Federal Prisons

We have received many letters lately exploring the future of our struggle under a Trump administration. Below we print excerpts from two of those letters and our response on the topic.

From a comrade in Colorado:

“The presidential election has been most interesting. The election of King Trump may be the last chance for the folks that brought us the Cold War, Vietnam, and much of the current world instability, to try to hold on to power (or make a show of power). The racial minorities and poor people in the United $tates are actually in the majority, but they apparently did not get out and vote, so now we get Trump.

“On the possible good side, perhaps the explosion of right wing, world domination capitalism that Trump will be pushing will finally provoke the masses (the proletariat) once they really get screwed by Trump policies, to look for a real solution to improving their status. (I do not mean the U.$. labor aristocracy who are doing very well – lots of toys to keep them occupied. They will get even more under Trump’s policies.) By that I mean looking to the philosophy, the understanding of socialism, as the the only viable means to their liberation from the shackles of capitalism.”

From a comrade in a Federal facility:

“The election of Donald Trump is a cause to celebrate for revolutionaries. These are revolutionary times. The times where movements are built. Communists are in a position over the next 4 years to put in place a revolutionary front that can be sustained beyond the next election if it should be lost to a so-called democratic contender. No time will be lost to make revolution with these revolutionary times at hand.

“The fact that a so-called ‘social democrat’ - read ‘socialist’ - like Bernie Sanders had a chance in an Amerikan election to become president is a sign of the times that ‘socialization’ of European Amerikans is at a point of maturity in its epoch of imperialism. It is ready for socialism but lacks the world-historical material condition to make it possible. Thus this contradiction (condition) manifests as a ‘national socialism’ that is the opposite of international socialism and is nationalist or ‘nationality exclusive.’ That is why white Amerika elected Trump, to make Amerika white (‘great’) again.”

MIM(Prisons) responds: The writers here make interesting points about the election of Trump as an opportunity for revolutionaries. Certainly there are some good reasons to agree with this. Trump’s extremely reactionary cabinet appointments seem to be inspiring many Amerikkkans to political activism who previously were content to sit and watch the politics of this country from the sidelines, perhaps going to the polls once every 2 or 4 years. Revolutionaries should seize their initiative and make sure that people have access to information about why electoral politics aren’t the answer, if they really are seeking change for the better of the majority of the world’s people.

Of the large portion of people who are eligible to vote but don’t vote in presidential elections we see a few major groups:

1. People who don’t care who wins because they know the government is serving their interests generally by continuing on with imperialist plunder to keep people in the United $tates rich. For the most part this is the labor aristocracy and is the vast majority of U.$. citizens. Where our comrade in Colorado says poor people are a majority in the United $tates, instead our class analysis says the labor aristocracy is the majority, and if they didn’t vote it’s because they knew either Clinton, Sanders, or Trump would all be fine to serve their interests.
   
2. People who don’t care who wins because they know that both candidates support national oppression and will work counter to their interests. This is the oppressed nation lumpen and oppressed nations generally; the “racial minorities” referred to by our Colorado comrade.
   
3. People who genuinely oppose imperialism and so can’t in good conscience vote for a candidate who will run the imperialist state. This is a small number of revolutionary activists within U.$. borders.

As our comrade in Colorado points out, the U.$. labor aristocracy is comfortable and may even get more comfortable under a Trump administration. As much as the bourgeois liberals are crying about Trump’s election, the potential for socialist revolution to be initiated within the United $tates is slim to none. They are upset about LGBTQ rights and Trump’s overt racism and sexism and anti-environmentalism, but on the whole don’t mind extracting wealth from Third World peoples for their own benefit. The best we can expect from the Amerikan masses’ own volition is a push toward social imperialism, which still leaves the Third World out.

Even supporters of Bernie Sanders are not socialist, as much as Sanders tries to claim that’s what eir politics are about. Sanders was a candidate with a clear imperialist line on international issues. While ey might have planned to spread around the wealth a bit more to U.$. citizens, ey still falls firmly in the imperialist camp, supporting wars of aggression, and financing terrorist governments like I$rael. In this regard, Trump, Obama and Sanders are more similar than they are different. Our Colorado comrade says Trump will push world domination capitalism, but we’ve been seeing this for decades and it didn’t slow down for a second under Obama. There is no way to reconcile Amerikan imperialism with socialism. No elected candidate will make this change. Only by forcibly overthrowing the government will we be able to implement socialism.

