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.
Our aboveground parties must be
centralized
The revolution shall not be televised
all party disagreements must be internalized
Because the foe uses the media to spread lies
and the likes to use their snitches to stigmatize
They use their C.I’s (confidential informants) to infiltrate our party
lines
Some of their C.I’s
are pretty tempting to the eyes
They’ll spew back at you revolutionary rhetoric to deceive and
hypnotize
They’ll give you a spiel that their “handlers” help them organize
But they’re really pigs in disguise
The real reason they’re around us is to spy,
and gain access to our leadership
So they can tag and identify
Because they’re really working for the F.B.I
Trying to assassinate our leadership
marking them to die.
Like Huey p. Newton said, it’s Revolutionary Suicide,
C.I’s quoting revolutionary jargon and slogans that they memorized
Rhetoric that they falsely digested and regurgitated in order to keep us
mesmerized
This is why the revolution shall not be televised
Because the media stay spreading lies,
So we must be forever cautious and wise
Because its through the crosshairs of that rifle scope that our leaders
are crucified
So you better open your eyes
and recognize
That these are the lessons from the past to help us better
organize!
All of our readers who operate within the hideous belly of the beast
that is the United $nakes prison system know about this system’s cruel
and unrelenting oppression in every facet of daily life. This article
serves to highlight and expose the asinine nature of one particular
aspect of this oppression that is particularly relevant to our work:
censorship. Every time we send out a document, book, or newspaper, there
is always the risk that whatever pig is working in the mail room on the
day it arrives will arbitrarily opt to censor it for any number of
made-up reasons. Unfortunately but not surprisingly, this behavior has
the backing of the U.$. court system which has granted the prison
bureaucrats almost total control over deciding what comes into prisons.
Like every other instrument of control wielded by the state, the pigs
use this power to repress the masses of the oppressed groups, especially
if this repression targets political content that challenges the status
quo.
However, there are still victories to be won in appealing these cases
of censorship, which comrades in Anti-Imperialist Prisoner Support
(AIPS) are striving to do for every incident that comes to our
attention. With this in mind, we hope to start publishing these
censorship reports as a way to communicate to you, our readers, our
efforts in combating censorship as well as to showcase particularly
pathetic attempts by the pigs to censor our mail.
North Carolina’s Brazen
Hypocrisy
In ULK 84, we included a piece of art sent in by a
subscriber of ours which depicted a pig officer beating a prisoner with
a baton. This was apparently too far for the North Carolina Division of
Prisons (NCDOP) who said that they don’t allow “depictions of violence”
and that this image “may encourage a group disruption.” We simply had to
scoff when we read this in light of the fact that the NCDOP specifically
lays out guidelines on when it is “appropriate” to beat prisoners with
“impact weapons” like the baton depicted in the art. To the pigs, it’s
fine to physically abuse and maim prisoners. But showing them a cartoon
of such acts? That’s where they draw the line.
MIM(Prisons):
Political Organization or Tattoo Artists?
MIM Distributors recently sent a copy of the Fundamental
Political Line of the Maoist Internationalist Ministry of Prisons
(FPL) (which we recommend to all our readers who wish to get a
deeper understanding of our organization’s politics) to a comrade
serving time in the heinous Florida Department of Corrections. Usually
the FPL gets through to prisoners fine, so we were a bit
surprised to receive a censorship notice in this case. This
unfortunately means that FPL is now on the Florida ban list,
preventing any Florida prisoners from doing our intro study course (they
were already prevented
from doing our 12 Step Program). And the official reason listed for
this censorship? That the FPL contained an image “large and
distinctive enough to be used as a tattoo pattern.” This was truly a new
one for this author (though our records show it’s been done before).
Apparently, sending any sort of art can justify censorship if some pig
decides the art might make a good tattoo! The silver lining to this
abuse of power is that it provides the perfect example of how the pigs
will use any justification to achieve their goals of repressing the
masses.
Indiana Finds “Drugs” in Our
Letters
The third and final case of censorship we’ll discuss is more aptly
described as a crusade against one of our comrades in Indiana. Nearly
every issue of ULK or any other mail we send to this comrade is
censored for some inane reason usually relating to our alleged promotion
of “Security Threat Groups.” We think it’s more likely that the state
has it out for our comrade though, seeing as ey are currently filing a
lawsuit against one of the pigs at the Indiana Department of
Corrections. Recently though, the mail room at the facility this comrade
is imprisoned in decided that MIM(Prisons) had laced one of their
letters with drugs. Not only this, they threatened the comrade with a
year in lock up and to take away all of eir legal work. After sending
our letter off to the lab it turns out that the “drugs” were simply some
ink that got smeared. When the oppressed simply try to survive, the pigs
will resort to beatings, administrative punishments, and acts of
sabotage. But when the pigs are caught actively lying to facilitate such
cruel acts, the oppressed get nothing, not even an apology.
In spite of this brutal repression, our comrade in Indiana is
continuing on with eir lawsuit in an attempt to expose and hold
accountable the pigs who think they can just violate the rights of
prisoners without a second thought. If you’d like to read more about our
campaign to support this prisoner as well as ways you can help, look to
our campaign linked below (or p. 16 of ULK).
i want to begin this writing by expressing sincere solidarity to the
surge of student activism in support of the Palestinian people and
against amerikan and israeli militarism and imperialism. If i could tell
the students who’re facing or will face charges in the empire’s courts,
i would tell them to keep in constant memory that no matter what they,
the empire, says or does you are not a criminal. i would tell them that
be careful to remember the righteousness of our cause and to remember
that they are not alone.
In every mass movement and organization there are varying levels of
socio-political consciousness and radicalism. Those who are neophytes to
the struggle should pay careful attention to the machinations of the
institutions of the empire. One’s experiences with the empire’s
institutions usually increase one’s level of radicalism and
consciousness. While we enter struggle usually because of various
sympathies we hold, We continue and elevate our activism usually because
we realize that our theories and sympathies only barely touched the
surface of the ugliness of the empire.
Allow the experience you will have going through the motions of the
empire’s institutional shuffles to harden you, to motivate you.
Understand that your sacrifices are worth it, and that while we face
certain levels of sacrifices, the people who’ve inspired us so much, the
people whose stiff resistance is the reason i am even writing this
missive, those people are making sacrifices and facing down levels of
repression that most humans will never know. Be proud of the trials the
oppressors put you through, and also be vigilant in order to learn
lessons to apply to your future work in the struggle.
Advice for those inside facing charges for fighting for Palestine, my
best advice would be to not let the repression to stop you from
organizing in furthering the cause. Continue your work on the inside. My
experience on the inside in recent months is that there are a lot of
patriotic, amerikanized prisoners. More than we often realize. And they
are louder than those of us who support the self-determination of
Palestine, and the divestment of amerikan institutions from israel. Your
voice, your commitment is needed just as much inside as it is outside.
Captivity is not the time for self-defeat. The struggle must
continue.
