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MIM Notes 308 · October 1-14, 2004 · Page 1

MIM Notes

Oct. 1-14 2004, Nº 308

The Official Newsletter of the Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM)

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PEOPLE FROM

EX-FASCIST

COUNTRIES

CRITICIZE

UNITED $TATES

NEW YORK CITY

August 31

New York City police "just plucked him

out of the crowd," said an older German

man of a young Black man carried away

by police while marching near Union

Square. The German was in Union

Square filming the demonstrations against

the Republican National Convention.

"It's just like it was in my country before

the war," he said; then adding, "I'm from

Germany."

Numerous people such as this German

stopped by to talk to MIM with the hope

that MIM would know what to do about

such an arrest or had further information.

Others stopped by to tell MIM what they

knew. We told the German comrade that

the U.$. people were acting "scared" and

"stupid" and he agreed.

Demonstrators all over the city were

comparing notes and using text messages

to figure out what was happening and

every time MIM picked up an extra flyer

with a schedule on it, another

demonstrator wanted to take our copy of

it.

Some New Yorkers hit back hard. A

judge ordered a mass release of protestors

and massive fines for detaining them.(1)

(It remains to be seen how that all works

out.) Even the New York Times

recognized that what police were doing

is "preventive detention."

HOW BU$H

DE-STABILIZED

THE WHOLE

WORLD

"States that harbor terror, as the

President has made clear, will be held

accountable."

--White House Press Secretary

Scott McClellan September 16 2003 (1)

"Nations that continue to support

terrorism, continue to harbor terrorist

groups will be considered hostile."

--State Department spokesman

Richard Boucher October 3 2001 (2)

"With respect to the war on terrorism

across the globe, the task is to see that

terrorist networks are rooted out, and

that the countries that harbor terrorists

no longer harbor terrorist networks."

--Secretary of Defense Donald

Rumsfeld," January 8 2002 (3)

"The United States draws no

distinction between the terrorists and

the regimes that feed, train, supply and

harbor them."

--Condoleeza Rice, Jan. 31 2002 (4)

After promising to "roll back" and

"destroy" regimes that "harbor terrorists"

such as the Taliban regime in Afghanistan,

the Bush administration now condemns

terrorism in Russia's Beslan, the actions

that killed more than 326 people,

approximately half children at a school.

At the same time, the United $tates and

England called on Putin to negotiate with

the "terrorists."

According to Russian President Putin,

the United $tates and England are

harboring terrorists. Putin has asked for

extradition of the "terrorists" Akhmed

The "land of the free" and the "home

of the brave" ate up George Bush's

words backing his pre-emptive strike on

Iraq. Survey tested words appeared in

his prime-time television speech

accepting the nomination of the

Republican Party for president:

"BUSH: Do I forget the lessons of

September 11th and take the word of a

madman...

"AUDIENCE: No.

"BUSH: ... or do I take action to defend

our country? Faced with that choice, I

will defend America every time."

There are a lot of "madmen" in this

world. There can be continuous war if

no one has the courage to wait for the

perceived enemy to attack. It takes even

more courage to admit one's own actions

has provoked others to want to attack.

The Amerikans are cowardly types

who aided I$rael with military and

This demonstrator at the

Republican National

Convention in New York

City 2004 got it right. The

"cowardly lion" is from a

children's story, the "Wizard

of Oz." This Cowardly Lion

features U$ Secretary of

"Defense" Don Rumsfeld's

face.

Arrests at the Republican National Convention

Bu$h: Cowardly leader

of cowardly country

financial aid to

attack Arabs

and then

attacked Iraq

with a pre-

emptive strike.

As usual, they

bomb from the

air tens of

thousands of

feet up and then consider themselves

honorable warriors.

The leaders of Amerika are as cowardly

as the Amerikan population. It takes

courage to wait for a war instead of

launching bombs and it takes courage to

protect civil liberties in a capitalist country

that boasts day-and-night about those

liberties. The reason Kerry co-wrote the

"Patriot Act" and Bush signed it and both

endorsed the war on Iraq is the same

underlying cowardice of the Amerikan

population.

Note:http://www.cnn.com/2004/

ALLPOLITICS/09/02/

gop.bush.transcript/index.html

Continued on page 7...

Continued on page 4...

