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.
The second annual Fourth of You-Lie fundraiser just wrapped up
successfully. Just two issues ago we published a detailed update on our
financial contributions with a graph for 2021. For the first two
quarters of 2022 we’ve had more contributors and more money donated than
any quarter in 2021. This steady increase in donations is great for our
work and a great sign of our growing mass base.
We did not see a surge of donations around July 4th, but we have seen
sustained contributions at a higher level since we began promoting the
fundraiser. Steady is good. The Fourth of You-Lie fundraiser did bring
in some generous donations from the outside, from at least one
supporter.
For those that don’t know, we ask that all comrades in prison who can
send in at least 7 stamps per year to cover your subscription to
Under Lock & Key. Our costs may increase this winter
though, we will keep you updated.
For outside supporters in particular, we have begun fundraising for
legal fees to fight censorship in Texas. Please send a note or email us
to let us know you are donating money for this purpose.
While our finances look sustainable, we remain in a deficit with
comrade time. We will be continuing to shift tasks in the coming months
to adjust for changes in support from outside comrades. Much
appreciation to our new comrade who did much of the transcribing work
for this issue! A few things that we continue to be behind on
include:
intro study group responses are going out months later than they
should be
advanced study group through the University of Maoist Thought
continue to be unavailable going on a couple years now
while we’ve been stepping up our efforts to combat the rash of
recent censorship, we are not appealing all instances or taking them
further
the Texas Pack has not been updated since 2020 and there are no
plans to update it
the zine Power 2 New Afrika has not yet been printed, but should be
soon
ULK continues to come out every 3 months instead of every 2 as it
used to, or every month as we would like
The above list is to let our comrades inside know what to expect, and
a call for support from people on the outside.
On 19 June 2022, prisoners across Texas abstained from celebrating
the federal Juneteenth holiday until real freedom is attained by the
oppressed in this country. Instead they organized, studied and made
their voices heard for the demands of the Juneteenth Freedom Initiative,
including:
End Solitary Confinement! End Restrictive Housing Units(RHU)!
End Mass Incarceration!
Stop Mail Censorship!
Transform the prisons to cadre schools! Transform ourselves into NEW
PEOPLE!
Updates Since Juneteenth
The response from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice(TDCJ) was
swift and coordinated. MIM(Prisons) sent hundreds of update letters to
comrades in Texas during the month of June, and almost all of them
appear to have been censored.
Prisons where our letters were censored for “inciting a disturbance”
or “riot” include:
Allred Unit
Beto I Unit
Boyd Unit
Christina Melton Crain Unit
Estelle High Security Unit
Estelle 2
Ferguson Unit
Gist
Hughes Unit
McConnell Unit
Mountain View Unit
Stevenson Unit
Telford Unit
Terrell Unit
Wallace Unit
Wynne Unit
We are still receiving and compiling censorship notices from June.
Needless to say, there was a coordinated effort to block our letters
across the state, and they were really worried about the Juneteenth
boycott. Of course, there was nothing about organizing a riot in our
letters. But the imperialists will consider a boycott a “disturbance”
worthy of violating Constitutional rights. Biden said we must celebrate
Juneteenth, so now we face the consequences of his goons in the
TDCJ.
The censorship at Allred Unit had been going on for months prior.
This is the worst RHU in the state, where a lot of the JFI organizing
began. Therefore we began a postcard
campaign to protest the political targeting of mail and of certain
prisoners at Allred. One comrade there received 22 mail denial notices
in one day in May! Another comrade in Allred wrote:
“I been denied 2 newsletters & 1 letter that ya’ll sent my way.
[everything we’ve sent this comrade] I highly appreciate ya’ll. I’ve
sent them home. This only confirms that Texas don’t want us to know.
Your news letters were denied for tha reason of ‘inciting a
disturbance’.”
“I asked the mail room lady if anything sent from this address will
be denied and she said, ‘Yes.’ Just like that, freedom of speech
denied.”
This campaign is ongoing, as the censorship continues, and we ask
outside supporters to get involved. Mail from prisoners in Allred is
often delayed a month or more, so updates on the launch of the JFI have
not yet come in from some of the organizers.
Outreach during June included flyering and postcards on the streets,
hundreds of update letters sent to TX prisoners and radio interviews in
Texas and on Free Aztlán on 96.1 KEXU in Oakland.
One Texas comrade reported:
“The Juneteenth Freedom Initiative flyer was displayed for several
weeks here. On Juneteenth, no movement due to low staff and no special
holiday meal. The officers dining room had ribs, BBQ chicken and
brisquet with all the fixins, and these were supposed to be delivered to
each officer on duty. However, most were stolen en route. The warden and
kitchen captain were pissed.”
The JFI was initiated by TX T.E.A.M. O.N.E who has continued to lead
organizing efforts inside. Others, including Prison Lives Matter,
Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee Local 613 #1, the Texas
Liberation Collective, and United Struggle from Within cells, have
joined the call. On the outside, MIM(Prisons), Anti-Imperialist Prisoner
Support, and the Revolutionary Abolitionist Movement have been providing
support.
Phase 2
Per the plan below, laid out by TX T.E.A.M. O.N.E. the next phase of
the Juneteenth Freedom Initiative for prisoners is to file petitions
with the Department of Justice. If you need a sample petition, write us
to get a copy. This petition is not specific to Texas.
Prisoners in long-term solitary confinement in Texas can also join
the Dillard lawsuit against the TDCJ. If you need a copy of the
motion to join, write us.
Outside supporters can best assist organizers inside by joining our
campaign against censorship. We want to continue to let the TDCJ know
that people outside are paying attention and not willing to accept this
political repression. We will be following up with a lawsuit on behalf
of an affected party in Allred and MIM Distributors. You can help in the
following ways:
calling or writing letters to the TDCJ, and to Allred Unit in
particular
getting others to sign postcards protesting the censorship
As you may know, Juneteenth has now been made a federal holiday in
amerika. On this day many will sing the praises of Our oppressors or
otherwise negate the reality of the lumpen (economically alienated
class), that according to amerika’s 13th amendment We are STILL SLAVES.
