MIM(Prisons) is a cell of revolutionaries serving the oppressed masses inside U.$. prisons, guided by the communist ideology of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism.
Under Lock & Key is a news service written by and for prisoners with a focus on what is going on behind bars throughout the United States. Under Lock & Key is available to U.S. prisoners for free through MIM(Prisons)'s Free Political Literature to Prisoners Program, by writing:
MIM(Prisons) PO Box 40799 San Francisco, CA 94140.
I’m writing to express my gratitude to the publishers of Under
Lock & Key. I was in receipt of your newspaper (the Fall 2024
issue, No. 87) and I appreciate it. The content was very informative. I
was recently introduced to the prison movement by my comrade. So I am
fairly new to the movement, but I’m not new to the struggle or to the
oppressive ways of this noxious system.
I have been incarcerated now for 14 years. I understand that there
are plenty of significant issues going on world-wide in and outside of
this wicked prison system, but I would like to shine light on the fact
that two thirds of the prisoner population here in North Carolina is
strung out on drugs. These so called “correctional facilities” are
actually drug infested mental health institutions. I have watched the
expansion of the drug K2 (a chemical based toxin) transform the entire
prison system as a whole. This drug is commonly referred to as “prison
crack” due to the addictiveness of this poison.
When I first entered the prison system, brothers used to share
knowledge, work out together, play cards or chess, etc. The prison
guards (C.O.’s) used to have a certain respect/fear of us due to the
unity we displayed. However, K2 has single-handedly dismantled and
diminished every aspect of that culture. The C.O.’s no longer respect us
as a whole because now when they enter a block 80% of the inhabitants
are incoherent; unable to talk, walk or even simply pick their heads up
to acknowledge the fact that the so-called authorities/overseers have
entered the block.
A majority of the people in prison wake up and before they even brush
their teeth they inhale the chemicals of this despicable substance –
subduing faithfully to this drug all day. This routine is repeated
daily. Not all but most of the K2 users wake up just to chase after the
intense, short-lived high all throughout the day. These days turn to
weeks, weeks to months, and months to years. This is a dangerous cycle
that has plagued the N.C. prison system.
K2 has caused guys to neglect their morals and principles. No longer
caring how others perceive them. Most K2 smokers carry themselves like
fiends selling anything and everything they can get their hands on:
shoes, food, hygiene items, literally everything they own. I have
witnessed people sell their free, state provided food trays, starving
themselves and surviving off only one meal a day just to get high.
Ruining relationships with family and friends due to them constantly
calling trying to manipulate them out of money on a relentless search of
monetary donations to purchase more K2. They show no regard for the
actual well-being of the members of their support system.
In summary, this drug is causing people to exit prison worse than
they were when they came in, if indeed they make it home at all. The K2
toxin has been known to cause death on many occasions. All of this has
increased the need for those of us who are conscious to make it a
priority to help push the agenda of MIM’s “Revolutionary 12 Step
Program” designed to expose and combat addiction. Again, I would like to
say thank you to the publishers of ULK for providing a platform
for us prisoners to express ourselves freely. I will continue to
advocate for the MIM movement. Thank you for your time and
attention.
Revolutionary greetings comrades. To take the words of Comrade
Triumphant of USW’s headline
in his powerful article in ULK 83: the Minnesota Department of
Corrections “joins list of states using digital mail to disrupt and
surveil communications.”(1)
As all dedicated readers of ULK know well, this has been a
constant pattern and practice of the fascist predatory pig
administrations across AmeriKKKa’s carceral apparatuses contracting with
these pig-assisting surveillance companies, such as TextBehind.
On 30 October 2024, the pigs here at so-called Maximum Security
Prison - Oak Park Heights distributed the enclosed TextBehind flyer
announcing that beginning 1 November 2024, all general mail to prisoners
must be sent to TextBehind located in Phoenix, Maryland to be scanned,
then re-routed over here to us. Come to find out, every person in the
state of Minnesota received this same flyer. Notably, the flyer says
that TextBehind does not accept legal mail. However, the Oak Park
Heights PIG Administration issued additional memos, those of which I
have obtained copies of and enclosed with this letter, outlining policy
changes/changes to the definitions of what constitutes legal mail. As
shown, the memos mention that some sort of “verification” device, QR
code that attorneys must obtain before sending correspondence to their
imprisoned clients.
Have you comrades heard of this type of process taking place anywhere
else in terms of legal mail?
About a month or so prior to this mail memo, another memo was issued
by the pigs (which I haven’t yet obtained a copy of) removing Amazon as
an “approved vendor” that we as well as our family and friends can order
us books from. The options we were left with are companies that don’t
carry a lot of titles, like Blood In My Eye by George L.
Jackson; Our Enemies in Blue: Police and Power in America by
Kristian Williams; We Reserve the Right to Resist: Prison Wars and
Black Resistance by Dequi Kioni-Sadiki; and Black Power
Afterlives by Sekou Odinga and Dequi Kioni-Sadiki.
This change was allegedly because of “drugs.”
The entire captive population has been under relentless terroristic
attack all under the guise of drugs coming through the mail. Captives
are being falsely accused by pigs of being “intoxicated” and sent to
solitary confinement even after drug and alcohol testing results are
negative; captives have had their visitation and phones wrongfully
taken; comrades have had every single piece of paper in their cells
confiscated and destroyed by the pigs. I’m talking about one’s trial
transcripts, legal documents, book manuscripts, poems, letters, etc.