Palestine’s struggle has and is being analyzed in various ways. But
for the record the Palestinian struggle is a nationalist, anti-colonial
struggle. There are many connections to other nationalist,
anti-neocoloinal struggles within the united $tates. In north amerika
the empire has succeeded in stamping out the struggle, the culture, and
much of the existence of the Indigenous people, New Afrikan people,
Chican@ People, and Puerto Rican people. They have already done to us
what israel is attempting to do to Palestine now. amerika looks
different and is softer with its policies of social control only because
they’re further along in their experiment of empire building and
settler-colonialism. As a captive New Afrikan revolutionary nationalist
i am extremely proud of, and inspired by, the Palestinian struggle for
national independence. Their struggle provides a measuring stick to
other nationalist movements. i hope we take note and begin to organize
more in earnest.
Because there are many students who’ve been drawn into this movement
by the extremes of the Palestinian situation, some may not be aware that
there are revolutionary nationalist movements here in their backyards
itching to mobilize enough people to raise the level of contradiction to
the point that the Palestinian struggle is already at. Because there are
connections between these nationalist movements we hope that you will be
able to identify them and connect yourselves to these revolutionary
nationalist struggles. In Our effort to smash the tentacles of amerikan
militarism and imperialism in Palestine and elsewhere, We have to raise
our level of struggle here. We have to raise our capacity here within
the nationalist movements, and i believe the student movement is a key
part of doing that. As such the best we in the prison movement and those
of you in the student movement can do is to build connections with each
other, help each other, and help the world’s oppressed and exploited
people.
i hope this letter is received well, and that you, the reader
continue to struggle ceaselessly until victory is won.
“What makes you think you DESERVE to celebrate Black History Month”-
SIS Officer at USP Tucson
These were the words that were spoken to me a few years ago, here at
United States Penitentiary - Tucson, shortly before I was illegally put
in the SHU (Special Housing Unit) for 40 days.
Before this incident, i was the Secretary of the Black History Month
Committee here for three consecutive years, and had more experience in
the committee than anyone else over the last five years. But on this
particular year, as I reflect back on this, the Education Department did
absolutely nothing for us in preparing for Black History Month. We were
promised the resources, but as we worked from November of the previous
year to February of that next year, we found that when it was time to
promote Black History Month, there was nothing set aside for us to carry
out any of the activities promised.
We had nothing.
I am writing this now, in February 2024, and I am again at the
realization that USP Tucson, from the Warden on down, refuses to allow
us to celebrate our history. Not one memo, not one event, nothing is
scheduled to celebrate our history, and I can’t help but reflect back to
that day where a Caucasian SIS officer (Special Investigative Services)
had the audacity to tell me, to my face, “What makes you think you
DESERVE to celebrate Black History Month”?
What we are seeing is a stripping not only of Black History, but of
identity as well. Prisons are mandated to help rehabilitate people, and
one way to do that is to reinforce their identity. There is a certain
level of pride that each individual gets when he or she knows that they
are part of a greater group of people. I speak as an African American,
but this also applies to every other nationality, from Native Americans
to Mexican Americans to even Caucasians. When prisons strip us of an
identity, it makes them similar to how slaves were treated in our
American history.
The slaves brought to America came with nothing, and were
systematically stripped of everything they once were, and degraded to a
level of inhumanity that surely is an abomination to God. Has much
changed in 2024, when prisons continue to practice slave tactics?
In that year we didn’t have Black History Month, I was upset at this,
and began to do what I always do… write. I wrote essays about how staff
deliberately sabotaged Black History Month, and intended to mail them to
the outside world.
But a Caucasian staff member in Education read my works, and refused
to allow me to have them back, after I had printed them. She called them
“inappropriate.” I questioned her as to why I cannot have my works,
which actually I have a right to have.
Her first answer was, “Well, I was with (the staff member), and you
don’t know what you’re talking about”-
Wait! I am the SECRETARY of the Black History Month Committee!! I
keep ALL the notes! How is this Caucasian woman going to tell me that I
don’t know what I’m talking about?? At this point, I was already getting
angry at how I am being challenged of my First Amendment right about MY
history.
Her second excuse was that I can’t have it back because I made
multiple copies. This too, was bogus, because even though the general
body of the letter was the same, it was very clear at the top of each
copy who I was sending it to. Her argument was based on that you could
not make exact, identical copies at the same time – I had every right to
make three copies if they are going to three different entities.
Her third argument was, “If you want to write a grievance, you can
get a BP”. This also was a lie, and what she now was doing was curbing
my right to the First Amendment, shifting me to use a VERY flawed
grievance procedure. What she was doing was quite illegal.
So, upset, I went back and wrote a new essay, “Is (staff member)
Breaking The Law?”. I used Federal Bureau of Prisons policies, legal
cases and other resources to prove, without a doubt, that this Caucasian
officer was intentionally blocking me from sending these letters
out.
When she read my essay, she called for backup, and the SIS officer
came, took me out to the hallway and threatened to put me in the SHU
(Special Housing Unit). He said, “I know how to play this game”, and
then, as I tried to make my case, he said the quote I started this essay
with.
My answer to this Caucasian man… “I don’t think a white man can tell
a Black man, who has been the Secretary of the Black History Month
Committee the last three years anything about his history”.
To this man, and to many Caucasian officers here at USP Tucson, we
don’t “deserve” to celebrate our history; we don’t “deserve” to have an
identity. Yet, they are quick to take vacation on Dr. Martin Luther King
Jr’s Birthday.
The last several years here at USP Tucson, the Warden has blocked
attempts for us to celebrate our history. Even now, as we came off a
malicious and retaliatory 36-day lockdown, after refusing to give us
stamps to mail our loved ones, after filthy showers, after feeding us
spoiled peanut butter, after limiting our phone calls to a single five
minute call a day, after at least three deaths due to medical neglect,
and as many homicides – staff here at USP Tucson will not relent in
their treatment of human beings in this prison.
It’s not just Black History they are stripping from us . . . it’s
humanity they are stripping from everyone. When prisons refuse to
acknowledge the captives as human beings, when they ignore the simple
basics of human kindness, when they condone illegal acts done by staff,
and do nothing about it, they have transported the entire environment
backwards two hundred years.
It’s funny, that incident with the Caucasian officer in Education and
the SIS officer happened, as I write this, about 5 years ago… those
officers still work here. They were never punished in any shape or form
for their prejudiced views. I however, was put in the SHU for 40 days,
then found guilty of a bogus charge. It took me at least six months to
appeal to eventually have that charge expunged, based off simple
information that, if the Caucasian Disciplinary Officer had read, she
would have thrown the charge out. But after my appeal to her during my
hearing, she said to me:
“I just don’t believe she would lie to me”.
So, because I’m Black, and a prisoner, I lose the argument simply
because my opponent is a Caucasian female that is a staff member. My
level of equality as a human being is stripped, because my status as an
prisoner is inferior.
We won’t celebrate Black History Month here at USP Tucson, because
staff apparently don’t believe we “deserve” it. So, I’ll celebrate it
for everyone here, and refuse to let this prison strip me of my
humanity. That makes them less of a human than me.
