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.
Our movement sees the contradiction between internal semi-colonies
(New Afrikan/Black Nation, First Nations, Chican@s, Puerto Ricans,
Hawaiins) and the Amerikan oppressor nation as the principal
contradiction in the United $tates. In practice that means if we want
change, we need to push this contradiction to its conclusion. However,
in the years that MIM(Prisons) has existed, we’ve seen that
contradiction to be at a relatively low level, historically speaking.(1)
Since we don’t have things like armed struggle today to assure us of
this contradiction, a recent Pew Research study provides us with some
reassurance that the national consciousness of New Afrika is alive and
well.(2)
The survey showed that 74 out of 100 Black people in the United
$tates believed the prison system was designed to hold Black people
back. It asked this question for numerous state institutions, with
slightly lower levels of agreement. Another question in the survey
showed 69% of respondents feel that being Black is important to how they
feel about themselves. The latter question demonstrates a level of
national consciousness, even if most respondents would call it “race”.
The distrust in the U.$. government places this national consciousness
in conflict with Amerika and its institutions.
It’s worth noting that the results were pretty consistent along
demographics of age, income, education, sex. The biggest predictor for
not agreeing that the government is holding Black people back is being a
Republican – but even then the majority agreed.
This survey got more attention in the press because it was originally
framed as demonstrating that most “Black Americans” believe “racial
conspiracy theories.” Pew Research responded by amending the language in
the report, and they provide historical examples of the U.$. state using
these institutions against Black people. To view such beliefs as
conspiracy theories is obviously telling.
MIM(Prisons) of course upholds the belief that the U.$. prison system
exists to hold back and repress the internal semi-colonies and control
the population in general. It is part of the system of maintaining
national, class and gender oppression. Interestingly the survey also
showed 74% of Black people believing, “Black people are
disproportionately incarcerated so prisons can make money.” This, as
we’ve discussed extensively, is mostly
a myth. It might be harsh to call it a conspiracy theory, since
everything under capitalism is about money on some level. But we believe
the question of whether people are imprisoned for profit, or for social
control, is an important question for understanding the system and how
to combat it.
The importance of surveys like this from Pew Research is
scientifically investigating our conditions. Despite the fact that Pew
went into this survey with some clear bias around the relationship of
Black people to the United $tates, their resources allowed them to
survey thousands of people across demographics to give them 95%
confidence that their numbers are within plus or minus 2%. While
MIM(Prisons) has done a number of surveys over the years, even our best
did not have such tight confidence intervals. And to date our surveys
have been limited to prisoners, who are also mostly male. Therefore
bourgeois-funded surveys and government statistics are an important part
of our scientific investigation of our conditions. Transforming this
latent national consciousness in New Afrika into action is where
revolutionary practice must come in and deepen our knowledge of our
conditions.
by Grim of United Struggle from Within July 2024 permalink
Same Struggle - a piece connecting the liberation struggles of New
Afrika and Palestine from the years of their colonization
At the end of Orisanmi
Burton’s Tip of the Spear: Black Radicalism, Prison Repression, and
the Long Attica Revolt – a book USW cadre have been studying
since its release in late October 2023 – Burton correctly labels the
prison tablets supplied to the imprisoned lumpen by predatory prison
communications companies like Securus and Global Tel Link(GTL)/ViaPath
Technologies as “the cutting edge of carceral war.”(1)
Much has already been written by
MIM and USW comrades about these tablets including the several areas
Burton shortly discusses: the use of predatory pricing strategies that
extract even more money from oppressed nation communities, expanding the
surveillance state, and behavior modification/digital babysitters.(2)
What has not been discussed in much detail is the use of the tablets as
imperialist propaganda machines.
Of course, all of the content on the tablets is highly censored, with
an extensive vetting process for orgs who want to place their content on
them. On the GTL/ViaPath tablets we have at Main Jail in San Jose (Model
VT-TABLET-5081S) the only app we have besides the GTL phone app is the
free edu-tainment platform “Edovo”, which is – to no ones’ surprise –
full of garbage content.
Shortly after the Palestinian resistance launched Operation Al-Aqsa
Flood, smashing the Iron Wall and entering the rest of their homeland as
a force to be reckoned with, there was an almost weekly upload of
Christian Zionist and other Zionist propaganda pushed onto the platform.
The first of these that I noticed was the feature film “Exodus: Gods
& Kings” which details the Old Testament story of Moses leading the
Israelites to Palestine, or as it is called in the movie, Canaan. This
story, along with several other books of the Old Testament, are the
basis for what Zionists today use as their claim to Palestine as their
“ancient homeland”. And yet, as Palestinian hystorian Nur Masalha
writes, “The Old Testament is not actual history but imaginative
fiction, theology, sacred literature, ethics and wisdom.”(3) In short,
the stories that Zionists base their land claims to Palestine on are
myth narratives, not proven hystory.
Roughly around the same time, episodes of a Christian Zionist podcast
started to be uploaded to Edovo. This podcast, called “Real Vida TV”, is
put together by evangelists from Tyler, Texas who use their show to
spread vaccine/COVID conspiracy theories popular among the Amerikan
right, as well as anti-immigrant, queer & transphobic rhetoric
alongside Bible verses.
Since October 7th they’ve been spreading the usual Zionist
lies of mass rape, beheading babies, etc… that the imperialist media
continues to propagate. They also have been tying everything occurring
in Palestine and the Middle East into the strange and insane “end times”
prophecies that are the main reason for the strong support of Christian
Zionism, led mostly by Amerikan evangelists.
To understand this a bit better, let’s take a step back from the
Zionist podcast and take a closer look at Christian Zionism, which, to
my knowledge, hasn’t had anything substantial written on it in
ULK.
Evangelical Christians, the bulk of Christian Zionists in the United
$tates, take the writings in the bible literally. To get a numerical
picture, there are roughly around 15 million Jews around the world today
(which I’d like to note, a large percentage are anti-Zionist and
completely reject the genocidal state of “i$rael”); in comparison there
are over 70 million evangelicals who share the same “ironclad” support
of “i$rael” as Genocide Goe in the United $tates. Christian Zionism also
finds its roots in the Bible, but it is not because of some altruistic
wish to “return” the Jews to the safety of their so-called “ancient
homeland”. The return and consolidation of the Jews in the land of
Palestine is supported so strongly by the Christian Zionists because
they believe once this has been finally accomplished their “messiah”
Jesus Christ will return, render judgement(punishment) upon the
nonbelievers (which includes Jews as they do not believe Christ is the
“messiah”), and then get into motion the so-called end-times prophecies
of the Book of Revelation (which depicts Armageddon), where the
non-believers will burn and the true believers will float up with Jesus
to LaLa Land.
No, I am not making this up sadly.
Even more sadly, these views are being used by those who produce the
podcast to justify the ongoing genocide and dispossession of Palestinian
people, the actual indigenous inhabitants of the land of Palestine.
