MIM(Prisons) is a cell of revolutionaries serving the oppressed masses inside U.$. prisons, guided by the communist ideology of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism.
Under Lock & Key is a news service written by and for prisoners with a focus on what is going on behind bars throughout the United States. Under Lock & Key is available to U.S. prisoners for free through MIM(Prisons)'s Free Political Literature to Prisoners Program, by writing:
MIM(Prisons) PO Box 40799 San Francisco, CA 94140.
In April the U.$. Treasury announced that Harriet Tubman will replace
former President Andrew Jackson on the front of the $20 bill. But not to
leave Jackson out entirely, they said ey will be moved to the back side
of the bill, along with the image of the White House. The treasury also
announced that the back of the $10 bill will be redesigned to feature
leaders of the movement to gain wimmin the right to vote, while
Alexander Hamilton will remain on the front of that bill. And the back
of the $5 bill will change to incorporate historic moments that took
place at the Lincoln Memorial. These design changes will be announced by
2020, so we can’t expect to see any new currency for a few years.
There was much debate about making changes to the U.$. currency, with
many people calling for incorporation of at least one womyn after a
history of only men featured on the bills. Yet the bills are actually a
good representation of Amerikan capitalism and we see the incorporation
of wimmin on this currency similar to the incorporation of wimmin in the
military. It is not a feminist victory to gain greater representation in
the most destructive imperialist power in the world. This will not
eliminate the patriarchy or gender oppression. Nonetheless, the
selection of a former slave for the $20 bill and suffragettes for the
$10 bill is interesting because many in the suffragette movement
opportunistically played to white nationalism, arguing to white men that
they needed to give white wimmin the right to vote to balance out the
potential political power of Black voters.(1)
Harriet Tubman was born a slave in 1820 and escaped to Philadelphia in
1849, subsequently devoting eir life to fighting slavery and guiding
other slaves to freedom. Tubman died in poverty in 1913. Ey was a fierce
New Afrikan guerilla who played an important historical role in defense
of the evolving New Afrikan nation.(2) Tubman was such an important
figure that eir existence has to be acknowledged by the dominant
Amerikan nation. Yet, as in the decision to put Tubman’s image on U.$.
currency, Amerikkka tries to whitewash the details of Tubman’s life and
claim em as a hero of this imperialist country.
Ironically, the flip side of the $20 bill will continue to celebrate
former President Andrew Jackson, a slave holder who died just a few
years before Tubman escaped to freedom. President Jackson, along with
the U.$. Congress at that time, was a strong supporter of slavery,
basically refusing to take up any proposals that would abolish slavery.
Further, Jackson supported mobs and postal workers intercepting
abolitionist anti-slavery organizing, referring to these actions as
“wicked attempts” to incite slave rebellion.(2) In eir home life, Andrew
Jackson built up the Hermitage Plantation, primarily growing cotton,
with the labor of slaves. It is estimated that Jackson grew this
plantation from a 9-slave operation to over 150 slaves by 1820.
Jackson’s legacy of support for national oppression went beyond
supporting slavery. Ey was a military leader in the fight against First
Nations in the early 1800s. Later, as President, Jackson signed the
Indian Removal Act in 1830, forcibly removing several indigenous nations
from their lands. The forced relocations, known as the Trail of Tears,
led to 46,000 indigenous people relocated during Jackson’s term, many of
whom died from disease and starvation on the way to the destination.
While sprinkled with anarchist tendencies typical to the author, we
recommend Butch Lee’s biography of Tubman to people interested in the
true history of this revolutionary activist.(3) If the growing New
Afrikan defense movement accepts Tubman on the $20 as a positive step,
then the ideological war for Tubman is being lost and more integration
is the order of the day. More integration with Amerikkka is in direct
opposition to the well-being of the majority of the world’s people who
suffer under imperialism, including New Afrikans.
Changing the faces on Amerikan currency won’t change the reality of
Amerikan imperialism. But the willingness of the Amerikan government to
do this does reflect the extent to which integrationism is being used to
keep the oppressed internal nations loyal to the empire. Yet cultural
integration does nothing to address the fundamental national oppression
that keeps imperialism extracting wealth from oppressed nations in the
Third World. These people who generate wealth for Amerikan imperialism
can never expect to see their faces on the money that is coming from
their labor. This just reinforces the divide between First World and
Third World, which will likely result in a very difficult transition
from capitalism to socialism for First World peoples. Giving up the
wealth of hundreds of years of plunder, and re-integrating into global
society as productive human beings will be a long and difficult task for
First World bourgeois and petty bourgeois people. We fully anticipate a
long period of dictatorship over the First World by the Third World,
enforcing a hard fought cultural revolution of re-education for the
First World peoples.
The deeply appreciated efforts of MIM inspire me to see with a different
view the same circumstances. Let’s look at the current election:
Both candidates have an utterly failed platform. The Amerikkkan
elections are about Amerikkkan hegemony; keeping Amerikkka the richest
and most militant/violent nation on earth.
There is no revolutionary voice or worthy candidate. Have we heard
anyone say “All the wealth of the world belongs to all the people of the
world?” That’s the revolutionary voice.
Have we heard any candidate say “The goal of humynity, including
politics, is to solve the problems of hunger, lack of shelter, cure
diseases and end oppression across the globe. Politics is NOT meant to
exploit people beyond national borders or to see that we have ‘more and
better.’” If you heard such a speech you heard a revolutionary voice.
