Under Lock & Key

I am writing to inform you of the most recent form of retaliation. As I have written in the past, I have been fighting the Nevada Department of Corrections (NDOC) over a number of issues. Two issues are now in the courts, but one deals specifically with the racist, homophobic, sexist and all around disrespectful actions of two pigs here at Ely State Priosn (ESP). SCO Mullins, and CO Wheeler. In February these officers searched my cell for four hours. They broke all my appliances, tore and threw away almost all of my books and other materials relating to communist thought. They have repeatedly gotten on my intercom and talked down to me, have called me a “commie pig,” a “red”, and nicknamed me “USSR.” I doubt they know what communist thought is, more their ignorance allows them to utilize it as a tool of harassment.

ESP started allowing porters on 1 October 2016, the first since 2003 I believe. (ESP is locked down). Well my cellie and I got the porter job. We worked for 17 days. The first time we worked with SCO Mullins, we were fired and written up for making threats towards officers. Which did not happen.

My cellie and I were moved from our cell, but to another room in the same unit! Despite our many claims of harassment. All the harassment has been a direct result of our fighting the NDOC in relation to its use of racial segregation in housing, its use of the paging system for the law library, and the grievance process.

As a result of these false allegations, my cellie and I are now removed from the transfer list. I am looking at up to two years in the hole. My cellie will lose up to 3 years of good time (I have life without) so he will have to do 10 more years, instead of 7 more, and neither of us may ever be able to leave ESP.

This officer thinks he has won. However, all he has done is strengthened my resolve to fight harder. I would appreciate any information regarding case law dealing with retaliation that you or incarcerated comrades may have.

MIM(Prisons) responds: We applaud this writer’s resolve to continue the fight in the face of very real consequences to eir work. Additional years in prison and long-term isolation are serious outcomes that will cause many to give up the fight. Even more, this comrade is doing the right thing by writing about eir experiences to expose the injustice, and reaching out to others for support and help. This sort of oppression can be an opportunity to organize and educate others. But the resulting isolation of course means limited ability to organize people. We invite our readers to share suggestions for this comrade.

Having studied for almost 3 years with Maoists such as your organization and others more militant behind enemy lines from every racial group, and in three different hell holes, I have changed my position from Naturalist/Nationalist to Socialist/African Socialism. As a member of the Nation of Gods and Earths I was always unconsciously leaning that direction. What helped me come to my senses was the article, “Approaching Conflict More Scientifically”, and the diagram entitled “Strategies to Address Conflict; Don’t Bargain Over Positions.” (ULK Sept/Oct 2016, No. 52, p.10) As the facilitator of the Gods and Earths weekly civilization classes on this yard I was able to Born many other Gods with the light you sent to me (ULK Jan/Feb 2016, No. 48), now we all are building on socialism in its many forms.

I also have some comments on the article “Divisions and Struggle in California Prisons” from ULK 52:

As a soulja who’s been on both sides of the prison lines (both mainline & SNY yards) I can see the AEH becoming a reality on any yard where the captive population challenges the ‘role playing and behavioral norm’ assigned to them under labels and stereotypes as their identity by their oppressors, i.e. the prison institutional workforce. Dr. Phillip Zimbardo explains and defines the psychological forces that create both prisoners’ and guards’ personas, mentalities and overt behaviors. In his book The Lucifer Effect and his case study entitled the “Stanford Prison Experiment.”

Men on the SNY lines can easily see the roles they were forced to breath life into on the main line, prison politrics created and reinforced by the guards. One stark example being ‘racially segregated cells.’ This is the divide and conquer way of rule and abuse. Created Problem Resolution (CPR) is one of their oldest control tactics. It works by choosing one lumpen group to allow to operate an illegal enterprise, which they themselves later become the supplier and major beneficiary of, while being biased against the other lumpen groups to lesser or greater degree depending on economical incentives or the old racial motivations. SNY lines are more integrated and afford captive populations the opportunity to be united on so many levels unrealized so far. This is a place where the AEH can be realized if only the image of prisoner changes in the minds of those in captivity. Universal cultural education programming is needed. UFPP and AEH principles are being practiced by me and other comrades across racial lines on this yard. Though small now, we are struggling to grow.

