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.
14 JUNE 2018 – Uhuru! As of today’s mathematics, 14 June 2018, prisoners
are being violently pent against one another in a last attempt to
interfere with current demands by both the people of California and the
federal government to release its ridiculously large prison population.
CDCR, at prisons like the Substance Abuse Tratment Facility (SATF) and
Kern Valley State Prison (KVSP), has begun engaging in policy changes
that manufacture hostilities between the prison populations. One
particular change involves rehousing what is called “mainline” prisoners
on yards that are considered Protective Custody (P.C.) yards by force.
Now these are not P.C. yards by the standards of the law, Protective
Custody. Instead they are Sensitive Needs Yards (SNY). These yards house
a combination of offenders/prisoners, including prison gang organization
defectors called “drop outs”, prisoners with sexual offenses, prison sex
victims, victims of exploitation by other prisoners and a wide range of
other types.
There are offenders who were/are members of street gangs/organizations
whose particular gang has been targeted by the larger gang alliances
like the Mexican Mafia. Then there are those individuals who are members
of left wing political organizations who struggle against corruption and
blow the whistle against crooked cops and politicians in office. Though
it has been promoted that all who are housed at SNY facilities are child
molesters, police informants, gang traders, etc., this is a lie spread
by the police pigs in order to establish the chaos that is being born
across California in prisons, CDCR.
Prisons have begun rehousing small numbers of mainline prisoners who are
considered the “actives” on facilities that have been established as SNY
facilities amongst those who are often mis-construed as “non-active.”
Because these facilities are not what CDCR claim them to be; an
environment with no gang activity and very little criminal violence,
these facilities are a melting pot for chaos. There are possibly more
STGs on the SNY than on the mainline, as the 2012 Pelican Bay SHU
Agreement to End Hostilities was designed to cease gang hostilities and
stem criminal behavior for all mainliners. (Mainliners are prisoners who
were until recently housed at General Population (G.P.) facilities, but
now SNY facilities are considered mainline, as there are more SNY
facilities than G.P.)
Let the authorities that be take notice: There are those of us who will
not participate in wars against ourselves but instead will bare arms
against the agents of oppression, where ever they be. And we know all of
you. You who see what is happening but do nothing to protect those of us
unable to protect ourselves. Trust that justice will be done on the yard
as so in the streets. Your time is no more!
[NOTE: The author is among a group of New Afrikan and Chican@ leaders of
the United Struggle from Within (USW). Ey was among 40 prisoners
transferred to Kern Valley State Prison D-facility after a riot between
SNY gangs united against New Afrikans and Chican@s refusing to endorse
gang culture and hostilities amongst prisoners, working the police
agenda. The author was transferred from a lower level institution less
hostile to growth amongst prisoners, and placed into an environment that
would definitely invite conflict between them and corrections officers.]
For this issue of Under Lock & Key we took on the task of
investigating the impacts of drugs and the drug trade on the prison
movement. We ran a
survey
in the Jan/Feb 2017 and March/April 2017 issues of Under Lock &
Key. We received 62 completed surveys from our readers in U.$.
prisons. We have incorporated the more interesting results in a series
of articles in this issue. This article looks at the central question of
the role of the drug trade inside and outside prisons and how to
effectively organize among the lumpen in that context. In other articles
we look more closely at the recent
plague of K2 in U.$. prisons, and the latest
rise
in opioid addiction and what socialism and capitalism have to offer
us as solutions.
Distribution of survey respondents by state
Bourgeois society blames the individual
Bourgeois society takes an individualistic view of the world. When it
comes to drugs, the focus is on the individual: we talk about how they
failed and succumbed to drugs because of their weakness or mistakes as
an individual. While individuals must ultimately take responsibility for
their actions, it is only by understanding society at a group level,
using dialectical materialism to study the political economy of our
world, that we can address problems on a scale that will make a real
impact. Even at the individual level, it’s more effective to help people
make connections to the root causes of their problems (not supposed
persynality flaws) and empower them to fight those causes if we want
lasting change.
Much of our criminal injustice system is built on punishment and shaming
of those who have been convicted. A proletarian approach to justice uses
self-criticism to take accountability for one’s actions, while studying
political economy to understand why that path was even an option in the
first place, and an attractive one at that.
In the essay “Capitalism Plus Dope Equals Genocide”, Cetewayo, a Black
Panther leader, provides a good example of overcoming the conditions one
is born into. Ey was addicted to heroin from age 13 to 18, before
joining the Black Panther Party. Eir example stresses the importance of
providing alternative outlets for oppressed nation youth. In some cases
the mere existence of that alternative can change lives.
Drugs and the Principal Contradiction in Prison
MIM(Prisons) and leaders in the Countrywide Council of United Struggle
from Within (Double C) have had many conversations about what the
principal contradiction is within the prison population. MIM(Prisons)
has put forth that the parasitic/individualistic versus
self-sufficient/collective material interests of the lumpen class is the
principal contradiction within the prison movement in the United $tates
today. The drug problem in prisons relates directly to this
contradiction. Those pursuing drugs and/or dealing are focused on their
persynal interests, at the expense of others. The drug trade is
inherently parasitic as it requires an addicted population to be
profitable, and users are escaping the world for an individual high,
rather than working to make the world better for themselves and others.
A Double C comrade from Arkansas explains this contradiction:
“Things have been slow motion here due to lockdown. Reason being too
much violence across the prison. Some of this violence is due to the
underground economy. Being submerged in a culture of consumerism which
is not only an obstacle to our emancipation (mentally and physically)
this self-destructive method of oppression is a big problem consuming
the population. I’ve been in prisons where the market is not packed or
heavily packed with drugz. It is in those yards that unity and
productive lines are greatly practiced. The minute drugz become the
leading item of consumption, shit breaks down, individualism sets in and
all of the fucked up tendencies follow suit.
“I say 75% of the population in this yard is a consumer. About 5%
have no self control, it’s usually this percentage that ends up a ‘debt’
victim (since you owe $ you owe a clean up). Aggressor or not,
consumerism is a plague that victimizes everyone one way or another.
This consumerism only aids the pigz, rats, infiltrators, and oppressors
in continuing with a banking concept of ‘education/rehabilitation’ and
therefore domesticating the population.
“I mean the consequences and outcomes are not hidden, it is a constant
display of what it is when you can’t pay the IRS, so it is not as if
people don’t know. I’ve seen people slow down or stopped some old habits
after experiencing/witnessing these beheadings. Shit, I just hit the
yard because pigz were all inside the block searching and homeboy’s
puddles of blood were still on the yard.”
High Drug Prices in Prison
We looked at the minimum and maximum prices each prisoner mentioned
(which probably correspond to a “dose”, depending on the drug). The
minimum had a median of $10 and the maximum had a median of $80.
Some respondents mentioned the amount drugs cost compared to outside.
The median markup was 800% (so, drugs cost eight times as much in
prisons, on average). The min was 200% and the max was 3000%, with an
interquartile range of 375%-1167%. So, prisoners are highly likely to
pay a hefty markup. The economics of the black market create strong
interests of keeping it intact.
