MIM Notes ***

MIM Notes 279 · April 1, 2003 · Page 1

MIM Notes

April 1, 2003, Nº 279

The Official Newsletter of the Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM)

Free

INSIDE: What's up with the French? * Under Lock & Key * Una Página en Español...

www.etext.org/Politics/MIM

STOP IMPERIALIST WAR!

Statement of

principles

regarding the

Iraq War

by the International Minister

March 19, 2003

oday, with the long war against

Iraq just having expanded into

Baghdad with the first missile

attacks after the deadline in Bush's

ultimatum to Iraq, MIM mourns in

advance the loss of life in Iraq. Whether

the United $tates wins in a day or

whether the Iraqi people grind out a war

that turns a five or six digit figure of

aggressor troops into dust, the loss of life

in Iraq is unnecessary. Our species can

do better, but it will take a global

perspective.

No moral grounds

While even the reactionary Pope and

French President Chirac have condemned

this war, it is obvious it has no "moral

grounds," no matter what one's

upbringing. After all, Chirac is from the

same reactionary wing of imperialism as

Bush. Chirac comes from the French

version of the U.$. Republican Party.

The bottom line is that peace in the

world depends on an internationalist

viewpoint's conquering the species. The

kernel of that idea can be expressed in

Christian terms as the "golden rule." It

means placing oneself in the shoes of the

"other guy." As long as the principle of

internationalism applied as a "golden rule"

among nations is ignored, we will be stuck

in "what-goes-around-comes-around"

terrorism and war.

This does not mean we are pacifists. It

means that Bush's violence does not

contribute to internationalist answers.

Rather Bush's violence is partly fear-

mongering panic about weapons of mass

destruction. Yet weapons of mass

destruction are merely a symptom. Bush's

supporters often say "guns don't kill

people; people do." There are reasons

people create weapons of mass

destruction and use them as in Hiroshima

and Nagasaki and Bush has never

addressed the causes of war except by

making them worse.

Violence that prevents violence: a
scientific question

What Bush does is a perfect example

For more coverage of anti-war protests, see pages 4 and 5. An article

discussing France's opposition to the war starts on page 3. For continuing

coverage of the war and anti-war activism, check www.etext.org/Politics/MIM/

agitation/iraq/index.html.

Block Patriot

Act II's

march to

fascism!

hile Bush and his war council

prepare to bomb Iraq, John

Ashcroft's minions have put

together a second Patriot Act -- a laundry

list civil liberties they want to get rid of.

The new law is officially called the

Domestic Security Enhancement Act, and

MIM condemns its fascist goals and calls

on all people to see that it does not become

law.

We only know of the DSEA's existence

because someone leaked it to the press.

The so-called Justice Department said

after the leakage that it would be

"derelict" if it were not "continually

considering anti-terrorism measures." Yet

this same office has yet to give Congress

any report on the first Patriot Act and its

effectiveness in preventing terrorism. Just

as the USA Patriot Act was in the works

before 911, and was made into law with

What does defending Stalin have

to do with opposing war in Iraq?

Aside from the fact that his last public

speech said, "down with the

warmongers," we defend Stalin

because we are for socialism--and

not just when it drops from Heaven.

Read more on pages 3 and 7.

Continued on page 6...

Continued on page 9...

Thousands march against war in D.C.

Continued on page 5...

WASHINGTON, DC,

March 15, 2003

Demonstrators took more than 2,500

copies of MIM Notes in the Washington

DC rally against the war in Iraq and

RAIL tabled and distributed MIM Theory

as well. It may be appropriate at this

moment to thank President Bush for

exposing the war-mongering nature of the

system and taking the Democratic Party

with him into this war.

The unity of the imperialists has left

the political field open to the real anti-

militarists, the people who are really going

to bring global peace. In ordinary times,

the imperialists conceal their wars against

the Third World. Ironically, without the

imperialists' going berserk, we could not

have so many demonstrators. Police said

40,000 attended while organizers from

International A.N.S.W.E.R. said it was

100,000 participants. (1)

Supporting Democrats not realism

Despite the Democrats' voting for the

war in Congress, and despite the fact that

major candidates for president Kerry,

Lieberman, Gephardt and Edwards all

support the war--participants in the DC

rally continued to hold many illusions about

the Democratic Party. In fact, one of the

speakers at the rally called for electing

candidates to replace Bush & Co. and

then called for revolution in almost the

same breath.

