MIM(Prisons) is a cell of revolutionaries serving the oppressed masses inside U.$. prisons, guided by the communist ideology of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism.
Under Lock & Key is a news service written by and for prisoners with a focus on what is going on behind bars throughout the United States. Under Lock & Key is available to U.S. prisoners for free through MIM(Prisons)'s Free Political Literature to Prisoners Program, by writing:
MIM(Prisons) PO Box 40799 San Francisco, CA 94140.
In the last issue, we mentioned the removal of Spanish-language
content from federal websites. Since then, we’ve seen the Pentagon
removing information about Navajo code-talkers, Jackie Robinson,
Tuskegee Airmen and Japanese who fought for the U.$. in World War II
from their websites.
The U.$. military helps to impose fascism on the oppressed people of
the Third World when they get out of line. But now that fascism is
coming home, the oppressed nations here are the first to feel the
brunt.
There’s a long history of the U.$. military using benefits and even
citizenship to bribe people to fight for them. There’s also a long
history of the United $tates not always coming through with their
promises. This erasure of oppressed people from their history is just
one more slap in the face of those who thought they’d get in with the
Amerikans by fighting in their wars. And we see it as a petty sign of
how Amerika is taking a different approach to oppressed people in this
country.
The Regime
While Trump wasn’t so different as a U.$. president first time
around, we can look to his current cabinet to confirm the consolidation
of fascists for this second term.
Does anyone think a Euro-immigrant from apartheid South Africa who
throws Nazi salutes, and is the richest persyn in the world, is a friend
of oppressed nations? How about Pete Hegseth, the guy with the Christian
nationalist tattoos now in charge of the military that already had a
white nationalist militia problem? Who ironically closed his self-leaked
plans to bomb Yemen with:
“We are currently clean on OPSEC. Godspeed to our Warriors.”
President Trump recently told Salvadorian President Bukele to “build
five more places” to hold “homegrown” criminals from the United $tates,
referring to the giant Salvadorian “terrorist” concentration camp Trump
has begun sending people to. Stephen Miller, deputy chief of staff for
policy and homeland security adviser to Trump, when asked if Mahmoud
Khalil will be deported, replied:
“Yes he will, as will anyone who preaches hate for America.”
Vice President J.D. Vance is a benefactor of another of the richest
people in the world, Peter Thiel, who also funds Curtis Yarvin, who
Vance says he takes much influence from. Yarvin believes New Afrikans
have lower IQs and that their enslavement was thus justified because
they were destined to be slaves. Yarvin is paraphrased as writing:
“He then concluded that the “best humane alternative to genocide” is
to “virtualize” these people: Imprison them in “permanent solitary
confinement” where, to avoid making them insane, they would be connected
to an “immersive virtual-reality interface” so they could “experience a
rich, fulfilling life in a completely imaginary world.”“(1)
This will sound very familiar to regular readers of ULK.
This is the future of prison tablets. A slow genocide that avoids the
current messiness of videos of dead babies inspiring young
anti-imperialists to destroy weapons manufacturing plants of companies
like Elbit Systems.
These are just some highlights of the current regime that have been
exposed in much more depth by others over the past year. These people do
not want us and they’re serious about it.
Peak Integration?
By the 1960s, the injustices of Jim Crow had garnered sympathy and
support from many sectors for the self-determination of the internal
semi-colonies (in particular the Black/New Afrikan nation). Since the
victory of the Civil Rights Act, that support has declined, replaced
with an imperialist project of assimilation. At this point, most of us
have only lived in an integrated United $tates, which has greatly
reduced the interest in national liberation on occupied Turtle Island.
Of course the disproportionate poverty, homelessness, murder and torture
of oppressed nations continues, but many in the internal semi-colonies
joined the Amerikan consumer class post-integration as well. As a
result, we have more Uncle Toms and Tio Tomas than ever before
(especially the Tios and Tias who continue to join the U.$. military at
increasing rates).
Black Lives Matter (peaking in 2020) and the al-Aqsa Flood in 2023
brought an uptick in support for national liberation. With the
resumption of the U.$.-i$rael war on Palestine and Lebanon, breaking peace
deals in both cases, opposition to what the imperialists are doing
in the Middle East continues to rise within the United $tates. We also
think the internal actions of the current Trump regime are already
beginning to heighten contradictions and broaden the base for possible
alliances as the fascist enemy consolidates its forces against us.
Deportations
have targeted those from Latin America and the Muslim world so far.
As the prospect of war with China advances we will also see the rise of
racism against Chinese people (or those perceived to be Chinese) in this
country, as we have seen in the past, as recently as the COVID-19
pandemic.
You Can’t Think Racism Away
While liberals think we can (and have) made progress against national
oppression by fighting “wrong ideas” in peoples’ heads, racism is in
reality a product of national oppression. It cannot be ended without the
national liberation of the oppressed.
The reason people believe in integration is that they believe that
the wealth and prosperity of the United $tates can exist without
oppressing and exploiting other nations. It cannot. And the Trump regime
has a more realistic understanding of this than most Amerikans.
As support for national liberation and alternatives to the current
system grow, we must make this point very clear. We must draw a clear
line between the proletarian line and the social fascist and
crypto-Trotskyist lines that have historically linked the struggle
against oppression with the struggle for more wealth for Amerikans. The
struggle for more wealth always wins out. This is why the
labor aristocracy is the main force for fascism, even if the
imperialists are doing most of the work so far.
Sadly far too many people who should know better believe that a sign
of “equal justice” would be if Kyle Rittenhouse was housed in the empty
cell down the tier from me. Additionally far too many people actually
felt and argued that a sign of the system working was the guilty verdict
given to the McMichaels for killing Ahmaud Arbery. However i wonder what
exactly such people believe happens when these people are in fact placed
into prison. Do people believe these people would share the same
experiences as someone from the semi-colonies? Do they believe these
people will be subjected to the same level of brutality from the state
or its representatives? Do they believe this is “rehabilitation”?
i’ve even heard far too many people state that these people should
not even be given bourgeois rights while going through the courts. Such
people obviously believe in amerikkkan “democracy” and only aim to put
and keep their people in power specifically through the Democratic Party
where they can use the levers of bourgeois civil society to dominate*
the Republican Party. This is vengeance against the Amerikan
bourgeoisie’s political party by another - not justice and definitely
not revolutionary. We should condemn this at every turn.
