I N T E R N E T ' S M A O I S T BI-M O N T H L Y = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = XX XX XXX XX XX X X XXX XXX XXX XXX X X X X X X X XX X X X X X X X V X X X V X X X X X X X XX XXX X X X X X X XX X X X X X X X XXX X X X V XXX X XXX XXX = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = THE MAOIST INTERNATIONALIST MOVEMENT MIM Notes 131 FEBRUARY 1, 1997 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. IN THIS ISSUE: 1. GENERAL STRIKE ROCKS THE US BACKED REGIME IN SOUTH KOREA 2. WHO DO THE POLICE "SERVE AND PROTECT?"--NOT THE OPPRESSED 3. LETTERS 4. PHOENIX PIGS CRACK DOWN ON THE HOMELESS 5. 'NOT GUILTY'? GO TO JAIL 6. HINTON'S GPCR SPEECH STIRS DEBATE 7. MLM ONLINE: INTERNET CRIME HYPE FUELS GOVERNMENT REPRESSION 8. UNDER LOCK & KEY: NEWS FROM PRISONERS AND PRISONS 9. ROBERT F. WILLIAMS: FRIEND OF THE PEOPLE (1925- 1996) 10. NEW EVIDENCE FURTHER EXPOSES PIG INFORMER 11. WELD'S PLAN: MA PIGS CAN CHANGE PRISON RULES AT WILL 12. WELD TO CHARGE PRISONERS FOR THE PRIVILEGE OF INCARCERATION 13. TEXAS PRISON ACTIVIST LAUNCHES HUNGER STRIKE 14. SDS CO-FOUNDER HAYDEN RUNS FOR L.A. MAYOR 15. BABY FORMULA MARKETING: MULTINATIONALS STILL BAD FOR PUBLIC HEALTH * * * WHAT IS MIM? The Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM) is a revolutionary communist party that upholds Marxism- Leninism-Maoism, comprising the collection of existing or emerging Maoist internationalist parties in the English-speaking imperialist countries and their English-speaking internal semi- colonies, as well as the existing or emerging Spanish-speaking Maoist internationalist parties of Aztlan, Puerto Rico and other territories of the U.S. Empire. MIM Notes is the newspaper of MIM. Notas Rojas is the newspaper of the Spanish- speaking parties or emerging parties of MIM. MIM is an internationalist organization that works from the vantage point of the Third World proletariat; thus, its members are not Amerikans, but world citizens. MIM struggles to end the oppression of all groups over other groups: classes, genders, nations. MIM knows this is only possible by building public opinion to seize power through armed struggle. Revolution is a reality for North America as the military becomes over-extended in the government's attempts to maintain world hegemony. MIM differs from other communist parties on three main questions: (1) MIM holds that after the proletariat seizes power in socialist revolution, the potential exists for capitalist restoration under the leadership of a new bourgeoisie within the communist party itself. In the case of the USSR, the bourgeoisie seized power after the death of Stalin in 1953; in China, it was after Mao's death and the overthrow of the "Gang of Four" in 1976. (2) MIM upholds the Chinese Cultural Revolution as the farthest advance of communism in human history. (3) MIM believes the North American white-working-class is primarily a non- revolutionary worker-elite at this time; thus, it is not the principal vehicle to advance Maoism in this country. MIM accepts people as members who agree on these basic principles and accept democratic centralism, the system of majority rule, on other questions of party line. "The theory of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin is universally applicable. We should regard it not as dogma, but as a guide to action. Studying it is not merely a matter of learning terms and phrases, but of learning Marxism-Leninism as the science of revolution." -- Mao Zedong, Selected Works, Vol. II, p. 208 * * * GENERAL STRIKE ROCKS THE US BACKED REGIME IN SOUTH KOREA 17 Jan 97--Nationwide labor strikes and demonstration continue to spread and grow since president Kim Young-sam's New Korea Party railroaded passage of repressive labor laws through the National Assembly of the republic of Korea on 26 Dec 96, without any political opposition present, and circumventing all the legal processes of the Assembly. Kim's party passed the amendments to the Labor Law and National Security in seven minutes with no discussion. Among other things, the legislation prohibits multiple unions, labor union's political activities, and third party intervention. The laws give employers the right to hire and fire at will without any consultation with labor unions and do not recognize the basic labor rights of teachers and civil servants. The amendments return the right to investigate politically active progressive south Koreans to the Department of Intelligence, under the pretense of "capturing spies." The south Korean governments' Department of Intelligence is infamous in the memory of many Koreans for torturing students, journalists, workers and politicians during the years of military rule in South Korea.(1) The imperialists and local reactionaries are not satisfied with the fact that south Korean workers are paid less than 37% of what Amerikan workers are paid and already live under conditions approaching martial law.(2) They want more. These amendments serve the interests of local big capitalists as well as the interests of Amerikan and Japanese imperialists at the expense of the Korean masses. As the Communist Party of the Philippines noted in a message of solidarity with the proletariat and people of south Korea: "The monopoly capitalist firms and imperialist countries engage in competition but they collude to oppress and exploit the people and shift the burden of crisis to them. It is the revolutionary internationalist duty of the proletariat and people of the world to unite and fight against the imperialists and the local reactionaries and bring about a world that is liberated from capitalist oppression and exploitation."(9) MIM agrees wholeheartedly. WORKERS "STAND AND FIGHT" The general strike began the day after these laws were passed. Students, lawyers, religious groups and many other people have participated and continue to participate in protests. By 29 December, in response to a call by the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), 182 KCTU- affiliated unions (223,000 member workers went on general strike, along with 553 member unions (156,000 workers) of the Federation of Korea Trade Unions (FKTU).(3) At a rally of 25,000 workers before the National Assembly building on 29 December, President Kwon Yong-gil of KCTU said "President Kim Young-sam should apologize to 12 million workers. Unless the unilaterally railroaded labor laws and National Security Planning Agency Act are repealed, the second stage of the General Strike will be launched right after the New Year's holiday period." President Dan Byung-ho of the FKTU said "Workers are forced to choose whether to go down on their knees completely or to stand and fight," and "This rally is not just for protest against anti-workers laws, but against president Kim Young- sam's government." On 4 Jan, 90,000 workers at 46 businesses went on strike.(4) By 7 Jan, the number of striking workers totaled 212,196 from 176 unions, including metal workers, auto mobile workers, chemical, clerical, professional and construction workers. Unionists at four major television and radio networks joined the general strike, as well as unionists from 24 major hospitals in Korea, who made special arrangements to staff only the intensive care units, emergency units and emergency (non-pre-arranged) surgery.(5) In addition, at least 200,000 people, if not more, have marched in countless demonstrations all over the country since 26 December. Police have been confronting demonstrators in Seoul, Ulsan and other cities, firing tear gas into crowds to stop them.(6) The crowds have often returned the tear- gas volleys with volleys of rocks. ATTEMPTS AT REPRESSION The KCTU learned that the police were planning on raiding their offices, and accordingly, moved most of their important documents to a safehouse, since Korean police have confiscated whole computers of the KCTU as "evidence" in the past (5). A few days later (9 Jan) police did indeed seize and search their offices.(7) At the behest of President Kim Young-san, police have threatened to arrest KCTU leaders. But with all the worldwide attention, they have not acted on their threats yet. Arrest warrants have been issued to 10 KCTU leaders, who remain in the sanctuary of the Myondong Cathedral in Seoul. Arrest warrants were also issued for 40 other labor union leaders in Ulsan, Changwon and other cities.(8) President Kim's government has provoked this general strike, and their attempts to end it by legal force are failing. The US-backed Korean government is now on very shaky ground. The New Korea Party chairman Lee Hong-koo has proposed a televised debate with the KCTU and FKTU, who have rejected the proposal as a farce and called again for the nullification of the repressive legislation of 26 December. On January 16 Kim's party publicly apologized for ramming the bill through Parliament in a secret session but they did not repeal the bill. While this apology showed the tremendous pressure the people of Korea are putting on the government, the leadership of the strikes correctly responded that this was not enough and that the strikes would go on until the bill is repealed. As of this writing (14 Jan), the FKTU has called on its 1.2 million members to enter into a 2-day strike.(10) This may turn out to be the biggest general strike in south Korean history. It is a shining example of proletarian power. MIM and RAIL stand in solidarity with the people of south Korea and look forward to the end of US imperialist- backed phony democracy in Korea and the beginnings of people's democracy. -- by a MoRAIL Comrade NOTES: Visit the webpage General Strike in South Korea at http://kpd.sing-kr.org/strike/index-e.html 1. http://kpd.sing-kr.org/strike/soli-1.html 2. Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1996, p. 846. 3. http://kpd.sing-kr.org/strike/report-1.html 4. http://kpd.sing-kr.org/strike/report-2.html 5. http://kpd.sing-kr.org/strike/report-6.html 6. http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9701/06/briefs/korea.html 7. http://www.kimsoft.com/korea/kct97108.htm 8. http://kpd.sing-kr.org/strike/report-10.html 9. http://www.geocities.com/~cpp-ndf/ndf11.htm, Message of Solidarity with the Proletariat and People of South Korea from the Communist Party of the Philippines, 7 January 1997. 10. http://kpd.sing-kr.org/strike/report-12.html * * * WHO DO THE POLICE "SERVE AND PROTECT?"