Under Lock & Key

Welcome to the Revolution! This is Alien, back with Part II to my last article from ULK #86: Response to “Stop Snitching: Stop Collaborating”.

I disagree with this California prisoner’s definition of snitching in the 2nd paragraph of the “Stop Snitching on Pigs” article (also in ULK 86). Not all snitching is done to a “higher authority.” To snitch is to incriminate an ally, or should-be ally, through written/verbal statements made to anyone who could be a pig/rat/enemy, in general. If I take incriminating info/intel to a rat, or to somebody who views the pigs as “allies”, through gossip/rumors/incriminating raps (AKA rhyming witness statements), then this is snitching. It’s well-known that this type of gossip/rumors often finds its way to the higher authorities. The problem is that this form of snitching, via gossip/rumors/raps, happens so routinely that everybody is typically guilty of doing it, which means that nobody’s trying to enforce anti-gossip/anti-rumors/anti-incriminating rap. You never know you’re gossiping to a MFer on 60-days-in, or a fuckin’ pig dressed up/tatted up like a convict. I’ve seen many rats feed all kinds of gossip to the enemy. Convicts gossiping about other convicts is just as bad as convicts writing grievances on other convicts, snitch-wise, it’s just that grievances are documented on paper while gossip isn’t always documented. However, just because an incriminating statement isn’t documented on paper doesn’t mean it’s not what it is – snitching. Gossip, rumors, and incriminating raps aren’t silence, and thus, violate the code of silence.

Why would you gossip about somebody who you claim to be loyal to, when that “somebody” is somebody you claim you’d never snitch on? Some say “a man’s only as good as eir word,” but if you’re using your word behind somebody’s back, it means your words can’t be trusted. If your word can’t be trusted, it’s no good. How am I supposed to be loyal to people who I can’t trust? Besides, if you’re gossiping about everybody else, then why can’t they be gossiping about you? What they’ll do to you, they’ll do to me. An organization plagued by gossip is a ship that’ll sink at the words of loose lips. (Mao discussed this in part in eir essay Combat Liberalism). Plus infiltrators can weaponize gossip to keep everybody against each other. The revolution demands open confrontation. In a time of war (seeing as how prison is war, gossiping to any enemy about an ally is disloyalty/snitching. Don’t be scared to pull MFer’s up and encourage confrontation.

Gossip/rumors, as an aspect of communication, are a contradiction within the masses that stirs up all kinds of dramatic manipulation/schemes/disorganization/confusion/division/etc. If we’re to wage a campaign against gossip/rumors/incriminating rap. Criticism/self-criticism is not to be conducted behind comrade’s backs. We need our organizations gossip/rumor-free, if we’re to succeed in our number-one goal.

Time, for a Revolutionary, is more than just money; Time, for a Revolutionary, is waging Revolution – with emphasis placed on the word “wage”/“waging.” You wage Revolution against the enemy, not with the enemy. Don’t waste much time loosening one’s lips with the enemy, if it’s not words spoken in the name of the Revolution.

Seeing as how Communism is a society where no group has power over any other group, I’d like our next articles to discuss how we can change individuals, who collaborate with our powerful enemies and view them as allies, into viewing the powerless as allies, who aren’t to be collaborated against, or snitched on – a shift in loyalties, through dialectical materialism’s resolution of contradictions.

In y’all’s experience, what strategies/tactics have y’all applied behind bars, in order to internally change other prisoners’ loyalties, in favor of Revolution? What new strategies can we come up with? How do we get people to start caring about people who need help, instead of $, drugs, sex, and power?

Can a communist society exist with individuals abusing powerful words against each other, through snitching, gossiping, rumors, incriminating raps, etc., or with collaboration against one another? (I personally don’t see a communist society tolerating bullshit like that). What will communication, on/off the internet, look like in a communist society and how will it be organized? Remember, communication rules the nation(s), so it’s very important to address this in our campaigns, if we’re to succeed. The problem is that it’s hard enough for many of us to control our own mouths, let alone the mouths of an entire society. How do we organize our communications leading up to socialist Revolution?

It’s time to put the Revolution where your mouth is.

NOTE: This is why MIM said that, under the dictatorship of the proletariat, party members will be paid the rate of the lowest paid workers in society.

