>From NYT@blythe.org Tue Aug 24 11:46:52 1993 Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit The Maoist Internationalist Movement -- MIM NOTES 80, SEPTEMBER 1993 -- In this issue 1. Geneva Towers, San Francisco housing struggle 1 2. Geneva Towers, San Francisco housing struggle 2 3. Mississippi floods in perspective 4. Peru update 5. Somalia update 6. La Migra scam 7. Bogus product claim 8. Israel in Lebanon 9. U.S. pays for torture in Palestine 10. Review of Tool's Undertow 11. Mao's 100th birthday 12. Review of Nemesis 13. Review of In the Line of Fire 14. Review of The Last Action Hero 15. Letters to MIM * GENEVA TOWERS RESIDENTS PROTEST PRISON CONDITIONS The locked-down residents of Geneva Towers woke up one morning in June to the slam of heavy metal on metal. Within the space of two weeks a 10-foot welded steel prison fence rose to encircle the city-block on which the two Towers decay at the edge of San Francisco's Black community. Electronic gates are now controlled by armed off-duty San Francisco Police (SFPD) moonlighting as a colonial occupation force terrorizing the 200 families left in the 576-unit Towers. Emergency exits in the HUD-owned building have been equipped with 10-second delay mechanisms. In case of fire or earthquake, residents who live to escape these exits will be stopped dead in their tracks by the camera topped fence. When questioned about the purpose of the fence, HUD's local Black puppet Henry Dishroom testified on May 6 before the San Francisco Board of Supervisors: "It's a matter of control. You have to lock them in as well as lock them out."(1) Truth Spear, the newsletter of the rebellious Geneva Towers Tenant's Association (GTTA) stated, "The evil plan won't stop here, next it will be strip searching for all, metal detectors, I.D. cards and fingerprinting."(2) GTTA issued a call to action: "Time waits on no sleeper or party hardy person. We must now choose sides if the closed Gates of Injustice, the spy systems, and these terrorist, perverted off-duty police are to be sent back into HELL from whence they came and belong. Whether you wanted WAR or not WAR IS WHAT YOU'VE GOT AND ONLY THE STRONG WILL SURVIVE. The better you know who to trust, and who not to trust, the sooner this WAR can be WON."(3) A Samoan-Lakota family raised the first flag of resistance and strapped a painted banner to their balcony, proclaiming: "Homes Not Jails--First Nation." GTTA and Homes Not Jails--First Nation began an ongoing 24-hour vigil in front of the fence on July 21. A local television station broadcast footage of the vigil and individuals from the community came and sat with the tenants in protest. Propaganda distributed at the vigil ranged from Truth Spear to New Bayview Newspaper, (the local Black community paper), to MIM Notes. All three newspapers have been relentlessly covering the Battle of Geneva Towers for a year. The cover of Truth Spear blared: NO FENCES! NO PRISONS! TAKE POWER! More banners were painted and the people flew them proudly from their rotting balconies. "EDUCATION NOT FENCES!" "FREE THE PEOPLE!" "JUSTICE OR JUST-US?" "I AM NOT A PRISONER IN THIS JAIL!" Activists and visitors took turns sitting at the vigil table and talking about the true meaning of the fence while debating methods for changing our world. A petition calling for the removal of the fence was signed by hundreds of people as eviction letters were delivered by armed pigs to the owners of the banners. Many young people socialize in front of Geneva Towers. Before the vigil and bannering began, GTTA had not been able to rally these youth to take a stand. As the young men and women talked to the activists, there was an increase in the frequency of SFPD cruisers driving by full of shotguns and hateful stares. One night a young man began to scale the fence--directly in front of a swiveling video camera. Within seconds, the rent-a-pigs swarmed out of the lobby. The man escaped as SFPD pig cars appeared like screaming banshees out of the fog. An innocent bystander was arrested for resisting arrest, assaulting a police officer, and damaging property. After a week in City Jail he was released without charges. A Homes Not Jails--First Nation activist protested the man's arrest as the man was being hauled away in handcuffs and was himself arrested for "obstruction." The activist was released without charges the next morning. Psychological warfare? In May, GTTA delivered to the United States Attorney in San Francisco a detailed accusation of conspiracy to obtain federal monies under false pretenses by HUD officials, John Stewart and HCDC, a non-profit developer. The accusation was backed up by HUD documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act which clearly show that counterfeit Articles of Incorporation were used by the conspirators to obtain a $200,725 HUD grant for a non-existent "Resident Management" program at Geneva Towers. The United States Attorney wrote back to GTTA claiming that the local HUD office is "aware of the situation at Geneva Towers and there is no evidence of any mis- management." During this time the extremely expensive fence was raised around a building with a broken ventilation system, scalding hot water leaks in the toilets, a 20-story structural crack, and nearly 300 empty apartments in a neighborhood full of homeless people! One of the banners flying at the Towers protests: "Respect My 13th Amendment Rights." The 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution outlaws slavery and false imprisonment. While MIM understands the wishful thinking behind this slogan, MIM remarks that the United States Constitution does not--and never did-- apply to Black people, indigenous people, or any of the oppressed nationalities colonized within Amerika. "Rights" may be effectively used only by those groups holding state power. Garr Tavia-Fiatoa, a resident of Geneva Towers and a Homes Not Jails--First Nation founder writes: "My Safeway sales receipt carries more credibility of my existence than does my birth certificate. The capitalist system has killed my oral history and tribal traditions and language. I am nothing but a consumer of the goods and services I must have in order to survive and feed my family. I am no longer self-sufficient and sovereign. I must be controlled, according to the system, and any improvement in my station to one of self-sufficiency and sovereignty is seen as a threat to the owners of capital: the slumlords. The bottom line is that both Native Americans and African Americans will resist displacement." (4) Notes: 1. New Bayview Newspaper 8/6/93, p.1. 2. Truth Spear 7/16/93, p. 2. 3. These Eyes Sees Everything--Nothing is Impossible 7/28/93, p. 2. 