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 159 APRIL 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. PUERTO RICO: SHAM "SELF-DETERMINATION" BILL PASSES U.S. HOUSE 2. EXPOSE AND OPPOSE THE VISITING FORCES AGREEMENT AND ALL SCHEMES TO PROMOTE US IMPERIALIST INTERVENTION AND AGGRESSION! 3. LETTERS 4. FORMER ANTI-IMPERIALIST BETRAYS THE STRUGGLE (AGAIN) 5. NO DENYING IT: CAPITALIST CRISIS HITS SOUTH KOREA 6. PEOPLE'S HISTORY CENSORED IN MICHIGAN KKKAMP 7. DOC TRANSFERS AND SETS UP PRISONER 8. TREE, CRITICAL MASS, KILL THE HOSTAGES PLAY RAIL BENEFIT 9. REVOLUTIONARY HIP HOP; A LETTER FROM CRITICAL MASS 10. DENNIS BRUTUS PROMOTES BOOKS FOR PRISONERS PROGRAM, DISCUSSES SOUTH AFRICAN NEOCOLONIALISM 11. UNDER IMPERIALISM THERE IS NO FREE SPEECH 12. POLITICAL ASYLUM FOR THE SISON FAMILY NOW! 13. PIRAO NEWS 14. MLM ONLINE COLLEGE TERM PAPER SALES REVEAL EDUCATION HYPOCRISY 15. INDONESIA'S ECONOMY COLLAPSING; IMPERIALIST BAIL-OUT REJECTED 16. UNDER LOCK AND KEY: NEWS FROM PRISONERS AND PRISONS 17. GOVERNMENT REPORT CONFIRMS INCREASED NATIONAL OPPRESSION * * * WHAT IS MIM? The Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM) is a revolutionary communist party that upholds Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, comprising the collection of existing or emerging Maoist internationalist parties in the English-speaking imperialist countries and their English-speaking internal semi-colonies, as well as the existing or emerging Spanish-speaking Maoist internationalist parties of Aztlan, Puerto Rico and other territories of the U.S. Empire. MIM Notes is the newspaper of MIM. Notas Rojas is the newspaper of the Spanish- speaking parties or emerging parties of MIM. MIM is an internationalist organization that works from the vantage point of the Third World proletariat; thus, its members are not Amerikans, but world citizens. MIM struggles to end the oppression of all groups over other groups: classes, genders, nations. MIM knows this is only possible by building public opinion to seize power through armed struggle. Revolution is a reality for North America as the military becomes over-extended in the government's attempts to maintain world hegemony. MIM differs from other communist parties on three main questions: (1) MIM holds that after the proletariat seizes power in socialist revolution, the potential exists for capitalist restoration under the leadership of a new bourgeoisie within the communist party itself. In the case of the USSR, the bourgeoisie seized power after the death of Stalin in 1953; in China, it was after Mao's death and the overthrow of the "Gang of Four" in 1976. (2) MIM upholds the Chinese Cultural Revolution as the farthest advance of communism in human history. (3) MIM believes the North American white-working-class is primarily a non- revolutionary worker-elite at this time; thus, it is not the principal vehicle to advance Maoism in this country. MIM accepts people as members who agree on these basic principles and accept democratic centralism, the system of majority rule, on other questions of party line. "The theory of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin is universally applicable. We should regard it not as dogma, but as a guide to action. Studying it is not merely a matter of learning terms and phrases, but of learning Marxism-Leninism as the science of revolution." -- Mao Zedong, Selected Works, Vol. II, p. 208 * * * PUERTO RICO: SHAM "SELF-DETERMINATION" BILL PASSES U.S. HOUSE On February 4th, the u.s. House of Representatives narrowly passed a bill that would hold a referendum in Puerto Rico this year to determine whether the nation continues with its current commonwealth status, becomes the 51st state of the u.s., or gains independence. This is being called an opportunity for Puerto Ricans to exercise self- determination. But it is not possible for a people who are under u.$. military occupation and whose economy is controlled by the u.s. imperialists to truly have self- determination. Even within the wording of the congressional bill, provisions can be found which make the referendum not really binding on the u.$. Congressional approval of any change would be required. On this 100 year anniversary of the u.s. colonization of Puerto Rico, the u.s. is trying to put a democratic face on its occupation of the island. Almost four million people live in Puerto Rico, and about as many Puerto Ricans live on the u.$. mainland. Many have gone to the u.s. since 1917, when Puerto Ricans were granted a limited form of u.s. citizenship. The economy of the island, where the average wage is far lower than in the u.s., suffers from high unemployment and low paying jobs. Since the Puerto Rican people have never had the opportunity to develop a self- sufficient economy, their livelihood is dependent on the many foreign (mostly Amerikan) corporations that set up shop for the cheap labor and good tax deals. As an amerikan colony, Puerto Rico has provided the u.s. a very strategic military base, a resource of cheap labor for manufacturing plants, and a vacation resort close to home. U.$ corporations control 90% of the Puerto Rican economy. None of the Puerto Ricans living on the mainland would be allowed to vote in the referendum. An amendment to allow them to vote was rejected in the House. This alone demonstrates that Puerto Ricans are not being offered true self-determination. The u.$. government has no right to decide who should and should not be allowed to vote in the referendum. Furthermore, Amerikans receive the right to vote in Puerto Rico after only three months of residency. This means Amerikans could vote on the future of Puerto Rico. Currently Puerto Ricans are u.s. citizens but cannot vote in presidential elections. Puerto Ricans were granted u.$. citizenship *against their will* in 1917, so that the u.$. army could recruit them to fight in WWI. The Puerto Rican government voted against u.$. citizenship for Puerto Ricans. This limited citizenship has allowed the u.$. government to pass out some meager reforms in an effort to quell opposition. In particular, the opportunity to receive welfare has pacified many Puerto Ricans so that the overwhelming majority support maintaining affiliation with the united snakes, split evenly between statehood and commonwealth status. About 60% of Puerto Ricans receive some kind of welfare. But this popular sentiment should not be confused with an absence of aspirations for self- determination. While many Puerto Ricans have the short sighted desire to maintain their wealth relative to the Third World through affiliation with the united snakes, the opposition to u.s. imperialism is still strong from the anti-NASA protests to the opposition to u.s. military activity. The strong national identity, even among Puerto Ricans living in the u.s., speaks to the potential for an upsurge of revolutionary nationalism that the u.s. imperialists fear enough to offer Puerto Rico statehood. Just as citizenship was offered in 1917, statehood is being offered in 1998 to bolster the image of u.s. imperialism. The colonization of Puerto Rico has even come under scrutiny at the United Nations as a violation of the right of all nations to self- determination. The 100 year anniversary of colonialism in Puerto Rico offers anti-imperialists the opportunity to push the issue to the forefront of international attention. The House voted down an amendment that would have declared English the official language in Puerto Rico. It is possible that they foresaw the tremendous opposition they would have faced even among Puerto Rican imperialist lackeys if this amendment passed. The debate within Puerto Rico over the issue of English only and other related issues of statehood will force the discussion of what really constitutes self- determination and nationhood. These debates can serve to raise the consciousness of Puerto Ricans and turn the referendum into a tool to educate the people about u.s. imperialism. Anti-imperialists must use this opportunity to expose the lie of self-determination at every turn. We must remain strong in our demand for complete u.s. withdrawal from the island of Puerto Rico. And we urge Puerto Ricans to boycott imperialist referendums. INTERVIEW WITH MAOIST YOUTH IN PUERTO RICO [MIM does its own agitation with regard to Puerto Rico and publishes the newspaper of the Spanish-speaking internal colonies called Notas Rojas. We have started a discussion with a Maoist youth in Puerto Rico who may have some differences with MIM. The Socialist Front and the National Hostosian Congress mentioned below contain a wide variety of ideologies within and cannot be said to be just Leninist organizations.] MIM: Do you think you face an uphill battle against statehood? Maoist youth in Puerto Rico: Fortunately, the statehood movement has lost ground. When it was the strongest in 1993, it lost the plebiscite by a 2% margin. After that they are down 10% or more. Consequently, the supporters of the colony (officially Commonwealth) have been influenced by its inner left wing, and have adopted a more liberal and progressive line, and are considering dumping the pro-colony policy and supporting the associated republic (free association). We in the independence movement, both the Socialist Front and the CNH (National Hostosian Congress), see this as a giant step forward. The lines between liberals and left-wingers and autonomists and "independentistas" have narrowed down, and it has been them who have changed and met us halfway. We are considering the free association as another step onto independence. The battle uphill is not against statehood, but the right wing of the Popular Democratic Party (autonomy) and the right wing of the Independence followers (nationalists). We believe that an alliance between us and the "populares" can be achieved. MIM: Do you think it's a step forward for the U.$. government to at least offer statehood as an option? Maoist youth in Puerto Rico: Our worst enemy is statehood, for it is merely a colony at a greater degree. The present political status at least gives the people the freedom to speak the language in private and government; the right to preserve the culture; to participate in international events and maintain our identity as a latin-american hispanic nation and people. Under statehood we would have the same situation of subversion under colonialism without being at the very least, Puerto Ricans. MIM: How does the support for statehood breakdown by class? What do the most exploited workers think? Who are the die- hard supporters of statehood? Who supports the "commonwealth" colony idea? Maoist youth in Puerto Rico: (a) The statehood movement is quite peculiar. The ones that REALLY support it to the death and represent the movement's leadership are the highest of the high economically: bankers, industrialists and high paying professionals. Until the 1970s statehood was behind in support for this fact. But, the New Progressive Party (statehood) elected a charismatic leader (current Resident Commissioner Carlos Romero Barcelo') that drew up a new plan: "Statehood for the poor." He, using the million dollar donations from the rich, convinced the lower class that their misery would disappear with welfare and food stamps under statehood, instead of salaries and work we promised. They preferred to be dependent for many reasons EXCLUDING laziness. The problem is that PR education (public) is the worst in the Caribbean and the best job a poor person can get is at McDonalds, not a promising career. So, the statehood movement won the low class support. But still they, especially under the new governor who is labeled as a fascist neoliberal (he does not deny the latter allegation) answer to the rich class. (b) The workers are split. Unemployment has skyrocketed because of mass privatization. At first they supported the neoliberal cause. But, 5 years after the election of the NPP government, and witnessing the results of privatization and austerity, they have rebelled. Strikes, assemblies and even a nation wide stoppage in protest to the privatization of the phone company (150,000 workers in the street) have been a part of every day life. Support among the working class, especially the unions, has diminished. More recently, the legislature passed a bill which called for the "unionization" of public workers. It's a fraud and the workers know it. The elimination of the constitutionally given right to strike is, for example, one of the measures taken by the NPP. Many have, publicly, including the head of the coordinator of ALL unions, denounced it. The government is cracking. (c, d, e) Unlike the other nations of the world, the political scenario is not broken down by class. You have rich people supporting the three alternatives; middle class and poor people do the same. That is why the SF is turning away from the national issue and instead will address the social issues. In this strategy we have been able to elect socialist oriented people to head the unions, and have garnered many workers' support and specially the intellectuals AND the students (The latter ones have staged mass rallies sponsored by us in defiance of the conservative government). Step by step the political arena is beginning to change from that of status to that of social preoccupation. We have addressed both issues, for both are vital to the survival of the Puerto Rican nation and people. * * * EXPOSE AND OPPOSE THE VISITING FORCES AGREEMENT AND ALL SCHEMES TO PROMOTE US IMPERIALIST INTERVENTION AND AGGRESSION! [MIM gladly reprints excerpts from this article by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) in order to expose the machinations of the u.