MIM(Prisons) is a cell of revolutionaries serving the oppressed masses inside U.$. prisons, guided by the communist ideology of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism.
www.prisoncensorship.info is a media institution run by the Maoist Internationalist Ministry of Prisons. Here we collect and publicize reports of conditions behind the bars in U.$. prisons. Information about these incidents rarely makes it out of the prison, and when it does it is extremely rare that the reports are taken seriously and published. This historical record is important for documenting patterns of abuse, and also for informing people on the streets about what goes on behind the bars.
I am writing regarding our circumstances here in Lea County Detention
Facility. As a group we have decided to go on a food strike to protest
inhuman conditions of isolation. This facility and administration
automatically has placed the majority of individuals in some type of
Ad-Seg. We are currently locked down 23 hours a day with one hour out to
get rec, shower, visit and telephone use. During our one hour out we
have to do all that needs to be taken care of, which is impossible. This
is cruel and unusual punishment.
We have found ourselves getting treated as if we have already been found
guilty for our charges and the majority of us have not even been to
court. Their excuse is that a couple years ago some prisoners caused
some trouble and now we are being punished for something that we had
absolutely no personal participation in. None of those prisoners are in
this facility any longer.
At the moment we are on a group food strike. We are being treated like
animals. I personally have been to prison and in their Ad-Seg lockdown
system we are treated better than here. We would like to be heard, and
ask that this facility be investigated. There have been suicidal deaths
in this facility due to our situation.
On November 21 I was put in full restraints. I was placed in ankle locks
and belly chains with my hands cuffed to my belly chains. And I was
forced to take a shower in full restraints! I was also in full
restraints during my 1 hour out.
MIM(Prisons) responds: We have been getting letters from
prisoners across the country who were inspired by the
food strike
in California prisons and want to use this tactic to bring attention
and change to conditions in their own state’s prisons. We support our
comrades organizing and fighting for better conditions. And we point to
an
article
in Under Lock & Key 23 which provided an analysis of the
California food strike and focused on the importance of ensuring
comrades are fully prepared for these actions before they begin. How a
campaign is led will determine whether it is inspiring or discouraging
to the larger prison population.
As we noted in that article: “One of the major lessons of this hunger
strike is the need for a unifying organizational structure through which
action can be coordinated and goals and information can be formulated
and shared. The
United
Front for Peace in Prisons provides this opportunity by bringing
together LOs and individuals who understand the importance of unity
against the common enemy.”
¿Sí se puede o no se puede? ¿Cuál es señor presidente?
A principio del 2008 empezamos a oír del entonces candidato presidencial
Barack Obama que si fuera elegido tomaría acción rápida de la reforma
migratoria. Durante este tiempo también empezó a extraviarse a la
izquierda de la opinión corriente de la burgués por insinuar su disgusto
con los allanamientos de los lugares de trabajo a los indocumentados.
Tampoco, nunca se molestó a mencionar nada sobre la muchísima gente
indocumentada que supuestamente cometió algún “crimen” en cruzar la
borde mexicano/estadounidense cuando dio su discurso al Concilio
Nacional de La Raza.(1)
De verdad, declaraciones como estas sobre el tema de la reforma
migratoria ayudó popularizar el senador de Illinois entre los Latinos lo
cual le ayudó quitarle el voto latino a la entonces Senadora de Nueva
York Hilary Clinton.(2) Aun aquí estamos tres años lejos de la elección
del primer presidente negro de los Estados Unidos y el tiempo nos ha
enseñado otra vez de nuevo que Barack Obombadero como cualquier otro
político estadounidense no tiene nada más que ofrecer a las naciones
oprimidas más que promesas quebradas y más opresión.
Un millón de gente han sido deportados de los Estados Unidos desde la
toma de oficina de Obombadero en el 2009; es decir 400,000 deportaciones
al año con las varias naciones latinas porteando lo peor.(3) También es
importante notar que los números de deportación han aumentado desde a
administración previa de Bush y son históricamente más alta en
comparación de las 500,000 gente quien fueron literalmente
“ferrocarrilados” a México entre los años 1929-39 en lo que los
imperialistas llamaron “arreares de repatriación.” Esto además que no
toda la gente eran ciudadanos Mexicanos.(4)
Más recientemente, los EE UU iniciaron las deportaciones masas bajo el
capo de un programa federal costeado por la administración Obombadero
llamado “comunidades seguras” en que oficiales de ICE (Inmigración y
Coacción Adueñar) en conjunción con policías locales por toda la nación
buscan a los indocumentados y llevan a cabo allanamientos contra
ellos.(3) Los allanamientos son llevados a cabo del encabezamiento de
“operaciones fugitivas.”(3)
Al principio los policías locales tenían la opción de unirse a
comunidades seguras pero muchos de ellos vacilaron previniendo los
problemas potenciales que esto podría causar a sus funciones diarios de
ocupares de las semicolónias internas también a su vigilar de vecindades
con alta densidad de población migrante recién llegados.(3) ICE
eventualmente los pudo vender comunidades seguras a los puercos después
de decirles que solamente buscarían a “los peores de los peores.”(3)
Según la portavoz del gobierno, una mitad de la gente quien han sido
deportados desde el 2009 eran delincuentes violentos, pero
investigaciones sobre el programa han revelado que mucha de la gente
siendo deportada actualmente fueron deportados debido a infracciones
menores, tal como Señora Ramírez quien fue arrestada por policías
locales por una infracción menor de auto; fue mandada a un centro de
detención federal y seguido deportada a México desde Maple Park,
Illinois todo en el espacio de unos pocos días a despecho de que no
tenía fondo de criminal y estaba criando hijos nacidos
estadounidenses.(3)
¿Pero sería que Señora Ramírez era una de las afortunadas si se
considere las circunstancias? La respuesta es sí.
