Under Lock & Key

Thank you for the Under Lock & Key 87 and 88. I just finished reading through ULK 87 and Grim is right Christianity is being forced on every individual in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. This violates all Texans’ rights to religious practice through the tablets in prison.

On the other hand I’m over here on the McConnell Unit where I see religious people who are supposed to be for the people work in the place as the oppressor with the same pigs whom practice oppression. When we look at the capitalist here in American prisons we see the state abuse their authority by placing power and control in the peoples’ hands. Half of the time we can’t get nothing done because every time we stand up for what’s right here come the gang members and religious folks taking up for the pigs and it’s your fellow inmate brother whom is putting you farther in oppression. I myself experience this a lot.

The staff here, these officers rather, let the prisoners deal with the prisoners, in return the officers look the other way when the workers are dealing drugs. Just the other day a crip wanted to go on a hunger strike for the pod going on a 15 day lock down because several individuals got caught smoking. These same officers know the prisoners who are bringing the smoke over here. All these individuals are working together with a handful of gang members and religious folks. The real revolutionary prisoners are basically stuck in the cell all day.

My question is when are we gonna connect with people who can do something about the situation. We write grievances and file complaints and we still can’t get anything done. I know for a fact we sent out every letter of 35 grievances. I pack my stuff up and went to the front desk and told them to move me back [because an L.O. runs this block that I have a documented conflict with] and they threatening me with physical harm and told me to go back to my pod.

The people in Israel are evil people who hide behind the Christian religion. They want the rest of the world to follow in the Christian faith but they can’t follow in their own faith. Israel needs to stop oppressing Palestinians especially the women and children. America is supposed to stand against that kind of crime. R.I.P to Marcellus Khalifa Williams. May the brother reach the heavens and dwell in the window of God. The injustice system can still kill innocent Black men in America no matter what the people do, no matter how hard the people fight. His death did not go without a learned message. Once I’m free I’mma keep in mind that that could be me.

MIM(Prisons) adds: Yes, people inside must connect with people on the outside to build a real movement to stop this oppression. We can look to the national liberation struggle in Palestine and the connection to the prison movement there as an example. We once had stronger movements here in occupied Turtle Island. And as we build them up again, we must build that crucial link between the inside and outside.

Welcome to the Revolution! This is Alien, back with Part II to my last article from ULK #86: Response to “Stop Snitching: Stop Collaborating”.

I disagree with this California prisoner’s definition of snitching in the 2nd paragraph of the “Stop Snitching on Pigs” article (also in ULK 86). Not all snitching is done to a “higher authority.” To snitch is to incriminate an ally, or should-be ally, through written/verbal statements made to anyone who could be a pig/rat/enemy, in general. If I take incriminating info/intel to a rat, or to somebody who views the pigs as “allies”, through gossip/rumors/incriminating raps (AKA rhyming witness statements), then this is snitching. It’s well-known that this type of gossip/rumors often finds its way to the higher authorities. The problem is that this form of snitching, via gossip/rumors/raps, happens so routinely that everybody is typically guilty of doing it, which means that nobody’s trying to enforce anti-gossip/anti-rumors/anti-incriminating rap. You never know you’re gossiping to a MFer on 60-days-in, or a fuckin’ pig dressed up/tatted up like a convict. I’ve seen many rats feed all kinds of gossip to the enemy. Convicts gossiping about other convicts is just as bad as convicts writing grievances on other convicts, snitch-wise, it’s just that grievances are documented on paper while gossip isn’t always documented. However, just because an incriminating statement isn’t documented on paper doesn’t mean it’s not what it is – snitching. Gossip, rumors, and incriminating raps aren’t silence, and thus, violate the code of silence.

Why would you gossip about somebody who you claim to be loyal to, when that “somebody” is somebody you claim you’d never snitch on? Some say “a man’s only as good as eir word,” but if you’re using your word behind somebody’s back, it means your words can’t be trusted. If your word can’t be trusted, it’s no good. How am I supposed to be loyal to people who I can’t trust? Besides, if you’re gossiping about everybody else, then why can’t they be gossiping about you? What they’ll do to you, they’ll do to me. An organization plagued by gossip is a ship that’ll sink at the words of loose lips. (Mao discussed this in part in eir essay Combat Liberalism). Plus infiltrators can weaponize gossip to keep everybody against each other. The revolution demands open confrontation. In a time of war (seeing as how prison is war, gossiping to any enemy about an ally is disloyalty/snitching. Don’t be scared to pull MFer’s up and encourage confrontation.

