Under Lock & Key

El 9 de septiembre, USW (United Struggle from Within - Lucha Unida del Interior) de California debe preparar la unidad entre la línea principal y SNY (Sensitive Need Yards -Yardas de necesidad sensible), por USW 44 de United Struggle from Within, abril 2018 permalink.

Estoy escribiendo sobre este tema un poco antes porque muchos hermanos y hermanas no tienen el conocimiento verdadero o real con respecto al Black August y Bloody September. Pero para aquell@s de nosotr@s que somos políticamente conscientes, ambos meses son ricos con nuestra sangre, nuestra lucha y nuestra resistencia. Como personas que luchan contra la opresión durante estos dos meses como un movimiento del pueblo debemos enfocar nuestras energías en las discusiones y acciones de George Jackson, los Black Panthers (Panteras Negras), Assata Shakur, Che Guevara, y cualquiera de l@s muchos revolucionari@s que nos han precedido.

Deberíamos impulsar la educación política, la acción progresiva y la historia revolucionaria. Deberíamos enfocarnos más agresivamente en el establecimiento de una seguridad más sólida, porque el 16 de abril de 2018 el Departamento de Corrección y la así llamada "Rehabilitación" comenzaron una limpieza de armas en todo el estado de todas las prisiones de California para garantizar que no haya armas en los patios de la prisión cuando el estado integra a la línea principal de prisioneros con prisioneros de SNY (Yardas de necesidad sensible) a finales de este año.

Sabemos de primera mano lo que está haciendo la estructura de poder: esperan que todos los patios estallen. Eso mostraría que sus trabajos todavía importan y que tenemos que estar en la cárcel. Esta es su movida más demente en años, y han estado alimentando la desconexión de la línea principal y SNY (Yardas de necesidad sensible) durante años como una herramienta de dividir y conquistar. La táctica de dividir y conquistar nunca ha sido tan efectiva como hoy.

Como dicen, un árbol sin raíces está muerto, y también lo es un pueblo sin raíces. Hombres como el camarada George, Huey P. Newton y Malcolm X. Comenzaron y mejoraron su línea política en prisión como coloniales criminales. Dentro de estos campos de concentración y confines oscuros y profundos de La prisión de Soledad y San Quentin, la alquimia de la transformación humana tomó lugar. Todos comenzaron a convertir las celdas que tenían en bibliotecas y Escuelas de liberación. Como dijo George, para crear un mundo nuevo tenemos que ser una representación de este nuevo ser, "El hombre nuevo", en palabras y en hechos, pensamientos y acciones. Este nuevo hombre estará en su más alta forma revolucionaria. Así como ellos convirtieron sus celdas en aulas, nosotros también debemos hacerlo. Y así como internalizaron las ideas más avanzadas sobre el desarrollo del ser humano, también debemos nosotros.

George dijo que: "Conocí a Marx, Lenin, Trotsky, Engels y Mao, y me salvaron. Durante los primeros cuatro años, no estudié nada más que política y economía e ideas militares. Conocí a Black Guerrillas, George Big Jake Lewis, James Carr, W.L. Nolen, Bill Christmas, Tony Gibson y muchos otros. Estábamos intentando convertir la mentalidad criminal negra en una revolución de la mentalidad".

George y sus camaradas se convirtieron en ejemplos vivientes e inspiraciones de la resistencia organizada para l@s pres@s en todo el país. Pero el 21 de agosto 1971, el camarada George Jackson y otros dos fueron asesinados junto con tres guardias de la prisión en un tiroteo dentro de una de las prisiones de máxima seguridad de California, llamada San Quentin. Por esta razón, y muchas más, mantenga el sangriento agosto como sagrado.

Huey P. Newton fue asesinado el 22 de agosto de 1989, en West Oakland, a la altura del décimo y el centro, por un joven traficante de drogas llamado Little Blood. Era un producto de este sistema, l@s jóvenes odiando a los viejos, l@s de piel clara odiando a l@s de piel oscura. Esa es la misma división que tenemos aquí hoy. Puedo meterme en esa mierda y levantar el polvo con el resto y con los mejores. Pero no permitiré que nadie detenga mi arduo trabajo como organizador y educador. He dado veinte años para esta red principal y SNY, así que voy a seguir adelante. Como Frantz Fanon declaró en Wretched of the Earth (Los condenados de la tierra), "No hay toma de la ofensiva – ni redefinición de las relaciones. "Sabemos que el poder estructural nos quiere muertos o encerrados. Entonces, en caso de que no lo supieras, la revolución está activa. Poder para la gente hecha para ganar y la gloria es el juego que está en el hombre calvo

