## ## ### ## ## # # ### ### ### ### # # # # # # # ## # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # ## ### # # # # # # ## # # # # # # # ### # # # # ### # ### ### THE MAOIST INTERNATIONALIST MOVEMENT MIM Notes 99 April 1995 Electronic Edition * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Get MIM Notes 99 from the Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM), and get the latest in Maoist news and analysis - put a revolutionary weapon in your hands. This issue features news of anti-CIA work at UCLA campus, Black Panther Party events on the East Coast, the Peace Corps, anti-NAFTA political fallout, Black and white economic disparities; plus, reviews, letters - and Under Lock & Key, the Internet's only monthly source for news and letters from revolutionaries inside Amerika's gulags. 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. Suppor it, struggle with it and write for it. * * * * * * * Send $150 for your full * * * * * * * * * * * * set of MIM Notes 1 to 100 * * * * * MIM Notes 99 includes: CONTENTS 1. L.A.: MASSES GIVE CIA THE BOOT 2. APOLOGISTS FOR GENOCIDE CELEBRATE WOMEN'S DAY 3. PHILIPPINE GOV. TOLERATES SINGAPORE EXECUTION 4. LETTERS TO MIM 5. FREDERICK DOUGLASS NOW 6. IN BLACK AND WHITE: ECONOMY UPDATE 7. MAOISM AND THE BLACK PANTHER PARTY ON CAMPUS 8. TROTS FORGET HISTORY OF EXECUTIONS 9. MIM ATTACKS PEACE CORPS, LIBERALS DEFEND IT 10. CLINTON REASSURES LABOR ARISTOCRACY 11. ANTI-NAFTA POLITICS BEARS ITS UGLY FRUIT 12. GOANS BATTLE DUPONT 13. HYPOCRISY OF "PROPERTY RIGHTS" ZEALOTS 14. MURDER FOR PROFITS 15. RAMOS GETS PRAISE FROM BOURGEOISIE 16. REVIEW: KASAMAS 17. REVIEW: INSIDE THE PHILIPPINE REVOLUTION 18. "EYEWITNESS" EVIDENCE UNRELIABLE 19. UNDER LOCK & KEY * * * LOS ANGELES: MASSES GIVE CIA THE BOOT The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is still intact, but its attempt to recruit potential agents of imperialism on the campus of the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) suffered a setback last month after a demonstration organized by MIM and the Network for Public Education and Social Justice (NPESJ), a student group not affiliated with MIM. At a demonstration March 1, MIM pointed out to UCLA students that the CIA's main purpose is to wage war on the world's oppressed nations by means of economic warfare, rigged elections, assassinations and genocide. MIM's critics countered that MIM and the demonstrators were infringing on the CIA's "rights." MIM says: There are no rights, only power struggles! MIM does not advocate disrupting the "speech" of just any reactionaries. But it's not the "speech" of the CIA that commits mass murder and oppression. If all the CIA did was talk, MIM would just argue against them. It's the action - the recruiting of students to commit crimes against the people - that we oppose. If progressives can stop the CIA from spreading some of its poison - make the CIA's job a little harder - that's a power struggle, not an infringement of "rights." The oppressed and victims of the CIA have no "right" to "free" speech when they are dead, imprisoned, exploited and raped. Theirs is a struggle to end that oppression and win freedom for the world's vast majority. There is a long history of students resisting the militarization of U.S. campuses, including CIA recruiting, military training and the development of genocidal weaponry. This effort is an important part of building popular student consciousness against imperialism. MASSES KICK CIA OFF UCLA CAMPUS Many progressive people were dismayed to hear that the CIA was coming to hold a recruiting session at UCLA. Independently of each other, the Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM) and the Network for Public Education and Social Justice (NPESJ) mobilized a progressive response which ultimately succeeded in canceling the CIA's planned two-day visit. MIM circulated fliers and posters promoting an anti-CIA rally, in addition to contacting progressive individuals and organizations. Like MIM, NPESJ contacted its allies, encouraging them to protest the CIA. Prior to the CIA's arrival, MIM issued the following call: CIA OFF CAMPUS Despite its name, the main purpose of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is to wage war on the world's oppressed nations by means of covert operations involving economic warfare, rigged elections, assassinations and genocide. Its goal is to gain and maintain U.S. control over Third World peoples and economies. In short, the CIA is an agent of U.S. imperialism and an enemy of the people. The CIA was behind the fascist coup in Chile which brought Pinochet into power. The CIA's "Operation Phoenix" killed 40,000 Vietnamese. The CIA recruited its own mercenary army to combat the Laotian electoral left, and covered up the massive U.S. bombings of Laos and Cambodia which killed over 600,000 and created a devastating famine. And the CIA continued its covert wars, funding the Contra-guerrillas in Nicaragua and propping up dictators like Manuel Noriega. From 5:00-7:00 p.m. today (Wed., March 1, 1995) and all day tomorrow, the CIA will be holding an "Information Meeting and Reception" in UCLA's Plaza Building, at which they will conduct interviews for internship positions. Take a stand on the side of the world's oppressed peoples! Rally against the CIA outside UCLA's Plaza Building 5:00 p.m. TODAY, Wed. March 1 Notes: The CIA's Greatest Hits, by Mark Zepezauer, Odonian Press, 1994. Available from MIM for $6. According to the UCLA Daily Bruin: "Organizers tried to find peaceful solutions, but ... the assistant director of the Expo Center, decided to cancel the meeting. Yesterday's recruitment meetings ... were also canceled, irritating students who had appointments."(1) The same Daily Bruin article contained some inaccuracies and some unrebutted reactionary statements from a CIA spokesperson, so MIM responded with a letter excerpted below: March 4, 1995 Dear Editor, Thank you for printing the article "CIA visit canceled due to protests". Although this article contains unrebutted reactionary statements from the CIA, it will show many readers that progressives can get significant things done when we get ourselves organized. Those who came out to protest the CIA's presence can take pride in canceling their visit. There were, however, some inaccuracies in this article. We take this opportunity to set the record straight. First, it is untrue that "[m]ost of the protesters were members of the Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM)" or that the CIA meeting "was disrupted by about 20 MIM members." MIM visibly helped to organize the rally. But credit needs to be given where credit is due. Independently of MIM, the Network for Public Education and Social Justice (NPESJ) organized to protest the CIA visit. MIM is unsure how many of the protesters came in response to MIM's call and how many came in response to NPESJ's call. But we can safely say that the majority were not MIM members. Those present undoubtedly had varying degrees of unity with MIM. We were all united on one point - opposition to the genocidal CIA. The CIA spokesperson quoted in your article claimed, "We're looking for people who want to serve the country and do some research, analyze and collect information." This is The Big Lie about the CIA.... The CIA spokesperson also claimed that "the students who were present at the meeting ... had their rights infringed." MIM doesn't know whether to laugh or cry at this ridiculous statement. The CIA is concerned about people's rights?!... Since the CIA is responsible for depriving hundreds of thousands of people of their right to life, any CIA spokesperson who talks about "rights" - particularly the "right" to work for a genocidal organization - needs to shut up. MIM salutes the activists who kicked these creeps off campus. The CIA spokesperson says, "we don't know if we will be coming back to UCLA." Progressive people need to organize to make sure the Conductors of Imperialist Aggression do not return. Notes: 1. Daily Bruin 3/3/95, p. 8 MIM DISREGARDS CIA'S "RIGHTS" On March 8, the UCLA Daily Bruin printed a short version of MIM's March 4 letter (see accompanying article). Alongside it was a letter from UCLA student Rebecca Toth. Following are Toth's letter and responses from MIM and a student. Rebecca Toth wrote: This letter is to the members of the Maoist Internationalist Movement who participated in protesting CIA recruitment on campus and caused the cancellation of an informational meeting and interviews: I am not writing to object to the validity, or lack thereof, of the information you were presenting; that is a debate for another time and I support your right to present it. However, I do object to the manner in which you chose to present it. Your actions effectively denied others the very rights of freedom of speech and assembly that you yourselves were exercising. What gives you the right to impose your opinions on others and to take away the ability of each individual to make their own life choices? So you don't want to work for the CIA. Fine. But that doesn't give you the right to withhold that opportunity from others. Perhaps democracy and the right to self- determination, issues on which you are quick to criticize the CIA, should only be permitted on those topics with which you agree. Or maybe you should just choose for me which information I listen to and which jobs I take. Actually, I'm in the market for a good five-year plan. Next time, I suggest you take a good look at yourselves and your actions before you accuse others of authoritarian tendencies. In conclusion, allow me to offer you a little advice. The next time you want to get a point across, I suggest you try a different tactic. Your gross hypocrisy and complete disregard for the rights and opinions of other students completely discredited yourselves and your organization, irrespective of the validity of your position. In spite of this, I support your rights to freedom and peaceful assembly; it's just too bad you don't support mine. MIM RESPONDED: March 8, 1995 Dear Editor, Rebecca Toth's March 8 letter accuses the Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM) of "gross hypocrisy and complete disregard for the rights and opinions of ... students." MIM values others' opinions. But this won't stop us from working to deny people the "right" to join the genocidal CIA. Toth objects "to the manner in which" MIM opposes the CIA. But our confrontational manner reflects the serious nature of the matter at hand: imperialist genocide. Toth's charge of hypocrisy is misinformed. MIM disagrees with Toth's rhetoric of "rights." There are no rights, only power struggles. The CIA deprives hundreds of thousands of people of their right to life. Toth defends the "right" to work for a genocidal organization. Progressives must do more to deprive imperialists of the "right" to build genocidal organizations. MIM's criticism of the CIA is not that it is authoritarian, but that its authority is reactionary, repressing the world's majority. MIM's ultimate goal is a world without authority or oppression - a communist world. But in this era, we support any means necessary - including authoritarianism and armed struggle - to smash imperialism, capitalism and patriarchy. MIM will gladly choose a job for Toth before allowing her to join the genocidal CIA, if we have any say. In struggle, Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM) As of March 10, the UCLA Daily Bruin did not print MIM's response, but did print a response from a student. MIM has much unity with the response, which follows: This is in response to Rebecca Toth's March 8 viewpoint regarding the canceled CIA interviews on campus. Toth asks the protesters at the CIA recruitment meeting, "What gives you the right to impose your opinions on others and to take away the ability of the individual to make their own life choices? Let me respond by reminding that when someone makes a "life choice" to work for the CIA, this choice has repercussions far beyond whether you are able to afford the new BMW. All of us, as social beings, must take responsibility for the inherently social nature of our actions. It is important to turn that question around. What gave the United States, through the CIA, the right to "take away the ability of each individual to make their own life choices" by: 1) overthrowing the democratically elected government of Guatemala in 1954 and funding death squads in subsequent years to protect the right-wing government; 2) working closely with the Chilean military and U.S. multinational corporations to oust democratically elected leader Salvador Allende in 1973, and set up a brutal military dictatorship; 3) or by playing a prominent role in the Indonesian military coup in 1965 which led to more than 100,000 Indonesians being murdered? I support the CIA's right to speak in public about what they do (although it is something I doubt they would ever do). What I don't support is their supposed "right" to actively recruit people in their continuing effort to maintain U.S. political and economic hegemony at any cost. Complete individual freedom is a nice idea in the abstract. In reality, sometimes rights conflict and I have no hesitation about violating your right to contribute to mass murder and military dictatorships in my larger effort to protect the rights of the people from other parts of the world who struggle to better their own lives, free from the often brutal, undemocratic intervention of the United States. * * * APOLOGISTS FOR IMPERIALISM, CO-CONSPIRATORS IN GENOCIDE CELEBRATE INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY IN AMHERST Q: How is International Women's Day celebrated by First World feminists? A: By attacking the revolutionary feminism of the oppressed masses. On March 8 reactionary scholar Patricia Edmisten gave a breakfast lecture in Amherst. Sponsored by the Women of Color Program of the UMass Everywoman's Center, Edmisten attacked the Communist Party of Peru PCP (whom she called Shining Path), and the revolutionary feminism of the oppressed masses. Standing behind a podium draped with a poster bearing the words "Mar’a Elena vive entre nosotros" (Mar’a Elena [Moyano] lives in us) Edmisten presented a carefully blended mix of distortions, lies and omissions in her condemnation of the PCP and her praise of Moyano. Moyano was a government leader executed by the PCP in 1992 after she ignored numerous warnings to cease her counter-revolutionary activities. Not a mere critic of the PCP as some allege, Moyano was organizing her shantytown to fight the PCP with military weapons as well as personally denouncing people as "Senderistas" so that they could be rounded up by Fujimori's death squads. Edmisten used the usual lie that PCP has killed 30,000 people in their revolutionary war and said that the PCP has taken the most brutal of Chinese communism. First of all, 30,000 people have died since the armed struggle began, but by the government's own admission, the majority of the deaths have been PCP cadre at the hands of the government.