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.
Due to another prisoner’s actions who I correspond with regularly, I am
being accused of ordering a hit on a prisoner “In an effort to further
my position and recruiting purposes in security threat group (STG)
activity.” In fighting my supermax placement, I was able to get them to
admit that the letter they are using as evidence was written in code. So
they have no way of understanding what is really talked about in this
letter. I went to the extreme of giving them some STG codes to show them
that no hit was made on anyone’s life and that they are making this out
to be something that it isn’t. This led to me being given another
conduct report for possession of STG related material.
Following the advice from an older prisoner, I started using the
grievance process to help fight my case instead of going the way of my
past and becoming aggressive. This led to more harassment including cell
searches in which conduct reports and grievances that I filled came up
missing, making it seem as if I am making all this shit up!
I have been threatened with supermax placement since the day I got off
this bus. Last year I was given 3 months in segregation over an incident
where I was defending myself against another prisoner who attempted to
stab me, and he was given less than a month. I was told that this was
due to the fact that I had to have done something to provoke this
individual! It’s crazy. I used to read about other prisoners complaining
of this kind of treatment and I’m ashamed to say that I used to doubt
them and think that there had to be more to the story until I found
myself facing the same set of circumstances.
Though I am a member of the United Blood Nation (UBN), I am not a gang
member. To many that is hard to understand, but to explain it quickly, I
feel that gang members rep colors and are more focused on ignorance. I
am not concerned with the colors a person wears, the organization to
which they belong or any of that. I am a freedom fighter. I stand for a
cause. I read, study and follow the ideology of the Black liberation
movements of the past. I encourage not only my young komrades but people
who I associate and deal with to find knowledge of self and to study,
build and to better themselves. I am no angel and don’t claim to be. I
still have a lot of work to do but I’m moving at a righteous pace and
setting the tone and paving the way for the masses to follow in a
meaningful and constructive manner.
MIM(Prisons) responds: It is interesting that the very method the
prison uses for social control, targeting specific prisoners for
segregation and other punishments, results in raising the political
consciousness of those targeted. Experiencing this repression firsthand
leads some who were entrenched in the lumpen mentality of fighting other
prisoners to recognize the criminal injustice system is the common
enemy.
This is an example of the dialectical relationship between repression
and liberation, and is true in all historical eras and oppressive
conditions – oppression breeds resistance. Repression of prisoners in
the United $tates is one cog in the imperialist machine that condemns
people all over the world for the benefit of the oppressor nations. Even
though our struggle can seem overwhelming at times, we can have
strategic confidence in our inevitable international victory over
capitalism and all its devastating consequences. So long as oppressed
people are being politicized and educated on the common enemy, from
prisons in the United $tates to the mountains in Nepal, we will overcome
our common enemy and finally be allowed to eat and sleep in peace. The
more the imperialists oppress people, the more people can be drawn in to
revolutionary activism.
We hope others will take an example from this comrade and work as
freedom fighters to educate and organize others. How quickly and easily
we achieve victory depends on how much political work we do today.
Mail the petition to your loved ones and comrades inside who are
experiencing issues with their grievance procedure. Send them extra
copies to share! For more info on this campaign, click
here.
Prisoners should send a copy of the signed petition to each of the
addresses listed on the petition, and below. Supporters should send
letters on behalf of prisoners.
Secretary of Corrections Landon State Office Building 900 Jackson,
4th Floor Topeka, KS 66612
United States Department of Justice - Civil Rights Division Special
Litigation Section 950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, PHB Washington,
D.C. 20530
Office of Inspector General HOTLINE P.O. Box 9778 Arlington,
Virginia 22219
And send MIM(Prisons) copies of any responses you receive!
MIM(Prisons), USW PO Box 40799 San Francisco, CA 94140
Mail the petition to your loved ones and comrades inside who are
experiencing issues with their grievance procedure. Send them extra
copies to share! For more info on this campaign, click
here.
Prisoners should send a copy of the signed petition to each of the
addresses listed on the petition, and below. Supporters should send
letters on behalf of prisoners.
Officer of General Counsel PO Box 21787 Columbia SC 29221-1787
United States Department of Justice - Civil Rights Division Special
Litigation Section 950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, PHB Washington,
D.C. 20530
Office of Inspector General HOTLINE P.O. Box 9778 Arlington,
Virginia 22219
And send MIM(Prisons) copies of any responses you receive!
