Hatchets for Maoism (HFM) is a faction of Juggalos (fans of the musical group Insane Clown Posse) that agree to the five principles of the United Front for Peace in Prisons (UFPP) and strive to organize to promote them in ourselves and others.
Because other groups use force, drugs, threats of violence, violence and corruption to further their cause and swell their ranks, we strive to take away each of those from them by denying them as tools we use to recruit comrades.
We refuse to be silent when others oppress anyone for any reason. We are a family of Brothers organized to end the injustice the pigs use to pit us against each other, and oppress anyone.
We strive to pull up all who seek a better life, and that are within the anti-imperialist struggle. We strive to create an environment of control through trust, peace through understanding and safety through right action. HFM chooses to give a hand up to ALL willing to pull their weight and work towards our stated goals. All are equal, all are accepted, all eat when one eats.
Power to the people – Anything else is theft.
I was born with a voice, but couldn't form words to speak
' When I learned to speak, it was mainly ignorance of things portrayed to me in the media
I've always been interested in politiks, but had limited knowledge.
If you woulda told me prisoner were operated at a loss, I woulda told you you were crazy, no one would do that.
I learned how to read, but read nothing with real knowledge
I learned science, but only about volcanoes
I learned history, from edited text books
Now I wake up every day, behind a lock
My days are filled with evolution
I'm learning how to read books with knowledge
I'm learning science about social reality
I'm learning history that's not been edited
I was born with a voice, now I'm learning how to speak
Now I'm Under Lock & Key
I’m not sure if any of you have heard of my recent censorship battles, but let me catch you up on this ongoing and illegal censorship being perpetuated by the Minnesota Department of Corrections, or what we inside refer to as the Minnesota Department of Corruption.
While I was housed in Minnesota’s only Maximum Custody Prison, Oak Park Heights, I had been subjected to a bit of censorship. First it was censorship of my outgoing legal mail to national organizations for legal assistance in my Federal Suit. I had sent mail out in sealed envelopes, clearly marked “Legal Mail” to The Exoneration Project, The Innocence Project, The Equal Justice Project, The Legal Aid Society, The Lewisburg Prison Project, The Constitutional Rights Center for Prisoners and every envelope was opened outside of my presence by mailroom staff member “S. Henry” and sent back to me with a notice of non-delivery in which it said I had “sealed it in violation NOT Legal/Special as addressed.”
This is actually a violation of the mailroom’s own policy. DOC Policy 302.020 Procedure L.3 states that “An incoming or outgoing item purporting to be special/legal mail that fails to meet the policy requirements for designation as special/legal mail, or is otherwise questionable, is opened in the presence of offender by a supervisor.”
Yet, more than 10 “outgoing item[s] purporting to be special/legal mail” were opened outside of my presence and refused to be sent in a sealed envelope.
It gets worse though. After being forced to send these letters in unsealed envelopes, when these organizations replied, even when stamped with “LEGAL CORRESPONDENCE OPEN ONLY IN THE PRESENCE OF THE ADDRESSEE” i.e., me, the mailroom still opened all of this mail outside of my presence.
And when I had to file internal grievances to exhaust all remedies due to the PLRA, of course the DOC said that staff did not act in violation of anything, and of course the mailroom staff opened this mail outside of my presence again violating their own policy and court decisions. And so I filed in the Tenth Judicial District Court, only for the judge, Gregory G. Galler, to dismiss it as frivolous or malicious.
And then I was given disciplinary segregation for allegedly “lying and/or misrepresentation.” Which is illegal retaliation, but what does the Department of Corruptions care? None. Next came the censorship of publications I had been receiving from Critical Resistance “The Abolitionist”, this publication “ULK” and other mail from MIM(Prisons) including over 10 different mailings, News & Letters – all of which are political publications geared towards enlightening people on real world issues and express anti-Prison ideology.
When fighting the censorship, according to our “policy” we have to send an appeal to the Correspondence Review Authority(CRA). Yet when I did, the mailroom staff, Nancy Leseman responded instead. I had included the disclaimer that MIM(Prisons) affixes to ULK only for Leseman to state “All publications are reviewed on an individual basis & can at any time be denied for violating policy. An article advocates to organized disturbances within prison walls, activities in violation of facility rules.”
So, not only does she violate her own policy by not forwarding the appeal to the CRA, she violates the law when censoring publications as well.
But it only gets better from here.
Being as N. Leseman didn’t follow policy I was forced to send the appeal to her supervisor, Lt. Jason R. Hills, in which he replied, “The publication has contents that are not allowed per DOC Policy. Appeal Denied. You may appeal to the CRA.” Again clearly he violates law for censorship, and policy.
So I was forced to send the appeal directly to the CRA, which was comprised of Cris Pawelk the Associate Warden of Operations, Sherlinda Wheeler the Associate Warden of Administration, and Byron Matthews the Captain.
