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.
Everyday I try to wash away the loneliness, but
it doesn’t come off,
I have no choice but to surrender to its pain, to its scoff,
the agony that runs through my veins,
and through the chains locked around my hands and feet,
leaves me incomplete.
I am the outcome of corruption, the tragedy that feeds the trauma that
stains
my soul, devours me whole.
I ask for empathy, but my own feelings are empty,
slowly I fade out, due to a shattered life,
feeding what kills me inside,
they refuse what keeps me alive,
I refuse… my own right to remain silent,
but all they care about is confinement.
They display my mugshot like it’s a Michelangelo or a Donatello,
they will never admit fault, they will never let me go.
And why should it matter, I will always be hated by the ignorant.
My incarceration was deliberate,
part of a plan to violate and amputate.
My life is now a concrete cemetery,
each moment is a cold day in January.
Wrongfully persecuted, this system is polluted.
Its tools for change is a mockery to rehab and reform,
while the world revolves, I stand frozen in a hailstorm.
Justice for all is a sick joke, who cares I was used as a
scapegoat?
or the misconduct that was over-looked?
My back and shoulders ache from the weight I carry everyday,
how dare you not wear my shoes and tell me it will all be okay!
Who actually cares I’m surrounded by sadism and hate,
when agony and suffering is my fate?
The only thing I fear is the night, that’s when the demons come out to
fight.
I wish you were the fly in my cell, so you can see the truth I
tell.
My life has been unjustly twisted, hollowed out, a sheep heading to
slaughter.
When will the truth be seen, when I die a martyr?
Still, I must traverse through this maze,
even on days I can’t see through the haze and wish for better
days.
This is a poem to show I’m still here, I have not yet disappeared.
Please let me know I’m not forgotten, I am not who they declare
“rotten”
I’m still here all alone, this is not where I belong, I need help to get
back home.
In December 2024, the Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO)
published an article by J Sykes titled “Marxism-Leninism and the theory
of settler-colonialism in the United States”(1), which repeats many of
the same errors that appear in eir July 2022 article (2) arguing against
Sakai’s thesis in Settlers that the white Amerikan working
class constitutes a petty-bourgeois labor aristocracy.
While Sykes does not present any particularly new or interesting
points about settler-colonialism or the imperialist country labor
aristocracy, ey does present us with an opportunity to dissect
revisionist arguments and identify the underlying theoretical errors
that lead our opponents to take up an enemy line on this question. Our
focus will therefore be on exposing how the FRSO line on this particular
question is a reflection of their general tendency toward idealist
dogmatism and metaphysical reasoning. We will see how this national
chauvinist line on the Euro-Amerikan working class is connected to their
enthusiastic support of revisionists like Deng Xiaoping and the
bourgeois counterrevolution that restored capitalism in China.
Although it is perhaps not immediately obvious, both of these
incorrect ideas arise from how they misunderstand the fundamental
contradiction of capitalism in general and conflating it with the
principal contradiction in particular.
General Remarks on
Terminology
Before getting started, a quick note on terminology is in order. The
words “white”, “settler”, “Amerikan”, and “Euro-Amerikan” will be used
interchangeably here unless otherwise noted. The term “Euro-Amerikan”
(often just shortened to “Amerikan”) is the most specific and precise
term to use for the First World imperialist country oppressor nation.
This is preferred over more colloquial terms like “white” (an
unscientific “racial” category) and “settler” (potentially ambiguous)
when referring to a specific oppressor nation in a particular historical
context.
For readers who are not yet very familiar with Marxist terminology in
general, MIM’s Glossary of
Marxism-Leninism-Maoism is a useful resource that is available
online and can be provided to prisoners for free upon request.
It is also worth mentioning that while the MIM line on the white
working class was significantly influenced by Sakai’s work in
Settlers, our analysis has generally focused on the labor
aristocratic (rather than settler-colonial) nature of the
Euro-Amerikan working class. This is because the emergence of a labor
aristocracy in the advanced countries is a general feature of
imperialism rather than a particular consequence of settler-colonialism.
Sakai’s detailed historical investigation on how the Amerikan working
class became a labor aristocracy under concrete conditions provides us
with enough information to theorize about the entire First World in
general. While there are unique contradictions in nations that developed
in a historical context of settler-colonialism, we agree with Lenin and
the Comintern that imperialism in general has chained entire nations to
finance capital and that these oppressor nation workers have material
interests that are more aligned with the continued exploitation of
colonized labor-power than communism.
One may reasonably ask, then, why even bother to distinguish
settler-colonialism from other forms of colonialism or imperialism? We
have both practical and theoretical reasons to make this distinction. On
a practical level, having a correct and rigorous understanding of
settler-colonialism in a particular historical context would be critical
for a revolutionary government addressing the land question and
calculating reparations owed to internally colonized nations for the
crimes of settlers (genocide, slavery, land theft, environmental
destruction, etc). On a theoretical level, it is important because we
can arrive at knowledge about the contradictions of imperialism as an
abstract mode of production in general by investigating the particular
contradictions governing the development of imperialism in a concrete
historical setting. We will see what this means in more detail in our
response to Sykes and critique of FRSO revisionism.
Responding to Sykes
on Settler-Colonialism
In this section, we will quote from the Sykes’ article so it is clear
to our comrades reading this in prison what exactly we are responding to
here and to contrast our differences in line and method. Unless
otherwise specified, all quotes in this section are from Sykes.
Sykes begins with a straightforward appraisal of Marxism:
“The purpose of Marxist analysis is so that we can know how to make
revolution, so that we understand the terrain of struggle, formulate
correct strategy and tactics, and identify our friends and enemies. We
must understand the contradictions at work in society and unite all who
can be united if we want to win. So, we need to be very careful and
precise in that analysis.”
So far, we do not disagree. We will see, however, that nobody at FRSO
is apparently up to the task of actually performing this analysis or
correctly identifying any of the glaring theoretical errors that
immediately follow.
Having paid lip service to dialectical materialism, Sykes proceeds to
abandon it completely in eir analysis of U.$. class structure and
idealist proposition that the principal contradiction in the United
$tates is “between the capitalist class on the one hand, and the
multinational working class and its allies on the other, particularly
the oppressed nations.”
