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 141 JULY 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. GERONIMO FREE AT LAST! STRUGGLE AGAINST AMERIKA REPRESSION CONTINUES 2. WEST AFRICAN COUP UPSETS IMPERIALISM, PRESENTS POTENTIAL REVOLUTIONARY OPPORTUNITY 3. LETTERS 4. EAST TIMOR REBELLION INCREASED AMID BOGUS INDONESIAN ELECTIONS 5. SETTLER INTERESTS PROPEL NEW YORK PRISON CONSTRUCTION 6. NEW REPORT OFFERS TORTURE UNIT INFORMATION 7. SENECA NATION STRUGGLE AGAINST NEW YORK CONTINUES 8. FIRST NATIONS USE KANADIAN MONEY TO EXPOSE GENOCIDE 9. ARGENTINA DIVIDE BETWEEN RICH AND POOR GROWS: PROTESTS FORCE GOVERNMENT CONCESSIONS 10. NEWSFLASH: CIA RUINED BOURGEOIS DEMOCRACY IN GUATEMALA 11. BUSINESS AS USUAL AT HARVARD ECONOMICS 12. ARTIST EXPOSES FBI FRAMEUP OF ED POINDEXTER AND DAVID RICE 13. FBI CANCELS CALIFORNIA RECRUITING SESSION IN THE FACE OF MIM/RAIL-LED STUDENT PROTEST 14. AMERIKAN "JUST-US" SYSTEM APOLOGIZES FOR POLICE BRUTALITY 15. AMERIKA IGNORES THE MASSES' NEEDS: AIDS RATE SOARS BEHIND BARS 16. INJUSTICE SYSTEM LETS WHITE PIG OFF 17. DENNIS BRUTUS JOINS EVENT TO BENEFIT BOOKS FOR PRISONERS 18. MARXISM-LENINISM-MAOISM ONLINE 19. FRENCH ELECTIONS EXPOSE HYPOCRISY OF SO-CALLED COMMUNISTS 20. U.$.-SOUTH KOREAN REGIME ROCKED BY STUDENT PROTEST 21. 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 * * * GERONIMO FREE AT LAST! STRUGGLE AGAINST AMERIKA REPRESSION CONTINUES by MC234 On June 10, Geronimo ji Jaga Pratt, a Black Panther Party leader, was set free on $25,000 bail after 27 years in prison for a murder he didn't commit. Two weeks earlier, a judge overturned his conviction because the prosecution didn't notify the defense that the key witness against Pratt was also a FBI informant. That, and many other trial irregularities were the tools of the FBI's war against the Black Panther Party and this important California BPP leader. Pratt was set free while prosecutors try to get the judge's decision to throw out the conviction overturned. If this effort fails, the prosecution can still attempt to retry Pratt. After 27 years of agitation by Pratt and his supporters, the truth about Pratt's framing by the FBI and his whereabouts (hundreds of miles from the murder in question) is well documented. A second trial would be very difficult for the FBI and prosecutors to win. The government fears a free Pratt, as his revolutionary politics and his story of his framing are dangerous weapons against the apartheid Amerikan government. Originally sentenced to 25 years to life in prison, he has been turned down for parole 16 times. Eldridge Cleaver, the former Black Panther Party Minister of Information called the decision to release Pratt "a great testimony both to the ultimate working of our judicial system and also to his endurance." The first part of Cleaver's statement shows that Cleaver didn't have revolutionary endurance. In this case, Pratt survived incarceration and remained a revolutionary, whereas Cleaver quickly degenerated in the 1970s, dropping Maoist nationalist politics and taking up Christianity instead. The Black Panther Party in its day would never have called one small victory a "testimony the ultimate working of our judicial system". While the BPP would and MIM does celebrate this victory for the people, neither organization has any confusion that this victory was won by force of the people in the court of the enemy. MIM instead understands that this new trial is only the result of sustained public outcry and exhaustive legal work on the part of Pratt's advocates. It is sometimes possible for progressives to win individual battles like this within the belly of the beast, even at this stage in the struggle when the imperialists are stronger than the revolutionaries. The very fact that Pratt spent so many years in prison for the crime of being a leader of the Maoist Black Panther Party makes it clear that there is no integrity in the criminal injustice system. The prison system serves as a tool for social control for the imperialist state. MIM applauds this victory in Pratt's case and reminds everyone that there are over 1.5 million other people languishing behind bars including many political leaders imprisoned for their political work and beliefs. We have to be careful to always place these important cases of repression against political leaders in the context of a system that criminalizes poverty and defends imperialism. While fighting for the freedom of political leaders like Pratt we must also fight against the repression of the entire criminal injustice system. We can not give the imperialists the victory of calling Pratt's case unusual as if such repression were not a common part of the criminal injustice system. Geronimo Pratt's comments upon his release correctly focus on the work ahead of us: "It's madness in there [prison]. You have political prisoners on top of political prisoners. I'm only one of a great many that should be exposed, should be addressed." * * * WEST AFRICAN COUP UPSETS IMPERIALISM, PRESENTS POTENTIAL REVOLUTIONARY OPPORTUNITY by an MC and two RAIL comrades The military coup waged against the Sierra Leonean government at the end of May by a combined force of the army, the rebel Revolutionary United Front(RUF) and some freed prisoners has been roundly condemned by international imperialism and its neo-colonial allies in Africa -- particularly the regionally dominant military government of Nigeria and the West African "Peace Monitoring" group ECOMOG. Sierra Leone is one of the poorest countries in the world though its land is rich in diamonds and minerals long exploited by English, South African and other imperialists. While MIM knows little about the RUF and the coup leaders' line and agenda, we condemn the imperialist military intervention in Sierra Leone and the hypocrisy of imperialists labeling the RUF and coup leaders as "terrorists" and "looters" when the nation has been consistently looted by imperialism since its formal English colonial days. Imperialist intervention has held up the screen of restoring democracy to the West African nation. Sierra Leone is now, along with Nigeria, part of the Commonwealth of Nations that comprise the modern day English empire. The so-called democratically elected government of President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah had been in power for little more than a year when it was overthrown. The RUF first took up arms against the government in 1991. This struggle (and its repression by the government) has claimed the lives of more than 10,000 people. Kabbah's was the first civilian government in Sierra Leone in 30 years.(1) The coup came after months of Kabbah's repeated violations of a peace treaty he signed with the RUF in November of 1996. Kabbah used hired thugs instead of the military to fight the RUF. According to the Panafrican News Agency, use of this so-called alternate military and the special treatment it received ultimately turned the regular army against the government, and helped garner support for the coup leaders. Kabbah had also contracted with the notoriously vicious "Executive Outcomes," a South African mercenary outfit, to fight the RUF and seize the diamonds under its control.(2) IMPERIALISM ATTACKS VIA NIGERIA With open support from the neo-colonial governments that make up the Organization of African Unity (OAU) -- including Mandela's South Africa -- and the United Nations, Nigerian naval forces assaulted the capital city of Freetown at the beginning of June, killing nearly 100 Sierra Leoneans.(3) "Maj. Gen. Victor Malu, the Nigerian commander of ... ECOMOG, described Monday's fighting -- which left at least 53 dead -- as 'skirmishes.' The real operation to flush out Koroma has yet to begin, he warned."(4) In response to the attack, according to Reuter news, "several thousand people [waving] placards and bunches of leaves as a sign of peace protested against the Nigerians, saying they did not support the May 25 military coup, but they opposed any foreign interference."(5) Amerikkka, England and other Western imperialist countries had evacuated more than 1,000 of their citizens from Freetown before the closure of air and water space around Sierra Leone by the new government. Said one U.$. State Department official, "We have not taken a position of direct support for the Nigerians. But we do support the ambition, the objective, that the rebels cannot win."(6) Under the control of multi-national capitalist organizations like the IMF and the World Bank, regional powers like the Nigerian government represent imperialism's interests, and do its local dirty work. So the United Snakes may pretend to be "neutral" about this military attack, but Nigeria is not itself an imperialist nation capable of exerting regional hegemony without U.$. and other imperialist backing. According to the Heritage Foundation, U.$. aid to Nigeria in 1996 was $26.8 million excluding IMF loans.(7) Before the coup, there was at least one battalion of Nigerian troops and some military advisors in Sierra Leone under a military pact between the Nigerian government and overthrown president Kabbah, according to the Panafrican News Agency (PANA). Nigeria's invasion is likely the government holding up its end of the deal. According to the CIA World Fact Book, "The mining of diamonds, bauxite, and rutile is the major source of hard currency [in Sierra Leone]." The Fact Book goes on to say that "the government has worked hard to meet its IMF-and World Bank- mandated stabilization targets, holding down fiscal deficits, and retiring much of its domestic debt -- but at a steep cost in terms of forgone capital investments and social spending."(8) Under these conditions, it is ridiculous to speak of the Kabbah government as a democracy. The new regime is led by Maj. Johnny Paul Koromah and the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC). "Koromah named the head of the six-year-old rural rebel movement, Col. Foday Sankoh, as his deputy. He appointed three members of Sankoh's movement to the council, and at least seven army officers and a handful of civilians."(9) The neo-colonial state in a very poor country is inherently weak; seizing power in a coup that is not part of an overall revolution does not mean there has been a deep change in the power structure. A genuine revolution against imperialist-backed forces is a national liberation struggle in many areas of society -- including but not limited to state power in the capital. So the coup in Sierra Leone probably cannot be described as a revolution even if the RUF/AFRC are revolutionary. However, overthrowing the existing state power definitely opens up a revolutionary opportunity for the RUF or AFRC or some other revolutionary force. MIM is hopeful that the people of Sierra Leone will be able to use this opportunity to move in the direction of true national liberation, and we urge all supporters of the people to oppose imperialist intervention in the country. NOTES: 1.Mail And Guardian, 6 June 1997; http://www.africanews.org/west/sierraleone/1997060 2 _feat2.html 2.http://www.africanews.org/west/sierraleone/19970 6 06_feat2.html 4. http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9706/06/sierra.leone.ap/i n dex.html 5. Reuter, 2June 1997. 6. Reuter, 3June 1997. 