MIM(Prisons) is a cell of revolutionaries serving the oppressed masses inside U.$. prisons, guided by the communist ideology of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism.
Under Lock & Key is a news service written by and for prisoners with a focus on what is going on behind bars throughout the United States. Under Lock & Key is available to U.S. prisoners for free through MIM(Prisons)'s Free Political Literature to Prisoners Program, by writing:
MIM(Prisons) PO Box 40799 San Francisco, CA 94140.
I was about to begin litigating matters regarding the ventilation system
here when I came up with one last ditch effort to try and handle this
issue on a diplomatic level. I managed to acquire about 60 CDCR Form 22s
[informal grievances], and I was able to find 30 fellow comrades who
were willing to sign their name to them after I typed up all the formal
complaints. Well, all of those Form 22s were sent to the Plant
Operations Engineer’s Department, and we sent another 30 to the Plant
Operations Supervisor. At the same time I had a good friend of mine and
some relatives mail in a series of Citizen’s Complaints on the same
subject. Plus, the Ombudsman for R.J. Donovan Correctional Facility
(RJDCF), Gabriel Vela came here in response to a letter I had sent to
him over the ventilation problem. In other words, Plant Operations got
bombed on from all sides, and they responded accordingly. They were up
on the housing units today replacing the twenty plus exhaust vents that
were not working on our building. Due to that equipment failure we were
experiencing extremely high temperatures, humidity, and poor air
quality.
My whole point for telling you this story is to show you and your
readers that things can be accomplished if you hit ’em with overwhelming
force. They knew that those 60 Form 22s would more than likely translate
into the same amount of 602 appeals [formal grievances], which in case
you don’t know translates into about $1,500 a piece in man hours to
process each one of them. I’ll let you do the math. So, things can be
done in numbers, “Yes We Can.”
MIM(Prisons) adds: This comrade has been actively pushing the
campaign to have grievances heard in California, which may also have
contributed to these particular grievances getting such a direct
response. H work to mobilize comrades there is commendable. Of course,
this is just one small battle and just one piece of the work that USW
leaders need to be doing. It doesn’t cost them $1,500 to throw your
grievance in the trash can. These types of campaigns need to be pushed
with a healthy dose of political education to develop comrades
politically, so that this type of unity can reach higher levels and
address the real systematic problems. MIM(Prisons) runs correspondence
study groups and offers materials to help USW comrades run their own
study groups inside.
I have filed a
petition
in Los Angeles County Superior Court on the inadequacy of the grievance
procedure in California prisons. I’ve also written letters to the
California Attorney General’s Office, the LA County District Attorney
Office, the Governor’s office and various media outlets in order to seek
their assistance in forcing the California Department of Corrections and
Rehabilitation (CDCR) staff to honor their own policies and regulations.
All of my above efforts were to no avail.
The LA County Superior Court ordered an informal response when I filed
my petition. The California Attorney General’s office assumed the
position of respondent to my petition and asked for an extension of time
to reply to my petition, and then they failed to meet even that
deadline. Before the Attorney General replied, the court denied my
petition stating that I was not in compliance with the grievance
procedure, despite being unable to cite a single grievance regulation
that I hadn’t complied with. This judicial abdication of CDCR staff
lawlessness is routine in California state-level courts.
I had tried addressing the inadequate grievance procedure in the federal
courts, by way of a federal civil suit that I filed against California
State Prison - Corcoran. The ruling on this was that the CDCR’s
violation of their grievance procedure does not create a federal
constitutional violation, basically saying that the due process clause
is meaningless. The case is now pending in the 9th Circuit Court of
Appeals, case number 12-17419.
My “take-away” from my efforts so far is that in dealing with these
government types (da pigs, bureaucrats, politicians, government,
attorneys, etc.) in general, you’re up against brazenly
socioeconomically biased, unreasonable, spiteful, hypocritical,
out-of-touch, legitimized sociopaths. They work together to justify
clearly unlawful behavior, and are adverse to a system of legitimate
checks and balances. They see barely disguised partiality, in the
disposition of their duties, as reasonable and good. We see evidence of
this daily. I mean, the recently exposed
NSA
spy program is beyond any reasonable dispute a violation of the
Fourth Amendment, yet they go on unapologetically violating the same
constitution that they claim to cherish, absolutely Orwellian with the
“double-think.”
