= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = 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 112 MID-APRIL 1996 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. MIM NOTES 112 INCLUDES: 1. ST. LOUIS POLICE MURDER BLACK YOUTH 2. PAN AFRICANIST STUDENTS AND YOUTH COMMEMORATE SHARPEVILLE MASSACRE 3. "DEMOCRATIC" U.S.-RAMOS REGIME IS A MONUMENTAL FARCE 4. LETTERS TO MIM 5. BIZARRE LEFT GROUP RESPONDS TO SPARTACIST LEAGUE 6. SOCIAL CONTROL BEYOND THE PRISON WALLS 7. RAIL CELEBRATES INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY WITH RALLY AGAINST ROTC 8. PRISONS AWARENESS WEEK AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN 9. JAILED WOMEN DENIED VISITS WITH THEIR CHILDREN 10. MIM NOTES IS THE PEOPLE'S PROPERTY 11. TWO ROADS FOR ENVIRONMENTALISM 12. ENVIRONMENTALISTS PROTEST CHEMICAL WEAPONS TRAINING SCHOOL 13. UNDER LOCK AND KEY: NEWS FROM PRISONERS AND PRISONS 14. RAMONA AFRICA BLASTS AMERIKKKA; CALLS ON THE PEOPLE TO DEFEND MUMIA 15. MASSACHUSETTS ACTIVISTS CONTINUE VIGILANCE AGAINST PRISON REPRESSION 16. MOVIE REVIEW: DEAD MAN WALKING 17. MOVIE REVIEW: THE BIRD CAGE 18. MOVIE REVIEW: RUMBLE IN THE BRONX 19. NPR CAN'T COMPREHEND NATIONAL LIBERATION 20. SETTLERS SHIFT INTO STOCK OWNERSHIP 21. LABOR ARISTOCRACY AND PETTY-BOURGEOISIE GET MORE GRAVY * * * ST. LOUIS POLICE MURDER BLACK YOUTH by a member of RAIL St Louis--Amerika's pigs have murdered another Black youth. On January 8 at 4 p.m., officer Eddie Sanchez shot Garland Carter, 17 years old and unarmed, twice in the back and killed him. The Black Panthers first pointed out that the police are really an army of imperialist occupation within the Black communities. MIM agrees with this analysis, the case of Garland Carter is the latest illustration of this fact.(1) Officer Eddie Sanchez was known in Garland Carter's neighborhood for harassing Black youth. In the past, when Sanchez would tell youth to "move on," Garland Carter would correctly tell him "this is our neighborhood." The police claim they wanted to question Garland Carter about a robbery. The day of the shooting, they went to Garland's grandmother's home and told her that if Garland did not show up for questioning the next day, they would shoot him. They didn't wait for the next day. Later that day, a police car drove slowly and deliberately by Garland's home. A police officer formed his fingers as if they were a gun, pointed the imaginary gun out the car window, "fired" it at Garland's home, and then drove away. Finally, at 4 p.m. that day, Amerikkkan pig Eddie Sanchez chased Garland Carter down the 1700 block of Cass Avenue and around a corner, where he shot Garland twice and killed him. One young Black man who witnessed the shooting told Sanchez "Don't try to put a gun on him!" as Sanchez walked back to his car, took a black bag out of the trunk, and then returned to Garland's body. (The young man was arrested, charged with interfering with police business, taken to jail and beaten.) Witnesses say Garland was unarmed. Chief of Detectives Lt. Co. Joseph Mokwa told Garland's father, minutes after the shooting, that Garland was unarmed. Later that day police said they found an automatic weapon on Garland. The next day they said it was a .22-caliber pistol. A week later, investigators recovered a .22-caliber pistol, a tear gas gun, and a toy pistol from the trunk of Sanchez' patrol car, and reported to the press that Sanchez was expected to be suspended without pay. Instead, Sanchez, who is a former Navy SEAL, went on "administrative leave," with pay. The community outcry exposed the pigs' lie and forced them to drop it. The day after Garland's murder, more than 100 people met in a neighborhood center to discuss Garland's murder with a lawyer. The pigs took note of who came and who left. Police Chief Henderson had pleaded in the St. Louis Post Dispatch for witnesses to come to the police station and make statements. Those who did so were arrested or told to go home; some were even beaten. This whole story is a valuable experience for the Black community, and the international proletariat. These people of Garland Carter's neighborhood should be applauded and feel pride for standing up to pig oppression. It's time to discuss, analyze and learn from experiences like this. Police violence does not intimidate the Black nation; it only exposes the police for the oppressors that they are. Their power is illegitimate, a bloody obstacle to self-determination and development of Black people, an oppressive yoke to be thrown off. Amerika's police don't "serve and protect;" they harass and oppress. In recent years, this oppression has increased. Pigs are warehousing Black youth in Amerika's prisons, murdering and torturing them on a regular basis. Currently, one- third of Black youth in Amerika is either in prison, on parole, or on probation.(2) They've already brought back chain gangs in Alabama. And the Missouri senate is considering chain gangs for Missouri's prison system. State Senator Bill Kenny, (R-Lee's Summit), who has co- sponsored a bill modeled after the Alabama law, said "I'm not concerned about what the prisoner feels on a chain gang. I think it's a good idea to make it degrading."(3) MIM Notes and RAIL Notes report stories like Garland Carter's on a regular basis.(4) But this writer has to wonder how many stories are going unreported. MIM and RAIL encourage our readers to write articles or send up information about other cases of police oppression. These crimes of imperialism should be exposed for what they are. This is part of the process of overthrowing the system of imperialist oppression. DOWN WITH WHITE SUPREMACY! BUILD A MAOIST VANGUARD PARTY! BUILD PUBLIC OPINION IN FAVOR OF NATIONAL LIBERATION FOR THE BLACK NATION! REVOLUTION UNTIL VICTORY! NOTES: 1. Information for this story comes form the following news articles: St. Louis American Jan. 10, 1995 "Family Calls Youth's Shooting a 'Murder'" and "Columnist Gives View of Shooting." St. Louis Post Dispatch, Jan. 9, 1996, "Officer Fatally Shoots Robbery Suspect During Chase." St Louis Post Dispatch, Jan 17, 1996, "Police Find Guns in Car of Officer Who Shot Teen." 2. Information from the Sentencing Project quote in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. 3. St. Louis Post Dispatch Jan. 17, 1996 4. See RAIL Notes Fall 1995 "Masses protest murder in Lincoln Heights: pigs execute 14-year-old," MIM Notes August '95 "Like a foreign troop: San Francisco cops kill Black man," and the Under lock and Key section of any issue of MIM Notes. * * * PAN AFRICANIST STUDENTS AND YOUTH COMMEMORATE SHARPEVILLE MASSACRE On March 23 in Washington, D.C. the Pan-African Student/Youth Movement (PASYM) sponsored a speaker from the Azanian Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) in commemoration of the March 1960 massacre of 67 Azanians who were protesting South Africa's repressive pass laws. The speaker emphasized the need for a Pan Africanist, socialist revolutionary movement, and indicted the neo-colonial Mandela regime for its negotiated road to an empty power. MIM supports this speaker's analysis of the current South African regime. MIM holds that nations oppressed by imperialism need revolutionary nationalist struggles to achieve liberation. Neo- colonial regimes, because of their dependent relations with the imperialists, cannot represent the people's needs or aspirations. "How do you negotiate with someone whose boot is on your neck ... and who has an M-16? That's a tough negotiation," the speaker said. Drawing parallels between the Civil Rights Movement in the United Snakes and the movement which brought Mandela into the government, the speaker pointed out that the oppressor-nation Afrikaners still own most of the land, the old army and police structures are still in place, and the new regime did not even change the name from South Africa to Azania upon taking "power." Just two days earlier, Mandela gave a speech commemorating the Sharpeville/Kwalanga massacre (now a national holiday) in which he encouraged "patience" during the transition from apartheid rule. '''We are gradually getting on top of the levers of power, but to gain power will take time.'''(1) The Pan Africanist speaker, in contrast, castigated people for voting without asking "an election for what?" reminding the audience that without land, Azanians will not have power. The speaker emphasized the need for discipline, democratic process and an independent media of the revolutionary movement. As the PASYM put it in its literature, "We cannot wait for CNN to broadcast a major escalation throughout the world before we take to the streets in an Anti-War protest."(2) The speaker put forth a strong line against imperialism and underdevelopment agencies like the IMF, and said that under a socialist, Pan Africanist government of Africa, borders would not be recognizable and Western "experts" would not have such power in the economy. At the end of the speech, when greetings were read from other organizations, a representative of PASYM acknowledged MIM's presence at the event, calling it courageous for a "white left" group to truly support national liberation struggles of oppressed peoples. While MIM tried to explain that it is not a white left group, but a multi-national vanguard party, we readily accept the friendly words of unity from this anti- imperialist organization. NOTES: 1. Associated Press March 21, 1996. 2. "Capitalism and the Military- Industrial Intelligence Police Complex," pamphlet by the Pan- African Student/Youth Movement (PASYM), P.O. Box 4404, Capitol Heights, MD 20791-4404. * * * "DEMOCRATIC" U.S.-RAMOS REGIME IS A MONUMENTAL FARCE Philippine President Fidel Ramos and his Amerikan backers used the 10th anniversary of the fall of the U.S.-Marcos dictatorship to portray the U.S.- Ramos regime as sincerely committed to democracy and economic "development." But as the article we reprint here points out, all the reactionaries' expensive hoopla cannot hide the essential character of the government of the Philippines. Like the U.S.-Marcos dictatorship, the U.S.-Aquino regime was and U.S.-Ramos regime is pro-imperialist and pro-landlord. Here are just some of the facts which show this is true: * Although Aquino freed many political prisoners and carried out some legal reform, her government was violently anti-Communist. She openly supported reactionary paramilitary organizations which were responsible for terrorizing and assassinating revolutionary and progressive activists.(1) * Aquino's Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Plan (CARP) was a sham. It fostered the illusion of land reform by formally transferring land to a few peasants, while at the same time big landlords and multi-national corporations used "loopholes" in the law to snatch up more land.(2) * On January 22, 1987, less than one year after Aquino took office, Philippine police and marines opened fire on 15,000 protesters demanding that Aquino implement the land reforms she had promised. Thirteen protesters were killed.(3) * The Aquino regime remained subservient to the dictates of the Amerikan-controlled IMF and World Bank, which exacerbated the poverty of the Filipino people. Aquino's chief economic advisors were agents of the IMF and the World Bank.(4) * Aquino gave the green light to the "total war" policy against the revolutionary movement in the countryside. Fidel Ramos, then head of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, worked closely with the U.S. Army and CIA to plan and carry out the "total war." More than 1,253,000 people were systematically forced from their homes from 1987 to 1991 by this policy, and many massacres took place.(5) * The U.S.-Ramos regime carried out more village bombings and forced evacuations in its first two years than occurred during the entire Marcos' dictatorship.(6) * Ramos' "Philippines 2000" economic plan aids imperialist exploitation of the Philippines. It calls for the removal of nationality restrictions on ownership, unlimited profit repatriation, and the suppression of workers' rights in order to maintain "industrial peace." Ramos' economic policies have done nothing to relieve poverty in the Philippines: More than 75% of the population lives below the (government defined) poverty line, and almost 80% of children below school age suffer malnutrition.(6) * Ramos has reinstated martial law in all but name. As Crispin Beltran, chair of the KMU (May First Movement) points out, "He doesn't need to declare martial law, because it is already here... Repressive laws go hand in hand with oppressive economic policies. They are two sides of the same coin... It is clear as day that the U.S.-Ramos regime needs to rule with an iron fist in order to ram the bitter poisons of the IMF-WB and WTO- dictated policies down the Filipino peoples' throats."(7) TREACHERY AGAINST THE PEOPLE FROM MARCOS TO RAMOS TO AQUINO The Government of the Republic of the Philippines has barely undergone even superficial changes in the ten years since the U.S.-Marcos dictatorship. "The Marcos boys are back in power. Even Imelda (Marcos) is back in power. The only thing lacking is Marcos himself."