If FRSO had any “theorists” who had bothered to actually understand
Marx’s work or the categories laid out by Mao in On
Contradiction, they would know the fundamental
contradiction is between the forces of production and the
relations of production. This contradiction is the driving
force of hystory. The class struggle is a reflection of this
contradiction under a particular mode of production in a concrete
hystorical context where class divisions exist. The class struggle is
not equivalent to the fundamental contradiction. The fundamental
contradiction existed in primitive communal societies and will also
exist in an advanced communist society, since any humyn society will
have forces of production (labor-power, natural resources,
tools/machines) and collectivized ownership is a form of production
relations. Class struggle is resolved through the abolition of class
distinctions under communism. The fundamental contradiction would still
exist, but it would no longer reproduce the conditions for class
antagonism. These are totally separate concepts that describe different
things. The distinctions may seem subtle but it is important for
communists to get it right, otherwise we risk saying nonsense and taking
up enemy positions, which is precisely our charge against FRSO here.
This confused and distorted use of terminology is in fact a load-bearing
pillar of Sykes’ argument, the theoretical core of an old and rotten
line.
Sykes acknowledges the existence of national oppression in some vague
sense and admits that Amerika “began as a settler colonial project,
founded on the genocide of Native Americans and the enslavement of
Africans”, but rarely identifies the oppressor nation in any concrete
terms. This is what Maoists call “one-sided thinking”, which completely
fixates on one aspect of a contradiction while ignoring the whole. We
cannot have national oppression without an oppressor nation, just as we
cannot replace the oppressor nation with the monopoly capitalist, no
matter how convenient it would be if we could.
Sykes continues by dressing up this ahistorical idealism as if it
actually has anything to do with Marxism:
“While it is true that the legacy of settler-colonialism in the
United States certainly persists, the systems of oppression have not
remained static. Dialectical materialism understands that the nature of
a thing is defined by the contradictions inherent to it. Things aren’t
fixed, but always changing and developing according to these
contradictions.”
What is the difference between “the legacy of settler-colonialism”
persisting into the present and actually being a settler-colony? This is
the kind of language games revisionists use to vacillate on a question
rather than take a clear, coherent and principled position. They know it
would be absurd to claim that national oppression has ended in the
United $tates, but they also want to argue that class struggle is the
principal contradiction, so they do this sleight-of-hand that places the
white Amerikan working class at the center of national liberation
struggles by saying it is the same thing now as the class struggle. It
is how they present ideas they presume, or perhaps wish, to be true as
if they are material facts. It is how they smuggle the reactionary
petty-bourgeois class interests of the Euro-Amerikan oppressor nation
into the international communist movement and to divert resources from
national liberation struggles that could actually develop the principal
contradiction and deliver serious blows to imperialism. This is a
counterrevolutionary line that runs contrary to the interests of the
proletariat.
Without providing any evidence or concrete reasoning for it, Sykes
claims that “different contradictions have taken the principal,
determining role” throughout U.$. hystory. The national question has
always been the principal contradiction in the United $tates. This
analysis so far is just a long, meandering way to argue that Amerika is
not a majority exploiter oppressor nation. It is also a strange, even
absurd, claim to make after admitting that the United $tates was founded
on slavery and genocide from the very outset.
Those of us who live in reality know that the contradiction of
national oppression cannot be resolved without national liberation. The
FRSO position seems to be that the national question was subsumed by the
class struggle in the United $tates at some point in hystory. This is
reductionist and ahystorical.
We are finally offered something resembling a thesis on what
settler-colonialism is and the role it played in U.$. hystory:
“U.S. settler-colonialism is a particular social formation with a
particular set of contradictions at the heart of it. Historically it is
a transitionary period in the early development of the capitalist mode
of production. It is characterized by the dominant role played by the
contradiction between settlers on the one hand and colonized people on
the other. This contradiction is the main thing shaping the trajectory
of the capitalist mode of production in the period of “primitive
accumulation” during its nascent development. In this way,
settler-colonialism fueled the rapid growth of the capitalist mode of
production in the early United States.”
There is a concrete, material claim being made here without any
evidence provided to support it. The definition of settler-colonialism
as being a “transitory period” is dogmatic as it is self-serving to
Sykes’ argument.
Sykes mentions that class divisions existed among the settlers, many
of whom were indentured servants or otherwise indebted. This is
presumably meant to suggest that only the upper echelons of the settler
population drew material benefits from colonialism. However, even the
lowest strata of the white settlers who originally came to the colonies
as indentured servants were eventually able to pay off their debts and
become land owners in the early 1700s. From the very earliest days of
colonization, the Euro-Amerikan oppressor nation considered access to
land and upward mobility reserved to itself.(3) Meanwhile, well after
the U.$. Civil War that nominally ended slavery (1865), white settlers
continued to struggle to keep land promised by the government out of New
Afrikan hands and expanded their land grab from First Nations.
Sykes claims that “this transitional settler-colonial period had to
give way to mature competitive capitalism, bringing forth new
contradictions”, suggesting that the contradictions of
settler-colonialism were resolved in the United $tates by “two bourgeois
revolutions, the War of Independence which overthrew the British
colonial system and the Civil War, which overthrew the slave system of
the Southern planter class.”
It would be more correct to say that the particular contradictions of
settler colonialism had a profound (and continuing) influence on the
development of capitalism and imperialism in the United $tates. If these
particular contradictions (between settlers and the colonized masses)
did in fact simply “give way” to the fundamental contradiction of
capitalism (between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat), then how do we
explain the material fact that national oppression still exists in
occupied Turtle Island today? Sykes would like us to believe the
Euro-Amerikan oppressor nation was simply replaced by the “monopoly
capitalists” at some point, conveniently resolving the contradictions
between settlers and the colonized masses. Note that this again
conflates the contradiction of nation with the contradiction of
production. We cannot simply substitute the capitalist class with the
oppressor nation and call it a day. That is not how dialectical reason
works. Sykes is resorting to metaphysics to defend an idealist
proposition by arguing backwards from the white chauvinist presumption
that national liberation is not the principal struggle for communists to
focus on today.
Amerikan independence from Britain did not fundamentally change the
class structure or relations of production in the Euro-Amerikan settler
colony. The economic base and ideological superstructure that developed
in Amerika remain inseparable from the genocidal land theft and
exploitation of slave labor that remained at the very foundation of
settler life. Whether a settler colony achieved independence from its
host country or not is an irrelevant detail, what matters is the class
structure that develops. Kanada never had a war for independence and is
still to this day a subject of the British monarchy. This did not impede
the development of capitalism in Kanada and the impact of any lingering
“feudal remnants” is limited to the realm of superficial things such as
street names, anthems and portraits on bank notes. While the
aristocratic classes in Europe certainly enjoyed the spoils of colonial
exploitation, it was settlers at the front lines who directly engaged in
the plunder and genocide.