What irritates me even more is the public’s complacency in the face of
this brazen tyranny by this nation’s power elite. The Declaration of
Independence states that it is not only a right, but a duty for the
people to replace a lawless government. When will we honor that duty?
Thank you for your time, consideration, and your work performed on
behalf of the people.
MIM(Prisons) responds: We agree with this comrade’s conclusions,
and of course, we harbored no real expectations of action from the
bureaucrats’ offices and courts going into this campaign. This is why we
constantly stress the need to organize people around these demands. The
pigs are not usually going to do something just because it’s right. They
are more likely do something when they are pressured to do it. And
pressure can only be applied when prisoners are organized for their
common interests.
This is class struggle of the imprisoned lumpen against the bourgeois
classes. When this struggle does not exist, our so-called “rights” under
bourgeois democracy disappear, demonstrating that they never really
existed in their own right. That is why we don’t hesitate to report this
comrade’s failures, because they underline that important lesson. They
also allow us to highlight the real victory in the grievance campaign,
which is prisoners across many states acting in unison, sharing
information and strategizing. Our strategies around this campaign need
to keep the big picture of the balance of power in mind so that we do
not get lost in an endless cycle of give and take with the pigs.
Prisoners here are forced to expose their genitals and buttocks for
staff pleasure, for periods of time of not less than 72 hours. If the
prisoner refuses he may be shot with some unspecified projectile,
sprayed with a respiratory irritant (chemical weapon) after the
ventilation system is turned off, beaten by 6, 8, 10 or 12 staff in full
riot gear, or have a destructive device (that’s right, a grenade)
detonated on the prisoner in a 12x10 concrete cell that is locked. All
of this for petty offenses like refusing an order or having a
clothesline in the cell. One prisoner had his foot shot off on the
compound this summer.
I ask all who may read this to stand in solidarity with us at USP
Hazelton, and use whatever resources are at your disposal to help us
tell this story to the world in an effort to stamp out this repression.
MIM(Prisons) responds: Federal prisoners are often even more
isolated than those in State prisons, further from family and less
connected to community and resources. These abuses, which happen in
prisons across the United $tates, are important to expose. Under
Lock & Key demonstrates a pattern of this inhumane treatment.
But we don’t expect this alone to change things. We know that the
criminal injustice system is a critical tool of Amerikan imperialism,
and we can’t hope to reform these problems away. We might help improve
conditions for a few people by replacing the bad staff, or changing a
few rules, and we do fight these battles, but only within the context of
the larger anti-imperialist fight, because it is only with the overthrow
of imperialism that we will be able to eliminate the injustice system
and replace it with a system of justice for the oppressed.
We are currently [5 November 2013] on lockdown since 29 October 2013 and
each housing facility on D facility is being thoroughly searched due to
an isolated “threat to staff” and weapon being found here on the SNY
yard.
On 26 June 2013, while being interviewed by Lieutenant C. Waddle
concerning the improper cross-gender and group strip searches of
transgender inmates, Lt. Waddle fabricated a spurious disciplinary
charge of “illegal sex acts” with my cellmate, which Sergeant M. Jones
wrote in a falsified report. Two days later I was placed in ASU
[isolation] and given an additional RVR for simply notifying Lt. Waddle
of specific transgender housing and safety concerns by her intentionally
rehousing me with a homophobic inmate!
Black & Pink has led an advocacy campaign, with letters of protest
to Warden M.D. Biter and CDCR Secretary Jeffery Beard, concerning the
sexual harassment and retaliation I have experienced at Kern Valley
State Prison.
When I filed a property appeal for items lost during the above
incidents, I was subjected to more retaliation, a punitive cell search
and RVR disciplinary action for “Falsifying records and documents,” by
Sergeant D. Williams and Correctional Officer Walinga. This also was
witnessed by my cellmate.
