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.
Manuel Angel Diaz
Pig brutality is once again on display for the world to see after
outraged protests erupted following the murder of 25-year-old Manuel
Diaz in the city of Anaheim, CA by police this weekend.
Pigs claim that the murder of Diaz was justified and only prompted by
Diaz after he supposedly ran away from them and reached for his
waistband. The neighbors and family members of Diaz who witnessed the
execution tell a different story however. They say that while Diaz did
indeed run away from police, at no time whatsoever did he reach for his
waistband as police claim. No gun was even recovered from the scene,
according to the pigs themselves.
This is the sixth officer-involved shooting for the Anaheim Police
Department this year. That’s including that second life to be claimed by
Anaheim police not more than 24 hrs after the death of Diaz in which
pigs stated that they indeed retrieved a gun near the body of the second
victim of police violence, as if to say, “See? We only shoot when we
have to.”
The neighborhood was justifiably outraged as they demanded answers and
vented their anger on killer cops, but the pigs were having none of it.
Feeling “threatened” as they always do, the pigs responded the only way
they know how – with violence!
When the protesters refused to disperse, non-lethal weapons were fired
on wimmin and children, and an attack dog was set loose on an occupied
baby stroller . The pigs then had the audacity to claim that their dog
“got loose” from the patrol car. The entire scene was caught on a camera
phone if anyone cares to see.
Immediately thereafter, coconut lackey and self-proclaimed community
activist Dr. Jose Moreno publicly regretted to the local media that the
community resorted to violence while simultaneously calling for
transparency from the police.
The entire attack was caught on tape. How much more transparency do you
need? We know that no amount of transparency in the world will ever keep
sadistic pigs or their attack dogs on the leash, because that’s exactly
what they’re there for, to be set loose on the oppressed like the rabid
dogs that they are!
How quick were the pigs to shoot rubber bullets at wimmin and children
of brown skin color in Anaheim this weekend? Yet how many rubber bullets
were shot at all the
Occupy
movements combined this year? What was the proportion of violence
and how much restraint was practiced with respect to the former and the
latter? I’m sure that if the numbers are calculated we will see a gross
discrepancy of violence.
The “diversity” of the Olympics highlights the unity of imperialist
nations, while hiding their predatory role in other nations.
The 2012 London Olympics are almost upon us and the world waits, holds
their breath even, in anticipation of this most glorious of events which
will surely decide what country can lay claim to the best athletes bar
none.
But take a closer look and you’ll see that the Olympics are in all
actuality nothing more than bourgeois propaganda; a multifaceted
cultural and ideological weapon of the international bourgeoisie in
which they pretend that the world isn’t divided into oppressor and
oppressed nations. Through the institution of the Olympics the
international bourgeoisie seeks to make us believe that the entire humyn
species is all living in harmony as equal members of one big happy
family, and that the nations of the world co-exist peacefully as if all
are members of one big “global village” with the exception of some
“rogue states.” Nothing however could be further form the truth! Part of
that truth being that the Olympics are really just another synonym for
this “global village” construct, a construct used to white-wash reality.
The term and concept of what the petty-bourgeoisie ideologues have
deemed “global village” and what the big bourgeoisie have in turn
labeled more correctly as “globalization” can be more appropriately
elaborated and defined as “…a supra class, supranational and
universalist process of irresistible all around homogenization of the
world under the auspices of monopoly capitalism, through the
multilateral agencies (United Nations (UN), International Monetary Fund
(IMF), World Bank (WB/IBRD) and World Trade Organization (WTO)) and the
multinational or transnational firms and banks.”(1)
But this ain’t no nit-wit critique of the process of globalization per
the mythical “99%,” who aren’t 99% of anything but more like part of the
top 13% of the richest people in the world!(2) No, this is a critique of
the “global village” construct which has its origin rooted in
petty-bourgeois ideology just like the “99%,” and which is but a
rephrasing of that same process of “globalization” from the
international bourgeoisie, as if both the exploiters and exploited are
all in the global struggle for humynity together! But we communists know
this construct and its material reality by its original name:
imperialism!
As previously stated, the Olympics don’t just serve to gloss over
national and class contradictions on a global scale. They also serve as
an extension and propagation of bourgeois ideology a la “human nature,”
i.e. that always inherent drive to compete.
Indeed, the Olympics serve to keep both the masses of the world and the
more progressive wing of the enemy population distracted from the harsh
reality of imperialist society (as do professional sports in general).
The reality is that the imperialists are on a global rampage in which
they’re voraciously and ruthlessly raping and plundering the oppressed
people of the world and their national territories, i.e. Latin America,
Africa and Asia (the Third World). The lie that is the concept of the
“global village” exaggerates “…the coherence of the world capitalist
system to the point of glossing over the distinction of national modes
of production”(1) and its main proponents are in the oppressor states:
the industrialized and ethnologically developed countries, the First
World, principally the United $tates.
