Federal Prisons

In May of this year, Texas governor greg abbott pardoned a man named daniel perry. Some of you may remember the incident in which daniel was convicted of murder. Recall the summer of 2020. The hope, optimism and liberty many felt as they bum-rushed the streets in protest in cities worldwide decrying anti-blackness.

In the midst of this surge of proactive and progressive human energy after the murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor, was a tag team, husband and wife duo in Austin, Texas. Austin, the state capital, was the most active and longstanding protest site in the state during that summer. In the eye of this storm was Garrett Foster and eir wife, Whitney Mitchell. Mitchell, who was confined to a wheelchair, wanted to be involved in the ground swelling movement of humynity, and would not let being confined to a wheel-chair detour em. Garrett was eir guide and aid.

Garrett and eir wife attended many of the protests that summer, mostly centered around the police headquarters and state capital in downtown Austin. Garrett, a u.$. air force veteran, routinely adorned fatigues and carried a rifle which ey was legally permitted to possess by the laws of the state. In July of 2020, while walking and escorting eir wife Whitney down Congress Avenue, Garrett and daniel got into a verbal altercation. daniel was an Uber driver and was on the job. daniel was also legally armed. daniel, behind the protection of an Uber vehicle, began revving eir engine up in order to intimidate protesters. Mr. Foster addressed this behavior verbally and after doing so, daniel rolled down the window and shot Garrett Foster multiple times, killing em.

During the pre-trial proceedings, this case, along with the case of kyle rittenhouse, received a swarm of media attention on conservative networks. The neo-confederates believed that the two white supremacists’ acts of murder had struck a blow for all of them (them being the white settler amerikans, particularly the neo-confederacy).

At that time in 2020, greg abbott appeared on the tucker carlson show and vowed that in the event of guilt ey would pardon daniel perry. In May, abbott made good on this vow and pardoned daniel perry, stating that ey “stood his ground”.

i hope this news upsets the reader. At the very least i hope this news brings you in on the not so little secret my comrades and i have long known. You wanna know what that secret is? Sure, i’ll tell you. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS LAW, ONLY POWER STRUGGLES.

The good, if i can even call it that, is that some will see this and finally realize the illegitimacy of law in Texas and amerikan society. To understand why this was such a thrust and showcase of reactionary power, we have to understand the history of the pardon and commutation in Texas. Briefly, in the 1980’s the legislature passed measures to limit the power of the governor to pardon and commute sentences. What they passed made sure that in the case of pardons, at least 10 of 18 members of the Pardons and Parole Board, all of which are appointed by the governor, would have to recommend a pardon. All 18 members recommended the pardon of daniel perry. A spit in the face of bourgeois democracy and the bourgeois legal process. So now We can see that it’s okay not to play by the rules, this will free us of some of our handicapping hang-ups. Will you step up and commit to wrestling power out of the hands of tyranny? We All Have A Choice To Make; Power to the People! Power to New Afrika!

I am a prisoner of the Cañon City Complex, a “campus” with seven prisons holding up to 10,000 victims of Colorado’s giant injustice system. A few weeks ago I went out for a day trip to a doctor in the town next to the complex, Cañon City. Much of the town is new, businesses like motels, fast food joints, etc. line the main drag.

When sitting in the doctor’s office I asked the prison guard who was there, “who or what financially supports all the people and businesses in this town?” He replied, “The Cañon City Complex”. Yup, a whole town that survives (mostly) because of mass imprisonment. Shut down the prisons and the town would quickly become a ghost town.

We think about all the people that suck at the teat of The System, from cops to lawyers, to all jail/prison personnel, to parole officers. But few consider all the people/businesses that have a symbiotic relationship with the teat suckers. Providers of all the goods and services that they use from food, to clothing, to auto repair. A great mass of people around the United $tates who will always cry “law and order,” and who will oppose any reform efforts to reduce the number of people arrested every year (10 million plus per Law Prof. Dan Canon), the number of people imprisoned, or the length of the sentences.

My thesis is: If you are an activist/reformer who wants to change The System, then you need to know exactly what you are up against. You cannot have any real success unless you do.

MIM(Prisons) adds: We agree with that thesis. And this comrade’s report aligns with our past research on the U.$. prison economy and what is driving it. It has become chic to talk about the “Prison Industrial Complex” as if there are a bunch of big corporations whose profits are driving mass incarceration in this country, like the ones that drive military production and war (militarism). As this comrade describes, the prison system is more like the New Deal. But instead of funding jobs to build roads to improve transport for commerce, they are funding jobs to build prisons for population control. In this way a goal of the state is accomplished, while shuffling superprofits from the Third World to the Amerikans in these prison towns doing unproductive labor whether as prison guards, salespeople, cashiers, or insurance agents.

