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 92 September, 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. POPULATION CONTROL IS PEOPLE CONTROL 2. LETTERS 3. (SOME) AMERIKAN MASSES CONCLUDE: ARMED STRUGGLE FOR LIBERATION 4. MIM HITS L.A. AIRWAVES 5. VENDING BOXES MAKE WAY FOR MIM NOTES 6. SINN FEIN STRUGGLES OVER PEACE DEAL 7. THIRD FORCE 8. DOMESTIC VIOLENCE: MIM BLAMES PATRIARCHY, NOT DEVIANCE 9. ANI DIFRANCO 10. COMPLACENCY THEN, COMPLACENCY NOW! MIM AT WOODSTOCK '94 11. IMPERIALIST SMOKESCREEN TO EXTERMINATE THIRD WORLD PEOPLES 12. THE ENVIRONMENTAL CRISIS: A PRODUCT OF IMPERIALISM, NOT POPULATION 13. POPULATION CONTROL IN THE U.S.: AMERIKA TAKES AIM AT INTERNAL COLONIES 14. UNDER LOCK AND KEY: NEWS FROM PRISONS AND PRISONERS WHAT IS MIM? 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 * * * POPULATION CONTROL IS PEOPLE CONTROL People who want to save humanity and the environment by reducing the number of people are barking up the wrong tree. But they're also playing into the hands of imperialists who want to control the people, not just the population. When you think of the population "crisis," think of a slave ship. The advocates for population control would look at a slave ship and say that the reason the slaves are starving and dying of preventable disease is that there are too many of them on the ship. MIM, on the other hand, would ask: "Who decided how much food to bring along and who gets it, what to do about medical care, how to arrange the living quarters?" And we would ask: "Where is this ship going, and why?" It's not the population of the planet--or of the slave ship--that determines the fate of its inhabitants. It's the social relations under which they live. When use the resources of the planet in a rational way to meet the needs of the people on it, and if we use the political power of the people to change the course of our development, then population itself will fade as a central issue. But the population control zealots and their imperialist backers are using this issue to further their ambition: control the world's oppressed, keep them in check and keep them at work, producing the wealth and decadence that surrounds us in Amerika. --MC12 For more, see the articles below: Imperialist smokescreen to exterminate Third World peoples, The Environmental crisis: a product of imperialism, not population, Population control in the U.S.: Amerika takes aim at internal colonies. * * * LETTERS LIBERAL REVOLUTION? Thank you for the free copy of your newspaper. As for the prison library, that's where I work and I'll give the newspaper you send me equal time on the rack. With regard to your political ideology, I'm not quite sure where I stand. I truly believe there is room for considerable change in this country, but I am not sure that Communism or Socialism will be any more productive. The theory behind the two is pure, but, as we have seen, its practical application differs. In any form of government someone is directing the people. These directors never live by the same standards as those they direct. Why? Because absolute power corrupts absolutely. The hierarchy will always exist above the means of the common masses. A capitalistic society may have its faults, but it is one of the only forms of government where one can go from rags to riches by one's own abilities. The average U.S. citizen has been bamboozled with propaganda for so long they don't know which way is up, and have lost the ability to think independently without the aid of the daily newspaper. I believe it is time for revolution in this country, but I believe that the revolution should push to return to the liberal constitution and not that which has evolved from a series of conservative courts. Americans will always feel the yoke of one form of oppression or another simply because of their apathetic lifestyles. This country once had a great war machine. Peace has made the war machine obsolete. So, in order to survive, the powers that be have given the country a new means of monetary income, and a new enemy for its people. This enemy will provide jobs for our nation's people. It will put food in the belly of our nation's people. This new enemy, the salvation of our nation, is the war against crime. One- point-four million people are now incarcerated in the United States. These numbers will continue to rise because prisons are big business. Crime control is big business. And this translates into jobs and dollars. It's the way it is, and people just don't care as long as there is food for their bellies, clothes for their bodies, and a place to rest their heads. Besides, they're helping to get violent criminals off the streets. They don't realize, nor would they care if they did, that the present administration has made it so that every crime can now be construed as a crime of violence. The term "violent felony" means any crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year; or any act of juvenile delinquency involving the use or carrying of a firearm, knife, or destructive device that would be punishable by imprisonment for such a term if committed by an adult, that -- (i) has as an element the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force against the person of another; or (ii) is burglary, arson, or extortion, involves the use of explosives, or otherwise involves conduct that presents a serious potential risk of physical injury to another. What this means in layman's terms is that if you have more than one felony speeding ticket and two felony-DUI's, you can now be sent to prison for 15-years-to-life if you are in possession of a bullet, much less a firearm. Isn't that amazing? Other than a few traffic violations, you have been an upstanding citizen, right? Not! The federal government can send you to prison for the rest of your life. Don't like that? Well that's just tough! The American public, in its blissful ignorance, gave Congress carte blanche to deal with the rising problem of crime. This is the result. And, within the next 60 years, or by the year 2050, if this continues to go unchecked by the American public, 50% of this country's population will be incarcerated and the remaining 50% will be employed with keeping them there. However, taking all this into consideration, I often wonder if going with another form of government is not bargaining with the lessor of evils. Like I said, I advocate revolution. But a revolution which restores the Constitution to that standard for which it was principally established. Give the people back their rights and make the entire propaganda process illegal. Maybe then the true criminals would find themselves where they truly belong: behind bars. Very truly yours, Joseph J. Schepis, Jr. #83380-071 / USP Atlanta P.S. if you elect to publish this letter, please use my name and address. Anything I say, I am not ashamed of. Besides, my life, or most of it, is fully disclosable under the FOIA anyway. MC18 replies: Thankfully letters to MIM do not fall under the FOIA--MIM is not the government (yet) and the FOIA cannot be used to extract information from entities other than the government and its representatives. On one hand you indicate that capitalist society provides opportunities for people to "go from rags to riches by one's own abilities." A second later you say that Amerikans have "been bamboozled with propaganda for so long they don't know which way is up." The latter applies to the former quite well: capitalism provides statistically trivial opportunities for advancement (people also survive leaping from airplanes without parachutes; but don't count on it). Who you are determines just how trivial those chances are. Most Black, Latino, and indigenous people in this country have more to worry about than "going from rags to riches." Imprisonment and police repression, drug and alcohol abuse, conditions of poverty starting at birth, high infant mortality, malnutrition--these factors disproportionately affect those populations and make their chances for that "rags to riches" opportunity thinner than air. Ability has precious little to do with it. Being at the right place at the right time is one thing, but it's hard to be there when you're in prison, or unemployed, or at the wrong end of a billy club or a heroin needle. Your counterpart in the suburbs who just pulled his dad's BMW into his private high school parking lot just has a better chance. Regarding your comments on Communism and Socialism: although we don't speak for all Communists, Maoist theory and practice are inextricably bound together. Maoist theory is no more or less pure than Maoist practice because each determines the other. If you'd like to speak more directly about specific historical issues of "purity" or effectiveness of Maoism, we ask that you introduce examples to the debate so we can speak to them more directly. About revolution: you either join one or start your own. There is no great Liberal revolution fighting to save the Constitution. Why is that? The constitution already serves those whom it was intended to serve. It was never an issue of protecting your rights. It was always an issue of protecting power. The wickedness perpetrated in the name of "rights" didn't start with the last few conservative courts. Take it back as far as you'd like. Take it back to the framers of the Constitution. It was about power then, and it's about power now. Liberals have the luxury of historical distortion with which to interpret the Constitution. "All men are created equal." How did they define a "man"? A man was a white man who owned property. Even landless whites did not vote. Did the continuous 200 years of genocide of indigenous people after the Constitution was drafted give you any pause for thought? That wasn't perpetrated by the Reagan Supreme Court. It was perpetrated by the armies of the men who wrote the Constitution, and every one that followed in their footsteps. Do you think the survivors of that process want to join a Liberal revolution? Why should they--the Constitution has always meant nothing to them. If you believe that absolute power corrupts absolutely, then would you prefer to have power held by the few or the majority? The majority of the world is not white, not liberal, and not interested in the Constitution. The majority wants food, clothing, shelter, land, basic education and health, and freedom from oppression by the armies of imperialism--self-determination. We see Maoism as the best way forward to meet those needs. It will require organization, service to the masses, and taking power from those who will never give it away. MIM CRITICS ATTACK PCP ITAL In response to MIM's article "PCP responds to allegations: revolutionary party is not anti-gay" distributed on the Internet, we received this reply, followed here by a response from a MIM Associate (MA). END Despite the seriousness of the subject, this article gave me some great laughs. I used to be an aspiring Marxist (I don't know what the heck I am any more), and I used to work on a labor newspaper. The folks I hung out with were generally more clever than to use terms like "masses" and "elements" in a public communication (though I'm