Ciudades de acampamiento, viviendas apretadas, ningún derecho a
abogados, el racismo, el abuso verbal, el abuso mental, golpizas y el
asalto sexual. Esta es la realidad dura que espera a los indocumentados
en cuanto son aprisionados y deportados a las manos de
estadounidenses.(3)
Un caso en punto es el Centro de Detención e Inmigración Federal en
Willacy, Téjas donde una investigación reciente por el ACLU determinó
que había “abuso sexual muy extensiva de las detenidas y un sistema de
injusticia sistemáticamente posesionada sin ninguna responsabilidad
firmemente intacto.”(3) Esta información fue corroborada más por
guardias y un psiquiatra, que eran empleados anteriormente por Willacy,
quien dieron cuentas del abuso al contrario de comprobación de cuentas
que hizo el ICE en donde se le dio un grado de “BIEN.”(3)
Durante este tiempo el departamento de ICE también condujo una encuesta
de los presos supuestamente para ayudarles registrarse las quejas.
Desafortunadamente la encuesta no era nada más que un truco compuesto y
conducido por ICE sí mismo para poner en la mirada a los quien
intentaban registrar quejas y disuadirlos de que siguen por manera de
amenazar verbales.(3)
¿Que Vendrá?
Entonces, ¿qué es lo que la población migrante de los EE UU podrá
esperar? Bueno, si la realidad corriente y el número de gente
corrientemente encarcelados en prisiones Amerikanas puede servir como
una indicación de lo que vendrá, entonces podemos esperar que el país
con el porcentaje más alta de su población detrás de las rejas ahora se
convierta en el país con el porcentaje más alta de nacionales
extranjeros detrás de sus rejas. Más evidencia de como los Estados
Unidos oprime la mayoría del mundo. En verdad, prisioneros políticos.
Los críticos liberales de comunidades seguras como el ACLU han apuntado
que el programa de comunidades seguras es nada más que la política de la
administración Bush inflada con las esteroides de Obama.(5) Aunque
tendríamos que concordar también tendríamos que ir más lejos.
¡Comunidades seguras es el utilizado del sistema de injusticia Amerikana
como una resolución substituta para su población migrante quien ellos
desalojaron en el primer lugar! Los descendientes de los habitantes
originales en esta tierra migran a los EE UU para trabajar a los
trabajos que los estadunidenses no harán, ganando menos salarios que los
estadounidenses. Pero, sólo son tantos trabajos no queridos que necesita
obreros, y frontera abiertas resultarían en una igualación en salarios
estadounidenses con el resto del mundo – el miedo más grande de la
aristocracia obrera. Esta realidad económica, junto con amenazas
políticas que una población oprimida creciente dentro de las fronteras
estadounidense propone, explica por qué los E.E.U.U. se fijan en
controlar estrictamente a los emigrantes (en particular los que cruzan
el Rio Grande)
En un discurso en El Paso, Téjas al comienzo de este año el Presidente
Obombadero otra vez andaba mintiendo y hablando por los dos lados de su
boca cuando dijo que no habría ninguna reforma comprensiva de
inmigración por la culpa de los tercos republicanos.(3) La línea final,
no habrá reforma comprensiva de inmigración y va a seguir “cumplimiento
forzoso en esteroides.” No reforma quiere decir que el requisito, bajo
comunidades seguras de la demandada cuota de deportación de 400,000
anual según un memorándum interno de ICE va a continuar para seguir
recibiendo fondos del Congreso.(3)
Cuando se le preguntó a Cecilia Muñoz, una oficial de alta nivel con el
departamento de Asuntos Interiores de la administración de Obama, sobre
el golpazo que estos tipos de números tendrán en las familias migrantes
en los Estados Unidos, ella respondió con retórica típica de la nación
opresora, dijo que, “familias quebradas son el resultado de leyes
quebradas.” Luego dijo que todo era parte del problema de
inmigración.(3)
A este pincho vendido le respondemos todo al contrario, no hay ningún
problema migratorio pero sí hay un problema del imperialismo y en
realidad es el problema número uno en el mundo ahora; principalmente el
imperialismo estadounidense.
Después de la deportación de Susana Ramírez hubo un esfuerzo para que
voten y pasen una declaración del senado para negar fundos para el
programa de comunidades seguras de ICE. La declaración se llamaba “La
Ley de Susana”, y fue negada.(3)
by a North Carolina prisoner November 2011 permalink
I would like to notify you all that the comrades and myself (about 10 or
15 of us) are going on an indefinite food strike until our demands are
met. It will begin on December 1 and the demands are based on conditions
at the institution that are unequal to others, inhumane and macabre.
Some of the major demands are:
Being able to recreate (on exercise hour) without full restraints
Removal of the metal covering from all segregation windows
Placement of desk, chair and hygiene shelf back in the rooms
Adequate food and full portions on food trays
End of censorship, bans and/or dis-approvals of reading/study material
which do not violate prison rules
Most of our demand are for segregated prisoners who suffer greatly
in the facility. We have also organized a call-in and letter writing
campaign on December 1 and after in response to these conditions we’re
fighting. Our parents, friends and comrades will be participating. We
are learning from our
Pelican
Bay and Georgia comrades, even though our strike is on a smaller
scale. We still need to learn from the experiences of our comrades to
eliminate mistakes.
The information for calling in and letter writing is below.
Superintendent Lance Corponing Assistant Superintendent Larry
Williams Phone: 828-438-5585 Address: Foothills CI - 3720 5150
Western Ave. Morganton, NC 28655
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of
Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander 2010, The New Press, New York
As a whole, this is a very useful book for anyone interested in
understanding the criminal injustice system. It is an excellent
aggregation of facts about every aspect of the system - incarceration,
policing, the drug war, the courts - making a scientific case that this
is really a system for social control of oppressed nations within U.$.
borders. Where Alexander falls short is in her analysis of how this fits
into society in the broader context. She doesn’t actually name national
oppression, though certainly this book is clear evidence for the
existence of something more than just an attitude of racism. She doesn’t
take on the question of why Amerikan capitalism would want such an
extensive system of prison social control. As a result, her solutions
are reformist at best.
