Under Lock & Key

Greetings!

I received ULK 83 and I too agree prison is war. I’ve in the past heard on numerous occasions that the prison guard “respects violence!” No, they “expect violence.” They can and will never “respect” those they consider subhuman and dispensable. And they fear those knowledgeable enough to know and combat this.

This “expect violence” recently reigned true for me when a Sgt. Reid came to my cell and ripped my clothing line down (making my wet clothes fall on me and the floor) in anticipation of some violent outburst. When he didn’t receive one, he literally stalked me for the rest of the day provoking me and hoping to get a violent reaction. Singing things like, “you’re too scared to die,” to no reaction and therefore the harassment continued into the bathhouse and so forth.

As we were assembling the copy for Under Lock & Key 83, Ruchell “Cinque” Magee died on 17 October 2023. We did not learn of eir death in time to announce it in that issue.

The Labor Action Committee to Free Mumia Abu Jamal recently held a memorial event for Comrade Cinque. The lawyer who helped fight for Cinque’s last minute clemency release told a story of how the state’s attorney baited Magee on the stand. The lawyer asked Cinque what ey would do if the bailiff’s gun was sitting on the table right in front of em. Comrade Cinque responded that ey would pick up the gun, take the bailiff hostage and use the hostage to get to the local news channel to get eir story heard.

Sundiata Tate also spoke emotionally on behalf of the hardship that Comrade Cinque went through, spending eir entire adult life in prison, 67 years. The brutal conditions ey faced. And eir insistence on going through it all without kneeling down to the oppressor, but staying on eir feet.

Attendees appreciated the portrait of Cinque by comrade AK47 featured in ULK 83 and many grabbed a copy. Comrades made the connection to Cinque’s life and struggle as a Prison War Veteran to the state’s use of prison as a tool of war against the oppressed.

It has become customary for the state to release political prisoners shortly before they die, to soften the potential blow back of a death in their custody. They do so at no risk of the comrade contributing to the revolutionary movement after release. A speaker shared the precious moments Cinque had with eir family members in eir last months, most of whom ey was meeting for the first time in eir life. But a real victory for the people will be when we keep true freedom fighters out of the oppressor’s prisons. That is a sign of winning the war.

“Ash: The solid residue left when material is thoroughly burned or oxidized by chemical means; The last traces of something: ruins.”

“Land: The solid part of the surface of the Earth; realm, domain.”

The above definitions from the Merriam-Webster school dictionary describe the reality that prisoners here at Federal Correctional Institution - Ashland are forced to contend with on a daily basis.

With all of the illusions of criminal justice reform being propagated by law makers, as well as the President of the United $tate$, to secure votes and appease their constituents, the reality here at ground zero tells a very different story.

Created in the 1940’s as part boy’s reformatory and part pig and horse farm, FCI Ashland is now a place where a basket of society’s deplorables (to borrow a phrase from Hillary Clinton) can come to work, and with impunity, exercise their politically repressive tactics, racism, and white supremacist ideology over New Afrikans (black people) and other people of color.

Even poor whites who maintain a spiritual or political comaraderie with New Afrikans find themselves subjected to harsher treatment than their European counterparts who hold the line of white supremacy.

Since my incarceration, I have not received one conduct infraction! So in June of this year, after completing more than 15 programs, my security level was reduced from a medium to a low security.

At that time, I was told by the administration that I had to transfer to a low security institution. I requested to go to USP Atlanta since it is now a low security, plus I live in GA. However, completely against the language written in the First Step Act of 2018, I was transferred here to FCI Ashland, KY over 500 miles from my home.

Since I have been here, I have not personally been attacked in any way. But I’m sure by the time this article hits press, all that will change. Because that’s how the administration operates here. The “good ol’ boy” network is alive and well here, and anyone who dares to speak out against the injustices taking place in this land of ruin is retaliated against in a number of ways. But I am a war correspondent behind enemy lines, and must brief comrades and the masses on what’s happening so we can create this opportunity for systemic change through national unity and action.

Different Uniform, Same Mentality

There are about 60-80 correctional officers and other administrative staff working at this prison. However, only 3 are black, 2 are Hispanic, and 1 is Asian. This presents a very antagonistic atmosphere as this super majority white prison staff oppressively police their majority black and brown kkkolonized nationals by openly expressing their “Trumpian” views; ransacking their living quarters and destroying their private property by pouring out “hot sauce” and “Asian sauce” all over their books, legal work and pictures, and opening up sealed items like potato chips and dumping them all over their floor.

