Federal Prisons

I received your writer’s guide for Under Lock and Key and appreciate the very informative July/August and September/October issues of ULK. I strongly agree with your views regarding dialectical materialism and communist philosophy. I also relate to the social struggles of oppressed peoples everywhere. But I would like to express my legitimate concerns about political satires and proletarian language.

Because of a socialization effect, most oppressed people in this country believe that western values are superior to other social values and world views. What i believe this means is that because ruling class values dominate the societal infrastructure (i.e. religion, education, economic, media), they have lots of influence on cultural values, norms, attitudes and other meaningful symbols that shape human behavior, transmitted from one generation to the next.

What I’m saying is that most oppressed people in America are not politically or socially conscious about other world views or the ideologies of other social systems. Therefore people must be introduced to new ideologies gradually to begin to understand that they’re living in an individualist, racist and fascist western bubble. I believe the most effective way to educate people is by educating them in a system they’re already familiar with. I personally don’t disagree with political satire and proletarian language. I just believe that when you’re trying to attract a new or wider audience to your views, it has to be something culturally accepted. I believe if potential readers don’t understand the reasons for satire and proletarian language, they won’t take the material seriously.

Those are my thoughts, and I choose to write to the mainstream audience for the above reasons, I am fully in the struggle, and I will continue to educate myself, teach, and learn from other people.

MIM(Prisons) responds:
We welcome discussion like the above about our use of language in Under Lock and Key and other literature. This comrade correctly points out that people in Amerika have been educated within a culture that has taught them both language and history. What this comrade doesn’t mention, that is an even more powerful force for Amerikans, is the wealth and comfort that Amerikans enjoy just by virtue of their accidental citizenship. The culture of Amerika is a product of this privilege. And it is true that many Amerikans are going to be turned off by the language that we use.

But we have to keep in mind that we do not see the majority of Amerikans as our audience. We are targeting a small minority of oppressed, specifically prisoners. And this oppression helps people see the reality of the imperialist world they live in in a way that most Amerikans won’t because they have no reason to want to see it. While we could definitely attract a wider audience by toning down our language, this would require us to also tone down our political line, and effectively give up our goals altogether. And we are not willing to stop calling Amerika imperialist or kowtow to the democratic party, to gain more supporters. We are saying things that no one else in this country is saying, and it’s important that this political message get out there, even if only a few people will listen right now. We speak the truth, and know that most Amerikans will not listen.

MIM(Prisons) uses language to make a political point. It is not satire when we spell Amerika with a ‘k.’ We are making a political point about this country and the politics of imperialism. We use “womyn” to make a point about gender and our opposition of seeing wimmin as derived from men.

Prison politics are one of the most corrupt manifestations brought into existence by Amerikkka. They are slavery and Jim Crow in one warehouse. These are warehouses for their legal (illegal) systems of “convicted” slaves. Every one of us who are conscious are political prisoners.

In the crooked fascist state of Tennessee’s prison system, or concentration camp system, racism is thriving. The brotherhoods and KKK members are allotted opportunities to study their facades of a culture, miseducated backgrounds. While unequally Afrikans, Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, etc. of the so-called “minority” groups are classified as STG members when we seek to become more informed about our cultural backgrounds and their legacies. It’s a constant battle in the heart of capitalism.

I, myself, have struggled with these oppressors for more than 5 calendar years about them attempting to classify me as an STG member. I’ve even gone so far as to clearly tell these savages that I’m a revolutionist not a senseless gang banger.

They verbally assault me and the comrades of like mind, hoping to provoke an attack from us because they can’t stomach seeing us unite as one mind, one body, one soul. But these fake Nazis do it and it’s cool because most prison officials are in one way or another believers in their theories. We must remember this so-called bible belt is the home of the Confederacy and it’s confederate concepts of racial superiority along the ideals of Hitler and his Nazism.

