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.
Revolutionary state of mind has a place in all ages. I was born too
late for the 60’s so I found mine in these pages of Assata, Angela,
Huey Newton and George. They really opened up my mind and made me
pick up the sword.
Because this whole damn country is caught up and in turmoil. And if
you truly wanna know why too much African blood in the soil, These
people kidnapped us, raped us, stole our religion and heritage. And
ask why I’m so mad, nigga ain’t that a bitch!
So I keep my mind focused on the correct political line, Cause with
the right tactics and strategies these suckas won’t be getting
mine. The urban guerrilla front was built to last long. We’re
starting from the bottom so the cadre’s strong. A revolutionary state
of mind is what the people need. To stop the imperialism, and the
capitalist greed.
We can’t get anything done around here like getting a toilet or sink
fixed. There are 800 cells on this yard and in 5% of them these basic
amenities don’t work. We literally have to fill mop buckets of water to
flush down waste. Three of these pods leak water from the ceiling on to
the day room 24 hours a day. It’s always flooded and this combination is
physically and biologically hazardous.
MIM(Prisons) adds: As we explained in ULK 34,
prisoner
health is a systematic problem. We have documented cases of lack of
adequate nutrition or even safe uncontaminated food, brutality that
leads to permanent physical health problems, contaminated water, medical
neglect and other sources of health problems throughout the prison
system. This problem with toilets and other leaking water is yet another
example of prisons creating conditions that lead to significant health
problems for the captives. Sanitation is a basic problem that we
typically see in Third World countries, but this is just one of many
examples of poor sanitation in Amerikan prisons. While individual cases
like this could be addressed by the prison, we know that inadequate
medical care and lack of basic sanitation are conditions the oppressed
face around the world, and not something that imperialism has an
interest in fixing.
In considering the art of warfare and conflict resolution, many miss the
significance of how much an effect of one’s party winning on the
battlefield of propaganda has on that party’s victory in the war.
Throughout history, effective information distribution has been a major
factor in a nation or group gaining/obtaining power. It is essential in
the United $tate’s retention of its global position today. So one cannot
stress enough the importance of the efforts at educating people about
injustice.
One of the main ways in which the U.$.government, and the various
governments under its jurisdiction, are able to brazenly contradict
their stated laws, purpose, and principles, is by ensuring the
effectiveness of its personal propaganda machine - the corporate media.
For instance, it is well documented and basically established that the
CIA is responsible for the introduction of crack cocaine into the
streets of South Central Los Angeles, with knowledge and possible
complicity from the Executive Branch. Yet in this “war on drugs” none of
those mid-to-top level responsible CIA/Executive Branch officials were
ever made to face “justice.”
On the other side of that, the average Tyrone, in any hood U$A, is given
decades to life in prison for selling a minuscule fraction of what the
CIA introduced into his community. And by the media, Tyrone is portrayed
as the violent dangerous criminal, while George H.W. Bush, and the
Clintons are labeled as heroes. It’s an irreconcilable contradiction,
yet it is accepted as reasonable by the general public, which is mainly
due to its well-documented public opinion manipulation tactics.
And with the Amerikan public being so bombarded with pro-establishment
garbage, some people don’t have any exposure to any info other than what
the corporate media presents, and the U.$. establishment’s response to
the rise of Wikileaks shows that this is by design. Anyone who stands
against corruption, repression, oppression, social imbalance, and the
other vile things that this nation’s ruling class works to promote, must
put much focus on a counter-propaganda campaign to show the people
precisely what the effects of their support for the antisocial U.$.
establishment’s policies and actions are in real life circumstances.
This used to be an uphill battle due to the Establishment’s exclusive
hold on the corporate media, coupled with there being no real
alternative means of info distribution. But one of the advantages to
this information age is social media, which can give one access to a
whole world of people. Now people don’t have to rely on the corporate
media as their sole means of obtaining info on current events. The
establishment has lost its grip on info control and the opportunity for
you and most anyone else to be heard is at hand.
And with the daily displays of official lawlessness recently
transpiring, and with the corruption adversely affecting more and more
people, that’s more people with an ear open to your message. Knowledge
is power and education is essential to knowledge.
MIM(Prisons) responds: We agree on the value of alternative news
and the need to have media around which to build a movement. This is the
reason MIM(Prisons) prioritizes Under Lock & Key, both in
print and on the web, as a key responsibility of our organization.
