Under Lock & Key

On November 16 I received a disciplinary report (DR) for possession of gang related paraphernalia from notes from the Black Panther Party 10 point program, “What We Want and What We Believe”, and a quote from comrade Stokeley Charmichael: “The only way we are gonna stop them white men from whuppin’ us is to take over, what we are gonna start saying now is Black Power.”

So now I gotta fight this DR, written not only in retaliation, but in an attack against my first amendment protected political belief. Not only that, the Sergeant claims they confiscated the notebook during a search of my cell. Camera evidence will show that this pig did not show up until called, when I refused to re-enter the cell without due process (my confiscation receipt). In fact it wasn’t really a cell search, they knew what they were coming for.

MIM(Prisons) responds: This comrade has been active in the fight against censorship and to ensure access to political material in Florida, so it is no surprise that ey is the target of this repression campaign. We hope eir undying dedication to the fight, even when it brings down more repression, is an inspiration to others to learn their legal rights, and never give up demanding those rights be properly recognized by the injustice system.

(traducido de Chican@ Power and the Struggle for Aztlán, p8-9)

por Cipactli

Los Chican@s dentro de las prisiones de Estados Unido$ están iniciando a sanar de los efectos de los cientos de años de colonialismo. Un indicador de esto es el histórico Acuerdo para Finalizar Hostilidades en las Prisiones en cual fue emitido desde el Security Housing Unit (Unidad de aislamiento de largo tiempo) en la prisión estatal de Pelican Bay, California en el 2012.(1) El hecho de que una guerra que duró más de 40 años entre los Chican@s en las prisiones haya parado es enorme. Ya no permitiremos que el estado nos manipule a emplear crimen entre moreno y moreno, y Chican@s conscientes dedicaremos nuestras vidas en la prisión a mantener este armisticio. Este paso es un movimiento enorme en la dirección a la paz y a la consolidación de la nación. Los Chican@s revolucionarios apoyamos este acuerdo de paz con nuestras vidas.

El proyecto de este libro es otro indicador de un salto en conciencia en la población Chican@ presa, el cual es el resultado del acercamiento y la unidad de Chican@s de los dos extremos de California a pesar de los esfuerzos de Amerikkka para dividimos. Esto es otro índice, el que tengamos pensamiento Chican@ de las regiones norteñas y sureñas de California unidos en este trabajo precioso. ¡Así es como se ve la reconstrucción de la nación!

La nación Chican@, como cualquier otro fenómeno, no es una masa estática y tiene muchas contradicciones. Las contradicciones que brotaron en este proyecto ayudaron a formar y expandir este libro, y se mantiene su fluidez en nuestra búsqueda de la verdad y el camino al futuro. Existen muchas formas de pensamiento Chican@ (Chicanismo) dentro de la nación y por todas las tantas regiones de Aztlán. Es la interacción de la gente con la realidad y el mundo material dondequiera que residan lo que le da nacimiento a su reacción en respuesta. La experiencia en nuestra vida fortalece y afecta nuestro crecimiento y no desafía así como seguramente enciende nuestras luchas. Los Chican@s existen en varios ambientes distintos, algunos más cercanos a México, comunidades blancas, ghettos negros, o a reservaciones. Algunos están conscientes otros no. El entender esta realidad social dentro de la nación es tal vez tan importante como el dedicar la vida de uno a sanar a la nación y el reconstruir a Aztlán. Sin el entendimiento de nuestras condiciones actuales, no podemos movernos hacia adelante.

El tema de este libro entonces puede sumarse mejor como cómo podemos analizar hoy a la nación Chican@ y los desarrollos históricos que están saliendo de las prisiones contemporáneas. Nuestra habilidad de vender nuestras “divisiones” históricas provocadas-por-el-estado como presos Chican@s tal vez puedan ser una contribución para los Chican@s fuera de las pintas quienes puedan estar divididos por contradicciones políticas y regionalismo.

