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

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         THE MAOIST INTERNATIONALIST MOVEMENT

  MIM Notes 96             January, 1995


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.  BHOPAL: TEN YEARS OF INDUSTRIAL GENOCIDE
2.  WELFARE, CRIME AND IMMIGRATION: WHITE NATION GOES BONKERS
3.  LETTERS
4.  RAIL NEWS: DENNIS BRUTUS DECLINES PRESIDENCY
5.  YOUTH DEFEND MIM FROM AMNESTY CREEP
6.  PROPERTY OWNERS TO PANHANDLERS: DROP DEAD!
7.  NAACP: NEO-COLONIAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF CIA PUPPETS
8.  BOSTON GLOBE OFFERS SYMPATHY FOR RACIST
9.  SPARTS ASK PIG QUESTIONS
10. SPARTS PRACTICE RIGHT-OPPORTUNISM
11. GATT IS A TRADE FRAMEWORK, NOT A SYSTEM 
12. VIDEO OPPOSES CONTROL UNITS TORTURE
13. CRIMINAL JUSTICE IS AN OPPRESSIVE SYSTEM
14. NIGHTLINE PRISON SERIES REVIEW:
    AMERIKANS WANT MORE REPRESSION, AND THEY WANT IT NOW 
15. "FREE COUNTRIES" HAVE MORE PRISONS
16. PROTEST MARKS ANNIVERSARY OF INDONESIAN OCCUPATION
17. CP-USA HAILS PHONY CHINESE COMMUNISM
18. APPRECIATING THE CULTURE OF THE PEOPLE
19. UNDER LOCK AND KEY: NEWS FROM PRISONS AND PRISONERS
20. WHAT NON-PRISONERS CAN DO TO SUPPORT 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

* * *

BHOPAL: TEN YEARS OF INDUSTRIAL GENOCIDE

December 3rd marked the tenth anniversary of one more spectacular 
example of industrial genocide: the now legendary Bhopal, India Union 
Carbide disaster. In Bhopal, hundreds of women whose husbands died 
burned straw effigies of Warren Anderson, former chairman of Union 
Carbide Corporation. Thousands of protesters marched through the 
streets, continuing a decade of protest.(1) As the people of Bhopal 
continue to suffer the effects of the Union Carbide Corporation gas 
leak--with a death toll estimated at 16,000 with hundreds of thousands 
more affected--they continue to battle the powerful multinational and 
the comprador Indian government.(2) Justice is not coming anytime soon. 

Bhopal has been recorded as a historical accident. In reality, the 
industrial genocide there is neither history nor an accident. The people 
exposed are still suffering from acute illnesses, and are dying. The 
economic deprivation and social misery the disaster brought to the 
people of Bhopal are unlikely to be alleviated. The masses demand 
reparations, but multinationals know such lives are cheap. The chemical 
industry's Hiroshima has wrought suffering that is very much in the 
present.

Poison clouds

The pesticide formulation unit in Bhopal, a city in central India, was 
just one part of Union Carbide Corporation's (UCC's) global empire. On 
December 2, 1984, during routine maintenance operations, a large 
quantity of water entered a Menthyl Iso Cyanate (MIC) storage tank 
triggering a chain reaction that caused 400 tons of MIC along with 
Hydrogen Cyanide to burst past the rupture disc and into the night air 
of Bhopal. Safety systems were grossly under-designed and inoperative. 
Senior factory officials knew about the lethal build-up in the tank at 
least one hour before the leakage; yet, the siren to warn the nearby 
communities was not sounded until more than one hour after the leak 
started. By then, the poisons had enveloped an area of 40 square 
kilometers (with a population of 650 thousand) killing thousands of 
people in its immediate wake. The poison clouds hung close to the ground 
for more than four hours.(3)

Union Carbide had not told the surrounding community about the dangers 
of the chemical plant in their city, and continued to repress the 
information after the disaster. When doctors called the plant medical 
officer for advice the following morning, he informed them that the 
leaked gases were similar to tear gas and that all the exposed people 
needed to do was wash their eyes with water.(4)

Actually, of course, the gas was much more threatening. The respiratory 
and neurological impact was great at the time and continues. Many of the 
findings of the Indian Council of Medical Research are classified, and 
many were terminated before completion, but the effects would be hard to 
exaggerate: from severe breathlessness to genetic defects among babies, 
the toll continues to rise.(5)

Government hospitals are grossly inadequate for the number of patients, 
and so these desperately poor go to private doctors who charge them 
exorbitantly for the same low quality service. In the absence of 
information, the doctors indiscriminately prescribe antibiotics, 
steroids and psycho tropic drugs. Cruelly, included among these 
unnecessary medicines are products manufactured by Rhone-Poulenc, the 
corporation that bought out Union Carbide's facilities so that UCC could 
protect its assets.(6)

Hindustan gulaam, carbide salaam 

(India salutes carbide as a slave to its master)(7)

Protest groups in India have recognized the nature of their government: 
comprador to imperialism. 

Union Carbide negotiated with the Indian government to prevent the 
victims from filing as individuals, realizing that it might have to pay 
each one real compensation. The Indian government obliged and became the 
single plaintiff. India was clearly on the side of the defendant. In 
1989, it settled for $470 million, less than one seventh the original 
claim. The Indian Supreme Court has held that should the settlement 
money from UCC prove insufficient, the Indian government should make up 
the difference, so India has an interest in denying the financial impact 
of the disaster. The Indian government demands stringent medical proof 
of injury, which is expensive for victims to obtain, and gives out only 
paltry sums as dole to avoid exhausting the settlement money.(8)

Union Carbide has successfully avoided going to trial on criminal 
charges. It claims to have no objection to testifying and it has made up 
two stories explaining the disaster and neither one says it's UCC's 
fault. However, by its own admission it has spent $50 million on legal 
fees to avoid such a trial and just reparations.(9) The fact is, all of 
the safety problems at the plant--like the inadequacy of the cooling 
system that led to the pressure build-up and the scrubber operating at 
more than 200% capacity which were listed among 61 hazards in a report 
by UCC three months before the disaster--were known to plant engineers. 
They opted to do nothing about the safety standards being only half that 
of Bhopal's sister plant in West Virginia because they know damage done 
in India would not be punished. They were right.

If the Indian government were to prosecute Union Carbide vigorously, it 
might scare away other multinationals that want to do business in India 
where workers are cheap and expendable. It might also jeopardize money 
from the IMF and World Bank which require government impotence in order 
to provide their usurious loans. Many companies are taking advantage of 
India's ever-liberalizing open door policy. As Union Carbide has sold 
its shares to get all its assets out of reach to Indians, other 
companies have marched in to replace it. 

The companies buy off India's most powerful citizens with lavish gifts 
for politicians and consumer goods for that portion of Indian society 
rich enough to afford them. Less than 10% of the Indian population can 
afford consumer goods, but this market is nearly 100 million people.(10) 
More important to these companies is the platform to produce cheap 
exports--and a place to make anything too dangerous to make in 
Amerikans' back yards. Now standard in any contract with a multinational 
is a so-called get-away clause, relieving them of any liability for 
future genocides.

Unjust compensation

The final agreement amounted to Union Carbide trading $470 million for 
any responsibility in Bhopal. At the rate the Indian government is 
settling the more than six hundred thousand claims, they will not be 
completed for another 13 years. Many of the claimants will be dead by 
then.(11)

Even those who do get some compensation get little. On average, 
claimants are being paid $870 for personal injuries and $3000 for 
exposure-related deaths. The government deducts $225 from the 
compensation for interim relief paid earlier. Thus, compensation falls 
short of the cost of medicines required for the next five years and does 
not pay for doctors fees, living expenses or any such extras.(11)

Many are wrongly denied compensation altogether because the victims 
cannot provide adequate medical records or pay sufficient bribes. 
Appeals are effectively avoided through deliberate delays. Because they 
receive no money until their appeal has been judged, this practice 
amounts to coercing claimants to accept pitiful sums.(12)

Masses rally for justice

More than 80% of the affected people had earned their living prior to 
the disaster through wage labor or petty trade that required hard 
physical labor. They can no longer pursue their trades after being 
exposed to the gas, so they are in desperate need of economic 
rehabilitation.(13)

In the immediate aftermath of the disaster, thousands of activist 
organizations outside Bhopal showed support for the victims. Amerikan 
college students demonstrated outside Union Carbide's headquarters in 
Connecticut while relief organizations provided some support. But such 
spontaneous charity and protest dropped off by the end of December 1984 
and the struggle was left to the people of Bhopal.(14)

The people of Bhopal were poor even by Indian standards. No one who can 
afford other options chooses to live downwind from a chemical plant. 
Having taken out loans at 200% interest from local money-lenders to 
provide for immediate necessities, the people demand jobs. There has 
been no shortage of government promises.(15)

In 1987 $222,000 of the money for the victims was spent to create "a 
special industrial area" that promised to create jobs for 10,000 
survivors. Not only has the promise been reneged on and changed to 
1,000, the work sheds are being sold off to private industrialists at 
one tenth the price of building them.(16) The exploitation of the people 
knows no bounds.

Seeing economically empowered men as too large a threat to the power of 
the government, the main program employing appreciable numbers was one 
offering tailoring jobs to women. Its 2,300 women employees turned a 
yearly profit of $3.3 million for the governmental agency in charge. But 
the women found these job centers to be great venues to organize 
politically, so the government stopped the program. The women again 
organized themselves, independently, and this time they brought their 
husbands. The group known as Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Udyog Sangathan 
(Bhopal Gas Affected Women's Organization) still functions, its 10,000 
members rallying in the face of police brutality with other similar 
protest groups.(17)

Police repression has been harsh. The tactics used are reminiscent of 
the Indian fight for independence, emphasizing nonviolence in the face 
of open brutality. They have been attacked and arrested hundreds of 
times. A most celebrated case of repression involved a police raid of a 
health clinic in which they confiscated medical records and equipment 
and arrested the volunteer doctors, but the instance was not isolated. 
Perhaps grandest in its list of oppressive means, the BJP state 
government demolished the houses of more than 15,000 Muslim gas-affected 
people.(18)

Union Carbide learns its lesson: lives are cheap in the Third World

The protest measures, while admirable, will not end the misery of the 
people of Bhopal or prevent future industrial genocide elsewhere. Even 
if the people are able to get somewhat more just compensation, the 
multinationals have learned a valuable lesson. Fortune 500 companies can 
have their way in Third World countries.

Union Carbide and other multinationals are moving their operations 
outside U.S. borders.(19) The labor aristocracy raises a cry about this, 
but their arguments are a sham. Amerikan workers don't want to be 
victims like those in Bhopal. And companies do not want the risks 
involved, either. In 1985, 60,000 U.S. claimants filed suit against 
Johns Manville Corporation due to harm from asbestos, and they are 
compensated with $2.5 billion. Thus victims in Bhopal were worth only 
2.27% the price of Amerikan victims.(20)

Bhopal is just one example, albeit the most glaring one, of imperialist 
genocide in the Third World. The only thing that will release Third 
World peoples from the yoke of imperialist oppression is self-
determination. Experience has shown that India's bourgeois-led 
revolution has not liberated the Indian people from the imperialists. 
Union Carbide has shown its disregard for their lives, and further 
supplications will yield little. UCC has pulled its claws out of India, 
but only to make room there for other multinationals and do its own 
slaughtering elsewhere. Only socialist revolution can bring justice to 
the victims of the multinationals.

Notes: 

1. Washington Post 12/3/94 p. A38.  2. Anniversary Notes, Published by 
Bhopal Gas Peedit Sangharsh Sahayog Samiti (BGPSSS) and Bhopal Group for 
Information and Action (BGIA) p. 5.  3. Ibid. p. 4.  4. Ibid. p. 21.  5. 
Ibid p. 6.  6. Ibid. p. 9.  7. Ibid. p. 24 (From a poster on the walls 
of New Delhi after the settlement in 1989.)  8. "Unfinished Business: 
Bhopal Ten Years After," by Ward Morehouse, p. 3.  9. Transcript of 
Union Carbide Annual Meeting, 4/22/87, p. 38 quoted in Morehouse, p. 2.  
10. "Tenth Anniversary of the Bhopal Disaster," by J. Kerliner 
(unpublished), 5/11/94, quoted in Morehouse, p. 4.  11. BGPSSS and BGIA, 
p. 12.  12. Ibid. p. 13.  13. Ibid. p. 9.  14. Ibid. p. 26.  15. Ibid. 
p. 9.  16. Ibid. p. 10.  17. Ibid. p. 10.  18. Ibid. p. 27.  19. 
"Lessons of Bhopal," pamphlet of Communities Concerned about 
Corporations (an Amerikan labor group). 20. BGPSSS and BGIA, p. 13.

