MIM Notes ***

MIM Notes 294 · January 1, 2004 · Page 1

MIM Notes

Jan. 1, 2004, Nº 294

The Official Newsletter of the Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM)

Free

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On the web: www.etext.info/Politics/MIM

by MC5

December 15, 2003

n December 13, the bourgeois

news agencies reported that

U.$. troops captured Saddam

Hussein, former president of Iraq. The

rulers of England, France and Germany

all heralded this as "very good news for

the people of Iraq," as Prime Minister

Tony Blair of England said.(1)

82% of the Amerikkkan public thought

the capture of Saddam Hussein was a

"great achievement" according to a

CNN/USA Today poll of 664 people.(2)

Meanwhile, Brian Knowlton for the New

York Times and International Herald

Tribune quoted a political science

professor who now thinks George W.

Bush is "unbeatable" in 2004 elections

without major economic and war

disaster.(3) So it goes to prove that the

formula of killing Third World people is

ever-popular in the imperialist country

populations.

Although numerous Republican

conservatives complained that Democrats

hated Bush more than Saddam

Hussein(4), in fact, the Democratic Party

celebrated Saddam Hussein's capture.

This leaves only hard-line internationalists

like us here at MIM asking who is better

for Iraqi people, Saddam Hussein or

George Bush.

In politics, George Washington warned

America not to aggrandize itself at the

expense of other nations and he fought

against the colonial power England.

Those who believe colonialism is not

progressive share George Washington's

opinion and thus believe that Saddam

Hussein is better for Iraq than George

Bush. However, let us leave behind the

political generalities and look at the facts

underlying those beliefs. The question

should be whether George W. Bush is

better for Iraq than Saddam Hussein or

whether the imperialist countries have

propagandized themselves into old-style

colonialism.

The first thing we always hear Bush

say about his justifications for what he

does is that Iraq is not a "free country."

Now supposedly Iraq is free of a

"tyrant." Yet Bush heads a government

with more prisoners percentage-wise than

Saddam Hussein did. (Amerikka leads the

world in prisoners per capita.) What is

more, Saddam Hussein released all his

George W. Bush or Saddam Hussein

Which one is worse for Iraq?

Inter-imperialist

rivalry goes up a

notch

by MC5

December 10, 2003

The Pentagon announced that it is

cutting Russia, France and Germany out

of business in Iraq for failing to support

the invasion, the New York Times

reported December 10th.(1)

In colonial times, the standard practice

was to prevent competitors from doing

business in one's colonies. Since the

United $tates has limited the business in

Iraq to a group of its allies such as Poland

and Portugal, the resulting group is called

a "trade bloc."

The Pentagon says that only U.$. allies

will be allowed to do business there on

U.$. contracts--which since the United

$tates is running Iraq--means no new

business for France, Germany and

Russia. Thus far, Iraq under U.$.

dictatorship is honoring old business

contracts from before the invasion,

including one for Russian taxis.(2)

Republicans in Congress and

Democrats running for president

lambasted the Bush administration.

Senator Kerry from Massachusetts said,

"`I can't think of anything dumber.'"(3)

He and others pointed out the obvious that

other selfish bourgeois nations would not

join in unity without some scraps of the

spoils thrown their way.

The Bush administration move has

further infuriated the bourgeois

internationalist faction usually more firmly

in control of the government and reveals

fissures at the highest level of imperialist

strategy. The bourgeois internationalists

overwhelmingly in control until Bush Jr.

came to power want joint imperialist

exploitation of Iraq. They do not like the

logic of trade blocs and fantasize about

free trade. The current policy is more like

that of an Amerikkka-first faction

supported by fringe elements like

Buchanan or Perot and goes to show that

imperialism is two-faced and inherently

contradictory. Bush Jr. comes from a

bourgeois internationalist family.

It was Lenin in his argument with

Kautsky who said that imperialism could

never become "super-imperialism," a

united and peaceful imperialism. Quite the

contrary, as Lenin said in his book

"Imperialism: The Highest Stage of

Capitalism," the imperialists would

periodically redivide the world. What is

happening in Iraq is a textbook example.

The fact that Bush would think of going

this ancient route is also a disproof of

those saying there is no longer a nation-

state or there is only just one world

empire. Authors Michael Hardt and

Antonio Negri wrote a book called

Empire saying that there is only one world

imperialism.

