## ## ### ## ## # # ### ### ### ### # # # # # # # ## # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # ## ### # # # # # # ## # # # # # # # ### # # # # ### # ### ### THE MAOIST INTERNATIONALIST MOVEMENT MIM Notes 100! May 1995 Electronic Edition * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Get MIM Notes 100 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 reports on police repression and mass resistance from the CIA to state execution to youth repression, as well as news from Turkey, Ireland, Palestine and Peru. Plus culture reviews, news, and MIM's monthly prison news from prisons and prisoners, Under Lock & Key. 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 100! includes: CONTENTS: 1. COPS TARGET YOUTH IN W. MASS. 2. CIA ASSASSINATIONS EXPOSED - SOMETIMES 3. AMERIKAN KNOWLEDGE OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS 4. LETTERS TO MIM NOTES 5. RAIL IS LED BY A MAOIST PARTY 6. DEFEND MUMIA ABU-JAMAL 7. TURKEY ATTACKS S. KURDISTAN; PKK FIGHTS BACK 8. IRISH GUERRILLA ARMY RECEIVES SETBACK 9. PALESTINIANS TO FOREIGNERS: AND STAY OUT! 10. PSEUDO-ELECTIONS IN PERU: FUJIFRAUD 11. 25 YEARS AGO: STUDENT ACTIVISM (not in this edition) 12. UCLA ACTIVISTS DEFEND AFFIRMATIVE ACTION 13. KWAME TOURE CALLS BLACK STUDENTS TO ORGANIZE 14. BLACK/WHITE TV GAP 15. FOR LUNCH AND BREAKFAST, INDEPENDENT POWER 16. NO REST FOR WICKED: CIA WON'T LEAVE UCLA ALONE 17. RALLY FOR WOMEN'S LIVES FORGETS MOST WOMEN 18. PORNOGRAPHY INDUSTRY BOOMS 19. PUERTO RICAN FREEDOM FIGHTERS REMEMBERED 20. NATIONAL PHONE-IN CAMPAIGN TO FLORENCE PRISON 21. MOBIL OIL PROMOTES SUPERSTITION, INDIVIDUALISM 22. DRUG USE SPREADS IN REVISIONIST CHINA 23. REVIEW: STRAWBERRY AND CHOCOLATE 24. REVIEW: SERVANT OF THE PEOPLE 25. UNDER LOCK & KEY ######## ###### ###### ##### ### ### ### %%%%%%%%% ### %%%%%%%%% ### %%%%%%%%% ### %%%%%%%%% ### %%%%%%%%% ### %%%%%%%%%% ### %%%%%%%%%%%% ## %%%%%%% %%%% ### %%%%% %%%% ## %%% %%%% ### % %%%% ### %%%% ## %%%% ## %%%% ## %%%% ## %%%% ## %%%% ## %%%% ## # %%%% ## ### %%%% ## #### %%%% ## #### %%%% ## ##### %%%% ## ##### %%%% ## ####### %%%% ## ### #### %%%% ### ### #### %%%%### ## #### %%### # #### %##%% ### #### ##%%%%% #### #### #### %%%%% #### ####### ###### %%%% ## ################# %%% # ########### % ######## ######## ### ### ### ### ## ## ## ## ## %% ## ## %% ## ## %% %% %% ## ## %% %% %% ## # %% %% %% %% # %% %% %% %% # # %% %% %% %% # %% %% %% %% # # %% %% %% %% # %% %% %% %% # # %% %% %% % # # %% %% %% % # # %% .%%%% # # %% .%%%% # # %%% .%% # # %%% .%% # # ..%%%% # # ..%%%% # # %%%%%%%%%%%% # # %%%%%%%%%%%% # # %%%%%%%%%%%%% # # %%%%%%%%%%%%% # # %%%%%%%%%%%% # # %%%%%%%%%%%% # # %%%%%%%%%%% # # %%%%%%%%%%% # # %%%%%%%%%% # %%%%%%%%%% # # %%%%%%%%% # %%%%%%%%% # # %%%%%%% # %%%%%%% # ## %%%%%% ## ## %%%%%% ## ## %%%%%% ## ## %%%%%% ## ## %%%%%% ## ## %%%%%% ## ### %%%%%% ### ### %%%%%% ### ##%#%#%# ##%#%#%# %%%%%% %%%%%% %%%%%% %%%%%% %%%%%% %%%%%% %%%%%% %%%%%% %%%%%% %%%%%% %%%%%% %%%%%% %%%%%% %%%%%% #%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%# %#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#% #%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%# %%%%%% %%%%%% %%%%%% %%%%%% %%%%%% %%%%%% %%%%%% %%%%%% %%%%%% %%%%%% %%%%%% %%%%%% * * * COPS TARGET YOUTH IN WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS In response to an increase in gang-related violence in the past month, state and local police departments in Western Massachusetts are poised to receive almost two million dollars for new anti- gang efforts. At the end of February, three young men were killed in Springfield, MA. Attributed to gangs and gang violence, their deaths are being used by city and state officials as an excuse to shore up the already heavily armed pigs. New, draconian measures that would be funded with the proposed money include a "gang suppression unit" which will implement a new "... 'stop and frisk' policy, meaning that information the police gather on gang members and suspected illegal activity will be used as 'reasonable suspicion' to allow officers to frisk suspects." There are also calls to make membership in a gang illegal. Since the February murders, police have arrested about 100 suspected gang members, and these new measures threaten to allow officers to randomly search young Blacks, Latinos and Latinas who look "suspicious." Instead of attacking the root of the problems which compel oppressed youth to organize, namely a system which requires that some people live in poverty while others dwell in excessive wealth, the state favors armed suppression. And with the help of its lackeys in the bourgeois media, the state has been able to generate support among some Black and Latino residents of Springfield for more cops. But people who seek an end to gang violence in their communities cannot trust the cops, whose job it is to protect private property and enforce national oppression. The solution lies in destroying imperialism - the system ultimately responsible for the violence on Amerikkka's inner city streets.... COPS OF ALL STRIPES TARGET WESTERN MASS GANGS, YOUTH by a member of the Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League (RAIL) Western Massachusetts has seen an increase in violence associated with gangs in the past month. In a three day period from February 25-28, three young men were killed and several more injured. All killings took place in Springfield, MA. The dead end solution being proposed is more pigs. On February 25, Miguel A. Rivas, a 19-year-old from Holyoke, MA was shot and killed in a Pizzeria in Springfield's North End. On February 27, Daniel J. Brassil, 16 of Springfield was shot and killed on his front porch on Wilber Street - it is speculated that he was mistaken for a gang member. Carlos D. Falcon, 18 of Springfield was shot dead in a KFC parking lot; no proof that this killing was gang related has been found.(1) Another youth, 16-year-old Mardio Washington of Springfield, survived a shot fired from a gun held to his cheek at a rap concert in Holyoke. Several other youths have been injured.(2) The cops estimate that gang membership in the region has grown from 50 members to 2,000.(3) In response to the violence, there has been a call from segments of the communities, pigs and city and state officials alike, for more money to be spent on local and state pig presence. The total funds being considered add up to $1.2 million for state police, District Attorney William Bennet's office, and four local police departments (Springfield, Holyoke, Chicopee and West Springfield). The breakdown of figures includes $398,000 for Springfield, $230,805 for state police, $149,500 for Bennett's office, $4,300 for probation officers, $184,300 for Holyoke, $132,678 for Chicopee, and $107,571 for West Springfield. Most of this money will go to overtime for pigs "familiar with" gang operations. In addition, $600,000 in state grants has been approved for immediate use.(3) Springfield's $398,000 will go to fund a newly formed "gang suppression unit" which will implement a new "... 'stop and frisk' policy, meaning that information police gather on gang members and suspected illegal activity will be used as 'reasonable suspicion' to allow officers to frisk suspects."(4) This ambiguous statement might be interpreted as allowing officers to randomly search young Blacks, Latinos and Latinas who look "suspicious". In the first six days of the gang suppression unit, police have arrested around 100 suspected gang members.(6) Laws which want to make membership in a criminal gang itself illegal are also being considered. Why people join gangs or what gangs do is not the issue to the lawmakers, rather they want to target the oppressed *merely for being organized.* The recent rise in violence has roused both officials and local residents who fear these type of incidents will become more and more common. Yet one must ask the question why the $1.8 million dollars being put into the hands of the cops would never be given to these communities to create jobs for youth or to give educational support. The irony is even apparent from within a reformist discourse. It's not just that the money could be better spent; it's that increasing the cops will only make life worse for the Latinos and Blacks of Holyoke and Springfield. GANGS AN EXTENSION OF CAPITALIST SOCIETY In discussing gangs and gang violence, let's not forget that the most powerful and violent gang of all - the U.S. government and its protection agencies - is the same entity doing the labeling of who is a "gang" and who is not. It might be said that the "Amerikkka gang" serves as a model for the smaller and less powerful, less violent street gangs. The similarities are obvious; both defend the territory they claim as their own - often ruthlessly, both participate in the illegal drug and weapons market as a means of making a profit (and for the street gangs, protecting themselves), and both have little regard for the life of an enemy. The difference is street gangs and its members often have no other options, the government engages in these activities as a matter of policy to ensure hegemonic control over the Third World and also as a leisure time profit venture. In addition, the government is allowed to continue. The irony is that the government officials are fighting against an outbreak which represents a logical extension of U.S. settler society - values and all. Power, violence, and greed are all the Amerikan way. Thus it makes sense that instead of attacking the root of the problem, officials will only favor armed suppression of the youths. To truly address the problem one must address the nature of society as a whole and attack the model of the street gangs - the U.S. government and military. Any decrease in gang activity due to mass arrests and/or increased pig presence will only temporarily quiet the problem and perhaps push the gangs to less policed territory (some argue that the increase in Western Massachusetts is due to a crackdown on gang activity in Hartford and New Haven, CT). Any real solution to street violence and crime must include the abolition of the system which requires that some people live in poverty while others dwell in disgusting, excessive wealth and then blame the poor for not trying hard enough. The prevalence of power inequalities are a necessary condition for capitalist/imperialist society. The solution is about ending this oppressive system which gets angry when the weak adopt its own methods too effectively. For those who seek a more immediate solution to social problems such as gang violence, which effects their communities, tactical short term goals should be implemented into the larger strategy of destroying the system. However, a community will lose by making increased pig patrols a priority. Again and again pigs and the "justice" system have been proven an enemy to oppressed nationalities. The pigs' response to gangs in Western Massachusetts is really clear as they all fight each other to get the largest share of cash to go out and fight the gangs. But there has also been a diversity of response from Black and Latino residents in Springfield and Holyoke. A substantial number desire an end to the most visible violence (the gangs, not the police) and are siding with the cops against the gangs. This is to be expected for a number of reasons, including the cozy relationship between the pigs and the media. One community based social justice organization has been clear to distance itself from the reactionary blame-the-gangs movement: saying that they do not oppose the gangs and instead call for an analysis of the oppressive system and why people join gangs. Most missing from the debate is the words of the gangs and their supporters themselves. After all, can the gangs really trust the media to not use a press conference as a cop trap, or to print their words accurately? The gangs and their supporters are wise to stay out of the mainstream spotlight on this issue and instead should use other means to build public opinion in their defense. This is yet another reason why the oppressed need their own media. Gang members and others are encouraged to write for MIM Notes, Notas Rojas and here in Massachusetts, MASS RAIL, the newsletter of the Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League. A booklet compiled by Escuela Popular Nortena describes "the relation in Latino communities between gangs and economics", and addresses the implications of oppressed communities siding with the cops against gangs quite accurately: "When we declare a war on gangs, we are the tools of our own extermination."(5) NOTES: 1. Springfield Union News 3/12/95 p. 1. 2. Springfield Union News 3/14/95, p. 4. 3. Springfield Union News 3/16/95, p. 18. 4. Springfield Union News 3/1/95, p. 14. 5. "Gangs and the Barrio", Escuela Popular Nortena; Cuaderno De Trabajo #3. 