MIM(Prisons) is a cell of revolutionaries serving the oppressed masses inside U.$. prisons, guided by the communist ideology of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism.
www.prisoncensorship.info is a media institution run by the Maoist Internationalist Ministry of Prisons. Here we collect and publicize reports of conditions behind the bars in U.$. prisons. Information about these incidents rarely makes it out of the prison, and when it does it is extremely rare that the reports are taken seriously and published. This historical record is important for documenting patterns of abuse, and also for informing people on the streets about what goes on behind the bars.
A handful of comrades in different cities on the outside have pledged
to fast, study and do prisoner support work on 9 September 2025 in honor
of the Attica uprising, and in solidarity with comrades organizing
inside on this same day. This is the annual Day of Peace &
Solidarity initiated by the United Front for Peace in Prisons over a
decade ago. As we go to print, Palestinians just recognized Palestinian
Prisoners’ Day on April 17. September 9th is like our Prisoners of
Amerikkka Day. And this year we aim to carry the torch outside and hope
to inspire others to participate.
The act of fasting forces us to slow down, be more reflective and
think of others across the country doing the same thing, for the same
cause. A larger group of outside comrades will also be coming together
the day before to continue ongoing discussions about the Maoist-led
united front here on Occupied Turtle Island. We will discuss how to best
build this movement to be resilient in the long-term task of ending
imperialism. We may also organize events on September 9th.
Comrades inside prison should also hold local discussions about
Attica, about the anti-imperialist prison movement, and about the United
Front for Peace in Prisons. Comrades can join us by abstaining from
food, drugs, television, video games and other pleasure-driven
activities that day, and engaging in study, discussion, outreach and
reflection instead. Get our September 9th study pack, start planning
now. We’ll print an updated list of plans in the next ULK.
On 17 March 2025 one of the U.S. propaganda arms of Imperialism
“Voice of America” was shut down. This came after major cuts to USAID,
which serves U.$. interests through aid to people in crisis situations
in other countries. Of course any time any of the capitalist
institutions is shut down it’s a good thing. But these institutions of
“soft power” influence are being replaces with trade war in the form of
massive tariffs, and possibly hot war with ramped up military
spending.
Voice of America? Voice
of Imperialism.
It was World War II which compelled the U.S. to create the “Voice of
America” (VOA) after taking a page out of Nazi Germany’s radio
propaganda outlets. The VOA was used to play propaganda radio programs
to countries opposed to U.S. imperialism. Over the years VOA has funded
and created various propaganda broadcasts such as Radio Free Europe,
Radio Free Asia and Radio Marti aimed at Cuba. VOA would essentially
transmit U.S. propaganda at the targets with a goal to foment unrest,
rebellions and to destabilize the targets. USAID, established in 1961,
provides actual resources to influence conditions on the ground.
Amerikans should keep this in mind when they get upset about Russian
propaganda on the internet.
VOA often was used to promote and support opposition forces within a
country that was targeted while spreading lies, disinformation and smear
campaigns against those in power. No doubt countless lives were
negatively affected if not lost to those who took directives or followed
the advice from VOA in the decades it was in service. Perhaps we may
never know the totality of damage that VOA is responsible for in its
reign of terror. The Trump Administration has shut down the VOA citing
it as having become “radical” and pushing liberal views. We believe
there is more to it and it’s important that the Chican@ Nation
understands what this shut down means.
On the one hand we welcome the death of VOA; however, to be honest,
the VOA was no longer as vital to imperialism today as it was 80 years
ago at the height of radio around the world. Today many of the targets
that the U.S. focused is on have blocked access to VOA via internet or
radio waves. It was no longer as accessible as it once was. Furthermore,
the occupiers seek to harness resources for harsher forms of oppression.
The radio waves today are also packed with white nationalist broadcasts,
on radio and internet podcasts and other media in multitudes that the
days of WWII never dreamed of. Indeed Goebbels would have soiled his
pants in glee over the flood of white power media spewed out to the
world from these false U.S. leaders. So in that sense eliminating the
VOA was simply trimming the fat for the oppressor nation. The state has
developed the white nationalists to an extent where they can now
supplement the capitalist state allowing Amerikkka to reroute its
resources. We as revolutionaries should glean the lesson in this,
working harder to develop our independent institutions and the Chican@
masses while adjusting our resources to other much needed areas in our
work.
Is the U.S. Tariff War
Class Warfare?
Recently a bourgeois “journalist” asked a Trump official about the
tariffs and how it’s “hurting” the economy. The capitalist politician
said the tariffs were “class warfare” and that this warfare was being
waged by the current administration on behalf of the working class. This
of course is a gross distortion of the reality of what is taking place.
What we are seeing is not class warfare. It is inter-imperialist rivalry
where imperialists are fighting over resources, rare minerals and clout
in the world. “Class War” is the furthest from the reality, if anything
it’s the imperialist class fighting for who is going to exploit the
proletariat of the world the most.
Political democracy in the United $tates is bourgeois in nature and
one way that it survives another day is in fooling the masses into
believing that it operates in their interests. It promotes the false
narrative that it is fighting for equality for the people but true
“equality” can only come when classes don’t exist, when capitalism – the
very system which keeps the U.S. on life support– no longer exists. This
is how ridiculous the U.S. bourgeois democracy is. But this is nothing
new. Lenin spoke of the capitalists selling snake oil in the guise of
democracy. This is because it lulls the masses into believing that the
capitalist state is truly working in the people’s interests. Listening
to the capitalist press (U.S. Corporate News Media) the masses believe
in the propaganda that they do not need to engage in national liberation
struggles because the colonizers are engaging in “Class War” and working
towards equality. Aztlán will only be free as a class when we are free
as a nation. Shutting down a propaganda arm or charging tariffs do not
bring us one iota closer to national liberation. We don’t want money or
lies, we want to be free!
MIM(Prisons) update: As we go to press Trump had put
significant tariffs on goods coming into the United $tates from almost
every other country, then quickly repealed them after bond markets
became unstable (because other countries began to question the
reliability of U.$. debt pay offs). The only new tariff increase the
U.$. has maintained as we write this is on Chinese goods, which has
triggered a tariff war between the United $tates and China. This is a
war that Trump will not want to back down from, but China has less
reason to back down since they are actually a self-sufficient economy.
