Under Lock & Key

2 April 2025: Today thousands of Haitians marched on the capital in Port au Prince demanding action be taken against the gangs controlling most of the city. Some protestors were armed. As the government has not taken action to protect the people, some local police have begun arming the people with weapons seized from the gangs. The government responded to the protest with massive tear gas attacks and firing live rounds into the air.

The new government took power in November with help from the U.$. imperialists, the latest in a series of comprador states since the overthrow of popular president Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 2004. Since being the first victorious slave revolution in 1804, and a bastion of anti-slavery in the 1800s, Haiti has been a target of the European imperialists. This imperialist meddling has created the conditions of the current failed state.

The fighting spirit of the Haitian people lives on, as does their efforts to build strength through unity, even as current conditions seem dire. Haitian refugees from this violence are one of the targets of the Trump regime for deportations, as they currently can qualify for Temporary Protective Status (TPS). If Trump can remove TPS it will worsen the humanitarian crisis in Haiti in the short-term and threaten the safety of those deported.

^{Notes: Kevin Pena, Flashpoints, 2 April 2025.}

This is Part 2 of the review of this revealing work.

Could many in the U.$. left be colorblind?

In summarizing the intro to the sixties the writers once more fall into the ideological swamp that we noticed in Part 1 of our review of this work. They state in part:

“Students, Black People, and (at the end of the Sixties ) soldiers constituted the main forces of rebellion…”

This continues in the same erroneous tradition as the RCP line. Statements like this highlight that, and RCPers have heard our stance before, but much of the non-Chican@ left, here in the snakes are what we of the ROA have come to define as colorblind. That is they only see Black and White struggles against empire. This outdated line needs to be “buried” along with the CP-USA that was previously criticized in Part 1 of our review. This colorblindness is what prevents any real revolution on these shores, especially with the Third World on our doorstep. Colorblindness is a major obstacle to many. Asked about the nation by us in the past, the RCP and their ilk have brushed it off.

“We don’t agree with those who say ‘Put my nation in front of the line’”, the RCP and their ilk have said in prior talks. Our point here is that the Chican@ nation simply be acknowledged as being in line period. For perspective of the times, the Organization of Communist Revolutionaries (OCR) declare erroneously that “Students, Black people and soldiers” were the supposed “main forces” of rebellion. Yet, since the end of the sixties Chican@ revolutionary orgs were developing throughout Aztlán. Groups like the Brown Berets, Chican@ Liberation Party and the Crusade for Justice that were brewing in this time would later be alleged by U.$. “law enforcement” of mobilizing the largest student strike on these shores with the school “blow outs” that included over 10,000 Chican@ youth, that mobilized over 10,000 people in a Chican@ anti-imperialist action in East L.A. called the Chicano Moratorium that downed a police helicopter and was alleged to have committed the only bombing of a CIA office on U.$. soil ever(1) not to mention many other instances of armed struggle.

The idea that any rebellion in these false U.$. borders does not include the Chican@ Nation is simply mierda. Those who uphold this thinking deserve full membership in the RCP-USA as their line is in goose step.

The tactics of “divide and conquer” employed by massa have worked so well on all of the masses here in the United Snakes; even within the so-called “Left” that not only are some folks pitted against other oppressed but some have come to not even acknowledge those in the trenches right beside them. Mao warned about who are our friends, who are our enemies. Malcolm X reiterated how we can end up loving our enemies and hating our friends.

BPP Legacy

As this work delved into the history of the Black Panther Party, it highlighted lessons learned. We agree with the analysis on the Panthers for the most part. The Panthers carved a path of resistance yet unseen in many ways for all of us. At the same time their imprint taught us the limits under U.$. imperialism, even when united fronts and allies are strongly in support, it is still not enough, without structural foundations in place. In this writing the authors frame it nicely in regard to the Panthers:

“The development of a vanguard party is not the same thing as and cannot wait for the development of a revolutionary situation. The ideological consolidation, theoretical development program and organizational apparatus of a vanguard party must be built consciously and systematically before the emergence of a revolutionary situation if the vanguard is to have the ability to withstand and advance through the pressure of intense events and vicious repression.”(2)

The state repression will come with victories small and large. Even when victories are small and an organization is not numerically large the organizers may down play the threat they pose to the state. But the state and their agents sometimes see the threat before the organizers, before the revolutionaries can see it and react. For this reason the vanguard must move in accordance to our potential threat to the capitalist state.

White Proletarians?

We disagree with the writers on their economic analysis in regards to who is a proletariat here in the snakes. The writers state:

“Labeling oppressed nations and nationalities in the U.S. as internal colonies, while morally justified, does not provide the analytical foundation for such a strategy and program. Instead suggesting separate struggles to liberate each”internal colony” perhaps linked by solidarity and a common enemy. The “internal colony” analysis fails to grasp that there is a multinational proletariat in the U.S. disproportionately made up of people of oppressed nation(s) and nationalities but also including white proletarians which bring together people of different nationalities who have a common class interest and similar but variegated experiences of exploitation and conditions of life that is in the strategic position, as a class, to lead the revolutionary overthrow of U.S. imperialism.”

Although many revolutions were fought and won by multi-national parties and organizations – including the Chinese Revolution and victory of 1949 – we disagree with the writers that a “white proletariat” exists within these false U.S. borders. Furthermore we do believe that there are internal semi-colonies, and the Chican@ nation, aka Aztlán, is one such internal semi-colony. The writers state that labeling the oppressed nations as such does not provide the analytical foundation for such a strategy and program but we would refer to the Chicano Red Book as the ROA refers to our precious book Chican@ Power and the Struggle for Aztlán, which does indeed provide the analytical foundation for such a strategy and program as it is Chican@ Maoist ideology. As for the bourgeoisified crumb-snatching First World labor aristocrats that are referred to as “white proletariat” we will refer the readers to MIM Theory # 1: A White Proletariat? for a more in depth examination of the white labor aristocracy in the occupied territories or Zak Cope’s Divided World, Divided Class.

Despite the writers alluding to the problematic nature of revolutionary nationalism we feel otherwise and side with Lenin on this:

“In the same way as mankind can arrive at the abolition of classes only through a transition period of the dictatorship of the oppressed class, it can arrive at the inevitable integration of nations only through a transition period of the complete emancipation of all oppressed nations, i.e. their freedom to secede.”(3)

Aztláns secession will be a prelude to how the Chican@ nation votes via plebiscite on our way forward. No bourgeoisiefied worker will define our struggle or pre-determine who we consider the proletariat here in the First World. As we have come to the conclusion through our own scientific study that the reserve army of labor here in the United Snakes is imported, that is, the proletariat is Mexican@ for the most part.

