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.
A report from South Texas: In the wake of another mass shooting in
nearby Uvalde, the pigs and their masters are engaging in the usual
finger-pointing and recrimination but one thing is clear: the cops are
cowards who are quick to shoot unarmed people, but become conveniently
“policy-orientated” when they are faced with a disturbed young man
wielding an AR-15 assault rifle slaughtering defenseless children.
I’m not really in the habit of blaming the consumers of this toxic
system called “democracy”, but these poor children were already the
“walking dead” after only a few years in the classroom. The lame-ass
governor and the fascist Ted Cruz and their clique call it a “massive
system failure”, but those who have been paying attention will
immediately see the system works exactly as it was designed to operate:
the state of Texas is the NRA torchbearer but ranks dead last in mental
health treatment. In fact, the single biggest mental health care
facility in the state is Harris County Jail.
Those who are waiting for a legislative solution better stop dreaming
and open your eyes to the reality nobody is going to save us or free us
unless we liberate ourselves and that can only happen if we organize and
think and act strategically with our comrades and fellow
travelers. It all begins with educating ourselves and arming ourselves
with the necessary facts and tools to accomplish our goals and make the
world a better place.
Here in Texas among the prison class it’s a real challenge to create
solidarity as the cell blocks are constantly flooded with mind-numbing
substances along with the disputes and rivalries and materialism that
comes along with it. I’ve made very little progress in my effort to
“kill the ‘bossman’ in your head” – not actual physical violence,
but to actually banish the word “boss man” from our vocabulary
when addressing these pigs.
I’m attempting to show the direct line from slave plantations through
“convict leasing program” all the way to the modern system of mass
incarceration, and how the term “boss man” helps keep us linguistically
and psychologically in bondage. So we need to banish the term, thought,
idea of “boss man” from our hearts and minds if we ever want to be
free.
So my Juneteenth Freedom Initiative direct action is only days away
and I will be peacefully protesting the lie that “slavery was abolished
when in fact it’s alive and well in forced prison labor programs all
over the United Snakes of America. As you can see from the enclosed
denial forms, almost all your subsequent mailings have been denied. I am
appealing the censorship and will keep you posted. At this point I am
largely in the dark with regards to progress in other facilities, but I
ask your assistance in helping me to challenge this censorship. In the
meantime, I await further info/instructions.
PS: It is increasingly clear to me that so-called “Aryan” white
supremacist groups are expanding and enjoying cover from prison
officials. We need to focus on this and build Brown and Black
alliance/solidarity along with white fellow travelers (very few of
them), but I’m sure they are around. But my point is, these Aryan
reactionaries are tools of the state and should be viewed as such.
Recent headlines about “Right-Wing Domestic Terror Threat” are
propaganda designed to increase even more police/surveillance state
apparatus that will be used to control us, not them. That’s how
they justify this shit with headlines to “combat neo-nazi terrorists”
when in fact the plan all along is to keep their foot on our
necks.
The Movimiento Ibérico de Liberación (MIL) was an anti-capitalist
group consisting of both anarchists and communists that was active
between 1971-1973 in the fascist state of Spain under Franco. The group
was unique in that, unlike most revolutionary organizations, it was not
centralized. MIL did not believe that a centralized group could be
revolutionary. They insisted that a centralized group was synonymous
with a party and that a party could not achieve social revolution
because a party, by necessity, seeks to gain state power and then
strengthen its position. The strengthening of state power – any state
power – weakens the revolution.
MIL Line and History
MIL was internationalist in scope and honored the memory and history
of various class struggles around the globe. Including, but not limited
to: the Iberian class struggle, the Revolution of 333 Days in Hungary,
the November Revolution in Germany, and the Bavarian Council Republic.
They also had ties to anti-capitalist organizations outside of Spain,
especially in France. In addition to it’s internationalist practices,
they also collaborated extensively with other revolutionary
organizations in Spain (most notably the GAC and OLLA).
The main element of MIL’s revolutionary action was the expropriation
of funds from the capitalists through armed agitation. They would spread
the expropriated money around the anti-capitalist movement to help
further other clandestine operations as well as support worker’s
struggles, families of prisoners, and victims of the police. A good
chunk of these expropriated funds were invested in the library that MIL
helped create called the Ediciones Mayo del 37. The purpose of this
library was to publish and distribute revolutionary texts that could
help raise the political consciousness of the working class.
Another important aspect of MIL was its support of women’s struggles
against patriarchy. They claimed that any group that did not support
such struggles were not revolutionary, for it was impossible to fight
against capitalism and remain blind to the oppression and exploitation
of women in capitalist society. Therefore, any organization that did not
support women’s struggles were purposely ignoring their plight, and
thus, could not be called revolutionary. Furthermore, MIL advocated
revolution across all aspects of society: social, cultural, sexual,
familial, and political. Revolution is not partial to any part of
society; revolution effects society in its entirety. MIL did not
consider itself a vanguard of the revolution – in fact, they opposed the
very idea of a vanguard. Which is why they engaged in armed agitation
rather than armed struggle.
“‘Armed agitation’ is wholly different from the strategy of ‘armed
struggle’, in which a specialized group acts as the vanguard of the
movement by constituting the nucleus of a future army…serving as the
military wing of a clandestine political party…or by carrying out the
most spectacular actions and using its position to attempt to influence
and direct a mass movement…on the contrary, the groups that carry out
armed agitation understand themselves to be simply a part of a bigger
movement, increasing that movement’s capacity for communication,
self-defense, and self-financing by organizing and funding clandestine
printing, attacking the forces of repression, and expropriating money
from capitalists…They also seek to generalize their practice rather than
centralize it, distributing weapons among the lower classes and
encouraging the horizontal proliferation of armed groups.” (1)
The core reason why MIL was opposed to armed struggle and the
philosophy of the need for a vanguard was because they believed that
nobody but the proletariat could liberate the proletariat. The idea that
the proletariat needed an external group to lead or liberate them went
against everything that MIL fought for and believed in. The members of
MIL did not think of themselves as heroes of the people. They believed
that their role in the anti-capitalist struggle was to act in ways that
would help the working-class become politicized and then liberate
themselves. As mentioned previously, the way that MIL thought best to
achieve their purpose was through the expropriation of funds. By the
time that MIL dissolved in September 1973, they had expropriated 24
million Pesetas from capitalists.
