Arm The Spirit #13 - June-July 1992

Index:

1)  Puerto Rico Libre!
2)  Alan Berkman Is Free!
3)  Victory For The Mohawks!
4)  Interview With Alberto Rodriguez
5)  National Committee To Free Puerto Rican Prisoners Of War
    Addresses
6)  Interview With Edwin Cortes
7)  List Of Puerto Rican Prisoners Of War And Political Prisoners
8)  Statement To The Court - Luis Colon Osorio
9)  EXPOlice Terror In Sevilla
10) Open Letter To The Puerto Rican People
11) Consider The Following
12) Interview With Chinganji Akinyela - New Afirkan Peoples
    Organization, L.A. Chapter
13) L.A., Washington Heights...
14) Assata Shakur On Racism In The USA
15) Interview With Women Political Prisoners In Chile
16) FPMR: Our Eight Years
17) News Briefs
18) Peace Negotiation In The Philippines - Interview With European
    NDF Representatives
19) Red Army Fraction Communique
20) Look Forward In Anger! - Anti-G7 Actions
21) Revolutionary Cells Communique
22) Letter From Greece
23) Editorial Notes
24) Who We Are
25) Subscription Information & Contact Addresses

*****************************************************************

Puerto Rico Libre!

     With this issue of Arm The Spirit we have focussed, somewhat,
on the colonial situation of Puerto Rico, and the independence
struggle being waged to free the island from U.S. imperialist
control by the independentista movement and the armed clandestine
organizations both inside Puerto Rico and on the U.S. mainland. As
July 25 is celebrated in Puerto Rico as Independence Day and around
the world as an International Day in Solidarity with the Puerto
Rican Independence Struggle and with the Puerto Rican Political
Prisoners and Prisoners of War, we are including in this issue
interviews we have done with two Puerto Rican Prisoners of War,
Edwin Corts and Alberto Rodr!guez; imprisoned as members of the
F.A.L.N. (Armed Forces of National Liberation), as well as
statements by two independentistas on trial for their involvement
with Los Macheteros (The Machete-Wielders).
     It is important to realize, as the world begins to celebrate
the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New
World, that in 1493 he also 'discovered' Puerto Rico; then known
as Boriquen. In the name of Spain, Columbus laid claim to the
island and re-named it San Juan Bautista. In 1511, after gold was
discovered, it received yet another name: Puerto Rico, or Rich
Port. Since the days of Columbus, resistance to to colonialist
aggression and control has been strong. From the fierce resistance
of the indigenous Arawaks and Tainos against the Spanish, to the
F.A.L.N. and Los Macheteros, Puerto Ricans have always struggled
and organized to regain their land and sovereignty. 
       It was in the 1960s, that groups such as the CAL (Comandos
Armados de Liberacion) and MIRA (Movimiento de Izquierda
Revolucionaria en Armas) began to engage in military actions such
as the bombings of U.S. businesses that exploited Puerto Rican
workers and hotels in San Juan which catered to the U.S. tourist
trade. In the mid-1970's, the F.A.L.N. emerged, calling for a
strategy of uniting all the necessary forms of revolutionary
struggle of the Puerto Rican people into an effort to overturn
colonialism through a protracted people's war for independence.
The F.A.L.N. has carried out its actions within the borders of the
United States; as its intent has been to operate within the
metropolitan areas of the enemy colonial power, where millions of
Puerto Ricans reside, facing conditions of colonial violence,
exploitation and poverty.  F.A.L.N. actions were centered in New
York City and Chicago and included attacks on banks, government
offices, and police stations.
     Likewise, the Macheteros emerged towards the end of the 1970's
in Puerto Rico, and in the words of one of its founders: "Los
Macheteros is a clandestine organization formed in 1976 that uses
armed struggle to oppose U.S. repression in Puerto Rico." Its
actions have included the 1981 bombing of nine National Guard
planes which caused damage of $50 million, rocket attacks aimed at
U.S. courthouses, and in 1986, in a joint action with two other
armed clandestine organizations; F.A.R.P.( Armed Forces of Popular
Resistance) and O.V.R.P. (Organization of Volunteers for the Puerto
Rican Revolution), the bombing of military installations to protest
the possible training of Nicaraguan contras in Puerto Rico and the
beginning of commercial logging in the Puerto Rican National Rain
Forest.
     Although at the present time armed resistance is at a low ebb,
there are 18 Puerto Rican Prisoners of War and political prisoners
imprisoned for being part of these armed clandestine organizations
and their support apparatuses. The United States government has
repeatedly violated the human rights of these Puerto Rican
political prisoners and POWs by subjecting them to brutal and
tortuous prison conditions. These abuses include sexual and
physical assaults, long periods in isolation cells and control
units and the denial of medical care.  
     Dr. Luis Nieves-Falcon, coordinator of Ofensiva '92; a
campaign to free the political prisoners and Prisoners of War, has
captured the spririt of the POW's when he writes that they "are
fueled by the fact that they are people who have faith in the
valiant men and women who will never be anyone's slaves. They
believe in human valour and have faith in the right to freedom, in
the recuperation of our homeland's sovereignty and in the conscious
men and women of Puerto Rico. The POW's are fully aware of the
empire's size, but are convinced that Puerto Rico's right to
independence is much greater. The POW's are also convinced that in
the near future, we will all be together in a free homeland that,
in spite of its current colonial status, will proclaim their
innocence."
     We at ATS join in the just demands for independence for Puerto
Rico and freedom for all Puerto Rican political prisoners and
Prisoners of War.

*****************************************************************

Alan Berkman Is Free!

     On Friday July 10, political prisoner Alan Berkman was
released from prison. Alan, who was in prison since 1985 serving
a sentence relating to a series of armed political actions carried
out by the Red Guerrilla Resistance against U.S. military
installations and corporations which support imperialist world
policies, and the 1983 Capitol bombing by the Armed Resistance Unit
in response to the U.S. invasion of Grenada. Alan was also one of
the six comrades involved in the Resistance Conspiracy Case. During
this trial, Alan was seriously ill with Hodgkins' Disease, and he
nearly died from the adverse effects of chemotherapy. 
     Alan has been an active anti-imperialist for over twenty
years, serving the movement both as an activist and in his role as
an experienced physician. Alan helped treat wounded prisoners after
the Attica Rebellion in 1971, and he helped aid native Americans
at Wounded Knee in 1973.
     We send our warmest greetings to comrade Alan Berkman! Free
all political prisoners and prisoners of war!

****************************************************************

Victory For The Mohawks!

     Thirty-four Mohawks charged in the 1990 Oka crisis were
aquitted on July 3 by a Quebec Superior Court jury after five days
of deliberation.
     In a statement, those charged stated that "the verdict is seen
by the Mohawks and their allies as an admission by the jury that
the issues involving land and jurisdiction must be addressed, not
in the criminal courts, but by negotiation." Bob Skidders, a Mohawk
leader who went under the nickname Mad Jap during the crisis, said
that the decision was one that had been due for 300 years: "If our
people had been given consideration at the beginning then there
would be no fight today." 
     "I didn't have any faith in a system like this, but I'm glad
that the truth was really told," said Joe David, another of the
accused Mohawks. "I feel really good about the verdict."
     With the exception of three who were charged with assaulting
a peace officer and interfering with an arrest, all the accused
had been charged with participating in a riot and obstructing
police and the military. In addition, 18 were accused of possession
of firearms for a dangerous purpose.
     The crisis began when the police stormed a Mohawk barricade
set up to protest a golf course expansion onto sacred burial land
that was part of the Mohawk's traditional land base. A police
officer was killed in the raid, although no one has been charged
in his death. After the police attack, a stand-off which lasted 78
days resulted in the capture of a number Mohawks - many of whom
were in this recent trial.
     Crown prosecutor Jean-Pierre Boyer, calling for a guilty
verdict had said that anything less would send a message to the
world that taking up arms is permissible and Canada's image (!)
could suffer as a result.

***************************************************************

Interview With Alberto Rodriquez

In an article you wrote in 1988 entitled 'The Right to Fight is
Non-negotiable' you stated that "The armed struggle in Puerto Rico
is not simply a movement dedicated to violence. It is neither
militaristic nor inclined towards violence." What is your
conception of armed struggle in Puerto Rico; what kind of movement
do you see it as being?

      I envision the struggle as being a political-military
struggle in which the political aspect of the struggle would be
more dominant. Particularly in the situation of Puerto Rico, for
a lot of different historical and political reasons, I don't see
the classic models of people's war as seen in predominantly
agricultural places like China or Vietnam working. I think it has
to be a political-military struggle in which the political aspects
of the struggle would dominate. The politico-military aspect of the
struggle would always be in support of and in solidarity with, and
hopefully in certain situations even leading, the strictly
political forces of the movement.
     The political-military organizations that would lead the
struggle would have to be clandestine in order that they can
operate free and clear of the U.S. government that has, since the
invasion of 1898, maintained a large intelligence and spying
network in Puerto Rico that makes any attempt to organize publicly
and openly suicidal. The history of Puerto Rico has shown that
every time the independence movement has grown and it began to
challenge U.S. imperialism, the independence movement has been
smashed, with the leaders jailed, and many of them murdered.
     We would have armed propaganda in which the armed struggle
would educate and raise consciousness. The armed struggle would be
used as a form of identifying and bringing to the struggle  the
most conscious element, the most dedicated and committed elements
of the independence movement to the struggle. So I see the armed
struggle as being an integral part of a public movement, of an
independence movement that operates on many different levels; in
the unions, in the universities, in the communities, it would be
an integral part of a political struggle.

You were arrested in 1983, allegedly as a member of the FALN. In
many of the FALN communiques there is significant discussion of
how elections in Puerto Rico are an attempt to force the Puerto
Rican struggle to take place within the legal apparatus of
imperialism. With this in mind could tell us about the Puerto Rican
independence movement's opposition to colonial elections, and could
you tell us something about the Principle of Reatramiento on which
this opposition is based?

     The Puerto Rican independence movement has always had an
electoral aspect to it. In the beginning, in the 1900's, the
independence movement as a whole, through different parties,
participated in elections. In the 1930's Don Pedros Campos, 
President of the Nationalist Party, ran in the elections of 1932
and saw firsthand how elections controlled by U.S. colonialism only
led to divide the people. He saw a situation in which Puerto Ricans
were fighting Puerto Ricans over some position which really did not
challenge the status of Puerto Rico, which did not bring into
question U.S. colonial rule over Puerto Rico. Basically Puerto
Ricans were fighting Puerto Ricans over a position or an office.
So Campos laid out the program, or the concept, of reatramiento,
which basically means 'boycott' and non-recognition of colonial
life. 
     The concept of the electoral boycott is based on the fact that
the U.S. invaded Puerto Rico in 1898 and for two years there was
a military government. In 1900, the military government was turned
into a civilian government which continued to be controlled by
Washington D.C. To this day the essential elements of this
relationship have not changed. Even though now we have a Puerto
Rican Governor and a Puerto Rican Senate Puerto Rican sovereignty
continues to lie in the U.S. congress, and control of Puerto Rico;
real economic and political control, lies in Washington D.C. 
     Reatramiento sees elections as a political device created by
the U.S. to perpetuate their control. We in the independence
movement who are opposed to U.S. colonialism in Puerto Rico, should
not participate in these elections because it is to negate the very
things that we are struggling for. Now the independence movement
as a whole is very divided on the question of elections, and I
would say personally that my opinion is that this participation is
based on a lack of vision, a lack of faith in revolution, a feeling
that since nothing else is really going on, well, we'll just go to
elections every four years. I feel that for us to participate in
elections is for us to every four years enter into a process in
which we are going to lose. Everything is against us, the whole
electoral system, and the whole educational and political system
is set up to equate independence with terrorism and criminality,
and we cannot win in that kind of environment.
     So, really, it is the revolutionary independence movement that
opposes elections and that sees elections as a fraud, a scam, and
a conspiracy to keep Puerto Ricans arguing amongst themselves over
issues and meaningless political positions while the true power
stays in Washington. So the FALN and other political-military
organizations, and several public organizations have attempted to
organize fronts against electoral participation, and this also
includes participation in plebiscites and referendums created by
the U.S. whose purpose is not to decolonize the island, but to
create a new situation or a new set up where they can continue
their control. 
     Reatramiento, then, to me, continues, over sixty years later,
to be a reality, to be something that I feel is a principle that
can rally the Puerto Rican people together. It is a revolutionary
program which can challenge people to break with U.S. imperialist
control and begin to think about developing a political project
which exists independent of the U.S., and only then will the Puerto
Rican independence movement no longer be a movement of opposition
but a national liberation struggle. I believe that one of our great
flaws and weaknesses has been our inability to develop a true
national liberation struggle. Instead we for the most part act as
a left opposition to U.S. government and U.S. imperialism. Puerto
Rico is a colony, it is a classical colony. It is controlled by the
U.S. through military and repressive means, and for us to have a
movement in opposition which is simply a legal, loyal, political
opposition, then we are not going to go anywhere in the long run. 
     I see reatramiento as being an important concept to raise
revolutionary consciousness, to challenge U.S. imperialism, to
create an independence project, to create a revolutionary strategy
which the U.S. cannot control, that the U.S. cannot dictate the
terms of. This reatramiento, along with a political-military
struggle , like the one I outlined earlier, would be a winnable
strategy.

The point has been made that the Puerto Rican struggle for
independence and socialism is part of the revolution of the
exploited and oppressed masses of Latin America against the
oligarchies, capitalism, and imperialism. However, in some of the
countries of Latin America we are seeing the discontinuation of
the armed struggle for national liberation. Many of the guerrilla
groups are entering into negotiation with the state and oligarchies
or are surrendering their weapons and entering the electoral arena,
as we have seen most recently with El Salvador and Columbia. How
do you feel about this turn of events, and how does it affect the
Puerto Rican struggle?

     Without question, this is something that affects us very
deeply. We have always seen ourselves as part of an overall Latin
American strategy to defeat U.S. imperialism through the use of
people's war and armed struggle. 
     The question to be asked honestly is the question of whether
armed struggle is a winnable strategy in Latin America. I continue
to believe that it is, even though many guerrilla groups and armed
organizations have begun to lose faith in their ability to win and
feel that with the fall of the Soviet Union and the Socialist bloc
that it is time to cut and run; to try to make the best deal
possible. I do not feel that the fundamental conditions in Latin
America have changed, in which organizations should enter into
negotiations with the state, with U.S. imperialism and its puppet
states, because the conditions are such that they cannot be
resolved by some type of political accommodation with imperialism.
So I really don't know where it is going to end up and I feel that
it is different in each country. I think in El Salvador, because
of the strength of the guerrilla movement that they will be in a
much better situation to guarantee some democracy and some
improvement in the lives of the masses, while in Columbia the
guerrilla movements are much weaker and will be in a worse
situation. You have in Peru the continuation of the armed struggle,
and so I don't see El Salvador or Columbia as being the only
future.
     
How do you view the rapid changes which have been occuring in the
former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, and what effect do you feel
these changes will have for the developing world and national
liberation struggles?

     As a Puerto Rican who has felt U.S. colonialism since the
first beginnings of my political consciousness back in the early
70's, I have identified with the Soviet Union and the socialist
bloc because of their anti-colonial stand. As I developed
politically and began to see the contradictions of the Soviet and
Chinese system; the way communism and socialism had been practised,
I still identified with it and supported it in the sense that the
enemy of my enemy is my friend. Now with the fall of the Soviet
Union there is still an emotional side, a certain sadness while as
I think about it and as I see what good could come of it I feel
each day less and less sad about it. I think that a lot of people
in the left found ourselves defending the Soviet Union even when
the Soviet Union was not defendable. Some of the positions they
took in Eritrea, some of the things they did in Afghanistan; how
they attempted to hold together a system based on repression, how
they attempted to develop a system in which they ended politics,
they ended democracy, and in a sense they became everything they
were ideologically opposed to. Now that it is gone we no longer
feel burdened by that. We no longer feel the need to defend that
system. And I think that we can learn from it. I think that it
gives us an opportunity to learn from that experiment and see that
we cannot develop a system fundamentally based on repression. As
pretty as we can make it sound, we cannot build a new world order
based on repression; it must be based on democracy. So I think it
is a time of challenge. I think it is a time for us to put away all
these conceptions. Many of us in this generation who came out of
the Vietnam war and the struggles of the 70's developed a very
romantic and idealistic obsession with the struggle. And now that
the romanticism and idealism has been destroyed and we see the end
of that experience, it challenges us, in a sense, to be much more
radical than we were because instead of accepting ideas, we now
have to be challenged to create our own ideas, to develop ideas
that are not based, really, on lies.

The Puerto Rican independence movement has always faced severe
repression from the U.S. government. The FBI in particular has been
instrumental in pursuing the U.S. policy of attempting to crush the
struggle for national liberation in Puerto Rico. Recently,
revelations have come to light concerning the role of the FBI and
an organization called 'Defenders of Democracy' in the
assassination of two Puerto Rican patriots at Cerro Maravilla.
Could you tell us what originally happened at Cerro Maravilla, and
what was the FBI's involvement?

