MASSRAIL 
No. 14 (Feb 99-June 99

A publication and calendar of the Massachusetts Revolutionary 
Anti-Imperialist League (RAIL) 

1.  WHAT IS RAIL?
2.  WHAT IS MIM?
3.  DROP SANCTIONS NOT BOMBS: FIGHT U$ GENOCIDE IN IRAQ
4.  MASSACHUSETTS OPENS NEW SUPERMAX PRISON TO INCREASE CONTROL
5. NUMBER IMPRISONED IN AMERIKA CONTINUES TO RISE: 
    TREND TOWARDS FASCISM AGAINST OPPRESSED NATIONS 
    CONTINUES
6.  WHAT IS IMPERIALISM?
7. BUY SOME SPEECH: ITıS NOT FREE IN THE U.$.
8. IS RAIL FUNDED BY THE FBI?
9. SUPPORT PRISONER EDUCATION
10. CANDIDATES FOR MASSACHUSETTS GOVERNOR PROMOTE FAILED 
    STRATEGIES ON CRIME
11. MASSACHUSETTS LEGISLATURE VOTES TO REVOKE PRISONER VOTE
12. WMASS RAIL GROWS IN 1998
13. PRISONERS BANNED FROM RAISING MONEY FOR POLITICAL PURPOSES
14. BRISTOL COUNTY PRISONERS WIN LEGAL VICTORY AGAINST INHUMANE 
    CONDITIONS
15. AMERIKAN CHRISTIANS: SATANıS SPAWN
16. RAIL BATTLES VIGILANTE CENSORS AT UMASS
17. MASSACHUSETTS UNDER LOCK & KEY
18. INTERVIEW WITH THE PRISONER POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE
19. ANGOLA PRISON FILM PORTRAYS HUMANITY OF PRISONERS, DOWNPLAYS 
    INHUMANITY OF THE PRISON SYSTEM

* * *

WHAT IS RAIL? 

The Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League (RAIL) is a mass 
organization led by the Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM). 
RAIL supports self-determination for all peoples, including the 
necessity of armed struggle against imperialism. RAIL is against 
the proliferation of prisons warehousing the oppressed, 
imperialist militarism, imperialist economic domination of the 
worlds majority, and white settler chauvinism against Amerikaıs 
internal colonies  the Black nation and the many Indigenous and 
Latino nations. 

RAIL welcomes participation from individuals seeking to further 
expose the atrocities of imperialism and build opposition to the 
current system of injustice. RAIL works in the United Front led by 
MIM to build independent institutions of the oppressed and Serve 
the People Programs. Following in the footsteps of the Black 
Panther Party, MIM and these institutions simultaneously meet the 
Peoples needs while organizing against imperialism. 

RAIL members should not conceal RAILıs relationship with MIM when 
working amongst the masses. RAIL will not accept the leadership of 
revisionist organizations within RAIL or for campaigns or events 
which RAIL organizes. RAIL members can be members of other mass 
organizations. Voting members of RAIL must be anti-imperialist and 
agree with the necessity of armed struggle. People who disagree 
with these points are welcome to work with us on common goals. 
RAIL accepts responsibility for all articles printed and will 
respond to any criticism.

RAIL, P.O. Box 559, Cambridge, MA 02140 (617) 499-6997, 
or 
P.O. Box 712, Amherst, MA 01004-0712 (413)582-3934, mim@mim.org

* * *

WHAT IS MIM?

The Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM) is a revolutionary 
communist party that upholds Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, comprising 
the collection of existing or emerging Maoist internationalist 
parties it the English-speaking imperialist countries and their 
English-speaking internal semi-colonies, as well as the existing 
or emerging Spanish-speaking Maoist internationalist parties of 
Aztlan, Puerto Rico and other territories or the U.S. Empire. MIM 
Notes is the newspaper of MIM. Notas Rojas is the newspaper of the 
Spanish-speaking parties or emerging parties of MIM.

MIM is an internationalist organization that works from the 
vantage point of the Third World proletariat; thus, it members are 
not Amerikans, but world citizens.

MIM struggles to end the oppression of all groups over other 
groups: classes, genders and nations. MIM knows this is only 
possible by building public opinion to seize power through armed 
struggle.

Revolution is a reality for North America as the military become 
over-extended in the governmentıs 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 Maoıs 
death and the overthrow of the ³Gang of Four² in 1976. (2) MIM 
upholds the Chinese Cultural Revolution as the farthest advance of 
communism in human history. (3) MIM believes the North American 
white-working-class is primarily a non-revolutionary worker-elite 
at this time; thus, it is not the principal vehicle to advance 
Maoism in this country.

MIM accepts people as members who agree on these basis principles 
and accept democratic centralism, the system of majority rule, on 
other question of party line. 

* * *

DROP SANCTIONS NOT BOMBS: FIGHT U$ GENOCIDE IN IRAQ

In early November, Dennis Halliday made his first public 
appearance since resigning his post as the UN Humanitarian 
Coordinator in Iraq. He spoke at Harvard University about his 
resignation and the devastating results of sanctions on Iraq. 
After his resignation, Halliday said, ³We are in the process of 
destroying an entire society. It is as simple and terrifying as 
that. It is illegal and immoral.²(1)

Halliday is far from a revolutionary, he is a strong believer in 
Amerika as a great country (though he is not american). He firmly 
believes in working within the system to attempt change. RAIL 
reports on his speech because of the important first hand 
information exposed and because of the strong statement made when 
one of the capitalistsı own speaks out against u.$. and UN-
sponsored genocide.

Those of us opposed to imperialism are well aware of the death and 
suffering that takes place around the world at the hands of the 
united states. However, imperialist supporters often refuse to see 
what is right in front of their eyes. Halliday could not ignore 
the evidence he faced daily in Iraq. He resigned his Iraq post in 
September and then resigned from the UN in October in protest to 
the UN policy of sanctions against Iraq.

Halliday spoke about his experiences in Iraq from September 1997 
to October 1998 as well as his first hand knowledge of the 
conditions prior to that period. Halliday joined the UN in 1964 
and was assistant Secretary-General before taking up his post in 
Iraq. Halliday oversaw the distribution of food and other 
humanitarian goods that Iraq purchased from money earned through 
the U.N.-approved sale of oil which started in 1996.

Halliday provided evidence that the continued UN sanctions can be 
called nothing less than genocide. The current sanctions deny Iraq 
access to profits from oil sales which form a mainstay of its 
economy.

Eight years of sanctions have had disastrous effects on the 
country. Halliday said the sanctions ³kill, destroy and bring ruin 
to 23 and a half million people.²

Every ten minutes an Iraqi child dies from malnutrition, 
preventable disease or other effects of the sanctions. According 
to the World Health Organization (WHO), in Iraq 6000-7000 children 
under five years of age die every month as a direct result of the 
sanctions. And the WHO considers these numbers an underestimate 
due to the difficulty in collecting information on some parts of 
the country. 

The sanctions have hit children particularly hard because the 
economic devastation has led to poor health of their mothers, poor 
nutrition, high incidence of water borne disease, and use of baby 
formula mixed with water that is not safe to drink. The 
malnutrition among children under five years old remains at 
approximately 30% in spite of the oil for food program the UN 
initiated supposedly to alleviate the suffering in Iraq

In addition to the direct effects on the health of the population, 
Halliday outlined some of the economic consequences of the 
sanctions. The effect on the economy can be seen in the inflation 
rate. In 1990, 1 dinar was worth $3 (US) while today 300 dinars 
are worth $1 (US). The financial ruin has led to homelessness, 
prostitution, begging, corruption and children being forced to 
work. All of these things, Halliday pointed out, were virtually 
unknown in Iraqi society before the sanctions. In addition to the 
inflation rate, in 1996, the Iraqi government legalized secondary 
market monetary exchange in an effort to restrain the exchange 
rate. This means the dinar is worth even less in that sphere.(2)

The dropout rate in the schools is now 20-30%. In addition to the 
problem of children needing to earn money to help support their 
families, there is no money for resources in the schools and 
thousands of teachers have quit, unable to support themselves and 
unable to work in the horrible conditions. Even those children who 
do not drop out of school all together do not have a high 
attendance rate.

Halliday believes that the impression widespread by the media that 
Iraq is run by a one-man-show (Saddam Hussein) is incorrect. He 
sees the political system there as strongly influenced by the 
public and particularly by other members of the government. And he 
reports that the current government is seen as too moderate by 
youth who have grown up under the harsh effects of imperialist 
sanctions and who are pushing the government to take stronger 
action against the imperialists.

Halliday agreed with one audience member that it is reasonable to 
view the sanctions as genocide against the Iraqi people but when 
asked what we should do about this, his strongest statement was 
that we should lobby congress to change. Hallidayıs position is 
not radical at all. In fact, his view is that sanctions are never 
effective and only lead to suffering of the people. Instead he 
advocated other forms of persuasion which he did not detail except 
to mention that this is a very difficult issue.

RAIL agrees with Halliday that sanctions on the Iraqi people must 
end. RAIL recognizes no moral authority in imperialism and we 
categorically reject the imperialistsı claims to the right to 
decide who eats or starves. When there is anti-imperialist 
international debate, this dialog can righteously lead to 
improving national policies. But today while imperialists call the 
shots on the international governmental scene, all peace-loving 
people must reject any claims of supposed neutral international 
organizations to impose their will on any oppressed nation.

Notes: 1) The Independent 14 October, 1998. RAIL Notes no. 153 1 
January 1998.

* * *

MASSACHUSETTS OPENS NEW SUPERMAX PRISON TO INCREASE CONTROL

On September 30th the state of Massachusetts opened a new 1000 bed 
supermax prison in Shirley. This prison, featuring state-of-the-
art technology to torture and isolate inmates, was filled within 
days of opening through the transfer of prisoners from lower 
security facilities around the state.

This new prison is part of the trend of over-classifying 
prisoners. Inmates who are in low and medium security prisons are 
being moved into maximum security cells even though they have done 
nothing to deserve this security increase. This is important to 
the prisoners because maximum security prisons involve at least 22 
hour solitary confinement and many other restrictions on the 
prisoners. These cells are filled with the most politically active 
prisoners:  those who protest against the constant and brutal 
repression behind the bars. 

