MIM(Prisons) is a cell of revolutionaries serving the oppressed masses inside U.$. prisons, guided by the communist ideology of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism.
Under Lock & Key is a news service written by and for prisoners with a focus on what is going on behind bars throughout the United States. Under Lock & Key is available to U.S. prisoners for free through MIM(Prisons)'s Free Political Literature to Prisoners Program, by writing:
MIM(Prisons) PO Box 40799 San Francisco, CA 94140.
Happy Mass Murder Day,
The last Thursday in November,
a day to give thanks to god;
for the natives being massacred.
What kind of god do we believe in,
making heroes out of criminals,
celebrating the atrocities,
of the so-called founding fathers,
thieves, humyn traffickers,
rapists, and slave holders?
Thanking god for the parasites,
no wonder we are still their sufferers.
Happy Mass Murder Day,
The history speaks for itself,
we see why the very same invasions,
and massacres are happening,
to the Palestinian natives.
Funded and armed,
by the very same parasites;
who invaded and massacred,
the American natives.
Pretty soon there will be,
a Thanks Giving day,
for the invasion and massacre
happening in Palestine.
Inevitable, as long as the parasites,
are in control of the narrative.
Happy Mass Murder Day,
to who, the lawmakers,
who got millions invested
in military weapons
manufacturing companies?
And the owners of the companies
manufacturing the bombs?
Or the poor defenseless victims;
wombmen and children
being blown to smithereens,
with systematic impunities?
Y’all keep celebrating the murderers,
I’ll keep celebrating the victims
of these crimes against humanity,
victims of CIPWS atrocities.
Happy Mass Murder Day,
Isn’t Gaza and the West Bank,
in and of themselves reservations?
Hasn’t Gaza and the West Bank,
been enduring the very same foreigner
settler colonization and occupation,
for 76-plus years?
Doesn’t that call for
Palestinian indignation?
And isn’t it being done,
by the very same victims
of holocaust extermination?
How do you scream “self defense”
against a people you are denying
self-determination?
Where is God,
or the United Nations?
Happy Mass Murder Day,
why isn’t anyone seeing
a double standard of international law?
Why isn’t anyone seeing the Zionist,
as being truly anti-semitic to the core?
Why isn’t anyone seeing
that Amerikkka is arming the Zionist
against the Palestinian poor?
the blocking of humanitarian aid,
the targeting of wombmen and children,
attacking hospitals and aid workers,
medical personnel and UN Officials,
need I say any more?
Netanhitler is a proxy of the U.$.,
so he cannot be a war criminal,
and what’s happening in Palestine,
in their eyes is not even war.
Must be just a figment of my imagination,
just keeping it raw.
I have been a member of USW since 2017. Since then I have contributed
zealously, especially the move away from publishing the revisionist
ideal of prisoners complaining about prison conditions and their
grievances, which served no purpose to the movement other than to teach
comrades revisionist methods of resolution to make prisons ideally more
comfortable and less punitive.
As I attempt a corrective analysis, I ask is writing grievances and
filing lawsuits against prison adminsistrators a revisionist ideal or
revolutionary? and if it is revolutionary, how?
I know no revolution that was won through writing grievances or use
of the courts! Read Dr. Burton’s book Tip
of the Spear and see how that ideal worked for the comrades in
the Attica Liberation Faction (ie. BPP, BLA, W.U. and all). It gets
minimum results that require the exhaustion of much energy, study of law
and money. Tip of the Spear calls for deep analysis of
revolution and how it looks when applied in multiple states and
facilities.
Wiawimawo of MIM(Prisons) responds: I don’t know of any
USW leaders that don’t write grievances or file lawsuits. Grievances are
tactics. So we agree that no revolution has been won by grievances, just
as none is won by maintaining a website. But that doesn’t mean we
shouldn’t do these things.
“They go crazy becuz, Mu, they really believe in the System, and this
System always betray those that believe in it! That’s what drive them
out they minds, they cain’t handle that.”
As i said, we look at these things as tactics, as opposed to
strategy. Though strategically we do believe we are in a stage of legal
struggle in this country, we mean that in the broad sense. Legal
struggle in the courts is just one form of legal struggle, and not one
that we focus on.
So why engage in grievance battles and the grievance campaigns USW
has going in various states?