Maoist Internationalist Ministry of Prisons (MIM- Ministerio Internacional de Prisiones Maoísta ) agrega: El manual de USW (Lucha Unida del Interior) de California explica cómo la división SHU (Unidad de vivienda de seguridad) / red principal y SNY en California está en el corazón de la construcción de un frente unido de prisioneros en el estado. Todos l@s camaradas del USW de California deben tener una copia del manual como guía para su trabajo. L@s lectores veteran@s de la ULK (University of Local Knowledge) sabrán que hemos impreso innumerables artículos sobre este tema. Escriba si puede usar copias de algunos de estos artículos para ayudar a organizar el Día de la Paz y la Solidaridad del 9 de septiembre de este año. La campaña para construir la paz y la unidad entre la red principal y SNY llegará a un punto crítico este año, y USW debe jugar un papel primordial en orientar las cosas en una dirección positiva como lo exige este camarada.

As we come closer and closer to September 9th, Day of Peace & Solidarity, covered in the shadows of Black August, Bloody July, and Blue June, the members of United Struggle from Within(USW) under guidance of the Comrade Loco1 have begun to suffer attacks by the state at the local prison level of Kern Valley State Prisons(KVSP). As we of the common collective refer to it, "Killer Kern", it has been a long time coming this day that members of the MIM(Prisons) guided mass organization came under direct line of fire, but the time has come.

As of late June of 2018, members and supporters of the USW have been on the ground establishing the five principles of the United Front for Peace in Prisons(UFPP) where there has been hostilities between racial factions of the Chican@ nation groups and a particular New Afrikan social group. The hostilities have resulted in riots between both nations that have caught in the line of fire: elderly, crippled, and mentally ill. Members of USW took the lead and waged a strong campaign for the establishment of a Peace Protocol that introduced both Chican@ and New Afrikan prisoners to the UFPP.

USW Loco1, and a key supporter of the UFPP, Silent Israel of The Mafia Alliance(TMA) begun organizing peace talks with various Chican@ nation group leaders on the behalf of the New Afrikans at this local level. Where the pigs had established a culture of turning a blind eye, and even instigating violence against New Afrikans, who are out numbered by the Chican@ factions by far. USW immediately went into overdrive on the consciousness of the masses, which included particularly a call for all convicts to cease in what appears to be radical hostilities driven by police provocations and programming to keep the masses at war and distracted of the rising sun of September 9th. These local leaders put themselves on the chopping block by holding open dialogues with the masses addressing issues like "Racial Segregation" used by the pigs to divide the lumpen, stripping prisoners of the power of uniting. Keeping prisoners in a state of powerlessness.

Loco1 began to spread information about the September 9th commemoration of Attica State Prison, the year 1971, as a means of demonstrating the sort of power prisoners possess if only they'd cease in the war games between themselves and concentrate on the true sell outs, baby killers, sexual predators and traders of national loyalties. The police that is. This instantly made USW and its leader at this local level a target. When prisoner leaderships agreed to cease its hostilities and instead develop a communications system between the two nations, the pigs took it as a personal attack against their false economic interest by Loco1 and immediately orchestrated a plot to have the USW leadership removed and placed into solitary confinement.

As Loco1 and the rising USW supporting committee began gearing up to face off with the pig administration as to its position on a local boycott of KVSP systems and fraud services, in solidarity with the National Prisoners Boycott led by members of the Freedom and Justice Movement, the pigs launched a full frontal agitation campaign to instigate hostilities between themselves and all New Afrikans. What with the New Afrikans leading the way on issues at the local level with: pigs applying excessive force, failing to protect, ignoring prisoner safety concerns, orchestrating a gladiator program, pitting prisoners against one another, etc. Who better to concentrate on? And when New Afrikans failed to bite on their agitation, pigs finally revealed that Loco1 is hatching a conspiracy that involves prisoners repeating history, September 9th, 1971. So to all members of the United Front for Peace in Prisons, USW needs you to pick up the slack and act on your five principles, that these USW comrades do not stand alone in isolation.

[In ULK 63 Master K.G. Supreme reported on CDCR instigating violence as part of the integration of "mainline" and SNY prisoners.]

A USW comrade adds: I am one of the 40 prisoners who along with Supreme was part of a CDCR plan staged by SATF Corcoran and Kern Valley to remove from the lower level 270 design to a hostile 180 design in order to build numbers for Africans so that the race wars amongst Hispanics and Africans that was instigated by correction corrupt officers and its administration as a last call to prolong releases of nonviolent offenders. It was expected we would come and continue the race conflict. However, I and Supreme came and established a peace between the both sides and now that CDCR see that, CDCR has found other ways to continue to frustrate the peace process such as placing informant Africans in the D yard block 5 & 6 to collect intel or perhaps cause chaos such as a buffoon who they sent in the block yelling racial slurs to the Mexicans while at the same time claiming he's Black Mafia.

