Amerika: Land of 1.8 Million Prisoners, & the  
Home of Cowardly Censorship

Prison administrators across Amerika commonly prevent 
prisoners from receiving MIM Notes or other correspondence from 
the Maoist Internationalist Movement, such as books from the Serve 
the People Free Books for Prisoners Program. Over the last year, 
MIM and prisoner allies intensified our efforts to end the censorship 
of MIM Notes and to increase prisonersÕ ability to read what they 
want and speak their minds.

Some people who hear about this censorship do not care, because 
they do not agree with the politics in MIM Notes. This is a dangerous 
position that exposes the myth of free speech in Amerika. But even 
these people should be aware that dictionaries, Spanish textbooks, 
and books on political science, history, even English literature are 
returned without reason or just thrown out.

Recently, letters to MIM-led mass organizations like United 
Struggle from Within and the PrisonersÕ Legal Clinic were censored. 
The letters discussed topics such as setting up study groups, legal 
cases and prisoner health issues. Many mailroom pigs have 
determined that letters, information on legal work, and mass 
organizations are the working of so-called Security Threat Groups 
a.k.a. Ògangs.Ó Anything STG-related, written by gangs, or bearing 
alleged gang symbols can be censored. Many prison pigs consider the 
Puerto Rican flag to be a gang symbol. This (temporarily) justifies 
censorship of MIM Notes issues with that flag. Prison officials in 
Michigan considered something in MIM Notes #189 to be a gang 
symbol. The choices: photographs from protests against Amerikan 
bombings, the revolutionary feminism symbol, the hammer and 
sickle, or art detailing a prisoner in chains.

Another common reason to censor MIM Notes is because the last 
page is in Spanish. As we reported in earlier MIM Legal Notes 
articles, prison officials are not allowed to deny material on the basis 
that it is not in English. Instead, the material is to be reviewed by a 
guard who can read the language. Hundreds of newspapers and books 
sent by MIM have been censored on the basis that no one is available 
to read the Spanish to determine its content. Once would be 
annoying. Hundreds of times show it is just pigs being pigs.

The number one justification given to censor newspapers, 
dictionaries, and the like is because they are alleged Òthreats to the 
facility.Ó The letters, books, and newspapers MIM sends to prisoners 
are not related to criminal activity. They do not violate or advocate 
the violation of prison policies, state, or federal laws. When 
challenged, no prison official has been able to argue ITAL why and 
how END MIM Notes -- or, for that matter, the dictionaries we send 
-- cause a threat to their facilities. In fact, prisoners articulate to 
MIM that learning political philosophy and organization has helped 
them to stop antagonisms between prisoners Ñ and organize against 
oppression instead.

Because these excuses for censoring MIM Notes and other 
materials such as letters and dictionaries are so paper-thin, it is clear 
that this is political censorship. MIM Notes exposes both the 
particular crimes of prison guards and administrators and the 
general way in which Amerikan prisons are a tool of oppression. 
MIM Notes carries out revolutionary agitation against the imperialist 
system of which Amerikan prisons are a part. We must be doing 
something right, because the prisoncrats have responded by trying to 
shut us up.

To combat this censorship, prisoners file grievance after 
grievance, despite the threat of retaliation. Prisoners who exhaust the 
grievance process then litigate to stop censorship in their states. 
Some have already been successful, while others are still developing 
their cases. The Serve the People PrisonersÕ Legal Clinic has 
increased work against censorship and publication rate of MIM Legal 
Notes.

Imprisonment in Amerika is meant to strip people of their 
rights, yet prisons have to deal with the contradiction that courts 
have allowed prisoners to retain some so-called rights. MIM seeks to 
utilize such contradictions under imperialism. While such legal 
battles will not end the oppressive nature of Amerikan prisons, 
fighting for winnable reforms that lessen repression enables us to 
organize more effectively against imperialism.

MIM and RAIL have increased efforts to build public opposition 
to censorship in the context of anti-imperialism by pounding the 
pavement, holding revolutionary education events, and giving benefit 
concerts. In several states, MIM is working with lawyers and liberal 
prisoner supporters to plan courses of action in the courts and to 
learn tactics to decrease censorship.

MIMÕs goal is to end oppression. To speed this along, we need 
the newspaper and information to reach destinations Ñ the hands of 
more masses. Prisons are not the only culprits censoring MIM Notes. 
MIM work is censored in urban areas and college campuses daily. 
MIM focuses against prison censorship at this time to win gains for 
one of the most repressed and revolutionary groups in Amerika.

MIMÕs literature program is in the tradition of Serve the People 
work of the Chinese Communist Party and the Black Panther Party. 
MIMÕs Serve the People Programs and independent institutions of the 
oppressed meet the needs of the oppressed while building more 
opposition to imperialism. MIM sends books to prisoners to counter 
the absolute void of education in prisons and to help prisoners learn 
the necessary theoretical and historical information to launch 
successful blows against oppression. Despite censorship, this work 
continues and we urge increased involvement from outside masses. 
MIM welcome libertarians, liberals, anarchists, humyn rights 
activists and all those willing to fight for freedom of speech to work 
with MIM on this campaign against censorship. The ramifications go 
far beyond the work of MIM. Readers with legal experience should 
consider spending some time with MIM. You can work on key cases 
to assist prisoners in gaining access to the press, medical care, 
exercise time, educational books and classes and other things they are 
denied like pens, writing paper, uncontaminated food, blankets, and 
toilet paper. For those with money, we need financial support. MIM 
is willing to train those committed to help but without relevant skills.

