I N T E R N E T ' S M A O I S T M O N T H L Y = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = XX XX XXX XX XX X X XXX XXX XXX XXX X X X X X X X XX X X X X X X X V X X X V X X X X X X X XX XXX X X X X X X XX X X X X X X X XXX X X X V XXX X XXX XXX = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = THE MAOIST INTERNATIONALIST MOVEMENT MIM Notes 106 November 1995 Get MIM Notes 106 from the Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM), and get the latest in Maoist news and analysis - put a revolutionary weapon in your hands. In MIM Notes 106, read a Maoist analysis of recent events the bourgeoisie has hypocritically termed "racially divisive" such as the Million Man March on Washington and the trial and verdict of OJ Simpson. Follow the continued efforts of MIM and the Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League to promote the revolutionary struggles of our comrades in the Philippines. Learn more about the exploitation of migrant farm workers in Amerikkka. MIM Notes speaks to and from the viewpoint of the world's oppressed majority, and against the imperialist-patriarchy. Pick it up and wield it in the service of the people. Support it, struggle with it and write for it. For a free issue mailed to your Internet address (a large text file), send a message explaining your interest to: mim@mim.org. MIM Notes 106 includes: IN THIS ISSUE: 1. GROWERS EXPLOIT NEW JAMAICAN WORKERS 2. LETTERS TO MIM 3. MILLION MAN MARCH IN YOUR FACE 4. FRENCH IMPERIALISM ROCKS THE PACIFIC, AFRICA; MASSES PREPARE RETRIBUTION 5. BLACK STUDENT ORGANIZATIONS HONOR MURDERED LEADERS 6. PRESENTATION ABOUT ERITREAN LIBERATION STRUGGLE 7. GUILTY: BLACK AMERIKA'S VERDICT ON THE LAPD 8. PALESTINIAN WOMEN DEFY ISRAELI TRICKS; REMAIN IN PRISON 9. AMERIKAN LABOR DEMANDS MORE, IGNORES INTERNATIONAL PROLETARIAT 10. SECOYA NATION: BESIEGED BY OIL COMPANIES AND COLONISTS 11. YOUTH SEEK JUSTICE AT THE UNAM 12. COMMUNIST PARTY OF THE PHILIPPINES AND KURDISTAN WORKERS PARTY BUILD UNITY 13. COMMUNIST PARTY OF THE PHILIPPINES STATEMENT ON THE SUSPENSION OF FORMAL TALKS WITH THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC FRONT OF THE PHILIPPINES 14. DARE TO KEEP COPS OUT OF SCHOOL 15. FILM SHOWING EXPOSES MIGRANT LABOR CONDITIONS 16. MIM AND RAIL MAKE NEW FRIENDS FOR THE NDFP 17. MARCH AGAINST PRISONS: MASSES REJECT BRUTALIZING "CORRECTIONS" 18. PROGRAM OF THE MAOIST INTERNATIONALIST MOVEMENT 19. UNDER LOCK AND KEY: LETTERS FROM PRISON 20. ANN ARBOR FILM SERIES CONTINUES IN NOVEMBER 21. BOSTON-AREA EVENTS IN NOVEMBER 22. AMHERST, MASS: PRISON AWARENESS WEEK * * * GROWERS EXPLOIT NEW JAMAICAN WORKERS Puerto Rican and Mexicano farm workers in Massachusetts have been replaced with Jamaican workers in the past few years. The Puerto Ricans and Mexicanos are no longer desirable employees because they resist oppressive work conditions too much. Jamaican guest workers brought in to Amerika under the H2A program, a federal work program regulating non-U.S. citizen temporary employment within U.S. borders, are much more compliant because they have no citizens' privileges in Amerika and are terrified of being sent home to Jamaica. Because of their tenuous position within U.S. borders, the Jamaican workers receive brutal physical treatment and severe economic intimidation. GROWERS LOBBY FOR REPRESSION In 1994 tobacco workers in Western Massachusetts struck over food quality; the growers were feeding the workers rotten meat. When a government agency was called in to investigate the workers' claim, the growers threw away all the meat before the inspectors showed up, so it was impossible to tell if the meat had been rotten before the inspection. The inspectors refused to implicate the growers, but the dissent was enough to convince the growers to lobby for a switch to the more obedient Jamaican workers. Unlike the Puerto Rican and Mexicano workers who are citizens and can work wherever they want, the Jamaican H2A workers are contracted to a specific farm. If they find the conditions intolerable, their only recourse is to go back to Jamaica. In Jamaica, the official unemployment rate is 18% and workers have to bribe officials to get H2A jobs. H2A workers are unlikely to complain about maggots in the food or exposure to pesticides. They are so afraid of reprisal from farm owners, they were unwilling to talk to outsiders about their conditions. One worker in a medium sized camp-- where it would be easy to know everyone well-- denied that workers were injured on the job, despite the presence of a man who couldn't walk after a serious farm injury. EXPLOIT THE WORKERS AND KEEP THE WAGES IN AMERIKA Most of the workers are not let off the farms to spend their wages; they pay for food on the farms. When they are allowed to leave, they spend large portions of their wages on alcohol, and they are strongly encouraged to spend their money on electronics and designer clothes so that they go home with only goods and no money. This is truly a parasitic cycle: Amerika destroys the Jamaican economy and culture, breaks up Jamaican families for six to eight months out of the year, brutally exploits the men who go to the farms to work, and both encourages and coerces the workers to buy overpriced Amerikan products with their wages rather than bringing the money home. GEOGRAPHY OF THE MIGRANT WORK ECONOMY There are several "streams" of migrant work within U.S. borders. The streams flow from where the workers originate during the winter, and span the territory worked during the course of the season. This article is about migrant workers in New England, which is not part of the three main streams. New England draws its workers directly from their homes. Until recently, migrant workers in New England were Puerto Ricans, or Mexicanos living in Texas. The workers interviewed in the documentary Harvest of Shame are part of the eastern stream, which runs from Florida to New Jersey. The western stream runs along the Pacific coast from California to Washington; and the midwestern stream runs from Texas to Michigan. The old Bracero program in the Southwest, mentioned in the documentary, by which Mexicano men were encouraged to come to the U.S. for jobs has been replaced. Now H2A workers are brought directly from other countries such as Jamaica or the Philippines. BOURGEOISIE SPLIT OVER WHICH WORKERS TO EXPLOIT The Amerikan bourgeoisie is split over the number of H2A workers allowed inside U.S. borders. It is illegal for H2A workers to take Amerikans' jobs (actually not Amerikans, but members of the internal colonies), so each year a limit is set on the number of H2A workers to be hired the following year. Growers prefer H2A Jamaican workers even though their minimum wage is higher than Amerikan workers', because the Jamaicans work harder and don't resist. For example, the growers might require that job applicants have a high school degree, speak English, provide their own transportation, call for employment between the hours of noon and 1 p.m., all to prevent U.S. citizens (principally poor Blacks and Latinos from area cities) from taking the jobs. The growers don't tell citizen applicants that housing is available and instead require that they have their own transportation. In addition to keeping the number of domestic, or seasonal, workers down, discouraging citizens from applying to work in agriculture creates phony evidence for the growers' claims to need H2A workers. The other wing of the bourgeoisie is led by people like Massachusetts Governor William Weld, who wants to keep the H2A workers out to save these jobs for people on welfare. Weld wants to be able to say "what do you mean you can't find work? Go pick tobacco." Right now, the growers seem to be ahead in this debate between domestic and H2A workers-- the great majority of the workers MIM saw at the camps were Jamaican. NOTES: Jamaica Five Year Plan 1990-1995, Jamaica 1990, p.33; interviews with pro-migrant activists. * * * LETTERS TO MIM NORWEGIAN IS DOES NOT UNDERSTAND RACISM Dear MIM: You asked me about the movement in Norway. The Internasjonale Sosialister are a blueprint-copy of the British SWP and U.S. ISO. A general nuisance! We had a visit here in Norway from Dhoruba Bin-Wahad, and on the meeting in Nidaros (Trondheim). They really made fools of themselves. After Dhoruba had spoken about white racism, and racism in all Western ideologies and ways of thinking, stressing the need for individual organisation among the oppressed nationalities, an IS spokesman forwarded Black & white, unite and fight as a slogan to be approved by the meeting. Dhoruba replied along the lines of: Haven't you heard a word I've been saying? We have a daily newspaper called Klassekampen. It was the party organ of the Workers' Communist Party (m-l). In the early nineties, AKP(m-l) became AKP, and the newspaper became independent, a revolutionary socialist paper for the left. I regret both of these developments. The AKP(m-l) grew out of the revolutionary youth movement in late sixties, and became a party in 1973. The party organized an electoral front, Red Electoral Alliance, which participated in elections in order to reveal the true character of the parliamentary charade. This front is now a faction-filled independent party, in which there are some trotskyists, revisionists, reformists, revolutionaries. The RV has about 60 reps in local councils, and one MP. The AKP initially supported Deng Xiao-ping, but later renounced him and broke with China. Their student league broke with the party as a result of the flirting with Dengism, and it still supports MLMZT. There is a fast-growing youth movement called the Red Youth. It is the youth organisation of both the RV and AKP. I'm a member of the AKP, RV, student league and youth organisation. Well this seems very opportunist and unprincipled, I'm sure. --A Norwegian comrade studying MIM line September, 1995 MIM REPLIES: Thank you for updating us on the situation. Since we cannot read Norwegian, we have always been disappointed not to be able to understand Klassekampen. We were hoping some Maoists had accomplished publishing of a daily paper. We hope to learn more about your organizations' ideas about cardinal principles in future issues. It is our thesis that the imperialist country working classes no longer contain proletarian classes. As we recently pointed out, the early COMINTERN of Lenin and Trotsky defined proletarian the same way we do. In later years the imperialist country Marxists lost track of the original principles and smuggled parasitic labor activism into the proletarian movement. We hope to hear your reactions to this line, and what the youth think of the Communist Party of the Philippines and the Peruvian Communist Party. BOSNIA AND MAO *The following is a comment to MIM from the Internet.* On your central comments about the Cultural Revolution, I think you have a telling point about capitalist restoration certainly including communist party members. On this list in the course of arguing about Yugoslavia we noted the case of Abdic, the communist leader, who split from the Bosnian government, then became a warlord, and then a capitalist. The growth of the mafia in the former Soviet Union is clearly closely linked with corruption in the Communist Party, as are many of the enterprises that are starting off with adaptations of economic units under the previous regime. Mao did not live to have direct experience of how this might work out. He did argue in general terms that many members of the communist party of the Soviet Union were "good" and it certainly appears that now, in however confused a way people are struggling to regroup. I see merits in restating Mao's analysis of the danger of capitalist restoration because we have had previous complex arguments on this list about whether and when the Soviet Union ceased to be a socialist state and what it was. By contrast Mao's analysis points to the insidious nature of the process, which undoubtedly includes ideology. In welcoming rational dialogue with you however, I do not wish to imply I am in total agreement. I am not by the nature of my work a member of the most proletarian sections of society! And your comments about the class nature of subscription to Internet seem to me to be objective. In particular I think there were major problems about the scope, the speed and the handling of ideological issues in the cultural revolution. I think at its worst, the re-education of intellectuals in the countryside was a punishment and only the slightly more humane Chinese alternative to the concentration camp. Most seriously of all I think there were big problems about the economic programme of the cultural revolution, and indeed Mao's whole economic policy from the Great Leap forward. But there will be time enough to clarify issues about this another month. --A London Reader September, 1995 MIM REPLIES: Thank you for filling us in on Bosnia in response to our point that only Mao showed that capitalist-roaders and outright capitalists could emerge in real communist parties and so-called communist parties. Yeltsin, Gorbachev and Ramiz Alia all share this in common and now you tell us about the leaders in Bosnia. Yugoslavia used to follow its own phony road to communism. The Communist Party never conducted a Cultural Revolution struggle against the bourgeoisie in the party and was so far to the right that it was really just a social-democratic party. Now that it has fallen apart in such a reactionary fashion so that there is hardly any dispute amongst progressives, we can see yet again that there