The Civil War did have a more significant impact on the class
structure and property relations in the United $tates, chiefly by
resulting in the abolition of chattel slavery and eventually giving
limited neocolonial status (e.g. voting rights, property rights) to New
Afrikans. This did not resolve the contradictions of national
oppression, although it did transform external conditions such that the
struggle for national liberation entered a distinctly new phase of
development. According to Sakai, there were two distinct conflicts
playing out in the Amerikan Civil War. The first “was between two
settler nations for ownership of the Afrikan colony – and ultimately for
ownership of the continental Empire” and the second was “the protracted
struggle for liberation by the colonized Afrikan Nation in the
South.”(4) It should also be noted that the abolition of slavery did not
come from the class consciousness of white workers, nor did it engender
among them any meaningful or lasting sense of solidarity with Afrikan
labor.
On the contrary, white workers began to form organizations like the
National Labor Union (NLU) to protect their jobs and wages from being in
free competition with Afrikan workers. Groups like the KKK functioned as
the paramilitary wing of this reactionary class interest. The abrupt end
of Black Reconstruction in the southern United $tates and the
institution of Jim Crow laws is proof that the reactionary nature of the
Amerikan oppressor nation precluded revolutionary “multinational” class
solidarity. The NLU (the first major federation of white labor unions,
similar to the AFL-CIO today) is an instructive example on this point.
As Sakai pointed out, “when the National Labor Union was formed in 1866,
most of its members and leaders clearly intended to simply push aside
Afrikan labor” and that a major point of contention among the white
workers expressed in the first meeting was over “how the capitalists had
used Afrikan workers to get around strikes and demands for higher wages
by white workmen” and that the most “advanced” white workers argued for
taking Afrikan workers into the NLU as a means of “driving them out of
the labor market”.(5)
Similarly, it was not the monopoly bourgeoisie who organized pogroms
against Chinese workers, forcing entire villages out of their homes at
gunpoint – it was white workers acting in their own class interest. The
bourgeoisie were generally quite content to exploit Chinese labor, which
is why the white workers took it upon themselves to violently attack
Chinese workers throughout the west coast and form reactionary
anti-Chinese organizations such as the “Workingmen’s Party of
California” and to support policies like the Chinese Exclusion Act.
The most significant historical event responsible for consolidating
the contemporary class structure in Amerika was World War II, where the
United $tates emerged as the hegemonic imperialist world power and was
consequently able to expand and intensify exploitation of the Third
World to such an extent that the entire white Euro-Amerikan oppressor
nation could be subsidized with plundered wealth from abroad. Suburbs
became the new frontier homesteads on stolen land. While the rest of the
world was recovering from a horrifically destructive war, the United
$tates was able to leverage its military and economic advantages to
become wealthier than ever. This allowed the United $tates to further
shift the burdens of capitalist exploitation to the Third World and
further consolidate the Amerikan labor aristocracy as loyal subjects of
imperialism.
Sykes attempts to excuse all of eir ahystorical idealism by digging
up a quote, presented with no citation or context, where Lenin described
the U.$. War for Independence as “one of those great, really liberating,
really revolutionary wars of which there have been so few”. Sykes also
invokes a similar “famous” quote from Mao, who said that “In the final
analysis, national struggle is a matter of class struggle. Among the
whites in the United States, it is only the reactionary ruling circles
that oppress the black people.”
Just because a great revolutionary like Lenin or Mao said something
does not make it true or above scrutiny. Mao was being unscientific in
making this assessment, which should be criticized regardless of the
context. Like all ideas, the national chauvinism of white workers has a
material basis in concrete social relations that developed in a
particular hystorical context. Lenin’s remark appears in the context of
a letter to U.$. workers in the early days of Soviet power and should be
understood as more of a diplomatic gesture intended to garner political
support for the Soviet Union rather than as a scientific statement about
Amerikan hystory. It was also perhaps not so clear in Lenin’s time that
the entire Euro-Amerikan nation was so firmly in the enemy camp,
although even in March 1919 the Comintern was focusing their attention
on struggling against the Second International and labor aristocracy by
putting out statements like this:
“At the expense of the plundered colonial peoples capital corrupted
its wage slaves, created a community of interest between the exploited
and the exploiters as against the oppressed colonies – the yellow, black
and red colonial peoples – and chained the European and American working
class to the imperialist ‘fatherland’.”(6)
For an in-depth review of the how Lenin and the Comintern actually
viewed the imperialist country oppressor nation working class, see
Lessons from the Comintern: Continuities in Method and Theory,
Changes in Theory and Conditions from MIM Theory
10.
Interestingly, Sykes admits that the United $tates does “solve its
growing crises through the oppression of whole nations and peoples…in
order to extract superprofits to prop up its rotten system” but then
draws an erroneous conclusion that “the multinational working class and
the liberation movements of oppressed nationalities [have] a common
enemy – the monopoly capitalist class.”
This term “multinational working class” is used frequently in
attempts to smuggle in oppressor nation chauvinism to allegedly Marxist
politics! They simply cannot imagine a socialist revolution happening
unless it has a white majority. This idea that a united front that
includes white workers as a class is “necessary” to defeat imperialism
comes from an idealist and national chauvinist assessment of the actual
balance of forces. They assume pandering to white workers must be a
strategic necessity and invent a political line that fits that
assumption. However, hystory shows that most Amerikans will sooner rush
to the defense of empire rather than struggle for the overthrow of a
system that places them in materially privileged position in the global
class structure.
We can draw a parallel between FRSO urging the national liberation
struggles to unite with the white working class and the NLU urging New
Afrikan workers to join their unions as a means to ensure the class
position of New Afrikans remains subordinate to the interests of
oppressor nation labor aristocracy parasitism. The practical
ramification of the FRSO line would divert resources from the internal
semi-colonies struggle against imperialism into pushing for the economic
demands of First World parasitism. This holds back the communist
movement and serves the imperialists. Hence, it is not merely wrong, it
is an enemy position!
Sykes claims that a “real revolutionary movement” in the United
$tates “must have working class leadership” and since “the working
class…is fundamentally multinational in character” any revolutionary
movement that doesn’t assume the necessity of settler leadership is
based on “wishful thinking” and doomed to failure. This provides us with
a good example of postmodern idealism, which rejects the scientific
method and dialectical materialism by reifying subjective individual
experience as the foundation for a theory of knowledge. In this context,
the term “working class” seems to be understood as more of a vague
cultural identifier rather than an objective material relationship to
production. Sykes concludes that even though capitalism places some
(unspecified and abstract) “greater pressure” on oppressed nation
workers, their “white siblings” have a shared class interest because
they are exploited by the “same bosses” and “the higher rate of
exploitation in the oppressed nations drives down living standards for
the entire multinational working class.”