I believe that things may improve in the immediate future as a result of
my appeals, but I have suffered irreparable harm in my struggle for
equality and liberation. 602 appeals are currently pending in
Sacramento.
MIM(Prisons) adds: While all prisoners (both male and female) are
in a position of subjugation that leads to gender oppression while they
are locked up, gay, lesbian and transgender prisoners face additional
harassment, abuse, and oppression. As we discussed in our review of
The
Anti-Exploits of Men Against Sexism, fighting gender oppression in
prison is part of the battle against imperialism in general. We have
seen some
recent
examples of growing awareness and unity around this struggle, and we
will continue to publicize these battles and educate prisoners on gender
oppression in general. For more reading on gender, write to us to
request a copy of MIM Theory 2/3.
by a South Carolina prisoner November 2013 permalink
We recently had a blow to morale here in my dorm. A refusal to accept
cold food went wrong as only a quarter of us refused. Since we were
locked down, and only eat twice a day on weekends, most just took it.
That left a few saying they would never participate again. However, you
would be a good morale boost (Under Lock & Key) because it
shows that the struggle is being fought everywhere. Maybe it will help
them focus on the real issues. All I can do is keep trying.
During their August 2013 Board Meeting, the Texa$ Board of Criminal
(in)Justice approved a revision to the Texas Department of Criminal
Justice (TDCJ) Correspondence Rules. The rules came into effect with no
warning on October 1, 2013.
This new revision restricts indigent prisoners to 5 one-ounce domestic
letters per month. It also removed all references to the first 60 days a
prisoner is indigent – essentially allowing the TDCJ to collect
“indigent debt” indefinitely. The previous policy allowed 5 letters per
week and only allowed TDCJ to recoup amounts expended during the first
60 days a prisoner is indigent. This revised policy clearly violates the
First and Fourteenth Amendments, especially in light of Guajardo v
Estelle, 432 F.Supp 1373 (1977 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16242).
We must proactively resist this policy. Attached is an example grievance
that can be filed by TDCJ prisoners. I encourage you to edit, expand,
personalize, or revise it. Proactively seek out other prisoners who have
the courage to resist this revision. Encourage family/friends/freeworld
comrades to contact the officials below and demand that this new policy
be repealed:
TDCJ Ombudsman, PO Box 99, Huntsville, TX
77342-0099 ombudsman@tdcj.state.tx.us 936-437-6791
Senator John Whitmire, PO Box 12068, Capitol Station, Austin, TX
78711 512-463-0115
Governor Rick Perry, PO Box 12428, Austin, TX 78711-2428 512-463-2000
Chairman of the Texas Board of Criminal Justice, PO Box 13084, Austin,
TX 78711-3084 512-475-3250 Fax: 512-305-9398
Attorney General Greg Abbott, PO Box 12548, Austin, TX
78711-2548 512-463-2100
Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst, PO Box 12068, Austin, TX
78711-2068 512-463-0001
Speaker of the House Joe Straus, PO Box 2910, Austin, TX
78768-2910 512-463-1000
Another new policy that came out of the August Board Meeting which needs
our proactive resistance prohibits prisoners from receiving stationary
through the mail, starting 1 March 2014. You will only be allowed to
purchase stationary through the commissary. TDCJ is attempting to create
a monopoly. Once this happens, they will be able to charge whatever
prices they wish for their stationary. Start organizing resistance to
this policy NOW!
Here at San Quentin’s death row we recently won a small victory. The
recent mass dis-allowing of all writing supplies sent via first-class
mail to San Quentin’s death row AC/SHU prisoners has been halted. But be
advised, there is nothing in evidence to support the idea these
terrorists in pig clothing have dropped their last propaganda bomb, or
that their about face was motivated by guilty conscience dredged up by
visits from three holiday spirits.