afraid we probably said "the bosses" far too often), and it fills me with a sort of delighted nostalgia to realize that there are still doctrinaire, out of touch organizations spending busy hours deciding what their line is on every possible question. Since they probably don't know any working class people, they haven't noticed yet that nobody really likes to be referred to as "the masses," or even that high compliment, "advanced worker." --Internet critic MAB52 responds: You say that Marxists do not know the language of white worker revolution, based on the talk of "Marxists" you used to hang out with. You condemn Marxists as doctrinaire, and out of touch and state that the intricacies of their line do not affect anyone. We will call these people you used to work with Trotskyists because they exhibit tendencies typically associated with Trotskyism: (1) they tail after the labor movement, and (2) they reduce all oppression to class oppression (which is why they were always talking about "the bosses"). So your argument amounts to saying that Trotskyist politics are irrelevant in the United States. MIM grants that Trotskyist ideas do not have much impact on the state of oppression. Further, MIM does not consider the white American working class exploited. Imperialism allows the labor aristocracy in the United States to receive wages subsidized by the super-exploitation of Third World workers. First world workers receive wages at or above the value of their labor power; the imperialists get their profits from the super-exploitation of oppressed-nationality workers. Thus, Amerikan workers have an interest in preserving imperialism. MIM understands that white workers do not like communism because of this, and does not tailor its line to get them on board. You are concerned about white working class people not wanting to be called "the masses." Of course labor aristocracy workers do not like a label that calls them to a revolution against their material interests. MIM calls them a labor aristocracy, but at least our term is honest. Furthermore, an argument based on personal preference indulges in individualism and is neither scientific nor rational--certainly not what one would base a revolution on. See MIM Theory 1, "A White Proletariat?" Send $4 to MIM Distributors, P.O. Box 3576, Ann Arbor MI, 48106-3576. Make checks out to "ABS." ANTI-COMMUNIST INTERNET WARS ITAL A MIM article also provoked this debate between people trying to prove who was a fiercer opponent of the Communist Party of Peru and other popular movements. A MIM response follows. END Critic 1: Would any other leftist apologists care to indicate that there are limits to their complicity? Critic 2: I have in fact gone on record on Sendero long before you challenged my objectivity... Critic 1: It's good to hear you don't endorse the [Sendero Luminoso], although your disendorsement is a little tepid. Perhaps the tepidity is a result of your objectivity. Me, I'm not objective. I've met too many people whose lives and families were ruined under totalitarian regimes (which, it must be noted, to be fair and objective, had universal education (where the history books were corrected every couple weeks to reflect the ever changing past) and free healthcare (which no sane person would ever voluntarily use unless they were on the point of death the witch-doctor was out of town) and terrorism to be objective). Frankly I don't believe in objectivity, really. Honesty, yes, but a single person confronted with all the contradictory information about, say, Nicaragua, must make judgements based on personal insight. So, when I saw a campesino woman standing facing a nice house with the FSLN flag on July 18 announcing to her grandchild "I'm old and will die soon, so I can say this without fear: the Sandinistas are all crooks. They ruined the country. We were better off under the Somozas." I tend to take this, in combination with other evidence, more to heart than the tirades of the "objective" western journalists about the Nicaraguan "deal with the devil" in 1990. A while back there was an interesting post by some former "objective journalists" who lost their objectivity when they were nearly blown up in an assassination attempt on Eden Pastora -- they set out to pin this one on the CIA once and for all, but found every indicator pointing to the fifth directorate. Funny things happen when you stop playing dress-up in objectivity. Critic 2: ...I'm still not certain where the charge of "leftist apologist" comes from. In all of my posts on Cuba, I've argued consistently for an honest and objective assessment of the Castro regime based on the known facts. Those facts lead me to conclude that the regime is a dictatorship that massively violates freedom of expression, but that the regime has also made significant advancements in health care and education. I have seen no credible evidence that the regime massively or even routinely violates the right to life, although there is good evidence that torture is occasionally conducted in Cuban jails, and some political prisoners have been executed. So tell me, [Critic 1], does stating the facts make me an apologist? Critic 1: I'm sorry if I offend, but I consider the above a classical example of an apology for tyranny. I never said you lied, at least not intentionally. Really, though, this business of balancing body counts against infant mortality rates is ITAL really END insufferable. MIM MA responds to the debate: Your arguments against objectivity (specifically in the case of the Sendero Luminoso) were individualistic and unconvincing. If you do not accept body counts and infant mortality rates as measures of the effectiveness of the regime, what do you count? Individualistic "freedom of expression?" How does one measure that--especially when more potential beneficiaries of this freedom are dead? You use the term "objective" differently from Marx, and your meaning is unclear. The PCP is neither objectively nor subjectively totalitarian. That is, it neither is responsible for most of the killings in Peru nor is public opinion against it. The individualism of accepting the word of an old Nicaraguan peasant woman is without rational foundation. If the woman had praised the Sandinistas, would you have been a convinced supporter of that side? You are concerned about the woman only because you happen to be aware of her plight. The media controls your sympathies rather than criteria we can use for investigation and judgment. Complete objectivity is limited by our media's gifts of information. Take as many objective things as you can, and still you will not be able to declare the direction of the revolution from the U.S. * * * (SOME) AMERIKAN MASSES CONCLUDE: ARMED STRUGGLE FOR LIBERATION Boston, Mass. -- In August, MIM showed the documentary "Medics of the People" to build public opinion for the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP). The film documents the activities of the NPA medical units as they travel to various barrios to provide general medical care for peasants. The NPA is also shown assessing the needs of the villagers to help set up new clinics. This along with education enables the peasants to reach a level of self- sufficiency. The Boston audience was very responsive and brought up important questions for building unity on the most effective path for Amerikan leftists to take in support of the liberation of the Filipino people. Overall the discussion following the movie proved why it is effective practice for MIM to show movies on national liberation. One person said it well: "There is no way that the people of the Philippines can rely on the government that is bought off by the multinationals to meet their needs." MIM is glad to see so much support for the struggle of the Filipino people. The debate around the necessity for armed struggle did not provide any alternative to seizing power by the people and focused on the need for structural change and not merely programs run by the government to pacify disgruntled masses. Much of the discussion following the film focused on the need for an armed struggle. One person said the NPA were not the only ones going through the country-side curing and educating the peasant villagers and that these ends have been worked on by other means. This person said that various foundations fund other Community Health Department programs, but agreed this was not the depth of change the NPA was fighting for. While there are many forces that make up the struggle of the people of the Philippines, medical units in connection to the New Democratic Revolution are the only ones that recognize the need for an overall changing of the structure and simultaneously work toward that goal. This person agreed that the issue of structural change was not the goal of all the other care givers but at the same time they educated the peasants to be more self-reliant. They said the solution to the problem goes much further than the immediate needs of the people. Another person was weary about the need for violence as the only means for the people to achieve self-determination. The same person pointed out that elections are not really fair and do not fully represent the masses. As an example, in recent local elections for mayors and low-ranking officials there were about 30 people murdered in connection to election fraud. S/he added that a major problem with land reform being implemented by the government is that most of the senators who have the power to pass land reform laws are also the people who own the land. S/he did not want to look at armed struggle as the only solution but really saw that there is no way to achieve rights through the present system because they have no power within the government. Another person added that armed struggle is not pretty, but we must objectively look at the alternatives and their historical record of success. One person talked about the environmental degradation caused by the control of the multinational corporations. S/he said that Greenpeace was working on a strong campaign against toxic waste shipments to the Philippines. The movement to recycle batteries has left a toxic scar on the Philippines and s/he said that the exposure of multinationals' effect on the country and the Filipino people is very important. This person said that President Ramos's Philippines 2000 plan is very dangerous because it is the rapid development of industry without regard to the environmental effect. S/he said that it was obvious that no other country was able to develop industry quickly without environmental degradation and that was a real problem for the Philippines now that the government is following the model of First World countries so that it can raise its profits. Technology developed out of the people's control will only be used against them. The industrialization plan will not benefit the masses; it only serves to strengthen the neo- colonial relationship of the Philippines with the Japanese, European, and Amerikan multi-nationals. * * * MIM HITS L.A. AIRWAVES On March 6, MIM made an appearance on the weekly student radio talk show "Freedom of Voice," on KUCI, the student-operated