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.
On the other hand I’m over here on the McConnell Unit where I see
religious people who are supposed to be for the people work in the place
as the oppressor with the same pigs whom practice oppression. When we
look at the capitalist here in American prisons we see the state abuse
their authority by placing power and control in the peoples’ hands. Half
of the time we can’t get nothing done because every time we stand up for
what’s right here come the gang members and religious folks taking up
for the pigs and it’s your fellow inmate brother whom is putting you
farther in oppression. I myself experience this a lot.
The staff here, these officers rather, let the prisoners deal with
the prisoners, in return the officers look the other way when the
workers are dealing drugs. Just the other day a crip wanted to go on a
hunger strike for the pod going on a 15 day lock down because several
individuals got caught smoking. These same officers know the prisoners
who are bringing the smoke over here. All these individuals are working
together with a handful of gang members and religious folks. The real
revolutionary prisoners are basically stuck in the cell all day.
My question is when are we gonna connect with people who can do
something about the situation. We write grievances and file complaints
and we still can’t get anything done. I know for a fact we sent out
every letter of 35 grievances. I pack my stuff up and went to the front
desk and told them to move me back [because an L.O. runs this block that
I have a documented conflict with] and they threatening me with physical
harm and told me to go back to my pod.
The people in Israel are evil people who hide behind the Christian
religion. They want the rest of the world to follow in the Christian
faith but they can’t follow in their own faith. Israel needs to stop
oppressing Palestinians especially the women and children. America is
supposed to stand against that kind of crime. R.I.P
to Marcellus Khalifa Williams. May the brother reach the heavens and
dwell in the window of God. The injustice system can still kill innocent
Black men in America no matter what the people do, no matter how hard
the people fight. His death did not go without a learned message. Once
I’m free I’mma keep in mind that that could be me.
MIM(Prisons) adds: Yes, people inside must connect with
people on the outside to build a real movement to stop this oppression.
We can look to the national liberation struggle in Palestine and the
connection to the prison movement there as an example. We once had
stronger movements here in occupied Turtle Island. And as we build them
up again, we must build that crucial link between the inside and
outside.
Intensificando la amenaza de pandillas peligrosas con
“súperpredadores.” Usando informantes confidenciales, tatuajes, y
apariencia para catalogar personas como “pandilleros.” Usando esa
conexión de pandilla para encarcelar y torturar a la gente. Estos
métodos draconianos son familiares a lectores de ULK, y para esos que
han pasado tiempo en cárceles estadounidenses en general. El régimen de
Trump ha echo esta noticia para el país entero.
En las semanas recientes, cientos de venezolanos han sido deportados
de los Estados Unidos a una megacarcel en El Salvador. El régimen de
Trump ha justificado esto con La Ley de Enemigos de 1798, que permite la
deportación de no ciudadanos durante tiempo de guerra, y fue usado
durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial para deportar los alemanes y italianos
y juntar los japoneses en campos de internamiento, apoderándose de sus
activos para los euro-amerikanos. Trump reclamo que estas personas
fueron parte de una pandilla conduciendo “guerra irregular” en los
Estados Unidos, pero no hay evidencia que Tren de Aragua es una
organización amplia y funcional aquí. En febrero, el Departamento de
Estado estadounidense designaron Tren de Aragua, Mara Salvatrucha
(MS-13), y una lista de carteles mexicanas como “organizaciones
terroristas extranjeras.”
Una corte federal ha ordenado una pausa a estas deportaciones, pero
el Departamento de Justicia esta desafiando la orden. Una batalla legal
continua, mientras el poder ejecutivo continua a desafiar las
cortes.
Venezuela ha sido un objetivo consistente del imperialismo
estadounidense desde que obtuvo poder Hugo Chávez en 1999.(1) De
resultado casi 600,000 venezolanos han sido aceptados en los Estados
Unidos con Estatus Protegido Temporario (TPS). Trump intento a cancelar
el TPS para los venezolanos, pero una corte federal ha determinado eso
como un acto ilegal. Sin el TPS, muchos de Venezuela, Haití, Ucrania,
Sudán, Afganistán y otros lugares no podrían continuar a trabajar en los
Estados Unidos legalmente y podrían ser deportados legalmente.
Kilmar Armando Ábrego García esta recibiendo atención especial de que
la administración de Trump admitió que su deportación fue un error, y
que no lo pueden regresar de la custodia salvadoreña. Esto es a pesar de
que había una orden del la corte que prevenía su regreso a El Salvador,
donde se había escapado de violencia pandillera cuando era joven. Ábrego
García no tiene cargos criminales, si sirve de algo, pero fue catalogado
como un miembro de MS-13 por un puerco mencionando un “informante
confidencial” cuando estaban acorralando trabajadores hace algunos años.
Como resultado, Ábrego García ha sido desaparecido de su familia y
mandado a una unidad de tortura en el mero país que huyo por razones de
seguridad.(2)
El ACLU obtenido una copia del “Alien Enemy Validation Guide” siendo
usado para deportaciones. Después de establecer que alguien es mayor de
los 14 años, de origen Venezolano y sin ciudadanía estadounidense, un
sistema de puntuación es usado para “validar” pandilleros. Un tatuaje de
“TdA” te da 4 puntos mientras 8 puntos son requeridos para calificar
como validado. La guiá del Departamento de Seguridad Nacional muestra
una lista de imágenes de tatuajes como coronas y estrellas que son
“TdA”. También, poniéndote mercancía de los Chicago Bulls y Michael
Jordan está en la lista. Cuando fue la ultima vez que has visto alguien
con un tatuaje de una estrella y portando Air Jordans?
Persiguiendo Activistas
Estudiantiles
Instituciones educacionales desde Universidad de Columbia en Nueva
York hasta es sistema de la Universidad de California están esforzando
la represión fascista en sus campos, de expulsando estudiantes durante
la presidencia de Biden, a haciéndolos desaparecer de las calles y de
sus hogares bajo el régimen de Trump. Estudiante de Tufts University
Rümeysa Öztürk esta detenida por escribiendo un articulo criticando el
genocidio en Palestina causado por los Estados Unidos y Israel y el
campamento estudiantil propalestina el año pasado, contó su historia en
una declaración reciente del 18 de Marzo 2025:
“Me llamo Mahmoud Khalil y soy un preso político. Les escribo desde
un centro de detención en Luisiana… Fui detenido el 8 de marzo por unos
agentes del Departamento de Seguridad Nacional (DHS, por sus siglas en
inglés). Se negaron a aportar una orden judicial y nos abordaron a mi
esposa y a mí de manera agresiva cuando regresábamos de cenar.…
“Mi detención fue una consecuencia directa de ejercer mi derecho a la
libre expresión, ya que abogaba por una Palestina libre y el fin del
genocidio en Gaza; genocidio que se reanudó con fuerza el lunes por la
noche. Con el acuerdo de alto al fuego que se pactó en enero ya roto,
los padres y madres de Gaza vuelven a mecer mortajas minúsculas en sus
brazos y las familias se han visto obligadas a escoger entre la hambruna
y el desplazamiento forzoso o las bombas. Es nuestro imperativo moral
persistir en la lucha por su libertad absoluta.”
“[La Universidad de] Columbia me fichó por mi activismo y abrió una
dictatorial oficina disciplinaria con el fin de saltarse el debido
proceso y silenciar a los estudiantes criticando a Israel. Columbia ha
cedido ante las presiones estatales, proporcionando expedientes
académicos de sus estudiantes al Congreso y acatando las últimas
amenazas de la administración de Trump. Algunos ejemplos claros de esto
son mi detención, así como la expulsión o suspensión de al menos
veintidós estudiantes de la Columbia —algunos despojados de sus títulos
pocas semanas antes de graduarse— y la expulsión de Grant Miner,
presidente del sindicato Estudiantes Trabajadores de Columbia (SWC, por
sus siglas en inglés), en la víspera de las negociaciones
contractuales.”
“En todo caso, mi detención es un testimonio de la fuerza del
movimiento estudiantil para cambiar la opinión pública hacia la
liberación palestina…” (4)
Otros estudiantes que han sido perseguidos se han escondido. A la
misma vez, estudiantes por todas partes del país están uniéndose para
apoyar y defender los que puedan ser destacados después. Elogiamos la
solidaridad que estamos viendo. Escuelas y prisiones son realmente
únicos en nuestra sociedad dado de las identidades de sus poblaciones y
sus habilidades a organizar. Con los anuncios recientes del régimen de
Trump que van a deportar ciudadanos estadounidenses con récord criminal
al Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo en El Salvador, prisioneros
tienen que estar preparados para confrontar el enemigo juntos en la
manera que lo están aprendiendo a hacer los estudiantes. Aunque hay
muchos ejemplos recientes que dice lo contrario, hay una historia larga
de prisioneros estadounidenses apoyándose debido a la consciencia del
grupo que viene con confrontando un opresor común cada día.
