Under Lock & Key

I recently read a writing titled: “Law, Prison and Double-Double Consciousness: A Phenomenological View of the Black-Prisoner’s Experience” by James Davis III. This led me to write the following:

“What I pondered was my own double-double consciousness! The development of the”New Afrikan” within the greater black populace of captives. From the taking of the Afrikan attribute(s)’s learning of Ki-Swahili, the mandated study of all things dealing with black culture, history and struggle, to the daily remaking of one’s world view through study and application…the identity of “New Afrikan” implores one to rise above the lowly station of inmate, of n-word.”

In reading this piece by Mr. Davis, I was reminded of the innate power of a man. The power to literally reinvent oneself within an environment designed to annihilate the soul of a man. Prison(s) are created with a purpose to force a human to willingly acquiesce to half-man existence.

To develop a double-double consciousness is to resist such inferior station(s), to be a man! One who stands on principle(s), personified purpose, and willingly accepts his responsibilities to both uplift and reeducate the masses, which is a revolutionary ideal!

To embrace a revolutionary ideological precept is to strive even harder at evolving this “double-double consciousness”. Aside from the aforementioned character improvement(s), the revolutionary-minded man immerses himself in all things dealing with progressive politics and the science of struggle.

As his prison cohorts grow comfortable living captive man half-lives (i.e. embracing typical prison activities: gambling, drug usage, etc.) the revolutionary-minded captive creates a compass of consciousness which guides him daily. He spends his time always pushing himself to excel, regardless of tasks or conditions.

This is the cat who aligns with other men who reject the half-lives and/or inferior designations expected of the captive class. Whenever he/they are seen, they’re reading something, writing something, attending college, engaging in some form of constructive dialogue, or physically training their bodies. Forging his new self: the unbroken, unbowed man that’s living and potentially dying, upon revolutionary standards and practices.

The identification of oneself as a militant, as a revolutionary theorist, anchors oneself. As those around him list to-and-fro, uncertain of their next move(s), the innate belief within the mind of the man moving by a revolutionary compass is that he represents something greater than himself. That he is a soldier that happens to be behind enemy lines if you will: captured! It is through this perception, that he re-imagines his reality, and in turn finds purpose in his every action. He discovers the reservoir of resistance within which moves him to set his personal bar of daily exemplary conduct higher than those around him. Understanding his calling, devoting himself to the people. To meeting their needs.

I find all of the above to be quite close to describing myself. Though admittedly, I fall short of the mark most days. Being human, with all of the subjectivisms that accompany it, at times, my objective conditions threaten to overwhelm me. Yet it is the will to win, to resist the “colonial mentality” which has historically impacted my ilk, propels me to stand firm. Existing within a perpetual mode of resistance!

In looking back, I can really see that I’ve been in a state of rebellion my entire life! That I have never been one of those “go along to get along” type of brothas. Unfortunately, this ingrained sense of recalcitrance has led to many years of imprisonment and designations by those of the oppressor class, as being anti social and/or suffering some mystery “personality disorder”. To not be a shoe shine boy, a buck dancing coon, a tom! The conventional roles assigned to the U.$. man/woman of color! Is to be castigated by those in power, and/or positions of authority.

I now fully comprehend this whole “double-double consciousness” as it pertains to myself individually and my New Afrikan/black kinfolk! Collectively! All colored folk whom live in capitalist society, which is governed by those who use race and class as measurements of worth! Not only adjust to the double consciousness of faux citizenry…they also develop their own “double-double consciousness” to cope!

However, the one brutal fact which distinguishes the U.$. Black man/woman from any other ethnic groups is the historical miscarriage of chattel slavery! Our socio-cultural creation of a double-double consciousness is our collective survival mechanism if you will. A way to figuratively stay rooted in our Afrikan beginnings! Whilst literally standing on the shoulders of the many, many activists, struggle-ists, revolutionaries, and average citizens whom were wounded, imprisoned, tortured, and murdered! For daring to dream of having freedom, justice and equality! We repay the debt to our martyrs by clinging fiercely to their memories, living within our “cocoon’s” of double-double consciousness! Forging bonds with other forward thinking folk of Afrikan ancestry. And then, united in purpose, teach others how to “escape” our half life existences! Moving towards a revolutionary ideology and corresponding actions as the conditions reveal the time to manifest them! I stand firm within the confines of a satanic creation! Striving to be the catalyst for progress and change. As I survive, only through my own “double-double consciousness” cocoon.

MIM(Prisons) adds: Davis’s double-double consciousness is a product of alienation through oppressive structures. These oppressive structures isolate people from “the world”, putting them in a new reality, with new rules and norms, that are generally worse than “the world” they know in every way. This is in contrast to prisons in socialist China – where people were encouraged (you might say coerced) to study the outside world, to better understand their own actions and find a new way to be in that world that is in line with the interests of the people. In a socialist prison, criminals can focus on struggling with themselves because they aren’t forced to struggle against the oppression of the prison environment first.

We offer comrades support in developing the consciousness that is in rebellion against the oppressive system. We offer Under Lock & Key as a forum to connect with and share ideas with other like-minded individuals. We have our Revolutionary 12 Steps that is one tool for those trying to transform themselves into new people. And we have books on revolutionary societies like China, and their prison system, and how they were able to radically transform a whole society. So if this comrade’s essay resonates with you, get involved and get plugged in with these resources today!

Spoilers

A Thousand and One is a drama film set during the years of 1994-2005 in New York City. The movie follows a hairdresser and recently released prisoner Inez de la Paz (played by New Afrikan rapper/actress Teyana Taylor) who has spent the past years imprisoned in Rikers Island. A persyn who has been part of the foster home system growing up, Inez returns to her former care in Brooklyn where she sees her son, Terry (who is also in a home), out on the streets. Trying to escape from the home, Terry is hospitalized and Inez secretly visits him and takes Terry to illegally raise him as her child under a false birth certificate/social security card in Harlem.

Inez reunites with her former romantic partner/lumpen associate during her times as a petty thief named Lucky. At first, Lucky is hesitant to join in on this plan to build a new family with his former street partner, but eventually marries Inez and promises to take care of Terry. At the time, Pig Rudy Giuliani has begun his campaigns to start an improved New York City which they place much hopes for as life-long residents of NYC.

By 2001, Pig Giuliani’s attacks on the New Afrikan masses of NYC through the stop-and-frisk policies are coming down hard and we see Terry, now a teenager, being affected by this. Despite being a soft-spoken kid excelling at school, the street pigs frisk him and his friend with no other reason than being New Afrikan. Alongside Terry’s entrance into young adulthood, Inez’s marriage begins to meet difficulties as Lucky has become involved in affairs with other wimmin.