$. imperialists in the Philippines and support the revolutionary struggle led by CPP.] After two years of secret negotiations, the US and Ramos governments signed on February 10, 1998 the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), a bilateral executive agreement that defines the legal treatment of US forces in Philippine territory, paving the way to the resumption of joint RP-US military exercises in the Philippines. The VFA is a thinly disguised version of the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), which US imperialism has imposed on other nations as well. It is an assault against Philippine sovereignty and territorial integrity more flagrant and pernicious than the RP-US Treaty of Friendship, Security and Cooperation which the Filipino people roundly rejected in 1991. Along with the Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement (ACSA) secretly adopted and put into effect since 1992, the VFA sets the stage for unbridled US military presence and activity in the Philippines. These military agreements virtually transform the entire country into one big US military base where US vessels, war materiel including nuclear weapons, and military personnel can enter and leave at will; and where US personnel can commit crimes with impunity, beyond the reach of the Philippine judicial system. SOFAs, access agreements, and similar bilateral arrangements between the US and its client states serve the US global military strategy of pre-positioning US military forces in staging areas around the world without incurring the economic and political costs of maintaining permanent military bases. They also make possible strong US military presence and activity in the host countries. The continuing US military presence in the Philippines via the bilateral treaty on mutual defense, the executive agreements on military assistance, ACSA and VFA, is in the context of the US global strategy of rapid deployment of forces, the US strategy in the Asia-Pacific region, the US- Japan security partnership updated by new guidelines and the array of US military bases in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and the Philippines. US imperialism has always wielded a strong and active military presence in the Philippines in order to prop up its puppet regimes and violently suppress the revolutionary movement. US forces in the Philippines ensure that the reactionary Philippine government and its military and police forces get ample US doctrinal, strategic, logistical, intelligence, troop and moral support in waging counterrevolutionary war against the Filipino people. The most outrageous provisions in the VFA are those surrendering Philippine jurisdiction over crimes committed by US personnel in the Philippines. While the US and Ramos governments babble over supposed reciprocal rights of jurisdiction, the VFA categorically obligates the Philippine government to waive its primary right of jurisdiction over US personnel upon the request of the US government, regardless of where or when the crime was committed. The US and Ramos governments are lying to the Filipino people in saying that the VFA is "related" to the 1958 Bohlen-Serrano Agreement and the Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT) of 1951, which supposedly provide the basis for the conduct of joint US-RP military exercises in the Philippines. The fact is that joint exercises are not stipulated in the MDT, and that the unrestricted entry of foreign troops and war materiel into Philippine territory violates even the constitution of the reactionary government. Further, the Agreement bars Philippine authorities from conducting inspections of any kind on American vessels and facilities, and makes such inspections the exclusive right and function of US officials. This imposition, formulated as an innocuous provision on health and quarantine measures, throws Philippine territory wide open to incursions by US ships and aircraft carrying nuclear weapons. The Communist Party of the Philippines condemns the VFA as a blatant relentless act of intervention and a long-term tool of aggression by US imperialism, as well as a shameless act of treason by their local puppets headed by General Fidel Ramos. Assisted by their local puppets, the US imperialists insult the Filipino people and adopt one more mechanism to counter the rising struggle for national liberation and democracy... The growing number of successful tactical offensives by the New People's Army in the countryside and the resounding victories of the militant protest movement in the cities have compelled the US-Ramos regime to adopt more barefaced anti-national and anti-people measures like the VFA and ACSA at the risk of greater political isolation. In this connection, the Party calls on the people to increase their vigilance, unite and defeat all maneuvers by US imperialism and its local puppets to subvert their will and violate Philippine sovereignty and territorial integrity. There is a solid basis for the formation of a broad united front against these US schemes of interference, intervention and aggression. Coming as it does in the wake of the people's rejection of the RP-US Treaty of Friendship, Security and Cooperation, and close on the heels of the centennial of the 1896 Philippine Revolution, the VFA has encountered strong public opposition. The US-Ramos regime fears the current Philippine Senate could succumb to popular pressure and reject the Agreement as did the Senate in 1991. Thus, despite US pressure for an early approval of the VFA, the submission of the Agreement to the Senate for ratification was deliberately delayed by the Ramos government to avoid the risk of its rejection. The US-Ramos clique will certainly intervene in the coming senatorial elections to ensure the needed majority for Senate ratification of the VFA. The coming reactionary elections therefore becomes an arena for exposing and opposing the VFA and those candidates who favor its ratification. As in 1991, a broad united front demanding the rejection of the Agreement from outside the halls of the Senate can frustrate and defeat this US scheme when it is submitted for decision within. The signing of the VFA by the US and Ramos governments sends an unmistakable signal to the presidential aspirants in as to what the US wants. General Ramos, in a shameless display of subservience, wants to prove to his American commanders that he is still their most reliable lieutenant, indicating he still dreams of holding on to power. The Communist Party of the Philippines is neither deceived by the feints and denials of the Ramos government, nor is it intimidated by the muscle-flexing and saber-rattling of the US imperialists. The revolutionary forces fighting imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism are stronger than ever. The Second Great Rectification Movement has engendered greater unity within the Party, raised the fighting capability of the Party and New People's Army, and forged the closest links between the Party, the people's army and the masses. The Communist Party of the Philippines is determined to lead the revolutionary forces in the national democratic revolution through people's war against US imperialism and its local reactionary stooges. In this context, the Party and the people resolutely and militantly expose and oppose the VFA, ACSA and all the schemes of intervention and aggression by the US. Central Committee, Communist Party of the Philippines February 27, 1998 * * * LETTERS NEW PRICE FOR SETTLERS Dear MIM Notes: I really enjoyed your article in support of indigenous peoples, "Pigs Mark Settler Holiday...", in your January 1, 1998 issue. But I noticed that at the end of the article you offer the book Settlers for sale at $12. This surprised me, since the retail price of our book is $8.95. Obviously MIM would never be into ripping people (besides imperialists, that is) off, but we are curious as to the price increase. Rebuild! Sakai MIM responds: We're printing this letter to let our readers know that the price for Settlers is now $10. Until recently, we had been paying $10 for the books ourselves ($10 plus $2 for postage an a little extra equals $12). Now we buy them cheaper, so the new price is $10, which includes postage. For any of our readers not familiar with the book, Settlers: The Mythology of the White Proletariat (written by Sakai) is an excellent account of the history of the united snakes from the perspective of the oppressed nations. It goes a long way towards dispelling the myth that white workers are oppressed and fighting alongside the oppressed nations. This history helps to round out MIM's argument that white workers in this country are a labor aristocracy as a class, not exploited proletarians. MIM does try to charge a dollar or two more for the books we sell than we paid for them. This policy is based on our desire to expand the work we do. When people contact us unable to afford literature, we happily arrange an affordable price or an exchange for labor. And we send in a tremendous number of books, newspapers and magazines free to prisoners. Because of the scope of our work, we are constantly operating at a loss. But rather than be satisfied with this, we are expanding our work to expand our financial resources. To do this we obviously can't just rely on a few dollars from the sale of a few books, but it's important not to take a loss when we don't have to. We also look to the analysis in Settlers and the work that MIM has done demonstrating that white workers, as a group, are not exploited, to bolster our argument that the majority of people in the united snakes can afford the cost of a book if they want it. They are willing to spend $8 to see a movie (plus another $10 on popcorn, soda and candy), $4 for a beer, $12 for a CD, and 50 cents a day for the local newspaper. So we argue that the majority of people living in this country should be paying $10 or even more for a book with so much valuable history as can be found in Settlers. And of course, if someone truly can not afford this price, we have many possibilities for exchanging labor for books. UNIONS PROGRESSIVE? Dear MIM, My interest in the AFL-CIO comes from my interest in the syndicalist movement... I am always for the rights of the workers. If you have time, could you enlighten me about the activity of the AFL-CIO in third world countries? This is something that I have really never heard about. It seems to me like unions, in general, tend to be more of an anti-imperialist thing, not necessarily explicitly though. I do see that in conjunction with free trade agreements, such as NAFTA, unions could drive up wages, which would lead to the exploitation of foreign, third world countries in sweatshops, etc. but are unions the primary evil? I do not believe so. It is the free trade laws that are the evil, which enables the exploitation and coercion of people in these underdeveloped nations. These laws benefit no one but the corporate elite. I also think that unions have been very beneficial in the past, more so than now, with basically the emergence and maintenance of a middle class. I think that the disparaging spread of economic wealth domestically would be more devastating if it were not for labor unions. I guess I don't know if you just feel the way you do about the AFL CIO or of unions in general....sorry if I rattled about stuff you really don't care about. --a student in the Midwest MIM responds: We're printing this letter alongside the one above from Sakai as an advertisement for the book "Settlers: The Mythology of the White Proletariat". As mentioned in the response to the letter from the author, Sakai, this book does an excellent job of dispelling the myth that labor unions and the AFL-CIO in particular have historically been a progressive force within the united snakes. Unions are not evil because they drive up wages. In fact, unions in the Third World are very progressive and often essential to the survival of the workers who need a little more job security and slightly higher wages just to get by. But in the united snakes, unions historically have been a tool for the betterment of the white nation at the expense of the oppressed nations. The history of the AFL-CIO is particularly bad. As Sakai wrote: "Just as in the 19th Century, the Euro-Amerikan bourgeoisie both watered-down class contradictions and reinforced its settler garrison over the continental Empire by absorbing immigrant European nationalities fully into the U.S. oppressor nation. This 20th Century cycle had begun in the anti-Communist 'Americanization' campaign of the World War I period; it reached its decisive point in the accommodation between the imperialist State and the dependent, settleristic CIO unions of the 1930s. The process was sealed by the post-World War II imperialist feast, finally laying to rest the class contradictions of the period of industrial unionism. While the deproletarianization of the white masses was a historic pacification, it led to an increase in decadence and parasitism that has today reached a nodal point." For the detailed history of this deproletarianization and the national contradictions within u.s. borders, order this excellent book for $10 from MIM. MIM NOTES GETS AROUND Dear MIM: I was pleasantly surprised by an incident -- an Hispanic person from X (where that hunger strike was) passed a copy of MIM Notes to me at work. I had to laugh -- it was one of the copies I passed out originally! So, the stuff gets around. You sent Spanish issues sometimes and my contact on the island makes sure that Hispanic speakers from X that work there get the copy. Haitians work there too. They in turn XEROX parts of it. I hope you don't mind the xeroxing. But it's free and we do pass them out for free too. There is nowhere we can "put" them, like in a store, no paper can do that (I mean, like local boondock home-style papers). . . . We fear if we don't hand them PERSONALLY to contacts that they'll be thrown out. Y reads them too, and even if he does NOT agree, he passes his copy (one copy) along. --Southern reader February, 1998 MIM replies: Of course we do not object to xeroxing. We just want people to have the contact information for MIM so readers know who wrote the articles. It may not be necessary to xerox, if people will pay