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MIM Notes 304 · July 2004 · Page 1

MIM Notes

July 2004, Nº 304

The Official Newsletter of the Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM)

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BUSH GETS A BREAK

UN Security

Council

legitimizes

war on Iraq

President George Bush won a

diplomatic victory by making up with his

French and Russian competitors on the

question of Iraq. On June 8th, the UN

Security Council unanimously passed a

resolution 15-0 legitimizing the occupation

of Iraq by U$ forces with an Iraqi puppet

prime minister installed by the CIA. Most

regrettable were the Third World lackey

votes for the resolution, including

Algeria's.

All the kowtowing to U$ imperialism in

the current United Nations is one reason

MIM fights for a proletarian United

Nations, an organization of nations to put

There are still 1,600 photos and videos

including rape and murder not released

by the U$ Government. That's not to

mention the situation in Guantanamo,

another Iraq prison and an Afghan prison.

We call for the release of photos to the

public. Right now Uncle $am is trying to

spin out of the exposure by saying that

the problem was taking the pictures, not

what was being done in the pictures

themselves. We can't let Uncle $am spin

it that way. This is not something to spin,

like which frat boy they are going to elect

as next president.

It is also turning out that 20,000 civilian

contractors in Iraq are not covered by

any tested laws, including some involved

in the Abu Ghraib prison atrocities. A law

on the books since 2000 is untried and

may have too many loopholes--and the

lawmakers in Washington DC left it that

way on purpose.(1) We don't care if those

20,000 call themselves "workers": they

are enemies of the international proletariat

just like oppressor nation workers in the

Western imperialist countries generally.

Release the photos!

Death penalties needed at war crimes tribunal

U$ imperialism into receivership. A

proletarian UN would have sent troops

or other activists necessary to prevent

an imperialist attack on Iraq. To have such

power it is necessary that a proletarian-

led UN conquer the United $tates first.

To take away U$ imperialism's

MIM welcomes the opportunity to

print this interview with Pablo Pueblo,

a leader of the Noble Young Lords

Party (NYLP). We have worked with

the founders of this organization for

many years and know the strength of

revolutionary theory and practice

behind their work. The formation of

the NYLP is a step forward for the

revolutionary movement within U$

borders and a culmination of years of

hard work and struggle on the part of

Pablo Pueblo and other leaders.

We consider the NYLP a fraternal

organization that correctly recognizes

that the majority of Euro-Amerikan

workers are petit bourgeois and not

objectively allied with proletarian

revolution, upholds the Cultural

Revolution in China, and opposes

post-Stalin Soviet revisionism.

Currently MIM is a multinational party.

However, MIM recognizes that there

are times when vanguard forces from

the oppressed nationalities believe they

must have separate, single nationality

vanguard parties. MIM recognizes

their right to form separate parties as

a part of oppressed nations' struggle

for the self-determination. We believe

The rebirth of an old revolutionary legacy

Noble Young Lords Party speaks

the validity of

s i n g l e -

n a t i o n a l i t y

o r g a n i z i n g

has been

proved in

c o m m u n i s t

history.

Amerika's leading radical critic has

endorsed John Kerry for president in the

name of the "real world." As a member

of the Democratic Socialists of America

(DSA) way back, it does not surprise us,

though many think of Chomsky as more

of an anarchist. DSA advises working

within the Democratic Party.

Noam Chomsky has moved in

considerably more pragmatic directions

in recent years, and frankly, MIM does

not trust him as much as we once did.

We cannot help thinking that he has had

some "influence" in the government and

now he seeks to educate the imperialists.

We're not surprised, because he never

spent much time attending to the question

of the vehicle of change.

Chomsky is among many who came

into politics in the Vietnam War. John

Kerry holds much appeal in a generational

way as an important figure in the

movement against the Vietnam War.

There is a whole generation of people

who believes it "figured out" some things

during Vietnam. MIM has been

Continued on page 6...

Continued on page 4...

Continued

on page 8...

reproached by everyone from cops to

gardeners to university presidents who

say they "used to be Maoist" based on

the whole 1960s phenomenon.