By 2005, Lucky succumbs to cancer as Terry prepares for college. The effects of gentrification are beginning to take the offensive against the masses as Euro-Amerikans begin to move in and Inez’s new landlord attempts to drive them out of the apartment using loophole methods to evict them early. In school, Terry’s guidance counselor asks for his birth certificate and social security card for a job program for underprivileged students. Without telling his mother, Terry submits his forged papers which comes back as invalid. After Terry confesses that the government documents were fake, the counselor calls social services who enter Inez’s home. Terry warns his mother about this and she begins to flee as under the imperialist law, despite caring for and stepping up to be the mother for Terry, Inez has committed a kidnapping of a ward of the state. The social services agents reveal to Terry that Inez is not his biological mother and that the two have no real blood relations. The pigs exposes Inez’s lumpen past to Terry leaving him distraught and in tears.

In the end, Inez confesses to Terry the truth. Inez was not the womyn who abandoned Terry on the street corner in his memory. She had found Terry for the first time lost in the streets when she was recently released as a prisoner from Riker’s island. Inez explains to Terry that she saw her younger self in him and that she could not stand to see another child go through the system that she was put through: the foster homes, the juvenile centers, the prisons, etc. Terry, crying, expresses the fear that he feels in becoming independent as he enters adulthood and affirms to Inez that he still loves her as a mother. The two separate on their own paths and before leaving, Inez promises Terry that “this isn’t goodbye.”

Down With Gentrification, Wimmin Hold Up Half the Sky

At the beginning of the movie, we see Inez de la Paz work as a street hawker offering hair/beauty services on the streets. We would say that this is a good portrayal of who we mean when we talk about the First World Lumpen or semi-proletariat who might not participate in overtly anti-people or parasitic ways of self-subsistence (such as sex work or drug peddling) and lives similarly to the semi-proletariat we see in the Third World. In our modern times of the 2020s, we see many folks using social media pages for these grey area side hustles while also maintaining a lower labor aristocrat level minimum wage job (oftentimes in the service industry). In the 1990s when this movie was being set, holding a cardboard box and approaching passer-bys was the common move. Readers might imagine Inez de la Paz to be in an extremely vulnerable political-economic situation as this semi-proletariat/First World Lumpen who had just been released from prison and not much support. However, the movie makes clear that Inez is a tough womyn and avoids both the traps of a damsel in distress needing a male figure out in the dangerous streets nor the over-masculinized New Afrikan womyn whose humynity is stripped away. In an artistic and political sense, we would say the movie did a great job in this regard and is an example we can look up to for creating socialist art/realistic portrayal of the masses under oppression.

Another trap that the movie avoids well is the habit of ruminating on the sensationalist/traumatic pain of New Afrikan life under U.$. imperialism. Mich art which depicts stories of the oppressed nations will fall victim to depicting a suffering masses who suffer like how the sky is blue. A Thousand and One refuses to show Inez, Terry, and Lucky as part of a faceless hoard of suffering while also refusing colorblind individualism: it intertwines the national oppression Black people face (the gentrification, the foster system, the prison system, the education system, etc.) while showing the deeply impersynal effects imperialist institutions have on these very humyn characters and how they take control over their lives without letting the system win. Because of this strong humynization of unapologetically New Afrikan characters, what might seem like a sensationalist plot twist at the end where Inez is revealed to not be Terry’s biological mother is welded to the material reality of the masses’ conditions.

The humnynization of these characters (the foster orphan, the former prisoner, the cheating husband, etc.) that this film undertakes fights against the dehumynization that already exists on these archetypes within the Amerikan imperialist-patriarchal superstructure (especially the oppressed nations and, in this case, principally New Afrika). We as Maoists believe that despite the great storytelling and care that A.V. Rockwell has put in for this story, this film is still part of the U.$. imperialist-patriarchal machine. One persyn and their creation (in this case a film director and her film) will be swept into the wave of the bourgeois superstructure. There will be many Euro-Amerikan viewers of the film who might watch this during February while it is being recommended to them by Netflix in their petty-bourgeois suburbia homes. Would they appreciate/recognize the persynal revolution that Inez has underwent throughout this story? Would they understand the self-determination that Inez has taken over her life against these social forces for the new generation to find happiness? Or would Inez’s motivations and reasons become watered down to a story of the strong independent Black womyn whose intentions were good but her methods of trying to find happiness for Terry was just wrong and too radical? Or worse, they might just paint her as a criminal con artist whose vicarious happiness to a boy she never met gave her a chance to play the act of a mother and a stable family the system eventually took away from her as well. Ms. Rockwell has put great effort into the humynization of these characters, we are afraid that a film alone is not enough to change the consciousness of most people in the level necessity for a society without oppression. That would be a job for a cultural revolution under a proletarian dictatorship.

One thing that interested me as a Maoist revolutionary is the role of motherhood that Inez was able to master over Terry despite her having the knowledge that Terry was not her biological son: a fact that is so overemphasized and shoved down the masses throats when it comes to their legitimate claim over a child. Biological determinism (like in “race”) is a core principle of the imperialist-patriarchial superstructure: gender, motherhood, etc. is determined by one’s bloodline or something they are “born with.” The reality however, is that conditioning of individual by an entire society’s relations of production and class struggle is the true driving force for these roles. For Inez de la Paz, an individual New Afrikan womyn who has recently been released from Rikers Island, to use what she has learned as her life as a lumpen to fight against this broad society’s conditioning and condition herself using individual determination is a great depiction of the social potential of the lumpen class. Historically, abandoning the bourgeois quest of giving orphaned children a nuclear family for them to go into and instead giving them a new environment to live on as orphans has been the successful practice of solving the problem of orphan street kids in the Soviet Union. While a Maoist telling of this story would perhaps depict independent institution building for people like Terry and Inez, the story that is told instead serves good medium for studying and appropriating bourgeois individualism of the Amerikans for the interests of the oppressed nations.

I would like to conclude the review of this movie with two quotes:

“The world is yours, as well as ours, but in the last analysis, it is yours. You young people, full of vigor and vitality, are in the bloom of life, like the sun at eight or nine in the morning. Our hope is placed on you. The world belongs to you. China’s future belongs to you.” - Mao Zedong

“Our revenge will be the laughter of our children” - Bobby Sands

The complex issue of dealing with homelessness here in the imperialist center has led to much debate within our party. In our current stage, we are engaged in consciousness building and raising public opinion, while it is our proletarian morality which compels us to struggle against oppression in all arenas. Homelessness is a crisis more serious than fentanyl and yet the capitalist state via its “supreme kourt” has recently determined that codifying homeless “sweeps” of encampments and criminalizing the homeless for being displaced is their remedy for the economic depression that capitalism creates. Surely communists can think of a far more humynizing solution.