What’s worse, at least for Our comrades in Texas, is that these
Christian Zionists go to and have access to all of the TDCJ gulags where
they can spread this poisonous rhetoric, possibly making it even harder
to shift public opinion in the units in favor of the Palestinian
liberation struggle (I’d be interested to know the point of view of Our
comrades in Texas on this). As the Zionists and their imperialist
backers continue to spread their lies to try to sway the opinions of the
masses toward support of their genocidal logic, We must counter them in
every way We can, especially in the writing and dissemination of
articles on Palestine in the pages of ULK, and by
supporting/working on the USW Palestine campaign.
From the river to the sea, Palestine will be
free!
MIM(Prisons) adds: A USW leader in Florida wrote an
article on the Biblical “history” of the Jewish people. We are not
printing that article. But here is their explanation for the approach
they took in that piece:
“I’m hearing pro-I$raeli comments in the quad and on the yard every
day. Prisoners are completely swallowing and promoting the CIPWS zionist
pro I$raeli narrative, ie., that the Palestinians brought the genocide
upon themselves when they attacked I$raeli citizens, rather than
settlers/invaders, on October 7, 2023, rather than in response to
70-plus years of CIPWS zionist occupation and oppression.
“I am surrounded by prisoners who hear the word”Israel” and
automatically think “Jesus”. Prisoners see the entire
Israeli-Palestinian conflict and situation from a biblical point of view
rather than a historical and U.$. imperialist political one.
“The average prisoner had never heard of Hamas, Zionists, Hizbullah,
Houthi, etc. until recently. Prisoners identify with Israel mostly due
to religion and all they are told is that Israel was attacked by
Palestinians, and that Palestinians want Israel extinct, even as they
see the total opposite happening with their own oppressed eyes. Even
Muslims here, due to subliminal incognizance, do not support or identify
with he Palestinians’ plight. They see the Palestinians, not as victims,
but as terrorists, not as brothers.”
As members of United Struggle from Within (USW) have come out in
strong support of the Palestinian resistance, we see this is not
representative of the consciousness of the imprisoned lumpen as a whole.
Thus the need for our leaders inside to continue this campaign to
support Palestine in the realm of education and ideological struggle
among the oppressed in this country. People who are suffering a lower
level genocide through the prison system itself are somehow identifying
with their own oppressor. If the national liberation struggles were
stronger in this country, we would be seeing a lot more support for
national liberation of Palestine here as well.
Notes: (1) Burton, Orisami, “Tip of the Spear: Black
Radicalism, Prison Repression, and the Long Attica Revolt”,(University
of California Press, 2023),p.227 (2) Ibid. p.228 (3) Masalh,
Nur, “Palestine: A Four Thousand Year History”,(I.B. Taurus, 2018)
p.30
I am a prisoner of the Cañon City Complex, a “campus” with seven
prisons holding up to 10,000 victims of Colorado’s giant injustice
system. A few weeks ago I went out for a day trip to a doctor in the
town next to the complex, Cañon City. Much of the town is new,
businesses like motels, fast food joints, etc. line the main drag.
When sitting in the doctor’s office I asked the prison guard who was
there, “who or what financially supports all the people and businesses
in this town?” He replied, “The Cañon City Complex”. Yup, a whole town
that survives (mostly) because of mass imprisonment. Shut down the
prisons and the town would quickly become a ghost town.
We think about all the people that suck at the teat of The System,
from cops to lawyers, to all jail/prison personnel, to parole officers.
But few consider all the people/businesses that have a symbiotic
relationship with the teat suckers. Providers of all the goods and
services that they use from food, to clothing, to auto repair. A great
mass of people around the United $tates who will always cry “law and
order,” and who will oppose any reform efforts to reduce the number of
people arrested every year (10 million plus per Law Prof. Dan Canon),
the number of people imprisoned, or the length of the sentences.
My thesis is: If you are an activist/reformer who wants to change The
System, then you need to know exactly what you are up against. You
cannot have any real success unless you do.
MIM(Prisons) adds: We agree with that thesis. And this
comrade’s report aligns with our past research on the U.$.
prison economy and what is driving it. It has become chic to talk
about the “Prison Industrial Complex” as if there are a bunch of big
corporations whose profits are driving mass incarceration in this
country, like the ones that drive military production and war
(militarism). As this comrade describes, the prison system is more like
the New Deal. But instead of funding jobs to build roads to improve
transport for commerce, they are funding jobs to build prisons for
population control. In this way a goal of the state is accomplished,
while shuffling superprofits from the Third World to the Amerikans in
these prison towns doing unproductive labor whether as prison guards,
salespeople, cashiers, or insurance agents.
Swallowed alive by the 2nd Beast, digested for
eternity.
Encaged, isolated and eclipsed, by spotlights under scrutiny.
Splinters in my feet, as I walk the plank voluntarily;
Poseidon’s fishin’ for me, with liquid dreams of recrutin’ ye,
into the rank-n-file to crowd-surf waves momentarily.
suddenly, loose lips opened up, like cannon ports, aimed at you and
me.
verbal cannon balls sunk our ship, Amongst A counter-revolution of
mutiny.
The mutants sold us out and signed a deal with Big Satan.
Long Ago, Big And Lil’ satan gave birth to their nations.
Over time their baby nations mutated, like x-men,
but with anti-hero superpowers to drop bombs on the next myn;
And also on their next Ken,
who ain’t even grown myn,
just Palestinian baby P.O.W.’s, concentration camps, got em caged
in,
unescapable lion’s den of thieves, who steal lives from mere
children.
I guess children’s Lives Don’t Matter, without world superpowers, like
Biden.
by MIM(Prisons) July 2024 permalink
Download the PDF above to print a trifold pamphlet to distribute. Get
these solidarity statements from prisoners in the hands of student
activists.
In the West Bank, I$rael has killed at least 502 Palestinians since 7
October 2023, the day Operation Al Aqsa Flood commenced by the
Palestinian resistance. At least 4,950 people were injured, 3,985 people
were displaced, 8,088 people were arrested and 648 structures were
demolished.(1) All of this is not even mentioning the recent declaration
by I$raeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich that 800 hectares (1,977
acres) in occupied West Bank are now state land for I$raeli
settlements.(2) As we know, the I$raeli war has focused on Gaza, where
official estimates put the death toll at 38,000, while public health
experts estimate that number could be as high as 186,000.(2.5)
These figures alone are abstract, so to paint a better picture of
accounts from those living in the West Bank now, contextualizing history
and statistics will be provided. It is estimated that 3.25 million
people live in the West Bank, meaning that just from the above
statistics 0.54% (17525 affected / 3.25 million population) of people
were directly affected with countless more affected indirectly from the
intensified settler terror in just 6-7 months. The amount of deaths has
been three times as high as 2022 already. The lack of infrastructure to
collect accurate data also makes this statistic likely an underestimate
of the severity, with it only getting worse on the ground as we
speak.
The aim of this article is to historicize the initial I$raeli
response in the West Bank to the Al Aqsa Flood before the prisoner
exchange and temporary “end” (which was constantly violated by I$rael)
of hostilities in Gaza. It will be the first part of a series of
articles that cover the occupation of the West Bank. Together, Gaza and
the West Bank make up the “occupied territories” of Palestine that have
not yet been seized by I$rael.