Our movement sees the contradiction between internal semi-colonies (New Afrikan/Black Nation, First Nations, Chican@s, Puerto Ricans, Hawaiins) and the Amerikan oppressor nation as the principal contradiction in the United $tates. In practice that means if we want change, we need to push this contradiction to its conclusion. However, in the years that MIM(Prisons) has existed, we’ve seen that contradiction to be at a relatively low level, historically speaking.(1) Since we don’t have things like armed struggle today to assure us of this contradiction, a recent Pew Research study provides us with some reassurance that the national consciousness of New Afrika is alive and well.(2)

The survey showed that 74 out of 100 Black people in the United $tates believed the prison system was designed to hold Black people back. It asked this question for numerous state institutions, with slightly lower levels of agreement. Another question in the survey showed 69% of respondents feel that being Black is important to how they feel about themselves. The latter question demonstrates a level of national consciousness, even if most respondents would call it “race”. The distrust in the U.$. government places this national consciousness in conflict with Amerika and its institutions.

It’s worth noting that the results were pretty consistent along demographics of age, income, education, sex. The biggest predictor for not agreeing that the government is holding Black people back is being a Republican – but even then the majority agreed.

This survey got more attention in the press because it was originally framed as demonstrating that most “Black Americans” believe “racial conspiracy theories.” Pew Research responded by amending the language in the report, and they provide historical examples of the U.$. state using these institutions against Black people. To view such beliefs as conspiracy theories is obviously telling.

MIM(Prisons) of course upholds the belief that the U.$. prison system exists to hold back and repress the internal semi-colonies and control the population in general. It is part of the system of maintaining national, class and gender oppression. Interestingly the survey also showed 74% of Black people believing, “Black people are disproportionately incarcerated so prisons can make money.” This, as we’ve discussed extensively, is mostly a myth. It might be harsh to call it a conspiracy theory, since everything under capitalism is about money on some level. But we believe the question of whether people are imprisoned for profit, or for social control, is an important question for understanding the system and how to combat it.

The importance of surveys like this from Pew Research is scientifically investigating our conditions. Despite the fact that Pew went into this survey with some clear bias around the relationship of Black people to the United $tates, their resources allowed them to survey thousands of people across demographics to give them 95% confidence that their numbers are within plus or minus 2%. While MIM(Prisons) has done a number of surveys over the years, even our best did not have such tight confidence intervals. And to date our surveys have been limited to prisoners, who are also mostly male. Therefore bourgeois-funded surveys and government statistics are an important part of our scientific investigation of our conditions. Transforming this latent national consciousness in New Afrika into action is where revolutionary practice must come in and deepen our knowledge of our conditions.

<sup>Notes:
1. see MC5, March 1999, On the Internal Class Structures of the Internal Semi-Colonies for analysis of the modern relationship between the oppressed and oppressor nations in the United States.
2. Pew Research Center, June 2024, “Most Black Americans Believe U.S. Institutions Were Designed To Hold Black People Back”</sup>

At the end of Orisanmi Burton’s Tip of the Spear: Black Radicalism, Prison Repression, and the Long Attica Revolt – a book USW cadre have been studying since its release in late October 2023 – Burton correctly labels the prison tablets supplied to the imprisoned lumpen by predatory prison communications companies like Securus and Global Tel Link(GTL)/ViaPath Technologies as “the cutting edge of carceral war.”(1)

Much has already been written by MIM and USW comrades about these tablets including the several areas Burton shortly discusses: the use of predatory pricing strategies that extract even more money from oppressed nation communities, expanding the surveillance state, and behavior modification/digital babysitters.(2) What has not been discussed in much detail is the use of the tablets as imperialist propaganda machines.

Of course, all of the content on the tablets is highly censored, with an extensive vetting process for orgs who want to place their content on them. On the GTL/ViaPath tablets we have at Main Jail in San Jose (Model VT-TABLET-5081S) the only app we have besides the GTL phone app is the free edu-tainment platform “Edovo”, which is – to no ones’ surprise – full of garbage content.