The slap at Europe also occurs at a

time when the Euro is trouncing the dollar

on the markets. The British pound hit an

unheard of $1.73. MIM reported the

reasons for this in July 1 2003 MIM

Iraq a true colony

Latinos

boycott

California

December 12, 2003

California Latino activists held a state-

wide boycott to protest Governor

Schwarzenegger's December 3 repeal of

a bill that would have given so-called

illegal immigrants the right to drive.

Intended to demonstrate the economic

power of Latinos in California, the boycott

was a one-day economic strike where

Latinos across the state stayed home from

work and school and did not buy anything.

One-third of the population in California

is Latino and the state's industries rely on

Latino labor, which makes up 45% of the

workforce, particularly for the low wage

jobs that other people don't want. Of the

Latino nations in California, Mexicans are

the overwhelming majority, making up

about 80% as of the 2000 census.(1)

Consistent with demographics, this strike

saw heavy Mexican participation and

leadership. It brought out a public

demonstration of Mexican nationalism

with Mexican flags flying across the state

at protests and in the streets.

Schools in heavily Latino districts

reported dramatically lower attendance,

some businesses shut down in solidarity

with the action, and many streets lined

with stores were empty of shoppers. The

Fresno Bee reported that absences in

Fresno County alone cost school districts

Continued on page 6...

Continued on page 8...

Continued on page 4...

MIM Notes 294 · January 1, 2004 · 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.

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Mail), $3,840; 900 (8-10 days), $2,200. To become a sponor or distributor, send
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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

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For general correspondence, contact:

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Prisoner congratulates
MIM on bucking
imperialist media
monopoly

Greetings MIM,

I am in receipt of MIM Notes 288-290,

thank you. The newspapers were

unexpected, as I have not received MIM

Notes in over two years.

After 9-11 the Michigan Department

of Corruptions (MDOC) increased its

efforts to censor all incoming sources of

information, this included categorically

banning all MIM-related materials. Prior

to that the MDOC wrote mail policies

that disallowed books and magazines that

were not from the "approved vendor" list.

This permitted the MDOC to deny

censoring what information we have

access to by stating that we are allowed

to order books, magazines, newspapers,

etc. But I can assure you that the

approved vendors do not carry MIM

Notes or any other materials critical of

the American capitalist-imperialist

government and the institutions it has

spawned.

MIM has been central in providing

information about the world we live in.

MIM is the definition of a free press. Even

those who do not agree with MIM politics

surely must concede to that. The big

American Media outlets simply parakeet

information disseminated by the

government/corporate America. The

White House, State Department,

Pentagon and City Hall become our

sources of information. News analysts

and commentators are often ex-

government employees or corporate

insiders.

Take for example those the media uses

to keep us abreast of what is going on in

Iraq: Paul Bremer? It's a joke. I used to

think that the News Hour with Jim Lehrer

was legitimate, but I have noticed that he

never has as a guest or analyst an

individual directly affected by the issue

of the day. If he does, it is one who was

hand-picked. Not once have I seen

anyone on the news who was asked to

explain what life was like in Iraq during

the 13 years of American military

aggression against that country. No Iraqis

have been invited on television to talk

about how the embargo affected their

lives: the constant bombing of roads,

plants, water works and communication

centers, or the burning of crops. The

media give these things, among other

atrocities, no attention, as if they have not

contributed to the destruction of Iraqi

society.

I do not want to beat this in the head,

but the other day a group of us was

discussing how the World Bank subsidized

the $87 billion Bush said was needed to

support the troops and finance

"rebuilding" in Iraq for the next six to eight

months. Even though the news conveyed

that information, it failed to explain how

the World Bank functions and what this

World Bank subsidy means for the Iraqi

people. A viewer may possess some

information but not enough to process and

synthesize what has actually taken place.

I would appreciate it if you would keep

me on your mailing list. Your paper is an

invaluable source of information and

insight. MIM has allowed me to view

issues from a vantage I otherwise never

would have. This in turn has influenced

how I have viewed and responded to

other issues.

America espouses and acts upon a

specific economic-political ideology:

capitalism. I actually question if capitalism

or imperialism is a proper definition. All

major industries are monopolized, and

everyone who does business does

business at the behest of the monopolies.

