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

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = 
 

     XX XX  XXX  XX XX   X   X  XXX  XXX  XXX  XXX
     X X X   X   X X X   XX  X  X X   X   X    X
     X V X   X   X V X   X X X  X X   X   XX   XXX
     X   X   X   X   X   X  XX  X X   X   X      X
     X   X  XXX  X   X   X   V  XXX   X   XXX  XXX

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = 
 

         THE MAOIST INTERNATIONALIST MOVEMENT

  MIM Notes 85         				February, 1994 

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.  MEXICAN PEASANTS DECLARE; "ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!"
2.  LETTERS
3.  PUERTO RICO: IMPERIALISM HIDES BEHIND PLEBISCITE
4.  DECLARATION OF SUPPORT 
5.  KURDISH STRUGGLE ADVANCES; IMPERIALISTS RESPOND WITH 
    REPRESSION
6.  ZAPATISTAS ATTACK THE MEXICAN STATE 
7.  CULTURE
8.  USA ON TRIAL 
9.  THE PELICAN BRIEF
10. SCHINDLER'S LIST
11. MOVIE MONOPOLY
12. DOCUMENTS FROM THE CCP RECTIFICATION
13. AMERIKA'S HYPOCRISY EXPOSED 
14. LONG LIVE THE PEOPLE'S WAR IN ECUADOR
15. D.C. COPS DEAL DRUGS
16. POLICE STATE ALERT
17. RUSSIAN FASCISM
18. MIM DISCUSSES PANTHERS
19. THE ISSUE OF BEING A WOMAN
20. STATE BLAMES PRISONERS FOR PRISON CONDITIONS


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


* * *


MEXICAN PEASANTS DECLARE; "ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!"

The Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN), a mostly-
indigenous peasant group, ushered in the new year by giving Mexico 
and the world a wake-up call, seizing towns and villages in a bold 
insurrection, and declaring:

"TODAY WE SAY ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!

"We are a product of 500 years of struggle ... We have been denied 
the most elemental preparation so they can use us as cannon fodder 
and pillage the wealth of our country. They don't care that we 
have nothing, absolutely nothing, not even a roof over our heads, 
no land, no work, no health care, no food nor education. Nor are 
we able to freely and democratically elect our political 
representatives, nor is there independence from foreigners, nor is 
there peace nor justice for ourselves and our children.

"But today, we say ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. We are the inheritors of the 
true builders of our nation. The dispossessed, we are millions and 
we thereby call upon our brothers and sisters to join this 
struggle as the only path, so that we will not die of hunger due 
to the insatiable ambition of a 70 year dictatorship led by a 
clique of traitors that represent the most conservative and sell-
out groups. ...

"To the People of Mexico: We, the men and women, full and free, 
are conscious that the war that we have declared is our last 
resort, but also a just one. The dictators are applying an 
undeclared genocidal war against our people for many years. 
Therefore we ask for your participation, your decision to support 
this plan that struggles for work, land, housing, food, health 
care, education, independence, freedom, democracy, justice and 
peace. ..."

MIM calls on all anti-imperialists to support the rebellions of 
the oppressed, from Mexico to Peru and the Philippines, and to 
contribute to the worldwide movement by working to develop 
revolution in Amerika.

* * *

LETTERS

Free Puerto Rican POWs!

On Sunday, November 14, the government of Puerto Rico held a 
"plebiscite" to determine the Puerto Rican people's preference of 
the island's political status. While the vote favored current 
commonwealth status, what was not included or resolved in the 
process was the status of the 18 Puerto Rican political prisoners 
in the United States prisons. As votes were tallied from Sunday's 
"plebiscite," these men and women are serving virtual life 
sentences for "seditious conspiracy" arising from their opposition 
to U.S. control of Puerto Rico.

In San Juan, on November 16, Ofensiva '92, the international 
campaign for the release of the prisoners, announced the 
submission of a formal application to President Clinton for 
amnesty for these 18 independence activists in prison in the U.S. 
According to the application, While there is no right to statehood 
or commonwealth, as they exist only at the will of U.S. Congress, 
there is a right to self-determination and independence, and the 
vote will occur while adherents to independence are in prison. It 
would be consistent with notions of justice and democracy to 
ensure that those in prison be released in order to permit their 
participation in this process.

The campaign simultaneously announced that along with the Center 
for Constitutional Rights and the American Association of Jurists, 
they filed a petition for the review of the prisoners' case with 
the Organization of American States (OAS). In Chicago, New York, 
San Francisco and Hartford, those working with Ofensiva '92, 
including the National Committee to Free Puerto Rican Political 
Prisoners and Prisoners of War, held parallel conferences.

The Clinton application and the OAS petition reveal a startling 
disparity between the sentences given to the Puerto Rican 
political prisoners and those given to social prisoners. While the 
Puerto Rican political prisoners' average sentence was over 70 
years, the average sentence for homicide for the 20 years between 
1966 and 1985 was 22.7 years. The sentences of 55 to 90 years 
given to ten of the Puerto Rican prisoners in 1981 were 19 times 
higher than the average sentence for all crimes that year. Another 
disparity exposed in the applications: most of the Puerto Rican 
prisoners have already served almost 14 years in prison, twice as 
long as the average time served by those convicted of homicide. 
The petitions argue that these discriminatory and punitive 
disparities are the result of illicit punishment of the prisoners 
for their role as clandestine anti-colonial combatants and their 
activities in support of the self-determination and independence 
of their nation.

The petition to the president recites a history of U.S. concern 
for the welfare and freedom of political prisoners in other 
countries, to the extent of using diplomatic and trade pressures 
to evoke the desired result. "The government of South Africa freed 
its anti-apartheid political prisoners, and the government of 
Israel is in the process of freeing its Palestinian political 
prisoners, with the encouragement and the blessing of the U.S. 
government. We expect the U.S. will want to do the same with the 
Puerto Rican political prisoners, who are in prison for the same 
struggle for the self-determination and independence of their 
people. We are asking President Clinton to grant amnesty to these 
prisoners, just as President Carter did in 1979 for five other 
Puerto Rican political prisoners," observed Dr. Luis Nieves 
Falc—n, coordinator of Ofensiva '92.

The OAS petition seeks not only an evidentiary hearing before the 
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, but also a declaration 
directing the U.S. to immediately release the prisoners. "The 
continued imprisonment and politically punitive treatment of the 
Puerto Rican prisoners violate the OAS charter as well as other 
fundamental international human rights instruments," said Michael 
Deutsch, legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights 
and one of the attorneys who brought the OAS petition.

Accompanying both petitions were letters from numerous prominent 
individuals and organizations, including the Puerto Rican Bar 
Association; the National Conference of Black Lawyers; the 
National Lawyers Guild; the International Association of 
Democratic Lawyers, Australian parliamentarians; the International 
Association Against Torture; the Argentina chapter of the Anti-
Imperialist Tribunal of Our America; the mayor of the city of New 
York and the New York City Council; several churches, including 
the United Church of Christ and the United Methodist Church, and 
individuals from Africa, Latin America and Europe.

Over 15,000 letters were signed by people throughout the U.S., 
Puerto Rico and the world have been sent to President Clinton and 
Attorney General Reno seeking immediate and unconditional amnesty. 
Now that the formal application has been submitted, the campaign 
will continue to collect letters and resolutions of support and 
build momentum to win the prisoners' immediate and unconditional 
release.

--Ofensiva 92

For more information contact: National Committee to Free Puerto 
Rican Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War, 1112 N California, 
Chicago IL 60647, (312) 287 0885.

Oinker baits MIM

In MIM's attempt to indoctrinate our young students [see MIM gives 
Peru talk, MIM Notes 84, January 1993], did they perhaps mention 
the Sendero Luminoso, and how they have butchered thousands, nay, 
millions in cold blood in an attempt to install a revolutionary, 
communist regime? Did they mention the crazed zeal of Abimael 
Guzm‡n?

Of course, the local ZAMPOLIT here on campus rationalized, it 
[was] wrong for the U.S. to use force in the Gulf. Killing 
innocent Iraqis (the oppressed) is wrong.

Two months later, the Marxist-on-campus argued that Stalin was 
perfectly justified in killing millions, and a revolution 
sometimes requires the killing of "...200,000 people."
Socialism will always fail because it always runs out of other 
people's money.

