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.
As of right now here at Federal Correctional Institution Waseca, we
are flooded with Suboxone, so those articles in ULK 77 really
hit home. It is the K2 more that keeps this compound going. We do have
1% of our population on the “MAT” program, where a few of the females
here go and get their monthly fix of Suboxone and continue their stint,
nodding off at random places.
Another major issue here is that our grievance process here is a
joke. Everything gets denied and in D-Unit, the programming unit, the
ladies have constantly got cursed at when requesting the first step or
any of our administrative remedies.
I have spent over 10 years in Texas prisons (TDCJ). The way the BOP
is falling apart, except that Texas doesn’t pay their prisoners, it
would probably be better down there than here. We have no mental health
services, women report suicide ideations and nothing gets done, stating
a shortage of staff. The Unicor sweatshop is mandating overtime for
7AM-8PM and most Saturdays.
Hello, there is a notification for the Prison Rape Elimination
Act(P.R.E.A.) auditor which states that we may mail them
P.R.E.A.-related letters free of charge and to request our Jail
Administration for a private conversation. This caught my attention
because there’s been incidents that are relevant that I’ve been trying
to talk about with someone for 3 years now. It’s such a hard thing to do
when attempts to do so are so frequently thwarted.
I have had my P.R.E.A.-related mail returned to me and was denied (at
first) an audience with the P.R.E.A. facility auditor when she visits in
June. I honestly figured this would happen to me (again), so I kept very
accurate records of everything. Even one of my P.R.E.A.-related
grievances was denied. So much for Zero Tolerance, right?
This is the beginning of my writings. I also want to reach out to the
A.C.L.U. I’m waiting for my lawyer to come on Thursday as well as the
facility auditor in June.
With just a month remaining before the first series of actions around
the Juneteenth Freedom Initiative, we have received reports of
repression of activists by the Texas Department of Criminal
Justice(TDCJ).
One of the hearts of this campaign comes out of the brutal Allred
Restrictive Housing Unit(RHU) where people have spent decades in
isolation. We’ve recently learned that one organizer at Allred hasn’t
received half a dozen letters we’ve sent em over the last few months.
Eir outgoing mail is also delayed or gone missing. This mail tampering
is illegal. We wrote the
warden of Allred to stop this censorship.. If he doesn’t stop it, we
know this political repression is intentional from the top of the TDCJ
to suppress our boycotting of Juneteenth.
We are asking others to join our letter writing and postcard campaign
in support of the rights of MIM Distributors and these activists in
Allred to freely communicate. The pdf below can be downloaded, printed
on card stock and cut into four postcards. Then you can ask people to
sign them, put a postcard stamp ($0.40) on them, and drop them in a mail
box. Over the next couple months we want to show TDCJ that people
outside are paying attention and supporting the Juneteenth Freedom
Initiative. This is one way to do that. You can also call Warden Jimmy
Smith @ (940) 855-7477 (**069).
“Page(s) 4 contains information advocating prison disruption.”
Prisoners are very limited in what they can do when their grievances
are ignored. Most actions will lead to repression. A boycott is the most
passive action. There are no calls to violence nor do the plans threaten
security in any way. Just a peaceful demonstration of solidarity,
demanding some basic humyn rights be applied in Texas prisons. Yet this
is being outlawed by the state.
Even worse, in eir most recent update, one comrade in Stevenson
reported that:
“last night I was placed in handcuffs and marched off to solitary
confinement, the place from where I currently write. I woke this morning
to find I’m being charged with 2 new rules violations: 1) Attempt/threat
to assault a correctional officer and 2) Assault of a correctional
officer.”
There was no assault. In fact this comrade is not even supposed to be
housed on the second floor because of eir health conditions. Ey believes
this is retaliation for the appeals ey filed against the censorship of
literature sent by MIM Distributors. Meanwhile, MIM Distributors was not
given the opportunity to appeal, and only received the final decision
from TDCJ.
As our comrade in Stevenson Unit so eloquently concluded,
“They will never succeed in snuffing out my flame and their attempts
to silence the truth only causes it to roar even louder! They cloak
themselves in legitimacy and the trappings of power because deep down
they know they are weak and the system is crumbling – to be swept aside
along with all the silly liberal reformers and we build a better world
over their ruins, a new society based on equality and respect and
compassion and truth and justice and”love” – a human society fit for
fully involved and determined human beings at peace with themselves,
each other, and the world around us.”
A comrade in Stevenson Unit wrote to say that there are only 12
restrictive housing cells there and they are only used very short-term.
But ey is sharing the motion and other campaign materials with contacts
inside and outside to support those in RHU fighting for their humyn
rights.
Shutting down long-term solitary confinement is one of the key
campaign demands of the Juneteenth
Freedom Initiative, calling for a boycott of Juneteenth until real
freedom is attained in this country. The lawsuit points to the
irreparable harm on mental health caused by long-term solitary.
Anyone who is in a Restricted Housing Unit in Texas can use the
linked example motion to join this
lawsuit. The motion should be sent to all three addresses listed at
the end of the attached PDF. Please download and distribute to those you
know in Texas torture chambers!
28 May 2022 UPDATE from Tx TEAM ONE member - Telford
Unit: I have submitted my interest in becoming a co-plaintiff
to all inhumane conditions in all Ad-Seg/RHU buildings, especially on
this unit, and the inhumane/treatment and living conditions endured by
all alleged STG prisoners. Because for almost forty (40) years, those of
Us that are considered STG’s have been in these living conditions.
I have already written to the Eastern and Northern Districts, United
States District Courts. And I have also written to the United States
Department of Justice.
