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.
Determining who to write to regarding a specific issue is a tactical
question. One day it may be most important to write to the Director of
Corrections, the other it may be the Office of the Inspector General. We
make tactical decisions based on our conditions at the time. In this
circumstance, participants in the campaign to
end the
Z-Unit Zoo were bringing this issue to many government bodies,
including the Director of Corrections and the Inspector General.
In this response from the office of the Division of Adult Institutions,
A. Redding advises the participant to exhaust the appeals process.
Clearly in the petition, it says that many grievances have been filed
and none have been answered. This response is a good example of how
inhumane conditions and abuse can hide behind the bureaucracy of the
state under capitalism.
The above letter is a response from a Corrections Counselor II
Specialist (CCII) of the California Department of Corrections and
Rehabilitation (CDCR) to a prisoner in California who submitted to h the
grievance for the proper handling of grievances. Even though a CCII is
in a position to influence whether grievances are handled in a legal or
illegal manner, at least within h institution, in this letter A. Redding
advises the prisoner to file a lawsuit or contact the Inspector General
on the matter.
In this response to a grievance petition from California sent to the
Department of Justice (DOJ), they minimize the widespread scale of
corruption of the grievance system in the California state prison
system. Instead they are asking for facts and dates related to single
incidents or perpetrators.
In
“Bad
Apples” in the Pig Pen we explained why a focus on targeting
individual pigs is incorrect in most cases in our struggle because the
problems we address are societal. Although societal problems manifest in
individual pigs, focusing all of our energy trying to get one or two
pigs fired from our facility doesn’t significantly impact society as a
whole.
One may argue that the DOJ just needs a place to begin their
investigation. However, the petition makes it clear that this problem is
widespread throughout the system. Realistically they could interview
prisoners at random for details and receive enough information to begin
an investigation. Their narrow and sterile approach to “justice” is just
a cover for their interests in maintaining the status quo.
Hundreds of people gathered in downtown Oakland to mourn Oscar Grant and
express outrage at the light sentence given to his murderer, Johannes
Mehserle. Mehserle shot Grant in the back while he lay face down on the
ground. For this execution-style murder, he got 2 years in prison with
credit for time served on an involuntary manslaughter charge. The judge
gave the jury incorrect instructions for how to apply the gun
enhancement, and decided to just drop it, thus lowering Mehserle’s
maximum possible sentence to 4 instead of 14 years, rather than retry
the case. According to those inside the courthouse at the time of
sentencing, the judge openly blamed Grant and his friends for the
murder.
We didn’t expect justice from the system, but the whole struggle did
bring advances in revolutionary organizing in the region. The November 5
demonstration looked like others from the movement for justice for Oscar
Grant, but missing were the non-profits trying to run the show and
divide the protesters. It was refreshing to hear consistent messages
that encouraged people to get organized, stressed the need for
nation-based organizing (while uniting Black and Brown), refused to work
with the government and denounced the
outside
agitator line.
The city-sanctioned demo ended with a live performance of “Operation
Verdict (Fuck Dat)” by local artists Unity, Sinista Z, & Ras Ceylon.
Here’s the last verse:
Revolutionaries speak with clarity and overstand an injury to
one affects us all like Oscar Grant. Cuz I am we and we are
he So you will see us in the streets Yellin “Fuck da
Police!” No justice, no peace these non-profits is weak tryin’
to water down the movement and cut off free speech gettin paid by
the beast to calm the rage of our seeds that are sick of the
oppression that they daily gotta see and live with. You
idiot ain’t no outside agitators ’cept these murderous
pigs with the gun, badge and a taser so see ya later if you
tryin to claim that leadership you ain’t nothing but a snitch and
a politician’s bitch Fuck dat! Police out here knockin brothers
down Fuck dat! Trying to move the cats to somewhere out of
town Fuck dat! You know the state wanna water this shit
down Fuck dat!
Flattbush’s newest album Otomatik Attak (Koolarrow Records) is
a prime example of form meeting content to create a superior piece of
cultural art. A metal/grind band out of Los Angeles founded by two
members originally from the Philippines, Flattbush keeps a “fuck the
system” tradition alive with themes of atheism, revolt, and
anti-capitalism. These comrades scream for liberation in English,
Tagalog, and Kapampangan, accompanied by guest vocals in Spanish. They
go the distance lyrically by focusing on U.$. fascism and imperialism in
the Philippines, calling on the people to stand up against the Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo dictatorship in people’s war.
