Under Lock & Key

In this issue of Under Lock & Key we feature a number of articles that demonstrate the dominant role that nationality plays in how our world develops and changes. The history of MIM’s work with prisoners comes from its understanding of the principal contradiction in this country being between the oppressor white/Amerikan nation and the oppressed internal semi-colonies (New Afrika, Aztlán, Boricua, countless First Nations, etc.). It is through that work that it became clear that the quickly expanding prison system of the time was the front lines of the national struggle.

USW C-4 gets at this in h review of MIM Theory 11 where s/he discusses the need to launch “the new prison movement in connection with the national liberation struggles which have been repressed and stagnated by the oppressors with mass incarceration.” Progress in our struggle against the injustice system is progress towards re-establishing the powerful national liberation struggles that it served to destroy in the first place. Any prison movement not based politically in the right to self-determination of the nations locked up cannot complete the process of ending the oppression that we are combatting in the United $tates.

MIM(Prisons) focuses our mission around the imprisoned lumpen in general whose material interests are united by class, even though the injustice system is primarily about national oppression. Within the imprisoned class, we see the white prison population having more to offer than the white population in general for revolutionary organizing. Even non-revolutionary white prisoners are potential allies in the material struggles that we should be taking up today around issues like censorship, long-term isolation, the right to associate/organize, access to educational programs, a meaningful grievance process and accountability of government employees in charge of over 2 million imprisoned lives. Just as we must be looking to recruit oppressed nation lumpen to the side of the world’s people to prevent them from playing the role of the fascist foot soldier, this concern is even greater among the white lumpen and is a question we should take seriously as our comrade in Oregon discusses inside.

In this issue we have the typical reports from both Black and Latino comrades being labelled gang members and validated for their political and cultural beliefs. This is nothing less than institutionalized national oppression, which is at the heart of the proposed changes in the California validation system that are somehow supposed to be a response to the complaints of the thousands of prisoners who have been periodically going on food strike over the last year.

While we support the day-to-day struggles that unite as many prisoners as possible, we are clear that these are only short-term struggles and stepping stones to our greater goals. The most advanced work comrades can be doing is directly supporting and promoting revolutionary nationalism and communism within disciplined organizations based in scientific theory and practice. An example of a more advanced project is a current USW study cell that is developing educational and agitational materials around Chicano national liberation. Meanwhile, the United Front for Peace in Prisons, while focused on mass organizations, is laying the groundwork for the type of cross-nation unity that will be needed to implement the Joint Dictatorship of the Proletariat of the Oppressed Nations required to truly end imperialist oppression and exploitation (see our 6 Points).

It is no coincidence that the word fascism comes up a number of times in this issue focused on national struggles. In terms of the principal contradiction between imperialist nations and the oppressed nations they exploit, fascism is the imperialist nation’s reaction to successful struggles of the oppressed nations; when the oppressed have created a real crisis for imperialism; when Liberalism no longer works. While fascism is defined by imperialism, being guided by imperialist interests, it is the labor aristocracy in the imperialist countries that form the main force for fascism.(1) Again, this breaks down to the national question where oppressor nations and oppressed nations take up opposite sides of the principal contradiction that defines the United $tates as a phenomenon.

Rashid of the NABPP-PC suggests in his book Defying the Tomb, that “right-wing militias, survivalists and military hobbyists” are “potential allies” who “have a serious beef with imperialist monopoly capitalism.” In contrast, we recognize that the principal contradiction that defines the imperialist system is between the imperialist nations and the oppressed nations they exploit. Amerikans calling for closed borders to preserve white power are the epitome of what imperialism is about, despite their rhetoric against the “bankers.” It is the same rhetoric that was used to rally the struggling petty bourgeoisie around the Nazi party to preserve the German nation. It is the same rhetoric that makes the anti-globalization and “99%” movements potential breeding grounds for a new Amerikan fascism.

Recent events in Greece, France and elsewhere in Europe have shown this to be the case in other imperialist countries, which are also dependent on the exploitation of the Third World. While Greece, where the European crisis is currently centered, cannot be described as an imperialist power on its own, its close ties to Europe have the Greek people convinced that they can regain prosperity without overthrowing imperialism. Social democrats are gaining political power in the face of austerity measures across Europe, while fascist parties are also gaining popular support in those countries. Together they represent two sides of the same coin, struggling to maintain their nation’s wealth at the expense of others, which is why the Comintern called the social democrats of their time “social fascists.” Austerity measures are the problems of the labor aristocracy, not the proletariat who consistently must live in austere conditions until they throw the yoke of imperialism off of their necks.

