*----------------------------------------------------------* | | | x x x x x x x xx xxx xxx xxx | | xx xx x xx xx xx x x x x x x Issue #34 | | x x x x x x x x xx x x x xx xxx | | x x x x x x x x x x x x 06/07/88 | | x x x x x x x xx x xxx xxx | | | |----------------------------------------------------------| | Newspaper of the Maoist Internationalist Movement | *----------------------------------------------------------* US PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN A POLL THAT MATTERS, REALLY The bourgeoisie as a class apparently has not decided who will be the next president. That is not to say that the key fractions have not. A poll of chief executive officers of corporations shows that they are divided between George Bush and Sen. Robert Dole. 41% said the Democrats have less than a 50% chance of winning the White House. A plurality says Bush will win. (Ann Arbor News, 1/14/88, p. B9) Other polls show that Bush is in trouble because he is losing the labor aristocracy vote that Reagan won. According to Bush's pollster Peter Teeley, blue-collar and low-income white collar workers will be "'the swing vote'" in November, especially because of their importance in the three swing states -- Michigan, Ohio and Illinois. (Detroit News, 5/8/88, p. 1) Meanwhile, a poll shows that with Sam Nunn on the ticket with Dukakis, Dukakis will beat Bush handily -- 46% to 34%. (NYT, 5/17/88, p. 12) Nunn is the preferred choice of delegates to the Democratic convention. Where does Nunn stand on the issues? He is mostly known as the hawk chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee. He also opposed extending the deadline for ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment, voted for giving states rights to decide abortion issues and "tried to weaken the Voting Rights Act." (Detroit Free Press, 5/9/88, p. A4) Finally, in another poll that matters, the chief executives of the top 120 US corporations with sales of $1 billion a year or more have spoken: 86% oppose divestment from South Africa; 75% want cuts in non-military federal spending and 60% want a cut in military spending. (NYT, 4/25/88, p. 2) DUKAKIS AND BUSH SPEND MOST MONEY By the way, if you predicted that the candidates with the most money would win their party's nominations, you were right. Bush and Dukakis had the most money of all candidates before the primary voting started. (NYT, 10/17/87, p. 7) Dukakis had planned to spend his legal limit of $27.6 million by the end of May. (NYT, 4/23/88, p. 8) This left him little or no money to spend in California and New Jersey primaries. DUKAKIS FAVORS FIRST-STRIKE ON SOVIET UNION Massachusetts Gov. Dukakis, in an interview published in today's New York Daily News, said he could envision using nuclear weapons if the Soviets invaded Europe and conventional weapons failed to stop them. "'I don't think it's going to happen,' he said. But 'we've got to be prepared to use nuclear force.'" (AP, Ann Arbor News, 4/13/88, p. F1) DUKAKIS REMOVED ADOPTED CHILDREN OF GAYS Dukakis removed two adopted sons from a gay couple's custody while a Governor in Massachusetts. According to the Guardian, Dukakis said the children would be better off in a "'normal'" household. (Guardian: Independent Radical Newsweekly, 3/2/88, p. 3) DUKAKIS HAS STRONG BOURGEOIS BACKERS While it is clear where George Bush gets his support for the presidency -- the CIA, Wall Street Republicans and many of the same places Reagan got it -- Dukakis is also well- backed in bourgeois circles. Throughout the campaign he has had heavy support from a major Boston bank. In New York, Ted Kennedy Jr., campaigned across the state for Dukakis. (Poughkeepsie Journal, 4/15/88, p. A2) Harvard politicos are also behind Dukakis. His campaign manager is a Harvard law professor. He also has backing at the Kennedy School of Government. One former campaigner turned critic has pointed out the extent that Dukakis now kow-tows to corporations. The co- coordinator for Dukakis in Randolph, MA in his 1982 gubernatorial bid claims that Dukakis promised that Prowse Farm would be saved as a historic site. However, despite national coverage and making the promise to luminaries such as Boston Celtics players, Dukakis caved in to Motorola Corp. and allowed its subsidiary Codex to develop the Farm. (Robert L. Keighton, Ibid., A5) JESSE JACKSON TAKES US CHAUVINIST LINE Asked by the NYT his stance on the PLO, Jackson changed his position once again and said he would talk to the PLO. Yet, this time the rationale was quite explicit. He said he would negotiate with Qaddafi in Libya and anyone else including the South African regime because "'there must be no place on earth off limits to American influence.'" (NYT, 4/16/88, p. 8) JESSE JACKSON BACKS AWAY FROM PLO "Jesse Jackson, often attacked for what critics call pro- Arab stands, continued to distance himself from the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) by saying that allowing extremists at the bargaining table would be a 'formula for catastrophe.' "Jackson, who had said Sunday that the PLO and the Palestinian people are not the same and that he would not meet again with PLO leader Yasser Arafat, as he did in the late 1970s." (AP, St. Petersburg Times, 4/12/88, p. A6) This backsliding by Jackson caused one MIM correspondent to say, "It is impossible to get elected to the Presidency if one is not beholden to the corporate structure." CONFEDERATE FLAG STILL FLIES IN FOUR STATES A battle in the Alabama state legislature concerns the Confederate Flag which still flies over the state Capitol. The speaker of the House called his Black opponent a "'monkey'" and said that if the Black legislator climbed the flag pole to take it down, he would "'reach greater heights than any Black man in Alabama history.'" (Guardian: Independent Radical Newsweekly, 3/2/88, p. 5) The flag also flies in South Carolina, Georgia and Mississippi. A majority of whites favors leaving the flag up; a majority of Blacks opposes it. Once again, there appears to be no white proletariat even in relatively poor Alabama. (Ibid.) Traditional leftist scholars argued that the Civil War was a class war in the interests of white labor. However, aside from the lack of historical support from the Northern white working class for the Civil War, it remains true today that the common white person of the South identifies more with the bourgeoisie than with the international proletariat, which would never tolerate the flying of the Confederate flag. US bails out largest Texas bank (NYT, 3/18/88, p. 1) POLICE KILL BLACK IN DETENTION "Loyal Garner Jr., 34, of Florien, La., died Dec. 27 of head injuries investigators believe were inflicted during a beating in the Sabine County Jail." (AP, Ann Arbor News, 1/10/88, D5) Three white police officers stand charged, but only for civil rights violations. Each was released on $25,000 bond. 200 people in a town of 1,300 showed up at a rally in front of church protesting the incident. (Ibid.) Dollar down to post-WWII low against Mark and Yen (NYT, 12/11/87, p. 35) MS ENDS LAW AGAINST INTERRACIAL MARRIAGE! Last November Mississippi voters repealed a "97-year-old constitutional ban on interracial marriage (which had already been struck down by the courts), but they did so by an embarrassingly close 52% to 48%." (Time, 11/16/87, p. 32) CORPORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA WILL PAY DOUBLE TAX Reagan signed into law a bill that will increase the effective tax rate of US companies operating in South Africa to 72%. It should raise revenue of $20 million. Previously, corporations could deduct taxes paid to South Africa from taxes paid to the United States. Other countries to have the same type of tax are Iran, Syria and Libya. (Guardian: Independent Radical Newsweekly, 2/3/88, p. 9) DEMOCRATS PROMOTE ANTI-IRAN RACISM The Reagan administration has said that its arms for hostages deal with Iran aimed at increasing the influence of moderates in Iran seeking to curb Islamic revolutionary zeal. Critic Caspar Weinberger (Defense Secretary) within the Reagan administration questioned this view, not because he opposed secret methods to arm the contras but because he believed that the Iranians are "a group of fanatical madmen." (Cox News Service, Ann Arbor News, 12/1/88, p. c1) Weinberger's criticism of the Iran-contra scam is a good example of how not to criticize the Reagan-Bush-Poindexter- North shenanigans. To the extent that Democrats have dismissed Reagan's view of Iranians in the government as rational people, they have contributed to a racist view of Iranians -- a view very useful to justify making war on Iran. (See MIM Notes 33 for an analysis of the US bombing of Iran.) Anti-Iran chauvinism is quite popular.In a poll of 836 people conducted 9/21-2/87, the NYT found that only 2% had favorable "feelings toward Iran generally." (NYT, 9/24/87, p. 9) 78% had an unfavorable feeling toward Iran. (Ibid.) While it is hard to outdo Reagan on the chauvinism front, the Democrats are doing just that with the Iran-contra scam. They criticize making deals with terrorists out of the theory that all Iranians are insane terrorists. The correct