The corrupt officers sent him there to attempt to cause a new storm that had been calmed. When neither the Blacks or Browns fell for it! They yet did it again, this time with a Brown who was mentally ill who began yelling nigger at Blacks until finally a Mexican removed him. So here we see two attempts that failed. Now CDCR sent an informant name XXXX with the promise of a job to give intel on us to remove comrades to Ad-Seg units. This so that there would be no peace keepers. Well they removed Supreme to Ad-Seg due to the snitch's alleged claim that Supreme was staging assaults on staff. Myself now being left to keep the peace alone has now become the target of jealous Israelite Africans seeking position rather than appreciating the Moses of their time. We all know the story of Moses who came to his people's aid and then was told by one slave: Who made you ruler over us? You gonna do to me what you did to the Egyptian who mistreated the other one of us yesterday. (Exodus 2: 11-14).

Today Kern Valley is refusing yard to prisoners and showers. The prison administration is keeping the prisoners locked down in violation of federal and state laws. Officers are doing all sorts of trickery under administration in order to create conflict with prisoners. The inhuman treatment is beyond being fixed by its own. CDCR can't police itself and this is demonstrated. I spoke with several righteous officers who don't agree with what is going on and they are feeling that they too are being pent against prisoners in order to feed their family. I come from an alliance of all races, we come and try to bring peace and harmony wherever chaos exist and put it to death. We as USW must begin to understand the facts! This is the facts! Either jump aboard or jump off board. Everybody got choices. To my cousin Master K.G. Supreme, you are not alone, I feel your spirit brotha. "One Love"

[The following were submitted to us by a group of New Afrikans in California working with the United K.A.G.E. Brothers. K.A.G.E. stand for Kings Against Genocidal Environments. The United K.A.G.E. Brothers have been pushing this line of peace and unity alongside the United Front for Peace in Prisons for some years now. We stand in solidarity with United K.A.G.E. Brothers in promoting the tenets of New Afrikan Revolutionary Nationalism for Black August as a way to build for peace and ending hostilities. This can tie into further struggle for peace, unity, growth, internationalism and independence this September 9th. - MIM(Prisons)]

• We aim to fast as a show of self-discipline and resistance. From the sunrise until evening meal we will abstain from eating.
• We aim to abstain from consuming any type of opioids, or other smokable or liquid intoxicants during the month of August.
• We aim to combat liberalism even by limiting our selection of non-frivolous TV shows and educational programs i.e., radio, historic documentaries, journal writings and other creative art exhibits.
• During Black August, we emphasize political and cultural evolution studies for those participants who care to assemble with other brothers and sisters rather by way of social media internationally and/or via facilitation within the institution forum.
• As an external display, the delegates of Black August will wear a black arm band. Other ways to express our solidarity include: we wear either a black ring (made of thread) or a wrist band in eulogy to all those New Afrikan/Blacks who strove none futily and made an ultimate sacrifice for what they believed in to Live or Die in Black Liberation.
• The New Afrikan Revolutionary Nationalist recognize Black August as a “revolutionary salute,” in formation those nationalist and others who share or stand in arms with our ideology or are serious and consistently moving forward to end in voluntary servitude and other colors of repression, ossifyism, neo-colonialism should participate in solidarity with our aim to cultivate the youth in pinpointing the wrong, acknowledging the wrong, confession of the individual’s fault, honest redemption, even understanding the aims of atonement, love for the people – eradicating self-hate via self-realized forgiveness, implicit reconciliation and explicit communal restoration while evolving with a sea of change toward a perfect Brother and Sisters International Union.
• From prison to the street we aim to parallel a live concert and other forms of Afro drum struct-entertainment.
• Black August bracelets and t-shirts will display our Red, Black and Green to promote our ceremonies and to raise economic support for both institutional establishment and to donate funds to the San Francisco Bay View prisoners’ subscription fund.

NOTE: There will be no surprise in seeing a multicultural community, among the New Afrikan/Black youth event; even some rival ex-gang or active members may be seen. We are placing O.G.’s, reputables and other delegates whom are branches of our inside and outside executive body who would be responsible for preparing and sharing the proper attitude and conduct for attending all events correlated to our Black August Inclusive Ceremonies. We aim to attend these events peacefully and to actively engage with deliberative and mature dialogue again to even overstand the importance of atonement.

Reconciliation Periods: During the month of August these “reconciliation periods” will be devoted to events and other inside and out activities, conferences, seminars, summits and community service, which will create solid relations between New Afrikan/Black communities, make our communal a safe haven and develop positive interaction within the community.

[Original statement describes these proposed events and community services.]