There is no "Free Market" competition,

not competition in the true sense of the

word. Robert McChesney, in a paper

entitled "Corporate Media and the Threat

to Democracy" explained that each of

the eight largest U.$. media firms has, on

average, joint ventures with four of the

other seven giants. They also have more

ventures with smaller media firms.

Beyond joint ventures, there is also

overlapping direct ownership of these

firms. Seagram, owner of MCA, for

example owns 15 percent of Time Warner

and has other media equity holdings in

numerous other firms. The Capital Group

Companies mutual fund, valued at $250

billion, is among the very largest

shareholder in TCI, News Corporation,

Seagram, Time Warner, Viacom, Disney,

Westinghouse, and several other smaller

media firms.

One last thing. Howard Dean was

courting the votes of those who wave the

confederate flag. He was criticized for

that rather boisterously by Al Sharpton in

particular. But the stars and stripes flag

represents no better. Everywhere that

flag has been raised, including on this

continent, it has meant American

hegemony, exploitation and oppression. If

that flag is raised in Cambodia it cannot

help but resonate with memories of terror

when the Nixon Administration secretly

bombed that country. In Chile it brings up

memories of the U.$.'s role in

overthrowing Salvador Allende's

government. In Puerto Rico it recalls over

a hundred years of colonial relations with

America. The same emotions and

memories the confederate flag stirs up

for New Afrikans (Blacks) the American

flag does for people all around the world.

We missed the opportunity to exploit that.

Al Sharpton is a continuation of the

conciliatory politics that have tried to

legislate reforms in a system that places

profit before people and always will. His

energy and time are a detriment.

Vita Bila Ya Mashanti

(War Without Terms),

--a Michigan prisoner,

25 November, 2003

MIM responds: You are right about

corporate/government domination of the

Amerikan media and how that hinders

popular understanding of the problems we

face today. You are also correct that

Where on the news do we hear about the

effects of U$ sanctions on the Iraqis?

Continued on page 4...

MIM Notes 294 · January 1, 2004 · Page 3

Los Angeles, 13 December 2003 --

MIM attended a candlelight vigil in the

middle of Hollywood to end the

occupation of Iraq. The vigil started just

after dark on a well-picked street corner

and the crowd's signs and speeches drew

attention from people driving into LA

from the San Fernando Valley along with

tourists and families strolling on the Walk

of Fame in the early evening. A few

hundred people participated, and

passersby stopped throughout the evening

to gawk, find out what the crowd was

for, or show their support. We handed out

100+ copies of MIM Notes to the crowd,

and took a short poll to gauge the crowd's

opinion on current U.$. foreign policy.

Forty-seven people participated in our

quick poll over about an hour and a

quarter. We based our questions on those

suggested in MIM Notes 271,(1) with

slight modifications to account for the fact

that those questions were written before

the invasion of Iraq. Answering

percentages are rounded to the nearest

whole percent and may not add up to 100.

A mild skew comes from the fact that

for several respondents English was not

a first language and they answered "I

don't know" to some questions out of

concern that they were not

understanding the question adequately.

1. Using your own definition of

terrorism, would you call the U.$.

government a terrorist organization? Yes:

79% (37 people); No: 17% (8 people); I

don't know: 2% (1 persyn). The response

to this question in LA was similar to that

in Boston back in December.(2) Even

though we had narrowed this question

since our last poll, several people

hesitated in their responses before

answering yes, saying the question was

too broad. These people said that they

might call George Bush or the

Department of Defense terrorist but not

the government as a whole, or that they

think the U.$. is engaged in terrorist

activities right now but is not inherently

terrorist. We asked these people to give

their opinion of the government as a whole,

considering its current actions and those

of the past few months.

We might break this question down in

the future to reflect this range of opinion,

if we had more time or more pollsters.

But as we said in December, even with

imperfect or "vague" questions it is a

useful exercise to obtain a general idea

about the anti-war movement. MIM would

also say it is a useful exercise for those in

the anti-war movement to think about

Amerika or the U.$. government as a

whole. When asked to do this, anti-war

Amerikans apparently see their country

the way the rest of the world does.

2. On a scale of 1 (extreme

disapproval) to 7 (extreme approval),

how would you rate your opinion of the

U.$. handling of the Iraq situation? The

average answer was 1.1, with 1 (extreme

disapproval) getting 85% (40 people); 2

getting 4% (2 people); 3.5 getting 2% (1

persyn); and 5 also getting 2% (1 persyn).