Since the overthrow of socialism in China in 1976, the Chinese
proletariat have been brought into the world capitalist system, becoming
the source of much of the cheap goods (and surplus value) in the United
$tates. As these economies became tightly intertwined over the last 50
years, the large proletariat in China has supported the smaller, but
still significant, labor aristocracy consumer class in this country. The
United $tates no longer produces enough to support its own people, even
if we cut our consumption to more modest means. We have become a mall
economy, where we buy and sell to each other the things that other
countries make. While this system has been booming for decades, Trump is
correct that this is not sustainable. The trade imbalances the Trump
regime used to calculate the new tariffs notably excluded services, only
accounting for trade deficits in goods. This is because Trump has been
touting a plan to bring goods manufacturing back to the United $tates by
forcing other countries to invest here.
It’s interesting to watch Amerikan social fascists, who for decades
have lamented the loss of “good manufacturing jobs” to China suddenly be
worried about becoming slaves in computer chip factories. They seem to
now admit the truth that to destroy the relationship with China will
lead to a significant reduction in capitalist trade and profits globally
in the short term, as well as the ability of Amerikans to enjoy the
consumption levels that we have enjoyed since WWII.
The United $tates has been preparing for war with China for years as
this economic relationship has supported their continued rise to a
technologically advanced super power. You cannot have imperialism
without the contradictions between nations. And that includes the
contradiction between the exploiter and exploited nations as well as
between the imperialist nations themselves (such as the U.$. and China).
Since there are no more non-capitalist countries to pull into this
exploitative system, the expansion of finance capital is reaching its
limits. Trump’s pulling back from tariffs on most countries indicates a
disagreement among the imperialists on how to proceed. But at this point
the only way for the imperialists to create the opportunity for
expansion that the collapse of Chinese socialism offered is the
destruction of capital via massive war. A war that the U.$. military and
other imperialist militaries are ramping up for. Such a war poses a
great threat to all people of the world, but especially those in the
imperialist core who have been insulated from war for many decades. The
only wars we support and will serve in is the wars for national
liberation and for socialism of those under the boot of imperialism.
Intensificando la amenaza de pandillas peligrosas con
“súperpredadores.” Usando informantes confidenciales, tatuajes, y
apariencia para catalogar personas como “pandilleros.” Usando esa
conexión de pandilla para encarcelar y torturar a la gente. Estos
métodos draconianos son familiares a lectores de ULK, y para esos que
han pasado tiempo en cárceles estadounidenses en general. El régimen de
Trump ha echo esta noticia para el país entero.
En las semanas recientes, cientos de venezolanos han sido deportados
de los Estados Unidos a una megacarcel en El Salvador. El régimen de
Trump ha justificado esto con La Ley de Enemigos de 1798, que permite la
deportación de no ciudadanos durante tiempo de guerra, y fue usado
durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial para deportar los alemanes y italianos
y juntar los japoneses en campos de internamiento, apoderándose de sus
activos para los euro-amerikanos. Trump reclamo que estas personas
fueron parte de una pandilla conduciendo “guerra irregular” en los
Estados Unidos, pero no hay evidencia que Tren de Aragua es una
organización amplia y funcional aquí. En febrero, el Departamento de
Estado estadounidense designaron Tren de Aragua, Mara Salvatrucha
(MS-13), y una lista de carteles mexicanas como “organizaciones
terroristas extranjeras.”
Una corte federal ha ordenado una pausa a estas deportaciones, pero
el Departamento de Justicia esta desafiando la orden. Una batalla legal
continua, mientras el poder ejecutivo continua a desafiar las
cortes.
Venezuela ha sido un objetivo consistente del imperialismo
estadounidense desde que obtuvo poder Hugo Chávez en 1999.(1) De
resultado casi 600,000 venezolanos han sido aceptados en los Estados
Unidos con Estatus Protegido Temporario (TPS). Trump intento a cancelar
el TPS para los venezolanos, pero una corte federal ha determinado eso
como un acto ilegal. Sin el TPS, muchos de Venezuela, Haití, Ucrania,
Sudán, Afganistán y otros lugares no podrían continuar a trabajar en los
Estados Unidos legalmente y podrían ser deportados legalmente.
Kilmar Armando Ábrego García esta recibiendo atención especial de que
la administración de Trump admitió que su deportación fue un error, y
que no lo pueden regresar de la custodia salvadoreña. Esto es a pesar de
que había una orden del la corte que prevenía su regreso a El Salvador,
donde se había escapado de violencia pandillera cuando era joven. Ábrego
García no tiene cargos criminales, si sirve de algo, pero fue catalogado
como un miembro de MS-13 por un cerdo mencionando un “informante
confidencial” cuando estaban acorralando trabajadores hace algunos años.
Como resultado, Ábrego García ha sido desaparecido de su familia y
mandado a una unidad de tortura en el mero país que huyo por razones de
seguridad.(2)
El ACLU obtenido una copia del “Alien Enemy Validation Guide” siendo
usado para deportaciones. Después de establecer que alguien es mayor de
los 14 años, de origen Venezolano y sin ciudadanía estadounidense, un
sistema de puntuación es usado para “validar” pandilleros. Un tatuaje de
“TdA” te da 4 puntos mientras 8 puntos son requeridos para calificar
como validado. La guiá del Departamento de Seguridad Nacional muestra
una lista de imágenes de tatuajes como coronas y estrellas que son
“TdA”. También, poniéndote mercancía de los Chicago Bulls y Michael
Jordan está en la lista. Cuando fue la ultima vez que has visto alguien
con un tatuaje de una estrella y portando Air Jordans?
Persiguiendo Activistas
Estudiantiles
Instituciones educacionales desde Universidad de Columbia en Nueva
York hasta es sistema de la Universidad de California están esforzando
la represión fascista en sus campos, de expulsando estudiantes durante
la presidencia de Biden, a haciéndolos desaparecer de las calles y de
sus hogares bajo el régimen de Trump. Estudiante de Tufts University
Rümeysa Öztürk esta detenida por escribiendo un articulo criticando el
genocidio en Palestina causado por los Estados Unidos y Israel y el
campamento estudiantil propalestina el año pasado, contó su historia en
una declaración reciente del 18 de Marzo 2025:
“Me llamo Mahmoud Khalil y soy un preso político. Les escribo desde
un centro de detención en Luisiana… Fui detenido el 8 de marzo por unos
agentes del Departamento de Seguridad Nacional (DHS, por sus siglas en
inglés). Se negaron a aportar una orden judicial y nos abordaron a mi
esposa y a mí de manera agresiva cuando regresábamos de cenar.…
“Mi detención fue una consecuencia directa de ejercer mi derecho a la
libre expresión, ya que abogaba por una Palestina libre y el fin del
genocidio en Gaza; genocidio que se reanudó con fuerza el lunes por la
noche. Con el acuerdo de alto al fuego que se pactó en enero ya roto,
los padres y madres de Gaza vuelven a mecer mortajas minúsculas en sus
brazos y las familias se han visto obligadas a escoger entre la hambruna
y el desplazamiento forzoso o las bombas. Es nuestro imperativo moral
persistir en la lucha por su libertad absoluta.”