Drugs and Violence
It is no secret that drugs and violence often go hand-in-hand. As the
above comrade alludes to, this is often related to debts. But one of the
things we learned from our recent survey of ULK readers is that
in most prisons there is an inherent threat of violence towards people
who might take up effective organizing against drugs.
=
A California comrade wrote,
“No one in prison is going to put their safety and security on the line
over drugs. You have to understand that life has little value in prison.
If you do anything to jeopardize an individual’s ability to earn a
living, it will cost you your life.”
Another California comrade was more explicit,
“If you say anything about the drugs, cell phones, extortions, etc.,
whether if you’re in the general population, or now, worse yet in 2017,
SNY/Level IV, the correctional officers inform the key gang members that
you’re running your mouth. You either get hit immediately, or at the
next prison. Although my safety is now at stake, by prisoners, it’s
being orchestrated by corrections higher-ups concocting the story.”
This was in response to our survey question “Have you seen effective
efforts by prisoners to organize against drug use and its effects? If
so, please describe them.” Not only were the responses largely adamant
“no”s, the vast majority said it would be dangerous to do so. This was
despite the fact that we did not ask whether it would be dangerous to do
so. Therefore, we assume that more than 73% might say so if asked.
Some readers questioned what to do about staff involvement bringing
drugs into the prisons. One writer from Pennsylvania said:
“It’s hardly ever dry in Fayette and this institution is a big problem
why. A lot of the staff bring it in. Then when someone goes in debt or
does something they wouldn’t normally do, they don’t want to help you,
if you ask for help. There’s no unity anymore. Nobody fights or stands
up for nothing. Everybody rather fight each other than the pigs. It
would take a lot to make a change in the drug situation. Is it wrong to
put the pigs out there for what they’re doing? Would I be considered a
snitch? I know there would be retaliation on me, maybe even a ass
whoopin. I’m curious on your input on this.”
If we look at the involvement of staff in bringing drugs into prisons,
and the violence associated with the drug trade, we have to call
bullshit when these very same institutions censor Under Lock &
Key on the claim that it might incite violence. The system is
complicit, and many staff actively participate, in the plague of drugs
that is destroying the minds and bodies of the oppressed nation men and
wimmin, while promoting individualistic money-seeking behavior that
leads to brutal violence between the oppressed themselves.
Organizing in Prisons
While the reports responding to that question were mostly negative,
and the situation seems dire, we do want to report on the positive
things we heard. We heard about successful efforts by New Afrikans
getting out of the SHU in California, some Muslim communities and the
Nation of Gods and Earths. Some have been at this for
over
a decade. All of these programs seemed to be of limited scope, but
it is good to know there are organizations providing an alternative.
In Arkansas, a comrade reports,
“For the mass majority of drug users and prisoners I have not seen any
positive efforts to stop drug use and its effects. But for my
affiliation, the ALKN, we have put the product of K2/deuce in law with
heroin and its byproducts where no member should be in use of or make
attempts to sell for profit or gain. If you do you will receive the
consequences of the body who governs this affiliation and organization
for lack of discipline and obedience to pollute your self/body and those
around you who are the future and leaders of tomorrow’s nations.”
While practice varies among the many individuals at different stages in
the organization, the Latin Kings/ALKQN has historically opposed the use
of hard drugs amongst its members. Many in New York in the 1990s
attributed their recovery from drug addiction to their participation in
the organization.(1)
There are some good examples of lumpen organizations engaging in what we
might call policies of harm reduction. One comrade mentioned the 16 Laws
and Policies of Chairman Larry Hoover as an example of effective
organizing against drugs in eir prison. Lumpen leaders like Jeff Fort
and Larry Hoover are where we see a national bourgeoisie with
independent power in the internal semi-colonies of the United $tates.
The proletarian organizations of the oppressed nations should work to
unite with such forces before the imperialists corrupt them or force
them into submission. In fact, the Black Panthers did just that, but
failed to build long-term unity with the Black P. Stone Rangers largely
due to state interference and repression.
On the other hand, in some states comrades reported that lumpen
organizations are among the biggest benefactors from the drug trade.
Some of the same names that are mentioned doing positive work are
mentioned as being the problem elsewhere. This is partly explained by
the largely unaffiliated franchise system that some of these names
operate under. But it is also a demonstration of the principal
contradiction mentioned above, which is present in the First World
lumpen outside of prisons, too. There is a strong
individualist/parasitic tendency combating with the reality that
self-sufficiency and collective action best serve the oppressed nations.
Too often these organizations are doing significant harm to individuals
and the broader movement against the criminal injustice system, and can
not be part of any progressive united front until they pull out of these
anti-people activities.
The more economically entrenched an organization is in the drug trade,
the more they are siding with the imperialists and against the people.
But on the whole, the First World lumpen, particularly oppressed nation
youth, have the self-interest and therefore the potential to side with
their people and with the proletariat of the world.
As one Texas comrade commented:
“I must say that the survey opened a door on the issue about drugs
within prison. After doing the survey I brought this up with a couple of
people to see if we could organize a program to help people with a drug
habit. I’m an ex-drug dealer with a life sentence. I can admit I was
caught up with the corruption of the U.S. chasing the almighty dollar,
not caring about anyone not even family. Coming to prison made me open
my eyes. With the help of MIM and Under Lock & Key I’ve been
learning the principles of the United Front and put them in my everyday
speech and walk within this prison. The enemy understands that the pen
is a powerful tool. Comrades don’t trip on me like other organizations
done when I let them know I’m a black Muslim who studied a lot of Mao
Zedong.
Building Independent Institutions of the Oppressed
At least one respondent mentioned “prisoners giving up sources” (to the
pigs to shut down people who are dealing) in response to the question
about effective anti-drug organizing. From the responses shown below, it
is clear that the state is not interested in effective anti-drug
programming in prisons. This is an example of why we need independent
institutions of the oppressed. We cannot expect the existing power
structure to meet the health needs of the oppressed nation people
suffering from an epidemic of drug abuse in U.$. prisons.
The Black Panthers faced similar conditions in the 1960s in the
Black ghettos of the United $tates. As they wrote in Capitalism Plus
Dope Equals Genocide,
“It is also the practice of pig-police, especially narcotics agents, to
seize a quantity of drugs from one dealer, arrest him, but only turn in
a portion of the confiscated drugs for evidence. The rest is given to
another dealer who sells it and gives a percentage of the profits to the
narcotics agents. The pig-police also utilize informers who are dealers.
In return for information, they receive immunity from arrest. The police
cannot solve the problem, for they are a part of the problem.”
Our survey showed significant abuse of Suboxone, a drug used to treat
opioid addiction. In the 1970s Methadone clinics, backed by the
Rockefeller Program, became big in New York. The state even linked
welfare benefits to these services. Yet, Mutulu Shakur says, “In New
York City, 60 percent of the illegal drugs on the street during the
early ’70s was methadone. So we could not blame drug addiction at that
time on Turkey or Afghanistan or the rest of that triangle.”(2)
Revolutionaries began to see this drug that was being used as treatment
as breaking up the revolutionary movement and the community. Mutulu
Shakur and others in the Lincoln Detox Center used acupuncture as a
treatment for drug addiction. Lincoln Detox is an example of an
independent institution developed by communists to combat drug addiction
in the United $tates.
