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         THE MAOIST INTERNATIONALIST MOVEMENT

  MIM Notes No. 49             January 18, 1991

MIM Notes speaks to and from the viewpoint of the 
world's oppressed majority, and against the 
imperialist-patriarchy. Pick it up and wield it in 
the service of the people. support it, struggle 
with it and write for it.


IN THIS ISSUE:
1. U.S. BLASTS BAGHDAD
2. FEDS READY CONCENTRATION CAMPS
3. AVOID SPONTENAITY: IN THE FACE OF INTRA-IMPERIALIST WARS, THE   
   PROLETARIAT AND ITS ALLIES SHOULD TAKE UP REVOLUTIONARY 
   DEFEATISM. DON'T FIGHT FOR EITHER SIDE.

The Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM) is a 
revolutionary communist party that upholds 
Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, comprising the collection 
of existing or emerging Maoist internationalist 
parties in the English-speaking imperialist 
countries and their English-speaking internal 
semi-colonies, as well as the existing or emerging 
Spanish-speaking Maoist internationalist parties 
of Aztlan, Puerto Rico and other territories of 
the U.S. Empire. MIM Notes is the newspaper of 
MIM. Notas Rojas is the newspaper of the Spanish-
speaking parties or emerging parties of MIM.

MIM is an internationalist organization that works 
from the vantage point of the Third World 
proletariat; thus, its members are not Amerikans, 
but world citizens.

MIM struggles to end the oppression of all groups 
over other groups: classes, genders, nations.  MIM 
knows this is only possible by building public 
opinion to seize power through armed struggle.

Revolution is a reality for North America as the 
military becomes over-extended in the government's 
attempts to maintain world hegemony.

MIM differs from other communist parties on three 
main questions: (1) MIM holds that after the 
proletariat seizes power in socialist revolution, 
the potential exists for capitalist restoration 
under the leadership of a new bourgeoisie within 
the communist party itself. In the case of the 
USSR, the bourgeoisie seized power after the death 
of Stalin in 1953; in China, it was after Mao's 
death and the overthrow of the "Gang of Four" in 
1976. (2) MIM upholds the Chinese Cultural 
Revolution as the farthest advance of communism in 
human history. (3) MIM believes the North American 
white-working-class is primarily a non-
revolutionary worker-elite at this time; thus, it 
is not the principal vehicle to advance Maoism in 
this country.

MIM accepts people as members who agree on these 
basic principles and accept democratic centralism, 
the system of majority rule, on other questions of 
party line.

"The theory of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin is 
universally applicable. We should regard it not as 
dogma, but as a guide to action. Studying it is 
not merely a matter of learning terms and phrases, 
but of learning Marxism-Leninism as the science of 
revolution."
-- Mao Zedong, Selected Works, Vol. II, p. 208


* * *

U.S. BLASTS BAGHDAD

by MC¯

Jan. 17ÑAt 12:50 a.m. in Saudi Arabia, the United States began the 
largest imperialist venture since Vietnam: President George Bush 
ordered U.S. planes to bomb Iraq. This is imperialist because the 
United States has gone to war to maintain and extend its economic 
power over Iraq, the oil reserves in the Persian Gulf and the 
entire region. Victory in this war will increase AmerikaÕs 
strength as the worldÕs most powerful nation.

MIM has predicted war between Iraq and the United States since 
August. This is because war is a necessary condition to keep the 
Amerikan empire intact. These inevitable wars provide this country 
with cheap gas and raw material and cheap foreign labor to run its 
parasitic economy. The U.S. government oversees the process in 
which the Third World contributes to the good life in Amerika.

Bush makes no secret for calling the attack on Iraq part of a Ònew 
world order.Ó In this phrase, the president is talking about U.S. 
success in leading its massive army and an entire imperialist 
blocÑincluding France, England, Canada, Belgium, Italy, New 
Zealand and many other Western alliesÑinto a war serving its own 
interest.

