"i am STANDING with You!"

 Revolutionary Greetings; Clenched-fist Salute &  Power Forward!

My Dear Michigan Comrade:

i read your article entitled: "Prisoner unity in  Michigan Questioned," and thought obliged to  respond to you. i am also a prisoner within one of  Michigan's death kkkamps and have experienced the  same frustrations as you. In fact, i am able to  identify with you 100% which is way i am  responding.

Though i am not in one of the Max death kkkamps and  therefore cannot speak on the "non-unity" you have  there, i can say that from the Level 2 death  kkkamps i have been at the same problem exist. But  we don't have comrades that are struggling and  suffering for political/revolutionary change. In  fact, right here within the death kkkamps of  Michigan is a movement called: Political Prisoners  of War Vanguard Coalition (PPWVC), that has been in  existence for a little while, that i am very much a  part of and instrumental in creating.

Due to the security necessary to protect myself and  other comrades, we are not prone to do a lot of  above ground work. Primarily because (as you so  eloquently described) there are prisoners within  the system that will do all they can to attack you,  bring you down, snitch on you and even murder you  because you attack the system. They (these lack dog  prisoners) have the tendency to think that if  someone like you or i attacks the system it will  cause them more hardship in their doing time. They  want to do "sissy" time. They want to live under  the illusion that they have it good and don't want  you and i to upset the balance of things. So we  work below the surface and work daily and hard.

Not long ago i was the subject of an attack by a  prisoner at the Egeler Correctional Facility. MIM  knows of this for i told them and others. The  attack was done because one prisoner (who is truly  misguided) took the word of a pig over mine and  ...well you know how it goes. The sad part about  that incident is that this prisoner was doing  nothing as far as political/revolutionary struggle,  but i was and am. So i know your frustrations and disappointments,  but "WE" cannot allow the inactivity of one or many  to deter "OUR" duty. And our DUTY is to expose,  agitate (when possible), de-program and re-educated  these brothas and sistas within these death  kkkamps.

Our DUTY is to de-program and re-educate our family  and loved ones. Our DUTY is to NEVER GIVE IN when  the pressure is upon us and to always STAND OUR  GROUND.

For years i have toiled and struggled against this  oppressive/repressive nazi regime and many times i  have stood alone in these battles, because i  couldn't find anyone unafraid to stand with me  against the full weight of the MDOC. However, i  stood and that's what's important. It is important  for you to continue to STAND and not BEND no matter  what comes at you.

No matter what you have to face. STAND because i am  STANDING with You!

i am (and many others) are STANDING and the time  will come when we will be in "masses power" to do  what we need to do and what hasn't been done, in  Michigan's death kkkamp system in history. See what  I'm saying? But to move on that type of scale it is  going to take true sacrifice, time, study,  education and commitment. We (you and i) can and  will get there but i need soldiers like you not to  stop fighting and to continue moving...for in move- ment comes progress. i am not going to suggest to you to stop your solo  act. Solo acts are good, but don't make any solo  moves that could cause you harm without anybody  knowing how to speak on what happened to you and so  forth. Comrade, i am extending my hand and my love  out to you. If you'd like please contact me and i  will stay in serious contact with you and let you  know (more personally) what you can do and what i  and the PPWVC are doing. If you want this then  contact me through MIM...

As to my other Michigan comrade who wrote the  article, "Prisoners must wait hours for the  bathroom, while pigs go in the food" dated Aug. 26,  1996 [MIM Notes#126]. Dig comrade, the same thing i  mentioned to our brotha also applies to you. Do not  give up. You can contact me also. As for the pig  pissing in the food...i have no doubts over what  you said because I know of pigs committing MURDER,  which I wrote about in MIM Notes, i also know of  pigs beating a womyn at the Scotts Wimmin facility  into a coma and of pigs doing all sorts of acts.  But what i want to say to you is this...there is  redress....

