MIM(Prisons) is a cell of revolutionaries serving the oppressed masses inside U.$. prisons, guided by the communist ideology of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism.
www.prisoncensorship.info is a media institution run by the Maoist Internationalist Ministry of Prisons. Here we collect and publicize reports of conditions behind the bars in U.$. prisons. Information about these incidents rarely makes it out of the prison, and when it does it is extremely rare that the reports are taken seriously and published. This historical record is important for documenting patterns of abuse, and also for informing people on the streets about what goes on behind the bars.
On 12 August 2021, staff member Karber at Ionia Correctional Facility
in Michigan censored Under Lock & Key 74 for the reason:
“Pages 8 & 9 calling for Prisoners to organize for uprising for an
up coming date.” These pages featured our center spread on Black August
and the September 9th Day of Peace and Solidarity. It is interesting
that the oppressor sees prisoners coming together for peace and unity as
an “uprising” and something that is deemed a threat to security (which
would be necessary to lawfully censor any reading material in the United
$tates).
On 7 September 2021, the staff in the mailroom at SCI Frackville in
Pennsylvania disliked the same pages and censored ULK 74 for
“Information on Page 8 Calls for Action (September 9).” In Amerikan
prisons people do not enjoy the civil rights many Amerikans hold so
dear. Their right to grieve or in this case to take an “action” is
deemed illegal and punished. Banning peaceful protest and other such
actions in prisons leads to violence.
Meanwhile a USW comrade in California reported,
“C.O. Solerio [a white female] emailed a Mental Health/Death Doctor a
referral against me for displaying erratic behavior. I was exercising
and calling cadence out loud ?? As is my custom, I commemorate Black
August by demonstrating physical fitness and oratory skills, loud and
proud, wherever I be. This year’s action continues to be opposed by
C.O.s obsessed with social control.”
This comrade was in quarantine isolation, where ey could not organize
eir normal group activities for Black August.
While the President offers up Juneteenth and Indigenous People’s Day
as sanctioned celebrations, the imperialists simultaneously repress
those trying to commemorate holidays that represent resistance to
oppression. In case anyone was fooled into thinking that we’re all equal
now.
14 October 2021 – Fifty five people were arrested for occupying the
Bureau of Indian Affairs(BIA) with demands that the Bureau be abolished,
that blood quantum be abolished and that the United $tates stop
extracting fossil fuels from native land. Siqiñiq Maupin explained the
purpose of the action on Democracy Now:
“The BIA was created to erase Indigenous people. It has always been
against us. And today, or yesterday, and every day, we demand that it be
abolished. We do not need a blood quantum to say how Indigenous we are
or to qualify that. We know our Indigenous ways to protect this land,
this Earth, this water. And we understand that the Earth is unbalanced.
And we do not have time for negotiations, for compromises. We need to
take this serious and take action now.”(1)
Indian Country Today reported:
Tobacco ties hung on locked doors. No one could get inside or
outside. Everyone outside of the building looked through the windows of
the doors to see what was happening inside and could hear demonstrators
yelling.
Some security personnel were injured and one officer was taken to a
hospital, according to an Interior spokesperson.(2)
In Washington D.C. the week of Indigenous People’s Day has been
marked by indigenous-led civil disobedience actions, calling on
President Biden to declare a climate emergency and stop approving fossil
fuel projects. It began on Monday with the slogan “expect us” being
written on the statue of Andrew Jackson in the U.$. capital. Over 530
climate activists have been arrested so far.(1)
This is occurring after President Biden issued the first presidential
proclamation of Indigenous Peoples’ Day on October 8th, along with an
announcement to preserve lands important to native people.
In 2017, President Trump re-opened up a number of recently created
national monuments for resource extraction, cutting the size of the
Bears Ears National Monument by 85%. Biden reversed Trump’s move,
reestablishing the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante monuments in
southern Utah, more than 3.2 million acres – an area nearly the size of
Connecticut.(3)
While President Trump declared genocidal Andrew Jackson to be his
favorite president, President Biden was the first president to recognize
Indigenous Peoples’ Day. This symbolizes the conflict within the
Amerikan ruling class, and the white nation as well, in how to deal with
the oppressed internal semi-colonies today. Biden’s multi-culturalism is
friendlier, and even makes real concessions like preserving land
important to native people. But as Biden himself said, it was the
easiest thing he’s done as president. And it was just as easy for Trump
to undo those designations during his tenure, leaving native people at
the whims of the white man again.
As communists we strive for the resolution of this national
contradiction via the project of liberation for all oppressed nations
and their land once and for all, not waiting and hoping for one slightly
friendlier sector of the oppressor to win out. The ongoing struggle for
First Nation land liberation is tied to the struggle of all oppressed
people for liberation. It is not surprising that the nation that
ultimately waged a settler war for hundreds of years to seize this land
is now the primary force keeping oppressed people down around the world.
We have seen the limits of euro-Amerikan peace offerings.
On 1 August 2021, supporters on the outside began a phone zap to the
Texas Department of Criminal Justice to protest a new policy that
restricted many forms of imagery in the media prisoners received through
the mail (Board Policy - 3.91). MIM(Prisons) also began distributing
fliers to Texas prisoners, who were writing us from all over the state
about this new policy. By 23 August 2021 we received the following
update from a comrade in Texas TEAM ONE, a leading organization in this
campaign:
“We’re hearing that BP-3.91 has been halted. Supposedly they’re to
revise it again to make it more sensical, but it’s not in effect as of
this date. However, mail room staff here have been holdin on to all
materials, which fall under that policy. They are giving no record of
receiving the mail, just holdin it until the policy is amended. So
that’s an issue.”