The fragility of the European Union along national lines reinforces the truth of Stalin’s definition of nation, and supports the thesis that bourgeois internationalism bringing peace to the world is a pipe dream, as MIM has pointed out.(2) On the contrary, the proletariat has an interest in true internationalism. For the oppressed nations in the United $tates bribery by the imperialists, both real and imagined, will create more barriers to unity of the oppressed. So we have our work cut out for us.

Looking to the Third World, the struggle of the Tuareg people in West Africa parallels in some ways the questions we face in the United States around Aztlán, the Black Belt and other national territories, in that their land does not correspond with the boundaries of the nation-state that they find themselves in as a result of their colonization. And the greater context of this struggle and the relation of the Tuareg people to Ghaddafi’s Libya demonstrates the potentially progressive nature of the national bourgeoisie, as Ghaddafi was an enemy to U.$. imperialism primarily due to his efforts at supporting Pan-Afrikanism within a capitalist framework.

Nationalism of the oppressed is the antithesis to the imperialist system that depends on the control and exploitation of the oppressed. It is for that reason that nationalism in the Third World, as well as nationalism in the internal semi-colonies of the United $tates, are the primary focus of anti-imperialist organizing. As long as we have imperialism, we will have full prisons and trigger-happy police at home, and bloody wars and brutal exploitation abroad. Countering Amerikan nationalism with nationalism of the oppressed is the difference between entering a new period of fascism and liberating humynity from imperialism.

MT 11 is a must-read, not just for the political- and class-conscious prisoner, but for all prisoners as a stepping stone on the road to liberation and sure footing to understanding the exact context of our imprisonment.

Beginning with the essay “Amerikan Fascism & Prisons,” MIM lays out the only real fascist aspect in Amerikan society - the Amerikan prison system. This work is indeed of exceptional relevance as MIM points to the economic motivation behind fascism as well as to the white petit-bourgeois element that breathes life into this most barbaric expression of capitalist production and its anti-revolutionary mission statement.

The article “Capital & State Join Hands In Private Prisons” further elaborates on the thesis that fascism is not just alive and well within the Amerikkkan prison system, but that it has been expanding since the 1980s in the private prison phenomenon, which is but the melding of capital and the state in the growing war against the oppressed nations, with the prerequisite and additional benefit of continuing to win over the middle classes to their side by ensuring them an always available form of employment.

“Prison Labor: Profits, Slavery & the State” then explains how the possibility of open slavery can come back full force thru the institution of the prisons as it was once manifested pre-Civil War. This article also speaks of the important political functions the prison system serves repressing in the national liberation movements and the further indoctrination of the labor aristocracy with fascist ideology.

Nothing however drives home the colonial relation between Amerika and the oppressed nations like the articles “Political Prisoners Revisited,” “Political Prisoners & the Anti-Imperialist Struggle” and “Who Are the Political Prisoners?”

“Political Prisoners Revisited” is a good example of the Maoist tenet of unity-criticism-unity in which MIM explains the basics of their line concerning prisoners in Amerika in a dialogue with the New Afrikan Independence Movement. MIM argues that the term “political prisoners” shouldn’t just be reserved for individuals such as Mumia Abu-Jamal or Leonard Peltier, but is more appropriately and powerfully applied to all prisoners. All prisoners currently incarcerated under the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie are rightly so political prisoners because the “laws” that we supposedly broke were laws specifically designed for the backing of the backward illegitimate political agenda of the superstructure and the settler state which it serves. To ignore or refute this point with respect to the entire imprisoned population and instead deflect the political aspect of this oppression to just a few individuals is not just a victory for the bourgeoisie but is itself bourgeois in essence!

“Political Prisoners & the Anti-Imperialist Struggle” centers on the antagonistic contradiction of Amerika vs. the oppressed nations that is reflected thru the prison system. It focuses on the material basis objectively present in the form of the gulag, and the material forces already present therein. MIM discusses the dire need for leadership to further help develop these potentially revolutionary forces to their logical conclusion, or in MIM’s words: “to unite all who can be united to smash imperialism and all its tools of oppression…”

MIM understood the process of rapid radicalization of “common criminals” as a profoundly political one and in their agitation they emphasized that process as reflecting the material basis for revolution as does MIM(Prisons) and USW. Unity on this point is therefore essential to re-launching the new prison movement in connection with the national liberation struggles which have been repressed and stagnated by the oppressors with mass incarceration.

Finally, “Who Are the Political Prisoners?” is a New York prisoner’s contribution and advancement to the MIM line on political prisoners in which s/he expounds MIM’s line in detail and in such a way as to leave no doubt that the growth of the prison system within U.$. borders is not just a boil, but a cancer on the oppressed nation internal semi-colonies that needs to be mercilessly removed!

