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.
Do you realize, it is not wise, your actions are absurd! You know
from history, there is no mystery, haven’t you heard! It’s been tried
again and again, successful it has never been, you want to change
reality! Only an idiot would believe it, your report concludes
the opposite, but it’s your story!
To follow a flawed plan, of a foolish man, is no less
idiotic! Federal SMU, they don’t have a clue, their leader must
be psychotic! Contractors keep on bribing, congress keeps on
buying, greed takes over the atrocity! Employees union denying,
administration outright lying, sacrifice integrity for the money!
International courts condemn the practice, you must be actors, lied
to congress to get your wish! You claim it’s beneficial, in actuality
it’s detrimental, how do you explain this! Community
communication, through human isolation, the theory is
ridiculous! Add antagonization, mental manipulation, makes the
hypothesis preposterous! where’d you get that data, like
indicting a potato, the truth you will always withhold! It’s a
program, run for the sons of sam, one of the biggest bullshits ever
told!
Your stated objective, must be defective, the strategy is really
old! Institutionalization, of the entire nation, seems to be your
goal! A laboratory experiment, who gives a shit, about
some federal convicts! Just some lab rats, Stanford’s second act,
use them for your benefits!
So what if they go crazy, ignorant and lazy, signed the consent to
make it authorized! The ones who try to get wise, hasten their
demise, to keep the others terrified! Keep it on the low, nobody
needs to know, the true nature of your enterprise! When you get
exposed, the doors will be closed, now it’s you being ostracized!
What you don’t understand is any flawed plan, that tortures your
fellow man, must come to an end! Just as before, those that work the
store, shall face the forgiver of sin via pistol or pen! Don’t see
the danger, that’s the avenging angel, you must have made a
mistake! Thought he was nice, better think twice, your soul he
comes to take!
Now that he is here, no need to shed a tear, your path is set in
stone! No you can not hide, before the foolish man by your
side, now he has left you alone! But you knew all along, that it
was wrong, yes you assisted in the deed! I too cry, because now
you lie, soulless, heartless, fertilizer for planted seed!
Take you away from family so you can’t provide support Convict
you in the newspaper, call you a demon in court Fictitious jurors,
bribed witnesses, withheld exculpatory evidence Break your family’s
heart and spirit with a ridiculous sentence Break your bank with
attorney fees, fines and court cost Spin you around in circles to
keep you lost Ship you to Timbuktu knowing it’s a forever
ire Threaten your father and mother away from your side Tamper
with your mail refuse your visit Intend to destroy my family, what
else is it Listen to your phone, charge an excessive rate Make you
wait years for an appeal date During that while they harass wife and
child Crush their hope with a one line denial Supreme court your
last chance to file
Lawyer continually asking for more money I keep paying because of the
game he playing Just a little more you’ll be free for sure
Now he doesn’t answer any of my phone calls Supreme Court denied read
the writing on the walls Around and around in another circle wife
so frustrated her skin turn purple Can’t expect her to wait 180 years
for her man Would you? Welcome to the Federal Family Destruction
Plan!
The Death of the Federal Family Destruction Plan
To break free we developed our own plan After a long fought battle
victory close at hand dissected the situation found the root
problem Acquired knowledge so we know how to solve them
We understand how to defeat the prison machine It’s addicted to the
green just like a dope fiend We about to bring this scheme to a
halt You can’t control the businesses we’ve bought
Everyday we find a way, family must correspond You tried all you
could, can’t break our bond You’ve abused, tortured, tried to take
our breath We comprehend exposure scares you to death
We’ve come together to sound the alarm No longer prey, our work, our
benefit, our farm You’ve laughed, played us like fools, loved our
misery You not laughing now, intelligent tools has shown us victory
No more humiliation, slavery nor desolation Closing the door on your
new wave plantation We educating and employing our people Teaching
our kids to advance beyond being equal
Control your own situation, through education The way we make sure we
reach our destination Took back our resources, now we own the
land Seven steps to death for the Federal Family Destruction
Plan!
[This is a belated resolution from the MIM(Prisons) 2010 Congress.]
Overall, MIM(Prisons) stands by the
Resolutions
on Cell Structure passed at the last MIM congress in 2005. After 5
years of putting that resolution into practice there is experience to
sum up and questions that still need to be answered.
