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 161 May 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. CLINTON PUSHES IMPERIALISM IN AFRICA 2. AMERIKA PRESSURES CUBA TO CAPTURE ASSATA SHAKUR 3. LETTERS 4. END AMERIKAN COLONIALIST DOMINATION OF PUERTO RICO: 100 YEARS IS TOO LONG 5. ASSASINATION IN COLOMBIA; PEOPLE'S WAR NEEDED 6. CORRECTION: MIM NOTES 159 ARTICLE FAILED TO FIGHT BOURGEOIS ANALYSIS 7. SIERRA CLUB PUKES FIRST WORLD CHAUVINISM 8. WHY BIOLOGICAL WIMMIN USUALLY ESCAPE THE DEATH PENALTY 9. United Nations passes resolution on death penalty 10. RAIL HOLDS SUCCESSFUL CONTINENT-WIDE TEACH-IN ON THE CRIMINAL INJUSTICE SYSTEM 11. RAIL CONTIGENT JOINS JERICHO MARCH TO DEMAND: FREEDOM FOR OUR REVOLUTIONARY LEADERS! 12. ATTENTION PRISONERS: ANTI-IMPERIALIST PRISONER MASS ORGANIZATION NOW FORMING! 13. WEST COAST RAIL RALLIES OPPOSITION TO IMPERIALISM 14. MARXISM-LENINISM-MAOISM ONLINE: BUDDING WORKER-ARISTOCRATS: WORK WITH MIM BEFORE YOU SELL YOURSELF TO IMPERIALISM 15. MISSISSIPPI SPY COMMISSION: PUBLIC DISCLOSURE WON'T WASH THE BLOOD FROM OFF THE STATES' HAND 16. AMERIKKKAN PRISONS ON TRIAL CONFERENCE: INJUSTICE SYSTEM GUILTY OF GENOCIDE AND NATIONAL OPPRESSION 17. UNDER LOCK AND KEY: NEWS FROM PRISONS AND PRISONERS * * * 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 * * * CLINTON PUSHES IMPERIALISM IN AFRICA by RC784 U$ President Bill Klinton recently returned from a six nation, 12 day tour of the African continent. Heralded as an important historical first by the bourgeois media, the true nature of this visit was not to show Africa that "Amerika cares," but to extend Amerikan imperialism. Savvy students of U$ imperialism know that Klinton cannot and will not offer the revolutionary steps necessary to liberate Africans from their oppression and poverty; he just has different snake-oil sales techniques from previous Amerikan heads of state. There's nothing accidental about the timing of Klinton's visit. It comes at a time when the U$ and African politicians are debating the "Africa Growth and Opportunity Act," which passed the House of Representatives on March 11. Section 7 of this bill would establish a free trade zone between the U$ and 48 southern African nations similar to the Mexico-U$-Kanada NAFTA treaty while doing nothing to protect human rights, the environment or workers. The bill is also known as the Sub-Sahara Africa Trade Bill. The Africa Growth and Opportunity Act has supporters within the Black nation inside u.s. borders, especially among the Black compradors serving their white master. One of its co- sponsors is Rep. Charles Rangel (D - NY), who worked closely with Speaker of the House, Rep. Newt Gingrich (R - GA) to push this bill through the House following only six hours of debate. Amalgamated Publications/Bloomberg Financial, a Black-owned media/financial services company, has been taking out ads in Black newspapers and using Rep. Rangel's name to encourage the bill in the Black nation in the united snakes of imperialism. This is a case of the Black comprador bourgeoisie trying to pitch the further exploitation of their African sisters and brothers to the Black masses. MIM recommends J. Sakai's Settlers: The Mythology of the White Proletariat especially sections 4 & 5 of chapter IX and chapter XIV for the historical antecedents of this type of treachery. But the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act also has its detractors within the Amerikan Black nation, who have dubbed it the "Africa Re-Colonization Act." Randall Robinson, President of TransAfrica, has recognized it for what it is: legislation for the advancement of U$ imperialism. The majority of the Black Congressional Caucus oppose it, too. The United Needletrades Industry and Textile Employees (UNITE) and the United Auto Workers also oppose the bill, but MIM questions their motives. This opposition is less a part of an overall anti-imperialist strategy on the part of these unions and more a tactical defense for the preservation of labor aristocratic privilege. MIM recognizes that textile workers are among Amerika's lowest paid workers, and, like all workers, deserve a living wage, but, like all Amerikan unions, their organizational efforts are not revolutionary. This is a result of the huge labor aristocracy in this country which exerts a strong influence on the unions, pushing for a bigger piece of the imperialist pie. The few unions which do represent the oppressed need strong revolutionary leadership to pull them away from the imperialist influence and to the side of the world's people in the struggle against imperialism. From the perspective of the champions of Klinton's visit and the Africa Re-Colonization Act, the U$ has neglected and ignored Africa for too long. This is a serious distortion of history. It gains credibility from the fact that Africa was colonized by European nations (Spain, Portugal, UK, Germany, France, Belgium and the Netherlands), and, until the end of World War II, the main focus of U$ imperialism was Latin America with some notable exceptions (China, Philippines, etc.) But to say that the U$ has "ignored" Africa is a lie. The value of trade between just sixteen sub-Saharan African nations and the U$ exceeds the value of trade between the U$ and all of the former Soviet republics combined.(1) The African masses certainly would be better off today if U$ banks, corporations, military and CIA would have entirely ignored Africa! For a summary of a few of these interventions, MIM recommends William Blum's Killing Hope: U$ Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II (Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press, 1995). U$ Imperialism in Uganda One of Klinton's visits was to the East African nation of Uganda where he promised millions of dollars in aid. MIM recommends Mahmood Mamdani's Imperialism and Fascism in Uganda (Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 1984) for a summary of imperialism in that nation from its late-19th century British inception through 1978. Mamdani highlights the U$ role during the Idi Amin years (1971-78). From its independence in 1962 until the victory of the National Resistance Movement in 1986, Uganda was governed by comprador bourgeoisie masquerading as true nationalists who required rigged elections or outright military rule to maintain imperialist domination of Uganda. But the victory of the National Resistance Movement, headed by Uganda's current president, Yoweri Museveni, filled many Ugandans, other Africans and anti-imperialists with great hopes. The NRM established a political system which appears to be radically democratic: although political parties are banned, all adult Ugandans are free to participate in their village-level Resistance Council (RC) and elect a village executive committee, who in turn serve on a Parish Resistance Council. This process of executive committee elections proceeds through subcounty, county, district levels up to the chief legislative body, the National Resistance Committee (NRC). No one can be excluded from the political process, and thus one finds Marxist-Leninists, republicans, and monarchists within the NRC. This system seems to have the support amongst a broad section of the Ugandan masses.(2) The involvement of the Ugandan masses was also solicited in the effort to rewrite Uganda's 1962 constitution, but as of 1995 at least, the constitution remained unwritten and the NRM-established structure remained in place (MIM has no more recent information). Despite its radically democratic selection process for legislative duties, the Museveni government has succumbed to imperialist pressure. The regime accepted the international debt it inherited from previous regimes, and, despite initial wariness, has signed on to additional structurally- adjusted IMF loans. Structural adjustment requires the subordination of the oppressed nation's sovereignty through demands that it open its doors wide to international capitalist penetration. Structurally adjusted IMF loans to other sub-Saharan African nations have proved to leave them in worse economic shape than they had been before.(3) As Mugyenyi put it, "the NRM has lived with the reality that the IMF is a reflection of the global distribution of power."(4) Economic inequality within Uganda still runs high, and the Museveni government has done little to change that. Phares Mutibwa, author of Uganda Since Independence: A Story of Unfulfilled Hopes (Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 1992) stated that "corruption is a way of life," and those with access to greater thefts (high-ranking bureaucrats) are less likely to be punished than workers and peasants guilty of petty thefts (pp. 197-8). It is clear that Museveni and the National Resistance government has not put the Maoist goal of the government to serve the people into practice. Reporters covering Klinton's visit have heard the Ugandan masses complain that Klinton's audience was hand-picked by the government and they were closed out from the address. The government cleaned the streets and removed the homeless from Klinton's view -- things they never did for their own people. They expressed outrage at the IMF policies which have severely hindered government spending on employment and social services.(5) Ghanaian Masses -- Colonial Mentality? Bourgeois news sources reported that over 100,000 enthusiastic masses showed up for Klinton's public appearance in Ghana. Although the U$ government has been known to stage fake rallies in oppressed nations as a public relations gimmicks (George Bush in Panama following invasion), MIM has no evidence that either Ghanaian or U$ governments pulled that trick. What can account for what appears to be a strong vote of confidence for Klinton amongst the Ghanaian masses? A comrade visiting Ghana has given us some insight. S/he has despaired in a number of personal letters that years of US Information Agency propaganda, Christian missionaries, and thousands of Peace Corps volunteers have duped the Ghanaian masses into believing "if it's white, it's right." Pictures of a European Jesus are everywhere, and Ghanaians will immediately give up a seat on a bus or a spot in a line for a European. Apparently, the comprador government of Jerry Rawlings has intentionally forgotten to teach the Ghanaian masses that their former President, Kwame Nkrumah, a nominal socialist who expelled the Peace Corps from Ghana, was overthrown by CIA-backed military coup! When this same comrade sought out the current Nkrumahist's headquarters, s/he found a dispirited bunch. No surprise given the colonial mentality of so many Ghanaians. A Socialist Africa? Clearly, Bill Klinton, the leader of the imperialist world, offers nothing but further exploitation of Africa's people and resources. Is their hope for a socialist Africa? An African historian, Ali Mazrui, made famous for his documentary, "The Africans: A Triple Heritage " (1985-86) has suggested that there are both favorable and unfavorable prospects for socialism in Africa. But the clearest obstacle to socialism, Dr. Mazrui has stated, is "the primacy of ethnicity as against class consciousness."(6) The map of modern Africa is the product of European imperialism: at the 1885 Berlin Conference, representatives of competing European imperialist nations carved up Africa to prevent war between themselves. While most African nations were gaining nominal national independence in the 1950-70s, most African independence leaders agreed to keep these borders as they were to prevent civil war. Previously existing ethnic rivalries were heightened by imperialist-created occupational divisions. MIM and RAIL are interested in working with any Africans in the U$ who want to see imperialism overthrown, ethnic divisiveness overcome, and an a shining path of Maoist socialism build in the African motherland. Struggle with MIM and RAIL for proletarian liberation! NOTES: 1. Commentary by Salih Booker on National Public Radio's "All Things Considered" Program, April 3, 1998. Booker is the Senior Fellow & Director of the African Studies Program at the Council of Foreign Relations, an international imperialist "think tank." 2. For further details on the structure of the contemporary Ugandan government, see Uganda: A Country Study, Washington, D.C.: Federal Research Division, Library of Congress, 1992. 3. Joshua B. Mugyenyi, IMF Conditionality and Structural Adjustment under the National Resistance Movement, Changing Uganda: The Dilemmas of Structural Adjustment & Revolutionary Change, London: James Currey Ltd., 1991, p. 66. 4. Ibid. p. 74. 