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 139 JUNE 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. AMERIKAN'S PLAN FOR THE FUTURE: ARREST AND IMPRISON YOUTH 2. CLINTON PROMOTES IMPERIALISM IN MEXICO 3. LETTERS 4. SJ MERCURY NEWS EDITOR WEASELS OUT OF CIA CRITICISM 5. RALLYISTS DENOUNCE U.S.-RAMOS REGIME 6. THEY CALL IT A TAKEOVER: HONG KONG REUNIFICATION A PARODY AT BEST 7. BRUTUS RALLIES STUDENTS: DEBUNKS MYTH OF PEACEFUL REVOLUTION IN SOUTH AFRICA 8. DEMAND FREEDOM FOR IRISH ACTIVIST 9. RED CROSS PROVES STALIN CORRECT IN ANTI-NAZI WAR 10. IMPERIALISTS ADMIT COLLABORATION WITH NAZI GERMANY 11. MIM FORMS PEOPLE'S INTERNATIONALIST REAR AREA ORGANIZATION 12. HOMES NOT JAILS TAKEOVER BUILDING 13. LATINO ANTI-IMPERIALIST MAY DAY CELEBRATION 14. MORE MASSACHUSETTS TRANSFERS TO TEXAS 15. BOSTON PUBLIC CENSORS PROTECT YOUTH FROM POLITICAL SPEECH 16. UNDER LOCK AND KEY: NEWS FROM PRISONERS AND PRISONS * * * 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 * * * AMERIKAN'S PLAN FOR THE FUTURE: ARREST AND IMPRISON YOUTH by MC53 Legislation passed in the House on May 8 promotes a stronger offensive in the war against youth. The bill -- called the Juvenile Crime Control Act of 1997 -- offers states $1.5 billion if they change state law and require that youth accused by the pigs of violent crimes be tried as adults in the white nation's courts -- certainly without a jury of their peers. The House also voted to stiffen the penalties against youth convicted of violent crimes in Federal court.(1) The police, court systems and prisons are used as tools of social control and the primary and disproportionate targets Amerika is trying to control are members of oppressed nations. In 1988, the overall incarceration rate for youth was 221 per 100,000.(2) The rate for Latino youth was 481 per 100,000 and Black youth were incarcerated at a rate of 810 per 100,000. The war against youth is an attempt to head off social unrest that results from the oppressive settler nation's capitalist system. And the youth most affected by the ills of the system, oppressed nation youth, will be the primary targets in the increasing offensive. If (or when) the bill passes in the Senate, it will mean that not only will youth be tried as adults, but that they will be incarcerated with adults. This means subjecting youth to the same or harsher conditions of slave labor, repressive living situations, denial of education and brutal guards faced by adult prisoners. Studies have shown that youth held in the adult system commit another crime 30 percent more often than youth held in the juvenile justice system.(3) Additionally, some research demonstrates that youth in adult institutions are five times more likely to be sexually assaulted, twice as likely to be beaten by staff, and 50 percent more likely to be attacked with a weapon than children confined in a juvenile facility.(3) While MIM does not believe the juvenile justice system serves the people or provides any measure of justice, these differences are important because they reveal how little the criminal injustice system cares about rehabilitating people. Youth in particular have years of potential productive life ahead of them and the criminal injustice system is happy to just throw away these lives. This is the result of a criminal injustice system that serves imperialism. INCREASE REPRESSION TO GET MORE MONEY To qualify for part of the $1.5 million in block grants, the states must: insure that youth "15 years or older who commit a serious violent crime be tried as an adult; impose escalating penalties against repeat juvenile offenders; establish a tracking system for minors who commit a second crime and make those records public, and allow juvenile court judges to issue court orders against the parents or guardians of convicted minors who do not properly supervise them."(1) Already in the last three years, 50 states have changed laws to allow more youth to be tried as adults. At this time, only five states impose the measures that would qualify them for the grants. But the new legislation gives the remaining 45 states the incentive and green light to become more repressive than they are already, encouraging them with a financial incentive to radically restructure the juvenile justice systems to eradicate any last remnants directed at rehabilitation of youth. Though the proposed law talks about youth 15 or older, it also attacks even younger. The bill requires that states routinely try 14 year olds as adults if they are charged with a violent crime.(1) The only way out of that would be if the Attorney General decided that it would be better (for the interests of the white nation) to try the 14 year- old youth as a juvenile. The law also allows the Attorney General to move the trial of a 13 year-old to adult court if it pleases the pigs. This bill pushes the same measures as the defeated Violent Youth Predator Act of 1996 only now it has a nicer name. Clinton's administration apparently was not ecstatic about the bill because it did not include all of the harsher penalties which Clinton's Anti-Gang and Youth Violence Act of 1997 sought (which he introduced in Boston on February 18th.) Part of the Clinton administration's proposal still pending is the creation of a new Office of Juvenile Crime Control and Prevention to increase the war against youth and gangs supposedly to fight crime and drugs. The OJCCP would have a budget of $500 million per year to lock up and oppress youth.(4) The OJCCP which would replace the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. The stated goals of the existing office include: the deinstitutionalization of status offenders; the separation of juveniles from adult offenders; the removal of juveniles from adult jails and lock-ups; and the reduction of disproportionate minority confinement. The elimination of this office would remove any facade of justice for juveniles. The proposal for the OJCCP foreshadows a more draconian future for Amerika's youth. The government says that Amerika needs to hurry and attack this so-called youth crime problem before the number of youth increases to a record level in the next few years. MIM says that youth need to hurry and join the movement to build a society that doesn't force kids to suffer from the injustices of capitalism and patriarchy and national oppression. The Amerikan government is not working in the interest of youth, especially youth from oppressed nations. It will take a revolution to achieve self- determination of the oppressed nations and continued struggle to ensure that youth are not the targets of oppression. EDUCATION IGNORED IN FAVOR OF INCARCERATION At the same time the Amerikan government was increasing its power to harass and incarcerate youth, the government also shot down the part of the education plan which would have spent $5 billion to repair and rebuild schools over the next four years.(5) Even this money would not have been enough to address fully the need to improve urban and poor students' schools. The 1995 estimate was that it would take $112 billion just to repair substandard and dangerous school buildings. The New York Times reported that one-third of schools require major repairs or need to be replaced and that almost half of the schools don't have the electrical capacity to support computers. Students in some urban area schools have to hold their classes in the hallways because of overcrowding. Amerikan schools are better than those in Third World countries where the Amerikan government can more easily get away with murder and genocide against the people. But the condition of urban and poor students' schools is the first piece of evidence that the government does not concern itself with the welfare and betterment of youth, predominantly oppressed nation youth. The overcrowding of prisons serves as a justification for the proliferation of prisons. And the overcrowding of dilapidated urban schools drowns students out of the opportunities kids receive in the suburbs and pushes them on the streets ultimately serving as a justification for the proliferation of prisons. ARRESTS AND BRUTALITY AGAINST YOUTH WILL INCREASE MIM and RAIL have been increasing our coverage and activism to expose cases of pigs murdering youth and how this is a result of having an occupying force within the oppressed nations of the united snakes. This type of murder and brutality will only continue and increase with the proliferation of prisons, increase in pigs and prosecutors and the growth of for-profit-prisons and prison industries. Klinton's war on youth will only increase and result in more incidences like the April 6th murder of Kevin Cedeno is Washington Heights, NY.(6) The 16 year-old oppressed nation youth was allegedly carrying a machete and the pig decided that was enough reason to murder him by shooting him in the back as he ran away. As evidenced by the criticisms by the masses at Kevin's funeral, the oppressed know that these cases are examples of the systematic and increasing genocide and slaughter of oppressed nationals. This is only going to get worse with the increase of the occupying force's power. Even the wealthier or more privileged youth are affected by the increasing numbers of pigs and more aggressive repression against youth. The Chronicle of Higher Education conducted a study of all the four-year colleges and universities which have more than 5,000 students enrolled. Among these, the arrests for violation of drug laws rose 18% in 1995.(7) Most of the 'experts' studying this concluded that this was not because of increased use of drugs. It was because of increased pig enforcement and patrolling of the campuses. No doubt, students that get arrested pay lower fines and have lower sentences than youth allegedly involved in gangs in urban areas. Nevertheless, students have historically played important roles in revolutionary struggles and increased patrolling for drugs, whether on the campuses or in urban areas, serves to control the youth of Amerika. Whether it's urban youth or oppressed nation youth being beaten, harassed and imprisoned, or white nation youth or youth on university campuses who want to build a society without environmental mass destruction and constant oppression, the future revolution will be sped up if you mobilize and work with MIM. Join RAIL or the MIM-led army and stop this system that depends on arresting and killing. NOTES: 1. The New York Times. 9 May 1997. pp. A1 and A19. 2. Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics. As cited in Criminal Injustice ed. Elihu Rosenblatt. South End Press: 1996. p25. 3. http://www.aclu.org/news/n050897e.html 4. Youth Today March/April 1997. p. 38. 5. The New York Times. 9 May 1997, p. A12. 6. See The New York Times. 8 April 1997. p. A12 and 16 April 1997, page A20. 7. The New York Times. 16 March 1997, p. A13. * * * CLINTON PROMOTES U$ IMPERIALISM IN MEXICO by MCB52 United $nakes president Bill Clinton recently returned from a trip to Mexico (followed by more of the same in Costa Rica) where he rallied the comprador forces and told lies that the Mexican people know far better than to believe. The people responded with protests which were harshly repressed. The whole visit was seeped in neo-colonial means and ends. Mexicans, like all other oppressed nations, will only get the imperialists out of their country through revolutionary armed struggle to achieve self-determination. One thing that Clinton did shortly after arrival was visit the Ninos Heroes memorial to soldiers who fought in the Mexican-American War of 1846-48 where Mexico lost half its territory -- what is now New Mexico, Arizona, California, Colorado and Texas. An American flag was flown next to it especially for the occasion. Needless to say, Mexicans were offended.(1) The ceremony was an eerie suggestion of Amerika's further expansionist goals. At a speech in an auditorium in Mexico City, Clinton said "I come here today to celebrate the ties that bind the United States and Mexico and to help set a course to strengthen them for the age of possibility before us as we enter the 21st century."(2) We know what ties those are -- neo- colonial. Despite the trade figures touted by Clinton and Zedillo, the bad state of the economic conditions of the people led to scattered jeers and whistles of derision as the president's remarks were translated into Spanish.(3) Clinton claimed that NAFTA is a boon to Mexican workers as much as it is to Amerikan ones, but in fact wages and employment are low and stagnant.