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.
There are some good examples of united fronts between oppressed and
reactionary groups in the history of the United $tates. Some of which
ended up serving the interests of the oppressed and some which
ultimately hurt the oppressed. We find a few of these examples described
well in the book 500 Years of Indigenous Resistance available
from PM Press.(1)
First the case of the fight between the British and the emerging United
$tates of Amerika.
“In 1812, using the pretext of Native raids along its northern frontier
from British territories, U.S. forces attempted to invade British North
America. Here again, Britain’s colonial policies proved effective; an
alliance of Native nations (who had their own interests in full
implementation of the 1763 Proclamation [which prohibited settlement
west of the Appalachian mountains following the French and Indian War])
and European settlers succeeded in repulsing the U.S. expansion.”(p. 29)
As we have seen since 1812, the victory of the United $tates in the
Revolutionary War did not serve the interests of the First Nations. So
the First Nations definitely chose the right side in this battle, even
though the British surely had no real interest in supporting the rights
of the First Nations beyond what was necessary to gain their support.
This is an example of identifying the principal enemy and building
alliances against that enemy, even if those alliances are with groups
that would be enemies in other circumstances. This united front is
similar to the alliance between the Kuomindang and the Chinese
Communists in the war against Japanese imperialism. Ultimately the
Kuomindang betrayed the Communist Party, but at the time Japan was the
principal enemy and fighting together in a the united front was the
right choice to achieve the ultimate goal of establishing a socialist
state.
Another example is found in the U.$. Civil War, which was used by
Afrikan slaves to fight for their freedom. It was not a case of whites
going to war to help end slavery, but Afrikans were in a position to
force this issue to the forefront.
“The beginning of the U.S. Civil War in 1861 posed various problems for
the northern Union ruling class. Not only was the war for the
preservation of an expanding continental empire, but it also opened up a
second front: that of a liberation struggle by enslaved Afrikan peoples.
With a population of four million, the rising of these Afrikans in the
South proved crucial in the defeat of the Confederacy. By the tens of
thousands Afrikan slaves escaped from the slavers and enlisted in the
Union forces. This massive withdrawal of slave-labour hit the Southern
economy hard, and the Northern forces were bolstered by the
thousands.”(2)
In the aftermath of the Civil War, Afrikans in the South correctly
identified a shift in their principal enemy. It was no longer time to
ally with Union forces. With the ending of the war these slaves were
about to lose their bargaining position as fighters in the Union army.
“Towards the end of the War in 1865, those Afrikans who did not escape
began a large-scale strike following the defeat of the confederacy. They
claimed the lands that they had laboured on, and began arming themselves
– not only against the Southern planters but also against the Union
army. Widespread concerns about this ‘dangerous position’ of Afrikans in
the South led to ‘Black Reconstruction’; Afrikans were promised
democracy, human rights, self-government and popular ownership of the
land. In reality, it was a strategy for returning Euro-American
dominance….”(p. 40)
This shift resulted in a better deal for former slaves than they would
have got by just passively sticking with their unity with the North. But
it shows the need to complete the New Afrikan war for liberation from
the United $tates to achieve the basic goals of the Afrikan soliders who
freed themselves from slavery. Different conditions will require
reevaluation of who is our principal enemy and what are appropriate
united front strategies at the time.
Every night we go to sleep feeling hungry and wake every morning
disappointed because the breakfast is so minute; still feeling hungry
after breakfast.
To all concerned, we submit this Human Rights (HR) call of investigation
of abuse and possible embezzlement by Columbia Correctional Institution
(CCI) and the Wisconsin Department of Corrections (DOC). Sometime back
in 2010 or 2011 Wisconsin law makers planned, with serious malice, of
reducing meals to twice daily or even once a day. These ideas were
scrapped, due in significant a way, because even jail and prison
officials felt it will cause unrest. So what they have done and are
doing is slowly, and not so subtly any more, reducing and cutting the
portions down on all three meals to where it has the same or even more
quantitative effect as if they took one to two meals depending on the
weeks in play.
We are calling upon Human Rights and journalistic investigators to study
these allegations. We call upon the collective community of concerned
citizens to be alarmed at the allegations and tactics. We believe but
cannot prove. But confirmed by DOC line staff who will not go on record
that this is true and part of policy now. We know that here at CCI they
are doing tactics such as measuring the portions like this: One
measurement portion is scooped or ladled out, weighed on a scale or
eyeballed, then multiplied times the number of prisoners on the unit.
While this seems like ALL business/hotels etc measure and cook food. But
the portions are designed to say eight oz., yet the actual amount is
four or five oz. Not only is you skimming, but, as shown everyday, food
is skimmed down more by the server as they try to extend those four oz.
Stuff like juice, soup, oatmeal is watered down or substitute additives
incorporated so that the quality of the oatmeal is damaged and it
becomes merely fiber powder with hot water with no taste. But they may
be writing the expenditure off as real oatmeal.
