MIM Notes 276 · February 15, 2003 · Page 1
manufacturing the appearance of north
Korean aggression by claiming that the
north's army was concentrated near the
demilitarized zone between north and
south Korea--without noting (a) that this
was not out of the ordinary or (b) the
south's army and the 37,000 Amerikan
troops in Korea were also concentrated
near the demilitarized zone (pp. 468-
470). Compare that to the recent wire
report "U.S. Satellites See N. Korea
Activity," which contained no new
information but alleged the north had
"11,000 artillery pieces" "that could rain
between 200,000 and 300,000 shells per
hour on South Korea." No mention is
made of south Korean firepower or the
fact that the Amerikans have access to
MIM Notes
February 15, 2003, Nº 276
The Official Newsletter of the Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM)
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Quality,
not just
quantity
Message to radical
reformists and the
anti-war movement
I
n Montreal, a marcher witnessing
MIM's newspaper distribution on
January 18th turned around while
still marching forward to say we should
not give MIM Notes to marchers but
instead the people on the streets just
watching. While we did give out papers
to anyone passing by and gawking, we
do not agree with the "you're preaching
to the converted" line.
`State of
Union' is
old news
Bu(ll)shit detector:
Former inspector
Ritter explains details
by MC5, January 30 2003
B
ush's "State of the Union"
address January 28th and
subsequent war-mongering on
dutiful CNN and other media outlets may
have had some effect on public opinion.
It appears that the public is not used to
hearing George Bush attempt to argue
facts of weapons of mass destruction in
Iraq, and many have momentarily given
him the benefit of the doubt now that he
has mentioned some concrete details.
However, the points being addressed
by Bush and the media lapdogs have all
arisen before. On points of politics and
history, Bush claims to want Hussein out
for using chemical weapons in the past,
but Reagan and Bush Sr. gave Saddam
Hussein aid and took him off the list of
countries sponsoring terrorism, precisely
when he used chemical weapons against
his internal enemies and Iran as Marine
Scott Ritter notes on page 20 of his new
book, " War on Iraq: What Team Bush
Doesn't Want You to Know" (Context
Books, New York,2002).
Ritter's book also anticipated all the
detailed questions on weapons coming
up right now. On points of weapons of
mass destruction, for example, using
what is for it an unusual pop-up ad on its
website on January 30, the New York
Times raised questions concerning
anthrax, botulinum toxin, sarin, mustard
gas and VX nerve agent.
The New York Times has failed to
provide any context while mentioning
these horrible weapons:
*Ritter says there was VX nerve agent,
but it would have degraded by now if
Hussein had hidden it. He would need a
new factory and he does not have it.(pp.
36-7)
Amerika marches toward
Our politicians try hard to convince us
that voting every two years is what
politics is. On the one hand, electoral
politics bore people to death. On the
other hand, lever-pulling also provides
simple enough release for those who
want to return to uninterrupted shopping
and Nintendo.
Likewise, marching is not the goal in
itself. By participating in a march, one
does not free oneself from greater
Review by mim4@mim.org
2 February 2003
Reading of the standoff between the
Clinton administration and north Korea
over the latter's nuclear reactor at
Yongbyon in Bruce Cumings' 1997 book
Korea's Place in the Sun, one is reminded
of Mao's dictum, "Make trouble, fail,
make trouble again, fail again... till their
doom--that is the logic of the
imperialists and all reactionaries..."
Cumings quotes extensively from
bourgeois-mouthpiece editorials written
ten years ago that could have appeared
today, as they use the same, tired, non-
specific invective.
For example, Cumings chides the
fishwrap hacks of the early nineties for
n u c l e a r
artillery shells
(and missiles
and bombs). A
shorter follow
up story,
"Pentagon: N.
Korea Not
M o b i l i z i n g
Army" repeats
the "11,000
Korea: Déjà vu all over again
artillery pieces" mantra verbatim.(1)
More striking--and more disturbing
for those of us who don't want to see the
capitalists nuke the humyn race into
oblivion--Cumings' book reminds us
that the earlier conflict also sprang from
Amerikan nuclear threats. In January
1993, Bill Clinton authorized "Team
Spirit" military exercises in Korea, based
on a plan to invade the north which called
for tactical nuclear strikes on "hard
targets" like underground bunkers. Then
the United $tates announced it was
retargeting nuclear weapons from the
former USSR to north Korea. North
Korea responded by withdrawing from
the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty--
justifiably, since "it is a basic principle
of the nonproliferation regime that
countries without nuclear weapons not be
threatened by those that possess them."