6. Springfield Union News 3/9/95, p. 1. * * * CIA ASSASSINATIONS EXPOSED - SOMETIMES Democrats in Congress and President Clinton recently exposed the CIA role in the killing of some Guatemalans, including Efrain Bamaca Velazquez, a guerrilla leader and the husband of U.S. lawyer Jennifer Harbury. In a power-play against past CIA leaders, "Rep. Robert G. Torricelli (D-N.J.), a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said in an angry letter to President Clinton that the CIA knew about the killings for years, but the Administration deliberately misled the leftist leader's American wife as well as members of Congress." After covering up tens of thousands of murders for decades in Guatemala's war, the most brutal in Central America during the 1970s and 1980s, the media quickly followed suit, giving the story all kinds of press. Clinton ordered an investigation. "Torricelli ... demanded that Clinton fire any government officials with knowledge of the killings. ... The White House denied any cover-up, saying it learned the details of the deaths only this year and \ that it moved quickly to inform Jennifer Harbury, the U.S. lawyer who was married to Guatemalan guerrilla leader."(1) On March 12, Harbury spoke to a crowd of several hundred people in Lafayette Park, across the street from the White House, publicizing her hunger strike on behalf of her disappeared husband to get his case, and the many others like it, investigated. The rally was organized by the Guatemala Human Rights Commission/USA. Harbury and her backers urged the U.S. government to "take steps to pressure the Guatemalan government to resolve the case," and called for prosecution of human rights "violators" that remain "one of the greatest barriers to a durable and just peace in Guatemala." They also protested "U.S. complicity" in the "tens of thousands of killings and human rights violations ... in recent decades" in Guatemala.(2) To their credit, the rally's endorsers did not paint Harbury's husband's case as an isolated incident, the way most of the media did. But in calling for the U.S. to "pressure" Guatemala, and calling out U.S. "complicity" they papered over the dominant role of Amerikan imperialism in the Guatemalan "civil" war.(2) The U.S. government led the Guatemalan military throughout the war, trained the death squads and funded the military, which remained essentially under its control. The call for investigations and prosecutions simply reinforces the game of good cop/bad cop perpetrated by Clinton. If you are a Guatemalan killed by a Guatemalan CIA agent, and your spouse is an Amerikan professional who is willing to starve herself on your behalf, you can expect a minority faction of the U.S. government to admit complicity only three years down the line. Of course, if you are a Guatemalan killed by a Guatemalan CIA agent, and you do not have an Amerikan spouse, you're shit out of luck. NOTES: 1. Los Angeles Times 3/23/95, p. A7. 2. "Break the Wall of Impunity in Guatemala!" Guatemala Human Rights Commission/USA flyer, 3/12/95. * * * UNWITTING SELF-EXPOSURE: U.S. KNOWLEDGE OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS Although most of the U.S. public belongs to classes allied with imperialism, it is also true that the capitalist media fosters the usual ignorance and mythology that contribute to false consciousness. At the end of February, The New York Times reported on the U.S. public's knowledge of U.S. foreign aid. As it turns out, the U.S. public knows very little. In a survey of 801 U.S. citizens, the mid-point guess of what percentage of the U.S. government budget goes to foreign aid was 15%. The actual figure is 1%. Another poll conducted in 1993 showed that the public thought it was more like 20%. With that view, the public also thinks foreign aid should be cut, but said it should be cut to about 5% of the federal budget, which in reality is five times more than it is now. The labor-aristocracy dominated public has a self-satisfied and arrogant image of itself. It imagines itself to be hard- working and generous to numerous peoples begging it for money. The imperialist media such as the New York Times fails to rid the public of this inaccurate view because it serves the imperialists seeking an ally in fighting the masses of the Third World. This view only becomes a nuisance to the main faction of imperialists when people such as Ross Perot and Patrick Buchanan arise and give the multinational corporations a hard time for not putting Amerika first. In actuality, much of foreign aid is U.S. military aid to its puppets serving U.S. interests. Even the food aid is a form of pork-barrel spending for U.S. agricultural corporations with many destructive consequences detailed in books such as *How the Other Half Dies* by Susan George. The polls remind MIM of polls in the 1980s that showed that fewer than 1 in 10 U.S. residents knew which side the United States supported with military aid in the civil wars in El Salvador and Nicaragua. That level of ignorance is partly the class interests of the labor aristocracy to leave foreign affairs to the imperialists in exchange for a bourgeois lifestyle, but it is also partly the failure of the major media outlets to inform the people in a beneficial way. NOTE: New York Times 2/27/95, p. A6. * * * LETTERS TO MIM NOTES CHALLENGING MIM ON WELFARE To the Editor, In your January issue of MIM Notes, you state that, "MIM does not fear the Republican efforts to cut welfare and hence MIM does not urge votes for Democrats." You also mentions that "if the Republicans cut welfare, the masses will engage in more revolutionary struggle." My first response to you is an instinctual one ... wouldn't it be nice if your words could feed, house and clothe all my friends who are on welfare. Your comments show me that you're a bunch of ineffectual intellectuals, and it is brilliant ideas like yours that destroyed the relevance of the Left in this country years ago. [...] As far as "fearing" cuts to welfare are concerned, I suggest that you better be afraid. Most people are going to do what it takes to survive; they aren't going to wait for revolution, they are going to feed themselves, and their families, any way they can. (Eating is a pressing need for most people.) Unless Maoists are somehow immune to crime, then I suggest that you, like the rest of us, will be exposed to an increase in criminal activity. This is something I don't look forward to because, like most people, I want to be safe and not become a victim of crime. Nor should people have to be backed into a corner, where crime becomes a viable option in order to survive, for any reason. I would like to know, based on the above mentioned quotes, what makes you any different than the Republicans? I know I am talking to a wall, but perhaps you could stop babbling and suggest something concrete like: civil disobedience; boycotts; student strikes; infiltrating right wing political and corporate organizations; starting your own radio stations in order to counter the right wing radio talk shows; throwing pies at the faces of politicians at press conferences or while they are talking in front of a TV camera. I mean, the list could go on and on. Who knows, it might even work! We need to organize now to fight the Radical Right agenda and not wait for the "revolution" to materialize out of some mysterious vacuum. My last point is probably my most important one. In case you didn't know, Maoists have less than zero power in this country. While the Left spends most of its time fighting amongst itself, the Right has learned from our mistakes (unfortunately for the rest of us). I contend that the Right deliberately wants to turn the United States into a Third World country. By doing so they will give the Radical Right the excuse to declare martial law, suspend the constitution, overthrow what's left of the government, and put into power a "Christian" police state. I don't know about you, but I would rather have the current system than a "Christian" run police state and I hope you do, too! - an East Coast reader MIM RESPONDS: In the opening of your letter, you sound like a truly concerned leftist, interested in the needs of oppressed people. However, when you whine about how cutting welfare will increase your (and you assert our) "victimization" by crime, MIM would point out that the real crimes are those committed by the imperialists against the oppressed. We're not talking about robbing a liquor store; we're talking about keeping people in poverty and beating them down with pig brutality and prison. Your focus here feeds the Republican/Democrat agenda of one-upmanship on who can be toughest on "crime" while imperialists never face justice. MIM would never fear the lesser harms that bourgeois-defined crime would inflict. This is not to say that MIM likes bourgeois- defined crime, or thinks it is a good thing. However, we recognize it as inevitable no matter what the welfare policy is as long as Amerika maintains its hegemony over internal colonies. MIM's strategy is to focus on the grossest crimes, those of the imperialists, and work toward a just socialist society in which crime will be eliminated. You misunderstand the implications of saying that "if the Republicans cut welfare, the masses will engage in more revolutionary struggle." You assume that we don't care whether the masses suffer. On the contrary, MIM is devoted to the cause of alleviating that suffering. However, we have great confidence in the people and know that they are fully capable of recognizing that begging the Amerikan government to play nice will not get them the justice self-determination will. You go on the assumption that "the masses are asses" and cannot gain real power, but MIM looks to the experience of the Third World revolutionaries to back up its argument that the oppressed can take power and reach justice. That you recommend using the radio is interesting. MIM does think that propaganda work is important, and this is why we publish a newspaper and other literature. If FCC-control limits our access to the radio, we are doing all we can within this context to get the message out. Most of the other strategies you mention have been tried before and left inequalities in place - why should MIM get involved in civil disobedience and get even more of our comrades in prison? Why should we boycott companies and plead with them for justice rather than creating independent power? Finally, MIM is fully aware that revolution does not "materialize out of some mysterious vacuum" and is not just waiting around. MIM is actively organizing in the only way that has successfully brought self-determination for oppressed nations: working for communism. We reject your choices of "'Christian' police state" versus the current oppressive Amerika. The masses want better than that. They will fight for better. And they will win. ANTI-IMPERIALIST SPEAKS OUT Hi, I saw your flyer for "Hungry for Profit" a day too late, but I'd like to find out more about your group and future activities. I am a senior at X university and I'm not exactly a communist or a socialist or a Maoist or any other kind of -ist except an Anti-Imperialist. Please call or write with more info. Thanks. - A friend in the East February, 1995 MIM responds: We print this letter to give people an idea of who should be working with the Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League (RAIL). RAIL was formed by MIM a few months ago as an organization for anti-imperialists who do not consider themselves Maoists but who want to do anti-imperialist work with an organization that benefits from national scope and organization. In Massachusetts RAIL put out a four-page newspaper called MASS RAIL that focused on crime and prisons and which included a calendar of events for the state. RAIL is led by the Maoist Internationalist Movement, but RAIL has the autonomy to decide what work it wants to do and what topics it wants to focus on. Anyone can join or work with RAIL and there is no commitment required or ideological agreement necessary. If you are like this letter writer and not sure where you fit in but are sure that you want to do anti-imperialist work, get in touch with your local RAIL chapter, or if one does not yet exist, write to MIM for help forming one. FILIPINOS WORK FOR RELEASE OF PRISONERS OF WAR *** Statement of BAYAN and KARPATAN on the lifting of the hunger strike of political prisoners, February 12, 1995. *** On this day, we close a chapter in the struggle for freedom of the political prisoners, and open a new one. The hunger strike led by the political prisoners of the National Bilibid Prisons is the biggest triumph in their successive bids for freedom since 1986. The hunger strike gained the widest support, not only of the human rights groups and other progressives and individuals, but also to the general public, here and abroad. As a result, the Ramos government was pressured to release a significant number of political prisoners. Favorable conditions for the release of the remaining political prisoners were also created. The Filipino people and the world were thereby given notice through the hunger strike that there are political prisoners in the Philippines, whose existence the Ramos government tried to obscure by asserting they were common criminals. The government's dastardly practice of making criminals out of political dissenters, especially those involved in revolutionary struggle, was exposed. We in the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan [BAYAN] and the Alliance for the Advancement of People's Rights (KARAPATAN) salute the militant political prisoners, for the gains of the struggle were realized through their tremendous sacrifice, as they took the initiative to decisively lead the fight. It was meaningful that the hunger strike was not tied down to the legal technicality of expanding the presidential guidelines on amnesty, and instead it became a political issue, proving correct the central call of the campaign: *Free all political prisoners.