Under Lock & Key

Comrades living outside of the First World, and specifically outside of United Snakes borders, may be surprised at the social reality of this prison house of nations. The methods employed on the internal semi-colonies are in ways like what is seen in the Third World. The concentration kamps in the United $tates are renamed control units and (CUs) and in most cases the CU population are from oppressed nations. Although the names of these torture centers change, the purpose is the same. The CUs are the centers of neutralization.

Amerikkka attempts to bribe the population living under its heel, and for those who cannot be bought off with luxury items, it tries hard to isolate and dehumynize us lest we influence others. The state understands that even a bribed population may be concerned with humyns being housed in dog kennels without sunlight for decades, so they created the “gang” boogeyman. Just like Nixon created the “war on drugs” in order to criminalize the oppressed nations in the United $tates, today the war on the oppressed continues and rages on, only the CU is the contemporary “final solution.”

Understand the Enemy’s Control Units

Although most of us held in CUs think of ourselves as strong-minded warriors and soldados, sometimes we underestimate the effects that CUs have on us as people. Sure we are strong-minded, it is why we were kidnapped from the mainlines and stuffed in here. But it’s important that we understand the nature of the CU so that we can find ways to combat its effects.

The Russian investigative journalist Andrei Soldatov said in an interview about a year ago, about whistle blower Edward Snowden and his current circumstances,

“Snowden is not a trained intelligence agent. But those who are can tell you, if you live in a controlled environment, you cease to be truly independent-minded because everyone and everything around you is also controlled.”(1)

If lumpen are “independent-minded” compared to most of the bought-off populations in U.S. borders, then as the above journalist noted, a controlled environment works to crush this independence. CUs can thus be seen as a bigger tool than many realize. This is not saying that all prisoners held in CUs are not or cannot be independent-minded, but it does mean that we need to guard against this because CUs do attack our independence.

Those of us who are held in CUs are those who threaten Amerikkka the most; it is why we are buried alive in these tombs. Our methods of social organization are outside the influence of the oppressor nation, and this scares them. This fear to protect their privilege compels Amerika to find new ways of neutralizing their enemies, and under the guise of the war on “gangs” it can and does use torture by control units with little notice from the majority of the U.S. population.

Bush 2’s legal mouthpiece John Yoo said abuse becomes torture if it inflicts severe pain, and if the interrogator intends to inflict severe pain or suffering. Yoo defined severe pain as necessarily being associated with death, organ failure, or serious impairment of bodily functions. And abuse isn’t considered torture unless there is “prolonged mental harm,” with “prolonged” defined as over months or years.(2)

This gave the United $tates and its agencies unfettered reign to dive deep into all of its torture projects and unleash them on oppressed people in and outside of U.S. borders. Anything short of organ failure can be used on prisoners. CUs are used by “interrogators,” because before we are released from CUs the state wants us to debrief or do journals. The state is also pushing profile requests, sometimes called “compass” in order to build its intelligence on imprisoned lumpen. This helps them repackage our oppression in the name of “corrections.”

Control units are tied to our colonization process. They are but physical manifestations of colonization in the 21st century. So theory that forms in response to CUs, and which attempts to give us ways to not just cope but combat these torture centers, must keep in mind that colonization is at the root of our current battle.

One author put it this way:

“It is my contention that any theory must take into account the fact of colonization of Chicanos. This is not to suggest that colonialism is the only or the ‘correct’ perspective, but rather that colonization is an essential historical fact that cannot be ignored. Just as any theory of black oppression must consider the legacy of slavery, so any perspective on the Chicano must be cognizant of its colonial legacy.”(2)

Our theories revolving around the internal semi-colonies in U.$. borders must take into account the reality of us as a colonized people. For Aztlán, the First Nations, New Afrika and Boriqua, we are NOT Amerikkkans. We are nations that are colonized by Amerika, and control units are tools used in this colonization process.

What Good Can be Made of the Control Units?

