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.
During their August 2013 Board Meeting, the Texa$ Board of Criminal
(in)Justice approved a revision to the Texas Department of Criminal
Justice (TDCJ) Correspondence Rules. The rules came into effect with no
warning on October 1, 2013.
This new revision restricts indigent prisoners to 5 one-ounce domestic
letters per month. It also removed all references to the first 60 days a
prisoner is indigent – essentially allowing the TDCJ to collect
“indigent debt” indefinitely. The previous policy allowed 5 letters per
week and only allowed TDCJ to recoup amounts expended during the first
60 days a prisoner is indigent. This revised policy clearly violates the
First and Fourteenth Amendments, especially in light of Guajardo v
Estelle, 432 F.Supp 1373 (1977 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16242).
We must proactively resist this policy. Attached is an example grievance
that can be filed by TDCJ prisoners. I encourage you to edit, expand,
personalize, or revise it. Proactively seek out other prisoners who have
the courage to resist this revision. Encourage family/friends/freeworld
comrades to contact the officials below and demand that this new policy
be repealed:
TDCJ Ombudsman, PO Box 99, Huntsville, TX
77342-0099 ombudsman@tdcj.state.tx.us 936-437-6791
Senator John Whitmire, PO Box 12068, Capitol Station, Austin, TX
78711 512-463-0115
Governor Rick Perry, PO Box 12428, Austin, TX 78711-2428 512-463-2000
Chairman of the Texas Board of Criminal Justice, PO Box 13084, Austin,
TX 78711-3084 512-475-3250 Fax: 512-305-9398
Attorney General Greg Abbott, PO Box 12548, Austin, TX
78711-2548 512-463-2100
Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst, PO Box 12068, Austin, TX
78711-2068 512-463-0001
Speaker of the House Joe Straus, PO Box 2910, Austin, TX
78768-2910 512-463-1000
Another new policy that came out of the August Board Meeting which needs
our proactive resistance prohibits prisoners from receiving stationary
through the mail, starting 1 March 2014. You will only be allowed to
purchase stationary through the commissary. TDCJ is attempting to create
a monopoly. Once this happens, they will be able to charge whatever
prices they wish for their stationary. Start organizing resistance to
this policy NOW!
Here at San Quentin’s death row we recently won a small victory. The
recent mass dis-allowing of all writing supplies sent via first-class
mail to San Quentin’s death row AC/SHU prisoners has been halted. But be
advised, there is nothing in evidence to support the idea these
terrorists in pig clothing have dropped their last propaganda bomb, or
that their about face was motivated by guilty conscience dredged up by
visits from three holiday spirits.
Consider some underlying facts: November 2013 San Francisco Bay
View national Black newspaper reports significant influx of “stamp
donations” from a drive discreetly organized by San Quentin death row
prisoners. Mass disallowing of stamps coincided with the drive. As the
drive progressed, the pigs’ terrorist activities increased. Disallowing
began in spurts around May 2013, capricious post-interpretations of the
property matrix ensued, and by mid-September the pen’s hierarchy went
hog wild.
Appeal #CSQ-J-13-03205 was submitted October 27, explaining exactly how
operational procedure 608 article 7 was being illegally circumvented.
This appeal was rejected by appeals coordinator puppet M.L. Davis on
November 1. Davis offered to process the appeal if appellant directed a
CDCR 22 to the mailroom. Davis also demanded appellant remove copies of
Article 7 and OP0212 which are in fact the official rules/directives
regarding “items enclosed in incoming first-class mail.”
At the same time the appeal was being drafted, various articles
describing the terrorist attacks on everybody’s right to freedom of
expression were en route to local small presses, national news
outlets, and global social networks by way of prisoner mail. Some
articles included instructions on how everyone here, and outside ground
zero, could inundate the pen’s hierarchy with a barrage of “appeals
relating to mail and correspondences” (15 CCR 3137).
This evidence suggests a combination of individual administrative
appeals, and the imminent threat of having their pig-tailed asses
exposed to the public, is what forced the pen’s hierarchy to rethink
their positions. This is also an example of standard pig-headed tactics
designed to make resistance to their control unit torture tactics seem
futile. Their undermining goal is to crush, kill, and destroy our will
to organize against them in peaceful protest. Their motive was fear that
the struggle is gaining momentum. In fact, their pig-headed terrorist
tactics are evidence that it is! Yes, we are gaining momentum, making a
world of difference into a world of solidarity which is not indifferent
to the rights of anyone in it.
Enclosed with this “announcement of small victory” from the secret
torture unit at San Quentin is five 46 cent stamps which were withheld
since May 2013. That by itself is not much but if everyone of the global
readership would match that contribution in stamps or cash to extend the
reach of this publication which amplifies our voices, it would add
significant momentum to the struggle.
Many have seen the stunning October 28 video of police in New Mexico
assaulting a New Afrikan family after pulling them over on the side of
the road. To most of Amerika this type of footage is shocking for any
number of reasons. Whether it be because the teenage son was tazered by
police for trying to protect his mother from pig oppression, or because
police shot at the kid-filled van. Most Amerikans deem this type of
behavior unacceptable and they demand answers. Likewise, some within
Amerika agree that this behavior is not what those who “protect &
serve” should be doing, but they’ll come up with excuses for the police
such as, they only have a split second to react, and in the heat of the
moment hesitation can cost you your life. And then there are the more
convoluted excuses such as, the police did what they did because of PTSD
(Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder), or any other such stress-related
condition associated with being a cop. And to the white settler-state,
and even to some from the oppressed internal nations, these idealized
excuses perfectly suffice. But the truth of the matter is that this type
of behavior on the part of the pigs is acceptable exactly because that
is how the police keep the oppressed in check. These types of abuses are
not isolated incidents, but institutionalized practices that are part
and parcel to maintaining white power in the United $tates.