was a bourgeoisie in an alleged communist party. These bourgeois factions are in this case so reactionary that they cannot offer a road forward, just instant ethnic conflict. COPS DO WRONG, BUT ARE THEY PIGS? MIM's lead story from MIM Notes 105, "Canada Guns Down Chippewas Occupying Their Rightful Land," in which MIM referred to the Canadian police as "pigs" generated this response on the Internet: Excuse me, but I do scientific research for part of the Canadian government, and I can assure you that as yet we have not discovered the secret to getting any member of any porcine species to obey abstract orders on demand, let alone found the secret to genetically manipulating porcines sufficiently to allow them to reliably aim firearms. It was humans, not porcines, that undertook the actions you describe. That makes the offense even worse, as animals cannot be expected to understand what they are doing, but humans should. IMHO [In My Humble Opinion, or In My Honest Opinion], dehumanizing those who undertook this makes this piece little better than an exercise in self-indulgent crankiness. --INTERNET reader October 1995 MIM REPLIES: Yes it was humans who undertook these disgusting actions. There is, however, a revolutionary history behind referring to police and other agents of the repressive imperialist state as "pigs" from which MIM is borrowing the term. According to Huey P. Newton, co-founder and Minister of Defense of the Black Panther Party, vanguard of the Black nation in the United Snakes in the late 1960s, the Panthers started the practice in order to replace the fear people had of the police with disgust--a more empowering and appropriate approach to what they correctly saw was a force of colonial occupation in their nation. This situation of internal colonization is very similar to the situation of the Chippewas in Canada. MIM contends that these pigs knew exactly what they were doing, and our dehumanization of them emphasizes, not undermines this point. RAIL BUILDING AROUND ISSUES OF PIG REPRESSION Dear MIM, If not for recent positive developments I would have asked that you send less number of MIM Notes but please keep the same amount coming. We have some serious, intelligent people interested in MIM/RAIL! CAUSI [Coalition Against U.S. Imperialism] and the Eastern Missouri Coalition Against the Death Penalty held a demonstration for Mumia Abu-Jamal at the Federal Courts Building in downtown St. Louis on August 16, 1995. I spoke on behalf of RAIL. Other speakers included reps. from: Organization for Black Struggle, All African People's Revolutionary Party, Citizens United for the Rehabilitation of Errants, and the Eastern Missouri Coalition Against the Death Penalty. The plight of ALL prisoners in the united snakes was emphasized as was the use of the death penalty as a tool of the capitalist-imperialist state. About 50 people participated in the demo. itself while scores of people stopped and listened to the speakers. Festus, Mo. and Crystal City are like twin cities. There is a large Black population in Crystal City which has historical roots in the sharecroppers' struggles of the 1930s. These are some of the incidents they related to me: If three or more Blacks are gathered in one place, and there is a pig that sees them, they are told to "move on." One man told me he was in his own front yard talking with several people when a pig approached them and said they were violating curfew. He said it was his house but the pig insisted that they were in violation and had to "go inside." They told me this was common. When young whites "hang out" with their Black friends, they are labeled by the pigs as troublemakers and "continually harassed." Recently a Black man and his pregnant white girlfriend were jumped by a group of youth who beat the man seriously (he was med-evaced by helicopter to St. Louis University Hospital and released four days later). The woman was punched in the stomach but did not lose the baby and was not seriously injured. The pigs helped move the young nazis out of town! For 31 years a man by the name of Gibbs had the only Black owned business in Crystal City--a bar/liquor store. They told me that his customers were harassed so much that they would no longer patronize him and he finally had to close his business. He took it to court, accusing the pigs of harassment but lost. I encouraged them to organize a group. Gave each a copy of RAIL [Notes]. We had already discussed capitalism, socialism, communism, etc. They are not afraid of words like revolution and communism and were all very articulate and familiar with various situations such as: political prisoners, Northern Ireland, South Africa, Korea. They asked me questions such as: is a revolution in Amerika possible without being annihilated like the BPP? We discussed Cointelpro [the FBI's Counter- Intelligence Program which infiltrated and destroyed many revolutionary nationalist and communist groups in the 1960s and 70s], security, focoism. In struggle, --A friend in the Midwest October 1995 MIM REPLIES: Keep up the good work! We print this letter so that others just beginning to form RAIL in their communities can understand via your example how to organize people around issues that affect them and relate to broader issues. In the future, if political activity is going poorly, we hope you will ask for more, not less papers. Getting the word out is key to building public opinion. Some RAIL branches are starting campaigns against social control--prisons, militarized campuses, police harassment. Following reports of their progress might give you ideas as well. Finally, a comrade in Ireland recently corrected us on our own use of the term northern Ireland: "'Northern Ireland' is the British imperialist name for what Republicans call the 'occupied six counties.' The name you use with regard to the North decides (usually) which side you are on. The neo-colonial South, which, incidentally has no multi-national corporations, is referred to by Republicans as the '26 counties' and sarcastically as 'the Free State.'"(MIM Notes 105, p. 2) MIM apologized for its use of the imperialist term, and we now refer only to the occupied six counties, in our support for the Republican struggle. * * * MILLION MAN MARCH IN YOUR FACE October 17, WASHINGTON, D.C.--To the consternation of millions of whites, hundreds of thousands of Black men responded to the call by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan to bring one million Black men to march on Washington. The march had contradictory meanings but signaled an important milestone for the Black nation within the United Snakes as Black men broke one of the oldest Amerikan rules: no congregating without white permission or supervision. The disproportionately petit bourgeois crowd sent a strong message to whites who wanted them to boycott because of Farrakhan's leadership, and to all those whites who objected to O.J. Simpson using money like any white man to hire good lawyers and win against state prosecution. The Black petit bourgeoisie is indignant when it doesn't get the same privileges as whites. Much of this anger is progressive and can turn into support for national liberation struggle; some of it is simply more-pie- ism and integrationism. The call for Black unity in the face of white attacks on Black leaders such as Farrakhan is also progressive, even when the leaders in question do not propose true national liberation. Two weaknesses of the march message were the theme of atonement and the promotion of voting. Speakers held white people accountable and called on Amerika to atone, but Black people don't need that. True national liberation will come from Black people' struggle for self-determination and for control of their lives and their nation. Then they can force white people to correct national oppression. The march also had voter registration tables and volunteers available to demonstrators. But getting out the Black vote is not going to eliminate national oppression. Amerika must be dismantled and replaced with a dictatorship of the proletariat so that Black people can have genuine political power. Some Black women turned out for the march, disregarding the organizers' request that Black women take the day to stay home with their families in solidarity with the men marchers, and were not turned away. Other Black women were angered by this attempt at depoliticizing them; they recognize this approach as paternalism, and understand the importance of Black men and women struggling together against national and gender oppressions. WHITE PEOPLE STAY HOME; WHITE LEADERS DENY NATIONAL DIVISIONS Instead of a rush-hour crisis, traffic was very light as whites stayed home, afraid of everything from traffic to purse-snatching to violent rebellion. With more than 700,000 rides on the city's subways, the pigs reported no violent incidents.(1) White commentators everywhere, from Bill Clinton to the Trotskyists, bemoan the "racial" chasm that "divides" U.S. citizens. In fact what they are complaining about is that the Black nation is evermore conscious of its common identity, while whites have always practiced such unity among themselves.(3) Black people did not create the chasm integrationists whine about. Black people were formed into a distinct nation separate from white Amerika through a history of abduction, slavery, brutality under the law and discrimination. The white leaders are not upset by this division, but nervous about Black people's movement to correct its consequences. NATIONALIST STRENGTH; NATIONALIST AMBIGUITY The march attracted a disproportionately college- educated, petit bourgeois group of Black men. A large Washington Post poll found that more than two-thirds of the marchers came from households with incomes of more than $30,000. Almost three- quarters had at least one year of college; more than a third were college graduates.(2) The Black petit bourgeoisie has an ambiguous relationship with Black national liberation. Because the Black bourgeoisie is stunted in terms of truly Black-owned and independent capital, the great majority of the Black petit bourgeoisie is dependent on the white economy for success. Although they are fettered by racism and national oppression, petit bourgeoisie Blacks are also reluctant to embrace true Black liberation in the form of a separate Black nation. Farrakhan expresses this sentiment well. He spoke of the legacy of national oppression, of "those who died in the middle passage, who died in the fields and swamps of America, who died hanging from trees in the South, who died in the cells of their jailers," and so on. But at the same time he referred to the "United States" as "this nation," and called for "a more perfect union," in Thomas Jefferson's phrase, and said "we're not here to tear down America." Farrakhan also said that white supremacy is bad for whites and Blacks. "Socially, the fabric of America is being torn apart, and it's black against black, black against white, white against white, white against black, yellow against brown, brown against yellow. We are being torn apart." Farrakhan does not call for a separate Black nation, and he does not acknowledge the different nations within U.S. borders. WHITE PSEUDO-FEMINISM SHOT AGAIN MIM has unity with the Black women who opposed being elevated symbolically and marginalized politically by the organizers of this march. For a truly revolutionary and proletarian march both women and men need to be included. While many Black women correctly supported the revolutionary nationalism in this march and refused to elevate the gender question above the struggle for national liberation, MIM agrees with those women who see that the national liberation struggle can not be fought by the men alone. A true national liberation struggle must be both proletarian and feminist. This line on gender is not unique to the NOI, it has been common in all but the most feminist of revolutionary nationalist movements (like China, Philippines, Peru, Black Panther Party, MIM). This position of protecting Black women also makes sense in the context of imperialism brutalizing Black men, women and children in the name of defending the sanctity of white women, children and property. But the NOI position is a liberal response to imperialism. Revolutionaries need not dwell on the bourgeois nonsense of feminine fragility; that steals time from uniting all Black people in a struggle for political power. The success of the march was another blow to white pseudo-feminism, which protested the men-only aspect of the march. Just as Black women stunned white pseudo-feminists by overwhelmingly supporting the acquittal of O.J. Simpson over the objections of the National Organization for (white) Women, Black women demonstrated support for the march. Speakers included Rosa Parks, a venerated Civil Rights leader; Betty Shabazz, Malcolm X's widow; Maya Angelou, and others. The pseudo-feminists were surprised in both cases because they expect all women to place gender ahead of all other political considerations. MIM is glad to see white pseudo-feminism further discredited as a part of white imperialist domination. Genuine feminists should be clear that gender is not the principal contradiction at this time. The contradiction between the oppressed nations and imperialism is principal and will continue to complicate gender politics across the division between oppressed and oppressor nations. At the same time, we know that liberation for the Black nation, like any national liberation, will require feminist as well as proletarian leadership if it is to succeed. REVOLUTIONARY POTENTIAL The increasing Black consciousness, even though it is largely reflected in cultural nationalism, is a progressive trend that heralds a potentially great revolutionary force. The Black petit bourgeoisie will surely continue to vacillate as the struggle for national liberation progresses. The poll of marchers found that 73% had a "favorable impression" of Colin Powell, an imperialist genocidal maniac, and 54% said the same of Clinton, whom we crown with the same distinction. At the same time, marchers cheered when speakers pointed out the systematic oppression of Blacks in the prison system, and the gross injustice apparent in the discrepancy between O.J. Simpson and Mumia Abu- Jamal's cases. But even if they don't lead in the fomenting of true national liberation struggles, this Black petit bourgeoisie will be the source of many allies of the revolution when the time comes to choose sides. Revolutionaries face the task of uniting all who can be united behind proletarian and feminist leadership in the course of waging a revolutionary nationalist struggle. We hope to see as many of these marchers as possible swaying in the direction of the masses' force and adding the strength of their numbers to the cause of anti-imperialist, proletarian justice. NOTES: 1. WTOP-AM1500 10/16/95. 