While We do not wish to nullify the intensity of the exploitation and
oppression that New Afrikan people held in chattel slavery faced, We
must pinpoint to the general public, those upcoming generations of
youngsters looking to follow Our footsteps, that to be held in captivity
by the state or feds is not only to be frowned upon but is part and
parcel with the intentions of this amerikan government, and its
capitalist-imperialist rulers. We say NO CELEBRATING JUNETEENTH until
the relation of people holding others in captivity is fully
abolished!!
Comrades have been organizing around the Juneteenth Freedom
Initiative(JFI) for almost a year now, and we just completed phase 1.
Prisoners in Texas and North Carolina took up the campaign. Instead of
celebrating Juneteenth, boycotters worked to get out the voice of the
incarcerated in TX and NC.
Previous campaign materials include more demands and more details.
Add your own demands that speak to your local conditions and make the
JFI demands heard by the masses and the oppressors. Don’t just boycott,
organize.
The Boycott is just the first phase and launch of this campaign by
and for all Texas prisoners.
Juneteenth boycott and voice demands starting 19 June 2022
present petition to the Department of Justice Special Litigation
division (write in to get a copy if you still need one) – everyone
should mail copies of their own signed petition to the DOJ following
Juneteenth 2022
if (2) fails to bring proper response, we will petition the United
Nations – date To Be Determined – watch for announcement in Under Lock
& Key, we will be requesting testimonials and collecting statistics
to back up our arguments on each campaign position and submit them as
evidence to bolster the recent guilty verdict of the We Still Charge
Genocide, International Tribunal 2021 where mass incarceration and
solitary confinement were ruled to be vital tools in the U.S. campaign
of genocide for centuries against Black, Brown and Indigenous peoples of
this continent.
Thank you for the book MIM Theory 2/3 on Gender and Revolutionary
Feminism – this is exactly the kind of reading material I want and
need.
I do want to briefly comment on a recurring phrase I see in some of
your theory: “white worker”. Does this mean white collar worker as in
labor aristocrat or is this a prejudice that labor aristocrats are white
skin color? If you mean privileged as in white collar then why don’t you
say collar?
I have not read much of the book yet, just a few pages. However, I
can agree that much of the working class in amerika is labor aristocrat,
where you lose me is that when I think of labor aristocrat I see a face
like Eric Adams, the mayor of New York City, who is constantly calling
for more police and more oppression.
Here in California we have a lot of Brown faces, perhaps 50% Brown.
The point is whenever I talk to a Brown or Black person about socialism
the response is mostly the same. Black & Brown people in amerika
love their privilege, they enjoy exploiting 3rd world workers, there the
labor aristocrat is Brown and Black in the face and white in the
collar.
I think MIM Theory agrees with me that First World working class has
no use for revolution and is impossible to recruit or even harmful to
the movement, as bourgeoisie in any dictatorship of the proletariat is
only there to revive capitalism. However, as MIM states the majority of
First World working class is labor aristocrat, then I would assume MIM
is considering the demographics of the First World as a whole and means
“white collar worker” and not merely a racist jab of “white worker.” All
of the cops here have Brown faces.
In Solidarity,
a California prisoner
Wiawimawo of MIM(Prisons) responds: Sounds like we have
a high level of unity on the class structure in this country, and the
world. The truth is the analysis has evolved since the 1980s, when it
was more reasonable to talk about a proletariat in the internal
semi-colonies (by which we mean New Afrika, Boricua, Aztlan, and the
First Nations). So back then writers like MIM and Sakai would talk about
a Black or Chican@ proletariat, while seeing the white workers as an
enemy class. And yes, by white we mean white people, though we use it to
talk about nation, rather than race, which is a myth. Therefore today
we’ll often use Amerikan instead. And many “non-white” people have
integrated into Amerika today. Euro-Amerikan is a term for the
oppressor nation, but white is still a valid term that is
understood by the masses today.
In the introduction to our pamphlet, Who is the Lumpen in the
United $tates, we wrote:
“If we fast forward from the time period discussed above to the 1980s
we see the formation of the Maoist Internationalist Movement as well as
a consolidation of theorists coming out of the legacy of the Black
Liberation Army and probably the RYM as well. Both groups spoke widely
of a Black or New Afrikan proletariat, which dominated the nation. MIM
later moved away from this line and began entertaining Huey P. Newton’s
prediction of mass lumpenization, at least in regard to the internal
semi-colonies. Today we find ourselves in a position were we must draw a
line between ourselves and those who speak of an exploited New Afrikan
population. If the U.$. economy only existed within U.$. borders then we
would have to conclude that the lower incomes received by the internal
semi-colonies overall is the source of all capitalist wealth. But in
today’s global economy, employed New Afrikans have incomes that are
barely different from those of white Amerikans compared to the world’s
majority, putting most in the top 10% by income.”
The above quote is referring to the MIM Congress resolution, On
the internal class structures of the internal semi-colonies. Even
since that was written we’ve seen the proliferation of what you talk
about, Chican@ prison guards being the majority in much of Aztlan, and
New Afrikan prison guards being the majority in many parts of the Black
Belt. This of course varies by local demographics. Regardless, it makes
one question whether there are even internal semi-colonies to speak of,
or at what point we should stop speaking of them? The massive prison
system in this country is one reason we do still speak of them.
So we agree with you that the term “white worker” has kind of lost
its meaning today. However, we still see the principal contradiction in
this country as nation. Despite the bourgeoisification and integration
of sectors of the oppressed nations, and the subsequent division of
those nations, we still see nationalism of the internal semi-colonies,
if led by a proletarian line, as the most potent force against
imperialism from within U.$. borders.