lesson to draw from the Iran-contra scam is that the US ruling class is desperately engaged in covert wars across the globe -- wars so covert that the public and part of the government itself is not informed of what is going on. Women's earnings for full-time work 70% of men's (NYT, 9/4/87, p. 1) WOMEN UNHAPPY WITH MEN IN UNITED STATES "Most American women are alienated, unhappy and unsatisfied in their relationships with men, and 75 percent of women married for at least five years are having affairs according to a new book by Shere Hite." (Ann Arbor News, 10/3/87, p. A3) TOKYO STOCK MARKET SURPASSES NEW YORK At the end of October 1987, the Tokyo stock market was worth $2.677 trillion, the New York exchange, $2.254 trillion. (NYT) FACISM SPILLS OVER FROM US SATELLITES The mayor of Los Angeles Thomas Bradley asked the City Council to post a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of those responsible for death squad murders and abductions in LA. Death squad activists from El Salvador are killing opponents of the Salvadoran military dictatorship in the US. (LA Times, 7/23/87, p. 6) POVERTY SHIFTS FREQUENTLY "At least one-quarter of all Americans will fall into poverty during their lives but most won't stay poor long. One-third of today's poor will have left the impoverished ranks within two years. But another one-third will stay poor at least 10 years." This is according to the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research. (Ann Arbor News, 1/28/88, p. D12) The fact that most people do not stay poor long prevents them from developing class consciousness. Instead, people aspire to higher classes. LABOR ARISTOCRACY IS DOING WELL "Paychecks for the nation's 78 million full-time workers rose an average 4.2% in the past year [1986--ed.], nearly double the rate of inflation." Women earned 69% of what men did. Blacks received 77%, Latinos slightly less. Gains in 1986 were largest in the Northeast. (LA Times, 4/29/87, p. 4, part IV) Such information is contrary to the theory of many leftists including comrades at Monthly Review that there is a growing economic basis for a labor movement in the United States. The alliance between the labor aristocracy and the imperialists is still in good shape. USA TODAY MAKES READERS FEEL GUILTY AGAIN With an across the banner headline, USA Today once again attempted to get the general public to accept blame for high consumption. "Higher prime takes on inflation" (USA Today, 5/12/88, p. 1) A 4.2% inflation rate expected to grow to 5% is supposedly the justification for a rise in the prime rate to 9%. As proof, the USA Today cited 2 economists at banks -- the National City Bank of Cleveland and Fleet/Norstar Financial Group in Providence, R.I. The prime rate is the percentage of interest that commercial banks charge to their best customers who borrow money. In addition to putting the battle against inflation on the top of the agenda, the editors in charge of USA Today's front page have constructed repeated stories about the federal deficit in order to justify economic austerity measures -- belt-tightening by the public -- the poor and labor aristocracy. USA Today editors thus join the Reagan administration in using the deficit to strike a better deal for the imperialists with the labor aristocracy. AMERICANS PAY SAME TAXES AS IN 1977, BUT POOR PAY HIGHER PROPORTION THAN BEFORE "CBO [Congressional Budget Office -- ed.] estimated that the poorest 10 percent of Americans will give 20 percent more of their income to the federal government next year [1988- ed.] than they did in 1977. The wealthiest 10 percent -- income average about $120,000 -- will pay 6.4 percent less than in 1977." (AP, Ann Arbor News, 11/11/87, p. D1) SUPPLY IS UP; DEMAND IS DOWN Although the Gross National Product (GNP), the monetary measure of the U.S.'s output of goods and services per year, showed growth over 1986 in 1987, the growth is partly in the inventories of business. Some bourgeois economists consider the last quarter's GNP growth false because it was mostly growth of business inventories, which are unsold commodities held by corporations. $33.7 billion of the $39.2 billion in growth was in inventories. Demand fell $24.1 billion in the same quarter. Can the bourgeoisie cut prices and sell off all that excess inventory? Can the bourgeoisie raise wages and other disposable income for the common people so that they can buy business's goods sitting in warehouses? GM chair Roger Smith is making no bones about telling the government that it cannot afford a national cutback in consumer credit if car sales are to attain desirable levels. Will the bourgeoisie allow credit to expand forever? Will it end up giving it away -- writing off more and more debts? Stay tuned for panic or deflation or recession or pressure from the labor aristocracy to increase its share of the capitalist pie. INFANT MORTALITY INCREASES In the continuation of a national crime perpetrated by the ruling class, Black infant mortality for babies who died within 28 days of birth increased from 11.8 per 1,000 to 12.1 per 1,000 between 1984 and 1985. Maternal deaths during or within 42 days of birth among all non-white women also rose from 16.9 to 18.1 per 100,000. (Ann Arbor News, 1/25/88, p. C1, C2) The overall infant mortality rate stayed the same. BANK CLOSINGS SET RECORD SINCE DEPRESSION 184 commercial banks closed and another 19 required federal bailout in 1987. Still, in 1933, 4,000 banks closed. (AP, Ann Arbor News, 1/7/88, p. B9) NUCLEAR DISASTER IN WEST REVEALED At Windscale in England of October, 1957 there was a nuclear accident that released 1400 times more radioactive iodine than was released at Three Mile Island. The reactor came within hours of melt-down. The British government only just this year released a report on the affair. "Millions of gallons of milk were destroyed over an area of 200 square miles. . . .At least 13 people are thought to have died as a direct result of the radiation released, not to mention a number of newborn babies not counted in the official figures." (Guardian: Independent Radical Newsweekly, 2/3/88, p. 12) Still, the accident was not as bad as the one at Chernobyl in the Soviet Union. Nor was it as bad a cause of cancer as US atmospheric nuclear tests. (Ibid.) AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINES PROTEST SETTLERS White settlers arrived in Australia 200 years ago, but the original inhabitants are protesting the bicentennial celebrations. "The past two centuries have been a period of annihilation, dispossession and now poverty for the aborigines, who today number perhaps 160,000, a fraction of their earlier population. They make up one percent of Australia's population." (Ann Arbor News, 1/26/88, p. C3) ARMS TREATY DISARMS ANTI-MILITARISTS The arms treaty signed by Reagan and Gorbachev scraps a miniscule percentage of each side's missiles. The missiles scrapped, however, are among the most politically sensitive. "Since 1983, the United States has deployed 256 cruise missiles in West Germany, Britain, Italy and Belgium, and 108 Pershing 2 ballistic missiles in West Germany. Under the agreement, these will be scrapped over three years, along with 683 Soviet missiles armed with 1,565 nuclear warheads." (AP, Ann Arbor News, 11/26/87, p. C1) These missiles have evoked tremendous opposition in Europe because they seem to offer the possibility of a short and intermediate range nuclear war limited to Europe. Europeans feared the United States would sacrifice Europe to nuclear war in order to fight the Soviets. Also, the reality of having short range missiles that could reach the Soviet Union in 6 or 8 minutes contributed to the tension that spurred anti-militarist movements in Europe. The treaty does not affect so-called tactical nuclear weapons such as nuclear tipped artillery shells. The United States keeps thousands of these in Europe. (Cox News Service, Ibid.) NY TIMES ADMITS THAT SOVIETS DID NOT KNOWINGLY SHOOT DOWN CIVILIAN PLANE Korean Air Lines Flight 007 cost the lives of 269 people on August 31, 1983. Probably to cover up its own role in having the plane spy on military bases in the Soviet Union, the Reagan administration told the world that the Soviets knew it was a civilian plane when it was shot down. Now the NY Times admits that the Soviets did not know. By the second day after the plane was shot down, the CIA had already determined that the Soviets did not know. Yet, no one was ever told.Acting to correct this, the NY Times brought this fact to light. (NY Times, 1/18/88, p. 16) TROTSKYISM IS SAFE IN SOUTH AFRICA The collected works of Leon Trotsky are readily available in South Africa. The works of Mao, however, are banned. Some works of Marx's are as available as Trotsky's, but the works of Lenin and Stalin are harder to come by. (Revolutionary Worker, 1/25/88, p. 11) Could it be that authorities censoring books in South Africa hope Trotskyism will gain greater influence within revolutionary movements? Could it be that since Trotsky opposed guerrilla warfare and believed that national liberation struggles in non-industrialized countries were a waste of time that the South