UNDER LOCK AND KEY

What's the solution?

Contribution is the correct solution:

Expand the Under Lock & Key section of MIM Notes for the October 15 issue of MIM 
Notes End the Amerikan Lockdown Month by helping fund four (4) additional pages 
for ULK

by an Illinois prisoner, edited by MIM

Clenched fist salute. This is a call for prisoners to contribute funds, art, and 
articles to publish an expanded pull-out edition of Under Lock & Key for the 
October 15, 2000 issue. October 15 is the final day of MIM's second annual End 
the Amerikan Lockdown Month (September 13-October 15). This is a month 
designated for increased education and agitation against the u.$. criminal 
injustice system. Prisoners can make a dramatic contribution to this month by 
making publication of an extra four (4) pages of Under Lock & Key possible.

MIM and its newspaper MIM Notes expose the many faces of imperialism. MIM Notes 
is a very effective communicative exponent providing the correct analysis of 
current international/world events, events that affect the masses/oppressed and 
benefit capitalist exploiters. The Under Lock & Key section is devoted to the 
prison system's torture chambers, an important aspect of imperialism within u.$. 
borders. By helping to expand the Under Lock & Key section you can actively 
contribute to building more public opinion in favor of the just struggles of 
prisoners, and to building organization and independent institutions of and for 
the oppressed people.

MIM Notes is one independent institution of the oppressed. Because it is funded 
independently we are able to publish from the perspective of the international 
proletariat. With this analysis, we reach prisoners and those on the outside. 

It will cost $400 to print an additional four (4) pages of Under Lock & Key for 
the October 15th issue. This is a goal we should unite to achieve and we can 
achieve this by contributing in several ways:

(1) Prisoners who can afford it should also donate and contribute $3-$5 or more.

(2) Prisoners can forward copies of MIM Notes to relatives and request that they 
make $10-$20 donations for the "October 15 issue of Under Lock & Key."

(3) Supporters on the outside can contribute $10-$20 donations or more.

(4) Prisoners can contribute art and write articles which will give substance to 
the four additional pages of Under Lock & Key.

(5) Contribute stamps and pre-stamped envelopes to MIM throughout the year 
during each month prior to EAL Month (September 13-October 15). This will help 
MIM by reducing its costs on postage to prisoners.

Be sure to mark any money or stamp donations "for October 15 ULK" if you want to 
contribute to this issue.

Let's combine our funds, resources, art, energy and intellect to not only shake 
the walls and very foundations of imperialism but to completely overthrow it. 
MIM serves the people and does so continuously with limited independent funds 
and contributions. So we too can help Serve the People. Power to the people, and 
we are the people. Let's get busy, let's do this, act now, don't procrastinate. 
Pass the word so we can continue agitation. Crush the beasts of imperialism.

Undocumented in Iowa

A salute and respectful solidarity for all the oppressed people.

You asked me to write something about being "illegal alien." I think really my 
friend it is hard for me to write about my sour past. It brings bad memories to 
my mind and soul, things I don't want to remember. Because of the sour horizon 
and destiny that I choose, it is something that a man wants to carry with 
himself till the death.

One of my first experiences that I passed was in my early days as a child. I was 
in the primary years in school down in poor little town of Mexico DF (which 
Americans know as Mexico City). My teacher was a tall blond woman with green 
eyes, the eyes of a devil. She was of Spanish descent. I could still remember 
those eyes of that woman full of hatred, the eye of a racism. Because I was a 
indigenous of Indian roots and because I was better in math than my classmates 
of Spanish blood [she hated me].

I came to "El Norte" (North means America for the Mexicanos) in my early teen 
years. I came riding in the freight train with three "Bolillos" (Mexican bread) 
placed in a plastic bag, with the sweet hope to earn some money, to make a house 
for my mother and my brothers. Things didn't work as I thought. I came to know 
racism and discrimination. Things are not easy when you leave home without money 
in your pocket to buy food, you have to sleep in the train, mountains, fields, 
rivers, abandoned houses, woods. You can hardly find some water to drink, have 
to face the police everywhere you go, in some cases they put in jail for the 
simple act of being a stranger. Police, federales, migra, army, narcos, gangs, 
racists. All kinds of bad people have faced the Mexican illegals on both sides 
of the Mexico-U.S. border , when they come to cross the border for any jobs in 
the fields or that Americans refuse.