In other facilities they seem to not be acting on the new policy at
all.
a comrade in Telford Unit reported: …the policy
never took place. The complete ban of publications is outright
unconstitutional. I have written several grievances concerning
publications. TDCJ-CID will never ban harmless publications (U.S.
Weekly, Muscle Fitness, OK, National Geo, etc.). They have no right to
and it will only cause problems for the TDCJ-CID. Being that the policy
did not take effect 1 August 2021 I ask prisoners to give it no
attention. Instead be happy about the victory of being able to receive
post cards and not arbitrarily have your peers/loved ones self addressed
stamps ripped off your letters that way you may know who is
corresponding with you.
a comrade at Michael Unit wrote on 4 October 2021: I
need a quick reply to Texas’s BP 3.91(Rev 5) step 2 grievance. My step 1
said:
“An investigation into your allegations has been conducted. It was
found that Board Policy 03.91 revised the definition of”sexually
explicit” photos. The revision was approved by the Texas Board of
Criminal Justice. Inmates are given the opportunity to appeal the denial
of all sexually explicit images denied through the Director’s Review
Committee. No further action warranted.”
MIM(Prisons): It is not clear to us if a new policy
has been approved as implied by this response from a TDCJ official. What
is clear at this time is that the masses mobilized quickly around this
issue and the state is responding to that mobilization. Below are
reports from some others organizing on this campaign, closing with
excerpts from a longer statement by a new comrade explaining the
hypocrisy of the new policy and encouraging everyone to stand up for
what is right.
a comrade in Stevenson Unit: In regards to the new
censorship policy, comrades I shared the sample grievance from Under
Lock & Key 74 and directed others to file a grievance with DRC
@ PO Box 99 Huntsville, TX 77342-0099. One comrade was given his car
mags back after being confiscated by the mailroom. This was after filing
the sample grievance you provided me! :)
a Texas comrade: We have already grieved BP-3.91 and
we stand with those in Allred sacrificing to end solitary confinement
even though there is no solitary here on this medium security unit.
a comrade in Jester Unit: I wanted to let you know
everyone is grateful about the “Grievance Against Criminal Board” on the
(pictures, magazines, and kill-shots) filed by your organization. I will
send you my grievance next week, but not before I get some more
signatures and people involved. Please find postage within this letter
in support.
a comrade at Hughes Unit reported on 28 September
2021: I have 62 grievances filed on the 3.91 BP that is. I’m
working on more. And I’m aware that I’m getting help from some female
staff as well and they are putting together a form of unity to get rid
of this bullshit B.P.-3.91 for their safety is a risk. They shaking us
down as I speak for magazines. Women can’t show cleavage or nothing. And
it’s sad.
a comrade in Hutchins Unit: Impede the correction,
rehabilitation, and treatment of a prisoner, how? Relating to incoming
pictures of “sexually explicit women” this is only understandable if
enforced upon a sex offender therapy program… As a general population
prisoner, rehabilitation and treatment is almost non-existent. TDCJ can
only claim correction if it considers this is obtained through prolonged
idleness. Prisoners are housed in their dorm where in most cases they
only leave for meals and sometimes rec. There is little to no
programming or opportunity to rehabilitate through education or vocation
but TDCJ is worried about the content of our publications. Sounds like
deliberate indifference to their priorities.
Therefore, impeding correction, rehabilitation, and treatment is only
terminology intended for manipulation by and for officials
convenience.
Sexually explicit pictures only result in masturbation, which is a
healthy alternative to sexual fulfillment and expression. Some men spend
decades up to life in prison and to deprive them of such fulfillment
could consequently result in homosexual tendencies and/or the rape
and/or sexual harassment of prisoners and officers. Such dehumanizing
intentions will result in the safety of prisoners and officers being
jeopardized.
[MIM(Prisons): A number of writers mention female
staff being concerned about the new policy. Of course, we object to this
writer’s inclusion of homosexuality as a “dehumanizing” outcome of this
policy. Rape is bad, sexual harassment is bad, they are oppressive. Even
if homosexual rape and harassment is more the norm in prisons than in
society, we should not confuse that with homosexual behaviors themselves
being bad.]
This is not a unique problem. Prison officials are quick to slap on
the windows newly enacted and revised policies that are overly
restrictive, knowing the average prisoner is illiterate, uneducated, and
at the least inexperienced in lawfully challenging/litigating.
We are not in the barbaric ages and as a maturing society we develop
and become more morally and ethically inclined, including the treatment
of prisoners; who we understand engaged in wrongful acts to a greater
degree than that of the average person but is nonetheless human and
capable of change.
This means as prisoners’ rights come to light and advancement, We are
to a lesser degree inhibited by biased civil court systems who in the
past ruled all officials actions to be reasonable and acceptable in the
name of justice, punishment, and deterrence.
Therefore do not be deterred when intending to challenge the
conditions of your confinement thinking that it will be in vain. There
is more hope than there ever has been in the past. Instead be
optimistic, adopting the perspective that there is nothing to lose and
everything to gain.
Presumably all major prison reformers that paved the way had doubts
about a favorable outcome, however, their action in spite of that doubt
has resulted in all fundamental change. The conditions we live in
reflect such, while they’re not what they need to be they’re not what
they use to be.
