Under Lock & Key

Back in September we printed an article from a comrade in Virginia about PREA audits and why they do not work. This article did not appear in ULK, but touched on the abuses faced by wimmin in Federal Correctional Institution - Dublin (FCI-Dublin). On the ineffectiveness of PREA audits in Virginia, the comrade wrote about how the audits were pre-announced, communications with the auditors were done in front of staff, and once the auditors left, staff retaliated against prisoners who talked. Comrades in Pennsylvania and Texas have also reported on retaliation for filing PREA complaints, as is common for filing any kind of grievance against staff. The failure of PREA is just a subset of the failure of any accountability of prison staff across the country for abusing prisoners.

After the incidents at FCI-Dublin that were largely reported in 2022, nothing changed. This led to over 63 lawsuits being filed. On Monday, 11 March 2024, the FBI raided FCI-Dublin and arrested the acting Warden, Associate Warden, a Captain and an Executive Assistant who all lost their jobs. They were all members of the infamous “rape club” at FCI-Dublin, which continued on after previous firings in recent years.

“Federal law classifies any sexual contact between staff and incarcerated people as a felony punishable with up to 15 years in prison. But, as one incarcerated survivor testified during the trial of former Warden Ray Garcia, the Prison Rape Elimination Act “really doesn’t exist at Dublin.”(1)

PREA doesn’t really exist in most of this country, where grievances are routinely thrown in the trash and retaliation for filing PREA complaints is the norm. And this is not the first time the FBI has been involved in investigating and arresting FCI-Dublin staff for rape.

Trans Pride Initiative (TPI) is working to hold PREA auditors accountable in Texas. However, they report:

“Under PREA § 115.401(o), auditors “shall attempt to communicate with community-based or victim advocates who may have insight into relevant conditions in the facility.” TPI has seldom been contacted concerning information we have about Texas prisons, and the National PREA Resource Center, which oversees the audit process, has failed to hold auditors accountable to this requirement. TPI has developed a simple auditor tool for auditors to see current information about any unit that we have in our system, so they do not have to even contact us. They are required to list if they tried to contact others about prison information and who they contacted. We are seeing many auditors list no contacts, or contacts that are perfunctory and likely provided no information.”(3)

TPI has an impressive database of incidents of violence and retaliation against prisoners on their website. They want the details of dates, who did what, what happened, what was said, where it happened, witnesses, etc., which you can send to:

Before publishing this article, an investigation into suits filed under the Adult Survivors Act in New York City’s state supreme courts revealed that 719 of 1,256 cases came from Riker’s Island Jail.(2) That is, more than half of the suits filed in the whole city of New York for sexual assaults that had occurred in the past were filed against city correctional officers. Almost all of them came from the wimmin’s jail. Like the rest of the country, wimmin make up a small minority of prisoners at Rikers. While male-bodied prisoners face very high rates of sexual assault compared to the general U.$. population, it is clear that being in a wimmin’s prison puts you in one of the highest-risk groups to be sexually assaulted.(4) And within men’s prisons, being trans, gay, queer, intersex, smaller or weaker will all put you at greater risk as the reports below suggest.

Gender oppression is built in to the U.$. prison system. Despite laws, lawsuits and FBI raids, it is not going away on its own. It is only by organizing the oppressed to stand together that we can put an end to these abuses.

Below are a couple recent reports from Polunsky Unit in Texas on how PREA incidents are handled. TPI’s data shows they have received many more PREA reports from other Texas prisons, including: Allred, Hughes, Connally, Telford and Stiles Units.(5)

A Trans Prisoner at Polunsky Unit in Texas Reported in March 2024: I put a Step 1 Grievance against one officer and wrote to the Ombudsman in Huntsville and he denied any allegations and got other officers to start to do stuff to me. I wrote to the Warden Mr. Anderson and I was placed around other gang members who keep threatening to harm me and call me punk, snitch, hoe and all that and use officers against me. Last month another officer name Suniga started threatening to harm me and sexually harassed me.

…Later Suniga got mad at me and threatened to take my booty shorts and other clothes. He told all those other inmates that I’m snitching on them with the I.G. who coming to investigate me for the incident with the other officer I mention before. And they took my jail housing manual charter #30 for the LGBTQ inmates with all the PREA standards, rules and regulations for jailers and inmates.

He took it and threw it away, so I put a step 1 grievances and sent a letter to the PREA offices in Huntsville, who are doing an investigation, and the PREA officer respond back and said they did an investigation but can’t go forward because Mr. Suniga resigned from his job. Now no body want to do anything or restore my papers which I don’t get for free. …even if Suniga quit his job, the TDCJ should be responsible for what he did while he were employed at the TDCJ.

A female officer who worked with Suniga before and knows that I put a Step 1 against Suniga, works here named Ms. Smith. When she came to my cell door she tell me that I got her friend in trouble and she refused to feed me my lunch. She said that she was going to write me up for not being dressed appropriately because I was wearing my shorts and she said that she don’t care if I were punk, transgender, or whatever.

They stop our physical mail claiming that too much drugs are coming into the TDCJ units. She worry about me wearing booty shorts, but drugs still get here every day. And not only K2, they get methamphetamine, ice, weed, all kind. I know because I seen who bring into the C pod. And I got notes in my cell right now, on 8 March 2024, on people who ask me if I want to buy K2 and ice, but I can’t say shit because if I do or report it to the I.G. or STG they going to let these gang members know that I told on them and more retaliations going to occur.

I am the only transgender or gay at C. Pod. All other inmates here are gang members or part of some groups. I filed I-60 requests and send letters to classification in Huntsville asking to move me to a pod or unit where most LGBTQ prisoners are and never get a reply or get moved. It is so cruel what they doing to us. About a month ago, someone killed himself on C. pod. And two others try to cut they self too… Now, one more time, I ask please help me with legal assistance to put a stop to all this abuse. Thank you and hope I can hear from y’all or someone who want to help me.

Another Polunsky Unit prisoner wrote us in March 2024: I was called out by Captain Cerda concerning a PREA Safe Prison for sexual harassment and sexual assault…. he began asking me what’s up with this letter to PREA Ombudsman. I began to explain and he said, “aw hell, we got to do this whole PREA thing.” He then hands me a statement sheet. I ask for the dates for the PREA letter and times, but he said “don’t worry about it, just leave ’em out.” I told him I needed them cause this inmate was suppose to be out of his assigned work area and in safe keeping, and I’ve written PREA Ombudsman about this repeatedly. He stated, “If we weren’t so short handed all this shit wouldn’t be happening and if TDCJ had housing, safe keeping wouldn’t be on my fucking unit cause I damn sure don’t want yall here!”

I felt badgered and like I was wrong for filing the complaint with only half the info. And with Captain Cerda’s demeanor and Lt. Rodriguez throwing questions in… and her standing over me I felt pressured and I wrote as little as possible. I just wanted to be away from them.

…TDCJ Executive Directive PD22 #4 Tampering with a witness violation level 1: states “An employee shall not attempt to hinder or influence in any manner the testimony or information or any witness or potential witness in an investigation or administrative proceeding.”

