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.
Just recently we had an incident here at the prison. There was a boycott
from eating and a refusal to lockdown, leave the yard, or go to our
bunks. There were a few fires started and prisoners made it hard for
officers to do count.
As good as it might have felt to buck the system, this “two day” short
lived revolution seemed to be useless because there was no bottom line
or demands, and they ended up putting us on more restriction than we
were on before. They feed us 2 cold bag lunches for breakfast and
dinner, no visits, no church, no club activities, no yard, no one works,
no phones (now restored), no outgoing mail (now restored), no library or
law library, and officers give you disciplinary reports for every minor
thing you do (passing food, sharing books, talking after 10pm, etc.).
The outcome of this “lost cause” shows the importance of studying MIM’s
concepts and ideology. One thing it did do is show the oppressor that
the oppressed do have the will and intent to stand up. But a revolution
that’s lead by emotions will never win.
Another issue at hand here is the refusal to let prisoners out on parole
because one person who was let out murdered 4 people (he did his full
time, no parole, and he asked for mental health help before he was let
out but they refused him.) Now the system wants to make us do more time
on our sentence (80% instead of 50%), and make it a longer wait to go to
work centers. They haven’t taken into consideration all the successful
parolees and how broken the system is in preparing prisoners for
society.
One thing we must keep in mind is that “a man who stands upon the
corners of the paths and points the way, but does not go, is just a
pointer and a block of wood can do the same.”
MIM(Prisons) adds: This comrade raises a very important point
about how we must learn from our failures as well as our successes. And
in the case of this protest, as well as many other spontaneous acts of
resistance in prisons across the country, the lesson is often that we
need to do more to build our level of political knowledge and study
theory and strategy so that we can formulate the best approach to our
local situation. There is an organizing strategy called focoism that
attempts to promote and utilize the spontaneity of the masses to launch
a revolution. There is a long history of spontaneous attempts at protest
and the focoist strategy of revolution around the world that show us
this approach generally leads to more repression, not to victory for the
oppressed. We have a responsibility, as revolutionary leaders (and this
extends to all readers of Under Lock & Key) to learn from
this history and apply these lessons to our work today. MIM(Prisons) has
a lot of literature on spontaneity, focoism and organizing strategy.
Write to us to request study materials on this topic.
In considering the art of warfare and conflict resolution, many miss the
significance of how much an effect of one’s party winning on the
battlefield of propaganda has on that party’s victory in the war.
Throughout history, effective information distribution has been a major
factor in a nation or group gaining/obtaining power. It is essential in
the United $tate’s retention of its global position today. So one cannot
stress enough the importance of the efforts at educating people about
injustice.
One of the main ways in which the U.$.government, and the various
governments under its jurisdiction, are able to brazenly contradict
their stated laws, purpose, and principles, is by ensuring the
effectiveness of its personal propaganda machine - the corporate media.
For instance, it is well documented and basically established that the
CIA is responsible for the introduction of crack cocaine into the
streets of South Central Los Angeles, with knowledge and possible
complicity from the Executive Branch. Yet in this “war on drugs” none of
those mid-to-top level responsible CIA/Executive Branch officials were
ever made to face “justice.”
On the other side of that, the average Tyrone, in any hood U$A, is given
decades to life in prison for selling a minuscule fraction of what the
CIA introduced into his community. And by the media, Tyrone is portrayed
as the violent dangerous criminal, while George H.W. Bush, and the
Clintons are labeled as heroes. It’s an irreconcilable contradiction,
yet it is accepted as reasonable by the general public, which is mainly
due to its well-documented public opinion manipulation tactics.
And with the Amerikan public being so bombarded with pro-establishment
garbage, some people don’t have any exposure to any info other than what
the corporate media presents, and the U.$. establishment’s response to
the rise of Wikileaks shows that this is by design. Anyone who stands
against corruption, repression, oppression, social imbalance, and the
other vile things that this nation’s ruling class works to promote, must
put much focus on a counter-propaganda campaign to show the people
precisely what the effects of their support for the antisocial U.$.
establishment’s policies and actions are in real life circumstances.