Prisons as a Tool of National Oppression
Starting with the history of Amerikan prisons, Alexander explains how
the relatively low and stable incarceration rate in this country changed
after the civil rights movement which the government labeled criminal
and used as an excuse to “get tough on crime” and increase
incarceration.(p. 41) It was actually the revolutionary nationalist
movements of the 60s and 70s, most notably the Black Panther Party,
which terrified the Amerikan government and led to mass incarceration,
murder, brutality and infiltration to try to destroy these revolutionary
groups. Alexander’s failure to mention these movements is symptomatic of
a missing piece throughout the book - an understanding of the importance
of revolutionary nationalism.
This book does an excellent job exposing the war on drugs as a farce
that is only really concerned with social control. Although studies show
that the majority of drug users are white, 3/4 of people locked up for
drug crimes are Black or Latino.(p. 96) Further, statistics show that
violent crime rates are unrelated to imprisonment rates.(p. 99) So when
people say they are locking up “criminals” what they mean is they are
locking up people who Amerikan society has decided are “criminals” just
because of their nation of birth.
To her credit, Alexander does call out Nixon and his cronies for their
appeal to the white working class in the name of racism, under the guise
of law and order, because this group felt their privileges were
threatened.(p. 45) And she recognizes this underlying current of white
support for the criminal injustice system for a variety of reasons
related to what we call national privilege. But this book doesn’t spend
much time on the historical relations between the privileged white
nation and the oppressed nations. J. Sakai’s book Settlers: The
Mythology of the White Proletariat does a much better job of that.
Alexander argues that Amerikans, for the most part, oppose overt racial
bias. But instead we have developed a culture of covert bias that
substitutes words like “criminal” for “Black” and then discriminates
freely. This bias is what fuels the unequal policing, sentencing rates,
prison treatment, and life after release for Blacks and Latinos in
Amerika. Studies have shown that Amerikans (both Black and white) when
asked to identify or imagine a drug criminal overwhelmingly picture a
Black person.(p. 104) So although this is statistically inaccurate (they
should be picturing a white youth), this is the culture Amerika
condones. Even this thin veil over outright racism is a relatively new
development in Amerika’s long history as a pioneer in the ideology of
racism. (see
Labor
Aristocracy, Mass Base of Social Democracy by H.W. Edwards)
“More African American adults are under correctional control today - in
prison or jail, on probation or parole - than were enslaved in 1850, a
decade before the Civil War began.”(p. 175) It is this national
oppression that leads Alexander to draw the parallel that is the source
of the book’s title: prisons are the new Jim Crow. She recognizes that
prisons are not slavery, but that instead prisons are a legal way to
systematically oppress whole groups of people. While she focuses on
Blacks in this book she does note that the same conditions apply to
Latinos in this country.
The Role of the Police
Alexander addresses each aspect of the criminal injustice system,
demonstrating how it has developed into a tool to lock up Black and
Brown people. Starting with the police system she notes that the courts
have virtually eliminated Fourth Amendment protections against random
police searches, which has led to scatter shot searches. By sheer volume
yield some arrests.(p. 67) These searches are done at the discretion of
the police, who are free to discriminate in the neighborhoods they
choose to terrorize. This discretion has led to systematic searches of
people living in ghettos but no harassment of frat parties or suburban
homes and schools where statistics show the cops would actually have an
even better chance of finding drugs. In reality, when drug arrests
increase it is not a sign of increased drug activity, just an increase
in police activity.(p. 76)
Law enforcement agencies were encouraged to participate in the drug war
with huge financial incentives from the federal government as well as
equipment and training. This led to the militarization of the police in
the 1990s.(p. 74) Federal funding is directly linked to the number of
drug arrests that are made, and police were granted the right to keep
cash and assets seized in the drug war.(p. 77) These two factors
strongly rewarded police departments for their participation.
Asset seizure laws emphasize the lack of interest by the government and
police in imprisoning drug dealers or kingpins, despite drug war
propaganda claims to the contrary. Those with assets are allowed to buy
their freedom while small time users with few assets to trade are
subjected to lengthy prison terms. Alexander cites examples of payments
of $50k cutting an average of 6.3 years from a sentence in
Massachusetts.(p. 78)
Bias in the Courts
Taking on the court system, Alexander points out that most people are
not represented by adequate legal council, if they have a lawyer at all,
since the war on drugs has focused on poor people. And as a result, most
people end up pleading out rather than going to trial. The prosecution
is granted broad authority to charge people with whatever crimes they
like, and so they can make the list of charges appear to carry a long
sentence suggesting that someone would do well to accept a “lesser” plea
bargained deal, even if the likelihood of getting a conviction on some
of the charges is very low.
“The critical point is that thousands of people are swept into the
criminal justice system every year pursuant to the drug war without much
regard for their guilt or innocence. The police are allowed by the
courts to conduct fishing expeditions for drugs on streets and freeways
based on nothing more than a hunch. Homes may be searched for drugs
based on a tip from an unreliable, confidential informant who is trading
the information for money or to escape prison time. And once swept
inside the system, people are often denied attorneys or meaningful
representation and pressured into plea bargains by the threat of
unbelievably harsh sentences - sentences for minor drug crimes that are
higher than many countries impose on convicted murderers.”(p. 88)
After allowing discretion in areas that ensure biased arrests, trials
and sentences, the courts shut off any ability for people to challenge
inherent racial bias in the system. The Supreme Court ruled that there
must be overt statements by the prosecutor or jury to consider racial
bias under the constitution. But prosecutorial discretion leads to
disproportionate treatment of cases by race.