North Korea rejoined the Treaty after
"Team Spirit" stopped (pp. 474-475).
The Bush Administration made similar
public threats in its Nuclear Policy
Review, leaked last March.(2) The
Review named north Korea as a potential
nuclear target and talked of the need for
Continued on page 4...
Continued on page 6...
Continued on page 8...
MIM Notes 276 · February 15, 2003 · Page 2
What is MIM?
The Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM) is the collection of existing or emerging
Maoist internationalist parties in the English-speaking imperialist countries and their English-
speaking internal semi-colonies, as well as the existing or emerging Maoist Internationalist
parties in Belgium, France and Quebec and the existing or emerging Spanish-speaking
Maoist Internationalist parties of Aztlan, Puerto Rico and other territories of the U.$. Empire.
MIM Notes is the newspaper of MIM. Notas Rojas is the newspaper of the Spanish-speaking
parties or emerging parties of MIM. MIM upholds the revolutionary communist ideology
of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism and is an internationalist organization that works from the
vantage point of the Third World proletariat. MIM struggles to end the oppression of all
groups over other groups: classes, genders, nations. MIM knows this is only possibly by
building public opinion to seize power through armed struggle. Revolution is a reality for
North America as the military becomes over-extended in the government's attempts to
maintain world hegemony. MIM differs from other communist parties on three main
questions: (1) MIM holds that after the proletariat seizes power in socialist revolution, the
potential exists for capitalist restoration under the leadership of a new bourgeoisie within
the communist party itself. In the case of the USSR, the bourgeoisie seized power after the
death of Stalin in 1953; in China, it was after Mao's death and the overthrow of the "Gang
of Four" in 1976. (2) MIM upholds the Chinese Cultural Revolution as the farthest advance
of communism in humyn history. (3) As Marx, Engels and Lenin formulated and MIM has
reiterated through materialist analysis, imperialism extracts super-profits from the Third
World and in part uses this wealth to buy off whole populations of oppressor nation so-
called workers. These so-called workers bought off by imperialism form a new petty-
bourgeoisie called the labor aristocracy. These classes are not the principal vehicles to
advance Maoism within those countries because their standards of living depend on
imperialism. At this time, imperialist super-profits create this situation in the Canada,
Quebec, the United $tates, England, France, Belgium, Germany, Japan, Italy, Switzerland,
Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Israel, Sweden and Denmark. MIM accepts people as
members who agree on these basic principles and accept democratic centralism, the system
of majority rule, on other questions of party line.
"The theory of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin is universally applicable. We should
regard it not as dogma, but as a guide to action. Studying it is not merely a matter of
learning terms and phrases, but of learning Marxism-Leninism as the science of revolution."
- Mao Zedong, Selected Works, Vol. II, p. 208.
Editor, MC206; Production, MC12
Letters
MIM Notes
The Official Newsletter of The Maoist Internationalist Movement
ISSN 1540-8817
MIM Notes is the bi-weekly newsletter of the Maoist Internationalist Movement. MIM
Notes is the official Party voice; more complete statements are published in our journal,
MIM Theory. Material in MIM Notes is the Party's position unless noted. MIM Notes
accepts submissions and critiques from anyone. The editors reserve the right to edit
submissions unless permission is specifically denied by the author; submissions are
published anonymously unless authors insist on identification (prisoners are never
identified by name). MIM is an underground party that does not publish the names of its
comrades in order to avoid the state surveillance and repression that have historically
been directed at communist parties and anti-imperialist movements. MCs, MIM comrades,
are members of the Party. The Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League (RAIL) is an anti-
imperialist mass organization led by MIM (RCs are RAIL Comrades). MIM's ten-point
program is available to anyone who sends in a SASE.
The paper is free to all prisoners, as long as they write to us every 90 days to confirm
their subsciptions. There are no individual subscriptions for people outside prison.
People who want to receive newspapers should become sponsors and distributors.