African ruling class does not mind his work? Clearly the works of a revolutionary Asian such as Mao, who worked for national liberation to defeat imperialism are a danger to the apartheid regime. At the same time, the prattle of Eurocentric "Marxists" known as Trotskyists has never amounted to a serious threat in any Third World country in a revolutionary situation. UNITED AUTO WORKERS LEADERS AND WORKERS ARE IMPERIALISTS' ALLIES While the UAW is one of the more progressive unions in the country, as evidenced by some of its support of the anti- apartheid movement, it is still indicative of class collaboration. Previous to last year's UAW bargaining with GM, the entire negotiating teams for both sides spent 10 days together in Japan at GM expense. "They took meals together, went drinking together, even shopped together, went drinking together, even shopped together." ("Detroit's Strange Bedfellows," Michael Massing, NYT Magazine, 2/7/88, p. 20) During subsequent negotiations, "the union did not even have to set a strike deadline." (Ibid.) The concept involved is "jointness." This is a nice word for direct and open class collaboration of the highest degree. By class collaboration is meant workers' doing what capitalists want. "Today, the U.A.W. and auto executives travel to Japan together, go on retreats together, even publish newspapers together. Joint committees have been set up to deal with everything from productivity to absenteeism." (Ibid.) Indeed, GM is on contract to spend $300 million annually in "jointness" activities that include renting "fancy hotels and invited workers to trust-building orientation courses." Most leftists and so-called Marxist-Leninists would say, "sure, Donald F. Ephlin and Owen Bieber are labor aristocrats who live off the workers' struggles only to sell them out, but auto workers are typical of the industrial workers that communists must base themselves in." These leftists and Marxist-Leninists expect these workers to be open to revolutionary ideas. For example, a Trotskyist tendency had this to say about the UAW recently: "US workers could join British, South Africa, (sic.) and South Korean workers in struggle in an international wave of auto strikes. "Such a scenario is possible in the not-too-distant future.... "Auto companies in the US and in many other countries are bringing some new workers into the plants. This has emboldened the workers and make them more ready to fight, especially since the new hires are mainly young. "The militance of the young workers and their ability to absorb the experience of older workers could lead to the rapid building of a strong and even revolutionary movement in the auto industry nationally and internationally." (Fighting Worker, 3/88, p. 6) Then why is it that 81% of GM and 72% of the Ford workers approved the last contract offered by these labor aristocrats? (Ibid., 26) There were supposedly many militants concerned with the contract. Why did they fail in rejecting the contract? Even more curious, after workers ratified the GM contract, thousands immediately lost their jobs. But rather than fundamentally challenge class collaboration, those recently unemployed workers who did get angry, blamed the union and even applauded the plant manager for a speech he made. (Ibid., p. 52) GM SEEKS TO OPERATE NEAR 100% CAPACITY GM President Robert Stempel claims GM will operate lean and mean in 1992. As a result, competitors such as Ford and Toyota are wondering if GM plans a change in its market share of car sales. Current industry estimates put GM at running at 75% of capacity. To get to 100%, some have speculated more plant closings are in the offing. On the other hand, GM denies anymore Michigan plant closings are in the works except those already announced. "'If you look to Europe -- and we operated at over 100 percent (of straight-time capacity) last year -- that's a nice way to run,' Stempel said." (Detroit News, 5/15/88, p. G1, G5) This is what is happening in Europe, at the Antwerp, Belgium plant for example. "Each plant previously worked two eight-hour, five-day shifts. Under the new system, one plant will work two shifts, but with three crews. The plant will operate two 10-hour shifts six days per week. The three crews will alternate four-day, 10-hour work weeks. An employment reduction of 5 percent is expected, and GM also will save costs by ending duplication of work between two plants." (Ibid., p. G5) What is interesting here is not that there will be a 5% increase in unemployment because that is not necessarily true compared with other things GM could do. What is interesting is that GM is planning to get more production-wise out of its plant. Some factors involved in this decision may be the lower dollar which is boosting demand for car exports and competition with Japanese companies. On the other hand, one cannot discount the possibility that GM is bluffing entirely in order to fool its competitors. STATE ALLOWS AIDS IN PRISON The ruling class is perpetrating another crime in the prisons -- AIDS. Prisons have had 1,964 AIDS cases since 1984 in 38 states. Despite the occurrence in prison of drug-use and homosexual sex including forced sex, prison officials in Michigan oppose the distribution of condoms and sterilized needles. Meanwhile, in NY, Vermont and Mississippi condoms are available in prisons. (Detroit News, 5/15/88, p. N1, N2) ANTI-GAY/LESBIAN VIOLENCE IS UP In addition to the thousands of deaths that gay men are experiencing because of imperialism's lackadaisical response to AIDS, violent crimes against gays and lesbians are disproportionately high: "Nearly half of Philadelphia's homosexual men and one-fifth of the city's lesbians were victims of violent crimes in a year because of their sexual orientation, according to a study issued Monday by the Philadelphia Lesbian and Gay Task Force. The figures were almost 12 times the national annual criminal violence rate for all men and 10 times the rate for all women." (Detroit News, 6/7/88, p. A3) NAVY MURDERS RECRUIT IN TRAINING On March 2nd, five navy instructors murdered a recruit by forcing him under the water and drowning him. Ordinarily, the actions taken by the instructors would not have resulted in drowning, but Lee Mirecki had a previous medical history of a phobia of "'being grabbed and pulled under water.'" (UPI, Detroit News, 6/7/88, p. A3) This history includes the February 8th report of "Lt. Cmdr. David Shivley, a flight surgeon, who said Mirecki was not qualified to continue his training because of his phobia." (Ibid.) Mirecki had requested to drop the course involving the training in question. (Ibid.) One can only hope that with this new evidence coming out that the charges against the instructors will change from manslaughter to murder. In any case, the whole incident is an indication of how an imperialist army differs from a revolutionary army of the people. The imperialists have nothing but disdain for their recruits and use money, force and intimidation to get the proper results, whereas a revolutionary army such as Mao's values the lives of every proletarian and peasant. Revolutionary armies rely on the strength of their cause and convictions, not hierarchical force, to achieve military victory. CIA GIVES OPEN GRANT TO HARVARD The CIA has given Harvard's JFK School of Government "$400,000 for a three-year program of research and training on intelligence assessment and policy." Apparently, there will no classified work done. (NYT, 12/4/87, p. 13) Dollar down to post-WWII low against Mark and Yen (NYT, 12/11/87, p. 35) RW OFFERS MORE ON THE CRASH OF 1987 As polls of Wall Street brokers continue to show that abolishing computer trading would restore confidence in the stock market, it behooves the proletarian analyst to remember what really caused the crash. By its very nature, the stock market is an exercise in commodity fetishism with little connection to the realities of economic needs and physical production. It is a great paper shuffle with a life of its own. (See MIM Notes no. 33) In addition, the Revolutionary Worker (RW) has correctly pointed out that the international situation is quite unstable. The Western countries were faced with the fact of a tremendous US trade deficit in October. Since the trade deficit causes a decline in the value of the dollar, investors started to fear that US investments would lose their value. They started the sell-off in US stocks. Some evidence for the pause in foreign investment comes from the NYT, "The flow of money from Japan, a stream that has helped to finance the United States budget deficit and to influence stock prices on Wall Street, is slowing dramatically as investors here wait to see what steps the United States will take to cut its budget and trade deficits. In June, long-term net capital out-flow -- how much more money left Japan than entered it -- was $19.2 billion. By September, it was $2.3 billion." (11/18/87, p. 29) According to the RW, once this started the US stock sell-off, "mob psychology" did the rest. It's a plausible explanation for the international crash. Underlying the problem is the reality that none of the European countries