Hello, I’m a little behind in writing to you all, but I’ve been very
busy here lately. This CoreCivic facility is a complete joke, and I’ve
been helping several other prisoners file grievances to expose the many
First Amendment violations occurring here. Both mail rights and
religious rights – amongst a plethora of others – have been under attack
by the administration, creating a wide range of negative effects,
including anxiety and animosity between both prisoners and staff,
fueling addictive habits and behaviors, and out-right violence.
In the month of April, both Muslim prisoners celebrating Ramadan and
Jewish prisoners celebrating Passover were openly discriminated against
by staff, some nights not being fed until the middle of the night, if at
all. Non-Muslim/Jewish prisoners were fed at a normal time, and Easter
was not interfered with at all. The entire facility (well, one
“compound” at an all-level 3 facility) was locked down for the entire
period, and when prisoners asked to speak with a shift commander or
other ranking officers, they were told by low-level (and low-class,
low-intellect, low-moral, etc…) C.O.’s that no one was available and
that they were instructed to ignore Jews & Muslims. Some C.O.’s even
yelled derogatory things at prisoners locked in their cells, further
exacerbating an already chaotic situation. Many grievances were filed in
order to document these abuses.
The broader First Amendment issue here involves mail. All mail here
has been photocopied (poorly) for nearly 6 months, despite the
regulation clearly stating the policy as only allowing photocopying all
mail for 3 months. The Security Chief here – a ___ if I’ve ever seen one
– insists he can do anything he wants. I can assure you, security is
being undermined by this policy.
First of all, the levels of violation here has skyrocketed in the
past 6 months, far beyond anything I’ve seen in my 8 years at this
facility. Although this is technically a Level 3 (medium) prison, most
of the population actually have Level 1 or 2 points, and are overridden
to a Level 3 due to length of sentence or other factors. However,
“security” has been tightened to a degree that is so restrictive many
prisoners are simply “snapping”.
No one can get a photo or card, much less a handwritten letter, from
family or friends. No meaningful programs are available. Units are
difficult to schedule. Rec is apparently optional and random. And now
these clowns are separating the facility into a “high” and a “low” side,
but the short-staffing here, not to mention incompetence, is making
everyone act out. Not good for “security”.
Oftentimes mail, when it is actually allowed (even the copies) is
misdelivered to the wrong cells, or even the wrong units/pods. This
creates an entirely different security problem, exposing the names and
addresses of prisoners’ families to other prisoners, who aren’t always
decent people. Not to mention the obvious exposure of sensitive
information in letters or other mail (I’m sure some snitch would love to
get a hold of my ULK!) All of these “security measures” are
ostensibly intended as a response to the “spice epidemic” in prisons,
however, nothing is being done about the minuscule percentage of
prisoners receiving contraband. The mail room is more busy photocopying
and searching for what might be the shadow of a nipple in a magazine or
photo than they are looking for drugs. Isn’t the purpose of a mailroom
to look for actual dangerous contraband? So why do they get a pass on
not finding the actual dangerous contraband supposedly coming in?! BTW,
nothing at all is being done about the cops who actually bring drugs in;
don’t worry, they’re blocking all the mail…
These are just a couple of examples of the many issues here at BCCF.
CoreCivic is a cancer that needs to be cut out of the tumor that is the
mass incarceration system. Eben though Colorado DOC has a “Private
Prison Monitoring Unit” (PPMU), the head of that unit at this facility
recently got bought off (officially – he’s been carrying water for
CoreCivic for years) and is now the Chief of Unit Management here at
BCCF. No conflict of interest there, right?
This is my first issue of ULK (#77) and I am writing in
regards to the Suboxone and drug use within the prison system here in
Maryland. K2 and Suboxone are in high demand. They are the most popular
of all of the drugs here. I would say Suboxone is the most popular
because of the “trips” that come with the K2. It is my belief that they
allow drugs to come in for the money. They get the money for the urine
test, for the search task forces and the intelligence agents they use to
combat the contraband problem. And when they get the money, it’s
misappropriated.
A recent example of this was the wine sniffing dogs. It was a big
deal, it was all on the news. They played it up as alcohol was such a
big problem so they needed these dogs. But the crazy part is that I have
never seen a dog come through sniffing for wine. So where did that money
go? Honestly if a prisoner is making wine, he doesn’t have a lot of
places to stash it anyways. So there’s really no use for the dogs in the
first place. It’s all for the money. The prison staff are just making
shit up so that they can steal the money.
Now speaking on the statement made by the person from Allred’s RHU,
with the increase of contraband came a decrease in unity. That is one of
the major effects
of capitalism; division. Not only will debts drive a wedge
between debtor and supplier, but the competition between the peddlers
will create a divide because each dealer wants to monopolize the
sections. This will create beefs between gangs and organizations. Then
the increase in violence will only justify the prison’s request for more
money from the state. It’s the same way on the streets, the prison
system is just a microcosm of the streets.
Now let’s talk about the drain of ambition as an effect of the drug.
No longer will the prisoner seek self-developmental programs, nor will
he choose to blow the whistle on the prison system’s injustices. He
becomes content on doing dead time, with his Xbox, T.V., and tablet.
There are many issues that spawn from drugs. This is just the tip of the
iceberg.
Imagine a lawsuit attacking the constitutionality of the Texas Parole
System being filed in every U.S. District Court in Texas, by 100 or more
prisoners. Well this is exactly what the Khufu Foundation is attempting
to do. However, it can only be done with MASSIVE Prisoner participation.
The Texas Legislature does not meet again until 2023, and any hope of
them changing this system is slim to none. Thus, it is up to the
Prisoners to effect a change.