for postage for shipping or if they give MIM the impression of doing serious organizing work. Your example will inspire others. * * * FORMER ANTI-IMPERIALIST BETRAYS THE STRUGGLE (AGAIN) Katherine Ann Power, a Vietnam War activist who took part in a bank robbery in 1970 in which a police officer was killed, abruptly withdrew her bid for parole on March 3rd after hearing the testimony of the surviving relatives. This case has been used by the media to portray anti-imperialists as fanatical murderers, an image that Power has contributed to. MIM does not endorse the focoist actions of the activists Power worked with who decided to rob a bank to fund anti-war activities. We understand that now is not the time for armed struggle and such actions only lead to needless death and imprisonment. Power lived on the run under assumed names since the robbery, but she turned herself in after 23 years. In her statement she said "I was guilty of ethical failures, compulsive rebelliousness, and wrong thinking..." suggesting that her anti-war activities and views were some kind of mental "compulsive" illness. Power's wrong thinking was not in opposing u.s. imperialism, it was in failing to study line and strategy and instead jumping into the first "revolutionary" organization that came her way. Instead she should have studied the past failures of focoism and understood that the process of opposing imperialism requires the revolutionary line and strategy that can win the long struggle not just fight a few small battles. Within the u.s., financial battles should be fought legally by building independent institutions of the oppressed. We can think bigger than risking our comrades lives for a bank robbery in a state where we are likely to lose, because the state is so much stronger than the revolutionary forces. Power said "We were drenched with dangerous romanticism and saw ourselves as noble warriors for a great cause. We thought there was glamour in gun-toting violence..." In fact this is a problem in the revolutionary movement within the united snakes. Some people, particularly white people, consider the whole anti-imperialist struggle a romantic adventure rather than a serious battle of life and death for the majority of the world's people. These romantics tend to burn out and give up after they realize that the majority of the people in this country are not rallying to their side and after their focoist actions don't gain them any following. Power expressed remorse at the life of the police officer lost as a casualty to her bank robbery. But she expresses no remorse for the lives lost at the hands of the pigs every day as they patrol the inner cities beating up the Abner Louimas and killing the Ben Schofields. Instead she focused on the officer's family who certainly do feel a loss from his absence. MIM values all human life but we recognize that the system of imperialism is murdering thousands of people a year from starvation alone, stealing thousands of lives, principally among Blacks and Latinos, to skyrocketing incarceration, and bombing and torturing the Iraqi people, the people of Latin America, the Filipino people and oppressed people around the world. If Power truly regrets taking one human life we hope she will also learn to regret wasting her life instead of fighting for the hundreds of millions human lives lost, shortened, or in some way harmed by imperialism every year. Killing this one police officer did not contribute to the anti-imperialist struggle and for that reason it was a needless death. But MIM is not blind to the violence perpetuated by imperialism which will not stop with a few peaceful pleas. It will take a violent revolution to smash imperialism and only through this armed revolution will the people of the world achieve self-determination and an end to oppression. NOTE: Boston Globe, March 4, 1998. * * * NO DENYING IT: CAPITALIST CRISIS HITS SOUTH KOREA The bourgeois media will go to great lengths to blame oppressed nation workers for their own oppression. An article in the Los Angeles Times on 2 March starts out by saying that a recent push by south Koreans to save more and spend less "may choke an economy that is already swan diving into recession." The south Korean government's massive foreign debt, the threat of currency devaluation, and other IMF austerity measures are certainly creating a rush of voluntary saving among the petit-bourgeoisie. According to the Times, "IMF" has become synonymous with "cheap" in Korean. If only Koreans didn't save so much, says one u.$. diplomat, then domestic demand would rise and the south Korean recession would be over. But you have to read to the end of the article to get the bigger picture: Most south Koreans really don't have a choice whether to save or not. The money is simply not there in the first place. Per capita income is predicted to shrink by 37% this year, and the official jobless rate will double from 2.1% to 4.5%. Because the government undercounts unemployment (if you work two hours per week you are employed, according to them), the actual unemployment figures may top 20%. There is no state-sponsored safety net for unemployed workers in south Korea. Homelessness in Seoul has also increased dramatically since last fall. So the bourgeoisie has its pipe dreams - "If only people shopped sensibly then capitalism would be sustainable." But the fact is that crisis is built into the system. "Capitalist economic crises are crises of overproduction. But this so-called 'over-production' is not an absolute overproduction; it does not mean that the things produced by a society are more than the masses can consume... [C]apitalist overproduction is relative overproduction. In other words, social production is excessive only in relation to the purchasing power of the masses. During economic crises, inventories pile up in the warehouses of the capitalists for lack of demand... On the other hand, the broad laboring masses are too poor to afford food and clothing and are struggling on the verge of starvation." NOTE: Fundamentals of Political Economy, Shanghai People's Press, 1974. * * * PEOPLE'S HISTORY CENSORED IN MICHIGAN KKKAMP by MIM On March 9th, MIM received word from under lock and key that Settlers: The Mythology of the White Proletariat is being censored in the Marquette Branch Prison in Michigan. The rejection letter from the parasitic prison pigs states that "Settlers, the true story of the white nation [sic]" ... "is on the restricted publications list." After the list of alleged choices that prisoners get to deal with the restricted material e.g. return to sender, destroy, request a hearing, the prison pigs wrote "This is only informational. Once a book or other publication is on the restricted publication list, no hearing is necessary." There are many battles which the people face to end the disgusting oppression of the masses which puffs up the imperialists' bellies. MIM is told of beatings, rapes, unjust transfers and even murders that are perpetrated by the prison pigs against masses held in Amerikan gulags. We struggle to build revolution as this is the only means that will put an end to oppression and exploitation of the people. On the communist road to building national liberation of oppressed nations and socialism, we run into censorship from the postal pigs, the prison pigs and the pigs following us around throwing away the people's paper. Censorship is a hurdle that we're constantly dealing with because the enemy does not want the truth to be spread. In this case, prison pigs won't allow in a book which details settler nation genocide against First Nations, against the Black nation and which discloses the history of white nation chauvinism against Amerika's internal colonies. Surely it is because the pigs understand that information is a powerful tool that is necessary for us to tear apart their system. But this example of censorship is clearly an example of the contradiction in Amerika which states that this kkkountry is all about freedom. Settlers is a great resource. MIM requests that readers do two things: (1) send money so that we can buy more copies to send to prisoners. (About $10 for each prisoner), and (2) Write to Marquette Branch Prison, P.O. Box 779, Marquette, MI 49855-0779 and oppose this censorship. * * * DOC TRANSFERS AND SETS UP PRISONER by MIM At the beginning of March, MIM was notified that a dedicated friend of the struggle for liberation and revolution was transferred from one state gulag to another one. Now, transfers happen all the time in the DOC because it's a way for the prison pigs to reinforce the fact that they are in control and can twist and turn the lives of human beings however they want. The pigs transfer prisoners all the time to ensure that they are far from their families and supporters, and they transfer prisoners when it suits the political campaigns of the bourgeoisie. But in this case, the prisoner was transferred weeks just before his/her parole hearing. And s/he was transferred to a facility where his/her life is in danger. Additionally, the prisoner has been denied very necessary contact with the outside supporters. One hour before the prisoner was transferred to a gulag to a hick town far away from supporters, s/he was notified of the bureaucratic control tactic. Then after arriving at the second gulag, the prisoner's life was threatened from other prisoners who have been led to believe that the prisoner is a snitch. This comrade is no snitch and has been a valuable part of building for revolution. But it's in the pigs' interests to have prisoners kill this leader of the people so that the pigs don't have to do it directly themselves. Years back, the prisoner faced a situation where the pigs told other prisoners that this prisoner had given the pigs information on another prisoner. Following that campaign of disinformation, the prisoner's life was threatened and s/he was stabbed. After the pigs interrogated the prisoner and s/he refused to give them information about the stabbing, the prisoner was placed in lock up. Now, many prisoners understand that this leader was totally set up by the pigs, but that's not the case in the current place where this person has been transferred. Previous to the most recent transfer, this person did not face threats. S/he was close to parole and was near friends and supporters. Now, the pigs see that they need another reason to keep this leader locked up longer. The pigs have set up the conditions for this prisoner to be forced to defend his/herself against attacks. The pigs have delayed his/her parole hearing de facto because of the transfer and have also made it more difficult for this prisoner to get words out of the walls to supporters. The specifics of the case are not listed here because of security concerns for this person's life currently under attack both by the state and misled prisoners. This is one example of many of the ways in which the Amerikkkan prisons are in no way set up to help people; they are only set up to control the oppressed. They don't even deal with criminals -- the biggest criminals in this case are the ones spreading the lies which could lead to this woman/man's death. * * * TREE, CRITICAL MASS, KILL THE HOSTAGES PLAY RAIL BENEFIT On February 27th RAIL hosted a benefit concert at Boston University to help fund the Massachusetts RAIL contingent to the Jericho '98 march and RAIL teach-in in Washington DC. The concert featured rockin' music from local bands Tree and Kill the Hostages and the New Jersey group Critical Mass. Jericho '98 is a march to free prisoners incarcerated for their political views and activism. RAIL is sending a contingent to this march (March 27th) and hosting a teach-in on the criminal injustice system the next day (March 28th). Kill the Hostages lead off with a hardcore anti- authoritarian set. RAIL had not heard their music before so we can't offer a commentary on the politics of Kill the Hostages but we encourage our readers to check them out since they were willing to play for a fund-raiser to help fight the criminal injustice system. In between performances we had an open mike. RAIL members read letters from prisoners and offered commentary on the nature of the criminal injustice system as well as the larger issues of how and why we need to fight imperialism with communist leadership. Other folks performed poetry and read essays or made announcements about upcoming events. The second act was Critical Mass (see review in MIM Notes #156 and letter and response on this page). They performed some excellent political hip hop that focused on the criminal injustice system and the evils of capitalism. Critical Mass is touring the country promoting the Jericho march and RAIL has hosted a few concerts with them. Most of the audience came to see the local bands but many people were drawn in by the compelling music and politics of Critical Mass who had a large crowd shouting "Off the fucking Pigs" while the cop (who the university requires at all concerts on campus) stood outside to "keep the peace". Da Wizard, one of the members of CM, made a point of making the cop uncomfortable because "when cops are near me they make me uncomfortable so let's make sure he knows he is not welcome here." Critical Mass promotes anarchism as the solution to imperialism. RAIL disagrees that this is an effective position: only with military force will we be able to keep the imperialists from coming back to power after they have been overthrown. But even with our disagreement with their anarchist positions, the overwhelming majority of Critical Mass' music has an excellent political message and our unity in fighting the criminal injustice system made Critical Mass' performance an excellent addition to the concert. Headlining the concert was Tree, a popular Massachusetts band with 3 CDs out and a large following. Tree is also promoting the Jericho march and played the benefit to help with our efforts to fund the RAIL contingent to the march. Tree does a lot