Este proyecto no hubiera tenido éxito en este tiempo sin MIM(Prisiónes). Su duro trabajo debe ser aplaudido porque ayudaron a proveer varias formas de asistencia para este proyecto cuando muchos grupos han descartado a los presos Chican@s como indignos o incorregibles. MIM(prisons) fue extremadamente instrumental facilitando esta colaboración entre Chican@s de los dos extremos de California y el fortalecimiento de nuestros acuerdos de paz. Chican@ Power and the Struggle fro Aztlán (Poder Chican@ y la Lucha por Aztlán) solo pudo ser posible con su tiempo, trabajo y guía ideológica.

Tal vez no viviremos para ver nuestro trabajo ser victorioso, pero no lo hacemos por esto. Alguien dijo una vez “Tu no ganas, tú cambias el mundo” y supongo con este proyecto no contamos con ganar hoy pero si esperamos en crear un cambio para la nación Chican@, y, como un resultado, para el mundo.

Como Chican@s comunistas entendemos que pequeño regionalismo y etiquetas derivadas imperialistas son veneno para la nación. Este proyecto no es más que un preludio de lo que viene de parte del re-encendimiento del movimiento Chican@.

¡Aztlán libre!

[Hook]
My way might not be your way
But it’s okay
It’s alright, your way might not be my way
But it’s okay
It’s alright


[Stic.man]
Yea, I used to go to church
But the church didn’t quench my thirst
Mama taught me to put god first
But she never tried to block my search
I was curious, young but serious
Why’s religion so mysterious
Why is black life so hard?
They say you’re not supposed to question God
Well is it okay to question the pastor?
Was it passed down from the slave-master?
It was only the truth I was after
But I never could get a straight answer
So I couldn’t relate to the sermon
Put down the bible, then I start learning
About life, didn’t know where the path would lead
But I had to get off my knees


[Hook]


[Stic.man]
I build with the Five Percenters
On the God within us, it’s no limits
Study the Metu Neter from Kemet
All saw, I remembered
Smoke herb with the Rastafarians
Grew my locks became a vegetarian
Following the Tao, building with the Baba Laos
Jewels being handed to a innocent child
My mind is a Buddhist temple, the truth is simple
I try to be principled
Walking with a warrior spirit
Ain’t nothing like learning from first hand life experience
I’m a realist, that’s all I deal with
Respect the truth, that’s all I build with
A child of the universe
My religion is life and it’s just as valid
I strive for balance


[Hook]


[M-1]
I gotta admit, I don’t know
In the end which way it’s gonna go
Why we sit by the project window,
Instead of living off the land with my kin folk?
Is there even a master plan?
An unseen hand? Is God a man?
Some say that’s sacrilegious
Same folks selling us lies about Christmas
Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny
Just so the capitalists can make money
They say God will take care of it
But you a terrorist if you say the same thing in Arabic
It’s so hypocritical
It’s a miracle, listen to the message in the spirituals
Wade in the water, I’m following Ms. Tubman and Nat Turner
I’m praying for my freedom
and heading for the border


[Hook: x3]

As I watch how imperialism, capitalism, and religion are destroying people’s lives all over the world, it makes me think twice about supporting a cause which has no merit. I was once a supporter of the petty bourgeoisie, and a firm believer in religion and capitalism. Then I was thrown into the belly of oppression and I noticed how religion divided all those under the spell of supporting a system which brings death and destruction.

Religion is even now being used as a decoy to what’s really going on. You have an imperialist holy war going on now, Islam vs. Christianity. But it’s not really a holy war, it’s a war for land and raw materials. I believe the Saudi’s and United States care less about Islam and Christianity, it’s more about oppression and exploitation of oppressed nations all over. The imperialists use the media as a tool to spread propaganda, calling anti-imperialists terrorist.

