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.
I’m one of the prisoners struggling to stop the torturous Security
Housing Units (SHU) practice on prisoners in California. It is only
right. In Calipatria State Prison Ad-Seg they’re calling this peaceful
hunger strike a disturbance strike. A memorandum was passed to urge
prisoners to stop or else they would get a serious violation write-up.
The following day a large quantity of prisoners with a couple of serious
rule violations started accepting their trays in order to avoid getting
an indeterminate assignment in SHU. Which is understandable. But,
nonetheless a lot of prisoners are still going strong.
In Calipatria State Prison Ad-Seg, hunger strike prisoners are
participating peacefully. They’re in compliance with the COs and medical
staff, so this does not meet the criteria of a disturbance. The
memorandum was another tactic of reprisal towards the prisoners who are
participating. I hope for a positive outcome for all the prisoners in
SHU confinement and for all of us here in Calipatria Ad-Seg. Along with
the struggles of the SHU prisoners, we’re looking for something
positive. In Calipatria we’re asking for what Ad-Seg is supposed to
have. Nothing more, nothing less.
I’m reporting back to you about this fascist penal system here at Chino
minimum yard. They have put up a memo about the food strike and they are
threatening us by saying that if we participate, they will move us off
the yard and put us in Ad-Seg!
I told the comrades to keep on doing what we are doing and to hell with
the fascist pigs! We will not stop, until our comrades are let out of
the SHU! I told the comrades to keep the faith and if these pigs send us
to the hole or the SHU, always remember, it’s just another part of the
prison.
In the struggle, from the belly of the beast!
MIM(Prisons) adds: The list of facilities that have reported
hunger strikers reported by the
CDCR
does not include the California Institution for Men in Chino, bringing
into question their count of hunger strikes at 4252 as of Thursday,
September 29. There was not as much advance notice this time around, so
the word that the strike is back on is still spreading.
2 October 2011 UPDATE:Latest
reports are that around 12,000 prisoners were participating on
September 28. This higher number includes people who have participated
at any level, and includes prisoners transferred out of state.
“Power in defense of freedom is greater than power on behalf of tyranny
and oppression.” - Malcolm X
As most of you may know, we are engaged in a protracted struggle to
secure our liberation from perpetual torture and uphold our human
rights. On July 1st the Pelican Bay
SHU D-Corridor
Collective called for an indefinite
hunger
strike to peacefully protest the decades and decades of subhuman
conditions we have endured in these sensory deprivation torture units.
The NCTT, along with 6,600 other prisoners and untold thousands the
world over answered that call. We did not eat for 21 days. I personally
lost 42 pounds and had to be rushed to the emergency room at least once.
Men older and less physically resilient than myself, some with chronic
disease such as diabetes, asthma and cancer survivors, made these same
sacrifices, and we are prepared to make those sacrifices again, taking
them to their ultimate conclusion if necessary, to achieve what is by
right ours already.
This makes the events of 16 August all the more perplexing, even though
we were forewarned and expected it. At approximately 08:00 on 16 August
2011 some 20 to 25 Correctional Officers (COs) and some 10 to 12 ISU and
IGI [“gang intelligence”] officers converged on 4B1L-C-section under the
pretext that they’d received a “kite” alleging New Afrikan and/or
“southern” Mexican partisans in 4B1L-C-section were going to “assault
staff.”
For months, IGI has been attempting to manufacture fear and reactionary
resentment amongst building COs that New Afrikans were planning to
attack staff during Black August memorial. Mindful of the daily
injustices visited upon indeterminate SHU prisoners, and already fearful
of the dreaded retribution, some staff actually bought into this
absurdity. There was no threat, there was no “kite” found – this was
simple unadulterated retribution for the hunger strike and the unwanted
public attention it has brought to the domestic torture camps they are
managing at Pelican Bay, Corcoran and Tehachapi SHUs.
We were all stripped down and escorted out of the building and placed in
the small management yard caged (imagine a K-9 kennel cage – that’s what
our yard is). For approximately 6 hours they systematically tore our
cells up, cut open mattresses, tore down or trod upon personal photos,
confiscated any item they felt would hurt us on a personal level, with
abject disregard for personal property regulations. Coffee and tooth
powder was strewn over personal letters and laundry was taken or trod
underfoot. We were brought back to our cells only to find what I can
only describe as the leavings of a tornado of F-5 proportions.
