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.
I’m responding to the articles by
comrade
Soso of MIM(Prisons) and the
brother
in Pensylvania in Under Lock & Key 41. This Security
Threat Group (STG) label imposed on religious groups is a clear
violation of established Constitutional law (i.e. freedom to speak and
embrace religion as one chooses). Yet the First Amendment is being
infringed upon daily under the guise that its members are gang bangers
or gang-affiliated.
We gotta wake up because it’s not about “security,” “threats” or
“groups.” These imperialistic individuals are experimenting with tactics
they can employ in an easy, yet draconian, way to violate the
Constitution. Since when has embracing a religious organization become
akin to joining a security threat group!? Do these asinine imbeciles
know the purpose of religion is not only to serve their god, but to
further organize themselves for righteousness!? It’s networking with
others. So where’s the breach of security? Where’s the threat? Where’s
the behavior of an unorganized belligerent group? We don’t need
binoculars to see what’s going on. The picture is clear comrades. These
imperialists are infringing upon a Constitutional right under the
euphemism of “gang activity.”
Look at the
brother
in Florida who wrote in ULK 41 “Fighting STG Label for
Notes on Political History.” Due to possessing notes on political
history which the brother had taken on material he’s been reading in his
pursuit of learning and expanding his brain outside the box, he was
inappropriately labeled STG.
Is the picture becoming clear?
Since when did the Constitution determine what political affiliations
one can embrace and/or learn? Never! Or determine if one can possess
notes on political history? Never! Huey P. Newton and the Black Panther
Party for Self-Defense knew the constitution and not only taught it to
the poor, but also employed it in launching their move to arm themselves
and the people with weapons (Second Amendment) while policing the police
to prevent police brutality on the poor in oppressed communities.
Always remember, comrades, to succeed in any war, it’s our duty to not
only know who we’re fighting, but we’re obligated to have an aim. The
only way we can ever become victorious in war is to know what we’re
fighting for, as our fight cannot be in vain.
MIM(Prisons) responds: This comrade raises some important points
about our battle against unjust gang validations that apply to all our
work fighting oppression. We need to understand the bigger picture of
who we are fighting and why the system of oppression exists if we hope
to do anything more than make small changes. It is the system of
imperialism that puts a few people with power and wealth in charge, and
this system requires various structures to keep it in place. Globally
this is why the imperialists are constantly engaging in wars and
military actions. And in the United $tates this is the reason we have
such a vast criminal injustice system: to control the oppressed nations
and any who speak out against imperialism.
Gang validations are just one part of this broad system of oppression.
Prisons actually help the oppressed to gain consciousness and organize
to the extent that being locked up puts people in a position to clearly
see the system as their enemy, and in general population prisoners can
work together, educate one another, and organize. Validation justifies
isolation which makes it much harder for activist prisoners to spread
information and organize others. By criminalizing lumpen organizing,
they try to legitimize their repression, even to the prisoners
themselves.
We must study history and our current conditions while we fight these
battles against validation and long-term isolation. Through study we
will see that the gang validations are directly connected to the
repression of the power movements of the 1960s, the red scare attacking
communists, and the countless invasions and inteference in other
countries, involving horrible massacres and torture. Today the
oppressors have it harder because they cannot put you in isolation just
because you’re Black or Brown. So the system had to evolve and now we
have gang validation being used to justify extra punishment and torture
across the United $tates.
I was the vice president of an organization called the Long Term
Offenders (LTO) which was making a lot of progress with the people and
producing drastic change within the prison itself. Before my position
with the LTO I was receiving material from numerous groups and
corresponding with multiple movements, but as soon as I got into this
position and the watchdogs saw how the prison as a whole embraced our
platform and supported our cause, which was in the best interest of the
prisoners, the watchdogs began to keep a close eye on us, specifically
on me. I caught wind that the administration was inquiring about me and
I’m sure they received more than a few tips that “he’s radical” or “he’s
always talking about the Panthers,” from their in-house snitches.
The watchdogs began to monitor my calls and mail and saw that I
correspond with a lot of liberation movements which they’ve labeled as
“terrorist” groups. Then they began confiscating our mail (things I’ve
received for years) saying it’s promoting radical ideas about
overthrowing the government which is a “threat to security” and not
allowed.
In August 2014, the Security Threat Group inspection committee summoned
me to their office inquiring about the Black Panther Party and Maoist
material MIM(Prisons) sent me. I explained to them that I’m a
facilitator, therefore I have an obligation to be well versed on a
multitude of subjects. Because they weren’t satisfied with my response,
they stripped me of my clothes and examined my tattoos. They falsely
labeled me as a “Blood” because of a crown I have on top of the word
“King.” They knew they needed something to justify any further action
they choose to take on me, and by me being labeled as a gang member,
that’s all they need.
On 3 September 2014, I was placed in the hole under investigation
because they confiscated the article I wrote for you all in another Ohio
prison. They assumed it was me because of the content, but there were no
names written or printed to confirm their allegations. The day they
chose to label me falsely, they drew their weapons and aimed to kill
mentally and physically, but I will not die a slave, I will live long as
a revolutionary.
The watchdogs from Ohio’s Department of Rehabilitation Center came to
pay me a visit in the hole, hoping to scare me into submission by
throwing threats about how they’d send me to another state if I kept
“teaching/reading that bullshit” and they also claimed I was on the FBI
terrorist watchlist because of my affiliation with “anti-government”
groups.