For the prison system to function constitutionally, there must be a
system in place that works. The continuous rejection of parole based
solely on the commitment crime does not justify the denial, and is
constitutionally unacceptable. Thus, the Khufu Foundation is calling on
those hundreds of prisoners who have been repeatedly set-off for 1D and
2D, SERIOUS NATURE OF OFFENSE and CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR PATTERN to file
Civil Rights Lawsuits for Declaratory and Injunctive relief.
Every human, town, state, and country has a History. History is a
fact that can never be changed, but redeemed. What is rehabilitation? It
is a redemption of a past history of conduct. The Texas Legislators
claim that incarceration “is the punishment” for the crime committed,
and the parole system is the rehabilitation. Yet, without a workable
parole system, without the intervention of “Board Members”, a prisoner
is continuously punished by the system which is unworkable. The fact is,
the Texas Parole Board needs to be dismantled and replaced with a
workable Parole System. The Khufu Foundation has compiled a Template
Lawsuit based on the following, along with a Memorandum of Law:
“While the U.S. Supreme Court has not defined the minimum process
required by the Due Process Clause for a denial of parole under the
California system, it made clear that the requirements were satisfied
where the inmates were allowed to speak at their hearings and to contest
the evidence against them, were afforded access to their records in
advance, and were notified as to the reasons why parole was denied.” –
see Pearson v. Muntz, 639 F.3d 1185.
I am the Plaintiff in the lawsuit against members of the TBPP, as
well as the litigator in another cause against them: Hicks V. TBPP,
6:22cv134 Armour V. TBPP, 6:22cv33 in the Eastern District-Tyler
Division. This is an update to enjoin each of you who read this and have
received multiple set-offs to file your own lawsuit and/or file motions
to join these. Also, know that there has been an order to Replead issued
in Armour v. TBPP with the Court alleging that TBPP is
protected by the Eleventh Amendment. Thus, I urge you to name Chairman
David Gutierrez and Rissie Owens as defendants.
I will be arguing that the TBPP is not protected by the 11th
Amendment in light of the Ex Parte Young doctrine, which states:
“In determining whether the doctrine of Ex Parte Young avoids an 11th
Amendment bar to suit, a federal court need only conduct a
straightforward inquiry into whether the complaint alleges an ongoing
violation of federal law and seeks relief properly characterized as
prospective.” Const. Amend.11 - See Verizon MD. Inc v. Public
Service Commission of Maryland, 535 U.S. 635, 122 S.Ct. 1753 and
McCarthy ex rel Travis V. Hawkins, 385 F.3d 407, 412 (5th Cir.
2000)
Next, please find enclosed my letter to the Court in F. Martinez,
et al., v TBCJ, et al., 3:21cv337. Please send a copy of my letter
along with my name to the Plaintiff in this cause for it is very
important that he not settle unless he gets something in writing from
the Court. TDCJ will rock one into believing they are going to do the
right thing; and they will do the right thing for just long enough for
you to think all is well until one of their people violates someone then
you find out there is nothing in writing that binds them. Examples:
Ruiz and Brown.
The Khufu Foundation is currently seeking to hear from those who have
been repeatedly set-off, and is asking them to file this lawsuit. If you
would like a copy of this lawsuit, send a SASE and 3 stamps to:
THE KHUFU FOUNDATION
910 LONEY ST.
FORT WORTH, TEXAS 76104
MIM(Prisons) adds: We do not know anything about the
Khufu Foundation and cannot vouch for them if you choose to send them
stamps. However, this campaign for parole reform is in line with some of
the demands of the Juneteenth Freedom Initiative and we thought some of
the legal strategies herein might be useful to others. We are not
lawyers. We are revolutionaries.
As revolutionaries MIM(Prisons) does not spend time working for
parole reform. We do work to build independent institutions such as our
Re-Lease on Life program to help comrades be successful and stay
involved in the struggle when they are released. If you have an upcoming
release date or parole date, it’s never to early to start working with
us.
I was impressed with the research behind the articles about Suboxone
in ULK 75 and 76. I first heard of this substance four years
ago when individuals showed up on the yard (at Richard J. Donovan) that
were using it. Someone I associated with informed me that it was like
methadone and that it was highly addictive. I know that guys here at
California Medical Facility are using Suboxone whether it’s prescribed
to them or not. In fact, illicit drugs of all types are available here,
even during the quarantine lockdown when there were no contact visits
allowed!
Also, this facility is holding a food sale to “raise money for the
Special Olympics.” The offering of a chicken sandwich, potato chips and
a cookie for $22.00 doesn’t seem like a good deal to me. Especially
considering that only a small percentage would go to the Special
Olympics and that 10% goes to the “Inmate Welfare Fund”. Is this a scam
or what!?
An article in San Quentin News on a similar fund raiser
reads:
“Prisoners spent $63,000 with 10% of the profits going to a
charity.”
I see these sales as another scheme to extract money from prisoners
and their families and friends and that the real benefactors for these
“charities” are the CDCR.
There is another article in the same newspaper on the GTL tablets
that are being pushed on us. I’ve read some of the specifications for
these tablets and they are of course cheap pieces of crap. They are
entirely dedicated to make GTL money pure and simple. How do companies
like GTL get away with it? Here is some key points from the article:
“GTL is the phone service provider for all CDCR prisons…. According
to Prison Legal News (PLN), GTL has had to pay out millions of
dollars to settle lawsuits over the years for alleged violations of the
Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 (TCPA).