In their reply they said, “We have read the material and determined the content should be denied for violating MN DOC Division Directive 301.030 Contraband. One of the articles advocates for organized disturbances within prison walls and activities in violation of facility rules. All issues are reviewed on an individual basis. Any issue can be denied if any part of the publication violates policy. Publications that [sic] doesn’t violate policy is allowed. Therefore the Correspondence Review Authority is in agreement with the Mail Room’s decision and your appeal is denied.”
The next step was to appeal to the Assistant Commissioner of Corrections Nate Knutson. His reply was, “This newspaper contains graphic depiction of violence that pose a threat to facility security in violation of DOC Division Directive 301.030 Contraband. Appeal denied.”
But that’s not the end, after that I filed suit in the Tenth Judicial District Court, only for the order to be dismissed as “frivolous or malicious” because it “has no arguable basis in fact or in law.”
Now the next step is Federal Court, and and will involve even more defendants and more evidence of censorship illegally conducted. As MIM(Prisons) can accede, more than 10 of their mailings to me have been met with censorship, causing loss of money, and all with absolutely no notice or reason given by the DOC.
Censorship is this country’s way of blinding the people to only seeing what is “favorable” to them. Freedom of speech is only true if you don’t speak out against the regime. Any advocacy critical of the standard is demonized and made to look as extremist and insane. And no wonder, when 90% of the population lives only to work, the power rests upon the sweating, bleeding, starving faces of those that toil in the dirt beneath their polished shoes. Take comfort in this: If you’re being censored, it’s because they fear the truth and its power. If you’re being retaliated against, it’s because they fear you and your truth and power. People only get mad at the truth, so go piss off those pigs!
MIM(Prisons) adds: We can confirm that we received no notification of censorship as required by law for at least 10 pieces of mail sent to this comrade in 2019 that ey reported not receiving. One of these items was our guide for dealing with censorship in prison.
We commend this comrade’s persistence and eir attitude. These battles are small ones. As our regular readers know, we win some and lose some. But either way we win when we use these battles to inspire others and expose those set on oppression.
Sleepwalking to the sound
Of captains and ships
Molten hot chains
Bond to the ignorant and lost
Each metallic clang! Each step
Down towards the cliff
Of oppression...
Where freedom has been willingly
Relinquished
To their masters
Happily at the will of their own
That taketh away
Revolution and freedom
Reigns in my bones
To break the chains
Off of my brothers and sisters
Shedding the light towards
The happily oppressed
For they have forgotten
The legends and stories
Of their ancestors;
Sweat and blood on their brows
I just want to thank you for the Texas Pack. It’s quite sad the things that are kept from us so that we ignore the corruption. Let me tell you what’s going on with me.
I did a I-127 to appeal a case and 40 days passed without me hearing from the grievance lady. Your packet came today and pretty much walked me through what I needed to do next, because I had no clue. The case that I’m appealing lowered my custody level to G4. This goes to the next set of problems I’ve encountered.
I did an Offender Protection Investigation (OPI) because an offender who was also G4 was Gun Ho on kicking my ass. They failed to investigate properly, then said “unsubstantiated evidence” even though officers seen what happened.
It’s so much that happened with not enough room to write. But I’ll keep it basic.
They moved me to another dorm. And a few days ago I got assaulted by another offender. That’s right man, hit on my right eye with a scratch under my eye. The officer that seen it said nothing about seeing it, yet she called an “ICS.” The offender that did it was G2 status and should not have been mixed with G4s. OPI was done that rank did not want to do. So a fighting case was wrote. The other offender denied of course and “I folded.” That was my statement. I walked out with a march and they allowed the offender to go to work.
Now they have me on a unit transfer, but this offender has not been held accountable for her action. How do I press the issue on this when no one is talking?
Before I walked out my building I had no marks, but as soon as I step outside in less than 2 minutes I’m being escorted to medical.
PTT from MIM(Prisons) responds: This report shows how much effort Texas prison staff put into protecting prisoners. Seeking protection from staff offers predictable results. Sometimes they’ll listen, and sometimes they’ll transfer you. That’s if you’re lucky. Most of the time they pretend they didn’t see it, never got the grievance, etc.
If we want to end the assaults, we can ask ourselves: what are the core issues causing these assaults? When that’s clear, we can ask: will staff do anything to address those core issues? It would probably benefit them to do so, but decades of practice shows they likely won’t put in the effort to make that kind of difference.
So this report also shows the importance of prisoners building their own peace in prisons. We have a slightly different approach to ending these assaults than this writer. This might sound crazy, but what we’re working toward is helping prisoners build a culture of comradery and peacefulness on their units, so that this kind of behavior is not tolerated among the prisoner population.
