries.
It is circular logic to say that there must be a majority proletariat
for revolutionary science to be applied, and revolutionary science is
universal, therefore there must be a majority proletariat everywhere.
It’s hard to see how JMP’s point can stand without this circular
logic.
Drawing Class Lines
Unlike the other strands of “Maoism” criticized in the book, JMP is
careful to recognize that MIM made real theoretical contributions and
goes so far to say that it would be revisionism to deny that imperialism
transfers wealth from some nations to others.
The question here is how do we draw lines between friends and
enemies? Relatedly, we might ask when does quantitative change in the
distribution of surplus value result in a qualitative change in
class?
Mathematically, the switch from an exploited group to a net exploiter
group is a qualitative change. However, the labor aristocracy is not
generally defined as being net exploiters per se. And the workers are
not conscious of when this theoretical point has been reached (as
evidenced by JMP’s statement that workers in the United $tates are
conscious of the belief that they are exploited, when in reality they
are not). As we have argued elsewhere, while there are workers who are
paid more than the value of their labor power in any country, it is a
very different phenomenon in the Third World than in the First. And this
is because class is colored by nation under imperialism. We see nation
as the principal contradiction, representing the identity that is
imperialism. So we find arguments against our global class analysis that
do not address the national question to be lacking.
Let’s be clear, MIM’s third cardinal principle (MIM has long used 3
cardinal principles to distinguish its line from others calling
themselves “communists”) is that “imperialism extracts super-profits
from the Third World and in part uses this wealth to buy off whole
populations of oppressor nation so-called workers. These so-called
workers bought off by imperialism form a new petty-bourgeoisie called
the labor aristocracy. These classes are not the principal vehicles to
advance Maoism within those countries because their standard of living
depend on imperialism.”
It is within imperialism that we find the qualitative difference that
this labor aristocracy has with workers outside the imperialist core
countries. It is not because First World people fought harder for higher
wages, or First World companies are more democratic and offer higher
wages, it’s not because white people are evil; it is the system of
imperialism that puts some nations in a position of receiving surplus
value and others of losing. Those who gain tend to support the system
and those who lose tend to oppose it.
As an aside, settler-colonialism is one form of this, which defines
occupied Turtle Island. While we welcome the surge in interest in
dismantling settler-colonialism, we must recognize it as one form of
imperialism. We find many who want to “de-colonize” without recognizing
the global class structure for what it is. We also have those like JMP
who acknowledge the economic structure of imperialism, but for some
reason don’t think it changes who are our friends and who are our
enemies.
While the academic economic models of Marxism may not inform the
class consciousness of the labor aristocracy, relative deprivation does.
And there is nothing that symbolizes that divide in relative wealth more
than the imperialist country borders. Closing core country borders
happens to be an issue that has garnered much support from the labor
aristocracies of the United $tates and United Kingdom, as well as in
France and Germany in recent years. Do Brexit and “Build the Wall” not
symbolize enemy ideologies? Are the labor aristocracies of these
countries wrong that open borders would prevent them from hoarding
wealth in those countries? How does JMP reconcile this political reality
with his dogmatic thesis of a revolutionary proletariat in the First
World?
JMP asks, “is it implicitly”first worldist” to argue that there is a
proletariat at the centres of capitalism and go out to organize, for
example, miners around a communist ideology that is also
anti-imperialist?”
Organizing miners in the First World against imperialism sounds
great. But if you are arguing that they are the exploited proletariat
who deserve more money, when they are actually benefiting from
imperialist exploitation of the Third World, then you are not organizing
against imperialism, are you? It just doesn’t follow that JMP sees the
transfer of value in favor of a group from a system and then argues that
that group is going to be opposed to that system. The question here
isn’t primarily about who to organize, though certainly
focusing on the right groups will get us further faster, but rather
what to organize around that will push anti-imperialism
forward. Perhaps the miners are allied with anti-imperialism for reasons
external to income and raw value transfer, such as carbon emissions. To
organize them around a radical transformation of our energy system being
led by the international proletariat could be a form united front work,
but not organizing the proletariat itself.
A Global
Anti-Imperialist United Front
One thing we learn from this book is some of the differences between
JMP and those who use the term “principally Maoism,” specifically the
blog Struggle Sessions. Obviously one should read the latter’s
writings to get their real views. However, one difference addressed is
that the former sees the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement (RIM)
as the historical event that solidified Maoism, while the latter sees
the Peruvian Communist Party as having done so alone and the RIM as a
rightest deviation.
Our counter-history of Maoism was presented in our last response to
JMP, where we get into the RIM in more depth and our arguments against
the practice of forming a Communist International. While Struggle
Sessions has some significant agreement with our critiques of the
RIM and its role, they actively promote the formation of a new
International, as does JMP. In this latest book, JMP concedes that the
RCP=U$A sought to and to an extent did control the RIM. To be clear, we
did not argue that other parties in the RIM did not have any
independence or basis outside of the RIM, we specifically said not all
members were revisionists. But those calling for U.$. intervention in
Iran certainly were, and such a position should not be up for debate or
tolerated among communists.
