Under Lock & Key

At the end of 2022 we conducted a more in depth end of year review than the last few years, received reports from a number of allied organizations, and held a live group discussion of these reports. This work signaled an increase in our collaboration and communication to develop our support base on the outside. While the reports themselves will not be public, we reported on many of our accomplishments and some setbacks during 2022 in our last issue.

This year we will do a better job of laying out the tasks to achieve the goals we set for ourselves, setting deadlines for those tasks to get done and assigning people to complete those tasks. While we made good progress on most of the goals we set last year, we had set a goal of returning to 6 issues of ULK per year without setting any real plan to achieve that goal. As it turned out some of the setbacks we faced ensured that we did not make any progress towards that goal, so we have removed any timeline from that particular goal until we can build up the forces to support its achievement. We will remain at 4 issues per year for the foreseeable future.

On that note we did make progress in diversifying roles on projects like ULK, the intro study program, and general handling of prisoner mail. We will be focusing on developing this diversification more in 2023, as we work towards our goal of having more locality-based chapters of AIPS to support comrades organizing inside.

This year North Texas AIPS will be working with jailhouse lawyers to update the Texas Pack. Once that is done, probably late 2023, we will release an updated price. If you want to be a part of the committee updating it please let us know ASAP. The current 2020 version is available for seven postage stamps. We get so many requests for legal resources from Texas, we do require that you pay for them.

2022 Financial Report

One piece of our annual report we did promise last issue that we did not have yet was our financial report. In terms of our contributions from prisoners, the chart below shows that donations have been growing over the last 3 years.

Our budget for 2023 is projected to be almost double the budget for 2021. This is primarily due to an increase in costs for bulk mailing of ULKs due to a loss in labor support, secondarily to a general increase in subscribers and associated mail over the last 2 years, and thirdly to a general increase in prices.

We are in good shape to meet our financial needs in 2023 with an expected increase in contributions from AIPS comrades. If we do not see such an increase it will be tight and we will not be able to expand our programs at the rate we would like.

The Broader Movement

In this issue we have a couple articles that address some efforts by others to organize around Maoism. We hope these brief commentaries can serve to help us consolidate more forces around the MIM pole of the movement. We may release more in depth papers later in the year.

We look forward to the coming year with optimism, as we see many opportunities for growth and development of our movement.

Long Live Da Black Guerrilas

The U.$. Constitution is a fraudulent and nefarious contract that is designed to maintain the status quo, and has led the oppressed masses in circles. Amerikkka has never – nor will ever – be a “democracy”. Christianity… in all its artful guises, is merely white supremacist propaganda disguised as sacred gospel. When you allow your sworn enemies to choose the rules and tactics by which you fight your battles, you will lose the war.

The commentary in Gunnas Stop, on page 12 of ULK 78, sounds like an emotional appeal that misses the cold hard reality of the “perverts” situation. While it would never – or has not yet – occurred to me to perform a salacious sexual act for a female who had not indicated her consent to the act, and I’ve know some freaky females in my time! My sentiments are as such that anyone who willingly colludes with the new Jim Crow prison/slave system of the U.$. D.O.C. is undeserving of much – if any – consideration. If all the “perverted” – probably insanely stressed out – brother did was to slap the nazi-pawn pig upside her head with his penis, she should count her blessings; he could have used a .45 caliber cannon. I don’t quibble between what is “legal”… and what is pragmatic. This war has been raging for 500 years! WTF?!!

Many years ago, an associate ambushed a law enforcement officer, who was with his family. The officer plied a scheme by which he would set up Black college students on bogus marijuana distribution charges, because he hated the prospect of a Black man obtaining college education and rising above blue collar slave wage status. The associate – presumably with others – massacred the officer and five of his family members, including the officers 8-year-old nephew (or cousin). My initial response was sadness and surprise. Then I thought of the thousands, millions, of innocent men, women and children who are still being enslaved and slaughtered by the state, and I realized that if that pig, or any of his kind, gave a happy shit for me or my children, he would not be in the service of the colonial Nazi Amerikkkan slavery genocidal system. That’s karma. (The irony of it all is that the assassins were white guys)

I have no problems with white supremacy, in Germany or Norway. My Native sisters and brothers don’t want it on Turtle Island. My Dinka and Khoisan peoples don’t want it in Africa, and I’m not having it in my home. I have not allowed christian literature, amerikkkan flags, or any other satanic filth in my home or personal space since 1979. I nearly drank myself to death when I realized that I had to purge my life of friends and family who insisted on supporting the global slave state, as flag waving patriots.

Skin, bones, teeth and hair mean little to me. The value of a thing turns on its ability to exist harmoniously and respectfully in the world. Even from childhood, I learned to admire Malcolm X, Geronimo, and Nat Turner. I also greatly respect Fidel Castro, Ernesto Guevera, Harriet Tubman, Hugo Chavez, Akhenaten and Niccolo Machiavelli. Mao Tse-Tung was nowhere perfect, but in my view he is one of the most honorable people to walk this earth in the last millennium. Commendations too for the Bolsheviks.

Say what one will about Ho Chi Minh, Kim Jong Un, Joseph Stalin, or Nicolas Maduro; These stalwart souls knew when to shit or get off the pot! Its two minutes past midnight, fuck the furniture, save the children!

Wiawimawo of MIM(Prisons) responds: For a 1 paragraph piece, we received some strong positive and negative responses to the article “Gunnas Stop”. Even one critic of the article supported those who discouraged gunnas by other means. It was this general sentiment from the masses opposed to this behavior that led me, as the editor of ULK 78, to include that short piece. I was correct that it was a topic of interest, but as the comrade above points out i was incorrect to print that piece to stand as our position on the topic. The original author is not a regular contributor to ULK.