Since I’ve been at this prison, in the north eastern corner of Tennessee it has been no less than 4 white on Black stabbings where the white males who had the blades where treated better in apprehension than the Black/diasporic Afrikan victims. Whites use violence to solve their problems and simply get shipped, minus the acceptable few who are urban oriented. I don’t find this a coincidence. While if the Blacks or other “minorities” resort to violence to solve our issue/problems they resort to placing us on max for at least 18 months to 5 years, privileges taken, family communication taken, and then we’ll be shipped to another compound after our stretch behind the walls that are behind the walls.

This whole theory alone sounds insane if you ask any conscious human being. If you snitch behind these walls you get privileges unlike the ones who keep silent. And the cowards that do the snitch thang need their tongues cut out and tied around their throats by all revolutionary means. Our cultural celebrations are treated with mockery yet they’ll attempt placing you on meds and classifying you as insane/incompetent if you complain, but only because there is no unity amongst the oppressed.

They fear unity, for they know in it there is a power unstoppable. But we must, ourselves, believe it before we can achieve it. We are our only obstacle!

MIM(Prisons) responds: We hold that all prisoners are political prisoners, regardless of their consciousness, because they are in prison for political reasons. Barack Obama can bomb families in Central Asia and walk free, living a luxurious lifestyle while a Black man in an oppressed neighborhood with a little narcotics in his pocket can spend years in prison for possession. That’s political.

In the last 2 months I’ve fallen victim to the injustice system in prison. The first time was a sexual assault by a staff member. I’ll not get into that because I’m still dealing or should I say trying to find ways to deal with it. My other incident, I was working in Admin as a counselor aid and was assaulted by a corrections officer. We had had words previously because the job I had did not require me to do what he told me to do so he felt I was “walking on him.”

Well he was sitting in the counselor’s office and he was talking to the man I worked for. He was getting up to leave and I was shutting the door behind him and it hit his boot. He turned around and lunged at me so I threw my hands up in a blocking, defensive manner and he grabbed my pinky and ring finger and jerked it and twisted it which broke it.

My boss called for me to get medical attention (costing me $5) so I’ve got 5 x-rays and doctor’s notes on this incident. I have filed numerous Grievances on this core officer. The paperwork I filed was “too late” or “lost” so it was thrown out and I was placed in protective custody due to the incident. And since it has happened I’ve been treated worse than an old smelly mutt. It’s sad how much the injustice system can get away with here in the united $tates these days. I’ve tried going an alternate route by getting one of the neglected forms with response and mailed it to my lawyer.

A lot of my things have come up missing, they are constantly in my cell searching for items that’s not there. I’ve been trying to file a civil suit of negligence against the state and TDOC since this occurred but I’m having the hardest time from a control unit (23/1) and little if any help.

Since this assault my time has gotten really hard. It’s a struggle every day. Trying to use the phone, the excessive force used to and from the Dog Pen (recreation). A week ago a corporal shoved and spit on me for filing a grievance on him. I got to be on guard with them. They have done all they can do and more. A man can only take so much but it will only satisfy them to see me act out in violence on them so I’m taking every precaution to their games. It’s quite sad they stoop this low.

I wish there was another way to reach out. I know I’m not alone and we keep our heads up and keep on fighting from behind bars. I am trying to keep it cool and recruit all anti-imperialists and encourage them to start standing up for themselves and others. We’re not alone in this war.

MIM(Prisons) adds:
Stories like this one are a big impetus behind the grievance campaign that MIM(Prisons) and United Struggle from Within(USW) have initiated in prisons across the U.$. We are fighting to get grievances, like the ones this comrades has filed, handled fairly. Write to us for a copy of the petition.

The Trapped Miners Rescue Spectacle in Chile

It is October 13 2010 and I am visually and sonically inundated with blow-by-blow descriptions of the Chilean miner rescue operation. TV, radio and newspapers have whipped themselves into a frenzy reporting the rescue of 33 miners from a collapsed mine in Chile. With a couple of months’ lead time, courtesy of the drilling process, this event has received more build-up than a Superbowl. Naturally, everyone is glad the miners are coming out (miner 14 hit the surface a minute ago), but it seems to me this is an extreme case of media overkill that is designed to serve as a distraction from Mass-Murder Incorporated’s (M-M Inc., the Amerikan government) worldwide killing spree, if not from the mine operator’s greedy rush for profits that caused the accident in the first place.