     We in the Puerto Rican independence movement have been saying
for many years that the F.B.I. headed a death-squad type unit in
Puerto Rico and that it has maintained control of the Puerto Rican
police since the 1930's, since the Puerto Rican police were
mobilized along with the National Guard to smash and destroy the
Puerto Rican Nationalist Party.
     For years, many of our detractors attacked us and said we were
paranoid and that this death-squad did not exist and there did not
exist this F.B.I. controlled police force that was against the
Puerto Rican independence movement. Now we have been vindicated
because the whole Cerro Maravilla situation has shown that there
has existed a death-squad in Puerto Rico made up of elements of the
Puerto Rican police, the F.B.I., and other Federal government
officials, particularly people in the U.S. Navy and the U.S.
MArshall service.
     In the Cerro Maravilla case, two young Puerto Rican
independentistas were organized and mobilized into an organization
which was a government created organization. They were put into a
situation of carrying out armed attacks against the U.S. which had
been totally set up and then they were lured to a communications
tower where they were surrounded by the police and murdered in cold
blood. The U.S. and Puerto Rican police attempted to cover it up,
but they failed because certain witnesses, certain people in the
Puerto Rican independence movement have not allowed it to go away,
and have pushed and pushed it. And to this day new revelations come
up about the intensity of the U.S. role in this whole affair and
the fact that the F.B.I. was actually there.
     Thus for us, the importance that the F.B.I. was there and that
there exists a death-squad made up of U.S. government officials and
the Puerto Rican police is that it shows that Puerto Rico is a
colony despite the fact that we have a certain status known as
Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and that the U.S. refers to us as a
democracy. This shows that Puerto Rico is no different than the
rest of Latin America where you have governments that stay in power
by force, that create extra-legal means to stay in power.
     The Cerro Maravilla case has gone to the highest levels of
government in Puerto Rico and it has gone to the highest levels of
government in the U.S. Where it will end up is hard to say, because
it is the government investigating itself. Elements of the
Autonomist wing of Puerto Rican colonialism that are presently in
power feel that they can gain something from investigating this
conspiracy to kill the two comrades at Cerro Maravilla. At the time
of the murders the government in power was the Statehooders. So
they are attempting to use this as an opportunity to down the
Statehooders and hopefully win the election at the end of this
year. It is not clear how far they are willing to go, and the fact
is they may end up cutting their own throats because they have been
junior partners, for 5 decades, in maintaining U.S. control in
Puerto Rico. If this investigation continues and it keeps on going
to the very heart of the U.S. role in Puerto Rico many of their
party members will be questioning their own policies and their own
thoughts.
     So it is hard to say how far they will go and I do not believe
that the Puerto Rican independence movement is strong enough to
force the government to continue the investigations. So the
investigation could end at any moment and whatever has been
discovered has been discovered and there will be nothing more to
it.  The U.S. government obviously has an interest in trying to
stop it and they are doing everything possible to stop the
investigation. But without question it has exposed to the masses
of Puerto Rican people the fact that there is a death squad, that
the government has no qualms about using violence against its own
people to stay in power, and that the U.S. is the master of Puerto
Rico without question, they are the ones who pull all the strings
and  whatever happens in Puerto Rico comes from Washington D.C..
     So, for us it has been a vindication. It vindicated many of
the things we have been saying for years and it has been good for
us. We have been able to bring to us many new people, and its been
a very positive thing. I don't know how much more we can gain from
it, but up to now it's been very good for us.

Puerto Rican women have always played an important role in the
Puerto Rican liberation struggle, but in your words, sexism runs
rampant in the independence movement. Do you see the struggle
against sexism as an integral part of the independence struggle?

     The Puerto Rican independence movement, coming from a society
which is patriarchal, has been a chauvinistic and sexist movement,
without question. While we have examples of Puerto Rican women who
have stood up and fought and died for Puerto Rican independence,
for the most part women have been shut out. Women have forced
themselves onto the scene and have forced men to recognize them and
to accept them as equal partners in the struggle for Puerto Rican
independence. But it has not been because we have opened up the
ranks and allowed them to enter the movement. It has been in spite
of men, and not because of them.
     Without question, if we are to be serious about developing a
new society and a new way to thinking, then we can't say we are
going to change some aspect of ourselves and of our society and
not other aspects. We have to be willing and able to open up to
discussion and to the struggle all aspects of Puerto Rican society
and the struggle for independence. I think the struggle against
sexism has to be an integral part of the struggle of the Puerto
Rican people to develop a new way of thinking and a new society.
     In Puerto Rico you have a situation where the main cause of
death among Puerto Rican women is domestic violence. We have a
terrible situation of battered women and of incest and rape. This
is aggravated by the deteriorating economic conditions in Puerto
Rico and by a colonial ideology that condones and even encourages
such violence against women. The Puerto Rican independence movement
has not been immune from these things. Some have attempted to raise
these issues and to raise consciousness, but we have a long way to
go. Puerto Rican women lead a dangerous existence, their lives are
in danger every day, going out in the streets at night is a threat,
even living at home is a threat to them.
     So I think the situation in Puerto Rico is like the situation
in the U.S. and Europe and everywhere in the world where women are
developing their own political thoughts, their own ideology to
question patriarchy.
     Several years ago, one of the organizations in the Puerto
Rican independence movement, the MLN, held a congress, and a major
part of that congress was dealing with sexism, the family,
homosexuality and questions that for the most part the independence
movement has ignored. Now I think the MLN has begun a process in
which the whole independence movement is questioning its past with
regards to the issues of homosexuality, sexism, and attitudes
towards women, children and the family. A lot of very good things
have come about. In the Puerto Rico today women are organizing
their own organizations and their own projects and they have
challenged men's leadership in the independence movement. I think
in the last five or six years some very good steps have been taken
towards dealing with sexism in the independence movement, but I
think we have a long way to go. And I think that this cannot be
just a woman's project, men have to take a role in it also. Women
will lead this struggle, but men have to be willing to change and
to open ourselves up to criticism and enter this process. I think
it is challenging and threatening to us because for so long we ran
the show and now to have women challenge us puts us in a
predicament that for many men is very difficult to handle. But I
think if we are to grow as a movement for social change and not
just as a narrow nationalist movement, then I think we have to open
up to the struggle of women and the struggle against sexism,
patriarchy and homophobia and all these questions that we have
ignored too long. And we suffer because of that ignorance.

Any last words?

     I definitely want to thank you for giving me this opportunity.
I think that the Puerto Rican independence movement has for a long
time suffered a curtain of silence. Many people think of Puerto
Rico only as a wonderful place to vacation; an island with
beautiful mountains and the sea, and they don't really realize the
fact that we have suffered colonialism for 500 years. And also,
there are over 1.5 million Puerto Ricans living in the U.S. in
conditions of an internal colony and that challenge U.S.
imperialism in each and every day. I think that the left has to
recognize that it doesn't have to go half-way around the world to
fight colonialism; colonialism exists right next door and I think
that the left in North America needs to look at the fact that there
is colonialism right in their own backyard, and to rally around it
and fight for its independence.    The last thing is, I think that
the left in general has to realize that there are people in prison
because of their principled stand against imperialism. And even if
one disagrees with the tactics that they have used, or if they take
a non-violent approach to their political struggle, nonetheless,
these brothers and sisters who suffer long years of imprisonment
are part of the very same struggle and should not be ignored.    

*****************************************************************

National Committee To Free Puerto Rican Prisoners Of War

In the United States - 

National Office
P.O. Box 476698
Chicago, Illinois 60647, U.S.A.

Box 613
Dorchester, Massachussets 02124, U.S.A.

138 Jefferson Street
Hartford, Connecticut 06106, U.S.A.

203 E. 115th Street
New York, New York 10029, U.S.A.

3604 N. 7th Avenue
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19140, U.S.A.

3543 18th Street, Box 12
San Francisco, California 94110, U.S.A.

In Puerto Rico - 

OFENSIVA '92
Apartado Postal 20190
Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico 00928

*****************************************************************

Interview With Edwin Cortes

On June 29, 1983, you and three others were arrested in Chicago
and accused of being members of the FALN (Fuerzas Armadas de
Liberacion Nacional), a revolutionary clandestine organization
active in the United States which has assumed responsibility for
over 100 armed actions carried out in support of Puerto Rican
independence. Could you tell us something of the history behind
the FALN, within the context of the history of the armed struggle
for Puerto Rican independence?

     The FALN has been an natural extension of the Puerto Rican
struggle for independence and socialism. The armed struggle was
initiated September 23, 1868 in what is known as the Grito de Lares
(Cry of Lares) occurred, led by Dr. Ramon Emeterio Betances. This
set a course in Puerto Rican history for armed struggle. Secret
Societies and revolutionary activity continued when the United
States militarily invaded Puerto Rico on July 25, 1898. The armed
guerrillas declared the Republic of Ciales in August of 1898. The
armed struggle continued developing in Puerto Rico in the 1930's
up until the 1950's with the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party; and
with the experience of the Nationalist Party and the previous
movements, the armed clandestine movement really began to function
around 1967 with the development of the Commandos Armados de
Liberacion and other organizations, some of which embraced the
strategy of Prolonged People's War. And in 1974, the FALN came
about, attacking United States governmental, military, and
corporate structures; perpetuators of colonialism in Puerto Rico.
The FALN developed clandestine methods of organization in order to
neutralize U.S. governmental repression and to further the struggle
for Puerto Rican independence and socialism.

Are there at the present time any organizations carrying out armed
actions in Puerto Rico?

     The Ejercito Popular Boricua Macheteros led by Filberto Ojeda
as well as the Fuerzas Armadas Don Pedro Albizu Campos have claimed
credit for various actions and their have been many acts of
sabotage, many which have no one has claimed credit for, in
relation to worker's strikes and other movements. Overall, the
armed revolutionary activity in Puerto Rico is at a low ebb.

In your opening statement to the court in August of 1985 you stated
that "In keeping with my principles, with the tradition of our
heroic freedom fighters and in accordance with international law,
the only law which has a right to try me, it is my obligation to
declare myself a Prisoner of War." Could you explain the reasoning
behind the Prisoner of War position?

     The POW position that we assumed was developed by Guillermo
Morales in 1978 and in 1980 by Carmen Valentin, Alicia Rodriguez,
Luis Rosa, Lucy Rodriguez, Ricaerdo Jiminez, Carlos Torres, Haydee
Beltran, Elizam Escobar, Adolfo Matos, and Dyclia Pagan as well as
Oscar Lopez in 1981, and it was due to the intensification of the
armed struggle in Puerto Rico and the United States as well as an
ideological and political debate going on within the independence
movement as to whether or not the armed struggle was even
necessary, and questioning it vis-a-vis a tactic or a strategy. The
POWs embraced the armed struggle within the strategy of a Prolonged
People's War. We assumed the position in order to further the
struggle for Puerto Rican independence because we felt that armed
struggle was a necessary component of the independence movement,
and was necessary at that time; and it is still essential today in
order to combat U.S. plans to destroy the independence movement and
annex our homeland. We also challenged the legality of the Treaty
of Paris of 1898 which was signed between the U.S. and Spain. Spain
gave Puerto Rico to the U.S. as a piece of property, which did not
belong to Spain. Spain had already granted Puerto Rico its autonomy
under the Charter of Autonomy of 1897. The United States invades
Puerto Rico in July, 1898 and a "State of War" exists between the
Puerto Rican people and the U.S. government. Regardless of the
state of that war, it still continues today. And finally, our POW
position is rooted in international law, particularly resolution
1514 which recognizes the right of colonial people to self-
determination and independence, and other various resolutions of
the UN which recognize armed struggle as a means to achieve
independence and which confer a Prisoner of War status to those
captured in colonial armed conflicts.

How then does the 'prisoner of War' position contrast with the
'political prisoner' position?

     Both positions complement each other. The only difference
between a political prisoner and a prisoner of war is that a POW
acknowledges his participation in the armed struggle, whereas a
political prisoners usually has been arrested for some political
crime, and not necessarily an armed action.

You were found guilty in 1985 of seditious conspiracy. What is
seditious conspiracy and why is it an impossible crime for Puerto
Ricans?

     During our trial, Don Juan Antonio Corretjer, who was the
national poet of Puerto Rico and was one of Puerto Rico's greatest
independentist and socialist thinkers, attended our trial, and he
developed the concept of sedition being the impossible crime.
Unfortunately, Don Juan died in 1985 with full military honours and
bestowed with the rank of Commander. Sedition is for us an
impossible crime because, first of all, the U.S. accuses us of
conspiring to overthrow the U.S. government by force and violence
in order to obtain the political independence of Puerto Rico. And
the authority that we are challenging is an illegal and colonial
authority, the U.S. has no lawful authority in Puerto Rico.
Colonialism is a crime against humanity. We also challenged the
U.S. military intervention in our homeland in 1898, and the
illegality of the Treaty of Paris.
     Also, for us sedition is a crime of thought; because for
Puerto Rican independentistas, just advocating armed revolution,
or support for armed organizations is enough for the U.S.
government to charge them with sedition. Somewhere in the future,
if the Puerto Rican struggle does reach a high level of struggle,
it is my opinion that the U.S. will not hesitate to charge other
independentistas with sedition. This was shown in 1937, with Don
Pedro Albizu Campos, a Harvard educated lawyer, and leader of the
Puerto Rican Nationalist Party, who was charged with sedition for
just merely advocating Puerto Rican independence. He was never
accused of carrying out any armed actions. 
     During our trial, Jose Rodriguez, who took a political
prisoner defense, also challenged sedition and it became obvious
during the trial that he was accused of sedition for only merely
supporting Puerto Rican independence, and not for participating in
any armed actions. 
     So, the U.S. government really does not need for people to be
involved in armed acts to charge them with sedition. It's merely
a political statute that they use to incarcerate Puerto Ricans. 
     Also, in 1922, the U.S. Supreme Court passed a decision that
Puerto Rico belongs to, but is not a part of, the United States.
And we used this decision to demonstrate that Puerto Rico is a
Latin American country in the Caribbean and that it is fighting 
for its national independence.

Could you tell us about the camapaign known as 'Ofensiva 92', 

     Ofensiva '92 began in July 1991, and in Puerto Rico and the
U.S. they are organizing local committees in different parts of
the island, thus far they have organized about 30 local committees.
In the United States, the National Committee to Free All Puerto
Rican Prisoners of War and Political Prisoners, in Philadelphia,
Chicago, Hartford, New York, and other cities have been
restructured to embrace the wide support we have received from
different sectors. The campaign is aimed at 1992 because we will
be commemorating the 500th anniversary of the discovery of the
americas, and so it's appropriate the for Puerto Ricans to
intensify the struggle for Puerto Rican independence and the ex-
carceration of its political prisoners and POWs. Also, the UN has
declared the 1990's as the decade for the elimination of
colonialism, and this resolution gives further ammunition to our
valiant cause.
     I think Ofensiva 92 has the potential of organizing and
mobilizing the Puerto Rican people around support for POWs and
political prisoners, and that we can be a unifying force within
the independence movement today. This campaign is similar to the
campaign waged in the early 1970s for the Five Puerto Rican
Nationalists who were in the United States prisons for over 25
years.

What can be done to support the struggle for Puerto Rican
independence and the struggle to free the Prisoners of War and
political prisoners?

     I think a committee in support of Puerto Rican independence
and POWs and political prisoners would be in order. I think such
a committee could take up the work of educating people around the
colonial case of Puerto Rico as well as why we have been imprisoned
and mistreated. The committee can expose the hypocritical posture
of the U.S. human rights policy; it goes around the world talking
about human rights and freedom for political prisoners, while it
negates its own human rights violations and denies the existence
of political prisoners here in the U.S. The U.S. also alleges that
Puerto Rico is its own internal affair and refuses to recognize the
jurisdiction of the United Nations. It is the responsibility of all
peace loving and progressive peoples of the world to be involved
in the struggle to free Puerto Rico. A committee in Canada would
help to internationalize the colonial case of Puerto Rico.

How do you see this struggle to free the imprisoned fighters in
relation to similar struggles around the world?

     The last few years we have been able to make contact with
various movements in support of freedom for political prisoners -
the Irish struggle, the Palestinian struggle, the struggle of GRAPO
and PCE(r) prisoners in Spain, and various other movements. And we
are trying to set some kind of agenda where we could talk about the
incarceration of political prisoners and prisoners of war and the
repressive nature of the state. Through the work in support for
political prisoners we have also been able to understand and
support the struggles against imperialism, racism, zionism, etc..
We have very much in common with people who are fighting for
national independence and social change throughout the world.
Together we can make the 1990s the decade for the ex-carceration
of all political prisoners and prisoners of war.

For further information contact the Movimiento de Liberacion
Nacional, 1671 N. Claremont, Chicago, IL, 60647 USA

*****************************************************************

Puerto Rican Prisoners Of War And Political Prisoners

Luis Rosa #NO2743
Box 711
Menard, Illinois 62259 U.S.A.

Alicia Rodriguez #N07157
P.O. Box 5007
Dwight, Illinois 60420, U.S.A.

Alberto Rodriguez #92150-024(B-3)
Edwin Cortes #92153-024 (B-2)
Ricardo Jimenez #88967-024(A-2)
P.O. Box 1000
Lewisburg, Pennsylvania 17837, U.S.A.

Elizam Escobar #88969-024
FCI Colorado Unit
P.O. Box 1500
El Reno, Oklahoma 73036, U.S.A.

Oscar Lopez-Rivera #87651-024
P.O. Box 1000
Marion, Illinois 62959, U.S.A.

Adolfo Matos #88968-024
3901 Klein Blvd (Unit J)
Lompoc, California 93436, U.S.A.