Inside: The national question

in the ex-Soviet bloc

The massacre of schoolchildren in Beslan highlights the bloody inter-ethnic

strife that has blossomed with the rise of Liberal capitalism in eastern Europe.

As proletarian internationalists, we detest both great-Russian chauvinism and

the kind of narrow nationalism that pits proletarians against other proletarians.

We develop these points and others in a series of articles in this issue.

* How Bu$h de-stabilized the world (p.1)

* Stalin and Chechens topic comes up on U.$. streets (p. 4)

* Putin admits he cannot police borders (p. 5)

* Straight talk on the Russian elite (p.5)

* Yes, there were Nazi collaborators (p.6)

MIM Notes 308 · October 1-14, f2004 · 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

MIM Notes

The Official Newsletter of The Maoist Internationalist Movement

ISSN 1540-8817

MIM Notes is the bi-weekly newsletter of the Maoist Internationalist Movement. MIM

Notes is the official Party voice; more complete statements are published in our journal,
MIM Theory. Material in MIM Notes is the Party's position unless noted. MIM Notes
accepts submissions and critiques from anyone. The editors reserve the right to edit
submissions unless permission is specifically denied by the author; submissions are
published anonymously unless authors insist on identification (prisoners are never
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comrades in order to avoid the state surveillance and repression that have historically
been directed at communist parties and anti-imperialist movements. MCs, MIM comrades,
are members of the Party. The Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League (RAIL) is an anti-
imperialist mass organization led by MIM (RCs are RAIL Comrades). MIM's ten-point
program is available to anyone who sends in a SASE.

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Internationalism is the ethical belief or

scientific approach in which peoples of

different nations are held to be or

assumed to be equal. Internationalism is

opposed to racism and national

chauvinism.

We Maoists believe the nationalism of

nations experiencing oppression of

imperialism is "applied internationalism."

We oppose nationalism of oppressed

nations directed at other oppressed

nations, because the economic content of

such nationalism is intra-proletarian

conflict. We seek a united front of

oppressed nations led by the international

proletariat against imperialism.

Today, there are two kinds of

internationalism, bourgeois

internationalism and proletarian

internationalism. In the bourgeois

internationalist view, peoples of all

countries should have a chance to become

exploiters. In the proletarian

internationalist view, exploitation

inevitably leads to violent conflict, so

peace amongst nations depends on a

global view not defending private property.

"I must argue, not from the point of

view of `my' country (for that is the

argument of a wretched, stupid, petty-

bourgeois nationalist who does not realize

that he is only a plaything in the hands of

the imperialist bourgeoisie), but from the

point of view of my share in the

preparation, in the propaganda, and in the

acceleration of the world proletarian

revolution. That is what internationalism

means, and that is the duty of the

internationalist, of the revolutionary

worker, of the genuine Socialist."

--V. I. Lenin, "What Is

Internationalism?" The Proletarian

Revolution and the Renegade Kautsky

(Peking: Foreign Language Press, 1965),

p. 80.

"The Communists are distinguished

from the other working-class parties by

this only: 1. In the national struggles of

the proletarians of the different countries,

they point out and bring to the front the

common interests of the entire proletariat,

independently of all nationality. 2. In the

various stages of development which the

struggle of the working class against the

bourgeiosie has to pass through, they

always and everywhere represent the

interests of the movement as a whole."

--Karl Marx, "Communist Manifesto,"

section II "Proletarians and Communists"

"There is one, and only one, kind of real

internationalism, and that is -- working

whole- heartedly for the development of

the revolutionary movement and the

revolutionary struggle in one's own

country, and supporting (by propaganda,

sympathy, and material aid) this struggle,

this, and only this, line, in every country

without exception."

--V.I. Lenin, about World War I in "The

Tasks of the Proletariat in Our

Revolution"

What is the

dictatorship of the

proletariat?

The proletariat is the group of people

who are propertyless and thus have

"nothing to lose but their chains." The

proletariat is the least conservative

element of society. The bourgeoisie is the

class of people who appropriate the labor

of wage workers through their control of

the means of production.

Dictatorship is organized force.

According to Marxism, all governments

are dictatorships. When classes are

abolished, it may be possible to have no

dictatorships because governments will

be abolished and replaced by voluntary

cooperation. We communists admit to

having dictatorship governments until we

achieve our goal of classlessness. It's a

matter of accountability.