They falsify statements and manufacture conduct infractions against prisoners who are not afraid to file grievances on them and expose these injustices. Like one brother who would help brothers beat these false conduct reports, as well as those filed against him. In retaliation for this, and for him refusing to withdraw his civil suit he filed against them, they manufactured false allegations that he “attempted to escape”, had him placed in the SHU (Secure Housing Unit - Lock Up) and he has since been shipped to another prison! This brother is at least 400 lbs and can barely get around, let alone try to escape!

I have personally witnessed white officers call an elder New Afrikan “stupid ass” because he was walking with one of his shoes untied! I’ve also observed as a white officer harassed a white prisoner about his locs telling him “you need to stop trying to be one of THEM and be who you were born to be.” And about a month ago, while attending the Moorish Science Studies Class in the Chapel, a brother began having breathing problems as we were leaving the building. The Chaplain called for support while a couple brothers stood beside him to make sure he was ok. About 5 C.O.’s showed up, and one officer B. Ross took it upon himself to begin yelling “get the fuck out! Go on, get!” None of the other officers that were present even attempted to correct his unnecessary and belligerent conduct. Instead, they just stood with him, with angry demeanors as if we had done something wrong and they were prepared for war.

I, and the world renown militia commander of NFAC comrade Grand Master Jay, who had just finished teaching the class, just looked at each other and shook our heads and left. As this is what we were already in the process of doing anyway. We refused to allow them to provoke us into any response, as it was obvious that this is what they were trying to do.

Here at FCI Ashland, members of the KKK have obviously traded in their white hoods and robes for correctional officer uniforms but the mindset is still prevalent. There isn’t any black counselor or case manager, and there is only one Hispanic case manager, so people of color constantly are being denied institutional transfers to prisons closer to their release address or that offer FSA rehabilitative programs that meet their needs assessment(s) when they absolutely qualify for it. And white prisoners are constantly being transferred when they absolutely do not meet the criteria. White prisoners get all the benefit of the First Step Act.

I have personally been told by the counselor that he would not even consider me for an institutional transfer until I have been 18 months misconduct free in General Population. Well, I have been in General Population for almost 8 years, misconduct free! Along with many accomplishments as I stated earlier. Meanwhile, a white nationalist prisoner, who has wigged out on K2 at least 4 times since I’ve been here, and sent to the SHU each time, was just approved to go to a “camp”, which is a lesser security level than a “low”!

These racist practices go on on a weekly basis as far as these transfers go. There is no one here that represents our best interests! When New Afrikans and other people of color complain about these issues, they are retaliated against by having a “management variable” placed on them for alleged “population control”, which forces them to have to stay on this yard a mandatory 18 months, no matter how long they’ve been at this prison, or a counselor or a caseworker will suddenly show up at your living quarters and add points to your classification sheet for “inadequate living conditions.” Then when you go to your 6 month unit term review, you get denied a transfer for 18 months. For you who have studied my brief autobiography, “Our Struggle Goes On”, which can be purchased on Amazon, already know how this is bound to turn out if there is no systemic change in our conditions. History is our best teacher.

Health Concerns

There are absolutely NO certified medical doctors on this yard. There are several RN’s, but that’s it. The prison is completely understaffed and prisoners are routinely turned away from medical because there is no one available to address their health concerns. I know of several New Afrikans who are having kidney and/or liver issues and have been placed on the waiting list for a year until they can be seen! They have all filed grievances but their medical issues persist, and they have since filed complaints in Washington DC to the central office.

There are only 2 dorms out of 12 units, HA and HB, that have an air conditioner! These same number of dorms also have inadequate ventilation. Several prisoners on the SHU and throughout the prison have fainted and received severe injuries over the extremely hot summer months. At least 1 out of every 5 men here are coughing and/or sneezing throughout the day, myself included. Probably due to all the mold throughout each unit. R-unit, which I was in for 2 months when I got here, is the biggest dorm on the yard, is actually an old movie theater which now holds over 130 prisoners stacked on top of each other in bunk beds. It looks more like the hulls of slave ships trying to cross the middle passage. Therefore absolutely no space for prisoners to even walk around without constantly bumping into one another.

Asbestos fills the ceiling of the unit, while underneath it is the prison’s kitchen, which presents an extremely dangerous fire hazard. On top of the heat coming up from the kitchen adding to an already extremely hot environment, prisoners are essentially sleeping in a crematory, because if the kitchen were to ever catch fire they would all burn alive in a matter of seconds!

