MIM Notes ***

MIM Notes 281 · May 1, 2003 · Page 1

MIM Notes

May 1, 2003, Nº 281

The Official Newsletter of the Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM)

Free

INSIDE: Police attack in Oakland * Nixon v. Mao * Una Página en Español...

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

THE WAR IS NOT OVER

The graphic shows countries invaded by U$ imperialism. For a poster version that lists

the coutries, go to: http://www.etext.info/Politics/MIM/art/invasionmap.html.

(Art by a RAIL comrade)

It has

simply

changed

form

espite panegyrics from the

Pentagon press corps at CNN,

FOX, NBC, etc. and President

Bush's pending proclamation, Amerika's

war on Iraq has not ended. It has simply

changed form--just as it did when it

morphed from the low-intensity

occupation pursued for over a decade by

both Republican and Democratic

administrations to full-scale conventional

warfare.

Afghanistan provides a relevant

precedent. The newly-installed

"democratic" government there depends

entirely on U.$. "security" forces, and still

its authority does not extend beyond

Kabul. Attacks on government officials

are weekly occurrences in the Afghan

capital. Amerikan troops have been

DC rally

condemns U.$.

occupation

of Iraq

Washington,

April 12

bout 10,000 people marched this

afternoon in sunny 80 degree

weather to protest the colonial

occupation of Iraq. Weather predictions

turned out wrong again, as temperatures

and cloud cover were both more upbeat

than predicted by the Weather Channel

and TV news.

MIM handed out 1800 copies of the

April 15th MIM Notes.

At the head were marchers from a

Filipino contingent, some with BAYAN

International banners. One Filipino

comrade said the April 15th MIM Notes

had "a good article" that exposed the U.$.

Government on terrorism in the

Philippines--including the evidence that

it has faked some terrorist incidents.

The main organizers of the rally were

International ANSWER, according to

whom there were 30,000 at the rally.

However, there was also at least one

speaker from "Not In Our Name" at the

event.

The veteran Workers World activist

Larry Holmes spoke forcefully on many

areas where there could be little

disagreement. Speaking of Bush, Holmes

said, "He lied about weapons of mass

destruction! He lied about the connection

to 911!" Other speakers and protesters

pointed out that Saddam Hussein was just

a smaller version of U.$. terrorism.

"We are all Palestinians" and "we are

all Iraqis" were some of the signs at the

event.

We do not want to give people the

impression that all is good at anti-war

rallies in the united $tates. Of course, we

appreciate each and every non-cop

persyn at the rally, but there were a

number of indications of complacency at

the rally. As usual, there were people at

the rally completely empty-handed, by

which we mean that they did not accept

any literature from anyone. Among the

most common excuses were "I don't have

any hands." The best excuse for the day

why the demonstrator did not want a copy

of MIM Notes was: "too big, too much to

read. If it was smaller, I'd take it."

Government

moves to make

Patriot Act

permanent

San Francisco

IM and RAIL spent the earth-

day weekend proclaiming that

the war is not over and will not

be until the U.$. gets our of every country

in the world. Inspired by the bullshit we

are hearing in the media and on the streets

that the war in Iraq is over now that

Saddam is gone, we targeted earth-day

crowds who are largely already anti-war

but generally not anti-imperialist. Our

protests took place at two earth day

festivals, one Saturday and one Sunday,

where we displayed large banners and

graphic signs, distributed revolutionary

literature and talked to the crowds as they

passed by.

The advertisement for our protest read:

"The U.$. has a long history of invading

countries, supporting brutal dictatorships,

overthrowing democratically elected

governments, financing militias, and

sending its armies to stop peoples

revolutionary movements around the

world. The latest attack on Iraq is just

one more example. With Saddam out of

power in Iraq we are being told the war

is over. Don't believe it! Until the U.$.

takes its' armies, money, corporations and

power out of Iraq and everywhere else,

the Amerikan-led war of terror against

the people of the world continues. "The

united $tates is an imperialist country, a

country with an economic system that

exploits the whole world and cannot stand

still within itself. The humyn will to be

free of oppression and exploitation is

permanent. Economic systems on the

other hand have changed many times. It's

time to change again. Only

internationalism can bring global peace.