Dictatorship of the proletariat is the

government of socialism. Dictatorship of

the bourgeoisie is the government of

capitalism.

Concretely and with reference to North

Amerikan ideas, dictatorship of the

proletariat is government implementation

of "survival rights" above "property

rights."

The realization that the right to life itself

can not be negotiable favors the

proletariat. Along with that realization

comes the notion that a non-negotiable

"right" implies the use of force to protect

it from those who profit abusing those so-

called rights. The use of force or law

backed by force (government) to feed,

clothe, shelter and otherwise protect

survival rights is dictatorship of the

proletariat.

The dictatorship of the proletariat is the

most central question of socialism. We

do not water it down or evade it. The

whole Cultural Revolution in China (1966-

1976) was about how to maintain and

strengthen the dictatorship of the

proletariat so that it would not be

corrupted. We communists are not

Liberal. We do not tolerate those who put

profit or such goals above survival rights.

We favor repression or control of such

people until the causes of their twisted

thought have been removed and

bourgeois thought has become completely

impossible to the whole people. That will

only happen under advanced stages of

communism.

Because there is no exploited white

working class in North Amerika, MIM

favors the joint dictatorship of the

proletariat of the oppressed nations

(JDPON). This amounts to putting u.$.

imperialism into receivership by

something like a proletarian United

Nations. The whole dictatorship of the

proletariat idea or its current form required

as JDPON is a strategy for advance from

capitalism toward communism, in which

dictatorship is only a stage existing until

certain tasks eliminating classes are done.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is internationalism?

MIM Notes 308 · October 1-14, 2004 · Page 3

As knowledge of the obesity epidemic

and its causes improves, the British public

is calling for a ban of junk food ads during

children's TV programs. 76% of the

British people polled said they favored the

banning idea.

"A third of those questioned felt parents

who consistently failed to provide their

children with a healthy diet should

ultimately face prosecution." MIM would

agree and that is just another reason we

Brits want junk food ads banned

are not big fans of leaving all parenting

choices to two individuals who may be

quite erratic.

MIM has always said that capitalism

is an indiscriminate motivator. From

MIM's point of view, the tobacco

situation is similar and involves a class

struggle. The class struggle is to curtail

the tobacco industry for the benefit of

the people. The battle against tobacco

ads aimed at children appears won to

some substantial degree, but there is

always another battle to win thanks to

capitalism.

It is important to admit that the abilities

to trade in slaves, sell substances with

nicotine and bombard children with

advertisements are examples of a kind of

"freedom." The fact that it is necessary

to take away such freedoms for the well-

being of the proletariat is why we call our

proposed form of government

"dictatorship of the proletariat."

Eventually in the advanced stages of

communism of the future, the entire

population will give up any idea of trading

in slaves, manufacturing cigarettes or

pushing potato chips on television and then

dictatorship of the proletariat won't be

necessary anymore.

Note:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/

3638714.stm

Dictatorship of the proletariat in

education needed

Cobb County of Georgia faces a lawsuit

for putting stickers in textbooks that say

Darwin's theory of evolution is "`a theory

not a fact'" and should be "`critically

considered.'"(1) Many of the same

reactionaries in favor of creationism

would also jump up and attack Stalin for

taking a stand in controversies engaging

Lysenko in biology. We would point out

that Lysenko was a lot closer to being

right than these creationists in the United

Creationist Cobb County Georgia labors in medieval times

$tates, for those who think science is

better off in Amerika than under Soviet

dictatorship.

The many disputes about creationism

in the United $tates and the regular

political battles over research funding

demonstrate that science production is

political. Ultimately what children learn

in school depends on what political

authority believes. Instead of denying this

the way most Amerikans do, we Maoists

accept the truth and struggle to be sure

that our politics does the most to promote

science and the specific science that is

correct. Of course we will err sometimes

but that is no reason to confuse religion

and science.

As of September 8 2004, reactionaries

are still in control of Cobb County

education. The web page for the school

board highlights the issue by giving

creationism and evolution equal footing.(2)

For MIM this is a clear-cut issue of the

dictatorship of the proletariat. The

"freedom" to preach creationism in school

has to be smashed. We also believe that

any parent who leaves his/her child

ignorant of sex education should face

attempted murder charges if that child

subsequently has asexually transmitted

disease. The parents' "right" to their

spiritual beliefs is not higher than the right

of people to survive or have a proper

education. Nor is there a right to spread

STDs in the name of the Bible.