2020 was lost because spontaneity dominated instead of actual
consciousness. Lenin stated in 1900 that the “spontaneity of the masses
demands a high consciousness from us.” Another obvious failure was the
failure of analysis of what amerikkka’s capitalism-imperialism is and
who her citizens are and their relationship to this specific form of
late capitalism-imperialism. Had this been done there would’ve been less
talk of trying to stuff a true history lesson down the settler-colonist
throats as if this would make them see the light and instead teaching
this history to New Afrikans, First Nations, Raza, API and receptive
whites with an emphasis on self-determination struggles, self-reliance,
anti-imperialism and internationalism. A proper class analysis would’ve
concluded there’s no real opposition to capitalism-imperialism (in 2020)
and most amerikans benefit from this system. The people protesting,
thinking pigs would be or should be neutral, while their system was
under attack; that they would not welcome vigilantes and even thank them
were foolish. If any one was surprised at all by how that night played
out, regardless of the Rittenhouse verdict, they need to go back to the
ABC’s of amerikkkan history (maybe Critical Race Theory would’ve helped
them).
Not only should we not root for U$A injustice system even against our
enemies**, we should denounce bourgeois criminal behavior, not just
gangsterism but even in protests. We are not terrorists nor do we
believe in focoism or anarchy. We advocate revolutionary consciousness.
We do not lead the people to slaughter. We gather forces or at least
sympathy for revolution.
What are prisons for? We know all too well about the
school-to-prison-pipeline and who this is designed for. We know we are
considered surplus-population and prison acts as a social tool to keep
idle people idle. We also know that amerikkkans are infatuated with law
and order (and punishment). We know amerikkkans rest assured when its
carceral system locks people away for 40 or 50 years for whatever
crime…we know amerikkka does not bat an eye at such abuses. In fact
immediately after Rittenhouse’s GoFundMe page successfully got him
acquitted Vice President Harris professed her role as top-cop in
California was to make the system more “equitable” and his acquittal
means there’s obviously “more work to be done”. Again, but what are
prisons for? Rittenhouse should go inside a box (for obviously many,
many years), get old and then be judged (by a specific faction of the
bourgeois dictatorship - the democrats**) to see if it’s enough years
gone by. This is the only purpose prison in bourgeois society serves so
what kind of people advocate such a thing?
Even in prison it’s not well known what prison is used for. Not only
that, even in prison bourgeois mentality is prevalent and ubiquitous… We
sit in cages like animals. We are psychologically tortured, sexually
humiliated, manipulated and harassed. We must fight for outside contact,
safety, humanity and freedom but a majority of captives sit around in
their assigned boxes and literally direct their anger and future
violence at other captives. Not just that but rebellion against our
circumstances and capture is far too often shunned. Revolution even in
hell isn’t automatic. Bourgeois society will go down as the most
adaptable. When almost everyone has a price how could it not?
When i hear “lock em up” or that “justice” was served i know for sure
i’m in the midst of enemies. i know such people deep down believe i’m
exactly where i should be. Revolutionaries cannot parrot Jesse
Jackson, Alicia Garza, Amy Goodman or anyone else’s call to “lock em
up.” Let’s leave that to Trump and Clinton and all the other enemies of
the revolution. Instead let’s learn how to protect each other starting
with a proper class analysis. True political consciousness going into
2022 must start from the empire’s utter success in buying off all but a
small percent of its population and the knowledge that this demand and
lame-ass attempt to take over the bourgeois system “from the inside”
with this pro-police imperialism, pro-FBI socialism, anti-revolution
revolutionaries is worse than a joke.
Salutes to TX Team One, FPC, Republic of Aztlán, and the entire
USW,
NA Struggle RL NAIM CA-MLM
*Obviously if this had the potential to advance anti-imperialism in
any way it is to be considered but we will not first exploit internal
contradictions between the capitalist then as a response to this build
our forces. No, there must first be a revolutionary force to galvanize
otherwise it’s just more imperialism and pro-imperialism.
**It would have to be Democrats because Republicans believe this was
just.
MIM(Prisons) responds: We agree with this comrade’s
focus on building our forces, building anti-imperialism, building
movements for self-determination. As we say on page 2 of every Under
Lock & Key, we have a different solution to the bourgeois
prison system and that is proletarian justice. We distribute the book
Prisoners of Liberation about Amerikan spies in a Chinese
socialist prison that we use as a starting point for how prisons can be
used to serve the people and give everyone the resources to reform and
contribute positively to society.
But implementing pro-people rehabilitation on a mass scale is a ways
off for us in this country. And we agree with our comrade here that
these calls for “justice” are the battlefield of bourgeois politicians.
If Rittenhouse was given a long prison term, that would only increase
the chances of him becoming the Nazi that he has been branded already in
the media; an indication of what these bourgeois prisons actually do.
There are class enemies, and both sides will use force against their
class enemies. But we must first build proletarian institutions, before
we can implement proletarian justice.
Previously I argued that taxpayers are not responsible for government
capital policy because they are ignorant. My error was pointed out to me
and now I see the truth – the January 6th rioters showed me that they
are willing to fight for my oppression therefore their ignorance is
irrelevant – they are indeed more responsible than I assumed, therefore
I must ignore my compassion for their humanity as unnatural as that is
for me. The object is more important than the subject.
When evaluating responsibility, it is tempting to be blinded by the
subject. For instance, government officials are directly responsible for
enforcing capital policy. However, collaborators often look like our
neighbors, friends or even family. These collaborators will support
& encourage oppression & tyranny out of ignorance or out of a
callous heart. Ignorance cannot be excused if freedom is ever going to
be won. When the object of freedom becomes important enough all barriers
must fall, even if that means forcing ourselves to do what is not
natural.
Rights are never granted, rights are won. Unfortunately, this
includes basic human rights such as freedom. To win freedom from the
tyranny & oppression that comes with a capitalist economy, the
opposition must fall. This necessity does not come naturally, that is
because the values instilled in our youth are instilled by capital
policy (submission), these values are what allows capitalists to steal
your freedom. We must relearn a greater value.
There exist those that will take more than one has to give, that is
what capital is (inequality). There is only so much resource & for
one to have more than one needs he/she has to deprive another of what
they need. For one to be rich, one must be poor.
As I watch the January 6th investigation, one thing is clear. That is
the effort was weak. I think that is because the rioters knew in their
hearts that they were fighting for the exploitation of an oppressed
class. Ironic that they choose to capture the Capitol Building in order
to keep their capital wealth at the expense of the oppressed class.
For those of us that are fighting for freedom, We will not make a
half-hearted effort because it is our very survival that we are fighting
for. We are not fighting for material wealth because we have none.
Because our oppression is total & complete then so is our fight for
freedom.
We will not fight for one building, not even for one city, or one
country. We are fighting for equality. We will not stop until all
opposition is fallen. Our fight comes from the heart & that is why
it is stronger than the January 6th fight for material wealth.