8. http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/nsolo/factboo k /sl.htm 9. Washington Post Online, 2 June 1997. * * * LETTERS EBONICS DEBATE CONTINUED MIM: You all know or rather should know that I support any progressive revolutionary movement. But you have me so angry it really doesn't make sense. My outrage comes from your support of Ebonics. I really can't believe you all would support such a backwards political plot set out by these fascist lackeys. Because if you look at it, it's reactionary from beginning to end. OK they want to make this an official language for us Black People. That is a complete slap in our faces. Because it is in a notion of regression. As we all know this "broken English" was originated by our Afrikan ancestors who were denied access to learning anything except how to labor and how to kiss the slave master's ass. They were not "dumb" or "stupid" people. They just lacked the sources and the proper training to master this "bullshit" language. And at the time is was a strategic move by the slave owners. Because the best slave was an ignorant slave! So to keep the slaves ignorant was the key to keeping them slaves. Once the slaves were legally allowed to read, things started changing very quick. And I hate to say it but that was another one of their plots. And that was to make education accessible to Black people for the sole purpose of integration. (Let them integrate and we still can make money off of their labor). But one good thing that it did do was that it allowed Black people the opportunity to know and challenge oppressive tactics before they were even put in effect. Good example is the right to bare arms. The Black Panther Party stressed this to the people, because you had people who couldn't read who were thinking if they carry a gun they would get locked up. Now say ten years from now someone is raised by this Ebonics. Do you think he/she would be able to pick up a law book and understand it??? Not that I care about this so-called LAW. But do you think it could be done??? I don't think so! And you can bet those fascist who run this country are not gonna change their writs & legislatives for Ebonic understanding people. I could see if they said OK we're gonna let Swahili be the official language of Black people in the U.S. because this is something that really is Our history. "Broken English" is a part or our history that isn't even 600 years old. And what the hell is so good about it that would make us say we cherished it??? Really I don't care to much about the English language. But I just hate to see a people being taught ignorance is the best way to become excellent. It's a political strategic move to stop the Black kids from learning too much. Because the same teachers who learn slang today are gonna be lost tomorrow. Because slang changes with each generation. I shall end my missive on this note: When little white girls and boys were talking that "Valley Talk" and "Surf Slang" did you hear anybody ready to make it an official language for white people??? And I'm not just a S.C. Prisoner. My name is Damue... which means Blood in Swahili... --A South Carolina Prisoner, 10 Feb. 97 MIM RESPONDS: This letter writer raises some contradictory arguments in his/her opposition of Ebonics. First s/he says that Ebonics will lead to Black people not being able to understand law books and other such things but then s/he says it would be ok if Swahili was the official language of Blacks because this really is Black history. But history has created a new nation within U.S. borders that is not African but instead has its own national features. Just because this Black nation has not existed as long as those in Africa does not make it any less legitimate. It is the history of the oppression of the Black nation that has created the language spoken by the people. It is also this history that has created a distinct Black nation, separate from the African nations. MIM supports the recognition of Ebonics because this represents a small recognition of the Black nation as a separate nation from whites. We do encourage Blacks and all oppressed people to learn and use as much from the oppressor nation as possible. But we agree with the letter writer's opposition to integration. We see the best opposition to this integrationist strategy is the organizing for revolutionary national liberation of the distinct nations within U.S. borders. This includes the recognition that these nations have a distinct national culture, language, economy and territory. DON'T FORGET YOUR MIM NOTES SUBSCRIPTION ***A year subscription to MIM Notes is $20 but this newspaper does not have any corporate sponsors or multinational advertisers and we need your help. Follow the example of this comrade and order or renew your subscription today.*** Dear Friends, Enclosed is $50 to renew my subscription to MIM Notes for one year. Keep the change. Gratefully yours, -- a comrade in the East CORRECTION: The headline "L.A. Rally commemorates 1980 U.$. Kwangju Massacre" in MIM Notes 141 (July 1, 1997) was incorrect. The rally referred to in the article took place at Chosun University in Korea. * * * EAST TIMOR REBELLION INCREASES AMID BOGUS INDONESIAN ELECTIONS In Indonesia, the ruling party of the dictator Suharto has just won its sixth election victory since 1971 with 74% of the vote (1). Though this statistic might sound like a mandate for his power, these elections are anything but democratic. The pro-Independence forces of occupied East Timor have been especially good at exposing the lack of democracy. They also engage in armed rebellion in order to occupy police and at disrupt the sham elections. This is how the Indonesian elections work. First, the government exercises extreme control over the entire population by carefully controlling the domestic media and arresting people who listen to foreign radio.(2) Then it restricts the elections themselves. Only two other parties were allowed by the government to run. Government critics were charged with subversion or barred from running for the 425 seats in parliament, and the other 75 seats in parliament are reserved for the military.(3) Finally, when the elections come around anyone trying to protest them faces brutal repression. Indonesia occupies East Timor and has murdered over a third of the population since the invasion in 1971. The ongoing rebellion of the East Timorese people against this U.$.- and Australian- backed occupation has inspired national liberation movements worldwide.(4) During this election the Timorese rebels were especially active, staging attacks in a number of towns. This resistance meets with brutal repression from the Indonesian military and tight security throughout East Timor. Pro- Independence rebels from the group Fretilin - - a revolutionary nationalist organization (5) -- staged a May 31 attack on a police truck that killed 16 officers and a soldier returning from "protecting" a polling place. (What this sort of militarized "protection" of polling places accomplishes is threat of force against the people if they vote the occupiers down.) Election-related protest by Fretilin has resulted in 36 deaths in total, including nine civilians, five rebels and 22 policemen and soldiers.(5) The state has responded with 130 arrests of alleged Fretilin members.(6) Maoists have always been strong advocates of national self- determination, and unlike many pacifists working on this issue strongly support the struggle of the East Timorese to their nationhood by any means necessary. People's war is necessary if the East Timorese are to secure real self-determination. NOTES: 1. Reuters North American Wire, 8 June 1997. 2. The British Broadcasting Corporation, 6 June 1997. 3. Boston Globe, 30 May, p.A19. 4. For more of the military support by the U$ see MIM Notes 136, 15 April 1997, p. 4. 5. For more info on Fretilin, see for example MIM Notes 61, 96, 102, and 108. 6. Agence France Presse, 9 June 1997. * * * SETTLER INTERESTS PROPEL NEW YORK PRISON CONSTRUCTION by a RAIL comrade New York governor George Pataki recently proposed a plan for increased construction of prisons. The plan includes 6,950 new prison beds and three new maximum security prisons housing 1,500 prisoners each.(1) On May 14th, prison guards rallied in support the proliferation plan. As the state steps up construction on methods to oppress Amerika's internal colonies and strengthen social control, prison guard unions finally step up their activism – activism to support these methods of repression in order to swell their pockets. The rally was focused against Democratic opposition to Pataki's plans. Assembly Democrats claimed that Pataki had overestimated the state's need for new facilities, claiming incarcerations are not increasing that fast. But Democrats proved that the republican agenda is not really different when revealed their juvenile crime proposals. Both sides agreed that the sentence for murder should be at least doubled. They also agreed on conceding more power to the court in juvenile cases. Democrats included rehabilitation programs in their proposal, which would "require a psycho-social assessment when a youth enters the system, establish rural training camps and formalize and strengthen post-release supervision."(2) While Pataki wants to send violent 16-year-olds to adult prisons, Democrats want a 400-bed super-maximum facility for juveniles and a 75-bed "shock incarceration" facility. No matter which combination of physical containment and oppression the state chooses, the effects will be about the same. Either way more kids are going to spend more time locked up and doped up -- creating a larger population of young people with no opportunities. Similarly, it is inevitable that more prisons will be built to fuel the ever-growing prison industry, regardless of which party claims victory. If you want to see the capitalists' true attitude toward the Amerikan prison system just check out New York State's Corcraft webpage at . This web page serves as a catalogue to merchandise the many fine products the state's prisoners are producing. As soon as you sign on you'll see Pataki's smiling face and a guarantee of the "pride" put into producing these products. Whoever is proud of this show of entrepreneurship, it sure isn't the thousands of prisoners working for wages far below minimum wage. Still, slave labor is only a minor benefit that is reaped by the snakes perpetuating this system. The oppression of the Black, Latinos, and First Nations is inherent in this demand for more prisons. Even some Democrats have recognized that "a get-tough plan for juveniles will inordinately punish minority youths."(3) Meanwhile, settler nation interests are further fulfilled in the building and maintaining of these new facilities. One piece of government propaganda was put out by the Law Enforcement Officers Union which read, "BUILD IT. THEY ARE COMING.", with a picture of a prison hall in the middle. It goes on to say that the new prisons are not for projected prisoners, rather prisoners that are already on their way to jail because of recent legislation. The ad urges you to ignore why there are so many new prisoners and whose interests that serves, and instead just support the building of new prisons. Meanwhile, bourgeois politicians will have you believe that it is this increase in incarceration that has brought down crime rates. But more often than not, prison time will decrease a persyn's opportunity to survive without breaking Amerika's laws. It is better social conditions that lower crime rates not locking people in horrible living conditions. The Union's ad implies that it is too late, and that the only thing we can do is build more jails to accommodate for what the state has done. Meanwhile the state defends itself by claiming to have lowered crime rates. It may be too late to prevent the building of these jails, but it is never too late to break the system which is committing genocide through gulags and police occupation and murder. As the goals and results of imperialism become more clear we must use this to our advantage to gain the attention of the people who are brutally oppressed. It is not too late, but the construction, enslavement, and oppression will not end until the people join together to overthrow the system that thrives on these actions. NOTES: 1. Times Union. 15 May 1997, p.B-2. 2. Times Union. 29 May 1997, p.A-1. 3. The Legislative Gazette. 2 June 1997, p.27. 4. Times Union. 5 June 1997, p.A-13. * * * NEW REPORT OFFERS TORTURE UNIT INFORMATION The Monitoring Project of the National Campaign to Stop Control Unit Prisons has produced an interim report, The Use of Control Unit Prisons in the United States, which provides a great resource of information on these torture units. The report is organized by state with information on how many control units each state has, the conditions of confinement, placement criteria, exit criteria, location of the control units and contact information for both the DOC and monitoring activists when available. Anyone interested in finding out what is going on in their state, or interested in looking at the systematic use of control units across the U$ should get a copy of this report. The National Campaign to Stop Control Unit Prisons was formed in December of 1994. As they state in the introduction "We all understood that we were looking at a galloping and dangerous trend, but none of us knew its extent." The group is both an activist and monitoring organization. The introduction to the resource gives some important background on control units: "It is clear that the use of isolation has expanded considerably. It is equally clear that the behavior modification control unit experiment has resulted in the building of thousands and thousands of isolation/sensory deprivation cages in "Supermax" prisons. This report does not identify who is housed in these units, but our anecdotal information is revealing. Currently this form of isolation is clearly used for political prisoners and prisoner activists, and for jailhouse lawyers. We are also seeing a disproportionate number of the mentally ill, including young people whose emotional state has become critical as a result of this enforced desolation. Isolation is also frequently used for death row prisoners. Perhaps the fastest growing population to find themselves suddenly living in these control unit-model cells are the very young who have received extraordinarily long sentences. They are often charged with alleged "gang-related" activity. We have also had reports of one such unit in a juvenile facility, and another in a county jail. Clearly then, we are looking at a deliberate and concerted movement to force an increasing number of men and women prisoners to live in the most unnatural and unimaginable conditions." There are only five states in the country that do not appear to operate control units. (This is not certain because the classification methods used by various states made it very difficult for the activists to collect accurate information in many states). These five states are Georgia, Montana, Nebraska, North Carolina, and Vermont. MIM agrees with the National Campaign activists on the importance of fighting the repression of control units and a crucial part of this fight is having information on the enemy. To get involved in MIM and RAIL activism against the criminal injustice system contact your local distributor. To get a copy of this report or to participate in this monitoring project write to Bonnie Kerness at the American Friends Service Committee, 972 Broad Street, Newark, New Jersey 07102. * * * SENECA NATION STRUGGLE AGAINST NEW YORK CONTINUES by an RC New York State has continued to press for a sales tax on tobacco and gasoline sold to U.