--NOT THE OPPRESSED by the Missouri chapter of RAIL Lots of people agree that our communities need to be safe from violence and crime. The question is: Who are the real criminals, who is most responsible for violence and crime in our communities? Missouri RAIL (MORAIL) believes that the police who defend the status quo of exploitation, poverty, and drugs are the real criminals, not those people driven to petty crime by hunger or unemployment-- let alone those framed by the police. It is a fact that oppressed people often steal, beat, even rape and murder other oppressed people. But this kind of crime is fostered by an oppressive system and can only be eliminated once we have pulled down this system and its lackeys. True: None of us can live peacefully and productively when we have to live in fear for ourselves and our loved ones. Yet many of us refuse to recognize the facts or become weak-kneed when confronted with police brutality and murder. Some look the other way while others apologize for the criminal activities of those sworn to "serve and protect." Apologists for the police tend to justify police violence by blaming the victim. When Garland Carter Jr. Was murdered by St. Louis cop "Eddie" Sanchez the apologists said that it was because he was a "gang member", therefore guilty and justly executed. In their eyes, the police have the exclusive right to act as judge, jury and executioner. Never mind the fact that eyewitnesses saw Sanchez take a gun out of the trunk of his car and plant it on his victim. Although investigators found Sanchez guilty of violating police procedure for having guns in his trunk and he resigned the police department, the murderer is free to walk the streets. Is that justice? Does it make the streets safe? On October 20, 1996, Randolph (Randy) Vance was brutally beaten to death by white Seventh District police officers at his home at 5108 Kensington. After being handcuffed and anklecuffed, he was KICKED, STOMPED, STRUCK WITH NIGHTSTICKS AND FLASHLIGHTS. HE WAS FORCIBLY DRAGGED FROM HIS HOME DOWN 12 CONCRETE STEPS. HIS HEAD STRUCK EVERY STEP. One month to the day Randy was killed, Michael Dillard, an eyewitness, was MURDERED. Coincidence? We want the truth! Apologists for the police say that Randy deserved to die because he was on drugs. Did that give police the right to play God and kill Randy Vance while he was handcuffed and anklecuffed? Amerikkka's police, like an occupying force, terrorize the Black and Latino community every day and night. Police selectively choose Blacks and Latinos for arrest and imprisonment, every day and every night. These attacks are increasing in an ugly atmosphere of a police-prison state. The international community has cited the U.S. government for violations of human rights concerning "immigration, police abuse, its prison system, and the death penalty."(1) The Human Rights World Report 1997, released by the Human Rights Watch group, also states that "Police officers in a number of cities were accused of serious human rights violations, including unjustifiable shootings, severe beatings and with many of the alleged victims asserting that these abuses were racially motivated."(2) We have seen time and time again that the police do not serve the interests of the black, Latino and other oppressed nations' communities. On the contrary, they are agents of white capitalist- imperialist rule. Their job is to protect the privileged status quo in Amerikkkan society. Let's ask ourselves this honest question: when have the police served our community? Can you trust the police for you protection? Are you and your family safe if you call on the police as Randy Vance did? Can we really have safe streets when police get away with murder? Silence is complicity. It is time to wake up and speak out. The people have a right and a duty to rebel against police terror. If you are truly for safe streets join RAIL and its efforts to STOP POLICE BRUTALITY! Only the people can change the violent oppression and poverty we are faced with. History proves that when masses of people organize, unite and act for change--CHANGE HAPPENS. It is right to rebel against police terror. Ultimately, the violence created by capitalism and perpetrated by its running dogs will only be eliminated by socialist revolution. The time for talk is done. The time to mobilize has come. * * * LETTERS TO MIM ***In response to MIM's USENET post regarding the (almost) legalization of gay and lesbian marriages in Hawaii (MIM Notes 130), one reader sent us the following: *** READER CHALLENGES MIM ON MARRIAGE AND MAOISM MIM, Who cares? The state should not be involved with regulating marriages anyway. In case you didn't know, bub, Mao was a revolutionary, not a man who concerned himself with G/L marriages. Cheers! --Internet Reader MIM RESPONDS: We wonder if you are bashing both Mao and other revolutionaries, or trying to drive a wedge between Mao and Maoists. Either way, it won't work. What do you think yourself about this issue? Mao was very concerned with marriage, the Chinese state under the Chinese Community Party did in fact regulate marriages, and that is all correct. One of Mao's earliest essays was about the suicide of a young woman who took her own life rather than face an arranged marriage with a man she didn't love. One of the very first acts of the Communist- led government was legalizing divorce, for cause, which led to hundreds of thousands of women (mostly) ending oppressive and abusive marriages. Marriage is an institution of patriarchal society, and is thus an area of concern for feminist revolutionaries such as MIM. Under communism perhaps the concept of marriage will be obsolete. It is certainly not obsolete now, and it appears to be a likely feature of socialist society as well. The idea that "revolutionaries" are not concerned about gay/lesbian marriage is odd. Are we supposed to be concerned about personal relationships at all, but not these? Or are we to ignore personal relationships, even though they are activities that most people spend huge amounts of time and energy on, that many people care about more than anything else, and that offers a way for the state to intervene in everyone's lives, for better or for worse. This is certainly an area which revolutionaries have to be concerned about. And we certainly would not agree that we should be concerned about some marriages, but not those involving gays and lesbians. ***The following letters demonstrate the potential for revolutionary study within the context of bourgeois education -- if students and teachers take the initiative to seek alternative sources. MIM is pleased to comply.*** TEACHER LOOKING FOR REVOLUTIONARY MATERIALS MIM, I am a Geography teacher at X high school. We are studying the geography and culture of Asia and I am in need of resources. I came across your organization in the back of a book found in our school library and hope that you could send me more information about your organization and Asia that I could use in my classroom. I look forward to receiving materials about your organization and China as soon as possible. Sincerely, --A teacher in the Midwest A MIM COMRADE RESPONDS: Thanks for the letter. It's nice to hear that we can be found in a book in a high school library. If you are studying Asia there are a few things I would recommend. First, we think that studying the Maoist revolution in China is very important for an understanding of world history because this revolution did so much for the oppressed people of China and of the world. From their ideas about how to change the educational system to their practice of criticism and self- criticism rather than punishment of criminals, from their successes in agriculture and industry to their ability to learn from their failures, the cultural revolution was a tremendous advance in building a society where no people have power over other people. The Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM) does not call China today a socialist country, instead we see that when Deng came to power he restored capitalism, albeit a more state-controlled capitalism than we are familiar with in this country. A few books worth studying on the revolution in China that are pretty accessible for high school level include (prices are what MIM sells them for, you may be able to find them in stores as well): # Jean Esmein: The Chinese Cultural Revolution ($6). # William Hinton: Fanshen ($15). # Ruth Sidel: Women and Childcare in China ($5). # Victor and Ruth Sidel: Serve the People: Observations on Medicine in the People's Republic of China ($6). # John and Elsie Collier's China's Socialist Revolution ($6). Another important area of Asian history to study is the "success" of the capitalist "Four Tigers." We believe that socialism has been far more successful than capitalism when the two systems are compared using the same standards, and that the success of the "Four Tigers" is due largely anti-feudal land reform led by communists. MIM has a theory journal that comes out quarterly and issue 4, "A Spiral Trajectory: The failure and success of communist development" ($5) addresses these issues. This issue of our theory journal also goes into some depth answering questions about the Chinese revolution and why we support it as the furthest advance towards communism in world history so far. I'm enclosing a copy of "What is MIM?" so you can get a better idea of what a Maoist organization is doing in this country and also a copy of our biweekly newspaper. We sell both of these and we'd appreciate it if you'd send the $2 for the "What is MIM?" pamphlet as we have no funding sources other than ourselves and the people who buy our literature. I'm sending these now because I understand that you need this information quickly and I hope it will be of use in planning your curriculum. We'd also be willing to send someone to your class to do a presentation on any issues regarding Asian history or current implementation of Maoist philosophy if you'd like. We have done presentations in high school classes in the past and they have been quite successful. Your letter was pretty broad so I hope this helps. Please let us know if there are other materials we can send or questions we can answer. STUDENT SEEKS REVOLUTIONARY MATERIALS MIM, I am a student doing a thesis on the state in revolutionary societies and trying to gather as much alternative thinking on the matter. To my luck, I was able to see a copy of your MIM Notes near my department. It was issue 85, dated February 1994. I'm interested in buying all sorts of literature from your organization. I don't know if the price of your catalogue is still the same though. Could you send me order information for your catalogue. Sincerely, --a student in Canada MIM RESPONDS: Two dollars gets a copy of our complete literature list. * * * PHOENIX PIGS CRACK DOWN ON THE HOMELESS by a RAIL Comrade We have all heard the line from the bourgeoisie and its labor aristocracy running dogs that the estimated three million homeless people in Amerika have obtained their status either through conscious choice or otherwise through their own fault. If they were only willing to work, so the myth goes, they could have the good life enjoyed by the labor aristocrats. The same baseless accusations of laziness are also directed at those third world peoples who are not homeless but nonetheless endure squalid poverty. Recently, the Phoenix City Council and the Phoenix Pigs have shown that the homeless are just as resented and repressed whether they are employed or not. In 1993, Joel Barr established a newspaper called The Grapevine which he published weekly. To market the paper, he hired homeless people to sell it from sidewalks and street medians and in front of public buildings and stores. The homeless would keep a portion of the price of the papers as their income. Bourgeois elements complained that these vendors were taking away their business, and many labor aristocrats resented the presence of shabbily- dressed vendors by the streets, particularly those of oppressed nationalities. The members of the city council looked for an excuse to put an end to this, which did not take long. The pigs suggested that selling newspapers from a sidewalk or median to motorists was a hazard to traffic safety. Although there had never been a traffic accident caused by a newspaper vendor, the City Council enthusiastically acted upon the idea and passed a civil ordinance against selling newspapers from sidewalks or public medians. The penalty for breaking this ordinance was a fine of not more than $300 per violation, which few homeless people could pay. The penalty for failing to pay the fine was suspension of the driver's license. Since few homeless people had a driver's licenses, the pigs soon found this was not an effective deterrent. On December 17th, 1996, the City Council voted to upgrade this prohibition to a criminal offense. Although the fine is still $300, the penalty for failure to pay is to be sent to jail. Sheriff Arpaio's tent city concentration camp already contains many homeless people convicted of criminal trespass ­ the "crime" of finding a place to sleep ­ and other status-related "crimes." Now the homeless people who are admonished by the labor aristocrats to "get a job" can be sent to the tent city for doing so. Joel Barr has vowed to continue the struggle with a court challenge to the ordinance and to send vendors door-to-door to sell the papers if they are forbidden to sell by the streets. The root cause of homelessness in Amerika is capitalism: the profit- based system which requires a scarcity of housing to fuel real-estate speculation. Only a socialist revolution can eliminate homelessness, because it will create an economic system which will serve the people's needs instead of profit. The repression of the homeless will surely turn against the pigs who will find that repression breeds resistance. * * * 'NOT GUILTY'? GO TO JAIL by MC12 The U.