Some people answered "negative 1,"

"negative 1000," or "it sucks." The

concentration of answers on this question

was pretty predictable, given that the

crowd had gathered to protest U.$.

actions in Iraq. We would probably not

repeat this question for such a crowd.

People at an anti-occupation rally have

pretty much answered this question just

by showing up.

A couple of those who answered more

favorably about the U.$. actions expected

that MIM would not want to include them

MIM anti-war polling continues in Los Angeles

reviewed by mim3@mim.org

It's been long enough since the movie

came out that this review will contain many

spoilers. I will start with my pre-movie

predictions.

Obviously I was wrong that Morpheus

would die. However, we did avoid a

totally happy ending and in this respect, I

am happy not to have to trash the movie

completely.

As our first review of this movie

pointed out, even though 99% of humyns

live in bondage (hooked up to the matrix),

the revolution does not seem to involve

them. They are an afterthought brought

in at the very end of the movie to tie

together some loose ends.

This movie is to such an extent a movie

about heroes that the climax is a borrowed

Greek myth about the gods. Neo, but only

Neo evolves in order to save the humyns.

His is a lonely and strong sacrifice when

he goes alone without his love. I at least

wondered whether he really had it in him.

The death imagery of the climax

includes Buddhist energy pattern beliefs

and Buddhist/Muslim beliefs about

boundaries beyond which wimmin cannot

pass. All this is to say that this is not a

fully modern work of art by any stretch

of the imagination. It seems to delight in

borrowing and challenging the audience

to uncover the theft covered up in sci-fi

forms.

There is not that much fiction out there

in the world that shows a whole class of

people liberating itself. Marx criticized the

art of heroes as "idealist." Hence, with

its emphasis on heroic individuals, we

Neo learned from his

enemy sufficiently to

bring about revolution.

This point is something

often not stressed

enough in our own class

struggles. Learning from

the enemy is not spying.

San Francisco, December 12

The Committee for Human Rights in the

Philippines (CHRP) hosted an event to show
a new movie entitled "Ang Kaaway" (The

Enemy). The movie did not provide any

new information to MIM, but it is an
excellent historical account with an

internationalist perspective.

The movie begins with the redeployment

of U.$. troops in the Philippines with the

announcement of the `War on Terrorism.'

A spokesperson from CHRP pointed out
the ramifications of the troops' presence

in both direct military involvement and the

effects on the daily lives of communities.
He cited a 600% increase in prostitution of

wimmin and children since the troops

returned. Meanwhile, the Filipino people
face an average of two murders a day by

the U.$.-puppet state.

A mass movement of Filipinos forced the

United $tates to close its military bases in

the Philippines at the beginning of the

1990s. The Filipino people prevented the
return of U.$. troops throughout the

decade, despite the wishes of the U.$.-

puppet state. But current President Gloria
Macapagal Arroyo approved the Visiting

Forces Agreement (1), which gives U.$.

troops and ships access to the country. This
agreement violates the Filipino constitution

and is clearly opposed by the Filipino people.

She also invited U.$. troops to participate
in military operations (another

constitutional violation, but consistent with

the toadying nature of the Manila
government).

Both the movie and the CHRP speaker

did an excellent job of putting the Filipino
struggle in the context of the history of

revolutionary struggles and the current state

of national liberation movements occurring
throughout the world. The film faltered

some when discussing conditions in the

imperialist countries, however.

The film claimed that "free trade"

capitalism isn't even in the interest of people

in the imperialist countries. While implying

that Amerikans have it a little better this

statement ignored the economic realities

within imperialist countries, namely, that
the majority there benefits from the

exploitation of the Third World.

Furthermore, in the context of imperialist
countries, this statement plays the

internationalist "free trade" wing of the

bourgeoisie against the protectionist wing.
As we note in the article on the colonization

of Iraq (page one of this issue), these two

contradictory tendencies are inherent in
imperialism. The alternative to "free trade"

in the imperialist-country context is a

chauvinist movement like that of
Buchanan. (In the oppressed-nation

context, trade protections can be

progressive, because the national
bourgeoisie still plays a progressive role.)

