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.
I refuse to lay down, in my struggle against the
oppressor. Anti-imperialist efforts, settling for nothing lesser.
Striving together with my brotherz and sisterz – Utilizing
knowledge, wisdom and understanding. “We’re fighting for world
peace!” Is what my comrades past and present is demanding.
Anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist, fuck it! I’ll be devoted to
fighting against that old slave mentality that my older peers seem to
keep holding.
We rise together and never fall. Nor stumble in sudden speech. So
to the brotherz and sisterz down in this struggle – Without
initiative and motivation you’ll forever remain stuck with your slave
mentality!
Like many of you who are reading this issue of Under Lock &
Key, I was saddened to hear about the senseless killing of 20 young
humyn beings at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut. They were
babies, taken away from us far too soon. After shaking off the initial
shock, my analytical Maoist mind kicked into overdrive. I went into my
locker and I retrieved my July/August 2012 issue of Under Lock &
Key 27. I would like to quote comrade Soso of MIM(Prisons) in
her/his piece entitled
“Trayvon
Martin National Oppression Debate.” “A recent report by the Malcolm
X Grassroots Movement cited at least 110 Black people killed by Amerikan
cops and security in the first half of 2012.”
Is this report not alarming? Should there not have been public outcry?
Did not President Obama state: “If I had a son he would look like
Trayvon.” Well then why the hell didn’t he form a special task force
then to address gun violence? Was not Oscar Grant enough? What about
James Craig Anderson in Jackson, Mississippi? What about young Jordan
Davis of Jacksonville, Florida, murdered in cold blood because his music
was “too loud”? All these young men of color murdered by white men,
however, for some reason their deaths did not solicit the same response.
Five hundred murders on the streets of Chicago this year! One fourth
were under age 18. President Obama barely mentioned the gun violence in
Chicago during his campaign. Why?
Comrades, the sad truth of the matter is, a Black life is not equal to a
white life in Amerikkka. And it is not just the lives of Black youth
that are under-valued. Latino, Arab, Asian, all are viewed as less than,
undesirable, or expendable by the Amerikkkan Injustice System. This
problem is pervasive and saturates the racist news media. Now here comes
new gun legislation and “new” task forces. Who do you think the alphabet
boys are going to be carting off to U.$. penitentiaries? Not white bread
gun fanatic NRA members, that’s for sure. It’s going to be us! The
Black, Brown, Asian and Arab lumpen underclass.
I recently was listening to a Houston hip-hop radio show on KPFT (90.1
FM) called Damage Control. The host “young Zeke” said “if a Black man
shoots a bunch of people in Amerika he is a criminal. If a foreigner
does it, he is a terrorist, and if a white man does it he’s classified
as mentally ill - that’s bullshit!” Remember comrades “to be aware is to
be alive!”
MIM(Prisons) adds: Since this comrade wrote this reflection,
there was an incident in New York City where an Amerikan womyn pushed an
Indian man in front of an oncoming train and killed him. She’s been
widely quoted as saying, “I pushed a Muslim off the train tracks because
I hate Hindus and Muslims – ever since 2001 when they put down the twin
towers I’ve been beating them up.” The victim, Sunando Sen, was Hindu.
Sunando Sen’s funeral in Queens, New York.
Erika Menendez was charged with murder as a hate crime, but has been
ordered to have a mental health exam. Whatever Menendez’s mental health,
it is not like she said she killed Sen because he had brown eyes, or was
too tall. She killed him because of his perceived religion and
ethnicity, which are both proxies for national oppression. Sen would not
have been murdered if Amerika did not promote hatred of other nations
who try to free themselves from the grip of U.$. imperialism.
Just because most Amerikans aren’t sophisticated enough to distinguish
different religions and cultures does not make their national oppression
any less real. Islam has been branded by Amerikans as the culture of a
dangerous foreign enemy people. Armed resistance against imperialism has
been strong across South and Central Asia for over a decade and it
continues to spread. This is the material basis for Menendez’s actions.
Some theorists that dabble in Maoism have hypothesized that
nation
is no longer principal in the age of neo-colonialism (simply defined
as white power in black/brown face). But MIM(Prisons) still holds that
the principal contradiction remains nation under imperialism today, even
if it is not as black and white as it used to be. In the discussion
around Trayvon Martin, we already said that
George
Zimmerman’s Latino family does not preclude him from being associated
with white supremacism. Similarly, we do not need more info on
Menendez’s background to state that she was clearly acting within the
ideology of white supremacism. Neo-colonialism isn’t just for those with
political power anymore. There is a whole movement to enlist young men
from Latin America to fight for U.$. imperialism in the Middle East.
