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 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.
[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.
With just a month remaining before the first series of actions around
the Juneteenth Freedom Initiative, we have received reports of
repression of activists by the Texas Department of Criminal
Justice(TDCJ).
One of the hearts of this campaign comes out of the brutal Allred
Restrictive Housing Unit(RHU) where people have spent decades in
isolation. We’ve recently learned that one organizer at Allred hasn’t
received half a dozen letters we’ve sent em over the last few months.
Eir outgoing mail is also delayed or gone missing. This mail tampering
is illegal. We wrote the
warden of Allred to stop this censorship.. If he doesn’t stop it, we
know this political repression is intentional from the top of the TDCJ
to suppress our boycotting of Juneteenth.
We are asking others to join our letter writing and postcard campaign
in support of the rights of MIM Distributors and these activists in
Allred to freely communicate. The pdf below can be downloaded, printed
on card stock and cut into four postcards. Then you can ask people to
sign them, put a postcard stamp ($0.40) on them, and drop them in a mail
box. Over the next couple months we want to show TDCJ that people
outside are paying attention and supporting the Juneteenth Freedom
Initiative. This is one way to do that. You can also call Warden Jimmy
Smith @ (940) 855-7477 (**069).
“Page(s) 4 contains information advocating prison disruption.”
Prisoners are very limited in what they can do when their grievances
are ignored. Most actions will lead to repression. A boycott is the most
passive action. There are no calls to violence nor do the plans threaten
security in any way. Just a peaceful demonstration of solidarity,
demanding some basic humyn rights be applied in Texas prisons. Yet this
is being outlawed by the state.
Even worse, in eir most recent update, one comrade in Stevenson
reported that:
“last night I was placed in handcuffs and marched off to solitary
confinement, the place from where I currently write. I woke this morning
to find I’m being charged with 2 new rules violations: 1) Attempt/threat
to assault a correctional officer and 2) Assault of a correctional
officer.”
There was no assault. In fact this comrade is not even supposed to be
housed on the second floor because of eir health conditions. Ey believes
this is retaliation for the appeals ey filed against the censorship of
literature sent by MIM Distributors. Meanwhile, MIM Distributors was not
given the opportunity to appeal, and only received the final decision
from TDCJ.
As our comrade in Stevenson Unit so eloquently concluded,
“They will never succeed in snuffing out my flame and their attempts
to silence the truth only causes it to roar even louder! They cloak
themselves in legitimacy and the trappings of power because deep down
they know they are weak and the system is crumbling – to be swept aside
along with all the silly liberal reformers and we build a better world
over their ruins, a new society based on equality and respect and
compassion and truth and justice and”love” – a human society fit for
fully involved and determined human beings at peace with themselves,
each other, and the world around us.”
A comrade in Stevenson Unit wrote to say that there are only 12
restrictive housing cells there and they are only used very short-term.
But ey is sharing the motion and other campaign materials with contacts
inside and outside to support those in RHU fighting for their humyn
rights.
Shutting down long-term solitary confinement is one of the key
campaign demands of the Juneteenth
Freedom Initiative, calling for a boycott of Juneteenth until real
freedom is attained in this country. The lawsuit points to the
irreparable harm on mental health caused by long-term solitary.
Anyone who is in a Restricted Housing Unit in Texas can use the
linked example motion to join this
lawsuit. The motion should be sent to all three addresses listed at
the end of the attached PDF. Please download and distribute to those you
know in Texas torture chambers!
28 May 2022 UPDATE from Tx TEAM ONE member - Telford
Unit: I have submitted my interest in becoming a co-plaintiff
to all inhumane conditions in all Ad-Seg/RHU buildings, especially on
this unit, and the inhumane/treatment and living conditions endured by
all alleged STG prisoners. Because for almost forty (40) years, those of
Us that are considered STG’s have been in these living conditions.
I have already written to the Eastern and Northern Districts, United
States District Courts. And I have also written to the United States
Department of Justice.
