Federal Prisons

I extend my greetings to you all and want to make a few observations based upon questions posed by Loco1 in ULK 23. It is quite true that we obtained the attention of prisoncrats who have assumed that the continual promotion of division of lumpen organizations will keep us at each other throats. Prisoncrats have adapted and pursued new oppressive tactics as a result of the intensive scrutiny that the shot across the bow of battleship CDCR caused.

To retreat is not an option, as to do such only further emboldens prisoncrats to erode civil and human rights of California prisoners, actions which will be mimicked across the nation. We must use our collective brains to adapt new tactics. In war many tactics are used. You may be able to sneak up on an enemy once or twice but in due course the opposition will counter with an ambush. So as master Sun Tzu stated in The Art of War, “Those who win every battle are not really skillful. Those who render others’ armies helpless without fighting are the best of all!” And that’s what was done, embarrassing the prisoncrats who were ill prepared to deal with it. It’s only a battle in a broader war.

I am nobody’s leader or follower. My duties are to help teach independent thought, which will ensure that an individual can and will anticipate the likely reaction of prisoncrats and minimize the effect. Everyone has seen the so-called increase of privileges, some of which are still very elusive, since they mandate a year without a disciplinary, which will never be possible for a true revolutionary or resister to achieve. These privileges also encourage prisoners to lean on their families and friends to help finance their imprisonment and enrich prison profiteers who feed on the golden state’s teat.

The original hunger strike strategy clearly impacted prisoncrats. It should provide a plethora of new tactical ideas. Consider that besides the so-called security concerns over prisoners possessing cell phones, the reality is that cell phones cut into prisoncrats’ fiscal resources. The prison phone provider gives the CDCR a concession fee. This is why prisoners’ phone privileges, canteen, packages and anything that the CDCR receives a concession fee from, are generally not taken. The income from canteen purchases pay the wages of state SEIU employees who are canteen managers II, I, supervisors and workers in addition to profits being diverted from prisoner welfare to custody welfare activities.

We should consider alternative strategies that hit them where it hurts the most: in their pocketbook. Just like one can go without eating for a week or three, people should be able to go without canteen for 3 to 6 months and empty trust accounts, which will result in more expense to the CDCR. There are numerous ways that the CDCR sticks it to prisoners’ families and friends. So if, as Loco1 suggests, it is correct to re-evaluate our actions, it is my opinion that the new strategy should be a fiscal one.

I address this to all prisoners irrespective of your status, as status is given by prisoncrats. Be you general population or sensitive needs, if you choose to allow prisoncrats to manipulate and control you with privileges, you are by proxy their collaborator. As such you cause as much of the problem, rather than a solution.

I also want to point out that tactically and strategically it is never wise to call out numerous lumpen organizations as BORO/Loco1 did. Such will likely have a negative impact, since those named will have to deal with substantively more scrutiny. So while others may think that ULK is a forum to send shout outs, to me the objective is to try to encourage education and the capacity to think independently. The CDCR benefits from dumbed-down prisoners, particularly those who do not have their priorities in order.

Prisoncrats look to pacify all prisoners, particularly the segment that is weakest. So it is on us to try to encourage self-esteem, self-worth, self-sacrifice and self-deprivation, all of which builds character and the ability to endure the picklesuits’ plots and conspiracies. The preparation that is most important to any struggle is the will to personally do something to encourage change. I believe that ideas and strategies of the opposition should be examined, and then we can decide on a course of action and systematically pass on the purpose and reasoning, not as leaders to followers but as men and women in concerted struggle.

The fact that there is no real accountability of prisoncrats and their subordinates has again led to the introduction of Assembly Bill 1270 on January 26, 2012 by Assembly Member Tom Ammiano to try to restore media access to prisoners. Taking away media access gave prisoncrats control over what’s spoon fed to the public. Independent media access is what made it possible for the pacification privileges introduced in the 60s and 70s, since there was a lot more transparency and prisoncrats were exposed to more accountability. But since the imposition of media restrictions on pre-arranged in-person interviews with prisoners, what takes place in prison tends to be out-of-sight/out-of-mind.

I believe in a United Front, but we must recognize that the composition of that front is varied. I prefer that we always seek to encourage education which brings clarity and understanding to less knowledgeable comrades. I will say, however that ignorance and stupidity is infectious. I guess I could be equated with a silverback, only I do not take to leading. But I am not adverse to the development of consciousness so maybe we should send requests to the education department of all CDCR prisons asking for “The Rise of the Planet of the Apes” that Wiawimawo provided us with a review of in August 2011, as it might help open up some minds to revolutionary concepts.