However, we do not think, as this writer implies, that the Amerikan
people are so mis-educated that they only go along with the government
corruption because they don’t know otherwise. In reality the Wikileaks
exposure has not led to any new uprisings by Amerikan citizens. The
government fear about information release is mostly related to
international exposure. Within this country they do have to worry about
the youth in prisons and universities where there is much broader
political consciousness and interest in the real news about what’s going
on. Amerikans overall are complacent because they are bought off by
their government, paid to enjoy a petty bourgeois life at the expense of
the international proletariat. And so Amerikans generally are happy to
believe the lies fed to them by their government. With Under Lock
& Key we hope to reach those at the margins who do not enjoy
the Amerikan dream, or who have not yet bought into it. Having a
materialist understanding of the social forces in this country will
allow us to have a greater impact with our limited resources.
On 27 November 2013 the mailroom at Lovelock Corr Center received from
the U.S. post office mail that was addressed to me and sent from the
National Catholic Council on Addiction. It included a letter with a 2014
calendar and a catholic prayer book. I received an unauthorized mail
notification saying it was not from an approved vendor. On 7 December
2013, I was told to either pay to send it out or they would dispose of
it. I am an indigent inmate so sending it out is not an option.
How is the Catholic church not an approved vendor? When I approached the
prison chaplain all I was told was “oh it’s only a book”. I guess as an
inmate our faith has no meaning. I would love to see the free world’s
reaction if it were their prayer book and the government took it from
them and destroyed it.
MIM(Prisons) responds: While we don’t think that Catholic books
and calendars are doing anything positive for the revolutionary
struggle, we print this letter as an example of the ridiculous mail
policies found in Amerikan prisons. Censorship is generally targetted at
political organizations, particularly those like MIM(Prisons) which are
educating prisoners about the criminal injustice system and helping them
to organize to fight for their rights. But we have seen basic
educational material like dictionaries and law books rejected by the
censors. And so this rejection of religious literature further proves
that prisons are being used as tools of social control and punishment,
not centers for rehabilitation. For this reason, we oppose all
censorship of mail in the prisons and encourage prisoners to fight these
unjust policies by filing grievances, and taking it to court if needed.
Ask for our guide to fighting censorship in prison for more information
on this.
Thank you for the September/October issue of Under Lock &
Key(ULK). As you know, ULK readers are literally a
“captive audience.” You also know that their confinement seriously
limits their ability to access and study the vast body of
Marxist-Leninist-Maoist literature you claim to uphold, and also other
writings you’ve given your own interpretations to: which you either
claim to embrace or otherwise criticize.
In this latest ULK you
critiqued
my own recent article “Answering A
Revisionist Line on the Labor Aristocracy”. Point is, for your
readers to weigh the credibility of your interpretations and arguments
against what others have written pro and con, they must be able to read
not just what you have had to say, but what the other side has said as
well.
In your response to my article you said you promote honesty, and clarity
in polemics, however you appear yourself to practice deception by
omission by publishing only your side of the discussion for your
audience to read. And I daresay, your arguments do not accurately represent,
and puts your own spin on and omits, a great deal of what I wrote in my
article.
Whenever our Party engages in and publishes our polemics with others, we
publish both sides’
arguments, or if resources don’t allow, we try to make the other side’s
arguments available to our readers. That’s called being all-sided and
practicing democracy. It’s also called being dialectical, which Mao
promoted. MIM(Prisons) doesn’t do this. And it’s not that you don’t
recognize the need to do so.
Back in 2006 when your parent organization (the Maoist Internationalist
Movement) first began its efforts to influence us to embrace its line,
especially on the labor aristocracy question, we invited you to publish
our debates. MIM’s reply was they lacked space in its media – then
MIM Notes – and it no longer published its theoretical journal,
MIM Theory.
Apparently you’ve now found space to publish your side of the discussion.
Certainly you also have space to publish my own article that you were
critiquing and my forthcoming reply to that. I critically invite you to
do so, and ask that you print this letter in your next ULK.