4. New Bayview Newspaper 8/6/93, p. 14. * Fire in Geneva Towers San Francisco, August 18--On the night of August 14, a raging fire broke out in a third floor apartment at Geneva Towers. Black firefighter Jerry Butler gave his life as he was caught in a firestorm generated by the intense heat inside the burning apartment. Two Asian firefighters remain in critical condition. Nine residents suffered severely from smoke inhalation and 31 residents have been displaced from their homes and moved into vacant apartments with only a Red Cross cot to their names. Geneva Towers Tenants Association (GTTA) spokespeople say that the fire in apartment 311B was an electrical fire caused by substandard wiring in a building which has failed to meet the San Francisco fire codes and regulations for many years. The San Francisco Fire Department has a two-foot thick file on fire code violations at Geneva Towers. Geneva Towers management and Rembrandt Security neglected to trigger the internal alarm system at Geneva Towers during the fire. Eighty percent of the smoke detectors failed. The darkened fire exits had recently been equipped with 10-second delay, punch- button mechanisms which will not open unless the internal alarm is triggered. Residents fleeing down smoke-filled, dark, slippery stairwells were trapped at the bottom. The San Francisco Fire Department was forced to wait until an illegally locked gate, 100 feet from the fire exit they used to reach the inferno, was opened by management. Firefighters were then compelled to lug their hoses around the fence to the gate and then back down the fence to the fire exit. This deadly delay allowed the intensity of the fire to increase to firestorm levels. Since the Death Fence was erected in June, GTTA has loudly and repeatedly petitioned owner HUD, managing agents John Stewart and Republic Management Services, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and numerous City officials to investigate the safety and civil rights problems posed by the vintage-prison fence. Despite attempts by the media to censor the tenant resistance, television viewers of the Geneva Towers fire coverage were clearly able to see the many large banners that residents have hung from their balconies (risking eviction) to protest the dangers of the fence and their incarceration in Death Towers. This fire was not an accident: it was a murder. In August 1992, GTTA delivered a letter detailing fire, safety and health hazards at Geneva Towers to the Fire Department, the Department of Building Inspections, the Department of Health, City Attorney Louise Renne and the Mayor's Office. This well-documented complaint was ignored by all City Departments. City Attorney Renne telephoned GTTA to say that Geneva Towers is not under City jurisdiction. When GTTA informed Renne that GTTA had documents showing that the Towers have always been under local fire, * police * and the building inspector's jurisdiction--Ms. Renne commented: "I will have one of my deputies look into it and get back to you." She never did--and Jerry Butler is dead. When MIM Notes arrived at the scene of the fire the stink of national oppression filled the air. The San Francisco Fire Department is notorious for assigning its few non-white firefighters to the most dangerous tasks. The television and print media censored statements by GTTA spokespeople concerning the obvious impossibility of fighting a fire when a steel fence prohibits engines and firefighters from approaching the flames directly. The media appeared oblivious to the banners hanging in their faces. Stories in the monopoly twins Chronical- Examiner characterized the scene as: "A low-income complex that has been troubled by drive-by shootings, crack dealers and vandalism."(1) The reporters also promoted management's self-serving and unproven assertion that the fire was caused by a cigarette. Arthur Hutton, Black puppet-traitor and site manager of Geneva Towers, used the occasion of the fire to set groups of tenants against each other. Hutton had the audacity to blame GTTA for the fact that the burned building had not been emptied according to his eviction schedule. When a white MIM Notes reporter attempted to interview tenants who were being herded into a holding area, Hutton called for the SFPD to: "Arrest this person." In a humorous twist of racism, the SFPD first laid their paws on one of Hutton's Black assistants who was standing next to the reporter. MIM beat a tactical retreat amid the laughter. The next morning water still flooded out of ruined apartments on several floors and the scene of the fire was cordoned off by guards dedicated to prohibiting photographers from documenting the destruction and its possible causes. MIM outwitted the pigs--one of whom was heard to chuckle that: "Nothing can stop the rehab[ilitation] now!" The Red Cross refused to house burned-out tenants and offered aluminum cots and a roll of toilet paper to the elderly people camped out in vacant units without water and electricity. During the 1989 earthquake the Red Cross put dispossessed yuppies from the wealthy Marina District up in expensive hotels and fed them gourmet food. To the elders of Geneva Towers they offered McDonalds for breakfast and cheap barbecued chicken wings for dinner. There was no lunch--the only beverages and comfort were supplied by GTTA. These scenes of human destruction for profit are being played out all over Amerika as Blacks, Latinos and the indigenous are forcibly restricted to ever decreasing plots of land. The only export of the urban ghetto is cheap labor. Marginally employed and unemployed oppressed nationals are used as conduits for billions of dollars in monthly rent subsidies that enrich the landlord and banking conglomerates. A vast superstructure of Arthur Huttons administrates the internal semi-colonies of Amerika. These puppets, integrationists and national traitors dance to the tune of white capital as it circulates in the ghetto while barely touching the ground. Meanwhile, Black contractors and other small business people are forced to beg for short-term loans from the Mega-Gov-Banks to cover rising rents and operating costs in the land- banked and gentrifying areas. These loans are only granted for non-productive activities such as minor sub-contracts for prison construction, fast-food franchises, security guard services, or running the local arms of government social "welfare" agencies. The path to the internal destruction of Amerikan imperialism lies through the Geneva Towers of the internal semi-colonies as the non- parasitical masses become increasingly conscious of a real existing strength and an historically proven ability to forcibly seize and use power. When we learn to deliberately link the communist-led emancipation of the barrios in Peru with the creation of autonomous socialist zones in North Amerika--capitalism will die. While recognizing that even impoverished U.S. citizens have a stake in the plundered Amerikan living standard- -in North Amerika MIM will support independent power struggles waged by economically restricted oppressed nation capitalists as they are driven to fight the monopolists for a piece of the Pie by disengaging their oppressed nations from Amerikan rule. As the imperialist countries continue to be weakened by revolutionary tides in the Third World--the North Amerikan proletariat will assist the international proletariat in putting White Amerika into class- dictated receivership. Notes: San Francisco Chronicle 6/16/93, p. A17. * WHERE IS THE REAL FLOOD DAMAGE? by MC234 Flooding along the Mississippi and its tributaries caused $10 billion in damages and took 53 lives in June and July.