The theoretical basis for the cell structure is that the strength of a
centralized party comes into play when vying for state power, whether by
elections or otherwise. That is not in the cards for Maoists in the
imperialist countries at this time. Maoism is a minority movement in the
First World and will continue to be so for the foreseeable future. This
makes it even more important that we utilize our strengths and shore up
our weaknesses.
One of the main lessons to take from the cell structure resolutions is
that “[w]e oppose having geographic cells come into contact with each
other face-to-face. Infiltration and spying are rampant when it comes to
MIM. The whole strength of having a locality-based cell is that it is
possible to do all the things traditional to a movement. The security
advantages of culling people we know into a cell are lost the moment we
slack off on security and start accepting strangers or meeting with
strangers face-to-face.” We find it frustrating that critics of what
happened at etext.org as MIM faced repression are willing to ignore the
lessons of those setbacks.
At the last MIM congress in 2005, they spoke of a “MIM Center” that put
out the newspaper, among other tasks. Soon after, there was no
MIM
Notes newspaper, followed by the degeneration of the original MC
cell and finally the shutting down of their last institution, the
website at etext.org.
One of the challenges of small cells is developing and maintaining line.
Much work has been done, and if every new group or every revolutionary
had to start from scratch, we would never advance. That is why when
etext.org was repressed, MIM(Prisons) posted an archive of the MIM site
on our website. While we still do not have a regular newspaper for the
movement as a whole, the website is a crucial reference for us all.
Fraternal organizations do not agree on everything; they agree on
cardinal principles that are determined by the conditions of the time.
The etext.org site is not something Maoists must agree with 100%, but
there is no doubt that it is still the most comprehensive starting point
for any Maoist organization in the First World.
Democratic centralism is important for security and for political line
development. Yet until we are organizing on a countrywide basis, there
is no need for democratic centralism at that level, not to mention
internationally.
In guerilla warfare, the cell structure has been applied in a way that
was hierarchical so that action cells were separate from each other, but
each cell could be traced to the top of the organization. This relies on
a centralized organization or center. While MIM mentions such a center
being based around MIM Notes and etext.org in their 2005 resolutions, we
do not see the need for this center given the current circumstances. As
we have recognized before, certain ideological centers are bound to
exist based on the law of uneven development. Yet such centers are not
structural, but fluid, based on the type and amount of work done.
All that said, there is an inherent contradiction in the cell strategy.
Since organizing strategy and security tactics are not dividing line
questions, once the cell strategy is adopted and full decentralization
has occurred, it is possible for cells to change their line on this
question. Even the majority could do so and a new centralized party
could push remaining cells to the periphery. Since we work to build a
movement and not our individual organizations, and our work is already
on the periphery, we should not be concerned about the impacts of such a
move on our organization. It is, however, worrisome to the extent that
we see our comrades opened up to attacks through faulty security.
Part of accepting cell strategy is distinguishing between cadre work and
mass work. The self-described anarchist movement is able to mobilize
large numbers in mass work while abhorring centralized organization. We
should learn from their example, while not succumbing to liberalism in
our security practices or abandoning scientific leadership.
Getting the correct balance of cadre work and mass work will be more
challenging with a cell structure. There is no way to impose a balance
on the movement as a whole without a center, but we can pay attention to
what is going on around us and get in where we fit in. Leading cells
should not be shy to point out where the movement needs more investment
of resources.
One amendment we would make to the “Resolutions on Cell Structure” is to
cut the suggestion that a one-persyn cell “in many ways… has the least
worries security-wise!” Certainly, one-persyn cells should maintain high
standards for admitting others. However, the value of
criticism/self-criticism on the level of day-to-day work is something
that is stressed within Maoism, and we’ve benefited from in our own
practice in MIM(Prisons). We still need democratic centralism with the
cell structure to provide crucial discipline and accountability. The
criticisms we can give and get from other cells will be limited in
nature if our security is correct. And we have seen how one-persyn cells
can degrade or disappear quickly.
by a North Carolina prisoner October 2010 permalink
NAS told us “ghetto prisoners rise” and Bob Marley asked “How long shall
they kill our prophets?” It’s been going on for years, yet we have
failed to grasp on to a sincere movement with righteous motives. When
the Europeans landed here they drove off the inhabitants or enslaved
them. Sounds familiar to the immigration issues of today. Then they
enslaved over 10 million native Africans throughout the “new world.”
Sounds like the incarceration and slave laboring of the Black and Latino
youth of today through prison industries.