Notes:

1. New York Times 7April2004, p. a 15.

2. http://www.cobb.k12.ga.us/news/

originpolicy.htm.

Lobbyists in

Washington DC spent

over $1 billion in the

last six months of 2003

alone

In such an atmosphere, it is inevitable

that the influence of corporations with

concentrated economic power increases.

The sooner we get used to this fact, the

sooner we realize that the choice is not

between a Naderite "take America back"

fantasy of a small business world and

imperialism, but between the

concentrated power of capitalist

imperialism and the concentrated power

of socialism.

Note:

USA Today 2June2004, p. 6a.

When we tell the Liberals there has to

be a party or body of scientists deciding

what is good or bad for society in terms

of art and music, they say, "who are you

to decide?" We should throw back in their

face, "who are you to decide that mega-

corporations should decide?" The whole

question of "totalitarianism" is based on

an illusion that someone is not deciding

currently.

Advertising works, which is why

corporations spend billions each year on

it. If advertising did not work, our critics

might have a point, but billions of dollars

spent prove otherwise. Advertising is also

the reason that looks are crucially

important in establishing Britney Spears,

Mariah Carey, Beyonce etc.

It is not true that consumers assess the

world and then come up with their

choices. Consumers do not wander from

business establishment to business

establishment analyzing how products are

produced and what is available. We are

also convinced the consumers would

rather that the government regulate foods

and drugs--do an analysis of what is in

these drugs and under what conditions

food and drugs are produced. Anyone who

assumes that consumers really want to

do the analysis of the products they buy

themselves is badly deluded, probably a

professional bourgeois economist.

Consumers go to a store and based on

prior ads they buy what is available. It is

not an arbitrary process covering all the

bases. Walmart stores are big but not so

big as to allow every commodity anyone

anywhere could think of producing. A few

corporations decide on the vast majority

of merchandise.

Mega-corporations choose and then

spend money on ads. If a product makes

less profit than others, the mega-

corporation simply stops selling it. They

make the choices. That is the truth even

if the commodity sold is completely

harmful as with cigarettes or junk food.

Once we get over our "free will"

illusions and realize that people by their

millions have been brainwashed into

smoking and getting fat, we can start to

debate the topic correctly. When it

comes to the "who are you to decide"

question, MIM is better to decide than

the mega-corporations, because mega-

corporations profit from their products

and are not objective about them as a

result. Both MIM and mega-corporations

will make mistakes in what is good for

consumers, but when something harmful

like cigarettes come along, MIM has no

vested interest in lying in their defense.

We also have no vested interest in

spreading ads for potato chips. Even if it

is not profitable, MIM in power can

propagate a product that substitutes for

cigarettes while not harming the public.

Such did not happen under capitalism for

decades until doctors starting getting

tougher on their patients and ordering this

and that type of therapy.

That is an example why MIM is better

than the mega-corporations in deciding

"what" to produce in the first place. Their

goal is to make profit which simply

depends on what is easily available and

easy to advertise. The goals of the

Who are you to decide what food to eat, what art to ban?

international proletariat include a

sustainable environment, enough food to

eat, adequate shelter, clothing to wear and

ever-improving medical science.

Who are we to decide? Better us than

Frito-Lay or R.J. Reynolds or Playboy

Magazine. People in the wealthiest

capitalist countries are the most

brainwashed because they think they are

not. Anyone who has thought for five

seconds about advertising's effects on

children knows there is a Western form

of brainwashing. It would be better that

MIM does the brainwashing.

GOD?

WHO MADE YOU

Better us than Frito-Lay or

R.J. Reynolds or Playboy

Magazine.

MIM Notes 308 · October 1-14, f2004 · Page 4

Zakayev (asylum in England) and Ilyas

Akhmadov (asylum in the United

$tates).(5) By Bush's logic, Putin would

also be right to attack the United $tates

and England for giving political asylum to

aides to the "terrorist" leaders.

Putin is testing whether the West sees

him as a co-imperialist or not. The

Washington Post has been quite critical

lately. The New York Times and Boston

Globe are too, to a lesser degree. The

Boston Globe defended Aslan

Maskhadov,(6) now deemed a "terrorist"

by Putin. In the same editorial the Boston

Globe gave Putin no credit for his election

victory--this coming from the country

with the banana republic election in Florida

2000.