“If you are about peace then you are about revolution. You can’t be about peace and not be for revolution!” – Fred Hampton

Conclusion and Ratification

In light of the collective prisoner activism seen over the past several years; however, it can similarly be fairly said that we have been making strides to abolish the walls upheld by self hate. As a collective, we believe if we build our foundation on divisiveness and brotherly and sisterly love, our united front will resonate with more results and gain true freedom under the guise of internationalism. “WE” struggle for the liberation and unity of all oppressed people. A prominent empirical indication of this “WEISM” is the historical and life affirming “Agreement to End Hostilities” (AEH), crafted in 2012 by the brave and forward thinking men held in California’s solitary confinement units.

These trailblazers’ agreement marks a turning point. California prisoners have transcended long-standing racial, geographical and ideological differences to provide a new model of prison to society coexistence, one fundamentally premised on the multilateral accord to end all group hostilities.

Because it is the new cool and it’s our time as Kings and Queens of Peace we must fight to build self!! NO MORE GENOCIDE.

Also see: I Contribute to Peace.

Inside Delegates: [signed]

I'm writing to ask for more info on the California prison system putting SNY (Special Needs Yard) and mainline together in order to show that nothing has changed and the prisons are still very dangerous.

What I do know is that it started a few weeks ago here at Centinela State Prison and we are hearing of widespread violence at every yard they are doing this on — the so-called 50/50 yards or Programming Facilities (P.F.S.). We have only heard rumors at this point. Of course the staff would never tell us outright, but they do give hints. Any help in this matter will be appreciated. A lot of us here at Centinela SNY yard are endorsed to San Quentin PFS yard. We would love to help stop the violence, but it's really mainline shot callers that will decide.

Most of us here on the SNY side want to do our time in peace. That's why we are put on this side. Anyway, thanks for any help on this matter.

A USW comrade reports: Here at Corcoran they're integrating yards. Now SNY/GP STG I & II are on the same yards, and being forced to program or be labeled program failures.

Legion of USW comments: June 2018 — As predicted the CDCR is doing away with the SNY/GP mainlines in favor of undesignated program yards. Legion did the math on this problem years ago and was made a mad scientist preaching that Black God stuff.

This provides USW a unique opportunity to be at the vanguard of the battle field building bridges instead of barriers. The prols have an opportunity to become the change they want to see. We have to revise and revisit certain debates about what solid looks like. The future is now and we need to adapt our struggle to the new landscape.

Legion is calling all God Bodies into formation! There's no such thing as SNY or GP on the streets. You have factors and non-factors. We are factors; socially, politically and mentally. USW is where it's at. Let's crash the system!

MIM(Prisons) adds: Early in 2018, the CDCR began transforming Level I, Level II, and, now, some Level III prisons into "non-designated yards", eliminating the divide between SNY and General Population. This began with the healthcare facilities and fire camps. According to CDCR, SNY was created 20 years ago, and now accounts for one third of the California state prison population.(1)

In a video message on the subject, CDCR Director Scott Kernan calls on California prisoners to focus on themselves. He calls for them to disregard "prison politics." While tapping into a real mass sentiment that is sick of some of the "prison politics" that leads to unnecessary beef and violence, this appeal to Amerikan individualism is misleading. The new Programming Facilities require prisoners to participate in the CDCR program. This is not really focusing on self, this is joining a group with strict guidelines. This path is a choice. And CDCR wants to make it the most appealing choice.

All humyns live in society. We cannot focus on self without also being part of a society and playing a role in it. For the oppressed, the support of the group is even more important. So prisoners must ask themselves if the CDCR program is the group that best serves their interests. We await reports from comrades inside as to the full implications of this reorganization. But we can look back to the "Step Down Program" implemented for SHU prisoners in response to the historic hunger strikes in 2012 and 2013, which coerced prisoners into accepting the oppressor's definitions of criminal.(2) The PFS have a similar focus on "programming," promising a more productive and quicker release in return.

We do not have the info to fully answer the comrade's question about what is happening in these non-designated yards right now. But we echo the call from ULK 62 for USW comrades in California, especially those in the 50/50 yards, to work to build unity across different groups in these dynamic conditions.(3) As Legion alludes to above, change is in favor of the oppressed, it is only up to us to seize the opportunities that each change offers. For this September 9th Day of Peace and Solidarity, California USW will focus on this issue of the "non-designated yards", and building peace and unity among these new conglomerates of people. For the next issue of ULK we want to hear about the successes and failures of this organizing, of September 9th, of the 50/50 yards and what it all means for organizing to end oppression on a systemic level.

