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.
On Sept 9th, we open, as usual, upon the United Front for Peace in
Prisons Statement of Principles. Our comrade did spoken word:
“Frustrated” and “Black Angel” (our comrade is working on a CD of spoken
word).
Another comrade spoke on revolutionary consciousness – what it means,
how it applies to us and our conditions (open discussion). A third
comrade introduced the ten point agenda (we recently sent you a copy of
the 10 point agenda). We are ready to accept
responsibility/accountability for ourselves and our conditions – we will
have our marching orders (the basic point that Marx emphasized is
profoundly true: “If the masses don’t fight back and resist their
oppression, even short of revolution, they will be crushed and reduced
to a broken mass and will be incapable of rising up for any higher
thing.”). Our attendance was 32 people.
On September 15th we spoke on
“Building
Prison Study Groups” from ULK 45 (July/August 2015). Numerous
articles within, and questions/comments were given. The discussion was
moderated by two comrades and 41 people attended. We want to assure
ourselves, we are working towards effective grouping/organizing, keeping
the political line, and keeping the pigz out of our planning. We wish to
be peaceful, organized, and most important, as effective as possible.
We are organizing for the Grievance campaign - we’ve received the sample
sheet from MIM(Prisons). This has been an issue, here at Sussex I and
throughout Virginia DOC. I recently sent you an article titled
“Suppression the Grievance Procedure”.
My comrades, we are working. We’ve got support from Bloods (over 200),
GDs (over 25), MS-13 (20) and Muslims, Christians and 5%ers. I can only
say we will work and work for results!
I’m writing to inquire about the “grievance guide.” I received this
address from the Education-Peer Ed. Instructor. There are times that an
inmate or myself find a valid reason to draw up a grievance to bring
notice to the matter in question. However the “grievance” department
returns the form as “invalid.” So is there a specific format or
particular details that need to be followed for the grievance to be
valid and reach the appropriate authorities, to find a solution?
P.S. I’ve asked the Law Library Officer and she informed me that such
“method” is confidential and not made available to inmates.
Interest of the wealthy always precedes those who aren’t heard.
Power to the people who stand their ground. No more broken promises
and we won’t back down. The fruits of our labor will be handed
around. What must it mean to be truly free? Should we settle for
something less, fuck it don’t agree. This war scattered us into
refugees, blame those in power Who claim to represent you and
me. No matter what you say and claim to be, dig your roots And
nourish what you seek. Be part of the solution, organize and fight
together. We have to devise a plan, a common ground in which A
idea won’t fall into one hand. No doubt freedom fighters will get
gunned down. The rebel with the knowledge is the child born in the
trenches. Who will carry the torch of resistance for the next seven
generation. Learn from mistakes and apply to the whole. We can
never separate the people from the struggle.
The recent attention to murder and brutality of New Afrikan men by
Amerikan police, and the shooting of police officers in Dallas, Texas by
Micah X, apparently in retaliation for this brutality, inspired a lot of
thoughtful letters from across the country. Many commented on the need
to take up the gun to fight those with guns.
A contributor in Florida asked:
“So, my question is this: how effective and appropriate was the
brother’s actions (or sacrifice) at this point in time, or what do we,
you and the readers make of all this? Are there any lessons, a message,
or information to be learned from all of this? Or, ultimately, is there
perhaps any more room, space, or a vacuum for more of this kind of
self-defense at this point in time? And if so, how does one go about or
start preparing, alleviating, educating, demonstrating or organizing for
such right now from this example (or lesson) at this point in time? Like
Micah X, are we ready to effectively exercise or address any more of
this yet - or continue to keep the conversation going?”
If Micah were trying to spark a revolution, this would be a good example
of what we call focoism:
The belief that small cells of armed revolutionaries can create the
conditions for revolution through their actions. Demonstrated
revolutionary victories, the successes of the foci, are supposed to lead
the masses to revolution. Focoism often places great emphasis on armed
struggle and the immediacy this brings to class warfare. Focoism is
different from people’s war in that it doesn’t promote the mass line as
part of guerrilla operations.
It is difficult for us to know Micah’s goals and intents without having
been there and spoken with em. Regardless of eir intents, the outcome of
the actions ey took serve as ammunition for the oppressors to continue
oppressing. For them, it is much easier to gain (even more) public
opinion and sympathy when they are able to point at specific incidents
of a member of a movement “mercilessly” gunning down pigs. Remember that
the majority of people in power are already on their side.
While revolutionaries and many in the oppressed nations know that
Micah’s actions were an act of self-defense, white politicians and
leaders will never see it that way. As a Federal prisoner wrote to us:
“President Obama called what happened in Dallas Texas ‘A Vicious,
Calculated, Despicable ATTACK!’” In their eyes, violent actions taken
against a pig (or pigs) can never be considered self-defense, especially
when the “offender” in question is non-white.
At this point, standalone violent actions such as this one serve to
incite the government to act with more urgency against those who they
perceive threaten them, and allow them to place themselves ever more in
the role of “victim,” and to place the oppressed in the role of
“aggressor.”