The strip searches have been incessant. Literally blitzkriegs of
sexual assault strip searches. In relation to strip searches in general,
I’ve been struggling to end them across the states men’s prisons in
Minnesota to be replaced with body scanners. In the women’s prison, they
successfully campaigned to have unclothed body searches replaced with
body scanners. Minnesota effectively banned the use of strip searches on
juveniles. I had an article published on this topic in a local
newspaper.(2)
In terms of the mail issue, myself and a few other captives who’ve
had their mail from courts opened are exhausting our administrative
remedies (grievance process) and conducting research into this issue to
bring challenge to this policy in the courts – the struggle is
constant.
A prisoners in Wasco State Prison reported 20 January
2025: The living conditions here are deplorable/inhumane to say
the least. Appalling and disgusting. In all my time of doing time I’ve
never encountered such squalor. When it comes to living conditions this
place compares to my time in C.Y.A. Preston which was the worst living
conditions I had encountered.
All five of our toilets were completely clogged for days with only a
couple semi-working. Currently all four urinals are completely clogged
and sporadically overflow spilling urine on the floor for up to 30+
minutes at a time.
The heater doesn’t work and the bunk I was assigned to happens to be
the coldest area of the dorms as the cooler blows the air straight on my
bunk!
Per state issue most all CDC usually passes out one bar of soap a
week for each prisoner. We have been getting one bar every two weeks
which is not enough to shower/wash and as a result many don’t wash hands
after defecating. Some only take “water showers” because of the lack of
soap. At times the one roll of toilet paper is not issued as well on a
weekly basis.
We have a rat/mouse infestation with rodents not only ravaging
prisoners’ lockers but eating stored food and leaving feces. Some report
rodents climbing on them in their sleep as well. The kitchen is also
infested.
The roof of this dorm has approximately 10 leaks in it so when it
rains it leaves puddles. The water heater is rusted and deteriorated and
obviously hasn’t been replaced in the 30+ years this concentration kamp
has been operating. Shower water is cold and drinking water is gray,
chalky and has a bad taste/smell. The water fountains have not had
filters replaced in what seems like 30 years. A form was circulated
stating the water was causing cancer so drink at your own risk.
We haven’t had hair clippers or nail clippers in about a month. We
are told it will take more months even though ingrown toenails are
rampant.
The floor is damaged with potholes where stagnant water full of
bacteria gathers.
We have a laundry call but we turn in laundry only to never receive
it back and the one bar of soap every two weeks means we must wear dirty
clothes and sleep in dirty sheets.
Many prisoners here are doing less than a year so many fear to speak
up or submit grievances for mistreatment or disrespectful talk from
C.O.’s thus we get these deplorable conditions.
Phone calls are often cut off mid conversations by C.O.’s in what can
only be described as group punishment.
I erroneously assumed, like many others, that “dorm living” in prison
was easier. How I was wrong. I have never seen this type of inhumane
treatment in a cell living environment. A hint of progress has been that
a meeting was set up between prisoners and the sergeant where issues
were addressed. Some things were resolved, i.e. some power struggles
were won but many are still in motion. 602’s have also been submitted on
some issues so some progress has been made. It would be helpful to find
contacts of “civil rights” orgs that may help highlight things but as
always the main thought for progress in obtaining humyn rights will come
in prisoners ourselves. The positive thing is there is peace and unity
within the prisoners which allows for progress to flourish in the realm
of civil rights or humyn rights.
The living conditions here are worse than any level three or four
prison, worse than the holes and dare I say it… worse than the SHU’s.
I’m really surprised this dorm is not condemned by the health
department, perhaps they’ve never had anyone housed here with the
determination to carry that struggle out.
7 February 2025 update: One of my grievances was
successful on the urinals, toilets and sinks that were clogged,
inoperable and leaking. Everyone is sick. i was very ill, cough,
sinuses, flu-like conditions. I along with four other MAC reps have
spoken to the Sgt Hernandez on five occasions on all the issues here
noted above. He promises to fix things and we have received hair
clippers and nail clippers, but many other things still are deplorable.
The dust broom here is 8 months old and is a t-shirt tied on to what was
a dust broom. It saddens me that so many have no idea how to tackle
these issues or have no will to do so. The conditions in Pelican Bay SHU
were more humane if that helps illustrate the conditions here.
16 February 2025 update: Wasco State Prison has fixed
the toilets and urinals in response to complaints. Other conditions
remain.
This comrade has been struggling against censorship in the Indiana
Department of Corrections for years. Last year ey was locked in a shower
by staff, then given a disciplinary charge for panicking because ey has
asthma. Ey has been locked in solitary for 6 months as a result and will
not get to hug eir mother before she dies. This is an example of what is
withheld from oppressed people in this country on a daily basis, a
necessary result of the national oppression we seek to end.
We have the First Step Act (FSA) here and if on wait list or just in
programs/classes our phone minutes are supposed to be free! They were
charging me again since COVID is gone, but I filed. They now give me six
calls free so they know I was right. But they are actually supposed to
give all sentenced prisoners 570 minutes so I filed further just today.
This has to go to region, which here is in Kansas. So if they deny it
I’ll take it to DC! I gave some guys here my info and they said they’ll
file so maybe there is some hope here after all! If we don’t fight
together they’ll bully us and do whatever the hell they want! And I will
do my best to not allow that to go down.