Have you heard a candidate say “This is my plan to assist other nations
to work in harmony with us to end world hunger, child mortality, lack of
medicine and education, and dire poverty. Some candidates speak of the
upper 1%, but I’m here to tell you that
if
you live in the United $tates you are the upper 13%. It’s past time
for us to see all people as our family. The Haitian in the slum is your
sister, my sister. The Nepalese man living in the street is our father.
The infant who died in Bangladesh from a treatable fever is our
daughter, yes, one of us humyns.”
When you hear that voice, then vote. Until then, ignore the candidates
and work together for the day when your political power comes from the
barrel of a gun.
MIM(Prisons) responds: This comrade nicely summarizes where our
priorities should be as world citizens: focused on ending oppression for
people suffering under imperialism around the world. We know that the
capitalists will not peacefully give up the power they use to generate
great wealth from the majority of the world’s people. In fact, even
after a communist revolution that seizes the government for the
interests of the world’s oppressed, we can expect that the former
bourgeoisie, and even some new bourgeois recruits, will attempt to take
back their wealth and power and they will need to be kept down with
force until they can be re-integrated as productive members of society.
We call this phase of the revolution the Dictatorship of the Proletariat
because it still involves a government with power over people, but that
government is acting in the interests of the proletariat, unlike our
current government which is really a Dictatorship of the Bourgeoisie.
There will be a long period of socialism while we remould society and
our culture to educate people in treating others humanely and working
for the greater good rather than for individual gain at the expense of
others. During this process we can expect to see a new bourgeoisie
attempt to take power from the proletariat, as their goal and culture
will not disappear overnight.
We learn much from looking at the histories of the Soviet Union and
China under socialism, both about this bourgeois counterrevolution and
the cultural revolutions necessary to build towards communism. In
imperialist elections we recognize that changing the face of the
government doesn’t change the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, and we
stay focused insist on overthrowing this dictatorship rather than
adjusting the makeup hiding its evil face.
I greatly regret to have to inform you that my Under Lock & Key
No. 51 (July/August 2016) was denied and appealed here on the unit
level on 14 September 2016. That said denial was upheld on 3 October
2016. I look forward to each issue of Under Lock & Key and I
already miss this one dearly.
I would like to inform you that I have tried several things listed in
the Texas Pack but to no avail. As for the Offender Grievance
Program/Administrative Remedies, there are no such things in existence.
But what we do have is Administrative Criminal Victimization. I have
written the U.S. Department of Justice concerning many issues and I get
the same response letter every time. No help.
I’ve also tried going through the ARRM Division Administrator concerning
the denial of a Step 2 grievance but got no response. I have also
written to several of the contacts that are listed in the Texas Pack and
have gotten no response from them either. I have also filed a Sworn
Complaint with the District Attorney here in Coryell County and got no
response.
You have educated me a great deal on how to stand when nothing else I
have tried seems to work, and these people are not open to reasoning of
any type. I just wanted for you to know that I haven’t been sitting in
here doing nothing after requesting the information that you have sent
me to date. I am one of the very few that are willing to stand up for
themselves when his or her Rights are being violated and here is the
situation that you just have to understand: today’s inmate/offender is
broken. The State has broken the spirit of those that had one to begin
with and they are content with the way things are and the way that they
are being treated. And that, I am sorry to say, is a cold, hard fact.
In Solidarity, Spark Plug
MIM(Prisons) responds: The U.$. prison system has been somewhat
effective at breaking the fighting spirit of people it deems threatening
to the status quo, as this writer and many others in Texas attest. But
our present system just can’t help pushing the limits of how much it
abuses people. In response to this abuse, new people are turned into
revolutionaries every day. And once you know, you can’t unknow. Texas
comrades need to be there to direct the discontent into productive
projects as it arises, lest these potential comrades fall to defeatism.
We knew going into it that the tactics in the Texas Pack are likely
ineffective on an individual level. But some people have seen some
relief, even though it’s sporadic. An important aspect of this project
is that everyone who signs up for a Texas Pack also gets a subscription
to this newsletter. While they are seeking remedy through the
administrative and legal channels outlined in the Texas Pack, they also
have the opportunity to learn more about the reasoning behind the
project, and the other campaigns United Struggle from Within and
MIM(Prisons) are working on. Then through the pages of ULK we can
develop our struggle on a broader scale than just filing grievances and
writing letters. Keep on struggling! Keep your input coming!
In 2016, actions on and around the 45th anniversary of the historic
Attica prison uprising were the most widespread we’ve seen. For the last
five years, September 9 has been a day when comrades in the United Front
for Peace in Prisons (UFPP) come together to commemorate Attica by
fasting, striking, studying and building peace and unity for the
anti-imperialist movement. The UFPP was initiated by a number of
prison-based lumpen organizations across the United $nakes in 2011, with
dozens of organizations and cells
signing on
to the statement since then. This year’s activity was so great
because another protest was also underway on September 9th in prisons
across the United $tates. This one, initiated by the Free Alabama
Movement (FAM) and promoted by the Incarcerated Workers Organizing
Committee (IWOC), a project of the Industrial Workers of the World,
affected at least 57,000 prisoners in 31 prisons where lockdowns or
strikes lasted at least 24 hours.(1)
All of this comes on the heels of a summer in which we reported on the
hunger strikes in
Wisconsin,
Ohio
and
Louisiana
calling for an end to the torturous practice of long-term solitary
confinement. In addition, a
North
Carolina hunger strike gained some concessions around mail
censorship. These impressive displays of unity and activism are a good
sign for the prison movement.