Furthermore, “globalization”/imperialism pretends that the dismantling
of national barriers to the operation of capital markets and finance
capital brings progress to the Third World or “developing economies”
whilst the idealistic and naive petty-bourgeoisie of both the
imperialist countries and the Third World believe it. But the truth of
the matter is that the “…counterproductive character of neocolonialism
is the result of imperialist financing for the overproduction of raw
materials and some manufactures for the consumption of the capitalist
countries and the upper classes in the underdeveloped countries since
the 70s.”(1)
On top of this, the popularization of the global village concept isn’t
just done by the bourgeoisie. This fake global concept is even
propagated by so-called “communists” principally in the First World thru
the guise of revisionist trickery!
On the one hand we have the barefaced bourgeoisie who uses these
concepts to deny Lenin’s formulation of imperialism and proletarian
revolution, saying that it belongs to the past and that the current
neocolonial system is a “post-imperialist phenomenon,” as if imperialism
and all its tools of oppression and exploitation have all but withered
away!
On the other hand we have the so-called and sometimes self-proclaimed
“Maoists” in the First World who are really nothing but
crypto-Trotskyists that spread the false notion, correctly criticized by
MIM, that “…the world proletarian revolution can only be the result of a
simplified struggle between a globally united monopoly bourgeoisie and
the world proletariat and that the total collapse of the unified
imperialism is impending despite the current state of the subjective
forces of the revolution in the world.”(1)
We must take the time to study and analyze the world around us and its
history thru the historical materialist perspective and from the point
of view of the oppressed and exploited Third World masses. We need to
look at the two great socialist projects of the 20th century. The first
was born from the First World War and strong proletarian leadership, and
the second was born of the Second World War and strong peasant backing
which gave further credence and elaboration to the importance of
national liberation and the correct theory that socialism can only be
accomplished one country at a time, of which the establishment of the
USSR should have proved to the muddle-headed. This study makes clear
that the global village/globalization concept that the bourgeoisie uses
to deceive the masses and the world is the same theory the revisionists
use to accomplish the aims of their bourgeois brethren.
So when you’re watching the Olympics this summer remember two things: 1)
The world isn’t one big happy family. It is divided into oppressor and
oppressed nations. This is the principal contradiction on a world scale,
while the fundamental contradiction on a world scale is the bourgeoisie
vs. the proletariat. The Olympics are nothing but the vain attempts of
the international bourgeoisie, and imperialist states to whom they are
bound, to cover up national and class contradictions and to white-wash
reality so that we will confuse the true prize of national liberation,
self-determination and complete emancipation from the imperialists for
gold medals. 2) Just as the global village construct of the
petty-bourgeoisie that dominates that class is a myth and a lie, so is
the global village thesis of the crypto-Trotskyists (simultaneous world
revolution) which they’ve specifically tailored to their purposes. It is
an ideological weapon of the revisionists used to fool the oppressed
nations within U.$. borders into believing that we need not seek
national liberation and self-determination for ourselves because
according to them all nationalism is bourgeois in essence and “the whole
world comes first!”
Lenin, Stalin and Mao all took clear positions on the national question
which was liberty at its core; so why can’t the First World
“communists”? Ask yourself this, go into deep thought, study the
question and you will be enlightened ten-fold.
As we convene our third congress, we approach our five year anniversary
as an organization. While members of MIM(Prisons) – and even more so USW
– have been in the prison movement for longer, we find this an opportune
milestone to reflect back on where the prison movement is at and how it
has developed.
In 2011 a series of hunger strikes in California made a great impact
countrywide. Many activists, from crypto-trots to anarchists to
reformists, rallied around this movement and continue to focus on prison
work as a result. While our predecessors in MIM saw the importance of
the prison movement decades ago, their foresight is proving more true
today as we begin to reach a critical mass of activity. It is now a hot
issue within the left wing of white nationalism, which is significant
because whites are not affected by the system extensively enough to call
it a true material interest.
This gradual development has been the result of two things: agitation
around the facts of the U.$. injustice system on the outside, and
prisoner organizing on the inside, both of which MIM and USW have been
diligently working on for decades. In the last year and a half, prisoner
organizing came to a head with the Georgia strike and the
California
hunger strikes, which were both coordinated on a statewide level.
While getting some mainstream and international attention, these events
rang particularly loud among the imprisoned, with a series of similar
actions still developing across the country (recently in Virginia,
Ohio,
Texas,
Illinois,
the federal supermax ADX, Limon in Colorado and a follow-up hunger
strike in Georgia).
Meanwhile, the agitational side of things came to a bit of a head with
the release of the book
The
New Jim Crow last year. This book has continued to get lots of play
from many different sectors of the political spectrum. And while in most
cases those promoting the book are amenable to the lackluster
conclusions, the organization of these facts into a book stand for
themselves. It requires a very biased viewpoint to read this book and
then turn around and deny the national oppression faced by the internal
semi-colonies through the U.$. injustice system. Therefore we think the
overall effect of this book will be both progressive and significant,
despite its limitations.
It is for these reasons that we see this as a moment to seize. When we
started five years ago we had the great fortune of building on the
legacy and existing prisoner support programs of MIM. The ideological
foundation that MIM gave us allowed us to focus our energies on more
practical questions of launching a new prison publication, building
support programs for comrades that are released, developing
correspondence political study programs, and launching a new website
that features the most comprehensive information on censorship, mail
rules, and abuses in prisons across this country.