In the spirit of self-criticism, I want to restate a few reasons why we agree with the critic above. First, we are not here to defend the oppressor, or to tell people to act professional towards them. Maybe that’s a useful tactic, maybe it’s not, but it is not a general position we should promote to our readers. What is moral to the proletariat is what ends oppression, what ends imperialism.

Second, this comrade’s critique is much more in line with MIM gender line than the article I approved in ULK 78. “Gunnas Stop” painted C.O.s as the oppressed in these situations. Yet as early as the first issue of Under Lock & Key we discussed the fact that young Black men were the most gender oppressed people in this country, largely thanks to the oppressive prison system.(1) Later in ULK 6, we focused on the topic of gender, and talked about things like how female staff would watch male prisoners shower. We get reports every week of C.O.s (of whatever biology) sexually harassing and assaulting biologically male prisoners. But as pointed out in the article in ULK 1, a 2007 DOJ report said 58% of staff charged with sexual misconduct were female, and therefore the rate of sexual misconduct of females against males is much higher in prisons than on the streets. In fact being a youth and/or a prisoner is a better predictor of being sexually assaulted than being female.(1)

As one recent example getting some publicity, Gregory Rodriquez recently “retired” from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation after an investigation was launched last month into his sexual assault of at least 22 female prisoners in Central California Women’s Facility. This is the rare example of a C.O. getting investigated for such behavior. And it is even rarer to see these cases get any attention in male prisons.

All that is to say, in our battle against gender oppression, appeals for gunnas to stop, is not where our energy needs to be focused.

As another comrade pointed out in response to my self-criticism, Mao Zedong promoted a strategy of treating prisoners of war well to win over enemy forces and promote a sober and scientific approach towards the enemy by the revolutionary forces. But, “Gunnas Stop” was not addressed at revolutionary forces or a socialist state, but rather at random masses under conditions of torture and abuse themselves.

<sup>Notes:
1. MIM(Prisons), September 2007, Gender Oppression in U.$. Prisons, Under Lock & Key No. 1.</sup>

Thank you for Under Lock and Key No. 79 (could just as well be called Under Division and Unity). I could not help but draw a parallel between 2 articles. “Some Discussion on Bad Ideas Pt. 1” and “Show Proof to Build Unity”.

First, in “Show Proof to Build Unity” MIM reminds us that the reintegration policy is a strategy to “displace the big four lumpen orgs”. The divide and conquer tactic is a correct analysis although somehow avoids the subject implied which was/is: Unity with the biggest ‘lumpen group’ (sex offenders) as means to fight the real enemy (CDCR).

Perhaps it is fear that prevents any one sex offender from organizing. Fear of hate, after all hate is scary and dangerous especially when it is NOT justified. What does MIM propose? Does the sex offender boldly call for Unity with the prisoners that hate; or in reality need someone beneath themselves as a means to tolerate their own reflection in the mirror?

Does MIM propose the sex offender organize with other sex offenders? He prefers to keep his commitment ‘offense’ secret because the moment he attempts to unite he lets everyone know that he is the designated scapegoat thus opening himself up for attack, essentially a dangerous invitation.

Much safer to stay quiet, isolated although silence is complicit. Silence concedes that it is somehow ok to hate sex offenders when the reality is; hate for sex offenders is hate of self. Hate for sex offenders is simply a need to place someone beneath self as a means to tolerate ones own reflection in the mirror. It is a self conscious advertisement that the haters’ bad acts are much, much worse than any perceived ‘crime’ of having sex. Mostly because everyone is guilty of having sex. This hypocritical aspect is further proof that hate of sex offenders is really hate of self. The delusion that sex is somehow a crime of the worst nature is paper thin, held together only by silence, fear, and hate.

Silence, fear and hate are powerful weapons that CDCR uses for control. Does anyone wonder how 3 pigs keep control of 200 prisoners? The haters need loom no further than his own reflection in the mirror for that answer.

The delusion that sex is a crime is only a manifestation of one’s ego. An ego that requires someone; anyone to be worse than self. The haters must truly look at themselves and ask if CDCR oppression is great enough to drop their own ego. CDCR knows that haters will not drop their ego and this is how CDCR keeps everyone captive in chains and cages. Cages built out of ego, silence, fear and hate.

The haters must ask themselves if they can unite with the largest group of prisoners in prison because sex offenders are much, much deeper than any one hater knows. It is the silence; the secret, the dirty little secret that has allowed hate to grow into a uncontrollable big monster. The silence that has allowed the pigs to brand even greater numbers of regular, normal people with the brand of sex ‘offender’. The fear of hate that forces silence is the cause of division. Division that gives CDCR so much power and control.

In the article “Show Proof to Build Unity” MIM suggests unity with sex ‘offenders’. Perhaps by inherent necessity, it is the sex offender that must call for unity with his haters. The oppressed that must call for unity with the oppressor. Here I see the parallel in the other article “Some Discussions on Bad ideas Pt. 1.” The call for unity with the ‘White Worker’ seems to be a suggestion that oppressed nations call for unity with the oppressor nation by inherent necessity. Because certainly the haters have no desire to escape oppression thru unity.

Forgive me if I interpreted notes of doubt on fear of hate or outright hate for the haters in your article “Bad Ideas.” For instance, the hypothetical paragraph about a white person referring to the masses as “white worker” seemed to label that white person as a “former neo-nazi” isn’t that a little harsh considering the demographics here in 1st world USA?

