MIM Notes ***

MIM Notes 292 · December 1, 2003 · Page 1

MIM Notes

Dec. 1, 2003, Nº 292

The Official Newsletter of the Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM)

Free

INSIDE: Jessica Lynch * Under Lock & Key * Una Página en Español...

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

he number of U$ troops killed in

Iraq since the beginning of the

land war in March topped four

hundred as the Pentagon and CIA began

dropping hints that the U$ position in Iraq

is worsening. Resistance fighters shot

down four Amerikan helicopters in the

first two weeks of November, killing more

than 30 Amerikans. Fighters also killed

18 "coalition" troops in a bomb raid on an

Italian barracks in Nasiriyah (1).

As a result of these developments, a

number of Amerika's allies backed off

of their promises to send troops to Iraq.

Japan announced it would not send any

troops the day before U$ "Secretary of

Defense" Donald Rumsfeld visited the

Tokyo (2). South Korea also said it would

not send any more troops, and Spain and

the Netherlands have recalled their

diplomats (3). This shows that determined

resistance to imperialist aggression in one

country can have global repercussions.

According to Reuters news service, the

number of Amerikan soldiers killed in Iraq

now surpasses the number killed in

Vietnam from 1961 to 1964, namely 392

(4). This figure is somewhat misleading,

as there are more Amerikan troops in

harm's way in Iraq than in early-sixties'

Vietnam. The population of Iraq is also

larger than south Vietnam's was, so

arguably U$ troops are already spread

more thinly in Iraq. Comparable casualty

rates (per thousand troops, per million

population, per year) are .18 for Iraq and

.49 for Vietnam in '61 to '64 (see table

on page 5).

These casualty rates may be different

because the Vietnamese had a number

of political and military advantages that

the Iraqi resistance in 2003 does not. The

Vietnamese national liberation movement

was united behind a Communist party

committed to revolutionary land reform

and anti-imperialism. The Communists

and their allies had decades of experience

in guerrilla war, first against the Japanese

and then against the French. The southern

Vietnamese had the support of their

comrades in the north, who controlled

their own economy and had a strong

regular army (5). The Chinese

Communists and Soviet Social-

Imperialists also aided the Vietnamese.

However, if we consider the population

of Vietnam as a whole--justifiable,

considering the people of the north also

participated in the struggle against U$

U$ COURT

HOUNDS

PALESTINIAN

ACTIVIST OUT

OF COUNTRY

We run this timely article by The Amer

Jubran Defense Committee (a mass

organization not affiliated with MIM)

because it exposes the Amerikan

government's legal harassment of

immigrants--especially those who are

politically active anti-imperialists. It

shows that the Amerikan government

is not willing to grant non-citizens the

rights its own Founding Fathers

struggled to attain.

Boston

oday's proceeding--the long-

delayed and final hearing in the

case of Amer Jubran--saw the

complete collapse of all pretenses to

fairness, justice and objectivity. Despite

the government's insistence to the

contrary, this case has always been an

effort to silence voices that speak out for

Palestinian liberation and against the

policies of the United States and its client

state Israel. Nothing about today's

proceedings has succeeded in silencing

those voices.

After being denied adequate time to

review 50 pages of government

documents submitted a week before his

final trial (and four months after the June

24 deadline for disclosing evidence), after

being denied his fundamental right to be

represented by effective counsel, and

after being compelled to testify without

any legal representation at all, after

realizing there is no possibility for due

process in this court, Amer decided to

request of the court that he be granted

"voluntary departure" from the United

States. In March 2004, unless the

government continues its persecution of

him, he will return to his home in Jordan.

Amer was offered three choices at

today's trial: proceeding with a lawyer

that he did not trust to represent him,

representing himself despite his lack of

legal expertise, or submitting to direct

questions from the judge without any legal

Mounting U$ casualties

scare off allies

Matrix Revolutions
2003

Matrix Revolutions is packed with kung

fu fights, machine gun battles, computer

generated special effects, and pop

philosophy that made the first two

installments of the trilogy box-office hits.