Shortly after the Palestinian resistance launched Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, smashing the Iron Wall and entering the rest of their homeland as a force to be reckoned with, there was an almost weekly upload of Christian Zionist and other Zionist propaganda pushed onto the platform. The first of these that I noticed was the feature film “Exodus: Gods & Kings” which details the Old Testament story of Moses leading the Israelites to Palestine, or as it is called in the movie, Canaan. This story, along with several other books of the Old Testament, are the basis for what Zionists today use as their claim to Palestine as their “ancient homeland”. And yet, as Palestinian hystorian Nur Masalha writes, “The Old Testament is not actual history but imaginative fiction, theology, sacred literature, ethics and wisdom.”(3) In short, the stories that Zionists base their land claims to Palestine on are myth narratives, not proven hystory.

Roughly around the same time, episodes of a Christian Zionist podcast started to be uploaded to Edovo. This podcast, called “Real Vida TV”, is put together by evangelists from Tyler, Texas who use their show to spread vaccine/COVID conspiracy theories popular among the Amerikan right, as well as anti-immigrant, queer & transphobic rhetoric alongside Bible verses.

Since October 7th they’ve been spreading the usual Zionist lies of mass rape, beheading babies, etc… that the imperialist media continues to propagate. They also have been tying everything occurring in Palestine and the Middle East into the strange and insane “end times” prophecies that are the main reason for the strong support of Christian Zionism, led mostly by Amerikan evangelists.

To understand this a bit better, let’s take a step back from the Zionist podcast and take a closer look at Christian Zionism, which, to my knowledge, hasn’t had anything substantial written on it in ULK.

Evangelical Christians, the bulk of Christian Zionists in the United $tates, take the writings in the bible literally. To get a numerical picture, there are roughly around 15 million Jews around the world today (which I’d like to note, a large percentage are anti-Zionist and completely reject the genocidal state of “i$rael”); in comparison there are over 70 million evangelicals who share the same “ironclad” support of “i$rael” as Genocide Goe in the United $tates. Christian Zionism also finds its roots in the Bible, but it is not because of some altruistic wish to “return” the Jews to the safety of their so-called “ancient homeland”. The return and consolidation of the Jews in the land of Palestine is supported so strongly by the Christian Zionists because they believe once this has been finally accomplished their “messiah” Jesus Christ will return, render judgement(punishment) upon the nonbelievers (which includes Jews as they do not believe Christ is the “messiah”), and then get into motion the so-called end-times prophecies of the Book of Revelation (which depicts Armageddon), where the non-believers will burn and the true believers will float up with Jesus to LaLa Land.

No, I am not making this up sadly.

Even more sadly, these views are being used by those who produce the podcast to justify the ongoing genocide and dispossession of Palestinian people, the actual indigenous inhabitants of the land of Palestine.

What’s worse, at least for Our comrades in Texas, is that these Christian Zionists go to and have access to all of the TDCJ gulags where they can spread this poisonous rhetoric, possibly making it even harder to shift public opinion in the units in favor of the Palestinian liberation struggle (I’d be interested to know the point of view of Our comrades in Texas on this). As the Zionists and their imperialist backers continue to spread their lies to try to sway the opinions of the masses toward support of their genocidal logic, We must counter them in every way We can, especially in the writing and dissemination of articles on Palestine in the pages of ULK, and by supporting/working on the USW Palestine campaign.

From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!

MIM(Prisons) adds: A USW leader in Florida wrote an article on the Biblical “history” of the Jewish people. We are not printing that article. But here is their explanation for the approach they took in that piece:

“I’m hearing pro-I$raeli comments in the quad and on the yard every day. Prisoners are completely swallowing and promoting the CIPWS zionist pro I$raeli narrative, ie., that the Palestinians brought the genocide upon themselves when they attacked I$raeli citizens, rather than settlers/invaders, on October 7, 2023, rather than in response to 70-plus years of CIPWS zionist occupation and oppression.

“I am surrounded by prisoners who hear the word”Israel” and automatically think “Jesus”. Prisoners see the entire Israeli-Palestinian conflict and situation from a biblical point of view rather than a historical and U.$. imperialist political one.

“The average prisoner had never heard of Hamas, Zionists, Hizbullah, Houthi, etc. until recently. Prisoners identify with Israel mostly due to religion and all they are told is that Israel was attacked by Palestinians, and that Palestinians want Israel extinct, even as they see the total opposite happening with their own oppressed eyes. Even Muslims here, due to subliminal incognizance, do not support or identify with he Palestinians’ plight. They see the Palestinians, not as victims, but as terrorists, not as brothers.”