This used to be an uphill battle due to the Establishment’s exclusive
hold on the corporate media, coupled with there being no real
alternative means of info distribution. But one of the advantages to
this information age is social media, which can give one access to a
whole world of people. Now people don’t have to rely on the corporate
media as their sole means of obtaining info on current events. The
establishment has lost its grip on info control and the opportunity for
you and most anyone else to be heard is at hand.
And with the daily displays of official lawlessness recently
transpiring, and with the corruption adversely affecting more and more
people, that’s more people with an ear open to your message. Knowledge
is power and education is essential to knowledge.
MIM(Prisons) responds: We agree on the value of alternative news
and the need to have media around which to build a movement. This is the
reason MIM(Prisons) prioritizes Under Lock & Key, both in
print and on the web, as a key responsibility of our organization.
However, we do not think, as this writer implies, that the Amerikan
people are so mis-educated that they only go along with the government
corruption because they don’t know otherwise. In reality the Wikileaks
exposure has not led to any new uprisings by Amerikan citizens. The
government fear about information release is mostly related to
international exposure. Within this country they do have to worry about
the youth in prisons and universities where there is much broader
political consciousness and interest in the real news about what’s going
on. Amerikans overall are complacent because they are bought off by
their government, paid to enjoy a petty bourgeois life at the expense of
the international proletariat. And so Amerikans generally are happy to
believe the lies fed to them by their government. With Under Lock
& Key we hope to reach those at the margins who do not enjoy
the Amerikan dream, or who have not yet bought into it. Having a
materialist understanding of the social forces in this country will
allow us to have a greater impact with our limited resources.
Everyday I sit back and listen to numerous captives blab on and on about
how “business aggressive” they are. The thing that boggles my mind is
that when the swine do something to them they bitch and cry but accept
the oppression. When another captive, however, commits the smallest
infraction only then does the aggression come out, but even that is
limited to cell warrioring and threats of violence. These displays of
traitorous behavior make it frustrating not just for myself but for
other revolutionary educators trying to show fellow captives a brighter
path.
I admit I have little patience for those who constantly complain and
antagonize the swine but leave their actions to just that while the
swine continue to oppress the captive collective. I have heard a couple
of captives talk on the run about plausible actions to address the
oppression, but just as soon as such revolutionary thought is introduced
it is struck down by another captive and this brings the end of the
conversation. It is extremely disheartening to hear such things as that.
It is also disheartening to hear captives say that we have no choice but
to accept the oppression. I don’t understand this at all because these
are the same individuals that spout off about old school hip hop like
NWA and Public Enemy who urged the masses to fight the power and say
fuck the police.
What are we getting out of fighting amongst ourselves? Nothing but
reverse progression that plays in the swine’s favor, thus opening the
doors for more oppression and lessening the value of revolutionary
thought. Why can’t we use this so-called aggression to fight the real
enemy, the grey suit swine? Even more so, why do so many speak out
against squaring off against the enemy? It’s not just backwards
aggression that is a hindrance to revolution, there is also selfishness,
greed, disdain for learning, gambling, and narco addictions, all playing
a part to hinder revolution. I say gambling and narco addictions for the
fact that a majority of captive-on-captive violence is due to gambling
in some shape or form, and narco addictions cloud the mind from being
open to revolutionary education and thought.
In my work concerning capitalism as applied to gulag functioning I urged
captives to strike against commissary and I will reiterate my stance as
commissary also provides captives fuel for conflict against other
captives. When the swine denies a captive commissary nine times out of
ten the captive will hang his head and slink off in defeat. But if a
captive doesn’t make commissary and is in debt to another captive, the
owed captive spouts off in aggression and violent temperament. Thus
commissary is swine approved extortion and needs to be boycotted as it
is a detriment to captive unity and education.
I’ll close this with my main point, we are all captives no matter race,
creed, gender, inside affiliations, outside affiliations, etc.