The question of intelligence inevitably

arises when thinking about a Chomsky

endorsement. If the "leftist" intellectuals

want to say Kerry is "smarter" than

Bush, then we are prepared to concede

the point. This is probably where we part

ways with the intellectuals, because many

instinctively believe these matters are a

question of smarts. They think it's frankly

scary to have less than the brightest

persyn in charge of the U$ government.

Would a "dumb" imperialist even realize

he was setting off Armageddon? It's

worth pondering, but Marxists believe that

the economic system pushes forward

these candidates and makes a Bush-type

inevitable, if not in 2004, then 2008, 2012

etc.

Then there is the argument that the

common persyn wants to see a marginal

improvement in his/her life. On this point,

Chomsky endorses Kerry

`Pragmatism' endorses oppressive status quo

MIM Notes 304 · July 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
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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.

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I must ask the people, "Has the

imminent threat of world terror been really

negated with the capture of Saddam

Hussein?" Absolutely not! The real

imminent threat of world terror remains

in office, that racist tyrant George Bush

Jr. The truth of the matter is, Saddam was

never an imminent threat to Amerikkka.

In fact, Saddam was more of a "potential

threat" than anything else. There is a big

difference between an "imminent threat"

and a "potential threat," as an imminent

threat is bound to happen with a sense of

immediacy. A potential threat possess the

capability of developing into a possible

threat. By labeling something as an

"imminent threat," it automatically

preconditions the minds of the masses to

accept certain circumstances and

conditions so that he who is responsible

for initiating these falsehoods can pursue

any task with the support of the people.

This is a historical tactic that's typically

employed by the (Un) United States of

Amerikkka in order to justify the colonial

occupation of other countries.

Saddam only became an "imminent

threat" due to Iraq's possession of the

world's largest oil reservoir, not because

of the alleged chemical weapons of mass

destruction. The (Un) United States has

been occupying the land of the Iraqi people

for the past year now and have not turned

over one rock that would be indicative of

chemical weapons of mass destruction.

One would think that, given the absolute

certainty of the intelligence, they would

have been able to go straight to the source

of these chemical weapons of mass

destruction.

I must clarify that I am not an active

supporter of Saddam but we do share a

common plight in standing in opposition

against the racist empire known as the

(Un) United States of Amerikkka. What

separates us as individuals is that I am a

conscious new Afrikan revolutionary

freedom fighter who embraces a socialist

egalitarian humanist philosophy and the

ideology of new Afrikan revolutionary

nationalism. I understand that anything

which diametrically opposes Euro-

Amerikkkan interests, particularly

anything which opposes kapitalism, is

deemed to be an "imminent threat" to this

fascist empire. The tyrannical

COINTELPRO of the FBI that was lead

by J. Edgar Hoover in the late 60s and

early 70s has taught us this much.

Saddam's capture is form of window

dressing the long arm of the fascist racist

practices of law and order which

basically validates for the moment the

Amerikkkan colonial occupation of Iraq's

land, oil and resources. Above all, this act

of war itself was never sanctioned by the

Central Commission of the United

Nations. In essence, Saddam's capture

can only be viewed as a group of racist

criminals manipulating and taking

advantage of the innocence of the

masses. A real sigh of relief will be felt

once this tyrant George Bush Jr. and his

coconspirators are tried for the war

crimes they've been committing for the

Amerikkka: The real imminent threat

past 500 years against the masses of

society at large and abroad.

-- A California Prisoner,

May 2004

you know ,,your organization blasts the

usa...and its funny that the same country

you criticize, gives the right to print the

smut you are putting out...heres an idea

... before you criticize this country, go to

China, or how bout North Korea...and

point put the critical issues such as

freedom of religion, or human rights, or

COMMUNISM, in the same passion that

you do here, and see how long you live to

take another breath. GOD BLESS THE

UNITED STATES OF

AMERICA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

MIM replies: We reprint this letter--

uncut, with avant-garde punctuation and

spelling intact--to remind our readers that

for every sympathetic letter like the one

from the California prisoner above, we

receive a piece of moronic, bigoted hate

mail. Never mind that the United $tates

leads the world in per capita

imprisonment; never mind that while we

are "free" to have our newspaper

regularly censored by prison wardens,

campus administrators and mall security

guards, former corrections officers and

young kids who should but don't know

better are raping "liberated" Iraqi

civilians--never mind all that, these bozos

don't want to hear it. Just crank up the

Toby Keith and pass the beer, man.