The first time I crossed the Mojave Desert (close to a little town between 
Algodones/Yuma) I almost died in the desert inside a few days for being lost. 
Without water the human system can not resist when the heat rises up to 130 
degrees. The person could last a few hours after the dehydration begins.

It is sad when you see with your own eyes, the Colorado River stealing the life 
of a person, and you can't do nothing to help because of the tornadoes under the 
water swallow the damn snake way down, to take the person's life. Only the 
darkness of the night is witness to the miserable end of many immigrants: men, 
women, olds, youth, children. The death don't respect difference it takes 
equally. The American or Mexican don't care to bring to light this injustices 
and only leave wonder as to what happens to one's family.

-- an Iowa prisoner.

MIM responds: This comrade's story is an example of why we say that all 
prisoners in Amerika are political prisoners. Settler united snakes citizens 
occupy half of Mexico with government and military support. The other half of 
Mexico (what Amerika recognizes as a sovereign state) is a neo-colony of the 
united snakes. Mexicans are impoverished by Amerikan domination of their 
country's economy, and are drawn to cross the illegitimate u.$. border for 
employment. As this comrade points out, they take the jobs that Amerikans refuse 
as being beneath them, yet they risk death in this effort.

One has only to recognize the right of national self-determination to see that 
Amerika has no business imprisoning Mexican immigrants. We do not recognize the 
legitimacy of u.$. claims to the so-called Amerikan southwest (any more than we 
do the rest of this settled land). For this reason we refer to "undocumented" 
immigrants, rather than "illegals." We do not uphold the law that calls day- and 
migrant-workers outlaws, we only know that these people do not have the 
documents on which Amerika hypocritically insists. MIM demands to see the papers 
that have awarded the white Californians, Texans, Arizonans and other settlers 
the land they live on, and recognizes the right to self-determination of the 
people of Aztlan.

Revolution Brings Change
	by a New York Prisoner


Now who got more prisons than the rest
Of the world?
Who scheme on socialism/communism to
Undermine the world?
A villainous, antagonistic syndicate
That contradicts
Itself so much I'm sick of it
The network organizes robberies and sees it
As legal plunder
But as soon as we take
They wanna keep us under
Incarcerated rules and regulations
Psychologically deteriorating our nation
We dominate the prison population
Is it because we have the highest crime rate?
Then what about the slavery and 
Hegemonic land rape?
I see the conspiracies, the subtle
Tyranny, and World War III
The evil grip of North america
Got other european snakes united with her
They got underground shelters for the
"cream of their crop"
to protect their mankind for when
the hell-fire drop
this apocalypse is relevant
to military force
like in the "book of revelations"
behold a pale-horse!
Who oversees the destruction of civilizations!
Not a mystery being
The "white settler nation"
The same ones that make these rules
And then break 'em
Be the same ones who gave us a "Bill of Right's" 
And then take 'em
On this land of steel chains
And shackles on 
Our brains if we want liberty to rain
Only revolution will bring about
This change!

Pennsylvania prison warehouses

The average work hours are 6.5 hours for most jobs except the kitchen here. They 
have prisoners working from 4:30 am to 6:30pm. They get paid $0.18 to a max of 
$0.42 an hour. The most I have seen or heard about on bonuses is $0.51 an hour. 
I have never heard of anyone, especially here, getting $1.11 an hour. The 
industry shops are used for mainly outside business. These are the ones who will 
probably make $0.51 an hour.

If you refuse to work, a misconduct will be given to you and most likely be sent 
to the Hole for refusing to work for approximately 30 days. In this prison H 
block is the hole. It houses a max of 156 prisoners. H block is divided into 4 
pods for A.C. (Administrative Custody) which houses 24 prisoners. They now have 
4 pods full and about 30 prisoners on 3 pods all on A.C. status. All of these 
prisoners are waiting for a bed in population. Some of them have been here for 
60 days. This prison knows that they are violating their own policy and they 
will continue to do so unless we force them to stop! They keep bringing in new 
prisoners when the ones here don't have any available beds. We are in the 
process of forcing them to correct this.