Violence is a very necessary part of effecting any kind of true change
that puts an end to imperialism, but there is a time for it, and that
time is not now. Our focus now is on educating and organizing ourselves,
so that we are better able to organize those who already see things as
we do. It is important to consider what someone with a drive like this
could achieve over a lifetime of work.
A contributor in Maryland wrote:
“One of the DJs said one of the solutions was for us to just comply with
the pigs no matter what when confronted in the streets by them.
Basically, don’t dare challenge master. But there can be no change
without challenge. Why do we continue to lay down?… The white
supremacists of this land have taken up refuge behind the badge. They
can never be rooted out. Not by Obama, or anyone else. Remember they got
a 200 year head start on us.”
While it is true that there can be no change without challenge, it is
also important to remember that not all challenge enacts change. The
pigs in no way deserve respect, compliance or gratitude. And it’s true
that they won’t be rooted out without taking down all of the
imperialists first. However, to challenge them now militarily serves to
get the wrong people killed and give more instances for the oppressors
to point at and say “Look! Look at how irrational and violent they are!
We need to give the police more power, for our protection!” The
oppressors will always try to paint the oppressed as the villian; we can
never avoid this accusation altogether. But we need to look at the
balance of forces and ask, in spite of this rhetoric, if we have enough
public opinion in our favor that our armed struggle will have enough
support to be successful. Suicide missions like Micah’s make armed
struggle look futile, so we should avoid them until we know we wan win.
Even those who have reverence for what Micah did probably wouldn’t do it
themselves.
Look at the Black Panther Party, and what happened with them. The BPP
openly carried guns as a demonstration of potential power, without
engaging in focoist actions. But still the Amerikkkan imperialists
struck back agressively with guns, drugs and imprisonment, leading to
the eventual downfall of the group. We can only expect even more
agressive attacks in response to use of the gun. The time for armed
struggle is when the fight can be won. Right now, we’re not close to
that point.
This battle is a good example of why we need a vanguard party to lead
the revolutionary struggle, including the armed struggle to take down
the imperialists. It also provides some insight into just how hard the
bourgeoisie will fight to maintain their position of power. Even after
they are defeated militarily by the majority of the world’s people we
can anticipate that former bourgeois individuals and their lackeys in
the police and military, as well as new people who aspire to wealth and
power, will not immediately become cooperative and productive members of
society serving the people. For this reason we need to think beyond the
military battle and into the structure of society after capitalism is
overthrown. This is why communists believe we must have a dictatorship
of the proletariat under socialism while we undertake the long
transition to a society where no groups of people have power over other
groups of people. It is tempting to take up the gun now and fight back a
death for a death, but we want to build a world where all people
contribute productively to the betterment of humynity, and that will
take a lot more than the death of a few cops.
This issue of ULK is being mailed to 48 states, yet over one
third are going to Texas prisons. This can be attributed in large part
to the void we’ve been filling with our Texas Campaign Pack, which has
led to a huge influx of subscribers in that state. TDCJ has hidden its
own grievance manual from prisoners since 2014, and more recently has
effectively eliminated all access to the law library in many facilities.
The MIM(Prisons) TX Pack helps people fight back and provides needed
resources and information.
Yet when looking through the incoming mail, we notice some themes:
Most people are focused only on their individual struggles.
The end goal for most writers is prison reform.
There is a huge lack of engagement with politics.
Of course there are a number of exceptions to these themes, but the
quantity of letters without political content is overwhelming. The vast
majority of writers are only interested in getting the Texas Pack from
us. Their engagement with the rest of our projects (even reading
ULK, which is sent automatically to everyone who writes us) is a
relative rarity. Those who report receiving the TX Pack and thank us for
how helpful it is are mostly only using it to work on their own
grievances. Some share it with others, but most don’t seem to be using
it on campaigns together. Of the huge number of people who have been
invited to our intro study group across the state, very few actually
participated.
If our subscribers in Texas want everything they learned in the Texas
Campaign Pack to actually be put to the best possible use, there are a
few key points that have to be considered:
Individual actions are small. The impact of a single successful
grievance may feel huge to one persyn for at least a small period of
time. But we must think bigger than our individual struggles. Especially
when most of these struggles are unsuccessful.
Reformism is very limited. Those in power stall at every opportunity. So
while we might see a few victories, it’ll always be just enough to keep
us motivated to bark up the same wrong tree for another several decades.
In order to end what makes oppression possible and profitable, we need
to put an end to the capitalist economic system. We’ve tried reforming
it for hundreds of years. Is this what you expect it should look like by
now?
Apply principles of revolutionary theory for an end to oppression. The
only way to achieve an end to this ongoing oppression is to learn some
principles about revolutionary science. We need to know what has worked
in the past, and what hasn’t. We need to learn lessons from history for
how we can build our present-day movement to be as successful as
possible at putting a quick end to capitalism and all its atrocities the
world over. This takes hard work and dedication, and is the only way for
future generations to come out from under the boot of the oppressors.