A serious anti-war movement--to say

nothing of a serious revolutionary

movement--has to recognize that yahoos

like this (a) are common and (b) are not

going to suddenly see the error of their

ways. We have to take our lumps and

fight the good fight--even if it means

going against the majority of Amerikan

citizens.

Yahoo! U$A's number one!

MIM Notes 304 · July 2004 · Page 3

June 5 - Thousands of people took to

the streets in San Francisco to protest the

continuing war in Iraq. Protesters

marched down Market Street, the main

street in the city, to a rally at the

Embarcadero Center. There they were

met by a group of Zionist counter

demonstrators protesting the rally's

demand of liberation for the Palestinian

people.

Organized by ANSWER, a group led

by the Trotskyist Workers World Party,

this rally featured a disappointing array

of speakers focused on electoralism and

rallying the Amerikan petty bourgeoisie.

As in previous rallies sponsored by

ANSWER, many speakers attempted to

encourage the crowd by saying most

Americans are against the war and that

the Bush administration does not represent

the majority of Americans.

MIM does not try to give people false

hope by claiming that this war is all due

to a rogue President who will be voted

out of office once people come to their

senses. Instead, we explain that the war

on Iraq is in the material interests of this

country and its citizens. Think about it, if

their was mass anti-war sentiment

MIM, RAIL at large anti-war protest in San Fran.

wouldn't their be some concrete

manifestation, such as protests like those

that happened during the Vietnam War?

The fact that anti-war demonstrations are

limited to progressive cities like San

Francisco, and even there they only

happen every few months, is evidence

that the public opposition to this war is

not high, despite the claims of overly-

optimistic and unscientific activists.

Electoral campaigning was popular at

the rally, with many people carrying anti-

Bush signs and calling on people to get

Bush out of the White House. MIM

activists engaged some of these people

in struggle, pointing out that there is no

difference of substance between Bush

and Kerry, and removing Bush will just

mean putting Kerry into power. In fact,

Kerry could be worse than Bush because

people might be fooled into complacency

by putting a prettier face on Amerikan

imperialism. Some people agreed with us

but asked what else they could do. This

is a common problem among Amerikan

activists of thinking small. While the

imperialists are plundering the world,

activists are "acting locally." We can't

afford to work on imperialist electoral

campaigns while the world's people are

literally dying at the hands of imperialism.

We have to take up the battle outside of

their electoral terms and fight against

imperialism in all the work we do.

During the rally a speaker announced

that Ronald Reagan had just died. The

speaker proclaimed that Reagan was a

terrorist and murderer. But he went on to

point out that for all the war crimes

committed by Reagan, former President

Clinton was an even bigger war criminal.

He noted that Clinton invaded more

countries in his reign as imperialist

president than Reagan. This speech

correctly criticized people at the rally who

were campaigning for the Democrats or

against the Republicans, as if this would

make a difference.

RAIL comrades gathered signatures on

its petition to shut down California's

abusive Security Housing Unit prisons for

five hours; 105 signatures were collected.

Signatories included several former

prisoners who stopped to tell their stories

and encourage others to sign. Overall,

demonstrators were very receptive to our

campaign to shut down the SHU in

California, as well as all control units

across the country. Many told us that they

had previous knowledge of the SHU or

had recently heard about it through

various news outlets. Even more drew

parallels between the prison abuses

abroad, in places such as Iraq and

Guantanamo, and were not surprised to

learn that many soldiers received their

training in humyn rights abuse from

Amerikan prisons.