A couple more minor points. We’d probably say Eric Adams, and high
ranking politicians like em, are solidly bourgeois. Whereas the labor
aristocracy would be those Brown guards overseeing you. In addition, we
do not use labor aristocracy and white collar synonymously either, as
white collar work has always been petty bourgeois or at best
semi-proletariat by Marxist standards. So the real controversial issue
is to say there are “blue collar” workers who are not exploited.
Organizations for Whites
Another comrade wrote saying that ey had no organization to join
because ey is white. They had mistakenly thought that we think people
should only organize with their own nation. We do not take a hard line
on this question. And it is obviously related to the above.
MIM(Prisons), USW and AIPS are all multinational. Yet in our
understanding of nation as principal, it seems necessary for there to be
nation-specific organizations to play that contradiction out between the
oppressed and oppressor nations. We certainly have supported
single-nation organizing, and in another resolution we put out, we cite
that as one of the handful of legitimate reasons
to start a new organization instead of joining MIM(Prisons) or
USW.
But there may be situations where multinational organizing in this
country is actually more effective. At this stage our numbers are so
small that it should be strongly considered just out of necessity to
begin building our infrastructure. And when single-nation organizations
do exist, the united front exists for them to work with others outside
their nation.
Printing Anarchist Content
Finally, we had a discussion with a comrade who submitted an article
that was favorable or uncritical of anarchist organizing strategy. The
comrade wanted to know why we asked em to change eir article, because we
claim we will print articles form anarchist allies.
Just because we will print content from anarchists, even content we
might have disagreements with, it doesn’t mean we always will. First,
our goal is to win people over to the Maoist line. So if you submit
something that disagrees with that, our first response will often be to
struggle with you over that line with the goal of gaining a higher level
of unity.
Now some comrades are avowed anarchists. For them we do not need to
keep having the same debate. Nor do we need to have that debate in
ULK. When we say we’ll print material from anarchists we’re
talking about material that actually pushes the struggle forward. Not
material that is debating issues we think were settled 100 years ago.
This is similar to a critic
complaining about us not printing eir piece in ULK when we
responded, because we weren’t showing both sides of the debate over the
labor aristocracy. Again, this is a debate that was settled decades
ago.
On top of this there are many comrades and organizations we work with
that aren’t in the camp of the international communist movement such as
the Nation of Gods and Earths for one example. While many aspects of the
Supreme Understanding taught by the NGE certainly goes against the
Maoist worldview, we are able to find solidarity in practice and in a
united front. We don’t necessarily have to battle out whether the
Supreme Understanding or Marxism-Leninism-Maoism is correct in the
newsletter. We encourage line struggle on the ground.
In summary, this is a Maoist newsletter, edited to represent the
Maoist line. We get to pick and choose when to print stuff that
disagrees with Maoism if we think it is useful to advancing the
struggle. Sure we find it important for cadres to be able to commit to
line struggle scientifically and principally, and communists in general
should have the ability to look at sources that challanges their
viewpoint and uphold their line while analyzing what’s wrong/correct
during line struggle. There is infinite non-Maoist material out there;
and we advise our readers and comrades to go to those materials if they
want to see what our critics are saying. We certainly won’t expect our
critics to use space in their newsletters publishing entire polemics
that we wrote against them, nor would we say that’s unfair to us.
On 27 June 2022, the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of
Ecuador (CONAIE) agreed in opening discussion with the Ecuadorian
government in solutions for the national strike that has paralyzed parts
of the country for two weeks.(1) Before declaring its openness to
negotiations with the government however, CONAIE rejected President
Guillermo Lasso’s move in calling for price cuts of gasoline for 10
cents in diesel.(2) Currently, the fuel prices of Ecuador has doubled
from 2020 with diesel going from $1 to $1.90 and gasoline from $1.72 to
$2.55.(3) From CONAIE’s “Agenda of National Struggle,” the first point
demanded:
“Reduction and freezing of the prices of fuel: diesel at $1.50 and
extra and eco gasoline at $2.10. Abolish Decrees 1158, 1183, 1054, and
focus instead on the sectors that need more subsidies: agricultural
work, farming, transportation and fishing.”
The demand was obviously not met, and CONAIE still continued to
blockade the roads with President Lasso claiming,
“Ecuadorians who seek dialogue will find a government with an
outstretched hand, those who seek chaos, violence and terrorism will
face the full force of the law.”(4)
Seeking to appease the rebellion in other ways, Lasso has lifted the
state of emergency for the nation. CONAIE leader Leonidas Iza who was
arrested by the national police on 14 June 2022, was rejected by
President Lasso who claimed that the indigenous leader was an
“opportunist.”
“We will not return to dialogue with Leonidas Iza, who only defends
his political interests and not those of his base. To our indigenous
brothers – you deserve more than an opportunist for a leader.”
Historical
Overview of Rebellions in Ecuador
Two years earlier, Ecuador faced another similar rebellion led by
workers and students which sparked on the International Workers’ Day of
1 May 2020. The political-economic crisis heightened by the COVID-19
pandemic revealed quite a few corrupt decisions made by the
government.(6) Workers and students demanded better wages, coordinated
sit-ins in medical facilities, and demonstrated in the streets with
rallies. The main goals were for better wages, and ousting of
then-President Lenin Moreno.
A year previous to the 2020 demonstrations, in October of 2019,
another rebellion raged in Ecuador as the month started with President
Lenin Moreno declaring 6 economic measures, and 13 restructuring
proposals which was part of an agreement the government took in a $4.2
billion loan with the IMF.(7) One of the key reform acts targeted by
demonstrators was a 20% cut in wages for new contracts in public sector
jobs, and a cut of a decades long fuel subsidies which led to an
increase of fuel prices.(8) The leading two groups of this rebellion
were the aforementioned CONAIE and the United Front of Workers
(FUT).