From “Dear Uncle Sam,”
the sadistic american imperialists they are always at war and they
always dictate so they can maintain their self interests but uncle
sam we are not afraid of your high tech warfare and atomic
bombs uncle sam fuck you uncle sam it is necessary to take
action it is necessary to oust the u.s. gloria fascist regime if
not now then when?
And from “Otomatik Attak,”
automatic attack on the people the strike of the fascist to
wipe out the solution to their attack is to counter
attack people’s war
Flattbush hopes to expand their cultural work to the Philippines in the
near future, live! To show solidarity with the peasant masses, the lead
vocalist often performs in a conical straw hat and plain jacket, similar
to a Mao suit. Supporting his powerful and compelling vocals, the
bassist, guitarist, and drummer are all phenomenal players. On stage
they are humble, not pausing for applause between songs. This album
would satisfy anyone into metal for the music, or anyone who is fighting
intensely for revolution. Get more info about Flattbush from
[url=http://www.flattbush.com.]www.flattbush.com.
When people react this way to a Black man being murdered execution style
by the pigs, the city of Oakland blamed it on “outside agitators.”
1 November 2010, The San Francisco Giants won the World Series, and in
addition to the tens of thousands of fans in the stadium, an estimated
12 million people watched the game on TV (not counting the millions
watching in sports bars, restaurants and other public venues). As in
other winning cities in years past, the city of the winning team erupted
into “joyful mayhem,” as the San Francisco Chronicle calls it,
with tens of thousands of people taking to the streets in drunken
celebration that included property destruction, traffic disruption, and
violence.
In classic bourgeois press form, pretending neutrality, the SF
Chronicle’s headline article today was titled “SF Giants Series
Celebration is Joyful Mayhem” and stated: “On Market Street, the
celebration quickly turned wild and unruly, with an estimated 7,000
revelers in the streets, some jumping on cars, rocking Muni buses,
tossing beer bottles, lighting fireworks and blocking traffic at Seventh
Street.” A much smaller article, hidden on the Chronicle
website, also mentioned “In the Mission, there have been reports of
fires, broken windows and an alleged stabbing.” Compare this with the
same newspaper’s January 8, 2009 report on the Oscar Grant protests. The
article was titled “Protests Over BART Shooting Turn Violent” and gave a
negative review of the protest which “mushroomed into several hours of
violence Wednesday night as demonstrators smashed storefronts and cars,
set several cars ablaze and blocked streets.”
We see that the same street violence is condoned when it’s in the name
of professional sports. Police wandering the streets after the World
Series were friendly, often clapping and cheering, and shutting down
streets to help out traffic while enabling the celebration. During the
Oscar Grant protest the cops showed up in riot gear and
attacked the crowd.
While we’re no fans of imperialist
elections, the World Series victory happened the night before election
day and begs the comparison: people are more passionate about baseball
than they are about the political future of their country/state/city.
This is no surprise to those of us familiar with the decadence of
Amerikan imperialism. Amerikans don’t need to worry about politics – the
government is working in their interests to secure resources at the
expense of Third World peoples to maintain wealth at home.
Sports passion includes a remarkable number of fans cheering “we did
it!” and “we won!” as if they had anything to do with the team that won
the game. In reality the SF Giants, like all professional sports teams,
are made up of players from across the country, who are paid a
ridiculous amount of money to wear a jersey for this team. Their
allegiance to the city lasts only as long as the paycheck continues. In
fact people point to statistics about the Giants’ last World Series
victory 56 years ago when they were based in New York as if that team
had something more in common with the SF Giants than the font they use
for their logo.
MIM(Prisons) would like to take all the sports passion in Amerika and
turn it against imperialist violence or world hunger. We’d even call it
progress if people get off the couch and play sports rather than get
drunk watching millionaires play. Perhaps the improved circulation would
help people think a bit more rationally about politics and the relative
importance of professional sports.
By aligning Amerikans’ immediate interests with their long-term
interests, the militarization of the U.$./Mexico border has become a
machine that will not likely slow down on its own. This machine is
propelled by the imperialist politicians, imperialist businessmen (often
the same people), and the Amerikan labor aristocracy. This collusion of
interests at a time when Amerikan hegemony is fragile spells danger for
the oppressed nations, in particular for Aztlán.