In the trenches,

A PPWVC Michigan Prisoner, 3 Dec. 96

MIM ADDS:  We agree that prisoners should be  educating and organizing themselves and others; and  exposing the atrocities of imperialism. While the  pigs are able to buy off some prisoners, remember  the pigs and imperialists are the principal enemy  not the misguided prisoner. It is good that this  prisoner has been able to find other prisoners to  work with and found an effective way to minimize  the pigs' destructive influences. We hope that  Under Lock and Key provides many comrades behind  bars with connections to others engaged in the  struggle, both inside and on the outside.

 "WAKE UP AND UNITE TO THE REVOLUTION OF THE PEOPLE  OF ALL SHADES"

 Hello Comrades, ...I liked most of what I read in  as far as your general attitude toward imperialism  and the fascist capitalists, however, I felt that  you are attacking a group of people instead of a  type of people. Allow me to explain where I am  coming from then perhaps what I am saying will make  more sense to you.

I was born a white of the proletariat class. As I  was growing up, we had little to nothing. I never  had shoes or clothes without holes and patches. I  was looked down upon because I was not of the  bourgeoisie class. I became anti-establishment and  have remained such all my life. It was when I  finally got a break and got to go to college that I  began to learn of all the real truths and lies of  this imperialistic/capitalistic regime I live in.

During my two semesters of Russian history, I heard  of and began to learn of and about Carl Marx and  Lenin. The more I studied about them the more I  began to appreciate the fact that there is a better  way out there. I began to learn the truth about  socialism and communism. I could then see the lies  and unfair propaganda this imperialistic/capitalist  establishment has spread about socialism in their  attempt to stifle the growth of power to the  people. I believe the key term here is THE PEOPLE.

I believe that before a successful revolution  against the establishment,  (imperialistic/capitalistic fascist police state)  we must stop behaving in the like manner, not as  races, as we are all of the human race. It must be  a state of mind not a state of culture. Who knows,  just maybe we can even undo some of the  brainwashing of the bourgeoisie done by the  aristocracy that makes up this fascist police state  establishment. Remember the bourgeoisie are also  oppressed and repressed, they just refuse to  recognize it or admit to the truth of the matter.

...I am an overt socialist communist. I am a  student of Marxist/Leninist socialism. I mention  this because I too run into the same adversity as  the comrade from Michigan. In the Under Lock and  Key section of the MIM Notes "Prisoner Unity in  Michigan Questioned." Well I just want to say that  Michigan is not the only state in which this  disunity exists. I am doing a life bit in a maximum security  facility in Wisconsin and the Inmates here are more  worried about their tv's and gym shoes than they  are about their human rights. When one of us  litigators tries to do something to protect their  rights, we are met with opposition or apathy. It is  literally bucking the establishment alone.

This little fascist regime here does all they can  to keep us litigators segregated from one another.  If we attempt to pass a petition around, anyone and  everyone connected goes to the hole. And it is the  inmates helping the establishment [who] keep us  convicts with heart from organizing any form of  revolutionary resistance against this fascist  regime.

Most of the inmates simply want to sit by passively  as the establishment strips them of every human  quality they once had. They are content to lay back  passively watching their tvs as the establishment  strips them of their human dignities. They also  fall into this far too wide spread of racism which  the establishment strives to keep stirred up. They  do not get it, as long as the establishment has the  races at each other's throats we are too busy  resisting each other to resist their fascism.

Isn't it time we all woke up and unite to the  revolution of the PEOPLE OF ALL SHADES?

I would be very interested in your response to my  views, as I too am always open to good constructive  criticism.

A Wisconsin Prisoner, 1 December 1996

MIM RESPONDS: MIM agrees that prisoners should not  fight each other and instead should work together  against the imperialist establishment. We also  agree that the pigs benefit from the disunity of  prisoners and are the number one cause of disunity  of prisoners. While some prisoners may be passive  or work against revolution, prisoners are not the  main force keeping "convicts with heart from  organizing any form of revolutionary resistance  against this fascist regime." Please keep in mind  that the pigs are causing the distrust between  prisoners. It is the pigs who bribe and pay other  inmates to sell out the revolution. And as you  yourself demonstrate, many prisoners are not  passive and cannot be bought. Check out last  month's MIM Notes (No. 133) where a prisoner who  was paid to kill another instead signed a statement  against the pigs. [ULK article "South Carolina  Prisoner Collects Evidence on Injustice System"].  Please remember your comrades who know it is  revolution not television that best serves their  interests. You and all the authors published in  Under Lock and Key are proof of that many prisoners  will not stand by and let pigs take their humanity.