--JP, "A capitalist pig"

MIM responds: JP, you will be happy to know that MIM did a much 
better job revealing the facts about the PCP-Sendero Luminoso than 
you did. For example, MIM made it clear that PCP- led forces could 
not possibly have killed "millions," because at most 30,000 people 
have died as a result of the People's War in Peru--and Peruvian 
armed forces are responsible for the majority (five-sixths) of 
these deaths.(1) MIM also mentioned Comrade Gonzalo's (Dr. 
Guzm‡n's nom de guerre) "crazed zeal," i.e. his belief that 
Peruvian workers and peasants can smash the poverty and 
exploitation imposed upon them by imperialism.(2)

As for MIM's supposed intellectual inconsistency: You would equate 
the Red Army's defense of the USSR during the civil war and its 
destruction of the Nazi military machine in WWII with Amerika's 
cynical muscle-flexing? As communists we are for the abolition of 
war (which requires the abolition of capitalism), but we recognize 
that the people who have military power and benefit from it aren't 
going to give it up without a fight, hence: to get rid of the gun 
it is necessary to take up the gun.

For a discussion of the immense contradictions the USSR faced 
under Stalin's leadership and the merits and demerits of his 
policies, write for MIM's Stalin Study Pack ($5; make checks 
payable to "ABS").

Finally, if the only motor behind socialist economies is "other 
people's money," how would you explain the phenomenal growth of 
the Soviet Union's economy at a time when western economies were 
shrinking (the 30s) or the stability of China's currency at a time 
when inflation seemed unstoppable in the west (the early 70s)? 
Actually, you've got it backwards: it's imperialism that will fail 
because it's bound to run out of new markets to exploit.

Notes: 
1. New York Times 4/4/93 and 1/7/94. 
2. For PCP documents, MIM essays, and histories of revolutionary 
movements in Peru, write for the Peru Study Pack ($15; make checks 
payable to "ABS").
 
MIM divides in hard times

Are the black, hispanic and Asian flight attendants (male and 
female) I recall meeting on American Airlines flights an optical 
illusion?

For the rest: I fail to see that the fact that well paid workers 
managed to extract something resembling a fair deal from 
management diminishes in any way the struggles of badly paid 
workers of any race or nationality.

Perhaps I'm guilty of some form of deviation, but I was under the 
impression that those who sell their labour power are members of 
the working class. I was also under the related impression that 
their employers were engaged in extracting surplus value from 
their labour, just as surplus value is extracted from workers 
earning a lot less.

I think that the attitude expressed by the article to which I'm 
replying is divisive, and this is particularly worrisome at a time 
when those of us who are on the side of the workers ought to be 
uniting.

--Internet reader


MIM replies: Of course there are flight attendants who are members 
of Amerika's oppressed internal nations. The flight attendants 
union is still largely white, however. And their pay scale puts 
them in the labor aristocracy, along with the majority of white 
(and some non-white) workers in Amerika.

When the labor aristocracy extracts higher wages, benefits, stock 
options, etc., from imperialism, they "earn" a piece of the 
exploitation and super-exploitation of the international 
proletariat. In the process, they intensify their own parasitic 
relationship with the majority of the world's people.

People who sell their labor power are members of a working class. 
Not all such people are proletarians, however. That is because not 
all people who work for a wage are exploited. Employers do not 
extract surplus value from workers who are paid more than the 
value of what they produce.

MIM agrees that this is a "particularly worrisome" time for the 
world's exploited majority. And a big reason for that is the 
increased viciousness of imperialism's millions of labor 
aristocrats, who, in fear for their privileged positions, appear 
ready to participate in higher levels of extraction and domination 
from the Third World. At this time it is more important than ever 
that we not repeat the crime--so long practiced by imperialist-
country "leftists"--of selling out the oppressed with false 
promises of alliances with the labor aristocracy.

Write to MIM for a copy of MIM Theory 1, "A White Proletariat" 
($4) or J. Sakai's Settlers: The Mythology of the White 
Proletariat ($10). Please send cash or checks payable to "ABS".


Prisoner letters on the net

Hello. I just read the "MIM" notes--really enjoyed it, but don't 
know what it is! Where does it come from? Who distributes it to 
Usenet? Do these prisoners know they're winding up on Usenet? Can 
we write back to them via Usenet?
--Internet reader

MIM replies: Thank you for writing to inquire about MIM Notes. In 
brief answer to your question: Yes, the prisoners know their 
writing is distributed on the Internet (the larger computer system 
that includes Usenet). This is part of MIM's work to build public 
opinion for prisoners among those on the outside. What you read on 
the Internet was MIM Notes, the monthly newspaper that is also 
distributed in many prisons.

MIM does all it can, wherever it can, to build public opinion for 
the oppressed in Amerika and abroad. This is the first task of 
revolutionaries in imperialist countries.

The Internet is one important vehicle for politically reaching 
many people. While most prisoners, and most oppressed people in 
general, do not have access to such advanced electronic 
communication systems, these systems still offer several valuable 
opportunities. Besides struggling with those oppressed people who 
are on the system, revolutionaries use them to struggle with those 
privileged people who are determined to overthrow the very 
decadent, parasitic system that gave them their wealth in the 
first place. This includes people all over the world who are 
connected to the Internet.

If you want to respond to letters from prisoners, send them to MIM 
and we will pass them along. At the same time, you should gather 
information and write articles about events and conditions in your 
area and submit them to MIM Notes for publication. The oppressed 
need the full effort all of their revolutionary allies.
MIM Notes is distributed electronically by the New York Transfer 
News Collective (nyt@blythe.org), a group dedicated to 
distributing a wide variety of radical literature over electronic 
media. MIM can be reached at mim@blythe.org.


Henwood keeps laughing

This is a parody, right? [in reference to MIM Notes 84, January, 
1994] From the model-number pseudonym to the contempt for the U.S. 
working class, to the amusing spelling of Amerika (only one k 
instead of three?--c'mon guys, you're missing a chance to make a 
subtle point about Amerikkkan racism!)--it's just an inept joke, 
right? Forget all that stuff that Marx said about capitalism 
laying the material groundwork for socialism--let's junk its 
qualified progress and embrace the cause of murderous adventurists 
in Peru! Workers of the world unite! You have nothing to lose but 
your privileges!

--Doug Henwood, Left Business Observer


MIM replies: Doug Henwood, editor of the Left Business Observer, 
periodically pipes up to criticize MIM for our position that the 
labor aristocracy in imperialist countries is not exploited, but 
in fact benefits from imperialism. In his one semi-serious attempt 
to challenge MIM's political economy on this question, MIM 
responded with a thorough refutation of his misleading and 
incorrect argument. To read this debate ("The 'left' tells MIM 
off," and "MIM trashes the myth of white exploitation"), order a 
copy of MIM Theory 1. 

* * *

* * *

PUERTO RICO: IMPERIALISM HIDES BEHIND PLEBISCITE

On Nov. 14, a slim majority of Puerto Rican voters approved the 
plebiscite maintaining the islands' commonwealth status.(1) 
Amerika's military, political and economic domination make such a 
vote a ridiculous proposal that could never represent the true 
will of the people.

Only a small number of people voted for independence (4%) because 
they know that the occupation will continue regardless of the 
outcome of the vote. A supporter of Ofensiva '92 told MIM that 
only 15-20% of the Puerto Rican people support independence, 
because independence is not yet a viable option. There currently 
does not exist a revolutionary organization capable of leading 
Puerto Rico to independence, says the Puerto Rican National 
Liberation Movement (MLN).

The United Nations is currently under economic pressure from the 
United States to remove Puerto Rico from its list of colonies.(2) 
The U.N. is expected to see the vote for commonwealth status as 
evidence that the people support inclusion in the United States 
and not national liberation.

An oppressed country's listing as an official colony earns the 
colonizer international condemnation. Being listed as a colony is 
a political aid for the Puerto Rican revolution; but it is a 
serious thorn in Amerika's side.

Puerto Rico was put on the list in 1972, during a brief period 
when Third World countries, especially China and Cuba, held 
considerable power in the U.N. At that time, the U.N. 
decolonization committee voted 12-0 that Puerto Rico had the right 
to self-determination and independence.(3)

Military occupation

Thirteen Amerikan military bases in Puerto Rico occupy 20% of the 
land. Seventy-six percent of the Puerto Rican island of Vieques is 
occupied by the marines. Mislaunched missiles demolish the homes 
in remaining residential areas and ruin the island's number one 
source of income--fishing.

In 1975, Nixon withdrew the naval forces from Culebra because of 
the united front against the Amerika's presence.(4) The successful 
resistance to the occupation serves as an example that liberation 
can only be achieved by forcing the Amerikan military out, not by 
asking politely through an imperialist-backed vote.