At the same time, our responsibility here in the First World is not to follow the capitalist state around with a rag to wipe up its spills and a dust pan and broom to pick up its litter. We are not brainstorming to create reforms that simply make life in the occupied territories more bearable. We must fight oppression while serving the revolution.

Homeless Have National Oppression to Blame

The capitalist system is ultimately behind all social ills, and it was capitalism that first created a “surplus population”, which includes much of the homeless. However, looking particularly at recent rises in homelessness in the so-called United $tates, we can see how national oppression played a significant role in who became homeless.

During the 1960s and 70s, as the national liberation struggles peaked in the United $nakes, the movement suffered extreme repression from the U.$. government. Death and prison helped Amerika scale down the rise in resistance among the lumpen. As the 1980s arrived, so too did the introduction of crack cocaine to the ghetto streets – and soon followed mass incarceration. It’s important to note that during the 1960s and 70s there was not a homeless epidemic and there were no massive homeless encampments in every large city as is currently seen now. While statistics are not good, it’s possible that homelessness in the mid 1980s had reached rates that were double what they are today.(1)

Mass incarceration served the state in preventing another wave of revolutionary resistance. “Tough on crime” laws were enacted to curtail any efforts from the movement in the U.$. to regroup and reorganize the lumpen. As a result, the 1980s and 90s saw a mass capture of non-whites not seen on that level since the time of the middle passage. This mass incarceration – or mass kidnapping, to be more precise – led to the disruption and dissolution of the family unit while simultaneously injecting drugs on the scene. This mass kidnapping then led to mass displacement as single parents struggled to stay afloat often succumbing to escapism and criminalization themselves, only to be released to homelessness. Though the massive prison boom did allow for a shift of a significant portion of the lumpen from the streets to cages.

And while it is unclear how today’s rates compare to the 1980s, we are currently seeing a record in homelessness since the HUD started a more systematic count in 2007. And this has disproportionately hit oppressed nations again:

“This year’s big jump was driven by people who lost housing for the first time, which Biden administration officials say reflects the sharp rise in rent. The largest increase was among families, and the count also finds a significant rise among Hispanics. Nearly 40% of the unhoused are Black or African-American [who are only 12% of the general population -editor], and a quarter are seniors. The annual count does not include the many people who couch surf with friends or family, and who may be at high risk of ending up on the street.”(2)

We Don’t Want Peace with Amerikkka

Homelessness affects all of society in one way or another. Financially, it costs over 2 billion per year for former prisoners who are homeless.(3) If we look at it holistically, homelessness affects everything from mortality rates, healthcare, education, marriages, parenting, divorce, child welfare, the environment, etc. It’s unknown how this will affect future generations. What is known is that many of those in the homeless encampments, like most of those in the prison kamps, are Brown or Black. This all translates to economic oppression that the oppressed nations face with mass imprisonment, gentrification of their historic neighborhoods and of course being squeezed into homelessness. For those who support the empire, crumbs are flung their way, but for the lumpen who have no interest or intention to contribute to the U.$. capitalist system, an I.V. drip of violence, displacement, threat and trauma is fed to this population. When the United $tates describes “peace” for Aztlán, it is describing Chican@ capitulation to Amerikkka. To this, we decline, as we don’t want peace with Amerikkka, we want to be free. Our efforts to heighten the contradictions to step closer towards our goal of revolution and independence is what should guide us as we move toward our national interests.

The Nature of the Homeless

Marxism taught us that the natural laws can be harnessed in the interests of the masses. Under capitalism, there is a whole sector – the lumpen-proletariat, or the First World lumpen in the non-proletarian countries – who are systematically locked out of the production process and whose very lives are sacrificed in the name of profit and seen as castaways of society. The First World lumpen make up the vast majority of the homeless here in these false U.$. borders. Capitalist ideology here in the U.$. has been shaped by a long chain of oppression that has squeezed the colonized internal nations into our current state. White supremacy and slavery helped forge capitalist theory and practice and helped accelerate class development even surpassing Europe in many ways. Indeed, even James Bryce in “The American Commonwealth” documented the early stages of the U.$. petit bourgeois nature of the 1800s when he made several trips to the U.$. and wrote:

“In Connecticut and Massachusetts the operatives in many a manufacturing town lead a life far easier, far more brightened by intellectual culture and by amusements than that of the clerks and shopkeepers of England or France.”(4)

By the late 1800s, Amerikkka became increasingly bourgeoisified in many areas. By the early 1900s, U.$. imperialism would begin to exploit abroad, bringing the blood money back to these false U.$. borders and distributing it to buy off sectors of workers as investments to its future survival. But capitalism can never provide full employment and this means the alienated masses turn to the underground economy to survive. For many ex-prisoners, the underground economy is the only way they can survive. And for the homeless – which consists in large part on Injustice-impacted people – the underground economy is, for some, the only game in town.

When we examine the homeless population in the United $tates, we find that it is made up of many ex-prisoners(5). The internal semi-colonies are the majority percentage-wise.(6) This highlights the class contradictions within the United $tates as well. The state has imported European immigrants in their scramble to counter their social reality. The 2022 U.$. Census data shows that the white population in the U.$. would have decreased had it not been for 391,000 white people immigrating to the U.$. from Europe.(7) This approach to maintaining demographics favorable to the oppressor nation is nothing new, of course. Sakai points out how in the decades following the Haitian Revolution of 1791, it became “increasingly obvious that a ‘thin, white line’ of a few soldiers, administrators and planters could not safely hold down whole oppressed nations” which was the political impetus behind several waves of immigration from Europe in the 19th century.(8)

We can even trace the interconnection and evolution of homelessness and criminalization in the United $tates from pop culture to the prison gates. In the 1950s, Hollywood movies depicted the classic train riding “hobo” while prisons were filled with chain smoking conmen. Both populations were whiter than meemaw’s tuna casserole. Today, both populations are mostly Brown and Black, and yet the revolutionary movement here within the occupied territories have yet to bring us closer to finding a remedy with teeth. Only a remedy that helps the oppressed nations while undermining Amerika will be sufficient in this scenario. While searching for the consideration of homelessness in the occupied territories let us not lose focus of how national oppression ties into the equation, despite Amerika flinging crumbs to a myriad of agencies, case managers, construction companies, advocacy groups and so-called social services.

On the surface it appears as if the capitalists are using the profits they accumulate through exploitation to help soothe the very social ills that they create. Nothing can be further from the truth, as the Maoist Internationalist Movement’s Prison Ministry put it:

“Under capitalism, the anarchy of production is the general rule. This is because capitalists only concern themselves with profit, while production and consumption of humyn needs is at the whim of the economic laws of capitalism. As a result, people starve, wars are fought and the environment is degraded in ways that make humyn life more difficult or even impossible. Another result is that whole groups of people are excluded from the production system, whereas in pre-class societies, a group of humyns could produce the basic food and shelter that they needed to survive. Capitalism is unique in keeping large groups of people from doing so.”(9)

Indeed, the capitalists lock entire sectors out of the production process and create social band-aids that do not eradicate this mess. Imperialism creates a network of petty bourgeois jobs for Amerikans that feed off this population that we call the lumpen but which most know as the “Homeless”. The capitalists have devised a way to make the lumpen useful for keeping others busy and paid, while preventing the lumpen themselves from being productive for their own humynity.

