*----------------------------------------------------------* | | | x x x x x x x xx xxx xxx xxx | | xx xx x xx xx xx x x x x x x Issue #13 | | x x x x x x x x xx x x x xx xxx | | x x x x x x x x x x x x 07/06/85 | | x x x x x x x xx x xxx xxx | | | |----------------------------------------------------------| | Newspaper of the Maoist Internationalist Movement | *----------------------------------------------------------* U.S. SPONSORS MID-EAST TERROR SHIITE SEARCH FOR JUSTICE RILES U.S. The Mid-East continues its role as U.S. dumping ground for sanctimonious drivel about "terrorism." The U.S. admits that its police-dog Israel violated Geneva Conventions by holding 766 Shiites within its own borders since its invasion of Lebanon in the summer of 1982. (USA Today, 6/19/85, 4a) Yet, while Reagan threatened to kill the so-called terrorists and pushed a boycott of airports in Athens and Beirut, he did nothing of the sort to pressure Israel. Indeed, the U.S. gave political and military support to the last invasion of Lebanon by Israel, which by conservative estimates took the lives of over 20,000 Lebanese and Palestinians. (See "The U.S. and Lebanon" on the MIM lit. list.) For this, Israel received an increase in its military and economic aid from the U.S., which received Israel's services in installing a new minority Christian government favorable to U.S. interests. According to Joel Marcus who writes for the Haaretz, "the United States does things for us in all fields and, without understatement, one could even say that the regular and special U.S. aid is what stands between us and total bankruptcy." (New York Times, 6/22/85, 5) Israel and Egypt are the US's top recipients of aid, but the U.S. does nothing with this influence to stop the real terrorism of Israel and the sell-out Arab governments. Instead, the American media is forced to create superficial denunciations of the terrorists [read the other guy] who have only managed to perpetrate a tiny fraction of the organized murder that the U.S. and its allies does. According to USA Today, the average terrorist is a "man in his early 20s, single, a commercial failure, impulsive, disorganized and poorly educated," (USA Today, 6/24/85, 4a) but the real terrorists are in their 60s and up, married, filthy rich, repressive, organized with millions of hired mercenaries and formally educated in media hype and mystification--often taking their cues from Hollywood. The black-out of international news from any viewpoint not approved by the U.S. Government in the U.S. meant that many Americans found out about the U.S. sponsored Israeli occupation and hostage-taking only because of the hijacking. It even came to light during the hijacking that Israel continues to take Lebanese hostages in the part of Lebanon that it still occupies. 19 Shiites were taken on June 18th. (New York Times, 6/19/85, a15) Indeed, the U.S. media suddenly had to explain the hostages' views of the more substantial roots of the hijacking problem. According to one hostage, most of the hostages gained "profound sympathy" for their captors. One said, "let's face it, if someone captured my wife and children and had them across that border, I also would be taking drastic actions and doing things against my principles to secure their freedom." The U.S. media explained this away with the aid of psychologists' subjectivist mish-mash. References to the Stockholm Syndrome of hostages, desires to comfort family members etc. were all invoked without considering for a moment whether the Shiite cause is a just one. The psychologists even said that the supposed stress defense mechanisms last beyond the hostage-taking itself. No doubt one hostage's sympathy for the Shiite line, "Israel, free my people" will be dubbed as deviant by our imperialist mouthpiece shrinks. SOUTH AFRICA CONTINUES AGGRESSION ABROAD When they attacked U.S. multinational corporation Gulf Oil in a northern enclave of Angola called Cabinda that does not even border South Africa, the apartheid military forces made a mistake. They were caught by the Angolan military in May. South Africa attempts to destabilize its Black-ruled neighbors in a desperate effort to stave off the day when South Africa too will be decolonized. However, this time U.S. could cover up no longer. The American ambassador was called home for consultations. Meanwhile attacks in Mozambique and Botswana continued. An apartheid raid killed at least 12 on June 14th in Botswana. In Angola South Africa claimed success for a raid killing 45 people on June 29th. South Africa colonizes Namibia which is a country bordering South Africa and Angola. The white settler regime does not even claim to be in pursuit of rebels working to overthrow apartheid. The casualties in Angola are said to be Namibians working from bases there to overthrow the apartheid puppet regime in occupied Namibia. Meanwhile, the press greeted a reshuffling of the puppet regime in Namibia by South African Prime Minister Botha. "Namibia Gets Taste of Freedom." (USA Today, 6/18/85, 5a) No government recognizes the puppet regime in Namibia. Namibian demonstrators opposed to the new regime were attacked by police the day of the reshuffling. (New York Times, 6/18/85, a3) New constitutions are popular gimmicks in South Africa these days. Police have killed over 400 Blacks in South Africa since September 1984 in rebellions against the new constitution in South Africa itself. (New York Times, 6/20/85, a7) CONGRESS VOTES STAR WARS, NERVE GAS The House of Representatives approved $2.5 billion for Star Wars defense work in 1986. The Senate had already approved $3 billion. (New York Times, 6/21/85, 1) Star Wars is an effort to make possible a first strike against other countries without fear of nuclear retaliation. Once again the U.S. imperialists demonstrate that in war with the Soviet social-imperialists that even the only ratified "arms control" treaty--SALT I--is a scrap of paper. The Congress also approved money for nerve gas, provided Reagan could whip the Allies into line and make them store the weapons too. (New York Times, 6/20/85, a1) NEW YORK TIMES WRITER CRITICIZES JAPANESE PRESS "Journalism in Japan... has a way of appearing to be an exercise in sameness... the major newspapers look alike and read alike... Journalists organize themselves into specialized 'press clubs' that serve as information cartels." (New York Times, 6/21/85, a2) VILLAGE VOICE IS SOLD The Village Voice, owned by Rupert Murdoch since 1977, was sold to Leonard Stern, a wealthy businessman, for more than $55 million." (New York Times, 6/21/85, a1) LANDLORD GETS THIRTY DAYS IN OWN HOUSING Failing to fix rundown apartments, a landlord was sentenced to 30 days in his own buildings. A female judge ordered the slumlord to leave his Beverly Hills home. (New York Times, 6/19/85, a20) MOVE LAWSUIT The Philadelphia bombing that killed 11 people and destroyed 60 homes has finally resulted in a civl suit by a relative of a murdered MOVE member. (USA Today, 6/21/85, 3a) In other news it came out that police believed that they had washed away all flammable substances that MOVE supposedly doused its own house with before dropping the bomb on the MOVE house. Water cannons were being fired on the MOVE house but were inexplicably shut off for the bombing and the fire. IBM AND ATT COMPETE FOR TOP DOG IBM purchased 18% of MCI, a long distance telephone company in an effort to move onto ATT's turf. It is thought that telephones and computers will be increasingly connected in their usage. At the same time, ATT is looking to buy IBM's smaller competitors. (New York Times, 6/27/85, a1) The corporate merger pace continues even faster than the spread of capitalism, thus confirming Marx's insights into the process by which capital becomes ever more concentrated.