So far the English imperialists are

verbally backing Putin's right to pre-

emptive strikes against terrorists, but they

are saying they need evidence to extradite

the supposed Chechen terrorist. It

reminds us of what the Taliban said about

extraditing Osama Bin Laden.

Although Russian imperialism holds no

promise for the Russian people, it can

have the effect of holding up a mirror to

the Amerikan people and this helps those

of us trying to spread internationalism a

little bit here. At the same time, it may

mean that Putin will copy Bush and start

dropping bombs on Georgia or other

neighbors.

Macedonia is another place that has

jumped in on the Bush logic with

disastrous consequences. "Macedonian

police gunned down seven innocent

immigrants, then contended that they

were terrorists, in a killing staged to show

they were participating in the US-led

campaign against terrorism."(7) The

police smuggled the seven Pakistanis into

Macedonia from Bulgaria and then killed

them in 2002--all in an attempt to please

Bu$h.

Notes:
1. http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/
2003/09/20 030916-6.html
2. http://telaviv.usembassy.gov/publish/peace/
archive s/2001/october/100411.html
3. http://islamabad.usembassy.gov/
wwwh02011004.html
4. http://usembassy- australia.state.gov/hyper/
2002/0131/epf407.htm
5. http://www.guardian.co.uk/russia/article/
0,2763,13 01219,00.html
6. "Putin's Potemkin Election," Boston Sunday
Globe 14Mar2004, p. h10.
7. Boston Globe 1May2004, p. a8.

HOW BU$H DE-STABILIZED THE

WHOLE WORLD

Continued from page 1...

Ironically, at both the Democratic

National Convention and the Republican

National Convention, and before the

massacre of schoolchildren at Beslan,

many topics came up, but one was the

Chechens. One persyn said that Stalin's

deportation of the Chechens during World

War II was a "human rights violation."

We pointed out to our critic that our

sister party the Russian Maoist Party was

the only one doing anything to oppose the

war on the Chechens. Few other parties

would get out of step with Russian

nationalism; even though Lenin is still

regarded as the greatest Russian leader

of recent times and he called Russia

imperialist at a time when Russia was less

powerful than today.

We should also say that deportations in

Stalin's day were rough affairs. Both

supplies and train power were in short

supply as the battle against the Nazis

raged. Some people deported to new

places died in the difficulties they faced.

If it had been any other time but World

War II, these deaths would have stood

out more. Overemphasizing these deaths

is a way of whitewashing Hitler and

blaming the Russians for their relative

backwardness, which is why even some

families deported did not disagree or at

least their children or grandchildren came

to understand.

According to writers on the editorial

page of the Boston Globe, 25 or 30% of

the Chechens died in the deportation by

Stalin, "the highest of any of the nations

deported under Stalin."(1) This is likely

an irresponsible charge. MIM has seen

no evidence for it. We have seen a lot of

evidence that each nationality has its

writers who think their particular

nationality sacrificed or suffered the most

under Stalin. Such stories sell well in the

West.

That is not to mention another important

consideration: the vast majority of Stalin's

purges and the Chechen deportation

happened in the midst of the worst single

war in world history. According to some

English phony communists, "In 1940 a

nationalist revolt broke out which climaxed

in 1942, with the Nazi army just 300 miles

away. Chechen nationalist leaders Hassan

Israilov and Mairbek Sheripov issued an

appeal declaring that the Nazis would be

welcomed as guests, providing, of course,

they were prepared to support

Chechnya's independence."(2)

Islamics aimed at a republic of some

small administrative units that would be

called "counties" in the United $tates

today. Like many other county-sized

countries or provinces in the ex-Soviet

bloc, some Chechens have the illusion that

they could have established a country

independent of both the Soviet Union and

Germany during World War II. That is

something that not even Poland with its

tens of millions was able to do. Like the

other Nazi collaborators, some Chechens

today are still talking about how the 1940

insurrection occurred while Stalin and

Hitler had a pact; although it is very clear

that the Chechen insurrection in 1940

affected Soviet geopolitical interests

negatively. That's not to mention the 1942

insurrection of Chechens followed by the

1943-4 deportation of six nationalities in

the region. Leaders who cannot

understand how the 1940 insurrection

adversely affected Soviet interests via the

Germans only demonstrate their

incompetence to offer political leadership.