Fascismo De Regreso a su
Hogar
Los Estados Unidos ha usado el régimen de aislamiento de largo plazo
por décadas a un nivel no visto en cualquier otra parte en la historia
humana. Médicos para los Derechos Humanos (PHR por sus siglas en inglés)
salieron con un reporte en 2024 exponiendo el uso del régimen de
aislamiento en los centros de detención en contra de las direcciones del
gobierno para limitar su uso cuando es absolutamente necesario.
Documentaron alrededor de 14,000 casos de personas siendo puestas en
aislamiento por ICE de 2018 a 2023. El régimen de aislamiento tardaba
por un promedio de 27 días, con 42 casos tardando mas de un año. En
2024, ICE detuvo mas de 35,000 personas, ahora siendo el sistema de
detención inmigratoria mas grande del mundo.(5)
Condiciones probablemente son peor para los que son transferidos a El
Salvador, donde el Presidente Bukele ha declarado que la única manera
que los pandilleros pueden salirse del Centro de Confinamiento del
Terrorismo (CECOT) que construyo en 2023 sera en un cajón. Con una
capacidad de mas de 40,000, hay 65 a 70 prisioneros mantenidos en cada
celda. “Prisioneros de CECOT no reciben visitas y nunca están permitidos
a salir. La prisión no ofrece talleres o programas educativas para
prepararlos a regresar a la sociedad después de sus sentencias.”(6)
Bukele ha estado promocionando fotos de pandilleros con la cabeza
rasurada, vestidos de todo blanco, siendo maltratados por guardas
enmascarados por linea desde que abrieron la prisión. Esta campaña de
propaganda ha apelado a los elementos profascista de Amerika. Y con ese
apoyo, Trump esta incorporando esta prisión en el sistema internacional
de prisiones amerikanas y mandando cienes de personas ahí de los Estados
Unidos. Este es un cambio cerca de la casa del interconexión de sitios
oscuros, y prisiones famosas como Abu Ghraib y Guantánamo, que fueron
usados para torturar y aguantar preso sin juicio personas oprimidas al
través del mundo Musulmán.
La mayoría de la prensa están reportando que los amerikanos pagaron
$6 millón dólares para que 238 prisioneros sean puestos en CECOT, que
algunos señalan que es mucho menos de lo que costaría a encarcelarlos en
los Estados Unidos. Pero es una cantidad que va a ayudar El Salvador
inmensamente para que puedan fundar su monstruosidad de cárcel. No tiene
sentido que los imperialistas están pagando para que aguanten a estos
prisioneros, pero después reclamen que no pueden regresar personas como
Ábrego García de regreso a sus familias.
En los 1980s, los Escuadrones de La Muerte patrocinados por los
Estados Unidos, entrenados en la Escuela de las Américas en Georgia,
mataron y desplazaron muchas personas en América Central que estaban
luchando por el socialismo y por poder sacar el imperialismo de sus
países.(7) Muchos niños de esta guerra en El Salvador fueron desplazados
a Los Angeles donde se unieron a Barrio 18 o crearon la nueva Mara
Salvatrucha (MS-13), fueron perseguidos por el estado, y después
mandados a regreso a El Salvador. Reportamos sobre los esfuerzos en
haciendo paz entre estos grupos en 2013, que coincide con la inversión
por USAID y el desarrollo de las prisiones en El Salvador inspiradas por
los Estados Unidos.(8) Pero las condiciones para la gente de El Salvador
no mejoraron, y votaron por el Presidente Nayib Bukele que utilizo las
organizaciones lumpen en su organización política y después los
traiciono como un chivo expiatorio por el mal del país en una campaña
fascista de represión.(9)
La lucha contra el fascismo en este país depende en la reunión de
personas para defender las poblaciones migrantes y estudiantes que están
siendo atacados en este momento. En cuanto el fascismo continué a subir,
vemos las campañas de grupos como el ACLU acercándose mas a los de
MIM(Prisons). Mientras están pasando batallas legales importantes,
también vemos el reconocimiento extendiendo que no podemos depender en
las cortes para que nos salven. Debemos de tener un plan B. Debemos de
crear nuestro plan B.
Notas: 1. Soso of MIM(Prisons), January 2019,
Imperialists Push Coup in Venezuela to Secure Oil for Amerikans, Under
Lock & Key 67. 2. Democracy Now!, 2 April 2025. 3.
https://www.wlrn.org/immigration/2025-03-31/ice-tren-de-aragua-venezuela-deportation-el-salvador
4.
https://www.aclu.org/news/free-speech/a-letter-from-palestinian-activist-mahmoud-khalil
5. Physicians for Human Rights, 6 February 2024,
https://www.wlrn.org/immigration/2025-03-31/ice-tren-de-aragua-venezuela-deportation-el-salvador.
6. Aleman & Cano, 17 March 2025, “What to know about El Salvador’s
mega-prison after Trump sent hundreds of immigrants there”, Los Angeles
Times. 7. MIM(Prisons), June 2009, FBI Arrests Peacemaker, Under
Lock & Key 9. 8. MIM(Prisons), March 2013, One-Year Anniversary
of Peace Treaty in El Salvador, Under Lock & Key 31. 9. Badgreen
of MIM(Prisons), September 2023, 8,000 Military and Police Deployed in
Cabanas Province, El Salvador, Under Lock & Key 83.
Oakland, CA – Organizations came together on March 29
for a caravan from East Oakland to City Hall promoting the Artivists
Ending Hostilities (AEH) street program. Initiators included a number of
former prisoners who participated in the 2011 and 2013 hunger strikes in
California, as well as the organization of currently incarcerated people
P.E.P. Talk - Pre-Entry Platform. Former prisoners of CDCr spoke at the
rally on the need to bring the message of peace from the original AEH
(Agreement to End Hostilities) to the streets. Organizers distributed
and read the text of original AEH and a recent message from Cellblock 2
Cityblock.
Kat Brooks of the Anti Police Terror Project was one of the speakers
who really got to the heart of things:
“The state creates the conditions in our communities that they know
creates violence.”
Ey went on to condemn Amerikan koncentration kamps as a form of
violence, saying the carceral state is the most violent institution in
the world. Another comrade read from/paraphrased the intro of the Communist
Party of Aztlán’s essay on homelessness, making the connection that
homelessness is also a form of violence that we must come together to
end.
Of course, it is up to the oppressed to change our conditions. Youth
from Lulu’s House participated in the event, speaking on their own
recent transformations from petty criminals to active community members.
One said:
“We gotta push the movement too, it starts with us.”
While another pointed out:
“If you’re scared of the youth you’ll never understand them.”
One of the adults present who wasn’t scared to help these youth
change was a BART cop (Bay Area Rapid Transit). This “officer friendly”
approach is a well-known counter-insurgency strategy of the occupying
forces. They hire cops to do community work, who aren’t involved in the
violent repression work, but do intelligence gathering for the state
while helping to divide the occupied community.
Independence is one of the principles of the United
Front for Peace in Prisons for this very reason. There is no progress
towards liberation in the united front if it is working with the very
imperialist state that is oppressing us.
Minister King X echoed this principle of independence when speaking
about learning from the elders released from prison while the U.$.
government is smashing the Department of Education. We must learn from
the struggles of oppressed people.
Minister King
X was one of the MC’s and organizers of the event, representing the
Artivist Kadre trying to engage the youth and the oppressed in the
movement through artistic expression. Ras Kass was also there
representing the Artivist Kadre from Los Angeles. They were sporting
patches promoting the New Afrikan Revolutionary Nationalist (N.A.R.N.)
ideology and the AEH. The Artivist Kadre are working with P.E.P. Talk,
BOSS (another release support program) and others to address racism,
fascism, sex trafficking and more in California.
Hyping up the threat of dangerous gangs of “super-predators.” Using
confidential informants, tattoos, and appearance to label people “gang
members.” Using that gang
affiliation to imprison and torture people. These draconian methods
are familiar to readers of ULK, and to those who’ve spent time
in U.$. prisons in general. The Trump regime has made this headline news
for the whole country.