<sup>Notes: 1. Victoria Law, 14 March 2024, FBI Raids California Prison Facing 63 Lawsuits Over Systemic Sexual Abuse, Truthout.
2. Jessy Edwards and Samantha Max, 26 March 2024, Late-night sex assaults. Invasive searches. The 700+ women alleging abuse at Rikers, The Gothamist.
3. Trans Pride Initiative PREA website
4. MIM(Prisons), September 2007, Gender Oppression in Prisons, Under Lock & Key No. 1.
5. TPI Prison Data Explorer</sup>

All Power to New Afrika

In the previous issues of the ULK there have been several articles, wherein, We expanded upon how these prisons serve as a repressive arm of the oppressor nation, and how they are used as an apparatus to wage war against New Afrikans and other oppressed nations here in United $tates. There have been some well written diatribes, however, We’ve neglected to point out how this way impacts our children.

There are approximately 1.7 million parents incarcerated across the United $tates, leaving behind approximately 3 million children suffering the loss of a mother, or the loss of a father, and in some cases the loss of both primary care givers. This has resulted in Our children suffering immense trauma due to their separation from their parents, similar to that of losing their parent to death. This can lead to severe depression, anxiety, high-rates of obesity and behavioral issues.

The combination of trauma, shame and stigma has led the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to label paternal incarceration an Adverse Childhood Experiences (A.C.E.).

Currently, 50% of juveniles that are in detention centers actually have a parent in prison and there are some studies that say children of incarcerated parents are 7 times more likely to end up in prison than their peers.

One in 57 children of European descendant have a parent that is incarcerated, it is 1 in 28 for Chican@ children and to no surprise 1 in 9 New Afrikan children have a parent that is incarcerated.

You see when a parent is charged with committing a “crime” law enforcement and the judicial system intervenes a behalf of the “victim” of the committed “crime,” however, no one intervenes on behalf of the children of the prisoner. These children are left to suffer.

This is by design. The aforementioned numbers reflect the genocide being carried out against New Afrikans.

Article II of the Convention of the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, adopted by United Nations General Assembly on December 9, 1948 states in part that Genocide means ANY of the following acts committed with INTENT to destroy in whole or part, a national, ethical, “racial” or religious group, as such:

A. Killing members of the group;

B. Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

C. Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

D. Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group.

The oppressor nation has had well over 400 years to perfect those methods of genocide. Beginning with the aggressive European invasion of Afrika, it progressed with the euro-Amerikkkan slave trade during which millions of Afrikans died during the “middle passage.” All the deaths of Afrikans on slave ships at the hands of village raids, and city police, were acts of genocide.

Amerikkka is still the enemy, and today it uses its prisons as genocidal weapons. Amerikkkan prisons are instruments used to practice political, economic, and social oppression of New Afrikan people. Prisons are used to practice genocide, to practice physical and mental destruction of the group, and as one of the instruments used to prevent the group’s successful struggle for liberation Amerikkan prisons are Koncentration Kamps. The entire U.$. “criminal justice system” is used as an arm of the government to repress and destroy the national liberation struggle, sadly this includes our children.

Post Script: i need to inform North Carolina Prisoners that our (S.W.A.P) address has changed. Prisoners should write to:

At the moment our support is limited to providing the New Afrikan P.O.W. Journals to NC prisoners. If you are interested in supporting the Do M.O.R.E. (Mobilize Organize Revolutionize & Educate) campaign. i entreat that you write to us with your ideas.

The primary objective of the campaign is to have the Security Risk Group (SRG) sanctions and restrictions removed from prisoners who don’t pose a “threat” to the “security” of the prison system. Please write for details.

In our last issue we covered the mythology of sex crimes being painted onto Hamas in the imperialist media, and the flaunting of beautiful, young, “white” wimmin to rouse the hunger for war in the men of the United $tates, Britain and I$rael itself. In effect they have turned the genocide in Palestine into a rape revenge fantasy.

Since that article, multiple news agencies have done further investigation into the claims made by the New York Times and echoed across the imperialist media. Yes! and The Intercept both conducted investigations, and to those paying attention, it seems very clear that there is actually no real evidence of rape committed on October 7th, especially by Hamas itself. Both investigations report on the experience of one of the lead investigators for the New York Times, who questioned eir own qualifications to be working on the article, and hit dead end after dead end while intentionally trying to dig up information on alleged rapes. This “reporter,” Anat Schwartz, also liked a tweet saying that I$rael needed to “turn the [Gaza] strip into a slaughterhouse.”(1)(2)

Another figure in this propaganda campaign, Cochav Elkayam-Levy, was hosted by the White House in December, whom it described in a press statement as the “Chair of Israel’s Civil Commission on October 7 Crimes by Hamas Against Women and Children.” Since then ey has been the center of scandal in I$rael where it has been exposed that the “Commission” is just one persyn, and despite its name is not an official state commission. Elkayam-Levy released a “Horrors Report” that was 4 pages long, listing newspaper headlines and some signatures. Meanwhile ey attempted to raise $8 million for the “Commission’s” investigation.(3)

While working on this article another New York Times piece came out claiming that an I$raeli prisoner was sexually assaulted. This came out months after her release and having given a press conference on her imprisonment. It also came out shortly after that new evidence had been uncovered to prove some of their claims about rapes on October 7th false. In reality, it was already known that these claims were false before the original article came out.(4) What is not debated is the fact that these wimmin were killed in the October 7th attack. The grandfather of the two girls killed by Hamas, mentioned in the NYT report on rape, said it “was the saddest day of my life.” So why is it so necessary for the imperialists to create these stories that they were raped as well? Finally, this new sexual assault story comes to light as I$rael is conducting an intentional mass starvation campaign and destruction of medical care in the Gaza Strip and as footage is released of I$raeli drones hunting down and murdering unarmed Palestinians walking down the street.

The imperialist media has at times painted the myth of sexual assaults on October 7th as the greatest tragedy in the conflict in Palestine. Greater than the almost 35,000 dead Palestinians, greater than the thousands of Palestinian babies starving to death as we write this, even greater than the hundreds of I$raeli lives taken.

Meanwhile, many U.$. prisoners are confused by the state to think that anyone with a “sex offender” label has assaulted children. And they see this assault of children, whether real or imagined, by another prisoner as the greatest tragedy that they will sacrifice their body and their freedom to avenge. This is a greater tragedy to them than the tens of thousands of oppressed nation men and wimmin being tortured every day by the U.$. prison system. The 100,000 rotting away in long-term isolation. The minds of multiple generations being zombified by chemical warfare agents being brought in and sold by the guards. Staff beating people to within an inch of their lives over frivolous trespasses. Some of our misled readers would rather attack another prisoner than avenge these atrocities of the state.

Young New Afrikan males are one of the demographics that are most likely to be raped in the United $tates because of their vastly disproportionate rate of imprisonment.(5) Palestinians face similar rates of imprisonment, with accounts of rape in those prisons of both men and wimmin. A recent UN report says allegations of I$raeli sexual assault and rape of Palestinan wimmin and girls are credible.(6) It is clear that by fighting imperialism – its occupations, its wars, its prisons – we can do the most to combat rape. It is clear that bombing Gaza is not stopping rape. It should also be clear that attacking other prisoners who are threatening no one does not stop rape.

Rape revenge fantasies are built up by the patriarchy, to tug at the emotions of the patriarchal men who are called to avenge the innocent who are defiled. This props up the very gender relations that lead to rape in the first place, where individuals take other individuals’ fates into their own hands through the use of inter-persynal force. These fantasies are used to divide the oppressed and rally the oppressors. They are used to justify division and oppression in U.$. prisons, and they are used to justify war and genocide in the Third World.