* The political prisoners were also correct in using the peace process to press for their freedom. It should not be underplayed that the peace talks between the Ramos government and the National Democratic Front gave the impetus for the two waves of releases of political prisoners. Our struggle for the freedom of all political prisoners continues. Let us not forget that there are still more than two hundred political prisoners, and so long as arrests of political dissenters continue, their number may not diminish. We in BAYAN and KARPATAN will continue to uphold the one consistent call of the political prisoners: Free all political prisoners in the Philippines! MOVE NEWS Update #6 ... Nov. 3rd I was in federal court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit for oral argument on my appeal of the U.S. District Court's decision in my civil suit on the May 13th bombing of me and my family. The lower court (Judge Louis Pollack, specifically) decided that I had *no* grounds to sue the government for bombing me. Pollack ruled that it was *not* excessive force to bomb us, he ruled that officials did what any "reasonable" person would have done. I appealed that ruling to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals and oral argument was held on Nov. 3rd before a three judge panel - judges Scalia, Lewis and Greenberg. Their attitude was very hostile, particularly Greenberg's. He didn't let me say *anything*, he would only hear from my back-up counsel and he kept saying things like the cops were "trying to make a *lawful* arrest pursuant to *legally* issued warrants" and all we had to do was "come out of the house and everything would have been avoided." These comments are clear indications of exactly how prejudiced these racist misfits are, because any *fair-minded* person can clearly see that those cops came out to Osage Ave. to *kill* MOVE members, *not* to merely arrest us - they could have arrested us *anytime* without bombing us. Secondly, a "legally issued" warrant means absolutely nothing to MOVE and should *not* be so easily and conveniently accepted by a Jewish judge (Greenberg) whose Jewish sisters and brothers were also exterminated *"legally."* Hitler's S.S. Gestapo storm troopers had all the necessary legal paperwork to exterminate six million people, so is Greenberg ready to accept *that*? And say that Jews should have walked voluntarily to gas ovens, firing squads, etc., like he's saying MOVE people should have accepted extermination and walked voluntarily into Goode's Gestapo gunfire - all based on legal paperwork, a concept called legal invented by this system to *oppress* and criminalize resistance. There's legal papers to establish and maintain slavery - but does that make it respectable, acceptable or right? There's plenty of legal paperwork called *treaties* that this government made with Indians, so if government is so adamant about honoring and respecting legal paperwork, then when is government gonna start honoring all them legal treaties it made with Indians? Thirdly, to say that all we had to do was "come out of our house and everything would have been avoided," completely ignores the fact that we were confronted with *hundreds* of cops armed with a 50 caliber machine gun, M-60 automatic rifle, 30.06 sniper rifles *with silencers*, 9mm uzis, M-16's, a 20mm armor-piercing anti-tank gun, explosives, including but not limited to C-4 and a bloodthirsty attitude. To blame MOVE for that massacre is like an armed robber blaming the murder of his victim *on the victim* by saying he shouldn't have resisted, he should've given in to the robber and he would not have gotten killed. It's like a rapist blaming his victim for getting beat up by saying that she should have just submitted to the rape and she would not have gotten beat up. The bottom line is that this government came to *kill* MOVE on May 13th, [1985] *not* to arrest us, and it's obvious because we walked the streets, sometimes alone, carrying out MOVE activity. We could have been arrested at any time and those judges *know* this. This three-judge panel delayed making a decision on whether or not to restore the issue of the bombing to my lawsuit. The issue was taken under advisement, so we're awaiting a decision.... We're asking people *now* to block out May 13th on your '95 calendars and plan to attend our *Ten Years* Since the Bombing Program. It will be here in Philadelphia. We must *not* let the government hallucinate that people *agree* with, *don't care* about or have *forgotten* about the bombing and massacre of MOVE babies, women, men and animals.... - Ramona Africa, Minister of Communication for the MOVE Organization Feb. 3, 1995. * * * RAIL IS LED BY A MAOIST PARTY Dear Comrades, Although we don't have a formal leadership structure within X, I have assumed a leadership role within the organization. This has been detrimental to X's ability to recruit new members and in allowing other members to develop their own politics and leadership skills. Because of this and a serious line difference based on politics, I've decided to relinquish my leadership role within the organization. You will recall that when X was initiated, we attracted a large number of youth. After a few months, the number of participants rapidly declined. Many reasons were suggested as to what may have caused this decline. The most credible reason, I believe, is expressed in the pamphlet: "What is the Maoist Internationalist Movement?" on pg. 15: "All too often experienced leaders serve to disempower new members. The intimidation of a clique of experienced and knowledgeable leaders drive many away after their first meeting, feeling as though they have nothing to contribute." MIM has a policy of not working in leadership roles in mass organizations such as X because of the negative effects it has on these groups. It should be pointed out here that I am an associate of MIM, not a member. I help circulate the literature and ideas of MIM and increasingly look to its political line for leadership. Obviously, I am just beginning to comprehend MIM's political line. MIM members have quit leadership positions after helping to initiate mass organizations because as expressed in the pamphlet cited above: "It is very important for radicals and revolutionaries to look out for incipient leaders and to get out of their way.... MIM members have quit leadership positions in many mass organizations. None of the mass organizations collapsed afterwards." The significance of MIM's position is its seriousness of empowering future revolutionaries. Mass organizations are for the use and benefit of young radicals for gaining experience and leadership. For me personally, I want to accept MIM's leadership on pertinent political questions. My political thought has changed since X's founding. At that time I thought that organizing opposition to imperialism was enough. But for the anti- imperialist movement to make practical advances, it needs the leadership of a vanguard party based on Marxist-Leninist principles. In fact, the only successful anti-imperialist revolutions, past or present, were and are led by communist vanguard parties. The significance of Maoist leadership is the recognition that class struggle continues *after* the revolution. This is expressed in every edition of MIM Notes on pg. 2 as one of the three main principles: "1) MIM holds that after the proletariat seize power in socialist revolution, the potentia exists for capitalist restoration under the leadership of a new bourgeoisie within the communist party itself..." This explains why many of the anti-imperialist revolutions have reverted back to capitalism and are now under the yoke of neo-colonialism. Presently, the most successful anti-imperialist revolutions are led by Maoist parties in Peru and the Philippines. Their respective vanguard parties have put political power into the hands of the people in many areas of their nations. That is why the governments of those nations spend so much time, money and manpower attempting to crush these revolutions. (With the help of u.s. imperialism of course). I've thought about this for a long time. That's why I proposed that X affiliate with the Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League (RAIL) which accepts MIM's leadership. I appreciate the honesty of X comrades who sincerely objected to this proposal based on political principles. Likewise, I hope you will appreciate my honesty in wanting to relinquish my role in X to work within RAIL. It would be more comfortable for me to continue on as I have in X, but I am making this decision based on politics and not on what's more comfortable or popular. Relinquishing the leadership role I have assumed in X should not rule out continuing to cooperate as co-sponsors of events, campaigns, etc. I want to continue to work with X in the future as long as it is understood that having accepted MIM's leadership, I will always approach events and campaigns from the vantage point of the Third World proletariat. Without compromising this perspective, I look forward to continue working with X in the future. In Struggle, - A former member of X April 2, 1995 * * * DEFEND MUMIA ABU-JAMAL MIM has published several articles on the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal, a revolutionary death row inmate facing execution at the hands of Penn. Gov. Thomas Ridge. After receiving criticism from activists working to defend Mumia's life, we want to clarify that we unequivocally support all demands for Mumia's release and/or a stay of execution. He is a true friend of the people and his life and work are of great value. His case is also a potent example of the worst political persecution that Amerika foists upon those who would lead the oppressed nations to their liberation. We also believe that in imperialist society "crime" is defined to meet the needs of the oppressors, and thus the prisons are jammed with political prisoners. They are not all (yet!) revolutionary leaders such as Mumia, but our years of prison organizing demonstrate conclusively that prisoners of Amerika's gulags are a powerful force for revolutionary leadership. We want to clarify that our resolve in defense of Mumia is complete, but we stand by our position that all prisoners are political prisoners and we will not compromise that correct position. HERE'S HOW TO WORK DIRECTLY TO HELP DEFEND MUMIA ABU-JAMAL: Contribute to: Black United Fund/Mumia Abu-Jamal Accounts, 419 South 15th St., Philadelphia, PA 19146 - (215) 732-9266 Join the emergency response network. (215) 476- 8812. Leave phone numbers, fax numbers & e-mail addresses for updates and info on what to do now and what to do if/when the warrant is signed and daily activities planned *now* and if/when that occurs. Write, call or fax: Governor Thomas Ridge, Main Capital Bldg., Room 225, Harrisburg, PA 17120 - (717) 783-1198; fax (717) 783-1396 and demand freedom for Mumia Abu-Jamal. Subscribe to The Jamal Journal, P.O. Box 19709, Philadelphia, PA 19143 and/or take out an ad. Call (215) 476-8812 for rates. E-mail Mumia at Mumia@aol.com for questions and to show support. Order Mumia's soon-to-be-released book of essays "Live From Death Row," or cassette from Equal Justice USA, P.O. Box 5206, Hyattsville, MD 20782 -Tel: 301-699-0042/Fax: 301-864-2182. All proceeds go to the MAJ Defense Fund. * * * TURKEY ATTACKS SOUTH KURDISTAN; PKK FIGHTS BACK On March 20, more than 50,000 Turkish troops invaded South Kurdistan (northern Iraq on most maps) in a desperate attempt to strike at the Kurdish national liberation movement. The troops have principally targeted the civilian population, bombing and forcibly evacuating villages - sometimes taking the inhabitants back to camps in Turkey. Although the United States and the United Nations have cautioned Turkey against "excesses," both have given support to the invasion in word and deed. GUERRILLAS OUTMANEUVER TURKISH ARMY The invasion did not surprise guerrillas led by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)(1), who had been observing Turkish troop movements in the area. The Turkish government claims to be having great success with the operation, but the guerrillas say that the invading Turkish forces have suffered heavy losses because they are unfamiliar with the terrain and they cannot cope with the guerrillas' hit and run tactics. The guerrillas' mobility has also reduced the effectiveness of Turkish ground-support aircraft.