Consider some underlying facts: November 2013 San Francisco Bay
View national Black newspaper reports significant influx of “stamp
donations” from a drive discreetly organized by San Quentin death row
prisoners. Mass disallowing of stamps coincided with the drive. As the
drive progressed, the pigs’ terrorist activities increased. Disallowing
began in spurts around May 2013, capricious post-interpretations of the
property matrix ensued, and by mid-September the pen’s hierarchy went
hog wild.
Appeal #CSQ-J-13-03205 was submitted October 27, explaining exactly how
operational procedure 608 article 7 was being illegally circumvented.
This appeal was rejected by appeals coordinator puppet M.L. Davis on
November 1. Davis offered to process the appeal if appellant directed a
CDCR 22 to the mailroom. Davis also demanded appellant remove copies of
Article 7 and OP0212 which are in fact the official rules/directives
regarding “items enclosed in incoming first-class mail.”
At the same time the appeal was being drafted, various articles
describing the terrorist attacks on everybody’s right to freedom of
expression were en route to local small presses, national news
outlets, and global social networks by way of prisoner mail. Some
articles included instructions on how everyone here, and outside ground
zero, could inundate the pen’s hierarchy with a barrage of “appeals
relating to mail and correspondences” (15 CCR 3137).
This evidence suggests a combination of individual administrative
appeals, and the imminent threat of having their pig-tailed asses
exposed to the public, is what forced the pen’s hierarchy to rethink
their positions. This is also an example of standard pig-headed tactics
designed to make resistance to their control unit torture tactics seem
futile. Their undermining goal is to crush, kill, and destroy our will
to organize against them in peaceful protest. Their motive was fear that
the struggle is gaining momentum. In fact, their pig-headed terrorist
tactics are evidence that it is! Yes, we are gaining momentum, making a
world of difference into a world of solidarity which is not indifferent
to the rights of anyone in it.
Enclosed with this “announcement of small victory” from the secret
torture unit at San Quentin is five 46 cent stamps which were withheld
since May 2013. That by itself is not much but if everyone of the global
readership would match that contribution in stamps or cash to extend the
reach of this publication which amplifies our voices, it would add
significant momentum to the struggle.
Many have seen the stunning October 28 video of police in New Mexico
assaulting a New Afrikan family after pulling them over on the side of
the road. To most of Amerika this type of footage is shocking for any
number of reasons. Whether it be because the teenage son was tazered by
police for trying to protect his mother from pig oppression, or because
police shot at the kid-filled van. Most Amerikans deem this type of
behavior unacceptable and they demand answers. Likewise, some within
Amerika agree that this behavior is not what those who “protect &
serve” should be doing, but they’ll come up with excuses for the police
such as, they only have a split second to react, and in the heat of the
moment hesitation can cost you your life. And then there are the more
convoluted excuses such as, the police did what they did because of PTSD
(Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder), or any other such stress-related
condition associated with being a cop. And to the white settler-state,
and even to some from the oppressed internal nations, these idealized
excuses perfectly suffice. But the truth of the matter is that this type
of behavior on the part of the pigs is acceptable exactly because that
is how the police keep the oppressed in check. These types of abuses are
not isolated incidents, but institutionalized practices that are part
and parcel to maintaining white power in the United $tates.
To the Chican@ nation this type of police brutality is nothing new,
isolated or particular to New Afrikans. Rather it is part of reality for
the oppressed of the Chican@ nation and any other internal semi-colony.
For those of us growing up in the 80s and 90s in the ghettos and barrios
of Amerika this was certainly a daily possibility, especially whenever
we dared to venture out the hood and into or near the settler
communities.
