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.
by a North Carolina prisoner September 2021 permalink
On 15 September 2021 twenty four prisoners declared hunger strike at
Foothills Correctional Institution in North Carolina. By 2PM the
administration locked up 3 comrades. Me and another comrade stayed
fasting.
They only give us phone once a week; no yard in a month; and less
than 2 hours of recreation per day. Basically we’re in segregation for
no reason. I reflect on these b.s. measures, then I asked myself why and
how does this opre$$ion end?!
“Why are the battles endless?! Why the Us vs. them?! Why is the Earth
CRYING ?!”
In regards to the article by a Texas prisoner “Stimulus Checks are
being stolen by TDCJ-CID”, well Texas isn’t the only state with such
tricks up its sleeve. Last week the great snake of Arkkkansas done the
exact same thing, however, they turned right around & put the money
back in prisoners’ accounts after being met with resistance by means of
grievances. Quite often they’ll try to pull a caper simply just to see
if they can get away with it. Point: Utilize the grievance process.
MIM(Prisons) responds: Right on to the comrades in
Arkansas who stood together to grieve this issue. As we say, there are
no rights, only power struggles. Just because the law says they can’t
take your stimulus money doesn’t mean they won’t. A comrade in
California has drafted sample grievances and raised the money to
distribute them to comrades who haven’t received their stimulus money in
that state. We’ve also been hearing from more comrades in Texas and in
the Federal Bureau of Prisons who continue to fight this battle. Because
we are getting so many requests, here are some FAQs from
https://www.taxoutreach.org
Will the amount of my second stimulus check be reduced if I
have overdue debts in prison?
Unlike your first stimulus check, your second stimulus check has
greater protection from garnishment. Like the first stimulus check, your
second stimulus check is protected from back taxes or federal and state
debts. In addition, the second stimulus check is also protected from
debt collection. That means that federal and state prison cannot reduce
the amount of your second stimulus check to pay overdue debts.
Will the amount of my third stimulus check be reduced if I
have overdue debts in prison?
It is unclear whether your third stimulus check will be reduced to
pay certain prison fees or debts. We will update this page once we have
more information.
What happens if my stimulus check was sent as a debit card
instead of as a check?
The IRS sent a letter to prison officials that if debit cards
couldn’t be processed at your prison facility, prison officials have to
return the debit cards to the IRS fiscal agent at:
Fiserv
Attn: RAPID
1007 North 97th Circle
Omaha, NE 68122
The debit cards will be voided and you will have to claim the
stimulus checks as the Recovery Rebate Credit by filing a 2020 tax
return or using GetCTC.org if you don’t have a filing requirement.
Previously I argued that taxpayers are not responsible for government
capital policy because they are ignorant. My error was pointed out to me
and now I see the truth – the January 6th rioters showed me that they
are willing to fight for my oppression therefore their ignorance is
irrelevant – they are indeed more responsible than I assumed, therefore
I must ignore my compassion for their humanity as unnatural as that is
for me. The object is more important than the subject.
When evaluating responsibility, it is tempting to be blinded by the
subject. For instance, government officials are directly responsible for
enforcing capital policy. However, collaborators often look like our
neighbors, friends or even family. These collaborators will support
& encourage oppression & tyranny out of ignorance or out of a
callous heart. Ignorance cannot be excused if freedom is ever going to
be won. When the object of freedom becomes important enough all barriers
must fall, even if that means forcing ourselves to do what is not
natural.
Rights are never granted, rights are won. Unfortunately, this
includes basic human rights such as freedom. To win freedom from the
tyranny & oppression that comes with a capitalist economy, the
opposition must fall. This necessity does not come naturally, that is
because the values instilled in our youth are instilled by capital
policy (submission), these values are what allows capitalists to steal
your freedom. We must relearn a greater value.
There exist those that will take more than one has to give, that is
what capital is (inequality). There is only so much resource & for
one to have more than one needs he/she has to deprive another of what
they need. For one to be rich, one must be poor.
As I watch the January 6th investigation, one thing is clear. That is
the effort was weak. I think that is because the rioters knew in their
hearts that they were fighting for the exploitation of an oppressed
class. Ironic that they choose to capture the Capitol Building in order
to keep their capital wealth at the expense of the oppressed class.
For those of us that are fighting for freedom, We will not make a
half-hearted effort because it is our very survival that we are fighting
for. We are not fighting for material wealth because we have none.