U.S. seeks power, not liberation

Although the U.S. government makes much of the United Nations 
resolutions (resolutions over which the United States had complete 
veto power as a member of the security council), this war is not 
for the liberation of Kuwait. Bush is claiming that ÒNo nation 
will be permitted to brutally assault its neighbor.Ó(1) But U.S. 
imperialismÑthe empire building course of capitalismÑhas invaded 
and manipulated many countries since Vietnam: Panama, Grenada, El 
Salvador, Nicaragua, Chile, Guatemala, Mozambique, Liberia, and 
Lebanon, just to name a few.

This war is to conquer Iraq and build U.S. power in the region and 
in the world. Restoring the government of Kuwait, a U.S. ally, is 
only a small part of that mission.

At a time when the Soviet UnionÑthe worldÕs only other 
superpowerÑis crumbling and in internal chaos, Bush is proud to 
declare: ÒThis is an historic moment. We have in this past year 
made great progress in ending the long era of conflict and cold 
war. We have before us the opportunity to forge for ourselves and 
for future generations a new world order, a world where the rule 
of law, not the law of the jungle, governs the conduct of 
nations.Ó(1)

The end of the cold war in Europe meant the crumbling of the 
Soviet imperialist bloc. This was a victory for the United States 
as it meant AmerikaÕs main rival for world power was ill and U.S. 
forces could now move on to new battles.

Peace rhetoric

Bush constantly uses the rhetoric of peace. This is nothing more 
than the double speak of a country which upholds capitalismÑthe 
system which embraces war as one of its necessary componentsÑas 
the best of all possible worlds.

The demise of the bankrupt capitalist regimes in East Germany, 
Poland, Romania and other countries was not a step for peace in 
the capitalist world. These countries, like the Soviet Union, 
espoused forms of social imperialism, that is socialism in words, 
capitalism in deeds. When one imperialist falls apartÑand its 
capitalist allies swing to the other blocÑpeace is not the result.

The U.S. government says that all possible optionsÑsanctions and 
diplomacyÑwere exhausted. This is a lie. The U.S. never intended 
to find a peaceful solution as this would not increase the power 
and assets of Amerikan imperialism. Only a military conquest could 
gain Bush the new world order he wants and needs.

In the face of this imperialist conquest and peace rhetoric it is 
naive to just call for peace as a sole demand. ÒTroops out now,Ó 
ÒMake peace not war,Ó and ÒNo blood for oilÓ are not sufficient 
demands. They do not demonstrate the understanding that the 
bourgeoisieÑthe ruling powers in AmerikaÑwill not give power to 
the people without a fight, a revolutionary war. Further, these 
slogans do not explain that the United States takes superprofits 
from the Third World to run its economy and its standard of 
living. For this exploitation to stop, the United States must be 
destroyed in a revolutionary war led by the Third World 
proletariat and its allies.

Phony opposition

In a time of imperialist war the Congress and many others who have 
supposedly opposed war, now rally behind the president and the 
flag.

Many mebers of Congress who voted against the authorization of 
force given to Bush on Jan. 12 now support the war. David Boren, 
D-Oklahoma, who voted against the resolution, had a typical 
response: ÒNow that the war has begun, all Americans should united 
behind our troops. We hope and pray that victory will come quickly 
and with minimum loss of life. Congress must be prepared to vote 
to provide our troops with anything they need to prevail.Ó(1)

Still, the United States is in the midst of a strong recession. 
While many will rally behind the flag, the slumping economy and 
high casualties will divide Amerika.

In this division, however, many social democrats will begin 
blindly calling for peace. They will say that the United States 
has no interest and no reason to go to war. They will say that the 
Amerikan people have nothing to gain. Social democrats will 
suggest that Amerika should just mind its own business and live in 
peace with the world.

This is an impossible fantasy. Amerika profits through making war 
and subjugating other countries.