[Wiawimawo notes: This is a misreading of the article, the article assumed a comrade was a former neo-nazi as an example of when someone’s past or identity might be relevant to a political criticism. But this was just an extreme example, as any Amerikan can show favor to the white workers without being a neo-Nazi, so in that sense we agree.]

The paragraph that “communists have failed the masses for 400 years by supporting the ‘white workers’ and putting the nation contradiction beneath”white worker interests" seems to refer to 3rd world nations rather than the demographics of national 1st world USA. Global perspective would provide clarity because this article was written and provided to and for 1st world USA. Prisoners who only know 1st world demographics, most of whom have never been outside the country.

I found the theme of ‘identity politics’ otherwise correct and intriguing for instance the paragraph about how it is wrong to be enemies with the MASSES for their bourgeois ideas when under oppression, such as patriarchy, homophobia, racism etc… I liked this whole analysis regarding friends being those who have the correct line on xyz and enemies being those who hold reactionary views as an incorrect communist stance.

I like the correct stance specified being “Mao’s method of finding out who our friends and enemies [are] by looking at a group of people’s relations to the means of production, relation to consumption, and relations to other classes.” That word class seems to me to be a definition of economics therefore the only color of class is green. Thus for revolutionary purposes 1st world USA is obviously enemies and 3rd world is friend. But Revolution from within 1st world begs a different question of who are friends and enemies? Who are the MASSES of 1st world USA?

Which brings on the question of “cause of racism” I get it (I think). I can certainly identify with extreme frustration even outright hatred of the haters although I think racism is caused by individual thinking as evidenced by my statement above “Hate for others is really hate for self”. It only seeks justification by blaming others therefore racism is caused by individual thinking and not necessarily by “Feudal European aristocrats (a class of people)” on “the white worker”.

In the same way hate for sex offenders is not perpetrated by any one (class of people) rather it is hate of self and sometimes that hate manifests itself as hate for others. The unavoidable truth however in that cause is individual thinking. Sometimes it only feels like hate when it is nothing more than an individual desire to fit in with all the other haters. Conformity like the Holocaust.

I think it gets a little confusing when we are discussing who the masses are in relation to revolution from within the 1st world USA or from a global revolutionary perspective. Does the author regard emself as american? or a global citizen? Its relevant to eir view of who the masses are. MIM seems to subconsciously realize that hate is in fact caused by individual thinking in the last paragraph “The sub-culture problem” Here ey writes “Line struggle turns into flame wars with no purpose of uniting with others, but exist only to express ones individual self for the cathartic feeling of having the correct line.” Here the people are seeking unity through the correct line even if that line is in reality incorrect, whether that line be a reactionary bourgeois idea on unity with the white worker.

MIM dismisses the unity of “300 college students with a Stalin portrait in their dorm room who thinks the white worker is a friend” however, at least that unity is not grounded in hate and fear, or doubt but conformity in the least and revolutionary at most.

Unity is key to revolution although revolutionaries must decide who are friends and enemies. Revolutionaries must distinguish where to wage revolution from. From the 3rd world against the 1st? or revolution from within the 1st world? MIM conceded conditions within the 1st world are unique, the follow up then is that revolution from 1st world the masses are in fact the white worker. Revolution from 3rd world only against 1st world may see the white worker as enemies. That is historically of course, considering the demographics of the 1st world today which only reinforces mass method of determining enemies and friend on class, class defines the only enemy color as green.

I want to thank MIM for calling on the haters to “Show proof and Build Unity” in ULK No. 79. I echo that sentiment to all that claim to dislike CDCR oppression. Show proof of opposition to imperialism (CDCR). Unite with the largest group of political prisoners, unite with sex offenders, we have a common enemy. Unless anyone really believes that any one ‘crime’ is somehow better than another.

I will give some thought to stepping outside of my self-imposed isolation, my shadow of safety. I think of a way to unite with those that hate me after all someone has to lead and haters obviously have no desire to escape their oppression through unity.

Wiawimawo of MIM(Prisons) responds: We appreciate this comrade’s thoughtful response to ULK No. 79. It brings up a number of issues i will try to address here with suggestions for further study.

Historically, in the CDCr, and elsewhere, New Afrikan communists and revolutionary nationalists have joined hands with neo-Nazis to unite around common interests as prisoners. These united fronts represented different groups with different interests (for example, white prisoners and New Afrikan prisoners) that had an overlapping interest that came to the forefront. This is similar to the unity of the Communist Party of China with the bourgeois Nationalist Party to fight the Japanese imperialists. After joining forces for a period, many Nationalists went on to fight the Communists, though some joined them. To join in a united front may represent a stage of struggle and not a permanent alliance of interests.

If a group of New Afrikan revolutionaries can join forces, in a principled way, with white Nazis, then certainly the divide between general population and sex offenders can be bridged. The sex offender issue is very persynal for many, but so is the nazi issue for New Afrikans.

We can point to the example of Lucasville, Ohio, outside of CDCr, where the unity between nazi’s and New Afrikans became permanent, however, despite the work of key leaders, the masses of white prisoners did not follow suit. In the case of sex offenders we believe the contradiction is less antagonistic. In other words it is more resolvable.

