Federal Prisons

Spotlight

Open Road Films

2015

In 2001, reporters at the Boston Globe newspaper exposed widespread sexual abuse of children by priests in the Catholic Church and the long-running coverup of this abuse by Church leadership. Priests who were known to have molested children were moved to new parishes where they repeated the abuse, with full knowledge of Church leadership. The Globe printed a series of stories that led to the resignation of Cardinal Law and great embarrassment for the Church. Spotlight dramatizes the work done by the reporting team at the Globe to uncover the facts in this case, and the resistance they faced in a city dominated by the Catholic Church.

Overall Spotlight does a good job demonstrating the tremendous harm that the institution of the Catholic Church did to thousands (likely tens of thousands) of youth, and the pervasive influence and power of the Church in the city of Boston, Massachusetts. No attempt is made to justify the actions of the Church leadership who covered for the abusive priests, nor does the movie suggest that anything was changed by the newspaper stories, instead concluding with a list of hundreds of cities around the world where similar abuse scandals were uncovered.

It is outrageous and enraging to see the stories of abused children, the lucky ones who made it to adulthood, and hear about Church authorities who, upon learning about these cases, moved to silence the abused, promising it would never happen again, even while they knew the priests had a history of exactly this same abuse against other children. It is an interesting contrast that, while quick to believe that all Muslims are terrorists when a small minority of them fight back against imperialism, Amerikans presented with so much evidence would never consider calling all Catholics child molesters. Even non-Catholics in the United $tates are well indoctrinated to believe that the churches are forces for good and Christianity is a religion of good people.

In the end the movie lets the Catholic Church off the hook. By focusing on just this sex abuse scandal, Spotlight portrays the rest of the Church activities as generally benevolent. Further, it implies that the abusive priests are just psychologically impaired in some way, and so this has allowed the Catholic Church to say they've solved the problem by introducing psychological screening for those wanting to enter priesthood. We believe it is the very institution of the Catholic Church, along with the patriarchy that it so ardently supports, that leads priests to be indoctrinated into eroticizing power over helpless young kids. It's not a flaw in the individual, but rather the system itself that is flawed, and not in a way that can be fixed by psychological screenings. Religion has a long history of supporting the patriarchal dominance of male power and reinforcing gender inequality.

One problem with focusing on the serious harm the Catholic Church does to Amerikkkans is the omission of the even greater harm the Church has done globally. Consistently a force for reaction, the Church at best has pretended neutrality while watching dictators murder, plunder, and oppress entire nations of people. Just as Spotlight shows the power and influence of the Catholic Church in all levels of Boston's city politics, in many cases there is documentation of this Church's support for and work with reactionary governments around the world.

As a strong centralized religious institution with a long history, the Catholic Church is an easy target for people looking to document the reactionary role of religious institutions. But they are just one example of the harm religious institutions have on society. After overthrowing the imperialists and putting a government in power that serves the interests of the oppressed (a dictatorship of the proletariat), the people will have the power to ban reactionary institutions. When we see the tremendous harm that the Catholic Church did to so many children over so many years, it should be obvious that this institution should be outlawed. And those who perpetuated and covered up the molestation should face the people's courts. There is no justification for allowing such dangerous institutions to continue.

Yet, we don't need to outlaw religion as a belief under the dictatorship of the proletariat. As Mao explained about their policy in China under socialism:

"The Communist Party has adopted a policy of protecting religions. Believers and non-believers, believers of one religion or another, are all similarly protected, and their faiths are respected. Today, we have adopted this policy of protecting religions, and in future we will still maintain this policy of protection." (Talk with Tibetan Delegates, October 8, 1952)

I want to report another way the system tortures people in the Security Housing Units(SHU). Corcoran and Mule Creek State Prisons both throw away your legal mail. They do this in your face and behind your back.

I've tried to report this to the Inspector General and other offices. I filed a 602 grievance, but this don't work if your 602 arrive at the Office of the Appeal Coordinator. If you looking for help from the Office of the Ombudsman, this never happens, because the officer in both prisons tnrow away your mail in your face or they simply send back your envelope. The mail room has some yellow stickers that say "returned" and look just like those of the U.S. Postal Service, but it is easy to tell the difference if you look closely. They do this even when you have the correct address.