(7) The Amerikan imperialists and their puppet Ramos are trying to save face by claiming that they were responsible for the overthrow of the Marcos dictatorship, but that honor belongs to the revolutionary mass movement led by the Maoist Communist party of the Philippines (CPP). The CPP struggled for more than a decade against Marcos and the semi-feudal, semi-colonial system which supported him. The party built a mass movement around the National Democratic (ND) line which supports real national independence and democracy, and led an increasingly successful armed struggle in the countryside, where it began to organize the beginnings of the socialist state which will replace the corrupt puppet Government of the Republic of the Philippines. The legal and underground ND forces continue to be in the forefront of the struggle against imperialism, feudalism, and fascism. Legal ND organizations like BAYAN and the KMU led massive nationwide protests in January and February against Ramos' reactionary economic policies and increased repression. More than 40,000 marched in some cites, shutting down 95% of public transport.(8) And, thanks to the ongoing rectification movement led by the CPP, the underground forces continued to retake gains lost due to internal errors and CIA- organized-and-funded psychological warfare campaigns. ***To find out more about the situation in the Philippines and the CPP-led National Democratic Front (NDF), order a copy of RAIL's pamphlet "Support the National Democratic Front of the Philippines." MIM and RAIL are organizing events to help expose imperialist crimes in the Philippines and build support for the National Democratic movement. If you can help, write to: MIM P.O. Box 3576, Ann Arbor MI, 48106-3576 or e-mail mim@nyxfer.blythe.org.*** NOTES: 1. "A Rustling of Leaves," video. 2. "Support the National Democratic Front of the Philippines," Jan 1996, p.8. 3. "Solidaridad USA," newsletter of the Philippine Peasant Support Network (PESANTE), Jan-Feb 1996, p. 7. 4. Jose M. Sison, The Philippine Revolution (Crane Russak: New York, 1989), p. 131. 5. "Liberation International," newsletter of the international office of the NDF, Nov-Dec 1995, pp. 23-24. 6. "Support the NDF," p. 3. 7. "Correspondence," newsletter of the KMU international department, Jan-Feb 1996, p. 4. 8. Ibid., p. 3. * * * LETTERS TO MIM ATTACKING THE KKK IN THE DOC Dear MIM, I received the paper you send to me (December 1995). I really like how you show the people that only a communist world can bring people together as one. The biggest problem we have up here in Michigan is that there are a lot of racist prison guards. For one, I know of at least three white cops that are members of the Ku Klux Klan. When they see a white prisoner helping a black one, they try to cause trouble. Do you have any helpful ideas that I might use in stopping the (DOC) from hiring Klan members? Please let me know. --a Michigan prisoner MIM responds: In the Ionia maximum facility that this comrade is talking about, there is one prison pig for every 1.64 prisoners. The percentage of white guards is 86% as opposed to 12% being Black guards. The percentage of Black prisoners in the facility is 65% and the percentage of white prisoners is 33%. In addition, the monitoring exercises at the Ionia Maximum Facility is twice the amount as other prisons of the same security level; the average number of shakedowns in facilities of level 5-6 is 4693 and in Ionia, there were 7279 for the same period. The average number of non-routine strip searches was 34 whereas Ionia conducted 189 in the same period. Though there is ostensibly no difference between Black prison pigs and white prison pigs, the fact that the Ionia prison facility was placed in a predominantly white area does highlight a specific benefit of prisons to the white nation--jobs. In Michigan, the kkkorrections department has become the state government's leading growth industry since the early 1980s. For example, in 1979, prison employees accounted for one of every 14 state workers. As of 1995, prison employees account for one in every four state workers. The Michigan prison budget has more than quadrupled to over $1 billion a year since the early 1980s with 30 new prisons. By 1998, there will be an estimated 2,200 new prisoners in Michigan's gulag system. The Michigan gulag system, like that in the rest of Amerika, serves as a tool to oppress national minorities as well as to provide parasitic jobs for the white nation. At this time, MIM is not currently waging a campaign to stop the hiring of KKK members as prison guards. Our goal is more general because we believe that the prisons in general are oppressive, not just the guards. It is the whole system that depends on superprofits from the Third World and the repression of fights for self-determination of internal colonies, the entire system from the cops on the streets, to the pigs in Black robes making judgments to the pigs in white robes torturing prisoners. Within the larger goal, we are working on the outside to develop support for prisoner struggles and from the inside working to provide prisoners with revolutionary material to learn the best way to organize. As the fight against the gulags specifically in Michigan grows, we can pick specific targets. MIM would argue that hiring KKK members versus other members of the white nation that have a material interest in national oppression is not something that we can target as a winnable battle that will progress the fight against oppression in prisons. As far as advice to combat the guards, we encourage you to continue to work with MIM to build a campaign to stop oppressive conditions in the prison system. If you believe that there is a way that we can effectively stop the employment of oppressive guards, continue to struggle with us. For now, our approach on this specific issue will be to use the above letter as the introduction to a petition for people to sign on the outside. Though we don't believe that the bourgeois will change its policies because of the petition, it can help to get people on the outside to understand the conditions at Ionia and other Michigan facilities. For instance we can talk to people about the fact that guards are pigs, but then we engage them to work on campaigns to stop the proliferation of prisons and work toward revolution. We encourage you to start a study group with comrades Under Lock & Key. One of the things that we are doing is organizing a week of events in Michigan to educate people about the conditions of prisons, police brutality against Black nationalists and the Black nation in general and the Maoist alternative to prisons. One result of this week will be the organization of a more systematic drive for books from Michigan students. If there are specific issues that you would like to study and work to build an study group around, let us know. Also, if you would like to write text to be read at the events that could educate people about the conditions in Ionia, please do so. It would have to arrive before the 25th of March. SUPPORT BOOKS FOR PRISONERS! MIM thanks the mass that gave several copies of The Communist Manifesto, State and Revolution, Wage- Labour and Capital, The Economic & Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844, and A Critique of Soviet Economics for the Books for Prisoners program. If you are imprisoned in Amerika's gulags and want to start a study group, write MIM for copies of these books. If you are on the outside write MIM for information on how to contribute to the Books for Prisoners program. * * * BIZARRE LEFT GROUP RESPONDS TO SPARTACIST LEAGUE ***The Trotskyist Spartacist League's youth arm recently wrote about MIM in an article about a pro- affirmative action demonstration and sit-in at UCLA.(1) A fuller version of this article will appear in an upcoming issue of MIM Theory, send $5 for a copy.*** Young Spartacus wrote: "...For minority youth under attack at UCLA and in the ghettos, the way to fight racist oppression lies in siding with the multiracial working class, which alone has the power to get rid of capitalism. It will take a revolutionary workers party that serves as a tribune of the oppressed to lead this fight. "One bizarre left group at the UCLA sit-in, the Maoist International [sic] Movement (MIM), misses this reality entirely. While they defend affirmative action as "progressive, but severely limited," they raise no demands to open up the universities to the majority of blacks and minorities. Echoing odd pseudo-nationalist dogma, MIM says that blacks are a 'colonial nation' and writes off the working class, dismissing the U.S. proletariat as a reactionary part of an 'oppressor nation.' But black people constitute an oppressed minority whose main impetus for struggle since the time of slavery has been to fight toward full integration--not some 'colonial liberation.' Black people helped build the wealth of American society first as slaves and today as a strategic layer of the working class...."(1) MIM responds: The "multiracial working class" within U.S. borders is composed of groups which are objectively revolutionary and groups which are objectively counterrevolutionary. Hence it is incorrect to speak of these different groups as though they all have the same material interests by virtue of all being a part of the same "multiracial working class." The majority of the white working-class has more to lose than its chains, and hence can only be considered to constitute a labor aristocracy. The Trotskyists pretend to oppose all nationalism, but they are in fact Amerikan nationalists--the most reactionary kind of nationalist there is. It is only within an Amerikan-nationalist framework (or its Eurocentric equivalent) that the word "minority" can be understood to refer to Black, Latino, First Nation, and Asian- descended people. The people of the oppressed nations--in Africa, Asia, Latin America and North America--constitute 80% of the world's people. When the Sparts say, "For minority youth under attack at UCLA and in the ghettos, the way to fight racist oppression lies in siding with the multiracial working class...," they are spreading a popular but deadly illusion.(1) The white working- class is leading the charge for criminalizing, jailing, executing, sterilizing, starving, evicting, undereducating and deporting ghetto, barrio and reservation youth. And that's just on a good day. On a bad day, a white worker like William Masters will shoot a proletarian youth down in cold blood for writing grafitti on property, while other property-owning workers will make a hero out of the killer. Warning to ghetto youth: the white working- class is part of the problem, not the solution. For individual whites to be of use in the struggle against racist/national oppression, they must join with the oppressed in struggle against the white oppressor nation, including the majority of white workers. It is simply untrue that MIM "raise[s] no demands to open up the universities to the majority of blacks and minorities." MIM calls for open access to education for all rather than just those who can buy their way in. And MIM goes further than just the chauvinist outlook that only talks about the population within U.S. borders: we call for open borders so that the imperialist wealth (including the educational institutions) can be shared with the world's proletariat. The Sparts are wrong to assert that "black people constitute an oppressed minority whose main impetus for struggle since the time of slavery has been to fight toward full integration--not some 'colonial liberation.'"(1) If this were true, the Sparts would not feel the need to opportunistically associate themselves with living Black nationalists like Mumia Abu-Jamal and Geronimo Pratt, or with images of Malcolm X and the Black Panther Party. The Spartacist League likes to criticize Martin Luther King, Jr. from the standpoint of Malcolm X. What they don't acknowledge is that King's capitulationist strategy of nonviolence which they reject went hand-in-hand with the capitulationist strategy of integrationism which they uphold. Lastly, the Sparts write, "Black people helped build the wealth of American society first as slaves and today as a strategic layer of the working class...."(1) Aside from the integrationist notion of "the" (U.S.) working class which we criticized above, this is correct. What the Sparts don't mention here is that Blacks on the whole, let alone the workers and peasants of the neocolonies who contribute enormously to Amerikkka's wealth, do not share in this wealth, while whites on the whole do. This is why we said that Affirmative Action is progressive, but severely limited. The white Amerikan nation owes massive reparations to the people of North America's internal colonies and external neocolonies. Affirmative Action is a token step in this correct direction. Which brings us to one last question. Why do the Sparts "defend affirmative action," when they believe that "preferential hiring 'Affirmative Action' programs set workers against each other"?(2) NOTES: 1. "Defend Affirmative Action--Fight for Open Admissions! UCLA Students Sit In," Workers Vanguard, Mar. 1, 1996, p. 12. The full article is available from MIM or from the Spartacist League, which can be reached at P.O. Box 1377 GPO, New York, NY 10116. 