At the rally we also had a MIM

literature table set up before and after

the march. We sold copies of MIM

Theory, with the Stalin Issue and the

issues on the Amerikan labor aristocracy

gaining the most attention. At the table

we focused on distributing the June 1

MIM Notes which, in addition to some

good anti-imperialist wars articles, had

two articles in Spanish about the Security

Housing Units and some good material in

the "Under Lock and Key" section on

prison control units across the country

(including the California SHU). We asked

everyone who stopped at the table to sign

the petition to shut down the SHU and

collected 62 signatures. Overall people

were very receptive to the anti-SHU

work and to MIM Notes.

On May 26th, 2004 the FOX News

website made a lead story of the New

York Times's admissions of error

regarding WMD reporting prior to Bush's

ground invasion of Iraq, 2003. In contrast,

MIM Notes reported the New York Times

errors in January, 2003, before the New

York Times admitted them.

In reviewing its Iraq coverage, the New

York Times said, "we have found a

number of instances of coverage that was

not as rigorous as it should have been. In

some cases, information that was

controversial then, and seems

questionable now, was insufficiently

qualified or allowed to stand

unchallenged. Looking back, we wish we

had been more aggressive in re-

examining the claims as new evidence

emerged--or failed to emerge."

As soon as our article on Bush's "State

of the Union" speech came out in 2003

lambasting Bush and the New York

Times, it became one of our most popular

articles ever, garnering many thousands

of hits over the months. It tapped into

obviously widespread suspicions among

the people.

On the question of the metal tubes

supposedly used in atomic weapons

manufacture, MIM Notes said in January

2003: "The New York Times also talks

about some aluminum tubes and attempted

uranium purchases by Iraq, but [former

U$ Marine and UN weapons inspector

Scott] Ritter points out that a real nuclear

weapons program is not a matter of some

aluminum and uranium. It takes tens of

billions of dollars and Ritter says the

process emits substances detectable by

Big Brother--U.$. spy technologies.

Talking about how `high intelligence' in

England supposedly caught someone

trying to buy uranium makes great theater,

but it is dishonest when that same `high

intelligence' knows that more goes into

making a nuclear bomb. What the New

York Times leaves out is discussion of

whether or not Ritter is correct that the

Uncle $am would have to know if Iraq

were producing nuclear weapons."

The New York Times is now getting

around to admitting something about this:

"On Sept. 8, 2002, the lead article of the

paper was headlined `U.S. Says Hussein

Read MIM Notes first:

The New York Times admits errors on Iraq

Staff Sergeant Jimmy Massey left the

Marines after 12 years on account of his

disagreement with his own and his

comrades' war crimes against civilians

in Iraq. He told the Sacramento Bee that

he left the Marines at the end of 2003

after evaluating his involvement in the

shooting of several innocent civilians. In

passing, Massey said something revealing

to his sergeant major about the causes of

loyalty: "`I don't want your money. I don't

want your benefits. What you did was

wrong.'"(1) Massey's statement shows

something that military personnel have to

consider before giving up their loyalty to

imperialism.

Massey gave some examples of the

kind of thing the Marines were doing in

Iraq, "There was an incident with one of

the cars. We shot an individual with his

hands up. He got out of the car. He was

badly shot. We lit him up. I don't know

who started shooting first."(1) Massey

added that contrary to intelligence, the

Marines never found any weapons

contraband. They simply killed innocent

Iraqis driving in cars.

When Massey mentioned his

"benefits," he referred among other

things to the social security system of the

military. The public is used to thinking

about the country's top corporations

offering benefits and pensions to retain

loyal employees. Employees who stay

long enough earn retirement pensions

separate from the government's social

security program. The same is true in the

military.