2. Washington Post 10/17/95. 3. For the history of white unity across class lines, MIM recommends Settlers: The Mythology of the White Proletariat, by J. Sakai, available from MIM for $10. * * * FRENCH IMPERIALISM ROCKS THE PACIFIC, AFRICA; MASSES PREPARE RETRIBUTION by MCG3, MC49 & MC45 Defying protesters all over the world, France recently detonated two nuclear bombs in an atoll of its Polynesian colony. The first bomb, exploded on September 6, carried the force of the one the U.S. military dropped on Hiroshima in 1945--the equivalent of 20,000 tons of TNT.(1) On October 4, the French military invaded neo-colonial territory in the Comoros Islands between Mozambique and Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. The invasion ended a coup by a mercenary France has hired in the past to do its military work in Africa.(2) The French imperialists continue their frivolous militarism because they cannot do otherwise, they must defend their parasitic interests. MIM calls imperialist militarism frivolous because it is destruction with no end, no worthy goal in sight. But in the end, it is up to the masses to make history and to the masses this militarism is anything but frivolous. The people living under illegitimate French authority will turn this militarism into a distant nightmare instead of a brutal reality. NUKES GET TESTED ON INDIGENOUS LAND AND PEOPLE In a protest following the blast, the masses burned down "French" Polynesia's international airport. The bourgeois media labels the protesters "anti- nuclear," but this designation ignores the true meaning of anti-nuclear politics for indigenous and oppressed people. These activists are also necessarily anti-militarist and anti-imperialist. They fully understand the destructive force and potential of French occupation, and will expel the imperialists from their land. A flyer, "Walk Across America for Mother Earth" (1992) points out that "all countries which have nuclear capabilities, test their weapons on the lands of native peoples. "U.S. missiles are not detonated near Washington D.C. or New York City, but on the land of the Western Shoshone. The Soviet Union tests in Kazakhstan and now in Novaja Zembla as well; China tests its bombs on the land of one of its national minorities (the Uygur); France does it on the coral islands in Polynesia; Great Britain first bombed the land of the Australian Aboriginal and now they too test on the land of the W. Shoshone." The French government plans to continue the nuclear "testing." Such insolence will further fuel the flames of liberty in the hearts of the Tahitians. The current independence movement in Tahiti is bound to grow and gain international support as France continues to spit in the faces of the oppressed. FLEXING NEO-COLONIALIST MUSCLE IN AFRICA: PART OF THE MILITARIST PROGRAM The invasion of Comoros on October 4 is a nasty reminder of how imperialism breeds war. These pigs play with the fate of the planet and the world's people by hiring killers and then planning invasions when the hired guns get out of hand. The French military and government have no legitimate claims either to Polynesia or to the Comoros islands. These attacks on Polynesia and the Comoros islands intensify the contradiction between imperialist France and its colonies and reveal imperialism's nature: violence against the people. The masses struggle for self-determination and communism will ultimately defeat this militarism with the support of the majority of the world's people who oppose senseless murder and violence. NOTES: 1. Los Angeles Times 9/7/1995, p. A4. 2. New York Times 10/5/95. * * * BLACK STUDENT ORGANIZATIONS HONOR MURDERED LEADERS LOS ANGELES, October 10--More than 50 people attended a memorial protest commemorating the murders of Black Panther Party members Alprentice "Bunchy" Carter and Jon Huggins at UCLA's Campbell Hall more than 26 years ago. The African Student Union (ASU) at UCLA organized the event as part of a week of student activism against the University of California regents' decision to end its affirmative action programs. Speakers at the event encouraged those present to learn more about the Panthers' history and to organize beyond this one issue. Huggins and Carter were shot by members of Ron Karenga's United Slaves (US) organization on January 17, 1969. The FBI and its COINTELPRO (Counter-Intelligence Program) played an important role in the murders. In the months prior to the shootings, the FBI distributed cartoons to the two organizations which were designed to "promote violence between the Black Panther Party (BPP) and other... organizations." J. Edgar Hoover instructed FBI offices to "fully capitalize upon BPP and US differences" to incite what he called "gang warfare" and "threats of murder and reprisal."(1) Huggins and Carter were leaders in the Los Angeles Chapter of the BPP and were involved in the struggles of UCLA's Black Student Union around the creation of the High Potential Opportunity Program, which sought to make the University more accessible to Black people. The speakers included members of the current ASU, a former member of the BSU who witnessed the murders, and a member of the New African-American Vanguard Movement (NAAVM). All of the speakers placed the struggle to defend affirmative action in a correct perspective. They stressed that the existing affirmative action programs were better than none at all and should be defended, but ultimately did not make a difference in the lives of most people from oppressed nations. The president of the ASU criticized existing programs for aiding white women while remaining largely ineffective for members of oppressed nations, and the speaker from the NAAVM said that the regents were "trying to take away something I ain't never seen." All were clear that real affirmative action requires that Amerika pay the Black nation reparations for hundreds of years of stolen labor. MIM believes that the emerging student struggle in defense of affirmative action is progressive, but limited. The fact that 30 years of reform were wiped away in one blow demonstrates once again the futility of the reformist approach to making social change.(2) MIM encourages activists to follow in the footsteps of the revolutionaries in the BPP, who struggled for self-determination by building independent institutions of the oppressed and sought to ally the Black nation with the oppressed nations in the Third World. NOTES: 1. Ward Churchill and Jim Vander Wall, Agents of Repression, pp. 42, 77-79. 2. See MIM Notes 104, p. 9. * * * PRESENTATION ABOUT ERITREAN LIBERATION STRUGGLE "From the point of view of justice, the opinion of the Eritrean people must receive consideration. Nevertheless, the strategic interests of the United States in the Red Sea Basin and world peace make it necessary that the country be linked with our ally Ethiopia." (U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, 1952) Amherst, MA, September 26--A movie and slideshow were shown as an introduction to a discussion of the Eritrean liberation struggle. A visitor to Eritrea in 1988 gave a presentation, including brief historical background citing Eritrea's post World War II strategic importance to Amerika for its Red Sea oil lanes, deep water ports, and CIA listening post at Kagnew. The Ethiopians and Italians both colonized Eritrea. During WWII England and Eritrea made a deal guaranteeing Eritrean independence if Eritrea would fight against the Italians. After Italian and German fascism were defeated, Amerika latched onto Eritrea's two deep water ports (Massawa and Assab) on the Red Sea. Amerika needed to control this maritime access, and Ethiopia's land and natural resources, and rejected Eritrean self- determination. The presenter described Eritrea as an underground 24-hour per day school with its bunkered and camouflaged factories, garages, classrooms, clinics, hospital and irrigation and communications systems. The role of Eritrean women as teachers, skilled laborers and soldiers was of striking revolutionary importance to him. One participant argued that the role of women hadn't changed that much because in independent Eritrea, there were no women in the Ministry. The speaker argued that the campaign against clitorectomy and enfibulation as well as the large number of girls in school and in many areas of employment was a very significant change. Another person argued that the EPLF had neo- colonized itself to the Israelis by trading away its coastline for economic aid, after having fought against Israel for 30 years. As such, the participant considered the EPLF government as not being very self-reliant or revolutionary. All in attendance agreed that Eritrea is better off now than it was under Ethiopian rule. Eritrea's future and the question of whether it will be able to remain self-reliant and free are uncertain. But it is clear that the masses of the world can celebrate Eritrea's People's War for national liberation and self-determination, which won freedom from Ethiopia in 1991. This war was a ferocious demonstration of the strength of self- reliant military strategy and the courage and will of the Eritrean people. Eritrea's war of national liberation will forever be an inspiration to oppressed people, who will struggle to emulate its successes and learn from its shortcomings. * * * GUILTY: BLACK AMERIKA'S VERDICT ON THE LAPD by MC31 and MC5 MIM applauds the verdict of "not guilty" in the O.J. Simpson trial even though we do not believe it means the criminal injustice system works for Blacks in general. We have no opinion on whether Simpson did murder the two people, but we are happy to see that O.J. will not be going to prison for the rest of his life. We do not recognize any white Amerikan authority over the Black nation and uphold every instance of Black people beating back the white system. MIM denounces the racist oppression by the LAPD and all police forces, and works for the end of national oppression and domestic violence. Under socialism, suspected criminals will genuinely be tried by their peers and Black people will not be subjected to white injustice. People who abuse others will take a leading role in their own rectification through self-criticism, study and work. The media is now full of commentators trying to get their word in on how the "stupid" "racist" Black jury freed O.J. because he is Black. MIM says if the majority-Black jury did acquit O.J. because he is Black, more power to the jury! More power to O.J. and his lawyers for putting LAPD racism on trial. In the language of the Amerikan legal system, there was plenty of reasonable doubt to go around. Blacks in Amerika know that pigs plant evidence and lie and kill even unarmed Black youth and justify murder with more lies. The masses also know that O.J. is not "everyBlackman" and he is not a hero of the people. While the verdict should be applauded because another Black man is free, we should remember that hundreds of thousands of Blacks are under lock and key. MIM has written extensively about national oppression and why the term "racism" does not adequately describe the power of the oppression and the alliances and divisions that exist between Amerikans and oppressed nations in this country.(2) Much has been said throughout the O.J. trial and since the verdict about how "race" factored into the defense case and the jury's decision. O.J.'s lead defense attorney, Johnnie Cochran, hit it right on the money when he said after the verdict that race is a part of everything in Amerika, and it is silly to dance around and pretend that it isn't so. Cochran did not say that white people should not be so up in arms when a mostly Black jury lets a Black man go free; whites have let white murderers off for years. And of course, all- white juries send Black men to prison, or their deaths by lynching without the formality of a trial! MIM applauds the crisis of legitimacy for the state vis a vis the Black nation. This crisis can only bring revolution closer as the masses get angrier about national oppression. A poll taken right after the verdict showed that 83% of Blacks agreed with the verdict, while only 37% of whites did; 18% of Blacks thought O.J. was guilty, and a whopping 70% of whites thought so; 64% of Blacks thought the police framed O.J., and 26% of whites agreed.