Our comrade in a Federal prison brings up the question of the need for world-historical material conditions to be in place to bring the Euro-Amerikan nation toward socialism. This comrade’s claim that Euro-Amerikans are well on their way to supporting a socialist shift is likely overstated. But if the oppressed internal semi-colonies and oppressed Third World nations are enraged by Trump’s rhetoric and policies, then we can expect revolutionaries in Amerikkka to grow in strength and number as well. The oppressed nations’ response, internally and abroad, to a Trump’s presidency is where we see real revolutionary potential.

This writer is correct that socialism (in the short term, and communism in the long term) is the only way to liberate the oppressed from capitalism. But when we recognize that the majority of people in the United $tates are benefiting from capitalism, we can see that most people in this country, voters and non-voters alike, aren’t being fooled by mis-information. Rather they correctly understand that if we were to give back all the wealth stolen from Third World countries and stop the plunder of imperialism tomorrow, standards of living in this country would go down dramatically.

Still, there are very good reasons why Amerikans should oppose capitalism, including the destruction of the environment, the deadly culture of patriarchy and violence, and basic humynity towards other human beings around the world. And so we conclude that if Trump’s presidency leads some Amerikans to greater global awareness and inspires them to oppose capitalism, it is our job to provide a correct analysis of the system and opportunities for action against the system.

I am seeking first the grievance petition for the state of Texas. Why? Well here in Texas it seems that every complaint on the unit goes to the Warden, at which time he will make sure that every one of them is denied. Even when you have proof of the events.

Here we have two main problems I would like to run by you to see if you can point in the right direction. One is that the mail room here holds mail for two working days, before it is mailed out. At times this will cause a delay in legal stuff going out. Or if you get mail on Monday and you mail out on Tuesday, it will not go out until Thursday. I have proof of this in writing and thru phone calls from my wife and daughter.

Next if we file on any of this we get a denial on the step one. When we file the step two it will sometimes get delayed so that the time has ran out. Next the officers who you wrote the step one on will be able to read it. And then come to work and do the following. Shake down your cell, trash your living space. This is all on video.

Also our mail will be left inside the staff bathroom for days at a time without being turned back in. At times it will get trashed, and when a complaint is made it is denied by the warden here. Even with proof that it is going on. We need some help here in more than one way. I have a step one where an officer lost my photos of family, then come to find out they where given to another offender. At which time it was on video and a statement was written. This was denied as well.

I was given a 10 month SHU (Security Housing Unit/Solitary Confinement) term for distribution of narcotics within a state facility. I was also given an extra 6 months, no visits for 3 years, loss of other privileges such as no canteen or yard. I was also arrested and my case was referred to the District Attorney for prosecution. I was found with NOTHING! No evidence at all to support these false allegations. They found me guilty with statements of confidential informants that I am not allowed to question. I have to take their word for it. There are multiple people in the hole here with my same story from CRC.

Long story short, while housed at California Rehabilitation Center (CRC) in Norco, CA: In April, a correctional officer by the name of C/O Navarrette searched my bunk area and confiscated all of my personal property. (Radio, T.V. Et cetera…) $800+ worth. When I went to the office with my receipts demanding my property back, C/O Navarrette gave me the ultimatum to “snitch” on people or he would give my property to someone who would (common practice for C/O Navarrette). My mom raised me with better morals than that so when I refused his extortion attempts, he told me that he would plant a phone on me and he also told me that I will be leaving CRC with a new case (2 threats he later made good on). I filed a complaint, my lawyer was immediately in touch with the litigation department at CRC through fax. Luckily I have 2 separate correctional officer witness testimonies that corroborated that he tried to extort me and that he planted a phone on me (see staff complaint TLF#1600627). Since then, he has filed multiple confidential entries into my file claiming inmates tell him I sell drugs and that I want to assault staff. Other prisoners have filed complaints on this corrupt officer because he tried to recruit them as well.