On the question of skin color, MIM does not buy  into identity politics, i.e., because you are white  you cannot be revolutionary or because you are  Black you are automatically revolutionary. MIM does  recognize that Amerikkka is made up of many  nations:  hundreds of indigenous nations, the Black  nation, several Latino nations, and the white  nation, along with other national minorities who do  not yet make up coherent nations. While MIM does  not discount individuals from the white nation, MIM  has determined that the white nation as a whole is  not a revolutionary force. The white nation,  working class included, has benefited from the  spoils of genocide, slavery and the extraction of  wealth off the backs of most of the world. So while  you as an individual are a friend of the  revolution, the white nation as a whole has an  interest in supporting imperialism.

 A UNITY OF SMARTNESS NOT IGNORANCE

 Dear MIM, In response to the November 15th, Under  Lock and Key, by a comrade who claims to find no  unity amongst prisoners. In part it could be agreed  to [that there is no unity], when you try placing  yourself as being one who wishes to judge his  fellow man as not on equal footing as oneself. I have come to an upper prison here in michigan, 14  months ago. And I have found quite a few comrades  who have had enough of the corruptive behavior by  administrative pigs by letting these sacrificial  pigs do as they please. [We are] beginning to start  a campaign to put an end to it by working with an  outside force, as well as inside.

Going into my 15th year [of being political], one  must be conscious of what's going on around him,  cause not just anyone can become a part of a  unified body who seeks to go up against this well  organized, corrupted group of the MDOC [Michigan  Department of Corrections].

We will not be amongst those who fall apart from  the inside. If you are a worthy comrade who  believes as we do and have learned there are no big  i's and little u's, then you are welcome amongst a  strong group of brothers who will seek your  assistance. No longer will our plans make it to the  officials before acted upon.

Comrade you must not think that because one does  not jump up and act when someone else decides that  because of a happening, it's time to tear things  up.

It is not a unity of ignorance, stupidity or  foolishness. It is smartness that we practice today  because we will not be defeated. We will be  organized. Destroying objects is not the practice  we uphold.

My words to you comrades, who think there is no  unity, you better wake up before you are left  behind. Because those who are left behind are the  ones who have to accept their conditions. Although  there are those who are weak and can't make the  stand we are your allies and are standing for you,  as we are standing for ourselves.

Remember just as they (the pigs) stand together, so  must we if they are to be defeated.

No more putting your comrade down because he is not  like you.

No more fighting and arguing amongst yourselves.  And definitely stop alienating people because of  race, because we are all in it together if change  is to be made...

Sincere in the Struggle,

A Michigan Prisoner, 26 Dec. 96

MIM ADDS: This letter asks a good question, "Do you  as a revolutionary, consider yourself on equal  footing with your fellow prisoners, or do you think  you are above them?" It is good to consider that  one may be feeling isolated because s/he has put  him/herself above his/her peers. It is important  not to discount prisoners who may not be doing  revolutionary work. As the PPWVC comrade above said  it is our duty to educate and organize for  revolution.

Another important point addressed in this letter  is, What are we organizing to do? This comrade is  sharing his strategies on how to successfully  organize, without pig infiltration, to make changes  toward revolution. The letter writer and MIM do not  advocate random acts of violence or destroying  things, but a planned strategy to organize and  fight winnable battles.

 "WHAT CAN I DO?"

Revolutionary Greetings, ...Your papers offer me  enlightening information on injustices nationwide  and how to strategically alleviate and rebel  against these inequities.

My only problem is extending this knowledge amongst  my peers, who are zealously devoted to helping each  other fall face down without any practiced tactics  to put the oppressor on their back.

I feel abandoned in a vacant state of helplessness  when I witness my fellow brothas fight each other  over trivial matters and engage in meaningless  disputes. These potential warriors misdirect their energy,  thus becoming lifeless when sparks fly from  sporadic revolutionary performances.