Further discretion in dismissing jurors, selective policing, and
sentencing all lead to systematically different treatment for Blacks and
Latinos relative to whites. This can be demonstrated easily enough with
a look at the numbers. Sophisticated studies controlling for all other
possible variables consistently show this bias. But a 2001 Supreme Court
ruling determined that racial profiling cases can only be initiated by
the government. “The legal rules adopted by the Supreme Court guarantee
that those who find themselves locked up and permanently locked out due
to the drug war are overwhelmingly black and brown.”(p. 136)
Release from Prison but a Lifetime of Oppression
This book goes beyond the system of incarceration to look at the impact
on prisoners who are released as well as on their families and
communities. Alexander paints a picture that is fundamentally
devastating to the Black community.
She outlines how housing discrimination against former felons prevents
them from getting Section 8 housing when this is a group most likely to
be in need of housing assistance. Public housing can reject applicants
based on arrests even if there was no conviction. This lack of
subsidized or publicly funded housing is compounded by the
unavailability of jobs to people convicted of crimes, as a common
question on job applications is used to reject these folks. “Nearly
one-third of young black men in the United States today are out of work.
The jobless rate for young black male dropouts, including those
incarcerated, is a staggering 65 percent.”(p. 149)
“Nationwide, nearly seven out of eight people living in high-poverty
urban areas are members of a minority group.”(p. 191) A standard
condition of parole is a promise not to associate with felons, a virtual
impossibility when released back into a community that is riddled with
former felons.
“Today a criminal freed from prison has scarcely more rights, and
arguably less respect, than a freed slave or a black person living
‘free’ in Mississippi at the height of Jim Crow. Those released from
prison on parole can be stopped and searched by the police for any
reason - or no reason at all - and returned to prison for the most minor
of infractions, such as failing to attend a meeting with a parole
officer. Even when released from the system’s formal control, the stigma
of criminality lingers. Police supervision, monitoring, and harassment
are facts of life not only for those labeled criminals, but for all
those who ‘look like’ criminals. Lynch mobs may be long gone, but the
threat of police violence is ever present…The ‘whites only’ signs may be
gone, but new signs have gone up - notices placed in job applications,
rental agreements, loan applications, forms for welfare benefits, school
applications, and petitions for licenses, informing the general public
that ‘felons’ are not wanted here. A criminal record today authorizes
precisely the forms of discrimination we supposedly left behind -
discrimination in employment, housing, education, public benefits, and
jury service. Those labeled criminals can even be denied the right to
vote.”(p. 138)
Alexander devotes a number of pages to the issue of voting and the
prohibition in all but two states on prisoners voting while incarcerated
for a felony offense, and the further denial of the vote to prisoners
released on parole. Some states even take away prisoners’ right to vote
for life. She is right that this is a fundamental point of
disenfranchisement, but Alexander suggests that “a large number of close
elections would have come out differently if felons had been allowed to
vote…”(p. 156) This may be true, but those differences would not have
had a significant impact on the politics in Amerika. This is because
elections
in an imperialist country are just an exercise in choosing between
figureheads. The supposedly more liberal Democrats like Clinton and
Obama
were the ones who expanded the criminal injustice system the most. So a
different imperialist winning an election would not change the system.
Oppressed Nation Culture
On the Amerikan culture and treatment of oppressed peoples Alexander
asks: “…are we wiling to demonize a population, declare a war against
them, and then stand back and heap shame and contempt upon them for
failing to behave like model citizens while under attack?”(p. 165) She
argues that the culture of the oppressed is an inevitable result of the
conditions faced by the oppressed. And in fact the creation of lumpen
organizations for support is a reasonable outcome.
“So herein lies the paradox and predicament of young black men labeled
criminals. A war has been declared on them, and they have been rounded
up for engaging in precisely the same crimes that go largely ignored in
middle and upper class white communities - possession and sale of
illegal drugs. For those residing in ghetto communities, employment is
scarce - often nonexistent. Schools located in ghetto communities more
closely resemble prisons than places of learning, creativity, or moral
development. …many fathers are in prison, and those who are ‘free’ bear
the prison label. They are often unable to provide for, or meaningfully
contribute to, a family. And we wonder, then, that many youth embrace
their stigmatized identity as a means of survival in this new caste
system? Should we be shocked when they turn to gangs or fellow inmates
for support when no viable family support structure exists? After all,
in many respects, they are simply doing what black people did during the
Jim Crow era - they are turning to each other for support and solace in
a society that despises them.
“Yet when these young people do what all severely stigmatized groups do
- try to cope by turning to each other and embracing their stigma in a
desperate effort to regain some measure of self esteem - we, as a
society, heap more shame and contempt upon them. We tell them their
friends are ‘no good’, that they will ‘amount to nothing,’ that they are
‘wasting their lives,’ and that ‘they’re nothing but criminals.’ We
condemn their baggy pants (a fashion trend that mimics prison-issue
pants) and the music that glorifies a life many feel they cannot avoid.
When we are done shaming them, we throw up our hands and then turn out
backs as they are carted off to jail.”(p167)
National Oppression
Alexander would do well to consider the difference between racism, an
attitude, and national oppression, a system inherent to imperialist
economics. Essentially she is describing national oppression when she
talks about systematic racism. But by missing this key concept,
Alexander is able to sidestep a discussion about national liberation
from imperialism.
“When the system of mass incarceration collapses (and if history is any
guide, it will), historians will undoubtedly look back and marvel that
such an extraordinarily comprehensive system of racialized social
control existed in the United States. How fascinating, they will likely
say, that a drug war was waged almost exclusively against poor people of
color - people already trapped in ghettos that lacked jobs and decent
schools. They were rounded up by the millions, packed away in prisons,
and when released they were stigmatized for life, denied the right to
vote, and ushered into a world of discrimination. Legally barred from
employment, housing, and welfare benefits - and saddled with thousands
of dollars of debt - the people were shamed and condemned for failing to
hold together their families. They were chastised for succumbing to
depression and anger, and blamed for landing back in prison. Historians
will likely wonder how we could describe the new caste system as a
system of crime control, when it is difficult to imagine a system better
designed to create - rather than prevent - crime.”(p. 170)
Alexander does an excellent job describing the system of national
oppression in the United $tates. She notes “One way of understanding our
current system of mass incarceration is to think of it as a birdcage
with a locked door. It is a set of structural arrangements that locks a
racially distinct group into a subordinate political, social and
economic position, effectively creating a second-class citizenship.