C/O Navarrette is untouchable. There is a serious flaw at the institutional head policy level with systemic abuse when any correctional officer, including a rogue C/O such as C/O Navarrette who has an open prisoner rights lawsuit filed on him (see Oscar Machado vs. Soto et al 2014) can write confidential information into prisoners’ files who write staff complaints on them. I really have a grievance with this when this same confidential information is being used to deny people parole. This confidential info is being used to give prisoners write-ups, SHU terms, and D.A. Referrals with no evidence what-so-ever and the prisoner cannot question or challenge any evidence/confidential info.

On 15 December 2016, the United States Justice Department launched an investigation into Orange County Sheriff Department for their use of jailhouse snitches. Like the O.C. TRED system, CRC is actively running a snitch breeding program from the top down where they have signs posted in every housing unit to recruit informants with a phone number directly to a supervisor at least at the lieutenant level. This program is a failure of leadership that shows management incompetence. When CRC disregards the dangers of relying solely on jailhouse snitches and arrests accused prisoners with no other evidence, the prisoner is being sand-bagged because the prisoner is not being told how the snitch was used, what additional information the snitch has given because it may be exculpatory to his defense and what arrangement or favors the snitch may have received. Was the snitch negotiations made while he was on drugs/meds, beat up, or while in good health? What is the background of the snitch? Who is the snitch? The accused is not told nothing, only that someone said you….. so we are arresting you.

In my case, the institution was made aware that I had an attorney on retainer as far back as March 2016 and any information discussed by myself and any prisoner acting as an agent for the department should be deemed illegal and any record should be removed from my file. C/O Navarrette actively, aggressively, and retaliatorily (after my staff complaint) recruited jailhouse snitches that he can coerce to make false statements on me in exchange for tobacco and “anything to make your stay easier.”

I have documentation of all my allegations and I look forward to sending them to you or passing them on during our interview of my more detailed account. Thank you for your time, with your help we can expose/fix this.</P>

I got a chance to read ULK 53 and I remember an article on leadership and how a brother wrote in from a prison in Maryland admitting his part in being part of the problem by dealing drugs in the institution he’s in. I’m held hostage in a similar institution that is a complete waste of money. I know that this injustice has to crumble, but it takes education and an awareness to speed this process. Unfortunately, the facility I’m held in is overrun with sk8 (ice) and 2evce (K2) and so the main objective of most of my fellow prisoners here is to maintain their drug habit daily or capitalize off of this impairment to our struggle.

I’ve been on both sides of that fence so I understand how hard it is to be woken up to the reality. Here at East Arkansas Regional Unit, $100 of ice can go as far as getting someone fucked off and stabbed up real good. But to tell someone that by doing that they’re falling into the trap the pigs have set for us, then you become the enemy and the target of violence yourself. I know there are more like-minded men incarcerated in Arkansas Department of Corruption but we’re so few and far between that I know any steps taken to further revolution in my state will have to be taken on my part.

I am more than willing to take a stand against the injustices and the power behind it. I ask United Struggle from Within for your help. I read that you have study packs on leadership and a number of different courses. I would greatly appreciate your help in my education and I will speak out and share with anyone around me here that is within earshot.

MIM(Prisons) responds: Drugs as a tool of complacency and distraction is all too common inside and outside prisons. This is an issue we want to investigate more deeply as part of our study of the imprisoned lumpen class. We have since enrolled this comrade in our intro study course to get started on the path towards stronger leadership.

We will be doing a report on our research on the drug economy in prisons in the last issue of Under Lock & Key this year. To help us, we ask that all of our readers complete the survey below to the best of your ability:

• What items (including drugs) are the most in demand on the black market in your prison?

• What kinds of drugs are most popular (including alcohol)?

• What kinds of drugs are easiest to obtain and why?

• How much do drugs cost?

• How do drugs make it into prison and into the hands of the sellers?

• How do prisoners pay for drugs?

• What are the health impacts of these drugs on the population?

• What are the social impacts of these drugs on the population? (ie. more fighting, more passivity, more/less socializing, more/less community, what activities would people likely be doing if it weren’t for drugs)

• Are there certain groups of people who seem to use drugs more than others?

• Who benefits from drug dealing at your facility?

• Have you seen effective efforts by prisoners to organize against drug use and its effects? If so, please describe them.