If whites are exploited the same as everybody else, then why do they
own more property and control more wealth than oppressed nations within
U.$. borders? Why are oppressed nations incarcerated at such
staggeringly higher rates than white Amerikans? How can we say that
national oppression even exists if white workers are truly suffering the
same oppression at the hands of the “bosses and landlords” as everybody
else and that it is only the “monopoly capitalist class who reaps the
superprofits from national opression”?
MIM has written and distributed volumes of literature showing
precisely how the oppressor nation “workers” materially benefit from
imperialism in general and how white Amerikans benefit from the
oppression of internally colonized nations. This “monopoly capitalist”
class has bought off the entire Euro-Amerikan nation with plundered
wealth and rewarded them with preferential treatment in everything from
home ownership, access to higher education, employment in higher paying
white-collar professions and every other aspect of life in bourgeois
society. This is not only about buying off the loyalty of white workers,
it is also a practical necessity to have a large non-productive working
class to oversee administration of the empire in exchange for access to
a share of the surplus value produced by colonized labor power, allowing
the imperialist country petty bourgeoisie and labor aristocracy to
consume far beyond their own productive means. This is how imperialism
maximizes the realization of surplus value as profit and reproduces a
class structure where entire nations are chained to the interests of
capital.
Sykes argues this basic realization about imperialism comes from
“petty bourgeois ideas about the backwardness…of the working class”,
rather than a concrete analysis of concrete conditions, and that it
reflects a “pessimistic and defeatist attitude” toward the
“revolutionary potential of the [imperialist country] working class”,
rather than strategic confidence in the international proletariat.
The real “pessimistic and defeatist” line is Sykes’, who seems to
believe that 220 million Euro-Amerikans have a decisive role to play in
the movement to liberate 8 billion people from exploitation. If the
international proletariat has to wait for a majority of Amerikkkans to
wake up and join the revolutionary struggle against oppression, then it
is indeed a bleak situation. Thankfully, we know that is not the case
and have strategic confidence in the masses. It is neither necessary nor
expedient for the proletariat to tail the left wing of white
nationalism.
We should at least credit the FRSO for not calling their position
“Maoist”, even though they do claim to uphold the Chinese revolution and
dogmatically quote from Mao’s works. We can also credit Sykes with
coming up with the new argument that a desire to “copy and paste an
analysis of the Palestinian struggle onto U.S. conditions” is why
communists consider the United $tates to be a settler colony. This
absurd claim does not deserve a serious response, but at least it is
something we have not heard before!
Having squeezed all that we can out of the idealist metaphysics
lurking beneath the FRSO brand of revisionism on the labor aristocracy,
national liberation and the principal contradiction, we will now discuss
how this fits in with their revisionist line on the restoration of
capitalism in China.
Theory of Productive Forces
It is generally the case in hystory that the forces of production
constitute the principal aspect of the fundamental contradiction and
that changes to the relations of production primarily follow as a
consequence of changes in the forces of production. For example, the
rise of technology like the steam engine and mechanized agriculture
(forces of production) had a transformative effect on the class
structure of feudal societies (relations of production). This led to the
emergence of new social classes (namely, the bourgeoisie and
proletariat) with a revolutionary interest in overthrowing feudal
aristocracy and building industrial capitalism.
Deng Xiaoping’s “theory of productive forces” essentially claims that
a similar development in the forces of production was necessary to
transform the relations of production in socialist China. The
revisionist coup that began in 1976 implemented policies that replaced
socialist economic planning with a return to capitalist price
speculation and market incentives, opened up Chinese industry to foreign
investment, and forcibly shut down collectivized farms in favor of
private agriculture and family ownership. Maoists view this as a
bourgeois counterattack on the masses in China, who had achieved great
victories in constructing socialism and mobilizing hundreds of millions
to engage in ideological struggle and serve the people.
During the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, Mao led the masses
of China to show how it is possible (under certain circumstances) for
the relations of production to become the principal aspect of the
fundamental contradiction and consequently transform the forces of
production. This approach to constructing socialism requires mass
mobilization and sharp ideological struggle, such that the whole of
society is engaged in consciously revolutionizing the relations of
production. In practice, this means industrial and agricultural
development is oriented toward meeting humyn needs (rather than profits)
and ideological struggle against “bourgeois right” (the idea that some
people deserve to have more than others due the nature of their work,
their social position, etc) was heavily emphasized and continually
advanced. This is why Maoists uphold the Cultural Revolution as the
greatest advance towards communism thus far in history. This is also why
we view a return to NEP-style economic policies, the dissolution of
collectivized agriculture and the reification of bourgeois right as
counterrevolutionary.(7)
Criticize
Settler Revisionism! Criticize Deng Xiaoping!
FRSO has basically the same line as their predecessor organization,
the League of Revolutionary Struggle (LRS), in supporting Deng Xiaoping,
the arrest and imprisonment of the “Gang of Four”, and the end of the
Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (GPCR). They defended this
counterrevolution in China on the grounds of empricism and bourgeois
individualist lifestyle fixations about the Gang of Four. See MIM’s 1999
congress resolution Repudiate
sub-reformism; fight revisionism! for a more detailed polemic
against the LRS and FRSO on this topic.
We are not surprised(8) to see an organization that still upholds
Deng’s counterrevolutionary theory of productive forces consider the
Euro-Amerikan working class as being part of the proletarian camp.
Trotskyists make a similar error in how they understand the fundamental
contradiction in the context of imperialism by obfuscating the nature of
superprofits to support their chauvinist view that imperialist country
workers are actually the most exploited in the world. Both of these
revisionist errors are rooted in a one-sided view of contradiction and a
dogmatic belief that First World wages are higher because the class
struggle has advanced so much due to the more developed productive
forces in advanced capitalist countries. In reality, imperialist country
workers are able to live far beyond their own productive means by
receiving wages many times higher than the actual value of labor-power
and entire nations are subsidized by exploitation of the Third World
proletariat. The imperialist country oppressor nation is an enemy class
that cannot be relied upon to advance the struggle for communism.
For a recent critique of organizations nominally supporting the GPCR,
but still promoting “working class unity” in the United $tates, see A
Polemic against Settler “Maoism” by the Dawnland Group.