The sadists among those permitting this, like CCI Warden Michael
Dittman, will say, well, this is prison. You get what you get. This is
not the Hilton or Marriot etc (not actual quote, but analogizing his and
others state of mind). These reductions, additives, and cuts are not
only barbarous, but violations of human rights, cruel and inhuman
treatment and malicious punishment (CIDTS). It causes daily discomforts,
anxiety, frustrations, stress, anger and hatred of those administering
it all. And all of these are counterintuitive to what corrections goals
and aims claim to be.
Still more, it’s being done secretively (well started off that way). Not
as a public policy, but skullduggery to embezzle more funds for stuff
that benefits Wardens/guards etc. For overtime more “workdays”,
pensions, sick days, vacation days etc. Hiring family members, etc.
This is not an issue of prisoners whining about mere discomfort. We are
losing weight. We are not exercising normally and regularly due to lack
of energy and for some, the brain registering hunger creates lethargic
states so that very little exercise can be done. You no longer have the
drive that one needs to exercise properly and consistently and
regularly. And your metabolism go into a stop-loss mode to save fats and
energy because the quantity of food is so small.
Add more to this two additional facts that innocuously contribute – the
hard mats we are forced to sleep on don’t let you sleep at all. Another
design to punish and cultivate dependency on sleep/drugs/meds so they
can control. A very large percentage of prisoners who have been held in
long-term segregation start taking sleep meds for various reasons. The
hard mat is one. People like me who have convictions against
meds/sleeping drugs must suffer with the lack of energy and sleep until
the body gets so tired it shuts down and collects its overdue.
Recently we learned that one of our readers and a long-time activist,
Zero, had a letter published on the
Anarchist Black Cross Portland (ABC PDX) website and in the
Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee (IWOC) newsletter responding
to an article in Under Lock & Key No. 50 (May/June 2016)
about the
September 9 work stoppage. Zero invited us to respond publicly and
so we have done our best here to distill this debate down to what we see
as the most important points.
With IWOC, ABC, and Zero, we have a common enemy in the criminal
injustice system and imperialism more broadly. We are writing this
response with the goal of building unity, not division, between
organizations and individuals that are working hard to fight this unjust
system.
Anarchism vs. Communism
Fundamentally we have a disagreement over anarchism vs. communism, but
we believe that both camps are fighting for the same thing at root: an
end to oppression of groups of people by other groups of people. We just
think that communists have a more scientific plan for how to get there
than anarchists, based on our study of how these same efforts have been
attempted, succeeded, and failed in the past. The oppressed people of
the world deserve the best and fastest route to liberation. Communists
hope to discover what that route is through not only our study but also
our practice.
This disagreement over the importance of science to revolutionary
struggle is highlighted in a lot of what Zero wrote. Ey accuses
MIM(Prisons) of being intellectuals whose “theory is based in theory.”
Zero also claims to have no interest in political line in the
development of the September 9 work stoppage: “I don’t care what your
line is, nor does anyone else I work closely with on this project.
Beyond small friendly jabs at each other, nothing I’ve seen or read, or
heard from anyone in this campaign suggests anyone cares much about
line.”
Yet it’s a discredit to the hunger strike organizers to say that they
don’t care much about line. It is precisely political line and
theoretical analysis that drives the concept that “prisoner labor is
slavery and this mass work stoppage is a good plan to shut down
prisons.” Without unity on this analysis, the organizers might have
decided (as an example) the best approach is for everyone to fast
because the Amerikkkan farms depend on prisons to buy agricultural goods
and so this boycott would shut down the farms and hence force prison
reform. IWOC and ABC aren’t suggesting this, and that’s probably because
of their correct theoretical understanding of agriculture in this
country. In forming their alliance on this campaign, Zero, IWOC, and ABC
at least agree on this political line, even if they don’t talk about it.
After all, they are all anarchists (or anarchist-led), so they have much
unity on line already.
Zero finds “contradictory statements” in our original article that help
demonstrate where we depart from the anarchists because our strategy
differs from theirs. Zero wrote:
“In paragraph #5 you say: ‘we do see power in the ability of prisoners
to shut down facilities by not doing the work to keep them running for a
potentially longer period’. But then in paragraph #10 you say ‘the
organizers of the anti-slavery protest are misleading people into
believing that shutting down prison work will shut down prisons’.
If masses of prisoners stopped working, forever, some facilities may
close. This would likely be because of where they’re located
geographically, the layout and security level of the facility, and how
easy or difficult it is to staff the prisons to accommodate for the loss
of labor. But would that close all prisons in the United $tates? We
doubt it. Does that mean we think prisoners should all just keep
working? No! Short of overthrowing capitalist Amerikkka’s power
altogether, we will still have prisons in this country based on national
oppression. But making that oppression more difficult is always a good
thing.