Oppression and exploitation do not discriminate, we are political
prisoners who have no hope as long as we remain ignorant to truth and
embracing of the poison the authoritarian elitist swine continually feed
us. Captives are not supposed to be enemies to other captives,
aggression is supposed to be used to counter elitist oppression, but the
elitists use our own aggression against us to fulfill their agenda to
neglect and oppress. To fight this we must truly gain revolutionary
insight and educate fellow captives in revolutionary politics.
MIM(Prisons) responds: The first point in the
United
Front for Peace in Prisons statement of principles is Peace: “We
organize to end the needless conflicts and violence within the U.$.
prison environment. The oppressors use divide and conquer strategies so
that we fight each other instead of them. We will stand together and
defend ourselves from oppression.” This comrade highlights some of the
ways that the system turns prisoners against each other, wasting their
energy on counter-revolutionary fights that could be put into organizing
against the criminal injustice system.
Since the
July 8, 2013
hunger strike/work stoppage was suspended (5 September 2013) we’ve
faced extreme retaliation ranging from multiple large scale cell
searches to very small portions of food, etc. In Pelican Bay State
Prison comrades have reported losing some of the granted supplemental
demands (I told ’em so). Updates from October on the negotiations are
basically saying CDCR is are not willing to break/compromise any further
on the
5
core demands.
A few COs allegedly got attacked, isolated incidents for whatever
reasons. In all, we hope to remain a peaceful protest, at least until a
final resolve. We remain committed in supporting the New Afrikan and/or
prisoner class regardless of the torturous/inhumane conditions to which
we’re currently enduring. “Knowledge is power, information is freedom,
and education is our mandate.” Long live Comrades George Jackson, Frantz
Fanon, Mao Zedong, Malcolm X, VI Lenin, and Karl Marx. We will endure.
MIM(Prisons) adds: This report on the California prisoner strike
is unfortunately just the news we expected from negotiations with the
state over improvements in conditions. Promises to address prisoner
concerns are easy to make in the face of massive protests and media
attention, and quick to be broken as soon as the attention dies down and
prisoners stop their protest. We know there are thousands of prisoners
in California committed to this cause and ready to take up action again.
Leaders must take this opportunity to once again build the support of
California prisoners as a whole, and work out a strategy that will lead
to the best possible outcome for those in this fight. In a
previous
article we discussed the possibility that tactical changes are
needed, including the possibility of demands being formulated locally in
each prison, while trying to achieve as much unity as possible across
the state. Regardless of the tactics, we must be building revolutionary
education and creating a cadre of solid activists in every prison so
that we are prepared for whatever the state throws at us.
I was about to begin litigating matters regarding the ventilation system
here when I came up with one last ditch effort to try and handle this
issue on a diplomatic level. I managed to acquire about 60 CDCR Form 22s
[informal grievances], and I was able to find 30 fellow comrades who
were willing to sign their name to them after I typed up all the formal
complaints. Well, all of those Form 22s were sent to the Plant
Operations Engineer’s Department, and we sent another 30 to the Plant
Operations Supervisor. At the same time I had a good friend of mine and
some relatives mail in a series of Citizen’s Complaints on the same
subject. Plus, the Ombudsman for R.J. Donovan Correctional Facility
(RJDCF), Gabriel Vela came here in response to a letter I had sent to
him over the ventilation problem. In other words, Plant Operations got
bombed on from all sides, and they responded accordingly. They were up
on the housing units today replacing the twenty plus exhaust vents that
were not working on our building. Due to that equipment failure we were
experiencing extremely high temperatures, humidity, and poor air
quality.
My whole point for telling you this story is to show you and your
readers that things can be accomplished if you hit ’em with overwhelming
force. They knew that those 60 Form 22s would more than likely translate
into the same amount of 602 appeals [formal grievances], which in case
you don’t know translates into about $1,500 a piece in man hours to
process each one of them. I’ll let you do the math. So, things can be
done in numbers, “Yes We Can.”