Prior to that, there was also a rebellion in 2015, a rebellion in
2012, and another nationwide crisis in 2010. CONAIE and other indigenous
national groups all played a role in these movements with varying
degrees of involvement. From 2010 to 2022, there have been 6 major
rebellions with the workers, students, and indigenous nations playing a
leading role in the movements. Crisis after crisis, what is causing this
trend? Every time the workers or the indigenous nations rise up
(oftentimes together) they are accused of staging a coup by the
government. In 2000, there was a short-lived coup, but the Amerikans
interfered to remove indigenous leaders from power. Despite this, they
have denied the accusations in recent protests, while also following
their word through with action. How come they seem to have no desire to
seek state power despite having the independent institutions and
subjective forces that are able to paralyze the country each time they
rebel?
After many years of regular protests against politicaleconomic
crisis in Ecuador, there was a rise of the social-democratic movements
in Latin America that became prominent in the mid-2000s. This trend was
strongly guided and inspired by the ideology of “Socialism of the 21st
Century”, which argued that societal change and shift from capitalism to
socialism can be done in gradual and non-violent means.(9) Prominent
leaders who have taken up this ideology include Hugo Chavez of
Venezuela, Nestor Kirchner of Argentina, Evo Morales of Bolivia, Luiz
Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil, Michelle Bachelet of Chile, and finally
Rafael Correa of Ecuador.
Rafael Correa, was the 45th president of Ecuador from 15 January 2007
until 24 May 2017. President Correa – leading the left-wing coalition of
the PAIS Alliance – began the “Citizen’s Revolution” in hopes to
reconstruct the country into a socialist state. The government ended its
relationship with the IMF, and took an active part in creating the “Bank
of the South” – a pan-South American monetary fund alongside the
political-economic bloc of the Union of South American Nations.(10)
The class character of this movement can clearly be seen as that of
the national bourgeoisie of South America: the bourgeoisie of South
America stunted by imperialism as opposed to requiring imperialism to
function as a class. With this national bourgeois led anti-imperialist
movement in Ecuador, we see another example of a failure in reformism
and social-democracy in history. With the PAIS alliance’s right-wing
turn under the next president Lenin Moreno, Correa distanced himself
from PAIS due to disagreements. Under Lenin Moreno’s presidency, and
through the political-economic crisis brought by social democracy (such
as national debt), the strategy of working within the system found
itself reversing all its progresses. By the time Correa left office in
2017, there have already been 2 major rebellions. The rebellion in 2012,
was part in reaction to the joint Ecuadorian-Chinese company
“Ecuaorriente SA” commencing a 25-year contract of extracting natural
resources on indigenous nations’ land.(11) So with the failures of
social-democracy and reformism came another lesson learned by the
Ecuadorian masses. Whether this lesson can be synthesized back to the
masses through a revolutionary lens is a question for the
revolutionaries of Ecuador.
During the rebellions, one can see in images hammer and sickles,
anarchist A’s, and myriads of other ideological imagery painted across
makeshift shields, helmets, and banners. With the tactics and strategy
of blockades and insurgencies the rebellions which seems to constantly
appear in the country seem to be eclectic and non-ideological. When
constantly accused by the regime that these groups are forming coup
d’états, CONAIE and organizations representing the workers and students
constantly deny the accusations of ousting any presidents. They follow
through with their actions as well. Short lived insurgencies don’t lead
to state power.
Lessons For Us To Learn
Fidel Castro has famously said that the reasoning behind his armed
action and revolution against the Batista government was because working
within the existing political system has been exhausted of its
effectiveness. Yet, when the new generation of Latin American leftists
and self-proclaimed “communists” came to prominence, Fidel Castro also
famously claimed that the new generation is lucky because they are in a
situation where power can be obtained through the ballot not the bullet.
Throughout his life, Castro kept representing the petty-bourgeoisie and
the national bourgeoisie of Cuba through its alignment with the
social-imperialists of the USSR: a similar move that Correa’s government
had done with the Chinese social-imperialists and the national
bourgeoisie of Ecuador. In the end of his life, Castro closely aligned
himself with the pink tide of Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, etc.
The lessons we can learn from the failures of reformism or “Socialism
of the 21st century” can be standard lessons we have drawn from the
failures of all reformist or electoral methods of achieving proletarian
dictatorship/socialism. The state is a tool wielded by a class: the
bourgeoisie. Despite this, finance capital finds its ways to implement
social-democracy (or fascism) as a means of governing. Using the tools
of the enemy won’t get us state power. They will crush us as soon as we
cross their lines.
The lessons we can learn from the CONAIE and the various workers and
student organizations which rebel constantly in Ecuador are valuable as
well. One lesson is in regards to the distinction of having reforms
through violence in contrast to a revolution. Through a
Marxist-Leninist-Maoist lens, just because one uses violent tactics or
bears arms does not necessarily mean they are revolutionary or
conducting meaningful armed struggle. One can be just as reformist
through violent means as with electoral means. This highlights the key
idea that reform vs revolution isn’t a matter of strategies or tactics,
it is a question of the correct analysis of how the change from a
capitalist society to a socialist society happens. Thousands of masses
can rally on the streets throwing firebombs at the police, but if the
goal is to change laws and protest austerity measures then it is no
different in quality than reform. In similar methods, things that might
seem reformist at a shallow glance such as building independent
institutions and spreading public opinion against world imperialism
(advancing the objective and subjective forces) can be revolutionary if
the goals are aligned and preparing for proletarian dictatorship during
non-advanced stages.
Long live Ecuador!
Self-determination for all oppressed nations!