of environmentalist work and also features some good anti-imperialist politics. In their song "Homefront" they say "I raise my fist for Justice/I feel unmade/I feel betrayed/in the U.S.A." This song salutes the I.W.W. and Tree seems to go along with the pro-white working class line that white folks in this country are, on the whole, exploited by the capitalists. RAIL doesn't buy this when we can see that even though white workers make less than their bosses they still earn quite enough to be bought off and supporting imperialism as a group. Tree's song "X-Communicated" features lyrics attacking religion as an opiate of the masses: "Reaching for the bible/like a junkie for the needle/Fucked up fundamentally, you're fucked up/Leaning on your church/like a cripple on a crutch/There's a white devil among us." They go on to point out the connection between religion and capitalist authority of the white nation: "I hold all you right wing christians in suspicion/There's a white devil among us/There's a white devil in office/Devouring all the stupid fucks." A lot of the youth who came to see Tree were not into the music for the politics. But this provides an excellent opportunity to influence youth and we salute Tree for keeping the politics in their music and hammering on the messages. RAIL made sure to insert a strong political theme into the show and we challenged all the youth to check out our literature, find out the facts about the system for themselves and take seriously the task of changing society for the better. The benefit was a big success: we raised over $500 and everyone who attended seemed to enjoy the show. And, of course, we made sure they all got copies of MIM and RAIL literature. * * * REVOLUTIONARY HIP HOP A LETTER FROM CRITICAL MASS Critical Mass is the smallest number of people necessary to sustain a revolutionary movement. When Critical Mass arrived in Boston on February 27, 1998 and read the review of our tape in the last issue of MIM Notes we were upset because we felt misrepresented. We felt that the authors of the review focused too much on what we don't agree on and too little on what we do agree on. Currently, Critical Mass is on a ten stop tour to promote Jericho '98. Jericho '98 is a march on Washington on March 27, 1998. Throughout the tour we have placed all ideological differences aside and have organized Jericho shows with Maoists , Socialists, Anarchists, Nationalists and community based organizations. This is why we were upset about the ideological debate that was initiated in a tape review. First off it's a tape review; why include the party line? We felt that this debate was initiated without our input. The author pulled out isolated phrases and debated them. For example, the idea that we need to initiate armed struggle in order to tear down this racist, sexist, homophobic, oppressive, imperialist government that many of us call the United Snakes of America. We as Critical Mass understand revolutionary theory and also understand that revolution is a process and now we may not be able to take up arms and send foot soldiers to the front line in March of 1998, but to ignore it as a goal and to neglect the necessary preparations that need to be made today is counterproductive. Further on this point the author of the review pulled out isolated statements and created a debate. Hip hop is an art form no matter how many krackers believe it is not. Within the broader culture of hip hop, the lyrical delivery is known as rap. What individual MCee raps, like in any art form, attempts to raise an emotional response. Therefore when we say "Got to start shooting cops in the back/of the head/face full of lead/the only good cop is one that's dead." We are attempting to articulate the rage that we feel and have the audience or listener identify with our rage and our struggle but the author of the review ignored the fact that s/he pulled out isolated statements, out of context. We flip metaphors and metaphors are not intended to be interpreted literally. Besides, I can not see how politically conscious individuals do not see that we are in a war, like police are an occupying army and my people are the ones taking the casualties. Therefore when a pig dies I have no sympathy. "Gentrification is about the elimination of the poor/This is a war and I know what I am fighting for." In this war I sometimes use a staplegun or spraypaint as my weapon but to ignore the possibility that some pig or government agent might someday kick my door in and attempt to injure myself or my family would be ignoring the history of movements that came before us. If a pig is kicking in my door and its me or him. Well I don't need to state which one of us is going down. In conclusion, we as Critical Mass does not feel it was proper to initiate ideological debate within a lyric review. We also feel that it was not correct to pull out isolated phrases that were being used as metaphors and use this out of context phrases as our sole voice in the dialogue. We appreciate the opportunity to respond. We also appreciate the work put into the shows. We are also planning to work with RAIL again in the future. Critical Mass's next tour will begin Fall of 98 into Spring of 99 and the focus once again will be political prisoners. The ideas is to have a local group, i.e. RAIL, pick a political prisoner that they correspond with and/or support and have a benefit show for them. Dedicate that night to that political prisoner. Tell their story, speak of their issues and personalize it for a lot of people who see political prisoners as an abstraction and not real flesh and blood. We need to all attend Jericho 98, March 27, 1998 and demand freedom for all our freedom fighters who are rotting in the dungeons of the U.$ prison system. FREE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS NOW!!!! For more information on our next tour, tapes, booking, or anything else, contact: Critical Mass c/o The Little Ruckus 72 Van Reipen Ave Suite 192 Jersey City, NJ 07306 Voicemail: 973 693 1860 MIM responds: We offer you thank you for offering your criticism and congratulations on what is becoming a successful tour. We review culture in at least every other issue of MIM Notes because of culture's important role in shaping public opinion. We review the reactionary culture, like movies seen be millions, and rebut the reactionary garbage they put forth. We also have a special duty to promote the culture of the people which does not have the same promotion machine as the big corporations. For that reason, we printed your contact information, which we would never do for say, the Batman movie. This doesn't negate our role to provide leadership, as cultural works don't all fall into the category of 100% reactionary or 100% revolutionary. In particular on the latter issue, we believe there to be a science to revolution, and that we have a duty to find the most direct way to successful liberation. Therefore, we attempt to put forward our views while being open to criticism. We took the politics of your work seriously enough to criticize it. MIM should also add for those who missed the original review, that only about 2/5ths of the review was a criticism of Critical Mass. The remainder of the review used the strongest words of praise we have used in culture reviews in recent memory. We aren't sure who you are criticizing for denying that the pigs are at war with the people, as our review positively quoted a statement from the tape on that question. It's certainly true that many deny this war, and that's where educational efforts like Critical Mass and MIM Notes come in. MIM continues to uphold that now is not the time for armed struggle, although self-defense is an acceptable tactic in some circumstances. We are also not so dogmatist as to argue that metaphors can not be used in art or anywhere else. But we do encourage our cultural leaders to be clear on which strategies they endorse for today, and which strategies are for the future. The dangerous of confusing the two is a real one, as it was the armed-struggle-now line which allowed the pigs to lock up and kill far too many revolutionaries in previous decades. We again applaud the efforts of Critical Mass to raise consciousness around the issue of the imprisonment of revolutionary leaders, and prisons in general. We look forward to working with you on your next tour. * * * DENNIS BRUTUS PROMOTES BOOKS FOR PRISONERS PROGRAM, DISCUSSES SOUTH AFRICAN NEOCOLONIALISM The recent speaking tour of southern California by anti- imperialist activist and former South African political prisoner Dennis Brutus succeeded in building awareness and concrete support for MIM and RAIL's Free Books for Prisoners Program. The tour, which was organized by the Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM) and the Revolutionary Anti- Imperialist League (RAIL), raised close to $350 for the Free Books Program. More than one dozen books were donated on very short notice at one of the speaking events as well. The tour also gave Dennis Brutus and his audiences a chance to discuss the current situation in Azania (South Africa). In all of his speeches, Dennis Brutus emphasized the importance of the Books for Prisoners Program. After discussing how the Amerikan prison system in ultimately a tool of social control, Brutus said: "We cannot be satisfied only with the demand for someone like Geronimo. We cannot be satisfied only to make a demand on behalf of Mumia. We cannot be satisfied to make a demand on behalf of Leonard Peltier. Or other people who are subjected to pressure in various way, whether they be threatened with deportation, extradition, or whatever. Our obligation I, believe, is to mobilize our protests to demand the release of those people, and to challenge the whole system of injustice. It seems to me that there are various ways in which we can do it. Jericho is one way, but it seems to me also that the Books for Prisoners Program is one other very specific, very practical way, in which we alleviate the hardships of those people; we work with them; we understand their predicament; and we demonstrate our sympathy with them in that predicament. And I believe out of the prisons will come many of the people who have learned the hard way the nature of oppression and the ability to define oppression and the ability to challenge oppression. Those are our allies, and we have to understand that when we work with them, we assist them in the expectation that they will be part of our struggle for a new social order." Brutus led by example: He donated all of the (small) honorarium RAIL was able to raise from university funding sources to the Program. Neocolonialism in Azania (South Africa) Dennis Brutus had harsh words for the Mandela regime in Azania and many of the leaders in the African National Congress (ANC) and revisionist South African Communist Party (SACP). Although he had high hopes for the new government when it took the place of the old apartheid regime, he said that now sees that the transfer of power to the ANC was a "cosmetic change." Government promises to the masses have gone unfulfilled. For example, the new government's Reconstruction and Development Program called for new housing for millions of people. To date, only a few thousand have been housed, and Brutus explained that homelessness has actually increased under the new government. The Mandela regime's Growth, Employment, and Redistribution (GEAR) program promised 126,000 jobs, but during its first year over 100,000 jobs were lost. Brutus joked that the masses have taken to calling the program "reverse GEAR." Dennis Brutus argued that the Azanian masses remain impoverished and exploited because the economic system still served the local (white) ruling class and foreign monopoly capital, in the forms of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank. He described how the current regime accepted and promoted the IMF's "conditionalities," such as a ban on strikes, other strong limitations on the rights and freedoms of trade unions, a harsh fiscal policy which would encourage "necessary" bankruptcies and plant closures, reduced funding for social services, etc., etc. Brutus outlined two reasons why the new regime remained an instrument of the exploiting classes: (a) The leading representatives of the exploiting classes were still important members of the government (DeKlerk, last leader of apartheid South Africa, was the first vice-president of post-apartheid South Africa), and (b) Leaders in the anti- apartheid movement had sold themselves to the highest bidder. Former activists who are now in the pay of multi- national corporations will not want to carry out fundamental changes. Even if they did, as long as people like DeKlerk were in the government, any real changes which threatened the economic interests of the ruling class could be vetoed outright or subtly covertly sabotaged. Lenin wrote, "for a long time after the revolution the exploiters inevitably retain a number of great practical advantages: they still have some money; some movable property - often fairly considerable; they still have various connections, habits of organization and management, knowledge of all the 'secrets' (customs, methods, means and possibilities) of management; superior education, close connections with the higher technical personnel (who live and think like the bourgeoisie); incomparably greater experience in the art of war (this is very important), and so on and so forth."