For a while now I’ve wondered why all the conflict between anarchists and socialists/Marxists/Maoists. I mean, we are two revolutionary forces who are committed to the abolishment of capitalism, imperialism and all forms of oppression. We have that in common and that is what’s important. I understand that our strategies and ideologies are a bit different, but what’s preventing us from getting together in solidarity, agreeing to disagree and focus our energies on the revolution combining our strengths and common ground? Why can’t we cease to tear each other down? I don’t know about anyone else, but this bothers me! The energy used to tear one another down, discrediting one another, could be used to gain some real headway by picking up arms together to combat oppression. Of course there are more experienced and more politicized people than me that may wish to give me some feedback and critique. I welcome critique, feedback and criticism.

MIM(Prisons) responds: This is a good question, especially for building a united movement against imperialism. There are many reasons to build unity with all who can be united. Maoists advocate a united front against imperialism because this format of organizing allows all organizations to freely build their own movements and push their own ideologies, but come together against a common enemy.

At the same time, we do believe there are some very good reasons to refuse to unite with some organizations. Just because a group calls itself “socialist” or “anarchist” doesn’t mean it is automatically on the right side of the struggle. In the extreme, we have the national socialists who are really fascists, as an obvious example. But even among those claiming to be progressive revolutionaries there are some organizations that have taken up such wrongheaded and dangerous political lines that we consider them to be more use to the fascists than to the revolutionaries.

In the case of anarchists in general, we do not see them as enemies. In fact we believe that anarchists have the same end goal as communists: a society where no people have power over other people. But anarchists don’t have a strong history of success in progress towards that goal. We see their approach of jumping right from imperialism to anarchism as idealist, because it hasn’t played out in real life at even a comparable scale to the socialist experiment.

It’s just not realistic to overthrow the imperialists and keep them overthrown, without a period of proletarian state power. We have too long of a history of class, nation and gender oppression for that to happen. The bourgeois classes will need to be forcibly repressed, and culture will need to be radically altered on a mass scale. It might take generations before humyns evolve to live peacefully with no oppression. As MIM write in MIM Theory 8: “Communists know that it takes power to destroy power, whereas anarchists see power itself, independent of conditions, as the enemy of the people.”

In the First World, in particular, there are some anarchist (in addition to socialist) groups which are doing work that actively supports imperialism. It’s important that organizations clearly work out what are the most important questions of political line that we face today. For instance, we have, in this country, a bought-off class of people who are clearly economically and ideologically in support of imperialism. Yet some so-called socialist and anarchist organizations see these people as their mass base, and call on them to rally for even higher wages and a bigger piece of the imperialist pie. That’s not progressive, that’s a call to fascism! And so we can’t unite with such political stances. In fact if that group calls itself “socialist” or “anarchist” or even “Maoist,” we think that’s more dangerous than if they openly organized for fascism, because it is misleading people about what is the communist struggle.

I'm writing on this topic a bit early because a lot of young brothers and sisters don't have true or real understanding regarding Black August and Bloody September. But for those of us who are politically aware, both months are rich with our blood, our struggle, and our resistance. As people who fight oppression during these two months as a peoples' movement we should focus our energies around the discussions and actions of George Jackson, the Black Panthers, Assata Shakur, Che Guevara, and any of the many revolutionaries who have set the stage for us.

We should push political education, progressive action, and the revolutionary history. We should most aggressively focus on the establishment of stronger security, because on 16 April 2018 the Department of Corrections and so-called "Rehabilitation" started a statewide weapons sweep of all California prisons to ensure that no weapons are on the prison yards when the state integrates mainline prisoners with SNY prisoners later this year.

We know first-hand what the power structure is doing — they're hoping that the yards all blow up. That would show that their jobs still matter and that we need to be in prison. This is their most outrageous move in years, and they've been feeding the disconnection of mainline and SNY for years as a tool of divide and conquer. The divide and conquer tactic has never been more effective than it is today.

As they say, a tree without roots is dead, and so is a people who are not rooted. Men such as comrade George, Huey P. Newton and Malcolm X started and enhanced their political line in prison as colonial criminals. Within these concentration camps and deep dark confines of Soledad Prison and San Quentin, the alchemy of human transformation took place. They all began to turn the cells they held into libraries and schools of liberation. As George said, to create a new world we have to be a representation of this new being, "The New Man", in words and in deeds, thoughts, and actions. This new man will be in his highest revolutionary form. So as they turned their cells into classrooms, so must we. And as they internalized the most advanced ideas about human development, so must we.

George stated that:

"I met Marx, Lenin, Trotsky, Engels and Mao, and they redeemed me. For the first four years, I studied nothing but politics and economics and military ideas. I met Black Guerrillas, George Big Jake Lewis, James Carr, W.L. Nolen, Bill Christmas, Tony Gibson, and many others. We were attempting to turn the Black criminal mentality into a revolutionary mentality."