<sup>Notes:
1. Arun Gupta, 5 March 2024, Claims of Mass Rape by Hamas Unravel Upon Investigation, Yes!
2. Jeremy Scahill, Ryan Grim, Daniel Boguslaw, 28 February 2024, “Between the Hammer and the Anvil: The Story Behind the New York Times October 7 Expose, The Intercept.
3. Ali Abunimah, 25 March 2024, Israeli “commission” on 7 October rape claims exposed as fraud, The Electronic Intifada.
4. Jeremy Scahill, Ryan Grim, 4 March 2024, Kibbutz Be’eri Rejects STory in New Yortk Times October 7 Expose: “They Were Not Sexually Abused”, The Intercept.
5. MIM(Prisons), September 2007, Gender Oppression in U.$. Prisons, Under Lock & Key No. 1
6. Julian Borger, 22 February 2024, Claims of Israeli sexual assault of Palestinian women are credible, UN panel says, The Guardian.</sup>

18 January 2024 – Today, The Guardian published an article claiming to have evidence of rape of I$raelis during the October 7th attack led by Hamas.(1) However, much of the evidence they provide is the same evidence provided by The New York Times in a similar article from December that has been largely debunked by The Electronic Intifada, citing lack of real evidence, claims that have been countered by the relatives of one alleged victim, and exposing a prime “witness” for being Zionist a operative who has given inconsistent accounts of what ey says ey saw.(2)

I$rael, U.$. and British propaganda have been weaponizing gender to maintain support for the ongoing slaughter of Palestinians of all ages and genders. This has been their playbook against the Muslim world for decades, and against oppressed nations for centuries. It is a common tool of war to demonize and dehumanize the enemy to build support for violence.

Because Hamas attacked civilians, including a rave full of young, beautiful people, the images of young, mostly European, wimmin have been at the forefront of the media since October 7th. Not only are I$raeli wimmin portrayed very differently than Palestinian wimmin in the propaganda war, they benefit from a pornographic culture that values their appearance over that of other peoples of the world. This gives them real gender power, and gives their images real currency in the propaganda war.

One of those kidnapped from the rave was the daughter of a billionaire who built his wealth on the occupation of Palestine. The BBC strangely titled their article on him, “Eyal Waldman: Israeli tech billionaire hopes for peace despite daughter’s killing.” In the article, Waldman seeths about eliminating those who did the attack and even all of Hamas.(3)

More recently, The Daily Mail featured an “exclusive” on “The faces of the girls STILL being held by Hamas”. The tabloid style of The Daily Mail is based on using images of the grotesque and the sexy to capture attention. Stories such as this have allowed them to feature both side-by-side.

While at least one order of magnitude more Palestinian young wimmin have been murdered (not to mention injured, starved, sickened) by I$rael since October 7th, it is the faces of Euro-I$raelis that we see in British and U.$. media. Of course this can be explained by imperialist geo-political interests in the region. But this is also because sex sells, and young European wimmin are sexy.

MIM gave us the theory of the gender aristocracy to better understand this dynamic, and how it affects who are our friends and who are our enemies. The gender aristocracy are the wimmin (and the sexual minorities, etc) who benefit from and support the patriarchy despite having the biological characteristics that traditionally put people in the gender oppressed group under patriarchy. Like the labor aristocracy, the gender aristocracy expanded and transformed in the era of imperialism.

MIM Thought points to the material basis of gender in health status, and the gender aristocracy operating often as a subset of national oppression. So the young, healthy, strong, beautiful people are the ones with gender privilege. Tie that with oppressor nation status, and you have a group of people who have the dual characteristics of being highly valued as well as considered worthy of protection.

Under patriarchal thinking, the defiling of the nation’s wimmin is often a higher offense than killing them. So when we compare the capture of dozens of young Euro-I$raeli wimmin (some who have been murdered) to the murder of tens of thousands of Palestinians, there is just no comparison in the eyes of the oppressor. They will happily kill thousands of more Palestinian men, wimmin and children as revenge for this ultimate sin.

Even in death we see the privilege and power of the gender aristocracy whose pictures are spread around and mourned in the oppressor nations, while the Palestinian wimmin die nameless and faceless.

We’ve also seen Jewish student groups in the United $tates using signs in support of LGBTQ people in their counter protests to those opposing the war on Palestine. This is another example of trying to unite the oppressor nations around gender issues against the oppressed nations that has been used against the Arab world for decades.

Despite these efforts, a November Gallup poll showed that Amerikan wimmin were less supportive of I$rael’s war than men (44% vs 59%). Bigger gaps were seen by age and nation, however. For age support was 30% for 18 to 34 year olds, 50% for 35 to 54, and 63% for 55 and older. Many have commented on the different views of I$rael by age and historical context. But youth interests always differ from the rest, and we see this contradiction as the principal contradiction within the Amerikan nation. Within the United $tates we see the principal contradiction as that between the Amerikan nation and the oppressed nations. This is reflected in 61% white support for I$raeli war, and 30% support from the oppressed nations in the poll.(5)

The current upsurge of youth and oppressed nations in response to the genocide in Gaza is heartening. We must work to organize these forces into sustainable anti-imperialist organizations. The primary way to do this is in the battle of ideas and combatting the trickery the imperialists use to try to win them back over to the side of the oppressor.

<sup>Notes:
1. Betham McKernan, 18 Jan 2024, Evidence points to systematic use of rape and sexual violence by Hamas in 7 October attacks, The Guardian.
2. Ali Abunima, 9 January 2024, NY Times “investigation” of mass rape by Hamas falls apart, The Electronic Intifada.
3. Orla Guerin, 12 December 2023, Eyal Waldman: Israeli tech billionaire hopes for peace despite daughter’s killing, BBC News.
4. Natalie Lisbona, 7 January 2024, The Daily Mail, The faces of the girls STILL being held by Hamas as their families make a desperate plea for their release three months after they were captured.
5. Lydia Saad, 30 November 2023, Americans Back Israel’s Military Action in Gaza by 50% to 45%, Gallup.</sup>

I wanna add my voice to the ongoing conversation on Sex Offenders (S.O.’s) and LGBTQ people from a revolutionary perspective.

One key hurdle I think has to be constantly attacked and can only be attacked through criticism and self-criticism: so-called revolutionaries, activists, and political prisoners self-identifying as these things but still holding to the vestiges of their gangster, reactionary world views that make them comfortable.

A political activist analyzes people, places, and things from a political perspective. What is this person, place, or thing’s worth, or lack thereof, to the political programs that political group/individual is striving for? The military activist analyzes people, places, and things from a military perspective, analyzing what will be most advantageous to the military goals of their army, militia, unit, etc.

Because of this, morals and standards in political and military groups, among such people are constantly shifting. When one is on the battlefield, even the most avowed racist, sexist, homo-transphobe, sex offender bigot, will not allow their hate or disdain for the “other” to cost them their lives. The primary concern for the soldier or military commander would be can this person maintain discipline in battle, can they perform under pressure, will they desert their comrades in battle or go AWOL, are they reliable. If the S.O. or non-heterosexual was saving your life on a battlefield, no one would say “let me die I don’t like your kind” or “you’re irredeemable.” At that moment, the equality of humankind will shine bright and true and all the self-gratifying lies we tell each other will shrink in comparison with the truth.