Dare to Struggle Dare to Win! Rashid, MOD
MIM(Prisons) responds: The general point that printing both sides
of a polemic is a helpful way to educate the masses is a good one. Yet
we regularly read Marx, Lenin, Stalin and Mao talking about some
revisionist we don’t know anything about, and we learn from these
essays. And in the case of the article being criticized, we linked to
Rashid’s article for our online readers and have sent a copy to everyone
in prison who has requested one. We also included some direct quotes in
our response. That’s more than we can say of Rashid who did not print
any of our writings alongside his critique, or even cite our materials
where readers could find out more about our position. To our knowledge
the NABPP-PC has never published anything we’ve written.
Like the
recent
debate with Turning the Tide, we wouldn’t have published
this critique of Rashid if h had not written h article criticizing us
first. And we don’t have space to spare in Under Lock & Key
for articles that are so off the mark. Every issue we have good content
that does not make the cut. We are currently pushing USW comrades to
raise the bar for donations to expand the amount of content we can fit
into ULK for this very reason. For theoretical study we
distribute numerous books and have numerous study packs on this question
including our newly released introductory pack on the labor aristocracy.
We also distribute a couple study packs by Rashid hself, on topics where
we have unity. Finally, we distribute the classics by Marx, Engels,
Lenin, Stalin and Mao. So if our readers fail to grasp the essence of
this issue it is not for our lack of making materials available.
As the original review stated, we were underwhelmed by Rashid’s piece,
which was mostly empty rhetoric. We only responded because we know our
readers are influenced by the writings of the NABPP-PC. Rashid promises
a reply, which will hopefully enlighten us as to how we misrepresented
their line. Certainly we will print any corrections if we published
something incorrect. But it seems the NABPP-PC line on the labor
aristocracy is just as wrong today as it was in 2006, as they make the
same tired arguments the revisionists have made for decades.
Images of a statue of communist leader V.I. Lenin being torn down in
Kiev have been celebrated in the Western press, as hundreds of thousands
of Ukrainians took to the streets to protest the current regime headed
by president Viktor Yanukovych.
Much of the coverage of the recent protests in Ukraine condemn
government corruption as the common complaint of the protestors, linking
it to Ukraine’s Soviet past. The association is that this is the legacy
of communist rule. In contrast, we would argue that this corruption was
the result of economic Liberalism taking hold in the former Soviet Union
where bourgeois democracy was lacking. Today’s protests are largely
inspired by a desire for bourgeois democracy, and the perceived economic
benefits it would provide over the current rule by a parasitic
bourgeoisie with little interest in the national economy.
The rise of Kruschev to lead the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
(USSR) after Stalin’s death marked the victory of the capitalist roaders
within the Communist Party, and the beginning of the era of
social-imperialism for the Soviet Union. This lasted from 1956 until the
dissolution of the Union in 1991, when Ukraine became an independent
republic. The period was marked by moving away from a socialist economy
structured around humyn need and towards a market economy guided by
profit. This transformation was reflected in the ideology of the people
who more and more looked towards the imperialist countries and their
crass consumerism as something to aspire to. It also led those in power
to have more interest in their local regions than in the prosperity of
the Union as a whole.
Even under capitalism, the Soviet Union was more prosperous and more
stable than after its dissolution. In 1991, an estimated three quarters
of the Soviet people supported maintaining the Union, but the leadership
had no motivation to do so.(1) A move towards strengthening the Union
would awaken the proletarian interests, which were opposed to the
interests of the leadership that was now a new bourgeoisie. Ukraine
played a key role in initiating the dissolution of the USSR. And it was
no coincidence that in Ukraine, in particular, the dissolution was an
economic disaster as the former Soviet nations were tossed to the wolves
of economic Liberalism. A small emerging capitalist class took advantage
of fixed prices that were a legacy of the Soviet economy and sold
cheaply obtained raw materials at market rates to other countries. They
turned around and invested that capital outside in international markets
while tightening monopolies on trade at home. This was one of the most
drastic transfers of wealth from the hands of the producers to the hands
of capitalists in recent decades.(2)
Ten years after the October Revolution of 1917, Stalin wrote, “the
resultant dropping out of a vast country from the world system of
capitalism could not but accelerate [the process of the decay and the
dying of capitalism]”.(3) The inverse of this is also true, to a degree:
the reentry of many countries into the world system breathed life back
into it. While this brought great change at the hands of the newly
empowered national bourgeoisie in those countries, it did not change the
fact that imperialism had already made capitalism an economically
regressive system. Hence they did not develop the wealth of their
nations as the rising bourgeoisie of centuries past had done by
improving production and developing trade. Today’s rising bourgeoisie
restricts markets via monopolies, and heads straight for high-margin
business like drugs, weapons and financial markets. What happened in the
ex-Soviet countries is a good demonstration of why Libertarian ideals
are not relevant in today’s economy.