campus radio station of the University of California in Irvine. Irvine is in Orange County, known for its reactionary, anti-Communist political climate. Nonetheless, MIM found that it had some supporters among the callers, as well as a pretty high level of unity with the show's hosts. Some people called in to argue with MIM, about everything from the definition of communism to the contradiction between imperialism and the world's oppressed nations, proletarian democracy versus bourgeois democracy, the role of the imperialist media and the question of whether the right to eat and the right to live are the most important human rights worth defending--as opposed to property rights or free speech rights. It is rare for MIM to get such an opportunity to reach people through the radio, so MIM made sure to get a copy of the discussion on audio-tape. For a copy write: MIM Distributors P.O. Box 29670 Los Angeles, CA 90029-0670 Please enclose $5 in cash, stamps, or check to "ABS" for a copy of the tape. * * * VENDING BOXES MAKE WAY FOR MIM NOTES LOS ANGELES--MIM's efforts to build public opinion for communist revolution took a step forward in July when MIM put new newspaper vending boxes on the streets here, bringing the total number of Notas Rojas/MIM Notes boxes placed in Los Angeles to seven. MIM bought the vending boxes second hand last autumn, and after sanding off the bourgeoisie's ugly brown and making other repairs, repainted them bright red and put them where they belong. MIM seeks to compete with--and ultimately overthrow--the bourgeoisie in all areas, newspaper distribution being just one. That struggle advances through many small steps. At this stage, a handful of second-hand vending boxes is a big step forward. The first box went out in October in the Los Feliz district near Hollywood. From then to July, the masses have fed it more than $20 for 320 copies of MIM Notes, about $0.7 cents per copy. That doesn't cover the cost of the papers, let alone the box, but since our goal is to bring Maoism to the people, we consider that a real success. MIM's decision to purchase, refurbish, deploy and maintain vending boxes in Los Angeles represents a step forward for MIM's mass practice. Such progress requires hard work and money. If you can help maintain or expand the distribution network for MIM's publications with your time, work, and/or money, please do. Write to MIM to get involved. Write to the address on page 2, or, in Los Angeles: MIM Distributors P.O. Box 29670 Los Angeles, CA 90029-0670 * * * SINN FEIN STRUGGLES OVER PEACE DEAL by MAZ10 Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams a great deal of public criticism after his highly publicized visit to the United States last winter, and the secrecy with which he and Northern Ireland's Social Democratic Labor Party leader John Hume constructed the Irish Peace Initiative. Much to their credit, the Sinn Fein newspaper Saoirse published these criticisms in the April issue. Looking to see if Adams has been responsive to these criticisms, MIM has scrutinized the Three Motions passed at the Sinn Fein delegate convention on July 24.(1) In an article entitled "Ireland's Unmanageable Sisters," the Saoirse writes, "Opposition to the Downing Street Declaration continues to grow within the nationalist community, and calls for the Hume-Adams document to be published, so that people can make up their own minds, are becoming an almost weekly occurrence at grass-roots level." The article backs this assertion with quotes from Mary Ward, vice- president of Sinn Fein; Bernadette McAliskey, former Independent MP (Mid-Ulster); and women from Cumann na mBan (the Republican Women's League) and Clar na mBan (Women's Agenda). Saoirse points out that women have been "the backbone of resistance" to British imperialism since the British partition of Ireland in 1918.(2) Mary Ward said there were three steps necessary for a "lasting peace" in Ireland: first, British declaration of intent to leave Ireland; second, a new Ireland negotiated by the Irish people; third, general amnesty for all political prisoners.(2) This is good criteria for which to analyze Sinn Fein's Three Motions. Sinn Fein upholds the Irish Peace Initiative as the basis of their peace strategy. Among the principles they give in that initiative are "[that] the Irish people as a whole have the right to national self-determination." They specifically criticize the Downing Street Declaration for dictating how the Irish people exercise this right, and assert that this is not a right of the British government. The Irish Peace Initiative also asserts that the unionists "cannot have a veto over British policy or political progress in Ireland." All this satisfies Ward's second point. Ward's first point is covered obliquely in the three motions. Among the negative elements in the Downing Street Declaration, Sinn Fein points out that "[there] is no ... reference by the British government to its constitutional claim as embodied in the Government of Ireland Act," and that "Nationalists are locked into the British state against their wishes--their consent was never sought. The right to give or withhold consent was not and is not extended to nationalists." Political prisoners are not mentioned in the motions. However, they do list, among their demands, an end to "repressive legislation." This would include the Special Powers Act, under which Irish political prisoners were interred. Ward's third point is covered. The principles of the Irish Peace Initiative are outlined in the three Motions. MIM does know whether the Initiative has been published since April. And although they handle the Downing Street Declaration very diplomatically, pointing out its positive as well as negative points, they clearly did not accept it. Sinn Fein is certainly not going to campaign for a permanent cease-fire, as the Downing Street Declaration demands. As MIM goes to press, Gerry Adams has said that he has given the IRA a detailed analysis of the peace process and is talking with them about a three-month cease-fire. A spokesman for the Ulster Volunteer Force said "We would welcome the opportunity" to lay down their arms is the IRA did. There is a great deal of speculation in Ireland that a cease-fire is at hand.(3) Adams is talking and writing a lot about the peace process. But he is correctly maintaining that it is the British government that is the military oppressor. At the convention he said that the British government represents "the political wing of the largest armed faction in our country."(1) If Adams achieves a multilateral cease-fire, that contains a "defense clause" in case of renewed loyalist paramilitary attacks, the pressure to come to the negotiating table will be on the British government, even though they have said they will settle for no less than a permanent unilateral cease-fire from the IRA (4) These are good revolutionary tactics. The last paragraph of the three Motions truly reflects the process that Gerry Adams and Sinn Fein have been practicing in their campaign for a just peace: "We recognize the need for effective communications with our membership and base. We must strengthen our unity and cohesion and improve our political and organizational capacity and our resources, so that the party is politically primed to initiate and respond in an appropriate and comprehensive way to this developing and hopeful situation." Notes: 1. Irish Times, 7/25/94, p. 6. 2. Saoirse 4/94, p. 5. 3. From The Irish People 8/8/94, "Adams gives IRA cease-fire hopes a boost." Obtained from alt.politics.radical-left on the Usenet. 4. New York Times 7/25/94, p. 3. * * * THIRD FORCE Special Issue on Gender and Sexuality May/June 1994 Write: Center for Third World Organizing 1218 East 21st Street Oakland, CA 94606 ($4 plus postage) Third Force's purpose is stated clearly in the editorial column: "The job is to reshape the culture and agendas of our communities, starting with our most active, powerful, visible organizations of color. The job is to understand why people whose experience interprets abuse and rejection as central to family life might resist organizational structures. The job is to stop responding to that resistance with the same old diatribes about individualism and betrayal." It also states, "American society, including communities of color, have been forever changed by the feminist and gay/lesbian movements." People in First-World gay/lesbian movements who do not look to the plight of the Third World seek an identity politics. This is often degrades all struggle against Imperialism into "My sexuality." In fact, no word of Imperialism finds its way into Third Force. It is only by taking up the fight against the oppressor nation that a non-white gay/lesbian movement can eventually eliminate class oppression and gender oppression plus homophobia. Third Force shows a literal avoidance to face the root of the problem that effects "people of color" and oppressed in the Third World: Imperialism. Third Force draws many lines to point out that Capitalism does not work in, but the solutions proposed are at best progressive. On the one hand Third Force is a good magazine because it gives information that makes the system look damn oppressive. On the other hand it sees the solution in an almost surreal way, making all struggles look to be the way out of oppressive Amerikkka-- including integrating into Amerikkkanism. Third force is worth picking up for its facts about Imperialism's exploits, but its conclusions are too varied or wishy-washy to be taken as a revolutionary rag. The job is to respond to all resistance with concrete analysis of concrete conditions--and organize from that basis. * * * DOMESTIC VIOLENCE: MIM BLAMES PATRIARCHY, NOT DEVIANCE by a MIM Comrade Boston, Mass.--In the wake of the recent attention given to domestic violence by the bourgeois media, MIM sponsored a local discussion to expose misinterpretations by the media and the misleadership of pseudo-feminists. MIM offered our analysis of violence against women and our solution of a revolutionary strategy to abolish patriarchy. 4 MIM's solution is to build a party capable of leading the masses in the continuous squelching of imperialism, capitalism and patriarchy. From history we have learned that focoism is not an effective strategy, and we understand a partial answer to why women do not stand up now and fight to abolish patriarchy.(1) First World women are gender-men inasmuch as their interests lie in the continuation of patriarchy as it is bound up with imperialism. The continuation of patriarchy and the socialization to enjoy being controlled are also in their interest because they justify passivity. First World men have the social, political, and economic power to dominate the world. This type of violence benefits the biological females/gender-men.