Federal Prisons

Georgia State Prison (GSP), the oldest prison in Georgia is rodent and vermin infested with numerous maintenance problems. Tier II prisoners, housed in what Georgia prison officials call a Long Term Segregation Program based on your behavior, call it torture. Prison officials are enforcing a regulation to ban all legitimate publications which are mailed to prisoners in Tier II regardless of what phase (Tier II has 3 phases) they are on. These legal publications are mailed from the publisher. They include newspapers, all books, and all magazines. Specifically, the ban is on: San Francisco Bay View Newspaper, Chattanooga Times, Free Press Newspaper, Prison Legal News Magazine, MIM’s Prison Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, Atlanta Journal and any other legally authorized publications. The ban is only on prisoners in the Tier II Segregation Program. No one else.

The First and Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution guarantees me the right to free speech and to the press and equal protection of law. The Georgia Constitution Article I Section I Paragraph II (equal protection of law) and Paragraph V (freedom of speech and to the press) are rights under Georgia Law.

To “return to sender” all my magazines, newspapers and books violates my constitutionally protected rights. None of these aforenamed publications were banned at any other Georgia prison I have been held at. I notified, by letter, Georgia Department of Corrections (GDC) Commissioner Gregory Dozier; Statewide GDC Tier Coordinator Otis Stanton; GDC SE Region Field Operations Manager Robert Toole; GSP Warden Marty Allen. All showed deliberate indifference to my issue by failing to respond to the illegal ban of publication problem.

Georgia prisoners are so divided along racial, class and STG gang lines that any attempt to organize any form of mass action rebuttal to these egregious and illegal acts by Georgia prison officials will falter. The fear that the GDC has employed on most prisoners prevents the addressing of constitutional rights violations.

As a “jailhouse lawyer” holding active membership with the National Lawyer’s Guild, I have been fighting administratively and with civil action for redress of Georgia officials’ numerous malfeasance since 2005.

This illegal publication ban fails to pass the “smell test.” I have begun my quest to correct this illegal violation by filing a Formal Grievance, which is a joke, but must be done as a start to any civil action which will follow.

I solicit the assistance of all news organizations, prints, digital and television as I again take on the GDC in court. My three (3) current civil actions pending and my numerous previous civil actions show that the GDC cannot and will not ever intimidate this writer. My fight for my right to free speech and the press and equal protection of law continues.

We here, at MDF, Contra Costa County Jail, that are of Latin descent and not southsiders, are being held in Ad-Seg status now since 2010. And now even more unjust treatment is being added to us, gang enhancements just for being housed on this module, even if we don’t ask to be housed on this module at time of arrest/booking. Classification, Administration and the District Attorney’s office is using this module as an apparatus to get harsher sentences from the courts.

Con respecto a la pregunta de las alianzas del frente unido con grupos nacionalistas blancos, hay sus pros y sus contras al trabajar con otros grupos. Ya voy escribiendo a MIM(Prisiones) por unos años y disfruto leer el ULK. Soy prácticamente mi propia armada con un solo hombre. No les pido a otras personas que hagan cosas que yo no haría por mismo.

Me encuentro en una Penitenciaría Federal en Tuscon, Arizona. Este es un pabellón para agresores sexuales, desertores de pandillas, Custodia Preventiva. No me encuentro aquí por elección propia. Soy un agresor sexual registrado por exposición indebida en un bar. Incluso aún cuando se retiraron los cargos, me obligaron a registrarme y ahora me encuentro todavía peleando el caso en el estado. Me encuentro en una prisión federal por cargos que no se relacionan con el cargo estatal. Este pabellón no tiene las mismas políticas que otros pabellones tienen. Sí tenemos políticas, pero no al extremo. El salón chow se encuentra divido por razas, pero te puedes sentar donde se te dé la gana. Lo que estoy tratando de decir es que, yo podría dejar este pabellón e ir probablemente a un pabellón activo, y que me asesinen por ser un agresor sexual registrado, aún cuando se retiraron los cargos. Esa es la política. Ahora, hay un montón de agresores sexuales y homosexuales, ratas y desertores. Todos tienen una razón para estar aquí. He estado en pabellones activos y muchas veces, en realidad la mayoría de veces, una persona pone su vida en riesgo por alguien que no es más que una mierda o un drogadicto. Ya no uso drogas y no me drogo en prisión.

