The paper tigers for this issue were corrupted, and Under Lock and Key is missing.--mim5@mim.org

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

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         THE MAOIST INTERNATIONALIST MOVEMENT

  MIM Notes 70                      NOVEMBER, 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. GUZMAN MAY HAVE BEEN CAPTURED, BUT GONZALO THOUGHT 
   IS STILL FREE
2.  GONZALO'S CAPTURE ASKS: WHO MAKES HISTORY?
3.  UNDER ATTACK, LATINOS FORGE UNITY
4.  LETTERS
5. CAPE VERDE HISTORY
6.  "FREE" ELECTIONS BREED CORRUPTION IN CAPE VERDE
7.  [supposed to be PAPER TIGERS, but corrupted file]
AMERIKAN CULTURE:
8. REVIEW: SOUTH CENTRAL
9. N.Y. GUARDIAN BITES THE DUST
10. MS. MAGAZINE TRASHES PCP IN THE NAME OF "FEMINISM"
11. THE "NEW" SOUTH AFRICA LOOKS A LOT LIKE THE OLD


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


* * *

GUZMAN MAY HAVE BEEN CAPTURED, BUT GONZALO THOUGHT IS STILL 
FREE

On October 7 a secret Peruvian military court sentenced 
Abimael Guzm‡n to life imprisonment for treason. Guzm‡n is 
also known as Chairperson Gonzalo of the Central Committee 
of the Communist Party of Peru (PCP). Also sentenced to life 
imprisonment were Elena Iparraguire, Walter Vargas and eight 
other PCP cadre who were captured with Gonzalo at a house in 
Lima on September 12.

The People's War in Peru cannot be killed if one or a few 
leaders are captured. The liberation of Peru can only be 
undone by a slip into revisionism and the abandonment of the 
decisive political line which the masses have written in 
their own blood. The strategy and tactics of the revolution 
in Peru do not depend upon the leadership of one individual, 
but on the strength of the masses.

PERUVIAN "PRESIDENT" SENTENCED TO LIFE IN PRISON

by MC121

On October 7 a secret military court sentenced Abimael 
Guzm‡n, or Chairperson Gonzalo, of the Central Committee of 
the Communist Party of Peru (PCP), to life imprisonment for 
treason. Also sentenced to life imprisonment were Elena 
Iparraguire, Walter Vargas and eight other PCP cadre who 
were captured with Gonzalo at a house in Lima on September 
12.(1)

Gonzalo's trial took place in a navy base on the coastal 
island of San Lorenzo. His lawyer, Alfredo Crespo, was not 
allowed to present a defense-the verdict came as no 
surprise. Although Peruvian law does not contain a death 
penalty, the Peruvian state does have a practice of 
murdering captured revolutionaries.

The capture of Chairperson Gonzalo has not stopped the 
advance of the people's war in Peru. At least two-thirds of 
the countryside has been self-liberated and turned into 
socialist base-areas by the masses and the PCP. Forty-seven 
percent of Peru's 22.6 million people, including the 6.4 
million residents of capital city Lima, live under direct 
fascist military rule by a decrepit Amerikan-backed regime 
desperate to crush the most successful revolution in the 
world today.(2) Lima is on the brink of explosion.

Imperialism bleeds too

International finance capital is addicted to the narco-
dollars-gathered by the Peruvian state apparatus-to service 
the never-ending interest on a growing debt of $20 
billion.(3)

Three days after Gonzalo's capture the transnational 
Southern Peru Copper Corporation announced cash dividends to 
its shareholders of $60 million for the previous six 
months.(4) Ten days after Gonzalo's capture the Inter-
American Development Bank loaned Peru $221.83 million to 
"help" Peru pay interest due on the revolving door of debt-
extortion.(5) Imperialism continues to prop up the Peruvian 
banking system in order to keep the cash flow of coca and 
copper dollars pumping into foreign accounts.

But despite short-term profit-taking, the transnationals can 
never "stabilize" Peru-or the rest of revolutionary Latin 
America.

Bankers cannot buy off the revolution in Peru; nor can the 
incarceration of Comrade Gonzalo stem the development of the 
People's War.

"Just two days after Guzm‡n's arrest, Shining Path 
detachments were back strutting with rifles and painting 
graffiti-no security forces in sight-in shanty-towns just 
ten miles from [Peruvian President] Fujimori's government 
palace."(6)

On the day of Gonzalo's sentencing a PCP communique stated, 
in part, "We will freeze your laughter. Death to the 
civilian and military judges and district attorneys, 
anonymous or not."(1) On this day five powerful bombs 
exploded in government buildings as police and soldiers were 
cut down by communists who then seized their weapons and 
escaped.(7)

Armed PCP actions continue to paralyze capitalist 
institutions all over Peru (8) and even the bourgeois media 
is forced to admit that Gonzalo's capture is but one chapter 
in the People's War.

"Some analysts now argue that with Guzm‡n in jail, his 
movement is beheaded-doomed to disintegrate. But others 
point to the highly compartmentalized and clandestine 
structure of [the PCP] organization, noting that probably 
not more than a few dozen guerilla fighters have ever met 
Guzm‡n and that they can and will keep on fighting just fine 
without him."(6)

The bourgeois media played up Gonzalo's capture and 
practically ignored the kangaroo trial. In this, the 
international bourgeoisie is simply abiding by its 
increasingly vital dictate to try and keep under wraps the 
most explosive secret of our times: Maoism works!

Most of the capitalist media slanders the PCP as "narco-
terrorists" and baby-butchers. These flacks claim, with no 
substantiation, that the PCP has murdered 25,000 Peruvians. 
The Peruvian government's own current figures for total 
deaths during the revolutionary war that began in 1980 are:

presumed "subversives"-11,872
civilians-10,286
soldiers and police-2,095
narcotics traffickers-264 (9)

This is a ratio of 10 peasants and PCP cadre killed for 
every well-equipped pig. Even Amnesty International admits 
that the Peruvian government slaughters the peasant 
population on a daily basis. And yet the people's revolution 
continues to triumph step by step in the face of organized 
state terrorism.

The magazine ITAL Covert Action END (no particular friend to 
revolutionary Maoism) comments:

"To characterize Sendero as narcoterrorist is to misread the 
movement. Sendero's involvement in the traffic is only a 
means to an end: the destruction of capitalism in Peru and 
its replacement with a Cultural Revolution-vintage Maoist 
state ... [Actually, the PCP protects peasants from the 
narcotrafficking state regime, Amerikan Drug Enforcement 
Administration troops and drug-dealing Green Berets-as well 
as from the Columbian drug warlords.]