Following the movie MIM was invited

to give a solidarity statement along with
comrades from the Korean, Asian Pacific

Islander and Costa Rican struggles. In our

statement a comrade pointed out that while
the system isn't in anyone's interest in the

long run, we have the choice in Amerika

to sit back and enjoy the superprofits stolen
from Filipino slaves and others like them

all around the world. Or we have the choice

to take our reactions to atrocities like those
in the movie and use them to fuel our

struggles to overthrow imperialism. We

also expressed solidarity with all national
liberation struggles, giving special

recognition to the Communist Party of the

Philippines, which has provided the
ideological leadership for a struggle that

has been at the forefront in the fight against

imperialism. The Filipino people have
proven that it is possible to stop U.$.

militarism and it is only a matter of time

and struggle until they are able to rid their
country of it forever.

Notes: MIM coverage of VFA:

www.etext.info/Politics/MIM/cal/vfa.html;
www.etext.info/Politics/MIM/mn/ mn252/

vfaphilippines.html; www.etext.info/

Politics/MIM/fil/phil169.html.

Video Exposes Imperialism

in the Philippines

Matrix Revolutions Round II

cannot say that the "Matrix" is fully

materialist--though we have spent much

energy defending the "Matrix" against

its even more idealist fans and critics.

The process that Neo went through

though is roughly dialectical, for one

persyn. With the exception of my

Morpheus prediction I'd say my others

were correct.

"The new agent character, Agent

Smith who appears independent in part

II will play an important role, because he

is a software-machine construction with

a difference. He will play some kind of

mediating role, vanguard role in machine-

to-people relations.

"I predict that he will end up facilitating

some kind of new peace between

humyns and machines. However, this

peace will be path-breaking, troubled and

troubling, but make a good satisfying end

to the movie."

Agent Smith turned out to be the kink

in the order that restored order and

caused its evolution. Without him, there

could be no peace between humyns and

machines.

I also said, "I will predict that Neo in

particular has some learning to do to deal

with the machines, a dialectical

progression and there may be some

negotiation with the machines, but the

people will get substantially what they

want."

In fact, what Neo does is become a

new species with a central role in the

Matrix/machine-world. He has learned

Continued on page 8...

MIM Notes 294 · January 1, 2004 · Page 4

Notes: "The dollar is especially subject

to a total collapse."

Although the New York Times and

Democrats are talking about how

radically different Bush Jr. is, we would

not be surprised to see Bush Jr. cave in

on this point rather quickly. It may be a

diplomatic gambit at best. Nonetheless,

in a bourgeois world it is hopeless to think

that organizations such as the United

Nations can ever really bring peace.

These divisions that we see in Iraq have

a life of their own in the me-first kernel

of capitalism.

Notes:

1. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/

1 0 / i n t e r n a t i o n a l / m i d d l e e a s t /

10DIPL.html?hp

2. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/

3290873.stm

3. http://www.washingtonpost.com/

wp-dyn/articles/A51059-2003Dec9.html

Iraq

Continued from page 1...

Amerika does not operate as a "free"

market -- and it doesn't bring a free

market to the countries it colonizes and

neocolonizes. However, that doesn't

mean Amerika is not capitalist, or that

there is no freedom here at all. Capitalism

has small swings back and forth between

more and less economic freedom, even

as it moves in the general direction of

more domination and less overall freedom

-- especially in the form of

monopolization, as you suggest.

Capitalism has never lived up to its own

mythology of freedom, from the very first

time the bourgeois ideologues declared

that individual workers "freely" chose

their employers and agreed to work for

the wages offered. For Marxists,

capitalism is defined not simply by the

existence of markets for trade, but also

by the domination of privately-owned

capital in the production process and the

exploitation of labor for profit. For that

system to be dynamic, a certain amount

of market freedom is necessary. When

markets are completely dominated by

monopolies, capitalism looses it dynamism

and eventually risks implosion -- that's

the good news.

`I hate to be associated
with cops and judges'

Dear MIM,

I would like to give my thanks and

praise to J Sakai for the work "Settlers:

The Mythology of the White Proletariat."

I am white and of Irish descent. I have

always felt strong ties and compassion

for my ancestral homeland of Ireland. I

acknowledge the fact that my ancestors

in Amerika were probably slavemasters,

and were definitely oppressors of African

and Indian peoples. I can't deny my past,

but I can learn from it and make an

attempt to educate my fellow Irish-

Amerikans about our true history: not the

fake history U.S. schools teach, but the

true history that J Sakai and other have

made me aware of.

