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.
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.
It’s not for nothing that MIM dubbed the Amerikkkan prison system “the
primary tool of oppressor nation repression in the united $tate$,” and a
review of
MIM
Theory 11: Amerikkkan Prisons On Trial makes this point ever so
clear. Though this particular MIM Theory journal is dated
(1996), like all MTs its message is not. It still serves as a
good introduction to the Amerikan injustice system just as Lenin’s
Imperialism: the Highest Stage of Capitalism continues to serve
as an introductory foundation in political economy for those wanting to
study the thinly veiled intricacies of modern-day imperialism. One read
and you’ll see why Amerika, that “shining city on a hill,” is in all
actuality the prisonhouse of nations.
MT 11 is a must-read, not just for the political- and
class-conscious prisoner, but for all prisoners as a stepping stone on
the road to liberation and sure footing to understanding the exact
context of our imprisonment.
Beginning with the essay “Amerikan Fascism & Prisons,” MIM lays out
the only real fascist aspect in Amerikan society - the Amerikan prison
system. This work is indeed of exceptional relevance as MIM points to
the economic motivation behind fascism as well as to the white
petit-bourgeois element that breathes life into this most barbaric
expression of capitalist production and its anti-revolutionary mission
statement.
The article “Capital & State Join Hands In Private Prisons” further
elaborates on the thesis that fascism is not just alive and well within
the Amerikkkan prison system, but that it has been expanding since the
1980s in the private prison phenomenon, which is but the melding of
capital and the state in the growing war against the oppressed nations,
with the prerequisite and additional benefit of continuing to win over
the middle classes to their side by ensuring them an always available
form of employment.
“Prison Labor: Profits, Slavery & the State” then explains how the
possibility of open slavery can come back full force thru the
institution of the prisons as it was once manifested pre-Civil War. This
article also speaks of the important political functions the prison
system serves repressing in the national liberation movements and the
further indoctrination of the labor aristocracy with fascist ideology.
Nothing however drives home the colonial relation between Amerika and
the oppressed nations like the articles “Political Prisoners Revisited,”
“Political Prisoners & the Anti-Imperialist Struggle” and “Who Are
the Political Prisoners?”
“Political Prisoners Revisited” is a good example of the Maoist tenet of
unity-criticism-unity in which MIM explains the basics of their line
concerning prisoners in Amerika in a dialogue with the New Afrikan
Independence Movement. MIM argues that the term “political prisoners”
shouldn’t just be reserved for individuals such as Mumia Abu-Jamal or
Leonard Peltier, but is more appropriately and powerfully applied to all
prisoners. All prisoners currently incarcerated under the dictatorship
of the bourgeoisie are rightly so political prisoners because the “laws”
that we supposedly broke were laws specifically designed for the backing
of the backward illegitimate political agenda of the superstructure and
the settler state which it serves. To ignore or refute this point with
respect to the entire imprisoned population and instead deflect the
political aspect of this oppression to just a few individuals is not
just a victory for the bourgeoisie but is itself bourgeois in essence!
“Political Prisoners & the Anti-Imperialist Struggle” centers on the
antagonistic contradiction of Amerika vs. the oppressed nations that is
reflected thru the prison system. It focuses on the material basis
objectively present in the form of the gulag, and the material forces
already present therein. MIM discusses the dire need for leadership to
further help develop these potentially revolutionary forces to their
logical conclusion, or in MIM’s words: “to unite all who can be united
to smash imperialism and all its tools of oppression…”
MIM understood the process of rapid radicalization of “common criminals”
as a profoundly political one and in their agitation they emphasized
that process as reflecting the material basis for revolution as does
MIM(Prisons) and USW. Unity on this point is therefore essential to
re-launching the new prison movement in connection with the national
liberation struggles which have been repressed and stagnated by the
oppressors with mass incarceration.
Finally, “Who Are the Political Prisoners?” is a New York prisoner’s
contribution and advancement to the MIM line on political prisoners in
which s/he expounds MIM’s line in detail and in such a way as to leave
no doubt that the growth of the prison system within U.$. borders is not
just a boil, but a cancer on the oppressed nation internal semi-colonies
that needs to be mercilessly removed!
MT 11 also contains, among other things, an essay on Malcolm
X’s progressive development, a critique of Gandhi’s so-called
“non-violence” and pacifist strategy and tactics, as well as some good
theoretical works and revolutionary poetry.
For all these reasons combined, MIM Theory 11: Amerikkkan Prisons on
Trial gets four out of four red stars.