On page 86, JMP implies that MIM blames the RIM for the failure of
the People’s War in Peru. That is not a position that we recall from
MIM’s work at the time. Certainly they harshly criticized the RIM for
its role in endangering the People’s War after the capture of Gonzalo.
This was perhaps one of the most horrific actions in the RCP’s long
history of anti-proletarian work, but JMP has nothing to say about
it.
Our general complaint with the International model is that it tends
to subsume one party under another. Mao fleshed out the theory and
practice around the united front within China and learned through hard
experience in relating to the Soviet Union, principles that we take to
be universal, including the need for the leaders of each liberation
movement to interpret their own conditions. To the extent that RIM was a
think tank that allowed communists from around the world to come
together and agree to the basic principles that defined the latest stage
of revolutionary science, we would support such a project. MIM
participated in such forums in its original form.
It was in the work of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP)
that we saw the theory of the united front from Mao summed up and
reproven in practice in their rectification campaign. This struggle
waged in 1992 stressed the importance of the independence and leadership
role of the proletarian party in the national liberation struggle. The
decision of the CPP to not join the RIM reflects the recognition of the
need for independence of each national struggle. This is a line point
where we agree with the CPP against others in the international
communist movement (ICM) who did join.
At the same time, MIM harshly criticized CPP complacency in pushing
a revisionist class analysis within the United $tates. JMP argues
that the global class analysis of MIM is rejected by all Third World
communists of significance and this is evidence against our position.
Yet, we have yet to see any analysis from any of these parties
substantiating claims against MIM line; amounting to an argument from
authority.
Because the Third World communist parties rightfully have more cred,
many will presume they are right about this and follow their lead when
they call for uniting the “working class” in North America and denying
the national liberation struggles of the internal semi-colonies. The
open and conscious rejection of MIP-Amerika’s analysis of its own
country by certain Third World leaders, followed by their promotion of
the integrationist line, was behind MIM’s decision to say that the
global class analysis must be a dividing line question within the Maoist
movement globally.
Without a communist international, comrades in the United $tates are
free to combat incorrect lines being promoted from other countries and
prove our line in practice. Despite whatever great accomplishments
certain members of the RIM may have had, we think joining an
international was a mistake, proven in practice once again, with the
RCP=U$A-run CoRIM promoting revisionism at a crucial point in the
history of People’s War in Peru.
MIM Thought also provides insights here beyond the general point of
the need for independent development on the national level. An
application of MIM Thought to parties in the Third World is that there’s
more enemies than friends in the imperialist countries, and people from
those countries should be treated as potential spies. PCP practice in
expelling Non-Governmental Organizations from territories they
controlled was in line with this.
Going back to the theoretical miner example above, we apply the
theory of united front to unite all who can be united. And we
can frame the global anti-imperialist united front within our global
class analysis. We can look to the internal semi-colonies and the Third
World diaspora as the most likely allies in the First World, without
calling them proletariat. And we can win over sectors of the oppressor
nation as well, just as in everything, 1 divides into 2. So we disagree
with the implied criticism of our line that there is no real proletariat
in the First World to mean there is no organizing against imperialism
that can be done here. Certainly staying on the correct path will
require an active eye on the Third World proletariat, which our movement
has always stressed.
MIM(Prisons) continues to develop the mass line here in the belly of
the beast. We continue to promote organizing against imperialism in a
principled way that puts the interests of the exploited and oppressed at
the forefront. And we challenge JMP, the supporters of eir line,
Struggle Sessions or anyone else who thinks they can apply
Maoism to occupied Turtle Island while ignoring that the vast majority
of people here have a material interest in imperialism, to prove us
wrong. Please, just don’t awaken the fascists in your attempt to do so,
with your cries about the exploited Amerikan.
A California prisoner asks: “What are MIM’s thoughts
on”Antifa” and what and who are Antifa? Any information you can provide
will be helpful, thank you.”
MIM(Prisons) responds: Antifa stands for anti-fascist,
and it derives from movements in Europe that have a deeper history that
we won’t attempt to address here. It’s primary symbol is a black flag
and a red flag, symbolizing the unity of anarchists and communists of
all stripes in unity against the fascists. “Antifa” is a generic term in
the United $tates. There is no central organization, only local
collectives. Anti-Racist Action is probably the most active formal group
that is akin to Antifa in the United $tates.
The Antifa strategy is one of confronting various stripes of racists,
white supremacists, fascists, etc. in the streets and in their
communities. When such organizations make a public stand, especially
when they organize marches, Antifa will try to make sure there are more
counter-demonstrators and will attempt to shut down their actions. The
long-time Antifa activists often focus on researching these groups,
tracking down their members, doxing them and exposing them.
MIM has never been involved in this type of organizing. Strategically
we think it focuses on a fringe element rather than the real enemy –
imperialism. Imperialism is murdering people in the streets, locking
them away and torturing them, bombing countries, starving whole
populations and polluting the world. Fighting nazis in the street does
not contribute to ending imperialism at this time. Nor does campaigning
against Trump.