Operation
Al Aqsa Flood, settlers panic in West Bank
The very existence of settlers are premised on the displacement of
the native people and colonial occupation of entire nations or sections
of nations. This is on top of the exploitation of land and labor of the
colonized to feed an ever-growing parasitic strata. The I$raeli colonial
projects on the border of Gaza were challenged on October 7th, with
resistance seizing their land back from the settlers by force. The sense
of control from having some of the best surveillance methods and
technologies in the world, while being backed by the most powerful
imperialist power, was shattered. The carefully crafted methods to
maintain and further colonization to feed I$raeli settlers while helping
their Amerikan overseers to pacify the entire region under its boot was
challenged. The I$raeli project floats on nothing, it produces nothing
for the world beyond feeding the hunger of settlers and their
imperialist allies off the backs of the colonized. Desperately, it
sought to reduce its reliance on those it displaced and colonized,
knowing full well what that’d mean. I$rael sought out Third World labor,
begged for a share of profits from its imperialist overseers and tried
to become more “self-sufficient”. Ultimately it failed in its endeavors,
finding itself reliant on imperialist backers to sustain itself against
militant resistance from all sides. Once that runs dry, I$rael is doomed
and its dream will be ruined, with a victory for the resistance and the
liberation of Palestine!
On 11 October 2023, a lock down on West Bank was declared, shutting
down more than 500 checkpoints and the only major international border
crossing, which is with Jordan, at Allenby Bridge.(3) The I$raeli
settlers were faced with a war on two fronts, resorting to extreme
measures in fear of losing control of their occupation. Their fears were
further confirmed with the death of General Leon Bar, a senior officer
of the West Bank Division of the I$raeli Offensive Forces (IOF) on 12
October 2023.(4) Alarms were set off in both “Beitar Illit”, near
Bethlehem, and “Ma’ale Efraim”, near Ramallah, due to fears of
resistance infiltration on 13 October 2023. On the same day, raids were
conducted in Nablus, Aqabat, Jaber camp, Areeha, and Aida refugee camp
in Bethlehem. The IOF began an invasion of the city of Nablus and
clashes continued in Jenin as resistance fighters confronted the
invasion. Hamas’s brigades, the Izz al Din al-Qassem Brigades, were one
of the known resistance factions who fended off the IOF invasion, while
also fighting in the Ain Al-Sultan and Aqabat Jabr camps in
Areeha.(5)
As of October 14th, 842 acts of resistance were carried out in the
West Bank in just a week. Of those confirmed, there were 241 shooting
operations, 30 qualitative operations, one settlement infiltration, 570
confrontations in various forms, and 98 demonstrations and marches.
Twenty two IOF injures were confirmed, a number were killed, and there
were 56 martyrs on the side of the resistance. The confrontations took
place in 254 areas, including Nablus (45), Al-Quds (38), Ramallah (38),
Al-Khalil (33), Jenin (27), Tulkarem (19), Bethlehem (17), Qalqilya
(13), Areeha (11), Salfit (9), and Tubas(4).(6) Just a week since
Operation Al Aqsa Flood, the resistance was stiff against I$raeli
attempts to subdue the West Bank under its grasp. A resistance to
settler-colonialism and national oppression within the United $tates
must adopt similar discipline, rejecting integration for
self-determination for oppressed nations in solidarity with the struggle
against imperialism across the world.
The resistance in the West Bank continued, with the al-Nasser Salah
al-Deen Brigades, which are the military wing of Popular Resistance
Committees, targeting the Belt Furik checkpoint and the IOF post
established on “Mount Gerizim” on 15 October 2023. The IOF by this time
had abducted more than 500 in the West Bank and Al-Quds.(7) On 17
October 2023, protestors in the occupied West Bank demanded the fall of
president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, a neocolonial
puppet entity ruling over West Bank. The response was repression, with
tear gas and stun grenades used to disperse the protestors.(8) Amidst
the protests, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, which are military wing of
Fatah, were able to successfully target zionist occupation checkpoints
and clashed with them on the same day.(9)
Sheikh Hassan Yousef, co-founder of Hamas, was abducted by the IOF in
his home in Ramallah after giving a speech there on 18 October 2023.
This was part of a larger campaign of abductions by the IOF which
expanded that day.(10) Confrontations further escalated within the West
Bank, with a victory for the resistance occurring with the Saraya
Al-Quds, which is the militant wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad
(PIJ), part of the Tulkarm Brigade carried out numerous strikes,
offensive operations, ambushes, explosive detonations, and ambush
executions. It was a 28 hour battle, which led to the IOF completely
withdrawing from the Nour Shams camp.(11) The cowardly settlers
retaliated the next day at the Al-Ansar mosque, believing that Hamas and
PIJ used it as a headquarters. This resulted in the death of two, and
the arrest of dozens who were suspected to work with the Jenin Brigade
or other resistance groups.(12) On the same day, Zionist special forces
stormed the Askar camp in Nablus, clashing with the resistance.(13) Just
four days later, on 26 October 2023, the IOF carried out a massive
arrest campaign across the West Bank with armed clashes breaking
out.(14) This preludes the rise of resistance in the West Bank the next
day, with violent confrontation in the Al-Aroub camp, against the
“Nitzani Oz” checkpoint, the “Dotan” checkpoint, Jabal Al-Tur and Abu
Dis on 27 October 2023.(15)
I$raeli
invasion of Gaza, settler counter-offensive
The invasion of Gaza officially began on 28 October 2023. On this
day, many cities in the West Bank went on strike in support of the
resistance in Gaza.(16) A specialized hospital in Nablus was targetted
in the West Bank due to the IOF’s suspicion of the resistance groups
there.(17) On 2 November 2023, armed clashes broke out across various
cities in the West Bank following a wide campaign of arrests.(18) On 4
November 2023, the resistant youth in the West Bank threw Moltov
cocktails at settlers’ vehicles near Marda and at zionist forces in
Al-Aroub camp. In addition, they threw stones at settlers near Hizma and
Route 443.(19) The important part to note here is the role of the youth
and how a large section of the Palestinian people are under 18. The
resistance’s mobilization of the youth to fight is important to learn
from, especially in contexts of settler-colonialism and national
oppression, for application to the United $tates. The Black Panthers
were mostly teenagers.