2. Marxist Bulletin 5 Revised, p. 12. * * * SOCIAL CONTROL BEYOND THE PRISON WALLS Amherst, MA--RAIL, MIM, the UMass Radical Student Union and one other organization organized a series of events from February 12 to 14 designed to expose how the government controls the people under the guise of helping them. These organizations had worked on Prison Awareness Week at the University in November (see the December 1996 MIM Notes), and struggled with the masses to extend the analysis of and struggle against social control beyond the prison walls. As MIM wrote on the flyer advertising the events: "The welfare system and social service agencies are run by the same imperialist government that runs the prison system and the police. Within prisons there are variety of security levels, each more expensive and dehumanizing than the last. ... "Like the different security levels within prisons, welfare and the social service agencies are different levels of the same government effort to surveil and control the people. " On the first day, RAIL and MIM made a presentation titled "Does Social Control really exist?" and led a discussion that laid out the theoretical foundations for the week. RAIL and MIM explained how the government-funded (and many of the privately-funded) social service agencies: Welfare, Department of Social Services, Department of Youth Services, Mental Heath and others, oppress the communities they claim to serve. We also discussed alternative service models that serve immediate needs while advancing towards the seizure of power by revolutionary forces such as those of the Black Panther Party and the Young Lords Party. WOMEN AND SOCIAL CONTROL On Tuesday, a panel talked about "Women and Social Control" and individuals' experiences in the AIDS services, Welfare and Prison Industries. All had experienced these systems both as clients and as providers. An AIDS activist on the panel described the AIDS service system as "unfortunately, an industry," in which the service agencies "function primarily to perpetuate their own existence." She named the bureaucratic style a "Tyranny of Kindness:" the agencies build a pretense of taking care of clients, in order justify their continued funding. The terms client and provider are standard in the industry's vocabulary and reveal its deceptive intent. By locating problems with the clients, and the power to improve their lives with the provider, this rhetoric justifies the provider's continued funding and strips the client of her or his identity as a person and as a member of an oppressed group. The rhetoric defends capitalism by hiding structural causes of suffering and protects service industry's profit under capitalism. It is standard in direct-service agencies (usually operated as non-profit companies selling contracted service to federal, state or local government) for Administration to skim 60 to 70% from direct costs of the services provided. Consumer Advisory Boards are paid by the agencies to endorse the providers' programs and practices. Criticism and complaint are subjected to stifling control by the bureaucracy. The Big Brother atmosphere will be familiar to readers who, like the panel, have some experience with the 'Human Services' system. Careerism on the part of the provider personnel leads to a much higher priority on covering of asses (another familiar phrase in the Industry) and on self- promotion than on genuine service to the people. MENTAL HEALTH On Wednesday, MIM and RAIL showed the video "Titicut follies" about the state mental hospital in Bridgewater, Massachusetts in the early 1960s. The video was banned until recently because of a lawsuit against the makers of the video by the mental hospital. Recently, the lawsuit was settled, forcing the makers of the video to add the disclaimer at the end that "changes have been made at Bridgewater since the production of this film." Of course these changes aren't specified and MIM guesses they aren't significant. The video follows several prisoners at the institution for several months. The unnarrated film includes interviews with guards, wardens and other workers. We see one prisoner discussing politics in the yard, and it's clear that calling oneself a communist in 1963 was sufficient cause for being put away. The video shows one prisoner going before a medical staff hearing to determine the future of his treatment. He admits that he is deteriorating in the mental hospital, but argues that spending a year there is the cause of his deterioration. He wants to be released back to prison, but the doctors' response once he leaves the room is: "His medication should be increased" so he won't be so agitated. MIM has no idea how the makers of this excellent video managed to convince the management of the hospital to let them make this movie. But the doctors are obviously aware of the risks that this movie poses to them, so they take the camera through the steps of their decision. One doctor dismisses the prisoner's argument: "If you take his argument at face value, it's rational, but his assumptions are wrong." His assumption, that being medicated and kept awake by other people all night can affect his mental health, makes plenty of sense to MIM. The guards in the institution are much less politically savvy them the doctors. The video shows guards making fun of the prisoners, especially the ones who best fit the psychology industry's definition of crazy. This part of the video is most striking. We see prisoners who are obviously not well kept in cold cells with no clothes, and we see the guards continually harassing them. Nothing physically brutal, at least on the camera, but lots of goading. The worst that MIM saw was one of the guards mocking a prisoner while shaving the prisoner with a straight razor. It's unfathomable that such barbarity can even pass for "treatment" and not a cause of mental illness. PRISONS AND SOCIAL SERVICES FOCUS ON LATINOS On Thursday, a representative of the National Committee to Free Puerto Rican Prisoners of War and Political Prisoners and Latinos against the Abuse of Prisoners showed "Have you seen the new Puerto Rican revolutionary woman?" The video is about 4 of the Puerto Rican revolutionary women now imprisoned by Amerika for engaging in armed struggle against the U.S. government. The video also briefly discusses the work these women undertook building self-reliant institutions of the oppressed in Chicago prior to picking up the gun. As the largest group of Latinos legally living within U.S. borders, they serve as convenient justifications for funding to target Latinos. There was also a short presentation about how Latinos are treated in the Massachusetts prison system, notably in the control units where they make up over 80% of the prisoners. This is far disproportionate to the number in the general Massachusetts population or the general prison population. JOIN THE FIGHT AGAINST SOCIAL CONTROL This week of events clearly demonstrated that social service agencies are just another means of social control, targeted particularly at oppressed nations inside U.S. borders. As with prisons, the nature of these agencies must be exposed and fought. Reforming social service agencies is not possible because they exist to serve the imperialists. Setting up alternative social service agencies that truly serve the people is an important task for revolutionaries as we build independent institutions of the oppressed. Join MIM and RAIL to build these independent institutions as we fight to overthrow this imperialist system. * * * RAIL CELEBRATES INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY WITH RALLY AGAINST ROTC Los Angeles, March 8--The Revolutionary Anti- Imperialist League (RAIL) celebrated International Women's Day by leading an informational rally outside the headquarters for UCLA's Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC). RAIL was there in part to demonstrate that, as one of its signs read, "All issues are women's issues." As at least two armed, plainclothes pigs looked on, activists gave passers-by copies of CALRAIL and a flier promoting the rally and explaining its purpose. The flier read in part: "In honor of International Women's Day, rally with the Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League (RAIL) to get the ROTC OFF CAMPUS! "UCLA's Men's Gym is the headquarters for UCLA's Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC). An arm of the U.S. war machine, the ROTC trains young students to become potential corpses and/or hired killers of women, men and children. The ROTC also continues to discriminate against gays, lesbians and bisexuals. RAIL does not seek to integrate the ROTC, however--we seek to smash it. RAIL calls on gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and their supporters to stand in solidarity with the world's majority (male, female, straight and queer) who are at the receiving end of Amerikkka's guns. Smash the imperialist patriarchy! ROTC off campus!" The rally sought to draw attention to the patriarchal nature of U.S. militarism and imperialism. One RAIL sign read, "U.S. military promotes global prostitution." The rally was also part of a RAIL-led campaign to expose and ultimately defeat U.S. imperialism, U.S. militarism, and the University of California's support for the U.S. war machine. In forthcoming weeks, this campaign will include the continuation of the Los Angeles Revolutionary and Progressive Film Series, as well as a rally against U.S. militarism and imperialism on International Workers Day (May Day), Wednesday, May 1. To join the campaign, ask questions, or express your comments or criticisms, write to: RAIL, P.O. Box 29670, Los Angeles, CA 90029-0670. * * * PRISONS AWARENESS WEEK AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Ann Arbor--MIM, RAIL, and the American Friends Service Committee sponsored Prisons Awareness Week (PAW) at the University of Michigan, March 25-30. The week of events exposed prisons as tools of national oppression and social control, and were an opportunity to mobilize the masses against prisons. Here we cover some PAW events; the next issue of MIM Notes, to be published May 1, will include more coverage of this week. MIM and RAIL organize and educate around prisons and the criminal injustice system because both are forms of state-sanctioned national oppression. From police brutality to the brutality of control unit prisons and the inhumane treatment of prisoners in general, the so-called criminal justice system is attacking national minorities. The Under Lock and Key section of MIM Notes (pages 6 and 7 of this issue) exposes violence inside the prison walls. Prisoners do not have free access to print or broadcast media; that is why it is so important for people on the outside to organize and agitate on behalf of prisoners, keeping in mind the larger goal of ending the criminal injustice system as we know it. A SOCIALIST SOCIETY'S RESPONSE TO CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR Dr. Allyn Rickett, co-author of **Prisoners of Liberation**, opened PAW with a talk on his experience in a communist prison in China from 1951-1955. Rickett was arrested in China for spying on China during the Amerikan war in Korea. Through the process of criticism, self-criticism and study, Dr. Rickett came to realize why his spying activity was wrong. MIM looks to China's prison system under Mao as an example of how a society can effectively deal with its enemies. Amerika could not implement criticism and self- criticism as a solution to criminal activity. Criticism and self-criticism are important processes for revolutionaries organizing within Amerika, but they require that a person be able to reform thoughts and behaviors. Rickett stressed that a person's conditions were a decisive factor in whether or not they could maintain their new way of thinking and acting. Without eliminating national oppression in Amerika, so-called crime and recidivism will never decrease, no matter how many people the state locks up. A socialist revolution will eventually make proletarian justice in Amerika a reality. ALL PRISONERS ARE POLITICAL PRISONERS On Tuesday night, MIM and RAIL showed a 20/20 clip called **Johnny-D** about a Black man in Alabama who was framed for murder and sentenced to death. MIM then led a discussion on why all prisoners are political prisoners. One audience member who has been active with Puerto Rican independence fighters in Amerika's prisons objected to this. S/he argued that calling all prisoners political prisoners denies legitimacy to prisoners who were captured specifically for their revolutionary activities. MIM does to work with prisoners captured for political activity. But we struggle to take the struggle beyond a few prisoners by defining Amerikan occupation of ghettos, barrios and First Nation land as a war on the internal colonies. MIM asks: if only prisoners captured for political activity on the outside are political prisoners, what about jailhouse lawyers who are put in control units for their activity? What about people imprisoned for killing cops in their neighborhoods in retaliation for pig murders in their communities? We fight for justice for prisoners because they are being held captive by a illegitimate government--recognizing this fact, marking distinctions between prisoners