National Public Radio (NPR) released a report this week exposing
financial and political connections between the Correctional Corporation
of America (CCA) and those behind Arizona’s oppressive
SB1070
law.(1) The law, which is still under judicial review after being put on
hold, legalizes racial profiling and empowers state police to enforce
federal immigration laws in the process. The scandal, now being denied
by the bill’s sponsor Senator Russell Pearce and others, is that they
passed the law to increase their income and the profits of their
corporate backers.
Without SB1070, CCA was getting an estimated $117 million a year from
the federal government for imprisoning migrants. Meanwhile,
Wackenhut/G4S, the next largest private prison company, has a $76
million a year contract to bus migrants around the border for the U.$.
government. Of course, both of these sums are chump change compared to
the $3.6 billion budget for Border Patrol in 2010.(2) All of this is
federal money going to the oppressor nation to do its thing – oppress.
The essence of what is going on is Amerikans getting paid a lot of money
to make sure Amerikans get paid a lot of money. That’s why the border
exists and why it must be militarized. If it is not, the masses whose
labor value has been stolen and exported to the United $tates would come
here to benefit from the fruits of their labor. Without closed borders,
we can’t keep the wealth inside.
The NPR report exposes the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC),
an organization of state legislators and powerful corporations that get
together to draft and propose laws (see figure above). The companies pay
tens of thousands of dollars to attend such meetings with those who make
the law. And according to NPR, the number of legislators who sponsored
SB1070 was almost unprecedented and 30 out of the 36 received
contributions from prison companies or prison lobbyists in the 6 months
following SB1070’s passage. Meanwhile, two of Arizona Governor Jan
Brewer’s top advisers are former prison lobbyists.(1) All of this makes
CCA’s and Sen. Pearce’s denials of corporate influence look silly.
None of this is new to CCA, which was founded in Nashville, Tennessee by
former chairman of the state Republican Party, Tom Beasley and his
former roomy from the U.$. Military Academy at West Point, Doc Crants.
Initial investors included the governor’s wife, Honey Alexander, and the
Speaker of the Tennessee House of Representatives, Ned McWherter.(3)
Ever since then, their business model has relied on close political ties
just as most military, defense and security business does. Apparently,
CCA agrees with MIM(Prisons)’s
assessment
that migrants are and will continue to be the fastest growing prison
population in the United $tates. But while we are fighting this trend,
CCA is doing all they can to foster it.
When imperialism reaches the point where the arms of oppression are
major sources of profiteering, and the people are dependent on these
operations for their paychecks and standards of living (i.e. where
oppression and the oppressors’ financial interests become one in the
same), we will see the national contradictions within imperialism
heighten rapidly. This leads to increased repression both in laws and in
actions but also the opportunity for raising consciousness and
resistance among the oppressed nations. Even those Latinos who supported
imperialist politics had to think twice about the Arizona law as it
could impact their persynal safety if they visit that state. The
imperialists expose their blatantly chauvinistic goals with these
reactionary laws and the alliances that create the laws and it is our
responsibility to point out the contradictions and organize against
imperialist national oppression.
[This is a belated resolution from the MIM(Prisons) 2010 Congress.]
Overall, MIM(Prisons) stands by the
Resolutions
on Cell Structure passed at the last MIM congress in 2005. After 5
years of putting that resolution into practice there is experience to
sum up and questions that still need to be answered.
The theoretical basis for the cell structure is that the strength of a
centralized party comes into play when vying for state power, whether by
elections or otherwise. That is not in the cards for Maoists in the
imperialist countries at this time. Maoism is a minority movement in the
First World and will continue to be so for the foreseeable future. This
makes it even more important that we utilize our strengths and shore up
our weaknesses.
One of the main lessons to take from the cell structure resolutions is
that “[w]e oppose having geographic cells come into contact with each
other face-to-face. Infiltration and spying are rampant when it comes to
MIM. The whole strength of having a locality-based cell is that it is
possible to do all the things traditional to a movement. The security
advantages of culling people we know into a cell are lost the moment we
slack off on security and start accepting strangers or meeting with
strangers face-to-face.” We find it frustrating that critics of what
happened at etext.org as MIM faced repression are willing to ignore the
lessons of those setbacks.
At the last MIM congress in 2005, they spoke of a “MIM Center” that put
out the newspaper, among other tasks. Soon after, there was no
MIM
Notes newspaper, followed by the degeneration of the original MC
cell and finally the shutting down of their last institution, the
website at etext.org.
One of the challenges of small cells is developing and maintaining line.