Stand with me in progression towards the common goal of more humane
conditions and treatment. Do not refrain or procrastinate from
submitting a complaint and possibly litigating for change; Just as
officials do not refrain from arresting, sentencing, imprisoning, and
punishing us in all aspects every day. We are held accountable so why
should we allow them to manipulate policy and official position to their
convenience?
Despite the feeling of helplessness officials intend to instill in
us, we are far from that. Statements such as, but not limited to, “these
people don’t care what we got to say”, “the system’s too big to fight”,
“It’s only possible if you got money”, “This is just part of the game”
etc are all excuses adopted by submissive prisoners who are too cowardly
to fight. You would fight your fellow prisoner for less degrading
treatment, right? I would hope.
Do you dare to challenge our oppressors? Do you dare to organize for
progression with your fellow prisoners just as they do against us?
If so, please keep in mind that weapons of distraction are
strategically implemented to keep us from achieving such a goal. If we
are lost in our own world we won’t have time to envision and investigate
their world, their motives, their actions, and how they negatively
affect us.
We are distracted from spending time productively. Time is our most
valuable asset as it is limited and required to organize and plan
action.
Stop preoccupation; stop smoking, stop watching TV, stop gambling,
stop gluttony, stop fighting your equals instead of the oppressor, stop
idleness, stop procrastination, stop being submissive, stop feeling
defeated, and most importantly, STOP investing time into unproductive
endeavors and commit to progression and the achievement of an overall
goal.
The poor and oppressed make up the majority of the world. We are only
separated by knowledge that is accumulated through resources. If we can
obtain the proper knowledge and organize with an intended goal we will
overpower our oppressors.
…Break the ice and take action. Take it from a 22-year-old 8th grade
dropout with seven plus years in the system. I only obtained knowledge
through educational literature. I am self-educated and overcame the
hindering circumstance of lack of resources and organized learning
opportunities. I am only two years into a progressive perspective and
actions and exceeded my expectations. Two years ago, education and
progression were no where on my agenda. If I can achieve such, so can
you. All there is to ask yourself if it appeals to you and if so make it
a priority.
On 6 September 2021, 6 Palestinian prisoners of war have escaped an
I$raeli maximum security prison known as Gilboa by digging a tunnel with
plates and panhandles.(1) The tunnel was 72 meters long, and the I$raeli
Security Agency has suspected that the excavation had started around
November of 2020.(2) This incident is being talked of as the most
significant prison break in the history of Palestine.
The 6 Palestinian prisoners were members of Palestinian nationalist
organizations (The al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and the al-Quds Brigades)
which have resisted the I$raeli occupation.(3) Out of the 6, four of the
escaped freedom fighters were serving life sentences.(4)
In response to the prison break, the I$raeli Prison Service (IPS),
launched a lockdown on Palestinian prisoners: break time has been cut to
one hour a day; prison canteen has been closed; and the number of
captives able to walk in the yard has been decreased. 400 prisoners, who
have been deemed “Jihadist” and a threat to the security of the prisons,
have been separated from one another as well. On top of this, family
visits have been completely taken away by the pigs.(5) For our readers
on the inside, these tactics by the I$raeli prison pigs to punish all
for the actions of some sound similar as the United $tates and I$rael
are very similar in character. Both are settler-colonial states, and
both trade and exchange tactics/information used to better repress their
respective oppressed nations.
The Day of Rage
In response to this crackdown, I$raeli prisons faced strikes and
riots. In Katziot prison, seven cells were set on fire by Palestinian
prisoners and hunger strikes have been set to begin in Gilboa on Friday,
17 Septemebr 2021.(6) The Palestinian Prisoners Affairs Commission has
declared that 1,380 prisoners have joined the hunger strikes.(7)
Outside of the prison walls, the nationalist organization Hamas has
declared a “Day of Rage” on the Friday of September 10th.(8) At the
al-Aqsa mosque, supporters of the escaped freedom fighters have
organized a sit in protest after the end of prayer. The I$raeli forces
stormed the mosque in response to the protest and killed one man and
arrested another. The man killed was a Palestinian doctor named Hazem
al-Jolani.(9)
About a week after the escape, the 6 prisoners were recaptured into
imprisonment. One of the freedom fighters, Yaqoub Mahmoud Qadri, was put
in solitary confinement with nothing but a blanket and was subjected to
physical and psychological torture.(10) All other prisoners involved in
the escape were sent to separate high security prisons as well.(11)
Internationalism in the
Prison Movement
While studying Engels’ writings on the bourgeois state, Lenin said
the following:
“Engels elucidates the concept of the ‘power’ which is called the
state, a power which arose from society but places itself above it and
alienates itself more and more from it. What does this power mainly
consist of? It consists of special bodies of armed men having prisons,
etc., at their command.”(12)
As Lenin explains, prisons serve a class purpose in maintaining power
in class society. In the world we live in today, the bourgeois class
utilizes prisons to control their “unruly” populations under their
command. Under socialism and proletarian dictatorship, prisons will
exist as well (albeit under principles of rectification and
rehabilitation learned from the past socialist experiences rather than
punishment for punishment’s sake). For the case of not only the 6
prisoners of war who escaped Gilboa, but also for all prisoners in
Palestine and all prisoners in the United $tates, their facilities are a
material form of capitalist-imperialist power locking them up in their
every move. Here in the United $tates, we have had historic moments of
prisoners fighting against the repression and seeking for redemption and
liberation through class struggle. The Attica uprising of 9 September
1971 is a prime example of that class struggle. With Attica as the
battle cry of the revolutionary prison movement in the United $tates, we
hope to reach that cry across the oceans and to Palestine itself.