"Join us in demanding an end to the U.$.

war on the world. U.$. out of Iraq,

Palestine, the Philippines, Columbia,

Puerto Rico, Turkey, and the rest of the

world! A country with hands bloody from

wars of global domination is not qualified

to define terrorism.

"Here at home we demand and end to

the domestic war of terror against internal

oppressed nations. A country built on the

hen the Patriot Act passed in

October 2001, it included

several so-called "sunset

clauses:" particular provisions which

would expire at the end of 2005 without

Congressional re-authorization. The Bush

administration is now working to make

these provisions permanent.

The Patriot Act expanded the

government's power to conduct secret

wiretaps, secretly search homes, access

computer records, use evidence collected

by illegal search and seizure, and lock up

and deport non-citizens without presenting

evidence.

Senator Orrin Hatch has drafted a

proposal which would repeal the sunset

provisions. According to the New York

Times "Many Democrats have grown

increasingly frustrated by what they see

Earth Day pacifists get the

message: U.$. out of the World

Continued on page 7...

Continued on page 8...

Continued on page 4...

MIM Notes 281 · May 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
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

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For general correspondence, contact:

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eMail: <mim@mim.org>

WWW: <http//www.etext.info/Politics/MIM>

Aznar is another
puppet

Dear MIM:

Hello, I am Spanish. I agree with most

of the ideas you exposed in your web

page. My president, Aznar, is another

puppet, just someone who just wants to

be a name remembered in History, and

he doesn't mind to cross over thousands

of people dead in a war like the others,

unjust.

I don't like the Maoists' precepts, but I

agree with you on all the major points you

explain. I think you are brave making a

web like this in your country. I could say

more things but my English is not as good

as I wanted it to be, so, see you and go

on.

Against war and ignorance, free of

expression and information. I hope

someday we could stop this imperialism

and other repressive regimes.

--Spanish Internet reader

April 13, 2003

International Minister responds : It's

great to hear from Spain.

Spain has the 10th largest economy in

the world, but still the sentiment that Aznar

is a puppet of Bush is widespread. Even

Blair in England seems to be a "poodle"

of Bush's as the expression goes in

England. In this sense, we are a

witnessing something truly historic in this

war, the sense that the whole rest of the

world does not matter if Bush wants

something his way.

As the writer alludes to, Spain is an

excellent example of how bourgeois

"democracy" works. Over 90% of Spain

opposes the war in Iraq, but the bourgeois

leader still backed Bush. When the war

started, only one country other than the

United $tates showed majority support for

the war--I$rael.(1) Only after it started

did England and Australia swing into

line.(2) Yet, more than 30 countries like

Spain belonged to "the coalition of the

willing." The list reads like a "who's who"

of lackeydom. In the past it was difficult

to say among lackies who was the worst,

but the "coalition of the willing" invading

Iraq provides a concrete measurement.

MIM says that the movement needs to

get over its illusions about "democracy"

and focus on consequences for these

minority rulers. "Majority rule" in the

united $tates is determining what is going

on in the whole world. It overrules the

majority rule of each country. It always

has, because imperialism is fundamentally

a system of minority rule. When it really

counts--as in war--it is clear for the

whole world to see.

Notes:
1. http://www.msnbc.com/news/
885222.asp?0cv=KB10
2. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/
2880519.stm;
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/
2883171.stm

United for
independent
institutions of the
oppressed

Your materials on Pan-Africanism (1),

the definition of the term "masses" (2)

and your program adopted and ratified

by MIM in 1995 (3) ... were all stimulating

and will be the topic of my personal

meditations for some time. I find that

although I cannot commit to your cardinal

principles at this time, we still have many

common principles, goals and objectives.