The Prison Parallel

As mentioned above, another place we find concentrations of lumpen are the prisons, where they are treated similarly. A recent example of this is in California where the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (known as CAL/OSHA) recently attempted to address climate change and adapting to a rising heat epidemic. The State of California recently created heat standards for California workers. This would include more breaks and cooling and ventilation in all state buildings that respond to climate change. CAL/OSHA excluded California prisons and jails from the new regulations.(10)

The jails and prisons are lumpen centers where prisoners are often subjected to subhuman conditions, torture, medical maltreatment in HELLth care, not to mention outright murder by the state. The heat is also used against those prisoners who challenge the state in general and revolutionary prisoners in particular. Indeed, our Party has heard first hand accounts from some of our members who have been held in the U.$. concentration kamps (prisons). Our Chairman himself was held and tortured for a decade in the state’s Security Housing Units (S.H.U.) in solitary confinement, so our understanding of the conditions of prisoners is in depth. Some of the accounts we heard were that in the most humid prisons where temperatures in the summer rise to 110°F (43°C) the prison officials will turn on the heaters in the cells, while in the coldest prisons, even where it snows, the prison officials will crank up the air conditioning to make the cells like “ice boxes”. One comrade described how at a particular prison they were at, it was so hot in the cell that this comrade would pour water on the cement floor and lay on the floor only in underwear as it was extremely unbearable. Another comrade described that it was so hot at one Central Valley prison that it felt as if eir “insides were cooking”.

Science tells us that excessive heat also increases risk of stroke and other health problems. Those with pre-existing conditions or failing health will have their conditions exacerbated in extreme heat. The excuse cited for excluding prisoners from these new climate related protections was cost. It’s too expensive to humynize the lumpen. This points to another example of the lumpen simply being useful at this time to be given the bare minimum to exist another day in dehumynized conditions.

The lumpen are in a precarious position to say the least, here in the United Snakes and in any society for that matter. First World lumpen can have a hand in emancipating humynity here in the imperialist center or end up succumbing to its demise like the old couple who had been married half a century and when one dies the other spouse quickly follows. The lumpen plays a vital role where it can be bought off as foot soldiers for capitalism in its fascist development or as the lumpen developed in Maoist China as some of the fiercest fighters for the revolution in the form of the Red Guards.(11)

Marx hinted at this when he said:

“But capital not only lives upon labor. Like a master, at once distinguished and barbarous, it drags with it into its grave the corpses of its slaves, whole hecatombs of workers, who perish in the crises.”(12)

Today, in the First World, most “workers” are in the labor aristocracy and not the slaves of capital that Marx describes here. The lumpen, however, can be seen as “runaway slaves”, those who in many ways have cast off the tethers of capitalist society.

It is important that we understand that social control determines the mass influx of planation-like facilities which prisoners in the U.$. are compelled to endure as well as the lumpenization that comes with it. The future of the Chican@ Nation relies on us grasping this and responding in a way that advances Aztlán closer to independence.

Concrete Analysis of a Concrete Situation

The lumpen who mostly comprise the “homeless” within the U.$. are a resourceful bunch who organize in unprecedented ways within these false U.$. borders. In our party’s study, we have interviewed dozens of homeless people living in various modes of existence. Some homeless exist as couch surfers living persyn to persyn, some live in cars or RVs, some in cardboard boxes on sidewalks across the U.$., some live in mental facilities, jails or prisons and yet some live in abandoned buildings, parks, creeks and in homeless camps. About 62% of homeless in the general population are “sheltered”, while only 50% of former prisoners in the homeless population are “sheltered.”(13)

The encampments are of special concern, as they are the most organized of the homeless population. In the State of California, recent numbers show the homeless population at 181,000.(14) These are the numbers that could be documented, so we suspect the actual count to be much higher, probably in the range of 200,000, as there are many who live in the shadows and for many different reasons refuse to be counted by the state. It should also be noted that it was in San Jose, California some years back where some have called the largest homeless camp in the U.$. was found. This camp even had a name that the lumpen gave it – “The Jungle” and this encampment had up to 10,000 people living there, 10,000 lumpen, mostly Chican@s who existed for over a decade as a camp.

It is also interesting that the State of California which is not just a state within Aztlán but currently includes the heart of what the capitalists call “silicon valley” also has huge swaths of homeless people. So much wealth and privilege exists alongside such misery, poverty and hunger in this place where people’s lives are reduced to nada if those lives do not build capitalism. This reminds us what we are fighting.

The homeless camps are comprised of lumpen of all ages, including babies and the elderly. There are teens who have lived much of their lives in the camps. Many children are illiterate and relocating from camp to camp or from camp to “flying homeless” (i.e., living on sidewalks or in cars).

The larger and more established camps have a main organizer who acts as a warlord of sorts. These larger camps tend to be organized more on the model of U.$. youth survival groups, which the capitalists call “gangs” rather than lumpen organizations. These main camps have rules and penalties that go with them. The high crimes in these camps are crimes against children, for which the penalty can be a beating and banishment or even death depending on the severity of the crime.

The shot-callers within the main camps have hystorically been male, although the shot-callers tend to be more permanent while the rest of the community tends to be more fluid, with many relocating regularly or ending up in jail. In our study, all of the shot-callers have been imprisoned in some form, whether that be in county jail or prison.

Those who comprise these main camps “surface” to the streets sporadically for food, showers or to tap into the underground economy by any means necessary. Camp life tends to revolve around food, water and drugs. “Communal” living in the main camps is often injected with drugs. Drug use is rampant in the camps, although not all homeless in the camps are users. Some are sellers who slang dope in the camps making thousands in profits off their fellow lumpen’s misery and addiction. The prime drugs of choice in the camps being meth, heroin and crack. The dealers on the streets ensure that the main camps stay flooded with dope.

Most of the main camps are located in creeks, industrial areas, or under freeway bridges and underpasses. Many of the camps have electricity from stolen generators and power lines. Contrary to what people believe, many of the homeless do not bathe in the creeks even when their camps are in the creek. Many use camping showers or seek showers at community centers or at the homes of friends and family.

The factors contributing to the epidemic known as homelessness have been formulated elsewhere, we know that the heart of the problem remains to be capitalism. We understand that factors like hunger afflict the homeless population and throwing the homeless something to chew on has continued to be done by both liberals and religious conservatives alike and to no avail. As communists, we need to take action that translates to radically different terms and which is more impactful and deep reaching.