The armed clashes continued between resistance fighters and zionist
forces in Qalqilya, following raids on cities and a large campaign of
abductions.(20) The Lion’s Den, a Palestinian resistance group in the
West Bank, claimed responsibility for conducting shooting operations
near “Itamar” which was successful on 8 November 2023.(21) In Jenin, a
day afterward, the Al-Qassam fighters and all resistance formations in
the Jenin camp engaged in armed clashes with the IOF. Reinforcements
were sent toward the Balata camp by the IOF after the resistance
discovered a special zionist force. In the end, the battle resulted in a
victory for the resistance after two hours, with the IOF withdrawing
without being able to abduct resistance fighters or occupy the area.(22)
The Martyr Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, militant wing of the PFLP, were
able to target the occupation forces in Jenin with explosive devices on
11 November 2023. The same day, resistance fighters open fired on the
“Belt Hefer” settlement and “Nitzanei Oz” checkpoint in Tulkarem. It
ended successfully, with a safe return for the resistance forces and
heavy damage to the targeted areas.(23)
The Al-Aqsa Martyr’s Brigades, part of the Tulkarem Brigade,
announced a general mobilization in the West Bank and Al-Quds on 12
November 2023.(24) The Al-Qassam Brigades – West Bank, announced
responsibility for storming the Tunnel Checkpoint in the south of
occupied Al-Quds in the morning. Here the resistance was able to attack
enemy forces at the military checkpoint separating northern Bethlehem
and southern occupied Al-Quds.(25) On 20 November 2023, the Mujahideen
Brigades were victorious in firing upon an incursion of IOF soldiers in
Jenin, clashing with special forces in Tubas, and shooting a jeep in
Tubas.(26) On November 21st, an IOF drone targeted a site in Tulkarem
camp, continuing to prevent ambulances from reaching the site. Afterward
the IOF stormed the Thabet Thabet Hospital to prevent the ambulances
from working.(27) Only a few days later on November 23rd, a wave of
widespread arrests were carried out, clashing with the resistance and
locals in Balata refugee camp, Al-Arroub, Dura, Beit Liqya, and
Qalandiya refugee camp.(28) On November 24th, the Mujahideen Brigades,
succeeded in bombing the “Dotan” military checkpoint southwest of
Jenin.(29)
Conclusion
The resistance in the West Bank face similar conditions to the
nationally oppressed in the United $tates. One key difference is the
proximity to imperialism with integrationist pull that pacifies
resistance. Aside from that, both are firmly occupied under the boot of
the colonizers with no state of their own and both face mass
incarceration to destroy resistance and further colonization. The
resistance’s capability to form a united front to fight back and
coordinate in conditions of immense surveillance and repression is
important to note. I$rael used all of its capabilities, controlling the
supply of food, water, medicine, internal movement, and etc… but it
still failed in face of resistance. A strategy within the United $tates
will have to encompass these factors and surpass them, coordinating not
only internally but externally with the Third World against forces of
imperialism and colonialism.
In the next part, there will be a discussion of the prisoner exchange
and temporary “end” of hostilities, at the least, along the beginning of
I$rael’s advance in Rafah along with the emboldened colonization which
I$rael embarked on in the West Bank. Specifically, declaring more than
800 hectares of land as part of I$rael, aiming to fully annex the West
Bank.
From the river to the sea, Palestine will be
free!
Readers of Under Lock & Key, may this kite find you in
the best of health and spirits. In the last issue, Spring 2024, No. 85,
there was a request for prisoners to sign up for a petition and issues
about no
dayroom and yards. I have been down now 18 years in the Illinois
Department of Corrections (I-DOC) and I want to help everyone who is
seeking more out-of-cell time.
I filed a §1983 Civil Action about this topic, Patrick Bakaturski
V. Director et al, 3:23-cv-03609-SPM, which is currently pending
merit review in the Southern District of Illinois.
The basis grounds of the civil suit is that under all of the Covid-19
lockdowns, the endless cell restriction violated my 8th amendment
rights. Wexford Health Care signed an affidavit in Patrick
Bakaturski v. Rob Jeffreys, 21-cv-00014-GCS, which stated that
Wexford Health Care did not approve any of the Covid lock downs. Yet in
every grievance I-DOC said I was on quarantine.
So How Do I Get out of the Cell More? What should be the
Legal Argument?
First Look up Ashoor Rasho et al., v. Director John R. Baldwin,
NO: 1:07-cv-1298-MMM-JEH, Mental Health Settlement agreement. If
you go to page 20 you will see that I-DOC agreed that all prisoners
under segregation statutes should get 20 hours per week of out of cell
time. That means if you are being kept in the cell and not being given
10 hours of Day room and 10 hours of yard this violates your 8th
Amendment rights. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act for general
mental health every prisoner must get 10 hours of yard per week and at
least 10 of day room or programs per week in maximum security prison. I
am not in max anymore, but my prison is being ran as an unclassified max
in violation of state and federal law. So under the same standard of a
basic human right, I requested my 20 hours per week, 10 hours of day
room and 10 of yard.
The legal argument is clear, 23 and 1 is unconstitutional. ALL max
prisoners could fight to make their max a 21 and 3 by invoking the
wording in the Mental Health Settlement. The Federal Government has
already agreed in part that 23 and 1 is unconstitutional. You need to
use page 20 of the settlement to support your grievances and legal
arguments.
If anyone has any questions of how to file the grievance or would
like to see the format on what might work in Federal Court, key cite
Bakaturski in Federal Court. If you can get a copy of the
petitions I have filed pro-se.
MIM(Prisons) adds: We are not lawyers and do not offer
legal advice. When we print tips like this it is up to the reader to
determine how this information applies to your situation. The settlement
above applies to the Illinois DOC, though strategies in those cases may
be relevant elsewhere. We have long worked to shut down long-term
solitary in all its forms. The settlement is one small tool to help
prevent de facto long-term isolation from occurring in
Illinois.
by Simon of The Dawnland Group July 2024 permalink
UAW members creatively tie political repression on University of
California campuses to unfair labor practices, but an undercurrent of
exploiter-country economic demands remains
On May 13th, UAW Local 4811 voted to authorize a statewide stand-up
strike across University of California campuses. Though representing
largely class enemy strata, the United Auto Workers union (UAW) has, in
the past few years, been an innovator in strike tactics. “Stand-up
strikes,” as they are called, differ from traditional strikes by having
local branches be called to the picket by a central coordinator, as
opposed to having all members strike at once. This tactic reduces
burnout among the strikers by introducing “shift work” into the nature
of the picket, and psychologically attaches rank-and-file members more
closely to movement developments with anticipation of not knowing until
the day of whether it is their turn to strike.
The public response of the university administration has been
traditionally liberal. Unable to argue on the moral grounds of the
genocide and their active support of it, administrators displace the
discussion to either the process of dissent (whether it’s “through the
right channels”) or how the dissent affects the lives of settlers. After
failure to challenge the legal grounds of the strike, the UC office of
the President moved to pearl-clutching,
“UAW’s goals of ‘maximize chaos and confusion’ have come to fruition,
creating substantial and irreparable impacts on campuses and impacting
our students at a crucial time of their education.”
As of the writing of this article, all universities in the state of
Palestine have been destroyed in the genocide.
The UAW represents 5,000 workers at UC Irvine, 8,000 at UC San Diego,
and 3,000 at UC Santa Barbara, totaling 31,500 members for all six of
the universities affected by the strikes. According to an interview
conducted May 31st by The Orange County Register, “UAW Local 4811 is
asking the UC schools to give amnesty to all academic employees and
students who faced arrest or disciplinary actions for protesting at
campuses. The union also wants the students to have guarantees of
freedom of speech and political expression on campus and is asking for
researchers to be able to opt out of funding sources tied to the Israeli
Defense Force.”
