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.
I hope this letter finds you in the best of health and highest of
spirits. I am currently Incarcerated in the Bexar County Jail awaiting
trial. I recently read a copy of ULK 64. I must say I loved it. I
tip my hat to all the workers helping the movement of ULK.
I am currently fighting for my 1st & 8th Amendments Bill of Rights.
First and foremost I am considered Protective Custody Special Gang
Management. Administrative Segregation under 21 hour confinement with
meals served in the cells. Only to be let out for about 3 hours to
shower & shave. But most days we are lucky to get 1.5 hours. We are
not allowed to participate in any Jail programs or to attend any
religious services due to Bexar County Jail not having enough sheriffs
to escort us.
I’ve been Incarcerated in BCADC 4 months. I been filing Grievances to
Bexar County Jail Administrator but I haven’t received any response to
any of my grievances. I’ve filed about 10 Grievances. I was hoping you
all could possibly help me in anyway? I am currently fighting my case
but due to my classification status I’m also not allowed to attend the
law library. I’m in somewhat of a rut. How can I properly fight for my
freedom when I’m not even allowed to attend the law library. However I
can fill out via Blue form requesting legal materials. But How do I know
what it is I need if I can’t physically attend to do research? Could you
please send me legal law materials & books? I really really need A
Blacks Law Dictionary. My law library says they cannot send me one OR
allow me to use one. I must request them to define only 5 words at a
time, then wait 10 days for them to provide a response & material.
The system Here is very corrupt.
On 11-1-18 i received a denial of publication, for Under Lock &
Key #63. Stating that pages 1 and 5 advocate for prison disruption,
however I appealed and was again denied. So I had it sent to my sister.I
received Under Lock & Key #64 and was glad to see that it was
not denied.
I’ve been fighting the system for years and have a few people behind me.
The Stiles Unit has been in violation of a Health Code and Sanitation
Violation. 8 building, where I’m being housed, is a building for the
G-5/Close Custody and G4/Medium Custody Offenders, and this
administration has set up a make shift kitchen, the food is always cold,
the trays are not being sanitized because there is no dishwasher in the
make shift kitchen. Offenders handle food without gloves on or hair
nets. I’ve filed a Grievance about it along with 10 other comrades
trying to make a change but the Grievance process is a joke. Sometimes
they never answer grievances. Would you please send the grievance
petition.
During the summer of 2018, the California Department of Corrections
& Rehabilitation (CDCR) attempted to initiate a radical new policy
to re-integrate General Population (GP) and Sensitive Needs Yards (SNY)
prisoners throughout the state. These two populations have been
separated for decades, but are now living together in what they are
calling Non-Designated Programming Facilities (NDPFs).
SNYs were first created in the late 1990s to provide safe housing for
prisoners convicted as sex offenders and other prisoners who had fallen
out of favor with prison gangs. This population exploded during the
early 2000s, when the CDCR began to ease housing restrictions and
criteria on SNYs.
In 2015, the office of the Governor of the state of California, Jerry
Brown, authored the document “The Governor’s Plan: The Future of
California Prisons” in which they published the rising costs and
administrative difficulties related to operating SNYs. It was within
this document that the questions of how to stem the growing need for
SNY, and possibly re-integrate GP and SNY, was first asked. In 2016, a
“SNY Summit” was held by CDCR officials and so it seems that NDPFs
developed from both the Governor’s Plan and the SNY Summit.
According to a CDCR memorandum titled “Amended Non-Designated
Programming Facilities Expansion for 2018,” additional NDPFs were to be
created out of existing GP and SNY. The stated purpose for this
expansion was to “…expand positive programming to all inmates who want
it.” The NDPF expansion was scheduled to take place as early as
September 2018 at two different institutions with more to follow in the
months ahead.
The official list of NDPFs is relatively short, and only reflects NDPFs
affecting level 1, 2 and 3 prisoners at this time. However, MIM(Prisons)
has been receiving a lot of contradictory information on this issue from
prisoners, much of which can be attributed to rumors from both pigs and
prisoners. Therefore it is difficult for us to assess the situation and
sum up matters. Naturally these developments have prisoners on both
sides of the fence worked up and full of anxiety.