In recent weeks, hundreds of Venezuelans have been deported from the
United $tates to a supermax prison in El Salvador. The Trump regime
justified this with the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, which allows for the
deportation of non-citizens during wartime, and was last used during
WWII to deport Germans and Italians and roundup Japanese in internment
camps, seizing their assets for Euro-Amerikans. Trump claimed these
people were part of a gang conducting “irregular warfare” in the United
$tates, but there seems to be no evidence that Tren de Aragua is even a
widely functioning organization here. In February, the U.$. State
Department designated Tren de Aragua, Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), and a
list of Mexican drug cartels as “foreign terrorist organizations.”
A federal court has ordered a halt to the deportations, but the
Department of Justice is defying the order. A legal battle continues,
while the executive branch continues to defy the courts.
Venezuela
has been a consistent target of U.$. imperialism since the rise of
Hugo Chavez to power in 1999.(1) As a result almost 600,000 Venezuelans
have been accepted into the United $tates with Temporary Protected
Status (TPS). Trump attempted to cancel TPS for Venezuelans, but a
federal court has deemed the move illegal. Without TPS, many from
Venezuela, Haiti, Ukraine, Sudan, Afghanistan and elsewhere could no
longer legally work in the United $tates and could be legally
deported.
Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia is getting special attention as the
Trump administration admitted eir deportation was a mistake, and that
they can’t get em back from Salvadorean custody. This is despite a court
order that prevented em from being sent back to El Salvador, where ey
had fled gang violence as a youth. Abrego Garcia has no criminal
charges, for what that’s worth, but was labelled a member of MS-13 by a
pig citing a “confidential informant” during a round up of day laborers
some years ago. As a result, Abrego Garcia has been disappeared from eir
family and sent to a torture unit in the very country ey fled for safety
reasons.(2)
The ACLU obtained a copy of the “Alien Enemy Validation Guide” being
used to deport people.(3) Once establishing someone is over 14 years
old, of Venezuelan origin and without U.$. citizenship, a point system
is used to “validate” gang members. A “TdA” tattoo gets you 4 points
while 8 points are required to qualify as validated. The Homeland
Security guide lists photos of tattoos like crowns and stars that are
“TdA”. In addition, wearing Chicago Bulls and Michael Jordan athletic
wear are listed. When was the last time you saw someone with Air Jordans
on and a star tattoo?
Student Activists Targeted
Educational institutions from Columbia University in New York to the
University of California system are enforcing the fascist repression on
their campuses, from expelling students during Biden’s Presidency, to
disappearing them off the streets and from their homes under the Trump
regime. Tufts University student Rümeysa Öztürk is being detained for
writing an article criticizing the U.$.-I$rael genocide in Palestine.
Mahmoud Khalil, who was a respected negotiator between Columbia
University and the pro-Palestine student encampment last year, told eir
story in a recent statement from 18 March 2025:
“My name is Mahmoud Khalil and I am a political prisoner. I am
writing to you from a detention facility in Louisiana… On March 8, I was
taken by DHS agents who refused to provide a warrant, and accosted my
wife and me as we returned from dinner. …
“My arrest was a direct consequence of exercising my right to free
speech as I advocated for a free Palestine and an end to the genocide in
Gaza, which resumed in full force Monday night. With January’s ceasefire
now broken, parents in Gaza are once again cradling too-small shrouds,
and families are forced to weigh starvation and displacement against
bombs. It is our moral imperative to persist in the struggle for their
complete freedom.”
“… Columbia [University] targeted me for my activism, creating a new
authoritarian disciplinary office to bypass due process and silence
students criticizing Israel. Columbia surrendered to federal pressure by
disclosing student records to Congress and yielding to the Trump
administration’s latest threats. My arrest, the expulsion or suspension
of at least 22 Columbia students – some stripped of their B.A. degrees
just weeks before graduation – and the expulsion of SWC President Grant
Miner on the eve of contract negotiations, are clear examples.
“If anything, my detention is a testament to the strength of the
student movement in shifting public opinion toward Palestinian
liberation. …”(4)
Other targeted students have gone into hiding. At the same time,
students across the country are coming together to stand with and defend
those who may be targeted next. We commend the solidarity being shown.
Schools and prisons are somewhat unique in our society due to the
collective identities of their populations and their abilities to
organize. With the recent announcements from the Trump regime that they
will be deporting U.$. citizens with criminal records to the Terrorism
Confinement Center in El Salvador, prisoners need to be prepared to
stand together as students are learning to do. While there are many
recent examples to the contrary, there is a long history of U.$.
prisoners standing up for one another due to the group consciousness
that comes with facing a common oppressor every day.
Fascism Coming Home
The United
$tates has been using long-term solitary confinement for decades on a
scale not seen elsewhere in humyn history. Physicians for Human
Rights released a report in 2024 exposing the use of solitary
confinement in ICE detention centers contrary to government directives
to limit its use to absolute necessity. They documented at least 14,000
cases of people being put in solitary confinement by ICE from 2018 to
2023. Durations in solitary averaged 27 days, with 42 cases lasting over
a year. At the time, in 2024, ICE held over 35,000 people, making it the
world’s largest immigration detention system.(5)
Conditions are likely worse for those sent to El Salvador, where
President Bukele has stated that the only way gang members will leave
the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) ey built in 2023 is in a
coffin. With a capacity of over 40,000, there are 65 to 70 prisoners
held per cell. “CECOT prisoners do not receive visits and are never
allowed outdoors. The prison does not offer workshops or educational
programs to prepare them to return to society after their sentences.”(6)
Bukele has been promoting images of shaved gang members, dressed all in
white, being warehoused and man-handled by masked prison guards online
since the prison opened. This propaganda campaign has appealed to the
pro-fascist elements of Amerika. And with that support, Trump is
incorporating this prison into the Amerikan international prison system
and sending hundreds of people there from the United $tates. This is a
shift closer to home from the network of dark sites, and infamous
prisons like Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, that were used to torture
and hold without trial oppressed people across the Muslim world.
Most press sources are reporting the Amerikans paid $6 million for
238 prisoners to be held in CECOT, which some point out is much less
than what it would cost to imprison them in the United $tates. But it is
an amount that will greatly help El Salvador to fund their monstrosity
of a prison. It doesn’t make sense that the imperialists are paying to
have these prisoners held, but then claim they cannot return people like
Abrego Garcia back to their families.
In the 1980s, U.$.-sponsored death squads, trained at the School of
the Americas in Georgia, killed
and displaced countless people across Central America that were
fighting for socialism and to remove imperialism from their
countries.(7) Many children of this war in El Salvador were displaced to
Los Angeles where they joined Barrio 18 or formed the new Mara
Salvatrucha (MS-13), were persecuted by the state, and then exported
back to El Salvador. We’ve reported on efforts at peace
between these groups in 2013, which coincided with investment by
USAID and the building of new U.$.-inspired prisons in El Salvador.(8)
But conditions for the people of El Salvador did not improve, and they
voted for President
Nayib Bukele who both utilized the lumpen organizations in eir
political organizing and later turned on them as a scapegoat for the
ills of the country in a fascist repression campaign.(9)
The struggle against fascism in this country relies on the coming
together of people to defend migrant populations and students currently
under attack. As fascism rises, we see the campaigns of groups like the
ACLU coming closer to those of MIM(Prisons). As important legal battles
are taking place, we also see the spreading recognition that we can’t
rely on the courts to save us. We must have a plan B. We must build our
plan B.
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.
My intentions here isn’t to give a dialectical and historical context
of the relationship between today’s Lumpen Organizations (gangs) and
past revolutionary movements, although there is an inextricable link
between the two. The origins of today’s Lumpen Organizations (L.O.s)
were strongly influenced by the original Black Panther Party (BPP) and
other similar organizations. They were formed to uplift and protect
their communities from outside threats, threats that were typically
imposed by law enforcement and the U.S. government.
With the destruction of the BPP, combined with the influx of drugs
and firearms within their already oppressed communities, members of
these organizations were lured into “gang-bangin’” against each other
and a fratricidal and suicidal criminal lifestyle that resulted in the
abandonment of the ideals and principles that were brought forth and
established by the organizations’ founders. Ideals and principles that
were often influenced by those of the BPP and the Black Liberation Army
(BLA). Today there are a limited few who diligently impress upon their
“homies” the importance of espousing the organizations founding ideals
and principles. Overall, a majority have been derailed from the
organizations initial revolutionary path, which has been detrimental to
the youth who romanticize today’s “gang” culture and their communities.
Moreover, the absence of these ideals and principles has engendered a
culture of disunity, violent competition, and the romanticizing of the
“gang-banging” mentality, which renders us incapable of redressing the
conditions we find ourselves subjected to within these razor-wire
plantations.
