Recently several of our comrades behind bars have written to MIM with analysis or commentary about gangs on the streets and in prisons. MIM recognizes that there are many organizations of oppressed people coming together for self-defense in the face of the oppressive Amerikan government and police force, who are called gangs. Sometimes these are formal groups who want to be known as a gang, sometimes these are political organizations that don't think of themselves as gangs. The government uses this term to attack these organizations and justify repression and further use of the criminal injustice system against oppressed communities in Amerika.
But the issue of gangs is deeper than this because of the overt participation in gang warfare on the part of many Black and Mexican youth. Below we include articles from two California prisoners taking on these issues.
Questions and answers about gangs
By a California prisoner, June 2006
There is no doubt that this is the era of anti-gang hysteria. In recent years a pernicious series of state and federal laws have been levied against young gang members - and those labeled as such. Baneful sanctions; from untenable curfews to a broader application of the death penalty.
According to the Los Angeles Police Department, there are some sixty-five gangs in just the Los Angeles area alone, with a military-sized army of 86,000 recruits.
But who are they, really?
If prison and youth authority numbers are correct, these street groups comprise a myriad of children and youths between the ages of nine and twenty-five. However, there are many types of "gangs": biker and hate gangs; backwoods militias, and even political and police gangs. But these particular groups; profiled targeted and often the fatal focus of crushing legislation, are the urban street gangs. Those who generally constitute disfranchised minority members; namely African Americans, Asians and Latinos.
So where do these gangs come from?
According to the late Stanley Tookie Williams, the 1970s co-founder of the Crips street gang, these youth troops were formed primarily for protection because: "When police were called in our neighborhoods, they either took too long or didn't show up." Williams expressed this lament during an interview prior to his execution in December 2005.
The irony of circumstances here, according to Williams' perspective, is that the primary nemesis of these street fraternities is also their indirect cause - the police.
So what do we do with 86,000 misguided youth, or "Gs" as they like to call themselves (a media-hyped glorification for "Gangstas").
Do we lock them all up as last year's federal anti-gang legislation proposed? Or do we follow the suggestion of Texas Democratic Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson, who urged us to "…give our young people a path to success, not just to prison."
In order to do this we must first ask why we're losing so many of our youth to gangs.
There are many reasons, but during his State of the City address earlier this year, L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said 81% of middle school students are "Trapped in failing schools." The Mayor's assertion was under girded recently when a state judge ruled against the use of exit-exams for graduate hopefuls of the Los Angeles Unified school District. The judge opined that these primarily minority students weren't given the same opportunity to prepare as more affluent students. Of course, this only addressed the adversity of the remaining students who endured the disease of discrimination, not the other 50% who had already succumbed and dropped out.
Notes:
Mia Lee, KCAL-9 News, December 12, 2005 (86,000 gang members in LA)
Antonio Villaraigosa, "Accelerating our Ambitions: State of the City address" Feb/March 2006.
Peter Jennings, "Petter Jennings Reporting: LAPD," June 1, 2004
Amy Goodman, "Stanley Tookie Williams Interview," Democracy Now, November 30, 2005
The infusion of mass confusion: Black and Brown
Since the early 1940s and 1950s, Blacks of the Jim Crow South and Mexicans from their impoverished homeland have migrated to California in search of a better life. As a result, both groups were systematically forced to live together in ghettos and communities that generally keep them separated from middle and upper class whites.
These two races learn, live and work side by side in their quest to make a better life for themselves and their children. Although different in many ways, they were and are the same in many struggles they face. Systematically they were and are oppressed and limited to working jobs that generally leave them under the control of their white conscious counterparts.
The Blacks and Mexicans who once lived together and worked together were and are bound together by their strength and determinations to make a better life. Over time, they established their position in society, and their offspring has the privilege of focusing on things other than mere survival.
The early 1980s brought on a whole new era. Tons of cocaine [brought in directly or indirectly by the Amerikan government -MIM] began to pour into our communities, in addition to the division being brought about by gangs. This helped to drive a wedge between a people who once lived side by side and supported each other in many ways.
The division brought about by gangs and the drug trade fueled even more division in prison, where Blacks and Mexicans are the majority. It is in this prison environment that the political and social order of each faction is first established. Then it is taken back into the communities, where this subtle form of hate is perpetuated and is decaying the very fabric of society.
Unfortunately, the so-called 'shot-callers' who propagate this hatred are themselves victims of a form of psychological warfare so profound that very few, if any, can actually give a valid reason or account for hating each other so much.