“[La Universidad de] Columbia me fichó por mi activismo y abrió una
dictatorial oficina disciplinaria con el fin de saltarse el debido
proceso y silenciar a los estudiantes criticando a Israel. Columbia ha
cedido ante las presiones estatales, proporcionando expedientes
académicos de sus estudiantes al Congreso y acatando las últimas
amenazas de la administración de Trump. Algunos ejemplos claros de esto
son mi detención, así como la expulsión o suspensión de al menos
veintidós estudiantes de la Columbia —algunos despojados de sus títulos
pocas semanas antes de graduarse— y la expulsión de Grant Miner,
presidente del sindicato Estudiantes Trabajadores de Columbia (SWC, por
sus siglas en inglés), en la víspera de las negociaciones
contractuales.”
“En todo caso, mi detención es un testimonio de la fuerza del
movimiento estudiantil para cambiar la opinión pública hacia la
liberación palestina…” (4)
Otros estudiantes que han sido perseguidos se han escondido. A la
misma vez, estudiantes por todas partes del país están uniéndose para
apoyar y defender los que puedan ser destacados después. Elogiamos la
solidaridad que estamos viendo. Escuelas y prisiones son realmente
únicos en nuestra sociedad dado de las identidades de sus poblaciones y
sus habilidades a organizar. Con los anuncios recientes del régimen de
Trump que van a deportar ciudadanos estadounidenses con récord criminal
al Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo en El Salvador, prisioneros
tienen que estar preparados para confrontar el enemigo juntos en la
manera que lo están aprendiendo a hacer los estudiantes. Aunque hay
muchos ejemplos recientes que dice lo contrario, hay una historia larga
de prisioneros estadounidenses apoyándose debido a la consciencia del
grupo que viene con confrontando un opresor común cada día.
Fascismo De Regreso a su
Hogar
Los Estados Unidos ha usado el régimen de aislamiento de largo plazo
por décadas a un nivel no visto en cualquier otra parte en la historia
humana. Médicos para los Derechos Humanos (PHR por sus siglas en inglés)
salieron con un reporte en 2024 exponiendo el uso del régimen de
aislamiento en los centros de detención en contra de las direcciones del
gobierno para limitar su uso cuando es absolutamente necesario.
Documentaron alrededor de 14,000 casos de personas siendo puestas en
aislamiento por ICE de 2018 a 2023. El régimen de aislamiento tardaba
por un promedio de 27 días, con 42 casos tardando mas de un año. En
2024, ICE detuvo mas de 35,000 personas, ahora siendo el sistema de
detención inmigratoria mas grande del mundo.(5)
Condiciones probablemente son peor para los que son transferidos a El
Salvador, donde el Presidente Bukele ha declarado que la única manera
que los pandilleros pueden salirse del Centro de Confinamiento del
Terrorismo (CECOT) que construyo en 2023 sera en un cajón. Con una
capacidad de mas de 40,000, hay 65 a 70 prisioneros mantenidos en cada
celda. “Prisioneros de CECOT no reciben visitas y nunca están permitidos
a salir. La prisión no ofrece talleres o programas educativas para
prepararlos a regresar a la sociedad después de sus sentencias.”(6)
Bukele ha estado promocionando fotos de pandilleros con la cabeza
rasurada, vestidos de todo blanco, siendo maltratados por guardas
enmascarados por linea desde que abrieron la prisión. Esta campaña de
propaganda ha apelado a los elementos profascista de Amerika. Y con ese
apoyo, Trump esta incorporando esta prisión en el sistema internacional
de prisiones amerikanas y mandando cienes de personas ahí de los Estados
Unidos. Este es un cambio cerca de la casa del interconexión de sitios
oscuros, y prisiones famosas como Abu Ghraib y Guantánamo, que fueron
usados para torturar y aguantar preso sin juicio personas oprimidas al
través del mundo Musulmán.
La mayoría de la prensa están reportando que los amerikanos pagaron
$6 millón dólares para que 238 prisioneros sean puestos en CECOT, que
algunos señalan que es mucho menos de lo que costaría a encarcelarlos en
los Estados Unidos. Pero es una cantidad que va a ayudar El Salvador
inmensamente para que puedan fundar su monstruosidad de cárcel. No tiene
sentido que los imperialistas están pagando para que aguanten a estos
prisioneros, pero después reclamen que no pueden regresar personas como
Ábrego García de regreso a sus familias.
En los 1980s, los Escuadrones de La Muerte patrocinados por los
Estados Unidos, entrenados en la Escuela de las Américas en Georgia,
mataron y desplazaron muchas personas en América Central que estaban
luchando por el socialismo y por poder sacar el imperialismo de sus
países.(7) Muchos niños de esta guerra en El Salvador fueron desplazados
a Los Angeles donde se unieron a Barrio 18 o crearon la nueva Mara
Salvatrucha (MS-13), fueron perseguidos por el estado, y después
mandados a regreso a El Salvador. Reportamos sobre los esfuerzos en
haciendo paz entre estos grupos en 2013, que coincide con la inversión
por USAID y el desarrollo de las prisiones en El Salvador inspiradas por
los Estados Unidos.(8) Pero las condiciones para la gente de El Salvador
no mejoraron, y votaron por el Presidente Nayib Bukele que utilizo las
organizaciones lumpen en su organización política y después los
traiciono como un chivo expiatorio por el mal del país en una campaña
fascista de represión.(9)
La lucha contra el fascismo en este país depende en la reunión de
personas para defender las poblaciones migrantes y estudiantes que están
siendo atacados en este momento. En cuanto el fascismo continué a subir,
vemos las campañas de grupos como el ACLU acercándose mas a los de
MIM(Prisons). Mientras están pasando batallas legales importantes,
también vemos el reconocimiento extendiendo que no podemos depender en
las cortes para que nos salven. Debemos de tener un plan B. Debemos de
crear nuestro plan B.
Notas: 1. Soso of MIM(Prisons), January 2019,
Imperialists Push Coup in Venezuela to Secure Oil for Amerikans, Under
Lock & Key 67. 2. Democracy Now!, 2 April 2025. 3.
https://www.wlrn.org/immigration/2025-03-31/ice-tren-de-aragua-venezuela-deportation-el-salvador
4.
https://www.aclu.org/news/free-speech/a-letter-from-palestinian-activist-mahmoud-khalil
5. Physicians for Human Rights, 6 February 2024,
https://www.wlrn.org/immigration/2025-03-31/ice-tren-de-aragua-venezuela-deportation-el-salvador.