Now they don’t have to kill our prophets like Martin, Malcolm, and
Hampton. They just imprison them on anything they can to stop a
movement. Education is the key to unlock the doors that block us and
communication is the keyring that holds it together. Ghetto prisoners
rise, rise, rise, united we stand and divided we fall. When the CIA
killed Ernesto “Che” Guevera, he exclaimed “go ahead, what are you
waiting for, you will only kill a man.” Meaning his purpose, and meaning
for which he fights will still live on. If we stand idle we are with the
oppressor. Nelson Mandela said “If you fail to help the oppressed you
become the oppressor.” Don’t be my oppressor. Revolution starts with the
mistreatment of people, not a revolutionary.
Their objective is to keep you deaf, dumb and blind. Ignorance is
suicide, they run their agenda through propaganda, spreading rumors and
lies through their media. Zach de la Rocha said “fear is your only god”
but don’t let fear put you in check. The time to act is now, unite.
“Penitentiaries is packed with promise makers, never realize the
precious time these bitch niggas is wasting.” - 2Pac
The November 2 elections promise some shuffling of the imperialist
representatives in government, but as usual with elections where the
choices are limited to different flavors of imperialist leaders, there
will be no real change. One ballot initiative that did catch our
attention is Proposition 19 in California which would legalize and
regulate marijuana.
In an attempt to reduce support for Prop 19, on 30 September 2010
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a law that changes the
punishment for possession of less than an ounce of pot to just a fine.
This reduces the potential impact of Prop 19 and should cut down on the
number of people in prison for marijuana possession. But even arrests
and convictions without a prison sentence have negative repercussions,
so Prop 19 goes farther in limiting the reach of the state in terms of
possession laws.
MIM(Prisons) supports any laws that will cut back on the number of
people locked up in prison or otherwise controlled by the imperialist
state. We know that drug laws (like other laws) are disproportionately
prosecuted against oppressed nations within U.$. borders, resulting in
huge numbers of Blacks and Latinos behind bars. For this reason we would
support legalizing all drugs to take power away from the imperialist
government and its criminal injustice system.
In 2009, just over half of the drug arrests were for marijuana (848,408
out of 1,663,583).(1) Marijuana arrests are growing as a proportion of
total drug arrests in the U.$., up to 52.6% in 2009 from 39.9% in 1995.
This is driven by arrests for simple possession, the percentage of
arrests for marijuana trafficking has not changed much over time.(2)
Adding to these statistics on marijuana arrests is compelling
information on the disproportionate use of marijuana laws against Black
men in California. The Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice reports:
“African Americans, just 6% of the state’s population…comprise a
staggering 45% of the 1,600 Californians imprisoned for marijuana,
including more than half of those locked up for marijuana felonies.
Blacks are nearly 4 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana than
other races, a racial gap only slightly wider than for other crimes. But
after African Americans enter California’s ‘Black marijuana system,’
disparities multiply more than for any other offense. Seven in 10 Black
marijuana arrestees are charged with felonies, compared to one-fifth for
other races. Blacks convicted of marijuana felonies are 3 times more
likely to be sent to prison than Nonblack marijuana felons. The upshot
of these accumulating discriminations is that Blacks wind up being
imprisoned for marijuana at 8 times the rate of Hispanics and 18 times
the rate of Whites. At older ages, the Black-Nonblack marijuana
imprisonment gap soars to nearly 4,000%… No other offense (including
violent, property, and other crimes) and no other drug (including
heroin, methamphetamine, and crack) even remotely displays the huge
racial discrepancies in imprisonment for marijuana.”(3)
The new law would not completely eliminate marijuana arrests and
prosecutions, primarily because it restricts the legal age to 21 and
only allows possession of small quantities, but they would be greatly
reduced. In addition, the federal government has promised to challenge
the constitutionality of Prop 19 if it passes, and to enforce the
federal laws in California regardless. Of course we can’t look at these
laws in a vacuum, the criminal injustice system will not cut back on the
police force or shrink the prisons simply because one law changes. Cops
will just find other reasons to arrest people, and those people will
continue to be disproportionately Black and Latino.
Even worse, cities like Oakland will likely be using the new tax
revenues to restore its recently cut back police force. The city stands
to be one of the biggest beneficiaries if the law passes, as it is home
to Oaksterdam University, which will be licensing large growing and
distribution centers under the new law. The financial interests behind
Oaksterdam University bankrolled the introduction of Prop 19 to the
November ballot. Los Angeles campus chancellor Jeff Jones pointed out
that support has come primarily from the jobs and tax revenue angle. He
says that focusing on imprisonment rates gets little support from
Californians.