That said, if fascism gains traction in this country, then we need to
assess when to shift our strategy away from imperialism as the primary
enemy and towards the fascists. At that time we will certainly be
allying with and relying on some of the knowledge of those that have
been following these groups closely for years.
Why is Antifa in the News?
So why is this comrade asking us about Antifa now? Probably because
President Trump threatened to declare it a terrorist organization, among
other rants against them over the years. So why is Trump talking about
Antifa? As the self-proclaimed enemies of all things racist and fascist,
the various elements of the alt-right/dissident right/third positionists
and racists in online forums have accepted Antifa as their enemy (more
on these groups below). Donald Trump rose to popularity in part by
following the media outlets associated with these movements and echoing
their talking points, one of which is the danger and threat that Antifa
poses. Many of these groups use videos of street fights and
confrontations between their members and Antifa as recruitment material.
(Antifa as such has little to do with the recent uprisings in the United
$tates against police murders, though certainly many who work in Antifa
groups participated in the protests as well. Trump’s statement falsely
implied that Antifa was behind these uprisings.)
The President of the United $tates stated that Antifa is terrorism.
In other words, he said opposing fascism should be illegal in the United
$tates. Quite a bold statement. One that thankfully received strong
rebuke from the majority of the state apparatus at the time. In response
to that statement by Trump, MIM(Prisons) joined the calls in the streets
that “we are all Antifa.”
Is Fascism on the Rise Due
to Crisis?
Since the 2016 presidential campaign we have published a series of
articles addressing the question of whether fascism is here, or on its
way. An article we published in November 2016, arguing that the crisis
that would trigger fascism just wasn’t there yet, ended with, “That
being said, based on Trump’s statements and actions, if Amerikan
capitalism was truly threatened by the oppressed internal nations,
Trump’s open chauvinism would easily transition to far heavier fascist
tendencies.”(1) Now in 2020 we had the broadest display of street
actions, largely by oppressed nations, seen in most of our lifetimes, if
ever in this country. And we have a downward trend in the economy due to
declining rates of profit and exacerbated by a global pandemic. So we
are in a crisis, and as the threat to Amerikan capitalism becomes more
and more real, so does the threat of fascism.
Theoretically, fascism is always on its way in the advanced stages of
imperialism. This is because of the inherent contradictions within
capitalism that make it harder and harder to extract a profit from the
circulation of capital. Without profit, the economy stops under
capitalism. That is why the COVID-19 shut downs have been so disastrous.
Under socialism, we could cut back production and shelter in place
without threatening the future of the economy.
Denying this reality, one of the ideological leaders of the alt-right
called on the Trump administration to just shut down the economy for a
period and restart again like a long weekend. But capital must
circulate, when it does not things begin to collapse like a house of
cards. The amount of value being circulated in the realm of finance
capital just got a shot of another few trillion dollars by the COVID-19
stimulus bills. This money was created by the Fed from thin air. Most
countries would face a decrease in currency value and increase in
consumer prices if they did this. The U.$. is depending more and more on
international finance capital to come into the country to prop up the
dollar and Amerikan consumerism. But if there is no profit to be had,
that finance capital stops coming. The reason this hasn’t happened
already is that the bourgeoisie is aware that a slowdown in finance
capital circulation will lead to a collapse of the system like a house
of cards. This is when the all out war option of the fascists becomes
the only option.
Parasitism Begets Fascism
Another alt-right ideologue, has recently put out a video denying
that fascism is capitalism in decay. Eir thesis is that if there was a
crisis in profitability of capital that the system would have to go back
to some kind of feudal system and greatly reduce production to restore
profits. Since fascism in Germany increased worker incomes and overall
production, ey argues this proves fascism was not a response to crisis.
This logic sort of makes sense from the revisionist “Marxist”
perspective that anyone employed is exploited and that profits don’t
cross borders.
The MIM answer to why the capitalism in decay thesis is correct is in
parasitism theory. Really, few would deny that Germany’s economic
flourishing came from the literal and brutal robbery of land, resources
and labor (through enslavement) of other peoples. But similar things
occur in all imperialist countries, even if just a bit more “civilized.”
We point this out to show how revisionism calling itself Marxism plays
itself nicely into the ideas of fascism. And it is through the appeals
to a populist class interest of the labor aristocracy that the fascists,
social democrats and revisionist “Marxists” all bolster support for
imperialism, despite their rhetoric against war or whatever.
Another thing all of these forces have in common is labeling things
based on their form rather than their substance. Whether it’s the
“Marxists” who see Xi Jinping as leading a socialist country or the
fascists saying that Mussolini was opposed to the bourgeoisie, they are
putting ideas, words and symbols above substance. They say, “see the
leader said this, therefore ey couldn’t support that.” The capitalists,
as a class, do not care about the words as long as the economic
substructure is still functioning to produce profits. Mussolini (and the
King) ensured that it did as does Xi Jinping today. This is the same
reason why today every multi-national corporation is tripping over each
other to put out statements on and make donations to Black Lives Matter.