"To achieve its vision, Sendero has embarked on a patient, 
methodical, and ruthless 'prolonged people's war,' combining 
careful political work with extreme but calculated violence. 
The party possesses a chilling 'rationality' ... With cold 
calculation, ideological coherence, superb organization, and 
fierce determination, Sendero has become the world's most 
effective revolutionary movement ... [W]ithin the confines of 
its [Maoist] orthodoxy ITALIC the party displays a most 
undogmatic tactical acuity and flexibility, even brilliance. 
END

"In 12 years of armed struggle, the insurgency has grown 
from making isolated attacks on remote Andean villages to a 
self-proclaimed, but undisputed 'strategic equilibrium' with 
the Peruvian military in large reaches of the country. At 
present, conservative analysts estimate that 25 to 40 
percent of the country is under Sendero control. Sendero is 
equally adept at administering its 'New Power;' its 
structures are complex, extensive, and redundant. As [a U.S. 
government study] noted, 'targeting such a parallel 
political infrastructure, under ideal conditions, is a 
difficult task. In view of Shining Path's current level of 
institutional development ... the task may now be impossible, 
with or without U.S. military assistance.'"(10)

Thank you,  ITALIC Covert Action END, for spelling out the 
situation so clearly. The Amerikan left has lagged far 
behind the imperialists in recognizing the effective power 
of a people's revolutionary movement guided by the 
scientific lessons of Maoism.  The PCP has led the 
international communist movement by example in recognizing 
and acting upon the fact that the principal revolutionary 
movement in our world is that of the oppressed nations 
against imperialism.

Maoists in Amerika know that the only real internationalism 
is to make revolution in your own country. Today, working 
with MIM's concrete analysis of the economic, political and 
cultural parasitism of the Amerikan white working-class, it 
has become possible for the people to create revolutionary 
organizations inside Amerika's oppressed nations. Through 
building independent power of the oppressed, our 
organizations will become capable of truly cementing the 
identity of the international proletariat.

Notes:
1. Los Angeles Times 10/8/92.
2. UPI 9/24/92.
3. El Diario Internacional Oct/Nov 1991, p. 15-16.
4. Business Wire 9/15/92.
5. Xinhua 9/25/92.
6. Village Voice 9/29/92, p. 23
7. UPI 10/7/92.
8. UPI 9/12/92 -10/9/92
9. El Pa’s 9/20/92.
10. Covert Action Fall 1992, p. 60; emphasis added.

* * *

GONZALO'S CAPTURE ASKS: WHO MAKES HISTORY?

by MC121

MIM has been criticized in some quarters for saying that the 
capture of Chairperson Gonzalo of the Communist Party of 
Peru will not decisively subvert the course of the people's 
revolution. Some of our critics have asked why MIM does not 
work with any of the committees that sprang into existence 
to "defend the life" of Comrade Gonzalo.

First of all, MIM wishes Comrade Gonzalo a long and 
productive life. Gonzalo and uncounted PCP comrades have 
brought forth a New Power in Peru that is an inspiration and 
a catalyst for worldwide Maoist-led revolution.

In solidarity with the PCP and the Peruvian masses, MIM 
strives to organize for revolution inside North Amerika. At 
this time, we do not join, nor do we attempt to lead, 
single-issue or mass organizations. These movements play a 
vital role in weakening imperialism; and assumption of 
leadership by communists inevitably results in the splitting 
and fragmentation of these movements.(2)

While we are building a vanguard party step by step, we 
recognize that the most advanced political groups in any 
given national formation are not necessarily Maoist groups. 
For instance, where Maoism does not yet exist, revolutionary 
nationalist organizations often take the lead in fighting 
and weakening imperialism.

Two-Line struggle

A hard-won fundamental lesson of Marxist-Leninist-Maoist 
mass struggle is that a new bourgeoisie is engendered in the 
top ranks of victorious communist parties-hence the 
necessity for a long period of overlapping mass Cultural 
Revolutions against capitalist restoration and ongoing 
patriarchal relations.

The PCP is the achievement of the Peruvian people. The 
Peruvian masses brought forth the Party, nurture the Party, 
die for the Party and are liberating their nation from 
imperialism through the Party. The masses, not individuals, 
are the makers of history.

The masses gave birth to Chairperson Gonzalo. The masses 
supported Gonzalo in the struggle against revisionism in the 
time of party-cleansing and preparation for the armed 
struggle. This general line became embodied in the "Thought" 
of Comrade Gonzalo-not simply of Professor Abimael Guzm‡n.

It is to the everlasting credit of Comrade Gonzalo and his 
contemporaries that the Peruvian People's War cannot be 
killed if one or a few leaders are killed. The liberation of 
Peru can only be undone by a slip into revisionism and the 
abandonment of the decisive political line which the masses 
have written in their own blood. The strategy and tactics of 
the revolution in Peru do not depend upon the leadership of 
one individual.

In a 1988 interview Comrade Gonzalo remarked that the two-
line struggle is the basis of party unity and that "a 
leadership cannot be improvised, it requires a long time, a 
hard striving, an ardent struggle to forge a leadership 
..."(3) Gonzalo did not pump up his personal command in this 
interview, rather, he emphasized that it is the leadership 
of the party organism that is principal.

When asked if he had "any kind of fear?" Gonzalo replied: 
"What could be the greatest fear? To die? As a materialist I 
believe that life will end some day, what is foremost to me 
is to be an optimist, with the conviction that the work to 
which I am committed others will continue and will carry it 
on until the fulfillment of our definite task: Communism.

"Because the fear that I could have is that the task would 
not be continued; but this fear dissolves when one trusts 
the masses. I think that the worst fear, in the end, is not 
to trust the masses, to believe that one is indispensable, 
the center of the world. And if one is forged by the Party 
with the proletarian ideology, principally Maoism, he will 
understand that the masses are the ones that make history, 
that the Party makes revolution, that the advance of history 
is determined, that the revolution is the principal trend; 
the fear disappears from him, and remains only the 
gratification of being mortar, and together with other 
mortar serve to put the groundwork so that some day 
Communism may shine and illuminate all the Earth."(4)

When the secret police caught Chairperson Gonzalo, he 
remarked, "My turn to lose." Gonzalo understands that his 
imprisonment or death does not spell the end of Gonzalo 
Thought. Presented to the media in a cage on September 24, 
Gonzalo defiantly sang the ITALIC Internationale END even as 
the PCP "detonated bombs in the portals of at least six 
branches of Banco de Credito, Peru's leading financial 
institution."(5)

Personality cults

Mao Zedong basically disavowed the personality cult that the 
treacherous Lin Biao created around him during the Cultural 
Revolution. He remarked, "To be a genius is to be a bit more 
intelligent. But genius does not depend on one person or a 
few people. It depends on a party, the party which is the 
vanguard of the proletariat. Genius is dependent on the mass 
line, on collective wisdom ... I am no genius."(6)

Marx wrote, "Neither of us [Marx or Engels] cares a straw 
for popularity. A proof of this is, for example, that, 
because of aversion to any personality cult, I have never 
permitted the numerous expressions of appreciation from 
various countries with which I was pestered during the 
existence of the International to reach the realm of 
publicity, and have never answered them except occasionally 
by a rebuke. When Engels and I first joined the secret 
Communist Society we made it a condition that everything 
tending to encourage superstitious belief in authority was 
to be removed from the statutes."(7)

The creation of international public opinion highlighting 
the ongoing achievements of the PCP is an honorable task for 
communists. Even if the reaction murders Guzm‡n, the 
revolution in Peru will continue to unfold.