(1) O.J. might not have won the acquittal if he did not have millions of dollars to invest in a bunch of lawyers and investigators and DNA specialists and all the rest. Under socialism, O.J. would not have had the millions that he did, and he would not have needed them. The entire justice system will be radically different under socialism, where wealth will not play a role in the judicial system, and the police will not be national oppressors and corruption would not go unchallenged for so many years as pig Fuhrman's racist evidence-planting tricks did. MORE RAPE LAWS MEAN MORE NATIONAL OPPRESSION We know that laws do not protect women, even the white women they are meant to help. Mandatory arrest and sentencing laws increase national oppression and put Black men in prison.(3) MIM is concerned that Simpson's acquittal and the revelations of abuse in the O.J.-Nicole relationship will spurn increased pseudofeminist calls for new rules regarding evidence that can and cannot be presented in a trial of a gender crime. Even though O.J. is rich, he is still a Black man who can be nationally oppressed, and mercilessly attacked by pseudofeminist activists who think that locking up batterers will end domestic abuse. These women who cry "Remember Nicole!" have no real interest in destroying the patriarchy that ensures continued violence against women. The pseudo- feminists also do not give women credit for their ability to make decisions and rational choices. MIM says most First World women do have choices about their abusive relationships, though not necessarily good ones. Nicole did not get killed "fleeing" her abuser, she moved a mile away and stayed on his payroll. At least one juror said that the prosecution's whole argument about O.J. killing Nicole as the culmination of years of domestic violence was a waste of time, and did not resonate with the jury of mostly Black women. While a jury in the Amerikan criminal justice system is a distorted context in which to make a political statement, O.J. got much closer to having a jury of his peers than most Black people on trial in Amerika do. A group of Black women, given the opportunity, has spoken. White women interested in ending domestic violence and gender oppression should listen carefully: it is not possible to end gendered violence through increasing national oppression. NOTES: 1. ABC News Nightline 10/3/95 2. See MIM Theory 7: Proletarian Feminist Revolutionary Nationalism, on the Communist Road, especially chapter "The Black Nation" (p. 39-69) on the nature of national oppression within U.S. borders. 3. See MIM Theory 2/3: Gender and Revolutionary Feminism, especially "Revolution and violence against women" (p. 29-36) and "Myth of the Black rapist" (p. 91-97) for statistical analyses of violence against women, and the intersections of nation and gender oppressions in sentencing. * * * PALESTINIAN WOMEN DEFY ISRAELI TRICKS; REMAIN IN PRISON Palestinian women being held in Israeli prisons demonstrated their will for national liberation in October when they refused release from prison on the grounds that some of their comrades were still being held unjustly. In the context of bogus peace accords and capitulation on the part of the PLO, these women's determination to remain in prison under brutal conditions is a fierce statement on the true meaning of peace. In early October, Israel began to release Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons as a part of its peace agreement with Palestine. All Palestinian women were to be the first released. But President Ezer Weizman of Israel refused to grant pardons to two women convicted of murder, and Israeli military refused to release two women in its prisons. There is strong support among Israelis for the president's and military's position against releasing anyone who has the blood of Israelis on their hands. In response to this blatant violation of the accord, all other women in prison (20) except one refused freedom. The one woman who was released on October 8th said that she had been in isolation and had not heard of the boycott or she would have joined the other women in refusing to leave. For these women, refusing release on political principle is a heroic act that makes it clear that the Palestinian struggle for true freedom and self- determination has not been bought off. Israel is demanding that prisoners sign an agreement to undertake no further aggression against the state on their release. But while Israel demands this agreement of Palestinians, Palestine has no way of enforcing the same agreement from Israelis. Palestinian police do not even have the authority to arrest or detain Israelis on Palestinian soil. MIM does not criticize Palestinian prisoners who were released and did agree to cease aggression against Israel. In the context of a genuine national liberation struggle, no individual's contract with the Israeli government is binding because the Israeli government has no legitimate authority over Palestine. And unless prisoners are required to sellout the struggle to get out, there is nothing wrong with doing what they can to get out of prison. It is terrible to see the bald treachery of the Israeli government against peace, but the Palestinian will is inspiring. Self-determination is still a long way off for the Palestinian people, but the struggle is still alive. * * * AMERIKAN LABOR DEMANDS MORE, IGNORES INTERNATIONAL PROLETARIAT 1-800-AABUSCH Teamsters Local 122 of 650 Beacon Street, Boston (1-800-AABUSCH) is fairly active these days on the streets. It gathers supporters at street corners and parking lots to publicize the boycott of Budweiser beer products. The workers are complaining that Bud wants to hire workers at lower wages, retire older workers and cut back job security. Their campaign to boycott Anheuser-Busch features a "Bud weasel" in a red circle and slash through it. Stickers and leaflets for the movement are all over Boston. This is not a struggle MIM particularly cares about, but the leaflet does show that even Amerikan labor organizers aren't as dim-witted and thin- skinned as their supposedly Marxist apologists make out: "In the old days, workers faced UNION BUSTERS who used guns and clubs. Now they carry briefcases and use calculators. And the hurt from those weapons can last a lifetime." The workers realize that they do not have the labor movement of the past. While they fail to mention that most of the world's laborers still face guns and clubs, these labor aristocrats seem aware that they have to justify their struggle against imperialists who don't use the same old tactics. Listening to some lying phony communists, one would think that the imperialists don't negotiate at all and just use physical force every day on the Amerikan workers. The leaflet says Anheuser-Busch profits reached a record in 1994, but ignores the debt the corporation owes Third World workers. Instead, the Teamsters Local 122 seeks to justify its share of the super-profits. MIM calls these workers labor aristocracy because they are receiving more than the value of their labor at the expense of exploited and superexploited workers in the Third World. (MIM Theory 1: A White Proletariat? includes calculations on the source of imperialist profit and refutation of the myth of white worker exploitation. Send $3 for a copy.) UAW A recent flyer put out by the United Auto Workers is more political than the Bud Weasel campaign. "If their wages don't come up, ours will go down," is the title of the leaflet and it starts right into the subject of organizing internationally. MIM likes this flyer a little more than the other one, because of its attempt to fight national chauvinism. The "they" in "their wages" is undoubtedly a reference to the true proletariat of the Third World. Labor organizers seeking to lend solidarity to Third World workers deserve our respect. Most of the time the UAW and the labor aristocracy it speaks for is busy raising its own share of the superprofits extracted from the proletariat abroad. This is especially evident when these workers ignore or oppose the demands of Third World labor while engaging in self-aggrandizement. Labor aristocrats are inclined to say "Park your import in Tokyo" and support the Proposition 187 anti-immigrant movement. This sort of labor movement is an enemy of the international proletariat. The UAW leaflet concludes asking workers to take up voluntary union activism by joining picket lines and handing out leaflets or by visiting other workers at home to talk about the union. The assumption is that such activities will help raise the wages of the others, but it is a false assumption. A movement not specifically targeting imperialism and militarism can just as easily be the type of labor movement that Le Pen or the KKK supports--one for a narrow section of workers at the expense of others. For over 50 years, the Amerikan working class has the experience of seeing other working classes' wages go down or stagnate while its own wages go up. Hence the flyer makes use of some admirable intentions, but leads readers down a false road. * * * SECOYA NATION: BESIEGED BY OIL COMPANIES AND COLONISTS by a member of RAIL UMASS Amherst, October 10--Two activists from the Secoya nation in the rainforest of northeast Ecuador talked to a group of approximately thirty today about the problems facing their nation. The 300 members of the Secoya nation are victims of water pollution resulting from nearby oil drilling by Texaco and Petro-Ecuador. Their only water sources are heavily contaminated and they are no longer able to eat fish, drink water, bathe, swim, or cook. Cancer, rashes, vomiting, headaches, stomachaches and premature death are all common. At the same time, white colonists are moving nearby and the government is clearcutting the rainforest to provide housing, roads, etc. The Secoya are dependent on the rainforest for their food and production of palm oil, and have been forced to start buying rice from outsiders to feed themselves. To get money to buy food, many Secoya cut wood from the rainforests. Though they know that this lifestyle is unsustainable, they feel that they have no choice. The Secoyan activists want to save their people from extinction. They have organized with the other nations in the area against the Ecuadorean government and petroleum industry. They are trying to create ecologically-sound economic practices like aquaculture, eco-tourism, and handicraft production so they can stop cutting down trees. They are fighting to teach their native language in school and write their own books as well as reinstitute traditional patterns of dress and housing. They are also trying to stop the government from seizing Secoyan youth and drafting them into the army (currently nine Secoyans have been captured while traveling). One Secoyan activist said "The whole world needs petrol. I think there must be a method to get petrol without destroying the Earth, but in the last 25 years we have only seen destruction... The government says that Texaco is good for the country but in reality Texaco is good for the government and it is not good for the people." * * * YOUTH SEEK JUSTICE AT THE UNAM by MCG3 In late September, students at the Autonomous National University of Mexico (UNAM) took over the administration building accusing the administration of corruption. The UNAM is the largest university in Latin America. The protesters said that the corrupt administration had denied 8,000 people access to education. The majority of the students at the University come from middle class families. The students presented evidence that the administration is guilty of favoritism benefiting the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). They showed letters sent by high officials of the government demanding that certain students were accepted and other specific students were not. The protesters also showed proof that certain people were allowed to buy copies of the admissions exam.(1) MIM is not surprised that UNAM denies education to the majority in Mexico. Inequality is a rule of capitalism, which says that basic education is a privilege. It does not surprise us that the government chooses who can and cannot receive an education. The dominant class has been dictating who eats and who does not for years. The bourgeoisie dictates who can live and who dies. Capitalism denies millions the basic necessities: food, clothing, shelter, education and health care. The oppressed will only obtain these and other basic rights when they destroy the capitalist system. Capitalism, no the UNAM's specific policies, is the reason that people are denied an education--so we struggle against capitalism. We support the struggle of the students to expose the corruption within the University and the struggle to fight for justice. NOTES: Los Angeles Times 9/27/95, p. A4. * * * COMMUNIST PARTY OF THE PHILIPPINES AND KURDISTAN WORKERS PARTY BUILD UNITY The National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDF) and the National Liberation Front of Kurdistan (ERNK) recently signed an agreement promising mutual support and solidarity. The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) also published a joint protocol. The protocol states: "We, the Kurdistan Workers Party and the Communist Party of the Philippines, will intensify the ties between our comrades in the future. We will struggle against imperialism and reactionary forces, and we will strengthen our solidarity in the struggle for our national liberation and democracy. We will develop a democratic revolution with a socialist revolution as our goal. We have as our foundation the fundamentals of proletarian internationalism. We will turn these ideals into reality by means of our revolutionary praxis."