(2) At the discussion, one person was primarily concerned with the reasons battered women do not call the cops more often and do something "before the violence gets out of control." Another posed the question, "At what level [of violence] do you call the cops?" S/he went on to explain that the varying levels of violence in our society make it hard to determine what is "reportable." One person agreed with MIM that our society perpetuates violence at the core--that capitalism is based on violence and sexual relations follow that basic contradiction. This person pointed out that domestic violence centers only solve the problem on an individual level. "They are not created to attack the system that breeds domination of women." This person said this is the reason that you cannot rely on cops--they are a part of the violence, part of the patriarchy and have absolutely no interest in eradicating the status quo. This person's solution was vigilantism--women taking back power by killing their oppressors. Gender aristocracy Because the threat of violence against women is narrowly defined and obscured, the relatively violent and coerced nature of all relationships under capitalist patriarchy is hidden. Murder is not socially acceptable, but violence to varying degrees is acceptable and even eroticized. Newsweek explains domestic violence as a cycle of love-hate-love that illustrates the interests of the gender aristocracy in the preservation of patriarchy as a part of sexual privilege: "Many abusers can be charming--and the abused women often fall for their softer side ... There are three parts to the abuse cycle... during [the] last phase, [the batterers] listen to the women, pay attention, buy her flowers ... they make love, the sex is good. And that also keeps them going."(3) The bourgeois media--one of the major means of eroticizing violence--ask why battered women stay in abusive relationships! Under capitalist patriarchy, when social relations are based on constant struggle between the oppressor and the oppressed, sexual relationships follow the same pattern. Domestic violence is a by- product of that capitalist-patriarchy system. It is one aspect of a system that is built on violence and that continues to dominate through violent means. Women victimized more than men The rate of violent crimes committed against women by intimates is nearly 10-times greater than violent crimes committed against men by intimates.(4) Although women are victims of violent crimes committed by intimates at a higher rate than men, the total victimization of men is much higher. Among all female murder victims, 29% were slain by husbands or boyfriends. Four percent of male victims were killed by wives or girlfriends; 383 husbands were killed; 913 wives were killed; 240 boyfriends were killed; 519 girlfriends were killed. This is out of the total of 22,540 murders in 1992.(5) Of those whites killed by their spouses 62% are women and 38% are men. Of those Blacks killed by their spouse, 53% are women and 47% are men.(9) Among women who experienced violent victimization, injuries occurred almost twice as frequently when the offender was an intimate (59%) than when a stranger (27%). Injured women were also more likely to require medical care if the attacker was an intimate (27%) rather than a stranger(14%).(4) White and black women experienced equivalent rates of violence committed by intimates and other relatives. However, black women were significantly more likely than white women to experience incidents of violence by acquaintances or strangers.(4) The anti-crime hype, backed by paternalist pseudo-feminism, says that violence against women is a feature of individual deviance of the kind that can be stopped by more police and more prisons. The result--more police and prisons--does nothing to reduce, much less eradicate, violence against women. But it does increase the oppression of the non-white internal colonies, and increase the privileges of white Amerikans, while strengthening the state. This is how white Amerikan women benefit from patriarchy (paternalism) and imperialism (exploitation of neocolonies). The Battered Woman Syndrome Abuse defenses evolved from cases beginning in the late 1970s involving battered women. "Lawyers argued that battered woman syndrome prevented their clients from seeking a divorce and in some cases long term abuse drove women to become temporarily insane and kill" (11) This defense applies to situations where the murder does not fit into the traditional definition of self-defense, but rather occurs when they are not in imminent danger and they lash back against their batterer. Instead of looking at the cause of violence in our society honestly, this defense protects women by claiming that they went insane as opposed to making a conscious and justified choice to act violently. Until five years ago, 22 states did not recognize the Battered Woman Syndrome defense.(12) Now every state but North Carolina allows it in some form. Pseudo-feminists claim this as a victory for women. This merely prolongs the exposure of the source of violence in Amerika. One of the first women to get her sentence commuted from this defense is Lisa Grimshaw, part of the Framingham Eight. She now helps to train pigs to deal with domestic violence.(14) During MIM's discussion, one person said that are cops are more likely than men in any other profession to beat their wives. More females raped by men whom they knew, compared to females raped by strangers, did not report the victimization to police because they believed it to be a private or personal manner.(4) Women are portrayed as the domicile victims of violence. Not only are they also capable of violence, but they also show where their interests lie when they report the rapes by strangers but accept the dominance by spouses. The media have portrayed domestic violence as a problem caused by troubled individuals. MIM sees domestic violence as a product of the decaying capitalist system and is tolerated because it is an erotic way to maintain the present social relations that reflect the capitalist-patriarchy's need for violence. * * * ANI DIFRANCO out of range Righteous Babe Records 1994 DiFranco creates no illusion that changing the attitudes of men is a solution to violence against women under patriarchy. In "If he tries anything," DiFranco debunks the reactionary socialization that women are powerless to protect themselves: "I'm invincible/ so are you/ we do all the things/ they say we can't do/ we walk around in the middle of the night/ and if it's too far to walk/ we just hitch a ride." While the song recognizes violence as a product of this system, as opposed to a tease selected for a few women, this song's solution to domination over women ends up just reversing the domination into power games. "We got rings of dirt around our necks/ we smell like shit/ still when we walk down the street/ all the boys line up/ to throw themselves at our feet." This ultimately leads to confusion because women who defend themselves from one type of domination will only encounter more unless patriarchy is abolished. "The commoditization of sex" presents the idea that as long as she has power in walking down the street or power in individual sexual games then she has control. "i say i think he likes you/ you say i think he do to/ i say go and get him girl/ before he gets you/ i'll be watching you from the wings/ i will come to your rescue/ if he tries anything". The contradictions in this type of thinking result in an inconsistent reaction to similar products of patriarchy. The pseudo-feminist can choose to defend herself against those types of rape that are most offensive and welcome the temporary taste of pseudo-power, but following this recipe continues the idea that in the end women will lose--they accept the normal domination of gender relations in the sex they don't consider to be rape, instead of realizing women have the real power to destroy those relations too, through revolution. "We are wise wise women/ we are giggling girls/ we both carry a smile/ to show when we're pleased/ we both carry a switchblade/ in our sleeves/ tell you one thing/ i'm going to make noise when I go down/ for ten square blocks/ they're gonna know I died/ all the goddesses will come up/ to the ripped screen door/ and say what do you want dear/ and i'll say I want inside". In a vengeful "How have you been," DiFranco shows that coercion exists in all sexual relationships. Not surprisingly, she buys into the petty-bourgeois-scarred-for-life-psycho-babble that says she must be hurt and have a boil-your-bunny-mentality to get even. "Me and you and your girlfriend makes three/ in the interest of numbers I will make myself scarce/ i'll make myself scarcely me/ but i'll be outside your window at night/ pull up your shades/ leave on your light/ 'cause I don't want to come in between/ I just want to know/ how have you been..." Because it is not in the interests of men to stay in relationships, they use lies as coercion and the revenge for power that Ani seeks in return is also power through sex. The problem here is that the reason it is not in the interest of men to stay in relationship rests in their existing strength under patriarchy, so the revenge sought through sex once again is a way for women to allow themselves not to have the hope and seize power through revolutionary struggle. When women are in relationships in which they know they are being fucked over, it is a way to permit themselves to not reach for more. "And i'd do almost anything once/ something about you / i think I'd do you more/ if I had my way I'd stay here." In "Out of Range," Ani DiFranco cannot decipher the violence against women and the reason that it exists, so of course she runs away. "Just the thought of our bed/ makes me crumble like the plaster/ where you punched the wall/ beside my head/ and i try to draw the line/ but it ends up running/ down the middle of me/ most of the time." MIM knows that First World women have the choice to leave their partners when abuse is involved, but since DiFranco sees no possibility for real victory the line is skewed. Despite her attempts to reject socialization, DiFranco misplaces the oppression by the state, to lock up its opposition, and confuses the position of First World women. "Boys get locked up/ in some prison/ girls get locked up/ in some house/ and it doesn't matter/ if it's a warden or a spouse/ you just can't talk to 'em you just can't reason/ you just can't leave/ and you just can't please 'em." MIM knows that women can leave their spouses but it is not in their short term material interests to do so, but the 3.1% of Black males in the country that are locked up by the state cannot leave; this much is true. The result of DiFranco 's weak analysis and perpetuation of reactionary stereotypes leaves her only an escapist alternative. "I was locked/ into being my mother's daughter/ i was just eating bread and water/ thinking nothing ever changes/ then i was shocked/ to see the mistakes of each generation/ will just fade like a radio station/ if you drive out of range/ if you're not angry then you're just stupid/ or you don't care/ something's so unfair/ when the men of the hour/ can kill half the world in war/ or make them slaves to a superpower/ and then let them die poor." Then when she begins to recognize the relationship between the system and the individual manifestations of patriarchy, she turns the song into a sad victim of love song. "Baby i