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THE MAOIST INTERNATIONALIST MOVEMENT

MIM Notes 97

February 1995

Electronic Edition

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Get MIM Notes 97 from the Maoist Internationalist 
Movement (MIM), and get the latest in Maoist news 
and analysis - put a revolutionary weapon in your 
hands.

This issue feature extensive coverage of the First 
Nation struggles for sovereignty in North America 
and youth struggles against the Canadian 
government; MIM's analysis of competing 
nationalisms in Chechnya; Black struggles and 
anti-patriarchy martyrs; News from L.A. and 
Detroit; reviews of *Higher Learning* and *To 
Live*; Prison news, letters and more.

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. Struggle with it and 
write for it.

MIM Notes 97 includes:

CONTENTS

 1. FIRST NATIONS PROTEST CANADIAN TAX POLICY
 2. RUSSIAN IMPERIALISM POUNDS CHECHNYA
 3. REACTIONARY NATIONALISMS DUKE IT OUT IN GROZY
 4. FIRST NATIONS BLOCKADE ROAD
 5. FIRST NATIONS OPPOSE SEPARATIST QUEBEC
 6. BLACK PANTHER MURAL SQUASHED
 7. CROWD PROTESTS PLANNED MUMIA EXECUTION
 8. "PRO-LIFE" DEATH: TWO WOMEN MARTYRED
 9. MASSACRE OF MONTREAL WOMEN REMEMBERED
10. JOE SLOVO: SOUTH AFRICAN REVISIONIST DIES
11. USEFUL PUPPETS WEAR VEILS
12. ACTIVIST FRAMED BY CANADIAN GOVERNMENT
13. PATRIARCHY CAUSES MURDER
14. PIGS GUN DOWN SURROUNDED HOMELESS MAN
15. ANTI-187 MOVEMENT SPLITS BY CLASS AND NATION
16. PIGS LAUNCH MOCK RAID ON CASS CORRIDOR
17. YOUTH, ACTIVISTS PROTEST CANADIAN CUTS
18. REVIEW: HIGHER LEARNING
19. REVIEW: CRANBERRIES' "ZOMBIE"
20. REVIEW: TO LIVE
21. LETTERS TO MIM
22. UNDER LOCK & KEY
23. OUT NOW! MAOIST SOJOURNER DEBUTS


* * *

REVENUE CANADA OCCUPIED:
FIRST NATIONS PROTEST CANADIAN TAX POLICY

TORONTO - On December 15 members of several First 
Nations entered and occupied the Revenue Canada 
offices in downtown Toronto. This occupation was 
in response to a law passed by the Canadian 
federal government which allows them to collect 
federal income taxes as of January 1st from Native 
people working outside of their reservation. 
Hundreds of Native and non-native supporters held 
a vigil and rally outside the occupied building. 

In solidarity, the Mohawks at Kahnawake held a 
demonstration on the Mercier bridge (one of only a 
few bridges leading to Montreal) at which they 
handed out leaflets opposing the tax levy on 
indigenous peoples.

As MIM Notes goes to press on January 10, 19 
people remained inside the building, and Assembly 
of First Nations was planning a demonstration in 
support of the protesters.(1)

BROKEN PROMISES

This attempt to collect taxes from Native peoples 
is just one in a long series of insults and broken 
promises on the part of the Canadian government in 
its dealings with the indigenous people, from whom 
they stole their land. Negotiations with the 
government have never produced anything good for 
the First Nations. The government just makes rules 
without consulting the people these rules will 
affect, people who supposedly are recognized as a 
separate nation from Canada. Speaking to the crowd 
outside, one of the building occupiers said "No 
more will we take government lies. We have 
something to say and they better listen to us."

A Government Paper discovered in 1993 stated that 
taking away off-reserve tax exemption is the first 
step and will be followed by on-reserve taxation. 
The native people at the occupation and rally were 
very aware that this is only one piece of a much 
larger issue of occupation and oppression of 
nations. "This is only a drop in the bucket when 
you consider all the other social issues facing 
native people," said one of the men occupying the 
building. Signs planted at the sight of the 
occupation read "We shared, You Stole," and "You 
have our land, We have tax immunity, Do you want 
to exchange?"

A paper produced for the occupation, "Wake-Up 
Call," ran a front page article pointing out that 
tax exemption was one of the only remaining rights 
given to Aboriginal people in return for the land 
and resources taken by Canada. "The rights were 
not, by any stretch of the imagination, adequate 
compensation for the loss of land, institutions, 
language and a highly developed economic base." 
The people taking part in this action were careful 
to point out that the so-called Liberals in the 
Canadian government are as bad as the 
conservatives. MIM interviewed one of the 
organizers of the actions. "We have a guaranteed 
Aboriginal and treaty right to tax immunity," she 
said. The conditions in which Native people live 
in North America are testimony to the broken 
promises of the Canadian and United States 
government. "Our people are the poorest of the 
poor. In a rich nation like Canada, First Nations 
people living under Third World conditions should 
be an embarrassment." 

Neither Canada nor the United States has ever 
stood by any of it's treaty agreements in the past 
so this latest attack comes as no surprise to 
members of First Nations. The woman MIM 
interviewed said "We see this as just another 
example of 200 years of betrayal, lies, and broken 
promises on the part of the government. The 
government has attempted to assimilate us, and 
made attempts at cultural genocide. We have a 
culture and they have not broken the spirit of 
aboriginal people in this country." A man at the 
rally said "That's what it's been all along, just 
broken promises, they make them and then they 
break them."

Inside the Revenue Building the occupiers were 
being harassed by the police according to the 
woman MIM interviewed. Attempts to provoke and 
intimidate the people were frequent and 
intensifying on the seventh day of the occupation. 

THE STRUGGLE FOR SELF-DETERMINATION CONTINUES

Another sign at the occupation read "Remember Oka" 
referring to the struggle at Oka in 1990 when the 
Canadian government tried to expand a golf course 
on Mohawk land and the Mohawks took up arms and 
resisted. This points to the strength remaining in 
the surviving First Nations (those who have not 
yet been massacred by the occupying Canadian and 
United States governments).

The people of the First Nations will not comply 
with the off-reservation taxation. All of the 
Native people MIM spoke to were clear about this. 
Just as certainly the Canadian government will 
continue to attempt to take away all rights to 
self-determination the First Nations retain. Just 
as they practice colonialism world wide, the 
governments of North America are occupying and 
colonizing the First Nations. This will not end 
through negotiations or more treaties. The 
occupation can only be stopped by overthrowing the 
imperialist nations.

NOTE: Globe and Mail 1/10/95, p. A4.


* * *

CHECHNYA I:
RUSSIAN IMPERIALISM POUNDS CHECHNYA:

By a MIM Associate

Russia's invasion of Chechnya, an attempt to 
suppress Chechen claims to independence, is its 
first large-scale military action since the 
dissolution of the Soviet Union.(1) This action 
demonstrates Boris Yeltsin's desire to assert 
Russian imperialism in as much of the territory of 
the former Soviet Union as possible.

Chechnya first declared its independent status in 
1991.(1) Since then, Russia has refused to 
recognize Chechnya as an independent country, 
tried to enforce an economic blockade against 
Chechnya and supported attempts to overthrow the 
Chechen president Dzhokhar Dudayev.(2) Chechnya 
has backed up its insistence on full independence 
by refusing to take part in Russian elections.(1)

Liberal opposition groups in Russia are trying to 
split Yeltsin from his imperialist allies in 
Europe and Amerika. These groups are taking 
advantage of the conflict in Chechnya to accuse 
Yeltsin of siding with so-called "hard-line 
communists" to stall bourgeois democracy.

EXTENT OF THE FIGHTING

Russia has poured more than 40,000 troops into 
Chechnya to capture its capital, Grozny. Estimates 
of the numbers in the Chechen resistance range 
from a few hundred to 12,000 fighters armed with 
low-tech weaponry such as Kalashnikovs, Molotov 
cocktails and antique rifles.(1,3,4)

Despite their inferior weapons and small numbers, 
Chechen fighters have seen morale among Russian 
troops hurt. There have been disagreements within 
the Russian military concerning the legitimacy of 
the action in Chechnya.(5,6) Russian soldiers must 
be aware that they are fighting for the interests 
of the elite business class which controls trade 
and oil.

RUSSIA'S CLAIMS IN CHECHNYA

Russia's leaders are struggling to carry out 
economic reform which would bring Russia into the 
capitalist world market, and cannot afford to let 
go cheap sources of valuable natural resources and 
populations to process them. Other countries have 
followed Russia's lead in not recognizing Chechnya 
as independent.(2) Russia is the European 
imperialists' best bet for promoting Western style 
capitalism in the former Soviet Union, so no one 
wants to encourage instability in Russia. 
Promoting Russian efforts to build market 
capitalism takes precedence over the Chechen 
people's aspirations to independence.(6)

A major Russian oil pipeline and regional trade 
routes cut through Chechnya.(5) Grozny is a mid-
point for transportation and trade between Russia 
and the Caucusus, and a major oil refining 
center.(5,7)

RUSSIAN FACTIONS' HYPOCRISY

Russia's Choice, other liberal groups, and the so-
called Communists claim to oppose Yeltsin's policy 
in Chechnya because they are opposed to the use of 
force there. They do not even claim an interest in 
Chechnya's right to independence, in fact, most 
groups which oppose Yeltsin's policy also oppose 
Chechnya's independence.(5,6)

Yegor Gaidar, a leading Russian liberal who is 
opposed to military action in Chechnya expressed 
his opinion on the issue: "Grozny should not be 
stormed. It is a Russian town on Russian soil."(5)

Chechens, including President Dzhokhar Dudayev, 
have ruled out the possibility of a peaceful 
settlement in which Chechnya would remain a part 
of Russia. The position of Yeltsin's opponents on 
this issue is simply political rhetoric.(6,7)

Gaidar has also charged that the attack on Grozny 
is a plot by "hard-liners," the bourgeois term for 
state-capitalists. He suggests that Russian action 
in Chechnya will prompt Chechens to commit acts of 
terrorism in Moscow. This would give the Russian 
government an excuse to institute a state of 
emergency, suspend civil liberties and halt 
democratic reforms.(5)

Gaidar's accusations are an attempt to play the 
Western imperialists against Yeltsin and in his 
own favor. Yeltsin is not siding with state-
capitalists, he is acting in accordance with the 
interests of the elite government and business 
classes. He has no desire to see the state 
capitalist system restored in Russia, instead he 
wants to join market imperialists such as the U.S. 
and Germany.

Yeltsin may also hope to keep nationalists and 
supporters of Zhironovsky, a well known Russian 
ultra-nationalist, at bay by showing that he can 
be tough in promoting a strong state.

RUSSIAN POLITICIANS EXPOSED

Now that Russian politicians are no longer forced 
to hide their imperialist motives behind pseudo-
socialist propaganda, the situation in the former 
Soviet Union is more obvious than ever. Russia can 
now use its military to protect its capitalist 
interests without having to convince the world 
that this is all in the name of socialism. Russian 
liberals and so-called communists are learning 
faster than Yeltsin how to play this new game, 
letting Yeltsin do the dirty work and gaining 
political power by criticizing him for it.

NOTES:
1. New York Times 12/12/94, p. A1 
2. The Economist 9/24/94, p. 54 
3. The Guardian 12/3/94, p. 1 
4. New York Times 1/10/95, p. A4 
5. New York Times 1/12/95, p. A4 
6. New York Times 1/7/95, p. 4 
7. The Economist 8/6/94


CHECHNYA II:
REACTIONARY NATIONALISMS DUKE IT OUT OVER GROZY

The war in Russia over Grozny has raised many new 
and difficult questions for the international 
communist movement and it has raised even more 
problems for those who believe capitalism is 
capable of peace. The gory television news 
coverage tells of thousands dead with stories of 
dogs eating soldiers' faces on the battlefields. 
On one side is the imperialist Russia. On the 
other is the Chechen nation, but are the Chechens 
themselves a part of imperialism?