I am not saying you should have no concern about the moral fabric of comrades. Usually morality and politics overlap. What I am saying is that a person/group’s political line and commitment should be of deciding and primary concern if you yourself are indeed a political activist or military activist.

How many times in prison have we seen the “rules” of organizations bent for certain “stomp down” individuals. How many times have we seen people look the other way when a member of their org partakes in sexual gratification that the org prohibits or has a case that’s frowned upon by the org? When this occurs it is usually because those in the org recognize the person in question is a practitioner of violence and that violent aggression is better with you than against you. So people make a tactical or strategic decision to condone, accept what they would otherwise attack or shun. For better or worse, this is political maneuvering at its core and it’s done every day in every prison. I am not promoting it, simply stating truths. The purpose of pointing these truths is to say that if the apolitical populace can discern these nuances then why can’t the politically do so when our causes are so much more noble and worthy of forgiving of one another’s trespasses (real & perceived).

Try a new way of relating to the people on the compound with you. If we’re revolutionaries then we should be revolutionizing the social relations and castes in prison. The prison culture fosters a caste system based on criminal history, skin color, material wealth, propensity for violence, and sexual orientation. As revolutionaries we must check ourselves if we’re not actively establishing a new prison culture and eliminating the hard-line caste structure. How? It starts with building and maintaining relations based on ones level of revolutionary ideology and practice.

Instead of greeting people with “Where you from, what you in for?” or being concerned about who they’re attracted to or intimate with, your greetings, concerns, and inquiries should be, “What are your politics? What do you think about capitalism? How do you think we could organize against the issues we face? Check out this political program, and tell me what if anything you’d be willing to contribute to advancing it.” If you aren’t doing that in some form or fashion you need to engage in self-criticism, are you a revolutionary or a convict bound by the rules and ideas of prison culture?

Lastly, the notion that any group, or person is exempt from recovery, rehabilitation, or transformation is metaphysical, subjective, and thus incorrect. Despite the subject matter, the universe and everything in it, including one’s ideas and impulses, attractions, are in constant movement and development. Nothing remains stagnant. This universal truth is the only universal truth, that nothing remains the same. Therefore to predetermine that anyone or anything is irredeemable is out of compliance with reality and is therefore incorrect thinking, and merely a reflection of one’s biased and narrow analysis. Another small point I want to turn on from ULK #82, ‘Thugs Are Sex Offenders Too’, where the writer says:

“The problem is that most transgender men-women in prison are sex offenders, they are in for preying on children.”

This statement is obviously biased and subjective, and leads to flawed analysis. It is possibly true that the trans people that writer has encountered in prison are all S.O.’s, but it is the exact opposite for my own lived experience. No transgender person I’ve encountered has ever been locked up for a sexual offense, outside of soliciting prostitution. Here’s what I mean by a purely subjective analysis, one that is narrow and one sided relying on one’s own experience only. The truth is that trans people are most often victims of sexual predators in and out of prisons. Those who’ve become predators themselves, whether trans or not, are most often victims of prior sexual abuse. Though this may not align with the writers lived experience it is the majority experience in society as told by polls and statistics. Yet the metaphysical, subjective, nature of postmodernist philosophy has us giving more credence to our own individual lived experience than that of the society at large or a wide array of the population. If we’re in the business of transforming society at large that sort of analysis will not work well.

Dare to Invent the Future

A Memorandum issued by the PREA Auditors of America was recently posted in all dorms and other areas here at Dillwyn Correctional Center where incarcerated people frequent advising us of the following:

“The Virginia Department of Corrections (VADOC) will be conducting an audit for Compliance with the United States Department of Justice’s National Standards to Prevent, Detect, and Respond to Prison Rape under the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) for Its Adult Detention Facility.”

The scheduled dates of the PREA Audit are from September 26th-28th, 2023.

The Memorandum further advises:

“Any person with relevant information pertaining to this compliance Audit may * confidentially * correspond with the Auditor via the following address:

Ron Kidwell P.O. Box 193 Palmyra, Virginia 22963

“CONFIDENTIALITY. All correspondence and disclosures during interviews with the designated auditor are CONFIDENTIAL and will not be disclosed unless required by law. There are exceptions when confidentiality must be legally broken. Exceptions include, but are not limited to the following:

If the person is an immediate danger to him/herself or others (e.g., suicide or homicide)

Allegations of suspected child abuse, neglect, or maltreatment

In legal proceedings where information has been subpoenaed by a court of appropriate jurisdiction.”

The Prison Rape Elimination Act or PREA was passed by the U.$. Congress and codified into federal law as Title 42 U.S.C.A. section 15601. It was passed in response to the high incidents of rape and other forms of sexual violence incarcerated people were subjected to in prisons across the country.

Despite the language of PREA, it does not stop, prevent or reduce the rape and sexual violence of incarcerated people. As an example, the rape and sexual assaults against women at the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, California in the years before 2022 was so bad the prison was called the “rape club” by incarcerated women and prison staff alike. Even the Warden of the prison at the time, Ray J. Garcia, took part in raping and sexually exploiting women at the prison.

The real purpose of PREA was to create a set of national standards (also called PREA standards) by the U.$. Attorney General that state and federal prison systems can give the appearance of being in compliance with in order to gain accreditation and federal grant money from the U.$. Department of Justice.

PREA Audits as they are currently conducted do not work and will never work for the following reasons:

As the above quoted Memorandum reveals, prison officials are given advanced notice their prisons will be audited for PREA compliance. This advanced notice sets in motion a scheme whereby prison officials began the process of cleaning up and beautifying the prison before PREA auditors arrive, both literally and figuratively. I have witnessed time and time again how in the days leading up to the audit, incarcerated people are instructed to paint walls, plant flowers, and wax and buff the floors. Guards and prison staff begin acting nice and treating incarcerated people with a little bit more dignity and respect. A special meal is sometimes serviced to incarcerated people either on the day of the audit or on the day before. In some cases, a prison may go on an unexpected lockdown where incarcerated people are locked in their cells on the day of the audit. All of this is done to placate/pacify incarcerated people so they’ll be least likely to give the PREA auditors a “bad report” or, in the case of the unexpected lockdown, to prevent them from giving a report altogether.

In order for the PREA audit to be truly effective, they must be conducted without prison officials having prior notice of the date and time of the audit.

In addition to that, incarcerated people must be allowed to communicate freely with auditors in a confidential setting. This is often not possible because PREA auditors are accompanied by brass and are deliberately led on a prearranged course throughout the prison that keeps them out of contact with incarcerated people and out of the housing areas where incarcerated people live and sleep.

Incarcerated people must not be retaliated against for making complaints about having been raped and sexually assaulted by prison staff. I know of many fellow incarcerated people who have been harassed, threatened, moved to another housing unit, transferred to another prison, and written bogus infractions in retaliation for submitting PREA complaints. This sort of retaliation chills other incarcerated people’s desire to submit PREA complaints which allows their abusers to escape accountability.

Lastly, the only real solution to ending the rape and sexual violence of incarcerated people is to abolish the Prison Industrial Complex. If there are no prisons, then there can be no prison rape.

All Power to the People Who Don’t Fear Freedom!

MIM(Prisons) responds: We actually think we can do a lot to eliminate rape for all people before abolishing prisons. Prisons are a tool of class struggle. In the control of a communist government, prisons would be revolutionized to serve the people. There would be an end to the torturous practices so common in capitalist prisons of isolation, heat, lack of health care and physical and sexual assaults.