The forceful integration of GP and SNY prisoners poses obvious concerns
for the safety and security of everyone involved. As dialectical
materialists, the left-wing of United Struggle from Within (USW)
understands that change cannot be forced from the outside to the inside
within this particular situation. Rather, unity can only develop from
the inside to the out, which is why we are against NDPFs. Re-integration
of SNY and GP is something that can only work once prisoners themselves
settle the disputes and resolve the contradictions that led to the need
for prisoners to de-link from the rest of the prisoner population and
seek the protection of the state to begin with.
Contradictions amongst the people must be peacefully resolved amongst
the people; there’s no other way around this. Until this happens, the
new prison movement will remain divided and unable to unite along true
anti-imperialist lines. It is for this very reason that we continue to
uphold and promote the correct aspects of the Agreement to End
Hostilities (AEH), which was developed by prisoners themselves. In the
AEH we see an end to the large scale prisoner violence that racked
California prisons for decades. We also see a possibility for the
re-emergence of revolutionary nationalism amongst the oppressed nation
lumpen of Aztlán, New Afrika and the First Nations.
The AEH is a foundation for the movement, but movements are not built
on foundations alone; for this we need brick, mortar and other
materials. Likewise the building blocks to the new prison movement will
need the contributions and participation of as many of California’s
prisoners as possible if the signatories to the AEH really wanna live up
to the revolutionary ideals which they profess and which so many claim
to be instilled in the AEH, lest the AEH be but a hollow shell.
No doubt that the AEH was hystoric, progressive and even revolutionary
six years ago, but the time has come to amend the document. All language
excluding SNY prisoners from the peace process and casting SNY as
enemies should be revisited if prisoners from the Short Corridor
Collective and Representative Body are truly interested in taking the
AEH to the next level.
For more information on re-integration and NDPFs contact Julie Garry
Captain Population Management Unit (916) 323-3659.
I need Sworn Complaint Form to file criminal complaint against prison
nurse for falsification of State Medical Records with Grimes County
District Attorney in violation of Texas State Penal Code § 37.09 and §
37.10. We have a L.V.N. named Gwendolyn Crawford (a.k.a. “Killer
Crawford the Angel of Death”) who falsified my medical records on
10/18/18 stating I complained of cold like symptoms, when in fact I
complained of a Kidney Infection and Urinary Tract Infection and had a
103.8 Temperature at 6 pm. After Crawford falsified my records I was
sent back to my cell. At 12:30am I had to be carried to medical on an
emergency where I was shaking so violently from the chills from the
fever and infection that guards thought I was having a seizure. R.N.
Benson conducted the test for Kidney/Urinary Tract Infection and test
was positive showing elevated white blood cell count, protein in urine
and fever of 103.8° and Tara Lierdsey, N.P. was called and antibiotics
were prescribed, only after they discovered L.V.N. Crawford had
falsified my medical record 6 1/2 hours earlier. Crawford was
deliberately indifferent to my serious medical needs, practiced medicine
outside the scope of her license and violated State Tort Laws of Medical
Negligence/Malpractice; as well as violated the Texas Penal Code in
falsifying my medical records; which resulted in physical harm,
suffering, and mental anguish.
I wish to file both criminal charges with the Grimes County District
Attorney and wish to file suit in Federal Court for Deliberate
Indifference to Serious Medical Needs in violation of the Eighth
Amendment to the United States Constitution.
13 May 2018 – 208 prisoners of every race, background, group,
organization, etc. said enough is enough! We came together and sat down
in a peaceful protest. During dinner (chow hall) as usual the pigs not
only violated our constitutional rights (First Amendment freedom of
speech) but they also attempted to bully us by flex’n and threatening
us. That’s when our peaceful protest turned uprising. I wish y’all could
have seen the way all the guards (C.O.s, Sergeants, Lieutenants, etc.)
ran out the kitchen and chow halls. You would have thought they ran
track! Who the cowards now?