$. citizens on First Nation territory. Although conflict between New York State and the Seneca Nation has reached a climax and calmed down, the issue remains unresolved. In light of recent incidents, a comrade visited Cattaraugus territory. The Seneca territory is comprised of rural, low-cost housing and less than a dozen gas station/smoke shops. These shops are the Senecas' means of surviving under the imperialist system. Foreign banks' refusal to grant loan or mortgages keeps members of the Seneca nation in housing they can only pay for in full. UNREPORTED POLICE BRUTALITY The bourgeois press was reluctant to report on the constant presence of state troopers during the blockade of Seneca territory. But members of the nation were very willing to expose police occupation to neutralize the Nation. The area was under constant, heavy police patrol throughout the period of the blockade. There were many confrontations between protesters and police, including many Seneca arrests. During the occupation, the troopers would drive by flashing spotlights and whooping; making "war cries." There was also an incident on the Akron territory where a cop performed a hit and run on a First Nation member, fortunately the victim was all right. The police actively interfered in the lives of the whole nation. There were periods when no one was allowed through the road blocks. Children were not allowed to go to school and dialysis patients could not receive treatment. Ambulances from outside the territory were stopped and not allowed in -- leaving the nation with one ambulance for emergencies. A volunteer firefighter with whom RAIL talked said she and others were stopped and harassed by armed troopers. Even more ridiculous was the story of a preschool bus that was stopped by a police blockade. When the cops got on the bus they asked for ID from the 3 to 5-year old children. During the blockade an older womyn began videotaping the cops' activities. They immediately tried to chased her away. She refused to stop. A neighbor went out to help her but was ordered to leave. The pigs claimed he had entered the nation from outside, but his house is clearly located on Seneca territory. Children who lived near the roadblock reported being threatened by the cops numerous times. After the blockade ended, pigs continued to stop trucks from entering the Nation by stopping them at the NY border with Pennsylvania. Meanwhile troopers drove into gas station parking lots to intimidate. After the arrest of numerous protesters, state officials offered to drop the charges if the Senecas would sign a treaty giving NY the right to control the nation's economy. The people responded by filing brutality charges against the cops. The police present at the rally came in full riot gear, ready for a confrontation. The cops had charged the crowd of protesters with batons, shields, and helmets. The nation is also filing a civil suit against the state to gain justice for the children who were not allowed to go to school. SUPPORT FOR SENECA AGAINST BLOCKADE THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES The Seneca Nation itself is united against New York State imperialist attacks. As they work to prevent the state from stealing everything they have left, the Seneca have gained support of many neighbors because of the role of Senecas in the local economy. The blockade had a harsh effect on neighboring restaurants and businesses because the Nation serves as a tourist attraction with its tax-free gas and tobacco. Also local businesses depend on the patronage of Seneca nation members which was decreased because of the blockade. One persyn reported that over 5,000 postcards and petitions were sent in protest, between the Senecas and these supporters. One store was handing out slips of paper with Gov. Pataki's phone number on it. The number was flooded with so many calls that Pataki's office stopped taking calls regarding the tax issue. [MIM adds: But we do not rely on the fair-weather support of the white nation for the struggles of the oppressed. It is true that in cases like this, the interests of the white nation and the oppressed nations sometimes intersect – we support the oppressed using the white nation's interests to the advantage of anti-imperialism.] Faced with strong unity, the state continues to resort to deceitful ways of winning this struggle. NY state has tried holding First Nation people as ransom in an effort to get them to sign the treaty. The state also resorts to negotiating with lackeys when it cannot sit down with legitimate representatives of the people. The Senecas have been forced to continuously listen to the state say one thing and do the other, as they live in fear of the future of their land and future. The state says that it observes the treaties the U.$. has made with First Nations. But New York ignores its promise to grant the First Nations sovereignty, free of taxes. On May 22 Gov. Pataki publicly announced his wish to grant this 'right' to First Nations once again. As many watched to see Pataki's true intentions, he showed them on May 30 when he ordered the state to appeal the court ruling that stopped the tax collection. Pataki's spokeperson called it "just an effort to clarify the law" and said if the state wins "it wouldn't mean anything."(1) One Seneca womyn asked why the state is attacking them, is it "because we're a minority or supposed to be subservient to the state?" That seems to be Pataki's plans and all of the U.$. dealings with First Nations and other victims of imperialism. One persyn interviewed said the state never stepped in to protect family businesses from Wal- Mart but now they are suddenly interested in small businesses' competitive ability when the First Nations are the competitors. After seeing how the local businesses depend on the Seneca smoke shops, it is quite clear that those businesses are only an excuse to attack the First Nations. Both the introduction of large retailers such as Wal-Mart and the stealing of First Nation wealth help in the accumulation of capital by the imperialist nation. Many Senecas recognize that an economy supported by smoke shops and gasoline sales is not sustainable, but it is all they have. Even so they are willing to risk losing their jobs in order to maintain their land and their freedom. Over 130 people lost their jobs during the blockade period at one company visited. That didn't force them to sign the state's agreement. The Seneca nation is not going to back down in front of the imperialist power that threatens them. MIM and RAIL are building independent institutions of the oppressed as a means of supporting and promoting national liberation of the oppressed nations. We publish articles like this to build public opinion in favor of the just struggles of the oppressed. MIM and RAIL work to build our unity with the Seneca Nation and all First Nation people as we prepare to fight against the evil empire. NOTE: 1. The Buffalo News. 31 May 1997. * * * FIRST NATIONS USE KANADIAN MONEY TO EXPOSE GENOCIDE by MCB52 The Toronto Globe and Mail, Kanada's so-called "national" newspaper (which is in fact only "national" in the sense of serving the oppressor nation within Kanada, not its internal colonies) was very distressed by the claims of a certain report released recently. First Nations surrounded and occupied by Manitoba authored and distributed a report documenting the federal government's campaign of genocide against them. The genocide itself was not what got the Globe and Mail riled up; rather, the imperialist press was upset that they used Health Canada money to fund the project. The Globe and Mail's headline in their only article addressing the "Genocide in Canada" report showed an absurdly lopsided presentation of the harms done to each party in Kanada's imperialist history and practice toward the colonized First Nations: "Native's attack paid for by Ottawa: Aboriginals used Health Canada cash to send foreign embassies allegations of 'genocide'." The paper never explains why it deigns to keep the word genocide in quotes (while not putting in quotes the word attack), never bothering to actually refute what First Nations say about the reality of national oppression within Kanadian borders. To show us how far out the report is, the paper quotes Terrance Nelson, a councilor of the Roseau River First Nation (part of the Ojibwe nation), in the report: "The term genocide in this document is used to describe the results of modern-day Canadian policy and laws. Every year in Canada over one thousand indigenous people die in unnecessary, preventable, and unnatural deaths." Leaving all the harsh stuff in quotes, the Globe and Mail portrays it as too absurd to merit a response. Nelson's statement is actually entirely straight- forward. It refers to the conditions of a huge unemployment and incarceration rate, exacerbated by the pushing of alcohol on First Nations and then inadequate medical care. After not providing jobs for First Nation people, the Kanadian government then prevents them from creating their own jobs, raiding casinos and other profitable businesses to keep them from being too lucrative. The forced poverty and incarceration, and subsequent drug pushing, is modern-day genocide. About forty thousand Kanadian dollars from money allocated by Health Canada for the purpose of developing a community health plan for First Nations surrounded by southern Manitoba went into publishing the report. The Globe and Mail insinuates that this is off-topic to the development of a health program, but it is in fact central to improving the health of First Nations that we have a clear understanding of Kanada's genocidal actions. As for the report's distribution among the embassies, Nelson explained that this was also part of building that awareness: "I think the halo needs to get a little dimmer around here. Canada's been very, very vocal about human-rights violations in other countries. It's now the turn of these countries to look at what Canada's done in its own back yard." Rather than refuting the allegation of genocide, which would hardly be possible, the Globe and Mail makes a personal attack on Mr. Nelson and deflects attention to the Kanadian government's pressing charges against him over tax-free cigarettes. The paper does quote his correct response: "First nations must be allowed to exercise the rights they have without facing constant RCMP intervention." And so the paper's diversion gets right back to the central point of this and other indigenous issues, whether it is regarding information about health or control over the goods and services distributed on sovereign land: exposing, opposing, and building in opposition to imperialism is central to improving the condition First Nations across North America. NOTE: The Globe and Mail. 14 May 1997, p. 6. * * * ARGENTINA DIVIDE BETWEEN RICH AND POOR GROWS: PROTESTS FORCE GOVERNMENT CONCESSIONS by MC17 Since April there have been protests in Argentina against widespread poverty and unemployment. In early June, these escalated to a series of roadblocks in a number of provinces. In Jujuy province, the protesters won government concessions in the form of 12,000 new jobs in return for an end to the road blocks. But this settlement did not come before over 180 people were injured in clashes between the protesters and police. The more than 20 roadblocks across Argentina came in response to violent police action against shanty dwellers blocking a highway in Jujuy. State workers in Jujuy went on strike in sympathy with the roadblocks. There was also violence at an earlier roadblock by jobless oil workers in the province of Neuquen. In other recent protests, teachers went on a hunger strike over the education budget, and students took to the streets in Buenos Aires demanding more cash and action on jobs.