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 155 FEBRUARY 1, 1998 MIM Notes speaks to and from the viewpoint of the world's oppressed majority, and against the imperialist-patriarchy. Pick it up and wield it in the service of the people. support it, struggle with it and write for it. IN THIS ISSUE: 1. AMERIKAN COINTELPRO CONTINUES: PUERTO RICAN INDEPENDENCE MOVEMENT INFILTRATED, LEADER FRAMED 2. FREEDOM AND AMNESTY FOR PUERTO RICAN INDEPENDENCE LEADERS: ORGANIZE JERICHO AND BEYOND 3. LETTERS 4. AMERIKA EXPANDS MILITARY ROLE IN LATIN AMERICA 5. WELFARE CUTS LEAVE IMMIGRANTS HUNGRY 6. NEW YORK POLICE FATALLY SHOOT OPPRESSED NATIONALS MORE THAN 3-TO-1 7. MICHIGAN TRANSFERS PRISONERS TO FEDERAL KKKAMP 8. MICHIGAN TRANSFERS AID ENGLER'S PLAN FOR OPPRESSION: BUILD MORE AND MORE PRISONS 9. DC POLICE CORRUPTION EXPOSED ANSWER IS REVOLUTION - NOT MORE PIGS! 10. IMPERIALISTS TIGHTEN GRIP ON CRISIS-RIDDEN KOREAN ECONOMY 11. SANTA CLAUS IN BAGHDAD? 12. MEXICAN RULING PARTY MURDERS 45 IN CHIAPAS 13. CALIFORNIA PRISONS REPRESS FIRST NATIONS, MUSLIMS, SIKHS 14. MARXISM-LENINISM-MAOISM ONLINE 15. ASIAN COMMUNITY MOBILIZES AGAINST PORNOGRAPHY 16. AMERIKAN APARTHEID: ENFORCED HOUSING SEGREGATION 17. UNDER LOCK & KEY: NEWS FROM PRISONERS AND PRISONS * * * AMERIKAN COINTELPRO CONTINUES: PUERTO RICAN INDEPENDENCE MOVEMENT INFILTRATED, LEADER FRAMED ***MIM received the article below from the National Committee to Free Puerto Rican Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War originally titled "Order for the Extradition of Solís: A Desperate Action by FBI.*** On Wednesday, December 10, 1997, Federal Magistrate, Aida Delgado Colon, declared in Federal District Court in San Juan, Puerto Rico, that Dr. Jose Solis Jordan, is the person who authorities in the State of Illinois have indicted in relation to a bombing of a military recruitment complex in Chicago, in December of 1992. Solis was charged at the hearing with conspiracy, possession of a weapon, of maliciously causing destruction to property of the United States, and attempted malicious destruction to property of the United States. Dr. Solis, a former professor at DePaul University, and graduate of The University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, is currently a faculty member of The University of Puerto Rico Education Department in Rio Piedras. Several interesting points were revealed at the hearing. First of all, the FBI is relying almost exclusively on testimony by Rafael Marrero, who they identify as a cooperating witness but who in fact has worked as an agent provocateur serving the FBI as far back as 1988. The FBI's other cooperating witness is a man by the name of Eddie Brooks, who Marrero himself recruited to work at his side during the period he was working as editor in chief of LIBERTAD, a periodical dedicated to the release of the 15 Puerto Rican political prisoners. Rafael Angel Marrero, arrived in Chicago in 1989, at the age of 23. One of his first moves was to win the affection of the sister of two of the political prisoners, Evelyn Rodriguez, 22 years his senior. A few months later they married placing him at the center of the campaign to release the prisoners. By 1992 Marrero, who had built an image of the ultimate self-sacrificed cadre, was always willing to do the hardest and most time consuming tasks in the campaign to free the prisoners. On his own he also put together a clandestine armed organization, using young idealists and trusting individuals whom he organized, incited and led to commit the act he is now trying to attribute to Dr. Solis and other undisclosed persons. Marrero's actions in Chicago eerily mirror those of agent Gonzalez Malave, which led to the massacre of two pro-independence university students at Cerro Maravilla in Puerto Rico, on July 25, 1978. Marrero's plan in Chicago was to involve as many people who were involved in the campaign to release the political prisoners in his ill-named Frente Revolucionario Boricua, in order to undermine the campaign's efforts precisely when the campaign began to attract support from broader sectors than just the pro-independence movements. Shortly after his failure to organize his fabricated armed clandestine movement from inside the campaign, he left Evelyn Rodriguez, their child Alicia, and the work in the campaign to free his sister in laws and the other 13 political prisoners. Accusing that the campaign had become reformist and no longer represented the revolutionary ideals the prisoners had upheld. Marrero wins over his wife Evelyn Rodriguez shortly before he resurfaces in 1997 as one of two sources that fueled a slander campaign against pro- independence supporters published in the Chicago Sun Times, and repeated for about a week in every TV and Radio news program. The unfounded reports accused pro-independence supporters of using state funds to promote the release of the prisoners. The other source in the Sun Times slander campaign was his sister Militza Corps. It is no coincidence that this slander campaign took place two weeks after Marrero visited Dr. Jose Solis in Puerto Rico. During this visit which he made in the company of his wife Evelyn, sister of two of the political prisoners, the FBI recorded several conversations between Marrero and Dr. Solis through a recording device concealed on the person of Marrero. The FBI alleges that these recordings contain the information necessary to incriminate Dr. Solis. Currently under the Federal Witness Protection Program, Marrero is the principal collaborator in the Grand Jury which investigates the 1992 bombing which he himself organized, orchestrated and directed, and now leads to the arrest of Dr. Jose Solis. In Chicago, several pro-independence activists have received subpoenas to appear in front of this Grand Jury investigation, including former political prisoner Felix Rosa, Family Learning Center teacher Everlydis Cabrera, and Roberto Clemente High School teacher Juan Marcos Vilar. Interestingly, even though the three have not appeared to their assigned hearings, the authorities have not enforced their subpoenas, making it evident that their case is extremely weak. Marrero has also worked as author and editor of the anonymously published rag, El Pito, which targets community leaders, activists and elected officials who have supported the release of the Puerto Rican political prisoners and attacks them with unprecedented vulgarity and slander. Marrero is also the star witness in an Illinois State Legislative Investigation whose goal is to prove an alleged conspiracy by pro-independence forces to utilize state funds to promote the release of the Puerto Rican political prisoners. This investigation is in reality a witch hunt spearheaded by state representative Edgar Lopez, who supports statehood for Puerto Rico. It serves Lopez in two ways: first, it attacks his ideological nemesis---independence, second, it serves as a smoke-screen to his corrupt activities and indulgences such as gambling free chips in exchange for his vote in favor of gambling interests. In an affidavit made public at Dr. Solis' hearing in San Juan, rookie FBI agent Troy Buckles confirmed that Rafael Marrero was a leader of the ill named Frente Revolucionario Boricua, the group that claimed responsibility for the December 1992 bombing. Buckles further confirmed that Marrero participated in the recruitment of individuals into the group, that he participated in constructing and placing the explosives at the military recruitment complex in Chicago. The affidavit alleges that Dr. Solis participated in the attack on the complex. However, Buckles affidavit leaves out that Rafael Marrero has worked for the FBI for over 10 years. It also fails to state that after spending millions of dollars in an operation to destabilize and destroy the independence movement and the campaign to gain the release of the Puerto Rican political prisoners, his agency, the FBI, is running like a chicken without a head trying to formulate false charges before the White House decides to release the Puerto Rican political prisoners and prisoners of war. MIM ADDS: We hope that activists everywhere will learn from this example of FBI infiltration and extensive destructive attacks on revolutionary movements that we can not take the government lightly. At this point in the struggle the government is stronger than the revolutionary forces within u.s. borders and we must take appropriate precautions based on this reality. No amount of security procedures are going to protect us against infiltrators who do such extensive work to convince genuine revolutionaries of their devotion to the anti-imperialist struggle. Lenin had a cop on his central committee and many believe that Lenin was aware of this but that he allowed the man to retain his position because of his extensive contributions to the communist party. We must insist that our comrades prove themselves through honest hard work rather than through informal friendships or romance. And there are many FBI tactics that can be foiled by simple security precautions. For this reason MIM takes security seriously while also judging our comrades by the work they do and the consistency and correctness of their political line. * * * FREEDOM AND AMNESTY FOR PUERTO RICAN INDEPENDENCE LEADERS: ORGANIZE JERICHO AND BEYOND The Counter Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO) began in 1956 as a coordinated effort by the FBI to undermine the Communist Party USA. COINTELPRO subsequently intensified its attacks against progressive and revolutionary leaders and organizations. COINTELPRO has been used to infiltrate, split and smash various Black, Puerto Rican, Chicano, First nation, and anti-imperialist organizations. Through COINTELPRO, the FBI has harassed, wrongfully arrested, framed and imprisoned leaders of the people's movements. Leaders have been murdered outright as a result of COINTELPRO operations. This imperialist program intensely repressed the people's movements in the 1960s and 1970s but continues today. And as then, the aim of the imperialists is to dismantle the people's struggles to achieve justice and liberation. During the 1980s, the Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional (FALN) and other organizations devoted to Puerto Rican independence were the target of some of the FBI's most intense covert operations. Many Puerto Rican activists and the general public of Puerto Rico suffered massive raids lead by the FBI COINTELPRO. The article written by the National Committee to Free Puerto Rican Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War shows the most recent example of the FBI's operations against the Puerto Rican independence movement. The purpose of the Jericho march on March 27, 1998 in Washington, D.C. is to call attention to the many prisoners languishing in Amerikan gulags after receiving unjust trials and extremely long and disproportionate sentences as punishment for their political beliefs and actions. The march calls for the Amnesty and Freedom of these prisoners and will help to mobilize further opposition to Amerika's unjust incarceration of the leaders of the people's movements. (See page eight for more info on RAIL's Criminal Injustice teach-in following the Jericho march.) Puerto Rican independence movement leaders and activists accused of being members of the FALN have received sentences of 35 to 105 years in prison. There are still currently 15 Puerto Rican activists in the gulags for the absolutely bogus charges of seditious conspiracy and alleged membership in the FALN - not one of them was charged with or convicted of any action which resulted in bloodshed. OSCAR LÓPEZ RIVERA TORTURED BY AMERIKKKA Oscar López Rivera is one of the 15 men and wimmin accused of membership in the FALN. He was arrested in 1981 and is serving a sentence of 70 years in the Amerikan gulags. "At one time or another during their lengthy imprisonment, most of them have been subjected to brutal psychological or physical abuse, including assault, multiple strip-searches, body-cavity searches, and extended periods of isolation and sensory deprivation. But because government authorities perceive Oscar to be a leader, they have singled him out for the harshest, most continuous attack. They hope to break the other political prisoners, as well as the Puerto Rican independence movement as a whole, by breaking his spirit." For the last eleven years, Oscar has been incarcerated in a small isolated cell with no contact visitations allowed. "Oscar has also been framed with false disciplinary charges and subjected to sting operations which used desperate prisoners as informants and provocateurs." In a 1986 operation, he was falsely accused of conspiring to escape from prison which resulted in the pigs sentencing him to an additional 15 year sentence. Oscar has been continuously placed in isolation despite compliance with rules and despite similarly situated prisoners being allowed to move to lower security levels. This is specifically because Oscar is a leader among the Puerto Rican people. Oscar's brother, Jose Lopez, in a speech last fall, spoke of the torture which Oscar and other Puerto Rican leaders have endured because of their beliefs and actions. He explained thoroughly the Amerikan history of colonization and domination of the Puerto Rican nation. The Amerika invasion of Puerto Rico in 1898 has supplied Amerika with super- profits from the exploited Puerto Rican masses and has enabled Amerika to extract resources for its profit at the expense of Puerto Rican masses. To ensure the flow of super-profits and resources, Amerika has continuously smashed revolutionary independence movements both on the island and inside Amerika's illegitimate borders. Amerika has carried out this repression and genocide through military action, economic warfare, political control, forced sterilization and mass migration