Here they keep coming up with what they call Institutional
Supplements and for the FSA it states those aren’t required, so I’m
fighting that part right now. I’ll keep you posted. Let your federal
readers know that if you’re in a lock up situation such as teh ADX, SMU
or CMU or lock down they are still allowed FSA incentives, even if
you’re just on a wait list for programming. And if you aren’t getting
it, then file.
Last summer, around June, I ordered several copies of the North
Carolina Grievance petition from MIM, then had copies made and sent out.
Then I announced to the block how to use the petition forms as a
solution to our grievances not being answered. The forms were then
distributed in the block, door-to-door in our segregated dorm. Sadly
some papers were heard being ripped up as soon as they entered the cell.
I challenged the chicken-shits to reveal themselves, to no avail. The
remaining forms were distributed in other blocks. It wasn’t long before
I realized hardly anyone would use the forms.
A couple weeks later my neighbor mentions the petition during a
conversation with someone else and was telling the guy, “the police gave
it to him, he saving it to the day he need to file a grievance so he
could attach it to the grievance.” Translation: he has no idea how to
use the petition.
Other than some people being lazy and others just don’t care, this is
what I learned:
I can’t assume we are all convicts
Gather participants first and speak to each of them to confirm their
ambitions
Write directions on top of the form, where to send it, such as “send
to address on last page or which ever office/dept you’re trying to
target”
Sometimes an orchestrator may need to influence members to
participate
by a Pennsylvania prisoner February 2025 permalink
Comrades in SCI-Muncy came together to draft a petition for people
imprisoned by the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections. The petition
demands that the state ensure that grievances be addressed by PADOC
staff in a timely manner, and that people do not face retaliation for
filing a grievance. The comrades ask for additional contacts to add to
the list to send the petition to, and any other edits from others in
Pennsylvania.
At the end of every year, MIM(Prisons) does an assessment of our work
and finances and we plan for the new year. We also solicit reports,
criticisms and self-criticisms from USW comrades. We were a little late
on that this year, so perhaps we will have more for next issue of
ULK.
While most are finding it hard to predict what the next Trump regime
will bring, it is clear from this choice that imperialism is in crisis.
The uncertainty and threat of instability from things like tariffs,
deportations and defunding important social programs do not bode well
for the future of U.$. imperialism or stability of the current world
order of U.$. domination. There are clear cracks in the latter, despite
2024 being a series of short-term victories for the U.$. empire in the
Levant.
The coming upheaval of the current system requires preparation and
organization. Since the dissolution of the original MIM in 2008, we
cannot say that the MIM has seen significant growth. The prison ministry
did accomplish a lot in the decade from 2008 to 2018, reaching new
heights in MIM’s prisoner support work. In U.$. prisons we saw
significant growth and some amazing actions of mass solidarity. As
long-time readers know, MIM(Prisons) took some major setbacks in 2020
and we’ve been regrouping since. In that period we’ve successfully
expanded our online recruitment. We’ve also seen a significant growth in
MIM line in online communities that MIM(Prisons) has never or no longer
participates in (meaning promotion of MIM’s 3 cardinal principles). This
has come along with a general growth in “Maoist” groups popping up,
evolving and dissolving, though most of these groups do not uphold the 3
cardinals. All of this indicates change in favor of the growth of our
forces here on occupied Turtle Island.
Assessing 2024
In the last few years we have revamped and relaunched all of our
educational programs for prisoners, which were all non-operational by
2020. We’ve also begun running them online. In 2024, we saw another
significant expansion of our educational engagement with prisoners with
the relaunching of our study group for USW leaders through the
University of Maoist Thought (UMT). Meanwhile, every year, comrades
inside and outside continue to complete our intro study courses. These
education programs are the first step to building the leaders we need to
grow our movement.
Beyond just education, 2024 marked the beginning of the intentional
building of the MIM-led united front. By MIM-led we mean ideologically,
not a centralized organization. While still in its early stages, these
discussions have been fruitful, involving people in cadre orgs and mass
orgs that are doing real work in the anti-imperialist movement outside
of prisons.
To be prepared for the changes to come, we must continue on these
fronts. We must educate more allies into leaders, through both study
groups and pushing them to engage in practical work. And we must
continue to develop our networks and infrastructure to support real
fighting forces in the future.
In 2024, our readership in prisons has continued its steady decline
dating back to 2016 now. We didn’t receive a lot of feedback last year
on the possible causes of this, but some factors include: drugs,
tablets, digital mail, more long-term isolation, and a general decline
in the prison movement.
We had less prisoners write us in 2024 than any other year in our
existence. This translated to another decrease in donations. A few years
ago we accomplished our longstanding goal of having prisoners fund 10%
of ULK costs. This seemed to be a result of Covid money. Since
then donations have returned to the more normal rate, but with less
people writing us that’s an overall decrease in donations. The percent
of ULK costs covered by prisoner donations dropped to about
4.2% in 2024, down from 11.5% in 2022.
On the other hand, this summer we distributed far more copies of
ULK on the streets than ever before as part of our effort to
link the prison movement to the student movement for Palestine. We got
close to our goal of matching distribution inside prisons. And our
donations from outside supporters (outside of MIM(Prisons)) reached an
all time high as well to help pay for those papers.
Overall, our budget was very stable between 2023 and 2024, and much
of the small increase was due to us expanding our operations in other
locations.
Other than continuing our regular publication of ULK each
season, we also put the finishing touches on our paper “Why the
International Communist Movement (ICM) Must Break with the Legacy of the
Revolutionary Internationalist Movement (RIM)”. This paper is an
important summary of the MIM struggle against the Revolutionary
Communist Party(U$A) in the realm of the ICM, pointing out key
differences between us and the various revisionists claiming Maoism to
this day.