After 2.5 months in the hole they transferred me again, claiming I was a
“threat to the order of operations.” I’ve been here almost a month and
have already started where I left off and have begun building the
movement! There are a lot of street tribes here (Bloods and Crips) but
few know they come from the Black Liberation Movements (BLM) or their
original goals and purposes. I need to be able to reach these cats on
that level so if possible could you send me materials on gang history
and their connection to the BLM. When I was in the hole, the watchdogs
confiscated all my reading material so I need you to help me recuperate
from my losses.
MIM(Prisons) responds: This comrade is experiencing the
repression that so many prison (and street) organizers face when they
start to become effective in educating and organizing the people for
revolutionary change. This was the focus of our last issue of Under
Lock & Key. As this example demonstrates, the gang validation
system is a tool of repression. It often has nothing to do with the
gangs they claim are security threats or with preventing crime or
violence. This is because they are not allowed to throw you in the hole
just for being Black anymore. The liberal left demands that the tools of
oppression must evolve for those in power to stay in power under
imperialism.
We condemn gang validations and long-term isolation aggressively because
they are two of the biggest weapons being used against the imprisoned
lumpen. And both of these weapons are contradictory to the principles of
this country’s founding documents. The government want to fool the
public into thinking prisoners are criminals and that is why they are
being treated this way. But this repression is directly related to how
the state handled the BLM of the 1960s and 70s, and to how they handle
oppressed people fighting for basic rights all over the world. It is all
about maintaining the imperialist system, where a minority prospers.
Building a united front within prisons is not easy to do. It is a
struggle that ebbs and flows. Sometimes one can be in a facility or yard
where this work is easy and other times it may seem impossible. Like
everything else in life that benefits the people, it is challenging to
say the least. But the United Front for Peace in Prisons is a goal that
is within our ability to obtain so we must make it happen.
As prisoners of the state we are all imprisoned by the same ruling
class, so in that sense we are all on the same oppressed side in the
U.S. dungeons. The class oppressors who construct these torture
facilities are the real enemies. Amerikkka is what has had us, our
parents, grandparents and ancestors colonized for so many years. It is
the source of all our oppression. No prisoner should be in the dark when
it comes to the true identity of oppressed people around the globe. In
the world there are two sides, the enemies and us; everything else is
trivial and must be ironed out.
Prisoners are not the only ones who struggle with understanding this
elementary factor. Mao advised us of these two sides by saying:
“Who are our enemies? Who are our friends? This is a question of the
first importance for the revolution. The basic reason why all previous
revolutionary struggles in China achieved so little was their failure to
unite with real friends in order to attack real enemies. A revolutionary
party is the guide of the masses, and no revolution ever succeeds when
the revolutionary party leads them astray. To ensure that we will
definitely achieve success in our revolution and will not lead the
masses astray, we must pay attention to uniting with our real friends in
order to attack our real enemies. To distinguish real friends from real
enemies, we must make a general analysis of the economic status of the
various classes in Chinese society and of their respective attitudes
towards the revolution.”(1)
Mao described the conditions surrounding the Chinese revolution, yet
like most lessons in Maoism, we can learn and apply them to our
situation here in U.S. prisons. Our “revolution” at this time is
transforming our environment and oppressive conditions, and bettering
our way of life in these dungeons. But in order to do this we need to
know our enemies from our friends. In our case, prisoners are our
friends and the state is our enemy. The United Front for Peace in
Prisons manifests our understanding of our friends and enemies in the
material world.
How do we spread peace in prisons?
MIM(Prisons) and United Struggle from Within created the United Front
for Peace in Prisons as a basis for spreading peace. Although they
provided the framework which later led to the peace accords that have
spread within California prisons, they simply presented it to us
prisoners with the understanding that it would depend on us to find a
way to put this theory into practice. But peace cannot come from words
alone. Growing peace in these hot houses will not arrive miraculously,
it must be fertilized and fed, cultivated and harvested. That means
revolutionary prisoners need to put in work for peace and get our hands
dirty, stick them in the dirt and put our back into it.
Many times peace in prison is spread through people-to-people
interactions. Creating relations with prisoners outside our nation and
outside our circles or collectives helps spread peace. This builds
bridges of communication with others. Of course peace should first be
created amongst one’s own circles, because it’s hard to spread peace
with other groups if you don’t have peace amongst those closest to you.
Ensuring that peace takes root is largely dependent on educating the
people. So many do not even know who their real enemy is and this is
because political educators are in short supply within prisons. Passing
someone a book is not the same as discussing what is in that book after
the persyn has read it.
Peace means that people get used to the idea of us having the same
captor and facing the same monster. People need to look at the big
picture. When we look at the big picture and our young homies are taught
to look at the big picture it alleviates many of the petty squabbles
that are bound to arise in an intense prison environment.
Building peace really comes down to working together in ways which
tackle our horrible conditions. As leaders, we can organize appeal
events, spread information and publications on prison struggles, and
help others who may need a helping hand whether it’s a bar of soap, a
stamped envelope or something to eat. Do what you can to help your
fellow prisoner. Peace means thinking of other prisoners and extending
humynity to one another.
What are the challenges of spreading peace?
We are deprived of peace by internal and external factors, and there are
many things that get in our way. Sometimes those who are uneducated act
or react in ways which are not conducive to propelling their own
struggles forward. These behaviors often result from a colonial
mentality which has been embedded in so many minds for so many
generations.