MIM(Prisons) responds:Understanding history is about
understanding where we came from and where we are going. This is the
real power of history that the oppressor has tried to keep from the
oppressed for hundreds of years. The system is happy to promote an
identity for prisoners – one of people who are not deserving, of people
with less rights, of people who are less intelligent. There are many
identities we can take on, positive and negative. We do not promote a
“white identity” because that is the identity of an oppressor. As
communists we identify with the Third World proletariat – that is the
revolutionary class of people under imperialism that offers solutions
and a path from oppression.
The methods employed by the U.$. government that are directed at the
internal semi-colonies are vast. Although counter insurgency is a
practice taken up by many oppressor nations globally, it is unique
within the U.$. empire because of the magnitude of national oppression
in the form of mass imprisonment of the internal nations and the fact
that the carceral state has in fact created the very conditions that
uphold and nurture insurgency from its very bowels. U.$. counter
insurgency has had a program in place which changes names but stays
consistent in targeting its enemies within the prison system in general
and those within the prison movement in particular. Methods employed
today within U.$. prisons and especially prisons within Aztlán (the
so-called “U.S. Southwest”) are meant to declaw our young Jaguars and to
seduce the nation into a role that is at war without shield nor
spear.
It is this clear persynal experience in being a target of COINTERLPRO
which led to the culmination of this paper. Our party sees the need to
begin this conversation in the nations so that not just Aztlán but all
who fight colonization and the hyper-policing, frame ups,
state-sponsored terror, and assassination can begin the hard work of
guarding against counter insurgency in an era that demands our boots on
the ground to stomp out the rising tide of repression.
Revolutionaries are organizing daily in the occupied territories to
raise consciousness and heighten the contradictions whenever they arise
through agitation and political education. The state and its apparatus
is also working hard daily to subdue our efforts and seduce our young
jaguars into the temptation of empire and all the trappings of U.$.
imperialism.
Chican@ units and organizations that influence the nation to
challenge the state and set out on the path of liberation and
independence are targeted. The imperialist state will do everything in
its power to prevent socialist revolution from developing in Aztlán and
beyond. Our role as Chican@ revolutionaries should be to hold workshops
in every barrio of Aztlán where the ideas of socialist revolution are
realized and embraced, it is the duty of Chican@ communists to respond
to U.$. counter insurgency in this manner. Only by mobilizing the entire
community, the entire barrio in this way, will we ever finally get over
the obstacle of U.$. counter insurgency.
Political Line Is Decisive
In our analysis we uphold the idea that ideology is key in how we
move. Political line helps guide us in our political endeavors and we
must constantly make adjustments and test our theory in order to
maneuver in ways which push not just the Chican@ movement forward but
the whole International Communist Movement (ICM) forward as well. We
realize that the trappings of living in the imperial core among the
world’s labor aristocracy pushes many to believe that revolutionary
organizing is not a life-or-death choice. The Communist Party of Aztlán
(CPA) feels otherwise. Indeed we see that – even here in the First World
where most “workers” are bought off by blood stolen from the Third World
– revolutionary organizing is a matter of life or death to the Chican@
nation. If we do not set out on the task of organizing Aztlán and
revolutionize our nation it will succumb to capitalist roaders. For this
reason this paper serves not just as a study guide for oppressed nations
but also as a cri de coeur (cry of the heart) for the raza to grasp the
urgency that we see in the great task ahead or our nation may die.
Although we have a huge responsibility positioned here in the heart
of imperialism, as we combat counterinsurgency and mobilize the people
we have no confusion about the fact that the Third World leads the ICM
and our efforts here in the First World merely compliment them. Maoism
as an ideology is clear on this despite the eye rolls from the trots,
who have never led a single successful revolution.
It is crucial that Aztlán comes to grasp the reality of the class
structure in the United $nakes – as well as in Aztlán – as being made up
of petty-bourgeois class forces. The exploitation of workers does not
exist on the scale that it did in Lenin’s Russia, on the contrary, what
exists today in the occupied territories for the most part is a labor
aristocracy whose life support remains connected to the value extraction
from the Third World. We need to move from this perspective and
understanding. Aztlán’s future demands that we grasp this. Political
line must be decisive in order for our tactics and strategies to be
effective in our struggle for national liberation in the midst of the
counterinsurgency offensive. Ideology allows us to identify our friends
and separate them from our enemies. This does not mean we will not take
losses to state repression. it simply means that we will be better
equipped to continue in this beautiful struggle against oppression.
As Maoists we realize that being triumphant over U.$.
counterinsurgency efforts and the occupation of our homeland will only
happen when the U.$. government has been completely overthrown and a
complete revolution on these shores has occurred. Anything short of that
will prevent real liberation from being realized for Aztlán.
As a party for the Chican@ nation we believe the Maoist concept of
mass line is the way forward. It is the Chican@ masses who define the
path by their ideas which are synthesized by our party. The raza will
make hystory. Ultimately, our job is to engage the people into realizing
their power.
The U.$. government is at war with Aztlán, yet the tactic of low
intensity warfare pulls the wool over our eyes and clouds our social
reality from being realized except for the more politically conscious.
Even among conscious raza in general, and communist raza in particular,
one of the things which separates revolutionaries is the understanding,
which Mao pointed out, of class struggle continuing not just under a
socialist government but even within the party itself as a bourgeoisie
develops within. Understanding this Maoist doctrine in pre-revolutionary
times is perhaps more crucial than even picking up the gun in
revolution. Even in our current battle of raising public opinion and
evading counterinsurgency tactics by the state, grasping this doctrine
helps anchor us on the path to liberation rather than the capitalist
road.
Raza of all political stripes may be targets of the imperial
counterinsurgency campaign. Many may even be successful in evading state
repression, yet evasion per se is not the objective, our aim of course
is national liberation. As a semi-colony existing in the world’s
imperialist center Aztlán’s primary objective is national liberation. We
cannot help free other nations if we are not yet free. At the same time
we should also identify that in order to win a war for national
liberation we need a Raza Army, a Raza Army that is led by the CPA.
U.$. Counterinsurgency
Counter-insurgency is a military concept meant to partake in certain
actions that neutralize insurgents. The United $nakes target and
identifies politically conscious and revolutionary folks within the
occupied territories as insurgents and has designed a program that aims
to destroy us and our efforts. This program attempts to neutralize us
“legally” according to its own illegitimate “laws”, but will resort to
cold-blooded murder if necessary.
Most of those targeted come from the oppressed nations. This is not
to say that most anti-imperialists or revolutionaries are from the
oppressed nations, but that the U.$. knows that it will ultimately be
the internal nations that tip the scale in our favor come civil war.
AmeriKKKa has worked hard to brainwash the oppressed and although they
have managed to ward off the seizure of power by the oppressed they
truly never gained real legitimacy in the eyes of the raza. At the same
time the imperialist center has not held on to the internal colonies and
its global influence for nothing, indeed they pour billions each year in
its various agencies in order to hold onto white power.
Communists often say we are “professional revolutionaries” because we
take our role seriously and understand that many times our very lives
are at risk as we organize here in the Snakes. We should also grasp that
the imperialist state also sees itself as professional oppressors
because it is their lives that are in peril should revolution
succeed.
The oppressor’s counterinsurgency methods rely largely on intel.