Our point is that Amerikkka is willing to spend a lot of time, money and
resources on imprisoning a staggering number of people, all at a
financial loss. So we do not see evidence that if prisoners stop working
and it suddenly becomes more expensive to imprison people that that will
shut down the prison system. It most certainly is a form of resistance
that heightens the contradictions between the oppressed and the
oppressor, and even within the oppressor camp. Such an act would
certainly have great influence on the ever-changing realities within the
U.$. criminal injustice system, as would any sustained, mass prisoner
mobilization.
Elitism?
Zero criticizes MIM(Prisons), “You spell united front with capital ‘U’
and ‘F’ which is what MIM calls one of its programs, short for UFPP, and
as [UFPP] makes specific ideological demands for any entity it is
willing to work with, I’m led to believe that what you truly mean by
‘work with’ is to ‘co-opt’.” We do capitalize the name of the
organization United Front for Peace in Prisons (UFPP), which has a
specific program (the 5 Principles of the UFPP: Peace, Unity, Growth,
Internationalism, and Independence). Organizations that agree with those
principles but disagree with us on many other things have joined this
United Front and there is no attempt to co-opt those groups. We do not
capitalize “united front” when not talking about this specific
organization (if we have in print it was a mistake, not a political
point). This is not a problem of elitisim, it is simply grammar. We
welcome the development of a united front against prisons, and even
better a united front against imperialism, outside of the UFPP and not
bound by its 5 principles. But we do believe that united fronts need to
have clear points of unity so that there isn’t a question of
organizations being forced to change their political line or give up
their independence to participate. In other words, we are actively
trying to organize in a way to prevent the co-opting of organizations
that Zero accuses us of attempting.
Zero goes on to say that MIM(Prisons) “… refuse[s] to even mention the
names of these other revolutionary organizations so that your readers
can reach out and seek information on their own. Another display of
elitist hegemonization of line.” Yet this comment is in the context of
criticizing an article that specifically named the IWOC and included a
link directly to its publication, so we’re confused about where we
failed to mention the other organizers’ names. On this point, however,
we did fail to convert the web address to a print address in our print
version of ULK, which of course makes it harder for subscribers
to reach out directly to IWOC, and we are correcting that mistake in our
footnote to this article and our general practice. We actually print
many articles debating theory and practice, including some that
explicitely disagree with us. To be clear though, the purpose of
ULK is to educate and inform people on what we see as the
most correct political line and practice and so we always offer our
response to those points of disagreement and allow our readers (and
history) to decide who is correct.
On this same point, we also highlight the correct practice of our
predecessors in the Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM) who
distributed a pamphlet “What’s Your Line?” with the names, addresses and
political positions of a wide spectrum of political organizations. We
haven’t put the time or money into compiling a similar up-to-date list
because our resources are sadly limited, but we still support this
practice. Perhaps an innocent oversight, but neither the ABC nor the
IWOC bothered to link to our website or print contact information for
MIM(Prisons) alongside Zero’s long and scathing critique of our
organization.
Nihilism or Subjectivism
In eir argument against political theory Zero writes: “I’m an anarchist.
More, a nihilist. … In the words of Bakunin, the true revolutionist is
concerned with the science of destruction. Let the other sciences be the
work of future generations. … And as Bakunin said, sometimes we just
have to throw theory into the fire, for it only stalls life.” It’s great
to have faith that humynity can work out the problems of the future, but
the problems of today also require scientific analysis. The oppressed
don’t have the luxury of banging their heads against the wall for years
failing to make progress. If historical revolutions have failed in the
same way repeatedly, we need to learn from those mistakes. And if
revolutions have succeeded with certain practices, we should learn from
those. This is what theory is all about: learning from history and
applying those lessons to our practice today. Then looking at our own
practice, drawing conclusions, and adapting our approach.
Citing Webster’s dictionary and dictionary.com, without acknowledging
the class interests that those resources represent, and saying “that’s
good enough for me” is simply subjectivism. Denying the importance of
theory to our practice is to make us slaves (pun intended) to our
emotions and subjectivism, which are very thoroughly conditioned by our
residence in an imperialist country. We cannot expect to overcome
subjectivism 100%, but through applying dialectical and historical
materialsm we hope to make the fewest errors in our revolutionary work
as possible.
Zero gives a good example of theoretical analysis in eir criticism:
“In closing, let me clarify that dialectical soundness can often depend
on interpretation. You all use orthodox marxist definitions of ‘slavery’
even though we live in a post-modern, post-fordist time and place. The
dynamics of our current reality are different. And so we must also
re-assess our definitions. Besides, though personally I use marxist
formulas I’m ultimately a nihilist, un-beholden to an particular
ideological parameters. In other words. My definition of ‘slavery’ is
reflected by our material conditions, not political agenda.”