Integration into the consumer economy via labor aristocracy wages has
brought privilege for the oppressed within U.$. borders via the stolen
super-profits and cheap abundant goods from the periphery. But the
reality of imperial dominance cannot be negated by class relations as
they continue to be modified by national interests and the principal
contradiction: imperialism vs. the oppressed nations. Leave it to the
apologists for national oppression in Amerika, the post-modernist
theorists and other petty-bourgeois intellectuals who would have us
think that we’ve reached some type of “post-racialism” and that
therefore it’s ok to paint oneself in black-face for example, or dress
up as your favorite Latino stereotype for Halloween because “race”
relations in the United $tates have never been better. And the hystory
of segregation is better forgotten. Yes “race” relations in the United
$tates have changed profoundly, but let’s not get it twisted,
segregation was ended and civil rights were won exactly because of the
strong national liberation movements and the threat of armed struggle
that underlined the Black, Chican@, Boriqua and First Nation power
movements of the 1960s and 70s. What humyn dignity we have today is not
owed to concessions and benevolence on the part of the oppressor nation
and their power structure. Rather they are rights won by revolutionaries
and masses before us; as there are no “rights,” only power struggles.
Pigs almost always walk away with a slap on the wrist for abuses of
power and attempted murder incidents such as the one in New Mexico, so
let’s not start believing that just because that shooting was caught on
video it’s gonna mean a conviction equaling the ones doled out to the
Black and Brown in North America on a daily basis. If we want justice,
we better go get justice and not expect it’s gonna be given to us.
Much has been said recently about the overtly racist remarks made by one
of the contestants on the “Big Brother” reality show. Viewers were
shocked at the nerve of some of the show’s participants, not only in the
fact that they would say such things, but in the contestants’ blatantly
unapologetic attitude afterwards. After all, this is the 21st century,
and according to some, we have moved beyond those inconsistencies in
Amerika’s past which had previously kept her from fulfilling the promise
of its ethos. Most Amerikans (white people in particular) like to
believe that although things like slavery and segregation are all a part
of our nasty past we should all just forget and move on from this
shameful hystory. Surely the United $tates has made great strides when
it comes to “race relations,” and Amerikans of all colors have never
experienced a more collective prosperity than they do today, never mind
the previously unthinkable: a Black man in the White House.
So why then does racism continue to exist? More importantly, how do we
eradicate it? To properly answer these questions we must take it back to
where it all began, and for this we’ll have to revisit some ugly truths.
Origins of Racism: Connections to Capitalism
People forget that Amerika is a nation of settlers founded on genocide,
slavery and annexation. This oppressive nation-building formula includes
the more subtle forms of national oppression and the many different ways
they are institutionalized and manifested in our society. One
particularly malevolent form of national oppression, which most of us
are all too familiar with, is of course racism and the more pernicious
racial ideology from which it stems. But racism isn’t simply some
oppressive philosophical dogma utterly disconnected from the real world.
Rather, racism and racial ideologies are direct products of national
oppression, which is engendered by society based on property relations
and the division of labor produced therein, which in turn has influenced
how humyn beings have come to interact with each other in the struggle
between the global “haves” and “have nots.” In short, racism has not
been around forever. As a matter of fact, the very concept of “race”
didn’t even exist prior to the 16th century. Racism and racial
ideologies have only been around so long as capitalism itself has been
around. The concept of “race” developed alongside the rise of modern
society and not as usually believed as a remnant of the irrational and
dark Middle Ages. What’s more, the concept of “race” has been directly
linked back to the primitive accumulation phase of capitalism, which is
itself grounded in the first rape and plunder of Africa and the
Americas. This primitive accumulation phase is clearly explained by
radical eco-feminist and author Maria Mies when she stated that:
“Before the capitalist mode of production could establish and maintain
itself as a process of extended reproduction of capital - driven by the
motor of surplus value production - enough capital had to be accumulated
to start this process. The capital was largely accumulated in the
colonies between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Most of the
capital was not accumulated by merchant capitalists but largely by way
of brigandage, piracy, forced and slave labor.”(1) And furthermore, “One
could say that the first phase of the primitive accumulation was that of
merchant and commercial capital ruthlessly plundering and exploiting the
colonies’ human and natural wealth…”(1)
What should be kept in mind here is that as feudalism disintegrated
and capitalism came on the scene the common people, the peasants and the
soldiers, needed to be reassured that what they were doing to the people
of the colonies was not only in the beneficiary population’s interest
but the interest of the colonized as well. The European masses also
needed to be taught that the colonized were less than humyn so as to
discourage any feelings of solidarity amongst the oppressed. Hence, the
racial ideology was borne, which wasn’t just about the innate ignorance
and stupidity of the colonized, but of their innate treacherousness and
savagery as well.
