Federal Prisons

Back in September, American Indian Movement activist Leonard Peltier, who’s been in prison since 1977, wrote an article responding to his denial for parole entitled, “I am Barak Obama’s Political Prisoner now.” In it he wrote, “If only the federal government would have respected its own laws, not to mention the treaties that are, under the U.S. Constitution, the supreme law of the land, I would never have been convicted nor forced to spend more than half my life in captivity.”(1)

In October, in Denver, the birthplace of Kkkolombus Day, activists lead an annual protest of the patriotic parade, which “commemorate(s) the beginnings of America itself.” Of this year, they report: “We chanted”Down With Kolumbus Day, Settlers (and Occupiers) Go Away!” To liven up the anti-colonial festivities we brought a piñata of Uncle Sam. Protesters had whacks at it with a shoe, in honor of Al-Zaidi in Iraq.”(2)

As we work to get this issue of Under Lock & Key off to you all in November, amerikans are warming up their kitchens for a cozy Thanksgiving (“Thangs taken” is more accurate) dinner on land stolen from the First Nations, made up of food picked and packaged by exploited Latino migrants, served on dinner plates made by exploited Asians, paid for by stolen wealth from natural resources in the Middle East, while millions of children in Africa starve.

notes:
(1) http://www.counterpunch.org/peltier09112009.html
(2) RAIM Global Digest Issue 6. November 15th, 2009.

I’m requesting you to please discontinue mailing me the Under Lock & Key newsletters. I don’t want to be at risk of being mistaken as a gang member by TDCJ as I have read in the last issue of Under Lock & Key. Thank you for the service.

[img=“https://www.prisoncensorship.info/art/quick/assistformigrantsespanol.jpg” alt=]

Como la populación de prisioneros en crecimiento más rápido, migrantes en detenciones han servido para sequir aumentando los niveles de encarcelamiento en los Estados Unidos desde 2001, iqualmente en las últimas decadas, salvando así a la industria de prisiones privadas en el proceso.(1) Apesar de la continuada retorica sobre las drogas cruzando a los Estados Unidos por México, el gobierno drásticamente quitó recursos del enforzamiento de drogas y aumentó recursos al enforzamiento de inmigración después del 9/11, y la populación de prisioneros muestra ese cambio.(2)

En el Julio 2009, había 31,000 personas no ciudadanas encerradas al nivel federal en en los Estados Unidos. Este número está más grande que en el 2006, cuando habían más o menos 20,000, y el año 1992 cuando habían 6,259.(3) Hay más de 320,000 migrantes detenidos por Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) cada año, y hasta un cuarto de ellos son jóvenes. Estos números solamente incluyen las personas encarceladas bajo la custodia federal, aunque puedan estar ubicadas por todo el país y en prisiones estatales y cárceles locales. Estos números no incluyen personas quienes están encarceladas por cargos criminales, pero no están entregados a la custodia federal por infracciónes de inmigración (tales como en las “ciudades santuarias”).

La Unión Americana de Libertades Civiles (American Civil Liberties Union) dice que las condiciones en cuales esos detenidos civiles están mantenidos son frecuentemente tan malas o aun peores que las condiciones que experimentan la gente en la prisión por convicciones criminales. Estos centros de detención han sido descritos como “lamentablamente irregulados.” Los “requisitos” que ellos tienen sobre como tratar la gente no llevan obligaciones legales, reduciendolos esencialmente a sugerencias.(3) Esto significa que a los prisioneros sin ciuidadania estadounidense se los niega acceso a teléfonos, ayuda legal o liberías legales, recreación, visitación, correo, cuidado médico, papel del baño y la lista sigue. Las personas son secuestradas de sus casas a media noche y mudado sin ninguna notificación a sus familias. Además de eso frecuentemente ellos no tienen ninguna manera de comunicación, dejando la gente completamente separada de su sistema de apoyo y consejería legal. Para los prisioneros estadounidenses, esas condiciones no son sorprendentes ni nuevas. La diferencia para los migrantes es que la línea entre la detención y el castigo está borrosa. Hace años, los migrantes eran detenidos por 4 o 5 días, y después deportados. Ahora la gente está detenida por hasta 2 años (y posiblamente más), sin haber sido acusado de un crímen, aun menos declarada culpable, ni por un jurado ilegítimo, ni en un tribunal ilegítimo de los Estados Unidos.

Los Motivaciones Economicas

Una razón que los niveles del encarcelamiento de los migrantes está aumentando es porque después de la construcción rápida de prisiones en los 1990s, algunas prisiones ahora están parcialmente vacías. Los dueños y los financieros de esas prisiones están implorando que llegué más gente que encerrar, y su solución es los migrantes. Esto es parte de la economía imperialista parasítica; llenarias prisiones se lo considera como un estímulo económico aunque sea un gasto de recursos sin resultado productivo.