Information about the intended target is essential. Knowing everything
about a target is vital to take that target down cleanly. The state
agents are like hunters at this stage of struggle, one of their roles is
to stalk their prey, find its habits and activities so that when it’s
time to hunt they’ll know whether to use a bullet, crossbow, knife or
simply poison the water hole. We give them this intel wittingly or not
because they can only find a trail that we ourselves leave.
In the year 2023 our party took some hits by the state. It’s
interesting that in the California prison system the number 23 is a
known symbol of white power so in some sense we anticipated the white
power structure to strike in some way. But 2023 was also a year of
growth and development for the CPA. We were able to learn a lot from the
repression that was rained down on us when our Chairman was
kidnapped.
National oppression in the form of imprisonment is one of the weapons
the state uses in its counterinsurgency campaign. When targeting
revolutionaries the state will often raid a cell or do a round up sweep
but allow one or two to “get away”. This tactic is meant to study the
regrouping method and allow the one or two “lucky ones” to lead them to
the others. It reminds me of an ancient Chinese tactic, where Chinese
families for thousands of years have caught cormorant birds on Weishan
Lake and tied string around their throats, letting them dive in lakes
for fish while being unable to swallow, in this way recruiting a fleet
of slaves for the master fisher. This is also akin to
probation/parole.
The state also employs agents of various stripes who do in fact
infiltrate revolutionary groups and cells. Counterinsurgency aims to
neutralize insurgents. The state identifies those who take up agitation
and/or organizing in order to reach our goal of national liberation.
Once identified these individuals, groups, or organizations become the
state’s target. Various methods are used in surveillance, but of course
human intel is always preferred by the state. Plants who give the state
the ins and outs of a target’s daily functions as well as goals and
objectives or war plans are golden.
The FBI and CIA both utilize various assets for COINTELPRO – like
operations which spawn various counterinsurgency actions. Their assets
may be a partisan, prisoner, or paralegal. Most people can be utilized
so nothing should be a surprise and people should be on a need-to-know
basis from a comrade to a lover. We should also understand that the
$tates’ wet dream is to in fact have the comrade or lover of a target as
an asset, it is the golden egg in the realm of counter-insurgency.
Assets
Assets come in many forms as has been stated. The state may employ a
deep cover asset which would provide undercover intelligence and assist
the state in gauging the threat. By alerting her/his controllers to an
impending “crime” which can be real or imagined, for example the deep
cover asset may report that a target has an arsenal of firearms at their
residence which may not even be true, the controllers will either obtain
probable cause for a search warrant or will send in an undercover
informant within the scenario who can then corroborate the asset’s
intelligence. An informant’s job will be to record conversations (wear a
wire or plant bugs) and to get up on the stand in open court to swear on
their undercover “evidence”. With regard to revolutionaries, this
“evidence” is usually the most outlandish story imaginable so long as it
neutralizes the target. An informational informant would be one whose
only role is to gather intel to feed to the agents but would never
reveal themselves nor get on the stand in open court. Such informants
usually work for years in this way and almost always join the movement
in some way, in an organization, as an occasional protester or in
today’s world as some sort of online activist . . . the point is they
will attempt to stay familiar to revolutionaries and to gain the raza’s
trust in some way.
COINTELPRO
We can never hear too much about COINTELPRO, (counter intelligence
program) which the U.$. government unleashed on the people in the
1950’s. Initially COINTELPRO was used during the “Red Scare” when
communists in these false U.$. borders were targeted and terrorized. The
state would infiltrate communist organizations and even study groups
gathering intel in order to strike. In the 1960’s the repression
continued this time on the oppressed nations.
AmeriKKKa trembles at the thought of a Leninist cadre organization
developing on its shores, its stomach turns when professional
revolutionaries are conceived in its putrid womb. Our existence can only
be realized if security measures are upheld to guard against COINTELPRO
attacks.
The state employs COINTELPRO tactics to entrap or even assassinate
our leaders. It develops moles of all types and agent provocateurs to
get our cadre killed or captured. It slanders our brightest and most
dedicated and frames those who can’t be neutralized any other way. The
imperialist state does the unthinkable in order to keep the slaves
holding their own blinders and covering their own ears. Just as the
unjust cruelty is unleashed on the Third World, our most cherished acts
and ideas are thoroughly violated in order to inflict the most damage to
the movement. Not only are emotions like love defiled, in some cases
they are weaponized to serve the imperialist masters.
Today we have the memory of COINTELPRO and even of the pigs that have
been mostly etched out for us from seasoned revolutionaries or from the
dusty pages of library shelves. But we define a pig as the MIM defined
it in their pamphlet “What’s Your Line?”:
“A pig is a police officer or other representative of the
government’s repressive apparatus, especially one who breaks down
people’s doors or quietly infiltrates a movement.”
We often think of a pig as a uniformed badge-wearing slave hunter
but, according to the above definition, how many pigs are really out
there?
Our party has enacted security precautions because of COINTELPRO
attacks that we suffered in 2023. We do not name members of our party.
How can organizations that are seeking to seize power identify
themselves to the enemy who will come to kill them when the
revolutionary war arrives? Why would we arm the state with a list of
those it should round up? Why would we hand them the thread to pull
apart the fabric of our party?
Those who scoff at the warnings of COINTELPRO are those who
consciously or not believe in the fantasy of U.$. “democracy”. They have
a disdain for those who attempt to raise the alarm of COINTELPRO and who
raise consciousness around these matters. These Ti@ Tacos usually embed
themselves in progressive orgs and wallow in cultural nationalism if
they are raza. They essentially feel safe in the United $nakes. We
should identify these Toms and learn to never feel safe among them or
their kind.
Most recently it was reported in the corporate U.$. news that the
settler state of I$rael assassinated the leader of the Palestinian
resistance in its current war on Palestine. We hear these selective
strikes happen all the time yet many are still oblivious to the fact
that the oppressor nation and its agencies always keep lists of
revolutionaries. Their flow charts list leaders of the movement it has
identified and will strike at will. We should move like we know
this.
Hystorical materialism teaches us to learn from hystory in order to
transform the future, and COINTELPRO in the 1960’s taught us lessons
when it came to the Black Panthers. For example, the FBI sent in
informants and agents who identified what groups the Panthers were
funking with, and one such group was the black nationalist organization
United Slaves. The feds ordered their agents to foment conflict and
heighten tension. Within the Chican@ movement today we see this play out
in various forms. In order to guard against this we need a no tolerance
policy in this area.
Tactics
AmeriKKKa has been very creative in its efforts which have helped to
stunt the growth of any real rebellion that confronts U.$. imperialism.
Since colonization the state has employed various tactics to the
oppressed nations, often utilizing others among the oppressed to do the
$tates’ bidding. An early record from the U.$. army from
Geronimo touches on this:
“Reliable Indians will be used as auxiliary to discover any signs of
hostile Indians, and as trailers. This is the fifth time within three
months in which the Indians have been surprised by the troops . . .
given them a feeling of insecurity”
The above gets into the mindset of the imperialist state. It tells us
that – despite many among the oppressed internal nations feeling as if
they are mere fingerlings in the geo-political landscape – the state
sees us as extreme threats. The U.$. government wants to know who the
hostile people are, who the rebels are, the anti-imperialists, the
revolutionary nationalists, and all the enemies of the state. The state
also wants to psychologically harass and confuse us, at one time this
was accomplished by horseback and today it is via the internet.
