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.
by a North Carolina prisoner October 2019 permalink
I’ve been trapped inside this building, I’ve been in since I was little
It’s a riddle, but the foundation to it is turning brittle
When you’re walking up the stairs, down the hallway, look to the middle
On the left, you’ll see my doorway is leaning and full of splinters
From taking it off the hinges, Memories back to prison A
victim to those that sentenced, their sinister ways of lynching
Distorted image, through torn prisms, praying the governments lifting
And shifting, its hand from the neck of the oppressed, to relieve
some of this tension.
American correctional Association Standards and Accreditation
Department 206 North Washington St. Suite 200 Alexandria,VA
22314 (703)224-0000 SAC@aca.org
RE.,Bias audit of Martin CI
Dear ACA,
My name is XX. I am a Florida prisoner,housed at Martin CI. I am writing
in the behalf of all prisoners regarding your 9/16/19 audit. We couldn’t
help but notice that you did not speak with prisoners, leaving us no
choice but to conclude that 1) your are not working in the interest or
welfare of prisoners or society. And 2) You feel that we are so bell
curved that we are not worthy of speaking for ourselves regarding prison
conditions. So how objective can you or your audit be if it is based
only on one side of the system? How much do you care about genuine
rehabilitation or penological interest if you visit a prison for
days,and not consider speaking to prisoners regarding Prison conditions?
It is obvious that you are not interested in implementing genuine
rehabilitation and effective change to this amerikkklan prison
industrial complex. The personality of your auditors showed that you and
the state harbors the very same opinion of prisoners,that everyone in
prison is an animal who deserves to be there and tortured while there.
It is clear that you came to see only the fiscal aspect of Martin CI,
while turning a blind eye on the living conditions and well being of
prisoners. It’s all about money for you, so please allow me to inform
you of what you chose not to see,much-less,make public.
YOUR MEMO
You chose not to notice that the memo informing prisoners of your visit
was posted on 9/13/19,not the mandacious 8/21/19 date it claims. In
fact,fixed prison yard and dormitory video surveillance will show that
prisoners knew nothing of your coming until Martin CI administration
went all in, forcing prisoners to work all through the weekend,
prettying up the plantation for your visit. Sidewalks were pressure
washed, trays in the kitchen we’re soaked in soap water overnight in
cofinement carts, for mold. Laundry stayed open all weekend. Dormitories
were painted and repainted with $2 paint,saves money. We thought Donald
Trump was coming to visit. Now had that memo of your visit been posted
in time, I would have sent you an in-advance list of attractive sights
to see while on your Martin CI tour. I still can’t believe you didn’t
see or noticed these inhumane and contradicting living conditions. Then
too, if you did notice them and acted objectively by moving for genuine
rehabilitation and effective change, what then would happen to FDOC as a
13th Amendment slave housing industry? Too many people will lose jobs,
too many investors will lose money. What makes us still think, that the
state would spend mega millions building prisons, just to turn around
and genuinely rehabilitate itself, and prisoners into not getting
rearrested, or changing the way the state itself, including law
enforcement and state attorneys, see poor and miseducated people. I’m
boring you with this, so I’ll get to the point.
WHAT YOU CHOSE NOT TO SEE AT MARTIN CI
PHYSICAL ABUSE OF PRISONERS
9/18/19,btwn hours of 3 PM & 7 PM. While you conducted your
psuedo-audit, Sgt. Swain had a handcuffed prisoner, laying on the hot
pavement, in front of the dining hall, in the hot sun, for about 3
hours, because Sgt. Swain caught him coming out of the chow hall with a
bag of ice. How could you have missed that? Or the fact that it is so
hot in the dormitories, that prisoners have to resort to stealing ice
from the chow hall, or take several showers a day despite 5 PM shower
rule, or put plastic bags on windows to direct air flow to themselves,
risking confinement trying to cool ourselves.
TOBACCO PROHIBITION,CH.33-401.401
While prisoners are being placed in confinement for possession of
tobacco in violation of Christmas.33-401.401, prison staff are smoking
freely, and with impunity, above the law despite FL statutes(944.115)
prohibiting use of tobacco on all state prison property.
FOOD SERVICE
Warehouse is filled with long expired and outdated food products, for
prisoners consumption,ordered and delivered that way due to being much
cheaper than what tax payers are charged. So the profit can be pocketed
by higher-ups.
Rats: hundreds,if not thousands of them living under the oven in the
baking room of Martin CI kitchen.
Trays,cups,and sporks: Moldy,worn out and torn,and being washed by hand,
in cold water, in giant garbage cans, rather than by dishwashing machine
with legally required water temperature and detergent.
Food Portions: Exiguous,and food is prepared intentionally bad for the
swill and to keep canteen sales up. And prisoners are being rushed to
eat their meals in less than 3 minutes like animals.
LAUNDRY
Whites and blues being washed together in the same load with no bleach.
Whites (underwears) are coming back literally brown, dirtier than when
turned in, exposing prisoners to jock-itch, urinary track infection and
other dirty under wear related illness. While prisoners are not allowed
to hand wash their whites, or use clothes lines. You need to see how
brown, our whites come back.
CANTEEN
Robbing our families, through us, price gouging, way above fair market
price, especially considering the fact that prisoners earn no income for
performance of prison labor, this price gouging amounts to economic war,
not on prisoners, but on families and friends of prisoners, whom are
being punished by the state for supporting prisoners. Prison staff are
paying half price for same like food items that prisoners and their law
abiding civilian visitors are charged double and triple.