Conclusion

I could go on and on about conditions and corrupt practices going on at Ashland, like how members of the “Proud Boys” who just came to this yard after trying to overturn the 2020 election results have already been awarded and rewarded with the best strategic and tactical jobs at the yard. While New Afrikans who have literally been here for months are told no jobs or programs will be available until mid 2024!!! Except for a kitchen job of course. They don’t mind New Afrikans being cooks or cleaning. But if I continued on this it would easily become a book. So let me conclude with this:

We are asking you to write to the office(s) at the bottom of this message and DEMAND and inquire into the racist practices taking place here at FCI Ashland. DEMAND to know why so many people of color are having management variables placed on them compared to their European counterparts. DEMAND to know why so many black and Hispanic families are turned away from their visits because of their clothing when white families have on the same clothing or something completely unauthorized. Ashland is located in the mountains, surrounded by an all white community on the border of West Virginia. It is totally unsafe for black families to travel here, and although we can purchase tablets on commissary, we are not allowed video visits. So if black people can’t get visits, they will go years without any contact with the outside world, which leads to a host of mental and emotional issues.

As I stated from the outset of this communique, this institution used to house animals. The dorm I’m in, “JA”, as well as “K” across from me is still called by the administration, “The Barns”. I’m literally living in a barn, like my enslaved ancestors, with bunk beds in it. Sometimes when it gets really hot in here, you can still smell the residue of the livestock that occupied the space. We are treated like animals, and without your DEMANDS for change, we will continue to be subjected to these inhumane conditions. And by all means, check up on me and make sure that after almost 8 years of incarceration there is not a “sudden change” in the quality of my living conditions. Remember, all that is necessary for evil to prevail is for men and women to do nothing.

A LOT of these guys here are on Suboxone (synthetic heroin). I was offered some, by a medical staffer. I assured her that I’ve never had a drug abuse problem, but I do like Peppermint Schnapps, German beer and the occasional magic mushroom. She insisted that the Suboxone would be good for me. That creeped me out. That stuff, along with the bath salts and the bug killer these guys widely use in this facility seems to affect them like a chemical lobotomy. They have super short attention spans, and fiend for more of that shit all day, every day.

MIM(Prisons) adds: In ULK 76, we printed a report on the government-sanctioned spreading of Suboxone throughout California prisons that began in 2020. While some have found Suboxone helpful in an injustice system that offers no real solutions to the oppressed’s problems, the overall net effect has been a continued numbing and division of the imprisoned population. This comrade’s experience speaks to how the state is acting as a drug pusher on the oppressed, using drugs as weapons against us.

Every sista & brotha ain’t really a sister & brotha, because some who pose as a comrade are really under cover police!!! “Loyalty is a life style.”

A prisoner of war, is a revolutionary who has engaged in acts of armed struggle, who has been captured by government agents in armed struggle against an oppressive state. A political prisoner, is an individual who has been jailed for eir beliefs, eir speech, or for eir political ideas & concepts.

Prisons have perfected their use of psychological warfare techniques by the use of divide and conquer! S.N.Y./P.C. yards serve as a mechanism for the entire prison system, a penal cesspool where other institutions discard their waste matter. They work to remove the supports to the old life style and attitudes, by proving to em that those whom ey respects aren’t worthy of it and should be actively mistrusted. Their tactics include: use of compromised and cooperative inmates as leaders, exploitation of rats, snitches, and informants, treating those who are willing to “collaborate,” in far more lenient ways than those who are not, rewarding of total submission and subserviency to the guards & administration. The administration is known for collecting large amounts of information on prisoners. As the loud speakers are also receivers, and pick up loose talk & conversations in the day rooms, hallways, & cells. Sometimes a prisoner is confronted with the information in order to create distrust about the people ey has talked with. At other times the information is kept a secret among officials and “traps” are set.

Most sacred of all is a man’s ideas: and there is a standing rule with convicts to never let the enemy know what you are thinking!

There is an elite group of “inmate slaves,” that is looked upon by the guards with great favor because they share the same basic ideals with the administration.

The prisons exploit the weaknesses, especially those weaknesses produced by an alienating society. Their weakness is transmuted into “submission and subserviency,” the type of behavior conducive to guards goal of total control and manipulation.

The “inmate slave,” will not resist or complain, nor will ey go on a strike to support a political prisoners grievances. They are totally alienated from their environment, and their psychological and emotional inter-dependency with the guards welds and insulates them into a crippled world of the weak preying upon the weak. All is truly well.