Prisons are also a target. The state knows very well that when
revolutionaries are captured they continue with their duty to raise
consciousness and to politicize the very concentration kamps they are
held in. La lucha don’t stop in any sense of the word, if anything the
struggle accelerates because of the uncut repression that prisons and
prisoners experience.
The FBI actually created a prison activists surveillance program
(PRISACTS) in 1970. This was meant to crush the prison movement. The
methods used were military tactics which Orisanmi Burton calls “carceral
spaces as zones of counter-revolutionary warfare” in Targeting
Revolutionaries. This government project displays the lengths to
which the state is willing to go to neutralize revolutionaries even when
they are imprisoned. We take these methods serious as all people should
as we all have comrades who have been captured if we are truly fighting
imperialism.
Outro
The state ultimately works to seduce our raza with financial
incentive, integration, or intimidation. We need to build a stronger
security culture which strengthens our efforts in the anti-imperialist
movement. Counterinsurgency efforts by the state are real. Our role in
the empire is real.
We need to build stronger networks that nurture and support our
imprisoned and captured comrades. We cannot forget about those who
sacrificed their lives by being on the front lines. The front is
wherever we find ourselves, even behind the razor wire and in the
concentration kamps. All Power To The People!
MIM Distributors published my article ‘Programming/Mental
Health Denied as Drug Cartel Runs CA Prison’ in ULK 82, to
highlight correctional officers’ (C/Os) direct involvement in the
constant infestation of drugs in the California Department of
Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) Richard J. Donovan Correctional
Facility (RJDCF). In April 2023, I went a step further by bypassing
CDCR’s inmate grievance process in order to catch a C/O in the act of
distribution.
You see, CDCR’s departmental operations manual (DOM) at Section
31140.6.2, regards felonious conduct like drug smuggling in a state
correctional facility as ‘Category II’ serious employee misconduct
investigated by the Office of Internal Affairs (OIA).
I figured undisputed evidence directly to OIA would not only prevent
a coverup inside the prison, but also save lives of those addicted to
using while confined based on accessibility, and maybe even a citizen
faced with some newly released parolee on the prowl to maintain a drug
high fostered therein.
I used my influence and social status with their prisoners as an
investigative tool to uncover one C/O’s method of smuggling. Once I
monitored and confirmed the C/O’s pattern practice, including specific
inmates receiving drug shipments, I recorded the exact date, time, and
location consistent with audio video security surveillance (AVSS) and
body worn camera (BWC) footage installed thanks to the current
Armstrong v. Newsom N.D. (94-CV-02307 CW) injunction.
Late April 2023, I completed and mailed my findings on the attached
CDCR approved DOM Section 31140.6.2 Category II OIA form, directly to
the OIA, emphasizing concern over my safety, requesting therefore to
remain anonymous. However, on about 28 June 2023, OIA Senior Special
Agent Michael Newman forwarded my reported findings and identity back to
RJDCF Warden James Hill in the attached correspondence “For Appropriate
Handling” which commence first with the involved C/O immediate cease of
all drug shipments in my specific housing unit.
Then came direct scowls and open unwillingness to address housing
needs or issues followed by rumors within the prison population of me
being a “snitch on C/O’s”.
And finally, as drug withdrawal riled up many addicts’ moods from
days and weeks without fix, one mustered the boldness to confront me on
behalf of the involved C/O, on a rant like some four legged creature
foaming from fangs, blaming me for his forced clean and sober
reality.
While I no longer advocate or impose violence, I am no stranger to
such since I could fuck and fight before I could read and write. I’d
like to think that not sensing fear sent the man beast on his way,
disappointing the gazing C/O who not only stood watching the entire
antic, but set the whole play in motion.
Meanwhile, my DOM section 31140.6.2 reported findings was converted
into an inmate grievance, log #459686, then intentionally delayed until
all AVSS and BWC footage evidence was purged. Once so, RJDCF reviewing
authority M. Palmer issued the attached grievance response discrediting
me as some liar or one who simply made up this whole event.
Initially, I found it courageous and heroic to risk my own personal
safety, maybe even my life, to rid the prison environment of drugs by
exposing not merely the problem, but more so, the reason this problem
exists and persists. I always thought with the right facts and evidence
I could make a huge difference, but now I realize that stopping drugs in
prison is as futile as Ronald Reagan’s war on drugs campaign.
That’s because, many officials I turned to turned out to be those who
want drugs inside prison, and rather than utilize resources and power to
target C/O’s who introduce drugs into prison, these officials opt to use
their resources and power to target the very individual bringing
detailed facts to their attentions.
To me, a sacrifice is only grand should it effect change in better
for those who follow. With the extent of CDCR’s decay, this type of
exposure is pure suicide, or positions one to be forced to homicide, and
whether the former or latter, when it’s all said and done, drugs will
continue to be made available to those in prison who want them until and
unless these prisons are closed down.
MIM(Prisons) responds: We agree that the actions this
comrade took to fight state-sponsored drug trafficking was brave. It is
also brave for the comrade to look at the effects of these actions, draw
lessons from them, and be self-critical in front of the movement as a
whole. This is a good example of learning through practice, and by
sharing these stories we can all learn from each others’ practice.
We can also see how the campaign to combat drug addiction in prisons
is tied to the campaign to “Stop Collaborating” among prisoners. These
state-employed drug dealers are using other prisoners to attack those
who speak up. These collaborators, accusing others of “snitching” on
pigs, are enemies of the people. The pigs are professional snitches. To
use the state to stop abuses within the state as this comrade attempted
to do, is an honorable, if sometimes futile, thing to do.
As futile as this comrade’s risks taken were in the immediate term,
we are not quite so pessimistic on the prospect of ending drugs in
prison. As we’ve discussed many times, it is by building a community in
righteous struggle for justice that we can best provide the antidote to
addiction. While prisoners across the country are writing to us about
the dire conditions currently, we can look to the history of socialist
China, which was ravaged with widespread opium addiction across the
population just decades before liberating themselves from imperialism
establishing a socialist state, and ending addiction in the country for
decades to come. No small task for sure, but not impossible.
While those fighting addiction feel isolated now, through the pages
of Under Lock & Key we can see that there are more of you
then you realize, and we can continue to share these lessons and build
successful strategies to help the masses overcome drug addiction.
Tip of the Spear Black Radicalism, Prison
Repression, and the Long Attica Revolt
Orisanmi Burton (Author)
University of California Press
October 2023
“without understanding carceral spaces as zones of undeclared
domestic war, zones that are inextricably linked to imperial and
officially acknowledged wars abroad, we cannot fully understand how and
why the U.S. became the global leader of incarceration that it is
today.” (1)
Tip of the Spear is the story of the organization and flourishing of
resistance to American imperialism as it developed in the New York state
prison system in the 1960s and 1970s, including the time well before the
four days of Attica in 1971. Professor of anthropology Orisanmi Burton
does many things in this book, a lot of which we’ll only be able to
mention briefly or not at all, but MIM(Prisons) has already sent out
many copies of this book and is prepared to send out many more to enable
further study and discussion of Burton’s very worthy research and
ideas.