With our infrastructure built and steadily running, we need to look at
ways to take advantage of the relative consciousness of prisoners right
now and the relative attention the U.$. population has on the prison
system. We have always said that without prisoners organized there is no
prison movement, so we see that as the principal prong of attack. Thus,
we are taking steps to improve the structure of United Struggle from
Within (USW), the mass organization for prisoners that was founded by
MIM and is now led by MIM(Prisons). Building on suggestions from some
leaders in USW, we have enacted a plan to form councils in states where
there are multiple active USW cells. Below we further explain an
organizational structure for our movement, so comrades know where they
fit in and how they should be relating to others.
As we saw during the California strikes, censorship increases, as do
other repressive measures, when organization expands. So as we step up
our efforts, we can expect the state to step up theirs. We will need
more support than ever from volunteers on the outside to do legal and
agitational work to keep the state faithful to their own laws and
regulations.
As big as those challenges are, the internal challenges will be even
greater hurdles for us to jump in the coming years. The recent large
mobilizations have begun to reveal what these challenges will be. And
there is much work to be done to identify, analyze and work to resolve
the contradictions within the prisoner population that allows for the
current conditions where the state dictates how these vast populations
of oppressed people interact with each other and live out their lives.
The prison movement that arose before the great prison boom that began
in the 1980s was a product of the national liberation struggles
occurring at the time. Today, the prison population is ten times as big,
while the political leadership on the outside is scarce. The prison
masses must guard against the great number of misleaders out there
opportunistically grabbing on to the issue of the day to promote
political goals that do not serve the oppressed people of the world.
Prisoners may need to step up to play the leading role this time around,
which will require looking inward. We must not only learn from the past,
but also build independent education programs to develop the skills of
comrades today to conduct their own analysis of the conditions that they
face. On top of that we must promote and develop an internationalist
worldview, to find answers and alliances in the oppressed nations around
the world, and remove the blinders that keep us only focused on Amerika.
There is no liberation to be found in Amerikanism. That Amerikans have
created a prison system that dwarfs all others in humyn history is just
one example of why.
So it is with cautious optimism that we approved the resolution below at
our recent congress. We think this plan addresses proposals submitted by
some USW leaders, and hope you all will work with us to make this an
effective structure.
Congress Resolution on USW Structure
MIM(Prisons) is initiating the creation of statewide councils within
United Struggle from Within (USW), the anti-imperialist mass
organization for prisoners. A council will be sanctioned when two or
more cells exist within a state that are recognized as active and
abiding by the standards of USW. MIM(Prisons) will facilitate these
councils, where the focus is on practical organizing around the needs of
the imprisoned lumpen in that state. As the U.$. prison system is
primarily organized by state, the councils will serve to develop and
address the specific needs and conditions within each state.
In the case where cells have identities other than “USW” we do not
require them to use that name. For example, the
Black
Order Revolutionary Organization, which self-identifies as a “New
Afrikan revolutionary movement,” may be invited to participate in a USW
statewide council. While USW itself does not favor the struggles of any
oppressed nation over another, as a movement we recognize the usefulness
and importance of nation-specific organizing. In the prison environment
there may be lines that cannot be crossed in current conditions which
limit the membership of a group. As long as these cells exhibit true
internationalism and anti-imperialism they may possess dual membership
in USW by joining a statewide council.
With this proposal we are expanding the structure of our movement. We
recognize two main pillars to the ideological leadership of our movement
at this time. One being the MIM(Prisons) cell, and the other being the
Under Lock & Key writers group, which is made up of USW
members and led by and facilitated by MIM(Prisons). The statewide
councils should look to these two groups for ideological guidance in
their organizing work, mainly through the pages of Under Lock &
Key. In contrast, the councils’ main function will be in practical
work directly serving the interests of the imprisoned lumpen. They will
serve to coordinate the organizing work of scattered USW cells in a more
unified way across the state.
MIM(Prisons) will be initiating the California Council immediately, with
others to follow as conditions allow.
Recently I received notice of change to regulations number 12-03,
publication date 25 May 2012, effective date 10 May 2012, that is said
to affect sections 3000, 3375 and 3375.6. It states the California
Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) seeks to establish
requirements for an automated needs assessment tool to be used to place
prisoners in programs that would aid their re-entry to society and
reduce their chances of reoffending by identifying the criminogenic
needs of offenders.
The presentation appears to be harmless, but it is not harmless for
those ignorant enough to boast about their gang involvement, family
criminality, and other sensitive factors that will become readily
available and quickly cross-referenced and correlated with information
contained in intelligence files. In addition, the information gained
from the compass core assessment official record can be used as an
“administrative determinate” under 15 CCR 3375.2(b)(11) in addition to
3375.3 (9)(4)(A) & (B) which is the foundation not only for
validation but for intelligence analysts.
Issuing a list of demands to prisoncrats telling them what their
validation process should be is ludicrous, as is the idea of telling
your body when it should have the urge to excrete. Cats are quick to
want to make demands without any leverage, though prisoners no matter
where they are confined, have economic leverage that they are not
willing to exercise because cookies are of more immediate import.