Once we learn some revolutionary theory, the next step is to put it into
practice in our organizing work. Tons of people write to us about how
difficult it is to find people in Texas who are interested in politics
or coming together to protect themselves from abuses by staff. This is
because, despite all the atrocities in TDCJ facilities, TDCJ achieved a
delicate balance between privileges and punishment, that keeps the
population complacent but not so repressed that they are inspired to
step up and do something about it. This dynamic has been going on for
eons. The perfect example of this is people who have given up filing
grievances because the grievances go unanswered, and instead they just
watch TV. If not for the TV or other distractions/privileges, unanswered
grievances should lead someone to want to take further action to protect
their humynity. By restricting indigent mail and eliminating law
libraries in many facilities, TDCJ is signing itself up for some
contempt amongst its wards, but only if those who are politically
conscious take the next steps to educate and organize.
The most basic organizing steps to try:
Share the TX Pack with others, and have them write to MIM(Prisons) to
get on our mailing list.
Write grievances together. Even if for individual issues, build your
collective knowledge about what makes a grievance successful. Don’t let
the administration give you the runaround.
Unsuccessful grievances are part of the process. We don’t expect to
actually have victories with these grievances, but we file them to go
through the process of administrative remedies, and build unity through
action. When the grievances come back rejected, use them as tools to
show how backward the administration is, and how the grievance system is
set up to fail.
Meanwhile, build political consciousness: Study articles in ULK,
and broaden your perspective of how the prison struggle fits in with the
struggle of the internal semi-colonies, and oppressed nations worldwide.
MIM(Prisons) offers a multitude of ways we can support you in your
organizing. We can provide lit and study guides if you want to start a
study group. We also recently revamped our Prisoners’ Legal Clinic, and
you can use your legal expertise to help others with their cases and
help them learn some revolutionary theory. Our literacy program is
coming up too, so maybe tutoring others in how to read and write in a
Serve the People Program is a role you can play. Or if you’re an artist
or writer you can contribute articles for ULK, which then gets
mailed to people all across the country. If you have access to funds,
send us a donation so we can continue sending the TX Pack and ULK
in to the large number of subscribers in Texas.
In sum, Texas prisoners need to step up. We all already know that filing
individual grievances is a joke. The Texas Campaign Pack has info for
how to make the most of individual grievances, so we can have a few more
successes, but the administration can still just toss out or ignore
whatever they don’t feel like dealing with. TDCJ headquarters in
Huntsville is no better. We hope our comrades in Texas who have been so
diligently putting the Texas campaign info to good use will make this
connection to the bigger picture and adjust accordingly.
Greetings Comrades! We, the study group here at Sussex I State Prison –
Virginia, submits our Ten Point Agenda, after organizing around the
United Front for Peace in Prisons Statement of Principles.
After weeks of meeting, discussing our needs to organize (orderly and
peacefully), agreeing on statement of principles, and the ideas/ideals
presented by MIM(Prisons), we’ve gained verbal organizational
agreements, to work to rid ourselves of violence, destructive behaviors,
engage in revolutionary ideas/ideals and work for greater good: Peace,
Unity, Growth, Internationalism, and Independence.
We’ve deputized coordinators, in duties not names, of: Finance/Business,
Education, Arts & Culture, collecting donations, and using
ULK and like materials to be teaching/educational tools (we will
need more).
We’ve identified areas we can work on, and need improvements.
Collectively, we will move to address these concerns. Our first step:
educate the captives of our disadvantages, empower them with measures we
can use to confront these disadvantages (including holding each of us
accountable), complete, collect and mail in request forms, complaint
forms, if need be file legal litigations. If no resolve, use our greater
willpower – fasts, spend no money campaign, etc.
We have an educational coordinator, who will guide the movement as it
relates to the Ten Point Agenda – reporting every two weeks of progress,
need action, etc. (We will give the oppressor fifteen days to answer our
concerns, if no response, we move to Step II.)
This Ten Point Agenda is not an end-all plan, but it does allow us to
establish a line of politics, keep and maintain the line, and enables us
to confront social controls and oppression.
As we work the plan, we plan to contact outside organizations (including
MIM) to aid in our plight to get forms of social and systematic justice.
(We have experienced individuals, including myself, willing and ready to
teach on filing 42 USC 1983 civil suits.)
You have inspired us to mobilize, organize, mobilize and organize! After
8 weeks and numerous pod meetings we have arrived. We will continue to
keep you abreast on our progress, needed materials. We will continue to
donate, send artwork, and articles to aid your work.
“The educational and professional training systems are very elaborate
filters.”
This statement comes from Understanding Power: The Indispensable
Chomsky, by Noam Chomsky. In chapter four he discusses safeguards
and controls put in place by and to protect the capitalist system. His
analysis is apt. In the United States those who control information are
those who hold the power. Which is why the government is the largest
collector and disseminator of information. More importantly it is the
most effective filtration system.
This is accomplished through 1) popular control and 2) the media.
Effective popular control isolates citizens and dissidents. When someone
is isolated it is easy to control their reality and/or manipulate their
actions. On the other hand there’s the media. The media does much more
than provide an outlet for the dissemination of information. It is the
main tool, outside of formal schooling, for indoctrinating
non-proletariat citizenry. It also validates petty-bourgeois society by
marginalizing dissidents and the proletariat. This particular control (a
process of measures and procedures to prevent substantive changes and to
preserve a system), I’ve termed the subjection-manipulation cycle.