(1) This is why it does not suffice to merely seize power, it must also be consolidated, through the dictatorship of the proletariat. To illustrate how people formerly on the left had sold out, Dennis Brutus told the story of a leader in COSATU (the Confederation of South African Trade Unions). This person was involved in the anti-apartheid struggle and even spent time in prison for his activism, but now he serves on the board of directors of Anglo-American, the largest mining concern in Azania. At a recent meeting, his fellow capitalist cronies introduced him saying, "We used to call him Comrade, but now we call him Chairman of the Board." While Brutus was somewhat surprised to see that people who "lived and breathed" Marxist classics would sell out and use their alleged knowledge of Marxism to sell IMF programs to the people, MIM is not surprised at all. This is just one more example of how the enemies of revolution will flatter revolutionaries and adopt revolutionary rhetoric and appearances when the revolutionary movement is strong. In particular, this shows the influence of Soviet revisionism on both the SCAP and the ANC. Soviet revisionism opposed the leadership of the proletariat in the anti-colonial struggle and also opposed dictatorship of the proletariat itself. Instead it called for the "seizure of power" via the parliamentary path, sharing power for a time with the representatives of the exploiters. Armed struggle plays a secondary role in such a scheme. The current situation in Azania is the poisonous fruit of such traitorous pseudo- Marxist ideas. Dennis Brutus likened the so-called power sharing agreement in Azania to recent developments in Palestine and south Korea. In south Korea, former anti-dictatorship politician Kim Dae Jung was elected president, but he named the founder of the notorious Korean secret police as his Prime Minister. Kim also accepts and promote the schemes of the IMF and the World Bank. Strategic and tactical confidence Dennis Brutus spoke of several of the many battles he waged and won against South African apartheid and its Amerikan backers - from the successful struggle to stop Amerikan Universities from investing in South Africa to his struggle for political asylum here in the u.$. He emphasized that students living inside Amerika could wage - and win - important battles on behalf of the oppressed people in Azania and other oppressed nations. For example, he estimated that the divestment struggle cost the South African regime $3 billion, and claimed that played a large role in the end of apartheid. MIM was glad to see Brutus discuss such victories from the not-too-distant past and stress that many similar victories lie within our reach. Many people who came to anti- imperialist activism after the Gulf War have not participated in such victories themselves. Brutus' first- hand testimony of recent victories and optimism were inspiring. Indeed, this speaking tour itself was a small victory, within another small but important struggle: The Books for Prisoners Program. NOTES: 1. Quoted in Stalin's "The Foundations of Leninism." * * * UNDER IMPERIALISM THERE IS NO FREE SPEECH Taking government control of so-called free speech to new heights, a California rap artist has been sent to prison because lyrics on his new album are "anti-law enforcement." Shawn Thomas, known as rapper C-BO, was charged with violating a parole agreement in early March. Tip Kindel, a spokesperson for the California Department of Corrections, said that officers got an advance copy of C-BOs new album, "listened to it and transcribed the lyrics." Their conclusion: "...the album promotes a gang lifestyle, promotes criminal behavior, and promotes violence against law enforcement." According to police, the album, "Til My Casket Drops", has one song that explicitly suggests that a Sheriffs Department spokesman be shot, and another that attacks Governor Pete Wilson for his support of California's "three strikes" law on convicts. This case demonstrates that free speech does not exist in this country which pretends to uphold the right of people to rise up against tyrannical and unjust governments. Not having heard the album yet, MIM can't cite the exact lyrics but from this police report it sounds like C-BO promotes some progressive politics but incorrectly advocates focoism rather than organizing systematically to bring down the system. Pete Wilson should be attacked for supporting the "three strikes" laws which have contributed to the skyrocketing prison population in the u.s. But we would not advocate anyone taking up guns against the state right now because the state is far too powerful. Now is not the time for armed struggle and isolated militarist actions against the pigs or other representatives of the state is not an effective strategy. Instead we need to organize to systematically smash the imperialist state. Individuals attacking the state and the pigs alone will be killed or imprisoned so everyone truly interested in ending the criminal and unjust system should work with MIM to overthrow it. NOTE: Boston Globe 3/5/98. P. A22. * * * POLITICAL ASYLUM FOR THE SISON FAMILY NOW! MIM and RAIL are soliciting signatures on postcards demanding political asylum for the Sison family. Jose Maria Sison, a leader in the national democratic movement in the Philippines and consultant to the National Democratic Front in its peace negotiations with the Manila Government, currently resides in the Netherlands and has been denied political refugee status. The postcards were printed by BAYAN International USA (a legal national democratic organization) and Friends of Prof. Joema Sison and Family. They will be mailed to the Dutch Prime Minister. Jose Maria Sison founded the anti-imperialist Kabataan Makabayan (Patriotic Youth) in the 60s, and was instrumental in launching the national democratic movement in the Philippines, which fights for true self-determination for the Filipino people. He was incarcerated by the u.$.-Marcos regime and was forced into exile by the u.$.-Aquino regime. The u.$. government has put pressure on the Dutch government to deny Sison political refugee status, even though the Dutch government itself recognizes that he is indeed apolitical refugee. The Dutch governments refusal to grant the Sison family refugee status is an attempt to sabotage the current peace talks and force Sison to return to the Philippines, where he faces the threat of violent attack or unjust imprisonment by the u.$.-Ramos regime. As such, it is an attack on the aspirations of the Filipino people for a just and lasting peace in the Philippines and should be opposed by all those who support the Filipino people's right to self- determination. Contact you local distributor for copies of the postcards to sign and mail, or write to one of the addresses on page 2. Or you can write to: BAYAN International USA, PO Box 862546, Los Angeles, CA, 90086-2546. * * * PIRAO NEWS by PIRAO chief March, 1998 New accountability rules Comrades and PIRAO (People's Internationalist Rear Area Organization, an unarmed organization) members and supporters should all propose or accept PIRAO initiatives with the PIRAO directly. PIRAO infrastructure projects should not go through local branches and no one in the party is authorized to carry out the finalization of agreements on such projects. The party and PIRAO are to work as far as possible in a self-reliant way, but no promises regarding PIRAO should be accepted at the local branch level. Communications on setting up projects involving three digit or more sums of money should be made directly with the PIRAO chief, through the mail. Requests for PIRAO aid may continue through any channel, but we warn readers that we are as yet a weak organization. PIRAO irregulars, officers and supporters should not accept anything but contact with the PIRAO chief in the event of finalization of PIRAO projects. PIRAO-like projects of the local party branches and individuals may continue, but they should not claim the name of the party or PIRAO unless the finalization and agreement is approved by the PIRAO chief in writing. The party comrades must not represent their own PIRAO-like projects as party or PIRAO projects to the non-party masses. Likewise, the PIRAO members should not represent their own personal projects as PIRAO projects. There have been no problems to require these new rules from past practice, but we are attempting to prevent problems from arising. The key to accountability is not claiming to have a party infrastructure or PIRAO project without approval of the PIRAO chief. MS suspended In the past we have reported setbacks to PIRAO work, many failures. Although we are now winning some victories, the Maoist Sojourner has been suspended, possibly six months for lack of funds. Although it is a terrible setback, we are confident that MS will return with reinvigorated political leadership, which is also lacking. It is PIRAO's responsibility to see to MS funding and the party's responsibility to find its political leadership. 1997 successes People's bonds taken out by the PIRAO went into initiating and completing successful PIRAO projects in 1997. Loans given by three PIRAO irregulars and three party members were completely paid back within the year they were taken out by PIRAO. Army officers inducted The PIRAO used 1997 and early 1998 to finish projects and induct two army officers to protect PIRAO gains. We are shooting to have approximately five army officers by the end of 1998; although there is no way to predict an exact number for certainty. This is the modest pace we have based on self-reliance. We inform our agitation oriented comrades in RAIL and the party that their work helps to speed our work as well. There is nothing saying our advances could not be 1000 times greater this year, if the party or RAIL or MSG meet the masses with the proper motivation and resources. Even and especially masses not interested in working on agitation may nonetheless have crucial support to give to PIRAO. The PIRAO has its eyes on making the "Prison Re-Lease" program a reality in 1998. This is another reason to step up to the plate with assistance and ideas for how to come up with resources. Opposing parasitism The continuing struggle against parasitic thinking proceeds in the PIRAO. Revolutionary infrastructure does not drop out of the sky. Large-scale U.$. government programs may seem to drop out of the sky, but even those are the results of powerful labor aristocracy lobbying. PIRAO officers and irregulars are "workers." They seek to grab their share of the imperialist surplus-value, not to buy another VCR for their bathroom, but to carry out internationalist duties. Even in China, Mao saw to it that the People's Liberation Army was not a burden on the people. PLA soldiers worked in the fields. Such an ideological burden of the army is double in the imperialist countries. Creating a burden on the people in this case means parasitism, becoming middle-class and draining internationalist aid. In China, there was relatively little danger that masses of soldiers could rest on the backs of the people as a middle-class. Not working simply did not mean a middle-class lifestyle. Here the danger is much greater as there is no middle ground between petty-bourgeoisie and lumpen-proletariat. Medical aid A founding member of the MIM who ceased his/her original political activity has nonetheless agreed in principle to help PIRAO with medical aid. There are many who know that Maoism is right, who should likewise render material aid through the PIRAO. Such supporters that we call irregulars are crucial to the success of the united front and the PIRAO. Already this irregular has rendered medical aid to the party and has promised further assistance. Let the direct aid and service of this irregular be an example on which to build. PIRAO studies Since our last report, the masses have assisted us with studying the situation of Kabila in Africa. We also took up further examination of the united front, the Black Panther Party and one thesis of Comrade Gonzalo in Peru with the aid of MC5. Conflicting reports about Kabila keep coming in. Recently, we have received two strongly negative reports and one positive report on Kabila. With regard to all requests regarding Africa, PIRAO asks that they go to the party at the political level first, simply because PIRAO has no hard- nosed sense of the true Maoists and anti-imperialists in Africa. MIM and PIRAO do not claim to be operating on the ground in Africa. We invite suggestions on how to determine who the genuine forces in Africa are. At this point, our best information comes from the www.ptb.be page of the revisionists led by Ludo Martens. The united front also came up in PIRAO practice with an ex- convict. PIRAO is an important concrete way of building the united front with the masses. There are many people who assist the PIRAO who do not otherwise help the party. The support that can be built in this way is limitless. We are struggling with ex-convicts to work toward being army officers and carrying out the united front. Ex-convicts and prisoners have the political habit of eclecticism, built out of the necessities behind the bars. Wishing to receive the publications of all groups calling themselves socialist and wishing to have their cases promoted by all political organizations, many prisoners side with no one political organization and build their own united fronts against the state. While in prison, such an approach is not all bad. Once out of prison ex-convicts may continue in their incorrect coalition approach to the united front. One danger of such an approach is a chaotic, lumpen lifestyle not taking a single and unified approach to the essentials of daily life. Mao taught us that it is necessary to blend in with the masses like the fish in the sea. Many ex-convicts are not prepared to do so, partly out of political confusion spread by labor aristocracy organizations. These organizations identify the labor aristocracy as "proletariat" and ask the lumpen-proletariat to take up the "proletarian" lifestyle. This causes prisoners to reject proletarian politics and take up a directly lumpen view. In contrast, PIRAO sees conformity in lifestyle questions as blending in with the fish in the sea as Mao taught. Conformity with the middle-class lifestyle in the imperialist countries is not "proletarian" as the revisionists say, but it is necessary. What makes us revolutionary is not our lifestyles, but our work to build