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.
This is my end-of-year report on our MIM Grievance Campaign. We did one
on the “unlocks” here, and we’re currently working on the issue of
showers. Due to the California drought they claim that we are still in a
drought and therefore can only shower on Tuesday and Thursday. Even then
there is no hot water so we are showering in ICE cold water. This is in
spite of the fact that we are in a medical facility and most of us are
older prisoners.
The temp has dropped to 34 degrees in the morning and we have been in
these conditions now for over a month. Enclosed please find the
grievances.
MIM(Prisons) adds: Comrades at Richard J. Donovan Correctional
Facility have been pursuing these issue through 602 appeals forms and
subsequent appeals. After receiving a response of “partially granted”
there was no actual change in conditions and they began utilizing the
grievance petition for California. They have done a good job documenting
the process, citing case law of Armstrong vs. Brown and the 8th
and 14th Amendment.
Comrades in California and other states can write in to get a copy of a
grievance petition to use as an organizing tool to bring people together
around conditions that are not being addressed at your prison.
5 January 2018 – I am writing to inform our allies that D Yard here at
Salinas Valley State Prison has been on lock down since 18 December
2017. The reason claimed is that “somebody stole a piece of metal.” All
cells have been searched and all prisoners signed papers stating that
they have no knowledge of any stolen metal. Yet we still remain on
lockdown even after the cops found no weapons or metal in cells or on
prisoners.
I am writing to you in regards to the hunger strikes occurring as this
is being typed by my good friends on the Powledge Unit in Palestine,
Texas.
I have heard on the local radio station that a hunger strike is
happening on the Allred Unit. The count is at 45 inmates concerning the
conditions of confinement, this has been ongoing in Texas because I have
personally litigated many claims about unsanitary conditions of
confinement.
On another note, the K-2 epidemic is still mounting here on Powledge,
but administration refuses to address the problem. The K-2 is coming in
thru the industry here, by employees and controlled by the gang members
here. This is supposed to be a G.R.A.D. unit. Gang renunciation unit.
But it appears that it is a gang re-organizing unit. They reorganize
once they get free of smart gang intelligence officer and get this dumb
one here.
This unit is a geriatric unit for old men and infirmed men, but they
continue to fill it with young gang members that want to get high or
drunk off hooch made with hand sanitizer. A deadly combination that has
claimed four inmates. Our society has no more dumb people than we do.
Offenders are forced to endure the smoke despite their breathing
problems and sends the offender to the medical with severe problems, in
which medical blames it on some other activiating mechanism like the
dust or debris.
One inmate died while smoking K-2 and the inmates brought him back to
life before the guards could be alerted. He made parole and has not been
seen since.
Your analysis has been enlightening and brought us up to date on the
epidemic of K-2. Thank you for your service to this major problem in
prison and outside. I look forward to hearing from you soon.
I am currently at Hays State Prison in Trion, GA. I for the record am
white, am a Muslim by religion, and tired of seeing all these white
trash pigz and klansmen that work here on this kkkompound treat all the
inmates like modern day slaves.
There is this level style program called Tier II in GA (see Sop 209.08
Tier II/Administrative Segregation) and here at Hays it is beyond the
norm of oppression. Unit managers, supervisors, and officers alike
threaten and try to antagonize any prisoner they see as weak. There is
an area known to all as simply “behind the glass” its supposed to be
level 6 security and the wardens have at times said that level 6 status
only will last 30 days, but people are kept in there up to 90 days, for
no reason at all. The warden has personally told people, myself
included, that “you get no legal library behind the glass.”
The food service here is supervised by ARAMARK, a major imperialist
conglomerate in the food service industry, and per the above SOP all
Tier II inmates are to receive the same quality and quantity of food as
GP. However we don’t receive coffee at breakfast all other state run
institutions in the GDC do, our portions are often inadequate and no way
possible add up to 2000 calories per day, we only receive lunch
Monday-Thursday except on state/federal holidays, meaning on Fridays,
Saturdays, Sundays and any and all holidays we only eat twice, the trays
arrive cold more often than not.