Since the 1880s the concept of boycotting, or organizing to engage in a
concerted refusal to have dealings with prison/jail stores or
commissaries, has been a very powerful tool. In California it deprives
the CDCR of a source of revenue. It also affects the bottom line of
prison profiteers, whose profits are guaranteed by what amounts to cash
transactions for hundreds of millions in profits and revenues, courtesy
of prisoners who lack the will to sacrifice luxuries for a while in
order to exercise necessary economic leverage, to compel some
administrative change.
Prisoners in California should remember that canteen goods originally
were purchased at wholesale prices and then marked up 10% and the
proceeds over the costs and expenses went into the prisoner welfare fund
to finance many programs and activities that benefited prisoners. This
changed with the rise of Pete Wilson, the governor who used prisoner
welfare funds to help finance a re-election bid which opened the flood
gates for all sorts of misuse of the foundational purpose of the
prisoner welfare fund.
The validation process is a means of control and manipulation that I
have noted that some general population prisoners and sensitive needs
yard (SNY/PC) prisoners embrace as a sort of badge of honor, only to
belatedly find out the effects. In ULK 26an
Oregon prisoner points to the most significant problems with the
divisive nature in the development of LOs who are in competition with
each other.
It’s common for me to hear cats hollering that they are Blood this,
Blood that. Crip this or Crip that, Norteño, Southsider, Bulldog, skin
head, nazi, etc., trying to tout some bogus gangsta facade that
ordinarily would land them on Corcoran SHU 4B and validated. These
boastful cats are easily co-opted and manipulated. Their delusions of
grandeur provide Institutional Gang Investigations (IGI) with a wealth
of intelligence via their eyes and ears on the tier.
A perfect example is the
Corcoran
prisoner’s statement about cats in ASU I (Administrative
Segregation) laying down in fear of IGI retaliation for exercising their
right to file an appeal! Typically conversations over the tier are
recorded when IGI doesn’t have a reliable agent to make note of what he
sees and/or hears. As to the idea of
not
taking a cellie as a form of protest, the typical response is
privileges taken for 90-180 days and 60-90 days of early release credits
are taken. Cats who are addicted to sports programs or television or
canteen will cave in every time because they lack the will to sacrifice
luxuries for the cause.
Prisoncrats treat gang membership or association as a tool of extortion
used in their agenda of touting the violent nature of street or prison
gangs.
The CDCR is rife with crooked officials and staff and the secretary,
governor and legislature are unable and unwilling to purge itself of
those who regularly falsify reports. Supervisory staff/officials fail to
address the problems so as to encourage the misconduct and repression.
At the same time they are quick to feed a naive public a laundry list of
bogus incidents to justify the administration’s unwillingness to reform
itself.
I try to examine all aspects of the criminal injustice system to see
what tactics we can utilize in our struggle effectively, even if I have
to employ them alone. I sacrifice luxuries already so I know it’s
possible and a little something for all to consider.
MIM(Prisons) responds: This comrade raises a good topic of
discussion: it’s important we evaluate the tactics that will be
effective in fighting prison repression. There are a limited number of
protest options available to prisoners, and some will be more effective
than others. Whichever tactics are best may vary by prison or state, but
the fundamental task of building unity for the struggle remains the same
across the entire criminal injustice system. Comrades in California
continue to strategize on the best ways to build on the recent prisoner
rights activism there. Join United Struggle from Within and work with
other anti-imperialist prisoners so that we aren’t stuck employing
tactics on our own, but rather in a united front across facilities,
organizations and nationalities.
This report is on the conditions at California State Prison - Corcoran
4A SHU (CSP-COR). It is written with the purpose of sharing with
comrades locally and nationally the demise of the movement here at
CSP-COR, and what will be necessary for comrades of the United Struggle
from Within (USW) to regain momentum uniting those capable of being
united in the struggle to abolish the Security Housing Units (SHU).
The author has been housed at CSP-COR SHU on an undetermined SHU
sentence that resulted from a battery on a peace officer with serious
bodily injury. This was an event orchestrated by Kern Valley State
Prison’s corrupt guards. Any prisoner who has been somewhere within the
California prison system knows the history of CSP-COR and the high
degree of guard corruption; everything from murder and police brutality
to conspiracy against prisoners for complaining against officials. Here
at CSP-COR I’ve personally witnessed staff abuse the power bestowed upon
them by California and its California Correctional Peace Officers
Association (CCPOA) union for the purpose of keeping their foot on
prisoners’ throats and preventing our freedom of speech.
There is a code of silence practiced by the majority of staff at
CSP-COR, dubbed the Green Wall, and it’s alive and well here in 2012.
Where once it was isolated to those in green (correctional officers) it
has now spread to those within the medical department (nurses, doctors,
and psych staff), the legal library, the mail department, the food
services department, and the religious department. This is not to say
that every person who works for the CDCR is a part of the Wall; there
are individuals who can be used to expose the system for what it is. But
the state’s institutions seem to be uniting its forces more these days
against prisoners for the sake of covering up the problems and sweeping
important social issues under the rug.
On 4A, the law librarian prevents any access to his facility unless a
prisoner has a deadline from the courts or a state. The prison law
library is the most important resource for prisoners, providing
literature that guides the ability of prisoners to more effectively
prosecute cases in the judicial branch of this government. Prisoners
need things like computers, copies, typewriters, reference material,
etc. The CCPOA knows this and take away prisoners’ access to one of the
most important resources they have through understaffing and budgeting.