“[O]n November 10, 1970, a group of the Young Lords, a South Bronx
anti-drug coalition, and members of the Health Revolutionary Unity
Movement (a mass organization of health workers) with the support of the
Lincoln Collective took over the Nurses’ Residence building of Lincoln
Hospital and established a drug treatment program called The People’s
Drug Program, which became known as Lincoln Detox Center.”(3) Lincoln
Detox was a program that was subsequently run by the Young Lords Party,
Black Panthers that had survived the Panther 21 raid, the Republic of
New Afrika, and White Lightning, a radical organization of white former
drug addicts, until 1979 when a police raid forced the communists out of
the hospital, removing the political content of the program.(4)
Young Lord Vicente “Panama” Alba was there from day one, and tells eir
story of breaking free of addiction cold turkey to take up the call of
the revolution. After sitting on the stoop watching NYPD officers
selling heroin in eir neighborhood, and a few days after attending a
Young Lords demonstration, Panama said, “Because of the way I felt that
day, I told myself I couldn’t continue to be a drug user. I couldn’t be
a heroin addict and a revolutionary, and I wanted to be a revolutionary.
I made a decision to kick a dope habit.”(3) This experience echoes that
of millions of
addicted
Chinese who went cold turkey to take up building socialism in their
country after 1949.
Mutulu Shakur describes how the Lincoln Detox Center took a political
approach similar to the Chinese in combatting addiction, “This became a
center for revolutionary, political change in the methodology and
treatment modality of drug addiction because the method was not only
medical but it was also political.” Shakur was one of the clinic’s
members who visited socialist China in the 1970s to learn acupuncture
techniques for treating addiction. He goes on to describe the program:
“So the Lincoln Detox became not only recognized by the community as a
political formation but its work in developing and saving men and women
of the third world inside of the oppressed communities, resuscitating
these brothers and sisters and putting them into some form of healing
process within the community we became a threat to the city of New York
and consequently with the development of the barefoot doctor acupuncture
cadre, we began to move around the country and educate various other
communities instead of schools and orientations around acupuncture drug
withdrawal and the strategy of methadone and the teaching the brothers
and sisters the fundamentals of acupuncture to serious acupuncture, how
it was used in the revolutionary context in China and in Vietnam and how
we were able to use it in the South Bronx and our success.”(2)
Dealing with the Dealers
Though the Black Panthers had organized the workers at Lincoln Hospital
leading up to the takeover, by that time the New York chapter was
already in decline due to repression and legal battles. While many BPP
branches had to engage with drug cartels, the New York chapter stood out
in their launching of heavily-armed raids on local dealers and dumping
all of their heroin into the gutters. The New York Panthers faced unique
circumstances in a city that contained half of the heroin addicts in the
country, which was being supplied by la Cosa Nostra with help from the
CIA. While there was mass support for the actions of the Panthers at
first, state repression pushed the New York Panthers down an ultra-left
path. The Panther 21 trial was a huge setback to their mass organizing,
with 21 prominent Panthers being jailed and tried on trumped up
terrorism charges. After they were all exonerated, the New York
Panthers, siding ideologically with Eldridge Cleaver who was pushing an
ultra-left line from exile in Algeria, made the transition to the
underground. If they were going to be accused of bombings and shootings
anyway, then they might as well actually do some, right?
These were the conditions under which the Black Liberation Army was
formed. Though there was overlap between the BLA and those who led
community projects like Lincoln Detox, the path of the underground
guerrillas generally meant giving up the mass organizing in the
community. Instead, raiding local drug dealers became a staple of theirs
as a means of obtaining money. Money that essentially belonged to the
NYPD, which was enabling those dealers and benefiting them financially.
The former-Panthers-turned-BLA continued to destroy the dope they found,
and punished the dealers they raided.
Again, we are confronted with this dual nature of the lumpen class. It
would certainly be ultra-left to view all drug dealers as enemies to be
attacked. It is also certainly clear that the CIA/Mafia/NYPD heroin
trade in New York was an enemy that needed to be addressed. But how does
the revolutionary movement interact with the criminal-minded LOs today?
In its revolutionary transformation, China also had to deal with
powerful criminal organizations. The Green Gang, which united the
Shanghai Triads, significantly funded the Guomindang’s rise to power,
primarily through profits from opium sales. In the late 1940s they
opened up negotiations with the Communist Party as the fate of China was
becoming obvious. However, no agreement was reached, and the criminal
organizations were quickly eliminated in mainland China after 1949. They
took refuge in capitalist outposts like Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and
Chinatowns elsewhere in Asia and Europe. While heroin has returned to
China, the gangs have not yet.(5)
While the contradiction between the communists and the drug gangs did
come to a head, it was after defeating Japanese imperialism and after
defeating the reactionary Guomindang government. And even then, most
drug dealers were reformed and joined the building of a socialist
society.
In eir article, Pilli clearly explains why slangin’
can’t be revolutionary. And a comrade from West Virginia gives an
example where the shot-callers
are explicitly working against the interest of the prison movement
to further their economic goals. We must address the question of how the
prison movement should engage with those who are slangin’. The answer to
that is beyond the scope of our drug survey, and needs to be found in
practice by the revolutionary cells within prisons taking up this
organizing work.
Building Socialism to Serve the People
Many respondents to our survey sounded almost hopeless when it came to
imagining a prison system without rampant drug addiction. But this
hopelessness is not completely unfounded. As “Capitalism Plus Dope
Equals Genocide”, reads:
“The government is totally incapable of addressing itself to the true
causes of drug addiction, for to do so would necessitate effecting a
radical transformation of this society. The social consciousness of this
society, the values, mores and traditions would have to be altered. And
this would be impossible without totally changing the way in which the
means of producing social wealth is owned and distributed. Only a
revolution can eliminate the plague.”
To back up what the Panthers were saying here, we can look at
socialist
China and how they eliminated opium addiction in a few years, while
heroin spread in the capitalist United $tates. The Chinese proved
that this is a social issue and not primarily a biological/medical one.
The communist approach differed greatly from the Guomindang in that
addicts were not blamed or punished for their addiction. They were
considered victims of foreign governments and other enemies of the
people. Even many former dealers were reformed.(6) Although we don’t
have the state power now to implement broad policies like the Chinese
Communist Party, we can help drug users focus on understanding the cause
and consequences of their use in a social context. We need people to see
how dope is harming not only themselves, but more generally their
people, both inside and outside of prison. People start doing drugs
because of problems in their lives that come from problems in capitalist
society. Being in prison sucks, and dope helps people escape, even if
it’s fleeting. But this escape is counter productive. As so many writers
in this issue of ULK have explained, it just serves the interests
of the criminal injustice system. We can help people overcome addictions
by giving them something else to focus on: the fight against the system
that wants to keep them passive and addicted.