The underground economy had been growing for decades before 1991, and
this new freedom to compete was a boon to the criminal organizations
that existed. These mafias were on the ground with direct access to the
resources of the people before the imperialists had time to fight over
these newly opened economies. With rising nationalism in the republics,
Russian imperialism had to keep its distance, while other imperialist
countries had no base in the region to get established. The
inter-imperialist rivalry over the region is playing out today.
In the early years of independence, the Ukrainian state merged with that
criminal class that was taking advantage of the political and economic
turmoil in the country.(4) As a result the GDP dropped to a mere third
of what it was just before the Union dissolved.(5) This came after
decades of declining economic growth after the initial shift away from
socialist economics. The mafias in the former Soviet countries saw an
opportunity to seize local power and wealth in their respective
republics as the super power crumbled. Some were further enticed by
Amerikan bribes, such as Russian President Boris Yeltsin’s family who
received billions of dollars.(6) For a time there was hope that these
changes would improve economic conditions as the bourgeois Liberal
mythology led the former Soviet peoples to believe that they could
follow the advice (and political donations) of the United $tates.
This mess, which the region is still struggling with, was the ultimate
result of what Mao Zedong said about the rise of a new bourgeoisie
within the communist party after the seizure of state power due to their
inherent privilege as directors of the state. A successful socialist
project must combat these bourgeois tendencies at every turn in order to
prevent the proletariat from suffering at the hands of a new bourgeois
exploiting class. At the core of the Cultural Revolution was combating
the theory of productive forces, which Mao had previously criticized the
Soviet Union for implementing. The turn to the western imperialist
countries as economic models was the logical conclusion of the theory of
productive forces in the Soviet Union.
One of the messages underpinning today’s protests in Ukraine is the
desire to move closer to the European Union (EU), as opposed to the
Russian sphere of influence. It seems that looking to the west for hope
has only increased in Ukraine over the last couple decades. But there is
no obvious advantage to becoming a client of imperialist Western Europe
over imperialist Russia except for the higher concentration of
super-profits in the EU. And as other newcomers to the EU can attest,
the imperialist nations in Europe will oppose any perceived distribution
of their super-profits to the east. Similar nationalism is fueling the
Ukrainian protestors who oppose the perceived transfer of wealth from
their country to Russia. In general, increased trade will help a country
economically. But in this battle Russia and the EU are fighting to cut
each other off from trading with Ukraine. As always, capitalism tends
towards monopolies and imperialism depends on monopsonies.
It is little wonder that the masses would be unsatisfied living under
the rule of corrupt autocrats. Yet, it was just 2004 when the
U.$.-funded so-called “Orange Revolution” threw out a previous mafia
boss named Leonid Kuchma.(7) This regime change gained support from
those making similar demands to today’s protestors, but it did not
change the nature of the system as these protests demonstrate. And that
orchestrated movement was no revolution. It was a mass protest, followed
by a coup d’etat; something that the imperialists have been
funding quite regularly in central Eurasia these days. A revolution
involves the overthrow of a system and transformation to a new system,
specifically a change in the economic system or what Marxists call the
mode of production. We don’t see any movement in this direction in
Ukraine from where we are, as nationalism is being used as a carrier for
bourgeois ideologies among the exploited people of Ukraine, just as
Stalin warned against.
Rather than a revolutionary anti-capitalist/anti-imperialist movement,
the criminal corruption in Ukraine has led to right-wing populism in
recent years. This was marked by the surge of the Svoboda party into the
parliament. The men who toppled the statue of Lenin and smashed it with
sledge hammers waved Svodoba flags as they did so, indicating that they
represented not just a vague anti-Russia sentiment, but a clear
anti-socialist one.