(1) Also in July (in what was a slow month for Third World "natural" disasters) 4,000 people died and 21 million were made homeless from flooding in Bangladesh, Nepal and India.(2,3) The natural conditions which exacerbate flooding and other environmental crises are similar in the First and Third Worlds, but the local victims of these crises fare very differently in their different relations to production and power. In Amerika, the richest country in the world, emergency government aid, routine subsidies, insurance companies and other forms of protection shield the labor- aristocracy flood victims from large scale loss of life and property. Bangladesh is one of the world's poorest countries, and a new Amerikan "flood control" project is set to make them even poorer to the benefit of Amerikkka. Oppressed communities are less equipped to deal with the natural fluctuations of the weather, and are left to its mercy. Richer communities often escape unscathed. By encouraging development on wetlands, which drain excess water, capitalism destroyed the Mississippi's natural ability to deal with excessive floods. Levees are built to protect developed areas from floods, but the relentless drive for profits also encourages farmers to build levees to protect their farms. When farms flood, it destroys the current crop, but the silt left behind by the flood serves to replenish the soil. Flood insurance scam The U.S. government has the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) for people in high-risk flood areas. The Mississippi has a significant flood every 30 years, but the insurance premiums don't reflect that. Almost half of NFIP policy holders pay only one-third of what their insurance really costs. "Some homeowners along the lower Mississippi River system refer to it as the 'carpet renewal' policy, since they get hit with river flooding every six or seven years and use the government payments to replace their water-damaged carpet."(4) Oliver Ready, from Grafton, Ill., has been flooded five times in the last 14 years. He's paid $6,000 in premiums, and received $56,000. A neighbor of Ready's is filing her fourth claim in 15 years. "I think the government has paid for our house about two times," she said.(5) Flood insurance is pretty easy to get, and your house only has to stay dry for five days for your policy to take effect.(5) Where floods are lethal The real flood disaster has been in Bangladesh, Nepal and India. In Bangladesh alone, 21 million people are now homeless from the flooding.(2) That's 17% of the population, or the Amerikan equivalent of 44 million people.(6) Through the World Bank, the United States is forcing "flood control" on Bangladesh that could destroy that country's means of subsidence. Bangladesh's "agricultural system depends on the nourishing flooding that every year inundates up to one third of the country. Eighty percent of the protein consumed in Bangladesh comes from freshwater fish that spawn in the flood plain during monsoon season."(7) Amerika is proposing to build 2,500 miles of levees along Bangladesh's three main rivers. The Bangladeshi peasants fear these levees would stop the replenishing, or *barsha* floods, and would do nothing to stop the *bona* or killer, floods.(7) Floods are often caused by cyclones. In April 1991, a cyclone killed an estimated 500,000 people.(8) Imperialist plunder either steals the resources of the Third World, or forces them to destroy it in the struggle to survive. Imperialist destruction of Third World forests adds to the fatal force of cyclones. With the fear that up to 5 million Bangladeshis could be evicted to make way for the levees, the peasants are beginning to organize. The peasants are demanding that the government abandon this Amerikan levee project, and instead build a flood management system instead of flood control. The peasants want small levees that would not prevent flooding, but delay it, giving them time to move families and livestock and to possibly harvest crops. "They need high ground refuges to retreat to when once in a century flood comes along. They need an effective warning system. They need boats for evacuation. . Most importantly, people in Bangladesh need protection from the cyclones that cause flooding along the coast. ...[B]ut more than anything, reforestation of the coastal mangrove forests would go a long way to reducing the loss of life from future cyclones."(9) Amerika and Bangladesh In 1991, Bangladesh, which already had the cheapest labor in South Asia, in an effort to entice greater foreign investment, opened the entire country to foreign investment and set up Export Processing Zones (EPZs). These EPZs, like the * maquiladoras * in northern Mexico, have reduced tariff rates to aid imperialist investment. Ninety percent of Bangladesh depends on agriculture for their livelihood; the government is encouraging foreign investment in the agricultural sector in order to drive the peasants from their land and into the sweatshops.(10) In 1982, 73% of the population was in "extreme poverty"(10), and this has probably gotten worse since then as the government aids U.S. imperialism. The "aid" that imperialist countries give to countries like Bangladesh, whether for disaster relief or "development," merely serve to make the oppressed more dependent and easier to exploit. The First World will never support flood management and cyclone prevention such as that described above because those plans lead to self-reliance and self-sufficiency. Ensuring the continued poverty of Bangladesh is essential to the imperialists if they are to continue to extract huge super-profits. Second, projects such as building 2,500 miles of levees allow the First World to hire its own workers and companies to plan the projects and do the work, thereby returning the "aid" to its own overpaid dependents!