can afford a major expansion of purchases of US exports. "Western Europe has grown at less than 3 percent a year for the last six years. Unemployment in West Germany now stands at 9 percent and the economy is barely growing. Even Japan, a relative dynamo, is beginning to experience excess industrial capacity." (Revolutionary Worker, 10/26/87, p. 8) Just how far the bourgeoisie seems to avoid the problem is reflected in the Wall Street Journal's front page editorial thinly disguised as a news article: "If deep pessimism is now setting in, a recession will probably follow. But if the nation concludes that the crash was largely a technical problem, caused by computerized trading schemes, the worst can be avoided. Just how deeply the national psyche has been wounded may not be clear for months." (Boldfaced in original, Wall Street Journal, 10/26/87, p. 1) DOLLAR DOWN; MANUFACTURING IS UP From 1986 to 1987, manufacturing in the United States increased employment by 303,000, with 63,000 added jobs in October, 1987 alone. (NYT, 11/18/87, p. 29) When the dollar goes down, foreigners buy more US exports. It is not clear what the effect of the increase will be on the strength and well-being of the labor aristocracy. GAY RIGHTS RALLY DRAWS 300,000 Organizers estimated that 300,000 marched in support of gay rights and more money for research against AIDS in DC October 11th, 1987. (NYT, 10/12/87, p. 1) A ruling by the Supreme Court which upheld Georgia sodomy laws partly sparked the rally. (Guardian: Radical Newsweekly, 10/14/87, p. 18) JEAN-MARIE LE PEN CALLS NAZI GAS CHAMBERS "A MINOR POINT" IN HISTORY Long anti-Algerian in his calls to oust foreigners from French jobs, Le Pen has now made an anti-Semitic barb as well. (NYT, 10/12/87) Le Pen did quite well in recent elections -- 14.4 percent of the vote. (NYT, 4/26/88, p. 1) OPPRESSED COUNTRIES AP CLAIMS SENDEROS AID COCAINE TRADE According to the bourgeois press, which only cites two disreputable sources -- people involved in the drug trade and the Peruvian police -- the Maoist revolutionaries in Peru known as Senderos are taxing cocaine traffickers in Peru. Of course, the press phrased it this way: "Peruvian rebels thrive in alliance with drug traffickers." (Monte Hayes, AP, Ann Arbor News, 1/17/88, p. B1) In one clash that left 40 dead this past March, the Maoists drove out pro-Cuban elements from the Upper Huallaga river valley, where the coca plant grows according to the Associated Press. The Senderos are now the de facto government in this area. MIM cannot confirm or deny the AP report, but there are at least some indications that the AP report is partly based in truth. According to AP, where the Senderos have ruled they have "shut down discotheques, ran prostitutes out of town and banned adultery and homosexuality." As for the morality of cocaine, according to the head of the coca growers association, the Senderos authorize and defend coca production "if it is for the United States. But if they catch you consuming paste, they kill you." The rebels supposedly oppose the intervention of US drug enforcement agents and therefore protect the drug traffickers militarily from the US. At the same time, the Senderos militarily defend the growers against the traders in order that the production workers receive better pay according to AP. AP also admits that the Shining Path guerrillas are the heroes of school children in Upper Huallaga valley. (Ibid.) What the Sendero "alliance" with drug traffickers amounts to is a $3,000 to $4,000 tax per planeload of coca paste according to Peruvian police. According to AP, this type of tax may have netted the Senderos $7 million in the last few months. Is any of the above true and worth responding to? It is very difficult to say. An article by the LA Times paints the same subject as a three-sided war among guerrillas, the government and traffickers with the guerrillas winning and executing traffickers. ("War of Drugs, Rebels Rages in Peru, 8/2/87, p. 20-1) Certainly, if anyone reading this has access to a spokesperson for the Senderos, they should clue MIM in on what the deal is. For now, MIM has obvious doubts about the authenticity of what the AP article says, but if it is true that the Senderos are repressing homosexuality, that is in conflict with MIM's official program, especially the document "On Sexual Orientation...." MIM favors gay/lesbian liberation. If the Senderos are involved in the repression of homosexuality, and not heterosexuality, then MIM certainly challenges the Senderos on that point and demands an explanation. MIM does not have a stance on sexuality and Sexual Revolution generally, and certainly does not know the situation in Peru. As for the issues of adultery, discotheques and drug use, this writer would have to know more about the conditions in Peru before pronouncing on these issues. Also, there is a need for details on Sendero implementation of policy on these issues. As for exporting drugs to the United States, the Senderos would not be the first to adopt this position that it's OK. The Afghan rebels have done the same. The issue involved here is whether or not the cocaine exports benefit the international proletariat or not. Certainly the exports benefit the Peruvian proletariat since it is not involved in the consumption but it is gaining employment and maybe even reparations of a sort from the United States. As an expensive habit, can it be said cocaine-use is not a problem for the proletariat contained within US borders? Does the cocaine trade wreak havoc on US imperialism or does it sap the will of the proletariat in the US? There are many difficult questions connected with this issue. NYT SEES A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CASTROITES AND MAOISTS "The group [Tœpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement, Castroites -- ed.] is viewed as less of a threat, however, because it is an orthodox movement, set in the mold of other Latin America guerrilla groups. Using familiar leftist language and led by middle-class urban intellectuals, it has been more easily infiltrated and has suffered major setbacks at the hands of the police. "The complexity of the Shining Path, on the other hand, stems from the fact that it fits into no simple category. It apparently has no links with foreign revolutionary movements [false -- ed.], (sic.) it uses outright terror as a political weapon, (sic.) it breeds fanatical loyalty among its followers and it values secrecy over publicity." (NYT, 11/11/87, p. 6) So frustrated is the NYT that it lapsed into rare grammatical errors -- a run-on sentence. Tsk, tsk, better compose your "objectivity," NYT. There are several lessons here. One is that even the NYT recognizes that Castroism is a disastrous failure in Latin America as a strategy for revolution. Another is that the Castroites rely on "publicity stunts" to raise public opinion, while Maoists are content to generate public opinion without assuming that the state is not watching. STATE DEPARTMENT PASSES PANAMA AND MEXICO Despite charges of allowing drug exports to the US, Mexico and Panama will receive economic and military aid along with trade benefits if a State Dept. recommendation is adopted. (NYT, 2/20/88, p. 1) GENERAL MANUEL ANTONIO NORIEGA HOLDS ON Despite months of its efforts to remove the head of the Panamanian regime, it appears that the US government has failed. Citing Noriega's involvement in the drug trade, the US sought to replace Noriega with civilian government or military government that would eventually hold an election. The Revolutionary Worker stated its belief that the replacement of US-backed Third World dictators including Noriega occurs only when they become overexposed and hence a strategic liability in terms of rebellions. Someone like Noriega is unpopular is of little use to the US as an ally unless he can successfully repress his people and line up behind the US. The Revolutionary Worker also points out that too many pro-Soviet forces were allowed to operate in Panama and the US would have liked Panama to line up against the Sandinistas a little better. (Revolutionary Worker, 3/7/88, p. 14) Noriega's probable sale of arms to rebels in El Salvador for a profit would not endear him to Washington either by this line of thinking. (NYT, 12/18/87, p. 4) Now, however, it appears that this assessment was incorrect. US involvement in trying to remove Noriega was at least partially motivated by US domestic partisan politics. Tarred by the Iran-contra scandal, the Republican party was also getting linked to contra drug-smuggling operations on a number of fronts. Thus, in a certain way, the Reagans' supposed anti-drug campaign was backfiring. With congressional and independent investigations threatening to devastate the Republicans, the Reagan administration found itself with extra motivation to move on Noriega. After all, the Democrats are only so generous in pulling their punches. They would not reveal the fact that a small number of people runs the government and wages covert wars across the globe. That would be too shocking and would tend to discredit the Democrats and much as the Republicans. But, by