“In October 2020 a New Jersey judge approved a $25 million settlement
agreement between GTL and New Jersey prisoners who paid up to 100 times
the actual phone rate between 2006 and 2016, according to
PLN.
“The company has also been sued for charging unlawfully inflated
prices for collect calls made by incarcerated people throughout the
U.S.”
MIM(Prisons) adds: We whole-heartedly agree with this
comrade’s assessment of these money-making schemes. We call this
extortion, prisoners are forced to pay higher prices for things because
there is no other option for them.
The Chik-Fil-A sandwich with waffle chips and a cookie that CDCR was
charging $22 for is about $8 on the street. They’re charging prisoners
almost 3 times the normal price! If $2.20 is going to charity, where’s
the other $12 going?
For more on the topic of tablets, see “A
Strategic Objective to Disrupt and Surveil the Communication Between
Prisoners and Our Loved Ones” in ULK 76. The article on GTL
tablets claims they offer “secure email”, which is a joke because we
know GTL and CDCR staff can read anything you send on those things. In
other cases, companies have charged prisoners for things like ebooks
that are free in the public domain. GTL loves it because they charge
prisoners extortion-level subscription fees for very restricted content,
and CDCR loves it because it increases the ease of surveillance. The
article also promotes the tablets as pacifiers, like suboxone, to keep
the prison population docile.
Within the prison movement there is much talk about ‘political
education’ and ‘raising consciousness’. Truthfully, even when We reflect
on recent and distant episodes in Our collective struggles against the
bourgeoisie, many of us often lament upon the fact that a key ingredient
that has always been lacking from Our movements, parties, organizations,
and the unorganized masses, is the lack of a systemic and organized
framework to political education. Assata Shakur expressed her criticism
of the Black Panther Party for the same reason. Veterans of the Chican@
movement i’ve spoke with have expressed the same criticisms, stating
that had more deliberate, organized approaches been given back in the
days it may have progressively altered the cultural nationalist
tendencies of the movement towards a revolutionary nationalist praxis.
Yet and still, today We’re still stressing, and rightly so, the
paramount importance of political education. However, the question has
become, must become, what is political education, how do we apply it,
and why is it so important?
Political education takes many forms, and phases, and the correct
application of it, or what is paramount for a persyn to know is
dependent upon the conditions one finds themselves in. Thus i begin with
Fanon,
“It is commonly thought with criminal flippancy that to politicize
the masses means from time to time haranguing them with a major
political speech…But political education means opening up the mind,
awakening the mind, and introducing it to the world…To politicize the
masses is not and cannot be to make a political speech. It means driving
home to the masses that everything depends on them, that if we stagnate
the fault is theirs, and that if we progress, they too are responsible,
that there is no demiurge, no illustrious man taking responsibility for
everything, but that the demiurge is the people and the magic lies in
their hands and their hands alone.” (1)
Now as i was saying conditions will determine quite alot. So it is
the line of USW, and many others, that amerika is a settler-neo colonial
imperialist empire, and as such holds actual nations of people
subjugated, meaning their/our self-development is thwarted, within its
borders as well as in the Third World.
Hystory indicated that this line is right and exact. When We recall
the process of how amerika was established we understand that it (nation
of euro amerikan settlers) settled upon this land, removed, and
committed genocide against the native nations of people, some of which
are still among us today. So those (the indigenous) are just one group
of nations within the borders of amerika, which We call the First
Nations. Of course We all know about the forced migration of millions of
Africans, and We know they underwent slavery at the hands of those same
settlers, as did some Natives. What We often fail to analyze is that
slavery, is only an economic system, it is a mode of producing social
value, however, to describe the plight of the African people in amerika
by mere economic lingo alone is highly insufficient. What is the term
that would encapsulate the experience of the economic exploitation,
social and political repression that the African people in amerika
eventually triumphed over? Slavery? No, servitude? No. That one word
which encapsulates that struggle is COLONIALISM.
Well, what the heck is colonialism? Quoting from the Black Liberation
Army Political Dictionary;
Colonialism - foreign domination of a country or a people, where the
economic, political and military structure is controlled and run by the
occupying force. (2)
So African people residing in the United $tates are not merely the
offspring of enslaved people, but a colonized people, and because of
that diametrically opposed nature of a colonized people to its
colonizer, the African people residing in amerika developed organically
into a nation, that is a people distinct from the settler by its
culture, its language, its land, and thus We call this nation today New
Afrika, but others call it Black Amerika, or Black nation, or a host of
other titles. No matter the title New Afrikan people are deep down aware
that they’re distinct and separate, but the reality of a nation within
an empire doesn’t register to some, to most, after a substantial time
frame of this reality being obscured from the public consciousness.
Having roots in, but eventually developing distinct from the First
Nations, there is the Chican@, and Puerto Rican nations/colonies.
Overtime all these domestic colonies subjugated by the settler amerikan
empire have developed thru struggle, and have reached a new and
different phase of colonialism, called neo-colonialism, which can be
characterized by the power structure now formally allowing
representatives of these oppressed peoples to integrate into the
economic, political and military structures, and in many ways act as a
buffer between the ruling class and the masses of neo-colonized
people.
This brings me back to Our discussion on organizing, and political
education. See, depending on what We organizing for, one will require
different political understanding. Fanon says,
“A political informed [person in a colonial situation] is someone who
knows that a local dispute is not a crucial confrontation between [them]
and [the system]”
“It is the repeated demonstrations for their rights and the repeated
labor disputes that politicize the masses.” (3)
So basically what Frantz Fanon is saying here is that first one must
understand they are indeed colonized, and this understanding disallows
them from settling for any ol’ concession that can come from a ‘local
dispute’. And here when he says local, We can put it in Our immediate
context and understand it to mean, ‘prison struggles’.