For the first time in Missouri history we united. The pigs see the end
of their control within our unity. In a matter of seconds we gained
control of the kitchen, both dining halls, property room, canteen
storage, the factory, forklifts, weapons, keys, phones, computers, etc.
Well after a few hours the phones start to ring. Guess who’s calling?
The warden and highway patrol. For the first time they listened to our
demands. They respected us. They feared our unity. They was at our
mercy.
On our own terms we surrendered 8-9 hours later. After we got our point
across.
Note: 90% of guys in our peaceful protest turned uprising have outdates
ranging between a few weeks and 15 years. So only imagine if the outcome
was the other way around. 90% of us could have been locked to the board
(life without?).
Due to us striving so fast and hard we left administration not only
confused but also emotionally off balance. Being that this never
happened before in Missouri history they acted off impulse and violated
every constitutional right you can think of. Which led to KC Freedom
Project lawyers starting a class action lawsuit on our behalf against
Missouri DOC. The media has been on fire regarding this.
Update? We still on lockdown! We still receiving brown bags (sack
lunches). They say it was $3 million worth of damage. They making us do
1 year. We damn near 6 months in.
Administration is still up to their tricky ways. They have attempted to
divide and conquer us by destroying all the guys’ property that was in
the hole and told them we did it. Also telling all the guys in GP it’s
our fault they are locked down still. So yeah the struggle continues.
By the way, there have been two other uprisings of this kind since we
kicked it off. If we can unite here in Missouri where unity has never
existed then any state can.
Another Missouri prisoner wrote:
It has been 13 months since the prisoners bonded together, Black, White,
Native and brown (Chicano) and kicked off a riot at Crossroads
Correctional Center in Cameron, Missouri, causing over a million dollars
in damage. What did it accomplish?
Prison property got damaged that your families who are tax payers
(and you too cause you pay taxes on your canteen items) are going to
have to pay for the damages.
You injured one another with violent acts and all it accomplished is
enemies, and lockdown of the prison.
Supposedly two housing units are to be cleared out for the creation of
SHU units. They are supposed to lock up all the gang leaders and violent
soldiers.
As of now, this is all just rumor, but every time Missouri prisoners
show acts of violence via riots, the prison gets stricter. For example,
the 1985 riot in the old Missouri State Penitentiary caused them to
build a supermax housing unit.
When are we gonna learn that we are hurting ourselves more ways than one
by these acts of violence? When I was advocating peaceful protests with
demonstrations of how to shut the prison system down, nobody in Missouri
wanted to participate. But you go off on your own and committed this no
nonsense act of violence against your brother, your friends, your
families, and jeopardized everyone.
It costs $85 million a year to keep the U.S. prisons up and running. The
government is not producing this money to keep the prisons going. So
where is the money coming from? Let’s see now, in Missouri it’s coming
from Missouri Vocational Enterprise (MVE), the sign shop, the printing
shop, the license plate plant (tag plant), the furniture factory, the
chemical plant, information technology (IBM program), the braille
program, the laundry, the cooled-chill plant (cold food storage), the
shoe factory, the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDot work
release) and the newly implemented paneling factory.
The above-mentioned factories are multi-million-dollar industries per
year. They are paying you pennies. So what a couple of these jobs pay
between $150 and $300 per month. If you peacefully protest by refusing
to go to work in these factories, either they are going to pay you at
least minimum wage where you will be making at least $340 a week, or
they are gonna bring in civilians to do the work, in which case the
factories are going to have to be uprooted and moved because most
civilians are not coming inside the prisons to work. So to shut down a
beast like the U.S. prison system is to shut down their economy – that
is, the very thing that’s bringing them money to keep the prisons open
is the very thing that can shut it down.