Looking at it from a dialectical approach, yes control units are horrific designs which I have seen suck the mental capacities out of brilliant thinkers for years, but there is some promise for those held in the kamps. Control units provide us with concrete examples of our oppression so that we can teach people on both sides of the prison walls exactly what national oppression entails. Another nugget that we can glean from control units is that they concentrate the most rebellious sectors of the prison mass. Those held in control units have an audience and are in many ways leaders in their own right already, within their own circles of influence. So it is from here where the seeds of revolution will be sown to spread throughout the prison system.

The lumpen within control units, and those being released to the general populations across the United $tates, often struggle against the state and its oppression. This is good. But unorganized forms of struggle must be transformed into organized forms of struggle. In order for this to happen, conscious prisoners must exert a revolutionary influence on our fellow prisoners.

Prisoners tortured in control units, no matter how long, are “baptized” into the social reality of life in the United Snakes. It is a wake-up call where lumpen of all nations are given a reality check. It is a place where all bribes are stripped away and the mask of U.$. imperialism is finally discarded. Although it is a painful process, the flip side is that control unit prisoners are more open to revolution, perhaps more so than any other sector of the U.$. prison system, and it is from the control units that we will harvest the next generation of revolutionaries.

The trademark Oscar is one of a group of statuettes awarded annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for achievement in motion picture production and performance. Lately there has been a lot of buzz about the Oscar nominations, and the lack thereof when it comes to the oppressed nations. The CBS morning news, Access Hollywood, and other TV programs have made mention of the “whiteness” of this year’s acting nominees for the Oscars.

It was said on the CBS morning news that the panel that has the responsibility of deciding who to nominate for an Oscar is 94% white male. Personally, I don’t see why there’s such a “buzz”, because hystorically we know that this nation is controlled and dominated by white male imperialists who do not have the oppressed nations’ best interest at heart. After all, the “Oscar” is a gold statue of a white man; the gold representing capitalism and the exploitation of the people, and the white man of course representing colonialism and imperialism at its core.

People are complaining that the top honors of the Oscars have been whitewashed. But the Oscars have not been whitewashed – they’ve been white all the time. The Oscars were not created to honor or acknowledge the artistic endeavors of the oppressed nations. People in the hoods, ghettos, and barrios know this, and thus, don’t give a damn about the Oscars.

In Webster’s unabridged dictionary, the definition for Academy Award is: “an annual award given to a performer, director, technician, etc., of the motion picture industry for superior achievement in a specific category: judged by the voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and symbolized by the presentation of an Oscar.”

The key phrase in the above definition is “superior achievement.” Traditionally and hystorically in this genocidal nation that we call Amerikkka, the lumpen and oppressed nations have never been given credit or even acknowledged as having any “superior achievement.” And the fact that the imperialists hold themselves to be “superior” is at the root of white supremacy in this country.

Therefore, how could it be a surprise that none of the 20 acting nominees for the 2015 Oscar nominations were people from the oppressed nations? I suppose what is even more important, is why should it matter? We (oppressed nations) should not look for acceptance or confirmation from the oppressor nations to validate our achievements and success.

As long as Amerikkka is dominated by an imperialistic economic system, and the injustice, racism, and oppression that come with it, she will never be color-blind. We know and understand that the Oscars do not reflect the true demographic of Amerikkka. Amerikkka is in a state of constant browning, and in a just society, this would be reflected in nominations of any kind.

However, it is clear that we do not live in a just society and we must view this lack of diversity in the nominations accordingly. In a socialist or communist society, the disparities we see today would not exist, and one reason would be because there would be no golden white man representing superior achievement. We also know and understand that the entire Hollywood apparatus is owned and controlled by those who hold capitalist values close to heart. We look forward to the day when people are recognized for their achievements in service of the people, and not the capitalists.

The imperialists use media outlets to promote their agenda, not ours. Television (tell-lie-vision) and movies are two of the most effective tools that the imperialists use to indoctrinate, brainwash and control us. Therefore, when they don’t nominate oppressed nation people for their token awards, that simply means that oppressed nation people are not embarking upon the kind of artistic endeavors that their oppressors want them to – and that is a good thing. To hell with the powers that be! Damn them and Oscar!

