"Jailing women: the gulag works nation oppression, sexism 
does the rest" is not available electronically.-mim5@mim.org

I N T E R N E T ' S  M A O I S T  BI-M O N T H L Y

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         THE MAOIST INTERNATIONALIST MOVEMENT

  MIM Notes 68         			SEPTEMBER, 1992

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.  WHICH AMERIKKKAN SETTLER CANDIDATE WILL YOU VOTE FOR?
    CLINTON THREATENS WAR ON AMERIKA'S OPPRESSED
2.  LETTERS
3.  LIBERALS WANT FREE TRADE'S RICHES
4.  RACISM PAYS
5.  REVIEW: THE FAMINE WITHIN
6.  UMASS ADMINISTRATION SQUELCHES MAOIST INTERNATIONALIST 
    MOVEMENT (MIM)
7.  MAOISM IS THE PEOPLE'S CHOICE IN PERU
8.  MOYANO CASHED IN ON THE HUNGER OF THE PEOPLE
9.  PUNK PROTEST BANGS A GONG FOR PRIVILEGE
10. SENECA NATION FIGHTS FOR SOVEREIGNTY
11. YAVAPAIS HOLD GROUND IN ARIZONA
12. A LETTER ON BAD RELIGION AND REVOLUTIONARY ART
13. SUMMER FILMS: THE AC AIN'T WORTH THE DOUGH
14. BARBED WIRE AND SOCIALIZATION: DOUBLE PRISONS FOR WOMEN
15. PRISONERS SPEAK OUT ON WRONGFUL CONVICTIONS
16. ALL-WHITE JURY SENDS BLACK TEACHER TO PRISON
17. BLACK MAN FRAMED FOR RAPE

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


* * *

DON'T VOTE, BUILD THIS MAOIST PARTY

You may have noticed that MIM does not waste a lot of time talking 
about this year's elections. Oppressed people everywhere and the 
revolutionaries who work in their interest are not distracted by 
the billion-dollar smoke-and-mirrors campaigns of imperialism.

The majority of white Amerikans support or participate in the 
electoral system. The system overall represents their interests, 
though it favors the rich among them. Still, their choices are 
limited and they are constantly grumbling and protesting by not 
voting.

If some candidate throws Amerikans a bone--a tough crime bill with 
lots of new prisons, some protectionism against foreigners, a war 
or two--then they may get temporarily excited and go pull some 
levers. But their elections are not what changes the direction of 
the country. They rubberstamp the decisions made by international 
patriarchal capital, and they get paid to do it.

Revolutionaries act on the belief that people are bigger than 
individual votes, and that improvements within the Amerikan system 
are made at the cost of increased exploitation of the oppressed. 
Every day wasted on these elections means millions more death 
sentences for the oppressed.


CLINTON THREATENS WAR ON AMERIKA'S OPPRESSED

by MA815
As communists and revolutionaries, we share a commitment to the 
truly exploited everywhere, instead of to a reactionary labor 
aristocracy. We share a revulsion towards the Democratic Party and 
its two-headed, cracker populist monster. Here are some reasons 
for wanting to behead the liberals once and for all, because from 
the perspective of the wretched of this earth, Clinton and Gore 
are certainly as dangerous--if not more so--than Bush and Quayle.

The Democrats are sick in many regards: their complete elimination 
of government support and programs for the unemployed and the 
Black working class in particular; Clinton's location of toxic 
dump sites in Black communities; his unabashed use of chain-gang 
labor; his support for the death penalty; and his now unequivocal 
support of genocidal violence against Arab people and support for 
the state terrorism of Israel in particular.

With the Soviet collapse, Clinton can promise some cuts in the 
military budget, but he wants to take that "peace dividend," 
supplement it with some minor taxes on the rich, and then build 
such Babylonian monstrosities as bullet trains and a fiber-optic 
network. But here we will look at how his "middle class" populism 
will affect the ITAL trabajadores sin papeles END (undocumented 
workers) who confront torture at the imperialist border.

Like Bush, Clinton favors the Free Trade Agreements with Mexico. A 
big winner with this agreement will be agribusiness in the 
imperialist cornbelt; it will win not only the elimination of 
barriers to its exports but also a major reduction in Mexican 
subsidies for the electricity, water, fertilizer and seeds used by 
small and medium corn and wheat farmers.

According to David Runsten of the California Institute of Rural 
Studies, "The whole Mexican system has been based on price 
supports and credits and it has been yanked out from underneath 
people. A big restructuring is bound to lead to migration." And 
that migration will be huge: one-third of Mexicanos are in the 
farmlands soon to be fully exposed to U.S. agribusiness. Some 
estimate that almost 1 million families will have to leave the 
fields and attempt to cross the border.(1)

The millions of peasants to be displaced by U.S. agribusiness will 
not find enough jobs in the new maquiladores either. Although 
export-processing zones are very labor-intensive, they are less so 
than the production system they are displacing. Such displacement 
has already been observed in the Philippines after it was opened 
up as the model export platform by the World Bank.(2)

The reason for this displacement is the old Maoist lesson on how 
imperialist capital destroys appropriate and independent 
industrial development. As U.S./Mexicano ventures set up high-tech 
factories for the export of textiles, toys, parts, clothes, cans, 
etc., they will also drive out any remaining low-tech, labor-
intensive internal Mexican production and permanently kill off the 
slow growth of autonomous high-tech industries--thereby decreasing 
industrial employment overall. Moreover, in attempting to stay 
competitive with high-tech joint ventures, the small businesses 
will probably have to adopt unequivocally the super-exploitation 
of labor and thus increase the incentives to migrate to the United 
States.

Many people are murdered and tortured by free trade. The situation 
at the border remains horrific with La Migra (immigration police) 
descendents of the Tejas Rangers carrying out ritual genital 
mutilation, electrical shock, rape, beatings and killings.(3)

For those who still believe that "racism" will be progressively 
ended by capitalism, they should note that the border patrol is no 
longer content to call Mexicanos "wetbacks." They have been 
renamed "Tonks," because that is the sound La Migra hears when it 
runs them over.(3)

As a settlers' candidate, Clinton provides no protection against 
the genocidal situation unfolding at the border; in fact, he may 
exacerbate it. Committed to both imperialist capital and the 
"middle class," Clinton can only serve both by allowing the free 
export of U.S. industrial capital and agribusiness goods into 
Mexico, and then curtailing the free movement of the displaced 
trabajadores who would serve as competition for settlers here.

In other words, settlerism can only complement the liberalism of 
free trade with the fascism of a border war. Even if Clinton does 
not totally shut down the border to displaced Mexicanos--since 
farmwork and other toxic jobs remain to be done(4)--he has already 
made clear that he will not provide any government support for 
oppressed Black and Latino people. They are being singled out to 
take all cuts full force.

We should thank the Democrats for openly calling themselves a 
"middle class," (i.e. a settlers') party, and making the choice to 
proceed with MIM so much easier.

Notes:
1. Wall Street Journal 7/13/92.
2. Robin Broad, ITAL Unequal Alliance: The IMF, the World Bank and 
the Philippines END, 1989.
3. America's Watch, ITAL Brutality Unchecked: Human Rights Abuses 
Along the U.S. Border with Mexico END, 1992.
4. MIM Notes 65, 6/92, p. 5.