MIM(Prisons), USW PO Box 40799 San Francisco, CA 94140
I’ve been doing follow up on your letter of 10 September 2014 to the
Publications Review Committee [regarding the inclusion of MIM
publications on the Master Disapproved list]. So far I’ve discovered
three different Disapproved Publications Lists. To clear up the
confusion I wrote to the law library requesting the most recent list.
Instead of receiving the list, I was instructed to obtain the list from
the pod librarian. I attempted to do so, but the pod librarian has only
the Disapproved Books List and not the Disapproved Periodicals List. Of
course, MIM Theory and ULK are on the latter, not the
former. I’ve submitted yet another request for the Disapproved
Periodicals List. If I am not given the list this time, I will initiate
the grievance.
In your response to Lou Cei you indicate that he states MIM
Theory and ULK have been disapproved for reasons other
than the reasons on the Disapproved List I sent to you. Lou Cei also
states that 5 of the MIM Theories are on the list as approved for inmate
purchase.
I have located a Disapproved List that is dated March 2014. This is not
the most recent updated list. It does have 4 MIM Theories listed as
approved and 3 MIM Theories listed as disapproved. But here is the
problem: the rows and columns of the chart are not in agreement. For
example, the publication titled “Mermaids” shows an author “Elijah
Muhammad” but on the row directly below is the book “Message to the
Black Man in America” showing as author “C. Gatewood.” Obviously the
column listing the author’s names is out of sync with the column listing
titles. So it then becomes impossible to know if the column that lists
the approval status is correct. For instance, Mermaids is disapproved
but Message to the Black Man is approved.
Since I’m unable to have the list photocopied I copied pertinent
portions by hand:
MIM Dist. Level 1 Study Group Disapproved MIM Theory 2&3
Approved MIM Theory 4 Approved MIM Theory 11 Disapproved MIM
Theory 13 Disapproved MIM Theory 9 Previously Disapproved MIM
Theory 5 Diet for a Small Red Planet Approved MIM Theory M. Baalbaki
Approved Under Lock & Key #37 Disapproved Under Lock & Key
Feb. 2011 Disapproved Under Lock & Key #15 Disapproved Under
Lock & Key #27 Disapproved Under Lock & Key July/Aug 2013
Disapproved Under Lock & Key #25 Disapproved Under Lock &
Key #37 Disapproved Under Lock & Key #37 Disapproved Under
Lock & Key #20 Disapproved Under Lock & Key #26
Disapproved Under Lock & Key #23 Disapproved Under Lock &
Key #36 Disapproved Under Lock & Key #28 Disapproved
To further muddy the waters, this list shows certain publications that
are approved whereas the other lists show only those publications that
have been disapproved.
MIM(Prisons) adds: This is a good example of the difficulties we
encounter trying to appeal censorship in Amerikan prisons. We are often
given incomplete or incorrect information, when we can get the prisons
to respond to our protest letters at all. And prisoners trying to do the
work to gather policies and lists in order to file the appropriate
grievances are given the run around and denied necessary information. In
spite of this, we do win censorship battles through perseverance. This
comrade is doing the hard work of fighting on h end, and so we will
continue to support this battle with letters of protest of our own. We
encourage all prisoners whose mail is denied to follow up and file
grievances. And let us know what’s going on and what steps you are
taking so we can support your fight from our end.
Censorship is nothing more than an attempt by the prisons to keep us
from raising the level of education and political consciousness of
prisoners. Material that educates and organizes is disapproved, often as
a “threat to the security of the institution,” while material that
pacifies (the bible, pop culture magazines and fiction novels) is
allowed in. Politically we are opposed to the U.$. prison system; the
revolution we are fighting for to overthrow imperialism will put an end
to the criminal injustice system in the United $tates. But this is a
political question, which our bourgeois democracy deems illegal for
government agencies to repress discussion of. The practical question of
whether literature sent to prisoners by MIM Distributors is a threat to
the institutional safety and security is clearly answered in the
negative, as we know that prisoners who get involved with political
organizing are less likely to engage in violent conflicts with other
prisoners and with the prison staff.
In August 2014, in response to I$rael’s renewed attacks on Palestinians
in the Gaza Strip, United Struggle from Within (USW) drafted and began
circulating a petition denouncing the imperialist genocide of the people
of Palestine. The petition draws connections to the oppressed nations
suffering in the United $tates, and in particular recognized the support
Palestinian prisoners gave to the
California
hunger strikers. While this round of bombing by I$rael was over
before most could even return their signed petitions, the damage is
still being felt and the imperialist occupation of Palestine continues.