WESTERN CAPITALISM FEARS MUSLIM STRENGTH

According to the Russian government and the 
Western media, the Chechens hold a 
disproportionate share of the Russian economy 
through organized crime.

During the Cold War, the CIA sought to inflame 
national divisions within the Soviet Union. Yet 
one of the possible costs to the imperialists of 
the breakup of the Soviet Union is the potential 
rise of Islam in the south and central republics 
of the former Soviet Union.

The Chechens are a hill people with Islamic 
history. No doubt their relative proximity to Iran 
and the rest of the Middle East makes the world's 
imperialists a little uneasy.

DEPORTATION & THE POLITICS OF COLLABORATION

According to one bourgeois scholar named Geoffrey 
Hosking, the Chechens had a history of declaring 
Holy War against the Soviet Union going back to 
the 1920s and '30s. Without making a specific 
argument on whether Stalin's action was just, 
Hosking says that for World War II, Stalin 
deported the whole Chechen people internally to 
keep them from collaborating with the Nazis.

MIM upholds Stalin's argument for deporting the 
Chechen nation internally. As it was, the Soviet 
Union did not defeat Nazi Germany by such a wide 
margin, and Stalin was correct to not be liberal 
with internal rebels during such a dangerous 
period for the Soviet Union and socialism. MIM 
does not support the Russian government's claims 
of authority in Chechnya. Yeltsin and his 
factional enemies are not fighting for any long-
term progressive goal; they are fighting for the 
advance of monopoly capitalism.

Under Stalin - who led Russia from 1924 to 1953 
when Russia was making rapid economic progress and 
when the threat of Hitler existed - many nations 
felt a strong pull to join the USSR as republics. 
Decades of economic stagnation under state 
capitalism and now outright economic crises under 
Western-style capitalism, combined with the 
receding threat of German imperialism compared 
with Russian imperialism contribute to the flurry 
of resurgent nationalism in the ex-SovietUnion.

BACKWARDS-LOOKING NATIONALISM

The Western media posits that Russian intervention 
in Grozny is back to the bad old days of 
"communism." For these lap-dogs, anything good is 
capitalism and anything bad is communism. That's 
as much as they know about the difference. It does 
not occur to the media mouthpieces of the 
imperialists that perhaps backward-looking 
nationalism, militarism and economic crises are 
caused by capitalism. The disintegration of the 
Soviet Union and the wars that have arisen are 
further proof that capitalism breeds war. MIM 
opposes this war, because it is not in the 
interests of the people. Proletarians and youth on 
both sides of the war are being killed for the 
benefit of bourgeois governments.

NOTE: Geoffrey Hosking, *The First Socialist 
Society* (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 
1985), pp. 240, 254.


* * 

FIRST NATIONS BLOCKADE ROAD: GOVERNMENT GIVES IN

First Nations ended a month-long blockade of 
highways leading to a ski resort in Victoria, 
Canada on December 6 after the Canadian government 
agreed to their demands. A $20 million expansion 
of the Apex Mountain Resort threatened water 
supplies to Native territory. The Penticton and 
Upper and Lower Similkameen, who would be most 
affected by this expansion, blocked the only three 
roads leading to the resort on November 1 to back 
up their demands for further study of the 
expansion.

The Canadian government agreed to pay for an 
environmental review and canceled plans for 
further expansion of the resort until at least 
April 1995. The resort expansion plan had already 
passed the government's environmental approval 
process. Blocking the roads was seen as a last 
resort tactic because, as usual, the government 
was not listening to the concerns of indigenous 
people.

Ironically, this territory is still under dispute 
as the Canadian government claims ownership of 
this land. Its promises of "study" of 
environmental damage that will be caused to the 
land are a small price to pay for land that 
rightfully belongs to the First Nations.

NOTES: The Eastern Door, Volume 3, Number 23.
   Published on Kahnawake Mohawk Territory. For
   subscription write Box 326, Kahnawake, Quebec,
   JOL 1BO.


* * *

FIRST NATIONS OPPOSE QUEBEC PLANS
FOR SEPARATION FROM CANADA

As Quebec continues its move for separation from 
Canada, Chiefs of the First Nations across Canada 
gathered in Quebec City to discuss the effects 
this will have on the First Nations. The Native 
peoples have not been included in the discussions 
of separation and are concerned about the 
sovereignty of the Nations that exist in what 
Quebec considers it's territory. They are also 
concerned about the effects the separation will 
have on the relationships between the First 
Nations.

MIM supports peoples rights to self-determination, 
but this does not include supporting the struggle 
of Quebec for autonomy from Canada. Quebec is a 
wealthy province of Canada that participates in 
the colonialization of indigenous people. It's 
separation from Canada will represent nothing more 
than the separation of two capitalist friends. 
Quebec has already begun to step up anti-immigrant 
measures to preserve the purity of it's Quebecois 
population.

Chief Joe Norton stated "I believe in separation. 
I believe in Mohawk separation if there is such a 
thing as separation." MIM agrees with this 
statement. Self-determination for the Mohawks and 
other First Nations is a just demand but one that 
will only come at the expense of imperialist 
countries. For this reason it is a demand that 
will only be won through revolutionary struggle.

NOTES: The Eastern Door, Volume 3, Number 23.
   Published on Kahnawake Mohawk Territory. For
   subscription write Box 326, Kahnawake, Quebec,
   JOL 1BO.


* * *

BLACK PANTHER MURAL SQUASHED

In Los Angeles a proposed city-funded mural of the 
Black Panthers was crushed, leaving the 
progressive art community and the masses 
disappointed and angry.

The Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC) 
commissioned artist Noni Obalisi to do a mural of 
the Black Panthers called "To Protect and Serve". 
The reactionary citizens of Los Angeles could not 
handle the positive and militant portrayal, even 
with more than 20 years passed since the Panthers 
had a fearsome presence in that city.

For several months from October 1993 to January 
1994 the artist met with residents of the Crenshaw 
district, where the mural was slated to appear on 
the side of a shop called Hair Expressions. These 
residents emphasized that they wanted to see 
positive Black role models. It was because of 
these discussions that Obalisi picked the Black 
Panther Party for Self-Defense as the subject of 
the mural.

The drawing for mural depicted the Black Panther 
breakfast program, the free health clinics they 
established, and Huey P. Newton carrying a gun, 
with cops arresting a prone Black man with KKK 
members in the background. The city commission 
which must approve all city-funded murals rejected 
the drawing in part because of the way in which 
the police were portrayed. "It doesn't show the 
police in a positive light," complained one 
commissioner."

After much fighting within the city commission, 
and strong efforts by the SPARC to gather 
signatures on petitions and make it clear that the 
mural had the support of the Black community, the 
SPARC was given the go-ahead to continue with the 
project. But that was not the end of the story.

Within a week after the October 6, 1994 approval, 
the Hair Expressions was raided for the first 
time, and guess what? Drugs and handguns were 
found in the shop! MIM wonders if the LAPD set up 
this raid as one of many in the long history of 
police brutality and oppression of urban Black 
communities. Either way, it seems more than just a 
coincidence that the shop was never raided before, 
but it was now.

On October 24 the Police Protective League sent a 
letter to a city councilman stating its objections 
to the mural, among them that "the mural depicts 
the police negatively. Specifically, it shows the 
police arresting a black man...." MIM of course 
has no sympathy for the reactionary LAPD, who is 
trying desperately to establish a positive image 
in the wake of the beating of Rodney King. The 
Black residents of Los Angeles should be anti-
police - the police do not protect that community.

MIM is pleased to see the initiative for the mural 
project, and hopes that other funds can be raised 
to complete the mural (private funds are being 
sought by SPARC, which began a Black Panther Mural 
Fund), which would be a step toward an accurate 
depiction of Black history in Amerika.

MIM is not surprised to see that the city would 
reject the project, out of fear and anger that 
Black people would be portrayed, with the full 
support of the masses, in a militant and righteous 
fashion. What else can we expect?

NOTE: LA Village View 11/18/94, p. 6.


* * *

CROWD PROTESTS PLANNED MUMIA EXECUTION

Jan. 17, HARRISBURG, PA - Coming from New York, 
Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington and elsewhere 
on the East Coast, hundreds rallied at the Capitol 
Building in Harrisburg, PA today to protest the 
impending execution of former Black Panther and 
journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal.

Mumia, a journalist who exposed police brutality 
in Philadelphia, was sentenced to death in 1982 
for the murder of a Philadelphia cop. Mumia's 
inability to overturn his conviction despite the 
state's shoddy and fabricated evidence makes his 
case a flagrant example of the Amerikan justice 
system targeting people for their politics.

People in the crowd chanted: "They say death row, 
we say hell no!" and, "Free Mumia Now!" as they 
marched through the streets to the Capitol steps 
to "welcome" incoming Governor Tom Ridge on his 
inauguration day. Ridge specifically promised 
during his campaign to carry out Mumia's 
execution.

Although the literature, signs and banners 
connected to the event characterized Mumia 
distinctly as a "political prisoner" and warned 
that if not stopped, his execution will "set a 
precedent for legal execution of political 
prisoners in the U.S.," many in the crowd that MIM 
spoke to were quite receptive to MIM's line that 
under imperialism, all prisoners in Amerikkka's 
prisons are political prisoners.

"Of course," said one self-described anarchist, 
too anti-party to even take a copy of MIM Notes. 
Others who did buy the paper also readily agreed. 
And yet, where are the crowds protesting the 
humiliation, beatings, torture and execution of 
the rest of Amerikkka's prisoners - those whose 
"crimes" are defined and punished by a political 
system sustained by global inequality and violent 
theft? Under imperialism, the biggest criminals 
not only go free but hold state power and own the 
means of production.

MIM urges all who are concerned about the plight 
of political prisoners to take up Maoism and help 
build independent power of the oppressed to 
overthrow imperialism.

NOTE: "Stop the legal lynching of Mumia Abu-Jamal"
   flier by the Free Mumia Abu Jamal Coalition,
   P.O. Box 650, New York, NY 10009.


* * *

TWO WOMEN MARTYRED IN STRUGGLE AGAINST PATRIARCHY

A "pro-life" fanatic killed two and wounded five 
people in two abortion clinics in Brookline, 
Massachusetts on December 30. Carrying a .22 
rifle, the terrorist murdered two receptionists at 
Preterm and Planned Parenthood by simply walking 
into the offices and opening fire. 

Shannon Lowney of Planned Parenthood and Leanne 
Nichols at Preterm Health Services are two martyrs 
in the struggle against patriarchy. They had faced 
pro-life fanatics demonstrating on the street on 
an almost daily basis and they had received many 
death threats before December 30. 

The death threats came from neo-Nazis among 
others. The fascists spewed their nonsense about 
wanting to kill "Jewish doctors" and "Hitler was 
right."(1) Brookline is heavily Jewish in 
composition. 

The killings brought to five the total of abortion 
clinic workers murdered by Christian fanatics 
since March, 1993. Two doctors and an escort of a 
doctor lost their lives in Pensacola, Florida in 
two separate shootings in 1993 and 1994. Another 
two attempted murders occurred August 19, 1993 in 
Wichita, Kansas and November 8, 1994 in Vancouver, 
British Columbia in Canada.(2)

The Christian fascists continue to cheer on the 
attacks. The March 1993 Florida murder inspired 
the woman who carried out the Wichita attack 
according to the terrorist herself.(3) On January 
1, demonstrators in Virginia hailed the suspect 
John Salvi as a hero, so the possibility of 
further planned violence is quite high.(4)

On the other hand, pro-choice activists, most pro-
life activists, the Republican Governor of 
Massachusetts William Weld and the President Bill 
Clinton all condemned the murders. The murders 
followed shortly after the courts sentenced Paul 
Hill to death in Pensacola, Florida for killing 
two clinic workers. 