This just doesn’t begin and end with the prisoners. The prisoner has to
survive. He has to eat. So the people in the free world are going to
have to support the prisoner financially. Family, friends, advocate
organizations are all going to have to pitch in and support the prisoner
financially. That means to stop working we have to buy food to eat. To
stop using the phones and tablets, we need stamps, envelopes, paper and
pens to write letters that cost money. So the free world must understand
that for us to make these sacrifices, then society is going to have to
make sacrifices to assist us.
So Missouri prisoners, society (family, friends, organizations,
advocates, etc.), stop going about things the wrong way and do them like
they should be done in order to get results.
I go home next year on parole, but I do not leave my fight behind. There
is a bigger world out there, which means a lot more opportunities to
fight. I am going to find resources and seek out that they join me in my
quest to do away with this beast. I will need their support mentally,
physically, spiritually and above all, financially. With this, Comrades,
I hope to see you on the other side, working with me and supporting me
from the inside and outside.
In struggle–In solidarity Arm raised–clenched black fist
MIM(Prisons) responds: A lot of folks talk about how hard it is
to get people to unite behind bars. The prison controls everything from
day-to-day comfort to release dates. And that’s powerful incentive to
conform. Then they introduce drugs and other distractions to pacify the
population. They pay off snitches to keep an eye on activists. And they
lock organizers down in solitary confinement. Still, faced with all
these barriers, prisoners can and do come together to protest.
Conditions at Crossroads CC were bad enough to inspire this action. And
while the outcome wasn’t all positive, the class action lawsuit and
attention of the public has forced the Missouri DOC to admit that
prisoners are suffering significant restrictions due to short staffing.
The comrade criticizing this action for its lack of focus and random
acts of violence and destruction is right that often these sorts of
actions lead to more repression. Though peaceful protests are also often
met with increased repression. This debate over tactics in prison
protests is one that should be happening within all prisons across the
country. We hope the comrades at Crossroads will learn from this action
and move forward in greater unity towards future actions that will be
even more effective.
Focusing on the economics of prisons reveals the ridiculous scale of the
criminal injustice system. As the writer above notes, it would be a
significant financial loss to the state if they were forced to hire
non-prisoners for all the jobs prisoners are doing. And this is
financial leverage that prisoner workers can use to their advantage.
But to debate the value of this tactic we need to first be clear about
the scope of prisoner labor. The state of Missouri 2018 budget allocated
the Department of Corrections over $725 million. About the same as the
previous year, which was up $50 million from 2016.(1) The state would
have to allocate even more money if no prisoner labor could be used to
help run the prisons, or produce products that are sold to generate
revenue. But that prisoner labor is still a small part of the total cost
of running prisons.
As we showed from
data
collected from prisons across the United $tates, in general, losing
prisoner labor would add about 10% to the cost of running prisons.
Prisons are mostly subsidized by states’ budgets. The labor from
prisoners just doesn’t come close to covering that cost. So while there
is definitely economic power in those jobs, shutting down prison
industries won’t shut down prisons.
We don’t aim to just improve conditions. In the end we know the criminal
injustice system keeps taking away rights, doing what it can to make
prisons a place of suffering and complacency. But this protest showed
the people involved that they have the power to take collective action.
As the original writer notes, the prison can see their downfall in the
unity of the prisoners. This lesson of the importance and power of unity
is what will hopefully fuel ongoing organizing.
I am currently on close management (secured housing), a euphemism for
24/7 lockdown. My level was recently dropped to II, which means I now
have a cellmate. However, since there are more people in this dorm, I
have been able to spread some knowledge.
I am currently involved in a struggle against violations of prisoners’
rights in confinement. Although I don’t know much about civil law, I am
very resourceful and have found 2 non-profit law firms willing to help
Florida prisoners. I have begun, after being here since May, to draw a
lot of attention and have already been threatened with retaliation for
my grievances (in order to file lawsuits, “administrative remedies” must
be exhausted). However, I expected this, and take it as a signal that I
am doing good and hitting the right issues, such as not being allowed to
exit the cell for the specified “dayroom” time.