* * *

WELFARE, CRIME AND IMMIGRATION: WHITE NATION GOES BONKERS

According to USA Today, the Republican Party took 63 percent of the 
white male vote in the 1994 Congressional elections. The white males had 
a visceral attraction to the white male Republican call to blame other 
peoples for crime, welfare and immigration.

Now the Republicans are putting forward proposals to win the hearts of 
settlers everywhere. First in line is to cut welfare.

MIM does not support welfare either, but MIM supports socialism which 
guarantees a job, housing and health care for everyone. There would also 
be community child care, so there would be no need for welfare as we 
know it.

Nonetheless, the white nationalist movement opposes welfare for much 
different reasons. It seeks to blame all evils on the various other 
nations contained within U.S. borders, plus the immigrants from the 
Third World (not the immigrants from Europe or South Africa).

Welfare

The Republicans have put forward the idea of cutting welfare for the 
poor--as opposed to welfare for the rich. They want to remove the so-
called "entitlement" of welfare by fixing the budget for such programs 
so that some people will definitely go without, whether they qualify for 
welfare or not.

The white nationalist movement has the distorted perception that the 
government is welfare for the poor instead of welfare for the rich and 
white labor aristocracy. The history of stealing land from the natives 
and then farming on it as individuals who "make it on their own" has 
ingrained into the white nation that it must be the fault of the poor if 
they are poor. Hence, the settler white nationalist movement opposes 
welfare programs for the poor while ignoring the plunder by the rich 
just as settlers had to ignore their plundering of the native peoples to 
get their plot of land in the first place. 

The actual costs of the welfare programs for the poor are listed below 
for 1994:

*Aid to Families with Dependent Children $14.2 billion 

*Food stamps $23 billion 

*Nutrition for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) $3.1 billion 

*National School Lunch Program $4.5 billion 

*Public housing $17.3 billion 

*Supplemental Security Income (mostly disabled and elderly) $19.4 
billion 

total: $81.5 billion

If we also completely eliminate Medicaid, there would be another $91.9 
billion saved.(1) Combined with $81.5 billion saved from eliminating 
welfare, that would be $173.4 billion. In other words, completely 
eliminating welfare would not eliminate the federal deficit, which is 
over $200 billion per year. The government would still have to borrow 
money if there was no welfare.

Related to welfare cuts is how the Republicans in particular plan to 
make immigration an issue in California, Arizona, Texas and Florida in 
the upcoming years. The Democrats as always will go along and show some 
of their own initiative on how to crack down best.

The Republicans want to cut welfare for immigrants, including legal 
aliens who pay taxes. Yet cutting all welfare for aliens in 5 annual 
budgets would reportedly save only $22 billion or $4.4 billion a 
year.(1)

Many have pointed out that by eliminating the military budget the 
imperialists would easily balance the budget. Yet that is welfare for 
the white nation, especially the imperialists who do business abroad and 
want a big stick to threaten business partners with. Imperialists don't 
w4ant to part with Defense Department give-aways because the same 
imperialists get the contracts from the "Defense" Department.

If welfare for the poor is cut, the subsidies to the corporate farmers 
would have to increase, because those nutrition programs buy their food 
from the U.S. corporate farmers. More importantly, cutting welfare might 
make some people previously pacified more rebellious. We would see more 
crackdowns and an increase in "justice system" employment, which goes 
disproportionately to the uneducated cracker.

Unlike the white nation labor aristocracy-oriented "Left" scrambling to 
make excuses for the Democrats, MIM does not fear Republican efforts to 
cut welfare and hence MIM does not urge votes for Democrats. If the 
Republicans cut welfare, the masses will engage in more revolutionary 
struggle. Such welfare cuts will only increase the solidarity of the 
peoples within U.S. borders with the Third World masses. The 
imperialists cannot save their system by cutting welfare.

Crime

In 1991, U.S. government(s) at the federal, state and local levels spent 
at least $75.5 billion on the "justice system." (2) Thanks to the white 
nation media, the settlers think irrationally that that money goes to 
locking up murderers and rapists.

The white nationalist movement loves to keep locking up more and more 
people, because just over half the inmates so imprisoned are not white. 
Counting people with sentences longer than a year, the imprisonment rate 
was 96.7 per 100,000 in 1970. It became 139.2 per 100,000 people in 1980 
and by 1991 it was 309.6 per 100,000 people.(3)

If the white crackdown continues at that rate of more than tripling the 
inmate population in 20 years, then within 80 years, every single man, 
woman and child of the peoples of color within U.S. boundaries at this 
time will be in prison.

What does the white nation put people in prison for. Let's break it down 
for state prisons where over 85 percent of prisoners are with the 
remainder in federal prisons. Thanks to the settler media, the image is 
people in prison for murder and rape.

The facts are different. 6.5 percent are in state prison for first- time 
non-violent offenses. Another 32.0 percent are there for repeat non-
violent offenses and another 12.7 percent are there for non-violent 
offenses with a past violent offense where time was served already. In 
other words, 51.2 percent of the people in state prisons are there for 
non-violent offenses.(4) In 1991 states spent $17.8 billion to imprison 
their inmates, most of whom are there for non-violent offenses. (5)

The picture of what cops do is also much different than the public 
image. Cops don't spend their time arresting someone every second of the 
day, and when they are called into action the most common reason is 
domestic violence. This is not what the white nationalist movement has 
in mind when it pushes to hire more cops.

 In 1992, there were just over 14 million arrests. The biggest source of 
arrest is alcohol--drunk driving, liquor laws and drunkenness in public. 
That's approximately 3 million arrests right there. (6) Connected are 
often so-called vagrancy and disorderly conduct arrests. Again this is 
not the white nationalist image of what cops are all about.

Then there are over one million arrests per year for "drug abuse." Two 
out of 3 drug-related arrests are for possession, not sale or 
manufacture of drugs. (7)

Another 2,146,000 arrests are connected to property crimes. That leaves 
only 742,130 arrests in 1992 connected to violent crime out of over 14 
million arrests.(6) The white nation right-winger's image of the cops 
out there fighting and stopping violent crime is false. They have plenty 
of time as evidenced by all the things they arrest people for, but they 
cannot stop violent crime. In previous MIM Notes we have already 
detailed that in fact there is no relationship between the number of 
cops a city has and its crime rate.

Despite white nationalist movement rhetoric, most of what the InJustice 
System handles has nothing to do with violent crime. Violent crime is 
just the image the white nationalist leaders use to rev up their 
followers. Unfortunately, the petty-bourgeoisie and labor aristocracies 
of the oppressed peoples within U.S. borders also buy into this rhetoric 
because it fits their class position. These peoples must be rallied on a 
revolutionary nationalist basis to oppose the oppression of various 
nations within U.S. borders.

In conclusion, there is very little of any reality behind the white 
nationalist movement sweeping the United States as the 1994 elections 
just proved. Distorted myths of crime, welfare and immigration leave 
unchallenged the legacy of hundreds of years of settler rule and 
slavery. Leaving old myths and property structures intact is what the 
white nationalist movement is all about.

Notes:

1. USA Today, 11/23/94, p. 8a.
2. Statistical Abstract of the United States 1993, p. 202.
3. Statistical Abstract of the United States 1993, p. 210.
4. Statistical Abstract of the United States 1993, p. 211.
5. Statistical Abstract of the United States 1993, p. 293.
6. World Almanac and Book of Facts 1994, p. 966.
7. Statistical Abstract of the United States 1993, p. 200.

* * *

LETTERS

Philippine solidarity group opposes GATT

A message of international solidarity to the Filipino people in their 
people's campaign against GATT ratification in the Philippine Senate on 
December 8, 1994

We, members of the Coalition for International Economic and 
Environmental Justice (CIEEJ), other people's organizations and 
concerned individuals throughout Southern California in the USA, 
steadfastly support and are united with PUMALAG (Philippine Network of 
Citizens Against the GATT), and the broad majority of the Filipino 
people in condemning and opposing the planned ratification of the 
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in the Philippine Senate 
on December 8, 1994.

In North America, big business and their allies in government have 
shoved NAFTA down our throats. Now, these monopoly capitalists have 
taken it one step further with a global agreement--GATT. Like NAFTA, 
GATT increases corporate power while removing ordinary citizens from 
decision-making processes. This is essentially a corporate bill of 
rights which upholds big profits and corporate prerogative. GATT will 
result in greater inequalities between the rich and the poor, while 
undermining democracy, worker and environmental protection and autonomy 
of Third World peoples. This is especially true for the Philippines.

GATT will be ratified by governments around the world, this process will 
create the World Trade Organization (WTO). The WTO will be an 
undemocratic, secretive and unaccountable international trade 
bureaucracy, with power to make life and death decisions. The GATT 
accord will undermine local, state and national decision making power. 
GATT will nullify laws that establish livable wages, health and safety 
standards, for workers, protection of the environment and human health. 
GATT will cut tariffs on industrial goods by an average of more than one 
third and progressively liberalize trade in agricultural products. GATT 
will strengthen the dependency and stranglehold of Third World countries 
by multinational corporations and the further intensification of rural 
poverty and disenfranchisement of underdeveloped and developing 
countries.

These adverse effects of GATT on the socio-economic lives of the vast 
majority of the working people of the world further make our resolve to 
enjoin them in their struggle for political, economic and environmental 
justice.

The Filipino people have had more than enough of imperialist control of 
the Philippine economy! We support the Filipino people in their fight 
against the World Bank--IMF impositions. It is an inalienable right of 
the Filipino people to struggle for national sovereignty and genuine 
development. We support the Filipino people's program for genuine 
agrarian reform and nationalist industrialization.

Stop U.S. and Japan's imperialist domination of Philippine economy!

No to GATT ratification!

Onward with the struggle for freedom and democracy in the Philippines!"

--Coalition for International Economic and Environmental Justice, Los 
Angeles, 12/1/94

MCB52 responds: While we also support the Philippine revolutionaries in 
whatever tactics they chose in their struggle against imperialism, we 
differ with respect to the role of revolutionaries in Amerika. Most 
workers in Amerika are not oppressed, and their interests lie in 
supporting the imperialism that pads their paychecks. GATT 8, like all 
those that came before it, is a deal between imperialists. To oppose it 
alone would be short-sighted and risk supporting the right-wingers' 
nationalism. For MIM's analysis of GATT, turn to pages 6 and 7.

In Remembrance of Lewis Gurwitz

Lewis Gurwitz, a well-known activist lawyer, died of a heart attack on 
August 28, 1994, while attending an international conference on the 
struggle of the Native Lubicon Cree in Alberta, Canada.

His life journey was a commitment in struggling for social justice. He 
was an excellent lawyer who shunned careerism and was committed to 
defending and struggling with oppressed people, not in an office, but on 
the road, from struggle to struggle--Attica, Wounded Knee, many cases of 
political prisoners and campaigns to free them, international 
conferences on social justice issues, Native land rights struggles 
across the country on which he spent much of his time and energy on up 
until his last day with his Native sisters and brothers in Alberta, 
Canada.

His life-long struggle for social justice and spirit of love, compassion 
and hope through struggle is an inspiration.

--a Maine prisoner

The price of "freedom"

To whom it may concern:

I just finished browsing through a copy of MIM Notes. I do not agree 
with your way of viewing the world.

Socialist or Maoist governments, I believe, deny people's individual 
freedoms. I know you perceive this as selfishness but the essence of 
freedom is that people have the choice to decide what they want to do. 
People have the right to rise as far as talent can take them. It is 
morality that should determine whether or not people will act in a civil 
way. Socialism does have good common sense ideas when it comes to civic 
responsibilities, but [socialism] can lead to paranoia.

Anyway, it is good and well that you print your magazine. I wish you the 
best of luck. This is America and free speech is a sacred thing with 
dying for.

--Anonymous student in the East

MCB52 responds: Thanks for writing, although it would have been better 
if you provided a return address so we could be sure that you will see 
this response.