Prisons, for the last 100 years at least, have been consumed with some
type of dope. We know that vice of all flavors has found prisons to be
hot houses. Slangin’ dope has been institutionalized in U.S. prisons;
everyone from the 18 year-old fish to the ranking guard has been caught
slangin’.
Some may see it as a means to survive. It is surviving, in a parasitic
kind of way. For the prison movement, to engage in the dope trade is to
poison the very well you and the people drink from. It’s suicide.
The Drug Trade and LOs
It’s no secret that in prison the drug trade translates to power, in a
bourgeois kinda way for the lumpen organization (LO). The LO that
controls the drug trade in a particular prison wields power in that
prison. Of course the drug trade brings currency to the LO which in turn
brings weapons, material goods, investments and respect. But more
importantly than 12-packs of soda, LOs use dope as a manipulation tool.
The LO which has the dope has all the other prisoners kissing its ass.
LOs are able to “feed the troops” but at what cost? This is where the
contradictions arise between the prison movement and prisoners who are
more counter-revolutionary.
The dope trade simply feeds the bourgeois-minded sector of the prison
population. It allows this sector to expand its parasitic grip on the
prison population. The wannabe capitalist sector drools at the idea of
getting in more dope to sell to fellow prisoners; to poison the sisters
and brothers for profit, for blood money.
Is Slangin’ Revolutionary?
I have spoken to some who have raised the idea that slangin’ can raise
funds quick for revolutionary programs. Someone even pointed to the FARC
[a self-described Marxist group in Colombia] as “proof” of this. The
fact that FARC has recently disarmed shows that their judgment on a lot
of things is flawed.
My question is, how could poisoning the very population you are trying
to win over to revolution be a good thing? There are too many other ways
to raise money than to poison our people with imperialist dope.
Being revolutionary is about transforming yourself and others, not
inflicting harm on oneself or others. Being in prison is hard enough, we
shouldn’t create burdens like addictions or debts which will prevent our
fellow prisoners from becoming new people and contributing. Slangin’
dope is anti-revolutionary.
Slangin’ in the prison movement?
If I were to hear that those within the prison movement were employing a
tactic to slang dope I would say the movement had committed suicide. The
prison movement is unable to mobilize the people partly because of the
interference of dope. Dope impedes our progress. It creates the
conditions where the state stays in power without a challenge to its
seat.
The fact that often it’s the state agents themselves who flood the
prisons with dope is proof enough that the dope trade is actually a
weapon of the state. Just as the state floods the ghettos and barrios
with dope. The dope dealers are simply pawns used by the imperialists.
The flooding of ghettos with crack cocaine is the biggest, starkest
example of this.
Overcoming the oppressive nature of U.S. prisons is hard enough. The
slim pool of prison writers and intellectuals reflects this fact. It is
difficult to survive prison and be able to raise your consciousness at
the same time. Those few who do wake up have a hard time waking others,
insert dope and your chances are zero.
The only thing the dope trade does to LOs is pull them more to the
right. It feeds their bourgeois ideology as a log feeds a roaring fire.
Our goal is to have the LOs rebuild the house of the prison movement,
not burn it down.
What can be done?
This is a difficult chore for the revolutionaries. LOs have become
accustomed to having their luxuries squeezed out of the drug trade so to
stop that would of course disturb them. But the drug trade is poison.
The Black Panthers at one point sought to actively eradicate all dope
dealers from their communities. In prisons we do not promote violence,
rather education will have to do. Start by educating the user, start
with your cell mate then move on to your neighbor and folks on the tier.
Change the culture so that drug usage is frowned upon. If folks can stop
using dope on the street they can stop in prisons. Re-education should
be used by the more conscious people.
The prison movement will be destroyed by the dope trade, just as the
movement outside prison walls was hurt by some influential people taking
up dope. The state was able to relax and sit back while dope wore people
down and prevented any real mobilization. The same applies to prison. It
would not matter if the prison gates flew open if the dragon was high or
if it had sacks of dope in its claws.
Learning the difference between our friends and enemies means we know
that other prisoners share more in common with us than not. It also
means that within one’s own nation the formations within have even
more in common than not. For imprisoned Aztlán the divisions were
ultimately imperialist-inspired. The advanced wing of imprisoned Aztlán
understands that it’s time to Re-unify Aztlán.
In Califaztlán, norteno, sureno, Eme, NF, have been walls that
separated. At times each formation was necessary for safety, and some
formations may be more progressive than others. But these formations
still separate imprisoned Aztlán. Separation for a nation is not good
under any circumstances.* I believe the goal of all these lumpen
organizations (LOs) is to unite at some point, but how could it be
possible?
A future glimpse of a United Aztlán
It’s a fact that much animosity and/or pride for one LO or the other
has developed. At the same time we see the
Agreement
to End Hostilities has allowed us all to get to know and support one
another. It’s now OK to assist and be there for each other, which is
great. We have gone back to before north/south feuds started, however
what is needed now is a leap forward.
The truth is so long as the LOs (i.e. NF, Eme) still have north/south
formations there will not be any unification between imprisoned Aztlán.
This will take steps. The implementation of programs authorized at the
highest levels. One such initial program would be formally dismantling
the formations of Sur/Norte. By doing this, Raza will simply be Raza
again.
Tattoos of Norte/Sur would have to be banned for the future. This would
help alleviate conflict/tension.
A transition period would relax the Raza and then the next stage of the
unification of Eme/NF would be necessary even if they maintained
separate committees with the new political org. But a new org with a new
name is necessary to provide a glimpse of a new future of a unified
Aztlán. At some point, imprisoned Aztlán must move on and create a name
that all can come to, otherwise no side will ever win over the other
side.
by a Virginia prisoner August 2017 permalinkPeace Black brother,
I hope this letter finds you strong and defiant in mind, body, and
spirit. I really enjoyed the few times we exchanged ideas about the new
Black liberation struggle. I was a little surprised when you told me
that you consider yourself a Black revolutionary because most young
brothers who gang bang don’t identify themselves as such, and that’s
because being one requires opposing and resisting racism and oppression
which is a huge burden and responsibility. Others simply don’t
understand the concept of a Revolutionary.
To put it simply, a Revolutionary is someone who fights and struggles to
change the conditions of oppressed people. A counter-revolutionary is
someone who-consciously or unconsciously–fights and struggles against
change so as to exacerbate and perpetuate the conditions of oppressed
people. A Revolutionary is someone who strives to transform the criminal
mentality into a Revolutionary mentality. A counter-revolutionary is
someone who maintains, values, and takes delight in the criminal
mentality. A Revolutionary seeks to become a part of the solution to
what’s plaguing the Black and oppressed communities. A
counter-revolutionary seeks to remain a part of the problem of what’s
plaguing the Black and oppressed communities. A Revolutionary is someone
who utilizes all of his/her strength and energy in trying to liberate
Black and oppressed people. A counter-revolutionary is someone who
utilizes all of his/her strength and energy in trying to oppress and
exploit those already oppressed and exploited by this white supremacist,
capitalistic system. A Revolutionary is someone who opposes the Gestapo
police who are daily murdering and brutalizing Black and oppressed
people. A counter-revolutionary is someone who murders and brutalizes
Black and oppressed people who are already being murdered and brutalized
by the Gestapo police.