RECREATION
Once a week if that. There are never enough staff to conduct recreation,
but there are always more than enough thrill seeking goons when it’s
time to apply excessive force on handcuffed prisoners. They appear out
of thin air like magic.
EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS
According to facilitators,the head of Martin CI education department,
Dr.Layton, received an annual education budget of only $1500 while
security security has unlimited access to program funds, while canteen
profits pay for the very same handcuffs, pepper spray, tactical gear,
and all else used against prisoners,in what is called the Department of
Corrections. What kind of education can prisoners get on a $1500 budget?
Then you wonder why there are so many stabbings. This is clear proof
that the state and it’s avaricious superiors and investors have no
interest in genuine rehabilitation. The worse part is the fact that the
state will not allow prisoners to become independent thinkers capable of
determining their own social and political destiny. We are not allowed
to genuinely rehabilitate ourselves. Not allowed to even order certain
books,or publications,under the guise that certain books can be a threat
to the prison system.
A prisoner may read a certain books and become too positively or
essentially self aware and disciplined. Positive Prisoner self control
is the total opposite of FDOC standard of rehabilitation,the dumber a
prisoner,the better for FDOC. being autodidactically genuinely
rehabilitated is considered the ultimate threat,and a crime to the
state. If every Prisoner become genuinely rehabilitated,the prison
system will be rendered irrelevant, out of business, obsolete, thus
genuine rehabilitation or correction of any kind for prisoners or staff,
is no where in FDOC’s thought or mission.
JPAY MAIL SERVICE
FDOC is robbing prisoners loved-ones,by use of prisoners,charging .39¢
per postage stamp which cost only .7¢ wholesale at JPay. A .32¢ profit
per stamp,which go towards buying the very same pepper spray,
handcuffs,and all else used against prisoners. The mosquitoes hate the
very same cows off whose blood they cannot live without.
On 9/11/19,there occurred a multiple prisoner on prisoner stabbing. The
whole plantation was placed on lockdown, collective punishment. RRT,
rapid response teams showed up immediately, many from neighboring
plantations, in full military tactical gear, clicking-illegal-electric
tazer shields and brandishing riot batons to intimidate prisoners while
conducting a mass trashing of prisoners cells and property, claiming a
so-called mass search. So to keep prisoners from informing the free
world of these illegal electric shields and batons, the JPay WiFi was
turned off for almost a whole week. In fact, the WiFi is off as I write
this on 9/27/19. It’s turned off during every lockdown to keep prisoners
from reporting what’s going to the outside world,to keep the truth from
getting out,to kill all transparency. So the story is told only by the
real criminals, FDOC.
JPay is taking funds(.39¢ postage)from our prisoner account even after
censoring and denying our Jmail from leaving the JPay kiosk system,or
reaching it’s intended destination.
9/3/19, I plugged my tablet into JPay kiosk to download music. I
unplugged my tablet to find that all my political journal notes, essays,
and poems, grievance drafts, legal letters, criminal appeal case
citings, the event and birth dates,i.e.,my entire calendar section, all
stored in my tablet had been illegally accessed, and deleted after being
downloaded by JPay. The JPay trouble ticket response basically told me
to get lost. Informal grievance response stated that I had exceeded the
storage capacity of my tablet, so it automatically deleted, “yes, of all
entries on my tablet, just my entire calendar.”
The truth is,my tablet comes with 32 Gigs of storage capacity, and there
is still space for 5511video grams, so how did I exceed storage
capacity? I get censored alot by Jpay, and the political content of my
tablet is well known by JPay and Martin CI mail room. It’s a known fact,
I am being retaliatorily targeted due to my prison activism and
political belief. They’re reading all my writings right now. This is not
the first time, and it won’t be the last, and the physical may be next.
PRISONERS PERSONAL PROPERTY
Prisoners personal property keep getting lost because overseers do not
follow CH.33 F.A.C rules in regards to inventorying and safe guarding
prisoners personal property, family photos, legal papers and more.
Prisoners personal property keep coming up missing.
COUNT
Intentionally long counts, so overseers can sloth their senicure days
away, hanging out, smoking cigarettes at tax payers expense, while
prisoners can’t get to their legal deadlines in the law library,or other
call outs and programs.
During your audit, if you just stepped one foot in side of wing 4 of A
dormitory, you would have been left no choice but to smell and see the
clogged up sink in the mop closet. It’s been clogged up for months, the
water is black, stink and a breeding pond for mosquitoes. It gets over
looked every week during inspection. Every senior administrative
overseer has taken cell phone pictures of this sink week after week,
with the promise of getting it fixed to no avail. Only if you’d entered
wing 4 of A dormitory, where your true Accreditation skills are needed.
That mop closet is still clogged, stink, and dirty if you think I’m
lying or if you need proof. Now you see why the state is in permanent
fear of prisoners having any kind of recording devices. These
amerikkklan iron curtain issues just mentioned would all been going
viral. This is why the prisoners side of prison must be kept concealed
at all cost. And you will have to Lynch me to keep me quiet.
Unabashedly, the goal of the Maoist Internationalist Movement is to
eliminate capitalism and imperialism. We aim to replace these economic
systems with socialism, and then communism, to end all oppression of
people by other people. In our study of humyn history we see Maoist
China as the most advanced social experience to date toward this goal,
and we draw on our study of Maoism (shorthand for
Marxism-Leninism-Maoism) to build our strategy. Maoism is a
universally-applicable science of social change, which has its
effectiveness proven in practice.