Triggers

Addiction does not develop overnight, nor does recovery. Addiction can be devastating to not only the user who is addicted but eir friends and family. In fact, addiction is a cultural phenomenon because it is not specific to any particular race, gender, age, or class. It is developed in the home through parents or family members who are addicts, through friends, TV, music, and other observable things in our environment. It is in every community, in every country, and on every continent. The irony is that as much support as there is for an addict’s recovery, that recovery does not come overnight. In fact, reportedly those who do enter recovery programs have a 60 to 80% chance of relapse before achieving permanent recovery! This is something I have experienced first hand, and I am here to talk to those comrades who put addicts like myself down. To them I offer the following challenge: instead of doing nothing but complaining about addicts, start a recovery group. This would be something more truly revolutionary! Because bitching about it does nothing to help an addict nor have you said anything to persuade me to want to change.

To them I say, “Yeah I’m an addict,” my addiction began in my home. My father smoked cigarettes and kept a supply of liquor under the counter in our kitchen. Drinking was a casual event with family and friends, usually on holidays. I also observed these similar behaviors through TV shows, movies, and commercials. As I grew into a teenager, I heard numerous music lyrics referencing drinking and using various kinds of drugs ranging from marijuana to heroin to cocaine to prescription drugs. Though I was told by my parents, family, and drug programs such as D.A.R.E. to stay away from these things, TV and my experience taught me something different. It looked like everyone on TV was feeling good and having fun and from my experience, it was and did most of the time make me feel good. In fact, it made me feel so much better when I was experiencing loneliness, stress, and conflict at home and within the family, boredom, anger, unrealized feelings of being trapped, depression, and more.

I’ve listed below what are commonly known as “triggers”. There are 10 major triggers I will identify here that can be associated and experienced by most humyn beings through some stage of eir life and not just addicts. For me the following 10 major triggers have not only been a part of my first experiences with drugs and alcohol but especially my relapse and effects of being imprisoned for over 25 years.

The Ten Major Triggers

1. Loneliness (even in the physical presence of family and friends)

2. Stress and conflict at home and within the family

3. Boredom or, in other words, lack of meaningful activities or challenging work

4. Anger and the feelings of being trapped (i.e. accumulated resentments, etc.)

5. Depression (worse with women than men)

6. Spirituality, or feeling like life is meaningless without a higher power

7. Secret disappointment with the straight life

8. Euphoric recall of being high

9. Secret thoughts of drugging or experimenting with a new and different chemical or drug

10. Reactive denial to using or thoughts of it

I was never taught any fundamental coping skills to combat these triggers throughout my life growing up at home or school. Even the coping skills I did learn in recovery groups didn’t seem to work. These feelings and thoughts seemed to always effect me no matter what. I also found out addiction is something that can be hereditary and generational. What does this mean for my persynal recovery? I do not know, but my current struggle is real and I can not experience recovery by myself. So if you are an addict and not just an addict who is addicted to drugs and alcoholic but are under the definition of the United Struggle from Within Revolutionary 12 Step Program, then I want you comrades to listen. Not only you comrades but especially the comrades who do nothing but bitch about us addicts who use K2, suboxone, and whatever else as defined by the comrades who came together to create the Revolutionary 12 Step Program. I want you all to join me in my recovery, in our recovery, together.

P.S. This kept me from using so far today.

MIM(Prisons) responds: The Revolutionary 12 Step Program pamphlet has been one of our most frequently distributed publications in recent years. Unfortunately the main author and comrade who was training others to lead the program has not continued this work. For now we hope to continue the conversation, development and promotion of revolutionary recovery here in the pages of ULK. As comrade Menlo suggests, we want to create a community here through our readers’ own stories of recovery. And we thank comrade Orko and comrade Menlo for kicking this off.

Another publication we want to recommend to those working around recovery (whether you yourself are addicted or those around you) is Under Lock & Key No. 59. You can just ask us for the “drug issue” of ULK. It gives some deeper historical and sociological background on the fighting of addiction in the revolutionary movement.

As Orko explains above, addiction is a product of our environment. That is why when communists seized power in China they were able to eliminate almost all addiction in short time. And it is why people who had been life long addicts suddenly quit to join revolutionary organizations in the United $tates during the Black Power movement. The hope, meaning and empowerment that comes with revolutionary organizing is key to the success of our own revolutionary recovery programs.

In anticipation of some responses we might get to this article, we’d like to ask Orko and other readers for ideas on how to reach those stuck on drugs. We hear from a lot of readers who say they are surrounded by zombies, and feel like there is no way to reach such people because they are always high. What can be done to shift this reality and reach those in need?