In the other maximum security facility in Massachusetts at Walpole 
over 90% of the prisoners are Puerto Rican. This kind of 
systematic lock up is tremendously disproportionate to the number 
of Puerto Ricans in the prisons not to mention the general 
population in the state. One of the reasons for these outrageous 
numbers is the policy of locking up suspected gang members. This 
status is decided by the guards who use criteria like who a 
prisoners is seen talking to and whether or not the prisoner has a 
tattoo.

Currently the state of Massachusetts criminal injustice department 
claims to have 3082 extra prisoners for whom they do not have 
adequate facilities. The vast majority of these prisoners are in 
medium security prisons (over 75%) while only 9% are in maximum 
security.(1) But in spite of this the state has built a maximum 
security prison. 

Commissioner of incorrections Maloney says that many of these 
medium security prisoners should be reclassified because the 
guards are not safe.(1) But over the past year 34 prisoners were 
killed in Massachusetts prisons, many at the hands of guards, 
others while guards stood by and watched. Seven people hung 
themselves, a strong statement about the conditions in 
Massachusetts prisons. It is not the guards who are unsafe, it is 
the prisoners. And a number of these deaths took place in the 
maximum security prison at Walpole: clearly these prisons do 
nothing to protect the prisoners from the pigs.

Three years ago 299 prisoners were shipped to Texas in the middle 
of the night in a huge publicity stunt to force through a bond 
bill to fund the building of this new prison and the expansion of 
other prisons in the state of Massachusetts, adding a total of 
3000 new beds. These prisoners have suffered even worse treatment 
in Texas than in Massachusetts while they live without contact 
with family or friends. But none of these inmates are being 
returned to Massachusetts now that this new prison in Shirley is 
open.(2)

This new 1000 bed prison will cost close to $1 billion after all 
the bonds are paid back. Even the state House admitted that this 
prison construction is a capacity driven business that will never 
solve the overcrowding problem. In a report reviewing the recent 
prison construction the House Post-Audit and Oversight Bureau 
wrote ³Long-term solutions that reduce the numbers of inmates 
coming into the system must be developedıı citing studies showing 
that mandatory drug sentencing is one cause of the explosion in 
the prison population nationwide. At least 20 percent of the 
Massachusetts prison population is incarcerated for drug-related 
offenses.(2)

One Massachusetts DOC official told the Boston Globe that the new 
prison will offer educational and vocational programs. These 
programs have been entirely cut off at the other maximum security 
prison like Walpole; so this statement sounds like an attempt to 
sound good in the media since there is no good reason to offer 
these programs at one prison but not at others in the state. 

Even if such programs are offered at Shirley they will not change 
the nature of the supermax prison which is the ultimate tool of 
social control in a society which uses prisons to control 
oppressed nations, youth and anyone who speaks out against the 
dominant order of imperialism. 

In order to fund the expanding cost of housing prisoners in higher 
and higher security facilities many prisons in Massachusetts have 
recently begun charging inmates for the basics of living. The 
Plymouth County Correctional Facility is now charging all new 
prisons a $30 processing fee. Itıs estimated that the fee will 
generate 60-65 thousand dollars a year.(3) 

Norfolk County Sheriff has been charging prisoners a $30 fee for a 
year, generating $34,000 in revenue. The families of Bristol 
County inmates pay an extra toll for each collect call the inmates 
place. State inmates also pay an average of 15 percent more for 
toiletries and snacks.(3)

This trend in Massachusetts is similar to whatıs going on in other 
states. In Florida inmates are paying for their meals. In 
Pennsylvania some are being forced to pay for their own room and 
board. In Texas and in Massachusetts prisoners are required to pay 
a fee every time they visit the infirmary.(3)

In Massachusetts the prison population has skyrocketed from 7,500 
in 1976 to over 24,000 in 1998. This reflects the trend throughout 
the united snakes. Meanwhile the crime rate has been totally 
unaffected. Prisons in this country are used to control and 
oppress segments of the population that the government sees as 
dangerous. 

The criminal injustice system is part of the united snakesı war on 
its internal colonies. This is not a war that will be won by the 
people if we sit by quietly or just beg the government for a few 
concessions. Only by tearing down the imperialist system which 
builds and uses the criminal injustice system can we win this war. 

Join RAIL in our fight against imperialism and its criminal 
injustice system. As we build a movement strong enough to wage the 
revolutionary battle we are engaged in many day to day battles 
within the system. We need help building our books for prisoners 
program, building our legal clinic, and building our education 
work and local campaigns on the outside. And behind the bars we 
need help building the prisoner anti-imperialist mass 
organization.

Notes: 1. NPR, October 6, 1998. 2. Boston Globe, Sep. 30, 1998. 
P.B1. 3. Boston Globe, September 23, 1998.

* * *

NUMBER IMPRISONED IN AMERIKA CONTINUES TO RISE: TREND TOWARDS 
FASCISM AGAINST OPPRESSED NATIONS CONTINUES

The number of people in Amerikaıs prisons and jails rose to 
1,725,842 in 1997 - an increase of 5.2 percent. By 1997, the 
number of incarcerated Black men passed the number of white men in 
prisons and jails. Close to ten percent of Black men aged 25 
through 29 were in prison last year. The imprisonment of Black men 
at eight times the rate of white men is an example of how the 
prisons system is a tool for the repression of oppressed nations 
within u.$. borders.(1)

As the Bureau of Justice Statistics report citing these figures is 
being publicized, we are also learning that all the talk of 
decreased crime rates in Amerika may be just that. Several major 
U.$. cities have recently been exposed for tampering with their 
own crime rate statistics, especially downgrading felonies to less 
serious crimes to reduce the number of crimes that get reported to 
the federal government.(2)

Despite the wildly growing number of prisoners in this country in 
the past 30 years, the crime rate remained steady. So Amerikan 
prisons do nothing to end crime. The fact that several police 
departments tampered with their crime rate statistics goes to show 
that crime rates are irrelevant to imperialism. In 1998, lower 
crime rates sell police departments and so lower crime rates are 
what the departments deliver. The important thing is to keep up 
some justification for increased fascism against oppressed nation 
communities.

The growing prison system and the police departments that feed off 
of putting people in prison are all part of emerging fascism in 
Amerika. While Amerika is not fascist at this time, there are 
elements of fascism in this country, specifically in the prisons. 
Fascism is defined as the combination of the state and capital for 
the extraction of forced labor, and we see fascism in the pay-for-
imprisonment systems that prisoners are being subjected to around 
Amerika. We see fascism particularly in prisons growth, complete 
with private capital investment in prisons.(3)

Emerging fascism: private prisons and prisons-for-hire

Texas has the highest rate of imprisonment in the u.$. - 717 
prisoners per 100,000 population. The nearest competitor is 
California, with 672 per 100,000. When it comes to regions, the 
South ³wins,² with 506 prisoners per 100,000 throughout the 
region.(1) Coincidentally, the two largest private prisons 
companies in Amerika are based in the South ‹ Corrections 
Corporation of America (CCA), in Tennessee (4) and Wackenhut in 
Florida. Business is booming for private prisons as Amerika cracks 
down on the oppressed.

States all over the country are contracting with private prison 
companies to build pieces of their state system. Earlier this 
year, 100 Indiana prisoners were sent to a CCA-run prison in 
Tennessee. They are to remain there indefinitely. Contrary to the 
usual argument that private prisons are so great because they cost 
the state less money, it will cost roughly the same to house these 
100 men in the Hardeman County Correctional Facility as it would 
have cost to keep them in Indiana.(5)

More recently, CCA has signed agreements to open new prisons and 
jails with the state of Montana, and the county of Tulsa, 
Oklahoma. The Montana agreement calls for a 500-bed menıs prison 
that will cost $25 million. The prison will be expandable to house 
1,500 prisoners and will be built and then run for four years by 
CCA from the time it is completed in August 1999. This contract is 
supposed to bring in $9 million per year for CCA while it houses 
500 prisoners.(6)

In Tulsa, CCA will build a 1,440-bed multi-security-level jail of 
which 1,100 beds will be used immediately. The Tulsa facility 
should be open by April, 1999. After signing the Tulsa deal, CCA 
was running and building a total of 79 repressive facilities with 
64,946 beds in the U.$. and other countries. The Tulsa contract 
will bring in more than $17 million for CCA when the jail is 
filled to capacity.(7)

The state of Georgia recently built its first private prison - 
contracting with Cornell Corrections Corporation. The prison cost 
$38 million to build and will imprison 750 people. The town where 
the prison is located, Folkston, is apparently thrilled that it 
can now take part in the prisons boom. It is expecting to double 
its population from 2,400 to 4,800 because it can now support more 
citizens who will live off the repressive institution.(8)

Just as we see emerging fascism in private corporations opening 
and running their own prisons for profit, we see it in state 
prison systems charging prisoners for their own imprisonment. One 
such pay-for-imprisonment is Ohioıs recently adopted plan to 
squeeze $3 from a prisoner each time s/he makes a non-emergency 
visit to a doctor or other medical personnel. The state claims 
that the policy is intended to discourage false claims of illness 
‹ so that prisoners will not try to skip days of work by claiming 
they are sick when they are not.

But with inmate pay scales averaging to $18 per month, and needing 
that money to buy things like stamps, envelopes and soap, $3 per 
medical visit looks a lot more like extortion or an ultimatum to 
keep prisoners from seeking care than it looks like a deterrent to 
skipping work. An Ohio prisons spokesperson claims that prisoners 
who do not have money in their accounts are not denied care.(4) 
And possibly this is true, but RAIL already knows that prisoners 
in Michigan have debits placed on their accounts regardless of 
whether the money is there when they make a charge or not.