The concept of nation is based in social conditions, not in phony ideas
of genetics as race is. So while Amerika was a nation built on a racist
ideology, it is in constant flux, like all things are. Similarly,
nations can be transformed through assimilation. And even as separate
nations exist in the United $tates, different segments of those nations
will have different interests at different times. Those who use identity
politics and simplistic expectations to negate the national
contradiction ignore these ever-changing and interacting forces. In the
United $tates the national contradiction is at a bit of a crossroads,
but internationally the contradiction is stronger than ever. This is why
the internal semi-colonies would be smart to stay on the right side of
history and stand against imperialism as their ancestors did.
As we’ve discussed elsewhere, there is ample evidence that
most
“mental health” problems are social problems, which can be addressed
with a re-ordering of the society we live in. By ending national
oppression, ending militarism and ending the competitive individualism
of capitalism where people get left behind and become alienated from
society, we can prevent the types of incidents that happened in New York
and Connecticut.
Well comrades after months of trying to get the grievance department to
produce a grievance that they insisted was returned, the truth has come
out! In June 2012 I was housed on C-wing on Estelle Unit High Security
which is located in Huntsville, Texas. At the time, my cell and many
others were infested with roaches, every meal was served cold, and the
smell of sewage was extremely pervasive. I and a fellow comrade filed a
Step 1 (I-127) grievance.
Unit Grievance Investigator Mr. Allen Hartley lied to me, his co-worker
Ms. Monica Nichols, and numerous other TDCJ (Texas Department of
Criminal Justice) employees and insisted that he returned my Step 1 with
response on August 22, 2012. However, I never received it. A TDCJ
employee told me that Mr. Allen Hartley has a “special relationship”
with the prison administration on the High Security Unit in which he has
agreed to destroy any offender grievances which may shed a negative
light on the High Security administration.
On October 22, 2012 I sent a
grievance
petition courtesy of USW-MIM(Prisons) to Senator John Whitmire who
happens to be the Chairman of the Criminal Justice Committee in the
Texas state legislature. I requested that the senator have someone
investigate my “mysterious” disappearing grievance. I also addressed the
cold-substandard meals served on the entire unit, rampant racism among
officers, and administration, as well as the collusive and
conspiratorial relationship that exists between unit grievance
investigator Mr. Allen Hartley and Assistant Warden Steven T. Miller and
Major David M. Forrest (bonfire Klansman extraordinaire). The USW
Grievance Petition does an excellent job of articulating the true nature
of the problem here in Texas. Our due process rights are being trampled
on and we can’t get fair and unbiased resolution of our grievances under
the current system (period).
Comrades I am glad to report that the food service department at Estelle
Unit - High Security has been issued “Hot-Carts” which really keep our
food hot/warm! The portions have improved a little and so has the
quality. We even get salt and pepper once a week. This may not be
fantastic in some prisoners eyes but it is progress. I believe it was a
collective effort by a small group of motivated comrades who got tired
of being treated like sub-humyns.
In reference to the grievance problem, the central grievance office
wrote me and stated that the grievance in question has been “lost.” They
offered me the opportunity to re-submit the grievance. However, they
failed to address the main root of the problem and that is Mr. Allen
Hartley’s blatant disregard of the U.S. Constitution! This is not the
first time that these prisoncrats have played this game. This is an
ongoing problem. Their actions have rendered the grievance process
ineffective. So with that being said, I have filed a complaint with the
Department of Justice - Civil Rights Division - utilizing the grievance
petition as my guide.
MIM(Prisons) adds: We currently have grievance petitions for many
states. Write to us for a copy and if you are in a state not currently
covered by the grievance campaign, we will send you a template for the
petitions and you can look up citations and policies specific to your
state for reference. If you do this research and send us what needs to
be rewritten for your particular state, we will gladly send an edited,
accurate copy back to you.
I’ve recently been engaged in an ideological struggle with a fellow
Chicano and potential anti-imperialist ally concerning the current state
of captivity of the Chicano nation by the imperialist United $tates,
it’s liberation, the oppressive and exploitative reality that Third
World people are subjected to on a daily basis, and of the unique place
the lumpen of the internal semi-colonies exist in all of this. Needless
to say, we’ve been discussing some highly political and philosophical
questions and topics not necessarily confined to the existentialist
school of thought, but rather questions and topics more closely tied to
the very existence of Third World people in an imperialist dominated
world. We’ve also touched on the psychological baggage better known as
alienation which imperialism itself ties to the individual, whether in
the First World or the Third. These discussions have been had not within
the context of mere conversational purposes, but for the explicit
purpose of waking up a potential ally not just to the reality of our own
oppression as Chicanos, or of putting the reality of our oppression into
complete context for him; but so as to wake him up to his own productive
power as a revolutionary force within the belly of the beast.
After struggling with this individual on a molecular level and trying my
hardest to consistently put the correct political line forward; then
banging my head on the ideological bourgeois brick wall which this
individual vehemently represented every time he opened his mouth, I
understandably felt frustrated and decided to terminate any and all
further political struggle with this persyn, being that he didn’t really
seem to want to struggle with objective answers and analysis from a
revolutionary nationalist perspective; but rather seemed content blindly
defending those cherished Amerikan values or “sugar coated bullets”
which we’ve all been spoon fed from birth.