Notes (1) AP News, June 25, 2022, “Ecuador president:
Indigenous leader is trying to stage coup.” (2) Lina Vanegas, June
27, 2022, “Protesters Meet Ecuador Govt After Rejecting Fuel Price Cut,”
International Business Times. (3) Ibid. (4) Ibid. (5)
Ibid. (6) Rhonny Rodriguez, October 7th, 2022, “Ecuador, el peor
evaluado en la región sobre el manejo de la pandemia” Expreso (7)
Kimberly Brown, October 10th, 2019, “Ecuador unrest: What led to the
mass protests?” Al Jazeera (8) Ibid. (9) Socialism of the 21st
Century – Economy, Society, and Democracy in the era of global
Capitalism, Introduction by Heinz Dieterich (10) El Mundo, April
16th, 2007, “Ecuador cancela la deuda con el FMI y amenaza con echar al
representante del Banco Mundial” (11) Amy Silverstein, March 9th,
2012, “Ecuador natives begin two-week march to protest Chinese mining
company” The World
As comrades in Texas, North Carolina and elsewhere took action to
protest long-term solitary confinement and mass incarceration this
Juneteenth, we lost a leader in the struggle against solitary
confinement and oppression in all forms in California. Paul Redd passed
away on 19 June 2022. His funeral was July 9th in Oakland,
Calfornia.
Redd was a New Afrikan Revolutionary, an author, and a principal
thinker behind the development of the 2012
Agreement to End Hostilities(AEH) across California prisons. The AEH
preceded an historical campaign against Security Housing Units(SHU) that
included the largest prison hunger strikes in history.
Statement from Paul Redd’s family
“Paul Redd left us on Juneteenth. A hero to so many, he was loved by
so many communities: from his childhood friends in Oakland, to his
family who has always been with him, to decades-long friendships from
the inside, to the many friends he made in his two years home after 44
years of wrongful incarceration, including 30 in solitary. He will be
remembered for his infinite love, his courage, strength, generosity,
hope, his poetry, and passion for justice. We love you Paul!”
Words from Redd’s comrades:
“Paul Redd’s passing is heartfelt for many as he was a staunch
advocate of Black Love and Solidarity. His dedication and commitment to
freedom of himself and other prisoners made him a target of the State
and thereby a political prisoner. I spent prison time with Paul in Tracy
and San Quentin, and know of his years of selfless service in the Black
Guerrilla Family. As a soldier for the liberation of his people, he will
be sorely missed in the field of battle opposing white supremacy and the
tyranny of capitalism-imperialism. Paul, I salute you!!!” – Jalil
Muntaqim
“He taught honor and respect to so-called thugs and ‘hood niggas’ and
showed them how to respect and give concern for each other in such a
way, thereby the world would come to respect and honor them. He also
taught them to be young Lions and soldiers for all seasons. I was one of
those young soldiers that he taught. And I was one of those young
warriors that had grown with the example that he gave me. I stand now as
an eternal witness to the teachings that this Brotha imparted to me, the
political education. He taught me to refuse. He showed and taught me how
to stand and not bend, buck or bow before the murderers who held us
captive in Amerikkka’s concentration camps.
“…This Brotha, his spirit lives forever. I’m Brotha Balagoon Kambone,
a Brotha and a friend.”
The overturning of Roe v. Wade is a setback for the health
of mostly the gender aristocracy, but also some who are truly gender
oppressed in this country. In that sense, we view this issue similar to
how we view the question of universal
healthcare in the United $tates.(1) However, MIM’s gender analysis
is more relevant in this struggle over abortion.
“The gender aristocracy by definition is not oppressed in the gender
strand. Concretely, imperialist country wimmin are not gender
oppressed.
For this reason, if we put forward the gender demands of the
imperialist country wimmin, like it or not, we are heading in a
reactionary direction.”
To those who see the overturn of Roe v. Wade as a violent
attack on themselves, on wimmin, we offer some food for thought. The
abortion issue was made a hot button issue with a lot of money for the
purpose of mobilizing voters. As long as we live under a bourgeois
democracy, this will continue to happen. For all the rhetoric about
“taking money out of politics”, nothing has happened, because we live in
a profit-driven system. We must overthrow capitalism
and patriarchy to meet the needs of the gender
oppressed.
To those who oppose abortion, we repeat that we can eliminate
abortion by sterilizing men after storing semen samples from them. If
you aren’t willing to talk about such alternatives, that would save the
lives of wimmin, then you are not pro-life you are pro-patriarchy.
The MIM
Platform calls for mandatory sex education by age 11. Under the
dictatorship of the proletariat, there will be free universal health
care including unlimited access to PPE such as contraception. This,
combined with the overall sense of purpose and community that will come
with building a new society, we believe will significantly decrease the
number of abortions, which have already been declining in this
country.
More than laws and policies however, what will be a decisive point in
the struggle against patriarchy under proletarian dictatorship is the
mass raising of class struggle and mass campaigns against patriarchy in
the superstructure (from material institutions to backward ideological
culture). The key support of these policies of universal healthcare
under socialism is having the masses learn in practice the new society
they wish to implement free from male chauvinism amongst other things.
This is one thing the Maoist practice in China had that marked a
qualitative leap from the Soviet Union through implementing a cultural
revolution.
Of course, some abortions are in response to medical conditions that
we have no control over. Following the overturn of Roe v. Wade,
Pew Research found that 57% of adults disapproved of the decision and
41% approved.(2) The survey also showed that only 8% believe abortion
should be illegal in all cases. As the opposition to abortion came after
big-money marketing over many decades, we can expect these numbers to
shift quickly in favor of access to abortion with a shift in social
relations under the dictatorship of the proletariat. In other words,
mass collection of semen samples and sterilization of men probably won’t
be necessary to resolve contradictions in a socialist world as it is
today.
by MIM(Prisons) July 2022 permalink
This map from worldatlas.com shows a common perception of the West that
links Anglophone (English-speaking) settler states to Western Europe
In recent years many have explored the myth of “the West” and
“Western Civilization”, connecting them to racist views of humyn
society. Often this was in response to right-wing white nationalists
rebranding their common cause from the “white race” to “Western
civilization.”