Gossip/rumors, as an aspect of communication, are a contradiction within the masses that stirs up all kinds of dramatic manipulation/schemes/disorganization/confusion/division/etc. If we’re to wage a campaign against gossip/rumors/incriminating rap. Criticism/self-criticism is not to be conducted behind comrade’s backs. We need our organizations gossip/rumor-free, if we’re to succeed in our number-one goal.

Time, for a Revolutionary, is more than just money; Time, for a Revolutionary, is waging Revolution – with emphasis placed on the word “wage”/“waging.” You wage Revolution against the enemy, not with the enemy. Don’t waste much time loosening one’s lips with the enemy, if it’s not words spoken in the name of the Revolution.

Seeing as how Communism is a society where no group has power over any other group, I’d like our next articles to discuss how we can change individuals, who collaborate with our powerful enemies and view them as allies, into viewing the powerless as allies, who aren’t to be collaborated against, or snitched on – a shift in loyalties, through dialectical materialism’s resolution of contradictions.

In y’all’s experience, what strategies/tactics have y’all applied behind bars, in order to internally change other prisoners’ loyalties, in favor of Revolution? What new strategies can we come up with? How do we get people to start caring about people who need help, instead of $, drugs, sex, and power?

Can a communist society exist with individuals abusing powerful words against each other, through snitching, gossiping, rumors, incriminating raps, etc., or with collaboration against one another? (I personally don’t see a communist society tolerating bullshit like that). What will communication, on/off the internet, look like in a communist society and how will it be organized? Remember, communication rules the nation(s), so it’s very important to address this in our campaigns, if we’re to succeed. The problem is that it’s hard enough for many of us to control our own mouths, let alone the mouths of an entire society. How do we organize our communications leading up to socialist Revolution?

It’s time to put the Revolution where your mouth is.

NOTE: This is why MIM said that, under the dictatorship of the proletariat, party members will be paid the rate of the lowest paid workers in society.

UPDATED MAY 2025

When state-level petitions fail, we now have this petition to appeal to the Department of Justice. This federal level appeal may help put pressure on the state corrections departments ignore our appeals

Mail the petition to your loved ones and comrades inside who are experiencing issues with the grievance procedure. Send them extra copies to share! For more info on this campaign, click here.

Prisoners should send a copy of the signed petition to each of the addresses below. Supporters should send letters on behalf of prisoners.

Section Chief – Special Litigation Section, Civil Rights Division, U.S. Department of Justice, 950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20530

ACLU National Prison Project, 915 15th St NW, 7th floor, Washington DC, 20005-2112 (for those ready to bring class action lawsuits)

Office of the U.S. Attorney General, 1425 New York Ave. NW, Washington DC 20530-0001

Director/Commissioner/Secretary of Corrections (for your state)

Agency or Facility Grievance System Director or Coordinator (for your state)

And send MIM(Prisons) copies of any responses you receive!

MIM(Prisons), USW
PO Box 40799
San Francisco, CA 94140

No average free citizen, nor incarcerated individual, has hardly ever heard of the term “light pollution” (otherwise known as “constant illumination”) which is very harmful to the lives of humans and animals.

Jailers across the country continually adopt the malevolent practice of installing fluorescent lighting within housing cells of jail and prison facilities alike. Officials usually have complete power to turn the light off at night, but choose not to do so. This scheme, to my knowledge, is a sure form of corporal punishment.

To make matters worse, sheriffs and prison guards threaten convicts and detainees with disciplinary infractions for covering the light up at nighttime. When officials usually have a standard-issue flashlight that can easily be used when conducting their security checks.

Scientific studies have rendered evidence, showing how light pollution is a contributing factor to the causation of triggering diseases. These diseases can range from hypertension, diabetes, cancer, and a slew of other health problems.

Light pollution initially affects our circadian rhythms, leading to the onslaught of ensuing problems that follow afterwards, which disrupt the systems of the body. Our circadian rhythm is the body’s internal sleep-wake-clock, which is governed by the way light enters into our bodies through the retinas of the eyes. Light itself, is usually measured in the fashionable method of lumens, luxes, and candle watts. Whenever our exposure to constant illumination is 24/7 for weeks, months, and years, could be why a bunch of us may be experiencing health problems, while being totally unaware that light pollution is the hidden catalyst behind our illnesses. Especially when there’s evidence of sleep deprivation being the main culprit.