To win battles that are more strategic, especially around First
Amendment rights to communicate, affiliate and just read. Fighting
censorship has always been a struggle we have put effort into because it
is a direct threat to our organizing efforts. It’s not just about making
conditions more comfortable. The most recently added grievance
petition was in Indiana, where it has already been used to help get
6-month-old mail delivered. When we distribute the petitions to
prisoners we include a cover letter where we state:
“MIM(Prisons) sees these petitions as a good use of our resources
because our ability to fairly have our grievances handled is directly
related to preventing arbitrary repression for people who stand up for
their rights or attempt to do something positive. We support this
petition in light of our anti-censorship work and anti-repression work
in general.”
An outside supporter recently expressed concerns echoing Orko’s:
“but if what it ends up being is just MIM(Prisons) helping prisoners
get their immediate personal grievances addressed, i don’t see how that
differs from the work being done by hundreds of other
reformist/bourgeois prison advocacy groups, other than that you also
offer them Maoist resources”
It is true that people use the grievance petitions for various
issues. And an individual using the petition to get some persynal issue
addressed is not contributing to the prison struggle, nor to the
anti-imperialist struggle. It is up to the comrades on the ground to use
the petitions to build an organizing base. In either case, it is a tiny
amount of time and resources that we are putting into getting petitions
into peoples’ hands. When we put in the effort to assemble articles and
conduct support campaigns, it will be around issues like censorship,
solitary confinement and political repression.
To mobilize the masses of prisoners. The grievance campaigns have
been utilized by many to mobilize those around them for a common cause.
Mobilizing the masses to organize against state oppression is a central
task to any revolutionary movement. However, both of the critics above
pointed out that just filing grievances and petitions is only teaching
people to beg the oppressor for resolutions. It is up to USW organizers
to ensure that multiple tactics are employed in any campaign, including
tactics that contribute to building independent struggle. As we always
say, there are no rights only power struggles.
A longer debate between USW leaders over how to do this has already
appeared in a series of articles in ULK.(1) As the comrade
concluded in that first article, when the masses see the smallest
victory as a miracle and are easily pacified by it, leaders are easily
isolated by the state, so security precautions are of utmost importance
for any sustained effort. The other USW leader in that article argues
that without a strong cadre organization to frame such struggles, they
will only set the revolutionary struggle back.
There have been many cases where USW comrades report that with a lot
of struggle they barely get people to sign a petition or grievance if
the leader does all the work to write them up and make copies. In such
cases, where the masses must have their hands held to express the
slightest bit of discontent, we must conclude that we are not succeeding
in mobilizing the masses to take their destinies in their own hands.
To appeal to the masses where they are at. In 2022, our Texas
campaign pack was one of the top referrals for new subscribers after
word of mouth and ULK. The grievance petitions are also a tool
for recruiting new comrades from the masses. Some will never be
interested in anything beyond getting their local grievances heard,
others will see the futility in relying on the system and join USW.
[We are currently out of copies of Jailhouse Lawyers by
Mumia but would happily distribute more to prisoners across the country
if anyone wants do donate copies to our Free Political Books to
Prisoners Program.]
Meet me at the library,
that’s where we bury lies.
That’s where we kill CIPWS miseducation;
that’s where we grow wings and fly.
That’s where we find essential self.
Where we turn into suns, and rise
that’s where they hide truths
and keep us mentally colonized.
They kept the slaves from learning to read,
the easiest way to keep them,
dehumanized.
They, the CIPWS,
is doing the same to prisoners,
if we don’t open our eyes, and realize,
that fighting CIPWS censorship
is the same as burying lies.
Dear Top Brass At U.$. Navy (Mr. Omnipotent Administrator),
You guys bicker about sexuality, abortion, gender issues, and
whatever non-stop. Let me fill you in on your rape revenge fantasies and
myths. Just ask the Florida Department of Corrections for my essay on
sexual privilege in amerikkka. They have it in my central file in
Tallahassee.
I quote Eldridge Cleaver in Soul on Ice:
“The Omnipotent Administrator conceded to the super-masculine menial
all of the attributes of masculinity associated with the body: strength,
brute power, muscle, even the beauty of the brute body. Except one.