To the Chican@ nation this type of police brutality is nothing new,
isolated or particular to New Afrikans. Rather it is part of reality for
the oppressed of the Chican@ nation and any other internal semi-colony.
For those of us growing up in the 80s and 90s in the ghettos and barrios
of Amerika this was certainly a daily possibility, especially whenever
we dared to venture out the hood and into or near the settler
communities.
Integration into the consumer economy via labor aristocracy wages has
brought privilege for the oppressed within U.$. borders via the stolen
super-profits and cheap abundant goods from the periphery. But the
reality of imperial dominance cannot be negated by class relations as
they continue to be modified by national interests and the principal
contradiction: imperialism vs. the oppressed nations. Leave it to the
apologists for national oppression in Amerika, the post-modernist
theorists and other petty-bourgeois intellectuals who would have us
think that we’ve reached some type of “post-racialism” and that
therefore it’s ok to paint oneself in black-face for example, or dress
up as your favorite Latino stereotype for Halloween because “race”
relations in the United $tates have never been better. And the hystory
of segregation is better forgotten. Yes “race” relations in the United
$tates have changed profoundly, but let’s not get it twisted,
segregation was ended and civil rights were won exactly because of the
strong national liberation movements and the threat of armed struggle
that underlined the Black, Chican@, Boriqua and First Nation power
movements of the 1960s and 70s. What humyn dignity we have today is not
owed to concessions and benevolence on the part of the oppressor nation
and their power structure. Rather they are rights won by revolutionaries
and masses before us; as there are no “rights,” only power struggles.
Pigs almost always walk away with a slap on the wrist for abuses of
power and attempted murder incidents such as the one in New Mexico, so
let’s not start believing that just because that shooting was caught on
video it’s gonna mean a conviction equaling the ones doled out to the
Black and Brown in North America on a daily basis. If we want justice,
we better go get justice and not expect it’s gonna be given to us.
Much has been said recently about the overtly racist remarks made by one
of the contestants on the “Big Brother” reality show. Viewers were
shocked at the nerve of some of the show’s participants, not only in the
fact that they would say such things, but in the contestants’ blatantly
unapologetic attitude afterwards. After all, this is the 21st century,
and according to some, we have moved beyond those inconsistencies in
Amerika’s past which had previously kept her from fulfilling the promise
of its ethos. Most Amerikans (white people in particular) like to
believe that although things like slavery and segregation are all a part
of our nasty past we should all just forget and move on from this
shameful hystory. Surely the United $tates has made great strides when
it comes to “race relations,” and Amerikans of all colors have never
experienced a more collective prosperity than they do today, never mind
the previously unthinkable: a Black man in the White House.
So why then does racism continue to exist? More importantly, how do we
eradicate it? To properly answer these questions we must take it back to
where it all began, and for this we’ll have to revisit some ugly truths.
Origins of Racism: Connections to Capitalism
People forget that Amerika is a nation of settlers founded on genocide,
slavery and annexation. This oppressive nation-building formula includes
the more subtle forms of national oppression and the many different ways
they are institutionalized and manifested in our society. One
particularly malevolent form of national oppression, which most of us
are all too familiar with, is of course racism and the more pernicious
racial ideology from which it stems. But racism isn’t simply some
oppressive philosophical dogma utterly disconnected from the real world.
Rather, racism and racial ideologies are direct products of national
oppression, which is engendered by society based on property relations
and the division of labor produced therein, which in turn has influenced
how humyn beings have come to interact with each other in the struggle
between the global “haves” and “have nots.” In short, racism has not
been around forever. As a matter of fact, the very concept of “race”
didn’t even exist prior to the 16th century. Racism and racial
ideologies have only been around so long as capitalism itself has been
around. The concept of “race” developed alongside the rise of modern
society and not as usually believed as a remnant of the irrational and
dark Middle Ages. What’s more, the concept of “race” has been directly
linked back to the primitive accumulation phase of capitalism, which is
itself grounded in the first rape and plunder of Africa and the
Americas. This primitive accumulation phase is clearly explained by
radical eco-feminist and author Maria Mies when she stated that:
“Before the capitalist mode of production could establish and maintain
itself as a process of extended reproduction of capital - driven by the
motor of surplus value production - enough capital had to be accumulated
to start this process. The capital was largely accumulated in the
colonies between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Most of the
capital was not accumulated by merchant capitalists but largely by way
of brigandage, piracy, forced and slave labor.”(1) And furthermore, “One
could say that the first phase of the primitive accumulation was that of
merchant and commercial capital ruthlessly plundering and exploiting the
colonies’ human and natural wealth…”(1)
What should be kept in mind here is that as feudalism disintegrated
and capitalism came on the scene the common people, the peasants and the
soldiers, needed to be reassured that what they were doing to the people
of the colonies was not only in the beneficiary population’s interest
but the interest of the colonized as well. The European masses also
needed to be taught that the colonized were less than humyn so as to
discourage any feelings of solidarity amongst the oppressed. Hence, the
racial ideology was borne, which wasn’t just about the innate ignorance
and stupidity of the colonized, but of their innate treacherousness and
savagery as well.
