MIM(Prisons) is a cell of revolutionaries serving the oppressed masses inside U.$. prisons, guided by the communist ideology of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism.
Under Lock & Key is a news service written by and for prisoners with a focus on what is going on behind bars throughout the United States. Under Lock & Key is available to U.S. prisoners for free through MIM(Prisons)'s Free Political Literature to Prisoners Program, by writing:
MIM(Prisons) PO Box 40799 San Francisco, CA 94140.
I am listed as a sex offender, a few friends and I caught a charge
in ninety six. We did time and got released, but can a sex
offender be fixed? Currently I’m doing life for a 2006 armed
robbery I have never violated any disciplinary measure for
masturbation on female prison staff or any sexually related
issues but I’m still listed as a sex offender Can a sex offender
become a revolutionary? Can a sex offender become a genuine
feminist? Or an anti-patriarch misogynist? Can a sex offender
have been a victim of misogyny? Or sexism like his victim? For a
sex offender, where does the healing and fixing begin? Can a sex
offender be considered or seen as equal? Can he ever be considered
or seen as a member of the people? Does a sex offender still have
human rights? Is he even still human? Can he ever be forgiven or
forgotten for his crime against the people? Aren’t almost all crimes
against the people? Can a sex offender be genuinely healed or
rehabilitated? Do we throw away the key and keep all sex offenders
gated? Yes? No? Is the justice system just or genuine? We
all agree that poverty is the mother of crime, So then affluence
must be its father by grand design. Can a sex offender be a victim
of sexual double standard or contradiction? Can a rich sex
offender be subject to the same prosecution, incarceration,
condemnation or even oppression as a poor sex offender in this
nation? Do poor sex offenders receive systematic indulgence? How
long has the #MeToo movement been in existence? Suddenly, the #MeToo
movement has after so long, gained overdue prominence. Will the real
sex offender please stand up? Let your money do your talking, prove
the law is corrupt. Rich sex offenders versus poor sex
offenders? White sex offenders versus Black, Brown, Yellow and
Red sex offenders? Ghetto, hood sex offenders versus hillbilly sex
offenders. President sex offenders, PIG (pro imperial goon) sex
offenders, evangelical sex offenders, papacy sex offenders?
Thomas Jefferson was a sex offender? Still your hero and founding
father? Because his victim was a wombman of color? Sally
Hemmings, daughter of momma Afrika Columbus was a sex offender,
still got his own day, for us to remember “Grab them by their pussy”
that’s what Trump say. I don’t see anybody throwing their keys
away. A poor sex offender can’t point the finger, can’t scream “foul
play?” rich sex offenders could be healed, poor ones can’t?
Can’t compare apples with grapes? Naw. Aren’t they all fruits? Yes,
but naw. Ain’t we all been living the misogynist culture? Won’t
we still keep doing it till so-called society fixes its mental
stature and structure? Separate the sex poorfenders from the sex
richfenders Can a sex offender practice genuine self criticism?
Can a sex offender be a guerilla for egalitarianism?
This issue of ULK is refocusing on an ongoing debate we’ve held
in these pages of the role “sex offenders” can, or can’t, play in our
revolutionary organizing. Many of our subscribers see “sex offenders” as
pariahs just by definition of their conviction, yet we also receive
letters from “sex offenders” with plenty of interest in revolutionary
organizing. How/can we reconcile this contradiction? This is what this
issue of ULK explores.
As you read through subscribers’ article submissions and our responses
on this topic, you’ll see some common themes, some of which have been
summarized below. This article also is an attempt to provide a snapshot
of where we are now on this question, and suggest some aspects of our
organizing that need to be developed more deeply.
The “Sex Offender” Label
There are three groups that are discussed throughout this issue that
need to be distinguished.
People who have committed crimes by proletarian standards, but have not
been convicted of them (i.e. Donald Trump, people whose sexual assaults
go unreported, prisoner bullies, etc.). These people are not called “sex
offenders” according to the state’s definition.
People convicted of being “sex offenders” who didn’t commit a crime by
proletarian standards (i.e. people labeled as “sex offenders” for
pissing in public).
People who are convicted as “sex offenders” by the state, for behaviors
that would also be considered crimes by proletarian standards
(i.e. physical assault, pimping, etc.).
Throughout this issue the term “sex offender” is used to mean any one of
those categories, or all three. It’s muddled, and we should be more
clear on our terminology moving forward. By the state’s definition, the
term does include some benign behaviors such as pissing in public (group
2); crimes which are convicted in a targeted manner disproportionately
against members of oppressed nations. So we put the term “sex offender”
in quotes because it is the official term that the state uses, and it
includes people who have not committed anti-people (anti-proletarian)
sex-crimes. Under a system of revolutionary justice, people in group 2
would need no more rehabilitation than your average persyn on the
street.
We cannot trust the state to tell us what “crimes” someone has
committed, and this is true for sex offenses as much as anything else.
This country has a long history of locking up oppressed-nation men on
the false accusation of raping white wimmin, generally to put these men
“in their place.” We have printed many letters from people locked up for
“sex offenses” but who have not committed terrible acts against people.
Interestingly, most of our subscribers know there are many
falsely-convicted prisoners in all other categories of crime, and they
readily believe that many are innocent. But when the state labels
someone a “sex offender” that persyn becomes a pariah without question.
This is an important thing for us to challenge as it represents, to us,
a patriarchal way of thinking in prison culture. Usually it is paired
with rhetoric about the need to protect helpless wimmin and children and
is just a different expression of patriarchal norms: in this case the
non-“sex offender” playing protector-man by attacking anyone labeled
“sex offender.”
Why don’t we see this with people with murder convictions? Isn’t killing
someone also a horrifying act that should not be tolerated? And why is
sexual physical assault in prison allowed to proliferate? In the 1970s,
Men
Against Sexism was a group organizing in Washington state against
prison rape, and they effectively ended prison rape in that state.(1)
Statistics show that people “convicted of a sexual offense against a
minor”(2) are more likely to be sexually assaulted in prison. Are the
people who are “delivering justice” to these “sex offenders” then cast
out as pariahs? Why is the state’s label, and not people’s actual
behavior, given so much validity? These are questions United Struggle
from Within comrades need to dig into much deeper.
