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[Culture] [Black Panther Party] [New Afrika]
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The Culture Corner: Eseibio The Automatic

eseibio the automatic album cover

“[Our purpose is] to ensure that literature and art fit well into the whole revolutionary machine as a component part, that they operate as powerful weapons for uniting and educating the people and for attacking and destroying the enemy, and that they help the people fight the enemy with one heart and one mind.” (1)

This feature, “The Culture Corner,” is a space designated to highlight and share cultural content that expresses revolutionary ideals and principles. “The Culture Corner” appears in the newsletter Power Moves, an internal newsletter distributed in certain Texas prisons, and is being reprinted here.

In 2024, the hip-hop genre has evolved to be the most influential genre of music in the world. As such, it is incumbent upon revolutionaries to utilize this genre to express revolutionary ideals and to advance revolutionary consciousness and solidarity.

One artist that has done this prolifically, while steadfastly maintaining a revolutionary nationalist and anti-capitalist political line, is Bay Area lyrical comrade The Revolutionary Eseibio The Automatic.

Just as important as eir content, in my view, is the accessibility of the music to the captive population. In the prison climate today, dominated by tablet devices with their purposely indoctrinating content, Eseibio’s content does its job by providing a revolutionary alternative. Eir content can be accessed on J-pay/Securus tablets on the media store app. Simply search music and type the artist’s name as spelled above. Eseibio has an extensive catalog of music, spanning over a decade worth of material with a wide number of albums and mixtapes.

While all of Eseibio’s material is revolutionary with an underground flavor, there are certain albums and songs that stick out more than others. These include the albums “Black Panther” and “African Revolutionary”. The former’s tracklist reads like a history lesson on the Black Panther Party. Standout tracks like “10 Point Program,” “Hands Off Assata,” “Red Book,” “Letter to Afeni,” “Smile 4 Pac,” “Off the Pigs,” and “George Jackson Day of the Gun” are bangers that also educate the listener. Other standout tracks like “Juche,” “Che Guevara,” “Bust A Cap,” “Kwame Nkrumah,” “Black Boots,” “In Defense of Self-Defense,” “Free The Land,” “Free Em All,” and “C.R.E.A.M-Capitalism Rules Everything Around Me” should be in steady rotation.

Most important of all is that Eseibio, and other artists that shall be featured in “The Culture Corner” in the future, provide a platform for political prisoners to bring brothers, sisters, mothers and fathers who were left by the wayside into the revolutionary movement. It is not good enough to complain of the maneuvers of the enemy. We have to be good at improvising on the new realities. This is only one way of mixing up the necessary improvisation.

A clenched fist salute to The Revolutionary Eseibio The Automatic and all other revolutionary and conscious artists using their talents for the advancement of the class and national struggles.

“The Culture Corner” will put the spotlight on other artists in future issues, We recommend you to go check out the comrade Eseibio.

Notes: (1) Mao-Tse-Tung’s Selected Works III p.84, “Talks at the Yenan Forum on Literature and Art.”

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[Abuse] [Campaigns] [Granville Correctional Institution] [North Carolina]
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Respond to "Stop Snitching" with - Stop Collaborating!

A guy walked into special housing on HCON [High Security Maximum Control Unit] in 2022 with a head swollen to the size of a bowling ball, with skin hanging off deep face wounds above his eyebrow. He could barely walk. After the shield team beat him in the cell, then in the hallway on camera, they took him to medical and chained him to a table before beating him in front of the doctor and nurse.

Then they took him to the dry-cell and put his head against a concert bench (like a chopping block) in a kneeling position and began beating and kicking him in the head. One officer beat him on the ass with a night-stick. Then they stomped him out of consciousness. When he awoke they were still beating him. They left him there for about two hours til shift-change.

Right before shift-change they walked him back down the hall, past the nurse station where a second-shift nurse spotted the offender and asked what happened to him because he didn’t look like that when he went into the dry-cell. The Sergeant Wilson tried to make excuses but nevertheless the nurse had another assessment report done.

The guy was put in a special-housing cell next to mine. At shift-change the replacing sergeant who happened to be at competition with Sergeant Wilson for a lieutenant position reported the prisoner’s conditions to the Administration and Operating Lieutenant.