Yes I’m all for a true United Front, where we all (Black, Brown, White, Yellow, Red, Green, Blue or plaid) can stand together to regain our civil and human rights, not confusing privileges with rights. We can positively seek to cease all the senseless grudges that plague the ethnic divisions and LOs. I do not believe in violence just for amusement. My battle is not with prisoners, it’s with prisoncrats. Any prisoner who sees me as a threat, I deem them an agent of the state. “Think and not hate” is what your commentator in struggle relates.

MIM(Prisons) responds: First we want to agree with the criticism of calling out LO members by name which we already responded to elsewhere. But we do not agree with this comrade’s abdication of leadership. The movement has a strong need for leaders and pretending that all people are equal in this way gives power over to the imperialists who have no problem seizing leadership. Those who are more advanced, have more education, or more will to struggle, must take up leadership positions in educating and organizing others. We can’t afford to have these people step back in the name of equality as that void will be filled by reactionary leaders. The antidote to misleaders is better, more educated leaders as well as a better more educated mass that can judge, choose and reject would-be leaders. Ultimately we are working towards a society, communism, where all people are equal and all can lead, but we must deal with the current reality and uneven development of forces and individuals. USW is an organization for leaders. A vanguard party is the leader of the revolution. And the oppressed people desperately need more leaders.

This missive will be brief but informative on the level of state repression being executed by the authorities down here in West Valley Detention Center. It seems that my interest in researching history by receiving your MIM Notes newsletter has rubbed the police the wrong way. On February 16, 2012 I got a visit from a federal agent who wanted to know why I was receiving such information. The agent reveled to me that they were contacted because a package had MIM material inside of it.

Although the package was given to me it was quite unusual in the manner it was presented. Being that it wasn’t classified as legal mail, I was called out of my cell and instructed to bring my ID. An officer who did not work in my unit handed over the package after scrutinizing my I.D. The package was open and was obviously inspected. Now none of this I would consider misconduct on their behalf, but suspicious in how they did not give the package to me in the regular way they pass out mail, which is through the unit officers who pass out all books, mags, and first class mail after 8pm count.

The only logical conclusion that I can reach on this matter is that they were making a threat assessment of me which would be considered absurd for receiving a publication that reports on global events. But when looking past the surface of this event, it is quite obvious that our so-called rights to the press and “individual sovereignty” are denied when we are discovering the skeletons in this nation’s closet. On that note I will end this missive with a message to the masses: learn the facts of everything, don’t let the authorities intimidate you.

Revolutionary - one who takes part in a sudden, radical, or complete change especially the overthrow or renunciation of one ruler or government and substitution of another by the governed.

Gang - a group of persons working or associated together, esp a group of criminals or young delinquents. Also: mob, band, clan, club, crew, pack, ring, team, crowd, horde, posse, circle, clique, outfit, friends, syndicate.

When the word gang comes into play especially by the media (i.e. radio, television and newspaper) why is it always associated with negative energy? We as members of lumpen organizations have effectively allowed ourselves to be boxed into a stereotype of negativity and successfully strayed from our paths as revolutionaries. It seems that we as revolutionaries fighting for an extreme, radical change to and for our environment have allowed ourselves to become radically changed by unseen puppet masters thus detouring us from our way of righteousness.

As members of the lumpen organizations known as Crips and Bloods, we were formed on the heels of the Black power era to override the oppression and destruction of our inner city neighborhoods and take up the baton passed to us by our forefathers to continue this fight for liberation for the people. How have we regressed from a “group of persons working or associated together” for a noble, common cause to a “group of criminals and young delinquents”?! We have allowed ourselves to be labeled “menace to society” by our true enemy (the U.$. government) but instead of refusing that moniker, we have embraced it and fallen into line like cattle to a slow slaughter.

History, true history, clearly shows what is happening: covert government operations, such as the counter intelligence program (COINTELPRO), are infiltrating our ranks and using their art of “divide and rule” to weaken us from the inside out. For all of us still living in darkness; the light of the matter is that this oppressive government tactic is working and has worked for decades! By pitting our respective families against each other, they allow us to set our own limitations on our growth and development. By keeping the lumpen organizations at each others throats, the government can deal with each faction as an individual. This has to change! Only by stifling our generations of feuding can we begin to focus on bigger and better things; only then can we focus on the rebuilding of the urban communities that we have helped tear down.

When J. Edgar Hoover initiated his counterintelligence program, to combat the Black Panthers and other Black nationalists, it was a form of genocide. They threatened to destroy anybody in the Black community who was a leader, anybody! So, they declared war on us 40-45 years ago and that war is still going on right now. That is why those in power are so afraid of our unification, because you can only keep an oppressed person or people down for so long. Then when unification comes, all of us have the same enemy and they can’t have that because we become a united body fighting in solidarity with focus, determination and rage against the machine!