Calculating the transfer of wealth from exploited nations to imperialist countries is a difficult task. Even those with the knowledge and time to do the research find that bourgeois economics does not look at things in terms that Marxists do. There are a number of excellent books by Marxists on this topic on our literature list.(1) Adding to this research is a recent report from Global Financial Integrity (GFI), which they call “the most comprehensive analysis of global financial flows impacting developing countries compiled to date.”(2)

“since 1980 developing countries lost US$16.3 trillion dollars through broad leakages in the balance of payments, trade misinvoicing, and recorded financial transfers… the report demonstrates that developing countries have effectively served as net-creditors to the rest of the world with tax havens playing a major role in the flight of unrecorded capital. For example, in 2011 tax haven holdings of total developing country wealth were valued at US$4.4 trillion, which exacerbated inequality and undermined good governance and economic growth.”(2)

According to the report, China is responsible for about a quarter of the Third World’s net resource transfers to the First World. Despite a growing finance capitalist class, China is still the largest proletarian nation providing wealth for Amerikans and other First World nations. A long fall from grace from when it was the most advanced socialist economy in history, reinvesting all of its wealth into building its own self-sufficiency and serving the needs of its own people.

Last year, the so-called “Panama Papers” brought more light to the issue of tax havens, and the role they play in allowing finance capitalists to move money in ways that avoid having to pay taxes to the states they operate in and often avoiding other legal restraints on how they do business. GFI points to tax havens, as well as illegal movement of capital goods, as playing large roles in facilitating this transfer of wealth from the exploited countries to the imperialist core countries.

Possible solutions to this problem provided in the cited articles are debt forgiveness, shutting down tax havens, and enforcement of fines by agencies such as the World Trade Organization (WTO).(3) Having powerful people monitor and fine other powerful people is like the fox guarding the hen house, and will never make fundamental changes in a system whose whole purpose is the drive for profit.

MIM(Prisons) supports the call for debt forgiveness for poor countries. As the report states, “for every $1 of aid that developing countries receive, they lose $24 in net outflows.”(2) A campaign to resist these predatory aid programs combined with forgiveness of existing loans would loosen the current death grip of imperialism on the exploited nations of the world. And if we consider the numbers below, 1:24 is a gross underestimation of the scale of exploitation going on.

Another powerful move to provide some relief to the poor under capitalism would be to enforce a global minimum wage through a body such as the WTO. Economist Arghiri Emmanuel showed the relationship between wage levels and the transfer of wealth between nations in the form of unequal exchange. While this recent work by GFI is more in-depth than most by looking at illegal practices such as reporting false prices to avoid taxes and restrictions, it ignores the hidden transfer of wealth that is enabled by the low wages that are violently enforced on the proletariat of the exploited nations. This transfer of wealth is not included in the $16.3 trillion transfer of wealth calculated by GFI. MC5 of MIM estimated wealth transfer to the imperialist countries at $6.8 trillion in just one year (1993), as did Zak Cope, who looked at 2009 with a similar lens but different approach to MC5.(4)

While GFI states that, “Every year, roughly $1 trillion flows illegally out of developing and emerging economies due to crime, corruption, and tax evasion”, their vision of a capitalism with more integrity would only eliminate an estimated 15% of the value exploited from the majority of the world for the benefit of the imperialist nations. We ally with such bourgeois internationalists on some of the demands mentioned above, but also take it further than they will to eliminate imperialism in all its forms and create a world without any form of exploitation or oppression, whether illegal or not.

You encourage all groups in prison to set aside their differences and come together (collective action). As always in my letters to you, I believe the socialist effort will not be successful unless it makes contact with most or all of the radical/reform groups and encourages collective actions between them.

Think about it. If you could start a dialogue with other groups then you would gain the chance to educate them about how mass imprisonment is a standard feature of any capitalist government. Imprisonment is the favored control method for the masses. As long as people are propagandized to believe capitalism is good, you will have thousands of laws to control the lumpen and minorities -– hence, prisons.

Per the September 2016 newsletter of the Coalition for Prisoners’ Rights (P.O. Box 1911, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87504-1911), it was reported that the Formerly Incarcerated and Convicted Peoples Movement (FICPM) had a conference on September 9 in which over 500 people attended, of which people from over 30 states were in attendance. The FICPM wants to organize the 65 million people who have been screwed over by the U.$. system as a political voting block. This group has the possibility of actual success.