(3) Superexploitation will continue as long as the price of Mexican labor is set by multinational corporations (MNCs) across the heavily militarized border, rather than by the people through industrial development they choose. This self- determination will only be possible after the Mexican people kick out the MNCs and the Amerikan military industrial complex that supports the MNCs. Clinton said a lot about democracy during his trip, claiming "Democracy has swept every country but one in the Americas, giving people a vote and a voice in their future." This is a lie. Clinton wants to single out Cuba as the only non-democratic country in Latin America in the wake of the Mexican government's own recent massacre of rebels written about in the May 1 issue of MIM Notes. His pretense that Mexico is democratic is particularly gross since the U$ has propped up successive corrupt regimes by the one party that ever takes power, the PRI. He had the gall to praise puppet/president Zedillo for "vision and courage." The very lack of democracy and its root in the U$ was part of the reason several hundred Mexicans protested Clinton's first official visit, burning an American flag and yelling "Yankee go home!"(4) Without the support of successive US governments, the PRI would not have been able to retain power for almost seven decades, traditionally through fraud. Its rule is in the interests of the U$ because it promote what the U$ calls "regional stability:" the PRI brutally crushes dissidents and radical movements. And while Clinton was talking democracy with self- congratulatory tones, "We know from our own 220- year experiment that democracy is hard work," the practice of U$ style democracy was evident outside every Clinton event. Those with something to say were prevented from doing so. Protesters were repressed. Hundreds of riot police controlled groups of protesting teachers, street activists, students and leftists by blocking their access to the U.S. Embassy, Clinton's hotel and elsewhere near the center of town. Referring to the massive student demonstrations of 1968, one seasoned activist said "We haven't seen this kind of police repression since 1968. The police are doing everything they can to repress any voice speaking out against Bill Clinton."(5) Clinton claimed "Our partnership for freedom and democracy and for prosperity, and our partnership against drugs, organized crime, environmental decay, and social injustice is fundamental to the future of the American people and to the future of the Mexican people." The truth is that the prosperity is hardly "shared," with a huge difference between the U$ and Mexico remaining. Nearly 20 percent of the Mexicans do not have regular sanitation, more than half the population lives in poverty, and many rely on the marginally higher wages available to family members at great personal risk to undocumented workers in the united states.(6) Though Clinton denied that there would be mass deportations, we have already seen the biggest deportations of undocumented workers ever in the first three months of this year.(7) And those hearing Clinton's lies knew this. One housewife present said "It is terrible the way they treat our brothers and sisters who go to the United States, just because they need the money. We need work, and yet they treat us like animals." A student added along similar lines, "The treatment immigrants receive in the US is bad, because they are undocumented workers. We see it in the news. They beat them, they even kill them."(6) Hitting a record pace, the u.s. government deported 42,426 illegal immigrants in the first half of FY97. The six-month deportation rate keeps the INS on schedule to achieve its goal of removing 93,000 undocumented immigrants from the Amerika's stolen land this year, up from nearly 69,000 last year. This does not include the more than 1.3 million apprehensions each year of people caught trying to cross the border or who agree to voluntary removal. Mexico was the main destination for those deported. More than 31,000 of those removed were returned to Mexico. Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and the Dominican republic were the other top destinations.(8) Clinton went on to lie about the exclusion of the Latino immigrants from full participation in Amerikan so-called democracy: "As our cooperation grows closer, so do our people. For America, that means pride in the fact that we are one of the most diverse democracies in the world. That diversity will be one of our great strengths in the global society of the 21st century. And Mexican Americans are a crucial part of our diversity and our national pride. Now, more than 12 million strong, they have helped to make the United States the fifth largest Hispanic nation in the world." Clinton is right that there exist some of the world's largest Latino populations in the U$, but he is covering up the internal colonial relationship in identifying those nations as a part of the U$. They are not receiving the Amerikan dream, they are receiving the Amerikan nightmare. Their interests are allied with the people of Mexico and other oppressed nations against imperialism. And so Clinton was in some sense prescient when he said that we are on the verge of something similar to the Mexican revolution: "Our nations and our hemisphere stand at a crossroads as hopeful as the time when Hidalgo and Morelos lit the torch of liberty for Mexico almost two centuries ago." But it is not going to be the kind of "justice" Amerika wants in the end. The Latino nations, together with other oppressed nations, are going to destroy Amerika and take the reparations they deserve. NOTES: 1. The Christian Science Monitor, 9 May 1997, p. 6. 2. All Clinton quotes are from transcript U.S. Newswire, 7 May, 1997 3. The Baltimore Sun, 8 May 1997, p. 14A. 4. The Independent, 8 May 1997, p. 14. 5. Los Angeles Times, 8 May 1997, p. 38. 6. The Boston Globe, 8 May 1997, p. A2. 7. British Broadcasting Corporation World Service, 13 May 1997. 8. The Boston Globe, 14 May 1997. * * * LETTERS MIM IS BLACK RACIST RAG? DEAR EDITORS: I just finished reading four copies of your MIM Notes. I am a fifty-nine year old black man and have been a true communist for the past forty years. I am very disappointed in your newsletters as it deviated far from the true aim and intent of communism. Neither is it a true Maoist movement. From the many articles I have read it is nothing more than a racist black rag that is used by some blacks as a forum to whine and cry about their "plight". I am no "Tom" by any stretch of the imagination. I am an ex-school teacher and am in prison of my own doing and refuse to blame "Whitey" or anyone else for what I have done. Certainly I see many injustices in prison but blacks are not the only recipients of them. As long as there exists the "poor me black mentality" and all authority figures are white and if black then they are lackeys of the whites then true communism will never come into its own. Communism is not a problem of color or race. It is a struggle against an imperialist economy and an elitist society. MIM would better serve the cause if it would dispense with condoning the fight against "whites" and attempt to concentrate all that untapped energy toward the true oppression, the economic system that exploits our labor. Whites are not our enemy...capitalism is. A great many of the communist in the world are our white brothers. Another thing that irks me is apparently you do not attempt to verify some of the outrageous claims made by some of the contributors to "Under Lock & Key". I have been in the Texas prison system on and off since March 11, 1960. At one time it was bad here. Real bad. Today prison is not a country club for sure, but then it isn't meant to be is it? Some of the letters in Under Lock & Key is just plain old b/s. This only serves to cast doubt on everything else in the paper. If the contributors would realize that many other inmates read their letters and know the truth of how things really are perhaps they would stop that they are hurting everyone else involved. The point I wish to get across is for all the inmates to get rid of the b/s about "white" oppressors, stop whining about how badly they have it and start channeling their energies toward what is important to them, their families and their children and their children's children. THINK! JOIN! BUILD! EXPAND! RECRUIT! Let people know what communism is about! It is not about racism, bigotry, black, white, or green polkadots! It is about us making changes for the better. It is about revolution! It is about justice for the working man. And when you get out of prisoner DO NOT RETURN TO THE LIFE OF CRIME!!! Do something constructive for the cause!! In the struggle (for forty years), --A Texas Prisoner, 18 February 1997 MIM RESPONDS: We agree with this prisoner that people should not just complain about the problems in the world, they should organize and work to change it. But it is important that we organize in the most effective way possible. And to do this, we must carefully analyze who are our enemies and who are our friends. MIM believes that Mao was right to focus on the contradiction between imperialism and the oppressed nations as the principal contradiction in the world at this time. And we see the same principal contradiction within US borders. As a results, it is important to talk about differences between nations because different nations have different relationships to (and against) imperialism. If we do not carefully analyze who are our friends and who are our enemies, which groups have interests in revolution, and what is the most effective way to fight imperialism, we will end up fighting losing battles. We owe it to the oppressed of the world to do better. If this prisoner, or anyone else is interested, we offer MIM Theory #1 and #10 as thorough analysis of the white working class in this country, demonstrating the group's alliance with imperialism as a result of the benefits it receives from this system. Such analysis proves that in fact the white nation is on the side of the enemy. As far as the charge that some of the articles printed in MN about prison conditions are b/s, we can only respond that we have many comrades behind bars, and within prisons there are usually more than one MN reader. We count on our readers to correct any incorrect information printed in MN but we don't find blanket charges of b/s useful. If you have specific criticisms of individual articles, we welcome hearing your evidence that they were incorrect. CORRECTION: The letter and response in the May 1st issue of MIM Notes (#137, p. 2) stated that psychologist Sigmund Freud denied the existence of child abuse. This is factually incorrect. Freud pioneered the study of childhood sexual experience, and most psychiatrists working with theories regarding sexual history or motivation come from the Freudian school of thought. Before Freud there was no emphasis on traumatic childhood experience in psychology, contrary to the letter-writer's claims. Knowingly or not, the letter-writer put forward an ultra-Freudian line. When we say people are used to being deceived and deceiving all the time, Freud would say we are "repressing." So the letter-writer and Freud are in agreement and defend psychiatry along close to identical lines. The article which the letter-writer was criticizing ("Amerikans: A People on Psychological Drugs Rotting Their Minds," MN134) attacked the psychology industry for supporting national oppression by legitimizing suggested testimony in the name of Freudian "de-repression" theory. * * * SJ MERCURY NEWS EDITOR WEASELS OUT OF CIA CRITICISM by MC45 In a predictable display of the lengths to which the bourgeoisie will go to discredit honest exposure of its corrupt and violent practices, the Editor-in-Chief of the San Jose Mercury News has printed an editorial casting doubt on its expose of the CIA's drug trafficking in the Black nation. MIM is not surprised by this action, which is an excellent demonstration of our reason for independent publishing. MIM consistently argues, as Lenin and Mao did, that a newspaper is one of the most important organizing tools at the Party's disposal and must be controlled by the proletarian line. A newspaper is our means of getting out news and analysis to the masses in an honest and widespread way. But to do its job, MIM Notes cannot bow interests other than those of the international proletariat. Because our job is to serve the proletariat, we must consistently expose and criticize the bourgeoisie and all its repressive apparatus. The SJ Mercury News has now given us another lesson in the impossibility of doing this important work under the directorship of the bourgeoisie. Last August, the California newspaper had run a series of articles about the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency's practice of importing drugs and selling them in Black neighborhoods like South Central Los Angeles to fund Amerika's wars against social democratic governments in Latin America. Now the SJ Mercury News has cast doubt on the series. While admitting that the series was accurate in reporting connections between CIA-paid drug traffickers and the contras in Nicaragua, the paper's editorial stated that the Mercury News had no proof that high-level CIA officials were involved in this corrupt activity or that they were aware of it. The SJ Mercury News reporter who wrote the series has told the New York Times that he has had follow- up stories submitted to his editors for months but that none of these stories have gone anywhere. He has also said that he is almost ready to ask the paper for permission to print his articles someplace other than the SJ Mercury News. Printing in an independent newspaper is the only way to ensure that the truth about the bourgeoisie and its army and government will be exposed. Look for the history of the series in MIM Notes 124 and a more detailed article on our criticism of the editor-in- chief's vacuous statement and the history of CIA penetration of the media in the next issue of MIM Notes. SOURCE: New York Times 13 May 1997. * * * RALLYISTS DENOUNCE U.S.