Those Chechen leaders and their Liberal

allies talking about this to this day

demonstrate an unrealistic attitude akin

to having one's head in the sand.

For MIM, the failure to understand Nazi

goals and ideology during World War II

is the tell-tale sign of an ignorant and

provincialist outlook. Had the many

ethnicities won fabulous success in their

insurrections in the Caucasus or Eastern

Europe, the Nazis would have rolled over

them and exterminated them before these

county-sized units would have had time

to put up anti-Soviet statues glorifying

their war heroes. Now all these ethnicities

are in an endless cycle of revenge and

while we side with them against Russia,

we at MIM are not going to encourage a

misreading of Nazi history to do it.

We do the same thing in the United

$tates. We support county-sized units--

many First Nations for instance--in their

national struggles against U.$.

imperialism. Their struggle is realistic

because there are many other nations

oppressed by imperialism who are their

objective allies. We do not support First

Nations in looking down on Blacks or in

supporting imperialism. That's how the

struggle in the United $tates is completely

different than when Nazis are rampaging

through Europe.

Countless political leaders of the

countries and provinces squeezed

between Berlin and Moscow never

accounted for the global forces at work

and thereby failed their peoples entirely.

Today they have to fight battles against

Nazi statues--an indication of just how

poor the nationalist leadership of these

county-sized units was during World War

II. Instead of refighting the battles of

failed political leaders during World War

II, the countries and provinces between

Berlin and Moscow today should disown

the failed leaders of the past, celebrate

the Chechens and others who fought the

Nazis and move on. Russia is in peacetime

in 2004, so it's hard to imagine why these

ethnic cleansings still go on. As hard as it

is to imagine, we do have to account for

it.

In the case of Chechens and Ingushes,

Khruschev let them back into the

Caucasus after their deportation to

Central Asia. This supposedly closes the

case on Stalin's supposed criminal nature.

Yet, today we see Chechens and Ingushes

fighting neighbors they did not used to

have thanks to Stalin's deportation. We

do not know if the Chechens are right

that Putin is responsible for a six digit

figure of deaths in Chechnya. Khruschev

let the Chechens back in, but now the

political children of Khruschev and the

Russian partners of Bush in the "war on

terrorism" have leveled Grozny. The

evidence for that is indisputable--with

pictures in all the Western papers. MIM

fails to see much humynitarianism in

letting the Chechens and Ingushes come

back just to fight more. The leaders since

Stalin either did not know what they were

doing in the relation of class and national

forces or they wanted to stir up ethnic

fighting to generate Liberal capitalism.

In the 1920s, the Chechens waged

Holy Wars.(3) A scene in the movie

"Reds" alludes to such battles after 1917

and insinuates that the Bolsheviks allied

with Islamic sentiments for Holy War in

some circumstances to defeat the Whites.

The United $tates was all in favor of

Islamic holy wars until the collapse of the

Soviet Union. Now with the "war on

terror," the West claims to be against jihad

interpreted as "terrorism." How the unity

of the United $tates and Russia against

the world's oppressed plays out remains

to be seen.

The whole anti-Stalin story falls apart

when we ask the critics what they would

have done in Stalin's place. Hitler

marched eastward and found a "fifth

column" to help him among disgruntled

peoples of the Soviet Union.

In Yugoslavia, the Pope sanctioned

genocide against the Serbs during World

War II. Of course the Jews and Gypsies

suffered genocide as well. In Hungary, a

fifth column arose to support Hitler.

The road of Lenin and Stalin had

brought great progress to the Soviet

Union, but Stalin knew that he was not

walking on water. There would be at least

some of what happened in Yugoslavia,

Hungary, Norway and France happening

in the Soviet Union too--a fifth column

supporting Hitler. Stalin's critics never

account for that and that is why they

always end up supporting worse violations

of humyn-rights than what Stalin did.

The point is that on almost every stop

along the way in his march eastward to

Stalingrad, Hitler found some support

from the ignorant and twisted. These

backward elements took advantage of

Hitler's appearance to slaughter

neighbors they deemed ethnically inferior.

Such was possible because the

administrative units corresponded to a time

On the streets:

Chechens come up in discussion

Continued on page 6...