Your soldier on the line,

-- a Pennsylvania Prisoner.

Locked down 10 weeks and counting

Right now we are in emergency lockdown, so everything is controlled movement. 
We've been like this for almost 10 months. We receive three 15 minute showers a 
week. And that is our only movement! The rest of our time we are confined to our 
cells. Our only movement is the length of this cell which is 6x9. Ad Seg 
receives a better program than this.

-- A California Prisoner.

What is true crime?

True crime is the founding of this country, the deceiving of the people of the 
world, the invasion of Africa, Brazil, Mexico, North, Central, and South 
America. It is when oppressed people are told their land and homes no longer 
belong to them, but to strangers who never laid eyes on that land until the 
moment they decided to take it.

True crime is millions being born in a country as descendants of people who were 
kidnapped, enslaved, and brutally stripped of their culture, identity, and 
dignity.

True crime is when just because you are an officer of the law you can make false 
charges and reports -- even murder someone and say he/she was a threat or 
appeared to have a dangerous object, as if that justified killing an innocent 
person.

True crime is when an oppressed person appears in a court of law for an offense 
he's not guilty of and his court appointed attorney (who's a lackey for the 
imperialist regime) only has to go through the motions of representation. He 
does not have to do any work in investigating or fact-finding in evidence to 
prove his indigent client innocent or guilty.

True crime is my life being wasted away with excessive time for the most minor 
of offenses to society, while I watch an imperialist lackey commit horrific 
crimes and get a lighter sentence or no sentence at all!

True crime is that no one can give me a good reason I should have any kind of 
respect for the law, when I have no rights that apply to me.

We'd better check our real history, what goes around comes around. This country 
is run by the world's most notorious criminals and they're protected by a 
construction of words and phrases to justify and make things we can clearly see 
ain't right, sound right. They want us to accept anything that sounds right, 
without even analyzing or dissecting the true concept of the atrocious content 
imposed.

-- A California prisoner.

From an Indiana lockdown:

It boils down to replacing imperialism with socialism 

I received the book on Franz Fanon [Franz Fanon's ITAL Wretched of the Earth 
END] and the newsletter concerning Mumia. Twenty-one gun salute! I'm just 
beginning to dissect [the Fanon book]. It's a powerful message so far. It has 
given me a better understanding on colonialism, especially concerning violence 
or revolutionary violence. It boils down to replacing one system (imperialism) 
with another system (socialism). In the process of doing this we are going to 
have to heighten the consciousness of the masses by showing them that religion, 
electoral voting, and the amerikkkan dream are just more means of exhausting our 
energy in an ineffective struggle which will not end imperialism, but protect 
its continuation. When the masses are prepared, revolutionary violence will be

necessary.

-- An Indiana prisoner, 6 January, 2000.

Michigan prisoner gets revolutionary message from Palante

"I believe in constant struggle, freedom, to end oppression, and build a better 
world. I believe in collective struggle; in fashioning victory in concert with 
my brothers and sisters."

On the question, "What do I see that's useful in approaching my organizing today 
in the way Palante talks about the prisons in NY?" Organizing in MI is extremely 
difficult because the oppression is extremely subtle. Michigan convicts or 
inmates have gotten extremely complacent because of many counter-revolutionary 
forces working within these Kolonial Koncentration Kamps. For example, black 
inmates constitute 70% of the [Michigan] prison population, yet we are only 12% 
of the u.s. population [and not quite 14% of the Michigan population].

Many colonial captives are making skin analysis where they view many neo-
colonial occupational personnel as a friend, sista, or brother. These Neo-
Colonial occupational personnel provide a smoke screen for oppression and 
exploitation. I continue to hear that "Officer so & so is alright," etc. The end 
result of this is the failure to see the enemy as the enemy.