Anti-People Crimes
Anti-people crimes include many different behaviors, from complacency
with capitalism and imperialism, to extreme and deliberate acts of
reactionary violence. Anti-people crimes include manufacturing and
selling pornography, illegal drugs, and even alcohol and cigarettes,
much of which is legal or at least permissible in our Liberal capitalist
society. And it includes all sadistic physical assault, which would
include all forms of sexual assault.
From our perspective, this discussion has raised more clearly for us the
importance of not glorifying or fostering positive images of any types
of anti-people violence among prisoners. Sometimes folks from lumpen
organizations hold up their history of reactionary violence as a badge
of honor and we need to criticize that, just like we need to be critical
of any positive or even neutral discussion of sexual violence. But we
still can’t take the labels from the criminal injustice system as the
reason for this criticism. Those locked up on protective custody yards
for sexual assault convictions don’t merit this criticism merely for
their PC status. That gets into the realm of “no investigation, no right
to speak” because we can’t take the injustice system’s labels as
sufficient evidence.
Anti-people behavior of all kinds is unacceptable both within and around
the revolutionary movement. Our challenge is in the fact that we are not
currently in a position to investigate individuals’ crimes. In truth the
change needed from all of us is impossibly difficult without a
revolutionary government and culture to back it up. As revolutionaries,
we all do the best we can to fight external influences and keep our
lives on a positive track so we can be contributing revolutionaries. But
there is a difference between people with class/nation/gender
backgrounds that will lead to counter-revolutionary thoughts and
actions, and those who commit anti-people crimes. Where to draw the line
between what we can deal with today and what we put off until after we
have a revolutionary government in power is not a clear and easy
question to answer.
In our current conditions, we have to ask ourselves, for instance, what
about the persyn who commits violence as a part of eir job (say selling
drugs) but then spends eir spare time building the revolutionary
movement? There’s a clear contradiction between these two practices. Do
we dismiss eir revolutionary work entirely as a result, or do we
consider em an ally while we struggle against eir reactionary violence?
The answer to this will come from the masses, and not from abstract
revolutionary principle.
In the real world, perhaps we don’t need to make this comparison. If
someone in a revolutionary organization engaged in some sort of
non-sexual extreme anti-people violence the organization would need to
address this directly. The intervention would at least include
independent investigation and calls for self-criticism, and if an
individual doesn’t recognize their error and take serious steps to
correct their line and practice they could be ejected from the
organization. It could also include other interventions, based on the
organization’s needs, skills, and resources.
Any anti-people violence is going to harm the movement, and of course
the people it is directed against, and so perpetrators of these actions
should not be a part of our revolutionary organizations. We will still
struggle with those who have class and/or national interests aligned
with the revolutionary movement but who are acting out extreme
anti-people violence. But until they understand why what they did/do is
wrong and demonstrate change in their practice, they should not be
admitted into revolutionary organizations.
Sex-Crimes vs. Other Crimes
One argument for why sexual violence should be distinguished from
non-sexual violence could be that gender is the principal contradiction
within any revolutionary movement that admits people of all genders, and
we need to deal with it differently within our organizations. For
example, we have contemplated the value of separate-gender organizations
because of this contradiction, though to date we have not advocated this
solution.
Another argument could be that victims of sexual violence in imperialist
countries are more likely to take up revolutionary politics, fueled by
their experience of gender oppression. And because of the pervasiveness
of sexual assault in imperialist countries, we will end up with a lot of
revolutionaries, mostly bio-females, who have experienced sexual
violence.
This could again raise gender to a principal contradiction within
imperialist-country movements because of the traumatic background of so
many members. It becomes a contradiction the movement has to deal with
(when any patriarchal violence arises within the movement), and one of
the greatest propellants forward on gender questions.
Neither of these principal contradiction arguments make a case for a
significant distinction between sexual and non-sexual anti-people
violence in the abstract. Rather they are relevant in terms of of how
our organizations need to deal with the problems. And in both cases it
has to do with the people within the movement’s perception of these
types of violence.
Applying this same concept to organizing in the hyper-masculine prison
environment, it may make sense to exclude “sex offenders” from our
projects because of the pervasive anti-“sex offender” attitude among
prisoners. However, we already discussed above that we’re not using the
state’s definitions of crime. If revolutionary prisoners determine a
need to exclude people who have specifically committed sexually violent
anti-people crimes from their organization, to maintain organizational
strength, they should do this. But of course this is different from
excluding “sex offenders.” (group 2)
Sex-Crimes Accusations
In dealing with sex-crimes accusations, the primary difference between
organizing people on the streets and organizing in prisons is the
presence of an accuser. With prisoners, we don’t generally interact with
an accuser, we just have a label from the criminal injustice system.
Though certainly prison-based organizations will have to deal with
accusers in the case of prisoner-on-prisoner assaults. This prison-based
situation is more similar to the situation in organizations on the
streets where a member brings up an accusation against another member.
And in the case of prisoners, like the Central Park 5, some “sex
offenders” did not even have an accuser on the street. The survivor of
the assault had no recollection of the event. The state picked out these
5 young New Afrikan men to target, to set an example and vilify New
Afrikans in the media. They were later all acquitted.
Whereas on the streets, or when organizing inside with non-“sex
offender” prisoners who have survived sexual violence, we are almost
always going to be directly interfacing with the survivors.
While we are here minimizing the state’s definition of “sex
offender,” we in no way mean to minimize the accusations of victims of
sexual violence. In general society, false accusations are statistically
rare, and the best practice is to put substantial weight on the validity
of accusations of sex-crimes.(3)
Anecdotally, we’ve seen a high prevalence of sexual violence survivors
attracted to revolutionary work. It’s easy to see why people who have
experienced the ugliest gender oppression in our society would be drawn
to revolutionary organizing. Suffering often breeds resistance.