Crecí en el oeste, desde Montana a Arizona, en el corazón de la nación Aria, un ejecutor de la Hermandad Aria con el viejo refrán, si no es blanco no está bien. Fui un niño ciego pero un buen soldado. A los 41 años soy ahora mi propio hombre. Nunca he abandonado a mis hermanos pero ya no peleo más esa batalla de odio. Hay sus pros y sus contras al trabajar con otros grupos.

Tengo una pregunta: ¿No hay Maoístas que sean agresores sexuales o soplones? ¿Los Maoístas escogen trabajar con otros grupos o intentan convertir a otros grupos al maoísmo? Es algo diferente el trabajar con un grupo distinto para lograr la misma meta. Soy un individuo en un grupo y mis metas como individuo no son siempre las mismas que las del grupo. Mi meta es la libertad de un gobierno opresivo y corrupto, y no importa si es EUA o Rusia, opresión es opresión, corrupción es corrupción y esto debería detenerse. Todos pertenecemos a grupos diferentes, incluso a los grupos que sienten la necesidad de oprimir a otros.

El enemigo de mi enemigo es mi aliado. ¡El Frente Unido por la Paz!

Esto no se trata más de política o a qué grupo pertenece una persona. Yo soy un Hermano Ario independiente y apoyo al Ministerio Internacionalista Maoista de Prisiones y a la lucha de personas encarceladas. (No me gusta usar la palabra preso o convicto o cualquier otra palabra para prisionero que se usa para tomar el poder personal de una persona. Estas palabras hacen que las personas se sientan sin poder, sin esperanza, y eso no es verdad). Somos personas, humanos. Tenemos familias, amigos, al igual que el resto de personas.

MIM(Prisiones) responde: Esta es una carta interesante sobre los frentes unidos porque viene de alguien que representa a dos de los grupos con quienes, a menudo nos dicen, nunca deberíamos aliarnos, lo cual levanta preguntas de la otra parte. Primero, con respecto a la pregunta de agresores sexuales, este escritor demuestra porqué el confiar en la etiqueta estatal de “agresor sexual” es tan malo como confiar en la etiqueta estatal de “criminal”. Debemos decidir por nosotros mismos cuales individuos son aliados y cuales son enemigos.

Sobre la pregunta de nacionalistas blancos y aliados, este escritor todavía se encuentra en su grupo pero al parecer, tiene desacuerdos considerables con ellos si apoyan a ULK y MIM (Prisiones). Este es un ejemplo excelente de unir a todos los que se puedan unir contra el sistema de injusticia criminal. Sabemos que la hermandad Aria se encuentra básicamente en oposición a la liberación de naciones oprimidas. Al igual que el Partido Comunista de China sabía que el Kuomindang se encontraba esencialmente en oposición al comunismo. Pero en China antes de que la revolución fuera un éxito, hubo la oportunidad de construir una alianza contra el imperialismo Japonés, la contradicción principal en su momento. Y nosotros tenemos una oportunidad parecida de construir una alianza contra el sistema de injusticia criminal dentro de las prisiones. Ciertamente, que a una escala menor que la del frente unido en China, nuestro enemigo común en las prisiones ofrece la oportunidad de alianzas con grupos que serán nuestros enemigos, en otras batallas. Además es posible que ganemos algunos de estos tipos de estos grupos que, como este escritor, piensan que “la opresión es opresión…y debería detenerse”.