(1) Second, Edmisten is trying to pose left by defending, or at least not condemning, the Chinese revolution while denying the reality that selective executions of traitors was also a tactic of the Chinese Communist Party in their war against Japanese occupation and then the U.S. backed Chiang Kai-shek regime. Apologists for imperialism can't have their cake and eat it too, at least not while Maoists are in the neighborhood. Edmisten tried to portray Moyano as a pacifist, even though she openly admitted Moyano's key role in organzing peasants to fight the PCP for the military. Edmisten was unable to explain what kind of "pacificism" fights only one kind of violence - that numerically smaller violence of the revolution. The major theme of her speech was an emphasis on the "commonality" of all women across class and national lines and to portray the Communist Party of Peru as anti-feminist and against the people. Edmisten said that while many women join the PCP, they are denied leadership roles. During the question and answer period, MIM was quick to point out that women are the majority of the Party and that they also dominate the leadership. We gave as proof the example that when Chairperson Gonzalo was arrested, arrested along with him were many members of the Central Committee, a majority women. We cited the New York Times and a lecture by Dr. Carol Andreas at UMass the previous year. Edmisten's response was that Andreas has also been to Peru and that she had different experiences. One audience member supported this reactionary idea, and said that MIM had a different viewpoint and that was Ok. Yes, of course, people have different experiences and different viewpoints. But we shouldn't be paralyzed by them, we should do our best to make decisions with the information at hand. It's not that Moyano and the PCP had different experiences or different ideas about the solution to the People's poverty and that they should have just learned to get along. The Peruvian government, with which we include Moyano, and the Communists are engaged in a life and death struggle. Moyano responsible for the death and torture and many Communists and supporters. The PCP was responsible for the killing of Moyano. There is no neutrality, and that is shown quite clearly by who the Everywoman's Center choose to lecture on feminism. An understanding of imperialism is essential to feminism in the world today. It's not a matter of First World feminism "including" Third World women; rather First World women must realize that their group interests run directly counter to that of Third World women. If First World women want to join their Third World sisters, they must commit to working against their own interests. Study the effects of imperialism. Instead of coming up with lame excuses to explain Third World male migration to the cities ("to escape conscription by the Shining Path") find the real answer. The PCP is made of willing, dedicated volunteers, as the Peruvian military and the CIA complain, since they find it so difficult to make captured guerrillas talk under torture. Learn how the export-led development, supported by the imperialists, the Peruvian right, and Moyano's brand of "left" is responsible for the migration of men to the cities and the increased poverty of the Peruvian masses as a whole. As our comrades in Peru will tell you, all issues are women's issues. To separate biological gender from material reality around it is a most horrendous kind of chauvinism that will result in continued misery for the majority of the world. NOTES: 1. El Pais, 9/20/92. * * * PHILIPPINE GOVERNMENT TURNS BLIND EYE TO EXPLOITATION OF FILIPINOS ABROAD On March 17 Singapore executed a Filipina worker accused of killing a young boy and another Filipina, in spite of new evidence arguing her innocence. In the months leading up to the execution, people in the Philippines rallied against the execution and the reluctance of the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) to act on the worker's behalf. Flora Contemplacion, a 42-year old mother of four, was convicted of the killings in April 1994. She claimed that she was coerced into confessing. New evidence showed that the man who had hired the slain Filipina killed her when he found out that his son had died in an accident. Contemplacion was best friends with the slain worker and was implicated in the killings when she went to gather her friend's belongings. The GRP was silent about the conviction until this month. The GRP profits greatly from Filipino overseas contract workers and views tales of their suffering as nuisances which disrupt a booming labor trade worth billions of dollars. There are 4 million Filipinos working abroad. Together they bring $6.5 billion of foreign exchange into the Philippines - more than double the amount of foreign investment in the Philippines. NOTES: NPR, "Morning Edition," 17 Mar 95. BAYAN International - PIGLAS, "The truth about the U.S.- Ramos regime," 1994. * * * LETTERS TO MIM GOV'T HANDOUT OR WHOLESALE REPO? An Internet reader wrote: Where do you people get this bullshit? And how in the hell do you ever get into a college to talk to students, you are fucking communist anarchists. You people can all eat shit. I suspect that you are a bunch of black malcontents looking for another fucking government handout. GO GET A FUCKING JOB. MC12 RESPONDS: MIM gets hate mail all the time. We are choosing to respond to this letter, however, because it appears to reflect the resentment that is apparently escalating in the white nation toward Black people in college, "affirmative action" and so-called "handouts". The implication here is that "black malcontents" should never "get" into college. If these people are upset, this reader assumes, they are looking for a "government handout." MIM supports the revolutionary overthrow of imperialism, patriarchy, and the domination of the white nation over the oppressed nations in North America. The peoples of the Third World and the oppressed nations in North America are not looking for a "handout," but a wholesale repossession! At the same time, whites have little to fear from so-called affirmative action or quota programs. The disparities between white and Black access to education and employment is looking pretty secure under the present system. That's why MIM says scrap the present system. # College enrollment. Of high school graduates aged 18-21, only 30.1% of Blacks were in college in 1992, compared to 45.3% of whites. That number was only 24.6% for Black men, while Black women's rate was 35.2%. The numbers for "Hispanics" were about 2% less than for Blacks.(1) Black people, who are almost 13% of the population, are 11% of the four-year college students, and 6% of the graduate school students. White advantage is safe and sound, here.(2) # Degrees. In 1991, Blacks got 6% of the bachelor's degrees, 4.9% of the master's degrees, and 3.1% of the doctorate degrees in the United States. What's worse, while the absolute number of Black students getting bachelor's degrees rose 7.7% from 1981 to 1991, the absolute number getting master's degrees fell 5.8%, and doctorates fell 4.2%. The number of whites getting bachelor's degrees rose 12% in that time, while their master's degrees rose 5.8%. The number of white PhDs fell 2.2%.(3) While whites complain about the number of non-U.S. citizens getting degrees, and this number has increased, this represents more of a brain-drain from their native countries than a disadvantage for Amerikans. # Official unemployment. Of people aged 16-24 who weren't in college in 1992, Black high school graduates had a higher unemployment rate (26.8%) than white high school drop-outs (20.7%), and a rate more than two-and-a-half times white high school graduates (10.5%). Black high school drop- outs had 46.7% unemployment.(1) And about "getting a job." First of all, you can't "get" jobs where there are none. Second, MIM says there is nothing great about working at a demeaning job for crummy wages, although people who do this out of necessity can be proud of it. While the organized workers of the labor aristocracy may strike when they want higher wages, the poor people who don't have high paying jobs in the first place "strike" by refusing to work in shit jobs at all. MIM says more power to them. NOTES: 1. Statistical Abstract of the United States 1994. U.S. Dept. of Commerce. p. 173; 2. Ibid., p. 179; 3. Ibid., p. 191. PROPOSITION 187: DEBATE STAYS LIVELY A West Virginian reader wrote: I may stand alone, but I feel that there comes a time when you have to take care of "family" first! The U.S. is not responsible for nobody else but the U.S.! I grew up very poor in W.Va., We were always told that the government wished it could do more, but had no money. Then I found out that non-citizens in C.A. are receiving more funding than I did as a USA citizen!!!! Mexico should help these people, for they are Mexican citizens, and are paying very few tax dollars to the U.S. Charity begins at home. We have somehow gotten the notion in this country that the government has the huge pile of money that can never run out: well, we are wrong! Fix the problems here before we even think about starting to fix problems around the world. A reader from California addressed him: Obviously you know nothing about California or its economy. Don't you know that the undocumented workers get plenty of taxes taken out of their pay. But these people never get to see a dime of their social security. My grandfather worked in the brazero program That was a U.S. program where immigrant workers from Mexico would come during the harvest season and work for less than minimum wage. Although he worked all his life and even though they took plenty of taxes from his wages the U.S. government did not want to pay back any of his social security. In LA if you go into any fancy restaurant or any fancy home you will see one of these undocumented workers. If you travel north to the California farm country here too you will see many workers many of which are undocumented. Now what are you Good U.S. citizens saying? That these hard working people are good enough to pick your produce in sub-standard conditions. That they are good enough to watch your children. that they are good enough to clean your house, or prepare your meals. But they are not good enough to attend your schools or receive medical attention. Do you know what Mr. W.Va. if you don't want immigrants in this country why don't you and all your good U.S. citizen friends come down to Califas and pick our delicious table grapes while breathing poisonous pesticides for less than the minimum wage, that is if you receive pay at all. While you're at it why don't you burn down the statue of liberty? You know the one that says "give us your tired helpless and week." PS: to your family first argument "Those Mexicans" are my family. MIM RESPONDS: Your comments are excellent for revealing the hypocrisy of the poster's statements, but you must admit he is consistent. There is a long historical precedent of privileged people maintaining that the people who are good enough to do their dirtiest jobs are not good enough to go to reap the benefits of that labor. Your comments about the statue of liberty are also apt. MIM does not use the term "America" in its writing because "America" is a lie. What in fact exists is an Amerikan nation, built on stolen land with stolen labor, that continues