Following up on some recent warnings
and reports
from comrades on Subxone(buprenorphine), we conducted an updated survey
on drugs in U.$. prisons this past winter.(1) We received survey
responses from NC, PA, VA, WV, MI, CA and TX.(2) While we heard from
Michigan in ULK 75 all of the other states were represented in
our original survey, which was distributed more widely and received more
responses.
So has anything changed in the last 5 years? In 2017, Suboxone use
was reported to be common in many states in the northeast and midwest
United $tates. Specifically comrades in NY, KS, WV, TN, CT, WI, and
especially PA reported Suboxone use being popular. We do not have info
on whether the Suboxone was obtained from the prison or not in that data
set. In 2022, we can add California, Virginia, North Carolina and
Michigan to the list of states where Suboxone is abused in prisons. Of
those four, only Michigan was not represented in our 2017 survey,
meaning Suboxone seems to have become popular in the other 3 in the last
five years. Texas is the only state we got responses from this year that
reported Suboxone still not being available at all.[UPDATE October 2022:
We later received report that Georgia did not have Suboxone either.]
Our comrade in Michigan reported this new drug appeared on the scene
in 2012, and had become the most common drug abused in the MDOC, with
perhaps 5 in 10 prisoners using it. (until
recently when K2 took over)
We have updated info from Pennsylvania affirming that it is
prescribed there and that people can stay on it for as long as they are
held in prison. About 1 in 7 people are using Suboxone at
SCI-Dallas.
In North Carolina, Suboxone is very popular, though less popular than
K2, which has been increasing in use. Suboxone may be more popular with
white prisoners there.
Our Virginia respondent is in a “big mental health/drug rehab” unit,
where ey says “we can’t order self-help programs nor books.” Imagine
that! Yet you can get a Suboxone subscription with no indication that
there are any classes to go along with it. Some are continuing their
Suboxone subs from the streets.
Michigan and West Virginia do not prescribe Suboxone according to our
survey respondents. Yet it still gets into the prisons there and is
quite popular.
California the big mover
The biggest shift we learned from our second round of surveys was the
new introduction of Suboxone, which Ehecatl already reported in ULK
76 started in 2020. A recent study reported a sharp increase in
buprenorphine consumption in prisons from 2020-2021. The number of
incarcerated people consuming it rose an estimated 250,000 from January
2015 to May 2021. With only 115,000 prisoners total, CDCR may have been
a good chunk of that growth, but clearly was only part of it.
That said, one comrade in California reported that they now “give
anyone and everyone Suboxone. I know a bunch of people who never have
used drugs and went to see the doctor and got put on Suboxone.” The
price of Suboxone on the black market has decrease from $100 to only
$2-4 as a result. This comrade continued,
“I’ve been in solitary confinement for over 4 years so I signed up to
get put on Suboxone and I got put on it a week after seeing the doctor.
I’ve been a drug addict my whole life, but was still surprised how easy
it is and was to get put on Subxone.”
We’ve always held that solitary confinement is used as a tool of
social control in the U.$. injustice system. We also see Suboxone being
used in the same way. Here they are being used in conjunction as a way
to help people adjust to the torture of solitary confinement. When used
outside solitary, most prisoners reported its use leading to people
retreating from socializing and not engaging in any kind of group
organizing.
Another CA comrade had put in a request in December 2019 after the
CDCR publicized a new drug to help with addiction. By March or April
2020 ey was approved for Suboxone. Doses there range from 8mg to 20mg.
As for counseling, this comrade did report that, “while I was receiving
it we were seeing a C.O. Healy and ex-drug user facilitator bringing us
5 days of work on Monday and coming back on Monday to pick up the
homework.” It is not clear why ey stopped receiving Suboxone.
“Buprenorphine use in jails and prisons increased by 224-fold, from a
daily mean of 44 individuals in June 2016 to 9841 individuals in May
2021 (Figure). Most of this increase occurred from 2020 to 2021.