Yet Revolutions spends little time

developing what was perhaps the most

interesting aspect of The Matrix and

Matrix Reloaded: the matrix itself.

In the original Matrix we learn that

almost all humynity is unknowingly

participating in a virtual reality simulation,

called the matrix, in order to keep their

brains busy while their bodies are used

as a heat source to power the machines

that have taken over the planet. Morpheus

and Trinity are among the small

percentage of humyns, headquartered in

the underground city of Zion, who have

managed to break free from the matrix.

They free Neo, who they believe will be

Continued on page 4...

"the One" to finally give them victory in

the war against the machines.

In the sequel we discover that it is not

only humyns, and machine-controlled

agents like Agent Smith, who inhabit the

matrix. It also contains programs that

rebelled instead of performing their

intended function, such as the Keymaker

and the Oracle. These exiled programs

look and act like humyns, raising the

question of whether they have somehow

gained self-awareness.

Will Neo save the billions of humyns

connected to the Matrix and free them

from the enslavement of the machines?

Are the exiled programs somehow alive,

and will they too be liberated from the

matrix? Unfortunately the Matrix

Revolutions does not give decisive

answers to these questions. Instead, Neo

and company seem only to be concerned

with defending Zion. Even after the matrix

Self-centered Revolutions

ignores majority of humanity

Continued on page 8...

Continued on page 5...

As Amerikan casualties mount, U.$. Commander Tommy Franks visits a wounded G.I who

took one for the home(wrecking) team..

MIM Notes 292 · December 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: Some slave masters wear robes

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
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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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tains thousands of documents, with ordering information for many more.

MIM grants explicit permission to copy all or part of this newspaper for any reason, as

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For general correspondence, contact:

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eMail: <mim@mim.org>

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

To MIM:

In MIM Theory 6, The Stalin Issue [see

advertisement on page 6], the section on

pre-scientific intelligentsia really caught

my attention. Especially since so many

of my people are being oppressed by

these slave masters dressed in "robes". I

was doing some research and I ran across

this in "Revolution in Central America"

by Daniel Fogel.

"The catholic church eagerly

participated in and profited from the

Spanish colonial campaign of genocide,

enslavement and land expropriation of the

indigenous peoples of `Latin' America.

In today's capitalist world, the Vatican has

become a modern capitalist/imperialist

institution, cleverly blending a

kaleidoscope of bourgeois ideology

including liberal humanitarianism and

pacifism with its old feudal ideology of

the corporate self-owner. The Vatican

maintains and works to expand its

financial, landowning empire, through its

transnational bank and its well-heeled

church holding companies around the

world. Small wonder that its leading

propagandists, the cardinals and

archbishops, robed `chairmen of the

board' of the holy capitalist corporation,

tend to uphold the established social order

and oppose the new heresy, liberation

theology. But the Vatican no longer has

its own military arm and judicial network

of prisons, torture chambers, inquisition

chambers and execution plazas to

enforce its reactionary ideas. In this

respect it has stepped aside to make room

for the secular institutions of modern

imperialism, centered in Washington and

Wall Street. This has bought a big moral

advantage to the Vatican: It's hands are

no longer directly covered with the blood

of the hundreds of thousands of oppressed

people slaughtered by the empire of

propertied wealth. The death squads and

counterinsurgent armies of El Salvador

and Guatemala are not under the

command of the Vatican, but of local

ruling cliques supervised by the Pentagon,

the CIA, Chase Manhattan Bank of

America. So the Vatican can posture as

an `independent' spiritual force `rising

above' the fierce struggle between

imperialist reaction and the people's

revolution. Preaching `universal' love,

disarmament, and a purely spiritual

`revolution' on the basis of the existing

social order, the Vatican serves the aims

of imperialism in urging the insurgent

masses to lay down their arms and submit

once against to the tyranny of their

rulers."