Addiction is a disease/syndrome that is not dependent upon any given drug. As an addict and alcoholic, what this means to me is that I am a meth addict even though I have never tried meth. I am addicted to K2 even though I have never tried K2. My drug of choice is alcohol, but my struggle is with addiction. My method of combating my addiction in prison is:

1. Not using any substances
2. Refusing to be ashamed of myself
3. Sharing my experience, strength and hope with the addict who is still suffering.

While addiction cuts across class, nationality, ideology, and gender, it concentrates in prison as many of us committed crimes in order to fuel our addiction. Addiction thrives in an atmosphere of shame, of hiding, and of loneliness. All of that and more is the atmosphere of prison. It is incredibly difficult to stay sober by myself. I need community in order to maintain my sobriety.

One incredibly important aspect of recovery that is missing from the revolutionary 12 step program is the personal stories of recovery that form the back of each 12 step book. These stories are essential as they serve as that community of recovery and way for us to relate and be inspired. I would be more than happy to contribute to the revolutionary 12 step program.

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.

I used to read your papers and think of how crazy some of the stories from other prisons were. Now I have witnessed firsthand how the K2 has changed prison.

Not long ago, I was relocated to a unit full of gang members. I don’t have a ton of money but I have more than the everyday prisoner. Shortly after getting unpacked and walking the unit to look for familiar faces, I was approached and asked was I in a gang and my answer was “no”. They watched me for a few days, then one morning around 8:30 AM, I was in my cell cleaning like I do every morning and someone came into my room and asked a few random questions. The next thing I know five or so others stormed in and began assaulting me and demanding money. They took my music equipment, commissary, and other belongings and left. They said that if I sent them money I could have all my stuff back. I sent one thousand dollars and they demanded more money so I just said to hell with the property. I purchased a prison made knife that same day.

The very next day I was in my cell cleaning with the cell door locked this time and suddenly the door opened. I went to the door with the knife ready and good thing I did, because it was more gang members. They had the officer open the door. I tried to walk out of the cell and they were trying to push me back into the cell. I pulled the knife and they ran away from the door. I told them if we’re fighting let’s do it out in the open as I walked out into the day room. They wanted no parts of me as long as I had that knife in my hand. The officer walked right past as all of this was going on and said nothing. I decided not to use the knife so I threw it down and asked the officer to let me out of the unit.

I went to prison operations and asked to be moved and they said “no”. I asked again and told them if I don’t get moved someone will end up hurt. They asked why and I told them. At first they didn’t believe me until they watched the cameras. Then they moved me to P.C. and allowed the same gang members to pack my property and they took everything.

When I got what was left I complained about my missing property and they said “file a grievance”. I filed the grievance and the grievance chairperson refused to file it and sent it back. So I had my family call the warden. All he said was to file it again, which I did. It has now been almost a month and no one has said anything.

I’ve had my family calling the prison and now they won’t answer the phone anymore. So I had my family call the prison headquarters and they said they are launching an investigation but still I have heard nothing. The truth of the matter is they don’t care at all. I’ve been incarcerated 14 years and this has never happened before. These prisons are dangerous and nothing is being done about it. It’s like they want us to harm and/or kill each other in here. Now I’m trying to plan my next move because this is all new for me. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I have 48 months left on a 21 year sentence so violence isn’t the answer. The prison needs to be held accountable for letting this happen. If you are reading this please be aware and thanks for reading. Thanks MIM for giving me a voice to get my story out.

MIM(Prisons) adds: More and more people are realizing this system doesn’t serve them. We’ve had it relatively easy in this country, even some of us in prison have seen the benefits of living in the heart of empire. But the empire is changing. And we need to change with it, or get chewed up by it.

On 5 October 2024, about 150 people organized by the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 3585 picketed to call for an end to paper mail in the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC). Another protest is planned for October 17th.

The plague of drugs in U.$. prisons is real, and it has continued in states where digital mail has been implemented. The claim of this “labor” union that staff are being poisoned is not real. In neighboring Indiana, a number of prisoners were threatened with isolation in torture cells for mail that we sent them that was accused of being drug-laced. Further testing proved they were not. Meanwhile, there have now been a number of cases of prison staff across the country claiming extreme medical crises from contacting prisoner mail, following similar claims by street cops, that have never been substantiated by medical professionals. It’s interesting that this “labor” union is willing to stand out on the street and picket for a policy that would give Correctional Officers a monopoly on bringing paper into IDOC facilities.