Este camarada menciona Rusia, tal vez como un ejemplo aleatorio. Pero hablando de Rusia y la opresión, es algo que se está convirtiendo en un asunto delicado en los Estados Unidos actualmente. Este fervor anti Rusia, como siempre, se encuentra ligado al nacionalismo americano. Se usa para atacar el régimen actual de Trump de forma que amenace al mundo con un inter imperialismo e incluso una guerra nuclear. Rusia fue alguna vez parte de la Unión Soviética, que bajo Lenin y Stalin fue socialista. Pero después de que murió Stalin en 1952, el país adoptó rápidamente el capitalismo estatal. Y el capitalismo es un sistema que crece con la opresión y corrupción. Pero el renacimiento anti Rusia en los EE UU no se debería confundir con anti imperialismo, sino más bien es nacionalismo que se mueve alrededor del poder imperialista más grande y peligroso en el mundo – los E$tados Unido$.

Analizando el sistema de control social en los Estados Unidos, es imprescindible que sigamos la línea correcta. Actualmente, la posición de muchas personas es la de argumentar que el sistema de injusticia está basado en un “Complejo Industrial de Prisiones”, que nosotr@s en MIM(Prisons) rechazamos. Un nuevo informe, “Following the Money of Mass Incarceration” (Siguiendo el Dinero del Encarcelamiento Masivo) de Peter Wagner y Bernadette Rabuy, proporciona nuevas pruebas para apoyar nuestra posición.

Las prisiones generalmente son una red compleja de campos de concentración para semicolonias oprimidas, más que una industria económicamente rentable. De hecho, existen algunos beneficios que deben hacerse (y l@s capitalistas/imperialistas son buen@s encontrando sus nichos) pero, sobre todo, el propósito del sistema de injusticia hoy en día es el control de la población.

Tal y como Wagner y Rabuy señalan en su artículo: “En este primer informe, el primero de su tipo, descubrimos que el sistema de encarcelamiento masivo cuesta al gobierno y a las familias de las personas involucradas con la justicia al menos 182 mil millones de dólares al año”. Estos 182 mil millones de dólares incluyen los $374 millones de dólares en beneficios recibidos por la industria de la prisión privada. Los beneficios de est@s accionistas, que en número son poc@s, apenas y representan una empresa que genera beneficios de manera sistemática. De hecho, en el gráfico utilizado como resumen de su investigación, los autores tuvieron que hacer una excepción en el corte, en lo que respecta los sectores importantes del presupuesto para prisiones en los U.$., ¡para poder incluir a las prisiones privadas en éste!

“Esta industria está dominada por dos grandes sociedades de cotización oficial, CoreCivic (que hasta hace poco se llamaba Corrections Corporation of America (CCA – Sociedad Correccional de Estados Unidos) y The GEO Group, así como por una pequeña empresa privada, Management & Training Corp (MTC). Nos hemos basado en los informes públicos anuales de las dos grandes sociedades y en cifras estimadas de MTC utilizando registros de una solicitud de información pública de hace una década” (1).

¿Por qué estaría dispuesto el sistema imperialista a gastar casi 200 mil millones de dólares al año en la pérdida de una amplia mano de obra económica y consumidores? Por lo siguiente: “Muchas personas confinadas en rejas no trabajan y los sistemas penitenciarios de cuatro Estados no pagan nada” (1).

Tal y como Wagner señala en un artículo del 7 de octubre del 2015:

“Ahora, por supuesto, la influencia de las prisiones privadas variará de Estado en Estado y, de hecho, han presionado para mantener el encarcelamiento masivo; sin embargo, son mucho más influyentes los beneficios políticos que l@s funcionari@s elegid@s de ambos partidos han cosechado durante décadas por ser dur@s con la delincuencia, así como los miles de millones de dólares ganados por l@s emplead@s de las prisiones dirigidas por el gobierno y contratistas y vendedoræs privad@s”.

“A l@s beneficiari@s de la generosidad de las prisiones públicas les encanta cuando las prisiones privadas toman toda la atención. Cuánto más centrado está el público en l@s propietari@s de las prisiones privadas, menos se cuestiona qué pasaría si el gobierno nacionalizara las prisiones privadas y dirigiera todas las instalaciones por sí mismo: De cualquier manera, aún tendríamos el sistema penitenciario más grande del mundo” (3).