(2) A press release from the People's Liberation army of Kurdistan (ARGK) says: "Unlike the 'good' news which is emanating from Ankara, the Turkish soldiers are unable to fight a guerrilla war. Many of the soldiers are displaying clumsy behaviour. They are still doing what they are best at: killing Kurdish civilians and telling the world that these are 'terrorists.'"(3) The Turkish Army claims to have killed over 1800 guerrillas; the ARGK says less than 20 guerrillas have died in the struggle so far.(4) The Turkish army has been unable to defeat the guerrillas directly, and has adopted the strategy of "draining the pool to kill the fish" - that is, attacking the civilian population and destroying natural resources in order to remove the guerrillas' support. (See MIM Notes 95, December 1994, for a report on Turkey's infamous "Operation Rome.") The Turkish army has burned over 30,000,000 acres of forest and destroyed over 2,000 villages in the past several years.(5) U.S. COMPLICITY The United States and the United Nations gave their explicit Ok to Turkey's invasion of northern Iraq. U.N. planes, which flew every day before the invasion, were grounded in order to get out of the way of the Turkish air force. The United States has been directly involved in northern Iraq since the Gulf War - ostensibly to ensure the rights of the Kurds who live there. But it has merely wagged its finger at its Turkish ally for implementing genocide. The U.S. fully supports Turkey's war against the "terrorist" PKK. It gave its support to the recent invasion as long as the invasion was focused only on the PKK - knowing full well that the Turkish army attacks the PKK by attacking civilians. Abdullah Ocolan, General Secretary of the PKK, recently released the following statement: "We want to emphasize that the United States government is secretly supporting this massacre by the fascist Turkish government. We want the United States government to withdraw its support from this dirty war and provide opportunities for a political solution to this problem. It is incumbent on the part of the mass media to bring out the truth behind these developments. These are the facts; the news that is emanating from the Turkish army does not dovetail with our observations. The occupation forces have not targeted our areas. The members of the Turkish armed forces have entered Zaxo, a city of civilians and Kurdish peshmergas. They have also surrounded the camps of Kurds who had fled Turkish state terror back in Turkey. These people are being terrorized. Those who are saying 'the operation is limited in scope and will not harm civilians' are misleading. These are double standards."(6) The U.S. has mouthed pretty phrases about protecting the Kurds in northern Iraq for some time (e.g. "Operation Provide Hope," "Operation Provide Comfort," etc.) while winking at Turkey's genocide of the Kurds living within its borders. The U.S. only cares for the Kurdish people when they are available for use as political pawns. "LONG-TERM GUERRILLA WAR" ADVANCES The ARGK currently controls 70-80% of North Kurdistan.(7) In March, the European representative of the National Liberation Front of Kurdistan (ERNK) said that "the war being waged in Kurdistan has reached the stage of the seizure of power."(8) Turkish fascists and Amerikan imperialists make a lot of hollow noise about the PKK terrorizing people into following them, but MIM sees that the PKK-guerrillas' tactics depend on the active support of the people. The PKK has made it explicitly clear which individuals are military targets: "to end any doubt, the PKK regards the following groups as part of the Turkish security forces and, therefore, legitimate targets for attacks: a. members of the Turkish armed forces; b. members of the Turkish contra-guerrillas; c. members of the Turkish Intelligence Service (MIT); d. members of the Turkish gendarmerie; e. village guards. The PKK does not regard civil servants as members of the security forces, unless they come within one of the above categories."(9) The PKK recently offered an amnesty to village guards (villagers impressed by the Turkish army to fight the PKK), asking that they lay down their arms and refuse to fight.(10) The PKK's strategy of "long-term guerrilla war" seems to have much in common with Mao's "protracted People's War." The PKK's strategy emphasizes self-reliance and fighting winnable battles (using hit-and-run tactics, for example). More importantly, PKK-guerrillas spend much of their time studying and teaching politics, and undertaking painstaking mass work. After anti-Turkey, pro-guerrilla demonstrations broke out in South Kurdistan, a guerrilla noted: "This is exactly what we wanted to happen, to win the hearts and support of the Kurds of South Kurdistan. What we wanted to do was taking us time, but the Turkish invasion acting like a catalyst, proved to our compatriots that salvation was through armed struggle and that what we offered surpassed other alternatives."(11) NOTES: 1. The PKK describes itself as a Marxist-Leninist organization working for "real socialism" and is often described as "Stalinist" by the bourgeois press. Frankly, MIM does not have enough information to know exactly what the PKK's line on crucial questions of state power is. If you have access to PKK theoretical documents, please contact us. 2. Kurdish News, the Kurdistan Committee of Canada, 4/30/95. 3. Kurdish News, 3/30/95. 4. Kurdish News, 3/30/95. 5. Kurdish News, 3/15/95. 6. Kurdish News, 3/30/95. 7. Kurd-A News Agency, 10/8/94. 8. Kurd-A News Agency, 3/10/95. 9. Kurdish News, 3/30/95. 10. Kurd-A news Agency, 3/3/95. 11. Kurd-A News Agency, 3/13/95. * * * IRISH GUERRILLA ARMY RECEIVES SETBACK On April 4, the Chief of Staff of the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) was arrested along with three comrades by armed Gardai (Southern Irish police) near Balbriggan, County Dublin. The operation was carried out by crack members of an emergency response unit, using stun grenades to stop two cars carrying the men towards Belfast, in the occupied six counties. The cars were found to be carrying a total of ten weapons, mostly handguns. Detectives were allegedly acting on a tip-off from an unknown quarter. The four were detained in Bridewell Garda station in Dublin city, capital of the colonial Southern Irish Republic. The INLA - unlike the IRA and British State backed loyalist paramilitaries - has never called a ceasefire. Its line has been not to endanger the current peace process. The fact that it has continued to operate on a war footing however may be seen as a pointer to its analysis of the situation. While the IRA and Sinn Fein have in recent times claimed to follow a socialist programme, the INLA was genuinely under direct control of its political wing, the Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP) - effectively, the Party controlling the gun. With the IRA, the control was reversed. The War with the British State apparatus and its proxies, together with a vicious internal feud towards the end of the 1980s led to the destruction of the IRSP and the near destruction of its armed wing. At the time of this writing, the Gardai was officially refusing to comment on the arrests. However according to the Irish Daily Mirror, a source had claimed that "these men were about to do something that might jeopardize the whole Northern Ireland peace process and that's why they've been arrested in such dramatic fashion." - a friend in Ireland NOTE: Daily Mirror, Ireland, 4/5/95. * * * PALESTINIANS TO FOREIGNERS: AND STAY OUT! Everyone from "left" to "right" of the Amerikan political spectrum condemns the "terrorist" attacks by Palestinian guerrillas on Israeli targets in Palestine. So it's worth reminding people: All seven Israelis killed in the April 9 car bombings in Gaza were soldiers, members of an occupation army on foreign soil. They were legitimate military targets. The Amerikan who died, Alisa Flatow, was a college student vacationing in Gaza, on her way to a Jewish-settler beach resort. Members of oppressor nations have no "right" to vacation in oppressed- nation territory without the consent of the host nation. She was as "innocent" as any other colonial tourist or voyeur ever killed by "natives" in history. - MC12 NOTES: New York Times 4/11/95. * * * PSEUDO-ELECTIONS IN PERU: MORE FRAUD FROM FUJIMORI The people of Peru know that they cannot trust the electoral credentials of a dictator that disbanded congress three years ago to seize supreme power, and the elections in April further justified this distrust. Even conservative sources concede that the elections were "marred" by widespread fraud: vote tampering schemes by Fujimori's coalition officials were discovered, a dozen people in Huancuo fraudulently filled out vote-tally sheets representing thousands of votes, and so on. What the bourgeois press does not disclose, of course, is that the people of Peru have an alternative to the electoral game of picking their imperialist puppets. The Communist Party of Peru maintains strategic equilibrium and continues its offensives against the Fujimori regime. Power comes from the barrel of the gun, and right now Fujimori has his Amerikan-supplied arms pointed at the people. When the masses themselves achieve power, we will be able to speak meaningfully of democracy in Peru. NOTE: Wall Street Journal 4/10/95, p. A16. * * * UCLA ACTIVISTS RALLY TO DEFEND AFFIRMATIVE ACTION On March 16, hundreds of students marched and rallied at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) in support of affirmative action. The protest was called by the UCLA African Student Union and was timed to coincide with a meeting of the UC Regents, some of whom have followed the lead of settler-tailing politicians like Pete Wilson and Bob Dole in calling for the elimination of affirmative action programs. Affirmative action is part of Amerika's neo- colonial way of minimizing the threat of rising national liberation struggles among Amerika's internal colonies. It allows small numbers of people of oppressed nationalities to "integrate" more easily with their national oppressors, while the majority in the internal colonies remain colonized. MIM sees the protesters' defense of affirmative action as progressive, but severely limited. Real affirmative action requires reparations from the oppressor nations to the internal and external colonies and neo-colonies. And that requires that the imperialist U.S. bourgeois dictatorship be overthrown through armed revolution and replaced by a dictatorship of the international proletariat. The anti-affirmative crowd was progressive and quick to snap up MIM fliers. "Many carried masks made out of white paper plates - to remind the regents, as one student explained, 'what the university used to look like.'" And the enemy was nervous: "Nearby, 75 campus police officers stood at the ready - about one for every three protesters. UCLA Police Chief Clarence R. Chapman said he had bolstered his 35-member police force with 40 additional officers from six other UC campuses because he had 'received information that people may attend and attempt to disrupt the meeting. We wanted to take precautions.' Usually, Chapman said, seven officers work the day shift at UCLA. Chapman estimated that it was costing the university $42,000 to pay, transport and house the 68 extra officers.") NOTE: LA Times, 3/17/95, p. B4 * * * KWAME TOURE OF A-APRP CALLS BLACK STUDENTS TO ORGANIZE On March 30, hundreds of people gathered at the University of Maryland in College Park to hear Kwame Toure, formerly known as Stokely Carmichael, of the All-African People's Revolutionary Party (A-APRP). While MIM has much unity with his call for liberation of the Black nation and ending imperialism in Africa, MIM takes issue with his failure to make distinctions among various groups or to make a consistent materialist analysis. Toure said that the first thing that revolutionaries must do is "change the thinking of our people." In this vein, he described the "Columbus mentality" that considers 1492 to be the beginning of history, both for Amerikans and for Blacks. Countering this, he brought up the great contributions to history that have come from Africa such as the first nation state and the beginning of monotheism. Toure condemned European finger-pointing that derides Africans as fratricidal and pointed out that Europeans have engaged in more wars. He asserted that "Africa is going to be the first unified continent," and would be unified by now had the kidnapping of 300 million of Africa's finest followed by the looting of Africa's riches not interrupted this goal. This is all fine as an argument to right-wingers who think that people of African descent are genetically incapable of doing monumental things, though MIM does not care much one way or the other who came up with monotheism first and points out that Europeans are murderous because they are imperialists, not because they are from a