Prisiones privadas contienen 17% de la gente bajo la custodia de la agencia ICE. La Corporación Correccional de América, una compañía que maneja prisiones privadas y que tiene control de la mitad de las instituciones de detención manejadas por compañías privadas, gastó $3 milliones de dólares cabildeando los políticos en el 2004. Ellos quieren leyes de inmigración más estritas para que tengan acceso a más prisioneros, lo cual las brindará a ellos más dinero. Al mismo tiempo, ICE puede pagar 26% menos por día para mantener los prisioneros en una institución privada contra una que está administrada por el estado.(4) Esto es posible porque en las instituciones privadas hace falta la observación del público igual que la del gobierno, y ellos reducen los gastos porque eliminan todo que ayudaría a los prisioneros, incluyendo cuidado médico para que es necesario vivir.. Una razón por la cual los gobiernos estatales han evitado usar las prisiones privadas para sus ciudadanos fue el escándalo a que estuvieron rapidamente vinculadas. En el año 1998-99 las prisiones privadas de Wackenhut en Nuevo Mexico tuvieron una proporción de mortalidad 55 veces más alta que la mortalidad nacional en las prisiones.(5) Cuando esas corporaciones son contratados por la agencia ICE, la falta de voz en la populación migrante permite que sigan sin castigo las condiciones abusivas para ahorrar dinero. Esto es otro buen ejemplo de como el capitalismo valora ganacias más que la vida humana.

Aún, como lo describimos en “Amerikkkanos: Opremiendo por Subsistencia,” un incremento en los niveles del encarcelamiento no sirve sólo los intereses de la industria de las prisiones privadas; las uniones de los trabajadores en la prisión y los cerdos tambien reciben beneficios grandes. Desde el 9/11/2001 los Estados Unidos ha incrementado sus oficiales de aduanda de 8,000 a 20,000 agentes, 20% quienes son veteranos militares. Los salarios que empiezan a $36,000 hasta $46,000 por año más beneficios completos. Todo el Departamento de Seguridad Nacional (Department of Homeland Security - DHS) el cual incluye al ICE, se jacta aue su presupuesto es más que $40 billiones y que proveen trabajos de salarios altos a 166,234 norte amerikanos.(6) El DHS no solamente mantiene la riqueza dentro del bordo de los Estados Unidos, ayudan a distribuirla también.

Y asi mismo al complejo industrial militar y complejo industrial de prisiones que nosotros discutimos en “La Privatisación de la Guerra: Imperialismo Boquea sus Ultimos Respiras,” los contratos con el departamendo de suguridad nacional son basado en a quien tu conoces, no en lo que estas vendiendo, como los empleados del gobierno antiguos venden sus mercancías a sus patrónes antiguas.(7) Al mismo tiempo, bastantes dirijidas por sobre entuciasticos y abiertamenta racistas como el “Minuteman.”(8)

Por supuesta, existen verdaderos beneficios económicos para los norte amerikanos sobre todo al manejar la populación tratando de venir a los Estados Unidos. Si los norte amerikanos verdaderamente hacen más dinero porque ellos son más inteligentes y más trabajadores, entonces no estarían asustados a abrir las fronteras y permitir la competencia por los trabajos. En cambio, la petición por represión está forsando más y más agricultores a emplear la labor de prisioneros para las cosechas cuando usualmente ellos usaban los migrantes. Libres ciudadanos amerikanos no más no trabajan por salarios proletario, sin mencionar que esto siendo ilegal, entonces el argumento que ellos quieren recoger sus trabajos es muy debil. Aunque quisas esta es la solución perfecta para mantener la comida barata, mientras que mantienen a los extrajeros fuera y los oprimidas en prision. Migrantes detenidos trabajan en prisiones privadas haciendo el mantenimiento diario, y porque ellos no son ciudadanos estadounidenses el DHS impone un maximo salario de $1 al día.(9) Mientras que comida y provisión de viviendo suficientes son proveidas teoricamente, estos condiciones de vida y trabajo son peores de las de sus propias regiones. Opuesto al reaccionario vuelta de control de fronteras, nosotros retamos ellos quienes quieren trabajos para todos a trabajar hacia un nueva sistema económico en cambio.

Cierre las Puertas: La Unidad de los Blancos

ICE ni el unico actor de enforsamiento de ley en este robo de ganacias sobre la vida humana. Bajo el Acto del Inmigración y el Nacionalidad 287(g), autoridades locales pueden ser autorizada a oficialmente imponer leyes federales de inmigración, mientras que otros están confortables inoficialmente usando el viejo táctica de oprimir grupos especificos de gente. Esta cultura de opresión en la nación blanca corre tan profundo que más y más ciudadanos estadounidenses están uniendose en el tradicional pasatiempo amerikkkano de vijilar el bordo, de voluntarios con tales grupos como el “Hombres Minuto de Defensa Civil de Cuerpo.” En respuesta a mucho indignidad público, el presidente Obama ha hablado de las acciones del famoso humillador de los migrantes el Alguacil Arapio de Condado Maricopa al limitario a solamente determinar el estatus emigratorio de alguien cuando un sido encarcelado. Esta debil respuesta de la administración de Obama enseña sus soportes a tales opresiones de migrantes.

