On April 17, FORAIL sponsored a Teach-In on the Criminal Injustice System at BU, which featured key note speakers Dennis Brutus (see previous article on "Political Poetry" ) and Frank "Big Black" Smith. The event began with a video showing of Shut Down the Control Units to give people some factual background on the prison industry and allow stragglers to arrive before our first panel discussion. After a RAIL activist introduced our prison work a series of former prisoners spoke describing the political relevance of the U$ prison system and the need to be actively opposing it. Big Black finished off this first session by discussing the need for unity and struggle against the injustice system. Big Black is a former prisoner who participated in the Attica uprising in 1971 which fought for livable conditions for prisoners in the u$.

After this first group of speakers we broke into two smaller rooms to discuss more tactical issues. One group was focused on education in prisons and legal issues. First, a member of FORAIL described our Free Books for Prisoners Program through which we send in hundreds of political books and reference materials to prisoners who are trying to educate themselves behind bars. We also invited people to participate in our biweekly meetings to write letters to prisoners who we correspond with. Lastly, we discussed our most recent project for which we are seeking college professors who will volunteer to allow prisoners to audit their classes and participate in coursework through the mail. Next the discussion turned to the issue of how activists should deal with the police. One lawyer/activist made it clear that you should never tell a pig anything. There are only certain situations where you have to tell them your name and address, such as if they have a warrant. The lawyer made it clear that they are trained to get useful information out of people, and what seems like an innocent statement to you may help incriminate yourself or someone you know. When people began asking about other rights Big Black and others explained that the law may say one thing but when it comes to dealing with police they'll do what they want and you may find out that the law means nothing. The one thing you can always do is be quiet.

The second workshop, focused on activism organizing on the streets. RAIL activists stressed the need for independent organizing on the streets and in the media, pointing out the importance of an independent press. Several long-time activists from Boston dominated the discussion in this group, raising important issues like how we should raise funds to support our work and what is the best way to use those funds. While these are important questions to take on, in retrospect RAIL would have structured the discussion differently to allow some of the newer people more of a chance to take part.

RAIL took the opportunity to point out some of the day-to-day work that we are doing on the streets and invite others to get involved: this includes regular tabling with petitions and literature, hosting educational forums, and distributing literature and flyers throughout the city. One RAIL activist commented that the stress the long-time activists put on the importance of commitment and dedication really made him think about how he could improve his own practice. And in response to this session several activists have offered to join RAIL's tabling work.

The second panel started with Dennis Brutus who brought the prison issues we had been addressing all afternoon back to more international issues that RAIL works around. He talked about the Jubilee 2000 campaign, which is calling for the cancellation of all of Africa's national debts in 2000. An audience member stated that this would do nothing under a capitalist system, which will naturally recreate these debts as imperialist banks and multinational corporations continue to dominate the economies of the third world for the benefit of the imperialist nations. Brutus recognized this fact as well and spoke of a socialist agenda as being the only means of obtaining freedom for the oppressed of the world. After Brutus two more speakers spoke on political prisoners. A representative from Latinos for Social Change spoke on Puerto Rican POWs and pointed out the need for armed struggle that many of these prisoners recognized and were jailed for. The second speaker was a representative from the Council for Native American Solidarity who discussed Leonard Peltier's case and enthusiastically stressed the importance of people getting involved in the struggle.