Political power in the hands of prisoners presents a threat to the
financial security of every vampire of the U.S. prison complex. And
because it is not only a possibility but also a social reality, the
state and the union seek to stall the success of the prison movement,
particularly in the area of free speech, free assembly, and right to
grievance which becomes free protest.
I’ve also witnessed officials censor prisoners’ mail because the
contents of the correspondence or periodical didn’t sit well with the
agenda or idea of the state-union establishment. Often a pig in the
position of sorting incoming/outgoing mail is issuing, withholding, or
completely disposing of a prisoner’s mail for malicious reasons.
Brothers at Corcoran SHU have a difficult time just corresponding with
the outside world. Officials with their personal vendettas, and most
times negligence, confiscate materials such as stationary packages sent
to a prisoner from their family. They then turn around and try to trade
the material with another prisoner who has filed a grievance against
them in exchange for the prisoner’s silence on the subject of the
grievance.
They trash mail that may expose the reality of the state-union
corruption. Most times they secure the support of the public by
declaring the “security” threat as a threat to the public. But if the
matter was placed under the microscope where the real public could hear
and see the position of prisoners, they’d be forced to recognize that
the blood of prisoners are on their, the public’s, hands.
California uses a department regulation 3135(c)(1) in order to validate
censorship practices in its prisons holding that the material is “…of a
character tending to incite murder, arson, a riot, or any form of
violence or physical harm to any person, or any ethnic, gender, racial,
religious, or other group.” Most times, though, this isn’t even the
case. It isn’t the security of the public that is at stake, it is the
financial security of the labor aristocracy that is at stake.
After the
Pelican Bay
State Prison (PBSP) hunger strike prisoners received a number of
small concessions from the state. Here they’ve already begun to renege
on their deal. They allow brothers to wear their personal kicks and at
times purchase new kicks. There are clear color pen fillers on the
store, beanies are issued in the winter, and someone from the psych
staff walks around once a week and passes out a sheet of paper with
eight to ten puzzles and a calendar for the Jewish month. But CSP-COR
officials don’t even recognize the elements with the most material
substance of the PBSP core demands. There is no group yard, the cages do
not have pull up bars, and the ab-roller equipment that was issued has
been banned. The canteen has not been expanded, there haven’t been any
added TV stations, and prisoners still can only receive one package per
year.
The guards are banning Prison Legal News and MIM(Prisons)
publications, but allowing religious periodicals like the
Trumpet. Any attempts by prisoners to come together to figure
out how to curb such BS is interfered with by means of vandalizing cell
inspections, shortening food rations, confiscation of
property/privileges, and bogus rule violation reports. Take, for
example, an event that occurred where various Special Needs Yard and
Disciplinary Detention prisoners of Black, white, and Latino nationality
were on the cage yard exercising together, calling out their routine in
cadence to coordinate the exercise routine. The yard pig approached the
group and interrupted their exercise stating they’d have to cease the
group work out as it was gang activity. The prisoners objected asking,
“was the Marines a gang?” The pig wouldn’t answer, so they continued
exercising. The pig called the building where these prisoners were
housed and instructed 4 coworkers that the prisoners involved in the
exercise routine were to have their cells vandalized.
This is a brief description of the abuses taking place at CSP-Corcoran.
There are a few class actions being initiated and a certain USW comrade
is organizing prisoners (peacefully) around a campaign to oppose mail
censorship. The USW comrade said it all started with CSP-Corcoran
censoring MIM(Prison)’s correspondence.
Every since my filing of the MIM censorship suit I haven’t been able to
get a 602 [grievance form] processed, and I was pretty good at filing
them and winning them prior to the MIM suit. Since I’ve been at this
prison the only 602 I was able to get acknowledged and processed was one
concerning the law library, and only after two months of either having
them “screened out” for one reason or another or simply being ignored.
It was only because I finally got tired of their b.s., went over their
heads and mailed a “retaliation and conspiracy” petition to Sacramento
along with a quick letter explaining my situation.
Afterwards I not only got a letter from Sacramento telling me they’d
sent it back to appeals court with instructions to properly process, but
I got a letter from here basically reprimanding me for going over their
heads; but it got the job done.
MIM(Prisons) adds: This is a good example of perseverance in the
face of repression, following in the footsteps of a
similar
victory in Kern Valley this month.
Comrades, I’m white and I hate white people not because they are
white but because they love themselves too much more than
anyone else more than anything else more than all else I love
all else my mom’s white my brother’s white father and sisters
white and I hate white people not because they are white but
because they are killing my people and my planet all for green
paper and towering white steeples I’m a traitor who grew up in
a trailer I branded cows in my youth ninety miles to the
south the nearest traffic light we pissed off the porch poached
deer - ate rattlesnake comrades, I’m white But don’t hold that
against me because I hate this motherfucking country to
death my pen’s my weapon my blood - my breath my planet - my
species above all else
I was born of a womb of a mother who smokes grew of age in a
concrete tomb choking on I-15’s exhaust smoke my veins I must
stretch to feel at ease This is what my life is like from
conception to the grave unable to breathe quit what it is you
hate while you still hate it three quarters done with my
sentence hoping someone’s still there to say “You’ve made
it” Considered depressed and despondent since the age of
five that’s when I learned to pledge allegiance age five they
taught us loyalty to one’s country as I smuggled cans of copenhagen
and snickers to my daddy in prison age five I was born of a
country Built on and maintaining DOC brutality Pledged allegiance
to a flag that destroyed my family So, you see this is what my
life is like from conception to the grave Still unable to
breathe
When one is imprisoned and kept away from society for a rather long
period of time, it’s not unnatural to feel as if you’re beginning to
lose your bearings, and it’s not unnatural for one to seek help from
“medical professionals.”