As we go to press, the the Democratic

Party Senate Leader Daschle has

criticized Bush for failing in diplomacy,

"miserably."(2) Others have criticized

Bush for not having enough allies to go to

war with international legitimacy.

Our movement needs to distinguish

arguments that help Bush do a better job

making war on the world and those

arguments that are necessary for global

peace. Democrats in 95% of cases are

making arguments about how Bush could

make war better. With the exception of

some mention of Sport Utility Vehicles

(SUVs), Democrats rarely attempt to

address the causes of war and terrorism.

Democrats failed the Iraq test as they

have failed countless other less-publicized

questions of war and peace. What is

more--even "peaceful" Democrats

MIM Notes 279 · April 1, 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
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What about the micro-
states in the Gulf?

Dear Comrade,

I have a question regarding Maoism

which I think you'd probably be well

placed to answer.

Clearly the Chinese revolution against

the decaying imperial past was made

possible because the vast majority of

Chinese lived in poverty under the yoke

of a self-serving and incompetent clique.

But what is Maoism's, and the MIM's

view of countries that don't have a

working class? Before rejecting this as a

non-issue, by claiming that there is no such

country--consider states such as

Monaco, Liechtenstein, and the wealthy

Gulf States of Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar,

Oman and the United Arab Emirates.

These are tiny oil-rich sheikhdoms in

which virtually every citizen is a

millionaire, there is no tax, and all services

are provided free, courtesy of the

fantastic wealth of the Emir. Qatar has

only 50,000 nationals, all of whom are part

of the ruling al-Thani clan, the head of

which is the emir. They are all wealthy.

There is no agricultural sector. There is

virtually no opposition to the Islamic

absolute monarchy which seems to

provide such stability, peace and

prosperity for all.

In such circumstances, how is even

bourgeois socialism, let alone

revolutionary Marxist-Leninist-Maoism to

flourish? It's totally different from

somewhere like Iraq or Iran, where real

social disadvantage brought down the

monarchy.

In short, how does MIM see revolution

ever coming to tiny oil-rich states of

fantastic wealth and devout Islam?

--Reader from London, England,

March 2003

International Minister replies: We

would say that where whole geographies

are bought-off, we do not have to respect

those borders. Liechtenstein is rich thanks

to the people it exploits abroad and there

is nothing wrong with mobilizing those

people against Liechtenstein. In many

senses, we have a global struggle against

u.$. imperialism anyway.

The Gulf states are also in considerable

contradiction, because they face

continuous threat from the hyper-power

united $tates, which is unsure about how

much independence to allow these states.

The national bourgeoisie of the oil-rich

states has in many cases no choice but to

turn to a global proletariat to defend it

against the predations of u.$. imperialism.

Far from denying that there is not a

proletariat in every country, MIM spends

much time battering ossified "Marxism"

which prevails numerically in the

imperialist countries. The principal

significance of u.$. imperialism and its

exploitation is not within its own borders.

The total surplus-value extracted outside

u.$. borders by u.$. imperialism far

exceeds the surplus-value extracted

within u.$. borders. The exploited of the

world need to settle accounts with u.$.

imperialism even more than the exploited

minority within u.$. borders.

The U.S. is an
overrated prize
fighter

Thank you for the MIMs, especially the

back issues that had specific articles on

Korea. There is no doubt the subject of

Korea will be on everyone's minds and

lips. I can only hope that some good will

come out of this mess. It amazes me, with

all the possible implications (of Iraq and

now Korea) that the U.S. will still drive

forward thinking that it is their "right" to

corner anyone they'd like. History has

proven that no matter how powerful a

country or what technological advances

they may have... it is these same

characgeristics that not only drive them

to war (believing they cannot lose) but

ultimately turns out to be their Achilles

heel. Super-weapons that ultimately take

up too many resources, or drives to gain

new territory only to be unable to control

it. I believe the U.S. is an over-rated prize

fighter... a very strong first attack but in

the event of a protracted war the aura of

invincibility will quickly dissipate. And the

tragedy is that this will not be learned

cheaply but will cost a very high price in

lives...

--A Pennsylvania prisoner

MIM Notes 279 · April 1, 2003 · Page 3

In the recent split between President

Chirac of France and President Bush,

there is much speculation on the oil

business that France has going in Iraq.

The propaganda story goes that since

1991, France has gone to Iraq to obtain

deals for future oil business while Uncle

$am has stayed aside in a moralistic huff,

not wishing to make money from such a

dishonorable business, especially while

U.N. sanctions are still in place.