As for me, I say we’ve been doing too much damn acting anyway – it’s time to start doing some real revolutionary work. Power to the people who stand up, act out, and act up in the interest of freedom, justice, and equality.

MIM(Prisons) adds: This writer is correct that the Amerikan entertainment industry only represents the imperialist segment of society. Hollywood’s main ambition is to create culture that perpetuates imperialist values, and makes all the woes that are an inherent part of this economic system palletable to as many people as possible.

The exclusion of oppressed nation culture from the Academy Awards is only one reason why reforms to the imperialist system is not where we should focus our creative energies. Instead of grooming revolutionaries to seek acceptance in bourgeois cultural institutions, we need to be creating alternative culture, controlled by revolutionaries.

This is one reason why we are pushing a revolutionary art project through which prisoner artists can create art that serves the people’s struggles and share it with others. Besides creating art for the pages of Under Lock & Key and our other publications, we are distributing greeting cards, bookmarks, mini posters, and coloring book pages that spread the incredible art of the Strugglen Artists Association contributors. If you want to contribute original artwork to this project, or help distribute the materials to others, get in touch!

As a prisoner I see this slogan almost every day while being housed in prison. It’s the slogan stamped onto the inner sole of every pair of PIA shoes. Shoes made ultra-cheap due to the quality control that doesn’t even exist. This is yet another way the state is saving a buck on our comfort. When I first came to join the PIA, prison issue were brown hard bottom boot, which they gave every convict coming out of reception. Those boots not only provided PIA workers with a job but also others prisoners with one as shoe shiners.

You might be thinking wow, what a low position. But if so, that’s only because you weren’t here. The shoe shine, if he mastered the art, got plenty of business and made however much he was willing to commit on working for. His customers were not only convicts, they also were Correction Officers usually of high rank and they paid well. Now PIA, by cutting cost and operating with the use of low grade, no quality materials, have wiped out several in-prison work assignments and legal hustles or trade exchange. Those boots were made out of leather and so there were leather hobby shops where prisoners were taught how to make belts, wallets, medallions, use special machines and recycle the unusable scraps from the boot line. Creating income, gifts for family, and educating prisoners on how to use their resources.

Now we have low-quality, low-top generic canvas shoes that they expect to fall apart within 90 days when you can get a new pair creating only more pollution and waste. No one benefits from these PIA show factories except those who work there, and I’d be willing to bet someone is lining their pocket with tax-payer money through building these contracts with under-the-table industries who supply such low grade materials. Another bad effect is due to the fact positions at these factories are low in volume. It establishes a classism among convicts, with PIA and private contractors being the highest source of income legally in the joint. Their workers became the ruling class as far as prisoners economics are concerned, with them averaging $100 a month compared to the top culinary assignment at $37 monthly, deducting 55% if they owe restitution before they even receive it.

Ask yourselves what is 45% of 9 cents an hour or 45% of 23 cents an hour? Then there’s the poor non-employed convict who is the on the bottom when it comes to privileges by grand design of whom when it’s time to unite and stand against any form of oppression are usually always down, with nothing to lose. On the other hand the slave class is divided amongst prisoners, the majority of this class talk about doing something to make a change in conditions, pay, treatment, but when it’s time to peacefully demonstrate by striking at work they simply won’t go that far. A smaller number out of the slave class will, knowing this is the only process towards change that works. The majority of the slave class are youngsters who enjoy the movement their job provides and don’t want to rock the boat. Now the PIA working prisoners by no means will write in solidarity with the convicts in any class including their very own but will both encourage a strike for equal pay and treatment in the hopes of moving up, and others will report it directly to their masters the Correctional Authorities in the hopes of building a stronger rapport and gaining favor.