The big question when we discuss freedom is freedom ITAL for whom END 
and freedom ITAL for what END? The freedoms you describe in your letter 
are not extended to a majority of the world's people. In fact, they are 
at their expense. Your "right to rise as far as [your] talents can take" 
is your privilege to oppress other people. Do you really believe that 
"talent" is what allows you to reap the benefits of super-exploitation 
throughout the Third World? Third World peoples who starve to death 
growing coffee instead of food are not in that position out of lack of 
"talent." 

Morality is not what determines whether people act in a civil way. That 
would make Third World peoples who rise against imperialism "immoral." 
By most any honest standard, Amerika's ruthless world domination is 
profoundly immoral. But Maoism is not about Judeo-Christian ethics. MIM 
does not oppose Amerikan militarism because we want them to "do the 
right thing." The majority of the world's population's survival and 
self-determination--call it "freedom to survive" of you like that lingo-
-depends on overthrowing Amerika.

The main thing that you fail to see is that not everyone wins in 
imperialism. Most people lose. And most of the losers are safely out of 
view of Amerikans, tucked away in the Third World or in the ghetto. If 
you pull the blinders of idealism from your eyes, you can see the 
suffering your "freedom" inflicts.

We appreciate your support of our "right" to distribute, and we hope you 
will step forward if and when the cops on your campus try to give us the 
boot. Right now, government repression is fairly light, but you can be 
sure that as our revolutionary movement grows, repression will increase. 
We hope that you will remember how important you think that "right" is 
when the price of supporting it rises.

MIM defames Turkish state?

ITAL In November, a college newspaper printed MIM's story "Turkish army 
burns Kurdish villages" and long excerpts from the Communist Party of 
Turkey (Marxist-Leninist) statement against the Turkish genocide in 
occupied Kurdistan. The full versions of both articles appeared in MIM 
Notes 95, 12/94, p. 7. END

Dear Editor

The above mentioned article in your Newspaper is unjustly accusing 
Turkey by attacking Kurdish villages. Since it is only fair to hear both 
sides of a story, please print our response to MIM in the [college 
newspaper].

Kurds live in five countries in the Middle East, namely Syria, Iran, 
Iraq, Turkey and Armenia. The Kurds in Turkey speak many different 
languages such as Kirmanchi, Zazaki, Sorani, Gorani and Luri. It is not 
clear if they all belong to the same ethnic group. According to 
historians there never ever was an independent Kurdish state. Until the 
Selchuk Turks arrived, many ethnic groups lived in Anatolia, such as 
Urartus, Assyrians, Phynicians, Hitites, Armenians, Greeks, Romans, Laz, 
Kurds, etc. Since the year 1071, Turks established themselves in South 
East Anatolia and to this day these lands are Turkish Lands without any 
interruption or interval. During the second millennium, many people 
moved from one land to the other. These migrations took place much later 
than Turks arriving Anatolia. These lands have been Turkish lands since 
9 centuries.

Kurds like all other ethnic groups are citizens of Turkey and all 
citizens of Turkey have equal rights. Many Kurds have occupied very 
important positions in the government. Our late president Mr. Ozal 
openly announced that he was a Kurd. Our Ex-Secretary of State Mr. 
Hikmet Cetin is also of Kurdish descent.

A group of leftist Kurds are fighting for independence and burning down 
the houses of those Kurds who do not join them. They are shooting 
teachers, doctors, nurses and are raiding the highways. They are bombing 
official buildings. Turkish army is fighting those guerrillas to save 
the lives of its citizens may they be Turkish or Kurdish. Does it ever 
occur to you why those guerrillas are only fighting Turkey and not in 
the other four countries where there is a Kurdish population?

Turkish Anti-Defamation League
PO Box 4 Bebek 80810
Istanbul, Turkey

MIM Responds:

MIM did not ITAL unjustly END accuse the Turkish state of burning 
villages in Turkish-occupied Kurdistan. Members of the Turkish 
government--including Turkey's Minister for Human Rights, Azimet 
Koyluoglu, and MP Cindoruk--have openly admitted that the army is 
destroying villages and called for investigations.(1)

Kurds do not enjoy the same legal rights as other citizens of Turkey. 
There is a ban on the Kurdish language; Kurds are regularly imprisoned 
for owning cassettes of Kurdish pop music.(2) The Turkish police have 
seized copies of the nationalist newspaper Ozgur Ulke (Free Country) and 
banned the paper Ozgur Gundem (Free Agenda) (neither is affiliated with 
the PKK).(3) 

The LA Times reported on December 4 that "three coordinated explosions 
ripped through separate offices of Turkey's leading pro-Kurdish daily 
early Saturday, killing one person and injuring 22. The biggest blast 
occurred at Ozgur Ulke's main offices in Istanbul.... Scores of Ozgur 
Ulke employees have been jailed for supporting the Kurdish rebels, and 
10 reporters have been killed. Human rights groups accuse the security 
forces of involvement in their murders; the government denies their 
accusations."(7)

The policies of the Turkish state are even too harsh for their 
imperialist friends: the United States has encouraged Turkey to ease its 
ban on the Kurdish language.(4)

The revolutionaries fighting in Turkish-occupied Kurdistan do not need 
to impress the people's support. A Kurdish man interviewed in 1993 said 
of the Kurdistan Workers' Party: "Everyone supports the PKK. This is a 
people's movement, and no-one would turn against it."(5)

Throughout this century the Kurds have struggled against those states 
which militarily occupy Kurdish territory and suppress Kurdish culture. 
During the Gulf War the Iraqi Kurdistan Front went on a military 
offensive which liberated up to 95% of Iraqi-occupied Kurdistan. The 
United States half-heartedly supported the struggle of the Kurds in Iraq 
while ignoring the increased repression of Kurds in Turkey.(6)

And for the record, there was a Kurdish state in the early 1900's. It 
was located in present-day Iraq and Iran.(2)

Notes:

1. Infoladen Omega 10/14.94.
2. Aliza Marcus, Turkey's Kurds after the Gulf war, in: Gerard Chaliand, 
ed., A People Without a Country: The Kurds & Kurdistan, London: Zed 
Books, 1993.
3. Inter Press Service 10/20/94.
4. AP 10/22/94.
5. The Ottawa Citizen 7/9/93, MIM Notes 79, 8/93.
6. MIM Notes 51 5/91.
7. LA Times 12/4/94.

MIM queries Refuse & Resist

ITAL MIM saw the following comment from a representative of Refuse & 
Resist on the Internet: "I sure hope others face the fact that voting 
and the electoral system in general have END never ITAL been the 
conduits of change in this country. Creating new parties won't help, 
either. Their issues either get co-opted by the Republicrats or they 
don't have a prayer anyway, since the electoral system is set up to 
ensure the Republicrat rule." MIM's response, and the reply from Refuse 
& Resist, are below: END

MIM Responds: What you say above is absolutely correct. We would add 
that the reason is that the white nation on the whole is bought-off, 
including its working class. Hence, organizations that appeal to the 
same social base can only end up dividing the social base and losing 
elections. Majority rule within U.S. borders doesn't work, because the 
majority is oppressors.

We wouldn't talk about "rights" ("Defend Abortion Rights By Any Means 
Necessary"), because as you show above, the issue is power struggle. 
Even "rights" against a government plays into individualist hands. We 
don't want private property rights extended against the government. We 
want collective power on reproduction issues.

Anyway, why do you work with the RCP [Revolutionary Communist Party-USA] 
at Refuse & Resist, and spend so much time on sexuality issues, when the 
RCP program says that homosexuality will be reformed away, as if 
heterosexuality were not a "sickness" of capitalism?

What are your differences with us?

R&R responded: Refuse and Resist is an organization made up of a diverse 
group of people, including members of the RCP, anarchists, revolutionary 
feminists, NOW folks, and many others who don't have a specific 
ideology, but are fed up with the system's attacks on the people. Our 
point of unity is that we see attacks coming down on women, people of 
color, immigrants, gays and lesbians, or any other group targeted by the 
reactionary state, as originating from the same place--hence our slogan: 
it's all one attack.

Refuse and Resist, then, focuses on fighting ITAL against END attacks--
we have no unifying statement as to the solution of these problems. This 
would certainly be impossible, given the range of opinions on this 
within the group. This in no way impedes our ability to work together 
effectively--when the system threatens anyone, ITAL lots END of groups 
can work together to beat back attacks. A good example [is] abortion 
rights; when anti-abortion fascists come to town, many groups get 
together to shut them down, including Refuse & Resist, NOW [National 
Organization for Women], NARAL [National Abortion Rights Action League], 
the ACLU [American Civil Liberties Union] and others. Certainly, these 
groups have serious disagreements as to the solution to stopping anti-
abortion terror.

This being the case, the RCP's specific program is not part of Refuse 
and Resist's agenda--just as the solution to various "problems" given by 
anarchists or NOW folks is also not a unifying point for us. We ITAL do 
END work with the RCP, just as we work with many other groups. 
Therefore, the RCP's "solution" to homosexuality is not relevant to R&R.

I can't say much about the RCP's position on homosexuality, since I'm 
not a member of that group. I do, however, disagree with their 
assumptions on the issue, as well as many others. Anyone who wants to 
debate the RCP stance on anything needs to talk to someone from the RCP.

Refuse & Resist spends a ITAL lot END of time working on "sexuality" 
issues because they are under serious attack! Abortion ITAL has END to 
be a major focus of any group hoping to smash the fascist storm troopers 
and their backers.

As far as our differences with MIM, I can't really answer since I don't 
know that much about them. In any case, I would hope that MIM would join 
R&R in fighting ITAL any END reactionary attacks, whether they agree or 
disagree with the ideology of specific group members. Certainly as 
Maoists, MIM would also have disagreements with others in R&R. Let's not 
let this stop us from fighting a common enemy--the reactionary system.

MIM Concludes: To clarify, MIM doesn't think anyone needs to justify 
working on sexuality issues; the question was: why would people who ITAL 
do END care so much about these issues work with the RCP, which has a 
reactionary patriarchal line on homosexuality. R&R's answer is honest 
and typical of this sort of activism. R&R and others do good activist 
work which MIM supports on the pages of MIM Notes and elsewhere.

In one sense, then, MIM does "join R&R in fighting ITAL any END 
reactionary attacks," but we don't stop at those attacks that come 
directly from the state or imperialists. We also fight the reactionary 
attacks that come from the RCP against homosexuals, for example. MIM 
will join in many tactical and strategic alliances as they are 
necessary, but we won't ally with anyone just because they are on the 
same side of one issue. Many in Congress also support abortion rights, 
but we don't "join" them in that effort. We oppose them as leaders of 
the imperialist patriarchy.

* * *

RAIL NEWS:
DENNIS BRUTUS DECLINES PRESIDENCY

On November 22, Dennis Brutus declined to enter into consideration for 
the presidency of MIM's new non-party organization the Revolutionary 
Anti-Imperialist League (RAIL) for the time being. He bowed out pointing 
to his own tentative situation in terms of political organizing and 
another recent offer to return to Azania (South Africa). 

Dennis Brutus has now spent over 25 years abroad, but the issue of 
returning to a semi-liberated southern Africa still remains for Brutus. 
He said MIM's consideration of Brutus for presidency was "an honor" and 
shows that "you believe I have retained my political integrity."

Like others abroad in the United States, Canada, England and other 
imperialist countries, Dennis Brutus is an example of a sojourner--
someone who did not arrive in the United States with the expectation of 
staying forever. MIM seeks to work with sojourners to build the Maoist 
movement in the societies where the sojourners are staying. How to do 
this is an area of concern between MIM and all Third World sojourners.

* * *

YOUTH DEFEND MIM FROM AMNESTY CREEP

After a recent Amnesty International-sponsored speech in Boston, MIM was 
distributing newspapers to the mostly high school-aged people in 
attendance. Responding to questions about what differentiates MIM's 
approach to combating imperialism's horrors to Amnesty's approach, the 
MIM representative captured the interest of many of the young people who 
were truly interested in finding the best way to free oppressed people. 

This made one of the event's organizers extremely angry and he proceeded 
to shout nasty diatribes at MIM, saying "Why don't you guys stay away 
from ITAL our END things? Nobody cares about you guys!" Masses of 
students surrounded the MIM distributor, who did not even have a chance 
to respond before they started protesting the Amnesty crony saying "But 
we want to hear what s/he has to say. Don't you want to learn about 
other points of view? S/he is talking about imperialism, too, and what 
s/he says makes sense." The Amnesty organizer shouted "You're scum!" 
before leaving the MIM distributor to the attention of the people. He 
had done more to reveal the hypocrisy and anti-revolutionary nature of 
Amnesty International than the MIM had.