So there is a combination of challenges which prevent peace. One main
obstacle is of course that the state opposes peace, as a Georgia
prisoner said in ULK 36:
“As of now, most of the leaders and the more influential
participants are locked down in Ad-Seg and I don’t find this a
coincidence. The pigs hate the idea of us uniting in peace and not
killing each other.”(2)
This writer was describing a very real process of repression where those
prisoners who are most influential and conscious and who have the
ability and sway to enact peace are the very ones locked down in
solitary confinement. This is a common tactic of the state. COINTELPRO
used the same method, which we can study in books like FBI Files of
Malcolm X, War Against the Panthers, and Agents of
Repression, to name a few. Those who can electrify the movement or
their people are targeted to be neutralized. Neutralizing something or
someone means putting it out of commission, which can include death,
prison or solitary.
The state creates these obstructions by watching the imprisoned
captives, and when leaders arrive to a yard they kidnap them so that
peace cannot be realized. They leave knuckleheads to create chaos
because chaos between the captives means our captors can keep repressing
us. Peace between the captives means the oppressor is in trouble.
Another challenge that we face is concealed in the crypto-Toms. These
are the Uncle Toms of all nationalities who secretly work for the state,
either in alerting the state when the masses are attempting to struggle
against repression or in sabotaging peace efforts by stirring shit up
and sparking crimes between prisoners. These inter-oppressed wars help
strengthen the state, while setting back prisoner struggles by forcing
us to spend years attempting to repair this chaos.
We should learn to identify these crypto-Toms who work for the pigs
rather than for their nation. It’s not just those who kick off
anti-peace bullshit, but also those who partake in Tom language by
spreading the ideas of anti-peace who are obstructionists.
Peace in California has been pushed by those who have been doing time
for decades. It was not just a spontaneous event; this had been talked
about for years. Building a united front for peace against a common
enemy is the most logical action between any oppressed peoples anywhere
in the world.
How should we proceed?
Peace between prisoners should not just be something that we read about
or something prison intellectuals write about. Peace should be something
that we live in our everyday lives. Individualism threatens peace the
most because individualism keeps us blind to those who threaten peace
(“it doesn’t affect me, so i don’t care”). We can only change our
conditions for the better by struggling together.
The first step is in having the ability to think outside of ourselves
and to realize what is best for us, our people, and our future homies
that will be filling up these cells. Peace does not mean we have the
same beliefs, it just means that we have the understanding that people
with different beliefs do have shared interests and that the oppression
that I face is faced by all U.$. prisoners in various forms by the same
captor whose face changes from prison to prison, but whose actions for
the most part do not.
They get mad at my thoughts But how can they get mad at the way I
think? When they’ve placed me in this environment to do just
this To think about the choices To think about the decisions To
think about the past To think about the mistakes To think about
the consequences To think about life To think about death! My
thoughts seem too radical They seem too harsh They seem
insensitive But they don’t seem fake Because they are
real Because my reality is real I think about the joy I think
about the happiness I think about the love I think about the
pain I think about the coldness I think about the hurt Because
I was left alone to think. Can’t cry because it hurts too
much Can’t laugh because it ain’t funny Can’t talk because I don’t
trust nobody to listen So what do I do? The only thing I’m used to
doing, think Think about the future Think about the plans Think
about revenge Don’t be mad because this is what you wanted You
wanted me to think But it didn’t turn out like you wanted Because
you created a smart, calculating righteous monster And its all your
fault Because you didn’t think Of all the possibilities That
came with thinking!
I am a prisoner activist within the Colorado Department of
Corrections, which sees me as a difficult, dangerous individual, and
isolates and represses me in a police-style unit. Within the United
States there is a response to prisoner activism of repression by prison
administrators. This repression may involve some type of physical clash
between prison staff and/or their prisoner stooges, and a prisoner
activist. I put this forth as a counter to your point explicitly
discouraging prisoners from engaging in any violence, as this position
is not based on the reality of prisoner activism in U.$. prisons.
Prisoner activism here typically takes the form of formal institutional
advocacy. Yet white supremacy, capitalism, and imperialism have never
reformed themselves. And the struggle against these forms of oppression
is a struggle for survival and self-defense. The prisoner activist
struggle in the United States is a struggle against genocide.
MIM(Prisons) and its publications explicitly oppose the use of armed
struggle at this time in the imperialist countries (including the united
states). But this is not based on the reality of prisoner activism in
this country, where there is an ongoing protracted intractable race and
class conflict. I look to Under Lock & Key for guidance in
my individual/personal prisoner activism.
MIM(Prisons) responds: This writer sets a good example of working
with us in unity around prison struggles while debating our
disagreements on questions of strategy. In this case the disagreement
comes down to a question of the stage of struggle. We believe that
violence will be necessary to overthrow imperialism, because, as this
comrade says, “white supremacy, capitalism and imperialism have never
reformed themselves.” We will need to dismantle imperialism forcefully;
those in power won’t just step down peacefully.
But we can also see through many historic examples that revolutionaries
who took up armed struggle too soon were quickly repressed, killed
and/or imprisoned, and many times the movements lost more ground than
they gained. We call this premature armed struggle “focoism,” because it
generally fails to first gain the support of the masses and build a
strong revolutionary party and base. However, it is also possible for
communist parties to make strategic errors in taking up armed struggle
too soon before conditions are ready.