A fiscally conservative anti-tax

organization has explained the military

pension system very well. First is pensions

before 1986: "All servicemen who joined

the armed forces before August 1, 1986,

are entitled to a pension replacing 50

percent of basic pay after twenty years,

the minimum term of service required to

qualify for military retirement. True, this

basic pay does not include cash and in-

kind allowances. But it is liberally

calculated: on the basis of the final month

of pay for servicemen who joined the

military before September 8, 1980, and of

the highest three years of pay (the "HI-

3" method) for those who joined later. If

servicemen postpone retirement, their

pensions increase by 2.5 percent of pay

per year, until, after thirty years in the

military, a maximum replacement rate of

75 percent is reached. Each year,

pensions receive a COLA [Cost of Living

Adjustment] equal to 100 percent of the

CPI. [Consumer Price Index, a reference

to measuring inflation]

"So generous are these terms that two

out of three officers and nine out of ten

enlisted men who stay on for at least

twenty years retire before completing

twenty-five years. The average

retirement age for officers is now 45. For

enlisted men, it is 41. The result is that

the typical member of the armed forces

Military benefits: A special incentive for war crimes

Continued on page 9...

Continued on next page...

MIM Notes 304 · July 2004 · Page 4

The people Uncle $am does court-

martial and discredit tend to be the ones

who took the photos instead of the ones

who carried out the actual torture. So far

only one persyn has received any official

punishment--a court-martial and

sentence for one year. The people of Iraq

said Specialist Jeremy Sivits should have

been tried in Iraq by Iraqis instead.(2)

"The charges against Sivits included

taking a photograph of nude detainees,

maltreating a detainee by escorting him

to be `positioned in a pile on the floor to

be assaulted by other soldiers' and

negligence for failing to protect detainees

Release the photos!

Death penalties needed at war crimes tribunal

from `abuse, cruelty and

maltreatment.'"(3)

It is true that the photographs are

humiliating in Iraq and likely to cause

suicide of the detainees by cultural norms

there. However, we say the abused

detainees should hold their chins up high

and keep on struggling for Iraq's freedom;

they served as glorious combatants in the

enemy's dungeons. Only idiots do not

recognize that Comrade Gonzalo was a

hero when Yankee lackeys put him in silly

prison pajamas and a strange cage.

Likewise, the Iraqi people detained in

humiliating conditions are heroes and

there is no photo by any Amerikkkan

porno-afflicted louse that changes that.

They can take all the humiliating photos

they want: it only shows how desperate

they are that they can't win their cause.

In the United $tates, we have no choice

but to say that taking the photographs

should not be the issue, because the public

has no other way of finding out exactly

what is going on in Amerikkkan prisons.

In fact, wherever there is an Amerikkkan

prison guard, there should be a video

camera running 24 hours a day, and if it

goes off, that prison guard should be

punished.

We also agree with the Iraqi people and

even some Amerikan columnists that

some Amerikans should be receiving the

death sentence for war crimes--and not

just the lower ranking people, but right up

through the generals in charge, Rumsfeld

and Bush. Lenience should be for those

who turn in the others.

Published at www.etext.info/Politics/

MIM on 29 may 2004.

Notes:

1. http://www.signonsandiego.com/

news/world/iraq/20040529-9999-

1n29law.html

2. http://www.middle-east-online.com/

english/?id=10025

3. http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/

journalgazette/news/nation/8739699.htm

retiring this year will spend many more

years collecting benefits (36 for a man

and 41 for a woman) than earning them

(21 years)."(2)

The author of this quote is the "Concord

Coalition" founded by the late Senator

Paul Tsongas and ex-Senator Warren

Rudman. A current co-chair is former

Senator Bob Kerrey. The Concord

Coalition became involved in the issue to

protect a reduction in military pension

benefits that became effective after 1986.

Military pensioners form the backbone

of many organizations that may seem to

be simply patriotic and militarist.

Currently, the American Legion is

attacking the government for not allowing

pensioners to receive both disability pay

and a military pension.(3)

Although not all veterans are

reactionary, on average they are more

reactionary than the rest of the Amerikan

public. In a poll done during a high point

in the Abu Ghraib prison torture scandal,

49% of voters supported Kerry for

president with 41% for Bush. The same

poll for veterans showed 54% support for

Bush against Kerry, even though Kerry

is a veteran and Bush and Cheney

managed to avoid service. They

especially supported the "war on terror"

as their reason for supporting Bush.(4)

While the public as a whole had just

concluded by a margin of 50% to 46%

that the war in Iraq was a mistake, the

veterans by a margin of 51% to 46% did

not think so.(4) It's even surprising that it

is that close among veterans.