Our study of history shows the necessity of armed struggle to take power
from the bourgeoisie, to build a world without oppression. Yet we’re not
presently in a period of social upheaval that we would call a
revolutionary scenario, which is why we discourage people from
initiating armed struggle at this time. While we prepare for that
inevitable reality, the Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM) works on
our dual strategy of 1) building independent institutions of the
oppressed to seize state power, and 2) building public opinion against
imperialism.
This is all in preparation for when the United $tates’s military power
becomes sufficiently overextended, and nations oppressed by Amerikkka
start striking significant blows against Amerika’s domination over their
land and livelihoods. When the United $tates enters this period of
social upheaval, we will be equipped to draw on the public opinion and
independent institutions we’re building now. The point is to get started
now so we’re ready to help a revolution in this country be successful,
with results in favor of the most oppressed people in the world. Our
institutions in themselves will not cause the transition to socialism,
because the bourgeoisie will not allow us to carry out a quiet coup on
their power.
Independent institutions of the oppressed are designed to simultaneously
meet the peoples’ present needs, while organizing against imperialism.
When coupled with political education in building public opinion for
socialism, these institutions help to advance our movement toward
communism. People can see in practice what it would look like (and that
it’s possible) to meet the social needs that the government is failing
on. And people learn how to work collectively.
Maybe this is obvious, but independent institutions don’t have ties to
the power structure that we are fighting to dismantle. Our goal is the
full liberation of ALL people, not just some people, and not just our
people. To do that we need to have true independence, so we can say what
needs to be said, and do what needs to be done, without one arm tied
behind our backs.
Defining who are “the oppressed,” who our institutions are in service
of, is extremely important. While many institutions are happy to just
serve any oppressed group, in the MIM we want to make the transition to
communism as swift and efficient as possible. We take instruction on
this question from our class analysis, and particularly our class
analysis on the labor aristocracy and lumpen.
We recognize that the vast majority of so-called “workers” in the First
World are actually a bought-off class of net exploiters. They are
relatively comfortable with the existence of imperialism, and our
independent institutions don’t aim to serve that class’s interests. Most
people don’t want to hear that they are net exploiters, and that
actually
they
are in the top 13% globally.(1) It stops them from crying about
being in the “bottom 99%” and self-righteously working for a minimum
wage that is
three
times higher than what it would be in an equal global distribution of
wealth.(2) Representing the interests of the international
proletariat makes MIM(Prisons) an unpopular organization among the vast
majority of the population in the United $tates.
In contrast, in our class analysis we see the oppressed-nation lumpen as
the most likely group to favor a proletarian internationalist revolution
in this country. When the Maoist Internationalist Party – Amerika
disbanded into a cell structure in 2005, MIM(Prisons) was established
specifically to organize among the lumpen population. There are many,
many areas of life that need Maoist leadership and independent
institutions – many that can even be built around the coinciding
interests of people in the First World and Third World, like
revolutionary ecology — and MIM(Prisons) focuses on the needs and
education of the imprisoned oppressed-nation lumpen.
BPP STP
The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense (BPP) had a prolific set of
Serve the People programs and independent institutions. The BPP
coincided with the tail-end of the New Afrikan proletariat’s existence,
and focused its organizing among proletarian and lumpen New Afrikans.
In its independent institutions, the BPP served tens of thousand of kids
breakfast across the United $tates, accompanied by political education
during the meals. The BPP ran other services such as “clothing
distribution, classes on politics and economics, free medical clinics,
lessons on self-defense and first aid, transportation for family members
to upstate prisons, an emergency-response ambulance program, drug and
alcohol rehabilitation, and testing for sickle-cell disease.”(3)
In addition to providing necessary services for New Afrikans, the BPP’s
Serve the People programs also built public opinion for socialism by
showing what a world could be like with people working together to meet
humyn needs. We often hear myths about humyn nature, that people are
“too selfish” or “too greedy” or “don’t care enough” to ever have a
socialist economy, let alone participate in a single campaign. Yet BPP
programs showed that selfishness, greed, and apathy are values of the
capitalist-imperialist economic system we live under; not inherent to
humyn nature. And the education programs built people’s consciousness
around how the economic structures of imperialism and capitalism are
related to the seemingly-insurmountable problems in their lives.
Coupling that with Maoist theory and practice, the BPP provided an
ideology for how to overcome these economic systems, further building
public opinion in favor of a transition to socialism.
The Black Panther Party did all this without government funding. Yet
they did accept hefty donations from white leftists, especially during
the Free Huey campaign to get Huey Newton released from jail in 1967-70.
This lack of self-reliance had a big negative impact on the organization
when the white leftists stopped donating.(4) The experience of the BPP
shows extensive positive examples of how oppressed-nation organizations
can build institutions to contribute to the liberation of one’s people.
It teaches another lesson on independence, which is to never rely on
your oppressor-nation allies to fund your liberation.
Other Outside Orgs
Whenever we connect with an organization that does work that’s related
to ours, that gets government funding or is linked to a bigger
organization like a university, they say the same thing. They are really
excited about our work, because they know how important our line is, and
they have seen first-hand the limitations in their own work. When we ask
why they can’t say or do something similar to what we say, it goes back
to a funding source or an authority they’re operating under.
These institutions of the oppressed aren’t wrong for organizing this
way. They are doing great work and reaching audiences we can’t reach in
our current capacity. Yet they aren’t reaching them with the stuff
that’s going to bring an end of oppression in the grand scheme of
things.
MIM(Prisons) chooses to do the most effective thing, which in our case
requires total independence. If everyone who saw the importance of our
line actually worked to promote it, it would inevitably increase our
capacity to also reach the people these dependent organizations are
currently reaching, and with a program to transform the deep-rooted
causes of the problems they’re working to change.