We run into more colorblind assumptions in this writing in regards to the writers views on mass imprisonment. They seem to continue with the outdated 50 year-old lenses of mass incarceration when they state:

“The entire justice system, from the police to prosecutors to prisons, was (and still is) used to keep the Black masses”in their place” and became a defining feature of their daily lives.”

It seems to be describing the 1960’s or 70’s but in TODAY’S world it is the Brown masses who are feeling the brunt heel of the injustice system. The U.S. Federal prison system today reports 8% of its population being Mexican citizens, and another 8% not being U.$. citizens. Meanwhile 38.6% are reported as “racially Black”, while 29.4% are “ethnically Hispanic”.(4) The Federal prisons are often more harsh than state prisons, and more isolated, with families living in other states or other countries. Children and babies are being imprisoned in ICE kamps; babies handcuffed in kourt; Brown babies separated from parents and then “lost” in foster care. Brown people are now being sent to Guantanamo Bay to await deportation, or straight to supermax prison in the U.$.-fascist state in El Salvador.

The new greaser laws ensure that U.S. control units and solitary confinement units are also well stacked with Brown masses via “Gang” enhancements and classification within the concentration kamps. The 2013 California Hunger Strike exposed that the SHU, or control units, were populated by 80%+ Chican@s. With the brutality of the injustice system in this country used against raza, it is ridiculous to say it is only used on Black people. In general, the U.S. penal colonies are used for population control of Aztlán and the other oppressed nations on these occupied territories.

The section on postmodernism was refreshing to read. Much of the movement papers and writings these days not only gloss over the ills of “postmodern” ideology but even become influenced by it in many cases. In addressing this assault, the movement and its affect on the youth the writers state:

“For students, the bourgeoisie worked on two main fronts (1) they promoted, in academia, ideologies and politics that appeared oppositional but in reality fortified bourgeois rule and in effect steered students away from communism and other revolutionary ideas. Postmodernism was chief among these ideologies and has since become the dominant discourse within liberal academia.”

For the Chican@ nation we see the injection of the terms Latino, Latina, Latinx and all such derivatives as being part and parcel to the postmodernism project. For Aztlán, these terms move under the guise of “inclusiveness” only to obscure the identity of Chican@s, thereby detouring our focus on national liberation and land into simple multinational reforms within the confines of the bourgeois electoral politics arena. Those who espouse the postmodernist views within a raza context have clipped their wings which compels them to walk the road of brown capitalism, never soaring for secession or national liberation because the framers of their line have negated these paths starting with their identity.

As our Chican@ scholars sank into the swamp of academia their drive for Chican@ power and self-determination also sank. As Montaya put it:

“Most tenure-track scholars are aware that academic institutions rarely recognize grassroots activism and other non-traditional forms of scholarship.”(5)

In short the path and pull of integration into the empire is too strong for many who cannot resist the trinkets of blood and treasure squeezed out of the Third World by U.S. imperialists.

It becomes apparent that the writers were in the orbit of RCP-USA. The description of life surrounding the RCP-USA seemed like a scene out of Thomas More’s Utopia. Lots of talk of life surrounding the RCP being a vibrant socialist experience having “an atmosphere of theoretical discussion and debate.”…the writers say, I was captivated for a brief moment, very brief, especially when I realized that all this “theoretical discussion” left out the Chican@ Nation – as much of the so-called U.S. “left” seems to do so cleverly. The writers leave out in their lofty description that the RCP-USA is also colorblind, like the writers and most of the posers parading like communists in these occupied territories. “Racial” scientists would likely find unity with this colorblind RCP line which infects much of the U.$. “left.”

The national liberation struggle is very much necessary despite the rhetoric from some like the RCP-USA. The “All Lives Matter” crowd swear that the society we are oppressed in has somehow developed beyond national struggle and then we picked up some “progressive” rag and read it cover to cover and not read the word Aztlán, “Chican@” or any mention of the Chican@ struggle, despite many of these same parties and orgs existing in the Chican@ National territory (the U.S. Southwest) at this time. Raza must grasp that exploitation and dehumynization of the Chican@ did not end with the U.S. “civil rights” movement. Political exploitation and cooptation remains a threat to the Chica@ nation.

Much of the content on the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP) was spent “dick riding” Avakian, although in the latter part there was some good criticism of Avakianism and the RCP more generally. The “dick riding” mostly being the writers gushing over some of Avakians writings and books.

The criticism of the RCP and Avakian was in pointing out various errors. One such error was in attempting to create a cult of personality for Avakian placing Avakian above the masses, above the movement. Claiming Avakian developed a “new synthesis” and “new communism.” Some of our members remember reading this claim years ago and not seeing it then, we do not see it now either. The writers correctly highlight that Revolution newspaper began to focus almost obsessively on filling its rag with quotes of Avakian speeches that he gave to the party. The closing of Revolution Books, the RCP-ran bookstores, was also criticized, especially when RCP said it was done to focus on promoting Avakian literature, when Avakian lit was mostly distributed at the bookstores. More striking was the fact that Avakian promoted voting for Biden when Biden and Trump squared off the first time. It appears that when it comes to Bourgeois democracy: the RCP can’t do better than that.

The portion at the end is informative on the organizational functions of the vanguard party on what the writers define as the “nuts and bolts” of the vanguard. There is much to learn from studying the development and disasters of revisionist parties like the CP-USA and the RCP-USA. We take our duties here in the beast serious and the Chican@ nation will not be bamboozled via neo-colonial projects that masquerade in communist barb. The Republic of Aztlán is re-building the nation and studying the errors of the past to be successful in our struggle.

Free Aztlán!

<sup>Notes:
1 The Crusade for Justice by Ernesto Vigil.
2. “The CP, The Sixties, The RCP and the Crying need for a Communist Vanguard Party Today” by The Organization of Communist Revolutionaries.
3. V.I. Lenin, “The Socialist Revolution and the Right of Nations to Self-Determination”, January-February 1916 from Selected Works Vol. 1, International Publishers, NY, 1971, P. 160.
4. https://www2.fed.bop.gov/about/statistics/statistics_inmate_citizenship.jsp 5. “Chicano Movement for Beginners” by Maceo Montoya, 2016, page 202.</sup>

An Arkansas prisoner reports 11 December 2024: At Larry Norris Unit (formerly known as Tucker Max Unit) in Arkansas, the captain on night shift was doing his daily “legal mail” to inmates. They are now bringing a shredder/copy machine/cam recorder for the legal mail. They turn the camera on, give you the ledger to sign stating you were expecting the mail, they open and check your mail, copy it off, then they shred it. The captain also said they just started this today. ADC (Arkansas Department of Corrections) has a policy saying before any new policy takes effect, a memo is supposed to go out 30 days in advance so everyone can be informed. This is a violation of our attorney-client communications. I have been reading my “Prison Litigation Manual” and I haven’t read any other cases where they copied legal mail. They do copy regular mail but not legal mail.