As members of United Struggle from Within (USW) have come out in strong support of the Palestinian resistance, we see this is not representative of the consciousness of the imprisoned lumpen as a whole. Thus the need for our leaders inside to continue this campaign to support Palestine in the realm of education and ideological struggle among the oppressed in this country. People who are suffering a lower level genocide through the prison system itself are somehow identifying with their own oppressor. If the national liberation struggles were stronger in this country, we would be seeing a lot more support for national liberation of Palestine here as well.

^{Notes:
(1) Burton, Orisami, “Tip of the Spear: Black Radicalism, Prison Repression, and the Long Attica Revolt”,(University of California Press, 2023),p.227
(2) Ibid. p.228
(3) Masalh, Nur, “Palestine: A Four Thousand Year History”,(I.B. Taurus, 2018) p.30}

In the West Bank, I$rael has killed at least 502 Palestinians since 7 October 2023, the day Operation Al Aqsa Flood commenced by the Palestinian resistance. At least 4,950 people were injured, 3,985 people were displaced, 8,088 people were arrested and 648 structures were demolished.(1) All of this is not even mentioning the recent declaration by I$raeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich that 800 hectares (1,977 acres) in occupied West Bank are now state land for I$raeli settlements.(2) As we know, the I$raeli war has focused on Gaza, where official estimates put the death toll at 38,000, while public health experts estimate that number could be as high as 186,000.(2.5)

These figures alone are abstract, so to paint a better picture of accounts from those living in the West Bank now, contextualizing history and statistics will be provided. It is estimated that 3.25 million people live in the West Bank, meaning that just from the above statistics 0.54% (17525 affected / 3.25 million population) of people were directly affected with countless more affected indirectly from the intensified settler terror in just 6-7 months. The amount of deaths has been three times as high as 2022 already. The lack of infrastructure to collect accurate data also makes this statistic likely an underestimate of the severity, with it only getting worse on the ground as we speak.

The aim of this article is to historicize the initial I$raeli response in the West Bank to the Al Aqsa Flood before the prisoner exchange and temporary “end” (which was constantly violated by I$rael) of hostilities in Gaza. It will be the first part of a series of articles that cover the occupation of the West Bank. Together, Gaza and the West Bank make up the “occupied territories” of Palestine that have not yet been seized by I$rael.

Operation Al Aqsa Flood, settlers panic in West Bank

The very existence of settlers are premised on the displacement of the native people and colonial occupation of entire nations or sections of nations. This is on top of the exploitation of land and labor of the colonized to feed an ever-growing parasitic strata. The I$raeli colonial projects on the border of Gaza were challenged on October 7th, with resistance seizing their land back from the settlers by force. The sense of control from having some of the best surveillance methods and technologies in the world, while being backed by the most powerful imperialist power, was shattered. The carefully crafted methods to maintain and further colonization to feed I$raeli settlers while helping their Amerikan overseers to pacify the entire region under its boot was challenged. The I$raeli project floats on nothing, it produces nothing for the world beyond feeding the hunger of settlers and their imperialist allies off the backs of the colonized. Desperately, it sought to reduce its reliance on those it displaced and colonized, knowing full well what that’d mean. I$rael sought out Third World labor, begged for a share of profits from its imperialist overseers and tried to become more “self-sufficient”. Ultimately it failed in its endeavors, finding itself reliant on imperialist backers to sustain itself against militant resistance from all sides. Once that runs dry, I$rael is doomed and its dream will be ruined, with a victory for the resistance and the liberation of Palestine!

On 11 October 2023, a lock down on West Bank was declared, shutting down more than 500 checkpoints and the only major international border crossing, which is with Jordan, at Allenby Bridge.(3) The I$raeli settlers were faced with a war on two fronts, resorting to extreme measures in fear of losing control of their occupation. Their fears were further confirmed with the death of General Leon Bar, a senior officer of the West Bank Division of the I$raeli Offensive Forces (IOF) on 12 October 2023.(4) Alarms were set off in both “Beitar Illit”, near Bethlehem, and “Ma’ale Efraim”, near Ramallah, due to fears of resistance infiltration on 13 October 2023. On the same day, raids were conducted in Nablus, Aqabat, Jaber camp, Areeha, and Aida refugee camp in Bethlehem. The IOF began an invasion of the city of Nablus and clashes continued in Jenin as resistance fighters confronted the invasion. Hamas’s brigades, the Izz al Din al-Qassem Brigades, were one of the known resistance factions who fended off the IOF invasion, while also fighting in the Ain Al-Sultan and Aqabat Jabr camps in Areeha.(5)