5. Ibid., pp. 99-100 6. Jane Degras, The Communist
International: 1919-1943 Documents, Vol. I, p.18 7. The New
Economic Policy (NEP) was implemented in the early days of socialist
Russia to transform backward economic conditions. It made use of
capitalist profit incentives. 8. MIM Theory 10, Coming to Grips
with the Labor Aristocracy, p. 28
On the other hand I’m over here on the McConnell Unit where I see
religious people who are supposed to be for the people work in the place
as the oppressor with the same pigs whom practice oppression. When we
look at the capitalist here in American prisons we see the state abuse
their authority by placing power and control in the peoples’ hands. Half
of the time we can’t get nothing done because every time we stand up for
what’s right here come the gang members and religious folks taking up
for the pigs and it’s your fellow inmate brother whom is putting you
farther in oppression. I myself experience this a lot.
The staff here, these officers rather, let the prisoners deal with
the prisoners, in return the officers look the other way when the
workers are dealing drugs. Just the other day a crip wanted to go on a
hunger strike for the pod going on a 15 day lock down because several
individuals got caught smoking. These same officers know the prisoners
who are bringing the smoke over here. All these individuals are working
together with a handful of gang members and religious folks. The real
revolutionary prisoners are basically stuck in the cell all day.
My question is when are we gonna connect with people who can do
something about the situation. We write grievances and file complaints
and we still can’t get anything done. I know for a fact we sent out
every letter of 35 grievances. I pack my stuff up and went to the front
desk and told them to move me back [because an L.O. runs this block that
I have a documented conflict with] and they threatening me with physical
harm and told me to go back to my pod.
The people in Israel are evil people who hide behind the Christian
religion. They want the rest of the world to follow in the Christian
faith but they can’t follow in their own faith. Israel needs to stop
oppressing Palestinians especially the women and children. America is
supposed to stand against that kind of crime. R.I.P
to Marcellus Khalifa Williams. May the brother reach the heavens and
dwell in the window of God. The injustice system can still kill innocent
Black men in America no matter what the people do, no matter how hard
the people fight. His death did not go without a learned message. Once
I’m free I’mma keep in mind that that could be me.
MIM(Prisons) adds: Yes, people inside must connect with
people on the outside to build a real movement to stop this oppression.
We can look to the national liberation struggle in Palestine and the
connection to the prison movement there as an example. We once had
stronger movements here in occupied Turtle Island. And as we build them
up again, we must build that crucial link between the inside and
outside.
When state-level petitions fail, we now have this petition to appeal to
the Department of Justice. This federal level appeal may help put
pressure on the state corrections departments ignore our appeals
Mail the petition to your loved ones and comrades inside who are
experiencing issues with the grievance procedure. Send them extra copies
to share! For more info on this campaign,
click
here.
Prisoners should send a copy of the signed petition to each of the
addresses below. Supporters should send letters on behalf of prisoners.
Section Chief – Special Litigation Section, Civil Rights Division,
U.S. Department of Justice, 950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC
20530
ACLU National Prison Project, 915 15th St NW, 7th floor, Washington
DC, 20005-2112 (for those ready to bring class action
lawsuits)
Office of the U.S. Attorney General, 1425 New York Ave. NW,
Washington DC 20530-0001
Director/Commissioner/Secretary of Corrections (for your
state)
Agency or Facility Grievance System Director or Coordinator (for your
state)
And send MIM(Prisons) copies of any responses you receive!
MIM(Prisons), USW PO Box 40799 San Francisco, CA 94140
It’s the new world order where elites and the
sheep casts the stones in their glass house with no repercussions
the ones that have the most flaws that do the judging
social media, with monarchy mind control, frequencies that ease you into
the ideology of the one-thought masses
to shake the foundation and indoctrinate to destroy individuality
the vibration is silent, the common sense factor is void to keep the
masses dumbed down playing the role of the factions
falling blindly into the tactics
its meant to be as the silent plan, the master holding the strings in
his hand to make the puppets dance
dividing individuals into color coordinations, against beliefs, morals,
values and pushing the agenda that its not me, pinning them against
we
praising false idols that never existed, keeping the masses in a sheep
mentality to control the mind, once the mental is conquered the body
falls in line
it was the master plan, to control the man, once the man is controlled
he unconsciously follows the plan
ripple effect to oppressing the woman, to think she is beneath him,
stripping the nature of the goddess and losing the true nature of
creation
the duality and the creator, the given and the taker, the mother Earth
Gaia that needs us to awaken to her greatness
into the materialism that will take your soul, temporarily make you
whole, once a happy home but now your not at home
the instant gratification, putting a smile on your face but inside it’s
hateful
masking the internal with the external, dodging the obstacles, scared to
go within because you were never taught how to
so embrace to be oneself, don’t blend in because we were born to stand
out, individuality, is a blessing, much lessons, break the chains of
what we thought, and now you are.
No average free citizen, nor incarcerated individual, has hardly ever
heard of the term “light pollution” (otherwise known as “constant
illumination”) which is very harmful to the lives of humans and
animals.
Jailers across the country continually adopt the malevolent practice
of installing fluorescent lighting within housing cells of jail and
prison facilities alike. Officials usually have complete power to turn
the light off at night, but choose not to do so. This scheme, to my
knowledge, is a sure form of corporal punishment.
To make matters worse, sheriffs and prison guards threaten convicts
and detainees with disciplinary infractions for covering the light up at
nighttime. When officials usually have a standard-issue flashlight that
can easily be used when conducting their security checks.
Scientific studies have rendered evidence, showing how light
pollution is a contributing factor to the causation of triggering
diseases. These diseases can range from hypertension, diabetes, cancer,
and a slew of other health problems.
Light pollution initially affects our circadian rhythms, leading to
the onslaught of ensuing problems that follow afterwards, which disrupt
the systems of the body. Our circadian rhythm is the body’s internal
sleep-wake-clock, which is governed by the way light enters into our
bodies through the retinas of the eyes. Light itself, is usually
measured in the fashionable method of lumens, luxes, and candle watts.
Whenever our exposure to constant illumination is 24/7 for weeks,
months, and years, could be why a bunch of us may be experiencing health
problems, while being totally unaware that light pollution is the hidden
catalyst behind our illnesses. Especially when there’s evidence of sleep
deprivation being the main culprit.
Keenan vs. Hall, a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, is one of
the leading cases amongst many others in the federal district courts,
where decisions have been made on this matter that have set precedence.
Despite this, jailers continue to practice this form of penology that
brings about the needless cruel and unusual double-whammy punishments
caused by light pollution. Over the past several decades across the
country, animal facilities housing monkeys and other creatures were
forced to shut down due to those particular animals’ exposure to the dangers of
constant illumination, that was ultimately deemed to be animal
cruelty.