Because our oppression is total & complete then so is our fight for
freedom.
We will not fight for one building, not even for one city, or one
country. We are fighting for equality. We will not stop until all
opposition is fallen. Our fight comes from the heart & that is why
it is stronger than the January 6th fight for material wealth.
The difference is that I am sick & tired of being oppressed so
that another can live lavishly. The difference is that unlike the
January 6th rioters I am not here to have a big party with a bunch of
friends at the Capitol Building – I am here to win my freedom and to
fight for the freedom of all oppressed people and I will not stop and
lay down, I will never stop!!
That is what Marx means by permanent revolution, we must never stop
fighting because the very moment we relax is the moment the exploiters
continue to exploit as they have always done. Sun Tzu said we can “never
leave an enemy on the battlefield.” If we do they will come back
again.
As communists we must know our enemy is the object and not the
subject. Compassion can blur our vision of the object and it is in these
moments I must remember that the capitalists never had any compassion
for the oppressed.
MIM(Prisons) adds: This point is relevant as Amerikans
remember the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade
Center and the Pentagon, and Afghans sigh in relief as the invader of
their country pulls out. Professor Ward Churchill took a lot of heat for
quoting Malcolm X on chickens coming home to roost after 9/11 and
referring to Amerikans as “little Eichmanns.”(1) Adolf Eichmann was a
Nazi in Germany who ran logistics for the system of concentration camps
there. He was captured years after the war and in his trial claimed he
was just following orders, just a cog in the machine, and should not be
blamed for the deaths caused by that machine.
Since the end of the second imperialist war, the Amerikans have run
the largest system of concentration camps in the world. While they lack
the mass murder of the Nazi system, they are genocidal nonetheless
against the oppressed nations that make up the majority of the
prisoners. The day will come when Amerikans will be charged for their
decades of crimes against humynity. Our success at building
anti-imperialism and accountability in the United $tates today will ease
the transition to a more just future on these lands.
The most recent killing of U.$. troops in Afghanistan on 26 August
2021 marks the deadliest day in over a decade for the imperialists in
that country. It also makes two points quite clear. First, the once
reviled Taliban has negotiated a deal with the United $tates in which
they regained control of their country in exchange for cooperation
against organizations like ISIS(K) who’ve claimed responsibility for the
attack. The explosion took the lives of thirteen U.$. soldiers.
ISIS(K) is just one of over twenty armed groups in Afghanistan that
pose a threat to Taliban rule. However, the main incentive for the
Taliban’s allegiance to U.$. imperialism seems to be the Afghan economy
which the Taliban inherited once the “democratically elected” government
of Afghanistan realized that U.$. imperialism would no longer prop them
up.(1)
Second, Chican@s continue to account for a substantial portion of
Amerikan occupation forces in the Third World. Statistics in recent
years have shown Chican@s continue to be a growing source of foot
soldiers for the Amerikans.
The attack on U.$. troops came just three days before the fifty-first
anniversary of the hystoric Chican@ Moratorium. Contrary to what various
sell outs, integrationists and those who’ve simply been kept in
ignorance have to say about the matter, the moratorium was not about
civil rights or equality. Rather, the moratorium was an exercise in
power by Raza who attempted to deprive the imperialists of Chican@
troops in their war of colonization and attrition in Vietnam.(2) Thus,
it is both heartbreaking and sickening to see that so many years after
the last real upsurge against U.$. imperialism in the semi-colonies,
Chican@s continue to sacrifice and be sacrificed for the oppressor
nation. If Chican@s are to live and die for a cause then it should be
for Aztlán, the international proletariat and socialism. August 26 was
yet another example of what happens when we fail to organize the
oppressed – the imperialists organize them for us.
While four of the thirteen soldiers killed at the Afghanistan
International Airport that day were Chican@s born and raised in occupied
Aztlán, it should be noted that at least two other fatalities had
Spanish surnames.(3) That said, it is still important to note that the
attack was a blow against U.$. imperialism by anti-imperialists in the
region, and for that we should be appreciative, not horrified. Our
sympathies should be with the Afghan family who lost their lives in the
U.$. retaliation drone strike and the rest of the victims of the ISIS(K)
who were caught in the crossfire on August 26. Chican@s or not, those
U.$. soldiers chose their own destiny when they decided it was okay to
travel halfway around the world to further oppress an already oppressed
population.