6. Aleman & Cano, 17 March 2025, “What to know about El Salvador’s
mega-prison after Trump sent hundreds of immigrants there”, Los Angeles
Times. 7. MIM(Prisons), June 2009, FBI Arrests Peacemaker, Under
Lock & Key 9. 8. MIM(Prisons), March 2013, One-Year Anniversary
of Peace Treaty in El Salvador, Under Lock & Key 31. 9. Badgreen
of MIM(Prisons), September 2023, 8,000 Military and Police Deployed in
Cabanas Province, El Salvador, Under Lock & Key 83.
One of the foremost promises of the Trump/Vance campaign was a
crackdown on gender expression and transgender existence in the United
$tates; we are now watching this being carried out. On his first day in
office, Donald Trump signed Executive Order (E.O.) 14168 against “gender
ideology”, and, as most changes under his administration, the effects of
this order strike most harshly at the oppressed masses – in this case,
prisoners
in particular. This executive order states that it “shall ensure
males are not detained in women’s prisons or housed in women’s detention
centers.” Though its ramifications are being fought in courts, people
behind bars have already seen changes play out for trans and
gender-non-conforming prisoners. The Trump regime has also instructed
amendments to the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) to remove special
protection for gender non-conforming people in prisons, as ineffective
as PREA has been.
According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, there are about 2200
transgender people in the feds, which is about 1.5% of federal
prisoners. Of those, only 20 are trans wimmin in wimmin’s prisons. While
over 1500 trans wimmin are held in men’s prisons. A prisoner in
FCI-Waseca reports that the 2 trans wimmin at that facility were
immediately packed out to go to men’s facilities, but one was returned a
week later.(Ultra Violet Vol. XXXVI, No.4, Spring 2025) The
courts have issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the E.O.,
and multiple lawsuits have been filed. Anyone interested in contacting
the lawyers who have filed the class action lawsuit (which covers all
transgender people in the BOP) against the executive order can
write:
Shawn Meerkamper, Cal. Bar No. 296964
Transgender Law Center
PO Box 70976
Oakland, CA 94612
As the basis for gender oppression is located in free time, and as
prisons seek to control prisoners’ free time to a degree rarely seen
elsewhere in this country, MIM(Prisons) identifies the struggles of
trans prisoners as a particularly sharp form of gender oppression.
Furthermore, as prisons reinforce the segregation of already-oppressed
people along “sexed” lines, gender diversity – especially among trans
wimmin – is punished both legally and extralegally behind bars. These
punitive measures have only heightened under the new administration, and
MIM(Prisons) surveyed trans prisoners regarding the recent changes.
A trans womyn at FCI Seagoville responded:
“The staff under our previous warden told the transgender prisoners
that we were to turn in all our dresses, blouses, bras and panties to
laundry and send our commissary-bought undergarments home. That lasted a
day and then the same staff told us about the E.O. stated that there was
a judicial claim that rescinded the order, therefore, go to laundry and
get your clothes back. That lasted about a month, then the warden left
under the Trump ‘federal buy out.’ Our new interim warden took our items
away, stating unless we were part of the TRO, then she could take our
items. Then said if we return our clothes ‘without a fuss,’ we could
keep our hormones… for now.
“We had a laser hair treatment machine and then after the E.O. came
out, it just up and disappeared. All our transgender programs, including
our psychology lead support group, have been eliminated.
“A trans woman has been on suicide watch ever since she was told to
turn in her girl clothes. Staff let her out after 2 weeks, sent her to
laundry. The supervisor there said ‘you are a man, in a man’s prison,
therefore you will wear man clothes.’ She went to psychology, where they
basically told her that ‘we can’t help you.’ She went back on suicide
watch and is still there.
“The transgender women here decided to hold our own support group out
on the recreation yard. That lasted about 3 weeks, until the interim
warden shut it down supposedly because drugs were found on the
yard.”
The imposition of gender as a repressive system is clear here, with
the confiscation of clothes items, and the forceful insistence that one
of the girls discussed “is a man in a man’s prison”. These prison staff
taking glee in sexually, verbally, and physically attacking these trans
prisoners on the basis of gender are undoubtedly gender oppressors (see
MIM
Theory 2/3: Gender and Revolutionary Feminism).
With regards to the shutting down of the support group, we see these
repressive tactics wielded against any group of prisoners that poses a
threat to the system. More often, we see these slanderous lies
about drugs and crackdown on free time wielded against political
organizers, but clearly the prison administration sees trans wimmin
discussing their lives and struggles as something dangerous. We would
love to exchange ideas around gender with this group and others and
offer the pages of ULK as an organizing space as you struggle
to keep your local group functioning.
In FCI Seagoville, local USW comrades are helping organize the
transgender wimmin incarcerated there. The linking of the struggle for
transgender rights to the movement for broader solidarity in prisons is
excellent, and we hope that the comrades there continue to build broad
unity.
A trans man from FMC Carswell was not able to fully respond to
our survey:
“I was just released from suicide watch 3 days ago. Things are hard
and oppressive as well as slanderous but I’ll speak on these things when
I’m in the right headspace.”
Ey went on to forward us documents regarding a legal case ey’s filing
against the designated wimmin’s prison, telling us that the Trump
administration’s decree that trans prisoners cannot access transgender
medical or mental health services has led to eir self-injurious
tendencies worsening, and that ey is suing on the grounds that they are
not giving em proper treatment to keep em safe.
The willingness to take away services at the risk of peoples’ lives
exposes the inhumanity of this system. Gender oppression is a system and
until we destroy it people will be subject to such treatment.
A trans womyn from USP Tucson reported:
“[The prison guards are] glad that [the executive order] is being
done so that they can stop all this… We used to only be able to be pat
down by female guards, now that’s gone and male guards can touch us like
that!”
This E.O. further drives home how what we understand as “gender” –
that is, one’s relation to gendered oppression – is neither defined
solely by chromosomes, nor biological sex, nor identity. Certainly,
strip searches and cavity searches are sexually violating, and are a
form of gendered violence that people face by the very fact of being a
prisoner of the United $tates. We wholeheartedly stand with this comrade
in agreement that the imposition of male guards on trans wimmin is
dangerous and shows how this executive order has nothing to do with
“safety.”
However, we’d like to solicit input both from this womyn and from any
other prisoners reading, regarding whether having strip searches by
female guards is less violating. We have printed many reports and statistics
exposing the role of female staff in gender oppressing
prisoners.(see ULK No. 1) So we think there’s more to do to
stop sexual assault.