The world waits with bated breath as one miner at a time rises to the surface with a digital clock ticking off the time of his ascent to the second and, of course, a count of each miner rescued replete with video footage of tearful reunions with family and friends. What if it were so for those unsuspecting people blown up in their homes by the predator drones Amerika operates with impunity worldwide, but it is not.

As I watch the miners coming out of the ground one at a time, I can’t help but think about how many people the Amerikan government is simultaneously putting in the ground. I wonder how many people were murdered in Afghanistan and Pakistan by the drones over the course of the rescue operation? How many Palestinians, Iraqis, Somalians and Yemenis? Do they not deserve a ticking clock and body count? Certainly, but there is little feel-good factor in being confronted with a second-by-second ticking body count of the murders we are responsible for as the good citizens and share-holders of M-M Inc. No, no, we can’t have that.

But why not? Why does the mainstream media ignore the big stories, the real stories? Why isn’t there a body count of every human on this planet murdered by Amerikan-made weapons systems? Why not show the video footage of every single drone attack, replete with men, women and children dying in agony? This would be a stellar moment for Amerikan television corporations. Real reality TV! Maybe, when fed enough reality Amerikans will then treat themselves to the reality of the Amerikan version of the Nuremberg Trials and the Spandau Ballet. Now that is a reality most of the world would love to see and exactly why Amerikans will never see it.

I read with a smile the article in ULK 16 titled Mass Hunger Strike in California and it reminded me of a similar event in Colorado at the Limon Correctional Facility(LCF) facility in June 2002, when close to 850 of the 975 POWs refused to go to the chow hall for three full days. The first morning a few people ate but were quickly shown the error of that. The only ones who had our blessings were the diabetics and sick who needed to eat. Word came down from the Warden, put your complaints and issues in writing and I will personally address them.

That was done and a “few” minor things actually changed for the better. Over the next several days and even months the line staff flat-out told us that what shook up the LCF management team administration was the fact that 850 plus “inmates” stood together for three days. That was an act of defiance and passive aggressive rebellion almost unheard of in the Colorado DOC for almost 20 years. This is a system where the “inmates” regularly laid down rather than even contemplate doing without their TVs, coffee and ramen soups for a few weeks, or months. This is a prison system where about 30% or so are lifers doing life without parole or 40 calendar years before their first parole date.

The Colorado DOC has mimicked other states with the total removal or severe restriction of use of free weights, out door and indoor recreation time, and demolition of programs that actually help the prisoners. And once the administration saw there was no resistance, then the pay was cut by 50 to 80%, depending on what type of assignment you had. In June 2003 the CDOC not only cut the pay they raised canteen prices, and the indigent level. So although there is on paper, such a thing as being “indigent” and showing the DOCs obligation to provide a minimum of hygiene and writing material, the DOC “paid” everyone, every month, at least a few cents more than the indigent amount. So, even though the DOC most often debited this entire amount immediately after posting it on your prison account, under their interpretation of their rules, no one can actually be indigent. Therefore the DOC does not have to supply hygiene items or writing material.

The purpose of the above is to point out that sporadic and specific acts of organized non-violent protest are well and good to get momentary attention for a few minor particular issues or complaints, but in order for POWs across the U$ to truly become men and women worthy of what you seek and deserve, each of you have to educate yourself! Make that your number one goal.

We as POWs can have all the outside help, but we need to develop the inside help and come to grips with the reality we as a group will probably have to suffer through some very lean and mean times due to long term work strikes, but it is in these work strikes that we have our power! A few weeks won’t hurt the bank roll of the profiteers, but several months of no product and the prison officials will be told by the politicians (who are controlled by those with $$) to give us what we need, deserve, and want, to get production back on line at all costs.