Unlike prisons, rape and sexual violence are forms of oppression that cannot serve the people. While the path to eliminating any of these things remains long and challenging. Previous revolutionary societies have made quick progress in the realm of reducing and almost eliminating many forms of gender oppression. So we call on those who want to put an end to rape and sexual violence to join us in the struggle to end imperialism and replace it with a system in the hands of the international proletariat.

In ULK 81, there was an article on how we should handle sex offenders in our prison movement where Comrade Slaughter expressed what can be explained as an anti-sex offender line when it comes to forming a united front..(1) This can be traced back to our overall effort to not expel and write off snitches, sex offenders, and general pariahs within the prison injustice system of the United $tates pertaining to our movement.(2) In the ULK 81 article, Comrade Slaughter has raised the questions of persynal trauma of the victim, the morality of a revolutionary movement, and the ideal socialist society’s handling of the very real anti-people sex crimes that happen day-to-day in our imperialist society – all very important questions that a revolutionary prison movement that seeks to rehabilitate the imprisoned lumpen onto a revolutionary road must cover.

We thank Comrade Slaughter for bringing forth these questions, and as Maoist revolutionaries MIM(Prisons) as a cell has the duty to coordinate this line struggle within the United Struggle Within through unity-criticism-unity. One divides into two: a thing that was in a state of unity will have its contradictions and arrive at a point where the two are split. And through criticism and self-criticism and ridding metaphysics and idealism, the two aspects of the contradiction will find unity where one side will overtake the other.

Before we begin with the following quotes of the responders to Comrade Slaughter, we raise the question Mao Zedong asked when ey and eir comrades were beginning a revolutionary people’s war in semi-colonial and semi-feudal China: who are our friends? who are our enemies?

Comrade Jade responds: In regards to Slaughter’s response I would like to point out a few things you may overlook in regards to sex offenders in general.

First, not everyone convicted of a sex crime is a child molester. Are all white males Aryans? Are all Hispanics Cartel? Are all Black males gang bangers? There will always be diversity in all groups we attempt to label or create. It is a proven fact. We all are individuals who are slightly different even under the exact same conditions.

Next, I believe that you need to truly look at what they did or did not do before ostracizing or mistreating them. Do not just judge them by the label corrupt politics fostered on them.

I agree that those who truly rape/molest and prey on underage children are not likely to be rehabilitated or to further the cause. But, how many of the people convicted of sex crimes are the true predators?

I know from personal experience, as a former psychiatric nurse, that females tend to mature sooner and seek out sex earlier. As puberty shifts from the old 12-15 to 8-11 now due to steroids and worse it makes them even more likely to become sexually active by 14. They will seek out partners where they will, including older more experienced men, who in their opinion can please them or teach them. While I do not advocate for them to be sexually active, especially not with grown men, due to early menstruation and physical development some females 14-17 look like grown adults. Then add to that the over-sexualization of our society, they tend to become aggressive in a sexual nature. As a result, some men may not realize their partner is underage. While this is not an excuse, it does happen.

Then you have men whose adult female partner falsely accuses them in revenge to a variety of things. It is not uncommon in a situation like this for the man to be convicted or pressured into a deal.

This does not mean all sex offenders are able to be rehabilitated, though the ones convicted rarely re-offend according to statistical evidence.

To this end we need a viable alternative to prisons and/or death for all offenders who truly cannot be rehabilitated. None of the current approaches are going to work. It will have to be a new idea.

We also must address the over-sexualization of our society. By making sex less of a pass time, less appealing, less mainstream, we can reduce many sex offenses as well.

MIM(Prisons) responds: Comrade Jade reveals an important aspect of the registered sex offenders status – the moral panic and the scapegoat aspect it represents. How many non-registered sex offenders and non-confirmed sex offenders in prisons (who might perhaps gotten in prison for non-sex related crimes such as murder or drugs) will partake in the ultra-leftist crusade against the confirmed ones? For the readers on the outside, that sentence alone might carry a reactionary and apologist undertones, but that is because petty-bourgeois justice oriented revenge killings is a material reality in prison and much less often outside. The life of a lumpen organization member for example is an oppressive and gritty one, and sexual crimes or sexual relations where consent isn’t prioritized aren’t uncommon; yet most lumpen organization members won’t come to prison on sex related crimes but on drug and homicide related crimes.

Subjectivism, ultra-leftism, and individualist oriented justice is another form of opiate of the masses in prison: take that anger out on the confirmed sex offenders says the pig, but us at MIM(Prisons) know that the pigs are laughing all along as this happens because it’s just that much easier to control a violent lumpen class than a cool and collected one – a class in itself vs a class for itself. Drugs aren’t the only form of individualism that is used to placate the imprisoned lumpen, the imprisoned lumpen’s penchent for ultra-leftist violence will also come in handy as a governing tool.

In a socialist society we will ban things like pornography for profit and misogynistic media and media that is predatory towards children. These things are so common under imperialism and reinforce and encourage sexual abuse.

A Colorado Prisoner Responds: I agree with Wiawimawo. I disagree with Slaughter.

A “sex offense” is whatever a legislature defines as one. It can be anything like actual physical rape to someone who is caught peeing on a dumpster in an alley. In my 14 years in a Corruptarado (as we call this state) prison I have met only a couple of people who were actual “rapists.” The vast majority of sex offenders were people who had younger lovers who chose to be with them. But someone, often a jealous want-to-be lover, found out, ratted the two out, and the older partner was arrested and charged.

Now prosecutors adore sex charges. They require no physical evidence, no witnesses. Only an allegation and a “victim” coached by D.A. investigators to say how they were fooled, manipulated, led astray, by that evil older man (almost always a man). And in states like this one without a time limit for filing, a “victim” can say, “20 years ago he took advantage of me” and the D.A. can file a charge and get a conviction.

Slaughter talks about “children.” A child is whatever the legislator says he is. Anyone under 18 is defined a child. Right now it is 18, which is the “age of consent.” Back in 2009, in Colorado, it was 15. And a female of 12, with parental permission, could marry (official papers) anyone.

In Texas, as in most of the South, the legal age for marriage was 12 when I was there. I don’t know what it is now.

The fact is, the religious right bible-wavers do not like sex, and they do not want these pesky kids having any of it. Thus the law, and the pigs (Amerikkka’s version of the Nazi SA) are used to stop it.

The conclusion of this religious fear will be what was done in the Salem-Keizer school district in Oregon. Reported on broadly, on vice.com, “Teachers Forced to Report All Teens Having Sex in Oregon School District.”

At those schools, since Oregon law only allows sex for those 18 or older, anyone under 18 doing the dirty is a criminal. So any school personnel discovering an under 18 having sex is required to report him or her to the police for prosecution.

Hey, if enough “children under law” would be arrested and thrown into prison then unapproved sex could be stopped. Of course, putting older partners in prison is already being done and that does not stop them from re-offending. So it should work with the children also.

Slaughter (what is in a name) wants those sex offenders (ey calls them pedophiles – a term created by prosecutors to inflame) to be punished, and people protected from them. In Colorado there are about 4000 sex offenders in prison (CDOC). The vast majority have indeterminate sentences, which means most will die in prison. That number is a full 25% of the CDOC population. And as you probably know, the giving of indeterminate sentences is an easy way for prosecutors to get a life sentence for defendants that did not kill anyone. Great for the D.A.’s stats when a performance review comes around.