Examples of Racism in National Oppression, Yesterday and Today
Racism as a building block for the rise of the modern western world was
as indispensable for that society as it is to the continuing subjugation
of nations and the integrity of the First World today. Testimony to this
is the way that the people of Islam have been demonized as “dark” and
“backward” by the “civilized” west who sees itself as “exceptional.”
Thus the role that racism has played in gaining public support for the
current wars of conquest is undeniable. One need only examine how
Muslims, who were Amerikan citizens, were vilified and attacked by
settler violence following the retaliatory attack on the World Trade
Center and the Pentagon under the guise of “Amerikan Patriotism.” The
conscious connection of these actions to the collective white history of
colonialism in Africa is manifested in the term “sand nigger.” What this
“Amerikan Patriotism” really translates into is a special brand of
oppressor nation chauvinism, and a vehicle for white power in the 21st
century. It is particularly popular and appealing to Latin@s and New
Afrikans who think they can fully integrate into Amerika by becoming
agents of imperialism and uniting with the oppressor against the people
of the Third World.
Therefore the revolutionary character of militant Islam, seen when it is
waging war for the independence of Muslims from U.$. imperialism, should
be supported by the oppressed nation lumpen as it is objectively an
anti-imperialist struggle despite the reactionary views of those leading
the struggles, whether it’s Al Qaeda or Bashar al-Assad and their
associates, for it weakens, disintegrates and undermines imperialism.
The struggle of the West and their “democratic” running dogs in the
region strengthen the victory of imperialism. Real communists know that
there are only two sides to a battle, therefore it is our duty to unite
all who can be united in the camp of the oppressed and build a United
Front against the imperialists and their racist backers! In his day,
Stalin had to combat those promoting a “third way” between the socialist
camp and the imperialists, pointing out that those who broke away from
the Soviet Union inherently joined the imperialist system, becoming
victims of it. The lack of a socialist camp today does not change the
bankruptcy of the third-way idealists. Revisionists today point to the
forces waging war in the Middle East and call them the “Two Outmodeds”
and are peddling a third way out for the oppressed. However, this third
way out is itself reactionary and anti-revolutionary, and if upheld will
in fact reinforce the very same imperialist structure it pretends to be
against, by weakening national unity of the oppressed. This is one
lesson we take from the theory and practice of United Front in the
Chinese war of liberation against Japan.
Racism as Pseudo-Science and Glossing Over of the National Question
Purveyors of racial ideology fancy themselves as being backed by
science, and indeed there is a “science” to racism, it’s called eugenics
and it stresses the genetic makeup of people as determinant of their
“natural” abilities and inclinations. Eugenics was developed as
justification for the oppression and enslavement of non-white people and
outlaws alike. It was, however, thoroughly criticized and debunked by
the wider scientific community for, among other things, not being an
objective and quantifiable method of analysis of the humyn species.
While most people today have hardly heard of eugenics it was certainly
popular back when England had stretched the tentacles of the British
empire (forerunner to U.$. imperialism) all over the Third World, while
here in Amerika the slave owning south was likewise using it for the
continuing oppression and enslavement of the New Afrikan nation.
The lack of scientific relationship to biology since there is only the
human race.
The creation of categories of inferior and superior based on arbitrary
characteristics and definitions.
The creation and perpetuation of a system of oppression of the
“inferior” group in all aspects.
The re-enforcement of a relative differential in treatment - and it’s
ideological justification between those considered inferior and those
considered superior.
The use of race as a principal means for social control.
Rendering irrelevant the experience and viewpoint of the subordinated
population except and insofar as interpreted by dominant populations.
This specifically has been applied to African descendants, Indigenous
peoples, Asians, and Latinos, those usually referred to as “people of
color.”(2)
Author Bill Fletcher, to whom the above is attributed, explains:
“Race is, then, not a state of mind, but a socio-political reality. Even
though there is no scientific basis for race, it occupies a real space
and the institutions of the racial-capitalist society reinforce this
reality every day.”(2)
We’d also add that the false concept of “race” is a social construct
originally based on power struggles between humyns in the pre-capitalist
era of slavery, and it has done much to gloss over the fact that the
oppressed internal nations of Chican@s and New Afrikans are separate
nations from the Amerikan nation (white settler-state), with separate
hystories distinctly their own. Therefore we speak of nations and
nationalities where most people speak of “race,” in order to refer to a
group of people who share a common language, culture, territory and
economy. The concept of nations is thus more accountable to hystory and
is firmly grounded in material reality. (See “Marxism and the National
Question” by J.V. Stalin.)
Methods for Resolving the Principal Contradiction
Despite the fact that the concept of race has been repeatedly disproven,
proponents of racial ideology and the national oppression it engenders
(and vice versa) hold steady to their un-scientific beliefs. And to a
certain extent this is fine. They have their beliefs and prejudices, but
we have science! We know where they stand and we know that the oppressed
people of the world will not sit idly by but will take up armed struggle
against the imperialists to impose the will of the people on today’s
oppressor nations. What isn’t fine however are the so-called allies of
the oppressed nations within the Amerikan “Left” who mistakenly call
themselves communist yet go about espousing the concept of “race.”
