Which illegitimate settler country banishes its political prisoners and executes them? Is this South Africa or Amerika?


In late November, the Illinois Department of Corruption revealed
its latest attempt to divide and conquer prisoners in a new policy
entitled "Renunciation Process." It was first implemented at Tamms
C-Max, Illinois's new Supermax dungeon. Now, to gain freedom from
cages, captors demand that prisoners renounce their political and
philosophical beliefs, their affiliation with so-called gangs and
become informants for the administration.

One prisoner wrote: "Upon our arrival at Tamms 18 months ago, they
stated that we would have to do a year with no disciplinary
tickets and then we would be released to general population. With
the policy, unless we renounce affiliation and become informants,
we will not be released from this Supermax."

This policy is simply an old story with a new cover. It's designed
to create dissension among prisoners, to have prisoners view each
other with anger and suspicion. This is a control tactic that
captors across the country have utilized for centuries. They are
well aware that if they can keep prisoners focused on each other,
then prisoners have no time to scrutinize their enemy -- the
captors themselves!

MIM sees parallels between the united snakes's willingness to
warehouse accused gang members until they renounce their beliefs,
and South Africa's former official Apartheid policies of "banning"
political activists. \

Amerika has tried to wash
its hands of association with the brutal former white minority
regime in South Africa by forging neo-colonial ties with Nelson
Mandela and Thabo Mbeki. But we remind our readers that the policy
of Apartheid (or "separation" of the different oppressed and
settler nation groups in South Africa) committed evils that cannot
be expunged by a change in government officials or constitution
without fundamental revolutionary change.

Since apartheid was supposedly dismantled, the situation in South
Africa has not improved much for Azanians. As Dennis Brutus, an
Azanian activist said: "Men in the police force boast of having
killed Steven Biko. Other murderers from the apartheid regime have
been welcomed into the military. 200,000 white civil servants kept
their jobs for life post-apartheid -- the same sweet deal these
whites enjoyed under apartheid."(1)

Amerika's present prison system bears a likeness to the South
African past. Optimal conditions at Tamms C-Max include four
visits through a glass partition each month, five showers per week
and one hour of solitary yard time per day. Standard treatment for
prisoners who speak out against the criminal INjustice system is
for guards and wardens to take punitive measures against them in
barely concealed retaliation for their activism. Many politically
active prisoners find themselves under so-called administrative
measures that restrict their most basic activities. And as in
South Africa, these conditions will not improve with token changes
in administration.

With confinement conditions like they are, it'd be easy to see why
some prisoners would give in to the prisoncrats' coercion and
snitch for personal benefit. But one prisoner wrote: "I for one,
will never renounce my political or philosophical ideology nor
will I inform on my fellow comrades. My mother did not raise
'rats', she raised men! Plus, I am a Maoist and the people's
concerns are my concern, the people's lives are my concern. I
shall never renounce what I believe in, because then, I would be
renouncing the people and the struggles which our comrades who
have passed have fought for!!!"

Amerikan imprisonment is political

Amerika imprisons more people per capita than any other country in
the world. Imprisonment rates for members of oppressed nations
grossly outweigh rates for white settler nation members.

MIM often points out that Amerika imprisons more Blacks per capita
than did South Africa during its official policy of Apartheid.
This is a striking comparison to a country that maintained strict
policies barring blacks from living in cities, from associating
too closely with whites, from free travel within their own
country, participation in government, and of course from
protesting any of these regulations. The Security Threat Group
policies with their requirement of isolating branded prisoners beg
a comparison with South Africa's banning laws, which forcibly
restrained individuals from broad forms of contact with society.

Banning was a tool of the Afrikaner Nationalist government in
South Africa, used to silence political opposition. Steve Biko,
martyred in 1977 when security police murdered him in a so-called
interrogation, was banned in the years before his death because of
his vocal activism. In his book ITAL Biko END reporter Donald
Woods describes banning as being "forbidden to write anything --
even a diary or a postcard ... forbidden to speak to or associate
with more than one person at a time, other than members of my
immediate family; forbidden to travel, communicate publicly, or be
quoted in any publication."(2)

In South Africa it is clear that a grossly undemocratic government
exercised repressive power over the indigenous Azanian people.
When a settler or colonial or semi-colonial (as in the united
snakes) government enacts such policies against the oppressed
nationalities we know the purpose is to restrict the people's just
expression of national self-determination. When Amerika enacts the
same policies within its borders, the analysis is the same.