MT 11 also contains, among other things, an essay on Malcolm X’s progressive development, a critique of Gandhi’s so-called “non-violence” and pacifist strategy and tactics, as well as some good theoretical works and revolutionary poetry.

For all these reasons combined, MIM Theory 11: Amerikkkan Prisons on Trial gets four out of four red stars.

And so with that i end this review the same way the New York prisoner ended his article:

Death and Destruction to the U.$. Empire!
Birth and Construction to the Prison Revolutionary Movement!

En diciembre de 2011, la Oficina de Estadísticas de Justicia dio a conocer sus informes anuales sobre la población penitenciaria en los Estados Unidos.(1) Los informes se refieren a personas mayores de edad bajo la supervisión correccional del año 2010. Por segundo año consecutivo, esta población ha disminuido; este fue el primer descenso desde la década de 1970 cuando el numero de presos en la cárcel empezó a crecer significativamente. A finales de diciembre de 2010, el número total de personas en el sistema penitenciario, incluyendo aquellos bajo libertad condicional, y aquellos en la cárcel, fue 7.076.200. La población carcelaria en este país cayó 0.6% a partir de 2009, el primer descenso desde 1972. El número de presos federales en realidad aumentó un 0.8%, pero la población carcelaria del estado se redujo por la misma tasa. Debido a que hay más presos estatales que presos federales, hubo una caída general en las tasa de encarcelamiento.

Las tasas de encarcelamiento por causa de convicciones penales nuevas han ido disminuyendo desde 2007. No obstante este ha sido el primer año que las cifras de liberaciones han excedido el numero de nuevos presos ingresos, lo que mantiene la población carcelaria casi igual. Sin embargo, las tasas de liberación se redujeron un 2.9% en 2010, por lo que estos números no reflejan un aumento en liberaciones. De hecho, el tiempo servido por presos estatales siguió siendo el mismo.

Estas últimas cifras pueden indicar que la población carcelaria ha llegado finalmente a su punto álgido en Amerika, posiblemente debido a la pesada carga económica de mantener una infraestructura masiva de injusticia criminal en este país. Pero incluso si las tasas de encarcelamiento siguieran disminuyendo, tomará muchos años y contará con cambios enormes antes de que las tasas lleguen a ser lo suficientemente bajas para ser comparables a otros países. Los Estados Unidos tiene más de un 30% de las personas encarceladas en el mundo y tiene la mayor tasa de encarcelamiento en el mundo. (2)

El informe ofrece dos posibles explicaciones para la caída de la población carcelaria en los Estados Unidos: “Ya sea una disminución en la probabilidad de una pena de prisión, o condena dada, o una disminución en el número de condenas.” Por desgracia, los datos sobre estas medidas todavía no están disponibles, pero cualquiera de ellos sería una buena cosa para lograr. Sin embargo, como se mencionó anteriormente, es probable que estos cambios sean el resultado de las necesidades financieras y no un cambio en la política en torno a la prisión y el encarcelamiento.

Hay algunas tendencias interesantes que demuestran la nacionalidad por parte de un compromiso continuo con la opresión nacional por el sistema de injusticia criminal en Amerika. Negros y blancos ambos han sentido una caída en las tasas de encarcelamiento, pero la disminución de los blancos (6.2%) fue mucho mayor que aquel de los negros (0.85%). En los últimos años los inmigrantes han sido la población de más rápido crecimiento en las cárceles de los Estados Unidos. Mientras que el 2010 vio un aumento de 7.3% en las tasas de “hispanos” en la cárcel, indocumentados vieron una ligera disminución en sus cifras de encarcelamiento, probamente debido a un aumento masivo de deportaciones. Los hombres negros siguen componiendo el sector mayor de la población carcelaria y son encarcelados casi 7 veces más que hombres blancos.

I was reading an article I would like to bring to your attention, titled “Facing Race in Oregon,” it was printed in Justice Matters, published by Partnership for Safety and Justice, out of Portland, Oregon.

As of 2010, whites in Oregon made up 78.5% of the state population, while “people of color” made up 21.5%. (The article uses the term “people of color.”) Whites are 72.5% of the prison population. Oregon’s population is 2% Black, but Blacks are 9.6% of the prison population. Oregon’s population is 11% Latino while they are 14% of the prison population. Oregon’s general population is 1.6% Native American, Native Americans are 2.4% of the prison population. Oregon’s general population is 3.7% Asian/Pacific Islander, with this group comprises 1.4% of the prison population.

The imperialist pigs gave out a 2011 report card, a legislative report card on racial equality. The Senate received a “C” while the House received a “D” (great grades from our supposed leaders eh?) These grades alone show that racial “equality” isn’t a matter these swine politicians care about. (The entire whack report can be found at the website for the Partnership for Safety and Justice. But it’s useless to read because it amounts to imperial pigs wasting $ on stupid reports instead of solving problems.)