In Arkansas we don’t have a lot of writ writers and there’s no unity among the prisoners to stand up for anything. I’m still learning that the prisons, courts, everyone works together. You said something in your last letter “Freedom from oppression can’t be won through the courts. The law is a tool of the oppressor.” Break that down some more. Guys were telling me it’s a dirty game and even the law books don’t give you the truth. I’m 23 and still learning all of this but I know I can’t win with violence. Please get back at me and spread the word. Thank you.

I also read about the book ban as well; they’re doing that in Arkansas, you can only order from 1) Bargain book catalog 2) Books a Million 3) Barnes and Noble. You can’t order from Amazon or anywhere, how are the other states fighting it?

A Federal prisoner at USP Tucson reports 25 February 2025: Yesterday, February 25th, I got mail through the regular mail call and got documents from the Supreme Court… THE Supreme Court. It contained 3 pages from the Office of the Clerk dated 5 February 2025.

I thought, “Why didn’t I get this through Legal Mail?” Documents from the Supreme Court is LEGAL mail, even if it is not marked as such. By policy, staff are supposed to make an intelligent attempt to determine if the address is actually a legal address or not. But this would not apply to nationally known addresses, like the White House, or a United States Senator… or the Supreme Court! which also states “Official Business” on it.

I also noticed that my mail was photocopied. Why would the mailroom staff make copies of documents from the Supreme Court, without my knowledge? The general idea of making copies was to prevent the introduction of drugs into the prison, but surely USP Tucson is not accusing the Supreme Court of sending contraband, are they?

In addition to this tampering with my legal mail, the letter got to me on 25 February. Even if we allowed 5-6 days to deliver from Washington DC to Tucson, that is almost TWO WEEKS before I got the document.

MIM(Prisons) responds: In response to our comrade in Arkansas, we will try to break down what we said in ULK 87 another way. You mention people telling you the injustice system is a dirty game. That is true, it exists to maintain the system of power of some groups of people over others. Some will conclude there is no point in fighting because in prison we have no rights anyway. This is not a crazy conclusion to come to based on what one sees happening around you in prison, but it is a defeatist and limited view of things.

MIM(Prisons) works to support prisoners organizing against the system of oppression. That organizing requires filing paperwork and waging legal battles. But it is not the legal battles that are decisive, it is the oppressed working together. There are no rights, only power struggles. If we stop struggling, that’s when we’ll have no rights. That is why to say there’s no point in fighting injustice is a defeatist approach.

What too many of our readers fail to grasp is that, as a group, we will not be free until we seize freedom from the oppressors. And we cannot do that as individuals. Rather the majority of the world’s people are oppressed by the current system of imperialism. We work in alliance with that majority to change that system. The courts are part of the existing system. The system can be used to gain some breathing room here and there because the oppressor wants to fool others into believing they are not oppressing people. The system however will not let you change the system, that requires other forms of organizing.

Basic rights like legal privilege to communicate with your lawyer, First Amendment rights to read and communicate with who you want are important protections for the oppressed to be able to defend themselves and develop themselves. As long as the system claims to uphold these rights, we must fight to have them implemented.

You sent me an introductory study group assignment. I only received pages 1,3,5,7,9,11,13. I believe it was because all of our mail is photocopied. They only copy the front page. So I am missing all the rest of the pages. We are also on lockdown currently 24/7. Thank you for ULK 88 and thank you for your support.

MIM(Prisons) adds: This will be the third time we send this comrade a letter trying to get em eir study materials. The first one we sent ey got our envelope, but it came with another prisoners’ letter. That’s not just a violation of privacy, but potentially dangerous. For years our mail has been tampered with, lost and delayed via these digital mail systems being instituted across the country. Maybe Elon Musk can approve a $300 purchase for USP Hazelton so they can afford a two-sided scanner? Of course, most prisons are using private services to handle their mail now, just as Musk wants to do with all government services. They spend a bunch of extra money to pay private companies to handle mail with a lot less efficiency. But they don’t care that mail plays an important role in rehabilitation, mental health, education and the safety of prisoners.

MIM recognizes the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense (BPP) as the most advanced communist vanguard to have existed in North America. Specifically, we uphold the BPP from 1966 to 1970. For our analysis of the BPP see our study pack Defend the Legacy of the BPP.

12 January 1865: During the Civil War 20 New Afrikan leaders meet with General Sherman of the Union. 19 of the 20 state that they prefer to live separate from the United $tates. Initially land in the south was given to New Afrikans with the Union victory, but when President Andrew Johnson came to power ey re-established Euro-Amerikan rule in the south.

1914: Marcus Garvey founds the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), a pan-Afrikan, pro-capitalist movement that recognized Euro-Amerikans would never live with New Afrikans as equals. UNIA organized 5 million followers in a movement to return to Afrika and built a number of successful businesses before Garvey was arrested in 1925 and deported to Jamaica.

1917: The African Black Brotherhood (ABB) for African Liberation and Redemption formed as the first Marxist Revolutionary Black nationalist organization in the United $tates, at a time when a free New Afrikan proletariat was migrating from the south to urban centers. The ABB merges into the American Communist Party in the late 1920s.

1952: Malcolm X, a son of Garveyite parents, is paroled from prison and immediately begins organizing with the Nation of Islam, quickly becoming its most influential leader, until ey is expelled in 1964.

1962: Huey P. Newton meets Bobby Seale at a rally at Merritt College opposing the blockade of Cuba. The Revolutionary Action Movement (RAM) is founded by “revolutionary Black nationalists” (including Max Stanford) seeking to organize an armed struggle to win national liberation for the “colonized Black nation” based in Marxism-Leninism and inspired by Mao Zedong and Malcolm X.

1963: RAM goes underground. Mao Zedong puts out an essay calling on support for Black Liberation Struggle at the behest of Robert F. Williams who was in China in exile after first going to Cuba in 1961 to avoid legal attacks by the U.$. imperialists.