MIM(Prisons) adds: This comrade has been actively pushing the
campaign to have grievances heard in California, which may also have
contributed to these particular grievances getting such a direct
response. H work to mobilize comrades there is commendable. Of course,
this is just one small battle and just one piece of the work that USW
leaders need to be doing. It doesn’t cost them $1,500 to throw your
grievance in the trash can. These types of campaigns need to be pushed
with a healthy dose of political education to develop comrades
politically, so that this type of unity can reach higher levels and
address the real systematic problems. MIM(Prisons) runs correspondence
study groups and offers materials to help USW comrades run their own
study groups inside.
by a South Carolina prisoner November 2013 permalink
We recently had a blow to morale here in my dorm. A refusal to accept
cold food went wrong as only a quarter of us refused. Since we were
locked down, and only eat twice a day on weekends, most just took it.
That left a few saying they would never participate again. However, you
would be a good morale boost (Under Lock & Key) because it
shows that the struggle is being fought everywhere. Maybe it will help
them focus on the real issues. All I can do is keep trying.
Here at San Quentin’s death row we recently won a small victory. The
recent mass dis-allowing of all writing supplies sent via first-class
mail to San Quentin’s death row AC/SHU prisoners has been halted. But be
advised, there is nothing in evidence to support the idea these
terrorists in pig clothing have dropped their last propaganda bomb, or
that their about face was motivated by guilty conscience dredged up by
visits from three holiday spirits.
Consider some underlying facts: November 2013 San Francisco Bay
View national Black newspaper reports significant influx of “stamp
donations” from a drive discreetly organized by San Quentin death row
prisoners. Mass disallowing of stamps coincided with the drive. As the
drive progressed, the pigs’ terrorist activities increased. Disallowing
began in spurts around May 2013, capricious post-interpretations of the
property matrix ensued, and by mid-September the pen’s hierarchy went
hog wild.
Appeal #CSQ-J-13-03205 was submitted October 27, explaining exactly how
operational procedure 608 article 7 was being illegally circumvented.
This appeal was rejected by appeals coordinator puppet M.L. Davis on
November 1. Davis offered to process the appeal if appellant directed a
CDCR 22 to the mailroom. Davis also demanded appellant remove copies of
Article 7 and OP0212 which are in fact the official rules/directives
regarding “items enclosed in incoming first-class mail.”
At the same time the appeal was being drafted, various articles
describing the terrorist attacks on everybody’s right to freedom of
expression were en route to local small presses, national news
outlets, and global social networks by way of prisoner mail. Some
articles included instructions on how everyone here, and outside ground
zero, could inundate the pen’s hierarchy with a barrage of “appeals
relating to mail and correspondences” (15 CCR 3137).
This evidence suggests a combination of individual administrative
appeals, and the imminent threat of having their pig-tailed asses
exposed to the public, is what forced the pen’s hierarchy to rethink
their positions. This is also an example of standard pig-headed tactics
designed to make resistance to their control unit torture tactics seem
futile. Their undermining goal is to crush, kill, and destroy our will
to organize against them in peaceful protest. Their motive was fear that
the struggle is gaining momentum. In fact, their pig-headed terrorist
tactics are evidence that it is! Yes, we are gaining momentum, making a
world of difference into a world of solidarity which is not indifferent
to the rights of anyone in it.
Enclosed with this “announcement of small victory” from the secret
torture unit at San Quentin is five 46 cent stamps which were withheld
since May 2013. That by itself is not much but if everyone of the global
readership would match that contribution in stamps or cash to extend the
reach of this publication which amplifies our voices, it would add
significant momentum to the struggle.
There are two wars waging in oppressed communities throughout the United
$nakes: a war by the imperialist-oppressor nation to keep poor and
oppressed communities in semi-colonial bondage, and a war between lumpen
street organizations. The battlefields are the reservations, barrios,
ghetto cities and prison plantations. Many of you have defined the war
between us and the dominant nation incorrectly as “racism,” but what is
really going on is national oppression. And, in order to defeat and
destroy national oppression a “nation” must engage in a national
liberation struggle with the end result being national independence. But
this is getting ahead of myself.
Many of you who belong to a street organization, misnomered a gang, know
the history of your group and can trace yourselves back to when your
organization fought against injustices being perpetrated against some
segment of your community. And you know that many have deviated from
your origins and laws. At the same time, a lot of you are struggling to
re-define and re-direct your organization back to their original
purposes – serving the needs of the people.