Events this September 2016 have been historic in themselves. As we
continue our reporting on the Day of Peace and Solidarity, here we will
highlight some of the events not led by UFPP signatories. The work
strike and peaceful protest at Kinross Correctional Facility in Michigan
was the largest incident the Michigan Department of Corrections has seen
since 1981.(2) We had received a report from Hiawatha Correctional
Facility in Michigan, which was also locked down on 9 September, though
there were no actions there:
“Ever since 9am we have been on a lockdown. The comrades in Level II
[most of the prisoners] in Kinross have done a protest because of the
living conditions, the food, and no fans and heat, and this actually
started on September 9. Prisoners walked out of their job assignments,
so the unsecured Level I prisoners who work in the kitchen served the
Level II prisoners brown bag meals.”(3)
The action at Kinross started as a peaceful march of 500 people
protesting conditions. After the prisoners had returned to their
housing, 100 pigs attacked them with shotguns firing pepper spray.(4)
This led to substantial property damage and Michigan DOC are now moving
about 250 activists to higher security prisons to repress their
protests.(5)
Holman Correctional Facility in Alabama was the origin of the work
strike against “slave labor,” initiated by the Free Alabama Movement.
MIM(Prisons) has been cut off (censored) from Holman for some years now,
despite attempts to reach comrades there. On September 1st a pig at
Holman was murdered by a prisoner in an act of rebellion. The unsafe
conditions led to staff going on strike while the prisoners were still
on strike in late September. Many guards have since quit, leaving the
camp short-staffed to manage the population. We have often pointed out
that if there is one thing that pigs and prisoners might have unity on
it would be safety. While often times the staff takes up the state’s
position that pitting the prisoners against each other is a good
management strategy, this does take a toll on the sadistic pigs who do
such things and sometimes the violence is turned on them. The CO must
ask emself, do i really want to die over a plate of food? This is
exactly what happened at Holman, where it is reported that striking COs
notified FAM ahead of time and expressed support for their peaceful
demonstrations against human rights violations at the prison.(6) This is
a rare occurrence in the United $tates and speaks to the disfunctional
status of the Alabama prison system.
In South Carolina, prisoners at Turbeville Correctional Institution
reportedly fought back, gaining control of the prison for some hours.
Triggered by an uppity pig, it came the day after a prisoner was
murdered by staff.(6)
In California it’s reported that, “Over 100 prisoners have gone on
hunger-strike starting September 9th, demanding the firing of a brutal
guard, access to basic food, and an end to solitary confinement at two
county jail facilities in Merced, CA.”(6) We do not have any contacts at
either Merced County Jail. In recent years California has decentralized
its prison system due to overcrowding in the state prisons, sending many
people to local county jails. Overall, this has reduced the
connectedness of the California prison population and made
accountability more difficult. As these facilities are often less
prepared to house the growing populations of long-term prisoners, we
might expect conflicts there to continue to increase.
We are currently fighting
an
apparent ban on all mail from MIM(Prisons) to prisoners held at
Chuckwalla Valley State Prison. The CDCR has not yet acknowledged an
official ban, but rumors there are that it is a result of September 9th
organizing.
A comrade in Pelican Bay State Prison in California sent documentation
of censorship of mail from the IWOC because it included “Plans to
disrupt the order.” This comrade, along with others, began a hunger
strike on September 9th. They submitted a list of demands signed by 12
prisoners on B-yard including oversight of rules violations, a wage
increase, and a number of demands to improve conditions of the oppressed
nations outside of prisons.
We should also mention a series of actions on the outside, in many
cities, organized by those supporting the prison-led strikes to both
attract attention to the strikes and to pressure the administrations to
listen to the reasonable demands of the prisoners.(6)
What Next?
In the last issue of ULK we discussed our lack of interaction
with those in wimmin’s prisons. It is worth pointing out that the one
state-run prison in California that has reported participating in the
work strike was the wimmin’s prison at Chowchilla where a strike with
full participation was carried out. Events over the last month point out
that wimmin’s facilities are not our only gap in coverage. We have long
been aware of our lack of access in prisons that hold migrants because
they are so segregated from the general population, often face more
repressive conditions, and face a language barrier. On top of that there
are whole segments of the men’s prisons that we are not plugged into.
Sometimes repression and censorship, like at Holman, can cut us off. And
if mail is cut off to us, then people can fall off our mailing list
quietly. This demonstrates the need for more volunteers to work with
MIM(Prisons) to better focus our efforts regionally so censorship isn’t
allowed to persist due to lack of administrative capacity.
In California where county jails have suddenly become long-term prison
facilities, and they are institutionally separated, USW comrades working
on the inside to spread ULK and other materials can play an
important role in reaching more populations.
While there are common threads that connect the whole criminal injustice
system in this country, conditions vary from state-to-state and
prison-to-prison. Because of how the government is structured, focusing
on statewide organizing is important. That means identifying the
principal contradiction within your state and developing campaigns that
will mobilize the masses there. We expect states to have similar
campaigns, but as we can see from the list of actions above, some
populations are motivated by ending solitary confinement, others see a
need to focus on breaking down divisions between prison organizations,
others over mail censorship, and others over wages. We must assess what
will move the masses, as well as what battles are strategic in gaining
ground towards liberation.
We have great unity with those trying to demonstrate the continued
national oppression of New Afrikans by Amerikkkans today, and
demonstrating the historic linkages with slavery. However, when FAM says
“The State and the [Alabama] DOC are profiting hundreds of millions of
dollars off over the approximately 10,000 free labors who report to work
each day inside of their prisons, to jobs in the kitchen, maintenance,
runners, road squads, laundry, libraries and gyms, to stores and
sandwich shops, yard crews, infirmaries and dorm cleaners etc.” we have
to disagree. How can the state profit off of prisoners preparing food
for other prisoners when no money is exchanged for that food; when the
food is paid for by the state itself?