(1) The PKK leads a national and democratic revolution against the Turkish state and the remnants of feudalism in Kurdistan itself. It has been engaged in armed struggle since 1984. Turkey consistently and violently denies the Kurdish nation self- determination. In October 1994, for example, the Turkish army burned villages and forests in a desperate attempt to rob the PKK of its support.(2) The CPP leads the national-democratic struggle in the Philippines along Maoist lines. It has been building independent institutions for the oppressed and waging armed struggle for more than 20 years. U.S. imperialism is an enemy of the people of Kurdistan and the Philippines. The Amerikan state provides both Turkey and the Government of the Republic of the Philippines with military supplies and advice. Until recently, the U.S. army had installations in both Kurdistan and the Philippines. MIM is happy to see both of these anti-imperialist parties and movements uniting to share experiences and support. NOTES: 1. Arm the Spirit, translated from Kurdistan Report 75, July/August 1995. 2. See MIM Notes 85, 95, and 100 or Liberation International May-August 1995 for more information. * * * COMMUNIST PARTY OF THE PHILIPPINES STATEMENT ON THE SUSPENSION OF FORMAL TALKS WITH THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC FRONT OF THE PHILIPPINES ***The following statement was issued by Gregario Rosal, national spokesperson of the Communist Party of Philippines (CPP) in response to the unilateral withdrawal of the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) from peace talks with the National Democratic Front (NDF). See MIM Notes 103 and 104 (August and September 1995) for discussion of the case of Sotero Llamas.*** The GRP's refusal to fulfill its obligation under the Joint Agreement of Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) was the cause of the latest deadlock in the talks between the NDF and GRP. And yet on top of this, it was the GRP panel headed by Ambassador Howard Dee that arbitrarily declared a unilateral suspension of the talks. The case of Comrade Sotero Llamas [arrested May 17, 1995] who is a political consultant of the NDF goes beyond the issue of his release. It is an important test of the GRP,s sincerity in the entire peace talks. The issue here is whether the GRP is ready to comply with the agreements arrived at by the two parties. In the JASIG approved by both sides last April, the NDF and the GRP agreed to grant personnel of the other side who are involved in the talks the guarantee of safety and immunity form arrest and from any form of harassment. But in the case of Comrade Llamas the GRP us openly reneging on its obligations. The first evidence of insincerity on the part of the GRP in the case of Comrade Llamas was when the GRP suddenly sought the delay in the effectivity of the JASIG. Not long after, while the GRP,s motion was still being threshed out, news broke out that Comrade Llamas had been wounded and captured in an assault by combined forces of MIG and the 2nd IB, PA, in Sorsogon. Since April, Comrade Llamas has been included in the first list of those designated as consultants in the peace talks and covered by the guarantee of safety and immunity under JASIG. And now the GRP is saying that even General Ramos, the President of the GRP, is powerless to order the release of Comrade Llamas and it is now up to the courts to decide. If Ramos is incapable of complying with the obligations he has accepted under the JASIG, what guarantee is there that the GRP will abide by the commitments it makes in the peace talks? Actually, General Ramos is only using the courts as a pretext to yield to the demand of the Armed Forces of the Philippines not to release Comrade Llamas even if it means outrightly reneging on the obligations of the GRP under JASIG. Essentially, the GRP has not stopped in its efforts to undermine the rules established in the JASIG and the provisions of the Hague Declaration of 1992, and bring the peace process back along the militarist line and demanding the unconditional surrender of the revolutionary movement. It is completely correct for the NDF panel to stand firmly on the release of Comrade Llamas and on his participation in the talks as a requisite for the resumption of the formal negotiations. It is completely correct for the NDF panel to insist on the GRP,s compliance with the agreement it has signed. We laud the NDF panel for its vigilance in safeguarding the integrity of the political negotiations and in defending the rights and interests of the revolutionary movement. We condemn the insincerity of the GRP in the case of Comrade Llamas and its arbitrary decision to unilaterally suspend the talks. This whole incident has once more proven the correctness of the overall policy of the NDF and the revolutionary movement to persevere in the struggle while engaging in talks with the reactionary government. July 19, 1995 * * * DARE TO KEEP COPS OUT OF SCHOOL In September, a DARE cop in the Braintree, MA schools was suspended "because she plotted to make false accusations about drug use in the schools." In March, Officer Barbara Skrycki "secretly asked a male friend" to pose as an irate parent and accuse the town's Alliance Against Drugs of "covering up life-threatening drug incidents." This incident is a good illustration of the pigs' agenda: they are not overly interested in stopping drug use, but in exposing supposed "incidents" so that they can lock more people up. DRUGS ARE AN EXCUSE TO LOCK PEOPLE UP Braintree Police Chief Paul Frazier offered this explanation of Skrycki's zeal: "I think she did this because she thought the schools could have been doing more for drug education and enforcement, that hearing it from an irate parent, people would open their eyes." Apparently these good intentions earned Skrycki her job back, although on patrol and not in the schools. MIM hasn't talked to Skrycki, but we offer a different analysis. The cops don't care about crime or drugs; they care about maintaining the oppressive capitalist system. This is done through the selective application of arbitrarily defined notions of criminality. For example, the bourgeoisie defines possessing a small amount of crack to be a crime, but it's business as usual for the CIA to bring in coke by the ton. Oppressed nationalities are targeted for drug surveillance, and proportionally many more oppressed nationals are arrested than whites. When whites are arrested for possessing small amounts of crack, the "just-us" system gives them shorter sentences than it gives to oppressed nationals. This clearly exposes that the cops and the laws have nothing to do with stopping crime and everything to do with stopping the oppressed. SPLIT THE WHITE NATION FROM THE POLICE STATE To support greater and greater repression, the cops and politicians occasionally need to fan the flames of settler anti-crime sentiment. In this case the masses were already quite reactionary, but Skrycki apparently thought the posse wasn't hysterical enough. We must always resist the attacks of the state, and when the politicians take the largest leaps from reality, such as arguing that more prisons are needed to stop crime, we must intervene and attempt to split chunks of settlers from the lynch mob. Parts of the labor aristocracy can be split from the pro-cop, pro-prison movement for reasons other than proletarian ones, such as the fact that more cops and prisons could mean higher taxes. If wings of the labor aristocracy and bourgeoisie are too cheap to pay half of Amerika as cops to lock the oppressed nationalities up, then that group can be a tactical ally in the struggle against national oppression. Exposing cases like Skrycki's may be useful in convincing some settlers that pigs are a waste of money. NOTE: Sunday Republican 9/10/95. * * * FILM SHOWING EXPOSES MIGRANT LABOR CONDITIONS ANN ARBOR, MI, September 20--RAIL and MIM showed Harvest of Shame as part of a fall series of events. A fruitful discussion spanning numerous topics followed the film. Harvest of Shame is a 1960 documentary which shows the oppressive conditions of migrant workers who produce food for the best fed country on earth-- Amerikkka. The movie makes many sharp exposures: comparing migrant transportation to the laws regulating cattle transportation, and comparing migrant housing in one area to local horse stables. In each case the animals come out ahead. One grower is quoted: "we used to own our slaves, now we rent them." The documentary tracks mostly Black migrant farm workers as they travel north from Florida as far as New Jersey. It consists of interviews with migrants, religious workers, growers and the U.S. Secretary of Labor who makes many surprisingly pro- migrant, anti-grower statements. He does expose his imperialist perspective and his clear differences with the rest of the government over how large the bought-off classes should be: "It's morally wrong for anyone to exploit their workers in this day and age; we shouldn't tolerate it." Some of the migrants in the film are white. The RAIL member leading the discussion pointed out at the beginning that white agricultural workers in such a desperate situation would be difficult to find these days. The audience members agreed that the availability of legal and illegal immigrant labor and the "legal" temporary workers shipped to Amerika from other countries enable farm owners to avoid laborers who might demand safe working conditions or a competitive wage. White-nation workers are able to seek out more lucrative work while Third World peoples slave to produce their food. Harvest of Shame briefly discusses the old Bracero program in the Southwest by which Mexican men were encouraged to come to the U.S. for jobs. The discussion is quite racist though, blaming the Mexicans for taking jobs from Blacks and poor whites. This federal program has now been replaced with the H2A program, which includes Jamaican workers, Filipino workers and workers from other oppressed nations. In contrast to the way agricultural workers are treated in 1960s Amerika, in China under Mao the peasants and workers were correctly recognized as the backbone of society upon which everything else was dependent. Land reform liberated poor peasantry from enslavement by landlords. Industrialization was planned to lessen the contradictions between the cities and the countryside. Changes made in the superstructure, such as in education, served peasants and workers and gave them opportunities which were formerly available only to the elite.(See MIM Theory 7 p. 92-94 for more on migrant conditions in the U.S. and the improvements for peasants under Mao.) One audience member disagreed with the headline in the national RAIL newspaper which reads, "Newspaper employees strike for piece of pie." They opposed MIM's line on the white working class and stated that workers should not be concerned with anything but their own material interests. What more, they reasoned, could we expect? MIM and RAIL pointed out that while white nation workers certainly are concerned only with their material interests, organizing for these interests is not progressive. If the workers aren't talking about liberating the Third World proletariat and ending imperialism, then they are objectively supporting First World dominance over internal and external colonies. They ally with the violent imperialist system to further oppress the rest of the world in exchange for better benefits. Supporting their demands amounts to strengthening white nation chauvinism. Another audience member agreed with MIM on this point. * * * MIM AND RAIL MAKE NEW FRIENDS FOR THE NDFP by MIM and RAIL In October MIM and RAIL organized a showing of two videos of the Philippine revolution on an East Coast college campus. The event was well attended by Filipino students and supporters of the Filipino people and included a lively discussion about the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, the New People's Army and the rectification movement of the Communist Party of the Philippines. The school's newspaper had printed an editorial the previous week in support of Philippine President Fidel Ramos and his "Philippines 2000" plan to further open the Philippines to imperialist capital so this was also a topic of discussion. MIM explained that the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) is a united front of anti- imperialist and anti-feudal organizations led by the Maoist Communist Party of the Philippines and that its army, the New People's Army is engaged in protracted People's War against the U.S.