“According to the United Nations, 100,000 homes have been destroyed or
damaged, leaving 600,000 Palestinians – nearly one in three of Gaza’s
population – homeless or in urgent need of humanitarian help. Roads,
schools and the electricity plant to power water and sewerage systems
are in ruins.”(1)
In addition, the Cairo agreement to “rebuild” Gaza after I$rael
bombed it to pieces, will be managed by none other than I$rael, who will
ensure that all the money goes into the pockets of I$raeli construction
companies.(1) The democratically elected government of Palestine, led by
Hamas, will be deprived of any oversight of this process, as they are
further isolated with Egypt closing off the border with Gaza to the
south.
It is not too late to rally in support of the Palestinian struggle! As
of the beginning of November, USW comrades have gathered over 60
signatures to this petition in at least seven different prisons.
Signatures are still coming in and a number of comrades have reported to
still be working on collecting signatures in their latest
communications.
While the numbers may not be overly impressive, to date only 17 of those
comrades originally sent the petition have even reported receiving it.
One Texas comrade who gathered 9 signatures reported doing so despite
the prison being on lockdown (no one being able to leave their cells)
and the recent cut off of fishing (sending notes between cells by
string). At least one comrade could not get any other signatures due to
the risk of political repression as a validated “gang member” in the
control unit where he is held. It is no coincidence that many of our
most active and politically conscious comrades find themselves in such
conditions.(2)
This campaign to support the people of Palestine is significant in that
it is the first USW-initiated campaign around an issue not related to
the immediate conditions of prisoners themselves since MIM(Prisons) has
been around. The campaign was launched without a lot of preparation, and
despite the inherent limitations imposed on those in prison, we got good
participation. As one California comrade recently reported, the petition
was a tool for outreach that
led
to many political dialogues and lessons learned that will contribute
to the building of the anti-imperialist movement in U.$. prisons. Their
efforts to collect signatures reached beyond just those who signed the
petition.
The need for these types of agitational campaigns is one of the lessons
that we can take away from this experience. The barriers among much of
the prison population to supporting the Palestinians’ right to survival
are built on a combination of Amerikan patriotism, misinformation and
apathy. However, to sum up the reports we have received, we’d say that
fear of repression is the number one barrier being faced, which is a
problem USW faces with all its campaigns. One comrade reported setbacks
due to fears around hysteria surrounding the Islamic State.
A number of comrades reported not being able to get any signatures yet,
and one wrote from California:
“My focus thus far has been on the socially conscious Muslim prisoners,
whom I guessed would be the most willing out of everyone to sign the
petition. But I’m starting to see more and more that the overwhelming
majority in Amerikkka just ain’t willing to take a stand against these
racist imperialist idiots in no way shape or form. Not one of the
Muslims, out of the around 25 prisoners I approached, would sign the
thing. The excuses ranged from, ‘We need to worry about fixing ’home’
first…’ to just flat out ‘The Jews have too much control in this country
for me to sign some paper and get on their shit list.’ … so far
everybody but me has been too scared to sign it.”
A few weeks later this comrade submitted h petition with 25 signatures.
This fear of signing is a common problem in prisons where all mail is
read and punishment for activism can be severe. A comrade in Colorado
wrote:
“I read the last issue of ULK and I want to say that the U.S. policy
against Palestine has long been underrepresented and ignored. Amerikkka
is telling the people of Gaza and Lebanon that it will allow Israel to
murder and justify it in the name of ‘peace.’ I feel that the greatest
threat to world peace is the U.S. foreign policy. As prisoners we all
should stand with the people of Gaza and their right to self-defense and
self-determination. Progress is being made here as far as the petition
goes. Many are in solidarity against amerikkkan imperialism as it stands
with Israel yet many are afraid to sign.”
One letter from Virginia described the difficulty promoting
internationalism:
“I have been having trouble convincing prisoners here to sign the
Palestine USW petition. The fear of institutional retaliation keeps a
majority of them from involving themselves in any type of radical
struggles or demonstrations. Compounding the problem is the fact they
cannot grasp the concept of ‘internationalism.’ The dominant question
was, ‘what do the Palestinians have to do with me?’ I tried as hard as I
could to convince them that all struggles against imperialism abroad are
a reflection of the non-ruling class struggles here in the Empire. So
please do not construe the lack of signatures as an indicator of my lack
of organizing skills.”