It can be a good tactic for prisoners to engage in work strikes as that
will impact the operations of the prisons: many do rely on prison
workers to keep things running. And it certainly would increase the cost
of incarceration if prisons could no longer use free (or super cheap)
prisoner labor. But we shouldn’t mislead people to think that prisons
are profitable. They are a huge waste of government money! Money that
the imperialists and the Amerikan people have agreed for decades now is
well-spent. If we fool ourselves into thinking this is just about
economics and not about national oppression and population control, we
will end up on the wrong path.
We did not get much first-hand reporting on the actions inspired by
FAM’s call to end prison slavery. But it is inspiring to hear of all the
organizing that has been happening lately. There’s more going on than we
can keep tabs on. This reinforces the need to expand the number of
people working with USW and MIM(Prisons)! We need our volunteers to
continue to step up. We need our released comrades to come out and
support those left behind. We need comrades behind the walls to build
independent institutions of the oppressed, and reach the broad masses so
that all of these struggles can be better connected and we can continue
to strategize to win!
by a North Carolina prisoner October 2016 permalink
As the comrade whom recently filed an
civil case
against NCDPS stated “there are no rights, only power struggles.”
Currently a prisoner entrapped in the cages of North Carolina, I testify
his comment as truth. Censorship within NC prisons has been expanded
from safety examination to harassing and illegal.
Censorship has become as a tool to cover up the corruption, tyranny, and
oppression. Not only outgoing and incoming mail, but also phone calls.
When an incident of corruption occurs, these facilities will not allow
prisoners to utilize commissionary to purchase stamps, envelopes, or
paper. Following the stoppage of canteens, warehouse officers will cease
the issuance of paper and envelopes for those of us who are indigent.
The
continuous
banning of ULK, and similar publications is a problem, but not our
only problem. Those of us who are experiencing these conditions, we have
to create a vanguard. And the comrades in Texas, California, and the
like, we must create a voice. Where is the unity? Where is the
solidarity. We have to construct a united front. It doesn’t only occur
in North Carolina. Maltreatment of prisoners occurs all across Amerika.
We must step up to cease these problems. Our sons, daughters, the future
generations, we must fight so they aren’t subjected to these
circumstances.
Censorship in North Carolina has risen to the point where it’s an
impossibility for my loved ones to receive a letter. Censorship in North
Carolina has elevated to the plane where legal documents are not
reaching their intended destinations. NCPDS has become so oppressive to
where there
isn’t
a law library in any correctional facility throughout the state.
NCPDS attempts to counter-attack, more appropriately worded as prevent,
a rise of consciousness. The preventative measures began with stripping
us of the tools which was used to enslave us: politics, economics, and
jurisprudence. As the historic figure Fredrick Douglass wrote to Gerril
Smith, the abolitionist, in his letter entitled “No Progress Without
Struggle”:
“The whole history of the progress of human liberty shows that all
concessions, yet made to the august claims, have been born of earnest
struggle. The conflict has been exciting, agitating, all-absorbing, and
for the time putting all other tumults to silence. It must do this or it
does nothing. If there is no struggle, there is no progress.”
Mr. Fredrick Douglass continues:
“Those who profess freedom and yet depreciate agitation, are he who want
crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and
lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many
waters. This struggle may be a moral one; it may be a physical one, or
it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power
concedes nothing without a demand.”
Is the prison industrial complex not the contemporary plantations? Are
those of us who are locked away in the penal systems of Amerika,
denounced, then deprived of their rights? Dr. John S. Rock, an
accomplished physician and lawyer, who was the first New-Afrikan
attorney admitted to the bar of the United $tates Supreme Court said,
“The greatest battles which they have fought have been upon paper.”
We are stripped of our rights according to their principles, laws, and
constitution. North Carolina this is the time to support each other, to
unite and form organizations, on the inside and outside to voice against
the oppression. You are not alone. For all of those whom are oppressed,
we have one common objective: to end it! Comrades, please aid your
assistance by advice.
The first step is organizing! One for all, all for one!
MIM(Prisons) responds: We previously reported in ULK 52 on
a former prisoner’s lawsuit against North Carolina Department of Public
Safety (NCDPS) for censoring Under Lock & Key. Since that
article we have not seen any updates on this front.
In the meantime, Director of Rehabilitative Programs and Services Nicole
E. Sullivan recently responded to our appeal of the censorship of ULK
51. In eir response, Director Sullivan acknowledges that ULK
has a policy against violence and insurrection in our newsletter, ey
still says peaceful protest when no other administrative avenue has
provided any relief is a threat to safety and order. The real threat to
safety and order is the deplorable conditions of confinement that
prisoners in North Carolina and across the country are forced to live
in. It seems Director Sullivan sees prisoners as inanimate objects
rather than people.
As ridiculous as this response is, we need a lawsuit to get NCDPS to
budge on its censorship of ULK in the short-term. Getting
ULK into the hands of prisoners is one major way we work toward
addressing the long-term problems of oppression that NCDPS is able to
operate under.