As of October 14th, 842 acts of resistance were carried out in the West Bank in just a week. Of those confirmed, there were 241 shooting operations, 30 qualitative operations, one settlement infiltration, 570 confrontations in various forms, and 98 demonstrations and marches. Twenty two IOF injures were confirmed, a number were killed, and there were 56 martyrs on the side of the resistance. The confrontations took place in 254 areas, including Nablus (45), Al-Quds (38), Ramallah (38), Al-Khalil (33), Jenin (27), Tulkarem (19), Bethlehem (17), Qalqilya (13), Areeha (11), Salfit (9), and Tubas(4).(6) Just a week since Operation Al Aqsa Flood, the resistance was stiff against I$raeli attempts to subdue the West Bank under its grasp. A resistance to settler-colonialism and national oppression within the United $tates must adopt similar discipline, rejecting integration for self-determination for oppressed nations in solidarity with the struggle against imperialism across the world.

The resistance in the West Bank continued, with the al-Nasser Salah al-Deen Brigades, which are the military wing of Popular Resistance Committees, targeting the Belt Furik checkpoint and the IOF post established on “Mount Gerizim” on 15 October 2023. The IOF by this time had abducted more than 500 in the West Bank and Al-Quds.(7) On 17 October 2023, protestors in the occupied West Bank demanded the fall of president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, a neocolonial puppet entity ruling over West Bank. The response was repression, with tear gas and stun grenades used to disperse the protestors.(8) Amidst the protests, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, which are military wing of Fatah, were able to successfully target zionist occupation checkpoints and clashed with them on the same day.(9)

Sheikh Hassan Yousef, co-founder of Hamas, was abducted by the IOF in his home in Ramallah after giving a speech there on 18 October 2023. This was part of a larger campaign of abductions by the IOF which expanded that day.(10) Confrontations further escalated within the West Bank, with a victory for the resistance occurring with the Saraya Al-Quds, which is the militant wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), part of the Tulkarm Brigade carried out numerous strikes, offensive operations, ambushes, explosive detonations, and ambush executions. It was a 28 hour battle, which led to the IOF completely withdrawing from the Nour Shams camp.(11) The cowardly settlers retaliated the next day at the Al-Ansar mosque, believing that Hamas and PIJ used it as a headquarters. This resulted in the death of two, and the arrest of dozens who were suspected to work with the Jenin Brigade or other resistance groups.(12) On the same day, Zionist special forces stormed the Askar camp in Nablus, clashing with the resistance.(13) Just four days later, on 26 October 2023, the IOF carried out a massive arrest campaign across the West Bank with armed clashes breaking out.(14) This preludes the rise of resistance in the West Bank the next day, with violent confrontation in the Al-Aroub camp, against the “Nitzani Oz” checkpoint, the “Dotan” checkpoint, Jabal Al-Tur and Abu Dis on 27 October 2023.(15)

I$raeli invasion of Gaza, settler counter-offensive

The invasion of Gaza officially began on 28 October 2023. On this day, many cities in the West Bank went on strike in support of the resistance in Gaza.(16) A specialized hospital in Nablus was targetted in the West Bank due to the IOF’s suspicion of the resistance groups there.(17) On 2 November 2023, armed clashes broke out across various cities in the West Bank following a wide campaign of arrests.(18) On 4 November 2023, the resistant youth in the West Bank threw Moltov cocktails at settlers’ vehicles near Marda and at zionist forces in Al-Aroub camp. In addition, they threw stones at settlers near Hizma and Route 443.(19) The important part to note here is the role of the youth and how a large section of the Palestinian people are under 18. The resistance’s mobilization of the youth to fight is important to learn from, especially in contexts of settler-colonialism and national oppression, for application to the United $tates. The Black Panthers were mostly teenagers.

The armed clashes continued between resistance fighters and zionist forces in Qalqilya, following raids on cities and a large campaign of abductions.(20) The Lion’s Den, a Palestinian resistance group in the West Bank, claimed responsibility for conducting shooting operations near “Itamar” which was successful on 8 November 2023.(21) In Jenin, a day afterward, the Al-Qassam fighters and all resistance formations in the Jenin camp engaged in armed clashes with the IOF. Reinforcements were sent toward the Balata camp by the IOF after the resistance discovered a special zionist force. In the end, the battle resulted in a victory for the resistance after two hours, with the IOF withdrawing without being able to abduct resistance fighters or occupy the area.(22) The Martyr Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, militant wing of the PFLP, were able to target the occupation forces in Jenin with explosive devices on 11 November 2023. The same day, resistance fighters open fired on the “Belt Hefer” settlement and “Nitzanei Oz” checkpoint in Tulkarem. It ended successfully, with a safe return for the resistance forces and heavy damage to the targeted areas.(23)