using the drugs and corruption issue in a fashion similar to the Watergate issue, the Democrats attack the Republicans without faulting the whole political and economic system. The Democrats are happy to attack what seems to be a lack of character among Republicans and offer themselves as God-sent saviors. The basic strategy is to reduce everything to an issue of personal character -- thus the "wimp factor," the "sleaze factor" etc. When polls started to show that the US public was most concerned with the drug issue out of all political issues and that the Republicans had failed with the issue, (NYT, 4/13/88, p. 13) George Bush moved to distance himself from Reagan's failed anti-drug policy. Bush wanted to appear to oppose making deals with drug-dealers like Noriega. He wanted to appear to have the most integrity for not dealing with drug-dealers or terrorists, even if it meant breaking with Reagan. Within days after Bush's political move, the State Department ceased its negotiations to remove Noriega. (NYT, 5/26/88, p. 1) This was very interesting if only because for weeks the State Department (unnamed senior administration officials) were saying that a deal with Noriega was imminent. (e.g. "Accord Reported Near for Noriega to Give Up Power," NYT, 4/29/88, p. 1) The truth, however, is that Bush knew of Noriega's drug- dealing ways for years. (For a surprisingly hard-hitting examination of this, see Tom Wicker, "Bush and Noriega," NYT, 4/29/88, p. A39) The problem only started to come to the political surface recently, but investigations by the Christic Institute and Senator Kerry (D-MA) (NYT, 12/18/87, p. 4) have been going on for some time. According to an aide of Noriega, Bush made a deal with Noriega that Noriega would keep his mouth shut about the Medellin cocaine cartel's financing of the contras, if Bush kept quiet about Noriega. Patently lying, Bush has maintained that he knows nothing about Noriega and drug accusations. (AP, Newsday, LA Times in the Ann Arbor News, 5/26/88, C1) In fact, he maintains his distance from the Reagan administration without mentioning Noriega's name. (AP, Ann Arbor News, 5/26/88, C2) While no proletarian should harbor any love for Noriega, communists must oppose any US invasion to remove Noriega. The battle to replace one dependent dictator with another would certainly cost many proletarian lives. MIM opposes all wars between bourgeois governments because the fighting is carried at the cost of the proletariat. NICARAGUA RELEASES ANOTHER HASENFUS James Denby, doing aerial work for the CIA in a Cessna 172, is another US citizen caught in hostilities against the Nicaraguan government. Denby is further evidence that US citizens are directly involved in supplying the contras who oppose the Nicaraguan government. The Nicaraguan government displayed Denby's possessions including an explosives license issued in the United States. (NYT, 12/9/87, p. 3) According to the Sandinista government, Denby was on a mission to kill the Foreign Minister Miguel D'Escoto. (Ann Arbor News, 12/9/87, p. F1) HAITI VOTE FOR PRESIDENT WAS LOW "Haiti's army-dominated Government held its presidential elections today, but voting appeared to be light, and irregularities, from multiple voting to voting by youths under the minimum age of 18, appeared widespread. No attempt at secret balloting was made in most voting places visited by foreign journalists." (NYT, 1/18/88, p. 1) A World Bank economist estimated a 4 to 6% voter participation rate. The four most popular candidates in November 1987 refused to participate in the election. (Ibid., p. 5) US PILOTS FLY MATERIAL AID TO UNITA US pilots fly supply shipments from Zaire to the South African-backed Union for Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) according to a captured UNITA rebel. US aid to UNITA runs $15 million a year. The United States did not deny the report. "The United States is giving UNITA 'appropriate and effective assistance.'" (NYT, 12/15/87, p. 2) SOUTH AFRICA ADMITS TO INVADING ANGOLA In late November, S. Africa sent 3,000 troops to Angola to support contra-like rebels known as UNITA who are attempting to overthrow the Soviet-backed government of Angola. President P.W. Botha visited the troops in S. Africa, which admitted to 35 deaths in fighting. S. Africa also admitted for the first time that it had in fact invaded Angola. (Guardian: Independent Radical Newsweekly, 12/2/87, p. 1) MOZAMBIQUE CONTRAS KILLED 100,000 Senators Bob Dole and Jesse Helms support a group of rebels in Mozambique called the MNR (Mozambique National Resistance). (Guardian: Radical Newsweekly, 10/14/87, p. 3) The MNR has long enjoyed S. African support and the right- wingers in the US would like to see the US officially and directly support MNR too instead of just through S. Africa. A rise in the infant mortality rate from 325 to 375 per 1000 is chalked up to MNR's war against the Mozambique government. Other acts of MNR sabotage are responsible for destroying 1,800 schools, 25% of the health clinics, $50 million in electric power lines, $20 million in sugar and tea factories and $82 million in bridges and railways.("An African War Ensnarls the U.S. Ultra-Right," LA Times, June 28, 1987, p. 2, part V) According to a report released by the State Dept. in mid- April, the MNR has killed at least 100,000 people and caused 1 million more people to become refugees. (NYT, 5/11/88, p. 1) The NYT appears to have done an informative article with information comparable to that found by the State Dept.: "Since 1981, the Health Ministry [of Mozambique's government -- ed.] reported in April, Renamo attackers have looted, destroyed or forced the closing of 595 health clinics -- 31 percent of Mozambique's health network. With two million people deprived of care, the child mortality rate doubled in the 1980s to 350 per 1,000, the highest in the world. Since 1981, the Education Ministry reported, rebel attacks have forced the closing of 2,518 schools that served 500,000 children -- one-third of the projected elementary school enrollment. The war, a United Nations report said, has forced 870,000 Mozambicans to flee their country and 1.1 million more to leave their farms for the safety of cities. In 1987, the Trade Ministry said, Mozambican farmers were able to meet only 6 percent of the grain needs of city dwellers and refugees. This year, almost a quarter of Mozambique's 14 million people face starvation or severe malnutrition. (NYT, 5/11/88, p. 6) The US/South Africa backed atrocities against the Mozambicans are further evidence of how the US is engaged in an undeclared World War III for control of the globe. The United States is only now trying to stop the slaughter because it fears that South Africa is overextended in its battle to repress the African people and because it believes that Mozambique is now in a position to enter the US orbit of influence as Zimbabwe has done. OPPENHEIMER LAUDS HELEN SUZMAN The chair of S. Africa's largest mining company has long supported "reform" in S. Africa. In the NYT, he recently wrote a tribute to a woman in the Progressive Federal Party which is a tiny party in the apartheid Parliament. As the Sullivan Principles were once touted as the hope for reform by US companies operating in S. Africa, the PFP in S. Africa is often considered the hope for white reform in S. Africa. The PFP is not only insignificant in size, even in comparison with literally neo-Nazi groups in S. Africa, but also the PFP is insignificant politically. It does not favor equal citizenship status of Blacks and whites. Still, Oppenheimer represents an articulate section of capital in S. Africa that would like to move the economy forward: "The realization of South Africa's economic potential simply could not be reconciled with the policy of apartheid -- and that, I'm afraid, is a truth that after 35 years has still not been grasped by those at home and abroad who believe that apartheid can best be fought through the application of economic sanctions." (NYT, 5/11/88, p. 25) What Oppenheimer is saying is that the struggle against apartheid should be linked to the struggle for economic growth. Like the line "jobs, not war" this may seem to put material interests behind the end of apartheid. What Oppenheimer believes is that equal opportunity capitalism would bring economic growth for all including whites and make up for the loss in white privilege in South Africa. It is perhaps obvious, however, that Black self- determination in South Africa should not depend on whether or not economic growth would be promoted by the end of white rule. And for now, unless we are to judge the privileged white labor aristocracy in South Africa as entirely ignorant of its own economic interests, fascism and literal Naziism still seem to be in the interest of the ruling class in S. Africa. SOUTH KOREAN CABINET IS MORE OF SAME New President Roh Tae Woo kept the cabinet of Chun Doo Hwan in tact. Seven out of 23 cabinet appointees retained their previous portfolios, including the critical Home Affairs and Justice ministers who are in charge of the repressive apparatus. Those who thought that Roh meant a substantial