What does this mean? It essentially means that We utilize, and in
fact manufacture these ‘repeated demonstrations for their/our rights’ as
a means to politicize the masses. However, if We are organizing the
masses utilizing such demonstration alone We run into a few pitfalls.
The one which i’ll deal with here can be understood by the old saying,
“Be careful what you ask for you just might get it.” So in Our context,
in the prison movement, what happens to the momentum of the masses, of
the people as a whole if We as organizers manufacture a or a few
demonstrations and the administration actually concedes? If the masses
don’t understand the complexity of Our situation, that We’re colonized,
dehumanized, an alienated sub-class, the dregs of the society, and that
not only must these realities change, We must change within Ourselves,
and We must take part in changing these realities, then the masses the
people will quit the struggle after what they’ve perceived to be
success, and they’ll resume their normal ways of existence. This pattern
is counter-productive to the cause of revolution. We must at all times
possible keep the masses active, and that activity pertaining to the
struggle. Fanon said, “The colonized subject is at constant risk of
being disarmed by any sort of concession.”(4)
So an understanding of what Our issues are, colonialism,
neo-colonialism or racism, or individual wrong decision making, will
determine the strategies and tactics We take moving forward. If We begin
Our study of literature proceeding from the perspective that We’re
colonized nations of people, We study how anti-colonial struggles have
developed, failed and triumphed around the world. Furthermore We realize
that unless an action fundamentally eradicates Our colonial existence
than it is only a reform and does not solve Our fundamental problem(s)
which stem from Our thwarted development under neo-colonialism. Thus We
don’t even seek certain reforms, or concessions, and the ones We do are
to advance Our strategic goal.
The question now becomes again HOW to maintain the masses attention
before, during, and after demonstrations? The answer leads us to
ORGANIZATION. Those who have a study level of political vision must take
the initiative in forming real organized organizations. Within these
organizations leaders should allow for activities to be carried out by
the rank & file and must be sure that activities assigned to a
comrade are in alignment with the talents, interests, and abilities of
said comrade. In this way one keeps the masses involved and engaged. If
able weekly or bi-weekly meetings should be established. Minutes should
be kept of the meetings, meaning, write down what you’re doing, what
you’re talking about, what are the plans going forward, etc. At said
meetings each comrade should have a progress report, which entails what
they’ve been doing since the previous meeting.
If a comrade can draw, they should be assigned something to draw. If
a comrade can write, they should be assigned something to write. If a
comrade has a typewrite they should be tasked with typing up the
documents of the group. In fact it is good to take up one project that
the entire collective can attribute to. Say a pamphlet, of course you
need writers, We need art work, and We’ll need a typist, We’ll need some
donations of stamps to circulate it to publishers, and in this way every
one not only feels involved, but more importantly feels that
immeasurable feeling of accomplishment. In understanding the
complexities of Our class (lumpen) We must understand a lot of us have
not accomplished much of anything in the way of real world
accomplishments. A lot of us have been caged, stagnated in a state of
arrested development, since Our pre-teen and teen years, and thus are
persynally under-developed in many ways. This feeling of accomplishment
motivates and inspires one to continue to chase that good feeling, and
particularly when the feeling is derived from doing something
productive, it overtime alters a persyn internally, and this is what We,
as revolutionaries especially within the lumpen class want most.
Organizations in their many varieties are the vehicles of the people
and their struggle. Vanguard elements must seek to organize all aspects
of the people’s struggle, all aspects of the people’s lives under their
leadership and influence. This doesn’t mean everyone has to or will be a
member of a particular leading organizational body. What it means is
that organization must make itself seen & heard & felt in each
aspect of the people’s lives. The musician they listen to should be
expressing some theme derived from the organization. The farmer should
have the organization’s line on collectivizing agriculture and land. The
prisoner and their family should know that the prisoner, if deemed
capable can/will have a place of refuge, work, and re-humanization with
the organization. The womyn must know she has a group trustworthy and
capable to care for her kids collectively, and ensure her access to safe
abortion if necessary. Those in the LGBTQ community must feel at one
with the organization, enabled and empowered.
In a nutshell the proper organization will galvanize the popular
masses of the people, educating and organizing the most capable from
every and all sectors, and from there synthesize the aspirations, and
ambitions of the people’s struggle with practical and concrete measures
to realize these objectives.
With the formation of Texas T.E.A.M.O.N.E., the Texas USW re-branded,
We have formed the vehicle for the Texas prisoner’s struggle. We have
thus far established multiple wings which can/will be used to activate
the stored away genius of the masses. We have the legal wing for those
writ-writing jailhouse lawyers, a space for like minded cats to put
their heads together to attack certain aspects of the system that can
help us better build the movement. We have established, in its early
stages, a wimmins & LGBTQ wing, which is again an avenue for certain
people to step up and utilize what they already know how to do, in
concert with the rest of the organized body to get what We want. We’ve
established the Worker’s wing a lane where people around the state can
collectively struggle for worker’s rights, and incorporate those
struggles with the others and in combination gain bigger gains…We’ve
established and/or influenced the establishment of numerous committees
with the members therein playing roles in the ‘wings’ mentioned above.
In all this We’ve done well in applying lessons learned from
MIM(Prisons), and some of Our own experiences, thus synthesizing theory
& practice.