When the Lieutenant arrived the prisoner refused to take pictures – until I told him to take the pictures and go to medical. The prisoner was later taken to outside medical and diagnosed with a concussion and broken temple bone in his skull.

I myself and many other captives coached this prisoner with legal advice but he refused to appeal the grievance to step 3 in an attempt to arrange a deal with administration to be released from HCON status. He was not released.

In the process the Sergeant Wilson was transferred along with several other officers and one was fired. Shortly after being placed to work in the gate-house away from prisoners Sergeant Wilson quit. Only one of the officers is still here which is one too many.

This prisoner basically saved the officers by refusing to speak with the Warden about the incident or write statements. The prisoner later stated that writing a grievance or statement is snitching, but as I mentioned above he wrote both a grievance and statement, only to turn around and sell himself short, copping pleas and leaving everyone else hanging; while he turns his back and blind eye to fellow comrades who will suffer the same fate from these officers, he sold us out and left us to the wolves for false promises and that’s not what brothers do. Real brothers wouldn’t let any abuser anywhere near their brothers or sisters. Those were cynical decisions without revolutionary consciousness for the betterment of the people, the same people who helped him to medical treatment when he was lying on his deathbed.

Why settle to copping deals with the same foes who watched orders being carried out to kick your head in? I’m not taking anything from this prisoner’s will to self-sacrifice for others, but on an overall standpoint collectively concerning the prison population, the message here is,

“Don’t knock others for their foresight in advancing the people by any means necessary, including pen and paper.” -The Ballot or the Bullet, Malcolm X

Snitching:

  1. As long as what you say does not include someone else it is not snitching.
  2. Giving a hint that someone did something is dry snitching.

Collaborating: 1. Siding with, taking up for, or covering up for the police.

The generations before us put in decades of paperwork to get where we are today. They wrote newspaper publishers and fought for things we take for granted like bail, trials, showers and recreation etc. Nothing is final until it’s on paper. Any legal case won becomes precedent (law).

Last, police yourselves (nations, neighborhoods, etc). The reason overall Brothers in Islam are more righteous is because we police ourselves to keep each other in-line. If the brothers’ gambling and breaking bread on our watch then we are just as guilty.

“Dare to Struggle, Dare to Win.”

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[Gender] [United Front] [ULK Issue 84]
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Some Thoughts on S.O.'s and Sexual Orientation

I wanna add my voice to the ongoing conversation on Sex Offenders (S.O.’s) and LGBTQ people from a revolutionary perspective.

One key hurdle I think has to be constantly attacked and can only be attacked through criticism and self-criticism: so-called revolutionaries, activists, and political prisoners self-identifying as these things but still holding to the vestiges of their gangster, reactionary world views that make them comfortable.

A political activist analyzes people, places, and things from a political perspective. What is this person, place, or thing’s worth, or lack thereof, to the political programs that political group/individual is striving for? The military activist analyzes people, places, and things from a military perspective, analyzing what will be most advantageous to the military goals of their army, militia, unit, etc.

Because of this, morals and standards in political and military groups, among such people are constantly shifting. When one is on the battlefield, even the most avowed racist, sexist, homo-transphobe, sex offender bigot, will not allow their hate or disdain for the “other” to cost them their lives. The primary concern for the soldier or military commander would be can this person maintain discipline in battle, can they perform under pressure, will they desert their comrades in battle or go AWOL, are they reliable. If the S.O. or non-heterosexual was saving your life on a battlefield, no one would say “let me die I don’t like your kind” or “you’re irredeemable.” At that moment, the equality of humankind will shine bright and true and all the self-gratifying lies we tell each other will shrink in comparison with the truth.

I am not saying you should have no concern about the moral fabric of comrades. Usually morality and politics overlap. What I am saying is that a person/group’s political line and commitment should be of deciding and primary concern if you yourself are indeed a political activist or military activist.

How many times in prison have we seen the “rules” of organizations bent for certain “stomp down” individuals. How many times have we seen people look the other way when a member of their org partakes in sexual gratification that the org prohibits or has a case that’s frowned upon by the org? When this occurs it is usually because those in the org recognize the person in question is a practitioner of violence and that violent aggression is better with you than against you. So people make a tactical or strategic decision to condone, accept what they would otherwise attack or shun. For better or worse, this is political maneuvering at its core and it’s done every day in every prison. I am not promoting it, simply stating truths. The purpose of pointing these truths is to say that if the apolitical populace can discern these nuances then why can’t the politically do so when our causes are so much more noble and worthy of forgiving of one another’s trespasses (real & perceived).