Youth are the only potentially revolutionary vehicle within the white 
Amerikan oppressor nation. Those who truly want to side with the 
oppressed against their material interests will find Amnesty, so often 
used as a tool by the Amerikan government against Third World peoples, a 
dead end. They are receptive to MIM's line because it does not sell out 
to imperialism. MIM encourages them to join the revolutionary struggle--
and they are listening.

* * *

PROPERTY OWNERS TO PANHANDLERS: DROP DEAD!

Terry Jenkins is the "executive director of EVmark, which manages 
Evanston, Illinois' business district with $250,000 a year in special-
assessment money collected by the city from property owners." He claims 
that police "investigated about 30 panhandlers and found that nearly all 
had homes, arrest records and substance-abuse problems." So is he using 
his $250,000 budget to make drug rehabilitation available? Do pigs fly?

Jenkins hired Melvin Smith and another "intervener" to patrol the 
business district to tell shoppers that the panhandlers are 
"professional con artists.... We encourage you not to give to 
panhandlers. You know the government gives them help. They live in 
better homes than I've got."

It's said that beggars can't be choosers, but a homeless panhandler says 
that Smith's job is the only work he would reject. "I would try to help, 
not turn against anybody out here that's trying to survive."

--MC49

Note: Los Angeles Times 11/24/94, p. A5.

* * *

NAACP: NEO-COLONIAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF CIA PUPPETS

The Ford Foundation is one of the National Association for the 
Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)'s major contributors. The Ford 
Foundation recently released $250,000 to the NAACP after the NAACP 
"presented a plan to repair its financial management systems and restore 
its credibility with donors."(1) 

"The CIA had previously arranged for the prestigious Ford Foundation to 
be their main instrument for penetrating and subverting Afrikan 
liberation movements. There have always been both public and secret 
links between the CIA and the Ford Foundation. Richard Bissell was a 
public staff member of the foundation and less publicly CIA Deputy 
Director of Plans, for instance. Ford Foundation grants were used to 
fund 'social science research' (i.e., intelligence operations), buy off 
opportunistic Afrikans, and cover up for subversion of popular 
movements. As The Black Panther said, this operation was simply expanded 
in 1966 to include the domestic New Afrikan communities. This new effort 
was overseen by none other than Ford Foundation President McGeorge 
Bundy, who as former National Security Advisor to Presidents Kennedy and 
Johnson had run the National Security Council and had helped plan the 
U.S. invasion of Vietnam."(2)

Notes:

1. UCLA Daily Bruin, 11/22/94, p. 4. 

2. E. Tani and K. Sera, False Nationalism, False Internationalism, p. 
182.

* * *

BOSTON GLOBE OFFERS SYMPATHY FOR RACIST

WBZ radio talk-show host David Brudnoy is gay and has AIDS. Lengthy 
coverage in the Boston Globe and Boston Herald on November 17 assured 
him great sympathy throughout the state.

It now turns out that Brudnoy even had veto power over the story put in 
the Globe and he went over the stories in advance before they were 
published. Not surprisingly, there is no mention in any story of 
Brudnoy's many vile comments about Black people. In this writer's 
experience, no one has made as many vicious anti-Black comments as 
Brudnoy. 

When informed of the comments made by Brudnoy, the Boston Globe said it 
had no transcript of the comments and couldn't do anything about it. In 
contrast, Governor Whitman of New Jersey recently tracked down a radio 
show host that supported her and confronted him with his racist comments 
when Black groups went to her with a complaint.

The lack of coverage given by the Boston Globe to outrageous anti-Black 
remarks in contrast to the ample space devoted to how Brudnoy is dying, 
is proof of why there has to be an independent media for the oppressed 
people. Brudnoy has apparently set about to prove that gay men can be as 
reactionary and aggressively chauvinist as other men and the mainstream 
media offers nothing but sympathy.

Note: Boston Globe 11/28/94, p. 11.

* * *

SPARTS ASK PIG QUESTIONS

On two recent occasions, Trotskyists affiliated with the Spartacist 
League asked a MIM activist in Los Angeles, "What's your MC number?" The 
activist's reply on both occasions was, "That's a pig question and you 
know it's a pig question." 

A pig question is a question about the internal workings--as opposed to 
the political line--of an anti-imperialist organization.(1) Such 
questions are of more use to the imperialist state than to the genuinely 
curious progressive person. MIM uses MC and MA numbers instead of the 
names of its comrades and associates in order to avoid state 
surveillance and repression that has been historically directed at 
communist parties and anti-imperialist movements.(2)

In addition to asking questions about MIM's internal workings, the 
Spartacist League has a practice of attempting to spread similar gossipy 
information about people whom the Spartacist League believes to be in 
MIM circles. This is one of many reasons why we have been saying for ten 
years that the Spartacist League is objectively an agent of the 
imperialist U.S. bourgeoisie.(3)

Notes:
1. For more on this question, see "What is a pig question?" in MIM's 
"What is MIM?" pamphlet, available from MIM for $2.
2. For documentation of this point, read Agents of Repression, by Ward 
Churchill and Jim Vander Wall, available from MIM for $16.
3. See MIM's "The Spartacist League: Working for Two Bourgeoisies," 
available from MIM for $1.

* * *

SPARTS PRACTICE RIGHT-OPPORTUNISM

On two recent occasions, Trotskyists affiliated with the Spartacist 
League asked a MIM activist in Los Angeles why s/he, and MIM generally, 
are in the U.S., since MIM believes that the majority of the U.S. 
working-class is not a revolutionary vehicle. The answer is that MIM 
believes that there is a proletariat--a revolutionary vehicle--in 
Amerika's internal colonies. Furthermore, MIM believes that bringing 
non-proletarian people to the side of the international proletariat is a 
worthy endeavor. 

But more important is what these Trotskyists were really saying when 
they asked. Their point is that MIM's honest, realistic, accurate, 
materialist and controversial analysis of the political economy of the 
U.S. poses some difficult strategic questions.(1)

Rather than face the difficulties posed by the bribery of the 
imperialist-country working-classes by imperialist superprofits 
(extracted from the super-exploitation of the Third World proletariat), 
these critics choose to deny reality. MIM recognizes that correct 
strategy must flow from correct political line.(2) To tailor one's line 
to meet one's strategy, as MIM's Trotskyist and crypto-Trotskyist 
critics do, is the essence of right-opportunism.

Notes:
1. MIM's analysis of the political economy of the U.S. is best laid out 
in MIM Theory 1, available from MIM for $4.
2. On the relationship between line, strategy and tactics, see MIM 
Theory 5, available from MIM for $6.

* * *

GATT IS A TRADE FRAMEWORK, NOT A SYSTEM 
by MC5 and MC307

GATT: What it is 

On December 1, the U.S. Senate approved U.S. participation in an 
international trade agreement commonly referred to as GATT--the General 
Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. The House approved it two days before 
and President Clinton will sign the bill into law.

The next step for the free traders will be to get the major European and 
Asian economies on board with ratification of the agreement. There is a 
snowball effect in that the more and larger the economies that join in, 
the more attractive joining becomes. 

Technically, GATT is a framework for discussion of international trade, 
not a particular agreement. The agreement just approved by the United 
States is the eighth one under the GATT framework since 1948.(1) As we 
shall see, opportunist reformists often speak of the current agreement 
as if there were no GATT agreement in place already. Attacking just this 
eighth GATT agreement is like opposing the Republicans, but not 
mentioning the Democrats as a party of imperialism. 

The GATT includes reduction of tariffs affecting the vast majority of 
the world's economy. The average taxes on imports will decline 38 
percent under the GATT. 40 percent of the products entering the United 
States will have no import taxes on them, up from 10 percent. The 
worldwide average will rise from 20 percent to 44 percent of products 
imported with no tariffs. Disputes on the enforcement of GATT between 
countries will go before the newly created World Trade Organization. As 
Dole pointed out, of course, any country can withdraw from GATT at any 
time, though the agreement just passed asks for six months notice.(2)

As of now, the GATT has no military authority to enforce WTO decisions, 
but organizations like the United Nations, NATO and the European Union 
are all headed toward greater use of multinational armed forces. Some 
day, GATT may have such backing as well in the fantasies of some who 
want one world capitalist government.

Two other aspects of GATT often mentioned include a provision to respect 
so-called "intellectual property rights," such as patents and 
copyrights. The other item we should mention is that the GATT requires 
elimination of import quotas. Such quotas are restrictions on the number 
of a certain good that are legal for importing. The United States has 
quotas in peanuts, sugar, textiles and apparel that will end.(3)

MIM's position 

For its part, MIM does not get involved in opposing individual trade 
treaties between the capitalist classes of different countries, because 
MIM seeks to overthrow the whole capitalist system, not just particular 
treaties. Nor does MIM see any progressive use at this time for an 
Amerikan-first nationalist movement, often referred to as protectionism 
when it comes to free trade matters. MIM is internationalist and does 
not base itself in bought-off Amerikan workers and their nationalist 
class collaboration with the imperialists; hence, MIM does not care 
where the imperialists hire their workers.

This is a major issue for the people within U.S. borders. Our job in 
creating public opinion to create institutions for the independent power 
of the oppressed is to show the connection between the bought-off white 
nation working-class and other labor aristocracies and most of the 
opposition to the new GATT agreement here.

In other words, we don't oppose the GATT 8 while not opposing GATT 7. We 
oppose all imperialist dominated trade. It's only the reformists who 
seek a front against only this one trade agreement. Some capitalists 
benefit more from GATT 7 and others benefit more from GATT 8.

In GATT 8 some things for the world's people could get better and some 
will get worse. What actually determines what happens under GATT 8 is 
not the law, but the class and national struggles of the peoples against 
imperialism.

GATT reveals some fissures

The world trade agreement that reduces tariffs for 123 nations is 
causing some fissures to show in the U.S. political establishment. Prior 
to the November elections which brought a Republican majority to the 
Congress, Democrat and senior Senator Strom Thurmond moved to block GATT 
from passing in the U.S. Senate before the November elections. Next Sen. 
Jesse Helms of North Carolina--a Republican otherwise identical to 
Thurmond--was trying to block the GATT with equal desperation.

In all likelihood, both Thurmond and Helms were acting to please the 
textile capitalists in their states which somehow came to rely on the 
U.S. market and did not wish the expense and delays of moving operations 
abroad. Some such capitalists believe they cannot afford to be far-
removed from the U.S. market and so they have not all flocked to East 
Asia, South Asia or Mexico for cheap labor.

Jesse Helms will chair the Senate Foreign Relations Committee starting 
in 1995, and this is a big problem for the internationalist-minded 
bourgeoisie unless it can buy off Helms somehow. Like Thurmond and 
Perot, Helms poses as a member of the Amerika-first bourgeoisie.

The tactic of Helms to defeat GATT was to tie GATT to President Clinton 
who is very unpopular with the white nation right now for not cracking 
down hard enough on "crime," "welfare" and immigration. Helms went so 
far as to get in trouble with the federal cops called the Secret Service 
by saying Clinton would need a body-guard to speak in North Carolina.(4)

Meanwhile other Senators were under more direct pressure from the labor 
aristocracy to ditch the GATT, because a vocal part of the labor 
aristocracy within U.S. borders fears the competition with foreign 
workers that the latest GATT agreement will mean. It is very clear that 
organized labor saved Ted Kennedy in the 1994 election from likely 
defeat by the Republican candidate Mitt Romney who had a labor dispute 
at one of his companies in Illinois that cost him public opinion support 
in Massachusetts.

Kennedy voted for GATT, but he organized a public hearing on it at the 
State House as he promised so-called labor. The International Union of 
Electrical Workers was one force pushing Kennedy to oppose GATT.(5)

The hateful white chauvinist agenda on crime, welfare and immigration 
favors the Amerika-first bourgeoisie and left the internationalist 
bourgeoisie scrambling to buy off supporters for GATT. Presidents 
Carter, Ford, Bush and Clinton all belonged to the same internationalist 
bourgeoisie, so well represented by their membership in the Trilateral 
Commission, a kind of bourgeois internationalist think tank and club. 
While things looked rocky for GATT for a while, the internationalist 
bourgeoisie did not allow its program to be disrupted by the minor chaos 
caused by the 1994 elections.