policies and social and cultural domination. As he said, we are "instructed in a culture that denies the very idea that Amerika is an empire." He explained that racism was created to justify colonialism. He vehemently stated that we are not living in an era of post colonialism, but that Amerika continues to repress and dominate her internal colonies. NEO-COLONIALISM CONTINUES AND MUST BE STOPPED While Amerika hides this lie through massive miseducate, lies and settler nationalist propaganda, the people continue to struggle to teach the truth. And it is for this reason that Puerto Rican leaders have been incarcerated and tortured. Amerika seems to think that if leaders are imprisoned, the masses will be too afraid to stand up and fight for the self-determination of Puerto Rico and the liberation of the world's masses. But the strength and continuous struggle of Puerto Rican activists facing repression within Amerika's gulags point to the fact that the oppressed will not stop fighting until liberation is won. Alejandrina Torres fought to teach the truth of the Amerikan domination of the Puerto Rican nation. "She was a founding member and later a teacher at the Puerto Rican High School in Chicago. She later helped found the Betances Health Clinic and was active in boycotts of public schools which continued to mis-educate children and were hostile and racist to their parents." She was sentenced to 35 years for alleged membership in the FALN. Ricardo Jiménez "was a leader in the struggles which ultimately led to the creation of Roberto Clemente High School." Among many activities to stop oppression of the Puerto Rican nation, he exposed the Chicago 21 plan to gentrify the area and he struggled to institute the first Puerto Rican history class at Loyola University. "He was arrested in 1980, accused of seditious conspiracy and related charges, and sentenced to 98 years. Luis Rosa was active in the Puerto Rican community in Chicago as well and worked specifically against police brutality. He faces 105 years in prison. Ida Luz Rodríguez, facing an 83 year sentence wrote: "We were not and are not criminals. The Puerto Rican movement for liberation was not and is not a crime. We were and continue to be motivated by a deep sense of responsibility to liberation." Š "Colonialism is a crime and it must end. Liberation is just as necessary today as it was then. Some place the burden of responsibility for the use of violence solely on the shoulders of Puerto Rican revolutionaries while leaving the impression that the United States is law-abiding and not a colonial power." Besides the above leaders, there are ten other Puerto Rican prisoners for whom activists are demanding amnesty and freedom. Carmen Valentín was sentenced to 98 years; Alicia Rodríguez to 85 years; Carlos A. Torres to 78 years; Dylcia Pagán to 63 years; Alberto Rodríguez to 35 years; Elizam Escobar to 68 years; Adolfo Matos to 78 years; Edwin Cortés to 35 years; Antonio Camacho to 15 years and Juan Segarra to 65 years. MIM supports and struggles for genuine national liberation of the Puerto Rican nation. Continued military, economic, political, social and cultural domination of the people will only be halted when the imperialists are kicked out of Puerto Rico and the people are free to develop socialism. We must struggle to end the unjust incarceration of Puerto Rican leaders and we must continue to expose and build opposition to the use of Amerikan gulags in general as a tool for national oppression. The struggle against unjust incarceration and increased imprisonment of oppressed nationals is a necessary battle in the path to liberation. ***(For more specific information on the above prisoners, contact PRPOWPP and more specific information on MIM's work to struggle for national liberation, get MT7 on Proletarian Feminist Revolutionary Nationalism on the Communist Road.)*** NOTES: For detailed information on COINTELPRO, order Agents of Repression, by Ward Churchill and Jim Vander Wall. South End Press, Boston, MA. $20 from MIM. Jose Lopez quotes taken from speech at the Ohio Prison Activist Conference in November 1997. All other quotes taken from the National Committee to Free Puerto Rican Prisoners of War and Political Prisoners. 2607 W. Division, Chicago, Illinois 60622, prpowpp@aol.com or check out: * * * LETTERS DEATH PENALTY UNDER SOCIALISM DEAR MIM: First of all, I would like to say I was greatly impressed by the info you sent me. I have a question though... What is MIM's view on the death penalty if it is sentenced in the general interest of the people, unlike in Amerikkka? I noticed in one article in MIM Notes you stated "... people in this country are trained to look for retribution for violence rather than looking to address the causes of violence." (End violence against the oppressed: work with MIM, MIM Notes Oct 15, 1997). I've read things by Mao, where he was in clear support of the death sentence for serious offenders. Is this a contradiction? Thanks for you time. In struggle, A friend in the Midwest "All Power to the People!" P.S. MIM book distro is phat! The best prices I've seen yet. MIM RESPONDS: We see the death penalty under imperialism as part of the violence in society that we work to eliminate as we struggle to overthrow imperialism and ultimately build a communist society. But as materialists we recognize the necessity of violence in the anti-imperialist battle. As a result, we oppose violence by the imperialists but consider it necessary as a weapon in the hands of the oppressed, both under capitalism and under socialism. This means that we oppose the death penalty under imperialism but we do not oppose the use of the death penalty when it is in the hands of the masses. The criminal justice system under socialism serves the people by creating an opportunity for those who have committed crimes against the people to learn from their mistakes and become contributing members of society. But as we can see from the experience in China, there were times when the people demanded justice for those guilty of murdering, raping and exploiting the people of their village for many years. These people -- the worst landlords and pro- Japanese traitors -- were sentenced to death by the people of their village for the tremendous crimes they had committed. But this violence is temporary and something that a socialist society is working towards eliminating as we build a society free of the oppression of groups over other groups of people. In China they made amazing progress towards this goal in their criminal justice system. They greatly cut down the need for prisons and a court system by transforming society to eliminate the material basis of crime. After liberation, emphasis was placed on struggling with those who committed crimes against the people so that they would see that what they had done was wrong and so that they would want to change their ways. MIM recommends the book Prisoners of Liberation for an excellent account of the prison system in revolutionary China. This book can be ordered from MIM for $10. MIM shares Mao's position on the death penalty. In discussing the executions that took place after the seizure of power, Mao said "What harm is there in not executing people? Those amenable to labor reform should go do labor reform, so that rubbish can be transformed into something useful. Besides, people's heads are not like leeks. When you cut them off, they will not grow again. If you cut off a head wrongly, there is no way of rectifying the mistakes even if you want to."(Chairman Mao Talks to the People, Pantheon Books, 1974, p. 77-78.) It's important to note that Mao said in this speech that now that power was consolidated in the hands of the people, fewer executions would be carried out. MOI AND KENYA DEAR COMRADES: I would not dispute your contention that President Moi is a comprador element who has done the dirty work of imperialism for many years and has been well paid for doing it. That does not necessarily mean he is not playing a progressive role now. Manuel Noriega was an American lackey for many years, but he repented of this and stood up for Panama's national interests. Saddam Hussein waged a brutal war against Iran that killed hundreds of thousands of Iranian and Iraqi workers and peasants with the support of Washington, but after this war he turned against imperialism and supported pan-Arabism, beginning with the seizure of the puppet state of Kuwait. We are seeing such a transformation in President Moi. Imperialism has endorsed the multiparty system that threatens his power, and the only way Moi can hold on to power is to combat imperialist control of Kenya. Regardless of his past actions, if Moi resists the dictates of imperialism, he is de facto struggling against imperialism and thus becomes "our son-of-a-bitch". This is the nature of the third world bourgeoisie. Compradors who are betrayed by their imperialist patrons can become our allies. Naturally a people's government of Kenya is preferable to continued rule by President Moi, but as you have said, that is not what the current demonstrators advocate. They advocate "reform" to a multiparty regime, which is exactly what the imperialists have indicated they want. There is no evidence that a multiparty regime is in the least progressive, and it has never led to socialist revolution. A multiparty regime has the potential for disastrous division of the workers and peasants. My Kenyan friend wrote to me that when the multiparty regime was introduced in 1993 it nearly lead to civil war because the parties formed along tribal lines. It should be obvious to us how divisive tribalism can be for proletarian unity. Yes, multiparty "democracy" is more favorable for imperialism, and that is why the imperialists prefer it to the one-party government Moi used to have. If Moi willingly went along with this, I could see writing him off as a hopeless comprador. That Moi is resisting this does not make him a revolutionary, but it makes him our ally against imperialism. If Moi wins this battle, Kenya will either be cut off from imperialist "aid" and thus able to chart a more independent course or the imperialists will have to cut a more favorable deal with Kenya. Either way a victory for Moi is a victory for Kenya. If you consult leftist sources or sources within a nation, it would be helpful if you quote them, rather than leave your sources to our imagination. When we can only see sources from domestic bourgeois sources, it is difficult to conclude that you have done a thorough investigation. Comradely Yours, --a friend in the south MIM RESPONDS: This letter continues a debate with this reader which began with the MIM Notes article on Kenya published in MIM Notes on October 1. We take this opportunity to update our readers on the situation in Kenya and continue this debate which is very relevant to organizers everywhere who must always ask the question of who are our friends and who are our enemies. Elections were held in Kenya in late December and President Moi won another term in office. As we described in the October 1st article, this is no surprise since he carried out the same campaign of violence against the people in areas known to support his opponents that was carried out by his party in the 1992 elections. Our critic has suggested that our sources from the original article should be questioned because they all came from mainstream press but MIM has seen no evidence anywhere that suggests that Moi did not carry out this violence against the people of Kenya and we have a lot of evidence that he has. We were unable to find any leftist sources, either inside or outside Kenya, that said anything other than what we reported. Mainstream media does not always lie and we can sometimes glean useful facts from it. As we also pointed out in the October 1 article, Kenya receives a tremendous amount of foreign aid from the imperialists. As the article stated, over the past decade this has totaled more than $8 billion. This reader is correct to point out that Moi is now faced with the need to oppose the multi- party system that imperialism is demanding in order to put a pretty face on the Kenyan dictatorship. But little has changed over the past five years. In 1992 Moi was also opposing this same multi-party system and he had no problem getting millions of dollars in imperialist aid each year after massacring so many of his people to win the 1992 elections. A lot of the harsh words between the IMF and Moi are posturing attempts to look good in the eyes of the international community of imperialists and it is likely Moi will be back on the imperialist payroll. Saddam Hussein is a good example to look at. He has never been a friend of the people. He has murdered the Kurds along with many of his own people and has certainly not run his government in the interests of the people. But once he was faced with imperialist military aggression he resisted with military force and thus became an ally of the anti- imperialist movement. This does not mean that we support Hussein but it does mean that we support Iraq's battle against the imperialists. When Hussein and the imperialists were just exchanging mean words Hussein was not an ally. It was only through the change in material circumstances that he became an ally. The same would be true for Kenya. Moi is not a friend of the people and is not an ally just because he opposes some aspects of the imperialists plans. Moi being cut off from imperialist aid so he can "chart a more independent course" will not make him an ally. In all likelihood this course will be a continued military dictatorship over the Kenyan people. But in a military conflict between the imperialists and Kenya, we would certainly side with Kenya and oppose all imperialist military aggression and support military opposition to the imperialists. * * * AMERIKA EXPANDS MILITARY ROLE IN LATIN AMERICA by MC12 News in recent weeks extends the trend of increasing Amerikan military presence in Latin America, supposedly involved in stopping the drug trade but in fact directly targeted at the region's revolutionary movements. In Mexico, Colombia, and Panama, recent news offers some details of deepening U.