Try a new way of relating to the people on the compound with you. If we’re revolutionaries then we should be revolutionizing the social relations and castes in prison. The prison culture fosters a caste system based on criminal history, skin color, material wealth, propensity for violence, and sexual orientation. As revolutionaries we must check ourselves if we’re not actively establishing a new prison culture and eliminating the hard-line caste structure. How? It starts with building and maintaining relations based on ones level of revolutionary ideology and practice.

Instead of greeting people with “Where you from, what you in for?” or being concerned about who they’re attracted to or intimate with, your greetings, concerns, and inquiries should be, “What are your politics? What do you think about capitalism? How do you think we could organize against the issues we face? Check out this political program, and tell me what if anything you’d be willing to contribute to advancing it.” If you aren’t doing that in some form or fashion you need to engage in self-criticism, are you a revolutionary or a convict bound by the rules and ideas of prison culture?

Lastly, the notion that any group, or person is exempt from recovery, rehabilitation, or transformation is metaphysical, subjective, and thus incorrect. Despite the subject matter, the universe and everything in it, including one’s ideas and impulses, attractions, are in constant movement and development. Nothing remains stagnant. This universal truth is the only universal truth, that nothing remains the same. Therefore to predetermine that anyone or anything is irredeemable is out of compliance with reality and is therefore incorrect thinking, and merely a reflection of one’s biased and narrow analysis. Another small point I want to turn on from ULK #82, ‘Thugs Are Sex Offenders Too’, where the writer says:

“The problem is that most transgender men-women in prison are sex offenders, they are in for preying on children.”

This statement is obviously biased and subjective, and leads to flawed analysis. It is possibly true that the trans people that writer has encountered in prison are all S.O.’s, but it is the exact opposite for my own lived experience. No transgender person I’ve encountered has ever been locked up for a sexual offense, outside of soliciting prostitution. Here’s what I mean by a purely subjective analysis, one that is narrow and one sided relying on one’s own experience only. The truth is that trans people are most often victims of sexual predators in and out of prisons. Those who’ve become predators themselves, whether trans or not, are most often victims of prior sexual abuse. Though this may not align with the writers lived experience it is the majority experience in society as told by polls and statistics. Yet the metaphysical, subjective, nature of postmodernist philosophy has us giving more credence to our own individual lived experience than that of the society at large or a wide array of the population. If we’re in the business of transforming society at large that sort of analysis will not work well.

Dare to Invent the Future

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[Rhymes/Poetry] [ULK Issue 84]
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Revolutionary Triumph

To revolve is to change,

Transformation is what revolution brings, no face, no place, no name, all is suitable for guerilla tactics, so we study and we study so that we become self made autodidactics.

Nothing comes to a sleeper but a dream, so we must put Theory into practice in order to manifest that thing.

It’s impossible for a persyn to be true to anyone else, without first being true to thyself!

If you should fail, go forth and try again. Mind, body, spirit must be imposed with discipline, with undaunting vigor we shall win.

Keep your mind focused, we shall not fold, nor shall we bend!

Triumph is ours!

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[Prison Food] [Abuse] [Control Units] [Police Brutality] [Political Repression] [Bill Clements Unit] [Ferguson Unit] [Texas] [ULK Issue 84]
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How the Prison War Looks in Texas Ad-Segs

“[A]ll over the world now the institution of the prison serves as a place to warehouse people who represent major social problems.” - Angela Y. Davis

Looking at the incarcerated world around us, it is no wonder the numbers of New Afrikan and other darker hued people who are captive is so high. It is no wonder why the level of illiteracy is most highly concentrated among the incarcerated. It is no wonder the level of schooling is low among the captive population. It is no wonder why there is more money invested in mental health services behind bars than in free world facilities.(1)

All this means that when we imagine our resistance against prison systems we must see prison as being more than just the place where people who commit crimes are sent. We have to begin to analyze the interconnected and multi-layered oppression within prison.