There was this single attribute of masculinity which he was unwilling to
relinquish, even though this particular attribute is the essence and
seat of masculinity: sex.”
The Omnipotent Administrator said “I will bind your rod with my
omnipotent will, and place a limitation on its aspiration which you will
violate on pain of death.”
I have been trying to follow the Palestinian liberation struggle for
some time now, well at least in the best ways I can behind enemy lines:
piecing bits and pieces of information together from the various media
sources that make it in here.
What strikes me the most at this juncture is the dialectic between
New Afrikan youth and Palestinian youth. Over here in the Amerikkkan
empire, New Afrikan youth, particularly New Afrikan male youth occupy
very unfortunate spaces in the Amerikkkan oppressor nation’s mental.
These youth dwell in the danger zone, spaces that are purely a figment
of the “white” imagination. This criminal Black youth label. This
“hyper-reality” is no more real than the emperor’s new clothes,
analogous to the rapist who takes the mentally ill patient back to the
scene of the crime, back to the moment of trauma, when the delusions
began. It is within the dark interiority of this lived nightmare, the
womb of the unforgiving chattel slavery regime enclosed within old style
colonialism that the New Afrikan male youth was conceived. This is
critical and informative for understanding mass imprisonment in New
Afrika.
This process of marking New Afrikan youth as criminal prisoners
essential to the functioning of mass incarceration is a mechanism of
social control operative under national oppression. For this repressive
institution to succeed, New Afrikan youth must be branded as criminal
before they are formally subject to this mechanism of control. This is
essential, for forms of explicit colonial control are not only
prohibited but are widely condemned. Capitalism evolved.
Both New Afrikan and Palestinian people are entrenched beneath the
boot of their colonizers without a state that is theirs to foster,
nurture, and facilitate their respective national liberation struggles
to actualize control over their destiny. Both face the repressive arm of
mass imprisonment to undermine and destroy their resistance efforts and
thus fine comb their national oppression nightmare.
The I$raeli colonial project is a direct extension of U.$.
imperialism. The U.$. penal system being the first and largest
experiment in humyn bondage, it is only fitting that this institution of
social control finds its way into the Palestinian lived experience under
I$raeli occupation.
Palestinian youth are the only youth that are formally subject to a
“military” court/detention system. Palestinian youth are not privy to a
civil court; that means when they go before a judge they are not
entitled to a lawyer, nor a translator even though the entire court
proceedings are in Hebrew – a non-Arabic language. And if they remain
silent, that means they plead guilty. So no civilian proceedings for any
Palestinian youth at all.
Many of these oppressed youth are taken during night raids from their
parents or adult supervisors to further facilitate intimidating
interrogation techniques. These parallel a lot of New Afrikan juvenile
situations as the school-to-prison pipeline. The harsh penalties for
simple offenses that are the rule, just the whole criminalization
process of entire neighborhoods/locations mirror U.$. law enforcement
imposition of gang injunctions/occupational patrolling of predominantly
New Afrikan neighborhoods in the United $tates of Amerikkka.
The I$raeli settler occupation project parallels Amerikkkan national
oppression of New Afrika with the language and practical application of
the tried and tired excuse of blaming the so-called “savages” for
provoking the “reasonable” and “peace loving” settlers into defending
themselves and the land “God ordained” them to have thus dehumanizing
and criminalizing a whole nation. The zionist regime’s actions against
Palestinian youth are nothing short of genocidal.
In the current news, it is important to note the essential role
played by the Palestinian youth, mostly under 18. The resistance
movement there is mobilizing their youth to stand up and struggle
forward. This is very important to glean lessons from, particularly
within the historical and contemporary social dynamics encircling
settler colonialism and national oppression in Occupied Palestine. This
is good for an application to the Amerikan empire. As ULK aptly
notes: the Black Panthers were mostly teenagers.
Last year myself and various comrades within the anti-prison movement
came under heightened political repression during Black August and
Bloody September well into October. The Palestinian National Liberation
after Operation Al-Aqsa Flood seemed to keep the war games intact
against us prisoners/revolutionaries.
The Stop Cop City activists and myself have been branded as domestic
terrorists by the U.$. empire and are facing the new type of political
persecution greenlit after September 11, 2001. I quote Obama: “We do not
use drone strikes to punish people but to eliminate those who pose a
continuing and imminent threat to the American people.” It was said in a
cleverly written and well executed speech, and also layered very
carefully.
