The following article was written by a Michigan prisoner whose contact with MIM and the rest of the outside world has been severely limited by extended segregation. MIM asked this prisoner and others to submit their own articles "about why people on the outside should support the Free Books for Prisoners program with their money and books." We asked prisoners to address the following questions and more in their writing: "what is a Serve the People program? why do Communists preach self-sufficient organizing? what is the role of the youth in making revolution? what is the role of education in revolutionary politics?" Following Mao's instruction to organize the oppressed to meet their own basic needs, we asked prisoners to help us recruit people on the outside to do work in this program that helps them gain a political education.

The Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League (RAIL) that this comrade refers to is an organization of the MIM-led united front and so RAIL members do work to support MIM's Serve the People programs. RAIL is an organization for people who are not in prison. United Struggle from Within (USW) is another organization of the united front; it is an organization of anti-imperialist prisoners.

I am incarcerated at a maximum security prison in Michigan. MIM and RAIL provide advocacy, education, books, and support to prisoners contained throughout this country's prisons. I'm writing today asking that college and high school students please get involved with MIM or RAIL action programs through membership or collecting books and contributions for the programs. There is work to be done educating prisoners within correctional facilities through MIM's Serve the People Free Books for Prisoners program. MIM can also assist anyone who wishes to set up independent programs to support prisoner struggles in their own communities.

Both men and women from various cultural backgrounds and those who have spent time in jail or prison are all welcomed with pleasure. MIM, RAIL and USW work to bring change throughout prisons. We take risks in our work. We take unpopular stands. We write encouraging letters. We work for all prisoners against all forms of discrimination and oppression. We recognize that we cannot work to ensure the fundamental rights and dignity of prisoners unless we also work together against racism, classism, sexism, ageism, ableism, and anti-Semitism.

We believe that committed people working together can make a significant change in the quality of life for all prisoners. Change the mindset of the poor, educate them, and a change can be achieved. We must be prisoners' rights activists and have basic principles on which we base our work. We must be vigilant in maintaining a broader political understanding of the prison system and its effects on prisoners and society so our goals do not end up confused and ultimately lost within the "illogic" of the prison system itself.

For example, as prisoners' rights activists, we must always fight to improve the conditions for people living in prison, because we know prison is the worst possible place for anyone to live and maintain their health. At the same time, we must fight to obtain compassionate sentencing and release for people living/surviving in prison.

If we do not maintain a critical focus on the injustice of the prison system itself, we become complicit in keeping people locked up rather than helping them get out. Therefore, the more comprehensive our political agenda around prisoners' rights, the more clearly we can articulate our positions and the more effective our programs will be. One way of keeping that broader focus is to make links and work in harmony with each other, and any anti-prison groups in our communities, and with community groups that are fighting against police racism, against violence, for the rights of the righteous people, and against violence against women.

Financial support is important and any donation would be deeply appreciated.

In conclusion, let me say that the Michigan Department of Corruptions, MDOC, is a dictatorship that thinks it doesn't have to answer to anybody. We would like to hear from all young people who understand our agenda and who would like to unite and get involved. Thank you!

-- a Michigan Prisoner, 20 December, 1999

MIM responds: We are proud to put forward this prisoner's opposition to the u.$. criminal INjustice system together with our own. MIM sees the prisons system in this country as an arm of one of the three main strands of oppression -- nation, class and gender. Prisons in Amerika exist to perpetrate national oppression of the internal semi-colonies of this country -- the Black Nation, the First Nations and Latino Nations.

Through independent institutions of the oppressed, we work to build public opinion in favor of the just struggles of the oppressed. In our newspaper, MIM Notes, we publish the Under Lock & Key pages which carry news from prisoners about the conditions in which they live. Through our Serve the People Free Books for Prisoners program we organize students to donate their books so that prisoners may learn from them, and to give of their time and money to get these precious educational resources to the prisoners. Prisoners in turn educate themselves and each other to be more effective speakers on their own conditions and the political economy of their oppression.

The struggle against injustice in prisons is of special importance to anti-imperialists and anti- militarists working within u.$. borders. Just as the Yankee military straddles the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Indonesia, Turkey with its military presence; it operates militarist containment of nearly two million humyns within the cages it calls "correctional facilities" -- prisons. We call on all activists and those considering activism to learn about the significance of organizing independently. We do not need to lobby and wait for state run programs. The Black Panther Party wrote: "we cannot depend upon the present government to fulfill our wants and needs."( "Serving the People" from The Black Panther 6 April, 1969 http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/bpp/bpp060469.htm) But we can fill these needs ourselves with organization and the correct theory and practice. Join us in Serving the People.