La nación blanca Euro-Amerikana ha estado sistematicamente oprimiendo otras gentes por centenios. Una manera es por medio de la explotación y el neo-colonialismo en países del Tercer Mundo, donde la gente está atrapada como labor barata por bordas y leyes de inmigración. Corporaciones pagan poquito o no salarios allá y venden los productos por super-ganancias en los Estados Unidos. La situación dificil económica causa a la gente que abandonen sus hogares y frecuentemente arriesguen sus vidas por tratar de proveer para ellos y sus familias. Desde el 1995 hasta el 2005 como 2,600 personas han muerto tratando de entrar dentro de los Estados Unidos por México.(10) Asi mismo, gente regularmente muere cruzando el oceano en botes hechos a mano de Haiti donde los gobierno impuesto por los Estados Unidos rehusa proveer las necesidades de la gente. Es opresivo en una país entonces la gente decide marcharse y venir aquí pensando que encontrarán mejores oportunidades. Claro que si, lo que verdaderamente pasa es la opresión y explotación de gente del Tercer Mundo continua dentro de los Estados Unidos cuando la gente no tiene una tarjeta verde. Los condiciones están peores para los oprimidos durante la reciente crisis economic. Muchas de America Latina están descubriendo que las oportunidades están ahora mejor en sus países, sin embargo, los norte amerikanos continuan viviendo su estilo de vida sobre consumidor en los Estados Unidos.

Señas de Progreso

En medio de todo esto, existen gente trabajando hacia soluciónes. En Pecos, Texas en Diciembre del 2008 y Enero del 2009, habo una serie de lavantameintos de migrantes prisioneros. Fueron finalmente prendidos por la muerte de un hombre con epilepcia, quien murio completamente sin necesidad por el hecho de un descarado descuido por su vida al denegación cuidado médico.(11) Gente de diferente nacionalidades se juntaron en la rebelion, demandando mejores condiciones. Esta no es la primera ni la última muerto de esta forma, pues las muertes inexplicadas son común en prisiones estadounidense, incluyendo centros de detenciones de migrantes.

Algunas ciudades estadounidendes están moviendase en la dirección progresiva de ser “santuarios.” Ciudades santuarias permiten a la gente quienes quisas no son ciudadanos estadounidense a hacer dinero y lo manden a sus hogares a circular en sus naciones. Esto es una forma redonda de movernos hacia un mundo sin fronteras. Sin embargo, con acusaciones que algunos alcaldes están siendo “suave con el crimen,” el estatus de santario quisas se encuentre amenasado. Adicionalmente, no hay nada parando los agentes federales de ir dentro de esas ciudades e imponer leyes federales de inmigración, como frecuentemente lo hacen.

Mientras que nosotros favorecemos esos pasos progresivos hacia protecciones para los migrantes en los Estados Unidos, reconocemos que no son suficiente para llevar al final de la opresión nacional. Esas son reformas fragíles en lo mejor, que pueden ser facilmente revocados (o simplemente no los hacer caso). Otra solución que algunos tienen es la integración de migrantes dentro la nación explotadora de los Estados Unidos por medio de salarios de ramaño explotadar. Esto es un esfuerzo para reducir sus potenciales como revolutionarios a esos de consumidores y parasitos de labor aristocracia. Lo que verdaderamente necesitamos para terminar la opresión nacional de migrantes en los Estados Unidos es exponer “el sueño amerikkkano,” y revolucionar los trabajores para soportar los movimientos revolucionarios en el Tercer Mundo.

notas:
(1) Greene, Judith. Banking on the Prison Boom. August 2006.
(2) Fernandes, Deepa. Targeted: Homeland Security and the Business of Immigration. Seven Stories Press, New York. 2007, p.119.
(3) “Detention Management,” U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Nov 20, 2008, http://www.ice.gov/pi/news/factsheets/detention_mgmt.htm
(4) Berestein, Leslie. Tougher immigration laws turn the ailing private prison sector into a revenue maker. San Diego Tribune, 5/4/2008.
(5) Fernandes. p. 195.
(6) http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/rewrite/budget/fy2009/homeland.html
(7) Fernandes, p.178.
(8) Ibid., p.185. Border Technologies, Inc. founder believes that “Mexican culture is based on deceit” and “Chicanos and Mexicanos lie as a means of survival.”
(9) Ibid., p.197.
(10) Ibid., p.50.
(11) Wilder, Forrest. How a private prison pushed immigrant inmates to the brink. The Texas Observer, October 2, 2009. [url=http://www.texasobserver.org/features/the-pecos-insurrection]http://www.texasobserver.org/features/the-pecos-insurrection

I’m the comrade in the fight who wrote about the Alford Hughes Unit putting us on file to be a gang called “ULK.” When I wrote this I was pulled out of my cell in segregation. The gang officer, another officer and mailroom staff messed with me by not letting me eat and not getting me out of my segregation cell to go to dayroom or shower. They put down VR and just walked by my cell all the time because I wrote a letter to Under Lock & Key. I know if I do something to one of the officers I will get more time.