A key feature in warfare is physical violence. In prison, “official” physical violence is documented as use of force. The most use of force and most excessive use of force in Texas takes place at Bill Clements, specifically amongst its PAMIO program participants. PAMIO, for those who do not know, is a psychiatric program designed for those in Ad-Seg.

If you follow the logic, Texas residents with psychiatric illness are more likely to be held captive by the state, while in captivity they have a greater chance to be held in Administrative segregation (Ad-Seg). While in Ad-Seg their psychiatric state is likely to deteriorate and they are likely to face “official” physical violence at the hands of their captors at greater numbers than those without documented psychiatric history.

Conditions At Clements

Our situation at Bill Clements Unit Ad-Seg or ECB, Extended Cell Block they call it, has not improved. Although less deaths we are seeing a rise in starvation, torture, neglect, and unsupervised migrant workers running the prison as they see fit with little to no training. Regardless of what administration says. These Africans on this unit have not been taught day rules, standard operating procedures, and have zero regard for this so called rule book. And why shouldn’t they when there is no enforcement and or reprimand on the side of TDCJ.

During the last shakedown, a state-wide attempt to catch contraband, they had me in a cage outdoors for 2 hours while they tossed my cell. Guards and inmates watched me in handcuffs while Major Pacheo instructed Field Boss Shrader to steal all my electronics and commissary food items – over 200 dollars worth. All this I believe is because my toilet hasn’t worked for months and I keep requesting maintenance but it never comes. Same with the broken shower and the water leak resulting in a wet floor. I have receipts for all the electronics and commissary items they stole, and I listed all this and the witnesses on grievance – they put the witnesses on chain! Nobody goes on chain unless it’s to Montford Psych or hospital.

The second week of December we were allowed to shop commissary, the second time in 4 months. Breakfast chow consisted of two tablespoons of scrambled eggs with a quarter inch of grits and applesauce. In total it was 4 spoons of food. For lunch and dinner we had a cheese sandwich. They back-doored commissary with a shakedown and stole what we purchased.

I was allowed 1 hour out of my cell twice this year. The “weekly” library ran 9 times. Average time to see a mental health professional is 9-12 months. Delivered mail can sit in the mail room for over 6 months. They are understaffed and don’t have enough people to properly run the facility. Once they tried to put some beef on dough and call it pizza, it was not cooked and the meat was bad. Raw dough and spoiled meat. No shit. No exaggeration.

Not feeding us is not only to starve us but to keep us from relaxing. We are constantly fasting involuntarily. The hunger keeps us anxious and irritable, to put it mildly. In my pod of 60 I have seen 12 people lifted out on stretchers this year, nobody checking for a pulse or performing CPR. That’s 1 per month on average. This cell is worse than the third world POW camps I visited during my time in the USMC. The corruption is so bad with so many hands in the cookie jar that one cannot even get a judge to hear them out about violations. TDCJ just ignores our requests and cites their lack of staff as to why they have nobody to process the documents.

War in Ferguson

On November 16th all the interconnected elements of prison war worked together on the Ferguson unit as five officers, unprovoked and without cause, entered the cell of two men demanding they submit to a complete strip search and handcuffs. When one of the captives asked why, he was immediately hit in his face with closed fist by CIT Gates while SGT Vasquez grabbed the captive’s head and slammed it against the concrete wall, causing injury. The captive fell to the ground and was kicked, his head was banged against the floor repeatedly. Afterwards he was dragged to the run, outside of the cell, where he was continuously kicked in his face and was even stood on. The entire time other captives were yelling in protest for the guards to stop, but they refused. While on another row, but hearing what was happening, I began launching projectiles from my cell. Eventually this caused the guards to cease their beating. They escorted the beaten man away, then returned minutes later to handcuff and escort me.

I was housed in solitary two cells down from the victim. I had the opportunity to speak with him for the first time, find out first hand what took place. He also shared with me his history of intellectual disabilities, and mild history of psychiatric illness. He had been adopted at a young age and raised in the foster care system. Our time near each other came to a close after the pressures of solitary confinement pushed this brother to attempt suicide. Days later as a result of this incident I was notified by the Ferguson Unit Warden Wheat that I would be reassigned to Administrative Segregation, under trumped up charges of assault on staff with a weapon.

Attempts to appeal the reassignment to Ad-Seg have been hampered by Unit Grievance Officer D. Turner not allowing my appeal of classification to go through.