Even much of the pro-labor union movement in the United $tates will agree that cops aren’t workers, or the oppressed, but rather are the oppressors, regardless of the question of surplus value. And Marxism has always excluded the employees of the state from the proletariat in any country. So it is of little surprise that the AFSCME would be pushing this reactionary policy to eliminate education, resources and community connection in prisons, even if it risks the very safety of their own members.

MIM Distributors submitted the protest email below to Illinois DOC Director Latoya Hughes. We encourage others to send emails or make phone calls or send letters (especially if you are in Illinois). There are more suggested scripts available from campaign initiators working with Midwest Books to Prisoners.(2)

Dear Director Hughes,

I have recently been made aware that several Illinois legislators are calling for an immediate cessation of non-legal paper mail being delivered to people incarcerated in the IDOC. Our organization sends paper mail to thousands of prisoners across the country and we object to this effort to abridge our First Amendment rights to speech and association, as well as those of the people in your prisons. We will be sharing this letter with our members and supporters, especially in the state of Illinois.

Books, newspapers, and other printed materials are a crucial source of information, education and growth for people locked in prison. Letters can be a rare thing to look forward to. Our organization runs study programs, conducts surveys and regularly sends forms to prisoners to get updates on their status. All of these programs rely on prisoners receiving pieces of paper that we send them so they can fill out the forms and return them. The impact of blocking such mail would be massive.

We have been watching the spread of alarmism around drug-laced mail, and have even had such baseless accusations made against our mail! Of course testing proved the accusation false, just as it did in the recent incident at Shawnee, where the testing by Marion Fire Rescue came back false. We’ve also seen multiple cases where staff have claimed to have gotten sick from handling mail, which have been proven to be impossible claims multiple times now. The benefits of education and community connection are proven to help ensure staff safety far more than these imagined risks of being poisoned. Policy should be fact-based and should not succumb to rumors and fear-mongering.

Again, I am writing this email to clearly state my complete opposition to any and all proposals to halt mail delivered to incarcerated people, and urge you not to move forward with this proposal.

Sincerely Concerned,

MIM Distributors

<sup>Notes:
1. Madison Porter, 5 October 2024, Canton prison workers protest how inmates receive mail, 25 News.
2. For more materials on this campaign you can access Google docs here: bit.ly/IDOCmail</sup>

I recently received my first Under Lock and Key (Winter 2023, No. 80) newsletter. I really wish I’d been receiving it years ago, cuz it’s a good read, and very informative.

Just read page 7. Drug addiction remains a primary barrier to unity, and I would like more info on United Struggle from Within’s Revolutionary 12 Step training program. And if, and how, I can get involved, cause here in the Illinois prison system, drugs have become a major issue, especially since Covid hit. Prisoners are having their people dip/spray letters, cards, books, magazines, and even obituaries with drugs and other chemicals in order to eat or smoke the paper to get some type of high. Whatever these guys are smoking is causing them to have episodes such as freaking out, seizures, and even O.D.ing. It’s so bad at times you can see a smoke cloud in the air, and C.O.’s, Sgt’s, Lt’s, and even Major’s have been on a wing during this and have done nothing but tell the wing to put that shit out and spray something in order to cover up the odor, and they’ve even said, smoke it at your own risk and don’t call for help if you O.D. There ain’t a unit, wing, or housing that don’t have an issue with this stuff. Seg and even the infirmary are smoking it up. To a point the staff have given up trying to get this under control and these substances have caused multiple issues for all of us in here.

They’ve gotten real strict on the mail and what we receive and how we receive mail such as letters, cards, photos, and books/magazines. They’ve told us that our letters can’t be more than 3 pages, we can’t receive 2-ply cards, and they can’t have any glitter on them. All photos have to go through a company such as Freeprints or Pelipost, can’t come from our family, friends, Walmart, or Walgreens any more. All books and magazines must come from a vendor or company, and even then, a lot is not allowed, no hard cover books, and can’t be over a certain size.

Also, it plays on us prisoners that have health issues and altered immune systems such as myself. I have breathing issues and I’ve even had a sinus surgery in order to open my nose so I could breathe better. And I use a rescue inhaler and have been put in by my surgeon to have a sleep study done due to my breathing and my surgeon has even said that I need a CPAP machine which is what the sleep study is for.

I’ve even gotten into arguments/fights with cellies that I’ve had over them wanting to smoke this stuff.