Sponsors pay for papers, distributors get them onto the streets, and officers do both
distribution and financial support. Annual cost is: 12 copies (Priority Mail), $120; 25
(Priority Mail), $150; 50 (Priority Mail), $280; 100, $380; 200, $750; 900 (Express
Mail), $3,840; 900 (8-10 days), $2,200. To become a sponor or distributor, send
anonymous money orders payable to "MIM." Send to MIM, attn: Camb. branch, PO Box
400559, Cambridge, MA 02140. Or write mim3@mim.org.
Most back issues of MIM Notes are available free on our web site. The web site con-
tains thousands of documents, with ordering information for many more.
MIM grants explicit permission to copy all or part of this newspaper for any reason, as
long as we are credited.
For general correspondence, contact:
MIM
P.O. Box 29670
Los Angeles, CA 90029-0670
eMail: <mim@mim.org>
WWW: <http//www.etext.info/Politics/MIM>
Dear MIM:
I am an economics professor in Beijing.
On the one hand the students, all seem to
know what happened at the 16th
Congress. On the other hand there is no
real forecasting that communism will
spread greatly again. I know that Chinese
communism has evolved in many ways.
The view of students is that the
Communist Party of China is improving
China. The students are also realistic
enough to point out problems. (They all
know the rumors about the leaders'
different girlfriends. So nothing is really
secret.) Any one I have asked believes
Nepal will eventually be communist.
Though I have read one time in the
Western media that China does not want
that. But I very much doubt that idea.
--December 2002
International Minister replies: There
are times when capitalist countries enjoy
sustained booms. The province of
Taiwan, southern Korea and Japan did
in the post- World War II era. For the
students to observe that this is the case
in state-capitalist China may be correct.
We do not say at MIM that capitalist
countries never have booms. Once a
country has had thorough land reform, a
boom is possible. In China's case, the
post-Mao leadership managed to make a
deal with the u.$. imperialists for a
profitable trade relationship.It is part of
the imperialists' strategy of "peaceful
evolution" of China and in our opinion it
has worked already.
With regard to Nepal, it's not a matter
just of the Western press. It's China's own
official press calling the revolution in
Nepal "ultraleft" and "terrorist." When
it suits China or Putin's Russia, they
would sell anybody to the u.$.
imperialists. However, some day in the
future, when the Chinese people are sure
they've had as much capitalist boom as
they can enjoy, they will turn to socialism
again, and at that time, they will know
what Mao meant when he said socialism
was "the only way out" for China.
MIM Notes has seen a big spike in
circulation since the "war on
terrorism" began. It's not surprising:
MIM Notes is a free and independent
newspaper. Yes, there are especially
now knee-jerk patriots who believe
everything Bush says and pass by a
chance to read MIM Notes. There are
other patriots and internationalists
who realize that at this time papers
like MIM Notes can undo the huge
spectacle that Uncle Sam is creating
for its own benefit.
Sure, you have seen MIM Notes
around, but MIM Notes needs people
to do two simple things: 1) Pay for it
(postage and printing), 2) Distribute
it!
MIM is looking for sponsors,
distributors and officers. Sponsors pay
for papers; distributors get them onto
the streets and officers do both
distribution and financial support.
Distribute # Cost per year
12 (Priority Mail)
$120
25 (Priority Mail)
$150
50 (Priority Mail)
$280
100
$380
200
$750
900 (Express Mail!)
$3,840
900 (8-10 days)
$2,200
If you know you have some good
places to do distribution, we suggest
starting at 200 and working your way
up higher. If you are not willing to do
distribution, just send money. If you
are not willing to pay, then request
papers after somehow proving to the
party that you are serious (words
won't count). You who will cough up/
raise the money to distribute 900
papers each issue and then do the
distribution, you are what drives this
party forward.
A call for MIM Notes
sponsors and distributors!
Make anonymous money orders payable to "MIM." Send to MIM,
attn: Camb. branch, PO Box 400559, Cambridge, MA 02140. Contact
MIM in regards to this campaign by writing mim3@mim.org
Chinese professor writes in
MIM Notes 276 · February 15, 2003 · Page 3
A New Jersey Prisoner brought to
RAIL's attention a Bill that, if passed,
would increase the oppression of
prisoners and further consolidate national
oppression. In essence, the bill would
make prisoners responsible for paying for
their own incarceration, and if unable,
would give the state the right to seize and/
or sell the property of inmates to cover
the expenses.