the national oppression of the Third World, its members, and internal nations. MIM MUSIC REVIEWS ARE DUMB First of all, I don't listen to music for the lyrics, but for the tune and melody. As far as I'm concerned, the lyrics aren't worth a damn if it isn't backed by good music. Are you saying [in your review of the Cranberries' "Zombie", MIM Notes 97, February 1995] that the Beatles were responsible for the youth of America for not turning to Maoism? Please, this is like saying that young people who listen to heavy metal turn into satanists. MIM RESPONDS: Of course not. If this were true, then there would be zero revolutionaries in Amerika because just about all the stuff on the radio, including so-called alternative music, is reactionary garbage. But music does both reflect the culture and create it, and a critique of culture is important. Most Amerikan youth are not revolutionary because it is against their material interests to be revolutionary. To oppose imperialism is to oppose the source of Amerika's wealth. The reason that the Beatles are important historically is because they spoke to a group of people that were seriously considering radical change in society and the abdication of wealth procured by militarism all over the globe, and told them to think about themselves instead. The youth did not have to listen, of course. They could very well have stopped listening to the Beatles and worked for the liberation of oppressed peoples. Obviously people like to buy things that give answers they like, and this is a reason why the Beatles' line on revolution was so popular. And the Cranberries, posing "alternative," tell the same lies as the Beatles, and MIM calls them on it. There is a small portion of Amerikan youth that is disgusted with Amerika and looking for ways to create social justice. The Cranberries criticize revolutionaries as "zombies" and advocate individualism for Amerikans. Of course, it is not the revolutionaries who are the "zombies," but those who buy the Cranberries' line uncritically. As for your comments on heavy metal, this happens to be among the styles MIM recommends to its readers. (See "MIM's Heavy Metal Hangup" on page 10 of MN58, November 1991, order from MIM for $2). We recommend metal precisely for the politics much of it espouses: challenging authority, the capitalist state, criminal justice system, etc. Of course much metal ends in a celebration of youthful rebellion and refuses to focus that rebellious energy. This limitation of metal politics is indicative of the trend metal comes from: white youth, while alienated from reactionary old-people's imperialist politics, do not immediately see the importance of organizing for revolution. The anger metal expresses is still a valuable political sentiment, and MIM seeks to develop that sentiment and turn it into revolutionary activity. AN OPEN LETTER TO THE AMERICAN FRIENDS SERVICE COMMITTEE OF WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS Dear AFSC: MIM was shocked to discover that your organization is co-sponsoring the event "Sex, Lives and Videotapes, a public lecture by William Ryerson, executive vice-president of Population Communication International" on April 5. We expect as much from the pseudo-environmentalist and other pseudo-left organizations on the list, but not from AFSC. MIM and the AFSC disagree on a number of issues; we are a revolutionary Maoist party, you are a reformist, religious based pacifist organization. But as such we have one important piece of unity that shows up in much of our work: opposition to militarism and imperialism. In fact, pacifists and revolutionaries have a lot in common in the current stage where the great majority of the violence going on in the world is not revolutionary, but reactionary and aimed at the great majority of the world's people. It is imperialism that is the greatest source of violence in the current world, and it needs to be exposed and defeated in all of its realms. Wrapped in a stated (if not always sincere) concern for the environment, poverty, and Third World development, the issue of population control has come to the fore in Amerikan-left circles in recent years. The talk two weekends ago at Smith College (where we discovered your involvement in Sex, Lives and Videotapes) by Adrienne Allison, vice president of the Center for Development and Population Activities and adjunct professor at George Washington University School of Medicine is one such example. Allison's main assumption was that population size was directly linked to poverty, development and environmental degradation. Her conclusion was therefore that population was directly linked to poverty, development and environmental degradation. She had a myriad of facts and figures to back up her "conclusion" and which served to further obfuscate the real source of the people's oppression. For example, she showed us how population is growing in Nepal, and how 75% of the arable land is already being tilled. Assuming that amount of arable land is finite and that production yields can not be increased - this is an incorrect assumption because even capitalism can transform the world around it, and the collective power of the people unleashed under socialism can do so even more - this conception is still bourgeois. Instead of proposing to eliminate the people (already sterilization of women in Nepal is 19.5%), why not eliminate the landlords? Or kick out the World Bank, IMF and the multinational companies? Allison didn't mention these things because as far as the bourgeoisie is concerned, the only thing on the table is the number of Third World people allowed to remain. This is where Sex, Lives and Videotapes factors in. Population Communication International produces soap opera style radio and TV programs to encourage the use of population control technologies. In the Third World, the masses resist imperialist (with the collusion of their comprador governments) population control. There are many forms of coercion used to entice Third World women. Some women are paid to be sterilized, or are tricked. Population Communication International works in the cultural sphere to ease the transformation of the population and its economic base more into line with imperialist interests. Women throughout the world want greater access to a variety of contraceptive choices but oppressed women need political power, resources, food, health care, shelter, sanitation and other necessities for survival. Imposing population control on Third World women while not addressing these other shortages will only increase suffering. Aiding and abetting imperialism is contrary to any pacifist agenda MIM is familiar with. We realize that you may have been swept up in the imperialist country chauvinist wind that is blowing alongside the population control issue. Enclosed is some of our literature on this question. CORRECTIONS A letter response on page 2 of MIM Notes 97, February 1995 said: "What is gender oppression? The definition is not a one-liner, but the idea is that one group controls the bodies, the 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." It is incorrect to define unremunerated labor as part of gender, this is part of capitalism. What is principal to gender is the control of another's bodies, and not merely biology. The final paragraph in the article "Bombshell: The death of public housing" on page 8 of MIM Notes 98, March 1995 was incorrect. The following paragraph is the position of both the author Ulcer in the Beast's Belly and MIM: "Soon enough, people may have to prove that they own property, or pay rent, in order to avoid imprisonment for trespassing on white Amerika. The people can take over public housing today - by organizing mass movements for economic and political independence inside the projects. The birth and nurture of militant movements can eventually lead to class-conscious communist revolution. In the final analysis, nothing less will do." * * * FREDERICK DOUGLASS NOW performed and created by Roger Guenveur Smith review by a MIM Associate On February 25 at UMass Amherst, New World Theatre presented Frederick Douglas Now, a one-man multimedia theatre show. The theme revolved around the need for struggle in order to achieve progress. Through chronicling Douglass' life, Smith incorporated the history of the anti-slavery movement and the struggle for Black liberation since then. The most relevant aspect politically (in addition to the historical importance) involved the relation drawn between the struggle then and now. Smith makes it clear that the struggle for Black liberation is not over, and that the political advice and strength contributed by Douglass is applicable today. Stated in the play was, those "who will be free themselves must strike the blow" and "slavery can only end with blood". Influenced by John Brown - who believed that slave holders had no right to live - Douglass was conscious of the need to violently oppose oppression. Yet he was not as focoist as Brown, who led a suicidal attack on (as Smith stated) the 1859 equivalent of the Pentagon. The words of Smith were enhanced by images flashed on a screen and also by African music. The video screen, used to portray a wide variety of images, was the main tool used to link the past with the present. By showing civil rights marches in the 60's, Blacks being beaten by cops and riots in the 90's the message of the necessity of continued struggle was clear. Smith began by reading a letter written by Douglass to Thomas Auld, his former slave master, on the first anniversary of his escape. Through self-education Douglass achieved an important role in the anti-slavery movement - making many speeches as well as enormous written contributions. He started his own newspaper in Rochester, N.Y. called "The North Star", named after the North star people were told to follow by Harriet Tubman and the underground railroad. A rap written by Smith concluded the performance. It started, "If there is no struggle there is no progress/That was the rap of brother Frederick Douglass." Smith also rapped about some "supportive" whites: "They love black music but they hate Black people/They love this rhythm/They love this rhyme/But when it comes to the struggle they don't have the time." "And some say to me 'I love Spike Lee'/But they don't give a damn if we are free/They don't know a thing about our history" And on the solution: "We must fight back/How we gonna do that?/We must learn to read and learn to write/And organize ourselves to fight". Frederick Douglass Now is an effective fusion of history, politics and art. The continuity of the past and present is often left out in bourgeois education systems - which like to isolate the past to imply an irrelevance to the present (if they cover oppressed history at all). MIM agrees with the emphasis on the need for the oppressed to free themselves from their oppressors and the acceptance of armed struggle (when the time comes) to do this. The internal colonies within the United States cannot rely on the white nation to grant them their equality - because that will never happen. NOTE: NYT 2/19/90. * * * IN BLACK AND WHITE: ECONOMY UPDATE by MC12 There is a common assumption that U.S. incomes are falling, that the gap between "rich" and "poor" is increasing, and that this is all bringing white Amerikans and oppressed nations closer together. This is the dream of the Amerikan pseudo-left, which is always trying to convince us that soon working class whites will become revolutionary. But a look at some economic trends over the last few years is not kind to this view. The official poverty line in 1993 was $14,763 for a family of four. The Census Bureau reports that there is a lot of movement in and out of poverty. Only half of all poverty by this definition lasts four months or more, while 13% lasts two years or more. Whites make up 70% of all those in poverty, but only 56% of those in long-term poverty. That means lots of the "poor" whites are only that way temporarily. Still, in an average month Blacks are three-times more likely to be poor. Altogether 46 million people were in poverty for two or more months in 1990.(1) Some people make a lot out of the great raw numbers of whites in poverty. They usually do this to help gain public sympathy for the poor, which is just plain racist. Since there are more whites than other groups, it's always important to look at the rates, or proportions, rather than the raw numbers. Also, some people try the trick of using a rate that includes *all* people, then saying the Black rate is "even higher." That's just using the Black rate to boost the white rate. In an average month in 1990, the Census Bureau now reports, 8% of whites received some sort of means- tested poverty relief, compared to more than 32% of Blacks, and 25% of "Hispanics." So there are more whites, but Blacks are four-times as likely to be on welfare.(2) Another common yet false assumption is that recessions bring whites and nonwhites closer together economically. In the 1990-91 recession, 41% of whites saw their incomes drop, and 36% saw them go up. That compared to 43% of Blacks who made less, and 35% who made more.