The supposed “justice” system clearly shows it’s practice of disproportionate and biased policies on “people of color,” by the fact that, despite having one of the smallest Black populations in the country, Oregon ranks 13th highest in the country for Blacks in prison per capita. And Blacks are 5 times more likely to be incarcerated in Oregon than whites. But here’s the kicker, national research proves that crime rates as a whole show there is no difference among racial groups in regard to likelihood to commit crime. So obviously race plays a factor in who Oregon decides to send to prison.

And check this out, Oregon has a whack law called Measure 11 (it’s some mandatory minimum bullshit) and it requires youth of the age of 15 and older to be automatically prosecuted as adults as soon as they are charged. And when they are convicted it’s mandatory they serve the same sentence that applies to adults. And guess what, of the 36 percent of youth who are victims of this Measure 11 crap, 25% of them are “youth of color.” While Black youth make up only 4 percent of Oregon’s general population, 34% of all juveniles who are female measure 11 indictments are Black girls!

Point is this, numbers sure don’t lie. And the corrupt swindlers and leaders of Oregon seem to enjoy putting “people of color” (as they term nonwhites) to work in their prison factories to keep the money rolling into their greedy pockets. And the sad thing is, inmates do the labor for these pigs and shuffle to the “cotton fields” like mindless cattle.

That’s why MIM is vital! Because it educates the people. That’s why I cherish each of your newsletters and share them with everyone who can read, and wants to, and why I read it to the ones who can’t or don’t want to.

MIM(Prisons) responds: It is a common misperception that prisoners who work play a role in enriching their captors in this country, and even that such labor is there are so many prisons. Like the prison system itself, prison labor is more about oppression (largely national oppression as this author points out) than making money. As we explained in an article on The U.$. Prison Economy, prisoners who work are helping to offset some of the cost of imprisonment, at best. Prisons are a very expensive system of social control for the imperialists. The people who get jobs in the criminal injustice system certainly are benefiting from it, but the money mostly comes from the government, not from prisoner labor.

Here we are in this endless cycle of genocide inflicted on the internal semi-colonies. Hunting season is never over in Amerika; it is merely covered up with different words to describe it. But those of us in prisons across Amerikkka understand what is taking place.

It has taken almost two full months for the arrest of George Zimmerman to be finally carried out. That’s sad, when a Black 17-year-old is executed in cold blood and the killer is allowed to roam free, but we are arrested for reckless driving and given a life sentence. U.$. soldiers slaughter villages, cut off ears, take photos of themselves urinating on the bodies, without being charged; and when they are charged they walk free. Migrants are shot and killed by white supremacist militia groups, and not only does the corporate media not report it, but bills are currently being pushed through that call for militia groups to formally work in concert with border patrol.

The truth is the state operates in a way that allows many loopholes and leeway for white supremacists to survive and continue their terror. This is seen in the treatment these groups are given from Amerika. If you look closely at this phenomenon it shows us what kind of a rotten system we really live under. The problem is we have been born and raised in this imbalanced existence so we now believe many things are “normal” or “okay” when in fact they are very wrong.

Case in point: the existence of white supremacist militia groups. If we were to have a handful of Chicanos with guns in any house we would be labeled “gang members” and the SWAT team would come in and crush our existence. If a handful of New Afrikans were at a house with guns and a flagpole flying their banner, they would be labeled terrorists and crushed. Yet there are entire compounds of white supremacists with guns and websites proclaiming their objectives, and for the most part Amerika leaves them untouched. Why is this? Well because these neo-Nazi or other white supremacists actually complement the imperialists’ agenda here in Amerika in many ways.

In one way they help to keep the mass attention off the state itself, but they also make room for the state to step in and appear as some savior. As in the Trayvon Martin murder, they allow this vigilante psychotic maggot to run amok, allowing the people’s anger to boil, and then step in to arrest him. This way many will think “they did the right thing” or “the law works.”

These tired old bait-and-switch tactics don’t fool nobody. We know Amerika is Zimmerman! Zimmerman is only a physical manifestation of imperialism. Imperialism, like Zimmerman, travels the world stalking Third World nations and then attacking the oppressed nation, latching on and sucking the blood, the resources, leaving a lifeless corpse in its place. They can call Amerika a “colorblind” society; they can allow the public to be “intermingled”; they can nominate Obama as president; but any way you slice it there is no justice to be found here for Brown or Black folks. Our justice will only come from our own hands through struggle.