In prison we aren’t really talking about taking up a military battle,
but the analogy to violent engagement before conditions are ready is
applicable in a general way. We see that prisoners who are quick to
engage with their fists/weapons, end up in isolation, beaten, or even
killed. These engagements don’t generally win anything except possibly
the respect of peers with whom the person no longer has contact.
This doesn’t mean we tell prisoners to lie down and take abuse. Every
situation is different and we can’t possibly judge what each individual
is facing and how they need to respond to survive. We can say that many
people write to MIM(Prisons) talking about how they used to resort to
their fists first and now they use their pen and voice and are much more
effective with this new approach to fighting repression. It takes
patience and discipline to make this change, and it’s not easy when
faced with both pigs and their lackeys provoking and even attacking.
Rather than debate the appropriate response to each dangerous situation,
the broader point is agreement on our strategic stage of struggle, and
the reality that we can’t win a military/violent battle right now. We
just don’t have the strength yet. And so we need all of our comrades to
stay alive and out of solitary to engage in education and organizing.
“The lumpen has no choice but to manifest its rebellion in the
university of the streets. It’s very important to recognize that the
streets belong to the lumpen, and that it is in the streets that lumpen
will make their rebellion.” - On the Ideology of the Black Panther
Party, Eldridge Cleaver 1970
The recent killing of two New York City (NYC) cops must be viewed as a
conscious act of war taking place within the context of national
oppression, just as the killing of Eric Garner and countless others from
the oppressed internal nations of New Afrika, Aztlán and the various
First Nations at the hands of filthy pigs were and will continue to be
acts of war that the police wage against the oppressed for the dominant
white nation known as Amerika. Yet if we listen to the politicians we
hear them desperately trying to switch the narrative of these killings
as having nothing to do with the wave of recent protests currently being
directed against police brutality and police repression since the murder
of Michael Brown in Missouri on 9 August 2014. Instead they tell us that
these killings are the result of a depraved criminal element who the
police have all along been trying to protect us from.
In a recent public address NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio declared the deaths
of these pigs to be “an attack on all of us” and asked that protesters
put their demonstrations on hold as it was now time to “move forward and
heal divisions.” Others, including the pigs themselves, have called on
protestors to “tone down their language.” One reactionary on a CNN
roundtable even went so far as to categorize the killing of those cops
as “an attack on the very heart of democracy and the people that uphold
that democracy”! And that is a very funny statement to make as i
could’ve sworn that the heart of democracy lies with the people and not
with the special bodies of armed men. Instead of democracy we have power
arising from society which places itself above the people and becomes
more and more alienated from them. These arms of the state have been
tasked with managing the irreconcilability of both national and class
antagonisms.
But why are the politicians so anxious to stop the masses from making
the connection between the state-sanctioned murders of Eric Garner (and
others) and NYC pigs? Because they know that context is everything
regardless of what the pigs, the politicians or any other member of the
liberal and conservative white media have to say. The killing of those
pigs was carried out by a subjective revolutionary force outside of an
objective revolutionary scenario. Therefore, the lesson for us to take
away from this is that the killing of those two cops was undoubtedly
political, just as sure as all prisoners are political.
Does this however mean that we support such a strategy of attacking the
existing power structure absent a revolutionary situation? No, because
that is not an effective way of advancing the needs of the oppressed,
nor does it advance our own revolutionary agenda. What is for sure,
however, is that the death of two of NYC’s “finest” is sure to be used
as another pretext to round up and spy on political activists as well as
to further clamp down on “crime” in the big rotten apple, which directly
translates into more repression for the lumpen.
In The Correct Handling of a Revolution by Dr. Huey P. Newton,
Minister of Defense for the Black Panther Party, Newton hit on the
correct methods of both leadership and struggle within the New Afrikan
community of his time. This analysis still holds good today and
revolutionaries from the oppressed nations should take note:
The vanguard party must provide leadership for the people. It must
teach the correct strategic methods of prolonged resistance through
literature and activities. If the activities of the party are respected
by the people, the people will follow the example. This is the primary
job of the party. …
There are basically three ways one can learn: through study, through
observation, and through actual experience. The Black community is
basically composed of activists. The community learned through activity,
either through observation of or participation in the activity. To study
and learn is good but the actual experience is the best means of
learning. The party must engage in activities that will teach the
people. The Black community is basically not a reading community.
Therefore it is very significant that the vanguard group first be
activists. Without this knowledge of the Black community one could not
gain the fundamental knowledge of the Black revolution in racist
America.
While leaving out some focoist rhetoric characteristic of the BPP which
we fundamentally disagree with, this excerpt is part of the most correct
aspect of the mass line and how we relate to the masses on a day-to-day
and strategic level. V.I. Lenin, leader of the first socialist state,
the Soviet Union, from 1917-1924, dealt with one aspect of the
lumpen-proletariat in his time quite relevant at the present moment –
their tendency to engage in spontaneous and disorganized armed struggle
against the state and in “expropriation” of private property. Lenin
vehemently condemned those Bolsheviks who disassociated themselves from
this by proudly and smugly declaring that they themselves were not
anarchists, thieves or robbers. He attacked “the usual appraisal” (2)
which saw this struggle as merely “anarchism, Blanquism, the old
terrorism, the act of individuals isolated from the masses, which
demoralize the workers, repel wide strata of the population, disorganize
the movement and injure the revolution.”(3) Lenin drew the following
keen lessons from the disorganized period of this struggle:
“It is not these actions which disorganize the movement, but the
weakness of a party which is incapable of taking such actions under its
control. The Bolsheviks (communists) must organize these spontaneous
acts and must train and prepare their organizations to be really able to
act as a belligerent side which does not miss a single opportunity of
inflicting damage on the enemy’s forces.”(4)
In short, it’s not necessarily that we disagree with the actions of
Ismaaiyl Brinsley, rather his timing was off. It is exactly these types
of actions by the oppressed nation lumpen which make them both the hope
of the liberation movements of the internal semi-colonies, as well as
the potential spearhead of the oppressed nations against a rising
fascist threat here in the United $tates. In the end it doesn’t matter
whether these pigs wear cameras or not. What matters is how we respond,
as that is the difference between liberation and more repression.