Zero is correctly stating here that we must adapt our theory to current
conditions. What held true in Marx’s day may not be true today. We can’t
just get stuck in what Marx wrote and ignore changes in conditions. We
agree with that. But we ask Zero, what is it but theory that allows us
to discuss who is or isn’t a slave? If this discussion isn’t based in
theory, then it’s just subjectivism.
For example, here is an instance where MIM(Prisons)’s analysis has
adapted to changing conditions since Marx’s day. We see that while the
vast majority of workers of all countries were exploited in the past,
and made up the proletariat class that Marx wrote about so thoroughly,
today imperialism has advanced to the point where workers in imperialist
countries are mostly petty-bourgeois. This is a point where we tend to
disagree with groups who organize people in the First World around their
economic interests (as opposed to national interests).
Finally, demonstrating the difficulty in remaining anti-theory while
discussing political theory, Zero critiqued our point that work strikes
will not in-and-of-themselves bring down the Amerikan criminal injustice
system: “I’d ask on what dialectical evidence you base your theory that
america would ‘figure out’ how to keep us locked up.” This is a good
example of the importance of theory. If we’re wrong, then we should
focus our efforts into organizing work stoppages. And Zero is right, it
is dialectical materialist analysis that will help us figure that out
here. The article that Zero responded to actually went into a lot of
depth on this very point, explaining that prisons are primarily tools to
control society, not make profit, which aid in the oppressive force of
the bourgeoisie by keeping lumpen and anyone deemed dangerous to their
power locked away. We know that prisons are not reliant on the money
made from prisoner labor, because there is public information showing
that
prisons
are money-losing operations.
Political debate is not the same as political opposition
To clarify our position, in the original article about the September 9
protests we talked about the similarities and differencess between the
five-year history of the United Front for Peace in Prisons September 9
Day of Peace and Solidarity, and this newer call for prisoner activism
on September 9: “First we want to say that we are always happy to see
people taking up organizing and trying to build unity behind bars. There
are some very good points taken in this call to action… we would hope to
work with these folks to broaden our movement.” We followed this up with
multiple articles reporting on the work stoppage and praising the
widespread protests.
But Zero seems to think that by publically criticizing an incorrect
point of political theory from the organizers we are opposing the
protests. Ey wrote
“What we have here is a huge social base, across prison walls, that is
extremely pissed off. And we have an opportunity to harness that anger
and point it at our enemy on September 9th, thats all the analysis I
need. and I say that if you oppose this in any way, you’re nothing but a
house slave ready to defend your master. your complicit and should be
among the first to be taken to task.”
If we won’t just blindly agree and follow eir leadership, apparently we
are written off as complicit with the enemy. Isn’t this the squelching
of political debate that anarchists so vehemently oppose? To be clear,
we support the September 9th protests, both those organized by members
of the United Front for Peace in Prisons, and those promoted by the
IWOC. Our criticism is directed toward statements that participating in
these protests will shut down the prisons because prisons are dependent
on prisoner slave labor. If we did not make this clear in our articles
about September 9, we will take this criticism to help us approach the
struggle with a clearer focus on unity.
Finally, Zero wrote that we should have known about this work strike
sooner. It looks like there was some censorship of our mail from em so
letters from Zero about this didn’t get to us. We did reach out to IWOC
and others about working together on September 9 organizing once we
learned about the work strike (which we did hear about from a number of
ULK subscribers). We never got a response from the organizers. We
hope that going forward we can collaborate in the fight against the
criminal injustice system to build a stronger movement. This doesn’t
mean we will give up our communist position, nor does it mean that Zero,
ABC, or IWW need to give up their anarchism, and in fact we would argue
that continuing this debate publicly is good for everyone. In practice
we hope to collaborate on the September 9 protest in 2017.
Hays State Prison (HSP), Georgia’s most dangerous and high-profile
maximum security prison, is located in the northwest mountains of
Georgia. The cold bland setting gives way to its racist history of
profiling and beating handcuffed Black prisoners. The media did a great
job of highlighting the HSP murders starting in December 2012. One would
think it is calm at Hays since the national spotlight has somewhat
subsided. Now HSP, backed by the Georgia Department of Corrections (GDC)
is doing something new to make a name for itself. The GDC and HSP are
falsely validating non-gang members so to appear proactive in the GDC’s
phony fight to curb gang violence within the GDC, and specifically at
Hays.
I am an educated African-American man with a Bachelor’s Degree. I am a
member of the National Lawyers Guild as an active “jailhouse lawyer.” I
have filed numerous lawsuits aginst GDC since being incarcerated in
Georgia. I have shown a consistent propensity to be unafraid to
challenge the GDC in court when they often violate my Georgia and United
States rights.