Sure we will be subjected to the strip cells and frequent strip searches and mishandling and/or destruction of our property, but you can prepare for some of that. Send out photos and documents that are important, stock up on certain items. Only order bare hygiene items and writing material for 6 to 8 months, leave the junk food alone. Maybe no phone calls unless an emergency.

Hit them where they harm us, in their pocketbooks. Above all, do not resort to violence or destruction tactics. Although this gets media and outside attention, it does not engender the type of serious attention we, as POWs, want or need because we need to retain legitimacy for our cause.

As was plainly pointed out by an old convict back in the 70s in Texas: “Them guards can only do to us what we let em do.”

This prison is a 100% white employed prison. As you can imagine, there is a great number of racially motivated incidents that occur here. Earlier this year in May, several correctional officers beat a Black prisoner and broke both his arms and gave him brain damage. In response to this beating, many Black prisoners (who were not on max security) responded by attacking several COs and beating them. The local media reported this incident as “inmates rioting against COs and sending 8 of them to the hospital.” However, the media failed to report that the beatings of the COs were in response to the lynch mob type beating of a Black prisoner.

The head pig in charge of this beating is named Sgt. Bennett. He single-handedly carried out many beatings of Black prisoners and his only form of discipline for beating the prisoner in this incident was being stripped of his title as a Sergeant and demoted to a Corporal and being placed on third shift. Meanwhile the prisoners involved in the beating of the COs all face additional time added to their sentences and placement on max security for years on end. The pigs who nearly killed a Black man are still employed here at this prison.

I have been incarcerated over 9.5 years and 8.5 years of that have been spent on max security segregation and this is one of the only incidents that I’ve ever seen in prison in my time where prisoners came together for a common purpose against the prison officials. What amazes me is that the very human desire to fight oppression has seemed to die within the prisons of Tennessee. I have read several accounts of how prisoners in other states have stood up for a common purpose against oppression, yet the prisoners in Tennessee lack the desire to fight oppression. They all complain verbally but if someone such as myself files a grievance on behalf of us all and tries to pass it around for all to sign showing support, 98% of them will refuse to sign because they fear some form of retaliation when the truth is, nothing else can be done to them that hasn’t already been done. These pale faced pigs have stolen the very essence of our people which has made us great and allowed us to survive… a will to fight.

MIM(Prisons) responds: While we agree that the race of prison guards underscores the racism of the criminal injustice system, we’re under no illusions that having Black and Latino guards would change the system. The problem is the system, and the guards are just serving that system. Some may be more brutal than others, but they are all pigs in the eyes of the people.

I want to send a fraternal embrace to everyone. I am writing from the Pelican Bay Security Housing Unit (SHU). I write this letter in response to some stepped up repression that seems to have increased here starting last year in 2009. It is important to understand when these restrictions occur so as to see more broadly if such occurrences are random or a wider campaign. I have within the last year had “returned to sender” eight pieces of mail from MIM(Prisons). I was never notified from the prison, and I had no idea of these returns or rejections until MIM(Prisons) notified me of these refusals. I reach out to highlight this situation, this tragedy that is occurring to me so that these lessons may be used by a receptive ear, worked with in some way, and possibly overcome in the future.

Censorship exists, not censorship of some technological weapons or some type of recipe for a plague of sorts but censorship of ideas, banning of political theory that is not compliant with the state norm. I have always taken on legal battles, jailhouse lawyer activities, anything to right a wrong and resist an injustice system that was built on the land of my ancestors. For this prison resistance I am rewarded by the state with an aggressive push to keep excellent political theory from reaching me, from comrades being able to send a letter of encouragement or perhaps a book on political science.