Even the very partisan Newt Gingrich of the Republican majority and the 
new Speaker of the House did not oppose the GATT. He and Senator Dole 
are on the winning side with Clinton. People like Helms, Thurmond and 
Hollings can't compete yet. Dole and Gingrich ensured that the 
multinational corporate coffers will remain open to their politics. The 
awesome ability of the internationalist bourgeoisie to produce 
presidents and buy off Congress is not up for challenge yet.

Playing for the yahoo and internationalist bourgeoisie

Phil Gramm ended up voting for the new GATT agreement after making loud 
noises in opposition. Gramm is reported by the bourgeois media as a 
front-runner for the Republican Party nomination for president in 1996. 
He has several advantages in his campaign, which include the ability to 
say both that he stood up for the yahoo kooks against GATT and that he 
followed Republican Party discipline for the benefit of the 
internationalist bourgeoisie by voting for GATT.

Senator Gramm had already raised money for his campaign and many in the 
Senate owe him from 1994 campaigns. He also comes from Texas and poses 
to the right of the Republican Party Senate majority leader Bob Dole. 
These are advantages in the Republican party primary process. Gramm used 
the power to play "hard to get" for the internationalist bourgeoisie. It 
appears he must have received handsome rewards for selling out the 
redneck vote.

Gramm originally opposed GATT and his "economic nationalism" as even the 
Washington pundits call it,(2) did not sell with the multinational 
corporation leaders who have managed to make or break the president to 
such an extent that neither Bush nor Clinton dared to oppose NAFTA or 
GATT when they ran for president in 1992. Gramm's political line did 
well with the settlers and the faction of the Amerikan ruling class that 
is heavily based in U.S. sales and can't afford foreign competition. 
Thus far, such a coalition hasn't had the bucks to win presidential 
elections. The real coalition is still the redneck settlers and the 
internationalist bourgeoisie. By itself, the internationalist 
bourgeoisie is an insignificant political force. It's money and ability 
to co-exist with settlers while it gets what it wants is a source of its 
power.

Meanwhile, billionaire Ross Perot had said he would form a third party 
for sure as threatened if GATT passes. Hence, Perot and Patrick 
Buchanan, who ran television commercials opposing GATT--these two are 
fighting for a ruling class realignment in which a settler/Amerika-first 
bourgeoisie is the pivot and the internationalist bourgeoisie gets left 
as the junior partner.

As U.S. imperialism declines, the appeal of white nationalism will 
increase because the white nation working class is bought-off. While the 
internationalist bourgeoisie like Bush and Clinton lead toward 
international reductions of tariffs and more and more world government 
agencies, the Amerika-first faction of the bourgeoisie will stoke the 
fires of nationalism the more it is squeezed in the world's dog-eat-dog 
capitalist competition. In the long run, the settlers will go with 
whichever faction spends more campaigning and whichever faction puts 
more gravy on the settler plate. Ultimately, neither faction of 
capitalists can ever deliver world peace and an environmentally 
sustainable economy, just permanent economic strife and national 
conflict.

The fact of settler nationalism does not mean permanent political 
stability. Quite the contrary, the more nationalist the settler gets, 
the more contradictions there will be. Ultimately the world's European-
descended minority will not decide the world's fate, unless it is to 
vaporize the whole human race.

MIM's first draft of this article read: "If Gramm retains his position 
on GATT and is not bought-off by the multinational corporations, he will 
lose in 1996, but the long-term prognosis for the nationalist movement 
that he leads is good." It didn't take long for Gramm to go along with 
the internationalist bourgeoisie. He realized he wouldn't get a second 
chance, so three days before the vote, he changed positions, while 
complaining about "extraneous" and "dangerous" provisions of the 
agreement.(6) This is an example of the power of the multinational 
elite.

We must understand these maneuverings to understand why many "labor" 
activists and supposed communists and social-democrats are only paving 
the road to fascism by stoking up economic nationalism.

Minor realignment of ruling class in U.S.

The Amerika-first faction of the Republican party is flexing some muscle 
now that the Republican party is the majority and the redneck settler 
vote appears to have been the reason. In the past, the labor unions 
opposed to global trade had the loudest voice opposing the bourgeois 
internationalists. They allied with other nationalists in the 
environmentalist movement who always boast how great the environmental 
laws are here compared with in other countries. As MIM showed in the 
past, the white labor movement also tried to ally with white 
nationalists in the movement against sexual harassment by arguing that 
NAFTA would increase sexual harassment in Mexico, as if such things 
didn't happen to workers here.

Now the far-right element of the Republican Party is lining up with 
Perot, Ralph Nader and old-line organized industrial labor and 
nationalist environmentalists to oppose GATT. These new right-wing nuts 
are gaining a greater weight in the nationalist alliance.

Across the United States, right-wing conspiracy organizations are 
training militias with tens of thousands of white people to prepare for 
a U.N. takeover of the U.S. government. Like the kooks in the John Birch 
Society, these groups believe that the U.S. government is already run by 
an international conspiracy that has included the likes of Henry 
Kissinger and George Bush.

The grain of truth in the right-wing conspiracy theories is that the 
U.S. multinational corporations that push for "free trade" make their 
decisions in closed boardrooms, and the settlers are often left in the 
dark. To that extent, believing the government is not chauvinist enough, 
some settlers have a conflict with the U.S. government, while the 
majority settles for the deal it gets from the internationalist 
bourgeoisie leading the U.S. government.

The New York Times accurately described these fringe elements as seen in 
their Republican Party expression: "The right wing of the Republican 
party, whose support Mr. Dole must also seek in any presidential bid, is 
also urging against GATT, no matter what assurances are provided by the 
Administration. Patrick J. Buchanan, who led the 'America First' trade 
campaigns, calls the agreement 'a wholesale surrender of American 
sovereignty and states rights.'

If the labor aristocracy is going to break away for an alternative soon, 
it will be to break away to these ultra-nationalist groups to try to 
restore the empire to its appropriate glory. We must organize to oppose 
the economic demands of the settlers including the organized labor 
demands with such white nationalist overtones.

Theoreticians of Euro-Amerikan nationalism 

On November 17, 1994, the Institute for Policy Studies released a report 
on NAFTA in which IPS demonstrates its typical social-democratic 
Amerika-first profile. Echoing Ross Perot, Jesse Helms and the 
ultraright white militias training in forests across the country to 
prepare to stop a GATT world government takeover of the United States, 
the IPS and the Communist Party, USA (CPUSA) oppose GATT. The entire 
white nationalist movement sees GATT as a bigger NAFTA and a threat to 
white nation interests. To some extent, the middle classes in the 
oppressed nations of the "United States" that have been bought-off for 
"integration" also see GATT as a threat to their position 
internationally.

With all their noise about NAFTA and GATT, at best the social-democrats 
and CPUSA revisionists will serve as an unwitting tail to an ultraright 
white nationalist movement by providing the intellectual weapons on the 
economics behind the Amerikan nationalism of the labor aristocracy. They 
are not more powerful than Perot, Helms, Thurmond, Buchanan and their 
settler allies, so the CPUSA-types are playing a role as sidekicks to 
the Amerika-first bourgeoisie.

According to the CPUSA: "The report rebuts claims by NAFTA supporters 
that growth in U.S. exports means more jobs for Americans. In the 
automobile industry, for example, there was an increase of 12,000 
vehicle exports compared with the same period in 1993. However, U.S. 
vehicle imports from Mexico increased by 28,000--more than twice as much 
as the export gain."(8)

The CPUSA does not explain how the above quote means anything other than 
that the Amerikan nation lives off the cheaper labor of the Third World. 
For some 15 or 20 years, the trend is for a trade deficit like the one 
above in which Amerikans trade paper-shuffling for real manufacturing 
work by Third World workers. The CPUSA's concern about evening the 
number of cars traded harkens back to a pre-capitalist era ideology 
known as mercantilism. It has nothing to do with progressive politics.

The CPUSA goes on: "GATT would eliminate many international tariffs 
which protest [sic] Americans workers from low wage foreign 
competition."(8) For these clear statements of Amerikan chauvinism, we 
want to thank the CPUSA for its honesty.

Previous articles in the People's Weekly World attempted to argue that 
the Mexican workers would also benefit from defeating NAFTA. That 
pretense is now gone. There is no mention in the article of any negative 
outcome for Mexican workers, probably because the same sources the CPUSA 
pointed to show that Mexican workers gained over 10,000 jobs certified 
lost from the U.S. economy thanks to NAFTA. The article simply says 30 
jobs in the United States have disappeared for every job created by 
NAFTA (less than 600 so far according to CPUSA). This kind of stand is 
little different than the stand for creating an ever-larger Berlin Wall 
on the Mexican-U.S. border and for supporting Proposition 187 in 
California. As far as the U.S. settlers are concerned, they are all 
necessary attacks aimed at the Mexican workers. 

Third World interests

If the internationalist bourgeoisie has its way, much of the 
agricultural production of foodstuffs in the Third World may cease 
because of competition from the United States. Instead, the imperialists 
always want the Third World countries to focus on exotic cash-crops for 
export instead of food for their people. The imperialists would like the 
masses to forget that the money made from exports goes into the pockets 
of the rich and does not go to buying grain to stop starvation.

The removal of tariffs against U.S. grain and fodder crops will allow 
for an increasing ability of the United States to destroy national and 
local food systems within Third World countries and to replace them with 
an economy of dependence on U.S. grain, and post-harvest "value-added" 
food. This would not be possible if the economies were run by the 
dictatorship of the proletariat in alliance with the peasantry. Instead, 
these governments are run by imperialist puppets who benefit from 
selling out their countries. With few exceptions, comprador governments 
allow as much U.S. and other imperialist domination as they can impose.

As a result this GATT will create additional incentives for Third World 
countries to direct their agriculture towards forms of agriculture that 
do not compete in U.S. dominated grain/fodder markets. Thus as has 
happened in the past, Brazil will grow soybeans for Japanese cattle 
production but not black beans; Mexico will grow broccoli for the United 
States, but not corn and beans for their own people. In essence 
domestic/national food economies will be replaced by export-oriented 
ones at the expense of autonomy. 

Communist Party of the Philippines stand

Our dear Maoist comrades in the Philippines apparently oppose the new 
GATT agreement and have worked with labor and environment related 
organizations in the United States to oppose GATT. MIM believes the 
situations in the Philippines and here are different.

The Philippines is one of the world's majority of countries oppressed by 
imperialism. Economic nationalism there is an objectively revolutionary 
force aimed at comprador government and imperialism.

We Maoists don't all have to say the same thing. Their job is 
principally related to the Philippines and ours is principally North 
America and the imperialist countries. They have a national bourgeoisie 
to lead that is threatened by GATT and in the Philippines our Filipino 
comrades are closer to seizing state power than we are. There, GATT is 
part of the life of a U.S. puppet regime and explaining what GATT is 
helps the masses see through it.

In the imperialist countries, the opposite is the case. Fanning the 
flames of economic nationalism only paves the road to fascism. 
Nationalism plays no progressive role at this time in the imperialist 
countries so we spend considerable effort rebutting the opponents of 
NAFTA and GATT who support the labor aristocracy.

ITAL MC49 assisted in research on this article. This article was written 
on December 2.END

Notes: 
1. New York Times 11/30/94, p. 1. 
2. Boston Globe 11/28/94, pp. 1, 3, 8. 
3. New York Times 12/2/94, p. a22. 
4. USA Today 11/23-4/94, p. 1, 8a. 
5. Boston Globe 11/23/94, p. 63. 
6. Los Angeles Times 11/29/94, p. 1. 
7. New York Times 11/23/94, p. a18. 
8. People's Weekly World (Communist Party, USA), 11/26/94.

* * *

VIDEO OPPOSES CONTROL UNITS TORTURE

On Monday November 14 as part of Prison Awareness Week at UMass Amherst, 
MIM showed the video ITAL Through the Wire END about the women's control 
unit at Lexington KY. The first control unit for women, the video makes 
it clear that this unit was constructed for the sole purpose of trying 
to break these political women. ITAL Through the Wire END is powerful in 
that it traces the lives of these three women--Alejandrina Torres, 
Silvia Baraldini, and Susan Rosenberg--and includes interviews with the 
women; including testimonials as to the debilitating effects of sensory 
deprivation torture.