The only way to stop this madness is to build a Maoist party and 
wage revolutionary war. We say Maoist because Mao Zedong, who 
liberated China in 1949 and was in power there until his death in 
1976, moved communism to its highest level. There is not space 
here to explain Chinese history or the peopleÕs democracy that was 
built there. To this end, MIM distributes Maoist and revolutionary 
literature. Send $1 for the MIM Literature List to MIM Notes, P.O. 
Box 3576, Ann Arbor, MI 48106-3576. Please send cash or check with 
name section left blank.

Notes: New York Times 1/17/91, p. A6.

* * *

FEDS READY CONCENTRATION CAMPS

by MC44 & MC12

It is still legal and appropriate, according to the U.S. 
government, to harass, interrogate and place under surveillance 
any of its ÒcitizensÓ who the bourgeoisie wants you to think 
constitute a threat to national security. During World War II 
these people were refered to as a fifth column, usually meaning 
foreign nationals or immigrants who were thought to side with 
AmerikaÕs opponents: Japan and Germany.

During World War II, this amounted to a massive 
propaganda/hysteria campaign and the devastating internment 
(imprisonment) of Japanese and Japanese Americans on the West 
Coast. Of course, the pigs accidently rounded up other Asians as 
well, all in the name of national security. Over 110,000 Japanese 
Americans spent World War II in concentration camps. 

Arabs and Arab Americans in this country are already the victims 
of increased intimidation, violence and repression. The Federal 
Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has confirmed that its agents have 
been instructed to ÒinterviewÓ Arab civic and business leaders.(1) 
The grim reality is that the Arab community has been under FBI 
surveillance for a long time. Professor Nabeel Abraham of Henry 
Ford Community College says this has been going on since the late 
1960s.(2) The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), AmerikaÕs 
favorite so-called terrorist group, was formed in 1964.

The interviews are supposedly to acquire information about 
possible ÒterroristÓ activity in the United States. When members 
of the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee (the largest 
and one of the more moderate Arab American organizations) are 
hunted down on the basis of their nationality, who are the real 
terrorists and what do they gain from this? 

The FBI is not out to stop terrorism. This is part of a crackdown 
on political work and dissent. Amerika tolerates even less dissent 
during wartime. The threat of terrorism (violence against 
ÒinnocentÓ Americans) makes it easier to sell the justification 
that this is still so-called democracy. 

Arabs in this country constitute a vibrant center of opposition to 
this and other imperialist wars, and the need to silence them is 
considered a priority. The Amerikan government is no doubt afraid 
of the lines of communication between Arab American political 
activists and the masses in the Arab world who oppose AmerikaÕs 
imperialist expansion, despite the sell-out nature of their 
governments.

In addition to the FBI interrogations, U.S. immigration officials 
Òwill begin photographing and fingerprinting anyone entering the 
United States with an Iraqi or Kuwaiti passport.Ó (3)

In 1987, the FBI and the Naturalization Service revealed the 
location of an already existing internment camp for Arabs and Arab 
Americans, called a Òcontingency planÓ should the United States go 
to war with certain Arab countries. The camp is in Oakdale, 
Lousiana. This information was uncovered during the trials of the 
ÒL.A. 8,Ó a group of eight Palestinians who were held under house 
arrest by the FBI for having radical political views and the 
audacity to vocalize support for an independent Palestinian 
nation.(3)

The Justice Department wants to require AmerikaÕs approximately 
8,500 Iraqi residents (mostly students) to reregister with 
Immigration Service, Òto determine who lives where.Ó(2) This plan 
would greatly facilitate their swift roundup. Have no illusions 
about the ruthlessness the state will exercise.

A terrorist hotline has been established in New York City, for 
people to phone in with any information they have about possible 
Arab suspects. This racism is not random. It is an integral part 
of a campaign to rally popular support for their impending 
repression.

As communists, we must advance an analysis of the strengths of our 
enemies if we are to capitalize on their weaknesses. Maoists 
maintain strategic confidenceÑbut tactical respectÑfor the state 
enemies we confront. In an open battle, revolutionary forces are 
as yet no match for the state and its repressive apparatus. It is 
not time to pick up the gun.