$. involvement, making clear that supposed end of the Cold War has done nothing to satiate the imperialist desire to control the resources and labor of the oppressed nations of Latin America. The CIA, the State Department and the Pentagon are all involved in using Amerikan resources to beef up covert operations in Mexico and Colombia, and to extend the U.$. presence in Panama beyond 1999, all supposedly in the name of fighting the drug trade. COVERT OPS IN MEXICO The U.$. is giving the Mexican military covert intelligence and support, and training "hundreds" of officers "to help shape a network of anti-drug troops around the country" according to "officials," who spoke to the New York Times. Under "advice" from the CIA, the Mexican military has created an "elite army intelligence unit that has quietly moved to the forefront of Mexico's anti- drug effort."(1) Mexico and the U.$. are being quiet about this operation because of a bad history in which CIA-run anti-drug operations led to the acknowledged death of innocents in the 1980s, and the long-standing role of the Mexican military in the drug trade itself. Like the supposedly defunct death-squads of the Cold War era, these are U.$-trained and equipped military units that Amerika thinks it can count on when push comes to shove. The details of their initial assignments -- the pretext for the involvement -- are less important than their long- term allegiance to the U.$. and its agenda for the region. Or, in the words of "a Pentagon official, 'You were looking for general ways to engage, military to military.'" The U.$. says it will train 3,000 Mexican troops by fall, with a few hundred as crack officers to coordinate the group nation-wide. They also gave Mexico 73 "aging" helicopters for operations in remote areas. However, the Times reports, "Mexican and United States military officials said there was nothing to stop the transfer of American-trained army officers to similar special forces units that might be deployed against leftist insurgents in southern states like Guerrero and Chiapas." On top of this group, there are also 90 "carefully chosen young officers" selected for "a special force of the army intelligence section" supposedly against narcotics, trained by the CIA. "Several American officials compared the program to the CIA's work in Colombia," the Times reported, and MIM couldn't agree more. COLOMBIAN AID OVER "HUMAN RIGHTS" The U.$. now admits it worked out an agreement last summer to give millions of dollars to the Colombian military in fiscal year 1998, for "counterinsurgency activities as part of a larger program to fight drug trafficking," according to the Washington Post. This is supposedly only to be used in the southern half of the country, where the Post says "the alliance between the guerrillas and the drug traffickers is clearest." The money is supposed to be used for communications equipment, transportation supplies and the like.(2) For the last few years the U.$. has made noise about the human rights abuses of the Colombian government and its paramilitary allies in the countryside. What the U.$. really opposes, however, is apparently the chaotic nature of the Colombian government's efforts and the weakness and incompetence that is causing them to lose ground in the countryside. A "senior administration official" told the Post: "The grip of the government on the territory in the countryside is loosening considerably. About 50% of the territory is not under government control, and there is a growing nexus between the narcos and many fronts of the guerrillas. The government is in trouble." The opponents in question are the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia and the National Liberation Army, both of which are on the State Department list of terrorists for this year. Human rights can't get in the way of that. Despite the fact that the military has committed civilian massacres, disappearances, and torture, and that the president is himself on the payroll of major drug traffickers. In the 1970s the Colombian military created rural paramilitary groups to fight leftists. In the 1980s, however, these groups became openly aligned with the drug industry, with the government's tacit support, The U.$. apparently wants to formalize this role and bring it under control of the military. The U.$. needs "stability" in Colombia and elsewhere in the region, which means leftists have to be suppressed, and large areas of informal economic activity such as the drug trade must be under the control of the U.$. or trustworthy local governments. PANAMA TROOPS TO STAY Finally, in the category of What Did You Expect?, the U.$. has announced a deal to keep troops in the Panama canal area beyond the supposed return of the canal to Panama in 1999. The U.$. and Panama signed an agreement to keep troops there as part of "drug interdiction" efforts; they will build a new military center at the old Howard Air Base, where U.$. troops are based.(3) Whether the U.$. uses drug trade or any other pretext for its military involvement, imperialists interests in the region are structural and not subject to negotiation: they must fight to maintain control -- direct or indirect -- over the labor and resources of Latin America. That means protecting trustworthy governments, undermining governments they can't count on, and resisting all movements for self-determination by any means necessary. MIM does not represent any of the leftist movements in Latin America, and we won't speak for them on the issue of the drug trade or anything else. However, it is our internationalist duty to unconditionally oppose U.$. military involvement anywhere in the oppressed nations of the world, to expose the corruption and crimes against humanity that they commit, and organize in the belly of the beast to oppose U.$. imperialism in all of its forms. NOTES 1. New York Times 29 December 1997, p. A1. 2. Washington Post 27 December 1997, p. A1. 3. Washington Post 25 December 1997, p. A38. * * * WELFARE CUTS LEAVE IMMIGRANTS HUNGRY by MC17 Under 1996 federal welfare reforms, legal immigrants who are not U.$. citizens, or do not meet other qualifying criteria, were cut off from food-stamp benefits. These changes in federal law have pushed nearly 800,000 off the nation's food- stamp rolls based on immigration status.(1) Welfare cuts that hit immigrants were popular in congress because of the strong chauvinist sentiment among the white nation in the United Snakes. This reactionary nationalism leads Amerikans to consider immigrants (both legal and illegal) to be stealing from the hard earned resources in this kkkountry. These chauvinists conveniently ignore the fact that the wealth of this nation was built on the backs of slaves and is sustained by the theft of resources and exploitation of labor in Amerika's colonies. It is from the horrible conditions imposed by imperialism in these colonies that many of the immigrants flee when they come to the u.s.Congress rewrote federal welfare rules last year as a part of the public policy move to reduce federal assistance to individuals (corporations still receive plenty of welfare) to save tax dollars. For most non-citizens, the food stamps simply ended. This, combined with other welfare changes, was promoted as saving taxpayers an estimated $3.7 billion over five years. Under welfare reform, legal immigrants can still receive food stamps if they have served in the U.S. military or can show that they have worked 10 years in the United $tates. Otherwise, the lack of U.S. citizenship is enough to disqualify an immigrant, no matter how needy. (2)Food assistance requests have been on the rise for years. And it is not only immigrants who are contributing to this rise. But there is a disproportionate number of oppressed nationals, including immigrants, relying on welfare and other public assistance and as a result cuts have had a disproportionate impact on these groups. Detroit had the second highest increase among 29 major cities in requests for emergency food assistance in 1996. The 34 percent rise in food requests in Detroit was three times the average of all the cities surveyed. Detroit ranked behind Boston, which had a 50 percent increase. Only two cities, Norfolk, Va., and Minneapolis, reported drops in such requests. Nationally, requests for food aid increased by 11 percent.(3) One out of four requests for food aid in Detroit was turned down because of a lack of resources according to a report from a task force of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. The Hunger Action Coalition in Detroit reported turning away 6,200 requests during the first six months of the year.(3) A Tufts University study commissioned by Second Harvest estimates the food stamp cuts for citizens and noncitizens are equivalent to taking nearly 24 billion pounds of food from the poor over five years -- enough food to provide three square meals a day to every Texan for an entire year. Second Harvest, which provided 1 billion pounds of food last year, would have to increase its output by 425 percent to meet the shortages, the study estimated.(4) As 1997 draws to a close, unemployment rates have sunk to a 25-year low and the nation's economy is considered quite strong. Nationally, 86 percent of cities surveyed recently by the U.S. Conference of Mayors reported an increase in demand for emergency food assistance. On average, requests for food at soup kitchens and food pantries have risen by 16 percent. And 38 percent of those seeking emergency food aid are employed, according to the Conference of Mayors, up from 23 percent in 1994.(5) Welfare is a pacifying hand-out from the imperialist government. Its purpose is to keep the people from fighting for more. This is not a case of the benevolence of capitalism but rather the material interest the system has in keeping the people in its own country relatively quiet and pacified. The assistance the government hands out is stolen from the people the capitalists exploit: external and internal colonies of the united snakes. When the government cuts welfare it is a calculated risk that the majority of the people in this country are happy enough with imperialism from the super-profits they share through parasitic jobs and consumer benefits.When charity organizations step in and fill the holes left by government pulling out of welfare programs, they do a disservice to the people. The money spent by charity groups only helps to keep the people passive when it is not coupled with political education and organizing work. MIM does not wish to see anyone go hungry or without shelter but we know that offering a few meals to a few people is not going to change the system that creates this hunger and homelessness. This is a systematic problem of imperialism and we encourage all who are outraged by these problems to join the fight to overthrow the system that causes them. STATES STEP IN The cuts hit particularly hard in four states -- California, Florida, New York and Texas -- which account for three quarters of all non-citizens on food stamps. Of these, Texas alone has taken no steps to provide relief to its 168,000 immigrants on federal food stamp rolls earlier this year.(4) While the federal law cut nearly all benefits for legal immigrants, almost every state has decided, sometimes using its own money, to keep immigrant benefits intact.(6)States have stepped in to fill some of the gaps in federal assistance but this again is not the benevolence of capitalism but rather the states understanding the need to keep the people under control. Republican Texas governor Bush is a good example of this pragmatism. He lobbied strongly for a reinstatement of federal Medicaid benefits to immigrants who had been cut because he saw the large numbers in his state who would be affected. Faced with the new responsibility of deciding who qualifies for aid, all but a few states are continuing benefits for immigrants who were here when the law took effect. And almost every state also will provide cash help and Medicaid for immigrants arriving after that, once they have been in the country five years. Many states are going further. It's illegal under the new law for a state to use federal money for future immigrants during their first five years here. More than a third of states are using state dollars to make sure immigrants are covered from the day they arrive. That includes California and New York, where half the country's legal immigrants live. Florida and Texas, the third and fourth largest immigrant states, are helping replace cuts in food stamps, using state money to pay aid once paid solely from the federal treasury.(6)These measures to cushion the effects of the federal Welfare cuts clearly have not eliminated the problem as can be seen from the numbers in this article which show a large rise in need for food assistance. Those truly interested in ending hunger should be working with MIM to develop serve the people programs that provide for the needs of the oppressed in the context of building a revolutionary movement to overthrow imperialism. NOTES: 1. The Miami Herald 29 December 1997 2. Austin American-Statesman 14 December 1997. 3. The Detroit News 17 December 1997. 4. AP 25 August 1997. 