Examples of Racism in National Oppression, Yesterday and Today
Racism as a building block for the rise of the modern western world was
as indispensable for that society as it is to the continuing subjugation
of nations and the integrity of the First World today. Testimony to this
is the way that the people of Islam have been demonized as “dark” and
“backward” by the “civilized” west who sees itself as “exceptional.”
Thus the role that racism has played in gaining public support for the
current wars of conquest is undeniable. One need only examine how
Muslims, who were Amerikan citizens, were vilified and attacked by
settler violence following the retaliatory attack on the World Trade
Center and the Pentagon under the guise of “Amerikan Patriotism.” The
conscious connection of these actions to the collective white history of
colonialism in Africa is manifested in the term “sand nigger.” What this
“Amerikan Patriotism” really translates into is a special brand of
oppressor nation chauvinism, and a vehicle for white power in the 21st
century. It is particularly popular and appealing to Latin@s and New
Afrikans who think they can fully integrate into Amerika by becoming
agents of imperialism and uniting with the oppressor against the people
of the Third World.
Therefore the revolutionary character of militant Islam, seen when it is
waging war for the independence of Muslims from U.$. imperialism, should
be supported by the oppressed nation lumpen as it is objectively an
anti-imperialist struggle despite the reactionary views of those leading
the struggles, whether it’s Al Qaeda or Bashar al-Assad and their
associates, for it weakens, disintegrates and undermines imperialism.
The struggle of the West and their “democratic” running dogs in the
region strengthen the victory of imperialism. Real communists know that
there are only two sides to a battle, therefore it is our duty to unite
all who can be united in the camp of the oppressed and build a United
Front against the imperialists and their racist backers! In his day,
Stalin had to combat those promoting a “third way” between the socialist
camp and the imperialists, pointing out that those who broke away from
the Soviet Union inherently joined the imperialist system, becoming
victims of it. The lack of a socialist camp today does not change the
bankruptcy of the third-way idealists. Revisionists today point to the
forces waging war in the Middle East and call them the “Two Outmodeds”
and are peddling a third way out for the oppressed. However, this third
way out is itself reactionary and anti-revolutionary, and if upheld will
in fact reinforce the very same imperialist structure it pretends to be
against, by weakening national unity of the oppressed. This is one
lesson we take from the theory and practice of United Front in the
Chinese war of liberation against Japan.
Racism as Pseudo-Science and Glossing Over of the National Question
Purveyors of racial ideology fancy themselves as being backed by
science, and indeed there is a “science” to racism, it’s called eugenics
and it stresses the genetic makeup of people as determinant of their
“natural” abilities and inclinations. Eugenics was developed as
justification for the oppression and enslavement of non-white people and
outlaws alike. It was, however, thoroughly criticized and debunked by
the wider scientific community for, among other things, not being an
objective and quantifiable method of analysis of the humyn species.
While most people today have hardly heard of eugenics it was certainly
popular back when England had stretched the tentacles of the British
empire (forerunner to U.$. imperialism) all over the Third World, while
here in Amerika the slave owning south was likewise using it for the
continuing oppression and enslavement of the New Afrikan nation.
The lack of scientific relationship to biology since there is only the
human race.
The creation of categories of inferior and superior based on arbitrary
characteristics and definitions.
The creation and perpetuation of a system of oppression of the
“inferior” group in all aspects.
The re-enforcement of a relative differential in treatment - and it’s
ideological justification between those considered inferior and those
considered superior.
The use of race as a principal means for social control.
Rendering irrelevant the experience and viewpoint of the subordinated
population except and insofar as interpreted by dominant populations.