When this comrade asks us what we think ey can do to end the assaults, we don’t advocate for more punishment from admin on the people committing the assaults. We advocate for building bridges, improving communication, and standing together in a United Front for Peace in Prisons.
That work is NOT EASY. But if we want to end assaults in prisons, and if we want to build a society that isn’t centered around unnecessary violence, then we have to commit to doing the hard work. No one is going to hand us a world free of oppression and exploitation. We have to build that ourselves. And that’s a beautiful thing. To be alive and have the opportunity to contribute to the future in this way.
MIM(Prisons) does everything we can to help support prisoners in this task, including providing education opportunities, organizing materials, and resources (like the Texas Pack). What of those materials and concepts would improve the situation with these prisoners who seek to cause you harm? Grievances and OICs aren’t working, and probably will never really work. So what do WE need to do about it?
Salutations MIM(Prisons), and appreciation for the book The Wind Will not Subside about the years in revolutionary China. I wrote specifically to donate these stamps and to comment on what I’ve rend so far – because I’m not done with it.
Mao was a true paradox: simple yet complex, intellectual yet humble, he know how to control by letting go, he was an obvious mystery. And he was a Gangsta! I never knew hes wife and kids were tortured, raped and killed. He never spoke on the personal motivations of his mission, because he knew that his was just one story out of millions of similar stories. Se he wasn’t special.
Politicians of today would’ve used that story to their advantage, solely to get votes. And once ey got the votes, ey would then use that power to do the same thing that was done to em. Ey would’ve exploited to the fullest that tragedy. That was deep to me.
He also had the courage to go against traditional revolution (Russia), and challenge the status quo by not being afraid to fail if need be. Mao had the vision and intuition to understand that you don’t hamper the youth’s growth by pounding into them what ey are doing wrong. Ey will lose enthusiasm and ultimately give up.
About study groups. I have come to realize the less formal ey are, the more successful ey are. If we tell youngsters that we are going to start a “study group”, it reminds em too much of school. Although in essence, that’s what it is, the title rubs em the wrong way. I pass literature, books, ULKs around, then after ey’ve read them, I ask questions, give input and feedback. It is a slow process, but it works. I’m not perfect, and I am only one of many, but I have found the method that works for me. Maybe it will help a comrade who is sincerely trying to bring about change.
Salutations to all who labor in the name of communism
I'd rather die for the people
Than bow to the enemy
I will never be a cog
In this so-called penitentiary
United in the struggle
With my comrades i will stand
Equality reigns supreme
For every single human
We fight to end oppression
We'll educate to overthrow
If we unite and organize
They will never stop the flow
So if i'm speaking revolution
You need to open up your mind
Listen to the truth i'm spitting
Pay attention then you'll find
We're giving power to the people
Red banners flying high
Revolutionary fists
Raised proudly to the sky!
I have been trying to organize a new group but I am failing. People here want things done but don’t want to do it themselves. I help with what I can. They don’t want to grievance the officers because they are worried about retaliation. In short, they are scared of a case and not making commissary.
I am fighting them and putting paper whenever I can. Shortly after I received my packet of Texas campaign materials, I got a frivolous case for failing to go to work. I was on my way to my wing from work and didn’t make it out the door. I had two offenders, a sergeant, and a kitchen captain as witnesses. The lieutenant running the case said that he didn’t give a f*** and that I was guilty. This was in May.
I filed a Step 1 but never got an answer. I did a I-60 request for the Step 1 grievance number. I got it with a request for a 40-day extension, 89 days after I filed the grievance and 11 days after I requested it, but predated for the week before I requested it by I-60. I did file a Step 2 without the Step 1 attached (I never got the Step 1) in October 2019.
I can’t wait to hear from Huntsville and the Ombudsman over all of this. Since I have no family out there, they are trying to ignore me. I refuse to go away.
In the meantime, I will keep writing and fighting this injustice $ystem that we are in. I will keep sharing my Texas Pack. I could use some group information that might help me if I can get one going again. They want to but don’t want to. I don’t get it.
MIM(Prisons) responds: We commend this comrade for sticking up for eirself, and “staying committed even when your homies ain’t with it” (shout out to Dead Prez). Even though it can be totally baffling and frustrating when people want to but don’t want to, know that you’re not alone in facing that challenge. Prison life is designed to make people ambivalent (or even completely disinterested) and handling that ambivalence is all part of the process of building for revolution and a new society. Accepting it as just part of the process can help us to not get frustrated by it.
We had a lot of discussion about the topic of how to organize people who are ambivalent in ULK 66, which was on the topic of Recruitment and Retention for Revolution. We are sending this comrade a copy of that ULK and a few more to study and share. And we encourage everyone to continue to send us updates on what it’s like in the facility where you’re held. We publicize conditions reports on our website www.prisoncensorship.info, and conditions reports about organizing help us consolidate and support the national liberation struggles developing inside United Snakes prisons. In Struggle!