So, young brother, upon examining yourself, and taking the above
examples of a Revolutionary into consideration, which category do you
truly fall into: a Revolutionary or a counter-revolutionary? Most gang
bangers, unfortunately, fall into the category of a
counter-revolutionary.
As with most–if not all–Black street gangs, which I prefer to call
social clubs, they started out as Revolutionary because the social,
political and economic conditions that Black people were subjected to in
the ’60s, ’70s, ’80s, and even today, necessitated that they come
together and organize to try and resist and change those conditions. But
during the ’80s when the CIA began flooding poor Black communities with
crack cocaine and guns to finance its illegal counter-revolutionary war
against the democratically-elected Sandinista government in Nicaragua,
and to further destabilize the poor Black communities making them more
susceptible to subjugation and genocide, these social clubs and the
oppressed communities they existed in became fractured and divided.
Consequently, these social clubs became counter-revolutionary in that
they lost sight of their original purpose and began to prey on the very
people and neighborhoods they originally organized to defend, protect,
and liberate.
One of the best examples of a social club becoming Revolutionary as the
result of a radical transformation in the mentality of its membership is
the 5,000-strong Slauson gang under the leadership of Alprentice
“Bunchy” Carter. During the early ’60s, Bunchy was successful in uniting
all of the various social clubs in Los Angeles under his leadership.
According to Elder Freeman, a close comrade of Buchy’s, this was the
first and only time in history that there was only one unified social
club in Los Angeles. To build off of that success and momentum, Bunchy
then spearheaded the formation of the Los Angeles Black Panther Party in
1967 which recruited heavily from the ranks of the Slauson gang. Because
Bunchy was such a dynamic organizer and a charismatic leader who
inspired other “street” brothers and sisters to become Revolutionaries,
then FBI Director, J. Edgar Hoover, had Bunchy and his Black Panther
comrade, John Huggins, killed in a COINTELPRO created beef between the
Los Angeles Black Panther Party and Ron Karenga’s United Slaves
Organization on January 17, 1968. …
MIM(Prisons) adds: The above is an excerpt from an article
written by a comrade who goes on to promote an organization that we
reviewed in ULK 50.(1) In that article we describe the numerous
serious political errors in that organization’s line. But we agree with
the general strategy that we need to “unify rival social clubs and
redirect their aggression and rage away from each other and towards
changing and improving the conditions of Black and oppressed people.”
There are many examples of comrades doing this that have appeared in the
pages of Under Lock & Key over the years. Yet as this issue
addresses, the problem is far from resolved.
The Black Panthers of the late 1960s still offer the most successful
examples of transforming gangsters into revolutionaries. What that
indicates is that building a strong vanguard party, with the correct
political line, in dialectical relationship to the lumpen masses is the
way to repeat their success. Without that, efforts at L.O. unity will be
short-lived or will be siphoned off into bourgeois reformism.
I completed the drug survey from ULK 56. As the days passed I could not
stop reflecting on the article
“Drugs
a Barrier to Organizing in Many Prisons.” Here in West Virginia dope
is God and those who supply them are Messiahs. I decided to put pen to
paper and add my thoughts to the discourse.
I am currently incarcerated at Mount Olive, which is West Virginia’s
highest security prison. Recently the administration severely restricted
our yard time. This was done to punish us for the rash of recent
murders. Some of the more militant brothers started organizing a
peaceful sitdown to protest. The shot-callers immediately vetoed the
sitdown.
I was shocked. Then I decided to follow the money, or in this case dope.
The gang leaders did not want to antagonize the prison administration
out of fear that they would restrict the flow of dope. Drugs were more
important than our outdoor recreation privileges.
This is not the only power that drugs have given the administration over
us. To curtail the flow of K-2 into the prison we no longer receive our
actual mail. We get poor quality photocopies of our mail. There is still
K-2 on the compound, but the price has doubled. If prisoners cannot get
K-2 through the mail how does it get in? Simple, our captors bring it
in. Not only are we enriching our captors, we are increasing their
control over us.
Drugs drain all the money off the compound. When prisoners are broke and
dope sick they not only rob and extort weaker prisoners, they are grimey
with their brothers. This increases the violence on the yard. Instead of
working together to improve our situation we make it worse. No unity.
As an old head I lead by example. I abstain from all drugs and alcohol.
I do my best to educate the young bloods. No, I do not have much
success. As soon as I turn my back they chase the dopeman. I hate to
paint such a dark picture, but the truth is not always bright. I look
forward to reading the other discourses on this subject.
I am a Mexican National Citizen raised in the old ways of making
business. Our word was always good to our dying last breath. In prison
politics and Mexican politics, the word is meaningless. (Tell that to
good Tio Colosio, who paid with his life for believing someone else’s
word.)
Well, after 20 years in a main line or so-called active yards, I made
the transition to the SNY yard. Here, I found lots of brothers
(i.e. comrades), that made the transition years and even decades ago.
Fortunately, I escaped the usual brainwashing that my Chicano
counterparts are exposed to in the schools and ghettos. So, I called
quits, and came over to the bizarre world. I found that most of my new
comrades lacked any type of political consciousness. Time after time
they declined my attempt to read some of my literature. It did not
escape my mind that I once was like that too. It took me years to awaken
to the cruel reality of my imprisonment.
Anyway, my first celly was a white male. And I discovered what I have
always known in theory: We are all ignorant, poor, and damned
(regardless of skin color, creed, or gang affiliation). For reasons that
are not pertinent to this essay my new celly only last me less than 24
hours. Nevertheless, he left a deep impression in my consciousness. He
told me that on the line his shot caller actually put a hit on him, over
a $50.00 pruno debt. So he had to assume the position and allowed his
beloved celly, who was a few months short to go home. And he was stabbed
about three times. That is how out of control the prison gangs are.
So that the readers know: The average Mexican National prisoner doesn’t
belong to cartels, or street and prison gangs. Most Mexicanos are
unaware of the avalanche of prison politics coming their way. Without no
shame I can say that had my counselor told me about my expected role to
serve at the active yard I should have checked out right there and then.
It wasn’t meant to be, so I was set up, by a failed rehabilitation
system. I was immediately classified as a “PAISA” or “BORDER BROTHER.”
This STG (Security Threat Group) is under the direct order of the
Sureños Prison Gang (like to be ordered to do hits and follow gang’s
rules).
Unbeknownst to the Mexican, all of these violent incidents will be used
by the Board of Parole Hearings (“BPH”). God forbid one has a stabbing
ten years ago. They literally act the part to be surprised that these
kind of thing happen in prison. Even a disciplinary citation over a
stolen apple will be used to say that one is a danger to the free
community. These pundits actually believe that these gulags are CENTERS
of top notch rehabilitation. And that one insists in misbehaving!