Many of MIM's aims regarding the people

are shared not only by me but by many

who would not call themselves

communists. In reading your "Minimum

Demands" (4) I wholly support an

international minimum wage and

international child labor laws. I also seek

such policies as free day case, as well as

free primary, secondary and college

education for all, free world health care

and other such changes in existing

government that would make for a more

equitable and just society.

And I too understand that this will not

be done without armed struggle, for those

who benefit from inequality and injustice

are not going to simply allow that which

they benefit by to be undone without a

fight.

I confess my ignorance regarding what

political system would best prove itself

sufficient for the needs of the people. I

truly see valid points in socialism,

communism, anarchism and other

revolutionary systems that would replace

that of capitalism, which, and of this I am

sure, must be destroyed. Therefore, I can

boldly fight with certainty knowing that

that which I fight against, capitalism and

the racism, bigotry and oppression which

it breeds, must die if hope is to have a

chance at life.

Concerning Pan-Africanism, as

founder of World Africa and its service

wing, THE BLACK BRIGADE, I can

of course concur with and support the

concept of universal Pan-Africanism. I

do so because we, as a people, must

create for ourselves a system of

government, along with the necessary

institutions, that would insure our well-

being. I do not believe in replacing white

supremacy with Black supremacy nor of

using culture to separate one group from

the other in an isolationist fashion.

However, given our history and the

present conditions in which we live, it is

only reasonable that those of the same

culture and background, as well as their

supporters and allies, should seek to

establish an alternative.

Also, as long as the oppressed are

dependent on their oppressors for their

education, training, development, financial

and physical well-being and future

direction, then they shall always be

oppressed by the very same oppressors

whom they have cone to so totally depend

on. Therefore the Black Brigade is

established to replace the dependency on

the oppressors... with a self-sufficient

internal mechanism created by and for

the people themselves. In time, and

hopefully with the help of our MIM

comrades, we shall beautify our

communities, make our neighborhoods

safe without the need for patrols and

intervention by the occupying forces

known as the Police...

In time, we hope to join our brothers

and sisters of all races and backgrounds

who fight against global oppression [and]

Continued on page 9...

MIM Notes 281 · May 1, 2003 · Page 3

April 7--Oakland police assaulted anti-

war protesters for an hour and a half

today, one-upping their repressive

counterparts across the Bay in San

Francisco.

At 6:00 a.m. this morning, hundreds of

protesters blocked both entrances to the

shipping company American President

Lines (APL). APL is a primary mover

of military supplies for the U.$.

Department of "Defense." Protestors

prevented traffic from entering the yard

until 7:30 AM. Oakland police gave the

first order to disperse at 7:15 a.m. Cops

grabbed a demonstrator on roller skates

as he skated by, making him the first

arrest of the day.

Many protestors struggled to hold the

picket line by allowing the cops to let the

first few cars to pass and then blocking

the trucks further down the street. This

resulted in a few more arrests as cops

picked people off the front lines. One

trucker expressed his opposition to the

war but moved along once ordered by

police.

After traffic was moving riot pigs

moved in and began firing shotgun shells

filled with octopus-shaped beanbags.

The demo regrouped at the next

entrance. A handful of International

Longshore and Warehouse Union

(ILWU) members were standing outside

waiting to get into work. While one said

he supported the demo, most refused to

answer questions. Organizers say that

the union agreed not to break the picket

line as long as there were 300 or more

people involved, but they did not

participate.

Protesters chanted "Pro-worker, Anti-

war" in an attempt to show unity with

the dockworkers. If the ILWU was

willing to come out and stop the shipment

of military supplies it would be a great

victory for the international proletariat.

But the ILWU has yet to do this, and we

must not wait for them or expect them

to do so. Amerikans benefit from this

system of imperialism that we oppose,

and as a group they will not come out

and bite the hand that feeds them.