The decision not to try the pig in Ferguson, Missouri for the killing of
Mike Brown has set the people off, and rightly so. It is a broken record
of this injustice system and its real intention.
When i woke up and turned on the news that first morning and saw the
reaction to the courts not charging the killer cop i was glad that the
people were expressing their dissatisfaction with this system. i say
this system because it is really this system that upholds the ability of
the state to keep on slaughtering the people.
Then i saw that same killer cop in an interview and he straight up says
that he regrets nothing. He is content with shooting a young man in the
face and head who was simply resisting being murdered, resisting the
killer. He was the face of Amerikkka and he offered a real portrait of
what Amerikkka is all about.
The neighborhood that Mike Brown was murdered in was like the
neighborhoods that prisoners come from, it is where most poor people in
the United $tates come from. This is what we experience when we interact
with the state.
There is no excuse for what is occurring in the poor people’s streets.
It is a never ending fusillade of despair unleashed on oppressed people.
And yet we still have so many prisoners who are oblivious to what is
occurring, even though it is occurring in their streets. It’s almost
like folks have blinders on and do not see what is occurring all around
them, not once or twice but daily throughout the United $tates.
Prisoners need to connect the dots and realize that what occurs out in
those streets does pertain to you because these are your people out
there being slaughtered, this is a one sided war that needs to be turned
around. The uprising in Furguson is a response to this and it’s a good
response but people need to respond in so many different ways in order
to declare that these killer cops must stop slaughtering the people.
MIM(Prisons) adds: We join this comrade’s call for more uprisings
like in Ferguson. The people have a right to be outraged at the system
of national oppression in the United $tates. And we must call out this
system clearly for what it is: there is not just a mass of generic poor
people in this country, the poor are disproportionately concentrated in
the oppressed nations. These groups, New Afrikans, Chican@s, First
Nations, along with national minorities like Mexican@s, live in a
country where their neighborhoods are occupied by the imperialist police
force and where they can face death for the crime of walking down the
street.
Connecting the dots for prisoners includes recognizing that it is the
same criminal injustice system that locks up oppressed nations that is
killing people in the streets. The cops, the courts, and the prisons are
all part of this same systematic social control. And so prisoner’s
protesting abuses behind the bars are a part of the larger struggle
against imperialism on the streets. We must make these connections and
keep in mind the broader goals while we fight against day-to-day
oppression behind bars.
Uno de los aspectos más dañinos en las prisiones de EE.UU. hoy en día
son las unidades de control. Unidades de control y aislamiento solitario
son las armas más grandes en su torturante arsenal. Llaman a las
unidades de control SHU, SMU, CMU y varios otros nombres dependiendo en
que estado está uno, pero todos trabajan para emplear tortura a los
capturados retenidos.
Cuando miramos a la historia del sistema de prisiones de EE.UU.
encontramos que las naciones oprimidas siempre han sufrido mucho adentro
de ellas. Presos en los Estados Unidos han sufrido trabajo sin pago,
linchamiento, golpizas, fustigaciones y asesinatos por mencionar
algunos. Aunque mucho de esto continúa - a veces más ocultado y cubierto
que en el pasado - hay otros métodos nuevos de opresión nacional que se
están usando en esta nueva era de dominación amerikana. Yo sospecho que
pos-Obama (supuestamente llamada “pos-racial Amerikkka”) seguiremos
viendo más de estas formas ocultadas de opresión que infligen el mismo
daño, pero que vuelan bajo del radar del ciudadano común del primer
mundo. Esto hace sentir cálidos y cómodos a los liberales y les permite
creer que el “progreso” es obtenible en el centro imperialista.
un tal método empleado contra los presos en calabozos americanos es el
uso de unidades de control. La unidad de control es una cámara de
tortura moderna, pero no se puede anunciar como matador letal de mentes
negras y morenas porque los liberales podrían alzar sus narices a
semejante revelación. En su lugar, al público se le dice que las
unidades de control solo se usan contra los incorregibles, salvajes,
extranjeros, pandilleros o los terroristas sensacionalizados.
¿Quiénes Están Encerrados en las Unidades de Control?
Como a nuestros ancéstros a quien se les habrá preguntado cual fue la
razón por las cadenas en los tobillos, la marca de su dueño en la cara,
o el lazo en su pescuezo, nuestra respuesta, como la de ellos es que les
nace a los abusadores buscar la forma de limitar todos los rebeldes y
revolucionarios que se oponen a la opresión nacional. Últimamente, esto
es lo que logra a uno caer en la unidad de control.