MIM(Prisons) responds: There are two separate points we want to address in this letter. First the question of what will be necessary for the socialist effort to be successful. This comrade believes that we can succeed by bringing together the radical/reform groups (presumably within the United $tates). Where this author says we would be able to educate these groups on a deeper understanding of the relationship between capitalism and prisons, we agree that doing this on an individual basis is possible and has been proven with success on the ground. Some people enter the reform groups because that’s all that they’re aware of at the time. When they seek a more thorough way to address the world’s problems, they may decide to switch to revolutionary organizing instead. We aim to be available for these people, ready to work with them when they’re ready to switch.

But as far as winning over whole groups, this hasn’t worked out successfully when tried in the past. And we understand this phenomenon in the context of our class analysis, because the vast majority of people within imperialist countries are bought off and actually support their imperialist government. They may protest a few policies, but they are very much opposed to revolutionary change in the interests of the world’s majority because that would have a negative impact on their persynal financial situation in the short term.

Because of this, we see socialist revolution coming from the oppressed nations, both internationally and within U.$. borders. For the most part we anticipate it will need to be imposed on imperialist countries (like the United $tates) from the outside, but there is an important role for revolutionaries living within the belly of the beast. We must do all we can to weaken the government and also support the revolutionary struggles of oppressed nations globally. We can break off as many allies for the struggle as possible. But we shouldn’t be unrealistic in our expectations of what we can achieve behind enemy lines.

With that said, we do agree that building unity with progressive organizations on the streets is a good goal. We set a baseline goal for this unity around either a political action or a political line. For instance, we work to build unity around battles against the criminal injustice system with all who will support these battles, regardless of their political positions on other issues. For the anti-imperialist struggle we build unity with all who truly oppose imperialism.

But coming back to our first point, we do not think that groups that, for instance, promote recycling, are actually opposing imperialism. They are just helping to put a pretty pseudo-ecological face on capitalism (also termed “green washing”). So when someone tells us to unite with all “radical/reform groups” to achieve our goals of building socialism and opposing imperialism, we have to call this out as a request that we sacrifice revolutionary politics in the name of false unity. We don’t actually have unity in the fight against imperialism with those reform groups that are trying to make imperialism a bit kinder, but whose strategy keeps the overall system in place. It’s important that we define our political principles and understand who are truly fighting on the side of the oppressed people of the world.

I’m writing to let you all know of the way Georgia prison system have broke the very soul of us prisoners. Not only have they broken the souls of many, but they’re using our own kind (prisoners) to oppress for them.

Here in Georgia, they have a program Tier II that’s violating a lot of the human rights. It’s a 9 month program as you’re told, but any type of rebellious actions will lead to a prisoner doing years on said program. The cells are very nasty, bugs are always getting on us behind these doors, the food is very small amounts, cold and if one speaks out too loud then you do not eat per the supervisor. The grievance process is a joke, there’s a copy of what the chief counselor sent me, for a grievance that I wrote 3 months ago, funny how the lady put January 3, 2016 isn’t it.

I’m an inmate who’s been on this said program Tier II farce. The Tier II program has 3 stages that one must complete. We have had many brothers who have stopped eating, but all is done placed on a strip cell. I myself have set many cells on fire, been tasered, and pepper sprayed for standing up for the rights of us prisoners.

A lot of the world was stressing Black Lives Matter, what about inmates lives matter? Every other day in some city or state a prisoner dies from hands of the overseers. I’m located in Valdesta State prison, in Georgia where prisoners have been murdered, beat, etc. The saddest that I have witnessed two fellow brothers of mine started a fire and the officers did nothing, being that both of ’em was trying to not do their jobs. When we prisoners started kicking and banging on the door, due to the smoke was very thick in the dorm, they then chose to come in the dorm and went to the cell that was ablaze and asked did the prisoners wish to see mental health. To make a sad story short, both prisoners died due to the smoke.

I’m very sad to say that only about 15 prisoner stood up on September 9, 2016. Others just talked about it. Today is January 9, 2017 and it’s been 3 hours since the officers last came in the dorm to check on us inmates. I’ve been beating on the door and yelling to get their attention. Well I was just dropping you all some words letting you know what’s going on. I will keep you updated on what all me and others are doing to free ourselves of this slave lockdown.