When officers are confronted with issues they, in some cases, lie and
simply move on. Today, 25 December 2017 I watched a nurse refuse a man
his mental health medication, I am unsure of this nurse’s name, simply
because he wouldn’t go to the back of his cell even though he is no
“behind the glass.” When he asked the C.O. working pill pass why he had
to step back the C.O. said “I don’t trust you.” When the inmate refused
to move the nurse said “you have three seconds then you’ve refused your
meds,” and ultimately she refused his medication.
There are many other very cruel things I’ve heard about but until I see
the actual use of “the involuntary hunger strike” or an inmate beat to
death by staff, I cannot speak on them.
I ask my fellow inmates/convicts no matter your race, religion, gang
affiliation, or sexual preference to stand as one at Hays State Prison
without using any unwarranted violence so that us on lockdown get what
we need. Please y’all come together and fight oppression and racism with
me cause I cannot do it alone.
To all my Muslim brothers As-Salam Alaikum and to the Christians God
Bless and to the ones I’ve left out be safe and hold your heads up.
I’m writing to you from a prison cell deep in the bowels of a Texas
prison. Recently I reread your article
“Texas
Comrades Need to Step up” in the Sept/Oct 2016 issue of Under
Lock & Key. It was well written and a much needed call to arms!
One question I have for you though is “Have you ever been to Texas, and
if so, have you been incarcerated here?” I ask this because I’ve
traveled a lot and have found that most people who’ve never been here
have a hard time understanding the typical Texan, much less the
uneducated incarcerated Texan.
To understand Texas you first have to accept that we are programmed from
birth to believe that communism is not only a bad thing, but one of the
very worst. Communists aren’t just the enemy, they are the boogeyman
sent forth from the deepest, darkest depths of hell, by satan himself,
to steal babies and rape our cows! There is no place on earth where the
capitalists have been more successful at spreading their agenda than in
Texas. The reason that most inmates in Texas are not doing those things
you address in your article is because they do not believe in our cause.
At heart they, most of them, are capitalists who only believe in “me”,
not “we”. This, comrade, is the gist of all our problems.
Most of the people who receive Under Lock & Key only support
your mission because it furthers their own self-interest of getting out
of prison, or making their time easier. When someone has been taught to
“not understand” their own best interests, how can one be expected to
grasp what’s right for the whole, much less fight for it? What to do
about it? I’m still working on that one and will get back to you on it!
The main reason for this letter is to find out whether or not you have
any specific caselaw that would help me with my 1983 that I’m in the
process of drafting. First, I’d like to say that I completely understand
that you must receive hundreds of letters each month from POWs
requesting help. While I do not claim to be any more important than any
of those individuals, I do believe that my situation is unique in its
scope. I say this because I currently have the “standing” to challenge
all of the criminal justice issues that your org. has taken a stand
against, as well as quite a few other issues. But most importantly, is
the vast amounts of evidence that I have compiled to support my claims.
A couple areas in which I’m seeking caselaw for are: 1. The
grievance system and denial of due process 2. The $100 medical
copay. TDCJ charged me for a medical visit that clearly should have been
exempt and has never given me the money back. 3. Good Time. Feds
ruled that a state can’t arbitrarily take good time so Texas created
legislation that negates the good times worth. 4. Price gouging and
profiteering. Texas uses free labor to manufacture products that it in
turn sells on commissary for inflated prices that fare exceed the prices
of similar products sold at freeworld retail stores.
There are a few more issues that I plan to file on but I’m sure you get
the point. The help I seek is minor in comparison to the amount of good
that my suit will generate for all those incarcerated in this country.
Mostly I need help finding case law. Because they striped our law
libraries of the Supreme Court Digest and I’m having a hard time finding
what I need. Can you help with this? The topics listed above are my main
concern. I would be grateful for any info or ideas you can provide. With
that, I will end this here by saying “thank you!” for your time,
consideration and the call to arms for Teas inmates. Some of us do truly
think correctly. But only after having re-programed our own brains!
It’s more war against each other but if it comes down to it some camps
will ride on those pigz because everyone ain’t for it but the trick is
we will not stop spending our money with these clowns. If we stop
spending on shit they create then we may get the attention we stand for.