Much work has been done, and if every new group or every revolutionary
had to start from scratch, we would never advance. That is why when
etext.org was repressed, MIM(Prisons) posted an archive of the MIM site
on our website. While we still do not have a regular newspaper for the
movement as a whole, the website is a crucial reference for us all.
Fraternal organizations do not agree on everything; they agree on
cardinal principles that are determined by the conditions of the time.
The etext.org site is not something Maoists must agree with 100%, but
there is no doubt that it is still the most comprehensive starting point
for any Maoist organization in the First World.
Democratic centralism is important for security and for political line
development. Yet until we are organizing on a countrywide basis, there
is no need for democratic centralism at that level, not to mention
internationally.
In guerilla warfare, the cell structure has been applied in a way that
was hierarchical so that action cells were separate from each other, but
each cell could be traced to the top of the organization. This relies on
a centralized organization or center. While MIM mentions such a center
being based around MIM Notes and etext.org in their 2005 resolutions, we
do not see the need for this center given the current circumstances. As
we have recognized before, certain ideological centers are bound to
exist based on the law of uneven development. Yet such centers are not
structural, but fluid, based on the type and amount of work done.
All that said, there is an inherent contradiction in the cell strategy.
Since organizing strategy and security tactics are not dividing line
questions, once the cell strategy is adopted and full decentralization
has occurred, it is possible for cells to change their line on this
question. Even the majority could do so and a new centralized party
could push remaining cells to the periphery. Since we work to build a
movement and not our individual organizations, and our work is already
on the periphery, we should not be concerned about the impacts of such a
move on our organization. It is, however, worrisome to the extent that
we see our comrades opened up to attacks through faulty security.
Part of accepting cell strategy is distinguishing between cadre work and
mass work. The self-described anarchist movement is able to mobilize
large numbers in mass work while abhorring centralized organization. We
should learn from their example, while not succumbing to liberalism in
our security practices or abandoning scientific leadership.
Getting the correct balance of cadre work and mass work will be more
challenging with a cell structure. There is no way to impose a balance
on the movement as a whole without a center, but we can pay attention to
what is going on around us and get in where we fit in. Leading cells
should not be shy to point out where the movement needs more investment
of resources.
One amendment we would make to the “Resolutions on Cell Structure” is to
cut the suggestion that a one-persyn cell “in many ways… has the least
worries security-wise!” Certainly, one-persyn cells should maintain high
standards for admitting others. However, the value of
criticism/self-criticism on the level of day-to-day work is something
that is stressed within Maoism, and we’ve benefited from in our own
practice in MIM(Prisons). We still need democratic centralism with the
cell structure to provide crucial discipline and accountability. The
criticisms we can give and get from other cells will be limited in
nature if our security is correct. And we have seen how one-persyn cells
can degrade or disappear quickly.
The November 2 elections promise some shuffling of the imperialist
representatives in government, but as usual with elections where the
choices are limited to different flavors of imperialist leaders, there
will be no real change. One ballot initiative that did catch our
attention is Proposition 19 in California which would legalize and
regulate marijuana.
In an attempt to reduce support for Prop 19, on 30 September 2010
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a law that changes the
punishment for possession of less than an ounce of pot to just a fine.
This reduces the potential impact of Prop 19 and should cut down on the
number of people in prison for marijuana possession. But even arrests
and convictions without a prison sentence have negative repercussions,
so Prop 19 goes farther in limiting the reach of the state in terms of
possession laws.
MIM(Prisons) supports any laws that will cut back on the number of
people locked up in prison or otherwise controlled by the imperialist
state. We know that drug laws (like other laws) are disproportionately
prosecuted against oppressed nations within U.$. borders, resulting in
huge numbers of Blacks and Latinos behind bars. For this reason we would
support legalizing all drugs to take power away from the imperialist
government and its criminal injustice system.
In 2009, just over half of the drug arrests were for marijuana (848,408
out of 1,663,583).(1) Marijuana arrests are growing as a proportion of
total drug arrests in the U.$., up to 52.6% in 2009 from 39.9% in 1995.
This is driven by arrests for simple possession, the percentage of
arrests for marijuana trafficking has not changed much over time.(2)
Adding to these statistics on marijuana arrests is compelling
information on the disproportionate use of marijuana laws against Black
men in California. The Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice reports:
“African Americans, just 6% of the state’s population…comprise a
staggering 45% of the 1,600 Californians imprisoned for marijuana,
including more than half of those locked up for marijuana felonies.