The difference is that I am sick & tired of being oppressed so
that another can live lavishly. The difference is that unlike the
January 6th rioters I am not here to have a big party with a bunch of
friends at the Capitol Building – I am here to win my freedom and to
fight for the freedom of all oppressed people and I will not stop and
lay down, I will never stop!!
That is what Marx means by permanent revolution, we must never stop
fighting because the very moment we relax is the moment the exploiters
continue to exploit as they have always done. Sun Tzu said we can “never
leave an enemy on the battlefield.” If we do they will come back
again.
As communists we must know our enemy is the object and not the
subject. Compassion can blur our vision of the object and it is in these
moments I must remember that the capitalists never had any compassion
for the oppressed.
MIM(Prisons) adds: This point is relevant as Amerikans
remember the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade
Center and the Pentagon, and Afghans sigh in relief as the invader of
their country pulls out. Professor Ward Churchill took a lot of heat for
quoting Malcolm X on chickens coming home to roost after 9/11 and
referring to Amerikans as “little Eichmanns.”(1) Adolf Eichmann was a
Nazi in Germany who ran logistics for the system of concentration camps
there. He was captured years after the war and in his trial claimed he
was just following orders, just a cog in the machine, and should not be
blamed for the deaths caused by that machine.
Since the end of the second imperialist war, the Amerikans have run
the largest system of concentration camps in the world. While they lack
the mass murder of the Nazi system, they are genocidal nonetheless
against the oppressed nations that make up the majority of the
prisoners. The day will come when Amerikans will be charged for their
decades of crimes against humynity. Our success at building
anti-imperialism and accountability in the United $tates today will ease
the transition to a more just future on these lands.
The seizure of the Capitol on 6 January 2021 was the culmination of
oppressor nation organizing over years that has proven the continued
need for New Democratic revolution here in North America, what many
First Nations people today call occupied Turtle Island. Participants in
the siege donned racist Odinist tattoos, pro-holocaust slogans,
anti-China signs, and waved pro-slavery and nazi flags. Most had
Amerikan flags or pro-Trump flags, hats and shirts. They included QAnon
followers, Tea Party members, elected officials, Proud Boys, and leaders
of a number of fascist organizations and groupings.
Media reported five deaths, including one U.S. Capitol Police officer
and four pro-Trump rioters. Those killed during the siege included a
womyn shot by security for trying to crawl through a smashed window to
get to the Senators, a man who reportedly tasered himself to death while
trying to steal a painting off the wall and a cop who was beaten to
death with sticks, including one carrying an Amerikan flag, while the
audience sang The Star-Spangled Banner. The latter, Brian
Sicknick, served the imperialist army in Afghanistan and was an
outspoken supporter of President Trump.(1)
The group who laid siege to the Capitol did so in response to calls
from President Trump to oppose the election results that has Joe Biden
scheduled to replace him on 20 January. As the mob took swings at police
and smashed through barricades, they chanted, “USA, USA!”, “Stop the
Steal” and called out the Democrats and CNN as primary targets of their
anger. By denying the outcome of the election, this organized force is
allied with efforts to deny New Afrikans, and other oppressed groups,
the vote. These front-line Trump supporters militantly deny the right of
Chican@s to even exist on their own land, not to mention control it. And
they generally support the incursion of multinational corporations into
the small fragments of territory left to the other indigenous peoples of
this continent. They want to keep Muslims and Asians out of the United
$tates, whether its because of terrorism, a virus, or some other
semi-factual excuse for xenophobia. They fear the browning of the U.$.
population.
Regarding the vote, the shift of Georgia from Republican to Democrat
marked for these settlers another step towards the end of white
domination on occupied Turtle Island. Newly-elected Senator Raphael
Warnock is the first Black senator in the state of Georgia, which was
31.94% New Afrikan and 51.82% white (“non-hispanic”) in 2019 (in a
country that is about 12% New Afrikan overall). In recent years,
“non-hispanic” whites have only accounted for about 44% of births in the
state.(2). Warnock comes from the same church as Martin Luther King Jr.,
where Warnock was Pastor for former representative John Lewis. MLK of
course was a symbol of multicultural integration that brought much ire
and hatred during eir short life, leading to eir assassination. The
current period is the culmination of the reaction to the attempts by the
bourgeois state to incorporate those ideas of King’s into the empire.
After the abolition of slavery, the Federal government made the first
attempt at granting New Afrika democratic rights and full citizenship by
imposing Reconstruction policies on the southern states. These were
mostly undone by white settlers by the by the 1876 presidential
election, which led to the Jim Crow policies(3) (maintained by violent
voter suppression of New Afrikans) until the time of MLK and the Black
Panther Party. The movement today is to undo the progress of integration
that followed the civil rights and national liberation movements of the
1960s. Rioters literally marched confederate flags through the Capitol,
after fighting their way in, in 2021.
In 2020, Georgia also saw shows of force from New Afrikan militia,
and
lumpen
organizations coming together to seize the site of a police murder,
and defend from threats by groups like the 3 Percenters and Ku Klux Klan
from coming into Atlanta.(4) While New Afrikans band together in
self-defense, the oppressor nation has made it clear they are now on the
offense with their seizure of the U.$. Capitol. They brought firearms,
pipe bombs and nooses as they called for the blood of Vice President
Mike Pence and others. Men who entered the Capitol carried fire arms and
one had seized zip tie handcuffs, ready to take hostages and possibly
assassinate Federal representatives, including the Vice President. When
officials escaped, the intruders settled for posing for photos in their
office chairs and taking memorabilia off the Senators’ desks and
walls.
Economics of the Crisis
Social media posts by leaders promoting the action on 6 January are
also calling for the assassination of Mitch McConnell and Republicans in
general for blocking the $2000 stimulus check currently backed by Trump
and the Democratic Congressional leadership. The battle over stimulus
funding (to respond to COVID-19 restrictions) in recent weeks has been a
great demonstration of the relationship between classes under
imperialism. The wealth flowing into this country is split between the
imperialists and the rest of the population. The stimulus bills were a
clear demonstration of this, with big corporations getting 100s of
millions to billions in benefits, while the rest of the country averaged
thousands of dollars per persyn. Most people in the world received
little to no money.
The printing of money by the U.$. central bank since the beginning of
the COVID-19 pandemic is unprecedented in history. With so many more
dollars in circulation, economists wonder whether this money can be
exchanged for goods at the value one would expect. Many Third World
countries have seen depreciation of their currencies compared to the
U.$. dollar as finance capital left those countries in response to the
pandemic. For the dollar to maintain its value, the empire must stay
strong. We’ve already seen a decrease in Japanese and Chinese finance
capital from U.$. treasuries in the last year.(5) Japan and China are
the two largest foreign holders of U.$. treasuries.