The veteran portion of society is very

significant in the united $tates. "An

estimated 26.4 million people, or better

than one in seven voting-age Americans,

have served in the U.S. military, according

to 2000 Census figures."(5) Despite this

fact, it is important not to water down

our opposition to militarism in public just

because we may offend one in seven

people who are veterans.

The vast majority of veterans did not

Military benefits: A special incentive for war crimes

serve 20 years to gain a pension.

Nonetheless, those that do make the 20

year mark are an important organizational

elite. Because the military pension

administration is separate from the

disability administration or general social

security administration and has a better

benefit, military pensioners have a special

interest. The same is true of pensioners

everywhere in the world, a rock hard

interest group. The difference with

military pensioners is that they form an

interest group that would like to enhance

the importance and prestige of the military.

If they had had only a disability pension,

they would fight along with disabled

people to protect and improve their

benefits.

The fact that veterans' pensions are

specific to the military has several

consequences. 1) During service there is

an incentive to "look the other way" in

cases like Massey's. 2) After service,

military pensioners have an incentive to

boost the importance of the usefulness

of the military to keep the reasons for

pension benefits fresh in the public's mind.

While in the service, it not just the fringe

benefits that create a certain atmosphere

of "loyalty no matter what." The average

Vietnam War general received a half star

promotion because of the war.(6) The

Marines ran Sgt. Massey out of service

with an "honorable discharge" for verbally

disagreeing with war crimes in Iraq.

Every recruit has to ponder the effect of

losing income or benefits for disagreeing

with war crimes. Meanwhile, there is no

pension reward for stopping war crimes

or speaking against them.

Many social-democratic minded people

believe that they should "support our

troops" by appeasing them on all benefits

questions. This creates a dynamic where

better benefits attract more recruits and

they become more pillars of society with

a special interest in promoting the military

as if it were unblemished no matter what.

Under the joint dictatorship of the

proletariat of the oppressed nations,

everyone has protection in case of

disability and retirement. There is no need

to create special interest groups with

specific political agendas backing war or

the prestige of war.

Notes:

1. http://www.sacbee.com/content/

opinion/story/931683 0p-10241546c.html

We encourage our readers to go see that

interview with Massey in its entirety.

2. http://www.concordcoalition.org/

facing_facts/alert _v5_n4.html The Army

now has a choice between the shaved

benefit or another means of calculating

Continued from page 1...

Continued from previous page...

it. To see how it works, go to the army

website: http://basic.armystudyguide.com/

financial_readiness_and_planning.htm

3. http://www.military.com/AboutUs/

0,14363,au_pr_1112 02,00.html

4. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/

2004/06/04/opinion/ polls/

main621136.shtml

5. http://www.suntimes.com/output/

elect/cst-nws- kerry05.html

6. Douglas Kinnard, The War

Managers: American Generals Reflect on

Vietnam NY, NY: A De Capo Paperback,

1991, p. 11.

Militarism is war-mongering or the

advocacy of war or actual carrying out

of war or its preparations.

While true pacifists condemn all

violence as equally repugnant, we

Maoists do not consider self-defense

or the violence of oppressed nations

against imperialism to be militarism.

Militarism is mostly caused by

imperialism at this time. Imperialism

is the highest stage of capitalism--

seen in countries like the United

$tates, England and France.

Under capitalism, capitalists often

profit from war or its preparations.

Yet, it is the proletariat that does the

dying in the wars. The proletariat

wants a system in which people do not

have self-interest on the side of war-

profiteering or war for imperialism.

Militarism is one of the most

important reasons to overthrow

capitalism. It even infects oppressed

nations and causes them to fight each

other.

It is important not to let capitalists

risk our lives in their ideas about war

and peace or the environment. They

have already had two world wars

admitted by themselves in the last 100

years and they are conducting a third

right now against the Third World.