5. NPR News, 25 March 1998 6. "Privatization versus the Market: Cultural Contradictions in Structural Adjustment," in Changing Uganda, p. 368. * * * AMERIKA PRESSURES CUBA TO CAPTURE ASSATA SHAKUR In late March, New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman announced a $50,000 reward for the return of escaped Black Liberation Army leader Assata Shakur, whom the pigs call "Joanne Chesimard." Whitman is preparing a radio address to be played on the Amerikan anti-Castro station "Radio Marti" to demand Assata's return. Assata Shakur was a member of Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Army. She was captured in an ambush on the New Jersey turnpike 25 years ago, on May 2, 1973. It's relevant that she was not convicted on any of the indictments that made her "wanted" and worthy of stopping on the Turnpike. Assata Shakur did not handle a gun during the ambush and was then shot with her hands raised. Despite this, in the courts of the white nation Assata Shakur was convicted of aiding and abetting in the murder of the New Jersey State Trooper who ambushed them. Sundiata Acoli was convicted for killing the Trooper. Assata escaped from prison in 1979, and was granted political asylum in Cuba five years later. The Black Liberation Army (BLA) was a revolutionary Black nationalist organization fighting for the independence of the Black nation. It existed mainly in the early 1970s. The BLA engaged in armed struggle against the Amerikan government and carried out bank expropriations to fund its political work. Mao and MIM argue that armed struggle should not be carried out until the enemy is "truly helpless." This was not the case in the Black nation in the early 1970s, where the masses were not ready to support the armed struggle, and the Amerikan government was too strong. This incorrect strategy is why Assata is forced to live in exile away from her people. Taking up armed struggle before strategically correct is the reason that the imperialists were easily able to murder or imprison hundreds of revolutionary leaders. The pressure on Cuba and Assata have been increasing. Recently, the New Jersey State Police asked Pope John Paul II to request her extradition back to the United Snakes during his recent trip to Cuba. The economic disintegration of Cuba now that it is no longer a neo-colony of the Soviet Union also increases the chances that Assata could be forced from Cuba, and possibly back into custody. Whitman may also be trying to recruit anti-Castro elements to kidnap Assata and return her to the United Snakes. Whitman launched her campaign after seeing an interview with Assata on New York's WNBC-TV. MIM has not seen in the interview in question, but we have heard other interviews with Assata and read many of her writings. Whitman no doubt targets Assata because her freedom serves as an important political symbol of revolutionary resistance. Radio Marti offered air time for Whitman, after Whitman wrote to Clinton and Janet Reno asking for additional help in recapturing Assata. Strangely, Whitman announced that the reward money will come out her entertainment budget. Whether that money was intended for Whitman's entertainment or that of her guests, it's clear that the immediate effects of this ploy is entertainment for the pro-police white masses and further political repositioning by Whitman. As Assata pointed out about Gov. Whitman: "She's trying to present herself as a pro law-and-order, right-wing governor." The longer term effects of this Whitman campaign are much more significant and should not be ignored. Assata said "Of course, I'm concerned. It's a character assassination." Whitman is building a campaign against Assata, but the people must rise up to say "Imperialism must be stopped from imprisoning the people's leaders!" Just as MIM supports the demand of freedom for the revolutionary leaders behind bars, MIM supports the demand of amnesty for Assata so she can return from exile. Notes: http://www.challengegroup.com 31 March 1998. * * * LETTERS TO MIM EX-PRISONER SAYS "SYSTEM STINKS, SIGN ME UP!" Dear MIM, I'm writing you this letter because I am very unhappy with the way things are; especially here in Amerikkka and, I too believe in socialist revolution. These fascist, Capitalist-Imperialist pigs should be destroyed utterly, without hesitation, and exposed to the masses for what they really are. I'm 26 years old and I've spent most of my entire life in and out of concentration camps (prison). It's been almost one whole year now since I've been released from hell. And to be honest with you, I still can't find a place for me in this forever-consuming, forever-selling, materialistic society. I'm so tired of the way things are that I rather spend time plotting against the real enemy of humanity: Imperialism & Capitalism. This barbaric society is based on individualism, greed and private property. In fact, it places private property above humanity and, as long as it continues to exist, there will always be unhappiness, hunger, crime and poverty. Therefore, I would like to become an active participant and follower of Maoism While being in prison for almost 4 years, I've read intensively in the fields of Marxist economics, political theories and development, geography and guerrilla warfare. I've read a lot of books on Marx, Engels, Lenin, Luxemburg, Mao, Che Guevara, Debray Regis and even Carlos Marighela. And to be honest, I AM READY TO PASS ON THE TORCH AND TAKE MAO'S GREAT LEAP FORWARD!!! I know what a socialist revolution is and what it means to us as a people, but I still don't possess a very clear Marxist way of thinking. In fact, I still need major help in understanding Dialectical Materialism. If I can only get a clear and thorough understanding of Marx-Maoism and be able to express my political and economical views, I'm quite sure that I can become more effective, join the class struggle anywhere around the world, in destroying the real enemy of humanity: Imperialism and Capitalism. Help me prepare myself, so that I can answer to the cry of liberation and build a future for those that have been made the floor-mat of the world, along the side with our comrades in arms and the proletarians. Long live the revolution and armed struggle!! Revolutionary yours, -- a new Comrade in the East March 25, 1998 P.S. Send me any information on how to become a member of MIM. Also, I would like to subscribe for MIM Notes and RAIL newspaper. And if you can send me some reading material, I will greatly appreciate it. MIM responds: A clenched fist salute, comrade! We are excited to hear from you. Letters such as yours are rarer than they should be, as many good comrades from under lock and key fail to hook up with us once they are on the outside. This is a double setback since the outside is where comrades can be the most effective. This is why MIM stresses that all prisoners who have release dates within two years should immediately contact MIM and begin to prepare a political work plan for their release. MIM is steadily building work with prisoners to meet the needs of re-leased prisoners so that they can continue and intensify work once released. As this comrade so aptly demonstrates, there is little room in this sick society for the politically conscious, and even less room for politically conscious ex-prisoners. All of those, ex-prisoner or not, who reject this sick Amerikan society should work with MIM for revolution. To become a member of MIM, you must agree with and show a commitment to, the principles in the "What is MIM?" box printed on page two of every MIM Notes. The Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League (RAIL) is a mass organization for anti-imperialists who believe that revolution is necessary to overthrow imperialism. RAIL does not have any other ideological requirements. RAIL is for people who do not fully agree with Maoism but are genuinely anti-imperialist and who agree to be open about MIM's leadership of RAIL. As for publications, MIM Notes comes out twice per month and is available for $20/year. The continent-wide RAIL Notes and the Massachusetts RAIL's MASS RAIL are available for $10/year. As you probably know -- but many of our student supporters from the parasitic classes can never understand -- MIM is not in the "forever selling" business. Rather, we operate at a loss because of the tremendous volume of the literature we give away, especially through the very expensive U.$ post office. We recognize the financial situation of most prisoners is tight, and will happily take whatever you can afford, including trades of labor for literature. As you've probably noticed, we need additional help in your city with literature distribution. How many MIM Notes can you distribute every two weeks? There are a number of projects you can get involved with us locally on: a) Preparing for the 5th Annual Prison Awareness Week in November at a large University in the area. (We just completed a month long series of preparatory events and sent a large RAIL contingent to the Jericho March Against Political Imprisonment and RAIL teach-in in Washington D.C.) b) Building for an event in the center of your town about the Revolutionary Legacy of Malcolm X. c) We are also trying to recruit more people to help us answer letters from prisoners. As you know, second to the recruiting prisoners do amongst each other, this the most important way we have to raise the consciousness of prisoners. d) RAIL is also building a study group in this part of the region, and would be happy to expand it to your area. We would be happy to try extending it to your city. There is also a continent-wide RAIL study group on email. You can contact rail@mim.org for more information on that. Study groups are the best way to advance your theory. e) Anything else. We are always looking for new ideas and new ways to expand our work. Enclosed with this letter are several back issues of recent MIM and RAIL publications, as well as the "What is MIM pamphlet" and flyers for some upcoming meetings and activities. Please send whatever money you can afford for the enclosed literature and subscriptions along with your comments and criticisms of the literature. We hope to hear from you soon, or see you at the upcoming events. In struggle, MIM * * * END AMERIKAN COLONIALIST DOMINATION OF PUERTO RICO: 100 YEARS IS TOO LONG by MC5 1998 marks the 100th anniversary of the U.$. invasion of Puerto Rico. We seek to make it a year of progress toward the end of colonialism. Uncle Sam uses the carrot and the stick to keep Puerto Rico under U.$. rule. One important carrot is U.S. citizenship. Economic pressure in Puerto Rico only builds up so much before emigration to the U.$.A. Puerto Ricans arrive in the U.$. not as illegal immigrants but as citizens. U.$. government programs also bring money to Puerto Rico. These programs dull the nationalist passion of the Puerto Rican people. Finally, as for carrots, there is the U.$. dollar itself binding Puerto Rico to the U.$.A. Since Puerto Rico does not have its own currency, it benefits fully from U.$. imperialist manipulations of international exchange. The masses of Puerto Rico enjoy the same prices for goods that mainland U.$. residents do. For the stick, the U.$. puppet regime in Puerto Rico still does not allow unionization of workers. As we speak, tepid legislation is coming to pass to allow government-approved unions. This unique combination of circumstance makes Puerto Rico a microcosm of imperialism and its relationship to oppressed nations. Using the carrot more than in most oppressed nations, U.S. imperialism has created a "split in the working class" in Puerto Rico. The workers are not all sub- minimum wage proletarians and they are not all labor aristocracy. As an island, Puerto Rico would be the poorest U.$. state, but there are parts that certainly resemble the Mainland states, especially in the urban and suburban areas where living conditions are very similar to those in the Mainland U$A. When the people rise up against colonialism, the U.S. Government cracks down with killings and imprisonment. Even though Puerto Rico is not the 51st state, the U.S. Government calls some actions of the Puerto Rican patriots "sedition" and convicts Puerto Rican patriots in U.S. courts. MIM upholds both the peaceful and armed actions of Puerto Ricans against U.$. domination. That is what all Marxist- Leninist-Maoists must do to uphold the right of self- determination in Puerto Rico. Hence, we call for the unconditional release of all Puerto Rican prisoners of war. As of yet, the same U.$. government founded by George Washington has yet to uphold international treaties and recognize the prisoner of war status of the anti-colonial freedom-fighters in Puerto Rico All Puerto Ricans in prison are political prisoners; although not all are prisoners of war. Puerto Rican political prisoners should all be released to be tried by Puerto Rican justice systems. Some prisoners are truly sick and will be incarcerated by the will of the Puerto Rican people, but most are victims of the world's leading prison state per capita -- the U$A. The majority will readily redeem themselves given a chance in a socialist system. MIM seeks to uphold the Maoist tradition of the Young Lords Party -- Puerto Rican Maoists organized here in the U$A with the inspiration of the Black Panther Party. It is our duty to render material aid to the organization of a Maoist party that will conduct the People's War in Puerto Rico. It is also our duty given the actually existing conditions to call on the Euro-Amerikan settlers moving to Puerto Rico to do business or retire to respect the national aspirations of the Puerto Rican people. We expect that land currently held by Euro-Amerikan settlers will be returned to the Puerto Rican people through revolution. MIM supports all peaceful and armed efforts of the Puerto Rican patriots against the U.