The issue is of life sentences in Amerikkka. Get the article, “The Only Way We Get Out of There is in a Pine Box” in the April 2022 issue of News Inside published by The Marshall Project. It tells of elderly prisoners, convicted of murder or other violent crimes who will die in prison. At great expense to tax payers for all their medical care.

…Make no mistake about it, if the Christians like Pence, DeSantis, etc. take over, a new inquisition, just like the Spanish one in the 18th Century will be instituted. And right at the top of the list, below LGBTQ people, will be the communists. Off to the concentration camps for all.

MIM(Prisons) Responds: A recent report by the Prison Policy Initiative exposes the arbitrary repression of so-called “civil commitments.” In cases where someone is not given a life sentence, they can be civily committed after fulfilling the sentence given by the courts. Most who go to civil commitment will never see the outside world again. At least 6,000 people, mostly men, across the country are in civil commitment after serving their time for sex offenses. Unlike court, the process to be sentenced to civil commitment is largely arbitrary. The following will make you much more likely to be civilly committed: being gay, being transgender, being Black, being disabled.(3)

Under imperialism, well-meaning laws that sound good on paper such as ones surrounding the age of consent (or the anti-mask laws first intended against the Klan protesting while cowardly hiding eir identities, but now used against progressives and oppressed nation youth protesting against police violence) will be abused for the interests of the imperialist-patriarchy. The truth is, law in itself for any given class society has been simply state enforced rules to govern the overall humyn society in accordance with the respective class dictatorships. This is why legalism (in this case referring to the idea that good laws will create good society and bad laws will create bad society) is in no way shape or form a scientific solution against the tragic cases such as rape, molestation, and grooming of children.

Under the imperialist patriarchy that we live in, children have no rights or agency to consent and the rape culture of our world will always harm the most vulnerable. “Good” laws under an imperialist patriarchy will be designed and used for the purposes of maintaining it (the nuclear family, heteronormitivity, youth oppression, etc.) that has children raped in the first place while a socialist society/proletarian dictatorship will give power to the youth to properly protect themselves and prioritize abolishing oppression above all else and especially against prioritizing profits and maintaining a patriarchal culture.

A California Prisoner Responds: I can see this comrade has done a significant amount of revolutionary education. However to truly be a communist means one has to recognize the humanity of others. It is here this comrade’s own hate is still an obstacle in the way. The ONLY path forward for this comrade is to forgive his abuser. This comrade must also recognize that the Known Sex Offenders (KSO’s) on the yard are NOT his abuser, meaning this comrade does NOT know their circumstance.

This comrade separates sex crimes from all other crimes by stating that “all other crimes are political crimes,” as a result of capitalism I presume. Sex crimes are an “illness.” This comrade (let me say comrades) states he is in for murder and that murder is somehow NOT an anti-human crime but only a “political crime.” Furthermore, Comrade Slaughter states that he is rehabilitated by saying he has “learned to be objective towards KSO’s.” He also states it is only possible for all other criminals to rehabilitate by saying “unification with the KSOs is futile because after the revolution the KSO will still need to be dealt with” meaning presumably rehabilitation for sex addiction is somehow not possible for the KSO.

I would like to start with the motion this murderer is not as rehabilitated as ey claim. The statement “after the revolution the KSO will still need to be dealt with” proves Comrade S. is not as rehabilitated as ey thinks. It also proves that Comrade S endorses the puniluation method used by the Nazis to “deal with” 6 million Jews. Comrade S. is obviously proposing the genocide of a whole group of people (KSOs). I think a lot of Jews, Armenians, and Africans would tell Comrade S. that his crime of murder is not political as he claims, but in fact is an anti-people crime. Moreover, most KSOs are more rehabilitated than this murderer.

MIM(Prisons) responds: We would say that the comparison of Slaughter’s comments to the holocaust of Jewish, Gay, Romani, and politically subversive revolutionaries under Nazi Germany to be a bit of an exaggeration. Yet it is true that the fascists will mobilize people around persecuting scapegoats, and currently it is this fanatical connection between pedophilia, transgender people and gender non-conforming people in general that is mobilizing the reactionary forces in the streets.

As we assemble this issue of ULK, a news story dropped about Larry Nassar being stabbed in prison. Nassar was convicted of molesting hundreds of young girls over decades while serving as the doctor for the U.$. Olympic team. Whether it’s to make themselves feel better about themselves, as the California prisoner above proposed, or to take out some anger, or to earn some stripes, the collaborative effort to punish people like Nassar undermines the principal contradiction in prisons. These attacks are generally a collaborative effort between prisoners and staff. Staff who may overlap with the fascist movements on the streets threatening drag story times. And while we would not argue there is never a time to ally with staff, it is a rare occasion, when they actually side with prisoners against the system. In contrast, this type of “outlaw justice” is really state-sanctioned. And it does reinforce the idea that there is some common interest between the oppressed and the oppressor in punishing these crimes considered most heinous.

If we aren’t organizing collectively to transform systems and transform ourselves, then we aren’t working towards justice. Triumphant mentions an example on the streets of FPC addressing open air sex markets in the community. Without knowing the details, this seems like an approach that could actually mobilize the people in a way that reduces sexual abuse of children and teenagers. Within prisons we can point to the example of Men Against Sexism, which successfully eradicated rape in Washington State Prison.(1) So if people are serious about taking action against sexual assault, there are actual effective ways to do this.

The ability to truly rehabilitate people will increase as communists increase their power and influence over society. We agree with this comrade that the current system can’t properly address those who aren’t being rehabilitated. And we look to socialist China’s model for how they rehabilitated people who committed crimes against the people.

Comrade Slaughter is right to bring up the question of how and what the morality of a revolutionary should be implemented and look like. To that we answer that proletarian morality must be based on whatever is best for the whole of society to be rid of oppression in contrast to bourgeois morality which is based on individualism, Liberalism, and profit. We tell Comrade Slaughter, and to all comrades in the revolutionary struggle (especially the imprisoned lumpen) to protect themselves as revolutionaries from individuals with bad intentions, but also to push themselves beyond the subjective trauma that ey has faced as oppressed people. Use mindfulness and other resources made available by this imperialist system and use it to better oneself as a revolutionary to heal the persynal scars to better transform the world around us. Don’t let the imperialists weaponize mindfulness or therapy to numb and placate one’s self.

All crimes are political. Post-modernism (the narrative of non-narrative) recognizes phenomena such as this and says that the persynal is the political. Maoism goes beyond this to say that the narrative of the oppressed must replace the narrative of the oppressor with revolutionary violence (rhetoric alone will solve nothing). Persynal scars are political scars, and recognizing the contradiction between the individual and the oppressive system is recognizing that one must recognize eir own lived experiences isn’t all there is to the world and is an unscientific way for the oppressed nations/internal semi-colonies of the United $tates to understand the material reality around them.

^{Notes: (1) Wiawimawo of MIM(Prisons), April 2023, ULK 80 Responses on Sex Offenders, Pedophiles, Gunnas and Gangstas, Under Lock & Key 81.
(2) Legion of United Struggle From Within, September 2017, We Can’t Write Off Whole Groups From the United Front for Peace in Prisons,Under Lock & Key 58.
(3) Emma Peyton Williams, 18 May 2023, What is civil commitment? Recent report raises visibility of this shadowy form of incarceration, Prison Policy Initiative.<BR}

After printing our long discussion of sex offenders in ULK 81 we thought we might have spent a bit too much space on the topic. But as all the responses came in, we were reminded why we did a whole issue focused on this topic 5 years ago. It is a topic of great interest to the prison masses. It is important for building the United Front for Peace in Prisons. And we learned some stats on the large percentages of prisoners who are convicted of some kind of “sex offense” across the country (25% in Colorado, 21% in California).