New for 2025
We have a number of things planned for this year already.
As whitehouse.gov removes all Spanish-language content, we are
excited to announce the relaunch of our Spanish page (or section) that
will start in ULK 89. We already have a Spanish version of our
current letter introducing United Struggle from Within and MIM(Prisons),
and will have a Spanish version of the intro study course level 1 soon.
So if you know people who are interested in studying with us in Spanish
have them write in for that. We are also looking for incarcerated
translators to help contribute to this important project.
We are already making progress in 2025 towards our unachieved goal of
establishing local AIPS chapters with local outreach, regular meetings,
educational events, and campaign support for comrades inside. This
should continue to expand our ability to correspond with prisoners and
attempt to rebuild interest in U.$. prisons around our work.
We will be pushing the September 9th Day of Peace and Solidarity, on
the anniversary of Attica, on the streets in the forms of fasting,
political work and study, and possibly larger events as we have promoted
inside prisons for a decade now. We have not seen much activity around
this inside prisons in recent years, so we hope this will inspire that
again and that we can reinforce each others’ efforts around 9/9.
The relaunch of our study group for USW leaders has been very
successful overall. Specifically, it has brought together some of our
most enthusiastic and advanced thinkers within the New Afrikan
Independence Movement, creating momentum around more proactive work in
that realm. We will be continuing this study and looking to produce work
from it for the broader movement.
Join Us
Imperialism will keep providing opportunities for resistance as its
internal contradictions only continue to heighten. It has been some time
since we’ve seen real opportunities within the United $tates, and it
remains one of the most stable places in the world. Yet, now is the time
to build. Opportunities are close enough that people are getting
interested in real change, but we must build before real crisis ensues
and the existing dominant forces sweep away our efforts because we were
not prepared.
Since 2020 we’ve seen a persistent slow and steady growth. We need
your help to sustain that growth into the future.
Damascus, the capital of Syria, fell to militia forces on 8 December
2024. The collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s Ba’ath government in Syria is
another setback for the resistance to U.$.-I$rael aggression in the
region. The last half century has also demonstrated the limitations of
bourgeois nationalism in the Levant. While Syria has been the center of
meddling by the imperialists and regional powers for decades, the Ba’ath
government’s failure is due to the bourgeois class’ nature as a
self-interested minority that cannot fully represent the interests of
the nation.
The current civil war started during the so-called “Arab
Spring” in 2011. Popular protests that year led to state suppression
of many of the more progressive forces. Meanwhile funding via U.$.
proxies (Turkey, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates) helped prop up
extremist Sunni-affiliated militias. In the chaos that ensued, the
Islamic State in Iraq and Syria(ISIS) arose to control most of Syria, in
terms of area, and parts of Iraq by 2014. At this point, the United
$tates teamed up with the Kurdish nationalist movement in Syria to form
the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to prevent ISIS from completely
taking over Syria, while Hezbollah and Iran fought ISIS on other fronts.
A decade ago, it was clear the Assad government could not sustain
itself.
Map of fighting forces in Syria in December 2024.
By 2024, the former al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria, Al-Nusra Front, had
evolved into Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). HTS led a coalition of militias
from the Idlib region to take Homs and then the capital of Damascus soon
after. At the same time, the United $tates rallied the Revolutionary
Commando Army from al Tanf region near the Syrian-Jordan-Iraq border.
Many of the 2000 U.$. troops currently in Syria are in al Tanf.
Meanwhile, the Turkey-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) continues a war
against the SDF in the North of Syria. The Syrian National Army has
incorporated many former ISIS soldiers, and threatens to wipe out Kurds
in regions bordering Turkey to serve Turkey’s
interests in suppressing the Kurdish independence movement. But the
U.$. sees SDF territory as theirs, so Turkey is limited by its NATO
master on that front.
In coordination with the taking of the capital by HTS, I$rael
immediately seized strategic territory in the Golan Heights and
destroyed Syria’s military installments (reportedly 90% of their
capacity). I$rael has seized the highest point in Syria and territory
that was granted to Syria as a buffer zone in a previous war. I$rael is
now closer than ever to Damascus, with no Syrian military to stop them.
This means the ability of Syria to stand as an independent military
force against the U.$./I$rael has been eliminated. This has led HTS to
say they will not allow Palestinian militants to train in Syria
anymore.
Over the last decade plus, hundreds of armed organizations have
operated across Syria; a condition that is hard for us in the United
$tates to imagine. The situation continues to be chaotic in Syria, and
those much more familiar than us have a hard time knowing what is going
on on the ground. It is clear that U.$. intelligence had a good sense of
the balance of forces and was able to foster this takeover by HTS and
others in very short time.
Short-term Impacts
Despite the reactionary nature of the Assad regime, which led to its
quick collapse in December, Syria has served as a base of resistance for
the region for over half a century. This is why, in the short-term, we
see the fall of Assad as a bad thing for the anti-imperialist movement,
despite being inevitable.
Syria was a transit corridor for resources from Iran to Hezbollah
in Lebanon, this has been disrupted. Syria can now serve as corridor for
I$rael to reach and attack Iran. The overthrow of Assad is another
short-term setback in the resistance to U.$. imperialism in the region
following I$rael’s successes in decapitating Hezbollah in Lebanon and
Hamas in Palestine. The recent peace deal between Hezbollah and I$rael
also indicated a victory for the U.$. camp.