It is not far-fetched to envision a reality in which Chican@ youth
strive to live and die for Aztlán liberated and free. The development of
material conditions will be crucial in this regard, but it will be the
struggle of revolutionaries and the masses of turned up youth that will
be principal. We should not let the fact that Amerika’s longest war has
come to an end deter us from the urgency of organizing the oppressed
nations for liberation and against U.$. militarism. “Raza Si, Guerra
No!” should be one of many political slogans that we champion in the
bi-polar world that is life under imperialism, as Amerikkka’s designs on
the African continent promise to become an even bloodier killing field
in the years to come.
Notes: 1. The PBS News Hour, 27 August 2021. 2. A
MIM(Prisons) study group, 2015, Chican@ Power and the Struggle for
Aztlán. (available to prisoners for $10) 3. KTLA 5 News, 27 August
2021.
Any pig that enjoys punishing citizens who even think about resisting
arrest or even ‘looking funny’ at him should move to Corruptarado (as we
call this state) and go work for the Denver Pig Department.
Per an 11 August 2021 article in the Denver Post, “Denver
paid $1.1 million settlement to police officers fired after beating
unarmed man, records show,” two pigs that severely beat a 23 year-old
Latino man in 2011 were fired, but as part of the ‘deal,’ were paid
thousands of dollars in exchange for agreeing to never work for a pig
department ever again.
But wait. The pigs sued, claiming they should have not been fired.
After a ten year battle, the Colorado Supreme Court allows this Colorado
Court of Appeals ruling to stand. A ruling for the pigs.
So … one of the pigs got $420k, and the other got almost six hundred
grand from the City and County of Denver. City officials said “We are
acutely aware that this result means that the officers essentially
escape the consequences of their conduct.” Ya think?
No doubt pigs around the country smile when they read of this
decision. Maybe many of them will now be sending their job applications
to the Denver Pig Department, home of the pigs with 007 licenses to
kill.
This is in reply to the article “An
Ongoing Discussion on Organizing Strategy”, which appeared in
ULK 73. In it, the author labels the following statement as
incorrect and unscientific:
“From an organizers perspective, [struggling for quality-of-life
reforms such as increased phone access] are not battles which we can
effectively push anti-imperialism forward, much less MLM…”
The author cites a failure to apply the materialist dialectic, or the
‘science’ behind scientific socialism, to the situation at hand. When
viewed in isolation and out of its proper context, the conclusion that
they have reached would certainly be a commonsense position to take. And
as they write a little further on:
“How can we then deem that prison struggles aren’t aligned with
anti-imperialism?”
Yet if the quote being critiqued were analyzed in its totality, we
can begin to see more nuance and why such a statement was made in the
first place. So to continue where the partial quote left off:
“…without veering into reformist practices of little tactical or
strategic value. I am aware that arguments of principle can be
mounted to the contrary, but absent a practicable, totalizing
strategy for revolution domestically being put forward by an MLM
organization that is actionable in the here-and-now, we cannot
effectively utilize many of these prison struggles as a proper
springboard to corresponding actions in other areas, actions which do
not translate into long-term pacification which benefits their prison
administration in an objective, cost-to-us, benefit-to-them analysis. If
we cannot muster the resources and external manpower to mount a facility
or state-specific campaign for a tactical reform to push our agenda and
continually imprint firmly in the minds of all incarcerated that we have
their best interests in mind, it may be advisable to abstain from
participation lest credit for the reforms go elsewhere and become
politically-neutered, or, worse yet, the system co-opts the struggle as
its own and touts its successes (ie. The First-Step Act). Otherwise, we
are gaining no more than sporadic traction amongst those we are
attempting to revolutionize, and then only of a transient nature.”
(emphasis added)
As mentioned earlier, there is a nuance to the position I have taken
that is obscured in comrade Triumphant’s approach to mounting an
argument on principle, and that in itself constitutes an incorrect and
unscientific approach to proper discourse. Quoting someone out of
context may buttress a particular argument or agenda, however arguments
begin to lose their strength when quotations are re-situated in their
proper place. You ask, ‘how can we then deem that prison struggles
aren’t aligned with anti-imperialism?’, but who has or where has such a
view been advocated in the first place for this allegation to be made?
As you can see, the position put forth in the original commentary
advocated not an abandonment of revolutionary struggle within prisons
but rather its placement within a more explicitly revolutionary
framework. Refining our approach does not imply an abandonment of all
struggle just to focus on study.