After some time however and his insistence that I read one of his
bourgeois science books (college edition) for meaningless mental
exercise, aka intellectualism, I begrudgingly agreed on one condition.
If I was to read his bourgeois science book then he was to read and
study my Marx; he agreed.
After a couple weeks and after answering the occasional philosophical
question from him this persyn surprised me by revealing that he’d been
grappling not just with the Marx book I’d sent him, but with the topics
we’d previous discussed. Discussions which began with evolution and
religion but which quickly spiraled into heated philosophical and
political debates ranging in everything from the origins of the humyn
species and society, to super-profits and everything in between. And it
was during this time that I suddenly realized something I’d obviously
lost sight of.
It wasn’t that he necessarily disagreed with my political beliefs
because of some inherent class bias as a First Worlder. Rather he
disagreed with the proletarian worldview exactly because of a First
World ideological bias that defined his worldview. And one does not
change one’s worldview easily.
It’s therefore important for revolutionaries that are new to the
anti-imperialist game to keep in mind that anytime we engage in
political discussion with the philistine, we’re going up against 500
plus years of colonization, not just in the material world, but in the
ideological field as well; as social consciousness is both consciously
and unconsciously bourgeois in the era of imperialism. We must fully
understand that none of us are born with the slightest inkling of the
communal/communist/proletarian worldview, rather, it must be cultivated.
What’s more, political struggle in the ideological realm just like
struggle in any other realm is essentially a matter for dialectics to
resolve in which battles are won one at a time until one factor or
another gains dominance and emerges victorious.
Therefore, it’s equally important to remember that whenever we’re
speaking politics we’re in essence engaging in a struggle over political
line between the oppressed which we represent, and the national and
class enemies whose mouthpieces are not always readily apparent, but
inconspicuous, especially in a First World society such as ours where we
have not just open and closet Trotskyists who are peddling revisionism
on the prison masses in the guise of “revolution”, but honest comrades
who inadvertently and thru no fault of their own push an incorrect line
due to a low level of political development and understanding.
Therefore, we must ensure that this polemical struggle isn’t simply
narrowed down to and carried out through out the confines of the open
national and class enemies of the oppressed nations, but continuously
carried out throughout the class conscious in keeping with Mao’s dictum
of continuous revolution. Continuous revolution, or continuous struggle,
being the only method available to defeat not only old and reactionary
ideas which are at the service of the bourgeoisie, but new age and
mystical ideas as well, which aren’t really “new or mystical at all, but
simply repackaged bootlegs of the bourgeoisie and status quo who seek to
entrench themselves and the enemy line in the revolution in order to
ruin it from within.
Revolutionary thought during this stage of the struggle must have a
shock and awe type value characteristic of the new defeating the old in
which every spectrum of life is held up to the light of revolutionary
science, declare it’s rationale, or surrender it’s right to existence.
If so-called revolutionary thoughts and synthesis don’t offer or
illuminate the best path forward then they too must cease their right to
exist and clear the way for something new, or rather something tried and
true, i.e. Maoism. Thus it is no surprise that Maoism serves as a two
pronged “-ism” (philosophical and political) which leaves the
bourgeois-minded agape and in existential doubt as to the state of
reality and their place in it. Now, this may simply be old hat to the
battle tested revolutionary, but twas not for me, as I myself found this
point made ever so clear through polemical practice. Indeed, just as
communist parties that are engaged in armed struggle are more
politically developed than those that are not, so is the individual
engaged in polemics.
Simply reading one Marxist book doesn’t make one a Marxist, and simply
winning one individual battle doesn’t win the war. It was foolish of me
to expect the potential ally mentioned in the beginning of this report
to be won over to the side of the oppressed simply because he himself is
objectively oppressed. My overestimation of the revolutionization
process with respect to this individual was itself a failure on my part
to properly utilize the dialectical method; as nothing in this world
develops evenly.
Bourgeois ideology was and remains the dominant ideology within said
individual, and my initial failure to fully grasp this point is proof
positive that in all aspects of life there is always a struggle between
two classes, two lines, and two roads, and thus will be the case until
the end of property relations. My initial failure to win him over to the
side of the oppressed is objectively a victory for the bourgeoisie and
further drives home the point that education cannot be separated from
transformation; but some seeds have been sown and the revolutionary
sprout is slowly beginning to break free from over 500 years of
colonization. It seems this persyn is slowly beginning to take up an
interest in revolutionary politics; a direct result of our interaction.
A small political win, in a small political battle for a correct
political line, which on a world scale is perhaps equal to the rising
forces of the oppressed and repressed revolutionary forces which have
begun to seriously re-develop within u.$. borders.