For us in the “department of corruption” we are already united in our suffering and our daily repression. We face the same common enemy, we are trapped in the same oppressive conditions. We wear the same “plantation” clothing, we are brutalized by the same racist, prejudiced pigs. We are one people, no matter your hood, set, creed or nationality, we know we need unity but we need a different kind of unity than we have at present. We want to move from unity in oppression to unity in serving the people and striving towards national independence and liberation.

Crip, Blood, Vice Lord, Gangster Disciple, Latin King, it makes no difference; we are all brothers of the same struggle. The sooner we all overstand this concept the better. We are revolutionaries, but without every individual of every feuding family taking a step for peace, there can be no change. Without change, there can be no revolution.

“Revolution is about change, and the first place where change takes place is within yourself.” - Assata Shakur

MIM(Prisons) adds: The United Front for Peace in Prisons was initiated in 2011 to bring together those with an interest in revolutionary organizing. This comrade echoes the principle of Unity that is inherent in the shared conditions imprisoned lumpen class.

As this comrade explains, to achieve unity in practice, we must come together and resist the state-sponsored work to undermine that unity. It is not the labels that matter, but rather our actions that will make a real difference. We must judge individuals by their actions, regardless of their affiliation, location, or background.

Greetings to you no matter your affinity, association, involvement or activities in LOs or case status. There is a higher cause that demands our attention and support than being side tracked by petty conflicts or lack of prioritization.

As a result of some censorship by prisoncrats here at the infamous Corcoran SHU, only yesterday did I receive ULK23 after a two month delay. In the pages of ULK I see that the sensibilities of some SNYs have been ruffled.

This is not about attacking anyone’s sensitivities, nor is it about why any person chooses or allows themselves to be subjected to the indignity and dishonor of being classified as SNY while still trying to allude to being solid, which is illogical and demonstrates confusion.

Let’s be clear about the fact that whatever excuse one chooses to justify their conditions does not mean that I should sympathize or empathize with that individual’s decision or choice.

I take issue with the premise that General Population (GP) prisoners created SNYs since prisoncrats did that and CCPOA created prison politics and has nourished the growth. The fact that so many so-called GPs are quick to say in the presence of picklesuits or other informants that they are active for some false sense of machismo plays into the ploys of prisoncrats.

When I last sought to address this issue an SNY prisoner took offense even though nothing was directed at only SNYs, as I pointed out the fact that there are and have been a plethora of agent provocateurs and quislings in GP who are traitors to their own LOs working in lock step with the picklesuits.

As a prisoner of the state, it is not my job to inflict punishment on any other prisoner for the crime prosecuted by the state, that’s what a sentence is for and I am by no means a surrogate prisoncrat. In this day and age I do not draw a distinction between open SNY prisoners and undercover ones who suck up to prisoncrats and are motivated for the same reasons. Some supposedly solid comrades went to SNY supposedly to receive a release date, which to some may sound like a strong argument but to me is muddy water.

I do not have a duty or responsibility to provide IGI intelligence or a means of controlling the way I may think in exchange for a parole date; that is not freedom. Why concern ourselves with whether a cat hails from the north, south, east or west! I say white, black, brown, yellow or green! Why should I concern myself with what LO he/she claims to belong?

In most cases the need to publicly profess or denounce the appellation is a mental/emotional need, or a result of official intimidation to make decisions that individuals must live with. It does not mean that anyone has given up their usefulness and ability to support a prisoner’s cause!

Trust is not a given, nor do I give anyone the benefit of doubt just because they claim to be this or that. Trust is a hard won concept and only fools expose their personal inclinations and assume such will not be used against them by some character who is motivated by self-serving greed or malevolence. Even cowards, traitors, rats and deviants can try to make amends, but that does not mean such will regain trust and respect lost as of a result of ones choices.

The CDCR has found that the practice of intimidation, deprivation and manipulation works well on prisoners who allow themselves to become susceptible to such tactics and motivations to betray their comrades’ confidences. In my opinion this is inexcusable, but such is a mental/emotional weakness that’s identifiably been around since the beginning of civilization.

In these prisons many fail to acknowledge that 75% of the officially validated disruptive group members are based upon self-admission and/or public display of such affiliations, which include but are not limited to cats telling prisoncrats that they are this or that and so and so is my homeboy!

It is not for me to tell other prisoners what to do, and I do not have any qualms with sticking to morals and principals I grew up with, which means I will not take others down with me and I do not volunteer/provide the prisoncrats with intelligence on myself, family, friends, or people I may know. Why should I? What special consideration or privileges are that important? The problem is too many prisoners focusing on privileges rather than rights.