The question to be answered here, should one might think to ask is
this: shouldn’t the life of a human be just as much valued as a precious
animal’s life, if not more, regardless of incarceration?
MIM(Prisons) responds:This is just one of many examples
of the disregard for prisoners’ health under imperialism. The negative
impacts on the health of oppressed peoples from U.$. prison conditions
is just one contributor to a system of low-intensity genocide in this
country.
We fight for a socialist world, where prisoners’ health is taken as
seriously as that of lab animals or of any other humyn beings for that
matter. The current system dehumynizes prisoners as part of a system of
national oppression, and control of surplus populations. Through
national liberation we will build a system of rehabilitation that
recognizes the value of restoring people who have committed crimes
against the people to citizens that contribute to society.
One of the foremost promises of the Trump/Vance campaign was a
crackdown on gender expression and transgender existence in the United
$tates; we are now watching this being carried out. On his first day in
office, Donald Trump signed Executive Order (E.O.) 14168 against “gender
ideology”, and, as with most changes under his administration, the
effects of this order strike most harshly at the oppressed masses – in
this case, prisoners
in particular. This executive order states that it “shall ensure
males are not detained in women’s prisons or housed in women’s detention
centers.” Though its ramifications are being fought in courts, people
behind bars have already seen changes play out for trans and
gender-non-conforming prisoners. The Trump regime has also instructed
amendments to the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) to remove special
protection for gender non-conforming people in prisons, as ineffective
as PREA has been.
According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, there are about 2200
transgender people in the feds, which is about 1.5% of federal
prisoners. Of those, only 20 are trans wimmin in wimmin’s prisons. While
over 1500 trans wimmin are held in men’s prisons. A prisoner in
FCI-Waseca reports that the 2 trans wimmin at that facility were
immediately packed out to go to men’s facilities, but one was returned a
week later.(Ultra Violet Vol. XXXVI, No.4, Spring 2025) The
courts have issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the E.O.,
and multiple lawsuits have been filed. Anyone interested in contacting
the lawyers who have filed the class action lawsuit (which covers all
transgender people in the BOP) against the executive order can
write:
Shawn Meerkamper, Cal. Bar No. 296964
Transgender Law Center
PO Box 70976
Oakland, CA 94612
As the basis for gender oppression is located in leisure time, and as
prisons seek to control prisoners’ leisure time to a degree rarely seen
elsewhere in this country, MIM(Prisons) identifies the struggles of
trans prisoners as a particularly sharp form of gender oppression.
Furthermore, as prisons reinforce the segregation of already-oppressed
people along “sexed” lines, gender diversity – especially among trans
wimmin – is punished both legally and extralegally behind bars. These
punitive measures have only heightened under the new administration, and
MIM(Prisons) surveyed trans prisoners regarding the recent changes.
A trans womyn at FCI Seagoville responded:
“The staff under our previous warden told the transgender prisoners
that we were to turn in all our dresses, blouses, bras and panties to
laundry and send our commissary-bought undergarments home. That lasted a
day and then the same staff told us about the E.O. stated that there was
a judicial claim that rescinded the order, therefore, go to laundry and
get your clothes back. That lasted about a month, then the warden left
under the Trump ‘federal buy out.’ Our new interim warden took our items
away, stating unless we were part of the TRO, then she could take our
items. Then said if we return our clothes ‘without a fuss,’ we could
keep our hormones… for now.
“We had a laser hair treatment machine and then after the E.O. came
out, it just up and disappeared. All our transgender programs, including
our psychology lead support group, have been eliminated.
“A trans woman has been on suicide watch ever since she was told to
turn in her girl clothes. Staff let her out after 2 weeks, sent her to
laundry. The supervisor there said ‘you are a man, in a man’s prison,
therefore you will wear man clothes.’ She went to psychology, where they
basically told her that ‘we can’t help you.’ She went back on suicide
watch and is still there.
“The transgender women here decided to hold our own support group out
on the recreation yard. That lasted about 3 weeks, until the interim
warden shut it down supposedly because drugs were found on the
yard.”
The imposition of gender as a repressive system is clear here, with
the confiscation of clothes items, and the forceful insistence that one
of the girls discussed “is a man in a man’s prison.” These prison staff
taking glee in sexually, verbally, and physically attacking these trans
prisoners on the basis of gender are undoubtedly gender oppressors (see
MIM
Theory 2/3: Gender and Revolutionary Feminism).
With regards to the shutting down of the support group, we see these
repressive tactics wielded against any group of prisoners that poses a
threat to the system. More often, we see these slanderous lies
about drugs and crackdown on leisure time wielded against political
organizers, but clearly the prison administration sees trans wimmin
discussing their lives and struggles as something dangerous. We would
love to exchange ideas around gender with this group and others and
offer the pages of ULK as an organizing space as you struggle
to keep your local group functioning.
In FCI Seagoville, local USW comrades are helping organize the
transgender wimmin incarcerated there. The linking of the struggle for
transgender rights to the movement for broader solidarity in prisons is
excellent, and we hope that the comrades there continue to build broad
unity.
A trans man from FMC Carswell was not able to fully respond to
our survey:
“I was just released from suicide watch 3 days ago. Things are hard
and oppressive as well as slanderous but I’ll speak on these things when
I’m in the right headspace.”
Ey went on to forward us documents regarding a legal case ey’s filing
against the designated wimmin’s prison, telling us that the Trump
administration’s decree that trans prisoners cannot access transgender
medical or mental health services has led to eir self-injurious
tendencies worsening, and that ey is suing on the grounds that they are
not giving em proper treatment to keep em safe.
The willingness to take away services at the risk of peoples’ lives
exposes the inhumanity of this system. Gender oppression is a system and
until we destroy it people will be subject to such treatment.
A trans womyn from USP Tucson reported:
“[The prison guards are] glad that [the executive order] is being
done so that they can stop all this… We used to only be able to be pat
down by female guards, now that’s gone and male guards can touch us like
that!”
This E.O. further drives home how what we understand as “gender” –
that is, one’s relation to gender oppression – is neither defined solely
by chromosomes, nor biological sex, nor identity. Certainly, strip
searches and cavity searches are sexually violating, and are a form of
gendered violence that people face by the very fact of being a prisoner
of the United $tates. We wholeheartedly stand with this comrade in
agreement that the imposition of male guards on trans wimmin is
dangerous and shows how this executive order has nothing to do with
“safety.”