5. LA times, Dec 28, 19976. The Detroit News 20 October 1997. * * * NEW YORK POLICE FATALLY SHOOT OPPRESSED NATIONALS MORE THAN 3-TO-1 by MC12 Figures released by the New York City police department show that their officers shot and killed 14 Black and 9 Hispanic "suspects" in 1996. They admit to shooting a total of 39 Black and 25 Hispanic "suspects." By comparison, 7 whites were fatally shot, out of 10 shot overall. That means New York police kill oppressed nationals over whites at a rate of 3.3-to-1, and shoot oppressed nationals at a rate of 6.4-to-1. They report no Asians shot in 1996. These are deaths and woundings from shootings only; other sources of wounding and death by cops were not included. Those numbers also don't include 11 "bystanders" who were shot, for whom a breakdown was not reported in the paper. NOTES: New York Times 2 January 1998, p. A16. * * * MICHIGAN TRANSFERS PRISONERS TO FEDERAL KKKAMP by the Political Prisoners of War Coalition While MIM has unity with the PPWC's focus on the state increasing repression while drumming up support for prisons, MIM does not agree with the specific economic analysis of this article. It has been brought to our attention from that prisoners from Jackson, Michigan were shipped out to the Federal Correctional Facility in Morgantown, West Virginia.(1) The news reported that within the next two weeks over 500 prisoners will be shipped out of state to help relieve the overcrowding Michigan is experiencing. We find this horrific and a blatant act of disregard for the prisoner and for her/his family and or friends. Last month (November 1997) it was reported in the Lansing State Journal that governor John Engler and the legislators were discussing this move but that they hadn't made any permanent decisions to do so at that time. Also, they had mentioned that if the plan were implemented it would not begin until sometime in 1998. It appears that the politicians couldn't wait. It appears that the temptation for money was too great not to move...NOW... these prisoners. This is nothing more than a money making venture. Making money for the state coffers and money made off the backs of prisoner labor. Slave labor backed by the 13th Amendment for products made by prisoners for profit. With this profit never being given to the prisoner or their families. This 13th Amendment [has] allowed prison officials and the corporate world to come up with a way to abuse this clause in the amendment and make a dollar. Michigan's refusal to release prisoners on parole has been long debated and argued by prisoners, their families and even several ex-MD0C employees, most notably, one Robert Brown (a Black man that was once the Director of the MDOC). He use to argue how the parole board is refusing to release men and wimmin, thus creating the overcrowded conditions and creating hardships on him via ... lawsuits he was named in for being the Director of the MDOC. Needless to say Robert Brown retired and the Corrections Commission (who once over-saw the parole board and made policy or recommendations to them) have been terminated under governor Engler's leadership so now there is no check or balance in regards to how the parole board operates. This in itself, have created to the overcrowding which has resulted in prisoners now being transferred to out of state facilities. It is interesting that these first transferred prisoners are going to a federal facility. It is in the federal facility that have the majority of privatized factory jobs. And it is in the federal facilities that many government contracts are fulfilled via prisoner labor. If the people of Michigan do not NOW protest... if the people of every state do not protest this action (moving prisoners out of state) then this is going to be the new thing for all states. Soon, more and more people will find themselves incarcerated (on bogus charges and given long sentences) so that they can work in these factories and make money for the kkkampitalist. Source: 1. WDIV TV channel 4 news on December 17, 1997. * * * MICHIGAN TRANSFERS AID ENGLER'S PLAN FOR OPPRESSION: BUILD MORE AND MORE PRISONS On December 17, 1997, 38 prisoners were transferred from the state prison in Jackson to a federal prison in Morgantown, West Virginia. This comes on the tail of Governor Engler's November request to build five new prisons. Engler claims that Michigan needs three-$30 million minimum-security prisons and two-$70 million multi-security-level prisons. If approved, these would increase Michigan's capacity to imprison the oppressed with 5,400 new spaces. To bolster support for the proliferation of prisons, Michigan plans to transfer about 500 prisoners total over the next few months. The new prison construction will take a hefty chunk of dough which Engler must convince settler nation whites to allow the state to spend. The proliferation of prisons means that the white settler nation benefits from construction jobs and jobs in the growing force of pigs. Settlers more generally benefit from massive incarceration of the oppressed. This is because the oppressed will not be out organizing to end settler nation domination and because incarceration is a tool of genocide against oppressed nations. However, settlers need coaxing to allow more money for state plantations. These are long term and systematic material benefits to the white nation which mistakenly believes it needs compensation for paying taxes to support prisoners who are supposedly living in the lap of luxury. Engler's propaganda claims that Michigan needs to create spaces for 6,400 more prisoners by 2001. The claim that Michigan (or any other Amerikan state) needs to build more prisons is one of those nasty myths created by the oppressor to maintain domination over the masses. DOC spokespig Matt Davis said, "The transfer scheduled for early today marked the first time that overcrowding has forced Michigan to send its prisoners out of state." While Michigan prisoners are contained in overcrowded and inadequate facilities, the transfers are in fact only a publicity ploy to gain support for increasing money spent on Michigan's slave plantations. In 1996, Engler asked for four and got permission to build two new concentration camps. One is a new maximum-security adult prison in St. Louis in Gratiot County. And the other is a prison for youth in Lake County. Michigan is also currently expanding existing facilities to add 700 more beds. Instead of giving your support to locking up thousands of human beings, MIM calls on progressive people to work with us to destroy this filthy system and build a revolutionary society in which people are encouraged to become productive members of society and the real criminals are reformed or punished. The problem is not that Michigan is lacking spaces for prisoners, rather the problem is that the settler nation government is rounding up the oppressed and throwing them in prison at record rates. The massive round up serves to control oppressed populations and ensure that they are not on the outside organizing against this oppressive disgusting system. Already in Michigan, 59% of the prisoner population is Black whereas only 14% of the general population is Black. It is not sufficient for Engler to state that there needs to be more prisons when Michigan does not provide adequate or equal education and denies real opportunities to oppressed nationals. The solution is not more prisons, but until we are able to tear down the system, we will show that increased incarceration of the oppressed is the way in which the imperialists deal with the masses instead of meeting basic human needs. The approximate 500 prisoners will be transferred to Beckley, W.Va., Manchester, Ky., Duluth, Minn., and Leavenworth, Kansas in addition to Morgantown. The prisoners who are being transferred are serving sentences for non-violent offenses and allegedly volunteered for the transfers. That information is of course suspect because we don't trust the state when it says prisoners are volunteering for any form of incarceration. Contact the address on page two if you have any information on the conditions of the prisoners transferred and further information on the plantations which these prisoners are being transferred to. Also contact us if you are willing to help MIM and RAIL expose the slave trade between states which is on the rise in the United Snakes of Amerikkka. Notes: http://www.freep.com/news/mich/qstate17.htm and http://aa.mlive.com/ap/1217prison.htm * * * DC POLICE CORRUPTION EXPOSED ANSWER IS REVOLUTION - NOT MORE PIGS! DC's white police chief Larry Soulsby recently resigned in the wake of a scandal dubbed "fairy shaking." This means extorting money from men who visit gay bars. Jeffrey Stowe, Soulsby's fellow pig, resigned first after being charged with extortion. Stowe is accused of following men who appeared to be married (as evidenced by a car with a baby seat) and photographing them at gay bars. Stowe used access to police information to track the name and address (from the car's license plate.) Stowe then threatened to expose the men to families or bosses if they didn't pay. Stowe was caught because one man refused to pay and called the FBI to report that a high level DC police officer was engaged in extortion.(1) The DC police force has historically been rife with corruption, including brutality, mismanagement, embezzling in the form of bogus overtime, and other problems. We don't want a more efficient police force as more pigs will only mean increased incarceration of the oppressed. However, it is important to note that the resignations tail scandals involving the rich minority and were not a result of the more common ways in which these pigs used policing power to brutalize, arrest and imprison the oppressed.It is especially insulting to the residents of DC that the same police force that does not investigate and solve street crime harasses gay men for money. (See MN 154 for a story on how DC's morgue does not rule obvious murders as homicides, in part keeping the murder rate artificially depressed.) The revelation that high level officials in the police department were more concerned with extorting money from rich white men who visited the bars than they were with solving the mysterious murders of five poor Black wimmin in the Petworth neighborhood only adds insult to injury. When the Control Board took control of the D.C. police department in 1997 it hired a consulting firm to evaluate the police department and make recommendations for improvements. The firm, Booz- Allen, found that out of a force of 3,600 officers, only 27 officers had made more than 100 arrests per year, and in 1996 1,200 officers had not made a single arrest.(2) Again, MIM does not advocate for more arrests, but the Booz-Allen report exposes the hypocrisy of maintaining a large police force that, in the end, does not even meet the basic requirements for solving the crimes that do concern the residents of the city. Soulsby appeared to take seriously the recommendations of the Booz-Allen report, and it is no surprise what he did: "After the consultant's report was released, as a temporary measure I put 400 more police officers on patrol and aimed them at high-crime targets. Š First, we are significantly increasing the number of officers on patrol on the city's streets."(3)A predictable response from the pigs is to put more of them on the street so that so-called crime can be reduced. MIM knows that so-called street crime accounts for far fewer murders and rapes than the mass crimes of the imperialist state. MIM urges the people of DC to expose police corruption, and work with MIM to build public opinion and independent institutions of the oppressed. MIM does not want to see more "community policing", and MIM does not want to see the police making more arrests and brutalizing more young oppressed-nation men. MIM wants the people to protect and police themselves by being more self- reliant rather than trusting the police. NOTES: 1. The Washington Post 2 December 1997, p. C4. 2. The New Republic, 19 January 1998, p. 20. 3. The Washington Post 25 June 1997, p. A19. * * * IMPERIALISTS TIGHTEN GRIP ON CRISIS-RIDDEN KOREAN ECONOMY Throughout December, Amerikan bourgeois media reported on the economic crisis in south Korea and the International Monetary Fund (IMF)'s record- breaking $57 billion bailout loan to south Korea. Amerikan capitalists are interested in this story either because they could lose money if south Korea defaults on its loans, or because they are looking to buy up bankrupt south Korean enterprises at bargain prices. MIM reports on this story for two reasons: (a) The crisis will further impoverish the Korean working class, and (b) The crisis and the terms of the IMF loan provide more proof of the bankruptcy of the capitalist, debt-driven, and imperialist-dependent "Korean model" for autonomous development. The south Korean economy was slow throughout 1997. Domestic machinery orders fell 34.6 percent in the year to November, machinery imports fell 21.8 percent, and domestic construction orders slid 23.3 percent.(1) This is a sign of capitalist crisis. Industrial capitalists have produced too many commodities relative to demand, so they are cutting back production. South Korean stocks are at 10-year lows, thanks in part to a big sell-off by foreign speculators.(2) But the cause for all the recent hubbub and the IMF loan was the south Korean foreign debt, which is estimated to be $200 billion. $28 billion - more than south Korea can currently afford - is due by the end of February.(3) The debt crisis is exacerbated by the fact that the won (the south Korean currency) lost half of its value relative to the u.$. dollar in 1997.(3) Lay offs, plant closures, and "allowing uncompetitive firms to fail" are central conditions of the of the IMF's loan. President-elect Kim Dae Jung, whom the bourgeois media alleges is "labor- friendly," said, "[W]e must hurry reforms requested by [the IMF], and layoffs are inevitable."(4) Unemployment is expected to triple to 6% in 1998. Unemployment insurance is basically non-existent. "It gives jobless workers at most only three payments, each amounting to half of their last monthly pay."