Yes, there are ideologues within the bourgeoisie, but the class as a
whole, in order to continue on as a bourgeoisie, must ensure that
profits keep flowing. And if stamping Black Lives Matter all over their
website and social media feeds can assist with that, then call Jeff
Bezos anti-racist.
Oppose Left and Right
White Nationalism
The alt-right is actively extending olive branches to the left wing
of white nationalism, specifically those they refer to as “Bernie Bros.”
Some in the alt-right claim to have 90% agreement with such social
democratic types, specifically in their critiques of capitalism and
calls for populist economic reforms and a state that can deal with a
global pandemic. Our saving grace right now in the United $tates is in
the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, as well as the struggles against
ICE detention which has also rallied significant support in recent
years. The outpouring of support for BLM has been surprisingly strong.
Even if the multinationals are just motivated by profits, this is like
nothing we’ve seen in our lifetime. Clearly they have recognized where
the winds are blowing, and it is not towards the racism of the
alt-right.
The fascists argue that they are an alternative to the neoliberal
bourgeois order and the Marxist communist order – hence “third
positionists.” But Dimitrov critiqued this misconception for the
COMINTERN during World War II, stating that “Fascism is the power of
finance capital itself.” The fascists argue that finance capital did not
and does not support fascism in its rise to power. MIM added to
Dimitrov’s thesis in 2005: “It is only the finance-capital dominated
petri dish where fascism grows. Today, the labor aristocracy of ONLY the
imperialist countries is the”main force” of fascism…“(2) So again, all
the groups we mention above, whether”left” or “right” are organizing
this class and activating them towards fascism by telling them they are
the oppressed and they deserve more.
More on Class and Economic
Systems
MIM and the COMINTERN agree on the dialectical nature of class
struggle under capitalism as it relates to the phenomenon of fascism –
that is that capitalism is identified in the contradiction and
interdependence of two economic classes: the proletariat and the
bourgeoisie. In this view, there are two paths, or two economic systems:
capitalism (of the bourgeoisie) or socialism (of the proletariat). Other
classes exist and have their own interests. But they will not shape
history in their image. Our world today is shaped in the image of the
bourgeoisie, and Marx explained why the future lies in the hands of the
proletariat, those who have nothing to lose but their chains.
The petty bourgeoisie (including the First World labor aristocracy)
doesn’t have an image for the world. Their ideology is that of the
bourgeoisie, steeped in individualism. And because of their varying lots
in life, their interests are varied, made up of little groups just
trying to make capitalism work for them. They can be united in the
nation-building project that involves their nation being on top. But
even this will not elicit much sacrifice from this class as a whole
unless conditions are quite dire.
When we talk about the labor aristocracy of the imperialist countries
being the “main force” of fascism, we still agree with Dimitrov that
fascism is the power of finance capital. It is finance capital
that gives these tendencies real power. This truth can be seen when you
investigate the organizations in the fascist realm. The most successful
efforts to unite these petty bourgeois forces and use them towards real
political goals are led and funded by millionaires, with access to
advanced military weaponry and international connections to intelligence
agencies. While there are many small, organic groups that are in this
realm, the ones that pose a real threat really aren’t so organic.
Our comrades in prison can understand this dynamic, where it is quite
common for white nationalist organizations to have “special”
relationships with the pigs, to the point of helping to enforce for the
state. Some of our comrades who have served in the military have also
seen direct coordination between the military and local white
nationalist organizations around perceived threats of oppressed nation
rebellions. It’s the same in prison.
From the proletariat comes the true guerilla, who starts from
nothing, and gains their tools and supplies by taking from the enemy
oppressor. The guerilla does not start out with high-end military
equipment, the guerilla earns it. And even before we get to the military
phase, the true mass character of the communist camp is evident. Even in
the bought off imperialist core, you can see genuine organizers popping
up in all areas, fighting for similar goals, from a real organic desire
for change and humyn progress. In the United $tates this is fed by the
oppressed nations and by the youth and by all justice-seeking
people.
The proletariat of the world must distinguish itself from the
parasitic populism of the First World labor aristocracy. Antifa has not
done this. Antifa is open to militant Liberals because they tend to see
this as a battle over ideas in peoples’ heads and don’t have an honest
class analysis of what is going on.
The alternative that MIM offers is that those of us in the
imperialist countries are criminals that must reform our ways. That the
rest of the world wants us to reform our ways and welcomes us in joining
in building a new world based on internationalism, humynism and
solidarity. The oppressed people of the world must guide us towards true
internationalism and not make excuses for the backwardness of the
bought-off populations. Amerikans still haven’t made right the crimes
they committed against the internal semi-colonies of this land. That is
being discussed in the mainstream today. But we still aren’t discussing
making things right with the majority of the world that we have
exploited, polluted and murdered for the comfortable lives we live here.