There is no silver bullet or magic wand that can be used to magically
expedite the transformation that must be made. Transforming the criminal
mentality into a revolutionary mentality is a protracted process that
demands accountability and rigorous educating.
i am dedicated to assisting with this transformation any way that i
can. One way is to shed some light on the draconian policies and
procedures that governs those of us who have been labeled “gang
members,” labels known as Security Risk Group (SRG) or Security Threat
Group (STG), so we can begin to seek redress to said policies and
procedures.
Gang Validation Process
Those of us who have been validated as SRG/STG often suffer
significant unfair prejudices due to the officers who are responsible
for the validating opinions often basing these opinions on sweeping
generalizations and stereotypes about “gang members” generally,
unreliable methodology, and/or the officer’s racial bias.
Here in North Carolina the Department of Adult Corrections (DAC) has
“certified” twenty-one alleged prison gangs as Security Risk Groups.
Prisoners are validated as members of SRG’s by Prison Intelligence
Officers (PIO) who are usually white, whose discretion reigns supreme in
determining who is validated as SRG members and who isn’t. These
subjective decisions lead to disproportionate validations of New Afrikan
prisoners and those from other oppressed nations. A stark example of the
racially uneven application of SRG validations is evident in the
percentage of “white” prisoners who have been validated compared to New
Afrikan prisoners. White prisoners make up 1.9% of the prisoners
validated in NC prisons.
Around the world gangs are studied by those with specialized training
in areas such as ethnography, anthropology, and psychology. In these
fields, researchers are often subjected to ethical standards that warn
against manipulating data to advance their personal objectives and
required to employ social science field research best practices in
relation to data collection, analysis, and interpretation. The officers
responsible for validating prisoners are not held to any such ethical
standards and lack the fundamental knowledge to determine if a prisoner
is actually a SRG member or not.
The degree of specialized knowledge for these officers to be
qualified as “gang-experts” is particularly lacking. An officer can be
qualified as a “gang-expert” after having only a couple months on the
job, as long as they have some formalized training. You would think
these “gang officers” would be required to demonstrate a basic
overstanding of the complicated dynamics at issue where gang membership
and behavior are concerned beyond stereotypes and prototypes, being that
these validations subject prisoners to indefinite sanctions and
restrictions that not only affect the lives of the prisoners but also
the lives of the prisoners’ families.
These “gang officers” employ a worksheet which lists seventeen
criteria for determining gang involvement, each of which is assigned a
point value. Prisoners may be labeled as “suspects/associates” or
“members”. A qualifying score is not difficult to achieve: prisoners
bearing tattoos “thought” to signify gang affiliation and who socialize
with “confirmed” gang-members may be regarded as members themselves.
False positives are likely to arise under this criteria, because
while they may indicate a correlation with gang membership, they do not
establish causation. Because gang membership cannot be reliably inferred
from the factors aforementioned, these “gang officers” should not be
allowed to opine about gang membership based on these factors alone.
Completed validation worksheets are forwarded to the NCDAC’s Chief of
Special Operations, Daryll Vann, who reviews the worksheet, confirms
that “relevant” documentation is attached, and validates the
identifications. Prisoners who wish to contest the validation are not
afforded the opportunity to do so. Prisoners receive no notice of their
validation, no procedural due process, nor a periodic review that would
enable the prisoner to have the validation removed. Therefore, prisoners
who have been validated, remain validated for the duration of their
incarceration and irrevocably are subject to SRG policy
deprivations.
There are only two ways to have the SRG validation removed. There is
a SRG program that’s accessible to a limited number of prisoners. It is
a 9-month program at Foothills Correctional, a prison located in the
rural mountainous region of Western NC. The staff employed there are
exclusively white, live in race segregated communities and are out of
touch with the cultures of the prisoners they oversee.
When these “gang officers” walk through the doors of the prison, many
of them, knowingly or unknowingly, hold negative biases towards those
who have been validated and those who don’t look like them.
The media perpetuates inaccurate narratives of violence, criminality,
and dishonesty among racial minorities that many of these “gang
officers” unknowingly internalize. It shows in how they interact and
deal with the prisoners.
The DAC describes this program as being a program that “targets those
beliefs (cognitions) that support criminal behavior ….” and seeks to
shift the thinking that supports these beliefs. Prisoners who complete
this program must undergo a debriefing and renounce their affiliation,
if any, before the validation is removed. This program is not available
to prisoners who have been labeled problematic.
The other way to have the validation removed is to complete your
prison sentence and be discharged from NCDAC custody. Of the 1,343
prisoners released from NCDAC’s custody last year, 564 were alleged SRG
members.
Draconian Gang Policies
& Procedures
The ostensible purpose of the DAC’s SRG policies and procedures is to
avoid prison disturbances supposedly fomented by gangs. Nonetheless it
is obvious these policies and procedures have the effect of
incapacitating significant numbers of prisoners and has cultivated an
environment opposite from what prison officials claim to be “safer”.
Those who have been validated find themselves subjected to draconian
sanctions and restrictions, such as being prohibited from receiving
visits from anyone beyond immediate family. This excludes aunts, uncles,
cousins, and the mother of your child(ren). If you have no immediate
family members to accompany your child(ren) to visitation you will not
be allowed to visit with them. Our childrens’ interests are not, as a
matter of right, factored into SRG validation determinations. The fact
that parent-child visitation can help children overcome the challenges
of parental separation and reduce recidivism rates is well-documented.
However, prison officials find it plausible to implement such a policy
that prevents parent-child visits.
As with the prisoners who have been validated, New Afrikan children
are the ones greatly affected by this policy. NCDAC has implemented this
policy without any cognizance that such a restriction may implicate the
parent-child relationship, which is typically subject to extraordinary
protection by the courts. But yet this policy goes unchecked.
During my incarceration i’ve been unable to visit with my daughter
due to me having no immediate family willing to accompany her. This has
prevented her and i from developing a meaningful relationship. This is
something that a majority of us are experiencing.
Moreover, this policy has an outsized impact on New Afrikan families
and other members of marginalized communities who bear the brunt of mass
incarceration.
Limiting a prisoner’s visitors to immediate family only effectively
cuts a prisoner off from family members who may have raised them. As we
know in marginalized communities there are an overwhelming amount of
fractured families, where grandparents and others play the mother-father
role.
Then there are the prisoners who were raised in foster care, who have
never had the opportunity to meet their immediate family. There is no
exception for foster care parents.
Although these restrictions are sometimes justified, they are being
used indiscriminately without individual analysis.
On 19 February 2019, a policy was implemented that prohibited
validated prisoners from receiving monetary support from anyone who
wasn’t an approved visitor.
Prison officials claimed that this was done to curtail “Black Market”
activities and strong arming. It’s not difficult to see how such a
policy would increase said activities and, moreover, would create an
environment where those who do have means of receiving financial support
become victims of strong arming and other acts of violence.
This policy was implemented 8 months prior to now-retired Director of
Prisons Kenneth Lassiter requesting more funding for security and
control weapons. During these 8 months, violence amongst prisoners
drastically increased, i know because a majority of the close-custody
facilities were placed on lockdown due to the increased violence.
Validated prisoners are prohibited from attending all
educational/vocational programs, compelled to serve idle prison
sentences. They are locked in their cells virtually all of the time and
otherwise maintained in extremely harsh conditions. Unable to have their
custody level reduced to medium or minimum security. And job
opportunities are non-existent. Common sense would tell prison officials
that there are many reasons to believe that these policies and
restrictions will produce unfortunate results both inside and outside of
prison.
The Ramifications of these
Policies
Motivated by an inaccurate conception of gangs and how they operate,
the NCDAC has adopted policies that have enhanced group cohesiveness and
the identities of gang-affiliated prisoners. These policies have
promoted new gang connections for prisoners who, due to the difficulties
inherent in gang identification, inadequate procedures and racial
stereotyping, are misidentified. The validated prisoner tells emself
“they think i’m a gang member, i might as well be one”. Of course these
policies raise obvious moral and ethical questions. However, i would
like to focus on how these policies make no sense from a correctional
perspective. Even if these “gang officers” are creating or enhancing
gang identities, why does it matter? Validated prisoners maintained in
these locked down blocks, after all, are effectively disabled from
committing acts of misconduct when locked in their cells.
Validated prisoners are denied access to visitation, financial
support, transfers to medium or minimum custody, as well as parole. They
have nothing more to lose so they are not deterred by any threat of
punishment, what else can be taken from them? They have no incentive to
refrain from gang involvement?