$. Supreme Court has ruled that judges should increase criminal sentences based on charges for which defendants were found not guilty in the past. They said that although the burden of proof in a criminal trial is "beyond a reasonable doubt," that standard does not have to be reached for alleged "crimes" to be counted as prior offenses in sentencing. They said an acquittal by a jury "does not prove that the defendant is innocent; it merely proves the existence of a reasonable doubt as to his guilt." And all that should be needed to treat the person as guilty when it comes to future sentences is a "preponderance of the evidence." As if it didn't mean little enough already, a so- called trial by a jury of one's peers resulting in acquittal is now not even a formal protection against punishment for the crime. One judge, John Paul Stevens, called the decision "perverse," and another, Anthony Kennedy, said it "does raise concerns about undercutting the [jury] verdict." Those two were the only votes out of nine against the ruling. The injustice system is on a roll, rolling back anything that could be interpreted as a protection against the incarceration and enslavement of potential prisoners. The Constitution supposedly bans punishment more than once for the same "crime," but the Supreme Court said it wasn't punishing people for their previous acquittal, it was just changing the punishment for the later conviction. Uh-huh. Those who would look to the Constitution for protection of their "rights" should see decisions like this as more proof that there *are* no rights - only power struggles. NOTES: Washington Post, Jan. 7, 1997. p. A3. (From http://www.washingtonpost.com) * * * HINTON'S GPCR SPEECH STIRS DEBATE On Dec. 14, 1996, William Hinton, author of Fanshen, Turning Point in China and other books on the Cultural Revolution, gave the keynote address at a 30th Anniversary of the Cultural Revolution Symposium in New York City. Hinton reported that on his recent trip to the Philippines and India, at each stop people wanted to talk about the Cultural Revolution. Hinton has always puzzled MIM because he attacks Deng Xiaoping as an unrepentant capitalist roader very strongly, but he does not defend Jiang Qing and the so-called "Gang of Four" (GOF) who were the targets of Hua Kuo-feng's and Deng's anti-socialist coup. We had never seen Hinton explain this criticism before. Hinton put the GPCR in the context of the struggle against revisionism within the party. Summing up this historical period, Hinton called the GPCR the "highest level of political theory and action." He said that while "Overall, it [the GPCR] did not succeed" its "lessons arm people for the future." This is a correct summation. While it is true that communism was not achieved before capitalism was restored, the fundamental advances of this battle should be celebrated and the mistakes turned into lessons for improvement. But we can not agree with Hinton on the cause of the defeat of the GPCR and the resulting restoration of capitalism. He says the GPCR was "diverted by factionalism and ultraleft violence" led by the Gang of Four (GOF). To MIM, the GOF issue is not one of "the enemy of our enemy is our friend." Rather it is an analysis that the GOF line was fundamentally that of Mao and the GPCR. While there were some line differences between the "Gang of Four" and Mao, these were contradictions among the most progressive forces of the revolution, not contradictions between the people and the enemy. To uphold the GPCR, we must defend the GOF. The best defense of the political line of the GOF is in "Capitalist Roaders Are Still on the Capitalist Road," which was published just months after the coup. It is incorrect to link all factionalism and ultra- left violence to the GOF as Hinton did. His own book, Hundred Day War, about a struggle at Tsinghua University, explains how factionalism and ultra- left violence were a product of the right to destroy the revolution. Hinton leveled a number of charges of ultra-leftism at Jiang Qing, including promoting violence. He said the Jiang statement "Attack with reason, but defend with force" prepared the conditions for armed struggle during the Cultural Revolution. Of Hinton's charges, this one was directly rebutted by a professor from Tasmania. This panelist said that Jiang could not have made such a statement without authorization, and he explained the context after the Wuhan Incident, in which the rightists had used the army and had armed peasants to attack rebels. And as a member of the audience stated, this slogan was withdrawn in the September 5, 1977 Circular, because the slogan confused contradictions among the people with the enemy. So while the statement was misused and potentially dangerous because of that context, it was not the reactionary effort of sabotage that Hinton makes it out to be. More positively, Hinton argued that during the Cultural Revolution many people were not convinced that capitalist roaders existed within the party. Now, with the benefit of hindsight, it is clearer to more people and a foundation for a new Chinese revolution is laid. This would appear to be a plausible theory and one with which MIM can have more unity. William Hinton also criticized his daughter's new movie about the massacre in Tiananmen Square. The younger Hinton claims her movie represents "all sides." According to Hinton, the movie fails to represent the important side: the Maoist side. MIM has not yet reviewed the movie (and welcomes reviews from readers). * * * MLM ONLINE INTERNET CRIME HYPE FUELS GOVERNMENT REPRESSION by MC12 The Amerikan media and U.$. government - always a great team - are working hard together to justify a repressive crackdown of "criminals" on the Internet. MIM knows that we have access to the Internet and all its benefits for organizing only at the discretion of the government at the moment. We know we can't guarantee Internet as a tool for the people without having state power to protect it. The Washington Post's "Navigator" column recently joined the crackdown club, with an article about "Revolutionaries, counterrevolutionaries, extremist groups, radical wings, separatist movements, so- called cults, and their critics and sympathizers [who] are aswarm on the Net."(1) Referring to a link to the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement maintained by Arm the Spirit in the Toronto, and to the Committee to Support the Revolution in Peru (CSRP) - a front for the Revolutionary Communist Party-USA, a crypto- Trotskyist group that calls itself Maoist - the Post says "These are prime spots for unfiltered propaganda." There is typical mockery of radical groups here, which is not remarkable for this article. But worse, after quoting the CSRP as saying "hook up with, support and/or join us," the article leads into an interview with an unnamed "staffer" at the U.$. Department of State and someone from the Justice Department. The State staffer, "who was reluctant to talk about the government's monitoring of any Web pages" and spoke "only on background," was quoted as saying that "Terrorist fund-raising is illegal in this country." The Post paraphrased the staffer as saying "extremist Web sites are mostly posted by U.S. citizens and are viewed as domestic material, which is under the jurisdiction of the FBI and the Justice Department." Finally, the staffer was quoted as saying, "There is genuine international concern that this information is freely available- and that it's legal." Meaning foreign governments - such as Peru's - are also encouraging a federal crackdown. Turning to the Justice Department, the article quoted "John Russell of the Justice Department," who said, "There are First Amendment considerations and there are legitimate law enforcement concerns." The article added, "The Justice Department, he said, would like 'to find a legal and acceptable procedure' to discover who is posting the information. He said several law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, ATF and DEA, are planning a joint meeting soon to discuss the proliferation of such rabble-rousing pages." Law enforcement already operates freely on the Internet. What bothers them about the Internet is not that it allows people to do things they couldn't do before, but that it is so efficient a means of reaching so many people, which makes it time consuming or expensive to police compared to old-fashioned organizing. WHO'S WHO? In the background of this debate, however, is the important problem of legitimacy and accuracy of information on the net. For example, the Navigator column writer also wrote: "As always with the Net, we must assume that people are who they say they are." A remarkable comment for a journalist - to be so unconcerned with the accuracy of her sources. (This sentence appeared in the on-line version of the article, but was apparently cut from the print edition.) When she adds, "Such sites are so devoid of humor that it seems likely these people really are who they say they are," we know how she can be so cavalier: the bourgeois media does not care about the accuracy of reporting on radical groups. But, as MIM has remarked before with regard to the bogus "MPP- USA" organization, the Internet makes it easy for people to pass themselves off as representing others - especially groups such as the Communist Party of Peru (PCP) which do not have an independent Internet web site. The CSRP, which MIM does not support, does not even claim to be an "official" site for the PCP, and yet the Washington Post calls their site "the Shining Path page" and calls this "assum[ing] people are who they say they are"! Collaboration between the bourgeois media and the state multiplies the risk here. The media can falsely identify people as criminals, and then the state can use that reporting to publicly justify cracking down on people. There was no evidence in the article or even mentioned of anyone doing anything illegal. Even the CSRP's request for support was for them, not for the Communist Party of Peru (PCP), whom the paper and government refer to as terrorists. But the Post said it was "the Shining Path page," which implies that their fundraising could be illegal. At present, we are lucky to be able to get on the Net ourselves and give our interpretation and evidence of these various groups and claims, and let