I was receiving literature and Maoist books from MIM for several years while on the “mainline” general population and I delved into those works so many times that even though I am currently subjected to censorship of political correspondence from MIM(Prisons) I have a strong understanding of the society we live in and the need for political power. It is situations like what I am currently undergoing that really drive home the need to liberate oppressed nations. Here in the SHU, Raza cannot even learn or read about their ancient pre-Columbian languages as the state says this is gang related. Now political science, the ability to theorize and have ideas of a society outside of what currently exists, is denied us.

Occupation is done on many levels all over the world. In some countries occupation may be more subtle but if you look close enough the similarities are there. When the Japanese occupied Korea after the war the Korean language was banned; the Korean people could only speak Japanese. All Korean history and political literature outside Japanese imperialism was censored. We must learn from history; not just our specific history of our particular country of origin. A study of all histories will show that what is occurring here has occurred many times.

The situation in California prisons in particular should be noted and learned from; the censorship we are experiencing has been employed in years past. This targeting of political organizations has been seen and felt on many levels, but today’s censorship comes at historic times. It is because contemporary ideas and revolutionary theory in general and Marxism-Leninism-Maoism in particular is essential for future struggles and because of the current “awakening” of oppressed nations people in prisons that CDCR has begun a program of censorship particularly in its control units, i.e. SHUs where it is no coincidence that the most politically advanced are held captive. Getting the independent press, such as ULK, in the hands of the imprisoned masses is of extreme importance.

The people are fighting to educate the political prisoners, uplift the consciousness of prisoners, and bring politics to the prison houses nationwide, and build the prison base for revolution. At the same time the ruling class sees the 2+ million potentially revolutionary prisoners behind bars and knows that every prisoner who takes up the struggle for a better society is another addition to resist their program. They understand that prisoners in general are becoming radicalized yet they know they can’t shut down all so called “freedom of the press,” so they spend their time and resources on what they feel are their prime target group or persons of influence which are what they label the people held in control units. By doing so they are basically isolating these comrades from correspondence, political literature or study material of any sort, even of basic contact with comrades on the outside.

This is being done to dull or attempt to dull the revolutionary edge in the prison population, starting in SHUs and expecting this dullness to permeate the rest of the population. The need for people who still have the ability to receive any papers, newsletters or literature from MIM(Prisons) to do so is of utmost importance, with vigor and hunger as if you will never get the chance again because once in a SHU you will be censored. The need to support independent press like ULK is on top of the priority list and should be done financially or any other way. It is times like now that I appreciate a crisp uncut publication like ULK; when only watered-down periodicals are allowed to reach me I see how precious ULK is.

I am embarking on another legal battle for the censorship here in Pelican Bay and i encourage others to do the same. United we will overcome this battle.

I have begun to receive ULK and I have not had any problems with censorship. There are not very many politically active people/groups here now, such as in California, so the mailroom is not hyperaware of radical political publications.

This was not always the case. Louisiana State Prison (Angola) in the 60s, 70s and 80s was a hotbed of political activism, primarily with the Black Panther Party. It was also considered one of the bloodiest prisons in America. Since the 90s it seems political activism/education has evaporated. This is mostly due (in my opinion) to the prison becoming admittedly more safe, the aging and death of the older inmate population (as the 60s and 70s were a universally more politically active time across America), and the current Warden. Warden Burl Cain has quite effectively turned the prison into a church, with even a 5-year seminary college funded by the Southern Baptists of America.

This has had an enormously detrimental impact on the prison population. There is no longer any prisoner solidarity (beyond the individual self-serving prison clubs and organizations) or any real political movement. Most (though not all) prisoners now play the religion game as a ticket to move up within the prison society and garner favor with the administration. In fact, to essentially get in any position of prisoner power - such as a club president or to work for the prison magazine The Angolite (which came to prominence under Wilbert Rideau) - you must be an active professed Christian.

