“Cast away illusions, prepare for struggle.” -Mao Zedong
(1893-1976)
Comrades:
I am writing to update you comrades on new developments regarding my
censorship battle at this prison. After 2 long and hard-fought battles
with these reactionaries and their censors in the mail room, I finally
received the latest ULK 60 a couple weeks ago.
Specifically, when I transferred back into this gestapo prison in
October 2017, the censors were rejecting all ULK issues and MIM
study materials sent to comrades under MDOC policy directive 05.03.118
(NN) (4) and (6), and giving us false pretense or rationale for its
rejection, solely because of the political (revolutionary) content of
the newsletter, contrary to PD-05.03.118 (D) which clearly states that
prison censors are prohibited from rejecting incoming mail “solely
because its content is religious, philosophical, political, social,
sexual, unpopular, or repugnant.”
Their excuse or pretext for rejecting MIM periodicals was because they
claimed it advocated or promotes “violence, group disruption, or
insurrection.” See, “notice of package/mail rejection” and
“administrative hearing report,” enclosed herein is an example of the
totally bogus rationalizations they use for censoring ULK.
The prison censors, particularly mail clerks J. Sanford and M. J.
Dollar, had censored every MIM ULK issue sent to me and other
comrades since October 2017. Not only were the issues improperly
rejected, but the censors failed to conduct mail rejection hearings in a
prompt manner as required by PD-05.03.118 (WW). More, I doubt if they
were even notifying you (MIM) of the censorship or the reason why the
newsletters were rejected, nor an opportunity to an appeal. Per MDOC
policy, the prison censors must mail senders/publishers a “notice of
rejection” anytime that an issue is rejected, which is a requirement
under PD-05.03.118 (VV) so you can exercise your right to appeal the
rejection to the warden.
Your right to be notified is a “due process” right, under the Fourteenth
Amendment. Just for future references, if the prison censors fail to
notify you of the illegal publication ban on your materials, your
organization can sue for damages, including, but not limited to: (1) the
suppression of your free speech; (2) the impediment of your ability to
disseminate your political message; (3) frustration of your non-profit
organizational mission; (4) the diversion of your resources; (5) the
loss of potential subscribers and MIM supporters; among other violations
under the First Amendment’s free speech and free press clauses. It’s
easy money, since these reactionaries are voluntarily bagging it up for
you, why not take it and help fund the revolution?!
With this in mind, you must be prepared to struggle with me in combating
censorship in the future, just in case the censors get back on bullshit.
It’s only so much that comrades can do from inside the bowels of the
imperialist beast where the terms of the struggle are defined by our
oppressors. The facility head (warden) was upholding the improper
rejections and subsequent appeals, knowing damn well it’s illegal to ban
publications solely because of its political content.
What this all boils down to, in the final analysis, is that they don’t
want us to learn political theory and critically recognize the situation
that we find ourselves in, or the root cause of our oppression. They
want us “politically dead,” so that they can better control us and not
have to worry about us transforming the criminal (lumpen) mentality into
a revolutionary mentality and ushering forth the “new man” (within
ourselves) to succeed the old, as both Malcolm X and Comrade George
showed us we could through the process of study and self-reflection. The
reactionaries and prisoncrats know that this sudden shift of
revolutionary consciousness by the lumpen prisoners would create a “new
situation,” one that would no doubt threaten their control over us and
make it possible for us to unite and move forward en masse against our
oppressors, as Huey said, “with implacable fortitude.”
My friends, you recognize the fact that the arbitrary censorship of
ULK, a critical organizing tool that meets our educational and
informational needs, is nothing more than a counter-revolutionary
strategy by the prisoncrats to get ahead of the “revolutionary wave” and
put down the new radical prison movement that is emerging. But,
dialectical materialism teaches us that nothing can prevent this
revolutionary process. The new always leap forth to succeed the old. In
the words of Fanon: “The repressions, far from calling a halt to the
forward rush of national consciousness, urge it on.” So, understand the
arbitrary censorship and political repression that a lot of us lumpen
are facing, or will face in the future, by these reactionaries and their
prison censors only expedites matters and moves the struggle forward to
its ultimate conclusion. Therefore, cast away illusions and prepare for
struggle against the prisoncrats’ reactionary agenda to suppress
political education among lumpen comrades (prisoners).
No doubt I will continue to battle censorship when it occurs on this
end, but this must be a shared responsibility. We have to coordinate
from both ends and concentrate our fire on this fascist agenda. There is
pressure that can, and sometimes must, be brought to bear on the prison
censors. Sometimes political pressure, in the form of telephone or email
campaigns, should be exerted on the warden and the director about the
censorship, demanding that the issue be corrected immediately or that
the current prison censors be removed from their positions in the mail
room. I believe we can wage a far more effective struggle against
censorship this way. It will, at very least, give us a tactical
advantage.
MIM(Prisons) responds: As some of our readers may have noticed,
over the past year we’ve been able to step up the fight against
censorship from the MIM(Prisons) side. Wherever our comrades behind bars
are taking the initiative to appeal or protest censorship, we are also
submitting letters of protest. We will always send you a copy of these
letters, which are going to prison administrators and other relevant
personnel. We agree with this writer that these censorship battles are
most effective when it is a shared responsibility both from behind bars
and on the streets.
So if you’re fighting censorship of ULK or other mail we’ve sent,
be sure to let us know so that we can support your battle with protests
of our own. We won’t always win, but we regularly have victories. And
the outrageous rejections, as well as our victories, are reported in the
“Censors in their own Words” articles we publish periodically in
ULK and on our
censorship reporting
webpage. If you get notification of censorship, either from your
prison, or from us, do your part to stop the prisoncrats from removing
revolutionary education from the prisons by filing a grievance to
protest the censorship. Put them on notice that you will not be
silenced!