The people of Weimar Germany (prior to the popular Nazi takeover)
faced conditions where what they were paid one day could not buy a loaf
of bread the next. This was due to having lost WWI and facing sanctions
from other imperialist countries. The U.$. has not yet faced this
problem, but they are having to do more to stabilize their own currency
and economy. If the white nationalists had their way, and productive
labor from Latin America and Asia was forced out of U.$. borders, we
would see the dollar decrease in value very quickly. While dollar values
have not declined yet, the situation is quite precarious, especially as
productive output of the economy remains slow.
What Will Happen Next?
Senators who were calling the election a fraud backed off immediately
following the siege, proving it was just a popularity game to them. Yet
some who forced their way into the Capitol, came ready to die that day.
This is curious, as economic conditions in this country do not yet
warrant such extremism, especially for the demographic showing up at
these demonstrations. Many on the front lines of the siege are steeped
in conspiracy theories. These theories tap into a deep existential fear
they have of the ending of their white country. Something many of them
feel has already happened.
While the attacks of 9/11 were a blow to the sense that Amerikans
could have their fingers in every other part of the world, while staying
safe at home, the response was a show of strength through Amerikan
nationalism. Since then, the U.$. image continued to decline with more
lost wars and humyn rights abuses abroad and at home. This week’s attack
on the Capitol marks an internal weakening from within.
There is no god coming down to purify the crackers’ souls in the
rapture. Nor can Turner Diary-style fantasies resolve the contradictions
that define this imperialist country. A re-civilization of the oppressor
nations must come from the hands of the oppressed. Having one side of
the oppressor nation try to cajole the other into giving the oppressed
what they think they need, or rather what they think will appease, has
proven ineffective over the last 150 years. The oppressed nations
occupied on this land must seize their own destinies. They must rise up
for a New Democracy, where they as sovereign peoples can decide how to
solve their own problems without the constant oversight and interference
of the euro-Amerikan.
We support the continued development of New Afrikan defense
organizing in places like Atlanta, that is based in real revolutionary
nationalism – which as Mao said is applied internationalism. We
re-iterate the call for Barrio Committees in Aztlan, as outlined in the
book Chican@
Power and the Struggle for Aztlán. We all need to connect with those
in our communities that are ready to respond.
With regards to those that are already familiar and well versed with
Marixt-Leninist-Maoist political philosophy, we must call for discipline
and centralized organization. Most major cities’ “radical scenes” are
dominated by anarcho-liberals who preach on voting for the Democratic
party one day and preach for militant direct action the next day. Even
amongst the more militant and anti-reformist anarchists, there are a lot
of poorly organized forms of violence that fleets in energy. Us
communists should work towards building independent institutions that
the people can go to to solve their daily material problems – not have
loosely affiliated cliques that serve themselves more than the
masses.
Another test of principled actions that many communists failed was
the reliance and aid to the existing bourgeois institutions such as the
FBI and the police. Many radical liberals online have resorted to
identifying the Capitol Hill fascists for the police agencies while also
hoping these police institutions can repress the fascist movement. The
Communist Party of India (Maoist) have had the correct response to this
regarding the issue of rape in the country of India. Whereas
petty-bourgeois movements call for the death penalty and stronger
punishments for rapists in the semi-feudal country, the Maoists
recognize that rape is not alien to the system and stronger state forces
against these anti-people crimes will result in stronger state
repression against the masses.(6) And just like how relying on the
bourgeois state to give justice in India will result in the repression
against the masses, these acts by radical liberals of relying on the FBI
and the police departments will only result in more surveillance and
crackdowns on the oppressed people.
Hello - Saludos y Respeto to all those in the struggle, the struggle
is real. I must weigh in on the events unfolding in Southern Califas.
Namely the two lynchings, the first in Palmdale CA, the second in
Victorville CA. What do they have in common? Answer: the Sheriff’s
Department! Both racist! Both departments have a long history of working
together and as a political prisoner held in CDCR these are the same two
departments that joined forces to try and silence my voice and bring
down the AV Brown Berets.
Both Departments have deputies that are card carrying members of the
racist Minute Men, the new KKK. And having shined the spotlight on this
fact earned me a life sentence for crimes I did NOT commit.
And in both cases there is no doubt in my mind there is Departmental
involvement. And nothing can surprise us coming from these two
historically racist departments.
In both cases these were meant to send a message to the BLM movement
against police brutality going across this nation right now, and to
discourage it! The evil and racist regime in Palmdale has a long history
of using these tactics to silence the voice of the PEOPLE. And if they
can’t kill you, they will bury you behind the wall. And this will not
stop until they are made to understand the world is watching and will
hold them responsible and accountable for their actions. But the racism
and prejudice is systemic NOT only in the Sheriff’s Dept. but
also in City Government in the Antelope Valley and Silver Valley (The
Sinister Valleys) to a mind-blowing degree.
My heart goes out to the families, friends, and loved ones of these
latest victims of these Evil Regimes. I spent years of my life trying to
expose the racist and criminal practices of these two partners-in-crime,
it has come at a great cost. My family, my freedom, not to mention all
my worldly possessions but I will NOT stop until justice has
been done, and the Evil has been exposed; because the needs of the many
outweigh the needs of the ONE. In the end the TRUTH ALWAYS comes out! We
must continue to move forward and not be discouraged!
LA LUCHA SIEGE!!! VIVA LA CAUSA!!!
(Justice for Ro Alvin Harsh)
MIM(Prisons) adds: Six lynchings, 5 of them New
Afrikans and one Latino, have been reported on the heels of the recent
uprisings against police terrorism.
Robert Fuller, a 24-year-old, New Afrikan man hung from a tree in
Palmdale, CA is under investigation
Malcolm Harsch a 38-year-old, New Afrikan man hung from a tree in
Victorville, CA has been declared a suicide by police and the
family
Dominique Alexander, a 27-year-old New Afrikan man hung in a
Manhattan park and was ruled a suicide by the police, who later said an
investigation continues
a 17-year-old New Afrikan boy was hung from a tree in Spring, TX
was ruled a suicide by police
a Latino man hung in Houston, TX was also ruled a suicide after
family stated he was suicidal
Otis ‘Titi’ Gulley, 31, a New Afrikan transgender woman hung in a
park in Portland, Oregon was ruled a suicide by police
Issue 55 of Under Lock & Key is taking a deeper look at
building the United Front for Peace in Prisons at the margins. We’ve
already spent a lot of space debating the role people on Special Needs
Yards (SNY), especially in California. While that is an issue we will
need to continue to address, here we focus first on white nationalist
lumpen organizations, that are more likely to be on the mainline, and
how anti-imperialists might relate to them. We also have a few pieces
looking at the question of sex offenders who are generally seen as
pariahs. That topic is a subset of the SNY discussion. In this article
we will focus on the white nationalist question, and the question of
oppressed nations allying with whites in general. In many cases handling
this question properly will have a big impact on our success, because
there are a lot of white people in prisons and many of them team up with
white nationalist orgs.