Nationwide, across all retail and nonretail settings, buprenorphine use
increased by 53.9% from a daily mean of 466,781 individuals in January
2015 to 718,591 individuals in May 2021. By May 2021, correctional
settings accounted for approximately 1.5% of all buprenorphine use
nationwide. An estimated 3.6% of the 270,000 incarcerated individuals
with [Opioid Use Disorder] in the US received buprenorphine.”(3)
These numbers are likely underestimated as they are based on retail
sales numbers from one source. But the sharp increase in prescribed
Suboxone starting in late 2019 is certainly something of note.
K2 Still King in TX
We received the most responses to our second survey from Texas, and
things seem to have not changed much there. Everyone agreed that
Suboxone was not available in Texas. K2 appeared there around 2013 or
2014 according to our respondents, and has been on the increase ever
since. Many people report tiers filled with the smoke being a common
occurrence in the TDCJ. K2 use rates reported in TX this time around
estimated 10%, 20%, 30% and in the RHU up to 75% of people.
Our correspondent from Allred’s RHU reports that back in 2013-2016
“drugs were virtually non-existent… 1/2 that time there were no cameras,
yet there still was no drugs, no cell phones, no contraband at all
really. Since i’ve been back here there has been at least a 70% increase
in contraband” (2017 to present). This comrade points to a huge cultural
shift among staff leading to the change.
Ey goes on to explain the social effects of this influx of drugs and
how it serves as a tool of social control:
“We had a good thing going here after working to bring all New
Afrikan lumpen groups and people together, but clashes over drug debts
have undermined the unity… We were able to organize 1/3 of the RHU
population against their confinement. With the drugs one year later,
barely 50 people!”
As far as effective efforts to combat drugs, we once again got a
resounding “no” answer to that question form all states. One TX comrade
reported, “the Christians and Muslims are the only social groups openly
condemning drug use, simultaneously, some of their”coordinators” are
getting officially charged with possessing it!”
Another comrade who struggled with prescription psych meds as well as
illicit drugs explained, “One of the worst parts of my own ‘addiction’
was the shame and guilt that came from using these ‘illegal drugs.’”
This is just one reason why the approach to drug addiction in this
country is ineffective. We encourage comrades to try our new
Revolutionary 12 Step Program, which will walk you through
addressing these feelings of shame.
A couple of respondents reiterated a preference for “natural” drugs
rather than ones that are synthesized by multi-national corporations.
But we’d point out the reason we can’t trust modern technology is
because of capitalism. It is not the fact that humyns made it that makes
it unsafe, but rather the profit motives that cause humyns to hide and
overlook any safety issues that come up. There are lots of things that
grow naturally that can kill you. In a system that operates in the
interests of the people, we wouldn’t be making things to add to that
list like the capitalists do.
As imperialist crisis deepens, national liberation grows. The right
for national self-determination is gaining mainstream discussion with
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The imperialists are boycotting Russia to
support Ukraine, when they punished those boycotting I$rael for denying
the self-determination of Palestine. Meanwhile, here in occupied Aztlán
comrades are engaging the Chican@ movement on this topic, which has
forced the largest reformist parties to discuss national liberation in
the current political climate.
Before the next issue of Under Lock & Key comes out we
have two events that we are asking you to support. One is our second
annual Fourth of You-Lie fund drive. Thanks to all who donated already
this year, we are off to a good start rivaling last year’s steady
increase in donations. If you haven’t donated yet this year, we’re
asking every reader to send us 7 stamps or more by July 4th. We just
received notice that, like most things, printing costs will be
increasing this summer.
And more importantly, June 19th marks the boycott
Juneteenth Freedom Initiative. The campaign is centered in Texas,
where comrades are organizing a general strike in prisons across the
state. Different custody levels will be organizing different forms of
action leading up to and continuing after June 19th. We will be sending
updates to USW comrades in Texas over the next month. Campaign demands
include:
End Solitary Confinement!
End Restrictive Housing Units!