Also as part of our long-term strategy, we need to go beyond Frederick
Douglass and the “prison industrial complex” analysis. While Douglass
did provide inspiration for many, when it was time to decide between New
Afrikan self-determination and integration with Amerikkka, Douglass
affirmed eir loyalty to empire and was even appointed U.S. Marshall of
the District of Columbia. This was at a time when others, including
Harriet Tubman, were organizing separatist movements and independent
institutions for New Afrikans, post-Civil War.(1)
We oppose the line that prisons are set up for profit (the analysis of
the “prison industrial complex”) because not only is it simply not true
that the prison boom is motivated by profit from prisoner labor, it also
glosses over the primary purpose of prisons: to control oppressed
populations.(2) When we have our historical analysis ironed out, we will
be better able to take on our oppressors and win!
by a South Carolina prisoner October 2016 permalink
Within the last six months at this institution there has been at least
one riot in the unit where I was housed, and several assaults by
officers upon prisoners, which resulted in officers getting stabbed
and/or beat up.
This particular institution has a long history of racism, oppression,
and repression directed towards Blacks. In the past, it was basically
one-sided, as far as the violence - only officers assaulting prisoners.
However, that dynamic has changed drastically.
Needless to say, these people have been shipping prisoners to different
institutions throughout the state. I haven’t been shipped, but I’ve been
moved a couple of times.
A little over a week ago there was almost a lumpen-on-lumpen situation,
but some of the elders were able to obtain peace, since that particular
situation I made it my personal responsibility to hold some classes to
help educate these youthful lumpen on what it means to have unity.
I am also sad to inform you that on the September 9th Day of Peace &
Solidarity there were several prisoners who stabbed each other up -
thankfully none of them were killed. Since then, we have been mending
the different fractures that exist among the lumpen organizations here;
we’ve been using the ULK newsletters as tools to teach,
education, and unite the various groups.
MIM(Prisons) adds: This was one of a
couple
disturbances that occurred in South Carolina on or around September
9th that were not actually part of either of the major countrywide
organizing efforts made for that day. This goes to show how hostile
conditions in the state are. We commend this comrade for making the most
of the difficult situation. It is in times of strife that change can
often come.
For the second time in about one month over 900 prisoners at River North
Correctional Center were given piss tests. Now if a prisoner is causing
problems that indicate drug abuse, it’s perhaps reasonable to test him.
But testing the entire prisoner population is a fishing expedition just
hoping to catch someone.
Do the prison pigs have some admirable goal? No. They just catch people
to make lives miserable by taking jobs, suspending visits, confining in
seg, etc. If each test and lab fee is just $30 then the pigs spent over
$54,000 in a month on the off chance they might get to punish someone
for using drugs that were not prescribed.
For thousands of years humans have used mind altering substances. The
“soma” of ancient India, the mushrooms of the Incas, peyote, opium,
reefer, and alcohol are but a few examples. Only recently – within 100
years – have governments made the “drugs” illegal. What have these laws
done to stop drug use and abuse? Nothing, as we see drug abuse at an all
time high. These imperialist laws only target people, ruining lives with
jail/prison while lining the pockets of the pigs with money for funding
of the “war on drugs.”
A few generations ago a community had cobblers and tailors, blacksmiths
and silversmiths, lamp makers and other craftspeople. The cobbler knew
the people and knew the kids had warm, dry feet due to his skill. The
lamp maker knew she gave them light. Today, how many of our household
items are made by people we know? Our shoes are made in a factory by a
kid operating a machine at exploited wages. The store with neighbors who
called us by name was an imperialist casualty, destroyed by greed.
Imperialism, with its global capitalism has destroyed us. Drug abuse is
merely a convulsion before death. But you can be revived. You can join
us in re-structuring our communities, our form of government, our lives.
That’s the call of revolution. Are you willing to die in order to feel
alive? Let us use the things you make and let us make the things you
need. In revolution every person has an essential part and there’s no
time for addiction or drug abuse.
MIM(Prisons) responds: We like this author’s point about the
waste of time that is drug abuse, and the reality that this abuse comes
from the alienation fostered by capitalist culture. We sent some
feedback to this author on eir first draft of this article because it
took up an anti-corporate line that seemed to promote small scale
capitalism rather than anti-imperialism. We know that we have much unity
with this author and so suggested ey rewrite it. This rewritten version
is an improvement but still we want to clarify that small scale
capitalism is still capitalism. It is true that huge corporations are a
product of imperialism, the highest stage of capitalism. But we don’t
want to promote nostalgia for petty bourgeois businesses because that’s
a reactionary approach; trying to go back to another time. Another time
that of course never really existed, since even the early days of
capitalism were full of war, oppression, slavery and land grabbing. As
this comrade explained, we need a revolution to restructure society, and
when that happens we will be able to build a new society where people
engage in productive labor, which benefits their community. But it will
not look like the capitalism of a few generations ago. We will eliminate
the system of profit-driven work, instead allowing all people to work
for the betterment of society.
In the course of our discussion with this author over eir article ey
correctly noted that Walmart will die when imperialism dies in North
America: “Walmart exploits laborers around the globe and is a foundation
of Amerikkkan imperialism with revenue that exceeds the gross national
product of many small oppressed nations. Yet its foreign laborers are
paid pennies per hour. Most of their products are from India
(semi-fascist regime) and China (state sponsored kapitalism) where
workers are exploited. Not patronizing Walmart and not purchasing
products manufactured by exploited workers is an ‘attack’ or at least a
‘stand’ against imperialism. … The corner deli or the local mom/pop shop
isn’t exploiting workers in any nation.”
While this comrade is right that big corporations like Walmart are doing
far more exploitation of Third World workers than small shops, we don’t
agree that the corner shop isn’t exploiting workers in any nation. They
are selling the same products or using the same raw materials that
everyone else in the United $tates is selling/using: most of it comes
from Third World labor at base. Most products in Amerikan stores are
manufactured in other countries. So we shouldn’t mislead people into
thinking the stuff they buy in a smaller store is exploitation-free.