And so with that i end this review the same way the New York prisoner
ended his article:
Death and Destruction to the U.$. Empire! Birth and Construction to
the Prison Revolutionary Movement!
The Essential Stalin: Major Theoretical Writings, 1905-52 Edited with
an introduction by Bruce Franklin
“…Stalin is clearly one of the three most important historical figures
of our century, his thought and deeds still affecting our daily lives,
considered by hundreds of millions today as one of the leading political
theorists of any time, his very name a strongly emotional household name
throughout the world.” - Bruce Franklin
These above mentioned words are as true today as they were when they
were first written 40 years ago. The importance and relevance of
Stalin’s great theoretical works were at the core of the international
communist movement for damn near 90 years and should serve as a
rock-hard foundation for any persyn serious about wanting to re-ignite
the socialist fire that was ablaze for the greater part of the last
century.
As successful as the imperialists have been in vilifying not just the
world revolutionary movement but it’s once main proponent, they can
never completely succeed in wiping the memory or more importantly the
teachings and practice of J.V. Stalin from the minds of countless people
around the globe. Yet the imperialists and their quisling lackeys such
as Bob Avakian of
RCP=U$A
fame continue to desiccate Josef Stalin be it by “new”, “conclusive”,
“secret archive” evidence or by the “new synthesis” method of attack.
Therefore it is the duty of all the real revolutionaries to defend and
uphold the practice of Stalin not just because it is integral to the
successful practice of revolution as the people of Korea, Vietnam and
Peru can attest to but because to attack Stalin is to attack the theory
of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Mao as well; and the only way of doing this
is to (a) study Stalin’s works and (b) put it into practice! and we will
find that (c) without revolutionary theory there can be no revolutionary
movement as practice gropes in the dark unless it’s path is illuminated
by the most advanced revolutionary theory.
In my mission to learn the science of revolution I requested “The
Essential Stalin” from MIM Distributors and must say with great
certainty that my grasp of Marxism-Leniism-Maoism has been increased
ten-fold thanks to my acquiring and diligent study of this most valuable
Marxist-Leninist weapon of liberation. From the most intriguing
introduction which is packed with such hysterical data that reads like
the most vivid novel to “Marxism and the National Question”, J.V.
Stalin’s first major theoretical contribution to the oppressed people of
the world and to which any self-proclaimed revolutionary nationalist
would be remiss not to study, to the “Foundations of Leninism” in which
Stalin always the teacher clearly lays out not just the hysterical roots
of the first truly successful revolutionary ideology based on Marx &
Engels formulations which led to the worlds first socialist society, but
in which he clearly relayed to the Soviet Union that they would stay the
course set by Lenin; to “Dialectical and Historical Materialism” in
which he explained the rudiments of Marxist philosophy and which was
once considered required reading for all members of the Chinese
Communist Party or “Marxism and Linguistics” where Stalin in replying to
young communists properly put forward the place of language in the
revolutionary movement while simultaneously critiquing the dominant
Soviet “authorities,” i.e. revisionists, or “Economic Problems of
Socialism in the USSR”, Stalin’s criticism of “two extreme tendencies in
Soviet political economy, mechanical determinism and voluntarism” which
were propagated by the new bourgeois in the party who wished to cause
the disappearing of man in socialist production.
Surely after leading this communist jewel you will find as did I why it
was Mao himself who described Stalin as “the greatest genius of our
time” and labeled himself as disciple of Stalin.
Studying Stalin however isn’t always the easiest task and requires deep
thought. Rest assured however that by completely immersing yourself in
Stalin’s work and undertaking a painstaking study of it you will be
illuminated by the shining path put forward by comrade Stalin, and while
he wasn’t always the perfect communist for the Soviet Union, he was the
best they had and as a result the International Communist Movement
flourished.
A clenched fist goes up for the New Afrikan youth Trayvon Martin who was
murdered in Sanford, Florida on February 26 2012.
Here we are in this endless cycle of genocide inflicted on the internal
semi-colonies. Hunting season is never over in Amerika; it is merely
covered up with different words to describe it. But those of us in
prisons across Amerikkka understand what is taking place.
It has taken almost two full months for the arrest of George Zimmerman
to be finally carried out. That’s sad, when a Black 17-year-old is
executed in cold blood and the killer is allowed to roam free, but we
are arrested for reckless driving and given a life sentence. U.$.
soldiers slaughter villages, cut off ears, take photos of themselves
urinating on the bodies, without being charged; and when they are
charged they walk free. Migrants are shot and killed by white
supremacist militia groups, and not only does the corporate media not
report it, but bills are currently being pushed through that call for
militia groups to formally work in concert with border patrol.