In Iowa and Michigan, prisoners also pay $3 a pop for health care 
visits, and this can be for minimal care or advice.(9) And in 
Illinois, prisoners are provided some health care within the 
prison, but are charged $2 if they have to leave the prison to go 
to the hospital.(10)

Prisons growth

With so much money to be made off imprisonment, itıs no wonder 
Amerika is rushing to lock more people up than ever before. But 
rather than admit the real motives for building prisons ‹ national 
oppression and profit ‹ the U.$. government and media focus on the 
supposed fact that Amerikans ³are safer because more criminals are 
behind bars.²(8) 

But the same numbers that show the prisoner population growing at 
a rate that will top 2 million by the year 2000 show that most of 
this growth can be attributed to those under lock and key serving 
longer sentences and being denied parole. Prisoners incarcerated 
for parole violations also now account for 30 percent of the total 
prison population, up from 15 percent in 1980. And all of these 
changes amount to the same thing: prisoners are serving longer 
sentences for the same convictions.(1)

This straight-up lock-em-up approach to prisoners reveals the 
gross hypocrisy of the system that claims it is for ³corrections,² 
and of those state systems like the one in Ohio that use the term 
³rehabilitation² in their names. By criminalizing prisoners, and 
by arguing that the most correct approach to crime is to keep 
human beings confined to prison cells for more years of their 
lives, the statisticians, analysts, policy makers, and the keepers 
of the keys are arguing that once a persyn is convicted of a crime 
thatıs it for them, bar them from society for life.

RAIL agitates against prisons and for prisonersı rights because we 
believe firmly that human potential is infinite. And prisons in 
Amerika do all they can to destroy human beingsı capacity and will 
to exercise their potential. We publish propaganda like this to 
show that while the bourgeoisie has its side of the story that 
says society is better with people being locked down, we have our 
side too. RAIL builds independent institutions of the oppressed 
and builds public opinion in favor of the just struggles of the 
oppressed. We do this without any pretensions toward being 
objective because we are firmly subjectively invested in the 
interests of the oppressed.

Notes: 1. New York Times 9 August 1998, p. 14. (The contrasts between the white 
and Black nations in the prison figures are most stark, but part of this is attributable 
to inaccurate or incomplete reporting on Latinos in Federal surveys. Even with 
current reporting, 2.6 percent of ³Hispanic² men between 25 and 29 are in prisons 
and jails ‹ compared to 0.8 percent of white men the same age. But it is impossible 
to distinguish between Blacks and the Latino nations with these categories because the 
government does not clarify how many Latinos are of African descent, etc. The 
article found on this subject also did not list any figures for First Nations.) 2. New 
York Times 3 August 1998, p. 1. 3. MIM Theory 11: Amerikan Prisons on Trial. 4. 
Associated Press 10 August 1998. 5. The Evansville Press 10 April 1998, p. 15. 6. 
CCA press release 22 July 1998. 7. CCA press release 27 July 1998. 8. Savannah 
Morning News 10 August 1998. 9. Michigan DOC Notice to Prisoners: Prisoner Co-
Pay for Health Care; An Iowa prisoner 16 July, 1998. 10. An Illinois prisoner 13 
May 1998. (RAIL is aware of many other states charging prisoners for pieces of their 
imprisonment, but there are too many instances to list in one place. Contact us if you 
would like to work with us on compiling all this information for quick anti-prisons 
activism reference.)

* * *

WHAT IS IMPERIALISM?

Imperialism is the global economic system that exists today. 
Through imperialist military, economic and political control of 
Third World nations and the oppressed Black, Latino and First 
Nations in the U$, the worlds majority are exploited and super-
exploited. In brief, this means that the toiling masses of the 
world do not earn the value of their labor and are not able to 
survive without income in addition to primary jobs. The profits 
from this exploitation and other stolen resources from the Third 
World make it possible for imperialist nations to maintain wealth 
and inflated standards of living. 

First World corporations have expanded to the point where they 
must invest money overseas to continue to grow so they export 
their capital to the Third World. These foreign investments in 
Third World economies, safeguarded by military force, stifle the 
national economic growth. Imperialist investment then ensures its 
own predominance paying dirt wages to workers who have no options, 
while the corporations enjoy the freedom to escape local taxes and 
environmental restrictions. 

It is a principle of anti-imperialism that every nation has the 
right to national self-determination and the right to struggle for 
liberation. Nations must be free to choose their own economic and 
political destinies and not have these policies dictated by 
occupying forces. Where imperialism extends itself into the Third 
World, it stifles all indigenous economic and political activity. 
Anti-imperialists hold that all nations should be free to choose 
their own course. 

RAIL sees imperialism in the hundred-years of U.$. occupation of 
Puerto Rico and the Philippines. We see imperialism in Amerikan 
state-terrorist bombings of Arab and African countries that will 
not happily submit to u.$. political and economic demands. 
Imperialist economic domination is evident in the thousands of 
people who attempt to cross militarized borders without legal 
papers year by year. These undocumented immigrants and workers 
know they can find better jobs in the u.$.  grown wealthy at the 
expense of their own countries  than they can at home. And we see 
imperialism in the exploding Amerikan prisons, whose construction 
and maintenance provide jobs for the white nation while their 
cells cage huge segments of the Black and Latino nations.  For all 
these reasons, RAIL addresses U.$. imperialism as a brutal abuser 
of the oppressed nations. In the fight against imperialism, we 
welcome all people who want to see these forms of injustice 
destroyed.

* * *

BUY SOME SPEECH: ITıS NOT FREE IN THE U.$.

Weıve been taught that this country is the home of freedom and democracy 
where free speech is a right given to us by our benevolent government. 
While itıs true that we enjoy more freedom here than in many other 
countries around the world, if you oppose imperialism you do not have free 
speech. Anti-imperialist views are not printed in corporate sponsored 
media. There certainly isnıt any government funding for anti-government 
publications. Many anti-imperialists have ended up in prison when the 
government wanted to shut them up. While the mainstream press gives pages 
and pages of free advertising and reporting to the imperialists every day, 
speech for the anti-imperialists is limited to what we can buy. Itıs 
certainly not free.

We invite our supporters to help us put out the next issue of Mass RAIL by 
purchasing some speech of your own. We are running a free speech panel and 
for $10 you can place your own statement on the panel in the next issue of 
Mass RAIL. For $10 you will get you up to 10 words on the topic of your 
choice. You get to pick your own slogan or fact that you want to include. 
And by buying this speech you will be helping to get anti-imperialist news 
printed and distributed. $10 is less than it costs to go to the movies and 
have some popcorn and a soda. Donıt waste your money on the latest 
Hollywood trash, buy some anti-imperialist speech instead. 

Free speech panel 

Capitalism ==> Murder

The more you know the less you need

All power to the people

There are no difficult things, only people without sufficient 
resolve.

Save the earth, fight imperialism!

* * *

IS RAIL FUNDED BY THE FBI?

No, but thatıs what the gossips say to avoid working with RAIL. 
They claim thatıs the only explanation for why we print so many 
newsletters.

If RAIL was like many other organizations‹especially student 
groups‹that might be the only explanation as these groupıs member 
refuse to spend a dime of their own money on their political work. 
Actually, our publications exist and grow in part because of high 
personal sacrifice and even higher levels of quality political 
work.  We grow in strength because of the positive response of 
people like you.

Financial work is a part of any revolutionary movement. Ignoring 
the issue of money wonıt pay the printer or the post office. For 
almost 2 years, Mass RAIL has published financial updates. Since 
our founding, the people of Massachusetts have come to rely on 
Mass RAIL, and in turn we have struggled over the past 2 years to 
come up with funding that the publication can rely on. Previously, 
too many issues were delayed in part because of funding problems.

Each issue costs $500 to produce and mail out to the prisoners and 
others on the mailing list. Weıve had some gains in ensuring Mass 
RAILıs finances. Already, some comrades have stepped forward to 
guarantee a little less than half of what we need to publish the 
paper. Other walls‹have made important contributions.

We at RAIL thank all who have made this issue possible. What we 
need is more people to step up to fund this publication, and we 
need people to make regular pledges to support our goal of thrice-
a-year publication. We need to be able to count on this money 
coming in in order to reach this goal. 

No contribution is too small or too large, so send it in!  Checks 
should be made out to ³MIM² not RAIL, and stamps are as good as 
cash.

RAIL PO Box 712 Amherst MA 01004-0712 RAIL PO Box 559 Cambridge MA 
02140 

* * *

SUPPORT PRISONER EDUCATION

The Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League (RAIL) is initiating a 
campaign to get some educational programs into the Massachusetts 
prisons. In addition to the work we already do with MIMs Books for 
Prisoners program, we are taking steps towards making mainstream 
education available to prisoners in the state by enlisting 
professors to allow prisoners to audit their classes. We are 
asking for everyones help in circulating the below letter to 
professors and helping to persuade them to participate in this 
program. Copy the letter and distribute it. 

The Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League (RAIL) is initiating a 
program of prisoner education in Massachusetts and we ask all 
college-level teachers to join this effort.

Pledge to Support Prisoner Education

We, the undersigned, believe that all prisoners should have free 
access to quality education behind bars. We support the 
establishment of a higher education, degree-awarding program that 
will be made available at no cost to prisoners in our state. 

Education, not vengeance. After the 1971 Attica Prison Uprising, 
prisoners in the United States won some crucial reforms that 
temporarily ameliorated some of the misery of their confinement, 
including access to education behind bars. Now that the prison 
population is soaring toward 2 million, we are seeing the erosion 
of those gains, along with any legislative pretense of 
rehabilitation - and vengeance as the dominant theme in the 
criminal [in]justice system.

When Congress passed the so-called ³Crime Act² in 1994, 
eliminating the 1/10 of 1% of federal Pell Grant money that went 
to prisoners (arguing duplicitously that that money was being used 
at the expense of people on the outside), that dealt the virtual 
death knell to prison vocational and higher education programs. 
³At least 25 states have cut back on vocational and technical 
training programs since the Pell Grants were cut. In 1990, there 
were 350 higher education programs for inmates. In 1997 there 
[were] 8.²(1)

Studies reveal that more than 70% of people entering state prisons 
have not completed high school (1). This population, mostly Black, 
Latino and First Nations, treated unfairly by the public education 
system, compounded by their disproportionate representation in the 
criminal [in]justice system, should have free and voluntary access 
to comprehensive education behind bars. This means access to a GED 
program up to and including a degree-awarding 4 year college 
program.

Those of us who are educators pledge to add willing prisoners to 
our classes. We will ask our schools to provide college credit to 
prisoners that successfully complete these courses. Our only 
compensation for this desperately needed work will be the 
knowledge that we are contributing to justice in an unjust 
society.