Throughout the day, "War is for profit,

Workers can stop it" was a favorite

Pigs open fire on protesters outside Oakland docks

chant. While this is a true statement it is

misleading to tell people that workers in

this country are going to stand up against

war.

At 8:02 a.m. cops on motorcycles

charged into the crowd and shot wooden

dowels and concussion grenades at

protestors.

One person who drove up behind the

line of police was pulled out of his car,

thrown to the ground and arrested. This

followed another warning to disperse and

more shots including canisters releasing

an explosion of tear gas and rubber pellets.

Injuries were numerous, mostly huge

bloody welts from being shot. One person

had a finger broken and a couple people

were shot in the face. Pigs aimed at

protesters carrying a friend out of the line

of fire. In a humorous incident at 8:31 a.m.,

the police captain called "organizers"

forward, at which point a whole crowd of

Police shot rubber pellets at protesters,

resulting in painful welts.

Continued on page 9...

Dear Margo Kingston:

You were wrong to back down from

your assertion that the united $tates used

nuclear weapons in the Vietnam War. In

1954, the united $tates offered nuclear

weapons to the French to fight off their

final loss at Dienbienphu. After the

French withdrew from Vietnam, Nixon

threatened again to use nuclear

weapons.(1)

Critics of your article "Bring Our

Troops Home" for the Sydney Morning

Herald have an unacceptably high

threshold for the word "use." Nixon did

not "detonate" any nuclear weapons, but

he did "use" them and to think that such

use does not matter shows how insensitive

to violence and instability a large part of

the public in the imperialist countries has

become, especially concerning the Third

World.

People have adjusted to all this--

including threats of nuclear devastation--

because there is no other choice under

capitalism. The motivations for the

nuclear roll of the dice, inviting counter-

threats and pre-emptive strikes to prevent

the detonation of nuclear weapons, are

present, and many people are too afraid

to squarely look the problem in the face.

No discussion of politics should avoid

looking for answers. An example of how

unrealistic capitalism makes people is the

continuous vacillation between war-

mongering and peace. Even Nixon himself

ended up making the following ridiculous

predictions: "Looking to the future. . . I

also do not believe the world's major

powers will initiate a conventional war.

In Korea in the 1950s and in Afghanistan

in the 1980s, we have seen that an overt

New York legislators regularly receive

gifts up to $75 a time from prison industry

corporations. Other legal loopholes allow

even greater transactions in an effort to

lobby the New York legislature for more

prison building and other contracts. In 14

years of existence, the committee in

charge of ethics in New York has never

brought charges against any member of

the legislature.(1) The recent corruption

comes to light in connection to federal

investigations.

"A vehicle provided to Assemblyman

Roger L. Green for his personal use was

a gray Plymouth Voyager minivan with

tinted windows, but the perks from a

private prison company called

Correctional Services Corporation did not

end there, according to interviews and

records from a federal investigation into

the company's operations."

"Mr. Green, an influential state

legislator in New York, received a driver,

a young man named Jorge Avila-Parks,

who on many mornings showed up at Mr.

Green's home in Brooklyn. There was

also the public relations aide for Mr.

Green's office, workers for his political

campaigns, free meals and a

cellphone."(2)

Under capitalism, it is inevitable that

money corrupts the "justice system." That

is another reason MIM is in favor of all

individual liberties and privacy rights. It

is not a matter of "having something to

hide." The public is mistaken to believe

that prisons, guards, cops and judges are

somehow "neutral" spectators. The more

laws passed with more cops paid to

harass people for meaningless charges,

the more "criminals" convicted and the

more profits there are for prison

construction and supply corporations.

That's not to mention the sheriffs who

profit from prison labor or the district

attorneys elected mayors, governors or

presidents for successfully convicting

people.