Since the landing of the mayflower, European whites have been engaged in a divide and conquer strategy to establish and maintain control over the land. They used it to control the native people who inhabited the land and the countless Blacks they brought from Africa. By pitting one against the other, Europeans were able to avoid becoming victims of the wrath of the Black slaves and so-called Indians, separately and as a whole, thus giving themselves control over the land and its inhabitants by means of deception.
There is no difference in strategy used by modern day whites and political structures which benefit from the division of Blacks and Mexicans. It diverts the focus and energy of these two powerful forces from taking over the communities in which they are the majority and at the same time creates jobs and economic opportunities for whites and anyone who subscribes to their social beliefs.
The California justice system is fueled to fill the 34 prisons and countless county jail facilities which make up one of California's biggest economic infrastructures. From the courts, lawyers, police, parole and probation officers, prison guards, as well as all who support the system, i.e. those in the community who provide goods and services, it is no surprise that Blacks and Mexicans bear the damn burden of filling these institutions while white and those who subscribe to their beliefs make a decent living at their expense.
…
California, which has more prisoners than any other state, is a trailblazer in the art of psychological warfare. At the expense of countless innocent lives, these think tanks devise severe and diabolical ways to condition all races in prison to hate each other.
So long as they are locked up and division is perpetuated between them, there can never be any trust amongst them and thus no unity. This gives the ultimate control to the oppressors with the added bonuses of job security and security on the job as a result of the conflicts caused by this division.
Since Blacks and Mexicans make up the largest portion of the prison population, and, by manipulation, are the most aggressive of the races, they are targeted by and affected most from this diabolical plot to control and indoctrinate the masses. Yet they are two very powerful forces with the capacity to come together, both in prison and in general society, to form an alliance that could change life as we know within Amerikkka.
A prison system which flourishes like foliage at the expense of confused, misinformed and miseducated Black and Brown people knows and understands the significance of keeping these two powerful forces divided. Hence the Black and Mexican war throughout the state of California, both inside and outside of prison.
The system benefits socially, economically and politically by perpetuating this unscrupulous war, which is ultimately baseless and unwarranted. The unsuspecting Blacks and Mexicans who fight this war put their lives and their liberties on the line without really understanding why. They just know that they were taught to hate each other, despite their long and arduous history of struggle together, their similar styles of living and most importantly the systematic oppression that they both face on a large scale.
This manipulated racial divide will destroy many lives before things get better. Both races are oblivious to the destruction they are bringing to their communities as a whole. First comes knowledge, then comes understanding. The few who know the truth about what's systematically going on have a moral and ethical obligation to enlighten those who are unaware and help them to understand.
How can two economically oppressed races benefit from destroying one another? There is nothing to gain on either side. They both must realize that respect begins with first respecting yourself. How can either side respect themselves, when they are both destroying themselves for a cause that neither race can truly identify?
As two underprivileged races, both need to be educated about political, social and economic ramifications of their actions…. The so-called shot callers who ordered this 'green light' on all Blacks should re-examine the source of their hate and see who really benefits most from it. Surely it won't be the children and grandchildren of either race. … In conclusion, those who have ears, let them hear, for those who are deaf and blind, destruction is inevitable. The best way to solve a problem is to remove its cause.
- a California prisoner, August 2006
MIM adds: Both of these prisoners correctly point out the cause for the origin and manipulation of gangs in the Amerikan imperialist system. And they both correctly recognize the need for unity both behind bars and on the streets among the oppressed nations within U.$. borders, particularly Blacks and Mexicans. But when asked what we should do to solve the problem, both authors point to the need for education programs for youth, more access to mainstream schools, and other solutions that may attack the symptoms but not the cause of the problem.
MIM does fight against inequalities in education, and we see the need for major systematic changes in the education system in Amerika to address the significant differences in educational opportunities between oppressed nations and whites. But this is just one of many discrepancies in opportunity in Amerika. And these are all symptoms of a larger problem - a system that is built on the oppression of some nations for the benefit of others.
Education is important, but this must be revolutionary education, not mis-education that encourages a few to integrate with white society while the majority remain outside. Don’t get us wrong, MIM thinks kids should stay in school and learn all they can from the imperialist education system. But everyone needs to temper this with some revolutionary knowledge, or they might come away from school believing that Columbus was actually the person to "discover" Amerika, or that Mexicans voluntarily retreated to land south of the current border, or that slavery is long past and Blacks now enjoy equal opportunities with whites.
Ultimately, this education needs to turn into organized action. As these comrades point out, we need unity among the oppressed nations, both behind the bars and on the streets. This unity should extent beyond Amerika's borders to the oppressed people of the world. All people suffering at the hands of imperialism should be a part of our demands for liberation.