Whether they are speaking about the common cause of all the “races” that
are equally oppressed by capitalism-imperialism, or whether they are
agitating around the “race issue” here in Amerika, they’re of no great
help. They are immediately caught in the irrevocable trap of idealism,
and that is no attitude for a communist to have. First, these idealists
objectively hurt the revolutionary movement within U.$. borders by
elevating the problem of “race” to that of principal contradiction when
in fact there is no problem of race. There is a problem of imperialism
and national oppression. Secondly, they deny that the principal
contradiction is imperialism vs. the oppressed nations by emphatically
denying that there are any other nations in the United $tates besides
Amerika. Some have opportunistically come to acknowledge New Afrika,
while denying other nations’ existence, not because they are dialectical
materialists, but because they’re focused on pulling numbers to their
side. Lastly, by denying the concept of nations and national liberation
and instead focusing on multi-racial unity they deny the theories and
practice of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin and Mao, as well as the
revolutionary movements they spearheaded and the many national
liberation movements that followed in their traditions.
Racism in the United $tates or any other place in the world will not be
wiped from the earth solely by educating it out of existence, but by
getting rid of the many material conditions and relations from which it
springs. Racism is a product of national oppression, hence we must focus
on uniting the oppressed nations for their own liberation from this
jailhouse of nations that is the United $tates. Only then will we
seriously be able to talk about combatting racism as a backward idea
from another period of history.
Tacloban, the Philippines, an island devastated by a recent typhoon,
shows the contrasts between wealth and poverty, and underscores the
reality that “natural” disasters are not natural at all. People in First
World countries have the infrastructure, resources and response systems
in place to save lives that are lost in the Third World when the same
disasters hit.
Overall the Philippines is a poor country; in 2012 there were 15
provinces with over 40% of the population below the poverty
threshold.(1) While not in one of these 15 provinces, the government
reports 32% of people in Leyte (Tacloban’s province) are below the
poverty line.(2) These people, living below the poverty line, had an
income of less than $179/month for a family of five. A third of
Tacloban’s houses have wooden exterior walls and one in seven have grass
roofs.(3) In these conditions, it is no surprise that a typhoon could
wreak such havoc in Tacloban.
Bodies of the dead are rotting in the streets as aid fails to reach
those devastated by the storm. There is no clean water and little food.
Yet the Philippines is a country frequently hit by severe storms, with
about 20 typhoons a year, and this storm was identified well in advance.
Both these conditions should engender preparedness on the part of the
government. However, in the Philippines disaster preparation and relief
are delegated to local governors without a strong central leadership.
Some services are more effectively delivered on a large scale. This is
one area where we can show obviously that communism has a better
solution than the individualism of capitalism. Where central control
will lead to more efficient solutions, a communist-led government would
not hesitate to take that control. But capitalism is not focused on
serving the people, it is focused on maximizing profits and power for
the few. And these profits result in deaths from malnutrition, military
aggression, lack of health care, and “natural” disasters. As long as the
imperialists retain their power and wealth, they don’t mind tens of
millions of preventable deaths a year.
In an interesting historical connection, Imelda Marcos, wife of the
former president of the Philippines, is from Tacloban. The family of
Imelda Marcos dominated local politics for years; she herself held a
congressional seat in the 1990s. Imelda’s husband, Ferdinand Marcos, who
ruled in the Philippines from 1965-1986 with the support of the U.$.
government, embezzled billions of dollars in public funds while in
power. The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) waged revolutionary
armed struggle against the Marcos regime, growing in strength during the
Marcos dictatorship. In the end, when Marcos’s demise was inevitable,
the United $tates stepped in to have a role in the change of government,
turning on Marcos and backing Corazon Aquino. Her family legacy lives on
today as her son Benigno Aquino holds the President’s office.
Unfortunately, the popular movement that forced Marcos out did not go
further than installing another imperialist puppet. While the communist
movement was strong, it was not yet strong enough to lead the people to
force the U.$. imperialists out, leaving them to play a dominating role
in the country’s politics and economics to this day.(4)
This is the backdrop for the reported six warships the Amerikans sent to
the Philippines last week, with more than 80 fighter jets and 5,000 navy
soldiers.(5) Today the United $tates is taking advantage of the disaster
in the Philippines to increase military presence, while playing the
hero. As reported in a CPP press release:
“The US government is militarizing disaster response in the Philippines,
in much the same way that the US militarized disaster response in Haiti
in the 2010 earthquake,” said the CPP. The high-handed presence of US
armed troops in Haiti has been widely renounced. The US government has
since maintained its presence in Haiti…
“What the disaster victims need urgently are food, water and medical
attention, not US warships bringing in emergency rations to justifty
their armed presence in Philippine sovereign waters,” pointed out the
CPP. “If the US government were really interested in providing
assistance to countries who have suffered from calamities, then it
should increase its funds to civilian agencies that deal in disaster
response and emergency relief, not in fattening its international
military forces and taking advantage of the people’s miseries to justify
their presence,” added the CPP.(5)
Much of the press is quiet about the ongoing war in the Philippines
between the U.$. puppet regime and the CPP-led New People’s Army (NPA),
as well as other liberation forces in different regions of the islands.