$. government. There are two mistakes to avoid through this line. One is to avoid opposing the right to self-determination. The Puerto Rican people are entitled to fight any way they choose. Some will fight better than others, but we must uphold the rights of all Puerto Ricans to fight for their independence. All Puerto Rican patriots are our friends. The other mistake MIM seeks to avoid is relativism and subjectivism. MIM is itself a collection of Maoist parties and pre-parties. It would not be correct for it to treat all Puerto Rican political organizers equally. It is natural that we should support the Maoist Puerto Ricans the most. Right opportunists and post- modernists believe that MIM should not favor the Maoist Puerto Ricans above other patriots. They would also oppose our criticizing Puerto Rican revisionism. However, we at MIM believe that Khruschev, Gorbachev and Yeltsin were the bourgeoisie in the party in the Soviet Union and that fact is the same no matter one's national background. Fighting revisionism is a scientific matter that comes before asserting one's unique national identity. The cardinal principles upholding the Cultural Revolution in China and opposing old Soviet-style revisionism are cardinal principles everywhere in the world. MIM calls on non-Maoists in the U$A to support their counterparts in Puerto Rico seeking independence. It is MIM's duty to assist with the establishment of a Maoist pole in Puerto Rico. With the Young Lords, other organizations and amongst individuals in Puerto Rico there is already a strong Maoist tradition on which to build. * * * ASSASINATION IN COLOMBIA PEOPLE'S WAR NEEDED An INTERNET report says that the Colombian state killed a mayor of a town in Colombia called Fortul, Arauca on March 29th. He was at home when assassinated. An organization calling itself the Communist Party of Colombia has asked for an international exposure of this crime against legal opposition in Colombia. Colombia has long had a movement on the boundary of reformism and revolution. The view of armed struggle there has long been to use it as a bargaining chip in negotiations. The assassination of a mayor claiming to be communist is proof that only a People's War is a true guarantor of people's democracy. Democracy is meaningless when the communists are killed or the people have their arms twisted so as not to vote communist. The history of Latin America is one where U.$. imperialism invades or starts civil wars if the people elect someone Uncle Same doesn't like. There has never been a true democracy, not in slave-owning Greece or Rome and not now in imperialist Amerika. That is why People's War is still necessary. * * * CORRECTION MIM NOTES ARTICLE FAILED TO FIGHT BOURGEOIS ANALYSIS by MC53 In the MIM Notes #159, the article entitled "Report confirms increased national oppression" presented an incorrect analysis concerning conditions within imperialist countries. Publication of this incorrect article supported the way in which the bourgeoisie twists empirical data to support imperialist and reformist anti-proletarian interests. Specifically, the article uncritically stated that "The top 1 percent in u.$. 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." While the statement concerning the concentration of wealth in the hands of the top 1% is something that social democrats and supporters of the labor aristocracy often repeat ad naseum, this statistic itself lacks the correct analysis that MIM has put forward concerning who will make revolution. If 100 Amerikkkans eating greasy McDonalds have 10,000 Big Macs to divide between them and one person hoards 5,050 Big Macs for himself, that leaves the other 99 people with 4,950. Some of the Amerikkans might eat a little more or less than the 50 per Amerikkkan that is left. But the real question is the comparison between what the average Big Mac eater snarfs down compared to the pittance that the majority of the world's people are consuming. This analysis and the analysis of value created by the snarfers versus the exploited mass of the Third World is answered in detail in MIM Theory #1, #10 and various other MIM publications. The purpose of the Criminal INjustice System in Amerikkka is not to control the snarfers who have an average of 40-80 Big Macs to chow. In fact, as we have explained elsewhere, the labor aristocrat middle class settlers gain from the proliferation of prisons in Amerikkka because they are provided with yet more parasitic jobs. The primary purpose of the gulags in Amerikkkan is to perpetuate the dominance of the white settler nation over the masses of the Black, Latino and First Nations of Amerika's internal semi- colonies. Gulags are used as a systematic tool of social control and national oppression, but this tool is not used against the labor aristocracy which the article includes as somehow having an unjust proportion of the imperialist pie. While the report of the Eisenhower foundation contained some useful statistics, just as the Justice Bureau produces some useful statistics, it is the responsibility of the vanguard and the editors of its official newspaper to present these statistics in a manner which leads the masses on the quickest path to the door of revolution: Maoism. Without describing the problem accurately - the problem of exploitation of the world's majority by imperialist nations - the presentation does the same thing as the report constructed by the bourgeoisie. The bourgeoisie tailors its analysis of statistics to support imperialism. And MIM must struggle vigorously to expel political line and analysis which fakes left but does the work of imperialism. Such Menshevism has led so-called radicals and so-called socialists in the imperialist countries to cater their demands and struggles to the parasitic desires of the labor aristocracy. And this crucial question is one that sets MIM apart from revisionists and sets MIM on the side of the world's majority. * * * SIERRA CLUB PUKES FIRST WORLD CHAUVINISM Amerikkka's largest so-called environmental organization is in the news for an internal proposal to endorse "net reductions in U.S. immigration." The Sierra Club chauvinists are arguing that keeping out oppressed nationals will keep Amerika ivory-clean. In 1996, the Sierra Club took a "no- position" position on immigration. Amerikan chauvinists, including "Worldwatch Institute president Lester Brown and Galylord Nelson, founder of Earth Day," argue that more Third World people moving to the United Snakes will hurt the environment. MIM has long criticized a reformist, Amerikan-chauvinist environmentalism that concretely organizes against Third World peoples while ignoring the issue of First World over- consumption. The Sierra Club is amongst the so-called environmentalists that endorse Third World population control. They paint a picture of Third World peoples breeding out of control and their numbers destroying the environment. If population growth is a problem (which MIM has argued against) then the solution is for these First World chauvinists is clearly in education for Third World wimmin and girls. But this Sierra Club analysis ignores the fundamental question of resource control and consumption. To pick just one example, the greatest consumers of nonrenewable resources are Amerikans, but the Sierra Club wants to see imperialist money going to sterilize poor women in the shantytowns of the Third World. The next step for the Sierra Club's racist image of Third World hordes breeding out of control and overrunning Amerika is the efforts of current activists to get the Sierra Club to oppose immigration. Unwilling to think of the environment as a global problem, the Sierra Club want to keep Amerika's stolen wealth to themselves. Some cadres working with MIM and RAIL started out in First World chauvinist environmental organizations attempting to stop environmental destruction. But these organizations only push for higher quality parasitic existence of the imperialist country dominators, they do nothing to fundamentally stop environmental destruction. And as seen with the push to oppose immigration, these settler chauvinists have a core agenda which supports and perpetuates imperialism. And imperialism is the worst enemy of true environmentalists - revolutionary environmentalists. * * * WHY BIOLOGICAL WIMMIN USUALLY ESCAPE THE DEATH PENALTY Florida has not executed a womyn in 150 years. This we learn as one is planned for the electric chair as we go to press -- Judy Buenoano. The public attitude toward wimmin is that they do not and are not capable of committing murder. For this reason, the USA Today was only able to find 72 victims of death row wimmin total.(1) This absurdly low number is the product of a judicial system that puts the romance culture above any consistent idea of justice. According to this culture, wimmin are dainty creatures that should be available for sex. When it comes time to seeing the violence of wimmin, the culture looks away or fails to believe. As we showed in MT#13 and contrary to popular myth, the average sentence for a womyn convicted of the same crime as a man is lower. In some areas, most notably drug use, wimmin seem scarcely patrolled by the state, judging by their relative arrest and conviction rates. Thus the real inequities are not in the sentences for the same crimes, but the fact that the same crimes are called different things or that suspicions against wimmin rarely add up as quickly as they do for men. Since the death penalty came back 22 years ago, only one womyn has been executed. No persyn in Texas has ever gotten out of the death penalty, but Christian born-again television-evangelist Pat Robertson asked Governor George Bush to commute the death sentence of a confessed womyn murderer who found God in prison -- Karla Faye Tucker. She was executed anyway, but the point remains that few wimmin are executed and it is controversial for the reactionaries.(2) One in eight people arrested for murder are wimmin, but only one in 70 people on death row are wimmin. That shows that the courts regularly find reasons not to convict wimmin. Texas executed 37 men last year, but it has not executed a womyn in 135 years. This fact demonstrates what MIM has said before, that gender oppression is not strictly additive to class and nation oppression. Many calling themselves "Marxist" and "feminist" believe that there is a simple matter of "triple oppression." When it comes to the bourgeois state, wimmin are more likely to have illusions about it, because of a relative lack of prison and military experience. If the United $tates policed everyone the way it polices wimmin, we would no longer be close to being the world's number one police state. This reveals the political bankruptcy that goes into decisions of justice in this country. As we show elsewhere, the state has admitted that the death penalty is applied in a racist manner, but it still supports having the death penalty. Likewise, there is irrationality when it comes to gender, as our sick system is not capable of any consistent justice. In a similar matter, in Massachusetts in mid-March, the courts had to deem a womyn insane for stealing a wallet. The womyn was a famous convict -- a member of the Framingham 8 released early for killing their batterers by then Governor Bill Weld. Since her release she has gained notoriety for entering another battering relationship and for stealing the wallet and getting caught. Black womyn Shannon Booker had served less than five years for the murder, (how much less is not clear from the Boston Globe article). Rather than face that this womyn might actually be aggressive, might actually have bought into Amerikan consumerism that said she should steal for her boyfriend's Lexus payments and might actually be the batterer herself, the judge decided she must be temporarily insane. Judge Herbert Hershfang decided that the "battered woman's syndrome" defense was not applicable, but he deemed Booker insane anyway.