The Supreme Court says the only question to ask to a case like this
is whether the speech “transcends the bounds of freedom of speech which
the constitution protects.”
How far can the phrase “imminent threat” be stretched? We are the
domestic guinea pigs. Security Threat Group (STG) units all over the
empire have war plans that move into operation mode in Bloody September,
prison activists and deemed leaders will be hid inside the various
control units that pockmark the penal landscape. Get ready.
This is that season again. There is no need for Congress or state
legislature approval. The authorization for use of military force is a
unilateral decision by executive power. Beware the drone strike for
rebels and those in their reach. Beware the raid for rebels and those in
their reach. Beware the heightened political prosecution/assassination
of the Republic of New Afrika. This is a defense of the state’s right to
wage war against New Afrika.
i wanted to take this opportunity to lend my voice to this ongoing
discussion around so-called “snitching”, as this is a serious topic
of principle and ideology which affects Our ability to succeed in Our
tactical and strategic approaches.
As MIM(Prisons) pointed out, this question was originally raised due
to captives organizing around police terrorism inside prisons and other
captives refusal to participate in the paper trail aspect of the
resistance. However, the issue raised in ULK 83’s article
putting forth the slogan “Stop Collaborating” and the response in
ULK 86, “Stop
Snitching on Pigs”, need to be discussed as they all derive from the
same source and it needs to be spelled out.
The California Prisoner in ULK 86 opens by saying “Let’s
look at this from a practical perspective and not from an ideological
one.” Then says “Snitching is telling on people. It’s giving information
on someone else to a higher authority to act on it. We can all agree on
that definition.”
i begin by stating: NO! We cannot all agree on that. It is a fallacy
that telling on someone and snitching is always the same. See, snitching
necessitates that We’ve had some sort of prior bond, or understanding.
If your co-defendant “snitches on you” it is different from the old
church lady down the street “telling on you.” It may produce the same
result, but these are two different things. And it is indeed an
ideological question, We can’t get around that. The co-defendant has an
understanding with you, usually an unspoken one that each of you are
equally committed to the morals and principles of the criminal
subculture, which means no cooperation with law enforcement even if it
means saving your own skin. When the co-defendant goes against that they
have snitched on you, not only because they told but because they
violated your trust by going against a principle each of you swore to
uphold. The presence of the betrayal factor and the deceit, the
inability to honor a commitment, these are the key factors that
represent the phenomenon We call snitching. These are indeed
universal principles that virtually no one likes when people go against.
Regardless of walk of life, We as humyns want to have assurance that
commitments will be honored, that sacrifices will be made, and that
trustworthiness will be present in those We associate with. It is for
this reason real snitching is universally frowned upon.
However, when We bring the old church lady into the equation, she,
while frowning upon the Judas in her bible and those who exhibit those
same traits in her world, will tell on you for whatever perceived slight
or transgression you’ve committed against her. She hasn’t swore to any
principles of the criminal subculture, she has no bond with you other
than being a community member, and that bond was broken by you in your
antisocial act against her. So she cannot possibly “snitch” on you, even
while proceeding to tell on you. There is a significant difference, and
We cannot hold people to standards that they have never
acknowledged.
As MIM(Prisons) said, abuses must be exposed by so-called authorities
and this goes towards undermining the legitimacy of their authority.
A crooked cop is not an ally to a revolutionary prisoner simply
because they are crooked or they bring something in. This question has
to really be worked out on a case-by-case basis, but i’ll just say that
in most cases the crooked cop isn’t an ally and the situation is just
transactional, there’s no understanding either way of the intentions
behind either the taking or bringing of illicit things: it’s only a
transactional relationship like most in a capitalist society. So, to say
the pig (the profit-driven crooked cop) is my ally because they bring me
phones and dope is to say that i am allowing myself to be bought off by
these items. As a NARN i stand on the principles put forth in the
FROLINAN Handbook for REVNAT Cadres: Standards 5: “Potential members
must have outgrown the lust for coveting things or material goods.” And
from the Codes of Conduct 4: “No member of the revolutionary cadre
organization will place any material commodity above or before the
organization, the people, or the NAIM.” 6: “No member of the
revolutionary cadre organization is permitted to use, produce,
distribute, process, fund, or take part in the sale of heroin, cocaine
(in any form), LSD, PCP, or any hard drug, nor will they take any pill
for the purpose of getting high and no member will distribute such pills
or take part in the sale of such pills or other illegal drugs.”