Notes: ³Education as Crime Prevention: Providing Education to 
Prisoners.² Research Paper, Occasional Paper Series No. 2. 
September 1997. The Center on Crime, Communities and Culture. 
http://www.soros.org/crime/research_brief__2.html

Name______________________________________________________

Class offered________________________________________________

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Books needed for Fall 1999 (if not yet known leave blank) 

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Phone number or e-mail address to contact you  _________________

* * *

CANDIDATES FOR MASSACHUSETTS GOVERNOR PROMOTE FAILED STRATEGIES ON 
CRIME

October 14‹The Republocratic candidates for Governor of 
Massachusetts were met with a counter-demonstration at their 
debate tonight. The Radical Student Union organized the 
demonstration against the candidates exclusion of students as well 
as the bankruptcy of the two party system. The Revolutionary Anti-
Imperialist League and MassPIRG also had contingents present to 
talk about the failures of the candidates to present logical 
responses to crime and the environment, respectively. 

RAIL displayed a banner attacking the anti-crime platforms of both 
candidates. Signs at the demonstration said things like ³Democracy 
is the choice between two rich white guys², ³Fuck your two party 
system² as well as huge fake ballots with ³rich white guy #1² and 
³rich white guy #2² on them.

Acting Governor Paul Cellucci is running to retain his current 
job, and Attorney General Scott Harshbarger is running to move up 
into the top spot. Both of these swine have overseen huge 
increases in the Massachusetts prison machine, including the 
expansion of torture-cell control units. Both candidates support 
hiring more cops and building more prisons, despite evidence that 
more cops and prisons do not affect crime. The systemıs 
politicians ignore the facts, because the way to get elected is to 
appeal to the vicious white vote and capture the attention of 
potential financial backers so crucial to any individual 
campaignıs chances. Rather than admit the flaws of the capitalist 
system, the rich blame problems on crime and disease.

Lesser of two evils is still evil

Earlier in the day, one Harshbarger supporter criticized RAILıs 
literature for taking on both candidates. This supporter 
enthusiastically called on RAIL to vote for, in his words: ³the 
lesser of two evils.² This is another of those bourgeois myths 
used to justify the system. The rich call on the poor to ³pull 
themselves up by their bootstraps², which is physically 
impossible. And to vote for the lesser of two evils leaves you 
with, well, evil.

A RAIL comrade later made a sign to that effect which caught the 
attention of the Libertarian candidate for Lt. Governor. This 
candidate said ³I like your sign², shook the comradeıs hand and 
then moved on instantly. There was no time for the RAIL comrade to 
reply that ³The lesser of THREE evils is still evil.²

The Libertarian Party wants to free all prisoners incarcerated for 
drug offenses in order to free up more room for ³real criminals.² 
(Their words, not ours.)

* * *

MASSACHUSETTS LEGISLATURE VOTES TO REVOKE PRISONER VOTE

On July 29 the Massachusetts state legislature passed an amendment 
to the Massachusetts Constitution to take away prisonersı right to 
vote. Both the state House and Senate overwhelmingly approved the 
measure, a big step towards taking away prisonersı right to cast 
absentee ballots from behind bars. To finalize the decision the 
Legislature has to vote in favor of the amendment again next year 
and then it would be put on the ballot.

Right now Massachusetts is among only 4 states which allow 
prisoners to vote. The other three are Utah, Maine and Vermont. 

This election year, prisonersı right to vote is a big issue in the 
rush to repeal any basic rights that prisoners might enjoy. But 
this is more than just a tough-on-crime stance in an election 
year, this is also an attempt to repress political organizing 
within the Massachusetts prisons. Last year the government 
discovered that Norfolk County prisoners had formed a political 
action committee (PAC) to organize inmates to vote and to lobby 
against the transfer of prisoners from Massachusetts to Texas and 
for other reforms in the prison system.

This PAC, the first in the country within a prison, was seen as a 
huge threat and the Governor of Massachusetts quickly issued an 
executive order banning inmate fund-raising and vowed to take away 
prisonersı voting rights (see order on this page and article on 
the PAC on page 6).

With the prison population skyrocketing across the country, 
allowing prisoners to vote is seen as a danger similar to giving 
Blacks the vote after the Civil War. Should prisoners exercise 
their voting rights as a block, the 24,000 inmates in 
Massachusetts state and county facilities could wield significant 
influence. 

Prisoners, who face brutal repression at the hands of a government 
supposedly working in the interests of the people, quickly come to 
see the reality of U.$. ³democracy² for the farce that it is. And 
political organizing by those who the criminal injustice system 
was designed to control is the last thing the government wants.

This move by the Massachusetts government helps demonstrate why 
RAIL says that voting will not change the imperialist system. The 
group with the most potentially radical agenda, those most 
severely repressed by the system, have their vote taken away as 
soon as they show signs of using it. In fact, in 13 states 
prisoners never regain their right to vote, even after being 
released. 

Prisons in the united snakes are a tool of social control, filled 
with youth and oppressed nationalities who are victims of the war 
on crime which is perpetuated by a government that murders, rapes 
and steals in its colonies throughout the world as well as within 
its own illegitimate borders. Considering that the number of 
people imprisoned in the united snakes has soared to over 1.7 
million, and that this population is so disproportionately Black 
and Latino, this amounts to denying a significant segment of 
society the right to vote. This is a crime the united snakes would 
decry as undemocratic in any other country.  Many in Massachusetts 
and around the country take this injustice as a call to organize 
the oppressed to vote in greater numbers or to fight for the right 
of prisoners to vote. But the reality of this two party system is 
that only the imperialists have the resources and power to run for 
office and win. In the belly of the beast within U.$. borders, 
state and federal election campaigns can not be effectively 
participated in by anti-imperialists.

Instead we have to content ourselves with using the undemocratic 
machinations of the government to expose its hypocrisy. RAIL does 
not organize prisoners or outside supporters to organize for the 
right for prisoners in the united snakes to vote as we see this as 
not a winnable battle at this time. In addition to voting being a 
sham in amerikkka, support to repeal such existing legislation is 
sparse. But we do expose the denial to vote in the context of 
exposing the undemocratic nature of Amerikkka. Stopping the 
legislation to revoke the right to vote in Mass is a possibly 
winnable battle. And the reason that it would be good for 
prisoners to fight such a battle is to retain some pittance of say 
in legislation which will further the repression of prisoners in 
that state.

Notes: Boston Globe, July 30, 1998, p. B1. 

* * * 

WMASS RAIL GROWS IN 1998

Western Massachusetts RAIL has seen a lot of growth in 1998.  
Visibility and mass work has increased, and the organization is on 
a much better footing than in 1997.  We organized the contigent to 
the Jericho 98 March to Free Political Prisoners, a highly 
successful Prison Awareness Week. We launched a weekly radio show, 
a web page and an email mailing list.

Through political struggle and creative thinking, the funding for 
our portion of Mass RAIL is now almost entirely assured for the 
next 4 years. This takes a real burden off of local finances. 
Weıve also found ways to generate income to jump start RAIL Notes 
into an 8 page, independent newspaper. Financial efforts will need 
to continue in 1999, and we need comrades and supporters to step 
up with offers to help us build a sustainable source of income. 
(Many of these ventures require very little time and zero 
financial risk to yourself. If you support our work, there are no 
logical reasons to not investigate how you can help.)

RAIL has overcome earlier setbacks due to pseudo-feminism and drug 
abuse. A core of comrades have had great success with recruiting 
in 1998 through a principled application of the mass-line. 

Many of the successes and victories RAIL has had in the past year 
are in no small part due to the help of a select group of non-RAIL 
individuals who stepped forward to allow us use of their 
identities, resources and prestige to defeat censorship, fund 
raise and create new avenues of political work.

For a variety of reasons, these individuals do little work with 
RAIL and donıt really consider themselves part of the 
organization. They donıt do any of the thousands of hours of 
pavement-pounding done by RAIL comrades. But they respect us for 
our work, and have made it possible to grow many times more than 
would be possible without their assistance. Lest our readers get 
confused, these individuals are far from wealthy (by Amerikan 
middle-class standards) and have given only a few hours of their 
time. But when asked by the pavement-pounding RAIL comrades, these 
individuals have given determined, focused support that greatly 
magnified the work of the comrades in the streets.

Highlights:

In January, we installed literature racks at UMass Amherst. These 
racks significantly increased our visibility and decreased the 
amount of newspapers being thrown away. These racks have helped 
much more than we expected. In February and March, we organized 
the Amerikkkan Prisons on Trial Conference to build up to the RAIL 
contingent attending the Jericho March to Free Political Prisoners 
in Washington D.C.

In March, we sent a busload to the Jericho March and a RAIL 
organized Teach-In on the Injustice System the following day in 
Washington D.C. 

In June and July, we distributed many hundreds of pieces of 
literature to incoming students at the UMass orientation program. 
As in years prior, we battled the New Students Program and their 
attempts to censor us. And building on previous years experience, 
we increased the level of public embarrassment received the New 
Students Program for this censorship. As in past years, the Campus 
Center Commission and Campus Center Administration were complicit 
in a plan to deny RAIL access to the Campus Center. In record time 
(under 24 hours) we forced the Commission to retreat and allow us 
access. The continued repression of the New Students Program has 
taught us many lessons on how to be more effective during the 
summer, and this was the most successful summer to date. 

In August, we successfully battled the Campus Center 
Administration and a local business for refusing to distribute our 
literature‹under contract to do so‹because of its content.

In September, we hit the UMass campus in force. First year 
students we met at Orientation quickly hooked up with RAIL to 
bring our revolutionary anti-imperialist line to other students 
not yet educated or inspired to become activists. Weıve tabled on 
campus at least 2 days a week, and done an event at least every 2 
weeks.

In October, we distributed literature about the Peace Corps as a 
tool of U.$. imperialism, and that effort eventually grew into a 
weekly radio show on prisons.