The true harm in all of this is that there is no real rehabilitation or education within the prison now. Louisiana does not have parole for people sentenced to life and 90% of the 5000+ prisoners here at Angola will die in prison. This is a proven statistical fact even admitted by Louisiana DOC. The only option for lifers in Louisiana is the possibility for a sentence reduction by the pardon board. This is not a legitimate option though. It is extremely rare (once every 10-15 years) that they recommend a lifer for a sentence reduction and the governor signs it.

In the farce of this hopelessness, the warden has pushed the panacea of religion both to fight hopelessness, as well as the idea that if you garner enough favor and play the religion game well enough, you will be lucky when you go before the pardon board. The warden has made moves to place himself as an “advisor” to the pardon board to give recommendations as to who should be given a pardon (sentence reduction) and who not. This means you either toe the warden’s line - be Christian, not exercise your rights, make no waves, become an informant to show you are “reformed” - or you essentially have no hope whatsoever of ever being granted relief by the pardon board. This includes those prisoners with lesser sentences who go before the parole board. The pardon and parole boards are one and the same.

All of this is a preamble to my real reason for writing this letter to you. I am attempting to re-energize a political base among the prisoner population. The most possible form this may take is by labor unionizing. Angola is one of the last great prison farms (18,000 acres for crops and cattle), along with places like Parchman in Mississippi. A good many of the prisoners here still perform agricultural labor. This food is primarily sold for private profit, not fed to us. This prisoner labor saves the state (and earns it) million of dollars, while prisoners receive little or no “incentive pay” or wages. Field workers earn 4 cents an hour or less, half of which (up to $250) must go into a “savings account” the prisoners may not use (except for a few narrow reasons) even if the prisoner is a lifer and will never get out to use his “savings.” This money sits instead, in perpetuity, earning interest in DOC bank accounts for the state.

The only practical political force prisoners here may exert is by unionizing. Not only to work towards better living/working conditions in prison, but towards more just sentencing laws. Unionization as well creates a solidarity movement younger prisoners may never have experienced before which can prove fertile grounds for Marxist/Maoist education. It would be fitting to see such an agrarian Maoist movement take hold and grow here. Unionization and the educational benefits of a labor movement create the grounds for producing politically aware cadres, some who will remain in prison, but many who may return to their communities to expand the movement.

Consequently, it is my hope to recruit and develop a dedicated cadre of individuals here to research the possibility of a prisoner labor movement and further that idea by education and activism.

I have already circulated the introductory letter you sent to me describing MIM(Prisons)’s platform, as well as the first issue of ULK I have received. I further plan to enroll in your Maoist study cell. I have read and studied Marxism-Leninism for many years but am not as familiar with Maoism or how such Maoist principles may differ in form or function from Marxism. As I have always generally understood, Marxism-Leninism applied to an industrialized (to a large degree) proletariat, where as Maoism was an agrarian movement. I’m sure this may be a huge oversimplification. For that reason, I wish to educate myself more, with your help.

MIM(Prisons) responds: We support this comrade’s efforts to organize prison workers. Rather than a proletariat or peasantry, the U.$. prison population’s relationship to production puts it squarely in the lumpen class, as we explained in a report on the U.$. prison economy. Prison labor is used to save the state money, as this comrade points out, in its excessively expensive project of imprisoning this class of people that capitalism has no use for. Therefore organizing prisoners to heighten the contradictions of the state in fiscal crisis is of great value. And there is no doubt that this organizing serves an excellent educational purpose as well.

Maoism is an advance on Marxism-Leninism that still bases itself in the revolutionary class of the proletariat but also sees the peasantry as a key ally to the proletariat in countries like China where the system is semi-feudal and the population is so dispersed in the agrarian countryside. While we can’t just take this theory and apply it to farming in the U.$. where conditions are very different, the philosophy of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism (MLM) is still very relevant today. The dialectical materialist method teaches us to learn from the best that history has to offer (MLM) and apply it to our conditions today just as groups like the Black Panthers and Young Lords did with the lumpen before us.