From the date I entered the GDC, I was not affiliated with any security
threat group (STG) gang. However, during my recent court filings, a GDC
staff member found a way to retaliate against me, by placing a false STG
gang validation on my prisoner profile. In the GDC, if you get validated
as a STG gang member, you are looked at unfavorably and often get denied
work assignments, safety housing, parole and transitional center
placement, and educational and pre-release programs. It’s a negative
classification. How does a person like myself get classified as a gang
member? A GDC staff member, who does not like me being a jailhouse
lawyer, created a false narrative that I deny. The STG report reads that
I admitted to being a “blood/PIRU” gang member. This is a total 100%
fabricated lie.
The validation occurred during a period of July to September 2016,
during which I was locked in a one-man segregation cell. Yet the GDC
states I joined a gang.
I would like to bring to your attention a proliferating issue and a
sophisticated form of manipulation and capitulation by certain female
guards here, which is threatening my motivational efforts and energy of
prisoners who are trying to mobilize pockets of resistance. The
prisoners in our immediate cipher and midst on a daily basis, in the
disguise of recreation, study groups, or just basic conversations, are
involved in some alarming episodes of perversion here at Sussex Sucks I
State Prison. If we stand by and just criticize, make fun of, or gossip
and back bite about those prisoners who get snaggled up in this spider
web/trap, then the pigs are going to use this misguided erotic behavior
to destroy the elements of positive aspirations that iz being pushed
forward by a different segment of conscious prisoners here on this slave
pen of oppression.
Everyone is aware of the enormous amount of jobs that become available
because of the booming rise in the prison construction throughout the
Amerikkkan colony. But no one seems to have noticed the alarming amount
of female guards that are subsequently recruited, hired and then trained
for a job inside this bulging prison culture complex! So today, a lot of
these same female guards are assigned to the actual cell blocks/pods
that house many of the state’s most violent male prisoners. And as a
direct result of the placement of these female guards inside each of
these components, you now see these same so-called violent prisoners
becoming mentally and emotionally hypnotized by the astute beauty of
some female guards who exhibit this aura or facade with their tour of
correctional duty and within their clandestine episodes of flirtation.
In some of these housing components, I have even witnessed female guards
displaying their siren characteristics in an attempt to control and
compel the feeble-minded guys into conforming with the prison rules and
regulations. In some cases these female guards are playing mind games,
as they get off on the drama of seeing several men chasing them and even
fighting over them, and manipulating them into becoming pod police by
telling and doing the police job as an incentive. These female guards
want the prisoners to help them stroke their own clandestine exotic or
erotic fantasies while making money as a past time and advancing their
career in law enforcement!
Before I commence my conclusion, it iz essential and imperative that I
maintain the organizational strategy by indicating that there are
numerous female guards who despise being exploited by the display of
male sex organs in the workplace, and I really support all of these
female guards who take a stance against this form of sexism. Because to
subjugate women in general and solely on the basis of gender iz not only
wrong, but dudes who believe and practice these subjective axioms and
the actions that stem from this obnoxious belief are really saying that
women are not worthy of genuine respect, or perhaps those prisoners
think that a woman cannot be feminine without being submissive! All
prisoners, brothas, all nations must begin the task of taking a personal
analysis of themselves immediately and we should be self-critical.
Otherwise we won’t understand what our criminal thought pattern iz doing
to the overall struggle of the masses here in North Amerikkka.
Correctional male chauvinism must be eliminated if prisoners really plan
to make it past this adolescent crisis that arises to the level of this
extracurricular prison activity.
In closing, I felt the need to proselytize to the conscious prisoner
class, clearly it iz better to err acting to bring about positive change
than to do nothing for fear of erring. Please spread this word and
cogitate what has been evaluated and written here in adroit-like
fashion, because we have to stop this new wave of mental, physical, and
emotional ignorance. Peace!
I want to know if other comrades are dealing with these same issues. If
so, no one is speaking on it. Stop watching the idiot box, it’s
hypnotizing you!
MIM(Prisons) responds: This is a good point to raise for
discussion which we hope will inspire others to write in. There is, as
this prisoner explains, a general contradiction in imperialist society,
with the treatment of females under the patriarchy. But in prison this
situation is changed. There is still some clear gender oppression of
females, but in male prisons (which are the vast majority in this
country) there is a reversal of roles in some ways. Males face gender
oppression due to their unique status as prisoners.
We see this with the example given here of female guards manipulating
prisoners through sex and flirting. The female guards are using
patriarchal objectification to keep male prisoners passive, and even
serving the very system that locks them up. We need to expose this
manipulation and talk about why it can happen, and what we can do about
it. It should not be ok to do any guard’s bidding, male or female. Are
other people seeing this? What can be done to fight back?
As to the comrade in Ohio and MIM(Prisons)’s response on
“Coffee
House Revolutionaries or Real Militants?” in ULK 54 I don’t
think the comrade in Ohio knows or realizes what MIM(Prisons) does or
does not have in the organization’s caches or whether or not MIM is or
isn’t physically or militarily preparing for the perfect time to do what
that comrade is expressing in this letter. Also MIM follows Mao’s line
on war strategy. MIM(Prisons) is not a street gang, or a criminal org.