Keenan vs. Hall, a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, is one of the leading cases amongst many others in the federal district courts, where decisions have been made on this matter that have set precedence. Despite this, jailers continue to practice this form of penology that brings about the needless cruel and unusual double-whammy punishments caused by light pollution. Over the past several decades across the country, animal facilities housing monkeys and other creatures were forced to shut down due to those particular animals’ exposure to the dangers of constant illumination, that was ultimately deemed to be animal cruelty.

The question to be answered here, should one might think to ask is this: shouldn’t the life of a human be just as much valued as a precious animal’s life, if not more, regardless of incarceration?

MIM(Prisons) responds:This is just one of many examples of the disregard for prisoners’ health under imperialism. The negative impacts on the health of oppressed peoples from U.$. prison conditions is just one contributor to a system of low-intensity genocide in this country.

We fight for a socialist world, where prisoners’ health is taken as seriously as that of lab animals or of any other humyn beings for that matter. The current system dehumynizes prisoners as part of a system of national oppression, and control of surplus populations. Through national liberation we will build a system of rehabilitation that recognizes the value of restoring people who have committed crimes against the people to citizens that contribute to society.

The Chican@ Movement continues to grow and evolve as it reacts and responds to the social reality that we encounter today. For this we need to put our goals in perspective so that we may build today and guide our future guerrer@s who will continue the struggle for liberation and self-determination for the nation. Today we delve into our predecessors’ actions and previous lessons and ideas that shaped our political line and which guide us into the future. For these reasons it’s crucial that we define what our true objectives are today in our movement that we hope outlines how our movement has evolved and continues to grow into the future.

In the 1960s many within the Chican@ movement of that period sought Chican@ power in the form of better schools, of an end to abuse or the murder of our people in the imperialist wars like in Vietnam. For many others Chican@ Power meant to have community control in some form, of having our own teachers and schools or even a parcel of land. Many Chican@ organizations did not study political theory, even today political education is not promoted in the nation on the level that it should at this stage in the decaying of capitalism.

A true classification today of Chican@ power should push the boundaries and transcend generations in ways that cut the path for our future cadre. For these reasons Chican@ Power today can only be seen as based in a socialist revolution and a communist future less it be reduced to simply a defective label. Seeking more jobs or “funding” for our community which is ultimately strangled out of the Third World by imperialism no longer quenches the thirst we have for justice and liberation.

The pairing of Chican@ power with revolution is the natural cause of development if we are to take a materialist approach. We know that the capitalist State will not hand over power, it will not unseat itself, on the contrary the natural cycle of imperialism demands that it “eats more”, it must in order to continue to exist. In the initial stages of revolution a joint dictatorship of the oppressed nations will ensure the U.$. capitalist state and all of its imperialist lechers are thoroughly stomped out for good, thereby cutting a path for Aztlán and other oppressed nations to finally exercise people’s power in their liberated nations where socialism can blossom.

Today’s Chican@ movement is in agreement for the most part that we the Chican@ Nation are a people who should be free from oppression and who deserve to be free to organize in our own fashion and even our own government. Where the road becomes blurry for some is what Chican@ power should look like as the term Chican@ power can fill many different buckets.

One challenge we have today, to be quite honest, is the rise of the petty bourgeoisie within Aztlán, and as a result, the dominance of bourgeois ideology is taken for granted. Taking a Materialist approach was rarely done in the past where our concrete reality and the ever changing conditions, very material conditions in which we exist as an oppressed nation highlight the terrain in which we are up against. Another challenge is the strong pull towards integration with the oppressor nation and what these two challenges mean or how they affect the activity of the Chican@ nation and its vision for power or what power even looks like to Aztlán especially for those under the influence of Amerikkka or capitalism more broadly. As communists we know that humyn activity and how they move through life affects their production and one’s mode of production. How and what we as Chican@s produce defines how we are developing as people and as a nation. Production is key to assess a people or productive forces but here in the U.S. the “productive forces” are for the most part bourgeoisified.

For Aztlán the most revolutionary elements that push for power would be the lumpen and migrants. The Chican@ lumpen exist in a tribal type of structure within these false U.S. borders with a definite class formation and antagonism between lumpen and the capitalist state. At the same time some of the petty bourgeoisie will ride with the revolution and we should understand these social forces collectively and build with this in mind. All socialist revolutions proved this to be true, including Mao’s Chinese revolution.