I sent Step Ones and Step Twos out and have written to the world, my family and lawyers. Officers lie to the people and say I have been lying about all this and they send my mail back without letting me know. I’ve been jumped on by officers when they found out that I’m a subscriber to Under Lock & Key and because of what I believe in.

I was going to visit last weekend but because they jumped on me I was not let out of my cell. They told my family I was on visit. My mom didn’t believe it and she was told if she did not leave they will call the cops on her. I don’t see why they are able to do this to prisoners.

When I told them something they didn’t like they put me in a cage about 2 by 3 and a foot tall with glass around, not able to go to the bathroom. All I could do was sit on the floor with spiders running around over my feet biting me. I was in it for 5 days with no shower just because I wouldn’t tell them what they wanted to hear.

The Texas prison officers label ULK recipients gang members in Texas. What should I do to fight this? I could use help from any comrades who can help.

MIM(Prisons) adds: Throughout history it has been illegal for oppressed groups to organize or educate themselves. This is true in the united $tates today despite the First Amendment. Going up against the state as an individual is a losing battle, that is why collective action is the only way to put an end to these sorts of abuses.

A December 13, 2006 memo from then-Director Scott Kernan declared a systemwide ban on all publications from the Maoist Internationalist Movement. The memo misquoted and took out of context statements by MIM to justify the ban. Many comrades soon jumped into action to defend the First Amendment rights of California prisoners and their outside supporters. One comrade took this battle further than anyone else, leading to over 2 years of legal battles that ended in April, 2009.

One administrator claimed there were three banned publishers in California Department of Corrections (CDCR): MIM, Penthouse and Playboy. While MIM had received this high honor of a complete ban, others were facing severe censorship by CDCR as well. In April 2007, Prison Legal News (PLN) settled their suit against CDCR’s illegal censorship. The settlement was very strategic on the behalf of the PLN legal team in that it included reforms to CDCR mail policy that affected all of us that had been having problems.

As many of our readers probably know, Prison Legal News was founded and is led by jailhouse lawyers. Their consistent work has won them the ability to recruit street lawyers to their battles. Without the leadership of prisoners and former prisoners, defenders of prisoners’ rights in the courtroom are few and far between. Yet, litigating from behind the walls is no easy task, as our California comrade can attest:

“The sole reason for my non-opposal of defendants summary judgment is quite simply that I was unable to litigate the case from my current residence here in the hole. As I stated to you before I was not able to obtain the required legal materials needed to litigate, materials such as a basic copy of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP), the sufficient or suitable case law required, or even sufficient copies, and typing paper.

“As I am in Ad-Seg, most of the required materials stated above are not in this building’s possession, or even on the same yard. We must write to B-yard law library for requested legal texts. This is something no one bothered to inform me of ‘til just a few weeks ago. Furthermore, the whole process of requesting materials is usually hit or miss in the sense that sometimes we receive our materials, sometimes we don’t. Since I’m in the hole, I had to request photocopies of the FRCP. However, due to ’copyright concerns’ I did not get it.”

In addition to being denied needed legal materials, this comrade was denied an appeal for a lawyer to be appointed to their case. This was particularly relevant in this case where s/he was being denied access to the materials in question because they were deemed a risk to security.

For a year and a half following PLN’s victory, supporters of MIM Distributors argued that the ban on MIM mail was not in compliance with the settlement. Finally, in October 2008 the CDCR released their new “Centralized List of Disapproved Publications,” a product of the settlement. MIM Distributors is not on this list, and is therefore no longer legally banned in California. It is against CDCR policy for individual prisons to institute bans that are not on this centralized list.

While the final date for additions to the Centralized List was May 1 (and it is updated annually), we have not seen the new list for 2009. Experience seems to indicate that we are still not on it, since those who continue to ban our mail cite outdated documents. Prisons that continue to return mail from MIM(Prisons) unopened are High Desert and the supermax prison, Pelican Bay. Blanket bans seem to require more stringent review by the courts. Therefore, it may be more strategic for the state to avoid blanket bans in the future, thus making lawsuits like the California prisoner’s more difficult to carry out.

The good news is most prisons in California no longer have a blanket ban on MIM (those that do are in violation of court orders). This may have more to do with incompetence of the CDCR staff than a strategic approach. But it also means that the censors must now justify their censorship based on the California Code of Regulations, and appeals cannot be rejected out of hand.