This question of “what the Palestinian struggle has to do with me” is a
manifestation of the relative wealth and privilege of Amerikans as a
whole. In reality the Palestinian struggle is counter to the material
interests of the petty bourgeois majority in the United $tates which
enjoys a supply of cheap gas ensured by Amerikan military presence in
the Middle East. Like the struggle of oppressed people around the world,
the Palestinian people’s fight for national liberation threatens
Amerikan imperialism and its ability to control and exploit the labor of
Third World peoples. Any successful revolt against Amerikan imperialism
and its allies/puppets (such as I$rael) will destabilize that power and
may inspire others.
But when building public opinion with the lumpen in prison we can at
least draw some connections to national oppression within U.$. borders
and the national oppression of Palestinians. One researcher has claimed
that Palestinians are the most imprisoned people in the world, based on
the percentage who have been in prison (the United $tates is still #1 in
the number of prisoners it holds at one time). New Afrikans and the
original inhabitants on North America are potential rivals for this
title. In both places, the dominant nation, with the weapons and wealth,
is denying the oppressed nations independence and self-determination.
And the cause of the Palestinian people is allied with the cause of
oppressed nations everywhere in the world; the common enemy is
imperialism.
Another persyn wrote about some more reactionary responses to h attempts
to collect signatures.
“I attempt to discuss issues raised by MIM, but I’m completely lacking
in knowledge. For example, prisoners here state that the Palestinians
deserve the bombing because Hamas fired rockets into Israel. They say
the land of Israel is not occupied by foreigners – that it belongs to
Jews. They (prisoners here – a large number) say that there has never
been a nation called ‘Palestine’ and that the people who today label
themselves ‘Palestinians’ are simply Arabs mostly from the Trans Jordan
area. So what is the correct response?”
These positions raise the important question of how we define a nation.
Stalin gave us guidance on this point, describing a nation as a group of
people with a common language, culture, territory and economy (which is
different than a nation-state). The Palestinian people certainly meet
these requirements. Nations can arise and fall over time, as humynity
evolves and conditions change. While I$rael has evolved into a nation
today, Stalin was correct to argue that there was no Jewish nation in
his day. It was only after WWII and a mass migration of Europeans to
Palestine, and the genocide that cleared the previous inhabitants of
that land, that I$rael began its formation.
As for the question of Hamas firing rockets into I$rael, this certainly
has happened. And we uphold the right of people to defend themselves.
This is simply a question of incorrect facts. The Palestinian people are
righteously defending themselves against a much more powerful oppressor
who is constantly threatening their lives and taking over more of their
land. A cursory study of history shows who is the agressor in this
conflict. Even numbers from the end of July on this recent battle
demonstrate this: while I$rael reported 56 deaths (53 soldiers), in the
Gaza Strip 1,170 had been killed, many of them civilians in their
homes.(3) For those who are serious about studying the history of
Palestine and I$rael we can offer reading material, but for those who
just want to support the imperialists and accept their lies and
propaganda, it’s probably best to just move on and look elsewhere for
supporters. Let them eat their Thanksgiving turkeys and celebrate the
superiority of Europeans over the indigenous people of the lands they
occupy and destroy.
I’m currently in a lockdown unit in Georgia called Special Management
Unit (SMU). It’s a separate building outside the diagnostic prison in
Jackson, GA. The conditions at the SMU are like the control units in
other states. The E-wing is a 24-hour lockdown unit. You have to stay on
this wing at least 90 days. We never come out of the cells for anything
on this wing. No yard call or recreation and we have shower heads in the
walls.
Most cells here at the SMU are very dirty and have mold growing on the
walls from the condensation that builds up in the closed-in area while
showering. The cells never get cleaned out and they don’t give us bleach
or any cleaning rags to wipe the walls and toilet down. They expect us
to use what we wash with I guess.
We have no kitchen here so the food comes from across the street; trays
are always cold and usually really small. We only eat twice on Friday,
Saturday, and Sunday. We are not allowed books in E-wing or our personal
property. We also don’t have library or any aids to help on legal work.
All we have is a guy from across the street who will bring us two cases
a week, which really limits the access we have and is not much help.
They are not acknowledging the grievances about the yard call and the
unsanitary living conditions, and I’ve never even received a receipt
back. We have been trying to file a class action suit but no one will
represent us or take the case, and no one here will assist us. It’s hard
time that should be against the law.