L@s capitalistas no sacan beneficios económicos del supuesto “Complejo Industrial de Prisiones”, pero l@s polític@s se benefician con la obsesión de l@s estadounidenses blanc@s con la “delincuencia”. Teniendo esto en cuenta, descubrimos la verdad tras la enigmática frase de Wagner y Rabuy: “Para estar seguros, existen razones ideológicas y económicas para el encarcelamiento masivo y la sobrecriminalización” (1).

Ya hemos examinado las razones económicas (grupos de poder como las compañías de bonos de fianzas y los vendedores del comisariato están, obviamente, buscando sacar beneficio). Así que, ¿cuáles son las razones ideológicas?

Si observamos la población de las prisiones (ya sean públicas o privadas), podemos ver dónde gana impulso el encarcelamiento masivo. La gran mayoría de l@s prisioner@s son nuev@s african@s, chican@s y gente de las Primeras Naciones (aunque la mayoría de la población general es euroamericana). La cárcel no es un fraude de ingresos, sino un instrumento de control social. El factor motivador es la dominación, no la explotación.

Aunque si estamos siguiendo el dinero, entonces tenemos que observar cómo se desglosan los gastos. Wagner y Rabuy presentan la división de los costes de esta forma: costes judiciales y legales, costes policiales, decomiso de activos civiles, cargos de fianzas, costes del comisariato, cargos de llamadas telefónicas, “agencias de corrección pública” (como emplead@s públic@s o asistencia médica), costes de construcción, pagos de intereses y costes de comida e instalaciones.

Los autores resumen su metodología para llegar a sus estadísticas y admiten que “existen muchas cosas para las que no hay disponibles estadísticas nacionales ni manera sencilla de desarrollar una cifra nacional a partir de los datos limitados estatales y locales” (1). A pesar de dichas debilidades obvias para obtener datos concretos fiables, sobresale el análisis abrumador.

Wagner y Rabuy hablan sobre la industria de la prisión privada al final de su artículo. Ahí, escriben:

“Para ilustrar tanto la escala de la industria de la prisión privada como el hecho clave de que esta industria funciona bajo contrato para agencias del gobierno (en vez de arrestar, procesar, condenar y encarcelar personas por sí mismas), expusimos a estas compañías como un subconjunto del sistema público penitenciario” (1).

Tal y como se discutió en “MIM(Prisons) sobre la Economía de las Prisiones de EE UU,”si el trabajo penitenciario fuera una mina de oro para especuladoræs privad@s, entonces veríamos corporaciones de todo tipo dirigiendo el camino para más prisiones” (2).

Teniendo esto en cuenta, el gobierno utiliza el sistema de injusticia en Estados Unidos y las prisiones (tanto públicas como privadas) para oprimir a las minorías nacionales. Y l@s estadounidenses blanc@s, que se alínean en formación con emoción cuando polític@s racistas como Donald Trump continúan siendo “dur@s con la delincuencia”, premian al gobierno con entusiasmo y renovado vigor.

El MIM Thought (Pensamiento de MIM) hace hincapié en el imperialismo, tanto dentro como fuera de Estados “Ofidios” (Unidos). La red de prisiones no es una excepción: en este caso el imperialismo funciona como método de control para l@s estadounidenses de las naciones oprimidas. Como las estadísticas de Wagner y Rabuy demuestran claramente, no existe un “Complejo Industrial de Prisiones”, existe un intento sistemático de destruir individuos, comunidades y naciones (4).

Alabama Correctional Industries (ACI) “utilizes inmate labor to produce goods and services that are sold to governmental entities within the State,” the ACI website states. “The revenues generated go to offset the costs of incarceration and provide inmates with job skills and practical work experience.”

Participating prisoners are paid 25 to 75 cents per hour for their work.

Alabama law states that products made by state prisoners can only be sold to “entities whose operational budgets are funded all or in part by tax revenues (e.g. state, county, and city governmental and educational organizations),” according to the ACI website.

Most Amerikan self-described “communists” will not even listen to this album as soon as they see the title. Those same white nationalist socialists refuse to read MIM’s writings because of all the KKKs and dollar $igns. They claim it’s too distracting. We say transforming the oppressors language is a necessary part of building a revolutionary culture to replace the old one.