May the strength of the masses always be with you, Comrade 
Gonzalo.(8)

Notes:
1. MIM Notes 69 10/92.
2. Write to MIM for a reading list on the history of 
settler-radicalism in Amerika.
3. Interview to Chairman Gonzalo, PCP Central Committee 
1989, p. 26.
4. Ibid., p. 150.
5. UPI 9/24/92.
6. Stuart Schram, ed., ITALIC Chairman Mao Talks to the 
People END, p. 293.
7. Karl Marx in Robert Tucker The Marx-Engels Reader, 2nd 
ed., p. 521.
8. Write to MIM for the essays ITALIC On Personality Cults 
END and ITALIC Lessons in Single Issue Organizing: Mass 
Organizations and the Vanguard Party END ($2 each postpaid). 
We also distribute a ITALIC Study Pack on Peru END ($15.00 
postpaid) and other PCP materials. Copies of the video 
ITALIC The People of the Shining Path END ($20 postpaid) may 
be obtained from the CSRP, P.O. Box 1246, Berkeley, CA 
94701. Spanish materials may be obtained from Committee to 
Support the Peruvian People (CSPP), P.O. Box 216, Paterson, 
NJ 07524. The excellent bulletin ITALIC Peru Scholars/News 
and Notes END may be obtained from Peru Scholars, Dept. of 
Sociology, University of Northern Colorado, Greeley, CO 
80639. The September 1992 PS/N&N states that, as far as is 
known, "no organization in the United States has been 
generated by the PCP's ITALIC Movimiento Popular del Peru 
END, as have several groups in Europe." MIM does not yet 
know what has happened to the European ITALIC Sol Peru 
Committees END or ITALIC El Diario Internacional END since 
Fujimori requested deportation of Peruvian revolutionaries 
living abroad; with one exception: According to the October 
19 issue of the Boston Globe, Sweden decided to deport a 
contingent of vocal sympathizers of the PCP.

* * *

UNDER ATTACK, LATINOS FORGE UNITY

National liberation struggle focuses the energy of the 
masses against imperialism and the state. Wherever national 
liberation leads, the movement starts to make sense on all 
kinds of issues.

On the heels of an interview with the rap group Subversive 
Element, MIM returns to Massachusetts to get to know a new 
and growing revolutionary Latino movement, the Messengers.

One leader, CIA (Chicano In Action) says, "The first issue 
is to throw the cold water on the face of your people, wake 
them up, and point them in the right direction."

And sooner or later, he adds, "The government turns around 
and sees you making a unified and collaborative effort to 
make changes here. That's when you become a subversive, 
that's when you become an operation to undermine a 
government, and that's when you can hear knees shaking in 
the White House."

Drill Sergeant believes the oppressed nations have to start 
with their own unification. "Revolution has to come from 
within. It can't come from without. If we're not ready as a 
people to come together, there's no way we're going to do a 
revolution."

MIM says, the time to build for that unified and 
collaborative effort, the time to make that revolution, is 
already upon us.


THE MESSENGERS: LATINO LIBERATION STRUGGLE
by a comrade

In MIM Notes 67, MIM published an interview with CIA 
(Chicano in Action), a leader of the rap group Subversive 
Element. CIA is also a leader of the Messengers, a growing 
revolutionary movement of predominantly young Latinos. In 
this issue MIM follows up with a greater emphasis on the 
Messengers themselves. A comrade interviewed Drill Sergeant, 
and CIA again, in Holyoke, Mass. Excerpts follow.

Drill Sergeant

MIM: What is the message of the Messengers?

Drill Sergeant: From my point of view, I think the message 
of the Messengers is to empower the Latino people in a 
positive way, to educate them more about Puerto Rican 
history and their culture, so that they can become more 
attuned with what's going on in this society, and what 
actually is happening in their environment that's causing 
all the problems...

When I come I speak to them about Pedro Albizu Campos, the 
Puerto Rican revolutionary leader that made an impact on the 
island of Puerto Rico. I talk to them about the Taino 
Arawaks that were extinct due to Spanish conquest in Puerto 
Rico and the Caribbean region, as well as Central and South 
America. So that's my job here, so they feel good about 
themselves as a people.

MIM: How would you describe the political state of the 
people, in terms of who's ready for a revolutionary 
movement?

DS: Revolution has to come from within. It can't come from 
without. If we're not ready as a people to come together, 
there's no way we're going to do a revolution. Because a lot 
of people think of revolution in a negative kind of way. I 
look at a revolution from an intellectual point of view. A 
revolution has to be brought in when people think the same 
way, they all share the same common interests and concerns. 
Not having people come together with different interests and 
different agendas. People have to be together and think 
about one thing: Latino empowerment. Because right now the 
majority of Messengers are Latinos, but we're hoping that 
other people-Afro-Americans, Native Americans, Asian 
Americans, maybe some white people-come and join us so that 
we could be more united and understand each other's point of 
view.

We could do a revolution if we understand the concepts of 
Mao, of Guevara, of Castro, and other people who have made 
an impact on this society. We don't want, y'know-revolution 
is not all about violence. Revolution is about making a 
change, of making people aware of the things that are 
imposing on us, like people looking on us in a negative type 
of way, of stereotyping us as gangs. We're not a gang, we're 
a classroom. We're here to teach people, get them out of the 
streets.

MIM: MIM has described America as being a dominant nation 
with internal nations or colonies inside it, and that's one 
of the best things for applying Maoism in terms of national 
liberation struggle. Is national liberation the way you look 
at this?

DS: Yes, I think liberation, within the Messengers, within 
the Latino people, from the Pioneer Valley, from around the 
United States and hopefully around the world, is the way to 
go. Because we have to liberate ourselves from the 
environment. This negative-it feels like the type of 
environment that the majority of Latinos live in, from the 
lower income class, is that they're trapped, they can't get 
out of the dependency mode.

We can't live like that anymore. We have to structure our 
lives and look beyond. Because I believe that if we all 
educate ourselves-because the majority of Messengers are 
between 14 to 19, and there's some older ones too, but most 
of them have dropped out of high school-so we tell them to 
educate themselves and that's one way, that's a step toward 
freedom, toward liberation.