Even a one percent annual chance of

nuclear war destruction caused by

capitalist aggressiveness or "greed" as

the people call it should not be tolerated

by the proletariat. After playing

Russian Roulette (in which the bullet

chamber is different each time and not

related at all to the one that came up in

previous spins) with 100 chambers and

one bullet, the chance of survival is

only 60.5% after 50 turns. In other

words, a seemingly small one percent

annual chance of world war means

eventual doom. After 100 years or turns

of Russian Roulette, the chances of

survival are only 36.6%. After 200

years, survival has only a 13.4%

chance.

What is militarism?

MIM Notes 304 · July 2004 · Page 5

The United Front to Abolish Security

Housing Units took to the streets again in

June. This is the fourth month in a row

that we have been out in different cities

across California to protest the torture

isolation chambers in our brutal domestic

prison system. These isolation chambers

are known in California as Security

Housing Units, and almost 3,000 people

are held in them in California alone.

Organizations participating in the United

Front hold protests the first Saturday of

every month, in cities across the state

including San Francisco, San Jose, Santa

Cruz, Oakland, Los Angeles, Watsonville

and the San Fernando Valley.

Isolation prisons like the Security

Housing Units principally target

oppressed nations. In 1998 the California

Department of Corrections (CDC)

reported that 34% of the population in all

CDC institutions was Latino, and 31%

was Black. 52% of those in SHUs were

Latino; 82% were nonwhite. Compare

this to a California population that was

32% Latino and 7% Black in 1998.

Like other control unit prisons across

the country, the SHUs are prisons within

a prison. They are solitary confinement

cells where prisoners are locked up 23

hours a day for years at a time. The one

hour per day these prisoners sometimes

get outside of their cell is spent alone in

an exercise pen not much larger than their

cell, with no direct sunlight. This long-term

isolation causes serious mental and

physical health problems for many

prisoners. And these torture cells target

politically active prisoners using a system

of classification that makes it impossible

for prisoners to appeal their assignment.

The United Front to Shut Down the

SHU includes wide range of political

organizations and individuals, such as the

Barrio Defense Committee (BDC), the

African People's Socialist Party (APSP),

African People's Solidarity Committee

(APSC), the Maoist Internationalist

Movement (MIM), Justice for

Palestinians, California Prison Focus, the

Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League

(RAIL), Proyecto Common Touch and

RASCALS. We are working to expand

participation from likeminded

organizations across the state.

The United Front pushed forward the

campaign with outreach at the June 5 anti-

war protests in San Francisco and Los

Angeles. In San Francisco we had four

locations where people could get

information about the SHU and sign

petitions. We collected hundreds of

petition signatures. Overall, demonstrators

were very receptive to our campaign to

shut down the SHU in California, as well

as all control units across the country.

Many told us that they had previous

knowledge of the SHU or had recently

heard about it through various news

outlets. Even more drew parallels between

the prison abuses abroad, in places such

as Iraq and Guantanamo, and were not

surprised to learn that many soldiers

received their training in humyn rights

abuse from Amerikan prisons.

On June 12 the United Front held a

state-wide organizing meeting. We noted

a number of successes over the past

month, both in increased outreach to new

organizations and individuals sympathetic

to this battle, and in gaining the attention

of more people in the state of California.

Even what appear to be unrelated

protests, like the anti-Biotech

demonstrations in San Francisco, have

begun to include the issue of shutting down

the SHU in their protests. We see this as

a victory for our work to raise general

consciousness about the need to shut

down these torture chambers.

Organizers agree to plan events for July

and August drawing connections between

the torture of prisoners in Iraq and torture

of prisoners in California's Security

Housing Units. There will be a series of

events in cities across the state. Look for

details in the near future. We would

welcome the opportunity to bring these

events to new cities or venues and are

looking for people to help make this

happen.

The United Front is also taking on a

bigger project: organizing a tribunal to

accuse the California Department of

Corrections of committing crimes of

brutality, torture and human rights

violations. This tribunal is scheduled for

October of this year. It will include

testimony from prisoners, former

prisoners, and others affected by the

criminal injustice system, as well as expert

testimony. We are looking for input from

people who could serve as witnesses, and

for help in organizing this important event.

We need more activists to help us

expand the monthly protests and

educational events to other cities across