people try to judge for themselves. But with the government threatening crackdowns on Internet use, we cannot guarantee we will be able to keep this up. AN EASY IN FOR THE STATE The state makes inroads for its repression with patriarchy-defined sex offenders, and pedophiles in particular. A recent New York Times articles explains that, because some people use the Internet to coordinate their sex offenses, the Federal government is working on new policies for restricting Net access to parolees, including those charged with "hate crimes," a bogus category that usually includes revolutionaries. The United $tates Parole Commission has "approved restrictions on use of computers by some federal parolees." The commission now holds the honor of being the first parole authority (no states have done this) to attempt to control the activities of convicts on the Internet. The Times wrote: "The prohibitions address the growing national concern that criminals, particularly sex criminals, are using the Internet to gather information for criminal purposes and to hook up with other criminals. Recently, a convicted pedophile who was still behind the walls of a Minnesota state prison used the Internet to compile a data base containing the names and addresses of thousands of children who could be potential targets of sex crimes. "The new restrictions, which parole officers can put into use as they see fit immediately, will range from prohibiting offenders from owning a computer to installing monitoring equipment on their computers that will keep tabs on where they roam on line." Now, based on anecdotal reports of pedophiles on the Net the Parole Commission has authorized parole officers to take away the computers, or install monitoring equipment on the phone lines, of all federal parolees. MIM opposes all rape, including the rape of children, but we also oppose the bourgeoisie's pretensions that child sexual abuse is a problem of a few deranged individuals, rather than a problem of a society which eroticizes powerlessness. These restrictions will do nothing to end child sexual abuse, but they will increase the state's control over all federal parolees. On this "slippery slope" of Internet censorship, the bourgeois media is more than willing to provide additional lubrication. NOTES: 1. Washington Post January 9, 1997. Page C5. 2. New York Times January 5, 1997, sec. 4, p. 5. * * * UNDER LOCK & KEY: NEWS FROM PRISONERS AND PRISONS ARIZONA PRISONER MAKES CONTRIBUTION TO MIM NOTES Revolutionary Greetings to the Comrades of MIM, Thought I'd send you a news story from the Imperialist Gulag of Arizona. I'm not sure if you want to use it. I'm not very good at such writings. Just thought I'd make some contribution. I so wish to make a difference, comrades. And I feel so helpless from in here. You do so much for me and it seems that I do so little for you. I'm sorry for that. Enclosed you will find a couple of stamps. My study group sends them. We'll send more soon. It's been a little tight around here lately. All Power to the People!! Your Comrade in captivity, --An Arizona Prisoner, 19Nov96 MIM RESPONDS: Thank you for your article, it is printed below. This article is good example of solid revolutionary work. Writing articles and submitting them proves that prisoners are not helpless, but a potentially powerful revolutionary force. Exposing oppressive forces in prisons, publicizing victories of the oppressed and studying revolutionary theory are all valuable contributions to the struggle against imperialism. Keep up the good work! In Struggle, --RCG1 13Jan97 SECOND TRIAL FREES ARIZONA DEATH ROW PRISONER On November 6, 1996, a man who spent five years on death row for the 1989 death of a Tucson investment broker, was released from prison. (1) Pina County Superior Court Judge Bernardo Velasco freed 38 year old David W. Grannis by dismissing the murder charges in a retrial. (2) Public Defenders stated they hoped this ruling helps people see the danger in federal laws like last year's anti-terrorism bill, which reduces a convicted felon's rights to appeal. Grannis and Danial Webster were convicted of the stabbing death of Richard Sutcliffe along with theft and trafficking of stolen property. But prosecutorial over-zealousness caused jury prejudice, as determined by Pima County Superior Court, and in retrial freed Grannis. (3) David stated for local news crews that he wishes to become a lawyer in order to aid other death row inmates and also desires to play in active role in the crusade to abolish the death penalty. (4) Rosemary Marquez, a federal public defender was contacted by a reporter for the Arizona Daily Star while celebrating the positive ruling in a downtown pub. During the short interview, Marquez relates some very disturbing statistics regarding the death penalty. She said studies of death-row convictions show from 1900 to 1991, there have been more than 400 convictions of people who later proved to be innocent, and 24 of those people have been executed. (5) The harsh reality of state-sanctioned murder is all too frightening. The public has been duped by this imperialist nation for far too long regarding prisons, the death penalty and the "injustice" system. I can only hope that David Grannis uses his experiences to open the eyes of the citizens of this country to the atrocities being perpetrated against them by the state and what can be accomplished by the people in a Maoist society. All Power to the People! --The same Arizona Prisoner, 19Nov96 NOTES: 1,2,3,5: The Arizona Daily Star, 7Nov96, page 1B. 4: KVOA channel 4, Eyewitness News, NBC affiliate, Tucson. CHAIN GANGS CONTINUE IN ALABAMA Dear MIM, This is just a note to keep in touch and ask that you please keep me on you mailing list to receive your publication. As you know, I am an indigent state prisoner struggling to stay alive and get out of the Alabama prison system. Just so you will know, contrary to many published reports nationwide during the months of June and July of this year, the chain-gang HAS NOT been abolished in Alabama. They have simply stopped chaining the prisoners on the chain gang in groups of five (5). These prisoners are still individually chained for other reason than humiliation and degradation. These prisoners are still denied visitation, canteen privileges, adequate medical care, TVs and any type of educational and self-help programs, all of which other prisoners in the system have access to. Back in the 1920's, 30's and 40's little black children grew up playing a game called "chain gang" where they pretended to be in prison working on the chain gang. It was something they simply grew up expecting to experience. I wonder how long it will be before our little black children of today here in Alabama will again be playing this "game" called "chain gang" and expecting and looking forward to experiencing it. It is sad to think that the chain gangs in Alabama will only end when some "good" white citizen notices little white children playing the "game" called "chain gang". It is ironic to think that one day we will have to thank little white children for ending this aspect of our torture, an will only have to live in fear of what degradation it will be replaced with. As always, I remain, because I have no other choice, and even if I did have another choice, I would still remain... In Struggle, --An Alabama Prisoner, 12Nov96 MIM RESPONDS: While it is true that the vast majority of the white nation will not become thoroughly anti-imperialist and revolutionary until they begin to experience the kind of fascist repression which oppressed nations currently experience, this does not mean liberation for the oppressed nations has to wait for the white nation to become revolutionary. Oppressed nations can and must struggle for their liberation from imperialism in a self-sufficient manner. While any and all aid from "mother country" revolutionaries will be accepted, oppressed nation revolutionaries cannot depend on such aid--they must only depend on the oppressed country masses, who are much more ready for revolution than their "mother country" counterparts. SOUTH CAROLINA PRISONER CONFRONTS PIGS PRACTICE OF GENOCIDE Greetings Soldiers! MIM: Thank you for sending MIM to me at that rustic prison kamp. But I think I must tell you that I've been transferred to another kamp. I was transferred basically because of my political conscience. I've been to 3 different kamps January [96]. I'm at this camp because I expressed my personal feeling to the warden about him and his lackeys and his black collaborators. Well let me explain to you all what happened. I was taken off SSR (Substantiated Security Risk) status, which meant I didn't have to always walk with leg irons and belly chains on. The reason I was taken off was because I stayed disciplinary free for 7 1/2 months. But I had a next cage neighbor who those fascist pigs didn't take off SSR. He told me that they took him in front of a classification board and placed him on ML6 custody, which meant he had to go back to SuperMax. Now this solider hasn't had any disciplinaries for close to a year and a half. I asked why did they place him on ML6 custody and he showed me a document from the classification board that was signed by the warden. And basically what it was saying is that he was placed on ML6 custody because of his "past history". When I saw that my mind exploded with rage! So I wrote the Warden a missive. I told him that I see that he, along with his lackeys, have come accustomed to using prisoners' past histories against them. Then I said if that's true then WE ALL are guilty, because WE ALL have bad past histories. But since we are talking about bad past histories, how do you feel about you ancestor's past history!, knowing that they have raped, murdered and exploited my ancestors and other peoples of color and as a matter of fact they're still doing it today. I asked him how did he feel knowing that his great, great grandfather was an Indian killer and an Afrikan Woman raper. And I said a couple of other things also. But to make a long story short the next day I got transferred. But it doesn't matter because I see all pigs (male and female) as the same, all prison kamps are the same (oppressive institutions) in my eyes also. So they can never get rid of me unless I'm fully extricated from behind these dark walls. ...The Struggle Will Continue! --A South Carolina Prisoner, 19Nov96 A CALL FOR PRISONER UNITY Dear Friends, Please excuse me for not writing sooner to let you know that I have been receiving my copies of MIM Notes. One of the things that caused the delay on my part was that we just came off of an institutional lockdown. Some of our Chicano Bothers can't seem to get along, and they are constantly killing each other over here. It hurts me to see this, not only 'cause they are both of the same race, but because it seems that this is what our oppressor's want. They get us killing each other. It opens the door for them to come out with new and improved ways of oppression and mental torture. Also, those actions stereotype us. They already figure all Chicanos are in a gang, and this just reinforces their bogus theory. But, since we've come up, they've come out with new rules every day. If a Chicano gets in a small wreck with the pigs, they don't give out a disciplinary case, they just have him pack his stuff and put him on one of 2 pods that they still have locked down. Reason? Gang investigation. So once again, the Charles T. Terrell unit is under direct ATTACK by the warden and all his Punk Ass Klansmen. Word