While the imperialists run the global drug trade, here the state is
partnering with corporate interests to take over the local industry,
which has been the domain of the lumpen class. Following the national
liberation movements of the sixties many in the ghetto who didn’t see
the Amerikan dream through integration were able to find an income
through the drug economy. By the 1970s, Italians, Jews and others who
dominated black markets, in particular drugs, had long been integrated
into white Amerika. Whites left the inner cities for the suburbs where
they could become richer more easily by joining a growing financial
sector, allowing for Black and Latino gangs to take over profitable
street crime in their own areas. Organized crime, led by the CIA, backed
the most individualistic and destructive emerging groups, while
repressing Black and Brown power movements and flooding these
neighborhoods with cocaine.(4)
Faced with economic crisis today, white Amerika wants these jobs back.
And the state is leading the charge, hoping to reach a new tax source to
close huge shortfalls in paying their bureaucrat employees - especially
their pigs, who account for 85% of city spending in Oakland (police
& fire combined).(5) But whites aren’t forming a new mafia (at least
not exactly). Instead they formed a new university to train and certify
workers in the industry and they have joined labor unions to ensure
wages of $25.75 an hour with pensions, paid vacations and health
insurance.(6) In contrast, reports from the 1990s showed that most in
the drug game in the inner cities made around minimum wage and worked
long hours (needless to say with no benefits).(7) So the state hopes to
shrink the workforce in drug sales and production, pay a few trained
workers a nice sum, and increase their share of profits from the sale of
marijuana to pay cops and other state employees. In the process, the
economic crisis will be passed along to the lumpen who will become ever
more desperate to make ends meet. This will lead to more violence and
problems, and make the need for self-determination more dire in
oppressed nation communities that lack legal job markets.
While MIM(Prisons) supports the passage of laws that result in fewer
people in prison, we are under no illusions that even full legalization
of drugs in Amerika will solve the drug problems here. As we have seen
with alcohol, legalization of a drug does not make for safe use.
Amerikan culture is alienating and leads to rampant legal and illegal
drug abuse. According to a World Health Organization survey of 17
countries across the globe, the U.$ leads the world in users of both
legal and illegal drugs. Drug use is correlated with wealth of a country
with the richer countries having a higher percentage of drug users.(8)
It will take a revolution to create a culture that allows people to feel
valuable, safe and empowered and not in need of the easy escape that can
be found in drugs. After the revolution in China, the Maoist-led country
basically eliminated drug addiction through community-based campaigns.
Drug addiction, particularly to opium, was a widespread problem imported
by the British. But after the revolution there was a strong focus on
helping drug addicts get clean, and on giving everyone useful work and
education as well as health care. This campaign, combined with a
strategy of wiping out opium growing and distribution in favor of much
needed food crops, virtually eliminated the drug problems in China by
the early 1950s. Only with a government that serves the people rather
than working to enrich its imperialist masters will we be able to
eliminate drug abuse and the criminal injustice system. As we work
towards such a system we will support laws that result in fewer people
in prison, but we know the impact of these laws will be minimal at best.
I’m writing in response to the article
“Gulf
Oil Spill: It’s Capitalism, Stupid!”, and wanted to address one
issue within the article. In this prisoner’s article, he states that
“this type of disaster would have had a very small to nil chance of
happening in the former Soviet Union (1917-1953) [The Lenin and Stalin
era] or the socialist People’s Republic of China (1949-1976), because
those communist countries wouldn’t have had to do the extensive drilling
that the First World seems so caught up with. Why? It is exactly because
the communist countries implement something called ‘planned economics,’
to meet human needs.”
We must be careful what we teach in regard to a better government when
using the Stalinist era. This individual’s comment regarding “planned
economics” is wrong, it was not implemented peacefully but through
violence. He should read about Stalin’s seven year plan and the
collectivization of property and farms. History reflects that Stalin
killed over 20 million of his own country men, so using him or that era
as an example is misguided. Stalin was a tyrant, a pathological killer.
I would not name his era as one of humanity’s finer points, nor look up
to his “planned economics” which cost so many of his countrymen’s lives.
Additionally, the Soviet Union’s record regarding ecological and
environmental disasters is one of complete failure and surpasses the
United States record on a grand scale, both under the Stalinist era and
even today.