MIM(Prisons) responds: We have heard a lot lately from Georgia
comrades in various control units like this SMU. And this has inspired
some work on the Georgia grievance campagn to demand our grievances be
addressed. We build campaigns like this one to expose the conditions
behind bars and provide tools for prisoners to fight for improvements in
conditions. But we know that even if we win some small improvements, the
criminal injustice system will remain as a tool for social control.
Grievances alone will not fundamentally alter this system. Our job is to
educate and organize, to build a broader anti-imperialist movement that
can take on the Amerikan system that needs prisons for social control.
We are organizing those the imperialists wants to control.
Dear MIM and all my brothers and sisters bonded by the ink of our pens.
We must continue to fight for United Struggle from Within.
I have just initiated my discovery phase in my civil suit against the
Warden on this plantation and its incompetent medical staff. I’m located
at a level 5 security here in Georgia and as I read ULK I see
that we are all faced with this new and improved SHU system. Same game,
different name.
I’m on the Tier 2 program, a step down program which is a 260-day
program, and I’ve been here 13 months today because I was caught with 2
cell phones. I’ve experienced medical neglect, deliberate indifference
and cruel and unusual punishment for being caught with contraband.
I encourage the use of the grievance system but we all know it is
worthless. Every grievance is denied without due investigation. I
personally started a petition against the grievance system here for the
inmates in SHU/Tier 2 which I’ve sent to MIM(Prisons) and joined the
grievance campaign in my state.
I wrote this for exposure and to encourage all the readers here in
Georgia to petition against your grievance system.
MIM(Prisons) responds: We now have a grievance petition for the
state of Georgia, thanks to this comrade’s work. Write to MIM(Prisons)
for a copy of this petition to demand your grievances are addressed in
Georgia.
I want to speak up about the Security Threat Group (STG) program in the
Georgia prison system. They claim it’s for gang members and people who
pose a great risk to the system. Their validations are done based on
hate and color and where you are from. The people in charge are
validating prisoners who pose no threat to the system.
There is a group of prisoners in the Georgia prison system called the
Goodfellas. They have their way of living just like any other
brotherhood. But they’re from the Atlanta area and the prison officials
hate them and label them a security threat to the prison. Every other
group can come to the Tier 2 program and go back to the main compound
after doing 9 months in a cell. But these brothers who are Goodfellas
can’t get out and are forced to repeat these Tier 2 programs even after
they have completed the program.
These young brothers are under great stress. They have been on lockdown
for over 4 years with some going on 5 years. It’s unfair and the prison
will label anybody to keep them locked down.
Free all Goodfellas! Stop the madness and bigotry in the state of
Georgia!
MIM(Prisons) adds: We’ve heard from others in Georgia about this
arbitrary labeling of prisoners as
Goodfellas
and the use of the tier 2 program for long term punishment and
isolation. It is worth pointing out that in the face of all this
repression, and
reports
of thousands of prisoners in Georgia now being held in control
units, we are seeing ever increasing levels of activism and organization
in that state. We call on all prisoners in Georgia, whether you’re part
of a lumpen organization or not, to step up and get involved. With the
rising tide of activism we have a chance to unite and make some serious
progress, not just on small reforms that will make a few people’s time a
little better, but also on building the unity and political education
necessary for a long term movement that can take on the criminal
injustice system as a part of the anti-imperialist fight. Organizations
in Georgia should join the
United Front
for Peace in Prisons.
“Mao’s conviction that Chinese culture was a great perhaps a unique
historical achievement strengthened his sentiment of national pride. On
the other hand, his explicit aim was to enrich Marxism with ideas and
values drawn from the nation’s past, and thereby render it more potent
as an agent of revolutionary transformation, and ultimately
wersternization, not to replace it with some kind of neo-traditionalism
in Marxist dress.” - Stuart Schram
The sinifaction of Marxism is the adaptation and application of Marxism
to Chinese conditions. That was the beginning of Mao Zedong thought, and
that was the basis upon which Mao Zedong sought to not only liberate
China from feudalist, comprador and imperialist control, but upon which
he advanced Marxism-Leninism to the third and most advanced stage of
revolutionary science. When traditional Marxists who saw no
revolutionary potential past Europe and Amerika regarded Mao as “a mere
peasant chief with little knowledge of Marxism”, what they were really
expressing was their doubt in the Chinese peoples’ ability to wage class
struggle because they were supposedly “backward” and hence uncivilized,
even though Chinese society goes back thousands of years. When Japanese
imperialism landed in China, renamed it Manchuria and claimed it as
their own, Mao challenged and successfully annihilated that claim.