To an extent we agree with the author about the form hatred takes towards sex offenders being in peoples’ heads. But we don’t agree that it derives from the ideas of the individual. As Jean-Paul Sartre wrote in Anti-Semite and Jew:

“Underneath the bitterness of the anti-Semite is concealed the optimistic belief that harmony will be re-established of itself, once Evil is eliminated. Hist task is therefore purely negative: there is no question of building a new society, but only of purifying the one which exists.”(1)

In Under Lock & Key 55 i contrasted our approach of dialectical materialism to that of metaphysics, that sees things as having an unchanging essence.(2) To many people, the sex offender is evil that must be eliminated and cannot be changed. Yet in prison, these same people will often preach for rehabilitation and parole for other prisoners who have committed crimes. As Sartre points out with the anti-Semite, their views are advantageous in allowing for laziness. There is no need to figure out how to make society better or transform ourselves as the solution is easy – eliminate others.

Above i acknowledge the persynal motivation of hating sex offenders. A very high percentage of people in the criminal injustice system were abused as children, often sexually.

Now where we strongly disagree with the author is with eir implications that sex cannot be criminal because everyone does it. On the contrary, we say under patriarchy that all sex is rape. We also say that all of us in the imperialist core are reforming criminals, whether we are in maximum security in the concentration camps or on the streets in minimum security. Where the author seems to think there is nothing wrong, we think there is something gravely wrong that can only be resolved by changing the whole system. We might call it overthrowing the patriarchy.

The author above is correct to note the difference between the national question internationally and within the United $tates. It is only the delusional who see people in this country as having the same interests as the masses of Central Africa, South Asia, the Andes Mountains, etc. It is much more reasonable to claim that New Afrikans or Chican@s have the same interests as Amerikans. The minimum wage laws apply to all U.$. citizens after all. However, other statistics on wealth, health, segregation, as well as history indicate great divides that still exist and in some cases are increasing.(3)

Therefore, it remains MIM line that the principal contradiction in the world is around nation (oppressed nations vs. imperialism), and the principal contradiction in the United $tates is around nation. Again the author is correct to recognize these as 2 separate, though parallel, contradictions.

One point of argument in favor of the MIM line is you can actually find a lot of support for Amerikan so-called workers from the Third World proletariat and their fighting organizations/communist parties. Yet it is the internal semi-colonies in the United $tates where we find more sober assessments of the role of the euro-Amerikan nation. If there is anything unique that the internal semi-colonies have to offer the International Communist Movement, it is this.

The author refers to sex offenders as the biggest lumpen group. There are currently about 20,000 sex offenders out of about 96,000 prisoners held by the CDCr, so this is not off-base. We have written plenty on the need to unite across these divisions. But this comrade brings up the important topic of how to do so. While this was the topic of ULK 55, which we recommend comrades check out, this is not a question with easy answers. The examples of uniting with nazis mentioned above focused on finding unity around key struggles.

We must recognize though that often those who are the most oppressive towards sex offenders are those who are most friendly with the cops. See the recent grievance response received from a Nevada comrade, where the pig responded with,

“Stop Sniveling! Child molestors have no rights and will get no help from me… If you send me anymore kites I’ll make your life a living hell, do you want to be… labeled a snitch? Maybe I put your charges up on every bulletin board in the quad, or PREA your ass.”

So in response to a request to be returned to the appropriate housing level this pig threatened to falsely label this persyn a snitch among inmates, publicize eir sex offenses to other inmates or to create a false charge against em claiming ey sexually assaulted someone (Prisoner Rape Elimination Act). The pig is openly demonstrating how the state uses these divisions to control the population, especially those fighting for prisoner rights. As long as other prisoners play along with this, unity will require a lot of creativity and looking for opportunities.

In the long run, teaching dialectical materialism and promoting MIM gender line can undercut the deep held beliefs behind these divisions; if not in the old-guard, then in the youth. We know there are many “sex offenders” (whether actual or labelled) out there, we get your letters. Real solutions come through struggle, so we challenge you to join the struggle and find the answers yourself as this comrade is challenging emself to do – and then share them with us in the pages of ULK. As the saying goes, “real recognize real.”

<sup>Notes:
1. Jean-Paul Sartre, 1965, Anti-Semite and Jew, Schoken Books: New York, p.43.
2. Wiawimawo, March 2017, White Nationalism and the prison Movement, Under Lock & Key 55.
3. see “Who is Lumpen in the United $tates?” for our analysis.</sup>

The world has become extremely subjective with Kyrie Irving’s posts of a documentary of someone else’s views and opinions of the Holocaust, and other Jewish history. The world thereafter vilifies him for not conforming to their way in apologizing and admission of his anti-Semitism. He however lets the world know that he embraces his complete Afro-Black history, and reposes the question to him asked on how could he then be antisemitic?

The jew of antiquity I believe Kyrie refers to in debate of his non “anti-Semitism”, were either the black skinned Falasha of Abyssinia and/or, the Chinese Jews of Kai-Feng and/or, Jews of the Berber tribes located in the African Sahara [many colorful shades of Jewry]. So the real underlying question to Kyrie was not if he was “anti-self-metic”, but did Kyrie learn the truth and now possibly hate the modern caucasian Eastern European Jew who adopted his ancestors way of life as their own.