The history of prison labor organizing at Angola pre-dates the Panthers, and according to one blog, during a strike in 1951, 31 prisoners cut their Achilles tendons so that they could not be made to work on the farm. Acts like these distinguish those who really have “nothing to lose but their chains” - one definition of the proletariat. Religious brainwashing can be effective at diffusing such resistance, especially when there are bribes involved, but the oppressed will gravitate towards Maoism as it represents their interests as a people and not just short-term individual interests.

I’m in a very unique position in that I am part of a dinosaur breed of prisoners in the state of Maryland, and Western Correctional Institution(WCI) in particular, who gears towards Revolutionary Suicide. Now, it’s sad to see that the people I’m surrounded by are worse than reactionaries. Equally unfortunate is the fact that after all the bloodshed and mayhem endured by our predecessors (e.g. Harriet Tubman, Nat Turner, Denmark Vessey, and George Lester Jackson), that instead of an increase in Revolutionary Suicide, there is an ever-growing decrease.

This plantation went on lockdown for the week of September 20, 2010 due to a fist fight between two gang members. Although I am not (nor ever been) a member of a gang, I understand lockdowns are a part of prison life. What I am not able to accept is that the same people who are members of the gangs openly embrace known rats and sellouts, yet hurt each other over nothing more than a temporary loss of temper over a word play.

During the lockdown, the pigs shut off the power to the televisions in our cells and our water. Would you believe that some of these clowns played with the pigs about our situation?! Others openly faulted gangs to anyone who would listen! These same people who are always quick to go against one another said nothing to the pigs, especially once the pigs turned off the power to our cells, including toilet. General George Jackson spoke clearly when he said how these feeble and pusillanimous clowns work openly with the pigs and against one another. They will “swallow a camel but gag on a nut. They accept a certain condition and [mis]treatment with apparent ease, but balk at the suggestion of returning the same.”

No one complains when the prison goes on lockdown so that the pigs can all attend “Officer Appreciation Day” in the gymnasium.

As an attorney, I would like to think that out of over sixteen hundred prisoners in this prison at all times, that the ratio would be far greater than me only getting five people released within almost six years of being here. This is because everyone is playing the game with catcher’s mitts on, without a thought of pitching out to help someone. I reach outside of this plantation to other plantations, with the hope of reaching out and relating to others. In order for you to grasp the irony of the sickness of the mindset of the fools I’m surrounded by you must understand that none of the so-called tough killers in these mountains defy the pigs here. The same pigs openly disrespect these clowns too many times to count each day.

MIM(Prisons) responds: We hear complaints from a lot of comrades behind bars about the lack of resistance to prison repression. Rather than complain, we call on activists to do something about this situation. Prisoners have an objective interest in fighting their abuse but many have been frightened into silence and inaction. Still others don’t have an understanding of the system and so are easily used as pawns by the guards. We need to expand our education efforts and show the strength that comes from being organized. This is how we will develop more revolutionaries.

Here in Arkansas state prisons we have a terrible grievance procedure. The administration and pigs call it an “informal resolution” and it is a joke. I have enclosed the front page so you can check it out.

In Arkansas we receive no pay for the jobs we perform, but at Christmas time the state places a big $6 on our books, averaging out to about 1 1/2 cents per day. In the mid to late 90s I ran one of the unit’s cabinet shops and would often work 12 hour days, 7 days a week for that $6. Purely slave labor in my opinion.

Here they shut out our lights at 10:30pm and turn them on again as early as 3am, leaving them off only 4 1/2 hour, and this is usually done 7 days a week.

The food we get us usually not fit for human consumption. Very often the hamburger meat and chicken are spoiled, but most of us can’t afford to go to the commissary store and must eat it.

Our grievances often get “lost” or “misplaced” if they have factual info about a staff member, especially if a few individuals write them.

MIM(Prisons) responds: This problem with grievances is not unique to Arkansas. For this reason United Struggle from Within initiated a grievance campaign this year. If you are filing grievances about any issue and they aren’t being handled properly by staff, consider becoming a part of this campaign and spread it to your people inside.