National liberation for self-determination, that is what Mao correctly
perceived as his hystoric task to push China forward in the Chinese
peoples’ struggle for national dignity. That was Mao’s hystoric duty as
a revolutionary. What will ours be? For revolutionary-nationalists from
the Chican@ nation it is the adaptation and application of Maoism to
Chican@ conditions.
“In essence, sinifaction involved for Mao three dimensions or aspects:
communication, conditions and culture. The first of these is the
clearest and least controversial. In calling for a new and vital Chinese
style and manner, pleasing to the eye and to the ear of the Chinese
common people, Mao was making the valid but previously neglected point,
that if Marxism is to be understood and accepted by any non-European
country it must be presented in language which is intelligible to them
and in terms relevant to their own problems. But how, in Mao’s view, was
the reception of Marxism in China determined by mentality (or culture),
and experience (or concrete circumstances)? Above all, how were both the
culture of the Chinese people, and the conditions in which they lived,
to be shaped by the new revolutionary power set up in 1949? … Mao sought
to define and follow a Chinese road to socialism. In pursuing this aim,
he unquestionably took Marxism as his guide…as well as seeking
inspiration, as he had advocated in 1938, from the lessons and the
values of Chinese history.”
The adaptation and application of Maoism to Chican@ conditions therefore
does not at all negate our hystory or reality, rather it affirms it and
demands that we are reckoned with. Mao said that Marxism is a general
truth with universal application and the science of practice which has
now been summed up in hystory proved him right. So now that we know the
power of revolutionary science that is Marxism-Leniinism-Maoism works,
the question moved from what form of struggle does Chican@ national
liberation take, to how do we begin to implement it? How do we adapt and
apply Maoism to prison conditions, and then how do we apply this new
understanding to the barrio. What does a Chican@ communist vanguard
organization look like behind prison walls? What does it look like on
the street?
These are all questions that can only be asked and answered by Chican@s
in the process of the struggle.
The Chican@ nation is currently at a critical juncture in its extensive
hystory. We are beginning to reach a point in which we will either cast
our lot with the rest of Latin America, wage our struggle for national
liberation and stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the Third World, or we
will perish along with imperialism. As before, so today the choice is
ours. Will we continue to send our sons and daughters to die in the
periphery for a flag and land that isn’t theirs, or will we prime them
to fight imperialism and liberate Aztlán? We have the revolutionary
imperative. Patria o muerte!
The Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM) needs more activists focused
on gender. MIM had a rich history in work around gender. Today a
gender-focused MIM cell could do a lot to advance the struggle in the
First World. For the majority of people in the richest countries, class
is not an issue that will gain us much traction. But these leisure
societies, dominated by gender oppressors, are concerned with the realm
of leisure time where there are battles to be fought. Yet almost no one
is drawing hard lines in the gender struggle today. Even some who give
lip service to the need to divide the oppressor nations maintain a class
reductionist line that prevents them from taking up revolutionary
positions on gender.
Importance of the Gender Aristocracy
MIM sketched out the gender hierarchy as shown in the diagram below,
with biological males above biological females, but with the whole First
World far above the whole Third World. The line between men (gender
oppressors) and wimmin (gender oppressed) is between Third World
biological males (bio-males) and Third World bio-females. In this
simplified model, the Third World is majority wimmin and the whole world
is majority men.(1)
Near the top we see a small portion of the bio-females in the world are
men of relatively high gender privilege. The term gender aristocracy was
coined to account for this group of people who are often viewed as part
of the gender oppressed, but are actually allied with the patriarchy.
MIM line distinguishes class and gender as class being defined by the
relations of production and distribution, and gender defined as
relations during leisure time. Largely due to their class position, the
petty bourgeoisie, which makes up the vast majority in the First World,
have a lot of leisure time and our culture in the United $tates is
therefore very leisure oriented. Many of the things that are prominent
and important in the lives of the gender aristocracy are not so for the
majority of the world.
While MIM got a lot of push back on the labor aristocracy line, this
came mostly from the dogmatic white nationalist left. The average
Amerikan didn’t get upset until MIM criticized their video games and
explained how all sex is rape. These are things that are very important
to the lives and pleasure of the imperialist country petty bourgeoisie.