love you that's why I'm leaving/ there's just no talking to you/ and there's just no pleasing you/ and i care enough/ that i'm mad/ that half the world don't even know what they could'a had". In "Letter to a John," DiFranco again advocates the anarchist revenge that many pseudo-feminists opt for. Her hard-ass attitude is her way of saying that she is in control of the situation and her life as she rationalizes that prostitution is the way to take back the control she lost as a result of being sexually abused as a child. "I'm just gonna sit on your lap/ for five dollars a song/ I want you to pay me for my beauty/ I think it's only right/ 'cause I have been paying for it all of my life/ I'm gonna take the money i make/ and I'm gonna go away/ I was eleven years old/ he was as old as my dad/ and he took something from me/ I didn't even know that I had/ So don't tell me about decency/ Don't tell me about pride/ Just give me something for my trouble/ 'cause this time it's not a free ride." The solution that DiFranco proposes is reactionary because she seeks the power that will benefit herself only. MIM knows that the best revenge for violence against women is to build a revolutionary struggle. With her younger, more anarchist take, DiFranco ends up advocating the same that rich yuppie women advocate--"Now I just want to take/ I'm just gonna take/ I'm gonna take / and I'm gonna go away"--she just doesn't have it yet. When First World women are enraged at the relative inequality within the white nation and seek revenge against the violence against women, they must also take a step further. Unless First World women are willing to fight against patriarchy and capitalism, they are accepting that they benefit from the status quo. The most disgusting display of women being socialized to enjoy their submission on this album is where DiFranco sings: "we are made to fight/ and fuck and talk and fight again/ and sit around and laugh until we choke." When women are fascinated with violence and eroticize their loss of control, it only makes sense to find solace in the fact that you do not have to stand up and fight because you know you will not win. Women have less economic and political power. In order to justify their passivity toward this, pseudo-feminists and anarchist feminists must play the game that they have some sense of power. Both groups are also actively on the side of the patriarchy when they do not organize and fight against the system itself. Individual acts of power are temporary and revenge against all men is reactionary. It must come also with the understanding that the enemy is the system and the ally to the struggle of women are revolutionary feminists. MIM warns the revengeful anarchist feminists out there that you are not solving the origin of the problem if you are taking power back for the momentary image of control it gives. Feeding into this is feeding into the fact that anarchist feminists are merely taking advantage of their relative privilege under patriarchy. * * * COMPLACENCY THEN, COMPLACENCY NOW! MIM AT WOODSTOCK '94 There are many myths about the masses taking a stand against the system merely because they gather to get stoned and have an excuse to take off their clothes. Woodstock was a microcosm of the decadence of First World capitalism and patriarchy. "Woodstock itself did not draw many from the ghetto, but that mostly white crowd was powerfully affected by the Black Liberation movement. How could someone want a suit and tie life at Plastics Inc. after seeing troops march down the streets, again and again, to suppress the struggle of Black people?"(1) This question posed by the Revolutionary Worker was answered by one yuppie who told a MIM comrade, "You guys will grow out of your idealism. I was at the original Woodstock and I was idealistic too, then, but you will grow up when you have some real responsibilities." MIM is not surprised that the masses paying $135 per ticket were not in the mood to think about revolutionary politics. One person agreed with MIM and said, "The reason people in Amerika really get into concerts where they can smoke pot and drop acid is so that they can pretend that they are bucking the system for a day or two so that they can stomach their non-productive, paper-pushing, corporate jobs." One woman in the herd of senseless Woodstockers yelled, "Hey, I'll show my tits for a cigarette!" When MIM asked if anyone was interested in revolution, many replied, "Yeah, the sexual revolution," or, "Hey, yeah the marijuana revolution." Most just looked as if to ask, "Could you repeat that, only slower?" One thing the old and new Woodstocks have in common is the escapism from reality through drugs. Drugs provide an escape for white people from the ugly things in the system that they are willing to tolerate for the privileges it gives them. The War on Drugs is a justification for the strengthening of imperialism in Latin America and Asia and the rationale for the fascism in the ghettos, barrios and reservation inside Amerika. It really is not surprising that the cops do not crack down on drug sales and use at Dead shows, Lollapoloza, or at Woodstock. Their objective is not to take away the pacifier of the white nation, the objective is to imprison and weaken the oppressed nations. Notes: See The Revolutionary Worker's Article "It was right then and it's still right now! The Spirit of Woodstock and the Fire the Next Time," 8/14/94, pp. 8-10. * * * IMPERIALIST SMOKESCREEN TO EXTERMINATE THIRD WORLD PEOPLES Writing and research by MIM associates and comrades. Imperialists and their lackeys are gearing up for the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development, to be held in Cairo, Egypt September 5-13. They claim that the Third World is too poor for more people, and the conference is to plan the decade's strategy. Don't be fooled by the grim Malthusian picture being painted by the imperialists and their media. There is no "population problem." The Third World masses are not destroying the Earth through overpopulation. Imperialism, principally U.S. imperialism, is the real problem facing the majority of the world's people. Population control is just another way to control Third World peoples. Population control--controlling the people The Cairo Conference will mark an intensification of efforts to control the masses who have an interest in revolution. The United States, planning to spend $585 million in 1994, is the largest contributor to population control projects. Population Action International estimates that another $3.5 billion is needed annually from the First World.(1) Third World neo-colonies currently spend $3.6 billion.(2) Until now, the imperialists have been too thrifty to spend more than a combined $1 billion.(1) Cairo may change the First World's priorities. Despite the "shortage" of funds, population control has increased in recent years. In 20% of couples in the Third World where the woman is in her child-bearing years, the woman has been sterilized. Thirteen percent of women use IUDs.(3) By 1976 24% of all Native American women had been sterilized, and by 1986 35% of all women in Puerto Rico were sterilized. Most of this is done without the knowledge or consent of these women, with the knowledge and funding of the U.S. government.(4) Other forms of "permanent birth control," like Depro-provera and Norplant, receive increasing attention from family planning research and development. Under the guise of woman's empowerment, they promote forms of birth control that reduce reproductive discretion. Oppose imperialism; not population The population control view sees the Third World as poor because it is overpopulated. The bourgeois apologists say that there just isn't enough food produced or wealth created for that many people to survive. Marxists instead look at the wealth the laboring masses produce for the exploiting and parasitic classes, and we expose the population controllers. First, the world produces enough food to feed more than the current population, but the international division of labor ensures that almost one-fifth are chronically undernourished.(5) Imperialism, through the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (and the military when necessary), forces Third World countries to stop subsistence farming and switch to cash crops for export, while importing food. The imperialists and the comprador classes get wealthy from this arrangement. The First World working classes also benefit in the form of subsidies on food. The labor of coffee, sugar, cotton, fruit and mineral producing masses make life what it is for these millions of parasites. But are the poor living standards of the majority of the world also attributable to imperialism? Yes. The imperialists fund and instigate the wars fought on Third World soil. The imperialists extract the wealth that could create a better society, and politically and military retard political progress. Saying that population is the biggest danger to the world today plays right into the imperialists' hands. This allows people to ignore issues of equity, exploitation, patriarchy, and the role of imperialism in perpetuating a system that makes it impossible for a majority of the world's people to feed, house, and provide health care for themselves. Forty thousand children--most of them in the Third World--die every day from preventable causes.(1) First World countries spent $789 trillion in 1988 alone.(2) Three-quarters of illnesses in the Third World result from unsafe water and poor sanitation. Ruth Sivard estimates that $12 billion would solve that problem.(3) But the imperialists aren't interested. Expose "women's empowerment" lies The Cairo conference gives significant space to acknowledging gender oppression. To read the list of things the U.N. wants to see happen, you would think they were seriously thinking about abolishing patriarchy by 2015. However, like the 1992 Rio summit and the U.N.'s Decade of the Woman, this conference is full of cheap, pseudo-feminist talk. MIM uses the term pseudo-feminist because the U.N. has no intention of abolishing patriarchy or moving towards gender equality. The U.N. is using the language of helping women to target them specifically for increased oppression. When the U.N. was a sounding-board for the anti-Amerikan politics of socialist states and Soviet neo-colonies, it took more of a feminist position, and the United States often opposed it. Now, with Amerika's increased hegemony in the U.N., it has taken a turn for the worse. The U.N. notes the severe oppression of Third World women. For example, two-thirds of the 960 million illiterate adults are women.