from the Maoist Internationalist Movement

MIM continues to fight to abolish the Security Housing Units (SHU) in California prisons. In August we again hit the streets to gather petition signatures and educate people about the importance of this battle. The SHU is an isolation program for prisoners, locking them up in small cells 23 to 24 hours a day for years at a time, under conditions that cause many to experience physical and psychiatric problems. Internationally condemned as a form of torture, control units like the SHU exist across the country.

In California thousands of men are locked up in these torture units. They are unable to fight this classification into the SHU because the prisons use secret evidence, and can keep the men there indefinitely. While the department of (in)corrections is pushing to expand these control units into every prison in the state, MIM is active in a campaign to shut them down.

Over the past year we have been gathering petition signatures, protesting, and distributing educational material to shut down the SHU program in California. As a result of pressure from MIM, RAIL, other activist organizations, and many prisoners in the SHU, Senator Romero has agreed to hold public hearings on the abuses that are an inherent part of the SHU. These hearings, are likely to be used as an opportunity to put a prettier face on the repressive SHU program. But MIM and other activists will be there to demand that the changes to the criminal injustice system be more than just cosmetic.

On the streets one weekend in August MIM and RAIL activists talked to hundreds of people in Oakland who quickly understood the importance of shutting down the SHUs. Oakland, the original home of the Black Panther Party, is predominantly Black, and most of the people we spoke to had been in prison or had a friend or relative behind bars.

This contrasted with the petition gathering done in the city of San Francisco where most of the white people walk by ignoring us, and a few comment that they think prisons are good and prisoners should be tortured. This demonstrated clearly the national interests at play in Amerika where repression, particularly from the criminal injustice system, is focused on the Black and Latino nations.

One man in Oakland refused to sign the petition saying that he thought our first task should be to remove Gray Davis from office. The much discussed Davis recall vote has gained the attention of everyone in California. The MIM activist responded that while we are certainly not fans of Davis, we know that he can't be replaced with someone better. The problem is not the individual Governor but the political system. And anyone who wins the race for Governor will have to play along with the political system.

We are working to abolish the system, but while we are at it we fight winnable battles for reforms that serve two purposes: They improve the living conditions of the oppressed, and they give us the opportunity to educate people about the repression inherent to the system.

While protesting the SHU program MIM and RAIL activists have also begun building our much needed prisoner re-lease program in California. Working with hundreds of politically active prisoners in this state we come face to face with the need for services for prisoners once they are released. For many prisoners getting out of prison means facing life with no housing, no resources, and a criminal record to keep them from getting a job. For politically active prisoners these problems get in the way of continuing their activism on the outside.

San Francisco is unusual in having one large program for released prisoners. Independently run, the Delancy Street Foundation has helped thousands of released prisoners since its formation 20 years ago. Refusing any state funding, it follows many correct principles in organizing prisoners to help themselves, become self-reliant, and believing that being a criminal is not inherent in these men and wimmin. But Delancy Street is focused on helping former prisoners be a successful part of the capitalist system, rather than changing that system. MIM sees the need for a program that gives prisoners a new lease on life so that they can be a successful part of the revolutionary movement to change the capitalist system.

MIM doesn't have a prisoner re-lease program yet, but we are working to build one. MIM does not have much money; we are run by volunteers and fund our work from donations. But we know that we can't think small. We need to set up independent institutions of the oppressed that serve the oppressed on a big scale.

On the streets gathering petition signatures to shut down the SHU program we talked to many people about the prisoner re-lease program. Former prisoners and family of prisoners were particularly supportive. Several people had ideas about ways we could reach more interested people, offered to pass on the information to people who might help, and one former prisoner volunteered to take more literature back to the hotel where he lived with a number of other former prisoners.

We need people, cash and ideas to get this going. There are many ways people can help with this project: donate money, loan us money, provide the use of space in a building or other resources, or help with the day to day work of getting this program off the ground. We call on our supporters to work with us to set up a prisoner re-lease program, to help prisoners get a new lease on life when they get out, and ensure that they stay active and productive revolutionaries on the outside.