I have personally reported the unprovoked excessive assaults these same clique of guards have taken part in in the five months I’ve been on Ferguson. There is a culture of unmitigated brutality here and the slightest show of counter-force is excessively punished. Warden Wheat has been made aware of this clique of pigs constantly assaulting people without cause, he has ignored or punished reporters.

Prison is War. Prison is Violence. Administrative Segregation is the highest form of it, where prisoncrats are allowed to hide you and abuse you away from any and all scrutiny. A tool that is used to throw away resisters in the prison battlefield. End RHU!

Sources: (1) Angela Y. Davis, Freedom is a Constant Struggle, pp. 23-24.

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[Legal] [Texas] [ULK Issue 84]
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Resourceful Responses to Two Articles from ULK 83

Re: “Prisoner Put in Solitary for Organizing Political Education in Ohio”, by an Ohio Prisoner

Greetings comrade,

While I wish I could do more to help you combat the political repression you are experiencing within the Ohio gulags, I am sending MIM a leaflet in hopes that it may help you as a replacement for your “self help litigation manual” that you mention was (intentionally) lost. Comrades @ Midwest Books to Prisoners have formatted Columbia University’s “Jailhouse Lawyers Manual” (JLM) into zines (one chapter per pamphlet) and will send you 3-5 per request, for free. I hope these pamphlets will help you get around the pigs not allowing you to order books from the SHU.

|1321 N. Milwaukee Ave | PMB #460 | Chicago, IL 60622

Re: “Prisoners Punished for Drug Problem in Texas” by a Texas Prisoner

Though I will not pretend to know what goes on within the oppressive behemoth that is the TDCJ (being that I am going on 3 years here in a county jail in the Bay Area), I read recently after receiving ULK 83 a news snippet within the newest edition of the anti-authoritarian/anarchist website ItsGoingDown’s newsletter “IN Contempt #34” that might shed some light on the reasons behind the Sep. 6th lockdown for Texas’ gulags. I copy it verbatim:

The Texas-wide prison lockdown that began in September has now been lifted [this newsletter was posted Nov. 2nd 2023]. The lockdown was officially described as an effort to combat drugs, but some prisoners have questioned this and suggested it was actually an attempt to suppress prisoner unrest after a particularly brutal staff beating at Coffield Unit. From a Texas Tribune article:

“On Sept. 5 an inmate [sic] at the Coffield Unit stabbed a correctional officer [sic] in a high security unit. TDCJ officers [sic] responded to this incident with excessive force and prison system spokesperson Amanda Hernandez told The Texas Tribune established protocols were not followed. After an internal review of that incident, seven correctional officers [sic] were fired and another six officers [sic] resigned….”

I’m not 100% sure what the spokesperson for TDCJ meant by “established protocols were not followed”, but from the expansive reporting of Texas TEAMONE and others within TDCJ, we know that “excessive force” is standard operating procedure for Texas pigs.

MIM(Prisons) adds: We too distribute chapters of the PLM through our Serve the People Free Political Books to Prisoners Program. See page 2 for more info on how to to get books. Also see the other response regarding the Texas lockdown for more info on what was behind it.

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[Revolutionary History] [Black Panther Party] [Release] [ULK Issue 83]
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Ruchell Magee

Ruchell Magee free

Comrade Ruchell Magee was one of two survivors from the Marin County Courthouse massacre that took General Johnathan Jackson’s life on August 7, 1970 (peace be upon him). Comrade Ruchell Magee is now 84 years old. Ruchell Magee was born in 1939 in Louisiana. He would go on to spend 67 years of his life in unjust captivity, starting the year after the murder of Emmett Till. In 1956, Ruchell Magee (like Emmett Till) was framed in a similar fashion of unfounded accusations of rape, where the victim originally did not identify Ruchell Magee. Nevertheless, he was convicted in a one day trial by an all white jury. After serving 7 years on a 12 year sentence he was released on parole in 1962. Comrade Magee then moved to Los Angeles.

After a 10 dollar quarrel over marijuana ending in a kidnapping charge, Magee was convicted (with little evidence) after a two day trial and sentenced to serve seven years to life on kidnapping charges that legally only carried a penalty of up to the maximum of five years. In 1965 he appealed the charges and was denied. While housed at San Quentin Magee became a jailhouse lawyer. There he met Comrade George who was also serving a Cali-type sentence of one year to life. They were routinely denied by the parole boards. Ruchell was also a major participant in the movement for prisoners’ rights and never stopped fighting for his release.