Strategic confidence drives us forward with the knowledge that the 
strength of the enemy is by its very nature waning, that 
imperialism is on its way off the world stage.

But tactical respect reminds us that we must defend our weak 
points. Operating in a tightly organized, well-disciplined, 
underground organizationÑa revolutionary partyÑwe minimize the 
exposure of our weaknesses and develop our strengths.

Notes:
1. New York Times 1/12/91, p. 1.
2. Detroit Free Press, 1/8/91, p. 4.
3. NYT, 1/12/91, p.10.

* * *

AVOID SPONTENAITY: IN THE FACE OF INTRA-IMPERIALIST WARS, THE 
PROLETARIAT AND ITS ALLIES SHOULD TAKE UP REVOLUTIONARY DEFEATISM. 
DON'T FIGHT FOR EITHER SIDE.

by MC12

The war is here.

The immediacy of foreign events and the magnitude of catastrophe 
in the U.S.-Iraq war enrage many who are sick of the oppression 
this country inflicts on the people of the world. At these times 
we are most pressed to follow our spontaneous inclinations. At 
these times, more than ever, we need a long-term view and a clear 
understanding of who are our friends, and who are our enemies.

Defeat for imperialism

The current war presents a conflictÑa mixture of good news and 
bad. The bad news is the deaths of thousands or hundreds of 
thousands of people, most of them innocent civilians or soldiers 
pressed into service by economic necessity. This spilt bloodÑthe 
product of greed, not one drop of it deservedÑinfuriates all those 
who oppose world-wide oppression, and inspires us to greater acts 
of resistance.

But the expansion drive of the U.S. empire is also ultimately a 
sign of weakness. By banking so much on military victory, risking 
its advantage over other competing powers, the United States is 
revealing its true frailty. The war of expansion is an act of 
desperation. The revolutionary response of the peopleÑin the 
United States, the Middle East and around the worldÑprovides the 
key to the defeat of imperialism.

The menacing imperialists have a weak underbelly. As ChinaÕs 
Communist Party Chairperson Mao Zedong explained, they are Òreal 
tigersÓ and Òpaper tigersÓ at the same time. With incredible 
military might and insatiable greed, the real tigers have the 
power to devour and destroy whole nations, and millions of people.

But because their time on the world stage is limitedÑas their 
presence generates the necessary response of revolution the world 
overÑin the end they become paper tigers, as was shown in the 
great Russian and Chinese victories. All that force is overcome by 
the uprising people.

MIM wants the USA to lose this and other imperialist wars, knowing 
that means the deaths of thousands of innocent people on both 
sides. This position is only justifiable if it is backed up by the 
commitment to fight imperialism to the bloody end ourselves, and 
to take full advantage of any imperialist defeats to advance the 
cause of the international proletariat. Only in this way will the 
deaths of U.S. and Iraqi people not have been in vain.

In 1915 V. I. Lenin said of World War I: ÒTurning the present 
imperialist war into civil war is the only correct proletarian 
slogan.Ó(1) This is the long-term objective of revolutionaries in 
the present war as well, first identified in LeninÕs theory of 
revolutionary defeatismÑcalling for the defeat of oneÕs country in 
an imperialist war.

Revolutionaries wish no harm on the innocent people in the armies 
of imperialism. African-Americans and Puerto Ricans in particular 
have historically been pressed by economic coercion into service 
to die for their oppressorsÑfrom the Civil War to the present. 
This is a crime against humanity. African-Americans make up 12% of 
the population but 29% of the Army and 23% of the total enlisted 
armed services.(7) Of those in the Gulf, the government admits at 
least 29% are Black.(8)

How to achieve defeat?