Ultimately, MIL dissolved itself after it had reached a point where
the members could no longer consider their actions as revolutionary.
Although MIL opposed specialization they found that they had become an
organization that practiced specialization. They had done so
inadvertently by continuously engaging in armed agitation without
developing a political line that could explain and support their action
to the masses. Just as theory – political line – needs to be supported
by practice, so too does practice need to be supported by theory. The
lack of one diminishes the other.
Initially, a Congress was held by the members of MIL to seek a
solution that could save the group. In the end, they decided to
dissolve; in part because their actions had failed to inspire the
proletariat to engage in open class warfare. They decided that, at that
time, the working class was not sufficiently politically conscious and
that their main objective should be to politicize the masses through
propaganda until the time came when armed agitation was necessary.
Salvador Puig Antich
The most famous member of MIL was, by far, Salvador Puig Antich.
Salvador was born on 30 May 1948 in Barcelona. He began rebelling
against authority figures in his youth and was once expelled from school
for punching a teacher in defense of another student. Although he was
involved in the worker’s struggles in his youth, he did not engage in
revolutionary actions until he joined MIL during the summer of 1972. He
participated in his first bank robbery on October 21st of the same year
(acting as the getaway driver), and the action resulted in the
expropriation of 990,200 Pesetas from the Laietana Saving Bank. Shortly
after that Salvador began to carry a gun and go into banks himself.
He was a committed anti-capitalist who identified as an anarchist.
Although he didn’t join MIL until it had been active for a year, he
quickly became a prominent figure within the organization. He authored
several texts that were circulated among the members of MIL. The purpose
of these texts was to formulate discussion about various topics relevant
to the organization and the revolution.
On 25 September 1973 Salvador was in a shootout with the police.
During the altercation he was shot twice and one officer was killed.
After the incident occurred he was taken to the hospital to be treated
for his injuries; when he was determined to be in stable condition he
was transferred to Modelo prison to await trail. On 9 January 1974 he
was given the death penalty.
Although capitalists have attempted to portray Salvador as a
degenerate criminal, the truth cannot be denied: he was a true
revolutionary. He never denied his actions and always maintained that
everything he did, he did in the name of the anti-capitalist struggle.
His every action, his every thought, was centered toward the abolition
of the state and the state apparatus. He never capitulated. He stayed
true to the revolutionary struggle until the bitter end.
On 2 March 1974 Franco’s fascist state executed Salvador Puig Antich
via garrot vil [editor: a chair that is used to strangle people to
death]. He was 25 years old. Even though MIL did not develop a
sufficient political line and dissolved after only two years of
revolutionary action, it should by no means be forgotten. Both MIL and
Salvador Puig Antich have influenced countless people in Spain to engage
in revolutionary struggle. And, importantly, MIL advanced the theory of
the Labor Aristocracy in a time when few did. Even today few recognize
that in places like the United States of America, the proletarian class
has ceased to exist and a new class has risen in its place; a parasitic
class that benefits from the exploitation of the working class in the
Third World. This parasitic class is the Labor Aristocracy.
MIL on the Labor Aristocracy
The same day that Salvador was executed Oriol Solé wrote the
following from Modelo prison:
“In the United States, in Europe, under the rule of the superpowers,
the proletariat has disappeared. Society has engendered a new social
class that creates surplus, accumulates capital, and at the same time
grows bloated on the surplus generated by millions of wage workers in
the poor countries. A new class that builds itself a paradise paid for
with the blood of the exploited poor of Africa, Asia and Latin America.”
(2)
MIL’s line regarding the Labor Aristocracy was spot on, but several
of their positions were flawed. For example, MIL viewed a vanguard as
synonymous with a party and argued that any party would seize state
power and strengthen its position. They held that no party could be
revolutionary because the point of revolution is to abolish the state
and the state apparatus.
This is an anarchist view and cannot lead to revolution. The
anarchist believes that you should abolish the state and its apparatus
immediately. While their concern about a new power oppressive power
arising is a valid one, the communist recognizes the impracticality of
combating strong class enemies without a state power and acknowledges
that an intermediary stage between capitalism and communism is necessary
– this stage being socialism. The socialist stage gradually diminishes
until the state no longer exists. Only then can communism been
achieved.
Another flaw is MIL’s view regarding the vanguard. They did not
believe one was necessary and actively spoke against the creation of
one. However, history has shown us that not only do vanguards work, but
they are necessary to carry out a revolution. Three such examples are
the centralized vanguards led by Mao, Castro, and Lenin. All of which
carried out successful revolutions. Without their vanguards, those
revolutions would not have occurred.
Yet, even with obvious flaws in their political theory, the MIL
should not be thrown on the ash heap of history. Both MIL and Salvador
Puig Antich are famous in Spain for their revolutionary legacy. But they
are little known elsewhere. We should remember Salvador for his
revolutionary actions, beliefs, and ultimate sacrifice. He lived for the
people and he died for the people. Likewise, we should not let the MIL
fall through the cracks of history. In the two short years of its
existence, its actions shook the foundations of Spain, and surprisingly,
it did so without killing. The only death attributed to MIL was that
officer killed during the shootout with Salvador. MIL directly
contributed to the worker’s struggles and did not seek to control or
direct the proletariat for personal gain.
Every anti-capitalist revolutionary should remember Salvador Puig
Antich and MIL and celebrate their legacy every March 2nd – the
anniversary of Salvador’s death.
Salvador Puig Antich: Collected Writings on Repression and
Resistance in Franco’s Spain; by Ricard de Vargas Golarons; translated
by Peter Gelderloos; pg.16
ibid; pg.159
MIM(Prisons) adds: The story of MIL becoming
specialized when they opposed specialization echoes the lesson of Jo
Freeman’s The Tyranny of Structurelessness. This essay is
included in our study pack on organizational structure, for those who
want to dive deeper into the Maoist line on this topic.