They are trying to keep the addicts addicted. It is easier to reach
people through face-to-face group studies or even individual studies. I
have been doing what I can to get some of the interested prisoners
involved in utilizing dialectical materialism. I have also been passing
around info on how to fight against the constant oppression. Oppression
is good for the oppressed. It is what motivates, and without it
complacency would be the norm.
I will be enclosing some more poetry for use in ULK. Also, the
issue of Under Lock & Key sent to me was rejected citing that
I already receive too many periodicals or publications. I am looking
into if there is indeed a set limit or if this is just a sorry excuse
for unwarranted censorship.
I’ve been sitting in my room and really, truly devoting myself to
studying the MIM Theory I received. I find myself aligning with
MIM on all of its issues and where they stand. I do have a question. It
is quite perplexing to me.
It seems to me that one of the biggest problems Maoists and other forms
of communism face all have a root in greed. The average human is not
inherently good and/or caring. Rather, their main objective in life is
to accumulate wealth to ensure a better life for them and hopefully
their immediate family. They do not have any feelings or true empathy
for those that do not have. So how do we solve this? I am new to this
movement, but am very intrigued by the veracity that is communism.
Expectantly awaiting.
MIM(Prisons) responds: In response to this question about greed
we ask another question: how do you know humyns are inherently greedy?
Sure, this is what we see today in the world around us. But capitalism
is built on a culture of greed and selfishness. It’s no surprise that
humyns raised in this culture, inundated with it from birth through
school, entertainment, and adult examples, will learn to be greedy and
individualist themselves. Further, capitalism rewards this individualism
with material wealth. There is little incentive or opportunity to be
selfless or generous.
But do we really have evidence that this is inherent in the humyn
species? When we look at the example of communist China during the
Cultural Revolution, so many people were engaging in tremendous acts of
selfless work while also actively fighting against reactionary culture.
We don’t have to look that far for examples of humyn selflessness. Even
under capitalism there are jobs that require greater sacrifice than they
offer reward, jobs that really help other people. Perhaps you could
argue that these are the few oddballs who didn’t get the “greed gene.”
But perhaps instead they represent what we all could be without
indoctrination in greed.
This writer argues that oppression is good for the oppressed because it
is what motivates. While we’d agree that oppression is a motivating
force, it’s still something we strive to eliminate because we believe
humyns can be motivated by striving for improvements for society without
facing constant oppression.
Hemos estado tratando de establecer un programa efectivo de Liberación
En La Vida, aquí en MIM(Prisons) por muchos años. Hemos extendido el
apoyo de pre-liberación que ofrecemos a nuestros camaradas activos que
están detrás de las rejas. Y hemos sentado algunas estructuras para un
mejor contacto y apoyo en las calles. Pero, lo que podemos ofrecer es
todavía muy poco frente a la realidad muy dura de una vida en las calles
después de una estadía en prisión. Estamos trabajando en extender lo que
podemos ofrecer. Eso se implica dinero. Pero eso también requiere de
ideas y gente en las calles que trabajen en esto. Nosotros sabemos que
lo que estamos haciendo ahora es inadecuado. Pero, estamos tratando de
construir.
Por varios años publicamos el boletín, “Liberación en la Vida” (Release
on Life newsletter (ROL)), el cuál fue enviado a nuestros camaradas en
las calles y aquellos con una fecha de libertad en su futuro cercano.
Pero no hubo mucho interés alrededor de este boletín. Nosotros sabemos
que Bajo Candado y Llave (ULK) inspira a las personas por que recibimos
muchas cartas sobre eso y envían artículos para el mismo. Liberación en
la Vida (ROL) no inspiró muchas respuestas o artículos. Así que, vamos a
descontinuar ese esfuerzo. En su lugar, nos enfocaremos en apoyo
practico y logístico para nuestros liberados. Y seguiremos imprimiendo
artículos sobre la liberación en Bajo Candado y Llave (ULK).