Five days after taking power, HTS declared that all Palestinian
resistance forces must demilitarize. Palestinian factions, including
Fatah, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), and the
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC),
the Saiqa, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) Martyr Ali Aswad Brigade,
have had a presence in Syria as guests of the government for decades.
The refugee camp “Yarmouk”, near Damascus, is the center of the
Palestinian diaspora. Beginning with the Nakba in 1948, most
Palestinians have been forced off of their land by I$raeli settlers, and
therefore live in what are now separate countries like Lebanon, Jordan
and Syria. With the peace deal in Lebanon, I$rael is trying to
demilitarize Arabs there next. By cutting off the bases of operation of
the Palestinian movement and the flow of supplies, I$rael is remaking
the region for a complete suppression of the liberation movement.
After more than two years without a president, Lebanon’s parliament
chose Joseph Aoun on 9 January 2025. This U.$.-backed candidate clinched
the vote after the Hezbollah-favored candidate withdrew. Aoun, like HTS,
has pledged to demilitarize any groups outside the Lebanese army.
Hezbollah has long been the strongest military force in Lebanon, while
participating in a multi-party government. According to the peace deal
between I$rael and Hezbollah, I$rael had 60 days to withdraw from
southern Lebanon. They have not done so as Hezbollah has also not
demilitarized from the south as agreed to in the deal.
Sanction Wars
While the December events were swift, the overthrow of Assad was a
U.$. operation dating back decades, through low intensity military and
economic warfare. In 2002 Undersecretary of State John Bolton added
Syria to the list of President Bush Jr’s “Axis of Evil” countries,
justifying economic sanctions, which the Amerikans get their allies to
enforce as well.
Sanctions are economic warfare. Just like when you drop bombs on a
country, sanctions often result in suffering and death of the civilian
population. The fear-mongering around Russian election interference is a
joke compared to what the Amerikans have been doing for decades,
starving people to force them to change their political allegiances.
According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Syria’s oil sales
in 2010 would have been around $3.2 billion or 25% of the state’s
revenue. But war and sanctions put an end to that within a year. Oil
extraction in Syria was first done by an Amerikan beginning in 1956. By
1958, Syria was part of Nasser’s United Arab Republic (UAR), which
seized the oil fields and machinery from the Amerikan company. When the
Ba’ath Party took over a couple years later, with the dissolution of the
UAR, they kept the oil fields nationalized. By 2013, ISIS controlled
most of the oil fields and were using them to raise money. Assad stated
that ISIS had two partners in stealing the Syrian oil since 2014, Recep
Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey and the Amerikans. China has echoed Assad on
this point. In November 2019 Trump said to the press that “We’re keeping
the oil, we have the oil, the oil is secure, we left troops behind only
for the oil,” referring to the SDF-controlled region of northern
Syria.(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petroleum_industry_in_Syria)
The U$ imperialists want to monopolize the global oil supply as much
as possible and ensure that all major oil producing economies are
selling their oil in U.$. dollars. This allows the U.$. dollar to
maintain an inflated value in global commodity exchange (by forcing
countries that need to buy oil from OPEC countries to have a stash of U$
currency on hand). A secondary effect is that it makes it harder for
countries sanctioned by the U.$. to buy oil (forcing the use of proxies
to access U$ currency and do business with OPEC). This allows the
Amerikans to artificially control inflation of U$D, while currencies in
other countries like Syria, or Nigeria,
take on that burden.
The Revolutionary Commando Army, paid by the Amerikans, was making 12
times what the Syrian Army was paying, thanks to inflation crippling the
value of the lira, or Syrian pound. This inflation can be blamed on the
U.$.-imposed sanctions. However, it is also a characteristic of a
capitalist economy. There is a reason why socialist China did not have
inflation despite U.$. sanctions on the Communist Party of China.New
China’s First Quarter-Century, Foreign Languages Press, Peking 1975
And there is a reason why inflationary forces and financial markets
threaten the Chinese economy today, after 50 years of capitalism.
Similarly, the Ba’ath economy was susceptible to these problems and
more. Nationalist policies can slow the effects of capitalism, but
cannot eliminate them like socialism does.
The Limits of Bourgeois
Nationalism
The weakness of the bourgeois Syrian state is also reflected in
Russia’s unwillingness to get involved and Assad’s sudden fleeing of the
country leaving his army with no clear leadership for resistance. If
there was a way to maintain Ba’ath rule, Russia would have wanted that.
Contrast Assad to Sadaam Hussein in Iraq who faced a trial, and was
executed by hanging while calling for a united Arab resistance to U.$.
imperialism and a free Arab Palestine. The Ba’ath parties in both
countries come from a nominally pan-Arab and nationalist background. But
we see how circumstance exposes them as inconsistent allies against
imperialism.
When the Arab Socialist Ba’ath Party emerged, about a third of the
world’s population was living under socialism, most of them in the
Soviet Union or China. The Syrian Communist Party was the other party
with broad mass support. These influences pushed a pan-Arab line with
pro-social economic policies in the early Ba’ath Party. Ba’ath was the
radical alternative to Nasserism and originally mobilized the peasantry
in Syria via land redistribution. The father of Bashar al-Assad led a
coup that abandoned this path, and focused on serving the urban
capitalist class. Today the national and regional economic projects of
the 1960s are impossible as war and divisions have become dominant under
imperialist influence.