The bulk of today’s Jewry isn’t of Palestinian but of Caucasian Origin, and Yiddish is shockingly a mix of Hebrew, medieval German and Slavonic. According to the Jewish Encyclopedia, in the 16th century there was about 1 million Jewish people and the majority were Khazar [located in the eastern confines of Europe between the Caucuses and the Volga] a substantial part was from Poland, Lithuania, Hungary, and the Balkans who founded the Eastern Jewish Community. This was the dominant majority of the world Jewry. If Kyrie delved even further he would discover that in the dark ages commerce in western Europe was monopolized by the Jews, including but not limited to the slave trade. Albeit, the “Jews” became a motley crew of humanity partly due to Abraham cohabiting with Hagan [an Egyptian]; Joseph marrying Aseneth [an Egyptian]; Moses marrying Zipporah; and King Solomon who loved many strange women, and had a Hittite mother of dark-complexion, the original tenets of the Jewish faith was practiced by Africans long before the “Jews”. [Thus making Africans possibly not the creator of the Jewish brand but, originators of the Jewish Faith.] “The religious belief in sacrifice for the remission of sins was an African belief and practiced at least 2,000 years before Abraham”, and “Practically all of the Ten Commandments were embedded in the African Constitution ages before Moses went up Mt. Sinai in Africa in 1491 B.C.” Chancellor Williams, The Destruction of Black Civilization p.135 (Third World Press) (1987)

“The large majority of surviving Jews in the world is of Eastern European– Thus perhaps mainly of Khazar–origin. If so, this would mean that their ancestors came not from Canaan but from the Caucasus, once believed to be the cradle of the Aryan race; and that genetically they are more closely related to the Hun, Uiger and Magyan Tribes than to the seed of Abraham, Issac and Jacob. Should this turn out to be the case, then the term”anti-semetism" would become void of meaning, based on a mis-apprehension shared by both the killers and their victims." Arthur Koestler, The Thirteenth Tribe (Last Century Media)(1976)

I do not agree with murder of innocent people especially children. Hitler and his cronies did massacre countless human beings for nonsensical reasons of “race, color, and creed.” He orchestrated the genocide of over 6 million human souls of the Jewish Faith. But in all objectivity Adolf Hitler killed people of his own race and color, who centuries ago adopted a different creed from a migratory people of African/Semite descent. In all reality Hitler may not have even been a real racist and/or even knew the trajectory of the true African/Semite Jew in order to be authentically “Anit-Semite.” Hitler was merely a desperate white privileged capitalist, colonialist, imperialist wannabe, who would murder and oppress anyone within range, even his own country-men [for a man who hated the “Jews” so much he never waged war on a predominately Jewish State [Coward]. Hitler was an opportunist who made innocent people his opportunity] in the end the outcome of this inhumane genocide called the holocaust was real. But, the falsity may be in its premise. Did Hitler kill over 6 million “Jews” because he hated “Jews”, or did he kill over 6 million people because he hated LIFE! He died by suicide as a coke head, evidence that he too hated his own

Free Kyrie

MIM(Prisons) responds:

“Where do correct ideas come from? Do they drop from the skies? No. Are they innate in the mind? No. They come from social practice, and from it alone; they come from three kinds of social practice, the struggle for production, the class struggle and scientific experiment.” - Mao Zedong (Where Do Correct Ideas Come From?)

Just like how the above quote mentions, correct ideas come from the social practice of class struggle, the struggle for production, and scientific experiment. We extend this claim of knowledge coming from class struggle to bad ideas as well. Reactionary ideas among the masses also don’t drop from the skies nor are they innate in the mind.

A popular cultural phenomenon that is being widely reported on television is New Afrikan celebrities like Kyrie Irving (mentioned by the comrade above) expressing the idea that New Afrikans here in the United $tates are the original Hebrews described in the bible alongside sharing a documentary on social media which further elaborates on this trend. On top of similar sentiments, popular rapper Kanye West expressed admiration for Adolf Hitler, and claimed that he is going “death con 3” on Jewish people.

The reason why we would like to emphasize the above statements on correct ideas coming from social practice is because as chauvinist and strange these claims may be, they didn’t drop from the sky either. We can see a similar type of chauvinism against Asian national minorities from the masses of New Afrikans/Chican@s as well highlighted during the LA riots of burning down Korean petty-bourgeois establishments, and the sensationalized attacks of New Afrikans assaulting Chinese nationals during the earlier years of the COVID-19 pandemic in the city centers of this country.

In no way does this responder claim that anti-semitism and chauvinism in general is a correct thing, nor that all Jewish/East-Asian people are petty-bourgeois so they deserve what’s coming to them in times of crisis such as an uprising or a global pandemic. Communists who hold these ideas shouldn’t even hold that label in the first place. However, there should be a deeper and more scientific study of these contradictions and to recognize common reactionary ideas in the masses in the historical context. On top of this, to have the oppressed nations (particularly New Afrikans in this case) being the media’s face of modern anti-semitism is a ridiculous chauvinist idea as well in a country where the oppressor nation Amerika is one of the strongest contenders in the world of turning fascist in world economic crisis.

Many religious/cultural nationalists in the oppressed nations particularly share this attitude of New Afrikans being the real Hebrews described in the bible alongside the line that the common Jewish people we see in Europe/North Amerika today are pretenders. This particular trend of nationalism can be traced back in the late 1800s by Frank Cherry and William Saunders Crowdy who respectively founded two different Black Israelite churches in 1886 and 1896 respectively after both claiming to have had revelations that New Afrikans are descendants of the Hebrews in the bible. Both men were from the southern black belt territory still suffering from sharecropping at its height. In a region where almost semi-feudal conditions still reigned for a semi-colonial nation, religious ideas entrenched in a nationalist trend isn’t surprising.

In the modern setting, the contradiction between New Afrikan masses that live in the ghettos and Jewish petty-bourgeoisie can be exemplified in the Crown Heights riots of 1991 where a Guyanese child was murdered in an accident where a motorcade of Chabad (A Hasidic Jewish movement) carrying the famous rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson struck Gavin Cato to the child’s death. This led to several Jews being attacked on the street by New Afrikan youth.