While MIL grasped the economic realities of the imperialist countries at
an early stage of history, like many others they failed to answer the
question of how to organize for the end of oppression in these
conditions. This has been a question that many similar groups in the
First World took to similar conclusions, leading to dissolution. MIM
attempts to answer these questions by recognizing the fact that armed
struggle is not viable against a strong imperialist state, and the need
to be a mass-based movement. We cannot expect huge or flashy actions at
this stage of the struggle, and we must build the infrastructure and
educate the cadre for when conditions change. Time is on our side.
I began a Juneteenth protest in April on the 23rd. I went on hunger
strike on the 28th, but broke it 2 days later to get my strength up
after being threatened by Sergeant Couper.
19 May 2022 – I began a second hunger-strike for 8 days. On the 3rd
day of the strike, I was taken to a dirty holding cell in receiving –
with ants, no bunk, and poop caked up inside a broken toilet. I was only
allowed a bible, one sheet, and one blanket. They placed the old raggy
mattress on the floor where I was to sleep for the next 5 days.
No incoming or outgoing mail; no human contact; no offer of food; and
no vital-signs, weight, or sugar was checked (nurses documented false
reports). May 23rd, in medical, when the nurse asked why I wasn’t
eating, I told them, “because it’s ‘George Floyd Day’, Get Your Knees
Off Our Necks.”
26 May 2022 – I went on S.I.B. [self injury behavior watch] and was
given an even worse mattress that smelled of feces. No one checked on
me.
27 May 2022 – I was shipped to the Emergency Room at Central Prison.
A level-one bone-marrow cancer had intensified the damage to my body.
Some negotiations were made and I broke the fast. However, while I was
on the IV a nurse came in at shift change and snatched the IV out of my
arm and told me and my officers to get out.
One Month Earlier
April 23rd, I was attacked by Sgt Couper because I had asked for a
roll of tissue (I had been asking for 24 hours). Sergeant Couper said he
needed to search my room for tissues then pulled out his mace and tried
to find an excuse to mace me. When I cuffed up he resorted to violence
by snatching my arms all the way out the trap, then opened the door and
threw me head-first into the back wall, then applied torture techniques,
such as bending my fingers & choke holds, while tightening the
restraints.
I was eventually taken to receiving and left on the floor with the
restraints for 4 hours. I had lost feeling in my arms, wrists, and
shoulders.
Sergeant Couper continues to harass and retaliate against us;
intercepting grievance appeals and managing investigations for
disciplinary reports that he has officers fabricate against us. But “We
Reap What We Sow”. On 9 June 2022, he got served!
“Power to the People”
By the United Front “T.R.U.C.E.” of the People’s Army
T.R.U.C.E. (Teams of Revolutionaries Uniting to Combat the Enemy)
MIM(Prisons) adds: On 30 June 2022 there was a phone/email
zap to Granville Correctional Institution to support the strikers
and to call for an end to the physical abuse by Sergeant Couper. Staff
responded by saying that Warden Roach was not in that day to take calls
and that there was no physical abuse going on there. Emails to the
Warden and Director of Operations were not responded to.
I write this in an effort to educate and bring into understanding one
successful method of overcoming malfeasant administrators at their own
game when they write a fraudulent disciplinary case on you – even though
your actions fail to fulfill the elements of the charged offense while
the Agency staff lie in support. Utilizing the Time Lapsed Video (TLV)
camera footage evidence when cameras are installed on your unit.
In brief: After gaining authorization from the Floor-Boss I zipped
upstairs to another cell, delivering a legal document (E.D.-02.01 TDCJ
Ethics Policy) to an inmate. Within six second, I was back on the One
Row Run. The units O-3 (warden) confronted me upon my coming down
ordering me to return to my cell (we were being let out to go to
showers).
In the course of returning to my cell of assignment, I encountered
the Floor Boss going the other way. I asked him to inform 0-3 that he
had given me permission to deliver the document to another cell as we
passed each other. Three seconds later, this 0-3 came up from behind me
grabbing my wrist and puts handcuffs on me while proclaiming “I’m tired
of you ‘Mother Fuckers’”. While walking me the rest of the way to my
assigned cell: the 0-3 yanked the cuffs backwards, forward and
side-to-side in efforts to get me to go off – too smart for the 0-3: I
didn’t go off.
I immediately filed a grievance against this 0-3 for Non-Provoked
Aggravated Excessive Use of Force, implementing penal codes, PD-22
Rules, and E.D.-02.01 “TDCJ Ethics Policy” standards in slamming this
malfeasant warden.
Nine days later: following the 06-01 “Grievance Investigation Sheet”
was presented to this 0-3 the warden initiated disciplinary charges
against me claiming that I was Out-of-Place and Created a Disturbance.
Yeah, done in retaliation. Success demands that I be found guilty; and
my Grievance was shot-down by the unit’s 0-2 warden.
Thirty four days after the occurrence (the time limit is 30 days) the
administration illicitly ran this disciplinary case – taking four &
1/2 hours – where the C.O. I called as a witness in my defense was
blatantly compromised (suborned) by the 0-3, the charging officer. on
camera in front of me and several others.
After a 30 minute conference with the Hearing Officer: The C.O. came
and got me to return to the hearing officer’s office. Where the C.O., of
course, lied while supporting the lies of the 0-3’s that ensued.
At the hearing as well as in my grievance I repeatedly gave notice
that the TLV, when viewed, will show absolute support to all my
standings while revealing the malfeasance of this 0-3. At no time did
the disciplinary hearing officer view this TLV footage evidence. The
video was acknowledged, yet, misrepresented by my counsel.
Of course I was found guilty, maxed-out on the punishments, G-5ed,
and then I was shipped to another unit. Being the hardheaded individual
that I am, while knowing I am not guilty of the lies I was charged with,
I filed in the local Judicial District Court for an injunctive order and
successfully gained an order from the court directing the TDCJ’s
Executive Director to ensure that the TLV footage evidence of the
occurrence; with the suborning of the C.O. video, be preserved and not
done away with. The Court bench warranted me for this action.
By the time I finished processing back into the TDCJ the disciplinary
hearing’s guilty finding was – miraculously – overturned. Who’d of
thunk!?! Presently, in that same District Court, I have filed a Cause of
Action against the TDCJ Agency for retaliation. Naming each person
involved in this fraudulently run railroading of that case premised
solely on lies and retaliation. Naming each individual as “Persons of
Incident.”
