Organizers, Be Versatile and Watch What you Say

Every time I write MIM(Prisons), talking about what I’ve got going on, or what I’m trying to do, my moves are intercepted, interfered with, or I’m retaliated against. It’s not wise to write to y’all and give the enemy the upper hand, or an advantage over me. If a person is in prison, then guess what? You’re in the devil’s back yard, where the devil says what goes. Common sense and history should obviously tell you that it’s the police’s jobs to police you. If you’re dumb enough to open your mouth about incriminating shit, while you know that the spotlight is beaming on you, then you deserve the consequences. A lot of these people in Arkansas Department of Corrections (ADC) just don’t got it in ’em to zip it. There’s a time to talk and there’s a time for silence.

Organizing tactics will vary, depending on why you’re getting organized and what you’re getting organized for. There’s no “one size fits all” organizing tactic. You got to be versatile and able to adapt under pressure and constant changes. To be able to roll with the punches, in other words. Keep your eyes open.

Everybody isn’t down. Everybody’s not a rider, or a soldier. Not everybody cares, or is able to listen and see. You have to be careful who you’re talking to, or what you’re openly/publicly speaking about, in ADC. Ironically and paradoxically, getting assigned to a one-man cell is one of the only ways to dodge the bogus individuals in ADC, if you know how to do time in a cell. The cell-blocks in ADC are analogous to SHUs [solitary confinement]. The prison culture in ADC is twisted. Got to be ever-mindful of this while organizing in the ADC.

One of the main problems that I personally experience in the ADC is that the prisoners are over-friendly with the police/guards. It’s accepted to befriend the police here, to pull them aside and whisper/gossip, or to kick it in the police’s offices. The majority of the ADC prisoners don’t even understand how to distinguish between a police and a snitch, or how to identify what “snitching” is and isn’t. What’s really troubling is that these gang affiliates allow police into their “gangs,” which contradicts everything that they claim to stand for. They call the high-ranking police their “OGs” here, and they see nothing wrong with this. In my eyes that’s an organized snitch-operation, with benefits.

They suck up to the police for scooby snacks. The dope fiend culture here is largely to blame. They believe that it’s acceptable to cooperate with police for drugs, highs, money, etc. (That’s the same as collaborating with police for time-cuts in my eyes.) They call collaborating with the police here “gangster moves,” “OG moves,” “shot calls,” etc. Technically, the government is a gang, but not in the sense of a street gang, or a lumpen organization (L.O.). They’re letting the government into their street gangs and L.O.s, which causes immense problems and struggles for people who are trying to get organized against government corruption, or imperialism.

There’s no fixing this type of issue overnight. One individual can’t tackle this issue single-handedly. I refuse to associate, in those types of ways, with the police, or snitches who work hand-in-hand with the police. These types of snitches are not concerned about making changes, and one of these undercovers will only put on a front, to infiltrate your organization and stir up chaos and confusion.

Like I said though, it really all depends on the direction that you’re trying to go, in terms of organizing and unity. Revolution, or reform? Long-term, or short-term? What types of changes are you aiming at? Do you honestly believe that you can pop off a full-scale “revolution” from inside of one, tiny prison? A prison riot isn’t a revolution.

My personal opinion is that if you’re trying to reform the prison system with long-term changes, that litigation is the most efficient, or effective method. History shows that the most significant changes in the prison systems in America have come from litigation. Litigation, generally, doesn’t work too well when trying to deal with short-term problems, or isolated incidents, mainly because litigation isn’t instantaneous, it takes time. And it’s doubtful that you can jump-off a revolution by litigating in a government courthouse, or by filing grievances. You have to first troubleshoot the most pressing problems inside of your facility, if you plan on reforming the prison system. And you must be able to think everything through, before you initiate a campaign.

I know from experience that single-handedly bucking on these police with physical force rarely accomplishes very much, except for giving the police a bogus excuse to press their foot down on your neck, or to exercise more control over you.

It’s probably a good idea to begin by getting to the least oppressive position before trying to do what needs to be done. Prison is not the place. The odds are stacked too high against prisoners, inside of prison, for prisoners to be able to leave too great of an impact. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that there’s nothing positive that can be done. It’s just that many prisoners believe that the solution is to try to wage, or talk of waging a real-deal war with America from behind bars, and this is madness – counterproductive non-sense. Your greatest weapon from inside of an American prison is a pen and paper, which typically doesn’t involve getting 100% unity of prisoners. Another thing is that you’re never going to get all prisoners to agree on every little thing, at all times, which gets in the way of organizing, or unity.

I believe that one of the best things that a person can do is just to focus on themselves first, before trying to build up the next person, which constitutes as “leading by example.” Other people will see you doing positive things, or will listen to you speaking positively and they will often emulate, or mirror your actions. In order to change the world, you must begin by changing yourself. You must become the changes that you want to see in the world.

I’ve gotten good educational convos and occasional study groups going, to help others learn. The problem with that is, every time I get us organized on a positive tip like that, I always experience opposition, hostility, retaliation, interference or resistance from guards and/or prisoners.

One thing that does help me and has taught me a lot is radio talk shows like Ground Zero and Coast-to-Coast, (got to give them credit). Plus, these shows help me to do time easier, while learning. It makes learning fun and interesting. In a way, those talk shows are kinda like study groups. Because people can call in and give feedback. I think that it’d be an excellent idea to model study groups after the structure of these talk shows. To have an individual, with a particular expertise in a specific subject, prepare a speech, in conversation format, and then allow feedback and questions after the selected individual concludes their initial discourse. Then you can rotate new individuals to speak each session. The group can vote, maybe, to decide topics, speakers, etc. You can assign homework and self-study assignments for the down-time in between groups. Not everyone is going to want to be a speaker, which is fine, too. I fear simply speaking about starting a study group, because I already know how it goes. If a hater catches wind of such things, trouble isn’t far off.

Another suggestion is, if you’re in prison, with access to educational/radio shows, you can organize a group of people to listen to each show, and afterwards you can have civilized group discussions and debates on the show’s topics, with feedback and questions. One step further is to get out of prison and start your own radio show for prisoner education. A station for prisoners to tune into, for prison news, discussion, education programs, contests, etc. I haven’t done my research into that, but it wouldn’t be too hard to do. The good part is that prisoners can listen to radio broadcasts for free. Books and some newsletters/mags can be expensive, or impossible for prisoners to obtain. Also, it’d be kinda hard for people to shut down the study group if it’s done over the radio, huh? The prison guards can’t “censor” it, because it’s the FCC’s duty to censor radio broadcasts, not uneducated prison guards. The FCC decides what’s appropriate for American citizens to hear over the radio. True enough, radio-show hosts can deal with hostility as well, but at least the radio show isn’t trapped inside of a box, while battling sadistic foes.

MIM(Prisons) responds: This writer starts off with an analysis of conditions in Arkansas that lead to the conclusion that it is impossible to organize in Arkansas, but ends this letter with some excellent and creative ideas about how to run study groups. And so we really hope ey will implement these ideas and report back on how they work.

There are significant barriers to our organizing work here in the belly of the beast where the wealth of imperialism is thrown around to buy off even the lumpen in prison. We need to rise to this challenge and think creatively about how to break people off from the system and channel their energy into fighting the criminal injustice system that is the cause of their misery. Creative study groups are one such approach. We welcome thoughts from others about what this comrade might do based on the conditions ey describes in Arkansas.