Further, the companies that promote “Made in America” products are not
off the hook. Many of them are still buying raw materials and machinery
from labor in Third World countries and just assembling products in the
United $tates. Finally, most of the U.$. economy is not even productive
industries. The service and financial sectors employ most Amerikans,
distributing the wealth within U.$. borders, exploited from other
nations via trade and extraction of real goods. There is no way to
escape participating in the economy of exploitation.
So we don’t tell people to boycott Walmart because we don’t want to
mislead people into thinking that they are going to make a difference
under imperialism by favoring one type of exploitation over another. If
the exploited workers in another country initiated an action against
Walmart (or any other corporation) and asked for our support with a
boycott, that would be a different story because that is not Amerikan
consumerism feeling good about itself by switching where we spend our
ridiculous wealth. That would be internationalist solidarity for
exploited people rising up against imperialism.
“America cannot exist without separating ourselves from our identities.”
The fight began in 2011, with a lucrative proposal from a Canadian
company to access tribal lands to transport crude oil to the Gulf of
Texas. The construction they say will help create permanent jobs, the
money given to the tribal councils will help meet the needs of the
people. In reality, this pipeline will create an environmental disaster.
America can’t even fund its own infrastructure, how can anyone expect
maintenance of a pipeline on sovereign tribal lands?
The problem isn’t just the pipeline and all the filth that comes with
it. The problem is the outright
violations
of our treaties, and the lack of treatment of the self-determination
and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
This pipeline steps on human rights and proves the second class
citizenship bestowed to all tribal nations, and people.
Take into consideration how all of the government spokespeople go
ballistic at any violations of any treaties bestowed upon foreign
governments by the U.S. government, why are they quick to dismiss the
rights that tribal nations have been granted?
We went to war for those treaties. Yes it’s 2016 and the rhetoric is
that all “indians” should function like regular Americans. But by
initiating a treaty it provides us recognition, and stipulates bilateral
agreements that all parties must honor. Unless, in fact, our treaties
are just “pieces of paper,” and if that is the case, Russia should
overlook the United Nations resolutions with the United States and just
bomb Israel. Is this not the same? Article 6 of the U.S. constitution
and the rider clause of 1888 say different. Both recognize the permanent
power of all Indian treaties and all Indian nations. Just because the
times have changed doesn’t mean the words have.
The U.S. government has been pushing all tribal nations to genocide for
the last 298 years. Poverty, bad water, polluted air, nuclear waste,
uranium mines opened, alcoholism, no job infrastructure for starters.
Suicide among young men has grown to an epidemic. We are just pandered
to in words when government officials want to feel good, then they rip
our children from us, take them state-side and throw them to “white
people” to be civilized – violating yet another federal law, the Indian
Child Welfare Act.
This land is more to us than just land for all tribal people, just as in
1848 when the United States annexed all of Aztlán from Mexico and
erected the largest paramilitary border in the world, much is being done
to separate tribal nations from our lands. In 1973 we fought and died
for our land. If need be, mark my words, we will rise up and fight
again. This land is our identity. It holds the blood of our ancestors,
and the pipeline will kill our people.
The below transcript is provided
because this writer wasn’t able to find a good transcript of the whole
address. The
address(1)
is itself considered a historic moment for indigenous nations of North
America.
The proposed pipeline, almost two thousand kilometers long, impacts or
potentially impacts many First Nations. It doesn’t affect just the
Standing Rock Sioux and other nations/groups of Sioux people belonging
to the larger Sioux nation, which along with other nations is still owed
land illegally taken by the U.$. government. For many First Nations
people, the anti-DAPL struggle is about land and sovereignty, to which
they have a right regardless of Amerikans’ economic, energy and
environmental concerns.
There is a long history of amerikans’ violating First Nations’
sovereignty even by breaking agreements they themselves imposed and
signed. The First Nations’ struggle against the Dakota Access Pipeline
(DAPL) is one of the biggest in living memory. As it gets more
publicity, there is a chance to change public opinion – or reinforce it
in an undesirable way – regarding such violations of law and
sovereignty. That is in addition to stopping the pipeline project, which
has already destroyed some burial and prayer sites.
Like Palestine, the Great Sioux Nation is a nation containing
aspirations of greater unity/wholeness, independent statehood, and full
sovereignty. And like Palestine, the Great Sioux Nation is experiencing
ongoing settlement and colonialism, internal governmental issues related
to partitioning, and results of other nations’ failure to honor/obey and
enforce treaties and other international law. The majority-exploiter
imperialist settler entity called “the United States” subjects nations
both inside and outside u.$. borders – and Palestinians both inside and
outside the Green Line – to colonialism and even opposes the two-state
solution in Palestine despite verbal agreements. It happened that the
Standing Rock Sioux Chairman spoke to the Human Rights Council in Geneva
just a day before the International Day of Peace and two days before
Mahmoud
Abbas(2)
spoke to the General Assembly in New York.
With a global, long-term perspective and the world’s help, the Sioux
nation will get their land back and full sovereignty one day. Some in
denial about this are attempting to subsume the anti-DAPL struggle under
some anti-capitalist or environmental struggle including the ameriKKKan
petty-bourgeoisie and/or opposing nationalism of oppressed nations. Some
others talking about colonialism and sovereignty nonetheless openly say
their real concern is climate change. Hopefully they can still
contribute something to the struggle. Apparently, it is too much to ask
more amerikkkans to just abide by their own treaties and other laws. If
First Nations people weren’t facing staggering state power, a
numerically large enemy and dog attacks, like Palestinians also have,
there would be less compulsion to tolerate certain outsider activists
who seemingly may undermine the anti-DAPL struggle or larger struggles
by making their own priorities central.