It is ok to believe in one form of government or a goal of government,
but let’s not distort the past to build a better future as this is
nothing more than an illusion in which we all already live under in
America.
MIM(Prisons) responds: The original author was correct to uphold
the Soviet Union and China as examples of environmentalism. In 1942,
under Stalin’s leadership, the city of Moscow composted all of the waste
of its 4,000,000 inhabitants. The biothermal process heated large
“greenhouse farms” in the city, while the resulting compost was used as
fertilizer.(1) With all the talk of “green cities” in the United $tates,
there are no projects that rival what the Soviets were doing 70 years
ago. Similarly, China and the Soviet Union had massive recycling
programs for metal decades before such things became fashionable in the
imperialist countries. Also note, that if one were to do a quantitative
comparison of socialist vs. capitalist environmentalism, one must
compare countries of the same time period, reflecting similar ecological
knowledge.
This letter gives us a chance to debunk some myths about the Stalin era
in the Soviet Union in general. First, we want to be clear that state
capitalism, which was put into place in the Soviet Union after Stalin’s
death, does not reflect Stalinism or any form of socialism. Therefore
this author is just confusing the issue by complaining about
environmental disasters there today. Second, we must point out that the
article in question never claims that planned economics was an entirely
peaceful process. However, we must be very clear that it was Stalin’s
policies and practices that enabled the Soviet Union to industrialize
the Soviet Union, defeat Hitler and put an end to fascism, in spite of
the purposeful non-interference policy of countries like the U.$. who
hoped to stand aside and let fascism wipe out communism.
This letter reflects the typical anti-Stalinist propaganda of the
imperialist countries who like to claim that Stalin himself killed over
20 million people, as if one man could possibly be so powerful. The
reality is that many people died during the fight against fascism, and
in fact Stalin himself did order or oversee many deaths of spies and
those suspected of being infiltrators for the fascists. In this way
Stalin ensured that the Soviet Union was the only country free of a
Fifth Column of fascist spies and infiltrators. This made it possible
for him to do what no other country could even come close to
accomplishing, in spite of the lack of development and widespread
poverty in the Soviet Union, and defeat Hitler. The aggressive
industrialization and collectivization reflected the needs of the Soviet
Union at the time those policies were implemented.
This letter includes the usual imperialist propaganda of labeling Stalin
a pathological tyrant rather than looking at his actions and evaluating
them scientifically. It’s easy to sling around names masquerading as
political criticisms. But when we look closely at Stalin’s record and
his policies we can see a history of carefully evaluating the difficult
conditions of the time and making decisions about what to do based on
the reality of those conditions. When you have the fascists amassing on
your borders, planning invade and massacre your population to put in
place a system of tyranny and oppression, sometimes the best options to
fight those fascists don’t involve picking flowers and singing happy
songs. Without industrialization the Soviet Union could not have
defeated Hitler (even Hitler saw this) and with an active Fifth Column
of spies the fascists would have had the inside track on Soviet
activities. In wartime difficult decisions must be made, and the world
is lucky that Stalin was a man able to make these decisions
scientifically, without sentiment, or we could be living under global
fascist rule today. As it was the Soviet Union lost more than 20 million
people to the war against the fascists. The number of lives saved by his
victory in the war is never something he gets credit for, but even
deaths from starvation due to the conditions of war are something his
critics like to count as if Stalin had personally executed every single
person who died during his leadership.
For more on Stalin we recommend MIM Theory 6, The Stalin Issue.
These are chains of another kind I see locked on a souljah’s
mind Got em killing for no purpose So he feeling that life’s
worthless. Raised in another struggle Pray for better days but
still trouble I wonder will he break free from tha enemy N see
that a king is what he can be We all victims of this white man’s
oppression locked in by his trick words n hard lessons I see kids
grown up with no dads n moms and in other countries they getting
killed by bombs. Drugs got tha hood on lock, how can we
change Mothers giving birth to babies with dead brains Fathers
living life in these pins N this is all cuz tha color of our
skin. Browns, Blacks, Yellows, N Reds No matter what, if ya ain’t
white, they wanna see ya dead Open up ya eyes so you can see tha
truth and never stop trying ta turn seeds to fruit I shed tears
more than what you would think but I shed em on tha paper with
ink I hope you listen, cuz even thou there’s diamonds that
glisten we still got pictures of kids missin Now give thought,
right now as we speak there’s a kid in this world who got nothing to
eat People spending mills on cars n claim to be stars when others
dying everyday from tha fact that they starved This is chains of
another kind
First and foremost I hope this letter reaches you. Officer Sherry A
Conrad over in the mailroom has been opening and reading my legal mail.