An example of limitations imposed by funding sources was explained in a
2012
interview MIM(Prisons) did with a comrade in United Playaz (UP). UP
is a “San Francisco-based violence prevention and youth development
organization,” staffed and run by many former prisoners. It is work that
is desperately needed, and UP has a huge positive impact on the lives of
the people it works with.
“If it’s up to us, we’re gonna go hard, and really fight for peace.
But because we’re fund[ed] by DCYF [San Francisco’s Department of
Children, Youth, & Their Families], they limit our movement. We
can’t even participate, or like rally. If there’s a Occupy rally right
now, we can’t go, cuz our organization are prevented from doing things
like that. And I think that’s important, that we’re out there with the
rest of the people that are trying to fight for change. Every year we do
a Silence the Violence Peace March. That’s okay, you know, Martin Luther
King, marches like that, we’re okay to do that. But when it’s like
budgets, and crime, and about prison, you know, rally to try to bring
those those things down, we can’t really participate. …
“What’s going on outside the youth can affect them in the future if
things don’t change. And why wait til those kids get old and take em to
expose them to march and fight for your rights? You know I love to take
these young adults to a movement like that, cuz that gives em knowledge
of life, that there’s more than just hanging out on the street. But
unfortunately we’re not allowed to participate in that kind of
movement.”(5)
ULK-based Institutions
Under Lock & Key (and the new newsletter that’s coming
January 2020)(6) is a media institution of the oppressed, with a mission
to serve two classes: 1) the oppressed-nation lumpen in the First World,
which our class analysis says is the most likely class in imperialist
society to be favorable to the long hard struggle to communism; and 2)
the Third World proletariat, which is the revolutionary class with the
least to lose in imperialist society. All the articles and line in
ULK revolve around this mission.
The pages of ULK, and behind the scenes in MIM(Prisons)’s work,
have developed many other institutions of the oppressed. Regular readers
of ULK will be familiar with the
United
Front for Peace in Prisons (UFPP) and the accompanying
5
Points of Unity.(7, 8) The UFPP can’t in any way be canceled by
prison admin or stopped because of budget cuts. In fact, the impetus for
the UFPP being formed was because prison staff were actively creating
disunity among the prisoner population. We had to create our own
independent networks and agreements for creating peace, because peace
efforts were being actively thwarted by staff. We have to build “Unity
From the Inside Out.”
United Struggle from Within (USW) is the MIM(Prisons)-led mass
organization for prisoners and former prisoners, and another example of
an institution that has developed and organizes within the pages of
Under Lock & Key. USW is a way people can plug into
anti-imperialist organizing from behind bars, leading campaigns, handing
out fliers, putting out art, participating in petitions and struggles.
USW cells have independent institutions locally, including study groups,
libraries, food and hygiene pools, jailhouse lawyer services, and other
forms of support. Through ULK, USW can share experiences and
knowledge to further build the anti-imperialist movement behind bars.
USW and UFPP organizing comes with its own set of challenges. Organizers
are moved and isolated all the time. Repressive attacks and false
disciplinary cases are also carried out by prison staff on our comrades.
Censorship of mail impacts our ability to organize, with some states or
institutions fully banning ULK or mail from MIM(Prisons). It
means we hold no illusions that anyone else can or will do this work for
us, and we take that on, with all the sacrifices and challenges that
come with it.
Some comrades choose to work within larger organizations, or with prison
staff, to get a bigger platform for their organizing. Like any alliance,
a big consideration is if one can actually do the work that needs to be
done within that alliance, because most likely these alliances will
require you to water down your political line. Everyone will assess
their own conditions to see what they can do to be most effective in the
facility where they’re held. The method we use to do this in
MIM(Prisons) projects is
analyzing
the principal contradiction in a situation, and upholding
MIM(Prisons)’s 6 main points.(9)
Other Prisoner-led Projects
Within ULK we also regularly report on independent institutions
that didn’t originate in our circles, which serve the interests of the
oppressed-nation lumpen in the First World. There are many hardships
that prisoners can organize around inside, to build independent
institutions (communication channels, organizational connections) and
public opinion in favor of socialism.
One example is the organization Men Against Sexism (MAS), which existed
in the Washington state prison system in the 1970s. Men Against Sexism
worked to protect new, and otherwise vulnerable, prisoners from sexual
assault and other forms of gender oppression that prisoners were doing
to each other. It was a different time back then, and these guys were
celling together so they could organize better, and collecting donations
from outside to purchase cells from other prisoners to house people who
needed protection from the typical prison bullshit.
MAS
eliminated sexual assault in the Washington state system.(10)
Imagine if you came together with other people in your facility to enact
your own prisoner rape elimination campaign. What difference would that
make for you and the people around you?
“Like prison groups today LADS focused on combating oppression and
providing education for the imprisoned Chican@, and LADS also left us
with some good examples to learn from. They created several serve the
people programs in the pinta, for one they created a committee that
worked with new prisoners, what we may call ‘first termers’ here in
pintas in Califas. This was important because a new prisoner or ‘fish’
may be easy prey for some predator in prison. In this way youngsters
were given revolutionary clecha once they entered the pinta by LADS
‘O.G.’s.’ LADS was comprised of prison vets who were politicized. Within
LADS were many sub-committees such as the Committee to Assist Young
People (CAYP), as well as a security committee called the Zapatistas.
The LADS were anti-dope and combated drug use or sales in the pinta.