This specifically has been applied to African descendants, Indigenous
peoples, Asians, and Latinos, those usually referred to as “people of
color.”(2)
Author Bill Fletcher, to whom the above is attributed, explains:
“Race is, then, not a state of mind, but a socio-political reality. Even
though there is no scientific basis for race, it occupies a real space
and the institutions of the racial-capitalist society reinforce this
reality every day.”(2)
We’d also add that the false concept of “race” is a social construct
originally based on power struggles between humyns in the pre-capitalist
era of slavery, and it has done much to gloss over the fact that the
oppressed internal nations of Chican@s and New Afrikans are separate
nations from the Amerikan nation (white settler-state), with separate
hystories distinctly their own. Therefore we speak of nations and
nationalities where most people speak of “race,” in order to refer to a
group of people who share a common language, culture, territory and
economy. The concept of nations is thus more accountable to hystory and
is firmly grounded in material reality. (See “Marxism and the National
Question” by J.V. Stalin.)
Methods for Resolving the Principal Contradiction
Despite the fact that the concept of race has been repeatedly disproven,
proponents of racial ideology and the national oppression it engenders
(and vice versa) hold steady to their un-scientific beliefs. And to a
certain extent this is fine. They have their beliefs and prejudices, but
we have science! We know where they stand and we know that the oppressed
people of the world will not sit idly by but will take up armed struggle
against the imperialists to impose the will of the people on today’s
oppressor nations. What isn’t fine however are the so-called allies of
the oppressed nations within the Amerikan “Left” who mistakenly call
themselves communist yet go about espousing the concept of “race.”
Whether they are speaking about the common cause of all the “races” that
are equally oppressed by capitalism-imperialism, or whether they are
agitating around the “race issue” here in Amerika, they’re of no great
help. They are immediately caught in the irrevocable trap of idealism,
and that is no attitude for a communist to have. First, these idealists
objectively hurt the revolutionary movement within U.$. borders by
elevating the problem of “race” to that of principal contradiction when
in fact there is no problem of race. There is a problem of imperialism
and national oppression. Secondly, they deny that the principal
contradiction is imperialism vs. the oppressed nations by emphatically
denying that there are any other nations in the United $tates besides
Amerika. Some have opportunistically come to acknowledge New Afrika,
while denying other nations’ existence, not because they are dialectical
materialists, but because they’re focused on pulling numbers to their
side. Lastly, by denying the concept of nations and national liberation
and instead focusing on multi-racial unity they deny the theories and
practice of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin and Mao, as well as the
revolutionary movements they spearheaded and the many national
liberation movements that followed in their traditions.
Racism in the United $tates or any other place in the world will not be
wiped from the earth solely by educating it out of existence, but by
getting rid of the many material conditions and relations from which it
springs. Racism is a product of national oppression, hence we must focus
on uniting the oppressed nations for their own liberation from this
jailhouse of nations that is the United $tates. Only then will we
seriously be able to talk about combatting racism as a backward idea
from another period of history.
Tacloban, the Philippines, an island devastated by a recent typhoon,
shows the contrasts between wealth and poverty, and underscores the
reality that “natural” disasters are not natural at all. People in First
World countries have the infrastructure, resources and response systems
in place to save lives that are lost in the Third World when the same
disasters hit.
Overall the Philippines is a poor country; in 2012 there were 15
provinces with over 40% of the population below the poverty
threshold.(1) While not in one of these 15 provinces, the government
reports 32% of people in Leyte (Tacloban’s province) are below the
poverty line.(2) These people, living below the poverty line, had an
income of less than $179/month for a family of five. A third of
Tacloban’s houses have wooden exterior walls and one in seven have grass
roofs.(3) In these conditions, it is no surprise that a typhoon could
wreak such havoc in Tacloban.
Bodies of the dead are rotting in the streets as aid fails to reach
those devastated by the storm. There is no clean water and little food.
Yet the Philippines is a country frequently hit by severe storms, with
about 20 typhoons a year, and this storm was identified well in advance.
Both these conditions should engender preparedness on the part of the
government. However, in the Philippines disaster preparation and relief
are delegated to local governors without a strong central leadership.