However, we’d like to solicit input both from this womyn and from any
other prisoners reading, regarding whether having strip searches by
female guards is less violating. We have printed many reports and statistics
exposing the role of female staff in gender the oppression of
prisoners.(see ULK No. 1) So we think there’s more to do to
stop sexual assault.
This comrade from Tucson also reported that there are 25 to 32 other
transgender wimmin in eir prison, and that ey has been taking charge in
helping to keep them all calm. Solidarity between prisoners is a
necessary first step for the struggle for a world free of all forms of
oppression. Sanity and solidarity are necessary in this time, but
ultimately are useless without a clear understanding of the ways to
fight back (both in the short term – grievances, petitions, legal suits
– and in the long term, fighting for a classless, and thus genderless,
world). Can you turn your support group into a study group, or a group
designated to supporting each others’ grievance campaigns, work/hunger
strikes, etc.? Make contact with USW members to organize with them, as
the wimmin in Seagoville have done, or join USW? We can think of no
better way to support each other than to stand up for each other.
If Trump’s recent executive orders have shown us anything, it’s that
concessions from the bourgeoisie towards oppressed people – trans
healthcare, media representation, things like that – can be taken away
just as quickly as they are granted. Oppression against trans people
represents the cutting edge of gender-based oppression in the United
$tates today, and trans prisoners are feeling it the most sharply.
Nobody is made safer by commissaries no longer carrying makeup and
bras, or by prisoners being denied even the right to choose the name
they use. The gender-oppressors in this country are by and large united
around a reactionary return to “biological gender.” Just as there’s no
such thing as “human nature” abstracted away from society, there’s no
such thing as “biological gender” in a vacuum. No humyn is born
biologically predisposed to desire makeup and small underwear, nor is a
humyn born biologically predisposed to cut their hair short. Gender is a
complex system almost entirely social in nature, and MIM(Prisons)
defends those attacked by reactionaries who have at the heart of their
attacks not “safety” or “logic” but a lashing out at the erosion of the
hetero-patriarchal nuclear family.
In a world free from oppression, what would gender look like? We
don’t know for sure. What we do know, though, is that deviations from
the rigid, Euro-Amerikan-centered, patriarchal gender system would see
space for gender oppressed individuals to flourish rather than being
punished as they are in the United $tates.
The current rollback on transgender rights is alarming and dangerous,
but we can’t get caught up in simply attacking one axis of oppression
without attacking the whole thing – the dominance of the oppressor
class, epitomized in the world today by imperialism and in the United
$tates by national oppression (of which incarceration is a significant
part). Joining the anti-imperialist movement is the fastest path to
ending oppression of all people.
I would like to clarify terms or, perhaps better stated, to give
solidity to concepts. Those of us in these revolutionary spaces tend to
preach to those who are already converted who don’t need convincing. We
become a sort of revolutionary ghetto developing our own lingo so that
we become isolated and our movements incognito. An essential part of any
resistance is the ability to reach people, the common people, where they
are, and to do that they have to know what we’re talking about. So, what
does it even mean to protest? To resist? What is the best way to deal
with oppression? The proletariat (common people) need to know.
Protesting usually takes the form of taking to the streets en masse
to express grievance about an issue. An archaic definition of the word
is “to make known,” which protesting excels at, getting the word out.
The problem with this tactic is that it is the only tactic people, the
masses, are familiar with. Protesting is temporal in nature, it cannot
last forever, and every oppressor knows this. People come out, make a
lot of noise, but ultimately go home and go back to regular life.
Moreover, in the United States there are rules on how citizens are
allowed to protest, because protests have to be “peaceful” and “lawful”.
Note: anytime an authority is telling you how to “resist” them it is
because they know it will not work. Can a movement be effective while
following the rules of the oppressor? Any movement that tries to be
peaceful, unoffensive or otherwise not disruptive is still-born in its
inception. By nature, resistance is not peaceful. It will offend, and it
must disrupt the actions of those who seek to oppress you. Protesting is
a viable tactic, but we must recognize its limits.
Resistance is something different than a mere protest. Resistance
makes an all-out effort against whatever power is creating the negative
condition under which the people suffer. It does not marry itself to a
singular strategy or tactic. Rather, resistance is “by any means
necessary”. It can pick one tactic, use it, then switch to another
tactic. Resistance has the flexibility to change according to
circumstance. Resistance also has no time limit. It can last for months,
years and even generations before victory is won. Case in point: NATO,
which contains some of the world’s most powerful militaries, occupied
Afghanistan for 21 years. When they pulled out in 2021, the Taliban,
which had been resisting occupation for decades against military
superpowers, took the country within the month. From this example we can
learn some essentials of resistance. (1) It has no time limit. (2) There
must be the belief that victory is possible. (3) It must come from
ideology, not a mere trend. And (4), perhaps the most important,
resistance comes from self-sacrifice. When you make the decision to
align yourself against oppressive systems, take stock of the cost. Know
that your movement may well out-live you. You must believe what you’re
fighting for is not only righteous but also possible. The movement may
cost you time, money, status, relationships, even your life or your
freedom. You may not live to see the good you’re fighting for be
actualized. Will you put in the work anyway? For the sake of future
generations? If you are not able to pay the costs, this is not the right
place for you. Self-sacrifice is not for everyone. “Revolutionary
suicide” was the phrase the founder of the Black Panther Party
coined.
Power does not lose its grasp willingly. Power wants to proliferate
itself, to maintain its experience of control. It will not let go
without a fight. If you’re willing to keep resisting, not just merely
making noise in protest, then there is room at the table for you. And if
you’re serious about tomorrow’s work you will start wherever you are,
with whatever you have, today.
MIM(Prisons) responds: We agree with the righteous call
of Fred Hampton, “I am the proletariat, I’m not the pig”, as we too
fight in the interests of the international proletariat. However, today
we’d say the vast majority of people in this country are not of the
proletariat, and this is important for understanding the class interests
around us and how to organize those around us to be in line with the
proletariat, who are mostly located in Third World countries. And we
agree sacrifice is necessary, but everyone should get in where they fit
in. The movement’s success requires all levels of support.
Oakland, CA – Organizations came together on March 29
for a caravan from East Oakland to City Hall promoting the Artivists
Ending Hostilities (AEH) street program. Initiators included a number of
former prisoners who participated in the 2011 and 2013 hunger strikes in
California, as well as the organization of currently incarcerated people
P.E.P. Talk - Pre-Entry Platform. Former prisoners of CDCr spoke at the
rally on the need to bring the message of peace from the original AEH
(Agreement to End Hostilities) to the streets. Organizers distributed
and read the text of original AEH and a recent message from Cellblock 2
Cityblock.