1964: RAM develops armed self-defense units with Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in the Mississippi delta region. Malcolm X becomes a RAM officer and travels through Africa building support.

28 June 1964: Malcolm X (now el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz) returns from Africa and forms the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU) with John Henrik Clarke, the OAAU was to be the broad front organization for the now underground Marxist cadre organization RAM.

21 February 1965: Malcolm X is assassinated. Bobby Seale swears to “make his own self into a motherfucking Malcolm X.”

August 1965: Watts rebellion breaks out in Watts, California, after two New Afrikan stepbrothers and their mother are subject to violence from a white pig. Both cops and white citizens of Watts are beaten by New Afrikans, riots break out throughout the city, and the National Guard are sent in.

1966: Seale leaves RAM, to work with Newton, over lack of material support against police brutality and “inability to organize brothers on the block.” Seale disagrees with RAM’s insistence on the revolutionary vanguard being clandestine. This is later addressed by Newton in the essay, “The Correct Handling of a Revolution” (1967).

1966-67: Newton and Seale adopt the imagery of a black panther, sell Little Red Books to purchase guns, and rent an office for the first chapter of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, at the time an armed group in confrontation with police.

21 February 1967: Eldridge Cleaver and the RAM-affiliated Black Panther Party of Northern California hold a memorial for Malcolm X. Seale, Newton, and other Panthers provide an armed security detail for Betty Shabazz, his widow. Newton says their ability to stand up to police at the event finally convinced Cleaver to join the BPP.

April 1967: The Panthers begin organizing in North Richmond, holding two armed rallies and distributing newspapers informing about the murder of Denzil Dowell by the pigs and the need for armed self-defense.

2 May 1967: A delegation of thirty Panthers go to Sacramento to challenge the passing of a new bill prohibiting carrying arms in public. Twenty-four New Afrikans are accosted and arrested on the way home – 22 armed Panthers, as well as unarmed Eldridge Cleaver and an unarmed, unaffiliated New Afrikan passerby.

May 1967: The Black Panthers publish their Ten Point Program, laying out what they believe and what their demands for New Afrika are.

12 July 1967: Rioting breaks out in Newark, NJ, a majority-New Afrikan city under oppressor-nation control, after a New Afrikan cab driver is beaten too badly to walk. Molotov cocktails are thrown and businesses are looted as the rebellion grows. Twenty-one New Afrikans are murdered by police.

23 July 1967: Urban rebellion breaks out in Detroit, MI, going beyond looting to tactics such as arson and sniping. 33 New Afrikans are killed, as well as ten whites, many of them government officials.

27 October 1967: Newton shoots notorious racist pig John Frey, killing him; Frey shoots Newton in the stomach. Newton’s trial for the murder of Officer Frey sparks the “Free Huey!” movement, wherein Newton is presented as resisting the perpetration of violence against New Afrikans by the occupying-force pigs.

17 October 1967: White youth radicals protest the draft in Oakland, attempting to shut down the induction center, and are met with violent repression. Further rallies and riots against the draft eventually merge with the “Free Huey!” campaign, among both the white and New Afrikan left.

1968: RAM disbands and decides to coordinate through other groups such as the Black Liberation Party, African Peoples’ Party and House of Umoja. BPP rules state: “no party member can join any army force other than the Black Liberation Army.”

28 January 1968: Seale gives a speech at a UC Berkeley rally linking the struggles of anti-draft protestors with police brutality against New Afrikans.

31 March 1968: Malcolm X Society hosts 500 New Afrikan nationalists for the Black Government Conference in Detroit; they initiate the Provisional Government of the Republic of New Afika (PG-RNA) to be composed of Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and South Carolina.

4 April 1968: Martin Luther King Jr. is martyred in Memphis, Tennessee. Rebellion erupts in Memphis, and then sweeps New Afrikan neighborhoods. The Panthers play a role in quelling riots in many cities to encourage more organized rebellion.

6 April 1968: Lil’ Bobby Hutton, a 17-year-old Black Panther, is martyred by police in West Oakland while doing armed pig patrols with Eldridge Cleaver.

8 September 1968: FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover designates the BPP as “the greatest threat to the internal security of the country.”

Fall 1968: Cleaver goes into exile in Cuba.

17 January 1969: Los Angeles chapter leaders Bunchy Carter and John Huggins shot and killed by US organization members on UCLA campus, provoked by FBI interference. BPP leadership institutes a policy to expel those in clandestine military formations. Geronimo ji Jaga Pratt, with eir experience in the U.$. military, takes Carter’s position as Southern California Minister of Defense and begins building chapters across the south while developing underground cadre units as well

July 1969: BPP hosts Revolutionary Conference for a United Front Against Fascism conference in response to others looking to them for leadership, bringing together 4,000 activists, majority Euro-Amerikan. Bobby Seale stresses class struggle and condemns Black racism. The conference creates National Committees to Combat Fascism across the country under BPP leadership that focus on control of the police and freeing political prisoners. Cleaver appears publicly in Algiers, Algeria where ey will establish the BPP international office.

5 November 1969: Seale sentenced to four years in prison for sixteen counts of contempt, because of his outbursts during the trial. Originally being tried as part of the Chicago 8 for “inciting a riot” at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, ey was bound and gagged during the trial. Seale was released in 1972.

4 December 1969: Fred Hampton, leader of the Chicago chapter, is assassinated by Chicago police and FBI. The pigs killed Hampton as ey was successfully uniting lumpen organizations in Chicago of different nationalities in the original Rainbow Coalition. The BPP was also in the process of expanding the Central Committee beyond the trusted founders in Oakland to include leaders like Hampton. This never happened and contributed to the splitting of the party over regional differences.

1969: Los Angeles pioneers the first-ever Special Weapon Assault Team, or SWAT, against BPP office building in L.A.

July-August 1970: Eldridge Cleaver and Elaine Brown join a delegation of people from the U.$. visiting North Vietnam, North Korea and China.

5 August 1970: Huey P. Newton is acquitted and released from prison, taking control of the underground military operation that was built while ey was incarcerated.

7 August 1970: Jonathan Jackson is killed at the Marin County Courthouse attempting to free eir brother George Jackson.

August 1970: Geronimo ji Jaga Pratt goes underground to develop BLA and establish guerrilla bases, with support of the party.

October 1970: People’s Republic of China Premier Zhou Enlai hosts Newton, Elaine Brown and other Panthers. Tens of thousands gather in Tiananmen Square to honor their visit They also visit Jiang Qing.