Carlos Alberto Torres #88976-024
Woodhouse, P.O. Box 1000
Oxford, Wisconsin 53952-1000, U.S.A.

Dylcia Pagan #88971-024
Ida Luz Rodriguez #88973-024
Haydee Beltron #88462-024
Carmen Valentin #88974-024
Alejandrina Torres #92152-024
FCI Pleasanton
5701 8th Street, Camp Parks
Dublin, California 94568, U.S.A.

Juan Segarra Palmer #15357-077
100 FCI Road
Marianna, Florida 32446, U.S.A.

Antonio Camacho-Negron #03587-069
FCI McKean (Unit 2)
P.O. Box 8000
Bradford, Pennsylvania 16701, U.S.A.

Norman Ramirez Talavera #03171-069
FCI Danbury
Pembroke Station
Danbury, Connecticut 06811, U.S.A.

Roberto Jose Maldonado #03588-069
Federal Medical Facility
3150 Horton Road
Fort Worth, Texas 76119, U.S.A.

Luis A. Colon Osorio #03172-069
FCI Otisville
Box 1000, Unit 5
Otisville, New York 10963 U.S.A.

*****************************************************************

Statement To The Court - Luis Colon Osorio

I, Luis Alfredo Colon Osorio

Declare and clarify to the press and the people of Puerto Rico in
general the following:

- I do not recognize U.S. Federal jurisdiction in Puerto Rico, nor
the courts imposed on this land by the power of armed force.

- I denounce the campaign of lies that the FBI is carrying out in
relation to my arrest and the supposed controlled substances they
allegedly found on me at the time of my arrest. The enemy practices
such tactics in order to tarnish and demoralize the independence
movement.
     Nevertheless, I declare that the drug problem in this country
is not, as they allege, the main cause of crime in our country.
Although I recognize that a great number of people in our country,
children, to youngsters and adults from all social spheres, use
drugs as a form of escape and survival, They are not, nor will they
ever be, the main cause of our problems.
     The real cause is nothing but the socio-political situation
produced by a Machiavellian plan directed and orchestrated by the
U.S. government in order to sustain a relationship of political
control over all aspects of our development as a free and sovereign
nation.

- Today, before our country and all the countries of the world,
the U.S. government is guilty of and responsible for all the deaths
that occur on a daily basis in our country.

- I denounce any intent of the FBI to repress, terrorize or
pressure humble and good Puerto Rican people, such as the members
of the PNP, Populares, Independentistas and people that are not
affiliated with any political party for merely having given a
fellow Puerto Rican a plate of rice and beans.

- The only court with the power, the global mandate and the right
to judge me is the Hague International Court.

- I have been arrested due to the conflict between the Puerto Rican
nation and the U.S. government; therefore I take a stand according
to the Geneva Convention and claim all the rights that are
guaranteed any Prisoner of War.

- Even though this fact is irrefutable, I will not stop all the
mechanisms within our reach to defend myself against the injustices
committed against me, our country, and the Independence movement.

- When I was arrested I had a booklet with various phone numbers,
that included family members and Puerto Rican friends that have
nothing to do with my situation, or my political beliefs. And the
FBI is going to use this booklet to repress and terrorize these
good Puerto Rican people. In the booklet I have telephone numbers
of doctors, family members, friends and journalists.

- And finally, a greeting to all the Puerto Rican people to have
faith in God. In this slow decolonization process, together with
poetry, the arts, the guitar and song, with honest day to day
practice, and with the power of a whole nation in the different
trenches of struggle, from the legal to armed confrontation, we
will achieve results desired by all for liberty. And all is done
for love.

*****************************************************************

EXPOlice Terror In Sevilla

     In Sevilla, Spain, a series of actions were held in April to
protest against the Expo 92 and to demonstrate against 500 years
of colonialism, the fortress Europe, and the North-South conflict. 
     After an anti-Expo concert on April 19, a left-radical
demonstration of about 350 people was held. After about an hour,
the march was stopped by police on both sides, resulting in panic
among some demonstrators. As people tried to disperse, they were
chased by police with pistols drawn and brutally beaten. When some
demonstrators fought back with stones, police opened fire, hitting
one by-stander and wounding three demonstrators. At least 100
people were arrested, and most had to be hospitalized.
     When the Expo opened on April 20, a group of people holding
placards demanding the release of those arrested the night before
were attacked by police as they attempted to talk to a Spanish TV
crew. There were 20 arrests. Tensions increased in Sevilla as
hundreds of police with machine guns were deployed throughout the
city. It seems the state sought to crush any public actions against
the Expo. A camping ground used by demonstrators, including some
people from South America, was evicted by police on April 21. There
were 30 arrests. 
     On April 22, most of those arrested had still not been
released, and those that were complained of racism and severe
mistreatment. Solidarity demos and press conferences were held in
Pisa, Padua, and Venedig. Three Germans and one Austrian were
transported to a Spanish prison for preventive detention. Other
Europeans that had been arrested were quickly deported. But, as is
indicative of the New Europe, others, especially North Africans,
were given much harsher treatment. As a form of intimidation,
arrestees were told that they must renounce the anti-Expo actions
before being released, and that if any one person refused, all
would still be held. 
     By this point, the political differences among the anti-Expo
organizers had worsened severely. The Greens completely distanced
themselves from the left-radical groups. The Spanish press spread
a series of lies about the actions, and Sevilla was filled with
heavily armed police. Meanwhile, the prisoners were still being
mistreated and denied visitors as they awaited trial for taking
part in an "illegal demonstration". Often during their confinement,
prisoners had to stand for hours against the wall with their hands
above their heads. If they moved, they were beaten. They were also
denied food and water for long periods of time. Several South
Amercians, upon being released, were immediately deported from
Spain.

*****************************************************************

Open Letter To The Puerto Rican People

     As we reported in ATS 12, Puerto Rican independentista Ivonne
Melendez was to be sentenced on July 1, and faced up to 15 years
in prison charged with transportation and conspiracy in an
expropriation carried out on the Wells Fargo Company in Connecticut
in 1983 by the political-military organization "Los Macheteros".
We are happy to report that she was not jailed, but was sentenced
to 5 years probation and 1,000 hours of community work. On the same
day, Filiberto Ojeda Rios, a leader of "Los Macheteros" was
sentenced 55 years, in absentia, for his alleged participation in
the expropriation. Below we have reprinted a statement that Ivonne
made before the legal process began.

     I want to take this opportunity to explain to the Puerto Rican
people the reasons why I have decided to face trial on charges
brought against me following my arrest on August 30, 1985.
     However, before I explain my reasons I want to give my
political analysis of each of our cases and the history preceding
them.
     Historically in Puerto Rico, the Puerto Rican Independence
Movement has taken the uniform position of refusing to collaborate
with the government that represses our people. I am sure that
everyone who struggles for Puerto Rico's independence feels this
way.
     Arrested comrades have traditionally claimed the Prisoner of
War status based on the analysis that Puerto Rico was invaded
militarily in 1898 by the U.S., and that today the U.S. continues
to oppress our people. For these reasons Puerto Rico is a colony
of the U.S. To take the Prisoner of War position takes courage and
sacrifice, as it means facing automatic conviction and a maximum
prison sentence, such as those being served by the Puerto Rican
Prisoners of War in the U.S. Their decision was based on their
analysis. I respect and perfectly understand that decision.
     When we were arrested on August 30, 1985, we began analyzing
our reality to determine what position to take, keeping in mind
the government's objective - to take us out of circulation, give
us maximum sentences and keep us in sub-human conditions (of
incarceration), as they do our comrades - the political prisoners
and prisoners of war.
     We decided to organize a political-legal defense which implied
using U.S. laws to expose the government's intentions, which has
been historically to obstruct and weaken the movement through
imprisonment, fabrication of cases, persecution and assassination
such as the 'Cerro Maravilla' case.
     During this political and legal process, different
circumstances have arisen leading the companeros and I to assume
different positions. These were based on our respective political
and personal ideologies and our analysis at the time.
     Filiberto Ojeda Rios and Luis Colon Osorio decided to go
clandestine. I respect this decision mainly for two reasons:
     1. Every comrade has the right to confront the enemy in
whatever form he/she understands is necessary, (by definition,
colonialism is a crime against humanity and must be fought by
whatever means available; this has been recognized by international
laws and the United Nations);
     2. Clandestinity is a valid form of struggle, one that these
comrades felt obligated to choose, because of the repression that
exists in Puerto Rico.
     Though this decision could have had an immediate effect on
those of us who were on bail, it was more important to view their
decision in the context of the long-term goals, recognizing the
importance of the two points mentioned above.
     About a year ago, the government began to make offers for a
politically negotiated way out of the case. Once again, we started 
to analyze each case and found that, first of all, the government's
case is weak and they feel obligated to drop the charges against
Elias Castro Ramos and Angel Diaz Ruiz. Secondly, the government
has no alternative but to drop the two main charges, which bore
sentences of 20 years each. In my case, this reduced the
possibility of a 60 year sentence to 15 years.
     The government continues to make offers, attempting to
negotiate a political way out in order not to go to trial.
     I terminated the negotiations on my own case in December 1991.
The other comrades decided to continue negotiating and seek a
solution according to their own situations. These negotiations
resulted in the following:
     1. Hilton Fernandez Diamente and Orlando Gonzalez Claudio
reached an agreement with the government. The details of the final
outcome is unknown. The hearing on the case is scheduled for April
10, 1992.
     2. Isaac Comancho Negron reached an agreement with the
government whereby his charges were reduced to one count with a
possible maximum sentence of five years. He was given a 44 month
sentence.
     3. Jorge Farinacci Garcia also reached an agreement with the
government. To date we are not aware of the final results. His
sentence hearing is scheduled for July 10, 1992.
     I understand and respect the decisions of the comrades. I
believe that when faced with the impossibility of a fair trial, a
jury of people who are not our peers, and maximum sentences, it
was the correct position to take due to their particular situation.
     Mathematically speaking, 200 years are more than 10 years.
Politically speaking, political prisoners and prisoners of war are
needed on the streets to advance the struggle for Puerto Rican
independence, not in prison.
     Nevertheless, this leaves us with an unresolved issue; why
have I decided to go to trial, if I am aware, as they were, that
I will not receive a fair trial, that I will face jurors that are
not my peers, in a country, in a language and a culture that are
not my own?
     These are my reasons:

     1. The violations of civil and human rights in this case,
including:
     - Violations of the Puerto Rican colonial constitution and
the right to privacy as it relates to the recordings made during
the investigation;
     - imprisonment for 16 months without bail;
     - bail conditions that included restrictions on our freedom
of movement, properties confiscated for more than five years, and
house arrest restrictions from 12:00 midnight to 6:00 AM, among
others;
     - being extradited from my country to be judged by people who
are not my peers;
     - violation of a speedy/expedited trial. We have waited not
90 days, but almost seven years. Late justice is no justice.
     - forced separation from my children and family for all these
years;
     - and all the other violations that I am unable to enumerate
at this time because there are so many.

     2. And, the reason that carries a lot of weight in my
decision;
     As a woman and a Puerto Rican mother, I believe that we should
always aspire to give the maximum. Our political work is often
ignored and minimized. For this reason I think someone should raise
a voice in protest. 
     Throughout all these years of colonialism, our people have
demonstrated resistance, and if I can contribute to that process,
I will do it proudly.
     In practice, this process, full of contradictions and
difficulties, in which we have taken different positions, has
proven to be a victory and has advanced our struggle. All means of
struggle have been respected and recognized. The comrades can
integrate themselves in the work as soon as possible, and most
importantly the U.S government has not achieved its purpose of
destroying the Puerto Rican revolutionary movement.
     The struggle continues until the final victory!

(from Libertad Update, April 18, 1992)

*****************************************************************

Consider The Following

13% of the land on the 35 by 100 mile island is occupied by U.S.
military bases.

U.S. nuclear arms are used and stored in Puerto Rico in violation
of the Treaty of Tlatelolco, which prohibits nuclear weapons in
Latin America.

The island's unemployment rate is 45%

40% of Puerto Rican women of child-bearing age are sterilized as
a result of U.S. depopulation programs.

Half of the Puerto Rican nation has been forced to migrate to the
United States due to unemployment and the colonial government's
policies - an exodus among the most massive recorded by history.
And, when they arrive in the United States, the migrants are
subjected to poverty and racism.

The U.S. congress retains power to legislate for Puerto Rico
without the consent of its people. Puerto Ricans on the Island are
not permitted to vote for President or congressional
representatives.

In 1917 the Jones Act forced citizenship on the Puerto Rican
people, along with the draft and World War I. Puerto Ricans have
been forced to serve in all subsequent U.S. wars.

Implementation of U.S.-designed 2020 plan (named for the year of
its anticipated completion) will transform the economy and physical
terrain of Puerto Rico to conform to U.S. strategic needs. The plan
will subject the island to large-scale strip mining and
deforestation, contamination of water resources, further reduction
of its population, and expansion of U.S. military presence.

As part of its attack on the independence movement, the FBI trains
the colonial police - responsible for bombings, assaults and
assassinations of independence and labour activists.

*****************************************************************

Interview With Chinganji Akinyela - New Afrikan Peoples
Organization, L.A. Chapter

Why did the King verdict cause such an explosion in the Black
Community?

     It's not just the verdict. People have been told over the past
five years and more that police crimes in our community can be
resolved through the justice system. In the last year, the
situation of the Korean women who killed Latasha Harlins and was
let off scot-free brought a lot of heat, fire and anger in the
Black community; right behind it was the Rodney King trial. People
watched it, they waited for justice to be served. When it wasn't,
people had already decided there was going to be hell to pay in the
street. It's more than a spontaneous riot or an isolated incident
as the media has been trying to say. It's a justified response to
an unjust situation.

What was it like to live in South Central LA during the last week?

     I have been inspired by our people. I had thought that LA was
pretty lethargic, pretty Hollywood, pretty Disneyland. And I've
been inspired to see people respond in a healing way, a way that
makes sense, that is just. Living here has been frightening. I'm
more frightened by the state troopers and the military than by the
people who have come from our community and are responding in a
strategic way to an unjust system. I say that because it was not
just senseless looting or burning. It was done strategically, and
in discussion with people out on the street, most people understand
that we were not in jeopardy. No homes were burned. But you can go
to Philadelphia and they'll burn a whole neighbourhood like they
did with the MOVE bombing without any consideration for families
and children. There were some casualties, and unfortunately when
you have war, when you have rebellion, there are some casualties.
     One of the most appalling things is that the only area where
the troops are is south of Pico Boulevard. If you go up int the
white community - Beverly Hills, Hollywood, other areas which were
also affected by the rebellion - there are no troops there. This
is like South Africa. People up there have no idea what's going on
in South Central. They have no idea people are walking up and down
the streets with guns and in fatigues as if it were a war zone.
Although the curfew is lifted, everything closes down after dark.
They don't let more than five people into a bank at a time. It's
terrifying. It's not like living in a city at all. Total
regimentation. I mean, it's a Nazi camp. Go outside the community
and it's a whole other world.

What would you say to the charge that the community was engaged in
senseless, self-destructive violence?

     It's funny to me to hear people talk about violence on the
part of our community, when we're responding to a situation that
has been very violent towards us. It's OK when it works for the
system. But when it's us responding to the system, we're violent,
terrorist, gangbangers, and thugs. In videotapes of the looting
you do not see predominantly gangbangers. You see mothers, fathers,
children out there liberating things for their survival.
     If you look at it realistically, you see a strategy. The
fires, the so-called looting, were systematic. In most cases, those
business were either Korean or white-owned. These institution in
our community are not of our community and do not serve our
community. We are consumers in those markets, but the money
immediately goes out of our community, so we do not reap any of the
benefits. If those institutions are to be rebuilt, they have to be
responsive to our community.
     Unfortunately, 50% of the Black businesses in Los Angeles were
also affected because they were near other businesses. It's sad to
see our senior citizens having to go so far out of the community
to purchase their groceries and what have you. We, as activists,
have mixed emotions about this, because it does affect people who
are dependent on these services within our community in order to
be able to exist. On the other hand, we see it as righteous
response to a very unjust system. In fact, it's a blow against a
neocolonialist situation where they set up certain things in our
community to make it look like it's ours, but it's no ours; in fact
it does not serve us at all.

Can you talk about the relationship between the Black and the
Latino community in all this?

     I think it's key. We've seen graffiti which says "Crips,
Bloods" - two opposing gangs here in Los Angeles - "and Mexicans
unite" throughout South Central. In the past there have been a lot
of tensions between the Mexican and the Black gangs, and within the
general population a feeling that the Mexicans were taking over.
Now there's some real unity. In fact we've reached out to build
coalitions to do some joint work, so that the same tensions are
allowed to come back.

How would you compare this rebellion to what happened in Watts 27
years ago.

     The most striking thing to me is that our people have guns
now. There were several pawn shops and surplus stores that were
hit, and the first things that were taken out were guns. People
are armed; in the past that wasn't the case. Most of the 1965
uprising was so-called looting and burning. Here it's been people
preparing for war.
     I also think it's much more youth-led than in the past. I've
talked to so many young people who watched the trial intensively.
The Youth are responding, they're organizing, they're politicized.
the work that they have done in the aftermath, in terms of really
getting a voice on the media, has made it so clear that our youth
is not a lost generation.

How are the youth influenced by the legacy of Malcolm X?