Me for example, on November 16, 2017 on breakfast trays there were
maggots in the potatoes so I refused all my trays but I get a diet sack
3x7, which means 3 meals 7 times a week. Okay I must admit I did get my
diet sack on November 18 but I heard an office say oh you refuse trays
but don’t refuse packets? So I thought maybe I need to refuse them as
well. So I did. I only went to medical once, that was November 20. Said
I was normal upon Nov 20 til Nov 30 I went without nothing. So upon
December 1 I never spoke with noone and noone came to speak with me but
this fake ass mental health counselor. I told her I haven’t eaten she
then said that’s my choice. It’s nothing she can do for me.
So on December 1, 2017 I went to the stone because I then notice they
will not help me. I didn’t intend for a hunger strike but I feel I had
to act some way. Deputy Warden took pictures of the whole thing still
bringing the same trays. These people have brothas living in strip cells
who haven’t did shit to be in there. Strip cell you can’t flush your own
toilet imagine you make the officer mad? Man these people done put these
young dudes on strip cell for yelling out the door only to get attention
of the warden to speak with him but they was put in a shower for
numerous of hours like 10-6pm and then taken to a room and strip with no
clothing no paper gown no socks, crazy shit, but this is how we want to
live. Free every mentally power brotha and sista who fight for their
cause. I stand and fall for you and with you.
Presently I’m working on two legal issues. One concerns the fact that
Texas yards good time for work and good behavior which is as useful as
monopoly money. It plays no role in one’s release. My second concern is
once a prisoner is released from prison he is never viewed as someone
who has payed the price for his conviction. In Texas no one is willing
to give one with an X on their back a job or housing that will pass
inspection. Should his family be receiving any government housing he is
not allowed to spend even one night there. He is also expected to repay
the state for all of the food stamps that they received while he was in
prison. Bottom line the state is taking the man’s family away from him.
Here on this unit we are only given ten hours a week in a room with
outdated legal books. We are not given the use of a coping machine.
In an article in ULK 58 from United Struggle from Within it talks
about prison abuse and improper medical treatment. I’m a victim myself.
Last year when I was on Telford Unit in New Boston, Texas I was found
poisoned and did not receive proper medical treatment. It was during
Ramadan 2016. I was complaining to the pigs about the Muslims on Telford
Unit not getting treated right for Ramadan, because back in segregation
they were making Muslims accept they tray for dinner which was around
4:30pm. Knowing we couldn’t eat after sunset so the food would be cold
by then. I told a pig we should go into a race war between the Black and
whites and may the best many win, so I was poisoned. I filed a grievance
on staff and medical and did not get anything done because of injustice.
I also like to thank Nevada for starting the September 9 movement in
2012.
I am very grateful to be receiving “Under Lock & Key.” I’ve just
finished reading the Nov./Dec. 2017, No. 59. I agree with 90% of what I
read. I noticed that Florida isn’t listed in the data for any drugs.
We here are suffering the same oppression as every other state. We have
another one they call molly. I myself am not using drugs. I sit back and
watch how it affects the men around me. I attempt to talk to the men and
some of them get in their feelings. It’s a lost cause.
Majority of the men who use it is to escape the reality of their
situation. Life is not easy at all on this side of the gates. In Florida
we are offered nothing.
We do not have jobs. We have no opportunities. They offer us nothing.
Especially if you are serving over ten years. We are sent to institution
hours away from our families. If we attempt to voice our opinions or try
to reach out to express ourselves about the oppression we face daily, by
doing so we are putting our lives in danger.
A free world can’t begin to imagine the pain we suffer in here. The
loneliness of these prison cells. I have currently served 12.5 years
behind these prison walls and gates. I have a 35 year sentence to serve.
I did something so stupid as a kid. Now here I am today as a man
suffering for the actions of an immature kid. I’m 30 years old now. I
cry out for help, pleading, and begging for one more chance only to be
unheard.
I sit in this dorm all day all night praying that those I love are ok.
Wishing I was there to hold them, love them, etc. My pain and suffering
is unimaginable. Florida inmates do not have it easy at all. The reality
is men are being released the same way they come in or worse. We are
offered nothing.