MIM(Prisons) responds: Class consciousness is something that Marxists often talk about. For the imprisoned lumpen, understanding how the injustice system works to oppress groups of people, and understanding one’s own role in that system is the class consciousness that is necessary to develop for a meaningful prison movement.

Building the Agreement to End Hostilities and the United Front for Peace in Prisons must be a daily activity for comrades in California prisons. This comrade speaks to the many openings that are being created, and to eir own ideological transformation through struggle and study. This is the stage of struggle that we are in, and we hold up as examples comrades like this who are leading the regular educational programs and dialogues on the yard that are necessary to reach higher stages of struggle.

With your head held high standing strong and firm, with
the energy to move the nation.
Your voice screaming loud and clear, equality, justice and peace.
And with hope, our people pump their fist screaming, “right on!”
Right on! Right on! Right on!
Manifesting a universal movement, that was bold and strong.
Installing the mind-frame that “I am my people, and my people are me,”
Providing strength, love and unity.
Showing we don’t need their food programs, community control nor schools.
No more, shall we be their fools.
You sought out for nothing they themselves wouldn’t have covet,
sick of oppression, it’s not as though we’ve chose it.
Fearing we will no longer bow and scrape our knees, they strategized
a plan, for you with ease.
So being vindictive and rageful they labeled you a hate group,
Targeted for extermination, because they could not control you.
It wouldn’t have made a difference being mild and fervent.
You did what you suppose, giving mind, body and soul as hard as storm currents.
For the people you lived and for the people you dived, head first into a
revolutionary suicide.

Dedicated to the Black Panther Party

I am writing with a texa$ prison medical copay update. Here on the Alfred D. Hughes plantation, the medical department’s Senior Practice Manager Valencia Pollard-Fortson’s attitude is that every procedure is a valid charge. Aspirin, bandaids, blood sugar checks, clipper shave, whatever. You’re going to be charged $100. Her idea is if you charge 10 people a day for sick call, that’s $900. Because only one will do the paperwork for 90 days to get his money back. Now they’ve gone a farther step.

In Ad-Seg/SHU building, we cannot buy fingernail clippers off store. To be caught with a pair is a major offense. We have to submit a sick call request to medical to trim our nails. Even diabetics who must keep toenails trimmed. Well, that sick call costs $100.

Say January 1st you go to medical for chronic care. It’s charged $100. Then you go January 15th and again January 28th. You file a grievance Step One with medical about copay of January 1st. It’s denied February 10th. You file a Step Two appeal to Regional Medical Supervisor. It’s granted March 13th. Your monthly invoice will not show up until April 15th showing March 13th $100 was refunded for medical copay of January 1st. BUT a new charge for January 15th appears and the $100 is taken on March 13th. You start all over again, stretching out for months just like I’m doing now on a charge from March 2016. These pigs are determined to keep your money.

MIM(Prisons) responds: There are many tactics the state uses to enact medical neglect, and to create and exacerbate long-term health problems for prisoners. In some states they just throw the sick call in the trash. But in Texas they are frustrating people using the financial angle. Our Texas Campaign Pack has instructions for how to fight against the $100 medical copay. We can use this information to make ourselves a little bit stronger while we struggle to overthrow the horrible social and economic system that makes such an exorbitant copay possible in the first place.

Please be advised that Florida Department of Corrections has banned all MIM publications. At this time I’m not able to file an informal or formal grievance or appeal as to do so will result in immediate property and mail restriction with a stretch of disciplinary confinement to back it up. Enclosed are the latest rejection slips.

MIM(Prisons) responds: We are seeing many rejections from Florida prisons, although ULK is still getting in to a few folks. We need jailhouse lawyers who are being censored in Florida who can help take up this fight through the grievances and into the courts. Your work will impact many in this state with so many people behind bars. Get in touch with us if you can take up this censorship battle. And for anyone on the streets reading this, we really need lawyers who can support these lawsuits from the outside. Check out our extensive documentation of censorship in Florida (and elsewhere) from our Amerikan Censorship Documentation Project

En semanas recientes hemos visto los vídeos ofensivos de colonizadores atacando a gente Indígena que están tratando de proteger sus tierras de la invasión y destrucción en su tierra natal de la Nación Lakotah. La resistencia ha unido a muchas personas de “First Nation” (Primera Nación) así como también muchos partidarios alrededor del campo Piedra Sagrada en la punta norte de la reserva Standing Rock. Este es el punto donde la Tubería de Acceso Dakota (DAPL por sus siglas en inglés), actualmente en construcción, se acerca a las actuales fronteras de la reserva. Esta semana, 200 personas se mudaron, a la isla que Energy Transfer Partners (Compañeros de Transferencia de Energía) reclama, colocando su campamento de invierno en el camino a la tubería.