Conversely, we all recognize or should recognize that the conditions of
our communities and nations are a direct result of our colonization by
those who settled this country. The poverty, misery and suffering, the
drug addiction and violence are all because you are not in control of
your own development and destiny. Those who don’t rule, get ruled.
My question to you is 1) who ultimately bears the responsibility to see
that peace exists in our communities? 2) who bears responsibility to see
that we have adequate housing, medical care, education, etc? 3) who
benefits most from our communities being saturated with drugs? 4) who
benefits most from all of the violence in our communities? 5) who
benefits the most from all of us being incarcerated?
Know that the state and federal government have been discussing changing
federal laws that would declare gangs and gang nmembers to be domestic
terrorists. Why would they do that? Because those in power know that you
have the actual and potential power to change this society, that you
have the actual and potential power to liberate your nation. You can put
an end to police brutality, homelessness, hunger, war, etc. Yea, you
have that power!
“The police, and those that they truly serve and protect, do not want us
to respect the actual and potential power of our young people, they do
not want us to glimpse, through our youth, the power that lies within
each of us. If the crips and bloods can bring peace to our communities,
and the police can’t or won’t, then why do we need the police? If the
Disciples, Vice Lords, Latin Kings and other street organizations can
serve and protect our children and elders, and the state demonstrates
that it can’t or won’t, then why should we continue to depend upon it
and profess loyalty to it? If the power to end violence exists within
our own communities, then we should be looking for ways to increase our
power, and we should be looking for ways to exercise it.”(1)
Ain’t nothing wrong with being in a street organization, because after
all, a “gang” is a group of people with close social relations that work
together. The problem is that most street organizations are moving in
the wrong direction. They’re engaging in the wrong social practices
which are retarding the growth and development of our people.
Through the media and other outlets, the negative images of gangs are
filtered (like that bullshit Gangland), so that our people will
see street organizations as the main problem existing in our hoods, and
they’ll ask for more police presence and harsher prison sentences for
those identified as gang members. But gangs didn’t create the current
problems. The state fears that you’ll become conscious and active and
solve the problems.
Dig this: “One of the main reasons for the rampant crime that occurs in
the colonies is national oppression. The colonized live in areas where
there is unemployment or underemployment, crummy housing with high rent
and poor education. The colonized kill and fight over the money that
secures necessities… this reality afflicts the nationally oppressed in
the most harmful ways. The nationally oppressed do not hold state power
nor the economic power to compete with the oppressors… so the rampant
crime in the colonies is not due to self-hatred but national oppression
and capitalist culture and policy.”(2)
So you see, “Our problem is not that there are gangs in our communities
– our problem is that our communities are colonized territories that
suffer from arrested development caused by the U.S. settler-imperialist
state. Thus, we have no need to attack gangs – that is, ideally, we have no need to attack any
organized group of our people that work to free the process of our
collective development. [my emphasis] What we must do is make
sure that all organized groups in our communities have this as their
goal – and so long as we deal with members of our communities
(i.e. members of our families), the means that we use should be
education and persuasion, rather than physical force. However, even if
stronger means are called for, they should be means created and employed
by forces within our own communities and not those of U.S., local, state
and federal governments. The transformation of gangs into progressive
groups within our communities is part of the process of acquiring group
power that will enable us to control every aspect of our lives. Our
problem is that too many people in our communities – old and young –
lack the identity, purpose and direction required of us if we are to
acquire the kind of power that we need to truly free ourselves and begin
to pursue the development of our ideal social order.”(1)
The betterment of our conditions must begin with self, with you making a
conscious and disciplined commitment to transforming yourselves and your
organizations. Prestige bars any serious attack on power. Do people
attack a thing they consider with awe, with a sense of legitimacy? This
is an aspect of the “criminal” and the “colonial” (slave) mentality:
continued recognition and acceptance of the legitimacy of the colonial
rule, to continue to feel that the colonial state has a right to rule
over the colonized.