It is agreed that the materialist dialectic can be applied in all
manner of social phenomena, and the Amerikan injustice system and the
struggle between prison staff and the captive population are no
exception. But the real question is, should it be applied in
this particular instance in the manner which the Team One Formation,
K.A.G.E. Universal and others have done thus far – that is, pushing for
minor reforms largely divorced from a wider revolutionary
anti-imperialist agenda resulting in pacification once concessions are
made? I would argue that advocating for these various minor reforms to
address the prison masses immediate needs can be classified as
(presupposing these formations desire revolution or claim communism as
their goal) right opportunist deviations.
Right opportunism is an error in practice that occurs when an
organization attempts to embed itself in the masses and in doing so
gives up a clear revolutionary program in the interest of fighting for
immediate demands. This leads to economism/workerism (or in this case
‘prisonerism’), which is the purview of reformism: solely focusing on
economic demands (economism), or the demands of prisoners.
You write that “quality-of-life reforms are connected to the strategy
of cadre development.” Now can experience be gained in how to train
cadre and organize people while doing this? Sure, but similar things can
be argued about improving one’s marksmanship and related skills acquired
while employed as a cop too. While a rather extreme analogy, what I am
getting at is that productive skills can technically be derived from
incorrect practice. Yet the question for both scenarios remains the
same: Is there a better methodological approach to training cadre?
It is a laudable desire to want to avoid being all ‘study’ and no
struggle, but if ‘struggle’ leads a group to avoiding, obscuring or
watering down their politics in order to attain their demands, then that
is not getting us any closer to our desired results. As MIM(Prisons)
notes:
“We can also say that only focusing on the reformist campaigns,
without the larger goals, is not going to change anything in regards to
ending oppression and injustice.”
It is encouraging to see that in consequence of previous organizing
experience comrade Triumphant has pledged to focus on “reorganizing of
the TX Team One under a clearer program and a better understanding of
what our strategic and tactical goals are.” This statement also aligns
with what this comrade wrote in the November 2020 USW organizing update
in reference to the reformist practice of the Prisoner Human Rights
Movement (PHRM):
“unless anti-imperialist, revolutionary nationalist and/or communists
take hold of this movement and see it as a tactical operation instead of
a be-all end-all and thereby re-center the movement, it may only further
‘Amerikanize’ the (only) vastly-proletarian revolutionary sector of
society we have (lumpen in prison). That could occur if cats become
pacified with all these tokens and reforms that have been struggled
for.”
But just because we re-center a movement along these lines and dress
future demands to the state in sufficiently ‘revolutionary’ language to
avoid the perception of reformism does not mean that we are actually
avoiding these same pitfalls.
Here I will argue that even with an explicitly revolutionary program
guiding us in the struggle for tactical reforms, we can still be
susceptible to a sort of unwitting crypto-reformism if our struggles are
not chosen very carefully and with the correct tactical,
strategic and narrative approach. In the original commentary I wrote
that
“we should not be trying to ‘improve’ Amerikan prisons, much like we
should not be attempting to cut a bigger portion of imperialist profits
from Third World super-exploitation for the lower class, yet still
relatively privileged, citizens of empire.”
This statement meshes with your desire not to have strictly-reformist
campaigns “further ‘Amerikanize’ the (only) vastly-proletarian
revolutionary sector of society we have.” Of course our current approach
differs strategically from the reformists but, noble intentions aside,
it is still having the same overall effect in practice: we are
inadvertently pacifying individuals, making them complacent sleepwalkers
again. You may probably think: ‘Bullshit. We are teaching the masses
not to fall for any old reform, that these are ’tactical
maneuvers’,etc. And you may very well be able to indoctrinate a core of
cadre to hold strong to a political line which promotes this view.
However, if we view matters through a historical lens, when concessions
from the state were achieved via a revolutionary stage of struggle these
victories largely blunted the sympathetic masses desire to seek further
redress by way of revolutionary means. Whether that be (to cite a
non-Maoist, yet anti-capitalist example) during the peak of IWW
organizing a century ago, the transient successes of the
anti-revisionist New Communist Movement era or our current campaigns to
‘Abolish the SHU’ and ‘Release the Kids in Kages.’ Our ‘successes’ end
up serving as a pressure-release for many and creating a ‘kinder,
gentler machine-gun hand’ for our opponents to use against us, akin to
replacing the arrogance and political incorrectness of Trump for the
soothing reassurances of Biden.