Economic oppression

The economic oppression of the island is another way to coerce the 
people of Puerto Rico into a colonial relationship. The 1990 
Census report admits that 63.3% of the 3.16 million Puerto Ricans 
on the island are below the poverty line(5) while in the United 
States, 14.2% are below the poverty level.(6) 

Puerto Rico's per capita income is $6,200 per year.(1) Inflation 
increased by 55% between 1980 and 1990, but Puerto Rican per 
capita income increased by only 17%--two and-a-half times less than 
in the US during the same period.(7)

Puerto Rico is not allowed to import food from any other country 
but Amerika. "Almost all our food products are imported despite 
the fact that we have nearly one million acres of arable land 
sitting idly," the MLN stated, "one goal is to break the 
dependence on the United States which currently treats us like a 
captive market."(8)

Without paying taxes to Puerto Rico, 400 Amerikan corporations 
operate on the island and bring the profits back to the United 
States.(2) In the 1980s, U.S. drug manufacturers received $8.5 
billion in tax credits alone, which is more than double the amount 
that those corporations spent on Puerto Rican payrolls.(9) 

Much of the drinking water is polluted as a result of the large 
amounts of toxic waste dumped in rivers and brooks by waste-
producing corporations.(5) Multi-national pharmaceutical companies 
contribute 72% of all toxic discharge in Puerto Rico.(2)

Imperialist patriarchy

In Puerto Rico, 48.3% of the women are employed by manufacturing 
as opposed to 25% in the United States. Although the proportion of 
women in each country by industry is the same, the number of 
manufacturing sites in Puerto Rico is higher.(10) The 
restructuring of the world economy has changed the role of Puerto 
Rico into a major manufacturing site. The industries attracted by 
Amerikan export-oriented incentives, i.e. clothing, electronics 
and textiles, require cheap, unskilled labor--women workers. The 
unemployment rate for women is 12.7% and for men is 18.8%.(11)

Since the 1960s, the Puerto Rican government has been interested 
in controlling the relative surplus population--unemployed Puerto 
Ricans whose discontent serves as a social base for rebellion. 
They accomplished this in part by aiding the migration of many 
Puerto Ricans to Amerika, and in part by implementing programs 
aimed at sterilizing poor Puerto Rican women. In 1965, 34% of 
women between the ages of 20 and 49 were sterilized.(12) The 
sterilization rate for lesser educated women was much higher.(13)

Repression of political activists

In 1979, Angel Rodriguez Cristobal was arrested with 20 others 
demonstrating against the naval occupation of Vieques. Following 
his misdemeanor conviction, he was taken to a Florida prison where 
they forcibly injected him with Thorazine. He died unexpectedly 
several hours after he told his lawyer of his plans to continue 
the independence struggle.(14)

In 1985, hundreds of FBI agents made an island round-up through 
more than 50 homes and establishments to arrest 12 
independentistas for alleged participation in a clandestine 
independence movement--Los Macheteros.(5) In defense of his 
capture, Col—n Osorio persisted that colonialism is a crime 
against humanity and violation of international law. The Amerikan 
judge stated that "international law does not apply here." Osorio 
was not allowed to submit evidence to the jury that proved Los 
Macheteros complied with international law.

There are 18 Puerto Rican nationalists serving sentences of up to 
98 years in Amerika's gulags for membership and activities related 
to the Armed Forces of National Liberation (FALN) and Los 
Macheteros.

Two years ago, the Puerto Rican Supreme Court ruled that the 
150,000 files that the Puerto Rican police held on independence 
supporters were illegal means intended to incite fear. Nearly 
every family had one member who received a file detailing their 
activities in the independence struggle. 

The incarceration of Puerto Rican nationalists, along with the 
military and economic domination of the island, are political 
tactics to disarm the people and deny their right to self-
determination. A viable plebiscite on independence will only be a 
possibility when the Puerto Rican people have the political and 
military power to make independence a reality. 

Notes: 
1. New York Times 11/11/93, p. A13. 
2. La Patria Radical June 1993, pp. 3, 5-6. 
3. Palante 9/1/72, p. 3. 
4. Edwin MelŽndez ed., Colonial Dilemma, Boston: South End Press, 
1993, p. 61. 
5. La Patria Radical 2/93, pp. 3-4. 
6. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 
7. El Nueva D’a 2/23/93. 
8. La Patria Radical 1/93, pp. 2-3. 
9. Chemical Marketing Reporter 8/3/92, pp. 7-8. 
10. Edwin MelŽndez, op. cit. pp. 97-98. 
11. Puerto Rican Department of Labor and Human Resources, Bureaus 
of Labor Statistics.
12. Harriet B. Presser, Sterilization and Fertility Decline in 
Puerto Rico, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1976, p. 61. 
13. Ibid., p. 129. 
14. Human Rights Held Hostage Sept./Oct 1993, pp. 22-23. 
 
* * *

DECLARATION OF SUPPORT 
A Project of Prison Legal News

We, the undersigned, are political prisoners, prisoners of war and  
progressive social prisoners held captive throughout the 
imperialist  countries. We extend our solidarity through the walls 
that hold our bodies  in captivity to the Peruvian people, the PCP 
(the Communist Party of Peru,  AKA the Shining Path) and the 
prisoners of war of the Peruvian revolution.

Over 500 years have passed since Columbus arrived in the Western 
Hemisphere. Since then the indigenous and working class people of 
the Americas have known only hunger, misery, exploitation, 
oppression and death at the hands of foreign and local ruling 
classes. This has been the only legacy of 500 years of capitalist 
"development."

Since 1980 the PCP with the Peruvian people has been in the 
vanguard of a far reaching social revolution in Peru. Thirteen 
years later we have seen the revolution reach a state of strategic 
equilibrium with the U.S. supported government. The indigenous 
people of Peru are an integral part of this revolutionary 
struggle.

The fascist dictatorship of Peru holds hundreds of PCP prisoners 
of war, including Abimael Guzm‡n, the Chairman of the PCP, and 
many other militants and cadre of the party.

We denounce the torture and murder of these political prisoners by 
the fascist government. The silence from the Peruvian government's 
imperialist backers exposes the hypocrisy of their so-called 
"human rights policy." As we well know from personal experience, 
those same international and human rights laws are a dead letter 
even inside the imperialist countries when it comes to dealing 
with revolutionary prisoners.

The heroic example of struggle and sacrifice by PCP prisoners is 
an inspiration to revolutionary prisoners everywhere. It continues 
the long tradition of struggle and resistance of progressive 
prisoners throughout history. Revolutionary struggle continues on 
all fronts and under all conditions, even within the deepest and 
darkest dungeons of capitalism. Imperialism has long sought to 
criminalize all resistance to its policies of misery and death by 
denying the political status of revolutionary prisoners. This 
takes place in Peru today as well as the imperialist countries. 
Revolution is not a crime! It is the highest calling of every 
citizen.

The fascist regime in Peru, with its bloody record of torture, 
murder and "disappearances," is brazenly seeking "legal" reasons 
to execute Chairman Guzm‡n and other PCP prisoners based on the 
fact they are communists and revolutionaries. We must oppose this 
and we do. We call on our sisters and brothers, inside and out, to 
make our voice heard in opposing this vile move.

The imperialists are closing ranks on an international scale in 
order to isolate and crush the revolution in Peru. The revolution 
challenges their New World Order and exposes its clay feet and 
gives us a living example of the people in arms. We support the 
Peruvian revolution as a just war of liberation. The Peruvian 
peoples' struggle is our struggle.

It is vitally important that we come together, across political 
lines, to support this struggle. As prisoners we daily confront 
the reality of rule by capital without the trappings of bourgeois 
democracy. We long ago learned that unity is essential to 
effectively struggle under these conditions. In Peru the facts on 
the ground are that the Peruvian people, led by the PCP, have 
risen in revolt against a 500 year legacy of colonialism, misery, 
hunger, exploitation, racism, and imperialism. As revolutionaries 
our duty is to support this struggle as best we can under our 
material circumstances. 

The New World Order, drunk with its military hegemony, has already 
begun to intervene in Peru. As the struggle intensifies that 
intervention will increase. We must denounce and expose this 
intervention for what it is: a continuation of the imperialist 
domination that has plagued Latin America for 500 years. A 
socialist victory in Peru will be a victory for the working class 
everywhere.

The anti-imperialism we sow in our communities today will be the 
harvest we reap tomorrow when the revolutionary day of reckoning 
comes to the heartland of imperialism.