Some services are more effectively delivered on a large scale. This is
one area where we can show obviously that communism has a better
solution than the individualism of capitalism. Where central control
will lead to more efficient solutions, a communist-led government would
not hesitate to take that control. But capitalism is not focused on
serving the people, it is focused on maximizing profits and power for
the few. And these profits result in deaths from malnutrition, military
aggression, lack of health care, and “natural” disasters. As long as the
imperialists retain their power and wealth, they don’t mind tens of
millions of preventable deaths a year.
In an interesting historical connection, Imelda Marcos, wife of the
former president of the Philippines, is from Tacloban. The family of
Imelda Marcos dominated local politics for years; she herself held a
congressional seat in the 1990s. Imelda’s husband, Ferdinand Marcos, who
ruled in the Philippines from 1965-1986 with the support of the U.$.
government, embezzled billions of dollars in public funds while in
power. The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) waged revolutionary
armed struggle against the Marcos regime, growing in strength during the
Marcos dictatorship. In the end, when Marcos’s demise was inevitable,
the United $tates stepped in to have a role in the change of government,
turning on Marcos and backing Corazon Aquino. Her family legacy lives on
today as her son Benigno Aquino holds the President’s office.
Unfortunately, the popular movement that forced Marcos out did not go
further than installing another imperialist puppet. While the communist
movement was strong, it was not yet strong enough to lead the people to
force the U.$. imperialists out, leaving them to play a dominating role
in the country’s politics and economics to this day.(4)
This is the backdrop for the reported six warships the Amerikans sent to
the Philippines last week, with more than 80 fighter jets and 5,000 navy
soldiers.(5) Today the United $tates is taking advantage of the disaster
in the Philippines to increase military presence, while playing the
hero. As reported in a CPP press release:
“The US government is militarizing disaster response in the Philippines,
in much the same way that the US militarized disaster response in Haiti
in the 2010 earthquake,” said the CPP. The high-handed presence of US
armed troops in Haiti has been widely renounced. The US government has
since maintained its presence in Haiti…
“What the disaster victims need urgently are food, water and medical
attention, not US warships bringing in emergency rations to justifty
their armed presence in Philippine sovereign waters,” pointed out the
CPP. “If the US government were really interested in providing
assistance to countries who have suffered from calamities, then it
should increase its funds to civilian agencies that deal in disaster
response and emergency relief, not in fattening its international
military forces and taking advantage of the people’s miseries to justify
their presence,” added the CPP.(5)
Much of the press is quiet about the ongoing war in the Philippines
between the U.$. puppet regime and the CPP-led New People’s Army (NPA),
as well as other liberation forces in different regions of the islands.
But it has been brought up in the Filipino press to spread propaganda
about NPA soldiers attacking government relief efforts. The Communist
Party of the Philippines (CPP) have denounced these lies pointing out
that the location of the attack was not in an area where relief efforts
were needed. The CPP reiterated that “NPA units in areas ravaged by the
recent super typhoon Yolanda are currently engaged in relief and
rehabilitation efforts assisting local Party branches and revolutionary
mass organizations in mobilizing emergency supply for disaster victims.”
Shortly thereafter a ceasefire was declared on behalf of the NPA in
order to focus on relief efforts.
The liberation struggle has long been connected to the protection of the
natural resources of the islands that the imperialist countries continue
to extract for great profits off the backs of the Filipino proletariat.
The storm has also received a lot of attention at a climate change
summit in Poland where Filipino officials have begun a hunger strike to
attempt to force “meaningful” change in relation to energy consumption.
Climate change has been predicted to cause more extreme weather
conditions, and this recent massive typhoon is just another possible
indicator that that is happening. Yet, as international summits
continue, little change is made in the over-consumption of the
imperialist nations driving this disaster.
As many in the Filipino countryside have already recognized, the only
solution to environmental destruction and disasters is an end to
capitalism. With a rational system that puts the needs of the people
over the goal of profits, we can build infrastructure suited to the
environmental conditions, set up emergency response systems that provide
fast and effective support, and plan consumption in a way that does not
undercut the very natural systems that we live in and depend on.