They were not trying to poison the imprisoned Raza, rather they were
trying to build the Raza.”(11)
Protecting newcomers, sexual assault, and drugs are only some of the
issues that prisoners have to take care of themselves. There are no
petitions we can send you, and there’s no one to appeal to to resolve
these problems. Like
our
comrade at Telford Unit in Texas reported in ULK 59,
“My brothers in here have fallen victim to K2, which is highly
addictive. They don’t even care about the struggle. The only thing on
their minds is getting high and that sas. I mean this K2 shit is like
crack but worse. You have guys selling all their commissary, radios,
fans, etc. just to get high. And all these pigs do is sit back and
watch; this shit is crazy. But for the few of us who are K2-free I’m
trying to get together a group to help me with the struggle.”(12)
Nowadays conditions are a lot different in prisons than they were in the
1960s and 70s. Still, it’s possible to build independent institutions to
meet prisoners’ needs. Bigger organizing happens in even worse
conditions than the United $tates. There’s no perfect set of conditions
that need to be present in order to make a difference. It’s a matter of
choosing to do it ourselves. We want to report on and support these
prisoner-led serve the people programs in ULK. So get to work,
and send us your updates!
Educational Institutions and Public Opinion
ULK is a big part of how we build public opinion in favor of
socialism, and in studying different movements and organizations, we saw
that many failures are based in a lack of education and empowerment
among the masses in society, or the organization’s membership. Depth of
political consciousness (and, related, correctness of political line) is
arguably the number one reason why movements fail. Depth of analysis
isn’t about flashcards and pop quizzes. It’s about “How to think, not
what to think.”
We’ve taken this to heart in our emphasis on educational programs. We
run a number of different correspondence study groups, including a
University of Maoist Thought for our advanced comrades. We run a Free
Political Books for Prisoners Program, which isn’t just about books,
it’s about books in service of our mission of liberating everyone,
including the Third World proletariat, from imperialism. We don’t do
general book distribution because we want to liberate more than just
individuals’ minds. With our comrades’ help, we develop study packs and
distribute literature and study packs to prisoner-led study groups on
the inside. We are really offering every format of political education
we can through the mail, because this is such an important task in our
work.
Besides the written word, there are many other channels for building
public opinion. POOR Magazine and
the Poor News Network (PNN) are independent institutions using events,
rallies, and street theater in combination with the internet, radio, and
videos to build public opinion in favor of oppressed-nation and lumpen
struggles in the United $nakes. POOR Magazine runs a liberation school
for children, and many, many other programs. POOR Magazine is funded
independently from its own participants, events, and a donation program
for individuals via Community Reparations. PNN goes hard on its line
against capitalism, imperialism, and settlerism even with some funding
from “reparators,” which is the real measurement of independence.(13)
One radio program on the
Poor News Network that especially builds public opinion for national
liberation struggles and socialist revolution is
Free
Aztlán. Free Aztlán airs weekly and covers current issues concerning
Raza and Chican@ communities. It has interviews, poetry, music, and even
readings from the book Chican@ Power and the Struggle for Aztlán
for people who don’t or can’t have a physical copy to reference. That
PNN is willing to air a program like Free Aztlán says a lot about PNN,
and we look forward to this program being a staple in our independent
education institutions moving forward!(14)
Building public opinion isn’t just about sharing information and
exposing people to ideas. Applying our study to our conditions, we can
help educate others in developing their own desire for socialism. It’s
an exercise in “Each One, Teach One.” This was explained in
our
book review of Condemned by Bomani Shakur:
“The first theme addressed in ‘Condemned’ is the author’s ideological
transformation. MIM(Prisons)‘s primary task at this point in the
struggle is building public opinion and institutions of the oppressed
for socialist revolution, so affecting others’ political consciousness
is something we work on a lot. On the first day of the [Lucasville]
uprising, Bomani was hoping the state would come in to end the chaos.
But ‘standing there as dead bodies were dumped onto the yard (while
those in authority stood back and did nothing), and then experience the
shock of witnessing Dennis’ death [another prisoner who was murdered in
the same cell as the author], awakened something in me.’ Bomani’s
persynal experiences, plus politicization on the pod and thru books, are
what led em to pick up the struggle against injustice.”(15)
We can’t predict exactly what events, what books, or what conversations
will spark the revolutionary fire in people. Everyone has their own
unique journey into this work. Building independent institutions is one
huge way we nourish and support that spark: empowering ourselves and
others to do things to change our actual present conditions, while we
build toward a socialist future.
Under Lock & Key has been the voice of the
anti-imperialist movement within U.$. prisons for 11.5 years. This issue
is going out one month later than our usual schedule, because it is the
last issue of ULK in its current form.
ULK has been an exemplary independent institution of the
oppressed in preparation to take state power. It’s within these pages
that United Struggle from Within – the anti-imperialist mass
organization of current and former prisoners – developed and organized
dozens of campaigns. Through ULK the United Front for Peace in
Prisons was developed to stop violence in prisons that was not only
keeping us divided, but also being used as an excuse for lockdowns and
other repression. These are all examples of independent institutions of
the oppressed, and it’s fitting that this, ULK’s final issue, is
dedicated to this important topic.
An important lesson that comes from Lenin’s book What is to be
Done? is the importance of a movement’s newspaper, to spread ideas
and organize with others. Have no fear! Even though ULK is
changing form, we’re in no way stopping producing a newspaper. U.$.
prisoners need a voice, and there’s no one else making a newspaper like
this, from a proletarian perspective. That will not be lost in this
transition.