I do not have an organization but the principles are something I hold to. I don’t believe the way Texas treats its prisoners is legal at all. We face extreme conditions especially at the Clemens unit. The main building has had windows broken for 2 years. It freezes in there. Now I’m at this poor excuse they call a “trustee” camp. Its the same way, we are in small metal dorms it’s freezing cold my dorm. 2 dorm never gets fixed only 3 and 1 dorm because this is the original dorm here.

It’s not right how COs threaten us. if I knew codes from the PO22 I would write them up for all the violations like unauthorized taking of personal property. I try to write grievances but I get harassed every time. Our legal library is in distress it has nothing needed and everyone already knows TDLU doesn’t want us to have a grievance manual. If there is any help you can provide to my struggle in this rabbit hole system I would greatly appreciate it and be able to help people around me due to this units population being mainly under 25 years old we don’t really have anyone that’s been through this before.

“Colorado prisoners at the Skyline Correctional Center who start out at $.66 a day, milking about 1,000 goats…

Colorado Corrections Industries (CCI) “employs some 1,600 prisoners at 17 facilities, generating around $65 million in annual sales. Haystack Mountain is just one of many small- to mid-sized businesses that benefit from prisoner labor; the company began purchasing milk from prison goat dairies at the Skyline facility in 2007…

“Thanks to the grapes harvested by Colorado prisoners, Abbey Winery won a silver medal for its Juniper Valley Chardonnay at the 15th Annual Grand Harvest Awards in California. Haystack cheeses are sold to various high-end stores and restaurants, including Whole Foods, a national grocery chain.

“Kathy Abernathy of Arrowhead Fisheries, which breeds, packs and ships tilapia though CCI, sees the program as a way to ‘help an inmate improve his life.’ The CCI fish farm has been expanding and produces trout, catfish, koi and goldfish. Quixotic Farming also buys tilapia from CCI for less than a dollar a pound, which they then resell to retailers like Whole Foods, where it is sold for up to $12 a pound…

“The prisoners participating in such programs are underpaid, prohibited from unionizing and sometimes work under the threat of disciplinary action if they refuse.”

Lucasville: The Untold Story of a Prison Uprising
Second Edition
Staughton Lynd
2011, PM Press

Condemned
Keith LaMar (Bomani Hondo Shakur)
2014, www.keithlamar.org

In April 1993 there was an 11-day occupation of Southern Ohio Correctional Facility, starting on Easter Sunday when the maximum security prisoners overpowered correctional officers (COs) while returning from recreation. During the occupation, eight COs were held as hostages; one was killed and the rest were released. Nine prisoners were also killed through the course of this uprising, all by other prisoners. The 407 prisoners surrendered when the administration committed to a 21-point agreement. After the uprising, five prisoners were sentenced to death for the murders, and they are the only people held on Ohio’s death row.

Lucasville: The Untold Story of a Prison Uprising and Condemned are good books to read together, and give two thorough accounts of the events of the SOCF uprising, and even more thorough detail of what happened afterward. Lucasville is written by Staughton Lynd, a lawyer who plays a significant role in Condemned, which was written by Keith LaMar (Bomani), one of the people condemned to death for the events during the uprising. The content in these books overlaps a lot, but not too much as to be redundant. What content is repeated through the two books just underlines lessons learned, and clarifies the authors’ political orientations, some of which MIM(Prisons) does not agree with. Rather than write a point-by-point criticism of these books which most of our readers will never have the opportunity to read anyway, below we summarize some of the lessons on prison organizing we gleaned from studying them.

Condemned recounts Bomani’s first-hand experience before, during, and after the uprising, especially focusing on the struggle of the five prisoners who were scapegoated for the uprising (known as the Lucasville 5). Condemned is a good case study on many common aspects of prison organizing. Lynd’s book describes all the work it took, and all the obstacles the state put in place, to support the Lucasville 5’s struggle from the outside.

The first theme addressed in Condemned is the author’s ideological transformation. MIM(Prisons)‘s primary task at this point in the struggle is building public opinion and institutions of the oppressed for socialist revolution, so affecting others’ political consciousness is something we work on a lot. On the first day of the uprising, Bomani was hoping the state would come in to end the chaos. But “standing there as dead bodies were dumped onto the yard (while those in authority stood back and did nothing), and then experience the shock of witnessing Dennis’ death [another prisoner who was murdered in the same cell as the author], awakened something in me.” Bomani’s persynal experiences, plus politicization on the pod and thru books, are what led em to pick up the struggle against injustice.