(1) After two weeks of violence in Jujuy, student protests in Buenos Aires and nearby La Plata, and trouble in such other cities as Cordoba and Mendoza, the Peronist government offered some concessions to protesters in Jujuy. First it offered 1,500 jobs, then raised the offer to 10,000 low-paid, short-term jobs, and finally agreed on 12,000.(2,3) These protests forced President Carlos Menem to acknowledge some of the social problems in Argentina. But at the same time he condemned the protesters, saying that the bad conditions don't justify "extremist" actions.(4) Menem blamed the current 17.3 percent unemployment rate on old policies of previous governments which gave "artificial occupation to tens of thousands of people." But the Peronists have been in power in Argentina since 1989. These past eight years prove once more that despite claiming to be interested in the social welfare of the people, the followers of Juan Peron are just upholding another variation of imperialist domination. ECONOMIC BOOM MEANINGLESS FOR THE MAJORITY The government of Argentina has been publicizing its so-called victory in achieving financial stability and economic growth by pulling in many foreign investors. In Buenos Aires' financial district, foreign banks invested over $2.0 billion buying out Argentine banks in just two weeks.(5) In late May banking giant HSBC Holdings Plc said it will buy all of the local Roberts Group, including Banco Roberts, for between $600 million and $688 million. Days before, Spain's Banco Santander SA said it would buy 35.06 percent of Banco Rio for $594 million, giving it voting control. A couple of weeks earlier, Spain's Banco Bilbao Viscaya SA's Banco Frances bought 71.8 percent of retail bank Banco de Credito Argentino.(5) But the price stability being touted by the government has been accompanied by increased unemployment, poverty and inequality. Economist Miguel Angel Broda, writing in El Cronista, said that since 1974 the poorest 30 percent of society has seen its income drop 25 percent while the richest 10 percent's income has grown 31.5 percent. From 1994-96, the poorest 30 percent's income shrank 10.7 percent.(5) Some of the sugar and steel towns in Argentina are experiencing unemployment upwards of 37%.(2) This is added to the 14% underemployment rate.(6) While the imperialist lackeys in the Peronist government sell of the country to the highest international imperialist bidder, the people of the country suffer. This is the inevitable result of the expanse of monopoly capital into Third World countries. Capitalism is not good for the health and welfare of the people, it only serves to exploit the people, stealing their labor power so that the foreign capitalists can get rich. The only solution is a revolution to overthrow imperialist domination and install a Maoist-led socialist government. NOTES: 1. Reuters, 28 May 1997. 2. Reuters, 30 May 1997. 3. Reuters, 29 May 1997. 4. Reuters, 31 May 1997. 5. Reuters, 3 June 1997. 6. Inter Press Service, 27 May 1997. * * * NEWS FLASH: CIA RUINED BOURGEOIS DEMOCRACY IN GUATEMALA "After five years of promises, the CIA two weeks ago released a fraction of its classified files on the coup it ran in Guatemala in 1954." These documents prove what MIM and other communists have said about U.$. democracy -- that is democracy for the white and the rich, but Pentagon/CIA rule of the world's majority. The U.$. government claims to support "democracy" in the world, but it lies. It only supports elections when pro-U.S. puppets win, because the people of those countries have had their arms twisted enough to cry "Uncle! (Sam)" The people of Nicaragua recently re-experienced this strategy of Uncle Sam when other countries votes for politicians not quite favorable enough to U.$. imperialism. Now even the Boston Globe can admit the truth: "140,000 Guatemalan citizens died or disappeared during the 35 years of of civil war that followed the coup, most at the hands of a murderous military forced backed by the United States." The U.$. CIA overthrew President Jacobo Arbenz Guzman in June, 1954. Unlike the situation of most puppet governments in the Third World, the Arbenz government achieved power through elections. Documents just released show the United $tates organized the Guatemalan military to get rid of Arbenz, and that the United Fruit company was the main beneficiary. Often people ask MIM why be communists instead of democratic socialists. The coup in Guatemala in 1954 and the bloodshed that followed is a typical case why democratic socialism has no chance of working. It's to the point now where the United $tates only chooses from amongst various dictator puppets, supporting Marcos at one time or Noriega in Panama at another time only to get tired of them if they show the least bit of independence. The world's people are so used to this un- democratic state of affairs now that the Third World needs a lengthy stage of new democracy just to get used to the idea of being without imperialist rule. Without armed uprising prepared to deal with the U.$. military and CIA, the voice of the people cannot be heard. "Democratic socialism" becomes a fig-leaf excuse for majority rule of rich white people over the rest of the world. NOTE: Boston Globe 8 June 1997, p. d2. * * * HARVARD ECONOMICS PROFESSORS: BUSINESS AS USUAL MIM has long noted that at Harvard University there is no political science department, just "Government." There people train to become high- ranking government officials. They do not understand the science of political behavior except to the extent that it lands jobs in the U.$. government, which means understanding how to flatter the administration the right way. Now it turns out this is true of "economists" at Harvard as well, who should be named, "mode of production adjusters" or just investment experts, because even the U.$. government found itself embarrassed that a tenured Harvard professor named Andrei Shleifer was investing in Russia by making use of insider information he obtained from taking charge of the privatization of the government. For some time, a major center for the study of global political economy at Harvard has been an extension of the U.$. government. Old CIA money transferred to the AID found its way into the Harvard Institute for International Development(HIID). It is that HIID which just lost $14 million of a $57 million contract for consulting in the privatization of Russia. True, Harvard has a multi-billion dollar endowment and so it can afford to hire some professors to study things for their own sake while funded from what used to be apartheid profits and what today is just general super-exploitation. However, the government offers Harvard tens of millions at a time to do work on this or that project, so Harvard goes beyond its endowment's possibilities and becomes more and more an extension of the government, just another agency in the Clinton administration or the Bush administration before that. The political scientists and economists get jobs privatizing Eastern Europe and Russia. Those studying hard sciences can get military research work. People in biology and medicine have their choice of government or pharmaceutical work -- and all of this is done in the name of academia. In this environment, the "applied" side of knowledge means swamping academia with profit motivations and the politics of profit. China's Cultural Revolution involved the world's most profound discussion of intellectuals seen in the world yet. There is no getting around the facts that intellectuals depend on agricultural workers to feed them and manufacturing workers to clothe them. What those intellectuals accomplish for society depends on how they are organized. Under capitalism we must distrust the liberal arts intellectuals for coming up with reasons why there should be classes and certifying the class structure with degrees, but also we must distrust the applied side dependent intellectuals who put forward what is profitable to themselves. NOTE: Boston Globe. 21 May 1997. * * * ARTIST EXPOSES FBI FRAME-UP OF ED POINDEXTER AND DAVID RICE SANTA BARBARA, CA --- 100 Black College Men, RAIL and MIM sponsored a presentation by performance artist Kietryn Zychal which exposed the case of two former Black Panther Party members and the true nature of the Amerikan justice. Zychal has devoted years researching this particular case and is committed to proving the innocence of Rice and Poindexter. The presentation included her own videotaped interviews with former Black Panther Party members Ed Poindexter and David Rice and was followed by a discussion. The following case concerning former Black Panther Party members, Mondo we Langa (formerly known as David Rice) and Ed Poindexter, exposes the FBI's infamous COINTELPRO-initiated (Counter- Intelligence Program) operation against them. The FBI's COINTELPRO, which acts as a tool of US imperialism, specifically targeted progressive, revolutionary organizations and movements such as the Black Panther Party, for the purpose of silencing those movements that demand self- determination. This case clearly indicates that white Amerika's prevailing war on the oppressed Black nation continues even after the disintegration of the Black Panther Party. Ed Poindexter and Mondo we Langa were convicted in 1971 of killing an Omaha cop, although a great deal of evidence proves otherwise. On August 17, 1970, police responded to a 911 emergency call claiming that the caller had witnessed a womym being dragged into a vacant house. Upon entering the front of the house, the five officers noted that a suitcase was lying on the porch. The suitcase exploded when one pig accidentally triggered it. He was killed by the explosion. By the end of August, the police conjured up a handful of possible suspects. Among them were Duane Peak, a 15 year old adolescent, and National Committee to Combat Fascism (NCCF) members David Rice and Ed Poindexter. The NCCF was an off-shoot of the BPP. While being detained, Peak allegedly "confessed" and stated that Rice and Poindexter had masterminded the bombing and that [Peak] merely delivered the suitcase to the vacant house, making the 911 phone call. Thereafter, Rice and Poindexter were also detained. In the Amerikan law enforcement system, the police systematically coerce confessions or information out of people through employment of threats with violence or prosecution. Peak himself was threatened with the prospect of going to the electric chair if he did not testify and cooperate with the pigs. At present time, Duane Peak has disappeared. The happenings and hearing in the court were rigged. Discrepancies in confessions and evidence arose. Despite the defense's requests for acquisition of the 911 tapes, none were produced, for the Omaha police department felt it could be used to their disadvantage. The transcripts were destroyed. The police documents used as evidence in the case which bragged about finding arms and explosives in Rice's house were flawed-the documents lacked the name of the person responsible for the discovery, lacked concrete pictures of the confiscated weapons in their original place upon discovery. Rather, police documents showed a picture of the contrabands in the back truck of a police car in front of the police station. Moreover, the mere fact that Duane Peak's stories were altered over seven times gives reason for a hidden conspiracy devised by law enforcement. On September 28, 1970, Duane Peak took to the stand and shocked the courtroom by denying that an August 10 meeting with Poindexter and Rice at Rice's house to go over plans concerning the bombings never took place. Following a sudden recess called by the prosecution, Peak returned to the courtroom, clearly showing signs of recent physical abuse. His eyes were red and puffy, hidden behind a pair of sunglasses. Court transcripts show that upon the defense's questioning of whether a police beating had taken place during recess, Peak had answered affirmative. Despite Peak's statements, both Poindexter and Rice were convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. The two men's imprisonment demonstrates what happens when even the legacies reminiscent of the BPP are perceived as a threat to white Amerika. Another significant day was when David Rice turned himself in to the police station after being underground for several weeks. In a photograph captured by the Omaha World-Herald, Rice was pictured standing stagnant, with both hands in his pants pocket, waiting for the elevator. Later, prosecutors would argue that traces of materials from dynamites were found on the clothing of both Rice and Poindexter. However, when both of