In November, we organized the 5th Annual Prison Awareness Week. 
This one of the best yet, and all 4 events were very memorable 
events with high-ly productive discussions. The billboard and 
other activities brought our campaigns to the attention of many 
students. In November, we also taught a series of classes with 
Spanish-speaking prisoners. The classes were on the CIA 
connections to the drug trade and the need to give up drugs in 
order to make productive contributions to the revolution. In 
November, we also launched a campaign to bring back table tents in 
the dining commons. Table tents were an important method of 
advertising events that were removed by the administration. Table 
tents were restored.

* * *

PRISONERS BANNED FROM RAISING MONEY FOR POLITICAL PURPOSES

August 12, 1997

by Argeo Paul Cellucci

Whereas, inmates in the state prisons should not be allowed to use 
political action committees to raise money for political purposes; 
and Whereas, the state prisons are public buildings; and Whereas, 
the state campaign finance laws prohibit the solicitation of money 
or other things of value for political purposes in any public 
building; Now, therefore, I Argeo Paul Cellucci, Governor of the 
Commonwealth of Massachusetts, by virtue of the authority vested 
in me as Supreme Executive Magistrate, do hereby order as follows:

1. No political solicitation of money or other things of value is 
to occur within the state prisons. Such activity is in violation 
of the state campaign finance laws, G.L. c. 55, &14, and will not 
be tolerated, 2. The Department of Correction is directed to 
enforce an absolute prohibition on prisoners engaging in any form 
of solicitation of money or other things of value for political 
purposes. Enforcement measures shall include, but not be limited 
to: (i) immediate confiscation of any materials related to 
solicitation of money or other things of value for political 
purposes; (ii) imposition of sanctions through the disciplinary 
process, including isolation, restriction or loss of privileges, 
loss of good time, and reclassification; and (iii) referral to the 
appropriate law enforcement authorities for criminal prosecution.

‹sent to RAIL from a Massachusetts prisoner

* * *

BRISTOL COUNTY PRISONERS WIN LEGAL VICTORY AGAINST INHUMANE 
CONDITIONS

On January 4, prisoners and pre-trial detainees in Bristol County 
won a small legal victory. The Suffolk Superior Court ruled that 
prisoners could challenge jail conditions at Ash Street Jail in 
New Bedford and the House of Correction in Dartmouth through a 
class action lawsuit.  

Until the ruling, the prisonerıs lawsuit was in jeopardy because 
the prisoners were no longer in these facilities. A class action 
lawsuit would be structured around the idea that the inhumane 
conditions oppress a whole group of people (prisoners at the 
jails) and not merely individuals.  

Jails hold people awaiting trial who are unable to make bail and 
people with sentences under 2 years. Generally, the court system 
serves to protect the imperialists system and not the oppressed 
masses. These short periods of confinement in the jails make 
seeking justice through the courts even more difficult.  The 
courts decision is the type of partial

victory within the system that should be celebrated and expanded.  
The lawsuit charged that conditions are so bad that innocent 
prisoners plead guilty so as to go to the better state prisons 
rather than wait to stand trial and win. 

Even the jailıs sheriff agrees that prisoners plead guilty to get 
out of his jail, although he challenges the motives of public 
defenders raising the issue. 

If Amerika was serious about its commitment to ³innocent until 
proven² guilty it wouldnıt make bail impossible to post for poor 
defendants. And the conditions of its pre-trail detainees wouldnıt 
be called ³abominable² by liberal groups like Amnesty 
International. 

The Ash Street Jail was built in 1826, and sixty years ago the 
Bristol County sheriff called it ³antiquated and a menace.² Last 
year, the state Department of Corrections found ³conditions of 
confinement and quality of life² to be ³unacceptable.² But to 
current sheriff Thomas Hodgson, the jail is ³perfectly fine.²

The day prior to the courtıs ruling, the Boston Globe ran a big 
piece on the Ash Street Jail. Headlined ³Doing time in the 
Œdungeonı; New Bedfordıs ancient jail assailed as inhumane² the 
article started on the front page and contained huge photographs 
of the prison conditions.

Prisoners are confined in 6 by 8 foot cells. One prisoner wrote in 
an affidavit: ³My cell is infested with roaches, ants and water 
bugs, and there is a constant smell of raw sewage due to the 
showers becoming flooded after the inmates shower, and this water 
leaks into the cells.... The smell is so bad they can only put the 
fans on at certain times of the day.² Even toilets are recent to 
Ash Street, until the 1980s prisoners were forced to use slop 
buckets.

Sheriff Hodgsonıs election shows how deeply the anti-crime fervor 
is in the white Amerikkkan nation.  The sheriff ran on a pro-death 
penalty platform, which is an issue of state law that the sheriff 
has no control over. The sheriff is also considering the use of 
chain gangs, which are currently popular politically in what used 
to be the slave-holding South.

If the Amerikan population was concerned about stopping crime and 
adherence to the law, it would judge its candidates for sheriff 
based on their adherence to the law.  Candidates who call 
arguments about innocent-until-proven-guilty ³frivolous² wouldnıt 
be elected. Voters would reject people who want to torture 
prisoners‹a majority of whom are substance abusers unable to make 
bail‹in favor of candidates who address the root causes of crime 
and substance abuse.
	
Instead, the Amerikan population wants to control its Black and 
Latino colonies and only uses crime as a smokescreen.

 Hodgson dodges the issue of his treatment of prisoners by blaming 
the courts and police for sending prisoners to him: ³I did not 
remand them to our jails. There was probably cause for arrest and 
a judge decided to set a high bail.² But the courts didnıt mandate 
the inhumane conditions at Ash Street Jail, and there the 
prisoners have good grounds for a successful lawsuit that pits one 
part of the pig system against another. 

This lawsuit could win better conditions for prisoners, but it 
would leave the rest of the injustice system intact. 
Revolutionaries must take on the whole system while also fighting 
winnable battles such as this lawsuit.

And as to Hodgsonıs last dig on his liberal critics: ³I like to 
ask these critics, ŒWhy donıt you take a prisoner home for 
Thanksgiving dinner?ı They donıt respond to that.² While Hodgson 
is certainly changing the question away from his legal 
responsibilities, RAIL accepts his challenge.

How many can we have for the day to serve quality food and quality 
political education?

Notes: Boston Globe 5 January 1999, p. B4; 3 January 1999, A1, 
A20-21.

* * *

AMERIKAN CHRISTIANS: SATANıS SPAWN

Cambridge‹Christians passed out flyers in this secular stronghold 
Halloween night. ³Satan: The God of This World² reads the flyer 
with the serpent on the front. Also in town we find white 
supremacist stickers on the lampposts.

The flyer is very much in line with the movement of ultra-
reactionary Christians to fight Halloween. A full-length adult 
television cartoon appeared on the subject on ³King of the Hill.² 

Animal liberationists would be correct to point out that 
Christians are giving serpents a bum rap for all the evils of homo 
sapiens. The depiction of serpents since ³Adam & Eve² is that they 
are manifestations of evil. Yet serpents do not enslave each 
other; they do not make up religions to garner funds for 
themselves or to quiet the masses. 

The flyer is a perfect example of how to prevent people from 
fighting for justice. In the first place, as the title reads, 
these Christians believe that this world is already ruled by 
Satan. Even first-class citizens with good families are Satan 
spawn says the flyer.

Thus, Christianity might seem to have a kernel of rebellion in it 
possible, but that is just one of its lures aimed at keeping 
people from rebellion. It turns out that Satan appears even as an 
angel of light and as religious workers. According to this tract, 
we may tell Satan posing as Christian apart from real Christian 
teachers, because Satan will never say that Jesus gave his blood 
for all our sins.

As materialists, we have to tell our Christian friends and enemies 
that they are sorely confused. Such a religion can only fill a 
persynıs need for Authority and an end to intellectual and 
political struggle.

We would like them to consider that Satan must have printed their 
Bibles for centuries and run their study classes. The printed 
word, reverends and Bible study classes are all of this world, 
which is Satanıs world. Only a true master of evil would construct 
an idea where all sins are redeemed by the blood of Jesus, 
something already done and something not of this world according 
to these witting or unwitting Satan spawn.

The fact that Satan can take any form in the real world should be 
taken as a call to struggle in this world by the Christians, but 
instead they tell us as long as Jeffrey Dahmer or John Salvi or 
the like believe that Jesus died for all our sins, they will not 
spend ³eternity in hell.² In other words, Christians say people 
should ignore the evil in this world to focus on their afterlives. 

Itıs not possible to have it both ways: either believing in Jesus 
makes one a good Christian or not. If the ³Lord Jesus² died for 
³all² our sins, then it matters not what we did in this world so 
long as we believed in ³Him.²

We call the Christians idealists because in the end their 
reference points are in the heavens and not in struggle here on 
earth. Believing in Jesus has no power to help create justice in 
this world. It does have the power to make some evangelists rich 
and to protect the status quo of the real world by creating 
another religion to divide the oppressed and by focusing the 
oppressed on the afterlife which does not exist.

If Satan is the King of Evil, then Satan surely sent the world 
these Amerikan Christians: ³For such are false apostles, deceitful 
workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And 
no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of 
light.²(1) This may be the single best teaching of the Bible and 
for this reason the Christians had to ruin it or face the prospect 
that Satan could be defeated in this world, which would mean the 
end of the Christian business as well. The Satan wing of the 
idealist scam distributed this leaflet ³Tract No. 121² in the 
guise of Christianity.(2)

Marxists have a similar problem with so many revisionists falsely 
claiming to be Marxist. Revisionism is like Satan dressed up as a 
Christian, except worse, because Satan and Christianity are only 
the two heads of the same idealist scam run by the King of Evil, 
whereas there is a real-world difference between Marxism and 
revisionism. Merely believing in Marx or shouting his name does 
not make one Marxist. Measuring sticks have to be real-world 
questions like those that MIM promotes‹the Soviet Union, China and 
the nature of imperialist country working classes. Likewise, on 
lesser questions, for example when someone claims to be fighting 
crime, RAIL demands the facts in this world to see how one 
strategy succeeds or fails in fighting crime.

While there are two positions possible for each of these three 
historical questions MIM focuses on, MIMıs approach has only a 
certain number of logical solutions to it, whereas religions can 
be created infinitely and without reference to anything concrete. 
This feature makes religion most useful for dividing people and 
fomenting wars along the lines of the fertile imaginations of 
religious leaders who are a portion of the ruling class. 