This comrade from Tucson also reported that there are 25 to 32 other
transgender wimmin in eir prison, and that ey has been taking charge in
helping to keep them all calm. Solidarity between prisoners is a
necessary first step for the struggle for a world free of all forms of
oppression. Sanity and solidarity are necessary in this time, but
ultimately are useless without a clear understanding of the ways to
fight back (both in the short term – grievances, petitions, legal suits
– and in the long term, fighting for a classless, and thus
gender-oppression-less, world). Can you turn your support group into a
study group, or a group designated to supporting each others’ grievance
campaigns, work/hunger strikes, etc.? Make contact with USW members to
organize with them, as the wimmin in Seagoville have done, or join USW?
We can think of no better way to support each other than to stand up for
each other.
If Trump’s recent executive orders have shown us anything, it’s that
concessions from the bourgeoisie towards oppressed people – trans
healthcare, media representation, things like that – can be taken away
just as quickly as they are granted. Oppression against trans people
represents the cutting edge of gender-based oppression in the United
$tates today, and trans prisoners are feeling it the most sharply.
Nobody is made safer by commissaries no longer carrying makeup and
bras, or by prisoners being denied even the right to choose the name
they use. The gender-oppressors in this country are by and large united
around a reactionary return to “biological gender.” Just as there’s no
such thing as “human nature” abstracted away from society, there’s no
such thing as “biological gender” in a vacuum. No humyn is born
biologically predisposed to desire makeup and small underwear, nor is a
human born biologically predisposed to cut their hair short. Gender is a
complex system almost entirely social in nature, and MIM(Prisons)
defends those attacked by reactionaries who have at the heart of their
attacks not “safety” or “logic” but a lashing out at the erosion of the
hetero-patriarchal nuclear family.
In a world free from oppression, what would gender look like? We
don’t know for sure. What we do know, though, is that deviations from
the rigid, Euro-Amerikan-centered, patriarchal gender system would see
space to flourish rather than being punished as they are in the United
$tates.
The current rollback on transgender rights is alarming and dangerous,
but we can’t get caught up in simply attacking one axis of oppression
without attacking the whole thing – the dominance of the oppressor
class, epitomized in the world today by imperialism and in the United
$tates by national oppression (of which incarceration is a significant
part). Joining the anti-imperialist movement is the fastest path to
ending oppression of all people.
I would like to clarify terms or, perhaps better stated, to give
solidity to concepts. Those of us in these revolutionary spaces tend to
preach to those who are already converted who don’t need convincing. We
become a sort of revolutionary ghetto developing our own lingo so that
we become isolated and our movements incognito. An essential part of any
resistance is the ability to reach people, the common people, where they
are, and to do that they have to know what we’re talking about. So, what
does it even mean to protest? To resist? What is the best way to deal
with oppression? The proletariat (common people) need to know.
Protesting usually takes the form of taking to the streets en masse
to express grievance about an issue. An archaic definition of the word
is “to make known”, which protesting excels at, getting the word out.
The problem with this tactic is that it is the only tactic people, the
masses, are familiar with. Protesting is temporal in nature, it cannot
last forever, and every oppressor knows this. People come out, make a
lot of noise, but ultimately go home and go back to regular life.
Moreover, in the United States there are rules on how citizens are
allowed to protest, because protests have to be “peaceful” and “lawful”.
Note: anytime an authority is telling you how to “resist” them it is
because they know it will not work. Can a movement be effective while
following the rules of the oppressor? Any movement that tries to be
peaceful, unoffensive or otherwise not disruptive is still-born in its
inception. By nature, resistance is not peaceful. It will offend, and it
must disrupt the actions of those who seek to oppress you. Protesting is
a viable tactic, but we must recognize its limits.
Resistance is something different than a mere protest. Resistance
makes an all-out effort against whatever power is creating the negative
condition under which the people suffer. It does not marry itself to a
singular strategy or tactic. Rather, resistance is “by any means
necessary”. It can pick one tactic, use it, then switch to another
tactic. Resistance has the flexibility to change according to
circumstance. Resistance also has no time limit. It can last for months,
years and even generations before victory is won. Case in point: NATO,
which contains some of the world’s most powerful militaries, occupied
Afghanistan for 21 years. When they pulled out in 2021, the Taliban,
which had been resisting occupation for decades against military
superpowers, took the country within the month. From this example we can
learn some essentials of resistance. (1) It has no time limit. (2) There
must be the belief that victory is possible. (3) It must come from
ideology, not a mere trend. And (4), perhaps the most important,
resistance comes from self-sacrifice. When you make the decision to
align yourself against oppressive systems, take stock of the cost. Know
that your movement may well out-live you. You must believe what you’re
fighting for is not only righteous but also possible. The movement may
cost you time, money, status, relationships, even your life or your
freedom. You may not live to see the good you’re fighting for be
actualized. Will you put in the work anyway? For the sake of future
generations? If you are not able to pay the costs, this is not the right
place for you. Self-sacrifice is not for everyone. “Revolutionary
suicide” was the phrase the founder of the Black Panther Party
coined.
Power does not lose its grasp willingly. Power wants to proliferate
itself, to maintain its experience of control. It will not let go
without a fight. If you’re willing to keep resisting, not just merely
making noise in protest, then there is room at the table for you. And if
you’re serious about tomorrow’s work you will start wherever you are,
with whatever you have, today.
MIM(Prisons) responds: We agree with the righteous call
of Fred Hampton, “I am the proletariat, I’m not the pig”, as we too
fight in the interests of the international proletariat. However, today
we’d say the vast majority of people in this country are not of the
proletariat, and this is important for understanding the class interests
around us and how to organize those around us to be in line with the
proletariat, who are mostly located in Third World countries. Other than
that we whole-heartedly agree with this comrade’s words.
18 February 2025 – There is a report from Zambia of the
collapse of a tailings dam that held acidic waste from a copper mine.(1)
The collapse released millions of liters of waste containing
concentrated acid, dissolved solids and heavy metals into a stream
connected to the Kafue River in Zambia. China is the dominant player in
copper mining in Zambia. China uses the copper in smartphones and other
technology. The devastating consequences of this environmental
catastrophe include the widespread killing of aquatic life in the river,
contamination of water used for industrial and agricultural operations
as well as polluting the drinking water of some five million people in
Zambia. Chinese-owned copper mines have been accused of ignoring safety,
labor and other regulations in their imperialist pursuit of earth
minerals such as copper in Zambia. China is using classic imperialist
tactics such as the exporting of capital to secure minerals and other
resources by promoting development programs that put countries such as
Zambia in debt to them. Zambia is reportedly more than $4 billion in
debt to China. Zambians have already defaulted on payments in 2020 to
other nations as well. Clearly we have another case of Chinese state-run
corporations operating without regards to humyn life or the environment.