You see, all too often, the TDCJ Agency will: in the course of
“Taking Case of Our Own,” intentionally ignore the TLV footage evidence.
Herewith, I have figured out how to force them to acknowledge the video
footage evidence as well as achieving accountability for their illegal
conducting: getting liability to duly attach on their heads.
The TLV cameras are there to record the truth. I here have opened the
door so many have overlooked. Use the cameras to reveal their
malfeasance in office. For a small donation I am certain that MIM will
be glad to forward a printing of the TDCJ E.D.-02.01. The Ethics Policy
is an extremely powerful Executive Directive when quoted in your
grievance. It scares them so much that they removed
it from the Law Libraries Holding’s list back in 2015.(1)
notes: 1. for a list of documents not being provided on the
law libraries holdings list, see Censorship of TBCJ, TDCJ Policies,
Procedures and Rules
Your last three mailings were denied by the mail room. The Last one,
received on 5/25/22 stated “Denied: one letter. Content inciting a
disturbance. DRC – non appealable list (offender cannot appeal).” The
next two denials arrived on the same day (6/6/22): “One newsletter and
one packet. Contains content inciting a disturbance.” I did appeal these
last two decisions.
Apparently, when a prisoner attempts to assert his rights, the mail
room calls it “inciting a disturbance!?” These are the same racist dogs
who can get away with denying me a photograph of my ten-year old nephew
who was innocently posing while making some silly hand signs, calling
that “gang related.” The kids are being kids and their hand signs have
absolutely nothing to do with gangs! Had it been white kids posing in
similar fashion, instead of calling it “gang-related,” these racist mail
room employees would’ve called the photograph “cute.”
These are the same racist muthafuckers who loved it – and applauded –
when that comic figure (D. Trump) was separating all the kids from their
parents at the border, you know, that as long as it is not their kids
who are being treated so inhumanely, they obviously do not care about
our kids, right!? And what’s so fucked up is that when the white ‘lady’
who delivers the denial papers arrives to our cell, she pretends like
she’s really upset that I would even want to receive these MIM
publications. She practically turns her back on me as if I were being so
un-American, or something!
But I have news for her, and anyone else of her ilk. I don’t want
part of anysystem that snatches babies out of the
arms of their mothers, or a system that allows their police forces to
murder people of color with impunity, while these same fuckin’ cowards
refuse to enter a school where kids are being massacred! And while the
trigger-happy cowards are quick to murder unarmed civilians,
none of the recent sick and deranged school shooters (or other
mass murderers) have been killed by police! Why not? Because the
cowardly police officers were “too scared” and chickenshit to engage the
“active shooters.” Plain and simple. And each time these police officers
take the stand at someone’s trial, where they will lie and perjure
themselves (as they are wont to do), they will recite their “highly
trained” credentials, but where are all these “highly trained”
credentials when the little kids in a school are being massacred and
need help?
And their “exceptional training,” without fail, goes out the window
when these same police officers take the stand, not only do they
(conveniently) “forget” vital details during vital parts of their trial
testimony, they lie about who handled what piece of evidence, whether or
not they used gloves to handle the evidence un-dated and un-sworn
“supplemental reports” appear out of nowhere to “assist” these liars and
“refreshen their memories” etc. And as the famous attorney Gerry Spence
once remarked (an attorney who has practiced law for over 50 years), he
has never been involved in a case where police did not lie or
plant evidence, or engage in some other illegalities, in other words,
like me, he has never met an honest cop! And like me, he’s not saying
they’re not out there, I just haven’t ever met one.
MIM(Prisons) adds: Outside supporters, please join our
campaign to protest censorship in Allred RHU. This censorship has ramped
up in response to prisoner organizing. This is politically-motivated
repression and it is illegal. You can call,
write a letter, or better yet print out our postcards and get others
to sign them to let them know what’s going on in Texas prisons!
This is my first issue of ULK (#77) and I am writing in
regards to the Suboxone and drug use within the prison system here in
Maryland. K2 and Suboxone are in high demand. They are the most popular
of all of the drugs here. I would say Suboxone is the most popular
because of the “trips” that come with the K2. It is my belief that they
allow drugs to come in for the money. They get the money for the urine
test, for the search task forces and the intelligence agents they use to
combat the contraband problem. And when they get the money, it’s
misappropriated.
A recent example of this was the wine sniffing dogs. It was a big
deal, it was all on the news. They played it up as alcohol was such a
big problem so they needed these dogs. But the crazy part is that I have
never seen a dog come through sniffing for wine. So where did that money
go? Honestly if a prisoner is making wine, he doesn’t have a lot of
places to stash it anyways. So there’s really no use for the dogs in the
first place. It’s all for the money. The prison staff are just making
shit up so that they can steal the money.
Now speaking on the statement made by the person from Allred’s RHU,
with the increase of contraband came a decrease in unity. That is one of
the major effects
of capitalism; division. Not only will debts drive a wedge
between debtor and supplier, but the competition between the peddlers
will create a divide because each dealer wants to monopolize the
sections. This will create beefs between gangs and organizations. Then
the increase in violence will only justify the prison’s request for more
money from the state. It’s the same way on the streets, the prison
system is just a microcosm of the streets.
Now let’s talk about the drain of ambition as an effect of the drug.
No longer will the prisoner seek self-developmental programs, nor will
he choose to blow the whistle on the prison system’s injustices. He
becomes content on doing dead time, with his Xbox, T.V., and tablet.
There are many issues that spawn from drugs. This is just the tip of the
iceberg.
Imagine a lawsuit attacking the constitutionality of the Texas Parole
System being filed in every U.S. District Court in Texas, by 100 or more
prisoners. Well this is exactly what the Khufu Foundation is attempting
to do. However, it can only be done with MASSIVE Prisoner participation.
The Texas Legislature does not meet again until 2023, and any hope of
them changing this system is slim to none. Thus, it is up to the
Prisoners to effect a change.