In Russia, the masses tried a number of concrete things before 
settling on Bolshevism in 1917. The endlessly divisive nature of 
Christianity, Christian Satans and Marxist revisionism stems from 
their failure to connect to the real world where they may be held 
accountable and either accepted or rejected by everyone.

Notes: 1. Bible, II Corinthians 11:13-14 2. Tract No. 121, 
Fellowship Tract League, PO Box 164, Lebanon, OH 45036.

* * *

RAIL BATTLES VIGILANTE CENSORS AT UMASS

 To the gutless wonders of De-RAIL, and other students actively 
trying to destroy the work of RAIL: If you have a disagreement 
with RAIL and our work, speak up!

The Department of Corrections censors our letters with prisoners 
and throws away our literature we mail in. Theyıre so desperate to 
keep control of this sick system and are unable to use logic to 
defeat us, that they resort to illegality. 

The UMass Administration doesnıt want us talking to our fellow 
students. Because attempting to defeat our ideas in public is too 
embarrassing for them‹they saw what happened when they said ³Go 
away, students arenıt ready for politics yet²‹they resort to 
sabotage. The University rips down our posters and actively 
conspires to suppress us.

We continually have to fight the censorship of the Federal and 
State government. With the aid of jailhouse lawyers, we fight 
censorship in the prisons. With the aid of leaked documents & 
information as well as their own rules, we fight University 
censorship. But weıre still at a huge disadvantage because we are 
out-staffed and out-spent by the U.$. government, the Department 
of Corrections, the state government and its supporters. 

Thanks to the anti-student policies of the University and Campus 
Center, it is hard enough to advertise our work. BOLD What we 
donıt need is students going out of their way to rip down our 
posters and throw away our newspapers! END

Itıs clear that the University and the Government donıt have 
anything to say beyond ³Shut up² and ³Go away². We think that 
students who disagree with us can perhaps do better.

Got something to say to RAIL? Say it. We do get proven wrong and 
make changes all the time. Better yet, say it in public. Put up 
your own ideas on posters. Or letıs debate. Weıll debate anyone on 
any topic in any fair forum. Weıll reserve the room, and then we 
can both invite the public to see our ideas compete.

RAIL isnıt afraid to defend itıs ideas. Are you afraid to defend 
yours? Is that why you rip down our work and throw out our 
newspapers?

Throughout the Fall semester, RAILıs flyers and newspapers have 
been under attack. This is above and beyond what passes for 
³maintenance² and to which all posters and literature are 
subjected to.

Itıs been difficult to identify those responsible, since some of 
the culprits know to avoid the most visible RAIL activists.

Early in the Semester, RAIL caught the University Storeıs photo 
finishing contractor walking through the halls ripping down RAIL 
posters. When confronted, this ideological coward ran off.

In early November, the pace of destruction of RAIL posters and 
literature increased greatly. A number of individuals approached 
RAIL to tell of seeing and confronting 2 non-descript white guys 
calling themselves De-RAIL destroying our posters. Some of these 
individuals disagree with RAIL very strongly, but all were 
outraged that De-RAIL would rip down our posters as that is not an 
effective way to prove us wrong.

Within a day, RAIL put up the above poster, and in response 
posters and a website (http://derail.homepage.nu) were put up by 
DeRAIL. If the domain name chosen by DeRAIL isnıt enough (anti-
social.com), DeRAIL posters proclaim support for police, inhumane 
prison conditions, the U.S legal system, and the belief that 
America is free and just. After a short hiatus, our posters and 
literature started disappearing. We wrote to DeRAIL on Nov 19:

Two weeks ago people who called themselves ³De-RAIL² were ripping 
down our posters and throwing out our newspapers. Are you still 
doing this? Our stuff continues to disappear, and people are 
saying that itıs De-RAIL. If itıs not you, you should make that 
clear to people and us. Otherwise we will have no choice but to 
associate De-RAIL with the destruction of our literature.

Your pro-Amerikkkan politics are bad enough, but trashing our 
literature makes it even harder for thinking people to take you 
seriously.

RAIL 

We got this email in response:

I would like to inform you that De-RAIL doesnıt participate in 
illegal destruction of property.  Furthermore, your letter was a 
cheap and self-degrading attempt to insult the De-RAIL 
organization.  Another reminder for our members as to why De-RAIL 
has to exist:  The thoughtlessness and gullibility of RAIL. 

chris

VP

This leaves us with two possibilities.

1. DeRAIL has official government sanction to destroy our 
literature, which would make it ³legal² in their view, OR

2. DeRAIL is claiming they were never destroying our literature, 
which doesnıt match with what they told others.

In a sense, we donıt care whether our current vigilante problem is 
from DeRAIL or somebody else. But we think it should stop. If you 
think RAIL is wrong, prove it. If you are an anti-RAIL vigilante, 
our offer to debate applies to you too. Serious criticisms are 
also encouraged to be submitted for publication.


* * *

MASSACHUSETTS UNDER LOCK & KEY

OPPRESSION IN MA

Dear RAIL:

...I have filed [a suit] against these swines to shed light on the 
injustice that is oppressed upon us as prisoners on a day to day 
basis. Iım a Rastafarian prisoner who is currently confined to the 
Departmental Disciplinary Unit (DDU). Which is a separate building 
inside the MCI Cedar Junction- Walpole State Prison Facility. 
About 120 other prisoners and me are confined in this building.

...Each tier has ten cells and a dirty shower stall at the end of 
the tier, which is seldom cleaned by correctional staff. We are in 
leg shackles and handcuffed behind our back every time we leave 
the cells. We are allowed one hour a day, five days a week to go 
outside into fenced in dog kennels. We are allowed no contact with 
any of the other prisoners Prior to coming out of the cells we are 
subjected to strip-searches which

is nothing more than blatant sexual harassment. After we put on 
our clothes and are handcuffed behind our backs and leg shackled, 
we are then subjected to what they call ³pat searches² where we 
are groped by these pigs. I seldom go out of the cell because of 
these harassment tactics. In addition, while we are out of the 
cells the guards tear up our legal documents, which is the only 
way out for those doing life sentences.

The department of corrections allows them to sanction prisoners to 
be confined in the DDU for up to ten years in one cell. Thatıs 
MADNESS! ...You have not even heard half of the shit that goes on 
in this place!

Sincerely, ‹ A Massachusetts Prisoner, 18 June 1998

COMRADES,

Well Iıve received two kites from Mass RAIL regarding these low 
lifeıs are censoring certain materials through the prison mail. 
Some of the MIM Notes I have never received. Recently I had a 
certain book they considered contraband. Now they are taking all 
sign language books. I went through their appeal process and the 
whole nine yards...

-a Massachusetts prisoner

* * *

INTERVIEW WITH THE PRISONER POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE

 Mass RAIL runs the following article to expose the extent to 
which the Massachusetts state government will go to repress 
prisoners trying to organize for change. The prisoner organization 
described in this article does not advocate revolutionary change, 
in fact they are supporting working within the current political 
system. Yet even with this relatively moderate political position 
they face severe repression from both the Department of 
Corrections and the governor. To us this demonstrates both the 
nature of the system and the reason why we believe it will only be 
changed to serve the interests of the people through revolution. 

by a Massachusetts prisoner

Over the last eight (8) years the Commonwealth of Massachusettsı 
prison system has gone through numerous changes based on the 
philosophy of former Governor William Weld that promised he was 
going to ³reintroduce prisoners to the joys of busting rock² and 
³make prison as a tour through the circles of hell.²

In response the MCI-Norfolk Lifers Group sought to make prisoners 
aware that Weldıs position was flawed.

In 1997, the Chairman of the Lifers Group, Joseph Labriola, 
requested permission from a minor prisoncrat, Scott Anderson, to 
distribute political literature to the Lifers Group in an ongoing 
attempt to educate lifers about political issues that affected 
them.  Anderson, the former Director of Treatment at MCI-Norfolk, 
refused to allow the distribution telling Labriola, ³I canıt have 
you talking bad about my boss.² (referring to then Governor Weld)

That was the spark for the idea that led to the formation of the 
prisoner PAC.  A political action committee (PAC) is traditionally 
a way of pushing special interests and furthering political 
agendas, but no one had ever heard of a PAC for prisoners and 
their issues.

Whenever a government or its systems become so oppressive and 
squash basic human rights under the weight of policies designed to 
hurt and maim, a voice struggles to be heard.

Governor Weldıs policies, now carried on by Acting Governor Paul 
Cellucci, is not content to merely design and promulgate more 
oppressive policy, but by executive order needs to squelch 
political expression by prisoners.  By Executive Order 399, Acting 
Governor Paul Cellucci barred prisoners from forming PACs while 
behind bars and subjects prisoners to punishment for possession of 
PAC materials.  The move was unprecedented and caused many to 
comment publicly.  Attorneys and prisoner advocates said the 
executive order was an unnecessary assertion of authority, while 
most sideline observers scratched their heads wondering why the 
Acting Governor was reacting so feverishly to some convicts who 
wanted to talk politics.

Governors and wardens are expected to react strongly and 
decisively to security breaches and prison disruption, but not to 
a small band of prisoners who, by their own words, wanted to put 
the word correct back into corrections.  Labriola told this 
interviewer that the PAC is designed to open the debate about what 
prisons are and where they are going.  ³If the government has been 
running prisons for nearly 200 years and theyıre still miserable 
failures, arenıt we due for a change?  A new voice?²

It is this new voice, a voice from inside the prison that asks 
questions about accountability, how to make prisoners care about 
the political process, and how to give a generation of lost 
youngsters some hope of a stake in the larger society.

The prisoner PAC is not about politics as usual, and maybe thatıs 
what makes it so scary to the established politicos who want to 
suppress it. Prisoners want to get involved in the political 
process to promote public safety from within and throw off the 
yoke of their past conduct to gain a measure of redemption.  This 
PAC, says one of its members, is ³about the provision of hope as 
opposed to institutionalizing the concept of warehousing without 
hope.²

When Joe Labriola and I talked about the PAC during the course of 
the interview, we did it on the prison yard at MCI Norfolk, but I 
had the feeling that we could have been having the same 
conversation in any forum and in any place that cared about 
criminal justice in this country.

