Arizona control units - Link between prison oppression and imperialism

SMU-II is a hi-tech modern day dungeon, designed to house the most violent inmates, and also Arizona death row inmates are kept here. We are afforded showers and recreation three times per week, and with the exception of visits we are locked down 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. There is a skylight, however, it is too obscure to see through. Hence, I have not seen the sky, unobstructed, for years now. Likewise, I cannot see the sun, the moon or the brilliant stars at night. The sensory-deprivation is acute, yet, I keep myself grounded with regular exercise, studying and meditation. By nature, I'm a revolutionary and have always labored to enlighten the minds of my fellow convicts. But there is much that I wish to share with my comrades.

We are not permitted any pens in VCU, thus, I must utilize a three-inch pencil stub to write to you. However, I view such international obstacles as "elements of motivation."

During my perusal of MIM Notes, especially the Under Lock and Key sections, I've noticed a uniform condition/circumstance within U$ prisons across the country. Statistics evince that more money is being spent on prisons than on other crucial social and economic needs; furthermore, the disproportionate numbers of Black and Latino persons incarcerated versus Euro-Americans reveals blatant racism on the part of the U$ injustice system.

However, there exists a direct link to the high incarceration rate of Blacks and Latinos, and the U$ exploitation and destabilization of Third World nations. In reality, there are two forms of U$ operations: micro-imperialism and macro-imperialism. Though by definition, imperialism is the policy and practice of controlling other nations; the united snakes executes a micro- and macro- imperialist policy.

The miseducation of the masses is the key to U$ capitalist success. Therefore, we must not only search for the truth but accept it and act upon it. U$ history, in brief, is the story of "white undesirables from Europe" who ventured to the New World (the Americas) with one purpose: Anglo-Saxon greed!

These white so-called settlers never viewed the indigenous natives, nor the African slaves as humans equal to themselves. There are some of the facts: Christopher Colombus was a brutal murderer, George Washington was a white supremacist, and Abe Lincoln did not believe the Black man to be equal to the white man.

After the so-called Civil War, all the laws of the land: the constitution, voting, etc, were made by and for the white man. So we must understand that early America was racist and imperialist. Neither the freed Blacks nor the indigenous people were afforded access to any power or control of the united snakes. Many falsely believe that certain early Americans truly gave a damn about the colored folks that were murdered, raped, lynched and intentionally oppressed.

True, there were certain individuals that were the exception e.g. John Brown. However, even the so-called abolitionists, most notably the Quakers, though they were anti-slavery, they did not believe in integration nor that Blacks should be buried within the same cemetery. These whites were separationists and did nothing to alleviate the inhuman conditions of Blacks and indigenous natives. Instead, the wealth from slavery added to southern white prosperity, and the U$ government tolerated the continuous abuse of Blacks and Indians.

Eventually, as U$ interventionism and imperialism became policy, white America (micro-imperialism) continued to oppress its Black, Brown and Red undesirables.

So, as macro-imperialism took definitive shape in countries such as Cuba, the Philippines, and South America, micro-imperialism raised its ugly head within the country, waging an unrelenting war against Blacks and all other people of color.

The early white Amerikkkans ensured that they outnumbered all non-whites (in fact, immigrant quotas were set so that only large numbers of Anglo-Saxons - Germans, English, etc. - were permitted to enter the country, in contrast to the strict law on numbers of Blacks, etc who could enter the U$.)

Thus, the micro-imperialism has the dynamic of ensuring white (racial) supremacy within the united snakes. Hence, the high incarceration rate of non-whites, the police brutality of non-whites, and the continued injustice.

Likewise, we see the U$ occupation of Iraq, and the exploitation of Third World nations by the united snakes and its imperialist allies! There is no such thing as coincidence!

Capitalism is the economic branch of imperialism, which is enslaving the world in discontent. Capitalism directly contributes to the starvation within Third World nations, and its poverty. If money is the root of all evil, then capitalism is the matrix!

- a prisoner in Arizona, October 2005