Within revolutionary movements, the rate of false accusations is in all
likelihood more common than in the general population. This is because
the state will use any method imaginable to tear us down,
especially from the inside out. Many comrades have been taken down from
false sex-crime accusations from the state or agent provocateurs. We
need to build structures in to our organizations that protect against
state attacks, and simultaneously hold the claims of victims in high
regard, not just of sex-crimes but of any anti-people behavior that
could come up internally. This process will vary
organization-to-organization, but our internal strength comes in
preparation. Not only by creating a process to follow in case something
does come up, but also in creating a culture, and even including
membership policies, that prevent it from even happening in the first
place.
These principles and processes need development and input from
organizations that already have them in place and have used them. This
is definitely not a new concept to revolutionary organizations and
radical circles, and even with all that practice under our belt there
are still many unanswered questions. Some basic practices might include:
un-muddling the relationships between comrades (i.e. no dating within
the org) and establishing and practicing communication methods and
skills to create cultural norms for preventing chauvinistic behaviors
and addressing these behaviors when they do arise.
How we handle this process now in our cell structure will be different
if a cell has 2 members versus 2,000 members. The process will need to
be adapted for different stages of the struggle as well, such as when we
have dual power, and then again when the Joint Dictatorship of the
Proletariat of the Oppressed Nations has power. And on and on, adapting
our methods into a stateless communism.
Even with policies in place, we have limited means of combating
chauvinism, assault allegations and other unforeseen organizational
problems endemic to the left. Rather than wave off these contradictions,
or put them out of sight (or cover them up, like so many First
World-based parties and organizations have done), we need to build
institutions that protect those who are oppressed by gender violence.
Potential for Punishment
We do not yet have the means at our disposal to deal with crimes against
the people as thoroughly as we would like. To do that, we would indeed
need institutions tantamount to state power. If found guilty, the most
we can do is issue expulsions, orders of isolation, and disseminate
warnings privately to anyone in the movement who might be endangered by
the offender. The principle of these measures is the isolation and
(hopefully) separation from the anti-imperialist movement of
personalities that not only put comrades in physical danger, but through
their violent and narcissistic habits (seeking validation, circumventing
investigations, denying rectification) leave the movement open to plants
and pigs who have never passed up the opportunity to use such unstable
personalities as entry points. The individuals we are most interested in
excluding are those who have not only committed anti-people acts, but
who continue to pose active physical risks to the movement and
individual comrades. In all cases which can be addressed without
expulsion, we certainly encourage thorough and continual self-criticism
and rectification.
Regardless of the crime though, there is almost no way MIM(Prisons)
could investigate any of the crimes committed by people behind bars. We
have had subscribers write to us to tell us another of our subscribers
is a rat or sexual predator, and we’ve had people write to us who do say
their conviction is true. One could make an argument that we need to ask
prisoners to make a self-criticism that demonstrates that they now
understand what they did was wrong, and we should do more to encourage
this. But if someone doesn’t admit to the crime ey is accused of, then
we are at a loss.
In organizing through the mail, the most we can do is note an accusation
as something to potentially be aware of for the future. If we saw this
manifest in the accused subscriber’s actions interacting with
MIM(Prisons), or other prisoners, then we would consider cutting off
contact or taking other measures to exclude em from our organizing work.
The amount of resources required, and the risk of state meddling, to
conduct an investigation on guilt and enforce punishment, brings us back
to our line that practice must be principal in our recruiting. Comrades
demonstrate in practice their commitment to the movement and their
political line, and that is the best thing we have to judge them on from
the outside.
Potential for Rehabilitation
How should we handle people who have committed sex-crimes by proletarian
standards when they do want to continue to participate in revolutionary
organizing? Should they be banned from organizing with us (which is
basically how “sex offenders” are treated in prisons now)? Or relegated
to the role of “supporter” only, and not member? Should we avoid
organizing with them altogether, or can we work with them in united
front work? Or are people who have committed sex-crimes an exception to
our work building a United Front for Peace in Prisons?
Defining what we need to trust people to do (or not do) is a decent
starting point. Assessing whether these tasks can be trusted to someone
with a particular behavioral history is then possible. This would be
true of any crime. For example, if someone had laundered money from a
people’s support organization in the past, it would be difficult to
trust em as the treasurer of a revolutionary org. Many checks would need
to be built into place in order for this persyn to be trusted to do
bookkeeping, and probably it’s a better use of our limited time and
resources to just not have them doing the bookkeeping at all.
Whether we can actually build in these checks and balances for any crime
will depend a lot on the crime itself. For example, we organize with a
lot of former-gangbangers, who have a history of committing sexual
violence in the context of their lumpen-criminal activities. If this was
the only context in which someone engaged in sexual violence, and they
have very thoroughly engaged in a self-criticism process about eir time
banging, then it’s reasonable to expect that if ey’s not banging that ey
is most likely not committing sexual violence. On the other hand, if
someone committed sexual violence in the context of molesting people
simply because they are weaker than em, for sadistic pleasure or eir
twisted perspective of “love”, we may not have resources or expertise at
this time to reform these people before we destroy our current
patriarchal capitalist society.
In discussing rehabilitation of people who have committed anti-people
sex-crimes, we also find it useful to examine the social causes of why
people commit sex-crimes in the first place. MIM(Prisons)’s analysis is
that people commit these horrible acts because they are raised in our
horrible patriarchal, militaristic, power-hungry, individualistic,
capitalist society. Part of our challenge is we can’t remove people from
this society without first destroying the society. So can we expect
someone who is so deeply affected by our fucked up society to also
deeply heal to the point where we can trust em with whatever is needed
for our struggle? Any sadistic anti-people activity will require extreme
rehabilitation, which we may just not be in a position to assist with at
this time. We can and should encourage self-criticism for past errors
from those serious about revolution. But from a distance (through mail)
our ability to help and foster this self-criticism is greatly limited.
In a recent MIM(Prisons) Re-Lease on Life newsletter there was an
article on what it is like to be a communist and on probation. In
September 2016 in a ULK there was an article about sex offenders
and status within the prison. This article will complement both, talking
about what my experience has been like over two years as a communist
post-probation.
The current revolutionary communist party versus the party branch I have
been loyal to and committed to during my 10 years on probation, jail,
prison was reluctant of taking me back. The reason why I only was
allowed as supporter/sympathizer status was a defense mechanism from the
COINTELPRO and now 9/11 days, where the ruling class or reactionaries
could use my case if they found out to discredit the party.