I am pursuing my own kind of sacrifice in that my prison term has been over since April 15, 2011. Parole is “an established variation on imprisonment of convicted criminal: the essence of parole is release from prison before the completion of a sentence on condition that a prisoner abide by certain rules during the balance of a sentence…” Yet prisoncrats have corrupted and confused the concept of parole to mean something more which while the Federal Bureau of Prisons jurisdiction adds a period of supervised release, such is not parole by definition.

Many prisoners tend to assume that my refusal to sign a parole contract is because I presumably have nowhere to go or have burned all my bridges. I have served all the time doubled and enhanced thus I should be allowed to leave the state and country if I so choose.

I am not at war with other prisoners and I am not into who-riding/who-banging or talking smack about others in what I see as intentional perpetuation of conflict and ethnic biases that keep us from maintaining a United Front in the face of the true demons who constantly attack and abuse prisoners with no real accountability, continuing the erosion and loss of civil and human rights.

I cannot and will not compromise my intellect and principals in exchange for a bigger prison where threat of re-imprisonment is used to try to end my activism for prisoner rights, justice and accountability of prisoncrats/picklesuits. This is my sacrifice in this multifaceted struggle, so GP/SNY whatever your circumstances may be there are many ways to contribute to the struggle and affronts to human dignity.

MIM(Prisons) responds: Overall this prisoner’s letter makes a good case for the point that prisoners in both GP and SNY need to be judged by their actions, not their prison-imposed label. And that we need to fight snitching and self-labeling everywhere. But we disagree with the conclusion that prisoners who accept SNY classification can’t be solid revolutionaries. There are those who move to SNY without ratting anyone out, to preserve their own life. They accept the SNY label as the lesser evil to the alternative of danger or even death in GP. We never know all the facts of these decisions and so we can only look to people’s actions, wherever they are, to judge whether they are true revolutionaries on the side of the world’s oppressed.

I recently came across your newsletter and found it very interesting. I am in Ironwood State Prison - Administrative Segregation (ISP Ad-Seg). All should be advised that Hispanic prisoners are being targeted by Institutional Gang Investigations (IGI) in ISP for validation. Many of us were told to either inform or be validated. Myself and many others are validated on informants alone, and some on cultural drawings alone. It seems the state’s agents (Office of Correctional Safety) are rubber-stamping anything submitted by ISP-IGI.

MIM(Prisons) responds: Gang validation is just one of many tactics used by the prisons to divide prisoners and target activists. The threat to inform or be validated is common, and then false information is used to validate those political activists that the prison wants to isolate. This is another example of why MIM(Prisons) says that prison classifications do not define a prisoner’s revolutionary potential. Many informants walk in GP freely without anyone knowing what they did while solid activists are falsely validated or retreat to SNY. We must judge our comrades by their actions, not their prison-imposed classification.

I recently received ULK24, thank you. I share your newsletters with more than twenty people and an article (Correction on SNY debate) caused quite an uproar. I recognize the opinion of what people perceive Special Needs Yards (SNY) is (deviants, rats, etc.) but have major disagreement with the flawed perception.

The first of a few salient points is the strongest. In buying into the SNY/GP separation a fatal flaw emerges in ideology. The idea that SNY refugees who pursue personal safety are filth comes from a criminal mindset of values and morals. This needs correction and as a solution I offer education. SNY refugees are getting away from criminal mindset organizations and street gang policies. 99 percent of conflict within the walls isn’t political struggle. It’s not being able to pay for drugs, tribalism, promoting racial hatred and warfare for earlier lost battles, revenge for street gang violence, manipulation by imperialist agencies, and good old “I can’t do my time so I’ll make everyone else miserable.”

As a mainline and SHU veteran of fifteen years traipsing across New Folsom, High Desert, Pelican Bay, Corcoran, Chino, San Quentin, and Old Folsom, the idea that I should prepare for death because a corrupt criminal organization declares it so is sheer idiocy. The idea that I could crawl under a rock in a hole somewhere and meekly keep my head down and not try to “make” my situation is sheer childlike fantasy. Convict (criminal) justice isn’t blind, it is premeditated power struggles, envy, greed and the law of the jungle coming to fruition. The reality of prison politics is simple, dope is shotcaller. Greed, self-aggrandizement, negative cultural and educational values run rampant like a virus. Split by race, geography, imagined fifty year old slights and insults, the semi-ignorant masses huddle on their claimed patches of territory on the yard and build up walls of separation that tower far above the actual prison walls that confine them. Imperialists stand watching; laughing, and profiting. The convenient high noon-middle of the street showdown of physical combat isn’t a noble ideal and it has replaced rational thought as the tool of necessity in the concrete culture.