-RAMOS REGIME LOS ANGELES, May 6 and 7 -- Over 50 people protested at the LA Conventions Center where Philippine President General Fidel Ramos was promoting his economic liberalization plans and facilitating deeper imperialist penetration into the Philippines. Protesters carried banners denouncing Ramos for pimping and selling the people of the Philippines and their resources. They also chanted anti-imperialist and anti-feudal slogans. Ramos was head of the Philippine Constabulary under the Marcos Dictatorship and implemented the U.$.- designed total war policy during the Aquino regime. Assassinations, indiscriminate bombings of villages, forced relocations, and other violent abuses have increased under his presidency. He claims that "Philippines 2000" will help industrialize the country, but in reality it simply encourages the exploitation of the Philippines' natural resources while keeping the Philippine economy backward and un-industrialized. What industrial development "Philippines 2000" does attract will certainly not serve the Filipino people. BAYAN (New Patriotic Alliance) International USA and several other organizations distributed the following statement at the rally: "President General Fidel Ramos [...] has come to LA as part of a series of junkets to pimp the Philippine economy and patrimony of the nation. General Ramos, a genuine and hardcore Amboy (American Boy) who graduated from West Point, must prove once again his servility to foreign interests particularly that of his US masters... "[Ramos'] policies concocted to satiate the economic interests of the imperialists only mean one thing: more oppression and severe exploitation of the broad masses of the Filipino people. This further aggravates the landlessness of the peasantry, massive unemployment and more exploitative labor practices by the capitalists, displacement of indigenous peoples, environmental degradation and plunder of natural resources, massive human rights violations, and strangulation of the rights of the Filipino people by the US- Ramos regime. This means all out war against the Filipino people! This also means the right of the people to defend themselves by all means necessary... "BAYAN Int'l USA, with support from allied organizations and individuals in the US, condemns General Ramos and his ilk in their treacherous selling of the Philippines. "BAYAN Int'l USA stands together with the Filipino people's demand for genuine agrarian reform and national industrialization. Together with the broad masses of the Filipino people, BAYN Int'l USA struggles for genuine freedom, justice, and democracy in the Philippines and an end to foreign domination and control." MIM also condemns Amerikan imperialism for its brutal exploitation of the Filipino people and its bloody proxy war against them. The national democratic movement in the Philippines believes that the three main enemies of the people of the Philippines are imperialism, bureaucrat capitalism, and feudalism. It struggles for genuine land reform, genuine national industrialization, and self-determination for the Filipino people. MIM aids the national democratic movement of the Philippines by building public opinion for Filipino self-determination and against u.s. imperialism. Ultimately, the most effective blow MIM can land for the emancipation of the Filipino people, as well as all peoples oppressed by u.s. imperialism, is to lead the masses in building anti-imperialist revolution here within u.s. borders. Towards that end, MIM politically educates the masses and develops people's organizations like RAIL and the People's Internationalist Rear-Area Organization. NOTES: Support the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, a RAIL Pamphlet, available for $1. * * * THEY CALL IT A TAKEOVER: HONG KONG REUNIFICATION A PARODY AT BEST by MC45 The reunification of Hong Kong with mainland China, scheduled for July 1, will be the union of two capitalist countries and economies -- one private capitalist and one state-capitalist. For Maoists everywhere, this union of two capitalist economies is the principal aspect of England's scheduled July 1 departure from its settlement in Hong Kong, when Hong Kong will become part of revisionist China. MIM calls July 1 the date of reunification with our tongues slightly in cheek. While we never uphold a Western capitalist government's claim to one of its colonies, we know that this union cannot bring joy to the hearts of the international proletariat because it is the joining of two exploitative regimes -- a parody of the proletarian struggle for national liberation and self-determination. At the same time as we point out how empty this reunion is for the Chinese masses, it is our duty to remind the world that in principle national reunification and self-determination are correct goals in the era of imperialism, when the international bourgeoisie attempts to split the proletariat and the oppressed nations for the purposes of capital. We cannot let the bankruptcy of revisionist China's agenda blind us to the importance of national reunification for the peoples of Korea, Ireland, Mexico, and every place else where imperialism has attempted to break national unity. On July 1, Hong Kong will become a Special Administrative Region (SAR), a semi-autonomous region of China.(1) Part of the reason for Hong Kong remaining separate from the rest of China, in what is being called the "one nation, two systems" policy,(2) is its Western-style capitalist economy. Hong Kong is quite wealthy and the state-capitalist Chinese government wants to take part in that wealth and not interfere with it. International capital's penetration into Hong Kong will not be touched when China takes over administration, so the international proletariat will continue to suffer superexploitation. Proximity with and relations with China are a big selling point for Hong Kong industry. The Tak Shing Manufactory (a branch of an English company) brags: "as our plastic toys are produced in China with the best quality control system under our Hong Kong management, our products feature both high quality & competitive prices."(3) This is only a polite way of saying that the Chinese government allows foreign companies to come into China and pay superexploitation wages to the Chinese proletariat, but that it takes the wealthy Hong Kong businesspeople to assure good quality products. At a recent meeting of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), China's central bank governor and the head of the Monetary Authority of Hong Kong appeared together to assure international capital that Hong Kong would maintain its own currency and monetary system, and that Hong Kong's foreign currency reserves would not be used to balance out the Chinese and Hong Kong economies. Japan, long-time oppressor of China and many Asian-Pacific countries, is the single biggest investor in Hong Kong(2) This is why MIM says this transfer of Hong Kong from the English empire to China is a parody of national self- determination. In 1949, and in the revolutionary period leading up to China's socialist revolution, the Chinese people chose overwhelmingly to push China's economy beyond the limits of capitalism by establishing socialism. Now and since 1976 the Chinese regime is mocking the benefits of state ownership of the means of production by focusing on the profit motive and ignoring the importance of production for social good. Now in 1997, the Chinese regime is taking in a semi- autonomous region whose currency trading rates will be attached to the U.$. dollar.(2) This is a deeply anti-socialist program to have any part of a country's economy tied to the largest imperialist economy on the planet. MIM looks forward to the day when the Chinese masses will rise up again and show the imperialists and their running dogs that they have well learned the lessons of China's 27 year socialist history. Each desperate maneuver of the international bourgeoisie only brings its inevitable demise closer. In the end, the international proletariat will be victorious. NOTES: 1. Reuters 5 May, 1997. 2. Hong Kong Standard 12 May, 1997. Found at: http://www.hkstandard.com/online/finance/001/hksfin .htm 3. Tak Shing Manufactory website. http://k.com.hk/takshing/ * * * BRUTUS RALLIES STUDENTS: DEBUNKS MYTH OF PEACEFUL REVOLUTION IN SOUTH AFRICA The first week in May, Dennis Brutus gave a number of talks in Massachusetts hosted by MIM and RAIL. Many of the talks focused on prisons in Amerika. Brutus made connections to the use of prisons as social control in South Africa during apartheid. The talks led to questions about the current situation in South Africa in which the government continues to work against the interests of the oppressed masses. Brutus is a well known South African poet and activist exiled by the South African apartheid government after serving 18 months on Robben Island with Nelson Mandela. Active in the fight to end apartheid in South Africa, he was the primary organizer behind South Africa's exclusion from the 1972 Olympics. Brutus discussed the important point of the power of student organizing in the United Snakes when he spoke at the universities. Divestment struggles in the u.s. began on university campuses and succeeded in getting 150 universities to divest. Brutus considers this student struggle in the u.s. to be the most important external factor in the struggle against apartheid. It was these student struggles that triggered churches, community organizations, Black organizations and others to get involved in the anti-apartheid fight. Brutus put this in the context of students getting involved in anti-imperialist organizing today. Emphasizing the potential power students can wield, he staid that too many underestimate the capacity of students to make change. On the current situation in South Africa, Brutus said that the Government of National Unity(GNU) -- created with Mandela as president and DeClerk as second in command -- is far from a government that represents the interests of the people. When Mandela came to power in presidential elections, many believed this was truly a peaceful revolution that would bring justice and equality to South Africa. Brutus said that it is important not to kid yourself about there having been a revolution when there really was not. The retreats from the not-so-radical positions of the ANC Freedom Charter have been clear. First, the Freedom Charter was dropped in favor of the Reconstruction and Development Program(RDP). The RDP is a retreat from nationalization demands and was made in the pragmatist interest of keeping support of foreign investors. And now even the RDP has been abandoned in favor of the Growth, Employment and Reconstruction Program(GEAR), an even milder program. One result of the programs which kowtow to foreign capitalist interest is the growing problem of homelessness. Mandela has failed to deliver on the promised 1 million houses for the homeless, instead so far providing less than 100,000. And the white property owners made rich through apartheid have retained their wealth stolen from the Black and oppressed masses. Another blatant sign that the South African government is not working in the interests of the oppressed masses is its moves towards accepting loans from the IMF and World Bank. Brutus explained at length that these institutions, which he considers the most powerful and important in the world, only grant loans with conditionalities. The requirements for loans allow the u.s.