For a while, the prisoner who filed suit was the only persyn in h prison who was able to receive Under Lock & Key. We assumed this was to undermine h censorship claims. Yet, after the ban on MIM was officially canceled in October, all of a sudden ULK was also censored to this comrade. When one of our legal supporters wrote to inquire as to why, the Warden cited the overturned ban on MIM. This was as late as March 2009, and the same thing happened in other California prisons. It was not until 6 months after the new list was released that prison administrators acknowledged that MIM Distributors was no longer banned. We have been assured that proper training of mailroom staff has been conducted in a number of California prisons regarding the new banned list. Still, this alleged “incompetence” has led to over 2 years of no contact with many prisoners across California, and added up to uncounted costs in lost and returned mail and printed materials.

Meanwhile, MIM Theory 8: Anarchist Ideal & Communist Revolution was deemed such a threat that the court would not allow the plaintiff to view the magazine alone in h cell to prepare h case. The CDCR legal team even attempted to seal MIM literature from the public because it allegedly posed such a threat to security. In their motion to have the documents sealed, the CDCR also refers to MIM’s “anonymity” as a threat to security. It is not clear to us how identities of those working with MIM are relevant to the security of prisons run by CDCR, but we do see anonymity as justified given the history of harassment and intimidation by CDCR’s Investigation Unit and the CCPOA of citizens outside of prison. MIM(Prisons) takes these threats very seriously.

On June 29, 2009, the US District Court issued a summary judgment dismissing the claims against CDCR. In the summary judgment the court recognizes our comrade’s exposure of the CDCR for misquoting MIM Theory 8, using ellipses as Scott Kernan did in the 2006 memo. Still, the court deferred to the biased judgments of the prison officials, citing Overton v. Bazzetta, 539 U.S. 126, 132 (2003).

The comrade responded by writing,

“I am extremely disheartened by the aforementioned facts. Disheartened, not defeated, yet I see no positive outcome to the civil matter.”

S/he goes on to state,

“Once again I am extremely and hopefully apologetic. It was not my intention to have done all this work for the past 3 years just to have it all come to a crashing halt in the period of three months. I have let not just myself and the movement down, but the people as well.

“Not all is bad though. This was certainly a learning experience and I definitely learned a lot for a 7th grade drop-out. I have been inspired to take a paralegal course, after which I will be of better use to MIM and the people.”

For this comrade in California, it is certainly natural to feel disheartened, and it is good to hear that you are not defeated. In the imperialist countries, the task of the revolutionary movement is to carry out long legal battles. Mao said this in 1975, and it is still true today. This means that many of us will have to spend long hours learning and applying bourgeois law, while recognizing that the law has class character and is not designed to serve the oppressed. In addition, “legal work” does not just mean in the court room. An important aspect for keeping our work focused and sane is to carry it out as part of a larger movement. This comrade didn’t have a victory in court, but h efforts were simultaneous to petitioning of the CDCR, to public education around censorship, to other prisoners filing appeals, and to PLN’s own lawsuit. We will face many failures along the way, but these failures become easy to accept when we study and understand the weaknesses of imperialism as a system, and see our strategic role in contributing to ending all systems of oppression.

We commend this comrade’s drive to continue legal studies. The more effective each of us become in our work the easier it is for all of us to succeed. Becoming more effective requires studying others’ experiences, learning from them and developing strategies as a movement.

In a more recent letter our jailhouse lawyer wrote,

“Some key points I’ve learned from all of this is that you definitely have to be committed when engaging the oppressors and their legal system. You always have to keep in mind that you are facing seasoned veterans with all the tools and obstacles of the state at their beck and call. It’s never going to be easy, just less difficult at times. Long periods of research and study are also essential with these legal battles long before you decide to actually bring your case into the courtroom. You can also never let yourself be discouraged because discouragement is key to the oppressor’s victories which in turn establishes precedent making it that much more difficult for us to succeed.”

Prison Legal News and the lawyers supporting their work are the exception to the rule. Most of the time it is prisoners, sometimes with little or no formal education, as this comrade can attest to, who must fight these battles in a maze of complicated language and jargon, where you are starting out at a huge disadvantage. That is why it is important to keep in mind what we are dealing with. The u.$. state is an imperialist state. The court is not a just and benevolent god. Mumia introduces his new book Jailhouse Lawyers: Prisoners Defending Prisoners v. the U.S.A. discussing prisoners who have gone mad after years of learning and applying the law only to lose their just cases, or to have them thrown out before even getting a trial. Such outcomes are to be expected for the oppressed under imperialism and this is an important lesson to learn.

To our readers in California, it is more important than ever that you write in to tell us what mail you are receiving from us so that we can build on this struggle. To date, only a handful of people have acknowledged receiving ULK 10 on Hip Hop.

I thought to write with respect to your no. 10 issue I received and appreciated very much. In regards to the main topic, hip hop, of which I am no fan, it gave a good insight as how dominant Anglo culture preys on an underclass and or minority group. Although the Anglo culture is the most prevalent in its influences, the capitalists (the Anglo class), have no respect even to its own race when it comes to the dollar sign$.