Chican@ Power at this stage will not come from a gun. We have much work ahead, mental work, theoretical production to get our gente where they need to be theoretically or ideologically. But consciousness raising cannot elevate a nation if this effort is devoid of practice, and correct practice does not arrive without error in which to learn from. So practice is necessary for us to propel Aztlán onto the stage where Chican@ power is finally realized as without practice we are left with what Marx called “dead facts”. Within U.S. prisons I read of a lot of resistance and theory including new Chican@ revolutionaries and others. Some of this writing is very good but without practice and putting some of these ideas into reality the U.S. prisons can degenerate into warehouses of dead facts. Likewise the semi-colonies can end up as prison houses of dead facts.

Our hystorical conditions as a semi-colony will compel us to obtain national liberation. Our ideology will streamline this process. Our colonizers today control the dominant ideology taken up by the majority of the masses here in the occupied territories, even among the most oppressed we can see and hear them parroting ruling class propaganda. The capitalist state spends a lot of money and time from its many agencies in order to spread its brainwashing on a mass scale. It’s our job to counter this as best we can. Chican@ power relies on how effective we are at this.

We should know and understand that Chican@ Power will be realized in a world lead by the Third World. What’s more is the Chican@ Movement is also part of the International Communist Movement (ICM) and millions of people around the world who are a part of the ICM are also currently fighting for national liberation just like us. They fight against class and gender oppression just like us. We are not alone, on the contrary we are with the majority of the world’s people in our fight for justice.

Today Chican@ organizations should be building Barrio Committees in a hood near you. The Barrios Committee will be the cultural center and political laboratory for Aztlán at a regional level. The Barrio Committee is but the seed for the Chican@ Communes. These are the steps towards dual power and community control. This is the path towards Chican@ Power that needs to be utilized in order to guide the nation towards a society that is free from oppression.

In the last issue, we mentioned the removal of Spanish-language content from federal websites. Since then, we’ve seen the Pentagon removing information about Navajo code-talkers, Jackie Robinson, Tuskegee Airmen and Japanese who fought for the U.$. in World War II from their websites.

The U.$. military helps to impose fascism on the oppressed people of the Third World when they get out of line. But now that fascism is coming home, the oppressed nations here are the first to feel the brunt.

There’s a long history of the U.$. military using benefits and even citizenship to bribe people to fight for them. There’s also a long history of the United $tates not always coming through with their promises. This erasure of oppressed people from their history is just one more slap in the face of those who thought they’d get in with the Amerikans by fighting in their wars. And we see it as a petty sign of how Amerika is taking a different approach to oppressed people in this country.

The Regime

While Trump wasn’t so different as a U.$. president first time around, we can look to his current cabinet to confirm the consolidation of fascists for this second term.

Does anyone think a Euro-immigrant from apartheid South Africa who throws Nazi salutes, and is the richest persyn in the world, is a friend of oppressed nations? How about Pete Hegseth, the guy with the Christian nationalist tattoos now in charge of the military that already had a white nationalist militia problem? Who ironically closed his self-leaked plans to bomb Yemen with:

“We are currently clean on OPSEC. Godspeed to our Warriors.”

President Trump recently told Salvadorian President Bukele to “build five more places” to hold “homegrown” criminals from the United $tates, referring to the giant Salvadorian “terrorist” concentration camp Trump has begun sending people to. Stephen Miller, deputy chief of staff for policy and homeland security adviser to Trump, when asked if Mahmoud Khalil will be deported, replied:

“Yes he will, as will anyone who preaches hate for America.”

Vice President J.D. Vance is a benefactor of another of the richest people in the world, Peter Thiel, who also funds Curtis Yarvin, who Vance says he takes much influence from. Yarvin believes New Afrikans have lower IQs and that their enslavement was thus justified because they were destined to be slaves. Yarvin is paraphrased as writing:

“He then concluded that the “best humane alternative to genocide” is to “virtualize” these people: Imprison them in “permanent solitary confinement” where, to avoid making them insane, they would be connected to an “immersive virtual-reality interface” so they could “experience a rich, fulfilling life in a completely imaginary world.”“(1)

This will sound very familiar to regular readers of ULK. This is the future of prison tablets. A slow genocide that avoids the current messiness of videos of dead babies inspiring young anti-imperialists to destroy weapons manufacturing plants of companies like Elbit Systems.

These are just some highlights of the current regime that have been exposed in much more depth by others over the past year. These people do not want us and they’re serious about it.

Peak Integration?