For the prison system to function constitutionally, there must be a
system in place that works. The continuous rejection of parole based
solely on the commitment crime does not justify the denial, and is
constitutionally unacceptable. Thus, the Khufu Foundation is calling on
those hundreds of prisoners who have been repeatedly set-off for 1D and
2D, SERIOUS NATURE OF OFFENSE and CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR PATTERN to file
Civil Rights Lawsuits for Declaratory and Injunctive relief.
Every human, town, state, and country has a History. History is a
fact that can never be changed, but redeemed. What is rehabilitation? It
is a redemption of a past history of conduct. The Texas Legislators
claim that incarceration “is the punishment” for the crime committed,
and the parole system is the rehabilitation. Yet, without a workable
parole system, without the intervention of “Board Members”, a prisoner
is continuously punished by the system which is unworkable. The fact is,
the Texas Parole Board needs to be dismantled and replaced with a
workable Parole System. The Khufu Foundation has compiled a Template
Lawsuit based on the following, along with a Memorandum of Law:
“While the U.S. Supreme Court has not defined the minimum process
required by the Due Process Clause for a denial of parole under the
California system, it made clear that the requirements were satisfied
where the inmates were allowed to speak at their hearings and to contest
the evidence against them, were afforded access to their records in
advance, and were notified as to the reasons why parole was denied.” –
see Pearson v. Muntz, 639 F.3d 1185.
I am the Plaintiff in the lawsuit against members of the TBPP, as
well as the litigator in another cause against them: Hicks V. TBPP,
6:22cv134 Armour V. TBPP, 6:22cv33 in the Eastern District-Tyler
Division. This is an update to enjoin each of you who read this and have
received multiple set-offs to file your own lawsuit and/or file motions
to join these. Also, know that there has been an order to Replead issued
in Armour v. TBPP with the Court alleging that TBPP is
protected by the Eleventh Amendment. Thus, I urge you to name Chairman
David Gutierrez and Rissie Owens as defendants.
I will be arguing that the TBPP is not protected by the 11th
Amendment in light of the Ex Parte Young doctrine, which states:
“In determining whether the doctrine of Ex Parte Young avoids an 11th
Amendment bar to suit, a federal court need only conduct a
straightforward inquiry into whether the complaint alleges an ongoing
violation of federal law and seeks relief properly characterized as
prospective.” Const. Amend.11 - See Verizon MD. Inc v. Public
Service Commission of Maryland, 535 U.S. 635, 122 S.Ct. 1753 and
McCarthy ex rel Travis V. Hawkins, 385 F.3d 407, 412 (5th Cir.
2000)
Next, please find enclosed my letter to the Court in F. Martinez,
et al., v TBCJ, et al., 3:21cv337. Please send a copy of my letter
along with my name to the Plaintiff in this cause for it is very
important that he not settle unless he gets something in writing from
the Court. TDCJ will rock one into believing they are going to do the
right thing; and they will do the right thing for just long enough for
you to think all is well until one of their people violates someone then
you find out there is nothing in writing that binds them. Examples:
Ruiz and Brown.
The Khufu Foundation is currently seeking to hear from those who have
been repeatedly set-off, and is asking them to file this lawsuit. If you
would like a copy of this lawsuit, send a SASE and 3 stamps to:
THE KHUFU FOUNDATION
910 LONEY ST.
FORT WORTH, TEXAS 76104
MIM(Prisons) adds: We do not know anything about the
Khufu Foundation and cannot vouch for them if you choose to send them
stamps. However, this campaign for parole reform is in line with some of
the demands of the Juneteenth Freedom Initiative and we thought some of
the legal strategies herein might be useful to others. We are not
lawyers. We are revolutionaries.
As revolutionaries MIM(Prisons) does not spend time working for
parole reform. We do work to build independent institutions such as our
Re-Lease on Life program to help comrades be successful and stay
involved in the struggle when they are released. If you have an upcoming
release date or parole date, it’s never to early to start working with
us.
I was impressed with the research behind the articles about Suboxone
in ULK 75 and 76. I first heard of this substance four years
ago when individuals showed up on the yard (at Richard J. Donovan) that
were using it. Someone I associated with informed me that it was like
methadone and that it was highly addictive. I know that guys here at
California Medical Facility are using Suboxone whether it’s prescribed
to them or not. In fact, illicit drugs of all types are available here,
even during the quarantine lockdown when there were no contact visits
allowed!
Also, this facility is holding a food sale to “raise money for the
Special Olympics.” The offering of a chicken sandwich, potato chips and
a cookie for $22.00 doesn’t seem like a good deal to me. Especially
considering that only a small percentage would go to the Special
Olympics and that 10% goes to the “Inmate Welfare Fund”. Is this a scam
or what!?
An article in San Quentin News on a similar fund raiser
reads:
“Prisoners spent $63,000 with 10% of the profits going to a
charity.”
I see these sales as another scheme to extract money from prisoners
and their families and friends and that the real benefactors for these
“charities” are the CDCR.
There is another article in the same newspaper on the GTL tablets
that are being pushed on us. I’ve read some of the specifications for
these tablets and they are of course cheap pieces of crap. They are
entirely dedicated to make GTL money pure and simple. How do companies
like GTL get away with it? Here is some key points from the article:
“GTL is the phone service provider for all CDCR prisons…. According
to Prison Legal News (PLN), GTL has had to pay out millions of
dollars to settle lawsuits over the years for alleged violations of the
Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 (TCPA).
“In October 2020 a New Jersey judge approved a $25 million settlement
agreement between GTL and New Jersey prisoners who paid up to 100 times
the actual phone rate between 2006 and 2016, according to
PLN.
“The company has also been sued for charging unlawfully inflated
prices for collect calls made by incarcerated people throughout the
U.S.”
MIM(Prisons) adds: We whole-heartedly agree with this
comrade’s assessment of these money-making schemes. We call this
extortion, prisoners are forced to pay higher prices for things because
there is no other option for them.
The Chik-Fil-A sandwich with waffle chips and a cookie that CDCR was
charging $22 for is about $8 on the street. They’re charging prisoners
almost 3 times the normal price! If $2.20 is going to charity, where’s
the other $12 going?