Blacks are nearly 4 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana than
other races, a racial gap only slightly wider than for other crimes. But
after African Americans enter California’s ‘Black marijuana system,’
disparities multiply more than for any other offense. Seven in 10 Black
marijuana arrestees are charged with felonies, compared to one-fifth for
other races. Blacks convicted of marijuana felonies are 3 times more
likely to be sent to prison than Nonblack marijuana felons. The upshot
of these accumulating discriminations is that Blacks wind up being
imprisoned for marijuana at 8 times the rate of Hispanics and 18 times
the rate of Whites. At older ages, the Black-Nonblack marijuana
imprisonment gap soars to nearly 4,000%… No other offense (including
violent, property, and other crimes) and no other drug (including
heroin, methamphetamine, and crack) even remotely displays the huge
racial discrepancies in imprisonment for marijuana.”(3)
The new law would not completely eliminate marijuana arrests and
prosecutions, primarily because it restricts the legal age to 21 and
only allows possession of small quantities, but they would be greatly
reduced. In addition, the federal government has promised to challenge
the constitutionality of Prop 19 if it passes, and to enforce the
federal laws in California regardless. Of course we can’t look at these
laws in a vacuum, the criminal injustice system will not cut back on the
police force or shrink the prisons simply because one law changes. Cops
will just find other reasons to arrest people, and those people will
continue to be disproportionately Black and Latino.
Even worse, cities like Oakland will likely be using the new tax
revenues to restore its recently cut back police force. The city stands
to be one of the biggest beneficiaries if the law passes, as it is home
to Oaksterdam University, which will be licensing large growing and
distribution centers under the new law. The financial interests behind
Oaksterdam University bankrolled the introduction of Prop 19 to the
November ballot. Los Angeles campus chancellor Jeff Jones pointed out
that support has come primarily from the jobs and tax revenue angle. He
says that focusing on imprisonment rates gets little support from
Californians.
While the imperialists run the global drug trade, here the state is
partnering with corporate interests to take over the local industry,
which has been the domain of the lumpen class. Following the national
liberation movements of the sixties many in the ghetto who didn’t see
the Amerikan dream through integration were able to find an income
through the drug economy. By the 1970s, Italians, Jews and others who
dominated black markets, in particular drugs, had long been integrated
into white Amerika. Whites left the inner cities for the suburbs where
they could become richer more easily by joining a growing financial
sector, allowing for Black and Latino gangs to take over profitable
street crime in their own areas. Organized crime, led by the CIA, backed
the most individualistic and destructive emerging groups, while
repressing Black and Brown power movements and flooding these
neighborhoods with cocaine.(4)
Faced with economic crisis today, white Amerika wants these jobs back.
And the state is leading the charge, hoping to reach a new tax source to
close huge shortfalls in paying their bureaucrat employees - especially
their pigs, who account for 85% of city spending in Oakland (police
& fire combined).(5) But whites aren’t forming a new mafia (at least
not exactly). Instead they formed a new university to train and certify
workers in the industry and they have joined labor unions to ensure
wages of $25.75 an hour with pensions, paid vacations and health
insurance.(6) In contrast, reports from the 1990s showed that most in
the drug game in the inner cities made around minimum wage and worked
long hours (needless to say with no benefits).(7) So the state hopes to
shrink the workforce in drug sales and production, pay a few trained
workers a nice sum, and increase their share of profits from the sale of
marijuana to pay cops and other state employees. In the process, the
economic crisis will be passed along to the lumpen who will become ever
more desperate to make ends meet. This will lead to more violence and
problems, and make the need for self-determination more dire in
oppressed nation communities that lack legal job markets.
While MIM(Prisons) supports the passage of laws that result in fewer
people in prison, we are under no illusions that even full legalization
of drugs in Amerika will solve the drug problems here. As we have seen
with alcohol, legalization of a drug does not make for safe use.
Amerikan culture is alienating and leads to rampant legal and illegal
drug abuse. According to a World Health Organization survey of 17
countries across the globe, the U.$ leads the world in users of both
legal and illegal drugs. Drug use is correlated with wealth of a country
with the richer countries having a higher percentage of drug users.(8)
It will take a revolution to create a culture that allows people to feel
valuable, safe and empowered and not in need of the easy escape that can
be found in drugs. After the revolution in China, the Maoist-led country
basically eliminated drug addiction through community-based campaigns.