Svodoba’s populism challenges the current ruling bourgeois mafia, while
their nationalism serves to divide the proletariat by inflaming various
grudges in the region. This is in strong contrast to the revolutionary
nationalism supported by Lenin and Stalin and by Maoists today. In a
criticism of the provisional government prior to the October Revolution
in 1917, Lenin wrote on Ukraine:
“We do not favour the existence of small states. We stand for the
closest union of the workers of the world against ‘their own’
capitalists and those of all other countries. But for this union to be
voluntary, the Russian worker, who does not for a moment trust the
Russian or the Ukrainian bourgeoisie in anything, now stands for the
right of the Ukrainians to secede, without imposing his friendship upon
them, but striving to win their friendship by treating them as an equal,
as an ally and brother in the struggle for socialism.”(8)
This is a concise summary of the Bolshevik line on nationalism.
A Note on Class and Criminality
Without doing an in-depth class analysis of Ukraine, we can still
generalize that it is a proletarian nation. Only 5.1% of households had
incomes of more than US$15,000 in the year 2011.(9) That mark is close
to the dividing line we’d use for exploiters vs. exploited
internationally. Therefore we’d say that 95% of people in Ukraine have
objective interests in ending imperialism. This serves as a reminder to
our readers that we say the white nation in North Amerika is an
oppressor nation, not the white race, which does not exist.
While official unemployment rates in Ukraine have been a modest 7 to 8%
in recent years, the CIA Factbook reports that there are a large number
of unregistered and underemployed workers not included in that
calculation. That unquantified group is likely some combination of
underground economy workers and lumpen proletariat. In 2011, the
Ukrainian Prime Minister said that 40% of the domestic market was
illegal,(10) that’s about double the rate for the world overall.(11) On
top of that, another 31% of the Ukrainian market was operating under
limited taxes and regulations implemented in March 2005, which were put
in place to reduce the massive black market. In other words, the
underground economy was probably much bigger than 40% before these tax
exemptions were put in place.
One way we have distinguished the lumpen is as a class that would
benefit, whether they think so or not, from regular employment. This is
true both for the lumpen-proletariat typical of today’s Third World
mega-slums, and the First World lumpen, even though “regular employment”
means very different things in different countries. While there is a
portion of the lumpen that could accurately be called the “criminal”
lumpen because they make their living taking from others, we do not
define the lumpen as those who engage in crime. Of course not, as the
biggest criminals in the world are the imperialists, robbing and
murdering millions globally.
For the lumpen, the path of crime is only one option; for the
imperialists it defines their relationship to the rest of humynity.
Crime happens to be the option most promoted for the lumpen by the
corporate culture in the United $tates through music and television. And
in chaotic situations like the former Soviet republics faced it may be
the most immediately appealing option for many. But it is not the option
that solves the problems faced by the lumpen as a class. Ukraine is a
stark example of where that model might take us. As the lumpen
proletariat grows in the Third World, and the First World lumpen
threatens to follow suit in conditions of imperialist crisis, we push to
unite the interests of those classes with the national liberation
struggles of the oppressed nations that they come from. Only by
liberating themselves from imperialism can those nations build economies
that do not exclude people.
Among the bourgeoisie, there are few who are innocent of breaking the
laws of their own class. But there are those who operate legitimate
businesses and there are those who operate in the underground market.
This legality has little bearing on their class interests. All national
bourgeoisies support the capitalist system that they benefit from,
though they will fight against the imperialist if their interests
collide.
So there is no such thing as “the criminal class” because we define
class by the group’s relationship to production and distribution, and
not to the legality of their livelihoods. And we should combat the
influence of the bourgeois criminals on the lumpen who, on the whole,
would be better served by an end to imperialism than by trying to follow
in their footsteps.
While the Ukrainian people push for something more stable and beneficial
to them, the Russian imperialists face off with the EU. The EU is backed
by the United $tates who has publicly discussed sanctions against
Ukraine justified by hypocritical condemnation of the Ukrainian
government using police to attack peaceful protests. Hey John Kerry, the
world still remembers the images of police brutality on Occupy Wall
Street encampments.