-- a California prisoner, july 2003

MIM adds: Of course, Catholicism is

not the only Christian denomination

waving incense over the stinking crimes

of the oppressors. The bizarre Amerikan

blend of Protestantism and hyper-

individualism props up the patriarchy,

especially the oppression of children (see

article on page 3). Nor is Christianity

solely to blame. The Hindu Ghandi

effectively sanctioned the everyday

violence in capitalist India (including some

of the worst famines in 20th century

history) by scolding Indian workers and

peasants for taking up arms against the

capitalists and landlords.

MIM Notes 292 · December 1, 2003 · Page 3

MOVEON.ORG

AIRS

JINGOISTIC

AMERIKA-

FIRST AD

by MC12

MoveOn.org, which bills itself as "a

new kind of grassroots involvement,

supporting busy but concerned citizens

in finding their political voice," is airing

a political advertisement on its website

that uses Amerikan chauvinism to

bash Bush and build support for the

Democratic Party. The ad shows

ordinary-looking people suffering the

consequences of Bush's supposed

determination to help Iraq at the

expense of Amerikans. The ominous

announcer says:

"We could have built 10,000 new

schools, or hired almost 2 million new

teachers. We could have rebuilt our

electric grid. We could have insured

more of our children. Instead George

wants to spend that $87 billion in Iraq.

If there's money for Iraq, why isn't

there money for America? The truth

is, we're not being led -- we're being

misled."(1)

After the images of people fade out,

the screen shows nothing but "$87

Billion for Iraq" in big letters, but

turning to a grainy black-and-white

image of Bush.

If Bush were really ITAL giving

END $87 billion to Iraq for

reparations--with no strings attached,

to pay the people of Iraq back for

killing hundreds of thousands of them,

wrecking their infrastructure and

economy, occupying their country and

seizing their oil--MIM would support

them even if it meant not building new

schools in the U.$.A.

But of course that's not what Bush

and Congress (Democrat and

Republican) are doing. Their $87

billion dollar bill (some of which is "for"

Afghanistan, incidentally) is to pay for

the continued occupation of these

countries, and smooth their eventual

transition to neocolonialism.

This kind of chauvinism dressed up

as progressivism may not be unusual,

but it is always bad news for the

oppressed. The plurality of MoveOn

members (44%) voted to endorse

Democrat Howard Dean, with Dennis

Kucinich coming in second at

(24%).(2) As MIM has reported,

many of these supporters oppose the

occupation of Iraq, but it's up to us to

struggle with them and others over the

reasons for this -- and show the

negative consequences of spreading

Amerikan jingoism.

Notes:

1. MoveOn.org website.

2. CNN, 27 June 2003.

Jessica Lynch, the U.$. army private

who was captured in Iraq, recently

denounced the Amerikan military's lies

about her treatment and escape in Iraq.

The Pentagon used her rescue by special

forces to build Amerikan sympathy for

the war on Iraq. In an interview with

ABC news she said about the Pentagon:

"It hurt in a way that people would make

up stories that they had no truth about."(1)

The story got even better in November's

made-for-TV movie "Saving Jessica

Lynch" that dramatized her capture and

rescue. This show began with a

disclaimer that scenes and events were

re-written or completely fabricated for the

sake of the drama.

In reality Lynch's "rescue" is an

example of the Amerikan propaganda

machine, run by the government and

lapped up by the mainstream media

mouthpieces for imperialism.

Lynch was captured in March of 2003

after her company took a wrong turn near

Nasiriya and was ambushed. Eleven

people with her were killed and she was

taken to a local hospital. Initial reports

said she went down fighting, but in truth

her gun jammed and she went down

praying. The Pentagon reported Lynch

was stabbed, shot, and violently

interrogated. Then, again according to the

Pentagon, the Amerikans got a tip about

where Lynch was being held and they

sent in the Army Rangers and Navy Seals

to carry out a daring rescue under fire.

The military filmed her rescue, using the

footage to promote the military operation

in Iraq.