What is considered unnatural however is to speak of the plight of the
oppressed. I found this out the hard way when I went to my annual
psychiatric review. To be “mentally-ill” or depressed when one is from
oppressed nation origin and imprisoned is perfectly normal. However, to
be perfectly normal or “sane” under the oppressive conditions of
imperialism is certainly abnormal. One cannot be of oppressed nation
origin and imprisoned and be content. Depression is a completely
appropriate state of mind when oppressed by imperialism; there can be no
other reaction.
As stated above I attended my annual psychiatric review and was
introduced to the four member committee. I was asked a series of
questions. How did I feel? Have I experienced any depression lately? Am
I suicidal? I answered their questions as quickly and concisely as
possible. I felt I passed their test with flying colors. As I was about
to be excused however one of the psychiatrists stopped me from leaving
and asked me if we could talk about my revolutionary tattoos. My first
instinct was to ask him what my tattoos have to do with my “mental
health.” However, I felt it might look bad to not cooperate so I agreed
to stay.
The psych wanted to know what they meant. I simply stated that they were
political symbols and took it no further, but he pressed and wanted to
know exactly what they meant. S/he kept pressing and at this point I
once again thought, “what the hell do my political beliefs have to do
with my mental health?!” I figured I’d play their little game and see
exactly what they were trying to get at.
I was asked why I choose to have this artwork on me. I replied that they
were simply expressions of my solidarity with the oppressed and
exploited of the Third World. But why did I feel the need to show my
solidarity? “Because” I stated, “they’re oppressed and exploited,
they’ve been oppressed and exploited and they’re gonna continue to be
oppressed and exploited for the foreseeable future!” “Oh, is that all?”
At which point I lost temporary control of my emotions and strongly
stated: “Yea, that and the fact that they’re currently being massacred
across the globe!” The committee then collectively jumped and stared at
me as if I was indeed crazy for saying these truths.
The psych then attempted to further bait me and get me to incriminate
myself by asking me if I felt the need to show my solidarity in any
other way. To which I simply laughed and stared in h judgmental
hate-filled eyes and said “of course not, I’m in prison.” But what if I
wasn’t in prison? And of course I laughed and just said no.
S/he then accused me of being a gang member, to which I immediately
objected and said “no, I am not a gang member!” But the bald-head, the
tattoos and last but not least the fact that I’m from the oppressed
nations certainly means that I’m a gang member. S/he then asked me what
I’m in prisyn for. I told h the truth and told h that I’m in prison for
“gang violence.” S/he then repeated that I was a gang member. “No!” I
once again corrected h. I explained to h that while I once was a gang
member, I no longer am today. However, s/he insisted and asked me if I
was in solidarity with the Third World when I was on the streets. I told
h of course not. I was in solidarity with myself and my “gang”. “So
you’ve changed?!” Of course I changed, everybody changes. To which s/he
then looked at me curiously and asked if I’d ever been in an insane
asylum. “No” I stated. “Would you like to go to one?” “No” I once again
stated. I was quite simply surprised that s/he would threaten me so
openly. I was then excused.
The implication is clear. To speak of the plight of the oppressed and
exploited Third World masses, one must be “crazy.”
My writing will not analyze Black Nationalism per se, rather it aims to
address the “national question” itself. My position comes from a Chicano
perspective, which I hope adds to the theoretical sauce surrounding the
idea of national liberation and the development of the oppressed nations
ideologically, whether they be from the Brown, Black or Red Nations here
in the United $tates. In the contemporary prisoner, one sees an
awakening to truth and meaning amidst a state offensive to deprive
millions of humyn dignity and freedom. The roundups, ICE raids and
fascist laws (reinforced with putting the data of millions of oppressed
across the U.$. into the state intelligence files preparing for future
revolt and repression) has added to the swirl of these times for people
to become politicized, and prisoners are no exception.
The struggle in the ideological arena is just as vital as that with the
rifle, and perhaps more difficult. Out in society – where people have
more social influences – ideas, experiences and thought can bring more
diverse views into the sphere of theory. Often times the prison
environment, in its concentrated form and social makeup, has more
limited ideological influences. This is a trap that prisoners should
guard against in developing a political line. There will always be
ideological “yes people” in prisons, especially amongst one’s own circle
of friends or comrades. This could also be said of the limited contacts
in the outside world that most prisoners have.
The “national question” is one that is not exclusive to the Black
Nation; it is something that Raza and others are wrangling with as well.
My critiques here are related to the national question in the United
$tates in general, and not specific to the Black Belt Thesis (BBT) that
Rashid addresses in his article.