Pónganse en contacto con nosotros si tiene una fecha o espera ser puesto
en libertad en los siguientes años. Empiece a trabajar con nosotros
ahora para poder ayudarlo a que tenga éxito cuando salga a las calles.
A continuación hay una entrevista con uno de nuestros camaradas, quien
recientemente fue puesto en libertad, subrayando los desafíos con la
vida en las calles y la importancia de prepararse y educarse mientras
todavía se está preso.
Saludos Revolucionarios!!! Yo fui puesto en libertad de la Penitenciaria
el 9 de Julio del 2018. He estado fuera poco más de un mes. El Gobierno
Estatal y Federal no nos están ayudando ni mierda. Esta en nosotros el
trabajar duro para proveernos a nosotros mismos. Aprende todo lo que
puedas mientras que estas en prisión, porque al salir a estas calles es
pura acción sin parar. Para ustedes sin fecha de salida, mucho amor y
respeto. Cada uno enseña a uno.
Pregunta: Has encontrado algún apoyo para encontrar vivienda? Y si
no, que has hecho y que recomiendas a otros que hagan sino no tienen
todavía arreglado el ir a vivir con otras personas?
No, no he recibido vivienda. Yo no he recibido ni mierda del gobierno
Estatal o Federal. Si tu no tienes amigos o familiares que te den un
techo sobre tu cabeza, entonces sí vas a lucharla de verdad aquí fuera.
Yo tengo familia y amigos que me han bendecido con apoyo.
Pregunta: Has podido inscribirte para cualquier programa de apoyo del
gobierno (Estampillas para comida; Seguro Social; Asistencia Pública,
etc)?
Sí, me inscribí para beneficios y mierdas de ese tipo, pero, tanto el
gobierno Estatal como el Federal me negaron.
Pregunta: Que hiciste para encontrar trabajo después de haber sido
puesto en libertad?
Yo aplique en agencias de empleo, mierdas como esa, pero cuando
investigaban mi nombre, nunca me llamaban. Todavía no tengo trabajo. He
estado afuera ya dos meses. Se puede decir que trabajo por mi propia
cuenta.
Pregunta: Tú dices que las personas deberían aprender todo lo que
puedan mientras que están presos. En qué tipo de programas y estudios
les recomiendas a los presos que se enfoquen en prisión, para prepararse
para cuando salgan a las calles?
Yo digo, que las personas deberían aprender todo lo que puedan en
prisión, como leer libros. Yo cumplí mi sentencia en encierro solitario
(Ad-Seg) porque soy un miembro activo de STG. Yo mismo me eduqué. Usa tu
tiempo sabiamente porque una vez que salgas a calles, es todo otro
mundo.
Today I was denied the latest issue of ULK due to TDCJ BP.31,
Reason C, page H5 advocates prison disruption/strike and it was a
non-appealable item of course. Mrs. Thomas (Wayne Unit Mail Room
Supervisor) informed me, when I inquired as to why so many people also
weren’t receiving their paid for magazine subscriptions, “Yes, I know,
we aren’t getting them here.” And of course she doesn’t know who could
have held them up wither, “it must be the post office,” which I know
better. A lot of my mail is routed through zip code 77320-3144 office of
TDCJ Director Bryan Collier and others, including the Inmate Trust
Fund/Commissary Supervisor.
I have a lot of trouble receiving my Federal Credit Union statement
that’s sent out the 22nd of each month (PENFED in Alexandria, VA 22313)
and I may it get 8 to 15 days later. My Truck Round Up Magazine, BUD K
catalog, Popular Mechanics, and Reminisce of my eleven various
subscriptions are most often to take the longest getting to me and
sometimes not at all.
Mrs. Thomas swears TDCJ has nothing to do with it either. My mother and
sister are retired postal employees and I know the post office is over
99% effective and reliable. TDCJ, on the other hand, isn’t at all
trustworthy! I’ve fought this issue over a decade now with absolutely no
positive results and don’t know what else to do or who to contact about
it, the ARRM director says they don’t answer prisoner questions/mail, if
you have a problem, submit a grievance, which, of course, do not work
for prisoners at all. Perhaps you have something that could help? Thank
you, and I did immediately submit a step 1 grievance too.