The idea of another “other” somehow possibly discrediting the party
makes sense. Especially if it was front line news that a socialist
party, that has already been attacked throughout its history for all
sorts of untrue accusations, was now “exposed” as harboring sex
deviants. This would possibly make other party members uncomfortable.
And it would appear to other groups that the party was not being a
radical feminist communist party.
But my situation became a non-issue, probably due to members forgetting.
I joined the same branch I was part of in the past. For a year I jumped
into environmental work, anti-war work, feminist work, and helping with
a homeless bill of rights. I also jumped into the leadership of an
ex-prisoners’ organization, as well as with Samizdat Socialist Prisoners
Project. Also working on a memoir of my thoughts as a thought-criminal.
When activists and revolutionaries of all stripes found out about me
having a background, or of my crime, I did not shy away from
acknowledging it. I told them I did not have a victim, that it was a
sting by local cops. I am doing what I think communist sex deviants
should do: work towards eliminating the capitalist state that creates
schizophrenic and contradictory mores and norms in the first place. I
was the guy that did prisoner liberation work in my area.
After a year, someone calling themselves a feminist found out what I had
done and lambasted me on Facebook. As a white, male, sex offender,
atheist, and communist I had to refrain from attacking a female feminist
to avoid seeming like a white sexist and chauvinist. So I left the
feminist group along with other feminist groups I was a part of.
But it did not stop there. There was nothing I could say to defend my
actions or defuse the situation especially on social media. Only two or
three people, who were hardly activists, were attacking me, questioning
why someone like me should be in a feminist group. They found a paper I
wrote about being in college as a sex offender, and did not interpret it
correctly as I am no longer entitled, deviant, and uber-sexualized.
Throughout a week of turmoil, many comrades and friends defended me
saying that I have never hid what I have done, and no opponent of me
reached out to me to defend myself. My comrades pretty much asked if a
sex offender’s best place is in a feminist group attacking the
chauvinism, sexism in the days of Trump, Weinstein, and Brock Turner.
Currently after two months, I still have not participated in any
feminist-related event.
These opponent feminists are a possible example of carceral feminism.
The carceral feminists are people who believe the best punishment is a
thrown-away prison key. They have allied with conservatives on this
issue. If I had my chance to defend myself, I would say I am more
committed than any of the carceral feminist armchair activists. I would
tell them how most of my close female friends, sexual partners, and even
my girlfriend have experienced rape, sexual assault, etc. and they
accept me. The one to two years off of probation, jail, and prison have
been very rocky and it is hard to figure out my voice and place in the
revolutionary struggle. I hope many of the released do not return to a
life imposed on them by the bourgeoisie, but partake in liberating a
prison world.
MIM(Prisons) responds: This comrade’s experience speaks to the
universal struggle of former prisoners, and more specifically to the
question of how revolutionaries should work (or not work) with people
convicted of sex offenses. To clarify, ey is working with some
organizations that we have significant disagreements with, but that
doesn’t change the relevance of what ey writes.
This is a case where someone who was convicted of a sex offense is not
disputing the accusation. Instead, ey comes to the conclusion that the
right thing for someone who committed gender crimes to do is to fight to
end the system that creates a culture of gender oppression. This we very
much agree with.
We did not see the social media debates with and against this persyn so
we can’t comment directly on what people said when arguing that ey
should not be allowed into feminist organizations. But there are several
problems we see with this incident. First, attacking someone on social
media rather than taking criticisms directly to em and eir organization
does not do justice to the seriousness of this political debate. Also,
pushing someone out of an organization before hearing eir side and
investigating the issue thoroughly just does the work of the government
by dividing the movement.
As Maoists we believe that people are capable of change, and so when we
learn about errors people have made we ask for self-criticism and an
analysis of why those actions were taken. Those who not only make
sincere self-criticism but also demonstrate through their actions that
they have changed should be given the opportunity to contribute to the
revolutionary movement.
Sex offenders are generally pariahs, both on the streets and behind
bars. All people with a criminal record face extra scrutiny, criticism,
and ostracization when they hit the streets. It’s important that
revolutionary organizations don’t play into this. We shouldn’t dismiss
former captives who want to be activists. Instead we should set up
structures to help them get involved and support their work. And for
those who have committed crimes against the people in the past, we can
help them better understand not only why these actions were wrong, but
also to transform their thinking to best avoid hurting others in the
future and how to build a society that doesn’t foster those crimes in
the first place.
In recent months we’ve seen a huge number of people come forward with
accusations of sexual harassment or assault against men in the
entertainment industry, in politics, and well-known business leaders.
And in many cases the exposures have encouraged more people to come
forward, and the ending of careers. This has been integrated with a
#MeToo movement of wimmin stepping forward to say that these highly
publicized cases are not just isolated incidents. The point of #MeToo is
to show all wimmin experience unwanted sexual attention at some point in
their lives, often repeatedly. This movement has progressive aspects,
and here we will try to take readers to the logical conclusion of all
this exposure of sexual assault.
The Aziz Ansari sexual assault allegations perhaps most clearly
illustrate where the #MeToo movement must go if it is to really address
the root of these problems. Ansari is a famous actor, comedian and
filmmaker. In January, a womyn came forward anonymously with a detailed
account of her sexual encounter with Ansari. The womyn “Grace” described
a very awkward and unpleasant evening in which Ansari repeatedly made
sexual advances while “Grace” attempted to indicate her discomfort with
what she called “clear nonverbal cues.” When she finally said “no” to
one of his sexual propositions, Ansari backed off and suggested they
dress and just hang out.
Ansari claims he thought the encounter was entirely consensual. Grace
claims Ansari ignored all her attempts to put a stop to the sex. This
case has led to a useful debate over where to draw the line in terms of
what we call sexual assault. This case has led some (Grace supporters
and Grace opponents) to point out that calling her experience sexual
assault means we’ve all been sexually assaulted. Or maybe not everyone,
but most wimmin at the very least. Because most wimmin can point to a
situation where they were uncomfortable or unhappy but pressured by a
man to proceed with sex.