(5) The petty-bourgeoisie is also suffering as a result of the current crisis. Some university instructors have not been paid in over three months. Many south Korean trade unions are planning to strike rather than take the lay-offs lying down. IMPERIALISTS INCREASE PENETRATION OF ECONOMY Conditions on the IMF loan also made it easier for foreign monopoly capital to enter and dominate the south Korean economy. At the end of December the south Korean legislature increased to proportion of local companies that could be owned by foreign investors to 55%. There will be no limit to this proportion beginning April 1, 1998.(3) Foreign banks and security firms are now allowed to open wholly owned subsidiaries.(6) This is not the first time that foreign monopoly capitalists have used loan conditions to increase their control over the south Korean economy. For example, in 1980, when the country was facing a similar crisis, Japan stepped in with a $4 billion package. "The price Chun Doo Hwan [head of the south Korean regime at the time] paid [for this "aid"] was to begin to open Korean markets to American and Japanese service industries like banks and insurance companies, and to American agricultural exports of rice, wheat, tobacco, and fruit."(7) South Korea not a model for Third World development. Apologists for capitalism have argued that the relatively successful industrial development of south Korea shows the superiority of capitalism to socialism. Even some middle-class Koreans argue that what Korea needs now is another Park Chung Hee (the fascist who oversaw the so- called Korean miracle in the sixties and seventies). But as MIM pointed out in 1993, "People should realize that the 'four tigers' or 'little dragons' -- Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore -- are the exceptions of history of development in the dependent capitalist orbit. Even if capitalism 'worked' for these four, it would not prove anything about the possibilities for development under imperialism. The reason is that you would have to count all the failures that went with the successes... "At least 22 capitalist-dominated countries have suffered an actual decline in per capita income in recent years according to the U.S. Statistical Abstract. The imperialists can still exploit most countries mercilessly, so a few exceptions are allowed by the system to develop while other countries decline in the international capitalist sweepstakes. The winners and losers change from time to time, but the system stays the same."(1) Indeed, the strategy of Park Chung Hee and his successors -- secure massive foreign loans by militarily regulating the labor market and centrally co-ordinate investment -- has been used by many other countries (the Philippines, Mexico, Peru, to name a few) with little success. What accounts for south Korea's so-called success? First, the Korean landlord class was overthrown in the 1950s, thanks to the Korean communists, who liberated most of Korea at the beginning of the Korean war. The landlord class has been a hindrance to the development of capitalism in countries like the Philippines. Second, south Korea had a vital geo-political role for u.$. imperialism throughout the 50s, 60s, and 70s. It was a beachhead for aggression against north Korea, China, and the Soviet Union. Because of this, the u.$. was willing to pour incredible amounts of money into south Korea to forestall revolution. "[A]id funds alone amounted to 100 percent of the [south Korean government's] budget in the 1950s." Another scholar estimates that u.$. "aid" accounted for 30% of the south Korean national income from 1945 to 1965.(8) Significantly, much of the capital which Park used to kick-start the economy in the 1970s came from war profiteering. U.$. payments for the government of south Korea's assistance to the Amerikan war of aggression in Viet Nam "annually accounted for between 7 and 8 percent of Korea's GDP in the period 1966-1969 and for as much as 19 percent of its total foreign earnings."(9) Some things have not changed since Marx wrote, "Capital comes dripping from head to foot, from every pore, with blood and dirt."(10) Finally, the influx of foreign capital and the growth of the local capitalist class depended on a cheap and reliable labor force. For example, "In the early 1960s the labor cost savings for firms in the United States willing to move to Korea was a factor of 25, since workers were paid one-tenth of American wages but were 2.5 times more productive."(11) Korean workers were more cheaper and more productive (they worked longer hours and were "more disciplined," thanks in part to harsh anti-union laws and violent repression of labor activists. So we see that the south Korean "miracle" was not the result of any one person's policies or the superiority of capitalism. Rather it was founded on the robbery of oppressed peoples by the u.$. imperialists and the extreme exploitation of the south Korean working class. Furthermore, two of the conditions for south Korea's success (the willingness of the u.$. imperialists to prop up the south Korean economy and the relative attractiveness of the south Korean labor force to foreign investors) are decaying. On the one hand, u.$. and Japanese imperialists view the south Korean monopoly capitalists (Hyundai, Samsung, etc.) as competitors. On the other hand, the Chinese social-fascists have allowed foreign monopoly capitalists access to the Chinese labor force, which is even more attractive (cheaper). There is no going "back to the (capitalist) future" for south Korea. Only anti-imperialist and socialist revolution can solve the basic problems of the Korean people and ensure truly autonomous industrial development which serves the needs of the broad masses. NOTES: 1. Reuters, 29 Dec 97. 2. MIM Notes 152 and Los Angeles Times, 30 Dec 97. 3. Los Angeles Times, 30 Dec 97. 4. Reuters, 27 Dec 97. 5. Las Vegas Review-Journal and Las Vegas Sun, 1 Jan 98. 6. Reuters, 25 Dec 97. 7. Bruce Cumings, "Korea's Place in the Sun," New York, WW Norton and Company, 1977, p. 335. 8. Cumings, p. 306. 9. Cumings, p. 321. 10. Fundamentals of Political Economy, p. 33. 11. Cumings, p. 310. * * * SANTA CLAUS IN BAGHDAD? by RC 4T4 On December 26, 1997 a plane landed in Baghdad carrying medicine and a Santa Claus. This was the second U.N. approved aid flight to arrive in two days. The group responsible for chartering this plane is the Icelandic Charity Peace 2000 Institute. Iraq is a predominantly Muslim country, so the use of a Santa Claus is just another example of European ethnocentrism. The U.N. approved aide for Baghdad could not be more ironic. As the United Snakes, who virtually control the United Nations, builds more and more public opinion against Iraq, they also use propaganda such as this plane carrying aide to convince the people that the u.s is really trying to help the people of Iraq. Meanwhile the United Nations which approved this token aide, is the same United Nations which created a trade embargo against Iraq that has resulted in extensive malnutrition of the people of Iraq. The Iraqi government also points out that it was the sweeping U.N. sanctions imposed after the 1990 invasion of Kuwait which caused the death of hundreds of thousands of children. Therefore there is much irony in a U.N. approved plane carrying a Santa Claus who says "Violence leads to more violence. Stop using children in politics."(1) MIM does not know much about the Icelandic Charity Peace 200 Institute, but we can tell by these latest actions that they are not a revolutionary group. This group calls for world leaders to stop using children as political weapons, while it cooperates with the U.N. who are responsible for the embargo which is killing many Iraqui children through malnutrition and the 1990 attack of Kuwait which also killed hundreds of thousands. MIM agrees that world leaders should stop using children in their power games, but we disagree with the mixed message being sent by the Icelandic charity Peace 2000 Institute. In order to truly help the children of Iraq this group and other humanitarian groups like it must be clear in their criticisms. They must analyze the political situation and choose a side and the side they choose must be the side of the people. The number one enemy of the children in Iraq is imperialism The only way to truly help the people of Iraq is to overthrow the imperialism. Under Socialism children will no longer be used as political weapons and malnutrition will be a thing of the past. NOTES: The Times Herald Record 27 December, 1997. * * * CORRECTION: In MIM Notes 153 we ran a story about the Massachusetts Death Penalty in which we discussed the pro-death penalty forces who used the killing of a young boy, Jeffrey Curley, as a rallying point. In this article we incorrectly focused on this as a case of stranger molestation which builds the property relationship between parents and children by distracting from within family abuse. In this case the real problem is not one evil of imperialist patriarchal society being pitted against another. In fact, MIM hopes that people will be outraged and frenzied over murder. These people should be friends of the anti-imperialist movement as this murder is a direct result of the imperialist system. It is our job to point out these connections as we explain that the death penalty will not reduce violence. * * * MEXICAN RULING PARTY MURDERS 45 IN CHIAPAS On December 23, 1997, over one hundred members of a government-backed paramilitary organization murdered 45 people of the Tzotzil nation in the village of Acteal, Chiapas. The victims included 21 wimmin, 15 children and 9 men.(1) Eyewitnesses claim that many of the children were killed as they clung to their mothers' backs.(6) The victims were supporters of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN), which began its struggle under the banner of self-determination for indigenous people in January 1994. The attackers were identified as local residents, backed by the ruling party, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).This latest attack had the largest death toll since the insurrection in 1994. It reportedly came after weeks of increased harassment and oppression by government officials and police for money from the peasantry to support their struggle against the EZLN. The Mexican police and PRI officials have been threatening peasants with death if they refuse to pay them to support the repression of the Zapatista rebels. In some areas these taxes have been as high as 10,000 pesos, which is an unattainable sum for most peasants. PRI gunmen have also cut off dirt roads that provide food for the local villages in many areas. Because of this forced starvation and threat of violence thousands of refugees have left the villages for Zapatista controlled areas. The people of Acteal fled to Polho after the massacre, along with hundreds of others. Polho is one of the EZLN's greatest strongholds, which have institutionalized independent government.(2) Local peasants reported that the massacre was in retaliation to pro-Zapatista activity in the village, including efforts to establish independent governing institutions. Many of the villagers in Acteal are members of las Abejas, a pacifist group who supports the goals and efforts of the EZLN. Others said that they are Zapatistas. The government has tried to disassociate itself from the incident, by blaming local religious and tribal differences. However, even the bourgeoisie press has recognized these efforts to cover up the continuing role of the current regime's repression of the indigenous people. The major evidence against the PRI was the arrest of Jacinto Aria Cruz, municipal president of Chenalho (the district surrounding Acteal), after he confessed to providing the arms for this attack. He has been charged along with 39 others in for the murders of the 45 innocent Tzotzil people.(3) President Ernesto Zedillo and the federal government continue to treat this as an isolated case that they will remedy. Yet it has been the strategy of the PRI to hire local people to carry out counter-insurgency tactics throughout the country. In this case they successfully turned Tzotzil people against each other, but they failed to wash their hands and have been caught in the act. The PRI can continue to pretend to treat this incident seriously, but religious groups, opposition parties, and human rights officials have all recognized this incident as a result of the numerous paramilitary groups set up by the government to carry out a war against the Zapatistas.(4) Subcommandante Marcos, a leader of the EZLN, gave a four-page communique in response to the incident in which he stated, "The direct responsibility for these bloody acts rests on President Ernesto Zedillo... and the secretary of the interior, who for years gave the green light to a counterinsurgency program presented by the federal army."(2) The U$ media has not made such strong statements but their indictment of the PRI is clear. However, they choose to ignore, and MIM would like to acknowledge, the role of U$ and CIA backing in making such actions possible. MIM has reported in the past on the use of the guise of the "War on Drugs" to provide military aid and training to the ruling Mexican government. The CIA is responsible for setting up an elite intelligence force in Mexico by providing training, equipment and military advice. Meanwhile, the U$ has also backed a new civilian police force in the country. Such acts have been carried out as 'temporary help until the 'corrupt' federal police clean up their act.' This implies that the new, U$- backed forces lack corruption. However arrests and scandals within the ranks of these 'anti-drug' forces continue.