From the commentary of the same USW organizing update from November
2020, you write that
“from an anti-imperialist perspective, the PHRM is only a tactic, a
means to an end. That end being, sharpening the contradiction between
oppressed and oppressor nations, and advancing the oppressed aspect of
that contradiction.”
But how do we really expect to sharpen the contradiction between
oppressed and oppressor nations and advance the oppressed aspect of that
contradiction if we are actively participating in the lowering or
resolution of the contradictions which heightened tensions in the first
place? There is a periodic ebb and flow of the revolutionary tide in
this country; why do we by way of our current tactical, strategic and
narrative approach inadvertently help turn an upswing into a downturn?
Of course the inherent contradiction in (note:their) Amerikan
society will never truly go away absent revolution, but we are in the
meantime attempting to apply balm to their societal problems
and in effect delay its arrival.
Circling back to the arguments put forth in ‘An Ongoing Discussion on
Organizing Strategy’, you bring up a good question when you write
that
“the real crux of the issue, as it pertains to linking a totalizing
revolutionary strategy, lies in practical experience gained by the
masses in asserting their collective power. For, how will we seize state
power if the people lack the strategic confidence to assert their
power?”
As my position does not advocate pushing for more quality-of-life
reforms even if there happens to be some positive by-product in cadre
development, my reply to this question is that we should re-orient our
tactics, strategy and narrative approach to the masses by
over-emphasizing self-reliance and independence-mastery on the
road to communist revolution. Therefore we should largely abstain from
trying to prevent erosions of their bourgeois legal rights such as
affirmative action, LGBTQ rights, abortion access, etc. and, if we are
to engage in any tactical reforms to begin with, instead focus on
opposition to proposals to place limits on magazine capacity, bans on
assault rifles and other perceived or actual threats to their 2nd
Amendment and other measures which will aid in our ability to maneuver
and take them down when the time comes. This of course does not
mean that we don’t support LGBTQ rights or abortion access, but fighting
for their (re:Amerika’s) civil liberties and other bourgeois
rights keeps many, including some well-meaning comrades, from seeing the
bigger picture: Let their country go to hell. The Amerikan
government will not become any less imperialist by advocating for more
rights for more people within U.S. borders and it is debatable that we
are contributing to anything more than a temporary weakening of
imperialism domestically. If anything we are contributing to its further
consolidation under the guise of new exploiters with more varied
genders, orientations and skin tones.
Our cadre and the masses will gain practical experience and strategic
confidence in their power by continuing to focus on construction of
independent institutions, not making demands of an illegitimate
government to provide redress. In the prison context, I repeat: “if we
are to engage in any prison organizing, then censorship battles
concerning our political ideology, the UFPP and the Re-Lease on Life
programs should take center stage… As for our comrades who do not have
the luxury of a release date, or have sentences which essentially
translate into the same, their best hope for release lies not in reforms
but with an all-sided MLM revolutionary organization planning their
release through eventual People’s War.”
Bypass the reforms which do not help us either strengthen our
party/cell formations, build independent institutions for the people or
hasten People’s War.
Say ‘NO’ to negotiations; focus on revolutionary-separation and
self-determination.
Wiawimawo of MIM(Prisons) responds: I want to thank
Triumphant and S. Xanastas for their thoughtful articulations on this
topic. And i hope that printing these in ULK are helpful to
others in thinking about how to organize effectively under the United
Struggle from Within banner or on the streets.
In my many years of working on this project i would say this two-line
struggle is really at the heart of what we do. Of course, how we walk
the line between ultra-left and rightism is always at the heart of those
deciding strategy for a communist movement. But these comrades address
this question in our context today in the United $tates and in the
context of organizing the First World lumpen and engaging in
prison-based organizing.
In all contexts, going too far left means isolating ourselves from
the masses and going too far right means tailing the masses and
following them into dead ends. Therefore finding the correct path also
requires determining who are the masses in our conditions. If we did not
agree on who the masses are then we could not have this discussion in a
meaningful way. Since we do agree, this is a two line struggle within
our movement. With that frame I want to quickly address a couple points
brought up here.
First, I think the strength in Triumphant’s argument is not in the
skill-building of the individual cadre leaders as organizers, which
arguably could be found elsewhere, but rather “in practical experience
gained by the masses in asserting their collective power.” Triumphant
also talks about the importance of the tactical battles in “increas[ing]
the collective practical experience of contesting the state as a united
body.”