Knowing this is helpful in our agitational work. Our principal task
overall is to create public opinion and independent institutions of the
oppressed to seize power. In the First World, dominated by the oppressor
nations and oppressor gender, this requires dividing the oppressor in an
effort to break off allies. Even if we can’t recruit whole segments of
the oppressor groups, dividing them over issues of importance to the
proletariat is a useful strategy.
While we say First World people are men in the gender hierarchy, unlike
economic exploitation, anyone can be the target of gender oppression.
Even First World bio-males are raped or killed for reasons related to
gender and leisure time. This does not make them of the oppressed
gender, but it does make such extreme forms of gender oppression a
reality in the lives of the First World. In addition, the exploiter
classes can benefit from the labor of others without ever having to use
force themselves to extract that value, yet gender relations are
something we all experience. As a result, even in the First World some
people come to see the negative aspects of the patriarchy, with or
without first-hand experience of extreme gender oppression, because of
the very persynal and alienating emotional experiences they have.
A small minority in the First World will join the proletarian forces due
to their own experiences with gender oppression. So it is important for
there to be an alternative to the pro-patriarchy Liberalism of the
gender aristocracy as a way to split off sections of the gender-obsessed
leisure class. Below we take on one example of the gender aristocracy
line in an effort to reassert an alternative.
Comments on the LLCO
We are using an article posted by the Leading Light Communist
Organization (LLCO) as an example below. But before getting into the
theoretical debate, we feel compelled to address the unprincipled
approach of this organization. The article in question demonstrates a
pattern
of nihilism and bad-mouthing by LLCO that is akin to wrecking work.
LLCO was born in a struggle to separate itself from MIM, which had
recently dissolved. Two of the main ways they did this was by
bad-mouthing MIM and dividing on gender. The gender divide amounts to
nihilism because they tear down the advances MIM made in building a
materialist line on gender, but put nothing in its place but the Liberal
pseudo-feminism of the past. Humyn knowledge and theory is always
advancing; to tear down advanced ideas without replacing them with
better ones is reactionary.
In the piece in question one of the logical fallacies they use is ad
hominem attacks on people who acknowledge that all sex is rape by
using meaningless buzzwords. Even worse, they go on to claim that those
that take this position might be crazy and out of touch. This is a
common attack used by the imperialists to ostracize radical thinkers. It
is not a productive way to engage a developed political line that has
been clearly spelled out for over two decades.
“All Sex is Rape” Needs a Comeback
Where LLCO actually engages the theory of whether all sex is rape under
the patriarchy, we get a typical critique:
“Setting the bar for what counts as consent impossibly high obliterates
the distinction between, for example, a wife initiating sex on her
husband’s birthday and the case of a masked man with a knife at a girl’s
throat forcing sex. To set the bar so high is completely at odds with
what most people think, including rape victims themselves. Most victims
themselves intuitively recognize the difference between consensual sex
and rape.”(2)
This is completely backwards. We do not have a problem of the masses
confusing a womyn being compelled to have sex with a man because the
patriarchal society tells her that is her duty on his birthday, and a
womyn being compelled to have sex with a man because he is holding a
knife to her throat and threatening to kill her. Rather, we have a
problem of people not understanding that we need a revolutionary
overthrow of patriarchy and a subsequent upheaval and reeducation of
current humyn relations in order to end rape in both cases.
Furthermore, it is Liberalism to rely on the subjective “i’ll know it
when i see it” argument to define rape. This is exactly what MIM argued
against when developing their line on gender. When an Amerikan judge
hears a case of rape charged against a New Afrikan male by a white
female, we can accurately predict the outcome of the judge’s
“intuition.” When the roles are reversed, so is the
verdict.
And we only pick that as an easy example; we don’t have to involve
nation at all. It is quite common for Amerikan females to admit to
themselves that they had been raped, months or years after the incident.
What it takes is a social process, where rape is defined in a way that
matches her experience. This social definition changes through time and
space. And those who recognize this tend to gravitate towards the MIM
line on rape.
The gender aristocracy is very concerned with distinguishing between
rape and good sex, because good sex is the premise of their very
existence as gender oppressors. For the gender aristocracy the bio-male
provides safe/respectful good sex and the bio-female provides good sex
in the form of a respectable/chaste partner. “Good sex” helps to
distinguish and justify the existence of the gender aristocracy. Good
sex is also a central source of pleasure for the gender aristocracy, to
which they have very strong emotional attachments.