But it has been brought up in the Filipino press to spread propaganda
about NPA soldiers attacking government relief efforts. The Communist
Party of the Philippines (CPP) have denounced these lies pointing out
that the location of the attack was not in an area where relief efforts
were needed. The CPP reiterated that “NPA units in areas ravaged by the
recent super typhoon Yolanda are currently engaged in relief and
rehabilitation efforts assisting local Party branches and revolutionary
mass organizations in mobilizing emergency supply for disaster victims.”
Shortly thereafter a ceasefire was declared on behalf of the NPA in
order to focus on relief efforts.
The liberation struggle has long been connected to the protection of the
natural resources of the islands that the imperialist countries continue
to extract for great profits off the backs of the Filipino proletariat.
The storm has also received a lot of attention at a climate change
summit in Poland where Filipino officials have begun a hunger strike to
attempt to force “meaningful” change in relation to energy consumption.
Climate change has been predicted to cause more extreme weather
conditions, and this recent massive typhoon is just another possible
indicator that that is happening. Yet, as international summits
continue, little change is made in the over-consumption of the
imperialist nations driving this disaster.
As many in the Filipino countryside have already recognized, the only
solution to environmental destruction and disasters is an end to
capitalism. With a rational system that puts the needs of the people
over the goal of profits, we can build infrastructure suited to the
environmental conditions, set up emergency response systems that provide
fast and effective support, and plan consumption in a way that does not
undercut the very natural systems that we live in and depend on.
The Black Order Revolutionary Organization (BORO), has been actively
involved in the ideological struggle with regard to the national
identity (nationality) of descendant people of Afrikan slaves since our
founding. We take this opportunity to once again contribute to this
critical debate.
Our struggle in this country has always had two major political
tendencies - one for independence and the other for integration. The
nationality debate has been part and partial of this struggle.
When people refer to their nationality, they are informing you of what
nation they belong to. Some of the characteristics that define a nation
are: a common historical experience, common language, culture, territory
(land) and economic life. Our Afrikan ancestors landed on these shores
as Ashanti, Ibo, Fula, Moors, etc. We didn’t have a collective identity,
language, culture, tradition, etc. But thru our collective oppression
and our collective resistance to that oppression, we developed a
collective language, culture, and so on in the southern part of what is
now known as the U$A. We had developed into a “new” Afrikan people. A
people who are separate and distinct from all other people on planet
Earth. Thus, we claim the national identity of New Afrikan and claim as
our national territory the states Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama,
Georgia and South Carolina. Our national territory has been named the
Republic of New Afrika.
BORO upholds the usage of New Afrikan as opposed to “Black” and
“African-American.” “Black” implies the fictitious categorization of the
term “race.” African-American implies that we have fully integrated into
this country as full citizens.
We do not identify ourselves as “Amerikan” because “America” is the
Euro-Amerikan (so-called white) nation. That is why we spell Amerika
with a “K” instead of a “C,” to signify that “America” is an
illegitimate nation of European settlers. We use the “K” instead of a
“C” in spelling “Afrika,” to distinguish ourselves from the neo-colonial
and petty-bourgeois elements within our own nation.
Nationalism is about ideology and politics, not “color” or “race.” BORO
upholds the Huey P. Newton line that “there are two kinds of
nationalism: revolutionary nationalism and reactionary nationalism.
Revolutionary nationalism is first dependent upon a people’s revolution
with the end result being the people in power. Therefore, to be a
revolutionary nationalist you would by necessity have to be a socialist.
If you are a reactionary nationalist you are not a socialist and your
goal is the oppression of the people.”
BORO recognizes that what you say and what you do is a reflection of who
you are. So when we see political elements using the terms “Black” and
“African-American,” we see you as part of the reactionary-bourgeois
elements within our nation. We see you as a wanna-be American who is
misleading those of our people who have less political awareness and
consciousness.
New Afrikan is a clear distinction from all other political trends
within our nation, and must be upheld by all those who are a part of the
struggle for land, independence and socialist development. Terminology
is critical to identity. New Afrikan and the political ideology behind
this term is revolutionary nationalist. Black and African-American is
about integration and assimilation.
“Some people talk about a ‘nation’ but really don’t wanna be one
(independent), as evidenced by their efforts to crawl back on the
plantation. How can we tell? You can identify those trying to crawl onto
the plantation by the way they identify themselves. i.e. Blacks,
Afro-Amerikans, Afrikan-Amerikans, ethnic group, minority nationality,
national minority, under class - anything and everything except New
Afrikans, an oppressed nation. Amerikkka is the plantation, and
continuing to identify yourself within the Amerikkkan context is
evidence of the colonial (slave) mentality. Ain’t no two ways about
it.”(1)
New Afrikan is our national identity. New Afrika is our national
territory which is currently held in colonial bondage by the United
$nakes of Amerikkka. Ours is a struggle to free our land, independence
and socialism.
MIM(Prisons) took up the debate over the use of the term “New Afrikan”
at our January congress this year. We have historically used the term
“Black” interchangeably with “New Afrikan,” but had received a proposal
from a comrade to use the term “New Afrikan” to the exclusion of
“Black,” only using “Black” like we would “Hispanic,” when context
requires.