My visions are so big. My desires to see D.O.C. change for the better is
so great. I know I can’t change everybody, but I don’t want to go a day
without at least trying. Men in here need education. They need
opportunity.
Society looks down upon us and could care less about us but the reality
is these men will be coming home. A few from every prison every day.
We’re locked in dorms all day and the only time we get to go outside is
when we go out for chow time. We’re lucky to get recreation 2 or 3 times
a week for an hour at a time.
Movie Review: National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation 1989
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation depicts the struggles (if
they can be called that) of Clark Griswold. It is Clark’s quest to have
the perfect Christmas for eir family: spouse Ellen and children Audrey
and Rusty. Most of the first act of the film is dedicated to comedically
exaggerated petty-bourgeois scenarios in this vein: getting the right
tree, putting up the Christmas lights, shopping for gifts, and trying to
keep the peace among family members (much extended family arrives in the
form of both sets of grandparents, Ellen’s cigar-smoking uncle Lewis and
senile aunt Bethany, and Clark’s redneck cousin Eddie, accompanied by
eir spouse, children and dog). Christmas books and movies have long been
vessels for anti-capitalist messages, even if they are tainted by
idealism and economism: from Ebenezer Scrooge being frightened into
giving concessions to the proletariat in A Christmas Carol(1), to
the anti-imperialist solidarity of Whoville in How the Grinch Stole
Christmas(2), to the anti-militarism parable of A Christmas
Story(3). And a superficial “reading” of Christmas Vacation
suggests that it may not only follow the same paradigm but even exceed
these works and act as an inspiration for communist revolution (spoiler
alert: the climax of the movie involves the forceful kidnapping of a
member of the bourgeoisie). However, a deeper analysis reveals that,
despite occasional flashes of progressiveness and a candid depiction of
the labor aristocracy, the film does not provide useful guidance for
revolution.
Throughout the movie, some potshots are taken at the bourgeoisie, but
nothing too substantial. Clark’s next-door yuppie neighbors are depicted
as pretentious snobs, while eir boss is gruff and impersonal. But these
attacks on the bourgeoisie are based on persynal mannerisms, not
economic grounds. Clark is clearly a privileged member of the labor
aristocracy. Ellen doesn’t seem to work, and Clark makes enough to
afford a couple of cars and a nice house, which ey bedecks with an
over-the-top lighting display. Clark does not even seem to work hard to
enjoy these things. In the whole movie, ey is shown at work in only
three brief scenes. And in none of those scenes is ey actually engaged
in labor. In the first, ey is chatting at the watercooler. In the
second, ey drops off a gift and unsuccessfully attempts to ingratiate
emself with eir boss. In the third, ey is sitting in eir office, looking
over some plans for a persynal swimming pool. So Clark does not appear
to work that hard, but ey does mention several innovations ey has made
for eir company, which seems to be a manufacturer of chemical food
additives although no manufacturing is ever shown onscreen.
Could Clark’s mental labor as a chemist still be exploited by the
bourgeoisie proper? The answer appears to be no: Clark is planning to
pay for eir swimming pool with eir end-of-year bonus. Said bonus
represents compensation for the value ey has produced in excess of eir
salary and thus precludes em from being truly proletarian. Indeed, eir
entire compensation is likely funded by the manufacture of chemicals ey
has designed, presumably by Third World workers. Thus, Clark occupies
the classic position of a labor aristocrat: someone who may be slightly
exploited by the bourgeoisie, but who ultimately receives compensation
in excess of the value of eir labor, as a beneficiary of imperialist
superexploitation of the Third World proletariat.
As the film progresses, the minor and mainly apolitical subplots fade to
the periphery (after some technical difficulties, Clark’s light show
wows the family and is never mentioned again), and a political thread
assumes prominence. As it turns out, Clark is really counting on eir
Christmas bonus. In order to expedite the construction of eir pool,
Clark has put down a deposit and written a check that eir bank account
can’t cover. Clark is confident that eir performance will earn em a
sizable bonus, but that confidence begins to wane as the days go by
without word from the company. Finally, a messenger arrives on Christmas
Eve with an envelope. Before opening it, Clark, apparently on the knife
edge between luxury and financial ruin, expresses both eir anxiety
regarding eir solvency and eir hope that the check will be large enough
to not only cover the cost of the pool but also airfare to fly over all
the extended family present (ten people!) to enjoy it when it is built.