Having been born in the 50s, and part of the Chicano civil rights movement of the mid 60s and early 70s, my Raza had had enough of the Anglo suppression of our being and culture. What the Anglo race wanted of us through the South West was cultural assimilation, period! It didn’t work for the majority of us, with only a few assimilating into an Anglo society. However, it is those few who assimilate that cause me concern, who follow those that went before them in their deliberate knowledge of the Anglo assimilation process.

Prior to my incarceration in 1990 “rap” music was already making itself known in the major metropolitan cities in Texas. As my years of incarceration progressed during the 1990s, I was seeing and hearing a lot of my Raza mimicking the talk (language) of a hip hop culture that was permeating throughout the free world and penal institutions. And that they were not able to speak, much less understand their own language, Spanish (or the more subtle Spanglish, Cali, or Pachuco), caused me great concern in seeing that the culprit of this subtle form of Anglo assimilation was the Anglo capitalist which controls the media, in its effort to destroy any culture other than that of its own.

Although I now see “Chicano” rap originating out of California as a form of pushing back against the Anglo assimilation process, the Anglo capitalists controlling the media has not embraced this form of Chicano “expression” (nor latino “rap” in general). The writer/reviewer of the essay “Hip Hop: Living Culture or Commodity?” did a good job in showing how a capitalist and dominant Anglo society destroys other cultures at all costs. But in having read the essay I didn’t see that it addressed that Anglo commercialization of mainstream “hip hop” has an agenda to also destroy ones cultural language as well.

Shortly after MIM(Prisons) posted an article talking about the use of excess prisons to lock up migrants, CNN reported that the u.$. government is looking to take over another empty state prison, this time for Muslims from the Third World.(1) The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) already secretly opened two control units for Muslim Arabs in recent years at USP Terra Haute and USP Marion (which became the original control unit in 1983, but was later downgraded to medium security). These units hold 94% and 75% Muslims, respectively, are even more isolating than many prisons holding English-speakers and u.$. citizens.(2)

Thomson Correctional Center in Illinois is an unused, high tech, maximum security prison with a capacity of 1600 that still sits virtually empty. The government promises that if Third World Muslims are to be sent there, that it will be made even more secure than the official federal control unit, ADX in Florence, Colorado. According to the CNN article, Thomson is the top contender to take most of those now held in Guantanamo Bay after its planned closure, scheduled for January 2010.

There are only 215 prisoners at Guantanamo, and the BOP already holds 340 people that they say are “linked to international terrorism.”(1) While the imprisonment of Latino migrants dwarfs these numbers, one must also consider that there are many u.$. prisons in occupied Iraq and Afghanistan and other secret military locations that hold primarily Muslims from the Middle East.

Governor Quinn is excited at the prospect of bringing these prisoners to Illinois because of the money it will bring to the region. This is consistent with his policies of using prisons to combat recession (3), and he may be on to something. With more and more amerikans being employed to physically oppress other people, importing people who are a threat to the imperialist order to hold in amerikan-run prisons would not be an unlikely form for amerika to take as it turns more fascist in the face of imperialist crisis. As one resident pointed out to Reuters, the local population in rural Illinois would back the mission of the prison (4), unlike people in the Middle East where the u$ currently holds most of its Middle Eastern prisoners. A turn toward fascism would be necessary to prevent non-citizens from gaining access to the bourgeois democratic rights promised to those on u.$. soil. (Those currently held in Guantanamo have never been convicted of a crime.) When convenient for them, the imperialists believe humyn rights begin and end at man-made borders.

Of course bourgeois rights are denied to citizens of the united snakes as well, as the FBI demonstrated by assassinating New Afrikan Imam, Luqman Ameen Abdullah in Detroit. Abdullah was a member of Jamil al-Amin’s (formerly Black Panther H. Rap Brown) Muslim network called “Ummah.” New Afrikan Muslims are the second largest group in the Marion Communications Management Unit.(2)

notes:
(1) Yellin, Jessica. Illinois prison top contender to house Gitmo detainees, official says. cnn.com. November 14, 2009.
(2) http://www.abolishcontrolunits.org/research/US
Exposing “Little Guantanamo”: Inside the CMU by Daniel McGowen reports that 75% in Marion CMU are Muslim, though only 10 of 26 are from the Middle East. In Terra Haute, reportedly 2 of 213 prisoners are not Arab Muslims.
(3) MIM(Prisons) on U.S. Prison Economy. Under Lock & Key Issue 8, May 2009.
(4)http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN16528063

Salutations. As I write this letter you will be feeling what I call my everyday polemical life. My angst is superfluous because I can’t believe what I encountered on the 9th through the 13th of September. I personally witnessed Willie Lynch’s letter on how to keep us against us while I was helping bring consciousness to the brothers here at Clinton and was met with resistance. It seems that what happened in the past is no longer significant nor appreciated. I’m talking about the Attica rebellion of 1971.