As we explained in
ULK
64 we have a goal of producing a monthly newspaper. In our work
towards that goal we are making some big changes to ULK.
We are extremely excited to be joining forces with the Revolutionary
Anti-Imperialist Movement (RAIM) in a consolidation of the Maoist
Internationalist Movement (MIM) into a single newspaper (name TBD).
RAIM’s portion of the newspaper will cover much more international news
and analysis than is typically in the pages of ULK, which our
readers have been asking for for years. We’ll be decreasing our costs,
and greatly increasing our distribution on the streets. This is all in
preparation to produce the newsletter on a monthly schedule!
Our movement organ (newspaper) will continue to be fully independent.
Meaning it is fully funded by the MIM cells, and costs are partially
offset by donations we get from subscribers and people on the streets.
There is no grant money or government support for this revolutionary
work. We need our readers’ continued support to make this possible –
every donation you send helps us send more letters, educational
material, and resources to our subscribers behind bars. And ultimately
we will need your financial support to fund a monthly newsletter.
The beauty in being financially independent is that it gives us the
freedom to be ideologically independent. We can say whatever it is that
needs to be said. We can speak from a proletarian perspective, even if
the vast majority of people in the First World find it upsetting. No one
can pull the rug out from under us if we say something they don’t like.
In this independence, we (the movement) have full responsibility for our
successes and failures. If we can’t recruit enough distributors – that’s
on us. If we can’t get enough financial support – that’s on us. If
people don’t want to contribute to the newspaper – again, on us. While
taking on this responsibility might seem like a big burden to some,
because they think they can sit back and let others make revolution for
them, it’s actually quite liberating. If we want it, we can make it.
It’s hard work, and it’s possible. Nothing can hold us back. No
strings attached.
“We” isn’t just MIM(Prisons) and RAIM members; it’s all of us in the
anti-imperialist movement in the United $tates. This newspaper has been
and will continue to be a voice for all our contributors. The artwork,
poems, reports, and analysis that come from our subscribers behind bars
are what make ULK actually “from under lock & key,” and we
will continue to rely on these invaluable contributions.
Making the newspaper is one thing, and making it an organ to advance our
struggle against oppression is another. We request that each persyn
reading this article send (at least) one letter to someone on the
outside asking them to donate and/or commit to distributing the new
newspaper. Our subscribers know the value of this newspaper even better
than MIM(Prisons) does. You writing directly to your contacts will be
more effective than anything we could say to ask them to get involved.
Your contacts’ participation is a matter of you engaging them in the
value of this newspaper and this work. ULK is more than just
words on paper; it’s more than just an outlet to vent. It’s an
independent institution for creating a world without oppression, which
has a real impact on the lives of its subscribers and readers, and the
world. Share with them what you have gotten out of reading ULK
and participating in projects with MIM(Prisons) and United Struggle from
Within. Share how the United Front for Peace in Prisons has affected
your day-to-day life, and how the articles in ULK have helped you
in your time behind bars. Be direct and unwavering in your request for
their participation. Worst case scenario is they say “no.”
For donations, your contacts can send cash, stamps or blank money orders
to the address on page 1, and every amount really does make a big
difference! Being a distributor doesn’t have to be any huge additional
commitment, either. If your outside contact(s) can identify one place
where they can put the new newspaper, we’ll send them a stack to stick
there each time a new issue comes out. Many places have free newspaper
areas – coffee shops, libraries, laundromats, etc. Ask them to find one
and commit. Then either send us their address so we can follow up, or
ask them to write to us directly. The ripple effect of your one letter
can have a huge impact on the anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist struggle
toward communism.
The rest of these pages of ULK talk about other independent
institutions of the oppressed, within the MIM and without, current and
past. We’ll apply lessons we’ve learned from history to our analysis of
these institutions. We are proud that ULK and all our
contributors have spent the last 11.5 years being among them. And we are
looking forward to expanding in the new newsletter in 2020.
by a Pennsylvania prisoner September 2019 permalink
Until recently I was being held at SCI Somerset with 9 months hole time.
During this time prison officials stole my commissary, denied me access
to the law library (mini law library), discarded my legal materials,
discarded my incoming mail, denied me legal phone calls (even when I had
court within days of my request), and I was denied meals (trays), among
other things. All in retaliation for my filing grievances about the many
injustices and inhumane living conditions I and others suffered from.
After successfully challenging those things via grievance appeals to
central office, these C.O.s started targeting other prisoners. Denying
them showers, yard, meals, and giving their incoming mail to other
prisoners. These guys reacted, as they should, but the way they reacted
was counterproductive. So I taught them how to fight our oppressors
using the grievance procedure for positive results and they were
successful.
As a result of this, the prison guards and prison officials conspired on
a course of action and the result was they transferred me to a facility
where they know I have multiple enemies, and labeled me as a gang member
(which I’m not). This is a Restricted Housing Unit (RHU).
Throughout this entire ordeal I saw opportunity to start teaching those
brothers how to put a stop to oppression and injustices they were
subjected to before I arrived. I am proud to say we’ve made a couple
victories; small ones, but victories nonetheless. The brothers are
especially happy of the bigger trays in the RHU! We have more work to
do, our battles continue.
by a North Carolina prisoner September 2019 permalink
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins Penguin
Group, New York, 2004
I just read a very enlightening book Confessions of an Economic Hit
Man by John Perkins. It’s a memoir of a former manager of Economics
and Planning at MAIN (Chas T. Main Inc.), a powerful corporation, where
he worked with CIA agents and other economic hit men to impoverish and
subjugate peoples and countries around the world. Plagued by a guilty
conscience, he later founded Independent Power Systems and developed
environmental friendly power plants. Yet he was still tempted by
imperialism.