given part of the world. Less attention was given to the history of Blacks as a nation. He did point out the debt to the First Nations who were the only ones to harbor slaves and mentioned names like Harriet Tubman and Huey Newton, and said vaguely that Black students present had a great debt to their people for fighting for their place in the university. Criticizing those who denounce revolutionary violence in principle, Toure pointed out that Blacks have shed a lot of blood for reforms: "If revolution is bloody, we've got lots of practice." Taking non-violence as a principle, rather than a tactic, pacifists have failed to realize that there has been no qualitative advance for Blacks between the L.A. riots of 1965 and those of 1992. There was a quantitative advance, but those in power knew that because Blacks had not made the qualitative advance of getting organized, all they had to do was sit out the riots. Catering to the metropolitan DC crowd, Toure addressed his old comrade Marion Barry, now the mayor of Washington DC. He urged Barry to mobilize the people, not administrate them. Actions he advocated included blocking the streets of DC to bring the government to a halt and filling the jails with protesters. Barry has gone comprador, and MIM does not think he's likely to do any such thing. For Toure to give "advice" without identifying Barry as an enemy is to mislead the masses. Toure is harshly critical of non-revolutionary women who offer no alternative yet complain that revolutionary organizations oppress women. He said that women are oppressed because they are unorganized, and that groups working against oppression must create mechanisms to challenge sexism within them and create an environment in which abuse is not tolerated. Zionism was a particular focus of the talk. Making very clear that he makes a distinction between Judaism the religion and Zionism the political ideology, Toure calls the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) the "African Death League." Toure's greatest strength was that he called on students to organize. He spoke of the need to get over the "super-man/rambo" concept and to work with other people. This is a message that the youth in Amerika, bombarded with messages promoting individualism, need to hear again and again. Even while Toure kept emphasizing that the A-APRP is a revolutionary organization "fighting for power, not influence," he told the students that it did not matter which organization they joined, as long as they worked with some group working on behalf of Blacks. The distinctions between, say, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the Nation of Islam were not mentioned as he listed a litany of groups young Blacks should join. Toure's most fundamental difference with MIM is that he believes you should not judge an ideology by its practice, but by its principles alone. MIM calls this idealism. He said "you don't judge Christianity by its practice," which he concedes has included chattel slavery, so you also should not judge socialism by its practice. Thus he can praise a wide variety of leaders from Castro to Qaddafi without defending any particular nation's socialist path. MIM is materialist and does judge both Christianity and socialism on their practice, finding that national liberation is won with only socialism. After the speech, masses came forward with questions. One indignant Amerikan student thought he would really trip Toure up by pointing out that he was not non-violent and accused him of supporting violent means. Toure again clarified that non-violence is a tactic, not a principle, and that he believed Malcolm X was correct to tell the people to get their freedom "by any means necessary." One Black student asked why Toure was only talking about Africa. Toure replied that all people of African descent are African and that the struggle of Blacks depends upon the struggle of Africans in Africa. While the point of internationalism is correct to a point, Toure's failure to really analyze the situation of the Black nation as it came to exist and continues to exist within the borders of the U.S. prevented him from satisfying the student or MIM. Another Black student came forward and told of being beaten down by pigs when she participated in a demonstration against environmental racism. She wondered if there was anything she could do without getting beaten down again. Toure responded that all she could do, if she really wanted her freedom, was to learn to defend herself and get with a group of people so that someone could watch her back. MIM hopes that those who hear Kwame Toure will grab on to his calls to organize while developing a scientific method to move the best way forward. The A-APRP is a friend of the people because it can play a role in a united front against imperialism, but it is not the best way forward. We hope that his emphasis on joining a political group will get students struggling over line which will help bring them to revolutionary consciousness. * * * BLACK/WHITE TV GAP Black and white TV audiences favor very different shows, according to new ratings. Although MIM doesn't cheer for any of these programs, we are always interested to see how much the different nations within North America differ in their cultural habits. At some levels even the more economically and geographically integrated internal nation members resist cultural integration. Variety magazine reports that the three top-rated prime-time programs among Black viewers are on the Fox network on Thursday night: "Living Single," "Martin," and "New York Undercover." These shows rank 95th, 96th and 98th in white homes. Only three of whites' top 20 shows are in the top 20 among Black homes: "Roseanne," "Home Improvement" and CBS's Sunday night movie. - MC12 NOTE: Variety cited in Don Fitzpatrick Associates' Shoptalk, 3/23/95. * * * GOP TARGETS SCHOOL LUNCH AND BREAKFAST PROGRAMS: MASSES NEED INDEPENDENT POWER "WASHINGTON - A Republican-dominated House committee Thursday rebuffed a Democratic effort to preserve the school lunch program that has fed tens of millions of children since it was created after World War II." The Republicans call this "welfare reform."(1) "Over five years, states would receive $2 billion less for school meals and more than $5 billion less for other nutrition programs for poor women and children than under current law, according to an estimate by the Clinton Administration."(1) This is an example of why we are confident that imperialism will be overthrown. The imperialists constantly demonstrate their ability to create new groups of anti-imperialists. Posing as friends of the people, "the Clinton Administration warned that the changes could result in permanent physical and intellectual setbacks for American children.... By the end of this year, if the GOP plan becomes law, 275,000 people would have to be denied access to the [Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC), which is used by 6 million women and children], the Administration said."(1) The Democrats, however, are no friends of the oppressed. They use food and other welfare programs as a means of pacifying North American proletarians. The Democrats are a key part of the system of imperialism, which starves 14 million children every year in the capitalist Asian countries alone.(2) They are also enforcers of the Amerikan empire's system of internal colonialism. For example, Clinton promised voters that he would put 100,000 new pigs on the streets to occupy Amerika's internal colonies. Clinton also supports the racist death penalty. Clearly, tailing the Democratic Party is no way to fight the Republicans' latest attacks on the people. The Maoist Black Panther Party (BPP) used the issue of hunger in Amerika to demonstrate both the need for socialism and the meaning of socialism. The BPP's Serve The People Programs, including the Free Breakfast for Children Program, were independent institutions of the oppressed. In other words, these programs were not dependent on such enemies of the people as the U.S. Congress. MIM's principal tasks in this strategic stage are to build public opinion for revolution and to build independent institutions of the oppressed. The BPP's Serve the People programs were successful on both scores, which is why they earned the wrath of the FBI. It is a sad fact that MIM has not yet had the resources, particularly the labor, with which to implement Free Breakfast Programs. We do have more low-visibility Serve The People Programs, such as our Free Literature for Prisoners Program and our various types of political education work. All of our media outlets - MIM Notes, MIM Theory, Notas Rojas, Maoist Sojourner, pamphlets, fliers, posters, talks and video showings - are independent institutions of the oppressed. MIM seeks to expand its practice to a new level. The oppressed need independent institutions to provide food, clothing, shelter, health care, education, justice and peace for the oppressed nations. If you agree, what are you waiting for? Work with MIM to continue the Black Panthers' Maoist legacy of Free Breakfast Programs. With your help, we can work with the masses to create independent institutions which can lay the basis for the greatest independent institution of all - a self-reliant socialist government. - MC49 NOTES: 1. Los Angeles Times 2/24/95, pp. A1, A18. 2. Ruth Sivard, World Military and Social Expenditures, 1987/8. * * * NO REST FOR THE WICKED: CIA WON'T LEAVE UCLA ALONE Last month, MIM Notes reported on the March 1 ouster of U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) recruiters from the UCLA campus by progressive activists. Some reactionaries criticized MIM for disrespecting the CIA's "right" to use "free speech" to build its genocidal organization. These reactionaries should rest assured that the CIA has many more resources than progressives (let alone MIM). With their greater resources, they have the ability to purchase wide audiences for their "free" speech. So MIM is not surprised to see that the CIA is still recruiting at UCLA - this time in the form of an 8"x10" ad on page 23 of the April 3 UCLA Daily Bruin. The ad's largest slogan is, "Our Business Is Knowing The World's Business." The ad's first sentence reads, "The CIA's task is twofold: to coordinate the intelligence efforts of the U.S. government, and to collect, evaluate, analyze, produce, and disseminate foreign intelligence." This is the Big Lie about the CIA. Despite its name, the main purpose of the 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. For more on this point, see *The CIA's Greatest Hits*, by Mark Zepezauer. You can get this from MIM for $6. MIM is not surprised to see the CIA's self-serving lies appear in a large ad in the UCLA Daily Bruin (just as we saw the same lies by a CIA spokesperson go unrebutted in the Bruin's coverage of the CIA's March 1 ouster). Nonetheless, MIM is critical of the Daily Bruin's decision to run the lying CIA ad. Progressive members of the UCLA community should now see all the more clearly which side the Daily Bruin's bread is buttered on. The oppressed need institutions which are not dependent on ads from their oppressors. The oppressed and their allies should struggle with, write for, finance and distribute MIM Notes, MIM Theory, Notas Rojas and Maoist Sojourner. * * * D.C. RALLY FOR WOMEN'S LIVES FORGETS MOST WOMEN On Sunday April 9, 50,000 to 100,000 people (depending on your sources) gathered on the Mall in Washington, D.C. to "rally for women's lives" and protest violence against women in Amerika. This primarily meant violence against abortion providers, as well as domestic violence and child abuse. The National Clothesline Project was on display; similar to the AIDS quilt, each T-shirt hanging on a clothesline chronicles the story of a woman's or a child's abuse at the hand of a family member or stranger. There was no march on the capitol, but in order to get to the rally to hear the speakers you had to walk through the display. The mood there was somber and reflective. A tent was set up by the organizers as a "safe place to talk" where women could make their own t-shirts. MIM's analysis of the t-shirt display and its message is that its focus represents a singularly First World perspective on violence in women's lives, ignoring the imperialist violence that bombards the women and men of the Third World daily. Some of the placards and signs focused on the plight of poor women in Amerika and welfare cuts, attacking Gingrich and the Republicans as the principal enemies of women. This liberal attack dismisses the fact that Democratic presidents and congresspeople implement the same Amerikan policies that leave most of the world's women as the most oppressed people on the planet. While there is some difference between Republicans and Democrats in terms of abortion laws from state to state, access to legal abortion is not the primary rallying cry of Third World women. The speakers and most of the participants left out the fact that most of the world's women (and men) struggle to eat and stay alive, and that having children often supplements the family income and support system. The much-criticized Contract with Amerika is really a Contract on the Third World. The organizers of the rally preserved their place as oppressors by disregarding that fact. The speakers included Jesse Jackson, some famous women actors, and the son of Dr. David Gunn, the Florida abortion provider who was shot to death in 1993. The latter speakers focused on the problem of domestic violence and the need for safe access to abortions. Jackson opened his speech by commemorating the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and asking for a moment of silence. His remarks concluded with chanting "Racial Justice, Gender Equality" and "Keep Hope Alive." MIM says: "Keep hope alive: break with the Republicans and the Democrats, for real!" But other than Jackson's brief and tame remarks, the plight of Blacks and other oppressed nations was not addressed in an organized way. *If rallies like this leave you politically empty, struggle with MIM. Start with MIM Theory 2/3 "Gender and Revolutionary Feminism." $5 cash or check payable to "MIM Distributors."