It must be said however that We have made many mistakes. We began
organizing as Fanon said, around demonstrations. We learned in practice,
some of us without ever having read Fanon, that the masses, and
Ourselves could easily get complacent after concessions are made. The
mistake came by not initially focusing on ideo-theoretical questions. We
had to learn that the truth of the matter that prior to any organization
the people in question must sit down and individually intake
information, after a certain amount of information has been accumulated
they must come together and discuss their findings and thoughts,
establish their points of unity, modes of organization, and other such
matters. Of course this isn’t to say that all organizations come
together like this. Many take on a more spontaneous approach to
development and this approach is observed in their style of work.
The re-occurring theme will always be political education, the need
for it will never cease, and the need to bring all the people to an
active level of consciousness, that is a level where they can be/are
active in the struggle.
In Our campaign to end RHU, it was selectively chosen for a multitude
of reasons. One of which is to show & prove We can shut it down if
& when We organize Ourselves and the people correctly. Because of
conditions that prevail in long-term isolation, many of the most radical
and politically astute people are in or have been in long-term
isolation, if We could multiply those types of elements, and then get
them out on the pop city We can make conditions more conductive to
politicizing more and more prisoners sending more and more of these to
the outside. To illustrate the contradiction that despite the various
levels of illegality present within the solitary confinement apparatus,
it still continues, and yet We’re the so-called criminals. There is of
course the fact that if We can eliminate the punitive answer for dissent
then We leave the enemy with little recourse once Our collective
resistance picks up. In this way We take a tool out of their tool kit.
However, the underlying goal is simply to shut seg down, what if they
just capitulated and gave us what We wanted? What becomes of the
struggle then? IF that was Our actual GOAL and not a MEANS TO AN END,
then Our entire struggle would have been defeated, at least temporarily,
not by bullets, or bombs, but by sugar-coated bullets, by concessions,
by reforms, which weaken the intensity of contradictions rather than
increase them. Mastering this delicate balance will determine the
successes and failures of Our organizing methods.
“At first disconcerted, they then realize the need to explain and
ensure the colonized’s consciousness does not get bogged down. In the
meantime the war goes on, the enemy organizes itself, gathers strength
and preempts the strategy of the colonized. The struggle for national
liberation is not a question of bridging the gap in one giant stride.
The epic is played out on a difficult, day-to-day basis and the
suffering endured far exceeds that of the colonial period. Down in the
towns the colonists have apparently changed. Our people are happier.
They are respected. A daily routine sets in, and the colonized engaged
in struggle, the people who must continue to give it their support,
cannot afford to give in. They must not think the objective has already
been achieved. When the actual objectives of the struggle are described,
they must not think they are impossible. Once again, clarification is
needed and the people have to realize where they are going and how to
get there. The war is not one battle but a succession of local
struggles, none of which, in fact, is decisive.” (5)
We’ve articulated previously that one’s method to organization is
logically dependent upon one’s goals, and also one’s circumstances or
conditions. It is Our view that the conditions and circumstances being
what they currently are in North amerika, the lumpen-prisoner class is a
highly dynamic entity. This class, Our class is also a vacillating
class, meaning its members can be like see-saws, moving from one side
(revolutionary) to another (reactionary) as their emotions and whims
take them. However, We assert that the other classes of North amerika
have become so bourgeoisified that the social vehicles for social
revolution are so slim to none that the last objectively repressed class
in amerika, the class that still has little to no stake in the bourgeois
democracy, is the lumpen.
We’ve reached this conclusion by analyzing the social forces and
classes within North amerikan society. Observing their material benefits
of being cozied up to their bourgeoisie. We’ve observed how and why
social movements only advance so far, being largely unwilling, or
sometimes unable to carry the struggle to higher levels, due to a
certain level of comfort in the status quo. And We logically look to Our
own class and see that these factors, though still present are vastly
diminished. Therefore, arriving at this class analysis We say that it is
most conductive to Our goal of social revolution to invest time and
resources into the lumpen in order to politicize them, and that
investment should be in proportion to the classes potential to lean
towards a revolutionary line and practice.
Now We reach the basic question, how do we maximize the dynamic
potential of this vacillating lumpen class? How do We ensure that the
majority of lumpen are progressive, neutral, or all the way
revolutionary and not objective enemies of the people? The answer again
points to ORGANIZATION. The only way to maximize the people’s initiative
in general and the lumpen in particular is to formulate them into
tightly organized units/groups. The lumpen struggle is a class struggle,
and thus We must organize the First World Lumpen on a class basis.
What does this mean, what does this look like? What is a class? There
is often mention of the prisoner class, or a particular class of
prisoners. However, very rarely do comrades utilize class in a Communist
framework.
A ‘Class’ 1) shares a common position in their relation to the means
of production; common economic conditions, relative to their labor and
appropriation of the social surplus; 2) that they must share a separate
way of life and cultural existence; 3) that they must share a set of
interests which are antagonistic to other classes; 4) that they must
share a set of social relations,;i.e. a sense of unity which extends
beyond local boundaries, and constitutes a national bond; 5) that they
must share a corresponding collective consciousness of themselves as a
‘class’, and; 6) they must create their own political organizations, and
pursue their interests as a ‘class’ (6)
We must also clarify that Marx differentiated between a ‘class in
itself’ and a ‘class for itself’. The difference between the two can be
summarized by saying that a class in itself simply shares a common
economic position but lacks the other listed criteria. Whereas a class
for itself is an entity fully organized and meeting all listed
criteria.
Therefore, what We are saying here is that We must organize in a
manner that will bring the lumpen from the level of class in itself, to
the elevated level of a class for itself. Our organization should be
modeled in a way to obtain the collective mobility, ingenuity, and
potential of the lumpen as a whole. We must ‘nationalize’ these
structures, meaning expand them state-to-state, with each one developing
its own relative strength locally.