In the section titled “The Black Belt Thesis and the New Class
Configuration of the New Afrikan Nation,” Rashid describes comrade J.V.
Stalin on the national question as follows:
The [Black Belt Thesis] was based on comrade J.V. Stalin’s analysis of
the national question as essentially a peasant question. Unlike the
analysis put forward by Lenin, and more fully developed by Mao, Stalin’s
analysis limited the national question to essentially a peasantry’s
struggle for the land they labored on geographically defined by their
having a common language, history, culture and economic life together.
Hence the slogan “Free the Land!” and “Land to the Tiller!”
Just to be clear, J.V. Stalin defined a “nation” as follows:
A nation is a historically constituted, stable community of people,
formed on the basis of language, territory, economic life, and
psychological make-up manifested in a common culture.”(1)
This definition continues to stand as what defines a nation today and to
deny this is simply a deviation. Comrade Lenin was not alive to see the
development of the anti-colonial struggles and thus in his view
oppressed nations could not be victorious on their own accord, but
Stalin taught us differently. At the same time Stalin also stated that
should a people no longer meet any of these criteria of a nation then
they are no longer a nation.
In this section, Rashid refers to a “Great Migration” of Blacks out of
the rural south and across the United $tates, which he uses, or seems to
use, as justification for not having “need of pursuing a struggle to
achieve a New Afrikan nation state, we have achieved the historical
results of bourgeois democracy…” Just because a people migrate across
the continent does not negate a national territory so long as a large
concentration remains in the national territory. For example, if the
Mohawk nation continues to reside in the northeast but a significant
portion of their population spread out “across America” and become urban
dwellers, their nation remains in the Northeast no matter how much they
wish to be Oregonians or Alaskans. But what really seemed grating in
this section was the last paragraph, which reads:
To complete the liberal democratic revolution and move forward to
socialist reconstruction the proletariat must lead the struggle which is
stifled by the increasingly anti-democratic, fascistic and reactionary
bourgeoisie. The bourgeois are no longer capable of playing a
progressive role in history.
First, the proletariat in its original sense for the most part does not
exist in the United $tates. In addition, the Trotskyite approach of
relying on the Amerikan “working class” is a waste of time. Amerikan
workers are not a revolutionary vehicle - they are not exploited when
they are amongst the highest paid workers in the world. How can those
seeking higher pay for more or bigger plasma TVs and SUVs be relied upon
to give all that up for “socialist construction”? And my view does not
come unsupported by the ideological framework that Rashid claims to
represent. Engels wrote to Marx in 1858:
The English proletariat is actually becoming more and more bourgeois, so
that this most bourgeois of all nations is apparently aiming ultimately
at the possession of a bourgeois aristocracy and a bourgeois proletariat
alongside the bourgeoisie. For a nation which exploits the whole world
this is of course to a certain extent justifiable.(2)
So even back in Marx and Engels’s day the English proletariat was
already bourgeoisified. Imperialism has developed far more since 1858,
further concentrating the wealth disparity between the oppressor and
oppressed nations globally.
In the section titled “The Revolutionary Advantages of Our Proletarian
National Character,” the idea is put forth of “building a multi-ethnic,
multi-racial socialist America.” Although I am not opposed to
multi-ethnic organizing, I also don’t negate the usefulness of
single-nation parties. One has to analyze the concrete conditions in the
United $tates. The historical development of the social forces may not
agree with this approach, and just because it may have worked in some
countries it may not apply to this country. It obviously didn’t apply to
South Africa, another settler state. In Azania the Pan Africanist
Congress seemed to forward the struggle more than other groups, in
particular the integrationist African National Congress that took power
and changed little for Azanians. Huey Newton himself understood this,
thus the
Black
Panther Party was a single nationality party, with internationalist
politics. Of course, at some point things will change, but the
advancement of imperialism and a long lineage of white supremacy and
privilege remains a hurdle still too huge for real multi-ethnic
organizing advancements at this time in the United $tates.
In the section “Separation, Integration or Revolution,” what is put
forward for liberation is to overthrow “imperialism and play a leading
role in the global proletarian revolution and socialist reconstruction.”
This, Rashid states, is “our path to liberation.” This smacks of First
World chauvinism. The International Communist Movement (ICM) will always
be led by the Third World proletariat. The ICM is dominated by the Third
World and our voice in the First World is just that, a voice, that will
help advance the global struggle, not lead. The idea of First World
leadership of the ICM is classic Trotskyism.
In the section “Reassessing the National Liberation Question,” in
speaking of past national liberation struggles, Rashid points to them
having an “unattainable” goal. Yet countries like Vietnam, northern
Korea, as well as Cuba come to mind as being successful in their
national liberation struggles. [China is the prime example of liberating
itself from imperialism and capitalism through socialist revolution. Of
course, Huey Newton himself eventually dismissed China’s achieving of
true national liberation in his theory of “intercommunalism” that the
NABPP-PC upholds - Editor]
Rashid goes on to say, “Even if we did manage to reconstitute ourselves
as a territorial nation in the”Black Belt,” we would only join the ranks
of imperialist dominated Third World nations – and with the imperialist
U.S. right on our border.” Here it seems the idealist proposition is
being put forward that an oppressed nation could possibly liberate
itself to the point of secession while U.$. imperialism is still
breathing. So long as U.$. imperialism is still in power, no internal
oppressed nation will emancipate itself. So the thought of the
imperialists being on one’s border will not be a problem as at that
point in the struggle for national liberation imperialism will be on no
one’s border.