I have wrote the warden and the placement officer multiple times, the warden has never responded. And it took me three times writing the placement officer before I got a response. I had asked, “which wings exactly are the non-smoking wings?” “This is a smoke-free institution.”, word-for-word the response I was given.

Staff C.O.’s and nurses crack jokes and talk about how bad the smoking is on a unit or on a wing, and I’ve heard/been told by a few C.O.’s and nurses that some staff have lawsuits in due to them coming in contact with said substance and/or smoke.

There is nowhere in this prison that is smoke free, and with them not having a place for those of us that don’t want to be around this stuff, they are putting us in harm’s way and putting our health at risk.

A couple questions: is this a violation of my rights? What should/can I do about it?

Please help me if you can, thank you!

Please send me the Grievance Campaign – petition for Illinois.

MIM(Prisons) responds: This is the same story we’ve been hearing across the country, and one of the reasons we launched our Revolutionary 12 Step program when we did. It’s almost as if this drug plague prisoners are facing was intentional. You should have received a copy of our 12 Step program by now. Unfortunately we do not have an active training program. But we are looking for experienced comrades to restart our training program, and for comrades on the ground to implement the program and send in reports on its successes and failures and how to improve it. This is an important challenge that the anti-imperialist prison movement must overcome to be successful.

Is the smoke a violation of the law? Yes, as the staff told you it is a non-smoking facility and you have a legal right to not be exposed to second hand smoke there. The Smoke-Free Illinois Act (SFIA) of 2008 forbids smoking in all buildings (with exceptions like homes and designated hotel rooms), where smoking is defined as:

“Smoke” or “smoking” means the carrying, smoking, burning, inhaling, or exhaling of any kind of lighted pipe, cigar, cigarette, hookah, weed, herbs, or any other lighted smoking equipment. “Smoke” or “smoking” includes the use of an electronic cigarette.

Is the smoke a violation of your rights? Well, we’d say there are no rights, only power struggles. So you can use the SFIA to grieve this issue, but if they don’t listen you’ll have to get organized, find allies inside or outside and apply pressure. We’ve sent you the grievance petition, this is one tool you can use to try to organize people around this issue.

The oppression which prisoners face in this country is one result of the global system of imperialism whose primary victims are the oppressed nations globally, meaning that this system is our primary enemy. We must spread the word that prisoners in this country are suffering because the Amerikan empire’s wealth is based on class and national barriers; the Amerikan nation does not want to share its privileged position with Black and Brown people, so they restrict them from employment, from education, from housing, and force them into a life in the “underground.” The solution for the oppressed is not to fight to get into the club, but to unite with the oppressed in the Third World to destroy the club system as a whole and build a socialist world. A world where peoples’ needs are put first, not the current world where people are constantly struggling for petty basic rights like not to have your life threatened by toxic smoke.

I am lucky this far to have received my mail [including many newspapers, study packs and books from MIM Distributors], but the tablets are soon to arrive. As far as books go, I am unable to order any as there seems to be some type of mystery in that realm. No books until further notice, and nobody appears to be able to guide you in the proper direction.

Their goal seems to be to stop the flow of contraband into the prison. Yet, there seems to be more of it than food on your tray. People are falling out and sent right back to the place they came out of to be back in the same shape they left in: on drugs. They appear to do nothing about the problem. A person on drugs can walk right past an officer and he acts as if he doesn’t see him. The smell of something on fire stays in the air. You are forced to sleep in a room with unbearable smoke fumes in the air. All they want is for the alarm to not go off. Smoke bailing out of some buildings; isn’t that something?

Yes, we’re going to have to accept the tablets because they can solve the problem of unbearable conditions - or so they say!

MIM(Prisons) adds: Despite word from prisoners in Tennessee that there are new restrictions on books coming in, we have not been able to confirm the new rules. We have heard from other Books for Prisoners programs that they have stopped sending books to Tennessee. The Tennessee Department of Corrections’ website hosts the Inmate Mail policy dated 8 December 2023, which states:

“Printed materials may be received by inmates in an unlimited amount, provided they are mailed directly from the publisher(s) or recognized commercial distributor.”

Despite some censorship, and mail gone missing, MIM Distributors has been able to deliver books to TN prisoners prior to December 2023. And lately our biggest problem has been with Tennessee rejecting manila envelopes because they think they might harbor drugs!

