MIM Notes #226    January 15, 2001

MIM fighting censorship in Wisconsin

December 2000 - MIM Notes is being censored by the Supermax 
Correctional Institution in Boscobel Wisconsin. One of the 
prisoners who was denied the paper wrote to us "the prison 
administration has refused to deliver your material which I 
seriously am interested in." The rejection notice states that the 
"Publication teaches or advocates violence and presents a clear 
and present danger to institutional security." At this prison, as 
in many prisons across the country, MIM has many supporters who 
rely on our newspaper for political news and analysis. In supermax 
prisons in particular we find a high concentration of politically 
active and interested prisoners because these high security units 
are used to punish and isolate inmates who take a stand against 
the repressive system and organize and educate other prisoners. 

Several prisoners at Boscobel are working with us to fight this 
censorship. As one prisoner explains, censorship is a part of the 
prison's attempt to oppress and silence the prisoners and filing 
grievances is only one piece of the anti-censorship battle: "I 
have placed an inmate grievance to the Warden and complaint 
examiner which, as of yet, has not been addressed, but due to the 
continued denial, I don't have much faith that my filings will be 
successful. So, I ask of you, are you willing to stand with me and 
help me fight the abusers of governmental power? Please be 
informed that this Supermax is now under a microscope already 
because of Unconstitutional Acts (including U.S.P.S. mail 
tampering) that are occurring daily, 24-7, to hundreds of deprived 
men. We are in a legitimate, just, struggle to gain back our 
humanity and dignity."

Another prisoner explains his interest in this battle: "In my 
previous communiques with you I stress my situation and desire to 
give voice to the powerless down on my end of the stolen land. ... 
These oppressive tactics will not discourage my participation and 
communication with your cause. I'm enclosing the racist comments 
and the form of denial...Once the administrative [appeal] is 
completed I will take the required steps to file this action. I 
know of at least 3 comrades who have been discriminated and denied 
your material."

A third prisoner discussed his intention to fight the censorship 
and the reasons the prison has made up to explain the denial of 
material to him: "Well, your notes you sent never reached any 
awaiting hands. I have filed a complaint for them censoring my 
mail, and am considering suing them for censorship. The reason 
they said I couldn't have Maoist notes was because it was 
downloaded off the internet and internet material is not allowed. 
So anything with an internet address or website won't get in. Plus 
they said it was a threat to security, a clear and present danger 
to their capitalist ways of life."

Several of our comrades on the inside have made specific pleas for 
help from people on the outside. One prisoner says: "Keep in mind, 
we as prisoners are powerless against the prison administration 
and when we act we are due to suffer reprisals, but with just 
community support we do not have to suffer defeat also." Another 
asks for help: "What I can use from you is an outside voice to 
apply the pressure on the court and politicians. Do you have 
people up there who can give me assistance on making public 
awareness and petitions being signed by outside citizens?"

MIM prints these calls to action as a part of the campaign against 
censorship at the Supermax in Boscobel that we are waging. As long 
as we do not hold state power, we are going up against a system 
that will deny us even the basic rights that it claims to 
preserve. But we can sometimes win battles within the imperialist 
system with concerted legal and popular pressure. The legal 
battles force the prisons to justify their censorship within the 
terms of their own laws which supposedly guarantee people the 
right to free speech. And the popular pressure helps to embarrass 
the prisons in the public eye and point out the hypocrisy of the 
system. With the limited resources of the revolutionary movement 
at this time, it is important for us to only take on battles that 
are winnable.

MIM has worked on many similar battles at prisons across the 
country. We have won a number of significant victories but we have 
also lost a lot of these battles and still have many more that 
have yet to be won. And we understand that as long as the 
imperialists hold power, the criminal injustice system will 
continue to be used as a tool of social control to keep the 
oppressed down. This means that even when we win battles against 
one repressive aspect of the criminal injustice system more 
repression continues to happen elsewhere. We are fighting these 
small winnable battles partly to gain our comrades in the prisons 
some relief from repression, but also to educate the public about 
the criminal injustice system. In this way, these small battles 
make up part of the larger struggle against imperialism.

As one of our comrades points out, censorship will not stop the 
growth of the revolutionary movement. "It seems as though these 
pigs actually think that stopping such information is going to 
stunt our growth, it only feeds the fire. They may never give me 
your letters [but] as long as I know you're sending them, 
attempting to connect me, I'll continue to write and send my 
works. Every letter they hold back I send to a friend on the 
streets and let them read your works, maybe bring them a step 
closer to understanding the pack the rebel's throughout the world 
have silently made with each other. There are a lot of radical and 
revolutionary minded individuals confined to this dismal crypt of 
societies hypocrisy, in the fist of oppression is squeezing a 
piece of coal, unknowingly creating precious jewels, diamonds, who 
will be the instruments of their demise."