(3) Just looking at earnings is also deceiving, since they don't include all measures of wealth. For example, 21% of whites had no health insurance for at least one month in 1990-92, compared to 36% of Blacks and 48% of "Hispanics," according to the Census Bureau.(4) The patterns of job displacement during recessions are complicated and subject to a lot of debate. But if all the mechanisms are hard to figure out, there are some bottom-line results we can point to. For example, the General Accounting Office found that - in a study that controlled for age, gender and occupation - Blacks and "Hispanics" had a 15% greater chance of losing their jobs during the last recession than whites.(6) If you don't control for, or hold constant, those factors, you would find the differences were even greater. Then, the results of losing a job were worse for Blacks than for whites. For example, of whites who lost their jobs during the recession, 56% had health insurance before they were fired, but 60% had health insurance at their next jobs! For Blacks, though, 50% had health insurance before they lost their jobs, but only 38% had health insurance after they found another job. So this tells us something about what kinds of jobs they are moving into. Those whites are not getting jobs at McDonald's.(6) The Wall Street Journal did their own study of the recession, looking at the hiring and firing disclosures of 35,242 companies that filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. They found that, among those companies, Blacks had a net loss of 59,479 jobs, while "Hispanics" gained 60,040, Asians (including all subgroups, presumably) gained 55,104, and whites gained 71,144.(6) Finally, a look at long-term trends. It's common knowledge that the gap between rich and poor is growing in the United States. But a closer look at the breakdowns shows that the trend is different for Blacks and whites. From 1970 to 1992 (controlling for inflation), the percentage of white families in every income group declined except those making more than $50,000. The greatest change was a 7.6% increase in white families making more than $75,000. By contrast, the biggest change for Black families was a 5.5% increase in those making less than $10,000 per year. Also, 9.7% of Black families moved out of the $15-35,000 per year range, a much bigger decline of the "middle class" than whites saw. Blacks also had an increase, though smaller than whites', of those making more than $50,000. So the overall trend in the last two decades among Blacks is a greater division between rich and poor, with the poor increasing faster than the rich. Among whites, however, there is an overall growth of the rich, and a slight decline of the poor. NOTES: 1. United States Census Bureau 2/3/95. 2. USCB 2/7/95. 3. USCB 1/12/95. 4. USCB 10/31/94. 5. USCB 10/6/95. 6. Wall Street Journal 9/19/94, p. A2. * * * MAOISM AND THE BLACK PANTHER PARTY SCARE COLLEGE ADMINISTRATORS February 22 - MIM co-sponsored an event entitled "The continued relevance of the Black Panther Party" with the Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League and the Black Panther Party, Boston to be held at the Roxbury Community College (RCC). On the morning of the event, after already confirming the date, time and place, MIM received a phone call from the administrator in charge telling us that we could not hold our event at the school because we had not jumped through enough administrative hoops. The real reason: Maoism scared some imperialist lackey. Months in advance of the event we got permission from the student government at RCC who agreed to set it up. A few weeks before the event was to be held the administration of the college got concerned and told the organizers that we would have to submit a written agenda for the event. After this was done, the administrator we were dealing with, Jean Ewing, who claimed to be the one in charge, gave us a date, time, and place for the event. So we went to work publicizing the event. On the morning of the event (which was scheduled for 3pm) we got a call saying "... Since I have found out that this is not an SGA sanctioned activity as I was told by [name], there is no need to come to the media arts center today because it cannot happen. I did not have a walk-through. I did not receive any literature about your group or what you're all about and I can not and will not go through with this." We showed up at the school after hearing this message and demanded to know what was going on. After much pushing the administrator admitted that some school Chancellors were in town for the day. Though she did not say it, it was clear that either she or someone higher up was really concerned that it might not look good for the Chancellors to see that an event on the Black Panthers was taking place on school grounds. Only after some really fast work on the part of the head of the student government, who was very helpful through the whole administration game, we were able to secure a room and a TV/VCR at the last minute (the event started about 20 minutes late due to the administrative hassle). Roxbury Community College is public property. It is funded by tax money and is supposed to be for the community. A lot of progressive events are held there regularly and we have never heard of anyone having to submit an agenda of exactly what will be done at their events or of a group having their event canceled at the last minute after getting administration approval, having a time and place set, and having done publicity. This demonstrates the power of Maoist politics and the fear that even a 25 year old memory of the Black Panthers can evoke. Revolutionary Marxism- Leninism-Maoism is a true threat to the imperialists and their lackeys supporting the existing political/social order and the administration at RCC knows it. BLACK PANTHER PARTY REMEMBERED Boston - in late February MIM co-sponsored two events about the Black Panther Party with the Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League and the Black Panther Party, Boston. These events included a talk by a RAIL member about the history of nationalism and national liberation struggles and particularly how the Panthers as a Maoist party fit in. We also showed the film *The FBI's War on Black America* and this was followed by a talk by MIM, RAIL and a former member of the Black Panthers who was working on reforming the Black Panther Party. The discussion after one of these events focused on the reactionary line of the representative from the Spartacist League who came to put forth his support for integrationism. The people at the event saw this for what it was: utopian idealism. Several members of what MIM identifies as the national bourgeoisie and national petit- bourgeoisie were on top of the debate, pointing out the need for national liberation of the Black (and other) nations and the importance of self- determination for nations. People also discussed the history of the reactionary white nation. MIM was asked several questions about our views on the Nation of Islam to which MIM replied that we see the NOI as a bourgeois nationalist movement. Bourgeois nationalism calls for independent Black nation capitalism and understands that this goal of equality as a capitalist nation is impossible without fighting the imperialists. This is a group that, in the current stage of anti-imperialist struggle, is an ally of the oppressed in national liberation struggles. To truly work in the interests of the oppressed, these united fronts against imperialism must be led by the proletariat of the oppressed nations. These two events demonstrated the real interest among Muslims in revolutionary anti-imperialist struggle and education as the audience at both events debated the merits of Black bourgeois nationalism versus revolutionary proletarian nationalism. Many of the bourgeois nationalists were in agreement that they would ally with proletarian communists fighting national liberation struggles and saw their common goal. These comrades all made clear their desire for equality for all peoples, their solidarity with the oppressed of other nations, and their willingness to do what it takes to liberate their people. * * * TROTS FORGET: HISTORY OF MURDEROUS REPRESSION AND EXECUTIONS February 16 - At a Spartacist League forum to defend Mumia Abu-Jamal, the speaker from the Partisan Defense Committee (the Spartacist League "class-struggle, non-sectarian legal and social defense organization") said that if Mumia Abu- Jamal is executed it will be "the first political execution since the Rosenbergs." The Sparts missed the truth on this one by a long shot. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed in 1953 during the McCarthyite anti-communist witch hunts. Among the most prominent of the political executions since the Rosenbergs in this country was the murder of George Jackson, like Mumia Abu- Jamal, a member of the Black Panthers, who was assassinated by prison guards in 1971 because of his political organizing. The mass murder at Attica after the rebellious uprising there is another good example of political executions. And there have been many more obvious murders of prisoners who are undertaking political organizing and defiance behind bars since 1953. Between December, 1967 and December, 1969, 28 Panthers were murdered by the state. This includes the well known case of Fred Hampton who was gunned down in his sleep in an invasion of the Panther headquarters by the pigs(1), and young Bobby Hutton who was murdered on April 6, 1968 by the cops (a member of the Oakland Police Department later admitted to the leaders of the Panthers that this was a planned execution.)(2) But even this is too narrow a definition of political executions. What about the thousands of young people, mostly Black men, whose entire life is taken away from them when they are put behind bars for life? Or the many who are denied necessary medical treatment and are forced to die? These are political executions that are taking place every day. Many of these prisoners are behind bars for political actions, many are in for crimes they did not commit. There are also many prisoners who are in for "crimes" they did commit, but these are crimes committed in the context of an imperialist society that leads the most downtrodden to a situation that makes bourgeois-defined crime a necessity of survival, and an expected and trained response to an oppressive society. These prisoners are predominantly members of the Black, Latino, and First Nations who are denied a trial by their peers, forced to stand trial in the white nation's court. Prisoners are, by their very existence in capitalist society, political prisoners. Political executions happen daily in the inner cities where the violence of the pigs is exceeded only by their violence in the prisons, and the First Nations are regularly attacked by invading imperialist armies. This case of Mumia Abu-Jamal is not something out of the ordinary except in that he has not yet been murdered by the pig prison guards. It is a worthy cause to fight to save his life and MIM has done work to this end, but it is incorrect to single his case out as the first political execution since the Rosenbergs. This definition of political executions accepts the bourgeois definition of crime and executions and plays right into the imperialist lies and propaganda. NOTES: 1. The Black Panthers Speak. Ed Philip S. Foner 2. Revolutionary Suicide by Huey Newton. p. 196. * * * MIM ATTACKS PEACE CORPS, LIBERALS RUSH TO ITS DEFENSE At the International Women's Day breakfast (see article on page 8) MIM sat at a table with three women who had been Peace Corps volunteers. These women had seen MIM's leaflets about the Peace Corps' role in imperialism. Their disagreements made for a heated discussion. (See leaflet text below.) These three women were classic Liberals in that they refused to look at the material surroundings and saw only subjective intentions. One woman denied the possibility that Peace Corps volunteers could be aiding imperialism if they were not personally aware of imperialism. Another woman criticized MIM for saying that the Peace Corps is dangerous because it masquerades as "left" and sucks in well intentioned people. She called this paternalist, as she had investigated the other options before joining and she said others do so too. MIM's response that people need to look harder was not acceptable to the Liberals who hypocritically attacked MIM for having a firm position against the Peace Corps while their firm pro-Peace Corps position was Ok. Another woman argued that her personal growth and development was more important than the outcome of her actions. It doesn't matter what the program itself does, it only matters what people's individual experiences are. Liberalism elevates personal experience and subjective intentions to a higher level of importance than a much larger phenomena like the abusive history of the Peace Corps, a history which none of the women disputed. One woman defensively argued: "What are you doing to help Third World people?" and repeatedly wanted to know if the MIM distributors had been to each of the countries they were talking about. It didn't matter how much research MIM did, as long as each individual hasn't been somewhere, they shouldn't take a position. The