going' around is that they're trying' to make us go off on them so they can have a reason to lock us down. Unfortunately, I see that happening pretty soon. I see some really hungry holiday's ahead. But please keep the MIM Notes coming. And any other books that you may be able to send. I've met a few like minded people around here and they wanna read them too. I'll keep you posted on the happenings here on Terrible Terrell and on the lengths the Pigs here will go to to keep us down. Till, next kite, I remain sincerely your friend in struggle. --A Texas Prisoner 7Nov96 NEW YORK CONTINUES REPRESSIVE CONDITIONS, PART II I have just finished reading MIM Notes, October 1, 1996, Issue Number 123. In said issue in the Section "Under Lock & Key" you printed a letter from a prisoner in the Southport Correctional Facility [called "New York Continues Repressive Conditions" - MIM]. I strongly agree with the points he raised, however I feel he missed a few very important ones. Firstly, this prison is a disciplinary one. The total prisoner population is approximately 828. Of the 828, 618 are on SUH (Special Housing Unit) Status -- All 618 doing box time! After the "91" Southport Riot the department of Corrections decided to build "one-man cages" for the sole purpose of the box time prisoners doing (1) one hour daily rec. One look at the set-up of these cages and the first thing that pops up in someone's mind is - What's this a "dog kennel"?! That's what it is a "Human Dog- Pound!" The set up for visitors is also similar, however there is a small difference. The visiting room consists of (4) four cages, (8) eight men to a cage. The visitors must sit on the outer-part of the cages (not bars, but holes). There is no contact between visitor and the visited. If you want to kiss your loved ones, you must kiss through a little hole no bigger than (1) inch in length and width. To Humiliate and oppress prisoners more, we must spend the entire visit ((8) eight hours) with handcuffs and waist chains that goes through the cuffs. Some prisoners must even wear leg shackles. Furthermore, ANY MOVEMENT is done in restraints! Showers are given 2 to 3 times a week, even then you must have cuffs and sometimes even leg restraints. There are many pigs who will spit on prisoners and then claim (lie) that the prisoner spit on him. For a prisoner - that's an automatic 2 1/2 to 5 years added to his current prison time. Shit is rough and it will get rougher especially with the up and coming "New World Order"... Due to the above mentioned, with 618 prisoners here doing box time, we don't have access to the general library so I don't try nor attempt to get the facility librarian to purchase MIM Notes. However I personally speak to interested prisoners about the conditions we must suffer and what we can do to correct them. I also speak of daily current events in politics and what the oppressors of the US (the world) continue to do to keep the people oppressed both in the so-called "Free Society" and in Prison.... Lastly I would appreciate if you would place me on your mailing list and begin to furnish me with MIM Notes. For MIM Notes is what keeps the Men behind the walls (Modern Day Plantations) strong in the struggle and on point what's evolving around us! Thanking you in advance for your time and cooperation while I await your most prompt response. Continue your great work there at MIM and keep in mind -- "You have a comrade in the fight with me!" Respectfully, --A New York Prisoner, 9Nov96 MIM BATTLES CENSORSHIP IN PA ***In August, MIM received a letter from a prison in Pennsylvania, reporting that the July MIM Notes were censored at his institution. The stated reason was: "violation of DC-ADM 814, section IV., subsection A., Number 3, Writings which advocate violence, insurection [sic] or guerrilla warfare against the government or any of its institutions or which create a clear and present danger within the context of the correctional institutions. Also writings which advocate, assist or are evidence of criminal activity or institutional misconduct." The prisoner asked for information about the contents of the July MIM Notes because he wished to file a lawsuit against the prison for infringing on his right to correspond. We were also asked to write a letter to the Superintendent. A letter written by a MIM supporter to the Superintendent follows. The name of the prisoner has been replaced with an X, and the MIM supporter's name with a Y in this correspondence.*** Kenneth Kyler Superintendent PO Box 200 Camp Hill PA 17001-0200 Dear Mr. Kyler: We are in receipt of a notice from Sgt. L Diehl to X notifying him that MIM Notes 117 and 118 were denied him by the Incoming Publications Committee. Regarding the stated "reasons" for this act of political censorship: The publications in question most definitely do not advocate violence, etc. at the current time. In fact, they advocate the complete opposite. I am baffled as to what "criminal activity" your committee believes MIM Notes "advocate[s], assist[s] or are evidence of", unless talking about-- and opposing--the rash of racist church burnings counts as a "evidence of a crime"! It would appear that your committee's decision was not based on the law, but in opposition to the political positions of MIM Notes. The Supreme Court has found such actions to unconstitutional, and furthermore has found individual bureaucrats liable when they overstep their authority for personal reasons. I trust that you will look into this matter and correct the actions of your Committee immediately. Sincerely, Y ***Eleven days later, the Superintendent wrote back*** Pennsylvania Department of Corrections State Correctional Institution at Camp Hill P.O. Box 8837, Camp Hill, PA 17001-8837 (717) 737- 4531 October 31, 1996 Dear Y: A review of your recent letter on behalf of inmate X, indicates that you obviously are unsatisfied with our banning of MIM Notes 117 and 118 by our Incoming Publication Review Committee. My review of these publications confirms the decision of the Incoming Publication Review Committee. The issues advocate the armed overthrow of the government and as written fall under the guidelines set forth by DC ADM 814 "Incoming Publications" policy. Inmate X has the option to appeal my decision to the Central Office Review Committee. To my knowledge, he has not submitted any appeal to date. Your belief that I've overstepped my authority is incorrect. These publications were banned in accordance with existing Department of Corrections policy and not by some whim of either institution staff or myself. If inmate X appeal is submitted and subsequently won at his next level of appeal, the publications will be permitted in the institution. Sincerely, --Kenneth D. Kyler, Superintendent MIM RESPONDS: This is a good example of how censorship can be fought, and a good example of the kind of stalling that the prison will do. Initially, a comrade wrote to the prisoner advising him that: "It would appear that you have good grounds for a lawsuit. While "free speech" and other rights don't really exist, sometimes you can win a small battle getting the pigs to stick to their own rules. It is unclear what was in those particular issues of MIM Notes that got them censored. The July 1 issue had a picture of a Klansman on page 1 and on page 3 (illustrations about the electoral system the church burnings). Sometimes taking on the Klan that directly gets more attention from the censors. "In some prisons, the appeal process allows you to examine the material in order to research your appeal. I don't know if you are allowed to do that at 'your' facility." Readers should note that the response from Superintendent Kyler does at least two things: First, he takes responsibility for the decision to ban MIM Notes, and secondly, he narrows down the long quotation from the Pennsylvania regulations to just the one portion about overthrowing the government. It's useful, legally speaking, to have one specific target, the claim about armed struggle against the government. It is possible that a lawyer could make an effective argument against this remaining ruling against MIM Notes. In particular, MIM Notes discourages armed struggle at this time, but presumably the Declaration of Independence--a document written to codify existing armed struggle against the current government--is allowed into the prison. The day after this letter from Kyler, on November 1, the Incoming Publications Review Committee met again at Camp Hill, PA and banned MIM Notes issues 121-124. This time there was no mention of "criminal activity" or "institutional misconduct" in the censorship note. Some states allow the publisher to appeal censorship, although this is apparently not the case in PA. MIM will do what it can to fight censorship, but it is most practical for prisoners to take the lead. Most importantly if prisoners can research their local laws and regulations, and then send us requests on how we can help. If there is more MIM can do at Camp Hill, please notify us. In particular, if turns out that the prisoner has filed an appeal but it was suppressed by the pigs, please write MIM so we can expose it. MIM is currently putting together a resource guide for prisoners who wish to challenge the censorship of MIM Notes or other mail and we welcome help from prisoners and lawyers. In addition, we need the help of jailhouse lawyers and lawyers on the outside who are willing to offer advice to prisoners pursuing these cases. ***WHAT NON-PRISONERS CAN DO TO SUPPORT PRISONERS*** *1. Struggle with, work with, finance and join MIM. The best way to support prisoners is to overthrow the system under which capitalists profit from the exploitation of prisoners. History shows that the best way to do this is to build a Marxist-Leninist- Maoist party. The oppressors will not give up their power without a fight. *2. Finance MIM's prison work. Our biggest bill each month is postage. Most of the prison comrades who read MIM Notes have no way of paying for it. So if you have money, send what you can afford. Every cent helps, and stamps are as good as cash to us. *3. Distribute MIM Notes and Notas Rojas. Bring the voices of prisoners and their supporters to as large and wide an audience of people as possible. Contact MIM for bulk rates and distribution tips. *4. Start or join a prison support group. MIM can provide advice and resources to help you build public opinion for prisoners and their struggles. *5. Fight censorship, beatings, torture and other fascist outrages. Under Lock and Key often features the addresses of prisoners' friends and enemies. Work with the friends and let the enemies know you're watching. (Don't expect to win the fascists to the side of humanity, however. See #1 in this list). *6. Stay in touch. Keep us informed of pro-prisoner work you do. Our readers might find it educational or inspirational. * * * ROBERT F. WILLIAMS: FRIEND OF THE PEOPLE (1925- 1996) "All men must die, but death can vary in its significance.... To die for the people is weightier than Mount Tai, but to work for the fascists and die for the exploiters and oppressors is lighter than a feather." -- Mao Zedong, "Serve the People," 1944 Robert F. Williams died on October 15, 1996, in Grand Rapids, Mich. at age 71. He was a friend of the people, and his death is weightier than Mount Tai. Williams was a revolutionary Black nationalist who led the masses in Monroe, N.C., in the practice of armed self-defense against settler-inflicted terror while civil rights reformism and passive resistance were in vogue. He was not a communist, but he was a friend of the communist movement and a staunch fighter against imperialism. And imperialism took notice. Williams faced attempts on his life. The FBI and other authorities hounded him for 15 years on a phony kidnapping charge that ultimately didn't stick in court. He spent eight of these 15 years in exile. WILLIAMS AND THE NAACP Williams wrote, "Before the Supreme Court desegregation decision of 1954, the NAACP [National Association for the Advancement of Colored People] was not a primary target of segregationists. In many places in the South, including Monroe, racists were not too concerned with the small local chapters. But the Supreme Court decision drastically altered this casual attitude. The Ku Klux Klan and the White Citizens Councils made it their business to locate any NAACP chapter in their vicinity, and to find out who its officers and members were. Threats of violence and economic sanctions were applied to make people withdraw their membership. Chapters, already small, dwindled rapidly."