[Music Break]

Mumia Abu Jamal is a former Black Panther on death row. He was 
framed for the righteous killing of a police 
officer engaged in an act of police brutality. 
He was sentenced to death in 1982 after a bogus 
trial. His appeals are now in the much quicker 
federal courts and an execution could happen in 
the fall. Prior to his arrest, Mumia was a radio 
journalist who exposed police brutality. From 
within the walls through books, articles and 
radio commentaries, Mumia continues to be an 
outspoken leader of the oppressed. This article on censorship was 
written in April.


[Censorship Article by MAJ]

[>3.3k
                   Outlawing Prison Legal Books

By Mumia Abu-Jamal
Written April 6 1999

     There is a mystery in the shadowy world of the censorship
boards of prisons across the U.S. No matter what various courts
have decided, these state agencies, usually staffed by people who
haven't the faintest idea of what constitutes a Constitution,
routinely censor books, articles and reading material for the
imprisoned on the slightest pretext.

     Recently, the well-respected _Prison Legal News_ published a
compilation of their columns, articles and writings from
jailhouse lawyers, columnists, and judges in the book _The
Celling of America: An Inside Look at the U.S. Prison Industry_,
by PLN contributor Daniel Burton-Rose, and editors Dan Pens and
Paul Wright (Common Courage Press, 1998). By their very nature,
many of the contributions are admittedly critical of the prison
industrial complex, as they should be.

     In Michigan's Huron Valley Men's Facility, the prison
censors withheld the book (The Celling of America), calling it a
publication that "advocates violence, riots." Prison Legal News 
subscriber Larry Lynch's order
of the book was therefore denied. Lynch appealed the censorship
throughout all levels of the Michigan DOC, but administrators
upheld the censorship.

     Prison Legal News and Common Courage Press have filed a class 
action
lawsuit against the censorship, saying the First Amendment right
to free speech was violated by the ban.

     I invite any of our readers to read for themselves the book
that Michigan banned. It will be utterly impossible for any
readers to find, in the text of the book, anything that actually
"advocates violence, riots." Most writers are knowledgeable of
the plain political fact that riots are counterproductive, and
serve the long-term interests of the prison administrators,
rarely the prisoners. (Here the writer must offer an admission;
he is a contributor to the The Celling of America compilation). Some 
of
>the
contributors are judges and other professionals; are they
advocating 'riots?'

     One entry (the one by the judge) details the lies utilized
by the media and attorneys-general to portray the vast majority
of prisoner civil suits as frivolous. This judge, from the 2nd
U.S. Court of Appeals, demonstrates by citing specific cases,
that the cases were misrepresented , and were in fact, based on
solid claims for relief. Would this kind of article 'advocate
riots?'

     Some of the writers write about bogus, fraudulent usages of
the misconduct system, where they are punished for daring to
exercise their alleged "right" of free expression, supposedly
protected by the first amendment.  Is such an article 'advocating
violence?' Lets let you decide, the reader.  Any reading of The 
Celling
>of America
will prove how ludicrous such a claim can be.  Write to the:

     Prison Legal News, Book Dept. H., 2400 NW 80th St.,
     #148 Seattle, WA  98117;  $19.95 per copy ($3.20 shipping).

     One may learn that it is prisons that advocates violence,
for it is an institution that inculcates and teaches violence. 
It separates, it splits, it enrages and it embitters.  It
engenders violence of the psyche, which is ignorance. And that is
the real objective of any state censorship: ignorance. To keep
people in prison deaf, dumb, and blind to the forces that shape
and create prisons.]

[Music break]

Commentaries like this one, plus his reporting about police brutality 
in Philadelphia long before his arrest, have earned him the support 
of many and also the hatred of this system. 

Respect for Mumia's work even extended to the likes of National 
Public Radio. NPR briefly hired Mumia to record 10 commentaries. 
But the police lobby was outraged. Under fire from the Fraternal 
Order of Police and right-wing senators threatening to cut National 
Public Radio's funding, NPR backed down the day before the 
commentaries were set to air. 

Here, in a speech on the Senate Floor, Senator and soon to be 
presidential candidate Bob Dole, takes credit for shutting down 
National Public Radio's effort to air Mumia's commentaries.

 [Dole speech Man is Bastard CD. Track 2:38]

As of this recording, Mumia's 10 commentaries remain hidden from 
the public in the archives of so-called National Public Radio. Since 
1995, Mumia's access to the press has been curtailed in an effort to 
cut Mumia Abu Jamal and his political message off from the people. 
This system hopes that by doing so it may break Mumia's spirit and 
prevent the growth of a huge mass movement to demand his 
freedom.

In America, free speech is a myth because free speech belongs only 
to those who own the press and have nothing to say.  It is 
imperative 
that listeners work with us to oppose individual acts of 
censorship 
while also building a stronger movement. We need more funds to 
produce and mail literature to prisoners and we need to get this 
program on more stations.

The struggle for justice must not back down in the face of 
censorship.