their hands were examined for traces of explosives, a chemist from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms confirmed that there were none present. In her presentation, Zychal pointed out that in the photograph, Rice's hands were deep into his pockets on a sweltering day. Yet the police claimed that Rice had at that exact time dynamite in his pocket. Following the police department's argument then, wouldn't Rice have an overwhelming amount of explosive material residue on his hands? Who are the pigs trying to fool? Despite the evidence that points to the corruption and miscalculations of white America's defense strategy, two innocent comrades were incarcerated. Between May 5, 1970 and September 6, 1970, there took place a series of bombing occurrences in Des Moines, Omaha, and Minneapolis. In Central Iowa, five bombing incidents took place within a six- week span. The fact that the Omaha police opted not to take these other occurrences into notice, as well as their disregard in attempting to connect these bombings with the similar one that took place in Omaha, clearly proves that the conviction of David Rice and Ed Poindexter was a main objective in a deliberate, well-devised plan to repress the NCCF. Despite the evidence for Rice and Poindexter's innocence, our two comrades have been living in silent struggle in Amerika's slave prisons for nearly 26 years. It is time to get the word out about their frame-up; it is time to be conscious of all the struggles of the countless oppressed people forced to slave away in obscurity. * * * FBI CANCELS CALIFORNIA RECRUITING SESSION IN THE FACE OF MIM/RAIL-LED STUDENT PROTEST SANTA BARBARA, CA. -- On May 21, around twenty students gathered to protest a scheduled recruiting session by the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) on the campus of the University of California at Santa Barbara. The rally, as well as the publicity leading up to it, helped to educate the broader university community about the terrorist tactics the FBI uses against progressive and revolutionary groups -- and why it uses them. News of the rally also made its way to the FBI, which promptly canceled their appearance. Of course the rally happened anyway -- shutting down one recruiting meeting does not mean the FBI is defeated, and the rally was still a valuable public-opinion building tool. RAIL and MIM initiated the rally. One of the publicity flyers included the following text: "The mainstream media and the FBI itself portray the FBI as a high-tech, professional crime- fighting organization, combating crazy individuals who kidnap defenseless girls or persecuting vicious mobsters. But in fact, the FBI has principally been a political police from its inception. The FBI attempts to forestall, curtail, and repress political dissent through surveillance, harassment, and violence. "The FBI's COINTELPRO (Counter-Intelligence Program) infiltrated and spread misinformation throughout many radical organizations throughout the 60s and 70s. COINTELPRO was instrumental in the assassination of Black Panther Party leader Fred Hampton and the frame-ups of Geronimo Pratt and American Indian Movement activist Leonard Peltier. When the united states expanded its covert war in Central America in the 80s, the FBI stepped up its harassment of anti-war and other activists within u.s. borders. The harassment included crank calls, break-ins, death threats, infiltration, FBI visits to activists' family and employers -- and in at least one case, a bombing. On May 24, 1990 the FBI blew up Earth First! activist Judi Bari's car, and then had the audacity to blame the bomb on Bari herself. "The crimes of the FBI here within u.s. borders are clearly linked to the system it defends: u.s. imperialism. U.$. imperialism must continually wage war to defend its markets, labor forces, and natural resources. Reagan: El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Guatemala. Bush: Panama and Iraq. Clinton: Iraq, Somalia, Haiti, and... ? The FBI makes sure that opposition "at home" will not interfere with these conquests. Those who impose u.s. military intervention abroad must also oppose the domestic militarism of the FBI -- and those who oppose the FBI's crimes should also oppose the dastardly system which makes it necessary." During the rally, a MIM supporter gave a talk describing how the FBI continues to spy on, intimidate, and terrorize activists even after the demise of COINTELPRO. The supporter emphasized that exposing the FBI's past crimes and current plans is an important task. On the one hand, we need to understand the FBI's tactics in order to defuse them. On the other, if we can build public opinion against FBI terrorism, we can make the FBI think twice before implementing its most extreme plans. (These extreme plans include concentration camps for anti-war activists in case the u.s. invades another country.) This rally was a small preemptive strike in the battle for public opinion and the room to organize. * * * AMERIKAN "JUST-US" SYSTEM APOLOGIZES FOR POLICE BRUTALITY by Otis Police brutality runs rampant in amerika. No more is to be expected from those hired to maintain the u.$. system and trained in the effective use of weaponry. However, amerikan patriots have joked about 'keeping power in check,' since they successfully stole this land from the hands of the indigenous. Some recent cases bring these false attempts at 'the people's government' to light as being the worthless and oppressive capitalist tricks that they are. "One of the motives that local governments have for making sure that police officers do not brutalize the citizenry is the threat of financial liability. In a recent 5-4 ruling that set aside a $800,000 judgment won by an Oklahoma woman in a police abuse case, the U.S. Supreme Court diluted that motive."(1) The womyn sued because she was beaten by a pig -- the nephew of the county sheriff, who had a record of misdemeanors and civil rights' violations. Mainstream media shows their lackey nature when they state: "While the court's ruling relaxes local governments' financial liability in cases of police brutality, it does not relax their moral responsibility. Law enforcement agencies must make clear that excessive force will not be tolerated, and they should decline to hire as police officers people who have histories of crime and violence, no matter who their uncle might be."(1) This liberal 'condemnation' of one pig bastard and/or one set of pigs, hardly addresses the systematic bankruptcy that allows such 'excessive force' to happen. The police are an armed body charged with defending the ruling imperialists' property. They occupy oppressed nations like a foreign army occupies territory. The social role of the police causes police brutality, not a few "bad apples." In another case "A Utah inmate's mother is expected to bring a lawsuit against the state Department of Corrections involving alleged wrong- doing of prison staff and the psychiatrist who ordered her. . . son restrained in a chair for 16 hours. After Michael Valent was released, a blood clot from his leg then lodged in his lung, killing him. Utah Corrections officials admit prison psychiatrist, David Egli, violated prison rules by failing to examine Valent while the prisoner was restrained in the chair." Again, the state official had a long history of abusing his power. However, the u.$. injustice system has decided that the hiring of such criminals is only illegal when the victim's injuries are a "plainly obvious consequence" of the hiring decision.(2) What they meant to say is "we'll find any damn way to not punish the criminals who work for us." 'Justice' Richard Howe wrote: "If prisoners were allowed to bring actions against medical personnel for negligence, personnel might be more easily manipulated or threatened and breakdowns of discipline might occur." He is right. The amerikan corporate-war machine routinely uses "excessive force" to keep the majority of the world's population properly under control. But oppression breeds resistance. The entire parasitic system of imperialism depends on exactly those people who are brutalized by imperialism. They certainly have the desire to dismantle this system, and through anti-imperialist and socialist revolutions, they will overthrow it. NOTES: 1 The Houston Chronicle 4 May 1997. 2. The Salt Lake Tribune 4 May 1997. * * * INJUSTICE SYSTEM LETS WHITE PIG OFF In Springfield, Massachusetts, the District Attorney decided not to pursue criminal charges against a white Springfield police officer caught on videotape kicking a Black suspect who was being held on the ground by other officers. This decision follows a ruling by a judge clearing the pig, Officer Jeffrey Asher, of charges of assault in this March 20 incident. The conduct of Asher was legal, according to the criminal injustice system, because the man the pigs attacked was allegedly resisting arrest. According to the pigs, he was resisting arrest at the same time he was being held on the ground by two pigs and kicked repeatedly by Asher. In the eyes of the pigs, a Black man raising his hands to his head to keep blows away from his face would be resisting arrest. (See MN 137 for more info on this story). This case once again demonstrates that the pigs are an occupying force in the oppressed nations within U.S. borders. There is no system of justice for the oppressed under imperialism. Only by organizing to overthrow imperialism and its occupying police force will we be able to establish a system of true justice for the people. * * * AMERIKA IGNORES MASSES' NEEDS: AIDS RATE SOARS BEHIND BARS by an RC New statistics have been released showing that "AIDS now infects the nation's prisoners at nearly six times the rate of the rest of the population."(1) The same statistics reveal the inadequate care and prevention of infectious disease within the injustice system walls, and the level to which the U.$. is continuing its genocide of oppressed nations. The reasons formulated for lack of treatment focus around both inadequate health administrators and no money to pay for the new protease inhibitor drugs that are now available to AIDS patients outside prisons. Where at one time AIDS was considered a disease easily treated by a primary caregiver, new complications connected with the virus require AIDS specialists to administer drugs. Protease inhibitors need to be taken regularly without interruption, or resistant strains of HIV will be bred. With the new policies of transferring prisoners around (see June 1st issue of MN), the treatment wouldn't be effective as anything more than an excuse to keep prisoners behind bars longer. Fourteen states have mandatory testing for inmates, and most prisons will only continue prescriptions for prisoners who were already taking the drugs before sentencing. And now the cost to treat an HIV infected patient has risen from $2000 to $13,000.(1) But with Amerika prioritizing global militarization and overseas financial domination increased health care in prisons is unlikely. "Concerned" proponents of increased AIDS care in prisons are voicing a need to follow through on what they call the "ethical duty" to abide by the laws which call lack of health care cruel and unusual punishment. But the prison system is not focused on abiding by ethical rules, it thinks it is "ethical" to torture and imprison more Black men than apartheid South Africa. The majority white Amerikan nation benefits from the prison system which locks up potential revolutionaries and keeps the nationally oppressed within strict confines of the police state. As one supervisor at a wimmin's prison said "the patients were going to die anyway and therefore [I don't] understand why people kept involving themselves in their care"(1). The one call that could increase the spending in the prison system is the fact that these are people too that are infected and that will be released with that infection. However this will probably just increase national sentiment to use prisoners as humyn guinea pigs for drugs to be sold on the white market rather than as real humyns in need of real medical care. RAIL's response to AIDS in prisons is to organize for the liberation of oppressed nations from imperialism. We look forward to the day when an anti-imperialist society will prioritize the masses' health over pharmaceutical company profits. Such a society will never prioritize repression over basic humyn needs. Eventually, we also hope to participate in a justice system which revolutionizes the people under its authority rather than brutalizes them. What we can do now is build for socialism and create independent institutions of the oppressed that can work to alleviate part of the burden of AIDS and destroy the rest of the symptoms of imperialist oppression. NOTES: 1. The New York Time, 26 May 1997. pp. A1 & 28. More information on protease inhibitors