Identifying and heightening the contradictions here in the occupied territories of Aztlán while aiding the Brown masses and pushing the national liberation struggle forward on these shores is a key tenet of our party. Homelessness is one of the major fractures within the empire in which the development of resistance is likely, the other being the U.$. prison system. It is our duty to nurture these factors. In order to properly carry out our duties, we need to understand how the lumpen are currently responding to these capitalist assaults on their humynity.

Cultural Revolution

“Due to the precarious stratification of the lumpen, and the imperialists’ refusal to let us fully integrate into Amerika, our allegiance to the imperialists is more tenuous. As the lumpen experience oppression first hand here in Amerika, we are in a position to spearhead the revolutionary vehicle within U.$. borders” (15)

Social practice is the remedy which will deliver the Chican@ masses to national liberation. A heightened consciousness nurtured by and forged in the fires of political theory is the vehicle that we have awaited since colonization. As we struggle to rebuild the resistance that we need, the capitalist bribes sway our people to the tempo of their blood stained rhythm, and we listen to Lenin and dig deeper within the people to find those elements that continue to have nothing to lose but their chains. Here in the First World, those elements are the lumpen.

During the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (GPCR), which took place from 1966 - 1976 in revolutionary China, revolutionary intellectuals were sent from the cities to the countryside to take revolutionary culture to the peasants and politicize them, learn from them, to engage them so that they can take their rightful place in contributing to the revolution. To many at the time, the thought of venturing out to the countryside was not inviting. To those truly seeking to contribute to the revolution, the sacrifice of having no running water or indoor plumbing was miniscule. This practice of sending urban intellectuals and professionals to do practical work in the countryside was also done in the Soviet Union from the very earliest days of revolutionary power.

Here in the First World, the lumpen (which includes the homeless population) are a potential revolutionary force that must be tapped. Marx taught us that capitalism prevents us from solving the social ills like homelessness and that only through socialist revolution will we realize this truth. Mao’s China solved many social ills amongst the lumpen including drug addition and prostitution, both of which are activities found amongst the lumpen (homeless) throughout the U.$. and as we begin this work of politicizing the homeless, or of bringing revolutionary culture to them, we are in essence preparing the lumpen for the revolution.

We believe that it is not a question if we should go to the homeless camps to bring revolutionary culture to the lumpen, we believe that it must be done. Our party has begun this task. Lenin describes our task ahead:

“We can (and must) begin to build socialism, not with abstract human material, or with human material specially prepared by us, but with the human material bequeathed to us by capitalism. True, it is not an easy matter, but no other approach to this task is serious enough to warrant discussion.”(16)

Although we are not “building socialism” now, we are building the conditions for revolution which will advance us toward socialism. We must take action, social practice amongst the homeless – on their turf. Cheerleading for the homeless in front of City Hall or sliding them a burrito is cute and subjectively fulfilling to an extent, but it moves the lumpen not one iota towards resistance or revolution. Comrades, we must do more than the churches and more than a liberal non-profit. As communists, our role is not to make the lumpen more comfortable under capitalism, rather we must prepare the lumpen for insurrection.

It is important that we work towards transforming the homeless camps into political bases, safe zones with Chican@ cadre in every camp throughout Aztlán. But we should also take our endeavors in this field seriously, as the state has captured or killed Chican@ revolutionaries for lesser ambitions. Amerikkka is deadly serious in its repression, we should be just as serious in our evasion and resistance and utilize a strong security culture as we move through the camps. There is much potential in the lumpen encampments and the enemy knows this.

Marx taught us that the lumpen were indeed the “dangerous class”. We agree that there is a certain danger in interacting with the lumpen, just as there is a certain danger of interacting with the capitalist state, not to mention the white settler nation in general. History has taught us that to be colonized is dangerous as well, so we have learned to struggle through generational danger and in many cases to do so armed and ready to resist.

At this stage, we only seek to bring revolutionary culture to the lumpen encampments as we see it as complimenting our efforts to raise public opinion. At the same time, we stand firm that ultimately it will be through armed struggle that Aztlán will be free and the lumpen will play a key role in the national liberation struggle here in the internal semi-colonies. Here we agree with Fanon when describing the lumpen, he said:

“…that horde of starving men, uprooted from their tribe and from their clan, constitutes one of the most spontaneous and most radically revolutionary forces of a colonized people.”(17)

As Fanon suggests, the lumpen moves differently. It is not a class which succeeds at town hall debates or boycotts. Hit the lumpen up when it’s time to boogie, when violence explodes in the metropole and the capitalist state feels the slugs of liberation, for this is the arena in which the lumpen excels. Forged through oppression, the lumpen will perform on the stage built by the bourgeoisie and their collaborators. But the party must perform as well and the movement more broadly must perform. We must perform agitation and propaganda (agit/prop) and do so well amongst the lumpen.

In “Combat Liberalism”, Mao discussed how liberalism prevents people from acting on living up to their obligations as communists. Among other things, he points to failing to show concern for the masses and not engaging in agit/prop. There are many reasons why people practice liberalism. In many ways, some have fallen into liberalism here in the occupied territories. Many within the movement have opted out of reaching back into the lumpen encampments to those alienated not only from labor but from society as well. In this sense, the party seeks to combat liberalism in this field.

Some have wondered what is to be done with the lumpen encampments, “what is possible?” some ask. There is much work to be done. We need our presence felt, we need to become a regular presence in the camps and begin to inject them with revolutionary culture – with art, literature and teatro. We need to gain their confidence and to teach and learn – from the masses, to the masses.

The Chican@ movement of the past never dealt with the homeless in this way, although the homeless epidemic was not in existence to today’s levels we must be honest that scant attention was given to the homeless in general. Today’s Chican@ movement must do more as the next generation must in turn do more than us and continue to build.

The lumpen encampments are self-governed as the pigs or other state agencies rarely ever go into the camps. We see that there is potential in these zones, especially with their concentrated amount of lumpen. We believe that by focusing our energy on this demographic, it will complete our overall strategy of winning this struggle for national liberation. There is much work to do in these camps, but political education is essential and a stepping stone to developing dual power in these zones.

Let us be clear that any weakening of resolve about the task ahead only helps Amerikkka and hurts the struggle for national liberation. At the same time, our efforts are not to set up re-entry services for the homeless lumpen, on the contrary, our efforts are to set up and recruit the lumpen to serve the people. We are not seeking reforms, nor do we believe in them, rather we agree with the BLA that

“reform of the oppressive system can never benefit its victims: in the final analysis, the system of oppression was created to insure the rule of particular racist classes and sanctify their capital. To seek reform therefore inevitably leads to, or begins with, the recognition of the laws of our oppressor as being valid.”(18)

Reform is only tactical in getting the boot off our neck long enough for us to breathe to fight and resist the oppressor nation another day. Likewise, the oppressors laws and kkkourts mean nothing to us, as they are illegitimate to the core, we only navigate them in order to plot the demise of Amerika.