the public opinion and independent institutions of the oppressed to seize power. We need to break with drugs, "principled" homelessness and anything else that prevents us from having a law-abiding lifestyle. We should only fight those battles which will always win or at least come with the lowest socially necessary danger of imprisonment. While many prisoners and ex-convicts value their own lives lowly, they must also remember that they risk demoralizing the non- lumpen part of the movement seeking forces and allies in the lumpen-proletariat. Whether they feel it or not, the convicts and ex-convicts must attach a high value to their lives and their lives being out of prison. That is what Mao taught about People's War and that is how we regard our people today. Although not all of us carry weapons, there is no doubt that the enemy is waging war on us. According to forthcoming MIM Theory reviews by MC5, the Black Panthers started out helping the lumpen-proletariat make a break with some of its ways by reaching for the "clean" living taught by the Muslims and the Maoists. As time went on, the leadership developed a severe drug problem and went down an ever constricting road, like a trap. The lumpen-proletariat is correct that the law-abiding middle- class lifestyle is boring and a symptom of imperialism, but we urge it anyway. We make up for our boredom elsewhere, not in our lifestyles, but in our class struggles. The Black Panthers had a militarized structure in accord with the fact that it has picked up the gun. This structure was appropriate as long as the leadership stayed on course. Once it was smashed by the state, the Black Panthers' militarization was a drawback in terms of making a comeback and avoiding the lumpen lifestyle. Comrades Gonzalo and Luis Arce Borja have discussed the thesis of the "militarization of the party." We believe that such a process weeds out vacillators in the party ranks, and tempers the remainder like a steel forge. This also makes the job of infrastructure building like PIRAO does much easier. The masses take the party more seriously when it is armed, whether the masses are conscious of that or not. Independent of the leadership, taking up even the lower stages of People's War creates a more taut atmosphere in the party and inspires the masses to greater clarity and contributions to the revolutionary struggle. We cannot deny that the Black Panther Party makes all the organizations in imperialist North America today look like Paper Panthers. Similar organizations are found only among the Mohawks and other Iroqois peoples. Nonetheless we believe it is possible to achieve their level of infrastructural organization without picking up the gun. To do so, we will have to find ways of stretching ourselves to the limits and tempering ourselves and learning to become more efficient and effective revolutionaries. As we at PIRAO do not risk our lives at the rates proletarian armies do, we ask instead for risks of the ego, career, lifestyle and business enterprise as our means of creating a taut atmosphere and forging a people's army, united front and Maoist party. * * * MLM ONLINE COLLEGE TERM PAPER SALES REVEAL EDUCATION HYPOCRISY by MC12 A1 Termpaper, on the Internet, offers: "'Karl Marx's Dialectical Materialism: An examination of Marxist materialism,' a Marxist view about money, and Marxist philosophy of the bourgeois." This paper, written in 1980, is 18 pages, with 13 footnotes from 4 sources. It costs $161.10, and you can't read it before you buy it. One of the most revolting aspects of the private property system is the idea of "intellectual property," by which ideas are privately owned for the benefit of their owners. For example, a piece of computer software on a disk can be copied for $0.39, but capitalism says you have to pay someone $400 for it. That keeps the software out of the hands of many people, and helps make the richest people in the world even richer. Recently there has been a increased flap among bourgeois and mainstream college administrators and professors about the proliferation of term papers for sale or available for free on the Internet. Many college students get term papers from Internet sites and turn them in for credit in their classes. Some states have laws against selling intellectual property to people if you know they will use it for plagiarism -- that is, claiming they wrote it themselves. Boston University recent sued eight term paper companies under this law in Massachusetts.(1) Texas also has a new law against profiting from plagiarism. An administrator at one Texas college is threatening prosecution of paper sellers.(2) To try to cover their tracks legally, the paper sellers act like they're just helping people with research. allpapers.com says, "The intended purpose of our example term papers is that they be used as study aids or as models of what a termpaper should look like. We encourage students to use our reports to help them in quickening their research. Pursuant to New Jersey Statutes 2A:170-17.16-18 and similar statutes that exist in other states, The Paper Store Enterprises, Inc. will NEVER offer its services to ANY person giving ANY reason to believe that he or she intends to either wholly or partially submit our work for academic credit in their own name...Plagiarism is a CRIME!" However, these shameless hypocrites make it clear just how good these "model" papers are supposed to be: "Our philosophy is simple: It is only by reading a letter- perfect, properly-formatted report that students will be able to successfully create their own paper in accordance with all of their professor's requirements." This is just one more way that rich people get ahead while doing less work. What did you expect? However, some sites, such as schoolsucks.com, offer term papers for free, and do not appear to be breaking any laws. Of them, Schoolsucks.com has gotten the most attention. Schoolsucks offers free, unedited term papers turned in by anyone on many subjects, of any quality. The owner of the site claims he offers the "checks and balances" of the education system. If these papers are good enough to pass muster in class, the system is in trouble, he believes, so the site is supposed to be a warning to the system. Of course, it's really just a place for students to get free papers. Schoolsucks makes an estimated $5,000 per month from advertising -- some of it from commercial term paper sellers.(3) The main reform the owner of Schoolsucks wants is for all college teachers to have a degree in education. "Unlike the rest of the real world, the education system has no checks and balance," he says. "By forcing mediocre professors, who have been giving the same assignments since the Truman administration, to rethink their assignments -- and maybe even add a bit of creativity to them, School Sucks IS Education's check and balance." If the papers on the site suck, he says, professors have no one but themselves to blame. He is right that if generic papers get good grades, the classes are probably not very educational. But MIM cares what people learn, not just how much they learn. Unlike MIM, Schoolsucks does not seek to replace the bourgeois education system with a free system to educate all people for liberation and revolution. Instead he says "Our high school system is the joke of the West. Those responsible need to wake up. We're way behind." College administrators and professors are suddenly all upset about the availability of term papers on the net, but people have been paying for plagiarism for years. One idealist critic believes the trend is a "threat to education." She says, "By making it easier to plagiarize, downloadable term papers undermine the purpose of assigned papers. Instructors assign written work not to test the students' abilities to obtain papers, but to encourage students to engage in certain kinds of intellectual work. This intellectual work is what facilitates the students' educational development." In fact, MIM believes that students who do a good job of finding and submitting good plagiarized papers to get through college will be well prepared to succeed in the Amerikan economy, where corruption, laziness, dishonesty and opportunism are all highly-prized traits. The oppressed people of the world, denied access to the resources of U.$. colleges, resent the rich and lazy students who buy term papers instead of taking advantage of their libraries and really learning something. However, those "upstanding" students who study hard in order to successfully mimic the opinions of patriarchal imperialism, applying their own "creative thinking" to build better weapons for use against the oppressed, are no better. MIM urges students in Amerikan colleges to study hard, and take advantage of the resources available to them. Anyone who can read can get a good education at the library if they have the time, but students usually have more time for this than other people, and access to better resources. Use these resources for the good of the people instead of for selfish advancement and furthering oppression. The Internet is a great resource for educating each other, and people who spend time writing good papers on important topics should try to let other people read them. It really is stupid for people to write good papers just to get a good grade and then drop the paper in a file. Maybe your paper should be submitted for publication in MIM Theory or on the MIM web site? In fact, why not work with MIM to coordinate your time in school or doing research to support revolutionary development? We don't care if people plagiarize some papers along the way to get through some courses. We invite people to use all MIM publications for their education research, although we believe that giving credit where it is due is an important political principle, because it lets people evaluate the whole source and make educated decisions based on that. NOTES: 1. The Chronicle of Higher Education, Oct 31, 1997. 2. The Chronicle of Higher Education, August 13, 1997. 3. New Republic 23 March 1998. * * * INDONESIA'S ECONOMY COLLAPSING; IMPERIALIST BAIL-OUT REJECTED by a comrade In July, 1997 the Indonesian currency, the rupiah, dropped dramatically in value, causing widespread panic and even more poverty and unemployment. Interest rates have soared, and the imperialist world watches the Indonesian economy with worried eyes. The International Monetary Fund (IMF), with u.s. support, has formulated a $43 billion "bail-out" package for Indonesia.(1) Since last July the rupiah continues to fall. Most Indonesian banks and companies are now technically bankrupt, and the private sector owes foreign debts of over $70 billion.(1) People cannot even get powdered milk for their babies, as food shortages become more severe. The Indonesian masses are rioting and burning and looting businesses for food. The army is deployed in Jakarta to keep the masses from increasing their protests against the repressive Indonesian regime. Recently, Indonesia's president Suharto has come up with a plan that would fix the rupiah against the u.s. dollar. Clinton and the IMF oppose this plan, claiming that it would cause greater unrest, violence and looting in Indonesia. The IMF is threatening to withdraw its proposed bail-out package if Suharto implements his plan to fix the rupiah. Suharto plans to create a currency board which would require the monetary base to be backed by a reserve of u.s. dollars. This means it would be impossible to issue new rupiah without an inflow of foreign currency.(1) Suharto, along with Amerikan economist Steven Hanke who is in Jakarta advising Suharto, claim that this will bring interest rates way down.(1) Suharto and his family control the economy of Indonesia, and the proposed currency board would serve to allow Suharto and his family to exchange their current massive rupiah holdings to dollars at an artificially high rate.(1) The economic crisis in Indonesia is threatening other East Asian markets, including Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong.(2) The united snakes government and corporations are worried about keeping these markets stable in order to preserve their interests in plundering labor and resources from these countries. The interests of both Suharto and the imperialist IMF/united snakes are clear: Suharto wants to retain his control over the Indonesian economy and masses by further consolidating his economic power. The united snakes, while it has provided military and other aid to Indonesia for years (which, in part, goes to support the repression of East Timor) (see, for example, MIM Notes 144) is not willing to let Suharto implement a plan to increase his power while at the same time thumbing his nose at u.s. aid. The united snakes sent former vice-president Walter Mondale to Jakarta to talk with Suharto and his economic advisors. Mondale's message: "Install a bunch of I.M.F.-bashing cronies and your economy will be washed into the South China Sea."(3) Amerika does not want to lose this foothold in the East Asian economies which allows u.s. companies to sell products at greatly inflated prices, and buy materials and labor power at greatly reduced prices. NOTES: 1. The Economist, Feb. 21-27 1998, pp. 37-38. 2. The Washington Post, Feb. 17 1998, p. D1. 3. The New York Times, March 8 1998, Section 4. * * * GOVERNMENT REPORT CONFIRMS INCREASED NATIONAL OPPRESSION [NOTE: MIM MADE SELF-CRITICISM FOR THIS ARTICLE IN MIM NOTES 161, P. 3. BECAUSE THIS ARTICLE FAILS TO FIGHT BOURGEOIS ANALYSIS.] by a RAIL Comrade A report released on March 1 by the Milton S. Eisenhower Foundation confirms that "our [sic] nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white-- separate and unequal." This statement was made thirty years ago when the foundation was set up to do research in response to urban uprisings across the u$. While the report acknowledges Blacks' increasing roles in government, business, and membership in the middle class, it asserts that racial inequality is becoming more deeply rooted in Amerikan society. The report stated many statistics that MIM has quoted in the past to show the systematic use of national oppression within u$ borders. For example, most adults in inner cities don't work in a typical week while the economy is booming. Even the as the wealthiest country in the world, the u.