It needs to be said that Republicans and Democrats don’t care if you’re SNY or GP, creating a mental separation to divide and conquer is proven COINTELPRO strategy. It makes moving the herd easier.

Bear this in mind please. Just because you are in a cell in prison you are not a political prisoner. As an individual you must make peace with why you’re in the cell in the first place. Responsibility for your life is first. If you choose to pull yourself up by your bootstraps and do that then wipe away the veil and quit dividing the world in to race, geography, and location, quit dividing your world into SNY and GP, become more than a convict.

SNY was a choice I made that I must live with. To believe that I have no redeemable value is ludicrous. I didn’t testify against anyone, no one went to the hole, I did not become an oppressor of my own people. I did not leave my morals on the mainline. I do not live, associate, or do business with deviants, rats, or oppressors. I am vigilant in knowing who and what they’ve done in my life. I simply now walk stronger alone in my stride.

If you are still on the path of separatism you’re stagnant and if your doctrines espouse convict vs. convict violence, drug profits, or control of the mass. You are not a revolutionary, you are an oppressor, as your desire is simply to be king of the mountain. Please do not don the guise of righteousness simply because of a designation the system created that you choose to use.

It is every day actions that define you. if you’re still gangbanging, slinging, separating, wake up you’re stuck in the matrix like Neo was.

Do something revolutionary, walk across the yard to that semi-familiar face with the ink work of a different tribe on his sleeves. Embrace the viking king, the African warrior, the Aztec warrior and realize that if you can’t do it you are by choice dividing and separating, and you’re the one who doesn’t get it.

My heart and mind are guiding my moral compass true and I cannot see exploiting another for self-gain. Where do you stand really? It doesn’t matter in the physical sense as it isn’t a physical question. What is in your heart will show up in your everyday life. If I’m just talking, blowing smoke, what I’ve written above makes me another windblown hypocrite and false seer uttering borrowed phrases and aping the intelligent conversations of my learned betters. But if it resides in every beat of my heart and my stride matches my hearts intentions, recognize, wherever I may be.

Just because you read the little red book and you’re on a mainline doesn’t make you a revolutionary. Educate yourself, enlighten others, uplift all.

MIM(Prisons) adds: MIM(Prisons) does recognize all prisoners as political prisoners because who goes to prison is determined by the politics of those in power. But there is a difference between why you are in prison, and what you are going to do with your life. So we agree with this comrade that political consciousness must be learned through study and work, and is not given to you the day they close you behind a cell door.

This debate over whether there can be any revolutionaries on SNY has been raging in the pages of Under Lock & Key for 2 years now. MIM(Prisons) comes down on the side of all revolutionary prisoners. We judge people by their work and not by their state-determined classification. There are revolutionaries on SNY and there are rats on GP. And we know the rats in all units like to pretend to be revolutionaries. We can only look at people’s actions to determine where they really fall.

There is an ongoing issue here at Tehachapi SHU over treatment - or mistreatment - for medical and dental services. These medical/dental staff want to get paid and not uphold a minimum level of care. I am (and have been since March 1, 2011) fighting this injustice. I feel since the K-9 caused my issue, the prison medical/dental staff need to treat my medical/dental issue.

It’s like this: I was unwilling to allow another man to place his hands on my person and body. So I put up a fight. Of course, being a “convict” I’m out numbered. Now, I’m not saying we should be using force on “the man” but I feel you should protect yourself when need be. In the course of this fight I was slammed by officers, then they did their thang, breaking my jaw. Of course, I got charged, being a convict.

Now herein lies the issue: Tehachapi SHU medical/dental staff have engaged in a pattern and practice of routine deliberate indifference. Care/treatment is routinely refused. Even when deemed medically necessary.

I’ve all but ran out of gas. The tank is on E, but the fight for justice shall go on. I’ve reached out to the Prison Law Office seeking assistance. These people make their rules only to change them again. All the money spent, and it seems to be ensuring the inmate appeals process becomes harder. Services and care are not given.

U.$. citizens are said to comprise a nation which embraces freedom. Freedom is said to be such a fundamental element of our nation that we insist on forcing our concepts of it upon other countries. The government coined a military mission “Operation Enduring Freedom.” The colonists declared war on the British in the interests of freedom; freedom was a major element in the fuel for the civil war; and the U.S. invaded Iraq to “secure” Iraqi freedom. Freedom seems to be the fuel to the fire of many struggles over the centuries in U.S. related matters.

Justice is also something that’s supposedly held dear in this nation. This Justice Department, along with its affiliates, is among the biggest governmental agencies in the nation. Our courts supposedly produce justice. People are murdered by the government, via capital punishment, in the name of justice. People are killed on the battlefield in the name of justice. Unarmed men are shot down in the streets by police, in the name of justice. Justice, as we know it here in the U.S., seems to be a grim reaper with a thirst for blood.