The Marin County Courthouse Massacre

Around the young age of 15-years old, Johnathan Jackson became politically active witnessing the injustice done to his brother George by the legal system. Johnathan was a very smart student, scoring at the top of his classes.

George Jackson later had Johnathan move in with Angela Davis to keep her safe. There he learned weapons training and dated Angela’s girlfriend who was white. He would later impregnate her before his demise, with a son his mother would deny. A son that would grow into a polar opposite of George Jackson.

The day before the Marin County Courthouse Massacre, Johnathan Jackson sat in the courtroom in a trench with a bag for the trial of James McClain. The next day he visited George Jackson. They spoke, embraced, then left.

A few hours later a Sheriff spotted Johnathan in the courthouse with the same trench coat and bag on from the day before. The suspicious Sheriff approached Comrade Johnathan and asked him: “What’s in the bag?” Johnathan replied:

“Alright gentlemen, freeze. Nobody move. We’ll take over from here.”

After equipping his comrades with artillery the armed defendant James McClain and the witnesses called there for a prison murder, William Christmas and Ruchell Magee, left with the prosecutor, judge, and three jurors as hostages, demanding the release of Comrade George and the guarantee of safety for themselves.

James McClain walked the judge (with a shotgun barrel roped around his neck) to the van with the hostages. As they where leaving the parking lot hundreds of officers took aim on the custom made bullet proof van. A lot of the officials were from San Quentin. As Johnathan was leaving the parking lot holding a handgun out the window he was shot in the hand while holding it out the window.

The rest of the officers opened fire on the van, the shotgun goes off, and the prosecutor snatches the gun off Johnathan’s hand as he brings his hand back in the window with the gun. The prosecutor would then murder Comrade Johnathan, James McClain, and William Christmas. As the Sheriff and state officials continue to shoot the van they eventually shot the prosecutor in the back, paralyzing him. Ruchell Magee was later found unconscious.

Ruchell Magee was charged with murder and kidnapping, along with Angela Davis who allegedly provided Mr. Jackson the guns. In a separate trial Angela was acquitted, but in 1973 Mr. Ruchell Magee was convicted of simple kidnapping and voted 11 to 1 to acquit him of the murder charge.

Even though an autopsy of the judge who had been killed proved Ruchell did not kill him, and no evidence proved Ruchell knew anything about Johnathan Jackson’s plan to liberate the prisoners from the Marin County Courtroom, on 23 January 1973, Magee was sentenced to life in prison.

After the conviction he was denied parole 16 times and housed at high security prisons like Folsom and Pelican Bay’s Security Housing Unit, while he became one of the most consistent and successful jailhouse lawyers and advocates for prisoners.

Earlier in his bid, Ruchell took the name Cinque from the African leader Sengbe Pieh of the 1839 La Amistad slave ship rebellion, insisting that Africans have the right to resist “unlawful” slavery. Ruchell maintains that Black people in the U.$. have the right to resist this new form of slavery which is part of the colonial control of Black people in the country.

“My fight is to expose the entire system, judicial and prison system, a system of slavery. This will cause benefit not just to myself but to all those who at this time are being criminally oppressed or enslaved by this system.”

Ruchell has now been released on a new bill passed in California that allows incarcerated medical leave for those who are at fatal health risks.

Welcome home the G, AKA General Magee

Sources: The Road to Hell, by Paul Liberatore
Ruchell Magee released after 67 years in prison!, by Claude Marks of Freedom Archives

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[Palestine] [Middle East] [U.S. Imperialism] [ULK Issue 84]
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A Brief History On Palestine

All Power To The People

As prisoners our imprisonment stultifies our social consciousness, our isolation prevents us from receiving information about the world from social interaction and direct experience. We are expected to relate to the world – and form our opinions about it and what should be done in it – through the ruling class’s media; if it wasn’t reported, it didn’t happen. The way it’s shown is how it is.