From Attica 2 Gilboa!
Down with the I$raeli Prison Service! Down with the Department of
Corrections!
Bibliography1. Toi Staff, September 14,
2021, “Jailbreak probe said to find 11 Gilboa prisoners started tunnel
dig in November.” Times of Israel2.
Ibid.3. The Palestine Chronicle, September 6, 2021,
“Six Palestinian Prisoners Break out of Gilboa Prison after Digging
Tunnel”4. Ibid.5. Middle East
Eye, September 10, 2021, “Palestinian killed during ‘day of rage’
solidarity protests for prison escapees”6. Khaled
Abu Tomaeh, September 14, 2021, “Palestinian prisoners to begin hunger
strike Friday,” The Jerusalem Post.7.
Ibid.8. Ibid.9.
Ibid.10.Yeni Safak, September 16, 2021,
“Palestinian prison escapee to keep fighting for freedom.”11. Middle East Eye, October 1, 2021, “Israel: Recaptured
Palestinian jailbreakers transferred to solitary confinement”12. Vladimir Lenin, August 1917, “State and
Revolution.”
A splash of light comes in, unexpectedly. My “wings” rise in the
morning curtains. Shadows creep under the corners and then fly. Black
birds drop off by the sun nearby.
Shadows creep under the corners and then fly. Windows open to my
inside, I can feel the wind as it blows by. Sunlight warm up old hinges.
A new landscape stirs by inches.
I gently touch the future unfaded hills. A new landscape stirs by
inches. Wild strawberries taste sweet again. My air has been washed in
the rain.
These verses break my chains. You too can listen, as I live and cry.
A splash of light comes in, unexpectedly. My “wings” rise in the morning
curtains.
The gates will open, and once more I’ll be free. But there’s a fact
that makes me wonder, What will become of me?
Do I have a “future” awaiting me such as the past I’ve known? Will
there be opportunity of “employment” for men such as myself? Or will I
have to sell drugs, steal and rob again, in order just to get by?
What about my “family” who love me very much? The ones I haven’t seen
in years. Can they accept me now without any doubts or fears?
What about the “people” I once knew, but haven’t seen in a while,
Will they accept my “friendship” or will I be forced to walk alone?
Yes. The “gates” will open and once more I’ll be free. But there’s a
fact to make me wonder, What will become of me?
I been wanting to write this letter for about a year now. Society
needs to be aware of what’s really going on behind the walls of prison.
On March of 2020 I wrote an article that was printed on the pages of
your newsletter. It was called ‘TDCJ:
Your staff are bringing in the drugs, and it must stop’(see ULK
73). Since the print of the article, I’ve become a target of
harassment and retaliation. Administration and C/O’s here at Coffield
Unit are a part of a Good Ol’ boy system that use these types of
methods, to make the prisoner pay when the truth is being exposed.
A shakedown team was put together by Warden Garcia. When the team
comes across a prisoner, who refuses to be extorted for information
(something that can place the prisoner’s life in danger), they will
harass/retaliate, even falsify government records, in order to place the
prisoner in the worst part of the prison as a form of punishment for not
cooperating. It happened to me, and I will go into detail later in the
letter.
There wouldn’t be drugs or cellphones in prison, if corrupt C/O’s
didn’t bring them. Can prisoners just walk out of prison, score drugs,
take a detour by Wal-Mart, pick up a couple of cellphones, then return
to prison? How is it that this type of contraband finds itself inside
prisons? Governor Greg Abbott needs to answer these questions. Since the
last article, nothing has changed. A constant flow of K2 (a drug laced
with roach spray), Meth, Cocaine, Heroin, pills and cellphones, flow
through the prison. In 29 years of my confinement, I’ve seen my share of
things but nothing like whats going on today, in the prison system.
Eighty percent (80%) of young people in prison are terribly addicted
to drugs, that C/O’s bring in. The only difference between correctional
officers and prisoners is the uniform. They themselves are criminals.
This type of thing needs to be brought up next time some politician out
there screams “We need more prisons”. ‘Go to Texas prison with a bad
drug habit, leave worse when you get out’. That should be the
politicians slogan.
TDCJ proudly states “We are an agency of rehabilitation and positive
change”, the best lie being sold to the public. The only thing TDCJ
higher-ups care about, is that government funding. At the moment
Coffield has a sky high suicide rate due to all the drugs. This place is
completely out of compliance and under-staffed. Prisoners are left in
dayrooms (that have no toilets) for hours and have to use the restroom
on shifts because there’s no one to let them in the cell to use the
restroom.
Hours pass with no security checks, a clear breach of security. A few
days ago there was an audit on the unit, C/Os from other units were
called in, so they could pass the inspection. As soon as the inspectors
left, the C/Os from other units left behind them. There’s no outside
recreation, the water is getting prisoners sick, but plenty of K2 to
keep the prisoners “Dumbed down”, so there won’t be complaints.
Society needs to realize that prisoners will return to neighborhoods
out there. How can prisoners, whom are sent to prison to rehabilitate
themselves, accomplish that goal, when the good law-abiding correctional
officers, bring poison, to make them worse? These same prisoners will be
released, will reoffend, commit worse crimes, due to a drug problem that
got worse in prison. How many crooked C/Os have been indicted, for the
victims of suicide and drug overdoses, that have died in Coffield, due
to the drugs these C/Os bring in? This system and its C/Os are the
problem, something people in high places, refuse to admit to the
public.