Information control, isolation, indoctrination and marginalization are
continued in perpetuity. The purpose of this control is to create a
sheepish or gullible populace.
It is effective because the un-indoctrinated are deprived of a voice, a
vote, an opinion. Even maybe shunned completely. They are isolated and
made seemingly impotent. The subjection-manipulation cycle has
been adapted by the U.$. prison system. At present, it provides a
reliable method for repressing “subversive”, “disruptive”, or
“threatening” activities, attitudes, or behaviors. Prison has a wide
array of people. Some who become indoctrinated, and others who refuse to
relinquish their freedom to determine their actions. The first I’ve
termed subjugated, the second self-determinants. Self-determinants find
themselves targets of the subjection-manipulation cycle.
Self-determinants are generally punished and repressed, while the
subjugated are rewarded. In public life, dissidents are parallel to
self-determinants in prisons. By isolating and repressing
self-determinants, prison authorities filter and provide examples of
“unacceptable” behavior. Self-determinants are segregated, privileges
stripped and their associates harassed. This ends with them being
socially stigmatized. The parallel in public life is almost identical.
Isolation, repression and harassment in the hopes of inducing impotency.
The subjection-manipulation cycle is not only a system of reprisals and
rewards. It contains the essential element of information dissemination.
Authorities screen, examine, and filter all information available to
captives. This way they can promote desired modes of thought and
behavior. Why else have banned/prohibited publication lists? Or overly
complicated grievance procedures? Or such general lack of access? A lack
of information is equivalent to a lack of education. This stymies only
pro-proletarian, revolucionario, anti-capitalist, or anti-imperialist
movement. Education leads to organization. As long as prisons can
reinforce this control, the results will mirror those found in history.
It presents a massive obstacle, but not insurmountable. The solution
begins with knowledge, followed by discipline, and unity.
First, to gain knowledge one must become educated. Not through the
system, but an actual education. Becoming well versed in the rules that
govern prison officials, procedures, operations and policies. Making an
intensive research into the history of capitalism, its motives, goals
and methods. In short, you must learn the enemy: imperialists and
exploitative capitalists. Just as important, you must learn and know
yourself: strengths, weaknesses, abilities and potential. This is called
“self-knowledge.” The enemy has full self-knowledge. To be anything more
than a minor annoyance to the authorities you must also attain full
self-knowledge. Education is the first step to supplanting capitalism
and its controls.
MIM(Prisons) responds: This writer does a good job explaining the
importance of education to developing appropriate strategies in our
struggle. This education must counter the indoctrination we have all
experienced from birth under capitalism. Write to MIM(Prisons) to get
involved in our introductory study group, or to get some educational
material and tips for your study groups locally.
I am a prisoner in the State of Georgia that seeks to enforce the civil
rights of all human beings and of all ethnic groups. I have attempted to
bring an inhuman living conditions case against the prison system and on
the behalf of all similarly situated. The complaint is set out below.
Sir, it is clear after presenting these issues to two courts and the
Attorney General of Georgia that these officials do not care that the
lives of many are in grave danger.
We are seeking the assistance of your office. The name and address of
the prison, Attorney General, and the federal judge is listed at the end
of this communique.
Shocking Inhuman history of prison conditions case
On July 10, 2016, Plaintiff, Robert F. Smith, submitted for filing his
42 U.S.C. 1983 Civil Rights complaint wherein he demonstrated with
documentary evidence that some forty thousand (40,000) individual human
beings from all ethnic groups were being subjected to inhuman and
barbaric living conditions.
Smith further demonstrated that many of the individual human beings from
all ethic groups were being denied the mandated protection of prison
authority from the attacks of certain gang affiliated inmates. That the
individuals from all ethic groups in which requested from prison
authority the protection from certain affiliated gang members were then
punished by, and are still being punished, prison authority by placement
in a mandatory nine months lockdown disciplinary program wherein all
inmate personal property and store privileges have been taken.
Smith’s complaint named as Plaintiffs David Cordova, and all others
similarly situated. Said complaint was filed in the Middle District
Federal Court in Macon, Georgia, on July 13, 2016.
On August 18, 2016, Federal Judge Marc T. Treadwell dismissed Smith’s
civil rights complaint in its entirety on the premise that the
plaintiffs could not joint together in a single action.
Smith’s complaint further demonstrated that every single standard
operating procedure written to govern the running of the prison was not
being adhered to, that because said SOPs were not being followed by
prison authority, many many individuals from all ethnic groups
constitutional rights were being violated, i.e. Right to be free
from physical abuse Right to due process Right to equal
protection Right to be free from cruel and unusual
punishment
Smith further presented the failure of prison authority to follow their
standard operating procedures to the state court as required in the form
of an extra ordinary emergency of writ of mandamus, as of date that
action is being held up by the state courts with nothing having been
brought before same and having been ruled on.
Prison authority have minimized the ventilation in each inmate cell
dramatically by placing iron metal plates over each and every
ventilation duct and throughout the entire prison.
