"n5667", On North Korea and Cuba you are comparing apples to oranges. This is natural, since most Americans are xenophobic and know little about the outside world and, strangely enough, even less about their own country. This is not your fault; you have been cruelly miseducated by a system that wants to keep you in the dark.

When I refer to terrorists from Cuba that the U.S. government has treated as heroes I am speaking of those who have used weapons in terrorist hijackings and in some cases have carried out murder. These are the only people who have been executed as you claim for trying to "flee Cuba".

Yes, I defend North Korea, on many levels and on similar grounds as to why I defend Cuba, but I would have to be as blind as you not to see that North Korea is both a more oppressive society than Cuba and a society that has abandoned too much of the socialist system to meet human needs in the way that Cuba has kept this a priority.

What imperialism would impose on North Korea would be much worse for the north and the entire nation than the current situation. Parallels can be seen in the former Soviet Union where in a much richer country capitalism has brought a large decrease (10 years) in the life expectancy, fratricidal wars, unemployment, etc. Capitalism in a country as poor as North Korea would be nothing short of a massive humanitarian disaster.

The U.S. has already murdered millions of Koreans in the so-called "Korean War" of the early 1950s. The military destruction of what is left of the socialist system in North Korea now would cause a massive humanitarian crisis that would engulf the entire region with refugees and war. Likewise, the days of imperialist subsidies and capitalist investment in South Korea are long-gone due to both the destruction of the Soviet Union (and thus an end to competition with the Soviet Union) and the higher price of South Korean labor that resulted from a militant union movement that exploded in the 1980s and continues to this day. That labor movement also forced some reforms on the U.S. imposed dictatorship in the South, yet there are still today prisoners in South Korean jails for owning the works of Lenin and Marx and for being leaders in the labor movement.

U.S. imperialism creates systems in its own image around the world. While giving lip service to high ideals like democracy, they destroy democracies and murder and torture revolutionary and reformist advocates of democracy everywhere they go. From the Pinochet in Chile, to Batista in Cuba, to the Samozas in Nicaragua, to the Shah of Iran, to the Taliban itself, and the list could go on and on of dictatorships established by the U.S. government abroad, U.S. imperialism is the ultimate murder incorporated.

Likewise the U.S. government fears the American working class and oppressed minorities within our borders. Our movement is weak and thus they know they do not have to apply the same level of oppression that they have to abroad, at least not yet.

This does not mean they do not use the same methods in the United States. It is only the scale that is smaller. When blacks had become so fed up with institutional racism and leaders like Martin Luther King, Malcom X, and the Black Panther Party all advocated radical solutions in fighting the problem and had a broad hearing amongst blacks, who were the most advanced political element of the working class in the United States at the time, the U.S. government through the FBI and local law enforcement agencies moved ahead with the extra-judicial executions of Martin Luther King Jr., Malcom X, Fred Hampton, and 39 other leaders of the Black Panther Party. Many other Black Panther Leaders who were not executed outside of the judicial system were framed-up and put in Prison. Some sit in prison to this day as political prisoners. Some have been completely exonerated and freed such as Jeronimo Ji Jagga Pratt who was freed after doing decades in prison under an FBI organized frame-up. Assata Shakur was able to flee to Cuba where she lives to this day in freedom but in exile.

Likewise American Indians became a threat to the U.S. capitalist class and its government in the late 1960s and 1970s when they began to speak out for their rights that were being denied in America and comparing their historical mistreatment to the Vietnamese who were being murdered in their millions. While Native Americans are numerically insignificant in terms of the American power structure, their moral strength having faced genocide from the American capitalist system caused a major problem for U.S. imperialism.

The worst happened when the FBI moved into the tiny but outspoken Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, where the FBI committed mass murder as it backed their puppet tribal chief Dick Wilson who maintained dictatorial control through electoral fraud, GOON terror, and murder. The FBI was an integral part of this terror campaign, supplying automatic weapons, intelligence, and personnel. Around 100 people were murdered by the FBI agents and Dick Wilson’s death squads, including women and children. AIM warriors, and anyone wanting to stay alive on Pine Ridge, including Leonard Peltier, became armed to defend themselves and the women and children. Two FBI agents were shot and killed when they came in shooting at the compound where Leonard Peltier, other AIM warriors, and women and children were living. Leonard Peltier is serving two life sentences, yet there is no real evidence that Leonard Peltier shot anyone.

Many union leaders have also done time in America for standing up to capitalism. With the recent death of Ronald Reagan we should remember that one of Reagan’s first acts in office was declaring the air traffic controllers strike illegal and dragging its union leaders away in chains. This was combined with his support to the right-wing Solidarnosc union movement in Poland that upon taking power instituted privatization and austerity that brought on 50 percent unemployment while also outlawing abortion that had been free on demand in the Communist system that had resulted from the military defeat of Hitler’s occupation. Meanwhile in Afghanistan Ronald Reagan was backing, with BILLIONS of dollars, Osama Bin Laden and his religious fanatics that murdered women for teaching little girls how to read and write and who threw acid in the faces of women liberated from the veil. Osama Bin Laden’s Mujahideen did this as they waged a holy war against a Soviet backed government committed to literacy and women’s rights. In Central America Reagan was backing the death squad government of El Salvador to the tune of a million dollars a day as that government murdered leftists, students, unionists, peasants, and religious leaders. Etc. etc.

Meanwhile a tiny group in the United States called MOVE was outspoken about many issues including racism and police brutality in Philadelphia. As a result many of their members were murdered and framed-up by the Philadelphia police under the racist leadership of Mayor Frank Rizzo. A young reporter who did not remain silent on this issue was Mumia Abu-Jamal. As a result he was framed-up and sits on death row to this day. For more on Mumia Abu-Jamal’s case please read: Yet Another Witness Refutes The frame-Up Of Mumia Abu-Jamal! At: twincities.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/12426

There are many other political prisoners that I have not mentioned, but I would hope that some of this helps clear up some questions regarding the supposed absence of political prisoners in the United States.