For years our families got blamed for the drug flow coming into
prison. When COVID-19 arrived, visitations got shut down and the truth
was exposed, as to who really brought the dope in. Over a year,
no visitations yet the dope was delivered on time. The truth is K2 is
sprayed on just about anything, or brought in liquid forms. Meth,
heroin, cocaine and pills can easily be hidden on C/Os that bring it for
a nice hefty price. A $20 cellphone now goes for $2000 OR $2500
each.
So let’s put this together: the proposed solution is a pig team that
goes after prisoners who PURCHASE contraband from C/Os. This helps the
Warden shift the blame and cover who the real crooks are, and
everything’s blamed on the prisoners. This way the truth is not exposed
and questions never need to be answered.
For my writing about this type of corruption, I am now under fire by
the warden and administration. Enclosed are copies of complaints filed
with the Ombudsman’s office due to harassment/retaliation against me.
The Ombudsman’s office claims to be an independent entity, that
investigates family complaints against TDCJ officials - (NOT TRUE). In
reality, they work hand-in-hand with TDCJ officials.
“Due to a lack of evidence, your allegations could not be
substantiated.” (Lack of evidence? There are cameras all over the unit,
that record video) If Ms. Melodee Blalock would have performed a proper
investigation of the date and time the incidents occurred, she could
have retrieved video that would have placed C/O Brewer at my
cubicle/cell destroying my property. She just wouldn’t go against the
Good Ol’ boy system.
Violations of misconduct by staff, when confirmed (Notice the words
“When confirmed”) are addressed in accordance with established
administrative procedures. Such decisions are considered confidential
(Notice the word ‘Confidential’) and not released to the general public.
TDCJ and Ombudsman both work as the outside cops. When a C/O has
violated policy or harassed a prisoner, a wall of silence instantly goes
up and things are quietly swept under the rug.
The reply my sister received means: Even if C/O Brewer is guilty, it
will be covered up by the good ol’ boy system that’s designed to never
admit wrong. I was housed at the dorm area from 2017 till 2021 with no
altercations of this sort. After I wrote the first article, full
retaliation was enforced. When it got really bad, my sister filed the
complaint. 46 days after filing, the same C/O Brewer, who the complaint
was filed against, showed up at my cubicle with his supervisor SGT Hom,
to place me in handcuffs.
I was escorted to a segregation cage, which had no restroom or
running water. I was stripped searched and left in those conditions,
under extreme heat without relief (water, fan, restroom break), on a hot
July day. I was there from 9 am till 4:30 pm. I was denied water and was
forced to urinate in bottles that an SSI had to sneak to me.
Just one example of the injustice prisoners have to endure at the
hands of the oppressors. Which politician, with a nice desk, watches
over the oppressors, who enjoy violating prisoners rights and get off on
abusing their power? I will continue to expose a corrupt system that’s
in real need of prison reform. And to accomplish that goal, the prison
reform needs to start with its own C/Os.
I see parole March of 2022, after 2 three year set-offs. If something
happens to me, comrades the answer as to why, is in your hands. Thanks
to each of you. May God walk with each of you.
On 11 September 2021, Chairman Gonzalo has been reported to be dead
by the Peruvian prison service and the Peruvian government.(1) The
president of Peru, Pedro Castillo, has tweeted in regards to Gonzalo’s
death:
“The terrorist ringleader Abimael Guzmán, responsible for the loss of
countless lives of our compatriots, has died. Our stance of condemning
terrorism is firm and unwavering.”
Born as Abimael Guzmán, Chairman Gonzalo was the leader of the
Partido Comunista del Perú(PCP) also known as the Sendero Luminoso
(Shining Path in English). The PCP initiated People’s War in Peru in
1980, and waged a righteous struggle against the U.$.-backed regimes in
Peru until the capture of its leadership in 1992. Arguably the first
communist leader to explain Maoism as the next stage of communism,
Gonzalo was instrumental in pushing these ideas within the international
communist movement.
At age 86, Gonzalo had lived in complete isolation in a Peruvian
prison for 29 years. Long-term solitary confinement is a form of torture
used around the world to combat political dissent. It is used most
extensively within the United $tates, where in recent years over 100,000 people
languished in such conditions.
Religious Idealism Barks
Gonzalo was an infamous figure in Peruvian society. The revolutionary
violence of the PCP sparked hostile reactions especially from the petty
bourgeoisie, the middle-peasants, and the likes within Peru. One
outspoken figure which repeated these sentiments condemning Gonzalo on
his death day was Archbishop Eguren of the Catholic Church in Peru.