Sometimes what one says about their character is not always in harmony with their actions; the same is applicable to a nation. As the old saying goes, “Actions speak louder than words,” and I believe that the actions carried out by a nation’s government are the true indicator of what that nation’s principles and values are. Governmental action here in the U.S comes in the form of legislation, policy, enforcement, and rulings.

So despite what we say as a nation regarding how important freedom is, the question becomes: Are our actions in line with what we say? I think not and here’s why. We say that we cherish freedom. In fact our Declaration of Independence says that man’s freedom is an unalienable right, yet we have a larger number of people incarcerated than any other nation in the world. People will have many rationalizations as to why this is so, but from a purely objective analysis none hold up. Being the number one wielder of human captivity, while supposedly holding man’s freedom in the highest regard, are two totally irreconcilable positions.

Additionally, even as the Declaration was written and for years afterward, slavery was an accepted institution in this country. So while freedom was being formally recognized as a man’s inalienable right, certain men were being denied that very right. How can those two positions be reconciled?

Freedom, as defined by the Black’s Law Dictionary is: Quality or state of being free; liberty; independence

And Free is defined as: Not in bondage to another; enjoying liberty; independent.

Prisoners, slavery, excessive laws, our government seems to be the personification of the anti-freedom. Surprisingly many citizens seem oblivious to this paradox.

And who defines justice, being that it’s such a fluid concept. I mean, one person’s justice can be another’s injustice. In the interest of having a formal gauge, I’ll refer to the “Webster’s” dictionary for definition. Justice is defined: Uprightness; equitableness; fairness.

Now consider some of the actions committed by our government.

During the westward expansion of this nation, the government continuously laid claim to lands that they had previously agreed to leave to the First Nations. The First Nations were, for the most part, patient as Buddhist monks when facing these recurring betrayals. But even a priest can reach his boiling point, and when the First Nations reached theirs, the government resorted to forcefully taking the land. To take the property of another by means of force or fear is robbery. Robbery is a crime punishable by imprisonment/fine. This is not very much in line with justice is it?

Then think of the governmental approval of slavery in this nation. Not in regard to the actual practice of slavery but the fact that our government once deemed it acceptable and now denounces it. The key here is that despite the reversal, the government has made no restitution for this crime. No formal apology, no monetary compensation, or any “peace offering” to the New Afrikan nation.

In contrast, the German government has formally apologized and committed monetary compensation to the Jews for the Holocaust. And even in the United Snakes of Amerika, the government has started providing compensation to the First Nations. But I suppose that the decision makers in the government feel that Amerika is above any measures to make amends to mere “niggers.” (No offense to anyone in the New Afrikan nation, to which I belong. I simply use the word that the imperialists would in their reasoning). Yet they still boast Amerika as a justice loving nation.

And moving right along into more modern times, a focal point relevant to this subject is Amerika’s criminal justice system, which is contrary to the meaning of justice. For starters, studies have shown that Black nations and Latino nations receive harsher sentences and more severe charges in comparison with their caucasian counterparts. This is in regards to the very same or similar criminal acts.

A good example of this is the sentencing disparities between crack cocaine (mostly found in inner city, oppressed nations, neighborhoods) offenses and powder cocaine (generally associated with suburban, caucasian, neighborhoods). Despite the fact that the powder form of the drug has more of it than crack, five grams of crack will get one the same amount of time as about one hundred grams of powder cocaine. How absurd is that? There’s nothing just about a system that harbors racial disparity.

In the interests of promoting a safe and healthy society, the government has instituted the position of prosecutor. In their prosecutorial duties, the prosecutor is supposed to be bound by moral, ethical, and legal restraints. One of the main legal restraints supposedly binding the actions of a prosecutor is the constitutional “guarantees” that every defendant is supposed to have. In theory, a prosecutor must respect a defendant’s constitutional rights.

In reality, Amerika’s Supreme Court has deemed a prosecutor’s violation of certain constitutional “guarantees” acceptable. Therefore prosecutors don’t feel very obligated to respect a defendant’s constitutional rights. Add to this the fact that prosecutors have been granted immunity from civil liability in relation to their on the job misconduct. This basically give them license to disregard the law, having nothing upright, fair, or equitable about it.

There are plenty of instances which can illustrate precisely how unjust the so-called justice system is. Biased/racist judges and prosecutors, intentionally ineffective defense attorneys, discriminatory laws, all of these things help shatter the facade of legitimacy and justness of what is called the justice system. And ironically New Afrikans, the same people who were subjected to the inhumanity of slavery, are disproportionately targeted by the criminal “justice” system. It appears that the main facet of justice in Amerika is overt oppression. Amerika is the enemy of both freedom and justice.