She has also confiscated every legal document I have tried to send to
you, along with the letters I’ve written to you about her. I used the
prisoner grievance system against her and ever since then she has used
retaliation against me. She has written 3 major disciplinary reports on
me about my mail; one of these major disciplinary reports was concerning
a letter I wrote you. I appealed this major disciplinary but Warden
Jimmy Banks has violated my due process rights and refused to answer my
appeal.
Under Lock & Key was also confiscated and sent to the Unit
Publication Review Committee for “illegal discrimination, violence,
verbal or sexual abuse or inflammatory attitudes towards any racial,
sexual, age, handicapped or individuals or groups.” I appealed the
decision of this committee but it also has been refused to be answered.
Now Warden Jimmy Banks and Law Library Officer Ms. Smith are refusing to
make copies of my legal documents so I can mail them to you and the
United States District Court to file a claim against them.
I’ve also requested the Administrative Regulation and Directives of the
Arkansas Department of Corrections so I could send them to you and the
court but I’ve been denied access to these by Warden Jimmy Banks. Warden
Banks does not want us to have these Administrative Regulations or
Directives because he or his officers at the Varner Super Max Unit do
not follow the Administrative Regulations and Directives. So many of our
rights are being violated by Warden Banks and his officers, it’s not
even funny.
This is the good ole south, “the good ole boy system” and they will do
everything it takes to keep the public, media, or any other group or
organization in the dark about how prisoners are being violated in the
Arkansas prison system. The prisoners in Arkansas will not stand or
stick together, write grievances, or write the public, media or any
other groups or organizations out of fear of major disciplinaries or
retaliation used against them for doing so. If a prisoner writes a
grievance, public officials, media or groups or sticks together to take
a stand against the ADC, they are placed in the Super Max under false
charges, written major disciplinaries that will keep them from being
released, are placed in the hole without any of their property, and the
list goes on and on.
If a prisoner keeps on doing these things to stand against the ADC then
the officers will use all kinds of force on the prisoner and make the
reports look like the force was justified. I have been held in the
Varner Super Max for one year under false banding together, escape,
possession of tobacco, and possession of cell phone charges. Now they
are using retaliation against me by confiscating my legal and personal
mail and writing me major disciplinary reports for the mail they
confiscate when I’ve broken no administrative regulation, directives,
policies or rules. They are also refusing me law books, legal copies,
and administrative regulations and directives that I need. I’ve been
told by the Warden himself that I’ll never be released from Varner Super
Max into population.
I know many prisoners who want to write your organization but they have
seen everything that has happened to me and others who have written
letters about the ADC and they are afraid. I refuse to just lay down and
go quietly away. I try to stay in the law books, and follow all rules,
policies and regulations. A lot of prisoners come to me for legal advice
and I try to help all I can. I’m working on filing a big claim of many
violations against Interim Director Ray Hobbs, Warden Jimmy Banks,
Officer Sherry A. Conrad of the ADC in the United States District Court.
MIM(Prisons) responds: This account of retaliation against
prisoners who fight censorship and other illegal actions in prisons
should strengthen our resolve to get Under Lock & Key in
the hands of all prisoners who can receive it. We know receiving ULK can
be a risk, which is why it is important that our subscribers share. But
if you’re not organizing, then nothing’s gonna change. Those on the
outside willing to help with these legal battles can aid us both in
fighting censorship and exposing the criminal injustice system. As long
as the state is not following its own rules, there will be countless
legal battles to take on.
Trapped in a jungle of degradation, where my worst enemy is my own
people. No one standing for what is right. Stuck in this mass illusion
that everything is okay. Content on what is offered by the injustice
that is thrown your way. When will you realize that you are a cog on
this system of injustice, and without you, it can not run.
Off of your sweat, muscle, tears and knowledge, these wheels of
injustice keep turning. You are the oil that keeps it going. Without you
it can not run. It would shut down like an engine full of sand. Like a
person lost in darkness, reaching for something he can not see. The
injustice system would be lost.
What do you fear? Better living conditions. More privileges. Getting
paid for the slave labor that you do now. Think! The system in place is
not for you but against you. It is for itself. You get no reward from
it. It is designed to keep us divided. No unity, and we fall for it. The
system is laughing at you and you don’t even know it. Open your eyes.