Yet, the term “the West” is used every day in a variety of news
sources, some claiming to be proletarian news services. It is used by
MIM in a number of older documents, and you even see it crept in to the
last issue of Under Lock & Key in our
discussion of Ukraine.(1)
The West and Militarism
The Russian invasion of Ukraine seems to have brought the term even
more to the forefront, which could explain why it ended up in our
article on the subject, despite our understanding the problems with the
term. “Western unity” today is synonymous with fighting Russia. Ukranian
President Volodymor Zelensky has helped make this true in the Amerikan
press.
There are reasons to refer to “the West” instead of the more accurate
term “NATO.” NATO is the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, a military
pact between countries to defend each other with very clear membership.
NATO exists clearly in space and time. It was formed in 1949, as the
U.$. and Britain focused their aggression towards the Soviet Union
following the defeat of fascism. NATO will not exist forever, with many
calling for it to be dissolved now.
The meme of “The West” on the other hand is ahistorical, and even
vague in terms of who is included. President Zelensky is making a hard
push to put Ukraine in “the West”, when it was very clearly part of the
USSR that NATO formed to oppose.
Zelensky has repeatedly called on “the West” to impose sanctions
against Russia, to send military aid to Ukraine, and to impose a no-fly
zone over Ukraine. All of these feed the militarist war machine that
imperialism depends on to stay afloat, especially in times of economic
crisis. Yet the imperialists are not even willing to do all the things
Zelensky calls for because they know the risk of inter-imperialist war
it will bring.
We’ve already seen the differing interests in this conflict playing
out. The strongest example might be Germany, the dominant imperialist
power in continental Europe, and their economic connection to Russia,
which has made them much more hesitant to join actions that the United
$tates is quick to take against Russia. Meanwhile Germany has moved to
significantly increase its military for the first time since WWII,
loosening its dependence on the United $tates for military action. In
most of our lifetimes, the so-called “Western” countries have been
united politically and economically. But this has not and will not
always be the case.
The West and the Ancient
World
We won’t repeat others summaries of the history of the concept of
“the West” here. But it does appear with the wars between Christians and
Muslims in the Middle Ages, later being used to distinguish between
areas dominated by the Western reformist church and the Eastern orthodox
church.
Just as New Afrikans today may take up the study of ancient Egypt to
learn about their “roots”, euro-Amerikans may study ancient Greece with
the same goal. In reality, ancient Egypt and Greece (in certain periods)
were actually connected and learned from each other. They were more
similar to each other (and more geographically close to each other) than
the actual ancestors of most New Afrikans or euro-Amerikans. Both are
caught up in a mythology that links them to an ancient society based on
racialized concepts of continents.
The idea of Europe as its own continent is also a myth that stems
from this history and the fact that our knowledge in the United $tates
is dominated historically by Europeans. And today, U.$.-cultural
dominance helps shape the memes that take on global significance.
Europe is a region in actual space, however, unlike “the West”, which
often lumps Western Europe with occupied regions of North America and
Oceania today. In a sense, “the West” is almost describing something
real. Throw in Japan, and you’ve got the advanced imperialist countries
of the world.
The West and Freedom
A more modern concept of “the West” starts from the fight against
fascism and morphs into the fight against communism. “The West” claims
to offer freedom and democracy instead.
On 5 July 2022, a Ukrainian court banned the Communist Party of
Ukraine and ordered all its assets seized by the state. This is a party
that got 13 percent of the votes in the 2012 general election. This
follows the ban of a number of other “socialist” or “left” parties in
the country for being “pro-Russian.”(2)
On the Fourth of July, the city of Akron, Ohio issued a 9PM to 6AM
curfew preventing people from leaving their homes except for work or
emergencies. This was on a night when masses of people stayed out all
night partying and lighting fireworks in most cities across the country.
The curfew was issued because cops shot unarmed 25-year-old Jayland
Walker the night before with 60 bullets. The young Black man died Fourth
of July morning.
Through May and June MIM(Prisons) sent hundreds of letters, petitions
and legal documents to prisoners across Texas leading up to a planned
boycott of the Juneteenth holiday on June 19. The weeks leading up to
the Fourth of July our mailbox was full of letters from the Texas
Department of Criminal Justice and from prisoners in Texas, notifying us
that our mail
had been censored because it promoted a disturbance or a riot.
Prisoners in Texas are being tortured in long-term isolation, forced
to work without pay, and facing all sorts of abusive conditions
including lack of food, dangerous temperatures and lack of yard time.
Jayland Walker was shot 60 times over a tail light. Yet boycotts and
demonstrations have been deemed illegal in Texas and Akron, Ohio in
response. In Akron 50 people were arrested after protestors were sprayed
with tear gas because police said they “cannot condone property
destruction.”(3) This is the behavior of the oppressor, of the
imperialists.
The West and Language
The more modern framework of the North versus the South developed as
an improvement on the West/East concept. The “North/South” framework is
more geographically coherent (with the exception of Australia and New
Zealand) and is defined economically. It also avoids the racist
exclusion of Japan and the “three tigers.” Though it could play into
some theories of geographic determinism, which can mirror racist
conceptions of history.
Regardless, North/South terminology was developed to be “valueless”
and as such becomes a euphemism for what is really going on: some
countries are exploiting other countries. And we have perfectly good
terminology for “the West” or “the North” in this context: imperialist
countries. As anti-imperialists, we must expose imperialism and its
crimes at every turn and not hide it behind euphemisms that reference
geography or pseudo-scientific concepts of race over materialist
understandings of political-economy.