MIM(Prisons) responds: We agree with the overall picture painted by this comrade. However, as we’ve covered in much depth before, SNY in California is now a large portion of the imprisoned lumpen who suffer the same oppressive conditions. We cannot just treat anyone who is in SNY as an “inmate slave.” If only it were so easy that the state told us who is working with them! Their methods are much more advanced, making us second-guess our own comrades.

Second, we also say all prisoners are political. War is politics and prisons are war. While some enter prison politicized, many more are politicized inside in our current conditions. So drawing common interests among the imprisoned lumpen is the approach we must take.

I’ve been closely following the conflict between Palestine and I$rael, which is one of a supremacist, colonial, capitalist power imposing its will against a native people much as Britain, France, and Spain fought like rabid jackals over the lands of the Cherokees, Arawak, Shona, Khoisan, Fayu, Inca, the people of Kerala, Cuba, Australia, Algeria, the Caribbean, South Pacific, and many, many other peoples to divest them of their land and liberty purely for financial gain and control of the world’s resources and humyn affairs. This is the well-documented and ongoing history of western European colonialism. Note the historical and cultural patterns which connect I$rael to the scheme of using religious shenanigans to claim sacred and divine rights to other people’s lands and bodies – via slavery – while committing genocide upon those who resist.

The history of the colonial societies is one of making “missionary” forays into lands to reconnoiter them, then instigating friction with the native populations. When the natives rise up to resist the systematic intrusion of the disease-ridden, perfidious colonials – who move about the Earth like an insidious contagion – the colonials cry “foul!”, “we’re under attack!” and make a ridiculous claim of defending themselves.

I$rael’s strongest supporters are other colonial capitalist police states, and their neo-colonialist sycophants – like Japan, South Korea, and the Christianized parts of the southwestern United $tates.

The major cause of most non-natural catastrophes in the world is colonialism. The poverty, violence, pollution, pandemics, etc are mainly symptoms of colonialism, and would abate considerably if colonialism were abolished. There are enough floods, tornadoes, earthquakes, spider bites, blizzards, and other things in the world to fret about. We really don’t need to complicate things with racism, genocide, global warming, and the deranged antics of lunatics like Benjamin Netanyahu and the proud boys. Hundreds of thousands of I$raelis have been invading the West Bank of Palestine, killing many Palestinians in the process, violating international law. When nations – like Venezuela, India, Cuba, and even Canada and Italy call I$rael out on these crimes, the I$raeli government either denies that it is happening – or simply doesn’t respond. The United $tates and Britain simply look the other way.

When one carefully traces the development of humyn cultures around the world and the present circumstances of humynity, what this likely portends for the future becomes clearer. I think that former U.$. attorney Eric Holder understood this quote well when he made his statement about the U.$. being a nation of cowards: >“it’s easy to pretend that we don’t see or understand the problem if we are afraid to make the necessary sacrifices to arrest and remedy the injustices of despotic governments acting under the pretense of humyn compassion and divine guidance.”

I recently helped a seemingly kind and capable correctional officer to examine the historical, cultural, and economic connections between the antebellum slave trade. slave patrols, and the modern prison industrial complex, with the militarized police state of the modern era. He sheepishly admitted “well, I need a job, and this one’s legal.” I reminded him of the U.$. government’s former policy of Indian removal and open genocide, and asked if he would have participated in the scheme had he been alive in the 1820’s. He mumbled something inaudible and just kind of slithered away. Amerikkkan policy – foreign or domestic – holds no quarter with what is virtuous! This is par for all fascist regimes. People who parrot the ridiculously insipid “amerikkka is the greatest nation on Earth!” are the most delusional and obtuse cowards in the world.

I’m not implying that there aren’t some great things about amerikkka. Anti-slavery revolutionary John Brown is one of the most honorary humyn beings ever, much like Hamas in Palestine today. I am saying that being the most deranged, murderous thief in the world wouldn’t make me a great guy. It would make me a deplorable monster. The people in I$rael are not Hebrews, and their ancestors were never slaves to any nation on the African continent. None of those people would survive a day toiling in the Egyptian sun, much less years, decades, and centuries. I can, however, easily see them selling out the anti-colonial revolutionaries for 30 pieces of silver, and oppressing others as colonial slave traders. Their British, Spanish, and French ancestors did the same thing to the Tainos, Cherokees, Fulanis, Maoris, and countless others that they’re doing to Palestine: invasion, enslavement, and systematic genocide. It’s the nature of the beast. A stand against colonialism is a stand against genocide. Uhuru!