December 1970: Newton and Elaine Brown send Melvin “Cotton” Smith, a secret police informant, to Dallas to meet with Pratt.

8 December 1970: Pratt, Will Stanford, Will “Crutch” Holiday, and George Lloyd arrested in Dallas; Cotton is arrested shortly after as well.

1971: The BPP splits.

January 1971: Newton and Brown publicly denounce Pratt and others arrested in Dallas for counter-revolutionary behavior. Panther 21 (NYC) issue statement from prison supporting Weather Underground, condemning BPP for ignoring Panther 21 and Weather.

23 January 1971: Newton publishes his theory of “intercommunalism” arguing that nations and national liberation were no longer relevant in global capitalism, which ey introduced at a speech at Boston College in November 1970 following release from prison.

28 January 1971: FBI offices in Boston, NY, LA and San Francisco receive memo to capitalize on the rift over armed struggle within BPP.

13 February 1971: NY Panthers Michael Tabor, Dhoruba Bin Wahad and Connie Matthews were expelled after they went underground.

26 February 1971: Newton and Cleaver (in Algiers) have a phone conversation on live TV that ends with Cleaver calling for the reinstatement of expelled members from NYC and LA and the resignation of David Hilliard as Chief of Staff. Newton follows up by calling Algiers and expelling all Panthers at the BPP International office. Elaine Brown replaces Eldridge Cleaver on the Central Committee of the BPP.

3 April 1971: Cleaver faction begins publishing own newspaper Right On! calling for insurrection as The Black Panther newspaper moves away from calling for “revolution now.”

17 April 1971: Newton puts out statement “On the Defection of Eldridge Cleaver…” stating that “We will never run for political office…”

19 May 1971: On the 46th birthday of Malcolm X the BLA shoots two cops protecting the house of the NY District Attorney in charge of prosecuting the Panther 21.

18 August 1971: FBI and police raid headquarters of the Provisional Government of the Republic of New Afrika in Mississippi.

21 August 1971: Field Marshall George Jackson is killed by guards at San Quentin State Prison in California. BLA carries out multiple retaliatory attacks on police in San Francisco, and ends support for clandestine military action in Oakland.

1971-1973: 2 years following split the FBI would attribute 20 police deaths to the BLA, while claiming police killed 7 BLA members and imprisoned 18 key members. In 1971 the BLA calls for a strategic retreat, but it is too late for many and the organization is too decentralized to pull back.

1972: Bobby Seale released from prison, but at by this time the BPP was becoming little more than a local community organization in Oakland. “Afro-American Liberation Army” used in place of BLA in Humanity Freedom Peace in 1972 – reprinting essays by Geronimo Pratt. AALA claims action in Los Angeles.

1973: Elaine Brown runs for Oakland City Council.

1973: In the two years after the BPP split, the U.$. government attributed the deaths of 20 police officers to the BLA.

14 November 1973: Police kill Twyman Meyers in an ambush in the Bronx, after which they declared they had “broken the back” of the BLA.

1974: Huey Newton flees to Cuba to avoid criminal charges and Brown takes over as chair of the BPP securing federal and foundation funding for its programs.

1975: Between 1973 and 1975, the FBI claims responsibility for 7 assassinations and the capture of 18 other BLA members.

1975: Imprisoned BLA members sum up last four years in report “Message to the Black Movement” that says, “we lacked a strong ideological base and political base,” and initiated the BLA – Coordinating Committee (BLA-CC), publishing a newsletter circulated in prisons. By this time, BPP chapters with links to the BLA have no above-ground presence.

1977: Newton returns from Cuba, Brown resigns from the BPP after an incident where Newton supported male members of the party who assaulted a womyn in the party in retaliation for the womyn reprimanding a male member for lack of discipline.

2 November 1979: BLA members successfully break Assata Shakur out of prison.

1980: NYPD and FBI form the Joint Terrorist Task Force (JTTF) to coordinate search for Assata and to smash the BLA.

1981: Brinks truck holdup with BLA and Weather members involved led to other militants getting targeted, proving that BLA still had strong membership years after big raids. The Joint Terrorist Task Force would go on to conclude that the Revolutionary Armed Task Force (including Weather and BLA members) had conducted many robberies throughout the late 1970s.

December 1981: Last known action of the BLA according to the JTTF.

June 1982: Black Panther Party closes its last office.

November 1993: Former BLA members issue public call to form a New Afrikan Liberation Front.

March 1998: the NALF and PGRNA-sponsored Jericho ’98 mobilized at least 5000 people around the country for political freedom for nationalist-related prisoner organizing.

Sources: * Triumphant, Black August 2022, Power to New Afrika, MIM Distributors. * Akinyele Umoja, June 1999, “Repression breeds resistance: The black liberation army and the radical legacy of the black panther party, New Political Science. * Joshua Bloom and Waldo E. Martin, Jr., 2013, Black Against Empire: The History and Politics of the Black Panther Party, UC Press, Berkeley.

MIM(Prisons) preface: Below, a comrade in United States Penitentiary - Tucson tells a story about how prison staff institute arbitrary mass punishment. Often such mass punishment comes in the form of lockdowns, which have seemingly become more common in recent years. All level IV prisoners in California are currently on lockdown, and had access to their tablets and phones taken away. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation announced this on 8 March 2025, calling it “modified programming” as it applies only to level IV prisoners.(1) They have ordered the lockdown in response to an alleged surge in violence, yet we know that these forms of group punishment, and the new form of punishment of taking tablets away, only leads to more violence. As always, this isn’t about safety, but about control. In addition, the Ashker settlement, which followed the biggest hunger strikes to ever occur in U.$. prisons, supposedly prohibits collective punishment. So this “modified programming” is a violation of the CDCR’s own rules and court orders. But no significant organization currently exists inside to hold the pigs to their words. And with communications locked down the CDCR will control the narrative through its agents in the prisons.

A comrade in Allred Unit in Texas reports how lazy staff use collective punishment:

“TDCJ has started something new where if anyone get caught smoking or think they were smoking they locking the whole pod down for 15 days and they take away phones, e-messages, music, law library, Pando app, visits, commissary and school. I am about to write my step 1 grievance. If you can please point me to an attorney on this issue because they are putting other inmates lives in jeopardy and then telling all prisoners to start snitching, when the laws are the ones bringing the drugs inside the unit. It’s a way for them not to run day room.”