Ansari was oblivious to Grace’s lack of enjoyment, and her inability to
clearly verbally express this points to a power inequality. In a truly
equal relationship between two people, each would feel totally
comfortable walking away at any point. And each would be carefully
listening to what the other said (verbally and non-verbally). Whatever
it is that stopped Grace from walking away, whether it’s Ansari’s fame
or wealth, or just her training as a womyn to do what a man asks, it’s
undeniable that she was not able to just walk away.
This is the crux of the problem with attempting to reform away sexual
assault while we live in a patriarchal society. Rape is non-consensual
sex. And, as the Ansari case demonstrates, there are many situations in
which wimmin aren’t giving consent even though men think the encounter
is totally consensual. We call this non-consensual sex what it is: rape.
When there is a power difference in a relationship, the persyn with less
power is limited in their ability to consent. You can’t freely consent
when someone is holding a gun to your head. And similarly you can’t
freely consent when you fear economic consequences. Those are obvious
inequalities. Someone who says “yes, please” in those situations simply
can’t be freely consenting. The Ansari case gets at more subtle
inequalities, but ones that have a very real impact on people’s ability
to consent. In a society where inequality is inherent in every
interaction, we can’t expect people to have sexual relationships that
are equal and consensual. The problem isn’t that Ansari raped Grace. The
problem is that all sex under the patriarchy is non-consensual. Grace
just wrote about one of the more subtle cases of non-consensual sex.
All this sexual assault in Amerikan society isn’t the fault of the men
who are being called out. It’s the fault of the patriarchal society.
Grace proponents point out that it shouldn’t be wimmin’s responsibility
to help men learn how to read their discomfort. Grace opponents complain
that wimmin need to empower themselves and speak up and demand that
their consent (or lack of consent) be respected. This is a good debate,
and we actually agree with both sides. But it’s the wrong debate to be
having, because neither side can achieve their goal under patriarchy. A
lifetime of training to respect power (the power of men, the power of
money, the power of fame, the power of a teacher, the power of looks,
the power of skill) can’t be overcome with an assertiveness training
class. And educating people to ask for consent at every step of the way
won’t help when someone feels they have to say “yes” to their
teacher/priest/benefactor/mentor/idol.
Some might hope that other changes in Amerikan society will move us
towards abolishing the patriarchy. People fighting gender oppression
argue that having a womyn president who speaks out against sexual
harassment, and getting in judges who will prosecute people
aggressively, and the broad education and exposure of the #MeToo
campaign will eventually break down the gender power differential in
this society. But even this level of reform won’t change a fundamental
system that is based on power differentials. We don’t believe the
patriarchy can be abolished under a system that is set up to help the
rich profit off the exploitation of the Third World peoples.
The #MeToo movement is trying to show people how pervasive sexual
assault is. That’s important. We need to take that further and show the
link between power differentials in relationships and sexual assault.
And we must be clear that these power differences will always exist
under a capitalist patriarchy. We can’t reform our way to pure and equal
sex. Just as many wimmin are now dramatically calling out #MeToo, we
dramatically call out #AllSexIsRape. Sexual assault is everywhere;
revolutionary change is needed.
by a Pennsylvania prisoner February 2018 permalink
I have noticed that the New Afrikan people (NAP) have been crying out
for justice for their people against oppression for ages. As an advocate
and activist to end all oppression I stand beside them 100%. Oppression
is an ugly thing and needs to be totally eradicated. However, I have
also noticed that large numbers of NAPs and Latin@s oppress another
“minority” group, namely the LGBTQIA community on a continuous basis.
The same reasoning and ideology used by white supremacists to oppress
others, especially NAP and Latin@s, is being used by NAP and Latin@s to
oppress the LGBTQIA community. I feel that if people want to be free
from oppression, they should in turn refrain from willingly and
consciously oppressing other humyns and humyn groups. Justice and
equality should be collective, not subjective and for certain people
only. Does anyone else see this hypocrisy? I’m open to critique and
feedback.
MIM(Prisons) responds: As communists, we struggle for an end to
all forms of oppression. It’s a constant struggle to educate ourselves
and others, and consciously struggle against biases that have been
ingrained over years of living in this corrupt system. But while we live
in a society built on class, nation and gender oppression we can expect
to see forms of all of these within progressive movements.
There are a few principles we apply here. One is recognizing the
principal contradiction and focusing on pushing that forward. Another is
unity-struggle-unity. So as we unite with all anti-imperialist forces to
resolve the principal contradiction (the oppression of Third World
nations by the U.$.-led imperialist block) we will struggle over
questions such as these in an attempt to build greater unity with
revolutionary nationalists who may retain reactionary ideas around
gender.
I received the book that you sent me and the ULK newsletter. I
agree with the line that all sex is rape and that the majority of the
white working class in the United States is not a revolutionary force
due to the fact that they have a material interest in maintaining
imperialism on a global stage.
I been doing organizing and educational work. I been helping showing
others how to fill out grievance forms. I end up getting 100%
participation from all cadres on lock up down at Jessup Correctional
Institution. As you can see my address changed. They moved me to Maximum
security prison North Branch, it is the most secure prison at Maryland.
Due to my organizing and assault on COs at Jessup they raised my
security level.
We had to move the struggle to the physical level because they was not
respecting our grievance forms; they was ripping them up. When the
grievance process fails the physical level is the next step. I am not a
focoist. But when oppressive tactics are used by the imperialist blood
suckers of the poor then violence is the next step.
I don’t think that the drug problem is getting any better. A lot of
brothers are getting high off of the medication these nurses are giving
out which is nothing but another form of social control that is used by
the imperialist system. Everything under this capitalist system is
abnormal. The people will only begin to see the value of people through
the transitional stage of socialism. Individualism is what majority of
citizens value. We as communists must continue to struggle and fight to
win the people over.
I have political debates all the time with capitalists. They don’t see
how the means of production should be collectively owned by the people.
I been raising the class consciousness elucidating to comrades how the
Democratic party and the Republican party will not exist without
perpetuating social conflict amongst the people and how racism and
classism is inextricably built into the capitalist system.
One thing about a lot of women is they don’t like the inequality and
sexism but when you ask them do they believe we should abolish the
current system a lot of them will say no! A lot of women are willing to
put up with inequality and sexism because they have a material interest.