-controlled IMF/WB to determine the economic and political agenda of the country. Brutus pointed out that the government of South Africa tries to placate corporations and foreign investors and as a result has retreated on helping the people, the homeless, jobless and workers. One conditions of these loans is the requirement that there be no minimum wage. Another is the guarantee by the receiving government that there be no labor unrest or demands for increased wages. These conditions allow corporations to maximize profits and lower production costs. In South Africa they also demand privatization of all state owned companies including an agreement to sell the electricity system and telecom system. South African Airways is currently a state owned company which produces revenue for the government: by forcing privatization, the World Bank forces the government into greater dependency on these loans. The results of World Bank loans are devastating. Of the 35 African countries that have taken World Bank loans, 33 are bankrupt. In Zambia, the government is paying 30% of the GNP on interest on their loan and they are not even touching the capital. In spite of the conditionalities, Tabo Mbeki, the man most likely to succeed Mandela, has said he would sign a World Bank loan and does not understand why the government is currently hesitating to agree to the conditionalities. Although Mandela has not yet agreed to the World Bank loans, Brutus pointed out his role in the ANC's move away from the demands for the people. Negotiating with the government from within prison, Mandela did not consult with the ANC and accepted many concessions. Once the concessions were worked out, Mandela just announced them to the ANC rather than allowing the mass membership and other leaders to have a voice in the process. Another clear sign that there has been little change in South Africa is the amnesty being granted to those who have committed grave crimes against the people. Men in the police force boast of having killed Steven Biko. Other murderers from the apartheid regime have been welcomed into the military. 200,000 white civil servants kept their jobs for life post-apartheid -- the same sweet deal these whites enjoyed under apartheid. While many pro-apartheid forces repeatedly said that they did nothing that was wrong and refused to admit their crimes in front of the Truth Commission, many anti- apartheid activists were pushed into admitting the alleged crimes they committed against the apartheid regime and into admitting that armed struggle to defend the interests of the masses was a crime. And meanwhile many Blacks are still jobless. The economy in South African is in bad shape and is getting worse for all except the rich. As Brutus said, the struggle for freedom and social justice does not end. Workers in the South Africa Airways have marched to protest privatization and others have protested against the World Bank, but it appears likely that the people will not be successful in preventing the World Bank from sinking its deadly claws into the country within the current government. Following Mandela's election in 1994, we wrote, "Economically, the ANC promises on the one hand that little will change - international trade, foreign investment, open markets, and so on - but on the other hand the ANC promises increases in social welfare, such as school, sewage and hospitals." The current material conditions of the Azanian people show that such plans and promises only benefit the interests of the imperialists and their lackeys. True liberation from the neo- apartheid system in South Africa, from poverty and from imperialist and settler plundering will only come with the successful revolutionary struggle for national liberation. Activists here in the u.s. need to work with MIM, RAIL and the PIRAO to expose u.s. imperialism against the Azanian people and support genuine revolutionary struggle, not fake lackey of imperialism. * * * DEMAND FREEDOM FOR IRISH ACTIVIST Roisin McAliskey is a 25 year old activist from northern Ireland active in the struggle for Irish freedom. In November 1996, she was arrested without explanation by the Royal Ulster Constabulary in her home town. After five days of interrogation (from 8am to 1am every day) she was flown to London and informed that a warrant had been filed seeking her extradition to Germany. She has been held for six months without charge, repeatedly denied bail, and subject to barbaric conditions in prison for her refusal to give up her legal rights and personal dignity. In British occupied Ireland, the British authorities exercise the Emergency Powers Act which denies citizens their right to habeas corpus when they want an excuse for political repression. Britain has exercised this power in Ireland for 75 years and special powers also exist under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, first passed in 1973 and renewed every year since. This act allows individuals suspected of terrorism to be detained and interrogated for up to seven days.(1) By the time this article is printed, Roisin will likely have given birth. She is malnourished and suffering from serious medical problems and in this late stage of her pregnancy she can not walk and is confined to a wheelchair. She is under permanent lockdown in solitary confinement, her mail is censored, and she is repeatedly subject to strip searches. She has never been charged with any crime in Ireland or Britain. German authorities are demanding Roisin be extradited to Germany for questioning in an attack on a British army base there. Four weeks ago, on national television in Germany, the only witness named in the warrant denied that he had ever identified Roisin McAliskey as the womyn who had rented a cottage from him. He could not pick out her photograph. German police have also changed their story on the only physical evidence they have. Roisin's hearing was scheduled for May 6 but she was too ill to attend and the hearing was postponed.(2) Protests around the world have demanded freedom and justice for Roisin. This case is very tied up in the demand for freedom for Ireland. Slogans common at demonstrations for Roisin include "Brits out of Ireland, free Roisin" and other variations on this theme. This is a progressive way to link national liberation struggles with prisoner struggles. Prison struggles such as this one help to expose imperialism and it is important to expand our demands beyond the freedom of just one prisoner, even while we are fighting an individual case. MIM joins the call for Roisin McAliskey's release and the dropping of all charges against her while recognizing that this case of repression is a part of the larger struggle for self-determination for Ireland, a struggle in which the British government will use all means of political repression to silence the people. NOTES: 1. The Village Voice, 6 May 1997. 2. The Irish Times, 7 May 1997. P.4. * * * RED CROSS PROVES STALIN CORRECT IN ANTI-NAZI WAR Recently released International Red Cross documents from World War II vindicate J.V. Stalin, the leader of the Soviet Union from 1924-1953, for his military actions in Eastern Europe in World War II. Thanks to widespread whitewashing of fascism by imperialist media and education organs, many believe only Germans and maybe Italians and Japanese were fascists during World War II. Many countries conveniently overlook their own history and the enemies of socialism assist them in order to shield fascism from criticism. The Red Cross documents, now released 50 years after they were written, show that more than 100,000 Jews died in Romanian death camps taken from the territory of the Soviet Union.(1) Romanian troops joined the 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union on the German side. They obtained Soviet land for Romania in 1941, including a camp called Transnistria. Stalin split Poland with Hitler in World War II but was unable to seize all of Poland and Romania. Now we can see that the crypto-fascists were wrong to criticize Stalin for his aggressiveness in Poland. In contrast, MIM has said that we wish "Stalin could have gone further and could have stopped what happened in Romania. More anti-fascist lives would have been spared if Stalin had done to Romania what he did in his own country and in Poland."(2) The Red Cross documents show why MIM was more correct than it could know. "Transnistria was a holding place for local Ukrainian Jews and for Romanian Jews who survived massacres by Romanian soldiers that killed 160,000 in 1941-1942."(1) Another figure says that over 100,000 died of starvation, cold and typhus in the death camps between 1941 and 1943. Some Jewish orphans only survived because the Soviet Union claimed them as their citizens. With the forward march of the Soviet army, the favors the old oppressors did for the Jews increased drastically. In December, 1943 when Stalin had already turned the war to the advantage of the anti-fascists and it was clear Romania needed to buy favorable standing with the Soviet Union and its allies, Romania started to allow inspections of the camp. But Romania only withdrew from the war completely in August, 1944 -- after the Soviet Union had made its coming victory of 1945 apparent. After World War II, the Soviet Union occupied both Poland and Romania temporarily and set their foreign policies. MIM believes both these countries got what they deserved. National integrity cannot be respected in the presence of Nazism and genocide. Although some Polish and Romanians resisted Nazi rule, the internationalist minority understands why Stalin did what he did in Poland and Romania during and after World War II. NOTES: 1. USA Today 5May97, pp. d1, d2. 2. MIM Theory 6, pp. 36-7. * * * IMPERIALISTS ADMIT COLLABORATION WITH NAZI GERMANY A 200-page Clinton administration report being called "'a moral milestone in modern American history'" explicitly admits that the Cold War was an excuse for the U.$. government to paper over Nazi injustices perpetrated during World War II.(1) Over $60 million in gold remain in Amerikan, English and French hands because the Western imperialists were too busy propagandizing against the Soviet Union to return the gold to the Jews from whom it had been stolen, some of whom lived in the Soviet Union. The U.S. government report required 11 agencies and 15 million pages of documents.(1) For MIM, this admission of a cover-up raises the question: how many government agencies and pages of text will it take to find out what else the imperialists have covered up to keep from giving J.V. Stalin and the socialist Soviet Union (1917-1953) their due? How many are owed reparations for their suffering at fascist hands during World War Two, and when will the Western imperialists admit to their lack of vigilance in these matters? We raise this question to people with Socialist sympathies everywhere: where have you gotten your information on the Big Bad Stalin and what do you think of this new admission? What do you think of your sources now that some of their motivations for making Stalin look bad have a dollar figure attached? We only hear the truth now because the Soviet social-imperialist bloc (1957-1991) has collapsed and the Klinton administration wants to spread Amerikan power everywhere, including the vaunted secrecy of Swiss bank accounts. In recent years, U.$. imperialists have broken up some of the secrecy of Swiss accounts to check for political activity deemed unfriendly to Amerika. By embarrassing the Swiss for holding Nazi gold originally stolen from Jews, the U.$. imperialists aim to show that Amerikan power reaches everywhere and there will be no business that the U.$. Government does not know about. But even in this climate of exposure, some u.s. bourgeois media have been careful not to accuse any imperialist country of knowingly stockpiling plunder from concentration camp victims. An NPR report said that while the Swiss bankers clearly knew that gold they were accepting was plunder from the Nazi war, it was unclear that this gold had come from the Nazis' victims.