     The youth are without a doubt influenced by Malcolm. "By any
means necessary" speaks to their frustrations at being told to
wait, to be patient and to follow. The youth are inspired by
Malcolm because he spoke to them. They are tired of a school system
which does not address them. They are tired of being tempted by
materialism but unable to have the "things" which say they are
successful. They are tired of the cutbacks in their college
enrolments and programs. They are inspired by Malcolm because he
taught them to fight for their liberation.

What do you think the impact internationally and nationally has
been?

     It's going to have a profound impact. It has forced the
international community to look at America and see the racism and
the resistance to that racism. On a national perspective it has
allowed us to unite around this issue. It has the potential for
rebuilding a movement that went to sleep in the 70s and is
reawakening in the 90s. Our responsibility is to pull together that
movement.
     The state is doing everything possible to squash any movement,
because it doesn't want us to give the political context for what
is happening. As long as they continue to say it's monsters and
thugs and vultures involved in this and there is no political
consequence, then they're fine.
     They want to keep the real issues away from the screen.
Initially, anybody could say anything. But after three or four
days, the only ones that could talk were all saying that these were
just a few people, that it didn't reflect the total community, that
they're just gangbangers, that most people out there had nothing
to do with Rodney king, that they were just greedy.

What has been the response from the white community?

     There has been a big response. People all over the world have
responded to the injustice. But the white community still has a lot
of work to do to address latent racism, and the other issues that
have come up. If you live in the Black community, you are aware of
the issues. But because of their isolation, the only information
that the white community gets is from the media. So they come and
do the do-gooder thing of trying to clean up the community, but
they really have no concept of what happened, of what's going on
and what people are responding to. "Hey, it was a jury trial, what
can you say, the jury found them innocent; it's fair, that's how
it works." There is no real conception of what racism is how it
works throughout the system.

What's going to happen next?

     In the short term, the demands of the movement are for amnesty
for those arrested; U.S. troops out of South Central Los Angeles;
and rebuilding - providing services. A real important element of
our coalition is providing clothing and whatever other services are
needed for survival.
     We've organized a crisis intervention group, the Coalition
for Justice, to reinterpret the Los Angeles rebellion, to formulate
demands, and to counteract the media campaign to criminalize our
community. Our desire within the New Afrikan People's Organization
(NAPO) and the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, is to build it into
a much broader group, and it certainly has the potential for that.
For the first time in quite a while, we find ourselves working with
individuals who feel the connections between this and what else is
happening in the world. Ultimately, we see it building toward the
national liberation movement that we want in this country.

     Chinganji Akinyela is an organizer for NAPO. She was
interviewed on May 9, 1992 by Breakthrough. NAPO, which celebrates
its sixth anniversary this year on May 19, struggles for self-
determination in the tradition of Malcolm X.

(from the insert to the Summer 92 issue of Breakthrough)

*****************************************************************

L.A., Washington Heights...

     On Friday July 3, Jose Garcia, a Dominican immigrant living
in upper Manhattan, was shot and killed by NYPD officer Michael
O'Keefe. The following Monday, a march to the 34th precinct turned
violent. The violence continued for the next three days, with over
1200 riot police being deployed in the neighborhood. One
demonstrator was killed when, according witnesses, police cornered
the man on the roof of a building and then pushed him to his death.
Police often had to flee from sniper fire during the rioting. By
Friday July 10, 125 people had been arrested, 14 buildings and 125
cars were burned, several business were looted, and scores of
police were injured and at least two dozen police vehicles has been
destroyed. Over 2000 riot police remained in the Washington Heights
neighborhood throughout the weekend...  "They have found a common
enemy": The gang truce between the Crips and the Bloods in Los
Angeles is still in effect. Gang members have recently held
meetings with Korean merchants in an effort to heal racial wounds
in riot-torn neighborhoods. Gang members also issued a written
proposal with their ideas for rebuilding East LA. They have even
formed a non-profit corporation to sell car-wash spray and gang-
truce t-shirts to raise money for community reconstruction... 

*****************************************************************

Assata Shakur On Racism In The USA

Delivered at a meeting of the Organization of Solidarity of the
Peoples of Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
Havana, Cuba May 8, 1992
     
     First of all I would like to say it is a great pleasure and
a great honour for me to be here today. I would like to thank the
Cuban government and the Cuban people for their long and consistent
history of solidarity and support for the sturggles of African-
Americans and other oppressed people in the United States. I am
sure that I speak for the vast majority of progressive thinking
people in the United States when I say that for us, the Cuban
revolution has been a shining example of freedom, social justice,
and of courageous struggle against U.S. Imperialism. We are truly
grateful for the very principled stand that the Cuban government
has taken against racism, both nationally and internationally.
     Many of us in the African-American community first became
aquainted with the Cuban revolution in 1960, when Fidel Castro and
the entire Cuban delegation stayed in the Teresa Hotel in Harlem,
N.Y. and became the first, and probably the only, world leader to
stay in a hotel in a predominately Black and poor neighbourhood.
Black and Third World people in the United States have repeatedly
been the victims of persecution and political repression and we are
deeply grateful to the Cuban people for giving political asylum to
activists llike Robert Williams and Huey Newton of the Black
Panther Party. We are also very appreciative of the vast support
in Cuba that political prisoners like Angel Davis and Leonard
Peltier have received.
     At a time when the United States Government's policies around
the world are becoming more militaristic, repression inside the
U.S. borders is also on the upswing. Racism and police brutality
have been part of the U.S. reality, but they are now reaching
levels that have never been known before. The case of Rodney King
in Los Angeles is not an isolated incident. Over the last five
years there have been uprisings or mass demonstrations in every
major city in the United States protesting police brutality and
repression. Although there are are also white victims of police
brutality, blacks and other Third World people are the most
frequent victims of police violence. In African-American, Latino,
Native American and Asian communities the police have a virtual
license to kill. Each year, hundreds of police are investigated on
charges of using excessive force or of wanton murder, but only a
small number are ever officially charged with crimes and only a
tiny percentage are ever found guilty. And even on those rare
occasions when policemen are actually convicted of assault, torture
or murder, the violators seldom spend time in prison for their
crimes.
     The racist mass media and the entertainment industry tacitly
condone this police terror by depicting Blacks and other Third
World people as violent criminals and by treating police violence
as a normal, justifiable fact of life. The message is repeated over
and over in thousands of subtle ways, implying that Blacks and
other people of colour somehow deserve to be beaten or shot.
     Given the reality in poor and oppressed communities, it is
not surprising that police brutality triggered an uprising in Los
Angeles. What is in fact surprising is that more rebellions have
not occured. The police chief Daryl Gates has come under fire for
his racist policies and racist remarks. When his department was
criticized because a large numkber of Blacks, approximately 20,
had died as a result of police chokeholds, Gates stated that "We
may be finding that in some Blacks when a [restraint] is applied
the veins or arteries do not open up as fast as they do on normal
people." Police racism is such a common occurence in L.A. that the
police showed little hesitation in laughing and joking over police
radios and computers about the beating of Rodney and other police
beatings, referring to King and other blacks as lizards and
gorillas. For years. L.A. SWAT (assault) teams have conducted
massive sweeps of African-American and Latino communities, during
which huge numbers of youths are forced to kneel or lie on the
ground while the police conduct random searches, supposedly to
combat drug and gang activity. In some Los Angeles neighbourhoods
police have put up concrete barricades with police posted at
entrances. Signs reading "Narcotics Enforcement Area - Open to
Residents Only" have been put up and everyone police suspect of
being a gang member or a drug pusher or user are routinely stopped
and searched.
     The events in Los Angeles are repeted, almost identically,
throughout the U.S.A. Although young Black and Third World males
in their teens and twenties have been the main targets of police
violence, no one is safe.
     In California, police broke into a locked apartment and shot
a five-year-old black boy who was playing with a toy pistol to
death. The officer who shot the boy claimed that he thought that
the boy was a man who was trying to shoot him. He was never
prosecuted.
     Eleanor Bumpers, a 67-year-old black grandmother, was shot to
death as police attempted to evict her from her home because she
was several months behind with her rent. Police claimed that
Bumpers attacked them, although she weighed close to 300 pounds
and could barely move because she suffered from severe arthritis.
     Michael Stewart, 18 years old, was beaten to death by police
for the crime of painting on the walls of the subway. In an attempt
to cover up his death, New York City's chief medical examiner
falsified autopsy reports on three different occasions - stating
that he died from cardiac arrest, bronchial pneumonia, and then
finally, of spinal cord injury. The six police who were charged
with the beatings were found not guilty.
     In Philadelphia, police launched an aerial bombardment that
killed 11 African-Americans, 5 of them young children. Sixty-one
homes were also destroyed, leaving 253 homeless. Although the group
had committed no crime, police officials initiated the bombing to
evict them from the area, stating that they were radicals,
undesirables, and naturalists who had to be removed from the area
by force.
     In many states, not only beatings but various kinds of torture
have become a common practice, usually to obtain a forced
confession. In Texas, Alabama, California, and New York, police
have been accused and convicted of torturing prisoners with "Stun
Guns" - batons that can deliver a 50,000 volt charge.
     These are just a tiny sampling of racist police violence in
the United States. The overall statistics are alarming. In New York
City, for example, minorities accounted for 92.5% of police
killings in 1990. There were 41 people killed by police in 1990;
15 were African-American, 23 were Latino, and only 3 were white.
The U.S. Justice Department reports that there were 15,000 cases
of police brutality and excessive force investigated over the last
6 years. The Justice Department has brought only approximately 40
lawsuits charging police brutality. In almost all areas, in the
vast majority of cases as racism and violence are increasing, the
U.S. government looks the other way.
     Racism has become fashionalble in the United States, largely
due to the open hostility and indifference to the plight of poor
and third world people by teh Reagan and Bush administrations. Both
administrations have vigorously opposed all Civil Rights
legislation, all programs to help the poor, and have severly cut
back funds slated for health, education and social welfare. By the
beginning of the 1990s, most of the policies and programs which had
provided a small amount of aid to the urban poor had been
eliminated.
     Both Reagan and Bush ran policitcal campaigns which
represented the interests of rich, white America. Instead of using
overtly racist language, they cloaked their racist appeals with
thinly code-words by opposing "quotas", "special interest groups"
"reverse descrimination", etc. In 1988 the George Bush campaign 
paid huge amounts of only to run "Willie Horton" television ads
which directly appealed to white racism. Willie Horton was a Black
man who, while released from prison on a furlough, allegedly raped
a white woman. Bush quietly aligned himself with elements of the
far-right, sprinkling his speeches with ultra-right rhetoric.
     It was under these conditions that white supremacist groups
proliferated in the U.S. Between 1990 and 1991 the number of hate
groups in the U.S. rose by 27%. In 1990 there were 69 Ku Klux Klan
groups; by 1991 there were 97. In 1990 there were 160 neo-Nazi
groups; by 1991 there were more than 200. There were 25 bias-
related murders in 1991, up from 20 in 1990.
     As a result of the ongoing, uninterrupted racist policies of
the U.S. government, oppressed communities are in a state of
crisis. Drug abuse, violence, crime, the AIDS epidemic and poverty
have wreaked havoc on black and other third world communities.
These conditions make up the underlying cause for the rage and
extreme discontnent that led up to the rebellion in Los Angeles and
other places.

Poverty

     There are more than 5 million homeless people currently living
in the United States.
     Between 1986 and 1990 there was a 49% rise in the unber of
Blacks living in high povery areas in central cities. In 1989, half
of Black children under 6 were libing in poverty, along with 40%
of Latino children.
     For the most affluent 5% of all families in the U.S., average
income rose to 148,438 in 1989, from $120,253 in 1979. In the same
10 year period, the aveage income of the poorest one-fifth of all
families declined by $559. In 1990, the average Black worker earned
$329 a week, compared with $427 for the average white worker.
     
Education

     As government funds are cut, access to quality education
becomes more and more difficult for poor children. In many large
cities, the hight school drop-outs rate is between 30% and 70%.
Racism follows children from kindergarten to college.
     Black children are three times more likely to be classified
"retarded" by their public schools as whites, while black teenagers
read four years behind the level of white classmates.
     In 1980, the wealthiest school districts in New Jersey spent
$800 more per child than the poorest districts. Today, they spend
$3,000 more. In Texas, in 1978, the richest districts spent $600
more  than the poor districts. Today they spend up to $5,000 more.
     Tuition costs have more than tripled at private colleges since
1977. Last year's average bill was about $8,700. At public schoos
tuition more than doubled, up to about $1,700 last year. The
percentage of low-income black high school graduates attending
college dropped to 30% in 1988, form nearly 40% in 1976... In 1976,
53% of black middle-income high school graduates were enrolled; by
1988 only 28% were there. The black presence on campus waned - even
as total college attendance rose, according to Newsweek:

    "Who goes to College?" (from Newsweek)

     Black males    4%
     Black females  6%
     White males    39%
     White females  46%

Health

     The death rate for Black infants (17.6 per 1,000 births as of
1988) is more than twice that for whites (8.5 per 1,000). Acording
to the National Commission to Prevent Infant Morality, Detroit,
Washington, and Philadelphia suffer higher infant-death rates than
Jamaica or Costa Rica. In Central Harlem the infant mortality rate
is the same as in Malaysia:

     Infant Mortality Rate, 1988
     (Deaths per 1,000 births)

     Central Harlem      23.4
     Bedford-Stuyvesant  21.0
     East Harlem         14.9
     New York City       13.3

     A study by Dr. Harold Freeman, director of surgery at Harlem
Hospital, and Dr. Colin McCord, found that a man in Harlem has less
chance of living past 40 than a man in impoverished Bangladesh. In
Bangladesh 55 percent of men live to age 65, while only 40 percent
of Harlem men live that long.
     Nearly 7% of all U.S. babies - a quarter million a year - are
born too small. The rate is far higher, and rising, among
minorities. In 1988 fully 13% of all Black children came into the
world dangerously underweight.
     Cocaine use rose ominously among young women during the
1980's. Recent findings suggests that the problem has peaked;
experts guess that 300,000 to 100,000 women deliver cocaine-exposed
babies each year. At Harlem Hospital, the frequency of cocaine use
among expectant mothers jumped from 1% in 1980 to 20% in 1988. A
1989 survey suggested that 17%  of Philadelphia's babies were born
exposed.
     More than 34 million Americans have no health insurance. Of
the uninsured, about 27% of Hispanics are uninsured, 20% of blacks
and 12% ofwhites.

Prison

     Black males comprise less than 6% of the U.S. populaiton but
represent nearly 50 % of prisoners in jails and penitentiaries.
The United States now has the world's highest know rate of
incarceration, with 426 prisoners per 100,000 peopulation. South
Africa is second in the world with a rate of 333 per 100,000.

     - Black males in the U.S. are incarcerated at a rate of four
times that of Black males in South Africa, 3,109 per 100,000
compared to 729 per 100,000.
     - Between 1973 and 1988, the number of felons in state and
federal prisons almost tripled from 204,000 to 603,000. By 1989,
the total inmate population in U.S. prisons and jails had passed
the one million mark.
     - Almost one in four (23 percent) Black men in the age group
20-29 is either in prison, jail, on probation, or parole on any
given day.
     - For white men in the age group 20-29, one in 16 (6%) is
under the control of the criminal justice system.
     - Latino males rates fall between these two groups, with one
in 10 (10.4%) within the criminal justice system on any given day.

     The number of women inmates has almost tripled in the last 10
years. Three quarters of the women are mothers, and many of them
single parents... The typical offender, according to a 1988
national study conducted for the American Correctional Association,
is a young minority mother.

Death Penalty

     - There are approximately 2,400 people on death row. More than
41% of prisoners on death row are African-American.
     - More than 6% of those on death row are Hispanic.
     - Native Americans receive the death penalty in numbers more
than triple their proportion of the general population. A House
Judiciary Committee found that 60 of the 115 prisoners on death
row in Alabama were African American, as were 71% of those executed
since the reestablishment of executions in that state in the early
1980s.

     The government's own General Accounting Office reviewed 20
studies on the patterns of death sentencing . The study concluded
that "in 82% of the studies, race of victim was found to influence
the likelihood of being charged with capital murder. Those who
murdered whites were more likely to be sentenced to death than
those who murdered Blacks."
     There are more than 100 Political Prisoners and Prisoners of
War currently in U.S. Prisons.
     The "Special International Tribunal On The Violation Of Human
Rights Of Political Prisoners And Prisoners Of War In United
States' Prisons And Jails" held in December, 1990, concluded in its
verdict that:

     - "Within the prisons and jails of the United States exist
substantial numbers of Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War.
     - "These prisoners have been incarcerated for their opposition
to U.S. government policies and actions that are illegal under
domestic and international law, including the right to self-
determination, genocide, colonialism, racism and militarism.
     - "The U.S. government criminalizes and imprisons persons
involved in the struggles for self-determination of Native
Americans, Puerto Ricans, and Black and Mexicano-Chicano activists
within the borders of the United States.
     - "The U.S. also criminalizes and imprisons white North
Americans and others who have worked in solidarity with struggles
for self-determination, as well as for peace and against nuclear
arms, against racism, sexism and other forms of discrimination.
     - "Political people have been subjected to disproportionately
lengthy prison sentences and to torture, cruel, inhuman and
degrading treatment within the U.S. prison system."

