Letters

Did capitalists fund communists?

Salute, MIMs!

One night I was listening to a radio program and this guy who 
wrote a book on 'secret societies' was saying to the host that 
communism was created and funded by capitalism! Others claim that 
the Ford Foundation (a capitalist monopoly) funded communist 
organizations here and abroad! What's yal's take on these issues? 
What I know so far about communism, and this is for those honest 
and truthful communists, I believe that communism is something 
great, but I keep hearing that communism is no better than 
democracy, socialism, etc., because it's just terms used and 
ultimately just to control people worldwide, by people who don't 
believe in those systems. But I strongly believe for the simple 
fact that we're all humans and deserve to be treated equally and 
no race should be above any other and that any race suffering any 
forms of oppression should have a non-negotiable right by any 
means to free its race and its territories even if those forms are 
taking place legally. Now for the moment I will conclude my letter 
and until next time and in leaving yal say, wish yal good health 
and keep the non-negotiable fight on until the whole world is 
free.

--A Texas Prisoner, May 2000

MIM responds: This is one of those questions that reinforces MIM's 
opinion that a scientific approach is the only way to cut through 
the noise and make the right political decisions. That means we 
don't care who the individual is who says something, we just want 
to know if what the person says is correct or useful. As soon as 
we start putting too much stake in who the speaker is, we put 
ourselves at risk for having it turned against us. Next thing you 
know Colin Powell and Clarence Thomas are right because they're 
"Black."

But to get back to your question specifically, most of these 
arguments are simply the rantings of rabid chauvinists, like the 
John Birch Society. Usually these crackpot theories are anti-
Semitic, calling up the old bullshit about a worldwide Zionist 
conspiracy between Jewish capitalists and communists. These 
shibboleths have no basis in fact.

There are, however, instances when one camp of capitalists have 
helped communists for their own reasons. Perhaps the most famous 
example is the German government arranging to smuggle Lenin back 
into Russia during World War I. The Kaiser was no friend to 
communism; he simply hoped Lenin would cause trouble and weaken 
the bourgeois Russian state. Lenin shrewdly used the conflict 
between the German and Russian capitalists to advance the Russian 
revolution.

As for the Ford Foundation, it is an offshoot of the Ford company, 
and does have a pro-capitalist agenda even while it funds some 
progressive or pseudo-progressive things. It has a long history of 
funding liberal alternatives to radicalism, partly in an attempt 
to buy off radicals. (One thing the Ford Foundation helped pay for 
was the "Eyes on the Prize" documentary series. MIM shows some of 
these documentaries because they have good information and footage 
in them. At the same time, we're very clear that the ideology 
expressed by their creators is reformist and not revolutionary.) 
The Ford Foundation may even have funded people who called 
themselves communists. That doesn't say anything about communist 
ideas one way or another, though. If you work for the prisoncrats 
and make $5 and send it to MIM as a donation to pay for 
newspapers, should we say MIM is suspect because it profits from 
prison labor?

Similarly, many people also say that communism is a "European" 
invention, and therefore that it's not appropriate for Third World 
peoples. But  China was the biggest country to apply Marxism, and 
the country to take socialism farther than any other. It was the 
responsibility of the Chinese communists to do the best thing they 
could in their time and place, to overthrow imperialism and bring 
a revolution to China, to stop the exploitation, starvation, foot-
binding, and disease that plagued the Chinese people. They used 
communist ideas to do it. In their success, they should thank 
those whose ideas helped them; but in their failures they can't 
blame someone else's ideas, no matter where they came from. The 
question for us has to be: do these ideas help us get where we 
want to go, where the oppressed majority of the world need to go? 
With the scientific method, we can investigate the effect of 
communism, and Maoism in particular, and know that it has done 
more to help the oppressed than any other ideology. 

We can't throw that away just because some bad people have called 
themselves communists and even Maoists -- as some certainly have. 
We have to be able to see through the false communists by 
understanding the ideology they put forward. Only with a 
scientific analysis of this ideology can we distinguish true 
communists from people posing as communists but really supporting 
imperialism.

Dutch citizen victim of u.s. criminal injustice system

I am a citizen of the Netherlands, a political prisoner condemned 
to mandatory life imprisonment in the state of Michigan. On April 
5, 2000 I marked my 15th year in prison for a crime I am truly 
innocent of. The police and the prosecutors were corrupt and used 
perjury to obtain my conviction, which I can now prove by way of a 
video recording and photographs. And attorney in Detroit has 
recently learned of the evidence proving that 5 police officers in 
the second largest city in the state of Michigan (Grand Rapids) 
committed perjury to frame me of a capital offense. Police 
corruption in framing innocent people is not just limited to 
places like Los Angeles, or the state of Illinois. It happened 
here in Michigan, to me. I desperately need help to expose what 
the police did in my case to frame me.

My rights under international law were also violated (the Vienna 
Convention of Consular Relations) just as in the cases of: Angel 
Breard (the Paraguayan citizen executed in Virginia), Joseph 
Faulder (the Canadian citizen executed in Texas), and The Kegrand 
Brothers (The German citizens executed in Arizona). The United 
States is a superpower that points the finger at all other nations 
for international law violations, but seems to answer to nobody 
when they themselves violate international law and human rights. I 
am trying to bring attention to my dilemma being trapped in the 
prison system as a result of police officials' violation of 
international law. I believe that by exposing the United States' 
continued violation of international law to the rest of the world 
and to Americans, that I may be able to cause so much 
embarrassment that they would either have to stop pointing the 
finger at other nations, or make right their wrongs.