This is what we see as pro-active anti-fascism. And it’s not about
taking on some guilty complex for your ancestors, it’s about saying that
you will not pass the exploitation on to your descendants. And this must
be part of the current struggles of the oppressed nations here today, or
else we will just end up with more exploiters with more diverse skin
tones.
The film 13th was released on Netflix in October 2016, just
prior to the U.S. presidential election. It is clearly an anti-Trump
film, although it is not clearly pro-anyone else. In April 2020, Netflix
released the film for free on YouTube. It has been abuzz lately as a
“must watch” film in the wake of the George Floyd uprisings.
The title 13th gives the impression that the film will focus
on the 13th Amendment, and we assumed it would push the narrative that
modern-day prison expansion is motivated by profiting from prisoner
labor. We also thought it would be a film pushing people to focus on
reforming the 13th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Longtime readers
of Under Lock & Key have likely already seen pieces
debunking the line that the prison boom was motivated by exploiting
prisoner labor. With our expectations from the title, we were pleasantly
surprised by the film.
The film first focuses on the 13th Amendment, and explains the South
needed labor after slavery was abolished. Where once there were slaves,
there were then prisoner laborers. The exception in the 13th Amendment
which allowed slavery for people convicted of a crime was primarily
economically-motivated. From there, the film tracks prison expansion,
which really took off after the exploitation of former slaves had ended,
in response to social movements.
How the title relates to the theme of the film may be in that the
13th Amendment satisfied a dominant need of the time – white Amerika’s
economic need for Black labor – and white Amerika has been adapting to
meet its needs at the expense of New Afrikans ever since. 13th
spans almost two centuries of U.$. history, and draws attention to many
ways Amerika has adapted to meet its needs, whether they were economic
needs or social needs.
13th does touch on the topic of prisoner labor for profit
for private corporations, but doesn’t overly focus on it. Is prisoner
labor for private profit a bad thing? Yes. Being that fewer than one
percent of prisoners are engaged in productive labor for private profit,
should we focus on it with all our energy, as if it is the main push for
prison expansion?(1) MIM(Prisons) would answer this in the negative.
There are some economic motivations for prison expansion in
recent-decades, but not for exploiting prisoner labor. 13th
spends quite some time exposing the lobbying group American Legislative
Exchange Council’s (ALEC)
role in prison expansion, as well as its present role in pushing for
“community supervision” (read: ankle and wrist bracelet GPS trackers,
and privatized probation and parole).(2) The economic interest in prison
expansion is in job security for Amerikans, and state funding funneling
into private corporations for services. There is a socio-economic
benefit to Amerika in draining the oppressed internal semi-colonies of
time and resources through expensive phone calls, long drives to visit
families, and other exorbitant and arbitrary fees and expenses.
In the end, the audience is left with a call to remain vigilant to
what’s coming next. It leaves the focus on ALEC and corporate influence
in legislation. A take-away of 13th is that nothing has worked
to get the white oppressors’ boot (or knee) off of New Afrika’s neck.
Amerikkka just changes tactics, but the effect is the same.
That’s what we’re seeing today with the recent Black Lives Matter
movement upsurge. We don’t need a less-funded Amerikan police force. We
need New Afrikans to have their own police, and military, AND state to
do as they please without having to cooperate with this clearly
sociopathic Amerikan nation. On the whole, 13th affirms our
view that prisons are primarily a tool of social control, and we will
answer the film’s call to remain vigilant so Amerika can’t continue
oppressing New Afrika any longer.
I am enclosing a memo distributed to the captive population in
response to the uprisings by the Americans’ oppressed New Afrikan
population. It is claimed that their actions are not punitive, but of
course that is clearly not the case. There is evident fear of the latent
power of their oppressed nationalities confined within their prisons, as
can be noted at the end of the first paragraph.
“As you are aware our Nation is facing difficult times as emotions
run high and peaceful protests have turned into violently charged
demonstrations. In an effort to maintain the safety and security of the
institution, a lock down has been initiated. This lock down is not
punitive. … However, we are committed to preventing any type of
disruption from occurring, and I strongly emphasize any type of violent
behavior will never be accepted or tolerated at this facility.”
MIM(Prisons) adds: This action by the federal government reveals
the level of fear that they have right now of the oppressed nations and
the youth in general in this country. Prison officials display the same
hypocrisy as the police on the streets who have responded to peaceful
demonstrations again and again with violence against people for
exhibiting their First Amendment rights. Young people are coming home
from protests permanently disabled. While thousands are being locked up.
As statistics on police murders and violence are gaining interest, we
must ask what about the “peace officers” behind bars? How many have they
killed? How many Black men are dying at the hands of the state where
cell phone cameras are illegal? Where peaceful protests always face
repression and there’s no videos to post online?
We’ve been here, at least some of us. Our last issue of ULK
was ULK 69, which came out in October 2019. In that issue we
announced a planned pause to launch a new newsletter in January. Those
plans fell apart in December when most of those
comrades left the project.