In conclusion, as a voice in the anti-imperialist movement I
encourage comrades to realize it is not just Amerikans or Europeans who
build their wealth and higher standards of civilization through the
manipulation of underdeveloped nations. We stand against all nations
that are imperialist! Nations we should be also speaking about in
ULK. Nations such as China, Russia and Iran. I mention Iran
because the spread of Islam is also a form of imperialism. Religion has
been the reason for uncounted billions of people who suffer mentally,
physically and even face death. Something that should be more deeply
explored in ULK articles.
Charlie of AIPS responds: Orko is right when ey says
that China is an imperialist country. We have no disagreements there.
Nor do we disagree with eir statement that we should “stand against all
nations that are imperialist”. So why do we focus on the imperialism of
the U.$. in our work? Because anti-imperialism is a question of
political line, while our political work is mediated by the strategies
and tactics we undertake. If you are not familiar with this terminology
from the MIM(Prisons)-ran study groups, let me rephrase.
Anti-imperialism is a fundamental stance that we require others to hold
if we are to collaborate with them. We will not waver on this point. But
as we move beyond the fundamentals, we must consider the particulars of
our unique political situation. We operate within the strongest
imperialist country that has ever existed in humyn hystory: the United
$tates. Our work can have no other aim, then, than to grow and
strengthen the existing Communist movement that resides within the
$tates. We must also acknowledge that one of the hallmarks of
“patriotic” attitudes in the U.$. is criticizing the imperialism of
other countries while defending the imperialism of the $tates. You can
observe this yourself in seeing how united Democrats and Republicans are
in denouncing countries such as China, Russia and Iran. As supporters of
the international Communist movement, we must distinguish ourselves and
our politics from the bourgeoisie and their lackeys. How is this
distinction to be made if we simply echo their points on foreign affairs
(though, admittedly, with more theoretical backing)?
On the note of religion, we must mention that religion, while
fundamentally idealist and antithetical to Marxism, has a dual
character. This is to say, religion can be used both for reactionary
ends as well as for revolutionary ends. Palestine is the perfect
encapsulation of this. The U.$.-backed Zionist entity termed “I$rael”
uses religious arguments to justify their brutal murder and oppression
of Palestinians. On the other side, revolutionary groups such as Hamas
are inextricably linked to religion through their Islamic beliefs. The
key is to consider the particularities of the situation at hand: Which
nations are involved? Which classes? Which side, if any, is
revolutionary at this time? Which groups are tied to religious
movements, and how are these movements connected to the previous
questions? To write off religion as a whole would be an error given the
reality that it can be wielded for revolutionary means.
This all being said, we heartily welcome the contributions in this
article from comrade Orko. It is well-worth noting that the logic of
capitalist-imperialist countries all over the world follow the same
general trends as outlined by V. I. Lenin in eir groundbreaking work
Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism. But so long as
our practice is confined to the borders of the U.$., that is where our
focus must lie.
MIM(Prisons) adds: As Charlie mentions, we use the term
imperialism to refer to the highest stage of capitalism as described by
Lenin. The forcible spread of Islam and Christianity hundreds of years
ago predated imperialism. And to use the history of Islam to call Iran
imperialist today makes no sense. During the invasion of Afghanistan by
the United $tates, pseudo-feminists made the same claim about the
Taliban being “imperialist”, therefore justifying the murder of Afghan
civilians (including wimmin), via their islamaphobia. Currently Iran and
China are primary targets of Amerikans threats. A war with either will
likely mean a global inter-imperialist war. This is not in the interests
of the international proletariat. Nor is it in the interests of
oppressed nations on occupied Turtle Island who will also face increased
attacks when Amerikan nationalism is stoked.
Notes: (1) “A river ‘died’ overnight in Zambia after an
acidic waste spill at a Chinese-owned mine” Associated Press, 15 March
2025.
Addiction does not develop overnight, nor does recovery. Addiction
can be devastating to not only the user who is addicted but eir friends
and family. In fact, addiction is a cultural phenomenon because it is
not specific to any particular race, gender, age, or class. It is
developed in the home through parents or family members who are addicts,
through friends, TV, music, and other observable things in our
environment. It is in every community, in every country, and on every
continent. The irony is that as much support as there is for an addict’s
recovery, that recovery does not come overnight. In fact, reportedly
those who do enter recovery programs have a 60 to 80% chance of relapse
before achieving permanent recovery! This is something I have
experienced first hand, and I am here to talk to those comrades who put
addicts like myself down. To them I offer the following challenge:
instead of doing nothing but complaining about addicts, start a recovery
group. This would be something more truly revolutionary! Because
bitching about it does nothing to help an addict nor have you said
anything to persuade me to want to change.
To them I say, “Yeah I’m an addict,” my addiction began in my home.
My father smoked cigarettes and kept a supply of liquor under the
counter in our kitchen. Drinking was a casual event with family and
friends, usually on holidays. I also observed these similar behaviors
through TV shows, movies, and commercials. As I grew into a teenager, I
heard numerous music lyrics referencing drinking and using various kinds
of drugs ranging from marijuana to heroin to cocaine to prescription
drugs. Though I was told by my parents, family, and drug programs such
as D.A.R.E. to stay away from these things, TV and my experience taught
me something different. It looked like everyone on TV was feeling good
and having fun and from my experience, it was and did most of the time
make me feel good. In fact, it made me feel so much better when I was
experiencing loneliness, stress, and conflict at home and within the
family, boredom, anger, unrealized feelings of being trapped,
depression, and more.
I’ve listed below what are commonly known as “triggers”. There are 10
major triggers I will identify here that can be associated and
experienced by most humyn beings through some stage of eir life and not
just addicts. For me the following 10 major triggers have not only been
a part of my first experiences with drugs and alcohol but especially my
relapse and effects of being imprisoned for over 25 years.
The Ten Major Triggers
Loneliness (even in the physical presence of family and
friends)
Stress and conflict at home and within the family
Boredom or, in other words, lack of meaningful activities or
challenging work
Anger and the feelings of being trapped (i.e. accumulated
resentments, etc.)