Also, the pseudo-privileges which are given to colonial captives work as an 
effective tool to pacify or conform the oppressed. T[his includes] many hours of 
recreation: basketball, baseball, football. Also, TV's, radios or any other item 
that they can take when they give you a misconduct ticket. All these privileges 
are counter-revolutionary.

Finally, the sectarian religious organizations which I personally believe are 
the most counter-revolutionary force. These groups help to paint make believe 
never-neverland. Whether its christianity or islam, or should I say european 
imperialism or arab imperialism, both have played their part in Afrikan 
oppression. Because of these sects, there is no unity because unity is based on 
shared ideology and it's a very difficult task bringing people together because 
of sectarian doctrines & practices.

What must be done in Michigan where the "people beat" is low; that revolutionary 
cadres need to step up agitation within these kamps. Then the enemy will use all 
means of repression to stop organizing. We know that oppression brings forth 
resistance, so we must make the environment right for revolution.

After reading "Palante" the Young Lords Party opened my eyes to whole new 
consciousness. At the present, I am aware of Puerto Rico's struggle for national 
liberation from u.s. domination, but I was never aware of the YLP's struggle in 
New York. The party was able to utilize "dialectical materialism" to realize the 
contradictions of living under the systems of capitalism. It was able to view 
capitalism and the system designed to create poverty, oppression, and 
exploitation on the masses. For example, taking over the church. This is 
critical because churches, temples and mosques, are seen by many as the moral 
fibers of society. Yet many of these institutions have gotten away from grass-
roots organizing and social change. The Lords made the church serve the people, 
instead of the people just giving donations or 10% of their earnings. In New 
Afrikan communities, religious institutions are just as prevalent as liquor 
stores. They have to become places of organizing or they must be viewed as 
counter-revolutionary forces.

Gloria Gonzalez, field marshall [of the Young Lords Party], stated that 
"wherever a Puerto Rican is, the duty of a Puerto Rican is to make the 
revolution." The Young Lords Party realized that it must connect its struggle 
not only in the US but also outside of the US. This philosophy helps strengthen 
the continuity of the revolution and build nationalism among the masses.

Rebuild to Win!

 -- a Michigan prisoner.

Par for the course in SC, prisoner falsely accused

While on my way to [the] clinic a white inmate was cut badly. Before I could 
make it out the door to my destination I was held, accused, and read my Miranda 
rights. I was strip-searched, and detained... I was also admitted to an Ad-Seg 
Unit. Since then they have attempted to prosecute in the court on the outside. 
But that didn't work so now I receive a report from the ISU (Investigative 
Service Unit) -- with all sorts of lies in it.

The thing that bothers me the most is that the guy cut himself on his own razor. 
The control cop lied on his reports to indicate I may have done it. The medical 
assistant also fabricated a story about me having a busted lip. The way such 
stories are concocted is unbelievable. But they're convincing enough for the 
prison authorities to try and convict you on. There's no way a convict can win 
when the authorities are the judge, jury and prosecutors.

It is pure hell trying to keep your sanity, especially knowing that it just 
takes something as small as this to just set you off.

-- a South Carolina Prisoner.

No possible protection

If you ostracize me because I am unclean, I can cleanse myself.

If you segregate me because I am ignorant, I can be become educated.

But if you discriminate against me because of my color or race, I can do 
nothing, I have no possible protection but to take refuge in cynicism,

bitterness, hatred, and despair...

-- an Illinois prisoner.

MIM responds: We thank this comrade for h contribution, but we respectfully 
disagree and call on h to look more thoroughly into the issue of how the 
oppressed can respond to their oppression. Bitterness plays a part: in China 
following the socialist revolution "speak bitterness" sessions were a regular 
part of life -- in which the old who had lived through starvation times would 
explain to the youth the deep and survival-dependent importance of revolution. 
Hatred also plays a part: we hate imperialism because it destroys the lives of 
the masses. But we never give in to despair: we use hatred and bitterness toward 
oppression to strengthen our love of the international proletariat, and to fuel 
our energies for positive revolutionary change.