As we’ve reported in Texas and elsewhere, drugs in prisons have risen to all-time highs, despite Covid-19 restrictions on visitations and new digital mail policies. And science has proven that drug addiction is a product of bad living conditions. So not only are prison staff bringing in drugs, they are driving prisoners to use them through their repressive and alienating conditions.

UPDATE 28 September from a TN prisoner: I’m currently being held at Morgan County Correctional Complex and I need your help/advice. Excluding religious books, I’m only allowed to receive 5 books, from only 3 vendors that prison officials have chosen! How can I further my education if I’m only allowed to receive 5 books? I’m working on my pending criminal and civil cases, and of course I’ll need more than 5 law books, but with this restriction, that’s not possible! This restriction is under the guidance of Warden Shawn Phillips who can be reached at (423) 346-1300.

The comrade included documentation showing the only approved vendors to be: Abebook.com [sic], bookshop.org and 21st century Christian bookstore. And apparently prisoners can give books to mailroom to be thrown away in order to receive additional books!

i wanted to take this opportunity to lend my voice to this ongoing discussion around so-called “snitching”, as this is a serious topic of principle and ideology which affects Our ability to succeed in Our tactical and strategic approaches.

As MIM(Prisons) pointed out, this question was originally raised due to captives organizing around police terrorism inside prisons and other captives refusal to participate in the paper trail aspect of the resistance. However, the issue raised in ULK 83’s article putting forth the slogan “Stop Collaborating” and the response in ULK 86, “Stop Snitching on Pigs”, need to be discussed as they all derive from the same source and it needs to be spelled out.

The California Prisoner in ULK 86 opens by saying “Let’s look at this from a practical perspective and not from an ideological one.” Then says “Snitching is telling on people. It’s giving information on someone else to a higher authority to act on it. We can all agree on that definition.”

i begin by stating: NO! We cannot all agree on that. It is a fallacy that telling on someone and snitching is always the same. See, snitching necessitates that We’ve had some sort of prior bond, or understanding. If your co-defendant “snitches on you” it is different from the old church lady down the street “telling on you.” It may produce the same result, but these are two different things. And it is indeed an ideological question, We can’t get around that. The co-defendant has an understanding with you, usually an unspoken one that each of you are equally committed to the morals and principles of the criminal subculture, which means no cooperation with law enforcement even if it means saving your own skin. When the co-defendant goes against that they have snitched on you, not only because they told but because they violated your trust by going against a principle each of you swore to uphold. The presence of the betrayal factor and the deceit, the inability to honor a commitment, these are the key factors that represent the phenomenon We call snitching. These are indeed universal principles that virtually no one likes when people go against. Regardless of walk of life, We as humyns want to have assurance that commitments will be honored, that sacrifices will be made, and that trustworthiness will be present in those We associate with. It is for this reason real snitching is universally frowned upon.

However, when We bring the old church lady into the equation, she, while frowning upon the Judas in her bible and those who exhibit those same traits in her world, will tell on you for whatever perceived slight or transgression you’ve committed against her. She hasn’t swore to any principles of the criminal subculture, she has no bond with you other than being a community member, and that bond was broken by you in your antisocial act against her. So she cannot possibly “snitch” on you, even while proceeding to tell on you. There is a significant difference, and We cannot hold people to standards that they have never acknowledged.

As MIM(Prisons) said, abuses must be exposed by so-called authorities and this goes towards undermining the legitimacy of their authority.

A crooked cop is not an ally to a revolutionary prisoner simply because they are crooked or they bring something in. This question has to really be worked out on a case-by-case basis, but i’ll just say that in most cases the crooked cop isn’t an ally and the situation is just transactional, there’s no understanding either way of the intentions behind either the taking or bringing of illicit things: it’s only a transactional relationship like most in a capitalist society. So, to say the pig (the profit-driven crooked cop) is my ally because they bring me phones and dope is to say that i am allowing myself to be bought off by these items. As a NARN i stand on the principles put forth in the FROLINAN Handbook for REVNAT Cadres: Standards 5: “Potential members must have outgrown the lust for coveting things or material goods.” And from the Codes of Conduct 4: “No member of the revolutionary cadre organization will place any material commodity above or before the organization, the people, or the NAIM.” 6: “No member of the revolutionary cadre organization is permitted to use, produce, distribute, process, fund, or take part in the sale of heroin, cocaine (in any form), LSD, PCP, or any hard drug, nor will they take any pill for the purpose of getting high and no member will distribute such pills or take part in the sale of such pills or other illegal drugs.”