Like much university faculty outrage across the country following the
student intifada of the past few months, faculty demands have been
animated by, and primarily center protecting students and staff from
criminal charges, less so the criminal slaughter of civilians by the
zionist entity. Even if driven by a racist instinct that the well-being
of their peers are of more value than the faceless masses of the Third
World, this is an interesting case study in how labor-aristocratic
elements may be leveraged as an auxiliary for genuinely progressive
ends.
This case study, and the many parallels of it across Turtle Island,
reinforces the need for approaching international solidarity work in the
imperial core with united front tactics. Were all actors on these
campuses concentrated into a single organization or coalition, outrage
over the arrests of students and faculty would have quickly gobbled up
all the air in the discussion surrounding Palestine. Though not
intentionally designed, the separation of student activists and union
organizations has contributed to the success of the student intifada. As
has the organic separation between faculty and students, though
sometimes muddled by unionized students in the UAW. This separation has
permitted, but not guaranteed, the more principled students to take
initiative in fighting their local foot-soldiers of ethnic cleansing.
Many have taken the opportunity to occupy key locations, destroy
property facilitating genocide, or symbolically renaming liberated
buildings on their campus after Martyrs slain in the liberation
struggle.
So long as the student radicals keep ahead of the social fascists
keen to rally around them, they can keep efforts centered on Palestine
and fix these tertiary elements into a supporting role behind their
initiatives, lest they be dragged down into drivel like the UAW’s
campaign to hijack the movement into unionizing
arms manufactures, as we reported last issue. This is only possible
if the students maintain organizational independence from the forces
which risk slowing them down. While united front tactics don’t guarantee
success – it’s up to the students to center the right lines and pick the
correct strategies to see their goals fulfilled, without it they will be
tackled at the starting line. As the next school semester approaches on
the horizon, we wish the student radicals the best of luck in their race
against backward elements.
MIM(Prisons) adds: The “social-fascism” thesis was
applied by Bolsheviks to Western Europe’s social-democracy of the late
1920s and early 1930s. Behind this thesis was MIM’s understanding of
social-democracy as not always based in a politically foggy sector of
the proletariat but usually in the super-profit bribed petty-bourgeoisie
known as the “labor aristocracy” –at least in the imperialist countries,
especially those long-established imperialist countries with colonies or
neo-colonies. The “social-fascist” term applied to social-democrats who
appeared socialist on the outside while serving fascism in content. MIM
applies this term to all those today who appeal to the economic
nationalism of the imperialist country labor aristocracy. Those calling
for closing the borders, import restrictions etc. and calling themselves
“socialist” or even “communist”–these are the social-fascists today.(2)
“I held my gun so that the generations after me could hold a sickle…”
-Palestinian song, Ahd Allah Ma Nerhal (By God We Won’t Leave)
“… [W]e have hope because we know, now more than ever, that these
horrors in the name of upholding a racist settler-colonial occupation
are not going to last forever. Anyone who ever thought it would will be
astounded in hindsight.” -Rawan Masri, “Operation Al-Aqsa Flood Was An
Act of Decolonization”
I, like most of Our comrades who contribute to and/or read
ULK and organize behind the gulag walls, have been following
the ongoing genocide carried out by the Zionist entity upon the people
of Palestine with varied mixtures of feelings, with the number one
emotion being unadulterated rage alongside an equal amount of awe at the
steadfast courage of the Palestinian resistance and their allies
throughout the Middle East.
You might think that the rage stems from the atrocious conduct that
sadly has been par for the course of the Zionists since at least 1947 in
the beginnings of what would become the Nakba carried out by the various
Zionist terror organizations such as the Haganah, Irgun and LEHI who
most infamously were responsible for the April 9, 1948 Deir Yassin
massacre in which 250 defenseless Palestinians were slaughtered,
including 100 wimmin and children, and then the village was looted and
plundered. While I cannot deny that the daily depredations of the
Zionist occupation forces raises my ire profoundly, the rage actually
stems more from the stunning ignorance of the so-called “friends and
supporters” of I$rael who voice their profoundly inaccurate, and most of
the time entirely false statements, “history lessons on the so-called
‘conflict’,” (non)interpretations of the international law, and most
importantly their insistence on not calling the Zionist entity’s actions
and policies what they’ve been since the start of the ethnic cleansing
under Plan Dalet beginning in April 1948: genocidal. Many of these
people are probably of the opinion as well that the vast majority of
other settler-colonist projects (such as the United $nakes, New Zealand,
Australia, Canada, etc.) were also not genocidal from their beginnings,
likely using the age old excuses of blaming the so-called “savages” for
provoking the “reasonable” and “peace loving” settlers into defending
themselves and the land they mistakenly believe they didn’t steal thanks
to their belief that God gifted or promised it to them in perpetuity
because “he’s God” and “what he says goes.”(1) These “friends and
supporters” of I$rael will do absolutely no research into the validity
of their statements, instead choosing to equate the Palestinian struggle
to liberate all of the historic Palestine and finally be free to return
to their lands with a genocidal Arab conspiracy to wipe out the
Jews.
So in the interests of correcting the misinformation and lies, and
cutting through the Zionist propaganda it stems from and in full
solidarity with Our comrades across historic Palestine, in the diaspora,
on campuses and in the streets, this article will attempt to deconstruct
some of the most common discourse that is parroted in the mainstream
media which has fueled this latest round of anti-Arab hysteria and
Islamophobia and crucially, the pattern of Amerikan rejectionism to
Palestinian Liberation and indifference to the crimes of its client
state.
As communists or anarchists (as many of Our comrades who read
ULK identify as), it behooves Us to study history, and studying
the histories of what has become known as the Palestinian-I$raeli
conflict and the principal actors and organizations is not an exception
to this rule.
So in that context, I will begin with one of the Zionists’ more
devious lies; the so-called I$raeli “purity of arms” and its common
usage, that I$rael never targets civilians or civilian infrastructure.
Although any cursory observation of I$rael’s conduct from the 1948 Nakba
to the present day would prove otherwise, We can look to none other than
Zionist hero and first prime minister David Ben-Gurion for the proof. In
his Independence War Diary, he set down on paper the military doctrine
that would become standard protocol throughout the history of the
Zionist project.
There is no question as to whether a reaction is necessary or not.
The question is only time and place. Blowing up a house is not enough.
What is necessary is cruel strong reactions. We need precision in time
place and causalities. If we know the family – [we must] strike
mercilessly, women and children included. Otherwise the reaction is
inefficient. At the place of action there is no need to distinguish
between guilty and innocent.(2)
This specific entry was written on January 1, 1948, one day after the
Haganah occupied the Palestinian village of Balad al-Shaykh, the burial
place of Shaykh Izz ad-Din al-Qassam (one of Palestine’s most revered
resistance leaders of the 1920’s and 30’s), massacring over 60
Palestinian civilians, men, wimmin, and children, most while they were
asleep in their homes. This massacring of civilians in their sleep over
75 years ago lines up exactly with the countless stories told by
survivors of today’s indiscriminate bombings to the doctors that have
been working nonstop within the largely destroyed remains of Gaza’s
hospitals.(3)
Let us also remember that when Ben-Gurion wrote those words, the
Zionist leadership at the time was working on “Plan Dalet”, finalized on
March 10, 1948, which was the military blueprint for the ethnic
cleansing of historic Palestine.(4)
To illustrate before moving on to the next topic, lets look back at
two of the lesser known massacres during the initial Nakba; “Lydda and
Ramla” and “Safsah.”