(6) They also report the types of work and long hours that women work. The U.N. calls for full equality for women, increased women's role in politics, universal primary education, eliminating legal barriers to equality by 2015, stopping violent and sexual abuse, etc. all by the year 2015. MIM says those are all worthy goals, but the only concrete actions proposed by the U.N. involve more population control. Women throughout the world want greater access to a variety of contraceptive choices--to reproductive control--but oppressed women need political power, resources, food, health care, shelter, sanitation, and other necessities for survival. Imposing population control on Third World women while and not addressing these other shortages will only increase suffering. The situation of Third World women is dire. Each year, 500,000 women die from childbirth, complications or illegal abortions: 90% of those are Third World women. In Northern Europe, nine or 10 out of every 100,000 women die in childbirth; in Niger and other parts of West Africa, 700 of every 100,000 women die from childbirth.(7) The types of population control being promoted expose the shallowness of the U.N.'s "feminism". The trend in birth control research is towards technologies that are virtually irreversible. Since 1981, Norplant has been inserted in to the arms of about a half-million Indonesian women alone.(7) Both IUDs and Norplant require medical personnel and sterile conditions to remove. If a woman is suffering side effects--especially common with Norplant-- or wishes to have children, she must convince, and possible pay, a doctor to remove the devices. If she can get to a doctor. Health conditions are poor in the Third World, increasing the risk of complications with birth control. Women are not always told of possible side effects, and they may meet economic or physical resistance to having their birth control removed prematurely.(8) Because the imperialist's interests are opposed to women, it is even more important that women retain control over their bodies. This means access to resources, and it means ability to reverse their decisions. The only people being "empowered" here are the imperialists. Immigration The imperialists expose themselves when they talk about immigration as a result of "over-population." First World people are particularly concerned about the immigration of poor people into their wealthy societies. The U.N. Population Fund estimates that 100 million people are on the move, fleeing war or exploitation.(9) The U.S. National Report on Population, prepared for the Cairo conference, openly admits Amerika's hatred of the poor. Amerikans ranked immigration second as a "serious problem of the future," and residents of Southern California and similar places with a high number of non-white immigrants ranked it first.(10) Immigration scares Amerika, so it militarizes the border with its exploited neighbor to the south.(11) Unable to stem the tide, the next step is to reduce the numbers at the source, through population control. Amerika has no interest in ending the wars or economic exploitation that cause people to leave their homes because Amerika's very wealth is built upon this Third World misery. Haiti is an excellent example. Timothy Wirth, the State Department Undersecretary for Global Affairs, and champion of population control, spoke at a winter town meeting sponsored by the U.S. Network for Cairo '94. He used Haiti as an example of a country that had too large of a population to be sustained economically. Instead of addressing the causes of Haitian oppression (U.S.- backed dictatorship), he proposes limiting the number of Haitians. Self-reliance Wirth also used the recent invasion of Somalia to promote population control. According to the bourgeois media, Somalis were starving last year because they were too stupid to control their own numbers or stop their own wars. Western manipulation of the Somali economy weakened its ability to feed itself. The wars funded by U.S. military aid made that task more difficult. Then scores of non-governmental organizations, backed up by the U.S. and U.N. military dumped tons and tons of food on Somalia, destroying the domestic food production economy. Until the imperialists can be ousted from Somalia, the masses will continue to need U.S. "aid" now that their economy has been destroyed. By controlling the numbers of Somalis, Wirth and the U.S. hope to preserve the ability to extract surplus, while preventing anti-imperialist revolution. The imperialists have a difficult task ahead. They need to extend the life of a dying system by increasing profits from the Third World, but they need to control the numbers of the revolutionary classes. To carry out this evil plan, they need progressives to be fooled into believing that population control is "helping" people. The imperialists are an enemy; not a friend. We expose the enemy, then we destroy them. Notes: 1. Los Angeles Times 9/21/93, p. H6. 2. The Wall Street Journal 5/17/93, p. A13. 3. United Nations, Review and appraisal of progress made towards the implementation of the world population plan of action. 3/1/94, p. 55. 4. U.N. report cited in L.A. Times, 2/26/89, p.2. 5. Ruth Leger Sivard, World Military and Social Expenditures. Washington D.C: World Priorities, 1991. p. 5. 6. U.N.'s draft programme of action of the international conference on population and development. Third session. 4/22/94, Chapter IV. 7. Tapol Bulletin: The Indonesian Human Rights Campaign 4/91, pp. 21-22. 8. The Population Council, Norplant Worldwide, New York 4/86, p.2. 9. Washington Post 7/7/93, p. A1. 10. Population Reference Bureau, U.S. National Report on Population 10/93, pp. 32-33. 11. See MIM Notes 84 1/94, and MIM Notes 87 4/94, for more on Operation Blockade and Operation Hold the Line. * * * THE ENVIRONMENTAL CRISIS: A PRODUCT OF IMPERIALISM, NOT POPULATION ITAL "Never before have the pressures of an expanding population been so clear--from water shortages and deforestation to increased hunger and poverty." --Zero Population Growth, a reactionary research organization. END The Preamble to the 1994 Conference on Population in Cairo announces that the leaders of the world are in "general agreement" that environmental degradation is linked to population growth.(1) But this lie collapses before the facts that the imperialists use to justify their claims. The environmental crisis includes global, regional and local problems, each with their own origins. An analysis of these various "little crises" shows that population growth is not the cause of environmental degradation. Global problems The United States alone consumes nearly 25% of the global energy used. Per person, Amerikans consume 15 times as much energy as the average person in the Third Word.(2) Because the burning of fossil fuels is one of the principle contributors to carbon-dioxide production, the resulting "green-house effect" is largely a product of the First World. Insofar as Third World energy consumption has increased, it largely reflects production for First World markets and companies. First World over-consumption and decadence--not Third World peoples--need to be terminated. The same is doubly true of ozone layer depletion. Cars with air conditioning, refrigerators and industrial processes that employ chloroflorocarbons, are mostly located in the First World or in imperialist-controlled sectors of production. Regional problems Acid rain is perhaps the best example of a regional environmental crisis. It too, is largely the product of First World industrialism, affecting the surface water and forest resources of First World countries. While this might change if coal consumption in countries like China increases (coal burning releases sulfuric acid, the chemical responsible for the formation of acid rain), at present acid rain is a First World problem that has no business being included in the discussion of "acceptable" sizes of Third World population. Desertification, surface water and aquifer depletion, forest destruction, and other forms of regional degradation are all complex problems that are over simplified when population control advocates blame Third World peoples for these problems. For example, desertification in the Sahelian region of Africa has been linked to human activities like the search for ever scarcer fuel wood. However, the imperialists ignore that much of the wood in countries such as Senegal is used to make charcoal for Third World urban markets. And a large portion of Senegal's water supply has been used for export-oriented peanut and cotton crops since the 1970s.(3) Likewise, rainforest destruction is generally the work of either multinational capitalist companies, or the last-ditch survival efforts of the peasants made landless by those companies and the countries that back them up. Local problems Local problems like low-lying air pollution, hazardous waste contamination, and so on, have historically been First World affairs. This is changing rapidly with the imperialist orchestrated industrialization in countries like Mexico, Brazil, and India. Overwhelmingly, local problems as stressors on the environment correlate closely to the industrialization and other chemical intensive forms of production, like agriculture. These too, are mostly a product of imperialism and the profit motive-- not of population growth. The majority of the problems associated with the "environmental crisis" have very little to do with the growth of human population, but instead have more to do with the mode of production and lifestyles of imperialist countries, whose effects far outweigh their numbers (See graph.) Population controllers say over-population is responsible for every stressor, crisis and environmental ill. The bourgeoisie is trying to duck the blame by dumping it on the poor. It is the task of revolutions to put the blame where it belongs: on the capitalist system. And then work to end it. Notes: 1. Draft program of action of the international conference on population and development. Third session. 4/22/94, Chapter III. 2. Zero Population Growth, cover letter sent with a packet of information for the concerned citizen, 8/94. 3. Francis Moore-Lape and Joseph Collins. Food First: New York, Ballentine Books, 1977. * * * POPULATION CONTROL IN THE U.S.: AMERIKA TAKES AIM AT INTERNAL COLONIES Population control is a weapon used against the oppressed within U.S. borders as well. In this country, racism, eugenics and forced sterilization have all been justified in the name of women's rights and aid to the poor. The introduction of new "reproductive technologies," specifically Norplant, has allowed the imperialists to expand their reach. Population control in general, and Norplant in particular, is a continuation of the imperialist's attempts to control oppressed people. Norplant is a relatively new birth control drug that makes a woman sterile for five years. It consists of six tubes inserted under the skin by a doctor. The tubes must be removed after five years or if the woman wishes to stop the drug's effects. Only a doctor or other trained person can remove the tubes. This form of birth control is promoted more because, unlike the pill, there is no pill to forget. This gives effectiveness to people considered unreliable, or to those hostile to the drug. The drug is dangerous to those with diabetes, liver disorders, blood clots, breast cancer, high blood pressure, heart or kidney disease, and to smokers.(1) Five hundred women, with 50,000 more expected, have entered a class-action suit against the manufacturer.