problem with this is that the Liberals do have a position, a position in support of the system, but they won't admit it. MIM says to let the bourgeoisie go unrebutted is to let them dominate. The shortcomings of Liberalism were shown by one woman's rhetorical question: "How can you condemn a program just because it is funded by the government?" At each turn MIM was accused of oversimplifying the issues, but the real guilty party for that offense was the Peace Corps volunteers. Even though the women saw the abuses of imperialism and it's version of "development" they refused to see its implications. Inability to connect intention, action and consequence in a reinforcing loop of political growth and responsibility is the hallmark of Liberal impotence. Materialists understand the importance of history which occurs outside of the self on the scale of global reality lived in by billions of people. MIM is committed to understanding how exploitation is occurring not for the sake of "personal growth" but in order to eradicate it! PEACE CORPS IS A TOOL OF U.S. IMPERIALISM The following was distributed at Peace Corps recruiting sessions on the East Coast: The Peace Corps recruits well intentioned people to "help people help themselves", but it's actually a program that helps to bolster Third World dependence on and subservience to the United States. "The toughest job you'll ever love" has also included direct and indirect spying for the CIA and other intelligence services. There is a direct correlation between Peace Corps volunteers (PCV) deployments and U.S. military interests. "National Security Action Memorandum No.132 - signed by Kennedy on February 12, 1962 and sent to CIA, USAID and Peace Corps Directors - instructed those agencies to 'give utmost attention and emphasis to programs designed to counter Communist indirect aggression [through] ... support of local police forces for internal security and counter-insurgency purposes.'" "In 1985, for example, the Philippines, home to the largest U.S. military bases outside U.S. borders, also ranked first in the number of PCVs with 399. Following close behind that same year with 379 was Honduras, a country-turned-military base in the U.S. war against Nicaragua." Peace Corps propaganda doesn't tell you why they left Bolivia in 1971 or Peru in 1974. The truth is that "the Bolivian government expelled the Peace Corps for its alleged activities in sterilizing peasant women without their knowledge. The Peruvian government expelled the Peace Corps for similar reasons in 1974." LAYING THE GROUND FOR DOMINATION The Peace Corps exists to help make Third World countries more conducive to super-exploitation by U.S. interests. Former Peace Corps director Loret Ruppe refers to the Peace Corps, the World Bank and USAID all in the same sentence. The World Bank and USAID provide "aid" in the form of loans to Third World governments on the condition that the country is opened up to further imperialist penetration. The Peace Corps provides valuable, on-the-ground public relations as well as helps to guide this political economic transformation. PEACE CORPS IS U.S. FOREIGN POLICY A major point behind the Peace Corps' existence is as a public relations ploy for the U.S. Former director Ruppe called the work of the PCVs "a valuable source of real aid to U.S. foreign policy." The political flexibility of PCVs is limited: volunteers have been fired for opposing the U.S. war in Vietnam, visiting an off-limits Salvadoran refugee camp in Honduras, and a volunteer in Honduras was reprimanded for writing her Congressperson that "Honduras needs jobs, education, [and] health care ... not military aid." PCVs have been "required to collect and pass on information which, in the context of death squad politics, could result in the killing of the people whom they were supposed to assist." The CIA has been known to use Peace Corps cover to infiltrate areas. One PCV couple in Honduras "came under heavy pressure to turn over names of 'the communists' after their language classes became a vehicle for genuine community organizing." "It was clear," the couple said, "that the teachers [we trained] were interested not only in teaching skills but also addressing the real reasons their students could not learn: hunger, and the fact that young people have to work." This principled couple quit rather than talk. Other volunteers no doubt provide more subtle information to their superiors without realizing that they are serving as spies. People who really want to help the world's oppressed lead better lives should work with MIM, not with the pig oppressors. NOTE: This flyer based on Covert Action Information Bulletin #39 (Winter 91-92) This article contains 31 footnotes and is based on "congressional documents, presidential Executive Orders and from interviews with returned Peace Corps volunteers who served in Honduras, Ecuador, and the Philippines under Reagan and Bush." The article is available from MIM for $1. * * * CLINTON MOVES TO REASSURE LABOR ARISTOCRACY It's early in the 1996 campaign for president and Clinton is making all the right elite-level moves. His unpopularity with the settlers now won't matter much a year and a half from now when it comes to spending tens of millions in spin media and collecting his IOUs from the leaders of significant class fractions. He wooed the internationalist bourgeoisie with NAFTA and GATT and now with the Mexican peso bailout, all of which prove that he is reliable in protecting multinational corporate interests. Now he has put organized labor in his pocket as well with an executive order that prevents the government from giving contracts to employers that hire replacement workers for strikers. Hence, while the prospects look good for Dole or Gramm to represent the imperialist-labor aristocracy alliance, MIM does not write off Clinton yet. The executive order is a huge victory for organized labor that puts it on even more equal footing with the imperialists and tightens the alliance between the imperialists and the labor aristocracy. When the New York Times wrote about the executive order, it explicitly mentioned the hits that organized labor has seemed to take with GATT and NAFTA - phony hits only seen as real thanks to labor aristocracy image control. Hence, at least some sectors of the bourgeoisie are looking at this as the usual deal between the imperialists and the labor aristocracy - a trade of help in exploiting the Third World better through "free trade" in exchange for an even better labor aristocracy position at home: "The Democratic effort to please the AFL-CIO leaders seems intended in part to soften the anger against the administration for pushing through the North American Free Trade Agreement and then the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade over the strong opposition of the nation's unions, which views these treaties as an invitation to American companies to relocate operations to low-wage countries."(1) As usual, the discussion above of GATT and NAFTA ignores the low-wage workers within U.S. borders, which is a major hint that the whole issue is about the imperialist-labor aristocracy alliance. People within U.S. borders already receiving low wages were never threatened by GATT and NAFTA and like MIM these proletarians didn't care about how the imperialists arranged their trade. There was no way for the imperialists to turn the screw on the garment sweatshop or California farmworkers any further. In previous articles about NAFTA, MIM has mentioned that labor leaders for the labor aristocracy would use the NAFTA as a bargaining chip - pointing to expanding profits abroad as a justification for a juicier deal for them. As MIM explained in 1993, "this is a common union bargaining tactic - to point to increased profits by employers, and then demand a share by claiming they haven't gotten any of the increased profits."(2) MIM had no idea just how far this would go - to the point of eliminating the power of using scabs in strikes in exchange for a tighter alliance to superexploit the Third World. - MC5 NOTES: 1. New York Times 2/21/95, p. 1. 2. MIM Theory 7, p. 127. * * * ANTI-NAFTA POLITICS BEARS ITS UGLY FRUIT In previous articles on the subject, MIM has explained that the Communist Party and social- democrats throughout North America are serving as "theoreticians of Euro-Amerikan nationalism" when they oppose NAFTA. Now the Mississippi KKK has proved MIM right. Spurred by months of agitation against NAFTA, the KKK is taking action. The KKK is scheduling a March 25 rally "in an attempt to gain support for an agenda that includes repealing the North American Free Trade Agreement, putting America first in all foreign matters and abolishing affirmative action programs that 'discriminate against white people.'" It does absolutely no good to raise the economic demands of the white working class. The white nation supremacists simply use vague discontent about economic conditions to suggest anti- immigrant answers to economic problems. All the talk by the "left" about jobs going to Mexico, Singapore etc. only encourages the white nationalists, who turn around and support "solutions" like Proposition 187. Whereas nationalism is progressive for nations oppressed by imperialism, in the imperialist nations, nationalism is reactionary. Economic harmony and peace are only possible when the various nations enjoy equality. Agitating for white working class economic demands sets back the possibility of economic harmony. World War I was a trade war that turned into a real war; we are in that same situation now. The "left" theoreticians of Euro-Amerikan nationalism need to follow MIM's lead and focus on anti-imperialism and anti-militarism before going on to other issues. According to the United Nations Report on Human Development 1994, taken by themselves, the white workers within U.S. borders have the number one living standard in the world. The stupid white chauvinist "Left" doesn't understand that asking white workers to organize to improve those material conditions further is an invitation to reinforce its aggressive international dominance in partnership with the imperialists. The Nazis, KKK, John Birchers and others of their ilk would be planning Hitler's birthday anniversaries and playing with uniforms in their basements if it were not for the economic credibility they receive from the white "Left" and elsewhere. Instead of pandering to Amerikan nationalism like the Trotskyists, neo-Trotskyists, crypto-Trotskyists and social-democrats, we should be neutralizing it. NOTE: Associated Press in Bay Windows, 2/23/95, p. 18. * * * GOANS BATTLE DUPONT The people of the Indian village of Karim, in Goa, join their compatriots of Bhopal in protesting the brutality of multinationals. In October, they demolished a DuPont factory that was under construction - and this was the third time villagers had destroyed equipment and buildings at the site. They are well aware that the factory would bring environmental degradation to their lush environment - and likely genocide. Their struggles will not be able to topple companies like DuPont and Union Carbide (of mass-murder of 16,000 in Bhopal fame), but they are on the right side of the struggle. Their actions provide evidence that the Indian people are rising up against the imperialist system that has for too long considered their lives and livelihoods disposable. NOTE: Third World Network Features Agency (of Malaysia), quoted in World Press Review 3/95, p. 24. * * * BIO-PIRACY: HYPOCRISY OF AMERIKAN "PROPERTY RIGHTS" ZEALOTS Another example of how Third World countries lose millions of dollars to First World thieves: "bio- piracy." Under this arrangement, technologically advanced nations transfer valuable plant and animal species from the Third World for development in their laboratories or industrial processing. The medicines and other products derived from the loot are then sold to the Third World at extortionist prices. Analysts put the lost royalty payments amount to $5 billion as about 7,000 compounds used in Western medicine are derived from Third World plants. The value of the stolen germ plasm to the Western pharmaceutical industry is estimated at $32 million per year. Small totals, relatively speaking, but repulsive hypocrisy from the arm-twisters that parade all over the globe whining about Amerikan "intellectual property rights" being infringed. NOTE: East African (of Nairobi) 12/11/94, quoted in World Press Review 3/95, p. 42. * * * SHELL OIL AND NIGERIAN COMPRADORS MURDER FOR PROFITS Nigerian soldiers have been imposing a brutal crackdown on the Ogoni people, killing and torturing so that Shell oil can resume its operations in the oil-rich area. Shell denies any role in the brutality as Nigerian army plans are revealed: a "ruthless military operation," recommends the army major responsible for security in the area. Plans also included sabotaging Shell equipment and blaming it on Ogoni activists. The Ogoni could be as rich as the Kuwaitis, but instead they live in poverty as dirty pumps on their land draw fortunes for Western investors. Since the imperialists are not about to let them in their club, only self-determination will get the Ogoni the means for survival. NOTES: The Guardian of London, quoted in the World Press Review 3/95, p. 28. * * * RAMOS GETS PRAISE FROM BOURGEOISIE by a New York prisoner In the December 5, 1994 Forbes, a fallacious article was written by Andrew Tanzier named "Goodbye to feudalism". The article, about the Philippines and Fidel Ramos was filled with typical bourgeois distortions and misinformation about the current situation in the Philippines. The beginning of the article states: "The 67 million people who inhabit these islands in the Pacific Ocean have finally been freed from the shackles of statism and its attendant pervasive corruption."