The way the Assad regime folded was a sign of its own internal
weakness. Of course, this came after 13 years of more or less constant
imperialist meddling and instigating of civil war. But the resistance in
Gaza has not folded after 75+ years, while the once stable and
relatively powerful Syrian government folded in a matter of days. This
speaks to the internal contradictions. While parties like Ba’ath and
Hezbollah have served to suppress communist organizations, the
conditions in Palestine have united the nation to the extent that
communists and bourgeois nationalists are waging guerrilla warfare in
conjunction against the occupiers just days before a cease
fire is expected to begin. Now that Assad’s government has fallen,
Syria faces greater chaos, allowing the imperialists to play forces off
against each other.
Neo-colony of U.$. or
Jihadist Caliphate?
While the general media propaganda in the United $tates has been to
celebrate the takeover in Syria, the more thoughtful Amerikans are
concerned that HTS is “former al Qaeda.” They see conservative religious
views of such groups and lump them in with Christians in the U.$.
government who are fighting against abortion rights and diversity. On
top of that is the racialized view of Muslims as foreign, other, and
dangerous. But for the proletariat “al Qaeda” is not necessarily a
negative, and the network continues to capitalize on the perception that
they are fighting U.$. (and allied) imperialism.
Some real red flags for the proletariat to look out for are things
like doing your first interview on CNN within hours of taking power,
moving to neutralize threats to I$rael, letting I$rael seize territories
of the former state, and the number 1 red flag to look out for: courting
positive business relations with U.$. imperialism. These are all things
HTS leaders have already done.
Osama bin Laden is rolling over in his watery grave as these
rebranded al Qaeda leaders of HTS have become the tip of the U.$.
imperialist spear in Syria. But what appears to be the rise of a clear
U.$. puppet, emerged from the anti-imperialist bourgeois nationalism
that dominates the Muslim resistance today. Their bourgeois character
ultimately comes into contradiction with their nationalist claims.
As Marxists we look at class interests, and class interests in the
form of national interests, to determine who are our friends and who are
our enemies. And the majority of people in the Levant are proletariat
and peasantry. Palestine is clearly included in the proletarian camp,
despite their economic structure limiting class development and perhaps
being dominated by a lumpen-proletariat or semi-proletariat.
Much has been made of the foreign nature of HTS, that it is a
transnational group of ragtag extremists. But this too just feeds into
neo-colonial thinking. Expelling the foreigners is progressive when
aimed at the imperialists. But this is a specific brand of foreigner.
And the imperialists can easily pull together a group of born-and-bred
Syrians that will be happy to run the country for their Amerikan
sponsors. So the oppressed must guard against this form of narrow
nationalism.
Syrian nationalism may turn against HTS, but it is not clear who will
take their place and how they will be any better. The national question
is not clear in a country whose borders were created by the U.$. and
French imperialists in 1948. Like many political forces in the region,
the Ba’ath Party came from pan-Arab roots, that see one Arab nation that
is destined to dissolve the imperialist imposed boundaries. Syria even
briefly formed the United Arab Republic by merging with Egypt towards
this goal. More recently, ISIS united broad regions of Iraq and Syria
for a short period, though against the will of many in the region. What
is clear is that the Arab people of the region share a common interest,
and should be working together to meet that common interest. Currently
I$rael is crushing the attempts at doing so.
The New “President” of Syria
Abu Mohammad al-Julani is the leader of HTS, who united the various
forces that fought to overthrow Assad. He has returned to using his
birth name of Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa. While he indicated it would be up
to four years before elections would occur again in Syria, National
Public Radio quickly began referring to em as the “President of Syria.”
The U.$. State Department also lifted the $10 million reward it had long
offered for al-Sharaa’s capture on 20 December 2024, another indication
of how the Amerikans are viewing the take over.
In 2021, al-Sharaa did an interview with Frontline where ey
said ey was radicalized by the Palestinian Second Intifada, stating, “I
started thinking about how I could fulfill my duties, defending a people
who are oppressed by occupiers and invaders.” Then al-Qaeda’s attacks on
9/11 inspired em to travel to Iraq to fight the U.$. invasion in 2003 as
a soldier with al-Qaeda. Ey was arrested by the Amerikans in 2006 and
imprisoned for 5 years. Ey was released, coincidentally during the start
of the Syrian revolution in 2011 and began immediately working to build
al-Qaeda in Syria, which ey called Jabahat al-Nusra, or in the U.$.
media referred to as Al-Nusra Front. Al-Nusra eventually emerged at the
center of power plays between the Islamic State and al-Qaeda. The
differences between these groups may be mostly about power struggles and
not ideology. However, ISIS was initiated by al-Qaeda affiliated people
who thought they weren’t moving fast enough to liberate the land.
Al-Nusra seemed to have a similar strategy, which is what led to
confrontation with ISIS. In the end, HTS was militarily fighting both
ISIS and al-Qaeda to govern Idlib province in the years prior to seizing
Damascus, while benefiting from Turkish economic support.
U.$. State Department aide Jake Sullivan told Hillary Clinton that
“AQ [Al-Qaeda] is on our side in Syria” in 2012, referring to the
Al-Nusra Front.
State of Imperialist Forces
Russia’s lack of action in Syria, compared to years past, is a sign
of their military over-extension with the war in Ukraine. They lost a
strategic naval base in the Mediterranean Sea without a fight with the
fall of the Assad regime. Like the United $tates, they seemed aware of
the Syrian government’s inability to sustain itself and cut its losses,
which were significant.