For more on the topic of tablets, see “A
Strategic Objective to Disrupt and Surveil the Communication Between
Prisoners and Our Loved Ones” in ULK 76. The article on GTL
tablets claims they offer “secure email”, which is a joke because we
know GTL and CDCR staff can read anything you send on those things. In
other cases, companies have charged prisoners for things like ebooks
that are free in the public domain. GTL loves it because they charge
prisoners extortion-level subscription fees for very restricted content,
and CDCR loves it because it increases the ease of surveillance. The
article also promotes the tablets as pacifiers, like suboxone, to keep
the prison population docile.
I’m just writing to say hi and thank you. I got my latest issue of
Under Lock & Key no.76. I love your newspaper even though I
don’t agree with a lot of the stuff you say about Suboxone. I’m on it
myself and there’s nothing to do in prison, so a lot of people use
drugs.
I had overdosed 3 or 4 times, but always had a celly who brought me
back. Then, I had a celly I stabbed so I no longer could have a cell
mate. If I were to overdose again I’d probably die. They started giving
us Suboxone and I stopped using heroin – I no longer want or need heroin
or meth or anything else. My suboxone is perfect.
Over my 10-plus years in prison, most drugs enter the prisons through
the cops, C.O.s, nurses, and other free staff, not visiting. I always
had and sold drugs, then when I got a couple pen pals and my family came
back into my life I stopped. Even the Prison Legal News noticed
during the pandemic a
lot of drugs were still entering jails and prisons even though there
were NO in-person visiting in a lot of states. But anyways, I love
your newspaper: keep up the great work.(1)
I’m sending you 7 more stamps – I’ll send them whenever I can. I know
you guys are a non-profit and can use all the help you can get.
MIM(Prisons) responds: We thank this reader for this
perspective. In past
articles, and again in this
issue, we address the spreading use and abuse of Suboxone in
prisons, both state-authorized and not. This occurs despite Suboxone
being marketed as a tool to help with addiction. Our point is not to say
that people who have found Suboxone helpful are wrong to use it or wrong
that it can help. But like so many drugs under capitalism it is
overly-prescribed, and abused widely without prescriptions in the black
market. This serves a couple interests: the pharmaceutical companies
profit interests, and the oppressors’ interest in social control.
We promote bigger solutions to the problem of drug addiction. Whether
Suboxone is a tool some people need in today’s world we have not taken a
position on. But we can say that through revolutionary organizing and
liberation from imperialism we can overcome, and virtually eliminate
drug addiction without the use of drugs like Suboxone.(2) As this
comrade says, many people do drugs in prison because there is nothing to
do. And things that people might be engaged in that would keep them off
drugs are often discouraged or punished, such as political organizing.
The comrade also found that being able to have basic social interactions
with people that cared about em also got em to stop using drugs. This
supports our position that long-term isolation is torture.
Another thanks to this reader for sending 7 additional stamps. July
4th is our annual Fourth of You-Lie fundraising campaign, where we ask
all of our subscribers that are able, to send us 7 stamps for their
annual subscription to Under Lock & Key. To say we are a
“non-profit” is a bit misleading as non-profits generally have grant
money and paid staff and such. We have none of that. Our “staff” is our
comrades who also fund all our work from our pockets. So yes, we can use
the help. And small contributions from lots of supporters is the kind of
mass base we need to make our work sustainable.
Texas has been overtly operating a slave trade for decades. You may
be surprised to know that people still wrestle with distinguishing the
difference between being incarcerated and being enslaved. This is why
after the countrywide prison demonstrations of 9 September 2016, Bennu
Hannibal Ra Sun of the FREE ALABAMA MOVEMENT said that he noticed a
dragnet pattern after 15 to 20 interviews where they kept asking why we
refer to incarceration as slavery. From that point on he required media
to read the 13th Amendment before he would allow an interview.
Incarcerated, Imprisoned or
Enslaved?
To be clear, incarceration is the act or process of confining
someone; imprisonment. To imprison simply means to confine (a person) in
prison. So far, we haven’t delved into treatment that would call for the
loss of the right to vote, bear arms, live in certain communities, adopt
a child or be forced to provide free labor.
Both incarceration and imprisonment utilize confinement as a form of
punishment. Slavery, on the other hand, is 1) A situation in which one
person has absolute power over life, fortune and liberty of another; and
2) The practice of keeping individuals in such a state of bondage or
servitude.
Here, the word servitude comes into play and involuntary servitude
is: The condition of one forced into labor – for pay or not – for
another by coercion or imprisonment. This is where you see that the
imprisonment is a means to the labor.
Under the first definition of slavery provided above was the usage of
a word that most only know to refer to a human being. However, according
to Black’s Law Dictionary, an entity (such as a corporation) that is
recognized by law as having the rights and duties of a human being is
the second definition of person.
We now know that slavery can be a scenario in which one corporation
has absolute power over life, fortune and liberty of a human.
The word corporation would usually bring to mind Amazon or Walmart
but those are small fish in a bigger pond. A corporation is sort of a
person and a government is a sort of corporation. The city/county you
are from was incorporated into your state which was incorporated into
the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA through its Articles Of Incorporation. This
is why the corporation, which is the U.S. of A. has an office for the
president, vice president, secretaries and staff members etc., who are
members of the EXECUTIVE branch of our governments which are
corporations that have absolute power over life, fortune and liberty of
others via their institutions of slavery.
Felons Are The New Niggers
As the author and educator Claud Anderson, Ed. D. stated on page 66
of his book Black Labor, White Wealth:
“Black enslavement must be a constant reminder of the ramifications
of a lack of collective unity, strength and self-determination.
It is incumbent that you come to discern that those who are
economically challenged are subjected to prosecutions at a far higher
rate than the upper class, imperative for us to acknowledge that though
those subjects are predominantly Black, as a class, they are
multi-ethnic and as such, convicted felons of all backgrounds have
become the new Blacks; ones relegated to niggerdom.
For example, in Texas in the year 2000, Latinos were nearly twice as
likely as whites to be incarcerated,(1) but shocking is the fact that in
2002 Latinos were a larger portion of new prison arrivals than either
Blacks or whites (33.9% Latinos, 32.8% Blacks, 32.2% whites)(2) yet
sadly, a smaller portion of the releases. They were going in at a higher
rate but coming out at a lower one.