Signed by 69 prisoners from across the United States, Italy, 
Spain, Ireland, Belgium, Germany, and France
 
This article was a project of Prison Legal News, PO Box 1684, Lake 
Worth, FL 33460.

* * *

KURDISH STRUGGLE ADVANCES; IMPERIALISTS RESPOND WITH REPRESSION

by MC206

Recent advances toward the liberation of the Kurdish people in 
Turkey-controlled Kurdistan have provoked domestic counter-
offensives and foreign repression. The Turkish government has 
placed more troops in Kurdistan and is preparing a "war of 
annihilation" against the Worker's Party of Kurdistan (PKK).(1)

On Nov. 26 the German government banned 35 organizations 
affiliated with the PKK (the PKK itself does not exist in 
Germany). Twenty-nine of the 35 organizations banned were Kurdish 
cultural centers. German police immediately raided Kurdish clubs, 
businesses, and apartments, confiscating the organizations' 
assets. According to Chancellor Kohl the organizations were banned 
"because they use violent means to reach their goal."(2)

Germany and Amerika support fascism

Germany doesn't complain about the violence of the Turkish state 
against the Kurds. In the last three years the Turkish armed 
forces have destroyed more than 850 Kurdish villages, attacked 
Kurdish civilians inside northern Iraqi borders, and ignored a 
cease fire which the PKK honored.(1,3) 

The Kurdistan National Liberation front (ERNK) has called Germany 
"enemy number two"--the Turkish state being "enemy number 
one"--because of the economic and military support it gives 
Turkey.(2) Germany is Turkey's largest trading partner, accounting 
for 15% of Turkey's exports and 18% of its imports. German 
tourists alone account for almost 1% of Turkey's GDP.(4)

In 1988 Germany gave Turkey $45 million in military aid.(5) The 
Amerikan government spent about $500 million in military aid to 
Turkey each year from 1988 to 1991. That's on top of Turkey's own 
military budget of $2-3.5 billion per year. 

Turkey has one of the highest military spending rates of the 
countries in NATO, despite being one of the poorest.(4,5) NATO 
likes to think of the Turkish armed forces as "buffers" (read: 
cannon fodder). Germany has even entertained plans to pay the 
Turkish state for giving the German military its own Turkish 
brigade.(5)

Turkey occupies an important strategic position close to both the 
Middle East and the ex-Soviet Union. During the "Cold War," the 
United States stationed nuclear weapons in Turkey and based much 
of its intelligence services there. There are listening posts near 
the center of Turkey-occupied Kurdistan, for example.(5) Now these 
military facilities are used to enforce the "new world order" in 
the Middle East. 

Both Germany and the United States used eastern Turkey as an 
airbase during the Gulf War. Neither said or did anything when 
Turkey stepped up its war against the Kurds following the Gulf 
war--even though the United States was cynically protecting Kurds 
in Iraq-controlled Kurdistan against Iraqi repression with 
"Operation Provide Comfort."

Turkish fascism and militarism have been alternately encouraged 
and overlooked by these imperialist powers seeking to protect 
their interests.

Counter-revolutionary espionage

The Turkish government enthusiastically greeted the recent ban of 
Kurdish organizations in Germany. Turkish president Tansu Ciller 
said she was pleased that Turkey had finally convinced the 
international community that the PKK was an organization with 
"terrorist characteristics."(2)

One of the more immediate reasons given for the ban was a spree of 
firebombings across Germany attributed to PKK sympathizers. A 
representative of the PKK expressed suspicions that these bombings 
were performed by agent provocateurs. 

Turkish consulates are also known to contain large stockpiles of 
weapons.(3) The German government has not seen it fit to ban this 
counter-revolutionary espionage, however.

PKK confidence

The latest offensive of the People's Liberation Army of Kurdistan 
(ARGK), launched in June after a unilateral cease fire, has been 
very successful. There are many areas where the power of the 
Turkish state has been restricted to isolated and fortified 
barracks--and these barracks are the targets of continued ARGK 
attacks. 

Turkish President Ciller has increased the Turkish military 
strength in Kurdistan by 50,000 to 200,000 troops.(1) This number 
does not include the 30,000 member state-financed Kurdish 
militia.(6) The PKK has approximately 10,000 guerrillas in the 
area.(1)

The PKK and ARGK have begun to move from their traditional 
strongholds in the countryside into the cities. In Diyarbakir, the 
largest city in Turkish-controlled Kurdistan, "Turkish sovereignty 
vanishes with the sun." 

Under pressure from the PKK, leading Turkish parties have closed 
their offices in Kurdistan. State-owned businesses, such as the 
Turkish airlines, can only operate under the protection of the 
police.(1) The PKK has banned the Turkish bourgeois press in the 
area, as it had been echoing the Turkish state's propaganda.

The PKK has also had a hand in deciding which construction 
projects can be completed in Kurdistan. In late 1992, the ARGK 
halted the construction of an asphalt road which would have 
increased the mobility of government troops. Guerrillas told the 
Kurdish workers to stay in their trailer while trucks and other 
items were being firebombed. When asked whether the guerrillas 
conducted propaganda among the workers during this attack, one 
worker said, "No, it isn't necessary." The workers already knew 
why the PKK would target the road.(6)

These victories, along with the election of a Kurdish national 
assembly and steps towards the formation of a national front 
unifying the PKK and other national forces, led PKK representative 
Kani Yilmaz to say, "From now on, the national liberation movement 
in Kurdistan will go from victory to victory." "If they [Kohl's 
Government] insist on cracking down on the Kurdish people and its 
organizations, they will lose a lot and our people will resist all 
the more and become more determined."(3)

Notes: 
1. Der Spiegel #49, 1993, pp. 170-174. 
2. Sueddeutsche Zeitung 11/27/93. 
3. Kurdistan Report #15, 1993. 
4. World Economic Data, Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 1991, pp. 206-
207.
5. Turkey Newsletter 3/89. 
6. Aliza Marcus, Turkey's Kurds after the Gulf War: A Report from 
the Southeast, in: Gerard Chaliand, ed., A People Without a 
Country: The Kurds & Kurdistan, London: Zed Books Ltd., 1993, pp. 
238-246.

* * *

ZAPATISTAS ATTACK THE MEXICAN STATE 

The Mexican government found itself on the ropes at the turn of 
the year, as an insurrection led by indigenous peasants under the 
banner of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) declared 
war against the Mexican government, seizing six towns and 
surrounding villages in the southern state of Chiapas.

The rebels issued a statement declaring, "we have nothing, 
absolutely nothing, not even a roof over our heads, no land, no 
work, no health care, no food nor education. Nor are we able to 
freely and democratically elect our political representatives, nor 
is there independence from foreigners, nor is there peace nor 
justice for ourselves and our children."(1)

Under a clause in the Mexican constitution that says, "The people 
have, at all times, the inalienable right to alter or modify their 
form of government," the rebels called for autonomy and demanded 
the resignation of the government.(1) Group members also charged 
the Mexican government with genocide against the indigenous 
nations and called on the poor to join their struggle.(2,3)

In the second week of January, a number of bombs were planted in 
Mexico city and elsewhere, and graffiti appeared all over the 
country supporting the insurrection.(4) The government, unable to 
defeat the EZLN once they beat a tactical retreat into the 
countryside, and smarting from international outcry at the 
(televised) indiscriminate massacre by government troops and 
aircraft, declared a unilateral cease-fire and sent in a 
government negotiator. But the government wouldn't grant a key 
EZLN precondition for negotiation: the withdrawal of government 
troops.(5)

Zapatistas identify the enemy

The Zapatistas took over the municipal buildings in Ocosingo, Las 
Margaritas, Altamirano and San Cristobal, which are located within 
50 miles of each other in central Chiapas. The guerrillas held a 
meeting in San Cristobal on Jan. 1 and were supported by 300 
applauding people. They also seized a police station.(6) The group 
stormed a military base at Rancho Nuevo and continued efforts to 
demolish it even as airborne assaults began.

In Altamirano the EZLN literally dismantled City Hall by 
hand--using sledge hammers--a pointed action clarifying their 
opposition to the state.(7) A young participant was quoted: "Our 
thinking is we have to build socialism. ... There is no work, no 
land, no education. There is no way to change that in elections. 
This is not going to be a war of two or three years. This could be 
a war of 25 or 30 years."(8)

Maoism recognizes that armed struggle is the direct process of 
taking political power away from the imperialists. The actions of 
the EZLN demonstrate that the level of exploitation in Chiapas is 
so extreme that gestures of reform, such as petty farm subsidies 
and land reform legislation that never materializes or becomes 
reversed, are nothing but false aid that may buy off a few 
peasants, but more importantly protect the status quo. 