MIM sent a complaint about the censorship of MIM Notes to the 
prison warden, Gerald Berge, and the mail captain, Mr. Richardson. 
We pointed out that the prison has no legal right to censor MIM 
Notes: "According to Procunier v. Martinez, the Supreme Court 
upholds the right of prisoners to receive mail, regardless of the 
prison official's opinion of the mail content, as long as there 
are no legitimate restrictions from the prison related to 
correctional purposes. The form from your institution does not 
provide any evidence to demonstrate that MIM Notes presents a 
danger to institutional security and we believe the claim is 
unfounded. MIM Distributors sends the political newspaper MIM 
Notes to prisoners. The material in this paper does not related to 
anything that could be considered a threat to the safety and 
security of your prison."

The only evidence given by the prison for censoring MIM Notes came 
in a letter from Captain Richardson to one of the prisoners in 
response to his appeal of the censorship. The letter stated that 
evidence of the danger presented by MIM Notes can be found in the 
statement that "MIM struggles to end the oppression of all groups 
over other groups; classes, genders, nations. MIM knows this is 
only possible by building public opinion to seize power through 
armed struggle." As we explained in our letter of protest to the 
prison, "This statement from MIM discusses our theoretical 
understanding of political struggle and is not advocating violence 
in Amerika's prisons. We point Captain Richardson to the 
Declaration of Independence which discusses the appropriate 
response to people's unalienable Rights being denied: '... 
whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, 
it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it...' We 
wonder if the Wisconsin Department of Corrections has also banned 
the Declaration of Independence from its prisons as dangerous to 
institutional security."

If Mssrs. Berge and Richardson censor MIM, surely they would also 
have to censor Abraham Lincoln, the most beloved (or second-most 
beloved) president of the United States. Here are some quotes from 
him. 

"Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing Government, they 
can exercise their constitutional right of amending it or their 
revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it." -- First 
Inaugural Address

"Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have 
the right to rise up, and shake off the existing government, and 
form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable, -- 
a most sacred right -- a right, which we hope and believe, is to 
liberate the world. Nor is this right confined to cases in which 
the whole people of an existing government, may choose to exercise 
it." -- Speech in the United States House of Representatives, Jan. 
12, 1848

Our letter of protest went on: "Our material helps prisoners to 
educate themselves and prepare for a productive return to general 
society. We repeatedly receive feedback from prisoners stating 
that we help them to learn to stop fighting one another and 
instead to help educate one another. MIM Distributors does not 
advocate the violation of any Federal or State laws and does not 
advocate the violation of the rules of any correctional 
institution.

"MIM Notes is a political newspaper covering events in this 
country and throughout the world. MIM Notes does not advocate that 
prisoners should do anything that is against the policies of 
institutions. In fact, MIM Notes explicitly encourages prisoners 
to follow rules, to avoid fights and confrontations with other 
inmates and/or staff. Additionally, prisoners reading MIM Notes 
and other material sent from MIM Distributors typically work 
harder than other prisoners to stay out of situations where 
altercations might occur because MIM Distributors works with 
prisoners to become productive and educated individuals."

There is no legal basis for prisons to censor MIM Notes: we do not 
advocate prisoners taking up arms within the prison at this stage 
in the struggle. But MIM does represent a threat to the prison 
system overall. It is this threat that scares the prison pigs into 
making up legal reasons for censoring MIM Notes. Prisons are a 
tool of social control used by the ruling class in Amerika and MIM 
is working to build public opinion in support of revolutionary 
struggles around the world. This includes building the 
revolutionary movement within u.s. borders, a movement which will 
eventually end the tyranny of bourgeois dictatorship which needs 
the fascist prison system.

Working with the prisoners on the inside, MIM is asking our 
supporters reading this article to take a few minutes to help with 
this battle. Send a letter of protest to the prison warden at the 
following address:

Warden Gerald Berge 

Supermax Correctional Institution 

PO Box 1000 Boscobel, WI 53805-1000

Please also send us a copy of your protest letter. MIM is also 
distributing postcards that we are asking people to send to the 
prison to protest this censorship. If you would like to gather 
postcard signatures to help with this campaign, contact us at the 
address on page 2.