(1) In 1955, "The local Klan had threatened the small Union County NAACP chapter, which was the only local civil rights group. So the petty-bourgeois NAACP leaders wanted to dissolve the chapter in order to save themselves. When Williams, a new member, objected, they voted him in as president and then they resigned. Only Dr. Albert Perry, an older physician, agreed with Williams. Together they rebuilt the chapter by going to the grass- roots, always stressing the need for armed self- defense. ... To get inexpensive U.S. Army rifles, Williams formed a branch of the National Rifle Association. ... By 1957 the Monroe self-defense guard got its baptism of fire, driving off a Klan assault on Dr. Perry's house. Day and night New Afrikans kept an eye out for settler intruders, phoning reports into a self-defense headquarters which would alert armed units into full readiness."(2) The October 1958 "'Kissing Case' ... began when a young [7 year-old] Euro-Amerikan girl kissed a nine-year-old New Afrikan boy on the cheek as a greeting. When the girl's parents found out about it, they went to the Monroe police. The nine-year- old boy and a companion were arrested and eventually sentenced to 14 years in prison for rape. Unable at first to free the children, the Monroe Movement struggled to wake people up about the case. Newspapers in Europe and then Afrika started writing about it. Soon it became an international scandal exposing U.S. colonial injustice. Enraged crowds stoned U.S. embassies. Finally the White House had to intervene to release the young children and end the publicity. Williams and the Monroe Movement had to fight the 'Kissing Case' without any support from the National NAACP, which was trying to isolate or silence militants any way they could. Finally, in 1959, the National NAACP announced that it had suspended Williams for six months for publicly stating that New Afrikan men in Monroe would defend ['our women and children, our homes and ourselves'] against settler attacks."(3) On June 23, 1961, a settler attempted to take Williams' life. On August 27, Monroe police chief A. A. Mauney told him: "In thirty minutes you'll be hanging in the courthouse square." Williams was courageous, but he was no fool. Facing Mauney's threat and a phony kidnapping charge from the FBI (which was dismissed in court in 1976 -- 15 years later), Williams fled the country, initially to Cuba. WILLIAMS AND CUBA While the Cuban regime's claims to socialism were and are false, Fidel Castro's regime has done some progressive things in its contention with U.S. imperialism. One of these progressive acts was allowing Williams to stay in Cuba and helping him start "Radio Free Dixie," which broadcast Williams' Black nationalist message to North America. In 1966, Cuban officials demanded to censor his newsletter and radio program, so he went to live in then-socialist China. On August 8, 1966, he spoke bitterly of state-capitalist Cuba, which he incorrectly called socialist: "To our consternation, we have discovered that the bourgeois-oriented power structure of some socialist states, even one with a black and white population, would prefer to preserve a white reactionary anti-communist power structure in racist America."(3) WILLIAMS AND MAO On August 8, 1963, Comrade Mao Zedong issued a "Statement Calling on the People of the World to Unite to Oppose Racial Discrimination by U.S. Imperialism and Support the American Negroes in Their Struggle Against Racial Discrimination." Its opening words were, "An American Negro leader now taking refuge in Cuba, Mr. Robert Williams, the former President of the Monroe, North Carolina, Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People, has twice this year asked me for a statement in support of the American Negroes' struggle against racial discrimination. On behalf of the Chinese people, I wish to take this opportunity to express our resolute support for the American Negroes in their struggle against racial discrimination and for freedom and equal rights."(5) Mao's statement correctly noted, "In the final analysis, a national struggle is a question of class struggle."(6) Mao's statement was not entirely correct, however. Mao incorrectly said, "In the United States, it is only the reactionary ruling circles among the whites who oppress the Negro people. They can in no way represent the workers, farmers, revolutionary intellectuals and other enlightened persons who comprise the overwhelming majority of the white people."(6) WILLIAMS ON THE LABOR ARISTOCRACY Williams knew better. While in Cuba, he wrote that as long as white workers "have jobs and can buy automobiles and homes, they've got no real reason to rise up against the capitalists. Only those, like us Blacks, who are the victims of severe economic discrimination and racism, have the motivation to want to overthrow the system."(7) On August 8, 1966, at a mass rally in Beijing celebrating the anniversary of Mao's statement in support of the Black struggle, Williams told the crowd: "We have some white Americans with us in our struggle ... [but] some so-called socialists, whom we thought to be our comrades and class brothers, have joined the international Ku Klux Klan fraternity for white supremacy and world domination. ... There is a mighty tendency, promoted by the sinister American devil himself, to engender more sympathy and fraternalism for the so- called 'good reasonable American' than for the wretched victims of vicious and brutal U.S. imperialism...What is the motive of those who plead for the exemption of liberal Americans whose feigned liberalism merely serves as a cloak and shield around the naked power of savage and racist U.S. imperialism? ... The myth of the good reasonable American who is yet to be heard is a ruse perpetrated by the psychological arm of the imperialist forces of tyranny... A good man who is silent and inactive in times of great injustice and oppression is no good man at all. He is no ally to freedom and justice, but is a silent partner to tyranny and oppression... Those who are without principle and conviction to declare themselves for the righteous cause of the oppressed must be prepared to suffer the consequences of the gathering storm of violent and turbulent... retribution."(8) PRESIDENT-IN-EXILE At the end of March 1968, 500 Black nationalists attended the Black Government Conference convened in Detroit by the Malcolm X Society. This conference established the Provisional Government of the Republic of New Afrika (PGRNA), which to this day seeks to govern over the "Black Belt" territory in what is currently known as the U.S. southeast, particularly what is currently known as Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and Louisiana. The conference named Williams its first President-in-exile.(9) In 1969, Williams returned from what was then People's China to the U.S. empire, despite facing a continuing legal threat. He settled in Michigan, and North Carolina officials sought to extradite him on the old, phony kidnapping charges. In 1976, the phony charges against Williams were finally dropped. "Robert Williams never gave up on the goal of liberating Black people from imperialist oppression and until his death, he continued to be involved in local struggles against things like police brutality and discrimination in education."(10) The most basic lesson we can learn from Williams' life is that the best way forward for the oppressed is to organize and defend themselves by any means necessary. "Self-defense prevented bloodshed and forced the law to establish order. This is the meaning of Monroe and I believe it marks a historic change in the life of my people."(1) LONG LIVE THE SPIRIT OF ROBERT F. WILLIAMS! LONG LIVE REVOLUTIONARY ANTI-IMPERIALISM! NOTES: 1. Robert F. Williams, Negroes with Guns, Marzani and Munsell, New York, 1962, as excerpted by the Trotskyist Spartacist League's Workers Vanguard, 8 November 1996, p. 7. 2. E. Tani and Kae Sera, False Nationalism, False Internationalism: Class Contradictions in the Armed Struggle, Seeds Beneath the Snow, 1985, p. 171. Tani and Sera here cite Williams, op. cit., p. 111. 3. Tani and Sera, op. cit., p. 172. 5. Statements by Mao Tse-Tung Calling on the People of the World to Unite to Oppose the Aggressive and Bellicose Policies of U.S. Imperialism and Defend World Peace, Foreign Languages Press, Beijing, 1964, p. 1. 6. Ibid, p. 5. 7. The Spartacist League's Workers Vanguard, 8 November 1996, p. 11. 8. Edwards, op. cit., pp. 298, 301. 9. Chokwe Lumumba, Chairperson of the New Afrikan People's Organization, "The Roots of the New Afrikan Independence Movement," Jackson, MI, 1991, pp. 3, 10. 10. The crypto-Trotskyist Revolutionary Communist Party, USA's Revolutionary Worker, 17 November 1996, p. 7. * * * NEW EVIDENCE FURTHER EXPOSES PIG INFORMER In California, a hearing for a retrial of former Black Panther Party leader Elmer "Geronimo" Pratt brought to light new evidence that a key witness in Pratt's 1972 murder conviction in Santa Monica was a state informant who collaborated with the FBI to frame Pratt. The Black Panther Party was the Maoist vanguard within u.s. borders from 1966 until 1970. The violent repression of the party, in which at least thirty Panthers were killed by the state or state- provocation, is clear evidence that the "right to free speech" in Amerika does not apply to those who seriously challenge the oppressive status quo.(6) MIM studies the brutal repression of the Black Panthers in order to expose the hypocrisy of the imperialist state and in order to be prepared for, and survive, the kind of repression the state is still capable of -- and still perpetrates. Julius Butler, who was central to the prosecution's case in Pratt's original trial for the 1968 killing of Caroline Olsen, testified on December 18 of last year that he was "acting as an informant" for the LAPD in 1969. Butler later recanted this testimony, but added that he would "not dispute [certain LAPD officers'] belief that he was an informant."(1) According to the Los Angeles Times, "at Pratt's original trial in 1972, defense attorneys and the jury did not know that Butler had been providing information to the FBI for 2 1/2 years before Pratt's conviction. Butler denied in the witness stand [in 1972] that he had ever been an informant, but FBI documents released in 1979 disclosed that he had more than 30 documented contacts with agents before Pratt's trial."