* * *

LETTERS

Dear MIM,

On June 2, I received the June distribution. I will begin to 
distribute the papers at various locations on June 6. Many thanks 
for printing the excerpts of my previous correspondence. In an 
important issue such as MIM Notes 65, I'm humbled that you printed 
my words in your revolutionary publication. I'd be remiss if I 
didn't express my serious gratitude for your strong and eye-
popping articles on the L.A. uprising. Your term "Wealth Re-
distribution" was properly stated! It could not be phrased in a 
better way. It goes without saying that revolutionary organizers 
are needed in colonies such as South Central. A lot of these 
Afrikans who are revolutionaries are being held in penal 
institution in California. The Under Lock and Key section was on 
TIME!

MA850 serves as a powerful inspiration. Look for my subscription 
to sponsor a prisoner in the near future.

I'm greatly impressed with the organizational structure of the 
Maoists in Peru, especially the Maoist prisoners of war. We 
colonized people in the hells of North Amerika could learn serious 
lessons from the Maoists in Peru. Look for my $15 in return for 
the Peru study pack.

I'm interested in the conditions that exist in Peru that motivated 
the people to move toward a revolutionary solution. I read that 
Maoist women are a crucial and supportive factor in the war in 
Peru. The role and strategic importance of women in revolutionary 
movements must not be underestimated. You might consider 
developing some type of program to indoctrinate young Afrikan 
women in Amerika in a militant ideology. You know that Afrikan 
women are criminally narcotized and exploited under the various 
forms of mystical mind controlling religions.

Afrikan women are the bedrock foundational support of negro 
christian churches in Amerika. Since the true and original Afrikan 
family structure is matriarchal, this to me explains along with 
other factors why colonized Afrikans are suffering from mental 
genocide. The hip hop camp may also be a contributing factor in 
the hypnotizing of young Afrikan women. Looking forward to your 
reply.

-Comrade in the South

July, 1992

MC67 responds: MIM agrees that women are enslaved by mysticism and 
pseudo-science like psychology. When MIM cadres polemicize with 
women, we often must struggle against deeply-entrenched 
subjectivism, such as the belief that if one changes their 
individual behavior patterns, then one will be a better adjusted 
person. Women are also taught to believe that some mystical other-
world entity will help them adapt to their oppressive environment. 
MIM says to all women: do not adjust to your oppression! We want 
to change society by wiping out capitalism and building communism, 
and we won't hold ourselves back with subjective ideologies like 
religion and psychology.

For more information on MIM's views of oppression of Third World 
women and their enslavement to subjective ideologies, people 
should purchase our double issue of MIM Theory for $4.95. This 200 
page journal includes essays on tone and approach in political 
organizing, the Hill vs. Thomas debate, and discussions on the 
intersections of nation, class and gender.



The following is a review of MIM Notes printed in The Mirror-an 
eclectic, anarchist-leaning publication in the Northeast-and MIM's 
response.

The Mirror c/o Steve P.O. Box 2264 Amherst, MA 01004 

Papers Around Town 

MIM Notes-The Official Newsletter of the Maoist International 
[sic] Movement. MIM, it says inside, is "a revolutionary communist 
party that upholds Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong thought," working 
to "end oppression of all groups over groups." They say "MIM ITAL 
knows END (italics mine) this is only possible by building public 
opinion to seize power through armed struggle." After the 
revolution, there will be a leadership of "new bourgeoisie within 
the communist party itself." They also claim Stalin was 
misunderstood. In short, the perfect pitch for angry youth devoid 
of any political insight eager to bond with the first anti-
authority bid for their brain cells. The headlines screamed "Real 
feminists choose revolution," and the paper assailed women 
supporting the National Organization for Women as not really 
feminists. They (women) need to join a true revolutionary 
movement-Maoism-and not "privileged" ideologies with which they 
are at a crossroads, as the paper claims.

One of their popular campaigns is the war in Peru, where they are 
known as the Maoist Communist Party of Peru (PCP), also known as 
Shining Path. They write, "The PCP continues selected 
assassinations, military strikes and creation of base areas in 
Lima shantytowns." One of those assassinated was a feminist 
activist named Maria Elena Moyano. Maria Moyano lived in Villa El 
Salvador, a shantytown near Lima, Peru. Moyano was a well-known 
and respected community activist who led fights against racism, 
sexism and poverty. She fought for food and medicine for the poor 
of her villa.

When Shining Path blew up a warehouse supplying food to a hundred 
nearby soup kitchens, Moyano led a march and publicly condemned 
them. She felt that while the Maoists were fighting against an 
oppressive government, destroying food for the poor and killing 
community leaders was wrong. And she ignored their threats on her 
life.

Shortly thereafter, at a fundraiser for hungry children, a member 
of Shining Path shot her in the temple and then dropped five 
pounds of dynamite in her lap while her friends and family 
watched. This is how the Maoist movement controls feminists who 
dare speak out.

June 3, 1992

Dear The Mirror,

The Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM) is always glad when 
people or organizations come right out and disagree with us as The 
Mirror did in the "Commentary" section of the Summer 1992 issue. 
Our only regret here is that the reviewer made some substantial 
misinterpretations of the party line and, in typical sectarian 
fashion, didn't bother to argue with MIM first.

The substance of The Mirror's criticism is that revolution is 
impossible. The reviewer begins by italicizing "MIM knows" that 
the abolition of oppression is only possible through armed 
struggle. The implication is that no one could know such a truth 
or that armed struggle is not the answer.

MIM is working toward a revolution for a majority of the world's 
people, 80% of whom are in the Third World. Unfortunately, the 
U.S. empire, other imperialists and multinational corporations are 
not going to stop exploiting the land and people of the Third 
World without a war. No benevolent act of Congress will end that 
oppression. Looking at history, nations that have liberated 
themselves from the yoke of imperialism, such as the Soviet Union 
and China, have fought wars of liberation.

It is too bad the reviewer was not more specific in spelling out 
The Mirror's version of history, so that MIM could respond more 
directly.

Next, the reviewer finds it stupid or ironic that MIM would say 
that Stalin was misunderstood or that there is the possibility of 
degeneration ("restoration of a bourgeoisie") within the party. 
The short response is that MIM wants to understand societies in 
terms of what was historically possible, not some abstract ideal. 
To that end we say that Stalin was 70% correct. He collectivized 
agriculture, industrialized the USSR from an agrarian economy and 
led the Red Army to win World War II. Not bad.

Stalin also made serious errors, one of which was believing that 
class struggle had ended. This blinded him to the fact that a 
bourgeois elite had developed inside his own party. It further 
justified executions as a means of dealing with the opposition.

Many people criticize Stalin for the pact signed with Hitler. Yet 
these same critics never say what they would do instead if they 
were in Stalin's shoes: Your own country in economic chaos, 
bloodthirsty Nazis massing on your border and Britain, France and 
Amerika all refuse to aid in an attack on the fascists. What would 
The Mirror's editors or readers suggest?

For those interested in the full Maoist position on Stalin and the 
Soviet Union of the 1950s, MIM publishes an 80 page pamphlet, 
"Retaking History" for $7.50.

The Mirror then turns to our criticism of the march-on-Washington 
brand of feminism. MIM holds that women need, and are capable of, 
much more than marching quietly and hoping for the old, rich, 
white men in Washington to throw them a few crumbs called 
"rights." Even if the cops and Senators and judges all agree to 
give women the "right" to abortion or the "right" to comparable 
worth, the majority of the world's women will still not have such 
rights. This is why MIM calls any movement that doesn't address 
the Third World "privileged."

Readers interested MIM's line on women's liberation and questions 
of revolution and gender are urged to buy the new issue of MIM 
Theory. The 100-page double issue treats all manner of gender 
questions and is available for $6.