(5) It seems unlikely that the goal of these forces is to slow drug-trafficking when high ranking officials of these forces continue to be exposed as complying with drug-traffickers for money. As an imperialist nation the U$ uses force to feed its own interests in oppressed nations. It is quite evident that aid provided to the PRI and other forces in Mexico is an effort to combat the uprising of the oppressed indigenous people. In 1995, the U$ gave 73 UH-1H helicopters to transport drug forces to locations in Mexico. Both the Mexican and U$ governments stated that there was no reason that the choppers could not be used to transport troops trained in the U$ into Guerrero and Chiapas in order to repress leftist insurgencies.(5) MIM mourns the recent massacre in Chiapas, and tallies it up on the long list of victims of imperialist violence. MIM considers the struggle of the indigenous peoples and peasants of Chiapas to be just. However, the EZLN has tied its hands and put on a blindfold by scorning class analysis and hoping for the advent of true democracy in Mexico without overturning the ruling economic system. We urge all those who want to stop oppression to make a serious study of the theories of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin and Mao, and apply their theses to the situation in Mexico, to secure victory of the oppressed masses in Mexico. NOTES: 1. Washington Post 25 December 1997, p. A1. 2. Los Angeles Times 25 December 1997, p. A1. 3. International Herald Tribune 29 December 1997, News, p.2 4. New York Times 29 December 1997, p. A10. 5. New York Times 29 December 1997, p. A1. 6. La Opinion, 24 Dec 97. * * * CALIFORNIA PRISONS REPRESS FIRST NATIONS, MUSLIMS, SIKHS by MC234 Governor Pete Wilson's California Department of Corrections has launched another attack on prisoners in the name of "personal appearances." In an effort to break the will of the prisoners, the prison is banning beards and long hair and will be replacing the current uniforms of blue jeans and denim shirts with all white uniforms stenciled with "CDC Prisoner" in black. California has 156,000 prisoners in 33 prisons. Already California has cutback education programs and banned media interviews with prisoners. Weights and barbells are also being removed as part of a stated effort to keep prisoners from "bulking up", but the real reason to remove an enjoyable (and healthy!) recreational activity for the prisoners. Controlling prisoners dress and recreation is a way to break the will of individual prisoners as well as preclude progressive organizing. In addition to the "grooming" restrictions mentioned above, the new Penal Code 3062 "forbids earrings, long sideburns, mutton chop whiskers, and the shaving of letters, numbers and designs onto the head." This means that the new Penal Code is an assault upon the democratic freedoms of First Nation, Sikh and Muslim prisoners. First Nation and Sikh prisoner's religions require long hair, and Muslims require beards. NOTES: Boston Globe 4 January 1998, p. A20. * * * MARXISM-LENINISM-MAOISM ONLINE JERICHO '98 ORGANIZERS LAUNCH NEW WEB PAGE http://jericho98.togdog.com peace- first, i would like to thank you for your efforts in creating this [MIM's -ed.] website -- it is both informative and necessary. second, i would like to know if you would please link to the new jericho '98 website which is still under construction but is the main informational source for the march 27, 1998 protest in washington d.c. that will demand amnesty and freedom for all u.s. political prisoners. additionally, if there are any suggestion, updates or additional information that you may have, please contact me at jericho98@togdog.com lastly, please feel free to forward this message and url to your mailing lists, organizational contacts and other interested parties -- clearly we need to get the word out! MIM RESPONDS: Thanks for the note. We did make the link to our website. We hope that you will also link yours to ours. And if you have not added an announcement to your web site, please include a note that RAIL is organizing a teach-in on the criminal injustice system for Saturday the 28th for Jericho '98 attendees. If you or any other Jericho '98 organizers are interested in presenting at a session at the teach- in, we would welcome your participation. Please let us know and we can discuss the topics and the specifics of the agenda. RAIL TEACH-IN ON THE CRIMINAL INJUSTICE SYSTEM Saturday, March 28 Washington DC The Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League (RAIL) will host a teach-in on the criminal injustice system the day following the Jericho '98 march. This is part of the general work that is necessary to build support for incarcerated comrades and prisoners' struggles against oppress. We must free the People's leaders from Amerikan gulags! We must expand support for all prisoners' struggles against oppression! We are hosting this teach-in to broadly educate and mobilize activists to expose the Amerikan Injustice system as the tool of national oppression and genocide that it is. The tactics of COINTELPRO and the imprisonment of political leaders and revolutionaries have been tools to perpetuate oppression. These tactics, both previous and current, must be exposed. We mobilize support for the estimated 150-200 prisoners incarcerated specifically for political beliefs and actions because these are valued leaders whose only crimes were actions or beliefs aimed at the liberation of the People. Beyond support for specific individuals, we build support for all struggles against oppression. We see that the disproportionate imprisonment rate of oppressed nationals alone necessitates a broad struggle against the current Amerikan prison system in its totality. All imprisonment is political because of current inequality in Amerikan society, poor representation in the court system, disproportionate convictions and sentence lengths handed down to the oppressed and because of conditions in prisons which extend sentences as opposed to helping people to become productive members of society. The teach-in will include sessions on the nature of the criminal injustice system as well as various organizers providing information on local and continental campaigns to build support for national liberation struggles and prisoners' struggles. A preliminary agenda will be available shortly. Contact us if you or your organization is interested in presenting at the teach-in. For more information, e-mail us at rail@mim.org CYBER-CRIME WATCH: PIGS USE INTERNET TO COMMIT CRIMES AGAINST THE PEOPLE For months, MIM has reported on ways that law enforcement, capitalists like Amerikkka Online, and the bourgeois media have worked together to portray the Internet as a mode of communication needing special surveillance and policing. The bourgeois press routinely plays up criminal activity that involves the Internet (such as finding a recipe for a bomb online) or other behavior deemed anti-social (such as ignoring your children or marriage because of time spent surfing the Web.) MIM has pointed out that these activities are not unique to the Internet, and the motivation behind their vilification is to promote more law enforcement, more privatization, and less of what we currently enjoy as "free speech." While making a big deal out of online crime among the people, the pigs are also using the Internet to commit crimes against the people. MIM provides a few examples below: FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTION: http://www.dc.state.fl.us This site provides information on inmates who have been released from the Florida gulags. Calling it "in the interest of public safety," in addition to release date the site is replete with photographs, birth dates, aliases, and a list of "current offenses" (for which prison time has already been served!). It is searchable by "race" so that with no information you can do a search, for example, for all Asians released this year. This is just part of a larger trend that under the guise of the "public's right to know" aims to keep people in prison for life, even after they are released. U.$. MARSHAL'S SERVICE: "WORLD'S MOST WANTED" http://www.MostWanted.org Provides names and photographs, like the ones in the U.$. Post Office, of fugitives. Provides links to many state Drug Enforcement Administration agencies that also list names and photographs of fugitives. Only quantitatively worse than the low- tech Post Office mug shots, which at least were not broadcast across global networks and turned into video games for the settler masses. MASSACHUSETTS DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS http://www.magnet.state.ma.us/doc/ Here the Massachusetts DOC boasts of and markets quality products made with exploited prison labor through "MassCor" Industries, and posts press releases bragging about the state of the art vehicles used to transport prisoners from Massachusetts to Texas. TENNESSEE DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS http://www.state.tn.us/corrections This site topped them all. In addition to such things as a "Myths and Facts" section which debunks the popular misconceptions about prison life being easy or comfortable by bragging about how oppressive it really is, this site includes a "Kids Fun Zone." There, kids can take a trivia test with questions like "Tennessee prisoners are fed... a) only rice and beans, b) only bread and water, c) the same food you eat" implying that the food in Tennessee's prisons is adequate. It also quizzes kids humorously on crimes, possible punishments, and all around makes jokes at the expense of the people it locks up. Work with MIM and RAIL to expose the injustices of Amerikkkan prisons and to organize to protect the limited freedoms we have to use the Internet and all communications technologies to build public opinion on behalf of the international proletariat, for socialism. * * * ASIAN COMMUNITY MOBILIZES AGAINST PORNOGRAPHY by a RAIL Comrade On December 3, over 150 students and faculty members at UMass, Boston protested the pornography in Mass Media, the conduct of the student senate, and the inadequate response from the UMass administration. On November 20, the UMass, Boston student newspaper, Mass Media, ran an article exposing the UMASS student senate's use of school computers to view pornography on the Internet. The Mass Media article entitled "Senate Undresses Asian Concerns" was accompanied by three partially blacked out, but obviously pornographic pictures of Asian wimmin. The blackening did not leave much to the imagination. Student senate president, Joe Fernandez, admitted that he knew student senators were viewing pornography on the senate computers. He claims that he asked them repeatedly to stop, but other student senate members gave conflicting reports. Senator Michael Gervais said some senators have been viewing pornography on the state funded computers since the fall of 1996. He claims he threatened the other senators and they stopped viewing the pornography at school. An anonymous source delivered evidence to The Mass Media, who then published the pornography. The publication of this pornography, which was primarily pictures of naked Asian women, was a sensationalist stunt to get people to pay attention to The Mass Media's article. The use of pornography by the student senate and then by the student newspaper outraged many on campus. The Asian Student Center at UMass, Boston organized the rally that was held on December 3, 1997. The rally was attended by many oppressed nationals and progressive whites standing before a banner proclaiming "Rally Against Sexism and Racism." To the side of the rally stood three representatives of The Mass Media holding signs proclaiming their right to free speech. A few other white nation youth wandered around behind the rally heckling the speakers. The rally speakers demanded the immediate resignation of all student senate members, denounced the manner in which The Mass Media exposed the situation in the senate, and asked for "an open publication of the results of Chancellor Penny's Fact-Finding Committee."(1) A list of demands was drawn up by the Asian Student Center and has been given to the student senate, The Mass Media, and the administration. One of the demands asks that there be a student advisory committee as well as an academic advisor appointed to supervise the editorial policies and practices of the student newspaper. While MIM agrees with the protesting students, we do not consider the formation of oversight committees or administration actions an effective way to fight this gender and nation oppression. Giving any further power to the administration is just asking for an institution that is already steeped in patriarchal and imperialist ideology to take over the greater enforcement of thought control. Asking for a student advisory committee is better than suggesting that the administration should step in. But under imperialism any moves to control media are going to end up serving the powers that control them. Because the Mass Media is a university funded and controlled newspaper, the progressive students on campus would be better off forming their own alternative newspaper and demanding that the university also give them money for this project. Only by having complete control over the content can activists ensure that they are fighting patriarchy and national oppression. The local bourgeois media parroted The Mass Media's approach, displaying the pornography from the cover of the Mass Media on local television news programs. They condemned the school newspaper's use of pornography in words and then parroted The Mass Media's sensationalism by showing the same pictures they condemned. MIM and RAIL oppose pornography. It is one of the most obvious examples of the unequal power relation between people based on gender. The incidents involving pornography at UMass, Boston clearly demonstrate the role of patriarchy and imperialism in this growing industry of oppression. The patriarchal culture of Amerikkka creates and perpetuates an environment of exploitation for wimmin, particularly oppressed nation wimmin. The UMass Student Senate members and The Mass Media staff readily participate in this imperialist patriarchal system. The writers at the Mass Media used a typical imperialist approach in their article, instead of giving a clear political analysis. They sensationalized the incident as an isolated one, while at the same time claiming "pornography is here to stay"(2) The Mass Media was right to expose the senate for viewing pornography on state funded school computers, but the manner in which they exposed the senate was completely wrong. The use of pornography to get the people's attention is nothing more than the extension of gender oppression. MIM disagrees with the Mass Media when they say "what is clear is that pornography, whether in print or on the Internet, is here to stay."