Drug addiction, particularly to opium, was a widespread problem imported
by the British. But after the revolution there was a strong focus on
helping drug addicts get clean, and on giving everyone useful work and
education as well as health care. This campaign, combined with a
strategy of wiping out opium growing and distribution in favor of much
needed food crops, virtually eliminated the drug problems in China by
the early 1950s. Only with a government that serves the people rather
than working to enrich its imperialist masters will we be able to
eliminate drug abuse and the criminal injustice system. As we work
towards such a system we will support laws that result in fewer people
in prison, but we know the impact of these laws will be minimal at best.
I would like to say something about the
article
by the drop out skinhead who became an SNY. It is good that this person
is involving himself in MIM because MIM can remedy some line questions
concerning progress. This is i believe the underlying issue with the
snitch question, and many other strategies.
Here’s a valuable quote,
“Our public relations policy is based on anonymity, which is to say,
attraction rather than promotion; we need to always maintain personal
anonymity at the level of press, internet, radio etc. Anonymity is the
spiritual foundation of all our traditions, ever reminding us to place
principles before personalities. Understanding these traditions comes
slowly over time. We pick up information as we talk to members and visit
various groups. By following these guidelines in our dealings with
others, and society at large, we avoid problems. We still have to face
difficulties as they arise; communication problems, differences of
opinion, internal controversies, and troubles with individuals and
groups outside the fellowship. However we apply these principles, we
avoid some pitfalls. Many of our problems are like those that our
predecessors had to face. Their hard won experiences gave birth to these
traditions, and our own experience has shown that these principles are
just as valid today as they were when these traditions were formulated.
Our traditions protect us from the internal and external forces that
could destroy us.”
From where? Mao Zedong’s red book? No, a narcotics anonymous pamphlet!!
But does it really matter where it comes from, or the merit of the
content?
This is my objection to going SNY. Only because these three letters
mean, “you have told the police information”. You have strengthened the
hand of the police by information. You have dialed 911 and gave 411. For
me, that’s the foul. Now of course the gangs that these people walked
away from have a different objection than this one. But it is very
common for gangs to split, or have coups from within, or be taken over
by other gangs… examples abound! John Gotti killed his own boss to
become the boss, Lucky Luciano made peace treaties with the NY mafias
and founded ‘Murder Inc’ - his own army.
Such putchism and naked self interest is not at all a new feature of
gang activity and reality. Neither is martyrdom an estranged element of
nazism or fascism. Both Mussolini and Hitler were killed in 1945. The
drop out skinhead seems to have had a “disillusionment” about his
experience with other skinheads. Can it be possible, that a group that
espouses an ideology of national socialism, that claims to be not a gang
but a “social movement”, can surprise its own members with hidden
tenants and protocols? This person talks as if he was conscripted or
enslaved by his own group and liberated by SNY.
A motif that puts principle above inter-personalism and sentiment that
does not connect to the concepts above about anonymity. Rather avoiding
line issue progress, but material canteen, coffee pack type motivations.
Disconnected from the imperatives of duty, social progress and
revolution! Fascism claimed to be and was revolutionary! Marx explained
that the bourgeois has historically played quite a revolutionary role in
relation to the establishments that come before it. But also explained
how these bourgeois revolutions did not benefit or literate the 3rd
estate, the proletariat or the international proletariat. The 4th of
July being such a type of bourgeois revolution… while they held others
as slave.
SNY (Sensitive Needs Yard) or PC (Protective Custody) is now very
popular in prison. I think that many prisons have a majority of PC
prisoners over mainline. Both of these concepts come from the cops! and
many prisoners have let these concepts creep into their consciousness
and thinking. As MIM theory 4 said, “many of these people use FBI
reasoning in their politics. You hear the cops foster little comments.
For example, The C/O’s start calling our property shit.”Inventory this
shit” , “get your shit”, “here’s your shit”, and like monkeys, inmates
picked it up.”I’m waiting to get my shit” Stop thinking and talking like
the pigs! The C/O’s started calling a cell a house. ” go back to your
house”, “is this your house?” inmate monkeys,” in my house”…it’s not a
house! it’s a coffin! “Gassing” is another coin they want to circulate.
A little system of mnemonics that they propagate, which we swallow up!!!
In effect letting pigs create culture for us.
A prevalent concept i hear those going to SNY is “I want to back away
from the politics”… Like Cuban refugees who ask for political asylum,
but come to Miami and work with the CIA agents to overturn a political
movement. Like the bay of pigs. That is not “Apolitical” like they say.