An explanation of the bill, in typical
bourgeois terminology states that NJ
Senate Bill No. 373 "would make adult
inmates in State correctional institutions
responsible for their own support and
maintenance and authorizes the State to
place liens against the property and
income of these inmates for the total cost
of their care and maintenance."(1)
The explanation of the bill goes on to
say that based on 1999 statistics, every
year spent in prison would mean a debt
of $25,000 to the state. It also mentions
that "it would be necessary to enforce any
liens placed against the inmate's property
and financial assets." That is, those who
cannot afford to finance their own
oppression would be forced to pay
through confiscation of property etc.
Since the majority of New Jersey
inmates are Black (63%), and since
"Hispanics" make up 18% of inmates,
(2) New Jersey incarceration, just like
incarceration throughout the rest of the
country, represents one of the pillars of
the oppression of the internal semi-
colonies. Further, the fact that most
inmates are poor or have relatively low
incomes means that these debts will
make it even more difficult for released
prisoners to be able to survive.
Because of the rapid growth of the
prison industrial complex and the
increasing costs of keeping large
numbers of people locked down, the state
is seeking a way to alleviate its financial
burden by passing it on to most
oppressed and impoverished sections of
the population. This absurd "solution"
highlights the hypocrisy of the
humanitarian rhetoric of the u.$.
government and proves the futility of
liberal "anti-crime" efforts. Obviously if
rehabilitation were part of the imperialist
prison system, the state would not send
released inmates back into a situation
where, owing to their huge debts and lack
of income, they would be forced to
commit crimes again. This situation
would be further heightened if Bill 373
passes since it would mean 5-digit debts
for every year of prison.
RAIL looks to the Chinese socialist
prison system under Mao Zedong as an
example of how prisons can be used for
rehabilitation--not national oppression.
The Maoist prisons relied on study and
self-criticism, and job training, to
transform inmates who committed real
crimes against the people, into productive
members of society. RAIL understands
that a real solution to crime cannot be
attained under imperialism since
Amerika's prisons main purpose is to
perpetuate national oppression--not deter
crimes.
RAIL is launching a campaign to stop
Bill 373 from passing in the New Jersey
Senate. See our petition on MIM's
Website (3), or contact the following
people to demand that the bill not be
allowed to pass:
Senator Nicholas J. Sacco (primary
sponsor):
9060 Palisade Avenue
North Bergen, NJ 07047
(201) 295-0200
SenSacco@njleg.org
Senator John H. Adler (primary
sponsor):
231 Route 70 East
Cherry Hill, NJ 08034-2421
(856) 428-3343
SenAdler@njleg.org
Senator Anthony R. Bucco (co-
sponsor):
75 Bloomfield Ave.
3rd Floor
Denville, NJ 07834
(973) 627-9700
SenBucco@njleg.org
Senator Peter Inverso (Chair of the
Senate Law and Public Safety
Committee):
3691 Anottingham Way.
Hamilton, NJ 08690
(609) 586-1330
SenInverso@njleg.org
Notes:
1. www.njleg.state.nj.us/2000/Bills/
S0500/426_F1.HTM
2. www.state.nj.us/corrections/
o f f e n d e r _ s t a t i s t i c s / 2 0 0 1 /
2001_annrac.pdf
3. www.etext.info/Politics/MIM/
agitation/prisons/campaigns/nj/nj.html
Paying For Oppression
New Jersey prisoners may have to pay for incarceration
MIM and RAIL, working with other
prison activist groups, have been waging
a battle against the torture units called
Security Housing Units (SHU) in
California prisons. The SHU is
segregation housing where prisoners are
kept in their cells 23 hours a day, for
years at a time. The SHU is used as
punishment for prisoners who fight for
their legal rights and protest guard
abuse. Thousands of men are locked up
in the SHU in California. Our petition
campaign has already yielded thousands
of signatures. And we are gaining support
across the state.
Recently a former SHU prisoner
contacted us to get involved. He
scheduled a protest date at his college
and sent us the following report:
"As for the petitions I only got to do it
for about a hour, because I had to go see
my parole officer. In that hour I did get
about 54 signatures! Most people were
real responsive to that and there were
those who are sadists. I had one
Corcoran C/O tell me that she hated that
place because of all the horrible things
that go on in there! She signed it! One
lady told me that we had that coming and
was glad there was such a place to put
us in. Straight Nazi!"