The truth is the state operates in a way that allows many loopholes and
leeway for white supremacists to survive and continue their terror. This
is seen in the treatment these groups are given from Amerika. If you
look closely at this phenomenon it shows us what kind of a rotten system
we really live under. The problem is we have been born and raised in
this imbalanced existence so we now believe many things are “normal” or
“okay” when in fact they are very wrong.
Case in point: the existence of white supremacist militia groups. If we
were to have a handful of Chicanos with guns in any house we would be
labeled “gang members” and the SWAT team would come in and crush our
existence. If a handful of New Afrikans were at a house with guns and a
flagpole flying their banner, they would be labeled terrorists and
crushed. Yet there are entire compounds of white supremacists with guns
and websites proclaiming their objectives, and for the most part Amerika
leaves them untouched. Why is this? Well because these neo-Nazi or other
white supremacists actually complement the imperialists’ agenda here in
Amerika in many ways.
In one way they help to keep the mass attention off the state itself,
but they also make room for the state to step in and appear as some
savior. As in the Trayvon Martin murder, they allow this vigilante
psychotic maggot to run amok, allowing the people’s anger to boil, and
then step in to arrest him. This way many will think “they did the right
thing” or “the law works.”
These tired old bait-and-switch tactics don’t fool nobody. We know
Amerika is Zimmerman! Zimmerman is only a physical
manifestation of imperialism. Imperialism, like Zimmerman, travels the
world stalking Third World nations and then attacking the oppressed
nation, latching on and sucking the blood, the resources, leaving a
lifeless corpse in its place. They can call Amerika a “colorblind”
society; they can allow the public to be “intermingled”; they can
nominate Obama as president; but any way you slice it there is no
justice to be found here for Brown or Black folks. Our justice will only
come from our own hands through struggle.
Racism is generally understood by revolutionaries first and foremost as
an outgrowth of the ruling class, which nurtures these white
supremacists into fascist foot soldiers. They are imperialism’s reserve
army and are intertwined with the state apparatus. They have a mutual
interest in keeping things “the way they are.”
The most we’ve gotten out of Obama concerning this modern day lynching
was him saying “if I had a son he would look like Trayvon.” Really? He
couldn’t even make a speech denouncing the attack on Black people, the
problem of white supremacy, or the new caste-like system that encourages
these modern day lynchings lest he offend the oppressor nation. But
saying nothing at all would offend the Black nation. His “middle ground”
was “if I had a son he would look like Trayvon.”
These bourgeois politicians serve the ruling class, they serve capital,
they serve Wall Street. Our justice may not come tomorrow but it will
surely come, and until then let us prepare the people for the cold
reality in Amerika.
“I was born in jail.” This was Stokely Carmichael’s response to a
Swedish reporter in 1967 when asked if he was afraid of being sent to
jail for helping to organize the Black nation for national liberation
and self-determination.(1) In making this very poignant statement,
Stokely Carmichael was putting forward the correct political analysis,
referring to the prison-like conditions of the Black nation and other
internal semi-colonies of Amerika at the time. It’s been 45 years since
then and a string of reformist struggles have proceeded. The completion
of the civil rights movement, the appointment of the first Black U.$.
Supreme Court “Justice,” and the election of the first Black pre$ident.
But have the material conditions of the Black nation truly changed when
compared to other First Worlders? According to the Census Bureau
statistics for the year 2006, which show more Blacks and Latinos are
living in prison cells than college dorms, they have not.(2)
A new documentary titled “The Violence Interruptors: One Year In a City
Grappling with Violence” makes this point ever-so-clear. This
documentary centers on an imperialist-funded lumpen organization from
the streets of Chicago whose membership is primarily made up of ex-gang
members. For the most part they have all done some serious time for some
serious crimes, but upon their release made a commitment to themselves
and their communities that they would help stop the pointless violence
that takes so many lives.
These ex-gang members call themselves “Violence Interruptors,” which is
a reference to their pacifist tactics. They are funded by the Illinois
Department of Corrections, Cook County Board of Commissioners and the
U.$. Department of Justice, among others. They run the Violence
Interruptors under the guise of the non-profit organization called Cease
Fire. The initial idea of the Violence Interruptors program was proposed
and partly funded by Dr. Gary Slutkin, who upon returning to Chicago
from a medical tour of Africa saw the dire straits of the oppressed here
and drew parallels to the African experience. But the organization’s
true roots date back to Jeff Fort, whose life centered around his
leadership in a Chicago lumpen organization that had one foot in Black
nationalism and one in drugs and gang banging.