Thousands of people in Boston demonstrated against 
the killings that night and the following day. The 
call went out around the country to beef up 
security at abortion clinics with more police. 
Former NOW president Eleanor Smeal criticized the 
government for not enforcing the law hard enough: 
"There are death threats but no arrests.... We've 
got to do better pro-actively before the shooting 
occurs."(1)

Besides the recent murders and shootings, in the 
past 12 years there were "123 cases of arson and 
37 bombings in 33 states, and more than 1,500 
cases of stalking, assault, sabotage and burglary" 
targeted at abortion clinics.(5)

From the call for more federal marshal and local 
police protection of clinics, we can see that the 
fascists have the advantage in the streets in 
Amerika right now. This only demonstrates the 
weakness of the feminist movement which has to 
rely on the patriarchal state to "protect" people 
at abortion clinics and the need to build the 
independent organizations of the oppressed to 
counter the reactionaries. 

DESPERATION OF THE DINOSAURS

MIM has argued for five years that abortion is an 
issue that has every possibility of disappearing 
from history. The new French abortion pill RU-486 
is an example of why. 

The Planned Parenthood clinic was no doubt a 
special target of the fanatic settler Christians, 
because it was one of the few places in the 
country authorized to test use of RU-486. The 
political dinosaurs of the pro-life movement 
realize that such advances as RU-486 endanger 
their movement's relevance. 

These pro-life hypocrites don't take up armed 
struggle to feed the hundreds of millions starving 
in the world - mostly infants and young children. 
They are oblivious to much larger causes of death 
in the world, because the pro-life movement is not 
really about "life" at all. The vast majority of 
the movement is motivated with regard to the 
woman's role in the family and society. 

The imperialist system is no great defender of the 
power of women to determine their reproductive 
destinies. Nonetheless, it is not the bourgeois 
state that is attempting to shut down the clinics. 
It is mostly the typical settler Christians who 
believe in the sanctity of women's role in the 
home who are launching these attacks. Former 
Catholic priests like David C. Trosch and 
Protestant ministers like Paul Hill play a 
disproportionate role in the pro-life movement.(3)

These people wish to go back to the mythical 1950s 
when men worked and women stayed at home raising 
kids. In contrast, as sociologist K. Luker has 
shown in research, it is disproportionately career 
women and rich women who support the pro-choice 
movement. 

The Christian fanatics are severely out-of-touch 
with reality, because they wish to send women back 
into the home. They are sick with the decadence of 
imperialism. The capitalist system can't help but 
bring about change, but real equality for women 
and the modernization of attitudes and the family 
structure necessary for a healthy society are not 
possible under capitalism. Capitalism has proved 
capable of allowing abortion, but not without 
contradictory violence against it. 

Forward-looking people who we call "progressive" 
realize that it is not possible and not desirable 
to go backward to the 1950s. Instead, we should 
push to have RU-486 legalized as soon as possible 
and we should support research on similar products 
that will make the abortion debate obsolete. 
Currently, clinic workers are dying because the 
pro-life movement believes it can save babies from 
abortion. A little hurrying of technological 
change would make that an impossible position. The 
government's tepid support of RU-486 is costing 
lives. 

What is happening with abortion is only a 
microcosm of the problem of society as a whole 
that desperately needs progress hastened in order 
to reduce the suffering caused by inevitable 
change. The triumph of women in the pursuit of 
reproductive self-determination is inevitable 
under communism. Even under capitalism, the pro-
life ideology is out-of-date and in its obvious 
death throes. 

STRATEGY

MIM is usually focused on building institutions 
and public opinion to seize state power. In this 
case, the weakness of the state in handling 
fascist violence is a reason to seize state power 
that we intend to publicize. 

MIM agrees with the 90 percent of the public that 
does not approve of these attacks on the abortion 
clinics. But we won't pretend that fighting for 
abortion rights is tantamount to revolution. 

On the other hand, the suffering in the struggle 
for the power of reproductive self-determination 
will be lessened the more an effective strategy is 
used. Casting the struggle in terms of life of the 
fetus versus "choice" is not the best way to win. 
The public does not support individual "rights," 
when it comes to crime and so the pro-life 
movement merely casts the struggle as one over 
crime. 

The pro-life fanatics only shoot women, clinic 
workers and their supporters; they don't oppose 
other crimes by landlords and capitalists who 
withhold food and other means of life from the 
poor. Nor do the fanatics go so far as to support 
mandatory sterilization of men as a solution - a 
much less violent solution than the terrorist 
approach. This proves that the real issue for them 
is not "life" or "crime," but the position of 
women in the family as supposedly determined by a 
2,000 year-old religion. 

NOTES:
1. New York Times 12/31/94, p. 9. 
2. New York Times 12/31/94, p. 8. 
3. New York Post 12/31/94, p. 5. 
4. Boston Globe 1/2/95, p. 8.
5. Washington Post 1/17/94, p. A1.


* * *

MASSACRE OF MONTREAL WOMEN REMEMBERED

Fifty people marched to commemorate the fifth 
anniversary of the massacre of 14 women on 
December 6, 1989. Marc Lepine shot 14 women 
students at the Polytechnique in Montreal with a 
semi-automatic assault rifle while proclaiming his 
hatred for all feminists.

The struggle against this sort of patriarchal 
violence has often become sidetracked. Heidi 
Rathjen was a friend of many of the women shot. 
She set up a gun control lobby called Coalition 
for Gun Control.

Another obvious band-aid approach is favored by an 
organizer at York University named Candy Potter. 
She called her action "Violence is a Reality, 
Survival is a Strategy." Many women activists 
become wrapped up in this sort of survival 
movement while claiming they cannot do much more 
than survive. Often the "survival" emphasis is 
part of avoiding seizing state power or making 
political demands. Potter said she did not want to 
mourn anymore and wanted to celebrate survival 
instead.

Although this event occurred in Canada, it is very 
similar to many that happen within U.S. borders. 
The United States leads the world in serial 
murders. The crazed white male gunman who sprays 
bullets into the crowd is particularly Amerikan. 
It is part of the individualism of settler based 
societies that anger builds up in this insane form 
and finds its release through mass murder. MIM 
believes that collective class, gender and nation 
approaches to the economy are required to reduce 
this kind of individualism.

NOTE: The Link: Concordia's Independent Newspaper
   12/6/94, p. 9.


* * *

JOE SLOVO:
SOUTH AFRICAN REVISIONIST BITES THE DUST

Joe Slovo died of cancer on January 6 at the age 
of 68.

When Nelson Mandela finally obtained his release 
from prison, he hailed the Communist Party of 
South Africa and the old Soviet bloc for its 
historical support of the struggle against 
apartheid within South Africa. Joe Slovo was a 
white leader of the Communist Party, a son of 
Lithuanian Jews who "immigrated to South Africa 
when he was 8."(1)

Of all the settler societies of the world, South 
Africa was the most internally oppressive in our 
lifetimes. Hence, although we disagreed with Joe 
Slovo, it would be hard to deny that his rise to 
power as a housing minister along with Mandela as 
president represented progress. South Africa has 
gone from being a colonial society where the 
whites directly ruled the majority of Blacks to a 
neo-colonial set-up, where the economic structure 
is reformed but not fundamentally changed.

Toward the goal of neo-colonialism with a little 
socialist rhetoric, Joe Slovo labored for more 
than the last 30 years. From 1963 to 1990, he was 
in exile.(1)

Slovo may have been known as a "Stalinist," but he 
ended up as a social-democrat, someone wanting to 
reform capitalism. According to Slovo, "It is 
surely now obvious that if the socialist world 
stands in tatters at this historic moment, it is 
due to Stalinist distortions."(2) MIM disagreed 
with Slovo, because Stalin died in 1953, and it is 
precisely as so-called communists moved away from 
Stalin's legacy that they degenerated in the 
Soviet bloc.

Slovo admitted that millions around the globe 
adored Stalin and admitted he has no explanation 
for why this was so and why Stalin seems different 
to self-proclaimed "communists" today. From this, 
we can see that Slovo realized that Stalin 
represented the international proletariat itself, 
which is how Stalin gained such a following 
especially in the Third World. All Slovo ended up 
saying to explain this gap between today and 
yesterday is that "there was not enough in the 
classical Marxist theory about the nature of the 
transition period."(3)

Finally, Slovo was a leader who claimed that class 
struggle does not intensify under socialism. In 
his lifetime he saw the rise and fall of socialist 
countries, but he was not able to admit that 
capitalist restoration represents exactly the 
intensification of class struggle under socialism 
Stalin and Mao talked about.

Instead, like typical social-democrats afraid of 
the class struggle for the dictatorship of the 
proletariat, Slovo quoted from Lenin's State and 
Revolution without mentioning the context of 
imperialism. He spoke as if it were possible to 
advance to state-less society with little 
repression of the bourgeoisie while imperialism 
still existed externally to South Africa, not to 
mention within the new South Africa.(4)

Watering down Marxism, Slovo argued that Leninism 
is appropriate for war-time, but Rosa Luxemburg's 
theories are correct for stable periods. Luxemburg 
was the one who believed Lenin tried to replace 
the dictatorship of the vanguard party for the 
dictatorship of the working class: "Freedom only 
for the supporters of the government, only for the 
members of one party - however numerous they may 
be - is not freedom at all. Freedom is always and 
exclusively freedom for the one who thinks 
differently ... its effectiveness vanishes when 
freedom becomes a special privilege."(5) In North 
America, big fans of the Rosa Luxemburg line 
include the Spartacist League and other 
Trotskyists.

MIM disagrees with Luxemburg and Slovo, because 
the issue is not freedom for parties or 
individuals, but freedom of classes. Repression 
should fall on the old exploiting classes and the 
new exploiting classes that arise in the top ranks 
of the party as Mao explained. In the top ranks of 
the party is a group of people with access to the 
means of production under socialism. When this 
group starts to act self-consciously as a class, 
it must be smashed through cultural revolution as 
explained by Mao. Otherwise the result is the 
restoration of capitalism as seen in the old 
Soviet bloc. Since Slovo spent most of his 
political life defending the watering down of 
Marxism in the Soviet Union after Stalin, it does 
not surprise MIM that he ended his life trying to 
blame someone who died in 1953 for the collapse of 
the Soviet bloc in 1990. He should have accepted 
the blame for his own revisionist line, but 
instead he sought to blame Stalin and classical 
Marxist theory.

Joe Slovo did engage a life in class struggle, but 
it was a class struggle for bourgeois 
internationalism. He used a little rhetoric from 
Marx and Lenin to mobilize the people, but 
especially in the last 30 years, his politics 
represented the interests of the capitalist class 
that wished South Africa to have the kind of 
veiled dictatorship of cap*that other countries 
had, and not an explicitly settler-based 
dictatorship.

NOTES:
1. Boston Globe 1/7/95, p. 23. 
2. Joe Slovo, "Has Socialism Failed?" The Future
   of Socialism: Perspectives from the Left (NY:
   Monthly Review Press, 1990), p. 50. 
3. Ibid., p. 56. 
4. Ibid., p. 58. 
5. Ibid., p. 57.


* * *

USEFUL PUPPETS WEAR VEILS

On December 30th, the head of the United Nations 
explained his strategy for being a U.S. puppet. 
According to the New York Times, "He expressed 
some irritation at the American perception that 
one of his main tasks should be keeping Washington 
happy."

The Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali said, 
"I agree that the United States is the most 
important member and the main actor....  But we 
must avoid projecting the image that the United 
Nations is a subcontractor of the State 
Department. That is not in the interests of the 
United States and not in the interest of the 
United Nations."