MIM's only real disagreement with this excellent video was brought out 
quickly by members of the audience before MIM could: the focoist 
politics of these women. Imprisoned by the state for alleged membership 
or participation in the FALN ([Puerto Rican] Armed Forces of National 
Liberation) or the Black Liberation Army, these women uphold armed 
struggle now as a valid strategy towards liberation. MIM can not comment 
on the specific charges against these women, but if they did do what 
they are accused of, then they are heroes of the people and should be 
let free. MIM however sees the strategy of armed struggle to be 
incorrect now--it will merely send more good revolutionaries to the 
graveyard or the prisons. We encourage focoists to change their line and 
work with MIM for the day when we can pick up the gun--and win.(1)

MIM also discussed with the audience the increases in the number of 
control units. When ITAL Through the Wire END was made in 1990, 4 states 
had control units. Now over 36 states have them. We also discussed the 
"improvements" in the technology of torture such as new prison designs 
that keep the lights on all day, or keep the prisoners from even seeing 
the pig who brings them food. 

One independent pro-prisoner activist reported on the new Super-maximum 
facility in Connecticut. She said that it is designed so that instead of 
prisoners being brought to the showers, the showers come to the 
prisoner's cells on tracks. The prisoners are forced into the showers, 
and at least one prisoner has been badly burned because the water was 
too hot. 

MIM was encouraged by the presence of this activist and the others who 
introduced themselves at these events. MIM hopes to organize these 
activists into doing more pro-prisoner work with MIM in the future. 

ITAL MIM Associates contributed to this report. END

Notes.
1. See MIM Theory 5, "Line, Strategy and Tactics" for a discussion of 
ultraleftism and the armed struggle now line. $6.

* * *

CRIMINAL JUSTICE IS AN OPPRESSIVE SYSTEM

On the Tuesday of Prison Awareness Week, representatives of MIM and the 
Alliance for Student Power and a man who had a pen-pal on death row, sat 
on a panel entitled "Racism and the Criminal Justice System". The three 
panelists spoke for a few minutes each, and then led a group discussion.

One interesting discussion was sparked immediately by a revolutionary-
minded Nigerian man and a more reformist Black man over how to view the 
prison system's relationship to the Black Nation. 

The revolutionary Nigerian viewed the disproportionate imprisonment of 
Black men in U.S. prisons as part of a conspiracy to oppress Black 
people. The reformist took the position that since Clinton, Congress and 
big business don't subjectively aim to oppress Black people, it can't be 
a conspiracy. The reformist argued that the definition of crime and the 
way the criminal justic system works just happens to send more Black men 
to prison for longer sentences. The solution, for reformists anyway, is 
to get the ruling class to realize that their policies are oppressive to 
a certain group.

The revolutionary Nigerian and MIM took the position that the subjective 
intentions of policy makers doesn't matter. It's unlikely that Clinton 
or Lee Iacocca get up in the morning and think about how to send more 
Black men, as Blacks, to prison. It's possible, but it's also 
irrelevant. Revolutionaries should look more at objective actions and 
realities rather than subjective intentions.

It's more likely that Clinton or Iacocca, as they brush their teeth, 
think about stopping crime in general. But the definition of crime they 
develop is aimed at young Black men in particular, and when their 
policies start sending more Black men to prison these politicians or 
capitalists say "Good!"

The Nigerian wanted to term this a conspiracy, MIM preferred the 
language of national oppression: but we agreed that the criminal justice 
system is an oppressive system, and we agreed on who to blame. 
Objectively speaking, the white nation political and economic leaders 
are an enemy. Although all concerned (reformists and revolutionaries) 
agreed that the courts and the pigs are racist, MIM and some of the 
audience held that this can not be changed by simply exposing it or 
reforming the system. Only revolution can change this.

Thanks to the large number of Trotskyists in the audience MIM was able 
to forge some unity with the reformist Black man, however. The 
Trotskyists wanted to argue that the question was not of "race" but of 
class. The reformist Black man quickly switched sides to argue alongside 
MIM about how white people benefited from racism (national oppression in 
MIM's language) and about the oppressive ITAL system END that maintained 
the oppression of the Black Nation.

ITAL MIM Associates contributed to this report. END

* * *

NIGHTLINE PRISON SERIES REVIEW:
AMERIKANS WANT MORE REPRESSION, AND THEY WANT IT NOW

This writer saw two of the five part Nightline series on prisons. One 
was a tour of Central Prison in Raleigh, North Carolina, and the other a 
"Town Hall meeting" in the yard of Central Prison. The tone of the 
program was liberal at best.

Lockdown

TV cameras traveled through the lockdown unit, the sounds of prisoners 
voices echoing thru the halls. The Orwellian oppression was apparent. 
Viewers were informed that the prisoners are confined to their cells 24-
hours a day, with only 45 minutes a week outside in a chained area, and 
out for 15 minutes twice a week to shower. Prisoners were portrayed as 
dangerous pathological killers. Only one prisoner, who had been 
threatening suicide and was taken to a psychiatric unit, was interviewed 
in the whole program. But the warden, pigs and prison psychiatrists were 
given plenty of time to speak.

Ted Koppel said to a prison psychiatrist that living under such 
conditions would make a man crack, but then added that most of the 
inmates were probably cracked before they came to prison. He made the 
tacit admission that prisons are oppressive, although that word was 
never used. 

The liberal aspect to the show was the segment on "rehabilitative" 
programs. Some prisoners were shown working in a license plate factory 
for 20 cents an hour. Other prisoners were shown doing road work, and 
some prisoners did farm work. Farm manager James Collier said the farm 
program helps deal with the "management problem" of having so many 
prisoners locked up. 

The point of this segment was that although prisoners have committed 
crimes, rehabilitating them with this slave labor helps them prepare to 
return to society. (That the state of North Carolina profits from the 
exploitation of this labor was not considered.) While waxing liberal on 
this point, Koppel repeated over and over that the Amerikan public 
resents this kind of "pampering" of prisoners. "The public doesn't want 
to make them better. The public wants to punish them." Nightline and the 
rest of the bourgeois media contributes to and helps create this public 
perception, portraying the prison population as faceless and nameless 
violent killers. 

Town hall meeting

The "town hall" discussion involved about 15 prisoners and 30 
"respectable" citizens, judges, senators, wardens, crime victims, prison 
managers and one prisoner advocacy activist. In the course of the 
discussion, the reality of prison oppression became visible from time to 
time.

One prisoner, Mack Nichols, said, "If I had money, I wouldn't be here." 
No one denied this, or as another prisoner pointed out, the judicial 
system is just warehousing young people, giving them no education or 
jobs.

Jerome Miller, of a prisoner advocacy group, pointed out that 67% of 
Amerika's prison population was Black and Hispanic. That was the only 
time Miller spoke. When James French, the Black manager of Central 
Prison, was asked to comment on this, he was tongue-tied. Senator 
McCullen quickly stepped in to cover and said "If I were Black, I would 
want these people in prison."

Not surprisingly, individualism and liberalism ran rampant. One woman 
who works for a Victim Assistance Network explicitly rejected any 
"socio-economic" analysis. "It's within you," she said straight to the 
prisoners. 

When confronted with the oppressiveness of the criminal justice system, 
a number of the senators put forth reformist solutions. One judge 
admitted that people with money can buy their way out of going to 
prison. 

The murder and torture of prisoners by prison guards was never mentioned 
or discussed at any point. This would be going a step too far, because 
it would be very hard to escape MIM's conclusion that prisons are a 
system of oppression, not rehabilitation. 

To conclude the show, Ted Koppel sermonized that "we are 
disproportionately hard on the poor and uneducated in this country." The 
symptoms can be pointed out by even Ted Koppel, but not the causes. This 
isn't a matter of mistakenly dealing with a problem in the wrong way. It 
is a matter of political oppression of the poor, most of whom are from 
the internal colonies. But for those pangs of guilt in the middle-class, 
Nightline is there to discuss the problem within the parameters of 
bourgeois ideology.

--MIM Associate

* * * 

"FREE COUNTRIES" HAVE MORE PRISONS

There is a difference between state-capitalism and Western style free 
market capitalism. Now that Russia has our kind of capitalism, it has a 
murder rate similar to ours.

In 1986, there were 9,437 murders in the old Soviet Union. In 1993 it 
was 29,213. Police estimate 250 by contract at $1,000 to $2,000 per 
killing.

MIM is not surprised that the more individualist capitalist economies 
produce more crime ITAL and END higher imprisonment rates. Currently the 
United States and Russia are #1 and #2 in the world in imprisonment 
rates. Russia has moved up dramatically since copying the United States 
so brazenly with the rise to power of Yeltsin.

According to mainstream journalist Nicholas Daniloff, 4,000 crime gangs 
own 80 percent of the Russian economy.

What is the difference between a crime organization and a corporation? 
As far as most things go, not much.

--MC5

Note: Boston Globe 11/28/94, p. 11.

* * *

PROTEST MARKS ANNIVERSARY OF INDONESIAN OCCUPATION

On December 7, a small group of protesters led by the East Timor Action 
Network (ETAN) demonstrated in front of the Indonesian embassy in 
Washington, D.C., commemorating the 19th anniversary of the continued 
occupation of East Timor by Indonesia. Trained and armed by the United 
States, the Indonesian army invaded neighboring East Timor in 1975 and 
annexed it as its so-called 27th province.

Demonstrators carried signs which read "Indonesia out of East Timor," 
"End U.S. support for Indonesian genocide in East Timor," and "Remember 
the victims of the Santa Cruz massacre, November 12, 1991" in which 
"Indonesian troops armed with American M-16s gunned down more than 200 
Timorese civilians" attending a funeral for resistance fighters killed 
by the Indonesian government.(1)

According to the ETAN, the State Department "has licensed more than 250 
military sales to Indonesia" since the 1991 massacre, and continues to 
arm the Indonesian army in defiance the United Nations which does not 
recognize the country's claim to East Timor. In 1993 alone, Indonesia 
received $5.1 billion in aid.(2)

At the urging of the United Nations, Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali 
Alatas met publicly for the first time since the occupation began with 
"exiled leaders of Fretilin,"--a revolutionary nationalist organization 
fighting for the independence of East Timor--in October of this year.(3)

The talks, in which self-determination for the occupied nation was not 
up for debate, came weeks before 29 Timorese protested the continued 
occupation by climbing "the fence into the grounds of the American 
embassy" in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta, the weekend before the 
Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit which was held in that 
city.(4)

"Their 12-day protest and several weeks of unprecedented uprising in 
East Timor itself reminded the world of the more than 200,000 East 
Timorese who have been killed during nearly two decades of Indonesian 
occupation."(5)

Maoists recognize that the principal contradiction in the world today is 
between imperialism and oppressed nations. MIM supports the self-
determination of East Timor against Indonesian colonialism and Amerikan 
imperialism.

MIM Notes spoke with several of the demonstrators at the December 7 
demonstration, one of whom questioned our identification as communists. 
When this reporter explained that as a communist party, we build support 
for (among other things) Amerika's prisoners and national liberation 
struggles like that in East Timor, the protester answered that s/he 
agreed with MIM on those points but wondered why we would want to 
organize under the banner of communism.

Supporting the national liberation of East Timor means supporting a 
viable strategy for achieving that liberation. ETAN promotion of "a 
bipartisan movement in Congress and at the U.S. grassroots ... to 
reverse our government's mistaken course"(1) is not a viable strategy. 
Imperialism does not withdraw from profitable labor and resource markets 
out of humanitarian sentiment. MIM calls on people of North America who 
support genuine national liberation in East Timor and throughout the 
world to support Maoism--a proven force against colonial and imperial 
rule.

Notes:
1. "Background on East Timor and US Policy," East Timor Action Network. 
P.O. Box 1182, White Plains, NY 10602.; MIM Notes 73.
2. The Economist 10/1/94, p. 41.
3. New York Times 10/9/94, p. 6.
4. The Economist 11/19/94, p. 36.
5. "Dec 7 East Timor Protests" Press Advisory, East Timor Action 
Network.

* * *

CP-USA HAILS PHONY CHINESE COMMUNISM

The Communist Party-USA has recently confirmed its revisionist line on 
China. The September 10, 1994 issue of the People's Weekly World (their 
official newspaper) ran a two-page article about socialism in China. The 
article focused on the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU), and 
summed up socialism as defense of industrial worker's needs and 
industrialization of the economy. Multinational investment was 
celebrated as helping achieve this goal. Not to worry, the Chinese 
government retains 51% ownership in joint ventures with these private 
multinationals. 