(2) Pornography may be here to stay under patriarchy, but under communism patriarchy and all of its vices will be ended. MIM and RAIL conclude that patriarchy is alive and kicking in Amerikkkan society. We support the Asian community at UMass, Boston for organizing against the recent events at UMass but we must remember that patriarchy is built into this oppressive imperialist system. Therefore the only way to fully rid wimmin and all oppressed nationals of oppression is to overthrow this imperialist patriarchal system. Under a Socialist revolution all wimmin will free themselves from oppression. NOTES: 1. List of demands by UMass, Boston Asian Student Center. 2. The Mass Media volume 32, number 13. * * * AMERIKAN APARTHEID: ENFORCED HOUSING SEGREGATION by MCB52 When MIM explains that the white nation in this country is set apart and above other nations, young white folks often try to deny they have benefited. They often counter that their families came long after slavery and built themselves up, implying that Blacks and other oppressed nations could have done the same. But the fact of the matter is that whites have continued to get special help in pursuing the Amerikan dream. The fiftieth anniversary of the construction of Long Island's Levittown, where white returning GI's got access to affordable housing while Black returning GI's were excluded, gives us the opportunity to illustrate just how the Amerikan version of apartheid has come to be.The New York Times does not get this at all, and says that it is a "paradox" that "although Levittown was built for World War II veterans, who had fought tyranny and racism, its doors were opened to at least one former German U-boat soldier, while black American soldiers were turned away." MIM knows that there is nothing paradoxical about it. Amerika joined World War II not to fight "racism," but to fight for control of resources for itself and its allies. That included colonial wealth. As internal colonies of the U$, it is no more surprising that Black and other oppressed nations did not share the fruits of Amerikan prosperity than that the neo-colonies of the Third World did not share them.The late 1940s and early 1950s were when the white nation became, in large part, suburbanized. While Blacks had moved north with the increasing industrial output, the migration of whites out of the northern cities created a new segregation. This new segregation required two things: first, whites had to be able to afford to buy the suburban houses, and second, Blacks had to be kept out.The houses of Levittown and many other suburbs were mass-produced and very cheap. Levitt, the developer, was renowned as a "visionary," the "Henry Ford of housing" as he built 36 two-bedroom houses a day on 60-foot by 100-foot plots. The price was low, just $7000, or monthly payments of $60. Crucially, no down payment was required. That meant that even white people with no capital could become home owners. This was a huge boost to what was becoming the increasingly entrenched labor aristocracy of white workers who shared the interests of the imperialists. There was not only an implicit desire among builders and agents to sell to white folks, but also very explicit prerequisites for those who could move in. The standard lease at Levittown, which included the option to buy, included this clause: "The tenant agrees not to permit the premises to be used or occupied by any person other than members of the Caucasian race. But the employment and maintenance of other than Caucasian domestic servants shall be permitted." In the words of Barbara Kelly, a Hofstra University professor of Long Island Studies: "Because Levittown promised affordable housing, with no downpayment, it offered hope to the African American working class when no other community did, but that hope was quashed. After the war, blacks thought things had changed, but they hadn't, and Levittown became a microcosm of that frustration." Where white workers were given a leg up after World War II, Black workers were left behind. Most white people live in homes they own, giving them access to much more wealth than other nations within U$ borders. Differences in income between nations in this country are fairly well known, but the depth of the difference can only be understood with reference to other factors. The disparity in income does not reveal the disparity in wealth. The latter is much greater in a society where people's most valuable asset is their home because Blacks are far less likely to own homes because of segregation and discrimination in banking.(2) While the per capita income of Blacks was nearly 60% that of Whites in 1988, their net wealth showed a much higher discrepancy.(3) The per capita net worth of Blacks, in 1988, was only 21% of that of Whites.(4)To this day, whites make up the overwhelming majority of the 53,000 Levittown residents, and Blacks less than 1% (only 0.26%). This is a situation mirrored all over suburbia, creating an extreme level of segregation across class. Within the study of segregation of urban populations, the most comprehensive measures of segregation take into account many different figures. For example, one multidimensional index charts five factors, to show presence of "hypersegregation." Ten cities meet these criteria for hypersegregation of Blacks. These ten cities house 23% of the Black population. In contrast, Blacks living in cities with low segregation on at least four of the indices comprised only 1.5% of all Blacks in the U$. The days of the no-downpayment house are over, now that most white folks have homes, and the only way for oppressed nations to change that situation is to organize for independent power. When imperialism is crushed, the oppressed nations will control the land and the wealth they create. NOTES: 1. New York Times 28 December 1997, p. 23 2. Massey, Douglas S., and Nancy Denton. American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Underclass. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 1993. 3. Tidwell, Billy, Ph.D., ed. 1993. The State of Black America 1993. New York: National Urban League, Inc. p. 149. 4. Ibid, p. 138. * * * UNDER LOCK & KEY: NEWS FROM PRISONERS AND PRISONS AMERIKKKAN PRISON EXPLOSION IS OUT OF HAND The Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC) have consistently denied prisoners any form of civil or human rights, and have only followed the courts many orders to do so grudgingly. The right to have access to the law library, which was successfully won in the case Bounds v Smith, 430 US 817, 97 S. Ct. 1491 (1977) allowed state and federal prisoners the right to be able to challenge their convictions, as well as the conditions of their confinement. This case, however, have been sadly reduced and sliced (by the Supreme Courts recent ruling in Lewis v Casey, 1165 S. Ct. 2174, 1996) whereby prisoners are told they no longer have a right of access to the courts. And now the prisoners housed in Arizona's Department of Corrections (ADOC) are feeling the brunt of this ruling (for it was in Arizona that this case arose). It is only a matter of time before this ruling spreads to other states and throughout the United $tates. Ironically, the U.$. Justice Department has ruled (in an investigation into the conditions of Arizona and Michigan prisons) that female prisoners at the Arizona Center for Women and at state facilities in Alhambra, Perryville, and Tucson, have been subjected to sexual misconduct and unlawful invasions of privacy, including prurient viewing during showering, toileting, and dressing. At Michigan's Scott and Crane (women's) correctional facilities, female prisoners have been subjected to the same sexual criminal behavior as the women in Arizona facilities. And the authorities in Michigan have refused to allow Justice investigators access to its prisons and refused to negotiate to resolve the problem, as well as Arizona's department of corrections. What we find is that the prisoncrats are not willing to confess and own-up to known violations and criminal behavior within its departments and among their employees. Yet, prisoners are continuing to lose more and more rights fought and died for through the years. This is what the revolt at Attica was all about. Prison reform, constitutional, civil and human rights. This is what so many have suffered trying to obtain. No one has ever revolted claiming, "We want out of prison." All the revolts and prison unrest revolved around the inhumane treatment we must suffer while paying some debt to society, not to mention that many are in prison and were in prison for acts they did not commit, but suffered anyway until they were able to go back to court to prove themselves with the help of prison law libraries and the ability to utilize these law libraries. The prison explosion across Amerikkka has gotten totally out of hand as law enforcement reaches out to incarcerate children 12, 13, and 14 as adults. Refusing to recognize that children this young have some behavioral problems that created their pathology in the first place. And instead of trying to deal with the problem they band-aid it with this 'lock up' mentality, thus never healing the behavior. And the creation for this behavior is stemmed from the way society operates and feeds upon itself. That is, what is seen on TV, the movies, what is read in print or drawn in pictures plays a role. Also, mind you, the economic, social and political climate of the country, which filters down to the very community one lives in, and also play a vital role on behaviors, actions and reactions. Michigan has more people locked up than ever before and are working overtime to restrict even more basic rights from those who are locked up. Already Michigan prisoners are not allowed to see their children unless they are accompanied by an adult and in some cases, can't come into the prison until they are 18 years old. [This creates f]urther erosion of an already fragmented family structure thus adding to the delinquency of young children and their involvement with law enforcement. The Child Welfare League of America Examined the arrest records of 75,000 children ages 9 to 12 in 1996. It found the arrest rate for abused children was 60 per 1,000 compared to 0.89 per 1,000 for non-abused children. So what does this tell us about the status of the prison system? What does this say about the hundreds of thousands of prisoners in Michigan and the millions across the country? There is a social ill at hand and the politicians are only interested in building prisons because prisons have become the "new kid on the block" on Wall Street's stock market. In the trenches, -- A Michigan Prisoner, 10 November 1997 HOLIDAY FOOD BASKETS BANNED ...Well, the pigs took our food boxes that we used to have sent in during the Christmas season. Now we're able to spend a C-note a week. Yeah right, huh?! Fools in prison ain't got that kind of money. I figure it's just a bunch of bullshit to bring the DOIC [Department of Incorrections] more money. 