reform in S. Korea should think again. (NYT, 2/20/88, p. 5) FIRE NEAR SEOUL KILLS 22 PROLETARIANS 22 women in a textile factory died when their factory, where they slept, lit on fire and the stairway exits were locked. The workers there work 11 to 14.5 hours a day every day except 2 days a month. Their pay is $270 to $345 a month -- on the high side for S. Korea. In a nearby center for factory workers, one woman earns $5.80 per day. Another woman -- a Ms. Kim -- works 12 hours a day, every day except three per month and receives $5 a day. She tests computer chips. (NYT, 4/6/88, p. 4) When MIM talks about the international proletariat, it is talking about people like Ms. Kim. ERITREA IS DEPRIVED OF DONOR FOOD AID Working through the Ethiopian regime, most governments and agencies ignore the imminent starvation deaths of hundreds of thousands of Eritreans. Eritrea is effectively under the control of the Eritrean People's Liberation Front. The EPLF works with the Eritrean Relief Association (ERA), but the ERA does not receive support through the channels that Ethiopia does. Ethiopia is attempting to starve the Eritrean people into submitting to its colonial ambitions. (EPLF communique, 5/9/87, PO Box 65685, Washington DC 20035 (202) 265-3070) MIDEAST ARAB COUNTRIES RENEWING TIES WITH EGYPT Iraq, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar plan to reestablish diplomatic relations with Egypt. Relations broke when Egypt and Israel made the Camp David accord. (AP, Ann Arbor News, 11/12/87, p. c1) PRESS COMPARES ISRAEL TO SOUTH AFRICA In a sign that the US/Israeli propaganda machine cannot cover up the current situation in the Gaza Strip, the Washington Post published an article which discusses parallels between South Africa and Israel. Even more seriously, ABC News has also drawn the parallels. Prominent Israeli academic Shlomo Avineri, who is a contact of Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, recently drew the parallel, but it was the Washington Post that chose to report it. Avineri said that he feared "by the year 2000 we will look into the mirror and we will see South Africa." (Ann Arbor News, 1/25/88, p. c1) Thus, while the propaganda machine would like to avoid the moral and political implications of this comparison, there is some sign that the ruling class is considering the long-term strategic situation in Israel. Previous articles in the mainstream press also examined the situation of the rock- throwing Palestinian youth on the Gaza Strip and saw the potential for Khomeini-style Islamic revolution. The most important parallels are that the West Bank and Gaza Strip are under military occupation by Israel. There the rights of Palestinians are not much more than the rights of Blacks in South Africa. Also, on a per capita basis the recent violence of Israelis against Palestinians is comparable to that of the South African white settlers against the Blacks. (Ann Arbor News, 1/25/88, p. C3) That is not to include the deaths of civilians in actions such as the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, which took at least 20,000 lives. It is not that the bourgeois press relishes these comparisons, simply that the bourgeoisie is facing its nightmares on the Gaza Strip and West Bank. ISRAELI SOLDIERS BURY FOUR ARABS ALIVE Four Arabs on the West Bank were rescued by relatives after being buried alive. Three left the hospital the same day. Another stayed eight days. "Relatives charged in a complaint filed with the army that the 20 soldiers grabbed the four Arabs after a violent demonstration in the West Bank village of Kfar Salem on Feb. 5, beat them, forced them to lie on the ground and then poured sand over them with a bulldozer." (Ann Arbor News, 2/15/88, C1) "'Even in my worst dreams, I would never imagine such a thing,'" Gen. Amram Mitzna, the commander of the troops in the West Bank, said of the case. . . . 'I constantly warn commanders to expect the most awful things could happen when soldiers find themselves all of a sudden commanding and deciding the lives of civilians.'" (NYT, 2/16/88, p. 1) ISRAEL INVADES LEBANON AGAIN On May 2nd, Israeli soldiers entered Lebanon supposedly in search of PLO guerrillas attempting to infiltrate Israel. According to the Israeli military, Palestinian fighters have killed 5 Israeli soldiers in seven incidents in the past year while 20 Palestinian fighters have been slain or captured. (Detroit Free Press, 5/5/88, p. 1) Israel has invaded Lebanon repeatedly in the past. "Israel invaded Lebanon in March 1978 following a guerrilla attack inside Israel, then withdrew that June. In June 1982 Israeli forces invaded again, sweeping through Lebanon and eventually laying siege to the P.L.O. in Beirut. Israel withdrew in 1985." (NYT, 5/3/88, p. 1) Of course, this little synopsis leaves out the fact that Israel killed thousands of Lebanese civilians in the process. To say that Israel was "laying siege to the PLO in Beirut" makes it sound like Beirut was a Palestinian homeland. To say that Israel withdrew in 1985 is to sanitize Israel's relationship to Phalangists and other forces inside Lebanon that Israel pays and equips to do its dirty work. By the 5th, Israel had already killed more than 40 people in its latest invasion of Lebanon. (Detroit Free Press, 5/5/88, p. 1) RULING CLASSES CONTINUE WAR IN MIDEAST Iraq stepped up its efforts to prevent Iranian oil sales by bombing five Iranian oil tankers May 14th. Up to 54 people are missing. Iraq wants to cut off Iranian oil exports because Iran funds its 7 year old war with Iraq with oil sales. Days earlier Iraq had fired Exocet missiles at two Iranian tankers. (Detroit News, 5/15/88, A3) Both in terms of deaths and losses of resources, the war between Iran and Iraq is not in the interests of the peoples of those countries. ISRAEL TORTURES PALESTINIAN CHILDREN "'Children in Israeli Military Prisons,' researched and written by the Rev. Canon Riah Abu El-Assal, pastor of Christ Evangelical Church in Nazareth; Dina Lawrence, cultural anthropologist from California, and Karen White, author and journalist from Florida" reports that children in the West Bank and Gaza Strip are tortured by the Israelis. (The Metro Times, Detroit, 1/6-12/88, p. 4) Furthermore, the record of the Shin Bet, Israeli security has recently come under attack: "An official Israeli report published Oct. 30 shows that the Shin Bet internal security services lied for 16 years about brutal methods used to extract confessions from Palestinian prisoners." (Guardian: Radical Newsweekly, 11/11/87, p. 17) Typically the Shin Bet covered up its methods and now lawyers in Israel say they will apply for new trials for Palestinian prisoners based on the official report on Shin Bet. "Riad Faraj, 15, has been arrested three times and has spent eight months of his young life in prison. He described being bound upside down to a chair and beaten on the soles of his feet while three interrogators sat on top of him. Wa'el Tawfig said interrogators tried to force him to confess to throwing a stone at soldiers first by tempting him with a bowl of fruit and then by threatening to rape him." (Ibid.) PALESTINIANS DID NOT STONE ISRAELI "An Israeli girl whose death brought fierce cries for vengeance against Arabs was not stoned to death, but killed by a bullet from the rifle of a Jewish settler guarding her, the army said today. . . . Nevertheless, the army blew up eight more houses in Beita today, making a total of 14 destroyed over accusations that family members took part in the clash.... Rabbi Chaim Druckman of the National Religious Party declared that the village of Beita 'should be wiped off the face of the earth.'" (NYT, 4/9/88, p. 1) In a pattern seen more than once in Israel, Israelis kill Israelis and then blame Palestinians so as to justify Israeli genocide of Palestinians. (See for example, Israel's Sacred Terror on MIM lit. list.) STATE CAPITALIST COUNTRIES RUMANIA ALIENATES EAST AND WEST? The NYT ran an article critical of Rumania. Although commentators generally fret over debts both domestic and international, in this case, the NYT criticized Rumania for cutting its dependence on foreign debts in half since 1983 -- from $10 billion to $5 billion. This supposedly resulted in vast deprivations for the Rumanian people according to the NYT three times in the same article. (Henry Kamm, "For Bucharest, a Great Leap Backward, 2/15/88, p. 6) That the NYT recognizes what debt repayment means when done by East bloc countries but not by other countries shows the ideological biases of our bourgeoisie. Rumanian leader Nicolae Ceausescu supposedly reject Gorbachev's reforms and upholds central planning. This too is no good and cause for NYT editorializing in its supposed "news" article headline. ALIENATION OF SOVIET WORKERS GROWS Demand for sugar in some regions of the Soviet Union increased as much as 29% in the earlier part of this year according to a Soviet official. The source of the demand is the moonshine industry. (NYT, 4/27/88, p. 1) Alcoholism in the Soviet Union has been a steadily growing problem since the death of Stalin. Gorbachev has said that the alcoholism problem is