My new celly is an elderly Mexican. He is respectful and knows how to do
time. He too called it quits when he discovered the winds of change in
the air. And before things took a turn for the worst, he made the best
decision in his life. He became another “SNY.” The environment here is
more loose. The gang trip is over. I have not seen any acts of predatory
behavior towards those that are too weak to defend themselves. Then,
there are those that act out as straight protective custody; they
believe that the c/o is their daddy or big carnal. They are loud and
wear their pants half way down their butt. Still the talking with staff
can also be seen at facility “C”, an active yard. They came in to the
program office and spend time with them (getting cozy with the enemy
i.e. the oppressor).
I found out that if I kept to myself and mind my own business I can fly
undetected. This wasn’t possible in an active yard, because one is
expected to put in work for the prison gang. The new prison gangs at
this side, they pretty much keep to themselves. And do their fighting
without asking for help. Those who do not want to engage in the new
gangs warfare are left alone out of the drama. I have spoken to former
Sureños and Norteños (youth and elderly), and many described themselves
as “Mexicanos” born on this side. Many have realized that the Mexican
National is not their puppet to be used and discarded. They all agreed
that becoming “SNY” is the best decision that they ever took. Their new
leaders are their families, patria, and raza.
Here, former shotcallers and gang leaders are nothing. They are one more
slave among the thousands. Long are gone the days of blood money, glory,
cell phones, and God ego trips over life and death. As for my own
transition from an enslaved active prisoner to an “SNY” it was easy. I
packed my belongings without raising too much suspicion. And at school I
told the officer “that I wanted out of the yard.” They pressured me to
tell what I knew about the big fat sapos and those that are kissing
their ass. I had nothing to tell them.
Even if I knew anything I would never tell them nothing. I am too old to
become a state snitch. So, not all SNY prisoners become snitches. I have
been told that sometimes the officers threaten prisoners by telling them
they will be sent back to the main line. But, this wasn’t my case. (For
your information, the officers will never do that.)
For those that I left behind, stop and think about it, for a long time.
Is it really worth it to give up one’s life by running a fool’s errand?
What they are sending you to do to someone else’s son they will do to
you. The masters of manipulation’s lost cause is not worth it to die or
kill for. Screw their orders, they are not our parents, tios, or big
brothers. They are playing God with your lives and freedom.
They are bloodthirsty sociopaths with our brothers’ and sisters’ blood
on their hands. They are the oppressor’s little brother; they help the
oppressor to keep us in check. Go ahead and tell them to do the killings
themselves. They can’t really hold you up accountable for your word;
that you gave up as a little kid. You did not know anything about life
when they enticed you to join the gang. They never told you that by 15
you would be dead or doing life in the gulags.
They never took you to a funeral and told you: that is you in a few
years. They never took you to the gulags to visit those who are buried
alive. Have they told you that an early death or lifetime in prison was
your future? Odds are that you would have run away ASAP. Thus, at the
age of 20, 30, or even 60 years old, one must truly awaken to the
reality of our predicament and analyze the contradictions of one’s
slavery. So that we can shake off the old chains that bind us to a lost
cause. One must evolve and think outside the box. It is the 21st
Century, our families need us out there.
MIM(Prisons) responds: Lumpen organizations (LOs) in the united
$tates are usually organizations of the most economically marginalized
of the oppressed in this country. Elsewhere comrades have spoke about
the difference between the Neo-Colonial Lumpen Organization (NLO) and
the LO. The experience of the above comrade reflects the practice of the
NLO. But the LOs in general have both capitalistic and
collective/nationalist aspects to them. And those that embrace the
collective aspect (usually in a revolutionary nationalist way), can
evolve to become Political Mass Organizations (PMOs).(1) So while we
struggle with comrades in LOs to move in the direction of becoming a
PMO, the above story is a common one in California as SNY has come to
represent one third of prisoners in recent years.(2)
This comrade also touches on the national question and national identity
in Aztlán. The fact that those of Mexican descent born within U.$.
borders are so likely to identify as Mexicanos speaks to the national
contradiction between the Amerikan settler and the colonized territory
of Aztlán. As this comrade also recognizes we refer to those born north
of the U.$.-Mexico border as Chican@s. The recognition of a Chican@
nation deeply connected to, but separate from Mexico, was the outcome of
the struggles of revolutionary nationalists and communists in the 1960s
organizing Raza in the southwest. For those interested in this topic you
should check out Chican@ Power and the Struggle for Aztlán by a
MIM(Prisons) study group. This book is available to prisoners for $10,
or work trade.
[In 2012 a comrade summed up an ongoing discussion about organizing
the lumpen class, which is below. The summary gets at how we should
approach organizing the lumpen. This is a critical question if we are to
apply our theoretical understanding of this class to the
anti-imperialist movement in a practical way. We aren’t looking to just
write essays to expand our brains; we focus on political theory in order
to inform revolutionary practice. - ULK Editor]
USW comrades have been discussing money and material trappings as being
synonymous with respect and dignity in lumpen organization youth. The
struggle for money, like the dope game, for example, can be less a
status seeking activity, and more of the people just exercising their
survival rights. Comrades made sure to differentiate between
money/survival and material trapping (i.e. gold chains, cars, rims,
etc.). Amerikkkanism and consumerism promote hardcore parasitism in
lumpen youth, causing extreme alienation and fetishization of money.
Today’s youth show the same apathy, indifference and nihilism as the
youth of 1955. It was the civil rights movement that awoke the youth of
that era. Comrades struggled over what today can take the place of the
civil rights movement. War, environment and imperialist expansion were
three good starting points to organize around. We lumpen youth have more
stake in the future environment and it is us who fight the wars. It
helps to understand that those starving to death and suffering/dying
from preventable diseases are our people. We must fulfill our destiny or
betray it. All this nitpicking and betrayal between sets/sides
contributes to humankind suffering. We must overcome this flaw.
The principal enemy we must defeat is the glamorization of gangsterism.
A revolutionary or a gangster? What are we? Can the two coexist in a
persyn and still be progressive? Gangsterism plants fear by oppression,
and revolutionaries are in struggle against oppression. This internecine
violence we perpetrate between sets is what the pigs want us to do. They
sold us this shit in Scarface and we’ve built on to it and made
it our own. Overcoming the glamorization of gangsterism will take
proletarian morality, conscious rap, exposing the downsides and ills of
gangsterism, the glamorization of revolution, revolutionary culture, and
possibly to redefine the word gangsta. Gangsters are parasites and
revolutionaries are humankind’s hope. It’s as simple as that. We need to
leave the lumpen mentality for a proletarian one. Many true
revolutionaries were once gangsters. Gangsterism is a stage, basically.
Self-respect, self-defense and self-determination define transitional
qualities of a revolutionary. Bunchy Carter, Mutulu Shakur and Tupac all
transcended the hood and grew into progressives. What we are seeking as
USW is opening up the spaces for gangsters of all walks of life to enter
the realm of anti-imperialism and begin a transformation of mind,
actions and habits to develop into the model of a revolutionary gangsta
with the capability of forwarding the cause of the people. We must
understand our potential. It is us, we reading these ULKs, that
hold imperialism in our fists. A real gangsta is one who has gone
revolutionary and has kicked off all the strings of social control -
mental illness, drugs, fantasy, despair, escapism, etc.