(2) Norplant was originally tested on hundreds of thousands of Third World women, often without their consent or understanding of what was involved. It originally appeared to be a convenient new method for rich women, but since the bad side effects started coming out, it has been used more as a means of coerced population control. Medicaid covers Norplant for free in most states, although its removal is not, unless medically necessary.(2) In 1991, Louisiana state Rep. and former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke introduced legislation pushing Norplant use for women on welfare.(3) Twenty states have now introduced legislation linking welfare to Norplant use.(2) Some of these proposals would have provided a material incentive to use Norplant. At least nine of the states propose requiring it for benefits.(4) Norplant is also distributed in some ghetto high schools. In the primarily Latino San Fernando High School in California, Norplant has been distributed since September 1993.(5) Norplant is also distributed in the primarily Black school district of Baltimore, and is extensively marketed on First Nation reservations.(1) Punitive use Judges have also used Norplant in exchange for plea bargains or as conditions for parole. The stated reason is to protect the children. This is merely window dressing for an anti-oppressed nation, anti-poor effort. A proposed law in Ohio would have required women convicted of drug use while pregnant to undergo drug treatment, to be sterilized, or to participate in a five-year birth control program. This is not a pro-child policy, but a plan intended to target Black women. Drug use by pregnant women is as prevalent or more prevalent in white women, yet Black women are 10 times more likely to have their toxicology reports turned over to government officials.(6) The big picture Population control has entered a new phase both globally and within the United States: the pseudo-feminist phase. Overtly anti- woman plans are no longer acceptable. New forms of coercion carry labels like "choice" and "freedom," but little has changed. Planned Parenthood's ancestor, the Birth Control Federation of America, is credited as a birth control pioneer, but it was explicitly a eugenics movement. They claimed Blacks were "breed[ing] recklessly" and were "that portion of the population least intelligent and fit, and least able to rear children properly."(7) In the 1950s, women in the U.S. colony of Puerto Rico were used as guinea pigs to test the new birth control pill.(8) By 1982, 24% of Black women had been sterilized, 35% of Puerto Rican women, and 42% of indigenous women. The scope of U.S. population control efforts aimed at internal colonies may shift slightly due to different technologies or to different bourgeois needs for the proletarian workforce, but the trend remains consistent. Regardless of the rhetoric about expanding women's choices, if a decent standard of living is not one of the "choices" then everything else is coercion. Notes: 1. Amicus Journal Winter 1994, p. 29. 2. USA Today 7/15/94, p. A15. 3. Washington Post 5/29/91, p. A14. 4. Los Angeles Times 9/26/93, p. 24. 5. Washington Times 12/1/93, p. C5. 6. Berrien, ITAL Yale Journal of Law and Feminism END 1990. p. 468. 7. Linda Gordon, ITAL Woman's Body, Woman's Right. END New York: Grossman Publishers, 1976. p. 332 8. The Independent 9/19/94, p. 24. * * * UNDER LOCK AND KEY North Dakota prisoner brutally tortured X is a North Dakota state prisoner. In 1988 X and three other prisoners attacked a guard in the North Dakota Penitentiary segregation unit. After the attack, X cooperated with guards and was taken to the prison's observation unit. Once there, he was stripped naked and placed face down. His hands were handcuffed, his feet shackled and a chain run between the two, resulting in his spine being arched. This lasted for almost eight hours, during which the restraints were removed only for a 40-minute meal break. Unable to use any bathroom facilities during this period, X was forced to urinate on the bunk. For the next 23 hours, X was handcuffed with the handcuffs chained to one leg, after which he spent an additional seven and a half days in handcuffs and leg irons within the cell. During this period he was kept naked, without a blanket, toothbrush, toothpaste, toilet paper, in a cell lit 24 hours a day. This occurred with no medical supervision and with the water to his toilet disconnected. --from Prison Legal News, 6/94 Colorado control unit prisoners rebel Florence, Colo., is the future site of the federal government's new supermax prison. Eventually Florence will have a minimum, medium, maximum and supermax prison within one big complex. The minimum and medium sections are already opened and operational. PLN has reported on the control unit aspect of Florence in the past. At about 7:30 PM on February 26, 1994, prisoners began to riot in the outdoor recreation area and it spread to the indoor recreation, education, chapel and living units. One guard and an undisclosed number of prisoners suffered minor injuries during the melee. The prison suffered fire, smoke and water damage but BOP officials did not provide a dollar estimate on the damage. The medium security prison was originally designed to hold 700 to 800 prisoners but currently holds 1,200. It opened in January of 1993. The February 28, 1994 article from the Canon City Daily Record did not cite the causes or reasons behind the riot. However, a separate article in the February 27, 1994 issue of the Rocky Mountain News stated that the BOP was already investigating mismanagement and unrest at FCI Florence. Nineteen staff members and supervisors signed a petition asking Senator Ben Nighthorse to investigate racial discrimination, harassment and unfair labor practices against staff at the prison. Four prison supervisors, three of them Black, have been placed on indefinite suspension for allegedly challenging decisions by the prison warden. The suspended supervisors claim that due to mismanagement, prisoners have: stolen hand tools left by landscapers working at the prison and fashioned them into weapons; organized and carried out two hunger strikes and a work strike; set fires in segregation and housing units and refused to allow guards to handcuff two prisoners after a beating between gangs. The prison spokesperson claimed to have no knowledge of any of these events. --from Prison Legal News, 6/94 Texas starvation captured on videotape Comrades, I greet you in solidarity. At this time, I'm incarcerated in one of Texas' KKKoncentration KKKamps. And at this time trying my best to get my brothers to understand the meaning of the word "sacrifice." But only a few comprehend and adhere to what I'm advocating day in and day out on how we prisoners can undermine some of the injustice that goes on in this racist, dehumanizing and degenerate atmosphere of irrational pigs. As I write this missive, I'm sitting in what they call Administrative Segregation, and physical, mental and psycho- emotional warfare is at its extreme. For example, I'm on a pod that's supposed to be for assaultive prisoners. Now on this pod our every move is videotaped. We are forced to live in extreme heat (no air conditioning) and the only cold drink we are allowed to have is a pint of milk. All the meals are so skimpy they are equivalent to semi-starvation or shall I say starvation, period! This penal coercion has been designed to weaken your most rebellious brothers, and to force them to submit to this injustice with open arms. Last but not least, it's racially motivated, and in your most subliminal way, designed for the Blackman. True, there are other races, but the percentage is very low. So therefore this pod wasn't really intended for the other races, no way, because they are the least rebellious. I can go on and on on this subject, but have to cut it short until next time due to a heap of other things I have to do, like think of solutions. In conclusion, I must stress my sole purpose for sending you this missive: to let you all know that I've been turned on to MIM Notes by one of my most politically inclined and revolutionized comrades ... Please add my name to your mailing list ... Peace! --a Texas prisoner, 6/30/94 MIM Notes welcome in Oklahoma's UFO Tomb Dear comrades, Let me acknowledge my receipt of your recent letter inquiring as to whether or not I am receiving your paper. I am receiving your paper and on time. I find it truly inspiring and trust that you will continue to mail it to me. I am now "buried alive" in the state's "Supermax Underground UFO Tomb"--a high-tech control unit that puts Marion to shame! This McAlester Control Unit is straight out of Star Trek! It features all of the latest in prison fascist technology: in-cell high- powered water guns, a square block of concrete with round-the- clock video-audio called a rec area, in-cell censors to monitor any and all conversation, etc., etc. This all comes complete with humanoids trained in fascist psychology to run their UFO Tomb. So of course, your paper is welcome reading down under in this UFO Tomb! Love, strength, struggle, --an Oklahoma prisoner, 6/3/94 Utah prisoners leashed, cuffed to boards ... In the Uinta II Intensive Management Unit, Sec. 4 of Super Max, every time we leave our cell, they put us in full restraints and tie a dog leash to us like they are walking their own dog around. They do not allow us the newspaper or magazines in this section and when we ask for a legal call, they deny us for weeks at a time. No pens are allowed and we have to ask the correctional officers to sharpen our pencils and half the time we never see them again. They are constantly housing mentally ill inmates in this section, cuffing them down to a 4-point board and then forgetting about them, but keeping a strip cell log to cover themselves like nothing is going on. They force-catherize so they do not have to clean urine ... All this happens day in and day out and they still get away with it... --a Utah prisoner, 3/17/94 Coalition for Prisoners' Rights Newsletter, 5/94. Prisoner Union Agenda 1. Minimum wage for all prisoner workers. 2. The right to organize without retaliation. 3. The right to collective bargaining. 4. The right to a safe workplace, with proper safety equipment, clothing, and extensive training on dangerous machines that prisoners operate. 5. Overtime pay for any time over 40 hours worked in a one week period. 6. One week paid vacation a year. 7. Workman's compensation benefits that are the same as free workers who are hurt on the job. 8. Elimination of tying job performance to earned good time. 9. Never have more than 50% of a prisoner's pay deducted for taxes, trust accounts, or room and board. 