This activist also sent the following
report on life in the SHU to help expose
conditions there and build the campaign
to abolish the SHU.
Life within the Department of
Corrections is not what most people
think. It is a cruel and violent
environment, full of manipulation tactics,
scare tactics, and physical abuse. The
average person will probably say, "Good,
that's what they get", "put a bunch of
convicts together and they'll kill
themselves." Truth be told this is not only
done by the inmates, more commonly by
the guards on orders of the
administration officials.
Due to my constant struggle to fight
the oppressive conditions, I was given
an Indeterminate SHU term. In the
process I was robbed by the CO's. They
took all my valuable property, TV,
Wedding Ring, Clothes, and other stuff.
More than likely it was given to their
snitches. I filed a 602 [grievance] only to
be given a 115 for forgery. A good way
to clean up their crimes, blame me for it.
Isn't that the story of my life.
Well, in the year that followed I
received accommodations in a unlawful
AD- SEG. Housed in a temporary AD-
SEG for a year, only because I contested
every infraction and injustice committed
by the guards. Most of the 602s never
made it out of the building, those that did
were largely ignored. Every dirty trick
they could think of was used to keep us
quiet. For the most part it worked on
those who have no self-dignity.
Food served as a form of punishment
on a daily basis. The games played with
our food ranged from not giving us our
food while it was still hot to withholding
it from us. The guards allowed the food
to sit there and collect dust from the vents
or pass it out without wearing gloves or
hair nets. Then there's always a little
something extra in there for you to snack
on (finger nails, dirt and what not).
These by no means are the real abusive
Former security housing inmate exposes Cal. prison brutality
Even mistaken, Huey
Newton was better than
contemporary pseudo-
communists
The Huey P. Newton Reader
David Hilliard & Donald Weise, eds.
NY, NY: Seven Stories Press 2002
363 pp. hardcover
reviewed by MC5, January 2003
Huey Newton's wife and David
Hilliard own the copyright to this book.
Because not long ago it was very difficult
to find the Black Panther writings in
book form, we are thankful that yet
another book has come out, even if it is
$35.
Most of the material is old and the new
material comes from the period in which
we at MIM believe the Black Panthers
were already in serious decline. A number
of difficult turns in the struggle from 1969
found the Black Panthers increasingly
disoriented, and if we are to believe
Hilliard and others, Newton was
persynally disoriented by drugs in
addition to the murders of his comrades
and the confused interventions of the
Vietnamese comrades at the time.
Having said all that before in previous
MIM literature and having dealt with
much of the current book in our
document "On the internal class
structures of the internal semi-
colonies,"(1) I would like to approach
this subject from another angle. Hilliard's
introduction makes the valuable
observation that Huey Newton's writings
on inter-communalism presaged
"globalization" discussion today. In fact,
Huey Newton's observations are more
pointed and far-sighted than those today
by authors of Empire Hardt and Negri.(2)
In the 1980s, the "Revolutionary
Communist Party" was busy denigrating
the Black Panthers, but today now that
Newton is dead, they tend to most often
mention the Black Panthers as having
offered their leader Avakian secret
membership. Another important claimant
to the legacy is the African People's
Socialist Party (APSP), and this book
New book sheds light on Huey's internationalism
Continued on page 5...
Continued on page 8...
MIM Notes 276 · February 15, 2003 · Page 4
political responsibility to oneself and the
world. Nor should the apathy of others
justify one's own self-satisfaction with
marching. A progressive outlook requires
non-stop efforts at self-improvement.
The marchers in the anti-war
movement are often new to politics. Not
much separates them from those not
marching. More importantly, even
relatively political people can raise their
level of political participation and skills,
their quality of politics so-to-speak.