By the 1960s, the injustices of Jim Crow had garnered sympathy and support from many sectors for the self-determination of the internal semi-colonies (in particular the Black/New Afrikan nation). Since the victory of the Civil Rights Act, that support has declined, replaced with an imperialist project of assimilation. At this point, most of us have only lived in an integrated United $tates, which has greatly reduced the interest in national liberation on occupied Turtle Island. Of course the disproportionate poverty, homelessness, murder and torture of oppressed nations continues, but many in the internal semi-colonies joined the Amerikan consumer class post-integration as well. As a result, we have more Uncle Toms and Tio Tomas than ever before (especially the Tios and Tias who continue to join the U.$. military at increasing rates).

Black Lives Matter (peaking in 2020) and the al-Aqsa Flood in 2023 brought an uptick in support for national liberation. With the resumption of the U.$.-i$rael war on Palestine and Lebanon, breaking peace deals in both cases, opposition to what the imperialists are doing in the Middle East continues to rise within the United $tates. We also think the internal actions of the current Trump regime are already beginning to heighten contradictions and broaden the base for possible alliances as the fascist enemy consolidates its forces against us.

Deportations have targeted those from Latin America and the Muslim world so far. As the prospect of war with China advances we will also see the rise of racism against Chinese people (or those perceived to be Chinese) in this country, as we have seen in the past, as recently as the COVID-19 pandemic.

You Can’t Think Racism Away

While liberals think we can (and have) made progress against national oppression by fighting “wrong ideas” in peoples’ heads, racism is in reality a product of national oppression. It cannot be ended without the national liberation of the oppressed.

The reason people believe in integration is that they believe that the wealth and prosperity of the United $tates can exist without oppressing and exploiting other nations. It cannot. And the Trump regime has a more realistic understanding of this than most Amerikans.

As support for national liberation and alternatives to the current system grow, we must make this point very clear. We must draw a clear line between the proletarian line and the social fascist and crypto-Trotskyist lines that have historically linked the struggle against oppression with the struggle for more wealth for Amerikans. The struggle for more wealth always wins out. This is why the labor aristocracy is the main force for fascism, even if the imperialists are doing most of the work so far.

<sup>Notes:
1. Gil Duran, 22 July 2024, Where J.D. Vance Gets His Weird, Terrifying Techno-Authoritarian Ideas, The New Republic.
2. MIM 2005 Congress, The labor aristocracy is the main force for fascism.</sup>

Tabletas en Florida DOC

Cuando las tabletas primero salieron en 2017, las primeras tabletas los vendieron a los presos, yo fui uno de ellos a los cuales sus seres queridos le compraron una. Luego FDOC decidió cambiar el correo postal a correo digital, so la seguridad de FDOC recogió todas las tabletas (incluyendo esos que los presos pagaron). Después regresaron y le dieron una tableta gratis a todos los presos. Desde ese tiempo hasta ahora las tabletas han sido actualizados no menos de tres veces.

Este camarada recientemente salio de Close Management (CM) y fue transferido a Hamilton C.I. Desde que llegue a esta prisión, he encontrado que durante el ultimo año el Sargento encargado de Propriedad ha estado confiscando tabletas, dando reclusos reportes disciplinarios por “manipulación de las tabletas” en la mayorídad de la veces – los presos se encuentran culpable en 99% de los casos. Son puesto en suspensión indefinida por poseer otra tableta y imponen un préstamo de $130 por reconstitución que tienen que pagar. Por un tiempo, FDOC nos dieron un poco, pero después regresaron ha quitarnos todo. FDOC nos regalaron las tabletas, pero porque son propiedad del estado, tienen un a excusa para llevárselas.

La Población Prisionero

Yo llevo 28 años internado en las prisiones y todo ha cambiado. Esto ya no es una prisión, se ha convertido a un centro de guardería infantil donde los tontos pueden pasar el tiempo. Todos quieren ser parte de una pandilla, pero antes que tomas ese juramento, dejame recordarte que es necesario entender porque esa nación, grupo, o pandilla fue nacido. Nació por parte de los oprimidos para pelear en unidad (como colectivo) contra la opresión. Y quien son los opresores? Los puercos que trabajan aquí, la administración, la sistema, el estado, y el gobierno. Yo conozco mi historia, sabes la tuya?