As I expressed solidarity amongst us I attempt to recreate ourselves and adhere to a different form of rules, all while not violating any directives that may lead to an infraction of any sort. I tried to catalyze and show that what happened almost 40 years ago is indeed still taking place today, except there’s a lot more tribalism now. I provided a non-violent event which was something totally small. I asked if brothers would, along with the 15% who didn’t eat during the 5 days, maintain a verbal fast to show and pay homage to the fallen freedom fighting comrades who were murdered by the government appointed force for standing up to the injustice that is still plaguing our people in prisons today. By fasting from both food and talking I attempt to show how we can get along with each other no matter what gang we are in, no matter what religion we practice. By not eating we show self sacrifice just like the brothers did, and by not talking we show also discipline, again just like those who were in the Attica rebellion did.

Sadly, in my attempts to show and express an affinity between each other I was met with enmity. After a couple of the average “get the fuck out of here with that bullshit” and a few “negro please” I was sure to attract some politically and socially conscious brothers who reminded me that “violence is a dark undercurrent of Amerikan history.” Like Pan-Afrikanist Frantz Fanon put it, “What we are witnessing is a psychological and physical reaction to the trauma.” Some brothers actually said, “That was then and this is now, why should we respect something that happen before we were even born?” Some went on to say, “Ain’t nothing going to change anyway.” It’s statements like these that show our ignorance!

In fact, take the Civil Rights movement for instance. They started out in small groups and grew in relations with those who were also victims of the desegregated south, and formed a force of mass campaign of civil disobedience! By sticking together and voicing our opinion we spoke volumes of our rights as a people who had little to no rights. We started to register to vote, operate forums, print our own newsletters, to be acknowledged as Afrikan men and womyn. Even today we have Afrikan mayors, attorney generals, CEOs of the largest bank, and President of the United States. After explaining this, more and more participated in the eating and verbal fast, but it wasn’t enough.

I think back on how brothers like Herbert X Blyden, Big Black, L.D. Barkeley, John (Mecajaweh) Hill, Sam Melville, Akil Al Jundi, Robin Palmer, just to name a few, gave their lives for brothers to have better programs, and to study the Islamic religion - where there was none. They fought for better schooling, and got children to be considered as visitors so they could visit their loved ones under lock and key. I have much respect and profound gratitude for the Nation of Islam who held order and negotiations. Yet still this vicious ass piece of swine still considered the NOI a hate group. If it wasn’t for the good brothers those corruption officers would have been dealt with.

So I say unselfishly, it’s not enough! We need to do more to bring some awareness, we need to get our media (BET) to stop playing comedy, music, and hood movies, and instead play some Black August, Motorcycle Diaries, and Malcolm X. We need to become more aware by reading books that deal with the history of struggle against oppression. We need, emphasis on we, need to educate our people with the help of those who also want to see us kick this stigma in the ass.

The U.$. is the melting pot of the world. A little bit of everybody and everything dwells in this land. It’s the land of opportunity, what do you expect? From the North to the South, and the East to the far West people are tearing down doors to get over to this sorry motha fucka. It’s the land of opportunity alright. The opportunity to get beat down, stepped on, and spit all over.

While the people of Third World or impoverished countries are under the perception that this is the place to be, and try to get here. The military agency ICE is sitting right at the top of that barb wired chain linked fence waiting for that opportune time to jump on their back and either allow the exploitation of their labor or send them back to the fucked up environment in which they’re running from.

Being an individual born over here in these ununited $tate$, living amongst the imperialists themselves, one might take my opinion of the issue dealing with the border situation, or the incarceration of brothas from other countries who wish to better their situation by taking just a little bit of what these imperialistic snakes have taken from them, as a person who’s looking in from the outs.

But trust and believe I’m a brotha looking in from the in. I ain’t no U.$. citizen, and I damn sho ain’t no Amerikkkan. My pops is of Somoan decent and my moms is a descendant of Africa. Period. I’m an immigrant along with every other individual in this ununited country who isn’t indigenous.

Ol Chris and his squad came over here from Europe running from their fucked up conditions looking to receive an opportunity to better their situation and their queen’s capitalistic hunger. Where was ICE then? On the same Mayflower boat that brought the first load of African slaves. He probably was the motha fucka who was drivin the boat. When you think about the foundation of the U.$. as an ununited country you should think about immigrants, and border hoppers. Everything from the English, Germans, the French, Dutch, and the Irish were the ones who entered this land trespassing on the Natives.

The only difference from them and many of the Third World countries is they can’t stand in the sun too long without being physically burned by father sun, they don’t have tight eyes or natted hair, and they don’t know the first thing about communism. They are white. They only seek the growth and development of their white imperialistic race, and the destruction of the Third World people and the communistic spirit.