(1) Several of the former jurors for the Pratt case have said that if they had known Butler was working with the FBI, they would not have voted to convict Pratt. Members of the LAPD and the LA County District Attorney's Office also gave testimony confirming Butler's role as an informant. Retired LAPD sergeant Dwayne Rice has said that he was "set up" when Butler gave Rice a letter containing accusations against Pratt. According to prosecution lawyers in the 1972 trial, that letter was only to be opened in case Butler died. Butler supposedly intended to keep the information in the letter secret, allowing the prosecution to claim that Butler had no reason to falsely accuse Pratt.(2) But according to Rice, the contents of the letter were never kept secret. "Seconds after Butler gave him the letter, Rice said, two men who identified themselves as FBI agents approached him and demanded the letter as Butler walked away, saying it was evidence... 'How did they know it was a letter?,' Rice asked... 'The envelope could have contained money. How did they know it contained evidence?'"(2) The Los Angeles DA's office--besides finding Butler's name in a file of its own confidential informants--released a report last summer which said Butler admitted he was an informant. "In his report of an interview with Butler... on May 17 of last year, district attorney investigator Steve De Prima wrote: 'When Butler was asked if he had ever been paid as an informant for any law enforcement agency, he replied, "yes." '"(3) PRATT STILL PERSECUTED FOR BEING A REVOLUTIONARY On the night of the Santa Monica killing, Pratt was in Oakland. According to then-FBI Agent Wesley Swearington: "My supervisor and several agents on the racial squad knew that Pratt was innocent because the FBI had wiretap logs proving that Pratt was in the San Francisco area several hours before the shooting ... and that he was there the day of the murder." Pratt's defense and the jury did not have access to this information in 1972.(4) Despite the fact that in California the average time served for a first-degree murder conviction is 4.5 years, Geronimo Pratt has been in prison for more almost 25 years. He is consistently denied parole because according, to the Los Angeles DA's office, "he is still a revolutionary man."(4) Pratt's frame-up was part of an FBI-led campaign to "neutralize" the leadership of the Black Panther Party, in which the state also contributed to the murder of southern California party leaders Bunchy Carter and John Huggins. Carter and Huggins were murdered on UCLA's campus on January 18, 1969. The FBI certainly played a role in provoking their murders, and may have been directly responsible.(5) NOTES: 1. The Los Angeles Times, 24 Dec 96. 2. The Los Angeles Times, 31 Dec 96. 3. The Los Angeles Times, 9 Jan 97. 4. "The FBI's War on the Black Panther Party's Southern California Chapter," in: MIM Theory 11, p. 78. 5. For more information, see "The FBI's War on the Black Panther Party's Southern California Chapter" or Ward Churchill and Jim VanderWall's Agents of Repression: The FBI's Secret War on the Black Panther Party and the American Indian Movement, available from MIM for $15. 6. "The FBI's War on the Black Panther Party's Southern California Chapter," in: MIM Theory 11, p. 80. * * * WELD'S PLAN: MA PIGS CAN CHANGE PRISON RULES AT WILL As part of Massachusetts Governor William Weld's pledge to cut two-thirds of the state's 20,000 pages of regulations, the Massachusetts Department of Corrections will be eliminating many regulations regarding the treatment of prisoners. Weld represents a wing of the bourgeoisie that believes that less government (such as a smaller welfare system) is better for capitalism. Unlike with welfare, Weld is not proposing to scrap the prison system and let the prisoners go. He's also not proposing that Massachusetts junk its love affair with incarceration. Instead, he plans to liquidate the state government's oversight over the prison system. Previously, the Massachusetts public had little or no say over prison regulations. That will only be worse under the new plan. Weld proposes to further hide from public view half of the 29 regulations that govern prisoner "safety and welfare." While the majority of Massachusetts Amerikans are prison- hating settlers whose "say" in prison regulations would not benefit prisoners anyway, this new "streamlining" of prison management is steamrolling prisoners. For instance, regulations will be replaced with prison rules. Rules, unlike state regulations, can be changed at whim and can be kept secret. Regulations are public documents and require public hearings to be changed. Two Massachusetts prisoners are currently suing the Department of Corrections to stop the abolition of regulations. THERE ARE NO RIGHTS, ONLY POWER STRUGGLES RAIL and MIM organize in defense of prisoners because we recognize their status as victims of Amerika's war against the internal colonies. Prison struggles are one area in which we can fight "winnable battles" that improve people's lives while bringing us closer to successful national liberation. An early battle in the struggle of prisoners to defend their so-called "rights" is getting the prison to stick to its own rules. On one hand, Amerika gives out a lot of "rights" on paper, but then these rights are often taken away with the other hand -- "rights" that were never intended to apply to the oppressed nations in the first place. Sometimes prisoners can win small battles in court by exposing the contradictions between the stated theory and practice of the Amerikan state. Sometimes prisoners can win temporary, small victories when they can prove technical violations of, or contradictions in, prison regulations, thus ending cases of censorship, a transfer, or guard brutality. But when they occur, Maoists understand these victories to be successes in power struggles, not the enforcement of some illusory "rights." BOGUS APPEALS PROCESS REMOVES FACADE OF PRISONER PROTECTION The Weld plan includes abolishing regulations regarding "[guards] use of force, schooling, ... work release programs ... "sentence computation, inmate funds, deductions from sentence, furloughs and library services." "As policies, these regulations could no longer be challenged by inmates, inmates' families or prison advocates at a hearing." A DOC spokesperson said that the proposed changes "were not a violation of prisoners' rights because they would still be overseen by the commissioner.... The public can still make their views known by writing to the Commissioner", which MIM knows he can of course ignore. Last year, MIM wrote to the prison superintendent to protest and appeal censorship of MIM publications from Bridgewater State Prison. The DOC had labeled MIM publications as "encouraging violence." MIM asked the superintendent: "Please explain how our publication violates these rules [103 CMR 481.15 (e) and (f).]" We also asked him to explain "whether it is the whole publication or just some articles that you find offensive." In reply, the DOC restated its original bogus claim -- that MIM publications violate rule "103 CMR." When we protested again, the DOC just ignored it. Logically, an appeals process should involve a higher body looking at the facts and determining if the correct decision was made at the first level of complaint. But appeals to the Massachusetts DOC are just verified to have *happened*, they are not evaluated to see if the decisions rendered were correct. In any case, the appeals process for prisoners and their allies is a complete sham. The purpose of Weld's "streamlining" of the prison bureaucracy is straight and simple an attack on prisoners. "Writing to the Commissioner" is simply a much weaker option than the previous, pretense of a public review of enforcement of prison regulations. And "rights" supposedly enforced by the Constitution are obliterated. Weld and the DOC have further proven that there are no abstract "rights", only power struggles. Mass Rail and MIM Notes welcome reports from prisoners about their experiences with "justice" within the walls. * * * WELD TO CHARGE PRISONERS FOR THE PRIVILEGE OF INCARCERATION According to the January 15 Boston Herald, Governor Weld will announce during his State of the State address a plan to make prisoners pay for some of the costs of their confinement. Weld expects that charging prisoners for medical care, workouts and increasing the fees charged to ex-prisoners on parole will raise $4 million a year. This new attack on prisoners will no doubt be popular with Amerikan settlers. Most Amerikans think that prisoners are parasites who beef up in prison so they can get out and commit more crimes. The Boston Herald, which leans towards the nationalist bourgeoisie and the labor aristocracy, seized upon this perspective, putting this story, under the large headline "Make them pay" on the front page. This is typical of the nationalist bourgeoisie, which is willing to do self- destructive things in order to appease the more chauvinist and jingoist wings of the labor aristocracy. Like Buchanan and Perot, who believe or pretend to believe that Amerika's wealth generation is internal and then propose to end NAFTA and seal the border with Mexico, resulting in the destruction of the Amerikan economy; this wing of the bourgeoisie doesn't mind shooting itself in the foot. In most states, prison recreation facilities (shared TVs, weight rooms) are paid for out of profits from the prison commissary. In one state where this was the case, prisoners are suing the Department of Corrections for closing the weight rooms. RAIL is not familiar with the ownership issues (DOC, Prisoner Trust. Fund, or some other arrangement) of prison recreational facilities in Massachusetts. Hopefully readers will education us on this subject. Like televisions, prison weight rooms are used by the system as control mechanisms. It gives prisoners something to do and is something that can be taken away in retaliation for behavior the prison does not approve us. Weight rooms also allow prisoners to channel their frustrations in a direction other than at the guards or other prisoners. Abolishing these weight rooms seems contradictory for Weld and the prison administration but when we recognize that prisons are a business of social control, this hypocrisy is no surprise. RAIL organizes for independent power of the oppressed, and we struggle to win "winnable battles" against imperialism. Prisons are a key weapon of the imperialists against the oppressed nations, and we defend prisoners as part of our larger struggle for national liberation. And on this basis, we oppose the efforts of Weld to make both medical care and recreation more expensive for prisoners. NOTE: Boston Herald January 15, 1997. p.1. * * * TEXAS PRISON ACTIVIST LAUNCHES HUNGER STRIKE Texas Penal Colony -- On January 1, in response to inhumane conditions in the Texas Department of Corrections, the founder of the Texas Prison Labor Union (TPLU), an inmate laborer political collective, began a month-long hunger strike. The protest is in response to the prisons' violations of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the American convention of Human Rights, the UN International Conditions on Civil and Political Rights, and all other applicable laws and statutes. The TPLU is demanding that an impartial judicial body investigate the murder of Texas prisoner Daniel Avellaneda by prison guard Neal Harms. The group is further demanding that that all jury members, the Committee of Senior Wardens and all others involved with the Avellaneda case be investigated in their relationship to the case, and