MIM: Within the U.S. MIM has talked about the Black Panther 
Party as being the last revolutionary vanguard movement that 
was a movement in Amerika. You talked before about Albizo 
Campos and the Puerto Rican struggle. What other kind of 
inspiration or history do you look at for motivation?

DS: I also go into the Chinese Revolution-Mao Zedong-and 
also the Bolshevik Revolution: little revolutions that 
happened in the 20th century that have made a change. But we 
have to focus on our own struggle, the Latino revolution, 
first. We look at those as models, to look up to, to get 
information from, to get knowledge from, but we have to come 
with our own concept of what we perceive as a revolution.

CIA

MIM:  How do you see the role of education and ideology in 
the political development of the people?

CIA: I see that we take what we have, which is a common 
knowledge, that surpasses what most people have in this 
community by virtue of the fact that that knowledge is not 
easily accessible to them. Our purpose here is to be the 
tool for them to gain that knowledge. I mean, if the city is 
working against the community, to deny them that 
information, then it is our duty, for our community, to 
inform them.

MIM: So one of the things going on here is miseducation or 
counter-education in the public schools. That's a lot to go 
up against. People spend a lot of years in school.

CIA: Oh yeah. Well we witness a lot of ignorant things here. 
We have students even in the Messengers who want to learn, 
they realize that the system as far as education goes wasn't 
built to be attractive to Latin Americans students, and yet 
we encourage them to learn it anyway, to get through it, 
because it wasn't meant for them to get through. And yet, 
even though they have the desire, they have come up against 
obstacles like being denied the right to sit down in a 
classroom  as a result of not paying a $20 fine for a book. 
... The effort to keep students in is not as much of a 
concern to them as to keep them out.

MIM: There's cross purposes where the people want education 
and the state wants social control...

CIA: I think they're the same thing. I think that in this 
society the idea of education is social control. How could 
it not be? I mean, if it doesn't represent this community, 
the Latin American community, if it doesn't represent them, 
it represents something else, then they are thereby 
controlling what they learn, and controlling how they react 
in society. If they don't swallow it, then they're going to 
react in society as something ... they're going to act lost. 
When you act lost, and when you act like you're dying and 
you're throat is cut, you're going to run around in a 
confused state, having mindless actions about you. You're 
going to do some mindless things. And that's exactly a 
control there itself. They let you run around mindless, and 
at the same time they got the control over what you look 
like in society. So I think it's the same thing.

MIM: I want to talk about this gang thing a little bit, 
because drug trafficking and a lot of other crimes against 
the people do go on; at the same time we've taken the 
position that those are disputes among the people for the 
people to work out, and that the state coming in and 
condemning gangs, the mainstream media coming in and 
condemning gangs, will create more of a negative effect than 
a positive effect in terms of combatting any actual 
problems. Does that make sense?

CIA: That makes perfect sense. [laughs] Think about it. I 
know for a fact that in this particular city $500,000 was 
asked for by the police department in order to increase 
enforcement, an additional $3,000 to make sure that they had 
foot officers in the schools, and $5,000 for a DARE ["anti-
drug"] program. Now, that might seem all good and well to 
help out the efforts of the police force to "police"-and 
that's a strong word-the community, but the community isn't 
actually seeing any of that money. The community could use 
some of that money for reparations to its own buildings, to 
its streets, to its school system for books.

MIM: The majority of the white public and the white media 
does not make a distinction between "good" oppressed people 
organizing, and "bad" oppressed people organizing. Oppressed 
people organizing for themselves, they have a label for it 
now, they call it gangs, they assume it's about drugs and 
terrorism...

CIA: Exactly.

MIM: We're dealing with that now with the revolution in 
Peru. The story is that they're really just drug 
traffickers. But if you go back and look at history, you 
look at China, the Russian Revolution, whatever, and look at 
what the Amerikan press said-they said they were terrorists 
every time.

CIA. Exactly. I mean, I'm pretty clear-headed when it comes 
to things like that. I know the difference between the 
bandit that Poncho Villa was supposedly and the 
revolutionary that he actually was [Pancho Villa was a 
Mexican revolutionary who led an armed uprising from 1913 
till he was killed in 1923.]...

And in terms of what we're doing out here, they don't want 
us to be united. OK, once we're united as a community-I'm 
speaking on Latin America, I'm not just speaking for Puerto 
Ricans alone or Mexicans alone, or Colombians alone, 
etc.-you talk about pan-Latin Americanism where you're not 
just dealing with 16.3 million Mexicans in the United 
States, and then you start dealing with a community of close 
to 100 million, the government turns around and sees you 
making a unified and collaborative effort to make changes 
here, that's when you become a subversive, that's when you 
become an operation to undermine a government, and that's 
when you can hear knees shaking in the White House.

When we speak about the white man, we don't speak about the 
white man in terms of the person that you see every day. I 
mean, why would I want to go and attack a puppet, when I can 
get the puppeteer? There's a difference...

The first issue is to throw the cold water on the face of 
your people, wake them up, and point them in the right 
direction. Once you get them going in the right direction, 
and not to the side-oh, the police force is wrong; oh, 
education is wrong; oh, health care is wrong, they're all 
problems within those institutions. But, they're just on the 
string of the puppeteer. And if you keep going headlong, 
then you're going to see a battle. Too many people get 
sidetracked about the results of the efforts of the persons 
in charge of the system.

MIM: You get caught up fighting symptoms instead of fighting 
the problem.

CIA: Exactly.

* * *

LETTERS

AFRICAN AMERICANS NEED INDEPENDENT MEDIA

Dear MIM,

I went to the Eye Gallery in San Francisco today. It's where 
they exhibit the pictures supposedly taken by homeless 
children of their surroundings. A guy named Hubbard started 
this program and I'm sure it may have some good points to 
it. However, Hubbard is a white male and I'm sure it's like 
almost every other program designed and run by white males 
for Blacks and other people of color. Most of the real 
benefits and economic fall-out will go to the white males.

So what happens to the children in this program when Mr. 
Hubbard and his friends and associates have accomplished 
what they want from this-or tire of it? What will these 
children do with all they've learned? Who will hire them for 
their experience even though they are twice as good as their 
white counterparts?

African Americans that know the past know this, and African 
Americans that are really aware of their surroundings today 
know this. That is why when you see a few people struggling 
against the huge power of the System, like HUD and their 
rich and powerful management companies, we applaud them. We 
can even applaud the Eye Gallery. We understand they still 
have a little faith in the System because they think it may 
be only a few bad people in HUD and a very bad management 
company like John Stewart's. But do they realize the power 
of oppressed people?