In federal prison from 1972 to 1976 due to his use of War on Poverty
money from the government, Fort took up aspects of Islam and rebranded
and restructured the Almighty Black P. Stone Nation when he got out.
Along with other leading members, and at times working with the police,
he worked to build peace between lumpen organizations and to keep crack
out of Chicago. But of course the Amerikan government never likes to see
the oppressed come together for the betterment of our people, even if at
first they pretend to agree with what we’re doing. So they had Fort
arrested and sent back to prison on trumped up terrorism charges, where
he remains today. Having successfully neutralized Fort and other early
leaders, the Stones today remain a largely divided umbrella for many
sets of gang bangers across Chicago, the status quo preferred by the
state.(3)
Carrying on Fort’s legacy, Ameena Mathews, a former gangster and Jeff
Fort’s daughter, is a Violence Interruptor. Mathews, like other Violence
Interruptors, is no stranger to the streets and sees it as her own
persynal responsibility to stop the violence, even if it means putting
her own life at risk. An example of this is caught on film when during
an interview for the documentary that’s being given inside of her home,
a fight breaks out on the street. Recognizing that even a one-on-one
situation has the potential to turn deadly, she immediately rushed out
to try and bring peace to the quickly-growing crowd. While attempting to
calm everyone down, a young man saw a rock hurling at his cousin and
sacrificially put himself in the line of fire to protect her. He was hit
in the mouth. Afterwards threats are made with the promise of gunplay to
come, but Mathews quickly ushers the victim away and tells him that he’s
the real gangsta because he defended his family and defending their
families is what true gangsters do.
Eddie Bocanegra, aka “Bandit,” is another Violence Interruptor who did
14 years for murder, but who, during his imprisonment, went thru a
period of reflection. He recognized that he not only fucked up his life
but that of his family and the family of the person he killed. Now on
the streets Bandit admits to having identified pride with his gang but
now sees that it was all pointless. Besides being a Violence
Interruptor, Bandit also visits schools across Chicago in an attempt to
counsel oppressed nation youth who might find themselves in similar
situations to the ones he once did.
In the film, a delegation from South Africa requested to meet the
Violence Interruptors during a recent visit to the United $tate$ in
order to find out their secret to keeping the peace. Yet, the delegation
became critical of one of the Interruptors’ policies, which is to never
involve the pigs in the community’s affairs. The delegation argued that
the Interruptors were not “neutral enough.” The Interruptors responded
that this was the reason that they were so effective within the
community, because the community knows they can confide in and trust the
Interruptors with their problems without the fear of being sold out.
Certainly the masses are correct to think this way. Problems that arise
within the community should be dealt with by the community. To bring in
the pigs is only to justify the oppression and occupation of the
internal semi-colonies and oppressed communities. The potential problem
we see with the Interruptors is that the state is happy to fund them as
independent mediators for small meaningless violence, but how do the
Interruptors deal with community organizations that are not
state-funded, and may come into conflict with the state? The
Interruptors present themselves as an independent force, but their
funding tells us otherwise.
One indication of the Interruptors’ reputation with the community occurs
when the family of a young murder victim receives word that his funeral
is gonna be shot up by gang members looking for their original target.
So seemingly effective and revered are the Interruptors that the murder
victim’s family calls them to provide security instead of the police. At
the end of the ceremony, Ameena Mathews gives a fiery speech in which
she righteously calls out all the gang members in attendance and
struggles with them to “get real” with their lives because that dead
body they were all there paying their respects to was certainly real,
and “it don’t get more real than that!”
While the documentary was being filmed, sections of the Woodlawn
neighborhood, an epicenter of violent drama, came into conflict over a
plan to militarize Chicago using the National Guard. The plan was
developed by politicians with some members of the community. By building
a real, independent peace in oppressed communities, we can eliminate the
divisions within oppressed communities triggered by the wild behavior of
lumpen youth and form a united front to keep the state’s occupation out.
The section of the community that spoke out against the call for
militarization knows that the National Guard will not provide more
safety, only more oppression. This shows that just because the state has
gotten smarter about how to control its internal semi-colonies does not
mean that they no longer see the need for armed force.