In an effort to make work reports more useful within the Council, the
below was passed unanimously, with the majority voting to keep the old
method of reporting work hours in addition to the below. We are printing
this in ULK to solicit work reports from USW leaders who are not
yet Council members. By submitting short monthly reports to the Council,
we will better be able to sum up the efforts of USW as a whole, while
vetting emerging cells for Council membership.
All USW cells with an active Council representative must submit monthly
work reports to remain in the Council. All USW cells are encouraged
to submit monthly work reports to the Council. Work reports should be
one to two paragraphs. They should address the following points as
needed to update the Council on your work in the last month:
What types of activities did your cell participate in that contributed
to USWs mission?
What campaigns did your cell participate in or promote in the last
month?
What Serve the People programs did your cell operate?
What were the responses from the masses and USW recruits to this work?
What questions came up? How did you answer them? Or do you need help
answering them?
What lessons did you learn in the last month?
What are the most pressing issues that are of concern to the masses in
your location? Are there any new or developing issues of concern to the
masses there?
What organizations/services have you recently found useful in your work
(include contact info)?
What successes have you achieved in the last month?
MIM(Prisons) will not share revealing information with the Council.
Please keep in mind that your outgoing mail is being read and report on
your work accordingly.
Everything is political. While originally developed around a subculture
with ideas of “free speech”, reddit.com is an Amerikkkan corporation
controlling major segments of online traffic and information. It’s
policy of public anonymity made it a platform that MIM(Prisons) had
actively participated on for the last 5 years. We say public anonymity,
as over time the site has done more and more to track the identities and
patterns of its users privately. But it is unlike Facebook where you
must publicly identify yourself in order to participate.
MIM(Prisons) official Reddit account, /u/mimprisons, has been
suspended by Reddit for “suspicious activity” and is seemingly
unrecoverable. [UPDATE: After some more work on this
issue Reddit has since recovered the /u/mimprisons account. We still
don’t know what the cause was of this temporary suspension. But it has
been resolved.] This came one month after the account began actively
promoting tactics for secure online organizing in the
/r/mao_internationalist subreddit. This comrade will now be posting as
/u/mimonline. We will see how long that is allowed.
When we originally set up our official Reddit account it was partially
an insurance policy in case we became inaccessible via email, as
happened when the FBI shut down our
email
provider, lavabit.com. While Reddit and Facebook are centralized
communication platforms controlled by one entity, email is a federated
system with many central email servers inter-operating with each other.
However, setting up and maintaining an email server is not easy, so the
options are still limited and anonymous email has been challenging at
times.
Decentralized systems of communication are the only model that is truly
censorship resistant. This is why tools like Tox are important and
something our movement is beginning to use and promote more. Tox
provides censorship resistance, encryption and verifiable identities. It
is also available for all major platforms.
Totalitarianism in the United $tates masquerades as freedom by allowing
you to pick your toys in the color of your choice, or even by making
statements that are nominally outside the mainstream as long as they
reinforce systems of oppression (i.e. pornographic denigration of
wimmin). Meanwhile it successfully paints the image of socialist
countries as grey, drab and unsexy in contrast. The internet embodies
this contradiction, by offering an endless stream of content, with
almost all of it controlled by the corporate gatekeepers of Google,
Facebook,
Reddit,
Cloudflare
and others.
MIM has always promoted a free internet, whether under the dictatorship
of the bourgeoisie or the proletariat. This can only be ensured with the
proper technological infrastructure, which is currently being built by
volunteers and fringe organizations. Under socialism these technologies
will receive state sponsorship to ensure the integrity of mass
communication in the digital age. Currently, the vast majority of the
Third World are stuck in closed corporate ecosystems like Facebook and
QZone. We have strategic confidence that the vast majority of the world
has an interest in building communism, and unfettering their
communications will contribute to that project.