(1) This is quite the contrary, the people of the Philippines have experienced more village bombings and forced evacuations in Ramos' first two years in office than the entire Marcos dictatorship.(2) Tanzier correctly puts Fidel Ramos in his proper category with other brutal dictators, but notice the language: "Inspired and instructed by other political leaders like Suharto of Indonesia, Carlos Menem of Argentina, Carlos Salinas of Mexico, Augusto Pinochet of Chile, Fidel Ramos, elected Philippines president in 1992, is steadily dismantling the outmoded protectionism that bound his country, allowing individual enterprise to work its magic." This magic is manifested by the displacement of over two million peasants by the Armed Forces of the Philippines.(2) The bourgeoisie sure has a way with words but then again I guess the U.S.-Ramos regime does perform some kind of "magic" when it "disappears" people obviously by "magicians" (read: death squads). As the article is typical of painting Fidel Ramos as some type of new improved nice guy. Tanzier overdoes the praises when he says "Fidel Ramos is cut from a different cloth. A product of his country's small middle class, he has no love for the oligarch or reason to protect their interest."(1) If this is so then why did Ramos receive an endorsement and funding from the U.S. empire for the 1992 elections? I'm sure the U.S. empire will not endorse or fund a person or regime that will not make an atmosphere conducive to "protect" their financial "interest" and on top of that Fidel Ramos is an offspring of the oligarchy. "Ramos was one of the 'Rolex-12' - one of the 12 with whom Ferdinand Marcos planned the imposition of Martial Law in 1972.... [Ramos] commanded Marcos' abusive and corrupt national police force, the Philippine Constabulary (PC).... He created the Barrio Self Defense Unit (BSDU) a para- military vigilante group which attacked democratic and national organizers."(2) Although Ramos likes to portray himself as a peacemaker, he has "made it clear that martial law would suit him just fine." On the one hand he talks about amnesty for the Moro fighting for self-determination - but on the other, he sends in the Philippine Army's 30th Infantry into Mindanao which has resulted in the disappearance of six residents and the removal of 35 families.(1) What more could we expect from a bourgeois magazine but to undermine the people's struggle and make a fascist like Fidel Ramos look like some type of good guy. Of course throughout the article Tanzier gives statistics and quotes to which he gives no reference to where he got his information so one will be completely lost if one knows nothing about the Philippines but then that's exactly what the bourgeoisie intends to do, lose you in a bunch of equivocalities. This is why we as an oppressed people must strive to build our own institutions such as media, in order to expose the bourgeoisie and their disinformation tactics. So help build MIM to battle the bourgeoisie on all fronts. NOTES: 1. Forbes 12/5/94. 2. MIM Notes 94, November 94. * * * REVIEW: KASAMAS SHOWS DAILY LIFE IN BASE AREAS Kasamas is a documentary detailing daily life in the liberated base areas of the Philippines. The film was made in 1988, before the rectification; it is instructive in terms of showing daily interactions of the NPA (New People's Army) with the masses. However, one major weakness of the documentary is that it does not show the process of struggle through which agreement is reached as well as a lack of overall context for the scenes shown. Families are interviewed about their relationship with the NPA. The peasants contrast the treatment that they receive by the fascist military with the treatment of the peasants by the NPA. The peasants interviewed said that they had been taught that the NPA were terrorists that rape women and cut innocent people's heads off. Other villagers that were interviewed said that the NPA has mass support because of what they do for the communities. This was contrasted to the army which was characterized as soldiers who will do anything for money. One illustration of how the NPA works in the villages was to help the villagers solve crimes and hold people accountable. The villager said that one specific theft, that of a water buffalo, would not have been solved without the NPA. The thief promised the NPA that he would not steal from his community again but the documentary did not show how the NPA reached agreement with this peasant specifically. The long term way to reduce crimes within a community is to change the material conditions. We see the NPA do this as they organize the peasants to build collective work projects as well as confront their landlords for a better share of what is produced. In one section of the film, NPA cadre were seen talking to the women of the community telling them that "if men are oppressed, we are doubly oppressed". The meetings of the women served to discuss ways in which women would work together to fight for their interests as a part of the struggle. The peasants in one area organized to confront their landlord. They organized a meeting to ask all of the farmers what issues they wanted to bring up with the landlord when they approached him. One farmer said that he was afraid that the army would come in or that the landlord would just throw them off the land. As a group, the farmers decided that they would ask the landlord to lower their rent to 1/3 of the harvest after production costs were taken out. Currently, the landlord gets 2/3 of the harvest before production costs are calculated. After the peasants worked on an agreement, they approached the NPA to brief them and explain what they expected from the NPA - defense in the case of army intervention. The NPA also gave the farmers a few suggestions for what they should do when they approached the landlord. The first time that the farmers confronted the landlord, he said that he was the owner and could do what he wanted and he threatened to throw them off the land. The farmers said that all they wanted was a just relationship with the landlord. The documentary did not show the process of struggle extensively, but ultimately, the landlord agreed "out of pity" to a 50/50 arrangement. Kasamas documented the NPA's development of collective projects and farming that benefited the people that worked on them as well as the community in general. This is one of the more exciting parts of the film - showing people working together, pooling resources, and profiting from their work. It was not totally clear from the film, but this was apparently abandoned land that had no landlord to suck the profits away. The documentary also showed the importance of correct relations between the masses and the NPA. One comrade hit a peasant while trying to stop him from beating his wife. For this he was suspended from the Party for six months and was restricted from carrying a gun for that period. Here the weakness of the film is that the process of self- criticism was not shown. We only see criticism of this soldier's actions, not an explanation of what a better action would have been. The process through which Maoists resolve problems is a much more effective way which deals with the root of the problem, and this film would have been better if the process of struggling to find the most appropriate solution was documented. The end of the film showed an NPA tactical offensive. The NPA was victorious in gaining more arms for the People's War. In this part, there was also a comrade that was wounded. Another documentary - *Medics of the People* - shows how the NPA organized cadres and peasants with little education to take care of the sick and wounded victims of the war against the military. To organize talks or film showings about the Filipino revolution, contact MIM. * * * A RUSTLING OF LEAVES: INSIDE THE PHILIPPINE REVOLUTION 1988 By Nettie Wild REVIEW BY MC234 *A rustling of leaves: Inside the Philippine revolution* is a good overview of the revolution in the Philippines. This almost 2 hour video shows the revolutionaries in the countryside and the cities as well as the legal left and explains the connection between U.S. imperialism, the Filipino government and right-wing vigilantes. Filmed about a year after Aquino's rise to power, the video demonstrates that Aquino's promises, as that of the government before her, were worthless. Aquino may have "won" at the ballot box, but she got to be President because of the military. When Marcos refused to step down, the military switched sides, sensing that Marcos was becoming more of a liability than an asset. Showing who is in control, the video explains how there were four military coups against Aquino in the first year of her presidency, and after each she had to dismiss a leading "leftist" from her cabinet to regain the military's support. The film starts with a description of the wages of sugar workers ($1/day) and moves to Davao City, the capital of Mindanao for an interview with radio DJ Jun Pala. Pala is a leader of the vigilante group, Alsa Masa. He openly compares himself and his radio practice to that of Goebbels, Hitler's minister of propaganda as he proudly calls out the names of communist sympathizers to his vigilantes. Classing the People's War as a low-intensity conflict, the imperialist strategy of using civilians as cannon fodder was explained. In addition to the Alsa Masa, we are also shown the Tad Tads (Chop Chops). They are called this because they carry machetes and are known for decapitating their communist victims. Most vividly, the video shows a funeral for a union organizer killed by Tad Tads, and interviews the Tad Tad commander, Armed Forces of the Philippines Lt. de la Rosa. He says that his Tad Tads did not commit the killing. When asked what he was going to do to prevent future killings, he said he would keep his Tad Tads from roaming around. When pushed on this contradiction, he reported that he had received reports (from his own Tad Tads!) that his own men were responsible for the killings. Government support for the Alsa Masa and Tad Tads is not only military but political. Cory Aquino said of the Alsa Masa at a rally "We look up to you in our fight against communism." U.S. Secretary of State Shultz argued that the Alsa Masa are not vigilantes, but are organized by the military and that he supports the idea. So much for Jun Pala's idea that the Alsa Masa and the Tad Tads are the real people's movement. The video also travels to the countryside on the island of Mindanao where we meet Father Frank Navarro and other NPA soldiers. We see Comrade Dadung who helps set up revolutionary governments in the liberated areas. We see how people's justice is carried out, as the NPA takes the case of a recaptured turncoat NPA soldier to the masses. A court of the masses must make the decision as to whether former soldier should be expelled or executed. The video also gives a lot of attention to the legal left, particularly the campaign for Philippine Senate of former political prisoner and NPA founder Dante Buscayno. It was interesting to see how the legal left interacts politically with the revolutionary underground. Buscayno defends communism in the abstract, but late in the campaign, attacks the urban armed movement for encouraging vigilante attacks. For this Buscayno is criticized by the revolution as being an "armchair revolutionary". Buscayno exposes his no longer revolutionary politics even clearer at the end of the film were he says that armed struggle must be secondary to the legal struggle. Maoists disagree on both of these points. First, reality is that the reactionaries will strike back at the revolutionaries, but People's War allows the revolutionary strength to grow with each blow and with a corresponding decrease in reactionary strength. Secondly, the legal struggle can help build public opinion for the revolution, but the legal struggle can not make the crucial transformations needed in society. The greatest weakness of *Leaves* is that it fails to explain the Marxist-Leninist-Maoist theory and practice of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP). The focus is on the NPA, and while the narrator tells us that the NPA is led by Communists, it is only fascist Jun Pala who tells us that the CPP is Marxist-Leninist. Nowhere do we see a treatment of ideological questions such as People's War or the mass line. Some of the blame for this must go to the CPP, however, which in the mid-1980s began to deviate from Maoism. After suffering serious losses, the CPP began an internal struggle in 1988 and a full-scale rectification campaign in 1992, to return to its Maoist roots. With rectification 3 years old, and this video now 7, MIM hopes that this film maker will return to the Philippines to produce another excellent video. * * * RESEARCH SHOWS "EYEWITNESS" EVIDENCE UNRELIABLE: LIBERALS CAN'T SEE CONCLUSION TO THEIR DATA The U.S. justice system claims to seek and punish the guilty for crime while leaving innocent individuals free. MIM does not share this objective, because the facts show that crime stems from how a society is organized, not how the system assesses individuals. Now there is also evidence from several studies that shows that the system cannot even punish the right people, never mind reduce crime. A recent case involving a man falsely convicted of rape and who died of a heart attack in the process of clearing his name caused the New York Times to publish a summary of the academic evidence. "A 1993 review of 1,000 convictions of people who were later found to be not guilty revealed that eyewitness errors were the single largest factor, accounting for about half the cases." At least 80,000 trials a year rely on eyewitnesses for evidence. Experiments show that the ruling class has successfully brainwashed the public into blaming someone for crime - anyone - once a crime has happened. For example, in an experiment with a staged theft with 100 eyewitnesses, the eyewitnesses faced a police lineup that did not include the perpetrator. 