the people's fault, instead of targeting the system which causes people to desire an escape from reality in alcohol. "It is a scandal against which the people themselves must struggle," said Gorbachev. (NYT, 11/16/87, p. 6) With this blame-the-people approach, Gorbachev has resorted to repression to solve the problem. "New statistics [from the Soviet Interior Ministry -- ed.] show 390,000 arrests thus far this year [Nov. 1987 -- ed.] -- against fewer than 70,000 in all of 1985 -- for home brewing." (Ibid.) It must be admitted that Gorbachev started from such a poor situation that what he did actually did have some positive results. The death rate in the Soviet Union is declining for the first time in 20 years, no doubt partly because of a 37% decline in deaths from drunk driving. (Ibid.) CHINA ALLOWS CITY TO LEASE ITSELF OUT ENTIRELY The city of Fuxin with 700,000 people has leased every thing in the city "every grocery store, department store, movie house and factory in town." (NYT, 2/10/88, p. 4) One woman who leased a factory made about $200,000 in profit one year. (Ibid.) SOVIETS ALSO DO STAR WARS RESEARCH Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev has said that the USSR does Star Wars research. At the same time, he said the Soviets will not deploy a Star Wars defense. (Ann Arbor News, 12/1/87, p. c1) CHINESE CENTRAL COMMITTEE BECOMES NEW CLASS "Half of the Central Committee members now are college educated and 40% have engineering degrees. Until recently most of China's leaders had been veteran revolutionaries from peasant backgrounds with little education." (Guardian: Independent Radical Newsweekly, 12/9/87, p. 10) What the Guardian means is little "formal, bourgeois education." LONG-TIME CHINA FIELD RESEARCHER SEES CHINESE PRODUCTION GOING DOWN William Hinton has reported that grain production may have declined in China since the counterrevolution in 1976 and the decollectivization of agriculture since 1979. Yields at the famed Dazhai have declined as they have in the bordering counties. Hinton rips through many of the accounting devices that make Chinese economic success since 1976 seem greater than it is. While it is way to early to say that China has suffered in short-run economic growth since turning to capitalism, Hinton's work shows that even this much vaunted advantage of the counterrevolution is worth monitoring. (Monthly Review: An Independent Socialist Magazine, 3/88) CHINA RE-ABOLISHES STOCK MARKET In Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin, stock trading started in 1986. In 1987 the government stopped it.Apparently this so- called reform was too much for the supposedly Communist Party of China to swallow. ( LA Times, 4/27/87, p. 1, part IV) STUDENTS PROTESTED OUSTER OF YELTSIN Boris Yeltsin is regarded as a "reformer" in the Soviet Union, perhaps more reformist than Gorbachev. In November Gorbachev removed him as head of the Moscow Party Committee for views that are too reformist. Hundreds of students demonstrated against this repeatedly over a period of days. In fact, at one confrontation at Moscow University, students drowned out officials who tried to explain why Yeltsin was ousted. (NYT, 11/21/87, p. 5) Neither Yeltsin nor Gorbachev are people that communists should admire. Yet, the protests undercut the right-wing argument that there is no intellectual or political life outside a monolithic communist party in the Soviet Union. SOVIETS TO MAKE PROFIT ON SUMMIT The Soviets' official newspaper, Tass has hired a promoter for Hulk Holgan and Michael Jackson to sell commemorative T- shirts, buttons, records, plastic tote bags and audio cassettes for the upcoming summit. "Tass plans to sell the shirts for $15-$20 and already has ordered 10,000." (Detroit News, 5/21/88, p. 1) PUBLISHER TYPIFIES IGNORANCE OF CHINA Having been to China at least twice, one might think Allen H. Neuharth would have some first-hand insights on the situation there. Neuharth is the chair of Gannett newspapers, the Detroit News and USA Today. In his recent column on China, he was full of praise for Deng Xiaoping's institution of capitalism. As evidence of progress Neuharth made three points. First, he said that GNP per capita had doubled in the last ten years. These GNP figures, however, mean nothing thanks to inflation and changes in relative prices. In fact, this year inflation may hit 20%, up from 8% last year. This has caused a decline in real living standards for 1 in 5 urban residents. (NYT, 3/4/88, p. 6) Secondly, he cited "Dozens of new hotels, which last year housed 1.7 million foreign tourists." (Detroit News, 5/24/88, p. D3) OK, that's true, there has been progress for foreign tourists. Thirdly, TV sets and radios have replaced loudspeakers for communications. (Ibid.) Although this is a bit of an exaggeration, it's not worth arguing over. This is what constitutes progress according to the people who run the press in this country! CORRESPONDANCE PRISONER REQUESTS ANY LITERATURE POSSIBLE Dear MIM: I am presently incarcerated at X Correctional Facility in the solitary confinement unit. As a result of my predicament my access to positive, constructive and enlightening literature is very limited. I would greatly appreciate to the upmost any material or information you care to provide me. Thank you--keep on fighting the struggle is constant. --A prisoner in the Northeast April, 1988 SUPPORTS DICTATORSHIP OF PROLETARIAT, NOT THE SYSTEM Dear MIM: I am in receipt of your publication and literature offers pages. I believe the "Establishment" must be replaced by revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat. As in Rome, the unpropertied class in the USA is the root of solidarity. I am a prisoner of 12 years and under strict censorship. I would like any literature you can send and request a copy of Karl Marx's Das Kapital if you can get a copy to me. I would like to have your "List of Other Organizations." It is listed as "The Competition." Workers of the World Unite! --A prisoner from the South February, 1988 PRAISES MIM FOUNDING DOCUMENTS, OPPOSES TROTSKY Dear MIM: I have received the catalog and the MIM's Founding Documents, and I thank each of you very much for them! The MIM's Founding Documents are very interesting, especially the "Manifesto on the International Situation and Revolution." The Manifesto is a very valuable document. It is a good launch pad for further investigation and is well worth studying closely. It gives a very accurate appraisal of Trotskyism, and the phony socialism that Trotsky advocated. Even though I am a supporter of the X [one of the "competition"--ed.] I am not against learning about what other parties, groups or people think and the political and ideological lines they advocate. This was my main reason for writing MIM. I've been in prison for five years now, but I didn't get turned on to the revolutionary scene until about three and a half years ago. During my three and a half years of study, I've had the chance to come in contact with only seven different political parties. I've studied the lines of these parties, and so far the X is the only one I've found to have the most revolutionary and necessary political and ideological line. I'm very interested to know what kind of stance the MIM has taken toward the RCP,USA and of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement--which was formed in March 1984-- that the RCP, USA is a part of? Has the MIM ever held a debate about joining with the RCP, USA? If so, I would please like to know what the MIM centered its debate around? Also, if the MIM forms a party instead of joining one, would it become a part of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement that was formed in March 1984, or would it try to form a new internationalist movement? I'm real sure that there will be other inmates interested in MIM and its work. Also, please send me your list of other groups to the left of social democracy, with the special page for prisoners, so that I may pass this around too? I thank you for all of your help and consideration, and I thank you for what you are doing for the future! --A prisoner from the South May 1988 MC5 replies: We have sent this comrade the draft critique of the RCP, a piece on personality cults and MIM Theory 7 in response to his/her questions on the RCP/RIM. The founders of MIM were quite familiar with the RCP and its practices in the Cambridge/Boston area. Debate centered on Trotskyism (conscious and unconscious), relations between the vanguard and mass movements and party internal life. There were numerous practices that MIM founders were dissatisfied with in the RCP, but today MIM is trying to focus on issues of the RCP's broader line. Comrades who are dissatisfied with the responses to the RCP found in existing literature distributed by MIM should write with their inquiries and comments. It is not MIM's policy to go into much detail on this subject in public. DO MORE ON IRAN AND KURDS! Dear MIM: Revolutionary Greetings! I sincerely thank you for providing me with copies of Iran in Resistance and Iranian People's Fedaii Guerrillas "Draft of Program." The National Workers Network was truly