The next question is how do We get there? How do we reach this point
of mass participation and organization? We’ll quote Fanon here:
“The duty of a leadership is to have the masses on their side. Any
commitment, however, presupposes awareness and understanding of the
mission to be accomplished, in short a rational analysis, no matter how
embryonic.” (7)
Here he stresses the basic conscious political education of the
people. We continue:
“The people should not be mesmerized, swayed by emotion or
confusion. Only [under-developed people] led by a revolutionary elite
emanating from the people can today empower the masses to step out
onto the stage of history.” (8)
I’ve put the above in bold to illuminate certain mistakes We often
make. We often capitulate to the weaknesses of the masses in Our good
intended desire to win them over. One of the weaknesses of this sort is
the masses never-ending desire to be entertained. This desire almost
always precedes from a desire to escape reality, and when done too much
establishes a state of complacency with oppression and exploitation and
undermines revolutionary or productive/progressive activity. When We
reach out to the masses We often make the mistake of trying to move them
into immediate action with a fiery speech, with the showing of the video
of the latest police killing, or whatever We believe may move them.
Although We have good intentions this method has hystorically proven
inadequate for carrying out revolution. Instead, because it relies on
emotions, which fluctuate, the activity it renders, if it renders
activity at all, is necessarily fluctuating, and vacillating.
We can see this in real time if We observe the ebbs and flows of
social movements in North amerika. George Floyd’s taped murder shook
people emotionally. It awakened pent up anger and frustration from many
sectors. People took that, and nothing else, no political education, no
political organization, no political vision, only anger and frustration
into their protests, and rebellions, and uprisings. Soon, the only
people left in the streets were politicized people. Anarchists,
Socialists, Abolitionists, and this sort. The masses however, had long
since retreated back into the comforts of their amerikan life of escape,
and leisure, isolating what was then allowed to be percieved as
extremist/terrorist elements.
This what Fanon calls the ‘weakness of spontaneity’ showed its face.
We must learn from this. In the quote above the ‘under-developed people’
are those masses of North amerikans. They reside in the land of excess,
material excess, but the land of political sleep-walkers. These are the
people Fanon says must be led by a REVOLUTIONARY elite. Now what does he
mean by this? Because of the under-developed state of the people’s
sociopolitical consciousness, those cadre elements who’ve struggled to
grasp the complex concepts of political-economy, and revolutionary
theory, although not desiring to be perceived as an elite, meaning above
the rest, they actually do represent a higher stage of development, and
in that context ONLY are they ‘elite’. The key phrase of the quote is
the necessity that these ‘elite’ emanate from the people, meaning they
must be one of their own, or perceived as such. The cadre-organizer must
take care to balance its level of understanding with the level of the
masses. There will be a contradiction between these masses and the
politicized persyn, there should be, but this should not be an
antagonistic contradiction. The people should be able to look to you for
example, not look at you in disdain. As one might do to someone who
thinks their shit don’t stink. Now we move to exactly HOW does these
cadres, EMPOWER THE MASSES,
“…On the condition that We vigorously and decisively reject the
formation of a national bourgeoisie, a caste of privileged individuals.
To politicize the masses is to make the nation (or class) in its
totality a reality for every citizen. To make the experience of the
nation (or class) the experience of every citizen.” (9)
“Only the massive commitment by men and wimmin to judicious and
productive tasks gives form and substance to this consciousness.”
(10)
“No leader, whatever their worth, can replace the will of the people,
and the national government, before concerning itself with international
prestige, must first restore dignity to all citizens, furnish
their minds, fill their eyes with human things and develop a human
landscape for the sake of its enlightened and sovereign
inhabitants.” (11)
It is Our intention as USW leaders in Texas, as Tx T.E.A.M.O.N.E.
cadre, to have Our organization act as a vehicle to organize and
mobilize and educate the masses of lumpen in North amerika. We hope you
will be inspired to join us.
Sources:
1) Wretched of the Earth, Frantz Fanon, pg.138,
chapt.3
2) Black Liberation Army Political Dictionary,
pg.4
3) Wretched of the Earth, Frantz Fanon, pg.63
chapt.2
4) ibid, pg.90, chapt.2
5) ibid, pg.90, chapt.2
6) see; Karl Marx, The 18th Brumaire; also Karl Marx, The
Holy Family;also, Meditations On Frantz Fanon’s Wretched of the Earth,
James Yaki Sayles, pg. 286
7) Wretched of the Earth, Frantz Fanon, pg.140,
chapt.3
Following up on some recent warnings
and reports
from comrades on Subxone(buprenorphine), we conducted an updated survey
on drugs in U.$. prisons this past winter.(1) We received survey
responses from NC, PA, VA, WV, MI, CA and TX.(2) While we heard from
Michigan in ULK 75 all of the other states were represented in
our original survey, which was distributed more widely and received more
responses.
So has anything changed in the last 5 years? In 2017, Suboxone use
was reported to be common in many states in the northeast and midwest
United $tates. Specifically comrades in NY, KS, WV, TN, CT, WI, and
especially PA reported Suboxone use being popular. We do not have info
on whether the Suboxone was obtained from the prison or not in that data
set. In 2022, we can add California, Virginia, North Carolina and
Michigan to the list of states where Suboxone is abused in prisons. Of
those four, only Michigan was not represented in our 2017 survey,
meaning Suboxone seems to have become popular in the other 3 in the last
five years. Texas is the only state we got responses from this year that
reported Suboxone still not being available at all.[UPDATE October 2022:
We later received report that Georgia did not have Suboxone either.]