i share to illustrate the standards and codes of conduct We should be
upholding, even when no one else is, or even when it benefits Us to do
otherwise. So if We follow this as spelled out it would limit Our
dealings with that crooked pig anyway. We have a mandate to liberate
political prisoners and if they believe in the principles of the
revolutionary movement, then maybe that rare individual is an ally. But
We all know there aren’t many who are willing to put their life and
freedom on the line to liberate Us, even if they’re willing to help Us
saturate the pen with distractions. So this says “i am willing, as a
crooked pig who is profit driven, to help you distract yourself and
others while in prison, but i am not willing to help you get out of
prison.” i don’t think that’s a real ally and it’s because of the profit
motive itself.
This brings me to my next point. The California Prisoner uses the
terminology that We all use. “Our struggle.” But i think We need to
define exactly what “Our struggle” means to us, because it doesn’t mean
the same thing to everyone at all times. Some think the struggle is for
power and influence within the prison, some think it’s to tear down all
prisons right now, some think it’s to reform the criminal mentality in
order to produce good law abiding citizens of the corporate states of
amerika and all these and other trends coexist to make up what Our
struggle objectively is, but what is Our struggle subjectively, to Us?
The Dragon pointed this out the best when it was said, that the whole
point of the prison movement, the underlying motive for all the actions
is to develop the capacity to field a People’s Army. i am paraphrasing.
So in my experience, and something i lament to cats around although i
can’t speak for cats here or elsewhere, but those who have “plugs” are
not using them for any sort of dissent activities. Those who have plugs
and dope are usually those policing the cats doing the dissident
actions, whether those actions are paper trial related or organizing
direct action.
Rarely is it the cats who have plugs and dope doing anything for the
movement, and even when these are comrades with knowledge and experience
and proven track records of struggle, while they have access to those
plugs and dope their activism and commitment to it either ceases or
severely lessens. Why? Because these are not only distractions but are
corrupting influences. It is no coincidence that usually the prisons
with the least amount of “motion” are those with the highest level of
rebel activity and ideological training going on. So although plugs
could theoretically be used for a lot of good they are by and large not
being used in that way. [MIM(Prisons) adds: This is our experience as
well.]
So, while I would agree with the Cali Prisoner about not throwing the
baby out with the bath water, i do so largely because We cannot do so
anyway. The prison system creates its black market economy through its
laws of prohibition. Therefore there will always be some pig somewhere
itching to take advantage of the unique economic opportunity to provide
distractions and corrupting influences to those that want them and want
to provide them. i am not advocating telling on crooked cops, but let me
be clear they’re not allies to revolutionary prisoners, unless they
themselves support the revolutionary principles We uphold. Let me also
be clear that those who decide to tell on these crooked cops, here
meaning specifically those who are driven by profit, those acts are not
snitching, even though they are telling as explained at the top of this
writing.
The two main things that hold the revolutionary prison movement back
are gangs/gang mentalities and the drug trade. Therefore, anyone who
perpetuates the latter is holding back the movement. On the gang
question, there are those who are solid revs and come from this cloth, i
am one of them. However, this doesn’t change the fact that the
introduction of and expansion of gangs, particularly street gangs inside
prison, at least in the case of Texas, coincides with the downward slope
of revolutionary consciousness and commitment within the walls.
Gone are the days where L.O.’s are built upon revolutionary and
progressive principles. Gone are the days of traditional groups
spreading knowledge and going at the system. They’re only spreading
dope, gangsterism, and discord amongst each other. The exceptions to
this rule become obsolete within their groups, and the revolutionary
prisoners who really stand on revolutionary bizzness are not the cool
cats with all the luxuries, they’re usually the ones outcast, not liked,
shunned, isolated, because everyone wants to be crime bosses in here. In
order to bring the proper orientation and programs back to the prisons,
revolutionary and progressive prisoners have to make allies and build up
institutions to help those who need and want it. It won’t be too many
who want it, and that’s just the sad and true reality we’re in these
days. Capitalism + dope = genocide.