That is politician talk for saying that the 
substance can be U.S. imperialism, but the form 
must be phony internationalism.

"Mr. Boutros-Ghali was born into an aristocratic 
family in Cairo in 1922 and was a professor of 
international law for more than two decades before 
becoming Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime 
Minister of Egypt."

MIM is not surprised. Class background and a 
lackey's education make Boutros-Ghali perfect 
material for bourgeois internationalism.

NOTE: NYT 1/3/95, p. A3.


* * *

ACTIVIST FRAMED BY CANADIAN GOVERNMENT

MONTREAL - Richard Saint-Pierre, one of the 
Montreal organizers of the December actions 
against the Canadian Parliament, was framed as the 
person to take the fall for all of the property 
destruction and other chaos created by the 
demonstration on December 6th. 

Saint-Pierre is on parole for a previous frame-up. 
This past summer he was convicted of hitting a 
cop. This happened at a parliament office 
demonstration in which a group of protesters 
removed all of the furniture and put it on the 
street. A man working with the protesters hit an 
undercover cop. Three people were arrested for 
this and later all the charges were put on Saint-
Pierre. After some investigation, the 
demonstrators discovered that the man who hit the 
cop was being controlled by the cops himself.

The cops admitted that the objective was to have 
Saint-Pierre not demonstrate or organize 
demonstrations for a long time. They offered a 
trade of no sentence in exchange for a promise of 
no participation in demonstrations for two years. 
Saint-Pierre told them to sentence him. 

Once again the state is claiming that all the 
problems caused them by the demonstrators were the 
fault of Richard Saint-Pierre. They have served 
him with one notice claiming over $1000 in 
property damage and have promised further 
accusations. They have even threatened to charge 
him for actions that took place late in December 
on the two days before his arraignment, days in 
which he did absolutely nothing publicly 
political. Still on parole, these latest charges 
could carry heavy sentences. The trial will begin 
in late January.

In its increasingly blatant attempts to repress 
political organizers, the Canadian government is 
losing its liberal social democratic facade. On 
the news December 19th, the evening before the 
preliminary hearing, the bourgeois media claimed 
that this is a country-wide communist plot against 
Minister Axworthy all organized by Richard Saint-
Pierre.

While the government spends the taxpayers' money 
to destroy a student and worker movement of the 
old social-democratic type, the movement finds 
itself drained by the government's maneuvers. To 
ensure that the movement goes on, Mobilisation has 
requested funds from all its supporters.

***The coalition has asked that its supporters 
send money to Comite des sans-emploi, Montreal-
Centre Inc., 1710 Beaudry, local 3.8, Montreal, 
Quebec H2L 3E7.***


* * *

PATRIARCHY CAUSES MURDER

On January 4, the world received a special treat 
from the U.S. InJustice system.  The Texas state 
government executed an innocent man named Jesse 
Dewayne Jacobs, because of a technicality in the 
law.

As if that were not typically Amerikan enough, to 
add insult to injury, the cause of the crime for 
which the wrong person died was a child custody 
dispute. Apparently a suspect in the case 
conspired to murder the ex-wife of her boyfriend, 
so that her boyfriend could have custody of a 
child.

Regardless of the true facts in this case, MIM 
opposes the patriarchal system in which children 
are property. Currently children are viewed as 
consumer goods for the parents' satisfaction and 
as with other property, children are subject to 
property disputes by their owners. This is a cause 
of murder amongst parents in conflict and a cause 
of murder of children themselves. Under socialism, 
children will grow-up increasingly under 
collective authority.

The Supreme Court of the United States ruled twice 
6-3 that it could not overturn the jury decision 
convicting the wrong person for a 1986 killing. 
Defenders of the execution pointed out that the 
defendant had already committed murder once. He 
was out on parole when he received blame for the 
second murder.

The prosecutor who convicted Jesse Dewayne Jacobs 
turned around to argue to save Jesse Dewayne 
Jacobs, but to no avail. 

NOTE: NYT 1/5/95, p. A16.


* * *

PIGS GUN DOWN SURROUNDED HOMELESS MAN

On Tuesday, December 20, U.S. Park Police in 
Lafayette Park needlessly shot a knife-wielding 
homeless man, Marcelino Corniel, twice, resulting 
in his death two days later. Though the officers 
knew the man was handicapped and unable to run 
well, they showed their disregard for the life of 
"undesirables" in this brutality.

To hear the pigs or the bourgeois media tell the 
story, the officers were justified in this violent 
action. According to spokesman Maj. Robert Hines, 
"The officer feared for his safety. So he shot the 
man. This was a seasoned officer. I don't think he 
was too quick to fire."(1)

The media play into the hands of the cops, 
reporting in every article a list of Corniel's 
prior convictions. But does an armed robbery 10 
years ago justify execution?

A MIM reporter went to Lafayette Park a few hours 
after the shooting and heard a story quite 
different from Maj. Hines'. Corniel's friends who 
lived with him in the park described him as "soft-
spoken" and told about favors he had done for 
them. One man, for example, said that Corniel 
watched his things for him while he went to the 
law library.

Contrary to the depiction the pigs give of a 
dangerous man capable of chasing down and single-
handedly killing four officers in a swipe, one 
woman in the park described Corniel's handicap 
saying, "he walked like a little penguin." 

"It was deplorable to use such offensive measures 
against an invalid," this woman said. "He was very 
calm, just went off. I pity who's going to defend 
the police. What are they going to say? Say they 
were too harassed?"

Of course that is what pigs say, and more. But the 
residents of the park describe the harassment as 
going in the other direction. One man said that 
maybe the reason the officers killed Corniel was 
that they were bored with stealing blankets from 
the people in the park.

When a MIM reporter asked one man if he had been 
harassed by park police, he responded wistfully: 
"Same as everybody in the park." He went on to 
describe some of their actions: "Going in your 
face for nothing, stealing your stuff when you go 
to the bathroom, never letting you sleep.... They 
wait till people crack" and keep them down with 
"criminal force." It's against the law to sleep in 
the park and that law is enforced mercilessly.

The officer Corniel chased, a man named O'Niel, 
had reportedly been harassing him for weeks. He 
would go in his face and squint and threaten. It 
was Officer O'Niel that one man in the park termed 
"a homicidal nut." Another man had written to 
Richard Robbins, of the Department of Forests and 
Waterways, who regulates the park police, on 
November 10 to complain about O'Niel, but of 
course nothing was done about it.

Corniel was not really capable of inflicting harm 
on the officers that harassed him and his friends 
constantly. He had major burns all over his body 
which debilitated him significantly. He had to 
tape the knife he waved at officers to his hand to 
grip it properly. What can a barely armed man do 
in the face of several police officers anyway?

If the officers had wanted to disarm Corniel 
without shooting him, they could have. They had 
him completely surrounded and were much more 
agile. They knew Corniel, knew he could not run 
well, and did not care to act on that knowledge. 
Life of the homeless is cheap and pigs know they 
are not accountable.

MIM does not hold up Corniel's action as a model 
for others who want to rebel. Maoists are into 
fighting battles we can win, and so MIM adopts 
entirely different strategies and tactics. But MIM 
does support his friends still residing in the 
park against the state's brutality. While Corniel 
went on a suicidal mission against impossible odds 
to try to rebel against the pigs, MIM calls the 
oppressed to join in the building of a vanguard 
party capable of striking lasting blows against 
Amerika. Corniel is indeed a martyr of rebellion; 
MIM calls on people like him to live for 
revolution.

NOTE: NYT 12/21/94.


* * *

ANTI-187 MOVEMENT SPLIT
ON CLASS AND NATIONAL LINES

Proposition 187, which would prevent illegal 
immigrants from receiving social and health 
services and ban their children from public 
education, sparked one of the largest mass 
movements in southern California since the Chicano 
Power movement in the late '60s. Latin American 
and Asian nationals recognized that the 
proposition would directly affect them and 
encourage more open Amerikan chauvinism, and 
demonstrated their opposition. 

Earlier articles in MIM Notes exposed the bought-
off Amerikan working class' support for the 
Proposition. Some of the same chauvinism and 
defense of privilege was at the base of some of 
the most visible anti-187 organizing.

THE OCTOBER 16TH RALLY

On Sunday, October 16th, between 70,000 and 
100,000 people marched in Los Angeles against 
Proposition 187. The principal sponsors of the 
march were bourgeois liberals associated with the 
Democratic candidate for Governor, Kathleen Brown. 
As a result, much of the rally remained within the 
dominant liberal discourse, which "acknowledges" 
that "illegal immigration is a problem," but 
thinks that Proposition 187 is too harsh or just 
not effective (in place of Proposition 187, Brown 
proposed beefing up the border patrol). Comments 
like "This proposition is not against the illegal 
[immigrant], it's against children," were 
common.(1)

Despite its integrationist liberal leadership, the 
rally had a very nationalist flavor. Many 
different flags were flown (mainly Mexican and 
Salvadoran), and Filipino and Korean groups turned 
out to protest the immigrant-bashing associated 
with Proposition 187. Many slogans and posters 
were aimed at exposing settler hypocrisy, such as 
the T-shirts with a picture of a Mayan saying, 
"Who's the illegal immigrant, pilgrim?" These 
protesters recognized that 187 *is* aimed at 
immigrants and oppressed nationalities. Sure 187 
would directly affect children - but whose 
children?

STUDENT ACTIVISM

In the weeks before and after the November 
election, thousands of Los Angeles middle-and 
high-school students boycotted classes in protest 
of the pro-187 campaign. The boycotts were fueled 
by immigrant-bashing in the media and the fact 
that many of the students and their schoolmates 
would be forced by Proposition 187 to leave 
school. Some teachers joined in the students' 
boycotts, but schools' response was mixed - some 
opened their auditorium to teach ins, while others 
immediately suspended those who walked out.(1)

Many of the small, peaceful marches staged by 
students were harassed by the police. Four hundred 
students from Birmingham High marched to the Van 
Nuys Civic center, where the police met them "clad 
in riot gear, some wielding shotguns and carrying 
cartridges with rubber bullets." One student said, 
"All those weapons! We've got signs, like we're 
really going to hurt them with signs." Another 
student added, "Freedom of speech is supposed to 
mean you can say what you want to say. [The cops 
are] treating us like animals. We ain't 
animals."(1)

CONTINUING REFORMISM

Many of the liberal integrationist organizers of 
anti-187 rallies have repeatedly spoken against 
the masses' activism and obvious nationalism. For 
example, they distanced themselves from the 
student boycotts and criticized the masses for 
waving Mexican flags instead of Amerikan flags at 
the largest anti-187 rally, saying it alienated 
the majority of Amerikans. "Some people felt that 
the more visible we are, the more difficult it 
will be to beat this initiative."(1) 

Of course, given the fact that the settler 
majority see their privileged status threatened by 
"too much" immigration, they had a point. "I see a 
lot of Mexican flags, I see a lot of Spanish 
writing, and I don't like it," said one woman who 
was convinced to vote for Proposition 187 after 
seeing the October 16th rally. "Any time they're 
flying Mexican flags, it helps us," said Alan C. 
Nelson, co-author of Proposition 187.(1) 

Some organizers also denounced a boycott of 
companies which had supported pro-187 
gubernatorial candidate Pete Wilson. While MIM 
does not spend its time organizing boycotts, we do 
find the reasons these groups give in opposition 
to the boycotts to be telling. For example, the 
co-director of Hermandad Mexicana Nacional said, 
"In seeking to respond to proposition 187, 
organizations have to focus their attention on 
launching citizenship projects... to encourage 
Latinos to come forward and adopt the United 
States as their permanent home."(1) 

MIM holds no illusions about electoral or 
integrationist struggles. MIM believes that 
decades of super-exploitation have created 
privileges for the majority of Amerikans which 
leaves them ill-disposed towards revolutionary 
internationalist struggles. But the majority of 
the world's population - including those from 
oppressed nations who are now immigrating to the 
United States in search of jobs - do have an 
interest in revolution. 