The real story here may be in the inter-imperialist rivalry being fought
out in the Ukrainian streets and parliament. While the Ukraine nation
has an interest in ending imperialism, the dominant politics in that
country do not reflect that interest. And one reason for that is the
lasting effects of mistakes from the past, which still lead to
subjective rejection of communism for many Ukrainians in the 21st
century. This only further reiterates the importance of the Great
Proletarian Cultural Revolution and the need to always put politics in
command in building a socialist economy to prevent the future
exploitation and suffering of the peoples of the world. This is likely a
precursor to much more violent conflict over the rights to markets in
the former Soviet republics. Violence can be prevented in the future by
keeping the exploited masses organized on the road to socialism.
Everyday I sit back and listen to numerous captives blab on and on about
how “business aggressive” they are. The thing that boggles my mind is
that when the swine do something to them they bitch and cry but accept
the oppression. When another captive, however, commits the smallest
infraction only then does the aggression come out, but even that is
limited to cell warrioring and threats of violence. These displays of
traitorous behavior make it frustrating not just for myself but for
other revolutionary educators trying to show fellow captives a brighter
path.
I admit I have little patience for those who constantly complain and
antagonize the swine but leave their actions to just that while the
swine continue to oppress the captive collective. I have heard a couple
of captives talk on the run about plausible actions to address the
oppression, but just as soon as such revolutionary thought is introduced
it is struck down by another captive and this brings the end of the
conversation. It is extremely disheartening to hear such things as that.
It is also disheartening to hear captives say that we have no choice but
to accept the oppression. I don’t understand this at all because these
are the same individuals that spout off about old school hip hop like
NWA and Public Enemy who urged the masses to fight the power and say
fuck the police.
What are we getting out of fighting amongst ourselves? Nothing but
reverse progression that plays in the swine’s favor, thus opening the
doors for more oppression and lessening the value of revolutionary
thought. Why can’t we use this so-called aggression to fight the real
enemy, the grey suit swine? Even more so, why do so many speak out
against squaring off against the enemy? It’s not just backwards
aggression that is a hindrance to revolution, there is also selfishness,
greed, disdain for learning, gambling, and narco addictions, all playing
a part to hinder revolution. I say gambling and narco addictions for the
fact that a majority of captive-on-captive violence is due to gambling
in some shape or form, and narco addictions cloud the mind from being
open to revolutionary education and thought.
In my work concerning capitalism as applied to gulag functioning I urged
captives to strike against commissary and I will reiterate my stance as
commissary also provides captives fuel for conflict against other
captives. When the swine denies a captive commissary nine times out of
ten the captive will hang his head and slink off in defeat. But if a
captive doesn’t make commissary and is in debt to another captive, the
owed captive spouts off in aggression and violent temperament. Thus
commissary is swine approved extortion and needs to be boycotted as it
is a detriment to captive unity and education.
I’ll close this with my main point, we are all captives no matter race,
creed, gender, inside affiliations, outside affiliations, etc.
Oppression and exploitation do not discriminate, we are political
prisoners who have no hope as long as we remain ignorant to truth and
embracing of the poison the authoritarian elitist swine continually feed
us. Captives are not supposed to be enemies to other captives,
aggression is supposed to be used to counter elitist oppression, but the
elitists use our own aggression against us to fulfill their agenda to
neglect and oppress. To fight this we must truly gain revolutionary
insight and educate fellow captives in revolutionary politics.
MIM(Prisons) responds: The first point in the
United
Front for Peace in Prisons statement of principles is Peace: “We
organize to end the needless conflicts and violence within the U.$.
prison environment. The oppressors use divide and conquer strategies so
that we fight each other instead of them. We will stand together and
defend ourselves from oppression.” This comrade highlights some of the
ways that the system turns prisoners against each other, wasting their
energy on counter-revolutionary fights that could be put into organizing
against the criminal injustice system.
The Butler portrays the life of Cecil Gaines, a butler in the
White House for 34 years, starting in 1957. The movie is a fictionalized
version of the story of Gene Allen’s life. MIM(Prisons) sums up this
movie as propaganda to quell the just anger of the oppressed nation
masses, encouraging them to work within the system for small changes.
The focus of the movie is on the oppression of New Afrikans from the
1950s to the year 2008, dividing its focus between the White House and
the successive Presidents, and the activists in the streets. In the
streets the movie gives special focus to the Freedom Riders and Martin
Luther King Jr. The movie derides the most important political leaders
of the time, barely mentioning Malcolm X, and attempting to portray the
Black Panther Party (BPP) as a brutally violent movement out to kill
whites, just using the community service programs like free breakfast
for school children as a cover.