we work with and for serves no purpose. In the heated discussion about imperialism and national oppression that followed, one audience member argued that the criminal injustice system was essentially good and that injustices within it are unfortunate aberrations. Another attendee correctly explained how the criminal justice system never works for the oppressed. Another audience member explained why people in the Third World deserve the right to control their own economic and political conditions without Amerikan (or any other imperialist) domination. MIM then explained how imperialism hinders development. Everyone at the events agreed on the need for changes within the criminal injustice system. Some agreed with MIM that the system as we know it needs to be abolished. No one argued that increasing the number of people in the Amerikan gulags would solve anything. Yet many people were content to leave without agreeing to learn more about and organize against the Amerikan prison system of oppression. MIM encourages all people who want to abolish oppression, including the oppression of prisoners, to work with MIM and RAIL toward this goal. Recognition of problems does nothing without organizing action to solve them! * * * JAILED WOMEN DENIED VISITS WITH THEIR CHILDREN Ann Arbor, MI, March 28--A small crowd gathered outside the Washtenaw county jail for a protest against the termination of the volunteer-operated and -funded Children's Visitation Program (CVP). The seven-year old program, which offered women in the jail monthly contact visits with their children, was stopped in January, 1996. The CVP visits between mothers and their children lasted three hours, one Saturday per month, with volunteers providing transportation for the children. MIM is sorry to learn of the program's termination, but not surprised. The pigs claimed they could no longer house the program because there was no space available after the room that had been used for the CVP was converted into a courtroom. One activist involved with the protest speculated that the jail can use the CVP as an excuse for expansion when they want to, and reinstate the program at will. Michigan is part of the continental prison-building craze. The korrections department is Michigan's leading growth industry with 30 new prisons built since the early 1980s. Prison employees now account for one in every four state workers in Michigan, compared with one in every 14 in 1979. The activists who organized this protest in favor of the CVP are asking concerned individuals to write letters to the Sheriff and to the Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners. They are also attempting to negotiate a new location, though they doubt space is the real obstacle. MIM does not think appealing to the state is an effective strategy to bring about change. But this may be a winnable battle: the demands are minimal and the state will sometimes make concessions, so activists may succeed in reinstating the CVP. But reinstitution of the CVP does not begin to address the prison system's destruction of families and communities in the oppressed nations within U.S. borders. MIM supports struggles for improvements in the lives of people jailed and imprisoned in Amerika. But it is important to work for reforms in a revolutionary context. True justice is not available under imperialist patriarchy. So while some reforms that make imperialism less immediately oppressive are possible, only a revolution for national self-determination and socialism can implement real justice. LETTERS DEMANDING THE PROGRAM BE REINSTATED CAN BE SENT TO: Sheriff Ron Schebil Washtenaw County Sheriff's Dept. 2201 Hogback Rd. Ann Arbor, MI 48105 Fax (313) 971-7296 Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners Administration Building 220 N. Main St. Ann Arbor, MI 48107 Fax (313) 994-2592 * * * MIM NOTES IS THE PEOPLE'S PROPERTY Ann Arbor, MI--A MIM Notes distributor was recently yelled at by the store clerk at Stairway to Heaven, an Ann Arbor headshop. The clerk wasted some MIM literature, attempted to spread gossip about MIM, and eventually threatened to ban MIM literature in Ann Arbor stores. MIM takes this opportunity to expose this pig who won't even recognize bourgeois free speech for fear of Communism, and to challenge others who feel similarly threatened to struggle with us over our line rather than attempting to silence it. The gross thing about this incident is that the Stairway to Heaven pig ranted on about MIM's supposed class and national composition, claiming that the party is all white, all petty-bourgeois and only involved in politics for feel-goodism. MIM says this so-called reasoning is bogus: parties' political lines should be evaluated based on materialist reasoning, not based on who is speaking. By contrast, we recognize that First World men as a group (like this store clerk) have an interest in maintaining patriarchy and national oppression, which makes it very much in their interest to spread gossip on MIM. MIM works to end the domination of oppressor group interests over the oppressed, and we will work with any individual who is willing to engage in materialist reasoning and work with us for the end of oppression. Our incident at Stairway to Heaven began when the clerk working there yelled at a MIM Notes distributor and attempted to blame MIM for so- called socialist parties' political ineptitude when the distributor asked if s/he could leave some free copies of MIM Notes in the store for shoppers to read. Normally, MIM appreciates it when people air their disagreements with our line and practice, as this is a useful practice for advancing our line and our relations with the masses. This situation is an excellent example of what could have been a clarifying political discussion. The clerk stated that MIM was not socialist and that all those socialists at the Detroit Newspaper strike had yelled at the clerk's friend. MIM does not support the Detroit newspaper strike and therefore would not have been arguing with a dissenter in their ranks if we had been there, but the Stairway to Heaven clerk wouldn't let the MIM Notes distributor explain that. After a few more minutes of discussion in which the clerk accused MIM of propagandizing and explained that he has a socialist friend who does not like MIM, the MIM Notes distributor took her/his copies of MIM Notes and left the store. Shortly after, the MIM Notes distributor saw the Stairway to Heaven clerk take copies of MIM Notes from the nearby Espresso Royale Caffe. The MIM Notes distributor also noticed that papers from another nearby store were gone quicker than usual, although the distributor did not see the Stairway to Heaven clerk take these other papers. When the MIM Notes distributor went back to Stairway to Heaven to ask the store clerk if he had taken MIM's papers, the distributor saw a stack of papers in the trash behind where the clerk was standing. The MIM Notes distributor then informed the store's customers that the clerk was lying and what he was lying about, and then informed people on the street outside who witnessed the store clerk yelling at the MIM Notes distributor of what the clerk was yelling about. The clerk then threatened to make sure that every store in the area refused to accept MIM Notes in the future. This hasn't happened yet. MIM will make sure that this pig does not stop distribution of anti-imperialist news to people in Ann Arbor, and we hope avoid this pig's violent reaction to MIM in the future. We don't care about distributing through Stairway to Heaven specifically, but we will not stand by and allow this clerk to stop the flow of Maoist news and analysis in Ann Arbor. * * * TWO ROADS FOR ENVIRONMENTALISM Western Massachusetts--On March 10, activists from the Cove/Mallard Coalition in Idaho gave a multimedia performance at Smith College about their campaign to save the largest roadless forest in the contiguous 48 states. On March 12 at UMass Amherst, MIM and RAIL showed the video "Green Guerrillas" about the New People's Army in the Philippines and their work to save the culture of the indigenous Mandayan people and the rainforest they live in by enacting a ban on logging. In the week prior, activists at a MIM-led study group studied the communist understanding of environmentalism, in which the assault on imperialism is the focus and the struggles of oppressed peoples are recognized as the way forward. In preparation for the upcoming events, the activists read the Communist Party of the Philippines statement on the environment, as well as a bourgeois news article about the Environmental Rangers taking up arms in Idaho and Montana to save the forests. PACIFISM IN IDAHO Cove/Mallard is 76,000 acres and is "part of the ... largest tract of unlogged primary forest in the continental U.S." In 1990, the U.S. Forest Service agreed to allow 200 clearcuts by logging companies. This would entail building 145 miles of roads to get the loggers there and the trees out. Twenty one million board feet are being logged, which will fill 26,000 logging trucks. Via road subsidies and deficit timber sales, the U.S. Forest Service is subsidizing the logging industry in Cove/Mallard for $6 million over the 6 years of logging. The Cove/Mallard Coalition engages in non-violent direct action as well as lobbying to try to stop the logging. According to their pamphlet, they do not damage logging machinery like Earth First, nor do they carry weapons like the Environmental Rangers. These distinctions were not discussed at their event. The Cove/Mallard activists were on tour encouraging people to become active to stop the logging. They wanted people to come out to Idaho in the summer and participate in direct action. Recognizing the continuum of activism, they expressed additional options for people: tell your friends, and write to Clinton and Congress. While it is good to see leftists recognize that there is a variety of types of support that you can get, it was unfortunate to see that the activists didn't directly challenge people to follow what they saw as the best way forward. The multimedia performance expressed many anti- capitalist and anti-big business sentiments, with songs with lines about how the environment is dying for "your [corporate] bottom line." Resistance outside of the so-called law was praised in "Ain't playin' by your rules anymore." MIM would disagree with the neo-Luddite approach taken in one song: "Quitting time on the high-tech plantation." While it is correct to say that there is no connection between higher technical levels and more meaningful life, the answer is not to oppose technology. So much technology is oppressive and destructive in Amerika because Amerika is an oppressive and destructive society based on capitalism. The social system is the problem, not just the tools it uses. Elsewhere in the performance the activists correctly pointed out that the solution is to ban logging and transform the society that sees destroying the environment as profitable. The first video was MIM's favorite, at least until the last few seconds. It was a poem entitled "The faceless ones" about animals being brutally killed by the corporate rush to profits. There was footage of animals dying in oil slicks and in other gory ways. The last line was the most disappointing, however. After sounding a strong call for action, the poets advice: "We have the power to vote." At the moment, MIM believe that the majority of Amerikans would support logging in Idaho "for jobs." So voting won't really work. However, MIM does believe that reformist means to save forests in North America can be successful because Amerika is an imperialist society whose wealth production is external to it's home territory. There are a variety of reasons to save the forests in Idaho. But activists have to keep in mind that the logging companies, if kicked out of Amerika because they are 'spoiling the view' can readily go somewhere else. Kicking the logging companies out of Idaho, unless it is done on an internationalist basis, is not a blow to logging. Rather, by preserving the "view" and by preserving North American bio- diversity, this shores up First World support for international logging. ARMED STRUGGLE IN THE PHILIPPINES The differences between the strategies of the Cove/Mallard activists and the New People's Army were discussed at the MIM & RAIL "Green Guerrillas" event, in addition to the underlying differences in the political situation. At the Cove/Mallard multimedia presentation we saw video footage of activists chaining themselves to roads or tying themselves high up in trees scheduled to be logged. This can stop or at least slow logging within U.S. borders, but in the Philippines would quickly result in dead environmentalists. One RAIL member relayed to the event participants how the Communist Party of the Philippines statement made the connection between imperialism and the continued destruction of the environment in the Philippines. First the Spanish and then later the Amerikan imperialists cut down trees in large numbers to make way for the planting of export crops. The CPP statement reports that "agricultural chemicals already banned for being harmful to users in the developed countries are sold to and used in the