Amerika owes the oppressed nations of the world - 
in other words, the majority of the world's people 
- reparations for centuries of massive super-
exploitation. The only way this will happen is 
through revolution. 

NOTES:
1. Los Angeles Times, 11/16/94. 
2. LA Times, 10/18/94. 
3. LA Times, 10/17/94. 
4. LA Times, 11/5/94. 
5. LA Times, 10/25/94.


* * *

PIGS LAUNCH MOCK RAID ON CASS CORRIDOR

Recently, more than 80 officers from the Detroit 
Police department's special response unit in 
conjunction with the Army and other federal law 
enforcement agencies participated in two mock 
drills of anti-terrorist maneuvers. The first 
drill occurred on September 30, 1994 at 10:30 p.m. 
while the second drill occurred the next day at 7 
p.m. The agencies used abandoned apartment 
buildings in the Cass Corridor area just north of 
downtown Detroit.

The drills encompassed a series of maneuvers that 
involved scaling apartment walls, ground exercises 
which cordon off conflict areas and surround 
targets in such areas; and was marked by automatic 
and semi-automatic gunfire and intermittent 
grenade explosions. 

Among the largely low-income tenants of Cass 
Corridor, many were afraid, some were shocked and 
a few were angry. In response to resident 
complaints of why such drills were being performed 
in their backyard, and why they weren't 
forewarned, the Detroit Police Deputy Chief stated 
that "barricaded gunmen and hostage-taking happens 
in neighborhoods, so these are the types of places 
we need to train in. We need realistic venues 
because we have realistic problems." The Deputy 
Chief defended the impromptu police operation, 
claiming that few residents were warned of the 
raids because the law enforcement agencies 
involved did not want to attract a crowd that 
could disrupt the drill.

Suffice it here to say that in urban areas across 
the country and around the world, newly 
dispossessed and poor populations are at a point 
where forces of redevelopment have mobilized 
nearly everyone and everything in an effort to 
integrate them into new hierarchies of profit and 
control.

 - MIM Associate

NOTE: Detroit Free Press 10/27/94, p. 1A.


* * *

YOUTH, ACTIVISTS PROTEST CANADIAN GOVERNMENT CUTS

In October, the Canadian government announced a 
plan to cut social programs in the country 
including welfare, unemployment, insurance and 
education. The new programs would also crack down 
on immigration and increase the use of secret 
police. At the same time, the package of programs 
promises funding for job training and student 
loans. 

The cuts proposed by federal minister of Human 
Resources Lloyd Axworthy eliminate $2.6 billion in 
funding for college education and make likely 
tuition increases estimated at about $2,000 a 
year. In addition to this, the students claim a 
steady erosion of support for education in the 
last 30 years has spurred them to action. 

CANADA-WIDE MOBILIZATION OF STUDENTS

On November 16, 14,000 students demonstrated on 
Parliament Hill in Ottawa.(1) This number looms 
large, given that Canada has one-tenth of the U.S. 
population. Some claimed that the demonstration on 
Parliament Hill broke the myth of student apathy 
and imitated the 60s demonstrations with "folk 
songs, dope and free love." One student writer 
said it exceeded in size any demonstration from 
the 1960s.(2)

In defense of his programs, the one-time "leftist" 
Axworthy, reportedly told student leaders that he 
didn't want 1 million children starving in Canada 
in order that the elite university students could 
get a free education. "Why should 80 percent of 
Canadians fund this small group who will be 
privileged for the rest of their lives?," said 
Axworthy.(4) Of course, Axworthy won't spend the 
money on starving children.

MONTREAL: BIGGEST SPLIT ON THE "LEFT" IN 20 YEARS?

In Montreal the Coalition for the Survival of 
Social Programs formed to oppose the government 
reforms. This coalition initially red-baited and 
harassed the communists, anarchists, and other 
leftists in the city, but later apologized for 
these actions and asked the groups to join the 
coalition. Among those who joined were the 
Unemployed Workers Committee and Mobilisation.

On the day of the consultation (the equivalent of 
an open senate committee hearing in the U.S.), 
December 6, the coalition planned to boycott the 
event and hold a demonstration outside of the 
building. Included in this coalition were a 
diversity of groups including religious 
organizations, trade unions, women's groups, and 
groups calling themselves socialist, communist and 
anarchist. Some anarchist youth decided to rush 
the door at the event to disrupt the parliament 
proceedings. Sixty union members set themselves up 
in front of the door to the parliament and said 
that they would smash the students if they rushed 
the door. These 60 reportedly included some ex-
Maoists. Those rushing the door also included some 
ex-Maoists and some who call themselves Maoist 
now.

The youth rushed the door after the speeches 
ended. A majority of the demonstration went in 
with the youth and after the Union members 
attacked the youth, the crowd beat up the union 
members as well as the hotel security and some 
cops. Inside, the youth discovered that the trade 
unions - who had agreed to boycott the 
consultation - presenting memoirs to the 
parliament!

One organizer of the demonstration, Richard Saint-
Pierre took the gavel and declared the show over 
and tried to make a speech. During this speech the 
youth came in and began to turn over the tables on 
the Ministerial Commission. The crowd trashed the 
place and then left.

An hour later the more leftist groups were called 
and informed that they were expelled from the 
coalition. There was a coalition meeting hearing 
December 13th on the expulsion of all the left-
wing groups. In the end what was left of the 
coalition were most of the women's groups, the 
Christian groups and the trade unions. The trade 
unions cut support to any leftist political work 
as did the Christian groups.

According to Saint-Pierre, another split arose as 
some pseudo-feminists denounced the demonstration 
as a "macho" event, because women found themselves 
disadvantaged in the fistfights that took place. 
Students organizing at one college proposed a 
general, one day strike for the 25th of January to 
oppose these social cuts. The leftist groups 
kicked out of the Coalition for the Survival of 
Social Programs formed a new coalition and will 
support this action.

MIM VIEW OF SPLIT

With regard to the split within the Quebecois 
"left," MIM hopes that it will serve as a catalyst 
for the creation of a genuine anti-imperialist 
movement. As in Europe, the organizations like 
Socialist Action and Mobilisation have shown some 
illusions about the imperialist-nation working 
class as a vehicle of change.

MIM did not manage to speak to any of the 60 
blocking the door for their story. Perhaps they 
were trying to show discipline and claim the 
demonstration as their property, so that the image 
of the demonstration and its trade-union 
organizers would not be sullied. MIM itself does 
not approve much of the practice of having 
demonstration "marshals," because a demonstration 
is only the property of the people and usually 
something intended to express the spontaneous 
sentiments of the people. It is not usually 
supposed to be an extremely precise military 
operation, especially at this stage in movement-
building.

The apparent divergence between trade-unions and 
the student militants also does not surprise MIM, 
because we believe the imperialist nation youth 
are more in line with the international 
proletariat than the Quebecois working class. The 
trade union organizers are doing the most logical 
thing for their bought-off imperialist-nation 
working class constituents. They seek a perfumed 
movement palatable to the imperialists. Their aim 
is to use the bourgeois media and reformist 
channels to achieve their ends. MIM thinks that 
once again the movement against the Axworthy 
proposals shows why it is necessary to have an 
independent media creating public opinion for the 
oppressed, because otherwise the organizers fight 
over how to present themselves to the bourgeois 
media.

MIM can only hope the trade unions carry through 
their promise to cut-off financial support to 
leftist organizers in Montreal. This will only 
further demonstrate where their real interests 
lie. It will also free up the organizers to re-
examine the political and economic conditions and 
especially to re-evaluate their allies. MIM urges 
the Montreal "left" to ally itself firmly with the 
Third World proletariat, first and foremost, and 
only then drag along Canada's trade unions 
wherever possible. The closer the Montreal 
movement gets to the workers of the Third World, 
the more the trade unions and white workers will 
denounce the communists as solely student-based. 
This should only clarify to the youth and others 
who is really proletarian and who is labor 
aristocracy.

DEFENDING SOCIAL-DEMOCRACY: REVOLUTIONARY?

In this struggle with its cutting edge over aid to 
education, MIM is not aware of the underlying 
political economy that the ruling class faces. 
According to Mobilisation member Richard Saint-
Pierre, the OECD (an organization of imperialists 
from the developed economies) planned the cuts for 
Canada to make. This may be so for some larger 
reasons not yet clear.

On the other hand, we suspect that the actual 
political economy of aid to student education is 
still ultimately over the  redivision of 
superprofits in the imperialist countries. Hence, 
the point may be negotiable between the capitalist 
class and the working class of Canada - and not a 
demand that is objectively revolutionary.

What would be a revolutionary struggle is an all-
round offensive linked to immigration and anti-
imperialism. We are sure that the Canadian 
government would reject such demands, but various 
welfare and student aid programs are all paid for 
with superprofits from the Third World, so demands 
concerning these government budget items cannot be 
used in themselves to generate a revolutionary 
movement.

We are not so sure that restoring aid to education 
will require "social war" as Mobilisation says in 
its recent publications. After all President 
Clinton just proposed that up to $10,000 of 
tuition a year be deducted from tax returns - as 
part of his tax cut package.(5) Hence, at least 
within Amerika, a portion of the bourgeoisie is 
considering increasing government aid to 
education.

In Canada, the Premier of Canada's largest 
province, Bob Rae, has positioned himself against 
the Axworthy cuts.(6) Other bourgeois parties are 
positioning themselves against the cuts as well. 
The Reform Party is in favor of ending the 
transfer of $2.6 billion to the provinces, but 
only to be given to the students directly in 
vouchers. National Democratic Party Parliament 
members are also criticizing Axworthy and even the 
two Progressive Conservatives say they are with 
the students. Meanwhile, the largest bloc in 
Parliament outside the Liberal Party is using the 
Axworthy reforms to argue that Quebecois oppose 
Axworthy partly out of nationalism.(7)

Students, trade unions, premiers, bourgeois 
parties in Parliament and the education sector 
bourgeoisie can be expected to oppose the Axworthy 
cuts. With so many social interests opposed to the 
Axworthy cuts, it cannot be said that the movement 
opposing Axworthy is inherently revolutionary. We 
reiterate that a movement against the Axworthy 
proposals that is not explicitly anti-imperialist 
cannot advance the class struggle an inch.

***The coalition referred to above has asked that 
its supporters send money to Comite des sans-
emploi, Montreal Centre Inc., 1710 Beaudry, local 
3.8, Montreal, Quebec H2L3E7.***

NOTES:
1. The Voice: The Concordia Student Union
   Newsletter 11/21/94, p. 3. 
2. On Campus: Vol. 3, December 1994 (by the
   Students' Administrative Council of the
   University of Toronto). 
3. The Link: Concordia's Independent Newspaper
   12/2/94, p. 5. 
4. The Link: Concordia's Independent Newspaper
   12/6/94, p. 3. 
5. New York Times 12/17/94, p. 9. 
6. The Link: Concordia's Independent Newspaper
   11/29/94, p. 5. 
7. Excalibur: York University's Community
   Newspaper 12/7/94, p. 9.


* * *

REVIEW:
HIGHER LEARNING

Directed by John Singleton
1995

Higher Learning is a progressive movie which takes 
on many political issues, including those which 
relate to gender, nation ("race"), class and 
sexual orientation. This upsets many bourgeois 
film critics, who prefer "art for art's sake," and 
therefore consider artists like Singleton 
"preachy" for addressing the issues of the day.