I've tried and tried again to united the masses and  illustrate to my brothers that it is essential that  we rise up against oppression. However, my attempts  are futile. What can I do?

Much Love,

A Wisconsin Prisoner, 10 December 1996

MIM RESPONDS:  Comrade, you are not alone. The  words of you and your comrades printed in Under  Lock and Key are just a small testimony to that  fact. It is true that "potential warriors misdirect  their energy" and engage in trivial disputes, at  times. MIM would suggest trying to engage other  prisoners in political debates. Often times sharing  MIM Notes can often generate discussion of  political ideas. Organize a study group to discuss  MIM Notes so that you can have the opportunity to  struggle with people about these ideas. And in the  mean time, don't lose heart if your organizing  efforts don't pay off right away. You are fighting  alongside many comrades in other prisons and on the  outside and there are many contributions you can  make to the revolution from behind bars.

 RESPONSES OF SUPPORT TO TEXAS WOMYN'S SEXUAL ABUSE

 In accordance with this discussion of unity. The  following letters were written in support of the  Texas prisoner whose letter, titled "Unwanted  Sexual Advances Behind Texas Prison Walls" was  printed in MIM Notes issue #128.

 KEEP YOUR HEAD UP HIGH AND STAY STRONG

Dear MIM, ...I'm the RHU [Restricted Housing Unit]  for 90 days . . . I was on the gate talking to my  neighbor and he gave me your paper to read. The  issue he gave me was MIM Note, #128, December 15,  1996. On page 8 I say an article about a lady in  prisoner in Texas, dated October 12th. She wrote  you guys saying she was sexually assaulted.

Well I think that the captain that did this to her  should be found and sent to prison so he can see  what it's like on the other side, meaning being  locked down. He probably would get his ass beat for  doing what he did, because word gets around behind  these walls. I could imagine what this lady is  going through. I bet it's hard for her to get  letters out to people and places. I just wanted to  say I believe they will find this pervert and make  him pay for what he has done to this lady's mind  and life.

If you're reading this letter, "Mrs. Texas", hang  in there. Keep your head up high and stay strong. I  know it's hard for you, but they will get this  captain and he will pay for what he has done to  you. Stay strong.

Your friend and first time reader of MIM,

A Pennsylvania Prisoner, 4 January 1997

 JAILHOUSE LAWYER OFFERS ASSISTANCE TO TEXAS COMRADE

 Dear MIM, ...I'm concerned about the lady who wrote  the "Unwanted Sexual Advances Behind Texas Prison  Walls" article in the December 15, 1996 portion of  MIM Notes' Under Lock and Key. I am concerned  because she is proceeding Pro Se without any real  knowledge of Federal Procedure. It is clear that  she has been damaged and I would hate to see her  lose her action simply because she is  unknowledgeable in the law.

Although she has a de facto claim, it is another  story all together to be able to put those facts on  paper so as to state a prima facie cause of action.  I noticed that the lady stated that she was  concerned that the defendants may be entitled to  "qualified immunity" because they were action under  color of state law.

This in and of itself, demonstrates to me that she  has most likely failed to state facts in support of  her claims that would entitle her to relief. If the  facts are properly alleged in black and white, the  defendant would not be entitled to "qualified  immunity" under any set of circumstances because he  was acting outside of his job duties and violated  clearly established law.

In connection, if the other defendant acted in  concert to cover-up the sexual assault, she may  have a claim under Title 18 U.S.C. 241 and 242, as  well as 1983 of Title 42. The Title 18 claim is  criminal conspiracy charges which carries ten years  each. At any rate it is very possible that she  could collect damages as well as seek several  different types of criminal action.

It is unusual that I get involved in other people's  claims because I have so many of my own to keep me  occupied. However, I could not allow myself to sit  back and allow this lady to proceed Pro Se by  herself. While sexual assaults are not my  specialty, I would like to assist in any way I can.  Normally the issues of law concerning the  defendants "affirmative defenses" are boiler plate  and would apply to her case as well....  Additionally, I have numerous concerned citizens on  the outside, that may help in finding the  defendants location for service if they have not  yet been served....

A South Carolina Prisoner, 8 January 1997