To much fanfare, Clark opens the envelope and finds that, to eir dismay,
it only contains a subscription to the Jelly-of-the-Month club, a gift
of nugatory value. Enraged, Clark launches into a tirade denouncing eir
boss’s perfidy and angrily expresses eir desire to see eir boss tied up.
Taking Clark’s words literally, Eddie slips out, locates Clark’s boss
(conveniently, Clark mentioned the neighborhood ey lives in during eir
lengthy monologue), and kidnaps em. Bound, gagged, and festooned with a
large ribbon, ey is Eddie’s last-minute Christmas gift to Clark.
There are several issues with this scenario.
First, the stakes are very low. The only thing really at risk is Clark’s
bonus. Perhaps ey will have to live without the pool for another year.
Perhaps ey will be charged by the bank for a bounced check. Perhaps ey
will even have to forfeit the deposit ey made. But if Clark is low on
cash, that is a problem of eir own making. We are talking about a persyn
who probably spent over three grand just on the electricity for eir
250,000-bulb Christmas light display.(4) If Clark misses out on eir
bonus, what is the big deal? Ey might have to pawn eir lights and forgo
the spectacular light show next year. Eir family might even have to take
fewer of their legendary vacations. But it seems unlikely that they are
in danger of going hungry or having to sell the house or even the car.
Perhaps the aspect of Clark’s misfortune which ey most keenly feels –
and which is most relevant to Amerikan audiences – is what it
represents. Denied an explicit share in eir surplus value (ignoring, of
course, that ey still receives a salary of international superprofits),
Clark is confronted by the prospect of eir potential proletarianization.
Scarier than any Ghost of Christmas, the spectre of economic forces
strikes fear into eir heart. Rather than act constructively, however,
Clark, true to eir petty-bourgeois nature, reacts by pointlessly venting
eir rage at eir family. Ey also attempts to ignore the problem by
frantically following family Christmas rituals (providing time in the
narrative for Eddie to complete eir mission with eir absence unnoticed).
The proletariat of the 19th Century may have had to turn to the hard
drug of religion – “the opiate of the masses” (5) – to cope with its
actual oppression, but in Clark’s case, nothing so strong is required,
just what might be called the eggnog of the masses: a reading of “The
Night Before Christmas” and also a Tylenol, washed down by a few cups of
literal eggnog.
So, the stakes are low, but this movie is a comedy. Perhaps the events
depicted can be seen as a microcosm of the proletarian struggle. Would a
mere amplification of things produce a progressive view of international
economic exploitation? Sadly, no. Clark is a member of the labor
aristocracy, with an imperialist, petty-bourgeois, even bourgeois
mindset. Even eir most innocuous actions are tainted with oppression.
Eir actions throughout the film appear to be a re-enactment of
Amerikkkan history and atrocities, down to a roughly chronological
progression from European colonization to Amerikkkan imperialism in the
Pacific. The movie opens with Clark driving eir family to the woods to
chop down a Christmas tree instead of buying one, a handy metaphor for
Amerikkkan theft of the land from Indigenous peoples and destruction of
the environment, as well as a reminder that it was the timber of North
America that originally drew the English colonizers. Next, Clark moves
on to gender oppression. In “The Communist Manifesto”, Marx and Engels
wrote that the “bourgeois, not content with having the wives and
daughters of their proletarians at their disposal… take the greatest
pleasure in seducing each other’s wives.”(6) In multiple ways, Clark
displays these bourgeois ambitions, although ey may be considered only
petty-bourgeois due to eir lack of success. First, while shopping for
Christmas gifts, ey flirts and leers at the female salesclerk. Later, ey
has a daydream about eir pool in which the the vision of eir family
playing is replaced by a fantasy of seduction by a womyn who the
soundtrack implies to be an Indigenous Hawaii’an, thus tying together
the gender and national strands of oppression.