One of the worst things about Higher Learning is 
that in some places, it lends itself to a liberal 
individualist analysis. One example of this is 
where we are told that a character who becomes a 
violent white supremacist was beaten as a child. 
The issue of individualism is also raised by quick 
scene changes which seem to indicate a symmetry 
between supporters of white power and supporters 
of Black power. 

Overall, however, Higher Learning does more to 
promote an analysis of groups than a 
psychoanalysis of individuals. For instance, 
Singleton does a lot to illustrate that the white 
nation or "race" has state power in the U.S. The 
school in which the film is set is Columbus 
University (Go Conquerors!), and U.S. flags and 
portraits of Columbus and George Washington are 
ubiquitous.

One of the best things about Higher Learning is 
its treatment of gender, particularly in relation 
to nation. Nation or "race" is correctly shown to 
be the principal contradiction, the one which 
provokes the most violent actions and reactions. 
Gender oppression's existence is demonstrated with 
a white-on-white date rape. When the raped woman 
attends a women's support group, she finds that 
the pseudo-feminist discussion, which centers 
around the need for more campus cops, does not 
address the experience of date rape. Elsewhere in 
Higher Learning, we see that campus cops mainly 
serve the function of harassing, and occasionally 
beating, Black men. While most rape is date rape, 
pseudo-feminism promotes a strengthened white 
state.

Class is best dealt with in Higher Learning by 
comments acknowledging that it is a privilege to 
be in college. The Third World unfortunately does 
not make its presence known in this film. 

Singleton's treatment of sexual orientation is 
good. Obviously Singleton is more progressive on 
this question than were some audience members MIM 
witnessed who loudly proclaimed their discomfort 
with a same-sex love scene. Another scene shows a 
gay couple being bashed by a gang of fascist 
skinheads. As with gender oppression, Singleton 
shows that heterosexist oppression is real and 
sometimes violent, but nonetheless does not 
mobilize people the way that the contradiction 
between oppressed nations and the oppressor nation 
does.

Campus multiculturalism is correctly shown for the 
liberal gloss it is. A multicultural "Unity Fest" 
is a good excuse for a concert, but does nothing 
to prevent the reality of racist violence from 
crashing in.

On the question of national oppression, Singleton 
tells the audience through the voice of a wise 
professor that if the oppressed want to seize 
power, they need to have a plan. The professor 
reminds us what Frederick Douglass said: "Without 
struggle, there is no progress."

 - MC49


* * *

THE CRANBERRIES' "ZOMBIE":
REACTIONARY PACIFIST GARBAGE

The Cranberries's have a new song "Zombie" with 
reactionary pacifist politics that is getting a 
lot of air time.  The song focuses on the Irish 
Republican Army (IRA) and condemns the armed 
liberation struggles of the oppressed while 
maintaining complete silence about the greater 
violence of the oppressors. 

Most insidious, it appeals to the masses' strong 
and just desire for an end to war and violence and 
diverts that desire into counterrevolution and 
continued oppression.. As Mao Zedong said, "We 
[revolutionary communists] are advocates of the 
abolition of war, we do not want war; but war can 
only be abolished through war, and in order to get 
rid of the gun it is necessary to take up the 
gun."(1) To rid the world of war and violence, we 
need to first rid the world of the gross 
inequalities which make the violence of the 
oppressed against their oppressors just. To do so 
requires armed struggle which "Zombie" opposes. 

Also insidious about "Zombie" is that it is pretty 
good musically, and likely to appeal to many 
potentially revolutionary youth on the grounds of 
musical quality alone.

About the only thing MIM can be happy about in 
"Zombie" is that it's hard to understand. The 
lyrics are printed in microscopic type, and unless 
you know that the Irish armed struggle started in 
1916 and you saw an interview with the Cranberries 
where they explain that the dead person in the 
song was killed by the IRA, you won't get it. MIM 
tries to be as clear as possible in our limited 
media. If the reactionaries want to be muddled, 
that's fine with us.

Youth are a large part of MIM's organizing 
efforts, and the way in which some bands use their 
cultural popularity with youth to propagate 
reactionary politics is disturbing. The Beatles 
were probably the most popular band in this 
century, and they used their influence to spread 
pacifism and attack revolutionary science. 

The Beatles' "Revolution," told youth to forget 
about upholding Chairperson Mao's revolutionary 
line and instead "free their minds," presumably 
with drugs, religion, psychology, Beatles music - 
i.e., with selfish, individualistic escapism. The 
Beatles, too, appealed to the young masses' hatred 
of war: "We all want to change the world, but when 
you talk about destruction, don't you know that 
you can count me out. You know it's gonna be all 
right.... [So don't worry about fighting 
imperialism, capitalism and patriarchy. After all, 
Maoists] want money for people with minds that 
hate."

Similarly, the Cranberries tell their young 
audience that the revolution is a result of a 
psychological problem, not a result of a real 
force: imperialism.  According to the Cranberries, 
centuries of military, political and economic 
violence imposed on the Irish masses by British 
imperialism doesn't exist except in the delusional 
minds of Irish nationalists. 

The song opens with a description of the death of 
a young British casualty of Ireland's just war for 
national liberation: "Another head hangs 
lowly...." The Cranberries say that "It's been the 
same old theme since 1916," when the Irish masses 
rose up against British imperialism. 

Like the Beatles, the Cranberries ignore the 
violence of the oppressors and determine that the 
cause of war is revolutionaries' lack of 
individualism. To the Cranberries, revolutionaries 
are mindless zombies, hence the song's title.

Revolutionaries need to combat imperialist 
ideology in all arenas, including "alternative" 
pop music and culture generally. Young people who 
agree with us on this point should create anti-
imperialist culture for MIM, or work in other ways 
to build MIM-led anti-imperialist institutions. By 
doing so, we can build towards the day when the 
airwaves are controlled by the people to serve the 
people, and reactionary pacifists like the Beatles 
and the Cranberries do not get disproportionate, 
unrebutted airplay.

 - MC49 

NOTES:
1. Mao Zedong "Problems of War and Strategy" Vol.
   II, p. 225.


* * *

REVIEW:
NEW CHINESE FILM OBSCURES REVOLUTION

"To Live"
Directed by Zhang Yimou, 
Dcreenplay by Yu Hua and Lu Wei, 
Starring Ge You and Gong Li.

by MC206

Zhang Yimou's latest film portrays the daily life 
and struggles of one family from the Chinese civil 
war to the end of the Cultural Revolution. The 
film is an accurate portrayal in the sense that 
there are certainly many people who could tell 
stories similar to the film's. But in the end, by 
choosing "apolitical" protagonists, the film 
obscures the most important political question of 
the times: revolution *for whom*. And by 
concentrating on the sacrifices of one family the 
film downplays the tremendous gains the Chinese 
people made under Maoist leadership.

The film is split into three parts, corresponding 
to the Civil War (the '40s), the Great Leap 
Forward (the '50s), and the Cultural Revolution 
(the '60s). All three parts begin optimistically 
and capture the Chinese people's sympathy for the 
Communist Party and their enthusiasm for the 
Communist ideal. At the end of the second part, 
the family's son is killed in an accident while 
helping to smelt steel, and at the end of the 
third, the family's daughter dies of hemorrhaging 
after giving birth in a rural clinic.

Many of the local party cadre are criticized as 
capitalist roaders in the last section of the film 
- although we are never presented with enough 
information to know whether or not the attacks 
were justified. Ironically, the protagonists' 
apolitical perspective (and their tendency to try 
to win favors by "keeping up with the 
revolutionary Joneses") may be due to the fact 
that their village leader actually was a 
capitalist roader and did not put an emphasis on 
explaining the party's politics to the villagers 
and instead used capitalist methods (like material 
incentives) to organize people. 

The issues involved in the Great Leap Forward and 
the Cultural Revolution were not esoteric. Mao 
emphasized that the people should understand the 
party's politics and help develop and carry out 
policies. And we can also see the importance of 
the criticism of capitalist roaders today, as the 
return to capitalist methods of planning and 
organization under Deng Xiaoping has eroded many 
of the gains made before 1976.

Western bourgeois critics of communism are calling 
this film a passionate indictment of Maoism (even 
though they cannot tell the difference between 
Deng and Mao). They point to the children's deaths 
as examples of the Maoist state's willingness to 
"selfishly sacrifice its people" and claim that 
the state could not just allow the Chinese people 
"to simply live." But this criticism misses the 
point: China was an extremely poor nation (thanks 
to centuries of imperialist and feudal 
domination), so disease, poverty, and exhausting 
work were commonplace before and after the 
revolution. The revolution aimed to change the 
relationships which kept the Chinese people in 
poverty - and in this the Chinese Communist Party 
largely succeeded. For example, life expectancy 
doubled from 35 in the '40s to 69 in the '70s.

For more information, MIM recommends the essay, 
"Myths about Maoism," in the pamphlet, "What is 
MIM?" ($2) and William Hinton's book on the 
Cultural Revolution *Turning Point in China* ($6) 
postpaid from MIM.


* * *

LETTERS TO MIM

NATIONAL GUARD IN PUERTO RICO

It is very easy to write an article and at the 
same time critique the policy against crime that 
the government of Puerto Rico is pursuing behind a 
desk. I would like to invite you to come to our 
island and live with us so that you can feel what 
is to live under constant fear for our lives.

Nevertheless, the decent people who live in Puerto 
Rico, including those who live in the housing 
projects, are supporting the policy of the use of 
the National Guard in joint with the State Police 
of Puerto Rico to fight crime.

Until recently, Washington D.C., the cap*of the 
USA and a city with a high crime rate, was 
considering very seriously to use the National 
Guard to fight crime in their jurisdiction. Nobody 
complained about the issue.

I would suggest that instead of criticizing, your 
organization should suggest solutions. Maybe your 
information service can increase their business.

Respectfully,
 - Puerto Rican reader

MIM responds: We exposed the plan to use the 
National Guard in D.C. in MIM Notes 83 (December 
1993). Colonial powers have always been glad to 
arrest some "criminals" in their colonies. This 
does not mean colonialism is a good thing. MIM 
does make suggestions as well. Our principal 
suggestion at this time is to build public opinion 
for revolution, build a vanguard communist party, 
and fight for the national liberation of Puerto 
Rico. Does this mean ignore violence between 
Puerto Ricans? No. In the process of organizing 
for national liberation, we believe the experience 
in other countries has shown that greater national 
unity reduces internal problems - and gives the 
nation better tools for handling crime.


MORE ON THE MOTHERS KILLING CHILDREN DEBATE

MIM's article about Susan Smith and her abuse of 
patriarchal power was posted on the Internet, and 
after a reader said that since she was a mother it 
should be called "matriarchal power," MIM wrote 
this response:

This sounds like the same old "biology is destiny" 
argument. If the perpetrator of the crime lacks a 
penis, she lacks patriarchal power. But this is 
clearly not true. Patriarchy does not consist of 
two tidy subsets, but a range of power. And under 
patriarchy, while a woman *may* be disempowered in 
relation to her husband/boyfriend, she has a whole 
lot of power in relation to her children. And as 
this case makes clear, in relation to men of 
oppressed nations.

In order to illustrate the gender relationship 
(which, mind you is not about genitalia), consider 
the genders as social relations. In a situation 
like the Smith case, the mother is gendered-male 
because she has power to dominate her children 
entirely. The boys are gendered-female. They are 
victims of patriarchal power.

Another reader responded to MIM:

This may be a bit too revolutionary for you folks 
but I think you're drifting way off the power 
paradigm construct here with all this matriarchy 
vs. patriarchy nonsense.

In the capitalist paradigm, the working class only 
receives and transmits the abuse which is 
perpetrated upon it by the dominant class.

A woman who "chooses" abortion because of economic 
constraints, is not exercising matriarchal power. 
Neither was Ms Smith exercising patriarchal power 
when she terminated her sons for the alleged 
reason of making a partnership with a man who did 
not want to be burdened with another man's 
prodigy.