If you want to, and feel the time is perfect to take on the imperialist
U.$. army, you’re sadly mistaken. In your commentary, I understood where
you’re coming from because I am not much of a politician. I’m a soldier,
and fighter as well. I, comrade in Ohio, agree with you that violence is
a necessary means to achieve one’s goals in our type of struggle, and
little by little, on a small scale the snowball has begun to roll. Trump
is helping us push that ball forward, with his political ignorance. He’s
threatening to dismantle people like us, who have outside organizations
– other than MIM(Prisons) – whom we have direct third world connections
to.
Now, where I am in disagreement with MIM(Prisons) is that they, or we,
should not be reluctant to put a cache of weapons in bunkers or
safe-houses just because of what MIM(Prisons) says “recent history” in
the United $tates reveals about the murder or imprisonment of
revolutionary groups that have attempted to do that. There does not have
to be a set time to get weapons ready. That can be done clandestinely. I
will not elaborate on that any more at this time. I will say that I do
respect how MIM(Prisons) responded to the comrade in the Ohio prison.
You, MIM(Prisons), stated at the end of your response that you “look
forward to learning and building with this comrade and eir organization
for many years to come.” The organization I’ll be working for out there
are ex-military, ex-cops, and from ex-intelligence of 3rd world military
groups from all over the world, and of whom they, as well as all other
organizations like them, can’t be too happy about the hard line
President Trump is taking.
Greetings to everyone at MIM. I am a prisoner held captive here at High
Desert State Prison, in Susanville, California. I’m writing to inform
the people of this new and improved form of repression tactic hidden
behind the name of public safety and security. An investigative report
came out in December 2015 by the Inspector General about the
abuse
and cover-ups by officers at this prison for 2 decades. Since then,
the powers that be have started to install the video recording cameras
in the prison, which is not a bad idea. Most prisons have cameras on the
yard. However, these new high-tech cameras now have audio/voice
recording which is new for CDCR.
They have also installed them just about any and everywhere, in the
chowhall, gym, dayroom, yard, medical, law library, chapel, laundry,
school/education, even in N.A. (Narcotic Anonymous) and A.A. (Alcoholic
Anonymous), which begs the question, who’re they really keeping an eye
on and watching? Now don’t get me wrong I’m all for holding these
pigs/officers accountable for their actions. But now they’re watching
and listening to our conversations in the chapel during our religious
services where prisoners talk freely and enjoy open discussions on
religion, race, politics, without the eyes and ears of the custody
staff. N.A. and A.A. is suppose to be Anonymous where prisoners can get
help and talk openly and privately with each other and the sponsor about
our addiction and recovery. Now the Anonymous is out the picture when
custody can see and listen when they choose to.
Medical is suppose to be between the prisoner and doctor to talk and
review medical issues and problems without custody knowing your
business. Visiting always had cameras but if the state choses to take
out the old and put in the new, then they will be able to listen to our
intimate conversations with our family, friends, wives, children etc.
All in the name of what? Public safety and security? Or is this just a
new and improved way for CDCR to watch & now listen to everything a
prisoner does? You decide.
MIM(Prisons) responds: We’re glad to have this point brought up
for consideration as most of what we’ve printed on this topic has been
in favor of increased surveillance. A prime example was the campaign in
North Carolina, centered around a lawsuit filed against staff for
assaulting prisoners, focused on getting
better
camera coverage in state prisons to monitor staff. We supported this
comrade in promoting eir efforts, recognizing the vulnerable situation
that prisoners are in at the hands of the oppressor. Yet, for those of
us outside prison, the call for more surveillance cameras gives one
pause. It has come up in relation to police on the streets, but we
dismissed that as not addressing the problem. The same could be said
inside prisons.
The privacy struggle is one that is very relevant to us. At the same
time it is mostly dominated by oppressor interests on both sides. In
other words, it’s hard to campaign for civil liberties in a general way
that is anti-imperialist. There are engineering solutions to privacy
that can be used as tools, tactically, by revolutionaries.
There have been reports on the chilling effect of surveillance in the
United $tates, showing that people are less willing to visit certain
websites after the Edward Snowden leaks exposing NSA spying operations.
While we disagree with the Liberals who call for a freedom of speech
that allows people to promote profits over humyn needs, we also propose
a program for a dictatorship of the proletariat that expands freedom of
speech in many ways compared to current conditions in this country. We
would ban the Orwellian “smart TVs” and other technology that is
recording and collecting data on people in their homes. We would
guarantee not only net neutrality, but internet access to all. Below are
some planks from the MIM platform on subjects related to the First
Amendment:
Restrictions on public postering will be eliminated except on
residential buildings.
Large and convenient bulletin boards will be placed on every block.
Boards covered over will be evidence for the need to build more.