The Reality of Life in the USA

     The reality of what life in the USA is really like depends on
what class and race one belongs to. In many cases the quality of
life is a far cry from the images shown on the silver screen. The
image that the U.S. government projects abroad is based on sheer
hipocrisy. While U.S. leaders make speeches about Human Rights
abroad, they blatantly violate the human rights of the U.S.
population.
     Democracy has meant little more to many people living in the
U.S.A. than a choice between the lesser of the evils. Just because
you've got Hitler, Mussolini and Franco running against each other
in an election doesn't mean you've got democracy. There is no
freedom of speech in the U.S., only freedom to whisper. Anyone who
really speaks out against U.S. policies loudly and effectively
becomes targeted by the FBI or the CIA. The government's spokesmen
give much lip service to "multi-party democracy," but any party
that differs from the pro-capitalist policies of the Republican and
Democratic parties will be infiltrated and attacked by government
agencies.
     Oppressed people in the United States identify with and
support Cuba, not only because of Cuba's revolutionary example. We
also relate to the Cuban experience because we have been victimized
by the same reactionary politics. It is not difficult for us to
recognize and condemn the U.S. blockade against Cuba, because many
of us have experienced a very different but somewhat similar
blockade during our entire lifetimes. The subjugated people in the
United States have been subjected to a kind of economic and
political blockade since the day we were born. We have experienced
a job blockade, an education blockade, a healthcare blockade, and
a freedom, justice and liberty blockade. We can relate to the
plight of the Cuban people because we know what it feels like to
be attacked from all sides, simply for fighting against
exploitation. We support the right of the Cuban people to self-
determination. We feel certain that the Cuban people will be able
to solve their own problems, without copying any kind of big-
business, Willie Horton style "democracy."
     Referring to the uprising and the racial composition of Los
Angeles, Police Chief Daryl Gates called it "a Third World city."
Those of us who have suffered at the hands of the U.S. government
for years knew the truth in what he said. The same federal troops
that had invaded Panama, that had fought in Iraq, were now fighting
in Los Angeles. And we were the enemy. In one of the bloodiest
rebellions in U.S. history, with close to 60 dead and more than
2,000 wounded, the reality is staring us in the face. Oppressed
people in the U.S. are no different from oppressed people all over
the world. We will never be free until imperialism is defeated.

                 Viva la Revolucion Cubana!
                     Viva la libertad!
                       Venceremos!!!!

(from Race & Class Newsfeed via NY Transfer News Service)

*****************************************************************

Interview With Women Political Prisoners In Chile

     On Tuesday, December 10/91, some 150-200 people demonstrated
in Santiago, Chile. The demonstration was held on the Day of Human
Rights under the motto: "Against the Chilean State! For the Freedom
of Political Prisoners!"
     The demonstration was technically illegal, since the
organizers did not wish to receive the State's permission for a
march beforehand.
     It was planned that a march would start from two different
places at 1 p.m. and head for Moneda (the government palace). As
soon as people began forming for the demonstration, the police
arrived and stood with their clubs in front of those passing out
leaflets and holding banners.
     Without any reason, other than wishing to hinder the demo
before it even began, the police fired a water cannon ("Guanaco")
down the main street, hitting not only the demonstrators, but
passers-by as well. Demonstrators responded with stones and
molotovs. The supposed thrower of the molotov which set the
"Guanaco" water cannon on fire was brutally beaten and taken to
hospital.
     The common march to the Moneda palace was abandoned, since
the number of demonstrators was so small, so instead, small bands
of people headed for the justice ministry. A regular demonstration
was no longer possible, as people had already been dispersed. But
about 40 people assembled in front of the CODEPU (the political
prisoners' support group) building near the justice ministry. They
shouted slogans like "(Todas las Presas Politicas - presente" ["All
political prionsers are here with us!"] and "Haber, haber, los
derechos humanos, liberar a los presos, castiguar al tirano" ("Just
wait and see, human rights will punish the tyrants and set the
political prisoners free!"). The cops ordered all foreigners to
leave the area - they probably wanted no witnesses to what was to
follow. They "lead" them to the next intersection, and when the
foreigners refused to go further, they were pushed into open
traffic. After a small confrontation, they crossed the street.
Meanwhile, some of the demonstrators tried to seek refuge in the
CODEPU office, but the porter wouldn't let them in the building.
So then 10 people were beaten and arrested. The cops then went on
a total rampage in the inner-city, in full riot-gear, firing tear
gas and beating people. A mobile unit continually patrolled the
area in order to find, beat, and arrest demonstrators. This went
on for three hours and involved most of the city's security forces.
On account of the small number of people, no common actions could
be carried out, so most actions were individual and spontaneous.
The press conference, which was to be held on the Plaza de Arma,
never took place.
     The background to this demonstration is the situation of
political prisoners. There are still 60 men and 8 women in jail
who were imprisoned under the [Pinochet] dictatorship. The women
are organized in a women's collective in the Santo Domingo prison
in Santiago, and the men are in the "Carcel Publica" in Santiago.
The demonstrators were acting against the Chilean State, which
continues to detain persons who had struggled against the
dictatorship, and which continues to violate human rights and carry
out torture. They criticized the so-called democracy which captures
new prisoners, in accordance with the new Anti-Terrorist Law, who
are members of revolutionary organizations, and which will not
recognize them as political prisoners, and which detains them in
inhuman conditions, as is especially the case with Marcela
Rodriguez.
     The Chilean State has not changed its line since the elections
of two years ago. The policy of reconciliation has instead been
directed against the people, not those responsible for the
dictatorship. The goal of the December 10 demonstration was to
unmask the State's reality, for example: the secret service has
merely been subsumed into the military; the neo-liberal economic
policies are continuing, and the new finance minister under Aylwin
seems more liberal [in a classical, economic sense - ed.] than his
predecessor under the dictatorship; new anti-terrorist commandos
are being formed; military spending is up 30%, and the number of
Carabineros has also increased; and in the spheres of justice, the
military, and banking, almost no personnel changes have taken
place. The old faces remain in the "new" political system.
     In order to make known the current situation, we are
reprinting this interview which appeared in Angerhorigen Info 86.
     This interview was held on December 15/91 in the women's
prison Santo Domingo in Santiago, Chile, with:
     Ceceila Radrigan - a MIR [a left-revolutionary organization
active in the peoples' movement against the Pinochet dictatorship
-ed.] militant arrested in October 1981, sentenced to 18 years and
one day, with four other trials still open.
     Ester Alfaro - 37 years old, with two children; a militant
from the Movimento Juvenil Lautaro, jailed in September 1990.
     Belinda Zubicueta - has two sons who fled Chile after their
mother's arrest; a militant of the PC (Communist Party), sentenced
to life imprisonement in 1986.
     Patricia - 32 years old, married with a daughter; a militant
of the PS (Socialist Party), arrested in October 1988 and charged
with anti-terror laws and weapons offences.
     Valentina Alvarez - 26 years old; a MIR militant, arrested in
November 1986 and charged with anti-terror laws and weapons
offences; her trial has been transferred from a military to a
civilian court in order to speed up her conviction.
     Gladys - 29 years old; a PC militant, arrested on June 20/90,
when she was two months pregnant; her son was born in prison and
lives with her there; her trial, for anti-terror law violations and
weapons offences, has likewise been transferred to a civilian
court.
     There are also two other comrades imprisoned in Santo Domingo
who did not take part in this interview:
     Leonora - in hospital since December 10/91; an MJ Lautaro
militant, on trial since October 1989.
     Catalina Arila - arrested in September 1990, sentenced to 5
years and one day.

What is your present situation here in the prison like, and how
did you reach these conditions?

Ceceila: Our present situation is the result of long struggles, to
reach decent conditions. Our status as political prisoners was much
harder to maintain under the dictatorship, in fact, it practically
didn't exist. And every petition we submitted for schooling or
sports was turned down. To get these things, we had to carry out
actions. Sometimes we were successful, sometimes we weren't. By the
time of the end of the dictatorship. We had achieved some
improvements, like to be in a prison for political prisoners, like
the one we're in now, Santo Domingo. After the civilian government
took power, things remained the same. There's a little bit more
"freedom" as far as conditions inside go, like lengthening the
visiting day, more activities, visits from children every day,
general visitors three times a week, and the right to receive
special visitors every day. We do different kinds of jobs,
craftswork with copper and leather, literature, dance classes, and
macrame. So we have lots we can do, including computer lessons
three times a week, so time passes quickly.

Patricia: Like Ceci said, we achieved certain "freedoms", but
nonetheless, things are harder for us now than during the
dictatorship. At that time, there was a dictatorship whom we could
struggle against. But today, two years after the people voted in
a new government, we are still held as political prisoners, and
that's a difficult situation.

Valentina: And another thing, which I think is important that
people internationally learn of, is that we are tortured as
prisoners, both under the dictatorship and the democracy. And the
trials, or rather the law suits, which went before the court
concerning human rights abuses, achieved nothing. What's more, some
people responsible for torture escaped going on trial altogther.

Please describe to us the prison conditions under the dictatorship,
and what aspects have changed for you.

Valentina: During the dictatorship - there are prisoners who have
been in jail more than 10 years, and some of us have been in for
5 or 6 years - we were moved between different jails. First we were
in a women's prison, which was very strictly regulated and
repressive, especially for the political prisoners. Then, because
of international pressure, we were incorporated into a men's
prison. Although all the women here were political prisoners, we
still had to fear for rape and physical attacks from the male
social prisoners. Then, after issuing a series of demands, and with
pressure from international human rights organizations, we were put
in this prison in January/88. Since then we've been here, in Santo
Domingo, which differs a lot from other prisons. It's a big old
house, used specifically for us. That has improved our living
conditions, as far as accomodations go, but not the state of our
lock-down. The judicial conditions, which we have been subject to,
both now and during the dictatorship, are unjust.

Belinda: And another thing that needs to be said regarding the
conditions, especially for imprisoned women, is that every time we
start a movement to demand more space, we get punished. That
initially stirred the attention of the prison's directors. For
example, they threatened to take away the guaranteed right of those
comrades, who, for example, come visit their imprisoned comrades
in jail, to visit, so then they'd lose the ability to see their
comrades. We also got punished with a general ban on visits.
     Some things we did achieve, however, was the ability to have
doctors and psychiatrists visit. That has enabled us to hold some
sort of dialogue on prison situations. This situation has led to
familial disintegration, for example. This disintegration has,
among other things, health side-effects. And even psychologoical
help can't undo the effects of torture. The doctors, which we have
now, are very trustworthy. This has been gained both through our
activities and through the support of the social organizations who
exert pressure on our behalf.

Gladys: In addition to the disintegration of the family, for those
of us who have children, there is an organization dedicated
exclusively to this. That's crucial, because children also have to
live through the side-effects of torutre. The PDIE is an
organization which offers psychological help, pediatry, and
medicine.

Patricia: Something else we have achieved is that comrades are now
able to complete their schooling here. We have two comrades, who
are now free, who just finished their mid-level education. One
group intended to study sociology at the university level from
inside. Unfortunately we couldn't do this, becuase there was a lack
of professors. But with this action, we succeeded in further
developing ourselves.

How is it that most prisoners are now out, while you all are still
being held? What clause in the Lex Cumplido led to this?

Patricia: That has to do with how the government has answered the
problem of political prisoners. That's why there were different
laws to deal with the whole problem of political prisoners. These
were the so-called Cumplido Laws. At the end, everything was more
complicated, and only a few comrades actually got out, since the
government viewed the problem as judicial, not political. So what
happened next? During the last year of the dictatorship, and even
now, they solve things according to their own interests. And it's
the same people: the judges now are the same ones there were then.
In other words, although the government changed hands, the judicial
system did not. So that's why some prisoners got out sooner than
others. But then there's judges who hand out indictments against
us. In my case, three, and Valentina got another one just a week
ago, and she's been in jail for 5 years now! That's the general
situation. Things have gotten worse, more miserable. There's still
the possibility, once the trials are finally over, to win freedom
by means of a pardon, or by an offer of exile. But I think it's
difficult to predict. There are so many different cases, like
Miriam Ortega's, for example. She was in prison for 10 years. When
her trial ended, she was pardoned. But as you can see, her trial
took 10 years.

Valentina: Furthermore, what the possibility of freedom for certain
prisoners of the dictatorship meant was being released under
warning after the trial was over. The punishments they got were
small. This was one group. Still others received pardons, once the
trials were over. And then there's us, those of us that are left,
unlucky enough to still have open cases. If we go before a
progressive judge, then we may gain our freedom. But if we get a
right-wing judge, one from the dictatorship period, then we will
be denied our freedom. So it's all a matter of luck. But it
supports the impression which the government and the courts are
giving at the moment, namely releasing a certain number of
political prisoners.
     And this isn't violating the stipulations of the laws which
were passed in the parliament. We haven't yet lost our chance for
a release under warning. But in this country, the mechanism isn't
urgent.

How do you all hope to gain your freedom, and what are your means
of struggle? The men, for example, began a hungerstrike with the
demand of "Immediate Freedom!" Tell us something about your
activities.

Valentina: You see, we were involved in the hungerstrike, which
lasted 23 days, and the purpose was to draw attention to the matter
once again - to make the public aware of the fact that there are
still political prisoners from the dictatorship period. In June of
this year [1991] we had a second hungerstrike. The first one was
in March, and it lasted 19 days. All these actions, and things like
prison occupations which we did along with our supporters, were and
still are designed to put pressure on the government to give us our
release under warning and to speed up the trials, to grant pardons,
and some comrades are considering exile as a possible option. All
of these are possibilities which the government agreed to discuss
-
 but which they never once disucssed until June [of 1991]. The
hungerstrike resulted in some comrades having their trials speeded
up, some gained their freedom, and some now have the possibility
of a pardon. For us it was like this: if we do nothing, we'll lose
again. Our main demand is freedom based on the amnesty mechanisms
which are in place. That means, if they say they're actually going
to wrap up a case, that they do so. The government is in a position
to put pressure on the judges based on the decrees. But if there's
no pressure exerted, either nationally or internationally, then the
trials go very slowly. So you can see then this is clearly a
political problem. When the government sees that there are people
mobilizing, exerting pressure, and making demands, then they have
to either negotiate or put pressure on the judicial system to make
sure the mechanisms are functioning.

Belinda: The question is often asked, how will we adjust ourselves
in society, should we gain our freedom. For those of us still in
prison, we have seen how comrades who have been released have had
difficulties on the outside, and we'll have to deal with these
problems ourselves. There are so many things about our charges,
under the Anti-Terrorist Law and weapons violations, that will
affect us in daily life and prevent us from finding work. You want
to be fit in again, but you can't, because on the one hand there's
no jobs, and on the other hand because its logistically so
difficult now, because you don't have a home, you can't develop
yourself or study, and you see yourself as marginalized. That's
another point that we addressed in the hungerstrikes.

Gladys: I think it's more than this. Fitting back into society is
also difficult psychologically. Comrades who have been in prison
for more than ten years get out and have to make do in a totally
different society; their lives outside were suddenly stopped, and
now they are back out, and they see how things have changed, their
former friends are no longer there, and the conditions are totally
different. They then have to readapt to this, and, as it were,
start anew again. Not only is finding work difficult, but just
adjusting psychologically is as well. For those comrades who are
mothers, there's the problem of coming to terms with the children.
The children have grown up and have very different lives of their
own. Relationships with the family and with their partner will have
stagnated. This is really a difficult situation.

What do you think of the possibility of exile or a pardon? Wouldn't
a pardon have to be tied with a renunciation? How do you all view
this as a possibility of gaining freedom?

Ceceila: Well, as for voluntary exile, that's something we have
rejected outright. We think that we have the right to live in our
own country, because our struggle was a just one. We should have
been released in March 1990 [when Aylwin took power - ed.]. I
myself turned down "voluntary" exile. They established the
boundaries early on, and our option for freedom is waiting for the
cases to be over and then to discuss the possibility of an amnesty
- that's the only way we see of gaining our freedom. There are very
individual matters of conscience to be dealt with when considering
whether or not to accept "voluntary" exile. Like in Patricia's
case, because her fiancee is in Belgium. But she doesn't want to
go. So you see, we are confronted with some very difficult
problems, like with her, her partner and comrade is outside of the
country. And he can't reutrn, or he'll be arrested. And on the
other hand, she doesn't want to leave her country. That's a
situation with no easy solution. She'll have to decide for herself
when the time comes: to stay and lose her partner, or be reunited
with him but to leave her country behind.

Valentina: What we have struggled for is not only to be recognized
as political prisoners, but also to have our struggle against the
dictatorship recognized, that we took on forms of struggle which
were revolutionary. Apart from our own efforts, we have to thank
the international pressure which helped to end the dictatorship.
Our legitimate right to form a resistance has not yet been
recognized. What's more, they degrade people with talk of things
like pardons, voluntary exile, and the Cumplido Laws. The
government treats us like law breakers. They look at us as if we
have done things which must be punished; they don't realize that
we had no alternative. When the government changed hands, they
didn't have the will power to grant us our rights and recognize us
as political prisoners. They partially recognized us, but they
failed to recognize the most significant part, and the hardest for
us, namely that we are still in prison. [They are recognized as
political prisoners against the dictatorship, but this has not
automatically led to their freedom. ed.] We aren't in the business
of asking for concessions, or writing papers and seeking trials.
We demand freedom and the right to live in Chile, now. But the
government just sticks to its mechanisms, and acts as if there's
no alternative for us. We have to accept these means, because we
don't have the strength to develop any alternative; so that's why
we have to address the reality of the Cumplido Laws and the trials.
But these are realties which we are not in agreement with,
especially as women.