THE INTERVIEW

Q: Weıve all heard of PACs or political action committees from the 
TV, the radio, and the newspapers, but a PAC inside prison?  
Whatıs that all about?

A: Itıs about a voice, a collective voice.  Itıs about giving 
prisoners a sense of empowerment.  In an era where the Department 
of Correction (DOC) monitors phone calls, opens mail, has a 
security force who is proud of the fact that their informants can 
tell them anything they want to know, the imposition of draconian 
visiting procedures, and where the DOC strategy is to divide, 
conquer, and obliterate any kind of self worth, we need a 
collective voice.

Q: PACs are usually formed to get a political candidate elected, 
is there some particular candidate you are pushing?

A: Not necessarily, not a particular candidate.  However, we will 
work toward trying to insure that those who are in office donıt 
get re-elected because they have demonstrated that they have 
little interest in doing the business of public safety when they 
ignore the fact that prisoners will return to the community.  When 
they run a prison system that leaves the imprisoned more 
embittered, disenfranchised, and without actual hope they can make 
it once they get out, we donıt want them to continue unabated.  
Our message, even if we have to form a PAC to get it out, is we 
want to put the ³correct² back in corrections.  We donıt want to 
mouth soothing platitudes to keep the voters in a particular 
district calm or get re-elected, we want to talk about the 
realities and the effect of prisons on their lives.

Q: Acting Governor Paul Cellucci said in a Boston Herald article 
that, ³The idea of prisoners organizing politically is to me 
repugnant.(1)² How do you respond to that?

A: Cellucci is scared.  Heıs afraid that if we organize 
politically, unite under one voice, then that voice will be strong 
enough to oppose prison policies that never get public exposure.  
What has gone unopposed can now be debated and that is what he 
finds repugnant.  Whatıs really repugnant is the idea that we are 
throwing away the best opportunity to teach a whole new generation 
the most important values of this society and how to make it grow 
instead of tear it down.

Q: Prison advocates say that voting helps prisoners experience for 
the first time being a citizen and a member of the greater 
society, do you agree?

A: Anything that promotes a prisoner to believe that they can be 
member of the greater society is worth doing.  Most prisoners have 
never had an opportunity to participate in the very system that 
has put them in prison.  By voting, it gives them a sense of 
belonging, decreases their alienation, and gives them a sense that 
their voice actually counts for something.  In turn, they count 
for something.

Q: State Senator Pat Jajuga said, ³My feeling is that a prisoner 
who has violated the norms of society should not be allowed to 
vote - let alone form a political action committee and exploit the 
political process.(2)², Is this what everyone fears about a 
prisoner forming a PAC?

A: No, this is what Senator iajuga fears.  His office might depend 
on our vote.  Remember, Jajuga has always been the leader in the 
push for the death penalty - he has always advocated to make our 
living conditions worse than what they were.  Most importantly, 
Jajuga is shortsighted because his position doesnıt enhance the 
public safety.  He wants to maintain the ³us against them² 
mentality.  It would seem reasonable to allow prisoners to 
participate in the voting process because itıs a lot harder to 
tear down or destroy a house youıve helped to build.

The PAC is not about exploiting the political process but allowing 
prisoners to have a voice in a system that they have little 
connection to. Its about learning how to be a part of the system.  
Exploitation is the last thing the PAC wants, but maybe Jajuga who 
is skilled at exploiting the process, assumes everyone else will.

Q: When Acting Governor Cellucci says, ³Prison is supposed to mean 
punishment, not some opportunity to form a political group(3)², is 
prison supposed to mean something beyond punishment?

A: This country is founded on second chances.  By endorsing the 
candidate who believes in second chances, we can make prison mean 
something beyond punishment.  If society and our government treats 
prisoners like dogs, locking them in kennels for years at a time, 
the result will be releasing an abused dog.  When a prisoner comes 
to prison itıs AS punishment for what he did, not FOR punishment.  
If being in prison is not about an opportunity to learn how to 
become part of the mainstream, then the taxpayers arenıt getting 
their moneys worth.

Q: You said that Acting Governor Cellucci was afraid of prisoners 
organizing to have one political voice and allowing public debate 
about prison policy.  Is this why Cellucci signed an executive 
order for prison guards to search your cell and those of others 
for the very purpose of seizing information related to the PAC?

A: Cellucci signed that executive order because he knew he could 
get away with it.  The guardıs union, in the newspapers has 
formally come out in favor of Cellucci and the Republican party.  
The disenfranchised in this country have always voted democratic 
and there is nobody more disenfranchised than prisoners.  So, by 
issuing Executive Order 399, what Cellucci has done is get his 
³Republican² correctional officers in the Commonwealthıs prisons 
to search and seize opposition material to his political agenda.  
You could say that the prison guards are to Cellucci what the 
³Republican Guard² is to Sadaam Hussein.  This acting governor is 
not going to tolerate an opposing viewpoint when he can easily 
oppress with impunity the most segregated portion of the 
Commonwealthıs population.

Q: Have you ever heard of any governor signing an executive order 
to suppress political activity and seize political material from 
prisoners?

A: To my knowledge Iıve never heard of it.  But, equally so, is 
the fact that no prisoner PAC has ever been formed until this one 
in the United States of America.  What the executive order and the 
actions of prison officials does is set the tempo for what is to 
come.  This state wants to kill the PAC at the grassroots level, 
similar to the tactics employed in the 1970s against war 
protesters and other unpopular political groups and organizations.

Q: In an editorial in the Boston Globe the editors said, ³If 
debating political issues and joining PACs can help them [meaning 
prisoners] connect to legitimate society outside prison walls, 
itıs hard to see where the threat is.  Surely there are more 
serious ways for Cellucci to establish his credentials as tough on 
crime.(4)², How do you respond to that?

A: The Globe put the governorıs actions into focus.  The 
established paper in Massachusetts finally saw the Weld/Cellucci 
agenda for what it was.  Why the hell must the government beat up 
on people who are already imprisoned?  The opportunity for renewal 
and preparing to return to community is what the prisons should be 
about, and yet, they would punish prisoners for embracing the 
ideas and concepts of society.  You wouldnıt keep punishing a 
child long after his bad behavior ceased just because you wanted 
to show him that youıre a tough disciplinarian.  The Globe 
basically said that there must be something more serious to get 
tough on, but everyone knows that itıs so easy to kick the bad guy 
when heıs down, the hard part is making the so called bad guy a 
functioning member of society when he is released.  Now thatıs 
something to get tough on.

Q: Carrie Richardson, a columnist for the West Weekly section of 
the Boston Globe wrote, ³If you ask me, itıs amazing there are any 
prisoners left like Labriola, ones who are smart enough to see 
that violence isnıt necessarily the answer and that trying to work 
through the system might work. More than that, itıs amazing there 
are still convicts like Labriola who are willing to risk 
repercussions by taking a stand.(5)², What kind of retaliation can 
prison officials use to shut you up and what have they done?

A: Letıs be straight on one thing, there is nothing they can do to 
shut me up, short of kill me.  But they use subtle and not so 
subtle ways to suppress me and others.  The use of segregated 
confinement usually known as the hole or some other lockdown 
status can be used with impunity depending what label they put on 
it.  Theyıve charged me with being a negative inmate leader, 
trying to escape, and committing a mutinous act because I called 
for a work strike.  The one thing Iıve never done in prison is 
assault anyone.  However, if I collect, distribute, or somehow 
engage in PAC activities, I will be confined and punished as if I 
have assaulted another person or a guard.  I believe, without 
really intending it, prison officials have created a political 
prisoner identification. Itıs something isnıt it?  Theyıre 
creating a new category of offenses for participating in a process 
that the founders of this country fought so hard to protect!

Q: You told the Boston Globe that, ³In the 70s, we thought we 
could make change with violence ... Our whole point now is to make 
prisoners understand that we can make changes by using the vote.  
We have the ability to move prisons in a new direction.(6)² Youıd 
think the wardens and the governor would be jumping at the chance 
to get all prisoners behind an idea like that, instead the state 
is bringing to bear the full weight of its power to snuff you out.  
Is it just fear or something more?

A: Everyone, to some extent, fears the unknown.  The worst fear of 
all is the things you imagine will come to pass.  Can you see a 
whole generation of prisoners learning to use the vote?  Can you 
imagine a whole generation of young men and women forsaking 
violence to represent their views?  Can you imagine a 20 something 
deciding that the political process is so cool that he would 
rather cast a ballot to express himself instead of firing a bullet 
to get respect?  Ballots instead of bullets, now thatıs an idea!  
I think the real reason behind the governmentıs suppression of 
this PAC is that if we act and become more like citizens then 
their purpose, their reason for keeping us in prison gets diluted.  
Itıs always good to have a bad guy around so you can know how 
different you are from them.

Q: You once told a civil liberties union lawyer that the PAC has a 
message to get out because legislators no longer come into the 
prisons unannounced and see for themselves what is happening.  Do 
you believe that every legislator has a responsibility to come 
into the prisons and report their findings to the public, or at 
least make suggestions about how things could be better?

A: How can any legislator sit and debate any law having to do with 
prisons unless they come to the prisons, speak with the prisoners, 
the staff, and others who can give them a true picture of the 
internal workings of a facility or institution?  It is important 
for legislators to take an active interest in the policies that 
are shaping the minds and attitudes of hundreds of men and women 
who will one day be released to the community.  As it is now, 
lawmakers sit in their ivy towers in Boston afraid of being seen 
as soft on crime, or viewed as being aligned with prisoner causes.  
The future of public safety is too important to sacrifice it to 
laws and statutes made in the heat of the moment by legislators 
who have no idea what effect such laws will have.  There should be 
a law that makes every legislator responsible for at least 3 
visits a year to institutions and facilities run by the Department 
of Correction.  Itıs a lot tougher to demonize a segment of 
society once youıve had the opportunity to know them personally.  
Laws and statutes that are rational restore the offender to a 
place in the community, are what protects the public.  The true 
mission of public safety is the passage of laws that restore both 
victim and offender.  If an elected official chooses to ignore the 
offender, they do so to the detriment of society as a whole.

Q: If there is anything you want to say regarding the PAC or about 
anything we havenıt covered hereıs your opportunity.