It is the politics of the oppressors that have put us in here and thrown
away the key, and it will be the politics of the oppressed that will set
us free. If there is anywhere in the United $tates where politics should
take center stage, it is in the prisons and jails; concrete proof in the
most literal sense that there is an ideological struggle actively going
on between the oppressors and the oppressed, in which the oppressor
nation obviously has the upper hand.
These “people-incorporating-genocidal-slavery” have upped the ante once
again. I was targeted by these nefarious boars simply for my political
views. On Oct 14, 2012, two ogres searched and seized my property
i.e. all my essays, my books, and all my Under Lock & Key
dated as far back as 1995. At the biased in-house tribunal two articles
from ULK were presented to me: 1) a 1991 Attikkka issue
explaining the situation before and after the rebellion of 1971. 2) The
July/Aug 2012
issue which calls for “all prisoners to show solidarity and
demonstrate a work stoppage from Sept 9-12, 2012.” Keep in mind I never
passed this publication about nor did I participate in a work stoppage.
I have no prison job. Also, the article mentioned above was for Sept
9-12, 2012. I was keep locked pending investigation on Oct 14, 2012.
That’s 35 days later.
Anyway, I was charged with a Tier III rule violation of 104.12
(demonstration) which reads: “an inmate shall not lead, organize,
participate in or urge other inmates to participate in a work stoppage,
sit-in, lock-in, or any other action which may be detrimental to the
order of the facility.”
At the farce hearing I presented the question: “where in the facility
was there an actual work stoppage?” The response was: “There was no work
stoppage.” My second question was: “when did I urge other prisoners to
demonstrate and when did the alleged work stoppage, sit-in, lock-in take
place?” The response was: “you never participated in nor was there ever
a work stoppage, sit-in, lock-in.” With no further questions I objected
to the entire circus of a hearing only to receive six months SHU time
anyway. This whole ordeal is due to me possessing ULK
publications, although they can’t actually state it at the hearing.
Furthermore, the hearing disposition reads: “although no actual act of
demonstration occurred I believed you attempted it.” Only after a cell
search 35 days later, and after an incident that never took place, do I
receive such a bogus charge. Go figure.
This isn’t the first political witch hunt in which I was erroneously
charged with demonstrations and it won’t be the last! These ruthless
gulags pride themselves on oppressing the free thinkers like me,
especially Attikkka! Keep sending me the Under Lock and Key.
MIM(Prisons) responds: We have heard from a number of comrades
that the article calling for a
Day
of Solidarity on September 9 led to heightened censorship and
punishment of prisoners. We know that there are restrictions on the
types of organizing permitted in many prisons and we are looking closely
at the language used in these types of articles to make possible the
widest distribution of ULK without sacrificing the content of
the publication.
A comrade from another trench spoke once on leadership and what it means
to h: “The answer is that like it or not, people who collect
information, analyze and then make decisions on what is true and not
true, are leaders. People who do not are not leaders.”(1)
Sensory deprivation in solitary confinement creates an inability to make
decisions because information flow is very nearly cut off. Another way
this bourgeois imperialist society stops leaders in their tracks is by
making one’s decisions, after analyzing information, seem off, to seem
crazy or “mentally ill.”
“Another problem relevant to revolutionaries is they have a more
intellectual tendency to describe reality independently of the socially
acceptable way of so doing. The individual is one who feels manipulated
and controlled by outside forces, and is aware of the limitations of his
individuality and room for maneuver… he gives himself importance, and
does not care what others think, or at least feels that to care about
that won’t help him to live. He tends to see himself as good and others
as wicked.”(2)
Prisoners, prison abolitionists and anti-imperialists of all stripes are
familiar with the above mindset. It is a mindset that’s a prerequisite
to successful prolonged struggle against entrenched anti-people systems.
Hegemonic propaganda that pigs use to uphold the superstructure
inculcates the majority of citizens to turn on non-mainstream
individuals. I’m positive some reading these words will be shocked to
hear the above quote is the bourgeois definition of schizophrenia.
Comrade Huey P. Newton, Minister of Defense of the
Black
Panther Party, was labeled mentally ill by prison administrators,
cops and non-revolutionary whites. His leadership ability of
disseminating truths gleaned from study posed such a threat to
capitalist hegemony that he had to be discredited by the label “crazy.”
In prison, pigs forced Newton to visit a psychiatrist. He had this to
say:
“From the minute I entered his office I made my position clear. I told
him that I had no faith or confidence in psychological tests because
they were not designed to relate to the culture of poor and oppressed
people. I was willing to talk to him, I said, but I would not submit to
any testing. As we talked, he started running games on me. For instance,
in the midst of our conversation he would try to speak in psychological
questions such as ‘do you feel people are persecuting you?’ Each time he
did this I told him I would not submit to any sort of testing, and if he
persisted I was going to leave the room. The psychiatrist insisted that
I had a bias against psychological testing. He was correct.”(3)
Mental illness is just a form of social control. Just the same as
“corrections” and “spreading democracy” are forms of social control. I
believe the prison system uses mental health jackets, and society in
general tags people as “just plain crazy,” to break revolutionary’s
self-esteem, leadership skills and family connections. When something as
large as koncentration kamps throws its weight into convincing people’s
mothers, fathers and sisters that said person is nuts, it’s a short walk
away from these individuals actually becoming insane with lack of
“free-world” support.