I agree with this line that sexism will always exist under this
capitalist system even during the transitional stage which is socialism.
Classism is the worst social ill that we have in our society, to me
classism is a disease it takes a long time to cure. I am a blackman from
a low income community. A lot of women I talk to are ignorant to
communism. They have a bad perception about it due to imperialist
propaganda. I would like to learn more about Mao Zedong. Please send
some knowledge about Mao Zedong.
MIM(Prisons) responds: We have a lot of unity with this writer
about the nature of class, nation and gender oppression in the
imperialist world today. But we see national oppression as the main
problem today, not class. This is because imperialism is built on a
system of nations oppressing other nations. That oppression is
economically exploitative, and in many ways parallels class oppression.
But recent history has shown revolutionary nationalism to be the form
that the most successful anti-imperialist organizing has taken. We will
have the best success against imperialism by pushing national liberation
struggles. And these in turn will push forward the class struggle.
We also want to comment on the question of organizing strategies
becoming physical. Change can’t occur without action that has
consequences. And ultimately an oppressor that uses force to control
must face a response of force before that oppression can be ended. But
as Sun Tzu taught in the Art of War, the enemy must be truly
helpless to be defeated. Comrades must be careful to plan actions so
that they don’t just result in greater repression. Leaders getting
locked up in isolation doesn’t advance the movement. Everyone needs to
evaluate their own conditions to determine what’s the best organizing
approach and what’s necessary for self-defense. And self-defense should
not be confused with revolution.
Sadly, we as prisoners, in many instances take the judgment of our
enemy, the injustice system, as truth even when knowing
first-hand their ability to get a conviction has little to do with facts
or justice. This knowledge should be enough that we not begin to
persecute or torment any member of the lumpen class based on convictions
and charges that derive in these kangaroo courts. The contradiction is
that actual violations of this nature by any member of the lumpen class
is a violation against us all. I have served justice on a street level
against such violators. Yet I am in prison due to a sex crime conviction
that was racially motivated. Even when the alleged victim was impeached
for lying and video was shown proving my innocence a jury of 12 whites
found me guilty of the crime. I have continued to defend my innocence,
lead many groups in prison and stayed politically engaged. Yet I have to
deal with the stigma that is created by this label. I continue to use my
voice to awaken members of the lumpen class about the poisonous beast of
capitalism and educate them about the benefits of socialism.
In the book Soul on Ice, Eldridge Cleaver has a chapter called
“The Allegory of the Black Eunuchs,” which I would advise all
revolutionaries to read. Also to all my New Afrikan comrades our
politics are clear on this issue as it was dealt with in the Ten Point
Program produced by our revolutionary forefathers, The Black Panther
Party for Self-Defense. Point #8 of the program states, “WE want freedom
for all Black men held in federal, state, county and city prisons and
jails.”
Marc Lamont Hill, author of Nobody: Casualties of America’s War on
the Vulnerable, from Ferguson to Flint and beyond, commented in the
August 2016 issue of Ebony Magazine on p. 109:
“To many people, including Blacks and radical activists at the time, the
call for releasing all prisoners was the most controversial tenet of the
Black Panther Party’s original Ten-Point Program. After all, how could
we justify releasing criminals into society?
“For the Panthers, however, it was impossible to separate ‘criminals’
from the circumstances that criminalized them. Racist police forces,
unjust laws, unfair trials and biased juries all made it impossible to
determine whether someone was truly guilty or simply the victim of a
rigged system. Even those who were guilty, they argued, had their hands
forced because of the oppressive conditions of capitalism and White
supremacy. Essentially, the question was, How can you blame someone for
becoming a thief when he or she doesn’t have a fair shot at an honest
job with honest pay?”
But the Panther Program did not end with releasing New Afrikan
prisoners. Point #9 continues to explain:
“We believe that the courts should follow the United States Constitution
so that Black people will receive fair trials. The Fourteenth Amendment
of the U.S. Constitution gives a man a right to be tried by his peer
group. A peer is a person from a similar economic, social, religious,
geographical, environmental, historical and racial background. To do
this the court will be forced to select a jury from the Black community
from which the Black defendant came. We have been, and are being, tried
by all-White juries that have no understanding of the ‘average reasoning
man’ of the Black community.”
Here Huey P. Newton was referring to the tenets of the United $tates
Constitution to justify a move towards building independent institutions
of the oppressed. Newton was always conscious to not get ahead of the
masses, but to lead them towards viable solutions. And the Black Panther
Party leadership knew that getting justice for New Afrikans in the
United $tates was not viable; that only the New Afrikan nation could
apply a just morality in judging the actions of its people in the
context of being an internal semi-colony of the United $tates white
power structure.
So my conclusion to the sex offender debate for issue 61 of Under
Lock & Key is that at no point should we take our enemies word
or level of injustice over members of the lumpen class, when those
lumpen maintain their innocence. Yet we should stand against these
violations if they are knowable facts. We should get to know each member
of the oppressed lumpen on a personal and individual basis, while
understanding the history of the white supremacist criminal injustice
system of labeling political prisoners with these kinds of charges in
their effort to get them assassinated by other members of the oppressed.
Just think of how we lost big Yogi a year or so ago.
There are certain things that I have zero toleration for. But I still
try to be an overall understanding and wise guy, especially towards
those individuals who are younger than I, and who face/faced similar or
identical struggles. I have MIM(Prisons) to thank for helping me to
acquire knowledge and information, which I have used to overcome my
lifelong resentment and fear of “sexual predators” and “sex offenders”
(SOs).
I have faced sexual abuse as a young child, and throughout various
points of my life, and have been forced to undergo all the intricate and
complex issues ramifying from such things. Initially, these same SOs
were the main individuals that I struggled against, held intense hatred
for, and who I held zero toleration for and towards, without any
question or afterthought involved into any types of factual, evidential
or considerational circumstances of their cases/charges, etc. I agree
entirely with the ULK 55 articles concerning “unity with sex
offenders” and unifying with sex offenders. I have developed brand new
beliefs about such things thanks to MIM(Prisons)’s ULKs.