MIM took up this question of the terms “Black” and “New African” back in
2001 in
MIM
Theory 14 when it published a letter from a RAIL comrade (RC)
proposing use of “New African.” In that letter, the RC proposed that
“Use of the term New African is waging ideological struggle to establish
a national identity.” S/he goes on to explain that “New African implies
the identity of a national territory - the Republic of New Africa” while
the term “Black” “cannot and will not be distinguished from
integrationist, assimilationist, and other petty bourgeois reactionary
agendas.” MIM responded to this pointing out that the term
“African-American” has emerged to distinguish the petty bourgeois
integrationists. MIM’s main complaint with the term “New African” was
cultural nationalism:
“What makes including the word ‘African’ in the term relevant? Culture.
That is, it is not the land in Africa that makes Blacks in North America
a nation, nor the economy, language, and so on. It is the cultural
history that survived the genocidal purges of the Middle Passage and
slavery that links Blacks to a historical African culture. This is
completely true, and this connection is obviously important. However,
for the definition of the nation it plays into cultural nationalism to
give this aspect too prominent a role. In fact, as MIM has argued, this
term has been used most often by people with cultural nationalist
tendencies. All the arguments for stressing the African link are
cultural, and therefore the tendency of this term is toward cultural
nationalism, which is a serious danger from the petty bourgeoisie and
comprador bourgeoisie as well.”(2)
MIM(Prisons) has researched the use of the term “New Afrikan” and
concluded that while there may be cultural nationalism associated
historically with some who use the term, overall today it is being used
by the most progressive elements of the revolutionary nationalist
movement within the United $tates. While we have some reservations about
the ties to Africa promoted by some, we have concluded that “New
Afrikan” is a better term to represent the Black nation than “Black,”
which has strong racial connotations and is generally not associated
with a nation. “New Afrikan” is a term specific to the historical
context of African-descended people in North America and so better
represents our line on this oppressed nation within U.$. borders.
Black
Order Revolutionary Organization (BORO), New Afrikan Maoist Party
(NAMP), New Afrikan Black Panther Party (NABPP), New Afrikan Collective
Think Tank (NCTT) and the New Afrikan Independence Movement (NAIM) all
use the term “New Afrikan.” Except for NAIM, these are all prison-based
organizations. NAIM was the progenitor of the term “New Afrikan.”
NAIM has written: “to call oneself New Afrikan, at this early stage, is
to be, by and large, about what We in the NAIM are about: Land,
Independence and Socialism.” They lay claim to the term: “We are the
ones who led the ideological struggle for the usage of New Afrikan as
our national identity (nationality) over ‘black’ as a racial
identity.”(1)
One argument NAIM uses for the term New Afrikan is: “…colonized
Afrikans, who evolved into New Afrikans here, were stolen to be used as
a permanent proletariat. The New Afrikan nation was born as a
working-class nation of permanent proletarians. The fact that We weren’t
paid does not preclude the fact that We were workers. What do they think
so-called ‘slavery’ (colonialism) entails if not work?”(1)
On this last point, MIM(Prisons) disagrees that New Afrikans are a
permanent proletariat. As MIM laid out and we continue to expand on, the
vast majority of U.$. citizens are part of the labor aristocracy, not
the proletariat. This does not necessarily negate the use of the term
“New Afrikan,” but we want to be clear where we differ with NAIM on the
class makeup of the nation today.
The NABPP promotes Pan-Afrikanism, promoting the common interests of the
various oppressed nations of Africa and extending it to the so-called
African diaspora of New Afrikans in the United $tates and other
imperialist countries. This is one of the pitfalls of the term New
Afrikan: it can lead people to associate imperialist-country Blacks with
the oppressed nations of Africa. While most Blacks were originally
brought over as slaves and certainly were strongly connected to their
home continent at first, we see a very distinct oppressed nation that
has developed within U.$. borders in the hundreds of years since the
slaves were first forced to North America.
We do not use the term “New Afrikan” to promote pan-Africanism among
U.$.-resident peoples. New Afrikans have historical ties to Africa, but
today New Afrikans have far more in common with, and are more strongly
connected to, other nations within U.$. borders. New Afrikans are closer
to Amerikans in economic interests and national identity than they are
to Egyptians or Somalis, and will certainly lead any pan-African
movement astray and likely sell out the African oppressed nations.
We have not seen a clear rationale for the distinction between “New
African” and “New Afrikan,” but some use the letter “k” in “Afrika” to
distinguish themselves from the colonial spelling. According to a writer
in MIM Theory 14, the term “New Afrikan” originated in 1968
when the First New Afrikan government conference was held by the PGRNA
(Provisional Government of the Republic of New Afrika).(3) We have
adopted this spelling, as it is used by the progressive elements of the
nation, but welcome input on the relevance of this spelling distinction.
This is not a notice to riot. This is a non-violent protest petition
concerning the unconstitutional prison conditions and acts afflicted on
the close security prisoners at Georgia State Prison. The following
issues have been grieved on numerous occasions yet fail to be attended
to. These unjust acts are mainly being committed in the locked down
units of the prison, which is where the close security inmates are
housed. The issues are as follows:
1. Inhumane living quarters: We are being housed in the condemned
part of the facility. There are no sprinkler systems in the cell in case
of fire. Mold, rust and filth have accumulated in the tray box and
around the toilet. The vents and the window shield are filled with dust,
pollen, smut, mace powder and toxic gases from the leakage of the sewage
pipeline. The power has been taken which disables us from using our only
source of clean air. These issues are unhealthy and the ventilation in
these cells can vex or worsen those with medical problems. We rarely
receive cell sanitation, raising the risk of being infected with staph,
scabies, and various other skin diseases. The inhumane conditions
violate our 8th amendment.