Philippines." This clearly exposes why reformism can work in one area, but it is not an international strategy. The corporations that directly peddle death will leave places where there is too much resistance, such as within U.S. borders. Some reformists would respond that Amerikans should lobby Congress to ban the export of chemicals banned for use in the U.S. But this does nothing to effect the reality that these **multinational** corporations could just shift their corporate headquarters or possibly manufacturing plants, to a different part of the world and continue selling deadly products. The problem here is the capitalist system, not it's products. It is only this clear systemic analysis held by the Communist Party in their statement and in the practice portrayed in "Green Guerrillas" that can adequately and permanently end environmental degradation. At the MIM event there was also some discussion about the motivations of the Green Guerrillas as compared to the Cove/Mallard and similar activists. The principal reason why the New People's Army instituted a log ban was because it was the best way to preserve the Mandayan people, and in a larger sense, the Philippines itself. The log ban serves to prevent the international logging companies from taking away the natural resources that rightfully belong to the Filipino people. The preservation of a whole community of people who live in harmony with their environment is a superior practice to working to preserve a national forest which exists **at the expense of** forests and people around the world. ARMED STRUGGLE IN IDAHO? There was also some discussion about the Environmental Rangers in Idaho who say "They're [logging and mining companies] not getting these places without a war. And I mean a real war.... We're the ones who will put our lives on the line if that's what it takes." MIM can't predict whether the Mallard/Cove logging will be stopped, but we can predict that it likely won't take picking up arms to do it. The difference in strategy between the anti- imperialist Filipinos and Idaho's Environmental Rangers shows why the Idaho armed movement is not significant. The New People's Army is working to defend people and their homes, whereas the Rangers are offering to die to protect the land for non- human reasons. The NPA is working to build up enough independent power to drive, first the logging companies and then the imperialists, out of the Philippines. There is no similar situation in Idaho, and the Environmental Rangers can offer only symbolic reformist resistance. NOTES: 1. Los Angeles Times, Jan 9, 1996. 2. International Department, Central Committee, Communist Party of the Philippines, March 31, 1996. "On the issue of the environment in the world and in the Philippines" 3. The Cove/Mallard Coalition, "Why all the fuss?" P.O. Box 8968, Moscow ID 93843, (208) 882-9755, cove@moscow.com For information about the revolution in the Philippines or showing "Green Guerrillas" in your area, contact MIM or RAIL. * * * ENVIRONMENTALISTS PROTEST CHEMICAL WEAPONS TRAINING SCHOOL by a RAIL comrade On February 5, a protest rally was held on the steps of the capitol building in Jefferson City, Mo. The Student Environmental Action Coalition and other concerned people were protesting an army proposal to relocate their chemical weapons training school from Fort McClellan, Alabama to Fort Leonard Wood, Mo.Fort Leonard Wood is located in the heart of the Ozark Forest. "We believe the Army's Mission of 'national security' jeopardizes the health and well-being of Amerikan citizens, and that this is unjust," says SEAC member Jillian Borchard. A chemical weapons training facility at Ft. Wood puts human and non- human communities at risk through its obscurant training program, chemical decontamination program and use and production of radioactive nuclides, nerve gas, mustard gas, and dioxin. Member Eric Hempel says that "the chemical weapons school is a school of death and we don't want it in our state." MIM takes it further--we don't want the chemical weapons training school anywhere. The purpose of the rally was to raise the awareness and express discontent to the government about the army's proposal to relocate the school. The SEAC demanded: 1) That the military not jeopardize the people and environment through defense training. 2) That the United States Army be required to comply with the Endangered Species Act. 3) That the United States uphold the Biological Weapons Convention of 1972 which reads that signing countries agree to "never in any circumstances develop, produce, stockpile or otherwise acquire or retain any biological weapons." MIM agrees with protests against U.S. militarism but it takes the approach: "think globally--act globally." United Snakes imperialism is a global problem--not a local problem. Environmental groups such as the SEAC righteously defy U.S. militarism's disregard for the environment and people. The chemical weapons training facility trains U.S. soldiers to use these weapons on people of the Third World--millions of hungry, oppressed people who organize to throw off the domination of their land, labor and resources by the United Snakes of Amerika--now this is unjust. But it won't be stopped by telling the imperialist beast that they must obey laws such as the Endangered Species Act and weapons treaties. U.S. imperialism will end when a revolution led by the proletariat overthrows the U.S. and replaces it with socialism. That requires the building of a revolutionary Maoist Party to create public opinion and ripen revolutionary conditions. We invite you to join us. No U.S troops--anywhere--anytime! Note: Information for this article was provided by a press release issued by the Student Environmental Action Coalition. * * * UNDER LOCK AND KEY: NEWS FROM PRISONERS AND PRISONS THE MASSES MAKE HISTORY--THIS MEANS YOU! Hey MIM, ...I've been teaching X about MLM [Marxism- Leninism-Maoism] but my voice in here is minimal. The tide is heavily against me. A lot of bourgeois influence is expressed and a lot of prisoners my age is lax when it comes to studying about the science of revolution. They tend to think that the revolution will come from some mystical savior. They say that *when* the revolution comes they will be there and get down but they fail to realize that we are the makers of revolution. Sometimes I really begin to think that all is doomed and our only true hope lies in the Third World. But I can't neglect those in Amerika who are truly interested in revolution. I'm most sure our day will come.... --a New York Prisoner, Jan. 25, 1996 VIRGINIA DENIES PRISONERS ACCESS TO MIM MIM, Yesterday I received a letter from you folks advising me that the latest issue of MIM Notes was refused by the prison here and returned to you. Certainly this is something which both concerns and vexes me. The prison administration here has adopted a policy which seems clearly calculated to deprive prisoners here of access to news and opinions outside the mainstream...and even most of the mainstream media, for that matter. The current mission of the prison is to separately warehouse death row, parole violators and long term segregation...and no prison jobs whatsoever are available to any of us here...so unless we have source of revenue from the outside, we are penurious [(poverty-stricken)]. ...The administration has expressly prohibited both donated or free publications and will not allow for family or friends to order subscriptions for us either...which means that we simply are not permitted to subscribe to anything to anything to read from the outside....Occasionally the mailroom with slip up and something will get through, but this happens less and less often and so far none of your MIM Notes have escaped their scrutiny. I have contemplated litigation regarding this broad censorship and would welcome any suggestions you folks might offer. It might also be helpful if I could bring you in as a plaintiff, since your rights to free speech are being infringed upon by this policy. I would welcome hearing from you on the subject. ...As far as why the administration thinks it is "OK" to restrict prisoners' access to political views (other than their own) an a multiplicity of news sources here in a supposedly "free" america, it is my opinion that they simply do not consider prisoners to be people and that, as a class, we are deemed undeserving of the rights ostensibly bestowed by the Constitution and our sentence. This opinion is bolstered by the draconian new property policy that the administration here in Virginia is implementing statewide...a policy the likes of which I have never heard of being implemented in any state of these United States....My regards, --a Virginia prisoner, Jan. 14, 1996 RCG1 responds: We at MIM support all prisoners in their struggle against the tools of oppression. If you wish to pursue a legal battle, more power to you. MIM Notes is tool which can be used to expose the atrocious conditions in prisons and publicize the struggles of the oppressed worldwide. In addition, MIM has started compiling a legal resource list for prisoners. Unfortunately, however, MIM cannot be involved directly in litigation because we feel it would pose a security threat to our organization. We believe that prisons censor viewpoints other than their own as means of social control and to uphold mainstream society. Keep up the good work exposing the pigs and the oppressive ways. BANNED FROM PRISON LIBRARY, MUSLIMS CREATE THEIR OWN ...The general population library here has been restricted to inmates attending classes in the Windham School System. However, we (Muslims) have implemented a Community Awareness Program (CAP) where knowledge of self, family, community and the nation is taught in a political, social, economical and moral format. Our service (CAP) is open to the general population and visitors from the outside. Also, we have a library of our own. We would be very appreciative of any revolutionary literature. All MIM Notes and other donated literature will be donated to our library after being read by our lecturing team who will teach the masses of the general population who attend our services. There are over 150 Muslims on this unit. Since MIM Notes covers political and social injustices on an international basis, including institutional, we feel that it is potentially a powerful tool for enlightening and unifying the consciousness of the oppressed all over the world. At present, we are informing people about the "New World Order" that's being forced upon us by the government and various devices used to keep us divided as a nation for purposes of control and manipulation. [We are also discussing] the remedies and possible solutions for alleviating the causes and effects of social, economic, political and religious oppression. Thank you for your time and may Allah guide and protect you! --a Texas prisoner, Dec. 18, 1995 TEXAS LOCKDOWN To my brothers and sisters at MIM Notes, I am deeply sorry for not returning a letter to you in so long. Please try and understand that I am under the cruel circumstances of the administration. Here on Terrell Unit, it is so unpredictable. There's no telling what's to come at times. Just to let you know the absence of my monthly letter to you was not intentional. Me and a cellmate of mine ran out on a five man team of officers, while on lockdown. We have been on [lockdown] for no reason and for seven months now. During which they refused to feed us about three times and refused to let us shower about two. I couldn't take it no more, bad as it is. They tamper with our mail from time to time, so I don't know if you'll receive this one. ...They have the whole unit on lockdown and yet they haven't told us the reason for it. So when, if by chance, I do find out, I'll be sure to tell you... --a Texas prisoner, Jan. 23, 1996 SOUTH DAKOTA: PASSING SNACKS EQUALS TWO YEARS AD- SEG TIME Being a convicted felon, I have seen a lot of rude and downright despicable acts inflicted upon my fellow comrades and brothers in arms. Here in South Dakota, the pigs are just as rude and spiteful as any other prison in the injustice system. I have a dear friend in administrative segregation doing two years for loaning a bag of barbecue chips to another inmate. Of course I must note that my friend is a rather large man who intimidates the small runts of oppression and my friend will file a lawsuit trying to improve all fellow inmate situations. Something as petty as a bag of chips has just caused him two years worth of isolation. "It's not the chips, it's the dips that run this place," he said to me. "The ironic thing they will never see, until it's too late, is that I will only grow more resistant and have plenty of time to plan new ways of resistance." I could not have said it better. Oppression breeds resistance. Resistance incubates revolution.... --A South Dakota, Jan. 12, 1996 IN PENNSYLVANIA IT'S LEGAL TO LISTEN IN The following is a letter from the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections. Subject: Act 20 of 1995 (Formerly HB127): Intercepting, recording, monitoring or divulging telephone calls To: All Inmates From: Martin F. Horn, Commissioner Act 20 of 1995 amended Section 5704 of Title 18 by adding a paragraph