Belinda: The same goes for the question of voluntary exile - that's
something we don't agree with, but there's no alternative. That
means accepting the fact that either they throw you out of the
country, or they keep you in jail. You have to choose between one
or the other. You have to resolve the problem within the confines
of the Cumplido Laws. Another thing about the Cumplido Law is that
it is a general legislative law that also addresses other
prisoners. So it undermines our status as political prisoners. It's
significant that they are not conerned with this, they bring us to
trial, but not as people who struggled against the dictatorship,
to make changes in this period in which we live. The Cumplido Law
was not passed with this in mind, but rather was seen as general
solution to the prisoner issue, which for the government meant both
social and political prisoners.

The women have been on hungerstrike since December 9/91. Which
women are these, and what are their demands? [We do not know the
outcome of this hungerstrike - ed.]

Ester: First I'd like to say that there are about 70 political
prisoners in Chile who were arrested during the democracy. In the
penitentiary in Santiago, there are 40 comrades, and that have to
put up with bad conditions and violence from the guards. Some have
received death threats.
     As for the women, there is the case of Marcela Rodriguez, who
is is the prison hospital. She has an injury which has basically
made her an invalid. This is from a bullet lodged in her vertebrae.
Other comrades are being imprisoned in San Miguel. This is a man's
prison, and they had to be transferred on account of sexual
assaults. In total, there are 9 of us, 2 of whom have been raped.
We have all been tortured by the Investigative Commission, which
is a special police group. We have all been tortured, but still the
government acts deaf. The government won't recognize us as
political prisoners, but still there are special laws that apply
only to us, like the weapons laws, and the Anti-Terrorist Law. On
December 9, we began a new, unrefreshed hungerstrike. We demand the
release of Marcela Rodriguez on humanitarian grounds. The second
demand is the regroupment of all the women here in Santo Domingo
in Santiago. We also demand to be recognized as political
prisoners, captured during the dictatorship, and we also demand the
freedom for all political prisoners.

Tell us something more about Marcela Rodriguez's health condition?

Ester: Marcela has been in the prison hospital, in a regular cell,
for a year now. She has no view of the outside from her cell. On
basic humanitarian grounds, she should not be in such conditions.
We'd like to see her released, so that she can be rehabilitated.
At present, she has only basic conditions. But she needs special
conditions including physiological therapy so that she can be
rehabilitated. What Marcela demands is, if she cannot be released,
that she at least have her own, trusted physicians. And she also
demands conditions which at least allow to get some fresh air.
     Marcela has received death threats from the guards.
     The Penitenceria [where Marcela is held - ed.] is a man's
prison, and it allows no free choice of physicians. Not only
Marcela, but also her whole family have been threatened. They have
found dead animals like cats and dogs in their yard at home, and
so this is why Marcela seems to get worse each week.
     A week ago, she had a serious break down.
     She will join fully in the hungerstrike, but she would prefer
to die in hungerstrike than to die in the conditions in which she
presently is.
     Marcela has a bullet in her spine, so she is partially
paralyzed. She has no control over some of her bodily functions.
What she can do is speak and move her hands, nothing else.
The government makes a distinction between prisoners of the
dictatorship and prisoners of the so-called democracy. The present
hungerstrike only involved the prisoners of the so-called
democracy. What are your relations, exchanges, and opinions of one
another?

Ceceila: We, as political prisoners from the dictatorship,
recognize them as political prisoners, we support them and are in
solidarity with their actions. And it's important to note that they
are only rarely recognized as political prisoners. But in general
they aren't. That is their present demand. We see this as
legitimate, so they deserve our support and solidarity, and we are
ready to initiate various activites to support their action. Our
primary means of support will be public declarations which support
their demands. They are a part of the dossier which we have sent
out internationally, and in this we describe their testimonies and
their current situation.
     We gave the impetus for murals on walls in Santiago, and, in
the hopes that people will recognize their rights, we made a
pamphlet which was distributed in neighborhoods and to
organizations; these are our forms of support. And we have asked
those organizations which support us to likewise support their
activities. They are prisoners of this period. At the beginning of
the hungerstrike, an external committee was formed to support them.
We likewise support this external committee with resource
materials. And we have taken up the international side of their
campaign. How things go from here depends on how the movement
develops, and we'll have to see just what forms our continuing
support can take on. They have asked us to write letters to the
justice ministry and to the prison administration, expressing their
demand to be regrouped in this prison.

What forms of support are there on the outside? How is the external
committee put together, and what is its purpose? Are there parts
of the social movement, political groups, or parties which support
your strikes?

Ester: The external committee is a group of friends and allies of
us all who support the hungerstrike, among others the "Velcoda
Mothers", and as the committee further develops, other social
organizations will surely join. But that's the case at the moment.

Do statements about the hungerstrike appear in public, that is, in
the media?

Ester: Yes, some media do cover the hungerstrike, and on Monday
the press conference outside the prison was prevented from
happening. Today, on Friday, a press conference was given outside
the Penitenceria. All the discussions were about Marcela. She is
the spokesperson for the hungerstrike.

What has the government's reaction been to your hungerstrike?

Belinda: They've said absolutely nothing. I don't think that bodes
well for us. And as I said, the strife is unrefreshed, so we're not
expecting to reach our goal in just a few days, and that goal is
Marcela's immediate release and regroupment in one prison.

How realistic are you about your demands being fulfilled, and do
you think that Marcela's has a chance at freedom?

Ceceila: Yes, it's going to be difficult to reach this goal, but
not impossible. It all depends on the level of support which the
comrades receive. Pressure, both from inside the country and
internationally, could help to push the government to realease
Marcela on humanitarian grounds and because of her physical
condition. There are different factors which play into this. So
the fundamental issue here is if people will support the action to
reach this goal. Marcela's condition of being unfit for prison has
resulted in many international campaigns. For example, a big
campaign has developed in France, and there are also efforts being
made in Sweden and Belgium and in other countries which I can't
remember. If she has special conditions so that she can
rehabilitate herself as much as possible - then she will make
progress. Her progress depends on her medical care, care which she
is not getting at present. The longer things are held up, the more
difficult her recovery will be. That's why her freedom is so
necessary, so she can go to another country where she can get
adequate treatment. If she remains in prison, she will not heal.
She needs, at the very least, a minimal improvement in her
conditions, so that she can care for herself, because right now
she's totally dependent.

Belinda: Like you just said, Ceci, in the earlier campaign for
Marcela, the government was totally unsensible. That's why its so
important that the support for this present action be so much
stronger. 

Gladys: And I'd like to point out, that these conditions for
Marcela which we are talking about are merely for her survival. I
don't think they are trying to help her be rehabilitated. They want
to keep her alive to such a degree that she can be in a state to
be detained.
     But this brings with it a lot of difficulties and emotional
and physical problems. Because she has lost so much strength, she
has gotten a whole series of wounds, on account of her lack of
strength, and this just makes her worse.
     Twice she nearly died from an infection. That's why we think
it would be good, no, it's fundamental that she be given her
freedom so that she can receive care. And then she could develop
a bit. This is crucial, because its so hard for her to see herself
degenerating day by day into a baby.
     And that's what she practically is at the moment.

Ceceila: Well, I'd like to thank you, on behalf of the collective,
for giving us the opportunity to discuss our situation, and to
complain about our continued detention, and to make a call to
international organizations to continue to ask for our release and
to support the new generation of political prisoners. They should
receive the "best conditions" possible during their detention - the
best conditions in a prison which they should be reunited in.
     For them and for us alike, who find ourselves still in prison
today, it's crucial to support the petitions for regroupment,
better conditions, and recognition as political prisoners. And in
our case, the pressure must be kept on to demand our freedom!

(from Angehrigen Info #86)

*****************************************************************

FPMR: Our Eight Years

by Daniel Martinez

     On December 14, 1991 the Manuel Rodriguez Patriotic Front
(FPMR) was 8 years old. Born in 1983 in the midst of the Pinochet
dictatorship the FPMR has been an important actor in national life,
especially during the years of tyranny.
     Every anniversary, aside from being a time of celebration,
should also be a time of evalution and reflection. The remembrance
and appraisal of the past should allow us to project ourselves into
the future to advance more and better.
     Making an account of the Patriotic Front's life proves how
difficult it is to summarize this brief but intense history, these
8 years filled with human and revolutionary content at times rising
to heroism because of their dignity and consequence.
     The birth of the organization took place in the heat of the
peak of the anti-dictatorial popular struggles which had been
increasing since 1980. Driven by the popular rebellion which had
the dictatorship in check, we were born and grew in  the midst of
great neighbourhood, communal, regional and national protests;
strikes and other multifaceted froms of struggle which our people
applied to rid themselves of the tyranny which oppressed us since
1973.
     On December 14, 1983, a national blackout announced that
something new was being born in the country, the people recieved
with great joy their new tool of combat born in the deepest part
of its social being. The actions took place quickly, dizzyingly,
melted in the frontal attacks against the dictatorship; in them we
were formed and forged our combativeness as the armed arm of the
Chilean people. There were thousands of Patriots who began joining
the "Front" to be on the front line against the tyranny, men and
women from all social classes, most of them youth who were the ones
who with greatest decisiveness took on the new forms of struggle
which the FPMR was leading. The colossal increase of the quantity
of combative actions by the popular masses began producing a
qualitative leap among them, almost naturally going on to superior
forms of struggle, incipient expressions of armed actions which
demanded organization and leadership in which the militias and
other operational structures went on to earn the admiration and
sympathy of the people which no longer felt unprotected in its
unequal anti-dictatorial struggle.
     The main objective of the great offensive from those years
was to overthrow the dictatorship, to obtain its overthrow as it
was no longer possible to continue. Putting up with so much
oppression and state terrorism, so much criminality. How to finish
with the dictatorship was a difficult objective; the means employed
in the struggle were titanic and heroic. Between 1983 and 1986 the
pressure of the struggles made the tyranny tremble as it began
sinking in an almost total crisis: economic, political, military
and moral and a total internal and international isolation. Its
discreditation was total and it suffered absolute repudiation. That
is how 1986 arrived, which defined itself as the decisive year.
Everything indicated that this would be achieved and the result
would be progressive, participatory and popular, that we would
reach an advanced democracy with an important participation by the
sectors of the left which had laid an important role throughout all
those years.
     The strength of the deeds had forced a sector of the center-
right opposition, hegemonized by Christian Democracy to join the
margin of the aforementioned struggles, to support the social
mobilization and other forms of anti-dictatorial struggle, faced
with the fear of being marginalized by the changes that could be
seen in the short term. In this manner the Christian Democrats went
from collaborating with the fascist regime to the opposition and
participating in the struggles for its overthrow, incorporating
into its policies the concepts of civil disobedience and
ungovernability to complement, or counter-balance, those of popular
rebellion and national revolt with which the left had won a
leadership role. In this picture there are two important elements
which must be highlighted:
     1) The peak of this offensive against the tyranny achieved
it's destabilization by sharpening all of its contradictions and
crisis in all fields.
     2) In the midst of this strong combativeness and unleashing
of the popular masses revolutionary violence the greatest unitary
achievements in which the left played an important role took place.
During this period the workers command assembly of civility and the
table of political parties were created, among others.

A Blow To The Possible Popular Triumph

     The level of confrontation was so great that the United States
forsaw a revolutionary result and the imminent overthrow of the
tyrant, this was made clearer considering the situation in Central
America: the Sandinista revolution; the strong guerrilla struggles
in El Salvador and Guatemala, and its influence in the region.
Faced with this fear the United States developed a complete
offensive against Chile which involved billions of dollars. This
took place mainly in the political, economic and military fields;
in the cultural, judicial and diplomatic areas, among other areas
of interest. The objective of these American efforts were to
preserve its imperialist interests in Chile and throughout the
region.
     Aside from the United States some European countries also
invested to help achieve a result in accordance with their
interests efforts in which many non-govermental organizations
(NGO's) have played an import mediating role of the struggles. The
big influx of fresh dollars to "help" the peaceful removal of the
dictatorship bought many who began to play a braking role. In this
manner Christian Democracy and other center-right sectors allowed
themselves to be used in the formula to remove Pinochet and the
dictatorship from government; a formula which went against any
popular solution and especially a revolutionary one. The United
States demanded from the beginning, an end to all social
mobilization and violent struggles, as well as any agreement with
the Marxist left and above all the revolutionaries, "terrorists"
in their hypocritical slang. At that stage significant unitarian
advances had already been achieved, principally at the student
level, among others. These humiliating demands were accepted by
Christian Democrats surely because of their ancient greediness for
power which has been demonstrated so many times before. Already in
1964 they recieved millions of dollars from the United States,
through the CIA, to halt the possible presidential triumph of the
"Marxist" candidate Salvador Allende. When Allende was overthrown
as president in 1973, Christian Democracy supported the fascist
coup d'etat and the bloodbath in which they immersed our people,
thinking that the coupist military would deliver power to them at
that time. In the pacts made in 1986/87 they forced the exclusion
of the Communist Party and the MIR and logically the political-
military organizations. From there the so-called concertation for
democracy became privileged as a political formula for change, a
political alliance to which the most opportunist and
inconsequential sectors of the traditional Chilean left attached
themselves.
     They negotiated these agreements with the dictatorship and
since then they assumed the "policy of agreements" to go about
replacing the anti dictaorial struggle. Our people, totally against
these undignified transactions made behind their backs, lead great
battles of struggle in 1986 from the perspective of overthrowing
the dictator. The national strike of July 2-3 of that year was a
transcendental combative struggle, the regime resorted to the most
criminal state terrorism to impede the popular struggle: they
murdered a family on Mami$a street in a southern Santiago
neighbourhood. They burned alive two youths in the Estacion central
neighbourhood among thousands of other atrocities. In the month of
August they discovered a large cache of weapons in the northern
part of the country with which they frustrated a great attempt in
the path of liberation; they held the Patriotic Front responsible
for this and unleashed a real "witch hunt" against our
organization. On September 7, 1986, the execution attempt of the
tyrant took place in "Operation 20th Century", an ambush of the
dictator's motorcade in the canyon of the Maipo, an action carried
out by the FPMR. These three important deeds only illustrate the
great efforts that were made by thousands of actions to end the
tyranny.
     The difficulties in meeting the objectives of the "Decisive
Year" produced all manner of fears and desertions, of setbacks and
retreats. The historic left was not capable of maintaining its
steadfast anti-dictatorial position which produced a serious
process of dispersion and atomization which they have yet to
overcome. Regretably in the midst of this the Christian Democrats
and their allies assumed the political leadership which could count
on all the resources to achieve their current hegemony. All of this
facilitated the institutional timetable contemplated by the 1980
Pinochet constitution, strengthened by the agreements and political
support of those who compromised themselves in the dictator's
negotiated exit, ensuring a process of continuity of the political
system imposed by the tyranny in its nearly 17 years of oppression.
     Our organization never accepted the "pseudo-legitimacy" of
the criminal Pinochet regime and their fraudulent pseudo-
constitution. We also never gave moral solvency to the government
which has given itself to represent this comedy of "democracy" born
in agreements with imperialism, or rather with the same ones
responsible for the 1973 coup d'etat.

A System Of Domination: The Dictatorial Continuity

     From its genesis the agreements which have been imposed defend
interests alien to our people, to our nation, and have even less
to do with a legitimate restoration of real democracy; in them they
assured American interests the first place. For this the neo-
liberal economic model has been the prefect instrument to assure
these interests, to consolidate the system of domination imposed
during the dictatorship by blood and fire. This external system of
dependance, because of its transcendance, constitutes a long term
national development project of a strategic character which will
mortgage the country for decades into the 21st century. In its
entirety this system tries to stratify class relations in favour
of the dominant sectors: the transnationals, the group of economic
power, and the political and military cliques which have colluded
for the revision of dependent capitalism which currently holds
power. This explains the role which the dictator continues to play
as commander-in-chief of the army and the immense quota of power
he still currently holds. It also explains the evolution of the
"democratic" government in this year's nine months of management,
that its drift to the right is increasing as well as its repressive
counter-insurgent character it assumes day by day. Finally,
President Patricio Aylwin himself has announced that last August
7th the "transition to democracy" ended and logically all that was
left now was to consolidate it.