End Mass Incarceration!
Transform the prisons to cadre schools!
Transform ourselves into New People!
Speaking of transforming ourselves, we released the Revolutionary
12 Step program this winter as promised. USW leaders should have
that in their hands already. The Power to New Afrika pamphlet
is almost done, and should be out shortly after this ULK. The
new The Fundamental Political Line of the Maoist Internationalist
Ministry of Prisons however, is not on schedule and we do not know
when we will be able to complete that. For now our introductory study
program will continue using the old version. We are also very behind on
responding to comrades in the intro study program. As always, we need
more outside supporters to help with basic tasks like transcribing,
editing, lay out, and promoting prisoner-led campaigns. We just don’t
have enough comrades out here to keep up with everything comrades need
in there. Thank you to our newest supporters who helped with this issue,
we hope to have a long and revolutionary relationship!
For many years, MIM Distributors has been providing legal resources
to prisoners in Texas, including the Texas Department of Criminal
Justice(TDCJ)’s own Grievance Operations Manual. In 2010, USW launched
the grievance campaign in Texas, developing petitions to notify
regulatory bodies when the TDCJ was violating its own grievance process.
Four years later a comrade reported that on 30 September 2014 the TDCJ
removed the Grievance Operations Manual, which lays out the TDCJ’s
relevant code and policies, from all prison libraries(1) where it
used to be available for prisoners to reference. Soon after, MIM
Distributors began offering this document to comrades who were trying to
fight grievances they had against the TDCJ.
Turns out, they have continued to step things up a notch to keep this
public information out of the hands of prisoners. On 12 January 2022,
MIM Distributors was notified by the staff that the TDCJ Grievance
Operation Manual was censored at McConnell Unit on 10 December 2021 for
the following reason:
“in contradiction with BP-03.91, Uniform Offender Correspondence
Rules”
That was all the detail given. And we have not determined any portion
of BP-03.91 that could possibly be applied to TDCJ’s own public
policies. These types of cases should be easy wins for us.
Unfortunately, we do not have the support we used to have to deal with
prison administrators and hold them accountable. Outside supporters, get
in touch to help us rebuild our capacity to fight these blatant
injustices. Comrades inside that are falling victim to this repression,
keep filing paperwork and provide us with all the info you can on what
is going on.
notes: 1. A Texas Prisoner, November 2014, Texas Hides
Grievance Manual from Prisoners, Under Lock & Key 42. 2. A Texas
Prisoner, May 2019, Texas Confiscating Offender’s Grievance Operations
Manual.
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, MIM(Prisons)
has not published any analysis of the war, nor have we participated in
any organizing around the war. Our position is that our movement should
be looking to counter and prevent Amerikan war-mongering against Russia,
or any other country.
Unfortunately, most opposition to the Russian invasion in the United
$tates is being led by the State Department and is fanning Amerikan
support for war with Russia and promoting the overthrow of Russian
President Vladimir Putin. As we go to press, things have continued to
heat up and the threat of inter-imperialist war seems greater than it’s
been in decades.
Imperialists are stealing from other imperialists. The U.$. Treasury
Department has already seized $1 billion worth of boats and planes and
hundreds of millions of dollars in bank accounts. The House of
Representatives passed a bill to liquidate these assets and use them to
rebuild Ukraine. In addition, the U.$. imperialist bloc has frozen $600
billion of Russia’s central bank foreign reserve fund, which they are
also considering using to rebuild Ukraine.(1) They are taking the stolen
wealth of other imperialists and using it to rebuild Ukraine to serve
U.$. imperialism instead of Russia. This greatly adds to the original
military threat Russia had felt from NATO encircling them, making the
escalation to all-out inter-imperialist war more likely.
The U.$/IMF/World Bank will of course sink their teeth deeper into
Ukraine through loans, which have already begun during the war period.
As they do to oppressed nations around the world, these loans become
means by which they control their policies and structure their economies
as neo-colonies. Perhaps they will even use assets stolen from Russia to
loan to Ukraine.