i share to illustrate the standards and codes of conduct We should be upholding, even when no one else is, or even when it benefits Us to do otherwise. So if We follow this as spelled out it would limit Our dealings with that crooked pig anyway. We have a mandate to liberate political prisoners and if they believe in the principles of the revolutionary movement, then maybe that rare individual is an ally. But We all know there aren’t many who are willing to put their life and freedom on the line to liberate Us, even if they’re willing to help Us saturate the pen with distractions. So this says “i am willing, as a crooked pig who is profit driven, to help you distract yourself and others while in prison, but i am not willing to help you get out of prison.” i don’t think that’s a real ally and it’s because of the profit motive itself.

This brings me to my next point. The California Prisoner uses the terminology that We all use. “Our struggle.” But i think We need to define exactly what “Our struggle” means to us, because it doesn’t mean the same thing to everyone at all times. Some think the struggle is for power and influence within the prison, some think it’s to tear down all prisons right now, some think it’s to reform the criminal mentality in order to produce good law abiding citizens of the corporate states of amerika and all these and other trends coexist to make up what Our struggle objectively is, but what is Our struggle subjectively, to Us? The Dragon pointed this out the best when it was said, that the whole point of the prison movement, the underlying motive for all the actions is to develop the capacity to field a People’s Army. i am paraphrasing. So in my experience, and something i lament to cats around although i can’t speak for cats here or elsewhere, but those who have “plugs” are not using them for any sort of dissent activities. Those who have plugs and dope are usually those policing the cats doing the dissident actions, whether those actions are paper trial related or organizing direct action.

Rarely is it the cats who have plugs and dope doing anything for the movement, and even when these are comrades with knowledge and experience and proven track records of struggle, while they have access to those plugs and dope their activism and commitment to it either ceases or severely lessens. Why? Because these are not only distractions but are corrupting influences. It is no coincidence that usually the prisons with the least amount of “motion” are those with the highest level of rebel activity and ideological training going on. So although plugs could theoretically be used for a lot of good they are by and large not being used in that way. [MIM(Prisons) adds: This is our experience as well.]

So, while I would agree with the Cali Prisoner about not throwing the baby out with the bath water, i do so largely because We cannot do so anyway. The prison system creates its black market economy through its laws of prohibition. Therefore there will always be some pig somewhere itching to take advantage of the unique economic opportunity to provide distractions and corrupting influences to those that want them and want to provide them. i am not advocating telling on crooked cops, but let me be clear they’re not allies to revolutionary prisoners, unless they themselves support the revolutionary principles We uphold. Let me also be clear that those who decide to tell on these crooked cops, here meaning specifically those who are driven by profit, those acts are not snitching, even though they are telling as explained at the top of this writing.

The two main things that hold the revolutionary prison movement back are gangs/gang mentalities and the drug trade. Therefore, anyone who perpetuates the latter is holding back the movement. On the gang question, there are those who are solid revs and come from this cloth, i am one of them. However, this doesn’t change the fact that the introduction of and expansion of gangs, particularly street gangs inside prison, at least in the case of Texas, coincides with the downward slope of revolutionary consciousness and commitment within the walls.

Gone are the days where L.O.’s are built upon revolutionary and progressive principles. Gone are the days of traditional groups spreading knowledge and going at the system. They’re only spreading dope, gangsterism, and discord amongst each other. The exceptions to this rule become obsolete within their groups, and the revolutionary prisoners who really stand on revolutionary bizzness are not the cool cats with all the luxuries, they’re usually the ones outcast, not liked, shunned, isolated, because everyone wants to be crime bosses in here. In order to bring the proper orientation and programs back to the prisons, revolutionary and progressive prisoners have to make allies and build up institutions to help those who need and want it. It won’t be too many who want it, and that’s just the sad and true reality we’re in these days. Capitalism + dope = genocide.

These MF’ers are preventing us from building the People’s Army and We are talking about protecting them and their interests and that they are allies? Come on homie, what wrong with that picture!?

In the history of the prison movement the most effective tactic of changing conditions has been inmate litigation. In order to litigate you must create a paper trail. How can we do that if we are not filing any complaints? i encourage comrades, those who live by revolutionary codes of conduct to be mindful of exactly how you implore the enemy institutions. Not because it is or isn’t snitching, but because, again, Our point is to build a People’s Army and We still have to do that even though We complain about the reactionary notions a lot of Our peers have, these are still the peers We have to organize with and among, and therefore like any shrewd politician We must be mindful of the landscape and the dominant ideologies and ideals, even those we disagree with, and navigate the terrain in a way that doesn’t neutralize Our effectiveness at organizing people under Our umbrella. We won’t be able to build the army if they all distrust Us because they think we are snitches. We won’t even have the time or space to argue otherwise because credibility has been lost.