I lost my habeus corpus case because Mule Creek never sent out my extension time motion on 19 February 2015. I seen the officer throw it in the trash. At Mule Creek, officers Winkilend and Rechason do this a lot. Both officers are the only Black officers in the segregation building. Rechason likes to write "Refused signature", when that was never what happened.

The same thing happens at Corcoran. Here they often use the excuse that my name is written in a different order than in their database, even though they have the correct ID number. They don't deliver mail, magazines and even legal mail. Over here it is Officers Ponce, Lawrence and Padstoff who do that regularly.

I write a lot, it's true, but that is my problem. I'm working on my case. Officer Ponce and Lawrence told me in my face "fuck you write a lot" and they said I had a lot of mail and can't continue like that. Wow! What?! Like that in my face.

Over a year ago I was diagnosed with Hepatitis C, a chronic liver disease. At one time I started treatment for Hepatitis B, something I didn't have. I told them I never requested this. Medical responded that it was for my protection. Medical care here is horrible. I keep complaining about my treatment, but the medical staff says there are people sicker than me. They have a new treatment but it costs a lot. However I am looking for some legal assistance in this matter. I have found out the pill they bring me is for asthma, an allergic disease. I don't have asthma, or no allergies and I know it has caused some liver damage. I started having some bad abdominal pains. I stopped taking the pill. And did my own research and found out this pill was not for my treatment. Can you assist me in finding a lawyer in this matter?

The biggest issue I see and hear about here is the constant racism by the white officers who are the only Monday thru Friday regulars. We have only 1 black officer who works on Saturday only. The rest of the week it is white pigs who work.

For clarification, I am a white man! I am gay! I am Jewish! an I am a self-educated, revolutionary, prisoner advocate! These facts, and the fact that I fight and advocate equality for all, makes me a target by the white racists and the one black officer.

But I refuse to be subdued.

Clothing, linen, grievances, and forms and supplies are some other issues. Clothing takes months to receive (I've been waiting 2.5 months with only 2 boxers and 2 pairs of socks in my cell). Linen gets exchanged once every 2 months (if we're lucky). Grievances unanswered or denied unjustly. And all CDCR Forms (602s, 22s, etc) and supplies (ajax, toothbrush, combs, paper, pens, etc.) are rarely, if ever, supplied and the pigs say they "don't have any" or they're out.

I've been trying to get a California Code of Regulations, Title 15 without success since 09-23-2015.

Next I would like to inform you on the business I've been conducting. I have been studying with 2 other inmates on the tier and putting together a resource directly that I wish to distribute to all inmates free of charge (though I do ask for donations if possible).

I am denied access to proper health treatment and was forced to endure a yeast infection in my ears and on my rectum for almost seven years. When I complained the nurses would take my blood pressure and pretend they could not comprehend my complaint. I was finally able to get neomyc and polymycin, B. Sulfates and hydrocortison solution for my ears and yeast infection cream for my rectum. After several years of them neglecting my complaints as if I was delusional and suffered from a phantom itch.

They totally neglected my medical rights by framing me as mentally ill. I had a stroke that made the whole left side of my body go numb. That went untreated and undiagnosed because I went unseen by the doctors and could not get past the firewall of nurses who would not tell the doctors my complaints.

I want to join the fight for change because of these capitalist pigs that are only fair to people they consider worthy. They do not offer equal treatment to the people. The low people ruled by the big pig of the government. That have sinister desires towards the people they have authority over.

I filed a Step 1 grievance about the illegality of the restrictions on indigent correspondence. I cited Guajardo v. Estelle in my grievance. Below is the response I received from the Assistant Warden.

"The Unit Law Library operates in accordance with applicable policy. No action is warranted." - J. Alvarez, Asst. Warden

We, captives in the dungeon of the United Snakes of Amerikkka, have to realize that imperialism and religion were some of the main reasons many oppressed nations stay oppressed. I say this because religion instills false hope and cannot be trusted to bring an individual truth. Truth is within us. It's not some dogma that's external. A lot of us look for happiness in goods, money, fame, etc. But those things are illusions. What's real is our consciousness and attaining a higher realm of consciousness.