There will be convenient places to leave literature along with such
bulletin boards.
There will be no arrests in any non-residential building or premise
for quiet distribution of literature. The only exception will be for
high government officials meeting and who face threat of
assassination–the Central Committee and government officials above a
certain rank.
Arrests for vocal discussion will be limited to places where there is
a need for meetings and orderly work. Cafeterias, outdoor sidewalks and
most indoor hallways will be legally required to allow vocal
discussion.
Meeting halls of public buildings will be made available for meetings to
the public. If necessary more will be constructed.
Government bureaucrats interfering with the “free speech” of the public
will be transferred to jobs where they have no such possibility.
Restrictions
Those advocating opposition to the dictatorship of the proletariat as
defined at the top of the document will go to prison or re-education
camp and thereby not enjoy all full public citizenship rights.
Sale of pornography will be forbidden. Distribution of nude
photographs paid for by the photographer or persyn who signed a consent
form to be displayed in photographs will always be legal, but government
authorities may require a registration for financial bookkeeping
purposes. Those publicly distributing nude photos of children 12 and
under will be sent to re-education camp, whether money spent was their
own or not.
Any non-party literature or other device for public opinion building
will be paid for by individual members of the public with money from
salary and no outside capitalist money or stolen sources of wealth will
be used to promote any opinion of the non-party public.
Stimulation
MIM will not order the government to censor the INTERNET except on
questions of the dictatorship of the proletariat and party rule.
USENET groups such as talk.rape, alt.activism.death-penalty,
alt.politics.greens etc. will be permitted, partly for stimulation of
the minds in imperialist countries, partly to bring to the surface
bourgeois thoughts in need of professional proletarian refutation and
partly because there will continue to be problems in all these areas
under the dictatorship of the proletariat. The need for stimulation is
especially great in the depoliticized imperialist countries. Many
middle-class peoples will come under the dictatorship of the proletariat
without ever knowing that the world’s majority of people suffered
threats to their survival on a daily basis. (1)
MIM Platform: Against prison censorship
Prison officials claim they have security reasons to act as censors. But
censorship prevents prisoners from access to legal help, education, and
political organization. Political and legal mail and literature are not
a direct threat to the security of prisons.
In analyzing the system of social control in the United $tates, it is
imperative that we follow the correct line. The position of many today
is to argue that the injustice system is based on a “Prison-Industrial
Complex” [which we at MIM(Prisons) reject]. A new report,
“Following the
Money of Mass Incarceration” by Peter Wagner and Bernadette Rabuy,
provides additional evidence to back up our position.
Prisons are generally a complex web of concentration camps for oppressed
semi-colonies, rather than an economically profitable industry. Indeed,
there are some profits to be made (and capitalists/imperialists are good
at finding their niches), but overall, the purpose of the injustice
system today is population control.
As Wagner and Rabuy point out in their article: “In this
first-of-its-kind report, we find that the system of mass incarceration
costs the government and families of justice-involved people at least
$182 billion every year.”(1) This $182 billion includes the $374 million
in profits received by the private prison industry. The profits to these
numerically few stakeholders hardly represent a systematic
profit-generating enterprise. In fact, in the graph summing up their
research, the authors had to make an exception to the cut off for
significant portions of the U.$. prison budget in order to even include
private prisons on it!
“This industry is dominated by two large publicly traded companies –
CoreCivic (which until recently was called Corrections Corporation of
America (CCA)) and The GEO Group — as well as one small private company,
Management & Training Corp (MTC). We relied on the public annual
reports of the two large companies, and estimated MTC’s figures using
records from a decade-old public record request.”(1)
Private prison corporations have very little to gain in the prison
business, which is why the vast majority (up to 95%) are still public
prisons.(2) The Amerikkkan government (i.e. taxpayers) fronts the bill
for the $182 billion. The few economic beneficiaries of the prison
industry are commissary vendors, bail bond companies, and specialized
telephone companies. As Wagner and Rabuy demonstrate, these are the
multi-billion dollar industries. And they, of course, benefit, whether
the prisons are private or not!
Why would the imperialist system be willing to spend almost $200 billion
a year at the loss of widespread economic labor and consumers? For, as
is shown: “Many people confined in jails don’t work, and four state
prison systems don’t pay at all.”(1)
As Wagner points out in an article from 7 October 2015:
“Now, of course, the influence of private prisons will vary from state
to state and they have in fact lobbied to keep mass incarceration going;
but far more influential are political benefits that elected officials
of both political parties harvested over the decades by being tough on
crime as well as the billions of dollars earned by government-run
prisons’ employees and private contractors and vendors.