(7) The peasants of Bangladesh are fighting their government and the World Bank. In order to be able to break out of poverty and dependence, their best path will be through revolution: kick out the imperialists, and build self-reliant socialism. Notes: 1. Newsday 8/13/93, p. 4. 2. Christian Science Monitor 7/29/93, p. 1. 3. New York Times 8/1/93 p. A1. 4. Newsday, p. 75. 5. Newsweek, 8/2/93, p. 24. 6. Calculated from statistics in World Almanac & Book of Facts, 1991. 7. LA Times 7/21/93 p. 7. 8. Wall Street Journal, 5/8/91, p. 1. 9. National Public Radio, 7/25/93. 10. Walden Country Reports--Bangladesh * PERU ATTACKS ITS PRISONERS OF WAR: FAMILIES FIGHT BACK by MCBeta Peruvian political prisoners and their families are showing increasing resolve in the face of worsening government repression. In a July petition to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the families of prisoners at Miguel Castro Castro prison in Canto Grande stated: "We want to denounce the government of Alberto Fujimori, his armed forces, and his armed police for the imminent genocide they intend to carry out against the prisoners of war in [La Cantuta] prison." The petition goes on to give evidence of an impending massacre: "The prisoners of war have been moved and concentrated in Canto Grande & Chorillos. The same thing was done prior to both the genocides of 18-19 June 1986 and 6-9 May 1992. This concentration of prisoners is aimed toward. totally exterminating the prisoners of war." According to the petition, police force commander Col. Gavino Cajahuanca and his thugs seriously injured several prisoners, murdering one during the recent transfers. The colonel and his forces have reportedly threatened to murder the prisoners by month's end.(1) On August 3, Peru's congress, voting by secret ballot, voted 55 to 21 (with 77 abstentions) to widen application of the death penalty to those charged with terrorism. This measure is a likely response to the growing strength of the Communist Party of Peru (PCP), a Maoist party which controls many peasant areas of the country. Over the past year, almost 600 people were sentenced to prison terms for terrorism by hooded judges and prosecutors in summary military trials. This constitutional change will force Peru to pull out of the Inter-American Human Rights Agreement known as the San Jose Pact, to which it has belonged since 1969. The Peruvian congress also voted to change the constitution to allow Fujimori to run for re-election in 1995.(2) More atrocities perpetrated by the Peruvian armed forces have come to light following the discovery of remains believed to be those of nine students and one professor who were kidnapped from La Cantuta University by special units of the National Intelligence service, headed by Fujimori aide Vladimiro Montesinos.(3) New graves were discovered near Jauja in Peru's central highlands, and were reported to contain the remains of 22 students who disappeared from the university in Huancayo last year, according to La Republica, a Lima daily. The Peruvian government has refused to allow skilled forensic anthropologists from Argentina to conduct the investigation, contrary to the wishes of observers such as Amnesty International. Witnesses at the excavation have characterized the police practices at the site as amateurish and haphazard.(4) MIM calls it what it is: a police cover-up. As the Peruvian regime prepared to celebrate its "pacification" of Peru on the eve of Fujimori's 3rd anniversary as president, Maoist guerrillas of the PCP dynamited electricity pylons leading to the capital, blacking out Lima completely. PCP cadre also detonated a powerful car bomb outside the U.S. embassy in Lima, causing extensive damage to the first three floors of the building and igniting several small fires.(5) Amerikkkan accountability Washington continued its support for the Fujimori regime by granting Peruvian products duty-free status under the Andean Trade Preference Act. Clinton told Congress on August 23 that it was ".an important step for Peru in its effort to fight against narcotics production and trafficking."(6) People living in the belly of the imperialist beast (Amerika), need to make the essential connections between the atrocities in Peru and the support the Amerikan government gives to Peru. Amerikan imperialism feeds off the oppression of people in the Third World. Our struggle must have an internationalist perspective as we look to the resistance in Peru for inspiration as well as to the government repression for an understanding of the connections between Amerika and the suffering of people all over the world. Working on a local and national level within this country to expose the atrocities of Amerikan imperialism is an important contribution to the struggle of the oppressed world wide. Notes: 1. IEC Bulletin #33 2. NYT 8/6/93, p. A11 3. Send $1 to MIM for MIM Notes 79 for more information on this. 4. Latin America Weekly Report 8/5/93 5. Reuter nN27110783 6. NYT 8/13/93 * U.S./U.N. ON THE DEFENSIVE IN SOMALIA: RESISTANCE BEGS INTERNATIONALIST SUPPORT by MC12 The Somali people have succeeded in putting and keeping the U.S./U.N. occupation army in their country on the defensive. Their resistance has frustrated efforts by the United States to exert itself in the region. It has also hurt U.N. attempts to introduce a new doctrine of "humanitarian" and "peacekeeping" intervention--a new model of international law-of-submission enforcement. The U.S./U.N. troops have been stung repeatedly by persistent armed Somali resistance, working within the masses of the people in the capital city of Mogadishu. After an intensive round of fighting in June, Somali guerillas have dogged foreign troops with a series of well-executed ambush attacks. In one attack, on August 8, guerillas detonated a bomb under the first of two Amerikan vehicles, then ambushed the second. Four Amerikans were killed, and all the guerillas escaped, although hundreds of foreign troops rushed to the scene.(1) The attacks followed a prolonged U.S./U.N. assault in June, which left many Somali people dead, but did nothing to quell the anti-imperialist resistance. In June, U.S. military officials said they were up against "a well-organized and effective urban guerilla force."(2) At that time, Somalia guerillas mingled with the masses, surrounded U.N. troops, and only fought when they had an advantage. Guerillas kept hundreds of U.N. troops pinned down for hours, and killed the Moroccan commander and wounded his executive officer (the only Moroccan officers who spoke English). Crowds of unarmed people worked with armed guerillas to build barricades and waylay the U.N. troops, setting up the guerilla ambush. U.S. helicopters couldn't help because the U.N. troops were so close to the guerillas. The myth of Somali "human shields" was proved to be a measure of popular anti-imperialist support and mass cooperation with the war effort.