I am in prison for selling drugs and armed robbery; but since I’ve been
incarcerated I have stopped all stealing/thievery and I don’t mess with
any drugs. So I believe that even if a sex offender is guilty of their
crimes, I think that it’s actually possible for changes in these
individuals to manifest, with sufficient circumstances. I did not
believe that before reading ULK 55 and I loved the insight in
this same issue addressing the issue involved with not being able to go
off the state’s/fed’s jacketing alone.
For one thing, those same fed/state officials are often involved in
fraudulent/fabricated bullshit/schemes, lying, conspiracies, etc. So
their word alone is never to be trusted or relied upon. Their essential
nature is to assume false masquerades undercover, utilize
deceit/manipulation tactics, cheat, lie, rob, etc., so that they can
win. During my lifetime they’ve hit me personally with all of those
tricks, plus some, so I know firsthand how it goes. They’re often all
about setting people up and bending their own rules to get ahead, or to
win, and so forth. There’s no end to the madness.
Even so much as simple socializing with SOs has been alien to me, but
I’m taking steps in the direction of overcoming old habits involved with
interacting with these types of prisoners. Only through MIM(Prisons) has
this been possible for me. The only catch is that I don’t wish to live
in a cell with one of these individuals; but I think that I could try to
do so under certain circumstances. My main concern (if and when all of
my previous inhibitions were/are done away with) is still present, which
involves me being targeted by prisoners/staff for such an interaction
with SOs. I’m not saying that I fear any adversity. They can’t do
anything to me that hasn’t already been done to me, other than killing
me. But, with the way that things already stand, as for my work and
projects, I already face a substantial amount of retaliation and
opposition coming from every possible angle.
MIM(Prisons) responds: It is difficult for all of us to overcome
our past and look at things objectively when we have intense subjective
experiences that cloud our judgment. We know that sexual abuse is
particularly traumatic and has a very strong impact on most people’s
perceptions. So it is no small thing that this comrade is working to
overcome subjective fears and instead evaluate people objectively when
they have been labeled as sex offenders.
We agree wholeheartedly with this comrade’s analysis that people can
change. It’s not an easy process, but even those convicted of
anti-people crimes that they really did commit can wake up to their
mistakes, educate themselves in revolutionary politics, and take a stand
on the side of the oppressed. It takes courage to admit to one’s errors,
as it isn’t easy to overcome ego. But this is part of the process of
criticism and self-criticism that is so vital to any revolutionary
movement. We applaud this comrade for setting an example of pushing our
struggle even further, after ey had already given up eir own anti-people
and self-destructive acts.
[MIM(Prisons) prints the following as background info on a group that
has been engaging with us and with the United Front for Peace in Prisons
and Agreement to End Hostilities in California prisons. The purpose is
for our readers to have more information on what this group is about. We
like their focus on the state as the enemy, while serving to defend
transgender prisoners from all reactionary elements. Though we disagree
that the state exploits prison labor. We hope to continue to build with
36 Movement to promote integration and inclusion of transgender
prisoners into the evolving progressive and revolutionary prison
movements.]
Peace and Greetings,
The 36 Movement is an in-prison transgender political resistance with a
column of militia (Red Roses). We fall with the broader category of the
revolutionary movement and including the prison movement. Our origin is
in the prisons: by their oppression of us, we acquired a revolutionary
political consciousness, tempered mind and resolute endurance, cadre
tested in the fire.
Our first principal agenda is the accurate analysis of the concrete
conditions in which we live in society and in prison, which guides us in
our second principal agenda, that of confrontation with the oppressor.
Towards the first, political study is key. Adamant discipline fortifies
us and facilitates success in our endeavors. These culminate in
initiative. Our current political initiative is that of resistance
against our oppression and to educate transgender people in the moral
right and obligation to oppose our oppression and to do so proactively
and within a revolutionary framework.
Our condition of being oppressed and persecuted in prison by the pigs
and the reactionary element must be effectively challenged for our
survival and peace of mind, a united and organized effort with learned
and experienced leadership. Where pigs are concerned, we employ the
tactical political weapons of knowledge of the rules and the laws to
counter their maltreatment of us and hold them accountable, filing
administrative complaints and lawsuits about our needs in prison in
retaliation to our transgender status and discrimination against us, and
outreach for public support and to educate of our conditions and our
resistance. Where the reactionary element is concerned, we function as
needs be. Although we are not on a military offensive, a military wing
under the control of the political wing is indispensable within a
revolutionary party formation. For one, it serves as deterrent.
Establishment of a citizens’ militia is not against the law; in fact, it
is a constitutional right. Many exist.
We are a multiethnic formation. We discourage drug and alcohol use among
our cadre as a matter of political discipline and to foster good health
and a clear mind towards our objectives, and discourage criminal thought
and behavior. We respect on a mutual basis. We practice genuine unity
among ourselves by sticking close together, trusting and sharing. Each
of us is accountable for our individual and collective responsibilities.
Having first educated ourselves as to the best way to live our lives
under a prison and political system tyrannical and genocidal towards us
because of our transgender disposition and prisoner status and lack of
political power, we likewise educate other transgender people and
organize them to struggle together in a united offensive for our freedom
from oppression and for our livelihood and to have political power.
We hold that as a people oppressed from multiple quarters, the principal
enemy is the State. The State is always the first enemy. We acknowledge
other enemies in the form of the reactionary element within and without.
Whatever our engagement with these, we are not diverted from political
confrontation with the State.
By the State is meant the economic and political system of capitalism
that has resulted in millions of economically oppressed people, and both
the domestic law enforcement apparatus that protects its interests and
the military complex that ensures its foreign resources and dominance of
nations otherwise known as imperialism, capitalism’s most advanced
stage: the bourgeois strata that dominates the means of production and
access to them and thus the flow of the domestic economy and that
includes economic and financial blocs, the bureaucratic political
apparatus that allows for and is corrupted by the bourgeoisie; the
militarism that forces itself upon and exploits nations for their
natural resources and cheap labor and as strategic geopolitical location
for capitalist control of the world economy and warmongering, briefly.
Prison is government, a State enterprise, and represents and upholds all
of this, is a part of it, itself exploits the cheap or free labor of
prisoners for capital gain. Who fights against prisons, fights against
capitalism and imperialism.