On 6 September 2023 the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) prison system mandated a statewide Lockdown due to the number of deaths related to drugs: a total of 16. They think that will stop the flow of drugs, but you and I know that it will not. You and I know that as long as you have officers that are willing, it will continue.

…Most here are having to do all of their sentence, and some have said fuck it, I will continue to get high. They don’t have to worry about going to jail, cause they are already in jail. But it seems to be that the only ones making parole are the ones that consistently stay high. Do you think that if more were making parole that would cut down on some of the drugs being used?

Choper reports from Bill Clements on the same day: The Bill Clements Unit has been continually operating at 20% to 30% short of staff for three straight years now. In Ad-Seg I have had my 1 hour out of cell 4 times in 2 years. We have had spaghetti sauce and beans 2x per day every day for 90+ days. Commissary always has an excuse why they don’t run and library runs roughly 6x per year instead of weekly.

The wardens and majors and rank walk through and focus on taking down pictures and string lines. Micromanaging the small shit instead of handling real issues like starvation and excessive suicide. There is no medical provider on staff here so don’t run medical. No mental health. Prescriptions run out long ago and nobody to refill.

Today we are on lockdown because they can’t control contraband: this itself is an admission of failure by staff. I mean you can’t manage 20-30% staff? WTF would they do with 100% staff? Their incompetence is killing, literally killing us. As in deaths. A lot of them.

A Connally Unit prisoner wrote on 25 September 2023: I am currently G5 custody level being held at Connally Unit in Kennedy, Texas at a Texas State Prison (TDCJ). We are currently on lockdown. I believe all TDCJ is under lockdown. Apparently they are cracking down on narcotics and any other form of contraband. We have been on lockdown since Wednesday, 6 September 2023. Correction, that was an annual lockdown. We had a restriction lockdown on 24 August 2023, and we have been on lockdown ever since.

Our last commissary day, the last time we actually hit, was on August 21st. I believe we are supposed to go every 30 days or so, at least a hygiene store and we haven’t had any of that! The first restriction lockdown was placed (not formally but rumor goes) because someone snitched gave TDCJ staff heads up about some contraband and people involved. Who and what I am not sure. I am not allowed out of the cell except for showers! Up until recently they was not running showers regularly.

We received tablets (all G5 custody) on Tuesday, 19 September 2023. Since then things have gotten way better! Showers run more regularly, food comes at reasonable times. We get cold water runs! The food portions are better than before. The fires have stopped! You know, I am not sure if visitation is now open. The terrors have since stopped though! What a relief. Ok, so the terrors began on the 1st day of restriction lockdown (8/24) I couldn’t see much and didn’t know what was going on but they raided (shookdown) a couple people’s cells in 8 Building L pod 3 section. We was never informed that we was placed on restriction lockdown or why. I found out gossip from another inmate.

Since day one, no showers, no cold water runs, no heat respite, (I don’t believe G5’s get any respite) small food portions and they would run late. It is extremely hot in Connally. It is even hotter back here. Connally Unit is a down south Texas max security unit. There have been multiple times I have passed out due to the heat, woken up with major headaches, bloodshot eyes, and chapped lips!

…They shook us down on September 9th, Saturday. They didn’t finish the whole building til 15th or 16th, which is about when we got our dearly beloved SSI’s back!!! The suffering ends, partially… When they shook us down – cell search – they took the whole section out cell by cell in cuffs, and placed half the section in one side multi-purpose room and the other half in another multi-purpose room.

We came back to a Great Mess! Haha, I don’t mind the mess, I had to re-organize my belongings anyways. I wonder why they would ask us to place our things, all of our property, neatly on our own bunks, mattress like this and that, come back to our things mixed up?! Comical! One dude went hysterical, yelling at the laws and complaining about coffee spilled on all his property! Clothes, sheets, family pictures, etc. Then, here come the fires! Multiple inmates was angry, each with their own complaints. By this time the guards had given up on putting out the fires. Which is unpleasant, adding heat literally to the already hot building and smoke. Many times I had to cover up not to breath the toxic carbon monoxide! The section gets so full of smoke it’s completely black. I figured the best thing to do was place one fan by the door blowing outwards and a fan by the window blowing hot air in. I would have to place a wet towel on the door to keep smoke from coming in. Every day was something new, every day an issue appeared! Every day a fire was made, some two, some three at a time, two or three times a day… The last fire was put out by an officer, a sergeant.