That this was done as retaliation was itself insulting, how it
was done was blatant disrespect – but what perplexes the mind is what
did they hope to gain by such a transparent reactionary response? We
are, and have demonstrated historically, that we are fully prepared
to die to secure our human rights and dignity. So surely this
could not be some act to deter resistance. Perhaps it was an act of
provocation, an attempt to engender a reactionary military response to a
psychological and political attack? But no, this couldn’t be the case
because unlike the blindly violent monsters they would make us out to
be, the truth of the matter is that we are men of principle who believe
in self-defense and clearly exhausting all legal and peaceful means of
protest. Unlike the state, for us violence is a last resort and
we are not, and cannot be, compelled to react to provocation or allow
such to deter us from the legitimate struggle for our, and the people’s
human rights and dignity.
So this leaves us with the obvious conclusion that like a petulant child
or a bully who’s been exposed for the sadist they are, they strike out
blindly, to inflict whatever discomfort they can in an act of impotence
and frustration; an acknowledgment of their weakness in the face of the
people’s power.
Men in ernest are not afraid of consequence. There exists no set of
retaliatory actions, no sanctions they can bring to bear, that will
deter our course, as long as we have you, the people,
supporting us we will win. Together we can attain even greater
victories than these. It is our sincerest hope that you continue to
support this effort and open yourselves up to the prospect of more
progressive initiatives to come. Stand with us and we will forge a
brighter tomorrow.
In an attempt to quell resistance, the above list of petty actions
have been approved according to a memo from the CDCR.
As thousands of prisoners wrap up day five of round two of the
California Food Strike, the California Department of Corrections and
Rehabilitation (CDCR) has stepped up its repression and propaganda in
response to prisoners’ demands for basic humyn rights. They have even
declared it a punishable offense to peacefully campaign the state for
these rights by refusing state-issued food.
The bourgeois press has been repeating the CDCR’s ridiculous claim that
if prisoners went on strike again it might delay reforms in the SHU
system. Their audacity is laughable. We all know the strike is nothing
but a scapegoat, and not the cause of their “delay.”
Meanwhile, they have indicated that they will make conditions worse on
three main points of the original
Five
Core Demands. All three points address the systematic repressiveness
of the whole California prison system.
MORE GROUP PUNISHMENT - Not only has the CDCR threatened that reforms
will be slowed down by another round of hunger striking, but they have
implied that non-striking prisoners will also lose their programming as
a result.(1) This is in direct contradiction to the first demand.
MORE SECURITY THREAT GROUPS - While the prisoners have demanded an end
to the arbitrary and secretive system of giving people endless sentences
in the Security Housing Units (SHU, long-term isolation) for “gang
affiliation,” the CDCR has publicly discussed broadening the “Security
Threat Group” category to include street organizations. This will mean
more people in SHU for indeterminate sentences.
MORE LONG-TERM ISOLATION - The third demand calls for an end to the
torturous practice of long-term isolation. While the state has continued
to assert that these practices are constitutional based on court
rulings, they have promised to send more prisoners to Administrative
Segregation and SHU just for participating in the hunger strike!
As laid out in the Five Core Demands, these are parts of a system of
oppression that affects all prisoners. While comrades in SHU have the
drive to put it down hardest because of their living conditions, the
CDCR is making it clear that the implications will affect the whole
system.
Even the reforms offered in the Gang Management Policy Proposal of 25
August 2011 allow the continued practice of keeping the most progressive
and politically active prisoners in isolation indefinitely.(2) While
this would put California more in line with what is done in most other
parts of the country, it is hardly progress. This proposal highlights
the political nature of the injustice system.
Even the Eight Short-term Action Items affecting prisoners in Security
Housing Units listed in a 27 September 2011 CDCR memo(3) may not be
granted to prisoners refusing to eat state-issued meals. They hope that
by granting the more petty demands that they can break up the unity of
California prisoners, convincing some to give up while they are ahead.
The unreasonable actions of the CDCR during this whole conflict should
convince any prisoner that such a move would be a mistake. There is no
indication that California will be reducing its repression, and every
indication that it hopes to heighten Amerika’s war on oppressed nations.