* * * * PORNOGRAPHY INDUSTRY BOOMS In patriarchal society, the mainstream cultural is decadent and degrading, and in the commercial culture rape and sex are one. Nevertheless, MIM calls out the explicit pornography industry for not only depicting and normalizing sex relations that are even worse than most, but for the brutal nature of its profiteering, including physically forced rapes, slave-like conditions and murder. So we note that the "adult film" industry had its best year ever in 1994, with rental and sales receipts totaling $2.5 billion. That's about $10 per person in the United States. That's also more than twice the Gross Domestic Product for Burundi in 1990. "Adult" films are 27.5% of the U.S. video market, up from 17% in 1985. Pornography does not create patriarchy from scratch, but as sex industries profit from the commodification of rape, the strength of patriarchal ideas increases, to the detriment of patriarchy's victims. NOTE: Don Fitzpatrick Associates' Shoptalk 3/24/95; 1994 World Almanac and Book of Facts. * * * PUERTO RICAN FREEDOM FIGHTERS REMEMBERED AT BOSTON TALK In April, events throughout Amerika and Puerto Rico were held in commemoration of the 15th anniversary of the arrest of 11 Puerto Rican freedom fighters accused of seditious conspiracy for working with the Armed Forces of Puerto Rican National Liberation (FALN). MIM attended events in Boston that included an inspirational musical performance, the showing of a short CNN documentary on the conditions in the supermax prisons, and a captivating talk given by Lourdes Lugo Lopez, national coordinator for the National Committee to Free Puerto Rican Prisoners of War and Political Prisoners. The theme of the event in Boston was well summarized by a statement from a member of the national committee speaking about the arrested freedom fighters "They are not terrorists or criminals, they are patriots." Throughout the talks, people stressed the importance of understanding that the U.S. government is the real terrorist organization and that people who take up arms to fight for their right to self- determination should not be viewed as criminals by the people. The woman who gave the musical performance said it well: "We ought not to permit the government to define who are the terrorists and who are the heros." Lourdes pointed out that these eleven prisoners were not arrested for arms possession, or for carrying out any acts of violence, they were arrested and charged with the crime of opposing the U.S. government: seditious conspiracy. The way that these people were arrested merits mention. It was an accident of racism in the virtually all white town of Evanston, Illinois. A woman saw two "spics" in a van outside her house and called the police to report this suspicious situation. The police showed up and arrested the "spics" only to later discover that they had happened on some Puerto Rican freedom fighters that the FBI wanted. Lourdes pointed out how this goes hand in hand with the latest big push for community policing and police watches. What this means, as she noted, is that "communities, particularly whites, are becoming snitches." Usually this means calling the police because non- whites (who by just being in their community are considered suspicious) are in their town. The freedom fighters took the position of prisoners of war because they would not recognize the U.S. jurisdiction over them. MIM agrees with this stance, and would go further to say that we don't recognize the U.S. court jurisdiction over people of any oppressed nation because even by Amerikan standards, a fair trial by a jury of one's peers is not offered. And more importantly, the Amerikan nation that stands for white supremacy had no right to judge the actions of members of the nations that it colonizes. The Puerto Rican people are fighting a struggle for national self-determination against their Amerikan colonizers. Lourdes pointed out that Johnson and Johnson take $6.1 billion in profits out of Puerto Rico every year and Eli Lilly takes $4 billion out of Puerto Rico, producing about 90% of the contraceptive pills consumed by Amerikan women. With all this money, there is still 31% unemployment on the island. Puerto Rico is one of the clearest cases of direct colonization by Amerikan imperialism: the profits are taken out of the island for use by the well-off Amerikans while the Puerto Ricans live on the island and in Amerika in poverty. As Lourdes said "We are entitled to defend our country and fight colonialism by any means we feel necessary." MIM agrees with her and supports the just struggle of the people of Puerto Rico, including the political prisoners and prisoners of war held behind bars by the Amerikan colonial oppressor. * * * NATIONAL PHONE-IN CAMPAIGN TO FLORENCE PRISON *** Want to do something about the torture and oppression of prisoners in Amerika? The best way is to join MIM to help end the system. In the meantime, while we are building public opinion and organizing for revolutionary change, you can also take smaller actions that may help some of the prisoners in Amerika. *** The National Committee to Free Puerto Rican POW's and Political Prisoners-Boston Chapter is issuing an urgent call to action. Call the Florence, Colorado Federal Prison at (719) 784-9496. Ask for Warden William Storey or his assistant. Once he or his executive assistant is on line, tell him you are calling about Puerto Rican POW/Political Prisoner Oscar Lopez Rivera (#87651-024), Thomas Manning (#10372-016) and Raymond Levasseur (#10376-016). Demand an end to sleep deprivation and strip searches immediately. Demand freedom for all Puerto Rican political prisoners unconditionally. Demand the closure of the ADX Florence Gulag for torture and sensory deprivation. Callers should be aware that prison personnel have denied the torture. The following answers are recommended to such statements from prison personnel: 1. They are lying and we won't believe them. 2. They shouldn't speak as if they were friends, they are their jailers. 3. They should refuse to participate in the torture as some U.S. soldiers refused to massacre Vietnamese in the Vietnam war. The dates for the calls are all Mondays: May 22, June 26 and July 24. * * * MOBIL OIL PROMOTES SUPERSTITION AND INDIVIDUALISM It is in the interests of the oppressed masses and their allies to think scientifically and to combat selfish individualism. Likewise, it is in the interests of the oppressors to promote individualism and unscientific thinking. The oppressors usually leave this propaganda task to the churches and the media, but from time to time the oppressors are more bald-faced. Such is the case with an ad from the multinational Mobil oil corporation. This ad sells "Your Personalized Horoscope" and ridiculously states that, "All astrologers appear united in the idea that there is a connection between the heavens and the Earth.... The astrologer can reveal the many ways and many levels that TWO people relate with each other.... [Y]our chart is interpreted to produce your in-depth Astro Profile report about your inner and outer self including the way you come across to others as well as your character, career, love life, challenges, and much, much more. Your Astro Profile report will also include an overview and close-up of what's happening right now! Find out what you're all about - Order Today!" Instead of telling individuals, to "find out" about themselves, MIM says people should find out more about imperialism, capitalism, patriarchy, and the best way forward to defeat all three - Maoist revolution. Obviously, such study is not in the interests of an imperialist corporation, so Mobil prefers to promote such distractions as superstition, individualism, romance culture and psychology. - MC49 * * * DRUG USE SPREADS IN REVISIONIST CHINA Recently the China News Digest published an article titled "Drug abuse hits Chinese school children." The article deals with China's drug epidemic that "...has become so serious that secondary, even primary school children are involved...."(1) The drug problem is among one of the many social ills that accompany capitalism. As people grow poorer many take on the parasitic nature that is inherent in capitalist societies. When China was socialist under Mao Zedong the drug epidemic was virtually wiped out along with other social ills. After capitalist restoration led by Deng Xiaoping the drug problem returned along with other social ills such as prostitution homelessness, etc. etc. This is very important and the oppressed nationalities and their allies should take note of the difference in the two systems and realize that the only way to solve our social ills that plague us in Amerikkka is via Maoist revolution and successful Cultural Revolutions against our own Deng Xiaopings. - New York prisoner Note: China News Digest 2/28/95. * * * REVIEW: STRAWBERRY AND CHOCOLATE FALSE DICHOTOMY BETWEEN ART AND COMMUNISM The latest gay movie out of Cuba, *Strawberry and Chocolate*, tells the story of an improbable friendship between a young somewhat dogmatic Marxist student and a gay artist in Havana in 1979. Amid pleasant humor and good directing, the story is clear: beauty is persecuted in social progress. While Maoists do not uphold the Cuban revolution as a model and makes some of the same criticisms the movie does, we also criticize this fundamental dichotomy of artists vs. the people. MIM also recognizes that the characters who represent both these societal roles in the movie misunderstand socialism. David, the student, has been recently dumped by his girlfriend when Diego tries to pick him up. The only reason David plays along is that he hopes to find out about the smuggling he suspects Diego of. He continues to meet with him, while clarifying that sex is off-limits, in order to find out about some involvement Diego has with foreign embassies who might help him exhibit his work. As they get to know one another, the self- described revolutionary learns about art and music from the only "faggot" he has ever known. Diego is of course not much swayed by the younger man's political ideals and only maintains that he loves Cuba passionately and is deeply saddened that Cuba won't accept his insipid religious sculpture display. In the end, Diego leaves Cuba and David goes to bed with a woman in Diego's building who is doing all the smuggling. No big surprises there, so MIM does not feel bad about messing up the ending for readers who have not yet seen the flick. *Strawberry and Chocolate* poses interesting questions amid the sexual tension and cinema graphic style about the role of the artist in socialist society and the goals socialism strives for. In one compelling exchange, Diego passionately declares that he always has opposed Amerikan domination and believed that revolution would free him to reach his full human potential. Now, he says, he realizes that society does not want his creativity and feels banished from it. David counters with a description of his own situation, more interesting to communists: he is the son of a peasant and studying at the university. The suggestion is that if restricting depressing religious art is the price to pay for the education of peasants, then socialists should pay that price. What Diego never seems to realize is that his creativity is in no way being restricted, it is simply being denied public space. His own apartment is crammed full of religious icons while artists in service of the people have their work displayed. Rather than question why his art might not be useful to society, he accuses revolutionaries of dogmatism. He says "if you don't want to think, listen to the radio." So he agrees that his art is not just images of no import, but rather is mystical and superstitious, and wants the government to allow him space to try to get people thinking like he does. The young revolutionary, David, unfortunately seems swayed by this idea of "if it ain't depressing, it ain't art." David asks Diego to read some of his writings, accepts the latter's criticism of "dogmatism" and then concedes to the bourgeoisie that revolutionary themes are not such a great idea after all. The movie paints a reasonably fair portrait of Cuba at the time: significant progress for the peasants coupled with growing contradictions among the people as a new bourgeois takes Cuba's reigns away from the United States and hands them over to the Soviet Union. The heterosexism in the film does not seem to be any worse than heterosexism in Amerika and is recognized by the film as not the exclusive property of revisionist "socialism". David is dogmatic when he refuses to look outside the revisionist status quo to find solutions to Cuba's problems and sees the whole debate as Amerikan ideas vs. Soviet and Cuban ones. For all his dialectical pretensions, David cannot come up with any ideas for Cuba to combat this problem. Neither character presents a path to take Cuba forward. Diego is too caught up in his individualistic passions to care about the good of the people and David is too unquestioning of Cuban revisionism. The supposed dichotomy of their positions is not real; neither challenges the status quo of Soviet colonization. Neither the artist who does not create anything worthwhile nor the "revolutionary" who can only follow the state- capitalist system work in the interests of the people. - MCB52 * * * REVIEW: *SERVANT OF THE PEOPLE* The Rise and Fall of Huey P. Newton by Robert Alexander BY A MIM ASSOCIATE Playwright Robert Alexander wrote that he hoped this play "will be received as an act of love." *Servant* is not only an act of love but also a politically oriented and thought provoking work. "May this play caution all who come to witness, the haves and the have nots are still the same, and the all knowing controller is still standing at the gate."