White men control the media and the mainstream art and even 
many supposedly radical newspapers.

We have to have our own media to keep tabs on what is going 
on and to keep people from becoming victims of the terrible 
violence that the powerful are able to carry-out in 
situations like at Geneva Towers. Children, single-mothers 
and courageous older men are perceived as a threat to the 
system in God-forsaken places like Geneva Towers. And they 
are.

They seem not to be afraid, saying I'd rather die fighting 
than being a slave. These people seem to truly understand 
the System with its built-in racism. Geneva Towers Manager, 
Security and Maintenance Head all look like they could have 
been neighborhood pimps of sorts a few years back. So it is 
no wonder why these kind of men would be just the right type 
to put in a den of women and children. These men can easily 
be into almost anything. So there is no surprise when sexual 
harassment and brutality and child molestation is accepted.

-MA63
August 1992


MIM PUSHY ABOUT MONEY

Dear MIM,

Your representative to the study group would make a good 
used car salesperson. His/her hardline sell really put me 
off, especially his/her pressure for donations. (Does s/he 
sell caddies for GM?)

I have "donated" about 30 hours of free time distributing 
MIM Notes and peddling Theory. I have no problem with that. 
But I do not have the money to drive to [X city] weekly for 
study group or finance a MIM rep's trip to [my city] for the 
same purpose!

That is why, in the beginning, I agreed to study group in 
[my city] if you were willing to come here, ITAL at your 
expense END, to hold meetings.

My position remains the same. Please, if you wish, come to 
[my city] and educate me. But please, no more high pressure 
tactics.

I have three questions:

1. Are you a group of intellectuals sitting around talking 
the issues to death without a pragmatic plan for action?
2. Why aren't you in Peru right now? I know what "incoming" 
is and I think it would do you a lot of good to see what the 
nasty side of war is like!
3. When the Third World wins "final victory," why would its 
leaders include you in the Vanguard Party?

Finally, I am committed to your ideology and P.O.V. (but not 
your salesmanship! Ha!)

In Struggle,
-Friend in the Midwest
July 1992

P.S. Try not to take yourselves so seriously and add some 
humor to MIM Notes. Thanks.


MIM responds: MIM appreciates this comrade's efforts to 
struggle with us over points of disagreement in tactics and 
line. It is important to recognize fundamental agreements, 
as this comrade does, and struggle over other issues as we 
attempt to construct the best individual and party practice. 
The following response (slightly edited) was sent to this 
comrade.

You may have agreed to participate in a study group at the 
party's expense; but we did not make such an agreement. MIM 
does not have wealthy benefactors who make it possible for 
us to do work without concern for the expense. Our requests 
for donations are not a "hardline sell" which supersede 
political discussion; we have to gather financial as well as 
political support from people with whom we have contact. 
This is what makes our work possible. What this comrade 
refers to as high-pressure tactics are simply the reality of 
our work. 

Our financial practice is a political issue we are happy to 
debate further if people are unconvinced. We believe our 
politics are worth supporting with the gas money, in 
addition to the cost of reading materials, for people who 
talk to us and can afford these costs. MIM donates 
literature to prisoners who often cannot afford to send 
money, but this money has to come from somewhere, as does 
the money for all of our political work. We hope that those 
who support our work understand that ideological support 
alone will not fund the work that our organization does.

If you are still willing to donate your time, handing out 
the paper on your campus and asking people for donations to 
help support the paper is a good way to raise the money it 
takes to pay for producing and shipping the papers. As you 
said, you are committed to our ideology. We trust that you 
will continue to help us make it available to others; this 
is where it is important to see how our ideology and our 
"salesmanship" are not so easily separable. Our principal 
task is getting our ideas out to the masses, and as we have 
already discussed, this costs money.

On to your questions:
1. You already have the best introduction we can offer to 
our plan of action: Lenin's ITAL What is to be Done? END

In terms of "talking the issues to death," you may find the 
second chapter of that book helpful; Lenin discusses the 
importance of developing a consistent line on all aspects of 
political theory in order to distinguish (both for the 
masses and the people in the party) between the vanguard and 
less advanced elements. MIM recognizes the necessity of 
distinguishing ourselves from other parties through 
development of our line; and using our newspaper and theory 
journal to create public opinion, gain popular support and 
build the Party.

Part of this process has and will continue to include 
incorporating criticisms of our line and practice. This is 
another reason putting out a newspaper is so important-it 
reflects our line on various issues and gives the people a 
place to criticize and discuss political issues with us. We 
build the party through actions you can see reflected in the 
newspaper, providing a contact point for activists 
internationally, and we work to build the party to the point 
at which we can launch greater actions.

2. MIM's task is to organize a communist party in the United 
States. We maintain that carrying out this task is a more 
effective means of cooperation with our comrades in Peru 
than running to help them in battle. There are two sides to 
this position: First, we trust our comrades in Peru to 
organize effectively in their own country. They hold a 
strong position among the people of Peru based on decades of 
building support and organizing the people into their 
struggle. Second, if MIM (or any other Maoist organization 
outside Peru) were to vacate the country it is based in, who 
would be left to build a party there?

Just as we trust our comrades in other countries, we accept 
the responsibility of organizing in Amerika. Vanguard forces 
must organize in the places they have best access to, so 
that we can build an international force for the most 
efficient end to imperialism.

3. When imperialism has been destroyed, it will be up to the 
international proletariat to choose their own leaders. MIM 
cannot predict the point at which MIM will be included in 
this international vanguard force. We do know that this 
victory will come in stages-that vanguards in some oppressed 
countries in the Third World will achieve victory before the 
vanguard in the United States. MIM will continue to work in 
the alliance with our Third World comrades until we have 
succeeded internationally.

MIM says that the Third World is the principal force for the 
victory of socialism over imperialism at this time because 
national liberation struggles in the Third World have thus 
far dealt the greatest blows to imperialism. It seems that 
you are asking, "Why would Third World proletarians accept a 
multi-national party in its revolution?"

But this is not really how we look at the question. We talk 
about our own struggle in the First World from the vantage 
point of the Third World proletariat, and we do all our work 
from this perspective. Between now and the victory of anti-
imperialist forces everywhere, exclusively oppressed-nation 
vanguard forces will arise in greater numbers. These 
organizations, like the PCP, will function as national 
vanguards to overthrow imperialism and to build socialism in 
their liberated territories. But following the defeat of 
imperialism, we don't foresee any reason for the people to 
reject MIM's work on the basis of some members' national 
origins.

P.S. MC17 adds: If this comrade or anyone else has some 
revolutionary humor to offer MIM is happy to print all forms 
of political education-see back issues for our previous 
attempts at Maoist humor. We do take ourselves very 
seriously, but this does not mean we don't see the value in 
political humor.