MIM(Prisons) adds: This comrade is right that religion is used as a decoy to distract people from their oppression and from the truth about imperialism. Religion has been an effective tool of capitalism, and before capitalism it served the feudal oppressors and the slave owners. Oppressed people are told to accept their suffering and pray for redemption in an afterlife rather than fighting back against their oppressors. Over time the form of the god or gods to worship has changed, but the substance has never been there. We can not afford to wait for a mystical being to punish the oppressors and liberate the oppressed. And we certainly should not be taken in by religious propaganda that fosters hate of one religion (i.e. Islam) because it is more popular among the oppressed, as a justification for imperialist military excursions.

Sitting back and just observing everyone who I have encountered while in prison, I would say one man comes to mind because he truly inspired me. Deauce is a true socialist and freedom fighter. Within the Arkansas Department of Corrections at the East Arkansas Regional Unit, we are housed in open barracks with about 75 prisoners to a barrack. Deuce looks out for everyone and helps anyone that he can assist. Regardless of your race he’ll help you out. Whether it’s help with writing a grievance, or you just need a radio to listen to the news or a movie, he’ll make sure you even have food or coffee if you don’t have money to buy commissary. Others call him hustle-man because he’s always hustling up stuff for new prisoners or others in general. In my eyes he has demonstrated the true meaning of a freedom fighter. Watching him in action has encouraged me and allowed me to see how others react to a socialist in action.

MIM(Prisons) responds: This essay came in response to our call for people to write about the freedom fighters who have inspired them. And this is a good reminder that our actions every day have a big impact on others. Revolutionaries should strive to serve the people and demonstrate the principles of our ideology in practice. We can take people like Deuce as a good example of our starting point, but we need to go further and tie our work serving the people to our work educating the people about why we do this work, and why they should get involved too. Otherwise we can get bogged down by the charity aspect, leaving the revolutionary purpose behind.

A good example of this is the Black Panther Party’s Serve the People Breakfast for Schoolchildren program. The BPP fed many children who otherwise were going to school hungry, a problem that interfered with their ability to learn. And while they were providing this food, the BPP also provided revolutionary education, turning these kids on to a way of thinking they weren’t exposed to in public schools. Freedom fighters are found all around us, and we commend this comrade for calling out the value of the everyday work done by Deauce in serving the people.

Upon reading ULK 46 I was once again reminded of the difficulties that us prisoners face trying to have our grievances heard. I would like to share with ULK readers a remedy for this issue that I have discovered.

Pursuant to Powe v. Ennis, 177 F.3d 393 (5th Circuit 1999); and Lewis v. Washington, 300 F.3d 829 (7th Cir. 2002), if prison officials refuse to hear your grievance, your administrative remedies are exhausted. You do not need a response to your grievance to pursue your issue in the courts. You need only prove that you filed the respective grievance.

This can easily be done. First, after you have written your grievance fill out a Proof of Service form stating that on such-and-such date you sent so-and-so a grievance regarding such-and-such issue. After you have filled out the Proof of Service form get it notarized at your facility’s law library. Secondly make sure to make copies of both your grievance and the Proof of Service form to keep in your files. Finally, repeat this process at every level of your state’s grievance system.

For example: In Illinois there is a three-step grievance system. I have personally used this method in the past (successfully). First, I filed my grievance with my counselor; next I filed it with my institution’s grievance office; then I filed it with the Administrative Review Board. Each time I filed my grievance I also filed a Proof of Service form. By doing so I was able to show the Court that I had attempted to resolve my claims through the grievance process. This resulted in the court siding with me and denying the State’s Motion for Summary Judgement. I am enclosing proof of this method’s success for MIM(Prisons) to verify.

Although this is not the ideal solution it is one that will allow prisoners to pursue their legal matters without being obstructed by the Capitalist swine.

Example Proof Of Service

Hereby comes [your name] to swear under penalty of perjury that on the date signed below I sent the [prison name] Grievance Officer a grievance dated [date] concerning the misplacement of my TV and Norelco Razor by prison authorities through the institutional level mail service.

Executed this ___ day of _____ [month] ________ [year]

_________________________________ [signature]

[get this stamped and signed by a notary public.]