If we take control of our communities and the power to control every
aspect of our lives, then we can ensure that the lynchings end. You can
put an end to there ever being another Oscar Grant, Sean Bell or Trayvon
Martin lynching.
Soldiers, Riders, Gangstaz – protect your community, clean it up, build
it up, feed it, educate it, and let no one do it any harm. That’s
gangsta, but revolutionary!
Ride or Die! Unite or Perish! July 2013
MIM(Prisons) adds: This statement from BORO is a good
explanation of why the United Front for Peace work is important, and is
demanded by the people. While we are building the
United Front
for Peace in Prisons we must also work towards a United Front on the
streets, where the lumpen organizations come together to fight our
common enemy: imperialism. We have seen examples of strong unity and
educational advancement in many street organizations. The UFPP works to
set an example in prisons that can be taken to the streets.
I do all I can here to educate prisoners in the science of revolution. I
share Under Lock & Key, I pass MIM(Prisons)’s address
around, I conduct study groups, I raise consciousness and awareness
while showing solidarity. Yet, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice
officials are agents of repression using all kinds of divide and conquer
tactics against these efforts.
The other day I was conducting a study group in solitary confinement and
the pigs were using disruption by instigating a racial argument between
two Black prisoners and a Mexican prisoner. I tried to keep the peace
and unity among prisoners, but the pigs are constantly breaking the
unity and provoking racial conflict. I tried to intervene by telling
these three prisoners to stop arguing about insignificant things and to
set aside their differences and come together in unity, solidarity and
cooperation. Then two of the Black prisoners started caling me “wet
back.” I just had to terminate the study group at that moment to prevent
further altercations and racial conflict among these three inmates. I
had similar experiences in the past when I tried to educate fellow
prisoners; sooner or later the pigs manipulated the situation and use
these ignorant inmates to turn against me and start calling me racial
slurs.
Look comrades, I have to be very cautious when I give your address to
some of these prisoners because some of them are agent provocateurs,
snitches, double agents, pretenders, informants and just brainwashed. So
be aware of this matter. I just don’t let these pigs get to me with
their dirty tactics of divide and conquer. Some comrades over here are
willing to learn, others are just playing games, and others are just
brainwashed and it will take too long to make them conscious of
revolutionary knowledge so I rather concentrate more on those comrades
willing to learn and to assimilate Maoism into their thinking.
MIM(Prisons) responds: This report from a United Struggle from
Within (USW) comrade is an example of United Front work among the
imprisoned lumpen. This is the more tedious stuff that dedicated
comrades must engage in over years and decades before getting to more
glorious examples like 30,000 prisoners refusing food on the same day in
California. So we want to recognize all who, like this comrade, keep
working and not letting the pigs get to them.
It’s true those who follow the pigs’ manipulations are ignorant, and
someday they will probably recognize that and feel great shame. But this
story itself is an example of a teaching moment. By setting a good
example, others learned something that day about the roles of the pigs
because of the efforts this comrade made to build unity. And it is by
consistently providing examples like this to the masses that ignorance
is overcome. When an individual overcomes their ignorance and opens up
to new ideas, those are the people who should get your persynalized
attention to develop their theory and practice.
Finally, we are aware that many people write us with bad intentions.
Some have requested that we not send materials to such people. But this
allows the very people we are trying to avoid to manipulate us into
censoring ourselves. And in the current format of our work, there is no
certain way for us to identify all pigs. As we have written in
articles
about security in the past, we must judge people based on their
actions, and only give out information on an as needed basis. So we are
very conscious about what information is public and what is not, and we
will spread public information as widely as we can. As we recently
wrote, comrades should not mistake Under Lock & Key
subscribers for USW members. Just because we send someone mail, does not
tell you anything about our assessment of that individual’s political
reliability.
I don’t read much in ULK about Florida prisons. This is
unfortunate because readers may believe the Florida Department of
Corruption (FDOC) is like the California, Texas or Arizona systems. This
is not true. There are conditional differences as well as attitudinal
differences between the north and south Florida prisons.