As this issue of Under Lock & Key reaches ours
subscribers, we will be approaching the anniversary of the victory over
Nazi Germany (May 8-9). In the Russian-allied Donetsk and Luhansk
Peoples’ Republics they are restoring statues of V.I. Lenin and hanging
red flags as they prepare to celebrate, while the Azov neo-Nazis
threatened to attack victory parades.(2) The memories of World War II
run deep. While there is no socialist camp engaged in the current war,
we can see how the crisis is pushing people to look for answers. In
addition to being morally abhorrent, the fascists cannot address the
contradictions of capitalism that are playing out today. It is only a
new economy that is driven by universal humyn need and not profit that
can solve the problems of war, environmental destruction and economic
booms and busts that capitalism brings.
What
sort of sanctions is Russia under? What will the effect be?
Russia was banned from SWIFT, a component of the global payments
processing system. Many other sanctions have been placed on the Russian
economy, including obstacles to outside investment and bans on the sale
of anything that could conceivably have a military use (which is a lot
of stuff). Oil and gas, as of this writing, are still being bought from
Russia by most European countries, but this might change soon even
though Europe has no other reliable supply of natural gas to rely on
currently. Germany, for example, ships weapons to Ukraine that are used
against Russian troops and pays Russia for its natural gas at the same
time.
The effects of the sanctions aren’t clear yet. If Russia loses access
to the European market for its oil and gas its export earnings will
collapse. China cannot replace the lost demand, and sanctions will play
havoc on Russian industry’s supply chains.
What
will the effects of the war be on the Ukrainian economy?
One of the major battles, around the town of Mariupol in the
southeast, is unfolding in Azovstal, an enormous Soviet-era steel mill.
The complex has mostly been destroyed. This serves as a symbol of what
the rest of Ukraine will look like once all this is over. Following the
war there are likely to be fewer and worse jobs, a large refugee
population abroad, environmental devastation and a radical polarization
of Ukrainian society. There is talk of forgiving some of Ukraine’s
foreign debt, and maybe there will be aid for reconstruction, but the
rest of the world’s charity is not likely to make up for what’s being
lost now, and its also likely to come with strings attached.
Are there Nazis in Ukraine?
Yes. The Azov battalion, which is based in southeast Ukraine and has
been fighting Russian separatists in the Donbass region since 2014, is a
far-right military formation with white supremacist leadership and
ideals. They’re responsible for numerous attacks on Roma encampments,
LGBT people and leftists in Ukraine since their founding, as well as
attacks on civilians and war crimes during the battles against
separatists in the east. Many of their leaders, including founder Andriy
Biletsky, used to openly promote race war against
“untermenschen”[define?] and Jewish people, but have dialed back such
talk in public in recent years.
Their logo features the Wolfsangel and the Sonnenrad, both
indisputable Nazi SS symbols, and the constant appearance of these logos
in sympathetic coverage of the Ukrainian military has been a PR headache
for the government. The Azov battalion is just one part of a larger
fascist Azov movement coming from the Western part of Ukraine. U.$. news
media has helpfully downplayed the significance of an openly fascist,
highly armed and well-organized formation at the heart of Ukrainian
politics by claiming that the symbols and years of fascist rhetoric and
actions either don’t mean anything or are in the organization’s past.
The limited presence of explicit far-right figures in the Ukrainian
parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, belies their ability to organize outside
parliament and the impunity with which they do so.
The popularity of Stepan Bandera is another aspect of fascism in
Ukraine. Bandera was the head of the Organization of Ukranian
Nationalists, and worked with the Nazis during their occupation of
Ukraine, including participating in the Holocaust and in ethnic
cleansing in southeastern Poland. He is admired by the far right and
those influenced by them, but not by the rest of the country – the Rada
refused to award him the title of Hero of Ukraine when this was proposed
in 2019. So it’s wrong to say that Ukraine is a Neo-Nazi dictatorship,
just as it’s wrong to say that fascists have no influence and are not a
serious issue in Ukranian society. Of course, Putin has his own fascists
and couldn’t care less about Nazi rhetoric among his own forces, so he
can’t use that as a pretext for an invasion.