Overall, it looks like the struggle of the Standing Rock Sioux as a
nation was well-represented in this brief spoken statement in Geneva.
Transcript of Standing Rock
Sioux nation address to the UN Human Rights Council on September 20, at
the 33rd Regular Session
Human Rights Council President Choi Kyong-lim: I give the floor to the
distinguished representative of Indian Law Resource Center.
Chairman Dave Archambault II: Thank you, Mr. President.
My name is Dave Archambault. I am the Chairman of the Standing Rock
Sioux Tribe. Our tribal nation is a sovereign nation located in the
United States. Our sovereignty is recognized by the United States
through the legally binding treaties of 1851 and 1868, signed by our
traditional Lakota government, Oceti Sakowin (Oceti Šakowin, the Seven
Council Fires), then passed by the United States Senate, and proclaimed
by the President of the United States.
I am here because oil companies are causing the deliberate destruction
of our sacred places and burials. Dakota Access Pipeline [Dakota Access,
LLC, a subsidiary of Energy Transfer Partners; a.k.a. “Dakota Access”]
wants to build an oil pipeline under the river that is the source of our
nation’s drinking water. This pipeline threatens our communities, the
river, and the earth.
Our nation is working to protect our waters and our sacred places for
the benefit of our children not yet born. But the oil companies and the
government of the United States have failed to respect our sovereign
rights. Today, the pipeline construction continues. Although it has
temporarily stopped near our nation, this company has knowingly
destroyed sacred sites and our ancestral graves with bulldozers. This
company has also used attack dogs to harm individuals who tried to
protect our water and our sacred sites.
I condemn all violence, including the use of guard dogs.
While we have gone to the court in the United States, our courts have
failed to protect our sovereign rights, our sacred places, and our
water. We call upon the Human Rights Council and all Member States to
condemn the destruction of our sacred places and to support our nation’s
efforts to ensure that our sovereign rights are respected. We ask that
you call upon all parties to stop the construction of the Dakota Access
Pipeline and to protect the environment, our nation’s future, our
culture, and our way of life.
In this issue of Under Lock & Key MIM(Prisons) set out to
report on revolutionary organizing in wimmin’s prisons in the United
$tates.(1) Self-determination for the internal semi-colonies won’t be
won by males alone, and yet our subscriber list is overwhelmingly male.
As a prison organizing group, we wanted to look at what is our role in
resolving contradictions along gender lines, in our struggle toward
national liberation and an end to Amerikkkan imperialism. The lumpen
class has a strong training in male chauvinism, and prisons are an even
more extremely masculine environment. If we are going to contribute to
the resolution of gender contradictions, we need to consciously put
effort into it.
We solicited articles from many current and former prisoners on this
topic, but in the end we received very little response. This coincides
with our overall reach into wimmin’s prisons: while about 7% of the
population in prison is locked up in wimmin’s prisons, we do not have
close to 7% of our subscribers located in these institutions. In this
article we will explore the current state of imprisonment of females and
some potential reasons for our limited reach and lower political
involvement in institutions for wimmin.
MIM(Prisons) has long talked about gender oppression faced by prisoners
in the United $tates. Gender is distinct from class and nation, and
located within leisure time activities. Usually gender oppression is
something suffered by biological females. But in prison, where the vast
majority of the population is male, we still see significant gender
oppression. When male prisoners are sexually assaulted by guards this is
obviously gender oppression because it’s based in “leisure” time. But
there are other aspects of this gender oppression, including the
Amerikan legacy of lynching New Afrikan men for supposedly raping white
wimmin, which is an example of white females having gender power over
New Afrikan males. So it’s not so straightforward as just looking at
biology to determine who is gender oppressed. And as on the streets,
gender interacts with nation to complicate the situation in prisons.
Females make up 18.4% of all people under supervision of the adult
correctional system (prison, jail and probation).(2) They are 6.7% of
federal prisoners(3) and 7.2% of state prisoners.(2) The higher
percentage of females in jails and on probation reflects the lesser
severity and shorter sentences compared to males. Because our reach is
mainly in prisons, that is what we will focus on here.
Many have commented on the dramatically increasing female prison
population in the United $tates, especially as the recent growth rate
was so much higher than the rate for males. Between 1995 and 2005 the
number of male prisoners grew 34% while the number of female prisoners
grew 57%.(4) Overall, females went from 11% of all arrests in 1970 to
26% in 2014.(5) However, the U.$. prison population peaked in 2009 and
has been dropping slowly since then. The total change between 2004 and
2014 was a 1% drop in prison population. Over that same period the male
prison population dropped 1.2% while the female prison population
increased 1.4%. Since 2004 the number of females in prison has bounced
up and down every few years with a peak in 2008, a drop from 2008-2012
and then an increase in 2013 and 2014. The dramatic increases in
incarcerated females prior to 2004 seem to have leveled off, and there
are no clear trends since 2004.(2)
What we can conclude from the numbers above is that the imprisonment
rate for females is growing faster than the rate for males, but the
growth is relatively slow in recent years and the overall number of
females in prison is so much smaller than the number of males that it
would take many many years of significant growth to get close to equal
incarceration rates between males and females. It is still true that
when we talk about prisons in the United $tates we are overwhelmingly
talking about prisons for men.