$. manages to hold the title for greatest inequality. The top 1 percent in u.$. borders has more wealth than the bottom 90 percent. In order to maintain such inequality the u.$. also has the highest incarceration rate than any country, with 1.5 million prisoners, who are disproportionately members of oppressed nations. One of three young Black men are in prison, on parole, or probation. Reactionaries respond by saying they are "color blind" and claim that such pessimism is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Other people claim that blacks and whites have become much more socially integrated in the last three decades. A member of the original panel that produces these reports replied to such subjective statements by saying, "You can't argue [against] the facts." He also claims that while civil rights movements brought short-term progress, inequality has worsened since the 1970s. However, after identifying and describing the problem the panel failed to come up with effective solutions. They claim that it is only a matter of investing the right amount of money in programs that "we know will work," such as well- structured after-school programs, targeted job training and community-sensitive police strategies. MIM does not know if the report details why such efforts would be successful, but we don't need to in order to know that they are wrong. These are the failed programs the Amerika has tried over the last thirty years, after all. Specifically, job training programs are rarely effective in raising incomes by any significant amount, and often result in increased expenses when children are involved. MIM has also reported extensively on the ineffectiveness of "community policing" which only serves to legitimize the national oppression that the police serve to perpetuate. MIM often relies on government reports for statistics since their resources are far greater than ours. But even an accurate and useful report such as this will never provide the answers when it continues to resort to reformism. The inequality described in this report is inherent to an imperialist system based on profit and national oppression. As long as such a system exists this inequality must necessarily exist, even within the wealthiest imperialist powers. NOTE: Washington Post.1 March 1998. * * * UNDER LOCK AND KEY For more information about joining RAIL's contingent to the Jericho '98 march and the RAIL Teach-In: P.O. Box 3576 Ann Arbor, MI 48106-3576 mim136@mim.org 734-930-6452 End the Amerikan Lockdown! Free the People's Leaders! HUMILIATION TACTICS AND BRUTALITY IN MICHIGAN Dear MIM: Being a politically active prisoner, I'm often the target of DOC [Department of Corrections] criminals. In April 1997, during operation Clean-Sweep at the Kinross Correctional Facility, a sergeant used that opportunity to engage in his usual sexual deviant behavior by forcing me to: (1) strip for a female guard, (2) bend over, and (3) spread my buttocks for her. I filed a grievance stating a male sergeant X forced me to strip for a female. The DOC response is a weak attempt to justify the sergeant's behavior. The grievance is currently in State Representative Y's office in Lansing, Michigan. In mid-April, the sergeant told me, if I don't drop my complaint, he will see to it that I NEVER get out of prison. From mid- April to June 1997 the sergeant and seven guards would enter my room, make me strip, bend over and spread my buttocks. They would then search my property and leave. Never finding any contraband, in early June they changed strategy. After the usual bend over and spread 'em routine, the sergeant and his crew proceeded to destroy my personal property. After one hour and a half, the shakedown ended, and I was allowed back into my room. I discovered my ring was missing and reported it. The guard, instead of making out a thief report, said he thought I could possibly be planning an escape. I returned to my room. The guard followed me and pushed me and struck me with a chair. There were no witnesses to how the fight started. The guards charged me with "Assault with intent to murder" which carries a life sentence. Not being a capitalist, I don't have money, or a lawyer, as I had to fire my state appointed lawyer. I am currently representing myself against the judge, prosecutor and prison guards. Every single thing the guards write or speak is a lie. I ask my comrades for two things: a Lie Detector Test and a lawyer. If you know one or both who have an interest in justice, please have them contact me [via MIM]. I can't afford their fees, but my situation stinks with lies. Without a Lie Detector Test, I will continue to fall victim to the guards' lies. Sincerely, -- A Michigan Prisoner, 4 December, 1997 MIM Responds: Thank you for your important and insightful letter. We at MIM are behind you every step of the way. A MIM or RAIL comrade will write to you personally about our legal resources. Many prisoners are skilled jailhouse lawyers and paralegals. We ask you, what advice would you give to this prisoner? Any suggestions on how he can go about getting these guards to take a Lie Detector Test? I WON'T BE THEIR SLAVE ...Just received your newspaper from October [1997]. I just received them due to the fact that they had to be approved by the Iowa Department of Corruption's "Publication Review Committee" and I was transferred to another Koncentration Kamp... Let's talk about the many chain gangs being formed across this Settler's Nation. Just before I was transferred back to this particular Kamp, I was at Anamosa State Prison. Right before I left, I was in the hole and had to serve approximately ten days. This pig came to my concrete tomb and tells me to get ready to go to Chain Gang. I explained to him that I'd rather not be their slave for a day. Then the head pig threatened to bring their Gestapo (K-9) Unit in to bring me out and force me to go. Since I don't believe in letting somebody, or rather about ten cowboys, come in to my cell to "extract" me I said I would go. When they began to take the [Chain Gang] group out there, I observed the others gleeful to be a 1997 slave, willingly. It sickened me. When we got to the place, ironically a graveyard on a medium sized river, I explained to the slave driver and the gun wielding gestapo overseers that like I said in the cage, I'm not being their slave and that is the final decision. So in an attempt to punish me and me an example to the rest of those watching, they wouldn't take none of their hardware off me. They had me stand for approximately eight hours in shackles, waist chain with my hands in cuffs attached to the belly chain and a black box over the cuffs, which makes the cuffs almost impossible to move. So I stayed like this outside in the sun. At various times the pigs would ask me "Are you ready to work?" Like the way they kept whipping Kunte Kinte in "Roots" until he said his name was "Toby". However, there was a change in the story. "Toby" doesn't exist in me, and each time they asked me the stronger I became. Within a week, I was transferred back to this Koncentration Kamp. I guess they figured out I wouldn't be their slave and pick cotton. -- An Iowa Prisoner, 23 December, 1997 LOCKED DOWN BECUASE REFUSED TO BE A SNITCH ...I am locked down in the Delaware (Un)Correctional Center (DCC) in Smyrna, Delaware. I am locked away for 22 hours a day in their Behavior Modification Unit for not becoming an administrative snitch when I was caught dirty. They (the administration) has been trying to get me for eight months. Constantly harassing me, tearing up my living quarter, handcuffing me and sitting me in interview room, with no access to a bathroom and still handcuffed behind my back, for four to five hours at a time. For months they had no luck. All of the harassment came as a direct result of my trying to get an Asshole Pig moved from our living area because of his continuous unprofessional behavior. For example he would stand in the middle of the dormitory shouting, "You're all a bunch of pussies, punk- faggots, etc. You can't beat me" and so on. We should have stomped his monkey-ass. However, I elected to utilize the new found grievance procedure, "Not!" It has been corrupted by the Good ole boy system that oversees us. Nothing was done to the officer, and I became a target. ...He [the pig] ran up on me while I was in the shower. He said I was smoking a joint. They again cuffed me, left me in the room, and went through my personal belongings. Only this time, after being cuffed for three and a half- hours, refused water and the bathroom, I was taken into the Lieutenant's office. They said they found a gutted ink pen and a book of matches in the shower. I got a disciplinary write-up. I was told if I didn't plead guilty I'd go to lock-up. I said, "Yea Right." Then this pig sits in front of me and says, "You're a player her, a major player. You know all the rest of 'em. Tell us who they are and we'll let you slide." I told them to kiss my ass, and if they gave me a pen, I'd give them my mother's number so she could tell them to kiss her ass! They threatened me "Do it or you'll go to lock-up." My only reply was, "We haven't left yet?" They were pissed. I came to lockdown. I'm here a week and a half. My old counselor comes to re-classify me. Said my urine was positive for pot, but that I shouldn't be here. So he put in paper work for me to go to medium security. Ha, big joke! The paperwork got lost. My children's pictures, my certificates from college, other rehabilitative program certificates and my legal work were all thrown in the trash, because I wouldn't comply with these assholes. Now I gotta do 90 days in lockdown, then come up for reevaluation to see if I can get back into population. As far as I'm concerned, they can leave me here until I max out, because I'd die before I ever snitch on my fellow inmates.... -- A Delaware Prisoner, 18 January 1998 FEARING FOR MY LIFE I'm writing you to hopefully gain some insight on dealing with the miscarriage of justice, which continues to haunt inmates here in the Delaware Correctional Center. On a daily basis, myself and many others are being faced with out of control correctional officers. Some of us are being handcuffed and beaten. And most of us being called names like Nigger, Bitches and a host of other names. When it is written up by way of grievance, there is no answer. Then we are harassed by the officers. Many of the inmates fear being moved to another state, so there is not much done by prisoners as a whole. However, I am one who refuses to keep being oppressed. So I am looking for ways to get outside help, because my family is in another state and I stand alone here in this small wonder of Delaware. Where the KKK are placed in correctional jobs. I try to express to my brothers that we must stand tall and fight the powers that be, yet so many of them are at peace with their situation. Or perhaps they feel there is nothing they can do. So my people in the struggle I need your support and some sound ideas to fight the powers that be. Much Respect, -- A Delaware Prisoner, 26 January 1998 MIM Responds: Continue to struggle and remember you are not alone. Keep talking to your fellow prisoners. Don't give up on them yet. There are other brothers in Delaware who agree with you (See above letter), so hopefully you can find them. You have taken a good step by putting the oppression down in words so it can be exposed to the public at large. Keep up the struggle and continue to work for revolution. PRISONER'S FAMILY HARASSED ...Enclosed is the Administrative Remedy Request that I filed against this institution. [Printed below -- MIM]... Mr. Commissioner, On January 11, 1998, my family came up here to visit me. Upon entering this institution, they were stopped and asked who they were coming to see. My name was then given. The officers sent the dog around the car and told them to pull over because the dog indicated narcotics in the car. My family knowing that this was another attempt to harass them decided to leave instead. They were then told that if they left they could never return to this institution again. So they consented to the search. The police were called and the car was vigorously searched. No narcotics were present, so none were found. They came across a tobacco butt from the astray that they thought was drugs. The police officer, after examining it, then determined that it was in fact tobacco. He then gave his opinion that some residue may have been in the astray. My family was then told that my visit was terminated and they could not come back. After a verbal confrontation (which my family almost got arrested for) they were told that the visit was terminated for that day but they could come back anytime after that day.. Now the institution had no right subjecting my family to any type of search, whether it be by an officer or a dog. Unless they had reasonable suspicion that contraband was present before any type of search was conducted. It was only after my family said that I (who has been on disciplinary segregation since September) was the one they were visiting that they were searched for contraband. I would like this matter investigated a copy of the reported incident [sent to me]. I would like the harassment of myself and my family stopped, and disciplinary action taken against the correctional officers involved. [In addition I want] adequate compensation, in the form of monetary funds, for my family and I. -- A Maryland Prisoner, 20 January 1998 RESTRICTING PRISONERS ACCESS TO MONEY ...They've made it as of January 15, 1998, that prisoners from this facility cannot spend more than $58 dollars off their books