Western Massachusetts:
RAIL holds concert benefit for Books for Prisoners

On April 10, the Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League sponsored a Books
for Prisoners benefit concert in Western Massachusetts. RAIL raised a
significant amount of money for this program. Bands traveled from as far
away as Maine to perform. The mostly punk and hip-hop bands were
Assfaggot, Critical Mass, Corporate Death Squad, Commonwealth, Baracus,
Publik Access, einstein, and a Global Threat.

A sign of the sickness of the U.$. justice system is the denial of
educational materials to prisoners. Books are in short supply in prison,
libraries contain little beyond bourgeois fiction, mail is censored, and
access to college education programs has been eliminated. The RAIL Books
for Prisoners program educates prisoners and organizes prisoners to change
Amerikkkan society. Many other book programs, while positive, stick to
only to a reformist charity agenda.

At the show, RAIL educated and organized support around the Books for
Prisoners Program. Behind the stage was a large banner that read ``Support
Free Books for Prisoners, Educating and Organizing for Revolutionary
Change.'' This banner sums up the purpose of the Books for Prisoners
program.

Breaking away from traditional charity-type donation programs, the Books
for Prisoners program provides books mainly on Revolutionary History,
World Movements, and Black, Latino and First Nation culture and
nationalism. MIM and RAIL send free newspapers and books to prisoners to
provide them with the knowledge necessary to end the oppression in U$
society and around the world. So sending in more fiction is ok. Sending in
political books is better. But the best practice is sending political
books, and to struggle with the prisoners over the content of the books
and the application to revolutionary change.

Between bands, RAIL read letters from prisoners. This helped keep a
revolutionary edge to the show, and pushed the necessity to act on prison
injustice. The letters from prisoners made it possible to inject the
struggle of prisoners into a student and youth cultural movement. Later,
one speaker talked about the case of imprisoned Black Panther Mumia Abu
Jamal, and a RAIL activist showed movie clips about and discussed the
struggle against, control unit isolation cells. Almost all participants
were eager to learn about prison injustice.

Among the achievements of the concert was the way in which it brought
together a variety of types of music and political beliefs to support the
Books for Prisoners Program. That night, Communists, Anti-Imperialists,
Anarchists, Libertarians, and people who call themselves non-political,
all agreed that Books for Prisoners was a good program. For the future, we
hope to gain more support from other sectors of culture while further
revolutionizing our current allies.

RAIL is always looking for new ways to build support for the MIM Books for
Prisoners program. Doing events like the benefit concert are an excellent
way to educate and organize people against prison injustice. Historically,
the fringe music scenes of punk, hard-core and hip-hop have been our most
vocal allies. But fringe music must take on the entire system with an eye
to changing it. Culture is one of the most important aspects to building
public opinion, and so we should promote progressive cultural works while
criticizing pro-imperialist culture. We need a culture that pushes for
national self-determination for all nations.