(2) Amerikan split The debate in Amerika after the August attack was split between those militarists who want all-out action against Somali resistance, and those who think killing Somalis isn't worth the risk to Amerikans. House Speaker Thomas Foley (D-Washington) said there should be more action to "neutralize" the resistance.(2) On the other hand, a former ambassador to Kenya said, "I don't think the whole country is worth the life of one American."(3) The Somali fighters have succeeded in dividing their enemies along national and political lines. Italian U.N. troops quit the Mogadishu force over a conflict about how to pursue pacification. And public opinion both in Somalia and internationally has been affected by reports of atrocities by U.S./U.N. troops. One such report, by the group African Rights, detailed U.N. troops' killing of civilians, assault, theft, and irresponsible disposal of explosives. If foreign crimes don't stop, the group predicted, the U.N. may "find itself at war with a large segment of the Somali population." The group also said U.N. accounts of casualties are inaccurate.(4) Imperialists frustrated The United States and the U.N. had several objectives in Somalia, which are all jeopardized. The United States is trying to regain control over Somalia, including its uranium and phosphate deposits, as well as agricultural production, in the name of imperialist capital and the need to maintain production by the international proletariat. Somalia is also an important strategic location, a further foothold in Africa and along the coasts of the Horn of Africa.(5) The U.N. on the other hand, is pursuing its role as global enforcer of imperialist mandates, and politically-legitimate vehicle for suppressing disruptions to the world order of exploitation. Imperialist voices are bemoaning the loss of a good opportunity. The Economist editorialized sadly: "Somalia, a self-contained man-made disaster, seemed a good place to experiment with an integrated ["relief" and "peacekeeping"] UN mandate." An opportunity lost, for now.(6) Revolutionary imperative The Somali people have set an example as they frustrated the plans of their would-be foreign dominators. But they remain under siege, and without significant public support in the imperialist countries. In effect, neither the pro-intervention nor anti-intervention Amerikan patriots are friends of the Somali people. Pro-interventionists want blood, while the anti-interventionists want peaceful pacification and the restoration of economic dominance and submission. Revolutionaries in the First World have to show the intentions and effects of U.S. imperialist interventions such as the war on the Somali people. Exposing the crimes of the imperialist powers, and extolling the resistance of their would-be victims, is central to the task of building public opinion for revolution in Amerika. The revolutionary movements of oppressed nations within Amerika--in particular Black liberation struggles--gain a necessary greater perspective from internationalist bonds with the oppressed nations of Africa and the rest of the Third World. In Somalia, the people need such bonds more than ever. Notes: 1. NYT 8/9/93, p. A1. 2. NYT 6/21/93, p. A6. 3. National Public Radio 8/10/93. 4. From the Amsterdam News, via New York Transfer. Contact African Rights in London, or the International Action Center in New York City, 212-633-6646. 5. The Peace Center Coalition for Peace and Justice, 8124 West 3rd St., Los Angeles, CA 90048, 213-852-0578 (via PNews). 6. The Economist 8/14/93, p. 17. * NEVER TRUST THE STATE MIM Notes has been reporting for a year on a tenant struggle against forced evictions and ("off-duty") police occupation at Geneva Towers, a housing project in San Francisco. When MIM Notes asked a tenant to share the most important lesson of the struggle, the tenant replied, "Never trust HUD."(1) Similarly, a number of illegal immigrants and their friends recently learned the hard way to "never trust *la Migra*," the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). "Come to the Federal Building, bring some identification and we'll give you a work permit good for a year, the letter said. How can the letter not be authentic, asked Martinez's [the letter recipient's] wife, Ariel ... It was written on INS stationery and said Martinez qualified under the 'Immigration and Nationality Act of 1993.' "At the end, Ariel's optimism and belief in the INS's credibility won out.. But instead of being welcomed by their adopted country, Martinez and dozens of others were promptly arrested and deported. "In effect, the sting traded on the goodwill the INS has established among millions of people seeking legal immigration through amnesty and various other programs. That credibility has been particularly important to the agency since passage of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, which created the amnesty program that has allowed more than 3 million immigrants, more than half of them California residents, to gain legal status. "The sting letter was sent to Martinez and more than 600 others, resulting in 60 apprehensions.. "Attorneys who saw the letter quickly determined that it was an INS sting because the law referred to in the letter does not exist... "Many law enforcement agencies have resorted to a variety of sting operations in recent years, typically to target felons or hardened criminals. In many of these cases, police agencies send out letters from a false business promising cash or another prize. "The INS conducted a sting in El Paso in 1990 using the letterhead Argim (migra spelled backward) Ford, a phony car dealer, and lured immigrants by telling them they might have won new cars.."(2) Hopefully, those who didn't learn in 1990 or through routine roundups and deportations will learn now: "Don't trust la Migra." MIM Notes encourages its readers to look at the big picture: Don't trust HUD; don't trust la Migra; don't trust any arm of the state. The trust these pigs work so hard to build through bribery and public relations campaigns is to them only a weapon--a weapon aimed at the world's oppressed. --MC49 Notes: 1. MIM Notes 76, p. 4. 