(3) As MIM has explained before in MT2/3, the means of social control for wimmin are different than those for men. Wimmin are targeted with psychology by the state. They are not directly confronted with armed power nearly as often as men, because they are viewed as non-threatening and valuable outside prison. Besides which, the abuse of repression might spoil their hair and lipstick. Another side benefit to the patriarchy of its policy is that it gives oppressed nation wimmin a reason to opt for pseudo- feminism. Pseudo-feminists loudly advocate that even serving one year in prison is too much for womyn, because they only kill their batterers. Shannon Booker is an example of a Black womyn benefiting from an alliance of pseudo-feminist liberals and paternalist Republicans who released her from prison to promote a certain view of wimmin. All across the country the message is the same: conservative Republicans will make exceptions to their "crackdown" on crime for wimmin. New Hampshire conservative Governor Stephen Merrill also pardoned a womyn named June Briand for killing her husband while he slept. She served eight years, (4) while other murderers receive life without parole or the death penalty. If gender oppression were additive or if wimmin were the vanguard activists against the state, we would expect to find more wimmin in prison than men. That is not the case, and although reality is surprising and dialectical, it is wrong to see gender oppression as completely parallel to class and national oppression but dialectically obscure. The real gender oppressed people of the imperialist countries are children, the forcibly sterilized as in Puerto Rico, those who have sex-related pharmaceuticals tested on them like guinea pigs in the Third World, prisoners and anyone of whatever genitalia murdered in the name of the romance culture. The pseudo-feminists never speak for these groups and instead focus on the rights of the gender aristocracy -- adult white wimmin. Pseudo-feminism is a crucial prop of the patriarchy. While saying that even more men should go to prison for battering and rape, pseudo-feminists also hold the romance culture as so important that wimmin should have the right to shoot men in their sleep. For MIM this is all sickness. Judges and pseudo-feminists have decided in advance that some must die or serve long prison sentences, so that the rest of us may continue to believe that romance is worth it. The rest of us must continue to believe that romance is worth risking life and limb for or it would not be very exciting. When it comes to inhaling second-hand smoke, opposing increased highway deaths from higher speed limits or banning boxing because it causes death, there are critics available to say it would be better to change the rules than to tolerate more deaths. When it comes to gender though, what we see is the patriarchy encouraging more deaths in order to purify the romance culture of evil. There is no way to link this fact to an economist view. If men are more economically valued through discrimination, then why does the state let wimmin kill them in their sleep and serve less time than men? Clearly there is nothing economic to this logic. The real logic behind patriarchy and battering is that adult biological wimmin receive real power in the romance-related world. They still win nearly all court custody battles against men. They can earn money from divorce as the ex-wife of Donald Trump proves; they earn more money in prostitution and modeling than men do and they can even legally kill some portion of men for getting out of line in romance life. These are not phony privileges: they are real power restricted to a certain sphere, as if calculated to interest wimmin only in that sphere. It reflects the interest of the patriarchy to keep wimmin focussed on romance culture as a life-and-death matter worth sacrificing prison terms and murders for. These are not economic powers granted wimmin. They are powers to govern leisure-time. In the class situation, imperialists want the loyal troops and peaceful political homefront and hence they appreciate settlers. When it comes to gender, the patriarchy wants adult biological wimmin to be fully focussed on providing pleasure; hence, the patriarchy grants adult wimmin, especially white wimmin, certain privileges, the degree of which indicate the rank or level of sexual privilege of these wimmin. For the same reason that imperialists ally with settlers, the patriarchy of men allies with the gender aristocracy receiving the above-mentioned powers. The ruling men believe they receive even more pleasure in their leisure-time by keeping wimmin focussed on romance. In fact, the patriarchy is willing to tolerate imprisonment and death of a certain percentage of men, especially lower-class and oppressed nationality men, to pay the price for the ruling men's extremes of romance pleasure. NOTES: 1. USA Today 23 March 1998, pp. 1-2. 2. Charles Zewe, "Texas Prepares to Execute Woman," CNN, Jan. 15, 1998. http://cnn.com/US/9801/15/texas.execution/index.html 3. Boston Globe 20 March 1998, pp. 1, 16. 4. http://www.mnsinc.com/petrus/wanderer/week2.htm Alternatively, see January 27, 1997 issue of the Wanderer, a national Catholic weekly. For a positive mention of the celebrated case of the Framingham 8 turned into heroes, see http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/artmuseum/orig_visions.html * * * United Nations passes resolution on death penalty The United Nations Commission on Human Rights passed a resolution against the death penalty in early April. The United States of Imperialism, along with 13 other countries, voted against the resolution while 26 countries voted in favor. A top U.N. investigator said the way the death penalty is applied in the United Snakes violates several international treaties. MIM does not think that a U.N. resolution is going to change the way the death penalty is applied in the united snakes because we know that the u.s. and other imperialist powers control the United Nations and would never use it against themselves. Waly Bacre Ndiaye, a Senegalese expert on executions who visited death rows in the U.$., said the use of the death penalty "seems to continue to be marked by arbitrariness." He said race, ethnic origin and economic status are key to determining who is put to death -- as is politics, especially during election campaigns. This underscores the reason that MIM opposes the death penalty in the united states of imperialism. The entire criminal injustice system is a tool of social control for the ruling class. The death penalty is one more tool in the arsenal of the criminal injustice system which locks up and kills a higher proportion of Black men than in Apartheid South Africa. Join the fight to smash the imperialist state and its criminal injustice system so that we can establish a system of justice for the people not for the ruling class. Until that time, we must oppose any move to lock up or kill more people under the imperialist criminal injustice system. Notes: Associated Press, 3 April 1998. * * * RAIL HOLDS SUCCESSFUL CONTINENT-WIDE TEACH-IN ON THE CRIMINAL INJUSTICE SYSTEM Washington, D.C., March 28 -- On the day after the Jericho '98 March Against Political Imprisonment, RAIL held a successful teach-in on the Criminal Injustice System. RAIL distributed thousands of leaflets about the teach-in at the Jericho march, and succeeded in getting many people to stay in the city overnight to attend the teach in. Participants came from California, Florida, New York, New Jersey, Michigan, Ohio, Missouri, Massachusetts, Vermont, Maine and other states. The teach-in contained panel discussions about various aspects of the criminal injustice system. Some talks focused on the battle outside the prisons, such as the cops war against youth and gangs, and others focused on battles within the walls, such as slave labor in prisons and censorship. A RAIL comrade made the opening address. S/he put the Jericho 98 struggle to free revolutionary leaders in the context of the national liberation struggle. While the Amerikkkan government has backed off its COINTELPRO actions against the leadership, the masses are increasingly being locked up. S/he said "Prisons have two main purposes. First, they take dissenting groups or individuals off the streets weakening their ability to crush Amerika's systematic domination. Second, prisons serve to break up existing structures, be they communities, families, or organizations." S/he explained the need to unite all who can be united against the common enemy: imperialism in general and prisons in particular. Included in the teach-in presentations was a discussion of the war on drugs as a war on oppressed people. The speaker went through the various aspects of this war and led the audience to the only logical conclusion: the government is locking up and killing the oppressed within u.s. borders in the name of a war on drugs. A presenter from St. Louis discussed the fight RAIL has been leading against police brutality in that city where cops are regularly beating and killing Black youth. RAIL put this fight in the context of the criminal injustice system under imperialism where cops are the occupying army in inner cities. Small group discussions focused on what we can do to build the fight against the criminal injustice system were very productive. After many sessions we had a hard time getting people to move in to the next activity because they were so caught up in the important discussions going on. Part of the goal of the teach in was to build concrete ideas for future work fighting the criminal injustice system. RAIL is working to summarize the results of these sessions and using these ideas to expand our work. For written copies of these summaries please write to us at the address on page 2. Readers can look to MIM Notes and RAIL Notes for news as we implement some of the ideas from the teach-in and expand our work around the criminal injustice system. A number of prisoners sent greetings and messages to the teach-in. A statement from Ohio-7 prisoner Jaan Laaman who was incarcerated for his political activism was read during the first panel. He wrote: "The fight for human rights and freedom for political prisoners is closely tied to the overall struggle against the U.S. prison system. With over 1.7 million people in prisons and another 4 plus million on bail, parole or probation, prisons and the entire so called justice system in America is becoming an ever more important and ugly part of the repressive machine that keeps this system rolling." The messages from other prisoners (which can be found at MIM's website) reflected the same theme and prisoners called on comrades on the outside to get involved in the struggle both on the smaller scale to free our incarcerated leaders and on the larger scale to fight the entire criminal injustice system as a part of the battle against imperialism. Part of building the revolutionary forces necessary to overthrow imperialism and take down the criminal injustice system is the long slow struggle to educate and organize the people. The productive discussions and educational presentations as well as the numerous books, magazines and newspapers that were purchased during the teach-in demonstrate the success of this one day. Work with RAIL to build on this success and fight the criminal injustice system. * * * RAIL CONTIGENT JOINS JERICHO MARCH TO DEMAND: FREEDOM FOR OUR REVOLUTIONARY LEADERS! Washington, D.C., March 27 -- The Revolutionary Anti- Imperialist League (RAIL) organized a contingent to attend the Jericho 98 March Against Political Imprisonment. RAIL organized buses and vans traveling from over 500 miles away to attend the march and participate in RAIL's teach-in the following day. Thousands of people came out for the rally and marched through the streets of Washington D.C. shouting slogans, holding up signs and banners, and distributing literature. RAIL came out in force to support the principal demand of the march: U.$. recognition of and freedom for our incarcerated political leaders. Comrades who have been imprisoned for their political activism deserve special attention in the fight against the criminal injustice system and we must actively and vocally demand their release. We also took the opportunity to add our analysis of u.s. prisons to the march by offering MIM and RAIL literature to all who attended. We struggled with other activists and rallyers over the need to indict the entire criminal injustice system. While we agree with the demand for freedom for the specific prisoners targeted by the Jericho march, MIM and RAIL take the analysis further and declare that all prisoners are political prisoners. We say this because incarceration under imperialism is political. Starting with the cops on the streets through the courts and into the prisons the system is stacked against oppressed nations and white nation youth and political activists. The court system of the white nation should not even have jurisdiction over the oppressed nations. And even behind the bars prisoners are refused parole and placed in control units for political activism. This system politicizes all imprisonment. RAIL organizers from within D.C. got hundreds of signatures on a petition demanding an end to the transfers of D.C. prisoners to distant states. This is one campaign of many that RAIL is working on that attempt to win a battle for the oppressed, while also helping us to increase the strength of the proletarian forces for the inevitable revolution. Many copies of RAIL Notes and MIM Notes were distributed to the crowd as people eagerly snatched up literature offering important information and analysis about the criminal injustice system. Folks who had been reading MIM Notes in prison were glad to get a copy again on the outside. People from across the country recognized and were pleased to see our literature and it was clear that the years of prisons activism by both MIM and RAIL have paid off in a strong base of support. There was no coverage of the Jericho rally on the D.C. evening news, nor in the Washington Post the next morning. In fact, the rally does not seem to have made it into any mainstream media across the country. This limits the number of people who will know about the Jericho event, but