In spite of pervasive media reports to

the contrary, the truth is just as the Iraqi

doctors who treated Lynch reported. She

suffered broken bones to her right arm,

right leg, thighs and ankle and received a

head injury all from a vehicle accident,

before she was taken to the Iraqi hospital.

The Pentagon doctors released this

information only after they had milked her

rescue for all they could.

Two days before her rescue squad

arrived, an Iraqi doctor tried to help Lynch

return to the Army. Dr. Harith al-

Houssona, who cared for Lynch during

her stay at the hospital, put her in an

ambulance and instructed the driver to

go to the Amerikan checkpoint, but when

they got near the soldiers opened fire and

they had to flee back to the hospital.(2)

Further, contrary to Amerikan military

reports, there were no Iraqi military forces

at the hospital and so the filmed "rescue"

was nothing more than a staged event

with the Amerikan commandos

threatening the doctors and patients for

the benefit of film. A carefully edited

version of the film was quickly released

to the media and played over and over to

build support for the brave Amerikan

troops.

Lynch released the biographical book

"I Am a Soldier Too" in November. The

book describes her Iraqi doctors and

nurses as caring and gentle. Lynch was

unconscious for a few hours after the

accident and woke up in an Iraqi military

hospital. The Amerikan media, ever

eager to do their jobs as Pentagon

mouthpieces, seized on the part of her

biography which cites medical records

alleging she suffered broken bones and

was sodomized while in Iraqi hands.(3)

Amerikan media hyped this again as

evidence of Iraqi barbarity and Lynch's

heroism in the days preceding and

following the book release.

This medical report is highly

suspicious. First, Lynch has no memory

of any abuse and it there is only a window

of a few hours when she was

unconscious when it could have

happened, because the rest of the time

she was conscious and suffered no abuse

at the hands of her captors. Second, the

report was only released months after

her return to Amerika in spite of

expansive propaganda work by the

Pentagon to make out her capture to be

dangerous and violent. Third, her Iraqi

doctors, who thoroughly examined her,

found no evidence of sexual assault and

found all of her wounds to be consistent

with her crash. Further, given the

Pentagon's consistent lies about Lynch's

capture and rescue, there is little reason

to believe these medical reports, which

are contrary to reports of the Iraqi doctors

who turned out to be the ones telling the

truth all along.

The Pentagon and the White House

have another reason for wanting to report

the rape of Jessica Lynch: this would

further their campaign to roll back policies

allowing wimmin to serve in the Amerikan

military. Already these reports are being

used to fuel declarations that wimmin

should not be allowed in combat situations.

These chauvinists seem to be unaware

that men can be raped just as easily as

wimmin. But MIM doesn't care to debate

whether wimmin should have the

"privilege" of serving in the imperialist

military. We don't fight for equality to

oppress. But we do say that the

proletarian armies will always rely on the

strength and skills of wimmin warriors

fighting alongside their male comrades.

In the end the treatment of Jessica

Lynch by the Iraqi military should not be

the topic in the news. She was part of an

invading force that continues to kill untold

thousands of Iraqis in an attempt to take

control of their country. Lynch was part

of the military that enforced Amerikan-

imposed sanctions for years, debilitating

the Iraqi economy and devastating the

health of the country. The treatment of

the Iraqi people at the hands of the

Amerikans is what really merits reporting.

But we can't count on the mouthpieces

for imperialism, the Amerikan media, to

do this for us. Lynch's story is another

example of the need for independent

media. MIM can't do it alone: help us with

money, writing, art, distribution or any

other skills you have.

Notes:

1. ABC News Nightline interview with

Jessica Lynch, November 11, 2003.

2. The Guardian, May 15, 2003 3. AP,

Nov 11, 2003

Jessica Lynch story exposes

media and military lies

Jessica Lynch's book, and her accepting an award from Glamour magazine.

MIM Notes 292 · December 1, 2003 · Page 4

representation at all. When Amer was

first arrested and interrogated by the INS

and FBI, he refused to answer any

questions without a lawyer present; today,

he found himself in the same situation. In

fact, this entire proceeding was an

extension of the illegitimate process that

began in November 2002, and, from the

first illegal arrest to today's farcical

hearing, it has had only one motive--to

silence Amer as a political activist and to

intimidate the members of his community.