State of California
Memorandum
Date September 27, 2011
To All CDCR Inmates
Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
Subject- INMATE PROGRAMMING EXPECTATIONS RELATIVE TO HUNGER STRIKES
Information has been received that a number. of inmates have engaged in
behavior consistent with initiating a demonstration/hunger strike event.
The Department will not condone organized inmate disturbances.
Participation in mass disturbances, such as hunger strikes or work
stoppage will result in the Department taking the following action:
Inmates participating will receive disciplinary action in accordance
with the California Code of Regulations.
Inmates identified as leading the disturbance will be subject to removal
from general population and placed in an Administrative Segregation
Unit.
In the event of a mass hunger strike, additional measures may be taken
to more effectively monitor and manage the participating inmates’
involvement and their food/nutrition intake, including the possible
removal of canteen items from participating inmates.
All inmates are encouraged to continue with positive programming and to
not participate in this or any other identified mass strike/disturbance.
These types of disturbances impact inmate programming and day-to-day
prison operations for the entire population. While every effort will be
made to continue normal programming for nonparticipating inmates, a
large scale disturbance of this type will unavoidably impact operations.
The Department will notify inmates and families when and if normal
programming is impacted.
SCOTT KERNAN Undersecretary (A), Operations
cc: Terri McDonald George J. Giurbino R. J. Subia Kelly Harrington Tony
Chaus Wardens
State of California
Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
Memorandum
Date : September 27, 2011
To : All CDCR Inmates
Subject: REVIEW OF SECURITY HOUSING UNIT AND GANG POLICIES
In May 2011 the Department began the complex process of assessing the
policies and procedures associated with the Gang Validation Process,
Indeterminate Gang Security Housing Unit (SHU) Program, as well as
privileges associated with inmates on Indeterminate SHU status. The
purpose of the review is to improve our policies by adopting national
standards in gang/disruptive group management. Before commencing this
review, the Department received input from internal and external
experts, other state and federal correctional systems, inmates, and
other stakeholders While the process of policy review and change will
take several more stakeholders to implement, much has already been done.
In fact, a draft of the new policy should be ready for stakeholder
review next month. In addition, several changes have already been made
by the Department, including:
Short-term Action Items:
Authorization of watch caps for purchase and State issue. Authorization
of wall calendars for purchase in canteen.
Authorization of exercise equipment in SHU yards (installation of
permanent dip/push-up bars is still under review).
Authorization of annual photographs for disciplinary free inmates.
Approval of proctors for college examinations.
Use of California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s (CDCR)
Ombudsman for monitoring and auditing of food services.
Authorization of sweat pants for purchase/annual package.
Authorization of Hobby items (colored chalk, pen fillers, and drawing
paper).
Mid-term Action Items:
As noted above, the Department is conducting a comprehensive review of
SHU policies that includes behavior-based components, increased
privileges based upon disciplinary free behavior, a step down process
for SHU inmates, and a system that better defines and weighs necessary
points in the validation process. The initial policies will be completed
shortly and upon Secretary approval will be sent for stakeholder review
and comment. Upon receipt of this input, the Department will initiate
any regulation changes in the administrative law process necessary and
implement the first major changes to the validation process in the last
two decades. Of course this work may be delayed by large-scale inmate
disturbances or other emergency circumstances.
SCOTT KERNAN Undersecretary (A), Operations
cc: Terri McDonald George J. Giurbino R. J. Subia Kelly Harrington Tony
Chaus Wardens
I have been a prisoner of the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC)
for more than 11 years and am scheduled to be released within the next 2
years. But with no family left in this world, no place to go, no clothes
other than the ones on my back, and no support system established… the
odds are stacked up against me way before I am even released back into
society and the only thing that the IDOC is going to provide me with
before releasing me back into the so-called “free world” is a $10 check.
I am really interested in the July/August 2011 issue of Under Lock
and Key because there’s an article in there about a
prison
strike [in California]. A lot of people around the world aren’t
aware that the prisoners at the Stateville Maximum Correctional Center
in Joliet, Illinois had a similar prison uprising in February and March
of 2011. It was swept under the rug by then Director Gladys C. Taylor
and Governor Patrick J. Quinn. This movement wasn’t just a particular
gang or a particular race orchestration, we all came together as one
mass body (Blacks, Latinos, and whites) to protest the condition that
we’ve been subjected to ever since the Richard Specs video leakage in
1995. In fact, I’m enclosing a copy of my adjustment committee’s final
summary for your entertainment.