Many of our readers feel they have been wronged or mistreated by other prisoners because they are labelled a sex offender. Others who are not convicted of any sex-related crime spoke up on behalf of those who are. And we know there are many with such charges who are reading ULK, reaching out to MIM(Prisons), who want to be part of the anti-imperialist prison movement. And so the question is, should we be excluding 1/5 to 1/4 of the population in any given prison system from the movement based on this label?

As scientists, we must think in terms of percentages. If 25% of people in a given prison system are sex offenders, that means in a wing of 100 people, 25 of them are convicted of some kind of sex crime. Are 100% of these 25 prisoners enemies of the people who cannot be redeemed? Even those who wrote to say that some cannot be reformed, did not include all “sex offenders” in that category. Yet, often, the way it plays out is 100% of those with known sex crime convictions are treated as outcasts. This is dividing the prison population. This is just one of many things dividing prisoners in the United $tates today. But it is one that affects a lot of people.

The possibility that we’ve been working to create since before the founding of the United Front for Peace in Prisons (UFPP) in 2012, is a united prison movement that acts in the interests of all oppressed people. People in U.$. prisons are being tortured, starved, denied medical care, denied educations, imposed with mental suffering and being repressed for political activity. A strong, united prison movement is the only way we can overcome these conditions.

The divisions preventing this level of unity is the old way, the way of imperialism. We are fighting for a new way, a revolutionary socialist way. This new way requires changes in how we live and interact. On the level of the individual this means applying the Maoist method of criticism/self-criticism. This is something we all must participate in to be part of the movement to overcome imperialism. It’s not just sex offenders, or drug addicts, or murderers who need to self-criticize and reform ourselves, it’s all of us. All of us have ways of thinking and behaving that are based in the values of imperialism.

We are calling on comrades to lead criticism/self-criticism sessions with the goal of building unity to build for the UFPP’s annual Day of Peace & Solidarity, this September 9th. For years we’ve been promoting the Day of Peace and sharing report backs on events organized by prisoners across the country. What we want to focus on this September 9th is the importance of criticism/self-criticism in the building of unity. We challenge USW leaders to take on the following plan of action:

• Every day, ask yourself what is an interaction you could have handled differently to better promote unity among prisoners? This could be a daily meditation question you take on for Black August.

• Every week, meet with like-minded people and discuss ways you are working to change yourselves to be better leaders at building unity. Give each other feedback on your shortcomings and progress.

• On September 9th, organize others to take the day off from work and school, to fast, and to focus on this question of building unity for common interests on a facility-wide level.

Use the article Criticism & Self-Criticism as a guide and in your discussions in the coming weeks. In addition, last year we released our Revolutionary 12 Step Program. This pamphlet is a guide to self-assessment and self-criticism. It is a framework for transforming yourself along the guidelines of proletarian morality. Get a copy via our Free Political Books to Prisoners Program to help you with the above tasks.

Then send us a report on your successes and failures this September 9th so we can all learn, grow and share in the next issue of Under Lock & Key. Issue 83 will be focused on the theme of “Prisons are War.” We will be printing stories that highlight the political war being waged against oppressed people and politically active people by the U.$. criminal injustice system.

^{1. PTT, November 2012, Review: The Anti-Exploits of Men Against Sexism, Under Lock & Key 29.}

First allow me to say that I am in no way homophobic and hold no bias nor any prejudice toward gay, bisexual, lesbian, transgender, or queer people. However, I find it inhumane that, while men can flaunt themselves around in thongs, booty shorts, leggings, mascara, eyeliner, makeup, and sports bras, I am being denied pictures of my fiance because she is wearing those exact same things. The woman who has dedicated her life to me, stands by my side through the trials and tribulations, who has weathered the storm, someone who I am going to wed.

I have been denied pictures of my fiance on vacation in a bathing suit because they were “sexually explicit” but in turn a gay man can receive pictures of another man in boxers? I am restricted from receiving pictures of my fiance in boy shorts or leggings while men walk freely past the guards and Warden wearing those and everything is fine.

The Kentucky Department of Corrections Penitentiary System encourages homosexuality while banning intimacy with your loved one. Your visitor is not permitted to wear a dress, shorts, leggings, or tight jeans on a visit, meanwhile transgender people are encouraged to receive hormone shots to grow breasts, walking hand-in-hand around the loop with another man. In the Kentucky Department of Corrections Penitentiary System homosexuality is forced upon the heterosexual inmates where men can lay in a cell with another man in their arms, but magazines such as “Idore”, “Spicy”, “Straight Stuntin”, “King”, “Phat Puffs”, or “Sultry” are not available or restricted to purchase. Magazines with women in clothes like two piece swim suits are restricted. But why? Because they are women, or because they are what, real women?

How do you combat a whole state, let alone a prison, where the Warden is promoting homosexuality? (Eastern Kentucky Correctional Complex, Warden J. David Green).

I am not concerned as to what other inmates choose to indulge in, I just want to be able to receive pictures of my future wife in her boyshorts, leggings, in her intimate state, to help with my sexual release and soothe my mind, to escape, but instead I am subjected to cruel and unusual punishment and the promotion of homosexuality within the Kentucky Department of Corrections Penitentiary System.

MIM(Prisons) responds: We agree that the Kentucky DOC is being intentionally cruel in its biased enforcement of rules around sexually explicit materials. This is happening in a number of states, including Texas where at the same time some prisoners are being forced to watch porn. And as we know corrections officials communicate with each other, it is likely no coincidence.

It’s a tactic the police have used forever; treat certain people differently from others in an arbitrary way and watch them turn on each other. They’ve used this against political prisoners, granting one prisoner more freedoms than eir comrades to promote suspicions that the privileged comrade snitched when in reality ey had not.

Administrators know how important pictures of loved ones, including “sexy” pictures of partners, are to prisoners. Just as the comrade we addressed in a longer piece on the nature of sex and sexuality, this Kentucky prisoner says ey has no issues with LBGTQ people. Yet, we sense the resentment here in what ey wrote. We call on our readers not to let that resentment cause you to turn on others who are not your enemy.

There is a right-wing talking point these days that the woke government is trying to turn people, especially children, transgender or gay. These identity politics are being used to manipulate people, and to get votes. If comrades are serious about fighting the “enforcement” of homosexuality in prisons, we suggest allying with gay prisoners who will likely be strong allies in a campaign to allow all prisoners to have equal rights to express their sexuality. Meanwhile, the fight against censorship of photos should connect to the fight against political censorship of mail. It should be illegal for the state to stop any mail that is not a direct threat to safety. If you are organizing around these issues we want to hear from you.

In some circles we’ve gotten push back on our entertaining of certain ideas among the masses. We already critiqued this error among self-described “communists” of “hating the masses for their reactionary ideas under oppression”.

The quote below is from a new reader of Under Lock & Key in a discussion with MIM(Prisons). We will note that this comrade advocated for closing down “pig stations (pig pens)” to build community centers and sees Black people as one with North Korea as both face the imperialists as their enemy. With that we seem to have strong unity on the principal contradiction in this country and internationally.