it is also a sign of the people's strength that the march and rally were entirely ignored by the bourgeoisie's media. It's not possible for the bourgeoisie to respond to the issue of political incarceration without blatantly lying, so they took the simpler route of suppressing the rally's existence. This is why MIM and RAIL build our own presses so that we can effectively speak in our own words without having to be filtered through the pigs. D.C. pigs repress progressive struggle At the rally in Lafeyette Park across from the White House, MIM and RAIL distributors of literature were continually harassed by SWAT (Special Weapons And Tactics) officers. The pigs said there were rules against furniture (tables, chairs) and that selling things in the park was banned. MIM generally requests donations for our literature, and there are a few items that are almost only available by donation. This put a severe cramp in our fundraising potential. For a while we were able to walk interested purchasers of literature to a spot outside the park where the cash could change hands, but the pigs leaned on the Jericho organizers, forcing them to ask us to not display items that we wanted donations for. The pigs were afraid of the way in which various progressive activists exposed the pigs hypocrisy to large numbers of people. Apparently, the Jericho organizers feared that the cops would attack activists like MIM, the masses would defend us, and then a battle would ensue that the people were not equipped to win. It was especially ironic that just a few hundred feet from the global center of capitalism's political arm, what could arguably be called a "small business" was suppressed by the armed force of pigs. This is just more evidence that capitalism's freedom only exists for those at the top of the pinnacle. Build on the successes of Jericho The attendance at Jericho did not reach numbers seen at more mainstream rallies for issues like abortion access, but this should not surprise anyone who understands that the criminal injustice system is a fundamental part of Amerikan imperialism and most people in this country have a material interest in supporting imperialism. It should be no surprise that while the vast majority of the people at the abortion access rallies are white, the composition of the Jericho marchers more closely reflected the make up of the prisons where a majority are Black and Latino. Although most people within u.s. borders are not going to oppose the criminal injustice system or even demand the release of all people incarcerated for political activism, we can win battles to get our political leaders out of prison. Geronimo ji Jaga (Pratt), who spoke at the rally, is one example of these potential victories. He was released after 27 years in prison because the government was finally forced to admit it had set him up by using an FBI agent as a witness against him in the original trial. We must continue to vocally demand the release of all people who were incarcerated for their political activism. Organizing locally to educate people about these cases and organizing continentally to put pressure on the government. This work helps to expose the prison system for the Injustice system that it is. And in this context we can build an anti-imperialist movement prepared to overthrow imperialism and establish socialism and justice of the people. While a few speakers at the rally suggested that now might be the time to take up armed resistance of various forms, MIM knows that it is this kind of focoism going up against a government we are not strong enough to defeat that led to the imprisonment of many of the comrades who were the focus of this rally. Those speakers who declared that now is the time to educate and organize for revolution were on target. And this organizing needs to be led by a Maoist party with the history of the revolutionary struggles of the world to build on. We can't afford to waste time repeating old mistakes: Maoism is the most effective tool for revolutionary change. Work and struggle with us if you are serious about fighting the criminal injustice system. * * * ATTENTION PRISONERS: ANTI-IMPERIALIST PRISONER MASS ORGANIZATION NOW FORMING! by MIM Prison Minister For over a decade now, the Maoist Internationalist Movement has been developing structures to expose the systematic repression and genocide of the oppressed through Amerikkka's prison system. Stemming from the work to expose systematic gulag injustices, MIM has developed structures to serve some needs of prisoners under lock and key. The primary method to serve the needs of oppressed prisoners is the publication of news by prisoners and about prisons within MIM Notes. Without that starting point, our comrades' words are heavily censored and ignored. With the help of the Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League and progressive allies, MIM has been increasing prisoners' ability to receive legal and political materials from the Serve the People Books for Prisoners Program. And with the leadership of the People's Internationalist Rear Area Organization (PIRAO, the MIM-led army), we work to increasingly met the needs of re-leased prisoners. Now it is time for prisoners to organize a prisoner mass organization to strengthen the MIM-led United Front against imperialism and to further expand prisoners' ability to organize under lock and key. The primary purpose of the prisoner mass organization is to consolidate and strengthen prisoners' ability to agitate against imperialism and Amerikkka's principal tool of national oppression - the Criminal INjustice System. As prisoners strengthen unity and fierce agitation against oppression, your comrades in RAIL will be working in a parallel manner to take your words and spread them on the outside. The intention is a more effective organization of prisoners to build stronger campaigns against the Amerikkkan prison system and imperialism in general. Prisoners face specific conditions which differ from those comrades face on the outside. And because of immediate oppressive conditions, many prisoners are willing to step forward to build revolutionary struggle without being timid. The anti- imperialist prisoner mass organization will be structured so that prisoners can discuss organizing concerns specific to those under lock and key which will strengthen the MIM-led United Front struggle against imperialism. The prisoner mass organization has the same general principles as the Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League. It is anti-imperialist, led by MIM and won't champion struggles which are not in the interests of the international proletariat. The mass organization must retain anti-prisons and anti-imperialist focus and it must not dilute that focus with incorrect goals. The mass organization should work independently but cooperatively with the Revolutionary Anti- Imperialist League to build public opinion and independent institutions which increase support for revolution. Whereever possible, the mass organization should generate funds from supporters to help focus agitation work against prisons. We invite all anti-imperialists languishing within Amerikkka's gulags to submit organizational and tactical proposals to build this mass organization solidly toward meeting the needs of prisoners and the world's oppressed majority. Immediate needs of prisoner mass organization: 1.) Prisoner leadership. All prisoners interested in developing the structure and goals of the mass organization should write to MIM with their proposals. Proposals could be about goals for prisoners in your state or for a continental campaign of prisoners. Make your argument for why these particular goals would help build unity among prisoners and target winnable, yet important struggles which are inhibiting prisoners' ability to organize or which will improve prisoners' material conditions. 2.) Name. The mass organization needs a name which explains its purpose and direction. One suggestion is: PAI BAKK (pronounced pay back) (Prisoners Against Imperialism Battling Against Koncentration Kamps). Another suggestion is P-RAIL (Prisoner-Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League) or RAIL-ULK (Revolutionary Anti- Imperialist League Under Lock and Key.) Creative comrades under lock and key... Submit your proposals for a name for the prisoner mass organization. 3.) Art. Creative comrades need to come up with a logo for the mass organization which illustrates its fierce opposition to imperialism and the oppressive Amerikan prison system. Additionally, we need art which speaks out against the Amerikkkan prison system in general which can be used alongside articles and agitation which prisoners write. 4.) Article submissions. Article submissions for MIM Notes should reflect existing MIM line as spelled out in the classics or MIM Theory. Article submissions for RAIL Notes can contain information with less of a worked out theoretical content. Both types of articles should either build opposition to imperialism or build opposition to Amerikkka's imprisonment of the oppressed. 5.) Study group leaders. We've got the books both for study and review. We need prisoner leaders in each gulag to step up and be the contact for your prisoner study group. At this point in time, prisoner study groups are covering a variety of different material. Be the contact for your study group and work with MIM to get the books through to your comrades. 6.) Fuel for the fire. We need prisoners to conduct research and sum up information which will better help your comrades on the outside build support for prisoners' struggles. All information about conditions are welcome, though research and summaries prioritized should be on campaigns which we can use to organize more support. First.... RAIL and MIM are celebrating May Day in some locations by holding events about slave labor in Amerikkka's prisons. The May Day celebrations will focus on building support for prisoner workers who we know are not paid the value of their labor. We have some information to use for the educational events, but we will continue the work of exposing slavery in prisons following May Day and organizers on the outside need your help. We need more information about forced labor in your state. Second... RAIL and MIM have run into many problems with the pigs censoring letters and books for prisoners. We need information on censorship policies in your state. We need prisoner volunteers to coordinate the struggle against censorship in your state. If you're a prisoner who is against the hegemonic domination of Amerika over other nations and you believe that imperialism is the primary struggle to fight against... If you believe that the Amerikkkan INjustice System is the most fascistic aspect in Amerikkkan society and is a tool perpetuating national oppression and social control... And if you want to see stronger organization and unity against Amerikkkkan domination.... Write to MIM and start building the prisoner pole of the United Front against imperialism. * * * WEST COAST RAIL RALLIES OPPOSITION TO IMPERIALISM LOS ANGELES - Close to 100 protesters turned out in front of the Criminal Courts building in Los Angeles to join in the Jericho '98 protests. The protesters chanted "1 2 3 4 - Free our Political Prisoners of War! 5 6 7 8 - Open up the Prison Gates!" and "Free our Freedom Fighters now!" The LA Rally was principally organized by a coalition which included the nationalist Malcolm X Grassroots Movement and veteran anarchists from People Against Racist Terror. Some protesters drove more than two hours to come to the rally. The RAIL contingent carried banners and passed out flyers promoting RAIL and MIM's "Free Books for Prisoners Program" and spoke in support of freeing the people's leaders and abolishing Amerikkkan domination over oppressed nations. The freedom of freedom-fighters like Mumia Abu Jamal, Mutulu Shakur, Alejandrina Torres, and hundreds more is indeed worth struggling for. Not only is it important to the revolutionary movement, but it is also linked to the question of true democracy for the oppressed nations within u.$. borders. As long as the u.