New Afrikans and Chicanas are disproportionately locked up compared to
white females (twice the rate for New Afrikans and 1.2 times for
Chicanas). But these statistics mean that a much larger proportion of
people in female prisons are white than in the male prisons which locks
up New Afrikans at almost 6 times the rate of white males and Chicanos
at more than twice the rate of whites.(6) And in female prisons the
disparity has been decreasing in recent years with incarceration of
white females increasing at a faster pace than other nationalities.
Below we examine two possible explanations for MIM(Prisons)’s limited
reach into facilities for wimmin. 1. We are not doing a good job
addressing issues that are important to this population and so they’re
just not interested in working with us. 2. Females in prison are less
political than males in prison. If the former is true, we hope that this
ULK will inspire readers to write to us and tell us what we’re
missing. We do, however, see some solid evidence that the explanation is
the lack of political interest among female prisoners.
We need to consider what might cause female prisoners to be less
interested in our work than their male counterparts. Those who do write
to us often comment on the complete lack of interest among their fellow
prisoners. And while we hear this plenty from men’s institutions, we
also hear many more stories from the men’s prisons about activism and
interest. In addition, some of the wimmin who write to us are
transgender and held in male institutions, with this experience
contributing greatly to their political awareness.
Based on our experience and what evidence we can find from studies of
prisoners, we believe that wimmin are less likely to be locked up long
term, less likely to be put in solitary confinement, more likely to have
family waiting for them on the outside, and less likely to have been
active members of a lumpen organization prior to or during their term.
These are mostly conditions of wimmin in general in the United $tates,
and so reasonable assumptions to make. We are by no means suggesting
that imprisonment of females in this country is free of abuse or
anything other than a product of a system built for social control. But
females who are swept up in the net of widespread incarceration are
often not the primary targets of the system. The stats on nationality
make this clear.
One might argue that gender oppression in wimmin’s facilities is scaring
people locked up there into unwillingness to reach out to MIM(Prisons).
However, we see that increased repression in men’s prisons generally
results in increased political interest. We get many letters describing
threats resulting from political activism or even just education leading
people to greater interest in men’s facilities. And historically, on a
global scale, greater oppression has led to greater resistance, by
nation, class and gender.
Overall we think the lower percentage of people in wimmin’s facilities
reaching out and getting involved with MIM(Prisons) validates our theory
about what leads prisoners to becoming politicized. Significant factors
include: solitary confinement, lumpen organization involvement,
significant repression, censorship and conditions of abuse. Essentially,
repression breeds resistance (as long as the repression isn’t so extreme
that prisoners face total censorship, or health conditions so bad that
they are unable to function). We regularly hear that widespread access
to TV and other privileges really does buy prisoners out of political
interest and activism. This is not a surprise in a country of wealth and
privilege where the vast majority of the population enjoys petty
bourgeois lifestyles.
Further supporting this theory is our anecdotal experience that trans
wimmin are interested and active behind bars. We know they face
significant repression distinct from the general prison population. So
it is not surprising that trans prisoners are driven to political
awareness and activism.
Unique Challenges in Wimmin’s Prisons
While material conditions, as analyzed above, play a role in the appeal
of proletarian-led communist revolution to any population, we also need
to look at our own attempts, or lack of, to organize with this
population. MIM(Prisons) has not made a concerted effort to connect the
struggle for national self-determination with struggles in wimmin’s
prisons. With this ULK we hope to spark that conversation.
With that said, we need to look at what unique challenges are faced by
people locked up in facilities for wimmin. This will help determine if
we are not addressing the issues that are important to these prisoners.
The battle to maintain or regain custody of children is one issue more
prevalent in facilities for female prisoners. In 2006 (and other studies
suggest this number is pretty constant in recent years), more than 65%
of females in state prisons and 55% of males in state prisons had
children under 18 years of age. 64% of these mothers lived with their
children before prison, compared to 44% of fathers.(7) While this is a
pretty big difference, the overall magnitude of the impact of
imprisonment isn’t close: there are so many more fathers in prison than
mothers in prison. One possibility is that mothers who fear losing
custody will do anything they can to keep clean and get out quickly, and
this focuses them more on doing their time quietly than fighting abuse.
Sexual assault is another potential issue that may affect female
prisoners more than males. In a PREA survey of former prisoners from
2008, 10.5% of females reported prisoner-on-prisoner sexual assaults
compared to 2.7% of males. Staff-on-prisoner sexual assault was also
more commonly reported by females (2.5%) compared to males (1.1%).(8) We
are skeptical of these numbers, especially since the taboo against
reporting sexual assault is even greater for males and so it’s hard to
say if these statistics represent a meaningful difference between the
experiences in wimmin’s and men’s prisons. Even if it does, we wouldn’t
expect this abuse to lead females away from political activism. But it
is perhaps an issue we need to expose more often to address the large
portion of wimmin who are facing this abuse.
The Path Forward
It is important to connect our political line with our strategy and
tactics, and engage in the scientific process of developing that line as
we learn from our practice. While in this article we have focused on
facilities for wimmin and organizing of females behind bars, this is a
bigger question of how we mobilize females on the streets to join our
revolutionary struggle. We are fighting against class, nation and gender
oppression on a global scale, and this battle requires uniting all who
can be united. Around the world we have examples of wimmin joining
struggles for national liberation, taking up leadership in communist
organizations, and historically in leadership positions in Communist
China. While we see the national liberation struggle as principal at
this point in history, we can not neglect the gender contradiction, both
in the general fight against imperialism and in our own political
practice.