The obstruction of ventilation by the iron metal plates combined with
heat places us human beings in a substantial risk of deceases such as
tuberculosis as well as: 1. Most of the time it feels as if one’s
chest is heavily burdened with a huge amount of weight due to the lack
of clean air. 2. Severe burning sensation in chest with mild to
severe dizziness. 3. Tingling sensation in ones limbs from a lack of
oxygen in ones body.
When the plaintiff stand with their nose stuck directly into the 4 by 21
inch window opening, the conditions start to subside.
HEAT
Due to the rooms being so closed up with no ventilation and a very small
window opening between say 4:00 hours and 13:00 hours the temperatures
are between 85 to 95 degrees. Between 13:00 and 19:00 hours the
temperatures reach between 95 to 105, maybe 110 because the sun makes
direct contact with the back side of rooms. Plaintiffs suffers the
following list of health problems: 1. headaches, 2. nausea, 3. loss of
appetite, 4. loss of weight, 5. severe inability to sleep on plastic
mattresses, or 6. to breath at time. See Universal Declaration of Human
Rights, Art. I, II, III, V, VI, VII, VII, X, XII, XVII(2), XXV(1)
Marc T. Treadwell U.S. Federal Judge U.S. District Court
Office of the Clerk PO Box 128 Macon, GA 31202
We’re here today in interview with one of the authors of the recently
released book Chican@ Power and the Struggle for Aztlán.
Chican@ Power is primarily authored by Chican@ revolutionaries
who are locked up in California’s prison system. They wrote this book as
part of a study group led by the Maoist revolutionary support
organization, MIM(Prisons). The comrade we’re interviewing today is one
of the imprisoned authors, joining us via telephone straight from the
belly of the beast. The book was published in fall 2015 by Kersplebedeb
publishers, and is available at leftwingbooks.net or by writing to
MIM(Prisons) at PO Box 40799, San Francisco, CA 94140.
We are so glad to have this author with us today to talk about
Chican@ Power and the Struggle for Aztlán, so let’s get to the
interview.
Comrade, can you start with an overview of the contents of Chican@
Power? Is it appropriate to call it a handbook for making revolution
in the United $tates a reality?
I wouldn’t say - I don’t think it should be used as a handbook for
revolution, which might be what some people might look at it as, but
more as a educational text with which Raza can begin the struggle toward
confirmation from Chican@ gangbangers to Chican@ revolutionaries. And
I’m well aware that maybe not everyone will become a revolutionary in
the strictest sense, but at least to elevate people’s consciousness so
that they know that, you know, first of all that there is a Chican@
nation, that it exists, and it needs to be liberated.
Chican@ Power and the Struggle for Aztlán as a educational tool
will hopefully help Chican@s to not only understand the correct
political lines concerning the liberation of Atzlán but will also help
them become more aware of their true national identity, which lies
outside of the Amerikkkan nation.
Of course the book Chican@ Power also introduces the Chican@
masses to revolutionary science and the revolutionary traditions that
were largely responsible for putting that science to use, most notably
the Soviet and Chinese experiments in socialism.
The book also goes into critiquing various forms of Chican@ nationalism,
which some Chican@s tend to mistake for liberatory ideologies, of
cultural and narrow nationalism, that, when put into practice, actually
lend themselves to supporting oppressive structures such as Amerikan
imperialism.
It features a brief historical synopsis of the Chican@ nation. It also
gets into some more contemporary topics such as Chican@s’ participation
in the democratic process in the United $tates today, as far as speaking
on contemporary presidential candidates. There’s also some book reviews
in there covering a wide variety of aspects of, critiquing the RCP’s
line on the Chican@ nation and other oppressed nations. Some cultural
nationalist reviews in there. Our position on where the Chican@ nation
is right now and where it needs to go in the future. I would say that is
the brief synopsis of what’s in there.
You mentioned the transition from gangbangers to revolutionaries,
that you hope this book will inspire. That’s a path that you are
persynally familiar with. Could you speak on your development from
gangbanger to revolutionary to author?
I really began my little journey like every other Chican@ in here, you
know. I was oblivious to the fact that there was even a Chican@ nation
to begin with. Like most other Chican@s in here, i started off
categorizing myself as a Mexican. I came to prison for anti-people
activity, gangbanging. The first few years i was just kinda trying to
lay low and just stay out of trouble and just – i mean if something came
along on my little journey i would do it, as far as if i would be asked
to do any kind of negative actions. But i think after a few years i
really just became disillusioned with everything. I realized that
everything that i knew or that i thought i knew as a youngster, i mean,
for the most part everything was a lie.
I would say that’s really where my political development probably
started in a sense as far as i knew that i didn’t want this no more. I
knew that this kind of life wasn’t leading anywhere and remembering
bringing pain to my family, bringing pain to others, and i just didn’t
want that anymore. At a certain point i decided that, this is when the
SNY yards first came into being, in the early 2000s. Even though they
were around much longer than that, this is when they really started
being used in the prison system in California. SNY yards stands for
Sensitive Needs Yards, the modern day equivalent to California of
protective custody yards. So for people that can’t walk the mainline,
they end up over here. Everyone just does their own thing, you don’t
gotta follow another man’s orders, as far as another inmate. I think
that was a big part of motivating me to come to this side.