These numbers for Latinos are alarming in light of how bad Blacks
were treated during the period from 1986 to 2000 where spending only
increased 47% for Texas Higher Education but a whopping 346% for Texas
Corrections.(3) This maneuver caused Blacks to be sent to prison 7 times
more than whites for drug offenses, making Blacks 81% of the whole
state’s prison growth for drugs.(4)
Additionally, the number of Black youth imprisoned for drugs during
roughly the same period rose by 360%, however, for young whites
imprisonment for drug offenses declined by 9%.(5) With that knowledge it
becomes apparent that the 360% increase in Black bodies was the Return
On Investment for the 346% accretion in correctional spending.
The result was that in 2003, Black Texans were incarcerated 5 times
as much as whites.(6) Texas had managed to have 66,300 Black males in
prison and only 40,800 in the Texas Higher Education system.(7) This,
regardless of the fact that in 2002 whites and Blacks, according to the
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, reported to
be dependent on a substance at similar rates. (9.5% of Blacks and 9.3%
of whites).
I say that this is a result because the increase in Black bodies to
the plantations ensured a decrease in their eligibility to become any
part of the legislature that makes laws or police officers, prosecutors,
grand jurors, trial jurors, parole or probation officers, judges or
justices.
On the flipside of that, and just as significant, is that if the
Black man and the law collide, the institution has created a system to
where as he interacts within the criminal justice machination there is a
lesser likelihood that the police he may come into contact with is
Black. Or the prosecutor who decides to charge him or the grand juror
who decides to indict him or the judge who calls the shots in the
courtroom or the trial jurors who convict him or the appellate justices
or the parole/probation officers; the last three who are in the business
of ”keeping individuals in a state of bondage or servitude”.
We went from being either a free (white) or enslaved (Black) man in
the slave era to being either an upstanding citizen or a convicted
felon, ethnicity be damned. The poor white and Latino populations, who
are more likely to be convicted than their upper-to-middle-classes, are
subjected to the same societal pitfalls and social stratification.
Niggerdom.
This is what Claud Anderson meant in his warning about not forgetting
about the lack of unity and strength during Black enslavement, if we
don’t bind together to stop this institution, the system will chain us
together to feed it.
Monopoly Money (All Around
The Board)
For all the prison stockyards that overpopulated Texas in the 1990’s
there were mainly two styles: a maximum security template that holds
three to four thousand prisoners and a medium security template that
holds around two thousand. So, whereas these prisoners couldn’t vote,
they became a part of the hosting county’s population, a sure
gerrymandering and census incentive for when the federal government
doles out X amount of dollars to districts based on population.
These prisoners are paid nothing though they produce many goods that
are sold. They are paid nothing but they spend millions of their
families’ dollars on commissary. There is only one place for prisoners
to purchase hygiene, food, correspondence materials and a few articles
of clothing, all of which are produced by prison labor, like shorts,
shirts, thermals, socks and shower shoes and then sold back to them at
exorbitant prices.
Prisoners who want to make a phone call are not afforded the luxury
of choosing a carrier. They provide free labor and their family spends
millions accepting overpriced phone calls contracted with a corporation
called Securus.
These prisoners can also receive emails and funds from their families
who Spend millions to send both through a company called Jpay
who is owned behind the same corporate veil as Securus.
Imagine if Walmart could lock its customers in the store. To hell
with a discount, they could price gouge and be certain that those
suckers would fight each other to get on the phone to have their
families send millions for them to buy every item in the store. They
wouldn’t be able to keep anything on the shelves, no matter that most is
of poor quality.
There simply isn’t a more loyal consumer base or promising commodity
where the institution has created for itself a way to circumvent the
free market to monopolize on the misery of the involuntary but free
labor force.
We, the Texas Liberation Collective, are not lost on the fact that
Texas has the expense of feeding and housing its prisoners because all
slave owners have had to do the same. All livestock has to be alive to
produce, be sold or traded. we are more focused on the fact that the
prison population of Texas exists by design. As stated in Part One of
this series, there was not a crime wave in the decade of the state’s
prison boom to account for the expansion of the slave state itself.
What we endured was a bull market in the stock exchange and guess who
orchestrated it? We could say that politicians and corporations were
responsible but it would be saying the same thing as the two are
mutually inclusive. State Senator Ted Cruz (R) works to advance the
interests of the corporation he works for, it’s called Texas and its
enslaved Latino population is of no concern to him.
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) has a subsidiary of
sorts called Texas Correctional Industries (TCI) which the Lone Star
State created in 1963 during the Civil Rights era. TCI is governed by
the Texas Board Of Criminal Justice (TBCJ) and has nine members who are
appointed by the governor, five of whom are currently lawyers.
Based on the legislative language that created the TCI, the board is
endowed with the authority to determine prisoners’ pay for their labor,
though to date they have opted for NO PAY and involuntary servitude:
“The board may develop by rule and the department may administer an
incentive pay scale for work program participants…Prison industries may
be financed through contributions donated for this purpose by private
businesses contracting with the department. The department shall
apportion pay earned by a work program participant in the same manner as
is required by rules adopted by the board under section 497.0581.”
If you’ve been told that some prisoners do earn wages if they work
for private companies through the Prison Industry Enhancement
Certification Program(PIECP) please be aware that the conversation isn’t
held without an exaggerated depiction. Truthfully, in 2017 though TDCJ
had over 145,000 prisoners, according to Jason Clark, TDCJ’s Chief of
Staff in 2019, there were only about 80 prisoners who were allowed to
partake in the PIECP, a number that was well below a waning one percent
of the Texas prison population.
The TCI sweatshops are dispersed throughout 37 prison plantations and
its free labor force – or free labor by force, shall we say? –
manufactures a plethora of goods from wooden state signs, license
plates, police utility vests and bedding, steel kitchenware, up-to-date
ergonomically designed office furniture, park equipment, security
fixtures, food service equipment and they also refurbish school buses
and computers, grow crops and tend to over ten thousand head of
cattle.
In the spirit of Texas, TCI’s total sales for fiscal year 2014 were
valued at $88.9 million, FY 2017 it was $84 million. Outside of the
minute headcount of laborers in the PIECP, the state makes these
hundreds of millions from the blood, sweat and tears of a
forced-into-labor labor force who is subjected to some form of penal
castigation should they refuse to relinquish their labor upon
demand.