MIM(Prisons) adds: This prisoner gives two examples of how the
state will not serve the needs of the oppressed. When prisoners try to
work together and quash beefs to do something positive they are targeted
for repression (see below). Then, after over a decade in prison, people
are sent to the streets with no resources or support. This is why it is
only by building institutions independent of the imperialist state that
we can begin to address these complaints.
What this comrade describes happening in Illinois is also playing out in
California in the second phase of the hunger strike. Both examples show
the potential for organizing against oppression when prisoners are
united. This is why we are working to build the
United Front
for Peace in Prisons which unites around the 5 principles of peace,
unity, growth, internationalism and independence: “We organize to end
the needless conflicts and violence within the U.$. 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.”
Click to Download PDF
THE PROTEST LETTER BEGINS WITH THE FOLLOWING: “THIS MEMO IS FOR THOSE
HERE IN STATEVILLE WHO ARE READY, WILLING, AND ENTHUSED WITH
ANTICIPATION TO RISE TO THE OCCASION TO LEAD US AND USHER IN A NEW ERA.
THUS CEMENT OUR NAMES IN HISTORY…” THE PROTEST LETTER IDENTIFIES SEVERAL
ISSUES THAT NEEDS TO BE ADDRESSED BY ADMINISTRATION AND LISTS THEM. THE
LETTER GOES ON TO SAY AFTER THE PROTEST AND GRIEVANCES HAVE BEEN FILED
THEN THE INMATES WILL REQUEST THE WARDEN ISSUE MEMORANDUMS DETAILING THE
CORRECTIVE ACTION THAT WILL BE IMPLEMENTED. THERE ARE INSTRUCTIONS FOR
ALL INMATES TO STOCK UP ON COMMISSARY BECAUSE BEGINNING MARCH 1 THE
INMATES ARE NOT TO SUBMIT ANY COMMISSARY SLIPS IN ORDER TO MAKE THE FOOD
TO GO BAD. THE LETTER THEN INSTRUCTS ALL THE INMATES TO BAN THE USAGE OF
THE PHONE FOR ONE WEEK, NOT GO TO RECREATION FOR ONE WEEK, AND FILE
GRIEVANCES ON ALL ISSUES STARTING MARCH 2011. THE LETTER THEN INSTRUCTS
THE INMATES TO HAVE NO CONTACT WITH THE POLICE, IA OR ANY STAFF BECAUSE
SILENCE GIVES THEM POWER AND WILL STRIKE FEAR. THE LETTER THEN REQUESTS
THE INMATES TO HAVE THEIR PEOPLE ON THE OUTSIDE TO PROTEST WITH PICKET
SIGNS IN FRONT OF STATEVILLE CORRECTIONAL CENTER.
WHILE CONDUCTING A SEARCH OF CELL XXXX INVESTIGATIVE PERSONNEL
CONFISCATED HANDWRITTEN DOCUMENTATION IN XYZ’s PROPERTY DETAILING EVENTS
OF THE PROTEST. THE DOCUMENTATION WAS FIVE PAGES TYPED AND ONE
HANDWRITTEN PAGE.
DURING AN INTERVIEW XYZ CLAIMED OWNERSHIP OF SAID DOCUMENTS. XYZ STATED
THIS DOCUMENT WAS BEING PASSED ON THE GALLERY AND HE KEPT IT. XYZ ALSO
STATED THE PROTEST IS GOING TO HAPPEN AS SCHEDULED FOR MARCH 1, 2011.
ON MARCH 1, 2011 THE INMATES AT STATEVILLE CORRECTIONAL CENTER PROCEEDED
WITH THE PROTEST AS INDICATED IN THE PROTEST LETTERS THAT WERE BEING
CIRCULATED IN GENERAL POPULATION. STATEVILLE WAS PLACED ON RESTRICTED
MOVEMENT DUE TO THE INMATE PROTEST.