And a comrade in St. Brides CC in the Virginia DOC reports that rec has been very limited due to “Deuce” or K2 since last summer. Eir pod was on sanctions for months last summer with limited JPAY kiosk, no rec, no chow hall, and no programming. When someone “fell out” on K2 that persyn would be removed from the pod, yet the people remaining would be punished! Most recently,

“they still have not brought rec back to normal hours and they hardly offer many programs – especially when you consider all the days classes are canceled. I dream of the day when they bring back some type of normalcy.”

Recently comrades in the North Carolina Department of Adult Corrections launched a campaign to combat the system of labeling prisoners Security Risk Group (SRG). We’ve begun to receive grievances from people held in conditions similar to those temporary measures by CDCR above, but for years or decades, as CDCR has also done historically; all because of who these prisoners allegedly associate with, not because they have committed any crime or broken any rule. These forms of group punishment date back centuries in this country in the form of national oppression, but today they are legalized in the form of gang injunctions and security threat group designations.

The oppressed nation of Palestine knows well the wrath of collective punishment it has faced for decades by the U.$. outpost known as “Israel.” While U.$. prisoners face torture, Palestinians are currently facing starvation as I$rael has cut off aid to Gaza for over a week, starting 2 March. This came in response to Hamas demanding that I$rael continue to meet the terms of the ceasefire agreement from 19 January. This has turned the month of Ramadan into more suffering and worrying rather than generosity and worship for Palestinians. Then on 9 March I$rael cut off electricity to Gaza, which will also prevent desalinization plants from providing the water which the people depend on. With Gaza’s official death toll at over 60,000 since the recent invasion by I$rael began, the genocide continues through the illegal denial of basic needs to the people.

As the comrade below says, such collective punishment is an international war crime. It is used to crush whole populations to the will of those in power. And just as it breeds resistance in U.$. prisons, it breeds resistance in the Palestinians suffering at the hands of I$rael, as well as millions of supporters watching the genocide unfold. The future of the oppressed nations around the world lies in uniting in a common struggle against imperialism.

Notes: CDCR High‑Security Areas Placed on Modified Movement

A Federal prisoner: The administration (Warden, Associate Warden, Captain) use frivolous excuses to apply mass punishment on prisoners. Officers abuse their authority and use excuses to “justify” punishment. It may sound better if I explain the situation:

18 December 2024 – I was in the Education building, doing some research. About 8:30 AM, there was an incident call, or what we call the “deuces.” This is when there is a situation, like a fight, happening somewhere on the compound. At the time, we were all outside or about the compound. It was outdoor rec for many, some were on the yard, some were indoors at the chapel, or indoor rec, or library.

But when the “deuces” are hit, everything stops temporarily. In this case, the officers all ran towards E Unit. We all looked to see if there was a fight; you’d hate to see a fight so close to Christmas, because the Warden and staff will use any excuse to lock us down over the holidays and claim “safety and security.”

As it turns out, the incident wasn’t an incident at all. Several guys heard on the hand units that they said, “Stand down, false alarm.” What that meant was that there was nothing to really worry about.

But, less than five minutes later, they called for everyone to leave the programs building. This was very frustrating to those trying to work. Many were in classes, some working on legal work. It is very frustrating when USP Tucson finds reasons to shut everything down. They have a very malicious history of doing this and are too incompetent to hold staff accountable for preventing us from programming.

So, I walk out, with everyone else, and heard that they will do a “Yard Recall.” That means everyone has to go back to their dorms. When I got outside, I asked a few guys that were on the yard: “so, what do we know?” They told me that it was a false alarm, but somebody may have said something to one of the female officers, and she felt “offended,” so she told the Lieutenant, who called for an entire recall.

I was frustrated. What did ANYBODY in the programs area have to do with ONE person on the yard with bad behavior? If what the guys on the yard said was true, then there was no reason to use mass punishment. I came out of the building and looked back and saw how many guys were coming out. They may have been over 100 people affected by this cowardly move by the staff. Guys in the chapel, who had nothing to do with the incident. Guys in indoor recreation that had nothing to do with what happened outside. Guys in GED classes and those in the library, who were nowhere near the incident. All being punished because staff “got in their feelings.”

What a cowardly act.

We were on the yard until 9 AM when they opened the gates and everyone went back to their units. I noticed there was no official “Yard Recall” as they should have done. While we were out there, I saw guys talking to one of the Lieutenants, asking why the severe action. I didn’t hear what he said, but I saw the extreme disappointment in the prisoners, as if the answer didn’t make sense.

Why shut EVERYTHING down for what one person did? This again is called Mass Punishment, and it is strongly frowned upon by most nations. The United Nations has what is called the Nelson Mandela Rules, and one of the elements is that they forbid mass punishment in prisons. Most nations signed on to this, but the United States never ratified it… explains why they still do it.

In 2024, there have been about 102 lockdowns on the compound at USP Tucson, compared to 118 in 2023. In 2024, there have only been SIX instances where the “deuces” were hit for altercations. In 2023, there were 25. This is a significant decrease in violence on the compound.

Since 23 May 2024 to the current date (December 18th), there has only been ONE incident regarding a fight. That was on September 22nd, and staff wrongly used that excuse to change to a “staff assault” so that they could punish the entire facility for at least 30 days on lockdown. They then punished us by decreasing the phone calls from 10 minutes with an hour wait to a five minute call with a 90 minute wait, making it extremely difficult to communicate with families.

Since we came off the lockdown of September 22nd, coming off in late October, there have been about 18 lockdowns… NONE of them were because of physical altercations. They were all “administrative.”

What I am showing is that, even though this is a prison and a penitentiary, the people here have done as much as they could possibly do to reduce the violent incidents in the prison. When a prison can go from 25 lockdowns because of fights to currently six, it shows that, for the most part, we know how to behave.

But, if we are going to be punished every time ONE person does something wrong, then staff has created a standard that nobody can hope to attain. The Warden is either a fool to think that every single day on a penitentiary should be hassle and violent free, or he is maliciously bent on punishment for the prisoners.

If the Associate Warden ignores the fact that the prisoners here have done all they could to stay out of trouble and creates excuses as to why we are being punished, it is clear that she has no interest in rehabilitation.

In all this, no prisoner was able to rehabilitate, because USP Tucson was so busy looking for another screw to put in the population. There was no security issue. It was a false alarm, but they found a reason to disrupt every single angle for rehabilitation. This is the perfect picture of mass punishment in prisons, yet staff all consent to it while hiding behind made-up policies that don’t exist.