Who cares what people say? Science is not about opinion and subjective
narratives, but observation, strict non-fiction. The drop out skinhead
relates that SNY’s are more violent than mainline now, and i agree!
Statistically SNY is one of the most violent of yards now. It wasn’t
always like that, and we can identify factor’s as to how this came
about. The DOC lowered its standard for letting people go to SNY. Before
you had to snitch, nowadays all you have to do is ask!! This is because
the DOC created a legal category of protected prisoners for its own
administrative convenience, but when challenged in court became more of
a burden than anything else. Opening up lawsuits and legal dilemmas…
They just opened the doors.
I want to caution righteous activists who hate snitch logic, to not
think of all PCs as weak cowards, some are, but know some PCs are very
dangerous! They do exercise routines also, and many pack heat
religiously as we do… Sammy “the rat” Grivano, was not a wimpy sissy at
all! but a determined fierce weasel, who killed more than anyone he
snitched on. Just like cops are not all fat pigs, some are committed
murderers. Like Johannes Mehserle, straight executioner! You have to be
like Karl Marx, who acknowledged the impressive violence of the
bourgeoisie, but qualified this violence with a philosophical analysis
of who it served, and what it meant for the workers of all nations,
never denying the inextricable link between thought and action - Theory
and Practice. Defining violence by its direction and and constitution.
MIM will help all of its students develop a deliberate super-structure,
not insulate concepts like the pigs! The pigs use slight of hand mind
control, MIM has criticism and demonstration instead of this. SNY’s need
to look hard at their own political line and ask whether or not they
push revolution, and what kind of revolution, and not act like rag dolls
caught in the currents of a river they chose to jump into. That’s real
politics not identity politics.
– a California Prisoner
D12 for MIM(prisons) responds:This comrade’s understanding
concerning the need to stay away from identity politics is good. It will
guard the movement, and prevent revisionism. This comrades reason for
seeing the SNY as only those who give 411 go to the SNY is not accurate.
The CDC has long held the policy to segregate prisoners from the general
population who have criminal records which would warrant their assault
on the general population, or due to the identity of the prisoner, i.e
pigs, k9s, and so forth. Due to the gang problem the CDC has had to
change its policy to allow former gang members who would be assaulted,
or killed if they remained on the general population, as well as
prisoners who enter the prison and face a choice of being forced into a
prison gang or to follow the underground rules set up by the prisoners.
The comrade states certain examples of cooperation between those engaged
in the unlawful market and the state, lets not forget that Lucky Luciano
aided the U.$. against fascist Italy. The main point that needs to be
remembered is that while these lumpen organizations have the greatest
potential for revolution in a parasitic imperialist country. They are
still lumpen, and have not shed their lumpen skin to stand with the
Third World proletariat as communists. The very nature of the lumpen is
predatory, not to the degree of the big imperialists, but they have a
lot of work to do. Many lumpen groups have revolutionary concepts as
their teachings, yet you still see them killing each other or
distributing drugs in to our neighborhood, robbing and stealing. It is
not surprising that many people join these lumpen organizations and are
let down, causing them to look for a way out.
History has shown that the revolutionary rhetoric espoused by the LOs
where brought in by those in the 60’s and 70’s who were involved in the
struggle for liberation. What we see is revolutionary nationalism within
the oppressed nations that are engaged in capital enterprise. We have to
recognize that it is the will of the state to play prisoner against
prisoner; to disrupt the educating and organizing of prisoners for
revolution. It’s the state that is ready to welcome prisoners and offer
them a “safe” place to do their time when the prisoner breaks a rule
that would warrant his assault or death from a lumpen organization. Or
to welcome those who no longer see any logic in participating in these
LOs due to political difference even when they tried to stay and
convince the others within their org. It is not MIM(Prisons) policy that
a prisoner should risk his safety when the prisoner doesn’t have to.
You’re more valuable alive, on the streets, and if in prison then you
should be able to move around and do political work. Engaging in
chauvinism and ultra-left behavior sets the movement back. While there
is a point when one should not cooperate with the state, we will not
encourage a persyn to stay in the SHU serving an indeterminate term,
when that persyn is a communist revolutionary and the tide is on his or
her shoulders. What matters is what one does as a communist
revolutionary. The line that one has will prove them to be for or
against the people. A friend or our enemy.