Racism is generally understood by revolutionaries first and foremost as an outgrowth of the ruling class, which nurtures these white supremacists into fascist foot soldiers. They are imperialism’s reserve army and are intertwined with the state apparatus. They have a mutual interest in keeping things “the way they are.”

The most we’ve gotten out of Obama concerning this modern day lynching was him saying “if I had a son he would look like Trayvon.” Really? He couldn’t even make a speech denouncing the attack on Black people, the problem of white supremacy, or the new caste-like system that encourages these modern day lynchings lest he offend the oppressor nation. But saying nothing at all would offend the Black nation. His “middle ground” was “if I had a son he would look like Trayvon.”

These bourgeois politicians serve the ruling class, they serve capital, they serve Wall Street. Our justice may not come tomorrow but it will surely come, and until then let us prepare the people for the cold reality in Amerika.

The newspaper of the bourgeois nationalist Nation of Islam, The Final Call, recently ran an article titled, “Powerless Majority? State of the Dream 2012 says non-Whites will still suffer as largest U.S. group.” (1)

The article was an overview of the annual report written by United for a Fair Economy, a Boston-based economic think tank, which does a yearly assessment of progress on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision of justice and equality since Dr. King was assassinated by the imperialists.

The 2012 report, the ninth such report, analyzes 30 years of public policy on the “racial” [national - BORO] divide and how it impacted economics, poverty, education, home ownership, healthcare and incarceration. The conclusion: although oppressed semi-colonies will be the population majority by 2042, they will also be the poorest, least educated, most unemployed and most incarcerated, with at least five million New Afrikans being held kaptive in state and federal prisons.

BORO does not find it strange that such a bleak future is being predicted for oppressed nations under the current system, especially the projected incarceration figures considering the fact that in 2012 there are more New Afrikans in prisyn than were in slavery in 1850.(2)

In the conclusion of the “Dream” article, one of the co-authors of the Dream report is quoted as saying, “we have a nation that has a history of ‘racial inequality’ [national oppression - BORO] and white supremacy, all the things that have been put in place 50 years ago, 100 years ago, are still together, intact. If you break down all these institutional structures and start looking at things in a different way, we’ll continue talking about disparities because we’re not fighting the real thing.”(1)

The dreamer is correct that it is the “structures” of this system that are hindering oppressed nations from self-determination and national development. Yet he/she failed to identify the capitalist-imperialist system as the “real thing” that is the impediment to national independence and how we were to fight it. As a result, he/she implies that we can reform the system and do not need revolution to put an end to imperialism.

Amerikkkan Nightmare

Malcolm X once said that for New Afrikans (and other oppressed nations), the Amerikan dream was nothing but an Amerikan nightmare. Not much has changed to alter the validity of that statement.

If oppressed nations are to defeat imperialism and attain self-determination and national independence, they must come to understand, in a more scientific way, that the political structure and social institutions which make up the superstructure of society have to be understood in relation to the underlying economic base (substructure) and to all of the contradictions within the economic base.

Why? Because it is the capitalist-imperialist economic system that gives rise to the contradictions we call poverty, mass incarceration, homelessness, unemployment, etc. in this society. The resolution of the former, will be the beginning of the resolution of the latter. That is why we stress that we must build institutions of the oppressed to address these contradictions and prepare for a new society. But as we say in the hood and barrio, “don’t nothing come to a sleeper, but a dream!”

Wake Up

What the State of the Dream report did accomplish, was to provide the poor and oppressed with an outlook of how their future is being predicted based on concrete analysis of concrete conditions. The other is that either the imperialists are unwilling or do not have the power or capability of solving the problems we face. Thus, they are unfit to be in positions of power and influence over the people.

Conversely,

“… every struggle that we engage in must have the dual purpose of undermining U.S. power, and of transferring that power to the people. We must gradually dismantle the oppressive state apparatus, and begin to build a new people’s state apparatus, creating its embryonic structures in our communities, as we build people’s organizations and institutions that end the violence, house the homeless, heal the sick and educate and train our people for their responsibilities in a new society. Each time the people themselves create and develop an idea, build an organization, solve a problem, we show through practice that we can create new structures, and new ways, that satisfy our needs. Otherwise, our needs will go unsatisfied.”(3)

Justice and equality in imperialist Amerikkka?? Dream on!!!

The recent assault raining down on Brown people in the state of Arizona smacks of the rise of the Third Reich in Nazi Germany when Hitler’s Brown shirts began burning books that may have contradicted fascist ideology. This was not a phenomenon exclusive to Germany, rather the occupier always attacks an oppressed nation’s culture, history and language in order to sap a people’s ability to struggle.