Capitalism is a hierarchy of exploitation, 
obviously. Therefore, victimization is channeled 
downward and wealth upward.

She has no power, only oppression to be 
transmitted.

They are victims of Capitalist power. If you look 
closely enough in any conflict you will find 
economics as the prime causality.

The ignorant southern white who believes he is 
better than blacks is merely responding naturally 
to the paradigm in which he was born. He is not 
exercising any power until he realizes where he is 
and why he finds it so easy to feel and act the 
way he does.

MIM responds: If reductionism told it like it was, 
revolutionaries would be well justified in 
indulging in it. Why go to all the trouble of 
looking at intersections of class, nation and 
gender if you can look at just one? But there is a 
problem with this. It is entirely divorced from 
material reality.

As Marxists, we are materialists. No matter what 
the material world looks like in relation to what 
we would like it to look like, we need to 
construct an analysis that is true to it. Women 
do, in fact, abuse their children. They objectify 
their children. Ms. Smith did so dramatically, and 
to assert she could not have done otherwise 
because of her need to please men is to belittle 
women as a group.

MIM's terminology for this is a little tricky - 
saying that Ms. Smith was "gendered male" - but 
the concept is quite simple. What is gender 
oppression? The definition is not a one-liner, but 
the idea is that one group controls the bodies, 
reproductive freedom, and unremunerated labor of 
another. This is characterized by a situation of 
domination and submission. The one that dominates, 
in this case a biological woman, can be said to be 
gendered male for this reason. The ones with no 
choice but to submit, the children, are gendered 
female.

You say that oppression happens but cannot explain 
why it takes the form that it does. This is 
because you cannot recognize a major factor in the 
power play: gender oppression.


MIM SHOULD WORK FOR LEGAL REFORM?

Two things I think your paper should be working 
for: If it's true, as I understand it, that 1/4 of 
all black males under 25(1) are incarcerated, then 
I feel you might want to work towards allowing 
felons in jail able to vote; so many will be in 
there for *many* years, and so many are political 
prisoners under phony pretexts, and they're jailed 
under my ancestors', the whites', laws, not their 
own - or at least any they got to vote for.

Also, I believe that *all* laws, including those 
in the Constitution, should have an expiration 
date, because of the law of unintended 
consequences, which can make everything go awry. 
If something's a good idea but amorphously 
written, it can be fine-tuned and improved; if 
it's a bad law, it can die an unnatural death. An 
example would be a bad law that was written here 
in California around 1978, Prop. 106. Property 
owners led a revolt against property taxes; they 
promised their tenants they'd pass the savings on 
to them, *but they did not*. If the law had had an 
expiration date, the owners would've held to their 
promises, knowing the law would die if they 
treated their tenants otherwise.

Similarly, the ugly Prop. 187 law to be voted two 
days from today - about illegal aliens - would, 
with an expiration date, give it time to die, or 
be fine-tuned, or shown to be the results of 
racist emotion-bating. After all, if it wasn't a 
racist measure, why weren't there similar measures 
on ballots in the states, including Alaska, that 
border the white country of Canada?

Thanks for letting me sound off
- A reader in California, 11/94

MIM responds: In your last paragraph, you are 
starting to realize why your ideas cannot work. 
Prop. 187's racist nature was by no means a 
mistake. When the settler masses vote, they vote 
for oppression of other peoples. Upon your 
proposed expiration date, they would vote again to 
renew the proposition after it has proven to have 
the racist effects they desire. MIM does not 
expect them to do otherwise.

Legal enfranchisement of Blacks has proven to be 
an ineffective way of empowering Blacks. Rather 
than working for the vote, the large percentage of 
young Black people in prison can be working for 
revolution that would do more then let them pick 
bourgeois-supplied tweedle-dee or bourgeois-
supplied tweedle-dum. The Black nation will not 
gain power in a state with an interest in 
oppressing it. Only revolution brings self-
determination for the people.

NOTE: 1. MIM should note that 1/4 of Black men
   under 25 are involved in the criminal justice
   system, *not* in prison. This includes prison,
   parole, etc. The number of Black men in the
   criminal justice system, or prison in the
   specific, is greatly disproportionate to the
   number of whites in the system. 


IVY LEAGUE HOLE IN THE HEAD

While I'll be frank and say that I think we need 
more Maoism like a hole in the head, I want to 
compliment you on your literate, humane, and (as 
best I can tell, and I work in this area) 
historically and scientifically accurate review 
[Debunking biology as destiny, MIM Notes 95, 
December 1994]. Keep up the good work.

 - Ivy League historian

MC12 responds: Thanks. Any other well-off readers 
who see one article they like - but who don't 
support Maoism - should send MIM contributions. 
Unless you have better ideas for revolutionary 
work to do (in which case you should tell us and 
MIM Notes readers what they are), support the good 
work you see MIM do - and think about why Maoists 
produce work that you like.


* * *

UNDER LOCK & KEY

POSTAGE RATE HIKE IS A SETBACK
FOR MIM'S PRISON PROGRAM

On January 1, the U.S. postal rates went up. 
Unfortunately for MIM and our comrades in prison, 
postage is a major expense for MIM, and is the 
main expense associated with our work with 
prisoners. We do not have non-profit status or 
bulk-mailing permits, though we are investigating 
these options for saving money on postage. The 
bottom line is that the postage rate hike sets 
back our ability to continue giving away free MIM 
Notes subscriptions, Notas Rojas subscriptions, 
books and literature to prisoners. We will of 
course continue to spread as much Maoist 
literature as we are able to as many prisoners as 
we are able. But even before the postage rates 
went up, the main obstacle preventing our prison 
program from expanding more rapidly was not lack 
of prisoner interest, but lack of necessary funds. 
Now we are hurting. Please, if you can, send 
stamps, books, cash, or checks made out to "MIM 
Distributors" to:

MIM Distributors 
P.O. Box 29670 
Los Angeles, CA 90029-0670


PRISONER LIKES MIM NOTES, DOES RECRUITING WORK

Greetings and salutations from a prison comrade 
who is also a very avid reader of MIM Notes. I 
especially enjoy the articles in the Under Lock & 
Key sections. They are some very shocking, 
interesting and informative articles. To put your 
minds at ease, I have been receiving the 
newsletter on a monthly basis so far. So please 
keep them coming, because without them, my insight 
on what a revolutionary consists of and what a 
revolutionary stands for would be lost. I agree 
wholeheartedly and with sincerity with the "What 
is MIM?" box on page two of MIM Notes.

As far as Huntingdon is concerned, there aren't 
too many prisoners housed here that are down for 
and/or with trying to achieve an ultimate goal, 
especially if it's for the good of their freedom 
or our people. They have no heart and/or stomach 
for the events that may have to take place if we 
are to keep the capitalist ruling class from 
trying to dictate what we can and cannot do. I've 
tried occasionally to enlighten other brothers to 
this cause, but their response is always, "I don't 
want no trouble." They fear the repercussions. But 
they live with them each and every day. But that 
still hasn't stopped me from instilling the causes 
and effects of this struggle upon my soon-to-be 
comrades. In due time, hopefully, we'll all band 
together and attempt to build public opinion so 
that the people on the outside can and will know 
about the mistreatments and the atrocities that go 
on on a daily basis behind these and other prison 
walls. Reading MIM Notes jump-starts an individual 
like myself into making this struggle become well-
perceived amongst the masses. So keep writing the 
hyped articles, and continue to keep MIM Notes in 
circulation. Because it is a very helpful and 
thought-provoking newsletter.

In solidarity and struggle,

 - a Pennsylvania prisoner, 11/28/94

MC49 REPLIES: You heard him, readers - please send 
MIM stamps and money!


AMERIKA POISONS PRISONERS

Peace Comrades,

We claim genocidal extermination of prisoners.

Enclosed, you will find a copy of a posted memo 
that was extracted from a wall above a water 
fountain within this prison. Its contents are very 
disturbing, and the memo is only directed to 
staff. But what is really odd is the fact that 
where us prisoners are housed, the water tastes 
like sewage, shit, fish oil, or something dead. 
Prisoners fill up the sick call lists and prison 
hospitals daily with unexplained illnesses. 
Ranging from diarrhea, stomach pains, headaches, 
vomiting, groin pains, rashes, etc. After doing 
research about the effects of lead poisoning, I 
know that these are the symptoms.

We need help from you brothers to help us expose 
this shit to the world, and not these fake-ass 
doctors who just give us Tylenol and Advil. We 
need people's doctors in here to help us combat 
our sicknesses.

We've tried everything, including letting the 
water faucets run for hours, but the shit still 
tastes and smells like sewage, and every day we 
lose a brother to the Nazi-style hospital.

From what us prisoners observe, the pigs are not 
making an attempt to eliminate the contaminated 
water problem, and we don't expect them to.

We are not given any substitutes to take the place 
of this poison water, and we need water in order 
to live.

 - a New York prisoner, 11/12/94

The New York prisoner enclosed the following memo:

State of New York
Department of Correctional Services 

Great Meadow Correctional [sic] Facility 

Interdepartmental Communication

To: All Staff From: J. Stinson, Superintendent 
Date: October 17, 1994
Re: Water Samples

Each year we are required to send samples of our 
water to the Health Department from selected sites 
around the property.

This year we submitted twenty samples, on March 
13, 1994, ranging from buildings on Homer Avenue 
to sinks from within the facility.

Three of the samples contained lead levels which 
were above the acceptable range. Those areas were 
specifically the H Block maintenance building on 
Homer Avenue, the Fire House and the Parole 
Building on Homer Avenue. All other samples were 
normal or acceptable.

We performed retests on June 13, 1994 in these 
areas and the lead levels were well within 
acceptable range.

Between September 19 and 21, 1994 we tested 39 
locations at Great Meadow Correctional Facility 
and H Block for lead. Of these results, an 
unacceptable lead level was detected at Bldg. 6 
OAB, 1st floor and the Administration Building at 
H Block.

We are required by the Health Department to take 
specific actions based on the unacceptable 
readings. We must notify staff and post 
notification in those areas that were found 
unacceptable. We must also propose a treatment 
regimen for the affected areas.

We will take whatever action is necessary to 
rectify the problem in these specific areas.


PRISONER REJECTS ESCAPISM,
FACES THE COLD, HARD TRUTH

To whom it may concern,

I've had the opportunity to read MIM Notes by way 
of an inmate here in Waupun Prison and I never 
read or looked at things from your paper's point 
of view. I was not only astonished, but appalled 
at some of the things that America has done and is 
still doing. I would like to read more to 
enlighten myself in this restrictive period in my 
life. I'm serving eight to ten years and two years 
are just about up.

Your paper also shocked me. At times, I was scared 
to read it. I thought if I looked the other way, 
things would go away. So I put the paper down and 
no longer wanted to read it. Why? Because I 
couldn't understand all this is right in front of 
me and it's now being revealed and exposed like 
never before. So I got my courage up and finished 
reading the paper that was loaned to me. I now 
want the pleasure of having my own subscription. 
Thank you so.

 - a Wisconsin prisoner, 11/12/94

WHAT CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTIONS ARE ALL ABOUT

The American Indian Movement's civil rights 
explosion and the Native American spiritual 
renaissance had led a reawakening revealed by the 
Prophecies. It is barely two decades old. Yet many 
of the outspoken voices of Native American Country 
have spent time in institutions.

Voices like Leonard Peltier, Russell Means, Dennis 
Banks, Vern Bellecourt Leonard Crowdog and my 
father. Even the voices of more Traditional Elders 
such as David Sohappy and Military Service 
officers such as Clayton Longtree were at one time 
or another incarcerated within institutions with 
their voices reverberating off cell walls and iron 
bars.