Aside from prison concerns, the impact of these policies’
ramifications will be felt most profoundly on the streets and
communities to which these prisoners will return. As i pointed out, 564
of the 1,343 prisoners released from NCDAC’s custody last year were
alleged gang members. In general, 96% of all prisoners return to
society. There are recidivism studies focusing on gang affiliated prison
releases, that show that gang members may retain their gang identity
upon their release. (see: Salvador Buentello et. al, “Prison Gang
Development: A Theoretical Model”, The Prison Journal,
Fall-Winter 1991, at 3.8.) Thus, these policies not only fail to enhance
prison security, they also undermine public safety.
We Have A Responsibility
All across the United $tates, prisoners themselves are subjected to
similar sanctions and restrictions under the guide of enhancing prison
security. i’ve revealed how these policies target New Afrikan prisoners
and others of the oppressed nations and how they affect not only the
prison but their families and communities as well. We have the numbers,
we have the capability and we have the know how to bring about change.
But as Komrade George Jackson expressed:
“We all seem to be in the grip of some terrible quandary. Our enemies
have so confused us that we seem to have been rendered incapable of the
smallest responsibility. I see this irresponsibility, or mediocrity at
best[, as] disloyalty, self-hatred, cowardice, competition between
themselves, resentment of any who may have excelled in anything….”
Because of the inexorable nature of our overseers, nationwide
demonstrations on the outside and within these walls is presently
necessary if we are to correct the correctors.
We have united fronts such as the United Front For Peace in Prisons,
the United Struggle Within (USW) and Prison Lives Matter (PLM). PLM is a
united front for political prisoners, prisoners of war, politicized
individuals behind the walls of these razor-wire plantations and their
organizations, as well as any outside formations in union with the
struggles of prisoners, that has made it possible for us to address and
redress the inhumane living conditions we find ourselves subjected to.
It’s on us to initiate the process, it’s on us to communicate and
network with one another, to get on the same page, so we can unite a
page in the history books.
A Call to Action
As we grapple with an expanding and increasingly repressive prison
system here in North Carolina, any hope for change lays in perfecting
ourselves – our physical care, intellectual acumen, and cultural
proficiency – while simultaneously confronting our overseers. And as i
aforesaid, “There is no silver bullet or magic wand that can be used to
expedite the transformation that must be made.” We have a personal
responsibility to contribute to the confronting that must be done.
Some of us don’t seem to know what side we’re on. We’re obsessed with
near-sighted disputes based on race, gang affiliation and so on. We
expend our energies despising and distrusting each other. All of this is
helping the NCDAC. We permit them to keep us at each others throats. i
am calling for unity. We outnumber them. Wake up!!! Put your prejudices,
biases, and gang affiliation aside for the purpose of OUR fight with the
NCDAC. i’m asking we start by submitting a grievance concerning NCDAC’s
SRG policies and procedures (an example has been provided below).
Of course i’m not expecting any redress from submitting grievances.
NCDAC’s Administrative Remedy Procedure process is ineffective and
honestly a waste of time if you are seeking redress. However, i’ve not
asked you to submit said grievance with hopes that NCDAC officials will
correct their wrongs.
i’m currently in the middle of litigating a civil suit against NCDAC
on behalf of all prisoners who have been validated as a SRG member. By
submitting a grievance you will be supporting the claims i have made.
Thusly i entrust you take the time and submit the following grievance
(and send a copy to MIM(Prisons) if you can):
The purpose of this article is to shine a spotlight into an area
where darkness prevails. Now I know Georgia’s prisons are not the only
ones with this problem, but I’m willing to wager that Georgia is most
likely leading the nation in such instances where INMATES ARE PERFORMING
(FOR ALL INTENTS AND PURPOSES) THE DUTIES OF OFFICERS.
First off, Georgia’s close security prisons (same as maximum
security) are experiencing extreme shortages of correctional officers.
It seems as though no one wants to be a part of a very obvious and very
well known corrupt system or governmental body.
So now what a lot of prison wardens, administrators, officers, are
doing, is becoming very familiar with gang leaders, or high ranking
members of gangs, and basically using them and their subordinate gang
members to police other prisoners.
Now some may say, I thought you would like this situation, it’s
ideal. EXCUSE ME, BUT FUCK NO, IT’S GOT EVERYTHING FUCKED UP! For
instance inside the housing units, if you’re a civilian prisoner
(non-gang affiliation) you are most likely not going to have access to a
cell to sleep in or use the toilet, because gang members want their own
personal room.
The gang members are doing a lot of oppressing towards civilian
prisoners (robbery, extortion, beatings, stabbing, murdering) and a lot
of these acts are done for the sheer pleasure or entertainment of the
gangs.
They even kick other prisoners out of the housing units, forcing them
to be housed in isolation/segregation. Basically if you’re a non-gang
affiliated prisoner, you can’t stay in general population unless you
want to sleep in the dayroom/common area. What’s even more absurd is
that the gang members don’t even want their so-called brother member to
share a room with him.
The gang members are assigned nearly all the prison jobs, therefore
they control the whole prison and its movement. The meals are brought to
the housing unit, where the gang members distribute out the trays to
themselves first and give what they don’t want to the ones remaining. So
you’d be fortunate to eat!
The food portions are very very pathetic, not even a kindergarten
student would be fulfilled from these small portions. YES INMATES ARE
PURPOSEFULLY STARVING OTHER PRISONERS.
HERE’S THE STRAW THAT BREAKS THE CAMEL’S BACK, if for some reason you
and an officer get into a heated exchange these same gangsters take the
side of the officer against you and will even beat you, stab you, yes
even murder you.
The sad thing about all of this is, these inmate officers are not
handsomely rewarded for any of these acts! Yeah the high ranking ones
have their contraband, and other prison luxuries, but for the most part
they don’t have anything to show for their acts. Most are serving a life
sentence (must serve 30 years before parole board considers parole for
them) or life without parole, or any other combination of lengthy
sentences.
Now I respect that some prisoners are working the system to their
advantage, but you should never forget that your goal is to get
released. So while you working the system to keep contraband shipments
coming, and hustling to either provide for family or to save up for
attorney fee or both, keep in mind that you’re contributing to the
oppression of others and to yourself by helping the wardens,
administrators, and officers operate these prisons.
Some prisons in Georgia are even neglecting to open the law library,
especially here at Valdosta State Prison. The cell phones have been the
biggest gift and curse in Georgia prisons, because these guys allow
wardens, administration, officers, HELL THE WHOLE GDC TO VIOLATE U.S.
CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS SO THAT THE STAFF DON’T COME SEARCHING AND
POSSIBLY FIND THEIR CELL PHONE. THINK ABOUT IT prison cell then phone,
and you get cellphone, that’s babysitting you in a cell!
Instead of attending to the law library, and trying to find a loop
hole with their case to regain their freedom, they’re on social media,
or chatting with some chatline girl, instead of using the cellphone as a
tool to regain their life. DO YOU GET IT NOW CELL PHONE? PRISON CELL
PHONE!
It seems, gone are the times when inmates would stick together
regardless of race, organization, affiliations etc etc to reach a common
goal or to better their treatment.
They’ve let the powers that be use their differences, along with
their frustrating sentence/case circumstances, and their greed for
material possessions (commissary food, cellphones and other contraband
items) to divide them and place some above others to cause even more
division.
In Georgia we’re in prime position to unify and demand some things.
Due to the fact that Georgia Department of Corrections is in an extreme
shortage of officers.
This what I’m suggesting could be done without violence or breaking
the rules. But we have to get the gangs and their purpose and main
mission back into the proper perspective, which is to serve and protect
civilians/citizens, to stop oppression.
The gangs have been infiltrated by these imposters who’ve gained rank
and position only to destroy it from within. So be careful who you
follow.
In closing, think deep, find what you and your so-called opp have in
common, come together to fight against your common enemy. Don’t allow
your oppressors to use you to do their dirty work, by giving you some
trinkets so you the oppressed will in turn oppress the already
oppressed. We all have the same fight so why not join forces? There’s
nothing that a warden, administrator or officer could bring in to me or
promise me to trick me into performing his duty. I’ll never perform
violence against another inmate for an officer, who when done with me,
will turn traitor against me. Again I will not let Dept of Corrections
pimp me. While they go home each and every day to their freedom and home
and family, while some $50 cellphone keeps me distracted from seeking
freedom. These cheap devices are not worth a life!
We ask our imprisoned lumpen readers, can snitching really be
stopped without independent power from the oppressor?
What would it mean to be loyal to “your people” or “your
folks”?
Can the principle of anti-snitching be applied to the enemy who it
is designed to protect fellow oppressed nations or lumpen from in the
first place?