En respuesta, Energy Transfer Partners le dijeron a la gente que estaban entrando sin derecho, que “el comportamiento ilegal no será tolerado.” (1) No hay mejor ejemplo de cómo la “ley” puede ser una institución utilizada por el opresor para legitimar su poder. Cuando los colonos vinieron por primera vez a matar indígenas y a robar sus tierras, ellos declararon esta tierra “ilegal.”

Los Lakotah Sioux están usando un dominio eminente para reclamar la tierra en cuestión como se establece legalmente en su tratado de 1851 con el gobierno de los Estados Unidos. El presidente de Cheyenne River Sioux Harold Frazier se reunió con el Presidente Obama, y con el Abogado de la Oficina de Gobierno para discutir su campaña y la represión policial desatada sobre protestantes pacíficos. Frazier relató una conversación que tuvieron:

De nuevo, la farsa de lo que es la ley de los colonos Amerikanos se presenta ante nosotros. La Tribu de Standing Rock Sioux organizó el Primer consejo de Tratado Internacional del Hemisferio Occidental del 8-6 de Junio de 1974. Esta reunión fue honrada en 2007 en otra reunión donde la República de Lakotah declaró soberanía, reclamando mucha de la tierra a través de la cual la construcción de la DAPL está ocurriendo hoy.(2)

Las personas indígenas en Norteamérica siempre han estado en las líneas del frente del movimiento anti imperialista. Ellos fueron las primeras víctimas del colonialismo y del capitalismo/imperialismo emergente en esta tierra. Su lucha constante para reclamar su tierra es central para la re-civilización de la brutal nación colonizadora de Amerikkka.

Prisoners should send a copy of the signed petition to each of the addresses listed on the petition, and below. Supporters should send letters on behalf of prisoners.

Director Wendy Kelley<br>
Arkansas Department of Corrections<br>
PO Box 8707<br>
Pine Bluff, AR 71611-8707<br><br>

United States Department of Justice - Civil Rights Division<br>
Special Litigation Section<br>
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, PHB<br>
Washington, D.C. 20530<br><br>

Office of Inspector General<br>
HOTLINE<br>
P.O. Box 9778<br>
Arlington, Virginia 22219<br><br>

And send MIM(Prisons) copies of any responses you receive!

MIM(Prisons), USW<br>
PO Box 40799<br>
San Francisco, CA 94140<br>

Prisoners should send a copy of the signed petition to each of the addresses listed on the petition, and below. Supporters should send letters on behalf of prisoners.

Louisiana Department of Corrections
PO Box 94304
Baton Rouge, LA 70804-9304

United States Department of Justice - Civil Rights Division
Special Litigation Section
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, PHB
Washington, D.C. 20530

Office of Inspector General
HOTLINE
P.O. Box 9778
Arlington, Virginia 22219

And send MIM(Prisons) copies of any responses you receive!
MIM(Prisons), USW
PO Box 40799
San Francisco, CA 94140


Pdf updated October 2017

“America no puede existir sin separarnos a nosotros mismos de nuestras identidades.”

La lucha comenzó en 2011, con una lucrativa propuesta de una compañía Canadiense para acceder a tierras tribales y transportar petróleo crudo al Golfo de Texas. Dicen que la construcción ayudará a crear trabajos permanentes, que el dinero dado a los consejos tribales ayudará a satisfacer las necesidades de las personas. En realidad, esta tubería creará un desastre ambiental. América nunca puede financiar su propia estructura, ¿cómo se puede esperar el mantenimiento de una tubería en las tierras tribales soberanas?

El problema no es sólo la tubería y toda la inmundicia que viene con ella. El problema es la total violación de nuestros tratados, y la falta de tratamiento de la auto-determinación y la Declaración de las Naciones Unidos sobre los Derechos de los Pueblos Indígenas. Esta tubería pisotea a los derechos humanos y prueba la ciudadanía de segunda clase que se les da a todas las naciones tribales, y personas.