For this reason, it is not politically correct to tell internal affairs on the crooked pig about profit driven acts, whereas documenting acts of pig brutality where people can see and understand the negative intentions behind the pig’s actions and therefore are less likely to side with the pig against you either directly or ideologically, that is an action that is politically correct. Be mindful comrades, and stay focused on the ultimate objective. Don’t snitch, and i mean really snitch (betray you honor and commitments) and don’t collaborate with the state.

This topic keeps coming up again and again and now I see it listed in the USW campaign list. Let’s look at this from a practical perspective and not from an ideological one.

Snitching is telling on people. It’s giving information on someone else to a higher authority to act on it. We can all agree on that definition. The more important question is to what INTENTION is someone snitching, and this is what we should analyze as it pertains to our struggle.

I’ve been reading in ULK about these “comrades” who snitch on other prisoners because they claim it’s for the good of our struggle. I call Bullshit. If you really care so much about the health of the population, become a drug counselor or start a campaign to fight drug addiction. But you’re not doing any of those things, which actually involve WORK. Instead you sit in your cell and file these papers to internal affairs or whoever using the same system you claim to be opposing, and then you beg them to protect you. Disgusting.

The cops you are snitching on are not part of some larger conspiracy to keep inmates addicted to drugs or control the population. That’s absurd. These cops are actually our allies, and though they may be motivated by profit, they are still facing the same risk and fate we now find ourselves in. If it weren’t for these allies, we would never have phones in prison which allow us to contribute to the struggle in ways we otherwise could never do, not to mention the obvious connections with our loved ones without police invasion of our privacy.

I understand you who snitch probably can’t afford a phone, and this makes you angry and spiteful so you wish to do your “public service,” right? Or maybe you are simply envious of the power and influence of those who have the plugs. Sorry for that; prison is rough. But don’t sit here and claim you do it because you just care about us all so much.

That being said, are drugs beneficial to the population? No, but unfortunately sometimes that comes with it and we should spend our efforts to make sure the right things are coming in and not the wrong things. We don’t need to throw out the whole baby with the bathwater. In fact, a lot of marijuana comes in too and personally this helps a lot with my service-related PTSD. Shame on you or anyone trying to shut down these precious lifelines using the guise of our struggle. Getting more people locked in prison because of your personal misery does not help the movement. You are not fooling me or any of the real ones out there.

MIM(Prisons) responds: This comrade is largely responding to an article in ULK 84, CA Silences Reports of Drug Trade in Prisons. We can acknowledge the added nuance in this situation. However, most of the articles we’ve printed on this topic are comrades trying to get people to file grievances against political repression or physical abuse by staff, and other prisoners refusing because they “don’t snitch.” Such cases are cut and dry. While we can’t rely on the imperialist state to police itself, grievances and lawsuits are tactics that contribute to building power. We must expose abuses of the state to combat them. So to say “Stop snitching on pigs” as this comrade does is truly a reactionary statement equivalent to saying “don’t resist oppression”.

What the comrade above says about running programs to fight drug addiction is right on. Just reporting things to the imperialists is never gonna change things on its own. We must build our own power and our own independent institutions of the oppressed. That is when the imperialists will really start to make moves to out compete us by reforming their own institutions. As far as the state conspiring to spread drugs, we need to understand the levels at which such things happen. Just because every C.O. didn’t come together and discuss these plans doesn’t mean it’s not intentional. To put it another way, if the state wanted to stop drug use in prisons they could. It wouldn’t even be that hard. Whether prescription meds or illicit ones, we know this is a common tool of pacification in prisons, as is digital media as the comrade from Pennsylvania discusses.

We discussed with this comrade the loosening of old hierarchies, staff shortages, and the opening of opportunities in prisons today. Some of the old ways are going away. Mostly this has led to negative things like more drugs and neglect so far. But it does create new possibilities. And that is why we are printing this response. We do want comrades to be trying to understand the changes where they are imprisoned and thinking about how our goals can expand and work within the existing motions of change. United fronts and temporary alliances are necessary strategic tools.