2. Denial of access to courts: In Bounds v. Smith the
United State Supreme Court requires prison authorities to provide its
inmates with an adequate law library. Administration deprives us of this
right by failing to provide law library requests. And once we are
enlisted to a session the escort officer (CERT team) seldom shows up.
This is a violation of our 14th amendment, due process law to seek
post-conviction relief.
3. Guards abusing authority: The guards are using excessive force
while the prisoner(s) are in restraints and no longer resisting.
Frequently forcing prisoners in the cells with another inmate, knowing
one has hostile and violent intentions. Some of the inmates may try to
refuse housing with an opposition of their social group. The guards then
threaten to use physical force if he continues to resist. Reluctantly
they comply and suffer being physically assaulted by the aggressor.
Verbal harassment is a constant matter to those that grieve their
abuses. Officers are refusing to feed those that they have a personal
vendetta with. Inflicting punishment on both cellmates even though only
one is rebellious. The promotion of violence has resulted in multiple
stabbings and two deaths. This is a security issue for the prisoners and
the officers.
4. Phone lines out of service: The phone lines are out of service
and staff is refusing to fix them. Those that still have the privilege
to use the phone are being denied this right. This issue is disabling us
from communication with our family and having an alternative to grieve
our problems. This malfunction has been an unattended issue for the past
two months. The officer in charge and floor officers refuse to put a
work order in for the phone lines in lock down unit. This is a violation
of our 8th amendment.
5. Inadequate food portion and cold/spoiled meals: We receive
meals that sometimes do not meet the adequate calories quota for dietary
regulations. The meals are always cold and late due to the officer
leaving them in the hallway. The morning milk is spoiled because of the
long period of time it sits in the heat before being stored or served.
The meals that contain meat are sometimes hazardous because it often
causes stomach illness and food poisoning.
6. Officer carelessness with prisoner mail: Floor officer(s)
continue to place our mail in the wrong cell and give it to the wrong
inmate. Sometimes they blame it on the mailroom staff for putting the
wrong housing unit on the mail. This has resulted in inmates’ family
members, loved ones, and friends being harassed or written to by other
inmates.
7. Refusal of clothing and personal necessities: The prison
refuses to provide the obligated clothing for new arrivals as a sleeper
and/or permanent. The weather conditions require certain clothing and
bedding equipment, yet they are rarely given to close security.
8. Vice grievances and procedure: Copies of grievance forms are
not restocked weekly. Grievances are always denied and witness
statements are always misplaced, making it difficult to have our issues
resolved. These poor conditions and malicious acts have resulted in
several assaults, suicide attempts and is stagnating the rehabilitation
of its victims. This is physical, mental, psychological and emotional
torture that is causing many prisoners to commit demoralizing acts
seeking relief from this maltreatment.
Enclosed is a list of prisoners who are witnesses to the allegations and
are inquiring them to be abolished. We also ask that we receive no
reprisal from the Georgia State Prison administration because of our
choice to exercise our 1st Amendment.
The battle against torture in California prisons is heading for a
breaking point with unity running high among prisoners and resistance to
change stiffening within the state. Since the third round of strikes
ended in early September the promised state legislature hearing around
the Security Housing Units (SHU) occurred and Pelican Bay SHU
representatives met with California Department of Corrections and
Rehabilitation (CDCR) officials. Yet the actions taken by the state in
response to the protests have been the same old political repression
that the SHU was created to enforce, not ending conditions of torture.
One comrade from Corcoran reports:
I read in your latest publication that you guys hadn’t had any news of
the concessions Corcoran SHU made in order to bring our hunger strike to
an end. For the most part, the demands made here are not even worth
articulating, as they don’t incorporate, in any way, the push towards
shutting these human warehouses down completely.
The demands put forth here are simple creature comforts, which have not
even been met by the administration, to pacify those who seem to have
accepted these conditions of confinement.
Worse than the petty reforms, is the blatant political repression of
strikers just as the world’s attention is on them. The state knows that
if it can get away with that now, then it has nothing to worry about. As
another comrade from Corcoran SHU reports:
I stopped eating state food on 8 July 2013 and as a retaliatory measure
I and a bunch of other prisoners were transferred from the Corcoran SHU
to the Pelican Bay SHU. Only the thing is, when we got to Pelican Bay on
17 July 2013 we were placed in the ASU instead of the SHU, which made it
so that we would have a lot less privileges and we couldn’t even get a
book to read. So we were just staring at the wall. On 5 August 2013
others and myself were moved to the SHU where we were again just staring
at the wall. On 7 September 2013 we were again moved back to the ASU to
sit there with nothing. On 24 September 2013 I was moved back to the SHU
and I just received all my property last week.
So we were moved around and denied our property for 3 months or more.