Finally, The Mirror reprints the standard State Department/CIA 
line on the Communist Party of Peru (PCP). Many on the so-called 
left in Amerika are afraid of the PCP because it is a 
revolutionary Maoist party engaged in a war of liberation against 
a fascist regime. This means that people are killed, although MIM 
Notes constantly reminds its readers that the U.S. and Peruvian 
regimes do far and away the most killing.

The PCP attacks the puppet representatives of the government 
including activists for the United Left (a legal political party 
trying to reform the fascist government), clergy and foreign aid 
workers. People must keep in mind that there is no democracy in 
Peru. The military routinely conducts summary executions of 
political prisoners; there are no elections; the judges and court 
system are wholly corrupt.

In this context, trying to do "legitimate" political work is only 
giving aid to the imperialists. There is a war on and people have 
to take sides. The vast majority of the Peruvian people side with 
the PCP, which now controls more than 80% of Peru and attacks 
targets even within Lima, the capital city.

MIM believes that The Mirror erred in misrepresenting MIM and MIM 
Notes. Further, the paper engaged in sectarian argument; that is, 
criticized without bothering to investigate or struggle to get MIM 
to change its line and work with The Mirror (something we are 
still willing to do). Perhaps this letter can be the beginning of 
an exchange. You will find that, unlike many on the left, MIM does 
not fear criticism. We are confident in our views and willing to 
admit when we are wrong-something bound to happen often to any 
dynamic political organization. We hope The Mirror can do the 
same.

Oh, as for that line about MIM Notes being "the perfect pitch for 
angry youth devoid of and political insight eager to bond with the 
first anti-authority bid for their brain cells." Thank you. MIM 
finds that Amerikkka's youth are fed a steady diet of trash from 
the schools and TV, but that with a revolutionary Maoist newspaper 
in their hands, many of them wake up quickly to the facts of life. 
The anti-authority tendencies of the young in this country are one 
of the few signs of hope we have left.

In struggle,

MIM

* * *

LIBERALS WANT FREE TRADE'S RICHES

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is nearly 
completed, and it could be up and running by next year. Many 
Amerikan nationalists oppose it for fear of hurting the labor 
aristocracy-the white working class. More rational 
internationalists-including Bush, Clinton and the establishment 
media-understand that it will involve some growing pains, but will 
ultimately favor imperialism and thus provide more money for 
strengthening the bond between the bourgeoisie and the labor 
aristocracy.

A recent New York Times editorial tried to explain this.

NAFTA, it said, will mean that "Millions will save a few cents 
every time they buy orange juice, a few dollars on shirts and 
sweaters, and a few hundred dollars on automobiles."

The downside is that some thousands of manufacturing workers will 
lose jobs in the process.

"But such numbers can be misleading," the paper adds. NAFTA "won't 
affect the total number of jobs in the U.S., only their 
allocation. There will be more in banking and petrochemicals, 
fewer in textiles and glass."

In other words, the main point: "That means production will take 
place where it's cheapest, with the savings passed along to North 
Ameri[kkk]an consumers."

This is what infuriates the patriotic defenders of the white 
working class. They yell, "This will further divide rich and poor 
whites, and hurt the industrial working class!"

First of all, many labor aristocracy workers who get "laid off" at 
times like this are really just convinced to start collecting 
their retirement benefits (stored up overpayment) a little early. 
Others are handsomely compensated. Still, some might fall through 
the cracks.

Fortunately, liberalism (the Times) has an answer: "Dislocated 
workers ... will meanwhile need relocation assistance, retraining 
allowances, tuition assistance, and guaranteed medical insurance." 
Of course, that is expensive-billions of dollars-but Congress 
could pay for it "out of general revenues."

In other words again, NAFTA will mean the streamlining of profit-
making from imperialism, enough so to further subsidize the labor 
aristocracy, until the last vestiges of white production can be 
safely eliminated.

Imperialism would like to turn the white nation into a completely 
petty-bourgeois nation, which lives exclusively off the productive 
labor of the oppressed people of Third World nations.

The white working class, which hates work and worships 
consumerism, wants nothing more than to be truly and completely 
"middle class." And while they may not always appreciate it, their 
paternalist liberal leaders are trying to lead them on that very 
course.

-MC12

Notes: NYT 8/13/92, p. A22.

* * *

RACISM PAYS

A 65-year old white woman named Ruth Jandrucko has been awarded 
$50,000 in workers' compensation benefits because psychiatrists 
say she is scared to work with Black people. Jandrucko, who worked 
as a petty-bourgeois paper-pusher for a Florida photo-procession 
company, says she was mugged by a Black man. She suffered a broken 
vertebra in an attack six years ago, but no one was busted.

Jandrucko says she has no problem with Black women, or CNN 
announcer Bernard Shaw, although she is sometimes upset by Black 
men on TV, and has had panic attacks when near Black men in 
public.

Her lawyers say she suffers from post-traumatic stress syndrome, a 
"medical" condition, and has no control over her fears.

MIM recognizes that white Amerikans suffer from many emotional 
problems from living in this society. The Florida court's sympathy 
with her is truly sweet. What would it say to Black men who say 
they are psychologically forced by racist schools, TV and so on to 
mug rich white women? The oppressed are not likely to get the same 
treatment.

But paying people to avoid their racism is a luxury the oppressed 
will not be able to afford after seizing power. At that point 
someone like Jandrucko would likely be asked to perform productive 
labor in a Black-dominated workplace to get over her fears and 
climb out of parasitism.

-MC12

Notes: Washington Post 8/13/92, p. A3.

* * *

REVIEW: THE FAMINE WITHIN

Written, Produced and Directed by Catherine Gilday

by MA251

"Women's bodies are a symbolic arena where larger cultural battles 
are played out." ITAL The Famine Within END attempts to deal with 
one manifestation of this reality-the "ideal beauty myth" of 
Amerikan culture, and the way that trying to achieve this 
impossible ideal leads women down the path of self-destruction, 
keeping them obsessed with "self-esteem" rather than with 
liberation and the abolition of patriarchy.

Catherine Gilday barrages the viewer with statistics pointing out 
the depth of these problems today. Among the examples:

Seventy five percent of women in Amerika think they're overweight, 
while actually 45% are underweight. One-half of 9-year- old girls 
in California are dieting, and 80% of 4th graders are dieting. 
More startling, the majority of women fear being fat more than 
they fear dying.

As long as women are competing with one another for the attention 
of men, and looking down on other women who are "fat" or who don't 
aspire to the ideal beauty myth, patriarchy's control over women's 
minds and bodies will flourish. This film documents how well 
imperialism can colonize people's minds, through bombarding us in 
their media with fabricated and idealized images of ourselves.

We must build our own media to challenge the misogynist images 
sold to us by capitalism. While 80% of 4th grade girls already 
dislike their own bodies, the First World feminist movement has 
failed to get across to Amerikan women an understanding of 
patriarchy and misogyny, let alone build a movement to destroy 
these oppressions.

ITAL The Famine Within END is a film worth seeing, though its 
shortcomings mirror the fundamental shortcomings of the First 
World feminist movement as a whole: a total lack of analysis of 
class and nation differences among women. ITAL The Famine Within 
END focuses on the experience of relatively privileged white 
Amerikan women, and universalizes it to a discussion of all women. 
There is almost no reference made to the experience of Black, 
Latina, Asian, Indigenous or other oppressed women in relation to 
the "beauty myth" in this film.