MIM(Prisons) adds: A recent book review further highlights the true injustice of the prison system in Amerika. And overall this comrade makes a very important point about the hypocrisy of the U.$. claim to support freedom and justice. We will, however, point out that in order to achieve a society that truly affords everyone freedom and justice, we must first dismantle capitalism. And that will not happen overnight. For this reason, we support an explicitly repressive society called the Dictatorship of the Proletariat, which is a transition period between capitalism and communism where the government is run by the people and actively represses the freedom of the former bourgeoisie. We can not be idealists and think that it is possible to just magically conjure up a society where all are equal when those in power will fight to retain their power, and our culture teaches people to work first for individualist selfish goals. We will need years of retraining and re-education for people to truly work in cooperation for the common good.

I recently completed an assignment as a prospective USW leader. The topic of dissertation was of revolutionary Fearlessness, Scientific Strategy, and Security. The study offers a primary discourse on issues such as applying the scientific method in strategy, rather than being passionately or emotionally driven. The “fear factor” is addressed, and how it can be effective or reckless in issues like security.

I got a lot from the study personally. I understand as materialists we aren’t supposed to be influenced by ideas of “the divine,” metaphysical, or spiritual intervention in human affairs, or in any context for that matter. Maybe it’s the strong indigenous traditions passed on for generations in my family and culture that lead to such first impressions and perceptions. Whatever the cause may be, within the time frame of me receiving and responding to the above referenced assignment, things were happening on the ground level directly associated with the lessons in our assignment. Maybe a Christian or Muslim would believe it was God allowing their faith to be tried and tested by satan or his legions. Or a pagan may have believed it was a fusion of Mexican and Roman war gods, Vaitzilopochtli and Mars somehow interfering with material conditions on Earth in order to sharpen and refine his skills, strategy, tactics, and security in struggle. But such convictions, regardless of how firmly believed, have no scientific basis and cannot be interpreted as truth. Yet the life lesson and the message has been conveyed.

Back in the 80s in the Texas prison colonies known as “ranchos” there was a spontaneous combustion within the social relations of Chicano prisoners. It spread like wildfire, like a virus. A true example of dialectic materialism in a controlled environment. Like Phoenix rising out of the flames, ashes, and blood, rose a democratic prison society claiming to stand together against negative activities in prison. By the late 90s, entering the new millennium there was a loose confederation of Latino tribes, regional and autonomous in nature, in virtually every one of the over 100 Texas ranchos. These regional autonomous tribes are now a dominate factor in almost every correctional institution in Texas. No longer are they confined to the Ranchos either, but have spread into the hoods and barrios, infecting our youth. There is ample evidence that the state has played an effective instigating role in a long and bloody war of attrition that has been going on for over two decades uninterrupted, in a now hidden, now open fight, a fight kept from the public eye. A war between the tribes and organized Texas families. This evidence could be used to substantiate a claim that the government has encouraged, even created the conditions for this anarchistic tribal take over of the social structure amongst Texas prisoners. Similar to how the U.S. has continuously done in the Third World, funding and provoking civil wars in the Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East in order to divide, conquer, and maintain hegemonic control of economic interests and security.

Within the tribes there is no constitution, rank, or central command structure. They’re divided into regional districts, and are purely democratic and autonomous in nature. What’s so important and phenomenal here is the material dialectics in action. How the tribes are a natural development, the structure, principle, and form naturally developed over time under conditions of extreme oppression by more than one force. Notice how at the beginning it was a Chicano based movement, but has since embraced the Latino concept.

It should be very well noted that by no means is the tribal structure revolutionary, nor is it structured as a family. It’s distinct in nature, a security measure so to say. But it’s phenomenal to me. Almost any criminal, political, religious, or economic ideas can be retained by the individual, yet they cannot be instituted as a form from top down. This is anarchistic and ineffective at times, and leads to much conflicting interest, but these are the material conditions.

I happen to be a progressive individual. I believe in developing my mind, body and soul. I’m constantly studying, reading, working out, collecting my thoughts and energies, and focusing them in a productive and creative form. This is what I do, it’s how I’ve learned to adapt to my environment and pull through these wasteful conditions. Yet I’m surrounded by negativity and destructive individuals. Other tribesmen are stuck in a state of mental and physical decadence and decay. They’re manipulative, oppressive and dictatorial, straight criminal by nature. I understand these too are only character manifestations of these wasteful conditions. And something I strive against. These two separate and distinct classifications are both allowed within the context of the tribe. Of course they oppose each other and conflict at times.