Those trapped within the system are not merely disadvantaged, in the
sense that they are competing on an unequal playing field or face
additional hurdles to political or economic success; rather, the system
itself is structured to lock them into a subordinate position.”(p. 180)
The book explains that the arrest and lock up of a few whites is just
part of the latest system of national oppression or “the New Jim Crow”:
“[T]he inclusion of some whites in the system of control is essential to
preserving the image of a colorblind criminal justice system and
maintaining our self-image as fair and unbiased people.”(p. 199)
One interesting conclusion by Alexander is the potential for mass
genocide inherent in the Amerikan prison system. There really is no need
for the poor Black workers in factories in this country any longer so
this population has truly become disposable and can be locked away en
masse without any negative impact to the capitalists (in fact there are
some positive impacts to these government subsidized
industries).(p. 208) It’s not a big leap from here to genocide.
Economics for Blacks have worsened even as they improved for whites. “As
unemployment rates sank to historically low levels in the late 1990s for
the general population, joblessness rates among non-college black men in
their twenties rose to their highest levels ever, propelled by
skyrocketing incarceration rates.”(p. 216) She points out poverty and
unemployment stats do not include people in prison. This could
underestimate the true jobless rate by as much as 24% for less-educated
black men.(p. 216)
Unfortunately, in her discussion of what she calls “structural racism”
Alexander falls short. She recognizes white privilege and the
reactionary attitudes of the white nation, acknowledging that “working
class” whites support both current and past racism, but she does not
investigate why this is so. Attempting to explain the systematic racism
in Amerikan society Alexander ignores national oppression and ends up
with a less than clear picture of the history and material basis of
white nation privilege and oppressed nation oppression within U.$.
borders. National oppression is the reason why these oppressive
institutions of slavery, Jim Crow, and imprisonment keep coming back in
different forms in the U.$., and national liberation is the only
solution.
How to Change the System
Alexander highlights the economic consequences of cutting prisons which
show the strong financial investment that Amerikans have overall in this
system: “If four out of five people were released from prison, far more
than a million people could lose their jobs.”(p. 218) This estimation
doesn’t include the private sector: private prisons, manufacturers of
police and guard weapons, etc.
To her credit, Alexander understands that small reformist attacks on the
criminal injustice system won’t put an end to the systematic oppression:
“A civil war had to be waged to end slavery; a mass movement was
necessary to bring a formal end to Jim Crow. Those who imagine that far
less is required to dismantle mass incarceration and build a new,
egalitarian racial consensus reflecting a compassionate rather than
punitive impulse towards poor people of color fail to appreciate the
distance between Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream and the ongoing racial
nightmare for those locked up and locked out of American
society.”(p. 223)
The problem with this analysis is that it fails to extrapolate what’s
really necessary to make change sufficient to create an egalitarian
society. In fact, these very examples demonstrate the ability of the
Amerikan imperialists to adapt and change their approach to national
oppression: slavery, Jim Crow, mass incarceration. Alexander seems to
see this when she talks about what will happen if the movement to end
mass incarceration doesn’t address race: “Inevitably a new system of
racialized social control will emerge - one that we cannot foresee, just
as the current system of mass incarceration was not predicted by anyone
thirty years ago.”(p. 245) But she stops short of offering any useful
solutions to “address race” in this fight.
Alexander argues that affirmative action and the token advancement of a
few Blacks has served as a racial bribe rather than progress, getting
them to abandon more radical change.(p. 232) She concludes that the
Black middle class is a product of affirmative action and would
disappear without it.(p. 234) “Whereas black success stories undermined
the logic of Jim Crow, they actually reinforce the system of mass
incarceration. Mass incarceration depends for its legitimacy on the
widespread belief that all those who appear trapped at the bottom
actually chose their fate.”(p. 235)
This is a good point: successful reformism often ends with a few token
bribes in an attempt to stop a movement from making greater demands. And
this is not really success. But short of revolution, there is no way to
successfully end national oppression. And so Alexander’s book concludes
on a weak note as she tries to effect a bold and radical tone and
suggest drastic steps are needed but offers no concrete suggestions
about what these steps should be. She ends up criticizing everything
from affirmative action to Obama but then pulling back and apologizing
for these same institutions and individuals. This is the hole that
reformists are stuck in once they see the mess that is the imperialist
Amerikan system.
It’s not impossible to imagine circumstances under which the Amerikan
imperialists would want to integrate the oppressed nations within U.$.
borders into white nation privilege. This could be advantageous to keep
the home country population entirely pacified and allow the imperialists
to focus on plunder and terrorism in the Third World. But we would not
consider this a success for the oppressed peoples of the world.
A progressive movement against national oppression within U.$. borders
must fight alongside the oppressed nations of the world who face even
worse conditions at the hands of Amerikan imperialism. These Third World
peoples may not face mass incarceration, but they suffer from short
lifespans due to hunger and preventable diseases as well as the
ever-present threat of death at the hands of Amerikan militarism making
the world safe for capitalist plunder.
by a North Carolina prisoner November 2011 permalink
This is a cry out for help from the brothers in the struggle at the
confinement of Scotland Correctional Institution located in Laurinburg,
NC under the ruler and dictatorship of Karen Stanback, Asst.
Superintendent of Security. It grieves my heart to know and witness an
African American woman, apply rules of oppression to camp populated by
80% minority races. Actions of oppression ordered by K. Stanback are:
To ban all Under Lock & Key publications
No state or local newspapers
No shirt jackets worn in the dinner hall, school, or any religious
programs (no matter what the temp is)
No showering from 6pm until 9pm (with a population of 1500
prisoners)
No jobs for close custody prisoners once they lose their assigned job.