The Al-Aqsa Martyr’s Brigades, part of the Tulkarem Brigade, announced a general mobilization in the West Bank and Al-Quds on 12 November 2023.(24) The Al-Qassam Brigades – West Bank, announced responsibility for storming the Tunnel Checkpoint in the south of occupied Al-Quds in the morning. Here the resistance was able to attack enemy forces at the military checkpoint separating northern Bethlehem and southern occupied Al-Quds.(25) On 20 November 2023, the Mujahideen Brigades were victorious in firing upon an incursion of IOF soldiers in Jenin, clashing with special forces in Tubas, and shooting a jeep in Tubas.(26) On November 21st, an IOF drone targeted a site in Tulkarem camp, continuing to prevent ambulances from reaching the site. Afterward the IOF stormed the Thabet Thabet Hospital to prevent the ambulances from working.(27) Only a few days later on November 23rd, a wave of widespread arrests were carried out, clashing with the resistance and locals in Balata refugee camp, Al-Arroub, Dura, Beit Liqya, and Qalandiya refugee camp.(28) On November 24th, the Mujahideen Brigades, succeeded in bombing the “Dotan” military checkpoint southwest of Jenin.(29)

Conclusion

The resistance in the West Bank face similar conditions to the nationally oppressed in the United $tates. One key difference is the proximity to imperialism with integrationist pull that pacifies resistance. Aside from that, both are firmly occupied under the boot of the colonizers with no state of their own and both face mass incarceration to destroy resistance and further colonization. The resistance’s capability to form a united front to fight back and coordinate in conditions of immense surveillance and repression is important to note. I$rael used all of its capabilities, controlling the supply of food, water, medicine, internal movement, and etc… but it still failed in face of resistance. A strategy within the United $tates will have to encompass these factors and surpass them, coordinating not only internally but externally with the Third World against forces of imperialism and colonialism.

In the next part, there will be a discussion of the prisoner exchange and temporary “end” of hostilities, at the least, along the beginning of I$rael’s advance in Rafah along with the emboldened colonization which I$rael embarked on in the West Bank. Specifically, declaring more than 800 hectares of land as part of I$rael, aiming to fully annex the West Bank.

From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!

من النهر إلى البحر / فلسطين ستتحرر

Notes:

(1) Israel kills more than 500 Palestinians in the West Bank since October 7, May 16th, 2024

2. Israel seizes 800 hectares of Palestinian land in occupied West Bank, March 22st, 2024

(2.5) Sharon Zhang, 8 July 2024, Researchers Estimate True Gaza Death Toll at 186,000 or More, Truthout.

3. Palestinians in occupied West Bank are under Israeli lockdown, October 11th, 2023

4. Israel: Another High-Ranking Officer Killed in Gaza Resistance Operation, October 13th, 2023

5. Resistance News Network, October 13th, 2023

6. Resistance News Network, October 14th, 2023

7. Resistance News Network, October 15th, 2023

8. PA forces fire tear gas at West Bank protesters after Gaza hospital strike, October 10th, 2023

9. Resistance News Network, October 17th, 2023

10. Resistance News Network, October 18th, 2023

11. A new massacre in Nour Shams camp, Tulkarm, October 22, 2023

12. Israel strikes mosque in occupied West Bank refugee camp. October wwth, 2024

13. Resistance News Network, October 22st, 2023

14. Resistance News Network, October 26th, 2023

15. Resistance News Network, October 27th, 2023

16. Resistance News Network, October 28th, 2023

17. Resistance News Network, October 30th, 2023

18. Resistance News Network, November 2nd, 2023

19. Resistance News Network, November 4th, 2023

20. Resistance News Network, November 7th, 2023

21. Resistance News Network, November 8th, 2023

22. Resistance News Network, November 9th, 2023

23. Resistance News Network, November 11th, 2023

24. Resistance News Network, November 12th, 2023

25. Resistance News Network, November 16th, 2023

26. Resistance News Network, November 20th, 2023

27. Resistance News Network, November 21st, 2023

28. Resistance News Network, November 23rd, 2023

29. Resistance News Network, November 24th, 2023

I would like to make you aware of, and I seek your assistance, with what is transpiring here in the Missouri Department of Corrections (MO-DOC).