Before leaving San Cristobal the Zapatistas broke into the 
penitentiary and released 179 prisoners.(9) Such bold action 
indicates that the peasants of the EZLN realize that their 
support, and their future, will be brought into being by those 
most experienced with the brutality of capitalist society. 

The EZLN, according to local reporters, number at least 2,000, 
mostly young Indian men and women. The Liberation army is also 
organized across language barriers, containing speakers of all the 
major Mayan linguistic groups.(7,10) The EZLN is said to have been 
training in the nearby mountains for years. "Our army was formed 
in 1983 and in the past 10 years we structured it to have a 
military organization not of the bourgeoisie, but of the 
people"(11)

Free trade means genocide

The EZLN declaration criticizes the North American Free Trade 
Agreement (NAFTA) and the ongoing imperialist privatization of 
Mexican industry and resources.(6)

The peasants from poor regions of the country are the hardest hit 
by escalating foreign investment. Their traditional economy in 
part depends on farming, particularly corn. Corn is Chiapas' major 
crop. Such livelihoods are no longer viable because of the 
dominant role that Amerikan agribusiness is playing in the Mexican 
economy. NAFTA in particular will destroy the corn farmer because 
corn will be imported from Amerika and be sold at a lower price 
than the peasants are able to sell it.

By identifying themselves as part of a 500-year struggle of 
indigenous peoples against colonialism, capitalism and 
imperialism, the EZLN struck a chord that extends beyond the 
national border of Mexico. An EZLN leader told the press: "The 
indigenous people have always lived in a state of war because war 
has been waged against them and today the war will be in their 
favor. Whatever the case, we will have the opportunity to die in 
battle fighting instead of dying of dysentery, as the indigenous 
people of Chiapas usually die."(12)

Chiapas, home to 1 million Indians, is Mexico's poorest state: 
literacy is only 35%. The EZLN says 15,000 people per year die 
there from curable diseases.(12) Land-owning profiteers in Chiapas 
are decreasing their agricultural production and turning toward 
cattle exporting, a more lucrative industry. This trend is leaving 
many local peasants out of work, with nothing to lose and 
everything to gain.

The state's cowardly massacre

The day after the uprising began Mexican army troops poured into 
San Cristobal, driving trucks with mounted guns.(7) On Jan. 3 the 
Mexican government intensified its attack, sending one-fifth of 
the army to Chiapas, employing tanks, planes and helicopters. Much 
of the retaliation took place in a small peasant town with a 
population of no more than 300, just south of San Cristobal. 

From this strategy it appears the military wanted to save the 
tourist town of San Cristobal, and kill as many peasants as 
possible while chipping away at the EZLN. In Ocosingo five 
Zapatista soldiers were found lined up inside a market with their 
hands by their sides and bullet holes in their heads. Journalists 
looked closely at the bodies and discovered that their hands had 
been tied.(13)

The army also gunned down three people in a car that simply did 
not stop at a check point, among the passengers was a child. The 
car was riddled by hundreds of bullets. A local resident called 
the Mexican army cowards, saying, "They are using planes because 
they don't have the courage to fight these people."(10) Sound 
familiar? Maybe all imperialists fight alike.

The EZLN, according to one of its military leaders, does not have 
"an ideology perfectly defined, in the sense of being communist or 
Marxist-Leninist." But they do have "a common point of connection 
with the great national problems, which coincide always, for one 
or the other sector, in a lack of liberty and democracy."(12)

The EZLN knows its enemies are not all in Mexico, as the quoted 
leader points out: "The people in the U.S. have a great deal to do 
with the reality which you can observe here, with the conditions 
of misery of the Indians and the great hunger for justice."(12)

Notes: 
1.  IGC News Desk 1/11/94.
2. UPI 1/1/93.
3. San Francisco Chronicle 1/3/94, p. A9.
4. BBS World Service, 1/X/94
5. UPI 1/13/94.
6. Los Angeles Times 1/3/94, p.1.
7. San Francisco Examiner 1/4/94, p. A16.
8. San Francisco Chronicle 1/4/94, p. A8. 
9. UPI 1/2/93. 
10. San Francisco Chronicle 1/6/94, p. A13.
11. UPI 1/5/93.
12. Unofficial translation of Mexican press reports, distributed 
by Weekly News Update on Nicaragua and the Americas, via New York 
Transfer.
13. San Francisco Chronicle 1/5/94, p. A10.

* * *

CULTURE:

USA ON TRIAL 

(Parts I and II) 

A 60-minute video about the International Tribunal of Indigenous 
Peoples and Oppressed Nations in the USA had its premier showing 
in Boston, Mass. in December, sponsored by the Freedom Now 
Coalition, the National Committee to Free Puerto Rican Prisoners 
of War and Political Prisoners, New African Freedom Fighters, 
Puerto Rican Women's Committee in Support of Political Prisoners 
and the Roxbury Community College's Caribbean Focus. 

The documentary, produced for Deep Dish Television Network by 
Carla Leshne and Alejandro L. Molina, covered a tribunal held in 
October 1992 in San Francisco during which the USA was put on 
trial for crimes such as genocide, colonialism and the holding of 
political prisoners. It was part of the 500 Years of Resistance 
Movement.

Part I consists mostly of footage from the hearing, featuring 
testimony by national liberation organizations from Mexico, Puerto 
Rico, Blacks in the United States, Hawai'i, and various Indigenous 
Nations in the United States. Statements from the prosecuting 
witnesses highlighted many important facts about the continued 
U.S. war on the oppressed nations, detailing its 500 year campaign 
to destroy health and culture, take the land, and imprison all 
opponents of this genocide. The speeches encouraged resistance and 
unity between the oppressed nations. As the Lead Prosecutor said 
"The beginning of the end of the American empire starts today and 
it is in your hands."

Part II of the video includes interviews with a number of the 
witnesses for the prosecution, clips of pigs working with the 
government to steal the land of indigenous people, and scenes of 
demonstrations against Amerikan imperialism. 

Among the important topics touched on were the multinational 
corporations' attack on native land, the incarceration of Puerto 
Ricans in Amerikan prisons for seditious conspiracy, the 
COINTELPRO work by the FBI to destroy the Black Panther Party and 
the American Indian Movement, the forced dependency of Mexico and 
the persecution of Mexicans on the border. Most importantly, 
stressed throughout, was the need for and right of all oppressed 
nations to self-determination.

On Oct. 4, 1992 the United States government was found guilty of 
genocide, colonialism and many other crimes against the oppressed 
nations of the world. While this trial was not covered in the 
national or international press, this profound truth is already 
known by oppressed peoples as a part of daily reality. The video 
is a good overview of the historical and ongoing crimes of the 
Amerikan government. MIM encourages comrades and friends to obtain 
copies for public showings.

For more information or for a copy of the film write to Mission 
Creek Video, P.O. Box 411271, San Francisco, CA, 94141-1271. 
Copies can be ordered for $20. Ask for a catalogue of video works 
by Paper Tiger Television, too.

* * *

THE PELICAN BRIEF
1993

This movie almost had some good messages for the public. It sort 
of portrays the government as corrupt, with a puppet fool 
president. In addition, big corporations were shown as corrupt, 
conspiring with the government to make a profit--not far from 
reality. Unfortunately, the FBI and CIA turn out to be on the side 
of the people, along with the mainstream press.

The messages taken from the movie include the correct point that 
environmentalists can't win against the multinationals in court. 
But people are also asked to walk away thinking the government is 
stupid and can be defeated by smart individuals. If MIM made this 
movie it would have ended with the people winning through the 
strength of the masses, not through the ingenuity of one 
individual with the help of a few friends. But what did we expect 
from Hollywood....

--MAt2 and a comrade

* * *

SCHINDLER'S LIST
Steven Spielberg, 1993

In the years leading up to World War II, the majority of Europeans 
actively created or passively consented to fascism. Bourgeois 
historians have written this era as an aberration, something 
fundamentally different than capitalism and imperialism. But to 
proletarian internationalists, Hitler's notorious call for more 
"living space" for the German nation does not sound so different 
from its kindred historical incarnations, including Manifest 
Destiny and the conquest of the New World, the scramble for 
Africa, etc. Not to mention Amerika's own expansionism during 
World War II itself, into Korea, Vietnam, and so on.