Lumpen as Aspiring
Oppressors
First off, I’m not gonna sugar coat shit. We must identify the
‘oppressed’ and the ‘oppressor’, with a concrete analysis, which can get
confusing; because the two groups are united under the flag of the 2nd
Beast and because the oppressed lumpen in the United $tates of Amerika
are struggling to ‘transform themselves’ into the oppressors, so when
they look in the mirror their reflections often resemble the opposite;
in a political, spiritual, psychological, geographical and sexual
essence. Keep in mind that, subjectively and objectively, the U.$.
lumpen are in a figurative yacht compared to the canoes of the
proletariat and peasants of the Third World, as seen in their past and
present conditions. They also sail on entirely different waters,
figuratively speaking.
However, neither ship has an arsenal of cannon balls, as does the
oppressive Imperial Navy, which is a similarity. The problem is that the
U.$. lumpen are trying to arm themselves with cannons inside their
yachts, as a means of initiating the Imperial Navy and are aspiring to
become oppressors themselves, not as a means of internationally ending
oppression/exploitation – it’s the Amerikan nightmare. They are a
spitting image of their culture. They want to grow up and get spanked by
porn stars, like Donald Trump, with herds of piggy banks to save the day
like captain-save-a-rate. The majority of them worship Amerikan Idols,
not because they have to, but because that’s what they strive, with
blood, sweat and tears, to become.
What use is it for the lumpen of the oppressed nations to wrestle
power away from the oppressors only to use that power to restore, or
intensify imperialism? Chances of success is less than a gamble, with
these people steering the ship, it’s a guaranteed loss, because they
only understand bourgeois revolution, not a communist endgame. In a
materialist sense, the lumpen have never demonstrated, throughout
history, any success in establishing socialism. The lumpen have always
failed as a vanguard for very specific reasons, because they are a root
of imperialism. And if you don’t uproot the entire plant, from the roots
up, then the weeds resurrect, inside of the garden, and we find
ourselves in the same situation. It’s a rookie mistake to paint an
idealistic picture of the lumpen dictating to the rest of the world; not
only that, it would be revisionism for the lumpen to jump the
proletariat’s place, as dictators.
The lumpen of the oppressed nations often as not tend to feed into
the weed of imperialism, by cheer leading for and supporting the pigsty
with its state and federal criminal injustice system. What I’m trying to
say is that, even if the oppressed nations establish independent power
from the oppressor, they are likely to keep the same police system in
place, or worse. So, not only will snitching not ‘really be stopped
without independent power from the oppressor,’ snitching will not stop
even with independent power from the oppressor. There’s no
telling what the lumpen will do, if they get cannon for their yacht, but
the way that it looks from my hypothetical perspective is that the
lumpen are likely to use cannons to hunt down, loot, rape and sink the
canoes of the Third World proletariat, who aspire to eliminate
imperialism. Yachts, canoes and the Imperialist Navy represent the
material forces keeping each group afloat. Cannons represents an ability
to commit piracy, to dominate and sink other ships.
The Other Side
People need to wake up and realize that the reason why the
oppressed/exploited have historically been opposed to the oppressors
(the pigs, badge-less pigs, rodents of all varieties, who serve the pigs
for many flavors of cheese/slop, and reptilian serpents of the
Illusionati) is because they were common enemies who openly oppressed
along all three strands of oppression (nation, class, and gender). The
fucked up part that’s got all of the oppressed clawing at each others’
throats is that the slick ass enemies are disguising themselves as
friends and acting out delusional charades to convince the oppressed
masses into believing that the united snakes of pigtropolis are friends
and not infiltrators.
On to the next aspect of the contradiction; silence versus full
disclosure. To this day, the oppressed lumpen do not truly uphold and
adhere to a code of silence in a solid, revolutionary way. Originally,
the code of silence was meant to bolster organizational unity and
loyalty amongst the communities, so that our oppressed nations could
grow, struggle and develop internally. Making moves in silence is a
powerful organizational strategy and tactic, when applied correctly.
Codes of silence are meant to shield allies, who we are loyal to,
from incrimination. They are not to shield enemies, who are not loyal to
us, from incrimination. Why would we show loyalty to the enemy? Showing
loyalty to the enemy is showing disloyalty to your allies. The problem
is that we’ve got snakes and such trying to silently ride with the enemy
and apply codes of silence to them, in their defense.
With that said, it’s one thing to disseminate information to the
enemy to get should-be allies targeted, but it’s on a whole other level
when somebody, who’s claiming to be anti-pig, decides to put in actual
work in collaboration with the pigs. The collaborators even go so far as
to let these pigs into their L.O.’s, so that they’re official gang
members who get to transform at will and exercise their ability to set
you up on fraudulent disciplinary reports to get you stuck in maximum
security prisons. To get away with murder and police brutality, with
manipulating sex-starved prisoners into weird ass situations, with false
jacket allies, etc. Cooperating and coordinating with pigs on these
types of levels is against the code and should be serious violations for
all L.O.’s involved.
In my experience, these L.O.’s typically police the prisons and
streets more so than the actual pigs, with detective investigations full
of incriminating ass pig-questions and their violent enforcing of
childish rules, laws, codes, etc. Different names for the same shit. The
key word is enforce. When they enforce laws, that makes them
law enforcers. Their game of dress-up comes with the same biased and
prejudiced judgments that lead to sentences which are much more
oppressive than the pigs prisons and jails. These sick mfer’s are liable
to force innocent people into physical and sexual torture chambers,
where they do fucking weirdo shit to em, on an intense level that
happens in prisons. They use coded lingo like pigs, they wear uniforms
and badges like pigs they hide behind numbers for protection like pigs
and they get paid to do evil ass shit like pigs.
It sucks if I hurt anybody’s soft, mushee-gushee, sensitive ass
feelings, but I’m not going to refrain from speaking the truth in
criticism.
Our Tasks
What I’m wondering is why do we even maintain a code of silence
towards any of these piggly-wiggly ass L.O.’s, when they ride with the
enemy against us on a regular basis?
Nevertheless, it’s important to remember that, in order for the
oppressed to win power and keep our feet down on the necks of those who
prayed on our downfall, we’ll need an independent intelligence network
of our own. So, technically we just need to redirect intelligence
gathering apparatuses in our favor and win them over to our side of the
fight, so as to counteract the counter-revolutionaries and others of
their ilk. And by this, I mean that snitching isn’t to be stopped when
we have our own independent institutions of the oppressed but that we
have to look at this aspect of the contradiction in a different light.
We have to call it something positive instead of a hackneyed,
connotative phrase that’s been abused and distorted since its conception
and use it to our advantage against our enemies, who seek to use such
tactics and strategies against us. It’s impossible to support an
emerging socialist government without an agency that specializes in this
field of work. What I’m saying is that we need to police the police.
In the meantime, we can locate the enemy’s snitches, show em mercy
and recruit em to our side without letting the enemy know. Then, we
flood the imperialists with double-agents who feed the imperialists
misleading or false intel. I mean, one way to look at this is that if we
try to “kill all the rats/pigs,” we’d have to kill almost the entirety
of every imperialist country. We can’t kill the entire world.
Oppression is a contagious disease that is transmitted through
imperialist society like an opioid addiction with withdrawals and
cravings. Once one contracts the disease, ey becomes desensitized,
individualistic and apathetic towards society. Voluntary and involuntary
participation in capitalist society is the cough that spreads this
disease. This sickness has an infinite array of symptoms, but the main
symptoms that pertain to this article are disloyalty, disunity and the
inability to distinguish ally from enemy. The oppressed nations have
maxims such as ‘it’s not about what you know, but who you know.’ The
oppressed seek to make friends with the powerful oppressors as a means
of rising from oppression to become oppressors themselves, and these
oppressed people will turn over all kinds of incriminating info (‘what
they know’) to these powerful enemies.
Successful socialist revolution is the medicine for the ailment.
Under communism, there are no pigs for rats to snitch to and no pigs to
police us. So if you wanna liquidate rats, pigs and serpents thus ending
snitching, socialist revolution welcomes you into the rank-and-file with
open arms.
The next question (one of my own) that I’ll explore is “what strands
of oppression are keeping snitching and policing alive?” Oppressed
nations don’t ‘keep snitching and policing alive’, per se. And from an
amerikan perspective one would automatically assume that the bourgeois
males of the white oppressor nations are the only ones to slam.
