The Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM) and the Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist Movement (RAIL) seek co-sponsors for a large forum exposing the injustice of the Amerikan criminal injustice system, and specifically the lockdown of over 2 million people in jail or prison today.

We, the undersigned, are united in the statements below and will sponsor a forum exposing the corrupt and oppressive injustice system because we:

1. Oppose the lack of educational programs in prisons as well as the censorship of educational materials from outside sources; and
2. Oppose the use of Control Units to target politically conscious prisoners and Black and Latino prisoners in general who are labeled "gang members" under arbitrary guidelines

Facts: (updated 1999)

• Blacks as percent of all monthly drug users: 13
• Blacks as percent of drug possession convictions: 55
• Blacks as percent of drug possession prison sentences: 74
• Percent change in Black arrests for drug offenses, 1985-1989: +115
• Percent change in white arrests for drug offenses, 1985-1989: +27

• Percent change in prison and jail population, 1980-1994: 212.7
• Number of people of probation or parole, 1993: 2,600,000
• U.S. Black incarceration rate per 100,000 population, 1992-1993: 1,947
• U.S. white incarceration rate per 100,000 population, 1992-1993: 306

In 1995 the Massachusetts Department of Correction (DOC) established a system to clamp down on what it believed was rampant 'gang activity' in the prison system. Without investigating the reasons for the violent uprisings that had taken place during that year, the DOC created a system that attempted to counteract the supposed increase in "security threats." The DOC began to reclassify inmates if they considered them to be a member or leader of a gang, and placed them in higher security levels.

The purpose for this reclassification is not to punish outbursts or actions requiring higher security levels (there is a separate system that oversees that). Instead, it is based on a scoring sheet comprised of seventeen total points. As Rising Times discovered, it doesn't take much to be thrown into the 'gang unit.'

Phil Kassel has written an article called "The Gang Crackdown in Massachusetts' Prisons: Arbitrary and Harsh Treatment Can Only Make Matters Worse." It reports that prisoners "were not informed as to why the DOC considered them gang members, or were told simply that they were labeled by confidential informants or observed 'associating' with 'known gang members' by assisting with language translation or litigation...Some prisoners claim they were informed that a tattoo or possession of some insignia, such as a Black Panther Party poster, was the basis for their identification." Ritual handshakes, solidarity with specific inmates, or hand signals can also land someone on the gang list.

The policy has led to approximately 2,000 inmates being identified as having gang ties, or a fifth of the total prison population in Massachusetts.

MIM is a revolutionary communist organization that upholds the ideology of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism and is an internationalist organization that works from the vantage-point of the Third World proletariat. MIM struggles to end the oppression of all groups over other groups: classes, genders, nations.

RAIL is a mass organization of anti-imperialists, led by MIM. RAIL members do not need to be communist or agree with MIM's three main principles. RAIL members need only understand that they are led by MIM and agree to that leadership. (See reverse for statement on working with other groups or organizations.)

RAIL and MIM work with other organizations on a variety of issues. Our work with these organizations is in the spirit of a United Front led by the proletarian line. In such a United Front, groups and individuals work together against a common enemy in spite of disagreements on other issues.

1. RAIL and MIM will not give up their ideological or organizational independence in work with other groups. In practice this means that RAIL will not allow other groups to tell us what we can and can not say. And it means that RAIL will not hide its ideology or its identity and affiliation with MIM.

2. RAIL and MIM will not demand that other groups give up their ideological or organizational independence in the United Front. Instead we come up with points of unity for specific events and invite other groups to unite around these regardless of other disagreements. Other groups are not restricted from making statements of political line that contradict RAIL line as long as these are not statements that contradict the points of unity.