George and his comrades became living examples and inspirations of organized resistance for prisoners across the country. But on 21 August 1971, Comrade George Jackson and two others were murdered along with three prison guards in a gun fight inside one of California's maximum security prisons called San Quentin. For this reason, and many more, we hold bloody August as sacred.

Huey P. Newton was murdered 22 August 1989, in West Oakland on Tenth and Center, by a young drug dealer named Little Blood. He was a product of this system; the young hating the old, the light-skinned hating the dark. That's the same divide we have here today. I can get into the shit and kick up dust with the rest and the best. But I will not allow anyone to stop my hard work in being an organizer and educator. I've given twenty years to this mainline and SNY, so I'm going to push on. As Frantz Fanon stated in Wretched of the Earth, "There is no taking of the offensive — and no redefining of relationships." We know that the power structure wants us dead or locked up. So in case you didn't know, the revolution is on.

MIM(Prisons) adds: The California USW Primer explains how the split between SHU/mainline and SNY in California is at the heart of building a united front of prisoners in the state. All California USW comrades should have a copy of the primer as a guide for their work. Long-time readers of ULK will know that we have printed countless articles addressing this issue. Write in if you can use copies of some of these articles to help in your organizing for the September 9 Day of Peace and Solidarity this year. The campaign to build peace and unity between mainline and SNY will be coming to a head this year, and USW must play a leading role in guiding things in a positive direction as this comrade calls for.

SNY has been "represented", we've been building and growing for years. I personally came from the mainline after 15 years of the madness. I've been there with the Black Guerrilla Family, Nuestra Familia, Mexican Mafia, and Aryan Brotherhood. I was at Calipatria when the "East Coast Crips" stormed the program office. I've also walked the level IV yards with Elmer Geronimo Pratt, Ruchell Magee, as well as the comrade Askari.

The inmates on SNYs are not your enemies. "We know the enemy." A lot of us made a conscious informed choice to step away from the gangbanging and go home to our families, are we less because we made a choice best for us? Moreover I stand with you, and look for your next essay so we can build together. Check Under Lock & Key No. 40,53,55, just to start, but I'm all over. Revolutionary theory without practice ain't shit.

Dear sista, you and I know that the mainline is full of people who have no honor or respect, and the class of people are not the same as in the 1980s or 1990s, so I'm not missing the line at all. What I do miss is the respect level. But just like the mainline, SNYs have strong revolutionary comrades, it's who you have around you, just as on the line, we also know there are child molesters as well as rapists there too. One of the reason I left was because I was a part of the "Damu Car," Piru in fact, and when someone known to be a rat, and all the homies know, but since he has the drugs and he's paying rent he has a pass. I was good, not to mention the so-called homie that rob and rape another homie's wife and we have to let this unknown dude keep walking around us left a fucked up taste in my mouth. So there was only one step I could take in good conscience.

We as Damus we moved in a political motion anyway. So me becoming revolutionary was just the next step in my evolution as a man. When I hit the prison in 1992 I was taught about my history: George Jackson, Frantz Fanon, Huey P Newton, Fred Hampton, The Almighty Black P. Stone Nation and all the letters because they were all here FOI-NOI-BGF-KUMI-DAMUs–Kiway's- all of that, SNYs are the way they are because when you come to this side all of your old homies consider you a rat, even if you never said a word to the pigs.

G.P. is a capitalist community; who ever has the drugs can call the shots, who ever has the phone is the big homie. That's a very tainted and corrupt political line they're pushing, I also agree with the comrade in Georgia, that the contagious disease of backbiting needs to stop. I feel the same way. The real is that I've been in the mix with a lot of the Damus on the mainline and they know where I stand, and have told that they see the improvements in me and we've had serious political talks about the state of the line vs the SNY yards.

When I was at Richard J. Donavon (see Under Lock & Key issue no 40) I created a cadre that consisted of SNY and mainline comrades, Black, white and Hispanic. And what the Georgia comrade said is right, everyone on this backbiting shit should take a long and serious look at themselves and really pay attention to the way Willie Lynch syndrome has been effective. When he instructed the slave masters to always keep them divided, separated, and distrustful of one another, and at odds with one another.

Posting up essays and articles on the wall is a go0d move, and I will add that to my get down. Anyway, I'm going to end this the same way I entered it by stating that the loss of my heroes Fred Hampton, Huey P. Newton, and George Jackson represented a most tragic set back not just for the Black Panther Party, but also for the liberation movement in general. These men who were potentially heir apparent to fallen leaders like Malcolm X, and Che Guevara.

The real shit is "SNY and the mainline," may never be able to get past the emotional hatred that comes from mainline prisoners, but will that stop SNY inmates and political prisoners from being a leading force in building the bridges that can we can cross to make the revolution? No! We are just as focused as you if not more because we have a role to play in this movement, I only live to make the revolution. So I understand my life may be cut short, but I will live and die for the people.