The heroes of the movie include Gaines’s son, Louis, who participates in
the civil rights and activist movements over the years and eventually
“learns” that the best way forward is to push for change from within,
and runs for Congress. We see his dedication as a Freedom Rider, and
fierce commitment to freedom and justice, as Louis literally puts his
life on the line, enduring brutal beatings, repeated imprisonments, and
constant threat of death. Louis moves on to work with Martin Luther King
Jr. in a highly praised non-violent movement, and then joins the BPP
after King is killed. Louis turns from an articulate and brave youth
into a kid spouting revolutionary platitudes that he doesn’t seem to
understand, making the BPP into a mockery of what it really represented.
The other heroes of the movie are the U.$. Presidents. With the
exception of Nixon, who is portrayed as a drunk, all the other
Presidents are humanized and made to appear appropriately sympathetic
with the civil rights movement. While they all are shown saying things
clearly offensive, racist, and in favor of national oppression, each
President has a moment of redemption. John F. Kennedy tells Gaines that
it is Gaines’s persynal history and the story of his son’s activism that
changed his mind on the need for the civil rights movement. Even Ronald
Reagan is shown secretly sending cash to people who write to him about
their financial problems, and telling Gaines that he’s sometimes worried
that he’s on the wrong side of the civil rights movement. On a positive
note, all of the Presidents were shown as reticent to take any positive
action towards change until the popular movement forced them to act.
This is the reality of any oppressor class.
Gaines does, in the end, come to the realization that real change was
not going to come from the White House, and quits his job to join his
son in activism in the streets. But this action is played up to be as
much an attempt to reconcile his relationship with his son, as a
dedication to activism itself. And the activism seems to end with just
one protest. In the end, both Cecil and Louis celebrate the “victory” of
Obama in the 2008 election as a sign that their battle is finally over.
The Butler does a good job of portraying the Civil Rights
movement of the 1950s and 60s, but only as a minor part of the plot. And
it ultimately suggests that New Afrikans should be satisfied with an
imperialist lackey in the White House as a representation of their
success and equality with whites. It fits into a group of recent movies
that Hollywood has produced, such as Lincoln and
12
Years a Slave, to rewrite Amerikan history to quell the
contradiction between the oppressor nation and the New Afrikan internal
semi-colony.
Background on Campaign to Resist Restrictions on Indigent Correspondence
In a move that caught some of us off guard, the Texas Board of Criminal
Injustice has issued an order to drastically change the indigent mail
policy within the Texas Department of Criminal Injustice, which runs
over 111 Texas state prisons. In August 2013 the board convened and
decided that starting October 1, 2013, indigent prisoners will only be
allowed to mail 5 general correspondence letters per month! Indigent
prisoners were previously allotted 5 letters per week. The primary
reason cited for the drastic cut is the financial costs involved in
providing postage for the tens of thousands of indigent prisoners housed
in Texas prisons. However, there is a very real attack being aimed at
the growing number of revolutionary voices that are popping up around
Texas to expose the barbaric treatment and inhumane conditions that
exist in Texas. It is validation to many of us that our voices are being
heard by outside supporters, and this new policy is definitely a
retaliatory reactionary response to our activism.
Just this year alone has exposed so many major problems in Texas:
Texas surpassed 500 executions of human beings on June 26 2013.
A wrongful death lawsuit was lodged against Texas in regards to the
extreme heat (and the pigs joined the prisoners!)
Texas leads the nation in prison sexual assault and abuse cases
Rashid of the New Afrikan Black Panther Party - Prison Chapter was
moved to Texas from Oregon and the internet is buzzing with his detailed
report of the mistreatment and abuse he has incurred since arriving in
Texas.
Comrades, the U.S. Department of Injustice doesn’t give a shit about us.
In order to actuate change for ourselves we must unite in solidarity,
get active with USW and MIM(Prisons), link up with sincere activists and
media outlets who are sympathetic to our cause and “mash the gas” on
these oppressors. Texas hates media coverage, so now we are forced to
really make our correspondence count. Drop all the letters to
organizations that are only offering lip service with no action and get
with this movement! Share Under Lock & Key, increase your
political study, stand up to the pigs. Don’t let the comrades in
California be the only true revolutionary soldiers.
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