Finally, there is Eddie. Despite eir simple appearance, Eddie is the
fulcrum of one of the biggest paradoxes in the film: is ey a force for
revolution or reaction? An uninvited guest, ey seems to be nothing but a
source of problems, but ey ultimately saves the day with eir actions
against the bourgeoisie. Is ey proletarian? Hardly. It is revealed that
ey has been out of work for seven years. Aha! Perhaps ey is part of the
lumpenproletariat. Even if that were true, ey would be part of the First
World lumpen and receive a significant benefit from eir position as a
resident of the imperialist u.$. Regardless, the facts reveal that Eddie
is no lumpenproletariat hero. First, the reason for eir protracted
unemployment is that ey is holding out for a management position – a
classic petty-bourgeois aspiration. Furthermore, ey mentions that,
despite having had to trade the home for an RV, ey still retains
ownership in a plot of land, a farm and some livestock. Ey is still
petty boourgeois, then; one who, despite reduced circumstances, holds on
to a vestige of the family estate. In addition, another troubling aspect
of Eddie’s past is offhandedly revealed. Ey mentions that ey has a plate
in eir head, provided by the VA. Therefore, ey is not just a passive
recipient but an active participant in imperialism: one who enjoys the
privilege of free healthcare in exchange for eir role in aiding Amerikan
war crimes. Despite this, ey does fleetingly provide the film with its
only sliver of appreciation for the destruction wrought by capitalism
and u.$. imperialism. While shopping, Eddie asks Clark “Your company
kill off all them people in India not long ago?”, referring to the
Bhopal chemical disaster that killed an estimated 16,000 people and
injured as many as half a million more (7,8). “No, we missed out on that
one,” Clark dryly responds, and the conversation moves on, presumably
because Eddie doesn’t care. Meanwhile, Eddie causes a chemical disaster
of eir own; after emptying the septic tank of eir RV into the sewer,
subsequent scenes feature interstitial shots of a menacing green smoke
rising from the storm drain.
But let’s get back to the action. When we left the Griswolds, Eddie had
just marched Clark’s boss into the living room. Ungagged, eir first
instinct is to fire Clark and call the cops. But after all of 30
seconds, ey has a change of heart. Apparently, all that was needed was a
brief speech by Clark with an addendum by Rusty that withholding bonuses
“sucks” to convince Clark’s boss to drop all charges, reinstate the
bonuses, and add another 20% to Clark’s bonus. Clark is so overwhelmed
that ey faints.
OK, seriously? If a 20% raise was all that was needed to address the
iniquities of capitalism, MIM(Prisons) would disband and recommend you
vote for Sanders instead. Actually, even that would be too radical.
Fight for 15? More like fight for $8.70. Also, some aspects of Clark’s
boss’s repentance ring false: ey calls Clark “Carl” and refers to em as
the “little people”. Has Clark received a permanent gain or is eir
victory a tenuous and insecure one? We bring this up not to suggest that
Amerikan labor aristocrats are truly oppressed, just to point out the
vanity and futility of imperialism: despite afflicting so much suffering
across the Third World, it has failed to completely resolve the
contradiction between workers and bourgeoisie in Amerika.
Basking in their newfound affluence, however petty it may be, the
Griswolds are rudely interrupted by the arrival of the pigs. Usually not
motivated to do much work, the kidnapping of a member of the bourgeoisie
has kicked the pig machine into high gear, and SWAT teams storm the
Griswold home from every conceivable entrance, including several pigs
rappelling through the windows. (Some pigs even kick down the door of
the neighboring house; although this scene was probably meant to provide
some comic relief and comeuppance to the yuppies, it also wouldn’t be
the first or the last time that property and lives were endangered by
pigs getting the address wrong). The deference of the pigs to the
bourgeoisie is further underscored by the arrival of the wife of Clark’s
boss in a car driven by a persyn whose heavily decorated dress uniform
marks em as the chief of police. This persyn would also be identified by
most viewers, on the basis of eir skin color, as “black”. In fact, ey is
the only non-white character with a speaking role in the entire movie.