And we are printing this comrade’s words not to pick on em, but on the contrary because we see em as a comrade and ally in the struggle that we want to build unity with. And we are printing them in ULK because these ideas are not unique to this one persyn, we hear similar things all the time, and too often the correct line is just assumed, but the incorrect lines are never addressed.

"Now as to your question of how I see LGBTQ people. No, I don’t see them as a problem for the oppressed. I see them with love and respect. However, I must be definitive of myself, I choose a female as my mate. That is the natural order of existence, respectfully, the opposite does not hold the continuation of life. The demands of nature are written in the libido, the libido is the driving force of procreation.

“One’s body does not belong to the individual, it is on loan from the ancestors. I will not deny the call of the ancestors. Yet, who am I to judge. I’m just expressing myself as every person should have the right to express themselves fully without contempt. I do believe that the LGBTQ movement is a faction that has a driving force behind it that is bigger than the movement itself. I believe that the imperialists are the driving force behind that movement, just as much as they are the driving force behind militarism, desensitizing, hypersexualism, hate, division. They have controlled the narrative of these characters, they have broadcast, advertised, marketed these characters and now they are doing the same with the LGBTQ community.”

Already on this topic of LGBTQ we see this comrade respects all people and is not approaching this with hatred or desire to oppress others. Again, more basis for unity.

In our response we want to address: 1. the natural order; and, 2. imperialism using LGBTQ movement to forward its own ends.

The Natural Order

We’ve all heard countless times that anything other than straight procreative sex is unnatural because it does not reproduce the species. We’ll put aside for now the fact that most of the sex these people have is not procreative either (presumably these people never even masturbate). There is a certain logic to this thinking from the framework of the individualist culture of the nuclear family.

One thing that is characteristic of humyns is the long period it takes for a newborn humyn to become self-sufficient. The patriarchal family structure in this country was established around the system of slavery, where New Afrikan slaves provided much of the childcare and food for the table for the white settler family. In other nations the grandparents and extended family help fill similar needs.

There are indigenous cultures where it has been documented that people we would call LGBTQ today existed. This counters the argument that such people are a modern invention. And these people had particular roles in the community that were important to sustaining that community even if they did not participate in sexual reproduction. It is our atomized society today that makes it seem natural, or necessary, for everyone to be a sexual reproducing member of society.

The comrade here states that eir body is a gift from the ancestors, but we would add that the African ancestors of New Afrikans (like many pre-colonial cultures) did not adhere to our modern capitalist patriarchy. European colonizers in Africa were troubled when people they perceived as male did not perform the role of a man, and in turn punished such people to impose their gender roles in the name of Christianity. Female to female marriage has been documented in over 40 pre-colonial African societies.(1)

In closely related species, social structures are built around one male who does most of the sexual reproduction for the whole group. Other species mate for life. And many species have sexual activity between animals of the same sex, etc. Certainly, the sex between males and females are crucial for the continuation of species like ours before the development of medical methods of fertilization. But it is not true that non-procreative sexual behavior doesn’t occur in other species, in previous humyn societies, or that it is somehow detrimental to our species.

Another example that adds to this point is that oftentimes the political-economic decadence of oppressor nations (predominantly petty-bourgeois societies such as Japan, $outh Korea, and even modern day Settler-Amerika) sees declining birthrates. The petty-bourgeoisie often point to non-heterosexual romance or miscegenation as the cause of low birth-rate for oppressor nations, but the materialist truth points to decadence and capitalist alienation which is the true detriment to the reproduction of humynity.

Despite our current individualistic society, we remain social creatures. Our behaviors are largely influenced by our society. Sexual behavior has evolved and changed as society has changed. While various parallels of LGBTQ people existed prior to patriarchy, there is also no doubt that the patriarchy impacts peoples’ sexuality. For example, under patriarchy wimmin can become afraid to date men and men can become afraid to express affection towards men. It is also true that national oppression and imprisonment impact peoples’ sexuality.

What we do know is: 1) that gender, and even the sex binary as we recognized in our 2018 congress resolution, are not biological facts, but rather social constructs. 2) to the extent that biology does determine things we call gender and sexuality, that there is always variation in nature.

To be a scientific thinker one must be able to think in terms of probabilities and percentages. Male and female, black and white, good and evil are ways we categorize things. The idealist believes these are pre-existing truths, while the scientist recognizes them as humyn-made categories. For the scientific thinker, what is unnatural is for everything and everyone to fit into two neat little categories.

A more objective view of the world will also recognize that it is myopic to see humyn society as separate from the “natural.” To put it another way, there will never be a humyn society where humyn beings behave by some pre-ordained natural way determined by our biology, where no social factors determine our behavior. On the contrary, it is our aim to revolutionize our society to revolutionize how we interact with each other into ways that have never been done before. There is no “natural” way we are trying to return to as the conservatives imagine. We want to create new and better futures, based on humyn relations without oppression and exploitation. That is the radical, and the only, answer to the “ills” of our society today.

LGBTQ and Imperialism

The comrade quoted above said ey loves and respects LGBTQ people but has issues with their movement being used towards imperialist ends. If the latter is true, then this could be the correct position for revolutionaries to take. So is the LGBTQ movement a weapon of the imperialists?

We have certainly noticed the LGBTQ cause being weaponized against the oppressed nations both inside and outside United $tates borders. One big example of this was during the Bush administration’s imperialist crusade against the Middle East and Central Asia where semi-feudal patriarchal practices of the masses in countries like Afghanistan and Iraq were put in the spotlight as justification for genocidal war. This was a big rallying cry for the “feminist” argument that U.$. invasion of Afghanistan meant freedom and liberation of Afghan womyn and LGBTQ. When the Taliban kicked out the U.$. imperialists in 2021, the fact that public education for Afghan womyn were taken away by the Taliban was put in the spotlight again alongside news of anti-LGBTQ lynchings, etc. So in cases such as these, we can see how even progressive causes such as the freedom for wimmin to have education and for LGBTQ people to express their love can be weaponized by the imperialists whose bombs will murder Afghan womyn and LGBTQ people and take away their freedom to be alive.

On a side note, looking at things in a historical materialist perspective, the brief experience of bourgeois democracy for middle class womyn to gain education and for LGBTQ people to exist without the immediate threat of death has been tasted by the broad Afghan masses (or at least the Afghan petty-bourgeoisie who could have afforded to experience it under the reactionary comprador U.$.-backed warlord regime). This gives the historical duty of the petty-bourgeoisie in Afghanistan to partake in a new democratic revolution alongside the proletariat, the peasantry, and the national bourgeoisie to overthrow the semi-feudal and semi-colonial state and implement those said freedoms under a proletarian dictatorship

But for us inside U.$. borders, what is the significance of this? Anti-imperialists should confront rallies to “defend Afghan wimmin” through U.$. bombs with anti-war, anti-militarist messages. But this has nothing to do with the realities of homosexual romance or people adopting gendered appearances that the patriarchy did not assign to them. More homosexual romance does not inherently bring more bombs dropped on the Third World. As pointed out, these bombs are killing LGTBQ people indiscriminately as well.

^{Notes: 1. Mohammed Elnaiem, 29 April 2021, The “Deviant” African Genders That Colonialism Condemned, JStor Daily.}