all findings be made public. The TPLU is also calling for the establishment of a non-partisan committee to investigate guard brutality against prisoners and an end to such brutality. They also want an end to all racial practices, a standard to be set for chemical agent use, and a minimal standard of treatment to be upheld as passed in previous u.s. justice cases. The group further demands that the board of corrections be replaced by a Texas government- appointed body, and that pay programs be upheld and implemented. In all, the TPLU is protesting for compliance with basic "human rights." While MIM agrees with the TPLU protest, rather then turn one's attention to standards set up by some of the biggest violators of human "rights" -- the UN and amerika -- MIM exposes the imperialist system in order to build independent power of the oppressed, not gain token concessions from the oppressor. MIM would expand the TPLU protest, which includes the demand to end the State of Texas' creation of a social group which has remained "chained to the revolving door" of the penal system through oppression, inhumane and brutal conditions, to the entire penal and injustice system of Amerika. In its imperialist system, Amerika creates a population of lumpen proletarians whose main function is to act as a reserve army of the unemployed. This exclusion and oppression of a large population, specifically nationally oppressed, helps create the conditions for rebellion and the development of revolutionary ideologies. The Amerikan injustice system targets the oppressed nations in order to curb their revolutionary tendency, create prison jobs for the white labor aristocracy, and to expropriate their labor power in prison. In the TPLU's founding document, the group acknowledges the economic role of the penal system under imperialism -- but not its function as national oppression. This is the TPLU's principal error. Rather than expose the system and its true purpose, the TPLU focuses on ideas of rights and ethics in the treatment of prisoners. But under the Amerikan system of national oppression, concepts such as rights and ethics are only upheld when they serve the imperialists in power. The end to oppression that the TPLU calls for can only come when each nation has the power for self- determination. True power can only be created through an overthrow of the current power structure with proletarian revolution, and the end of oppression through building a communist society. MIM agrees with the TPLU that supposedly rehabilitative practices within the penal system are a sham. Again, we expand this analysis to expose the entire purpose of the Amerikan injustice system. We need to destroy the focus on individual punishment within an oppressive social structure before anyone can speak of an institution having "rehabilitative quality." The TPLU is bringing attention to the plight of the prison population, exposing in a limited way the injustice system and its systematic contradictions, and working to win immediately valuable concessions for the prison population (such as wages for work). This, as well as providing a political forum for inmate laborers, is progressive at this time. But to reach the goal the TPLU claims it seeks -- the end of oppression and barbarous treatment in the prison system -- requires a materialist analysis of society and a strategy to attack oppression at its core, imperialism. Maoists believe that strategy requires the leadership of a vanguard party. We call on all those working to end injustices both within the prison system and in overall society, to work with MIM and RAIL to build public opinion against imperialism. For more information on MIM's line and practice on Prisons send $6 to MIM and receive MIM Theory #11: "Amerikan prisons on Trial". * * * SDS CO-FOUNDER HAYDEN RUNS FOR L.A. MAYOR LOS ANGELES, January -- On January 5, KKKalifornia state senator and co-founder of Students for Democratic Society (SDS) Tom Hayden officially announced that he is running for mayor. A Democrat, he is challenging current Mayor Richard "Richie Rich" Riordan. "Hayden...is a millionaire, although his wealth pales compared to Riordan's."(2) Behind Amerikkka's facade of "democracy" lies the reality of bourgeois dictatorship. All the major contenders in a big city election are by necessity millionaires. A Los Angeles Times editorial stated, "Other politicians have shied away from challenging Riordan because of his immense personal wealth -- he spent $6 million of his own money in his last campaign...."(2) And the millionaire Hayden is expected to lose because Riordan is an "even bigger millionaire."(1) Since MIM activists aren't close to being millionaires, and since we know how the bourgeois electoral system is designed to maintain bourgeois dictatorship, we do not run candidates in such electoral farces. Nor do we endorse one pro- imperialist millionaire candidate over the other. To do so would be to implicitly endorse the bourgeois imperialist dictatorship and its electoral facade. The imperialist bourgeois press describes Hayden as a "former student radical" and "a man who once epitomized the radicalism of the 1960s."(1) Hayden, too, cultivates this image. In announcing his candidacy, he said, "I went to jail with Martin Luther King. I carried the coffin of Cesar Chavez." MIM disagreements with the reformist liberals King and Chavez notwithstanding, MIM does not fault Hayden for these claims. But Hayden continued, "I helped bring Soviet Jews to Israel. I helped protect the workers in Poland in the Solidarity movement."(2) So Hayden helped the U.S.-backed Israeli settler state use Soviet Jews to displace Palestinians, and he helped advance Reagan's Cold War objectives in Poland -- weakening Soviet satellite states to bring down the social-imperialist Soviet Union and advance Western imperialist hegemony. Makes for a rousing campaign speech. While Hayden was a left-liberal, and at times made progressive contributions, he was never a radical. When he co-founded SDS in 1961, he did not anticipate that by the late 1960s, the majority of its members would be Marxist-Leninist communists in the tradition of Stalin and Mao. In June 1962, Hayden was the principal author of an SDS statement of principles called the Port Huron Statement, named after the city in Michigan in which it was written. The social-democratic statement reads, "As democrats we are in basic opposition to the communist system....The communist movement has failed, in every sense, to achieve its stated intentions of leading a worldwide movement for human emancipation." The thrust of the Port Huron statement was opposition to the alienating and dehumanizing aspects of Western culture in the age of industrial capitalism, and a vision of a world without such alienation. Hayden's vision was not radical. By definition, a radical analysis gets to the root of a problem like alienation. Hayden was dealing only with the symptoms. Alan Adelson writes in his book SDS, "All of this vision, people were later to point out, is formalized in the idea of socialism, but socialism spells out how it would be attained and Hayden didn't."(3) Hayden says he wants to beef up the size of the notorious Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD).(4) He also is a defender of police chief Willie Williams, whose helmet-clad pigs' used rubber bullets, tear gas and batons on anti-fascist and revisionist protesters in September. Several protesters were injured, including a man who was hospitalized for head wounds caused by a baton blow. Williams said this was "the LAPD at its best....I am extremely pleased with our response."(5) Finally, a central part of Hayden's campaign is opposition to expansion of the new subway. Critics of the subway expansion claim they oppose the project because of corruption. MIM is not surprised that the Metropolitan Transportation Administration (MTA) is corrupt -- such is the nature of capitalism. It makes an easy target for Hayden, the LA Times and various liberals. But the biggest critics of the project are likely General Motors, Ford Motors and Chrysler Motors. General Motors previously ran a largely clandestine campaign to destroy L.A.'s trolley system. This led to increased reliance on buses and cars, and therefore to decreased mobility and increased health problems for millions.(6) Rather than just picking on corruption in the MTA, people should question Hayden's political alliance with these giant capitalists in opposing the subway, and further question whether he receives funding from any of these sources. DON'T VOTE, ORGANIZE AGAINST IMPERIALISM, CAPITALISM AND PATRIARCHY! NOTES: 1. Los Angeles Times editorial, 7 Jan 1997, p. B6. 2. Los Angeles Times, 6 Jan 1997, p. A14. 3. Alan Adelson, SDS, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1972, pp. 206-208. This book is available from MIM for $10. 4. Which Way, L.A.?, KCRW-FM, 13 Jan 1997. 5. "Pig brutality pleases LAPD's Chief Williams," MIM Notes 125, 1 Nov 1996, p. 9. Available from MIM for $1. 6. "Taken for a Ride," a documentary aired on PBS's P.O.V., 1996. * * * BABY FORMULA MARKETING: MULTINATIONALS STILL BAD FOR PUBLIC HEALTH The United Nations released a report on January 8 which described wide-spread violations of the World Health Organization (WHO) code mandating that all infant formula promotions inform mothers that breast feeding is their best option. The report was based on interviews conducted in Poland, Thailand, South Africa and Bangladesh where women reported getting information that promoted bottle-feeding or discouraged breast feeding. The WHO code tells baby formula manufacturers to monitor their own promotions so it is no surprise that this does not work. Corporations are interested in making a profit, not in promoting the good health of the public when the health is best served by NOT using a product the corporation produces. This report is important for activists as a lesson about the ineffectiveness of boycotts. In the 1970s, INFACT, a reformist group which currently targets tobacco companies for marketing to children, led a large boycott of Nestle to protest Nestle's practice of misleading wimmin in the Third World in order to promote their baby formula. Many participants in the boycott proclaimed it a success when it attracted WHO attention and led to the adoption of this WHO code in 1981. The main companies involved in the latest misleading baby formula distribution include Nestle, Gerber, Wyeth, Milco and Nutricia. This demonstrates that expecting an organization run by imperialist countries (the WHO) to intervene in the profit- making practices of multinational corporations is unrealistic idealism. The fact that boycotts generally target multinational corporations and expect the corporations to change in response to public outcry ignores the system of imperialism. Because of this, these boycotts will never achieve lasting change to improve the conditions of the people. Without a complete dismantling of the imperialist system that supports the profit seeking multinational corporations, it will not be possible to enforce any oversight of these corporations. This is why a dictatorship of the proletariat is necessary. We must have a dictatorship over the evil anti-people practices of the imperialists until we have restructured society so that there are no imperialists trying to make money by killing people. Organize against multinational corporations which destroy the health of the people, work with MIM to fight for Maoist revolution. NOTES: The Boston Globe, Jan 9, 1997. p.A5.