'Cause we were allowed three 25-pound boxes of food. And stuff's cheaper on the street than in here, you know, despite what lies the public is told. The pigs are going to make a lot of money selling some jive ass shit. Before this year, convicts hardly bought from the pigs' store during Christmas, and the pigs hardly made shit. So that's why I think they took the food boxes. From the looks of it, no one's going to do shit about it, or really seems to care that it's fucked up. Cause that is what the pigs want so they can keep on taking shit from us.... -- An Arizona Prisoner, 22 November 1997 UPDATE ON 200 PRISONERS SHOT BY PIGS DEAR MIM, In response to one of your articles under lock and key titled, "Pigs Shoot Over 200 Prisoners". I am one of the inmates who these jinn's and uncle tom's shot up. I still have bird shot in me, due to lack of medical attention. Also we given 720 days lock-up time in August 1996. Which half of us got our time reduced to 540 days by the time our lock-up time was up in January 1997. We were placed in Maximum Custody for six months, which detained us on Administrative Segregation until July 1997. When July came we were denied release out of Maximum Custody and were placed in Security Detention also known to us as Security Threat. We do not meet the requirements for any of the above. Every time it's time for us to be released back into general population they come up with bourgeois excuses not to free the people of repression. The whole grievance system here is corrupted by these jinn's. South Carolina Department of Corrections is in the stage of genocidal torture by no other than Texas Klansman Michael Moore. -- A South Carolina Prisoner, 21 November 1997 FEDS SQUEEZE INDIGENT ACCOUNTS The federal courts have begun placing holds on indigent inmate prison accounts for law petition filing fees. The Florida D.O.C. [Department of Corruption's] is also now placing holds on indigent accounts for legal copies made for court. These recent financial holds serve as a deterrent to poor prisoners who seek access to the courts. What this all boils down to is: "How much justice can you afford?" If the U$ Government squeezes us to death with these capitalist sanctions, then the so-called little man has to strike back by any means necessary! -- A Florida Prisoner, 22 October 1997 HARASSMENT AT NEW MISSOURI GULAG ... Now as you may or may not know, the corruptional center I'm at is not even a year old yet. I've only been here for about 50 days, but I see already that shit is top of the line fucked up. They got me in a cell that is more like an ICEBOX but they just turned on the heat yesterday. Yah, Right! It's so cold around here that I have a cold. I got my cold within 24 hours. We do have blankets, but shit they should just call it a damn sheet too. The name of this corruptional center is Crossroads. The head beast is crazy, but that ain't strange. I'm on lock down now. I came from X Correctional Center 50 days ago. I haven't had a write up in all that time, and the head beast gave me 60 more days after I did my 30, for getting too many write ups. He also told me that he might just keep me in Ad. Seg. [Administration Segregation] for twelve months. What kind of shit is this? I ain't got no more write ups, but time will tell. I have seen people in their cells pass out in the C.O.'s, Corrupt Officer, eyes and they just walk away from the cell. Just think, this is going on now at a new born baby corruptional center. What's really going on at the old heads of Corruption? Your Comrade in the state of Misery (Missouri) Corruptional Center -- A Missouri Prisoner, 17 November 1997 MISSOURI PRISONERS FED UP WITH BRUTALITY ... The department of corruption in the state of misery is preparing to open a new maximum security prison, and two more are planned. On 28 August 1997, at crossroads correctional center, the black prisoners got fed-up with the guards beating prisoners and macing them while in their hand-cuffs. So three prison housing units rose up and attacked prison guards. Prisoners taking away guards' mace cans and spraying them with their own chemical mace, and beating five guards to a pulp -- two of them high ranking prison guards called white shirts. One sergeant was on the operating table for eight hours, and the entire prison was locked down for two weeks. On 29 August 1997, 25 prisoners were transferred to potosi correctional center, and 60 more remain on Lock-down, even though general population is back open. This incident showed the potential for the oppressed to come together in unity to battle the common oppressors of us all. Members of the nation of Islam, crips and bloods, gang members and moores, ALL came together in unity and ran the pigs off the yard. Three housing unites were under the control of the prisoners. prison pigs were so afraid they called the local police from out in society to come and help them retake control of crossroads. Of course prisoners who did not participate were also locked down, falsely accused and transferred to potosi as well. The missouri department of corruption was so shook-up over this up-rising that the sent military advisers from jefferson city correctional center to show crossroads' pigs how to operate its slave plantation and teach them tried methods of oppression. Prison officials are now saying that when the new prison, Bowling Green, opens that they are to send their problems there. In Solidarity, -- another Missouri Prisoner, 18 November 97 TEXAS HIGH SECURITY LIFE I'm writing to you from Texas' newest High Security Unit. This unit was built to hold Texas' worst prisoners. Well let me tell you that it is a big joke! A big joke on the taxpayers' whose money paid for this. I'm on this unit because I was slammed with handcuffs on! Most of the people who are over here are mental people who came from mental units. They were sent here because Texas is cutting back on Mental Care. We are in a cell that has no windows at all. Behind a steel door with windows. The officers deny our food, recreation, even giving us a change of clothes. We are being gassed inside the cells, for putting up a sheet or banging on the door to get something. We filed grievance complaints to Warden Figueroa to no avail. We are constantly being written bogus disciplinary cases and the hearings are a joke. Everyone is found guilty, even when it is shown that the rules of the disciplinary itself are violated [by the pigs]. Then when we come up to moved to a better level status, the disciplinary Captain denies us our level upgrade because of a disciplinary case. And he's the one who finds us guilty! Since I've been over here I've been threatened by several officers. My food has been spit in. All behind the officer who slammed me. The food is not worth anything. I've lost over fifteen pounds since I've been over here. We inmates in Texas have no help. Most of us were once in Ad. Seg. [Administrative Segregation]. I'm an ex-crip now since I will not do their job for them in beating other inmates. The pigs put me in segregation, in which I believe they will try to kill me! Not only me, there are so many who are being messed over and don't even know how to write a grievance. And whenever someone else says something for them, then they are messed over. It's hell over here.... -- A Texas Prisoner, 13 November 1997 A PLEA FOR HELP ... I am 25 year old inmate in the MDOC Michigan Department of Corrections and I write to you on behalf of the (PDTRT). It's an organization for the betterment of prisoners doing the right thing.... ...It is horrible in here. I have been beaten by staff. [I have been] refused water, clothes, medical attention, protection, food, [use of] the phone. I've been spit on called nigger, fag, fuck boy, pouch monkey, slave boy and worse. I have witnessed several of my friends beaten to death by staff. A c/o [corrections officer] paid another inmate to stab me. There has been a total of four attempts on my life. I live in fear, but keep the faith. I have almost been raped twice. The administration doesn't listen or care about us inmates. Staff writes fake tickets on us and we have no say in the matter. My mother has called to check up on me and they hung up on her. At times I feel like killing myself is the only way out. Death can't be as bad as this. I've written to so many groups and it is all the same. We need our cries for help published. We need to find a group of lawyers that are willing to help.... ...I have been denied parole for no reason. I am begging you for your assistance. Me and many of our PDTRT members that are in prison have been put in the hole for nothing. We can't use the phone at all, we are losing hope. A brother stopped eating. He is trying to die. He has given up, so staff gassed him and beat him. Another inmate was begging to see a shrink doctor, and they pulled him out of his cell and beat him down. His is here at SMF [Standish Maximum Facility] where I am. He is only 21 years old, first time down. I wrote his family, now one of his legs is permanently out of place. There isn't much I can do besides try to talk to people. But the public needs know what happens in here. We are brothers, sons, fathers, uncles, cousins, sisters, mothers, aunties, daughters. They stole my tv, radio, legal papers, clothes, shoes, and tapes. But what am I to do? I cry myself to sleep like crazy. There are times I wish I could lay in my mothers lap and have her kiss my forehead, rub her fingers through my hair and make everything better. But it's just a dream. ...I've never been the violent type. I couldn't kill a fly! But I know I don't deserve this foul treatment. Denied razors and my personal hygiene products: soap, toothpaste, and deodorant. It is not just a Black thing. I am for the betterment of the millions of all color inmates: white, Black, Blue, Green, Yellow, Brown, Chinese, Mexican, male, female, gray, bisexual, etc. That is what the (PDTRT) is all about. Even reaching our inner city youth before they become inmates. People say they want to help us. Give us their word, but never do anything. Actions speak louder than words.... There are a lot of talented men and women in prison who really deserve a chance to be free.... -- Another Michigan Prisoner, 8 October 1997 MIM RESPONDS: Thank you, comrade, for your revolutionary work in the struggle. You have been organizing prisoners and exposing the truth about the atrocities of the prison system. Keep up the good work. Please keep us updated on the pig brutality so we can continue to expose the truth. Remember that the imperialists use prison to control potential revolutionaries. The pigs will try to divide prisoners, pitting one group against another, to distract you from targeting the pigs as your real enemy. Don't give up hope. You are not alone in this struggle against imperialist domination. There are many people outside fighting oppression. When you or others feel like killing yourselves, remember that's how the pigs want you to feel. You have nothing to lose but your chains. Don't give up, work for revolution. MICHIGAN PRISONER BATTLES CENSORSHIP ...As you can see by this rejection notice, that I am sending you, I am no longer allowed to receive MIM Notes. When I received this notice, I requested a hearing so that I could be shown why I'm no longer allowed your publication, but was my request was denied. Then today, my cell was searched. Which was not unusual. But what was unusual about this search was the only things were looked at was my reading material and letters, or I should say the addresses on my letters. None were taken but, they did a lot of writing in their notebooks. Since for years they've label me a troublemaker and an unmanageable convict, it seems that once again shit is about to hit the fan, so to speak. But as usual, I won't take it lying down. I've filed a grievance to the warden and one to the MDOC [Michigan Department of Corruption's] in Lansing. I won't win the grievances because here in Michigan, you never do. But at least in the end someone will have to answer my questions of why all of a sudden I can't receive MIM Notes anymore. Other news from here is this prison is closing in December by Federal Court Order for repairs that will take place about years. At present there are less than 300 of us here behind the walls and those numbers are dropping every day. The big question on everyone's mind is, where are they finding all the bed space when all we hear about is the overcrowding. With the closing of this facility, there are 1,420 less bed in the state. There are plans being made to transfer Michigan prisoners to Ohio and West Virginia, which brings thoughts of attack dogs and sadistic guards as in Texas to all of our minds. But so far all transfers have been within the state. I'm told I'll be sent across the street from here in the next week or two but since this problem I had with my choice of reading material, maybe I'll be one of the first to go out of state. Right now the MDOC has their back against the wall. Taxpayers have said no to more money for corrections and the county jails are filled with people sentenced to prison. But the receiving center here in Jackson is filled so the counties are having to hold them until bed space comes open. And as usual the parole board refuses to grant parole to us in the higher levels. Last year's [1996] figures of paroles denies was 57% and this year [1997] hasn't been any better as far as I can see. It is common in this state to do at least 2 flops of 12 to 24 months before getting a parole if you're in a level 4 or 5 prison. Since Michigan is well known for handing out long prison sentences to begin with, added to the flops from the parole board, most people in level 4 or 5 end up doing 12 to 15 flat years before being released. It's just a matter of time before these high level joints explode. They've taken all of our programs away from us and we're in court right now trying to stop them from taking our personal property. Our futures here behind these walls are looking dim. Even though I can't receive MIM Notes anymore, I'll continue to be with you in spirit and will pass on any new information about what's happening in Michigan's prisons. Stay strong and don't forget about us and me. -- Another Michigan Prisoner, 19 November 1997 ***Letters of Protest can be sent to the warden: 4008 Cooper St., Jackson, MI 49201-7510*** ILLINOIS PRISONER FIGHTS CENSORSHIP These no good corruptional officers have confiscated the literature I had of MIM Notes and a month later I was transferred to another corruptional center called pontiac. Well at the time the literature was confiscated, I was at the stateville corruptional center. A month later in August 1997 I was transferred here at pontiac! They sent me a notice stating that the publication was not allowed and that it was a threat to the environment I was in. And it was a threat to the highest ranking pig there which was the fat warden (George E. Detella) at the stateville corruptional center. So I'm asking all comrades that in the corruptional systems to stand for the rights to have MIM Notes in all the corruptional centers in the united snakes! I'm also going to write a grievance to the Grievance officer concerning this issue and would like for comrades to understand that these no good systems are trying to stop us from receiving MIM Notes. We have to stand strong in these injustice systems and stand up for the people who stand for us, my brothers -- I'm talking about MIM Notes! So to all my comrades in the system and out please stand for something that's worth standing for and for someone who is on our side not against us OK?. Stand strong my brothers. ... -- An Illinois Prisoner, 11 September 1997 ***Letters of protest can be written to the warden: P. O. Box 99. Pontiac, IL 61764.*** * * * 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.