Amidst various levels of enthusiasm for the Nazi Party and its 
genocide against Jews and communists, Roma ("Gypsies"), 
homosexuals, mentally and physically disabled people, and other 
religious minorities, there was one Nazi businessman who saved 
1,100 Jewish merchants and intellectuals-turned-factory-workers 
from the Auschwitz ovens. Oskar Schindler's was a heroic act. It 
stands out not for its absolute heroism, however, but for the 
pathetic context of acquiescence before which it appears so good. 
Given how little most Germans helped any of the victims of the 
Nazi war machine, Schindler's actions seem incredible. But he did 
what any moral human being would have done.

Schindler's List does a good job of showing the gradual 
implementation of Hitler's "Final Solution." The seizure of 
property, the ghettoization, the forced labor camps, and eventual 
systematic extermination. At each stage, the film's Jewish 
characters think the worst is now surely behind them. Even on 
their way to Auschwitz, they simply do not believe what we now 
know the worst in fact was.

Spielberg creates an atmosphere that emotionally depicts the 
horror experienced in Jewish ghettos and Nazi concentration camps.
For the masses of Amerikans who do not know what the Holocaust 
was, Schindler's List may be a powerful education. On the other 
hand, those same masses have and continue to participate in a 
system of violent, global subjugation, including genocide. 
Amerikans supported the mass slaughter of Vietnamese citizens, 
Iraqis, and many others, while hypocritically gasping at Nazi 
atrocities.

The fundamental error in Schindler's List is the presentation of 
Oskar Schindler as a man who "saved" 1,100 Jews (who now have 
6,000 living descendants). All those Jews would have died anyway 
if millions of people (principally from the Soviet Red Army and 
allied armies) had not died stopping Hitler's Eastern conquest and 
defeating the German Army.

In Amerika, it is fitting to eulogize one benevolent capitalist 
who saved people by putting them to work in his factory. This film 
shows exactly the wisdom and folly of relying on friendly 
capitalists. In all of the imperialist mayhem of World War II, 
with capitalists reaping obscene profits from slave labor and 
their armies scrapping for territory at the expense of millions of 
lives, one capitalist saved 1,100 lives while a socialist country 
(the USSR) saved the world from fascist conquest, and another 
(China) used the war to liberate hundreds of millions of people 
from feudalism and imperialism.

--MC12 & MC44

* * *

MOVIE MONOPOLY

Producing films is expensive. So is distributing them. But that's 
not all. Both production and distribution are oligopolies: 
industries that are controlled by so few companies which 
collaborate financially (and ideologically, in this case) making 
them virtually monopolies. So, even as more movies are produced 
and directed toward more targeted audiences, there is less and 
less possibility of counter-hegemonic movies reaching mass 
audiences.

Four companies--Sony, Time Warner, Disney and Universal 
Pictures--together controlled 72% of the Amerikan industry in 1993, 
measured in gross income. Most of the rest was controlled by a few 
others.

Sony (Columbia, TriStar, Sony Classics, Triumph), Warner and 
Disney (Disney, Buena Vista, Miramax) between them released 109 
movies last year, with an average gross of about $22-35 million 
each. Universal Pictures is owned by Matsushita.

When MIM Notes reviews movies, we know we're not reviewing 
expressions of organic popular culture. Instead, we are watching 
the efforts of some of the world's biggest multinational 
corporations, as they try to shape popular ideas and culture--while 
keeping people satisfied by reacting to, and sometimes co-opting, 
popular trends. In the process, the movie companies make a killing 
in cash and attempt to make the world safer for imperialism.

--MC12

Notes: Economist 1/8/94, p. 74.

* * *

DOCUMENTS FROM THE CCP RECTIFICATION

Excerpts from speeches delivered at the forum on the "25 Years of 
the Communist Party of the Philippines: Evaluation, Rectification 
and Further Advance" held on December 19, 1993 Utrecht, The 
Netherlands.
 
Excerpted from: Message on the 25th anniversary of the Communist 
Party of the Philippines
by Manuel Romero
National Democratic Front, Chairman
 
... It is well that ... the Party is conducting a rectification 
campaign to cast away the deviations from the Party's basic 
principles which had caused major setbacks in the last more than 
ten years.
It is also noteworthy that this rectification campaign is taking 
root throughout the Party and movement even as December 31, 
1993--the deadline set by the U.S.-Ramos fascist regime to win 
"strategic victory" over us--is almost upon us. But this should be 
one of our least worries for as long as all honest and loyal 
cadres and members persevere in the rectification campaign and 
ideological consolidation. ...
 
Excerpted from: Rectification Movement Strikes Deep Roots, Grows 
With Clear Direction
by Luis Jalandoni
NDF Vice Chairperson for International Affairs
 
... The deep-rooted character of the rectification movement is 
demonstrated by the firm support of the revolutionary masses and 
the summings-up, study and criticism and self-criticism being 
undertaken by the different regional Party organizations. ... 
The revolutionary masses and the revolutionary leadership indeed 
breathe new life and vigor into the Philippine revolutionary 
movement. The rectification movement is winning the participation 
and commitment of many new forces. Among the most inspiring is the 
enthusiasm of the youth.
The rectification movement lays the firm foundation for the bright 
future of the Philippine revolutionary movement. It is striking 
deep roots. It shows the clear direction of the Philippine 
revolution towards the victory of national-democratic revolution 
and further towards socialism.
 
Excerpted from: The Critical and Creative Tasks of the 
Rectification Movement in the Communist Party of the Philippines
by Jose Maria Sison
Founding Chairman, CPP
 
1. Uphold the theory and practice of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong 
Thought!

The rectification movement is first of all a movement of 
theoretical education in Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought. It 
stresses the integration of the revolutionary theory of the 
proletariat with concrete revolutionary practice. It promotes the 
study and application of the basic Marxist-Leninist principles and 
raises to the level of Marxist-Leninist theory the rich 
revolutionary experience of the Communist Party of the Philippines 
and the revolutionary mass movement.
It seeks to develop the Marxist-Leninist stand, viewpoint and 
method of the revolutionary proletariat. Party cadres and members 
must learn to grasp the law of contradiction and handle it well in 
class analysis and revolutionary struggle.
The rectification movement criticizes and combats the subjectivism 
that has given rise to the "Left" and Right opportunist errors 
that have in turn caused great damage to the party and the 
revolutionary movement. It repudiates the eclecticism, empiricism 
and dogmatism that have afflicted the Party for a considerably 
long period of time. It combats the depreciation of Marxism-
Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought and of the Philippine revolution, the 
deviations from the anti-revisionist line through the adoption of 
Brezhnevite and Gorbachovite revisionism, the depreciation of the 
two-stage Philippine revolution through the uncritical adulation 
of movements without proletarian leadership and the dishonest 
practice of quoting the great Lenin out of context to attack the 
line of the Party. ...

2. Pursue the anti-revisionist line consistently!

... Although modern revisionism has been discredited through the 
collapse of the Soviet Union and the Soviet revisionist party and 
the accomplished disintegration of revisionist ruling parties and 
regimes in some countries and the continuing degeneration of those 
in other countries, the exponents of modern revisionism, neo-
revisionism and social democracy are still trying to extend their 
influence by combining with the ideological and political 
offensive of the imperialists and their retinue of anticommunist 
petty bourgeois camp followers in misrepresenting modern 
revisionism of the last more than three decades as "flawed 
socialism" or "Stalinism."
The rectification movement criticizes and repudiates all the 
deviations from the antirevisionist line. The first major 
deviation started in the early 1980s and involved the subjectivist 
expectation that the Soviet Union and its allies would provide 
military and financial assistance in order to accelerate the 
victory of the Philippine revolution. This opportunism took the 
appearance of being "Left" but the content was Rightist because it 
led to the Party's shift to regard the CPSU and similar parties as 
no longer revisionists, the Soviet Union as no longer social 
imperialist and the satellites as no longer neocolonies of Soviet 
social imperialism. The second major deviation infected some key 
cadres in the late 1980s. They adopted and spread Gorbachovite 
revisionism in certain parts of the Party. Ultimately, the worst 
of these opportunists would become like Gorbachov, blatant 
anticommunist, using anti-Stalin slogans to attack the Party. ...