MIM(Prisons) adds: This is a helpful update to the country-wide grievance campaign and likely is a tactic that can be used in states other than Illinois. How “easily” this tactic can be employed depends on the conditions of one’s confinement. As some prisoners are held in 24-hour lockdown, with no access to a law library, and the only receipt offered for filing a grievance is another beating from prison guards, they might not be able to easily employ this tactic. But for many prisoners, this might be a stepping stone from having one’s grievances altogether ignored, to getting one’s foot in the door in the courts.

Many people have requested copies of our state-specific petitions to demand grievances be addressed after running into problems with the grievance system. From all the petitions we have sent out, we’ve heard few updates about the progress on this campaign. It’s important that we sum up our political practice and learn from it. And through this summing up we can determine how to best modify our practice to improve it. We call this ongoing summing up and improving of our practice “dialectical materialism.” This is a scientific approach to our political work that enables us to learn from doing, and when we do this summing up publicly, through a newspaper like Under Lock & Key, we can apply these lessons across a broad base of organizers and be far more effective in the work that we are all doing.

So if you use, or have used, the above tactic, be sure to tell ULK if it helped you, or what you did to improve it. That way we can all learn from each others’ practice to improve our own.

In 2010 a comrade in California initiated a campaign to demand that grievances be addressed by the California prison system. This comrade created a petition that anyone behind bars could use. The campaign quickly took off in California and spread to other places where customized petitions were created for use in 14 different states.

We have reports from some states that are still actively fighting the corrupt and broken grievance systems using the petitions developed to demand grievances be addressed. But we also have a number of states for which we have petitions, but we haven’t gotten an update in a long time. We still get requests for copies of these grievance petitions, but we’re not sure if they are being put to use, or if the petition is entirely ineffective.

The goals of the grievance petition campaign are first to build unity amongst prisoners around a common goal, and second to try to resolve grievance problems, in order to help address some brutalities and injustices of the prison environment. An individual sending out one petition won’t bring relief, but building with others in your facility around this campaign will help address at least one of these goals.

Here is the list of states for which we need updates on grievance campaign work:
Arizona
Colorado
Kansas
Montana
North Carolina
Nevada
Oklahoma
Oregon
South Carolina

If you are in one of these states, let us know what you did with the grievance petition. Help us update the campaign, even if it’s just to say that your work so far hasn’t produced success. Tell us what grievances you are trying to fight, how you used the petition, and the participation of your fellow captives.

It is a critical part of the work of any political organization that we learn from our practice, and continue to improve our work. By reporting on your grievance campaign work, you are contributing to the dialectical materialist method of revolutionary struggle. Together we can improve our practice to be even more effective over time.

I would like to let you know of a situation that occurred on 1 December 2015, at Ely State Prison in Nevada. A white corrections officer (CO) was taking a Black prisoner to yard in handcuffs. CO Edwards is a known racist pig, and while taking this prisoner to yard he slammed his face against the sally port door. When the prisoner went to his knees, CO Edwards then slammed his face on the ground. The reason given was that the prisoner “turned his head too fast.”

The prisoner was taken to the hole. But it caused us to unite. Nevada has become a highly individualized state. No one wants to get involved with any struggle. But yesterday a comrade and I pushed the issue, and we got a large number of prisoners to file grievances. We filed them as AR340 misconduct complaints against the pig Edwards, which are supposed to be sent to the Inspector General’s office.

It was nice to see us united. I will keep you updated on this issue.

MIM(Prisons) responds: This comrade is doing the hard work necessary to build an anti-imperialist movement: repeatedly trying to inspire others to come together to fight injustices. Even if the action is small at first, the unity around this one incident helps to build unity around bigger issues. People learn through action, even if that lesson is that the oppressors are far more powerful than us right now. We still have to take the opportunity to offer information about the criminal injustice system, why we take on these battles, and how they fit in to our longer term goal of putting an end to the oppressive system of imperialism.