One commonality across these examples is the need to consider how people
end up where they are. We print an example of
someone
taking sex offender charges out of expediency, and ey points out
that many such charges are flimsy. In some cases
sex
charges are politically motivated bad-jacketing. We will also see
many examples of people taking up white nationalism, to protect oneself
and also just out of a youthful ignorance, something many in prison can
identify with.
So there are a few principles of dialectical materialism that we should
apply in our analysis of groups which are often considered pariahs of
the revolutionary movement: 1) dialectics differs from metaphysics in
that metaphysics believes a thing has an essence; 2) dialectics in
contrast sees everything as always being in a constant state of change;
3) and we can best understand that change by looking at the
contradictions within that thing, while also considering the external
contradictions that may influence it (them). To put it another way, no
one is born a white supremacist or rapist, and just because someone’s
actions were that way in the past doesn’t mean they have to be in the
future.
What is White Nationalism?
Elsewhere in this issue we talk about
white
nationalism as an ideology that is a product of imperialism. Another
point we must stress when talking about white nationalism is it is the
majority ideology among the oppressor nation under imperialism. Most of
this issue will be dealing with extreme examples found in imprisoned
lumpen organizations. But there is a whole range of white nationalist
ideologies, and the lumpen organizations are not necessarily the most
extreme. Because the imprisoned lumpen are in the trenches, they must be
more scientific than the more privileged wings of the white nationalist
movement, and their motivations are often quite different.
In our current political climate in the United $tates, “white
nationalism” is a hot topic. It is being used to criticize President
Trump and those around em. But most of this criticism is coming from the
perspective that former President Obama was not a white nationalist. The
split between the left wing and right wing of white nationalism is about
how to best manage the oppressed, even when that is not how they think
about it. If we recognize that the current imperialist order is one that
puts whites in a position of supremacy, then we must conclude that any
position that works to preserve that system is white nationalist. Or we
may say Amerikan nationalist to avoid confusion when its proponents do
not appear white. But even though some internal semi-colony people are
sitting at the table, globally, white supremacy in the form of Amerikan
hegemony is alive and well.
Initially, the question of how and when to strategically ally with white
nationalists is a broad one, as it refers to how we might ally with the
majority of people in North America. But within that majority there are
different classes and political tendencies. And white nationalist
prisoners may be at the top of the list of likely allies from that
group.
Another argument for the importance of working with the white lumpen is
the Marxist analysis of the lumpen as a particularly dangerous, wavering
class. If this country is heading in a more fascist direction, white
nationalist lumpen youth and former military will be the first bases of
recruitment for the fascists. This concern applies to the lumpen in
general, but the national split makes it a harder sell for the internal
semi-colonies to take up fascism. As always, our strategy is to win over
all who can be won over, not to set false limitations based on identity
politics or preconceived assumptions.
More so than former military, the white lumpen have connections to the
struggles of the oppressed. And it is the massive prison system in this
country that we can largely thank for that. The modern prison system is
an inherent part of the modern ghetto, which has been lumpenized. While
segregation is stronger today in many cases in the ghettos, it is weaker
outside of the ghetto. This translates into a stronger class divide
within the oppressed nations. The extent of this divide in the white
nation is something that requires more research. But from the
information we have, white prisoners are much, much more likely to
integrate into petty-bourgeois society rather than be caught in a
ghetto-like situation upon release. But as long as they remain in
prison, whites do experience that ghetto life and the most brutal
repression that we have in this country.
Young Patriots, White Lumpen Revolutionaries
One of the best examples we have of white lumpen youth forming an
anti-imperialist organization was the Young Patriots Organization, which
started in Chicago in the late 1960s. Soon the offshoot Young Patriots
Party spread the movement to other parts of the United $tates. Their
example demonstrated both the potential and limitations of such an
organization. As long as there are pockets of whites that face similar
conditions to the oppressed nations, as they do in prison, a
revolutionary organization that can speak to and organize white lumpen
will strengthen the cause of anti-imperialism. However, the Black
Panthers, in particular Bob Lee and the leadership of Fred Hampton,
played a very hands-on role in the development of the Young Patriots. In
general history does not lead us to expect revolutionary white
organizations with correct political lines to take hold in North America
without good examples from the internal semi-colonies.
Even after becoming established, the Young Patriots were very limited by
the reactionary nature of their own nation. The Patriot base was
displaced southern whites who ended up in urban ghettos; a much smaller
group, but parallel to the New Afrikans who made the Great Migration.
When the Patriots returned to the south they were not received well. Two
of the members were killed shortly after returning to the south, because
of their organizing.(1) In other words, we are looking at exceptions to
the rule where there are pockets of whites who are both separate from
the oppressed nations but still living very similar lives and in
proximity to them. When Peggy Terry of the Young Patriot-associated
organization Jobs or Income Now (JOIN) ran for vice president, with
Black Panther Eldridge Cleaver as the presidential candidate in 1968,
they received a mere 28,000 votes in California. In contrast, the openly
racist George Wallace campaign got 500,000 (almost exclusively white)
votes.(2) And finally, for most of their existence the Patriots had more
spies watching their organization than they had members.(3) This
security issue is something others have pointed out with white
nationalist lumpen organizations in prison that can be
swimming
with federal agents.
Often the Panther rhetoric spoke of the Young Patriots as representing
“white power” in a way that was parallel to the Panthers’ “Black Power”
and Young Lords’ “Brown Power”. While we generally disagree with that
line, the Panthers later called out all other white groups as “fascists”
with the exception of the Patriots. The Patriot culture flew in the face
of the rest of the white anti-war and student movements, including their
confederate flag logo. We might draw a parallel to the Lucasville prison
uprising in Ohio in 1993, where it is reported that swastikas, lightning
bolts and words like “Supreme White Power” appeared alongside graffiti
throughout the prison saying “Black and White Together” and “Convict
unity.”(4) These white identities, historically associated with power
over New Afrikans were transformed in these unique circumstances.
Racism as a Tool of the Oppressor
MIM(Prisons) is cautious about presenting racism as merely a tool of the
imperialists to divide “the people” as that is the line of the
revisionists who claim that the majority of people in the imperialist
countries are proletarians that must be united in their common class
interest. As the practice of the Young Patriots demonstrated, this is
not the case. However, in prisons is where we see the greatest potential
for a class unity with whites that is progressive in the United $tates.