But that seems to be it right now and I can finally settle in. But I’m
telling you that was a long 3 months. Other than that no new changes or
anything else has happened around here. I did, however, receive a 115
rules violation report for the hunger strike, along with everyone else
who participated, and in it it charges that I hunger striked as part of
some gang stuff so it was gang activity. This is ironic since the hunger
strike was about the CDCR misusing the validation process and what is
considered gang activity. So now that 115 can and will be used as a
source item of gang activity to keep me in the SHU longer.
While that comrade was sent to Pelican Bay, our comrade below is being
“lost” in Enhanced Outpatient Program (EOP). Organizing in California
has gotten so advanced that the CDCR is moving people out of Administrative
Segregation to isolate them. But with a third of the people actively
participating in protests, there is no way for them to brush this
movement under the rug.
I am writing to say that it’s been over 5 weeks since our peaceful
protest was suspended. I am a petitioner in the Corcoran Administrative
Segregation Unit 2011 strike and am a participant and a petitioner in
this 8 July 2013 one. I have been moved around and retaliated against. I
went from ASU-1 to Cor 3B02 on 24 July 2013. I was moved back to ASU-1
on 16 August 2013 and then on 19 August 2013 I was moved to where I am
currently housed in isolation with no access to anything although I am
not “EOP.” I am being housed against my will and the correctional
officers here tell me I don’t belong here but that they can’t do
anything because it’s above their pay level. No one seems to know
anything about why I am being housed here but all come to the same
conclusion: that someone above them has me housed here. I’d like to know
if there is anyone out there that you may have heard of that find
themselves in similar situations or am I the only one?
We haven’t heard anything yet. But don’t let their games get to you
comrade.
Another indication of the strength of change in California comes from a
story being circulated by representatives of the Pelican Bay Short
Corridor Collective. Multiple versions have been circulating about a
historic bus ride where these “worst of the worst” from “rival gangs”
were left unshackled for an overnight bus ride. It was reported that not
one of the O.G.’s slept a wink that night, but neither did any conflicts
occur. At least some of these men self-admittedly would have killed each
other on sight in years past.(1) This amazing event symbolizes the
extent to which this has become about the imprisoned lumpen as a whole,
and not about criminal interests.
The CDCR keeps telling the public that they are instituting reforms,
while in reality they are torturing people for being “gang members” for
reasons such as protesting torture. Outside supporters can up the
pressure to end this system of repression by letting them know that we
know what they’re doing, that their words mean nothing, and that going
on hunger strike is not a crime. There is a campaign to call the CDCR
out on their hypocrisy by contacting:
M.D. Stainer, Director Division of Adult Institutions Department
of Corrections and Rehabilitation P.O. Box 942883 Sacramento CA.
94283 (916) 445-7688 Michael.Stainer@cdcr.ca.gov
As we reiterated last issue, it is prisoners who determine the fate of
the prison movement. And the only way prisoners can actually win is by
building independent power. As long as this is a campaign for certain
reforms, the state will go back to business as usual as soon as the
outside attention fades. Torture cannot be reformed, and neither can an
exploitative economic system that demands it. Of course prisoners can’t
end imperialism alone, but wherever we are we must focus on building
cadre level organizations that can support independent institutions of
the oppressed.
“The Supreme Court of the United States has held that the Constitution
of the United States only requires a state to provide its inmates with
access to a law library or access to persons trained
in the law. Bounds v.
Smith, 40 U.S. 817, 97, S. Ct. 1491, 52 L. Ed. 2d 72
(1977). The choice of which alternative to provide lies with
the state, not with the inmate. Connecticut has chosen to rely on access
to persons trained in the law in order to comply with the requirements
of Bounds.” - CT DOC
form letter
One of the services that the Connecticut Department of Corrections
offers to prisoners is the Jerome N. Frank Legal Services at Yale
University. In a letter dated 17 November 2012 that organization
responded to a comrade stating:
We received your letter requesting assistance. Unfortunately, this
office no longer has the resources to provide information or
representation to such requests.
This is similar to the situation in North Carolina where the state
contracts with the completely useless
North
Carolina Prisoner Legal Service, Inc. But, as we know, in other
states where law libraries are provided, the resources in those
libraries are also grossly inadequate. Meanwhile, Bill Clinton’s
Prisoners Litigation Reform Act seriously hampered the ability of
prisoners to get their grievances heard in U.$. courts. For those
interested in this law we recommend
Mumia
Abu Jamal’s book Jailhouse Lawyers.
Our response to all of this is two-pronged. The main lesson is that
legal battles cannot win prisoner rights under imperialism. As Mumia
exposes in his book, the belief that they can leads hard-working
jailhouse lawyers to literally go crazy. To win, we must organize
oppressed people to establish a joint dictatorship of the proletariat of
the oppressed nations over the former oppressors. Under proletarian
leadership, exploitation and oppression will become the biggest crimes,
and prisons will become places for education and re-socialization rather
than torture and isolation.
Our second prong is our Serve the People Prisoners’ Legal Clinic. This
is our short-term strategy. We know that legal information is difficult
to obtain in the current system, and that providing access to this
information in a useful way helps oppressed people in prison to survive
this system. Just be careful that our legal work does not help prop up
the very system that oppresses us, as Mumia warns. If you want to help
prepare and share legal guides for anti-imperialist jailhouse lawyers
write in and ask to work with the Prisoners’ Legal Clinic.