(All jobs are then referred to medium custody prisoners)
Confining over 145 prisoners in one unit called Green D,E,F or
“Gangland”. This is where all the gangs are housed at, mixed together,
and not giving any opportunity for regular programs or employment like
the regular population.
Only 1 hour of recreation. Without proper exercise, fresh air, and
movement an individual develops a mentality like a caged in animal.
She and the admins here have created a very hostile environment and seem
to enjoy it.
Brothers and sisters please! This is our cry for relief the hammer of
oppression being applied to us at Scotland CI under the watch of K.
Stanback. Please contact the appropriate resources to aid us in our
struggle.
MIM(Prisons) responds: We support this comrade’s call for
prisoners to stand up against oppression. This prisoner and others are
leading the struggle at Scotland and they provide an example to
prisoners across the the criminal injustice system who are facing
similar conditions.
Si se puede o no se puede? (Yes, we can or no, we can’t?) Which one is
it Mr. President?
Beginning in 2008 we started hearing from then presidential candidate
Barack Obama that if elected he’d take quick action on immigration
reform. During this time he also began straying to the left of the
bourgeois mainstream opinion by hinting at a distaste for workplace
raids of undocumented migrants. Also, he never bothered to mention
anything about the many undocumented people who’d committed a “crime” in
crossing the Mexico/U.$. border when he gave his speech at the National
Council of La Raza.(1)
Indeed, statements and positions such as these on the issue of
immigration reform helped popularize the Illinois Senator amongst
Latinos which in turn helped him to wrestle the Latino vote away from
then NY senator Hillary Clinton.(2) Yet here we are now three years out
from the election of the first Black President of the United $tates of
Amerika and time has once again shown us that Barack Obomber, like all
other Amerikan politicians, has nothing more to offer the oppressed
nations but broken promises and more oppression.
One million people have been deported from the U.$. since the taking of
office by Obomber in 2009. That’s 400,000 deportations a year with the
various Latino nations bearing the brunt of it.(3) It’s also important
to note that this number of deportations is actually up from the
previous Bu$h administration and ridiculously higher than the 500,000
people who were literally “railroaded” to Mexico between 1929-39 in what
the imperialists called “repatriation drivers.” This despite the fact
that not everyone who was deported were Mexican nationals.(4)
More recently the U.$. initiated the mass deportations under the guise
of the Obomber administration’s federally funded program called
“Secure
Communities” in which Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
officials, in conjunction with local law enforcement, searched out the
undocumented and carried out raids against them all across the
country.(3) The raids are conducted under the heading of “fugitive
operations.”(3)
At first local law enforcement was given the option of joining Secure
Communities but many were hesitant foreseeing the potential problems
this might pose to their daily functions as occupiers of the internal
semi-colonies as well as to the policing of neighborhoods with a high
density populace of newly arrived migrants.(3) ICE however was
eventually able to sell Secure Communities to the pigs after telling
them they’d only be going after the “worst of the worst.”(3)
According to government mouthpieces, half the people who’ve been
deported since 2009 were violent offenders, but investigations into the
program have revealed that many of the people deported have actually
been deported due to minor infractions such as Susana Ramirez who was
arrested by local law enforcement for a minor traffic stop, sent to a
federal detention center and was subsequently deported to Mexico from
Maple Park, Illinois. All this happened in the span of a few days
despite the fact that she had no criminal background and was raising
U.$. citizen children.(3)
But was Susana Ramirez actually one of the lucky ones considering the
circumstances? The answer is yes.
Tent cities, cramped quarters, no right to attorneys, racism, verbal
abuse, mental abuse, beatings and sexual assault, this is the stark
reality that awaits the undocumented as they are imprisoned and deported
at the hands of Amerikans.(3)
Case in point is the Willacy, Texas Federal Immigration Detention Center
where a recent investigation by the ACLU determined that there was
“widespread sexual abuse of female detainees and a systematically
positioned injustice system with no accountability firmly intact.”(3)
This information was further corroborated by former Willacy guards and a
former Willacy psychiatrist who gave eyewitness accounts of the abuse,
contrary to a 2009 ICE audit of the prison camp in which the detention
center was given a rating of “good.”(3)
During the same period ICE also conducted a survey of the prisoners
supposedly to encourage grievance filing. Unfortunately, the survey was
nothing but a ruse orchestrated and conducted by ICE officials
themselves in an effort to pinpoint those attempting to file complaints
and dissuade them from following through.(3)
What’s to Come?
So what is in store for the migrant population of the U.$.? Well, if
current reality and the number of people currently locked up in
Amerika’s prisons can serve as indicators of what’s to come then we
should expect the country with the highest percentage of its population
behind bars to now become the country with the highest percentage of
foreign nationals behind bars as well. This is more proof of how the
U.$. oppresses the world’s majority. They are political prisoners
indeed.
Liberal critics of the Secure Communities program such as the ACLU have
pointed out that it is nothing more than the Bush administration’s
immigration policies juiced up on Obomber steroids.(5) And while we’d
have to agree we’d also have to go further. Secure Communities is the
utilization of the Amerikan injustice system as a proxy resolution for
its superfluous migrant population which the U.$. directly displaced to
begin with! Descendents of the original inhabitants of this land migrate
to the United $tates to work at jobs that Amerikans won’t do, making
less than Amerikans make in wages. But there are only so many of these
undesirable jobs that need to be filled, and open borders would result
in an equalization of Amerikan wages with the rest of the world – the
biggest fear of the labor aristocracy. This economic reality, combined
with political threats that an expanding oppressed population inside
U.$. borders poses, explains why Amerika targets migrants (particularly
those coming across the Rio Grande) for strict control.