And in prison, it is certainly true that racism is a tool that is
actively used by the administration, even if often times white
nationalists are too willing to play the role of keeping other prisoners
in line for the state.
Of course, not all white prisoners are part of overtly racist lumpen
organizations. Former-Black-Panther-turned-anarchist Lorenzo Komboa
Ervin documented the history of the federal penitentiary at Terre Haute,
Indiana, which was transformed from a completely Ku Klux Klan-dominated
facility to one where New Afrikans built power in alliance with white
prisoners. Ey argues that the anti-racist whites, often imprisoned for
anti-war activities, were able to re-educate other white prisoners where
non-white prisoners would not be able to.(5) This is an example of the
importance of white-specific organizing, though not on the basis of an
outward white nationalism.
We must reach people where they are at in a segregated society. We saw
this with the Panthers in Chicago who were viewed with great skepticism
by the white residents of Uptown, but were welcomed by the Young Patriot
leadership. We saw this in Lucasville, where the New Afrikan leaders
picked Aryan Brotherhood member George Skatze to stand with them as a
representative of white prisoners because of eir history of settling
disputes between whites and New Afrikans.
“At some point on this first day George saw a black inmate (Cecil Allen)
talking through a bull horn to a small crowd of other prisoners. George
went up to listen. To his surprise the man on the bull horn pointed to
George and said, ‘There’s nobody going to be talking to you guys but me
or this man right here,’ meaning George Skatze.”
Accepting
their request for help, Skatze later “approached the whites, who were
sitting in the bleachers. Putting his arm around a black inmate George
said, ‘If the guards come in here they’re going to shoot us all, no
matter what color we are.’ We asked George who that black man was. He
said, I don’t know; I had never met him before.”(6)
Veteran of the first wave of the California prison movement, Kumasi
describes one scene in the late 1960s where hundreds of prisoners
circled around the yard chanting, “Power to the people! Death to the
pigs!” Approaching the group of white gangsters on the sidelines ey
framed the situation as “are you going to be with us or with the pigs?”
And since the reality reflected eir statement, they sure didn’t want to
be seen as siding with the pigs. As the whites started to join the ranks
of the protestors, Kumasi grabbed one of their hands and raised it in
the air as they faced the warden. In a segregated society this sort of
representation of different nationalities can have powerful effects.
Kumasi has a number of stories about organizing across nationality.
Similar to today, the California system was very segregated back then.
Various white power and nazi gangs existed, as they do today. The united
fronts Kumasi forged with these groups were not long-term and could be
quite impulsive. It was really the strength of eir own organization that
pushed others to come along. A justification of the line that building
up one’s own national unity helps build up the united front. Because the
movement for change had reached such popularity and support among New
Afrikans, it was easier to get the Chican@s to join up (who had not yet
been divided between north and south).
A USW comrade has this to say about organizing in California today:
“There has been times when we’ve done alliances with white nationalist
groups in prison. Any time we had a common goal, say shutting down SHUs,
or removing informants off yard, assistance with legal work and what
not.
“The only way for this to function is by creating a different set of
politiks/policies than those used amongst the other LOs. As long as it
does not interfere with the LOs’ goals to end oppression. It is my
opinion that even when dealing with oppressor nation LOs we must keep a
move ready to be made once achieving certain goals due to the history
the oppressor nation LOs have and because of their values as humans. We
wouldn’t like to see the LOs of the oppressed be set back a step or two
after gaining ground. I think that even unity of some form can be
achieved with pariahs – taking into account what they’ve done and what
they are willing to do to not only redeem themselves but to benefit the
struggle even at the cost of sacrifice. There is a place, space, form
and energy for everyone in a struggle. It is our responsibility to
organize, learn, and organize again.”
What these histories demonstrate is that in cases where the white
nationalists aren’t completely in bed with the pigs, they tend to see
themselves as prisoners and the pigs as their foes, like everyone else.
And it is the unity around demands for all prisoners, ones that are
nationality-neutral, that we will see opportunities for united front. So
while national unity may need to come first, class unity will always be
important in the prison movement.
White nationalism in general, whether of the left-wing or right-wing
variety, is based in an alliance with imperialism. But there are
examples in history of portions of the white population in the United
$tates who may have overt racist overtones without the attachment to
imperialism. Or at least with a mixed relationship to imperialism. And
in many cases this racism is more motivated by fear of the other, or
just self-protection than it is any deep investment in racist ideology
itself. The AB comrade who wrote
“The
Enemy of my Enemy” seems to be an example of this white nationalism
based in youthful ignorance. And the experience of the prison system has
given em the opportunity to learn about the lives of the oppressed, and
to live that life emself. George Skatze from Lucasville was also an
example of this, someone who stood with New Afrikan prisoners and
literally put eir life on the line in the struggle for prisoner rights
and then later at the hands of the state when ey was one of the comrades
who did not make a deal with the state to avoid death row as some of the
charged prisoners did.
While others suggest we fight racism as a way to end oppression, we say
to fight oppression to overcome racism. And in some cases oppression
itself will overcome racism, by uniting those once divided by ideas of
race. Our ideas are a product of our material conditions, and in
participating in the transformation of our conditions our ideas change.
I would like to address the question if there should be a united front
alliance with white nationalist groups.
I am all for aligning with other groups who face oppression and who
share the same goals. When it comes to white nationalist groups first a
few things must be clarified. First question is who and what is “white.”
White is scientifically not a racial group. Also do whites in prison and
the world face the same systematic oppression as people of color? Lastly
looking at history how has interactions between whites and people of
color effected the non-white groups in a positive way?
The question on “who and what is white?” has an elusive answer
especially right here in the United $tates. Since 1790, the United
$tates has allowed only “free white persons” to become citizens; in the
twentieth century as non-European immigrants applied for citizenship it
became the responsibility of the courts to set limits upon whiteness.
George Dow, a Syrian immigrant, was denied eligibility for citizenship
on the basis that geography defined race; to be white was to be
European. Dow eventually won on appeal, showing that Syrians were indeed
Europeans based on geography and thus members of the white race. In
1922, a Japanese immigrant named Takao Ozawa argued that he should be
considered a white person because his skin was literally white,
asserting that many Japanese people were “whiter than the average
Italian, Spaniard, or Portuguese.” His case would go all the way to the
Supreme Court, which rejected his claim to citizenship and the idea that
race could be determined by skin tone: “To adopt the color test alone
would result in a confused overlapping of races and a gradual merging of
one into the other, without any practical line of separation,” claimed
one judge.
Using the science of the day, the court ruled that “the words ‘white
person’ are synonymous with the words ‘a person of the Caucasian race’.”