What better way to prevent a people from wanting to struggle than to take away their history of struggle and oppression and brainwash them with the oppressor’s views and version of history. An act that was outright “land theft” quickly becomes “an honest purchase” or “genocidal acts” become an almost spiritual or supernatural concept called “manifest destiny.” In this way ideas are shaped and a people are pacified.

The state of Arizona has dismantled Chicano studies which was obtained in the first place by courageous struggle. Most remember the 1990s when UCLA finally obtained their Chicano studies courses via a hunger strike in 1993. Many schools had to protest and struggle to be able to learn about our history. For too long we have been told a version of history from the oppressor nation’s view, twisting real history in an attempt to brainwash our youth. This is a serious attack on the Chicano nation and this comes at a time when an increase in repression is unleashed on migrants by ICE and other government agencies. This is no coincidence when it is viewed with the criminalization of Raza and the southwest states’ use of control units to capture Chicanos at a higher rate than any other nationality. Even those “law abiding” youth who are doing nothing wrong but attending Amerikan schools thinking that if they commit no crime and get an “education” they will have a good life are facing attacks from the imperialists – preying on the most vulnerable – our youth!

The banning of books was thought to have been a thing of the past, a fascist way of controlling a people’s thoughts and yet we are experiencing it in 2012. The book Occupied America: A history of Chicanos by Dr. Rodolfo F. Acuna was recently one of the books banned in Arizona. This book along with others was boxed up in classrooms in front of Chicano students, as if their history is bad, as if Chicanos are bad, a forbidden people. It has been reported that when this occurred some Chicano youth were crying in class not understanding or comprehending the vile white supremacist monster they are up against living as an internal semi-colony in the United $tates.

Occupied America is a book that has been required reading in Chicano studies courses all over the United $tates for decades! It is a book of the history of the Chicanos and uncovers U.$. imperialism’s treatment and oppression of our nation. It does not promote violence or speak of revenge or retribution, this book merely tells the story of imperialism’s activity on this continent over the centuries. But as the Chicano scholar Dr. Carlos Muñoz recently put it in regards to the banning of these books and studies “They are afraid of the truth. You know, the truth hurts.” I think that’s a real simple way to put it the truth does hurt these parasites, their vileness hurts to know or to be reminded of how they treated human beings.

This recent attack is going to backfire on the oppressor nation. Due to this and all the other attacks on the Chicano nation it is going to spark an arousal in Aztlan, a second wind in the Chicano movement is going to kick in where the youth who have since the 60s begun to get lax and not appreciate the sacrifices that went into allowing us to gain things like Chicano studies, all this taking things for granted is now coming to an end and Raza are awakening and our youth are once more being politicized and our barrios are once more being revolutionized. Chicano revolutionaries are organizing and developing new ideology, even prisons are seeing Chican@s becoming conscious and revolutionary and we will use the experience of the Chicano movement of decades past to make a leap in our struggles and push our nation farther than previous efforts. More youth are wanting answers of why they are suffering state oppression and jumping into the mix, many want to know why Occupied America is banned and going out and purchasing the book to see what all the fuss is about if they have not already read it, I myself am going to order it to share with others and all Raza should do the same and purchase this book to learn why the state is targeting this book and to support our Chicano historians who stand in the line of fire by imperialism and its apparatus. Purchase it before it is banned even for purchase!

When we see these developments occur to our gente we should understand that the 2010 U.$. census shows the dramatic growth in the Raza population, when all other folks are decreasing in population Raza are increasing. Raza will soon be the majority and I have written about this before, this “majority” in population that we will be in the future is not being taken lightly by the state, they have think tanks who sit around thinking of ways to stifle and assimilate Raza and how to break the Chicano nation’s back via our youth. We must see the seriousness in the banning of Chicano books, this is a low intensity war on the Chicano nation, they are using deportations, prisons, three strikes laws and now schools to force their program onto our nation and so we need to educate Raza in the barrios and the pintas before it is too late.

When the Spaniards came to the valley of Mexico they burned the Mexica’s books (codices) and destroyed their written history or most of it along with other traces of their legacy and filled the void with what they wanted future generations to know and when we read what they have written we do not read of genocide and rape because they conveniently left that out. All oppressors have used this tactic of re-writing history. Do not stand by and allow Chicano book burning to occur in 2012. Let us make our voice heard in Arizona and support Raza in that repressive atmosphere who are up against the same world oppressor we are! This madness in Arizona will not be solved by changing Arizona because it is U.$. imperialism which unleashes these fascist laws on our nation so it is with imperialism where the problem lies and so long as imperialism exists book banning will exist, today it is the Chicano nation being attacked via its history books and tomorrow the Black nation’s history books will be banned in schools and then others as well so let us stand in solidarity against this coming fascist storm and prepare the people wherever you may be!