S. Xanastas’ suggested program echoes closely to what Narobi Äntari’s
calls for comrades to do upon release. And they echo much of
MIM(Prisons) focus, especially in more recent years. Yet, i pose the
question: can building the Re-Lease on Life and University of Maoist
Thought programs mobilize and reach the masses in the same way as the
campaigns making demands from the state?
And one final point, is that MIM always said the principal task was
not just to build independent institutions of the oppressed, but also to
build public opinion against imperialism. Isn’t a campaign exposing the
widespread use of torture in U.$. prisons an undermining of U.$.
imperialism regardless of the maneuvers the various states make to cut
back on or hide their use of long-term isolation? Or should we focus
solely on the Third World neo-colonies and expose U.$. meddling in
Ethiopia, Cuba and Haiti?
Each day, I observe my fellow captives. I then sit back, and
contemplate the “why’s” of our collective ills.
Firstly, the CT captives do not get basic prison protocols; i.e. Do’s
and Don’ts! In my now, 2+ years of being imprisoned in CT, I can
truthfully say that I now know what “defeat” looks like! A majority
Afrikan & Latin@ populace whom have given up any thoughts of
changing their conditions – content to work for a shower! As their
fellow captives languish in cages during facility lockdowns! No empathy
for their oppressed kindred. The individualist ideals supercede any/all
“collective” ideals in CT: “As long as I get mines, fuck them.” Perfect
conditions for reactionary/collaborator classes to regenerate among the
ignorant masses.
I was always taught that no convict worked during a lockdown making
the pigs do everything to shorten the lockdown as pigs are lazy by
nature. So having to feed, collect trash, walk through garbage and
bird-bath soaked tiers, etc. stress them out. Here in CT however, the
prisoners have willingly acquiesced to being divided into 3 groups: (1)
prisoners who work (2) apathetic individualists (3) collaborators.
Daily, I am bombarded with “ideas” of what so called struggle entails
and how to fashion a movement in CT; forgetting that a critical piece of
any conscious progressive movement is ideological cohesiveness! How do
we forge a movement with cats who see: working during facility lockdowns
to the detriment of the rest of their class, or standing at the pig
station talking as if such behaviors are socially acceptable norms?!
Apparently, in CT this is how new age progressive movements are created.
This is the working prisoner class.
The apathetic individualists are exactly that: adverse to everything!
These types have grown weary from years of being in prison here in CT.
Tired of trying and tired of being ratted on: tired of fighting! These
types tend to have a million excuses as to why they’ve never
participated in any anti-system activities. Typically, their past
activities involve reactionary political actions. Cats who sow doubt
among the uneducated and aiding the enemies in ignorance forgetting that
“conditions” create ideologies, and from those ideologies correspond
actions. The apathetic types want success without doing the necessary
groundwork. It is our job to sow seeds amongst these cats, change their
pessimism to optimism!
The collaborator groups in CT seem to crave the attention of the
pigs. Whenever you look up, they are smiling and “jeffing” with the
pigs. I have never seen cats so comfortable just kicking it with pigs.
Cats who find a million reasons to dislike a fellow captive, but can’t
find one to hate a pig. Being seen as “cool” by the pigs has never been
a desire of those whom identify with progressive politics. So I’m quite
uncomfortable being in an environment where the pigs and their captives
have more in common than I do with captives. The “dragon” that I earned
in blood sweat and tears coupled with the portrait on my arm of comrade
George! It speaks volumes on how my comrades and I view the pigs and the
oppressive system they represent. Question is: can the collaborators be
co-opted/brought to a revolutionary state of mind? I shall stand firm
regardless, even if it must be walking alone!
I want to thank you for sending me the newsletter. I’ve been getting
fellow prisoners together to help change the ongoing troubles we’re
having here on the John B. Connally Unit. I’ve had my mom email the
Ombudsman due to the fact that the Warden stated everyone filing a
grievance on his officers actions or the units conditions will find
themselves in building lockup, facing disciplinary.
So we can’t write a Step 1 or 2 cause they are getting stopped by the
officials. Right now we’re on lockdown due to a racial riot that
happened due to the guards making our environment ‘hostile.’ A lot of
the guards don’t be wearing they mask; and they haven’t been vaccinated,
yet they lock us down when one or two people take down our mask.