Their tactics are to divide and conquer by pasting “schizophrenic,”
“depressed” and “anti-social” tags on the foreheads of revolutionary
genius. They psychotropically castrate and lobotomize mind-washed
leaders into their people’s own genocide.
I could leave prison by consenting to swallow my own destruction. I
could leave solitary if “all I did” was snitch for them. Most of my
family’s gone because they believe I’m insane. Forty-six letters sit
unmailed because I lack postage. After filing two lawsuits, the Prison
Litigation Reform Act bleeds 60% of the $25 a month my dear poor
grandmother sends. She could have retired this year, but with all her
grandsons in chains.
FDR 25 is a kkkontrol unit policy which I have filed suit on. A policy
deputy director for administration Mike Haddon states:
“The policy you are requesting is FDR 25, Intensive Management Unit, it
states ‘mail, other than first class, privileged and/or religious shall
not be allowed for inmates on intensive management and includes
newspapers, books, magazines, pamphlets, brochures, etc.’ This policy’s
release could reasonably be expected to jeopardize the Utah Department
of Corrections hence it is protected. If this information were to be
released into the system, inmates could use that information to fight
policy. We do not let that chapter out to anyone who isn’t in law
enforcement. Your request for a copy of the 78 page policy is,
therefore, denied.”
A policy that prevents people from collecting information, receiving
information and analyzing said information, coupled with the
unconstitutional fact that the Utah DOC doesn’t provide a law library
per supreme court ruling Bivens, halts the ability for captives
to “describe reality independently” of that policy. Since only pigs can
know that policy, we can’t fight it.
Even if I could know it and struggle with it and beat it in court I’d
just be labelled “mentally ill,” more so than I am now. And this is the
purpose of sensory deprivation and mental illness: halting revolutionary
leadership and maintaining the status quo. Stopping information and
throwing dirty jackets on truth.
Who does bourgeois psychiatry serve by destroying oppressed peoples? The
oppressor nation. What types of people are being killed off in these
concentration camps? The oppressed nations. What population turns a
blind eye to this reality, or even worse, that the Third World is
parceled up and packaged for First World consumer consumption? The
oppressor nation. What nation must be organized to defeat the oppressor
nation? And if we wish to succeed shouldn’t we discern friend from foe?
“The job of psychiatrist [and those that subscribe to bourgeois
psychiatry] must be abolished [and reeducated after repenting oppressive
policy, genocidal injustice and terroristic ‘spreading of democracy’],
if only because it is corrupting to the truth to have a profession of
people [or nation] making money by constructing various vague illnesses
[vague reasons for war or psychotropics/institutionalization] that
people have. Instead, all oppressed people and progressive-minded people
must take up the science of controlling their own destinies.”(4)
MIM(Prisons) adds: Just as physical violence is used against the
oppressed as a means of control and installing fear, so is psychological
violence. So when we think about promoting safety in prisons, we cannot
do that without addressing psychological violence as well. Often that is
the predominate form of violence used against revolutionaries. Our
approach to this must be twofold in terms of helping comrades survive
the torture they currently face in U.$. gulags, and to put an end to
that torture altogether to really ensure people are safe. It is for this
reason that we reviewed and distribute portions of the
recently
revised Survivors Manual from the American Friends Service
Committee. Our Serve
the People Programs, such as our Free Political Literature for
Prisoners Program and University BARS study groups exist for all
prisoners, but are especially important for keeping those in isolation
engaged, active and sane. All comrades should support these programs
with money and labor, while comrades on the inside should keep the issue
of long-term isolation at the forefront of the general struggle for
prisoner rights.
I recently read about the “agreement to end hostilities” and seen this
as an essential step forward for prisoners but a step that will include
many more steps in the future if prisoners are to truly take back our
humynity not just in California but in prisons across the United $tates.
Although I support the original five demands and will continue to do so
along with any future demands for justice I felt the need to add to the
dialogue and perhaps bring some other ideas to the scene. What I noticed
from the five demands and many other proposals being kicked around is
the absence of the very core of our oppression - the SHU itself. What we
have learned since the initial strike was that many civil rights groups
and people around the world see the SHU itself as torture, all or most
of what is being asked for i.e. contact visits, phone calls, cellies
etc. can be granted were it not for SHU. Even things like validation and
debriefing etc. become easier to combat when the SHU is out of the
picture so it is the SHU itself that becomes the kernel of our
oppression in regards to the prison movement in general and the current
struggle we are facing in Pelican Bay. This is why any proposals should
have at the forefront the demand to close the SHUs! How can we talk of
justice or prisoner rights without calling for an end to housing
prisoners for any reason in these concentration camps? It’s like saying
“you can water board me but can we listen to a better radio station
while you do it?” No other country is doing what Amerika does with the
SHU on this scale but it is ultimately up to us whether we steer the
prison movement on a real path of transformation or limit any changes to
what amount to mild reforms.