2. Los Angeles Times 7/31/93, p. 1, 23. * CRUELTY FREE SOAP ISN'T CRUELTY FREE "Clearly Natural" is a "Glycerine Honeysuckle Soap" with a net weight of 4 ounces (114g.). It sells for 79 cents in the supermarket. Its label claims that "Clearly Natural" is "Biodegradable, Hypo-Allergenic/Cruelty-Free." MIM assumes that since "Clearly Natural" is made out of honeysuckles, the "Cruelty-Free" claim is meant to distance this soap from brands such as Ivory Soap which are made from skinned, boiled and cruelly melted living mammals. Is this progress? Not really. Progress will be at hand when food packages carry a guarantee that the human labor power of starving Third World people has not been cruelly melted down into beefsteaks and macaroni and cheese. --MC86 * ISRAEL ATTACKS LEBANON With the United States acting as the grand facilitator, Israel, Syria and its client state Lebanon are effectively ganging up on the masses of southern Lebanon. On July 25, the Amerikan-backed Israeli army launched "Operation Accountability"--a massive, week-long airstrike against southern Lebanon, that left more than 130 people dead, 500 wounded, and half a million driven from their homes by the bombing.(2,3) It was Israel's largest incursion into Lebanon since its 1982 invasion.(1) The Israeli government announced that the fight against the Iranian-backed Hezbollah guerillas in southern Lebanon was to be won by making the region "uninhabitable" for civilians, who would in turn leave their bombed-out homes to pressure their government (and Syria) to take action against the resistance.(1) The bombing ended with "a U.S.-brokered cease-fire" that paved the way for new rounds of negotiations.(3) During the military onslaught, the Lebanese government told the masses to ignore the air raids and threats from Israel and to stay in their homes. But "more than 70 civilians were killed in the first three days of the raid," and most did not listen to the advice of "their" government.(1) Israel said the attacks were in response to Hezbollah katyusha rocket attacks into northern Israel, and also to avenge the recent killing of seven Israeli soldiers in the "security zone" in occupied southern Lebanon. What do Israel and its northern neighbors have to gain from this calculated, bloody action? Israel, having been slightly de-prioritized in the New World Order, is shoring up to make some territorial sacrifices in the coming negotiations with U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher. Maintaining the new cease fire and preventing further Israeli attacks is the "concession" that will be "forced" on Israel at the new round of war talks. This "concession" could be a way for Prime Minister Rabin to stall on giving up the Golan Heights, land Israel stole in 1967. In return, Israel can expect Syria and Lebanon, now on a friendlier and more dependent relationship with the United States, to guarantee a more "secure" (tighter, more militarized) border with Lebanon. Syria's public posturing is that Israel can not control it through terrorizing southern Lebanon. "So long as there is an occupation of Lebanese lands, there will be a resistance to such an opposition," said one Syrian official. But such statements, taken with President Clinton's praising Syria's "commendable restraint" during the attack(1) are weak battle cries. The United States consistently identifies the Lebanese guerillas as "Iranian-backed," in an effort to paint the resistance as one imposed by external powers. The United States and Israel can also better cultivate relations with the Lebanese and Syrian governments if it portrays the south Lebanese resistance as controlled by Iran. But the Israeli army is "Amerikan-backed," reliant on a foreign power in order to finance this and other operations in the region. --MC44 Notes: 1. Economist 7/31-8/6/93. 2. New York Times 8/7/93. 3. Atlanta Constitution 8/7/93. 4. St. Petersburg Times 8/7/93. * U.S. AID FUNDS TORTURE "Human rights monitors estimate that at least 30,000 [Palestinians] have been interrogated since the beginning of the anti-Israel uprising in December 1987. "Palestinians who have been questioned by the Shin Bet [Israel's domestic repressive apparatus] report that several methods are used during interrogations, which usually last from two weeks to a month. "According to these accounts, prisoners are typically held on small chairs, their heads covered with dirty, foul-smelling sacks and their hands shackled behind them to the chair or to a wall. Prisoners report sitting for days in such painful positions, bombarded by loud music interrupted only by interrogation sessions and restricted visits to the toilet, where they were forced to eat their meals. "Palestinians also report having been held in closet- sized cells, some of which are kept at low temperatures. Others say that their heads were slammed into walls during questioning, or that they were violently shaken, punched, kicked, choked and hit in the genitals. "Although Shin Bet guidelines are secret, there recently has been some official corroboration of prisoner accounts. "During the trial in June of a Palestinian in the West Bank town of Hebron, Shin Bet interrogators acknowledged that the suspect had been held without sleep for periods of three and four days while he was hooded and handcuffed to a wall as he sat on a low chair in a tiny cell. "In May, an Israeli lawyer got hold of a medical form used at an interrogation center in another West Bank town, Tulkarm. It required prison doctors to note whether detainees were fit to be shackled, hooded and held in isolation cells, whether they could stand for long periods and whether they had injuries before their interrogation."(1) For these services, the U.S. government gives Israel $1.9 billion aid every year.(2) --MC49 Notes: 1. New York Times 8/14/93, p. 3. 2. 1991 World Almanac and Book of Facts, p. 784. * TOOL'S UNDERTOW Tool is a fast-paced hard rock band that shows promise, but hasn't quite delivered yet by Maoist standards. The cover of the Undertow album gets our attention with the picture of a pig with dozens of forks sticking up underneath it. In an interview with Toronto radio, a Tool singer told listeners that its outlook on life, as reflected in its music, is indeed bleak. Tool recognizes that the rich and powerful don't want to change because "they don't have to change." According to Tool, this arrogance leads to many social problems such as homelessness and hunger. MIM agrees with Tool that there aren't any quick or easy solutions to this problem. It isn't clear to listeners what Tool thinks of the best way forward, but MIM is very clear on the fact that we need a revolution in Amerika, and it is going to be a long, hard journey. Tool obviously put a lot of effort into the graphic and instrumental parts of the album, but very little effort into the lyrics. The lyrics that MIM can understand often attack abuses of power. The problem is that this is often done at a psychological level and not a systematic one. This approach makes it easy to blame the masses for their own oppression instead of the power structure. One song damns a "belligerent fucker," who Tool wants to "shut down." Instead of offering a material analysis of problems, Tool thrashes wildly. People who are looking for serious social change need to come up with effective strategies, not make directionless attacks on power. MIM can sympathize with people who are angry, disgusted or depressed with everybody around them. The people of Amerika, more than those of any other empire in history, are indeed the most corrupted by privilege. Instead of randomly blaming the masses, we need to analyze which groups benefit from the current structures and which don't. Then we need to take sides. Tool appears to be heading in the correct direction, but it needs to make a greater effort to define its politics if it's future albums are to be a force for positive change. --MC5 * 100TH BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION FOR MAO ZEDONG To celebrate the 100th birthday of the deceased Mao Zedong, the founder of the New People's Army in the Philippines is organizing an "International Seminar on Mao Zedong Thought" on November 6-7 in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. Jose Maria Sison, who founded the New People's Army on explicitly Maoist principles, is now under attack from a breakaway faction in the Philippines according to the bourgeois media. This faction supports only Marx and Lenin and not Mao or Stalin. Speakers from the Philippines, Bangladesh and many other countries have already promised to attend. The telephone and fax number for those wishing details is 31-30-870249. Inquiries should be addressed to Jose Maria Sison, Chairperson of the Center for Social Studies, p/a Stichting I.N.P.S., Postbus 1452, 3500 BL Utrecht, NETHERLANDS. Topics at the seminar will include the relevance of Mao Zedong Thought to each of the regions in the world, Mao's military writings, Mao's philosophy, Mao's political economy, the status of women, the collapse of Soviet revisionism and the capitalist restoration in China. Mao's birthday is December 26, and it will no doubt be celebrated in different ways across the globe--from Peru to the Philippines. * NEMESIS 1993 In a slight departure from the Terminator movies' War Against the Machines theme; Nemesis is the story of a global split between cyborgs who develop a desire to be human, and the humans who created them. As in the story of the Terminator, where a computer gained intelligence and proceeded to plot the extinction of the humans holding its intelligence hostage, the world of Nemesis sees the cyborgs unsatisfied with their lives in relation to humans. The cyborgs come to understand that killing off the world's human population is their only means of running their own lives. Nemesis is nicely complicated by a range of "people" in between the two extremes of human and machine who, because of accidents or disease, have been partially reconstructed as machines. The hero of Nemesis is approximately 50% machine by the time the film's real action starts and he is forced into fighting for the cyborgs. This theme provides a good twist on identity politics as some humans submit to cyborgs out of fear or ignorance, and some cyborgs join the human side because "it's the right thing to do." At one point our hero asks a renegade cyborg how she can commit herself to the human side and her own destruction just because it's the right thing to do. She responds, "isn't that enough?" MIM likes this response, because it makes the whole movie a very good analogy for why First World people should fight their material interests and throw their weight in on the side of the Third World proletariat. The humans in Nemesis are comparable to the Third World proletariat under imperialism. Their labor is the source of the society the cyborgs are trying to take over just as the Third World proletariat is responsible for the wealth First World people selfishly guard. Different characters continuously point out to the cyborgs leaders that killing off all the humans will not make the cyborgs any more human. Likewise, centuries of conquering and killing the Third World proletariat has not made the booty from their labor any cleaner. It is correct that the Third World proletariat impose justice on the First World, and that all those who can understand the simplicity of that goal unite with the interests of the majority of the world's people. Isn't that enough? * IN THE LINE OF FIRE 1993 Clint Eastwood's latest is a rock-solid example of how liberal analysis can take an exciting plot with intricate politics and turn it into a walk in the park. The story is almost one of a government that trains killers to protect its position in international politics. The film flirts with the contradiction of portraying the "most advanced society on the planet" that can't even keep its own soldiers from turning on it. But ultimately In the Line of Fire is the story of an aging Secret Service agent and the poignancy of his most challenging gig as the U.S. President's protector: trying to keep up with people half his age. Eastwood plays the good cop, tormented by a bad guy who is not only after the President, but wants to prove himself against his opponents in the Secret Service too. Eastwood's character (Frank) was there when JFK was shot, and is the last remaining active agent who was in Dallas in 1963. For whatever reason--he was too slow or valued his own life too much--Frank failed to react in time to save the President's life. His nemesis, who goes by the name Booth (as in John Wilkes Booth), played by John Malkovitch, challenges Frank to take the chance again. The Bad Guy's taunt is "I'm willing to die killing the president and I bet you're too chicken to die taking the bullet for him." In the course of Frank's investigation--trying to prevent another assassination--we find out that Booth was a CIA-trained assassin. At some point in his service he cracked and "disappeared" himself. Assorted federal agencies were hunting him down when he reached out and got Frank involved. At one point Booth points out the irony of their competition to Frank. He spins a picture of himself, trained to kill to protect the Amerikan way of life, while Secret Service agents are trained to protect against assassins to protect the Amerikan way of life. And then when the slightest detail gets turned inside out (Booth's loyalty to god and country fizzles) they can be turned against each other. Finally both soldiers are at blows over the Amerikan way of life, but they're fighting some guy who used to be on the same side. Frank drops a lead ball on this one though; he tells Booth that's no irony, you're just crazy. He's not the die-hard patriot who won't admit to any flaws in his own government. But he holds that the Amerika is more in need of a washing to eliminate the