Por supuesto que estamos luchando en contra de una nación opresiva
sofisticada y poner presos en unidades de control está envuelto en
idioma florido. Nos dicen que es por “actividad pandillera” o “amenaza a
la seguridad y bienestar de la institución.” A veces hasta me dicen que
estoy “activamente comprometido en una conspiración criminal que amenaza
la institución, personal y otros presos.” Para la mente no entrenada,
esto puede sonar como justificación para tortura. Este asesinato de
carácter no solamente en falso, pero nada justifica tortura.
¡Absolutamente nada!
Fue solo después que empecé a escribir artículos que alzaban las voces
de los presos y empecé a hacer apelaciones y demandas por los presos que
me apuntaron para meterme en “la unidad de vivienda segura” o el SHU (en
ingles). En breve, cuando comencé a resistir la represión del estado fue
cuando fui aislado incomunicado. Antes de esto, me permitían cometer
crímenes menores y pelear contra otros presos, hasta que empecé hacerme
políticamente consciente. No estoy solo.
La mayoría que trabajan para avanzar y organizar su nación, levantar la
voz por otros, o que se ocupan en ser abogados presidiarios irá a una
unidad de control. Esta práctica es común en la sociedad colonizada: Los
que resisten y tienen influencia política serán encerrados bajo un
opresor colonial.
¿Por Qué el Estado Tiene un Proceso de Validación?
Nuestro opresor debe inventar formas de meternos en unidades de control,
y en California se usa el proceso de validación. El proceso de
validación intenta prestar un aire legal a la tortura y opresión
nacional alegando que aplican un proceso justo y sin prejuicio para
validar alguien como un “afiliado de pandilla.” Decir que este proceso
no tiene prejuicio, es como decir que dejar al zorro que cuide la
gallinera no tiene prejuicio.
El hecho que el proceso de validación sigue usando cosas tan ridículas
como una tarject de cumpleaños, un dibujo Azteca, o un libro escrito por
George Jackson como evidencia de actividad de pandilla comprueba que no
hay nada justo o sin prejuicio de este proceso de validación. Los casos
del tribunal que supuestamente pararon a la prisión de usar estos
artículos demuestra el fracaso que es el sistema de injusticia y como es
una extensión de el estado. Nuestras victorias nunca vendrán del
tribunal del tribunal del “amo de esclavo.”
El sistema de validación ayuda pacificar los presos con el pensamiento
que hay un proceso legítimo que están llevando para parar la tortura.
Que de una forma u otra con paciencia y obedeciéndolos, podríamos salir
del SHU. Claro que esto es absurdo. Nos vamos a quedar en el SHU hasta
que nuestro opresor sienta que no vamos a poner resistencia, hasta que
sientan que nos quebraron. A veces quieren entrenar a sus agentes y
tratan de capturar a todos se asocia con nosotros en la línea central,
como si fuéramos carnada. Pero mientras sigamos resistiendo su opresión,
no nos dejaran asociarnos libremente con la otra gente. El proceso de
validación solo funciona para continuar nuestra opresión nacional.
El Proceso de Renunciación es Más Opresión
Cuando vamos al comité en los SHUs de California, nos dan una forma con
el titulo “aviso de expectativas del CDCR.” Esta forma da una lista de
supuesto comportamiento de los STGs que incluye entre otras cosas
“participación en ejercicios de groupos STGs, usando gestos, saludos de
mano, posesión de arte con símbolos STG.” Tengan aviso que no nos
informan cuales son los símbolos STG.
Básicamente, no podemos socializarnos con nadie, porque nos pueden
acusar de comportamiento STG. No nos dicen quienes están validados como
partes de los STGs ni tampoco nos dan ninguna información de lo que es
comportamiento STG. Simplemente nos dicen que no debemos asociarnos con
STGs o participar en su comportamiento. El estado decidirá si nos
estamos comportando propiamente y permitidos a proceder en el programa
de renunciación. Suponen que ellos son los expertos.
He escuchado que han puesto en este “programa de renunciación” algunos,
pero el estado esta escogiendo selectivamente a quienes coloca en este
programa. En mi opinión es un programa de pacificación y no voy a
participar en el. La participación disfraza la opresión de el estado, a
la misma vez les permite a ellos tratar de forzarnos a hacernos
culpables, de confesar culpabilidad, aunque sea ser culpable de lo que
ellos juzgan tener pensamientos incorrectos.
Noticias recientes de una demanda de clase civil federal que disputa
pólizas y condiciones en el SHU de Pelican Bay son bienvenidas y algo
que todos deberiamos seguir. Ashker et al. v. Governor of California et
al., No C 09-05796 dice que el ser sometido a más de 10 años en el SHU
es cruel e inusual castido y que el proceso de validación es una
violación al debido proceso.(1) Pero aquí esta el culatazo: Si has
participado en el Step Down Program (Programa de Rununciacion) tu no
estás incluido en esta acción civil. Entonces ya estamos viendo como el
nuevo programa de renunciación está sirviendo al estado, haciendo más
difícil para que los presos puedan disputar sus condiciones.
Mi comportamiento no es más incorrecto hoy que el primer día que me
capturaron y me encerraron en el SHU. El estado no me va a soltar del
gancho y no voy a renunciar mi resistencia contra la opresión. El
proceso de renunciación continúa la misma opresión que el proceso de
validación empezó; atenta justificar lo que ellos le hacen a las
naciones oprimidas.
¿Que Terminara la Validación/Programa de Renunciación?