(3) MIM asks: what's the difference? Why is it better to steal money from a country you invade for the purpose of plundering its resources and either murdering or assimilating its people than to steal money from the people you murder in that country? This is exactly the kind of hairsplitting that distracts liberals from the important questions of who is a fascist, who is not, and who is objectively opposed to fascism. By talking as if the fascist war on Europe, Asia and Africa were somehow benign but for the concentration camps and the Nazi genocidal program, the liberals obscure the dangers of placating fascism, and attempt to confuse the masses into thinking that in the absence of death camps, there is no need to worry. This confused approach comes with the added benefit to the liberal mindset of being able to both sound good criticizing fascism, while still avoiding the responsibility of taking up genuine opposition -- like supporting Stalin's successful anti-fascist war. It turns out that American Jewish groups also were too busy being Amerikan to ensure that gold from Western vaults would be returned to Soviet Jews. Only now do they attack the German government for giving Nazi Waffen S.S. officers pensions while Russian Jews have received no compensation. The German Government has replied swiftly and affirmatively to the demands of the American Jewish Committee.(2) Commenting on the July 15, 1994 New York Times MIM wrote: "Decades of fighting the Cold War against the Soviet Union under the guise of anti-communism are now bearing ample fruit -- strong fascist movements in Eastern Europe and a fascist government elected in Italy in March. For 50 years, the U.S.- imperialist bloc governments and media glorified every little nationalist noise out of Eastern Europe in an effort to run down the Soviet Union, first as a socialist country and then as a contending imperialist. Now that the competitive threat from the Soviet Union is much receded, we see the cracks in the motley coalition the imperialists put together in Italy -- the Church, the Mafia, the Christian Democratic Party and the so-called Socialist Party. "The U.S. bloc had to cover up and distort every progressive legacy of the Soviet Union during World War II, which even Clinton says shaped this entire century. As a result, fascist movements and fascist histories were whitewashed, because the communists did the most to crush the fascists in World War II." Anyone with a minimal knowledge of Communist theory or of Twentieth Century history, and now anyone who picks up a copy of USA Today, knows that Communists -- not liberal democrats -- are the real anti- fascists. The history of World War II and the Cold War shows us that the genuine Communists were the only activists around with the political line to prioritize the anti-fascist war. The western imperialist bourgeoisie was too busy fighting Communism to stop the fascists, while the Trotskyists, anarchists, pacifists and everyone else failed to show up for the struggle. MIM Notes urges its readers to investigate this history, learn more about us, and work with RAIL and MIM to protect the future from fascism and imperialism. NOTES: 1. USA Today 8May97, p. 1. 2. AP in Boston Globe 8May97, p. a23. 3. All Things Considered, National Public Radio 7 May, 1997. * * * MIM FORMS PEOPLE'S INTERNATIONALIST REAR AREA ORGANIZATION The 1997 Congress of MIM decided to form a revolutionary army -- the People's Internationalist Rear Area Organization (PIRAO). What follows is a description of that new organization. I. TASKS AND GOALS OF THE PIRAO The PIRAO is the rear area support organization of the Maoist armed struggle. As in any rear area, the tasks of the PIRAO do not involve weapons. Instead, the PIRAO proudly takes up the mundane tasks that need to be carried out for the fight at the proletarian front in the semi-feudal and semi- colonial countries throughout the world. The PIRAO will substitute its labor for the blood sacrificed by our comrades in Peru, the Philippines, Turkey, Azania etc. The PIRAO will be unarmed and will in fact struggle with people in the imperialist countries to take up their proper role at this stage of struggle. A well-known military metaphor is "peeling potatoes." We are the potato-peelers of the revolution. There will be those who laugh at us, and some will say our tasks are incompatible with revolution, but in any army there is mundane work to be done under great discipline, so we say let them laugh. The more tedious tasks we accomplish, the more our comrades at the front will have time to accomplish the glorious tasks of armed struggle. In front-line armies, much time is spent in the barracks and preparing for war. Not every day is a day of decisive battle. Likewise, in the rear area the pace of action will depend on the support the army receives and the capabilities of its members. We aim to build an army of people with long-run goals, vision and discipline, people willing to do the equivalent of push-ups and potato-peeling to be ready. The goal of the army is to speed up victory, not bring fast and easy glory. At the front, the leading means of obtaining weapons is through armed struggle -- seizure of arms of defeated enemies. In the imperialist countries, we cannot utilize such methods appropriately. What we obtain -- books, medical supplies, computers and other concrete aid -- can be usually obtained with money. A key element of the army will be systematic financial work. Other elements will include intelligence, technical aid and medical advice. II. SOCIAL BASIS OF THE PIRAO We of the army led by the Maoist party of the English-speaking imperialist countries -- MIM -- will say bluntly to our recruits: "it is not our turn yet for armed struggle." We follow the teachings of Mao who said that the people have nothing if they have no army. Mao also said that the imperialist country communists must engage in "long, legal struggle -- not armed struggles." We must realize that that means we behind enemy lines have nothing ourselves yet, but we can support the armed struggle of the semi-colonies external to the imperialist countries in Asia, Latin America and Africa. We say bluntly to the Black, Latino and Asian- descended peoples of the imperialist countries: "it is not your turn yet; instead seek to hasten the blows of the oppressed peoples of the Third World: take up your tasks in the rear area and do not seek armed battles until the imperialists are really helpless as Mao said we should do where the imperialists have their modern transport and communications ready for battle on their own turf." The small neighborhoods where armed struggle can be carried out successfully are the exceptions at this time, as is the case of the righteous armed struggle of the people that occurred during the Los Angeles rebellion after the Rodney King verdict. Even in those circumstances where armed struggle does break out spontaneously and successfully our task is to guide it into more organized unarmed forms. The tendency of those involved in armed struggle at this time in the English-speaking imperialist countries is to degenerate without sustained work. It can be much like taking drugs -- a momentary thrill unattached to a real political plan. It is mainly the fault of the middle-class intellectuals for isolating the truly oppressed that such struggles do break out and secondarily it is the fault of the lumpenproletariat and other angry oppressed peoples for not seeking out more systematic forms of struggle. We say to the First Nations: where you have overwhelming support of your peoples for the defense of your borders, we support your ongoing armed struggle. It is time to utilize the Maoist party idea to fight imperialism, because the white man understands nothing but the gun and because you must communicate with your allies in an internationalist and coordinated way. It is no longer true to say that all Indians are equal in their political understanding. The influence of the white man and imperialist parasitism infects even the First Nations. Even on the national territories, there are those considering leaving and taking up complete assimilation and capitulation. Those who are most advanced in their ideas about First Nation liberation must form the vanguard party. This has become a universal necessity because of the class system that the white man has imposed on the whole world. True, in the old society of communism in the First Nations, the vanguard party was not necessary to live communist life. Now the vanguard party is necessary to lead the struggle back to communist life which the world knows about thanks to the First Nations. To the lumpenproletariat, we say, if you are willing to sacrifice your lives in a shoot-out or go to prison, why aren't you willing to spend 60 hours a week for the revolution? We will help you to gain middle-class camouflage. If you are already in prison, you must help to keep people out of prison by getting out the word on MIM and the army. To the students and petty-bourgeois intellectuals we say, if the people are dying in the Third World and going to prison in record numbers in the imperialist countries, why are you advocating compromise and "toning it down?" Why are you not linking up with the oppressed and doing the work of militant creation of public opinion to tap the energies of the peoples already so angry with the system but improperly channeled into crime and gang violence amongst the oppressed? III. TYPES OF ARMY MEMBERS A. IRREGULARS Irregulars are the most basic elements of the armed force, because they are most like the people themselves. We will count them as part of the army; even though they usually are not counted as such in the Third World. In the imperialist countries, an irregular is someone who lends timely aid to the struggle in passing, for the instance. B. INFANTRY: SYSTEMATIC FASHION A member of the infantry is someone who does sustained work on concrete tasks. An irregular may come up with a stash of books, a thousand dollars or medical supplies. The infantry member scours the earth regularly for such items and figures out how to obtain them legally. The infantry dedicates more time to preparation work than the irregular. The infantry member does not regard such preparation work as a 'waste of time.' Rather the infantry is thankful not to sacrifice blood in taking small but persistent risks that a certain percentage of the time will lead to victories. The infantry works hard without instant gratification. The knowledge that numerous small victories obtained without shedding a drop of blood add up to big victories sustains the infantry. The infantry member also realizes that his or her example may inspire countless others to carry out similar tasks and lead to the inevitable downfall of imperialism. C. COMMISSIONED OFFICERS: FULL-TIME Commissioned officers combine the planned and professional aspect of the infantry with one difference. The officer has arranged his or her material life so that it is possible to work full- time for the revolutionary army. The officer will tend to be the main organizer of the irregulars. IV. DISTINCTIONS AMONGST ORGANIZATIONAL TYPES: RAIL, MSG, PIRAO, MIM The question arises, how does the army differ from other organizations of the oppressed, such as MIM, MSG and RAIL? Army leaders must be party members, but most army members will not be party members. It is extremely difficult to get into the party. Army recruits need not wait at all before they begin their work as army members. The army will serve as a recruiting ground for the party. MSG is for people with worked out differences with the party who are nonetheless close to the party. The members will tend to be intellectuals and may believe that vanguard parties, MIM in particular or just MIM's leadership is overrated. In contrast, army members don't make a big deal of their differences with the party if any. Army members have less trouble with the concept of discipline and concrete action. Army members tend to think the ideas of MIM are the most correct or plenty close enough to being correct and the leadership of the party is if anything underrated, so there is no problem with proceeding to concrete action under the leadership of the existing MIM line. RAIL members acknowledge party leadership like the army, but RAIL members are under limited obligations of