Jeff Fort and the Almighty Black P. Stone Nation’s peace activism legacy
lives on in the new federally-funded Violence Interruptors. Similarly,
the once largely popular efforts of the Gangster Disciples to hold peace
summits in Chicago has evolved into a project that works closely with
the political machine of the state. Amerika has proven unable to solve
the problems that have plagued the ghetto for generations. While Amerika
was worried about what the Stones or the GDs might become, they were
scared of what the Panthers already were. They drugged and shot Fred
Hampton at age 21, while they eventually sent Fort and Larry Hoover to
supermax prison cells with very limited contact with the outside world.
While Barack Obama has thousands of people murdered across Africa and
the Middle East, we see the level of criminality one must have to become
a successful Black leader out of Chicago in this country. The
imperialist-funded non-profits use pacifism for the oppressed, while
painting mass murder for the oppressor nation as “spreading democracy.”
Many think that the Violence Interruptors have people power, but in fact
they do not, for they wouldn’t even exist if they didn’t have the
blessing of the oppressors. While the short-term goal of the
Interruptors is to “stop the violence,” the long-term goal of the
oppressors in creating the Interruptors is to stop the violence from
spilling over onto themselves. They do this by not just co-opting
grassroots attempts by the people to overcome their oppression and bring
peace to the hood, but by creating organizations such as the Violence
Interruptors which in the final analysis are nothing more than sham
organizations; it is the bourgeoisie laughing at us.
In the Third World the bourgeoisie forms shadow organization and calls
them “communist” in order to split the people and stop them from
launching a People’s War. In the imperialist countries, like here in the
U.$., they either co-opt or infiltrate and wreck those organizations
already in existence. While the Panthers were given nothing but the
stick, the Stones themselves were easily distracted from the path of the
Panthers with the carrot of a little money from the War on Poverty.
After destroying any independent mass movements, the imperialists allow
and even encourage groups that promote integration or confuse the
masses.
While it is true that there is only so much that we can do for the
betterment of our class given our current position as oppressed nations
within the belly of the beast, we must also recognize the importance of
social consciousness on social being and stop letting the circumstances
of our imprisonment both in here and on the street dictate to us the
confines of our reality. We must come together and build our reality. We
must come together and build our own institutions that are there to
serve us; institutions of the oppressed. The Black Panthers had this
power and we can too. We must learn to reject the bourgeois notion of
power, which is only crude power and serves to oppress and exploit. This
type of power is currently exhibited by many LOs, both in here and on
the streets.
While commending those individuals within the Violence Interruptors who
really are trying to do their part to stop the violence, we must also
draw a clear line between fighting for self-determination of the
oppressed and serving as the friendly face of the imperialist state. We
need more allies on the streets doing this work in support of the
efforts of MIM(Prisons) and USW in building peace on the inside. Only by
building our own institutions of the oppressed will we truly be able to
stop the violence that takes so many lives and keeps a substantial
portion of oppressed nation youth behind bars.
Brown and Black Unite! All Power to the Oppressed!
This is AR-15 of USW. My new LO’s name is Magnanimous Peace Manifesto
Movement. As a lumpen organization, we are devoted in uniting together
for world socialism and peace in prisons and the world beyond these
walls and gates. We agree to uphold the statement of principles set
forth by MIM(Prisons) and our fellow comrades in this
United
Front for Peace in Prisons.
As the founder of this organization, I began by addressing the needs
that needed to be addressed in the control unit known as the “Intensive
Supervision Unit” (ISU) here at the Cimarron Correctional Facility in
Cushing, Oklahoma. I spoke to the contract monitor from the Oklahoma DOC
and our unit team about what needs to be done in order for prisoners to
succeed in our struggle for betterment.
One of the main issues was education amongst rehabilitative programs. A
treaty was developed and the oppressor is going to provide the
following: 1. Education for those prisoners who have educational
needs 2. ESL for our Latino Nations; and 3. Rehabilitative
programs, e.g. thinking for a change
This treaty has been placed into action as of 20 May 2011. To this end,
revolution is on the rise!
The Magnanimous Peace Manifesto Movement was formed to promote better
growth and development amongst our comrades. Though educational work is
a part of our mission, we represent peace, unity, and growth. We believe
that there can be no achievement without sacrifice, and a man’s worldly
success will be in the measure that he sacrifices his confused-animal
thoughts and fixes his mind on the development of his plans, and the
strengthening of his resolution and self-reliance. He who would
accomplish l title must sacrifice little, he who would achieve much must
sacrifice much, and he who would attain highly must sacrifice greatly.
MPMM is focused on reforms within all U.$. prisons because we’ve all
(Lumpen Organizations) come together as a collective whole in a United
Front for Peace.
We uphold the Statement of Principles established by MIM(Prisons) and
other Lumpen Organizations in the United Front for Peace.