At the end of December 2010, the total number of people in the correctional system, including probation, parole, prison and jail, was 7,076,200. The prison population in this country dropped .6% from 2009, the first decline since 1972. The number of federal prisoners actually increased by .8% but the state prison population dropped by that same rate. Because there are more state prisoners than federal prisoners, there was a drop overall.

The imprisonment rate for new convictions has been declining since 2007, but this is the first year releases exceeded admissions of prisoners, leading to the small drop in the prison population. But release rates were down 2.9% in 2010, so these numbers don’t reflect an increase in releases. In fact, time served by state prisoners remained about the same.

These latest numbers may indicate that the prison population has finally reached its peak in Amerika, possibly because of the heavy economic burden of maintaining such a massive criminal injustice infrastructure in this country. But even if the imprisonment rate continues to drop, it will take many years and huge changes before it gets low enough to be comparable to other countries. The U.$. holds over 30% of the world’s imprisoned people and has the highest imprisonment rate in the world.(2)

The report gives two possible explanations for the drop in prison population in the United $tates: “either a decrease in the probability of a prison sentence, given conviction, or a decrease in the number of convictions.” Unfortunately, data on these measures are not yet available but either would be a good thing. However, as mentioned above, it is likely these changes are a result of financial requirements, not a shift in politics around imprisonment.

There are some interesting trends by nationality demonstrating a continued commitment to national oppression by the criminal injustice system in Amerika. Blacks and whites both had a drop in imprisonment rates, but the decrease for whites (6.2%) was much bigger than for Blacks (.85%). In recent years migrants have been the fastest growing population in U.$. prisons. While 2010 saw a 7.3% increase in the “Hispanic” imprisonment rate, non-citizens actually saw a slight decrease, probably due to a massive increase in deportations. Black men remain the largest sector of the prison population and are imprisoned at a rate almost 7 times white men.

Most of us have lost our old world ways in Amerika’s miracle whip consumer culture. For white people this is particularly true. Our grandparents or great-grandparents came to Amerika and abandoned their ancestral old world customs. Most did so in the belief they had to leave behind the old ways in order to succeed in Amerika. They even kept old world customs and mythology – essentially their native cultural practices – away from their children. Old cultures were forgotten for imperialist, capitalist greed.

Eventually we all search for identity. Unfortunately all too often when our white youth seek identity, they find it in the false belief of their supremacy in the color of their skin. This is because the white imperialist elite actively push this notion. Often whites seeking identity come from the lumpen class. The lower classes of all peoples tend to want to seek an identity because they are disenfranchised from the upper classes who are ignorantly content to unquestioningly follow the U.$. consumer culture.

Because we have not taught our white youth about being proud of their ancestral cultural heritage, white supremacist and separatist groups are quick to jump in and teach them the only thing they have to be proud of is the color of their skin and the false notion of supremacy that comes from living in a society controlled by a white imperialist elite.

As responsible citizens of the world, if we were to teach our white youth the value of their ancestral cultural heritage, it is my experience that we teach them to value other peoples’ cultures as well. This would alleviate white cultural envy, which in my experience is one of the driving factors that leads young whites on a search for identity. If we responsible and sensible members of the world recognize this and teach our white youth the value of their native culture and the value of other peoples’ native cultures before the white imperialist elite can turn them into foot soldiers fighting blindly for their cause, then we can begin the steps of destroying the false notion of white supremacy.

If we are going to be successful revolutionary comrades in our fight against this oppressive system, especially our prisons, we all need to unite peoples from all ethnic backgrounds. We all have native cultural practices to be proud of, and that includes whites. Though re-educating those who believe in their supremacy or in separatism may be difficult, it is essential that it happens and that we attempt the process with care and compassion, not threats of violence.

As a former racist skinhead I know what I’ve written to be true. I had to re-educate myself. On the outside, I formed an organization whose goal was to combat hatred using peaceful non-violent tactics. I have worked with dozens of racist skinheads, helping to re-educate them, and have witnessed drastic transformations creating informed and educated revolutionary comrades. I continue my work from my prison cell. Drugs and robberies may have taken me out of society, but I have found ways to keep my eye on the prize even while incarcerated. The goal to unify us all is too great to be forsaken.

MIM(Prisons) responds: We share this comrade’s goal to eliminate white supremacy, and we agree that it is often the poorest whites who end up taking up these fascist positions. But this writer misses a key reason behind this drive to racism for poor whites: the economic system of imperialism has created a parasitic labor aristocracy out of the white nation within imperialist borders. This labor aristocracy rallies around the ideology of social democracy, which for some manifests as overt white supremacy. Those on the economic bottom of this labor aristocracy are most easily turned against the oppressed nations with racism.