In politics, most people are all used to
blaming leaders and doing nothing. This
actually leaves the ruling class in place
and even makes organizing difficult for
non-rulers as well. An example is the
Boston Phoenix coverage of the DC
demonstration against the war. Posing as
"alternative" bourgeoisie while having
links to the Democratic Party, the Boston
Phoenix said that the mentions of the
Leonard Peltier case and Mumia Abu-
Jamal's case at the DC rally were "self-
indulgent" by the neo-Trotskyist activist
leaders of the rally, who we at MIM
disagree with but not the way the Phoenix
does. Political cynicism has spread so far
that now working on behalf of Leonard
Peltier or Mumia Abu- Jamal is "self-
indulgent." Listening to the Boston
Phoenix cynics, one would think that
these two political prisoners were writing
checks or sending bon-bons to the
activists who mention them at anti-war
rallies. In contrast, we would argue that
people supporting Leonard Peltier and
Mumia Abu-Jamal just happen to know
something about politics that the Phoenix
liberals do not.
The Phoenix has made it clear in past
articles that 911 has separated its writers
from the world's radicals. The Phoenix
called on Bush to turn to a liberal
internationalist base in this period of
turmoil to conduct war. Now the Phoenix
is opposing the Iraq War, or is it? Where
were they when Bush started the whole
"pre-emptive" strike schtick--still trying
to get Bush's pragmatic internationalist
ear? The Phoenix sang a different tune
after 911, but now it tells us that it was
"left" all along: "On one side are purists
who believe that almost any projection
of US military and economic power
beyond no-strings foreign aid and debt
forgiveness is wrong. To many of this
persuasion, the Al Qaeda attacks were
`blowback'--deeply tragic, but
inevitable and thoroughly
comprehensible. On the other side of the
American left are pragmatists who can
decipher the public mood and draw
distinctions between a war of defense
against Al Qaeda and the impending
conflict against Iraq." What can we say
but that the Phoenix is deeply out to
lunch, raising the usual: "Will purists turn
off deeper public opinion?"(1)
Alternative soul brother of the Phoenix
the Village Voice said, "If the last march,
in October, was the largest antiwar
protest since the Vietnam era, Saturday's
Message to the anti-war movement
Continued from page 1...
march was easily as big?-or bigger. The
networks nearly ignored October's demo,
while several liberal critics, such as
David Corn, called it `a pander fest for
the hard left' and expressed concern that
the organizer of both marches, the
International ANSWER Coalition, would
`prevent the antiwar movement from
growing.'"(2)
Fellow alternative travelers at the LA
Weekly piped in that defending
"convicted cop killers like Mumia Abu-
Jamal and H. Rap Brown as Workers
World does, we said, was hardly the way
to win over the millions we need to stop
Bush." LA Weekly columnist Marc
Cooper has made criticizing those who
would dare connect 911 to Amerika's
crimes abroad in any way something of
a cottage industry.(3)
Yet, if the "alternative" bourgeoisie
making its money on escort services and
persynal ads equaled the activity of more
dedicated anti-war people, there would
no longer be an issue to discuss. Bush
would have to back down and reorganize
for a future fight. So we have to ask
"pragmatic" toward what end, toward
ending the war or selling newspaper ads
or getting Democrats into power. We
would suggest the Phoenix and Voice are
often more concerned with the latter
causes while drawing distinctions that are
useful only in electoral politics, not in
solving the actual problems facing the
world right now.
Perhaps the "alternatives" should note
that in just the past month, the United
$tates threatened to attack a nuclear
power in Korea; following U.$. logic,
India's Defense Minister said India could
afford to absorb some nuclear hits while
Pakistan would be wiped out in such a
war and people across the world are
saying that an invasion of Iraq will trigger
more terrorism and war. In such
circumstances, it hardly matters if we
turn off "deep" American public opinion.
What matters is that we achieve the goals
we have-- peace. If Amerikkkans are not
ready to hear it, it does not mean we can
afford to dump the goal! Amerikkkans
may find learning internationalism
extremely painful--and we believe so
painful it is only possible amidst
violence--but it remains true that
peaceful internationalism is necessary for
species survival. That's either true or not.
Getting a majority of Amerikkkans on
one's side does not necessarily do
anything. Already a majority opposes
intensifying the existing Iraq war without
UN backing. Yet, that has done no good.
If every half-assed liberal or neo-liberal
did half as much political work as the
average radical, there'd be nothing to
discuss: The Iraq War could not happen.
The Phoenix has admitted that the more
numerous but lazy liberals have not much
anti-war activism to their credit: "Gitlin
argued that the `cynics of the hard left
have moved to the front of the current
antiwar movement.'" MIM would say it's
true: a tiny minority has led the
movement and liberals have made few
contributions except to provide big
names from Hollywood and Jesse
Jackson to show up at rallies and give
speeches.