Never mind that 20 million peasants are wandering around the countryside 
looking for work, or that 60,000 workers were killed in industrial 
accidents last year.(2) China has opened its doors to foreign consumer 
products from fast food restaurants like McDonald's and Pizza Hut, to 
Toyota cars and Sony TVs. Foreign debt was $806 billion for 1991.

A lot of the sons and daughters of many Chinese leaders now hold 
positions in European and American corporations, representing them in 
China. This is a new comprador class which China hasn't seen since 1949. 

There is widespread corruption in the CCP. Officials are using their 
positions to cash in on huge profiteering schemes. Rong Yiren, vice-
president of China and head of China International Trust and Investment 
Corporation, is involved in the importation of Japanese vans to Hainan 
Island, re-selling them at huge profits. These sorts of schemes go 
unpunished even when they are publicly exposed. 

Culturally, China's youth is being drowned in Amerikan soap operas, sit-
coms, Amerikan films, and Amerikan music. Imported pornography is 
rampant, even though officially banned.(3) None of this merits the 
attention of the CP-USA, which has reduced socialism to trade-union 
struggles. 

Fu Xushan, deputy director of ACFTU, refers to the Cultural Revolution 
as "our most horrible mistake." 

--by a MIM Associate

* * *

APPRECIATING THE CULTURE OF THE PEOPLE

Despite repeated conquests that span centuries, the Andean culture is 
very much alive. On Monday, November 14, an Andean group called Peru 
Andes played for an overflowing crowd at the University of Massachusetts 
at Amherst. Playing panpipes, charango, guitar and percussion, the 
musicians gave listeners a glimpse of the culture of the First Nations 
of Latin America. Of course, most attendees were not interested in the 
implications of the music, but a MIM distributor was there looking at 
what we can learn about the people from their music and telling people 
about the dangers the Andean culture faces if imperialism is not 
defeated. 

MIM challenges those who appreciate Andean culture to act on that and 
support the people in their struggles against oppression beyond buying 
pretty sweaters as many in the audience at UMass have been doing. Only 
people's war can save the Andean people and their rich culture.

Where does Andean music come from? The performers introduced their music 
as "spirit alive almost two thousand years." The panpipes they played 
resembled ones made in the region ten thousand years ago of stone. The 
instrument has evolved over the millennia into a sophisticated set of 
two panpipes. Each of the pair has every other note of the scale so that 
when two people play together the pipes can be divided. This way, each 
player has a chance to breathe. A crucial feature, as one musician 
pointed out, since the Andean people dance at their festivals for hours 
on end and providing that music would be impossible for a single player.

Just as the panpipes have evolved, so have the stringed instruments of 
the Andes. Stringed instruments were not present until the Spaniards 
began to colonize. The Europeans would not allow the First Nation 
peoples to play the guitar or mandolin, so the people developed a 
smaller version that would be easier to hide. This instrument, the 
charango, is now played in combination with guitar and mandolin as well 
as indigenous panpipes and percussion. This combination is an example of 
the creation of a new Andean culture ever evolving--innovative but never 
defeated. 

Like Blacks in the United States who sing songs in the language of their 
oppressor but tell their own message to make it their own, Peru Andes 
sings in Spanish. They sing songs from different parts the Andes, and 
dedicate them to "the Andean peoples of Bolivia" or whichever country, 
showing their solidarity with First Nations people throughout the 
region.

As people gathered to listen to the music of the Andean people, it is 
unclear whether they even began to understand the danger that that 
people is in. It is all well and good to buy pretty sweaters and listen 
to concerts on an evening. In fact, these are good practices if they 
lead to a fuller understanding of the culture. The people's culture 
should be understood and not looked down upon as inferior to bourgeois 
style. But a MIM distributor's discussion with attendees before the show 
revealed that some audience members did not know anything about the 
struggles that produced these artists. 

Some had no idea that there is a Maoist revolution in Peru that seeks to 
end Amerika's domination and the oppressive rule of a comprador 
government. The Communist Party of Peru has been fighting for justice 
for these people for over a decade and continues to combat the Fujimori 
regime. If people really want to show their respect for indigenous 
cultures, then they must do more than wear the costume. They must defend 
the people whose lives are in jeopardy because of imperialism.

* * *

UNDER LOCK AND KEY: NEWS FROM PRISONS AND PRISONERS

Guards get a taste of their own medicine

Revolutionary greetings,

There is an officer Steve White who has been calling me all kinds of 
bitches and punks and shoving my food in my cell so that it falls on the 
floor. I wrote this to my mother and the administration showed him the 
letter that my mother wrote to the superintendent. So he came in 10/6/94 
and started calling me a snitch and punk and son of a bitch, talking 
about my mother, and Officers Steve White and Matthew Whitehead started 
harassing me all that day and pointing the gas gun at me, threatening to 
shoot.

I got loud and was taken to see Lt. Harold Smith and Sgt. Jerry Holcomb, 
but they just acted like I was lying on these two officers. I told them 
that the officers were very unprofessional playing games, calling me and 
my mother names and pointing the gas gun on me, all on 10/6/94 and 
10/7/94. These same two officers were harassing and threatening me and 
calling my mother names. 

I stopped Sgt. Holcomb on the range and told him that the situation was 
critical and he told me there was nothing he could or would do to stop 
the terror these two officers were putting on me with the gas gun and 
threats. So a little later on 10/7/94, I stopped the Lt. Harold Smith 
and told him I could not take it anymore and that it was not going to 
stop. I told him I had already filed a grievance report and asked if I 
should file another. Lt. Smith said I should as his hands were tied. So 
with this done, officer Steve White came back to serve food and called 
me a snitch while standing in front of my cell trying to get me to throw 
something on him like most guys do. I did not do anything.

Today, only Officer Steve White was working out of the two, and he 
started early calling me names like bitch, punk, snitch and fag. I did 
not say anything as I was filling out a civil complaint at that time. 
About 12:45 PM I heard Officer Steve White say, "Hey, punk bitch" in my 
cell. I looked out of my cell and he was pointing the gas gun at me. I 
sat back down and then my cell door came open. It was officer Steve 
White letting me out. He pointed up. I looked up and saw the gas gun in 
the bars. I climbed up the bars and I got the gas gun. Officer Steve 
White ran out of sight so that I could not shoot him with the gas gun 
that they had used as a terror tactic on me. And I would have shot him.

I had the gas gun on the Disciplinary Segregation (D.S.) unit for 
approximately ten minutes, walking up and down the range. Both officers 
and prisoners were in serious danger. One officer, Greg Lentz, asked me 
for the gas out of the gun so he could put in the report that the gun 
was not loaded, thus no one in danger. Knowing the play he was trying to 
put on me, I walked to the back of the range and shot the gas gun up to 
the big cage so that they could enjoy what they had been shooting us 
with.

I destroyed the gas gun and have been told that there will no longer be 
a gas gun on this D.S. unit. And the pig Steve White will more than 
likely be fired for giving me the gun. I could hear the pig Steve White 
say, "You got it now, punk. I bet you won't shoot." I said, "Sure ain't 
fun when the rabbit got the gun" and gave the fucking stinking KKK pigs 
all five pellets of that gas.

I only had four months left on D.S. lockup and now I've got about ten 
years and a transfer and to pay for the gun that I destroyed. But hey, 
all in the life of the struggle. And I would do it again tomorrow as it 
got two KKK pigs off the unit and the gun will no longer be on the unit 
to threaten us prisoners with.

This problem has been building and going on for over two months and my 
mother wrote to Jack Duckworth and others and I wrote to Mr. Duckworth 
and his Assistant Superintendent Ed Broyles and Lt. H. Smith and filed 
grievance and told the Unit Sgt. J. Holcomb and the counselor Mr. Steve 
Wilson, but I have civil complaints on Duckworth, Broyles, Holcomb and 
Wilson already, so they let these two officers do this to me. And 
Officer Matthew Whitehead was the officer I mentioned in my complaint 
for asking me to assault another prisoner. I would not, so this is the 
thing: I was being set up and it backfired. Fuck them. Fuck all the 
pigs.

So as I end, I hope you'll write me right back and let me know what you 
think. All the officers will no doubt be out to get me. I may even be 
killed--that's how serious this was. There will be a lot of civil 
complaints going in the next couple weeks and it will cost them, so they 
will lie on me or something to get me killed. But I'm cool with that; 
I'm a small sacrifice, and I will act in this way if ever given the 
chance again.

Get back with me on what you think I should do. If you don't hear from 
me again soon after you write me, then you know I've been quieted or 
transferred and my property taken. So send a letter to [my home address 
outside].

Well, I'm out.

Peace and struggle,

--an Indiana prisoner, 10/8/94

MC49 replies: It's always righteous to see the oppressors get a small 
taste of what they deserve, and even better when righteous rebellion 
provokes a few token progressive reforms, as in your case and the case 
of the Los Angeles rebellion. But as for strategy, we do not advocate 
armed struggle now within U.S. borders.

Chicago Chairperson Fred Hampton of the Black Panther Party did a good 
job of explaining why we do not advocate armed struggle now: "A lot of 
these people will go up to you in a minute and say, 'Why all these 
people being taken, why haven't they shot it out with some pigs.' Well, 
what do we say? If you kill a few, you get a little satisfaction. But 
when you can kill them ALL you can get complete satisfaction. That's why 
we haven't moved. We have to organize the people. We have to arm the 
people. We have to teach them about revolutionary political power. And 
when they understand all that we won't be killing no few and getting no 
little satisfaction, we'll be killing 'em all and getting complete 
satisfaction."(1) 

(MIM actually supports Mao's line of avoiding the killing of class 
enemies in cases where it is possible to reform them or make them 
productive, but MIM stands by Fred Hampton's basic point here.)

On the other hand, it is also true that: "There are some situations when 
no matter what you do, you will lose your battle. The Attica prison 
rebellion is a case in point. You can't go on increasingly repressed by 
fascism forever. You can also get killed for a non-violent prison 
takeover.... So what to do in these situations? Well, although Attica 
was repressed and the place is still a hell-hole, that losing struggle 
did have an incredible impact....

"Prison conditions and the situation of genocide are difficult to work 
into a strategy of winning battles--there are complications to the 
Maoist strategy of digging imperialism's grave. Strategic confidence 
means different things in different places."(2)

Notes: 

1. The Black Panthers Speak, Philip S. Foner, editor, p. 142. Available 
from MIM for $10. 
2. "Losing Battles," MIM Theory #5, p. 51. Available from MIM for $6.

Guards beat, kill and domesticate prisoners

On 10/21/94 at 8:00 am, my company was going to the mess hall for 
breakfast. The brother leading the line asked the pig "What side do we 
sit on?" The pig said, "Whatever side I tell you, asshole." The brother 
responded by stating, "My name ain't asshole, it's X." The pig told X to 
sit his tray on the table and step outside in the hallway. X went to the 
hallway and the pigs started to search and harass him. The pigs closed 
the mess hall gate and started to attack X.

One pig pulled out his baton and struck X in the head twice, busting his 
head in two places so badly that X needed stitches. X knocked a sergeant 
pig out and was rumbling tough with the others, when 50 pigs jumped him 
and were beating him. No one could do anything, because they had the 
mess hall gates locked, and they had a pig with an AR-15, M-16 and 
shotgun in the mess hall tower. After 15 to 20 minutes, they dragged X 
to the box and opened the mess hall gates to proceed with program.

When my company came out, the mess hall brothers started inquiring about 
what the pigs did to X. As we lined up in the hallway, one brother, X's 
main man, started arguing with the pigs about what happened to X. The 
pig told X's friend to get on the wall and told the rest of the company 
to take it down to our block. A brother in my company said to the pigs, 
"We ain't moving until [X's friend] joins the line."

When the brother started this, you could see how fearful the pigs were, 
because the entire company refused to move. They searched the brother on 
the wall with a light pat frisk and he joined the line. Only then did 
our company start to move toward our block. 

After we got on the block, they locked the entire company down for 
investigation and keeplock. The pigs then started to harass us by 
searching our cells one by one with ten pigs standing around us with 
their batons in hand. This harassment went on for a couple of days until 
we went to our so-called disciplinary hearing and they gave everybody 
that was allegedly involved 75 days keeplock (solitary confinement) and 
then suspended 60 of the 75.

The brother X got two years in the box, his friend got six months in the 
box and the other brother in front got six months box. Keep in mind this 
incident happened on 10/21. On 10/28, these savage pigs killed a 
prisoner and they closed the entire jail down for three days. Today no 
one fully knows the entire story behind the pigs' brutal murder of a 
prisoner, but talk is saying that the jail is going to be locked down 
for an additional four days.