Many struggles throughout history that dealt with prisoners gained far
more than what has currently been proposed in our situation. A couple of
situations that quickly come to mind are the Puerto Rican revolutionary
group Macheteros who were arrested in the 1960s for acts against Amerika
in their quest for independence. Well it came out via Freedom of
Information Act years later that the national security advisor was on
record saying the Macheteros should be released because of the protests
and support and how these protests do not look good for Amerika in the
eyes of the world. This is on record and the Macheteros were released.
They were released from prison and linked to bombings and other acts
against the U.$. Government
Another group of prisoners were the Red Army Faction of Germany who were
in prison for acts against the government; bombings, cop killings,
murders of politicians, etc. When this group was arrested they were
housed in a specially constructed area of the prison - kinda like the
short corridor - and were in solitary confinement and not allowed to
come in any contact with any other prisoners but through hunger strikes
and supporters out in society raising awareness about their treatment
they were finally granted yard time with each other and better treatment
after a year or two of constant struggle. My main thrust here is that if
those who were assassinating government officials, judges etc., in an
attempt to overthrow the government were able to overturn the isolation
and draconian treatment surely we can as well!
In beginning to grapple with our oppression and find the best method of
resistance we must first understand the origins of our oppression. One
cannot move forward with a correct game plan without knowing ones
opponent. When a boxer is about to fight a formidable opponent what does
he/she do? Well they watch the videos of the opponents fights in order
to understand the opponents strengths and weaknesses thus preparing
oneself for a proper offensive. We must also do our homework on this
current anti-SHU struggle, things like where the SHU came from, why is
it used so much by Amerika - more so than in other countries, who
controls such a system? We must identify our opponent if we want to more
forward.
We know the SHU and all prisons are a part of the “state” apparatus, but
who controls the state? The ruling class is not including the people
(the poor people) it is the rich who run things. These rich, or
capitalists, have developed into what Lenin defined as “imperialism”
which is simply capitalism on steroids, it is economic exploitation on a
global scale. So the state and thus prisons are run according to what is
in the interest of this ruling class. Prisoners in general are not
profitable to this ruling class as most prisoners derive from what Lenin
defined as the “lumpen proletariat” which is basically the underclass or
can better be defined in the United $tates as simply the “Lumpen” which
are prisoners, the unemployed, those caught up in crime, etc. Most
lumpen don’t work or pay taxes so to the ruling class the lumpen are
just taking up space and not helping the wheels turn in the economy. But
more importantly, the lumpen are a potential revolutionary force as this
is the natural order of repression inviting resistance. Whenever one is
being smothered the natural reaction is to struggle to breathe. Our acts
of resistance in the 2011 strikes clearly proved this to be true.
There are many phenomenon that occur that are long held communist
principles that may be practiced today by many prisoners without ever
knowing their origins. We must use these tools to gain victory in our
current situation, one such tool is historical materialism which is used
to transform things in the material world. It does this by understanding
historical events and processes which created a specific reality. In our
current struggle in order to change or transform our torture conditions
in SHU we would first have to understand the process of what brought the
SHU itself to be created. When we understand it was the state and
ultimately the ruling class which created the means to throw away vast
swaths of the population and smother any embers of resistance then we’ll
know we won’t change things simply by picketing around a prison or
filing a lawsuit because we are up against something more sinister than
simply “tough laws.” Marxism is a method not dogma and so it is fluid
and continues to find new responses in its interactions with the
material world, so it will continue to be applied to different
phenomenon. Although asking the state for changes is cool and must be
done, the more crucial change must come from within one’s own approach
to our oppression, we are deprived of so much but the most vital
opportunities are low hanging fruit, these being opportunities in the
theoretical realm. The truth is we can’t “change the system” and by
system I mean capitalist Amerika which runs prisons and SHUs, it is all
in the state apparatus so it is one and the same - in prison lingo it is
one “car.” We can’t change the system we must rip it out by its roots,
dismantle it in order for true change to occur. To really believe we can
change this system is to take a stance as the democrats who think change
comes out of the voting system via reforms.