MIM(Prisons) notes: We thought these lyrics fit well with the theme of Under Lock & Key 83. However, we of course measure our correctness through action with the international proletariat as the ultimate judges of how we performed.

“You must teach that socialism-communalism is as old as man; that its principles formed the basis of mostly all the East Afrikan cultures (there was no way to denote possession in the original East Afrikan tongues). The only independent Afrikan societies today are socialistic. Those which allowed capitalism to remain are still neo-colonies. Any Black who would defend an Afrikan military dictatorship is as much a fascist as Hoover.”

• George Jackson

No one in history ever possessed a greater skill set for individual survival than the primitive hunter-gatherer warrior, yet ey was a deeply committed communalist who put the interest of eir tribe, eir village, and eir extended family above his own. The warrior believed that eir life was not eir own, but belonged to the people; and ey considered it a great honor to live a life of service to the people and if need be to sacrifice eir life in their defense. This is the warrior’s ethics, and it doesn’t matter which group on which continent we are talking about because such are the roots of humyn social evolution.

There have always been individuals, and in a sense there has always been individualism, but it wasn’t always regarded as a virtue. In primitive societies, it was seen as dishonorable – like lying or cowardice. There were few things that could get one thrown out of the collective and be made an outcast. Rampant individualism was one. To be cast out was worse than a sentence of death. We are social beings, and it is in society that we find fulfillment of any emotional needs. In prison, when the kaptors want to try to break us, they put us in solitary confinement.

Capitalism promotes individualism because everyone is set in competition with everyone else. People must compete for jobs, promotions, and for status. Every capitalist is in competition with every other capitalist. That’s why it is called a “rat race.” People suffer from “alienation” and seek some substitute for tribal belonging. People will join gangs and kill or be killed just to have this sense of belonging. Is joining the marines any different? People become ardent sports fans to have some group identity and wear their team’s colors and share their glory. Belonging is a need under capitalism: everything is commodified.

Bourgeois critics often make the charge that socialism sacrifices the interest of the individual for the collective; but are the individual and the collective really in contradiction? This is what Stalin had to say in his interview with H.G. Wells in 1934:

“There is no, nor should there be, irreconcilable contrast between the individual and the collective, between the individual person and the interests of the collective. There should be no such contrast because collectivism/socialism does not deny but combines individual interests with the interests of the collective. Socialism cannot abstract itself from individual interests. Socialist society alone can most fully satisfy these personal interests. More than that, socialist society alone can firmly safeguard the interests of the individual. In this sense, there is no irreconcilable contrast between individualism and socialism.”

Unless the individual’s interest is to do harm to the collective, to exploit its members for personal gain, or subvert its freedom, it is in the collective interests to give full play to the individual’s initiative and creativity. Mao’s famous call for individual freedom of expression in the arts of science was in contrast to certain dogmatic and bureaucratic tendencies that has arisen in Russia and China:

“The policy of letting a hundred flowers bloom and a hundred schools of thought contend is designed to promote the flourishing of the arts and the progress of science.”

Some would later complain bitterly that Mao had lured them into a trap when they were subsequently criticized for their ideas. But freedom of expression is not freedom from criticism. Ey never said to let the poisonous weed to bloom.

The democratic method is to allow people to speak their minds, but this is a two-way street. Others have the right to disagree and criticize you as well. The collective interest will best be served when people are above board and say what they think, at the risk that it will be picked apart and rejected by others and even ridiculed as rubbish by the majority. No one is obligated to tell you your opinions are great. On the other hand, your opinion might find favor and change everyone’s views for the better. That is the risk of free expression. New ideas always start with someone who thinks for themselves and may not at first be popular or well accepted.

In this way a revolutionary organization/collective pursues its inner collective democracy while maintaining unity in action. There is a time for free discussion and time for united action and this is the basis of democratic revolutionary praxis. The collective protects the rights of the individual who serves the interests of the collective.

The comrades of your collective should be like your family – even closer than that. Your very lives may depend on each other. The comrades will each have different strengths and weaknesses and should complement each other using their own strengths to help the others transform their weaknesses into strengths. Comrades should not be competitive with one another. Recognition and advancement are fine, but one should be happy to serve in whatever capacity the collective feels would be best. It is all about what we can accomplish together – whether one is high or low in rank is insignificant. To be a comrade is important.