In addition, ITAL The Famine Within END does not deal with the 
fact that a situation of economic abundance, as exists in the 
First World, is a precondition for problems such as anorexia. But 
focusing too narrowly on the problems women confront with the 
"ideal beauty myth" in the First World ignores the larger context 
of imperialist plunder of the Third World which generates the 
relative abundance that creates problems such as anorexia for 
Amerikan women.

* * *

UMASS ADMINISTRATION SQUELCHES MAOIST INTERNATIONALIST MOVEMENT 
(MIM)

Over the summer, Administration officials informed a MIM 
distributor that MIM could not distribute its paper inside the 
Student Center.

The university has a policy that purportedly prevents obstruction 
of traffic: No literature can be distributed inside of any of the 
buildings unless the distributor is sitting at a table that 
students can approach. In the summer the university says it does 
not allow tabling, effectively prohibiting the distribution of any 
literature on campus during the summer months.

Several days before MIM was told to leave, Bay Bank and Shawmut 
Bank both had tables set up in the student center and were 
actively handing out bags of literature.

Unlike Bay Bank, MIM is not a wealthy corporation that can buy the 
policies it wants from UMass. MIM struggled with the administrator 
over this inconsistency in the policy. The administrator 
responded: "The world is filled with inconsistencies, if we did 
not have inconsistencies we would live under fascism."

MIM does not define a world of equality as fascism, but to someone 
who profits from capitalism (from Bay Bank and Shawmut among 
others), this fear of equality (losing privileges gained at the 
expense of others) is understandable.

MIM does not suggest that there really is equal access to free 
speech under the current system of inequalities, but MIM will 
struggle to gain the "right" to distribute its literature in all 
public  places.

MIM will be heard on the UMASS campus.

Struggle with, work with and join MIM.

* * *

MAOISM IS THE PEOPLE'S CHOICE IN PERU

by MC86

In Peru, the bloated regime of Alberto Fujimori dangles from the 
tree of imperialism like a corrupted fruit bursting with the 
people's blood. Today the Peruvian people, led by the Communist 
Party of Peru (PCP), are plucking this fruit and eating it-turning 
the old, rotten Peru of the conquistadores into the new, socialist 
"People's Republic of New Democracy."(1)

On July 22-23, the PCP led a nationwide strike and school boycott 
and shut down Peru.(2)

The following week, Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori 
intensified martial law in Peru and unleashed helicopters, armored 
cars and infantry troops against the 4 million-strong populace in 
the shantytowns surrounding Lima.(2) On July 30, Nicaragua 
announced plans to sell 12 Soviet-built attack helicopters for $25 
million to the Peruvian regime "to help the government fight drug 
trafficking and a rebel insurgency."(3)

In an attempt to gloss over his own well-documented genocidal 
mania, Fujimori then praised Amnesty International for listing 
armed actions in the People's War as "terrorism."(4)

On July 28, Fujimori broke a 171-year-old bourgeois tradition and 
failed to show up for Peruvian "independence day" celebrations. He 
also claimed that the PCP was working with "international 
mercenaries" when Lima's residential area of Miraflores was bombed 
on July 16. The 1,320 pounds of dynamite and plastic explosives 
packed in two cars killed 21 people that day.(4) Three hundred 
middle-class homes, 500 shops, 13 banks, four luxury hotels, 60 
cars and seven shopping centers were destroyed or damaged.

Terrorism vs. people's justice

The PCP has initiated more than 150,000 actions since taking up 
armed struggle in 1980.(5) The PCP takes credit for mass-approved 
actions. The bourgeois media often tries to tar the PCP with 
responsibility for brutalities committed by the Peruvian state and 
non-Maoist focoist groups. Although news from Peru is distorted 
and censored, astute observers can separate revolutionary actions 
from political disinformation.

On June 5, a car bomb destroyed Frecuencia, a private television 
station in Lima.(2) Good riddance.

On July 12, a judge with a history of freeing police accused of 
mass murder was executed on a bus 230 miles southeast of Lima. 150 
miles northwest of Lima, in Huanuco, three security police were 
selectively annihilated while pigging out in a restaurant.(6) 
People's justice at work.

The revolutionary People's War led by the people's acknowledged 
vanguard-the PCP-is a movement of the masses. The PCP and the 
masses do not engage in idle terrorism or slaughter of the 
innocent.

In contrast, since 1980, the Peruvian government's police and 
military have often disguised themselves as "Senderistas" and 
committed horrible atrocities upon the masses in vain attempts to 
discredit the PCP.

"Not a single revolution has come about without having to fight 
against the gigantic publicity machine of the major imperialist 
powers and the establishment. To give an historical example, when 
the Bolsheviks took power in 1917, the Western press not only said 
they tortured the Russian people, but even accused them of eating 
their children," said Luis Arce Borja, editor of the pro-PCP 
underground newspaper El Diario.(7)

The PCP has described its policy of successful "armed shutdowns" 
as a combination of "work stoppages, halting commerce and 
transport, guerrilla assaults and ambushes, sabotage, selective 
annihilations, agitation and propaganda and violent mass 
confrontations with the forces of order."(8)

"Revolutionary political power is for those who have never had any 
power at all in their whole lives, for those who have been the 
most lowly and scorned of society, though they carried the country 
on their backs: the workers and peasants, along with progressive 
forces from the middle classes ... the joint dictatorship of four 
classes," says the PCP.(9)

It is therefore unlikely that the PCP would risk alienating 
potential and actual middle-class allies by destroying middle-
class neighborhoods. Unlike the genocidal leadership of the 
200,000-strong official police and military forces, PCP forces do 
not torture prisoners or engage in wanton murder. This is one 
thing which helps inspire so many government soldiers to defect to 
the PCP and become good cadres.(10)

"In terms of logic, no guerrilla army can grow and develop if it 
kills its own people ... It is certainly true that there are 
executions by the PCP of elements of the army, the police, the 
paramilitary groups, of corrupt authorities and of activists of 
the United Left..."(7) The revisionist United Left currently serves 
in high-level positions in Fujimori's regime.

The war escalates

Last year the PCP completed the 11-year stage of the Strategic 
Defensive and the building of liberated, socialist base areas in 
two-thirds of the countryside. The People's Guerrilla Army (PGA) 
and its Party are now concentrating the armed forces of the people 
during the shorter second stage of Strategic Stalemate.

As the Peruvian regime continues to collapse from within, the PCP 
is organizing the dispossessed urban proletariat into armed cells 
that will link together with the PGA in a mighty, mobile unity as 
the second stage transforms into a final stage: the Strategic 
Offensive. The united people will smash the reactionary state and 
achieve the liberation of the cities and the consolidation of the 
nationwide seizure of power.

Depending upon whether or not the United States is willing to pay 
the blood-price of invading Peru, this transformation into the 
third stage can occur very quickly. Given the current glut of 
Third World-produced export commodities, and the actual 
impossibility of imperialist victory in Peru (short of creating a 
nuclear wasteland); and the other strategic problems that monopoly 
capitalists face everywhere in the world today; the U.S. might not 
invade Peru. In that case the perpetual peace that Maoists seek 
will happen that much sooner.

As the shells of ex-"socialist" states are exposed as nothing more 
than restored capitalism, "The young revolutionary has only one 
place to run to. Maoism gives people something to do. Trotskyism 
was about waiting around and selling newspapers. I see Maoism 
coming back in a big way. Maoism has all the bits of popular 
appeal: a step-by-step guide to action, a sophisticated model for 
the study of revolutionary struggle in your own country."(11)

Notes:

1. The Prospect For The People's War In Peru, May 1991, Committee 
Sol Peru, 10b Homestead Rd., London, SW6 7DB England, p. 19.
2. UPI 7/29/92.
3. UPI 7/30/92.
4. UPI 7/28/92.
5. Prospect, p. 9.
6. UPI 7/12/92.
7. NACLA Dec.-Jan. 1990-91, p. 23.
8. Our Red Flag Is Flying in Peru, reprint from A World To Win, 
1990, CSRP/Chicago, p. 13.
9. Red Flag Is Flying, p. 10.
10. A World To Win 1992 #17, p. 15.
11. New York Times 5/24/92, quoting Bill Tupman, a British "expert 
on terrorism," p. 18.