On a blistering hot Ramadan day in July 1948, a Haganah general named
Yitzhak Rabin (who would later become ambassador to Washington D.C.,
then I$raeli Prime Minister, then sign the Oslo accords on the White
House lawn, then be assassinated for it by I$raeli reactionaries)
descended upon the Palestinian towns of Lydda and Ramla with his unit
and violently expelled approximately 50,000 men, wimmin and
children.
In Lydda, dozens of Palestinians were gathered and detained in the
Dahmash mosque and church premises, all unarmed, and were subsequently
gunned down. Afterwards the Zionists gathered an additional 20 to 50
Palestinians to clean up the mosque and bury all of the bodies. After
they had placed the bodies in their graves, they themselves were slot
into the open graves and left there to bleed out and die. In total
between 250 to 400 Palestinians were massacred in Lydda. An additional
350 more died after being expected and forced to march to the frontlines
of the Arab armies in what would become known as the Lydda Death
March.(5)
As a sidenote, the events that occurred at Lydda and the subsequent
death march after, were a formative event in the life of a young George
Habash, who was from Lydda, and in 1948 at age 19 left the American
University in Beirut, Lebanon where he was a medical student and
returned to Lydda during the war to help his family. The Haganah
attacked the town soon after, and in the subsequent death march, without
water or food, during Ramadan no less, his sister died before they
reached the Arab army’s frontlines. This could possibly be one of the
reasons which fed his uncompromising leadership and opposition to the
Zionist regime as a pivotal leader of first the Harakat al-Qawmiyyin
al-Arab (Arab Nationalist Movement) and then of the Popular Front for
Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
Lastly, we come to the massacre at Safsaf during the initial Nakba.
Though this is one of the lesser known atrocities of the Nakba, it is
vital to the overall understanding, as a quarter of the 12 well
documented instances of rape by the Zionists were recorded here (though
many more may have occurred, lost to history but not to the long memory
of the people and the land of Palestine).
The Zionists started by cleansing the town by using their “patented”
strategy of surrounding the town on 3 sides, firing into the air and
into the sides of buildings in the hopes of driving the population out
of the fourth, open side of the town. Then they entered the town,
gathering up all of those who still remained in their homes, initially
shooting and killing 12 young men. The remaining 52 men were caught,
then tied together and thrown into a pit the Zionists dug, then
subsequently shot and killed. Seeing this, the remaining wimmin of the
town came and asked the Zionists for mercy. The Zionists, not being
satisfied with the massacre they had just committed, told several of the
wimmin to go and fetch water to the town. Once they moved away from the
others, they were followed by the militiamen and raped, two of the
wimmin being killed in the process. The womyn who survived was a child
of fourteen years old.(6) These are just a few of the massacres of
civilians by the Zionists during the initial Nakba. If we line them up
alongside others, for instance, the October 1953 massacre in the West
Bank village of Qibya by Ariel Sharon’s (another past war criminal made
prime minister) infamous unit 101 of the I$raeli Defense Forces (IDF)
special forces, the October 1956 Kafr Qasim massacre, the full IDF
support given during the 1982 Lebanon war to their proxies, the
Christian Phalangist and Maronite militias, to massacre 2,000 civilians
in the Palestinian refugee camps Sabra and Shatila (which in hindsight
was probably the last time there was mass protests within I$rael by Jews
over their regime’s crimes against Palestinians), to the more recent
wars, like today’s war, but also ones such as during “Operations Cast
Lead” in 2008-09 which the UN’s fact finding report (Goldstone report)
called a “deliberately disproportionate attack designed to punish,
humiliate, and terrorize a civilian population”, a certain pattern
starts to emerge; one of the ethnic cleansing and genocide, funded and
with political cover by Amerika.
Genocide & Denial
Genocide, the word as well as the action hangs heavy over Amerika and
I$rael, so much so that it has stopped many from speaking out and
acknowledging the Zionist regime’s actions against Palestine as
genocidal.
A comrade over at Slingshot Collective in Berkeley, CA wrote an
article for their latest newspaper issue, trying to elaborate on the
reasons behind the silence during an active genocide, and though I agree
with many of their conclusions (not wanting to sound “anti-Semitic”,
general Amerikan apathy and indifference to the suffering of others and
not wanting to split the Democratic Party base leading to a Trump
victory this election year), I think there are other, deeper
explanations for this, as well as outright genocide denial.(7)
When most Amerikans and I$raelis think about the word genocide, it is
inevitable that they will first think of the Holocaust. The mass
shootings carried out by the Einstatzgruppen and the gassing and
immolation of millions of Ashkenazi Jews are rightfully called genocide;
and yet many of these same Amerikans and I$raelis forget the genocide of
approximately half of the 2 million Sinti and Romani peoples (Gypsies)
of German occupied Europe known as the Porrajmos in the Romani language,
nor do they seem to remember the systematic massacres of Slavic, gay,
and disabled peoples along with many political dissidents during the
same time period by Nazi Germany.(8) And so, the benchmark for both
countries for some act to count as genocide is something which looks
like the Holocaust; a massive extermination of people in a relatively
short amount of time.
And yet, the Nazi genocide and Zionist genocide do not resemble each
other structurally or in any other meaningful way.
Like the settler colonial regimes of the United $nakes, Canada, New
Zealand and Australia among others, the genocides that took place upon
the indigenous First Nations have taken place over many decades, a small
act here, a large act there, and this is what the genocide of the
Palestinian Arab people by the Zionist regime has looked like and
continues to look like to this day.(9)
As this practice of genocide continues against the people of
Palestine, so too does Amerika continue this practice upon the internal
semi-colonies of New Afrikans, Chican@s, and the First Nations here on
occupied Turtle Island. Amerika also has a very interesting, as well as
appalling, history relating to the UN Convention of the Prevention and
Punishment of the Crime of Genocide that bears mentioning.
After its founding convention in San Francisco in 1945, the United
Nations set about sponsoring the creation of an international legal
instrument for the prevention and punishment of genocide. The job for
drafting this document was handed down to the Economic and Social
Council of the UN General Assembly (GA) which retained several
international legal consultants foremost among them Dr. Raphael Lemkin;
an exiled Polish-Jewish jurist who had in 1944 coined the term
‘genocide’ in his work “Axis Rule in Occupied Europe.” Lemkin, who
authored most of the draft, submitted it in June 1947, and a month later
it was rejected by several member states of the General Assembly,
foremost among them the United $nakes, because of “important
philosophical disagreements.” It was edited and then finally adopted by
the GA on December 9, 1948. By 1951 enough countries had ratified it to
afford it the status of binding international law; except for a partial
ratification (with conditions and edits) in 1988 by the Reagan
Administration, the U.$. has still not ratified the convention in its
entirety.(10)
First off, lets look at what parts of Lemkin’s draft were so
“philosophically disagreeable” to the United $tates. Lemkin was
extremely thorough in the draft document, where he included linguistic
and political groups under currently protected groups of racial,
national, and religious groups. Also importantly, he included in the
list of punishable acts (enumerated in Article 3 of the current
convention) engaging in a number of “preparatory” acts such as
developing techniques of genocide and setting up installations for the
purpose of committing genocide.