to permit employees of the Department of Corrections to intercept, record, monitor, or divulge any telephone call from or to an inmate in a facility. This act was signed by the Governor on September 26, 1995. It became effective in 60 days or on November 25, 1995. This memo is intended to provide notice to you that any telephone call which you make or received in any state correctional facility may be intercepted, recorded, monitored, or divulged. The only exception is properly placed telephone calls to or from your attorney. The monitoring of telephone calls is being done to preserve the security and orderly management of the institutions and to protect the public. The Department of Corrections provides several methods to maintain confidential contact with your attorney. For example, inmate-attorney correspondence is covered under privileged mail provisions and private inmate-attorney visits are provided. In addition, the inmate may request to place an occasional unmonitored call to his or her attorney. In order to do so you need to contact your counselor who will arrange this call on either a collect, or time and charge basis. The counselor must place such calls and ensure that any unmonitored call they place on behalf of an inmate is to an attorney's office. Frequent unmonitored inmate-attorney calls will only be allowed when an inmate demonstrates that communications with his or her attorney by other means would not be adequate or the inmate's attorney can demonstrate an imminent court deadline. --Martin F. Horn, Commissioner, DOC, Pennsylvania, Nov. 30, 1995 HOW MANY TIMES DO YOU HAVE TO BREAK A MAN'S BODY BEFORE YOU BREAK HIS SOUL? Shaka Shakur is back in a lockdown situation. He was recently put into the Hospital Restraint Unit (HRU) of the Indiana Reformatory until he learns to walk without crutches again. After much pressure was put on to get him taken to an outside doctor, Shaka was finally sent to a hospital and diagnosed with a herniated disc in his back. He has been on medication for the pain for a year and has been on crutches since June. Recently his crutches were taken away from him arbitrarily. He was scheduled for surgery under the recommendation of Dr. Kevin Kaufman at Wishard Hospital in Indianapolis, Indiana. Shaka has not been allowed this surgery and has been further isolated by being put into the HRU. Indiana Reformatory "doctor" Dr. Chavez has further escalated the situation by harassing Shaka, calling him a "fucking shithead" and accusing him of faking his injury. The HRU is in total isolation from the rest of the prison. According to Shaka it is much like the Maximum Control Complex prison in Westville, Indiana with boxcar doors, forced air and no contact with anyone. The one other prisoner in the HRU is being "treated" (read: experimented upon) with psychotropic drugs. Please write letters and send faxes to: Ed Cohn, Indiana Department of Corrections, Indiana Government Center South, 302 W. Washington Street, Indianapolis, IN 46204, FAX: 317-232-6798 Demand that Shaka Shakur 28443: 1. be removed from the HRU and taken back to the AS unit where he was 2. that he be sent to Wishard Hospital for the Surgery recommended by Dr. Kaufman, and 3. that he be given back his crutches. Write letters of support to: BCAC, P.O. Box 93312, Milwaukee, WI 53203 -- BCAC, Oct. 7, 1995 TWO POLITICALLY ACTIVE NEW AFRIKAN STUDENTS ARE DESPERATELY SEEKING EDUCATIONAL SPONSORSHIP We are two Afrikan prisoners who are also independent students. We have been actively engaged in self-education and the political and academic education of other young Afrikan prisoners in the Indiana prison system for a number of years. Also, we have been politically active outside prison walls for the premises of both interpersonal relations and organizationally. Because of the intense repression that politically active Afrikan prisoners are subjected to by prison officials, it is very hard for us to take advantage of any prison based educational programs or any other programs offered by the state. Despite this we have been able to reach higher educational levels on our own. Both of us have, to our credits, published writings which are of political and educational value to the mis-educated oppressed. Like many others, because of our political commitments and activities, we have been targeted by prison officials and repressed, abused and denied any opportunities to advance ourselves through any prison-based educational programs. Due to a bill which was initiated and fought into existence by Indiana State Representative Dr. Vernon G. Smith, D-Gary (who has interviewed both of us and has expressed pride in our development) where a prisoner receives time off of their sentences for educational achievements, namely high school diplomas and college degrees, repressive measures have been intensified by the state to keep politically active prisoners from having any access to any type of developmental prison program activities. It is to no avail to continue to battle with the prison officials for any type of justice because they have made it perfectly clear, conform and surrender everything that we are as men to the genocidal demands of the state or suffer. We refuse to debrief. This clearly means that we must develop different methods to get around the state altogether. One way is through the means of non-traditional education. Many universities and colleges offer correspondence programs for non-traditional studentship. Some offer end-of-course exams which allow for a non- traditional student to take final exams for credit. Also some schools have particular standards for what is referred to as Life Experience Learning which allows for a non-traditional student to submit what is called a "Life Experience Portfolio." This document is good for higher learning credits based off the educational knowledge that one has acquired through experience, on the job, or by any means that has provided one with the skills learned through experience. We are seeking educational sponsorship so that we may approach these non-traditional methods to education. There is also a system called a contract by learning between a student and school and/or educator which is worth credits, perhaps worth certain types of degrees -- equivalency exam programs, etc. What we need are sponsors to help us set up a standard that politically active (repressed) prisons nationwide can employ as a means to obtain educational degrees, in spite of prison officials' attempts to hinder our educational advancement. It is our desire to develop an association through sponsorship that will lend to this cause nationwide. Whereas exam packages for the purpose of us furthering our education through non-traditional means can be established especially for politically active repressed prisoners at the lowest possible cost to the association. There would have to be to this development some type of national fund that would give financial aid to those who qualify. Please, anyone who is interested in this idea should contact us immediately [by writing to MIM]. Any type of assistance that anyone can offer in any way is needed. We need ideas and talent as bad as we need other backing to realize this objective. Something as simple as sending stamps and reproducing this flier to help us get the word out would be a great contribution to this cause. We thank you to the utmost for any assistance rendered. --two Indiana prisoners, 11/9/95 MASSACHUSETTS PRISONER CALLS FOR INVESTIGATION OF LOCKDOWN Dear MIM and RAIL: Thank you so much for being concerned about the on- going unlawfulness that continues to go on behind these prison walls.... Let me begin by stating that here at Walpole prison things are very much violative in many aspects. As MIM is very aware, we are seriously segregated in this prison. 1.) At the present, nine blocks in the general population are only out for no longer than one 1/2 hour per day and we're only allowed to go outside for some fresh air every other 4 days. All of which takes place in a small fenced-in barbed wire cage (that hold approximately a very small amount of people if one needs to exercise let's say 20 individuals....) 2.) There are only three Blocks which are allowed out of cell recreation for almost all of the day in the prison. They are called Bristol Block 2, Essex Block 2, and Suffolks Block 2. It is also known as the minimum end, and you are allowed to work, to go down to the gymnasium, to the prison's chow hall, you can go to the prisons' big outside main yard. None of which the other nine population blocks are allowed to do so, but yet they are still telling us that we are all in the general population. How can this be, when others are receiving way more privileges than the other members of this so called Equal General Population... [Walpole recently "ended" it's lockdown. For most of the prisoners, this is only semantic. --MIM] I'll tell you: it's because these administration officials are running this prison on a very much unequal treatment mode....The truth is this so-called general population is really segregation and very much a violation of equal fair treatment. 3.) Our meals are served to us in styrofoam containers or trays and are most of the time very cold or very mildly warm. We complain but it goes ignored like so many other issues which we do bring up to the superintendent Ronald T. Duval and his designees. The officers handle the servings of the food to the inmates. Most often they never put on gloves and they put their fingers on the ring of the Dixie Cups which the Kool-aid is served in, and at times their fingers penetrate into the drink. 4.) Since my arrival to this prison in 1992 all the way up to this period so many privileges and rights have been taken from us like: education, programs of all kinds, religious services in the chapels to most of the prison population, appliances, hot- pots, personal good radios, TVs, sweatsuits,...They took away all inmates' Christmas packages our families send us. We do not receive any Christmas funds of around $10 to $20 anymore for those inmates who don't have no one sending them nothing. 5.) We are only allowed to receive one roll of toilet paper per week and one bar of state soap every other week and there is no exception. As far as toothpaste, deodorant and any other hygiene product is concerned, they don't provide us any. We must buy it ourselves from the Canteen Store or go without. MIM and RAIL, I am here to vouch for what has been taking place here in this Walpole prison. There are a good amount of issues that I truly feel should be brought forward along with the fact that numerous racist officers work in the 9 and 10 Block Segregation Unit along with the DDU which beat down inmates when they are taken to these sections while they are handcuffed and shackled. No one is looking in on these prison officials and they feel like they are gods at times because they keep on getting away with these unlawful and very much volatile acts. Dear MIM and RAIL, if we had an independent agency looking in on these correctional officials and their running of these institutions and others like these we wouldn't have these sorts of unlawful occurrences happening.... Dear MIM and RAIL, I am certainly glad that you send me this letter of yours in regards to both your organizations being very much caring and concerning to this serious matter which pains all good citizens of this true world of ours. I greatly thank you for being there for us in our struggles my dear comrades! Sincerely, --A Massachusetts prisoner, Nov. 8, 1995 PRISONERS START UNITED NATIONS MOTION TO ADDRESS HUMAN RIGHTS IN U.S. CONTROL UNITS We are in process of filing a motion to the United Nations, to address Human Rights with any and all control units. We may need some help in organizing such a writ. From what I've read, we as confined prisoners are constantly subject to poisoned drinking water. There is no means to survive without water. Those who put us here knew prisoners would file complaints about the conditions as well the confinement. We may need other groups who have filed such a writ to supply any and all information they have to help. This is our first [attempt], when complete, we will [send] a copy. Staying strong. --a Indiana prisoner, Jan. 26, 1996 MC49 responds: The United Nations has proven itself to be an enemy of human rights by among other things serving as a cover for Amerika's war on the Iraqi people. Strategically, we prefer building independent proletarian institutions to appealing to enemy institutions. But while it is important not to hold any illusions in bourgeois institutions like the U.N., your approach may succeed in winning some tactical gains for the people. We wish you success in your endeavors. * * * RAMONA AFRICA BLASTS AMERIKKKA; CALLS ON THE PEOPLE TO DEFEND MUMIA by a member of RAIL Washington D.C.