* * *

CAPE VERDE HISTORY

Cape Verde was a colony of Portugal for 500 years. Between 
1956 and 1974 the African Party for the Independence of 
Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC) under the leadership of 
Amilcar Cabral fought a revolutionary war against Portugal 
with Guinea Bissau.

The PAIGC and Cabral were influenced by ChŽ Guevara and Mao, 
in particular by Mao's military writings. Cabral's 
methodology of guerrilla warfare-several years building up a 
base of power among the peasants-seems much closer to Mao's 
and is in contradiction to ChŽ's focoist theory. In 
addition, in the liberated areas during the war the PAIGC 
implemented many progressive measures for the equality of 
women, education of the people, production of food, and 
better health care.

In 1975 the PAIGC won the war and achieved independence from 
Portugal, remaining unaligned with any foreign power, and 
instead building independent nations. From 1975 to 1980 the 
PAIGC controlled Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde. A 1980 coup 
in Guinea Bissau overthrew the PAIGC and ended the unity 
between these two countries. From 1980 until 1990 the PAICV 
ruled Cape Verde. The population of Cape Verde is less than 
1 million.


* * *

"FREE" ELECTIONS BREED CORRUPTION IN CAPE VERDE

by a comrade

On October 3, Prime Minister Carlos Veiga of Cape Verde 
visited Boston to speak at Roxbury Community College. 
Approximately 300 Cape Verdeans came out to protest this 
visit and the policies of Veiga's party, the Movement for 
Democracy (MPD), which has been ruling Cape Verde since 
January 13, 1990. The protestors were members of the African 
Party for the Independence of Cape Verde (PAICV), the party 
originally founded under Amilcar Cabral in the revolutionary 
war for independence from Portugal.

Veiga and other MPD representatives came to the United 
States to prove that the MPD has the support of the Cape 
Verdeans here, and perhaps try to gain some support. Cape 
Verdeans in the United States are represented by one seat on 
the Cape Verde national assembly, which the PAICV won. MIM 
spoke with Representative Francisco Fernandes of the PAICV.

In January and February of 1990 the PAICV opened the country 
to a multi-party system and lost the presidential and 
national assembly elections to the MPD. People have 
speculated that the MPD was funded by Portugal, England, 
Europe, and the United States, among other major powers, but 
no one MIM interviewed could officially confirm this. The 
MPD won the elections on the promise of change-they promised 
to give everyone everything they needed including free 
emigration, a four-times increase in the minimum wage, free 
higher education for all, and a decrease in government 
waste.

But in the course of the past two years, the MPD has 
succeeded in raising their own salaries, censoring the media 
to the degree that even their own president's recent public 
address was censored, spending outrageous amounts of money 
on "government business," allowing in foreign imperialist 
investors who take the profits back to their own countries, 
and persecuting members of the PAICV by kicking them out of 
their jobs and homes.

"My brother used to work for the Party [PAICV] and so he was 
kicked out of his job. Now I work to support him too," one 
Cape Verdean told MIM.

Another said, "The problem is not that we are against change 
in a positive way, they change anything that looks like 
PAICV, they bring back symbols of colonizers, even changing 
the streets named after nationals and put statues of 
Portuguese colonizers in the best public places."

In the course of the past year the popularity of PAICV in 
Cape Verde increased from 27% to 45% of the population with 
a coincident decline in popularity for the MPD. Members of 
PAICV speculate that if the MPD were to hold elections right 
now they would lose. They are quick to add that the MPD is 
not going to hold elections now.

October's protest in Boston focused on the issue of the 
national flag and its symbolic importance for the 
independence of Cape Verde. In July, the MPD decided to 
change the national flag and national anthem from those 
conceived by Amilcar Cabral as symbols of national 
independence to an adaptation on the European Community flag 
with no African symbolism.

The PAICV proposed that the government hold a referendum to 
see what the people thought of changing the flag, but the 
MPD ignored this suggestion as it ignored the 25,000 
signatures sent to the national assembly opposing this 
change. The new flag was raised in Cape Verde the Friday 
before the Boston demonstration.

The revolutionary struggle of the Cape Verdean people was 
handed a setback by the imperialist colonizers who now 
control and exploit much of they country through the MPD. As 
in Nicaragua and other Third World countries, the people 
learn from these setbacks. Maoism is an ideology built on 
successes and lessons from mistakes.

The revolution in Cape Verde was a relative success, but now 
some of the advances have been overturned and the people are 
no longer in power. Maoists do not throw out revolutions 
like this one just because they did not achieve perfection 
on the first try. These revolutions do advance the 
conditions and understanding of the masses: they are 
material advances.

And from the fact that the revolutionary governments could 
be overturned we learn that our political line and practice 
is not yet perfect. Communism will only be achieved through 
the long struggle of revolutionary practice and study to 
learn the lessons from this practice so that we do not make 
the same mistakes twice.

Notes: GŽrard Chaliand, ITAL Armed Struggle in Africa. END 
Monthly Review Press: 1969.

* * *

AMERIKAN CULTURE

REVIEW: SOUTH CENTRAL
Directed by Steve Anderson

Revolutionaries are always skeptical when Hollywood claims 
to solve the problems of the Black nation. Even when the 
filmmaker is Black, funding and guidance (ideological 
enforcement) come directly from the capitalist mass media.

The timing of the anti-gang message of South Central is 
obvious. Why does Hollywood speak out against gangs just 
after the Los Angeles uprising has fueled an unprecedented 
gang truce in that city? This truce has moved the Bloods and 
Crips away from killing each other and toward focusing their 
organized power against the police and the white nation. 
Police figures show that gang-related homicides in South 
L.A. dropped 88% in the month after the rebellion.(1)

One good moment is where a leader of the fledgling Deuce 
gang tells his followers they must organize into a powerful 
force to retake control of their neighborhood from parasitic 
forces such as drug dealers from outside of their community. 
It doesn't matter if the cops throw them in jail, because 
then they'll just build the Deuce organization behind bars, 
too. He plans to finance this new force by taking over the 
drug-selling in their neighborhood once they kick out the 
outside dealers.

While drug-selling shows the self-destructive and capitalist 
side of gangs and must be eradicated, the rest of his talk 
could be a Maoist speech about building power of the 
oppressed to seize power. He points toward the importance of 
gaining self-determination and self-sufficiency in oppressed 
nations by expelling foreign capitalists, and he realizes 
that this can only happen through an armed power struggle.

South Central posits gangs as the problem, and implies that 
absent fathers are the main source of this problem. Single 
mothers are assumed to be incapable idiots who will 
degenerate into vegetable-like deadbeats without a man 
around.