MIM(Prisons) responds:This comrade gives us a glimpse at some of the contradictions facing prison organizers at the PIA prisons in California. While there are some parallels between the prison system and slavery, we have critiqued the use of the term “slavery” to refer to prisoners. This comrade’s description talks about how the prisoners are pawns in a system that is becoming ecologically wasteful, and likely benefitting bureacrats. The wages, while minimal, also play a role for the state in helping control and divide the population via petty economic interests. Battles for higher wages in U.$. prisons can be progressive in putting pressure on the economic viability of oppression. But generally, prison unions that represent the interests of all prisoners must focus on more pressing and common problems.

I’m presently in the hole (Administrative Segregation) for fighting for my rights. My rights were violated when a CO pig cut my pay from $0.18 an hour to $0.13 an hour unjustly with no explanation. So I appealed this issue via the 602 inmate appeal and I also put a citizen’s complaint 832.5 on this pig. Before I went to the 602 hearing, another pig, Anguianos’ partner, Martinez, tried to bribe me with my pay to sign off on the 602. I refused and documented these encounters and put in a 602 on Martinez for reprisal/retribution just to have this documented in case something happened and sure enough after I refused to sign off on this the Sgt. pig threw his pen on the table and asked me why I would not sign off. He said, “you got what you want, your pay is back at $0.18.” I told him my rights were violated and I want it to be known I want my voice heard!

After this, about a month later I was being harassed by two pigs due to this issue, DeFranco and Vasquez. Long story short, they threw me on the fence to put me down. Nice and calm I let them put me down without incident, which made them more mad! The next thing I knew the pig DeFranco put me in cuffs. I asked calmly why I was being put in cuffs. He smiled in my face and told me I would find out.

They put me in a cage and shipped me down. Come to find out the dirty pig planted a weapon on me resulting with me being put in the hole pending DA referal and a SHU term. I put an 832.5 on both these pigs as well for retaliation and I’m pushing for criminal charges to be brought up on said pigs. I’m going to file a lawsuit on all three pigs once I’m done going through the pigs’ appeal process, which we all know the outocme of that! I make sure to make a paper trail to back up anything I do so I have proof.

MIM(Prisons) adds: We commend this comrade’s tenacity for fighting for justice. We do remind everyone that filing paperwork is just one tactic, as the comrade says, we all know the outcome of that. Without organizing prisoners as a group, even individual legal victories do not lead to building any real change.

Yo, un miembro honorable de la Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation (Todopoderosa Nación Reyes y Reinas Latinos - ALKQN) mando mi imperecedero amor, fuerza y sacrificio. El 14 de Diciembre la unidad 2 de la Chickasaw County Regional Correctional Facility (CCRFC) explotó en una guerra entre la nación Folk y People. La mayoría de nosotros estábamos dormidos. Siendo quien soy y mi obligación a mi gente, yo hice lo que tuve que hacer. El fin resultó con 2 de nosotros mandados al centro de emergencia. Recibí 8 puntadas y 4 grapas en 2 partes de mi cabeza.

Unos cuantos días antes de este incidente unos cuantos estábamos discutiendo materia que les estaba leyendo de ULK 41. Muchos de nosotros hemos estado presos juntos en tres de las prisiones más violentas de Mississippi (Missippi State Prison Unidad 32, East Mississippi Correctional Facility, y Wilkinson County Correctional Facility). Todos en estado de “security threat group” (“grupo de amenaza a la seguridad” - STG) y alto riesgo. Fue la American Civil Liberies Union (Unión Americana de Derechos Humanos - ACLU), activistas de prisiones, la sabiduría, conocimiento y ánimo de MIM(Prisiones) quienes ayudaron a cerrar la unidad 32 y conseguir que me trasladan a una prisión de mínima seguridad como CCRFC. También tomó el buen comportamiento de mi parte.

Después de la pelea cuando me estaban trasladando del hospital a la prisión, el teniente y el jefe me preguntaron en cual unidad me sentiría más seguro. Les dije que quería regresar a dónde ya estaba. Me llamaron loco y no me querían meter en donde estaba anteriormente. Me preguntaron que por qué yo quería regresar, les dije que es allí dónde yo vivo, nosotros nos sabemos cuidar. Este es un asunto entre los Folks y los Peoples no los puercos.