(1) Inside the program provided by the St. Louis Black Repertory Theater is the Black Panther Party ten point platform and program along with a list of suggested readings including *Seize the Time* by Bobby Seale; *Agents of Repression* by Ward Churchill and Jim VanderWall and *Quotations from Chairman Mao* by Mao Zedong.(2) Judging this play on its theatrical merits is simple; it is excellent, and the acting is outstanding. The story is narrated by the character Lumphead, portrayed by A.C. Smith. This fictitious character represents the lumpen proletariat. Lumphead is a pimp recruited to the party by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale. One scene depicts a discussion between Lumphead and Newton. Huey convinces Lumphead that pimping exploits women and perpetuates capitalism which is the source of Black people's oppression. Handing him a copy of Mao's little red book, Huey tells him that the answer to oppression is socialism. Lumphead gives up pimping and joins the BPP. "The end is the beginning and the beginning is the end" exclaims Lumphead as he snaps his fingers and suddenly Tyrone Robinson appears, played by Clifton Williams. He aims a pistol at Huey Newton, brilliantly portrayed by David Alan Anderson, at the other end of the stage. Tyrone fades to black, lights shine on Huey as a crowd gathers and Huey speaks: "The source of our oppression is the source of the Vietnamese people's oppression. We stand in solidarity with the Viet Cong against U.S. imperialism ... all power to the people." The crowd responds with fists raised "power to the people." The rest of Act I is a positive look at the building of the Black Panther Party. The demonstration at the Alameda County courthouse - guns openly displayed and the Party's proclamation for self defense and self determination read to the people. The violent response of pigs arresting Panthers follows. Bobby Seale, played by J. Samuel Davis, agrees to serve a 6 month sentence for carrying concealed weapons in exchange for the dropping of trumped up charges against other BPP members. Internal struggles within the Party's central committee are intensely portrayed. One such scene is an argument between Newton and Eldridge Cleaver (Erik Kirkpatrick). Newton emphasizes the survival programs. Cleaver charges reformism and emphasizes guns and military training. Newton responds: "First we have to serve the people's needs, then they'll pick up the gun." The majority votes with Huey and decides to fund the Free Breakfast for Children program by pressuring grocery stores. A pig provocateur suggests that any store which does not comply be bombed sky high. The rest of the Panthers respond by chasing him out of the meeting. At one point he reads FBI director J. Edgar Hoovers' directive to infiltrate, disrupt and destroy the BPP. Act I ends with Newton imprisoned for supposedly killing a pig during a shoot out. Act II begins with Huey's release from prison and the subsequent degeneration of both Newton and the BPP. The playwright believes that the California penal system applied psychological warfare to unravel Huey's mind. From his incarceration until the end, Huey is never the same. Upon his release, some of the Party cadre provide Newton with an Oakland penthouse. He becomes infuriated: "We are supposed to serve the people, what will the rank and file think? What will the people think?" After being told that it's for his own safety and being given cocaine, he succumbs. The rest of the play shows a strung out Huey Newton snorting coke and brutally beating comrades over the most trivial matters. The narrator comments that the Party cadre no longer read Chairman Mao but instead were reading *The Godfather*. (From revolutionaries to gangsters?). Tackhead, the pig provocateur explained his mission of murdering vanguard leaders: "Fred Hampton, Mark Clark, Bobby Hutton, George Jackson, [etc.] You can run, but you can't hide from the FBI. If I don't kill you, I'll get you somehow (laughs) like Geronimo Pratt." The play ends with the tragic murder of Newton in 1989 (flashback to 1st scene). Huey owed Tyrone a petty debt for crack. The pig provocateur explains that "whether Tyrone knows it or not, with his rap, crack, and beeper, he is a government agent. You see, we had to make it so that when Huey died, you wouldn't give a fuck." Lumphead snaps his fingers, looks at the audience and says "but you did. Huey took me out of darkness and showed me the real world. Looking back I have no regrets. I know that what we did was truly revolutionary. Rest in peace Huey." Despite its emphasis on one individual, this play is definitely political. If you get the chance, see it, learn from it and build on the lessons. All power to the people! NOTES: 1. The Black Rep program, p. 22. 2. Ibid, p. 23. * * * UNDER LOCK & KEY PELICAN BAY CENSORS MIM NOTES Greetings, I'm writing to inform you that your 1/95 issue of MIM Notes is being returned due to its being deemed "a threat to legitimate penological interest" by prison authorities. Even after literally a lifetime of constant surprises by the California Department of "Corrections," they still continue to amaze me with their rhetoric. But, believe it or not, this censorship isn't half as amazing as their claim that there is an actual legitimate penological interest here at Pelican Bay State Prison (PBSP). PBSP is designed for the sole purpose of breaking the minds and spirits of those literally buried alive here, but who are not (yet) "the worst of the worst" as they proudly boast to the public. As I wrote last month when requesting your publication, I'm not totally familiar with your principles, but I do agree that we are all world citizens who are inherently equal with a say. So I'm not sure what's these people's problem, but I'll be appealing this issue and will keep you informed because it's an important issue and can and does affect a lot of people. I would appreciate if you could notify me of the return of your publication for my records. I've even enclosed a SASE for your convenience. I'm far from discouraged, because every time such barriers are placed before me - which is almost daily - I realize that I must be on the right path to enlighten and even though I can be physically caged, my mind and spirit have no bounds. In struggle, - a California prisoner, 2/12/95 INDIANA'S RULING ELITE WAGES GENOCIDE The colonial criminals of the state of Indiana have waged a mass scale of colonial oppression on and against the people throughout the Department of Corrections who have declared themselves revolutionary teachers and New Afrikan cadres. 1995 will bring a lot of successful struggles for the people and the fascist colonial forces will turn up its fire under our feet. On December 8, one of our New Afrikan revolutionary comrades lost his life at the hands of the racist, most diabolical system of murder - the Indiana State prison's electric chair. The innocence of our brother was evident. These colonial murderers killed the brother because he was a strong Afrikan man. Now comes yet another trick by the colonial/repressive state. On December 13, the criminals lost one of their agents of repression due to the conditions/contradictions existing throughout D-cellhouse. Justice the people's way hit home. That night, the author of this letter was escorted from his cell location to the oppressors' colonial guards' hall. It took ten officers to handcuff one man, once I was made to remove all my clothes, shoes, jacket, etc. They wanted to beat me down, but I kept my composure. For about two and a half hours, they kept me naked in a holding cell. I was given a red jumpsuit and escorted to their racist investigators' offices. They attempted to interrogate a brother, but the code of New Afrikan/revolutionary silence was victorious. Due to my no-rap policy, they took me to a blue van, shackled me up with chains and transferred me to the Indiana Maximum Control Complex at Westville. No advisement of being on investigation was issued, yet on January 31, I was charged with the murder of a pig at the Indiana State Prison. They have taken the liberty to say I killed this man due to the death of our comrade. Revolutionary justice stands without fault; justice must prevail at all cost. The death of that pig and all those to follow could never be paralleled to one of our comrades. It happened because it was destiny to get what they got coming. It is clear that anybody oppressed and repressed by a colonial system shall rise up. We as the new men and women of the oppressed nation must begin to define our reality. Dialectically, the power must change hands sooner or later. When they turn up the volume of genocide and oppression, we turn up the resistance and political and ideological struggle. Objective reality, that's what we are dealing with. We are dialectical materialists; we deal with what really is, whether we like it or not. I write this notice to ask you all out there who acknowledge our oppression and are willing to aid and assist in its demise to wake up and rise up. I need your help, all of you who can help me in waging this struggle for my life against genocidal extinction. I don't have a chance going up against these parasites alone. I seek the support and assistance of Afrikan oppressed nations. Allah is Great. Uhuru Sasa (Freedom Now). - an Indiana prisoner, 2/7/95 USE YOUR HEAD The story in the January 1995 Under Lock & Key, "Guards get a taste of their own medicine," was righteous by me, because a brother like that will not accept anything. But MC49's reply was correct to my belief in using your head! I close this letter till next time. Stay strong and sweet, - a Texas prisoner, 2/8/95 INDIANA LAWMAKERS VS. PRISONERS Uhuru SaSa! [Freedom Now!] Comrades, here in the state of Indiana, the lawmakers are trying to pass a law where no prisoners get any good time. (If we get 20 years, we do the 20 years). If the law passes, if we the prisoners have good time, we will lose that good time, too. Uhuru SaSa! - a New Afrikan revolutionary on a Disciplinary Segregation unit in Indiana, 1/23/95 PRISONER DESCRIBES WESTVILLE'S MAXIMUM CONTROL COMPLEX I have received the 1/95 issue of your newspaper. I love the way it's written. I enjoyed reading the letters the prisoners wrote and sent in plus your answers. I hope to keep reading your paper and hope you keep sending them to me. I probably will be out of prison by September 1995. I've been locked up since October 1992. This is a Maximum or SuperMax prison. We're only allowed an hour or half hour out of our cell or closet cellbox a day. Plus they have the goon squad or the extraction team. They come in your cell and beat you up and strap you down to your bed if you act like the man you are or don't want to make your bed up or kick on the door - little things like that. You can't get out of your cell unless they let you out. Everything here works by electricity. If a person caught a heart attack or something serious, he can hang it up because you have to be handcuffed behind your back before you can leave the cell. Plus leg shackles. And they're so scared of you that they get all suited up before they come get you. That is just a bit of what's going on at this concentration camp. If you ever truly want to know what's going on down here, let me know. - an Indiana prisoner, 2/9/95 1994 EXECUTIONS - IN MEMORIAM 31 people were executed by state governments in the U.S. in 1994. 