The task we have ahead of all of us held in U.$. prisons is a real
uphill battle that is in sync - even if we don’t realize it - with many
other struggles aimed at the U.$. empire not just in the United $tates
but globally. While our effort is different in many ways, we should face
this effort like a guerrilla war. Rather than a passive state, guerrilla
warfare is a combination of defense and offense in our pursuit of
victory but our initial victory should be to unmask the brutal
dictatorship of the state and deny it the ability to operate cloaked in
secrecy. Let us strip it bare and display its most grotesque parts to
society. In doing this let every dungeon where conditions have peaked to
intolerable proportions raise the banner of resistance in regards to
material conditions, in this way we will expose the contradictions in
“American democracy” while obtaining small gains to our conditions. What
occurs in our living conditions is worse than what we even realize. Even
though most have grown accustomed to SHU, it is not norma. People are
social animals. Our entire existence as people is to interact with
others, our senses demand this, it is a dialectic which exists on
reacting to people and the environment and when all sensory input is
deprived it works against our very being, i.e. it destroys us,
dehumanizes us.
Lastly, although I would of course always like to hear editors of
publications ramble about what some have referred to as “commie
rhetoric” I would much rather hear a prisoner’s perspective on communist
principles or how they apply to the prison movement in general or the
anti-SHU struggle in particular. But one cannot discuss “prisoner
rights” without discussing prisoner oppression and thus what is behind
prisoner oppression (capitalism). Today’s society profit is put ahead of
the people as far as education, food, land, etc and thus crime rises
then our next natural step is finding an alternative society where
prisons and SHUs are not used as concentration camps. The only society
that would really truly change the system is a socialist system – to
deny this is to deny history.
We can’t afford for prisoners to sacrifice their lives because
self-appointed vanguards refuse to do a little philosophic/scientific
homework and make a few minor adjustments to our current path. We’re
pursuing what is essentially a tactical issue of reforming the
validation process as if it were a strategic resolution to abolishing
social-extermination of indefinite isolation. This is not a complex
issue to understand, and it requires a minimal amount of study at most
to understand that the validation process is secondary and is a policy
external to the existence of the isolation facilities. It’s not
difficult to comprehend that external influences create the conditions
for change but real qualitative change comes from within, and to render
the validation process, program failure, the new step down program, etc,
obsolete, and end indefinite isolation, requires an internal
transformation of the isolation facilities (SHU and Ad-Seg) themselves.
Otherwise, in practice, social extermination retains continuity under a
new external label. Appearance is reformed, hence the suffix “re”, while
the essential composition (contradictions) is unchanged. Do you fix a
bad motor on a car by altering its appearance with a new paint job? It
might look nice, but it’s still the same motor.
I don’t know if these “representatives” are just refusing to consider
anything else, if they are making a conscious decision to hear the sound
of their own voices only, or if they believe that to acknowledge a need
for course adjustments will discredit them. They hold power in here, but
it’s a power held through threat of force, and most youngsters aspire to
this, or those who don’t, understandably keep their mouths zipped.
Either way, because of this power, they’re not used to hearing the
truth, but praise form the brown-nosers who tell them what they think
they want to hear and tell them what will benefit them. This only
hinders the accuracy of their analysis. This refusal to be more
receptive and adjust course where necessary based on an application of
dialectical materialism is going to cost us lives pursuing an incorrect
course. Our victories are superficial and exist more in appearance than
anything. They are privileges, rights that we already had coming to us,
so what appears as a victory is really implementing our established
rights (abstractly anyhow), without actually making essential progress.
It’s a vehicle to distract us without actually conceding essential
transformations. And these are, and will be, reversible.
Although it is dangerous, and all it takes is for the current so-called
reps to openly denounce any true vanguard, all others will accept this
proclamation, and the true vanguard will be discredited and hit first
opportunity. So a true vanguard must tread very carefully to build large
scale support with their ideas and education. But what’s of greatest
importance, it must be done in the interest of all! As we, you and I,
know, a vanguard is not someone, a program, philosophic logic, etc, that
appoints itself, it is the most advanced line and it must be
complemented with a corresponding practice. As Lenin and Joe Steel said,
“there can be no theory there can be no movement” Just as a “movement is
necessary to develop theory upon.” Obviously, I’m paraphrasing but the
point is evident.
I’m convinced we need to circulate a few pamphlets that serve an
educational purpose, but more importantly, function as an outline. And
if necessary, appeal to convict mass to launch our own hunger strike,
one or two at a time. Write up our own list of demands - tables in each
pod, phones, bars, cellies, dayroom time for social intercourse, demands
that can all be achieved by a victorious struggle for “association”
based on U.S. constitutional rights and UN Geneva conventions (for
publicity). To implement “association” (social intercourse) would
necessitate the peripheral demands above and thus qualitatively change
the isolation units from within as we currently know them.
MIM(Prisons) responds: Control Units are isolation cells within
prisons where people are confined to small cells for long periods of
time. Control units are a common tool of repression throughout the
Amerikan prison system, frequently used to target prisoners who are
actively fighting for their rights. They target Black, Latino and
indigenous people who are a disproportionate part of control unit
populations.