So my fellow Irishmen I say this: reject

any loyalty to the U.S. This isn't our land.

Our land in back in Ireland. The British

scum have also captured our homeland.

I would love to know why so many

Irish people in Amerika are cops, D.A.s

and judges. I hate to be associated with

that aspect of my nationality. Associate

me with the "Patricio Corps" if you

associate me with anybody! During the

invasion of 1848, the "Patricio Corps"

defected to the Mexican forces and took

up arms against the U.S. empire. That

was only one of the gems of knowledge

that J Sakai made me aware of.

I encourage all Irish prisoners to learn

more about MIM and what they stand

for. If you know an inmate in your prison

that is of Irish descent, please pass my

letter along to him and let him read it.

Recognize and realize that all whites

aren't pro-U.S., and that there is a small

number of us that actually have

revolutionary potentials and beliefs. The

majority of the Euro- Amerikan "left" are

at best reactionaries, whose only goal is

reform within the U.S. empire. [...]

Keep the revolution alive, maintain your

composure and hold your heads up

comrades!

--A Pennsylvania prisoner, October

2003

MIM responds: J. Sakai and MIM

put forward similar answers to the

question of why many immigrant groups

who were oppressed in Europe became

part of the oppressor Amerikan nation,

becoming "cops, DAs and judges"--to

say nothing of Governors and Presidents!

MIM summed up its position in its review

of Noel Ignatiev's How the Irish Became

White.

"This historical reality of the

predominantly lower-middle class Irish

who made it to North America reinforces

the thesis of the difficulty of maintaining

a proletariat where there is a larger mass

of workers influencing them towards

assimilation. It is difficult for a pocket of

exploited workers to maintain its identity

and uniqueness as a class. When the Irish

arrived they were indeed proletarian, but

as they looked around they saw adequate

examples of why they should conform to

the white ethnicity" (1).

This letter-writer also raises the

possibility that empathy with the home

country can turn immigrants' sympathies

against U.$. imperialism. This is certainly

the case for immigrants from oppressed

nations--including the counties in

northern Ireland still under British

occupation, with U.$. complicity. At its

best, this oppressed-nation nationalism is

also internationalist. For example, early

Irish nationalist Daniel O'Connell said he

"didn't want any support for Irish

nationalism that was not against slavery"

(1).

Notes:
1. http://www.etext.info/Politics/MIM/
bookstore/books/whitenation/ignatiev.html. You
can also purchase How the Irish Became White
through this website.

How can MIM
support the death
penalty?

I am not trying to criticize MIM's views,

I am only trying to understand MIM's

supported view of the death penalty,

according to the Selected Works of Mao

Tsetung. I am against any form of

execution to any race or gender. I do not

believe humans can submit judgment of

any guilty/nonguilty prisoner's life,

whether or not he/she harmed, violated,

or destroyed another human life/lives. To

judge the final verdict, based on man-

made laws, of any human's existence

here upon Mother Earth and destroying

the Almighty's perfect creation, is placing

oneself on an equal platform as the

Almighty. One is a murderer as much as

the prisoner in every sense by the ways

of judging his/her life under or by this

unrighteous death penalty law.

What is righteous and equally

punishable in a judicial branch of the social

government is enforcing the life sentence

as the maximum punishment of law.

Sentencing a guilty prisoner of such acts

as intentional murder, multiple rapes, child

molestation, to a lifetime of confinement

without parole is reasonable punishment

because the sentence strips that

prisoner's rights to live among society

forever.

--A Texas Prisoner, November 2003

MIM responds: We oppose the death

penalty as practiced by the bourgeoisie

and U.$. imperialist state--just as we

oppose their injustice system and their

wars generally. We share this opposition

with you and many others, including other

religious people, with whom we also have

fundamental disagreements. There are

many ways we can work together to

challenge this system in spite of our

disagreements.

You raise the question of execution as

a philosophical one, outside of the specific

context of an existing state power. Can

one humyn judge another? In the society

humynity is capable of creating, we think

that is not only possible, but necessary.

Can humyns put themselves on the same

level as god? Certainly, since god does

not exist outside of the ideas people

created.