While some comrades might be quick to condemn these ideas as anti-semtiic, we should see the prejudices of the masses (in this case anti-semitism) as a historical process that emerged in a specific time of class society (particularly in the United $tates). A scientific understanding of this problem would first lead one to recognize that the frustration the oppressed nation masses might have with prominently petty-bourgeois religious/national minority groups such as Jewish Americans (or certain demographics of Asian Americans) as based on the masses frustrations against their class enemy. One would also recognize that conspiratorial and chauvinist ideas should be eliminated through mass political education. Jewish communities of Russia of the Middle East/North Africa to the United $tates all have different relations to world imperialism from many belonging to both friend and enemy classes. Conspiratorial claims of Jewish elite are reactionary, but that is often what the masses think during times of oppression where they have not yet grasped scientific thinking.

In the United Struggle Within, there are many Black Hebrew Israelite tendencies along with other religious nationalist groups that might vary in terms of anti-semitism or conspiratorial thinking like the comrade above. The key point in all this is to properly assess unity-criticism-unity and to what point do some tendencies of nationalism have more good than bad. Ultimately, it’s these masses of the oppressed nation whose historical duty is to create a revolution and society where ideas such as anti-semitism will be gotten ridden of, and to put these groups as the leading cause of anti-semitism in the United $tates is classic settler-chauvinism.

“That is to instill a psychological sense of self-worth, without actually altering the material conditions that actually cause the lack of self-esteem in the first place, nor do they attempt to alter the conditions” - Power to New Afrika (1)

I agree with Comrade Triumphant. I would just like to add a little and ask a question. This quote – if I’m not mistaken – speaks to those Black bourgeoisie who led the masses to believe that pro-Black capitalism was progress. It is said that the achievements and rewards gained from jobs, hustles and labor wins the respect and dignity from their peers and society. That status in society is what the people seek and this is what instills that psychological sense of self-worth. But before they reached that status they had a lack of self-esteem because of their lack of material goods. They were comparing themselves to those that had and recognized that they themselves had not. So in comparison, they were less than because they had less than.

Once wealth and status is accomplished the conditions that created the “lack of” in the Black Nation remains, therefore continuing its destructive effect on the people of that nation. This destruction is both on the objective and subjective level: the people’s revolutionary spirit gets high-jacked by Black capitalism. Individualism gets promoted instead of unity because of the competition that comes along with it. We then see ourselves as enemies fighting over crumbs at the lower levels of this capitalist society. Now those that make it out of the poor communities ride high on their psychological sense of self-worth and disregard their communities. They get big-headed and become bourgeoisified. And the only time they reach back is either training the people to be entertainers, drug pushers, or funding politicians who favor reform – from which we all know are just tools of pacifying the people.

This is a major problem with trying to revolutionize the people. First because we must show that we can produce in a capitalist society. Nobody wants to hear from someone who has no money how to run their lives. So the revolutionary may start with intentions on gaining influence and persuading the masses to revolutionize, but if to do so they must participate in the same thing that extorts from the people – that’s a contradiction and a bit hypocritical. Not to mention it’s a slippery slope. That psychological sense of self-worth becomes a high, then the Black capitalist begins to chase that trying to stay relevant. And to do so – more money must be made, more material things must be bought, and more of our brothers/sisters/friends from our own nations and other oppressed nations of world imperialism will be exploited and manipulated as a result. So my question is how to do that without falling victim to embourgeoisfication: the desire to have, so once the proletariat has, how does he not become bourgeoisified?

Wiawimawo of MIM(Prisons) responds: The premise presented here by Melo X is that nobody will listen to someone without money, so we must make money to succeed at revolution. Ey goes on to assert that to succeed at making money traps us in a life of chasing money. I would challenge both of these premises.

The first premise is one that i’ve heard many times. I’ve even received feedback from the masses that i was not presenting myself in a way that garners respect. There are countless organizations that use the dress up approach to get respect in the hood. The Black Panthers even did this to an extent with their uniforms and black leather jackets. Many thought this looked cool. But they did not present themselves as having wealth, they were mostly kids, often with no job, no hustle, living in cramped conditions. They merely presented themselves as being organized, disciplined, powerful.

The point that Triumphant was making in that article is that we can present and assert power in ways that are not how capitalism teaches us to do so. And in fact we must assert power in these ways in order to actually meet our real needs, as Melo X recognizes.

The second premise, that chasing money is a trap has a lot of truth to it. It is often a necessary evil. But not because we need to be rich for the masses to follow us, but because we must fund our projects. We must demonstrate to the masses how to be effective. A strong mass-based movement should have diversified sources of resources coming from the masses themselves because they see its effectiveness. Our mass base in prisons has been growing in the form of financial support over the last few years, which we see as a success. Yet most of our funding comes from comrades working at jobs outside.

Having to work is about survival and basic functioning in our society. If you don’t have stable housing and basic needs met, it is hard to be consistent in organizing work. For most of us at this time, working is a necessary evil. And it will eat up a lot of our time and energy. As such it will affect our consciousness as well. But it is not so addictive that we will become slaves to the dollar. We should all strive to find ways to get the money we need for our own sustenance and the sustenance of the movement in a way that best allows us to serve the people. In a high-cost, highly monetized society this is a challenge that we must approach strategically.

If you are an individual just trying to do good for your people in this society, yes you will most likely become bourgeoisified as you succeed in this society. It is by putting politics in command, using Marxism-Leninism-Maoism as our guiding ideology, that can keep us from failing into that trap.