Mail the petition to your loved ones and comrades inside who are experiencing issues with their grievance procedure. Send them extra copies to share! For more info on this campaign, click here. If there is a state-wide petition developed, that one should be used instead of the country-wide petition, because it is more detailed. For a list of state-wide petitions that have already been developed, click here.

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

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

this petition was first put up in December 2015

Spotlight

Open Road Films

2015

In 2001, reporters at the Boston Globe newspaper exposed widespread sexual abuse of children by priests in the Catholic Church and the long-running coverup of this abuse by Church leadership. Priests who were known to have molested children were moved to new parishes where they repeated the abuse, with full knowledge of Church leadership. The Globe printed a series of stories that led to the resignation of Cardinal Law and great embarrassment for the Church. Spotlight dramatizes the work done by the reporting team at the Globe to uncover the facts in this case, and the resistance they faced in a city dominated by the Catholic Church.

Overall Spotlight does a good job demonstrating the tremendous harm that the institution of the Catholic Church did to thousands (likely tens of thousands) of youth, and the pervasive influence and power of the Church in the city of Boston, Massachusetts. No attempt is made to justify the actions of the Church leadership who covered for the abusive priests, nor does the movie suggest that anything was changed by the newspaper stories, instead concluding with a list of hundreds of cities around the world where similar abuse scandals were uncovered.

It is outrageous and enraging to see the stories of abused children, the lucky ones who made it to adulthood, and hear about Church authorities who, upon learning about these cases, moved to silence the abused, promising it would never happen again, even while they knew the priests had a history of exactly this same abuse against other children. It is an interesting contrast that, while quick to believe that all Muslims are terrorists when a small minority of them fight back against imperialism, Amerikans presented with so much evidence would never consider calling all Catholics child molesters. Even non-Catholics in the United $tates are well indoctrinated to believe that the churches are forces for good and Christianity is a religion of good people.

In the end the movie lets the Catholic Church off the hook. By focusing on just this sex abuse scandal, Spotlight portrays the rest of the Church activities as generally benevolent. Further, it implies that the abusive priests are just psychologically impaired in some way, and so this has allowed the Catholic Church to say they’ve solved the problem by introducing psychological screening for those wanting to enter priesthood. We believe it is the very institution of the Catholic Church, along with the patriarchy that it so ardently supports, that leads priests to be indoctrinated into eroticizing power over helpless young kids. It’s not a flaw in the individual, but rather the system itself that is flawed, and not in a way that can be fixed by psychological screenings. Religion has a long history of supporting the patriarchal dominance of male power and reinforcing gender inequality.

One problem with focusing on the serious harm the Catholic Church does to Amerikkkans is the omission of the even greater harm the Church has done globally. Consistently a force for reaction, the Church at best has pretended neutrality while watching dictators murder, plunder, and oppress entire nations of people. Just as Spotlight shows the power and influence of the Catholic Church in all levels of Boston’s city politics, in many cases there is documentation of this Church’s support for and work with reactionary governments around the world.

As a strong centralized religious institution with a long history, the Catholic Church is an easy target for people looking to document the reactionary role of religious institutions. But they are just one example of the harm religious institutions have on society. After overthrowing the imperialists and putting a government in power that serves the interests of the oppressed (a dictatorship of the proletariat), the people will have the power to ban reactionary institutions. When we see the tremendous harm that the Catholic Church did to so many children over so many years, it should be obvious that this institution should be outlawed. And those who perpetuated and covered up the molestation should face the people’s courts. There is no justification for allowing such dangerous institutions to continue.

Yet, we don’t need to outlaw religion as a belief under the dictatorship of the proletariat. As Mao explained about their policy in China under socialism:

“The Communist Party has adopted a policy of protecting religions. Believers and non-believers, believers of one religion or another, are all similarly protected, and their faiths are respected. Today, we have adopted this policy of protecting religions, and in future we will still maintain this policy of protection.” (Talk with Tibetan Delegates, October 8, 1952)