On the other hand of the dialectic of imperialism we have the
oppressed nations, or the exploited countries, or the semi-colonies or
neo-colonies, depending on the context. Arguably these terms are also
better than the First/Third
World language we have often used historically.(4)
As a general principle, our writing guide reminds us not to use
euphemisms and not to use passive language. Like “the West” these styles
creep into our writing because they are common in the bourgeois press.
We should consciously combat this by being clear about the relationships
of oppression and exploitation and who is doing what to whom.
Whether it relates to religion, philosophy or democracy, all
historical concepts of “the West” are related to justifying invasions or
imperialism in different forms.
[Arms & Empire(1980) by Richard Krooth is a MIM must read.
MIM(Prisons) just developed a study
guide to go along with this book. The below is the intro to the
study guide with some key quotes from the book.]
Introduction to the study
pack
The Maoist Internationalist Movement (originally named the
Revolutionary Internationalist Movement) was founded at a time when
inter-imperialist conflict between the camp led by the United $tates and
that led by the social-imperialist USSR posed a threat to the world. In
one of the founding documents, written in 1983, comrades saw the
combination of liberation struggles in the Third World and this
inter-imperialist conflict as a hotbed for communist revolutions.(1)
MIM founders saw the success of communist revolution as an absolute
necessity to prevent a new inter-imperialist war, that would likely lead
to nuclear war. As such, they recognized that a revolutionary situation
could arise within the United $tates in a matter of years, despite
having a budding skepticism of the interests of most in our country in
communist revolution.
For most of MIM’s existence now we have not been in the situation
described above. By 1991 the “Cold War” was over with the dissolution of
the Soviet imperialist bloc. For a solid 3 decades we lived under a
“unipolar world”, where U.$. dominated organizations and alliances ruled
the world (NATO, World Bank, IMF, etc).
For many years now (in 2022) China has been the rising imperialist
power, mostly independent of the U.$.-dominated institutions, though
deeply integrated with the U.$. economically. As the contradictions
heighten in the U.$.-China economic system, they also heighten in the
capitalist system overall. The post-USSR era brought a sacking of the
wealth of the former Soviet states by cleptocratic capitalists. This
aligned with the capitalist development of China, and the return of
exploitative relations dominating over 1 billion people who became the
primary producers for consumers in the United $tates and around the
world. These processes of wealth extraction were the life-blood for
global capitalism for those 3 decades of inter-imperialist peace. But,
capitalism must keep expanding, and there is not much more room to
expand. Meanwhile, the COVID-19 pandemic triggered a series of collapses
in the international system of distribution that prioritized
profitability over resiliency.
Earlier this year, Russia invaded Ukraine, in what many fear is the
first hot war of what will be an escalating inter-imperialist war.
Though to date, it has not yet exceeded in scale the U.$./USSR conflicts
of the Cold War. It has brought with it massive trade barriers. The
Amerikans have rallied the world to isolate Russia with great success,
yet differences in interests have also arisen. This will force many
realignments in the coming months and years. The battle for markets,
using tariffs and embargoes and currency manipulations, will only
escalate. This makes Arms & Empire such a relevant read
today.
In 1997, MIM passed a resolution stating:
“For MIM’s purposes, World War III began immediately after World War
II ended in 1945. World War III continues today. It is a war between the
imperialists and the oppressed nations. By defining World War III as
post-World War II, MIM does not mean to say that imperialists did not
wage war on the oppressed nations prior to 1945, only that the post-1945
period has specific characteristics (such as: 1. the leading roles of
the U.S. and, for a time, the USSR and 2. the predominance of
neocolonialism) which separate this period from the pre-1945
periods.”(2)
We can say that world war is inherent to imperialism. As Lenin
defined it, imperialism is when the world has been completely divided up
by competing monopolist powers, making the export of finance capital the
dominant aspect of the economy, and finance capitalists become the
shapers of the world. This competition translates to economic and
military warfare, both of which result in large numbers of unnecessary
humyn deaths. Imperialism kills millions. When warfare between the
imperialists can be minimized for a period, the warfare is aimed
primarily at the oppressed nations who are resisting the imperialists
trying to control and exploit them.
On the eve of World War I, the revisionist Kautsky proposed a theory
of ultra-imperialism to supercede imperialism, where the imperialists
can ban together to manage the world internationally. Today, there are
many bad Marxists who unknowingly promote this metaphysical view of
world imperialism where the imperialist forces of NATO and the U.$. are
an invincible unbreakable force, and that the best thing the communists
can hope for is a counter-balance to U.$. hegemony while tailing other
independent imperialists such as Russia or China. While also unknowingly
parroting neo-Kautskyism, these revisionist Marxists also unite with the
bourgeois Liberals on the world view of a post-Soviet world. The
bourgeois liberals had their own theories of “the end of history” after
the collapse of the Soviet Union that envisioned the current order to
have proven itself as the stable state in which we would remain. In this
book, Richard Krooth concisely points out why these fantasies can never
come true. The internal contradictions of capitalism and imperialism,
brilliantly exposed by Marx and Lenin, translate to antagonistic
contradictions among the imperialists that cannot be resolved by
synthesis but only by one aspect of that contradiction overtaking the
other via warfare. This remains true despite brief periods of relative
peace between the imperialists that must also coincide with periods of
prosperity and great opportunity for the imperialists. And has MIM has
pointed out, even in times of prosperity, the different interests of the
labor aristocracy can damper the plans of imperialist unity.(3)
Today, the labor aristocracy is talking about their inability to
consume products not made by them in their movement to increased wages,
decreased worktimes, etc. However, they seem to be able to consume
products not made by them pretty well. Cars, phones, food, etc. are
mostly produced by the Third World proletariat, and the main gripe comes
with things they don’t own rather than things they don’t produce: rent
for example.