MIM is not going to say it knows all of

what is behind the alignment of France-

Germany-Russia-China against a war

with Iraq as of March 6th. In Lenin's

theory of imperialism, it is only a matter

of time after the previous war before

imperialists find economic competition

pushing them toward new blocs for new

wars.

However, the Washington Post has

accurately laid some ideas to rest: "Iraq

is a relatively tiny trading partner for

France, accounting for just three-tenths

of a percent of French imports and two-

tenths of a percent of exports. France

buys about 8 percent of Iraq's oil, making

it Baghdad's fourth-largest customer.

The biggest customer, the United States,

buys 56 percent."

"In any case, French officials say, the

United States is a far more important

economic partner for France than is Iraq,

so why would the government risk

angering Washington for business with

Baghdad? Also, they say, if the question

were simply future oil contracts, France

would do better to support war now and

position itself to win oil concessions from

a grateful post-Hussein government."(1)

The French also sent 10,000 troops and

100 aircraft in 1991's version of Bush

vs. Hussein. Hence all the crude

conservative Amerikan jokes and

innuendos miss what is going on with

France.

It could be that the imperialists

themselves do not know why they are

splitting when they normally unite in

business interests against the Third World.

The imperialists may be weighing their

options and interests as they go along in

this world without a Soviet super-power.

Chirac said, "`Any community with only

one dominant power is always a dangerous

one,' he said. `That's why I favor a

multipolar world, in which Europe

obviously has its place.'"(1)

The diplomatic activity of France

certainly points toward Africa, where

Chirac has recently had a string of

diplomatic victories. President of Algeria,

Abdelaziz Bouteflika said that Chirac will

deserve the Nobel Peace Prize if war

with Iraq does not occur.(2)

As MIM Notes 271 reported in "France

swallows imperialist trade privilege,"

France eliminated a bone of contention

within Europe when it agreed to let its

subsidies to agriculture become

proportionately smaller over a time, a

sticking point when it came to actually

achieving "free trade" within the

European Union.

Once Chirac swallowed the big pill to

tide things over with Germany and the

rest of the European Union, he started

using his new French attitude to flail

England (for not paying its fair share to

the EU) and the United $tates (for

wrecking Third World agriculture with

similar unfair subsidies to U.$. monopoly

corporations, to the tune of $190 in 10

France is serious about multi-polar world,

but French economic ties to U.$. are huge

By Santa Barbara RAIL

SANTA BARBARA, CA--The Santa

Barbara chapter of the Revolutionary

Anti-Imperialist League led a number of

organizations in denouncing the University

of California police department's fear-

mongering "security" policies. The police

suggested campus organizations prevent

students from bringing backpacks to

extra-curricular events. They also

recommended that organizations search

all people attending their events. These

requests followed the Bush

administration's declaration of "orange

alert status" during the Islamic Hajj.

RAIL rejected the proposed "security"

policies as a psy-war tactic to erode

resistance to U.$. military action against

Iraq and the destruction of civil rights at

home. The Santa Barbara RAIL chapter

drafted a statement refusing to comply

with security ordinances as ridiculous as

those proposed by the UCPD now or in

the future. The statement of non-

compliance was signed by 15 other

campus organizations (see page 9). SB

RAIL recommends that this model be

repeated in other communities in order

to create a strong anti-imperialist

opposition to complying with bogus

"security" measures.

The same day the statement of non-

Santa Barbara students reject bogus "security" policies

compliance was published in the UCSB

student newspaper, RAIL hosted an

educational event on civil liberties.

Speakers from MIM, Santa Barbara

RAIL, and radical campus groups such

as A.S.I.A.N.! and the Muslim Student

Association discussed the Patriot Act, the

implications of the proposed Patriot Act

II (see article on page 1), the INS special

registration program and the history of

Japanese internment.

While the Department of Homeland

Security website claims the " DHS is ...

dedicated to protecting the rights of

American citizens," its actions thus far

have done nothing of the sort. The Patriot

Act II is set to cut civil rights ranging from

freedom of speech to the right against

unreasonable search and seizure.

According to Patriot Act II, even doing

lawful work with a group the U.$.

executive labels "terrorist" could result

in loss of citizenship. The INS

Registration program targets males of

Muslim and Middle Eastern descent,

causing unjustified deportation and

detainment.

Signatories to the statement of non-

compliance pledged that they would not

be frightened into giving up their civil rights

or their ability to organize against the state

without its approval.

MIM released a longer version of

this statement on March 5th. --ed.