MIM Notes 308 · October 1-14, 2004 · Page 5

"`As of now (and, remember, 13 years

have elapsed since the collapse of the

Soviet system!), 38 per cent of the current

elite are alumni of the former Soviet

nomenklatura. In the regions, this figure

is as high as 61 per cent,' says Olga

Kryshtanovskaya, head of the Center for

the Study of Elites of the Institute of

Sociology of the Russian Academy of

Sciences." (1)

MIM also came across a World Bank

study of the actual oligarchs controlling

oil, gas and other major industries

privatized. The names that came up from

the World Bank are Deripaska,

Abramovich, Kadannikov, Mordashov,

Potanin, Prokhorov, Alekperov, Maganov,

Kukura, Abramov, Popov, Melnichenko,

Pumpiansky, Makhmudov, Kazitzin,

Bodanov, Khodorkovsky, Lebedev, Lisin,

Zuzin, Smushkin, Zingarevich, Rashnikov,

Vekselberg, Balaeskul, Blavatnik,

Bendukidze, Fridman, Khan, Tahaudinov,

Evtushenkov, Novitsky, Goncharuk,

Plastinin & Dubinin. Together they have

1.44 million employees.

The 23 individuals or groups that these

names are associated with have control

of over one third of industrial sales in

Russia. The federal government has

another 20 percent of industrial sales in

business it is connected with.(2) Small and

medium size businesses account for the

rest--less than half of industrial sales.

In any case, by our very inexact

method of looking at the names, we would

say less than half the oligarchs are Jews.

That's not to mention the government

under Russian control. Hence, imagining

some Russian national struggle that would

simultaneously solve the class question

in Russia is completely off-base. Because

of a few Jewish names in the oligarchy,

some minority of Russians has continued

in the Brezhnev social-fascist tradition of

narrow nationalist resentment. The

difference between Brezhnev's day and

today is that today the various kooky

nationalisms are all in the open.

Worst of all are the many people who

used to be supporters of Gorbachev or

Yeltsin and who now sing an anti-Semitic

song. People who wanted Liberal

capitalism should not be complaining now

about the Jews in the oligarchy.

Capitalism combined with attacks on the

Jews is a formula for fascism.

It is important to understand that 80%

of Russians oppose the privatization of

assets of the Soviet Union--or at least

the way that it happened. 43% of

Russians as of 2003 want another

Bolshevik Revolution;(3) though we have

to admit that the energy, youth and vitality

needed for a revolutionary movement is

not there yet. As a result, resentment

regarding privatization and the economic

destruction of the Soviet Union planned

by the CIA and implemented by the

oligarchs has bubbled up as anti-Semitism.

Some Russians have gone so far as to

become confused about the national

question by distinguishing between

Russian-speaking Jews and other

Russians.

According to Stalin in his essays on the

national question, a nation has a contiguous

territory, economy, language and culture.

Russian Jews do not deprive other

Russians of their language or territory and

they share the same economy and culture

as Russians. That should make it clear

that seeing Russians as an oppressed

nation oppressed by Jews is not what

Stalin had in mind.

There is also no race question. Jews

are not a race to begin with, but if the

question is to what extent discrimination

occurs, then again the Jews do not belong

in that discussion either. Jews do not

control the Russian government or have

sufficient power to discriminate against

Russians.

There are many situations in the world

where a social minority does

disproportionately well in business. In

Marxism we look at the national and race

questions, but we focus our fire where

conflict can lead to progress. In those

situations where a national struggle can

advance the mode of production

simultaneously, we favor national struggle.

That tends to be the case of all peoples in

non-imperialist countries facing Western

super-exploitation.

In Russia today, the failure of

Khruschev-Brezhnev revisionism has led

to various crackpot ideologies to fill in

where Marxism supposedly failed.

According to the various narrow

nationalist and racist ideologies circulating,

last week it would be the Jews. This week

it is the Chechens. The Ingushes are

probably next.(4) These ideas take

advantage of feudal provincialism that

leads to intra-proletarian strife in Eastern

Europe and the former Soviet Union. In

other cases, the ethnicities are involved

in intra-bourgeois strife that benefits one

group of capitalists over another.

As far as the international proletariat is

concerned, we do not have a socialist

government in Russia or Chechnya or

anywhere else in the former Soviet Union

or Eastern Europe. Putin and nationalist

Russia