This detail is significant on several levels. First, the fact that the
Griswolds live in Chicago, a city with substantial New Afrikan and
Chican@ populations, but appear to interact exclusively with white
Amerikkkans represents an likely-inadvertent, but nonetheless
true-to-life, depiction of the highly segregated nature of housing and
employment in Chicago. Second, we must wonder: what was the motivation
of the moviemakers in casting a New Afrikan in this role? It could be
mere tokenism, giving the sole New Afrikan actor a role that is
effectively a chauffeur. Or perhaps they were being ironic, casting a
New Afrikan as the head of the pigs, the institution that has perhaps
committed the most violence against New Afrikans in recent decades. One
shudders to think that perhaps they thought they were being progressive
by casting a New Afrikan in a strategically Euro-Amerikan role and
creating the illusion of an egalitarian, racially-integrated police
force. The true contradiction in Amerikkka is that of nation, not race.
Hence, a persyn who might be labeled as non-white can still, in some
cases, manage to join the Amerikkkan nation and rise to the role of head
pig (or even, as in the case of Barack Obama, war-criminal-in-chief);
the situation in this film, then, seems prescient of the modern-day
prominence of sheriff Clarke of Milwaukee, another midwestern town.
Perhaps a Christmas comedy is the wrong place to look for an inspiring
depiction of New Afrikan revolutionaries, but it is still unfortunate
that all we have been given is a bootlicker to the bourgeoisie.
Many people have been killed by trigger-happy pigs, and a kidnapping on
Christmas Eve seems like the kind of high-stakes situation that would
bring in the pigs with guns blazing, but the predicament faced by the
Griswolds is resolved with miraculous ease. After Clark’s boss explains
the situation, everybody relaxes, although Clark’s boss is still
admonished all-around for his idea of cutting Christmas bonuses (the
head pig even says that ey’d like to beat em with a rubber hose – a
seemingly progressive action that, due to its focus on individual
retribution, is actually little more than adventurism; and even that
idea comes across as an outburst that is never fulfilled). What about
Eddie’s toxic waste spill? An errant match tossed by Uncle Lewis ignites
it, but the resulting explosion only serves to launch a plastic Santa
and reindeer into the air, creating the perfect Christmas tableau in the
sky and prompting a confused Aunt Bethany to spontaneously break into a
rendition of the “Star-Spangled Banner”. As the Griswolds and the pigs
dance to Christmas songs in the house, Clark stands on the lawn and
basks in eir achievement. “I did it,” ey says. The perfect family
Christmas.
But for us communists, things are far from perfect. Any potentially
lumpen characters in the movie, who may have been teetering between
revolution and reaction, have, by the film’s end, fallen firmly on the
side of reaction. Everyone else – the labor aristocrats, the
bourgeoisie, pigs – was already there. This movie is best enjoyed not as
a blueprint for revolution but as a satire of the Amerikan way of life.
It offers hints of Amerikan brutality both domestically and abroad, as
well as a depiction of the manner by which government institutions
become tools of the bourgeoisie. But most of all, it exposes the
reactionary nature of the labor aristocracy: the decadence of its
“workers”, the hypocrisy of its “morals” and the futility of any
“revolutionary” action among the beneficiaries of imperialism.
The brief flicker of revolutionary action that does occur is quickly
extinguished due to its limited scope and unsystematic nature. As Lenin
once said, “When the workers of a single factory or of a single branch
of industry engage in struggle against their employer or employers, is
this class struggle? No, this is only a weak embryo of it” (9). How
ironic then, that on the (probably mythical) day of Jesus’ birth, the
embryo of revolution was delivered as a stillbirth. Let us look forward,
then, to December 26: the (real) day of Mao’s birth. Beyond eir persynal
achievements, ey stands as a symbol of real revolution. A genuine
proletarian revolution, not a phony one led by Amerikkkan “workers”,
promises real solutions to the real problems facing the world: an end to
the insatiable exploitation by capitalists, an end to the callous
destruction of the environment, an end to the violence perpetrated every
day by pigs. When that day comes, the workers of the world will unite
and we can sing the “Internationale” together.