Once on this side, for the first few years, i was all about just doing
me. I wasn’t worried about anybody. Just trying to do my time, and kinda
just take it slow and easy. And i really wasn’t political at all. Until
i believe it was around the time of the invasion of Iraq by the Amerikan
government. And i think that’s around that time that’s when i started
being politicized. And i really just started seeing everything on TV,
seeing the bombing, seeing people dying, seeing the suffering going on
over there. It wasn’t hard to tell why the U.$. was there. And like i
said, i wasn’t political, but at that point, i could at least see that.
So simultaneously, around the same time, i just happened to have a
cellmate who was real real real anti-Amerikan. I wouldn’t say he was a
communist, i would label him as a fan of Mao, and he claimed a mantle of
Mao, and he claimed to be a communist. Up to that point i had never met
anyone like that.
And so through discussions on certain topics, world affairs, politics,
just through watching the news, slowly but surely i kinda started
opening my eyes a little bit more. At some point, he just so happened to
share the Maoist Internationalist Movement ten point program. And when i
first read it, i thought it was a pretty egalitarian program. And all
the stuff on there looked good, you know. I remember reading it and
thinking “man, why can’t all governments, or all people, be on that same
trip?” It seemed like pretty easy stuff to implement. So, why not? And
so then i guess i kinda started asking myself, well, why not?
At that point he introduced me to, i believe he shared with me some old
MIM Notes as well, this is back when MIM Notes were still
being printed out. I liked everything they had to say, i agreed with
everything they had to say and I ended up getting my own subscription.
And around then i believe i wrote MIM, i asked em for some beginner
materials on Marxism. I remember they sent me a pretty complicated book
on Marx, an introduction to his philosophy. Even though i understood
some of it, i didn’t understand a lot of it. And i really struggled a
lot with that text. And i had to read it maybe 3, 4 times over the
period of a few months just to really start absorbing the essence of
what Marx was speaking to.
I was doing that for a minute, i was starting to collect little
so-called revolutionary books here and there. At that time, MIM wrote me
and they invited me to a study group – “On Contradiction” by Mao Zedong.
I kinda just went from there.
I would say the turning point was when i got hooked up with Cipactli,
and i was invited to participate in the Aztlán study group. This was
another first for me, as i had never met or heard anyone that called
themselves a Chican@ revolutionary nationalist. Nor was i aware that
there was such a thing. And basically from working with Cipactli and
struggling with him, as well as with MIM(Prisons), i slowly but surely
came to realize my own mission, which is that of a Chican@ national
liberation struggle for self-determination in alliance with the Third
World communist movement.
I wouldn’t have worked on this project if i thought i’d be doing it a
disservice. In other words i had to first feel comfortable you know from
my own level of political development to have worked on it. Secondly,
and this perhaps a more correct reason for agreeing to work on it was my
realization that i was not a Mexican@, but a Chican@. Therefore, i think
part of my subjective drive in working on this project came more from a
desire of wanting to spread the revolutionary word throughout all Aztlán
as well as the fact that only through a completion of national
liberation struggles can the socialist project ever succeed. And so i
thought i had the tools to contribute to the project, so it’s something
i really thought i needed to do, in order to just do my part to
contribute to the liberation of Aztlán,
The book has been well-received by those who have gotten it, even
though it’s been censored at various prisons across the United $tates.
To prisoners, the book is being sent for free from MIM(Prisons), with
study questions, and they’re coordinating a study group through the
mail, between the readers and the authors. What overall impact do you
think Chican@ Power and the Struggle for Aztlán and the study
group will have on the Chican@ nation?
I think the book and the study group that MIM(Prisons) is doing, I think
it will be the jumping off point for Chican@ lumpen in here, in many
respects. I know there’s probably so many Chican@ masses that subscribe
to Under Lock & Key and they’re probably not all too
politically developed, some are. Some of them are beginning to think
about some of the questions and some of the topics that we touch on in
Chican@ Power and the Struggle for Aztlán. I think that group is gonna
help them understand what we’re really speaking to in the book, which is
Chican@ liberation and self-determination, and the only way to
accomplish this is under a Maoist flag. I think from there we can expect
to see a lot of those same people hopefully continue to study, either
through MIM(Prisons) or through their own organizations, or just on
their own. But i think that’s really where it’s gonna start, as far as
the book coming out.
As far as the project goes, it’s something that’s been a long time
coming, and that should have been done a long time ago. Thankfully
MIM(Prisons) was there to fill that void, where other people were
failing. I mean there’s a few Chican@ organizations that claim to be
revolutionary, or they’re internationalists, or so-called
internationalist organizations and they really just pay a lot of lip
service. They believe writing an article on a certain topic and just
making some kind of statement, you know, that they believe all people
should be free or something, thinking that’s internationalism. But i
think MIM(Prisons) really showed us what internationalism is. Which is
comrades reaching out to each other and helping each other and assisting
each other and helping us build ourselves up. Realizing that many
prisoners, even a lot of revolutionary prisoners, are still i think at
something of a low level of political development, you know, just
because of our own conditions, and I think MIM(Prisons) has done an
excellent job of that.