discipline and they focus their work on building public opinion. The army's work is the furthest removed from building public opinion. As a natural consequence, in the army, there is less focus on arguing over line and winning public debates. Army members may be quiet but decisive actors. The army will have its share of right opportunists who simply avoid political struggle, but it will also have its share of people who simply don't like working with the intellectuals necessary for building public opinion on a continuous basis. The army's work will support the work of those building public opinion and the army will defend the party, but its main task will be concrete and logistical support to building the independence and material presence of the institutions of the oppressed. To carry out this task effectively it is absolutely essential that the army member accept the leadership of the party. The army member will be content to carry out action and will not demand constant political struggle and explanation. The pride of the army is that it will carry out actions more quickly than any other organization and with less talk. At the same time, the army member will realize that no pace of action is ever fast enough for the genuine revolutionary. There will be less emphasis on learning from discussion and more emphasis on learning from years of concrete activity. Every legitimate revolutionary is impatient with the pace of action here in the imperialist countries. We must not become so impatient as to lose our heads or burn- out. One way to do that is to follow a leader who will keep us in check. The army member understands that the party may not be able to lead fast enough for anyone's likings including the party's, but the more people there are willing to follow leadership without question, the less time is spent bogged down in political details. Relative to other organizations, there is less emphasis on all-pervasive study in the army; although all organizations of the oppressed require some level of political struggle. Army members will be able to follow directives of the head of the army quickly and without question, by focusing on an area of concrete agreement if necessary before joining the army. The party leader of the army will be the final decision-maker and there will be no jostling for leadership or political votes for leadership. The army's leader will certainly consult with the irregulars, infantry and officers, but the army member can be assured that such will be cut to the barebones minimum. It will be the head of the army's decision whether or not someone is working within army discipline or should be in another organization or no organization of the oppressed at all. The PIRAO is especially organized for the many people ready to recognize MIM leadership and stop wasting time in political debate. They have made up their minds in the short-run and they seek to do concrete work with less emphasis on building public opinion and more emphasis on building independent institutions of the oppressed. Some people concentrate on writing books and struggling over the content; in a nutshell, the army will focus on getting the money to print the books and then the means to lug them around -- concrete needs. Material aid to Third World immigrants and exiles will be included. Internationalist material aid is the most important. People may belong to both RAIL and the army, but while carrying out army functions, they will follow army procedures. MSG members will not be allowed in the army. The army is inconceivable without an already established party leading the creation of public opinion. Now that we have a core of people carrying out the tasks of the party it is possible to form the army to do supplemental work. Without a party the first task would not be to form an army but to engage in political struggle over the formation of a line. Now that there is a Maoist line embodied in the MIM party, there are further gains to be had in concrete work. Army members will learn from practice their personal capabilities for contributing to the struggle at the front and making a difference. V. LEADERSHIP The party guarantees to the army as in any Maoist party that the lives of the army will not be wasted. In our conditions that means the work of the army will not be wasted. Instead, the party leadership will go about maximizing the effect that the army's work will have by gauging the conditions of each member of the army and how that member may best contribute to the struggle. Not wasting the work of the army means that if there are already enough potatoes peeled for upcoming weeks and anymore peeled will just rot, then the leadership should not ask for more potatoes to be peeled. On the other hand, if our comrades from the front might visit us for dinner, then we better do some extra work. The leadership should ask for work to be done, including repetitive work when that work might uncover significant gains for the proletariat. There are important calculations in determining when to continue pursuing certain work. The leadership of the army will answer the question: is this action worth it? The party also guarantees to the army that the head of the army will be empowered to handle all political issues without ongoing interference in daily affairs from the party that would bog down the army. For example, whether a suggested means of struggle is too politically impure to use, the army's leader will be able to decide. The party will in fact sanction the army leader's impure methods from the beginning to make it clear that learning from action will be paramount in this new undertaking. Without party leadership seasoned in effective tactics and the proletarian line, the army member would never learn how effective s/he could be in practice. For this reason, the party takes very seriously the job of appointing a leader to the army. The leader of the army must have a proven record of establishing new undertakings and finding new methods of struggle against the bourgeoisie. Furthermore, the head of the army must have bourgeois training in at least one major field of concrete endeavor -- business, finance, computers or medical. The army's leader will be expected to utilize bourgeois expertise while knowing when the assumptions of bourgeois experts are not appropriate for revolutionary struggle. This will be known as being "both red and expert." For this reason the army can have faith in its leader chosen by the MIM Congress. * * * HOMES NOT JAILS TAKEOVER BUILDING Homes Not Jails, Boston, held their third building takeover this year on May 10 in the wealthy neighborhood of Beacon Hill. These actions dramatize the homelessness problem in Boston and the need for affordable housing rather than prisons. These takeovers include a rally in downtown Boston and then a march to an abandoned residential unit. Homes Not Jails members have already cut the lock on the designated building and replaced it with their own lock. When the rally arrives at the vacant property, some people enter the building, pry off the boards from the windows and hang banners while the crowd chants and makes noise until the cops come and arrest the people occupying the building for trespassing. While HNJ's goal is to convert these empty units into homes for the homeless, the police will never allow such blatant and illegal anti-capitalism and no one is under the illusion that these actions will end with anything but arrests. This time the building being occupied was the former home of Charles Sumner, a member of the U.S. Senate in the 1800s and an outspoken abolitionist in the anti-slavery movement. Speakers at the rally included Howard Zinn, author of A Peoples History of the United States, who suggested that Sumner would have wanted the people of Boston to have his former home to help address the problem of homelessness in a city with 23,000 empty housing units, many boarded up and completely unused like the one HNJ took over. At this takeover six people were arrested, carried out through the crowd of hundreds of mostly young people shouting at the pigs. Unlike past takeovers, this actions attracted the attention of a lot mainstream media, with local TV stations and NPR radio shows covering the takeover as a part of their local news broadcasts. The Homes Not Jails message about the contradictions of capitalism that allows empty housing units to exist in the face of 6,000 homeless people is important. And the connection to prisons is particularly crucial as many of these homeless people are former prisoners. But it will take more than just dramatic building takeovers to end the problems of homelessness and to fight the criminal injustice system. This is why MIM builds independent power of the oppressed through a revolutionary party that will ultimately overthrow capitalism and seize power for the people. Actions that educate people and pressure the government are an important part of this work, but without the context of an organization that is fighting imperialism systematically drawing connections between homelessness, prisons, militarism and imperialism, we will never be able to take on this system. Everyone serious about overthrowing imperialism needs to be arrogant enough to fight both local, continental and international battles. Work with MIM and RAIL to end homelessness and end imperialism. * * * LATINO ANTI-IMPERIALIST MAY DAY CELEBRATION MIM attended a May Day celebration in East Boston hosted by Latinos y Latinas Por el Cambio Social (Latinos for Social Change), an anti- imperialist organization of Latinos and Latinas organizing in the Boston area. The event combined political and cultural acts for a celebration of International Workers Day that was both educational and entertaining. A speaker from the organization opened the event by describing the history of May Day. May Day is celebrated by the proletariat around the world but largely ignored in this country which now has a government created "Labor Day" on September 1st. The speaker pointed out that the history of factory workers in this country is one of immigrants and that this situation has not changed: still the immigrants are working the worst jobs and do not enjoy the job security, 8 hour days, or benefits that white workers have gained. This is an important point to recognize because it speaks to the differences between the different nations in this country. Latinos for Social Change does not go far enough with its analysis of the working class in this country. The speaker at the event slipped in a few statements about the need for unity among the working class (including whites in this country) in spite of his overall excellent analysis of and focus on the situation of Latino immigrants and the connections to international imperialism. Other speakers from UNITE, a union organization that is working to organize Latinos in Boston who are undocumented and faced with conditions often as bad as those in Third World countries, echoed the theme of the need for organizing these oppressed and exploited workers. But again these speakers called for unity with white workers rather than recognizing that white workers in this country have gained a position of privilege at the expense of the international proletariat which pits their interests against the interests of the proletariat, including the Latino workers that UNITE is organizing. Songs were performed by Sergio Reyes, a well known local Latino activist and performer. The politics in the songs mirrored the general line of the event: overall good anti-imperialist content but an incorrect focus on uniting everyone regardless of their political position. This came through most clearly in his song commemorating the recent MRTA take over of the Japanese embassy and the subsequent massacre of the MRTA members by the Peruvian government. The song correctly pointed out that this massacre was not a victory over terrorism but rather a victory for state terrorism. But the chorus lumped the MRTA, the Senderos, and the people together as all forces fighting for progressive change without making any distinctions between organizations or their political lines. As has been reported in recent issues of Maoist Sojourner, the MRTA has a history of collaborating with the imperialist- supporting government parties in Peru in between its focoist attacks like this one on the embassy which succeed in getting many people killed and winning nothing for the people. The focoist line and strategy have been proven a failure while