Labeling prisoner organizations as gangs, "security threat groups" or STGs, is an attempt by the prison system to stop political organizing

MIM Notes has reported that prisoners are labeled Security Threat
Group (STG) members because of tattoos, the language
they speak, and for associating with
prisoners labeled as part of a security threat group. Politically active
prisoners and prisoners in religious groups are given the security threat gorup designation. 

Security Threat Group policies provide for re-sentencing and re-classifying
prisoners without benefit of a trial or representation. The
Michigan Department of Corrections STG policy, for example, refers to STG I, II and
III classifications -- each of which carries a required term in a
high-security prison, and increased restrictions on contact with
the outside world. Because STG labeling is a disciplinary action
within the prison system -- a post-conviction event -- prisoners'
recourse in dealing with the effects is seriously limited.

It's simple for some activists to see that the imprisonment of
Mumia Abu-Jamal and Leonard Peltier demonstrate that there is
political imprisonment in the united snakes. The imprisonment of
revolutionary leaders because they fought for better conditions
shows that Amerika will brutalize, frame and even murder those who
speak against imperialism. But the mass imprisonment of oppressed
nationals also demonstrates that Amerika will stop at nothing to
keep the dictatorship of the settler bourgeoisie going.

When prisoners, whether imprisoned originally for political
actions or not, organize under lock and key, they face severe
retribution. Amerika's Security Threat Group policies represent a growing monster
and a systematic way to stop political organizing within prisons.
Just as we must struggle for the freedom of revolutionary leaders
framed and imprisoned for political activities, we must fight for
the end to Amerika's entire system of political imprisonment and
social control.

Step by step divide and conquer tactics

The snakes at Tamms were so intent on making their new policy
known that they slithered from cell to cell reading the new memo
to every prisoner. Each prisoner was further encouraged to check
into protective custody once they've informed on their comrades.

The Illinois Department of Corrections's Administrateive Directive
(A.D. 05.08.105) related to "Inmates Renunciation of affiliation
with Security Threat Groups" sets forth requirements for release
from closed maximum security status -- or Tamms. The policy
articulates a three-step process which is as follows:

The inmate must first provide his signature to "request for
renunciation" which will be considered by Administration at a
later time. Second an inmate must "provide information into gang
activity." And lastly the administration "considers" the
prisoner's request for renunciation and bases its decision on
such. The policy states that those who refuse to comply will never
be eligible for release from Tamms into the general population.
They must remain in Tamms until their Mandatory Supervised Release
(MSR) or Parole.

Those who comply leave Tamms only after "provid[ing] information
into gang activity." In other words, a prisoner who wants to leave
Tamms must become a stool pigeon. There is no compromising or by-
passing this step.

The policy also stipulates that "you can be returned to supermax
status if found to be in the company of anyone in the Security
Threat Group." Their definition of a member of a Security Threat
Group fits 95% of Illinois prison population!

Guys who signed the request for renunciation when Major Riley
first introduced it to them may have thought that they were
'shaking the powers that be' or 'shifting when they shift'. What
they actually did was open the door for insurmountable bullshit.
The administration does not accept anything less than "grounds for
indictment material" when seeking information.

What will that do for prisoners? It will continue the gathering of
community support for oppressive prison policies and institutions.
Without progressive community support, prison officials will
repeat history and murder inmates in cold blood. It's called
isolation and destruction. An elevated process of divide and
conquer.

Fight the policy and end oppression

Brothers, please keep a code of silence!! The renunciation policy
is illegal because it conflicts with Ill Adm code section 505.60.
Let us work together to have the policy abolished. Be patient! The
legal process in challenging the policy has already begun. Be
strong a minute longer and don't compromise your principles and
integrity.

The captors are well aware that unity among prisoners denotes a
loss of control for this corrupt system. So yes, let's renounce:
renounce the fact that we're held like animals in cages 23 hours a
day, renounce being denied contact with family, wives and
children; renounce captivity; recognize and renounce your true
enemy!

There is no way to end the oppression of prisons -- including
policies that keep prisoners from associating with each other --
short of organizing. People working with MIM both inside and
outside of Tamms are fighting these policies in the context of
revolutionary organizing. Such policies are intended to keep
prisoners from working together against all facets of Amerikan
imperialism.

Notes:

1. MIM Notes #139.

2. Donald Woods, ITAL Biko END (New York: Henry Holt & Co.,

1987), p. 1

In a few moments we will bring you a commentary by Mumia Abu 
Jamal. Mumia is a Black Nation revolutionary fighting for his life 
on Pennsylvania's death row. Mumia was framed for the murder of a police officer because 
he is an outspoken opponent of Amerikan imperialism.


[All Things Censored Vol 1
Tracks  
35. John Edgar Wideman :43 
36. South Africa 3:12]