During a mass on September 12, a day after Gonzalo’s death, Eguren said
this referring to the Maoist ideology and the Maoists of Peru:
“Along with him fell the principal members of his communist,
terrorist, genocidal, and murderous gang, which caused the massacres of
entire communities of poor inhabitants of our Andes and jungle regions
in the 1980s and 1990s.”(2)
The Archbishop continued:
“The day Guzmán was captured was also one year after the start of the
campaign ‘Peace in Peru is well worth a Rosary.’ This campaign was
conceived and promoted by Bishop Ricardo Durand Flórez S.J., a great
Peruvian bishop who, throughout his life and ministry, worked hard for
the poor according to the Gospel.”(3)
After condemning Marxism through the usual Christian idealism,
Archbishop Eguren replaces the anti-capitalist vacuum with the Catholic
church’s historical response to poverty and capitalist ills:
distribution of wealth and charity to the poor. We Maoists do not
believe in the metaphysical notion that “the poor will always be with
us,” nor that walking across a homeless person on the street is a test
by god to prove ourselves of our good heart and soul. We believe poverty
– and the impoverished proletariat along with the rich bourgeoisie –
comes out of material phenomena: rise of capitalism through revolution,
class struggle, and change of production relations. Thus, the
elimination of poverty and capitalist ills will be done through the
proletarian revolution against capitalism, class struggle, and change of
production relations as well; not through wealth redistribution nor
through charity.
Along with condemning Marxism, Eguren used this chance to call for
the elimination of the politicians and bureaucrats of the current
Peruvian government who had historical ties to the Maoist movement:
“We Peruvians should not forget, for an instant what this
intrinsically perverse ideology embodies, as well as the immense
suffering it has caused in the recent history of our country, much less
allow it today to be able to seize total power. Therefore:
Mr. President, clean up your cabinet!”(4)
Reformism Barks
Chairman Gonzalo and the PCP’s legacy in Peru is often associated
with the “violent left.” So it is appropriate that one of the most
popular opportunist and reformist newsletters, Jacobin,
condemned Gonzalo by saying that Peru’s left is finally free to “move
forward.”(5)
In the article, “The Shining Path’s Abimael Guzmán Helped Keep Peru
in the Past,” Jacobin news cited the Lucanamarca massacre and the
violence of the PCP against the indigenous masses as one of the main
arguments against the PCP. The Communist Party of Peru (PCP) has
mentioned in their writings the attacks against the masses by the
masses, and how the state security used the differing class levels of
the peasantry against itself (poor peasants, middle peasants, rich
peasants). These tactics to divide the masses are used against the
communists of India as well. In the remote and countryside regions under
the leadership of the Communist Party of India (CPI-Maoist), the
capitalist lapdogs in India find it much more useful to use local
reactionaries against the guerrillas than using the army. If not the
local police, it is the paramilitary organizations of rich peasants,
middle peasants, lumpen-bourgeoisie, lumpen-proletariat, etc. that is
attacking the Maoists. In Peru, the majority of the PCP guerrillas were
indigenous themselves as the main population base in the communists’
base areas were indigenous.
When judging the legacy of a People’s War and a revolutionary party,
communists should know when to throw away the baby with the bathwater
and when to still keep it. Before the capitalist roaders overthrew
socialism in the Soviet Union, many of the errors of what would become
the capitalist line (commandism and economism) has been planted by
Stalin as well and other comrades. This did not cause Mao to throw away
Stalin’s legacy. In the same breath, when Fidel Castro liberated Cuba
from imperialism and semi-feudalism, his merits were part of a worldwide
movement for national liberation of the colonies at the time – it isn’t
until Castro’s selling out of the entire island to the Soviet
social-imperialists as a sugar factory that Maoists should throw Castro
away.
Heavier Than Mount Tai
It is well within the realms of material reality that the PCP’s
legacy among the general Peruvian society lies not only in the Peruvian
comprador bourgeoisie who propagate the ideas of the PCP as bloodthirsty
terrorists, but also within the bad lines and practices of the PCP as
well. It is an often repeated idea we hear that if the revolution fails,
it is the fault of the revolutionaries. In the same light, it’s the
internal characteristics not the external of a communist movement that
will ultimately decide its success and failures.
We must draw a clear line between us and those who condemn the PCP
because they waged People’s War. Whatever internal contradictions led to
the collapse of the Peruvian revolution, it was a shining example in
theory by leading the world to the concrete ideas of Maoism and in
practice in mobilizing the Peruvian people to control a majority of Peru
before their fall.
Communists should learn their lessons from their errors in history.
For the enemy to say, “Denounce Gonzalo!” is for them to also say “Don’t
learn your lessons! Give up revolution!” Nevertheless, no matter what
the Catholic idealists or the writers of Jacobin wish, the PCP
and Chairman Gonzalo’s legacy will not go away as easily as they
wish.
Long Live Chairman Gonzalo – Death Heavier than Mount Tai.
Notes1. RPP, September 11th, 2021,
“Murió Abimael Guzmán, el sanguinario cabecilla del grupo terrorista
Sendero Luminoso.”
2. David Ramos, September 13th, 2021, “Archbishop calls on
Peruvian president to rid his administration of ties to Shining Path.”
Catholic News Agency.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.
5. Miguel La Serna, September 15, 2021, “The Shining Path’s
Abimael Guzmán Helped Keep Peru in the Past.” Jacobin.
A few weeks ago lots of Black folks were celebrating Juneteenth,
which they claimed was about the banning of slavery in the U.$. Say
what? Apparently none of these folks have read the actual 13th
Amendment, which only banned plantation slavery, while opening up far
more slavery with its Exclusion Section, which basically said “slavery
as punishment for a crime is just peachy.”
…how about you get the May 2021 issue of Prison Legal News
and read the main article, “The Punishment Economy: Winners and Losers
in the Business of Mass Incarceration.”
A fact not mentioned in the article was that businesses (owners) in
many foreign countries are making money “servicing” U.$. prisoner
needs.
Until just a couple of weeks ago, me at 75 years old, with various
health problems, was forced under threat of write-up to work as a
kitchen slave. So I get to read the labels on the products used
there.