At an El Paso speech earlier this year President Obomber was once again
telling lies and talking out of both sides of his mouth when he stated
that there would be no comprehensive immigration reform because of
Republican stubbornness.(3) Bottom line, there will be no comprehensive
reform and there will continue to be “enforcement on steroids.” And no
reform means the requirement under Secure Communities to deport 400,000
people a year, according to an ICE internal memo, will continue to be
enforced to maintain funding from Congress.(3)
When asked about the toll these numbers would take on migrant families
in the U.$., Cecilian Muñoz, an Obomber administration top official with
Interior Affairs, answered in typical oppressor nation rhetoric, that
“broken families are the result of broken laws.” She then went on to
state how it was all just part of the immigration problem.(3)
To that coconut we say quite the contrary. There is no immigration
problem, but there is an imperialism problem. As a matter of fact it’s
the number one problem in the world today: principally U.$. imperialism.
In the wake of Susana Ramirez’s deportation there was a push to have a
Senate Bill voted on and passed to deny ICE any more funding for Secure
Communities. The bill was called “Susana’s Law,” and it was defeated.(3)
by a North Carolina prisoner November 2011 permalink
On October 17 I received
Under Lock & Key
22 even though I was not supposed to. It was a mistake made by an
officer who was passing out mail. Attached to the publication was a
notice to prisoners of statewide disapproval of the publication; this
particular issue has been banned statewide. I was supposed to sign this
notice to verify I’ve been informed but luckily the officer was
distracted by his duty of distributing mail and instead of having me
sign the notice attached to ULK 22, he just slid them both
under my door.
When I realized what the notice was for, I grew kind of excited. The
kind of excitement one has when you feel you just got over on someone in
power. This made me even more interested in the ULK
publication. First, because I’m thinking I’m the only one statewide who
has one. And second I know this publication has material and information
the state doesn’t want me to know; why else would they ban it statewide?
Before I began to read the ULK, I read over the notice to find
out exactly why this particular publication was banned. The notice said:
“The publication/material violates Division of Prisons Policy at Section
D.O 109 and is disapproved for the reason listed ‘violence, disorder,
insurrection or terrorist/gang activities against individuals, groups,
organizations, the government or any of its institutions.’” With that my
excitement grew even more, thinking I obtained material of such nature.
The notice went on to say that this “violence, disorder, insurrection…”
was on page 4 of the publication.
I immediately thumbed to page 4 and found the headline “Time for
Peaceful Revolution” written boldly atop the article. I began to read. I
was confused. I retrieved the Notice to Inmate of Statewide Disapproved
Publication once again to make sure I read it correctly, and I had. I
was so confused that I had to go over the article once more because
maybe I misread!
I was confused by the reasons given for banning this material. It was
banned because it was supposedly promoting violence, disorder and so
forth against individuals, groups, organizations, the government or any
of its institutions. But really, one hundred percent honest, the article
was speaking of a peaceful revolution. In none of its lines through the
article did it speak of violence against anyone. It spoke of unity
amongst the many LOs and a little history of Kingism.
It was then that I really and truly realized the power we have amongst
us if only we could just unite as one and struggle together. I realized
it’s not us as individuals who they are afraid of, it’s we as a people
who they fear. Why else would they ban an article speaking of a peaceful
revolution and that urges others to come together as one? And also, it’s
not necessarily violence that they avoid, it’s a revolution, period!
It’s not how we go about the revolution that frightens them, whether its
violently or peacefully, it’s simply the thought of a revolution, an end
to their domination over us, that unsettles them.
And they will do what they have to do in order to maintain control,
whether it’s murder, imprison or, in our case, censor mail. If the
officer hadn’t mistakenly given me the ULK 22 I would have
actually thought that maybe MIM(Prisons) was influencing violence. But
now the truth is out and it has me in question about the other
publications that were banned. Were they really banned because of the
reason these prison administrators told you they were? I don’t think so.
Our rights are being trashed! We must, I repeat, we must, stand up for
our rights. Fight censorship!
by a South Carolina prisoner November 2011 permalink
I am a prisoner in the South Carolina Department of Corrections (SCDC),
where the prisoners are forced to march around in filthy, tattered
uniforms, and most are packed three to a cell, with one sleeping on the
floor. But in addition to a huge list of miserable conditions here, the
state has a sickening carrot-and-stick method of converting prisoners to
Christianity.
Our cafeteria basically serves dog food, and even that is withheld from
prisoners as punishment for minor rule infractions. The prison only
serves real nutritious food to prisoners who have attended a certain
number of religious indoctrination programs. This amounts to many
prisoners not being able to eat well unless they convert to Christianity
and jump through all kinds of Jesus-themed hoops.
Prisoners are also being recruited, in the guise of “education,” into an
indoctrination and training program that eventually ships them to other
prisons to proselytize and spread Christian propaganda. As a
requirement, new recruits must sign a paper that declares their
willingness to be transferred to any prison SCDC desires. Often
prisoners sign up for this program to temporarily escape the violent
conditions at other prisons, only to be returned to the same brutal
dungeons after completing the program. In such institutions, prisoners
are commonly beaten, stabbed, and raped. Who wouldn’t sign up for the
Christian fascist training program to escape that?
It all amounts to the prisoners being coerced into religious social
control programs. And many of us must choose between going to church or
going hungry; between being indoctrinated or being beaten, stabbed, or
raped.
MIM(Prisons) responds: It is typical of the Amerikkkan criminal
injustice system to force feed their approved form of “education” on
prisoners while denying them real education through censorship or just
refusal to offer programs. Religion has a long history of being used as
a tool of social control by obscuring the material conditions that
determine our reality on Earth.
Many people ask us about religion because they have heard that communism
is anti-religion. In some ways communism is the best way for religious
people to uphold their beliefs and put an end to the evils of murder,
rape, hunger and other miseries of humyns. Some argue that Jesus Christ
must have been a communist because he gave to the poor.
An issue
with religions, however, is that they uniformly reject scientific
thinking. Religions require people to accept on faith that there is a
higher power controlling life for humyns. So the first problem with
religions is that they are fostering idealist thinking. Even those who
do not believe in organized religion often look for answers in ideas,
rather than a scientific study of the material world.