Recently a comrade wrote us asking about what are we waiting for to
start the revolution here in occupied Turtle Island. Well a lot of
things. From the Russian Revolution, Lenin taught us that a
revolutionary situation is defined by the masses and the ruling class
realizing the impossibility of continuing in the old way. In addition,
an actual end to U.$. imperialism becomes possible when it finds itself
over-extended militarily. This is clearly not the case as it is
effectively exerting its interests on the other side of the world via
proxies like I$rael, Ukraine, and militias in Syria. While the U.$. is
footing the bill, they are doing very little in terms of providing their
own military support and are not putting Amerikan lives in jeopardy to
do so. This could be to avoid open conflict with Russian troops, but
also avoids much of the backlash they faced while occupying Iraq.
The overthrow of Assad with only 2000 U.$. troops in the country is a
victory for the imperialists, but we’ll see whether this is enough for
them to establish a new client state in Syria. Syria has also been a
success for the Amerikans in terms of global public opinion. Following
the escalated genocide in Gaza over the last 15 months, U.$. public
opinion has grown significantly to condemn I$rael, but less so
Amerikkka, despite the recognition by most that I$rael is U.$.-funded.
In Syria the connection is much less apparent, but the predominant
sentiment is that the overthrow of Assad was a good thing. This is a big
difference from the Amerikan
regime change project that overthrew the Ba’ath regime in neighboring
Iraq. During the invasion of Iraq, the U.$. was in the position
I$rael is today. Today I$rael could fall, and the imperialist superpower
lives on.
Axis of
Evil - 25 years of Reshaping the Middle East
Following al Qaeda’s attacks on the World Trade Center and the
Pentagon in 2001, U.$. President George Bush coined the term “Axis of
Evil” to refer to Iran, Iraq and North Korea in 2002. While these
countries were not united in any way, Bush claimed they were all
sponsors of terrorism and manufacturers of “weapons of mass
destruction.” In reality their commonality was in their resistance to
U.$. imperialism.
This “Axis of Evil” was coined while the “Great Satan” U.$.
imperialists were invading Afghanistan, ostensibly for their harboring
of al Qaeda, including Osama bin Laden. That invasion lasted until 2021,
when the former governing Taliban finally returned to power. In those
two decades, hundreds of thousands were killed and millions were
displaced in Afghanistan. In 2011, the United $tates assassinated bin
Laden in neighboring Pakistan. The 9/11 attacks also triggered the
United $tates to launch an international prison network made up of CIA
“black sites”, in which the Bush regime okayed the CIA to ignore Geneva
Convention rules against torture.
After George Bush’s speech, Undersecretary of State John Bolton gave
eir own 2002 speech entitled “Beyond the Axis of Evil” that included
Cuba, Libya and Syria. In response to the “Axis of Evil” talk, people
from these countries began talking about the “Axis of Resistance”, since
resisting U.$. imperialist interests was the thing these countries had
in common. Iran eventually took up this term around its informal
alliance in opposition to the U.$. imperialist outpost of I$rael.
Before Syria’s takeover this month, Syria was the only state power,
other than Iran, to serve as a training ground and supply source for the
other members of the Axis of Resistance. Ansar Allah in Yemen, Hezbollah
in Lebanon, and Hamas in Palestine all participate in state power or at
least dual power. Other members of this alliance include Shia militias
in Iraq, other national liberation forces in Palestine, and now emerging
militias in Syria that oppose the recent takeover.
In addition to opposing I$rael and the United $tates, the Axis of
Resistance has generally opposed Salafist groups like al-Qaeda and the
Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. Salafism is a revival of Sunni Islam
that attempts to connect to its “authentic” traditions by opposing
things that didn’t exist in the times of the prophet Mohammed; a truly
reactionary ideology that wants to take society backwards.
Despite Syria’s important role in supplying Hezbollah in Lebanon and
resistance forces in Palestine and being on the U.$. “Axis of Evil”
list, Syria actually served the U.$. imperialists in their “War on
Terror” in Afghanistan and Iraq. The imperialists invaded Iraq (again)
in 2003 under the pretense of weapons of mass destruction, which was
later proved to be a complete lie. During this period CIA black sites
were operating in countries across the world, including Syria. These
“black sites” were a secretive international prison system focused on
torture, interrogation and disappearances.
While some recent U.$. media coverage of the freeing of prisoners in
Syria was proven to be fabricated, there were many people who suffered
under the Assad regime who are understandably celebrating or at least
relieved. While we criticized imperialist
meddling against Assad and recognized the Ba’ath government as
useful to the resistance in the region, its failure to serve the people
led to its demise. As always, we join in the call of the resistance
forces in recognizing the right to self-determination of the Syrian
people and opposing all imperialist occupation of portions of Syria and
imperialist meddling in the economy and resources of the region. Much
struggle will be needed to make that a reality.
Note: Our citations for this article are not up to our usual
standards, but we believe most of the facts here to be uncontroversial
and easily verifiable.
A local news station went viral when they started a live mass
interview with prisoners held in State Correctional Institution -
Huntingdon in Pennsylvania as part of their coverage of Luigi Mangione’s
imprisonment. The innovative reporter asked questions on live TV and had
prisoners respond by yelling answers and flashing lights to their local
correspondent on the ground. What follows are a couple of on the ground
reports to verify that event and the conditions exposed in that
video.