The lumpen encampments, like the prisons, are fertile grounds for resistance. In the First World, we are forced to dig deeper into the social forces to find those who are not bribed by the profits stolen from the Third World pockets. Our efforts today are for the Third World.

^{Notes:
(1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homelessness_in_the_United_States - gives a homeless rate of 0.09% in 1990, but mentions this was probably an undercount; it gives 200-500 thousand as the homeless count in 1984, which doubled by 1987 - at the high end this would put homeless rates at 0.22% and 0.42% respectively; the 2023 rate was 0.19% the highest rate since HUD began gathering data more accurately in 2007
(2)Jennifer Ludden, 15 December 2023, Homelessness in the U.S. hit a record high last year as pandemic aid ran out, All Things Considered.
(3) “The Economic Burden of Incarceration in the U.S.”, from the Institute for Advancing Justice Research and Innovation”, October 2016, George Warren Brown School of Social Work.
(4) “The American Commonwealth”, by James Bryce (1888-1959, Vol II, pp.557-58).
(5)According Prison Policy Initiative analysis of HUD data, formerly incarcerated have 2% homelessness rate compared to 0.21% of the overall population. A Harvard Business review article says there are about 5 million formerly incarcerated in U.$.; 2% of 5 million is 100,000; .21% of 350 million is 735,000. Based on these estimates, formerly incarcerated are less than 15% of homeless in U.$. streets.
(6) about 61% of homeless are oppressed nations according to stats in “Defining and Measuring the Lumpen Class in the United States: A Preliminary Analysis”, by MIM(Prisons), July 2016.
(7) U.S. Census Bureau.
(8) “Settlers”, by J. Sakai (2014, pg. 52).
(9) “Defining and Measuring the Lumpen Class in the United States: A Preliminary Analysis”, by MIM(Prisons), July 2016.
(10) “Prisons are a Cruel Exception to Heat Rules”, by Nicholas Shapiro and Bharat Jayram Venkat, the Mercury News, July 14, 2024.
(11)Wiawimawo, October 2018, Sakai’s Investigation of the Lumpen in Revolution, ULK Issue 64.
(12) “Wage, Labor and Capital”, by Karl Marx.
(13)Lucius Couloute, August 2018, Nowhere to Go: Homelessness among formerly incarcerated people, Prison Policy Initiative.
(14) “Newsom Orders Sweeps of Camps”, by Ethan Varian, The Mercury News, July 26, 2024.
(15) “Chican@ Power and the Struggle for Aztlán”, by a MIM(Prisons) Study Group, 2015, 2021, pg. 14.
(16) V.I. Lenin, “Left-wing communism – an Infantile Disorder”, Collected Works, Vol. 31, pg. 50.
(17) “The Wretched of the Earth”, by Frantz Fanon.
(18) “Collected Works of the Black Liberation Army”, pg. 111.}

I have been a member of USW since 2017. Since then I have contributed zealously, especially the move away from publishing the revisionist ideal of prisoners complaining about prison conditions and their grievances, which served no purpose to the movement other than to teach comrades revisionist methods of resolution to make prisons ideally more comfortable and less punitive.

As I attempt a corrective analysis, I ask is writing grievances and filing lawsuits against prison adminsistrators a revisionist ideal or revolutionary? and if it is revolutionary, how?

I know no revolution that was won through writing grievances or use of the courts! Read Dr. Burton’s book Tip of the Spear and see how that ideal worked for the comrades in the Attica Liberation Faction (ie. BPP, BLA, W.U. and all). It gets minimum results that require the exhaustion of much energy, study of law and money. Tip of the Spear calls for deep analysis of revolution and how it looks when applied in multiple states and facilities.

I am so disappointed I never received ULK 83 so I can analyze comrades’ analysis of Dr. Burton’s book.

Wiawimawo of MIM(Prisons) responds: I don’t know of any USW leaders that don’t write grievances or file lawsuits. Grievances are tactics. So we agree that no revolution has been won by grievances, just as none is won by maintaining a website. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do these things.

To further answer your question i’d point you to Jailhouse Lawyers: Prisoners Defending Prisoners v. the U.S.A. by Mumia Abu-Jamal, or my review of it. In that book Delbert Africa is quoted explaining what happens to people who go deep into fighting their case in the courts:

“They go crazy becuz, Mu, they really believe in the System, and this System always betray those that believe in it! That’s what drive them out they minds, they cain’t handle that.”

As i said, we look at these things as tactics, as opposed to strategy. Though strategically we do believe we are in a stage of legal struggle in this country, we mean that in the broad sense. Legal struggle in the courts is just one form of legal struggle, and not one that we focus on.

So why engage in grievance battles and the grievance campaigns USW has going in various states?

1. To win battles that are more strategic, especially around First Amendment rights to communicate, affiliate and just read. Fighting censorship has always been a struggle we have put effort into because it is a direct threat to our organizing efforts. It’s not just about making conditions more comfortable. The most recently added grievance petition was in Indiana, where it has already been used to help get 6-month-old mail delivered. When we distribute the petitions to prisoners we include a cover letter where we state:

“MIM(Prisons) sees these petitions as a good use of our resources because our ability to fairly have our grievances handled is directly related to preventing arbitrary repression for people who stand up for their rights or attempt to do something positive. We support this petition in light of our anti-censorship work and anti-repression work in general.”

An outside supporter recently expressed concerns echoing Orko’s:

“but if what it ends up being is just MIM(Prisons) helping prisoners get their immediate personal grievances addressed, i don’t see how that differs from the work being done by hundreds of other reformist/bourgeois prison advocacy groups, other than that you also offer them Maoist resources”

It is true that people use the grievance petitions for various issues. And an individual using the petition to get some persynal issue addressed is not contributing to the prison struggle, nor to the anti-imperialist struggle. It is up to the comrades on the ground to use the petitions to build an organizing base. In either case, it is a tiny amount of time and resources that we are putting into getting petitions into peoples’ hands. When we put in the effort to assemble articles and conduct support campaigns, it will be around issues like censorship, solitary confinement and political repression.

2. To mobilize the masses of prisoners. The grievance campaigns have been utilized by many to mobilize those around them for a common cause. Mobilizing the masses to organize against state oppression is a central task to any revolutionary movement. However, both of the critics above pointed out that just filing grievances and petitions is only teaching people to beg the oppressor for resolutions. It is up to USW organizers to ensure that multiple tactics are employed in any campaign, including tactics that contribute to building independent struggle. As we always say, there are no rights only power struggles.