OFFENDER XYZ WAS POSITIVELY IDENTIFIED BY INSTITUTIONAL GRAPHICS
…
DISCIPLINARY ACTION
FINAL
1 Year CGrade 1 Year Segregation Revoke GCC or SGT 1 Year 3
Months Audio/Visual Restriction
I have recently been hit with censorship of your mailing sent on 9
September 2011. I did receive prior to that the letter you sent to
activists, but then on September 9 I got two 1819 forms indicating
disapproval of mail. I have previously won two 602s [grievances] on this
very issue, yet they cite the old 2006 memo [a ban on MIM’s mail that
was overruled years ago].
What happened is the regular Correctional Officer (CO) already been
602’d by me and has seen the 602 granted at the Director level, but he
only works five days a week. The other two days a floater works and is
not aware of my granted 602. The floater sends it to Institution Gang
Investigations (IGI), who says to deny me. I guess the temporary CO is
not very fond of MIM. Anyhow, I am sure I’ll win the 602 I am
submitting, but I know if I do it will take months. If possible, can you
send whatever it was again? It seems I’ll be having problems getting my
mail from MIM Distributors on the regular CO’s days off.
I showed my previous 602 that was granted, but was told by the temp “I
don’t know. They tell us one thing and tell you another. We need to get
it straight.” This is obviously B.S. because when a 602 is
granted, especially at the Director level, it is obviously
“straight.”
This is a constant barrage of censorship. It’s nonstop. I get a 602
granted and then someone comes who don’t like MIM literature and then
I’m forced to wait months appealing this and missing out on my studies.
It is a protracted effort to censor MIM. But nothing MIM(Prisons) says
is bad; it’s political literature! And why send it to the gang unit when
it’s political? In Amerika this is how political literature is handled;
by labeling it “gang material.” This only confirms what MIM(Prisons)
says, that there are no rights in Amerika, only power struggles! What
happened to the so-called “freedom of the press?”
This prison’s population has just gotten done with a three-week hunger
strike and now it seems, as one of the participants, I’m now being
retaliated on by censoring my political science correspondence course.
But I thought the administrators from Sacramento came saying they would
work on bettering our conditions if we stopped striking and ate? And now
this is the repayment – censoring the ability to think outside this
cell, controlling my thoughts, and preventing me from learning anything
besides the state’s perspective. I can get all the Forbes,
Wall Street Journal, National Review, USA
Today, etc. that I want, but let me get something that speaks in
the interests of poor people and I’m deprived.
This does not surprise me one bit, and I know how to go about the
process of appealing. What pisses me off is thinking of all the
prisoners across Amerika who also get this Gestapo-like treatment and
who won’t know how to appeal, or become discouraged and don’t try. This
is what pisses me off the most. But I know I got to go back to the legal
front and go in for another legal battle.
This censorship in prisons is part of the reason prisoners went on
hunger strike. This is why people starved; because of the years and
decades of not being able to read history books, not being able to take
correspondence courses, not being allowed to grapple with ideas. And
when prisoners do try to understand critical thought, we are repressed.
And when we protest torture, we are repaid with further repression! A
society that creates dungeons and employs sadists to unleash all their
sick methods on captive poor people, to torture and experiment on with
their psychological abuses, is a society that is warped and morally
bankrupt.
Marshall Law: The Life & Times of a Baltimore Black Panther by
Marshall “Eddie” Conway and Dominique
Stevenson AK Press,
2011 674-A 23rd Street Oakland, CA 94612
This short autobiography by political prisoner Marshall (Eddie) Conway
is not so much a story about the Baltimore Black Panthers as it is a
brief history of prison-based organizing in the state of Maryland.
Having spent almost all of his adult life in prison after being framed
for killing a cop in 1970, this makes sense.