We try to get an ‘informal resolution’ but they refuse to talk with
us. Sgt. J Sandoval stated “fuck you, we don’t care.” Exact words. When
they put us on 23 hour lockdowns they make it into a 26 or 28 hour
lockdown cause they don’t want to let us up. Some of the guards are
19-20-21 year olds who’ve been an officer for 2-3 months, and they get
rank and misuse their power. I’ve also written the Ombudsman and my mom
emailed him.
The riot was Brown vs. Black cause the Blacks don’t wanna wear they
mask and were tired of going down behind one or two people. Last night
everyone had enough, grievances don’t get addressed. They write bogus
cases for going to respite for heat restriction. TDCJ policy says we’re
allowed respite 24 hours 7 days a week even during count yet when we go
to respite, Sgt. Reed and Sgt. Sandoval write out of places cases when
policy says we’re allowed respite. Also, August 1st TDCJ is trying to
take all our pics of females away and calling pics of women in lingerie
or exotic poses ‘contraband.’
Ever since prison officials at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional
Facility (RJD) were made by a Federal court order to wear body cameras
and to cease their terrorist practices and abuses upon the most
vulnerable prisoners, the disabled and elderly, (see: Armstrong
vs. Newson, et al. Case No. C94-CV-02307 CW) the RJD prison has
experienced total lack of programming abilities resulting in lockdowns,
modified programs, and other programming restrictions which impede or
otherwise undermine one’s opportunities to earn sentence-reducing
credits and to perform in a manner expected by/from the Board of Prison
Terms, in order to parole. Especially on the weekends, when the Warden
and other Department of Corrections administrators are unavailable to
mandate corrective actions.
RJD ranking officials will tell you that this is due to a staff
shortage, training mandates etc. The truth, however, upon my
information, is that these are calculated and coordinated efforts of
something more sinister indeed. A Union-coordinated boycott.
The California Correctional Peace Officers Association (CCPOA) at the
RJD prison complex is, apparently, unhappy with the fact that years and
years of beatings, false reports, lying for one another and even murder,
yes MURDER, has resulted in a Federal court order in
the Armstrong case, requiring the staff to wear body cameras.
Cameras that not only record the video interactions of sworn personnel
and those they speak to, but the audio versions thereof as well.
The actions and omissions of RJD’s sworn officers and other CCPOA
members is organized, timed, and planned for maximum effects, and is
very clearly a snubbing of their proverbial noses at the RJD Warden and
other Corrections administrators.
Through this sophistication these officials protest and boycott the
lawful orders of a Federal court judge – a judge they have subsequently
claimed was/is biased and therefore should not have presided over those
proceedings leading to the court-ordered wearing of body cameras.
If you’re doing what you are paid to do by the public, and if
your tactics and demeanor is not disturbing and offensive, why worry
about body cameras? They are allowed to turn them off in the
bathrooms even.
Through a sophisticated scheme, these prison officials organize and
conduct mass strikes via fraud and the misuse of sick leave and personal
days, holding prisoners’ access to programs and such hostage. Knowing
that, without access to and completion of which (many times, in a set
time frame), the prisoners participating in such (now unavailable)
programs and activities, will suffer by not being able to benefit from
good time sentence reduction for successful completions.
Instead of taking its direction from the federal court (by court
order), RJD corrections officers turn their ire on their employers: the
CDCR and RJD’s Warden. Under injunction, the very corrections officers
who so blatantly demonstrated a propensity for criminal thought
processes, activities, brutality upon disabled and other prisoners, and
other such criminal misconduct, now employ further, separate and
additionally questionable practices intended to undermine, and to
otherwise circumvent the lawful processes of the Federal court and the
Honorable Claudia Wilken, United States Federal District Court
Judge.
GIVE THEM WHAT THEY WANT AND IT’LL GO AWAY,
RIGHT?
That is called ‘blackmail’ where I come from. It is illegal,
anti-people, and is being committed here by the California Department of
Corrections and Rehabilitation. Whether by approval or turning a blind
eye thereto. It is still an anti-people and illegal violation of a
Federal court order in Armstrong v. Newson, C94-02307 CW.