A longer debate between USW leaders over how to do this has already appeared in a series of articles in ULK.(1) As the comrade concluded in that first article, when the masses see the smallest victory as a miracle and are easily pacified by it, leaders are easily isolated by the state, so security precautions are of utmost importance for any sustained effort. The other USW leader in that article argues that without a strong cadre organization to frame such struggles, they will only set the revolutionary struggle back.

There have been many cases where USW comrades report that with a lot of struggle they barely get people to sign a petition or grievance if the leader does all the work to write them up and make copies. In such cases, where the masses must have their hands held to express the slightest bit of discontent, we must conclude that we are not succeeding in mobilizing the masses to take their destinies in their own hands.

3. To appeal to the masses where they are at. In 2022, our Texas campaign pack was one of the top referrals for new subscribers after word of mouth and ULK. The grievance petitions are also a tool for recruiting new comrades from the masses. Some will never be interested in anything beyond getting their local grievances heard, others will see the futility in relying on the system and join USW.

[We are currently out of copies of Jailhouse Lawyers by Mumia but would happily distribute more to prisoners across the country if anyone wants do donate copies to our Free Political Books to Prisoners Program.]

^{Notes: 1. see Orientating USW Organizing Strategy in Light of Texas Victory in ULK 72, and the 4 articles titled An Ongoing Discussion on Organizing Strategy found in ULKs 73, 74, 76 and 77.}

This past summer, we gathered commentary from our readers on the student uprising against the genocide in Gaza, which is now expanding across the region. These articles were used in a pamphlet that many USW comrades received, and were all printed in Under Lock & Key 86.

Comrades on the streets distributed the pamphlet and ULK 86 to students (and non-students) in a number of regions across the country. We attended rallies and speaking events, visited the remnants of encampments and shared publications at conferences.

In general, the response was enthusiastic to the articles written by prisoners, especially regarding solidarity with Palestine. Anti-Imperialist Prisoner Support (AIPS) maintained a presence at Socialism Conference 2024 which took place in Chicago during the end of August. Over 100 copies of ULK were handed out at the conference, while also agitating against prisoner repression.

At a New York hacker conference, audience members eagerly grabbed copies of the Palestine pamphlet at a talk on prison surveillance. The speaker exposed most of the issues we discuss in our Prison Banned Books Week articles. Ey also exposed how Securus has a patent to use the phone numbers of prisoner contacts to track their spending data. And Securus already provides location data to Correctional Officers by phone number! We hope comrades can understand why we’re sticking to snail mail. This also happened to be the only talk at the conference where the speaker shouted “Free Palestine!”

At a southern California Palestine solidarity event comrades were able to give out ULK 86 to a large group of students and noticed that others would grab a copy on their way out. Reactions were mostly positive with one criticism being that it may have been too tough on the students. This was presumably referring to the critique written by an outside comrade involved in the student movement.

Comrades have communicated with a number of student groups to solicit responses or statements for this issue of Under Lock & Key. While at least one group expressed interest, we did not get any reports from students on the ongoing legal struggles and political repression they are facing for this issue. It is clear more work is needed to strengthen a connection between the prison movement and the student movement. But progress is being made.

Decades ago, Under Lock & Key was a section in the newspaper MIM Notes put out by the original Maoist Internationalist Movement and its party in the United $tates. For a time, MIM distributed newspapers on the streets at 20-30 times the amount they sent to prisoners, and their paper came out every 2 weeks. Since MIM(Prisons) launched Under Lock & Key in 2007, it has always been a primarily prisoner newsletter. Though in the past we’ve estimated our online readership to be bigger. A couple years ago we set the goal of distributing as many newspapers on the streets as we do in prisons. While not quite there, ULK 86 was by far the closest we’ve gotten to reaching that goal.

If you want to help expand ULK distribution on the street, send us $55 in cash or postage stamps with a return address and we’ll send you 100 copies of the next ULK we print. ULK currently comes out at the beginning of November, February, May, and August.

As we go to press, the prospects of an inter-imperialist war loom heavy once again. The upcoming U.$. presidential election contributes to the uncertainty as various forces posture and attempt to exert influence. What is clear is that U.$. imperialism is set on backing its Zionist outpost in the Levant (Middle East) while the majority of the world stand in opposition, and even most Amerikans want their government to stop sending arms to I$rael.(1)

Despite public opinion, the imperialists are offering no presidential candidate that will slow aid to I$rael. Military aid also continues despite the United $tate’s own laws.

“ProPublica has revealed USAID and the State Department’s refugees bureau both concluded this spring that Israel had deliberately blocked deliveries of food and medicine into Gaza, but U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other top Biden officials rejected the findings of the agencies even though they’re considered the two foremost U.S. authorities on humanitarian assistance. Blinken’s decision allowed the U.S. to keep sending arms to Israel. Under U.S. law, the government is required to cut off weapons shipments to countries preventing the delivery of U.S.-backed aid. Days after receiving the reports, Blinken told Congress, quote, “We do not currently assess that the Israeli government is prohibiting or otherwise restricting the transport or delivery of U.S. humanitarian assistance.”

“On [24 September 2024], the Council on American-Islamic Relations, CAIR, called for Blinken’s resignation, accusing him of lying to Congress.”(2)

I$rael received at least $12.5 billion in U.$. aid as of May 2024.(3) And as the 2024 fiscal year comes to a close, they just announced another $8.7 billion in military aid to I$rael in an aid package that also includes $17 billion to “reimburse U.S. operations in response to recent attacks.”(4) This came in the midst of increased attacks on Lebanon and the killing of the leadership of Hezbollah.

“Most of the aid—approximately $3.3 billion a year—is provided as grants under the Foreign Military Financing (FMF) program, funds that Israel must use to purchase U.S. military equipment and services. …U.S. aid reportedly accounts for some 15 percent of Israel’s defense budget. Israel, like many other countries, also buys U.S. military products outside of the FMF program.”(3)

Israel gets 78% of its arms imports from the United $tates.(3) This circulation of capital into the U.$. economy is one reason why the imperialists won’t offer an anti-war candidate. Meanwhile, family members in Gaza send photos of bombs and military equipment used against them stamped with “Made in USA”.

An April 2024 Pew Research poll showed much lower opposition to sending military aid to I$rael among Amerikans than other polls, but its breakdown by age reflected who is out in the streets, and who is putting their bodies on the line to stop the genocide here in the United $tates. While 45% of 18-29 year olds opposed U.$. aid to I$rael according to Pew, this number decreases with age, getting down to only 22% of Amerikans 65+.(3) This conflict between the young and the old has been reflected in the anti-imperialist movement for decades, and we see this as the principal contradiction within the Amerikan nation where class contradictions and the contradictions between male-bodied and female-bodied people are generally not antagonistic.