In this same section, Rashid quotes Amilcar Cabral, who posed the
question of whether national liberation was an imperialist creation in
many African countries. Now we should understand that the imperialists
will use any country, ideology or leader if allowed (Ghadaffi found this
out the hard way most recently) but we should not believe that the
people are not smart enough to free themselves when oppressed. The white
supremacists put forward a line that Jews are in an international
conspiracy creating revolution and communism. These conspiracy theorists
look for any reason to suggest that the people cannot come to the
conclusion to decolonize themselves.
Later in this section the question is asked if the “proponents of the
BBT expect whites in the ‘Black Belt’ to passively concede the territory
and leave?”
I’m not a proponent of the Black Belt Thesis, but speaking in regard to
national liberation I can answer this question quite clearly. As this
writer alludes to, there may be a “white backlash.” But in any national
liberation struggle anywhere on the planet there is always a backlash
from those whose interests are threatened. When the oppressed nations
decide to liberate themselves in the United $tates the objective
position of the reactionaries will be to fight to uphold their white
privilege. This privilege relies heavily on the state and the culture of
white supremacy in Amerika. So their choice will be to support the
national liberation struggles, as real white revolutionaries will do, or
to side with imperialism. But there will be no sympathy for oppressors
in any national liberation struggle.
Asking the question of what do we expect whites to do is akin to asking
the revolutionary post-Civil War, when many were cut off from
parasitism, “well do you expect the people to stop exploiting ‘their’
field workers?” Do you expect Amerikan workers to stop being paid high
wages gained through the exploitation of the Third World? Do you expect
the pimp to stop pimping the prostitute? Do you expect the oppressor
nation to give up their national privilege? To all of the above I say if
it’s what the people decide, then YES!
Real white comrades not only will support the oppressed to obtain
liberation in a future revolution, but most do so in their work today,
even though they are a small minority compared to the larger Amerikan
population. By that time in the distant future hopefully more people
will have been educated and converted.
It is the task of conscious prisoners to develop a political line that
propels the imprisoned masses forward via concrete analysis, not just of
prison conditions, but of conditions outside these concentration camps
as well. Oppression in imperialism is a three-legged stool that includes
class, nation and gender. Thus we must develop our political line
according to these concrete conditions. Our line should be grounded in
reality. Our society is still very much segregated along class and
national lines, particularly in the fields of housing, education and
freedom.
Indeed, over half the people living within two miles of a hazardous
waste facility are Brown, Black or First Nations.(3) In many high
schools in the inner city Brown and Black youth are forced to share one
textbook for 3 or 4 students, while their parents are jailed
when they attempt to enroll their children in “better off” schools which
unsurprisingly are predominantly white.(4) The prisons are no different,
nor the “justice system.” Of the 700,000 who were reported to have been
stopped and frisked in New York City last year, 87% were Latinos and
Blacks even though whites make up 44% of New York City’s population.
When we develop a political line we must challenge it on a materialist
foundation in order to sharpen things up in a positive way, but it must
not be detached from reality. Only in this way will we identify what is
palpable in the realm of national liberation.
As Lenin said, “it is fine, it is necessary and important, to dream of
another or radically different and better world – while at the same time
we must infuse and inform our dreams with the most consistent,
systematic and comprehensive scientific outlook and method, communism,
and on that basis fight to bring those dreams into reality.”
MIM(Prisons) adds: The original article by Rashid is in response
to the New Afrikan Maoist Party and cites the Maoist Internationalist
Movement as another party promoting the Black Belt Thesis. While MIM
certainly never denounced the Black Belt Thesis, they recognized the
crumbling material basis for seeing it through in the post-Comintern
years that Rashid points to in his article. It is worth noting that more
recent statistics show the New Afrikan population since 1990 has
increased most in the South, where 55% of New Afrikans live today and
that in the Black Belt states a much higher percentage of the population
is New Afrikan than in the rest of the country.(5) MIM did publish an
interesting discussion of the
land
question for New Afrika as an example of a two line struggle in
2004. Ultimately the land question must be determined by two conditions
which we do not currently have: 1) a Black nation that has liberated
itself from imperialism, and 2) a forum for negotiating land division in
North America with other internal semi-colonies free from imperialist
intervention.
In his article, Rashid responds to our critique of his liquidating the
nationalist struggle in the book
Defying
the Tomb. In doing so he speaks of a Pan-Afrikan Nation, which is an
oxymoron completely liquidating the meaning of both terms.
Pan-Afrikanism is a recognition of the common interests of the various
oppressed nations of Africa, often extended to the African diaspora. You
cannot apply the Stalin quote given above to New Afrika and Pan
Afrikanism and consistently call both a nation.
But ultimately, as the USW comrade criticizes above, the liquidationism
is strongest in the NABPP-PC line on the progressive nature of the
Amerikan nation. It is this dividing line that makes it impossible for
our camps to see eye-to-eye and carry out a real two line struggle on
the question of New Afrikan land.