* * *

MOYANO CASHED IN ON THE HUNGER OF THE PEOPLE

On February 15, Maria Elena Moyano, "Mother Courage," was killed 
in Lima. The press stirred up a major international campaign with 
this incident, to portray the Communist Party of Peru (PCP) as 
cold-blooded killers of the legal left in Peru. The following 
excerpts, translated and reprinted by the Committee to Support the 
Revolution in Peru, are from an article by Luis Arce Borja, exiled 
editor of El Diario International.

Copies of that monthly publication in English may be obtained from 
MIM for $1 cash or check made to "ABS."

... Moyano was a militant of the Movement for Socialist Affirmation 
(MAS), whose main leaders are Henry Pease and Rolando Ames. MAS is 
part of the United Left (IU), and together with the other members 
of this front pushed forward the electoral victory of Alberto 
Fujimori. Gloria Helfer, a militant of the MAS, was the minister 
of education in Fujimori's government. Since 1989 "Mother Courage" 
was the vice-mayor of Villa El Salvador. She represented the old 
Peruvian state. She occupied high positions in the administration 
of the people's cafeterias and the programs of the Glass of Milk 
Organizations created and directed by each one of the official 
political parties, the government, the Church, and the Non-
Governmental Organizations (ONGs).

Behind the facade of the glass of milk and the people's cafeterias 
is hidden the ideological and political manipulation of the 
masses. The objective is to maintain an enormous impoverished mass 
of people as beggars, without a critical spirit, without the will 
to fight, not thinking of anything higher than the next plate of 
food to be dispensed. Behind this "charity" and "donations" of 
food is hidden the true causes of hunger and misery for millions 
of Peruvians ...

Much has been said about "Mother Courage" and the people's 
cafeterias, but silence has been kept about her links to the 
counterinsurgency plans of the Armed Forces and the government. 
Organizing "rondas" to "confront Sendero" was Moyano's 
contribution to the military plans of the regime. ... [T]he rightist 
press has given it ample publicity. Long before her death, the 
magazine Caretas called her a "national civic heroine" for her 
activities in the formation of "urban defense groups."

On February 29, the Class Conscious Urban Slum Movement 
(Movimiento Clasista Barrial-an organization led by the PCP) 
issued a communique which was published in El Diario. It said: 

"Was she [Moyano] a people's leader? No! Just one of the 
superficial elite who cash in on the hunger of our people. From 
the start, she found her niche in the official state under the 
pretext of struggling for the people; creating and imposing new 
and crippling taxes on the small merchants and street vendors; 
creating the 'people's inspectors' in charge of collecting 
commissions; she only generated more abuse and corruption. She 
cashed in on land sales in the seventh sector that financed her 
electoral campaign in a wild and ambitious race for a seat in 
parliament. She had for herself: a cheese factory (Villa Chesses), 
a grain factory, as well as other hidden businesses..."

* * *

PUNK STRIKES OUT IN TWO WAYS

by MC12

At two consecutive weekends of punk political and cultural 
activity in Washington, D.C. at the end of July and beginning of 
August, the white punk movement demonstrated real revolutionary 
potential, but also showed how deeply it is currently mired in 
both reformism and anarchism. The reformism is a more advanced 
stage of political decadence, but it apparently represents what 
happens to the youthful anarchism if it is never organized for 
revolution. The "advanced," older leaders do a lot to retard 
potentially revolutionary development in this movement.

At its best, the movement trashes the whole system, at least 
making it possible for real revolutionaries to have some influence 
on people within the movement who want to go beyond just 
destroying the system. Many of these people enthusiastically buy 
MIM literature. At its worst, it is a preachy call to white self-
interest, and is therefore both harmful and useless to truly 
oppressed people.

A flyer from Positive Force, the organizers of the Punk Percussion 
Protest and concert which drew about 1,000 mostly young white 
people near the capitol on July 25, screams, "Revolution begins 
with you." But then it takes off after a bunch of recent Supreme 
Court decisions which will make life more inconvenient for 
privileged white people, as if the Court itself had not been a 
tool for genocide and exploitation since its creation.

The flyer even says, "The Court, once a strong protector of free 
speech, has increasingly swung towards tolerating stricter limits 
on expression." This kind of statement represents the ugly, 
privileged side of the white youth movement. Contact with, study 
and understanding of the lives of oppressed people-principally 
oppressed Black, Latino and indigenous nations-shows the emptiness 
of this kind of longing for better days gone by.

The organizers eventually descended into complete Democratic Party 
politics, when they emphasized "unless we act now, our society 
will be dominated for most of the rest of our lives by a Supreme 
Court that resembles a Moral Majority rogues' gallery." In other 
words (although the writers would likely object to this 
characterization), "You better vote for Clinton, gang, or white 
people are in trouble!"

The pamphlet did also mention rolling back affirmative action and 
the prison system as areas where the Supreme Court has ITAL 
recently END caused harm. A spokesperson for the League of 
Indigenous Sovereign Nations also addressed the crowd, demanding a 
seat at the United Nations for indigenous peoples. (MIM says: one 
seat?! We can do better than that.)

The pamphlet listed a handful of reformist, mostly Democratic 
Party groups such as the National Organization for Women, Amnesty 
International, the American Civil Liberties Union; as well as a 
few more progressive groups such as the Washington Peace Center 
and the D.C. Student Coalition Against Apartheid & Racism. Then it 
said: "If you don't like any of these, then start your own!"

This appears to be the work of a jaded leadership simply mimicking 
the angry alienation of its youthful counterparts; the list of 
organizations would then represent the decrepit state of the 
writers themselves, while the call to "start your own!" is a 
hollow echo of rebellious sentiment.

One young person interviewed by MIM at the rally explained of the 
Supreme Court, "I just think they're wrong. Maybe this'll do 
something to change their views on the world."

When pressed, however, he agreed that was unlikely. What about 
overthrowing the whole government and building a better society 
altogether?

"That could work, maybe..." although "greedy people are going to 
keep wanting the power."

So what do we do?

Eventually he conceded, "We have to organize and start a new 
culture."

At the concert, members of Riot Grrrl, an organization of angry 
young punk women, took the stage to explain its views on feminism 
and women's revolution. Women are oppressed the world over, one 
woman explained, and "that is why we must band together for a 
revolution that is our own."

"The revolution has started," she said, "and it is like no other ... 
it is a Grrrl revolution ... it is Grrrl power."

Prior to reviewing Riot Grrrl literature or conducting an 
interview, MIM won't yet assess Riot Grrrl as a whole. But MIM 
urges the militant women in this group to read and critique MIM 
literature and struggle over the revolutionary course for 
feminism, which means adopting the perspective of the world's 
truly oppressed.

The Riot Grrrl is also currently tailed by paternalist "pro-
feminist" men, who tell men, for example, to cross the street when 
walking near women at night. Men who have this condescending view 
of women will never be able to take women seriously as warriors, 
political leaders, or comrades. This is a kinder, gentler chivalry 
for which revolutionary women have no use.