Mainstream gangsta rap is the enemy of our people and the struggle. We
have to create more revolutionary music, art and literature. Fergie,
Fifty, Eminem, Kanye, all push watered down, flimsy lyrics. Mainstream
rap is psychological warfare and just as harmful as crack or heroin.
Imperialism allows the urban drug trade just like it allows
Eminem.
It keeps us down. It is a form of genocide and wholly harmful to the
revolutionary struggle. The only positive we even entertained in the
discussion is that drugs and pop culture rap are a form of rebellion
that begins a revolutionary on the path of revolution. The benefits to
imperialism outweigh the negatives and the opposite is true for the
lumpen. Drugs have us punked, dig?
Raw fear and discouragement are the pistols on the hips of the
oppressor. To be demonized as a terrorist, have mail messed with, loss
of good time, pig abuses, all contribute to lumpen becoming despondent
and not standing up for their rights. People have a responsibility to
act and fight for the type of society that they want to live in, or they
really have no right to complain about oppression. We face pepper spray,
tazers, isolation and a bullet in the back face down. The Nazis used the
infamous concentration camps to instill fear. And the united snakes has
the largest prison system in the world for the very same reason: social
control and intimidation. Meth, cocaine and psychotropics act as targets
for the raw fear pistol. Increasing it. Making it more deadly. To be
uneducated or out of shape physically assures a mortal wound when the
bullets fly. We must outsmart and out stick and move. Knowing 1500
children starve to death per hour, and the fact that 3.5 billion people
survive on less than $2 per day, you suit yourself in bullet proof
kevlar. What’s a lost letter and a few extra years in prison without
good time compared to that?
Nothing comes to a sleeper but a dream. Only through aggressive
challenge and exposure of the life-threatening contradictions of
upholding the present status quo will we awaken and overcome. Passivity
cowers before the eyes of the slave master. We must educate the people
into the understanding that raw fear will remain so long as the
imperialist system is in existence. It is us, comrades, built
exclusively for its utter destruction. This is a call from USW to unite
and rise up, in struggle.
Prison organizations today have the tendency to bang on other orgs more
than they do on the pigs, Corrections Officers (COs) and the system. Raw
fear is so deep in us and we’ve placed the oppressors on such a
pedestal, thinking the pigs are “godly,” invincible and “in-the-right,”
that we’ve become stuck. Shaking in our boots or peeking out the blinds
shuddering. The pigs want us believing we are degenerates or mentally
ill rejects and to trust boldly that the pigs are only trying to help
us. One comrade voiced concern over seeing ruthlessness so deep between
lumpen orgs in his gulag that captives cheer suicides and mental
breakdowns in fellow captives but want to know how “snouty sir’s”
vacation went. It’s a sad situation.
“Earning stripes” and “putting it down for the cause” is telling when it
is fellow captives being lifeflighted and body-bagged as the man with
the keys giggles. Putting it down for whom? MIM(Prisons) and USW don’t
promote violence. But there are lesser and higher levels of
incorrectness when the man pushes us in the corner in the use of
self-defense. Viciousness and brutality against our own is unforgivable.
Period.
Watered-down versions of the various struggles that came before are
served up steaming before our hungry, bloodshot eyes. Organizing our
people to realize our destiny takes theory and analysis of past and
present conditions. Marxism-Leninism-Maoism is the meat we must partake
of. Throw that watered down soup kitchen fare into snouty’s face. The
actual methods on how to organize and take control of our destiny is
what’s for dinner, comrades. Educating, agitating, theorizing, study
groups, unity and books challenge bullshit and backward ideas. Knowledge
of history and our present reality is what we lack. We must recoup from
the losses we’ve experienced after all these years. Muscle has memory,
believe that! We are only doomed to that failure if we remain asleep.
Will we?
Independent nationhood isn’t in the forefront of most lumpen minds when
Seinfield sitcoms and chick-o-sticks occupy our perception. Progressives
of all stripes must rip the amerikkkan flags out of our faces and walk
over the motherfucker. Parasites In Gangsters clothing, CIA. Sheep
infiltrating LOs mainstream gangster rap or pig induced crap? Occupy
wall street or spitting on Third World’s feet? Stand in our fork in the
road. We are at the historical juncture where the hustling game [dope,
pimpin etc.] as our only “come up” must be shot to shit as the game
plan. The dope game’s insanity. There is a more practical revolutionary
way to control our destinies and obtain independence. Getting ourselves
out the imperialist crosshairs must be our goal. Not protecting street
corners and crack, meth or herb market shares. Just look at the Mexican
cartels doing it big time as their people in the base areas remain
hungry, shoeless and without basic necessities. The sad aspect is we
leave our families in the same boat. We must overcome this.
We must remember, though, that the oppressor will always let one or two
big shots come up. Some cartels’ base areas in Mexico do gain better
living conditions to pacify unrest and garner support from the people.
Is drug dealing, guns and stickups too entrenched in the lumpen’s
economic life that survival, even survival at such low levels, would be
impossible without them? This is the ideological crossroads we stand at.
What is preventing oppressed nation people from coming together and
bucking this system? If the drug trade doesn’t act as a sleeping gas, in
that we benefit from it, but as a poison which hurts us, then why do we
continue in it? Drug culture and popular culture seem to contribute to
this deviation. The use and sale of drugs is addictive. But so is the
culture that comes with it. The street/dope world envelops an individual
in non-political thinking. Like a cancer, few survive. Some do manage to
feed their children and make ends meet slanging but only so long. And at
a high price (prison, death, addicted sons and daughters, brain damage,
disease etc.).
The media mind washes us into believing the oppressor pigs are “all
mighty” and McDonald’s workers are slow and slimy. This puts us in the
trap of spending our whole lives trying to prove to each other we aren’t
slow and slimy. But why don’t we prove this to the oppressor?
Consumerism, amerikkkanism and patriotism stand toe to toe with mass
revolutionary politics. And we ain’t getting nowhere until the referee
drags out the bleeding corpse of “grams, hundreds and eight balls” lying
at our feet. Drug culture down. Revolutionary culture up. Drug culture
is used as a sort of net to catch rebels before they truly do turn
revolutionary. And by the time the drugs spit us out on the cement floor
of a solitary cell, collapsed vein and hollow brain, psychotropic
culture steps in with a great big smile. Know your enemy.
Most people in the U.$. have an idealistic philosophical view of
socioeconomic and political structure so that they support reformist
political movements before they do revolutionary movements. Spending
time voting for the richest man or writing your governor are almost
laughable when one discerns 98% of amerikkka is enemy. Class
consciousness in the labor aristocracy and bourgeoisie is high while in
the lumpen it is low. Privileges, false-consciousness and “the
amerikkkan dream” got us hook, line and sinker chasing the carrot. The
pigs, the imperialists, keep us out of legal employment with the
opportunity of upward mobility being impossible. So we chase the
illusion of the amerikkkan dream in the drug game. To chase ideals
taught in elementary and high school right into our caskets. It is this
juvenile ass scenario preventing our peoples from unity and throwing off
this system like a bad habit.