As we enter a period of heightened inter-imperialist conflict, we
echo the sentiments of MIM’s founders. We are not for war, but we
recognize that war by the proletariat to overthrow imperialism is
necessary to stop war. As military and economic warfare expands among
imperialists and between imperialists and the oppressed nations,
opportunities for successful revolutions to put the proletariat in state
power increases. This is the solution to war. We aim to destroy
imperialism, because imperialism is destroying the planet.
“For we will see that empire was systemic and competitive; that
competition and nationalism then powered the changeover from one system
of empire to another; that, consequently, the mercantile colonial system
was replaced by a system of free trade with the coming of industrialism;
that free trade was thereafter replaced by a return to colonial empires
with the rise of monopolization in the leading nations; that war between
the Powers resolved little in the fight for world domination; and that a
new growth of monopolies led to strengthened colonial spheres of
influence and renewed warfare.”
Explanation of the Great Depression (top of p.119):
“The U.S. had long since closed down free trade into America,
stopping Germany and other European countries from exporting to American
shores to pay their debts. This secured the U.S. dollar for a while,
making it the hardest currency in the world, pushing up its value
vis-a-vis other currencies, but also making it inaccessible to nations
that otherwise would have purchased from America. When other nations
could not obtain dollars by exports to the U.S., obviously they could
import nothing at all. And so U.S. exports tended to fall and had to be
replaced with bilateral trade agreements. Up went U.S. unemployment when
markets fell away and bilateral trade could not replace them. Then down
came the dollar, the U.S. devaluing in 1933 in an attempt to stimulate
the exports again. But, alas, it was too late. The depression was on,
production was down, America was spreading crisis to Europe!”
Lead up to WWII (p.129-30):
“Within European nations especially, the road to war was laid out in
stages – the first for counterrevolution, the second for capitalist
resurgence, and the third for crises and the rise of antagonistic
governments seeking to take what all others held in trade, investments,
colonies and profits. In the first period (1917-23) we can discern how
civilian bands of reactionaries had used force and violence against the
agrarian or socialist”revolutions”… The reactionaries demanded “law and
order,” eventually leading to “counter-revolutions.” Yet the incipient
fascist movements did not themselves assume government power, for the
marketplace was being re-established and did not require a fascistic
state.
“The second period (1924-29) had no use for a fascist government
either. The powers of capitalist production were expanding, the market
fetters were destroyed, and al the important nations save Great Britain
were on the economic upgrade. While the United States enjoyed legendary
prosperity and the Continent was doing almost as well, Hitler’s putsch
was a footnote in political economy. France evacuated the Ruhr, the
Reichsmark was restored by U.S. loans, the Dawes Plan took politics out
of reparations, Locarno was in the offing for peace, and Germany was
initiating seven fat years. The gold standard ruled from Moscow to
Lisbon by the close of 1926; buyers could now pay for their imports,
restoring the capitalist marketplace to its full capacity.
“Then came the Great Crash of 1929, the market economy turning down,
general economic crisis forcing nations to be sellers but not buyers in
the world. The continuing deadlock of market dealings demanded changes
in the political way in which economic solutions were planned. The
Italian trusts chose fascism as a way out of their economic malaise. The
German cartels demanded continental markets and colonies, not by
marketplace dealings - for they were shut out of the markets and
colonies of the other Powers - but by military conquest. Hitler, their
puppet, demanded no more than they asked, Germany taking the lead in
totalitarianizng Europe. And with Japan in the Asian wing, the Axis Pact
aligned fascist power over five continents.
“Thereby the material conditions of society – monopoly ownership,
overproduction, market struggle, political bankruptcy, and military
occupation – had ended the marketplace system. The monopolists and
cartelists needed fascism to build themselves strong for a military
confrontation which, they believed, would award them with more raw
materials, more markets, more profits and more power. The liberal
business interests, then opting for increasing national competitiveness,
also blocked any move towards allowing the social means of production to
provide for popular need, instead of their private profit. The fascists,
combining jingoism and planned speed-ups for the working population, now
displayed a tawdry alternative to the free marketplace. And the
monopolists then brought them into power in hopes that their
accumulation of private gain would continue undiminished. World War II
inexorably followed, not only because leaders willed it, but also
because the solutions to economic and political crises required it.”
As soon as the first printing of our new Revolutionary 12 Step
Program pamphlet landed in prisons across the United $tates, it
has been targeted for censorship in both Florida and Texas.
The Florida mailroom staff who seized the pamphlet checked two
reasons for impounding it:
“(15)(i)is dangerously inflammatory in that it advocates or
encourages riot, insurrection, rebellion, organized prison protest,
disruption of the institution, or the violation of the federal law,
state law or Department Rules”
and
“(15)(p)otherwise presents a threat to the security, order, or
rehabilitative objectives of the correctional system or the safety of
any person.”
Since the pamphlet is actively preventing harm to the safety of any
person and actively training people to stop breaking the law or engaging
in destructive behavior, we must wonder what are the “rehabilitative
objectives” of the Florida Department of Corrections.
MIM(Prisons) appealed this.
Texas on the other hand did not give MIM(Prisons) the opportunity to
appeal, as required by Federal law, and only notified us of the
censorship after the review committee’s final decision, which, like
Florida, cited the “Entire publication contain security concerns.”
The reason they cited:
“Publication contains material that a reasonable person would
construe as written solely for the purpose of communicating information
designed to achieve a breakdown of prisons through offender disruption
such as strikes, riots or security threat group activity.”
It’s also no secret that the oppressor prefers us to be drunk and
high, rather than thinking clearly and doing good for ourselves and our
people.
Prisoners can help by getting our Censorship Guide and appealing any
censorship as the comrade in Texas did. People on the outside can help
by volunteering to help us appeal and hold these state agencies
accountable. Legal expertise with these issues is also something you can
contribute.