I’ve often said, “sometimes the worst people in prisons aren’t the ones behind the steel doors, it’s the ones coming out the parking lots of those prisons.” We simply cannot live with the program in USP Tucson. The Warden, Associate Warden, Captain and all the departments refuse to let us reform.

On today at approx 4 PM as I sit in my cell; my toilet overflows. Mind you I’m a Muslim, in the process of fasting for Ramadan. My afternoon prayer was 4:14 pm. The officer Vannessa Pena did a walk at approx 4:07 pm. I informed her of the feces and urine that came out the toilet when it overflowed onto the floor where I offer my Salah that I need to clean it up so I may be able to practice the religion I practice. I was told by Officer Vanessa Pena that it is Sunday so no inmates are allowed out of their cells for no reason. I would have to figure it out.

Of course I’m supposed to perform Wudu (purity) by the time I have to offer Salah. I was left in my cell with my ring finger on my primary hand in a splint with fecal and urine on my floor. Officer Vanessa Pena then let out of their cell approx 15 non-Islamic prisoners for approx 1/2 an hour. And they all informed Officer V. Pena their was visually from the range turds on my floor and used toilet paper. She told them to tell me maybe I should reconsider the GOD I praise. If I can’t pray to God in my cell then I’m out of luck because it’s not her problem.

I asked to speak with a Sergeant or Lieutenant. V. Pena told me to wait till 6 PM shift comes in. By that time the wetness will be dry and therefore easier for me to pick up since I only have one hand to work with. This woman deliberately left me in a cell contaminated with feces and urine during my fast and I have not been able to purify myself, pray, or break my fast. I’m so weak from not eating since 2 AM.

It is now 8 PM and night shift informed me I would not be able to do anything about it until tomorrow because no one is allowed out of their cells. They let an inmate plumber come into my cell to push the button and say “yea it flushes” and that was their solution to this entire violation of my right to practice my religion, cruel and unusual punishment. Being left in my cell contaminated with feces and urine on the floor in the only space available to use sink to clean myself, perform my obligatory prayers, make food to break my fast.

I am in dire circumstances with absolutely no immediate relief or remedy to this circumstance. All officers involved that denied me any relief are lieutenants Lott, Ball, Castaneda, Ofc. Vanessa Pena, Ofc. Harris, Ofc. Jaden Everidge, Capt. McCormick.

The New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (NYS-DOCCS) has been on lockdown since 17 February 2025. It started with Upstate area Correctional Facilities and spread to the statewide declaration by the Governor of a state of emergency when some 14,000+ Correctional Officers (C.O.s) decided to illegally strike and refuse to come to work.

The National Guard was dispatched to some 40 prisons statewide. As of Thursday, the 27th of February, a so-called deal was negotiated for C.O.s to come back to work but I see no change here at Franklin Correctional Facility. There are still 3 soldiers in the dorm I’m in and I see many more moving around and only a few C.O.s driving around picking up garbage, escorting nurses with meds and delivering food to dorms. The food portions are small, cold and missing items indicated on the menu.

Luckily I’m in a medium, which is dorms, and I can shower freely, watch TV, cook – if I was able to afford to – and in general move around the dorm as opposed to maximum security prisoners who are locked in their cells 24/7. Hopefully their tablets are keeping them sane.

Generally, the C.O.s are striking because on the 18th of February 2025 ten of them were indicted for the murder of Robert Brooks at Marcy Correctional Facility. These pigz are crying about being forced to work multiple shifts and on their days off, the legislation called the “HALT Act”, having to wear body cameras (which is how the 10 murderers of Brooks were exposed), and they want to photocopy our legal mail because they think there is K2 coming in on it. They also wrote the state to hire more C.O.s.

The HALT Act (Humane Alternatives to Long-Term Solitary Confinement) of 2022 changed the criteria for solitary confinement, forbidding it for those over 55, those under 21, those with a disability, and anyone who is pregnant. It also limits its use to 3 days in a row, or 6 days per month per prisoner in most cases. It allows prisoners to receive their property, commissary and packages if they did not lose those privileges, entitles them to more hours of outside recreation and programming such as “RRU” educational programming and other provisions.

Greetings,

I’m writing to express my gratitude to the publishers of Under Lock & Key. I was in receipt of your newspaper (the Fall 2024 issue, No. 87) and I appreciate it. The content was very informative. I was recently introduced to the prison movement by my comrade. So I am fairly new to the movement, but I’m not new to the struggle or to the oppressive ways of this noxious system.

I have been incarcerated now for 14 years. I understand that there are plenty of significant issues going on world-wide in and outside of this wicked prison system, but I would like to shine light on the fact that two thirds of the prisoner population here in North Carolina is strung out on drugs. These so-called “correctional facilities” are actually drug-infested mental health institutions. I have watched the expansion of the drug K2 (a chemical based toxin) transform the entire prison system as a whole. This drug is commonly referred to as “prison crack” due to the addictiveness of this poison.

When I first entered the prison system, brothers used to share knowledge, work out together, play cards or chess, etc. The prison guards (C.O.’s) used to have a certain respect/fear of us due to the unity we displayed. However, K2 has single-handedly dismantled and diminished every aspect of that culture. The C.O.’s no longer respect us as a whole because now when they enter a block 80% of the inhabitants are incoherent; unable to talk, walk or even simply pick their heads up to acknowledge the fact that the so-called authorities/overseers have entered the block.

A majority of the people in prison wake up and before they even brush their teeth they inhale the chemicals of this despicable substance – subduing faithfully to this drug all day. This routine is repeated daily. Not all but most of the K2 users wake up just to chase after the intense, short-lived high all throughout the day. These days turn to weeks, weeks to months, and months to years. This is a dangerous cycle that has plagued the N.C. prison system.

K2 has caused guys to neglect their morals and principles. No longer caring how others perceive them. Most K2 smokers carry themselves like fiends selling anything and everything they can get their hands on: shoes, food, hygiene items, literally everything they own. I have witnessed people sell their free, state-provided food trays, starving themselves and surviving off only one meal a day just to get high. Ruining relationships with family and friends due to them constantly calling trying to manipulate them out of money on a relentless search of monetary donations to purchase more K2. They show no regard for the actual well-being of the members of their support system.

In summary, this drug is causing people to exit prison worse than they were when they came in, if indeed they make it home at all. The K2 toxin has been known to cause death on many occasions. All of this has increased the need for those of us who are conscious to make it a priority to help push the agenda of MIM’s “Revolutionary 12 Step Program” designed to expose and combat addiction. Again, I would like to say thank you to the publishers of ULK for providing a platform for us prisoners to express ourselves freely. I will continue to advocate for the MIM movement. Thank you for your time and attention.