So as far as the book goes, I think it’s really gonna uplift Aztlán,
it’s gonna help educate people, it’s gonna help educate the Chican@
masses behind prison walls. Because people in general, especially in
prison, are just consumed with bourgeois ideology, you know? It’s just
all about me doing me, making money, and that’s it and fuck everybody
else.
There’s a lot of people, at least from my experience, who read any kind
of revolutionary literature, i think they read it as they read it,
they’re kind of studying it, they’re soaking up ideas, and stuff like
that. But i don’t really think they take the time and really go in-depth
into the text, as with the MIM(Prisons)-run study programs, where
comrades have the opportunity to engage with MIM(Prisons) and with other
comrades and with each other on a variety of questions, you know,
concerning not only prisoners but the international communist movement
as well.
You know, i was completely ignorant to a lot of this stuff until i
started working with MIM(Prisons) and Cipactli. So i really just think
this book is gonna mark a new level of development in Aztlán for the
Chican@ masses. I would hope that in the next coming years we really
begin to see a upsurge in the Chican@ masses in prisons and really, you
know not just getting conscious, but actually building on that
consciousness by organizing.
There’s so many things that i think that could be done in here and i
think as we all know, at least Chican@ prisoners, you know, the key to
peace on the streets is peace in the prisons. And i think for us to have
peace on the streets and for the Chican@ liberation movement to really
begin organizing out there, it has to start in the prisons.
Could you speak more on that relationship, between peace building
behind prison walls and peace on the streets, outside of prison?
Well, i can’t speak for other nationalities, but as far as for the
Chican@ lumpen, for the gangbangers out there, i think a lot of stuff
that goes on the streets is controlled by what goes on in prisons. At
the flip of a switch the lumpen chiefs right here, they could organize a
peace treaty on the streets. I mean they’ve done it before. When i was
out there, you know, everything stopped virtually overnight. From
warring and killing and drive-bys to virtually overnight, hey, that’s
it, we’re done, And that’s the kind of power they have, and i don’t see
no reason why Chican@ revolutionaries can’t have that same power.
Especially when it’s power that’s gonna help the whole of Aztlán, it’s
gonna help all Chican@s out there. First by making peace and unity in
here, it’ll spill out into the streets.
I think we can expect a lot of Chican@ revolutionaries in here to begin
organizing as well, and i think right now there’s really just small
pockets of comrades here and there. You might bump into one person here,
you might bump into another person there, you might go to another yard
or another prison and there’s no one there, you’re the only one there.
And i think as time goes on we’re gonna start seeing a lot more
conscious people stepping up to the plate and deciding that they’re done
with the old ways and they’re gonna begin organizing for Chican@
liberation.
It seems like your move to SNY played a big part in your political
development. Could you speak more on SNY yards, their role and
history?
Concerning the SNY yards, i would say these are for the most part a
creation of CDC [California Department of Corrections], who have
utilized certain methods of warfare such as divide and conquer tactics
against Aztlán, within the prison setting. Initially i believe by both
removing prison leaders from the mainline that knew how to provide
stability and order to the lumpen organizations. As well as by purposely
integrating certain individuals who act in a opposite manner, creating
instability and disorder to a previously quote-unquote “stable”
environment.
I think most people coming from a mainline end up on SNY due to prison
politics. It could be something minor from maybe hanging out with
different nationalities a little too much to something maybe a little
bit more major as in stepping into the prison political arena and
attempting to exert some kind of influence. But i also think a lot of
people, and this is also something i’m starting to see more and more, is
a lot of people are just coming over here just cuz they’re just getting
tired of all the things going on over there. I think a lot of people
come over due to those main factors right there.
So i think, connected to the SNY yards i believe is also partly
connected to the creation of the SHUs [Security Housing Units], because
i mean before the SHUs there were no SNY yards, you know? So i think how
they’re connected is the fact that when CDC started taking certain
leadership off of the yards, it created a power vacuum, where you had
certain individuals having power struggles and things of that nature.
Which, in turn, opened up the door for the SNY yards to be created, for
it to be widened. Because i believe it was maybe only one or two in the
past and like within the last 15 or 20 years it’s becoming the majority
within California prisons.
It’s pretty amazing that this book was authored by a group of people
together through the mail, some of them locked in isolation cells for
years. Could you speak on what that whole experience was like, some
challenges and interesting aspects of that process?
Well, firstly i think working on Chican@ Power and the Struggle for
Aztlán was definitely a learning experience, as far as working on a book
through the mail. You know it seemed like a monumental task at the time,
when i was first invited to participate, but i was also very excited
about it. As far as learning about the various steps it took to actually
write and publish the book, it was a learning experience in that
respect. But more importantly, i think the lessons i learned about were
about my own subjective power and ability to reach out to the Chican@
lumpen behind prison walls.