Today we mark the 50th anniversary

of the death of Stalin, the great Soviet

leader (1924 to 1953) followed by

bourgeois degenerates and incompetents

who restored capitalism in the Soviet

Union. Amongst all communist leaders,

Stalin has received the greatest

fascination in the imperialist countries with

countless newspaper articles and 800

page books written about him.

Croatian Ivica Kostelic won a World

Cup skiing race in January, 2003 and said

Nazism was a "healthy system" and that

Stalin was worse than Hitler, because

Stalin supposedly killed people at random.

People throughout eastern Europe are

coming out with similar Nazi leanings.(1)

Kostelic's Austrian bank sponsor was not

pleased with the public relations fiasco,(2)

but the fact remains that Kostelic's

opinions are common in territory ranging

from the Baltics to the Balkans, where

local hatreds trumped everything else and

made it fair game to side with Hitler or

Mussolini to kill off whatever ethnic

group was out of favor. Let's not forget

that during World War II, with German

help and the Pope's blessings, the Croats

committed genocide. According to

Vatican historian John Cornwell, there

were only 2 million Orthodox Christian

Serbs, and the Croats led by Catholic

priests managed to kill 487,000 of them

between 1941 and 1945 in addition to

27,000 Gypsies and 30,000 out of 45,000

Jews. Then the press wonders why

Kostelic says he prepared for his skiing

race as if he were a Nazi soldier in 1941.

We can already hear the Croats saying

our message is one-sided, and that Serbs

commit genocide too. While Amerikkkan

politics have unimaginable depth in their

parasitism, Eastern European politics fall

into an endless trap of provincialism.

Somehow, the small nations in that region

always manage to blame their neighbors

for all the world's evils, and through petty

thinking, genocide always ends up being

the solution in the eyes of people in

Eastern Europe.

For the Eastern Europeans MIM has a

message: Stalin and his line was the

greatest factor bringing peace and

harmony to your region. The proof is what

happens when he is gone. All your

minorities living without rights, all your

ethnic cleansing and all your wars are

fights amongst the proletariat. They can

do nothing to advance anything. Yes, Stalin

organized repressive violence, but when

he did, the whole region was moving

forward.

The United $tates and the phony

communist movement does not want

Eastern Europeans to know that the

riches of the West come from super-

exploitation. The imperialists say that

ordinary proletarians can live the life

Amerikkkans live without exploiting

others under capitalism. That is a lie.

Right now you Eastern Europeans think

that your neighbors are exploiting you:

think again. The reason you are not

shopping at Bloomingdale's right now

instead of reading this is that Amerikkkans

and others from the West enjoy luxury at

your expense. Unfortunately, we at MIM

are amongst a minority of people willing

to tell you what is really going on

economically. Only by uniting the

proletariat in Eastern Europe do the

people have a way out of their degraded

material conditions.

Eastern Europe requires repression for

peace. Some day in the future under

dictatorship of the proletariat, the youth

will rebuke the ugly past and the small

nations of Eastern Europe will integrate

and get along. Right now, the fighting and

Marking 50 years since death of Stalin:

What it means to defend Stalin today

Continued on page 7...

MIM Notes 279 · April 1, 2003 · Page 4

CAMBRIDGE, MA March 12 2003--

Harvard Students are stepping up their

efforts against war in Iraq, judging by the

500 people turn-out at the March 12th

rally which was three or four times bigger

than the previous rally. Organized by the

Harvard Initiative for Peace and Justice,

demonstrators showed a diversity of

budding political interests.

Most interesting was a speaker who

mentioned that he had been fighting

hard--up all night arguing before the

rally. It turns out that the Harvard College

Democrats came out against the war--

thereby splitting with the national

leadership of the party.

Another speaker borrowed some

language from the 1960s organization

called SDS to call for a strike. 800 people

have signed up to walk out of classes the

day war starts.

In criticism, MIM would say that the

rally showed the same weaknesses as

others like it across the country. With

global public opinion against the war and

major imperialist powers like France and

Germany throwing up roadblocks, the fact

that we in the united $tates could not stop

that war shows that the quality of our

movement is lacking. Even though the

pro-war and anti-war sides are evenly

matched quantitatively in the united

$tates-- if we count all the "silent

majority" on the status quo's side as public

opinion polls seem to justify -- still we

could not win with favorable global

conditions.

Staying up all night to raise our political

levels is necessary for us in the united

$tates. We have a lot of ground to make

up. The question remains why College

Democrats still call themselves

Democrats, if they look into this war and