$. government can harass, lock up, and kill political leaders from the oppressed nations with impunity, then the much lauded Amerikan democracy is obviously a sham. Furthermore, the continued imprisonment of these leaders goes hand in hand with the expansion of the Amerikan injustice system. Kalifornia's Three Strikes law and federal sentencing guidelines for cocaine disproportionately target Blacks and Latinos. The high incarceration rates for petty so-called crimes and the courts complicity with police who harass and arrest people from oppressed communities on trumped up charges show that the Amerikan injustice system is not about stopping crime, rather it is about social control. Meanwhile the biggest criminals - the cops themselves and politicians an militarists like the coke- importing CIA - these criminals go unpunished. After the formal protest was over, RAIL supporters began to collect signatures supporting the political asylum case of Jose Maria Sison. Sison is currently a consultant to the National Democratic Front of the Philippines in its peace negotiations with the Manila government and was formerly imprisoned by Marcos for his revolutionary activities. The protesters responded enthusiastically though the success was cut short by the arrival of riot pigs. Once the pigs showed up across the street from the protest, the protesters dispersed. * * * MARXISM-LENINISM-MAOISM ONLINE BUDDING WORKER-ARISTOCRATS: WORK WITH MIM BEFORE YOU SELL YOURSELF TO IMPERIALISM by MC45 We organizing in the imperialist countries are in a constant race with the reactionaries to win the hearts and minds of youth. On the Internet, MIM struggles to promote revolutionary politics and to reach those young intellectuals of all nations who still have the class flexibility to embrace revolutionary politics. But at the same time, the reactionary forces of private property and ownership of the global information network are tempting the youth towards personal wealth over politics. In March, Fortune Magazine ran an article enumerating the grotesque levels of salary and benefits young people in Amerika with technical skills can expect to bring home. According to Fortune Magazine, people with Internet-related skills are some of the most likely to pull down big salaries. To the cheerleaders of capital, the outrageous compensation Amerikans receive for shuffling large piles of paper is evidence of the wonders of U.$. know-how and business acumen. To MIM, this salary information about Internet workers is the flip side of Internet privatization. Just as large corporate owners of the Internet infrastructure can seriously limit access to the Internet hardware, these same companies are handing out incentives to Internet users to only use their skills for financial gain. MIM has written about the Internet before as a location of clashes between proletarian and bourgeois interests and forces. This global data network is at once a resource of endless capacity for distributing the people's literature, and a hot new media frontier for capitalist advertising and enterprise. MIM and other revolutionary and progressive organizations can take advantage of cheap access to the Internet to reach the masses in great numbers. But at the same time, capital seeks to shut down this massive information resource and reserve its potential for profit- making. As professionals go, people with Internet-related skills are young; many are under 30. This group is working with technology that was only invented shortly before they were born, if not after. Because such young people are being wooed into high-paying careers, the corporations doing the wooing usurp much of youth culture to attract employees. Netscape, most famous for its Web browser software, paints itself "a cool place to work." Microsoft tells prospects that may be wary of signing away their lives to a career: "don't work for a living, work for a reason." But building operating system software doesn't seem like a whole lot of reason to MIM. If we had a slogan for how working people in this country should choose their careers it would be "work for the paid vacation time; spend it opposing imperialism," or "work to gain skills; use them to foster independent institutions of the oppressed," or "make lots of money; use it to build revolutionary politics." Of course, high tech companies do much more to build morale among their staff than throw catchy slogans around. According to Fortune Magazine, "during the 1996 University of Michigan football season, companies spent between $500 and $2,000 to sponsor tailgate parties for MBA students. In 1997, the minimum spent by a company was $2,500." Many companies have stock option plans for regular employees. As Intel's website advertises, employees "can own a part of the company by purchasing stock at a discount price." The handwriting is too big for U.$. economists calling themselves Marxists to ignore. Since we first studied J. Sakai's Settlers: The Mythology of the White Proletariat in 1987, MIM has demonstrated in great detail that white workers in Amerika are not a proletariat but a labor aristocracy, bought off with the spoils of imperialism. U.$. workers as a group are paid the full value of their labor and usually more, to the point where they can now own portions of the companies they work for. This is not the alienation and exploitation Marx spoke of. When MIM talks about targeting the young people of the imperialist nations for political struggle, we are talking about those who have yet to seize the legacy of the exploiting classes. Like their parents, the imperialist- country youth have the potential to become vicious abusers of the international proletariat. But at the same time, they have yet to outgrow their own rebellious perspective, which, in combination with the fact that they personally do not own much (relative to their parents) allows them to see the contradictions in their parents' lives. Seeing the contradictions inherent in this system of private property encourages youth to question whether they will accept and learn to be happy under capitalism. MIM targets the youths' ability to see contradictions in capitalism. By emphasizing these contradictions with them, we work to win the youth over to the side of revolution -- to resolve the contradictions of capitalism in the only way possible, through anti-imperialist and then socialist revolution. MIM fully expects that the majority in the imperialist countries will be entrenched in career paths of one sort or another by their mid-twenties. This is why we target the youth for recruitment to revolutionary politics, because they have not yet signed up for their share of the imperialist plunder and are still flexible in their plans. But with younger people being targeted by capital, MIM must focus its efforts evermore. To those youth who find the Internet exciting: contact MIM and ask how you can learn first-hand the joy of putting your skills to work building a revolutionary presence on the World Wide Web. Visit our website at www.etext.org/Politics/MIM/ and see what contributions you can make -- as we build more pages to support pro-prisoner agitation, proletarian feminism, and more. MIM can also help you put your high-level programming skills to the service of the international proletariat -- building information systems to organize MIM and Maoist literature in this crucial time of building public opinion for socialism. Work with us while you have the freedom to do so, and find out what you may be missing if you fail to make a place for anti-imperialist politics in your life. Gone are the days when Trotskyists and other labor aristocrat advocates could continue to blindly muddle along claiming to work in the interests of the so-called proletariats of their own imperialist countries. We are not talking only about workers within United Snakes borders either. Intel boasts again that "our Israel sites provide child-care 'kindergartens' on or near the Intel facility." And "in Munich, employees can turn to an external agency called the Kinderbureau for assistance in locating child- care resources. The agency's searches in behalf of Intel employees are entirely funded by the corporation." Under socialism, MIM would organize child-care as part of the work of normalizing work and home relations for men and wimmin, and importantly as a first step to relieving children of their property relationship with their parents. But this does not mean that highly paid workers in the First World need to have free child-care for their offspring as a matter of survival. If child-care isn't enough of a perk for you though, Netscape keeps concierges on its payroll to arrange such basic chores as *dog grooming and gift buying* for its employees. Netscape also offers work-place car- maintenance and in-office massage for its chair-bound 'workers.' MIM says that the rising salaries, perks and ownership stakes in these corporations demonstrate the ease of upward class mobility for Amerikans. MIM does not try to hide these rosy conditions for First World nationals. Our first duty is to the international proletariat and so we seize on every opportunity to expose the inflated wages of imperialist- nation workers. We also take the petty bourgeois pressures on the imperialist country youth seriously because we have tactical respect for the imperialists' efforts to recruit the youth to the ways of reaction. If it is possible for younger people to make more ridiculous sums of money, then this just means MIM has to get to them first before they sign over their lives to the bourgeoisie. We aren't even saying not to take the jobs -- just spend your loot, free time and your skills to build revolution. Notes: Nina Munk, "The New Organization Man" Fortune Magazine, March 16, 1998. Microsoft website: http://www.microsoft.com/ Intel website: http://www.intel.com Netscape website: http://www.netscape.com Iomega website: http://www.iomega.com * * * MISSISSIPPI SPY COMMISSION: PUBLIC DISCLOSURE WON'T WASH THE BLOOD FROM OFF THE STATES' HAND In March, by order of Judge Barbour of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi, the documents of the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission were officially made public, concluding a more than 20 year lawsuit against the state by the Mississippi American Civil Liberties Union (MSACLU).(1) The spy commission papers have gotten considerable attention in the bourgeois press -- as a dark, supposed exception to the usual state of democracy in the U.$., and as an opportunity for the imperialists to congratulate themselves that the democratic process triumphed against the backward ideology of a few maverick politicians in the Deep South. Thirty years later, civil rights workers also inspire more sympathy among the liberal press than, say, MOVE or the victims of COINTELPRO. And the more attention they give to public disclosure of these records, the more they obscure the ongoing repression of activists for Third World revolution and self-determination for the oppressed nations. The Sovereignty Commission was founded in 1957 as a state agency to collect and disseminate information on civil rights activists and others suspected of supporting integration. According to MSACLU: "The commission hired agents to investigate civil rights rallies and marches as well as the individuals who sponsored voter registration drives and sit-ins. Some of these agents were spies, paid to infiltrate organizations and report details of organizational plans and of the lives of members, and some were full-time employees who reported rumors and observations in Mississippi towns. The commission would warn local officials prior to boycotts, meetings, and voter registration drives. Its agents harassed individuals who assisted organizations promoting desegregation or voter registration, and would suggest job actions to employers, who would fire the targeted moderate or activist. The commission maintained and distributed lists of people reported to be supporters of civil rights organizations or who supported public measures toward moderation or desegregation. These lists were made available to other law enforcement agencies."(1) Time Magazine reports that "Commission investigators documented the whereabouts, finances and sexual habits of civil rights leaders. They fed some of the information to the targets' employers and the Ku Klux Klan. Untold numbers of people were fired and others beaten and perhaps even killed after the commission targeted them. " (2) The Commission stopped getting state funding in 1973 but its files remained available for use by the pigs until 1977 -- when the Mississippi legislature ordered the Commission's destruction. (1) That same year, the MSACLU filed a class action suit on behalf of the investigated to keep the records from being sealed or destroyed. The state cleverly added an amendment to its vote, saying that the records would be sealed until 2027, with "criminal penalties for disseminating information in the files." The substance of the MSACLU lawsuit was to make the records public information to expose the crimes of the state, but some plaintiffs were divided about the disclosure of personal names, along with the information the state collected about them. Some called for the blacking out of names of Commission victims (and its agents and informants as well), unless there was permission granted for third party access to that information.(1) A member of the MSACLU and the leading plaintiff of the subclass calling for privacy were both interviewed for National Public Radio in early April. The story focussed on the issue of privacy and the public "right to know."