Today these pigs are searching the entire jail, going in each cell and 
harassing us to cover up for their corruption. This is an ongoing 
process at the Great Meadow Corruption Facility in Comstock, NY. They 
got the audacity to call this Max. Kamp "Great Meadow!" This shit gets 
me furious. Because I know that the only thing these pigs respect is 
fire, and I'm determined to burn them to hell where the devil belongs. 
The sad part about this whole scenario is that these pigs implanted fear 
in a lot of these prisoners, and they are also domesticating these 
prisoners by giving the TVs and frivolous shit like that.

In the words of Frances Cress Welsing, "Anybody who submits or 
cooperates with being victimized and oppressed must be mentally ill or 
self-negated!"

Power to all people who don't fear true liberation through armed 
struggle!

MIM comrades, please continue forwarding me MIM Notes and I'll continue 
circulating them.

Peace comrades,

--a New York prisoner, 10/30/94

Guards restrain, beat and threaten to kill Indiana prisoner

Uhuru, my comrades at MIM Notes,

I was assaulted on 10/1/94 by racist Special Housing Unit prison guards. 
They handcuffed me and shackled my feet, then continued to beat on me 
even when they had the restraints on me.

And when the 12 midnight to 8 a.m. guards came onto work, they came into 
a room that they use for indoor recreation and checked on my restraints. 
Two guards and a lieutenant did this every hour or two hours. But every 
time they came and checked on me, the lieutenant told me to back up to 
the wall. He had a nightstick in his hand. He would say to me, "If you 
move or try anything or look back at me, I am going to beat your nigger 
ass until I kill you."

So, comrades, I would like for you to please stay in touch of my 
whereabouts to make sure I am OK. Because my life is in danger, because 
of my revolutionary spirit.

The struggle continues by any means necessary. 

--an Indiana prisoner, 10/5/94

Prisoner to students: Support MIM's free-literature-for- prisoners 
program

I'm a 20 year-old prisoner confined in a New York state prison. This 
prison is classified as a Special Housing Unit (SHU). For those of you 
who are unfamiliar with the prison system jargon, SHU is simply an 
extremely isolated and segregated solitary confinement unit. Prisoners 
are put here for many reasons, but the main one is for speaking out 
against injustice in the prison system. Freedom of speech is only 
effective for people who really do not have much to say. My main concern 
in writing to you all is because my revolutionary brothers and sisters 
at MIM advised me that they are attempting to get books from you to send 
to us prisoners.

There are many prisoners who are struggling to educate themselves and 
sharpen their minds. The state prison system provides very limited 
educational courses. A lot of prisoners do not have anyone on the 
outside who can assist them in enhancing their intellect. In short, we 
are denied the right to pursue a fruitful education of our choice.

Case in point: Amerikkka has misrepresented prisoners as cold-blooded 
animals. Many people fall for this and believe we are such. Many people 
say "them prisoners need to be locked up and how dare they complain 
about education, they forfeited that when they made their mistake or 
misbehaved in society." What they don't realize is:

1. We didn't make the mistakes; we are the mistakes! The mistakes of 
Amerikkka, we are the results of injustice, economic disparity, greed, 
capitalism and some of us even racism.

2. We are not the cold-blooded animals that Amerikkka would have you 
believe, with the exception of rapists, child molesters and cannibals, 
and even they don't need prison, they need help. We are not the ones 
who, like prison guards, boil prisoners or scrub prisoners with wire 
brushes until their skin hangs around their ankles in bunches. We are 
not the ones who hang prisoners by the thumbs from the shower nozzles 
and run freezing cold water on them until they turn colors and faint. 
No, we are not the ones who urinate, spit and ejaculate in prisoners' 
food.

We are not the government officials, politicians and millionaires that 
sit back and never mention the old ladies, men and young infants that 
freeze to death in inadequately- heated apartment buildings or children 
that starve to death in their cribs. I know first hand. I've seen 
children eating out of garbage cans whom I had to take home and feed. 
Their parents told them not to beg and not to steal, so they resorted to 
eating what they could find.

I could go on about the things that I personally saw and experienced in 
the richest country in the world--Amerikkka. All Amerikkka tells you is 
that we are the problem: the criminals, the single-parent family, the 
poor. What they never tell you is what is the cause for such things and 
occurrences. I'm from New York City, the Bronx, and I know people that 
starved to death and froze to death. I know a woman that filled out 150 
applications for various jobs and never got called out for any of them. 
Her baby died of starvation, and she had a nervous breakdown and jumped 
out the window. I know an old man about 75 who died in his sleep. 
Reason? He froze to death. And this was inside his apartment. Amerikkka 
doesn't show you this side. It just shows you the effects and not the 
cause. It shows you the symptoms and not the disease. So always call 
into question what causes the poverty of approximately 40 million people 
in Amerikkka and then you will see who the cold-blooded animals really 
are and that their system, capitalism, is the real problem of not only 
Amerikkka, but the world.

I'm sure I speak on behalf of the majority of prisoners, and we are 
people just like you, just in a different social class. We seek 
education and enlightenment in order to sharpen our minds. We are not 
anti-social or anti-people, we just didn't get a chance to grasp the 
opportunity you did. We were too busy under the table scrambling for the 
crumbs of the Amerikkkan apple pie.

I'm most sure you all can assist us in some way to expand our minds. 
Whichever way you can will be most appreciated by all of us in here. 
Thank you very much. I'm sure one of our good comrades will inform you 
on how you can go about helping us out.

I send my love to all.

--a New York prisoner, 10/13/94

All I wanted was a sandwich...

Greetings comrades,

In good faith I am writing because I have not been keeping in touch 
because I have been under attack by these pigs in this here supermax 
prison. These pigs have been moving me from cell to cell so I have not 
been doing too much writing. Comrades, I have just received the August 
copy of MIM Notes. Basically, there is nothing new happening in this 
here supermax; the oppression continues. Two weeks ago during feed-up on 
the tier I was housed on, these pigs brought me and about 11 other 
brothers some spoiled egg salad. So I told the pigs the egg salad was 
not any good and asked if he could get me something better. After I said 
this, the other brother started saying something. 

Well, the pigs said they were not going to give us nothing. 

We said that if they didn't get us any food, we were going to hold our 
trays until they did. We held our trays until we saw a captain. The 
captain got all of us some peanut butter and jelly, but afterwards, I 
was taken and put in the hole, which is a cell with nothing in it. I was 
put in the cell with nothing but my underwear. I was shackled down to my 
legs for four days.

Comrades, this is small compared to a lot of things that is happening in 
this jail.

I remain in the struggle,

--a Maryland prisoner, 9/18/94

P.S. Can you send me any books you have on the brother George Jackson?

Calling all conscious New Afrikan and Third World men interned in bowels 
throughout Amerikkka

Sister Antonia A. Drew, Director, Asha Women of Color Project, P.O. Box 
12513, Milwaukee, WI 53212, needs your help and support very badly.

Sister Antonia is a conscious New Afrikan activist in the Milwaukee New 
Afrikan community, who is in the process of developing a program for the 
New Afrikan and Third World men being released from the bowels in the 
Milwaukee, WI area called "Ujima: Men's Education Program." The 
aforementioned program will provide a gamut of services and assistance 
to New Afrikan and Third World men being released from the bowels in the 
Milwaukee, WI area.

The courageous sister has submitted a list of queries. She desires to 
have New Afrikan and Third World men interned in the bowels throughout 
Amerikkka to respond, too. So on behalf of the New Afrikan sister 
Antonia, I call upon all conscious New Afrikan and Third World rades and 
brothas interned in bowels throughout Amerikkka to join with the sister 
in her struggle to develop the Ujima: Men's Education Program by 
responding to the following list of queries and sending your responses 
to the address above.

If you could create a support system for yourself and others like you:
1. What would it look like?
2. What would it do?
3. What would it not do?
4. Who could participate and who could not?
5. What would sanctions be for non-participation (if any) and what would 
rewards be for same (if any)?
6. What were the incidentals that triggered bigger incidents that led to 
re-incarceration?

In a recent communique this writer received from the New Afrikan sister 
Antonia, she emphatically conveyed to me that: 

"It is my contention that the only people on the planet who can stop 
Black males from misusing and abusing Black women and children is Black 
men. I don't care how many laws are made and prisons are built. You all 
(Black males) must govern each other's behaviors. Black men must teach 
Black boys to become men. Many brothers forget they used to control 
their communities. Black boys did not beat and rape their mothers and 
sisters. It is by design that they not know who they are and what their 
legacy truly is. I want to be part of the catalysis that affects and 
effects a change in my brothers' thinking and behavior."

This writer concurs wholeheartedly with the New Afrikan sister Antonia. 
I, too, want to be part of the catalysis that affects and effects a 
change in my brothers' thinking and behavior. And as conscious New 
Afrikan and Third World brothers, you should want to be part of this, 
too.

As you comrades and brothers peruse this communique, I admonish you to 
keep in the uppermost part of your mind that we are all members of an 
oppressed nation who simply "happen to be interned in the bowels of 
Amerikkka" The struggle that we carry on behind the walls is informed by 
the National Liberation struggle of New Afrikan and Third World people 
on the outside of the walls. It is paramount at this point in time that 
we commence to make even more clear in our minds and in the minds of New 
Afrikan and Third World people, that we are not engaged in simple prison 
struggle, but are engaged in National Liberation struggle.

Our organized activity must be carried on as, and understood to be, the 
organized activity of conscious New Afrikan and Third World men--not 
just prisoners. We are not just New Afrikan and Third World prisoners 
who have organized ourselves for simple prison activities--we are 
conscious New Afrikan and Third World men who organized ourselves for 
National Liberation struggle, and who at the present time just happen to 
be interned in the bowels of Amerikkka. And as conscious New Afrikan and 
Third World brothers, we have come to learn as a direct result of our 
persistent study of correct knowledge and information, that it is our 
collective responsibility to help one another put the pieces of our 
miserable and pathetic lives back together. As New Afrikan and Third 
World brothers, we should understand that one day we will have a role to 
play in the resurrection of our New Afrikan and Third World communities 
in the icon of their past glory. And as New Afrikan and Third World 
brothers, we should recognize and accept wholeheartedly our historical 
and obligatory duty and responsibility to work to reassemble the New 
Afrikan and Third World men of our order, for the redemption of our New 
Afrikan and Third World people. As conscious New Afrikan and Third World 
brothers, it is incumbent upon us to join with the New Afrikan sister 
Antonia in her earnest struggle to make a contribution--to help New 
Afrikan and Third World men transcend those values that make us hate 
ourselves and our kind. Therefore, I call upon all conscious New Afrikan 
and Third World brothers interned in the bowels throughout Amerikkka to 
join with the New Afrikan sister Antonia in her struggle to develop the 
Ujima: Men's Education Program by sending her your responses to the 
above six queries.

I greet you brothers with the heart and soul of a New Afrikan Freedom 
Fighter! I salute each of you with a mailed clenched fist!

Build to Win!

--an Illinois prisoner, 9/14/94

* * *

WHAT NON-PRISONERS CAN DO TO SUPPORT PRISONERS:

1. Struggle with, work with, finance and join MIM. The best way to 
support prisoners is to overthrow the system under which capitalists 
profit from the exploitation of prisoners. History shows that the best 
way to do this is to build a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist party. The 
oppressors will not give up their power without a fight.

2. Finance MIM's prison work. Our biggest bill each month is postage. 
Most of the prison comrades who read MIM Notes have no way of paying for 
it. So if you have money, send what you can afford. Every cent helps, 
and stamps are as good as cash to us.

3. Distribute MIM Notes and Notas Rojas. Bring the voices of prisoners 
and their supporters to as large and wide an audience of people as 
possible. Contact MIM for bulk rates and distribution tips.

4. Start or join a prison support group. MIM can provide advice and 
resources to help you build public opinion for prisoners and their 
struggles.

5. Fight censorship, beatings, torture and other fascist outrages. Under 
Lock and Key often features the addresses of prisoners' friends and 
enemies. Work with the friends and let the enemies know you're watching. 
(Don't expect to win the fascists to the side of humanity, however. See 
#1 in this list).

6. Stay in touch. Keep us informed of pro-prisoner work you do. Our 
readers might find it educational or inspirational.