-backed Ramos regime. As the videos and MIM explained, by building base areas of support in the countryside, the NDFP is able to institute land reform and gather forces to defeat the state's military. The first video was Green Guerrillas, on the work of the New People's Army among the indigenous people of Mindanao and how the people's guerrillas work with indigenous people to protect their environment. This video was made this year and it clearly shows the progress of the return of the Communist Party of the Philippines and its New People's Army to their Maoist roots via the rectification movement. In the late 1980s, the Mandayan forcibly ejected the NPA from the area because of the NPA's incorrect behavior. Now the NPA has reformed and was welcomed back by the Madayan people. The second video, Medics of the People, is about the medical work of the New People's Army. Medics treat injured soldiers of both sides and conduct clinics in the rural barrios. MASSES RECOGNIZE THE STRENGTH OF RECTIFICATION One audience member wanted to know more about this struggle to return to the revolutionary Maoist roots of the struggle. He said it was "very impressive that mistakes that serious could be made, recognized and reformed." Filipinos in the audience who had been in Amerika for only a few years, and those who have been here for more than 30 years explained that they were very interested in learning more about the struggle of their country. There was a variety of political perspectives among the people at the event, but everyone in the audience agreed that the Philippines suffers from imperialism and that Filipinos' lack of knowledge about their own country is a sign of this imperialism. Even the Filipinos educated in the Philippines said this, because Amerika set up the educational system there to teach U.S. history and push an Amerika-centric approach to education and the world. One Filipino defended Ramos' Philippines 2000 economic development program because he thought it would industrialize the Philippines. He also said it would generate a middle class. This last point wasn't contested, but many members of the audience sharply opposed the view that opening the Philippines up to further imperialist penetration would make the country as a whole stronger or improve the standard of living of the majority of the people. A Filipina and MIM discussed how economic development programs like Philippines 2000 have been complete failures in Latin America and in Peru specifically at achieving anything but First World enrichment and generating tiny Third World elites at the expense of the laboring masses. There is no evidence that Ramos' plan will produce different results and much evidence that it is a sinister plan to auction the sweat and blood of the Filipino people even more cheaply than Ferdinand Marcos did. The audience learned a lot about the Philippine revolution, bought several copies of Liberation International (the magazine of the National Democratic Front) and Maoist Sojourner. In addition, the audience members committed to organizing to bring Rafael Baylosis to speak in April about discuss the root causes of the armed conflict between the NDFP and the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the NDFP's struggle for a just and lasting peace. Finally, the students suggested organizing a study group about the Philippines and its revolution. Contact your local MIM or RAIL chapter to find out how to put on cool events like this one in your area. Contact MIM for more information on the Communist Party of the Philippines. * * * MARCH AGAINST PRISONS: MASSES REJECT BRUTALIZING "CORRECTIONS" September 30--A RAIL contingent joined in a march of over 100 people initiated by the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) against prisons in Massachusetts. The march started at Norfolk Prison and ended at Walpole, covering 2 miles and passing plenty of cops on the way. The march was to protest the conditions in Massachusetts prisons, detailed in the article on this page which was distributed as a flier to everyone at the march. The demands of the march were stated in a flier drawn up by the Coalition of prisoner Families and Friends, a committee of the AFSC and one of the principal organizers of the march. The organizing flier stated: The Coalition of prisoner Families and Friends calls on the Department of "correction," the Legislature, and Governor Weld to: * END THE LOCKDOWN AT WALPOLE PRISON FOR ALL WALPOLE PRISONERS * END THE LOCKDOWN AT SHIRLEY PRISON * END ARBITRARY SEGREGATION AND ABUSE OF LATINO PRISONERS * RESTORE CONTACT VISITS AT WALPOLE * RESTORE PROGRAMS AND TRAINING IN ALL MASSACHUSETTS PRISONS * PROVIDE ADEQUATE HEALTH CARE FOR PRISONERS, ESPECIALLY THOSE WHO ARE HIV POSITIVE * CLOSE THE DEPARTMENTAL DISCIPLINARY UNIT * PROVIDE ADEQUATE PROGRAMS AND MEDICAL CARE TO FEMALE PRISONERS A musical group called Vida Urbana in Springfield provided the marchers with songs along the way. In between songs people chanted enthusiastically and waved signs condemning the criminal injustice system. None of the participants thought that being at the rally would make a sudden change in the prisons. But by bringing people out for a march that targeted the prisons MIM and the masses oppose, we showed the state that we are watching every time the pigs abuse a prisoner, and that we know they are working to remove all semblance of civility from the prisons. We will make sure that the people know this is happening. MIM and RAIL work to build public opinion in opposition to pig institutions. Only through many such actions and educational events can we hope to win small battles for better conditions in the prisons while we work to overthrow the capitalist system that necessitates repressive prisons as institutions of social control. The police and FBI were out in full force with cameras and video equipment all along this march. Demonstrating what they see as a real threat, there were more cops and agents at this march than at many of the larger rallies with less radical demands and a less threatening target. RAIL is working on a campaign against prisons in Massachusetts and is organizing a prisons awareness week in Amherst and a series of educational events about prisons in Boston. We are also planning a rally against the Department of Corrections and NYNEX, the New England phone company that works with the DOC to severely restrict prisoners access to people on the outside. The DOC and NYNEX conveniently have offices across the street from one another in downtown Boston. Contact RAIL to get involved in this campaign. ***RAIL distributed the following flyer at the anti-prisons march described in the article March against prisons: masses reject brutalizing "corrections" on this page. The information in the flyer was taken from an interview with an anti- prisons activist in Massachusetts. Please see the Massachusetts events calendar on this page and contact RAIL for more information.*** Over the last few years the state of Massachusetts has increased the repression and abuse in its prisons leading up to the implementation of unprecedented repressive policies and practices in 1995. This should be no surprise considering that the Commissioner of Corrections is Larry Dubois, infamous for his participation in the administration of the control units at Marion, Illinois and Lexington, Kentucky where prisoners, particularly those who were politically active, were abused and humiliated. This year's repressive measures include cutting back on the very limited access to education, training, and drug and alcohol rehabilitation, limiting medical care, cutting off prisoner's ability to write letters to other prisoners, and requiring all prisons to convert part of their space into segregation units which in reality are control units, or prisons within prisons. The conditions for women, held in the Framingham women's prison, are among the worst in the system, with women not even having the very limited rights and access given to male prisoners. In addition to these reactionary policies, two prisons in Massachusetts, Shirley and Walpole, are currently locked down, meaning that no one can come into the prison, the prisoners are not allowed contact with other prisoners, they are only allowed out of their cells a few times a week and then only for a shower, and they do not get out to exercise. The lockdown in Walpole began on March 21st after a prisoner was stabbed. During the first 10 days of the lockdown prisoners were violently beaten by guards on B-4 cellblock and on April 3rd a B-4 guard was stabbed. Shortly after the institution of the lockdown, the DOC designated Walpole a Supermax, upgrading it from a Level 5 Maximum Security Prison. In a Supermax prisoners can only leave their cells twice a week, just for a shower, they get no exercise and are allowed no visitors. The designation as a Supermax allowed Walpole to build non-contact visiting rooms. After the construction of these was completed, on August 7th, the prison officially ended the lockdown. But this is just an official smokescreen: many prisoners remain in isolation and lockdown, only the label has changed. To add to the repressive conditions in Walpole, the Plymouth High Security Unit was created as a part of this Supermax. Prisoners who are labeled "dangerous" are now pulled out of other prisons and moved to this unit. These prisoners are usually identified as gang members and upwards of 90% of them are Latinos. The majority of these prisoners in Plymouth were the most vocal advocates for themselves and other prisoners and so of course considered dangerous. In addition to the Plymouth unit, Walpole also has the Departmental Disciplinary Unit (DDU). This is a unit of total deprivation that is entirely sound proof. There are also Blocks 8, 9 and 10 which are segregated but not totally isolated: prisoners can yell to one another from their cells. More than half of the prisoners in Walpole are held in one of these prisons within the prison and they are all required to wear uniforms. The internal level of the prisoners is matched by clothing colors with Plymouth seen as the worst, wearing bright orange. The lockdown in Shirley is in its fourth week. After a guard sat on the bed of a Latino prisoner, counter to prison policies, the prisoner and the guard got into a fight. The guards then started beating every Latino they found on the ward. The harassment continued the next day and the prisoners rioted and took over a room. Shirley has been on lockdown ever since. 40 of the Latino prisoners were shipped immediately to the Plymouth High Security Unit. The lockdowns and repressive measures implemented in prisons across Massachusetts must be fought. The prisoners are fighting from behind the bars and we must support their struggles and make use of the freedom we have to organize outside the prisons. People must be made aware of the conditions in prisons and of the real use for prisons as tools of social control by the rich and powerful in Amerika. The Amerikan injustice system does not intend to "rehabilitate" anyone, it is used to keep people in their place, punishing political activists for crimes they did not commit, and taking off the streets the "dangerous" Blacks and Latinos who do not even get a trial of their peers, while allowing the worst murderers and thieves to operate freely as a part of the Amerikan government and Amerikan imperialist corporations. Join the campaign against Amerika's social control. We are working to expose and oppose Amerika's use of social control against the people that the imperialists see as a threat, principally Blacks, Latinos and Indigenous peoples. For more info contact your local RAIL branch. * * * ***This is MIM's political program, approved during the party's 1995 Congress. Our Program is written on the model of the Black Panther Party's 10-Point Platform and Program. For a summary of other developments of the Party's most recent Congress, please see MIM Notes 105, October 1995.*** PROGRAM OF THE MAOIST INTERNATIONALIST MOVEMENT October 1995 WHAT WE WANT WHAT WE BELIEVE 1. We want communism. We believe that anyone who opposes all oppression-- power of groups over groups--is a communist. This includes opposition to national oppression, class oppression and gender oppression. 2. We want socialism. We believe that socialism is the path to communism. We believe that the current dictatorship of the bourgeoisie oppresses the world's majority. We believe that socialism--the dictatorship of the proletariat and peasantry--is a necessary step towards a world without inequality or dictatorship- -a communist world. We uphold the USSR under Lenin and Stalin (1917-1953) and China under Mao (1949- 1976) as models in this regard. 3. We want revolutionary armed struggle. We believe that the oppressors will not give up their power without a fight. Ending oppression is only possible by building public opinion to seize power through armed struggle. We believe, however, that armed struggle in the imperialist countries is a serious strategic mistake until the bourgeoisie becomes really helpless. Revolution will become a reality for North America as the U.S. military becomes over-extended in the government's attempts to maintain world hegemony. "We are advocates of the abolition of war, we do not want war; but war can only be abolished through war, and in order to get rid of the gun it is necessary to take up the gun."--Mao Zedong 4. We want organization. We believe that democratic-centralism, the system of unified application of majority decisions, is necessary to defeat the oppressors. This system includes organization, leadership, discipline and hierarchy. The oppressors use these weapons, and we should, too. By building a disciplined revolutionary communist vanguard party, we follow in the tradition of comrades Lenin, Mao and Huey Newton. 5. We want independent institutions of and for the oppressed. We believe that the oppressed need independent media to build public opinion for socialist revolution. We believe that the oppressed need independent institutions to provide land, bread, housing, education, medical care, clothing, justice and peace. We believe that the best independent institution of all is a self-reliant socialist government. 