I wrote this piece because I was being irked by brothers talking to one another. I made a copy and posted it inside the dormitory as I always do. I also posted "Incarcerated Minds" by a California prisoner (March 2016).

Backbiting is a disease that is tearing the fabric of our brotherly threads of unity. Let's keep it all the way 100. When one possesses commissary, tennis shoes, cigarettes, drugs, cell phones or just a swagger that another desires and has no means to obtain it or lack a hustler's ambition to go and get it, one will begin to spread a venom in the community. This venom begins to seep into the heart and mind of the speaker until he becomes tainted, corrupted and eventually a hater. He hates himself foremost but will try to contaminate thy neighbor as though you are the culprit in his wicked heart.

He will attempt to turn people against you! He will "shake salt" on your name. He will snitch on you, do anything within his will power to aid in the destruction of you. One must be mindful of their thoughts, because they will become your words and eventually your actions! Get up off your punk ass and be your own man! Do for yourself and just maybe that fortunate comrade will aid you in your journey to become successful. A grown man talking about another man is weak! And the one who listens to and condones this trash talk is no better for not operating on the heart of that brother and extracting this cancer out of him.

You are fake if you smile in a man's face and then when he leaves you call him lame or a pussy or whatever terminology used to describe your emotional hatred. This is the William Lynch theory in full effect 300 years later, just as he predicted. Planting dissent within our brotherhood. Our duty is to contradict that theory by uniting amongst one another and doing the total opposite.

I know that it is an extremely arduous task because I'm a proactive man of unity in peace, but when all of us are dead or in jail from this contagious disease that will cause us to rob, kill and destroy one another.

We represent Gangsters, Bloods, Crips, Lords, Pirus, Aryans, Goodfellas, Muslim, Brown pride, even Christians, but everyone of us suffer from the same struggles: incarceration, homelessness, poverty, police brutality, poor education, addiction, etc. Before we can come against each other we need to come together and overcome these struggles of capitalistic imperialism.

Peace to the revolutionary voices of insight. We will combat this capitalist devil through peace and unity. Through camaraderie and communism. The power is vested in the people; We are the people.

MIM(Prisons) responds: This essay really highlights one of the five points of the United Front for Peace in Prisons: Unity. And the writer is not only criticizing those who backbite and gossip, but ey is also doing something about it. Posting articles is a great way to try to get people thinking about something new. It can be less confrontational than attacking these folks directly to their faces. Though sometimes calling out behavior when it happens is also very effective. We want to hear more about the things people are doing like this to build peace and unity behind bars. Follow this comrade's example and send in your reports for the next issue of ULK.

In my last article on China I rehashed the 40-year old argument that China abandoned the socialist road, with some updated facts and figures.(1) The article started as a review of the book Is China an Imperialist Country? by N.B. Turner, but left most of that question to be answered by Turner's book.

We did not publish that article to push some kind of struggle against Chinese imperialism. Rather, as we explained, it was an attack on the promotion of revisionism within the forum www.reddit.com/r/communism, and beyond. The forum's most-enforced rule is that only Marxists are allowed to post and participate in discussion there. Yet almost daily, posts building a persynality cult around Chinese President Xi Jinping, or promoting some supposed achievement of the Chinese government, are allowed and generally receive quick upvotes.

The title of our previous article asking is China in 2017 Socialist or Imperialist may be misunderstood to mean that China must be one or the other. This is not the case. Many countries are not socialist but are also not imperialist. In the case of China, however, it is still important (so many years after it abandoned socialism) to clarify that it is a capitalist country. And so our positive review of a book discussing Chinese imperialism, became a polemic against those arguing it is socialist.

One of the major contradictions in the imperialist era is the inter-imperialist contradiction. The United $tates is the dominant aspect of this contradiction as the main imperialist power in the world today. And currently Russia and China are growing imperialist powers on the other side of this inter-imperialist contradiction. Reading this contradiction as somehow representative of the class contradiction between bourgeoisie and proletariat or of the principal contradiction between oppressed nations and oppressor nations would be an error.

We have continued to uphold that China is a majority exploited country, and an oppressed nation.(2) But China is a big place. Its size is very much related to its position today as a rising imperialist power. And its size is what allows it to have this dual character of both a rising imperialist class and a majority proletariat and peasantry. Finally, its size is part of what has allowed an imperialist class to rise over a period of decades while insulating itself from conflict with the outside world — both with exploiter and exploited nations.