3. Confront the semifeudal and semicolonial character of 
Philippine society!

The persistence of the semicolonial and semifeudal character of 
Philippine society is obvious. This is a society ruled by the 
comprador big bourgeoisie and the landlord class in the service of 
foreign monopoly capitalism. It has an economy that is agrarian 
and without basic industries....
The rectification movement repudiates and rectifies the line 
pushed by the "Left" and Right opportunists since the late 1970s, 
crediting the U.S-Marcos regime, the IMF-World Bank and the 
foreign multinational firms with having industrialized and 
urbanized the Philippines to the extent, as the opportunists 
claimed, that the theory and strategic line of protracted people's 
war had become outdated and needed refinements, adjustments and 
innovations. The misrepresentation of Philippine society laid the 
basis for the "Left" opportunist line of the "strategic 
counteroffensive" and "regularization" combining both urban 
insurrectionism and military adventurism; as well as the Right 
opportunist line of urban-based reformism.

4. Carry out the general line of new democratic revolution!

The general line of new-democratic revolution aims to complete the 
Filipino people's struggle for national liberation and democracy. 
It is new because it is under the leadership of the proletariat 
and no longer the bourgeoisie. It is the first stage in the 
Philippine revolution, leading to the next stage of socialist 
revolution. The revolutionary forces required to achieve the first 
stage are the same forces that can begin the socialist revolution 
under the leadership of the working class. ...
 
5. Build the Party as the vanguard force of the proletariat and 
the people!

In this era of modern imperialism and proletarian revolution, the 
working class is indubitably the most productive and most 
progressive force in the Philippines and in the world. ... The 
advance detachment of the proletariat is the Communist Party of 
the Philippines. ... 
The rectification movement completely rejects the notion that the 
revolutionary struggle for national liberation and democracy 
against imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism can be 
won without the class leadership of the proletariat. ...

6. Wage the protracted people's war and carry out extensive and 
intensive guerrilla warfare based on an ever widening and 
deepening mass base!

The theory and strategic line of protracted people's war means 
that the people's army must encircle the cities from the 
countryside and accumulate strength in the countryside until it 
can seize political power in the cities. The protracted people's 
war is the revolutionary process of seizing power along the new-
democratic line. It is a revolutionary mass undertaking. In the 
course of people's war, the Party builds the worker-peasant 
alliance. It carries out land reform and builds the mass base in 
the form of mass organizations and the organs of political power. 
The people's army cannot preserve and accumulate strength without 
the strong foundation in the people's participation and support, 
realized through painstaking mass work and solid mass organization 
under the absolute leadership of the Party. ...

7. Pursue the revolutionary class line in the united front!

... The rectification movement vigorously condemns and opposes the 
attempt of the former "Left" and Right opportunists within the 
Party who are now openly counterrevolutionary Rightists to 
liquidate the class leadership of the proletariat and destroy the 
basic worker-peasant alliance which is the foundation of the 
revolutionary united front. The rectification movement criticizes 
and repudiates the series of Right opportunist attempts to 
liquidate the leading role of the working class in the united 
front, starting with the 1980 concept of the "vanguard front" to 
replace the vanguard party, proceeding to the 1985 and 1987 
decisions to convert the NDF [National Democratic Front] into a 
"federation" or "confederation" in which the Party is made to 
relinquish its role as center of the revolution and further 
proceeding to the 1990 attempt to convert the NDF into a confused 
federation of member-organizations and of individuals, in which 
the Party gives up its leading role in the revolution and its 
independence and initiative and is subordinated through a voting 
system to a ready-made majority of petty-bourgeois groups and 
individuals that imposes on it a program of bourgeois nationalism, 
pluralism and mixed economy. ...
 
8. Follow the principle of democratic centralism!

Democratic centralism is the basic organizational principle of the 
Party. It is centralism based on democracy and democracy based on 
centralized leadership. ... [D]emocratic centralism is not just 
about the democratic and collective process of decision making. 
Were it simply so, there would be no difference between the Party 
and a business or even a religious corporation. The essence of 
centralism in the Party is the commitment to the basic Marxist-
Leninist principles and policies ... . Democracy is the method by 
which the essence of centralism is integrated with the concrete 
practice of the revolution, and by which the dialectical 
relationship or interaction is realized between the central 
leadership and the general membership of the Party through the 
elected representative organs of leadership. ... Within the Party 
there is a dialectical relationship between discipline and 
freedom.

9. Look forward to the socialist revolution!

... [T]he national-democratic revolution cannot be won if the 
factors that make for socialist revolution do not prevail in the 
course of the national-democratic revolution. ... In brief, there is 
power in the hands of the working class and its revolutionary 
party to start the socialist transformation. ...
The theoretical education promoted by the rectification movement 
necessarily extends to the understanding that national-democratic 
and socialist revolutions will surely resurge and that Mao's 
theory and practice of continuing revolution under proletarian 
dictatorship is a great resource for consolidating socialism, 
combating revisionism and preventing the restoration of capitalism 
the next time that socialist societies arise once more on a wider 
scale on the face of the earth.

10. Carry out the Philippine revolution in the spirit of 
proletarian internationalism!

The new-democratic revolution in the Philippines ... is one of the 
few revolutionary movements now that are led by a Marxist-Leninist 
party, have some significant strength and, most important of all, 
are engaged in the revolutionary armed process of overthrowing the 
imperialists and the local reactionaries. ... 
At the same time, the Party is actively cooperating with other 
Marxist-Leninist parties and pre-party formations in the world to 
propagate the theory and practice of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong 
Thought and with all the other entities that are opposed to 
imperialism and all reaction to bring about the resurgence of the 
anti-imperialist and socialist movement on a global scale. ...

* * *
AMERIKA'S HYPOCRISY EXPOSED 

On December 20, it was reported on both the CBS Television Evening 
News and National Public Radio news that the United States 
government once again clearly demonstrated its racist refugee 
policy when it comes to Cuban and Haitian refugees. 

Seventeen Cubans and Haitians who got to the Bahamas separately 
joined their resources to buy a boat to bring them all to the 
United States. When they arrived recently in the United States the 
Haitians were immediately taken to a detention camp. The Cubans 
were welcomed and automatically given temporary resident status. 
The Haitians are considered economic refugees until they can prove 
that they qualify for political asylum. The Cubans do not have to 
prove anything and are immediately released to the Cuban 
community. 

The CBS report also pointed out that Haitians at sea are stopped 
by the U.S. Coast Guard and sent back to Haiti when they are 
caught, while Cubans are rescued by a well organized rescue 
operation. While Cubans who die at sea receive martyr status, 
Haitians die in silence; a hijacker from Cuba was greeted as a 
hero while a Haitian hijacker was met by the SWAT team. 

One Haitian refugee was quoted as saying the Haitians do not want 
to see a change in the policy toward Cubans, they just want to 
receive the same reception as the Cubans.

--Toby Mailman, for NY Transfer News Collective

Notes: 
CBS Television Evening News 12/20/93. 
National Public Radio News 12/20/93. 

* * *

LONG LIVE THE PEOPLE'S WAR IN ECUADOR

Sol Perœ reported in December that the Communist Party of Ecuador 
(a Maoist party) has made the historic move to develop and fight a 
people's war against bureaucratic capitalism, semi-feudalism and 
imperialism. 

Notes: Sol Perœ, December 1993

* * *

D.C. COPS DEAL DRUGS

On Tuesday, Dec. 14, 12 Washington, D.C. cops were arrested for 
conspiracy to traffic drugs, and using their badges and state-
issued guns to protect drug dealers who were transporting 100 
kilograms of cocaine from Miami to D.C every month. 

The drug dealers were in fact FBI agents who had the police under 
investigation for eighteen months.(1) The FBI had recorded the 
illegal activities on videotape and wiretaps.(2) The twelve 
officers each received from $2,000 to $25,000 to guarantee their 
assistance in making sure the cocaine shipments arrived safely in 
Washington. 

The "conspiracy to distribute cocaine" charge could mean a maximum 
of life in prison without parole for those convicted.(2) While the 
D.C. police department acknowledges individual corruption, it 
continues to deny that this kind of police activity is widespread 
or systemic.

The police officials and others blame the previous Marion Barry 
city administration for the hasty hiring procedures that these 
cops underwent. Most of the 12 officers are young, in their 20s, 
and have been on the force for less than four years.(2) 

The Washington Times, posited that the hiring process was hasty in 
order to quickly fulfill affirmative-action policies, and 
background checks that would have detected problems were not 
used.(3) 

The hasty hiring theory is flawed in seeking to pin the corruption 
on the officers and ignoring the fact that any police, whether 
white, Latino, or Asian, are working for and protected by the 
state, which operates to oppress and exploit the internal nations. 
MIM knows that police officers in every city help drug dealers 
traffic drugs into inner city neighborhoods where oppressed youth 
pay money they don't have to get some temporary relief from their 
exploitative conditions.