A week ago, the top results brought by a search for “Amerikkka” on youtube.com(1) brought up songs from Ice Cube’s Amerikkka’s Most Wanted album, some other hip hop singles, and videos from a former associate of MIM with explicit anti-Amerikkkan messages. This week, Joey Bada$$’s new album is rising to the top for that query. All Amerikkkan Bada$$ isn’t as edgy as Ice Cube (it does lack Cube’s misogyny) and certainly not as edgy as Shubel Morgan (who did music videos for MIM and LLCO), but it’s got a pretty strong message of New Afrikan unity and struggle.

In one interview Joey Bada$$ said:

“It’s like hella vegetables. It’s hella good for you, and it’s almost my hesitance with it: the fact that it’s so good for you, because these kids these days want candy.”(2)

The album title, All Amerikkkan Bada$$ is no doubt a reference to Badass’s late partner in rhymes, Capital STEEZ’s mixtape Amerikkkan Korruption. Lyrics on this new album hit references to that mixtape as well, such as the track “Dead Prez” that was produced by Joey Bada$$. Both Capital STEEZ and Joey Bada$$ are respected as lyricists, with fast New York styles of rapping.

The album cover (and associated art) features an Amerikkkan flag made out of red, white and blue bandannas. The song “Legendary” makes a reference to Crip culture with the line “the legends they never die, the niggers they only multiply.” More explicit are the lines in “Rockabye Baby”:

“Peace to my Slimes, and peace to my Crips
Neighborhood police and they always on the shift
Protect my Bloods, look out for my cuz
When it’s all said and done, we be the realest there was
Who else if just not us?
If you ’bout this revolution, please stand up”

While the first single, “Devastated” has been out for months, the second, “Land of the Free”, came out just before the album dropped this week. The first song is about success, and the video has a party vibe to it. “Land of the Free” is about the struggle, and the video features some strong imagery, including all-white pigs executing Black and Brown people in all black. Joey Bada$$ intervenes to free some of them, but is later shot and hung by cops in Ku Klux Klan robes. And while the video shows Joey Bada$$’s U.$. flag made of bandanas throughout, what is not so prominent is the upside down U.$. flag on the back of eir jacket. “Land of the Free” features lyrics like, “sorry Amerikkka, but i will not be your soldier, Obama just was not enough, i want more closure.” The apt-titled opening track, “Good Morning Amerikkka” references Black Panther Geronimo Pratt’s framing for murder by the state.

While the album features the usual “fuck the police” and “fuck the government” refrains, the last track, “Amerikkkan idol”, also says, “Fuck white supremacy,” a slogan that seems to be coming into vogue following the election of Donald Trump.(3) This track closes with some pretty sober and explicit lyrics:

“What the government is doing amongst our people is downright evil, disturbing. But not surprising, that’s for certain… I believe they are simply trying to slander, start a civil war within the U$A amongst Black and white. They want us to rebel so that it makes it easy for them to kill us and put us in jails… Alton Sterlings are happening every day in this country, around the world…And it’s time for us to rebel, better yet raise hell. I just want everyone to be cautious about how they go about it… not only battling them on a physical plain, but to outsmart them… As Black men, i think our gangs need to do a better job at protecting us, the people, our communities and not assisting in destroying them brutally. It’s time they even the score… We need solutions. You better start plotting now.”

Dir Sir or Madame:

I am … confined in the Michael Unit of the TDCJ.

On 3/16/17 I received from the Michael Unit mailroom a “Publication Review/Denial Notification” refusing to deliver to me the above-referenced publication based upon a finding that “it contains material that a reasonable person would construe as written solely for the purpose of communicating information designed to achieve the breakdown of prisons through offender disruption such as strikes, riots, or security threat group activity.” At the place for Remarks, “Pg. 13 contains info that could cause a prison strike and prison disruption.”

Instead of seeking the least restrictive measures of censorship, like, for example, marking out the offensive language, they refused to deliver the publication summarily citing to TDCJ-ID policy and procedure BP-03.91, the same rule used to reject delivery of biblically-based religious materials sent to me by my sister.