It’s not us against us, but us against them.
Stop living the fantasy life. You call yourself hard, but when it comes
to standing against the system, you go soft. Things can change if you
want them changed. All it takes is a little sacrifice. It’s not a white
and black thing. It’s us against them. In numbers we can be a force that
can be heard. It takes sacrifices, but in the long run, it’s for the
best. Don’t be a coward, stand up for what is right. Unite! And you can
be the future to make these injustices right.
I would like to say something about the
article
by the drop out skinhead who became an SNY. It is good that this person
is involving himself in MIM because MIM can remedy some line questions
concerning progress. This is i believe the underlying issue with the
snitch question, and many other strategies.
Here’s a valuable quote,
“Our public relations policy is based on anonymity, which is to say,
attraction rather than promotion; we need to always maintain personal
anonymity at the level of press, internet, radio etc. Anonymity is the
spiritual foundation of all our traditions, ever reminding us to place
principles before personalities. Understanding these traditions comes
slowly over time. We pick up information as we talk to members and visit
various groups. By following these guidelines in our dealings with
others, and society at large, we avoid problems. We still have to face
difficulties as they arise; communication problems, differences of
opinion, internal controversies, and troubles with individuals and
groups outside the fellowship. However we apply these principles, we
avoid some pitfalls. Many of our problems are like those that our
predecessors had to face. Their hard won experiences gave birth to these
traditions, and our own experience has shown that these principles are
just as valid today as they were when these traditions were formulated.
Our traditions protect us from the internal and external forces that
could destroy us.”
From where? Mao Zedong’s red book? No, a narcotics anonymous pamphlet!!
But does it really matter where it comes from, or the merit of the
content?
This is my objection to going SNY. Only because these three letters
mean, “you have told the police information”. You have strengthened the
hand of the police by information. You have dialed 911 and gave 411. For
me, that’s the foul. Now of course the gangs that these people walked
away from have a different objection than this one. But it is very
common for gangs to split, or have coups from within, or be taken over
by other gangs… examples abound! John Gotti killed his own boss to
become the boss, Lucky Luciano made peace treaties with the NY mafias
and founded ‘Murder Inc’ - his own army.
Such putchism and naked self interest is not at all a new feature of
gang activity and reality. Neither is martyrdom an estranged element of
nazism or fascism. Both Mussolini and Hitler were killed in 1945. The
drop out skinhead seems to have had a “disillusionment” about his
experience with other skinheads. Can it be possible, that a group that
espouses an ideology of national socialism, that claims to be not a gang
but a “social movement”, can surprise its own members with hidden
tenants and protocols? This person talks as if he was conscripted or
enslaved by his own group and liberated by SNY.
A motif that puts principle above inter-personalism and sentiment that
does not connect to the concepts above about anonymity. Rather avoiding
line issue progress, but material canteen, coffee pack type motivations.
Disconnected from the imperatives of duty, social progress and
revolution! Fascism claimed to be and was revolutionary! Marx explained
that the bourgeois has historically played quite a revolutionary role in
relation to the establishments that come before it. But also explained
how these bourgeois revolutions did not benefit or literate the 3rd
estate, the proletariat or the international proletariat. The 4th of
July being such a type of bourgeois revolution… while they held others
as slave.
SNY (Sensitive Needs Yard) or PC (Protective Custody) is now very
popular in prison. I think that many prisons have a majority of PC
prisoners over mainline. Both of these concepts come from the cops! and
many prisoners have let these concepts creep into their consciousness
and thinking. As MIM theory 4 said, “many of these people use FBI
reasoning in their politics. You hear the cops foster little comments.
For example, The C/O’s start calling our property shit.”Inventory this
shit” , “get your shit”, “here’s your shit”, and like monkeys, inmates
picked it up.”I’m waiting to get my shit” Stop thinking and talking like
the pigs! The C/O’s started calling a cell a house. ” go back to your
house”, “is this your house?” inmate monkeys,” in my house”…it’s not a
house! it’s a coffin! “Gassing” is another coin they want to circulate.
A little system of mnemonics that they propagate, which we swallow up!!!
In effect letting pigs create culture for us.
A prevalent concept i hear those going to SNY is “I want to back away
from the politics”… Like Cuban refugees who ask for political asylum,
but come to Miami and work with the CIA agents to overturn a political
movement. Like the bay of pigs. That is not “Apolitical” like they say.