(3) How revealing that the settler Amerikkkan press, including its left-liberal components, is as concerned over the invasion of citizens' privacy as it is about the potentially fatal leaking of information to the Ku Klux Klan, or the Commission's funding of the White Citizen's Councils, or its documented tampering with the jury of Medgar Ever's murderer Byron De la Beckwith! The Mississippi Sovereignty Commission should be understood for what it was -- part of an ongoing history of state- sponsored terrorism against oppressed nations, in defense of imperialism and white supremacy. It was not an exception, and it does not represent the worst of its kind. NOTES: 1. MSACLU Web Site on the Sovereignty Commission 2. John Cloud, ""The KGB Of Mississippi" Time Magazine. March 30, 1998 3. NPR Morning Edition, April 3, 1998. * * * AMERIKKKAN PRISONS ON TRIAL CONFERENCE: INJUSTICE SYSTEM GUILTY OF GENOCIDE AND NATIONAL OPPRESSION submitted by RAIL The Amerikkkan Prisons on Trial Conference was organized on the east coast during February and March by a student organization allied with RAIL to sharpen support for struggles against the Amerikan prison craze. Many organizations and individual allies contributed financially to this successful conference. RAIL recognizes that prisons and the police are key weapons in Amerikkka's war on the oppressed nations. The United Snakes imprisons four times greater a percentage of its Black population than the old apartheid South African regime. This trend shows no sign of abating. If current trends continue, there will be 10 million people behind bars, with almost half being Black. This would represent almost 10% of the Black population, and a much higher percentage of young Black men.(1) Many of the students who helped organize the events became interested at an earlier showing of a video about the framing of former Black Panther Mumia Abu Jamal. These students advertised extensively and spent dozens of hours tabling. The students distributed literature that advertised for the conference, recruited for the march and teach-in in DC and educated people with information on prisons and prisoners incarcerated for political beliefs and actions. This information was posted in every residential bathroom stall on one campus. The agitators were disturbed to see that University repression had started to keep the dorms locked 24 hours a day, with some dorm wings themselves locked off. This greatly slowed down the process of political agitation. This is a University plan to increase the control of the police and administration over the physical and political movements of students. By isolating students in their rooms with cable television, the University gets more passivity from the students as a whole. The first conference event exposed control units and the torture inflicted upon the politically conscious who are sent to these units. The video showed contained a short interview with a local college alumni who became revolutionary and was sent to Marion. The second day of the conference, "All Power to the People: The Black Panther Party and beyond" was shown. This documentary puts the Black Panther Party in the context of a world-wide anti-imperialist upsurge. The Black Panthers were inspired by the successful Chinese revolution and the heroic struggle of the Vietnamese people for self-determination and liberation. Likewise, the American Indian Movement and the Young Lords Party were inspired by the theory and practice of the Black Panthers. The Black Panther Party came up with a materialist assessment of the short and long term needs of the Black semi-colony -- the 10 point program. They then met those concrete needs as part of building revolution to permanently end the political subjugation of the Black nation. The Amerikan government took this awesome movement for what it was -- a threat to Amerikkkan dominance. The Black Panthers were labeled "Enemy Number 1" by the J. Edgar Hoover's FBI. This video breaks new ground as it shows not only how the FBI, CIA and the police used military force to kill and incarcerate the Panthers, but how the FBI was able to destroy the most important asset of the Panthers: their political line. Two people arrived so late that they missed RAIL's initial presentation and 75% of the film. They then launched into an attack upon RAIL for saying that the Black Panther Party was fighting colonialism. What these students were arguing for was unclear, but they were not able to offer an alternative explanation of the BPP's Program point #10: "... And as our major political objective, a United Nations supervised plebiscite to be held throughout the black colony in which only black colonial subjects will be allowed to participate, for the purpose of determining the will of black people as to their national destiny. " A later event featured two former prisoners who were incarcerated for political beliefs and actions and sent to a variety of supermax prisons. These former prisoners vividly described the torture within these prisons. On February 25, a People's Tribunal Against the Criminal Injustice System was held, at which evidence was presented to convict this system for the crimes of genocide and national oppression. This event sparked the most politically effective discussions of the conference so far. On March 5, a Rally Against Political Incarceration was held. The organizing students called the rally a success because many people stopped to listen to the speeches and took information about RAIL, prisons, and our contingent to the Jericho March. Various speakers put political incarceration into a context of Amerika's war on dissent & national liberation struggles. One speaker spoke about the killing of the Rosenbergs in the 1950s, and the need to support the families of political people repressed by the state. Another explained why the Amerikan government killed George Jackson and talked about the cases of those still languishing behind bars. Many others read letters from prisoners about their conditions, or letters about how the incarceration of all prisoners is in fact political. On March 6, a benefit concert featuring Critical Mass was held. The hip hop band sang about the incarceration of revolutionary leaders. The conference was already a success with several weeks to go. Each of the events expanded the number of people who know about RAIL's contingent to the Jericho March and D.C teach-in as well as deepened their understanding of the importance of struggling against the criminal injustice system. This includes not just the new people we have met who have become close allies, but also those people who consider themselves part of the student organization allied with RAIL. Notes: 1. See MIM Notes 137 for calculations and base sources. MIM adds: The RAIL comrades and students working with RAIL demonstrate in the above example many tactics to build more support for prisoner struggles and struggles against imperialism. MIM strongly urges those critical of the system to hook up with RAIL, drop the excuses and start with basic agitation which will further build opposition to Amerikan gulags. * * * UNDER LOCK AND KEY EXPOSE THE INJUSTICE SYSTEM'S BRUTALITY Dear MIM, Your paper stated you accept submissions and critiques from anyone. If I send you two different stories [will you print them?] One involving this Institution describing the medical conditions and they way women are being allowed to die and become disabled because of REFUSAL of medical treatment. The other story of my own arrest in 1985 in another state where I made over 133 murder confessions, which were obtained through brutal force, rape, and being forced to watch my own 11 year old son being raped by the detective whom arrested me. I received several broken bones over a four month period. I was given and became addicted to a 21 class A narcotic. ...I am currently serving two Natural Life Sentences. My sentences run consecutive. Natural Life in this state means, "until you die". I was cleared of all my charges in [the other state] except for a criminal mischief charge and extradited to Louisiana on two murder charges. I was convicted here based on my confessions only. Louisiana is a state where a confession will override physical evidence in a Capital Murder case. The evidence was on someone else.... Sincerely, -- A Louisiana Prisoner, 19 January 1998 MIM Responds: Please send us your stories of your struggle with prison brutality. We would be glad to print your first hand experience with the oppressive ways of U$ Prisons. Under Lock and Key is dedicated to the exposing the injustices that prisoners face daily. It is important for the masses to know about the horrendous atrocities that go on behind the walls in Amerikkka's prisons. We encourage everyone to submit to Under Lock and Key regardless of spelling or handwriting. At the same time, the more legible and concise your letter is, the easier it is for us to print it. Tell your friends and comrades to write about their struggles. BRUTAL ASSAULT IN TENNESSEE ...I am incarcerated at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, Tennessee. It's the typical oppressive kamp in amerikkka. What I mean by typical: inadequate medical care, racist pigs, rental kops, and manipulative administrators. Recently I had an incident. I'm on maximum security, locked down twenty-three hours a day. When I move from my cell it's in handcuffs, and leg irons. Anyway I'm in my cell, it's about 5:30 p.m., dinner has just been served. The inmate in the next cell over gets into an argument with the officer working the housing unit. The Sargent is called. The shift commander enters the housing unit, walks over to this inmate's cell and has [the prisoner] place his hands through the pie flap (an opening that food trays, cleaning supplies, and other items are passed through). Anyway, the inmate's hands are cuffed, and the shift commander enters this man's cell. The housing officer follows along with the sergeant and two corporals. I'm in my cell, and I can pretty much hear the conversation through the air duct that connects the two cells. Okay, they start questioning the inmate about the incident between him and the officer, and I clearly hear the shift commander say that they are going to give that inmate a disciplinary infraction for an assault on staff. Now remember, we're maximum security inmates. I holler through the air duct and tell the inmate if they are going to give him a disciplinary infraction he does not have to say anything. Which is an institutional rule: you have a right to an inmate advisor before questioning. The reason I know this is because I am a legal aid, not recognized by the administration, my politics are too radical. The shift commander comes to my cell door, and tells me I better keep my damn mouth shut. I tell him, "I can say anything I want to as long as I'm not cursing or being disrespectful. Remember the First Amendment?!" About 15-20 minutes later, after they have finished their interrogation of my next door cell partner, the shift commander comes back to my cell with the sergeant and this corporal. He tells me to stick my hands out to be handcuffed. I'm being moved. Now this is just a move to isolate me, yet I don't resist, argue or anything. I'm handcuffed and the shift commander opens the door, and tells me to step back towards my bed. I state, "I'm by my bed." At which time he sprays mace in my face and closes the cell door. I start spitting in the toilet, and the whole nine yards from the mace, running eyes, runny nose. He opens the door again and sprays me with mace again. I guess just for good measure, and closed the door again. The third time he opens the door, he runs in the cell and grabs me in a strangle hold around my neck and drags me for about thirty yards out of the housing unit. During this time, I've not struggled or broken any institutional rule. When I'm dragged out into the hallway, the same shift commander starts banging my head against the cement wall. Other officers are standing around, not saying or doing anything. I'm then dragged out into the visiting area, and thrown into a cubicle. I am left there for a few minutes before the shift commander comes back. He snatches me out of the cubicle and drags me out of the unit, bringing me to another unit. When we get to the other unit, my head is banged against the wall some more, just for laughs. When one unnamed corporal the shift commander and myself get inside the unit I'm just looking at this stupid, brain dead moron. He says don't look at him, but I look anyway for a closer inspection of this insect. I'm slammed onto the floor, and his foot is placed across my neck, like I'm some trophy or big game animal he just dominated. Some more officers come. I'm lifted off the floor and told to strip. These dehumanizing games get old. I refuse, I'm still a man, prisoner or not. So king imperialist hits me so hard I'm knocked onto a table. At which time he jumps on top of me and jams his radio into the family jewels. Only one of the officers intervened. I was then walked into another housing unit. There happened to be a nurse in the unit, so I saw the nurse and my swelling and bruises were noted. The next day I'm really sore. I sign up for sick call, and it's not until four days later that a nurse practitioner shows up and orders me some motrin -- the cure-all. Three days later, they were kind enough to bring my property. I guess this is the price you pay for speaking up and convicted of a felony. Anything goes! -- A Tennessee Prisoner, 12 February 1998 PAROLE DENIED IN RETALIATION FOR LAWSUIT The parole board has denied me parole this time for 18 months. What is interesting is that last year, before I had been raped by a pig and exposed the Michigan