Imperialists use religions as a way to divide and conquer. Religion is also used to create racism and slavery. I am talking about mental enslavement. Militaries are built to protect the imperialist religions so that they can keep you in a daze and exploit you and control you. When the Europeans sailed to Africa they used religion as a tool to pacify. And in turn the Africans were turned into consumer goods used to work the lands taken from the First Nations. So we can see how religion is good and bad. But man must know thyself. And all superstitions should be thrown away.

Revolution will defeat imperialism before religion does. And not because of turning the other cheek. But realizing that this school of thought does nothing but enslave minds to support a corrupt system to oppress nations all over the world. So I conclude to say revolution will bring heaven here on this earth. But religion will bring hell and divide us all. Unite and fight imperialism.

MIM(Prisons) responds: We have a lot of unity with this comrade's comments on religion as a tool of national oppression. However, we do not agree that "What's real is our consciousness and attaining a higher realm of consciousness." Lenin wrote the book Materialism and Empirio-Criticism to refute the ideology of subjective idealism which remains popular to this day among those who want people to focus on raising their own consciousness while ignoring the external material world, as if self-improvement is a revolutionary act in and of itself. As Lenin explained, "the fundamental premise of materialism is the recognition of the external world, of the existence of things outside and independent of our mind..." Ey makes it clear that we must look at matter and not just consciousness as a part of the materialist method: "Matter is primary, and thought, consciousness, sensation are products of a very high development. Such is the materialist theory of knowledge, to which natural science instinctively subscribes." This is important because if we focus only on our own consciousness we will never be compelled to act to create material change in the world. This is essentially what religions tells people, but religion focuses the consciousness-raising on knowing a god or higher power. Both approaches will leave the suffering in the real world untouched.

I have been unable to respond promptly due to various things happening here in the SHU. For example, based on the settlement agreement a lot of people are going up for committee and getting kicked back out to the mainline.

Well it seems these pigs aren't liking the settlement and have instituted a mass search from block to block. Mines was hit a few weeks back and to appease their anger/or retribution almost all radios and CD players were confiscated with the excuse of gluing shut the battery console or the security tape/seal is in the wrong place or tampered with therefore rules violation reports (RVRs) were issued out! The same with certain TVs!

Yeah things took a turn where petty nit-picking was given a new meaning. My circumstances were just as bad. After my whole pod was pulled out and placed in visiting rooms to await our pod search for nearly 5 hours. We were escorted back only for some to find total disarray in our cells, confiscated radios for similar reasons as explained above and I noticed my TV was damaged I brought to the supervising sgt attention who was willing to have my TV repaired until I mention the pig who searched my cell must of did something foul for which he immediately flipped the script and attempted to accuse me of damaging my own TV to gain something from CDCR. This blatant denial of the obvious was in attempts to have me react negatively to get sprayed out. For which I didn't, due to my placement that same day for transfer it didn't seem like a wise decision.

This just goes to show how CDCR behaves when pressure is put on them to change their policies of unconstitutional practices. Recently I have mentioned that while people have been getting kicked out the SHU their cells have been left vacant. This still holds true as of me writing this. The pigs are beginning to fill up empty cells on the lower tier with prisoners from upper tier whether it's same pod or not, my pod is currently full because of people form other pods moving in. We inquired as to when more people will drive up and we were told until whole tiers are left vacant. An ambiguous response as there's at least 3 pods with up to 5 or less people. 2 pods have no one on upper tier. So I'm not sure in what direction the SHU is heading or what purpose it will serve in the near future? While the big search on our block the sergeant actually told a whole pod that this will become common practice due to training COs and maintaining their employment for our releases will make their jobs obsolete in the SHU. The veracity of this pig's tirade is plausible yet we've heard other rumors for our blocks search/raid the underlying issue is the pigs are seeking retribution and looking for anything to write us up for.