As a part of our ongoing
campaign to
shut down the control units, we fight for reforms to give our
comrades in indefinite isolation some improved conditions, especially
when these reforms are focused on better enabling their political study
and organizing. We recognize that some reforms may mean the difference
between physical or mental health or serious illness. But we agree with
this author that we need to fight the attempts by proponents of the
criminal injustice system to paint a happy face on long-term isolation
and call that “reform.” It is only by ending long term isolation
completely will we actually win this battle.
On 9 September 2012 at Everglades Correctional Institution, FLDOC,
individual members of The Blood Nation honored the soldiers of Attica by
doing one or more of the following: fasting, boycotting the
canteen/commissary, accepting chow hall trays and dumping them, and
explaining why. Also participating individually were one or more members
of the following (in alphabetical order): Black Gangsta Disciples; Crip
Nation; Insane Gangsta Disciples; Almighty Latin King Queen Nation;
Nation of Islam; Spanish Cobras; Shi’a Muslim Community; Sufi Community.
My apologies to anyone I missed. It was a small step at a spot with no
history of unity, but even a single drop of water in a dry glass makes
it wet. Respect to those who made the sacrifice, those who joined us
midday, those who expressed interest the day after. I’m as human as
anyone, but let’s TRY to remember who the enemy is!
For the past three days now. these weak and wicked scum dogs have been
attempting to get us Black prisoners Black to viciously attack a brother
by telling us he’s a “child molester/sex offender.” All this after the
prisoner filed a few complaints against these wart hogs. Go figure. This
of course caused these brain dead compromising prisoners, especially the
porters, to exclude themselves from the brother. The pig gave direct
orders to the white feed up porter to “don’t feed him shit.”
After two days of this torture, the prisoner attempted to sign in to
Protective Custody in hopes that he could get away from the pigs and
make it home in one piece, as he has less than 30 days left. The people
incorporating genocidal slavery (P.I.G.S.) weren’t satisfied and decided
to up the ante. They told the brother he was moving to another cell
block and to pack up his property. Once on the front of the C-Block
33/34 companies the prisoner placed his bags down and was cracked over
his head by a white prisoner holding a 4 inch broom handle, in the
presence of six pigs, 2 in the bubble, 2 on the staircase and 2 on the
companies.
Making sense of the white man’s fakery to jump him, the brother began
backing up towards the rear of the company, dodging several swings with
his arms as the attacking prisoner aimed at his face. Keep in mind the
pigs are laughing and allowing the white prisoner to assault the brother
with a weapon. Both companies are watching it all play out through the
side of the cell doors and mirrors. One brother said “you might as well
fight them, they (pigs) are gonna jump on you anyway.” But he kept
saying “nah, I ain’t stupid, I’m trying to go home to my son!” Finally,
the pigs told the white prisoner to “put the handle down and go kick his
ass, he’s scared.” Feeling comfortable with his “support team” the white
prisoner started towards the rear to fight the brother. But the white
prisoner got his ass beat. Of course, this was such a disturbing scene
for the pigs, just seeing a white man in their back pocket taking blows
from a Black fist caused them to quickly pull the pin alarm and call 30
more pigs to C-Block as they yelled “get the fuck off him now!”
The brother got up and locked himself inside his cell while the white
prisoner, all pink and red in the face, was dazed and confused was asked
by the pigs, “are you alright?” before politely telling him to “go to
your cell.” All the while the brother was put in handcuffs, roughed up,
and rushed out the block into the hallway where the pigs beat us up out
of view, but we can all hear it. Later on the pigs came back on the
company to the white prisoner’s cell giving him one of the brother’s
dreds that they ripped out of his head. Somewhat of a token of
remembrance, just like they did to Nat Turner in 1831. Make no mistake
about it, this is Amerikkka in 2012 for the Black man. This is exactly
what George Jackson was describing in Soledad Brother. Tomorrow
is the 41st anniversary that he was slain in action, and the 181st
anniversary of Nat Turner’s slave rebellion. Nothing much has changed.
In hindsight and conclusion, when the pig was trying to get us to feed
the lie that the brother was a “Rapo,” he made a profound statement. The
target of harassment said “these pigs been raping our women for hundreds
of years and you gonna believe him and his words on face value!?” Enough
said!
MIM(Prisons) adds: This comrade is right to point out that the
oppressors will do everything they can to divide the oppressed. We can’t
trust them for information, but instead must judge our comrades through
their actions. Those who work in the interests of the oppressed are our
friends and those who work against the oppressed are our enemies,
regardless of the reason for their confinement or what other people say
about them. This is a good example of why someone might ask to be moved
to an SNY/PC yard for good reason. The
debate
over protective custody prisoners has been ongoing in ULK
for many months and MIM(Prisons) maintains that we can not let the
prisoncrats divide revolutionaries with false labels and categories.
There are genuine revolutionaries throughout the prison system and there
are snitches and compradors found on every yard as well. Actions are
much more important than prison-imposed labels.