Department of Corruptions in the media, I was only denied for 12 months. This year, with above-average reports, a better parole guideline score, and an attorney representing me at the hearing, I was given an 18-month denial. This is nothing more than retaliation for exposing the sexual abuse that is an everyday affair in these gulags. It is simply punishment for filing a million dollar lawsuit.... -- A Michigan Prisoner, 5 January 1998 MIM responds: Sexual abuse of prisoners by guards is an integral part of the criminal Injustice system, which exists to repress and not to rehabilitate. One of the Attica prisoners said in 1971 that guards "treat" prisoners' hostility with their own hostility -- those who had committed violent or hostile crimes were then reinforced in their behavior by guards who treated them just as they had treated others. The prison guards are in a position (both in terms of their authority over prisoners and their impunity in the face of the law) to abuse prisoners who have never been abusive to anyone. The system is thus set-up so that prison will further worsen the conditions for prisoners who were already in bad shape, and degrade the conditions of those prisoners who are reasonably healthy mentally and physically before they are imprisoned. It is always to the credit of the prisoners who struggle against this system, never to the credit of the system itself when prisoners survive in spite of it. LOCKED UP FOR RESISTING PIG HARASSMENT The pigs here at ECI [Eastern Correctional Institution] will not let me have the November and December 1997 issues of MIM Notes. They say that the material contents constitute a violation of institutional policy. But I wrote to the warden here at ECI. He told the mailroom to go ahead and give me the four MIM Note newspapers that they were holding from me. So I got the MIM Notes now. ...By the way I want you to know that I'm on lock-up for fighting with a pig. I had on handcuffs, and this pig kept on pushing me. So I told this pig to stop pushing me, but he kept on. Then I came out of one of my handcuffs. I tried to take his hold off me. So about twenty pigs fucked me up. But I'm well now and everything. I got 330 days lock-up for fighting the pig. But all together I have 980 days on lockup. I got the other lock-up time because the pig over here on lock-up was playing a game with the Brothers' food. So a few other guys, and me stayed on the walk and did not lock in. So the pig gave the guys their food, but they still gave us time on lock-up. So now I got 980 days on lock-up. ...By the way, the pig here is taking me to court in February 1998. I may get one or two more years but no more than five years. I'll keep you up-to-date. Keep up the good work. -- A Maryland Prisoner, 10 January 1998 NEW YORK BRUTALITY ...These racist, spineless, jellyfish, crackers continue to harass, degrade and downpress prisoners here at Southport Incorrectional Facility. In May 1997, while in handcuffs and waist chains going out to the recreation kages, the pigs wantonly assaulted me because I refuse to speak like a foot shuffling ass kissa. This and similar incidents continually happen to defenseless prisoners because of the mechanical restraints. The racist pigs continue to lie to the Elmira County Community so that after a brother prisoners is assaulted the pigs can easily take them to the towns to be convicted by other ignorant crackers, already brainwashed by these shit kicking pigs in here. Secondly, I was again accused of assaulting a pig in July 1997 in another incorrectional facility. After the alleged misbehavior report was dismissed the racist white scum took me to kkkourt claiming he sustained abrasions on his finger. The ... judge wants me to plead guilty to assault in the second degree and pay a surcharge. This way I'll remain longer in prison and give up money to build the raggedy ass town. ...Thirdly during the past five months I've been on a religious alternative meal (RAM) which is non-meat eating. After being out to kourt for four days these bastards refuse to feed me a RAM tray and respond with racist remarks. When I brought this to the attention of the sergeant and the lieutenant that continually camouflage their efforts to do nothing with a bucket of bullshit. This letter is not just to reveal the injustice but in hopes that families will call and inquire about the well being of their family members. For communities to get together and strengthen their concerns for prisoners -- or else these fine people may be in the same situations. "Prisoners are also are families." -- A New York Prisoner, 14 January 1998 LAZY PIGS AND EXACTING RULES I'm another warrior from Africa, born here in this prison called Amerikkka. It's been a while since I've communicated with anyone; mainly because these haters have locked me up in their so-called Special Housing (the hole) for an offense I never committed. They've taken all my merchandise, studying material, stamps, personal hygiene stuff, and left me without anything -- just a sheet and a blanket only. I'm in a Federal Prison in Oakdale, Louisiana. They're so corrupt in this system they even made a law pertaining to underwear. No inmate can go out to the recreation area with his underwear hanging down or he will be written up on a charge! I know that's not fair. It's about one hundred degrees all the time here in the South and we have to wear a jumpsuit while outside. It's really just so they won't have let anyone out for "Rec" [recreation]. So they [the pigs] can smoke and sit around talking most of the day. I've just gotten in the federal system and I've been written up so many times on stupid violations. Most of them I've never even done. And the corrections officers who gives you your sentencing in the DHO is another one who doesn't like Afrikans born in Amerikkka. He has taken all my good time for no major reason. Not for one year but for two years -- that's one hundred and eight days! That's not fair! They hate mer here so much. I better end [this letter] before they make rounds to find out why it's so quiet on the Range in Lockup! I've told the brothers here that we must stick together and demand to be treated fairly!... A brother in the struggle, -- A Federal Prisoner, 17 February 1998 SEND CHILDREN TO SCHOOL NOT PRISON Just a note to touch base with everybody from Oakdale FCI [Federal Corrections Institution] which is also an Institutional Detention Center for the Federal BOP [Bureau of Prisons]. Kops are using us against each other, conducting mass lock- ups of 10 - 20 people sometime, at the slightest hint of trouble. The people on Disciplinary Status were not given X- mas packages. Some inmates here have been in lock-up over a year. Some mutilate themselves and others go insane without help from staff. Staff only slap inmates with more write- ups. There are some good staff but the bad ones prevail regarding treatment [of prisoners]. The psychologist is a joke. We have more "kids" as federal prisoners. Most of them have their priorities misplaced scamming on other prisoners, drugs, racism. Racism has NO place in a prison setting. When it does, it's the old divide and conquer setting: us against each other and the cops and we always lose. They should send the children to school not prison. People from all over the world are represented here. We should all come together as friends instead of being hateful to each other... Snitches need to be checked and if they don't quit should be made to leave. By snitches I mean the ones who sit in the police office all day talking. We have one who sits behind the kop desk and even smokes his pipe behind it. Needless to say a lying Rat crossed me out. Now I'm doing solitary with about one year to do. All because a bunch of Rats crossing each other out.... It's a sad shame our prisons have come to this. All prisoners need to work to help each other get educated and stay outta here! It's up to you! -- A Federal Prisoner, 14 February 1998 UNDERGROUND CONTROL UNIT ...I'm a 28 year old Native American who is incarcerated in the Oklahoma State Penitentiary, a maximum security prison. I'm currently housed within a Behavior Modification Unit called H Unit, which is underground. It also houses Death Row inmates. I've learned a lot about our struggles against the government from one of the best teachers, Prisoner X. This is an elder brother who has touched many lives. It is my hope that younger brothers and sisters are able to come across such as tremendous teacher as I have had.... In solidarity and Resistance against the system, -- an Oklahoma Prisoner, 15 February 1998 EVERYDAY OPPRESSION IN TEXAS As a modern day slave in Texas prisons we are required to perform toil labor for no pay. S-4 status to Line 2 status receives good time and work time credit to be utilized for parole purposes. Line 3's are required (compelled) to work with receiving good time or work time for their slavery performance. Good time and work time earned by your roil labor in the fields, factory, etc. can be taken for disciplinary reasons. Needless to say when paroled, you are compelled to sign a contract with the state relinquishing your good time earned. January 1, 1998 all offenders are required to pay a $3.00 fee to visit the infirmary except for emergency situations, but at the oppressor's arbitrary decision to warrant the visit emergency or non-emergency. If you don't have the money in your account upon visit, you will be accepted but that $3.00 fee will be notified to your account awaiting for when a loved one sends you some funds. T.D.C.J.-I.D. administrators here have taken the tobacco products out of the system for the offenders, yet officers are allowed to go outside in the smoking zone and smoke on state property. We no longer wear pants with a zipper or pockets in the front but pants where we have to pull down to even urinate. Law library books delivery have decreased for inmates in Administrative Segregation or close custody housing from 5 days a week to 3 days a week, from 5 books to 3 books, instead of keeping the books until the next day we are only allowed 8 hours now. For as censorship goes, an African American in Texas Prison will most likely be denied cultural development. A Majority of African American author's books are denied to enter the system. Holloway House Publication Co. books are discriminated against not all, but the majority. When a black author publishes a book detailing about what the Europeans are doing to the African American, it will be denied by the system. Of course in conclusion, the prison library is a farce, especially for the African American. Hope I was of assistance to you all and feel free to get in touch with me at any time. -- A Texas Prisoner, 9 January 1998 MICHIGAN LABOR RATES The average prisoner, in Michigan, earns between 20 and 30 dollars a month and the cost of living is such that even a modest lifestyle would require 3 times that much. I work as a clerk for X department, with a schedule of 8:30 to 8:30 six days a week and only make about $35 a month, which isn't enough to cover my monthly mailing expenses. -- A Michigan Prisoner 15, December, 1997 ...The labor situation is very bad for higher custody prisoners, like myself. The jobs are limited to only porters, yard crew, tutors and recreational porters. These jobs do not pay enough -- especially if you have no help from the outside world. An inmate makes an average of $5.00 to $7.00 a month. The prices in the inmate store are outrageous. It will cost me $1.75 for a tube of toothpaste, 60 cents for one bar of soap. A Ramen noodle soup that is normally sold in the outside world will cost me only 15 cents, in here I am paying 25 cents. That's 10 cents more than the outside world. If I get sick and I need to go to health care -- that will cost me $3.00 each time I request to see them.... -- A Michigan Prisoner, 2 January 1998 MIM responds: We thank these prisoners for providing the specifics on their own rates of pay. If other Michigan prisoners who are working can do the same, we will compile the pay information and print accurate figures on how much money prisoners in Michigan are paid per hour, and for what type of work. As was printed in RAIL Notes recently (January 15, 1998), we know that the Michigan Department of Corrections is putting out false figures on how much it pays prisoner workers. With your help we will publish the real numbers and expose the DOC lies. Attention Prisoners: Remember to write to MIM once every 90 days to maintain your subscription. And if you have only written us once, you need to write within 30 days to keep your sub going. This is because we see the pigs moving prisoners around all the time and want to make sure that you are receiving the material that you need, not that the material is ending up being thrown out by the pigs. Also, if you are being released within the next two years, write to MIM and let us know. We want to work with you after you get out of Amerikkka's gulags to overthrow this imperialist system! Last thing, if you are interested in writing a book review for MIM Theory, write us, let us know what your interest is generally or if there is a specific book that you would want to review.