The punishment may be a combination of the following
restrictions:
No access to the phones, no access to the recreation yard, commissary
restriction, cell restriction, personal property restriction, loss of
good time and/or work time credit, loss of visitation privileges, loss
of custody level which can result in being removed from general
population and placed in 21 or 23 hour lock down housing. Receiving any
of this retribution could result in being denied educational programs
and most significantly, parole.
Juneteenth and Dale
Wainwright
How ironic, yet not surprising, that Texas is shamelessly known as
the last state to free the slaves —— a disgraceful fact that spawned the
celebration called Juneteenth, its own holiday - yet they still haven’t
freed the slaves, thus deeming Juneteenth and its celebrators a
farce.
Texas and its misled sympathizers have no justifiable reason in
acknowledging Juneteenth today in the same spirit that the slave negroes
of the Frederick Doug- lass era had no justifiable reason in
acknowledging Independence Day.
Here, we dare raise other ironies but how ironic is it that just as
millions of slaves parted Africa from a slave port called Goree Island,
many of us enslaved here after inception and diagnostics were shipped to
and through a slave port called Goree Unit? But even more.sickening and
insane is that just as some Africans sold their own into slavery, the
TBCJ at one point was chaired by (Wait! I refuse to call this man Black,
but he is definitely…) an African-American!
That’s right, you eased on down the red bricked road to peek behind
the corporate veil to see who whitey was that refused to pay the slaves
and when you raised the curtain there stood Dale Wainwright celebrating
Juneteenth with a fat slave- raised burger. He made Texas history by
becoming the first African-American elected to the Texas Supreme Court,
but he will go down in history for being the Supreme House Negro of the
twenty-first century.
He was managing partner in the Austin office of Bracewell &
Giuliani, the firm where former NYC mayor and Trump prop-man Rudy
Giuliani is a partner.
Another former member, Eric Gambrell, contributed to the campaign of
and was appointed by Governor Rick Perry. He’s a corporate lawyer and
partner at Akin Gump, a large lobbying and law firm whose clientele has
included big dogs like Amazon, Pfizer and even the slimy privatized
prison giant formally-known as Corrections Corporation of America.
Whether you make them or break them, law is big business in the Texas
organizational construct and some of the biggest
capitalists.are…lawyers.
In Part One of Exposing The Lone Star Chamber (Of
Enslavement) we detailed how district attorneys bypass and usurp
the authority of Texas grand juries to rubber-stamp what is purported to
be an indictment but fails to constitutionally vest a district trial
court with subject-matter jurisdiction. Thus, the lives that filled the
stockyards were kidnapped under the watchful eyes of congress and
company.
Here, we have hopefully assisted in helping you know slavery when you
see slavery in the same way that you would know that a pig with lipstick
on is still a pig.
In Part Three of this series, we will examine some intricate details
of the Texas slave trade and question how in the age of Black Lives
Matter, the age of Prison Lives Matter, and with all the professed
social and criminal justice warriors and reformists, the Lone Star
Chamber continues to broker these bodies shamelessly and
unchallenged.
Until now!
MIM(Prisons) responds: We welcome comrade Ice
Immortal Askari to the pages of Under Lock & Key. This
well-researched piece touches on some recurring themes in our
newsletter. The first is the interplay of class and nation in the U.$.
prison context. As our comrade points out the disproportionate
targetting of New Afrikans and Raza, as well as First Nations, by the
injustice system, ey sees prisoners of all nationalities in the same
boat. This is generally our line as well, we must unite the imprisoned
lumpen class across boundaries. But we also must recognize the
particularities of different nationalities in this country, and
recognize the importances of national liberation struggles in the
dismantling of U.$. imperialism.
The author defines slavery as:
“1) A situation in which one person has absolute power over life,
fortune and liberty of another; and 2) The practice of keeping
individuals in such a state of bondage or servitude.”
The author attempts to distinguish slavery from imprisonment. But we
find this distinction not useful as the expressed purpose of
imprisonment is to impose state control over the lives of individuals
deemed to have committed a crime. The American Heritage Dictionary
provides one definition of slavery as, “A mode of production in which
slaves constitute the principal work force.” This is a simple summation
of the Marxist definition. We’ve written extensively on this question of
prison slavery in the past. And a new summary of our research on prison
labor and economics will be available in the next edition of The
Fundamental Political Line of the Maoist Internationalist Ministry of
Prisons. In short, the motivation for imprisonment is not profiting
off of prison labor as was the motivation for slavery in this country or
any other country in the world.
The realm of prison labor is a realm where tactical action and
organizing can occur. We agree that it is important to the running of
these institutions and as such can be used as a means of exerting
political pressure.
Telling people they must cook or clean to help maintain the facility
they are living in is not an injustice. Having people do productive
labor as part of the punishment for a crime against the people is not an
injustice. The injustice is who is being put in prison, and for what
reasons, and how they are being treated in there.
Amerikans oppose prison labor for the same reason they oppose
migration, they don’t want to dilute their inflated wages. So we caution
those in the prison movement who try to unite with the labor aristocracy
on this issue, when they have consistently stood with the cops and the
prison unions throughout history. As we unite along common class
interests in prison, we must recognize that our support base on the
streets is in the national liberation struggles of the oppressed.
Notes: 1. Coyle, Michael J. Latinos and_the Texas
Criminal Justice System: NCLR Research Brief. (2003) Washington, D.C. :
National Council of La Raza 2. Findings Of The National Council Of
La Raza – (NCLR) 2003: Racial And Ethnic Minorities Over-represented in
the Criminal Justice System 3. Cellblocks or Classrooms, The Justice
Policy Institute (2002) 4. Findings Of The Justice Policy Institute
– Analysis of the National Corrections Reporting Program on Race and
Drug Admissions in Texas (2003) 5. Findings of the Steward Research
Groups – Commissioned by the NAACP Texas State Conference and NAACP
voter Fund 6. Findings of the Justice Policy Institute – Analysis of
the National Corrections Reporting Program on Race and Drug Admissions
in Texas. 7. ibid