FDOC tiene un total de no mas de 30 guardias trabajando por turno (1/4 de ellos trabajan horas extra) y eso es contando el personal que trabaja en los controles del área en frente del prisión. Es una vergüenza que un grupo tan pequeño de puercos puedan controlar, oprimir y abusa a un grupo de 1250 a 1500 presos, matones, gánsteres, criminales y pandilleros. Los presos de FDOC no tienen unidad y menos tienen respeto a ellos mismo. Digo que no tienen respeto a ellos mismo porque puede ser que yo tengo un deuda de una sopa de 78 centavos y ya están listo para matarme, pero los puercos te pueden llamar un “montón de perras” ha ti y tu dormitorio entera y no hacen nada pero seguir con su cabeza abajo.

En el FDOC, la mayoría de los pandilleros prefieren tener un puerco como amigo en vez de otro preso que tiene el mismo colores de uniforme. Respetan mas a los puercos que a sus compañeros presos. Ali-al Haf de Georgia, leí tu articulo en ULK Winter 2025 – no estas solo! Yo también creo que esto es un virus contagioso. Ahora los presos están haciendo el trabajo de los puercos. Revisan y chequean que las puertas de tu celdas están asegurados, pasan correo, y ellos se aseguran que no comes dos veces en la cafetería, hasta los puedes ven parados al lado de un puerco como guardaespaldas. Pasan besando el culo pero al fin del día están igual como yo; encerrado en una celda. No importa como positiva sea tu opinión sobre los puercos, porque al fin del día ellos no van as arriesgar sus cheques de pago para ti. Coño Preso – no seas ciego y mira el color de tu uniforme! No te das cuenta que es un diferente color?

Aprendan la diferencia entre un derecho y un privilegio. Aprendan y usen la sistema de quejas institucional (Grievances). Necesitas dejar un historial pasado escrito en caso si la situación necesitar ir a otro nivel. Un historial pasado escrito enseña prueba que trataron una ruta de paz antes de elevar la forma de lucha.

Todos esos camaradas del pasado que sacrificaron sus sentencias, fechas de salidos, salud, familia, libertad, y otros que hasta fueron mártires que sacrificando sus vidas solamente para que esta generación se tiren sus manos arriba y rendirse? De verdad? Esto es como estamos sirviendo nuestro tiempo en 2025? Donde están tus cojones??

Unámonos todos bajo una misma linea de pensamiento. Antes de que te quejas por no tener una tableta o por no poder ver el partido en el tele, necesitamos a pensar sobre los precios de las cantinas, de como ganar mas “gain-time”, como traer libertad provisional ha los presos de vida como yo, y como mejorar la comida. Disculpame pero la prisión no es un lugar donde vienes para pasar el tiempo con tus amigos y donde se pasa un bien tiempo. Esto es el cementerio de los muertos con vida, donde tu futuro se puede cambian completamente en menos de 15 segundos. No te olvides de quien eres, de tu cultura, y de donde vienes. No te sometes al trabajo del puerco. No me sorprendo si en algunos años solamente ofrecen nuestra visitas por video y paran todo contacto físico. Si no nos unimos y no nos levantemos como un pueblo, como una familia, vamos a seguir de perder. Recuérdate que antes de que fuiste un pandillero, fuiste un hombre, un ser humano – no un animal. Niego que me tratan y que me tienen cautivo como uno. No quiero abrazos con la vida hasta que mi pueblo sea libre.

A handful of comrades in different cities on the outside have pledged to fast, study and do prisoner support work on 9 September 2025 in honor of the Attica uprising, and in solidarity with comrades organizing inside on this same day. This is the annual Day of Peace & Solidarity initiated by the United Front for Peace in Prisons over a decade ago. As we go to print, Palestinians just recognized Palestinian Prisoners’ Day on April 17. September 9th is like our Prisoners of Amerikkka Day. And this year we aim to carry the torch outside and hope to inspire others to participate.

The act of fasting forces us to slow down, be more reflective and think of others across the country doing the same thing, for the same cause. A larger group of outside comrades will also be coming together the day before to continue ongoing discussions about the Maoist-led united front here on Occupied Turtle Island. We will discuss how to best build this movement to be resilient in the long-term task of ending imperialism. We may also organize events on September 9th.

Comrades inside prison should also hold local discussions about Attica, about the anti-imperialist prison movement, and about the United Front for Peace in Prisons. Comrades can join us by abstaining from food, drugs, television, video games and other pleasure-driven activities that day, and engaging in study, discussion, outreach and reflection instead. Get our September 9th study pack, start planning now. We’ll print an updated list of plans in the next ULK.