I didn't get hit with a RVR as the pigs raiding my cell damaged my TV (intentionally or accidentally) is questionable, although I had to file a 602 and the outcome is yet to come at my new facility.

I've been really busy with that lawsuit on the conditions here, and other complaints and organizing activities related to that. The good news is that the judge reviewed the law on the case, and ruled that if the allegations are true the prison officials are violating the law, and so they must respond. He ordered them to be served with the suit and gave them 40 days to respond.

The bad news is that they have gone back to canceling recreation all the time, for any pretext they can think of. But you know, that's how it goes.

Resolutions on Gender Pronouns and Secure Communications

A couple resolutions passed at our 2015 Congress in July. One was focused on clarifying our policy on securing our communications outside of prisons. The full policy remains internal, but it reads in part, "Our policy is that we do not have cell relations over the internet if the other cell will not use PGP or equivalent encryption." This clarifies our existing practice.

The second resolution was proposed to change our use of pronouns to reflect the non-binary reality of biological sex categories. This proposal was taken as a task for further research as comrades were not well enough informed on the topic to put it to a vote at that time. Below is our final resolution on this question, as a result of further research and discussion.

Distinguishing Biology from Gender

As revolutionaries committed to fighting gender oppression, we distinguish between the biology/physiology of sex (male/female), and the socially constructed categories of gender (men/wimmin).

Our definition of gender places it firmly within leisure-time:

"Historically reproductive status was very important to gender, but today the dynamics of leisure-time and humyn biological development are the material basis of gender. For example, children are the oppressed gender regardless of genitalia, as they face the bulk of sexual oppression independent of class and national oppression.

"People of biologically superior health-status are better workers, and that's a class thing, but if they have leisure-time, they are also better sexually privileged. We might think of models or prostitutes, but professional athletes of any kind also walk this fine line. Athletes, models and well-paid prostitutes are not oppressed as 'objects,' but in fact they hold sexual privilege. Older and disabled people as well as the very sick are at a disadvantage, not just at work but in leisure-time. For that matter there are some people with health statuses perfectly suited for work but not for leisure-time."(1)

Our definition of gender has not changed. But with our growing understanding of the artificially binary definition of biological sex, MIM(Prisons) is changing our use of language to better reflect the reality of biology.

A Bit of History on Biology

In the past MIM line has treated the biology of sex as basically binary: males and females. But humyn biology has never been entirely binary with relation to sex characteristics. There are a range of interactions between chromosomes, hormone expressions and sexual organ development. The resulting variation in anatomical and reproductive characteristics include a lot of people who do not fit the standard binary expectation. Studies suggest that as many as 1 in 100 births deviate from the standard physical expectations of sex biology.(2) To this day anything deviating from the "normal" binary of distinct male or female is seen by mainstream society as a disorder to be corrected or covered up. Genital surgeries are conducted on newborn babies causing lifelong pain and suffering just to "correct" a body part that is seen as too large or small, or even just because a baby identified by doctors to be a boy might grow up unable to pee standing up.(3)

People who are born with variations in sex and reproductive organs that don't fit the typical binary are termed intersex. This term encompasses a wide range of biological expressions, including people entirely indistinguishable from society's definition of males and females without a chromosomal test or other invasive physical examination. There are even instances where someone would be identified female by a certain set of criteria (such as an external physical examination) but male by another set (such as a chromosome test).

The Value of Removing Biologically-determined Pronouns

From studying the history of humyn biology we learn that it's not possible to easily identify the biological sex of an individual. In fact, there's nothing wrong with having a spectrum of biological characteristics that we don't have to fit into two neat categories. Further, we do not generally see value in identifying biological sex unless it is the specific topic of discussion. We are committed to fighting gender oppression. And part of this fight involves teaching people not to be concerned with the biology of others, and instead to judge them for their work and the correctness of their political ideas.

Many languages are relatively gender neutral compared to english. Chinese is just one example. These languages do not suffer from confusion about the identity of people, and they are arguably much easier to learn and use in this regard. In Spanish, the transition to a gender neutral language has already begun with the use of @ in place of o/a in gendered words. While English does not offer us a similar gender-neutral option, we have a history of modifying the language to suit our revolutionary purposes. We have changed America to Amerikkka to identify the domination of national oppression in this country. And we have changed woman to womyn to remove the implication that a "woman" is just an appendage to a "man."