They have revised the mail policies again, and they are saying that the only postal mail accepted at correction centers are:

• Privileged/legal mail
• Certified mail
• Publications ordered by an offender sent directly from a publisher, distributor or other bona fide vendor
• Visitor applications

The problem is that they’re saying that if publications are not coming from a publishing company they need to be sent to the Digital Mail Center in Tampa, FL. And once sent there, the Digital Mail Center is not sending them and sending digital copies.

To sum this up, we are not receiving our free newsletters or digital copies of them. Unless we purchase something using a green check, they are not allowing it to enter the prison. This is a violation of our First Amendment rights, and the precedent set by Turner v. Safley, 482 U.S. 78, 89-90 (1987). This is clearly established law that is being violated by the MO-DOC’s restrictive mail policies which need to be challenged. I seek your assistance on this.

MIM(Prisons) responds: According to the new policy on the MO-DOC website, MIM Distributors should be able to send prisoner literature directly at their prison as we have in the past.(1) But according to this comrade’s report, Missouri has effectively banned free subscriptions and free books to prisoners.

Staff at Pendleton Correctional Facility in Indiana recently tried to claim a ban on donated books, but comrades in Indiana and the Midwest Books Project took the issue up to the Indiana DOC who confirmed this is not their policy.

A combination of confusion with new complicated digital mail systems and staff engaging in political repression with “new rules” as an excuse, continue to keep comrades busy.

According to our data, some comrades have still received recent issues of Under Lock & Key in Missouri, though the numbers so far are down from last year. The problem is we need more information from readers in Missouri about what you have and have not received, and what your prison has told you when they’ve rejected our mail. We are currently investigating this matter with MO-DOC in hopes of clearing this up.

Recently ULKs have been returned to us from Missouri with the following written on them:

“Return to Sender: Mail should be sent to the address specified at www.doc.mo.gov”

And an envelope of ULKs was returned and marked:

“RTS - Unauthorized”

As we go to press, we have not received any response from the MO-DOC to our March appeal of censorship of ULK 83. However, that same subscriber received ULK 84 fine.

<sup>Notes:
1. https://doc.mo.gov/media-center/newsroom/book-orders</sup>

Readers of Under Lock & Key, may this kite find you in the best of health and spirits. In the last issue, Spring 2024, No. 85, there was a request for prisoners to sign up for a petition and issues about no dayroom and yards. I have been down now 18 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections (I-DOC) and I want to help everyone who is seeking more out-of-cell time.

I filed a §1983 Civil Action about this topic, Patrick Bakaturski V. Director et al, 3:23-cv-03609-SPM, which is currently pending merit review in the Southern District of Illinois.

The basis grounds of the civil suit is that under all of the Covid-19 lockdowns, the endless cell restriction violated my 8th amendment rights. Wexford Health Care signed an affidavit in Patrick Bakaturski v. Rob Jeffreys, 21-cv-00014-GCS, which stated that Wexford Health Care did not approve any of the Covid lock downs. Yet in every grievance I-DOC said I was on quarantine.

So How Do I Get out of the Cell More? What should be the Legal Argument?

First Look up Ashoor Rasho et al., v. Director John R. Baldwin, NO: 1:07-cv-1298-MMM-JEH, Mental Health Settlement agreement. If you go to page 20 you will see that I-DOC agreed that all prisoners under segregation statutes should get 20 hours per week of out of cell time. That means if you are being kept in the cell and not being given 10 hours of Day room and 10 hours of yard this violates your 8th Amendment rights. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act for general mental health every prisoner must get 10 hours of yard per week and at least 10 of day room or programs per week in maximum security prison. I am not in max anymore, but my prison is being ran as an unclassified max in violation of state and federal law. So under the same standard of a basic human right, I requested my 20 hours per week, 10 hours of day room and 10 of yard.

The legal argument is clear, 23 and 1 is unconstitutional. ALL max prisoners could fight to make their max a 21 and 3 by invoking the wording in the Mental Health Settlement. The Federal Government has already agreed in part that 23 and 1 is unconstitutional. You need to use page 20 of the settlement to support your grievances and legal arguments.

If anyone has any questions of how to file the grievance or would like to see the format on what might work in Federal Court, key cite Bakaturski in Federal Court. If you can get a copy of the petitions I have filed pro-se.

MIM(Prisons) adds: We are not lawyers and do not offer legal advice. When we print tips like this it is up to the reader to determine how this information applies to your situation. The settlement above applies to the Illinois DOC, though strategies in those cases may be relevant elsewhere. We have long worked to shut down long-term solitary in all its forms. The settlement is one small tool to help prevent de facto long-term isolation from occurring in Illinois.