“The beneficiaries of public prison largess love it when private prisons
get all of the attention. The more the public stays focused on the
owners of private prisons, the less the public is questioning what would
happen if the government nationalized the private prisons and ran every
facility itself: Either way, we’d still have the largest prison system
in the world.”(3)
The capitalists don’t economically gain from the supposed
“Prison-Industrial Complex”, but the politicians gain from the white
Amerikkkan obsession with “crime”. Taking this into account, we find the
truth hiding behind Wagner and Rabuy’s cryptic phrase: “To be sure,
there are ideological as well as economic reasons for mass incarceration
and over-criminalization.”(1)
We’ve already looked at the economic reasons – power groups like the
bail bond companies and commissary vendors are obviously looking to make
a profit. So what are the ideological reasons?
When we look at prison populations (whether private or public), we can
see where mass incarceration gets its impetus. The vast majority of
prisoners are New Afrikans, Chican@s, and peoples of the First Nations
(even though euro-Amerikkkans are the majority of the U.$. population).
The prison is not a revenue racket, but an instrument of social control.
The motivating factor is domination, not exploitation.
If we’re following the money though, then we need look at how spending
breaks down. Wagner and Rabuy present the division of costs as: the
judicial and legal costs, policing expenditures, civil asset forfeiture,
bail fees, commissary expenditures, telephone call charges, “public
correction agencies” (like public employees and health care),
construction costs, interest payments, and food and utility costs.
The authors outline their methodology for arriving at their statistics
and admit that “[t]here are many items for which there are no national
statistics available and no straightforward way to develop a national
figure from the limited state and local data.”(1) Despite these obvious
weaknesses in obtaining concrete reliable data, the overwhelming
analysis stands.
Wagner and Rabuy discuss the private prison industry at the end of the
article. Here, they write:
“To illustrate both the scale of the private prison industry and the
critical fact that this industry works under contract for government
agencies — rather than arresting, prosecuting, convicting and
incarcerating people on its own — we displayed these companies as a
subset of the public corrections system.”(1)
As was argued in
“MIM(Prisons)
on U.S. Prison Economy”, “[i]f prison labor was a gold mine for
private profiteers, then we would see corporations of all sorts leading
the drive for more prisons.”(2)
In light of this, the injustice system in the United $tates and the
prisons (both private and public) are used by the government to oppress
national minorities. And the government is rewarded with enthusiasm and
renewed vigor by white Amerikkkans, who goose-step into formation with
ecstasy when racist politicians like Donald Trump go on about being
“tough on crime”.
MIM Thought stresses the focus on imperialism both inside and outside
the United $nakes. The network of prisons is no exception – imperialism
here functions as a method of control by Amerikkkans of oppressed
nations. As the statistics presented by Wagner and Rabuy clearly
demonstrate, there is no “Prison Industrial Complex.” There is a
systematic attempt to destroy individuals, communities, and nations.(4)
I was recently informed of your publication Under Lock & Key
and would like to receive it. I would also like to receive your Texas
Pack. For the second time I am aware of TDCJ employees who have used the
excuse that uniform commercial code (UCC) is contraband to confiscate
prisoners trust property of all kinds. Also, they commit theft of legal
notes and commercial study materials and write disciplinary charges
resulting in placement into medium and closed custody. Their actions are
in violation of the First Amendment and in dishonor of court decisions:
Walter Jones v. Michigan DOC Patricia Caruso et al, 2007 Dist Ct
Lexus 72469 Case No. 05-CV-72817-DT
Walter Jones Plaintiff
Appelle v. Patricia Caruso et al Def. Appellant 569 F 3d 258 2009 U.S.
app. Lexis 13371; 2009 Fed U.S. Ct of app 6 th Circ.
No. 05-72817
The following case was from TDCJ Ellis Uni, therefore they are aware
of their actions: Harry Kerley v W. Stephens, Civ No H-14 Case
4:14-CV-03491, 2015
From this list of what was taken from me I think you will agree there
has been a violation. Step 1 and 2 grievances are useless, just as they
were in the Kerly incident and many others. I believe we need a class
action law suit. Can you provide information on this or perhaps some
legal specialist contacts.
Per usual in these instances of theft the TDCJ officers are acting under
“color of law” by using govt forms declaring the property taken as UCC
related materials however they do not provide itemized lists of what
exactly they have taken.
I am writing to you to let you know how things are in Texas and their
mistreatment of minorities and indigents in the criminal justice system.
The right to an indictment is no longer a right anymore. If you are
charged with a criminal offense and if you are indigent and a minority,
you will be approached by an attorney outside the court room he will lie
and say he is appointed by the court, even though statute states your
right to an attorney under the 6 th amendment starts upon indictment in
Texas unless waived. But these lawyers force you in trial court by
producing a fabricated indictment that was not returned by any grand
jury. And these judges and DA are sentencing you to their slave camps.
There is no way a person without funds can defend themselves these
lawyers are paid by the court, even if you tell them you want to defend
yourself the judges won’t even let you do that, they try to force you
into a jury trial and the case isn’t capital, they have the jury already
picked out you can’t win.