It has unequivocally failed.

The government has never presented

sufficient evidence to challenge Amer's

immigration status; in fact, for almost a

year, it presented no evidence at all. But

immigration courts are the legal equivalent

of a stacked deck, and cases like this are

not settled on the basis of evidence.

Amer's decision to take voluntary

departure came from his refusal to

facilitate the fundamentally unfair process

through which he was dragged.

Although innocent, he was left with no

options to make a legitimate defense, and

the government made it clear that it was

willing to damage and destroy the lives

of Amer's ex-wife, her family, and even

their former neighbors to pursue its case

against him. Had the trial gone forward,

it would have allowed the government to

prolong the use of these proceedings as

a means of conducting an illegitimate

investigation not only into details of

Amer's life irrelevant to the merits of the

immigration case, but also, more

frighteningly, into the lives of many other

immigrants who are vulnerable to

government harassment.

After Amer's first trial, on July 24th,

the judge remarked that the prosecution

didn't seem to have a case; all but one of

the original charges against Amer had

been dropped, and the government had

no witnesses and no evidence to present.

Since the burden of proof in immigration

cases rests on the defense, not the

prosecution, the government had hoped

that it could intimidate Amer's ex-wife

into refusing to testify, but she appeared

in court, and after a grueling four hours

of testimony, the judge, convinced,

indicated that he was prepared to rule in

Amer's favor. The prosecuting attorney,

however, claimed that his wife was sick

and received a two-month continuance;

a month later, he delayed the trial another

six weeks because, apparently, he had to

drive to a pre-arranged event in Indiana

on the trial date. (Despite this, he was in

his office on the morning of the date in

question.)

Eight days before Amer's final trial on

November 6th, the government gave

Amer's lawyer a 52-page packet of

evidence, comprising 19 separate items

and revealing an extensive (and, until that

point, secret) investigation involving at

least 12 different federal agents. The

packet was intended as a threat, but not

to Amer; page after page of questionable

reports, contradictory testimony, and

incomplete forms clearly showed that the

government had been harassing more

than Amer's ex-wife and her family. As

the judge remarked, the packet didn't

contain anything that cast prior testimony

into doubt, but in order to prepare a

response, Amer instructed his lawyer to

request a continuance, which the judge

refused to grant. Although the

government, with no basis, had delayed

the case for months, Amer was not

allowed a mere two weeks to review new

evidence and prepare a defense against

it. When the motion for a continuance was

denied, Amer's lawyer--without Amer's

consent and against his explicit

instructions--made an arrangement with

the prosecuting attorney and the judge that

would have opened up lines of questioning

about matters unrelated to the marriage

case, including Amer's legitimate political

activities. The judge then intended to grant

the prosecution another continuance,

which would give the government yet

another opportunity to investigate every

possible avenue indicated by the already

irrelevant testimony. In this kind of court,

the original charges are of no importance,

and it does not matter if the defendant

meets the burden of proof; the process

of investigation has no legitimate legal goal

and no limit except the government's

willingness to spend time and money,

terrify innocent people, and ruin lives,

particularly the lives of immigrants and

the poor--the groups of people that their

investigation placed pressure on.

In light of the arrangement made in his

absence between both lawyers and the

court, it became clear that Amer's lawyer

was acting as an officer of the court and

not in Amer's best interest. After declaring

his intention to seek alternate counsel,

Amer asked for another continuance in

order to seek such counsel, but the judge

denied this request as well, insisting that

Amer would either have to represent

himself (which Amer repeatedly stated

he was unwilling to do) or proceed

forward without legal representation, and

faced with questions not from an

advocate but from the judge himself.