At an event where Bomani was publicizing eir case and experience, a MIM(Prisons) comrade was able to ask em what go-to books ey recommend for new comrades who are just getting turned on to the struggle. Bomani suggested Black Boy by Richard Wright, and also refers to Wright in Condemned. MIM(Prisons) would second this recommendation. Black Boy is an excellent study of New Afrikan life under Jim Crow in the South, with many aspects of that struggle still continuing in this country today.

In eir own book, Bomani also recounts acts of prisoner unity against the administration shortly following the uprising, and how politicization of fellow prisoners played out in real life. The prisoners made a pact to trash the range each day, and not clean it up. The guards cleaned the range themselves for a few days, but then brought in a prisoner to clean it up. Simultaneously, the “old heads” on the pod were leading speeches nightly about the need for unity and the relationship between the prisoners and the administration, politicizing everyone within earshot.

“Every night there was a variation of this same speech, and I listened to it over and over again until something took root in me. I became openly critical of the mistreatment we had all undergone and, for a few months at least, was serious in my determination to persuade others not to join the administration in the efforts to further divide and conquer us.”(Condemned, p. 33)

A tactic that was mentioned in passing in Condemned was how the prisoner who was cleaning the range for the pigs was dealt with. Ey was struggled with for a period of time, and asked to not clean the range, but ey came back day after day. Eventually this prisoner was stabbed by the protesters for continuously undermining the action. Bomani doesn’t mention how this act impacted the unity demo, whether it helped or not. We aim to minimize physical violence as much as possible, although sometimes it may be necessary. It is up to those who are on the ground to make the call in their particular conditions, and this tactic should not at all be taken lightly. If much physical force is necessary to maintain a peace demo, then we should ask ourselves if the masses we’re organizing are ready for that type of demo. Political education is always our focus at this stage in the struggle.

Both books address how a protest with solid participants can fail or succeed depending on the protest’s outside support. Several hunger strikes were launched, and ended, without progress made on the demands. It wasn’t until connections were made with outside advocates and media that prison officials took any steps toward fixing them. Especially in an instance where a lawyer met with the regional director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation, which led to some property restrictions being lifted.

Recalling a victory from a 12-day hunger strike which had a lot of outside support,

“When the administration refused to follow their own rules, we complained (verbally and informally) and then asked a district judge to intervene on our behalf, all to no avail. It never occurred to us that we were wasting our time by appealing to the very people who had placed us in this predicament we were in.

“Indeed, the whole process of redressing our grievances was nothing more than an exercise in futility designed to drain off our vital energy and make us feel as though we had done all that we could do.

“It was only when we began to write and reach out to ‘the people’ that things began to change. First, there was Staughton’s book and accompanying play; then we began holding ‘talks’ around the state on various college campuses, as well as writing articles in various periodicals. In this way, we were able to generate some much-needed support.”(Condemned, p. 179)

To combat the psychological warfare of the prison staff, Bomani strongly recommends daily meditation and yoga as a method to protect oneself. “By learning how to watch my thoughts [meditate using simple breathing exercises], I was able to rise above the vicious cycle of cause and effect, and thereby avoid the tricks and traps of my environment.”(Condemned, p. 133)

MIM(Prisons) receives regular requests for information on sovereign citizenship. While we’ve written against this tactic at length elsewhere, Lucasville underlines it with an anecdote about three prisoners who cut off their fingers and mailed them to the United Nations to show how serious they were in in their claim of sovereign citizenship. The request was still denied.

A final lesson from these books, especially recounted in Lucasville, is that in any attempt at solidarity and justice for the oppressed, prison officials and other oppressors will do everything they can to undermine it. Everything. We should never expect that our enemies will act in good faith toward respecting us and our needs. We should always expect pushback and always expect that they will attempt to derail us at every step of the way. Studying past struggles for clues on how we can protect our movement will only make our job easier. The state is taking notes on our shortcomings and we need to do the same of both our shortcomings and our strengths.