The military-industrial complex (MIC) ensures politicians represent economic interests by massive investments in lobbying:

“Lobbying expenditures by all the denizens of the MIC are even higher—more than $247 million in the last two election cycles. Such funds are used to employ 820 lobbyists, or more than one for every member of Congress. And mind you, more than two-thirds of those lobbyists had swirled through Washington’s infamous revolving door from jobs at the Pentagon or in Congress to lobby for the arms industry.”(5)

Weapons manufacturers have bigger budgets than those in charge of the wars, and more influence than any other industry. In 2020, Lockheed Martin received more money from the U.$. government than the budgets of the State Department and the Agency of International development combined. Meanwhile, more than 75 percent of the top foreign-policy think tanks in the United $tates are at least partially funded by military contractors. These weapons manufacturers are also deeply involved in Hollywood movie production. This is why we think it is misleading to use terms like “prison industrial complex” or “non-profit industrial complex”. The size, influence and importance to the U.$. economy of military production is not comparable to such theories.(6)

According to statistics gathered by the National Defense Industrial Association, there are currently one million direct jobs in arms manufacturing compared to 3.2 million in the 1980s.(4) But we all benefit indirectly in this country, and the east coast dock workers agree:

“Dating back to World War 1, the ILA was always proud to note that ‘ILA Also Means Love America’ when it came to its “No Strike Pledge” in handling U.S. military cargo at all its ports,” said ILA President Harold Daggett, who served in the U.S. Navy and saw combat duty during the Vietnam War. “We continue our pledge to never let our brave American troops down for their valour and service and we will proudly continue to work all military shipments beyond October 1st, even if we are engaged in a strike.”(7)

While it is not clear exactly what the U.$. strategy is for I$rael right now, two things remain true: 1. I$rael is an outpost for U.$. interests in the Levant (which is rich in fossil fuels), and 2. weapons production is a key prop to the U.$. economy by continuously increasing the circulation of capital.

France announced it has ceased any military aid to I$rael to be consistent with their calls for a cease fire. The United Nations called on I$rael to withdraw its military from Palestine and Lebanon and evacuate settlers from lands occupied since 1967 (124 countries voted in favor, 14 against, 43 abstained). Weeks later, I$raeli troops fired at 3 UNIFIL positions in southern Lebanon, injuring a number of UN peacekeepers. Countries continue to join the International Court of Justice case against I$rael, including Chile, the Maldives and Bolivia most recently. Meanwhile, Nicaragua, an early signatory, has just cut off diplomatic ties with I$rael.

I$rael has killed an estimated 8% of the population of Gaza after one year of war and displacement.(8)

<sup>Notes:
1. a June 2024 CBS poll had 61% opposing sending weapons to I$rael and 37% who wanted an end to all military actions in Gaza; a majority of Amerikans have consistently opposed sending arms to I$rael since 7 October 2023
2. Democracy Now!, 26 September 2024, U.S. Gov’t Agencies Found Israel Was Blocking Gaza Aid. Blinken Ignored Them to Keep Weapons Flowing.
3. Jonathan Masters & Will Merrow, 31 May 2024, U.S. Aid to Israel in Four Charts, Council on Foreign Releations.
4. Laura Kelly, 26 September 2024, Israel says it secured $8.7 billion military aid package from US , The Hill.
5. William D. Hartung and Benjamin Freeman, 9 May 2023, The Military Industrial Complex Is More Powerful Than Ever, The Nation.
6. Wiawimawo, April 2016, The Importance of Militarism Under Imperialism, and Why Prisons Aren’t So Much, Under Lock & Key 50
7. International Longshoremen’s Association, 25 September 2024, press statement.
8. Ben Norton, 13 October 2024, Global South denounces genocide in Gaza, Nicaragua breaks relations with ‘fascist’ Israel, Latin America supports Palestine, Geopolitical Economy Report.</sup>

On 5 October 2024, about 150 people organized by the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 3585 picketed to call for an end to paper mail in the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC). Another protest is planned for October 17th.

The plague of drugs in U.$. prisons is real, and it has continued in states where digital mail has been implemented. The claim of this “labor” union that staff are being poisoned is not real. In neighboring Indiana, a number of prisoners were threatened with isolation in torture cells for mail that we sent them that was accused of being drug-laced. Further testing proved they were not. Meanwhile, there have now been a number of cases of prison staff across the country claiming extreme medical crises from contacting prisoner mail, following similar claims by street cops, that have never been substantiated by medical professionals. It’s interesting that this “labor” union is willing to stand out on the street and picket for a policy that would give Correctional Officers a monopoly on bringing paper into IDOC facilities.

Even much of the pro-labor union movement in the United $tates will agree that cops aren’t workers, or the oppressed, but rather are the oppressors, regardless of the question of surplus value. And Marxism has always excluded the employees of the state from the proletariat in any country. So it is of little surprise that the AFSCME would be pushing this reactionary policy to eliminate education, resources and community connection in prisons, even if it risks the very safety of their own members.

MIM Distributors submitted the protest email below to Illinois DOC Director Latoya Hughes. We encourage others to send emails or make phone calls or send letters (especially if you are in Illinois). There are more suggested scripts available from campaign initiators working with Midwest Books to Prisoners.(2)

Dear Director Hughes,

I have recently been made aware that several Illinois legislators are calling for an immediate cessation of non-legal paper mail being delivered to people incarcerated in the IDOC. Our organization sends paper mail to thousands of prisoners across the country and we object to this effort to abridge our First Amendment rights to speech and association, as well as those of the people in your prisons. We will be sharing this letter with our members and supporters, especially in the state of Illinois.

Books, newspapers, and other printed materials are a crucial source of information, education and growth for people locked in prison. Letters can be a rare thing to look forward to. Our organization runs study programs, conducts surveys and regularly sends forms to prisoners to get updates on their status. All of these programs rely on prisoners receiving pieces of paper that we send them so they can fill out the forms and return them. The impact of blocking such mail would be massive.

We have been watching the spread of alarmism around drug-laced mail, and have even had such baseless accusations made against our mail! Of course testing proved the accusation false, just as it did in the recent incident at Shawnee, where the testing by Marion Fire Rescue came back false. We’ve also seen multiple cases where staff have claimed to have gotten sick from handling mail, which have been proven to be impossible claims multiple times now. The benefits of education and community connection are proven to help ensure staff safety far more than these imagined risks of being poisoned. Policy should be fact-based and should not succumb to rumors and fear-mongering.

Again, I am writing this email to clearly state my complete opposition to any and all proposals to halt mail delivered to incarcerated people, and urge you not to move forward with this proposal.

Sincerely Concerned,

MIM Distributors

<sup>Notes:
1. Madison Porter, 5 October 2024, Canton prison workers protest how inmates receive mail, 25 News.
2. For more materials on this campaign you can access Google docs here: bit.ly/IDOCmail</sup>