Already we can see that if the above made it into the final draft,
both Amerika and I$rael would have been in the ‘hot seat’, so to
speak.
Lemkin also included preventing the “preservation or development” of
the above groups as a punishable act as well as policies that would
bring about the disintegration of the political, social, or economic
structure of a group or nation (author’s note: Settlers &
Neocolonialists Beware!).
Lastly and most crucially, Lemkin detailed 3 distinct and specific
forms of genocide: physical, biological, and cultural. For physical
genocide he included “slow death” measures such as the “subjection to
conditions of life which, owing to lack of proper housing, clothing,
food, hygiene and medical care… are likely to result in debilitation or
death of individuals”, as well as “deprivation of all means of
livelihood by confiscation of property, looting, curtailment of work,
and denial of housing and supplies otherwise available to the other
inhabitants of the territory concerned.” Biological genocide, apart from
compulsory abortion and sterilization, included segregation of the sexes
and obstacles to marriage. Cultural genocide included forced and
systematic exile of individuals representing the culture of a group, as
well as the destruction of a groups historical or religious monuments
and the destruction of a group’s historical, artistic, and religious
documents or objects.(11)
If one looks to the UN Genocide Convention today, it would be
entirely accurate to say it no longer resembles in any meaningful way
the original intentions of the author(s).
One might ask what the consequences of this are, and though there are
many, I’ll only go into one.
Consequently, it has continued to further obfuscate what constitutes
genocide, further allowing imperialist and reactionary regimes to
continue policies of genocidal oppression, domestically as well as in
the Global South. Yet as a direct result of this in the case of I$rael,
many countries in the Global South have had enough of the genocidal
Zionist regime. Most importantly South Africa (where the Zionists
supported the apartheid regime before its collapse) charged the Zionist
entity with genocide at the ICC in the Hague. Many Central and South
American countries, like Chile and Honduras, who both had to deal with
genocidal reactionary regimes propped up by the support of both Amerika
and I$rael, have both said enough is enough, and recalled their
ambassadors to I$rael over the Amerikan funded genocide.(12) And also
extremely important, and as a great way to segue into my last topic of
this article, it has set off an explosion of support for Palestine from
within the belly of the imperialist beast, in the U.$. but also all
across Europe; vital to this effort has been Our comrades on college
campuses across Turtle Island.
Student
Activism and U.$. Attempts to “Silence the Intifada”
When the first encampments and building occupations were setup, from
Columbia University to campuses across Turtle Island all the way to UC
Berkeley, though I wasn’t surprised, (and forgive me for my emotional
subjectiveness) tears of joy and pride sprang to my eyes as I watched
the moving images on CNN move across the screen. Not since the Vietnam
War and organizations like Student for a Democratic Society (SDS) have
we seen the anti-war movement, nor the BDS movement since South African
apartheid, consolidate into such a huge outpouring of love, rage, and
solidarity on college campuses.
I was sadly also not surprised when the Pro-Zionist reactionaries
sent the pigs in to silence the movement, nor have I been surprised at
the Zionist propaganda campaign attempting to label the entire
Palestinian solidarity movement “anti-Semitic” and “violent”, even going
so far (a la Stop Cop City activists) as calling all protesting for
Palestine “terrorists” and “supporters of terrorists”. Here in the Bay
Area, there have been lies spread saying that the BDS strategy is no
longer viable or legally possible for UC Board of Regents to
boycott/divest from the Zionist entity, which has been uncovered as a
lie to get Our comrades at Berkeley to abandon their camp and goals.
Whether divestment is possible, we can look to the success of the BDS
movement in 1986 at Berkeley to finally pressure the UC to divest $3.1
billion from companies doing business with apartheid South Africa.(13)
Aside from this it’s also been insane to watch the bipartisan effort,
from genocide Joe to the outer reaches of the far right, to attempt to
get the masses concerned with some of the alleged rhetoric of
individuals on campus and the violence (which from numerous sources have
been proven to be incited by Zionist counter-demonstrators and the pigs)
at the encampments, to try to get everyone to somehow forget his
“ironclad” support of I$raeli genocide. Sadly for Genocide Joe and his
Pro-Zionist rabble in Congress, students on campuses across Turtle
Island have dug in and refused the false images the imperialists and
their media have tried to paint of them, and have let the imperialists
know 3 things: We are NOT going anywhere, We will NOT be silenced, and
PALESTINE WILL BE FREE!
As the college term wraps up for the summer and many in the Palestine
Solidarity Movement, on and off campus, set their sights this summer on
an explosive confrontation at the Democratic National Convention
alongside many other avenues for protest and action, I’d like to give
one bit of advice if any students or other outside comrades may be
reading: I think aside from the also important avenues of protest and
actions here in the belly of the imperialist beast, it would be
extremely beneficial to send as many comrades (students or otherwise) to
the West Bank this summer, to live and learn among the Palestinian
people themselves. Mao himself called attention numerous times to the
importance of this, as did Huey P. Newton which led him to visit
revolutionary China. SDS and what would become the Weather Underground
Organization (WU) also saw the importance of this in the 60’s and early
70’s meeting with revolutionaries from Cuba, Vietnam, and other
countries to learn about them, their life and their struggle from their
own points of view and in their own voices.
As the Zionists have only continued the ramping up of repression in
the West Bank since operation Al-Aqsa Flood, you could also play an
integral role in getting the stories of Palestinians there back to the
masses here in the U.$. as well as help in the already ongoing
humanitarian efforts going on there. Just something to think about as we
move into the summer.
In case you weren’t aware, We behind the gulag walls admire your
unshakable and uncompromising support for Palestine’s liberation, and
your unwavering courage in the face of wave after wave of attacks by
Zionist reactionaries and their pig helpers. You inspire us behind the
wall and We can’t wait to see what you do next.
From the river to the sea, Palestine will be
Free!
MIM(Prisons) responds: Wimmin and children have fought
bravely in the resistance to Zionist occupation. There is something
concrete to seeing the murder of children as more egregious in terms of
the immiseration of a people via genocide by destroying its capacity to
produce for the nation and build the future. But to treat wimmin’s lives
as more precious or needing additional protection feeds into the
patriarchal thinking that lets I$rael
use myths of rape to rally support for bombing thousands of more
Palestinians. To the extent that it is true that grown men are doing
more of the fighting for Palestine, this only demonstrates the value
their lives have for the nation.
MIM talked about genocide as one of a number of forms of “absolute
immiseration” today:
“there is a sociology discourse claiming that Marx’s ideas
of”absolute deprivation” are incorrect, because supposedly absolute
immiseration of the proletariat has not happened under capitalism since
Marx’s time. …To avoid talking about [examples of absolute immiseration
like] militarism, the environment and prison, the bourgeois social
scientists talk about “relative deprivation” …Genocide is a matter of
absolute immiseration. There can be nothing worse.”