Notes:

1. JAMES C. McKINLEY, Jr.

"Unlimited Largess for Albany

Lawmakers, $75 at a Time," 2Mar2003

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/02/

nyregion/02ETHI.html

2. New York Times 17Feb2003; http://

q u e r y . n y t i m e s . c o m / g s t /

abstract.html?res=F10B16FB355E0C748DDDAB0894DB404482

3. See also, MIM Theory #11,

"Amerikkkan prisons on trial," http://

www.etext.info/Politics/MIM/mt/

mt11.html

invasion unites the world against the

aggressor and ultimately dooms the policy

to failure."(2)

Although not everyone reads dusty

history books, the use of nuclear weapons

in Vietnam was also recently in the news.

First of all, another declassified document

just came out about Nixon's nuclear

threats.(3) Other journalists in-the-know

have also discussed the parallels to

Vietnam in the current Iraq conflict

regarding nuclear weapons.(4)

Sincerely,

International Minister

Maoist Internationalist Movement

Notes:
1. http://www.ieer.org/ensec/no-6/threats.html
2. Richard Nixon, In the Arena, (NY: Simon &
Schuster, 1990), p. 344.
3. http://groups.google.com/
groups?q=Nixon+%22nuclear+alert%22
&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&selm=sv9k0v
gp9g6i4dd5liq725fo1t1mn5nmkc%404ax.com
&rnum=2
4. "Documents show that in the fall of 1969,
President Nixon put U.S. forces on worldwide
nuclear alert in what he aptly called a `madman'
strategy aimed at scaring the Soviets into using
their influence to force Vietnamese communist
concessions at the negotiations in Paris.
"Last month, the Bush administration took a
leaf out of Nixon's book when it threatened to
use nuclear weapons against Iraq if the Iraqis
use chemical or biological weapons against U.S.
troops. All U.S. intelligence agencies agree that
Saddam Hussein probably will, in fact, use
chemical and/or biological weapons if we invade
Iraq." http://www.examiner.com/opinion/
default.jsp?story=op.mcgovern.0106w

MIM to Australian anti-war

movement: Don't back down

people approached him with riot pigs

rushing to line up behind. At this point he

declared that if we walked down 7th

Street and went back to the BART station

we would be left alone.

The crowd headed in that direction but

stopped again at the corner of Maritime

and 7th, an important route for bringing

goods to and from the docks.

Demonstrators had blocked traffic in

two directions by 9 a.m. At this point we

received news that the picket line at the

Times admits prison companies

rent New York legislature

MIM Notes 281 · May 1, 2003 · Page 4

March 29, 2003

Only 20% of U.$. whites oppose the

war with Iraq. The same poll by Gallup

admits that 68% of Blacks oppose the

war with 29% supporting it.(1) These polls

will frustrate many whites living in certain

geographic localities, where anti-war

sentiment is concentrated, because it will

appears there that anti-war feelings are

much more widespread. However, the

polls showing only 20% of whites

opposing the war are correct. (For

countries easier to attack than Iraq, the

figure would be even lower than 20%.)

It's just a matter of where we look. The

majorities of all people in major parts of

the East Coast and all of California oppose

the war. 41% oppose the war on the East

Coast as a whole. When we factor in the

New Hampshires and other rural East

Coast counties of Amerikkkans that

support Bush, it means that in the major

East Coast cities, opposition is in the vast

majority.

Countless conservatives across the

country are invoking 911 as a reason for

the war, instead of a reason against the

war. Instead of coming to us and

apologizing for supporting the president

who armed, financed and trained Bin

Laden, these conservatives and "support

our troops" warmongers come to us in

outrage asking why we don't support yet

more CIA and military maneuvers just

like the past ones that created Bin Laden

and Saddam Hussein. We remind them it

was their president, not our government

in charge of creating Bin Laden and

giving Saddam Hussein chemical and

biological weapons in the first place. Even

with over 70% of Amerikkkans in favor

of the war, New Yorkers still disagree.

"A poll released this week showed that

just after the conflict began, New Yorkers

became more supportive of the war and

President Bush's handling of the conflict.