Wait, i’m new, i never even got ULK 69
If you wrote us for the first time after we mailed out ULK
69 you should have got some kind of response from us. Many new
subscribers were only sent a back issue of ULK and no further
info. This issue (70) should get everyone up to speed. However, due to
the shelter-in-place orders and our limited resources we are not doing a
mailing to our full subscriber list. Only those who write in after this
issue is released will be sent a copy.
How are you doing?
We’re doing as good as we can. The setbacks in December were
challenging. But those of us who remain are healthy so far, and are not
facing any immediate setbacks from the pandemic. In fact, we saw a 42%
increase in data pulled from our website in April, which we imagine is
related to people sheltering in place to avoid COVID-19.
What have you been up to?
We’ve actually done a lot in 2020. Before the comrades left this
winter we had spent a lot of time working with our partners in RAIM to
develop plans for the newsletter, as well as developing our ideological
unity around Maoism. Besides some edits to our definition of Maoism, we
put out an extensive
response to the book Continuity and Rupture, which goes
through the history of Maoism here in occupied Turtle Island and relates
it to the International Communist Movement (ICM). We could not fit that
essay in this issue of ULK, but if you are interested please
write in to request a copy. You can also get a copy of the book itself
from us for $8 (stamps or ask us for info on how to pay by check) or
work trade. It is a good explanation of some of the concepts behind
Maoism and where it comes from. However, our essay addresses some
serious disagreements with the historical facts and some of the author’s
political line. We recommend it to all who are studying Maoism.
Since the last ULK we’ve focused much energy outside of
prisons, to invest in building a more resilient movement on the streets.
Of note, we launched a new online platform that has been in the work for
years, which has allowed us to build with a number of new comrades. We
released plans for the launch of Anti-Imperialist Prisoner Support
(AIPS), a mass organization for people on the outside to support USW and
MIM(Prisons) work. Our subscribers can now link up their outside
contacts with AIPS to make direct contributions to Maoist prisoner
support in the United $tates. Just have your people get in touch with us
via our website www.prisoncensorship.info/contact
.
We took the opportunity of the intro study group coordinator leaving
to revamp the entire course, both the study questions as well as the
format. This new format allows people to complete the course at their
own pace, rather than having to wait for the next course to start, or
for others to answer. We hope this means our subscribers will be able to
develop their political consciousness more rapidly and with sustained
interest. The new format is already showing good results in the
responses we have seen.
The introductory study course has been open to prisoners for many
years, and hundreds of people have participated over that time. In 2020,
we started offering our intro study course online for the first time. We
are linking AIPS comrades to our intro study group participants inside,
to help build bridges between inside and outside, and to help everyone
develop their political consciousness more deeply.
Despite the pause in ULK, we have sent in 100s of pieces of
literature each month through our Free Political Books to Prisoners
Program.
Are all your programs still running?
No, we simply cannot do what we were doing until we can get more
comrade time dedicated to those tasks. This will happen by training new
people and/or having others provide the money we need to keep operating
so existing comrades have more time to put in.
Some tasks we cannot sustain at this time are producing
Spanish-language content and coordinating the Prisoners’ Legal Clinic.
Our capacity to appeal censorship on behalf of MIM Distributors will be
even more focused on instances that are being actively fought by our
subscribers. We will still send subscribers Spanish language materials
that are already produced, as well as legal guides available through our
Free Books program.
But ULK is back?
We’re not sure yet. Our plan A was to launch a new newsletter, in
partnership with other cells/groups, uniting on MIM’s 3 cardinal
principals (see MIM(Prisons) points 4-6). This newsletter would have
more than tripled our distribution, with most copies being distributed
outside of prisons. We still think we need such a newsletter to unite a
broader Maoist Internationalist Movement. But until people step up with
the effort, money and political line to do this project, this plan is on
hold.
Plan B is to recontinue Under Lock & Key, to serve as
the voice of the anti-imperialist prisoner movement led by
Marxism-Leninism-Maoism through MIM(Prisons)’s role as editor.
ULK came out every other month and was free to all prisoners of
the United $nakes who wrote us every 6 months to stay on the mailing
list. Whether we can return to that model is still being considered.
Plan C would be doing something less regular, with less content
and/or more restricted distribution, which is effectively what we are
doing with ULK 70. Before we make any concrete decisions, we
decided to put out ULK 70 as a first step in sorting out our
longer-term plan. We wanted to send our readers an update, including all
of the indepth content included in this issue. We wanted to let people
know we’re still here and still serious. And we wanted to make one more
call for support. How we proceed will depend on the response from our
subscribers, as well as potential contributors outside. And, like the
rest of the world, we are not sure what will be the impact of the
ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
How can i support the newsletter?
In order to consistently produce new issues of Under Lock &
Key, we must fill the gap in resources we had before we stopped.
This gap is in both comrade time and money. One of our biggest successes
in the last couple months has been the launch of the online platform,
and the streamlining of the process of getting prisoner writings typed
and published on our website. Helping out with typing, proof-reading,
formatting and even writing articles for ULK is one way to
help. Providing consistent funding is another. Comrades in prison,
perhaps you can help recruit people to do both. You don’t have to
contribute a lot, but we do need supporters who can contribute
consistently, that we can rely on to keep the newsletter going.