Since Ozawa was not a Caucasion, he could not be white. In only a short
time later, in the case of an Indian immigrant named Bhagat Singh Thind,
the Supreme Court betrayed its Ozawa ruling and declared that while all
whites are Caucasian, not all Caucasians were white. Even scientists
classified Thind as undeniably Caucasian, but the court insisted that
“White” must mean something more. “It may be true that the blond
Scandinavian and the brown Hindu have a common ancestor in the dim
reaches of antiquity, but the average man knows perfectly well that
there are unmistakable and profound differences between them today.” To
prove his purity, Thind invoked the Aryanist myth of ancient white
conquerors setting up the caste system to preserve their race. “The
high-class Hindu” he argued, “regards the aboriginal Indian mongoloid in
the same manner as the American regards the negro.” With all that Thind
was denied citizenship. Within the category of “Caucasian,” the court
noted one could find a wide range of peoples including South Asians,
Polynesians, and even the Hamites of Africa based upon their Caucasian
cast of features, though in color they range from brown to black. For
reasons not articulated the court decided Thind was not white, and
therefore not granted privileges of the white empire.
That the Supreme Court could reject a white-skinned Japanese because he
was not Caucasian and a brown-skinned Caucasian because he was not white
reveals that white people have made race what it has always been: an
unscientific and inconsistent means of enforcing social inequality that
further rules the machines of global white supremacy. This machine is
what gives birth to capitalism and imperialism and other oppressive
factions. So basically whiteness is whatever white people say it is. So
by white nationalist groups even identifying themselves as white places
them in a privileged position in the global white supremacy machine. It
is no secret why someone would want to identify as “white,” especially
in the United $tates where there is undeniably a caste system based on
skin color. With whiteness comes privilege and a sense of entitlement.
Yes, I know there are white comrades who are being oppressed also but it
is not solely based on their skin color or ethnic group. They are
basically collateral damage of the capitalistic and imperialistic system
that comes from global white supremacy. White people make up around 11%
of the world’s population yet at least 82% of the world’s population is
in some fashion being oppressed by the global white supremacy machine.
Are white nationalist groups really ready to give up their whiteness to
stand for true revolution even if that means in the process whiteness
will no longer exist?
History shows that those of us who fight for revolution have aligned
ourselves with white groups and white individuals who claim they seek
change too. In the midst of this, problems usually occurred. Most
notably is with William Lloyd Garrison. Garrison, a white man, can be
labeled as a true revolutionist of his time. As an abolitionist he spoke
out against slavery and demanded full racial equality even before the
Civil War. He also publicly burned the U.$. constitution, calling it an
“agreement with hell.” Garrison seemed like the white nationalist who
wanted to join the fight but he still couldn’t escape his sense of
privilege and superiority. This moment came when Frederick Douglass,
Garrison’s protégé, told Garrison that he wanted to start a newspaper.
Garrison, fearful that Douglass would draw black readers away from his
own paper and hurt that Douglass would even think of competing against
him, discouraged the plan. Another white abolitionist in Garrison’s
camp, Maria Weston Chapman, even doubted Douglass could have the mental
capacity for such a task. Douglass went ahead and started his newspaper
which ended his friendship with Garrison. Garrison, though he wanted to
help, could not see that the revolution was not about him but about the
millions of people being oppressed. He still had to be a white guy about
the whole situation. He took his sense of privilege and entitlement and
wanted to discourage another in his attempt to add to the cause. So can
white nationalist groups align themselves with the United Front without
trying to make the fight solely about their ego? Can the United Front
hold the fight when aligned with white nationalist groups without having
fear of offending white people when truths are spoken against
capitalism, imperialism and global white supremacy when it puts the
collective of white people in a negative light?
Lastly how have groups who are predominately non-white benefited in the
past when coming into contact with whites? Historically the relationship
between non-whites and whites has been one of colonization, genocide,
slavery, imperialism, and destruction. Though all non-white groups and
cultures did not live in idyllic golden ages before the coming of white
people, these elements weren’t consistent, nor were they typical, until
the advent of white culture domination. This has been the consistent
relationship of white people with the world. So history shows the
consistent nature of white people when coming in contact of non-white
people has been one of predatory and exploitative relationships.
Now some will say I’m being racist by stating these facts but consider
the fact that people of “hue” hence humans have been the most tolerant
and accepting people you’ll ever encounter (sometimes to our detriment)
and this premise of exclusion came from white people themselves. It is
only us who are confused about where they stand. Now yes there are those
white individuals and groups who attempt to confront and resist these
norms. Those who have attempted to do so in earnest have learned these
lessons the hard way. White people who actively resist whiteness (and
all of its norms) are out-casted, disowned, and reviled by other members
of their own groups. This is what defines the community and collective
identity and not the individuals who know that “treason to whiteness is
loyalty to humanity.”
So can white nationalist groups abandon their whiteness and sense of
privilege? If so then yes United Front can align with them in some
fashion. Based on historic events it should be controlled and constantly
evaluated. Also whites need not to hold hands with us and smile but
reach in their own communities and take the fight to their own who
actively and by default participate in the global white supremacy
machine which governs capitalism and imperialism.
MIM(Prisons) responds: We agree with this comrade that to
identify with whiteness is to identify with an oppressor nation, and we
therefore say that Amerikans must commit nation (as well as class and
gender) suicide through their actions, in order to join the side of
humynity.
The example given of Garrison and Douglass is a fine anecdote, but it is
just an example of a couple of people. So we would caution our readers
to not draw broad conclusions from isolated examples. And there are
books out there, like Settlers: The Mythology of a White
Proletariat by J. Sakai and False Nationalism, False
Internationalism by Sera and Tani that do broader historical
analysis of the relationships between the oppressed nations in the
United $tates and various groups of “revolutionary” or “progressive”
whites.
Both of those books are looking at imperialism, or at least its
emergence in the United $tates. Imperialism’s identity is found in the
conflict between the oppressor nations and the oppressed nations that
resist them. While ideas of superiority based on phenotypical
characteristics (appearance) certainly did not originate with
imperialism, it is with imperialism that nation becomes principal.
Therefore, we would reverse the author’s premise that the “[machine of
global white supremacy] is what gives birth to capitalism and
imperialism and other oppressive factions.” Marx and Lenin explained the
evolution of imperialism on economic terms, while the culture and ideas
that came with it were a reflection of those economic changes. In other
words, which came first, racism or capitalism? There were seeds of
racism before imperialism, but national oppression (the material
manifestation of racism) solidified as a system under the economic
conditions of imperialism. The ideas of racism, so central to our
society, are a product of this system of national oppression that
evolved with imperialism, not the cause of it.