Oranges and mixed vegetables from Mexico. Cut carrots from Spain.
Franks (weenies) from Canada. Cucumbers from Mexico. Broccoli from
Mexico. Pineapple from Indonesia. Heat sealed plastic gloves from China.
White plastic “sporks” from Vietnam.
Do you think the owners of these businesses make donations to U.$.
politicians that always vote for more laws, more prisons, and more money
to cops?
Wiawimawo of MIM(Prisons) responds: We share this
writer’s concerns about prisoners being used as a source of exploited
value by capitalists. When Third World countries begin to delink from
the united $tates economically, Amerikans will face serious crisis and
imposing fascism on segments of the u.$. population in the form of
slavery is a likely outcome as we saw fascist Germany do.
However, we think the concern about foreign companies selling cheap
produce to u.$. prisons is misled. In fact, most of the value created in
producing that food in the Third World is stolen from those who make the
food and realized in the First World (see our recent review
of John Smith’s Imperialism in the Twenty-First Century).
Even those Amerikans reaping the profits on these food sales to Amerikan
prisons are not likely backing prison construction. Food is about $2.1
billion of the $182 billion spent on mass incarceration each year in
this country.(1)
But what about this question of prison labor? The persyn above has
written us numerous times to challenge our line on prison labor. In 2018
we did a survey of ULK readers to further research this
subject. And we have extensive articles on the economics
of the U.$. prison system available to those interested. But we are
always keeping an eye out for new info, so let’s look at this Prison
Legal News article.
As it turns out, this article does not offer much information on
prison labor at all, far less than our research does. The article is a
thorough documentation of many ways that companies are making money by
offering services to the government related to prisons and to families
of prisoners; what we might call profiteering or even extortion in the
case of fees charged to families.
1 in 8 U.$. jobs
rely on prisons - Big if True
Daniel Rosen doesn’t cite the source of this one in eight jobs
estimate towards the beginning of eir article. Regular writers for
ULK have long called Amerika a pig nation. Then why does Rosen
turn around and ask, “are we just producing greater corporate profits at
American families’ expense?” It is Amerikan families who are getting
payed labor aristocracy wages to work these 1 in 8 jobs that relies on
this system of punishment. Meanwhile, the majority of people suffering
from the injustice system are members of internal semi-colonies, not
Amerikans. And this is the exact contradiction we try to bring to light
every time we get into this debate.
After citing the exorbitant amount spent on staffing prisons, Rosen
offers a section on how employees are underpaid. In states like
California, prison guards start at salaries that most reading this
newsletter will never see in their lives. To make eir point sound
reasonable, Rosen claims “pay for starting prison guards is usually in
the range of $25,000-$35,000.” This range actually represents the lowest
10% of prison guards in the country, with the median actually being at
$45,000 per year starting salary.(2) Is this underpaid? As regular
readers of our work will already know, employed Amerikans are generally
in the top 10% income earners globally, including those that make
$25,000 per year. An individual living on $45,000 per year is in the top
2%.(3) And as many of our readers know, overtime and hazard pay are a
regular occurrence in that line of work, easily putting annual prison
guard salaries into six figures.
Our writer contacted us about prisoner labor, not prison guard labor.
The reason this is relevant though is that it represents the economics
of those who see prisons as a product of corporate interests. It often
comes hand-in-hand with those who see $50k/year pigs as the oppressed
and exploited opposed to the corporate interests. Even if they’re in the
top 2%, they are still in the bottom 99% that the left wing of white
nationalism sees as allies. This idealism wants to see all people come
together for a common cause, ignoring the different material interests
of different groups in the world today. We focus on prison organizing
because there is a greater consciousness in prisons that these pigs are
part of the imperialist system and that they serve the enemy because
they benefit from that system.
I Pay Your Salary, Buddy
Rosen starts off his article with the message that U.$. taxpayers are
paying $80 billion per year to lock people up. While there has been an
upsurge of concern about spending on incarceration in the halls of
Congress, why is it that the same “fiscal conservative” voters who don’t
want social services are quick to yell “lock them up” when it comes to
so-called “criminals”? Our explanation is that the system that is trying
to control the rebellious oppressed serves them. It serves them with
some of the highest incomes in the world, from which they pay taxes.
These incomes, and taxes, are superprofits stolen from the international
proletariat.
We know many in the prison movement are not Marxists, and therefore
may not accept the labor theory of value. With such people we are
working from different theoretical models and different terminology. It
is not a coincidence that such people are predominately reformists. We
need to be debating Marx vs. bourgeois economics. Even many
self-described “Marxists” in the imperialist countries think there is an
infinite amount of wealth to go around.
Rosen writes, “Recidivists are the primary ‘product’ of the
punishment economy and the real source of its profits.” It’s true,
unlike the military-industrial complex, there is no real product being
made here, just ancillary services like phone calls and food delivery.
But are recidivists the source of these companies profits? No, the only
source of profits is surplus value from surplus labor time. And as we’ll
reiterate here, that is coming from the Third World proletariat.
The Endless Road to
Reformism
Of course, most of the concerns about mass incarceration that Rosen
mentions in this article are ones we share. One that we’ve been
discussing lately is how for-profit communication services are replacing
in-persyn visits and mail under the guise of reducing drugs. Yet the drugs
magically keep getting into prisons, and now prisoners
communications are being digitized for easier monitoring and censorship,
while valuable resources and family connections are being cut off. We’ve
also helped expose the issue of a second-class system for migrants, the
vast majority who haven’t even committed any anti-people crimes, being
stuck in poorly
run, privately-owned prisons on behalf of Immigration Customs
Enforcement (ICE).