SunWukong of MIM(Prisons) adds: Another aspect of gaining respect from the masses is through mass line. We can learn from history on this aspect - namely the Black Panther Party’s (BPP) serve the people programs and the Communist Party of China’s (CPC) people’s war. Whenever the Chinese communists first entered a village and started setting up a base area, it surveyed the material needs and subjective wants of the local masses. Many of these problems included backward irrigation methods and agricultural practices that have been used in China for centuries, and because many of the Chinese communists came from an academic/intellectual backgrounds, they were able to gain knowledge of more “modern” and developed agricultural methods of the advanced imperialist countries. Once the mass line is set up, the peasants would even offer their sons and daughters to the People’s Liberation Army to fight for the revolutionary cause. Green fatigues and red stars didn’t have much cultural aesthetic clout in semi-feudal China, but it was the implementation of the mass line and building the proper relations with the masses that gained the CPC so much respect to where peasants were fine with their kids joining a guerrilla army.

^{Notes: (1) Triumphant, August 2022, Power to New Afrika, MIM Distributors.}

On 10 January 2023, a new legislative session convenes.

Several state representatives have committed to utilizing proposals from Texas prisoners to implement reforms. Rep. T. Meza has stood out with her zeal to end solitary confinement throughout Texas’ prisons and jails. She previously introduced a bill along those lines that didn’t make the floor. However, this session with more support from her colleagues, and with a litany of Texas citizens concerned about this, things look to possibly end differently.

In conjunction with the efforts of state politicians on the 10th of January, supporters of this campaign will be protesting on both sides of the walls. Around the state prisoners are showing their support by hunger striking. People on the outside will protest in Austin at the state Capitol.

Lastly, there continues to be civil lawsuits filed against TDCJ and its practice of indefinite solitary confinement. One of Our comrades has filed suit and that’s been reported on in previous ULK’s.(1) There is also Hanson v. Barnett, CA No. 1:21-cv-629-RP-DH, an extensively detailed complaint filed in the Western District of Texas, Austin Division.

We encourage all similarly situated people to file 1983 lawsuits, and if you need advice or assistance the address to Tx Team One’s legal representative is: 113 Stockholm #1A, Brooklyn, NY 1121

UPDATE As we go to press prisoners are wrapping up week 2 of the hunger strike. The TDCJ has verified 72 participants, while supporters say at least twice that number are on strike across the state prison system. In their defense the state also says that the number of prisoners in isolation has decreased from 9,186 in 2007 to 3,172 in 2022.(2) We say that is still too much torture!

Texas Prison Reform, the prisoner organization, gave the state 90 days notice before initiating this latest action in their campaign. In that statement they mirror their demands off the infamous Ashker v. Governor of California case, which settled for some minor reforms in how people are put in the Security Housing Units rather than abolishing the practice altogether. Abolishing torture is a winnable battle, that continues to gain attention and support. Anything less than a complete ban on solitary confinement across Texas prisons and jails is a failure of basic humyn rights.

<sup>Notes: 1. see ULK 76 for the original announcement, and updates in subsequent issues of ULK. All articles are online at: https://www.prisoncensorship.info/campaigns/TX/end-indefinite-restrictive-housing-in-tdcj/
2. Ed Pilkington, 19 January 2023, Texas prisoners continue hunger strike in protest against solitary confinement, The Guardian.</sup>

Chorus X3:

We Black and we Brown Don’t back down! Whatever happens to the people Will come back around, Our roots one day Will plant the ground, Smile to the world Dont accept that frown.

1st Verse:

We revolutionary Native people holding glory. We come from poverty Considered the majority, Jah and Allah know We are panthers and lions. We take a stance And raise our hands against violence. We Black and we Brown And won’t back down. Whatever happens to the people Will come back around. We all want justice and equality No more immigration. No more blood, sweat, and tears Of border intimidation. We are Zulu warriors And Latin Kings. Freedom Asylum Our everlasting dreams. My people African descentdant And Puerto Rican. Peace and harmony Is what we seeking. This for the La Raza Haitians And nation of Ghana. For Jah we blazin This marijuanna. We just want to torch the flame. For liberty We just want to live the same. With dignity.

Chorus X3:

We Black and we Brown Don’t back down! Whatever happens to the people Will come back around, Our roots one day Will plant the ground, Smile to the world Dont accept that frown.

2nd Verse:

We native spirit And Latin-x. Our plan is to take back The land next. Free the refugees And prisoners. This for the semitic village Visioners. We just want to fly high In the sky like the birds. We chanting for freedom Don’t you hear these words. This for the continent of Africa. My Cuban brother And those left in Attica. We forever freedom fighters For George, Jonathan, and Khatari. My people died for this land Rastafari. The dread blood shed For black, green, yellow, and red. This for emperor Sellassie And the pharoahs dead. We celebrating Juneteenth And Cesar Chavez. Our Independece Day To live on the rez. No longer shall we live To be racial profiled. Before we die in hell We will go exile.

Chorus X3:

We Black and we Brown Don’t back down! Whatever happens to the people Will come back around, Our roots one day Will plant the ground, Smile to the world Dont accept that frown.

In early December of last year a hunger strike was called at Ely State Prison, joined by at least 39 prisoners at the start and fluctuating over the following weeks. A prison advocacy group, Return Strong, represented the prisoners’ demands as follows:

1. End the continued and extended use of solitary confinement, lockdowns, modified lockdowns, and de facto solitary confinement.
2. End correctional abuse.
3. End group punishment and administrative abuse.
4. Address due process interference and violation in the grievance process.
5. Provide adequate and nutritious food.
6. Address health and safety concerns in all Nevada facilities and provide resolution status to them.