In fact, a recent order in the above case acknowledges that many of
RJD’s correctional officers have assumed a gang-like culture and
behavior. The CDCR does not contest these assertions and the Federal
court has openly acknowledged the veracity of same. RJD has many Mexican
corrections officers who have acclaimed and begun carrying themselves in
a manner akin to their Mexican Mafia prisoner counterparts. Both in
vernacular, actions and conduct. Including secret identification to one
another of membership. And this is anything but the first time. For more
on the history of this kind of behavior in California prisons read
The Green Wall by D.J. Vodicka.
Racketeering: Today, racketeering often has the broad sense
of “the practice of engaging in a fraudulent scheme or enterprise.”
Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage, 2nd Ed. by Bryan A.
Garner.
The AQLA is a radical group of anarchists who promote the school of
thought that advocates anarchism and social revolution as the means to
queer liberation and abolition of hierarchies such as homophobia,
lesbophobia, transmisogyny, biphobia, patriarchy, and heteronormativity.
In the Tennessee prison system there were no type of groups that were
geared at the LGBTQ+ community. In this system, we are the minority and
the oppressed of the oppressed. Often times people in the LGBTQ+
community are harassed not only by the pigs but other prisoners as
well.
As a self-identified Queer person i see all this going on and it
disgusted and outraged me so i felt the need to start a group that not
only unified the community but would also serve as a means of educating
our members and providing them with a level of political consciousness
and get them to see who our enemy is. Our aim is to destigmatize the
LGBTQ+ community in regards to other prisoners and lumpen organizations
and to hopefully build unity with these other organizations around a
common enemy.
The oppression and marginalization of queer and trans people in
prison is all too prevalent and for the most part we’re left to suffer
at the hands of pigs and inmates alike. But it’s my aim in forming this
organization to see that we are seen as humyns who are worthy of respect
in this environment. We have a rich hystory of courageous revolutionary
comrades who struggled for our freedom all throughout the Gay Liberation
Movement. We want to build alliances with other prisoners and L.O.s and
hope to educate them and get them to put aside their insecurities or
prejudice towards us and build unity to overthrow the common enemy. We
hope for fellow captives to gain security in themselves and therefore
have respect for our struggle seeing that we are an oppressed people. We
implore them not to use racist or prejudiced attitudes toward us. We are
NOT a threat to them. We have a right to be free from violence and
oppression just like any other group. But we are determined to fight for
our respect and freedom. Here’s what the 5 principles of the UFPP mean
to us:
Peace: We strive to cease the endless drama and
animosity that is prevalent within the u$ penal colony. We are divided
enough already by the oppressive pigs and prisoners so we do not need to
fight against ourselves over petty prison politics and macho/alpha-male
foolishness. We need to stand together and defend ourselves from
oppression.
Unity: We seek to unite with those facing the same
struggle as us for common interest. To accomplish this, we must have
open lines of communication and learn to talk civilly. We know the pigs
will use “Divide & Conquer” strategies any chance they can and will
gain control if we’re not unified.
Growth: Education and the freedom to grow is
crucial when building unity. As revolutionaries, we must always strive
to get our politics as flawless as possible and bring the level of
political consciousness to the highest possible point.
Internationalism: We must seek the collective
liberation of ALL oppressed people. We all are victims of the oppressors
but we must go from victims to victors. We must all unite against the
common enemy because we can’t liberate ourselves if we’re participating
in the oppression of others.
Independence: We must have organizations that are
fully independent from the u$ government and all its branches, even down
to the police. The racist, capitalist, imperialist system does not serve
us or have our best interests in mind. If able, they will co-opt our
groups and water down anything we’re trying to do. By instituting
independent power we won’t have to compromise our political goals.
As a group we fully pledge ourselves to the United Front and will
work to abolish the imperialist u$ empire. We will gladly unite with any
group who promotes an end to capitalism, imperialism, fascism,
patriarchy, etc., etc., and I want to thank you at MIM for helping to
bring the people to a place of constructive revolutionary purpose.
MIM(Prisons) responds: We welcome the newly formed AQLA
as an ally in the anti-imperialist prison movement. Gender is one line
of division used by the oppressors against the imprisoned lumpen, and we
support their efforts to counter that through outreach and alliances
with other lumpen organizations.
Anarchists differ from communists, in short, by disagreeing with
point 2 of MIM(Prisons)’s six main points. While we share in our end
goals, we differ on the strategy on getting there. This is a difference
that would prevent comrades from joining MIM(Prisons) or the
organizations it leads, such as United Struggle from Within. The
function of the united front is for organizations like ours to join
forces for a common cause, without giving up our differences on other
key points such as this.