6. We want continuous revolution. We believe that class struggle continues under socialism. We believe that under socialism, the danger exists for a new bourgeoisie to arise within the communist party itself. We believe that these new oppressors will restore capitalism unless they are stopped. We believe that the bourgeoisie seized power in the USSR after the death of Stalin in 1953; in China it was after Mao's death and the overthrow of the "Gang of Four" in 1976. We believe that China's Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) is the farthest advance towards communism in human history, because it mobilized millions of people against the restoration of capitalism. 7. We want a united front against imperialism. We believe that the imperialists are currently waging a hot war--a World War III--against the world's oppressed nations, including the U.S. empire's internal colonies. We seek to unite all who can be united under proletarian and feminist leadership against imperialism, capitalism and patriarchy. We believe that the imperialist country working classes are primarily a pro-imperialist labor aristocracy at this time. Likewise, we believe that the biological women of the imperialist countries are primarily a gender aristocracy. Thus, while we recruit individuals from these and other reactionary groups to work against their class, national and gender interests, we do not seek strategic unity with them. In fact, we believe that the imperialist country working-classes and imperialist country biological women, like the bourgeoisies and petit bourgeoisies, owe reparations to the international proletariat and peasantry. As such, one of the first strategic steps MIM will take upon winning state power will be to open the borders. We believe that socialism in the imperialist countries will require the dictatorship of the international proletariat and that the imperialist country working-classes will need to be on the receiving end of this dictatorship. 8. We want New Democracy for the oppressed nations. We want power for the oppressed nations to determine their destinies. We believe that oppressed people will not be free until they are able to determine their destinies. We look forward to the day when oppressed people will live without imperialist police terror and will learn to speak their mind without fear of the consequences from the oppressor. When this day comes, meaningful plebiscites can be held in which the peoples will decide for themselves if they want their own separate nation-states or some other arrangement. 9. We want world revolution. We believe it is our duty to support Marxism- Leninism-Maoism everywhere, though our principal task is to build public opinion and independent institutions in preparation for Maoist revolution in North America. The imperialists think and act globally--we must do the same. 10. We want politics in command. We believe that correct tactics flow from correct strategies, which flow from a correct ideological and political line. We believe that the fight against imperialism, capitalism and patriarchy goes hand in hand with the fight against revisionism, chauvinism, and opportunism. "The correctness or otherwise of the ideological and political line decides everything. When the Party's line is correct, then everything will come its way. If it has no followers, then it can have followers; if it has no guns, then it can have guns; if it has no political power, then it can have political power."--Mao Zedong * * * UNDER LOCK AND KEY: NEWS FROM PRISONERS AND PRISONS SHAKA SHAKUR TRANSFER--EMERGENCY RESPONSE We have received word that prison activist Shaka Shakur is slated to be transferred back to a control unit prison. Shaka spent many years at the Maximum Control Complex control unit prison in Westville, Indiana where he struggled from the inside to shut it down. Now the Indiana DOC wants to send him back to a control unit prison--the SHU unit [Security Housing Unit] at the Wabash Valley Correctional Center. We are asking for you to make calls, faxes and letters to Commissioner Debruyn and Superintendent Al C. Park (addresses and numbers are listed below). Shaka has devoted much energy to seeing the movement grow on the inside and the outside - this is a retaliatory move the Indiana DOC that must be stopped. Commissioner Debruyn, 804 State Office Building, 100 N. Senate, Indianapolis, IN 46204, Phone: 317- 232-5715, FAX: 317-232-6798 Superintendent Al C. Park, Indiana State Prison, P.O. Box 41, Michigan City, IN 46360, Phone: 219- 874-7258, FAX: 219-874-9001 Please send a copy of your letters to Shaka at: Shaka Shakur, 28443, Indiana State Prison, P.O. Box 41, Michigan City, IN 46360 SAMPLE LETTER TO SEND/FAX TO THE ABOVE OFFICIALS: Dear Sir, I am writing regarding the upcoming transfer of Shaka Shakur DOC 28443. He is currently incarcerated at Indiana State Prison in Michigan City and is slated to be transferred to the Wabash Valley Correctional Center--more specifically, the SHU. Mr. Shakur has spent the last two weeks in the infirmary at Indiana State Prison and is in need of direct medical attention. He has already been sent to an outside specialist once and is scheduled for an EMG by an outside specialist very soon. Mr. Shakur is finally receiving treatment for his medical situation which has been ignored for almost a year by the staff at Indiana State Prison. Mr. Shakur is on crutches and must be moved about the prison via wheelchair. It would be unconstitutional to transfer Mr. Shakur to the SHU Unit, a high security disciplinary unit. The SHU would not be capable of handling Mr. Shakur's medical situation. Mr. Shakur has served time at the Maximum Control Complex in Westville, Indiana. The Taifa v. Bayh settlement mandates that all inmates be placed in general population upon release from MCC. It would seem that this transfer is in retaliation for the filed petition about the unhealthy conditions--leaking roofs, rats, etc.-- currently existing at Indiana State Prison that has brought in the Indiana Department of Health. If it is not in retaliation of prisoners trying to keep themselves free of disease, why are they not being transferred to other open units at Indiana State Prison?--when the space does exist. Mr. Shakur must not be sent to the SHU, and this medical situation must be given highest priority. Sincerely, [your name here] INFORMATION ON SHAKA SHAKUR My name is Shaka Shakur. I am a 28 year old New Afrikan Political Prisoner and member of the New Afrikan Independence Movement (NAIM) fighting for the liberation of the Republic of New Afrika, in the Southeast part of the united states. At the age of 16 I was arrested and charged with the erroneous charge of "attempted robbery." I was railroaded/convicted and illegally sentenced to 30 years. Despite the fact that I was charged with the wrong crime and illegally sentenced to 30 years (when by law I should have received no more than 8 years), I have served 12 and a half years of this sentence. While in prison I embarked upon a journey of self- education and politicization. I became a politically conscious and a politically active prisoner. A prisoner who understands the socio- economic relationship and role of my imprisonment. A politically conscious prisoner who understands the overall political ramifications of the u.s. domestic genocidal policy of mass incarceration of New Afrikan (Black) people in particular and all oppressed working class people in general. With the transformation of my character and sense of political awareness, for approximately the last ten years, I have made a conscious effort to educate, politicize, and organize my fellow prisoners. I have implemented numerous programs at my own sacrifice and persecution, to help ensure that those of Us who are released return back to the community as assets instead of predators. I have been active in working with both inside and outside civil and human rights organizations, political organizations and some progressive attorneys. I have worked with some of these political organizations in not only trying to alleviate some of the third world conditions We exist in inside these prisons, but also to expose such blatant contradictions to the public/world, of a hypocritical system that proclaims to be a democracy. As a result of such actions and efforts I have been targeted for brutalization, harassment and torture both mentally and physically. As a result of exercising what is supposed to be a human right, I have been discriminated against and politically persecuted by those who are supposed to be sworn to uphold the "law." The Indiana Judicial System has refused to abide by its own colonial judicial laws, by not reversing an illegal conviction. In at least ten other cases, with issues identical to mine, the court has ruled for new trials. However, in my case, the courts have refused to apply the same principles of law. They have chosen instead, for political reasons, to discriminate and allow an illegal conviction to stand. The State of Indiana has instead chosen to deny me a new trial as dictated by their own law. Why? Because I have chosen to pledge my allegiance to a set of principles and politics that the enemies of freedom fear. Because I have chosen to dedicate my life to the upliftment of humanity, to the betterment of my community. I am forced to remain illegally held in a dungeon. I am forced to be held inside an "administrative segregation" unit under close supervision and monitoring, under restrictive movement. In spite of the fact that I have not had a serious rule violation in over two years. I am fighting for a new trial. Help me force Indiana to abide by its own laws and discontinue its political persecution. I have done my time and paid my dues. In the spirit of commitment and struggle, --Shaka Shakur, 6/24/95 BRUTALITY AT THE SCOTTS CORRECTIONAL FACILITY FOR WOMEN From a very reliable and confidential source inside the Scotts Correctional Facility (SCF) in Plymouth, Michigan, it has been reported that on July 31, 1995, in the housing unit "Essex," a woman was found in a coma. Sources have revealed that this woman was sadistically beaten by seven women prisoners who've been caught. This savage beating was supposed to be over a $4,000 drug deal gone bad. The irony of the story is that the woman beaten was tied up and gagged and locked in a maximum security area where only the officer has a key to let the prisoner into her cell. This would suggest that the seven women who beat this woman into a coma had to be let in in order to carry out their deed. This would suggest that an official knew and allowed this act to happen. The federal government had officials at the SCF and was looking into this issue and past issues in which the feds had been investigating. We are beginning to see within the Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC) a build-up of abuse and attacks against prisoners whether directly or through indirect means. For example; the incident at the Michigan Parole Camp where six corrections officers strangled an inmate on July 13, 1995 because the officers thought he had swallowed some drugs. While this prisoner was down on the ground and handcuffed he began to choke from the officers attempting to force him to open his mouth. In addition the officers had lost the handcuff keys whereby they were unable to uncuff the prisoner's hands while he lay dying. However the officials, very neatly had all the witnessing inmates transferred to higher security facilities. There has been no substantial news coverage of this incident, which suggests that the MDOC is attempting to 'cover this up.' There was also an incident at the Charles Egeler Correctional Facility (SMN) where one corrections officer attacked and assaulted an inmate by punching and slamming this inmate into a wall. This officer had to be restrained by another corrections officer. Pending the investigation of this incident, the assaultive officer has been suspended and the inmate who was assaulted has been transferred from the Egeler facility. These brutal acts by MDOC employees can only occur if the higher officials in Lansing, Michigan turn a blind eye to what is happening within the prison system, which for the most part is what they have done. The public is fed a bunch of lies and rarely does the public show a concern about "human rights violation" unless mass media attention is brought on the subject. Something must be done. If these acts continue to occur, then I fear that we will see an explosion unlike Michigan has ever witnessed and there will be many people dead, maimed or in other dehumanizing conditions throughout the prison system. If Michigan wants a "Lucasville" to take place, continue to be silent. --a Michigan prisoner, 8/14/95 SEVERE LOCK-DOWN IN TEXAS MIM has received letters from nine prisoners from the same unit in a Texas prison. They all wrote similar letters about the oppressive conditions and abuses they face: Dear Comrade, I'm writing in regards to my and many more prisoners' present condition. Currently myself and about 100 to 160 more prisoners are suffering tumult and oppression at the hands of high level officials here on the Terrell Unit. The administration on this unit has unprofessionally and biasedly placed us on "Institutional Lock-Down" for the offense of one individual, whom they have in segregation. We have been denied a hot meal for over a month now. Sometimes the meat they feed us is spoiled. Many times the chicken salad will contain bone fragments. Sometimes the milk is spoiled and the officers refuse to exchange it. Don't misunderstand me, they are feeding us but they're feeding us in paper sacks which do not contain the U.S. Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) and it's barely enough to sustain one's appetite. On occasion there are cases where the supervising officials will deny a prisoner their food for any given, apparent reason. Sergeant Owens (first shift) and Sergeant Harris are two among several officers who have denied meals here on Terrell Unit. There is no reason to deny food to any living being. Furthermore, we suffer further tumult and oppression at the hands of this administration in the fact that we are denied visitations. This is in fact a violation of TDCJ-ID regulations which say that visitation rights will not be denied as a form of punishment. In addition, the administration has refused to feed us by RDA guidelines, denied us our TDCJ-ID mandated one hour of recreation. In many instances medical treatments either audaciously denied or delayed for days. The most common claim is that they do not have the appropriate staff to escort an inmate to the infirmary, when in fact there are an estimated 1,000 employees for the Terrell Unit. The administration claims that their foul prone action are due to the violence on this side of the building. The truth is that violence exists in all prisons. The administration here took it upon themselves to impose unjustified punishment upon us. No one can bend, manipulate or go above Federal and state laws but this administration has decided to do just that. This is a clear showing of the cruel and unusual punishment that has been heavily imposed by this foul-prone administration on Terrell unit. This is a clear violation of the 8th and 14th amendments as well as a violation of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Nevertheless this is our present state and not our first. The last lockdown lasted 11 months with no visitations, no hot meals, no allowance of outside recreation. We are currently in desperate need of your help in contacting a federal agency in Texas and the TDCJ-ID director of internal affairs, John Mcalliffe, to investigate our situation. Lastly, please reply to confirm that you indeed received this letter. This insecurity is due the fact that mail is often "lost," "misplaced," or delayed. Whatever help or pressure you can assist us with will be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time and help. --Several Texas prisoners, 9/13/95 - 9/14/95 DOES RELENTLESS ACTIVISM AMOUNT TO NOTHING? Greetings, I received MIM Theory 8. Thanks! A couple of items from you were censored earlier by prison officials here. I'm not sure if you received notice of if the materials were returned. In January 1995 the implementation of administrative bulletin 95/i added to the greatly expanding censorship policies of the California Department of Corrections (CDC) and the reducing of due process safeguards or accountability of prison staff. I have multiple civil actions pending in federal court, but in the meantime Pelican Bay State Prison (PBSP) and the state of California are the supreme law in this corner of the land. No civil liberties or constitutional "rights" for us here! The whole system of judicial review is so inherently unjust I suspect my lawsuits will be dismissed or prejudicially ruled in the state's favor, due to the fact that I have no lawyer, no support and no way to publicize the blatant injustice being perpetuated! I am so sick of all the bullshit. 5 years of filing writs, literally fighting prison officials and relentless activism and it amounts to nothing. No comrade to visit me. No local contacts to assist from the outside. No solidarity. I read all these prisoner rights materials. Where are these people? Why have I never had an opportunity to participate directly in their projects? I have turned a 7 year robbery conviction into 30 years plus 25 to life prison term, permanently stuck in the Security Housing Unit (SHU) 24 hour lock down and still fighting! I have suffered the beatings and torture of prison life, yet I'm strong and proud! Is there a comrade or a support group out there that can keep in contact with me and be a source of encouragement, maybe assist somehow with my struggle? In struggle, --a California prisoner, 7/10/95 RCG1 responds: This prisoner speaks of solidarity, support, comrades, contacts, assistance, and encouragement. He feels all alone and that his struggle has amounted to nothing. Readers of UL&K, what do you think? Do you feel that this prisoner is alone in the struggle? Do you feel that all his struggle against oppression has amounted to nothing? Do you have any suggestions about how this prisoner might build a support network at his prison? CALENDARS ARE CONTRABAND While I'm here on Disciplinary Confinement (DC), I get to see first hand how these pigs outright lie and falsify official documents. On the other wings most of the cats (prisoners) are busy, most notably watching television, being quite complacent so there's no reason for the pigs to harass them. Here on DC you can't have tobacco or coffee, it's a crime in the pigs' eyes, so they constantly shake you down looking for it or anything else they deem to be contraband on DC. Recently I had an episode in which they took my calendar! After a week of writing the usual grievances, I managed to actually see the Captain. He tells me that calendars are contraband on DC. Only the state issue items are allowed which gives the pigs a lot of leeway, as they'll take a few items this time and some more next time. It's just a harassment game with them. I use my pen a lot against them which they do not like at all. Using their own rules to point out their mistakes, lets them know that I know what they're doing and use the paperwork to help establish a case against them. I know the obstacles in my path and I'm well aware of what's ahead of me. I just refuse to compromise my beliefs or to become complacent in here. The other night two brothers got into an argument about nothing really, a simple misunderstanding. My comrade tried to tell them, "Hey you should be arguing and fighting with he pigs, not each other!" The reply was, "That's just a fantasy, an illusion. No one does that." What happened to others was of no concern to him, all he cared about was himself and getting his. Which explains the mentality of this place and most of those inside this state. It's sad, isn't it? When they speak of getting out and back into it is to get theirs: the money, the cars and whatever else they can buy. Capitalist criminals, always thinking of how to make themselves rich. Little do they realize that in a few years we may have martial law in this land. You can see how the police-state mentality is slowly growing acceptable, all in the name of "safer" streets. I have found a comrade here on DC and we both enjoy MIM Notes, as well as continue to struggle against the fascist administration. Perhaps in a few more months we'll be able to find other comrades besides us. Trying to show these cats how wrong capitalism is and how we need a revolution to fix it all, is like trying to convince someone the glass is half empty when they swear it is half full. It's that early indoctrination of the importance of money and capitalism. Breaking through all of that will take some time. PRISON BRIEFS Double-celling is proceeding apace. Some of us political prisoners are forced to work in Unicor. A comrade was framed recently. --a Kansas prisoner, 5/1/95 I was in Vietnam, captured as a POW, and received better treatment than that which is now being afforded to me here. --a Colorado Prisoner, 7/17/95 The blowers are being turned on in our cells, causing the temperature to drop to around 40 degrees. This started about a month ago. For the first week the blowers remained on 24 hours straight. Since then they are turned on at 7 a.m. and shut off at 4 p.m.. The reason: an alleged high level of carbon monoxide. --a Maryland prisoner, 4/3/95 The beatings still go on. Isolation cells are still being used, although I hear that both the "pink- room" and the "cadre area" isolation cells are no longer to be used due to a government investigation, but if so, it hasn't started yet. The physical and psychological torture is applied constantly and the blowers I mentioned are still in effect. --the same Maryland prisoner, 5/7/95 Texas no longer feeds its captives beef. Yeah they've got a new flavor, "VitaPro" (soybean). They are actually feeding us animal food. That and pork (forced vegetarianism). Despite the fact that the system raises and slaughters thousands of cows and pigs a week. Obviously being sold for private profit. --a Texas prisoner, 6/2/95 We've been facing down attacks from various plantation "administrators" because of our political activities. Our press has been withheld from captives at different kamps. One brother was put in the "hole" for a piece that he wrote on the Oklahoma City bombing by the right-wing reactionaries. Another brother was placed on "phone restriction" for calling the media. So these are some of the things that we must contend with. And this isolation isn't helping one bit. Nevertheless, just thought I'd "plug in". Press on and keep up the good work. Stand Firm --a Michigan prisoner 9/17/95 * * * ANN ARBOR FILM SERIES CONTINUES IN NOVEMBER November 8 THROUGH THE WIRE -- Testimony from three women prisoners in Lexington supermaximum security control unit, documents the control unit's purpose as a means of repressing political prisoners. November 29 PEOPLE OF THE SHINING PATH -- An inspiring documentary on the People's War in Peru, demonstrates the will of the Peruvian peasants to establish New Democracy and the brutality of the Fujimori government they are fighting. Both events will be held in the University of Michigan's East Quadrangle room 126 at 7:15 p.m. Discussions will follow the films. * * * BOSTON-AREA EVENTS IN NOVEMBER OPPOSE SOCIAL CONTROL!!! FILM AND DISCUSSION SERIES November 8 Thought reform in revolutionary China--Hear from Allyn Rickett, author of Prisoners of Liberation and Amerikan citizen who was imprisoned by the revolutionary Chinese government for acting as an Amerikan spy. After years in the Chinese revolutionary prisons he became a supporter of the Chinese revolution and their method of imprisonment and reeducation. November 15 Shut down the Control Units at Marion Prison-- Control Units are used to silence political prisoners. This film documents the injustice and abuse that is the main purpose of Control Units. November 29 60 Minutes documentary on Pelican Bay Prison--film exposing the repression and torture that goes on at Pelican Bay prison. All events are held on Wednesday at 7:30 pm in the Old Cambridge Baptist Church, 1151 Massachusetts Ave. One block from Harvard Square. * * * PRISON AWARENESS WEEK: AMHERST, MASS Sunday Nov. 5 - Saturday Nov. 11 UMass Amherst Campus Center Prison Awareness Week will include speakers, films, discussions and music on a broad range of topics concerning prisons and social control in the U.S. The week will be both educational and oriented towards organizing. Sunday, Nov 5 "The Murder of Fred Hampton" Classic documentary film about Chicago police/FBI murder of Black Panther Party Leader.(Shown at Hampshire College FPH.) Monday, Nov. 6 6:30PM: "Cops, Gangs, and Youth in Western Mass.": Panel discussion led by a group of Massachusetts youth and facilitated by RAIL, on the increased repression of young people by police. 8:00PM: "Learning Across Razor Wire: Education in Prisons": Panel discussion led by members of the UMass Prison Education Project Tuesday, Nov. 7 6:30PM "The Death Penalty": Panel with Massachusetts Citizens Against the Death Penalty. 8:00PM "Criticism and Self-Criticism: How a Socialist Society Deals with its Enemies" Allyn Rickett, arrested as a US spy in China in 1951, discusses his experience of reeducation. Wednesday, Nov. 8: 6:30PM "Debate: Are all Prisoners Political Prisoners?" 8:00PM Ramona Africa: MOVE member who survived the Philadelphia police bombing in 1985, after which she spent eight years in prison for surviving. She will discuss the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal, and issues of social control. Thursday, Nov. 9: 6:30PM: "The Political Economy of Prisons: 3 Strikes Laws, Privatization, and Racism": Panel discussion. 8:00PM: "Cada Guaraguao Tiene Un Pitirre" How control units are used to break the most political of prisoners, with a focus on the repression of Puerto Rican freedom fighters. Discussion led by the Committee to Free Puerto Rican Prisoners of War and Political Prisoners. Friday, November 10: 6:30PM Film: "Attica" and discussion led by MIM. 8:00PM "Jazzotree": Political Music and Poetry. Saturday, November 11 1:00-5:30 "End the Amerikan Lockdown" conference. The event will consist of two sessions, each part panel discussion and part small groups. This should provide an opportunity to develop and struggle over radical/revolutionary theory and practice in the fight against the Amerikan lockdown. The sessions: 1. "Unwinnable Battles: Prison Resistance from Attica to Westville, Indiana--strategies and tactics of prison resistance and the need for solidarity" 2. "Military Suppression of Youth from the Ghetto to Prison" Sponsors: UMass Radical Student Union, Maoist Internationalist Movement, Revolutionary Anti- Imperialist League, American Friends Service Committee, Western Mass. Prison Issues Group. Rooms to be announced. Schedule current as of: 10/18.