When the prosecution asked for delays,

they were granted no matter the reason,

but when Amer asked for a continuance

on wholly valid grounds, the judge,

ironically, cited Amer's right to a "quick

and speedy trial," as well as the pressure

placed on the court by the defense

committee itself. Faced with this

nightmare logic, coupled with the prospect

of an endless, boundless investigation that

would threaten the vulnerable, Amer felt

that his only choice was to request

voluntary departure.

After more than a decade of fighting

for justice in the United States, Amer is

returning to his home--or at least as

much of a home as a Palestinian refugee

can claim. Even as the media and hate-

peddlers in Washington would like to

convince us otherwise, there are many

advantages to living in the Arab World,

even apart from being closer to family.

This is not the end of his life, but the

beginning of a new part of it. Amer can

return with his head held high knowing

that he did not cave in to the intimidation

tactics of the U.S. government.

Those of us who have stood with Amer

and who have seen the unfairness and

political motivations of this process up

close, believe he made the best possible

decision given the circumstances. During

U$ court hounds Palestinian activist out of country

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?

the Red Scare of the 50's and the political

grand juries of the 70's and 80's, people

of principle who refused to participate in

the government's illegal witchhunt could

invoke their fifth amendment rights to

avoid participating.

The immigration courts allow no such

right, which begins to make it more clear

why the government is targeting

immigrants as it seeks to suppress dissent

at home against its brutal and misguided

policies abroad. The best way Amer could

take a principled stand when the Judge

refused to give him time to secure ethical

legal representation was to seek

voluntary departure. We admire him for

making this principled choice, we admire

him for his fearlessness, and we will each

intensify our own voice and courage so

that the voice for justice in Palestine will

not waver.

We call on all of you to raise your voice

for justice for Palestine and to fight against

the anti-democratic campaign of

repression being carried out by the U.S.

government. We will not be intimidated

and we will not be silent!

--The Amer Jubran Defense

Committee, November 6, 2003

(http://www.amerjubrandefense.org/)

Amer Jubran (photo: www.iacboston.org)

Continued from page 1...

MIM Notes 292 · December 1, 2003 · Page 5

aggression--the casualty rate in Vietnam

from '61 to '64 is .19, about the same as

Iraq, 2003. Considering the political and

military difficulties, this is quite an

accomplishment. The Amerikan

military--which leapt into this adventure

with delusions of easy victory and now

preaches caution--apparently respects

this accomplishment. So do Japan and

south Korea. Furthermore, the efficacy

of the resistance fighters is likely to

increase, as they are still learning the

ropes of guerrilla warfare. If they continue

to fight with such heroic determination,

they may tie down greater numbers of

imperialist troops, creating revolutionary

opportunities elsewhere--even in the

imperialist countries.

As we reported in the last two issues,

the war in Iraq and the "war on terrorism"

left the British military vulnerable at home.

Millions took to the streets against the war

in Iraq at a time when a miniscule

proportion of the imperialists' army was

left "at home," but no revolutionary

situation developed. This is a reflection

of the class realities in imperialist

countries: a majority of the population

there benefits from the imperialists'

exploitation of the Third World and has

no interest in revolution. There is an

analogous phenomenon in the United

$tates. Hundreds of thousands of people

marched against the war before it started

and during the first few weeks of war;

far fewer have marched since George

Bush announced "mission accomplished"

and guerrilla warfare intensified.

The flabbiness of the imperialist-

country petty bourgeoisie makes it

imperative for proletarian internationalists

to speak out boldly and not worry about

alienating the imperialist-country majority.

The imperialists have picked up a rock

and dropped it on their own feet in Iraq,

Afghanistan, the Philippines, and the other

places they've invaded as part of the

"war on terrorism." Or, to mix in another

Marxist metaphor, the imperialists have

created their own gravediggers--

resistance fighters in Iraq and elsewhere.

We can see from the current situation in

England and the situation in Amerika

during the Vietnam War that the

tremendous sacrifices of oppressed

peoples fighting for their liberation can

create revolutionary opportunities in the

imperialist countries.