To reignite Plan A we need to develop cells within MIM and mass
organizations that are doing work on the ground that produce diverse
content for such a newsletter, an outlet for distributing it, and
funding.
Currently, Plan C might include publishing a newsletter whenever we
can. This model has the benefit of responding to reader support; as
support goes up, the newsletter becomes more regular. However, we think
consistency is important up front, especially if we are to be effective
at keeping our imprisoned subscribers informed in a relatively timely
manner, as we must do to sustain our movement.
Therefore, we are asking for everyone’s support in making
ULK a regular newsletter once again, to play its unique role of
publicizing and supporting anti-imperialist organizing in the dungeons
of the belly of the beast! For people inside, write to your people
outside and encourage them to get involved. For people outside, contact us with a pledge of
how much you can contribute every 2 months, in work and/or funding.
In April, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) began considering
calls for aid to Third World countries in the face of the COVID-19
pandemic.(1) Since then, finance capital flows have begun moving out of
the Third World and back into the United $tates, resulting in currencies
in those countries losing their value. This is making it impossible for
these countries to pay off their existing debt burdens, as well as to
fund much-needed relief for their people during this crisis.
In our previous
article we mentioned the possibility of the IMF issuing Special
Drawing Rights (SDRs) which would allow all countries to access funds,
via the United Nations, without accruing additional debt and interest.
We have also been echoing the call for complete debt forgiveness, or
jubilee, for the poorest nations of the world.
In place of these measures, the United $tates has set up a system
where countries can apply for dollars in exchange for local currency
from the U.$. Federal Reserve Board. This allows the United $tates to
decide who gets funding. Due to their control of the IMF, the Amerikans
have already blocked funding to Venezuela to combat the pandemic.(2)
The money being offered from the the Fed will also be given as loans,
with interest.(2) Already, the most exploited countries of the world
cannot afford to pay off existing loans. Many countries are spending
more on debt payments than healthcare during the pandemic.(1) In
addition, these loans, unlike the proposed SDRs, will have conditions
that give the Amerikans control over the path of development these
countries take in the future.
The exiting of finance capital from the Third World will have the
effect of passing the impacts of the economic crisis disproportionately
on to those countries. Meanwhile, the United $tates is offering to send
dollars back to put these countries further into debt and ratchet up
further policy control over their economies. While the United $tates is
currently leading the world in deaths due to the novel coronavirus, the
Third World nations are likely destined to see much more dire death and
suffering without debt forgiveness, unconditional aid, and the lifting
of sanctions and embargoes by the imperialists.
In times of capitalist expansion, exporting finance capital works to
transfer wealth from the Third World periphery to the First World
nations. Now that the economy is quickly contracting, the methods above
show how pulling finance capital out of the periphery also transfers
wealth to the First World nations. Ultimately, national liberation
struggles are necessary to free the peripheral countries from the
economic system of imperialism that uses them as a source of wealth at
the expense of much humyn suffering.
10 April 2020 – Filing my April Report from the California Medical
Facility (CMF) at Vacaville, California.
This is a hospital, we are all here because we are high risk medical
and most of us are 55+ years of age if not older. And those of us with
Obstructive Sleep Apnea suffer from a life-threatening condition for
which we require the use of a CPAP/BiPAP breathing machine to allow us
to keep breathing as we sleep. Today the California Department of
Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), using Gastapo tactics, has come
in and confiscated our DMEs (Durable Medical Equipment). Thereby placing
all our lives at risk under the color of law.
I requested C.O. Gorbe, our dorm officer who since his assignment to
our dorm has made a hostile environment, to make a copy of my health
care 602 [grievance form] with supporting documents attached, as is my
right before I submitted it. I was denied this request and for this
reason I submitted this health care 602 attached to a CDCR 22 form with
the CDCR 602 H.C. Grievance. And I have been successful in encouraging
others to follow suite and file appeals.
My people have been calling the facility and they are denying these
as allegations, refusing to acknowledge to our loved ones this even
happened. And telling us this is to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Which makes NO sense. I am not infected and their reporting no cases
here at CMF. Yet they are placing our lives at risk of our OSA.
I’m sure this is going on at other facilities within CDCR and I
encourage all our brothers and sisters to also file paperwork together
we can make a difference!
I have wrote similar letters to: - The Prison Law Office - Office of
Internal Affairs CDCR - Office of the Inspector General - U.S.
Department of Justice-Civil Rights Division - CDCR, office of the
Ombudsman - Rosen Bien Galvan and Grunfeld UP attorney at Law -
Cal-vets
I would like to respectfully request copies of the grievance petition
forms, and also suggest all our effected brothers and sisters to also
file and make this a real campaign. And contact your loved ones beyond
the walls to call in and make the system aware that people outside are
aware of their actions. Together let’s hold them accountable for their
actions!