found at: http://www.hivatis.org. * * * DENNIS BRUTUS JOINS EVENT TO BENEFIT BOOKS FOR PRISONERS Dennis Brutus spoke and read poetry at RAIL's benefit to raise money for Books For Prisoners. The event featured local poets and musicians with progressive political messages. Brutus enthusiastically supported the program and agreed to headline the event. The expenses were kept low and all profits went to Books For Prisoners. We send books like Revolutionary Suicide, Agents of Repression, Settlers, as well as MIM Notes and MIM Theory to prisoners along with Marxist-Leninist- Maoist classics in order to help revolutionize comrades under lock and key and aid in their efforts to organize. RAIL thanks all those supporting our efforts to increase the political material we can send to prisoners and invite more friends to come out and build a stronger program serving our comrades' needs on the path to building revolution. As a formerly exiled South African poet and political activist, Dennis Brutus continues his work in the U.S. where he is a professor at the University of Pittsburgh. At the benefit Brutus discussed some experiences from South Africa as well issues of oppression and discrimination here in the U.S. He stressed that the abolition of apartheid in the law books does not represent the true situation in South Africa. He also expressed his disbelief in the concessions that have been made between the South African government and the so-called activists. Brutus read a few of his poems and discussed the poems' backgrounds and significance. Other performances included folk music and poetry written by former political prisoners as well as prisoners who are still currently locked up. One performer brought smiles to some faces as he read from his collection of letters to corporations questioning their political alliances and actions in a very condescending way. This person also read the response letters from the corporations, which were even more humorous. The event successfully raised a significant amount of money and RAIL collected more books to be delivered behind bars. Brutus helped out the program with a generous donation as well. Write to the address on page two to find out how you can strengthen our Revolutionary Books for Prisoners program. * * * MARXISM-LENINISM-MAOISM ONLINE FIGHT FOR THE RIGHT TO PUBLISH ONLINE: AMERIKAN SCHOLARS OPPOSE FREE SPEECH Amerikan scholars are starting to complain loudly that they are not getting enough credit for the work they do on the Internet. Professors and students are saying that they should get credit towards tenure, or their degrees, for work they do online such as moderating or editing mailing lists, and editing or writing for online publications. These Net publication advocates call themselves more progressive than the stodgy academic establishment, but really they are just so many more anti-free-speech advocates with different arguments for the same reactionary program. Access to Internet publications is often much easier than access to the paper versions, and this is one reason Academic institutions take Net publications less seriously than they do paper ones. Anyone with a computer and a phone line can point their web browser to an online journal and read it, which makes the universities suspect that if these publications are being given away free maybe they aren't worth reading. While the academics belly-ache about how unfair it is that they can't get credit for their online work, MIM treasures free and easy access to the Internet. MIM has often talked about the democratic potential of the Internet, where anyone with a computer and a telephone line can automatically distribute their writings to hundreds of thousands of people. We communists treasure our access to the Internet as a place where we can reach more people with our politics more cheaply than we can using any print medium. The academics don't share our enthusiasm for the Internet because they value private ownership of their ideas over democratic public discussion. If the scholars really want to argue against University stodginess, they should be pushing for more open discussions where students don't jealously guard their ideas from one another, rather than pushing for more and different ways to patent individual thoughts and calling that a progressive agenda. NOTE: The Chronicle of Higher Education 9 June, 1997. WORLD WIDE WEB REVIEW INJUSTICE LINE http://home.earthlink.net/~ynot/index.html Injustice Line is a valuable resource for activists beginning to investigate the Amerikan criminal injustice system. This website includes graphics illustrating the hypocrisy of the united $nakes' stated devotion of liberty in the face of this country's actual dedication to imprisoning the oppressed (albeit from a libertarian perspective), several anecdotes about injustice in the Amerikan courts and prisons, statistical proof of how grossly over-represented Black men are in Michigan prisons, and links to other legal and activist resources relating to prisons and criminal justice. The purpose of Injustice Line is to let viewers "read news stories about injustice in America, and learn what is really going on behind the claims of liberty, justice for all, due process of law, equal protection of the laws, etc. And, you have the chance to submit your own stories." While Injustice Line focuses on the United Snakes, and specifically on Michigan because it is based in Detroit, it welcomes contributions from all over the world. The principal problem with Injustice Line is that it fails to look at state power in a consistent way. Rather than understanding that individual abuses of police and judicial power grow naturally out of a government which was formed to foster and protect a capitalist economy, Injustice Line focuses on individual abuses of power and argues that they have no place coming from a government which claims "to be fair, or to be working on your behalf." MIM's favorite part about Injustice Line, and other websites like it, though, is that it is a place for anyone with a story about injustice to publicize their case and agitate for justice. One story about an individual unfairly convicted of a rape includes names, addresses and phone numbers of the convicted prisoner and his family and the prosecuting attorney and judge in the rape trial. One graphic on the Injustice Line homepage is a drawing of George Washington's face on the left, and of Bill Klinton's face on the right. The caption reads "The man on the left grew marijuana. The man on the right smoked marijuana. Neither one was ever arrested for his marijuana "crimes." Guess how many people were not as lucky, and were actually arrested last year for marijuana?" The answer is that 482,000 people were arrested in 1995 on marijuana-related charges. The text goes on to make a libertarian argument for drug legalization. MIM also opposes the criminalization of drugs because as Injustice Line points out, the United Snakes government is so corrupt it has no legitimate policing authority; enforcement of drug laws also disproportionately imprisons oppressed nationals. But the fact that the U.$. government forbids drug use is not enough of a reason for MIM to support it. Rather than fight for your right to get high, MIM believes that activists have much more important struggles to take on: like fighting for the international proletariat's right to decent food, clothing, shelter, health care and education. Injustice Line recognizes that Blacks are wrongly imprisoned at a much greater rate than whites. The site also implicitly recognizes that just as Blacks are wrongly imprisoned much more than whites, they do not have as much access to the means of protesting their imprisonment as whites do. It is vital that activists who recognize the importance of political protest build institutions which can be used as a means of protest. This is why we publish a newspaper--we cannot rely on the bourgeoisie to allow us the means to build a movement against imperialism. We must build independent institutions of the oppressed as a means of organizing. MIM has sharp disagreements with Injustice Line's libertarian political analysis. Libertarians approach politics in terms of individualism and individual rights, which means spending a lot of time on the question of the current government not protecting the rights of individuals. MIM approaches politics from the question of state power-- who is in state power determines who decides what rights individuals have, and how well those rights will be respected. So while Injustice Line focuses on how inconsistent the Amerikan criminal justice system is with the Amerikan declaration of independence, MIM focuses on the need for the proletariat to seize state power and form a state which will have as its principal goal provision for basic human needs. Injustice Line is developed and maintained by a libertarian lawyer in Detroit, MI, who begins his introduction to the site with Plato's definition of justice: "Plato defined justice as each person getting his due. Of course, there are many possible forms of injustice. Each time someone cheats you out of what you deserve, there has been injustice." There is nothing wrong with saying that it is unjust to deny someone something they deserve, but this leaves the whole question of how to decide who deserves what open. MIM argues that the Amerikan government must cheat the international proletariat out of what it deserves if Amerika is to survive. Amerika lives at the expense of the rest of the world and cannot coexist in justice with the world population. But libertarian thinking leaves the author of Injustice Line unequipped to make this analysis of the united snakes, and s/he instead writes: "Other people can treat you unjustly. But at least your tormentors normally are working in their own self-interest. They are not pretending to be fair, or to be working on your behalf. When your own government acts unjustly, it is all the more galling." This is a serious shortcoming of the Injustice Line perspective. While the site encourages readers to understand the extent of Amerikan disregard for equality under the law, it tells them that this disregard is something surprising, that their government should be treating them better than this. MIM Notes tells its readers: don't be surprised when you read about Amerikan injustice, be angry! Don't expect to reform this imperialist system, organize to overthrow it! Readers should check out Injustice Line for accounts of Amerika brutalizing its internal colonies under cover of the law (there is a link to the Injustice Line site and other good political resources on MIM's website at http://www.etext.org/Politics/MIM/links.html). Then contact MIM to find out how you can organize against this system. * * * FRENCH ELECTIONS EXPOSE HYPOCRISY OF SO-CALLED COMMUNISTS by MCB52 The little imperialist bout that was the French elections in early June resulted in slight change in the make-up of the government, but real communists must point out that the increase in seats for the "Socialist" party and the "Communist" party has nothing to do with changing imperialism. Though these parties advocate a somewhat different divvying up of the imperialist pie, neither is any improvement for the source of that wealth, the world's oppressed. The New York Times is not concerned about the participation of the Communist Party of France (PCF) in the new government, a good indication that we have no reason to be pleased. The New York Times assured readers that "with the Soviet Union long gone, the French Communists are no longer the totalitarian colossus they seemed to be in the decades immediately after World War II."(1) In fact, the demise of state capitalism in the USSR is pretty irrelevant to the meaninglessness of the name "Communist" for that party. It's true that for some time the PCF supported the social imperialism -- socialism in words, imperialism in deeds -- of the Soviet Union. But even by the late 1960s it was clear that the PCF would generally support the "right" imperialists (France, for example), and not the "wrong" one, the USSR. The PCF went from advocating "Peace in Vietnam" (rather than "Victory to the Vietnamese" as the progressives of the time were doing) in the 1960s to open support for French militarism as long as it provided jobs to French people in the 1990s.(2) The Socialist party and its splinters gained almost 200 seats, the Communists gained 14, and the Greens gained 8, making that coalition a majority over the outgoing Conservative coalition.(3) Though they may seem further "left" with their talk about "equality" of income and the like, we have to remember that only French citizens and not French neo-colonial subjects are included in the equalizing process. The call for a still higher standard of living for the French will feed the demand for stronger imperialism to extract more loot from neo-colonies. Like Tony Blair of the Labor party of the UK that only cares about imperialist workers, the so-called socialists and communists of France care only about their "own" nation and are an enemy of the workers of the world. NOTES: 1. New York Times, 4 June 1997, p. A6. 