When the drug trade ceases, and excuses for policing and imprisonment
have no grounds to stand on, the government would have to backpedal the
drug war into their garage. Most of us don’t realize that the more
violence we contribute to, in and out of prison, the more excuses for
SHUs and SWAT team type scenarios pop up. Can you imagine the power in
directing the crack fiend’s intelligence, cunning and commitment into
politics?! Imperialism fears such scenarios. This is why they keep the
drug trade on and popping. Prison guards, street cops, prison
administrators, food-telephone-parole-commisary, etc., services would be
jobless if we put down the pipe, the drug war’s an illusion and
smokescreen hiding the wizard of oz behind its fancy tapestry.
Mexican cartels make billions off the drug trade. This money they funnel
into amerikkkan banks. The $20 dope fiend gets one to fifteen yeas as
the 2 billion dollar dealers get free checking. The sad part in all this
is the money in these banks, made from Latino cartels, goes to oppose
revolutions in Nicaragua, Paraguay, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. The more
Third World countries Amerikkka has under its thumb the more goods
oppressor nation labor aristocrats can siphon. Third World countries
like Mexico act as prime markets for amerikkkan products and prime hot
spots for factories that employ oppressed wimmin and children on 60
times less money than amerikkkans make.
These Mexican cartels are not the principal enemy. But even though they
are fighting against the oppressed nations’ interest worldwide, they are
still oppressed nation national bourgeois and minority compradors. We
take Mao’s example in China when he united with Chaing Kai Shek, an
oppressor, to defeat Japanese imperialism, the bigger oppressor. Mao’s
tactic worked. We must employ such means, when necessary, if we want to
succeed in bringing imperialism to its knees. One divides into two and
some of these cartels will side with revolution and some with
imperialism. To label all as enemy would in effect shoot ourselves in
the feet. Some of the money cartels make goes to the revolution, here
and abroad, that’s almost assured. So the drug trade is internationalist
in some of its practice. We must avoid the trap of big nation chauvinism
and see that 80% of the world is Third World.
Most lumpen orgs will not transform into revolutionary orgs as long as
they can benefit materially from working in cahoots with the
imperialists, i.e. pushing dope and other hustles. Most youth these days
haven’t even heard of their set’s infancy. Lumpen orgs were originally
created to fight oppression in the hood. But the pigs infiltrated these
orgs and turned them into oppressive groups. Like a vampire. What better
way for a vampire oppressor to sleep easy than making sure everyone from
sea to shining sea are themselves vampire oppressors!? Just lock up
behind razor wire those whose necks they can get at and it’s sweet
dreams for dracula.
Today’s youth’s mission is realizing protracted struggle is necessary in
smashing oppression. We must understand that a concerted effort, that
may take many years, is ahead of us. But it’s also winnable. China and
Russia succeeded in defeating backwards systems. We can too. Most
comrades get discouraged after so many years of struggling. To struggle
isn’t easy but it’s capable of giving extreme satisfaction when one
looks back at the progression one accomplishes over the years. WE have
been misled and under-educated by design. All in an effort at halting
our progression and the resolution of the imperialist contradiction. Our
Humanity has been stolen. We have no empathy for war or starvation. How
sick is that?
Back in the day Jim Crow laws made people rise up against oppression.
Then it fizzled out until the Vietnam War made people revolt. Nowadays
mass incarceration, the new Jim Crow, and Afghanistan are our hot spots
of agitation. But the sad part is most lumpen embrace prison and war.
Most of us believe we belong in chains and the Middle East is full of
“terrorists.” It’s a mind wash. It is amerikkka who is terrorist. And
the Middle East are our people. We know deep down that shit’s not right.
One comrade in the study group spoke about the suicide rate, and even
his very own suicidal tendencies before politics, as being exponential.
USW wants to begin to show how change is possible. We will attempt to
provide the roadmap but it is on you to start your cars. Let’s discover
our humanity and start questioning things around us. War and starvation
are a preventable. Let us challenge each other to grow and create a
better way for ourselves and the future.
Mainstream hip hop and drugs are killing us. Oppressed nation lumpen eat
that shit up like rat poison. “The amerikan dream” a.k.a. “rat poison.”
If the amerikkkan dream is to starve and create war so I can have an
x-box and cheap gasoline it’s not worth it. Not to USW. You? Dirtying
the names of groups like the Black Panther Party, MIM(Prisons) and USW
is a tactic used to revise history and throw a wrench in the revolution.
People seem to either embrace us or spit on us, and from what we’ve
experienced there’s seldom middle ground. But it says more about the
spitter than anything else. We must learn to uphold the standards we
promote and avoid straddling the fence or deviating from issues.
Practice is principal. Is our work focused on anti-community or
pro-community work? The people will recognize which pole we are on,
that’s assured. We must rest easy in the knowledge that the pigs’ truth
ain’t ours. There is no truth in common between the oppressor and the
oppressed. Because the aims, efforts and goals we push are seen as a
threat to their wealth and leisure time privileges. USW looks up to the
Panther legacy for these reasons above, and many others. We invite
thorough study of the rich revolutionary heritage of our forebearers
with the black berets. Power to all oppressed people.
Today I read ULK 50 and I must say you’ve piqued my interest. I
am part of an organization that has come to be viewed as a gang by
society in its own right. Meaning the majority of us conduct ourselves
as such. We are said to be forged out of concepts of the Black Panther
Party, Black Liberation Army, and Black Vanguards (a movement within the
prison system headed by George Jackson). Many of us, including myself,
were turned on to this way of life under the impression that we will
liberate our communities from drugs, end black-on-black violence, stop
the prison cycle, create economic stability, promote a political
consciousness, establish a strong unity, etc. But on a daily basis we do
the opposite. The attempt to change our criminal mindset to a
revolutionary mindset has failed expeditiously here in Maryland. I’m
from Baltimore City where there is little or no unity at all amongst any
of the organizations or gangs that will be the forefront of the fight!
I often find it hard to change one’s comfort zone. Here, if a man is
comfortable in his everyday life, my trying to change his/her way of
living will be looked at as a threat. No matter if I’m right or not.
I’m currently being housed at Roxbury Correctional Institution in
Hagerstown, Maryland. Since I’ve been locked up I’ve been in senseless
fights, and involved in meaningless disruptions. Our biggest problem
here is drug use! I’m not a drug user but I often assist those who do.
Many of us use the profits to take care of our loved ones on the street,
or ourselves in here. The police know these things because, how do you
think it gets here. I don’t knock anybody’s hustle. But I recognize how
it gets us off our true purpose, which is freedom.
In population there are only 4 phones on the tier. These 4 phones are
dictated by those with influence in general population. We subject
ourselves to more oppression than does the oppressor himself. I’m
looking for ways to begin to change my environment. I’m on lockup right
now and reading ULK has given me a wake up call on who I should
truly be. As of right now I have about 4 more years until I’m released.
With that said I would ask that MIM(Prisions) begin to educate me on
what it truly means to be a revolutionary by first sending me basic
Maoist, Marxist, and Leninist literature.