Take Action:
Monday 11 May 2020
CALL: (707) 448-6841
Suggested message: “I am calling on behalf of prisoners who have had
their Durable Medical Equipment taken away during the COVID-19 pandemic.
These machines help people with life-threatening conditions. I am
requesting that prisoners at California Medical Facility be given access
to these machines immediately. Can you tell me why these machines were
taken away and when we can expect them to be returned?”
MIM(Prisons) adds: As this comrade states ey does
not have symptoms of COVID-19. While there are reports online that CPAP
machines could spread COVID-19, these patients should be tested for the
virus if that is the concern. The fact that COVID-19 is becoming so
widespread in prisons is a complete failure of the staff to protect
prisoners. With proper practices, prisoners likely would not even be
exposed to the virus – in many ways, imprisonment is the epitome of
“shelter in place..” Prisoners with existing health conditions need not
be put under additional threats to their health.
Recent United Nations estimates of the economic impacts of the
coronavirus pandemic show that half a billion people, or 8% of the
population, could be pushed into poverty (using World Bank poverty lines
of $1.90 - $3.20 per day). The worst hit areas are projected to be South
Asia and East Asia. This will be the first time global poverty has
increased since 1990 and this could wipe out all the progress made in
reducing poverty in that time.
If the UN’s worst-case projection proves true, it will be a huge blow
to the image of capitalism as a force of progress. In recent years,
capitalists have been using global income statistics to try to disprove
Karl Marx’s theories that the masses are continuously impoverished to
more extremes under the pressures for profits under capitalism. Of
course we have always countered that the bulk of this reduction can be
accounted for by China, whose success is built on the radical land
reform and unleashing of the productive forces during its socialist
period, which ended by 1976. Still, this propaganda point has been hard
to counter in a popularly accepted way.
There is nothing like a crisis to lead people to question
capitalism’s ability to meet peoples’ needs. Yet in the short-term, we
see the interests of the Third World proletariat in some of the
proposals coming from bourgeois internationalists looking to limit the
depths of the coming crisis. A newly proposed plan from Oxfam calls for
$2.5 trillion, “made up of $1 trillion in debt relief, $1 trillion in
additional liquidity mobilized through SDRs [Special Drawing Rights -
which is like grant money from the IMF] and $500bn in aid to support
developing country health systems.” They offer potential impacts of this
plan:
“The immediate cancellation of US$1 trillion worth of developing
country debt payments in 2020. Cancelling Ghana’s external debt payments
in 2020 would enable the government to give a cash grant of $20 dollars
a month to each of the country’s 16 million children, disabled and
elderly people for a period of six months.”
Such life-saving amounts are a fraction of the benefits Amerikans are
already receiving from pandemic-related funding bills. Oxfam has done
the math to back up calls already coming from the
Vatican
for international finance capital to forgive debt to the Third
World. In addition to debt relief, it proposes a $1 trillion fund
(called SDRs above) of international reserves that can be drawn on by
the indebted countries during the pandemic.
The United $tates has passed laws to extend unemployment to
self-employed and informal workers, recognizing the lack of safety net
for those people. Oxfam points out that is only 18% of the population in
rich nations, while for poor nations 90% of the people are informal
workers with no safety net. Oxfam’s report cites the United Nations,
saying that half of jobs in Africa could be lost in the coming months.
But the latest stimulus plan from the United $tates only offered $1.1
billion to address the crisis in poor countries, a mere 0.05 % of the
$2.2 trillion plan.
The Oxfam report hints at an international tax on the most profitable
companies or wealthiest individuals as another form of wealth
redistribution to provide the needed funding. MIM has long stood for a
global maximum income for all of the world’s citizens as a similar form
of limiting wealth accumulation and hoarding.
Madonna somberly referred to COVID-19 as the “great equalizer” from a
luxurious bath in eir mansion. But the Third World proletariat will not
be reporting in on video from a rose petal bath during “stay at home”
orders. Coming into this crisis, 46 countries were spending on average
four times more money on debts than their public health services, and
113 countries had IMF-required austerity plans in place as conditions
for those debts. The people of those countries are starting off far
behind us in the imperialist countries. Health care is already seriously
inadequate, and people were already living on the bare essentials. They
have much less of a cushion than us, despite all our bills and persynal
debts. Madonna is correct that this crisis does affect everyone, both
threatening their health and economic stability, but it is far from
equalizing.
Uniting the globe to fight this pandemic must address the unequal
needs and access of the oppressed nations of the world. Onerous debt
repayments and the economic restructuring requirements that accompany
them, is one of the major causes of the destitution faced by the global
proletariat, reaching its highest point at 191% of those countries GDPs
in 2018. Now is the time to forgive these debts, release control of
economic policies, and grant national self-determination to countries
that have effectively been neo-colonies of the United $tates, and
international finance capital in general, for decades.
Oxfam is calling on the G20 Finance Ministers at their 15 April 2020
meeting and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank which
are meeting 17-19 April 2020, to take on their proposed plan.