Kat Brooks of the Anti Police Terror Project was one of the speakers
who really got to the heart of things:
“The state creates the conditions in our communities that they know
creates violence.”
Ey went on to condemn Amerikan koncentration kamps as a form of
violence, saying the carceral state is the most violent institution in
the world. Another comrade read from/paraphrased the intro of the Communist
Party of Aztlán’s essay on homelessness, making the connection that
homelessness is also a form of violence that we must come together to
end.
Of course, it is up to the oppressed to change our conditions. Youth
from Lulu’s House participated in the event, speaking on their own
recent transformations from petty criminals to active community members.
One said:
“We gotta push the movement too, it starts with us.”
While another pointed out:
“If you’re scared of the youth you’ll never understand them.”
One of the adults present who wasn’t scared to help these youth
change was a BART cop (Bay Area Rapid Transit). This “officer friendly”
approach is a well-known counter-insurgency strategy of the occupying
forces. They hire cops to do community work, who aren’t involved in the
violent repression work, but do intelligence gathering for the state
while helping to divide the occupied community.
Independence is one of the principles of the United
Front for Peace in Prisons for this very reason. There is no progress
towards liberation in the united front if it is working with the very
imperialist state that is oppressing us.
Minister King X echoed this principle of independence when speaking
about learning from the elders released from prison while the U.$.
government is smashing the Department of Education. We must learn from
the struggles of oppressed people.
Minister King
X was one of the MC’s and organizers of the event, representing the
Artivist Kadre trying to engage the youth and the oppressed in the
movement through artistic expression. Ras Kass was also there
representing the Artivist Kadre from Los Angeles. They were sporting
patches promoting the New Afrikan Revolutionary Nationalist (N.A.R.N.)
ideology and the AEH. The Artivist Kadre are working with P.E.P. Talk,
BOSS (another release support program) and others to address racism,
fascism, sex trafficking and more in California.
In order to prescribe the Marxist ideology to our Maoist thought much
needs to be understood. I believe there is a contradiction that exist
that’s unspoken here: race. There seems to be a strong emphasis
embraced on race as a “white” verses all other “non-white” races. The
contradictions that exist here are that the “white” race is the only
oppressor race. There is a huge historical analysis missing here if
MIM(Prisons) is going to promote such race politics in what is
fundamentally a human attribute that exists in all races of homo
sapiens. To include such a factor in any discussion that involves a
dialectical materialistic view of economy and government is destructive
to the revolution.
The revolution is to promote equality. Ideally I believe to my
understanding, an equality based on, “…each one according to their
needs.” With that understanding my question becomes, what is the
standard of equality on an international scale and how do we get
there?
“Race” has nothing to do with our dialectical materialistic analysis
because capitalism is based on only one color right now, green. The
color of the Amerikan dollar which is the world’s reserve currency! So
if MIM(Prisons) comrades are going to discuss economy, based on
capitalism, socialism, and communism through Maoist thought then speak
from the perspective of an economist. Or if it is government, then I
guess the contradictions need to be explored to define the nation
MIM(Prisons) looks to build because as a comrade I feel alienated based
on “race.”
Wiawimawo of MIM(Prisons) responds: You’ll be
hard-pressed to find MIM(Prisons) talking about race, since, as this
comrade points out, race is not real. The problem is, we talk about the
New Afrikan nation, or the Chican@ nation, and our readers think we’re
just using fancy words to talk about race.
Perhaps this is an example of us getting a bit ahead of the masses
here leading to miscommunication. Another comrade recently submitted a
long paper explaining what the New Afrikan nation was because they felt
new readers of ULK were confused by it. It’s interesting, since
we
adopted the term New Afrikan from the prison movement. But
goes to show how things have changed. We will be utilizing this feedback
to consider how we can improve ULK. But New Afrika is already
well-defined in our pamphlet Power to New Afrika, which our New
York comrade above has read.
Another source of confusion is that the imperialists will always try
to deny the nationality of the oppressed. It’d be hard to find someone
who doesn’t recognize Haiti
as a nation, because they fought and won their liberation in 1804.
Like New Afrika, they are a nation of people from all over the African
continent, with a sprinkling of Europeans, that were merged by force to
form a new nation. New Afrika has not yet won it’s liberation, so it
gets less recognition than Haiti does.
We agree with our comrade above that capitalism is motivated by
profits. Racism, and the idea of race itself, arose with the system of
capitalism. Though there were certainly other systems of caste and class
before. The United $tates of Amerika project was central to the
development of race theory. In fact, the internal semi-colony of New
Afrika would not exist without racial ideology that separated the first
slaves based on what continent they came from. So we may be one of the
last places to rid ourselves of this backwards way of thinking, it was
so important to what this project is about.
The comrade also asks about our vision for the future. Well we’d
suggest reading Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism
and other works by V.I. Lenin on the national question for background.
Because imperialism is a system of oppression/exploitation of most
nations by a few, we see the most important source of change, towards a
world of equality, to be found in national liberation struggles that
challenge that system; from Palestine to Aztlán. Decades
ago MIM put forth the theory of the Joint Dictatorship of the
Proletariat of the Oppressed Nations (JDPON) as a vision for how
socialism can be imposed on Amerika itself. This is because we don’t
believe a majority of Amerikans will support socialism at this stage.
This idea is also found in Lenin and in Chinese Maoist thought. At the
time MIM was discussing the carving up of what is now the United $tates
territory into a New Afrikan Black Belt, Aztlán for the Chican@ nation,
various First Nation territories. MIM also suggested that Amerika and
Kanada were one oppressor nation. Some of these ideas seem much closer
to reality today with Amerikan imperialism looking to incorporate
Canada, and California looking for separate trade deals with China with
popular support.
We have readers who say we’re anti-Black
for citing Marx, and readers who say we’re anti-white for applying
the ideas of Lenin. The reality is, all of these critics are too
brainwashed by the “white man” to see things beyond this racial lens.
Yes, the New York prisoner above we’re talking to you as well, you are
the one too stuck thinking in racial ideas, not us.
Now to be fair, this is the dominant thinking of our society. So we
must learn to speak Marxist truths that people stuck in imperialist,
racist thinking will understand. We also recognize that the oppressed
nations are more likely to be led to the truth. So we cannot avoid
alienating people who identify as “white” and generally should not try
to. These forces are either enemies of the revolution, enemies of
equality, enemies of communism, or will have to be won over in a later
stage of struggle. This is true because of their racial identities,
which are the subjective reflections of their material reality as
exploiters. Race is divisive – that’s why the imperialists have used it
for hundreds of years.