In the struggle against white supremacy, capitalism, and imperialism, a
united front does not require agreement on every position, or even for
all parties to “stand for true revolution.” In the context of the prison
movement, white nationalists might be serious about the struggle against
long-term isolation because their leaders are very likely to face this
torture. In this case, we’d suggest we should unite with these groups to
work on that campaign. In this issue of ULK we have some examples
in which such temporary alliances for common interests as prisoners have
succeeded.
The question of how oppressor nation and oppressed nation
revolutionaries should relate in this country is a whole other question
brought up by this comrade. We will only address it briefly to bring up
some general points for further analysis. The urge to unite with white
people in the United $tates is a recurring theme due to the fact that
the white nation has been a majority population by design since the
founding of this country, and it’s hard to fight battles as the
minority. As we know, those numbers are projected to change in the
not-so-distant future. But even when euro-Amerikans become the minority,
will most oppressed nation people be anti-imperialist? In current
conditions they are not, though great potential remains. As we are
currently in a non-revolutionary situation, we think it is a reasonable
organizing strategy to avoid white people and white organizations
altogether. There are plenty of oppressed nation people yet to be
organized, and single-nation organizations have proven most effective in
U.$. history at building revolutionary movements.
As conditions become more revolutionary, if forces in favor of
revolution remain the minority in all nations in the United $tates,
those who avoided whites before may be tempted to address this issue
again. The Panthers organized with euro-Amerikans from a position of
strength, so that they largely avoided those euro-Amerikans harming
their movement, especially in the early years. Yet, Huey Newton found
New Afrikans in a position of weakness due to their minority status that
led to his proposal of the theory of intercommunalism. Fred Hampton’s
Rainbow Coalition and Huey Newton’s Intercommunalism demonstrate a
strong tendency in the Panther leadership to approach euro-Amerikans as
potential allies in the anti-imperialist united front similar to how
they approached other nations.
From Malcolm X to Stokely Carmichael to the Panthers, New Afrikan
revolutionaries have pushed whites to organize their own. But how do
they do that? Some white organizations tried to mimic the Panthers, but
this was only viable in small pockets of lumpenized whites. Other groups
have provided support structures to oppressed nations, where the focus
is on organizing whites to serve other nations. But we need something in
between, where white people can be leaders, applying and learning from
the scientific method of building a revolutionary movement, but at the
same time serving other nations in ways that are against the interest of
their own. We don’t think whites can organize on the same basis as the
Panthers, because they are on the opposite side of the principal
contradiction. But we also don’t think relegating whites to the kitchen
is allowing them to develop politically, and is therefore setting back
progress. This could be done on the basis of accountability and
self-criticism. It could also incorporate shared self-interest in
opposing environmental destruction and war. But a truly revolutionary
current among euro-Amerikans will likely not gain much traction until
the oppressed nations have progressed the struggle to a stage that is
more advanced than it is today.
Is there ever a time when we would unite with reactionary
oppressor-nation lumpen organizations in a united front for peace in
prisons?
This particular question is one that contains within itself a set of
extremely complex issues concerning the ideology of these types of
groups or organizations. It is only after we examine these issues that
we can make an intelligent informed decision concerning this question of
uniting with a reactionary-oppressor organization in prison.
We know that at their very core a large percentage of these groups are
deeply rooted in their beliefs in Adolf Hitler and/or the Nordic Gods,
or they are rooted in the distorted beliefs of so called “white
Christianity”” (ie the KKK or the Church of Jesus Christ, Christian,
etc.). All of their gods are considered to be extremely Aryan and will
only deal with or help those who are white Aryan people unless it
benefits them. Those who hold to the ideals of “white Christianity” have
merely reconstructed the Holy Bible to fit their views of white
supremacy. These white Christian organizations support those
organizations who are neo-Nazi by nature.
The ideologies of both of these styles of organizations are centered
around the philosophy of one being “white.” Yet, you do find exceptions
to this way of thinking. However, you generally discover that their
mottos revolve around the principle of “if you ain’t white, you ain’t
right.” This ideology holds not only the connotation of the color of
your skin is important, but likewise so are your ethical, moral, and
religious beliefs. This, in itself implies that you are never going to
be on an equal status with them.
These white nationalists live by a 14 word creed “we must secure the
existence of our race and the future of white children.” They likewise
live by what they call the 88 precepts which create a vision of
superiority for the white race.
Both morally and ethically the vast majority of white nationalist
organizations find it extremely difficult to honestly and openly reach
out to others with a spirit and agenda of true peace. This is due to the
basic core of their beliefs that have been hammered into them since they
were young. They have been taught to use other races, groups,
organizations or individuals to gain their advantages for the betterment
of themselves and once they are finished with them they simply jettison
them and move on to their next victim.
Having presented the above to you the informed reader, I now remind you
that we as individuals and a movement must never forget that the best
method for change concerning these types of groups and organizations is
to openly and honestly invite them to participate in the process for
peace. If we diligently allow them to become actively involved in the
process then perhaps their hearts and minds will be opened to the truth.
We must never let ourselves succumb to the way of thinking that we are
better than others. We must steadfastly remain inclusive of everyone
around us. Always remember that if we can affect one mind, just one
heart, then indeed we have made a great step for all mankind.
Through slothfulness and unawareness we do surely die. Through strength,
honor, courage and vigilance we surely do survive!
MIM(Prisons) responds: This is an interesting commentary on
uniting with white nationalist organizations because it comes to the
same conclusion we have come to, but for different reasons. We agree
that the United Front for Peace in Prisons can include reactionary
organizations. It is true that sometimes through a united battle we can
educate others and change their minds to a more progressive viewpoint.
But we must be clear that we only unite with reactionary organizations
when we have common goals and enemies, and when this unity might serve
to push forward the battle with our principle enemy. Just as the Chinese
communists allied with the Kuomindang in the war against the Japanese
imperialists in spite of the Kuomindang previously attacking the
communists and expressing significant disagreement, antagonism and
aggression against the communists. At that time the principal task of
the movement was to get the Japanese occupiers out of China. And the
Kuomindang was an organization of Chinese nationals and so they shared
this goal with the communists. Once that was accomplished the communists
knew they would then need to fight the Kuomindang, but it did not make
sense to divide the anti-Japanese forces and take on both battles at
once.
Similarly we see our principal task being best advanced by building
peace and unity among prisoner organizations so that we can all focus
our fight on the criminal injustice system. This doesn’t mean we expect
white supremacist organizations to be won over to the side of the
oppressed. But we can have principled unity with these organizations as
we focus on a common enemy. We will not compromise our views or pretend
to agree with them politically. And in this principled unity we may win
over a few from the ranks of these white nationalist organizations who
begin to see the correctness of our political positions.