The Patriotic Front's Development Process

     In these 8 years of life we have accumulated a great combative
experience, we have carried out a significant number of principally
urban armed actions as well some rural ones. One action that stands
out was the kidnapping of Colonel Carlos Carre$o, Director of
FAMAE, the army weapons factory which appears to be currently
involved in the contraband shipment of 11 tons of weapons seized
in Hungary en route to Croatia, in violation of the embargo on
weapons sales to the warring countries in that region. Coloned
Carre$o was freed in Sao Paulo, Brazil. [Translators note:
Carre$o's tortured, bullet riddled body was recently found in a
river in Chile. According to the Uruguayan newspaper "Brecha" no
one has claimed credit for the killing but it appears related to
the above mentioned arms shipment to Croatia]. Aside from the
combative actions and various forms of struggle employed in these
years we have also carried out an important amount of social work;
we have a good accumulation in the area of struggle for human
rights and solidarity; in political-diplomatic work in the
international arena, etc...
     As an organization we were born as the armed arm of the
Chilean people but since 1987 we initiated our transformation to
a political-military organization - a process still underway. The
first tool for this change was the political redesign elaborated
in the 2nd semester of 1987. Until 1988 our politics and actions
were within the concepts of national uprisings which we replaced
that year with the political strategic line of Patriotic and
National War (P. and N. W.) which had its baptism of fire on
October 21, 1988 in the campaign for "national dignity", a battle
in which our comrades Cecilia Magni C. and Raul Pellegnini F.,
Comandantes Tamara and Rodrigo, fell in combat, who with their
sacrifices became true symbols in the rescue of dignity.
     Our party construction is that of a vanguard organztion in a
concept of shared vanguards, organizations which should be built
and it will be our people who give them this quality.
     Our strategic line of P. and N. W. was completed with the
Patriotic Struggle for National Dignity (PSND), our tactical line
elaborated in 1990. In September of that year the "Manifesto for
National Dignity" summarized our current policy, our tactic for
the period. This is finished with the document "Character of the
Stage".
     Despite the fact that our characterization of the current
Chilean government was correct as to its continuity, we lacked
flexibility to confront the new realities and the space they have
created. This took us to a certain stagnation of our project which
we confronted by democratically analyzing it at all levels of the
organization, militants, combatants, and leaders in the first
Internal Rodriguista Consultation which took place in the first
months of 1991. This consultation concluded in clear mandates for
change to acheived a greater insertion into current reality to
advance our revolutionary project of national and social liberation
which will end the current system of domination and dependence.
Today these changes are being implemented which signifies a
restructuring and redefining on the project's part.

Ideological Fountains Of Rodriguism

     Patriotism is the principal ideological fountain. From it we
rescue our historic roots, everything that is great about our
nation and our people. This is framed in revolutionary
internationalism stemming from Latinamericanism: Bolivar, San
Martin, Marti. We have learned from, and been inspired by the Cuban
and Sandinista revolutions. We have scientific socialism as our
analytic base, as a guide for action.
     Humanist moral and ethical values, such as dignity and
decorum, which are needed so much in these times. Consistency,
selflessness, loyalty and fidelity with the noble causes,
solidarity, etc.
     The Rodriguist mysticism which our brothers [and sisters -
ed.] have had based on these practices and principles and human
and revolutionary values have written the most heroic and sacred
pages of our history; as brothers [and sisters] who have paid with
prisons and torture the loyalty to our people, many who are still
political prisoners. Remembering our heroes is how we shall end
this incomplete summary; symbolizing all of the patriots who have
given their lives for our cause: Camilio, Tatiana, Marcelo,
Patricio, Margarita, Valeriano, Moises, Jose, Ignacio, Cesar, Pato,
Elizabeth, Ester, Julio, Ricardo, Manuel, Wilson, Juan, Maria,
Isidoro, Raul, Cecilia, Roberto, Hernan, Carlos and Mauricio.
     Memory would never be able to retain so many dear names who
had given the most sublime human and moral base which each time
obligates us more to carry our liberation project forward, for
which they gave their valuable and irreplaceable lives. For them,
for our peoples, for the viability of principles and revolution we
conclude with our slogan:
               "Until victory or death!"

(from Ko'eyo Latinoamericano, Jan.-Mar. '92)

*****************************************************************

News Briefs

In the March issue of the German police magazine "Kriminalistik",
journalist Matthias Mletzko describes the antagonism between far-
right forces and autonomist anti-fascists as a considerable
security porblem for the near future. In his five-page article
entitled "The ANTIFA-Campaign of Autonome Groups", he examines the
militant, pro-violence politics of the autonomists which
incorporates a resiatance to "fascism" with criticisms of "western
imperialism" and Germany asylum policies. Mletzko points out that
anti-fascism has always been a potent tool for "orthodox communist
manipulation and disinformation". The article mentions by name such
periodicals as "Radikal" and makes note of the ECN, an autonomist
computer information network. On the international level, the pig
Mletzko also takes notice of the autonomist conference held in
Venice in 1991, the network of "info-shops" which has sprung up
across Western Europe, and alleged contacts between German anti-
fascists and foreign revolutionary groupings such as Dev Sol and
the PKK. In other words, the autonomist anti-fascist scene is
experiencing a period of intense scrutiny and criminalization by
the German state security apparatus. For example, the Gttingen
Autonome-ANTIFA scene was recently criminalized under paragraph
129a, and the anarchist paper "Unfassba" was indicted for
"supporting a terrorist organization", ie, the RAF. This is all
part of wave of raids and searches of autonomist info-shops
throughout Germany. (from APS)... Citing no practical results after
spending almost $500,000 of Justice Ministry funds, the Dutch
government has decided to disband the special investgative team
which was set-up to investigate the clandestine autonomist group
RARA. The team, know as LCT-2, will continue its investigations
until the end of 1992, but with a reduced budget of less than
$50,000. Ha Ha! RARA Continua! The LCT-2 team has also failed to
turn up any clues regarding the group calling themselves "Freedom
For All Political Prisoners" who set fire to several military
helicopters at a military base near Arnhem on February 3. (from
APS)... On January 27, Florence Tosi and Serge Quadruppani, editors
of the radical French magazine "Mordicus", were charged with
"incitement to robbery, looting, arson, direct provocation to
murderous crimes, and complicity in misdemeanors." The apparent
reason for their indictment seems to be an article in which they
published the text of a rap song, "C'est ton festin" ("This is your
feast"), which includes the refrain, "No cops in the quarter, no
quarter for the cops." The two editors are facing 3-5 years in
prison for these ridiculous charges (from "Communist
Antinational")... Since May 14, blockades set-up by Native and
Metis peoples have successfully halted clear-cutting in the forests
of northwestern Saskatcheawn. The forces on the blockades, loosely
called the "Protectors of Mother Eart", have criticised the
"corporate indians" of the Tribal Council for selling off logging
rights to the NordSask corporation. Lubicon peoples from Alberta
and activists from Toronto have aided in the blockade actions. On
June 30, over 100 RCMP officers moved in on one blockade and
arrested 31 people. The police have vowed to take further action
if the blockades are not ended soon. Tribal elders, however, refuse
to end the blockade until their concerns about the logging are
addressed (from Ecomedia #120)... On December 17/91, five people
associated with the Italian communist/anti-imperialist magazine
"CONTROinformazione" were arrested and charged with association
with a terrorist organization. In addition, the newspaper's offices
were searched and some materials were seized. Those arrested were
held in solitary confinement until a court ruled that they be
released on January 2. We apologize for reporting this news so
late, but word only got to us about this event recently. We don't
know what has developed since the comrades were released... On July
4, America's 'Independence Day', a coalition consisting of the
Puerto Rican MLN, the Partido Nacionalista Puertorriqueno,
indiginous peoples, white anti-imperialists, and NYC anarchists
organized an anti-Columbus demonstration. During the march from
Battery Park to City Hall, police arrested some 25 people, mostly
Puerto Rican independentistas. Another demo is being planned for
October 12 in New York City, organized by groups associated with
the Freedom Now network (from La Patria Radical July/92)... Two
Santa Cruz, activists who used axes to damage several NAVSTAR
satellites went to prison July 13. Keith Kjoller and Peter
Lumsdaine pleaded guilty in U.S. District court to destroying
property being manufactured for the U.S. government, a felony. They
face up to 3 three years in jail when they are sentenced on
September 21. In total, the pair did approximately $2 million
damage at the Rockwell plant in Santa Cruz on May 10. The Pentagon
uses the Rockwell satellites to guide nuclear and other weapons and
for military reconnaissance. For information, write to: Maxina
Ventura, P.O. Box 11645, Berkeley, CA 94701 (from The Guardian
44/38).

*****************************************************************

Peace Negotiations In The Philippines - Interview With European NDF
Representative

     A civil war has been fought in the Philippines for the past
23 years. The fall of the Marcos dictatorship in 1986 made the
prospects for peace more likely. But after the recent presidential
elections, peace now seems more distant than ever. Negotiations
between the National Democratic Front (NDF) and its guerrilla wing,
the New People's Army (NPA), were only on the campaign platform of
one minor candidate. 
     After the fall of Marcos and Aquino's take-over of power, a
series of negotiations in February 1986 led to a cease-fire and
negotiations between Aquino and the NDF/NPA. But this process
collapsed on January 22/87, when the Aquino government bloodily
crushed a protest march by farmers. This attack became known as
the "Mendiola Massacre". In March of 1987, Aquino declared "total-
war" on the left-wing resistance movement.
     Since then, the conflict has taken on disastrous proportions:
there have been over 2 million internal refugees in the past 3
years. The murder and disappearance of legal left-wing activists
have become commonplace. Amnesty International's last report from
February of this year reported that "the murdering continues" in
the Philippines. The army and other right-wing para-military troops
roam freely.
     In 1990, a new movement towards a peace-process developed.
Church groups and non-governmental organizations took the
initiative, and in September 1991, there was a meeting in Hong Kong
between NDF leaders and Philippine army generals. A second round
of talks scheduled for March of this year in Brussels were called
off by the government at the last moment. They felt that the
meeting place (the European Parliament) was "too prominent" and
would allow the NDF a chance to spread its propaganda. Since then,
there have been no moves towards scheduling further talks.
     The following in an interview with Byron Bocar, the NDF's
representative to Western Europe:


The talks in Hong Kong did not result in much, and the talks in
Brussels never took place. What went wrong?

     The talks in Hong Kong were supposed to discuss respecting
human rights and applying international laws to a situation of
armed conflict. In our eyes, this is the first step of the peace-
process. Normal civilians must be protected. We had proposals with
us, but the government's delegates had nothing. They didn't even
have a mandate from the government and so they couldn't sign or
agree to anything.
     The government felt that the talks would give us international
status as a party in an armed struggle. We have never demanded this
status. The Philippine government consistently maintains that the
Philippine constitution has to be the basis of the peace-process,
and that's been the biggest obstacle so far. That relegates the NDF
and the whole national democratic struggle to a police matter. That
is not acceptable to us. The conflict in the Philippines is not a
judicial one, but a political one. The causes of the conflict have
to be settled with political measures. Both sides have to be open
to this. Only then can serious talks begin.

How do you account for these problems?

     The government doesn't take the negotiations seriously. They
see the peace-process as a part of their strategy of total-war.
Aquino used the peace-process in 1986. She used it to get the
"moral justification" for resulting to a military solution to the
problem. She vowed to crush the revolutionary movement by the end
of her term. That's this June. So now she's talking about gaining
"strategic control" over the revolutionary movement by the end of
1993. As long as the government keeps thinking in those terms and
refuses to work towards a political solution to the conflict, no
advances can be made in the peace-process.

Some people claim that the NDF don't take the peace-process
seriously, but are just using it for tactical gains. Is armed
struggle still your most important strategy?

     You have to judge the NDF by its deeds. And when you consider
all the efforts we've made since 1988 to get people at the
negotiating table, we have to be taken in earnest. Of course
discussions about where the talks should take place are a part of
the NDF's overall strategy. But we have stated that we want to
continue with the peace-process until a political solution is
reached. We stand by that promise.

But until then, you'll keep shooting?

     Yes...there can be no cease-fire without a clear proposal and
time-table for talks. We learned that back in 1986/87. At that
time, we agreed to a cease-fire before the agenda for the talks had
been set. But all the government wanted to talk about was our
surrender. So the armed struggle continues.

But isn't that an odd combination, peace-negotiations and armed
struggle?

     In some areas, we have structures in place that have to be
defended. We have to maintain and expand our strength. That is
necessary, so that we will be taken seriously at negotiations. You
could compare this to El Salvador. The peace-process there only got
underway when the US recognized that the FMLN rebels could not be
defeated militarily. Even though the far-right Christiani was in
power...just like here in the Philippines. Some members of the
government, and especially the military, consistently maintain that
we have to be crushed militarily.

Within the NDF, are negotiations viewed as reformist?

     No. The fact that you have built up enough strength and
organization to force the elite to negotiate about changing the
fundamental problems affecting the population helps get at the
roots of the problem. If negotiations lead to this, then we view
it as part of the revolutionary process. What's more, the peace
movement in the Philippines realizes that peace means more than
just the absence of war. We have to find solutions to the problems
which cause the conflict.

Can this be compared to El Salvador?

     The process that we are involved in is much like it was in El
Salvador, but the eventual content will be decided by the
negotiations themselves. We won't lay down our weapons before there
is complete agreement on social, economic, and political reforms.

Did the FMLN give up on too many of its demands?

     In many ways, their agenda didn't differ from ours. But we
disagree on the end result. Many of us feel that they gave more
than they got.

Can you be more concrete? Will industries be nationalized?

     I don't know. But one point is the dismantling of the
guerilla-army. It seems that the FMLN agreed to leave the
government's army intact, more so than they wanted, while their
forces would be incorporated into the police. As for the other
reforms, there still have to be a number of constitutional changes.
Some people doubt whether there have been enough guarantees secured
of actual reforms. The FMLN have said that the people are their
best guarantee, and international solidarity...The discussions are
still taking place. We will have to examine the specific advantages
and disadvantages of the actual accord. As for the Philippines,
that will depend on the balance of power.
What role do elections play in your strategy?

     We naturally don't take part, but we do view them as
strategically important. We encourage the progressive organizations
to take part and support progressive candidates. Everything we win
in the elections is gladly taken, but elections are not as
important as building peoples-organizations and the armed struggle.
These elections won't lead to meaningful change. Not one single
candidate is even addressing the fundamental problems affecting the
people.

What do you think you can concretely achieve?

     First, progressive candidates can be chosen. But at the
national level, they have little chance in the "guns, goons, and
gold" system. They have a better chance at the local level, even
though their effect there is minimal. The important thing is to
advance the struggle of the peoples' movement. Electoral struggle
and mass-struggle must go together. Another important point is the
American military bases. Last year, the Senate reached a new
agreement on the bases. It should stay that way. It's important to
elect enough senators who are opposed to the bases. In line with
this, major progressive organizations are trying to make such
issues central political questions in the elections.

But with little success, one would think...have the peace-process
and the total-war become hot issues?

     No. But the pressure by the peace-movement on the politicians
has had some effect. Presidential candidate Salonga publicly
declared his willingness to enter into an agreement with the NDF.
Even Ramos has mentioned the issue, but he only talks of our
surrender.

If Ramos is elected president [he was - ed.], how will the NDF
insure that the government begins negotiations?

     We have little choice. We will keep defending ourselves
against the government's total-war, which will surely continue,
and we will try to put pressure on the Ramos government. Military
successes by the NPA will weaken the army's faith in their ability
to defeat us militarily. In addition to this, it's important that
the peace-movement stay strong. There is now a group calling
themselves 'peace initiators'. This is the broadest group to date.
They want to act as intermediaries. The government needs to clearly
state what it wants from the peace-process. That's why they may
come to The Netherlands to speak with the NDF. If this happens, the
peace-process will have advanced one step. Then we can begin to
discuss dates and delegates. Of course, international support for
the peace process is also important. The Swiss and Swedish
governments have offered to host talks in Geneva and Stockholm
respectively, but foreign minister Manglapus refused this offer.
The European Parliament passed a resolution expressing its hope
that the new Philippine government will take steps towards peace
and improving human rights. But pressure from the US government is
crucial. American churches have taken some initiatives. We need to
have other governments and parliaments expressing a need for peace.
But so far, that hasn't happened.

So the American presidential election is important. Who do you
support, Clinton or Bush?

     Well, what can I say? That's like choosing between Coke and
Pepsi...No, give me Heineken...or San Miguel [the most popular beer
in the Philippines -ed.].

(from Konfrontatie #11)

*****************************************************************

Red Army Fraction Communique

Greetings To All Those Taking Part In The Demonstrations And
Congresses Against The World Economic Summit In Munich!