2. Read about the PCF's reactionary stands in the 1960s in "The Pitfalls of French Anarchism: May 1968" in MIM Theory 8: Anarchist Ideal and Communist Revolution available from MIM for $6. 3. New York Times, 3 June 1997, p. A8. * * * U.$.-SOUTH KOREAN REGIME ROCKED BY STUDENT PROTEST Political protests once again rocked the u.s.- backed regime of Kim Young-sam in south Korea during the first week of June. Only four months after a month-long general strike, over 10,000 students took to the streets of Seoul and demanded that Kim Young-sam resign from office and publicly reveal who financed his 1992 election campaign. Anti-Kim protesters chanted "Bring down Kim Young- sam!" and "Reveal the Election Funds!" in the face of violent police repression. The pigs beat one student so badly s/he required brain surgery and set another student on fire. The liberal bourgeois Korean National Congress for a New Politics (NCMP) claims that Kim's campaign was bankrolled to the tune of $80 million by the Hanbo Group, a multi-million dollar steel consortium, and $300 million from former President Roh Tae-woo. The legal limit for campaign contributions is $42 million.(1) Earlier this year, many members of Kim's New Korea Party, Kim's government, and Kim's son were exposed for their involvement in a huge bribes-for-loans corruption scandal with the now bankrupt Hanbo group, many executive employees of which have recently received prison terms for corruption. The protests at the beginning of June were led by the Hanchongnyon, the southern Korean Federation of University Student Councils. The Hanchongnyon has a history of anti-imperialist and progressive activism. Last August Hanchongnyon called for the withdrawal of 37,000 us troops from Korea and for unification with northern Korea (see MIM Notes, Sept. 15, p.1, "Korean Students Take On Imperialist Paper Tigers.") Last January, they came out supporting the Korean workers' general strike. The u.s.-south Korean regime stepped up its repression of the Hanchongnyon in the wake of recent protests. Korean pigs have launched a huge manhunt for 300 student leaders. So far, 60 students have been arrested. Last August, Korean police militarily attacked a non-violent pro- unification gathering at Yonsei university and arrested 151 student leaders. As part of their attempts to justify these draconian tactics, the south Korean police and the bourgeois press claim that the students have killed several policemen. But in at least one case, the policeman was actually run over by a police vehicle. Hanchongnyon leaders issued a statement which expressed regret over the death of the officer, but squarely blamed the Kim regime for his death. "We ask that the murderous and corrupt Kim Young-sam regime take full responsibility and resign," the statement said.(4) RAIL applauds the student movement of southern Korea for exposing the so-called democracy of southern Korea as a sham. True democracy for the Korean people cannot be realized as long as more than 30,000 u.s. troops are on Korean soil to enforce the division of the Korean people and make sure the south Korean regime obeys its master. Nor can true democracy for the Korean people be realized under a bourgeois system which grants leadership to the tiny clique with the most money. NOTES: 1. Korea Herald News. 7 Aug. 96, 21 Aug. 96, 2 June 97, 5 June 97, 6 June 97. 2. New York Times. 31 May 97, 1 June 97, 2 June 97. 3. Reuters. 31 May 97, 1 June 97, 2 June 97, 4 June 97. 4. The Japan Times, 6 June 97. * * * UNDER LOCK & KEY: NEWS FROM PRISONERS AND PRISONS UNITY DISCUSSION CONTINUED LEAD BY EXAMPLE Dear Comrades at MIM, Revolutionary greetings and a clenched fist salute! While reading "Under Lock and Key" in the January 15, 1997, #132 Issue, I ran across a letter written by a comrade in Pennsylvania (Red Alert! Revolution Postponed in Pennsylvania). I was struck the instant I laid eyes upon this letter. I know exactly how he feels. My fellow incarcerated brothers here are very similar to those he is attempting to educate. The inmates in Arizona are quite pacified and extremely uneducated when it comes to the revolutionary ideas of MIM. I am attempting to spread the word, as well as MIM Notes, to those I come in contact with. Not much progress, I'm sorry to report. But that's where my point comes in: IT'S OK!! Not everyone is going to be open to the truths we tell. Lest we forget, this country spread such propaganda throughout the "Cold War" with state-capitalist Russia that even the word, communism, causes automatic withdrawal! Not all is lost, however!! We are planting the seeds today that bring about a bountiful harvest tomorrow. Our mission right now is to raise the consciousness of the public. We can't do that overnight. But like our comrade, RCG1 stated, "The greatest of waterfalls starts with one drop of water." Be strong and lead by example. Others will notice, and awaken to the cause. The revolution is very much alive!! Don't let anything dissuade you or distract you from the path that is before you, comrades. We shall be victorious. And, one day, we will all stand side by side and join the masses to dispel the oppressors from before us! The people WILL BE TRIUMPHANT!!! DON'T BE DISCOURAGED, COMRADES!! ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE!!! Your Comrade in Captivity, -- An Arizona Prisoner, 27 Feb. 97 UNITE AGAINST OPPRESSIVE CONDITIONS I am writing concerning the conditions here at Northern Correctional Institution in March of '95 and since my arrival here I have been a victim of racism and physical assaults. I have also witnessed the same treatment toward other black and latino prisoners. The conditions here at Northern Correctional Institution are nothing more than a form of mental genocide (torture) designed to prevent as from rehabilitating ourselves. All prisoners at Northern Correctional Institution phase 1 are subjected to a 23 hour lock down. We are being warehoused and deliberately isolated from our loved ones and families. In addition there are no programs at all-nothing-just total confinement 23 hours a day. The effect on one's mental state is very serious. Many of the brothers confined in this racial concentration camp are from Hartford, Bridgeport, New Haven and other surrounding cities. Some brothers' families will never be able to visit them and assist them in fighting the conditions because of geographic distance involved. Thus it is important for all concerned political as well as other organizations and the churches to motivate them to raise the issue of mental torture. And we who are the victims of this dehumanizing treatment must also come together with unity and strength and collective thoughts to determine how we must approach the situation here at Northern Correctional Institution. Now just to give you a few details that took place with me being verbally and physically abused by different white officials who work here at Northern Correctional Institution. On May 3, 95 at 10:15pm, I was in my cell, talking to a few brothers that lived on the same block with me, when this white nurse named Debbie Kindess and another nurse named Erinn Dolan (who is also white) came on the block to bring someone their medication. Now, my next door neighbor, threatened to kill himself. The two nurses then went and told a white male lieutenant by the name of B. Beeman that I made the threat to do harm to myself. About a half hour later, 6 correctional officers who were all white, as well as the two nurses and the lieutenant came to my cell door. [The lieutenant] told me in a very loud and harsh voice to put my hands out the slot in my cell door so that I could be cuffed and chained to the bed. I tried to explain to the lieutenant that I was not the person who made the comment, but it was the other brother who was in the block with me. The next thing I knew I was maced with tear gas and beaten for almost 20 minutes. After all the beating, I was put in a cold shower with all my clothes on. Then I was chained down to a steel bed frame for 18 hours in soaking wet clothes in a freezing cold cell, that still had the scent of tear gas in it. As a result of these 2 white nurses being racial, I was treated with cruel and unusual punishment. After all that I went through, on the next day, May 4, 95, the guy who originally made the threat [to kill himself] ended up cutting his arms, wrists and other parts of his body. Now ever since that incident, these 2 nurses Debbie Kindess and Erinn Dolan have been verbally abusing me by making racial statements, such as calling me horse, monkeys, etc. I have also been denied medical treatment from these 2 nurses. [These nurses] who still have not been questioned from their supervisor or any other high rank official about their unprofessionalism they have been showing toward me, as well as other black and latino prisoners. I have written numerous complaints about these 2 nurses. But no action has been take to resolve this racial issue, which is well know to Northern Correctional Institution's high ranking officials such as: Warden Giovanni Gomez; Nurse Supervisor, Jean Walden, Major Krajniak, Captain Case, Captain Chapdelaine and a host of others. They are a part of the same system and refuse to confront one of their staff members, which is all based on protecting the system for the injustice that they're showing toward myself as well as other prisoners. I would like for this matter of racial hostility and injustice from this Institution to be know to the whole public as well as an investigated case. I shouldn't have to live under these very serious and racial conditions.. -- A Connecticut Prisoner, Dec. 20, 1996 CALL FOR UNITY We as: Black Men and Women, Latin Men and Women, Asian Men and Women, Indian Men and Women, Hispanic Men and Women have been treated murderously and torturously and sadistically by White Americans and Anglo Europeans. We have to stop patronizing Whitey all the time. We have to Patronize each other. We have to stop using drugs in prison and use hacksaw blades instead if we have the means. We have to get rid of manual labor for prisoners and make them go to prison in school until they are able to read and write. We have to forgive prisoners when they do things against us our of ignorance, especially when they come and apologize. The war is against the lackeys of the United Snakes. Prisoners stop robbing and stealing from each other, especially when you do it to people who are of color and a minority in the U$. Prisoners think of home, think of escape. All prisoners locked up for child molesting should stay in prison and do their time. All prisoners who are locked up for killing GOOD Black Brothers and Sisters and other minorities killing each other in the U$ should stay in prison and do their time. I am locked up for robbing white Amerikkkans, the ones who benefit from my forefathers and mothers who were slaves in the U$. I have over 18 years in the Maryland House of Corrections (MHC) Annex. I am not a racist, but I want fair treatment for all human beings. I have been locked up too long for this shit. I know you people have too. Fuck Capitalism, Power to MIM and the masses. To MHC Annex, Do not kill another prisoner for some Bullshit. The pigs disrespect us all the time. If you want to kill someone, kill a pig. Many Black Brothers have died in the Annex, but no pigs. I tell you what. If you have nothing to lose lifers, kill a pig. -- A Maryland Prisoner, 6 April 1997 MIM RESPONDS: While we agree that the principle enemy of the struggle is Amerikkkan imperialism, we do not suggest that random killing of pigs is the answer. We agree that prisoners should unite, educate themselves, practice good health and get organized. Random killing of pigs by lifers will not solve the problem of oppression in the U$ or its prisons. At this time, the revolution benefits most from study groups, exposing the crimes of the real criminals -- the imperialist pig oppressors, and political organizing. Additionally, MIM argues that all prisoners are political prisoners. The means that the arrests, convictions and sentences as well as the laws themselves are political tools to control oppressed nations. The injustice system in the country does not enforce its laws equally for all people within its borders. The police use the laws to incarcerate members of the Black, Latino and First Nations, to oppress them and maintain the dictatorship of the bourgeois. We do not encourage singling out people convicted of certain crimes and say that they deserve their punishment. We do not recognize the U$ injustice system fit to dole