Nevertheless, snitching existed long before capitalism-imperialism and
long before white people had a nation. Despite what these ‘white power’
lunatics think, ‘power’ (snitching/policing being what ‘white’ people do
with ‘power’) is colorless. Ultimately, societal oppression itself, in
all three strands, is what fuels snitching/policing, because it concocts
an opportunity for all government of society to incentivize oppressed
people to desperately find a way out of said oppression through
cooperation with the oppressors, who have the power to lift the
oppressed up to their level. So if you end oppression altogether,
there’s no logical reason to snitch on anyone. Those who advocate for
the imperialist sources of oppression are to blame for keeping snitching
and policing alive. The criminal injustice system created oppressive
consequences for those who oppose their power structure and they feed
scooby snacks to the mystery-gang members who assist them in targeting
their enemies. Basically, it’s not the ‘strands of oppression’ that
keeps snitching/policing alive, but the oppressors who create oppression
that encourage people of every class, nation and gender to sell each
other out.
Snitching and policing will remain if current society remains. Only
under a communist society will snitching and policing end.
MIM(Prisons) responds: While these harsh critiques of
lumpen organizations do not apply to all L.O.s for all time, they
certainly will ring true for many. And while we look to the imprisoned
lumpen in this country as one of the most oppressed groups, which has
historically produced some dedicated and effective revolutionaries, it
is true that they are not the proletariat. And they/we all must
transform ourselves and combat the class (and often nation and gender)
interests that we are born into.
As this comrade points out, L.O.s power often comes from their
willingness to act outside what is normally allowed. “The ends justify
the means” is one version of this. This is why Tupac
and Mutulu
Shakur worked together to develop the THUG
LIFE code to promote among the oppressed nation lumpen via Tupac’s
music. They recognized the progressive capacity of the L.O. rejection of
the imperialist code, but the anti-people tendency of the L.O.s that no
longer had a code of their own, or had a very reactionary one.
This comrade gets to the heart of it when ey says we need to use the
tools that work to build an independent path for the oppressed towards
socialism. Just as the imperialists have intelligence operations, so
must we. Though our intelligence cannot mimic the pigs like so many
L.O.s do that use torture, sexual abuse, and other anti-people behaviors
to promote fear among the masses.
“Snitching”, or sharing information, is a tool that goes both ways.
You can tell the imperialists on the revolution, or you can tell the
revolutionaries about what the imperialists are up to. The real crime is
collaborating with the imperialists in either direction.
i want to begin with a sort of disclaimer or qualifier, due to the
fact that many speak on the realities of the lumpen, particularly the
street gang elements, who’re not cut from that cloth, if you will.
Although i am now a committed New Afrikan Freedom Fighter, i was
initiated into what is now the Forum Park Crips, in Houston, Texas, when
i was in my early teens. My life in the streets was one of tribal
animosities and strife, territorial beefs, and a survivalist level of
hustling and scheming. i did everything one does in the street life from
selling narcotics, to thievery, burglary, armed robberies, pimping, and
of course ‘sliding’, as they say nowadays.
As a result of this lifestyle and my social ignorance, and lack of
firm identity, purpose and direction, by age nineteen i found myself
wanted for capital murder, and by twenty-one sentenced to life without
parole for said murder, while holding strong to the key principle one
was taught in the lumpen sub-culture, ‘No Snitching’!
Prior and during my prison stint i operated as a makeshift hystorian,
and due to my persynal background i’ve paid much attention to the
historical development of the lumpen in North amerikkka in general, New
Afrika in particular, and the lumpen-organizational development
specifically. This along with my adherence to historical dialectical
materialist philosophy, i believe, qualify me to speak with a certain
level of knowledge, wisdom and understanding on the subject.
The Foundation
At the moment in time of the founding of the original Crips, one of
its co-founders, Tookie Williams(Ajami Kiamke Kamara) states plainly,
“The crips mythology has many romanticized, bogus accounts.” i believe
We in revolutionary movements take these and other similar ones too
literally and therefore misrepresent the origins and hystorical
functions of the Crips and others within the class and national
liberation struggles. In this realm we often promote an idealized,
non-materialist perspective.
Mr. Kamara(Williams) continues,
“Another version[ of Crip mythology] incorrectly documents the Crips
as an offshoot of the Black Panther Party (BPP). No Panther Party member
has ever mentioned the Crips(or Cribs) as being a spin-off of the
Panthers. It is also fiction that the Crips functioned under the acronym
C.R.I.P, for Community Resources Inner-City Project or Community
Revolutionary Inner City Project.(words like ‘revolutionary agenda’ were
alien to our thuggish, uninformed teenage consciousness.) We did not
unite to protect the Community; our motive was to protect ourselves and
our families.”
i’ve begun this ‘Foundational’ part of this piece within these words
from the late Mr. Kamara, because We too often, and too easily
romanticize the beginnings of the urban amerikkkan street organizations.
Now that i’ve clarified that the Crips weren’t exactly founded with a
revolutionary or progressive intent it makes it clearer why the Crips
have largely stagnated in their operations for so long now.
The late Malcolm X once said that ‘prison is the poor man’s
university’, and proving his maxim true, it was many of the first
generation of Crips who populated the prisons in California, being
influenced by the politicized culture in the prison established by those
who came before them, who began an effort(s) to improve the imagery, and
provide meaning to what Mr. Kamara himself even called, ‘a causeless
cause’.
When the imprisoned Crips began to become more culturally aware in
the 80’s and onward they sought to stir the crip force in another
direction by establishing a constitution, which was largely influenced
by the BGF constitution, they functioned under acronyms like C.R.I.P,
for Community Revolution In Progress, and other similar ones, brothers
began becoming Afro-centric and instituted speaking ki-swahili. Also,
many around those times became radical and politicized. Some formed orgs
like the Black Riders Liberation Party, a new generation Black Panther
Party that was formed in the 90’s by former Crips and Bloods. Others
formed more groups like the C.C.O.(Consolidated Crips Organization)
which was to be de-tribalized, more centralized and politicized version
of the Crips street gang. Many of these brothers had intentions of
changing the various communities and ‘Crip turfs’ they represented upon
their release from prison. More often than not their efforts were not
effective enough to curtail or re-focus the self-destructive culture
that had by then turned southern California upside down.
Simultaneously the Crips and other similar groups were spreading
throughout the north amerikkkan continent, what wasn’t spreading however
was the more refined and socially aware sectors or versions of the Crips
entity. So instead of ’hoods across amerikkka emulating a Conscious
Crip, they were emulating cats who were Crip Crazy, and this
subsequently intensified elements of self-destruction among the New
Afrikan nation in amerikkka.
Building On The Foundation
As the 21st century came and settled in, the spread of the Crips to
every corner of the kkkountry resulted in different locales placing
their own unique cultural traits and adding on to the hystory of the
original formation Mr. Kamara and Raymond Washington founded along with
Mac Thomas. Therefore, many people, and groups Built of the
Foundation.
i’ll preface the following by stating that lumpen organizations have
repeatedly showcased the capacity to turn away from basic parasitic
criminality. However, they’ve done this in two similar but unique ways.
One way is progressive in terms of its break from basic criminality, yet
it is reactionary in terms of its benefit to the revolution. The other
way is progressive in that it provides the break from the criminal
mentality, and is also revolutionary in that it seeks to join the
revolutionary forces in collective war against the state and its enemy
institutions.
We’ve seen examples of the first way numerous of times. One which may
be familiar to some is the 1966 arranged truce between the then
Blackstone rangers and the East Side Disciples, which was instigated by
the promise of the $930,000 in grant money from the federal government
through the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO). The grant was based on
a deal that the two street organizations would cease their beef and come
together to prevent uprisings, which had become common throughout
heavily populated New Afrikan enclaves throughout the kkkountry.
Local politicians in the Chicago Democratic Party and the Southern
Democrats in Congress did not approve of these particular elements being
provided with Grant money from the government, and the grant was
cancelled a year later(1967). In 1968 the Chicago BPP was founded and
these same lumpen orgs were enlisted or attempted to be enlisted by the
federal government to prevent the rise in influence of the BPP and its
revolutionary line. The Rangers and the Conservative Vice Lords opted
for the former way, and were showered with grant money from the
bourgeoisie(Clement Stone of Combined Insurance of America; Sears; First
National Bank of Chicago, among others). These lumpen moved toward Black
Capitalism, and filled the vacuum in what was then a new non-profit
sector instituted to remove the teeth from the revolution and the
revolutionary potential of the lumpen particularly.
On the other hand, the East Side Disciples changed their name to the
Black Disciples (identifying as Black instead of negro was a culturally
progressive action at the time) and formed an alliance with the Chicago
BPP.
So as this hystorical account illustrates, the lumpen are a
vacillating class. We can flow whichever way the wind blows, but Our
life experience under monopoly capitalism and imperialism, suggested
that absent a form of ‘class-suicide’, We will do like the Rangers and
take the capitalist road, which will have us cozied up with the
bourgeoisie, making love with our enemies and murdering our friends.