21 eyewitnesses still picked someone from the lineup. In a similar study, even when the eyewitnesses knew that the criminal might not be in the lineup, 33% still picked the wrong person. The U.S. justice system is supposedly based on convicting people based on proof "beyond a reasonable doubt." Since 21% of the time an eyewitness will pick someone from a lineup when the actual criminal was not even in the lineup, there is always "reasonable doubt" in the system. Cases based on eyewitnesses would seem to be subject to perpetual "reasonable doubt." From the Liberals' point of view, "it is a nightmare for the innocent person, while the actual culprit remains at large." They are frustrated by not being able to gauge individuals accurately. In contrast, MIM does not base its strategy against crime on the individualist premise of judging each person one at a time. We are going to organize society to cut the crime rate to 10% of what it is now just as China under Mao succeeded in doing. The figures for picking the right person from the lineup are no better when the actual perpetrator is in the lineup. Researchers divided eyewitnesses into two groups - people who were sure and pointed quickly and those who had to think about it. Among the eyewitnesses sure they found the culprit, only 70% picked the right person from the lineup; 30% were wrong. Among the eyewitnesses who reasoned their way to a conclusion, the accuracy rate was only 30%; 70% of the time, these eyewitnesses picked the wrong person. To make matters worse, there is "monkey-see- monkey-do" effect. Witnesses who knew there were other witnesses became more confident. This confidence turns out to have no relationship to accuracy. Despite these studies, police do not always put people with similar features in the line-ups to force eyewitnesses to make hard choices. They go on using the same methods despite these studies that have come out from 1981 to 1993. The hypocritical Liberals who lead these studies see the abysmal figures, but they cling desperately to an asinine system. "'Police are skeptical when I present these findings,' said Dr. Wells. 'They're afraid of making witnesses overly cautious. They want convictions, not cautious witnesses. But we find the right procedures minimize false identifications while leaving the accurate ones unchanged. If the culprit is there, they'll spot him.'" Seeking respectability with the police - within the system - these individualists refuse to face the facts they gathered. The truth is that the system only claims to punish the appropriate individuals to bolster its own legitimacy. In actuality, the police and even the researchers don't care about the obvious facts that have made the fascism-crazed settlers of this society willing to convict anyone without any evidence. The ruling class is not threatened by these matters, because the danger falls on the common people, mostly the poor and oppressed nationalities. The rich simply buy their way out of prison if the cops ever make the mistake of arresting them in the first place. The rich also don't have to worry, because theft of bread and murder of individuals is a crime, but white collar criminals who embezzle funds serve in cushy prisons if they serve at all, and criminals who put poisons into the environment that kill more than 20 times as many people as killed by so- called murder go free. The ruling class doesn't care if it convicts the right person, because the imperialist government only imprisons people to repress the poor and national minorities. NOTE: New York Times 1/17/95, p. C1, C6. * * * UNDER LOCK & KEY OREGON CENSORS MIM NOTES Mail ... is in violation of Department of Corrections Rule governing Mail (Inmate). The material has been rejected because it Contains material that threatens or is detrimental to the security, good order, or discipline of the facility, or facilitates criminal activity. Specific article(s) and page number(s) or material(s) considered objectionable: Maoist International [sic] Movement (MIM) Jan. 1995 #96, page two, "What is MIM?" Promote of armed revolution. - Oregon State Corr. Institution, 2/3/95 PRISONERS ABUSED IN CALIFORNIA PRISONS Greetings. I'm writing from Pelican Bay State Prison's Security Housing Unit (SHU), where I'm serving 30 years plus 25-to-life. I just read MIM Notes 93 (10/94), which contained some accounts of torture and inhumanity being perpetrated in Amerika's prisons. I was glad to find a publication where these truths and realities are being printed, and figured I had a duty to immediately write you a letter to make known my own experiences in the California Department of Corrections (CDC) at Folsom Prison. I arrived at Folsom in March 1991 and soon found myself in administrative segregation (ad-seg), "the Hole." Why? For exercising my Constitutional rights of free speech in a letter to an ACLU attorney, in which I was complaining about conditions at the prison. We were on a "state of emergency" lockdown at the time (no showers, no law library, no exercise, and sack lunch food). I was put in ad-seg where guards threatened my life. For two months I was locked down. Then I was transferred to another yard. The bogus "write-up" was dismissed. A few months later, as I began involving myself in more legal and political activism. I was harassed constantly for a month (cell moves, searches, interference with privileges, etc.) until I stood up to the pigs and demanded some common respect and human dignity. How dare I have the audacity to act like a man with self-respect and pride! I was rushed and severely beaten by guards with billy clubs. Thrown in the hole and falsely charged with assault. That was 8/22/92. Since that time, I have been shot at and had my life threatened by CDC officials, been beaten, tortured, framed for crimes, given additional prison time (I only had seven years for robbery) and facemasked, isolated, ostracized, etc. I have so far been given ten years to serve in SHU and will probably never get out as I've also been falsely labeled a "gang member." So I came to prison with "seven years," and should have paroled last year, but now I have a life term to solitary confinement and torture. It's only a countdown to death by deterioration or execution. On 1/7/94 in a so-called "cell extraction," I was beaten and nearly crippled (head and knees beat with clubs). Upon arrival at Pelican Bay, when the convicts get off the bus, there's about 30 or so guards with clubs (two for each prisoner), and they have you put your nose on the wall while they scream out profanity, humiliation and rude jokes, just hoping you say something or turn your head so they can beat your head in. (Even though you're shackled and handcuffed). It's really sick witnessing these cowards getting their jollies doing this. Then you are placed in a cell, butt- naked, until some clothes are issued to you. I could describe more details and additional atrocities, but what good will it do?! I guess only to demonstrate the necessity of resistance, and the consequences of it as well. Please send me MIM Theory, party literature from Peru and the Philippines, etc., plus any additional info you feel I could use. I look forward to your reply. From the dungeon, - a California prisoner, 1/27/95 MC49 ADDS: You got the idea: exposing the imperialists' crimes helps to build public opinion for their eventual overthrow. Also, your experience of being punished for exercising your "Constitutional rights of free speech" shows why MIM says that there are no rights, only power struggles. PRISONER REJECTS GUINEA PIG TACTICS I trust this missive finds you all in positive health, a revolutionary train of thought and in the pursuit of liberation, justice and equality. I can attest to the fact that our oppressors are at the acme of corruption, exploitation and genocidal tactics to undermine the Black masses through systematic chemical and biological warfare. A prime example of what I'm speaking about is as follows: On 12/21/94, I went to the facility hospital and a nurse demanded that I submit to taking a routine T.B. test. But a routine T.B. test is annual, and I took one this year, before I had knowledge of what the real test consists of. I said no, because I am a conscientious objector to guinea pig tactics. She asked, "Well, do you know what that means?" I said yes, whenever someone demands that I submit to a test to see if the potency or efficiency of an anti-disease vaccine or antidote works - just as the guinea pig - then my moral sense and conscientiousness automatically objects! Especially when the needle is already prepared with the liquid substance in it and I didn't see where it came from.... What in hell do you think they would do to an entire prison population who the government defines as "outlaws" and people not fit for their society. They already tested a prison in Ohio as guinea pigs under a similar drug. And the infamous Attica prison here in New York. Now with the corrupt history of exploitation in this country, how do they expect me to submit and cooperate with being victimized and oppressed? I refuse to be counted amongst the broken men! There are many comrades who are struggling against this repression, but the pigs have too many informants and ignorant cowards masquerading as men. Broken brothers with no sense of direction, chasing an Amerikan dream with white plastic faces, in a land dominated by pigs with white plastic faces. How is a brother like me supposed to react? I've been in rebellion all my life. It would be counterproductive for me to stop combating the dehumanizing reality of these beasts' oppression. Even if I die in the struggle to transcend oppression and transform the savage conditions that we Black people face in Amerikkka, then the struggle must continue with greater effort to bring this oppressive force to its knees and demise. This is the dynamic of a revolutionary struggle formed out of perfect love for my beautiful Black Nation and perfect hate for the fascist pig and his dehumanized, devilish nation! I've been held captive in these depths of hell since the age of 14. I'm now 20 and my mother thinks I'm too young to be filled with so much hate, anger and animosity. I told her, "Not when you experience a bay of pigs stabbing you in the back with a nine-inch knife and then they take it out three inches and call that 'progress.'" I beg your pardon! You don't repress an entire people 100 ways and take three ways off and call it progress. There's only one ultimatum, and that's liberation or death. The only thing the devil respects is fire and with the people as my witness, let's burn the pig to hell! I'm still receiving MIM Notes; keep them coming. I also successfully started two study groups, using my personal books and literature on Mao, Fanon, George Jackson, Prosser, Turner, Castro, Marx, Lenin, Malcolm X, Kuumba, etc. I would appreciate any material on the Black Panthers, American Indian Movement, BLA and other revolutionary organizations. I also request Agents of Repression, The Dragon Has Come, Assata, Elaine Brown's Taste of Power, and Soul on Ice. Any of the above will be appreciated. I know there are many comrades who request material, and I understand MIM's financial situation, so all is good. Peace comrades, - a New York prisoner, 12/29/94 PRISONCRATS DIVIDE, BUT CANNOT CONQUER Greetings comrades, I just received the MIM Notes. And I would like to thank you very much for your time. Like I told you in other letters, I'm in the Baltimore Supermax. The same old shit is still going on here, now with a new warden. I have tried to build MIM in this supermax. I have tried to start a study group and tried to get MIM Notes into the library. But it is like this: the library here is not for us. And the inmates do not have anything on their mind. Now the comrades, the ones who do come together, the pigs move us