Now I’m not pulling the race card here so don’t take it as such. But in order to effectively deal with this issue we must address the underlying fact of the imperialist’s white supremacist ideology and concept of white supremacy. Since the beginning of colonial expansion, the white man has been advocating a campaign that he is the superior man of planet earth and all will bow down to him and give praise to him and his seed. In this campaign he has declared war on all nations not acknowledging this supposed superiority and attempted to not only suppress these nations, but knock them out of existence (ie. the First Nations of North America).

When the African slaves began running away from their masters and causing Lady Liberty a great pain in her ass, the Europeans quickly responded with the KKK who in turn attempted to discourage Africans from running off through terrorist attacks. It’s no different today except they leave the white robes and swastikas at home. When you think about the ICE agency and what they’re all about, all you’re missing is the robe and shit.

They allow the poor nations to come over here via border jumping, get a job in the cotton fields, or warehouses, then as soon as they don’t need the cheap labor force any longer they either send them to one of the new “social control camps” or knock them out of U.$. existence by sending them back to their imperialist war stricken country.

Hate it or love it, accept it, or reject it. The only way to kill the border problem is by killing imperialism and the ideology that keeps it living.

MIM(Prisons) replies: While overall correct, this comrade fails to distinguish between citizenship of a country and nationality. We agree that, in this country, to be on the side of the oppressed one must renounce any membership in the amerikan nation. We also agree that there are many nations within North America and many of them face oppression by the amerikan and kanadian nations. This is seen in the denial of land rights, mass imprisonment, chemical warfare through narcotics, high death rates from preventable illness and police state terrorism.

However, being a member of an oppressed nation in North America does not mean you’re not a citizen. The difference being that, as a citizen, you can legally work and earn exploiter level wages for that work, even if it’s harder for you to get than your fellow white citizens. Though migrants often can make much more than their sisters in the Third World, they face exploitation here in the united $tates, and other forms of oppression most legal citizens don’t need to fear.

We do agree with the idea that this comrade is not a u.$. citizen because of h position as a prisoner of the state. We look to both prisoners and migrants as potentially revolutionary forces within the u.$. because they do not enjoy full citizenship rights. Aside from the fact that more and more prisoners are migrants, this is the connection that makes the migrant issue very relevant to u.$. prisoners. National liberation struggles will be led by those among the oppressed who have a strong interest opposed to imperialism.

The analogy between ICE and the KKK is right on, though we’d say that the Minutemen are the more direct comparison. ICE differs in that they are very well paid for what they do, not just volunteers for their nation. They both play the role of managing nations of exploited people for the profit of their nation.

One final note on definitions, a question that has come up in discussing this issue is how we use the terms “migrant”, “immigrant” and “non-citizen.” As stated above, non-citizens are people without legal citizenship rights, and in the u.$., prisoners, while usually legally citizens, might be included in this group or at least considered partial citizens. Immigrants and migrants are both not citizens of the united $tates. But an immigrant is someone who moves to another place to live. Migrants are people who travel from place to place in order to find work. They might not have a home, but they often do have a family that they send money to and would prefer to be with.

I… will ride for the people no matter what comes my way at all
I… will die for the cause
Settle for nothing less than all that we rightfully deserve

Vr 1:
Society wanna keep a lock on me
constantly puttin blocks on me
cause I don’t see the same thang that they see at home
I stand alone in my poverty stricken environment
Rebellin all the non-sense
Cause I ain’t got no peace at home
To the oppressed
I must confess
all the distress
be havin me stressed
and I’m impressed
when I continue to keep on holdin strong
They wanna knock me cause i’m viben off the people’s vibe
livin off the people’s pride
to throw the snake up off his throne
Death to the oppressor and his capitalist establishment
they censor me cause I advocate communist advancement
I’m keeping Pac alive
Along with the Panther tribe
Revolutionary warfare China’s culture style

hook two times

Vr 2:
Hot damn
they done labeled me a terrorist
can somebody call up Barrack and tell that fool what terror is
He got the troops slangin black in Afghan
but lockin us up for having crack crumps in our pants
I want his pass revoked
Lock him up in Guantanamo
Can’t they see that this type of government ain’t gone never grow
They be the ones blowin up countries
pullin them kick does
puttin them bullet holes
in anybody opposin they policies
and I’m the bad guy?
Posted with my poli seeds
fist to the sky
shades on my eyes
waiting til freedom rings
pushing for growth til the day that I die
For the people I bare arms
And for the people I’ll ride
cause

hook twice

Vr 3 - melody style-

Freedom and justice for humanity
to all my ghetto children of Third World countries
I recognize the divisions in personalities
we must all fight together
and push for equality
cause there be no other way to go about it
If we want to better ourselves
we must confront him
Me be the lion at the front
from the belly of the beast
with the barrel of me pump
lyin right between him teeth
sangin

I…will ride for the people no matter what comes my way at all
I…will die for the cause settle for nothing less than all we rightfully deserve