America cries out with indignation at the thought 
of the USSR imprisoning its political dissidents 
who oppose the methods and policies of 
governmental bureaucracies. Yet ironically, U.S. 
institutions are full of dissidents. Ask yourself 
some questions. First ask yourself not what these 
people are in prison for, but why they are in 
prison.

Are these crimes against the government true 
crimes or contrived to make examples of the 
bravest and strongest voices of the people 
attempting to break their spirits?

Who decides what is a crime against the 
government? Who designates what is to become a law 
that makes it illegal to fish, or to think - 
unless your thinking is in synchronicity with a 
bureaucracy? And who decides when it is time to go 
to prison or jail?

Who decides just who will decide when it is time 
to leave the institutions, or who will die there? 
Is it the people to decide? Our ancestors had a 
word for who these mysterious persons are: The 
Greedy Ones, or the Two Hearts. The very people 
who made up bureaucracies and the multinational 
corporate conglomerates.

Native Americans in many state and federal 
institutions are classified as white, Hispanic, or 
"other" and denied the most fundamental of human 
rights - the right to a distinctive racial and 
cultural identity. Article 1 of the International 
Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights 
clearly states: "All people have the right to 
self-determination. By virtue of that right they 
freely determine their political status and freely 
pursue their economic, social and cultural 
development (United Nations Document A/6316-1967)

Oftentimes when this type of social discrimination 
exists, it will show up stronger in institutions - 
behind closed doors - in all areas of institution 
life. This is part of the overall policy of 
breaking the minds and spirits of dissidents. 
There are no spiritual or cultural programs for 
Native Americans in many of the institutions.

For those who have such programs it took long 
court battles and in some cases rioting, created 
by the overbearing tension, to effect change. 
Without outside support, this would never have 
been accomplished. In the institutions where no 
programs are available there are two choices: 
accept it, or struggle to create change. It's just 
like fighting the system in the free world.

But there is one big difference in the 
institutions. Most are out of sight, hence out of 
mind. Also, the general public is fed typical 
propaganda that everyone incarcerated has been 
convicted of crimes, so they are therefore 
criminals.

Not so. Anyone is a potential criminal. If you are 
a person of color and you are outspoken, chances 
are the system will attempt to "teach you a 
lesson" as practiced at SCI Huntingdon, within the 
Pennsylvania Department of Corrections. At some 
point in time, you may get a taste of 
unconstitutional imprisonment.

This is part of their campaign against subversives 
and political dissidents. I have witnessed this 
tactic turn would-be warriors into jellyfish 
quickly. But some people's spirits cannot be 
broken. In the institutions, there are places for 
these people.

They're called "control units." There, every form 
of physical, emotional and psychological violence 
is perpetuated against people who fight the 
corrupt system. The system separates the strongest 
and puts them where they can divide and conquer 
these voices. To overcome this psychological 
warfare, we must become as One Body united in 
spirit and will.

This is what the system fears. Violence is a way 
of life in America today. It is no different in 
institutions. But in the institutions it can be 
disguised and controlled a lot easier than it 
could be in society. It is hidden under the label 
of "penology." Most institutions are called 
"Correctional Institutions." The system wants to 
correct our way of thinking and acting. Their goal 
is to force us to accept whatever the system 
dictates. So, the political dissidents in 
institutions are at the mercy of their corrupt 
keepers. Many of these people have sacrificed 
everything in order to fight corruption and an 
encroaching technological mentality that has 
robbed us of our cultural, natural resources and 
lifestyle. They have stood up for what they 
believe in. Because they have, they are the 
proverbial scapegoats.

Still others are in institutions for breaking some 
type of law that was meant to be for everyone's 
benefit. A close examination will show that some 
form of alcohol or drug related incident was 
involved. Violence is sometimes the factor. All of 
these factors are traits we have been forced to 
learn and accept ... . In most institutions, most 
criminals are characterized as "sociopaths," a 
fitting yet ironic moniker which confesses to the 
origin of this disorder: society itself.

In institutions, these social diseases are not 
treated like mental diseases or even as mental 
disorders. The recovery plan engenders more 
violence. The more pain and suffering inflicted 
just compounds the initial injury or disease. Is 
it any wonder then why our institutions are 
overcrowded and crime is never overcome?

Make no mistake about it. Institutions are big 
business. The criminal justice system is a multi-
billion dollar industry. Without it, the 
bureaucratic system would perish. In some 
institutions, a little progress has been made to 
balance the scales.

A few penologists see the error of it all, but 
only a small minority. It is a constant struggle 
much like the continuing struggle outside against 
racism, tyranny and greed. But it is much harder 
to safeguard basic human rights behind bars. Our 
struggles are not separate from our relations' 
struggles outside. We are all connected in the 
Great Medicine Wheel.

We continue to work for our relations outside and 
we ask our relations outside in the extended 
family and inter-tribal networks to take an active 
role in supporting all incarcerated brothers and 
sisters.

When our people raise our voices in solidarity 
both inside and outside these institutions, we'll 
prove that physical institutions are mere 
illusions. The real institutions are ignorance, 
hatred, violence and the dirty dollar bill. We 
must give back to the Greedy Ones their alcohol, 
guns and drugs: we have the Sacred Pipe, the Drum 
and our Songs. The spirit will overcome the 
physical illusions in an individual and collective 
capacity. By aiding your relations who are 
incarcerated, you are also helping us to help 
ourselves and our people.

Walk in balance and harmony,

 - a Cherokee prisoner in Pennsylvania, 9/30/94


MINNESOTA GUARDS BEAT PRISONER

Control Unit 5, Punitive Segregation, Oak Park 
Heights Prison, Minnesota, Sept. 3, 1994, 7:30 
p.m. - X presses his cell duress button to 
communicate with the corrections officers 40 feet 
away inside a shatterproof glass and steel 
observation bubble. "You didn't switch me out for 
exercise, Wise."

Officer Wise looks over his paperwork that records 
all movements by the prisoners and looks out at 
our tier as he talks into the microphone. "I 
offered you exercise, but you didn't push your 
button, so you missed out." His voice blasts out 
of the speaker.

What X doesn't know is that he, a Latino and 
Indian man, has just been nominated to become the 
victim of a beating of such magnitude that he will 
be scarred physically and mentally for the rest of 
his life. X pushes his button again, which was a 
mistake, because Officer Wise felt he'd become a 
threat to himself and others, regardless of the 
fact that X hadn't been out of his steel door 
boxcar-fashion cell in over 24 hours, in violation 
of his United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for 
Treatment of Prisoners right to at least one hour 
of exercise, which here consists of walking back 
and forth in a three by 20 foot shatterproof glass 
observed walkway with two other convicts.

Five minutes later, in comes an "extraction team," 
or "The Squad," which always is five or more white 
guards with weapon belts around their waists full 
of tactical toys for war to use on any defenseless 
prisoner who doesn't bow and pay homage to their 
supposed superiority of being able to hold people 
hostage against their will with the threat of 
death, or at least maiming.

"X, put your hands through the food hole," a squad 
officer says with several more behind him. X 
complies without hesitation. He is handcuffed and 
restrained until, "Open 207!" the lieutenant of 
the squad says, and they rush in on him to make 
sure he can't move.

"Will you comply with a strip search?" the officer 
says.

"Yes."

One officer says to the other, "Go get the video 
camera," and he runs off. At this moment, I, X and 
several other prisoners know what this means. You 
see, before they even approached his cell, the 
whole encounter was to be videotaped. This is 
policy whenever a prisoner is being moved to the 
behavior modification cell or area. But as we 
convicts know, policy is an "if they remember" 
type of thing, so there's only a violation when we 
are the violators. Before the officer is halfway 
to the bubble for the camera, the inevitable 
happens as planned. "Watch him!," one pig shouts.

Now before I continue, know that X is handcuffed 
behind his back, inside a five by nine cell, 
naked, with at least four guards surrounding him. 
As the pig gives the signal, "Watch him," they 
attack without cause, totally to satisfy sadistic 
urges to inflict pain upon another human being, to 
see someone cry for mercy that isn't there. Yes, 
this is what it means to be a corrections officer, 
backed one hundred percent by the law of the land: 
dominate, colonize and enslave.

They throw him to the cold cement floor and kick, 
punch and choke him, and they do it with a finesse 
that allows them to leave no blood, no facial 
wounds or scars, because they only photograph the 
face and hands, which is policy.

I could see their perfect reflection in the glass 
that surrounds this tier for maximum observation 
power. One's on X's back with both hands under his 
chin, pulling back with such fury that his screams 
sounded like underwater, garbled screams; another 
kicked his ribs and thighs, two others twisted and 
bent his bottom limbs in unnatural positions, not 
breaking, but just enough to cause internal nerve 
and muscle damage and bleeding. Then as other 
inmates screamed for them to stop, the room lights 
went out and all we heard were punching and 
kicking sounds, accompanied by a guard screaming, 
"Stop resisting!" over and over. The next time the 
lights were on, X was laid out on the floor semi-
conscious, handcuffed and crying. No medical team 
ever came to care for his wounds. No video camera 
ever taped the incident, let alone the beating. 
And it's not over yet.

Since the medical team never showed up, they 
decided to move him naked to modified. On the way, 
X kept saying, "I didn't resist and they fucked me 
up." The guards didn't appreciate his verbal 
commentary on the events, so this time, where 
there was no reflective glass, they brutally 
assaulted him again. I've never, I repeat never, 
heard a man with a voice deeper than mine strain 
his vocal chords in such a way as to sound like a 
three year-old being tortured to death - 'cause 
that was the sound.

"They're killin' me! They're killin' me! 
Aaarrgghh! Please, please!" he screamed.

One prisoner screamed, "What ya'll doin' to him?"

He started screaming again, "My balls! Stop - my 
balls!" As any male who reads this knows, the 
scrotum is the most sensitive and unguarded part 
of a male, and one can pass out from the pain of 
having them handled wrong. These cowards purposely 
pulled and hit X in the scrotal sac.

The atrocities that happen behind these walls and 
others are second to none except the Afrikan slave 
trade murders and the Jewish holocaust! Slow death 
and torture are the only "rules" being upheld in 
Oak Park Heights, and nothing less than a full-
scale investigation into the actions of the 
personnel is in order before we all lose our minds 
and our lives.

 - a Minnesota prisoner in Human Rights Held
   Hostage (HRHH), Fall 1994. HRHH is published by
   the Committee for Freedom, P.O. Box 14075,
   Chicago, IL 60614-0075


PIGS REFUSE TO FEED PRISONER

On November 15, 1994 at 4:00 p.m., a mentally 
disturbed prisoner threw his feces on the range. 
It landed and splashed directly in front of my 
cell. Some of it splashed over the bars of the 
cell in which I am located. Other prisoners yelled 
out and let the pigs know the situation so that 
the sanitation department could be summoned to 
clean it up. Instead of calling sanitation, the 
pigs began to pass out the evening's meal. As the 
pigs approached my cell, they noted the feces in 
front of this cell and on these cell bars and they 
just kept going without feeding me.

Only after other prisoners held their trays and 
repeatedly demanded to see a Captain pig, did 
sanitation arrive and clean up the feces. After 
prisoners still refused to return their trays, the 
mentally ill prisoner was moved to the hosp*and 
the Captain pig appeared personally. At that time, 
the lesser pigs let it be known that the reason I 
wasn't fed is because they believed I had thrown 
the feces and they requested from the Captain pig 
to feed me. The Captain pig's exact words were, 
"Feeding time is over; you'll be fed tomorrow." 
With that said, I was refused my meal for no 
apparent reason by the same pigs who are sworn to 
uphold these positions of authority. The real 
criminals are those who hide behind the air-
conditioned office doors.

 - an Indiana prisoner, 11/22/94


* * *

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