Some notable conditional differences are in what has been referred to in
ULK as SHUs and the unity among Florida prisons. The FDOC has
Control Management Units (CM). One can find these on CMI, CMII, or CMIII
for 3, 2, or 1 year, respectively. In the beginning, the early 1990s,
these were sensory deprivation cells. During the CM heyday of the late
1990s you didn’t even have to commit a disciplinary infraction, just be
considered a ‘management problem.’ Torture was the name of the game.
Suicide was frequent. With help from the outside, lawsuits were filed
and settled, and the CM system changed at the close of the 90s. This did
not bring a close to the shattered lives of the survivors of these
imperialist torture cells. FDOC still has CM, but it is not as easy to
put someone on CM status, and they are not sensory deprivation any
longer. Brutality and rampant use of tear gas sill happen, but not as
bad or often as before. I urge comrades in the other states to keep up
the struggle and to not think any sacrifice you may make is too much. A
couple of my friends lost their lives trying to get out of those torture
cells and two more took their own lives after release from prison due to
continuing mental instability after years in CM. It doesn’t go away when
the door opens!
It appears to me, after reading several issues of ULK, that
there is more unity in other states. There is no organization among
different prisons nor even among individuals within a single prison here
in Florida. They are more like cliques operating for extortion purposes.
Unity is virtually nonexistent against the administration.
Unity is not even a concern of the guards. In my present experience, I
am a peer facilitator in a certain program. The institution requires
everyone in the program to live in the same dormitory and to meet at
least once a day, 25 at a time in a separate classroom, to complete
character based programs, i.e. imperialist brainwashing, that I then
conduct unsupervised - Ha! Comrades, you would think this is the perfect
opportunity to organize and unify, but it doesn’t work that way. There
is much inner struggle. When I speak of how the imperialists define a
box and then they say it is our own fault that we don’t fit in it; that
we are here, I am met with scorn. I have started a slogan: Power to the
poor people, but it is slow to catch on - no one is poor? When I filed a
grievance on an officer for not doing her job it was labeled as
‘snitching on the police’ as if that’s even possible! When the water
cooler broke and we needed it fixed, I asked who all will file a
grievance. No one would: no one did. There is a fear about unifying to
file grievances.
Furthermore, as I stand up and speak on oppression and revolutionary
ideas; about socialism and communism, I alienate myself more and more
from my fellow white nation. It is just like a comrade from MIM wrote me
recently - I am committing class suicide (a small sacrifice indeed). I
am labeled communist as if that were a dirty word! If any comrades know
of a technique I can use to get these guys united, let me know.
North Florida prisons vary from south Florida prisons in the general
attitudes of the guards and administrators. The north Florida prisons
are mostly operated by the white nation. These prisons are more
structured, restrictive, and command more discipline. The south Florida
prisons are mostly operated by the Black and Latino nations and are not
as well organized, loosely run, and more laid back. It is not so easy to
get a disciplinary report or go to disciplinary confinement while in a
south Florida prison.
I said that to say this; keep the struggle against the man, not
yourselves. Remember who the enemy is no matter what type of prison you
are in, be it a north or south Florida type. Just because some of you
have better conditions than others doesn’t mean be pacified, it means
you can struggle more; struggle harder.
MIM(Prisons) responds: This comrade raises a good point about
analyzing the conditions where we are at. Each state, and even each
prison, has different conditions with different contradictions and
struggles. While this comrade is frustrated by the current lack of unity
in Florida prisons, s/he gives a good example of unified struggle from
the 90s and so we can see that conditions we face change over time. We
do have the power to affect these conditions. It won’t happen overnight,
but through education we will build unity. Where there was unity around
a shared struggle against Control Management Units, we might look to
build unity today around another common struggle. This is a challenge
for USW comrades in Florida: to determine what issue will be best to
focus on at this time. Regardless of the issue, spreading Under Lock
& Key and other revolutionary material, and talking to others
about their situation and the system, will help build consciousness.
When we are met with scorn when we talk about the imperialists, we may
need to take another approach, start from something that is bothering
someone. Try to tie this back to the imperialist system so they can see
the connections. And remember that even if we don’t gain a comrade
today, we may have planted the seeds for revolutionary consciousness.