I think it was the very fact that i’m incarcerated, which allowed me to
write from the imprisoned Chican@ perspective, which is, after all, our
target audience. Therefore i think the fact that i am incarcerated helps
the book carry a certain level of legitimacy amongst the oppressed
Chican@ prison masses. Not because of some supposed notoriety as a
convict or anything like that, but because the Chican@ masses will see
that me and the co-authors are writing both from a perspective very
similar to their own.
I think the only real challenge was just a lack of access to a variety
of research materials. Although MIM(Prisons) did an excellent job of
assisting me, i can’t help but think what more could I have contributed
to this project if I had more access to information, you know, mainly
the internet or at least just more books, just more research material. I
always thought i was lacking in that regard, especially because i think
i was still pretty new to the whole Chican@ national liberation
movement. And so a lot of what i contributed was stuff that I learned
with MIM(Prisons) and through my interactions with Cipactli. I think
that was the only real challenge was a lack of more information.
Finally, what do you see as some of the main challenges to
organizing the prison population?
I don’t think there’s too many Chican@s out there right now that are
really tripping on this whole revolutionary politics or socialism or
anything like that. A lot of Chican@s in here are caught up in the whole
cultural nationalist thing, and they’re more worried about keeping
traditions alive and following our own culture and not letting our
people be absorbed by new Amerikan culture.
From my experience these types of beliefs are most commonly found in the
over-30 crowd in the California prison system. Most of these people have
spent a majority of the sentences on mainline yards. Something that i
have begun to take more note of is that these younger generations of
Chican@ prisoners who have begun to enter the system seem to be more
Amerikanized. And what i mean by this is that many younger generations
seem to not have either the knowledge or the desire to learn about their
culture, which is a oppressed nation’s culture. Many Chican@s these days
seem to identify first and foremost as Amerikans, who, on occasion, will
even spit out certain Amerikan chauvinistic beliefs.
They also don’t understand a lick of Spanish. I think this is
problematic for the Chican@ nation as far as the Spanish language helps
many Chican@s to identify or at least find common ground with other
Raza.
Last but not least, i think today’s Chican@s also seem to be more
consumed by capitalistic society, that is also integral to the white
Amerikan nation and culture. And what i mean by this is that younger
Chican@ prisoners today seem to be more consumed by money than previous
generations.
So the comparison would be that while on the mainline there’s a very
strong sense of unity and cultural identity amongst Chican@s, which
functions in a positive way by introducing imprisoned Chican@s to
various aspects of a national identity outside of Amerika. Whereas on
SNY yard, this function is largely missing. However I think this is
where Chican@ Power and the Struggle for Aztlán will help to fill
some of the voids left by the mainline experience, by introducing or
reintroducing for the very first time aspects of Chican@ culture and
identity which many Chican@s may have previously been ignorant of.
Therefore Chican@ Power and the Struggle for Aztlán will I think
hopefully help to uplift the Chican@ nation, from a Maoist perspective.
Thank you for speaking with us today. We’re so glad to have gotten
the chance to do this interview and talk more about this important book.
Again, the book is Chican@ Power and the Struggle for Aztlán, it’s
written by a MIM(Prisons) study group, and is available at
leftwingbooks.net. Prisoners can get the book for free by writing to
MIM(Prisons) at PO Box 40799, San Francisco, CA 94140. In Struggle! ¡En
Lucha!
After an unfortunate series of group fights between prisoners from rival
lumpen organizations during the month of Black August, and a subsequent
lockdown at the Buckingham Correctional Center on August 25, two
Institutional Gang Investigators (IGIs) descended upon my cell and
subjected me to an intense 30-minute interrogation concerning
confidential information they received that I was allegedly the
mastermind behind a planned September 9 workstrike and was attempting to
organize a Black Panther Party - Prison Chapter. They even accused me of
being a member of a street gang based on a letter I wrote nearly seven
years ago.
When the investigators realized that the interrogation was bearing no
fruit and that I was immune to their intimidation tactics, I was
subjected to further interrogation the following day by L. Leatherwood,
the Chief Investigator for the VA DOC, and a urine test because of a
strong “suspicion” that I was using drugs. I was not at all surprised
when the urine test came back negative because I have been clean for a
decade and am a staunch advocate against illicit drug use, especially
among youth.
The interrogation of a select few other so-called “problem” inmates
continued throughout the weekend, and whatever “evidence” or information
the investigators gained or manufactured, led to my being transfered to
Sussex 2 State Prison, which is an oppressive, super-max type prison
where we are locked down in our cells for most of the day. Controlled
movement and the degradation of those of us confined here is the order
of the day. Unlike Buckingham, which is a hotbed of political activity,
there is virtually no organizing here. No study groups, no agitation, no
resistance. Most have never heard of the September 9 protests. The old
axiom “oppression breeds resistance” has not taken hold of the
prisoners’ minds here.
Though I was shipped off to this camp for political reasons, repression
and retaliation is often a sign that our agitation is truly effective. I
am not in a position to report on the degree to which prisoners at
Buckingham participated in the September 9 protests, but here at Sussex
2 State Prison there was zero participation. But we must continue to
fight and struggle knowing that one day, when the conditions are right,
the flicker will turn into a flame. All power to the people and Panther
power to the Black Riders Liberation Party!