A major sign that a country is an exploiting country is the rise and subsequent dominance of a non-productive consumer class. At first, the Chinese capitalists depended on Western consumers to grease the wheels of their circulation of capital. While far from the majority, as in the United $tates and Europe, China has more recently begun intentionally developing a domestic consumer class.(3) This not only helps secure the circulation of capital, but begins to lay the groundwork for unequal exchange that would further favor China in its trade with other countries. Unequal exchange is a mechanism that benefits the rich First World nations, and marks a more advanced stage of imperialism than the initial stages of exporting capital to relieve the limitations of the nation-state on monopoly capitalism. As we stated in the article cited above, China's size here becomes a hindrance in that it cannot become a majority exploiter country, having 20% of the world's population, without first displacing the existing exploiter countries from that role. Of course, this will not stop them from trying and this will be a contradiction that plays out in China's interactions with the rest of the world and internally. At the same time with an existing "middle class" that is 12-15% of China's population, they are well on their way to building a consumer class that is equal in size to that of Amerika's.(3)

In our last article, we hint at emerging conflicts between China and some African nations. But the conflict that is more pressing is the fight for markets and trade dominance that it faces with the United $tates in the Pacific region and beyond. China remains, by far, the underdog in this contradiction, or the rising aspect. But again, its size is part of what gives it the ability to take positions independent of U.$. imperialism.

As we stated in our most recent article, this contradiction offers both danger and opportunity. We expect it to lead to more support for anti-imperialist forces as the imperialists try to undercut each other by backing their enemies. Then, as anti-imperialism strengthens, the imperialists will face more global public opinion problems in pursuing their goals of exploitation and domination. In other words, a rising imperialist China bodes well for the international proletariat. Not because China is a proletarian state, but because the era of U.$. hegemony must end for a new era of socialism to rise. We should be clear with people about the definitions of imperialism and socialism to make this point.

Whether N.B. Turner agrees with us on these points is unclear. It is possible eir line is closer to Bromma's, who we critiqued because ey "claims a trend towards equalization of classes internationally, reducing the national contradictions that defined the 20th century."(3) As mentioned above it seems highly unlikely for China to be able to replicate the class structure of the United $tates. And it is absolutely impossible to recreate it globally.

China's potential to play a progressive role in the world in coming years does not change the fact that the counter-revolution led by Deng Xiaoping dismantled the greatest achievement towards reaching communism so far in history. If we do not learn from that very painful setback, then we are not applying the scientific method and we will not even know what it is that we are fighting for. How and when socialism ended in China is a question that is fundamental to Maoism.

In recent months, the Countrywide Council of United Struggle from Within, or Double C for short, has been discussing campaigns, tactics and strategies. One question posed by MIM(Prisons) was about the September 9th Day of Solidarity, an annual event to commemorate the Attica Rebellion of 1971 and to promote the United Front for Peace in Prisons (UFPP). So far the consensus in the Double C is that this event is an important one for promoting the UFPP.

One member told of an older comrade who has been in since 1979 who recently told em, "Thank you for waken me up to this Sept 9 day." Others agreed that the people are hungry for this message. Another Double C comrade quickly made copies of the fliers and distributed them at the library and jobsite at eir new facility where ey sees strong prospects for building anti-violence programs among lumpen groups.

In ULK 58, we printed a letter from the Double C to a reformist group called CURE, and laid out our strategy and guidelines for reaching out to other organizations. In recent months, Double C comrades have helped get excellent articles promoting the UFPP in two newsletters read by prisoners: Turning the Tide and Propter Nos. USW comrades should follow these examples of ways to get the line out on the UFPP, a campaign we can unite with all progressive groups on, revolutionary or not.

In writing to other organizations and newsletters, USW has goals of popularizing USW campaigns and increasing ULK subscribership. But we should not let these goals take us toward a strategy of sizeism. Our goal is not to get our address in as many newsletters as possible at any cost, rather we should be focused on unity and struggle. We should be building unity where we see potential for it around practical work, while struggling to push others ideologically.

Building a united front of prisoners, involving various prison-based lumpen organizations, is a long campaign that must be carried out in our daily work. September 9th is just one day when we organize a coordinated action to actualize that unity. September 9th is a time to reflect on the prison movement that came before us and on how to develop the prison movement of today and the future. September 9th will not become big overnight. When it does get big, it will because of years of hard work of USW cadre across the country.

Comrades in the Double C are reviewing the September 9th Organizing Pack and existing fliers promoting the United Front for Peace in Prisons, to come up with tactics, art and slogans for further popularizing the event. This is something that all USW comrades can participate in. Starting with this issue of ULK we plan to print a piece of art on page 3 behind the UFPP statement that can be ripped out and copied as a flier. If you don't have access to make copies write MIM(Prisons) for more copies of these fliers. Send in your art promoting the UFPP and September 9th. Send in your slogans. Report on your organizing successes, strategies and challenges to share in the pages of Under Lock & Key. Build the United Front for Peace in Prisons!