out the appropriate punishments, since they are greater criminals themselves. Until the system serves the interests of the oppressed at its very root, we can neither trust the pigs, lawyers and judges to incarcerate people correctly for crimes nor can we trust the system to help people to actually rehabilitate and become productive members of society when they are punished for crimes. Under the current system of settler nation domination, the criminalization of poverty and national status serves the interests of the oppressed and the crimes committed by the oppressor criminals are the principal crimes for which punishment is due. The important thing is that prisoners should work together against the common enemy, the prisoncrats. Work with MIM for revolution by educating and organizing yourselves and exposing the oppression you face. EXPOSE PIGS, POLITICIZE THE MASSES A letter of special interest, ["Michigan divide and conquer"] that appeared in the August 15, 1996 issue of MIM Notes in the section reserved for prisoners, written by a Michigan State prisoner merits a few comments. The prisoner writes that a fellow comrade was labeled a "snitch" by the pigs, hoping to manipulate and instigate other prisoners to kill him. "Unlawful methods and practices that are as old as the institutions themselves are very much in vogue throughout most federal and state prisons and have become a favorite weapon of the pigs. Countless prisoners have met their untimely and unwarranted death at the hands of other prisoners as a result of the criminal intervention by the pigs." The guilty pigs should be held accountable and should answer for the crimes created and instigated by the state for not legitimate penological reasons other than to justify the building of more joints and nourish their perverted whims. For example in the November issue of Prison Legal News there appeared an article entitled, "The Pelican Bay Factor", that seemed to document how the pigs manipulated the different prison gangs in California to slaughter each other in order to generate public support to justify building the joint [Pelican Bay State Prison]. Criminal activity that clearly rises to being, was murder to justify to the public building a lockdown penitentiary and sanctioned by the state. Nevertheless, our comrades at MIM Notes and other revolutionaries should make use of such criminal activity by state criminals. Expose the lawless prison tyrants and create a mass situation to politicize the masses and haul them pig asses in court to answer for the crimes even though it would still be bourgeois justice. The principal contradiction facing all prisoners at this point in time is clearly between the limited freedom available to all citizens and imprisonment. A principal task of all prisoners is to expose the double standard of bourgeoisie justice in this country. The pigs throughout the country are being allowed and sometimes rewarded for committing crimes against the most oppressed sectors of society in their total and absolute control. -- A Colorado Prisoner, 24 February 1997 MIM ADDS: This article does a great job at showing the classic ways that pigs try to manipulate prisoners into killing each other, and then use it as an excuse for more prisons. We agree that revolutionaries should expose these tactics of oppression use the information to politicize and organize the people. While we may support reformist appeals for justice, history proves they are mostly ineffective. The Rodney King trial is a classic case in point. Instead, our main focus of anti-prison work is to unite all who can be united to smash imperialism and all its tools of oppression. The contradiction between imperialism and oppressed nations is principal. Thus the principal contradiction for prisoners is between prisoners and their imperialist captors. Prisoners principal tasks are to expose this oppression, educate themselves and organize for revolution. PIG TACTIC: ANTI-GANG UNITS A CALL UNITY IN RESPONSE TO ANTI-GANG UNITS Fellow Comrades, [I am] writing in regards to an article that I had the privilege to read. "Criminal injustice system resists challenges to anti-gang units" (MIM Notes, No. 125: Nov. 1996). First and foremost, La Familia, Latin Kings and Nita are all considered to be organizations, not gangs. Brought forth to protect the rights of all Latino prisoners. The article was very much needed for. In voicing your opposition to these discriminatory tactics being used against us by these pigs, in print, you are opening up many avenues with the assistance of the concerned communities in Massachusetts and beyond. And that is very much needed. I am a Latino prisoner being held in the Department of Disciplinary Dungeon on the grounds that I was a known "Gang" leader of La Familia and that I was going to start a gang war behind prison walls. (How that can be done while being locked down 23 hours a day has me perplexed.) This was a well thought about set-up to keep me out of commission for several years for several reasons. (Divide and conquer non-manipulative, strong minded Latino brothers with vocals.) I've been in the hole since 1995. I lasted only 6 days in population before I was set up. When I returned to population, these Devils were distributing forms that we had to sign admitting gang members hip and at the same time renouncing it in order to get moves out of these control units. Obviously I did not agree so they felt it better if I was far away as possible while they put this plan into effect. My issue is that we (the Latino peoples) very much appreciate your concern for our rights and your help in getting the outside world involved in this struggle, but to have outside assistance one must have the full support of all the prisoners behind the walls. For without inside struggle the outside struggle will prove to be meaningless "in the eyes of these Devils." The unity is breaking apart little by little as the Administration continues to break the souls of these young brothers who were not properly educated. The discrimination is obviously a major issue concerning these control units. You stated that 90% of those housed in the control units are Latino. It is more like 98%. If brothers are not willing to face these ongoing problems like me and continue to allow these pigs to control them by form of manipulation, scare- tactics, and promises then those who were willing to sacrifice will sacrifice in vain. I ask of all the Latino brothers and sisters (all oppressed peoples) incarcerated in the Massachusetts prison system to rise up, come together and fight, not only for your rights, but also your respect. Forget about all these minor differences that we may have against one another and if you want to get in contact with those of the different Organizations and lets bring ourselves together as one. "Together we stand, divided we fall" Thank you for your support. We hope that others will grasp our concept. In the struggle, --Familia Representative, A Massachusetts Prisoner, Jan. 4, 1997 MIM RESPONDS: For the most part we agree with the above letter. The one exception is that the statement "to have outside assistance one must have the full support of all the prisoners behind the walls." We encourage prisoners to unite but disagree that all prisoners must be united in order to give outside support to prisoners. MIM and RAIL's many publications expose the atrocities of prisons and the Injustice system. Often this helps prisoners better understand their oppression in seeing who their real enemies are. We on the outside know the tremendous revolutionary potential of prisoners and will support and guide it. We can not wait for all prisoners to recognize this potential before acting. BUCK THE CROOKED SYSTEM Dear Brothers of Struggle, In MIM Notes #125, I read an article titled "Criminal injustice system resists challenges to anti-gang units". I can identify completely with the article. Currently I am on Administrative Segregation for "Posing a threat to the safety and security of the institution, threatening conduct, collusion, creating a disturbance and/or inciting a riot, and creating a health, safety and/or fire hazard." I have those charges just because I am a Crips gang member. I and eight others are being held on security threat group status for no other reason than the fact that we hang out together. I alone am on SSR (Substantial Security Risk) status because I am admittedly the leader of my set. We are all charged for nothing. Being a gang member, or in my case the leader of a gang, is not a crime. What the pigs fail to realize is that gang members like me and mine make the world go around. There ain't no such thing as bring in that world and escaping what was meant to be. It's called fate. The so called "powers" of Amerikkka need to wake up so they can analyze, recognize and realize that they can't escape the inevitable. Gang banging ain't a fad, it's a culture. Pigs need to start accepting the fact that it ain't gonna go away. In actuality, it's getting stronger as the days go by. That's why they say the "G" is strong and the world is weak. The pigs also say that Crips are always causing "unreasonable disturbances". That's not true because any trouble or disturbance I have ever caused, seen, or taken part in had reasons behind it. No matter how superficial they may have been, you could always find it if you opened your eyes wide enough. I want everyone to realize that gangs are not just a Black or Latino thing. My father is Puerto Rican and my mother is White. I have seen shit from all points of view. I have seen Black, White, Latino, Chinese, Japanese, or any other race, creed, nationality as gang members. I am down with anything that will buck the crooked system. I have received no help from internal affairs, the chaplain, or the grievance counselor on this matter. This blatant disregard for our rights as human beings must be stopped! Since I have been on lock-up I have been slapped, pinched, kicked, spit upon, tripped, cursed, -- you name it and it's happened to me. This prison, McCormick Correctional Institution, is in South Carolina. These pigs are from the country and do not know anything about gangs. Then how could they hope to prevail against us? They locked nine of us up and let 79 more of us at the yard, out of 1100 inmates. Thank you for your time comrades, -- A South Carolina Prisoner, 25 April 1997 MIM RESPONDS: MIM agrees that gangs are not criminal or a fad, but a culture created to deal with imperialist oppression. MIM does not agree that gangs are strong, and the rest of the world is weak. Instead we recognize that gangs are a lumpen proletariat force with great potential for political organizing. Oppressed nations comprise the majority of the world's population. The contradiction that the majority of the world is oppressed by the minority of the imperialist nations is a contradiction which will help lead to the downfall of the evil empires of imperialism. The state and the media have gone to great efforts to criminalize gangs and oppressed nationals within U$ borders. Prisoncrats will often label politically active prisoners as "gang members" or "security threats" in order to isolate them to prevent prisoners from organizing. Revolution is inevitable, but it is not fate. Most of the world's people are oppressed by imperialism. Gradually they are educating, organizing and building for revolution. People will not take oppression forever and will rise up for revolution. The revolution starts today with political agitation and organization. * * * MIM ON PRISONS AND PRISONERS MIM seeks to build public opinion against Amerika's criminal injustice system, and to eventually replace the bourgeois injustice system with proletarian justice. The bourgeois injustice system imprisons and executes a disproportionately large and growing number of oppressed people while letting the biggest mass murderers - the imperialists and their lackeys - roam free. Imperialism is not opposed to murder or theft, it only insists that these crimes be committed in the interests of the bourgeoisie. MIM does not advocate that all prisoners go free today; we have a more effective program for fighting crime as was demonstrated in China prior to the restoration of capitalism there in 1976. We say that all prisoners are political prisoners because under the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, all imprisonment is substantively political. It is our responsibility to exert revolutionary leadership and conduct political agitation and organization among prisoners – whose material conditions make them an overwhelmingly revolutionary group. Some prisoners should and will work on self-criticism under a future dictatorship of the proletariat in those cases in which prisoners really did do something wrong by proletarian standards. ***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.