257 people have been executed since the U.S. moratorium on state murders ended in 1976. 1/6 Keith Eugene Wells, ID 2/2 Harold Barnard, TX 3/3 Johnny Watkins, Jr., VA 3/31 Freddie Lee Webb, TX 3/31 William Henry Hance, GA 4/4 Richard Beavers, TX 4/22 Roy Allen Stewart, FL 4/26 Larry Norman Anderson, TX 4/27 Timothy Spencer, VA 5/3 Paul Rougeau, TX 5/10 John Wayne Gacy, IL 5/11 Jonas Whitmore, AR 5/11 Edward Charles Pickens, AR 5/17 John F. Thanos, MD 5/27 Stephen R. Nethery, TX 5/27 Charles R. Campbell, WA 6/14 Denton Alan Crank, TX 6/15 David Lawson, NC 6/23 Andre Deputy, DE 8/2 Robert Drew, TX 8/3 Hoyt Clines, AR 8/3 Darryl Richley, AR 8/3 James Holmes, AR 9/2 Harold Lamont Otey, NE 9/16 Jessie Gutierrez, TX 9/20 George Lott, TX 10/5 Walter Williams, TX 11/22 Warren Bridge, TX 12/6 Herman Clark, TX 12/8 Gregory Resnover, IN 12/11 Raymond Carl Kinnamon, TX - reprinted from the 2/95 issue of the Coalition for Prisoners' Rights Newsletter (CPRN). CPRN can be reached at P.O. Box 1911, Santa Fe, NM 87504-1911. PETITION FOR SUPPORT I am a prisoner at the Maximum Control Complex (MCC) in Westville, Indiana. I have been confined since June 13, 1991. I write this petition with deep gravity to call upon aid and support from concerned and loving people, churches and organizations of Indiana and this country to assist in stopping the atrocities that are being inflicted upon prisoners daily at this control unit. The Maximum Control Complex (MCC) in Westville, Indiana is a supermaximum prison which was first opened in May of 1991. The MCC was claimed by the Indiana Department of Corrections to be designed especially for extremely dangerous prisoners, but the real truth behind this lie is most prisoners being permanently placed in the MCC are jailhouse lawyers, politically active, or believers of the Islamic or Hebrew-Israelite religions. 85% of these permanent-status prisoners are of African descent, which is also the majority of MCC population. It is obvious that racism is the key factor as to why Black males are heavily concentrated within this control unit. MCC is a deliberately designed facility which subjects its prisoners to punitive isolation, violence and terror. These conditions of confinement cause prisoners to: # endure two 37-day hunger strikes - the longest hunger strikes in U.S. history # self-mutilate themselves, and # consume their own feces. MCC prisoners are confined to a single-man cell that has a solid steel door with a small plexiglass window for 23 to 24 hours a day, unless they have an attorney or family visit that day, which is non-contact. A prisoner at MCC never gets natural sunlight inside his cell or on the outdoor recreation yard. No fresh air is ever circulated through the central air system. Each MCC prisoner eats, recreates, showers and sleeps alone. No prisoner at MCC is ever removed from his cell without handcuffs and leg-irons. MCC prisoners who are confined to disciplinary isolation (AKA segregation) are not allowed to enroll in educational courses, can't listen to a radio, are prohibited from calling their families, friends, girlfriends, etc., on the telephone. MCC prisoners are not allowed to purchase food items from the prison commissary, are being denied physical access to the satellite law library to do their legal work, and are being denied legal materials to work on their legal matters by Paralegal Sharon Hawks. The sensory-deprivation and punitive isolation being imposed upon the small number of prisoners who are currently housed in disciplinary isolation (AKA segregation) is affecting and threatening their mental health. I am presently suffering from vision deterioration. I believe this is caused by the contaminated water supply at MCC which was declared by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management in February of this year to have high levels of lead. Lead contaminants, if consumed for a period of years, cause brain, kidney and red blood cell damage. The MCC water supply is also suspected of having a toxic chemical in it called polychlorinated biphenyl (PCBs). I have been trying to get eyeglasses for almost two years now, but the notorious Warden Charles E. Wright is giving orders to the medical staff not to treat my serious medical needs. I have even been prohibited from taking a blood test for the detection of lead contaminants and PCBs by Warden Wright himself. I have been a primary target of Warden Wright's sadistic mistreatment from the day I entered MCC. For the last six months I have been forced to wear a mask over my face each time I am removed from my cell, because a racist white guard falsely accused me of spitting. This facial masking has been a common practice by Warden Wright and his prison lackeys. Their intent is to inflict severe psychological torture upon prisoners. I have been the subject of Warden Wright's retributive attitude. The people must not stand by and continue to allow such indignities to occur, and must demand that they cease immediately! Another prisoner is being subjected to extreme human rights violation. He is mentally unstable. He is on strip-cell status, virtually naked - he is allowed only a pair of boxer shorts. His plumbing is shut off and is only cut on once a day to flush his toilet. Most of the time, he is forced to lay dormant in his cell and smell the vile stench of his feces settled in his toilet. Each day at 7:00 a.m., this prisoner's bedding is removed from his cell, and he is forced to lay on cold steel until 9:30 p.m. When his bedding is given back to him, numerous prisoners have inquired about why his bedding is being deprived each day. Some guards claim he won't make his bed or he tore a mattress, which is ludicrous. This is just another excuse that Warden Wright and his lackeys are attempting to use to justify their actions. The prisoner is without shoes, and is forced to take showers and recreate barefooted. He has no hygiene items. It's also documented that he has consumed his own feces. He is mentally ill and shouldn't be at MCC. Something must be done to see that he is transferred out of MCC to a place where he will get the proper help he needs. The Indiana Department of Corrections [sic] (DOC) is under a court order to implement condition changes at the MCC. A settlement in a class action suit, Taifa, et. al. vs. Bayh, et. al., #3:92-Cv- 429, was reached and was approved by Chief Judge Allen Sharp of the United States District Court in South Bend, Indiana on 2/15/94. The settlement between the Indiana Civil Liberties Union (ICLU) and the state is only ten months old and the conditions at MCC have done nothing but retrogressed. It is clear that the reason for the ICLU and the Indiana DOC engaging in a settlement was to put the concerned taxpayers under the illusion that the courts and attorneys were going to improve the conditions at the MCC; so they could relieve public pressure. This document entitled "Agreed Entry" is hype and is nothing but a disguise to hide the hidden terrors that are daily occurring in this control unit. The "Agreed Entry" is the settlement contract reached by the ICLU and the Indiana state's attorneys. The people must demand that Warden Wright and his lackeys and the Indiana DOC cease the human rights violations. I am presently on disciplinary isolation along with nine others. It's obvious my placement on this status is out of retribution. The small number of prisoners on this status is amazing, especially when MCC currently has a population of over 100 prisoners, it's clear that Warden Wright is using this disciplinary isolation measure in an arbitrary and insidious manner. He is picking and choosing who he wants to give privileges and who he wants to mistreat. We must not allow Warden Wright to continue using me and the nine other prisoners on the disciplinary isolation unit at the MCC as guinea pigs. The ten of us are the only prisoners not allowed to call our families, friends, girlfriends, etc. We are not allowed to listen to radios, order food from commissary, enroll in educational courses or gain access to the law library. This is in fact discrimination and must be stopped immediately! - an Indiana prisoner, 12/28/94 TOO COLD FOR RECREATION, BUT NOT FOR PUNISHMENT? Revolutionary greetings. This letter is not going to be long. Just to let you know that I am still receiving MIM Notes, and I thank you very much for your time. Nothing new is going on in this SuperMax. Just the same old shit. The pigs here will not let us go outside for our one hour walk. We have not been outside for over five months now. When we have it, the outside one hour looks like you are in a dog lock-up. The pigs are telling us that we cannot go out for our one hour walk because it is too cold. Bull. The pigs still put us in the hold or the pink room, where it is ice cold. But all is well; life goes on, right? I am going to end this letter for now. But I will write again real soon. So you all keep up the good work. Yours in revolution, I remain, - a Maryland prisoner, 2/9/95 PRISONERS' TESTICLES IRRADIATED IN 1960S AND 1970S A decade-long research project was done on prisoners in the 1960s and into the 1970s in Oregon and Washington State Prisons. It was funded by the Atomic Energy Commission (now the Department of Energy) and NASA, and was supposedly designed to help determine how much radiation U.S. astronauts could bear during spaceflights. One hundred thirty-one inmates "voluntarily" participated in the experiments in which they lay down in a coffin-like box and had their testicles lowered into water. Then the "researchers" exposed their testicles to a dose of radiation stronger than 20 modern diagnostic X-rays. Many inmates went through the experiment many times. Some of the prisoners were exposed to as much as 640 rads, an amount that is potentially fatal if spread over the whole body. For participating in the experiments, the prisoners received a $5-a-month stipend. They were told that they were performing a patriotic duty for their country. Today more than half of the 131 participants have died. Many complain of major groin pains, persistent rashes and painful lumps on their testicles. One participant reported one of his testicles became attached to his scrotum as a result of the biopsies after the experiment. The experiments were to aid the space program, in the U.S.'s attempts to colonize outer space before the Soviet Union. But the actual effect of the experiments on the prisoners was to make them sterile or unable to reproduce - in effect, genocide. In fact, the prisoners who participated in the experiment were "encouraged" to get vasectomies afterward. These experiments of the 60s and 70s show that historically prisoners are seen as less-than-human by the U.S. government, and are fair game for "medical experimentation" as cruel as that performed by the outright fascist states in the 1930s. These types of experiments are always performed on groups of people that are seen as "expendable" by the government, and in the U.S. that has typically been prisoners, racial minorities, and people with disabilities. While some rules passed by the NIH in 1978 bar use of prisoners "in any medical experiments that do not benefit them," the state continues to treat prisoners as less-than-human, and continues to find new and more devious ways to commit murder of genocidal proportions against people in prison. SOURCE: Washington Post, 11/20/94 - reprinted from Claustrophobia-Anarchist Black Cross' Claustrophobia #4, Winter 94/95. Claustrophobia-ABC can be reached at P.O. Box 77432, Washington, DC 20013. New Michigan KKKoncentration KKKamps since 1985: 1985: Western Wayne "Correctional" Facility (Plymouth) Ionia Temporary Facility (Ionia) Lakeland Correctional Facility (Coldwater) G. Robert Cotton Regional Corr. Facility (Jackson) 1986: Scotts Regional Corr. Facility (Plymouth) 1987: Thumb Corr. Facility (Lapeer) Muskegon Temporary Facility (Muskegon) Ionia [Super] Maximum Facility (Ionia) Carson City Temporary Facility (Carson City) 1988: Chippewa Temporary Corr. Facility (Kincheloe) Charles E. Egeler Corr. Facility (Jackson) 1989: Hiawatha Temporary Corr. Facility (Kincheloe) Adrian Temporary Corr. Facility (Adrian) E.C. Brooks Regional Facility (Muskegon) Carson City Regional Facility (Carson City) Chippewa Regional Facility (Kincheloe) 1990: Standish Maximum Facility (Standish) Mid-Michigan Temporary Corr. Facility (St. Louis) Alger Maximum Corr. Facility (Munising) 1991: Ryan Regional Corr. Facility (Detroit) Gus Harrison Regional Facility (Adrian) 1992: Oaks Maximum Facility 1993: Baraga Maximum Facility (Baraga) Macomb Corr. Facility 1994: Mound Regional Corr. Facility (Detroit) Saginaw Regional Corr. Facility (Freeland) - from The Freedom Network's Afrikan Prisoner Bulletin, 1/95. The Freedom Network can be reached c/o MCM 17365 Annott St., Detroit, MI 48205-3103.