It is no mystery that Palestine is a key contradiction in the
imperialist system today. It is not because Palestinians play an
important role in value production, but because of the absolute
immiseration they face at the hands of U.$. imperialism in its attempt
to maintain a foothold in the part of the world they happen to
inhabit.
Notes: 1. Patrick Wolfe, December 2006, “Settler Colonialism
and the elimination of the native”, Journal of Genocide Research,
814 2. Noam Chomsky, “The Fateful Triangle – The United States,
Israel, and the Palestinians, ( Haymarket Books, 2014), pp. 200 3.
Irfan Galaria, February 23, 2024,”Doctor in Gaza sees only
annihilation”, San Jose Mercury News 4. Noam Chomsky & Ilan
Pappe, “Gaza in Crisis: Reflections on the U.S. Israeli War on the
Palestinians” (Haymarket Books, 2013), pp.69 5. Nur Masalha, “The
Palestinian Nakba: Decolonizing History, Narrating the Subaltern,
Reclaiming Memory” (Zed Books, 2012), pp. 86 6. Adel Manna, “Nakba
and Survival: The Story of Palestinians who Remained inn Haifa and the
Galilee, 1948-1956” (University of California Press, (2022),
pp. 75-80 7. Kermit, “Watching and Waiting?: On Speaking Out &
Being Silent During Genocide”, Slingshot Issue 140 Summer 2024,
pp. 2-3 8. Ward Churchill, “A little Matter of Genocide: Holocaust
and Denial in the Americas 1492 to the Present” (City Lights Books,
1997), pp. 36-49 9. Patrick Wolfe, December 2006, “Settler
Colonialism and the elimination of the native”, Journal of Genocide
Research, 814 10. Ward Churchill, pp. 363-364 11. Ward
Churchill, pp. 265-366 12. FP
Explainers, 3 May 2024, After Colombia, now Turkey: Which other nations
have cut ties with Israel over Gaza war?, FirstPost.com 13. DD,
“Resisting the Neoliberal University & Unethical Investment”,
Slingshot Issue 140 Summer 2024, pp. 5 14. MC5, March 1999, On the
Internal Class Structure of the Internal Semi-Colonies, MIM Theory 14:
United Front, p.57-58.
Months after rebellions began in Kanaky (aka New Caledonia), fighting
continues against the French militias and colonial forces. In New
Caledonia, voting is restricted to families who have been living there
since 1998.(1) This is in order to establish the dominance of the
natives over the settlers in the voting system. On 2 April 2024, the
French Senate voted for an amendment to the rule which would allow
voting for anyone who has lived in New Caledonia for a continuous ten
years, on a rolling basis.(2) This triggered the resistance of the
people, as one Kanaky source recently reported:
“The toll of the riots since May 13 is very heavy: Nine people were
killed and hundreds of others injured, 200 houses burned or looted and
nearly 900 businesses closed. A first estimation raises the “damage” to
1.5 billion euros. More than 3,000 soldiers, gendarmes and police were
deployed there by the colonial State. Great victory for the Kanak
people: hundreds of French families made the decision to pack their bags
and leave the colony for good.”(3)
However, the struggle over voting rights itself has cooled as
parliamentary crisis struck France, and French President Macron
announced on 12 June 2024 the suspension of the proposed changes in
voting rights in New Caledonia. France is now focused on an emergency
election at home to try to prevent a sharp rightward turn in the
parliament and presidency.
[UPDATE: 7 July 2024 - Voters succeeded in
preventing a victory of the anti-immigrant Le Pen, but results leave
uncertainty in France as there was no clear majority.]
Background on Kanaky
For our readers to understand New Caledonia (home of the Kanak), we
might use a shortcut of thinking about Puerto Rico (home of the
Boricua). New Caledonia is an island near Australia and Aotearoa (aka
New Zealand) claimed by France with a history of brutal colonization and
imperialist domination. Europeans arrived in Kanaky in the late 18th
century, beginning the colonial period in which the natives (Kanak
people) were enslaved, sold, exposed to European disease, displaced from
their land and placed on reservations. After France gained control of
the area, nickel was discovered in the territory and the French
government began sending prisoners to extract the resource and settle on
the land. Ever since that time settlement has continued, though the
Kanak people remain the largest group.(4) The Kanak people have been
struggling for independence and liberation for generations, with recent
events reflecting the latest upsurge of resistance. In recent years, the
liberation movement has engaged in violent resistance to the sale of
their nickel mines.
As mentioned above, New Caledonia hit news headlines after France
proposed allowing all immigrants, including newer settlers, to vote in
elections on the island. On 15 April, tens of thousands protested the
bill, and on that same day the French National Assembly voted in favor
of it, moving it one step further towards being passed. In May, violent
protests of Kanak people were responded to with the arrest of hundreds
and the French deploying their armed forces to suppress the movement.
This deployment of forces starkly reveals the absurdity of a “free
choice” to be independent. As MIM said about Puerto Rico in 1998:
“The Puerto Ricans have tried for decades”to persuade” the United
States to leave, but only dictatorship (organized force) will settle the
question. Without the freedom to keep the Yankees out, the elections
only show what the Puerto Rican people will say with their arms twisted
behind their backs.”(5)
One of the major arenas of struggle has been the independence
referendum. There have been three of these in the past 4 years; in the
first two the option to remain a territory of France narrowly won (56.6%
and 53.2%), and nationality played a major role in the decision. Kanaks
generally voted for independence while the other minorities generally
voted for dependence. In the third, the independence movement boycotted
the referendum, resulting in a 97% victory for dependence, but the
turnout was only 43.9%, throwing its validity into question.(6) The
protests and riots in May led to the declaration of a state of emergency
(lifted after May 31) and the deployment of reinforcements from France.
Barricades were set up by independence protesters and, in earlier
reports, the clashes led to the death of two French Armed Forces
personnel and injury of over 54 police officers.(7)
The struggle for an independent New Caledonia is a revolutionary
struggle against imperialism. New Caledonians fight France, Palestinians
fight I$rael, and the oppressed here in Occupied Turtle Island fight the
United $tates, all in a united struggle against a common enemy. The
struggle in Puerto Rico against the corrupt government of Ricardo
Rosselló is no different. Puerto Rico was acquired by the United $tates
in the bloody wars of its ascendancy into an imperialist power.
Imperialism is the number one enemy of the self-determination of
nations, reaching its hands across the globe to squeeze every last drop
of profit it can find. The struggle of the oppressed nations, wherever
they are, is the number one weapon against this imperialist system, and
that weapon is ever more powerful the more the oppressed nations ally
with each other and fight imperialism as one. Puerto Rico has a history
of independence movements being co-opted by leaders trying to get a
slice of the imperialist pie. The movement for statehood represents this
tendency, while the independence movement is the movement for national
self-determination against imperialism. In both New Caledonia and Puerto
Rico, the referendums have shown the majority of the population voting
to remain a part of their imperialist occupiers in order to access
certain benefits, whereas the independence movement represents the
revolutionary opposition to national oppression and the upholding of
self-determination.
Kanaky Will Be Free!Palestine Will Be
Free!Puerto Rico Will Be Free!
