MIM Notes 223 December 1, 2000 MIM's prison ministry advances, overcomes rightist mistakes Over the last year, MIM's prison ministry continued to expand its programs and increase its professionalism. At the same time, it re-emphasized the importance of proletarian leadership. When building independent institutions of the oppressed for revolution, we must continually struggle against bourgeois ideology. Advancements to build upon MIM increased its agitation against prisons in 2000, the first year of the "Under Lock and Key" campaign. During this campaign, MIM, the Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League (RAIL), and the prisoner organization United Struggle from Within (USW) conducted education on prison conditions and prisons' repressive role in Amerikan society. (*) MIM and RAIL organized public events, such as documentary showings on prison conditions and round-table discussions featuring released prisoners. (*) MIM and RAIL also increased their presence on the streets, organizing more rallies, petition drives, and book collections. Increased street presence helps to achieve specific tasks, but also helps to disseminate revolutionary information. (*) Submissions to MIM's Serve the People Prisoners' Legal Clinic (PLC) increased. (*) More prisoners took up proletarian educational work within the prisons. Many formed study groups; some wrote book reviews with encouragement and help from MIM comrades; some struggled with their fellow prisoners through the pages of Under Lock and Key. We should learn from and expand upon these examples in the second year of MIM's Under Lock & Key Campaign. Most importantly, we must remember that without proletarian politics in command, our work will not advance the struggle to end oppression. For example, over the last year MIM fought against some who would turn its revolutionary Serve the People programs into bourgeois charities. The Prisoners' Legal Clinic: Politics in command Bourgeois liberals outside of the party criticized the PLC in 2000 for relying on the work of "unprofessional" prisoners. Appropriately, prisoners argued against these critics and for pro se litigation. Without prisoners themselves saying, "we must do this and we can do this," there could be no Serve the People programs in prisons. Because the Serve the People programs are independent institutions of the oppressed ITAL for revolution END, they cannot ITAL depend END upon bourgeois support. In the case of the PLC, this means that we welcome assistance from the outside bourgeois legal firms, but we also develop the means to address the masses' concerns with the resources that we have. We do not rely on a few altruistic progressives. MIM's goal is to build organizations which are both red and expert. We will not be stopped by temporary shortages of experts if we maintain leadership of the correct, revolutionary political line. MIM encourages supporters to research laws and develop correct legal tactics. Prisoners have written guides on how to fight censorship and repression under the guise of Security Threat Group status. They have also started thoughtful discussions on future strategies for the PLC. We encourage our supporters to take the positive example set by self-educated prisoners and contribute to the PLC regardless of their present legal training. Free Books Program: Revolution, not charity MIM's Serve the People Free Books for Prisoners Program (BfP) has grown tremendously over the last five years. But MIM is primarily concerned with the political outcomes of such institutions, not their size per se. Because of correct political organizing parallel to the BfP, prisoners expanded their study groups and their contributions to MIM Notes. More prisoners have also helped with MIM's outside organizing work, writing flyers, submitting revolutionary art, and struggling with people on the outside to take up revolutionary politics and work with MIM. Despite these correct examples, some comrades within MIM circles strayed from the Maoist principle of politics in command. Instead, they treated the BfP program as a bourgeois charity. They emphasized the numbers of books distributed and failed to make the reason for the BfP clear. After some struggle, these comrades came to realize their mistake and made self-criticism. They wrote: "We spent time and money filling requests for books from prisoners who were not involved in building [revolution] or engaged in active political struggles, either with MIM, with other prisoners, or with others on the outside. We often sent books of questionable political value -- e.g. reformist, pro-bourgeois 'histories' of the Black civil rights movement, persynal testimonials -- without guiding prisoners on how to make the best use of them politically. Even when we did send books with a correct political perspective -- e.g. MIM Theory -- there was more often than not no political or organizational follow up. These were rightist errors. We were doing charity work, not organizing independent institutions of the oppressed for revolution. "Of course there is a real need for books in Amerika's prisons -- and so much more. The cold reality is that millions of people around the world die every year from preventable causes, and millions of people from oppressed nations inside u.$. borders go without a decent education. But if MIM acts like a charity, it will be as effective as a charity -- which is to say not effective at all beyond a few token cases of filling specific requests in a sea of oppression and neglect." These mistakes were similar to those made by the former Serve the People Food Program. In 1997, in the context of rectifying these earlier errors, we wrote, "The Chinese Communist Party and the Red Army did not go to the countryside to hand out PB&J sandwiches, they went there to mobilize the peasantry to solve their pressing political needs themselves. In particular, the CPC organized the peasants into the armed struggle to seize state power. It was within the context of that struggle that Mao developed the slogan 'pay attention to the well-being of the masses.' The political line behind the STPFP was a combination of 'left' adventurism (running ahead of our current strength) and rightism (objectively downplaying the importance of revolutionary political struggle.)" Maoists are not interested in putting people on the dole, whether that is with food programs or book programs. When the Black Panther Party served breakfasts to children, they were meeting the masses' immediate needs, educating the masses on the need for revolution, and building independent institutions which could contribute to revolution. MIM's Serve the People programs are the same. Organizational goals One of the goals not achieved by the MIM prison ministry over the last year was the publication of a more comprehensive prison ministry homepage on the web. This failure was primary due to fear of technology by the comrade in charge of the project. MIM reminds comrades that they can create proletarian media without being technical whiz kids. We strive to master the necessary technology, but we don't need to compete with the bourgeoisie in terms of whistles and bells. The newly formed "End the Amerikan Lockdown" study group has emphasized the need for both theory and practice. As a result, several new comrades committed to developing the prison ministry's web presence. The organizational abilities of USW also need to be improved. USW was unable to publish a special expanded issue of MIM Notes in October, as planned. Prisoners should take this as an indication of where USW was in the past year, but not of where it can go in the future. In terms of raw materials, we argue that it is well within the reach of USW to print its own special expanded issue of Under Lock & Key. This requires building understanding of what it means to have independent institutions of the oppressed for revolution. If you have questions, criticisms or offers to contribute to MIM's prison agitation, contact the address on page two. And if you are interested in joining a study group pertaining to the Amerikan prison system and proletarian justice contact mim@mim.org.