Tomen en consideración como todos los portavoces del gobierno se enfurecen con cualquier violación de cualquier tratado otorgado a gobiernos extranjeros por el gobierno de Estados Unidos, ¿porqué son tan rápidos al descartar los derechos que se otorgaron a las naciones tribales?

Fuimos a la guerra por esos tratados. Si, es 2016 y todos los “indios” deberían funcionar como Amerikanos regulares, al menos esa es la retórico. Pero al iniciar un tratado se nos provee reconocimiento, y estipula acuerdos bilaterales que todas las partes deben honrar. Al menos, de hecho, que nuestros tratados sean sólo “pedazos de papel”, y si ese es el caso, Rusia debería pasar por alto las resoluciones de la ONU con los Estados Unidos y bombear Israel. No es igual? El Artículo 6 de la constitución de los Estados Unidos y la cláusula piloto de 1888 dice lo contrario. Ambos reconocen el poder permanente de todos los tratados Indígenas y todas las Naciones Indígenas. Sólo porque los tiempos han cambiado no significa que las palabras también.

El gobierno de los Estados Unidos ha estado empujando a todas las naciones tribales al genocidio por los últimos 298 años. La pobreza, agua mala, aire contaminado, desperdicio nuclear, minas abiertas de uranio, alcoholismo, ninguna infraestructura de trabajo para empezar.

El suicidio entre hombres jóvenes se ha convertido en una epidemia. Solamente somos endulzados con palabras cuando los trabajadores del gobierno quieren sentirse bien, luego nos quitan a nuestros hijos, los llevan al lado del estado y los tiran a la “gente blanca” para que los civilicen — violando así otra ley federal, la Ley para el Bienestar del Niño Indígena.

Esta tierra significa más para nosotros que sólo una terreno para todo el pueblo tribal, igual que en 1848 cuando los Estados Unidos se unieron a todo Aztlán desde México y construyeron la frontera paramilitar más grande en el mundo, se esta haciendo mucho para separar a las naciones tribales de nuestras tierras. En 1973 peleamos y morimos por nuestra tierra. Si es necesario, marquen mis palabras, nos levantaremos y pelearemos de nuevo. Esta tierra es nuestra identidad. Tiene la sangre de nuestros ancestros, y la tubería matará a nuestra gente.

In recent weeks we have seen the offensive videos of settlers attacking indigenous people who are trying to protect their land from invasion and destruction in the homeland of the Lakotah Nation. The resistance has brought together many First Nation people as well as many supporters around the Sacred Stone Camp in the northern tip of the Standing Rock reservation. This is the point where the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), currently under construction, comes closest to current reservation borders. This week 200 people moved onto the land claimed by Energy Transfer Partners, setting up their winter camp in the path of the planned pipeline.

In response, Energy Transfer Partners said the people were trespassing, saying “lawless behavior will not be tolerated.”(1) There is no better example of how the “law” can be an institution utilized by the oppressor to legitimize their power. When the settlers first came to kill Indigenous people and steal their land, they declared this land to be “lawless.”

The Lakotah Sioux are using eminent domain to claim the land in question as rightfully theirs based on their 1851 treaty with the United $tates government. Cheyenne River Sioux Chair Harold Frazier met with President Obama, as well as the U.$. Attorney’s Office to discuss their campaign and the police repression being unleashed on peaceful protestors. Frazier retold one conversation ey had:

Frazier: “How can a non-Indian physically assault an Indian and get away with it?”
U.S. Attorney’s office: “Well, that’s on state land.”
Frazier: “So does that mean if a non-Indian comes to an Indian on Indian land that the Indian could do it back?”
U.S. Attorney’s office: “Oh no, you’d go to jail.”(1)

Again, the farce that is Amerikan settler law is laid bare before us.

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe hosted the First International Treaty Council of the Western Hemisphere from 8-16 June 1974. This meeting was honored in 2007 at another meeting where the Republic of Lakotah declared sovereignty, claiming much of the land through which DAPL construction is occurring today.(2)

Indigenous people in North America have always been at the front lines of the anti-imperialist movement. They were the first victims of colonialism and emerging capitalist/imperialism on this land. Their continued struggle to reclaim this land is central to a re-civilization of the brutal settler nation of Amerikkka.