Panthers, Popularity and the Pigs
Knowing first-hand the extent of repression that was put on the Black
Panther Party from a very early stage, the biggest lesson we get from
the early years of Conway’s political life are about how to recruit and
organize in a country that is crawling with pigs. He points out that of
the 295 actions that COINTELPRO took against Black Power groups from
1967 to 1971; 233 targeted the Panthers.(p.51) He later points out that
while Muhammed Speaks was regularly allowed in prisons, The
Black Panther had to be smuggled in.(p.98)
As the state clearly recognized the
Maoism
of the Black Panthers as much more effective in the fight for Black
liberation than other movements at the time, they had agents planted in
the organization from day one in Baltimore. One of the founding members
in Baltimore, and the highest ranking Panther in the state, was exposed
as an agent of the National Security Agency, while others worked for the
FBI or local police.(p.48) Conway identifies the Panthers’ rapid growth
as a prime cause for its rapid demise, both due to infiltration and
other contradictions between members that just had not been trained
ideologically.(p.54) MIM(Prisons) takes it a step further in promoting
an organizational structure where our effectiveness is not determined by
the allegiances of our allies, but only by our work and the political
line that guides it.
Persynal Life
Despite the seriousness with which he addresses his decades of dedicated
organizing work, Conway expresses regret for putting his desire to free
his people above his family. There is no doubt that oppression creates
contradictions between someone’s ability to support their family
directly and the system that prevents them from doing so. MIM(Prisons)
is sympathetic with the young Conway, who put fighting the system first.
Perhaps the most applicable lesson to take from this is for young
comrades to seriously consider family planning and how that fits into
one’s overall plans as a revolutionary. It is just a reality that having
an active/demanding family life is not conducive to changing the system.
Prison Organizing
This account of organizing in Maryland prisons is one example that
famous events like the
Attica
uprising were part of a widespread upsurge in prison-based
organizing across the country at the time. In a turning point for the
prison movement, in 1971 Maryland prisoners began organizing the
uniquely aboveground and legal United Prisoners Labor Union. The union
quickly gained much broader support among the population than even the
organizers expected.
While Conway notes that the young organizers on the streets often found
partying more important than political work, he discusses deeper
contradictions within the imprisoned lumpen class. At this time, illegal
drugs were becoming a plague that prison activists could not find easy
solutions to. While organizing the union, a new youth gang arose whose
interest in free enterprise led them to work openly with the
administration in “anti-communist” agitation among the population. As
many gangs have become more entrenched in the drug economy (and other
capitalist ambitions) competition has heightened the drive to conquer
markets. The contradiction between the interests of criminal LOs and
progressive lumpen organization is heightened today, with the criminal
element being the dominant aspect of that contradiction.
Rather than outright repression, the easiest way for the guards to work
against the union was to get less disciplined recruits to act out in
violence. This point stresses the need for resolving contradictions
among the masses before going up against the oppressor in such an open
way. Education work among the masses to stress the strategy of organized
action over individual fights with guards became an important task for
union leaders.
Of course, the state could not allow such peacemaking to continue and
the union was soon made illegal; leaders faced isolation and transfers.
This eventually led us to where we are today where any form of prisoner
organizing is effectively outlawed in most places and labeled Security
Threat Group activity, in complete violation of the First Amendment
right to association. There’s a reason Amerikans allow the labor
aristocracy to unionize and not the imprisoned lumpen. A year after the
union was crushed, an escape attempt led to a riot in which the full
destructive potential of the prison population was unleashed because
there was no political leadership to guide the masses. That’s exactly
what the state wanted.
As a comrade in prison, intrigue is constantly being used against you by
the state and you must takes steps to protect yourself. Conway tells a
story about how one little act of kindness and his affiliation with the
righteous Black Panthers probably saved his life. One major weakness of
most LOs today is that they are rarely free of elements engaged in
anti-people activity. As long as this is the case it will be easy for
the state to set up fights and hits at will. Only through disciplined
codes of conduct, that serve the people at all times, can such problems
be avoided.
Many of the things Conway and his comrades did in the 1970s would seem
impossible in U.$. prisons today. The government began aggressively
using prisons as a tool of social control during that period of broad
unrest in the United $nakes. Soon the state learned it had to ramp up
the level of control it had within its prisons. This informed the
history of the U.$. prison system over the last few decades. And with
the vast resources of the U.$. empire, high tech repression came with a
willing and well-paid army of repressers to run the quickly expanding
system.
It is almost amazing to read Conway’s story of Black guards, one-by-one,
coming over to the side of the prisoners in a standoff with prison
guards.(p.81) We don’t know of anything like that happening today. As
oppressed nationals of the labor aristocracy class have become
commonplace in the U.$. injustice bureaucracy, we see national
consciousness overcome by integrationism.