--Ramona Africa, Minister of Information for MOVE, spoke at Howard University on March 22. The pro-Mumia Abu-Jamal event was sponsored by the D.C. Coalition for Mumia Abu-Jamal and the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement. Africa's speech was preceded by speakers from the two sponsoring organizations, a showing of **Date with Death**, a movie about Jamal's frame-up, and a rap video by MC Shank about Mumia. The video is available from the New Jersey Anarchist Black Cross. Ramona blasted the Amerikkkan criminal injustice system for its racist white supremacy. She explained that Blacks know they will go to jail if they're caught doing drugs, while affluent whites like David Kennedy hardly ever do time. According to Ramona, over 60% of people on Pennsylvania's death row are oppressed nationals. She says "The issue is who is victimized by the system, and who is protected by the system and not victimized at all." Ramona compared genocidal acts perpetrated daily by the United Snakes with common crimes. "Compared to what the officials of this country do daily, nobody outside [the] officials is guilty." Ramona traced official violence to the founding of Amerika: the genocide of the First Nations. "This country don't have a problem with killing. That's what this country was founded on. And they have the audacity to put an Indian [Leonard Peltier] in jail." Like Peltier, the famous First Nation political prisoner framed for murdering a FBI pig on the Pine Ridge reservation, Mumia is accused of killing a kkkop. But as Ramona says "the concept of innocence or guilt at this point is totally ridiculous." Amerikkka is guilty, it's time for the People to commence sentencing. Ramona urged the audience to "be clear on who our enemy is; and it's not each other, it's not us." She castigated the Left for being unnecessarily sectarian. "You don't have to have the same ideology...Does the system care?" Instead, she offered up unity as the answer. "Unity is the foundation of revolution. That's why there has never been a true revolution." MIM agrees that unity against the enemy is important. But many so- called revolutionaries in North America do not know who they're fighting against. Ramona is obviously correct when she says that whites are protected by the government that victimizes Blacks. That fact underlines the need for revolutionaries to fight against white Amerikan privilege, and that is why the "Left" is not all on our side. Plenty of the "Left" wants to keep their First World privilege and stolen First Nations land. "I don't care what my situation is," says Ramona. "I'm gonna call a cop? I'm gonna call Mark Fuhrman... to protect me?" The answer, she continues, is for oppressed people to stop fighting each other and learn to solve their own problems. She talks about oppressed nation youth, saying "Rather than build an army, they're snatching sisters out of their cars...That's not tough...We do need an army." Ramona chastised Black youth in college for not doing more activism. She said that "it is a disgrace" that no Black college or university has invited her to come and speak. Ramona has been invited by community groups to speak, but never by a student body of a Black college. Ramona declared that "Self-defense is God's law, natural law" and that the People need to stop complaining and start organizing for their defense. At the same time however, MIM notes that Ramona is organizing a letter drive to big pig- attorney general Janet Reno on Mumia's behalf. She also has not suggested any organization--MOVE, Friends of MOVE, or anyone else--to lay the basis for an army. MIM agrees that the People need an army and is building a revolutionary party that will lead an army when the People are mobilized. Finally, Ramona said that "Everyone has to pull their own weight...Fighting for your freedom cannot possibly be a crime." On the contrary, for the oppressed, it's a duty. On the Move! LETTERS ON BEHALF OF MUMIA ABU-JAMAL SHOULD BE ADDRESSED TO: Honorable Janet Reno, Attorney General U.S. Dept. of Justice Washington D.C. 20530 and sent to: Equal Justice USA P.O. Box 5206 Hyattsville MD 20782 The letters--they're hoping for a million --will all be delivered personally during a massive rally in D.C.(Date to be announced). Ramona is suing the city of Philadelphia for blowing up the MOVE house on May 13, 1985 and murdering her family. The first day of trial is April 1, 1996. A demonstration is planned outside Federal Court. MOVE has announced an action on May 11, 1996 in Philadelphia, 10am-3pm, on the anniversary of the May 13 bombing. Call MOVE at (215) 387-9955 or write Equal Justice USA for information about this and numerous other pro-Mumia and pro-MOVE events. * * * MASSACHUSETTS ACTIVISTS CONTINUE VIGILANCE AGAINST PRISON REPRESSION Boston, March 23--One year after implementation of the lockdown at Walpole prison, a large crowd of activists gathered on the steps of the Massachusetts State House to protest repression in Massachusetts prisons. The rally, organized by the American Friends Service Committee, included a Revolutionary Anti-imperialist League (RAIL)/Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM) contingent. Signs and speakers at the rally reminded the crowd that we are still protesting Governor Weld's transfer to Texas of 299 prisoners in the middle of the night on November 1, 1995. These prisoners were used as hostages in Weld's budget negotiation; this scam resulted in passage of a bill to fund close to $500 million in prison expansions. The RAIL/MIM contingent focused on the lockdown as a means of preventing prisoners from studying politics and organizing politically. Lockdown includes isolation, sensory deprivation and brutal repression. Prisoners at Walpole are enduring conditions which are internationally recognized as torture. The prisoncrats at Walpole have made the lockdown permanent by upgrading the prison's security rating. This rating requires non-contact family visits so that prisoners cannot even touch their visiting children. Speakers focused on the failure of the criminal injustice system to rehabilitate, pointing out that torture is not rehabilitation. Several speakers told how they or people they knew had been convicted of crimes they did not commit as punishment for their political activism. Other speakers took this point even further to say that crime is political in a society that gives crack users (mostly Blacks and Latinos) higher sentences than powder cocaine users (mostly wealthier whites). RAIL pointed out that under a government that condones rape, murder and torture in the name of "democracy" around the world while placing one in every three Black men under the criminal injustice system, all prisoners are political prisoners. RAIL and MIM will continue fighting for better prison conditions while we organize more broadly for a dictatorship of the proletariat. The oppressed will rise to the historic task of smashing the bourgeois dictatorship which defines crime opportunistically so that it can punish the oppressed. * * * MOVIE REVIEW: DEAD MAN WALKING "Dead Man Walking" is based on the book of the same name that tells the true story of a Louisiana nun who befriended a man sentenced to die for murder on Death Row at Angola State Prison. Sister Helen Prejean saw her correspondence with "Matthew Poncelet" (a composite of real-life Patrick Sonnier and Robert Lee Willie) as a religious duty. Her job was to show Poncelet the light of Jesus and make him accept responsibility for the murder for which he was sentenced to die, so that he could go to heaven. In a recent interview Prejean said that it was her mission to help death row inmates die with dignity, "'[n]ot now own up so I can save your soul.'"(1) Maoists also believe in taking responsibility, but not for individualist moral reasons. We want people to take responsibility for their actions and their role in perpetuating an oppressive society and act to overthrow the system which unjustly executes its enemies. Amerika does not have the moral authority to execute anyone, as the murder and violence perpetrated by the state are far greater than what any individual Amerikan could do on the street. "Dead Man Walking" does not come out against the death penalty, and the book is a stronger testament than the movie to Sister Prejean's anti-death penalty activism. After Prejean's experience with her first death row friend, she went on to work with several others. She is vigilant about incorporating public awareness campaigns into her work and continues to speak out at rallies, and lobby against the death penalty. The movie portrays the death penalty as arbitrary and unfair. Poor people who cannot afford good lawyers get the death penalty, while richer people get lesser sentences. This is exemplified in the fact that Poncelet's co-defendant got a life sentence for the same crime for which Poncelet was murdered. MIM knows that there is nothing arbitrary about the death penalty or anything else in the criminal injustice system: poor people and oppressed nationals are targeted by the criminal system from start to finish. Poncelet is an unlikable guy whose racist bigotry makes Prejean shudder. She argues with him about his views on "niggers, spics and chinks." Until the very end, Prejean cannot convince Poncelet to admit he is guilty of the rape and double murder for which he was convicted. At the last minute before he is dragged to his death, Poncelet confesses, saying he raped the girl and killed the boy. Sister Prejean is completely relieved, having done her duty to guide him to Jesus; for only by confessing his sins could he "die with dignity." One Denver radio talk-show host criticized Dead Man Walking, saying he was not persuaded by the political argument in the film that "Poor people tend to get executed, not rich ones. This is no doubt true, but not very persuasive as a disqualifier for the death penalty. Rich people tend not to commit capital crimes Yes, in rare cases, an O.J. Simpson with millions to spend on his defense might beat a rap, and that's a shame, but rich people can also afford better medical care, houses, cars, clothing, food and education; and that's not fair either. Unless we're ready to adopt Communism and divide everything up evenly, it's not a good enough reason to spare someone like Ted Bundy from his rendezvous with justice."(2) MIM obviously does want communism and our position is much more consistent than that of the Denver talk show host. The man on the radio claims that the crimes of Ted Bundy are bigger than the millions of murders Amerika has committed and the violence it sanctions daily. MIM has its priorities straight: we are committed to bringing Amerikkka to justice. Prejean incorporates a victims advocacy perspective, maintaining contact with any of the victims' families who will speak with her. The movie addressed this tension, and showed the different responses of the two families--the father of the boy who struggled with Prejean, and the parents of the girl who wanted nothing to do with her. Under socialism, victims of crimes might play a genuine role in the rehabilitation of their assailants, but under imperialism, victims' **rights** to have front row seats at state sponsored executions are part of a pornographic, talk-show culture that glorifies the power of the state. In addition to merging characters and making the movie much shorter than the book, the movie Dead Man Walking takes political liberties with the facts. At the time of Sister Prejean's story, electric chair was the only means of execution in Louisiana. In 1990 lethal injection became an option for death now prisoners, and this method clearly made a more palatable death scene for a movie-going audience. The movie also leaves out Prejean's critical understanding of social injustice. Prejean recalled her childhood: her parents were never mean to Black people, but they also did not question "the system of racial discrimination that permeated every aspect of life It would take me a long time to understand how systems inflict pain and hardship in people's lives and to learn that being kind in an unjust system is not enough."(p. 7) This is not a communist analysis, but it is more analytical than what the movie portrays. Prejean's book goes a long way toward humanizing the debate about the death penalty, taking into account the grief and anguish of the victims' families while steadfastly maintaining that the death penalty is wrong. "If I were to be murdered I would not want my murderer executed. I would not want my murder avenged. **Especially by government **--which can't be trusted to control its own bureaucrats or collect taxes equitably or fill a pothole, much less decide which of its citizens to kill." (p. 21, emphasis in original) Of course Prejean does not go far enough for MIM, but she is a friend in the struggle against the death penalty. Only through communism will all oppression of groups over groups end, and only through communism will the kinds of killings that are now called crimes, and the executions to punish them, end. NOTES: The page cites from the book are from the 1994 edition, **Dead Man Walking**, by Sister Helen Prejean, Vintage Books. 1. The Guardian Mar. 4, 1996, p. T6. 