Still, even as about 70 percent of all

Americans back the war, just 47 percent

of New Yorkers support it, while 49

percent oppose it," reported the Chicago

Tribune.(2) So much for the conservative

idiots who think that Californians oppose

the war, because they haven't been to

the World Trade Center.(3)

In California, the Los Angeles Times

reported on March 6th, "With the United

States on the precipice of war,

Californians disapprove of President

Bush's handling of Iraq, and half do not

trust him to make the right decision on

whether to take military action, a new Los

Angeles Times Poll has found. "Three in

five Californians believe the U.S. should

not invade Iraq without the United

Nations' backing, the poll found. . . . only

one in four Californians said the president

should take military action now rather than

allowing the U.N. arms inspectors to

continue their work in Iraq."(4)

Even within California, a bare majority

of whites in the four-county area of

Sacramento supported the invasion even

before it started, while only 44% of "non-

whites" did. Yolo County opposed the

war and the other three supported it for a

total of 51% supporting the war.(2) Again,

what this means is that in the suburbs and

rural areas, the war has support, but in

Los Angeles and San Francisco, the

opposition is overwhelming, whether the

people in those cities even know it or not.

The same poll of Sacramento found 65%

support for the invasion in the Sierra area

of Nevada, El Dorado County.(4)

[A poll taken several weeks into the

war when CNN/Pentagon briefings were

particularly upbeat found that 76% of

Californians supported the war, including

63% of the Bay Area.(9)]

Those of us forgetting the gun-toting,

SUV-driving, pickup-truck owning white

trash and lower-middle class whites in the

rural and interior parts of the country

simply will not have an accurate picture

of what is happening. The highest support

for the war comes from the Bush voters

in the South, Midwest and non-coastal

West in the $30,000 to $50,000 income

category. There seems to be a dispute

where Latinos stand. A poll prior to the

war showed that 60% of New York and

California "Hispanic" registered voters

opposed the war. Another poll showed

that 43% opposed the war and 48%

supported in February. A more recent

survey shows 67% "Hispanic" support

for the war on Iraq.(5)

* 56% of gays/lesbians/bisexuals/

transsexuals oppose the idea of going to

war without UN approval and without UN

inspectors finding weapons of mass

destruction.

* Only 31% of gays/lesbians/bisexuals/

transsexuals trust George W. Bush to

make the correct decisions on the Iraq

question.(6)

* 59% of Jews support the war, less

than the average of 7 in 10, according to

the American Jewish Committee. MIM

has tried to tell people for a long time that

there is a difference between Jews inside

the U$A and those settling on land in

Palestine. 73% of I$raeli$ supported

invading Iraq.(7)

A whopping 44% of liberals supports

the war.(1) Along with the fact that

Democrats are based in the "moderates"

where 70% support the war, it is very

clear that the end of this war has to

originate from the "fringe"--and that's

without mentioning where Democratic

Party imperialist leaders stand, just the

voters.

The petty-bourgeois tendency to

vacillate wildly in serious wars

characterizes U.$. views of war. "If there

are hundreds of American casualties,

support for the war drops to 62%, while

35% oppose it."(8) It's not that

Amerikkkans oppose the war in principle.

They just want their cheap gas and world

dominance without killing too many

Marines. At some number in the

thousands of Marines dead and the war

still going on, Amerikkkans will want out

of the war.

Despite the huge Black-white gap for

instance, there are countless of the brain-

dead calling themselves "Marxist" (who

know who they are without our naming

them) who ask us why we separate the

Black Nation from Amerikkka, why we

don't just lump Black "workers" with

white "workers." With the latest Daily

Telegraph poll showing 83% English

support for the war in Iraq, it's clear that

there is more justification in calling

England and Amerikkka one nation than

Blacks part of the same United $tates.

White exploiters differ not only in degree

from oppressed Blacks. Thanks to

peculiarities of history that Blacks have

not forgotten, even more than current

economic relations, there is a qualitative

difference that should be sharpened, not

confused, lest we throw away the basis

of the anti-war movement and fail to

confront the anti-war movement's real

tasks surrounding national chauvinism,

racism and attacks on the Third World in

general, something we Maoists call

dealing with the principal contradiction

between oppressed nations and

imperialism.