Florida DOC Tablet Saga

When tablets came out in 2017 the very first tablets were sold to the prisoners. I had a loved one to buy me one. Then the Florida Department of Corrections (FDOC) decided to change the mail to digital mail, so FDOC picked up all tablets that the prisoners paid for and came back around and passed out free tablets for every one. Since then all tablets have been updated no less than three times.

This comrade just got released from a Close Management Unit and was transferred to Hamilton C.I. Since I got here I found out that for the past year the Property Room Sergeant has been confiscating tablets, most of the time giving prisoners a disciplinary report for tablet tampering in which prisoners are found guilty 99% of the time and are suspended indefinitely from having another tablet. On top of this, most now have a loan on their inmate trust fund account of $130 restitution. FDOC gave a little for a period of time, then turned around and took everything. They gave the tablets, tablets belong to the state, and now they have an excuse to take them.

The Prisoner Population

I’ve been in prison for 28 years and this whole thing changed. This is not a prison anymore, this is a child care center for these fools to hang out. Everybody wants to belong to a gang but let me remind you that before you take that oath, you need to find out why that nation, group, or gang was born. It was born by the oppressed to fight in unity as a group against oppression. Who is the oppressor? Pigs that work here, the administration, the system, the state, the government. I know my history, do you know yours?

FDOC have a total of no more than 30 officers per shift (with 1/4 of them pushing overtime) and that is counting the front controls operators. It is embarrassing how that small group of pigs can control, oppress, and abuse no less than 1250 to 1500 prisoners, thugs, gangsters, criminals, and gang members. FDOC prisoners have no unity and no self-respect. I said self-respect because I might have a debt of a 78 cent soup and you ready to kill me, but the pigs call you and the whole dorm a “bunch of bitches” and you put your head down.

FDOC prisoners, mostly gang members, would rather have the pigs as a friend than anybody else with the same uniform color. They respect the pigs more than their fellow prisoners. Ali-al haf from Georgia, I read your article in the ULK Winter 2025 issue – you are not alone! I think it is a virus that is spreading. Now prisoners do the pigs’ jobs. They check and make sure that your cell door is secure, they pass mail, they make sure you don’t eat twice in the chow-hall, they even stand next to some of the pigs like bodyguards. All this ass kissing and at the end of the night your ass is just like mine: locked down behind a door. It doesn’t matter how down you might think the pigs will be, at the end of the day they will not put their paychecks on the line because of you. Coño Preso – look at the fucking color of your uniform. Ain’t you noticed that it has a different color!

Learn the difference between a right and a privilege. Use the grievance process, you must leave a written historical track in case issues need to be handled at another level. Written proof is all there is that shows a peaceful avenue was tried before going all the way out. All those comrades that in the past sacrificed their prison sentences, release dates, family, and some of them even their lives for this new generation to throw their hands up and surrender. Really? That is how we’re doing time in 2025?? Where are your cojones??

Let’s get together in the same line of thought. Before you complain about not having a tablet or not being able to watch the game on TV, we need to think about how high canteen prices are, receive more gain time, bring parole to lifers like me, get better food. Sorry, but prison is not a place that you come to to hang out with your homies and have a good time. This is the cemetery of the walking living dead, where your whole future could change in 15 seconds. Don’t forget where you are, your culture, where you came from. Do not submit to do the pigs’ work. I won’t be surprised if in a few more years visitation is done solely via video and they stop all contact visits. If we don’t get together and stand up and work as a group, as a family, we are going to keep losing. Remember that before you became a gang member you were a man, a human being – not a beast. And I refuse to be trapped like one. No quiero abrazos con la vida hasta que mi pueblo sea libre.

A Georgia prisoner echoes Ali-al haf’s report: Here at Baldwin State Prison in Hardwick, Georgia, some things are the same as Valdosta, GA. Gang members having a room all to themselves and picking on the weak, taking all their property.

In one building the unity manager has her boys, [gang members] to beat some prisoners up (mostly whites). It is told that the female officer unit manager is a [gang] member. She is always talking down to the whites.

The drugs are plenty here and the drug called strips is where most go to.

The mail system is really screwed up. Mail is passed out maybe two times a week. The mailroom officer puts mail out daily for night shift to pass out.

Stabbings happen daily. Some cut themselves to be placed in the hole to get away from the gang members. Some gang members force some, mostly whites, to put money on their books or send them cash and make them go to the store for the full amount only to take it from them and officers let it happen.

Baldwin State has nicknames such as “Bloody Baldwin”, “Body Bag”, and “Cut Throat”. The names fit well.

$prayer responds from Pennsylvania: Our comrades here in the PADOC would rather be focused on going at each other and being on the C.O.’s side and doing a bunch of nonsense, it’s sad. Our comrades aren’t even focused on their own lives like they should be instead of worrying what others are doing. They oppress their other comrades like they’re the oppressor, like they’re not oppressed by the oppressors too. The oppressing comrades do what the oppressors want them to do so they take the heat off of their own backs and put it on their own comrades’ backs. Like I really can’t believe all of the OPPRESSION between comrades, it’s really sad. Like the oppressing comrades call us (who stand against the criminals of permission “cops”) rats, but look at what they’re doing, they’re doing the oppressors’ bidding. So who’s the real rat? They are, aren’t they, since they’re doing the oppressors’ bidding right? They really need to ask themselves who’s the rat. We’re supposed to stand up to our oppressors, not stand with them against our own comrades. Am I right or am I wrong?

MIM(Prisons) adds: We also published a report in February from a Tennessee prisoner being extorted by a drug gang that was protected by staff. Ali-al haf’s article really struck a cord with our readers, indicating the state of affairs across the prison systems on occupied Turtle Island. This relates to our campaign: Stop Snitching, Stop Collaborating, where comrades have repeatedly pointed out that you can’t snitch on pigs. These prisoners described above are collaborating with the enemy.

But lumpen orgs working with the imperialists is not a forgone conclusion. We know this because there are plenty examples in history of lumpen orgs working on the side of anti-imperialism, especially in the internal colonies of the United $tates. We also know this because, as Trauma points out, there is a common material interest in the lumpen coming together for conditions and for respect. And as $prayer says, most prisoners should be comrades on the same side. We can make that happen through education and organization. We must build institutions that serve the interests of the lumpen better than the state does, to win over the masses.