We cannot waste these hard-won

opportunities by handing them to the

Democrats or other reformers who may

oppose a particular policy but are basically

on board with imperialism. A determined

proletarian minority must form its own

pole, fly its own banner and give the petty-

bourgeoisie another option to vacillate

toward.

Mounting U$ casualties

scare off allies

Notes:

1. The Boston Globe, 15 Nov 2003;

Associated Press, 7 Nov 2003; MIM

Notes 291, 15 Nov 2003; USA Today, 13

Nov 2003.

2. Associated Press, 14 Nov 2003.

3. The McLaughlin Group, 7 Nov 2003;

Washington Post, 17 Nov 2003.

Number of occupying troops killed in recent imperialist wars of aggression

Number of

Population

occupying

Casualty

Country

(millions)

troops

troops killed

rate

Iraq (2003)

131,000

397

0.18

Afghanistan

(1980)

80,000

1484

1.43

South Vietnam

(1965)

185,000

1800

0.65

South Vietnam

(1961-1964)

13,4005

392

0.49

1. Casualties per thousand troops, per million population, per year.
2. U$ troops alone; "coalition partners" not included. Casualties as of 19:30 EST 13 Nov 2003.
3. This refers to the first full year of the social-imperialist Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan.
4. Considering Vietnam as a whole (population: 37 million), the casualty rates in 1965 and 1961-1964 were
0.26 and 0.19, respectively.
5. Averaged over the four-year period.
Sources: Reuters, 13 Nov 2003; Marilyn Young, The Vietnam Wars, New York: HarperCollins, 1991;
www.hunterthinks.com.

"In wars of national liberation

patriotism is applied

internationalism."

--Quotations of Chairman Mao,

chapter 18 or "The Role of the Chinese

Communist Party in the National War,"

October 1938, Selected Works, Vol. II,

p. 196.

There are three reasons that nationalism

still plays a progressive role in the world

in oppressed nations:

(1) super-exploitation,

(2) semi-feudalism,

(3) uniting migrants with the super-

exploited.

When a country is super-exploited by

another through a puppet comprador-

lackey regime, the workers toil more

exploited than ever before, because

fascist regimes coerce the workers to

work for the imperialist country masters

for a pittance compared with the legal

wages in the imperialist countries.

That is in Lenin already.

It is also in Lenin, Stalin (and even

Trotsky counter to today's popular myths)

and others in the 1920s that nationalism

may play a positive role in uniting capitalist

classes and workers against semi-

feudalism. Often it is the imperialists

propping up semi-feudalism and it is the

nationalist masses who want to build their

countries at least in a capitalist way (see

sidebar quote from the COMINTERN).

Finally, nationalism plays a progressive

role when it causes people located inside

4. Reuters, 12 Nov 2003.

5. This is one reason we continue to

support national liberation struggles, as

opposed to recent intellectual trends that

dismiss nation-states as irrelevant. We

recognize that no nation can be

completely liberated from imperialism--

to say nothing of achieving

the imperialist countries to unite with the

people of their native lands that are still

super-exploited.

These three reasons are also the

economic content of principal

contradiction in the world today --the

struggle of the oppressed nations against

imperialism.

When nationalism has no role to play

in uniting people against backward forms

of exploitation, nationalism is reactionary.

That includes all imperialist country cases

of nationalism. The imperialists already

have the most advanced economic system

and their nationalism does not drive their

system forward to socialism. Quite the

opposite, imperialist country nationalism

supports the backwardness of the Third

World and brings about endless war.

Nationalism is also reactionary when

the target is other oppressed nations. The

only revolutionary nationalism targets

imperialism as the enemy and no

oppressed nations.

Continued from page 1...

communism--while encircled by

imperialist countries. But the seizure of

state power gives the proletariat the

ability to do great things for the people in

those countries and support the struggle

of people in others. It also removes those

countries from the imperialists' support

base.

Comintern on

national

liberation

In the colonial countries with an

oppressed native peasant population the

national liberation movement is composed

either of the entire population, as for

example in Turkey, in which case the

struggle of the oppressed peasantry

against the landlords inevitably begins