Notes:
1. http://www.gallup.com/poll/releases/
pr030328.asp ; se also, http://www.upi.com/
view.cfm?StoryID=20030314-022023-3781r
2. "New York's 911 victims don't support war,"

Crunch time proves MIM right

Polls correctly show who the anti-war movement is

http://www.billingsgazette.com/
index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2003/03/28/
build/war/74-911-support.inc
3. "David Houston, a self-described
conservative from Tampa Bay, Fla., who was on
a monthlong vacation in California, said many
people in the state struck him as out of touch
with the rest of America. `It is obvious a lot of
people here are against the war,' he said. `Of
course, if a lot of them went to visit the World
Trade Center, they might think differently.'"
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/20/
international/worldspecial/20WEST.html
4. "Many fault handling of Iraq," by Michael
Finnegan, Los Angeles Times 06Mar2003. http:/
/www.sacbee.com/content/news/story/
6284848p-7238619c.html ; http://
www.nytimes.com/2003/03/20/international/
worldspecial/20WEST.html?pagewanted=2&
ei=5062&en=57bc27c09eaa4511&ex=1048827600&
partner=GOOGLE
5. http://www.trpi.org/press_rel.html; http://
www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/
metropolitan/1830709
6. http://www.advocate.com/
new_news.asp?ID=8034&sd=03/15/03-03/17/
03
7. http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/075/
nation/
In_the_Diaspora_and_in_Israel_opinions_vary+.shtml
8. http://www.zogby.com/news/
ReadNews.dbm?ID=691
9. Associated Press reporting on a Field
Institute poll, 8 Apr 2003.

There are two reasons that people might

not engage in struggle and read other

people's literature at rallies. One is that

s/he thinks s/he knows everything and

need not go further. Another is that s/he

is only at the rally to salve a conscience

momentarily before returning to apolitical

life. We have heard many say that the

war was evil, so "I had to do something."

Iraqis defending themselves waited for

months for the Amerikkkans to come.

When the Amerikkkans arrived in Iraq,

many Iraqis waited yet another week or

two for the Amerikkkans to come to their

locale for a chance to fight.

Unfortunately, the way that Amerikkkans

"fight," thousands of Iraqis died from

bombing without ever seeing any

Amerikkkans. Our point in this is that

Amerikans still have comfort to retreat

to: that's why we insist that the peace

movement not just relieve its conscience

but fight to win. To fight to win involves

training the mind and body and delivering

a long-term and time-consuming

commitment.

In the midst of the rally, MIM launched

into some mini-struggles. Some Muslims

stopped by to ask what we were handing

out. One said he was told that we stood

for Marx's aphorism: "religion is the opiate

of the people." We concurred that he had

correctly identified us.

Then the demonstrator interested in

Islam said, "what good is that? What are

you going to achieve?" He then went on

about the "opiate" question: "No, it's not.

People need religion. It's the only thing

that is going to save" the world. (By the

way, notice that he did not really address

Marx, because people would also report

"needing" their heroin, cocaine etc.)

The Muslim comrade then asked our

reply to that and we asked him if he agreed

that the people attacking were a different

religion. He did. "So it seems to me that

religion divides the people."

Another comrade who said he was a

former member of the "Communist Party-

USA" till 1991 stopped by and said he

reads our articles but does not agree with

our third cardinal principle on the labor

aristocracy. We seemed to agree on the

facts in our disputes, but we were unable

to pin down our differences. "Your

strategy may work. . . only because the

American working class is changing." He

went on to explain that the ethnic basis

of the U.$. population is changing. The

comrade agreed Nazis and KKK had to

be labeled and treated as "enemy," but

he continued to have a soft spot for the

DC rally condemns U.$.

occupation of Iraq

Continued from page 1...