Who cares what people say? Science is not about opinion and subjective
narratives, but observation, strict non-fiction. The drop out skinhead
relates that SNY’s are more violent than mainline now, and i agree!
Statistically SNY is one of the most violent of yards now. It wasn’t
always like that, and we can identify factor’s as to how this came
about. The DOC lowered its standard for letting people go to SNY. Before
you had to snitch, nowadays all you have to do is ask!! This is because
the DOC created a legal category of protected prisoners for its own
administrative convenience, but when challenged in court became more of
a burden than anything else. Opening up lawsuits and legal dilemmas…
They just opened the doors.
I want to caution righteous activists who hate snitch logic, to not
think of all PCs as weak cowards, some are, but know some PCs are very
dangerous! They do exercise routines also, and many pack heat
religiously as we do… Sammy “the rat” Grivano, was not a wimpy sissy at
all! but a determined fierce weasel, who killed more than anyone he
snitched on. Just like cops are not all fat pigs, some are committed
murderers. Like Johannes Mehserle, straight executioner! You have to be
like Karl Marx, who acknowledged the impressive violence of the
bourgeoisie, but qualified this violence with a philosophical analysis
of who it served, and what it meant for the workers of all nations,
never denying the inextricable link between thought and action - Theory
and Practice. Defining violence by its direction and and constitution.
MIM will help all of its students develop a deliberate super-structure,
not insulate concepts like the pigs! The pigs use slight of hand mind
control, MIM has criticism and demonstration instead of this. SNY’s need
to look hard at their own political line and ask whether or not they
push revolution, and what kind of revolution, and not act like rag dolls
caught in the currents of a river they chose to jump into. That’s real
politics not identity politics.
– a California Prisoner
D12 for MIM(prisons) responds:This comrade’s understanding
concerning the need to stay away from identity politics is good. It will
guard the movement, and prevent revisionism. This comrades reason for
seeing the SNY as only those who give 411 go to the SNY is not accurate.
The CDC has long held the policy to segregate prisoners from the general
population who have criminal records which would warrant their assault
on the general population, or due to the identity of the prisoner, i.e
pigs, k9s, and so forth. Due to the gang problem the CDC has had to
change its policy to allow former gang members who would be assaulted,
or killed if they remained on the general population, as well as
prisoners who enter the prison and face a choice of being forced into a
prison gang or to follow the underground rules set up by the prisoners.
The comrade states certain examples of cooperation between those engaged
in the unlawful market and the state, lets not forget that Lucky Luciano
aided the U.$. against fascist Italy. The main point that needs to be
remembered is that while these lumpen organizations have the greatest
potential for revolution in a parasitic imperialist country. They are
still lumpen, and have not shed their lumpen skin to stand with the
Third World proletariat as communists. The very nature of the lumpen is
predatory, not to the degree of the big imperialists, but they have a
lot of work to do. Many lumpen groups have revolutionary concepts as
their teachings, yet you still see them killing each other or
distributing drugs in to our neighborhood, robbing and stealing. It is
not surprising that many people join these lumpen organizations and are
let down, causing them to look for a way out.
History has shown that the revolutionary rhetoric espoused by the LOs
where brought in by those in the 60’s and 70’s who were involved in the
struggle for liberation. What we see is revolutionary nationalism within
the oppressed nations that are engaged in capital enterprise. We have to
recognize that it is the will of the state to play prisoner against
prisoner; to disrupt the educating and organizing of prisoners for
revolution. It’s the state that is ready to welcome prisoners and offer
them a “safe” place to do their time when the prisoner breaks a rule
that would warrant his assault or death from a lumpen organization. Or
to welcome those who no longer see any logic in participating in these
LOs due to political difference even when they tried to stay and
convince the others within their org. It is not MIM(Prisons) policy that
a prisoner should risk his safety when the prisoner doesn’t have to.
You’re more valuable alive, on the streets, and if in prison then you
should be able to move around and do political work. Engaging in
chauvinism and ultra-left behavior sets the movement back. While there
is a point when one should not cooperate with the state, we will not
encourage a persyn to stay in the SHU serving an indeterminate term,
when that persyn is a communist revolutionary and the tide is on his or
her shoulders. What matters is what one does as a communist
revolutionary. The line that one has will prove them to be for or
against the people. A friend or our enemy.