On May 13th, UAW Local 4811 voted to authorize a statewide stand-up strike across University of California campuses. Though representing largely class enemy strata, the United Auto Workers union (UAW) has, in the past few years, been an innovator in strike tactics. “Stand-up strikes,” as they are called, differ from traditional strikes by having local branches be called to the picket by a central coordinator, as opposed to having all members strike at once. This tactic reduces burnout among the strikers by introducing “shift work” into the nature of the picket, and psychologically attaches rank-and-file members more closely to movement developments with anticipation of not knowing until the day of whether it is their turn to strike.

The public response of the university administration has been traditionally liberal. Unable to argue on the moral grounds of the genocide and their active support of it, administrators displace the discussion to either the process of dissent (whether it’s “through the right channels”) or how the dissent affects the lives of settlers. After failure to challenge the legal grounds of the strike, the UC office of the President moved to pearl-clutching,

“UAW’s goals of ‘maximize chaos and confusion’ have come to fruition, creating substantial and irreparable impacts on campuses and impacting our students at a crucial time of their education.”

As of the writing of this article, all universities in the state of Palestine have been destroyed in the genocide.

The UAW represents 5,000 workers at UC Irvine, 8,000 at UC San Diego, and 3,000 at UC Santa Barbara, totaling 31,500 members for all six of the universities affected by the strikes. According to an interview conducted May 31st by The Orange County Register, “UAW Local 4811 is asking the UC schools to give amnesty to all academic employees and students who faced arrest or disciplinary actions for protesting at campuses. The union also wants the students to have guarantees of freedom of speech and political expression on campus and is asking for researchers to be able to opt out of funding sources tied to the Israeli Defense Force.”

Like much university faculty outrage across the country following the student intifada of the past few months, faculty demands have been animated by, and primarily center protecting students and staff from criminal charges, less so the criminal slaughter of civilians by the zionist entity. Even if driven by a racist instinct that the well-being of their peers are of more value than the faceless masses of the Third World, this is an interesting case study in how labor-aristocratic elements may be leveraged as an auxiliary for genuinely progressive ends.

This case study, and the many parallels of it across Turtle Island, reinforces the need for approaching international solidarity work in the imperial core with united front tactics. Were all actors on these campuses concentrated into a single organization or coalition, outrage over the arrests of students and faculty would have quickly gobbled up all the air in the discussion surrounding Palestine. Though not intentionally designed, the separation of student activists and union organizations has contributed to the success of the student intifada. As has the organic separation between faculty and students, though sometimes muddled by unionized students in the UAW. This separation has permitted, but not guaranteed, the more principled students to take initiative in fighting their local foot-soldiers of ethnic cleansing. Many have taken the opportunity to occupy key locations, destroy property facilitating genocide, or symbolically renaming liberated buildings on their campus after Martyrs slain in the liberation struggle.

So long as the student radicals keep ahead of the social fascists keen to rally around them, they can keep efforts centered on Palestine and fix these tertiary elements into a supporting role behind their initiatives, lest they be dragged down into drivel like the UAW’s campaign to hijack the movement into unionizing arms manufactures, as we reported last issue. This is only possible if the students maintain organizational independence from the forces which risk slowing them down. While united front tactics don’t guarantee success – it’s up to the students to center the right lines and pick the correct strategies to see their goals fulfilled, without it they will be tackled at the starting line. As the next school semester approaches on the horizon, we wish the student radicals the best of luck in their race against backward elements.

MIM(Prisons) adds: The “social-fascism” thesis was applied by Bolsheviks to Western Europe’s social-democracy of the late 1920s and early 1930s. Behind this thesis was MIM’s understanding of social-democracy as not always based in a politically foggy sector of the proletariat but usually in the super-profit bribed petty-bourgeoisie known as the “labor aristocracy” –at least in the imperialist countries, especially those long-established imperialist countries with colonies or neo-colonies. The “social-fascist” term applied to social-democrats who appeared socialist on the outside while serving fascism in content. MIM applies this term to all those today who appeal to the economic nationalism of the imperialist country labor aristocracy. Those calling for closing the borders, import restrictions etc. and calling themselves “socialist” or even “communist”–these are the social-fascists today.(2)

<sup>Notes: 1. read MIM Theory 14: United Front for more theory on how to unite various class interests
2. MC5, 5 March 2001, Book Review: Dimitrov & Stalin 1934-1943: Letters from the Soviet Archives</sup>