Also unlike today, where prisoners usually have to give any money they
can scrape together to pay for their own imprisonment (ie. pay guards’
salaries), profits from commissary in Maryland actually used to go to a
fund to benefit prisoners and the communities they come from. But Conway
tells of how the drug mob worked with the administration to eat up those
funds, using some of it to sponsor a party for the warden himself!
The prison activists responded to this by setting up their own fund to
support programs in Baltimore. That is true independent action,
highlighting the importance of the fifth principle of the United Front
for Peace. While all drug dealers are in essence working for the U.$.
imperialists, this is even more true for those in prison who rely
directly on state officials for the smooth operation of their business.
Money is not decisive in the struggle for liberation; it is humyn
resources: a politically conscious population that decides whether we
succeed or we fail.
This review skims some of the main lessons from this book, but we
recommend you read it for yourself for a more thorough study. It is both
an inspiring and sobering history of U.$. prison organizing in the
recent past. It is up to today’s prisoners to learn from that past and
write the next chapters in this story of struggle that will continue
until imperialism is destroyed.
[The following is a compilation of reporting and analysis from MIM,
MIM(Prisons) and USW comrades to commemorate the Attica
uprising.]
Prisoners stand together at Attica after seizing control of the prison.
This week, September 9 - 13 2011, marks the 40th anniversary of the
Attica uprising where over 1200 prisoners acted as one, organized as a
collective and occupied Attica Correctional Facility in New York State.
The uprising ended in what a state commission described as “the
bloodiest one-day encounter between Americans since the Civil War”,
“[w]ith the exception of the Indian massacres in the late nineteenth
century[.]”
In 1991, MIM Notes ran a
special
supplement to commemorate the 20th anniversary, which documented
that historic event and its legacy. That same year, prisoners in New
York, New Jersey and Maryland boycotted all programming on September 13
to “give honor to the martyrs and warriors who suffered, and are still
suffering, under the suppression of the American prison system.”
The demands of the Attica prisoners in 1971 included things such as
allowing New York prisoners to be politically active without
intimidation or reprisals, an end to all censorship of mail and media,
more educational and work opportunities that pay minimum wage, and
release without parole conditions. In addition to these righteous
demands, the prisoners connected their struggle to that of the people of
the Third World. From History Condemns Prison Reform by MC11:
The Attica prisoners in 1971 were not asking for the sort of reforms
liberals then and now are so anxious to implement in order to make
themselves feel better. The Attica prisoners recognized the criminal
justice system as a powerful weapon in the arsenal of the capitalist
class, and they wanted to turn that weapon on their oppressors.
“We have discovered… the frustration of negotiating with a political
system bent on genocide,” the prisoners wrote in a statement smuggled
out during the week following the massacre.
“Killings are being committed not only in VietNam, but in Bengla Desh,
Africa and South America. Is it not so that our Declaration of
Independence provides that when a government oppresses the people, they
have a right to abolish it and create a new government? And we at
‘Attica’ and all revolutionaries across the nation are exercising that
right! The time is now that all third world people acknowledge the true
oppressor and expose him to the world!!”(1)
In the lead article of the MIM Notes supplement, a prisoner
mentions that Attica marked the rise of a strong prison movement during
the early 1970s. In the last year we’ve seen strikes in Georgia and
California where thousands of prisoners participated across many
prisons. Yet, it seems the prison movement has a steeper mountain to
climb to get to the point that the struggle reached in those days.
After 4 days New York State troopers seize control of the prison,
shooting 2000 rounds, killing 42 people, injuring hundreds and denying
medical care.
Looking back on Attica and those past rebellions, one sees the start and
finish of a period where the contradiction between prisoners and the
state was at the forefront. The struggle during that period led to some
progress on the side of prisoners in the form of temporary rights,
concessions and free world support for captives. But more importantly,
we saw collective organization on a mass scale throughout the U.$.
prison system that united prisoners around their common suffering and
abuse. This unity and struggle pushed the state back some. At the same
time, it also led the state to develop a plan for permanent long-term
isolation prisons, as well as policies that push psychotropic drugs on
prisoners while programming is once again taken away, reinforcing the
futility of prison reform. Even when the state faces significant
resistance these days, it comes in the form of lawsuits in
their courts, and hunger strikes where they control
communications and negotiations very tightly. We’re still in the stage
of playing their game by their rules.