correct in stating in the Underground Notion, "Their attention [MIM] to the needs of, and work with, prisoners is unparalleled." Again, thank you for your "unparalleled" support, and I hope you will provide me with more literature in the future. Strength in Struggle! P.S. I strongly encourage you to, in the future, publish, in MIM Notes, articles on the Iranian People's Fedaii Guerrillas struggle for the liberation of Iran in unison with the Kurdish people's struggle for liberation and self- determination throughout the Middle East. In solidarity. --Comrade from West coast April, 1988 MC5 replies: The National Workers Network put a blurb in its newsletter the Underground Notion which said what the comrade above quoted. While MIM is grateful for the attention, it should be said that MIM is a small group of modest capabilities. We have just received word that the National Workers Network is now defunct. Uses lit list in college Dear MIM: I do want to be on your mailing list. I find your materials do make a difference in my college studies. I no longer rely on newspapers so I guess that is what happens when one begins to think independently. --Student in the Northeast March, 1988 OBITUARIES JOHN CHASE A supposedly deranged vagrant shot and killed a Dallas police officer by using the officer's gun. Police then killed the vagrant. The officer was white and the assailant Black. Apparently, Chase was writing a traffic ticket at the time. Chase and the assailant named Williams were arguing when Williams took the gun. Two to 10 people in the crowd told the vagrant to "shoot him, shoot him." The bourgeoisie has rallied all its own forces and allies in this incident. "Dallas billionaire H. Ross Perot and oilman Ray Hunt have offered planes to transport officers to Chase's funeral. . . . Fort Worth-based American Airlines offered a jet to fly officers and family members to Des Moines." (AP, Ann Arbor News, 1/26/88, p. C4) Hundreds of middle-class pig-supporters marched on City Hall as the police attempted to capitalize on the officer's death by using it to squelch criticism in City Council. The Dallas Police Association and the police chief asked the mayor and three city council members not to attend the funeral, but changed their minds later. Police blamed city council members for the shooting. Some had supported a congressional investigation into charges by Black leaders that police has used excessive force in killing several Black people. (AP, Ann Arbor News, 1/25/88, p. C2) Police Chief Billy Prince complained about "constant bashing" on the police: "The feeling and atmosphere of controversy and criticism that permeated this past year . . . you take someone a little mentally deranged, and the circumstances are just right and they're on the edge, it makes them just bold enough to attack an officer." (AP, Ann Arbor New, 1/26/88, p. C4) Many government offices put the flag at half mast to honor Chase. At least one, flag did not fly at half-mast. The reason the Black government official gave was that the flag did not fly at half-mast when a Black officer was recently killed in trying to prevent a burglary. WHAT DID YOU EXPECT? NORTH CALLS INDICTMENTS AN HONOR Oliver North gave the commencement speech at Jerry Falwell's University in Virginia, called Liberty University. Falwell compared North to Jesus in his own speech by saying Jesus was also indicted, convicted and crucified. Die-hards in Virginia are attempting to draft North for a Senate race. (NYT, 5/3/88, p. 12) METHODISTS CONTINUE HETEROSEXISM "The chief policy-making body of the United Methodist Church voted today to maintain its position that homosexual behavior is 'incompatible with Christian teaching' and a bar to the ordained ministry." (NYT, 5/3/88, p. 13) There are about 9.5 million Methodists in the US. On the other hand, at least the church made steps towards adopting gender-inclusive language when referring to Father, Son and Holy Ghost. (Ibid.) REV. MOON STILL BUYING UP FRIENDS (Detroit Free Press, 12/20/87, p. 1) A group named Christian Voice joined with Moon's Unification Church to establish the American Freedom Coalition, which seeks to move the Republicans right or form a third party. Behind the coalition is Richard Viguerie, who himself was "rescued from the brink of bankruptcy in October by Bo Hi Pak, a former Korean military intelligence officer and Mr. Moon's top U.S. operative." (Ibid, p. A15) Others coopted by Moon including former critics are Rev. Ralph David Abernathy, Former Treasury Secretary Robert Anderson, New Right lobbyist Warren Richardson, Eugene McCarthy, Terry Dolan and Neal Blair. Falwell declined a $1 million dollar to give one speech in Seoul. Since 1980 Moon has made at least $165 million through high-pressured sales in Japan of religious artifacts and talismans. One estimate is $800 million. "DETROIT OFFICERS SUSPECTED OF CRACK TIES" According to police officials and investigators, 125 Detroit police officers are under investigation for involvement with crack. Detroit has a total of 5,000 officers. On April 20th, reputed drug-dealers shot and killed Officer Paul Dunbar, who had robbed the drug-dealers' house. "Among the cases under investigation by the police Internal Affairs Section are: ¥ Three groups of officers, operating in three precincts where they are assigned, who are believed to be robbing crack houses. ¥ Several supervisory officers, who hold the rank of sergeant or lieutenant, for using powdered or crack cocaine. ¥ Two officers who owned homes that were raided by narcotics officers because they were suspected crack houses. In one of those cases, the officer was living in the house at the time. ¥ An officer who was the victim of a street robbery after walking out of a crack house where head had been buying drugs. ¥ Several officers who are both selling and using crack cocaine obtained during shakedowns of street drug dealers." (Detroit Free Press, 5/5/88, p. 1, A18) PRESIDENT PUSHES ASTROLOGY ON MASSES According to Donald Regan, "virtually every major move and decision the Reagans made during my time as White House chief of staff was cleared in advance with a woman in San Francisco who drew up horoscopes to make certain that the planets were in a favorable alignment for the enterprise."" (Detroit Free Press, 5/9/88, p.1) Furthermore, "Regan blames the president's four months of isolation during the height of the Iran-contra scandal in the winter of 1986-87 on the astrologer's warning that those months would be ill-starred for the president to travel or appear in public." (ibid.) Other decisions including getting the CIA director to resign, the 1987 State of the Union address and the missile pact with the Soviets were said to be governed by similar guidance. The worst part of all this is that the publicity will embolden liberal opponents of the president to say that he is just stupid or mistaken in his policies, and not an expression of the ruling class's interests. At the same time, supporters of the president will probably look at astrology more favorably. PENTAGON CAN AFFORD BUDGET CUTS Frank C. Carlucci, the Defense Secretary ordered $33 billion in defense cuts for fiscal 1989. "At $290 billion, it [the war budget--ed.] will also be less than the $296 billion" (NYT, 12/5/87, p. 1) for fiscal 1988 already appropriated. These cuts are the largest even discussed during the Reagan administration; although they amount to less than 15% of planned expenditures and less than a 2% cut from the previous year's budget. (It just goes to show that when the Pentagon asks for outlandish appropriations to begin with, it can afford the appearance of cutting back later.) Surprise, surprise, the cuts are aimed at helping Republican Party candidates say that they helped build up military strength and supported military cuts at the same time. It just goes to show that with such huge resources at its disposal, the Pentagon can afford to play a numbers game for the public and mislead public opinion. By alternating between hawkish calls for defense build-ups and calls for trimming of fat, the ruling class intentionally confuses the public on what it is doing. Meanwhile, in reality, the Pentagon has more money than it knows how to spend. JUDGES ARE CORRUPT Judge William Haley Jr. admitted to taking bribes to fix traffic tickets and to tax evasion. He refused to finger other judges who are under suspicion in Detroit's two courts. The judge had served 6 years on the bench. (Detroit Free Press, 4/15/88, p. 1) ARIAS FAVORS US INTERVENTION President of Costa Rica Oscar Arias said the US should "'send in the Marines'" if Nicaragua threatens its neighbors or engages in expansionism. (Michigan Daily, 2/3/88, p. 1) Arias also supports aid to the Contras according to Michigan House representative Carl Pursell. Denying the assertions of Secretary of State Schultz and Pursell, Costa Rican ambassador Emilia Barish said that he did not think that those were Arias' views. Of course, with a peace plan with Arias' name on it, the ambassador was obliged to deny that Arias opposed his own peace plan. Arias' peace plan for Central America won him the Nobel Peace prize in 1987. (Ibid.)