In addition, historically many religions have acted as
apologists
for the oppressor class in power, telling the oppressed people not to
worry about their terrible conditions in this life because a better
afterlife awaits them if they just suffer in silence. There are notable
exceptions to this, including the liberation theologists of Latin
America, some Muslim activists, and others.
Overall we see the best of the religious movements and groups as allies
in the fight against imperialism. But we still caution people that
religion, like television, is an opiate for the mind. Even worse,
religion provides a philosophical justification for never searching for
real solutions to the problems and contradictions we face. Belief in
spirituality or religion is not a dividing line question to work with
MIM(Prisons), and we accept into USW all who take up the
anti-imperialist struggle. We will be honest in our push for everyone to
study materialist thinking and why we oppose idealism.
I have much unity with Loco1’s
piece
concerning a strategic retreat and after reading his essay I now
have some things I’d like to speak on concerning the strike. However, as
I myself am not currently housed in the SHU my words should be taken
merely as food for thought, as it is up to those participating directly
in the movement to analyze their own conditions.
Firstly, I believe that the SHU prisoners are currently in a crucial
period. They have successfully completed the first stage of their
struggle but if they are to successfully complete the next stage then
they must enter into a period of criticism, self-criticism as it is the
best way to avoid any left-deviations or rightist errors. The SHU
prisoners are the vanguard in this struggle and it is up to them if the
movement moves forward or dies a humiliating death. By moving forward I
in no way am implying that the struggle must continue full steam ahead
regardless of their present conditions.
Loco1
is correct to point out the fact that this is a protracted struggle,
and the SHU prisoners aren’t going to go anywhere anytime soon, except
to another SHU. This is especially true for the ones that are
“validated;” they have all the time in the world to sit and hammer shit
out. Or as the Afghans like to say of invading oppressor armies: “you
have the clocks, but we’ve got the time.”
Thus, here are some points of attention:
The life and death of the struggle depends on the willingness of the
prisoners to remain united. It is essential that contradictions between
the oppressed and the oppressors do not become contradictions between
the oppressed themselves.
The main force of the movement are the SHU prisoners. The immediate
reserves are the general population prisoners. Loco1 is correct to call
out specific LOs as they have the ability and influence to organize the
vast majority of the prison population. Therefore they should exert all
their power and energy into catapulting the masses to complete victory.
It is integral to the struggle that a correct political line should be
developed so that the masses may gather round it to find guidance in the
movement.
Indeed, practice is principal but this is also the time for studying
theoretical knowledge and to concentrate on concrete study, criticism
and self-criticism. Weakness in the ideological level will turn into
errors in the political field, which will ultimately manifest themselves
into mistakes in the organizational level.
“Over a long period we have developed this concept for this struggle
against the enemy: strategically we should despise all our enemies but
tactically we should take them all seriously. This also means we must
despise the enemy with respect to the whole but that we must take him
seriously with respect to each and every concrete question. If we do not
despise the enemy with respect to the whole, we shall be committing the
error of opportunism. But in dealing with concrete problems and
particular enemies we shall be committing the error of adventurism
unless we take them seriously. In war, battles can only be fought one by
one and the enemy forces can only be destroyed one by one. The same is
even true of eating a meal. Strategically, we take the eating of a meal
lightly - we know we can finish it. But actually we eat it mouthful by
mouthful. It is impossible to swallow an entire banquet in one gulp.
This is known as piecemeal solution. In military parlance, it is called
wiping out the enemy forces one by one.” -
Mao
Zedong
Knowing that the prisoncrats hate to lose ground to the prisoner
population, whether it be an inch or a mile, it then becomes the duty of
the strikers to focus all of their efforts into wiping out the most
debilitating aspects of their oppression one-by-one. One way of doing
this is to de-fang their paper tiger (SHU), thereby rendering it next to
useless.
Some might argue that the most debilitating aspect of the SHU is the
long-term isolation. We must keep in mind that the oppressors will never
give up this method of torture and oppression; it’s too effective.
Instead We must focus on winnable battles and while We can’t at this
time shut down the SHUs, We can fight going there.
It is the debriefing process that keeps people sent to the SHUs and
locked in the SHUs past their kick-out dates, and it is the debriefing
process that turns people into snitches and ensures that more people
enter the SHUs rather than leave it.
If and when the debriefing process is finally defeated then the strikers
can move on to a secondary and less crucial aspect of the
5
Core Demands which should then be able to gain primary importance,
and so on and so forth. It is in this way that the piecemeal solution is
applied.
by a Massachusetts prisoner November 2011 permalink
I read the article in Under Lock & Key 22
FL
Grievances Forbid Helping Others and I would like to thank the
comrade in Florida for having the dedication and strength to fight
against these pigs.
To my Florida comrade, I want to tell you to stay strong.
Like
Mao said “In times of difficulty we must not lose sight of our
achievements, must see the bright future and pluck up our courage.” I’m
asking all of our comrades to remain constant to fully override this
oppression in all prison systems. I’m in similar conditions in the Mass
DOC, I’m in a control unit serving three years with one hour free to
roam around a steel cage I call a dog kennel. Not only do we suffer from
isolation, prisoners here are beaten by the staff and fed cold meals.
Not only do the Correctional Officers in this facility oppress us
directly but they also provoke situations between other comrades to
enjoy the show and watch us destroy each other.
The staff continue to steal magazines and not allow grievances to fix
these problems. I for sure will continue to speak my mind regardless of
the repercussions or reprisals . Until next time stay strong united and
positive.
MIM(Prisons) adds: One of the important contributions of the
Under Lock & Key publication is connecting prisoners across the U.$.
to share information and organization. As with the recent
hunger
strike in California, prisoners all across the country are inspired
to learn about activism and unity. Do your part to share ULK and send
donations to help with the cost of printing and mailing.