A: Well, there is one thing.  Right now there are only three 
states that allow a prisoner to vote.  My dream is to get before 
the United States Supreme Court and ask the question, ³Why is it 
that a convicted person canıt vote?² If our society wants people 
to take civic responsibility and obey the law, why not give the 
prisoner a chance to become a part of that?  If we acknowledge 
that some have offended and further acknowledge that these 
offenders will once again return to the community, why can we not 
see the need to restore the offender before he is released to the 
community.  Thatıs not some bleeding heart liberal crap to make 
life easier inside the walls, but it is the first step toward 
ensuring public safety.  PACs should be formed in every state in 
the country to give a collective voice to the 1.8 million persons 
behind the walls.  I realized from the outset of forming this PAC 
that we were going to get hit with some bean balls.  Change never 
comes easily, but what weıre fighting for is the future.  I know 
they want to shut us down, but the message is true and the future 
is too important to quit.  So many forget that change comes from 
sacrifice and picking fights you may not win.  All I can say is 
what a great man once said: It is not the critic that counts, not 
the one who points out how the strong person stumbled or how the 
doer of deeds might have done them better.  The credit belongs to 
the person who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred with 
sweat and dust and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and 
comes out again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the 
great devotions, and spends themselves in a worthy cause, who, if 
they win, know the triumph of high achievement, and who, if they 
fail, at least fail while daring greatly, so that their place 
shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither 
victory nor defeat.  Seize the time!

May 3, 1998

 Notes: 1.³Cellucci pitches bill to deny cons voting rights,² Boston Sunday Herald, 
08/03/97, p. 3 2.³Cellucci moves to end inmate voting,² Brockton Enterprise, 
08/04/97, Back Page 3.³Cellucci plans ban on inmates voting,² Boston Sunday Globe, 
08/03/97, p. B3 4.³Cellucciıs crackdown,² Editorial, Boston Globe, 08/16/97, p. A8 
5.³A vote for inmatesı right to vote,² West Weekly, Boston Globe, August 1997 
6.³Prisoners forming Mass.  PAC,² Boston Globe. 08/02/97

* * *

ANGOLA PRISON FILM PORTRAYS HUMANITY OF PRISONERS, DOWNPLAYS INHUMANITY OF 
THE PRISON SYSTEM

The Farm: Angola Gabriel Films Directed by Jonathan Stack and Liz 
Garbus

Review by WMass RAIL

Springfield College, Sept 24.‹RAIL attended a showing of The Farm: 
Angola to distribute literature and to build support for our 
campaign against control units in Massachusetts. We hoped that a 
film about a maximum security prison would inspire people to work 
with us on this campaign. 

Angola is the largest prison in Amerika, covering 18,000 acres. Of 
its 5,000 prisoners, 77% are Black. Most of the prisoners are 
sentenced to ³natural life² or extremely long sentences, leading 
to the wardenıs estimate that 85% of the current population will 
die behind the walls of Angola. 

Angola was transformed from an old-style slave plantation into a 
modern day slave plantation (prison) after the Civil War. The old 
plantation was also called Angola, after the place of origin of so 
many of the slaves who worked there.

The film, winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 1998 Sundance Film 
Festival, effectively talks about the effects of a life sentences 
on prisoners and really brings out the humanity of the prisoners. 
For example, the film tries to portray the loneliness created. The 
average prisoner at Angola never receives a visit from the outside 
after the first 3 years of incarceration. But it fails to talk 
about the systemic brutality of prison, nor does it address beyond 
mentioning the history of Angola as being one of Amerikaıs most 
violent prisons. What makes Angola so notorious is the brutality 
of armed guards, not the fact that the prison is so large. This 
effort to focus so much on the specifics of Angola and six 
prisoners who are profiled downplays Angolaıs role in the whole 
Amerikan injustice system. 

The film certainly prepares RAIL to talk about the reality of 
prisons in a public forum, but it is not an effective stand-alone 
presentation. And it is without RAIL intervention that hundreds of 
thousands of people had the opportunity to see the film recently 
on A&E cable TV.

RAIL doesnıt know anything about the politics of the filmmakers, 
and we can imagine they had to cut a deal with the prison 
administration to get such access to the prison. This is the only 
explanation as to why the administration is treated in such a 
gentle fashion. RAIL much prefers the approach taken by the makers 
of The Last Graduation about the end of Pell grants for prisoners. 
Instead of just following prisoners and educators, The Last 
Graduation broadens the issue. First the rise of higher education 
as a response to the Attica prison rebellion is covered. Then the 
video explores the bogus arguments from politicians to abolish 
prisoner education. The kid gloves used in The Farm make the film 
much less effective.

Prison labor

Angola uses 1,800 non-prisoner workers to run the prison. Two 
hundred families of employees live on the grounds of the prison. 
Early in the video, we see one guard boast of the great job 
security working in a prison brings. This reactionary statement is 
quite accurate, as prisons are one of Amerikaıs leading growth 
industries. 

Unlike the armed pigs on horseback, the real work on the Angola 
plantation is done by the prisoners. Most prisoners work in the 
fields for 4 cents an hour. The best jobs in the prison pay only 
20 cents an hour.

Prison profiles offer chance to relate to the incarcerated

The film interviews six prisoners for their stories. One prisoner 
is a trustee, one on death row, one an old man dying from cancer, 
and another an old man turned religious leader. 

One of the most effective things about the film is showing the 
arresting mug shots of the prisoners interviewed. These photos are 
from 1972, or 1959. The prisoner incarcerated in 1959 was 24 at 
the time. The prisoner on death row reports that since age 12 he 
has spent all but four years in prison. Due to the Amerikan 
injustice system, prison is all some residents of North Amerika 
will ever know. 

The most amazing part of the film to RAIL is the segment on one 
prisonerıs parole hearing. A Black man was sentenced 20 years ago 
for the rapes of two teenagers. When the ³victim² was interviewed 
by police, she was asked ³Would you be able to identify the 
assailant?² No, she said, because ³All niggers look alike.² But 
she was able to identify one person in the line-up ‹ the one in 
handcuffs. The photograph of the lineup shown in the film verifies 
this fact.

At the parole hearing the prisoner presented new evidence, 
suppressed from the defense at the time of trial, that the medical 
report after the rapes reported that the teenagers were virgins. 
Therefore, not only was this Black man framed, but the rapes 
didnıt even happen. 

There is more. At his parole hearing, the ³victim² is told that 
the parole board is very sympathetic to her, and one parole board 
member identifies himself as the president of a ³victims rights² 
organization. Two board members are old white men, and one is an 
old Black man. The ³victim² is still a racist, saying that she 
fears all Blacks, and while she doesnıt fear the Black pig on the 
parole board, she wouldnıt be alone with him either.

All on camera, the parole board decides to deny the application 
before the prisoner even enters, and when he leaves, they forget 
about the camera and make their bias even clearer.

The warden of Angola claims his job is to spread hope that 
prisoners will ³win the lottery² and be allowed to leave the 
prison. As the film ends, updates are given on each prisoner. No 
pardons are given, and appeal hearings are denied. This applies to 
even the elderly religious prisoner, who has a pardon 
recommendation on the governorıs desk.

After the main film, a short ABC News clip was shown about the 
annual rodeo at Angola. Again lacking in political focus, it at 
least showed how poorly prisoners are treated. Prisoners, many 
untrained, ride bulls and horses for prize money to the delight of 
outside spectators. Even ABC News, which was more concerned with 
issues such as ³safety to the public² or the wisdom of offering 
³fun² to prisoners, had to report that the rodeo is likened to the 
barbarity of the Roman gladiator games and the throwing of 
Christians to the lions for sport. RAIL would like to get a copy 
of this video to show to people, especially the portion in which 
prisoners try to remove a poker chip from between the horns of a 
rampaging bull to the delight of the audience.

Encouraging activism

After the film and video, a short discussion was held in which the 
presenter argued for the audience to become active for social 
change and to speak to the various groups that had tables in the 
back room of the room. Neither the film nor the discussion 
addressed the fact that prisons do not stop crime. This is 
unfortunate, as the detailed information about the individual 
prisonerıs cases makes it clear that no societal purpose is served 
in locking up someone forever for mistakes supposed deeds decades 
ago.

The presenter argued that people should start from the perspective 
of a quotation attributed to Nazi Holocaust victim Pastor Martin 
Niemoller: ³First they came for the Jews and I did not speak out ‹ 
because I was not a Jew. Then they came for the communists and I 
did not speak out ‹ because I was not a communist. Then they came 
for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not 
a trade unionist. Then they came for me ‹ and there was no one 
left to speak out for me.²

The Niemoller quotation makes an attempt to get privileged people 
to act in their own self-interest to aid others. While the 
oppressed should certainly work together against common enemies, 
it would be naive to pretend that large groups of people do not 
benefit from Nazism or the prison system.

RAIL puts so much work into the prison issue because the prisons 
and police are key weapons in Amerikaıs imperialist war against 
its internal Black, Latino and Indigenous colonies. This 
perspective offers an explanation as to why the incarceration rate 
for Blacks is eight-times that of whites.

A significant part of the audience consisted of Springfield 
College students there not out of voluntary desire to learn about 
prisons, but for extra course credit. Most students left after the 
The Farm, not staying for the rodeo video or the discussion. Those 
who left were completely uninterested in signing a petition 
against Massachusetts control units.

While RAIL was impressed with the portrayal of injustice in the 
film, we thought the necessary indictment of the whole Amerikan 
injustice system was far too subtle. This was too subtle to reach 
these students, and the lives of the Blacks incarcerated in Angola 
so foreign, that the video just didnıt affect them.

RAIL will likely show this film in the future, adding it to our 
arsenal of documentaries about prison. We will be sure to 
emphasize the weaknesses of this film in our introductory remarks 
as well as the discussion in order to present a more revolutionary 
view of the Amerikkkan Lockdown.

 NOTE: The Last Graduation is available from Zahm Productions, 101 
West 79 Street 4C, New York NY 10024 Tele/Fax 212-595-5002. 
bzahm@interport.net .Institution price: $199 (call for individual, 
grass-roots and activist discount). RAIL does not know the 
availability of The Farm: Angola.