In response, the Nevada Department of Corrections (NDOC) ignored several of the demands, calling them “false,” (2) but addressed some of the concerns related to food and administrative handling of punishments. Lower-level sanctions that result in loss of privileges will now run concurrently instead of consecutively, and Aramark, the food vendor, is being questioned about the portion sizes. Even the head of the local prison guards union mentioned that they’d noticed the portions shrinking recently.(1) Aramark has faced repeated legal challenges regarding its poor food from prisons across the country (3), so the fact that it’s now squeezing portion sizes in Nevada doesn’t come as too much of a surprise.

Some of the more serious allegations NDOC ignored include food being stolen from prisoners by staff, the existence of no-camera “beat-up rooms,” collective punishment and indefinite 23-hour lockdowns excused by laying the blame on “staffing issues,” and the de facto suspension of programming for many prisoners.(4)

Prisoners at Ely State Prison voluntarily suspended the strike after four weeks and the adjustment of some of the handling of administrative sanctions were addressed.(5) We didn’t receive any info from inside or outside coordinators about how/why the strike ended, just that it did. If any of our readers can provide insight we’d appreciate it.

<sup>Notes: 1. Cristen Drummond, “Inmate advocacy group shares list of prisoner demands on hunger strike,” KNSV Las Vegas, December 6th 2022.
2. NDOC, “NDOC Leadership Responds to Hunger Strike,” December 9, 2022.
3. https://federalcriminaldefenseattorney.com/aramarks-correctional-food-services-meals-maggots-and-misconduct/
4. Naoka Foreman, “Advocates: Nevada inmates on hunger strike to protest food quality, prison conditions,” The Nevada Independent, December 8th, 2022.
5.  Sabrina Schnur, “Hunger strike at Ely State Prison ends,” Las Vegas Review-Journal December 30, 2022.</sup>

Revolutionary greetings and Happy New Years to everyone listening to this recording at the Virginia Prison Justice Rally on the 14th day of January, 2023. I am a 46-year-old New Afrikan that has been in prison here in the belly of the beast in Virginia for 27 consecutive years. I am a core organizer along with my comrade to organize Virginia’s Nottoway, Buckingham and Augusta Correctional Facilities due to extreme heat conditions being worsened by climate change. Last checked the petition was at 516 signatures. We need more.

If you are listening to this speech it is now January so the temperatures in non air conditioned facilities is now bearable because we can always add layers of clothes to cope with the chilly weather. During the hot summer months however it is a very different story. A different reality. Because each of these non-air conditioned prisons become so unbearable, it is torturous and is expected to get worse due to global warming. I am currently incarcerated at Dillwyn Correctional Center which has A/C. Or better known as temperature control, but when I was held at Buckingham Correctional Center during the past summer, I experienced firsthand how the record heat waves that have swept the country, have caused the heat and humidity inside the facilities to become so intense that it felt like we were literally being baked in there. Because the heat exacerbates medical conditions and can cause a heat stroke in medically vulnerable prisoners I witness how this crisis had more of a detrimental impact on elderly and medically vulnerable prisoners.

Many are diabetic, have high blood pressure, have heart disease, and are still suffering from the side effects of long Covid, like so many of you out in the free world. The so called free world. Many of us experience labored breathing, we are sweating profusely. Some of us are experiencing blurred vision, increased heart rate, and are having difficulties falling asleep at night we means many are sleep deprived. Many of the administrative mitigation of these effects of extreme heat didn’t work. The bags of extra ice when we did receive it did not work. The small fans sold in the commissary did not work because many people can’t afford them. The extra fans placed in the pod did not work, but did succeed in blowing the hot air around from one place to the other. These ineffective mitigation practices didn’t work because these places by design are virtual death traps. They are overcrowded, have poor sanitation, poor ventilation and poor medical care. Poor meals we are fed and the tap water we are forced to drink are making us sick.

The dominant culture in these prisons is marked by complacency, passivity and fear. Fear of retaliating and fear of being labeled a snitch by prison guards and fellow prisoners for filing grievances and speaking out. So it is not unusual for the bulk prison populations to not sign these petitions no matter how extreme or how deeply inhumane the conditions are. The U.$. supreme court ruled all the way back in 1987 in the case of Turner v Safley that “prison walls do not separate prisoners from the protections of the Constitution.” So despite this dominant culture, the VDOC is prohibited by the Supreme Court from subjecting incarcerated people to conditions that amount to cruel and unusual punishment.

The Virginia DOC has a history of minimizing the issue of extreme heat inside these prisons, and has led me to believe it is necessary to organize an online petition to raise awareness about this statewide issue among the people, and to build a statewide abolitionist movement to shut these prisons down.

A comrade of mine will be handing out fliers with the QR code that will take you directly to the online petition which you can share and leave a comment. You will also have a QR code that will take you to a second draft of a proposal for a statewide campaign to shutdown non air conditioned prisons. Because the history of the criminal, torturous and exploitative nature of the prisons and the jails, it is going to take a statewide movement of the people and the communities most affected by mass incarceration to force the DOC to shut these modern day slave camps down. We can pressure them to start releasing elderly and medically vulnerable and other incarcerated people for 30 or 40 years for crimes committed in our youth. There will be mass casualties behind these walls and that is because in these last summers deadly heat waves caused by climate change have been becoming more frequent, intense, and as the climate is changing, these non-air conditioned prisons will keep getting hotter and hotter until the inevitable happens.

Thank you for taking the time to listen and if you want to keep up with my reading, prison conditions or political commentary in general, please visit my website at consciousprisoner.wordpress.com. My Twitter page is @justiceforuhuru. My instagram is @justiceforuhururowe

All power to the people till we see freedom