El programa de renunciación no solamente es casi igual al proceso de
validación, pero aquí en California muchas prisiones siguen usando ambos
métodos, por eso necesitamos acabar con los dos.
Desde el principio vi la necesidad luchar para que cierren el SHU>
Desde la primera huelga de hambre yo supe que si no se cierra el SHU
completamente, el estado nos tendrá peleando el mismo problema bajo
nuevos nombres por décadas via pleitos legales y huelgas. Esto nunca nos
logrará a nuestra meta. Necesitamos mantener todas las justificaciones
para el uso de encerramiento solitario en nuestro mira. No importan la
razón porque alguien este en encerramiento aislado, siempre será
tortura, y siempre debería ser opuesto.
A la misma vez hemos hecho mejoramientos a las vidas de muchos presos y
algunos hasta han salido del SHU y por esto estoy feliz. Como sea,
programas de renunciación y validación nos van a seguir teniendo presos
hasta que consigamos hacer que la resistencia a la opresión sea una cosa
común y corriente. Cuando huelgas de hambre ocurran más de una vez cada
diez años, y protestas pacíficas pasen con más frecuencia que una
limpieza general, aun talvez entonces acabaremos con los programas de
renunciación y validación.
MIM(Prisiones) agrega: La mayoría de los civiles dirían que controlar la
violencia pandillera es algo bueno, y esa perspectiva es exactamente lo
que el departamento de correcciones y rehabilitación de California
(CDCR) depende para implementar sus programas de validación pandillera y
programa de renunciación que asumen que todo grupo clasificado como
pandilla se ocupan en actividades criminales y cualquiera en contacto
con la pandilla tiene que ser miembro.
Vamos a dejar de lado la realidad que el ejército Amerikano y la fuerza
policiaca es la pandilla más grande en la historia del mundo. Si hay
alguien organizado en actividad criminal y terrorismo son ellos. Que
cualquier agencia Amerikana reclame estar contra actividad pandillera
sin criticarse a ellos mismos es una broma. Las entidades identificadas
como pandillas por el CDCR incluyen grupos de estudio de correspondencia
como el William L. Nolen Mentorship Program. En Texas, Bajo Clavo y
Llave es citado como un grupo de amenaza contra la seguridad, a pesar de
ser un periódico. El Centro Nacional de Investigación Criminal
Pandillera publicó un reporte que incluyó al Movimiento
Internacionalista Maoista como una potencial amenaza a la seguridad de
las prisiones. Es obvio que el título de pandilla no lo usan para
razones criminales, sino más por razones políticas.
Varias organizaciones cuales no son necesariamente revolucionarias
también están apuntadas como pandillas, sea que rompan leyes amerikanas
o no. La verdadera amenaza no son las actividades en que los grupos se
comprometen, sino el nivel de organización y unidad que muestran.
Títulos de STG y programas de renunciación criminalizan la asociación,
no el crimen en realidad.
El gobierno amerikano hará todo lo posible para proteger su hegemonía
internacional. Controlar cualquier población subversiva entre sus
bordes, especialmente sus semi-colonias internas, es alta prioridad, sin
importarle como lo disfrazan con títulos elegantes y procesos
administrativos.
Marcus Garvey: Black Nationalist Leader by Mary Lawler Holloway
House Books 1990
I had the chance to borrow this book from a New Afrikan prisoner in
order to check out this cat who many believe to have been a main
influence to the Black liberation struggle of the 20th century. One
thing that stood out is almost every other page had a photograph,
including everything from Jamaican slaves, “race riots,” the klan and
Malcolm X.
This book traces the life of Marcus Garvey from his birth on August 17,
1887 in Saint Ann’s Bay, Jamaica. Out of 11 brothers and sisters, only
he and a sister lived past childhood. His stonemason father was known to
be a voracious reader and well respected in the village; his mother was
a farmer who sold what she grew along with baked goods to contribute to
the family. Early on the family owned several properties, but after
legal disputes the family was left with the single property they lived
in.
Garvey’s father was what Lawler described as “A descendant of the
maroons, escaped Jamaican slaves who banded together during the 17th and
18th centuries to fight the island’s British colonial rulers.”(p. 23)
Garvey descended from a line of anti-colonial struggle. The British
slaves killed off all the indigenous Arawak natives and then kidnapped
Africans and used them as slave labor in their plantations all over
Jamaica. Garvey’s relatives were among those who resisted the oppressor.
Because of his father’s profession and his family being landowners,
Garvey was educated in public school as well as by tutors, and took
advantage of his father’s private library which was well stocked with
books, newspapers, and magazines. This was at a time when most Black
people in Jamaica received little to no education. At the age of 15
Garvey went on to work as a printer’s apprentice, and by age 20 he was a
master printer, a skill which he would put to use later in his
propaganda efforts.
Garvey became politicized after moving to Kingston and seeing the
inequality and oppression of Blacks. It was in Kingston where he joined
his first workers’ strike at the print shop where he worked to protest
low wages. At age 22 Garvey joined a group called the “National Club”
that strove for better treatment of Blacks and agitated against British
colonialism. He immediately began working on the national club’s organ
Our Own, which led him to launch his own publication called
Garvey’s Watchman. Garvey’s Watchman didn’t last very
long, but made clear his real purpose and increased his interest in
political organizing.