the Communist Party of Peru has gained control of much territory and the support of the people through its strategy of peoples war. It is important that anti-imperialists take seriously the need to study and analyze history and current events rather than just lumping anyone calling themselves leftist into the same camp. Some lines and strategies are more effective than others and we owe it to the international proletariat to take up the ones that mean the fewest deaths and the greatest victories, anything less is selling our comrades short. * * * MORE MASSACHUSETTS TRANSFERS TO TEXAS On April 28th the Massachusetts DOC shipped another 25 prisoners to Texas, this time driving them on a bus the 1915 miles to Dallas County Jail. For this trip the prisoners were provided with metal cages within the bus. This is the second time in two months that the Mass DOC has sent a group of prisoners to Texas. The DOC spokesperson said that these prisoners were being sent by bus to save costs (the past two shipments were sent by plane.) The DOC says that 25 other inmates will be brought back to Massachusetts on the return bus trip. They are planning an ongoing revolving door in Dallas where inmates are sent down and brought back regularly so that 300 are maintained in Dallas. This revolving door is something of an admission by the DOC that these transfers to Texas are bad for the prisoners and counter to any claims of rehabilitation the prison system makes. But this change in policy is not a victory for the prisoners, it means that even more prisoners will be forced to endure the terrible conditions and long distance from family and friends in Dallas County Jail. Ironically, the contract with Dallas says that only "model prisoners" will be accepted. Prisoners are being punished for behaving in prison. According to the DOC, it costs $42 a day to house a prisoner in Texas, compared to $80 a day in Massachusetts. If these cost savings are real, MIM has to ask what exactly it is that costs less in Texas. The Dallas facility does not offer any educational services. Men there are kept in "tanks" with up to 28 other men, lights are left on 24 hours a day, and prisoners leave their cells for only one hour a day. This kind of prisons for profit are really just torture units destroying human beings. MIM and RAIL continue the fight against this and other aspects of the criminal injustice system as we build our forces to overthrow the system. For more information on prison privatization, see MIM Theory #11. NOTE: Boston Globe, 04/29/97, p. A1. * * * BOSTON PUBLIC CENSORS PROTECT YOUTH FROM POLITICAL SPEECH MIM received the following message from the Industrial Worker, the newspaper of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). All forms of content- control on the Internet, even those supposedly or actually targeted against pornography, which MIM opposes, will end up being used to censor political speech. In the case of software censorship, the "rules" may be programmed in without the computer users even knowing that they are. We oppose the censorship of the IWW newspaper, and invite concerned readers to send email to the Boston Public Library tyrants who would "protect" children by censoring the political materials they would read, even though we have fundamental disagreements with the IWW (See MIM Theory 8 and 10, $6 each). April 17 -- Please read this even if you do not completely oppose the Boston Public Library's censorship of pornography, because they are also censoring us (on the left) as "political extremists." And we can each do something rather quickly in protest -- e-mail the Chief Information Officer and let them know that this is a travesty. The details: as you probably are already aware, the Boston Public Library has paid CyberPatrol corporation big money for the tools to censor various "inappropriate" Internet sites from the children's area of the library. What you probably do not know is that "political extremism" is one of the categories for censorship. And I'm not talking about fascist sites here, I'm talking about the newspaper of my union, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW, also known as Wobblies). I and other Wobblies are furious about this, and I want to use our experience as evidence that censorship in the Boston Public Library runs counter to democratic access to information, including vital information critical of the status quo such as our newspaper. So please e-mail the Chief Information Officer and let them know that we are part of the community, we are not going away, and we will not allow ourselves to be censored. (As it turns out, soon after we started protesting directly to CyberPatrol, our newspaper was removed from the censor's list, however many anarchist sites remain on the list and this list may grow along with right-wing influence generally. We need to speak up now!) Cheif Information Officer e-mail (via world wide web form): http://www.ci.boston.ma.us/mismail.html Info on CyberPatrol and the Boston Public Library: http://www.peacefire.org/censorware/Cyber_Patrol/ * * * UNDER LOCK AND KEY: NEWS FROM PRISONERS AND PRISONS REBELLIONS AND VIOLENCE IN PRISONS This issue of Under Lock & Key is a collection of letters around the role of violence in prisons. Instead of responding to each letter separately, we print MIM's position on violence in prisons up front. First of all, prisons themselves are organized violence. They are tools of social control for the ruling class. In Amerika, this means violence against oppressed nations. Prisons deprive oppressed nationals of their freedom -- and lives - - at a rate many times that of the dominant white nation. Furthermore, as prisoners and readers of Under Lock and Key know too well, pig violence against prisoners is common. Any prisoner resistance, organized or unorganized, big or small, runs the risk of provoking a beating. The pigs also provoke prisoner on prisoner violence, as even mainstream news stories coming out of Corcoran state prison in California confirm. Thus, the Amerikan prison system is a concrete example of why MIM believes violence is justified and necessary to overthrow the oppressive, imperialist Amerikan state. The oppressors consistently use violence, terror, and brutality to prop up their festering, evil system, and the oppressed must defend themselves by any means necessary. Anybody who advocates "turning the other cheek" as a strategy is not serving the interests of the oppressed. That said, we should be clear that revolutionaries do not engage in armed struggle in order to feel good about themselves. Revolutionaries engage in armed struggle to win. To paraphrase Fred Hampton: 'Kill one pig, get a little satisfaction. Overthrow this entire fucking system, get complete satisfaction.' All of our efforts are geared towards speeding up the impending victory of the people over u.s. imperialism. This is why violence against pigs and prisoncrats is a difficult question. Prisoners often find themselves in lose-lose situations. If they don't defend themselves, they die; if they do defend themselves, they die. Prisoners involved in rebellions are abused, lose privileges, face severe retaliation, and are often murdered. Still, there are situations where a stout but losing battle is better than nothing. The Attica Prison Rebellion is one case in point. MIM supports the Attica Prison Rebellion as an organized attempt to improve conditions for prisoners. It brought media attention to the problem and inspiration and hope to other prisoners (See MT5, "Losing Battles," p. 51). Note that one of the reasons the Attica rebellion was so effective was that prisoners were organized and united to some extent around a political line. This organization and unity was forged before the rebellion. MIM advocates that prisoners actively organize and educate themselves to determine the best way to struggle in prisons. Practice dialectical materialism and let theory lead your practice. Write to Under Lock and Key to expose the conditions of your struggle. Even in prison there is much room for nitty gritty legal struggle. But the bottom line is prisoners are in the trenches and it is they who will lead the struggle in prisons. MICHIGAN PRISONER WANTS TO BE TREATED LIKE A HUMAN BEING An Article was written on June 29, 1996 entitled: Call for prisoner to become politically motivated, and was printed in the Under Lock & Key's section of MIM Notes 121. RCG1 agreed with most of the article but was in disagreement with the article stating that prisoners ought to stop the violence among ourselves and become violent with our captors. Comrade RCG1 felt this was wrong and suggest that prisoners look at historically revolutionary figures such as George Jackson, and El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (a.k.a.: Malcolm X) and learn from the COINTELPRO war against the Black Panther Party (BPP). We agree with the historical look but we vehemently disagree with passivity. We have seen for too long how oppressors will not stop oppressing unless and until one stand up and be counted. No one is going to stop oppression by passive low-toned conversations. It is not going to happen. Comrade RCG1 is not in the death camps and thus, not experiencing the hardships comrades within the death kkkamps are experiencing. In fact, when the pigs slam a brotha against the wall and call in goon squad friends to help him bash a brothas head in, what are you suggesting one to do? Accept it? Are you saying that we should lick the boots of these racist pigs and not defend ourselves? Are you suggesting that we sit and wait for you or some other outside group to come and stop our heads from being bashed in? How do you figure? Even a dog has the right to defend itself from attach and we are saying is no different. We are saying that we should and must defend ourselves against the brutality that aggresses us. We are saying that we have a right to be treated as human being regardless of us being prisoners. The days of We Shall Overcome and accept being beaten, kicked, knocked down, spit upon and abused is over. Sure, we agree that conversation is always good but there comes a time when there is no room for talk, and that is all we are saying. We are not suggesting that comrades go crazy and start attacking pigs. However, we do say that if a pig assaults you or your brotha to defend yourselves by all and every means. Meantime, comrade RCG1, if you want to accept someone smashing you head in, then by all means accept it, but we aren't buying it. In the trenches --A Michigan Prisoner, 6 Dec. 96 AN EYE FOR AN EYE? A PIG FOR A PRISONER? More information about this situation in Texas can be found in MIM Notes, 131 "Texas Prison Activist Launches Hunger Strike" and MIM 135 in ULK , "Texas Prisoner exposes the Murder and Brutality in Prison." Sirs, I was very surprised to see in [MIM Notes] No. 131, page 10, The Texas Prison Activist Article because I was there in the fields less than 50 yards away Daniel was shot, in the head. Don't you know that boy's hands were raised in surrender when the bullet tore though his brain. That incident totally fucked me up. I saw a puff of red mist pop out of that dudes head and he hit the ground and did not move. And to top it off the Sergeant rides over with his horse, gets down and flips Daniel over and handcuffs him. How do we know that wasn't the move that killed Daniel. Now again 6 weeks ago, give or take some, an inmate by the name of Gary Crenshaw, had a major use of force done against him. At which time the pigs broke his neck. He is also dead. Both officers [who killed Gary] are still at work. Daniel's killer is also at work here still. Four or five weeks ago about 50 inmates stormed the front desk from the rec. yard and smashed down on seven pigs. (Good for us) I did get to be involved. Wish I could have seen how now I am suffering a major lockdown of all of us closed custody inmates. We should have killed two of theirs like they killed two of ours. Well Again, Thanx. In Struggle, --A Texas Prisoner, 12 Mar, 97 RACISM CAUSES REBELLION IN UTAH'S MAXIMUM SECURITY The Maximum Security wing of the Utah State Prison explodes with pent-up aggression and ugly hatred as the guards run for shields and gather reinforcements. This latest battle was small-scale and nothing new to the pigs who place racist skin heads and minority gang members on the same tier, knowing without a doubt that blood will be spilled as a result of the intolerance and stupidity of both parties involved. Instead of