At the Riot Grrrl convention the next weekend, a pamphlet called 
"Patriarchy Kills" lists "a few tips" on how men can stop rape, 
including: Don't laugh at sexist jokes, don't support sexist 
culture, support women who say they've been raped, don't blame 
women for rape, educate yourself and support self-defense for 
women, avoid being near women alone on the street at night (for 
fear that you might frighten them), demand that the State bust 
rapists harder ("Many authorities pay lip-service to such 
concerns-it's our job to see that they do more,") don't rape 
anyone, join them or groups like them.

The only good thing about this article was its statement that in 
order to not rape, men must "learn to communicate openly and 
honestly about your desires, and insist on that from your 
partner(s) ... Sex must be explicitly and mutually agreed upon, free 
from undue pressure, or it is rape." MIM agrees almost completely 
with this statement. But MIM knows that no sex under imperialist 
patriarchy is "free from undue pressure," and therefore it is all 
rape! MIM does not support the paternalistic efforts of chivalrous 
men to create a more acceptable form of rape, by, for example, 
"avoiding sex with anyone who is drunk or chemically impaired or 
too young or who otherwise may be vulnerable to you." It is not 
that simple.

The reformist side of this movement poses left and anarchist, but 
in reality is neither. It acts like it doesn't want to tell people 
what to do, but in fact it moves people toward empty reform 
struggles. The anarchist side is perhaps epitomized by a statement 
from one of the members of the band Bikini Kill, which played at 
the concert. 

"Everybody knows what to do," she said. "I don't need to tell 
you."

But if "everyone knows what to do," then why is there so much 
groping and confusion on the "left" about how to respond to the 
war on women? And why have no strategies advanced by the Amerikan 
"women's movement" succeeded in curtailing patriarchal domination?

MIM will continue to struggle on the fringes of this and similar 
movements, support what can be supported and try to salvage as 
many white Amerikan nationals as possible. Those young people who 
will hold themselves to the revolutionary standard of oppressed 
people in Amerika's internal colonies and in the Third World 
should consider themselves desperately needed for the revolution, 
and kiss the motherland good-bye.

* * *

SENECA NATION FIGHTS FOR SOVEREIGNTY

by MC17

On July 9 the New York Court of Appeals-the highest state 
court-ruled that New York could tax sales of gas and cigarettes to 
non-Indians made by indigenous businesses on reservations. As a 
result, gas companies cut off supplies to reservation businesses 
when the state threatened to tax the gas suppliers if the 
businesses did not pay. Ten of the Seneca nation's 16 councilors 
voted to defy the court order and look for another fuel 
supplier.(1)

This court decision, and the subsequent loss of business, led to 
several days of protests near the Allegany and Cattaraugus 
reservations south of Buffalo. Reservation members, predominantly 
Senecas, blocked traffic on several major roads, marching in 
native dress around Niagara square decrying white supremacy. Four 
hundred Senecas marched on the Southern Tier Expressway demanding 
a meeting with New York Governor Mario Cuomo before allowing the 
road to open. One sign at this protest read "Mario, if we give you 
taxes, you give us back [Western New York]"(2) The state police 
agreed to remove troops stationed on the Cattaraugus reservation 
if the Senecas would reopen the Southern Tier Expressway on the 
Allegany reservation.(3)

The Court of Appeals temporarily suspended a lower court ruling 
after the protests, with the matter to be taken up further on 
appeal. The retrial was postponed until September while the 
reservations are temporarily allowed to run their businesses tax 
free.

The 1942 Compromise Treaty at Buffalo Creek promised the Seneca 
Nation that their Cattaraugus and Allegany reservations would be 
protected from "all taxes."(4)

A Seneca nation-sponsored petition reads in part:

"The recent decision by New York State to collect sales taxes on 
cigarettes and fuel on our reservations not only violates 
centuries-old treaties between the federal government and the 
Seneca people, it violates the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"If they're going to break their treaties, that means there are no 
treaties, and that means New York state belongs to the Iroquois 
Indians," said a Seneca historian. "We'll claim the whole of New 
York state. That land is ours."

This treaty violation is not an isolated incident. Since Amerika 
was settled the Euro-Amerikan nation has continued to take land 
and lives from the indigenous people of this country. The treaties 
were the beginning of this process. MIM recognizes the right of 
all indigenous nations to self-determination and knows that 
Amerika owes a huge debt to the many Third World nations it has 
abused since its inception.

MIM supports the struggles of the Seneca nation and all indigenous 
nations against the settler Amerikan government's attempts to 
squeeze more land and money out of their reservations. The Senecas 
won a temporary victory through direct opposition to the New York 
state court decision. But the white Amerikan courts will never 
fairly judge indigenous people. This temporary victory will only 
be turned into a permanent victory when Amerikan imperialism is 
expelled from all the internal and external nations that it 
occupies, and the right to self-determination is returned to all 
indigenous nations.

Notes:
1. Buffalo News 7/10/92.
2. Buffalo News 7/17 p. A1 & 7/22.
3. Salamanca Press 7/17.
4. Buffalo News 7/22.

* * *

YAVAPAIS HOLD GROUND IN ARIZONA
by MC31

After the May 12 standoff between the Yavapai nation and the FBI 
(see MIM Notes 66) over the use of gambling machines on the 
reservation, the indigenous nation entered into negotiations with 
the Arizona state governor. The Yavapai people living on the Ft. 
McDowell reservation northeast of Phoenix, continue to stand their 
ground after the May raid by the FBI, and insist upon national 
sovereignty. Ron Dorchester, a member of the Yavapai nation, said: 
"The issue is self-government. Does the tribe have a right to 
self-government? And, I mean, once they take away those machines, 
what else are they going to come and take away?"(1)

MIM spoke with Yavapai tribal Chairperson Clinton Pattea about 
their current negotiations with the Arizona government. The tone 
of the conflict seems to have dampened since the Yavapai agreed to 
a cooling-off period and these negotiations.

"We need to get those machines back so we can start putting people 
back to work," Pattea urged. He also said that right after the 
raid there was a public opinion poll put out by several television 
stations that found that anywhere from 60-70% of the people 
supported the Yavapai position. "We were very encouraged about 
that. The governor was made aware of that, and that's why we have 
started our negotiations with him. Before that, he wouldn't talk 
about it."

MIM asked Pattea if he thought that real self-determination could 
come from negotiations with the state government, and made clear 
MIM's position that such negotiations are not going to work for 
the oppressed nations of this country. MIM believes that the 
people must organize and struggle against the Amerikan government. 
Pattea, however, repeatedly drew a distinction between the federal 
government, which passed the 1988 Indian Gaming Regulatory Act 
allowing gambling on reservations, and the Arizona government 
which is resisting an agreement with the Yavapai.

"The federal government would allow us to have gaming on the 
reservation ... All over Arizona there are Las Vegas nights and 
casino nights, and we just want the tribes to be able to do what 
[everyone else does]."

When asked if the American Indian Movement (AIM) and the League of 
Indigenous Sovereign Nations (LISN) were working in support of the 
efforts to get casinos back open on reservations, Pattea said that 
AIM members had been very helpful in coming to Arizona to speak on 
the issue, and he emphasized the importance of this support. 
Pattea also called for more public support in the Yavapai 
negotiation efforts with the state. He made clear, however, that 
the Yavapai are a sovereign nation and should be treated as such 
by Amerika.

Fighting the same struggle in Kansas

In addition to the struggle at Fort McDowell in Arizona, there are 
struggles against the government in Kansas as well-the Kickapoo 
nation is fighting to have casinos back on their reservation.