With big plans and little money Garvey became a migrant worker and set
off for Costa Rica in 1910. Garvey’s thoughts were on Blacks in Jamaica,
but in Costa Rica he saw horrible treatment of Black workers in his
first job for United Fruit. United Fruit is a U.$.-controlled company
that has long wreaked havoc on Latin America. It has left a bloody trail
in its support of brutal dictators while ensuring workers’ rights are
silenced with often deadly results.
The book explains how Garvey’s first job at a banana plantation quickly
led him to fight for workers, even launching a newspaper called La
Nacionale (The National) that expressed workers’ rights.
It wasn’t too effective as most of the workers were illiterate, so these
efforts did not get very far.
After traveling to several Latin American nations and returning to
Jamaica, at age 23, Garvey set sail to England. In England, he again
faced poor work conditions and discrimination. Garvey finally realized
that everywhere he went, regardless of the country, Blacks experienced
oppression. In England he attended college where he met other Blacks who
promoted Pan-Africanism. The Pan-African Movement was created in the
1800s. This was a time when British colonialism held many Black nations
as colonies and the Pan-African movement sought to create Black nations
that were governed by Blacks. The idea was to take Africa back for
Africans.
In 1913 Garvey began work for Duse Mohammed Ali, publisher of
African Times which promoted the rights of Black people. This,
Lawler explains, allowed Garvey to mingle with the movers and shakers of
the Pan-African movement, as most of them wrote for African
Times.
The author writes that after reading Booker T. Washington’s book Up
From Slavery Garvey “found his purpose.” Washington was a known
integrationist who believed Black people should not protest racism, and
instead that eventually the white nation would accept Black people. Many
of the more progressive Black leaders of this period denounced Booker T.
as an Uncle Tom.
In this book we read about Garvey creating the Universal Negro
Improvement Association (UNIA) in 1914. UNIA was to work to unite and
improve Jamaican Black people’s socio-economic conditions while
promoting the anti-colonial struggles of Africa.
The author states about Garvey, “Like Booker T. Washington, he believed
that until the Black workers became committed to self improvement, they
would be looked down upon by whites.”(p. 57)
The author implies that Black people can work within the oppressor
nation’s systems, and claims this will resolve racism from the
oppressor. This system of thinking misses identifying the root of one’s
oppression. To blame the oppressed is to be an apologist for the
oppressor nation and this thinking will never lead to the liberation
that Garvey was lookiing for.
I also found it surprising that Garvey seemed to rely on religion as a
savior. For instance, the author quotes Garvey as speaking on what
helped to better himself, “Nobody helped me toward that objective except
my own mind and God’s good will.”(p. 59) Garvey was also known to
organize religious meetings as the author reminds us. The book suffers
in that the author offers many quotes from Garvey and others but gives
no footnotes as to where these quotes are coming from; this makes many
of the quotes seem suspect.
In 1916 Garvey arrived in Amerika and found in Harlem a more receptive
audience to UNIA than in Jamaica where UNIA only gained under 100
members and financially was unable to launch any independent
institutions.
Garvey soon helped form a New York chapter of UNIA along with a
newspaper Negro World, which served as UNIA’s platform. The
UNIA’s motto was “One God, One Aim, One Destiny,” thus it was steeped in
a metaphysical approach about what would free Black people.
In 1919 Garvey founded a shipping company called “Black Star Line.” This
was created with the intent to obtain Black “economic independence.”
Garvey said, with regard to the Black Star line, “Our economic condition
seems, to a great extent, to affect our general status… be not deceived
wealth is strength, wealth is power, wealth is justice, is liberty, is
real human rights.”(p. 112) Spoken like a true capitalist.
It becomes apparent in this book that Garvey believed Black capitalism
would liberate Black people from the hardships he had witnessed
worldwide. He believed creating and then monopolizing on “Black
industries,” UNIA could supply Black people with furniture and other
goods in South and Central America, as well as the West Indies and
beyond. Garvey encouraged all Black people to invest in UNIA as a step
toward liberating themselves from racism.
In 1922 Garvey was arrested for mail fraud in soliciting investors for
the Black Star Line which had begun to lose business as ships were lost
and investors became suspicious. Garvey was convicted and sent to prison
for a couple of years. Upon release he was deported back to Jamaica
where he attempted to rebuild UNIA. After poor results he moved back to
England to start up a UNIA chapter and it was during this time that a
rift was created between the New York chapter and Garvey himself, which
helped to tarnish UNIA more. Garvey died in England on June 10, 1940 at
age 53. Although he died in poverty his death would bring him a renewed
notoriety in Jamaica and worldwide.
Throughout the book neither socialism nor communism was mentioned once!
I found this odd as this was a time when Russia had just been liberated
under Lenin’s leadership, but then Garvey was not a socialist. Without
socialism a people will continue to be oppressed even if governed by
one’s own people. The masses of people will simply be people oppressed
by their own bourgeoisie. This is bourgeois nationalism, or as Huey
Newton coined it, pork chop nationalism. Revolutionary nationalism which
install socialism once a nation is liberated, thus ensuring the
bourgeois and other capitalist roaders do not get the chance to derail
the revolution.
Garvey did leave a lasting impression on the Black nation in Amerika.
Malcolm X’s father was a Garveyite so Malcolm obviously grew up in
Garvey thought. On the end it can be said Garvey helped to develop more
progressive thought than his own. This book is worth reading as a basic
intro to Marcus Garvey’s political work, but it is important to note it
does not include Garvey’s own writings. Those researching the historical
development of New Afrikans will find some value in this book.