These MF’ers are preventing us from building the People’s Army and We
are talking about protecting them and their interests and that they are
allies? Come on homie, what wrong with that picture!?
In the history of the prison movement the most effective tactic of
changing conditions has been inmate litigation. In order to litigate you
must create a paper trail. How can we do that if we are not filing any
complaints? i encourage comrades, those who live by revolutionary codes
of conduct to be mindful of exactly how you implore the enemy
institutions. Not because it is or isn’t snitching, but because, again,
Our point is to build a People’s Army and We still have to do that even
though We complain about the reactionary notions a lot of Our peers
have, these are still the peers We have to organize with and among, and
therefore like any shrewd politician We must be mindful of the landscape
and the dominant ideologies and ideals, even those we disagree with, and
navigate the terrain in a way that doesn’t neutralize Our effectiveness
at organizing people under Our umbrella. We won’t be able to build the
army if they all distrust Us because they think we are snitches. We
won’t even have the time or space to argue otherwise because credibility
has been lost.
For this reason, it is not politically correct to tell internal
affairs on the crooked pig about profit driven acts, whereas documenting
acts of pig brutality where people can see and understand the negative
intentions behind the pig’s actions and therefore are less likely to
side with the pig against you either directly or ideologically, that is
an action that is politically correct. Be mindful comrades, and stay
focused on the ultimate objective. Don’t snitch, and i mean really
snitch (betray you honor and commitments) and don’t collaborate with the
state.
Texas attorney general Ken Paxton has sued yet another organization
involved in support for immigrants and immigrants rights. This is the
13th organization Paxton has used his state prosecutorial powers to sue
in hopes of shutting down the organizations.
The organization in question here is different than the others in
that the other organizations worked more directly at the border,
organizing safe houses, and delivering food and water for passing
migrants. The 13th organization is called FIEL, a Houston area
organization that has been around since 2007, providing outreach
resources for immigrant families and students in the Houston area.
FIEL HOUSTON has been outspoken on social media regarding the
immigrant policies and bigotry coming from Texas governor Abbott and
Trump. It is the social media posts Paxton is attacking with this
lawsuits, seeking to shut FIEL down for purportedly violating a ban on
non-profits participating or intervening in political campaigns.
Earlier this year Paxton investigated and brought suit against over a
dozen organizations he or his base disagree with, particularly around
the immigrant question. His other efforts failed to shut these
organizations down.
In the case against FIEL Paxton targets only the group’s speech,
criminal political speech opposing Trump and Abbott… If allowed to stand
immigrant families in one of the most diverse cities in America will
miss out on the various programs FIEL offers.
The battle against censorship is an inside outside battle.
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) is a pro-Zionist, reactionary
watch-dog organization that has posed as an unbiased civil rights
organization since 1913.
The ADL is one of the main groups whose connections and influence
help drive the false narrative that anti-Zionism is anti-semitic. This
false narrative is now driving the erosion of First Amendment free
speech protections, backlash against university campus protests and
their demands related to Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS). As
such, ADL is not only a threat to those of us who support the national
liberation of Palestine, but also otherwise unengaged people in the
Corporate States of Amerikkka.
ADL is funded, as a non-taxed 501(c)(3), by mega donors on the far
right. And has been lobbying for legislation to criminalize political
dissent against settler-colonialism in I$rael. The ADL did the same
thing during the South African apartheid years. Even going as far as to
spy on anti-Zionist and anti-apartheid activists for the FBI during the
1980s and early 1990s. In total ADL spied on 700 socio-political
organizations. In the McCarthy era the ADL snitched on communists and
anarchists to the House of Un-Amerikan Activities Committee.
The ADL runs and operates a non-governmental police education program
which sends police to I$rael for training. The ADL has said publicly,
through its “research director”, that the “American Left that’s the
biggest threat to American Jews”.
It is this conclusion that has led the ADL to insult, snitch, and spy
on nearly every major New Afrikan organization from the era of SNCC and
the BPP to today’s Black Lives Matter.
For this reason we believe that you, the reader, should contribute to
exposing the ADL’s track record. Sign the open letter, “Open Letter to
Progressives: The ADL is Not An Ally” (DropTheADL.com).