The Kansas Supreme Court has just ruled that indigenous nations 
must have compacts, or agreements, with the government in order to 
operate gambling casinos on their reservations. In 1987 the 
Amerikan Supreme Court ruled that since tribes are politically 
sovereign, they must be allowed to run their own economies, even 
if that includes gambling. The Kickapoo tribal chairperson Steve 
Cadue is fighting to make sure that the legislation is upheld by 
the state government-a lawsuit is pending and the Kickapoo nation 
is hopeful.(2)

MIM says, do not hold out too much hope on this imperialist 
Amerikan government! While MIM understands that at this time the 
tribal economies are in deep trouble and many indigenous people 
are unemployed, and that control of a gaming industry will employ 
many reservation members, we do not believe that this will bring 
true self-determination or self-sufficiency. Only a revolutionary 
communist movement which recognizes national liberation struggles 
as essential components will bring true power to the oppressed.

Notes:
1. National Public Radio, "Morning Edition," 6/11/92.
2. The Washington Post, 6/16/92.

* * *

A LETTER ON BAD RELIGION AND REVOLUTIONARY ART

An open letter to MA46

How goes the struggle in your city of bohemians, anarchists, java 
addicts and other social cretins who have yet to find Maoism and 
the People's War for Third World liberation? Too bad I haven't 
heard from you in some months-that is, unless you've become a 
communist on your own-because we have so much to discuss and 
writing is such a concrete way to work out ideas.

At present, I am writing a review of Bad Religion's recent disc 
Generator. It reminds me of several transitions in political 
thinking that I went through in the last five years: mainly that 
it espouses a lot of anti-war, punk-rock individualism. In its own 
way, punk is a rebellion, but it isn't an organized social 
movement, hasn't seized power or won any revolutions, and 
(although it is often cool and creative) it amounts to the 
privileged sons and daughters of the petty bourgeoisie exercising 
some of their inherited freedoms.

I have to hand it to Bad Religion; they said a mouthful with this 
record. The lyrics are packed into fast-paced songs and spelled 
out fully in the liner notes. In between the songs there are short 
quotes which set the context. I will just treat the first three 
songs which seem to represent the good, bad and ugly of Generator 
and punk rock generally.

To my mind the generator in the title track and first song is the 
imperialist system. It generates wealth in Amerika by sucking it 
out of other oppressed countries. The words-"Like a rock/like a 
planet/like a fucking atom bomb"-are Bad Religion's commentary on 
how out of it Amerikana really is. People here don't see much 
difference between a rock, planet or the A-bomb; thus, they don't 
see the "blood on my door" that the generator creates. Everything 
is taken for granted.

This is a cool song that will make "my generation" (as in the Pete 
Townsend quote that sets up the lyrics) think. Problem is, what 
will they do even if they realize that they are imperialist 
parasites? For their part, BR is honest about this in a later 
song: "No Bad Religion song can make your life complete." Yes, art 
is not enough.

"Too Much To Ask," the second song, is also strong, but much more 
nihilist. Its strength is directly addressing the plunder of the 
Third World. BR wants to know if clean drinking water, sufficient 
food and safe shelter are too much to ask. The band sees how the 
system operates:

no one can take much for granted any more
remote control
three cars for every family
corruption at the expense of the simple majority
a violent clash
a plunder of the third world
any wretched ploy that bolsters our economy
I ain't no blind supporter

In concluding that "you'd better not take it for granted any 
more," however, Bad Religion seems to have created some bad 
religion of their own. Again the question: What are we going to 
do? So many liberals want us to think globally and act locally. 
Even more "radical" liberals want us to feel really guilty for all 
our privileges and not feel good while appreciating the car and 
VCR and rich food.

The best we can hope for following BR's advice in "Too Much To 
Ask" is a sect that makes people pure through art that doesn't 
take the generator for granted. Art and propaganda are important 
parts of the revolution, but when they are divorced from a 
revolutionary party, they don't lead people anywhere but to 
religion or frustration.

I used to disagree with people constantly for the sake of 
argument. This taught me to be creative in that I had to defend 
all sorts of contradictory ideas. I thought I was being complex 
and avoiding the dominant twinkie/television culture.

Likewise, "No Direction" tells the masses that there are no 
leaders and that BR certainly has no answers. The lead singer 
blares, "I don't believe in self-important folks who preach ... 
prepare for rejection/you'll get no direction from me." In 
essence, anyone who actually had enough of an opinion to organize 
on the problems that BR preaches about, these punks would dub 
"self-important."

Now I know you have opinions on art and politics. So the question 
remains, will you write to MIM and struggle over the best way 
forward? Let us know how distributing the newspaper is going and 
of any other political struggle in which you are involved.

Relentlessly,
MC0

* * *

SUMMER FILMS: THE AC AIN'T WORTH THE DOUGH

by MC11
So which summer flick did you get suckered into? The one where the 
hero was a millionaire vigilante cop in a cape? Or the one where 
the hero was a millionaire Hollywood producer who enjoys mud 
baths? Or maybe it was the one that said revolutionaries are 
either dangerous paramilitary terrorists whose main goal is to 
assassinate the all-American family, or bought-off slobs willing 
to sell out their comrades at the slightest provocation.

THE PLAYER

ITAL The Player END was only a mildly annoying movie with some 
minor political value as a satire on Hollywood's ruling elite. The 
hero is a power-mongering jerk, and the audience knows it. The 
film tries to condemn the decadence and grotesque wealth 
associated with the movie industry. Unfortunately it is coopted by 
the industry itself, showing its liberalism and support of free 
speech by letting a bunch of its stars make cameo appearances and 
allowing such criticism of itself to be produced and distributed. 
The best scene is where the producer and his girlfriend lie in a 
bathtub covered with caked black mud, looking very dead. Not a bad 
commentary on their meaningless, vapid lives.

BATMAN RETURNS

But if you did go to a summer movie, you probably went to ITAL 
Batman Returns END, like everyone else who contributed to the all-
time record-high opening weekend gross profits on this cop movie 
in costume. Bad mistake. I mean, how much respect can you have for 
a supposed superhero who, after two-and-a-half hours of watching 
capitalist Max Schreck throw his secretary out the window and 
devise various schemes to make money off the backs of the people 
of Gotham, tells Catwoman, who has Schreck up against a wall: "We 
have to take him to jail." Or something equally law-and-orderish. 
Not much, is the answer. Batman, for all his shrouded mystery, is 
essentially a cop whose role is to protect the entrenched power 
structure-which not incidentally includes protecting Bruce Wayne's 
fortune from so-called "criminals" who might want to redistribute 
the wealth. Luckily, in the case of the capitalist, Michelle 
Pfeiffer chooses immediate electrocution over a jury trial.

Pfeiffer has the best line in this film. (Here at MIM we are 
always trying to find that silver lining in the cloud.) On her 
first prowl after having been transformed from a frumpy secretary 
to Catwoman, she comes across a woman being raped in a dark alley. 
She dispenses with the rapist, then looks contemptuously at the 
woman and says: "What were you waiting for? Batman to come along 
and rescue you?" MIM agrees that women should not appeal to cops 
and other men in power to rescue them from domestic violence and 
rape, especially since this tactic has been proven a failure. 
Rather, women should seize power for themselves. And contrary to 
the ITAL Batman Returns END message, power doesn't mean dressing 
up in a cat costume. It means joining a revolutionary party to 
overthrow the capitalist patriarchy.