Are war crimes being
committed in Ukraine?
The biggest war crime is starting one, so Russia is undoubtedly
guilty on that score. In addition, indiscriminate shelling of civilian
areas in Ukraine by Russia has led to probably thousands of casualties
so far, though confirmed counts are much lower. During early April, when
Russian forces retreated from the area surrounding Kiev, Ukranian forces
reoccupying the town of Bucha found hundreds of bodies of civilians on
the streets. The brutality of the invading forces is clear.
The Ukranian side has also engaged in war crimes, like the
kneecapping of prisoners of war. That happened on video, so who knows
what’s going on when phones aren’t pulled out. War is hell.
Are there
diplomatic efforts to stop the war underway?
Ukraine and Russia started talking almost immediately, and the
demands have shifted with the battle. When it looked like Russia was
about to capture Kiev immediately in the early days of the war, Russia’s
demands were significant. But now that Russia has withdrawn from the
area around Kiev and suffered significant casualties, things are
different. The discoveries in Bucha as well as the radicalizing effect
of war in general, might make negotiations break down completely in the
future.
The key issues in the talks are Ukraine’s diplomatic relationship
with the EU and NATO, and territory in Ukraine. Russia wants Ukraine to
stay out of NATO, and wants its territorial acquisitions, including
Donetsk and Luhansk in the east and the Crimean peninsula in the south,
to be confirmed.
Does
Putin support the Soviet Union and its recreation?
The Soviet Union was formed on a voluntary basis by independent
nations. Most of those who joined the Soviet Union had been part of the
Russian Empire in the past. As an imperialist, Putin may be aspiring to
something closer to the Russian Empire. However, stated motivations for
the invasion of Ukraine are immediate concerns about defending Russia
from NATO.
In a recent speech Putin denounced Lenin and the Bolsheviks for the
creation of Ukraine, because Lenin recognized the right of all nations
to secede. In ULK 36 we wrote about the emblematic image of the
toppling
of the statue of Lenin in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev in 2013.
This was done by supporters of the right-wing populist party of
Svodoba.
Both sides of the current war in Ukraine are openly and virulently
opposed to Bolshevism and the ideas of Lenin and Stalin.
Should
we support sanctions as a way to peacefully pressure Russia to stop the
war?
The sanctions being implemented by the U.$.-led imperialist bloc are
not peaceful as they come along with large military support being sent
into Ukraine to prolong the war and the fighting.
Sanctions are economic warfare. They can be a softer way to pressure
other powers than military conflict, but given time they can also have
more damaging effects.
In a few days the U.$. imperialists achieved more than the movement
to boycott, sanction and divest from I$rael has achieved in years. The
illegal occupation of Palestine and daily oppression of the Palestinian
people does not get the support of many of the multinational
corporations and organizations that jumped to ban Russia or pull their
operations from Russia.
As the sanctioning of Russia happened more quickly and successfully,
it is that much more dangerous. The increase in economic boundaries
between imperialist camps marks the shift from a stage of relative peace
between imperialist powers to one of more violent competition. Tariffs,
sanctions, market control, dividing up of the world’s colonies,
resources and markets, were what led up to the first and second
inter-imperialist wars.
Supporting sanctions on Russia right now is further isolating an
imperialist power and increasing the chances of military escalation
between the imperialists, which increases the chance of nuclear war.
None of this is in the interests of humynity as a whole.
Is
siding with the Amerikans and against the Russians the profitable option
for the capitalists?
For the last century the United $tates has led the most prosperous
path for international finance capital. As a result many of the big
names are loyal to the Amerikans. But there are also many exceptions,
companies who are not volunteering to stop business in Russia. And
others who are looking to capitalize on others leaving. One financial
company made a bold statement saying that if they were to ban a country
from their services for invading a sovereign people, they’d start with
banning the Amerikans.(3)
Different capitalists are going to have different interests, and
their interests are going to conflict with those of their competitors.