The Democratic and Republican
parties do not dominate by the ardour of
their political activists. In fact, strictly by
the numbers, the Democrats,
Republicans, Libertarians and people
calling themselves "socialist" are four
camps of people with roughly equal
numbers. Looking at Yahoo! group
memberships, one can see that the largest
are not necessarily the Democrats and
Republicans. These two parties dominate
through use of their government power,
money, media and habit. The Libertarians
recently pointed out that their website
gets more traffic than the Democratic
Party's.
That's right: let's be clear there is an
issue of quality. Tens of millions pull the
levers for Democrats and Republicans,
but that fact is of no use to the peace
movement. If 200,000 people had shown
up in DC waving Mao's Red Book while
calling for an end to the war, we can be
sure the overall political situation would
be such that there'd be some concerted
efforts by Bush to compromise on the war
with the Boston Phoenix wing of the
"alternative" bourgeoisie, a.k.a. an
underground section of the Democratic
Party. They'd be working on how to save
face, not coercing the entire UN into
going Bush's way. After all, Bush is less
likely to send the military abroad if half
a million Maoists could stroll into DC in
the meantime. It's sad that MIM has to
spell that out, but after generations of
television and softcore pornography
"reading," the country has forgotten the
relationship established since the
American Revolution of 1776 between
demonstrations and power.
The Boston Phoenix and others are
constantly calling for watering down
without regard for what is necessary in
these dangerous, imperialist- militarist
times. Kudos to Adrian Brune for
recognizing that she preferred to go home
on the "Peter Pan bus that screened a
shiny, happy teen flick" instead of a
political activist bus. Now if she would
only wonder why even teen flicks are
more interesting than politics, she would
know why Phoenix liberals cannot be
taken seriously when the goal is peace.
We can only give the Phoenix's
Richard Byrne credit for his analysis of
the media: "On the ABC affiliate, the
three dozen counter-protestors received
more airtime than the approximately
110,000 antiwar marchers. Coverage
time on the local CBS affiliate was
roughly equal." We do not mind adding
that some "alternative" city papers did
not cover the DC rally at all--the
Philadelphia "City Paper" and the
Baltimore "City Paper," judging by their
web pages for instance. Byrne concludes
we have to compromise with the
mainstream media so they do better next
time. We at MIM conclude we have to
build our own.
That brings us to the next point. If the
people in just one of the many marches
gave as much money to print MIM Notes
as we MIM members do, MIM Notes
circulation would already be one billion.
It again raises the question of depth of
commitment beyond marching
occasionally and voting. If the
mainstream media chooses to give equal
time to a small knot of yahoos, it does
not have to matter. MIM Notes with a
circulation of a mere 20 million would
cover things correctly and politics would
suddenly look a lot different, and that's
not to mention the other institutions MIM
is building.
Compromising when you do not have
power is not pragmatic: it is completely
unrealistic. Bush is not going to give in
because he receives a mixed message
from people who vote sometimes. The
lesser-evil as the Phoenix perceived by
covering the radical versus liberal split
more than the counter-protestors is to side
with the most radical internationalists to
be found.
People who want to see Bush and the
Democrats forced to turn in a different
direction are going to have to see the
MIM pole grow to a position of public
prominence: that is pragmatism. Getting
weasel words together is not pragmatism:
it does nothing to improve the people and
their movements. Until we can guarantee
everyone an honest living under
socialism, do not take away the job of
bourgeois politicians: leave the weasel
wording and compromises to them and
join the people working for
thoroughgoing internationalism, the only
real guarantee of security and peace. If
you want to go on voting for liberals and
attending silent candle-light vigils, do it,
but give us your money. That would be
real pragmatism.
Notes:
1. www.bostonphoenix.com/boston/
news_features/top/features/documents/
02664251.htm
2. www.villagevoice.com/issues/0304/
kaplan.php
3. www.laweekly.com/ink/03/04/dissonance-
cooper.php
If every half-assed
liberal or neo-liberal
did half as much
political work as the
average radical,
there'd be nothing to
discuss: The Iraq War
could not happen.