I wish I could be transferred to the Netherlands in accordance 
with the treaty on the transfer on sentenced persons, and I'm 
hoping to elicit your help to bring attention to my predicament. 
The President of the United States entered into this treaty on 
behalf of all of the United States. The US senate ratified the 
treaty, giving it equal status as a supreme federal law of the 
land of America. Only the US (as a whole nation) is a party to the 
treaty, yet the US State Departments has delegated compliance with 
the treaty to the individual states even though they are not 
actual parties to the treaty. By delegating compliance to the 
Individual states for non-compliance instead of putting the blame 
where it rightly belongs, on the Secretary of State and ultimately 
the President.

I have been suffering horribly for over a whole year now because 
prison officials have denied me personal hygiene items, refused to 
give me legal mail postage loans to mail out my legal mail, and 
have been seizing 100% of every cent that comes into my prison 
account toward a $5, 469.60 debt (in violation of Federal Law 28 
U.S.C. 1915, which says that they may only take 20%) while also 
denying me indigent benefits, leaving me destitute. An 
international journalist, Anton Foex, in Amsterdam wanted to 
interview me and do a radio and television documentary about my 
case and how the Americans are torturing, but the Warden denied 
him access to me because of some new prison policy which bans 
media access to prisoner. The journalist has already done a few 
magazine articles in the Netherlands about my situation (they are 
printed in the Dutch language). If you'd like to see them, I can 
arrange to have someone send you a copy.

There are many well-known people in support of Mumia Abu-Jamal who 
have been trying to bring attention to his case, and I can only 
hope that such support, such help, is not just limited to his 
case, but that his supporters and organizations such as MIM would 
also be interested in exposing international injustices and 
inhumane treatment of foreign nationals like myself. I desperately 
need supporters to rally for my cause too, especially now that my 
attorney has discovered proof of police corruption in the second 
largest city in Michigan.

It is my understanding there are over 60 foreign national on death 
row in American prisons whose rights under the Vienna Convention 
were violated. Will they also be murdered like the Paraguayan, the 
German, and the Canadian, before the spotlight on the continued 
violations of international law and human rights, and in 
particular, to put the spotlight on how I was framed by corrupt 
cops and deprived of my liberty. Any help that you could provide, 
even names and addresses of activists of people of action that I 
might be able to get in contact with, would be appreciated.

At the present time, I am totally being denied communication or 
access to the Netherlands Embassy or Consulate. Prison officials 
refuse to transmit my correspondence to them, and now have 
instituted a new phone system which prevents me from even calling 
the consular post. I desperately need people on the outside here 
in America that care about injustices and are willing to try and 
help, people who are not afraid to get involved. 

Please Respond to my call for help.

-- A Michigan Prisoner, 26 May 2000

MIM responds:  This letter exposes the united snakes violation of 
international treaty law, something that should not come as a 
surprise to regular readers of MIM Notes. The u.s. does not 
hesitate to violate even its own laws when that suits its purpose. 
The u.s. criticizes other countries for violating international 
law and even acts as an international police force to enforce 
these laws. But the u.s. will invade other countries whenever it 
is convenient and maintains a prison system which violates both 
international and domestic law demonstrating the hypocrisy of 
imperialism. 

We are under no illusions that this exposure will cause the system 
to change fundamentally. Significant embarrassment may cause the 
u.s. to give in on a few individual cases but it will take 
revolution to get rid of the system that continues to lock up 
innocent people in the name of social control masquerading as 
democracy.

MIM does a lot of work exposing individual cases of injustice as a 
part of building public opinion against imperialism. These cases 
provide clear illustration of the bankrupt criminal injustice 
system which is a necessary part of imperialism. We want people to 
read about these injustices and understand the system that needs 
to be changed. In this way we educate and organize for 
revolutionary change.

Don't vote: agitate against imperialism

I'm looking forward for MIM to expose the contradictions in 
Amerika's political arena, because many down-trodden oppressed 
(poor Afrikans, Europeans, Mexicans and Natives, etc.) seem to 
have a false notion that voting Republican or Democratic offers 
hope, dreams and opportunity. As I watched C-SPAN and CNN today, I 
couldn't help but notice that both parties were portraying 
concerns for the minorities in this kountry. But the percentage of 
the minorities in prison wasn't a concern. In my hometown, I see 
that poor people are given brand new Habitat homes and I wonder if 
this is done out of a political motive. True enough, it is good 
that low-income individuals are being helped rather than living in 
projects, but why are these homes just being built in the same 
sector of town -- where poor folks live? Why not put some of these 
homes in the north, east and west?

-- an Indiana prisoner, 1 August, 2000.

MIM responds: We believe that voting in the Amerikan elections is 
a waste of time. It is much better that we all spend our time 
building support for the anti-imperialist struggles of the 
oppressed nations, and building our own proletarian institutions 
rather than legitimizing those of the bourgeoisie. This comrade is 
correct to call out the most important issues facing the oppressed 
nations within u.$. borders today, and we welcome additional such 
letters to add to our arsenal of reasons not to vote. Prisons are 
institutions of internal semi-colonialism. Readers with other 
candidates for "Proletarian issues not addressed in the Amerikan 
elections" should write in with their comments.

But we also point out that no election for the Amerikan government 
could truly do anything to address the needs of the oppressed 
nations of the world without recognizing that the vast majority 
live outside u.$. borders even as they are subject to Amerikan 
military and economic policy. MIM is critical of such programs as 
Habitat for Humanity -- wherever in Amerika they build houses -- 
because they do not address the basic needs of the international 
proletariat. People in this country who are making minimum wage 
and have a place to live are having their basic needs met. On an 
international scale there are almost no low income or poor people 
in this country. The international majority, in whose interests we 
organize, do not have such basic things as food to eat every day 
or shelter from the weather. Rather than call for more equality 
among people in this country, we work for an end to international 
oppression.