PATRIOT GAMES

Of all this summer's films, MIM hated ITAL Patriot Games END the 
most. Harrison Ford, a former CIA agent, kills a member of a 
(supposedly Maoist) splinter group of the Irish Republican Army as 
he tries to gun down the Royal Family of imperialist Brittania. 
Now, while MIM comrades may not be able to help but rejoice in 
their hearts when the symbols of colonialism are brutally murdered 
by nationalist revolutionaries, the fact is we do not approve of 
such focoist actions. It merely sets the revolution back, as one 
wise IRA comrade told another member of the splinter group. But 
this whole infuriating movie is aimed at glorifying this jerk of a 
straight-arrow, perfect family man CIA agent and making the IRA 
look like they're off the deep end. Which they are, in this plot 
lacking the slightest semblance of reality.

When the brother of the guy who Harrison Ford kills breaks out of 
prison, he apparently abandons the revolution that he once put his 
life on the line for in order to pursue Ford across the Atlantic 
and avenge his brother's death. The whole thing is so improbable-a 
revolutionary group as well-organized and disciplined as the IRA 
would not allow themselves to be discredited by an individualist 
like this, it's almost laughable. Except there it is, in movie 
theaters all over the country, drilling such lies into thousands 
of previously open minds.

It really makes you recognize the need for a bigger and better 
propaganda machine than a monthly newspaper. Any film makers out 
there? Did we forget to note the movie failed to mention the CIA's 
history of orchestrating mass murders of Third World people and 
revolutionaries all over the globe? Well, it did.

UNFORGIVEN

In the spirit of silver linings, we've saved the best for last. 
Clint Eastwood, eminently qualified to criticize the 
individualist-macho-male-senseless-gun-shooting-violence ideology 
of the Western genre (by virtue of having exemplified it so well 
for so many years), has done just that in ITAL Unforgiven END. 
Amerikans have long romanticized The Cowboy and The West, part of 
their imperialist heritage that they made about a million movies 
of just to make sure they completely distorted the history of 
their conquest over the land's indigenous nations.

In ITAL Unforgiven END, Eastwood pokes fun at some of the West's 
most cherished images. One cowboy hero (Eastwood himself) can't 
seem to mount his horse, for example. Another would-be 
sharpshooter turns out to need glasses so bad he couldn't shoot a 
barn if he was two feet away from it. And so on. The film also 
attacks the notion of a "just" killing, where the audience can 
cheer guilt-free for the good guys in the white hats as they 
massacre a townfull of guys with black hats (or red skins). Life, 
the film says, is not so cheap as westerns have made it out to be. 
On the other hand, the film makes clear that the law, in the form 
of the town sheriff, cannot be depended on to enforce justice 
either.

MIM would argue that there are, in fact, just killings-though 
generally not of the western-variety. And when there is no 
justice, it is not enough to simply point that out and walk away, 
which is essentially what Eastwood does as a director. Justice 
must be created, otherwise the current system of injustice 
prevails.

* * *

BARBED WIRE AND SOCIALIZATION: DOUBLE PRISONS FOR WOMEN

By MA856

Women prisoners are treated very differently from men prisoners. 
Less money is allotted by the states for the maintenance of female 
prisoners because they are a "minority." Women prisoners are 
treated in a more childish manner than are men prisoners, simply 
because women prisoners are more passive than men prisoners.

Riots are extremely rare in female prisons, while they are very 
common in men's prisons. Men are more likely to file lawsuits than 
are women, who are more likely to retreat into depression. Women 
are trained from infancy to be pleasers of other people, to be 
"good girls," and to put the needs and desires of others ahead of 
their own ambitions. The psychological impact of this training 
does not dissipate once a woman is imprisoned. In fact, its effect 
becomes even more pronounced, because the woman is placed in an 
even more dependent state than she was in prior to imprisonment.

Consequently, she feels an even greater need to be accommodating 
so that she can be rewarded. This is not unlike the situation 
which many women submit to with their husbands and lovers. Any 
abuse which he inflicts on her is interpreted as her needing to be 
a better wife. She feels that if she could only cook better, look 
better, and keep a cleaner house that he would be happier and, 
therefore, would not beat her. When this woman is subsequently 
imprisoned, this attitude is simply shifted to the guards and 
warden. She feels that if she is a "model prisoner," she will not 
be mistreated.

The problem is that model prisoners do not file lawsuits, because 
prisoners who file lawsuits are considered trouble-makers, and are 
singled out for retribution. Model prisoners do not file 
grievances against conditions-that job is for trouble-makers, 
also. So women prisoners tend to acquiesce to things that male 
prisoners fight. Consequently, more attention is paid to male 
prisoners, more organizations are aware of their needs and 
struggles, and they get the bulk of whatever help is offered by 
these organizations.

Women tend to have more purely economic crimes than men-stealing, 
getting extra welfare checks, etc. However, most women who are 
convicted of violent crimes are convicted of violence against a 
family member-usually a husband or boyfriend, but often a child. 
These women are often the victims of violence themselves, for 
which they receive no mental health counseling during their 
imprisonment. Upon their release from prison, they are older, but 
just as mentally unbalanced.

Conditions in female prisons are very bad, but there is often not 
as much physical or overt violence as in male prisons. The 
psychological violence of confinement, however, is amplified among 
mothers who were often the sole caretaker of their children. If 
family and friends are unwilling or unable to care for these 
children-often for many years, the children become "wards of the 
state," and the mother may eventually lose custody of them.

In Illinois, the Dept. of Children and Family Services is 
notorious for failing to monitor the condition of foster homes. 
Children in the custody of DCFS are routinely neglected, abused, 
and shuffled around, and they may have as many as four or five 
different caseworkers in the course of one year. As a result, the 
imprisoned mother has no opportunity to establish a relationship 
with either the caseworker or the foster parents, and to ensure 
them of her continued interest in her children and her desire that 
they be brought to visit her.

These are problems that are more likely to impact female prisoners 
than men.

* * *

PRISONERS SPEAK OUT ON WRONGFUL CONVICTIONS

Thousands of Black men each year are shackled, jailed, and denied 
all control over their own lives as payment for sex crimes against 
white women that they did not commit. This is not new. The white 
nation has used sex as a pretext for lynching Black men since the 
first Africans were brought to Amerika to create wealth for white 
men and women with their labor. But it is not something that gets 
talked about much, even as white liberals wring their hands over 
the blatantly unjust L.A. verdict and whine all over the mass 
media about how to reform the court system.

The court system cannot, of course, be fundamentally reformed. The 
liberals just like to talk about it to make themselves feel 
better. But the reason even the usual reformist noises are not 
heard on the issue of sex offense convictions is because a huge, 
warped pseudo-feminist ideology has been constructed around the 
subject to obscure the harsh reality: Prisons are a tool used by 
the white nation to oppress other nations and keep economic and 
state power for itself. White women use this tool for this purpose 
when they accuse Black men of rape.

Sometimes Black men are accused and convicted of sex crimes when 
they have never even touched the woman in question, as in the 
cases of MA909 and 901 described below. And sometimes they have in 
fact had sex with the woman, only to find out later that she and 
the court system have determined it was the kind of sex punishable 
by years of imprisonment and heavy fines. Needless to say, they 
are not tried by a jury of their peers.

Under capitalism, where social inequality makes uncoerced sex 
impossible, rape is defined as a crime only when it serves the 
interests of the white nation. According to the U.S. Department of 
Justice, 22% of the people convicted for raping white women are 
Black. (See table). Since Blacks account for only about 12% of the 
population, and people generally have sex with (and rape) those of 
their own nation, this number is extremely skewed-even assumi