Continued on page 6...

MIM Notes 281 · May 1, 2003 · Page 5

by International Minister

March 24, 2003

There is an urgent problem and question

facing the global anti-war movement.

Although the world is more than 80%

opposed to the U.$. war on Iraq, that is

not the case in a handful of countries.

The question arises, which countries are

they and why. From the beginning, the

United $tates had the support of the

majority of only one country--I$rael.(1)

Unfortunately, there are others as well

who are phony in their opposition. England

was never very strong in its opposition,

never reaching the levels of opposition in

say Hungary, where more than 80%

oppose the war even if the UN would

have endorsed it. As we go into war, Tony

Blair's government did not fall despite the

Labor Party's hold on power, and not the

Conservative Party's. In fact, the English

labor aristocracy swung into action for

war, and the English public favored war

by a 54 to 30% margin once the war

started.(2) The rapid shift in opinion is a

clue to all scientific Marxists that we are

talking about a petty-bourgeois population

in its entirety. Such a quick shift is not

possible any other way.

Even more shocking was Australia

where polls showed over 80% did not

want the war without UN approval. Once

the war started, Australians changed their

minds: opposition fell from 70% to 47%

in one week according to one poll of

Australians.(3)

In contrast, as usual, the situation for

Blacks within U.$. borders is different,

just as MIM has said all along: "A

Washington Post/ABC News poll taken

Sunday showed that African Americans

are far more likely to oppose the war than

white Americans, and are generally more

disapproving of President Bush's handling

of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

"Sixty-one percent of African

Americans who responded to questions

on the poll said they opposed `the United

States having gone to war with Iraq,'

compared with 20 percent of white

Americans who answered the poll."(4)

Granted, some Blacks interviewed

expressed some pretty foggy reasoning,

but the outcome of the poll is only all the

more surprising.

What the whole world needs to

understand about these countries--the

United $tates, England, Australia and

I$rael --is that they are the core of world

imperialism. The populations of these

countries are different than the populations

of most of the world's countries, because

these populations are parasites on Third

World labor. They obtain a very

measurable surplus-value from the Third

World which works at 50 cents an hour.

What this means is that MIM was able

to predict who would line up for Bush's

"coalition of the willing" to attack Iraq

--in terms of the public opinion (not who

the CIA was able to bribe into being

especially good individual government

lackeys). In every issue of MIM Notes,

we list which countries we can expect to

be the trouble for world peace on page

two. Where the labor aristocracy is a

majority we can expect public support for

predatory wars like this one. Out of 200

countries in the world, we can narrow

down the likely candidates for war-

mongering publics to a few countries, just

by doing the class analysis.

Together, the core imperialist countries

share in the same economic system.

Likewise, the attitude of the typical

European including the French and

Germans is to want the war over soon,

so Europeans can help with rebuilding

and stake a financial claim on whatever

goodies spill out of Iraq. The French and

German imperialists have a different

strategy than the Amerikkkan imperialists

and the labor aristocracies dominating

France and Germany picked up on that,

right down to worrying whether the

United $tates would ice out French and

Germany companies from Iraqi business

after the war.

The ordinary proletarian sympathy in

the world is for the Iraqi people, fighting

valiantly on their own soil against

invaders. The proletariat abhors this war

and feels at a visceral level for the Iraqi

people being bombed, such as the

Republican Guards who have no air force

to match the Amerikkkan hyperpower.

In contrast, the petty-bourgeoisie

numerically dominating in the United

$tates, I$rael, Au$tralia and England can

imagine the proletarian sentiment, but the

petty-bourgeoisie has a different point of

view. If we listen carefully to the petty-

bourgeoisie, we will hear that it's

opposition to the war was always a sham.

To the proletariat, the petty-bourgeoisie

appears to have no moral fiber to oppose

the war. To be sure, the petty-bourgeoisie

may even march with us and that is good,

but its reasons for marching are very<