2. The Denver Post Feb. 23, 1996, p. B9. * * * THE BIRD CAGE This take-off on La Cage aux Folles has received surprisingly wide mainstream distribution for a movie about drag queens. As a contemporary criticism of the religious right and the rest of the republican party, The Bird Cage is a fun parody of hypocrisy among the Amerikan family values fascists. The Bird Cage is not a revolutionary movie, preaching greater tolerance for different lifestyles and begging the religious right to accept queens into their families so that everyone can live happily ever after. It is progressive for mainstream Amerika to see queens portrayed as real people--The Bird Cage suggests that queens are better at 'family values' than straight nuclear families--but the struggle to gain acceptance in imperialist society is a reactionary one. Queens in Amerika are oppressed as outsiders to the dominant hetero-patriarchal culture. But they can also live in penthouses, own successful clubs and even raise children; while the majority of queers on the planet are too worried about survival to devote much energy to sexual liberation. Progressive queers in Amerika must ally themselves with the struggles of the international proletariat fighting to overthrow the patriarchy, not attempt to win acceptance from these oppressors. * * * RUMBLE IN THE BRONX Review by MC17 Hong Kong actor and director Jackie Chan edited "Rumble in the Bronx" for an Amerikan audience, and it shows. "Rumble" caters to Hollywood's vapid and reactionary standards. Chan is an action superstar in Asia and well-known throughout the world. "Rumble" is his third attempt to crack the Amerikan market and the first major Amerikan release he directed. Earlier Amerikan releases included the pitiful "Cannonball Run" series, where Hollywood chauvinists cast Chan as a Japanese. Some of Chan's earlier films--most notably "Drunken Master II"--were marked by political themes of revolutionary anti-imperialist nationalism with Chan playing the hero who rises above his lumpen- proletarian background when events educate him politically about the need to fight the big imperialist enemy. Occasionally accurate renditions of historical struggles, these older films are also significant for the strong roles played by women and the lack of romance in them. Rumble in the Bronx is pure Amerikan tripe: gratuitous sex, gratuitous violence, gratuitous racial stereotyping and a politically meaningless plot. With women all wearing scanty clothing and doing little beyond clinging to their men, this movie should appeal to the lucrative Amerikan audience that pays for the popularity of the many mindless and meaningless Hollywood films. Chan's role in making his older movies also points to the differences between the Amerikan and Hong Kong movie industries. In an appearance on Amerika's National Broadcasting Network's the Late Show with David Letterman, Chan explained why he always does his own stunts. In Hong Kong, the actors are cheaper, and it is not such a big deal if one of them falls in a scene and breaks his ankle. In Amerika, the contracts for actors like Steven Seagal (a pulp action martial artist movie hero) carry such expensive insurance that the producers wouldn't consider risking these actors on their own stunts. Amerikan audiences are titillated by the fact that Jackie Chan does his own stunts because it makes him seem that much more the studly action hero. But really this aspect of Chan's career is only evidence of the tremendous gulf in the value imperialism puts on Chinese lives versus Amerikan lives. Jackie Chan is an excellent martial artist and a great entertainer. While he did not start making movies until after the beginning of capitalist restoration in China, his talents were used to educate and influence his audience towards anti- imperialist politics by a Third World movie industry. It is unfortunate that Chan has now sold his skills to the disgusting bourgeois Hollywood movie industry. MIM looks forward to a day when movie actors will be engaged making educational films rather than junk fiction nonsense which glorifies patriarchal sex and violence. * * * NPR CAN'T COMPREHEND NATIONAL LIBERATION On February 27, nearly 100 Cuban doctors arrived in South Africa to take up rural medical posts. South Africa suffers from the "brain drain" that afflicts other Third World countries, as the educated and technically trained leave their country for better paid positions in the First World. South Africa's problem is particularly severe in the countryside, where conditions are much harsher than in the cities. South Africa has 2,000 vacant posts in the state health service. South Africa has invited Cuba, which has a surplus of medical workers, to send doctors to staff its rural clinics. This will likely improve the health situation in rural South Africa on a short term basis, but this stop-gap measure exposes the short- sightedness of South Africa's neo-colonial regime. The nationalist and pro-peasant program utilized in revolutionary China under the leadership of Mao Zedong was a powerful rejection of neo-colonialism. Maoist China focused on national self-reliance and an orientation towards the countryside--where the great majority of the population lived. Strategies included political incentives for doctors to work in the countryside and training more than 1 million peasant masses as "barefoot doctors" to teach preventative medicine and carry out simple first aid. National Public Radio's story about the Cuban doctors being sent to South Africa played upon two fallacies. First, that the Azanian masses would actually rally to sing the praises of Fidel Castro- -Amerika's bogeyman. It was apparently inconceivable that a country that Amerika doesn't like could actually be appreciated elsewhere in the world. Secondly, the reporter stressed that only a few years prior, Cuban soldiers were fighting South African soldiers on the battlefields of Angola. What the reporter missed, however, was that South Africa is no longer the same country that supported reaction in Angola a few years ago. Until 1993, the Azanian masses under the leadership ship of the African National Congress and other organizations, were fighting the white South African regime. In 1993, Nelson Mandela was elected president, ending white rule and ushering in neo-colonialism. The African National Congress was on the same side of the Angola struggle as the Cubans. While the political realities for the Azanian masses has changed little since the end of open white rule, this was not the reporter's point. Rather, she was trying to liquidate the historical struggle of the Azanian people against the South African government. --MC234 NOTES: NPR February 27, 1996; Boston Globe February 28, 1996, p. 4. * * * SETTLERS SHIFT INTO STOCK OWNERSHIP Statistics collected by the Federal Reserve bank of the U.S. Government for 1995 show that stock ownership surpassed home ownership in total value for the first time since the early 1970s in the United Snakes. The class of people MIM calls settlers owns the majority of home equity and now it is putting money into its Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) and 401(k) programs. "In 1980, for example, Americans purchased only $2.1 billion in mutual fund-shares, the prime vehicle for middle-class stock ownership. Last year, mutual fund purchases were close to $200 billion."(1) The big spur to the increases is a new pro-settler tax code that gives a special tax status to IRAs and such strategies for building wealth for retirement. The middle-classes--people not in the top one percent of wealth holders and unable to live just from owning property--these classes that MIM calls the settlers or labor aristocracy and the petty- bourgeoisie have long owned the majority of home equity. In 1995 home equity wealth totaled $4.3 trillion. The bottom 90 percent of society owns 65 percent of the home ownership wealth, in addition to 65 percent of the life insurance and 76 percent of the automobiles.(2) The comparison of home equity and stock ownership is notable in itself. Home equity is a major source of power in many imperialist societies. It is also a major economic fact in separating white working classes from the working classes of the oppressed nations. In the poorest 20 percent of society, home equity accounts for 59 percent of all wealth as of 1988. The wealthier people rely less on home equity. When one looks at the white people of the United Snakes only 8.73 percent of households qualify for Marx's statement that "they have nothing to lose but their chains," because they have zero or negative net worth. A good chunk of Blacks and people of "Hispanic origin" have been bought off too, but 29.12 percent of Blacks and 23.82 percent of "Hispanic origin" people have zero or negative net worth. Indeed, while the median net worth for whites was $43,279 in 1988 dollars, it was $4,169 for Blacks and $5,524 for "Hispanic origin" people.(3) This contributes to the different national interests that give people of oppressed nations in Amerika a different outlook from white people and gives them, as a group, a material interest in revolution. The 8.73 percent of white households with no net wealth are too insignificant to form a class. They are the most extremely marginalized whites with health problems or young age, and they all know many middle-class people who "have made it." Meanwhile, it would not take much to knock the oppressed nation middle-classes back into absolutely zero asset ownership. A catastrophe or creeping taxes worth four or five thousand dollars would eliminate the savings of these classes. Hence, for this reason MIM concentrates itself in the bottom 20 percent of society where the oppressed nations are concentrated. Such wealth in houses is not accrued in the oppressed nations of the Third World. In the 1970s and 1980s it was possible for most Amerikans to make five and six digit dollar sums just from owning a house, doing no work and watching the price go up. That wealth contributed to the corruption of the political outlook of workers here and among other things made widespread homelessness possible at the very bottom of society. Real estate speculation of this sort is a key way in which the capitalist system in the imperialist countries rewards the bought-off workers with the labor of other people. In the accompanying article on overall wealth, MIM showed that the top one percent lost ground in percentage of wealth owned to the next highest nine percent of wealth owners in recent years. The growth of employee ownership of large companies, the IRAs and 401(k) programs point toward further bourgeoisification of the Amerikan people. Much attention is drawn to the fact that worker incomes excluding benefits have fallen in recent years. Others point to the decline of Social Security that the bourgeoisie is predicting. However, these trends are offset by increases in worker benefits and stock ownership. While many so- called Marxists would like to join President Clinton in seeing the attacks on Medicaid and Medicare as a symbol of class destabilization, in actual fact, the middle classes are becoming slightly more stable, not less stable at this time. It is important to have an accurate gauge of the position of the middle-classes, because too often communist parties have based themselves on the idea that the middle-class was collapsing when it was not. The only result was the importation of middle- class ideas into communist parties and not communist ideas into middle-classes. NOTES: 1. New York Times Mar. 22, 1996, p. d17. 2. Leonard Beeghley, **The Structure of Social Stratification in the United States** (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1996), p. 179. 3. U.S. Census data in Charles E. Hurst, **Social Inequality: Forms, Causes and Consequences, 2nd ed.**, (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1995), pp. 28-9. * * * LABOR ARISTOCRACY AND PETTY-BOURGEOISIE GET MORE GRAVY From listening to the campaign rhetoric of the imperialist parties seeking to woo the labor aristocracy voters in the United Snakes, one would have the impression that the middle class has disappeared. In actuality, while the proletariat continues to be exploited and driven into further degradation, the majority of white workers continue to expand their wealth or at least hold their own. The latest in a thorough survey conducted every three years shows that the upper ranks of the labor aristocracy and petty-bourgeoisie got richer between 1989 and 1992. The survey conducted by the Federal Reserve and Internal Revenue Survey surprised the New York Times editors, who called its accuracy into question. "The aggregate wealth of the bottom 90 percent of Americans grew by 20 percent from 1989 to 1992. The total net household worth of the richest 1 percent declined by 4.6 percent during that period, while the biggest winners, the next 9 percent, saw their wealth increase 37 percent." The top one percent of the population--defined as the capitalist class because it owns enough wealth to live off of without working--saw its share of wealth decline from 37.1 percent to 30.4 percent between 1989 and 1992. This reflected the need for the bourgeoisie to sweeten the pot for its top technical and organizational managers who receive top salaries. It has become economically efficient to reward the top one percent of people with greater settler loyalty rather than more wealth for the time being. The capitalist class is willing to give up a little on its annual income in the name of buying off the Amerikan labor aristocracy as a staunch ally in domination of the oppressed. NOTE: New York Times March 13, 1996, p. d1.