MIM Notes 276 · February 15, 2003 · Page 5
On January 21st, the Washington Post
desperately slandered the anti-war
movement and Stalinism in an article by
Michael Kelly titled "Marching with
Stalinists." The Washington Post is one
of the premier political newspapers of the
United $tates and certainly should know
things about history, such as Trotsky,
Stalin etc., right? Think again.
Editor of the "Atlantic" and
Washington Post columnist Kelly said,
"International ANSWER (Act Now to
Stop War and End Racism) is a front
group for the communist Workers World
Party. The Workers World Party is,
literally, a Stalinist organization. It rose
out of a split within the old Socialist
Workers Party over the Soviet Union's
1956 invasion of Hungary -- the
breakaway Workers World Party was all
for the invasion."
The New York Times echoed the
sentiment on January 24th in an article
by Lynette Clemetson: "Some of the
group's chief organizers are active in the
Workers World Party, a radical Socialist
group with roots in the Stalin-era Soviet
Union."
On January 23rd, MIM wrote the
ombudsman at the Washington Post the
following letter:
"Dear Washington Post Ombudsman:
"We defenders of Stalin at the Maoist
Internationalist Movement are deeply
aggrieved by your naming the Workers
World Party `Stalinist' for their support
of the invasion of Hungary in 1956 in
Michael Kelly's column: http://
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/
articles/A25043-2003Jan21.html We
would have written Kelly, but we do not
see his email address.
"Bush Sr. supported Stalin's attack on
Hitler: does that make Bush Sr. a
`Stalinist'? When the West invaded
Germany after World War II did it
become `Stalinist'? Would the Allies
have reacted favorably if a Nazi
movement stirred to seize power in their
zones of Germany in the 1950s? Do you
think Eisenhower would have stood there
and allowed it to happen to avoid your
calling him `Stalinist'? Were you aware
that Hungary also sided with Hitler
during the war?
"Hopefully you realize that one foreign
policy decision does not make one
`Stalinist.' The Workers World Party is
descended from a Trotskyist party and to
this day refers to Trotsky favorably, not
Stalin. If you need proof, read their
documents such as: http://
www.workers.org/marcy/perestroika/
glossary.html They also quote the
bourgeois and Trotskyist line on the
Hitler-Stalin pact here: http://
w w w . w o r k e r s . o r g / m a r c y / 1 9 9 1 /
sm910627.html
"You can call us schismatic, but if you
are going to try to get into the details, try
to get the schisms right! As it stands, your
article is the crudest sort of red-baiting.
"Sincerely, International Minister
Maoist Internationalist Movement"
As of February 2nd, there was no reply
from the Washington Post, so we sent
another letter:
"Dear Washington Post Ombudsman:
"On January 23rd, I sent you the
message below and I have heard no reply
from anyone.
"You can check the Workers World
Party website for yourself. Here is an
example: `Khrushchev's report placed
Stalin in the dock of history as a mass
murderer, as one who had exterminated
hundreds of thousands of loyal
communists, leading cadres of the party
and of the military, and had resorted,
through his agents, to physical torture,
mass deportations, and the destruction of
inner-party democracy, among many
other crimes. ...
"`Of course much, in fact most, of what
Khrushchev had reported on had long
been known in the West and certainly in
the Soviet Union.' http://
www.workers.org/marcy/cd/samclass/
class/pcnvrt02.htm
"The Workers World Party has never
been `Stalinist.' You should admit that
you are simply out of your waters when
it comes to these questions.
"Sincerely, International Minister
Maoist Internationalist Movement"
It was obviously Kelly's intention to
scare people into not supporting the anti-
war movement. Yet in trying to get
involved in the issues he revealed either
an astonishing ignorance or an equally
astonishing willingness to lie. The fact
that the New York Times joined in on
the inaccurate politics shows that the East
Coast Establishment political
newspapers do not know what they are
talking about. People should rely on the
Internet as opposed to mainstream
newspapers. It's possible to get accurate
information on the Internet.
Wash. Post invokes Stalin to oppose anti-war movement
goes further to justify the kind of eclectic
politics that the APSP has taken up. More
and more material from the BPP in the
mid-1970s shows up as the background
for the APSP. (We at MIM are not able
to verify all this material, not having seen
it before.)
Newton himself came to refer to the
period that we at MIM uphold as
"revolutionary cultism." Hence, in this
collection we see the whole justification