Lo que me vino a la mente fue un articulo de la primera corona de la Black Order Revolutionary Organization (Organización Revolucionaria de la Orden Negra - BORO) titulada “¡No Saquen, Organícense!” en ULK 41. Eso es lo que hicimos: solucionamos solucionar nuestros problemas e hicimos lo necesario para mantener a los puercos fuera de nuestros asuntos. Ellos se interesan más en quién tiene que y quién hace qué. El día después de la pelea, las escuadras de canallas nos registraron nuestras viviendas buscando contrabando. Claro que el guardián salió en las noticias y dijo que fue un motín que empezó con un individuo abusador que mandaron a correr de la zona. Todos sabíamos que la American Corretional Association (Asociación Americana de Correcciones - ACA) justo paso por aquí y no quería lucir mal por eso fue que mintió.

Estoy de acuerdo con el punto que hizo BORO: cambio no pasara de un día a otro. Tomara tiempo y vamos a cometer errores. Si podemos seguir juntándonos con el entendimiento que estamos en la misma lucha, vamos a poder resolver nuestros asuntos pacíficamente si es posible.

Ya ha pasado más de una semana desde la pelea y estoy honorado en decir que todos vivimos en paz y unidad. Nadie habla de ese día en luz negativa. Nuestras charlas se tratan de cómo podemos trabajar juntos para vencer cualquier obstáculo en nuestra lucha de mantenernos libre de opresión. Nos paramos en solidaridad y unidad. Rezo que todos en otras prisiones en todo el mundo puedan armar una frente unido y que todos tengan paz tras las rejas. Amor de Rey ayer, hoy mañana y siempre.

MIM(Prisiones) agrega: Este es un impresionante ejemplo de lo que United Front for Peace in Prisons (Frente Unida Para Paz en las Prisiones - UFPP) escribió en su declaración fundadora, “Nosotros ya estamos ‘unídos’ – en nuestro sufrimiento y nuestro represión diaria.” Este cambio rápido de hostilidad por unidad refleja el conocimiento entre los presos de CCRFC.

No cabe duda que la presencia de organizaciones amontonadas (LOs) contribuyeron a las condiciones para hacer posible tomar este paso adelante para que la unidad fuera una realidad. Este ejemplo es porque nosotros defendemos los aspectos progresivos que se encuentran en la mayoría de las organizaciones amontonadas (LOs). Camaradas adentro de las LOs que quieren desarrollar el Frente Unido para Paz en las Prisiones deberían trabajar con nosotros para desarrollar los aspectos progresivos de sus organizaciones a protocolos prácticos para armar el frente unido.

La decisión de no enjuiciar al cerdo en Ferguson, Missouri por el asesinato de Mike Brown ha desencadenado a la gente, y con mucha razón. Este es un disco rayado de este sistema de injusticia y su intención real. Cuando desperté y perdí las noticias esa primer mañana y vi la reacción de las cortes de no presentarle cargos al policía asesino, yo estuve contento de que la gente estaba expresando su descontento contra este sistema. Digo este sistema porque es realmente este el que apoya la capacidad del Estado de seguir masacrando brutalmente a la gente.

Entonces vi a ese mismo policía asesino en una entrevista y él sin rodeos dijo que él no sentía remordimientos. Él estaba satisfecho de dispararle a un hombre joven en la cara y la cabeza quien estaba simplemente resistiendose a ser asesinado, oponiendose a su asesino. Él era la cara de America y él ofreció un retrato real acerca de todo lo que America es. El barrio en el que Mike Brown fue asesinado era como los barrios de donde son los prisioneros, este es de donde es la mayoría de la gente pobre en los Estados Unidos. Esto es lo que experimentamos cuando interactuamos con el Estado.