In the face of declining raw economic power, the USA has invested 
billions of borrowed dollars on a military machine. At great risk, 
it has driven forward its military superiority to outflank the 
other imperialist powers who are improving their economic 
standing. If the war machine doesnÕt generate a victory to pay a 
return on this investmentÑthrough the conquest of territory and 
the subjugation of nationsÑthen the whole top-heavy structure will 
be destabilized.

Iraq alone does not possess the military capacity to totally 
defeat the U.S. armed forces, including at least 500 Amerikan 
nuclear weapons in the Gulf region, beyond all the ÒconventionalÓ 
weaponry weÕve heard so much about.(9).

But today the war is creating very real threats to the United 
States empire beyond the borders of Iraq and Kuwait.

The people of frail and corrupt Arab regimes, governments which 
support the U.S. war effort, have been served notice. The masses 
do not support imperialist ventures at their expense.

Specifically, the people of Palestine, Jordan, Egypt, Syria and 
Morocco have in the current crisis, as in the past, demonstrated 
their hostility toward U.S. aggression in the Middle East. The 
massive destructive force levelled against the Arab people of Iraq 
will bring further threats to these already unstable governments, 
and to the USA in the process. The military machine can only 
stretch so far.

In the USA, opposition undermines the political ability of the 
government to carry on the war (even if it doesnÕt force Bush to 
ÒStop the WarÓ), and the state is forced to devote precious 
resources to the fight against the rebellion of the oppressed 
people of Amerika and their allies.

As the power spreads, it weakens. In 1958, Mao explained:

ÒThe United States has set up hundreds of military bases all over 
the world. ChinaÕs territory of Lebanon and all military bases of 
the United States on foreign soil are so many nooses around the 
neck of U.S. imperialism. The nooses have been fashioned by the 
Americans themselves and by no one else, and it is they themselves 
who have put these nooses round their own necks, handing the ends 
of the ropes to the Chinese people, the peoples of the Arab 
countries and all the peoples of the world who love peace and 
oppose aggression. The longer the U.S. aggressors remain in those 
places, the tighter the nooses around their necks will become.Ó(2)

The course of simultaneous expansion and self-destruction of the 
U.S. empire remains the same to this day. With this confidence, we 
move forward.

Real allies, real enemies

Within the confines of the USA, the most oppressed groups are the 
members of internal nations: African-Americans, Latinos, Native 
American nations. The proletarian sectors of these groups 
represent the most advanced sectors of the populationÑthose most 
motivated and prepared to advance the cause of the international 
proletariat against U.S. imperialism.

While Blacks and Latinos spill their blood on desert sands, their 
families in Amerika are waging a war of their own: a war against 
poverty, disease, drugs and murder.

A complex web of economic oppression, violence, imprisonment and 
lack of education is used to keep the oppressed of this country 
under the heel of imperialism. The colony will accept not 
deviations among its subjects.

The USA maintains by far the highest number of prisoners per 
capita of any country in the world. Black men constitute almost 
half the countryÕs prison population, but only 10% of the general 
population. There are more Black men in prison than there are in 
college.(3)

Life expectancy for Black people peaked in 1984 at 69.7 years.(4) 
It has since dropped to 64.9 years for Black men, 73.6 for Black 
women.White male life expectancy continues to rise, now up to 72.3 
years. White female life expectancy is 78.9.(5)

For Black men between the ages of 15-24, the leading cause of 
death is homicide. The rate among white men is seven times 
less.(3)

No subject is to young for punishment as the nations are kept 
down. In D.C. Black infant mortality is twice the rate of whites, 
according to the government. One half of Black children and 40% of 
Latino children fall below the too-low Federal Poverty line, 
compared to only 17% for whites.(6)

For six months, the anti-war coalitions have told us to call 
Congress and the President to demand that the Constitution be 
followed. They have told us to unite with all those against the 
warÑeven those whose visions for society we oppose. This position 
is correct on the surfaceÑall efforts against the war are 
welcomeÑbut we have been urged to strip our political analysis of 
its piercing qualities, as a sacrifice necessary to build the 
broadest ÒcoalitionÓ necessary to stop the war.