We are asking our readers to send their own feedback on this book, to
write up their own local histories or stories applying the framework
below, and to popularize this understanding of U.$. prisons as part of
the imperialist war on the oppressed peoples of the world that we must
unite against.
Prisons are War
Burton begins his investigation with George Jackson’s observation
that Black people “were defeated in a war and are now captives, slaves
or actually that we inherited a neoslave existence.” (2) Prison
conditions don’t originate in the law or in ideas but in the historical
fact of defeat in a war that still continues.
But what kind of war is it? One side surrounds the other and forces
it to submit daily, the way that an army laying siege to a city tries to
wear down the resistance of the population. These sieges include not
just starving prisoners of food but of social life, education, and
culture. In maintaining its rule the state uses the tools of
counterinsurgency to split the revolutionary ranks, co-opt the cause and
re-establish its rule on a more secure level. On the other side, the
prisoners have themselves, their ability to unite and organize in
secret, and their willingness to sacrifice for the cause – the
attributes of a guerrilla army. (3)
Burton spends an entire chapter, “Hidden War,” laying out the
strategies the state pursued when its naked brutality failed to prevent
prisoner organization and rebellion. After the smoke cleared at Attica
and wardens, politicians and prison academics had a chance to catch
their breath, they settled on four strategies to prevent another Attica
from happening: (4)
One, prisons were expanded across the state, so that
density was reduced and prisoner organizing could be more effectively
disrupted. If a prisoner emerged as a leader, they could be sent to any
number of hellholes upstate surrounded by new people and have to start
the process all over again. The longer and more intense the game of
Solitaire the state played with them, the better. We see this strategy
being applied to USW comrades across the country to this day.
Prisons were also superficially humanized, the
introduction of small, contingent privileges to encourage division and
hierarchy among prisoners, dull the painful edge of incarceration
somewhat, and dangle hope. Many prisoners saw through it, and Burton
makes the point that the brief periods of rebellion had provided the
only real human moments most prisoners had experienced during their time
inside. For example, Attica survivor, John “Dacajeweiah” Hill described
meeting a weeping prisoner in D yard during the rebellion who was
looking up at the stars for the first time in 23 years. (5) Burton sums
this up: “the autonomous zones created by militant action… had thus far
proven the only means by which Attica’s oppressive atmosphere was
substantially ameliorated.”
Diversification went hand in hand with expansion,
where a wide range of prison experiences were created across the system.
Prisons like Green Haven allowed prisoners to smoke weed and bring food
back to their cells, and permitted activities like radical lectures from
outsiders. At the same time, other prisons were going on permanent
lockdowns and control units were in development.
And finally, programmification presented a way for
prisoners to be kept busy, for outsiders (maybe even former critics of
the prison system) to be co-opted and brought into agreement with prison
officials, and provide free labor to keep the system stable by giving
prisoners another small privilege to look forward to. To this day, New
York, as well as California and other states, require prisoners who are
not in a control unit to program.
All of this was occurring in the shadow of the fact that the state
had demonstrated it would deploy indiscriminate violence, even
sacrificing its own employees as it had at Attica, to restore order. The
classic carrot-and-stick dynamic of counterinsurgency was operating at
full force.
Before Attica: Tombs,
Branch Queens, Auburn
Burton discusses Attica, but doesn’t make it the exclusive focus of
his book, as it has already been written about and discussed elsewhere.
He brings into the discussion prison rebellions prior to Attica that
laid the groundwork, involved many of the same people, and demonstrated
the character of the rebellions overall.
The first was at Tombs, or the Manhattan House of Detention, where
prisoners took hostages and issued demands in the New York Times,
denouncing pretrial detention that kept men in limbo for months or
years, overcrowding, and racist brutality from guards. Once the demands
were published, the hostages were released. Eighty corrections officers
stormed the facility with blunt weapons and body armor and restored
order, and after the rebellion two thirds of the prisoners were
transferred elsewhere to break up organizations, like the Inmate
Liberation Front, that had grown out of Tombs and supported its
resistance. (6) Afterwards, the warden made improvements and took credit
for them. This combination of furious outburst, violent response and
conciliatory reform would repeat itself.
Next Branch Queens erupted, where the Panther 21 had recently been
incarcerated. Prisoners freed them, hung a Pan-Afrikan flag out of a
window, took hostages and demanded fair bail hearings be held in the
prison yard or the hostages would be executed. The bail hearing actually
happened and some of the prisoners who had been in prison for a year for
possibly stealing something were able to walk out. The state won the
battle here by promising clemency if the hostages were released, which
split the prisoners and led to the end of the rebellion. Kuwasi
Balagoon, who would later join the Black Liberation Army, was active in
the organization of the rebellion and learned a lot from his experiences
seeing the rebellion and the repression that followed after the state
promised clemency. (7)
At Auburn Correctional Facility on November 4th, Black prisoners
rebelled and seized hostages for eight hours. Earlier, fifteen Black
prisoners had been punished and moved to solitary for calling for a day
off work to celebrate Black Solidarity Day. After the restoration of
order, more prisoners were shipped away and the remainder were subject
to reprisals from the guards.
In each case, prisoners formed their own organizations, took control,
made demands and also started building new structures to run the prison
for their own benefit – even in rebellions that lasted only a few hours.
After order was restored, the state took every opportunity to crush the
spirits and bodies of those who had participated. All of this would
repeat on a much larger scale at Attica.
Attica and Paris: Two
Communes
Burton acknowledges throughout the book a tension that is familiar to
many of ULK’s readers: reform versus revolution. He sees both
in the prison movement of the 1960s and 1970s in New York, with some
prisoners demanding bail reform and better food and others demanding an
end to the system that creates prisons in the first place. But in
telling the story of Attica and the revolts that preceded it he
emphasizes two things: the ways reforms were demanded (not by petitions
but by organized force) and the existence of demands that would have led
to the end of prisons as we know them. On Attica itself, he writes that
the rebellion demanded not just better food and less crowded cells but
the “emergence of new modes of social life not predicated on enclosure,
extraction, domination or dehumanization.” (8) In these new modes of
social life, Burton identifies sexual freedom and care among prisoners
emerging as a nascent challenge to traditional prison masculinity.
Attica began as a spontaneous attack on a particularly racist and
brutal guard, and led to a riot all over the facility that led to the
state completely losing control for four days starting on September 9th,
1971. Hostages were again taken, and demands ranging from better food to
the right to learn a trade and join a union issued to the press.
Prisoners began self-organizing rapidly, based on the past experiences
of many Attica prisoners in previous rebellions. Roger Champen, who
reluctantly became one of the rebellion’s organizers, got up on a picnic
table with a seized megaphone and said “the wall surrounds us all.”