joining forces to make a stand against the murderous pig oppressors, the various hostage groups held captive inside of this hate factory would rather fight amongst themselves for their racist ideology. By word of mouth and whatever literature I receive it is my intention to open minds up to the ideology of the Communist beliefs. I struggle to spread the word and to gather comrades together to stand equal in unity. The goose-stepping pigs who keep us under lock and key spread hate, fear, and terrorize the people. It is because of Mr. and Mrs. Pig that the hate and intolerance level is at an all time high here in this facility. The pigs will not prevail! Comrades world-wide held hostage in dirty piss boxes will not be silenced. From sea to polluted sea we shall rise and revolt. With mass assistance from our Brothers and Sisters in the Anarchist, Green and other Anti-Pig movements, we will be victorious in our struggle. These Utah pigs are totally out of control. This Utah state Prison (KKKlansville) is so out of line that it's even taking verbal heat from the big pigs at the state's capital. You are not forgotten. We shall not be silenced. --A Utah Prisoner, 8 Mar. 97 MIM NOTES: Many anarchists are indeed allies in the struggle against imperialism. But we have strong disagreements with them about how to make revolution. For more information check out MIM Theory #8, "The Anarchist Ideal and Communist Revolution." VIRGINIA REBELLION Dear MIM: On December 26, 1996, an inmate stabbed a Warden. Thereafter, at least 200 inmates gathered on the recreation yard in unity. All the staff members exited, for safety, into the watch commander's office. The law library was destroyed, regular library, gym and grievance division damaged, and the commissary looted, during the incident. In the front entrance to the dining hall, the officer in the master control room deliberately and intentionally pushed the control button opening the gate. The officer attempted to shut it. As inmates stopped him, the racist H. Ponton directly shot 4 inmates, wounding them in the hand, torso, back and chest. These were 2 officers armed, 2 dogs and other members standing and controlling the entrance area. As the inmates asked for medical attention, he forced them to lay on the ground and then handcuffed them. He directed the medical staff out of the facility. The process taken: no visitation, no telephone calls, tampering of out- going mail and legal mail, [and] no money orders. Prisoners receiving money orders in the mail as of Dec. 20, 1996 have not received a receipt. Two inmates must be separately handcuffed in the cells as one can leave while the other remain to take a shower under 3 officers [supervision]. it was required that under the new Federal Court hearing, the facility must comply with issuing balanced meal, but to no avail have they acted. Armed officers with dogs escort prisoners to other sections in the facility. No cleaning supplies for cells, no inmate workers, unsanitary conditions remain. Staff makes walk-bys or security checks every 2-3 hours. the regular housing block, 950 total, built for 500. There was no violence before the uprising. Within his 5 months as Warden there have been 3 lockdowns. Staff act highly disrespectful and no disciplinary action is taken. Inmates served institution warrants do not have the right to ask for witnesses. On October 15, 1996, an officer claimed that inmates attempted to hang him and robbed him. It was false. -- A Virginia Prisoner, 3 Jan. 97 ACTS OF VIOLENCE IN VIRGINIA Greetings Comrades: I write you from Buckingham prison camp where there was cause to celebrate. The overseer warden being served his daily bread on Dec. 26, 1996. Prisoners reacted to this situation: burned the library which took five hours to put out, and the commissary was expropriated (looted and vandalized). Prison guards were attacked - prison flunkies didn't [expect] this - Virginia's prisoners reacting to their oppression. On May 4, 1996, a prisoner at Maklenburg Correctional Center stabbed a guard in apparent retaliation for the stun gunning days earlier, of a prisoner in the yard. In July 1996, two more guards were stabbed about nine times at Greenville Correctional Center. On July 6, 1996, there was a fracas between prisoners and prison guards at the prison's segregation unit recreation yard at the Nottoway Correctional Center. During which time it is alleged several guards suffered superficial wounds, and a number of prisoners say they were cornered and beaten. On Aug. 9, 1996, two guards were stabbed at Nottoway and four hostages were taken. More than 250 prisoners rioted. One day later, prisoners set fire to a building forcing the evacuation of 56. Only one of these Aug. 9, incidents, the hostage standoff, was reported to the public. Since Dec. 26, 1996, prisoners have been given very small portions of food. No telephone calls until Jan. 9, 1997. Visitation has been suspended since Dec. 26, 97. The Department of Incorrections had its strike force and canine units within the compound for intimidation. If prisoners had to be escorted to the prison infirmary, the dogs were used to escort prisoners along with prison guards. The canine units were discontinued on or about Jan. 18, 97. The restrictions of what prisoners cannot have, beginning 1-1997, concerning property: no typewriters, 1 pair of tennis shoes, state clothing exclusively, 5 inch TV sets, no more 12 inch screens. This is a concept that has been in planning stages along with social cutbacks. Solidarity, --A Virginia Prisoner, 18 Jan. 97 AFTERMATH OF OCTOBER 1995 REBELLIONS THROUGH-OUT THE FED BOP As you may be aware on or around Oct. 18th, 1995 the U.S. Congress shot down passage of a bill that would have balanced out the disparity in the sentencing laws for Crack-Cocaine, a bias law that has victimized an extremely large portion of minorities, mainly African-Americans and Latinos. Whereas, all the whites arrested/convicted for Crack sales have resulted in State cases Vs. Federal cases and longer sentences for the minorities. On Oct. 19th, 1995, in the Federal Correction Institution - Talladega, Alabama, a rebellion occurred. [Which resulted in] nearly seven million dollars in property damage and numerous injuries for both staff and inmate alike. This was the beginning of a rash of rebellions which began to occur instantaneously through-out the Federal Bureau of Prisons. (There are nearly 90 federal institutions across the U.S.) On October 20th, 1995, the Director of the b.o.p. sent a communiqué to the Wardens of all secured institutions, ordering a nation-wide lock-down. Some of the rebellions occurred before the lock- down, at the announcement of the lock-down, and after inmates were released from lock-down. Around Jan. 1996, the b.o.p. designed a program to further punish the alleged main participants of the rebellions (as all of those found guilty received various sanctions from the discipline hearing officer in the range of loss of good-time, time in disciplinary segregation and disciplinary transfer.) and to deter the non-participants from massive rebellions in the future. They designed ten institutions that would house 465 inmates (alleged main participants) for up to one year. These institutions are being run in CONTROL UNIT fashion, whereas: inmates are on lockdown status 22 _ hours a day, inmates must be shackled upon leaving their cells for any reason, visits are non-existent, being that everyone was sent to institutions on the opposite of the u.s. from their legal residence, and we are allowed one 15 minute phone call a month. The Control Unit has always been used for BEHAVIOR MODIFICATIONS purposes and the general methods that are still utilized to achieve the objective are: 1. ISOLATION - Deprives inmates of all social supports of his ability to resist, in turn causing him/her to become dependent upon correctional staff. 2. MONOPOLIZATION OF PERCEPTION - Fixes attention upon immediate predicament; foster introspect. Eliminates stimuli completing with those controlled by staff. Frustrates all actions not consistent with compliance. 3. SLEEP DEPRIVATION - Bright lights, or darkness, barren environment, restricted movement, and monotonous food, slamming of doors, shaking of keys loudly in front of an inmate's cell, loud clicking of handcuffs as passes an inmate's cell. 4. DEGRADATION - Denial of privacy. Insults and taunts makes cost of resistance appear more damaging to self-esteem than capitulation. Reduces inmates to "animal level" concerns. 5. OCCASIONAL INDULGENCES - Occasional favors, fluctuations of interrogation attitudes, promises, rewards for partial compliance, tantalizing. 6. DEMONSTRATING "OMNIPOTENCE" - Confrontation staff to inmates, pretending co-operation taken for granted, broken promises, demonstrating complete control over an inmate's fate. There are 25 of us at this institution for alleged riot participation. Being under these conditions creates instances of "double jeopardy," as we have already served sanctions for our alleged wrong acts and being on lock-down for one year was not one the sanctions melted out to any of us. However the b.o.p. has attempted to cover themselves from legal attack on these grounds by claiming, "they have no bed-space at the HIGH institutions to house us and once bed-space is available we will be designated." This is the official position of the b.o.p., but upon arrival here and at the other institutions the staff made it know that we would be held here for punishment up to one year and that we have nothing coming, and that each time we violate any rule the year will re-start from the date of the infraction. During the later part of June 1996, we were told that due to structuring problems at the High (presently being constructed) institution in Beaumont, TX that we would be here for 18 - 24 months. This information created a "food strike," which lasted four days and one inmate didn't eat for 10 days and became ill. He was force fed in a brutal manner by staff and repeatedly threatened by staff. These type of situations are occurring at all ten of the institutions that are housing 465 of us. In between Oct. 19, 1995 and April 1996, many inmates were brutally beaten by staff without provocation, as retaliation for their alleged involvement in the rebellions. These beatings have been silenced and no charges, administratively nor criminally have resulted in the staff on inmate assaults. However, a large number of inmates were charged in federal court with MUTINY, ASSAULT, AND DESTRUCTION OF GOVERNMENT PROPERTY. The staff continue to mentally and physically abuse us, and pit other inmates (we are housed with pre-trial detainees) against us by telling them we are the reason for them being locked-down at this institution, we're vicious killers, etc. We (all 465 of us) are placed in a hazardous, biased, unconstitutional and subjective situation simply because of our skin color. For the most part many of the administrative staff, at many of the institutions which had rebellions, over-played the rebellion situations. And to put themselves in better position for promotion, they targeted inmates who were not wanted at their institution for whatever reason and gave them up as agitators or leaders of the rebellion, when there was no evidence to support these findings other than fabricated evidences. It is a well known fact, that the crack-cocaine laws have suppressed a large percentage of minorities. The longer sentences are in fact stagnating out reproductive years and creating a genocide against the people. This is a crime in itself, but the ones instituting the laws are apparently ABOVE THE LAW, as no one has been charged for its implementation. Prisons have become BIG business and I say it's time that someone take a closer look at the matter There has been a media black-out on this situation even though there is a major need for public exposure, as their tax dollars are involved in a large way. Many of us accused of involvement have supported many organization, Famm, Million Man March, Cure, etc. but we have received little or no support in return. Has solidarity died in these times of mass prison building? Thus far there have been three legal challenges to the incident reports and about four more challenges forthcoming. It's my hope to re-alert the people to the after-math of the b.o.p. riots and to see if we can generate some form of support Free the Land! Respectfully, --A Federal Prisoner, 8 Dec. 97 ***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.