The idea that there are some things

ordained by god that humyns cannot

understand is fundamentally conservative,

and we oppose it. The bourgeoisie

opposed it back in the 18th and early 19th

centuries, when it was still a progressive

force, fighting for power against feudalism

and monarchy. Now that it has state

power and is threatened by the oppressed

masses questioning its rule, the

bourgeoisie not only tolerates but actively

promotes all kinds of obscuratinist

garbage.

MIM is not philosophically opposed to

violence. Arguments about violence must

come with evidence of their comparative

effectiveness in the real world or be guilty

of siding with the violence of the status

quo. Typically middle-class critics of

Maoism with humyn-rights illusions

cannot name any place concretely

speaking where humyn-rights exist and

where those guilty of needing extensive

self-defense can go. Show the peasants

of Peru a genuine humyn-rights zone and

they will gladly walk in and abandon

Maoism. Alternatively, MIM says the

oppressed must meet the violence of the

oppressors with violence as a matter of

self-defense. We can point to the

successes of the Chinese and Russian

revolutions in extending life expectancy,

expanding literacy etc. as proof that our

approach works.

We consider prisons generally and the

death penalty in particular to be political

tools, in the same sense that war is a

continuation of politics by other means.

The bourgeoisie knows this too, despite

its rhetoric about "universal human

rights." That's why Amerika's

prisoners--especially those on death

row--are disproportionately from

oppressed nations; that's why politically

active prisoners are more likely to end up

in solitary confinement. We will fight tooth

and nail against those who insist they have

a "right" to profit by denying the

oppressed basic survival rights. If this

means we sentence some of these people

to death, so be it.

On a related note, we recognize state

power--including the responsibility to

judge and punish criminals--must be

handled with the utmost accountability.

As Mao said, people's heads are not like

leeks; they cannot grow back again once

they are chopped off. That's why we think

Party members who make deadly

mistakes should themselves face the

death penalty.(1) The Party is no place

for corruption, careerism or laziness

where the livelihood of the masses is

concerned.

Notes:

1. See our "Theses on the vanguard

party in the transition to communism,"

http://www.etext.info/Politics/MIM/wim/

cong/thesesonvanguard2002.html.

Letters

Continued from page 2...

The oppressed must meet the violence of

the oppressors with violence as a matter of

self-defense.

MIM Notes 294 · January 1, 2004 · Page 5

"Tropico" still way better

than average shoot-'em-up

Tropico: Mucho Macho Edition
(2002)
Pop Tart Software

Tropico is a make-believe island in the

Caribbean and the game starts in 1949.

Although it is just a tad simplified

compared with other computer strategy

games coming out at this time, it still has

enough variety and complexity to play for

months straight without reduplicating

games. Even though the game claims to

have communist options and focuses

heavily on Cuba, the main character is a

classical authoritarian dictator with a

groveling advisor side-kick.

The advantage of the "authoritarian"

persynality is that since the object of the

game is to take care of one's subjects

and not be ousted from power it forces

the player into thinking about the island

overall and that is important to anyone's

scientific development. Although the

game is titled "Mucho Macho," it also has

a "teen" rating from the ESRB. It does

not appear to have any pornography. From

parents' perspective, this game has a

number of other advantages. One stems

from the trend in strategy games to think

of many different game goals instead of

the usual take-over-the-place-by-force-

and-kill-all-the-enemies, possibly all

accomplished with a single joy-stick. At

root "Tropico" is really a real-estate

developers' game and among other

modes it is possible to play it in "sandbox"

mode just to see how all the buildings and

plants look.

The player has a choice of characters

to serve as "El Presidente" of the island-

nation and Che Guevara is the first one

offered. Ordinary characters in the game

acting as subjects of Presidente's rule

have Latin American or Russian names

such as Andropov, Putin and Gorbachev.

There are also "humorous" names such

as "Badenov" (Bad-enough) and "Bigot"

attached to a Black character.

The reviewer played the game in "open-

ended" mode as Che. The other players

possible included a league of bourgeois

dictators from history. MIM regards Che

as a revolutionary anti-imperialist martyr,

not a Leninist.. While Che adopted Mao's

military thinking and he tried to bring

socialist economic strategies to Cuba he

did not break free from Soviet revisionism

while Castro sided with Khruschev

against Mao. He left the island without

developing the economic struggle against

revisionism sufficiently and embarked on

military adventures unconnected to a

sense of economic reality as he himself</