Even as prisoners, whites have typically developed close ties to their “brothers” who run the prisons that hold them. That said, we organize the imprisoned lumpen as a class, and work to unite with as many white prisoners as we can around resisting the oppression of prisoners.

While there is some interesting and important cultural history among whites in Amerika, who came from a variety of European countries, the overwhelming cultural history is colonialist and not something to celebrate. The invasion of this country, massacre of indigenous people, enslavement of oppressed nations, and plunder of the world is the unfortunate legacy of the white nation. We don’t want to encourage white youth to embrace this history and culture, rather we want to help them reject this reactionary legacy and take up work on the side of the majority of the world’s people. We study the past to understand the world, to transform the present, and to determine the future.

Two Republican judges were convicted in a cash for kids jail time scheme in Pennsylvannia. In PA this practice goes on each and every work day. Republicans in the state of Colorado send kids as young as twelve to adult penitentiaries, keeping them locked up until they’re dead or grow old. This is a savage system.

Black people receive two and sometimes three times as much time as white people for committing the same offenses. A Black woman will receive life or a 20 to 40 year sentence for killing her child. A white woman will receive probation or 30 months for the same offense. This in itself is a crime. Black men are automatically charged with rape for any type of sexual offense. White men are rarely charged with rape for any type of sexual offense. Wealthy white individuals aren’t charged at all. It matters not how much money a Black person has, should a Black man get accused of a sex crime no matter how preposterous, that ass is going to jail.

Pennsylvania recently sent 1000 prisoners to Michigan in March 2009 and they came back in May 2011. Pennsylvania also sent 1000 prisoners to Virginia who have yet to return. They were sent away, not to reduce over crowding, but for financial reasons. Michigan is hurting for jobs since most of their business moved out of town. Pennsylvania had 7k prisoners who had already served their minimum sentences; however, the Parole Board refused to release them for what they said was non-compliance or lack of programming. Why didn’t they just release the seven thousand prisoners who were eligible? Because it’s a business. Pennsylvania earned $7 million dollars from the phone system in 2010. This institution earns $5k each day the commissary is open. The Correctional Industry (laundry) here at SCI-Somerset earns $1 million dollars annually from outside contracts.

Pennsylvania does not permit prisoners to purchase photographs with or without nudity. Prisoners are allowed to buy magazines but 6 out of 10 issues will be censored (denied) in order to discourage prisoners from ordering magazine subscriptions. I have had four publications denied in a single day. Under Lock and Key was denied October 7, 2011 along with my People Against Racist Terrorism publication, my Human Rights Coalition magazine and my Black Enterprise magazine on the very same day. Five or more of my publications are denied each month.

In the course of a single decade Pennsylvania prison numbers have doubled, not as a result of the crime rate, but due to investors who receive prime rate of their stock. A score ago, forty-six states harshly rewrote their criminal sentencing guidelines, doubling and tripling prison terms for a broad array of crimes. For this reason, our legislators can now afford to reduce the 100 to 1 powder to crack cocaine ratio to 18 to 1 because the other charges which are the result of one initial crime will make up for the loss.

First time offenders are receiving lengthy prison sentences, sometimes for the skin they’re in. Prosecutors decide who will be charged with what crime. Insensitive judges determine how much time any given defendant will receive. One prosecutor told an all white jury “what makes the defendant dangerous is his race.” Prosecutors mention high profile cases which have nothing to do with the individual being tried in order to prejudice the jury against the defendant. Prosecutors intentionally introduce false testimony, flawed forensic science and allow police officers to get away with perjury, yet they are not held accountable for their actions. Just as police officers who cut down unarmed Black men get off with justifiable homicides. No homicide is ever justifiable.

How is it that Black americans who only make up 12% of the U.$. population make up 60% of the prison population? Our prison population has quadrupled since 1980. In 1980 Pennsylvania spent $100K on prisons, now the state spends $1.8 billion annually. It’s no wonder Pennsylvania is facing a $2.3 billion deficit. In 1980 only 6% of the nation’s prisoners were convicted of drug offenses, now that number has grown to 25% and offenders are receiving twice as much time.

MIM(Prisons) responds: This prisoner does a good job summarizing the national oppression that is inherent in the criminal injustice system, not just in Pennsylvania but across the United $tates. We have reviewed the book The New Jim Crow which gives more background and details on this system. While we agree that Pennsylvania (and other states) have an economic interest in expanding their prison systems, we are careful not to mislead people into thinking prisons are about business. Prisons are a tool of social control which also provide good paying jobs for large numbers of labor aristocracy workers. But they are fundamentally a money losing business: As we explained in an article on the economics of prisons, prisons do not make enough money to cover their costs so they will always be subsidized by the government.