in a ninety-day period. If you buy any commissary then they deduct that off and limit your capabilities of spending more off your books. They claim they're trying to cut down on the racketeering. And since they've taken all tobacco products off prison ground one can't predict the pigs' next moves. Anyway, we here at P-Town salute you and commend you and your work toward the struggle! -- An Indiana Prisoner, 25 January 1998 SPARKING INTEREST IN REVOLUTION ...Officially we can't form any study groups but about 5 of us prisoners read books to each other on the gate (cell doors) and then speak our opinions about them. I have spoken with these prisoners and have gotten agreement to read any material you send. Another good point of reading the materials on the gate is that even though everyone on the gallery isn't participating in the reading but everyone is listening to us read. As they listen there might be some who didn't have any interest in the subject, but our reading has sparked an interest. This is how I became interested in a lot of subjects and materials (including revolutionary ones). So maybe you could publish this idea in one of your issues so that those readers, who never thought of trying it, might be able to try it.... I have also spoken to people in other galleries and have sent over your address so that they could also subscribe to your newsletter and pass on the news. I am enclosing three stamps as a form of a donation to the cause so that maybe it'll help you get a couple more prisoners informed about what's going on in this very abusive system.... Keep up the good words, which tell of what this system is trying to keep hidden from the public eye. Thank you for your newsletter and your time. -- A New York Prisoner, 11 January 1998 MODERN DAY EXTERMINATION IN AMERIKA In the land of the free, there are more people locked up than in the most oppressive societies. But what do you expect when you run a prison-for-profit. This country has designed a foolproof system to make immense profits off of its poor peoples suffering. While at the same time slowly exterminating two of the fastest growing segments of its population. Sometime within the next decade, Hispanics said to become the most numerous minority in Amerika. Why does this fact scare the present regime? Is it because Hispanics are unpredictable? Hot blooded? Uncontrollable? And most importantly, what plans are in effect to counter this massive population explosion of Amerika's most dreaded peoples? Like any other regime worth its salt, this one came up with a long-term plan to make unfathomable profits while at the same time exterminating their biggest threat. The blueprint for massive prison expansion was put into effect in twelve-year increments. Back in 1985, I started reading different reports that were issued by the Injustice Department. Even back then I fully understood the vast implications of this literature. It explained how to go about raising the money for immense prison expansion, do away with parole, and in some cases media manipulation. A good example is the scarce tactics that are presently in effect to pull the wool over the unsuspecting tax/extortion paying public's eyes. Things that will whip them up into a prisoner bashing feeding frenzy that makes the pain of squeezing even larger amounts of money a little more palatable. But we're only scratching the surface here; let us delve a little bit deeper. All these band aid approaches (like building more prisons) aren't crime prevention at all, but in reality are after-the-fact-lock-em-up- and-throw-away- the-key-and-let's-make-money- prevention. They couldn't care less about your safety because it flies in the face of the prison/industrial complex. Everyone knows that there are better ways for before- the-fact-crime-prevention. These reports also stated how in twelve years, they were going to reach a nation-wide prison population of six and a half million people. Which is where we're currently at. Right on schedule according to the blueprint. It also goes on to explain about how in the next twelve years they were going to raise the current prison population of six and a half million to twelve and a half million, then the next twelve year installment, and so forth. I'm sure you get the picture. According to this plan, within the next 24 years, there will be close to 20 million people in our nation's lock-ups. A very frightening thought indeed. Prison bureaucracies are already way out of control, hiding their corruption behind the public's uncaring attitudes, and not to mention blank checks. Presently, there is no accountability for the excessive amounts of capital that simply disappears once it gets behind these prison walls. It's as if everybody's minds bump into an impenetrable barrier that are put up by these prison walls. Out of sight, out of mind, right. But, all that is another matter. It's a very complex issue that doesn't have an easy solution. One thing is certain though. With 20 million minorities in prison, who will be left out there to propagate our races? Will we just be eradicated by this systematic form of ethnic cleansing? No matter what size, shape, or form it comes in, Genocide is Genocide. And we as a people need to stop all this before it's too late and we're obliterated from Amerika's promised land. -- A Texas Prisoner, 9 December 1997 NOTHING WILL CHANGE UNLESS WE CHANGE IT Now on with the story: Oppression and struggle at the "X" Unit. Of all the other Prisons I've been in, I have never seen anything like the Texas Prison System. I have seen more Mental and Physical Abuse here at the "X" Unit than one person would believe possible, and it is said that the "X" Unit is the best unit in the Texas system. Here at the "X" Unit, it's bad for the Death Row Inmates, and I've witnessed with my own eyes, when I had worked on Death Row 3rd shift in the kitchen taking breakfast to Death Row, but now no population inmates are allowed on the Death Row wings. I pray for my brothers on Death Row, all races, us in White Prison Clothes have to stand together against the Administration. The slave labor is unreal here. There is no pay, and the Good Time that we are getting means nothing. Because when you get a Disciplinary Case your Good Time Credits are taken away, of which is illegal, and you get set off at your parole hearing for 1, 2, 3, and even up to 6 years at a time. Anything more than a year is illegal. We are now being charged for non emergency medical treatment and you are allowed one pair of poorly made work boots within a 90 day period. If our work boots come apart from working in mud and water before the 90 day period is up, we have to pay $16.95 for another pair. But still we receive no pay for our labor, how can this be legally done. These correctional officers (CO III's) seem to think that it is all right to assault inmates at will, they gang up and really hurt the inmates, then say the inmate did something like "talked in the hallway" and asked for it. This is usually done by the 2nd shift between the hours of 2:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. every day. The investigations are a joke and are conducted by the same prison officials that call all the shots. We are harassed and retaliated against, taken to disciplinary hearings and found guilty in their kangaroo court, no matter how much proof we have, the officer is always right and we are always wrong. We even have a warden here at "X" Unit that is the head of a Racism Group calling themselves "The White Horse" with beat'em up squads, and who questions an Assistant Warden, Nobody. Nothing will change unless we change it. I for one am down for the count. - A Texas Prisoner, 12 December 1997 DON'T-SEE-ANYTHING-LAND ...Now about the labor, well, here on the "X" Unit, inmates don't get no money for their labor. Some get good time if they're a line one and above in class. But I was told that "Y" Unit and some female Units pay some inmates for working. The ones on "Y" Unit are some death row inmates, and the female Unit, they have about 75 or 100 females getting paid for working. The state of Texas says they don't have the money to pay inmates so they give them good time which is no good to inmates. If an inmate catches a major case, they can take good time from the inmate. Now here's a dog trick; if they were paying inmates, they can't take the money from the inmates. Now let's move to the part about medical. If an inmate sends in a request for medical attention that's not a life threatening situation, it will cost $3.00. ...This new law about charging inmates, first you must understand that Texas adopted this law from other states, but this is the part they left out on the adoption; they left out the part by paying inmates. They did it on purpose. Now I look at it like this: our family as well as other working peoples already pay state taxes and that money is supposed to be used to take care of inmates in state prisons. Now if we look on the other hand, the federal government, they give the state a little money in some way or another. Now the federal prison's been paying inmates for their labor, also paying their medical and educational expense and so on. Why is it that the state can't and won't pay their prisons? I am going to tell you this. They took tobacco and it products out of this system in Texas -- making the inmates go cold-duck without anything to help them stop using tobacco products. Right then, the inmates show them they can do anything they like to them. ...But right now, officers still walk around with dip in their mouth. Also, they smell like smoke. There have been a lot of people who lost their jobs by bringing tobacco in here to inmates to sell for $20. For two packs, that's an $18 gain. ...There are games these people play. If an inmate gets jumped by an officer and the inmate stands up for himself or his cell, at times, they try to give the inmate some more time. Also back here in "don't-see-anything-land" ad-seg, there are some officers going into inmate cells and taking their stamps and there's nothing being done about it. Also, inmates get slammed while in handcuffs in there. There is not a thing done about it. Too many inmates are too lazy to try to fight back with pen and paper. Even if they have trouble reading or spelling, it's good to try than not try at all. - A Texas Prisoner, 5 January 1998 * * * GOVERNMENT REPORT CONFIRMS INCREASED NATIONAL OPPRESSION by a RAIL Comrade [This article was retracted in the next issue of MIM Notes. This is the statement withdrawing the article: In the MIM Notes #159, the article entitled "Report confirms increased national oppression" presented an incorrect analysis concerning conditions within imperialist countries. Publication of this incorrect article supported the way in which the bourgeoisie twists empirical data to support imperialist and reformist anti-proletarian interests.--MIM] A report released on March 1 by the Milton S. Eisenhower Foundation confirms that "our [sic] nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white-- separate and unequal." This statement was made thirty years ago when the foundation was set up to do research in response to urban uprisings across the u$. While the report acknowledges Blacks' increasing roles in government, business, and membership in the middle class, it asserts that racial inequality is becoming more deeply rooted in Amerikan society. The report stated many statistics that MIM has quoted in the past to show the systematic use of national oppression within u$ borders. For example, most adults in inner cities don't work in a typical week while the economy is booming. Even the as the wealthiest country in the world, the u.$. manages to hold the title for greatest inequality. The top 1 percent in u.$. borders has more wealth than the bottom 90 percent. In order to maintain such inequality the u.$. also has the highest incarceration rate than any country, with 1.5 million prisoners, who are disproportionately members of oppressed nations. One of three young Black men are in prison, on parole, or probation. Reactionaries respond by saying they are "color blind" and claim that such pessimism is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Other people claim that blacks and whites have become much more socially integrated in the last three decades. A member of the original panel that produces these reports replied to such subjective statements by saying, "You can't argue [against] the facts." He also claims that while civil rights movements brought short-term progress, inequality has worsened since the 1970s. However, after identifying and describing the problem the panel failed to come up with effective solutions. They claim that it is only a matter of investing the right amount of money in programs that "we know will work," such as well- structured after-school programs, targeted job training and community-sensitive police strategies. MIM does not know if the report details why such efforts would be successful, but we don't need to in order to know that they are wrong. These are the failed programs the Amerika has tried over the last thirty years, after all. Specifically, job training programs are rarely effective in raising incomes by any significant amount, and often result in increased expenses when children are involved. MIM has also reported extensively on the ineffectiveness of "community policing" which only serves to legitimize the national oppression that the police serve to perpetuate. MIM often relies on government reports for statistics since their resources are far greater than ours. But even an accurate and useful report such as this will never provide the answers when it continues to resort to reformism. The inequality described in this report is inherent to an imperialist system based on profit and national oppression. As long as such a system exists this inequality must necessarily exist, even within the wealthiest imperialist powers. Note: Washington Post.1 March 1998.