$prayer wrote on 3 January 2025: The area where our
brother Luigi was/is held is called: D-Max, D-Rear, D-Obs. It is where
they (Huntingdon) puts people when they want to grind them up. It is
atrocious back there, dirty and disgusting. You probably seen the
pictures from the news of it.
The media was camped out here for a couple of weeks after Luigi was
caught here in Blair County. This jail is the worst jail in the state of
Pennsylvania as for living conditions. Light/night lights in the cells
in the RHU are constantly on 24/7/365. In D-Max, you might as well be
sleeping outside.
Back here in the RHU if you don’t cover up your air vent you get
freezing cold because it’s all cold air coming out, no heat even in the
winter.
Just the other day multiple C/Os (Correctional Officers) and a
Sergeant took a prisoner to the property room in the Restricted Housing
Unit (RHU) where there are no cameras and beat the comrade because he
wrote a nurse that works here a letter and sent it to her at her place
of residence.
I’ve also enclosed documents of an assault I received here. [The
grievance response confirms the comrade’s report that CO1 N. Metzgar
assaulted em with OC spray in September for no reason at all.]
A Pennsylvania prisoner wrote on 14 January 2025: The
part of the prison that was featured on NewsNation (The
Bandfield Show); providing the “Lights Show” that went viral, is an old
add-on to the “Older” prison structure that extends beyond the original
structure. Whereas, there are 2 extended Blocks: E-Block, which is the
Block that went viral with the light show, and F-Block, which is the
so-called “honor block”. Both E and F-Blocks assume perks. However, the
perks are minuscule in that such entails being in a cell with a window
and radiator. The rest of the prison is Shawshank Redemption style with
cells stacked by tiers and its steel bars and levelers to latch close
and to release cell gates. The cells are the size of a small bathroom at
best, and they are mostly occupied by 2 persons. However, the top 3 and
4 tiers (depending on the Blocks) are single cells only to relieve some
of the weight as a solution to the structural damages. Prisoners are
essentially housed on Blocks that should have been condemned decades
ago. The Blocks that are indicated as condemned online are in fact
fully occupied. Thus, prisoners are essentially
threatened by structurally hazardous living conditions. Although
SCI-Huntingdon isn’t up to code or PREA compliance, its cost efficiency
to operate due to its outdated mechanics rather offsets payment for
fines.
The compound is not only structurally hazardous, but black mold
continues to persist due to an old leaky plumbing system and mold
breeding conditions such as constant moisture, lack of ventilation and
inadequate lighting. There is no central air conditioning units on any
of the cell blocks. For the exception of the aforementioned E and F
Blocks, there are radiators situated on the ground floor of the prison
Blocks, and it’s only the few that works that provide the only source of
heating. And since there is no air conditioning, summers are
insufferable, and attributable to many heat-related illnesses, along
with many bouts of psychotic episodes. The brick cells hold heat like an
oven, which consequently exacerbates the health conditions of our
geriatric population. To add insult to injury, SCI-Huntingdon has a rat
and pest infestation. Currently, there are cell blocks riddled with
bedbugs, while enduring spider bites is common.
The showers contemporarily violate PREA standards, in that the
showers consist of an open area without privacy stalls, and therefore,
the only means of privacy while showering is wearing boxers or shorts.
Since the pandemic ravished Huntingdon’s prison population the
justification to close the dining hall and relegate food trays which are
barely room temperature to be eating in our cells is the new norm.
Meanwhile, recreation is limited due to implementations of said “new
norm” policies. These conditions are agitated by an administration that
has a culture that’s attitudinally antagonistic, indifferent,
incompetent, and explicitly racist. The majority of SCI-Huntingdon’s
prison population are people serving extraordinary lengths or death by
incarceration sentences. And this population is situated in a small
rural district that’s otherwise economically depleted due to the
industrialization of its farming and agricultural economy.
Thus, Huntingdon’s prison population essentially compensates for its
depressed economy by counting its prison population in the census to
meet requirements for federal funding and political representation for
its district. As an additional point of reference, SCI-Huntingdon makes
up for a bulk of the production for PA Corrections Industries.
Wherefore, there’s no wonder that in spite of the conditions, which
warrants its closing and demolition, the corporate/private socioeconomic
interest politically outweighs the civil rights and fundamental safety
of its prisoners. This dynamic is not far removed from what the Mangione
case represents. Although his alleged act represents a revolt against
the exploitations of corporate healthcare insurance industries, there’s
a message that’s also fitting to a corporate America that’s allowed to
exploit the people’s labor and basic needs on every level of society.
Indeed we live in a society where corporate America is the pimp, the
Government is the whore, the people are the tricks and the police
enforce, protect and serve this dynamic.
While the Magione case is made specific to the basic need and right
to adequate health care, such should represent to the people the primary
contradiction of capitalism, which exposes a common enemy vested in a
political system that panders and facilitates the corporate
exploitations attributed to mass death, mass incarceration, mass
inflation, and the mass affect of imperialism. However, individual acts
of revolution which can serve as effective propaganda are often hijacked
and trivialized by reactionaries, which are undermined by the corporate
media apparatus. Although, it’s my hope that such a message would
galvanize the common sense of the people, and assume a superstructure
concentrated on power to the people, rather than a cult of individualism
where our grief is isolated and our passions to transform the world is
reduced to alienation.
MIM(Prisons) responds: The class dynamics around health
care are described in the article
we put out on the Mangione case. While people in this country suffer
from the health care system, the wealth exploitation is happening in the
Third World and bringing wealth to the whole population in the United
$tates and other imperialist countries.