While the big finance capitalists benefit from and support stability,
other capitalist interests will fund and fuel escalating conflict
between the imperialist camps. Meanwhile, weapons manufacturers always
benefit from militarism and are very powerful and influential in
imperialist circles of power. The mutual interests that created the
military-industrial complex has posed a great threat to the world since
WWII.
What is a
multipolar world, and is it a good thing?
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United $tates of Amerika
has been the sole dominant superpower in the world. Before then,
countries who opposed U.$. interests could find support from the other
imperialist pole of the Soviet Union.
Since WWII, Europe has been subsumed by Amerikan imperialism. If you
look at a map of those imposing sanctions on Russia today it is occupied
Turtle Island (the United $tates and Klanada), Western Europe, Australia
and Japan. This has been the alliance of imperialist powers that has
dominated the world, operating under U.$. military and economic
leadership, for 70 years.
China left the socialist path in 1976, and has continued to rise as
an economic superpower since then. When the Soviet Union took the
capitalist path it led to collapse 35 years later as the bourgeoisie was
divided, carving out their own fiefdoms from which to extract wealth.
China’s new bourgeoisie however has remained united in a plan to exploit
its own proletariat, and is now seen as the biggest threat to U.$.
dominance almost 50 years after taking the capitalist road. Of course,
the people of China and the former Soviet Union were the losers in both
cases.
China and Russia remain politically separate from the U.$.-dominated
imperialist pole, despite China’s deep integration with the U.$.
economy. Their socialist past is one reason for this separation.
Together Russia and China control most of the Eurasian land mass, and as
neighbors have shared interests in promoting trade in the region. The
media has been buzzing about the new Russia/China pole as the
geopolitics of the invasion of Ukraine play out. Some dissident media
outlets cheer this prospect as a counterbalance to U.$./European
imperialism, or what is often referred to as “Western” imperialism.
We look at the invasion of Ukraine with the outlook of “it’s
terrible, but it’s fine.” An invasion by an imperialist country is
always terrible, with Ukrainians and Russian soldiers dying and 100,000s
of Ukrainians being displaced. Communists should never aid an
imperialist invasion.
Ultimately, it is imperialist conflict that creates space for the
proletariat to organize, and to play the imperialists against each other
in order to win victories for the people. In that sense, the increase in
disorder in the world “is fine.” It is the inevitable result of the
contradictions within the capitalist system. These conflicts will come
sooner or later, we cannot prevent them in the short term, but we can
seize the opportunities they create to put an end to this system to
prevent chaos in the long-term.
Prior to WWI, Britain was the leading imperialist power, and
maintained its dominance in part by keeping continental Europe divided.
Today the Amerikans play the leading role, but are working with the
British to prevent closer relations between Germany and Russia. This has
been their strategy since the 1930s when the imperialists feared Germany
would join the socialist camp.
In recent years, the United $tates has been threatening sanctions to
stop the Nord Stream 2 pipeline that would pipe natural gas directly
from Russia to Germany through the Baltic Sea. Germany is already
Russia’s biggest gas customer, and Nord Stream 2 would strengthen that
relationship. The Amerikans oppose this as they see this tying German
and Russian interests closer. In recent negotiations around sanctions
against Russia, Germany proved reluctant but ultimately joined the NATO
consensus to impose them. Germany even gave in on shipping arms to
Ukraine after refusing at first.
Among the imperialists there are disagreements about this. Henry
Kissinger famously opposed NATO inclusion of Ukraine, promoting a policy
of integrating Russia into the U.$.-led sphere. Kissinger warned of the
consequences of trying to break the back of Russia.
Nord Stream 2 provides an alternate route to transport gas to Germany
than the other primary route through Ukraine.