In his confessions, Mr. Perkins explains how the USA has seized power in
Saudi Arabia, Panama, Ecuador and other countries. We try to avoid open
warfare. Before we even send in the jackals (special forces, snipers and
other assassins, etc.) we employ economic hit men to corrupt
governments, destabilize local economies and destroy environments. A
Bedouin hero likened the tactics we’re using against Islam to the
tactics used to conquer the Native American nations. We cut down the
trees and shot the buffalo. The foundations of indigenous culture
collapsed, and we are now exploiting them, their farmland, their gold,
and their oil.
“You see, it is the same here,” he said, “the desert is our environment.
The Flowering Desert project threatens nothing less than the destruction
of our entire fabric. How can we allow this to happen?” (p.130)
In order to defraud and blackmail and corrupt foreign governments, and
prepare their countries for exploitation by American corporations, he
traveled around the world, living in tents, jungle huts and five-star
hotels. Some of the action took place in secret meetings here in the
United States. I particularly enjoyed reading some of the conversations
that took place in posh offices high up in skyscrapers near my home.
Economic hit men have been very successful in Saudi Arabia. When they
fail, as they did in Ecuador, jackals are called in. They probably
killed President Roldós of that country and President Torrijos of
Panama.
If the jackals fail, as they did in Iraq, military intervention is
undertaken directly by the USA government. The book sheds light upon our
current aggression against
Venezuela,
although the author did not have a major role there.
In 1930, Venezuela was the world’s largest oil exporter. By 1973 (the
time of the Arab oil embargo), Venezuela was wealthy and its people
enjoyed excellent health care, education and low rates of unemployment.
Within 30 years, American EHMs (Economic Hit Men) and the International
Monetary Fund had changed that. The country’s per capita income was down
40% and the middle class was shrinking.
George Bush and the CIA orchestrated a coup, but their victory was
short-lived. President Chavez returned to power and immediately
initiated further democratic reforms. Bush began war preparations, but
crushing resistance in Iraq and Afghanistan took priority and Venezuela
got reprieve. Now, fifteen years after Confessions of an Economic Hit
Man was published, Donald Trump is making moves to seize control of
one of the world’s biggest oil reserves and other important natural
resources, as well as cheap labor in a once prosperous country brought
low by Amerikan imperialists.
Confessions is a must-read for anyone seeking to understand how
the USA invades, attacks, and oppresses people and starves children in
the name of freedom; or why so many millions of people around the world
hate us.
MIM(Prisons) adds: The writings of John Perkins are a useful
exposé of the modern imperialist methods of subversion of other nations’
self-determination. United Snakes interventions stand in stark contrast
to all the concerns over Russian influence in U.$. election outcomes.
Despite the obvious implications of the facts Perkins revealed, ey
remains unabashedly embedded in the bourgeoisie. The solutions ey
provides in this book include pressuring corporations to do good things,
and joining organizations to get laws passed. Now it seems ey is
promoting a series of trips to the Third World for rich people to engage
in mysticism. Needless to say, we see much different solutions being
called for by the stories in this book.
I was in I Pod in a cell that ended up having an electrical problem,
which is a Facility Maintenance issue and should have been fixed
A.S.A.P. Whenever the floor officer would come around for count and the
picket boss would turn on the cell lights, it was knocking my power out.
And not only mine but 3 other’s beside mine. There are two people to
each cell and no power means no fan; and it doesn’t take long to start
overheating in a prison cell in the Texas heat!
When it first happened, me and my celly along with the occupants of one
other cell refused to go back into the cell when they put everyone up at
night. So 4 of us sacked the day-room. The officers and Sgt understood,
and got our power back on after about 30 minutes. So we went back in.
There was a note put in the picket to not flick cell lights on. But
every day, whoever was in the cell during count was stuck with no power
because they would turn cell lights on despite the note. Sometimes the
power would be returned relatively fast, about 10 minutes. But more
often than not, the COs would finish count, which meant the power would
not return for another hour or two.
I have cardiovascular disease and am on a heat restriction: I
cannot be housed on 3rd Row because of this. I seen nothing was being
done about the power outages so I wrote an I-60 to the warden which got
put in the mail early Friday morning. The following Monday I was moved
out of the Faith Based Pod and to another Pod, which caused another
issue because I was put on a top bunk which is a risk because of the
fainting I sometimes experience due to my heart condition. I told
Medical; they said my bottom bunk restriction expired. I explained to
the nurse the heart condition and symptoms. The nurses can issue a 3 day
pass plus a follow-up with DA. But instead she was negligent and said
there was nothing she could do and gave me a sick call request. I turned
that in a week ago and am still on the top bunk.
Since I’ve been in this new pod I found out they still haven’t fixed the
maintenance problem of the previous one. There was a 57 year old
American Citizen from Pakistan there in the cell next to mine and his
cell was also affected by the power outages. He was on psych meds and
heat restriction. He had an anxiety attack when the power was knocked
out and was locked up for threatening to kill the CO. In my eyes, this
was really a provoked issue because the safety and health hazard arose
from a failure to properly maintain the facility. This could have been,
or still may be, fatal to someone.
It is very hot 24/7 in TX prisons in summertime. A few months ago, a 29
year old inmate at the Robinson Unit died of heat stroke. This seems to
happen every year during summer. At what point is it considered
homicide? Murder? To me that’s exactly what it is.