I appealed the denial to the Director’s Review Committee (DRC) whose address is PO Box 99, Huntsville, TX 77342-0099. On 3/29/17 I received the “DRC Approved/Upheld Denial on 3-28-17.” However, that denial was not signed so I have no idea who is personally responsible and accountable or if this is - as commonplace - a summary, arbitrary, and capricious disposition of my appeal, similar to the practices generally experienced when using the TDCJ-ID administrative grievance process required by the Prison Litigation Reform Act.

Nevertheless, I will not be receiving the publication, and, notwithstanding my notice of anticipated litigation to prison authorities, am notified that “the publication will be destroyed within 60 days of the initial denial.” And, again, I am not notified of the identity of the person(s) who will engage in this illegally destructive and criminally culpable conduct designed to deny and impede my rights both to the publication and access to the courts. Thus far, my efforts to report the criminal acts and conduct to civilian law enforcement authorities and the State and Federal prosecutors’ office under Texas Penal Code, Section 39.04 and Title 18 U.S. Code Section 242, have proven to be futile.

Accordingly, I am asking you to engage your expertise and resources in the litigation of this unlawful censorship to which you have standing to complain and request that you name me as a complaining party litigant. The proper venue is in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas sitting at Tyler, Texas.

I will at all times make myself available to you and to any legal representative whom you choose. I retain all evidence of my claims but, as I’m sure you know, is subject to confiscation, loss and destruction by prison officials and their employees.

In closing, I am reminded of a passage I read somewhere. “Acts without words are open to all kinds of interpretation and words without acts are hollow promises [or just lies],” The ball is now in your park. I need your help. Anxiously awaiting your response.

On 10 February 2017, I was accused of by unit administrator (UA) John L. Grevious and internal affairs captain Michael Williams of stabbing another inmate, which I never did at all. The disciplinary report that UA Grievous wrote up said “on February 8th, 2017 at approximately 5:15p.m. inmate [me] attacked inmate [X] around the Dorm 12, DAL and yard area out of camera view. After a interview conducted by Capt. Michael Williams, inmate [me] claimed sole responsibility.” I never attacked [X] and I never admitted to nothing.

Another thing is I have been letting the medical staff and other medical personnel know about my right knee and leg hurting, locking up and giving out when I lay in bed and get up to walk to the bathroom or just walk around. They never did nothing about it until December 2016, when they put me in physical therapy and then stopped it in February 2017 because my knee and leg ain’t getting better. Then on March 16, 2017 at 12:00am my knee and leg gave out in the shower and I fell and busted my head, and CO Bick Ford Badge #397, never did anything when he was the walk officer. It took other walk officers to get me medical attention. Medical only put ointment on it and sent me back to my cell with an open gash.

Right now all my complaints is been ignored and my letters is been unanswered by warden Aaron Smith, deputy warden Anna Valatine, deputy warden James Coyne and the unit administrators and caseworker. Grievance coordinator Casey Dowden is refusing to answer my letter and refusing to fulfill my legal request forms for civil rights complaint forms, acts, standards, motions, forms, addressed, etc. I turned in on February 20, 2017; February 27, 2017; March 6, 2017; and March 13, 2017. Then fire and safety super Brian Hilabrandt have the ACA standards on religion for me, but on March 1, 2017, he told me they said I couldn’t have them and he couldn’t get them to me until I’m out of segregation.

This is a little on what’s going on with me and what I’m having trouble with. They are talking about transferring me, so I want to be able to file all paperwork I need to challenge these injustices. I’ve been denied my full medical-physical therapy-psychiatric files, adjustment committee & grievance files and my full institutional files so I can properly prepare my cases and file on them. This is why I am needing legal, political, religious, material, financial, etc. help & support and support groups/networks through letters, Jpay email & videograms and Jpay money transfer to buy books, stationary, hygiene, fund my Jpay media fund, pay court fees and to be financial stable.