Petro Dollars and Reserve
Currencies
Following WWII, the U.$. was the least damaged imperialist power and
was booming from the wartime economy. Profits were high, exploitation of
the Third World was transferring wealth to the rising U.$. empire that
financed the rebuilding of Europe. This allowed Europe to be built in
the way the Amerikans saw fit. One thing this allowed for was they
positioned the dollar to become the global reserve currency, or the
currency that other countries held and conducted international trade in.
Oil was set to trade exclusively in exchange for the “petro dollar.”
This arrangement has allowed the U.$. to have a growing trade deficit
for decades without the value of their currency dropping. When Third
World countries have trouble paying their debts, their currencies can
become worthless overnight. A replacement of the U.$. dollar as the
global reserve currency makes the United $tates more economically
vulnerable.
“According to the IMF, the share of reserves held in U.S. dollars by
central banks has dropped by 12 percentage points since the turn of the
century, from 71 percent in 1999 to 59 percent in 2021. But this fall
has been matched by a rise in the share of what the IMF calls
‘non-traditional reserve currencies’, defined as currencies other than
the ‘big four’ of the US dollar, euro, Japanese yen and British pound
sterling, namely such as the Australian dollar, Canadian dollar, Chinese
renminbi, Korean won, Singapore dollar, and Swedish krona.”(4)
Currently Russia is saying ‘unfriendly countries’ must begin to pay
them for gas in Russian rubles. Hungary, which is part of the European
Union, but also friendly with Russia has already agreed to pay with
rubles. But the European Union(E.U.) has said the deal was to pay in
euros and dollars and they would not change. This is an effort by Russia
to stabilize their currency using their vast gas trade with Europe to
force others to buy rubles. While the value of the ruble initially
dropped about 50% after invading Ukraine, it has since recovered close
to pre-war levels.
Poland, Germany and Bulgaria have refused to pay Russia for natural
gas in rubles instead of euros as they are demanding. On 27 April 2022,
Russia halted natural gas flows to Poland and Bulgaria after their
deadline for paying in rubles was not met. About 40% of Europe’s gas
consumption is supplied by Russia. The region is talking about
tightening up its consumption. While good for the planet, this will lead
to a further constriction of the economy, applying more pressure to the
imperialists who must always expand their markets to circulate more
capital. However, it is reported that some undisclosed purchasers are
going ahead and buying with rubles, despite it being a violation of EU
sanctions.(5)
Would
joining the European Union benefit Ukranians economically?
As we discussed in ULK 36, GDP in Ukraine after the
dissolution of the Soviet Union was 1/3 what it was just before. Though
the Soviet Union had already been operating a capitalist economy for 35
years at that time, the complete opening up of the region to the West,
the complete Liberalization of policies, and the resultant chaos and
uncertainty led to a precipitous drop in material wealth in the
country.
Leading up to and following the 2014 coup in Ukraine, the GDP fell
and had not recovered pre-coup highs before the current war.(6) The coup
installed a U.$.-backed, EU/NATO friendly government that introduced
International Monetary Fund (IMF) loans to the country, which are used
around the world to extract wealth from the exploited countries to the
finance capitalists. As we predicted in ULK 37 these IMF
loans contributed to decreasing wealth in Ukraine.
Before 2014, the Russian-speaking areas of Ukraine in the East and
South were much more productive and prosperous. People in those regions
have lost significant income. Meanwhile, the rest of the country that
was somewhat ignored by Russian imperialism, has not seen material
improvements by cozying up to the West.(7)
To join the E.U. is a logical option for many in Ukraine who see the
wealth in those countries and the incomes they can earn migrating to
even the eastern E.U.. Yet the spoils of imperialism are limited, and
experience in the last 8 years in Ukraine show the limitations of this
option.
Ukraine and Russia remain largely proletarian countries, with
material interests opposed to imperialism. While there does not appear
to be a strong anti-imperialist current in Ukraine at this time, this
can change quickly as this crisis has brought much disruption and
displacement in the country.