Depression (worse with women than men)
Spirituality, or feeling like life is meaningless without a
higher power
Secret disappointment with the straight life
Euphoric recall of being high
Secret thoughts of drugging or experimenting with a new and
different chemical or drug
Reactive denial to using or thoughts of it
I was never taught any fundamental coping skills to combat these
triggers throughout my life growing up at home or school. Even the
coping skills I did learn in recovery groups didn’t seem to work. These
feelings and thoughts seemed to always effect me no matter what. I also
found out addiction is also something that can be hereditary and
generational. What does this mean for my persynal recovery? I do not
know, but my current struggle is real and I can not experience recovery
by myself. So if you are an addict and not just an addict who is
addicted to drugs and alcoholic but are under the definition of the
United Struggle from Within Revolutionary
12 Step Program, then I want you comrades to listen. Not only you
comrades but especially the comrades who do nothing but bitch about us
addicts who use K2, suboxone, and whatever else as defined by the
comrades who came together to create the Revolutionary 12 Step Program.
I want you all to join me in my recovery, in our recovery, together.
P.S. This kept me from using so far today.
MIM(Prisons) responds: The Revolutionary 12 Step
Program pamphlet has been one of our most frequently distributed
publications in recent years. Unfortunately the main author and comrade
who was training others to lead the program has not continued this work.
For now we hope to continue the conversation, development and promotion
of revolutionary recovery here in the pages of ULK. As comrade
Menlo
suggests, we want to create a community here through our readers’ own
stories of recovery. And we thank comrade Orko and comrade Menlo for
kicking this off.
Another publication we want to recommend to those working around
recovery (whether you yourself are addicted or those around you) is Under Lock &
Key No. 59. You can just ask us for the “drug issue” of
ULK. It gives some deeper historical and sociological
background on the fighting of addiction in the revolutionary
movement.
For more, read our “drug issue”
As Orko explains above, addiction is a product of our environment.
That is why when communists seized power in China they were able to
eliminate almost all addiction in short time. And it is why people who
had been life long addicts suddenly quit to join revolutionary
organizations in the United $tates during the Black Power movement. The
hope, meaning and empowerment that comes with revolutionary organizing
is key to the success of our own revolutionary recovery programs.
In anticipation of some responses we might get to this article, we’d
like to ask Orko and other readers for ideas on how to reach those stuck
on drugs. We hear from a lot of readers who say they are surrounded by
zombies, and feel like there is no way to reach such people because they
are always high. What can be done to shift this reality and reach those
in need?
In February and March the New York Department of Corrections and
Community Supervision (DOCCS) underwent a multi-week lock down, imposing
terrible conditions on prisoners, including a pause to all visitations,
deprivation of food and medical care, and riots in two prisons. During
the strike at least 7 prisoners died, one of which was beat to death by
staff just as Robert Brooks was. Other deaths seem to be the result of
medical neglect from the information released so far. As of writing
visitation has apparently resumed, but otherwise bourgeois media has not
clearly reported to what extent the lockdown has ended yet, nor have our
readers in New York. This situation was caused in part by a wildcat pig
strike lasting from February 17 to March 11th which began due to alleged
concerns about under-staffing and “working” conditions for correctional
officers, namely increased violence towards staff.(1)
Regarding the second death by beating, a comrade reports:
“Just got the 411 on the killing of the prisoner at Mid-State C.F.
The first state police who conducted the investigation lied in their
report that the prisoner died of an overdose of K2. But the body was too
badly beaten to death for that to stick. …The first investigator was
moved from his post and transferred but not fired. Crazy!”
As we go to press, 10 more guards have been indicted for the murder
of Messiah Nantwi in Mid-State C.F., which is across the street from
Marcy C.F. As a
writer to ULK pointed out in March, the strike came right after the
indictment of ten NY pigs over the earlier murder
of prisoner Robert Brooks on 9 December 2024.(2) The New York
Focus reported a trend of C.O.s refusing to work, in protest
against being held accountable for abuse:
“In 2013, New York City corrections officers (C.O.s) responsible for
transporting people from Rikers Island stopped working the day an
incarcerated person was supposed to testify about a caught-on-video
beating he endured at the hands of guards, who were later acquitted. Two
years later, DOCCS corrections officers staged a work slowdown after the
prison agency tried to fire guards who beat an incarcerated man,
breaking both his legs. Those officers pleaded guilty to misdemeanors,
avoiding jail time.”(1)
Currently, six of the former correctional officers involved in
killing Brooks are being charged with murder, three with manslaughter,
and one with evidence tampering. All ten seem to be negotiating with the
NY District Attorney towards settlements, their fortunes at trial not
helped by body camera video evidence depicting the murder they
committed.(3) Additionally, one NY prisoner wrote to us to report that
the initial report of Brooks’s death featured the false cause of
overdose before an investigation was begun into the true cause, and that
the officer who falsified the cause of death was transferred from their
post but not fired for this falsification.
Five days before the pig strike, prisoners rose up at Collins
Correctional Facility. As noted by The Real Movement Report,
the extent of the uprising varies greatly depending on asking the DOC,
former employees, or the press.(4) In response, the New York State
prison system was placed on lockdown and Correctional Emergency Response
struggled for 12 hours to regain control of the facility. There was
another disruption at Riverview Correctional Facility on February 20th
which also saw prisoners taking control of some areas and Emergency
Response crews eventually reasserting control.(5)
In response to the strikes and riots, over 3500 National Guard
members were mobilized by NY Governor Kathy Hochul to bring repression
back to the staff-abandoned prisons. Then the state filed an injunction
forcing C.O.s to return to work, resulting in an agreement with the C.O.
union and termination and ban from future employment of 2000 employees
who refused to return by March 4th. The deal reduced 24 hour mandatory
overtime for pigs and modified the HALT Act.(6) This 2021 law set a
maximum of 15 days solitary confinement for prisoners, established
reporting guidelines, and prohibited solitary prior to a disciplinary
hearing and access to legal counsel.(7) The state agreed with the union
early in March to create a commission examining the HALT Act, and to
suspend the portions of the act which require out-of-cell programming
for prisoners, for 90 days.(8)
The wildcat strike was not sanctioned by the C.O. union and was
illegal based upon a law preventing the striking of certain NY public
employees. On March 27th many of the 2000 C.O.s who had been fired and
barred from future employment rallied at the state capitol. Despite the
pause of aspects of the bill, demonstrators called for further
“improvements” to the HALT Act. Although the source in question does not
name or count speakers behind each different position from the rally,
some called for changes to “make our prisons safer” and others suggested
the state follow the Mandela Rules, a series of UN-sanctioned standards
for prisoner treatment including a list of “human rights” which are
routinely denied to U.$. prisoners including recreation, medical care
and healthy food. The Mandela Rules limit solitary to 15 days.(9)
The prisoner (support) movement should organize against the repeal of
the HALT Act. Solitary confinement is torture, it harms people, it
prevents rehabilitation and prevents prisoners from coming together in a
productive way.