Building on MIM's Legacy

For most of MIM's history, it used gender-neutral pronouns of "h" instead of his, her, him, hers; and "s/he" instead of she or he. Ten years ago at MIM's 2005 Congress, a resolution was passed on gender-neutral pronouns, which read:

"MIM hereby extends its policy on anti-patriarchal language (including such spellings as 'womyn,' 'wimmin,' 'persyn,' and 'humyn') to cover the use of gender-neutral third-person singular pronouns. Henceforth feminine pronouns will be used for persyns of unknown sex who are friends of the international proletariat and masculine pronouns will be used for enemies of unknown sex.

"Examples:
'From each according to her abilities, to each according to her needs.'
'A true comrade devotes her life to serving the people.'
'The enemy will not perish of himself.'
'A labor aristocrat derives much of his income from superprofits.'

"This rule applies only to the otherwise ambiguous cases when sex is not stated. Accordingly, George Bu$h is still 'he' and Madeleine Albright is 'she,' although both are enemies. All MCs, HCs, and others close to MIM are 'she' at this time, since their real sex cannot be revealed, for security reasons.

"Traditional patriarchal grammar maintains that 'he' is the only correct 'gender-neutral' pronoun in all of the examples above. MIM's realignment of the pronouns along the lines of 'Who are our friends? Who are our enemies?' is more egalitarian and corresponds fairly well to the facts at this point in history."

While we see great value in the above resolution, in applying it to our practical work we ran into many problems. Regular readers of ULK may recognize that MIM(Prisons) has defaulted to the old MIM practice of using "h" and "s/he" pronouns.

The vast majority of MIM(Prisons)'s subscribers are cis-males, meaning they were classified as male at birth and they self-identify as male today. (Note that these criteria are not material tests of one's sex.) Much of our subscribers' reasons for being imprisoned in the first place is related to this male classification. And they are held in facilities that are "male only." Prison is an environment which heightens all of society's contradictions, and this environment tends to be even more violent in reinforcing social codes of conduct (including "male" and "female" social markers) than the outside world.

In our practice of running a prisoner support organization with our organizing resting heavily on the written word, we have seen it as too confusing to use "she" pronouns for our cis-male comrades. Further, the 2005 resolution is not clear on whether prisoners as a whole, who are of the lumpen class, should be referred to as "she" or "he." Historically the lumpen is a vacillating class, which is in a tug-of-war between bourgeois and proletarian influence. Determining if the lumpen are "friends of the international proletariat" is sometimes unclear. Thus the use of "h" and "s/he" was much more useful in our specific work.

We believe this new writing policy will have a positive impact for our transgender, transexual, and genderqueer subscribers and contributors as well. The preferred pronouns of these groups are often individually self-selected, as is how they present their gender identification. (Note that preferred pronouns and gender identification are not material definitions of one's sex or gender.) Defaulting everyone's pronouns to a singular set of gender-neutral pronouns reduces the subjectivism inherent in this type of identity politics. We hope our new writing policy will draw this movement into a more materialist and internationalist direction.

New Writing Policy

When referring to an individual in the third persyn, we will use either their name or the neutral pronouns of ey, em, and eir to replace s/he and h. Ey, em, and eir are singularized versions of they, them, and their and we believe these more accurately reflect the biological sex of humyns, in that they downplay the inaccurate binary which has developed over thousands of years of patriarchal history. We also think ey/em/eir will have the greatest ease of use, from the wide selection of gender neutral pronoun sets which have been proposed in the past.(5)

We define men and wimmin as those who are oppressors in leisure time and those who are oppressed in leisure time, respectively, and regardless of biological genitalia or reproductive capacity.(4) This is the strand of oppression called gender. When referring to people or individuals when gender is relevant, we will refer to them as men or wimmin and use he or she pronouns. (Similarly, we don't always reference other defining characteristics of our correspondents, but we do refer to someone as "New Afrikan" or "clean-shaven" when relevant.)