around. When pigs see some of us that have unity, they do not want us together, so they move us around about every three weeks. But us true brothers who are about the struggle, we will not give up. We keep moving on. We do not have any time for bullshit, so for the ones who want to be about the struggle, and be for real about the struggle, all is well. Time is for real, and we've got to be real. In this supermax it is a must that we be in our most positive state of existence, mentally, physically, etc. It is a must that we be in sound mind and body at all times. We've got to keep head and shoulder above dumbshit. We who are true about the struggle here in the supermax, we know what time it is. Now for the ones who do not know what time it is, they will see the light one day. In here, all we have time for is to read, read and read. But most people in here just play all day and all night and talk a lot of bullshit. Can't they see that the pigs are making more and more supermaxes? ... I'm going to end this letter for now, but I will get back at you again really soon. The struggle is my life, and in the struggle I remain. I leave you with the best of revolutionary regards. The struggle continues. Forward ever, backward never. - a Maryland prisoner, 12/20/94 PRISONER RAPS BOURGEOIS MEDIA Letters to the Editor The Atlanta Constitution P.O. Box 4689 Atlanta, GA 30302 Dear Editor: Don't you people ever get tired of bamboozling the public? People rely on the press for *factual* information and all they seem to receive is driveling, one-sided propaganda. I'm an inmate at USP Atlanta, serving a sentence that expires in 2006, and what's being imparted as "factual" information to the public just isn't true. Contrary to what was printed, there were not 180 inmates in C-Block when Officer Washington was assaulted. Every inmate here, unless medically unassigned, is required by Bureau of Prison Policy to have a prison work detail. Work Call occurs at approximately 7:45 a.m., and other than a few inmates that work second and third shift details, the units are practically empty. What was reported was just nonsense. If there had been 180 inmates in C-Block when Officer Washington was assaulted, there would have been a line standing a the Lieutenant's office waiting to inform on the inmate or inmates involved. The simple fact of the matter is (and you can bet the FBI is aware of this) that whomever assaulted Officer Washington was able to do so stealthily, without prying eyes: a conclusion which is supported by the fact that Officer Washington's assault occurred so quickly that he could not activate his body alarm - an action which only requires a press of a button. This indicates that he was "moved on." To be "moved on" like that requires both preparation and privacy. Your paper also reported that there were 85 officer-related assaults here within the last year. This is another piece of statistical garbage. The type of incidents included in this statistic is much like this: An inmate gets into a verbal altercation with a Corrections Officer for whatever reason. The inmate is thrown to the floor for "security reasons," and his head placed in a choke-hold, while an assisting officer cuffs the inmate's hands behind his back. Instead of immediately releasing the choke-hold, because the inmate is now under mechanical restraint and of no harm to himself or anyone else, the Corrections Officer applies a little more pressure in vindictiveness. Somehow the inmate gets his mouth in the right place and tries to take a bite out of his antagonist's arm. Of course, the officer lets loose. But he doesn't stop there. He stands up and begins to kick the inmate about his head and body with steel-toed boots, and continues to do so until he is either pushed off by a more responsible officer or tires himself out. Pictures are subsequently taken of the inmate's injuries, the bruises and abrasions. This now places the Corrections Officer in an awkward position. Unless he files an incident report against the inmate for a physical altercation the Officer initiated, he may get transferred to another facility for using excessive force. With the issuance of the Incident Report, his excessive force is deemed as justifiable and the inmate is placed in segregation. Another example is the jerk in uniform who unnecessarily puts his hands on an inmate, in violation of BOP Policy, and gets pushed away. This officer also claims he was "assaulted" to cover his butt. These are the type of incidents your paper reports to the public as being 85 officer-related assaults. While the facts are that most of these "assaults" could have been avoided if Corrections Officers had followed BOP Policy and Procedure, instead of thinking they're in a Tough Man competition. The true fact is that there has not been a "serious" officer-related assault here since 1987, and it has been 12 years since an officer was killed. As for Officer Washington, I doubt if the public will ever be told the true reason behind his death. It will be more in line with the BOP's propaganda doctrine to mislead the public into believing that what happened was a random assault for arbitrary and capricious reasons. They will never tell you that Officer Washington was investigated for having made advances to female visitors here. That he had a smart mouth, a bad attitude, and had a habit of behaving in a non- professional manner with inmates. And they won't tell you that even this wasn't the reason someone laid in wait for him and pealed his head. Why don't you, the media, demand an inquiry and find out the truth? Or don't you think the public has a right to know about how many officers are on the take in here? Don't you think the public has a right to know that based on media-generated hysteria over rising crime, they have been bamboozled into taking away our "hope." Don't you think the public has a right to know the true facts? FACT: There are more inmates serving longer sentences than any other time in the history of this country, and it is doing *nothing* to stem the allegedly rising crime rate. FACT: There are more inmates serving "life" sentences, without the possibility of parole, than any other time in the history of the United States, and these "life sentence" laws are not having any deterrent effect. FACT: Recent studies prove that although the U.S. prison population has more than doubled from 1980 to 1990, the numbers of violent crime (murder, rape, robbery and assault) stayed relatively constant. FACT: The U.S. presently has the highest incarceration rate of all nations in the First World, at a rate of 658 people incarcerated per 100,000. FACT: There are over *one million* people incarcerated in the United States, and this figure grows larger daily. FACT: Recent studies prove that more prisons and long-term sentences do not act as a deterrent in the prevention of crime. FACT: Inmates are being warehoused in overcrowded facilities for longer terms, facing no relief in sight, resentment, and an atmosphere of violence and abuse that Correction Officers perpetrate, create, cultivate and encourage among inmates. FACT: Over 50% of the present Federal prison population is incarcerated for a violation of the new drug laws. FACT: Over 85% of this 50% are Black and Hispanic. FACT: As much as 25% of this 50% are incarcerated with sentences in excess of ten years for possession of narcotics in amounts less than one ounce. FACT: There is just as much drug trade occurring behind the walls of the United States Penitentiary, Atlanta, as there is on the streets. FACT: There is heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, marijuana, steroids, needles and syringes, prophylactics, guns and ammunition, and these things are brought into here, in quantity, by corrupt correction officers profiting at the expense of our misery. These are the cold, hard facts! To use a biblical expression, you reap what you sow. If things continue as they are, there will be an incident where hundreds of slavering brutes, of society's creation, breach these concrete barriers and invade your apathetic little lives to return upon you the miseries and atrocities you, society, have suffered upon us under the guise of "justice." You reap what you sow. Inmates serving life sentences will eventually realize that as long as they are serving a sentence which they can never complete, they cannot be subjected to the penalties of a consecutive sentence, such as a death sentence imposed for killing a corrections officer, and go on a rampage slaying a corrections officer every other day. But maybe this is what you, society, need. Maybe then, the combination of misery (experienced by the families of the slain officers) and death will make the $27,500 annual salary seem less alluring and suggest to the American public that more and larger prisons, and longer sentences are not viable alternatives as a replacement for less employment resulting from the demise of Cold War industry. When prisons cease to be "big business" and a means of re-employing those left unemployed by a declining military, defense industry and production industry, productive alternatives to long-term incarceration will be sought. You reap what you sow. The bottom line is that society needs to accept responsibility for their actions (and for Officer Washington's death). The media, being their voice, needs to provide facts, instead of manipulating the public with repetitious propaganda designed to induce hysteria, so that productive decisions are made instead of band-aid solutions. Is violence the only way to get your attention? A corrections officer was killed: the first here in 12 years. The first "serious" assault since 1987. According to BOP sources, this is the most violent prison in the United States. What does this tell you? Don't you get the message? People, human beings, are dying; being *murdered*! And there will be more deaths; more murders. The blood of Officer Washington is on your hands, Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Your band-aid solutions were responsible for his death. You are all accessories to his murder, just as surely as if you had taken the hammer and struck the killing blow yourselves. You have created a system without hope; one where life is cheap and death is commonplace. And there will be more deaths, more murders, and you will be equally responsible. Unless you initiate constructive change. Society, through the media, screamed that parole did not work. Of course it did not work: it was a system designed to promote the inmate's failure, not his successful re-entry and re-incorporation into society. But instead of debugging it and changing it so it performed its primary function, you scrapped it and decided to warehouse humans for longer periods and require that they serve 85% of their lengthy prison sentences. Officer Washington's blood is on your hands. And you need to accept the reality of the situation: that there will be more blood and more deaths unless you take action. What is needed is for you, society, to wake up! Pay attention. Get concerned. Demand change. Find "productive solutions." Demand "productive solutions" and refuse to settle for anything less. It is your right as constituents in a democratic society. Because you need to remember that this blood won't wash off with quaint phrases, band-aid politics, or poor excuses. You need to ask yourselves what seeds are you sowing now? And are you prepared to harvest the plants that grow? How about a reality check? - a Georgia prisoner, 12/27/94 STUDENTS AND MAOISTS BLOCK CIA RECRUITING The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is still intact, but its attempt to recruit potential agents of imperialism on the campus of the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) suffered a setback last month after a demonstration organized by MIM and the Network for Public Education and Social Justice (NPESJ), a student group not affiliated with MIM. At a demonstration March 1, MIM pointed out to UCLA students that the CIA's main purpose is to wage war on the world's oppressed nations by means of economic warfare, rigged elections, assassinations and genocide. MIM's critics countered that MIM and the demonstrators were infringing on the CIA's "rights." MIM says: There are no rights, only power struggles! MIM does not advocate disrupting the "speech" of just any reactionaries. But it's not the "speech" of the CIA that commits mass murder and oppression. If all the CIA did was talk, MIM would just argue against them. It's the action - the recruiting of students to commit crimes against the people - that we oppose. If students can stop the CIA from spreading some of its poison - make the CIA's job a little harder - that's a power struggle, not an infringement of "rights." The oppressed and victims of the CIA have no "right" to "free" speech when they are dead, imprisoned, exploited and raped. Theirs is a struggle to end that oppression and win freedom for the world's vast majority. There is a long history of students resisting the militarization of U.S. campuses, including CIA recruiting, military training and the development of genocidal weaponry. This effort is an important part of building popular student consciousness against imperialism.