But the opponents to the MIM line on rape cannot explain away power
differentials that are inherent in the patriarchy. They have no
appropriate label for the sex that a womyn has with a man because she
feels trapped in her marriage and unable to leave because of financial
dependence. Or for the sex a womyn has with her girlfriend who is also
her professor and in control of her grade at University. Or for the sex
that a prisoner has with another prisoner because he needs the
protection he knows he will get from someone who is physically stronger
and respected. There are clear elements of power in all of these
relationships. These are pretty obvious examples, but it’s impossible to
have a sexual relationship in capitalism under the patriarchy that does
not have power differences, whether they be economic, physical, social,
work, academic or some other aspect of power. This is not something we
can just work around to create perfectly equal relationships, because
our relationships don’t exist outside of a social context.
One assumption of our critics is that rape cannot be pleasurable to both
parties. We disagree with this definition of rape, and believe that
power play is very tied up with pleasure in leisure time, to the point
that a coercive sex act can be pleasurable to all involved. We expect
this is more common among the gender privileged.
Punishing Rapists
Another theme throughout the LLCO piece is the question of how we are
going to determine who the “rapists” are that need to be punished if we
are all rapists? This is combined with taking offense at being
implicitly called a rapist.
The gender aristocracy cares about labeling and punishing rapists,
again, because it distinguishes their good sex from others’ bad sex. It
is an exertion of their gender privilege. That is why most people in
prison for rape in the United $tates are bio-males from the oppressed
nations, and the dominant discussions about rape in the imperialist
media are about places like India, Iraq, Mali or Nigeria.
LLCO accuses our line of discrediting anti-rape activists. MIM has been
discrediting pseudo-feminism in the form of rape crisis centers for
decades. Amerikan anti-rape activists take up the very line that we are
critiquing, so this is almost a tautological critique by LLCO. Even in
regards to struggles initiated by Third World wimmin, they are often
corralled into a Liberal approach to gender oppression when not in the
context of a strong proletarian movement. The imperialist media and
those pseudo-feminists pushing an agenda of “international sisterhood”
help make sure of this. This is an example of gender oppression and
enforcing the patriarchy across borders using the gender aristocracy to
sell it to the oppressed.
In general, we are not interested in finding the “real rapists” as we
don’t believe there is such a thing. Rape is a product of patriarchy –
that is the essence of our line that all sex is rape. Imprisoning,
beating or killing rapists will not reduce gender oppression in the
context of a patriarchal society. Yet this is the only solution that is
even vaguely implied in LLCO’s critique.
Of course there are those who take the logic of the patriarchy to the
extreme, just as there are those who take the logic of capitalism to the
extreme. And we agree that under the dictatorship of the proletariat the
masses will pick out these unreformable enemies for serious punishment.
Yet, the majority of people who took up practices of capitalism or of
the patriarchy will be reformed. This does not mean these people never
exploited, stole from or sexually coerced another persyn before.
Today is another story. We adamantly oppose the criminal injustice
system as a tool for policing sexual practices, just as we oppose it in
general as a tool of social control to protect imperialism and the
patriarchy. Therefore we find this desire to identify rapists to be a
reactionary one.
Pushing for Gender Suicide
The problem with the ideology of the gender aristocracy is that their
attachment to “happy sex” and the importance that most of them put on it
will put them at odds with revolutionary attacks on the patriarchy. This
is the practical side of “all sex is rape” as a tool to defang the
gender aristocracy who will side with the imperialists on gender alone.
If our critics get sad when we question the consensualness of their sex
that is a good thing, because it challenges their attachments to the
status quo. Truly radical changes must take place in our sex lives, our
gender relations and our leisure time in general. The less resistance
there is to this the better.
The Liberal argument is that by policing individual behaviors you can
avoid being raped or raping someone else. This is just factually untrue.
Yes, we need to transform the way people interact as part of the
overthrow of patriarchy, but because gender relations operate at a group
level, policing individual behaviors alone is just another form of
lifestyle politics.
Just as all Amerikans must come to terms with their status as
exploiters, and must view themselves as reforming criminals, gender
oppressors must come to terms with the ever-presence of rape in the
behaviors that they get much subjective pleasure from. Until they do,
they will not be able to take on or genuinely interact with a
proletarian line on gender.