Following this, the prisoners turned D Yard into an impromptu city and
organized their own care and self-defense. A N.Y. State trooper watching
the yard through binoculars said in disbelief “they seem to be building
as much as they’re destroying.” I think we’d agree with the state
trooper, at least on this. (9)
Burton’s point in this chapter is that the rebellion wasn’t an
attempt (or wasn’t only an attempt) to get the state to reform
itself, to grant rights to its pleading subjects, but an attempt,
however short-lived, to turn the prisons into something that would be
useful for human liberation: a self-governing commune built on
principles of democracy and solidarity. Some of the rebels demanded
transport to Africa to fight the Portuguese in the then-raging colonial
wars in Mozambique and Angola, decisions were made by votes and
consensus, and the social life of the commune was self-regulated without
beatings, gassings and starvation.
Abolition and the
Concentric Prison
Burton is a prison abolitionist, and he sees the aspirations of the
Attica rebels at their best as abolitionist well before the term became
popular. But he doesn’t ignore the contradictions that Attica and other
prison rebellions had to work through, and acknowledges the diverse
opinions of prisoners at the time, some of whom wanted to abolish
prisons and some of whom wanted to see the Nixons and Rockefellers
thrown into them instead. (10)
The Attica Commune of D Yard had to defend itself, and when the
rebelling prisoners suspected that some prisoners were secretly working
for the state, they were confined in a prison within a commune within a
prison, and later killed as the state came in shooting on the 13th.
There was fighting and instances of rape among the prisoners that freed
themselves, and there were prisoners who didn’t want to be a part of the
rebellion who were forced to. And the initial taking of the guards
constitutes a use of violence and imprisonment in itself, even if the
guards were treated better than they’d ever treated the prisoners.
Burton acknowledges this but doesn’t offer a tidy answer. He sees the
use of violence in gaining freedom, like Fanon, to be a necessary evil
which is essential to begin the process but unable to come close to
finishing it. Attica, even though it barely began, provides an example
of this. While violence is a necessary tool in war, it is the people
organized behind the correct political line in the form of a vanguard
party that ultimately is necessary to complete the transformation of
class society to one without oppression.
Counter-intelligence,
Reform, and Control
The final part of the book, “The War on Black Revolutionary Minds,”
chronicles the attempts by the state to destroy prison revolutionaries
by a variety of methods, some more successful than others, all deeply
disturbing and immoral.
Some of the early methods involved direct psychological
experimentation, the use of drugs, and calibrated isolation. These fell
flat, because the attempts were based on “the flawed theory that people
could be disassembled, tinkered with, and reprogrammed like computers.”
(11) Eventually the state gave up trying to engineer radical ideas out
of individual minds and settled for the solution many of our readers are
familiar with: long-term isolation in control units, and a dramatically
expanding prison population.
There is a lot else in this book, including many moving stories from
Attica and other prison rebellion veterans that Burton interviewed, and
who he openly acknowledges as the pioneering theorists and equal
collaborators in his writing. Burton engages in lengthy investigations
of prisoner correspondence, outside solidarity groups, twisted
psychological experiments, and many other things I haven’t had the space
to mention. We have received a couple responses to the book from some of
you already, which the author appreciates greatly, and we’d like to
facilitate more.
^Notes: 1. Burton, Orisanmi Tip of the Spear: Black Radicalism,
Prison Repression, and the Long Attica Revolt p. 19 All citations will
be of this book unless otherwise specified. 2. Jackson, Soledad
Brother, 111–12 cited in Burton p. 10 3. p. 3 4. pp. 152-180
5. Hill and Ekanawetak, Splitting the Sky, p. 20. cited in Burton,
p. 107 6. p. 29 7. p. 48 8. p. 5 9. pp. 88-91 10.
p. 95 11. p. 205^
There is a duality in regards to the existence of the victimization
in the New Afrikan nation and generally among oppressed people. The
duality expresses itself when oppressed people avoid struggle, avoid
acknowledgment of their colonization and oppression, because of a
psychosocial tendency to align one’s self with strength, victory,
privilege, excess, and power. This tendency is deeply rooted in one of
the characteristics of the “colonial mentality,” which is a lack of
dignity, pride, and self-worth. In this case of identity crisis and
pathology, the oppressed chooses to derive its pride, dignity,
self-worth (and perceived social, political, and economic interests)
from the upper echelons of empire, from the imperialist power
structure.
There is another side of this duality which thrives, not on its own
victimhood per se, but more aptly on its ability to resist, thwart, and
overcome the complexities of the colonial-imperial oppression. These are
“the people,” so often refereed to in radical discourse, “the people’s”
collective will in movement fighting, struggling ceaselessly.
The basic truth is that in every contradiction there are winners and
losers. Losers, by default, die victims. Winners are victimizers. The
issue, from my humble point of view, only arises when We have a social
group, or a broad mass within a social group after long periods of
oppression, become content with their own status as victims. So content
in fact that they themselves have rendered all resistance and tactical
victories among themselves as illegitimate expressions of the oppressed
experience. This is indeed an issue because war has a sole purpose to
destroy the will and/or ability for the opposition to resist our
advancement.
“War is nothing but a duel on an extensive scale. If we would
conceive as a unit the countless number of duels which make up a war, we
shall do so best by supposing to ourselves two wrestlers. Each strives
by physical force to compel the other to submit to his will: his first
object is to throw his adversary, and thus to render him incapable of
further resistance… Violence arms itself with the inventions of Art and
Science [cognitive, neuro sciences, behavioral sciences] in order to
contend against violence.”(1)
The inherent danger and crippling effect of the pathology of New
Afrikan Victimization can be seen in many instances, but i will
highlight one in particular.
i am speaking here of the case of Brother Othal “Ozone” Wallace, a
New Afrikan man in Florida currently fighting against the State’s death
penalty. Ozone is a father and was an active participant in the efforts
of liberation for New Afrikan and other oppressed people. Prior to his
current captivity Ozone was active in search and rescue missions of
suspected human trafficking victims. As a craftsman by trade he helped
rebuild communities damaged by hurricane disasters. Ozone was also on
the front lines of armed demonstrations advocating armed self defense
and armed struggle against the oppression of New Afrikans.
In June 2021, Ozone was exiting his vehicle while in a residential
area, when he was approached by a Daytona Beach Police officer who asked
a question common to colonial and oppressed subjects globally, “Where
are you going? Do you live here?” Body cam footage shows the officer
repeat, “Do you live here? Yes or no?” While he grabbed Ozone by the
shoulders. At that point the footage becomes shaky and blurry, but it
should be understood that this entire incident, from the Police’s
observation as someone “unwelcome”, “suspect”, “threatening”, is a
textbook chain of events in the efforts of occupation and
counter-insurgent forces. This “regular” treatment of New Afrikans is
contrary to the U.$. constitution’s Fourth Amendment right to protection
from illegal search and seizure, but its regularity showcases that New
Afrikans are still a colonized population whose existence is situated
outside the general legalities of the empire.
Somehow during the physical struggle, initiated by the officer’s
arrogant choice to grab Ozone, the officer ended up shot in his face,
while Ozone escaped the scene. He was captured days later, in a wooded
area in Georgia, where state agents also allege to have found multiple
flash bangs, rifle plates, body armor, two rifles, two handguns, and
several boxes of ammunition.