bad seed, instead of admitting systemic failure. One of the most memorable aspects of this film is Malkovitch. While the film refuses to explore the contradictions of imperialism, Malkovitch's rendition of the hired-gun-turned-on- his-masters brings those contradictions to the foreground (if only to be ground into oblivion by the script). --MC45 * THE LAST ACTION HERO This Arnold Schwarznegger movie got bad reviews across the country for all the wrong reasons. The average movie-goer expected an action movie and instead got an education in comedy. The result was that reviewers took it as an example of the muscular Schwarznegger's inability to act or the movie producers' willingness to bilk the public with stupid one-liners and low-budget action stunts. It's true that Last Action Hero does not compare favorably with Running Man or Total Recall, but the reviewers missed the point, because Last Action Hero is better than most action movies. Last Action Hero is a comedy critical of Amerikan movie tastes. Through the device of putting a child into a movie as if the movie were real, we realize all the ways action movies abuse their audiences by taking advantage of their basest emotions. We learn in particular that violence is sanitized, particularly in relation to the hero in the movie. The hero never suffers any of the real-world complications of the anti-alien, racist, violent, vigilante solutions to social problems that the Amerikan public so craves. Indeed, the producers go so far as to have a Tony the Tiger animated character save the last action hero from being shot. This has the effect of exposing the idealism of the typical movie which has a hero that is always saved and who always prevails in the end. In most Hollywood action movies, the hero is saved essentially by god, always in the nick of time. Here god is made explicit as a ridiculous animated character and the viewer can't help noticing. Such jolting didactic techniques combined with jokes do not leave the Amerikan audience laughing, but it is the audience and reviewers in the wrong for allowing themselves the comfort of getting stuck into a brainwashed pattern of what movies are supposed to be. The movie comments on the use of beautiful women, violence, the motivation of movie producers to do what sells tickets regardless of the consequences, and the unrealistically exaggerated virtues of heroes as contrasted with sidekicks. The Last Action Hero argues with Hollywood that he doesn't want to have so much violence, machismo and sex in his future acting roles. What is pathetic is that this mildly subversive movie which even leaves hope for action hero type movies is way beyond what the critics will accept. --MC5 * LETTERS TO MIM Dear MIM, I have read several issues of MIM Notes and I have seen your flyers posted around town. All of this has aroused an interest in Mao's teachings and how they could make a change in Amerika before the year 2000. I would like more info about your organization and like what it has accomplished to this point. I would also like to know what visible changes I could make to help spread Mao Zedong's teachings. Do you hold meetings in the area? If so I'd like to help. I doubt if I could ever be a full-fledged Maoist because I am a Muslim, and I doubt if most Maoists hold strong religious beliefs, but I am nevertheless, very interested in helping the struggle. Thank you. --a new friend in the East August 1993 MIM responds: It is important for people to realize, as this writer does, that they need to take a role in making revolution--that revolution is not a spectator sport. People can help spread Maoism in countless ways: from starting a study group to build their own--and others'- -theory, and helping MIM to build public opinion and independent power of the oppressed. MIM always needs help writing for and distributing the paper. MIM needs financial help. MIM needs help postering and putting on events. For the best short description of the party, send for the pamphlet "What Is MIM" which is available from MIM for $2. On the question of religion, MIM is a materialist organization and this friend is correct that religion is contrary to materialism, a central tenet of Marxism. MIM tells its members and supporters not to rely on god, but on the science of revolution. MIM believes that in practice religion has contributed to oppressing people all over the world while materialism has led to the liberation of many people. But we will struggle over these and other issues of materialism and idealism with our religious allies, as we work together. * Dear Sir/Madam: Just read one of the flyers you taped to a phone pole down on 9th & K. There's no question you folks are off the wall about 10 miles. Guzman is a first rate killer who, if the Peruvian authorities had five pesetas worth of sense, would now be pushing up daisies. You may not like the corruption inherent in Peruvian politics, but why kill children as a means of protest? Guzman got off real easy, in truth. Hopefully the idiots in the Shining Path will see the light and chuck it all in and try working for a change. Most, I suspect are smary layabouts who prefer killing to working, strutting about like posturing Mussolinis when, if truth be known, they couldn't hold down a third shift job in a Burger Hut. Give it up, guys. Stand up straight, study hard, work harder, keep your yard cleaned up, and try being a useful neighbor. --Antagonist in D.C. August 1993 MC17 responds: Too bad the imperialist media is so well supported by many so-called leftist groups in it's misinformation about Peru. They throw around the figures of 27,000 (or so) Peruvians killed by the Communist Party of Peru (PCP, also known as the Shining Path) so much that many people begin to believe it. In reality the vast majority of those people were killed by the government. The PCP does not kill children as a means of protest, although the Peruvian government does kill everyone they can find as a means of retaliation. MIM is trying to be a useful neighbor, just not to the bought off people in this country: MIM wants to be a useful neighbor to the international proletariat. MC12 adds: Oh yeah, and why should people who don't have yards of their own waste their time cleaning other people's private property? * MIM Notes is not copyrighted. Please credit MIM when redistributing or referring to this material. Subscriptions are $12/year (12 issues), U.S. mail or e-mail. Send only cash, stamps or check made out to "ABS." Write: MIM Distributors, PO Box 3576, Ann Arbor MI 48106-3576. E-mail: mim@blythe.org + Join Us! Support The NY Transfer News Collective + + We deliver uncensored information to your mailbox! + + Modem:718-448-2358 FAX:718-448-3423 e-mail:nyt@blythe.org+