In addition to this most recent group of arrests, dozens more D.C. 
officers from the 1989 and 1990 recruitment classes have been 
arrested for everything from robbery to murder.(3) 

On a related note, a ring of Lorton correctional officials were 
busted in November for trafficking drugs into the D.C. prison. The 
prison guards have pleaded guilty to charges of bribery and 
introducing drugs into the Lorton prison complex.(4) 

MIM offers examples like these to show that the state has an 
interest in funneling drugs into the inner cities, and that the 
so-called "war on drugs" is a manufactured means for the state to 
justify more arrests, more surveillance, and more overall 
repression of these neighborhoods.
--MC31

Notes:
1. Reuter Library Report 12/16/93. 
2. The Washington Post 12/15/93, p. A1. 
3. The Washington Times 12/15/93, p. C4. 
4. The Washington Times 12/22/93, p. C6.

* * *
 
POLICE STATE ALERT

The beginning of 1994 brought a host of repressive new laws, some 
of them reflecting the work of beefing up the Amerikan state 
apparatus and further persecuting the oppressed. These new laws 
represent the popular Amerikan desire for fascism in the face of 
perceived declining world power and encroaching deviants, 
especially poor immigrants and inner-city Blacks.

California will now prosecute any drive-by shooting that results 
in death as first-degree murder, punishable by death, effectively 
creating a new class of murder defined by crimes by members of 
oppressed nations. California also allowed schools to ban gang-
affiliated clothing, and banned carrying passengers in the back of 
pickup trucks.

Georgia requires waged work by people on welfare. Unmarried women 
under 18 in Georgia who are pregnant or mothers must live with a 
parent or guardian to collect welfare. Mothers on welfare who have 
another child will have their benefits frozen for two years.

The middle class and labor aristocracy tax revolt won victories in 
Mississippi, where pensions will no longer be subject to income 
tax, and Michigan, where property taxes will no longer support 
public schools.

New laws came into effect to extend the exclusion of "criminals" 
from mainstream society and jobs. In New Hampshire, background 
checks for school workers are allowed. In Oregon, teacher and 
childcare applicants can now be fingerprinted for FBI background 
checks. Tennessee passed a similar law.
--MC12

Notes: Washington Post 12/30/93, p. A6.

* * *

RUSSIAN FASCISM

A Russian public opinion research center has released preliminary 
data on the election that brought fascist Vladimir Zhirinovsky 
22.8% of the vote late last year. Their results prompt comparison 
to fascist growth in Amerika and Europe.

According to the All-Russian Center for Public Opinion and Market 
Research, the two main groups that supported Zhirinovsky's party 
were older working class men in state-run industries. They were 
"not jobless poor ... but they work in a vulnerable sector of the 
economy that is already shrinking and is widely expected to shrink 
further." The second group was young urban men, alienated from 
politics and attracted to the raw nationalism, "action and force," 
who had previously not participated in politics.

These two groups appear to politically mirror the aging industrial 
labor aristocracy and new-right youth in Amerika, both important 
sources of Amerikan fascism--anti-crime, anti-welfare, and pro-
state repression.
--MC12

Note: NYT 12/30/93.

* * *

MIM DISCUSSES PANTHERS

Boston, MA--In the middle of December, MIM showed a film on the 
Black Panther Party extracted from the Eyes on the Prize series. 
This film outlines the history of the BPP and their destruction by 
the FBI, and discusses the idea that Black people are a colonized 
nation within the United States. The audience discussion after the 
film sprung from that point to an interesting discussion of the 
nature of nationality in the United States.

MIM began the discussion by pointing out that on the front page of 
Dec. 20, 1993 USA Today there was an article saying that 
segregation in schools in 1993 is back up to rates equal to or 
higher than they were before the desegregation movement. MIM sees 
this as just one more piece of evidence for the definition of 
Blacks, Latinos, Indigenous peoples, and other oppressed 
minorities within the United States as separate nations.

One person put forth the view that all people in the U.S. are 
bought off, including Blacks, and so no one in this country has an 
interest in revolution and revolution will only happen from people 
in the Third World. This person said that this has been true for 
Blacks since the civil rights movements of the 60s and 70s brought 
some crumbs of success and advancement. MIM agreed that while the 
overall standard of living is higher for all in this country, the 
distinction between nations in this country is important because 
national oppression is a material basis for interest in 
revolution. 

Some argued that the white working class, and in fact most of the 
white nation is exploited but when pressed on the definition of 
exploitation they agreed that most of what they considered 
exploitation was not economic but rather social conditions of 
oppression. MIM agrees that capitalism leaves some people with 
less than others and presents some people with less than perfect 
conditions relative to what is possible, but this does not negate 
the fact that the white nation has an economic and national 
interest in perpetuating Amerikan imperialism. Whatever small 
discomforts they endure, these are not a basis for interest in 
revolution, and historically this has been demonstrated to be 
true.

Another person questioned why MIM would say that only the white 
nation is bought off, why not all people in the U.S.? MIM has left 
the question of the exploitation of oppressed nationalities in the 
United States. open, but stands clear on the distinction of the 
white nation because they are both not exploited, and benefiting 
from their status as a part of the dominant ruling nation.

Others in the audience agreed with MIM on this distinction and 
raised such evidence as the selling of drugs to Blacks, the 
advertising geared at selling Blacks unhealthy products, and the 
racism throughout our culture. One person pointed out that the 
recent movie Demolition Man carried the slogan "this place isn't 
big enough for both of us" under the plot of a white man fighting 
to eliminate a Black man. This was just one example of the 
sometimes subtle and even subliminal effects of white Amerikan 
culture that several people raised. When discussing what to do 
about this, one individual suggested that we had to create an 
alternative culture. 

MIM agrees with this, and to that end reviews movies and music, 
creates poetry publications and art, tries to work in radio and 
TV, and does whatever else we can to advance this struggle. But 
MIM pointed out that this struggle can not be won while the 
dominant structure exists that creates this reactionary culture. 
Revolutionary culture should be created, but it should also 
recognize the need to eliminate the structure that perpetuates the 
reactionary culture. Several people agreed with this and talked 
about the importance of education as a tool for change.

Discussions such as these are crucial for people to have as we 
attempt to sort out the best way forward. Many people are 
frustrated with the Amerikan system but do not see anything they 
can do. MIM has many avenues to channel this energy and encourages 
all who are interested or even just curious to talk to us, write 
to us, and get involved. 

For a list of films MIM recommends showing in your area write to 
P.O. Box 3576, Ann Arbor, MI, 48106

* * *

THE ISSUE OF BEING A WOMAN

[Translation from Tagalog in International Liberation, a 
publication of the International Office of the National Democratic 
Front of the Philippines May-August 1993]

This topic is a continuation
of jest and irritation,
of rebuke and indifference,
of a glance, shaking of heads and nods,
of arms akimbo and legs crossed.
The debate here is like crying for the moon,
a whisper in the wind
a wade on water
a leveling of mountains.
The consequence of the conflict
is a kiss or a kick.
No argument would be won
even if Sisa goes mad,
callous the knees of old women be
even if the breasts of all this society's Salomes sag
and their vaginas ripped.
For the issue of being a woman
is presented
with arms and fists
persevered with
love and consciousness
fought steadfastly
with guns and bullets.
--Zelda Soriano

[Zelda Soriano is working full-time in a guerrilla zone. She was 
arrested in May 1992 but was able to escape with the help of 
comrades. The poem above, freely translated into English by LI's 
Fina Jose, is included in Soriano's first book, Kung Saan Ako 
Pupunta (To Where I Am Going), a collection of revolutionary short 
stories and poems.]

* * *

STATE BLAMES PRISONERS FOR PRISON CONDITIONS

Six hundred prisoners have died--and six thousand have been 
injured--inside the walls of Venezuelan prisons in the last 12 
months. The death of 123 prisoners during a riot on Jan. 3 brought 
Venezuela "to the record level" for Latin America.

"Many were burned in fires in two prison cellblocks, others 
drowned in water tanks where they sought to avoid the flames."

Venezuelan prison "expert" Mario Maduro Martinez blamed "drug 
trafficking, corruption, overcrowding, idleness among prisoners 
and administrative delays in handling cases" for the violence.

--MC234  

Notes: UPI 1/6/93