Our comrade in Michigan reported this new drug appeared on the scene
in 2012, and had become the most common drug abused in the MDOC, with
perhaps 5 in 10 prisoners using it. (until
recently when K2 took over)
We have updated info from Pennsylvania affirming that it is
prescribed there and that people can stay on it for as long as they are
held in prison. About 1 in 7 people are using Suboxone at
SCI-Dallas.
In North Carolina, Suboxone is very popular, though less popular than
K2, which has been increasing in use. Suboxone may be more popular with
white prisoners there.
Our Virginia respondent is in a “big mental health/drug rehab” unit,
where ey says “we can’t order self-help programs nor books.” Imagine
that! Yet you can get a Suboxone subscription with no indication that
there are any classes to go along with it. Some are continuing their
Suboxone subs from the streets.
Michigan and West Virginia do not prescribe Suboxone according to our
survey respondents. Yet it still gets into the prisons there and is
quite popular.
California the big mover
The biggest shift we learned from our second round of surveys was the
new introduction of Suboxone, which Ehecatl already reported in ULK
76 started in 2020. A recent study reported a sharp increase in
buprenorphine consumption in prisons from 2020-2021. The number of
incarcerated people consuming it rose an estimated 250,000 from January
2015 to May 2021. With only 115,000 prisoners total, CDCR may have been
a good chunk of that growth, but clearly was only part of it.
That said, one comrade in California reported that they now “give
anyone and everyone Suboxone. I know a bunch of people who never have
used drugs and went to see the doctor and got put on Suboxone.” The
price of Suboxone on the black market has decrease from $100 to only
$2-4 as a result. This comrade continued,
“I’ve been in solitary confinement for over 4 years so I signed up to
get put on Suboxone and I got put on it a week after seeing the doctor.
I’ve been a drug addict my whole life, but was still surprised how easy
it is and was to get put on Subxone.”
We’ve always held that solitary confinement is used as a tool of
social control in the U.$. injustice system. We also see Suboxone being
used in the same way. Here they are being used in conjunction as a way
to help people adjust to the torture of solitary confinement. When used
outside solitary, most prisoners reported its use leading to people
retreating from socializing and not engaging in any kind of group
organizing.
Another CA comrade had put in a request in December 2019 after the
CDCR publicized a new drug to help with addiction. By March or April
2020 ey was approved for Suboxone. Doses there range from 8mg to 20mg.
As for counseling, this comrade did report that, “while I was receiving
it we were seeing a C.O. Healy and ex-drug user facilitator bringing us
5 days of work on Monday and coming back on Monday to pick up the
homework.” It is not clear why ey stopped receiving Suboxone.
“Buprenorphine use in jails and prisons increased by 224-fold, from a
daily mean of 44 individuals in June 2016 to 9841 individuals in May
2021 (Figure). Most of this increase occurred from 2020 to 2021.
Nationwide, across all retail and nonretail settings, buprenorphine use
increased by 53.9% from a daily mean of 466,781 individuals in January
2015 to 718,591 individuals in May 2021. By May 2021, correctional
settings accounted for approximately 1.5% of all buprenorphine use
nationwide. An estimated 3.6% of the 270,000 incarcerated individuals
with [Opioid Use Disorder] in the US received buprenorphine.”(3)
These numbers are likely underestimated as they are based on retail
sales numbers from one source. But the sharp increase in prescribed
Suboxone starting in late 2019 is certainly something of note.
K2 Still King in TX
We received the most responses to our second survey from Texas, and
things seem to have not changed much there. Everyone agreed that
Suboxone was not available in Texas. K2 appeared there around 2013 or
2014 according to our respondents, and has been on the increase ever
since. Many people report tiers filled with the smoke being a common
occurrence in the TDCJ. K2 use rates reported in TX this time around
estimated 10%, 20%, 30% and in the RHU up to 75% of people.
Our correspondent from Allred’s RHU reports that back in 2013-2016
“drugs were virtually non-existent… 1/2 that time there were no cameras,
yet there still was no drugs, no cell phones, no contraband at all
really. Since i’ve been back here there has been at least a 70% increase
in contraband” (2017 to present). This comrade points to a huge cultural
shift among staff leading to the change.
Ey goes on to explain the social effects of this influx of drugs and
how it serves as a tool of social control:
“We had a good thing going here after working to bring all New
Afrikan lumpen groups and people together, but clashes over drug debts
have undermined the unity… We were able to organize 1/3 of the RHU
population against their confinement. With the drugs one year later,
barely 50 people!”
As far as effective efforts to combat drugs, we once again got a
resounding “no” answer to that question form all states. One TX comrade
reported, “the Christians and Muslims are the only social groups openly
condemning drug use, simultaneously, some of their”coordinators” are
getting officially charged with possessing it!”
Another comrade who struggled with prescription psych meds as well as
illicit drugs explained, “One of the worst parts of my own ‘addiction’
was the shame and guilt that came from using these ‘illegal drugs.’”
This is just one reason why the approach to drug addiction in this
country is ineffective. We encourage comrades to try our new
Revolutionary 12 Step Program, which will walk you through
addressing these feelings of shame.
A couple of respondents reiterated a preference for “natural” drugs
rather than ones that are synthesized by multi-national corporations.
But we’d point out the reason we can’t trust modern technology is
because of capitalism. It is not the fact that humyns made it that makes
it unsafe, but rather the profit motives that cause humyns to hide and
overlook any safety issues that come up. There are lots of things that
grow naturally that can kill you. In a system that operates in the
interests of the people, we wouldn’t be making things to add to that
list like the capitalists do.