Our prison experience has been one of heightened consciousness: we
perceive prisons as camps of systematic indoctrination and training for
a revolutionary outcome, prison-spawned revolutionary consciousness and
organization along a political matrix, restructuring criminal mentality
into revolutionary political consciousness, the revolutionary
weaponization of prison, turning the State’s prisons against the State.
Our experience is one of becoming and creating revolutionary cadre out
of one of the most degrading features of the State, its prisons, filled
to over capacity with wretched souls; how to see and economize on the
concrete reality of our misery to forge a new type of human being, an
upgrade of the species, a more worthwhile person, one to construct and
partake in a more worthwhile and humane socio-economic-political
reality.
This is our theory and practice within the revolutionary theater at this
time. We have politicized our minds, indoctrinated and trained, which
enables us to discern and analyze our circumstances concretely and so
live our lives. This is the space our formation occupies and is putting
into practice, the accurate development of revolutionary cadre in
prison, and tactical political engagement with the oppressor.
Trans prisoners in all prisons are encouraged to become politically
aware and politically active against our mistreatment in prison and to
join the 36 Movement. Our power lies in our organized unity. 36 cadre
must be vetted through the leadership at this location. Refer: Natalie
Alvarez / 3102 E Highland Ave #25 / Patton, CA 92369. All power to the
people.
I am a transsexual female who has been in these trenches 37 years, have
walked close to 30 yards and several SHUs, EOP, DMH. I want to add to
Legion’s
presentation regarding SNYs (ULK 58, p. 19) and how they came
to proliferate in Cali, and with regard to the people who walk SNY.
When I first came to CDC in the early 1980s, there were four formations
that governed all the maximum security yards: Black Guerrilla Family,
Nuestra Familia, Mexican Mafia, Aryan Brotherhood. Notwithstanding the
wars among them, there was order and discipline within each, and the
tone of the yards was one of respect and honor, an old or original
tradition. There was a lot of fighting and killing at San Quentin, where
I did four years in the Adjustment Center (AC) SHU. Extreme warfare
proliferated as the formations fought each other, especially in AC,
where Comrade George executed pigs and reactionary enemies and was
martyred in 1971. It was the same AC I stepped into in summer 1982 –
nothing had changed: extreme warfare through the bars (there were no
solid doors, though there are now) and tiger cages instead of AC yards.
In 1985, a white sergeant was speared in the heart through bars and died
on the tier, which was attributed to BGF. That’s when CDC went bonkers
and conceived the Pelican Bay SHU monster to deal with everything
(opened in 1989). It was also because of the killing of this sergeant
that all SHU pigs had to wear protective vests, beginning in 1986.
(Years later, alias Crips did a mass stabbing attack on yard pigs at
Calipatria, and now ALL pigs have to wear vests.)
CDC’s idea of an extreme control environment was a strategic mistake.
First, because it could not and did not break the spirit of those who
count, but reinforced their endurance. Second, it created a massive
vacuum on the yards as all the OG formations were swept up and stuck in
Pelican Bay SHU; soon, independent factions popped up on the untended
yards, and compared to previous, the yards went haywire, like kids at a
carnival. There was no discipline, no respect, no honor; SNY yards
opened and grew as many stepped back from that mess. Now, wherever there
is a General Population (G.P.), there is an SNY or two. Third, all of
this cost CDC millions of more dollars than average, with nothing
gained. Fourth, under the extreme oppression of Pelican Bay SHU, the
consciousness of the formations heightened and they united against CDC.
And fifth, the courts eventually let the formations out again.
A lot of the people who went from G.P. to SNY in the heydays of chaos
were not bad apples but were just more serious about doing time, that
the G.P. was so ruined it would’ve been futile to try to get it back on
track.
As much as the G.P. has progressed, however, it still has some backward
baggage to sort out. Trans prisoners cannot be on the G.P. because of
threats of death, BECAUSE they are trans; only that. There are some
progressive prisoners on G.P., the Kata, who do not persecute us. In
fact they politically educated me in Pelican Bay SHU in the early 1990s.
(A kata is a martial arts stance that Comrade G. practiced in his cell
and disliked the pigs to see him in. Here, it connotes a revolutionary
position and cadre.) But the general practice on the G.P. towards trans
prisoners is transmisogyny and gender oppression; reactionary. To
promote a prisoner’s human rights platform, that platform must include
the vested interests of all oppressed prisoners and have representation
of all interests, including trans, and must extend into SNY and women’s
prisons. The G.P. has yet to address its position towards trans
prisoners publicly.
I am with the Red Roses Transsexual Political Party (alias 36 Movement),
which I founded. We are a political resistance movement, with critically
vetted members. We do political work to challenge CDC’s genocidal
treatment of us as trans women with administrative complaints, lawsuits,
and educate trans prisoners for unity and resistance. We consider
ourselves a part of the Prisoners Human Rights Movement (PHRM) founded
by the united G.P. at Pelican Bay SHU. Our voice needs to be heard, our
situation on the G.P. hashed out. PHRM needs to extend into the women’s
prisons, where contradictions have peaked, with a series of suicides at
the California Institution for Women.
There is no question that we are in a new era of doing time, across the
whole landscape. The biggest difference is the new collective
consciousness of who is the real enemy in terms of our fundamental
vested interests, produced by the overbearing of the state on the
oppressed. The current unity of the OG formations – and especially the
Kata, as BGF and other New Afrikan unity – illustrates this.
Unfortunately, SNY is beset with wars among factions, and there have
been some killings. I would advocate the PHRM shoutout to SNY factions
to call a cease fire and work out a Peace Accord, to acknowledge a
higher need for unity against their conditions, such as, they can’t get
into any self-help rehabilitation groups unless they debrief. PHRM’s
voice will resonate with those who count on SNY.
Red Roses urges all trans prisoners to acquire political consciousness
and join the 36 Movement to resist CDC oppression as a united force. We
are political, not criminal, politically educate ourselves and do for
self and support each other for our collective good. Stop squabbling. We
are being killed on the yards, as Carmen Guerro, who was killed on this
very yard, and others (rest in peace). The 36 Movement is one for all
and all for one. Let that be your motto.