In the ensuing “legal” drama, once the officer died in a hospital as
a result of his wounds in August of 2021, Prosecutors began seeking the
death penalty, the family of the officer filed a civil suit, suing Ozone
for $5 million, specifically the money accumulated by Ozone’s criminal
defense fundraiser page. Prosecutors have sought to have his GoFundMe
account shutdown. In short, Ozone was and remains under attack, and his
experience is synonymous with New Afrikan liberation in general.
My reason for highlighting Ozone’s experience is that i see it as an
example and a dividing line question among “the left” and New Afrikans
particularly and Black liberationists (of many stripes) generally. My
question to the movement(s), to Our People, why is Ozone not as known as
Michael Brown or George Floyd? Why is he not garnering support and
attention from the Black and radical press? Why is he virtually unknown
to the common persyn of the street? The simple answer is that New
Afrikans, generally speaking, even within so-called radical circles,
have become infected with that colonial pathology that i call New
Afrikan Victimization. Some of us are too content with Our imagery and
association with victimhood. Others delude themselves into behaving as
if this victimization doesn’t exist on an institutional and systemic
level. Instead opting for the “boot straps” mentality which is also a
socio-pathology.
Too many of us have failed to acknowledge that We are at war, that
we’re subjects, not free and liberated citizens of a free democratic
society. We’ve failed to realize the there are no “rights” only power
struggles, and those who dictate power subsequently dictate what
“rights” are respected or discarded. Most important, We’ve failed to
realize the implications of these failures. Thus We have Ozone, and
other Political Prisoners of War lost in captivity without support or
even acknowledgment from even elements of Movement(s) that are supposed
to be supporting Political Prisoners of War. Such groups, generally,
have forgotten the current epoch of struggle, that there are Political
Prisoners being captured almost daily. That yesteryears “Black
Nationalist hate group” designation that fueled COINTELPRO and PRISACTS
has been replaced by today’s “Black Identity Extremist” designation that
is fueling present day surveillance, sabotage, and imprisonment of
movement activists. While we should never forget or relinquish support
of BPP/BLA Political Prisoners or others from earlier eras of struggle,
We also should not exclude or ignore those currently active in the
streets (even if We do not agree with their political line).
Comrades, I know most of you are aware of the fact that we are a
study specimen for experimental purposes but let me give you some
details about one of these experiments that most of you are familiar
with.
“Behavior Control & Human Experimentation”
These are two names with the same meaning: Behavior Modification
& Special Holding Units.
SHU -> These are units that have been specifically designed to
control behavior. Here is where human experimentation is legal. The
purpose of these experiments is to control rebellious and revolutionary
attitudes in the prison system and in society at large. In several
instances the control units have been used to “Silence Prison Movement
Criticism”. In 1964 at a meeting in Washington between social scientists
and prison wardens addressing the topics of “man against man”,
brainwashing was said to produce marked changes of behavior in attitudes
necessary to weaken, undermine & remove the supports of the old
patterns of behavior and old ideologies attitudes. It’s often necessary
to break these emotional ties. This can be done by either removing the
individual physically, preventing communication with those whom the
prisoner cares about, or by proving to him that those whom he respects
aren’t worthy of it and should indeed be actively mistrusted.
I will share a few specific examples:
Physical removal of prisoners from those they respect to
positively break and seriously weaken close emotional ties
Segregation of natural leaders
Use of cooperative prisoners as “leaders”
Prohibition of group activities not in line with brainwashing
objectives
Spying on prisoners & reporting back private
material
Tricking prisoners to write statements which are then shown to
others
Exploitation of opportunists & informers
Convincing prisoners they can trust no one
Treating those who are willing to collaborate in more lenient
ways than those who are not
Punishing those who show an uncooperative attitudes
Systemic withholding of mail
Preventing contact with anyone unsympathetic to the method of
treatment & regimen of captive populace
Building a group conviction among the prisoners that they have
been abandoned by and totally isolated from their social order
Undermining all emotional supports
Preventing prisoners from writing regarding the conditions of
their confinement
Making available and permitting access to only those publications
which are neutral or supportive of the desired attitudes
Placing individuals into new and ambiguous situations from which
the standards are kept deliberately unclear and then pressuring them to
conform to what is desired to win favor and some respite from the
pressure
Placing individuals whose willpower has been severely weakened or
eroded into a living situation with several others who are more advanced
in their thought-reform, whose job it is to further undermine the
individual’s emotional support
Using techniques of character invalidation; i.e. humiliations,
revilement, and shouting to induce feelings of guilt, fear &
suggestibility coupled with sleeplessness, an exacting prison regimen
& periodic interrogation-interviews.
Meeting with renewed hostility all the insincere attempts to
comply with prisoners’ pressures
Repeatedly pointing out to the prisoner and their cellmates where
he has in the past not lived up to his own standards or values
Rewarding of submission and subservience by lifting of the
pressures
Providing social & emotional support that reinforces new
attitudes
Comrade, if any of these points were used on you then you have been
part of the experiment.
U.$. Imperialists have tried to manipulate our environment and
culture, in particular those who belong to oppressed minority groups.
Reader, you might question “What they mean by Revolutionary
attitudes??”
In this experiment it evidently refers to anyone who thinks and
behaves as an individual, who they feel must be made to become part of
their subservient system. The point is to make people less human and
“subject entirely to their will!”
Comrades, we should be truly aware and on guard that the above
techniques to condition people are now general practice in most if not
all prisons, state and federal throughout the United $tates as well as
in workplaces, schools, and other government organizations.
The author of this article has have been in the SHU-EM at a prison in
Florida State and I’m a true witness that all this has been in effect
for almost forty years, and what is worse is… its working!!
Don’t be part of the experiment, don’t let the system work on you –
be strong minded and of impeccable heart as well as relentless spirit.
Imperialism might be able to kill a Revolutionary but never the internal
Revolution of the soul!
[The following statement was circulated by email from
spiritofmandela.org]
Sekou Odinga is celebrated & admired by freedom & justice
movements worldwide for his persistence, courage, & principled
adherence to freedom struggle.
Baba Sekou Transitioned on January 12, 2024.
Sekou Odinga was a globally recognized Black liberation activist,
member of Malcolm X’s Organization of Afro-American Unity, founding
member of both the New York City chapter and the International Section
of the Black Panther Party, and former US political prisoner who
survived 33 years of state captivity before his release in 2014.
Prosecuted as one of the “Panther 21” in New York City, Odinga was a
prominent historical figure, having been featured on Democracy Now! and
in numerous documentaries, concerts, mass public events, and major news
outlets.
In addition to being featured in the widely circulated social
movement texts Can’t Jail the Spirit (2002) and Hauling Up
the Morning: Writings & Art by Political Prisoners & Prisoners
of War in the U.S. (1990), Odinga published his writing in Look
for Me in the Whirlwind: From the Panther 21 to 21st-Century
Revolutions (PM Press, 2017) and Black Power Afterlives: The
Enduring Significance of the Black Panther Party (Haymarket Books,
2020).
A survivor of state torture and the FBI’s notorious
Counterintelligence Program (COINTELPRO), Sekou Odinga is both
celebrated and admired by freedom and justice movements worldwide,
exemplifying persistence, courage, and principled adherence to freedom
struggle under the most repressive circumstances imaginable.