The New York State prison system is now attempting to release some
prisoners early because of the staffing shortage resulting from C.O.
layoffs. Releases may be available to those whose sentences end in
15-110 days and don’t have violent or “serious” felonies, but the scale
is unclear.(10) Additional reforms proposed by the Hochul government
include expanding programs for prisoners to reduce their sentences, also
vague, and lowering the minimum age of C.O.s from 21 to 18 in order to
attract more pigs to the workforce.(11) Democrats wish to slightly
reduce the prison population and hire new C.O.s whereas Republicans wish
to simply reinstate all the dismissed pigs.
This story saw two different NY prison riots develop in which
prisoners took control of portions of their prisons for small periods of
time. Beyond selfishness, the weakness of these C.O.s was put in full
display, needing to depend on emergency responders and the national
guard to quell prisoner uprisings. And before all that, a comrade
explains:
“Gang members have placed a statewide hit on me all because I gotten
myself in an argument with a prison guard at Green Haven C.F. …The gang
members are helping the prison administration run the prisons, which you
know has a pig shortage. …The head of security is a motherfucker and
have you killed quick.”
C.O.s are powerful enough to murder a lone prisoner in an
18-versus-one fight but helpless against the unified actions of even a
handful of inmates who are upset with the status quo, as they even rely on
other prisoners to do their dirty work.
These events are related to a trend of increasing retaliation against
C.O. abuse in NY prisons, 2024 assaults against staff having doubled
those of the previous year in certain months.(12) One important question
is the underlying reason for the recent increase in retaliation, between
poorer conditions, increased repression, heightened class consciousness
among the (imprisoned) lumpen, or a combination. A more speculative
question is if these instances of prison takeovers represent growth
towards prison occupations akin to Attica, complete with advanced
leadership and political demands.
Whatever is changing in the relationship between the C.O.s and the
state, it is evidently driven by factors within the prison population,
in this case greater retaliation against oppression. Can the bourgeoisie
resolve the under-staffing crisis without improving conditions in
prisons or releasing prisoners? The imperialists need prisons for
population control, and simultaneously want high wages, low taxes and
high spending on guards to “keep the community safe?” This balance of
contradictions parallels ongoing policy debates among the imperialists
regarding “border
control” and deportation of migrants.
Certainly, the labor aristocrats is favoring more national oppression
as a solution to perceived scarcity, rather than the formation of
internationalist consciousness. The C.O.s did not rally en masse to
convict their murderous co-“workers” but to support them, demanding an
increase of repression against prisoners, as well as for reduced
mandatory overtime: the timeless labor aristocracy dream of receiving
more money for less work relative to the global proletariat. Where is
the demonstration for the C.O.s’ victims?
Prisoners and supporters should be organizing against solitary, and
asserting more alliances and sovereignty in their prisons in the face of
C.O.s who are more concerned with repression than providing food,
healthcare or other prisoner needs. Spread ULK to friends,
request our September 9th study pack on the history of the Attica
rebellion, and please submit any reports regarding conditions in New
York or other prisons experiencing neglectful or abusive C.O.s and
fighting back.
Addiction is a disease/syndrome that is not dependent upon any given
drug. As an addict and alcoholic, what this means to me is that I am a
meth addict even though I have never tried meth. I am addicted to K2
even though I have never tried K2. My drug of choice is alcohol, but my
struggle is with addiction. My method of combating my addiction in
prison is:
Not using any substances
Refusing to be ashamed of myself
Sharing my experience, strength and hope with the addict who is
still suffering.
While addiction cuts across class, nationality, ideology, and gender,
it concentrates in prison as many of us committed crimes in order to
fuel our addiction. Addiction thrives in an atmosphere of shame, of
hiding, and of loneliness. All of that and more is the atmosphere of
prison. It is incredibly difficult to stay sober by myself. I need
community in order to maintain my sobriety.
One incredibly important aspect of recovery that is missing from the
revolutionary
12 step program is the personal stories of recovery that form the
back of each 12 step book. These stories are essential as they serve as
that community of recovery and way for us to relate and be inspired. I
would be more than happy to contribute to the revolutionary 12 step
program.
Oakland, CA – Organizations came together on March 29
for a caravan from East Oakland to City Hall promoting the AEH street
program, aka Artivists Ending Hostilities. Initiators included a number
of former prisoners who participated it in the 2011 and 2013 hunger
strikes in California, as well as the organization of currently
incarcerated people P.E.P. Talk - Pre-Entry Platform. Former prisoners
of CDCr spoke at the rally on the need to bring the message of peace
from the original AEH (Agreement to End Hostilities) to the streets.
Organizers distributed and read the text of original AEH and a recent
message from Cellblock 2 Cityblock.
Kat Brooks of the Anti Police Terror Project was one of the speakers
who really got to the heart of things:
“The state creates the conditions in our communities that they know
creates violence.”
Ey went on to condemn Amerikan koncentration kamps as a form of
violence, saying the carceral state is the most violent institution in
the world. Another comrade read from/paraphrased the intro of the Communist
Party of Aztlán’s essay on homelessness, making the connection that
homelessness is also a form of violence that we must come together to
end.
Of course, it is up to the oppressed to change our conditions. Youth
from Lulu’s House participated in the event, speaking on their own
recent transformations from petty criminals to active community members.
One said:
“We gotta push the movement too, it starts with us.”
While another pointed out:
“If you’re scared of the youth you’ll never understand them.”
One of the adults present who wasn’t scared to help these youth
change was a BART cop (Bay Area Rapid Transit). This “officer friendly”
approach is a well-known counter-insurgency strategy of the occupying
forces. They hire cops to do community work, who aren’t involved in the
violent repression work, but do intelligence gathering for the state
while helping to divide the occupied community.
Independence is one of the principles of the United
Front for Peace in Prisons for this very reason. There is no progress
towards liberation in the united front if it is working with the very
imperialist state that is oppressing us.
Minister King X echoed this principle of independence when speaking
about learning from the elders released from prison while the U.$.
government is smashing the Department of Education. We must learn from
the struggles of oppressed people.
Minister King
X was one of the MC’s and organizers of the event, representing the
Artivist Kadre trying to engage the youth and the oppressed in the
movement through artistic expression. Ras Kass was also there
representing the Artivist Kadre from Los Angeles. They were sporting
patches promoting the New Afrikan Revolutionary Nationalist (N.A.R.N.)
ideology and the AEH. The Artivist Kadre are working with P.E.P. Talk,
BOSS (another release support program) and others to address racism,
fascism, sex trafficking and more in California.
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