I’ve been spending a lot of time in the Law Library. I plan to write
grievances on these issues.
by a Pennsylvania prisoner September 2019 permalink
I am an inmate at SCI-Huntingdon in Huntingdon, PA. I am writing you
hoping you can somehow help or assist me. I was a victim of rape in this
jail in August 2019. I reported this to PREA (Prison Rape Elimination
Act) coordinator here at SCI Huntingdon, Lt. Grassmyer and Ms Pyle. I
placed myself in solitary confinement to get away from my attacker who
was my cellmate.
While in solitary confinement (RHU) I received threats of retaliation
for filing the PREA report. My attacker is a well established gang
member here at SCI Huntingdon with a lot of connections. I reported this
to “security” and Lt. Grassmyer, I expressed how I was in fear for my
safety due to the treats I received. In response I was given an
ultimatum by Lt. Grassmyer, “go back to population, or get a misdconduct
for refusing to go back to population.” Reluctantly, I went back to
population, I didn’t want a misconduct when I see the parole board in
Nov of this year. I wasn’t in population for 24 hours before receiving
multiple threats of retaliation for filing report to PREA (Lt.
Grassmyer).
Friends of mine were approaching me warning me of a hit (bounty) on my
head to stab me or cut me up real good. I went straight to the block
guard and told him about the hits on my head, since then, Sept 5 2019,
I’ve been in solitary confinement. I am in steady fear for my life and
I’m afraid that this jail, Lt. Grassmyer in particular is going to get
me seriously hurt or even killed.
Under the PREA act, it is my right to be protected from retaliation. If
they try to make me go back to general population I know for a fact that
I will be stabbed or cut up or even killed. This prison is corrupt and I
don’t trust anyone here and I need all the help I can get from the
outside. So please, if there is anything, anything you can do to help me
or assist me. I have almost 10 years incarcerated and I am not eligible
for parole while in the RHU (solitary confinement), because it is a
level 5 security, so even though I am eligible to go home, I can’t as
long as they keep me here in RHU. I’m in a Catch 22 and this is not
right. Please help me.
I am bringing you an update from inside this Texas Gulag or should I
just say Konzentration Kamp, to be exact.
I received my last package from you: the writing tips, more about MIM,
how to start a Study Group and the material for the study group I just
enrolled in. As I look over all the material, I already started scoping
out cadres I will offer the Study Group to. But I want to first build a
curriculum before I actually start this group. I have pulled two
soldiers to the side, teaching them with what I got. And as we advance
in our study group, I will offer my comrades to be a part of the
positive peaceful movement I want to establish within this battlefield
with the sole purpose of eradicating the criminal mentality and
promoting a revolutionary state of mind which will help bring both Unity
and Change within our prison conditions. The Militia, a group of
conscious, mature-minded men. So stay tuned on updates of the building
of this brotherhood of leaders.
In other news, the suicide rate in TDCJ was up 40% in 2018. Yearly
suicide attempts have nearly tripled since 2009 going from 700 to 2,000.
This is due to the lack of rehabilitation if you ask me: Texas has more
prisoners than any other state yet they offer no counseling. I see a lot
of suicide attempts; a lot because of the Slave Job (Texas Prisoners
still don’t get paid for work). No good time, work time, nothing. But
they are making a killing through TCI. Here on the Michaels Unit, we
teamed up with Administration to start a Suicide Prevention Squad which
allows us to offer the people an ear to talk to and even a voice to give
feedback.
K-2 is like crack now. If they give us K-2 and flood the inmate general
population that will give us more to fight about while distracting us
from what’s important. Like issues stemming from over-crowding, or how
we are still battling inhumane conditions due to the torching heat. When
we ask for respite in designated areas, it’s still too crowded. They
already got down on some of those brothers under the Heat Lawsuit that
was won. TDCJ was supposed to Air Condition certain units, they did, but
are already having issues with the cooling system. It’s still hot as
hell with no solution to this issue. Then to top it off, a lot of
brothers under the Lawsuit were shipped to other units. I thought they
were protected under the Lawsuit.
I hope this letter finds you all in the best of health & spirits. As
for myself, I’m not doing too good! I am in a great deal of pain in my
back and testicles due to nerve pain. I was seen on 7-31-19, I believe,
and a non-formulary [drug] was requested but denied. I was told by the
provider that if I didn’t receive the pain medication in a few days to
send an I-60 (Request to Officials) to be seen again. I did so on the
fourth of August; I still have not been seen. I’ve also filed grievances
and sick calls. It is the prison’s policy as well as UTMB (contracted
medical care), for inmates to be seen within 10 days of being evaluated
by a sick call nurse. I’ve seen the sick call nurse 3 times already. I
turned in my carpel tunnel splint because it was sabotaged when I forgot
it on rec. yard. Medical still hasn’t provided a replacement even though
they have them in their supply stock.
I’m sending you this letter because I wanted to see if you can contact
Health Services in Huntsville, Texas (936-437-3618) and report this for
me. There should be at least one medical practice manager on this unit,
but there isn’t and as a result I’m being denied medical care. I’m also
in need of the book Protect your Health & Safety or something like
that; an inmate told me about it a while back, but since I’m indigent
and halfway through my sentence I was hoping I wouldn’t need it. I was
mistaken.
They allowed my jailhouse lawyer’s manual and Texas supplement issue to
be stolen last year when I was raped and they lied to me saying it was
in my property and I signed the property papers only to find out it was
not in there. Can you please help me with the protect your health and
safety book ro refer me to someone who may be able to help me?