We just don’t agree with Rosen’s economics and where it leads us
strategically.
We agree with Rosen that there is a whole slush economy around
incarceration, that’s the nature of the United $tates mall economy in
general. And in the case of imprisonment, the result is buying people
off to support it. There’s too much money, corruption and greed in this
system. But this is nothing particular to incarceration, and
incarceration is just a tiny drop in the bucket that is this problem. Do
we want to make this tiny corner of the imperialist economy a little
less gross? Or do we want to end mass incarceration? liberate oppressed
nations from imperialism? end exploitation of the proletariat? We are
aware that a majority of our incarcerated readers might lean more
towards the first option. And while we appreciate our prison reform
allies who stand with us in many campaigns, this newsletter is not a
forum to promote reformism.
Rosen writes “[t]he most important way that mass incarceration fails
prisoners is by all but guaranteeing that they’ll come back.” This is
one of the true crimes of the system. Socialist countries like China
showed the world how prisons could be used to integrate former
oppressors into a new people-focused society. Yet, “corrections” in the
u.$. has always taken a much different form, one of punishment. And this
is why we prioritize our Re-Lease on Life Program for those released
from prison to help comrades continue to reform themselves and integrate
back into society as servants of the people, and avoid getting locked
back up. Our humble program is a precursor to a system that will serve
to rehabilitate the real criminals on this continent in a socialist
future.
This country not only institutionalizes disparities between the
oppressed nations and Amerikans in the united $tates, it is a tool of
genocide in how it affects the productive and reproductive years of a
vast segment of oppressed nation men. These problems beg the solution of
liberation and independence.
Rosen closes eir article with a number of examples of progress in
reforming the ills ey discusses. We agree these are progressive things,
and yet they do not address the problem. Which is why you won’t see
these campaigns in the pages of ULK. See recent
discussions between USW comrades on how to organize prisoners in a
way that keeps our eyes on the prize. Sometimes our campaigns will
overlap with the reformers. Even then, we must promote the proletarian
line and not succumb to coalition politics.
Sanyika Shakur, formerly known as ‘Monster’ Kody Scott, author of
three books and numerous articles, legendary street gang figure,
self-transformed New Afrikan revolutionary and communist, passed over to
meet the ancestors, Black August 2021. Sanyika was only 57 years of
age.
Sanyika is most known for his auto-biography, Monster, which
also was produced as a film. What most don’t know is that even at the
time of writing that book, Sanyika had begun what would become a
life-long struggle to evolve not only his thinking but to have his
social practice match his level of theoretical prowess.
Sanyika’s story is a testimonial to what a lot of us, lumpen, go
through. He battled drug addiction, he struggled to navigate between his
evolving socio-political awareness and the loyalties embedded within him
during decades of hard-core gang-bangin’. In the end he stands as both
an inspirational, as well as a cautionary example, for those of us
lumpen who seek self-evolution, and revolutionary transformation. He is
an inspiration, showing how far We can bring ourselves with Our sheer
will power. When the brother entered prison in 1985, he was functionally
illiterate. A handful of years later he would author the first of three
books. This in itself is quite a feat.
However, Sanyika’s greatest feat was his determination to unify, and
organize gang members, and former gang members into revolutionary
formations. These formations he founded or took part in included, C.C.O.
(Consolidated Crip Organization), C.R.I.P.(s) (Clandestine Revolutionary
Internationalist Party (of Soldiers)), August Third Communist
Organization, and the New Afrikan People’s Liberation Army.
Sanyika obviously wished to be remembered, not as a gang bangin’
Crip, but as a New Afrikan revolutionary nationalist and communist who
sought to unify his people, New Afrikan lumpen, and he was thankful for
the ‘overstanding’ (as he would say) he was able to grasp due to the
knowledge and wisdom passed down by his/ Our ancestors. For his chosen
name, Sanyika, means ‘Unifier of the people’, while Shakur means ‘most
thankful’ in Ki-Swahili and Arabic respectfully.
In including the memory of this comrade-brother in Our newsletter,
Power Moves, We wish to call Our readers to dedicate self to
self-transformation, and more specifically to transform the criminal
mentality into a revolutionary mentality. In order to ‘Re-Build To Win’,
We must first Re-Build Ourselves. By this We mean, We must rectify and
re-orientate Ourselves with new and improved values, social circles, and
social habits. Without these traits of evolution, there will be no
revolution, if We think otherwise We’re merely kidding Ourselves.
REST IN POWER COUSIN
Sources: 1)Re-Build!: A New Afrikan Independence Movement
Periodical, Special Commemorative Issue, Black August
2021.
[This is re-printed with the author’s permission, from the internal
prison newsletter Power Moves, a publication of Black Independence
Taking Root (BITR), an organization taking root in Texas Koncentration
Kamps.]
For over a decade MIM(Prisons) has offered correspondence study
courses to help those trying to transform themselves inside the belly of
the beast. Yet, we struggle to keep these Serve the People Programs
running and ask those on the outside to contact us to help out. This
winter we will be releasing a Revolutionary 12 Step program that is
focused on transforming yourself from the lumpen/criminal lifestyle, to
the committed revolutionary. The first printing will go out to USW
leaders across the country to help implement self-transformation
programs in prisons and on the street.
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