I don’t rely on lawsuits alone but on connecting my struggle with the outside struggle. I am trying to build bridges instead of burn bridges. I am organizing from the inside out, at least trying to. If I got 10 or 20 people or so helping me and organizing with me I’m happy.

I will appreciate your and others’ help, support and response soon and future organizing soon. Please forward this letter to others who can help & willing to support me and organize with me.

I believe that having alliances with lines that are military minded is somewhat dangerous to the united front. First and foremost, I do believe in armed struggle, but building public opinion on imperialism and moving toward communism as the ultimate goal to end all oppression is key. Some lumpen orgs or nationalists might criticize MIM(Prisons) on their line. But truth be told we must study the history of the Cultural Revolution in China, which gives us the best way to move toward socialism, ending in communism. It also allows us to learn from the mistakes of the past.

Amerikkka targets lumpen orgs, and nationalist groups. So alliance with a militia group might jeopardize the united front. And once the imperialist policies place everyone in one basket who they feel are a threat, they will place them in prisons or worse eliminate them as what happened to many BPP members in the late 1960s. So, I must say comrades, that MIM(Prisons)’s approach with study groups and challenging all comrades to study history and dialectical materialism prepares us to use public opinion to change the minds of the lumpens and all those who are oppressed.

What good is guns if you don’t know who the enemy truly is? By enemy I mean, just going up against amerikkka’s army is not enough. The enemy is the system which must be changed. Guns with no vision or discipline is suicide to the united front. The best weapon in the struggle is unity, and armed struggle is also important. But each one teach one is the method to awakening the masses on how capitalism destroys lives.

Once the American people become self-reliant and help their fellow man and stop supporting this economic monster (capitalism-imperialism) then hopefully through public opinion and democratic centralism we can achieve the goal we all want which is communism.

As for snitches, there are different levels of snitching. But I will not allow a person in my circle who I know has the tendencies to crack under pressure. I mean those individuals who work for the prison administration, receiving goods in order to cause chaos. They would go so far as telling prison officials that you are sharing revolutionary material and having your books confiscated.

Even on the outside you have to be careful aligning with rats who will jeopardize the united front in order to demoralize and cause dissociation. But as long as those who represent the militant side of fighting oppression can agree that we must use strategy and wait for the right time to strike the imperialist monsters, I’m all for it. But if militants feel as though focoism is their aim, I’m all out. Educate the poor and oppressed first, to show them the real enemy. And there needs to be a change in habits and consciousness so that we will not allow materialistic ideology to control us.

MIM(Prisons) responds: This comrade raises a good point about the risks of allying with those who are engaging in military actions now. We agree with em that focoism is not the right strategy. But the value of a united front is that we can disagree on this point of strategy in terms of the right time for armed struggle, but still unite in our fight against imperialism. We can work with these organizations while struggling with them over these points if such struggle seems fruitful. We do not need to have complete agreement on points of strategy in order to work together in a united front. We would also want to keep these groups at arms’ length for the simple fact that advocating armed struggle now is a known tactic cops use to wreck a movement from within.

But beyond the question of uniting without complete theoretical agreement, this writer is arguing that it is too risky to unite with focoists because their premature military action could bring down the whole united front. This is certainly a risk we need to consider. Groups within the UF have the autonomy to act independently of the group, and so some may engage in actions that others disagree with. While we wouldn’t automatically exclude focoists from a UF based on their political line, this comrade is correct to warn that we need to stay vigilant about actions that present a risk to our work and to our organization.

At the same time, resistors of all stripes, even those who aren’t focoist, bring down repression from the state. Even anti-imperialist academics and people working in electoral politics are harassed, and murdered, by the state when their words are too effective. One could also argue that the frivolous security practices of other groups will jeopardize the UF. We have to find a balance between putting ourselves out there, and getting the work done.

We can’t make up easy rules to answer to this contradiction. Instead everyone has to evaluate alliances based on the circumstances and current situation.

There were two recent riots here. One on the 3A yard here at Corcoran, the other at SATF Corcoran, on 3C yard. No one severly hurt, but it’s hard to organize with situations like that.