All of the mainstream media sources claim objectivity, but they don’t practice it. How can news be objective when the very language is biased as in the I$raelis always being “allies” and the Palestinians always being “terrorists?” This is obvious in the reporting being done by the mainstream media and the U.$. government as it pertains to Hamas’ attack on I$rael. The “terrorist attack” narrative is being shoved down our throats. With their half-truths, omissions, spins, etc, they have led the masses to conclude that what we are being told is the truth. This is evident in my peers’ responses to the ongoings of the Middle East.

I encourage all prisoners to ascertain the truth of the matter via conducting their own research. Because whatever the news story, trusting and believing it as it is laid out is the most beneficial practice to the ruling class and their “allies”.

The forthcoming is by no means an exhaustive piece, nor a diatribe. My intention is to provide you with some context as it pertains to the conflict between I$rael and Gaza. This conflict dates back to when the Ottoman Empire ruled the region. Prior to WWI, the area now known as I$rael was known as Palestine and was part of the Ottoman Empire. During WWI, as the fall of the Ottoman Empire became imminent, the governments of France and Great Britain signed the Sykes-Picot Agreements on 16 May 1916. France and Great Britain agreed “to recognize and protect an independent Arab state or a confederation of Arab states” upon the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire. In December 1917, Palestine was occupied by the Allied Forces under General Allenby of Britain. After WWI, the Allied powers divided the former Ottoman Empire into mandates and Great Britain was given a mandate from the League of Nations to govern Palestine.

In 1917, before the British mandate, the native Arab population accounted for approximately 94% of the total population. Under the mandate from 1922 to 1947, the Jewish population in Palestine increased by approximately 725%. During the twenty-year British mandate, violence was used by Jewish settlers to establish territory. As Jewish immigration into Palestine continued, Britain refused to recognize Palestinian right to self-government. The Zionists resorted to violence to hold the ground they gained and to press toward their ultimate aspirations of a Jewish state in Palestine.

On 29 November 1947, the U.N. voted to divide Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states and make Jerusalem an international city. The Arabs rejected this plan, which was later dropped. After the announcement of this plan, violence erupted in Palestine and within three months, 869 people died and 1,909 people were injured in Palestinian-Jewish clashes. Jewish paramilitary attacks on Palestine villages led to the mass exodus of Palestinian Arabs to other areas of Palestine as well as other countries. The displacement of over 750,000 Palestinians from their land during this period is referred to as the Nakba, or catastrophe. The violence escalated as the neighboring Arab states (Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Transjordan) joined the hostilities and fought what came to be known as the 1948 Arab-I$raeli or Middle East War.

After the British mandate expired on 14 May 1948, I$rael declared its independence as a state. The U.$. and the USSR subsequently recognized I$rael. The I$raeli forces were well-armed and well-trained and quickly overpowered the forces of the intervening Arab states. By the end of the war, I$rael occupied most of the territory of Palestine, with the exception of the area along the West Bank of the Jordan River (known since as the “West Bank”) and a strip of land along the Mediterranean Sea (known since as the “Gaza Strip”).

In 1948, the Arab-I$raeli war ended with the signing of the bilateral armistice agreements between I$rael and Egypt, I$rael and Lebanon, I$rael and Jordan, and I$rael and Syria. The purpose of these agreements was to reach a formal peace treaty within six months, but it ultimately failed.

In 1956, Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal and barred I$raeli ships from using it along with the straits of Tiran, another shipping route. [ULK editor: this is a precedent for what Yemen is doing to stop ships to I$rael in the Red Sea today.] I$rael, who was aided by Britain and France at the time, then invaded Egypt. The Soviet Union, who was an ally of Egypt, threatened I$rael with nuclear retaliation if they did not exit Egypt. This threat forced the U.$. to pressure the British, French, and I$raeli forces to withdraw. Subsequently a peacekeeping force was deployed by the U.N.

The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was formed in 1964 in Egypt. The purpose of the PLO was to unite Arab groups and liberate the Palestinian territories through armed struggle. The PLO would later become co-opted by the United $tates and I$rael and change its name to the Palestinian Authority (PA).

In 1967, Egypt ordered the U.N. forces to leave and closed the Straits of Tiran to I$rael again.

This sparks the Six Day War. I$rael attacks Egypt and later Jordan and Syria, capturing Gaza, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Sinai Peninsula.