Recently conflict arose between the tribes and ALKQN. What resulted from the conflict wasn’t good for any of us, nothing positive or progressive was attained. In fact what resulted was the loss of solid braves, continuous lockdowns, strategic hits, and “mediation” by the rancheros to keep the steers in line. As a deterrence, the administration began rounding up tribesmen. The tribes have the larger numbers and are often perceived as the aggressors regardless of the circumstances. Anywhere from 16 to 20 tribesmen were rounded up at different times during the conflict, seed as collateral, systematically subjected to punishing intimidation, subjugation, and humiliation, all in order to psychologically inhibit the young braves, and break their will and resistance. Of course it was effective on the youngsters who average out to about 20 years old. Left for weeks without anything, in a bare cell with only enough soap to wash our ass. No writing, legal, or correspondence materials. No books or literatures with which to stimulate our minds. After 3 weeks they gave us our bibles, which we all know to be pacifist literature telling us to turn the other cheek and obey our masters. We were systematically served disciplinary cases for nonsense. Sadly it wasn’t my first, and won’t be the last time I go through such conditioning. I was a part of the final round up, all my property was confiscated before I was herded into the holding pen “corral.” 16 volumes of legal transcripts, including legal notes and work product was seized and inspected for weeks. The round up lasted from Dec 6 2011 through January 12, 2012.

The very next day after being released onto the pasture, not any time during the “investigative” lockdown, but after my release, the Rancheros called a coup of tribal representatives, to show them a letter that was found in my property. This letter was correspondence to one of my kin on the Rancho. A written analysis of our social relations and conditional circumstances as Chicanos under this neocolonial order. It included strategy and tactics regarding pending and future litigation addressing family and communal lands stolen from our direct ancestors after the Texas revolution. The royalty and mineral rights to raw crude being pumped and refined on a particular island off the Southern coast of Texas. The letter was detailed and passionate. It was revealing and exposing. Nothing that should have fallen into agency files. Truthfully, I don’t even know the full context of the letter.

Somehow the Rancheros convinced or influenced these two representatives that I had intentions of waging and leading a guerilla assault against other tribal bands. This has no logical or reasonable basis. The context and substance of the letter was written in a language of resistance. These leaders are steeped in the criminal programming and traditions, which is only a natural response, I understand. I evolved from these perceptions myself. Somehow they agreed with the Rancheros that the content of the letter was a threat to the structure and security of the tribal alliance. Council was held, both sides brought their points to the fire. The determining factor was how these so-called gangsters and criminals were allowing themselves to be used by the rancheros, and using the word and influence of the Rancheros to substantiate a claim against a tribesman. Many other subjective and objective factors played a role in the democratic process. But the objective truth is that I’m still here. I’m almost 100% sure that had this issue been brought up on a weak-minded, unrefined, undisciplined and fearful mind, the situation would have played out differently, and that individual may not be here to share the experience like this.

What’s amazing to me is that this whole experience happened to coincide with an assignment on “Fearlessness, Scientific Strategy, and Security,” that I received from MIM(prisons) while these very events were unfolding. The experience was very humbling. I learned a very valuable lesson: “gots ta be mo’ careful.”

To all you would be progressive individuals with a revolutionary vision, who happen to be involved with LOs who do not follow a well formulated line, or uphold the principles they claim to represent, be careful. Limit yourself and your activities, don’t be so careless in expressing your views and concerns around ignorant unlearned individuals. People fear what they don’t know. Above all, if your views and beliefs can be based on science and conditional/material facts, if you feel these scientific views to be pure and true, be loyal and stay true to them to da fullest. Stay committed and stare down adversity with a fearless spirit. Understand your material and social conditions. Please don’t let no law enforcement elements interfere with your relations and influence your views to the point they become reactionary against your own. Their intentions may be all in good faith to maintain peace and security on the unit level. But their interests and security does not comport with yours in the objective long term. Proceed with caution.

Why are we so blind to seeing things we need to see
Why do we let those who hate us tell us who we’re supposed to be
Why do they tell us that our big lips & noses seem to be awkward
Then they turn around, get breast implants, silicone, lip shots & ass jobs
Why are we coerced into armed forces to do the government’s dirt
They turn us into killing machines, mental patients, or inmates
And lie to our loved about how we are hurt
I pledge allegiance to the united snakes
that I’ll expose you to the fullest even if it seals my fate
I’ll expose your horns & bloodshot eyes & tell the world you are a liar, a cheat, a thief & a fake
Long ago you planted seeds of hate
And stripped our culture
If you’re watching but still can’t see I recommend that you look closer
Cause there’s much more to see
Stand strong in liberation for nations to be