South Central does not point to the capitalist economic 
system that has caused the breakdown of the family structure 
in the Black nation. Misogyny is evident as the single 
mother's character is not developed at all, and she is 
blamed for passively allowing her son to get into gangs. She 
is only shown as a helpless drug addict. But this woman-
blaming flies in the face of the reality that single mothers 
are successfully bringing up a great number of Black 
children under state terrorist and neo-colonial conditions. 
This is incredibly hard work, and while a few women do break 
under the pressure, most don't.

The big secret of the movie is this: to bring about change, 
the only thing you have to change is your attitude; then 
things will magically start working for you. But to have any 
chance of reaching angry youth with this accommodationist 
message, it had to be dressed up with a little "pro-
Blackness." So now they say that as long as you know a few 
quotes from Garvey and King, then its OK to accommodate 
yourself to the white supremacist system.

MIM sees the potential for advancing the liberation of the 
Black nation in organizing collectively, not in individual 
attitude changes. "Thinking positively" won't get rid of 
oppression, but properly organizing oppressed and angry 
youth for armed revolution can. By presenting the 
organizations of angry Black youth as a problem, South 
Central is working against the revolutionary movements of 
oppressed youth.

Notes: 1. LA Times 7/17/92, p. B1. (For more info on the 
gang truce, see MIM Notes 67, August 1992)

-MC251

* * *

GUARDIAN BITES THE DUST

by MC5

In September, the Guardian: Radical Newsweekly apparently 
published its last issue. According to a bookstore that 
carried the paper, the Guardian issued no press release or 
explanation for its dissolution.

The Guardian had made large fundraising appeals earlier this 
year claiming it would go defunct if the appeals were not 
met. Even if the Guardian eventually comes back in some 
newly reorganized form, MIM would say the Guardian has been 
politically dead for years.

From MIM's perspective, the principal reason the Guardian 
fell to an unsustainable circulation has to do with losing 
its revolutionary roots.

In the late 1960s, the Maoist upsurge radicalized the 
Guardian, which carried favorable articles about socialist 
China. At this time it garnered the largest circulation of 
any newspaper on the "left;" closely rivaled by the Black 
Panther papers and the Progressive Labor (circ. 90,000 in 
1970).(1)

The Panthers were smashed; and PL careened into Trotskyist 
oblivion, but the Guardian chose a slow opportunist death. 
The Guardian is an excellent example of what MIM calls the 
problem of "sizeism" and "pragmatism"-bourgeois influences 
that say moderating one's political line and watering down 
the truth are the best way to unite large numbers of people 
who can then fight for a watered down goal.

In 1973, the Guardian had "sponsored a series of forums ... 
'What Road to Building a New Communist Party.'" At that 
time, a Maoist-influenced but eventual turncoat Irwin Silber 
said, "Today, Marxist-Leninist forces in the U.S. are moving 
inexorably towards the creation of a new communist 
party."(1)

One thousand people attended one meeting of these 
conferences on building an anti-revisionist, non-Trotskyist, 
non-anarchist party. It appeared that Maoism was going to 
lead the "movement" inside U.S. borders forward; however, as 
we have detailed elsewhere, a lack of political development 
and rampant rightist and ultraleftist opportunism crushed 
the Maoist forces who were trying to regroup after the state 
smashed the Panthers.

At this time, the Guardian had quite a presence, including 
coin-operated newspaper boxes and a professional staff.

To get to this point, the Guardian had to break with 
something of a more opportunist past. However, by 1973, the 
Guardian was having other kinds of internal breaks: the 
Maoists from the Revolutionary Union were kicked out of 
their jobs on the Guardian.

The articulate Irwin Silber of the Guardian also took to 
bashing Maoism, almost as a lecture-circuit profession. In 
particular Silber took advantage of naive and moralizing 
revolutionaries who thought the world ended when Mao shook 
Nixon's hand.

Silber's efforts were to culminate in the early 1980s when a 
number of Maoist-influenced forces like the Communist Labor 
Party and Communist Workers Party lined up more clearly with 
the pro-Moscow revisionists. Other previously Maoist forces 
lost their orientation completely or dissolved.

Eventually the Guardian gave up its "Marxist-Leninist" 
pretensions and simply adopted the word "radical" in its 
masthead. Many fence-straddlers, individualists and 
opportunists have asked MIM to do the same thing-incorrectly  
viewing the legacy of Marx, Lenin and Mao as an albatross 
that must be tossed aside. Time and again we revolutionaries 
are told we isolate ourselves by taking definitive stands on 
the large historical questions of our time.

Yet, while the Guardian was watering down its line and 
taking an eclectic stance-attempting to tail pseudo-
feminism, reformism and anything else that moved-MIM Notes 
was growing with a tiny fraction of the budget that the 
Guardian had. The more it watered down its line and confused 
its readers, the more the Guardian itself went down the 
drain. Despite the support of some key wealthy backers, the 
Guardian's eclecticism only encouraged the lack of political 
commitment and confusion that ended its existence.

It is not likely that racist and pro-white working class 
social-democracy will die. Nor will the idealist-nihilism of 
Trotskyism and anarchism die. These ideologies have solid 
material bases. However, the niche of the far left claiming 
to be eclectic, anti-anti-communist, "radical" and 
"effective" is sustained only when the bourgeoisie seeks to 
undermine successful and genuine communist movements.

One factor in the Guardian's demise was a decline of the 
international communist movement, and the second factor was 
the Guardian's own internal political death.

Where there is a vibrant communist movement and a petty-
bourgeoisie vacillating in response, a paper like the 
Guardian can thrive for a time on eclecticism, opportunism 
and any politics just short of real commitment. Since the 
Guardian did not base itself in the revolutionary science of 
Mao Zedong Thought, it did not have a basis in the 
revolutionary class, the most desperate and determined 
fighters for anti-imperialism, anti-militarism, anti-
patriarchy-the international proletariat. 

Like the CP of the late 1930s, and the Black nationalist 
movements, the Guardian found that the more it strayed from 
its revolutionary roots, the more able it was to attract 
occasionally large financial backers, but the less able it 
was to sustain large movements-a supreme irony considering 
that political opportunism is almost always advocated as a 
matter of attracting support.

With the collapse of the Guardian and a number of other 
radical organizations, our own commitment to building MIM 
Notes is underscored. The blatant slide of the ex-Soviet 
Union into pro-Western capitalism is winnowing the field of 
"radical" organizations. MIM welcomes aboard ex-Guardian 
supporters and others who have analyzed the relative success 
of genuine communism compared with mushy, opportunist 
movements.

Notes: Jim O'Brien, "American Leninism," Radical America.

* * *

MS. MAGAZINE TRASHES PCP IN THE NAME OF "FEMINISM"

by MC31

In the name of power for women, the July/August issue of Ms. 
magazine blasts the Communist Party of Peru (PCP), 
specifically denouncing the killing of Maria Elena Moyano.