From 1973 until 1979 – when the Camp David Accords peace deal was set up by U.$. President Jimmy Carter and signed by Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and I$raeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin – war raged unchecked.

As all prior peace agreements the Camp David Accords peace deal was short-lived. In 1987 Palestinians organized by the recently created Hamas staged the first of the two uprisings [intifadas], in Gaza, I$rael and in the West Bank, using mass boycotts, civil disobedience and attacks on I$raelis. More than 50 I$raeli civilians were killed. From 1987 to 1990, the Palestinians and Hamas held numerous protest demonstrations to which the I$raeli Defense Forces (IDF), special forces, police, and I$raeli settlers responded with live ammunition, indiscriminate beatings of Palestinians, as well as other means of oppression. The primary focus of Hamas was to spread its Islamist ideology and respond to the immediate needs of the Palestinian people, particularly their need of basic services and psychological need to resist I$rael’s brutal and racist military occupation of Gaza and the West Bank.

After the PLO sold out the Palestinian struggle for national liberation by signing the Oslo agreement with I$rael in 1993 the people of Gaza supported Hamas becoming a political structure. Subsequently they elected members of Hamas into positions of local leadership, then ultimately as their overall national leadership. Hamas has remained relatively free of pressures and outside influences. They have set up social support programs to help provide for basic needs like food and medical care that I$rael has been blocking for decades now. The Palestinian people took up arms against I$rael and its illegal settlements that have been murdering Palestinians, especially children, and increasingly stealing their land. In 2006 the Palestinian people elected Hamas as their national political leadership in place of the PA despite knowing the United $tates and I$rael would retaliate by cutting all funding they were giving to prop up the neo-colonial PA, and scraps they were tossing to the already ruined Gaza economy. So if we are to keep it real Hamas is a reflection of and carrying out the will of the Palestinian people.

In 2008, I$rael launched a major military campaign against Hamas. The fighting ceased on 18 January 2009, with 1,440 Palestinians and 13 I$raelis killed. I$raeli forces killed Hamas’s military chief Ahmed Jabani in a missile strike. The strike was part of an I$raeli operation to eliminate weapons, and Hamas members in Gaza. In the wake of the death of their military Chief, Hamas made it clear that the “gates of hell had been opened.”

From 2012 up until the most recent attack by Hamas there have been constant clashes between Hamas and I$rael. If you noticed there have been more Palestinians murdered. Even after the attack that occurred on October 7, over 15,000 [and counting] Palestinians have been killed, including people of all ages. The I$raelis have prevented any humanitarian aid from entering Gaza, they have had Gaza under a blockade for 16 years, and they have had over 2 million Palestinians confined to a 147 square mile open air prison. It is axiomatic that violence begets violence. The oppressor should never holla “terrorist attack!” when the rooster is simply coming home to roost.

Dare To Struggle
Dare To Win

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[Drugs] [Bent County Correctional Facility] [Colorado] [ULK Issue 84]
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We Want Security, They Want Control

We’ve been having tons of problems here at Bent County Correctional Facility in Colorado. There’s been a surge of drugs and violence, culminating in a murder just last week. Meanwhile, they are attempting to force non-trouble-causing prisoners in the “incentive program” into providing unpaid slave labor by working – normally paid – job assignments for free. They are closing down numerous educational programs, leaving no “incentives” for good behavior.

For some unfathomable reason, they actually promoted the Chief of “Security” (Control) here – the very one who oversaw the increases in drugs, gangs and violence here – to Associate Warden! The problems have continued to get worse since his promotion. I honestly suspect he is behind all the drugs and other contraband coming in here; he is known for his “old school” mentality on running a prison. And what better way to maintain control (NOT secure!) than to keep everyone high and fighting each other, right?

I have had a lot of positive feedback from people here about some of the concepts in the Revolutionary 12 Steps program. I hope to continue spreading the ideas of unity and change around here. I’d like another copy and any other ideas you have for our course fighting addiction. I’ve enclosed a donation of stamps.


MIM(Prisons) responds: Thank you. You should have received another Revolutionary 12 Steps by now. Please continue to send us your successes, failures and lessons learned in fighting addiction and we will share them with others in ULK and via the 12 Step Training Group. While our training program is on hiatus until we can get a skilled trainer to run it again, we will keep everyone who is actively working on this issue informed of any progress on our end.

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