It was just two years ago, on 17 September 2009 that United Struggle
from Within comrade Amare (Ra’d) Selton
died
in Attica. Selton was a regular contributor to Under Lock &
Key and MIM-led study groups, and often ended up in confrontations
with prison guards. We do not know the exact circumstances surrounding
his death, but MIM(Prisons) holds the State of New York responsible. He
is one of many comrades who have disappeared after being sent to Attica
in recent years, indicating the legacy of repression that has not
lessened.
In MIM Notes, MC67 interviewed Akil Aljundi, one of the Attica
Brothers that filed suit (and eventually won) against the State of New
York following the murder of 32 of his comrades and 10 hostages, and the
brutalization and denial of medical care to hundreds of others. MC67
concludes by asking what lessons should be drawn from the Attica
uprising, to which Aljundi responds:
“Never trust the state. Always be prepared to look for the worst to
happen. Be firm in your demands. Be clear in your objectives. But also
realize that the state can be vicious.”
“What you and I need to do is learn to forget our differences… We have a
common oppressor, a common exploiter, and a common discriminator… Once
we all realize that we have a common enemy, then we unite on the basis
of what we have in common.” - Malcolm X
It is a historical truth that repression breeds resistance, which is why
we prisoners at Pelican Bay State Prison’s (PBSP) Security Housing Units
(SHUs) and Communications Management Units (CMUs) took the initiative to
come together, and go on a hunger strike in order to say to our
oppressors that “20-plus years of state-sponsored torture and
persecution in which our human rights have been routinely violated, for
no other reason than to keep us prisoners confined in their mad
scientist-like torture chambers as alleged prison gang members is
enough!!!”
But as we all know, repression evolves and develops in cycles. So on 2
August 2011 PBSP and California Department of Corrections and
Rehabilitation (CDCR) officials threatened all hunger strike
participants with punitive retaliatory measures, for the sole act of our
hunger strike participation. This happened in spite of the fact that we
have a human right to peacefully protest any unjust laws, as warranted
to us in the First Amendment of the U.$. Constitution. An unjust law is
no law at all! The unjust laws in this case are the ones legalizing the
indefinite housing of us prisoners in solitary confinement (SHU/CMU).
We prisoners were issued the following CDC 128-B Chrono that states:
The California Code of Regulations, Title 15, identifies that leading
and/or participating in a strike, disturbance, or work stoppage is a
violation of the Director’s rules. On or about July 1, 2011 you were
identified as having participated in a statewide hunger strike event
along with in excess of 6000 other CDCR inmates in support of perceived
overly harsh SHU housing issues originating from within the Security
Housing Unit at Pelican Bay State Prison. This activity created a
non-violent significant disruption to institutional healthcare services
and Department of Corrections programming and operations throughout the
state, which included Pelican Bay State Prison, where you were assigned
during your participation in this event. Your behavior and actions were
out of compliance with the Director’s rules, and this documentation is
intended to record your actions; and advise that progressive discipline
will be taken in the future for any reoccurrence of this type of
behavior. Date: 08/02/11. From: K. Welch, Correctional Officer.
However, this CDC 128-B Chrono is contradicted by an article that
appeared in The Daily Triplicate newspaper during the month of
June 2011, that was entitled “Pelican Bay Hunger Strike in the Offing.
Some Inmates May Stop Eating Friday” by Anthony Skeens. Within the
article, CDCR Spokeswoman Terry Thorton stated, “There are no punitive
measures for inmates refusing to eat.”(1) The struggle continues!
I write this to inform you that the COINTELPRO is still alive and active
today under another name, and is used to continue their tactics of
divide and conquer. If you are a Black Panther or have a tattoo of a
panther, or if you are interested in the history of our beloved fallen
comrades, you are now considered a security threat group (STG) [in
Texas]. So now they are targeting the majority of Black prisoners as
“gang members.” After 14 years on the same unit under many different
officers, now all of a sudden I’m labeled as an STG. This is based on
books one reads and notation that one might write for a broader
understanding. In other words our freedom of expression of political
beliefs is now viewed as inflammatory and a security threat.