The article explains that even some of Peru's poorest women 
are helping others by providing local food and Glass of Milk 
programs "to a population abandoned by the government."(1) 
Ms. recognizes that the Peruvian state is one of the most 
brutal in the world today, but Ms. speaks highly of those 
who didn't "take to the streets" during the worst of 
economic times in Peru, and instead went to a local soup 
kitchen to have a hot meal that day.

One reformist "community organizer" quoted in the article 
said that women "'want progress. They aren't exactly clear 
how to get there, but they know they're going. They're 
betting on something that they're making up along the way.'"

PCP members practice the science of Maoism and do know 
exactly where they are going and how to get there. But Ms. 
still prefers the vague analysis and goals of the reformists 
to the hard-hitting Maoist ideology and revolutionary 
practice.

The article refers to polls supposedly showing that 
Fujimori's government has 70-80% support among the people. 
If that's so, what are he and the military so worried about? 
How is that the PCP (referred to as the "Shining Path" in 
Ms. and elsewhere) controls so much territory and has as 
much support as it does? Ms. claims that the PCP attacks 
mostly civilians, but won't mention that the guerillas 
target lackeys of the fascist state (who do not all ear 
uniforms), enemies in a people's war.

After blaming the PCP for killing Moyano, for which the PCP 
has claimed credit and provided its reasons to the people 
(see MIM Notes 67), Ms. goes on to claim that the PCP itself 
is a patriarchal movement that suppresses its women members. 
(Note they spend an entire article discussing the death of 
one woman and barely touch the Fujimori dictatorship's 
killing of thousands of PCP cadres and civilians, many of 
whom are women.) In other words, First World white women who 
read Ms. can sift through the facts and decide their own 
fates, but poor Peruvian women are just stupid followers of 
a male oppressor.

Ms. offers no evidence of the suppression of PCP women, and 
further did not interview women cadres to see what they 
thought about handing out meals to some people versus 
organizing for revolution so all Peruvians could eat. The 
women organizers of the grassroots reformist groups are 
glorified while revolutionary women are admonished for their 
political work.

Ms. helped make great strides for First World women in the 
1970s. It is now attempting to build a multi-cultural base 
by having an international section in which to trash Third 
World revolutionary movements which will ultimately make a 
better world for most women of the world.

Notes: "Peru: The Government, the Rebels, And the Women in 
Between" Ms. July/August 1992, p. 14-15.

* * *
THE "NEW" SOUTH AFRICA LOOKS A LOT LIKE THE OLD

by MA71

It has been three years since South African President F.W. 
de Klerk ushered in the era of a "new South Africa" and 
"closed the chapter of apartheid." Nelson Mandela and many 
political prisoners were released from jail, the African 
National Congress (ANC) and other political organizations 
were legalized and a host of apartheid laws (many of them 
meaningless) were scrapped.

De Klerk was hailed globally as an enlightened leader. But 
the changes being made were not a gift from de Klerk, but 
the results of heroic mass struggles by unions, civic and 
youth organizations.

Having done little to lead the masses for change, the ANC 
was the biggest beneficiary of these changes. And yet today 
South Africa is no closer to freedom that it was before 
February 1990. What went wrong?

The so-called changes de Klerk was talking about should be 
understood for what they are, a not-so-ingenious attempt by 
the racist regime to pump life back into a mortally-wounded 
system of white privilege and capitalist exploitation.

The regime's plan has been elaborate and well-financed. It 
involves both coercion and persuasion. Unfortunately for the 
regime, nowhere in the history of humankind have people been 
persuaded into slavery. Consequently, the linchpin of 
Pretoria's plan for "change" has been coercion. The "new 
era" for South Africa can be correctly characterized as an 
era of massacres and political assassinations.

The list is endless:
The Jeppe Station Massacre - September 6, 1990, 32 people 
shot to death;
Sebokeng  - January 1991, 38 people dead;
Alexandria - March 26, 1991, 13 killed, 17 wounded;
Boipathong - June 1992, 42 killed;
Swanieville Massacre - 28 dead, more than 100 wounded.

There was Crossroads, Athlone, Kliptown Station, 
Braamfontein, and, only a month ago, Bisho, where 25 people 
lost their lives. This list does not include the province of 
Natal-the headquarters of Gatsha Butelezi and his Inkatha 
Party. In June of this year, 567 people lost their lives 
through political assassinations at the hands of Gatsha's 
police in Natal alone, according to the South African Human 
Rights Commission.

Not one person has been convicted of these crimes, despite 
eyewitness accounts and confessions by former members of the 
police force. Who said de Klerk's cops cannot do their job?

Last June, an off-duty cop was robbed of his gun and a 
watch. A huge contingent of armed police stopped and 
searched a train in Soweto and recovered the gun and the 
watch. Tens of thousands of tired workers were delayed for 
hours as a result.

On the other hand, the South African Defence Force has been 
busy setting up bogus trade and community organizations and 
front companies. This program fell under the code name 
Operation Henry. Some of the groups that were established 
were the Domestic Worker's Association of South Africa, Save 
the Child, Ama-Africa National Front and the Azanian 
National Youth Unity-to name but a few.

The most chilling aspect of this has been the role played by 
the ANC. In the face of all these killings, the ANC has 
failed to protect the people. On the contrary, Mandela and 
company have been responsible for some of these massacres. 
They call for marches to places where there is a 100% chance 
of being murdered.

To be sure, there is always a chance of being killed when 
one marches in South Africa. But a national movement of the 
ANC's stature and resources has the ability to ensure that 
this does not happen. Just this July, 60 ANC members were 
arrested after the police found two houses full of arms. The 
people keep asking the ANC to give them guns and the ANC 
keeps giving them to the government. The people keep asking 
the ANC not to negotiate with murderers. Yet, Mandela and de 
Klerk keep getting together for cocktails, cynical smiles 
and meaningless handshakes.

The ANC urged whites to vote "yes" in a referendum early 
this year. They did, and de Klerk won big. He is now using 
that mandate to kick us around and retrench white rule. The 
ANC has done the impossible, getting the ambitious Gatsha 
together with the other Black puppet leaders to form a 
national movement opposed to revolutionary change. The ANC, 
with the misguided advice of the South African Communist 
Party, is wasting time demonstrating against homeland 
leaders. ITALIC The real locus of power, Pretoria, is left 
unchallenged. END

Once again the murderous regime of de Klerk is calling the 
shots, forcing the ANC to come hat-in-hand asking for 
negotiations. These same negotiations have been rejected by 
the people as nothing else but an attempt by the regime to 
build a Berlin Wall around white privilege. Mandela should 
be next for the Nobel Peace Prize.