Stopping this war in this place, at this time, must not be the end 
goal of our complete struggle, or even the goal of each dayÕs 
work. The lives lost in each successive war are too important to 
let the effort to ÒStop the WarÓ blind us to the need for long-
range strategic planning. The need for alliances must not persuade 
us to weaken our line, even in the name of unity.

We are asked to compromise and appeal to the lowest common 
denominatorÑto support, for example, those in Congress (and their 
ÒleftistÓ lackeys) who wanted to give more time to the economic 
violence of sanctions against the Iraqi people. These people will 
help us ÒStop the War,Ó we are told. But are these people helping 
us, or are we helping them?

MIM is works with those people and groups whose means and ends are 
similar to ours. And all efforts against the war are better than 
nothing. But we will worship the spontaneity of the mass and, in 
such, retard the development of their political consciousness.

Spontaneity tells us to respond to what is immediately before us: 
Congress, the elections, moderate demands and symbolic protests. 
The bourgeoisie and its media offer no alternative. ThatÕs up to 
us. Recognizing the origin of spontaneous ideas and combatting 
them is the chief task of a scientific socialismÑthe chief task of 
the vanguard communist party.

Those socialists who follow the lead of acceptable institutions 
and ideas in the name of unity and bigger-is-betterism are in 
effect actively working to prevent the political development of 
the people. By separating the anti-war effort from the 
revolutionary struggle of the oppressed of this country (the 
separation of which continues despite token attempts at including 
Òdomestic issuesÓ) the leaders of the mainstream anti-war groups 
sell out the strongest allies of the international proletariat and 
block the full development of new revolutionary political forces, 
especially students.

We all may have a role to play.

If eligible, resist the draft: do not register, and do not respond 
if called. These are illegal acts which put people at risk with 
the law. But when the alternative is killing and dyingÑwasting our 
lives to kill innocent peopleÑand when there is a revolutionary 
alternative available, resistance becomes the alternative.

Instead, organize against this and all imperialist wars, with a 
realistic strategy to win: study, distribute and write for MIM 
Notes; work with and join MIM. DonÕt throw away your lives to kill 
others. Build this party to create public opinion and seize power 
for the people, one step at a time.

The anti-war movements of the 1960s and since did not fully 
appreciate either the strategic weakness or the tactical strength 
of the enemy. The organizations were and are mostly loose and 
undisciplined, their messages empty of a thorough analysis. While 
we must acknowledge the victories and advances of these movements, 
failing to admit their failuresÑamong them the weakness of 
coalition politicsÑwill only retard our further development.

So in the long-term war to end imperialism and bring power to the 
people, Maoists fight one winnable battle at a time. This is the 
principle of fighting with strategic confidence, but tactical 
respect for the enemy. We do not confront the enemy head-on with 
inferior numbers. Instead we strike at weak spots, build our 
strength, and advance steadily.

In the current period, information is our tool, and the newspaper 
of the party is our vehicle. With it we both lead and learn from 
the masses, bringing more people and resources over to the cause 
of revolutionary struggle for socialism and the eventual 
realization of communist society.

While we do not make the focoist mistake of picking up the gun 
before conditions exist to allow a successful revolutionary war, 
we work toward and build for such a war to end the destruction of 
imperialist wars forever. Because even when social movements do 
affect imperialist policies the people of the world have nothing 
to celebrate unless those movements lead to the destruction of 
imperialism.

Notes:
1. The War and the Second International, International Publishers, 
New York, 1932. p. 62.
2. Quotations from Chairman Mao Tsetung. Foreign Language Press: 
Peking, 1972. pp. 76-77.
3. From the Urban League, in the Washington Post 12/31/90, p. A4.
4. In These Times 1/15/91, p. 7.
5. NYT 11/27/90.
6. Z 11/90, p. 42.
7. L.A. Times 12/6/90.
8. Detroit Free Press 12/6/90.
9. Greenpeace in Washington Peace Letter, 12/90.