10. The creation of hiring practices that ensure racial fairness, and ensure that the same job programs are available in women's prisons as in men's. 11. And above all the right to strike over any working condition. The above is only a rough outline. In this day and age of "three strikes, you're out," something needs to be done before matters get worse than they are. Prisoner workers of the world unite! --by a prisoner in Prison Legal News, 6/94 Ohio targets activists as "gang members" The Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections (DORC) has instituted a regulation prohibiting "gang related activity." This was implemented to fall in line with their overall intention to follow in the footsteps of California, Texas, Illinois and other states that have built "Super Max" prisons and focused on alleged "gangs" and "gang leaders" in prison. Ohio has gone so far as to manufacture gang members. The DORC's latest tactic has been to target political activists and jailhouse lawyers for "gang related" charges when prisoners engage in lobbying the legislature. X, a political and prison activist working toward prison reform by lawful means such as lobbying the state legislature, was charged with the infraction of "gang related activity" for advocating an Ohio Prisoners' Rights Union and receiving American Corrections Association material from Citizens United for the Rehabilitation of Errants. X was placed in Local Control, six months of solitary confinement, for this at the Madison Correctional Facility. He began a hunger strike in protest and after 38 days was transferred to Lebanon Correctional Institution. We have drafted a citizens lobby letter protesting the implementation of a Supermax prison in Ohio along with a fact sheet. Copies of these were made and sent, along with ABC proposals, to X at Lebanon. These items were confiscated and X was again infracted for "gang related activities" and placed in segregation. X again began a hunger strike and as of February 11, 1994, had 14 days on it. He will refuse to eat until he is released from segregation. The blatant political repression by use of a "gang related activity" rule infraction must be stopped. Litigation is pending, but we call on all activists, inside and out, to take the time to write a protest letter regarding the distorted use of this rule and X's treatment. Protest letters should be sent to: Governor George Voinavitch Vern Riffe Center 77 South High St. Columbus, OH 43215 Reginald Wilkenson Director, DORC 1050 Freeway Drive N. Columbus, OH 43229 --an Ohio prisoner in Prison Legal News, 4/94 Loved one in prison? As a writer and spouse of an incarcerated man, I am putting together a book to help people deal with the problems involved in having a loved one in prison. Through the initial detainment, trial, jail time and resulting imprisonment, the family on the outside first goes through shock and denial, but must, finally, come to the reality of the daily struggle to survive outside, provide for their family and to maintain relations with their loved one in prison while facing the yawning years ahead. How do they do it? I hope to provide them some answers as how others have done it before them. My book will be edited from anonymous questionnaires and personal interviews to combine the coping techniques of hundreds of individuals. I need to reach as many as I can of those who already have experience with this. To obtain questionnaires or information, write: Coping 268 Bush Street Box 3125 San Francisco, CA 94104 Prison rape survivors sought Stop Prisoner Rape (SPR) is a non-profit organization dedicated to stopping the all-too-common practice of sexual assaults within prisons and jails. SPR has recently received numerous media requests where television programs, magazines and journalists are seeking prison rape survivors to interview for news stories. If you are a prison/jail rape survivor and interested in speaking publicly about it, please contact: SPR 3149 Broadway #4, New York, NY 10027 (212) 666-0344. New journal of prison literature wants submissions Inner Voices, a new journal of prison literature, invites submissions of prisoners' creative writing, including poetry, raps, short stories, and one-act plays. We welcome a variety of topics and writing styles. Submissions will each be reviewed by three readers culled from a pool of willing writers and scholars. But this does not mean that only slick, stylized, or conventional work will be accepted: energy, sincerity, and originality are usually at least as important as polish. Since poems are usually shorter, there'll be room for more poems than for stories and plays. We will also welcome graphic art work, especially on the covers and to accompany poems. By publishing their work in Inner Voices, our contributors will be making an important statement to both friends and strangers about prisoners, their abilities, and their identities. And you'll be making a statement that will probably be heard: So far, people from literary and popular culture studies, academic libraries and departments, historical societies, museums, and more have been as enthusiastic about this as have prisoners, prison educators, and other people willingly and unwillingly involved with the Department of Corrections. We feel strongly that this publication is something that can and should happen. You can make it so. Inner Voices will run about 50 pages and be published twice yearly. Since at this time (December 1993), we're still putting together the first issue, those willing to place orders in advance of the first publication get a rate that we probably won't be able to maintain: $10 a year for institutions, $8 for individuals, and $5 for prisoners. (Standard discount applies for resellers and subscription services.) The first issue will sell for $4. After the first issue we'll be better able to assess what sorts of bulk printing and mailing rates we'll be able to use, and institutional rates will probably go up a little. Any profits will be passed on to the readers in the form of reduced prisoner subscription rates or more pages. Send your best original creative writing to Inner Voices. We understand that many of our authors don't have ready access to typewriters--just make sure we don't need a decoder ring to figure out what you've written. Authors are also invited to enclose a short(!) biography to be included with their work, and are welcome to use pen-names if they like. Just keep in mind that many prisons restrict access to material that they feel teaches readers to commit crimes. Since we want this journal to be available to as many prisoners as possible, we will give preference to work that stays on the safe side of this limitation. Sorry. There is no restriction in attitude or language, though. Contributors will be paid in copies of the journal. --Inner Voices P.O. Box 4500 #219 Bloomington, IN 47402 In defense of courtroom activism ...You state that you do not understand the campaigns that are in the legal sector (e.g., "free political prisoners"). This is a good indication that you've never been in prison doing sentences from 20 to life. I'm not sure what you mean by "legal sector." I assume you mean the courts, parole boards, etc. Again, I must stay with the short answer. First, I don't think that utilizing the legal system precludes a parallel political effort/strategy. The minute a prisoner steps into a courtroom, s/he is utilizing the legal system to some degree. If so, why not exhaust appeals as well? In my/our cases, we sought to turn our trials into political forums while concurrently doing political work in the community and as far beyond as possible. In order to better advance our political agenda in the courtroom, I've always gone pro se (represented myself; acted as my own lawyer). I think we've reached far more people by utilizing all the available tools given the time, place and conditions (including effective use of mainstream media during the sedition trial). But I have no illusions about the legal system. I currently have no appeals or other legal matters pending, nor will I appear at the parole board for my first 10-year eligibility. On the other hand, I don't chastise those who've been able to gain some advantage--or thought they could--through some chink in the legal system or through some legal defect they've uncovered that's particular to their case (just look at [former New York Black Panther] Dhoruba [Bin Wahad]'s case and release after 19 years). Unfortunately, Dhoruba is the exception. More common are situations like Leonard Peltier's (a recent 15-year parole denial) and Sundiata Acoli's (recent 20-year parole denial). The fact that many prisoners try legal tactics to secure their release does not necessarily reflect any faith in capitalism--most often it does not. It merely reflects a situation where they're stuck between a rock and a hard place. Capitalism is dominant and resistance in this country is weak. Very weak indeed. And what little remains of the left could care less about political prisoners--or any prisoners, for that matter. It's more of a situation where "hope springs eternal," which is a very human sentiment found throughout the world where people have their backs against the wall.... Recent word from Colorado is that the High Security Prison will be opened in February and the Administrative Maximum ("Supermax"--to replace Marion) will be opened in the "Spring or Summer." I'll settle for High Security, but the BOP [Bureau of Prisons] designs on me are Ad. Max. So we're getting short here, but no one is looking forward to the new chamber of horrors. Appreciate the offer of literature and books. I'll take a raincheck on the books as my current stash will probably get me through whatever time remains in Marion. Interesting literature is always welcome.... Viva Zapatista! Venceremos, --a Federal prisoner in Illinois MC12 responds: MIM agrees that important gains may be won through the legal system, making some of these efforts worthwhile. MIM uses some of these tactics to fight for distribution in prisons, for example. Pre-Election Quiz 1. Who gave Pete Wilson more than $1 million for his last governor's campaign? A. Prison employees' union B. The Willie Brown Foundation C. Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals D. The Flying Wallendas 2. Who benefits from more prison construction? A. Prison employees with more jobs and promotions B. Coast Guard Auxiliary C. American Cancer Society D. Siskel & Ebert 3. Who benefits if therapeutic programs are not available in our prisons and most parolees return to prison? A. Prison employees with job security B. McDonald's manager trainees C. American Association of Retired Persons D. Penn and Teller 4. Who claims state prisons are run humanely, according to state and federal laws, in the public interest? A. Prison employees with sincere expressions B. Federated Department Stores C. American Civil Liberties Union D. Beavis and Butthead 5. Who benefits from Wilson-appointed parole board commissioners denying parole to thousands of rehabilitated prisoners? A. Prison employees smiling on the way to the bank B. Prisoners' spouses and children C. Save the Whales Foundation D. Regis & Kathy Lee 6. What state agency has the worst misnomer title? A. California Department of "Corrections" B. California Department of Fish and Wildlife C. California Division of Forestry D. California Department of Motor Vehicles 7. Who hopes Wilson is reelected in November? A. Prison employees B. Illegal Immigrants Association C. Homeless Persons for a Better California D. Rocky & Bullwinkle --a California prisoner, April 1994 North Coast Xpress P.O. Box 1226 Occidental, CA 95465.