     We are glad that you all have come to this demonstration and
to this congress, despite the massive numbers of police troops and
the media's smear-campaign, which both attempted to beat down and
defeat your organizing efforts and preparations.
     Despite the varying levels in the development of the struggle
and differing conditions, there remains the need for a common
search for urgent solutions for peoples' lives against the world-
dominating policies of the G-7 states, whose capitalist power rules
over people and destroys nature.
     We think it's correct that you all have chosen to oppose the
500-year festival of imperialism with this demonstration, congress,
and days of actions. You have showed that on our side - the side
of the oppressed - history and the consciousness of struggle are
alive. As long as this imperialist system, which values human lives
and nature as mere tools of capitalism, exists, there will also
exist a struggle for a society free from domination. The struggle
for the liberation of spiritual worth will be carried out wherever
racist and sexist structures of oppression exist which deny the
worth of human beings.
     With this congress, you have made it possible to exchange
experiences with one another and to learn from each other, to come
to common evaluations and to begin working on common strategies.
     Given the contemporary situation, we think it's extremely
important, both here as well as internationally, to arrive at
concrete common goals and demands. We need to come up with
proposals as to what steps need to be taken against the ruling
powers' grip over people and nature - whether in Munich, Rio, Los
Angeles or Maputo, whether in Palestine or Kurdistan - and reverse
the tide of global catastrophe.
     A process of appropriation from below is created in concrete
struggles and demands which confront the ruling powers' with the
peoples' needs. For example, the struggle for living spaces, the
struggle against destructive and pointless labour, the struggle
against environmental destruction, the prison struggles, organizing
help for refugees, anti-fascist mobilizations, and the demand for
debt-cancellation and reparations from the imperialist states which
have profited from colonizing peoples.
     We in Germany bear a great deal of responsibility in this
process, because we live under a state whose capacity for
destruction is enormous. Domestically, the ruling powers have
created a reactionary climate which has resulted in racist
mobilizations and an almost daily war against refugees. The ruling
powers need this reactionary climate to strengthen the German male-
consciousness and as a safety-valve against the increasingly
desperate living conditions of millions of people here, because
they want to be given a free hand for their super-power politics:
today, the German deutschmark marches across Eastern Europe,
tomorrow, German troops march across the globe. Next to Japan,
Germany has the world's strongest economy. The might of German
capital is unbroken.
     With this statement from us, we'd like to make some points
from our April communique (namely, our de-escalation) clear to the
comrades from other countries who have travelled here for these
protests.
     This is part of our special steps within Germany. We don't
question the legitimacy of armed liberation struggles in other
countries; our deepest solidarity goes out to all those struggling
for liberation throughout the world.
     It is up for those involved in the struggle to decide, based
upon their specific conditions, which means and forms of struggle
should be employed at a given point in time.
     For you all, we'd like to say something brief about our own
history.
     We, the RAF, came into existence in the early 70's out of the
world-wide anti-Vietnam War movement. Our beginnings came during
the 68-revolts, a time when many people became active; in this
country, where, after Auschwitz, there was no broad social
discussion of Germany's Nazi past and where ex-Nazis held positions
of power in all the major government and financial institutions,
communists and anti-fascists were spied on, and all those who
sought to break with Germany's fascist past faced repression.
Against this gloomy and suffocating imperialist reality in post-
war Germany, an entire generation sought new emancipatory and anti-
capitalist means of living. For example, base-democratic structures
at schools and universities, living together in communes as opposed
to nuclear families, organizing women against their traditional
roles and against their oppression both within society and within
the left.
     During the Vietnam War, our country was the most important
turntable for the U.S.-genocide of the Vietnamese people. We linked
ourselves to the world-wide resistance to U.S.-imperialism.
     At that time, the existence of the Soviet Union made it easier
to secure ties to the national liberation movements of the South.
Under those global circumstances, we made our radical struggle here
part of the international anti-imperialist liberation front. That
was our sworn perspective, to carry out simultaneous international
struggle to achieve freedom.
     Even when imperialism was able to halt the advance of the
liberation struggles at the end of the 70's, our politics were
still primarily orientated in this way and remained that way up to
the mid-80's. We used our strength in the 80's to hinder the
imperialist roll-back, in order to turn around the history since
the October Revolution; we wanted to re-strengthen our side.
     In the various phases of our 22-year history, we have
intervened in our role as an urban guerrilla against imperialist
world politics, against U.S. policies, against NATO, against the
formation of a West European bloc, against the development of Great
Germany as a world power, and against the "new world order".
     By the end of '89, when the annexation of the former DDR by
West German was a reality, an entire phase of history, one which
had begun with the October Revolution, had come to an end.
Nonetheless, we failed to initiate a discussion of this and of the
history of our own struggle - of its strengths and weaknesses - and
to come up with a new orientation.
     With our actions, we sought to begin to create a counter-power
from below and to start a discussion and re-orientation around this
situation, which had greatly increased the social contradictions
and given rise to new struggles. Nonetheless, we could not break
through the feeling of powerlessness and the resignation to the
victory of capitalism which had gripped the very people we sought
to stir into motion. 
     It was precisely our last action which made this most clear
to us, the attack on Rohwedder. With this action, we intervened in
an entirely new social situation, one which arose after the
annexation of the DDR. It's goal was to hinder the march of
capitalism into the former DDR and to allow us to create ties with
the people in struggle there. Now we realize that to come to a
common struggle from out of two different realities and sets of
experience takes a great deal of discussion and understanding,
learning from one another's different histories, and to then go
forward together in making a counter-power.
     Of course there were plenty of people who supported our
actions, but these actions hardly started any discussions or
resulted in any organizational gains, nor did they push the ruling
powers' into any corners.
     Because of all this, we need this break to come up with a new
departure point.
     We need an open discussion about new foundations and
orientations in order to come up with new thoughts and proposals
for developing a process of change. A break also means learning
from our own history, so as not to repeat the same mistakes, but
also to bring along all the positive experiences.
     We know that there are comrades who find contradictions
between our statement in April and the current situation,
considering, for example, the escalating war against the Kurdish
peoples, which the Turkish state is waging with German weapons and
German money.
     There is no question that resistance to the policies of Great
Germany, both from within and without, is extremely necessary and
that this can't simply be limited to a process of discussion. But
we feel that armed actions won't advance this process at this time.
     To come up with a new point of departure, we need a common,
deep, foundation-laying discussion.
     Since global changes have global ramifications, like the
increasing number of people deemed not-needed by capital and who
no longer have any means of existence and who cannot escape their
oppressive life's reality, we need to build entirely new
foundations for our process of change.
     For us here, the main question is, how can we create a
counter-power from below that can draw in more people who are being
forced to the fringes here in Great Germany, people who are seeking
a new social reality with human criteria and who reject the values
and ideology of capitalism.
     The history of decades of social orientation towards capital
has alienated people from their lives. From this, and from the
failure to create any existing alternatives, we can see why racist
and sexist violence has increased here; it's a way of dulling the
brutality of day-to-day life. By not creating groups consisting of
different kinds of people who can work together to solve the common
problems facing them daily, taking these problems in hand and
struggling against them, what we have seen happen in our society
is the rise of destructive and self-destructive forces and
increased fascist mobilizations.
     It's up to everyone who does not want to be crushed by the
power of money to develop new social struggles which come from the
people themselves. In this, we see the possibility of creating a
relevant social counter-power. 
     But the development of this is also a part of our
responsibility to all those people around the world who are
struggling for change and to all oppressed peoples, because it's
up to us here to see to it that Great Germany's world-politics
don't go unchallenged at home, but rather that there is a social
consciousness that expresses solidarity with other peoples and
which resists the ruling powers. We have to start a new social
movement in which people can find a genuine social perspective and
see the worthlessness of the capitalist system and its treatment
of human worth. A movement with new content and values, one which
can make concrete changes - because these are not goals which can
be put off until "after the revolution".
     With our communique of 10.4, a very long phase of our history
came to an end. This was our decision, because we want to see a
process of reflection and re-orientation on our side - it had
nothing to do with the state.
     This state has sought to destroy the RAF and the prisoners
from the RAF and the resistance for the last 22 years using all
the means available to it. The state failed, and with this in mind,
we entered this new phase. If the state chooses to disrupt this new
phase, then it will be up to everyone to decide how to react, and
we won't take responsibility for the consequences.
     We have stated that an important component of this new
rebuilding process must be the struggle to free our imprisoned
comrades.
     When we state their freedom can be achieved through a
political solution, this is the result of years of struggle.
Freedom for all political prisoners within a foreseeable period of
time can only be achieved through a process of struggle.
     It should be everyone's task to seize the initiative and
struggle to end the torture and win freedom for the prisoners.
     We seek a realistic life-perspective for our imprisoned
comrades and for the prisoners from all liberation movement; we
want this for everyone and with everyone who wants to struggle for
justice and a humane existence for all the oppressed peoples of the
world.

29.6.92                            Red Army Fraction

*****************************************************************

Look Forward In Anger! - Anti-G7 Actions

     In early July, the world economic summit (WWG) of the world's
seven richest nations, the G7, took place in Munich, Germany. Since
the summit was being held in Bavaria, one of Germany's most
conservative regions, heavy confrontations between police and anti-
summit demonstrators were expected. To prevent this, over 9000
police from all over Germany were deployed in Munich, and all roads
into the city had police check-points. 
     On Saturday, July 4, over 15,000 people took part in an anti-
G7 demonstration through Munich. Munich police do not tolerate the
wearing of masks, or even the holding of large banners along the
sides of demonstrations. Shortly after the march began, the
women/lesbian-bloc unfurled a banner along the side of their bloc,
resulting in a police attack. In total, 53 people were arrested
during the demo. Interestingly, the autonomist and women/lesbian
blocs made up about 2/3 of the total demo, which says something
about the ability of various groups to mobilize. 
     The same was true throughout the weekend before the actual G7
summit. The Anti-Summit Congress, held the weekend before the G7
summi, was, in many ways, a disappointment. Originally scheduled
to be held on a university campus, the university revoked the
permit shortly before the event was to begin. Thus, the counter-
congress had to be dispersed among seven area churches. This
understandably upset many participants, since the church has played
a leading role in colonialism and third-world exploitation
throughout history. Plans by autonomists to merely storm the
university and use the buildings anyway were fiercely resisted by
liberals and student groups who did not want to risk confrontations
with the police, who had already raided two counter-congress
organzing meetings in the weeks before the actual event itself.
     Despite all the problems and disappointments, much needed
dialogue between European, Latin American, Asian, and Middle
Eastern social movements did take place at the Anti-Summit
Congress. One the second day of this congress, representatives were
present from the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, the
Pro-Human Rights Association of Turkey, the FMLN of El Salvador,
National Liberation Movement-Tupamaros of Uruguay, the governemnt
of Cuba, the Polisario Front of Sahara-Africa, and the Puerto Rican
MLN. The topics discussed were human rights, the New World Order,
political prisoners, methods of struggle, and politics in the
metropoles. Despite the ideological differences of many of the
participants, some basic points were agreed upon: 1) That the New
World Order is nothing less than the redivision of the world into
spheres of influence for the powerful and will never solve the
socio-economic problems of the Third World; 2) That the topic of
political prisoners and prisoners of war must be a priority on the
agendas of revolutionary political movements; 3) That it is of the
utmost importance to sustain a truly authentic and independent
process not prescibed by imperialism; 4) That the hope of humanity
rests on the development of a socialism that is truly
participatory, where there do not exist privileges just for the
few, and where there is no oppression on the basis of race, gender,
or sexual preference. There was also talk of trying to establish
an International Day in Solidarity with the Political Prisoners of
the World.
     Besides the discussions during the anti-summit congress,
actions were also carried out to protest the policies of the G7
nations. Late Sunday night, a branch of the Deutsche Bank was fire-
bombed by an autonomist group, resulting in $150,000 damage. A
message nearby was found which read: "Attack the WWG!"  
     At the G7 summit's opening on Monday, the police presence was
extremely heavy. Most demonstrators were not able to reach the Max-
Joseph-Platz were the summit was being held. Those that did were
quickly surrounded, beaten, and arrested. There were several
spontaneous demonstrations throughout the day, resulting in over
500 arrests. There were several complaints of police brutality, so
much so that even Munich's daily-paper ran a front-page
condemnation of the police's "unnecessary escalation".

(from Interim #201 and La Patria Radical July/92)

*****************************************************************

Revolutionary Cells Communique

ENOUGH OF THE BROWN-SHIRTS!
     Everyone has heard of the burning refugee-hosetls and the
deaths, but far too little are doing something about this. Munich
is on its way to becoming the capital of the German neo-Nazi
movement. Enough of this! We will attack the fascists!
     Two centers of the Munich fascist movement got bombed early
this morning. The first, the AVO-office of Ewald Althans, the most
important propaganda center of the Munich neo-Nazi scene. The
second, the "Munich Anzeiger", which is responsible for spreading
fascist and anti-semitic hatred.
     E.Althans has been a leading figure in the Munich neo-Nazi
scene for years. In 1990, he organized a march to commemorate
Hitler's birthday. In March 1991, he organized the Leucter
Congress, where he and other prominent neo-Nazis publicly declared
that the murder of millions of jews during the holocaust was a lie.
In May 1991, he organized a meeting in the Eden Wolf hotel to honor
Rudolf Hess. He has arranged transportation across Germany for
Munich neo-Nazis. There has hardly been a far-right event Munich
which he has not helped to organize. On May 1/92, he organized a
meeting in his new brown house under the motto: "Unity Brings
Strength!" About 300 neo-Nazis, including the most significant
cadres from Bayern, attended.
     Althans also has strong international ties. He has money and
behind-the-scenes contacts. And from his office at Herzog-Heinrich
Street 30, he can spread his brown propaganda unhindered.
     The "Munich Anzeiger" is a free advertisement bulletin which
gets distributed to mailboxes and which can be found in most
supermarkets. It comes out in 8 neighborhood editions all
throughout Munich. It's published by Alfred Detscher, Jadgstreet
28. In the paper, Nazis distribute their fascist and racist
propaganda unhindered. Like in issue 49/91, when the "Munich
Anzeiger" ran a full-page article entitled "We want the truth and
our rights", which called the holocaust a lie and demanded that
"the flood of illegitimate refugees be stopped". The piece was
written by the old Nazi Otto Ernst Renner. NPD and Republikaner
Partei [two neo-Nazi political parties -ed.] members also use this
paper. In the letters section, writings full of hatred for
foreginers are regularly printed. The letters are full of terms
like "parasites" "lawless gangs" "fake-refugees" and "asylum-
cheaters". In a fascist youth bulletin distributed this spring by
AVO, E.Althans was highly acclaimed. Another connection, thus.
     
PS:  We'd like to quickly respond to a few groups in this
statement: we don't agree with people who think that fire and
flames are no longer appropriate methods for revolutionary
politics. Furthermore, we don't want to close out this stage of
history and be stuck with rusted structures and means of struggle,
rather we want to be a political subject which is able to intervene
in contemporary social processes.

Revolutionay Cells

(from Interim #200)

****************************************************************

We received the following letter from a comrade in Greece:

Dear comrades,
     In ATS Nr.11 (p.16) you refer to the united action of "1st of
May" and "R.P.S." against a van of anti-riot police. I think that
you might want to know that the groups have carried out a lot of
actions together.
     At first, the two groups decided to unite on October 20, 1991,
the day, 14 years ago, that guerrilla activist Christos Kiasmis
died during an attack against the German multi-national AEG (as an
act of solidarty and revenge for the murdered RAF comrades at
Stammheim prison).

19.2.92   Bomb attack against a bar named "CAN-CAN". This bar is
owned by Gigurtakis, a notorious drug dealer who is connected to
and protected by the cops and politicians.

26.2.92   Bomb attack against a van of anti-riot police van near
Thisio. 18 cops wounded.

17.3.92   Bomb attacks against two cars belonging to EEC officials
in Athens.

20.3.92   Bomb attacks against the cars of two men who gave the
police descriptions of the persons who carried out the attack of
Thisio. 

31.3.92   Bomb attack against the Court of Justice of Salonica.

     Also, a lot of actions have been carried out by the "Anarchist
Group Mihalis Kaltezas". The group has carried out numerous fire-
bombings over the last 10 months (since October 1991):
- Four local offices of the ruling right-wing New Democracy Party
in Kastella, Elliniko, Iliupoli, and Erithros.
- The local office of the Socialist Party in Elliniko and N.Smirni.
- Two super-markets in the area of Ilissia.
- A police car in the area of Pelki.
- The Boy Scout's Club at Peristeri. The Boy Scout's Clubs here in
Greece are only trying to pass nationalist and militarist
propaganda on to kids. (Of course, the action wasn't directed at
the boy scouts themselves.)

Do the right thing!
Fight the Power!

- a comrade in Greece

*****************************************************************

Editorial Notes

We apologize for the fact that some of the information in this
issue is somewhat out of date. Unfortunately, because our budget
is so limited, we can only publish on a roughly bi-monthly
schedule. Even though pieces like the Chilean articles are a little
old, we still feel it's important for such information to be
published, since there are so few radical-left publications in
North America which cover the material which ATS covers. Also
included in this issue is a statement from an ATS collective
member, Brian Coan, regarding his recent federal grand jury case.
We are printing a lengthy statement from Brian, because we feel
it's important that political issues involved in his handling of
the case be properly addressed.

*****************************************************************

Who We Are

     Arm The Spirit is a anti-imperialist/autonomist collective
that disseminates information about liberation struggles in
advanced capitalist countries and in the so-called "Third World".
Our focus is on armed struggle and other forms of militant
resistance but we do not limit ourselves to this. In Arm The Spirit
you can find news on political prisoners in North America and
Europe, information on the struggles of Indigenous peoples in the
Americas, communiques from guerrilla groups, debate and discussion
on armed struggle and much more. We also attempt to cover anti-
colonial national liberation struggles in Kurdistan, Puerto Rico,
Euskadi and elsewhere.
     We come from an internationalist perspective that is anti-
capitalist and anti-imperialist but we do not separate the struggle
against patriarchy, racism and homophobia from the struggle against
capitalism and imperialism. The development of a coherent
revolutionary praxis is, for us, not rooted in dogmatic ideologies,
but in an anti-authoritarian practice that draws upon many
different strands of revolutionary theory.

*****************************************************************

Subscription Information

     Arm The Spirit is co-published with the U.S.-based Autonome
Forum. The editorial group is based in Canada and all subscriptions
should be sent there. Correspondence can be sent sent to both
addresses. Groups who wish to exchange publications with us should
send copies to both addresses. Subscriptions for this bi-monthly
bulletin are $10 for 6 issues. We accept cash (conceal it well) or
postal money orders. No cheques!!


Editor: Gabriel Dumont

Arm The Spirit
c/o Wild Seed Press
P.O. Box 57584, Jackson Stn.
Hamilton, Ont.
L8P 4X3
CANADA

Arm The Spirit
c/o Autonome Forum
P.O. Box 1242
Burlington, VT
05402-1242
USA