Within the Forum Park Crip experience there has been an evolution and
a certain level of class struggle, and ideological struggle (which is
one in the same thing). To quote Malcolm X, again, ‘Prisons are the poor
man’s university’. One member of the Forum Park Crips (FPC) spent time
incarcerated and chose to apply himself.
He learned somethings from the cats like myself who have been
politicized while in captivity and he began to develop a New Vision for
our street tribe. Upon release, he began to institute the New Vision.
See everyone and every entity has a basic Identity, Purpose and
Direction, and as evolution takes place it takes place within the nature
of these three elements of the entity in question. So upon release the
first step was to apply a New Vision to what the Identity of a FPC
was/is.
Like the brothers in California decades ago with their
C.R.I.P.(Community Revolution In Progress), the homie strove to fine
tune the image, by establishing Forever Protecting the Community(FPC) as
an official community organization dedicated to mentoring youth,
minimizing gang violence, and empowering the community.
Because of the numerous influences, and illegitimate capitalism being
foremost among them, FPC in its beginning stages turned down a similar
road as Jeff Fort’s Rangers in 1960’s Chicago. FPC received grants from
the city and used them along with other similar formations to fund a
purchasing of acreage to start community gardens, promoting food
sovereignty, a memorial tribute to victims of police and gun violence.
Prior to the grants FPC provided school supplies and thousands of
backpacks, sponsored summer kids’ festivals, and mentoring school
children by doing speaking engagements at local schools.
As i’ve pointed out, these efforts are progressive in the sense
they’re a long way from the parasitic criminality the homies had been
involved with prior. However, it can be reactionary in the sense that
absent any sense of revolutionary orientation, this amounts to nothing
more than mere community service, and never did at the root of the
systematic problems that cause the surface level expression of the
oppressive social contract.
After discussing this somewhat with some of the guys plans have come
to fruition to establish a campaign that attacks a particular vestige of
genocidal culture in the Forum Park area. This being the out of control
open-air sex trafficking that de-values our community and makes it
uncomfortable and unsafe for elements in Our community. The campaign
will create a class struggle for unity both within the community and the
organization, and will make the bond between the org and the people.
Moreso, it will begin to establish what will hopefully become a distinct
line of demarcation between the local government, and the rest of the
non-profit sector, who’ve become entranced with utilizing the plights of
the people as a stepping stool to gain economic upliftment. As FPC and
other similar formations move out of that mode of operations, and begin
to call others out on it and for their deceitful service to the people,
it will create unity within classes apart of the local class
struggle.
In closing, i’ve found the observation of comrade Jalil Abdul
Muntaqim to be true,
“Beneath the Black working class are the subculture
lumpen-proletariat, the unskilled and menial laborers whose primary
means of subsistence is based on hustling(stealing, selling drugs,
prostitution etc), marginal employment, and welfare. For the most part
the socioeconomic provision within the subculture are maintained by the
‘illegitimate capitalist’ activity of the lumpen-proletariat. In
accordance with their aspirations to fulfill the social values of the
bourgeoisie, they employ business acumen in criminal activity for
subsistence and profit. As they seek material wealth and social status
of the bourgeoisie within the confines of the subculture, they are in
many ways politically reactionary, unconcerned with anything other than
personal survival and individual gain. It is only when the
lumpen-proletariat are educated and become politically aware of their
socioeconomic condition, that the possibility exists for them to become
staunch supporters of the revolution, recognizing their dire standard of
living is based wholly on the system of oppression they are desperately
trying to emulate…”
As has been routinely stated, the revolutionary forces must
ingratiate themselves within the activities of the lumpen organization.
Specifically once they’ve already reached a certain level of collective
social awareness and activity. And then, influence the development of
their social awareness and activity by providing political education, by
conceptualizing programs that are pertinent to the particular lumpen
community one is seeking to organize. The lumpen is a vacillating class,
that can and often does see-saw between revolutionary and reactionary
activities. There are some socially aware and nationalistic elements,
particularly among the oppressed nations of north amerikka, who can be
coached towards full support of the revolution, the choice between
serving the people heart and soul, and the reactionary road are
ultimately up to the lumpen themselves. i’ll leave with a word from
Comrade George:
“Settle your quarrels, come together, understand the reality of the
situation, understand that fascism is already here. That people are
already dying who could be saved, that generations more will die or live
poor butchered half-lives if you fail to act. Do what must be done,
discover your humanity and your life in revolution. Pass on the torch,
join us, give up your life for the people.” - George L. Jackson
SOURCES: 1. Blue Rage Black Redemption, Stanley Tookie
Williams 2. Ibid. 3. Vita Wa Watu #11, Spears & Shield
Publications 4. Ibid. 5. Ibid. 6. We Are Our Own Liberators,
Jalil Abdul Muntaqim, ‘National Strategy of FROLINAN’ 7. Blood In My
Eye, George L. Jackson
In the last month we have seen the state of Georgia bring RICO Act charges against Rudy Giuliani and others who worked with Donald Trump to steal the 2020 U.$. presidential election, as well as activists who were doing things as simple as handing out fliers opposing the construction of Cop City in Atlanta.
The Federal Racketeering and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) was enacted in 1970 as a tool to charge people with crimes when they were having other people do their dirty work for them. Each crime charged under RICO can add years to ones prison sentence. The Georgia RICO Act of 1980 covers more crimes than the federal version. The Georgia Act makes Racketeering a felony in the state.(1) Historically, we have had multiple readers who were victims of RICO Act charges brought during the Giuliani years in New York City, and more recently in the Atlanta area, for their leadership roles in lumpen organizations, the more typical target of RICO.
Rudy Giuliani earned fame as a federal prosecutor for getting Mafia bosses in New York City convicted on RICO Act charges. He then used his reputation to become a “tough-on-crime” mayor of New York City known for “cleaning up” the city. It was during Giuliani’s time as Mayor of NYC that the infamous case was brought against King Blood (aka Luis Felipe) under the RICO Act. King Blood was charged for murders committed while ey was already in prison and received the inhumane and unprecedented sentence of life in solitary confinement. All of King Blood’s First Amendment rights to communication were denied, allowing only communication with eir lawyer and immediate family. This was not typically something a judge could sentence, but was justified via the racketeering statute, 18 U.S.C. § 3582(d).(2) Decades later, King Blood still sits in a torture cage in ADX Florence, isolated from the world. While the RICO charges against Giuliani may provide some cathartic humor, the 79-year-old will not be facing anything like King Blood is doing.
Weeks following the Georgia RICO Act charges against Trump, Giuliani, et al., another set of RICO Act charges (and domestic terrorism charges) were made against 61 activists involved in opposing the construction of Cop City in Atlanta. This is a continuation of the state’s warfare against Stop Cop City, including the ludicrous money laundering charges brought against bail support fundraisers we reported on in the last issue of ULK.(3) In the recent RICO indictment, the date of the murder of George Floyd (25 May 2020) is cited as the beginning of the investigations around the so-called “racketeering.” In other words, the state was trumping up these charges against activists before there was a Stop Cop City movement. This is not about stopping any criminal conspiracy, it is about repressing any opposition to the use of lethal police force against New Afrika and oppressed people in general. It is a defense of the state’s right to wage violent war against New Afrika.
In a recent article, a comrade laid out the political nature of the law, debunking the myth that laws were developed as a way to impose morality or address inherent problems in society.(4) Rather law stemmed from the need to manage the division of humyns into classes. With Trump/Giuliani, we see the RICO Act law being used by the bourgeoisie to discipline other bourgeoisie who are threatening the image of bourgeois democracy. And in the case of the 61 activists they are using the same law to discipline youth and oppressed nations who are opposing more violent forms of state discipline.
When we go up against the courts, the police, or even the politicians, we must be prepared for war. The cops murdering us in cold blood is war. The courts and prisons putting us in torture cells for years is war. City governments in Atlanta and San Pablo, California funding cop cities where pigs can play war games is war. These more obvious forms of war, are part of political struggle. There are no rights, only power struggles. To engage in power struggles, requires giving the war two sides.
^*Notes: 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_RICO_(Racketeer_Influenced_and_Corrupt_Organizations)_Act 2. Prison Legal News, 15 March 1999, Judicial Sentence of Life in Solitary Upheld. 3. A comrade, July 2023, “Law and the Courts of Late”, Under Lock & Key No. 82. 4. A comrade of Anti-Imperialist Prisoner Support, July 2023 “Atlanta Criminalizes Protest Against Cop City”, Under Lock & Key No. 82.*^