No hay excusa para lo que esta ocurriendole a la gente pobre en las calles. Esta es una descarga interminable de desesperación desencadenada entre la gente oprimida. Y sí, todavía habemos muchos prisioneros quienes somos inconscientes a lo que esta sucediendo, aunque esto este ocurriendo en sus calles. Esto es como gente que tiene vendas en los ojos y no ve que está pasando alrededor de ellos, no una o dos veces sino diariamente a través de los Estados Unidos. Los prisioneros necesitan ponerse las pilas y darse cuenta que lo que ocurre afuera en las calles esta relacionado con ellos porque estas son sus gentes quienes están siendo masacradas brutalmente, este es un lado de la guerra que necesita ser volteada. La sublevación en Ferguson es una respuesta a esto y esta es una buena respuesta pero la gente necesita responder en muchas diferentes maneras para manifestar que estos policías asesinos tienen que parar de estar asesinando a la gente.

MIM(Prisons) agrega: nos unimos a la llamada de este camarada para más sublevaciones como en Ferguson. La gente tiene el derecho a estar indignada con el sistema de opresión nacional dentro de los Estados Unidos. y tenemos que llamarle a este sistema claramente por lo que es; no solo hay una multitud genérica de gente pobre en este país, los pobres son desproporcionadamente concentrados en las naciones oprimidas. Estos grupos, Nuevos Africanos, Chican@s, Primeras Naciones, junto con minorías nacionales como Mexicanos, viven en un país donde sus barrios son ocupados por la fuerza de la policía imperialista y donde ellos pueden encarar la muerte por el solo crimen de andar por la calle.

Relacionando los puntos para prisioneros incluye reconocer que este es el mismo sistema de injusticia criminal que mete en la cárcel a naciones oprimidas, el que esta matando a la gente en las calles. Los policías, las cortes, y todas las prisiones son parte de este mismo control social sistemático. Y así, protestando los abusos contra prisioneros detrás de las rejas son parte de la gran lucha contra el imperialismo en las calles. Tenemos que hacer estas uniones y mantener en mente los más amplios objetivos mientras peleamos contra la opresión diaria detrás de las rejas.

French law prohibits asking people their religion and so no official statistics are collected on the size of the Muslim population. Based on a variety of studies it is estimated that about 10% (5 million) of the the people living in France are Muslim. The 3 million foreign-born Muslims in France mostly come from the former North African French colonies of Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia.(1) Muslims in France face significant economic hardship and generally do not enjoy the spoils of imperialist plunder and exploitation shared with French citizens. Unemployment among youth (15-29 years old) in France in 2002 was at 15% for French citizens and 46% for migrants from North Africa, sub-Saharan Africa and Turkey. Even for immigrants with a college degree the rate of unemployment was twice that of natives with a college degree.(2) Similar disparities are seen in educational achievement by Muslims compared with non-Muslims. And a large portion of the recent immigrant population and their descendants are found in housing projects concentrated in and around France’s large cities.

As we find in Amerikan prisons, the French imprisoned population is disproportionately from the oppressed nations. Although Muslims make up less than 10% of France’s population, they constitute about half of France’s 68,000 prisoners. (Overall France has a much smaller prison population than in the United States, with less than 1 per 1,000 residents locked up compared with the Amerikan imprisonment rate of 7 per 1,000.)

One of the Kouachi brothers involved in the Charlie Hebdo attack previously spent 20 months in prison just outside of Paris. Media reports are claiming that he was locked up for petty crimes and turned to radical Islam based on his education and exposure behind bars, and that it was there he met another Muslim convert in prison who helped with the Paris attacks. Detailed background on this man suggests he became involved with Islamic leaders on the streets, but did radicalize in prison. It’s hard to say how much of this prison radicalization story is a ruse to justify targeting Muslim leaders behind bars.(3)

The Kouachi brothers, French citizens of Algerian parents, grew up in housing projects in Paris. They were poor and surrounded by others like themselves: national minorities in a country that is moving increasingly towards xenophobia. These national minorities find themselves isolated and disproportionately represented in the First World lumpen class.

A survey conducted in 2014 in France found that 66% of the French believe there are too many foreigners in France. 75% of the factory workers, who are part of that labor aristocracy which enjoys elevated non-exploitation wages and benefits, oppose France embracing globalization. The mass base for fascism is the labor aristocracy in imperialist countries,(4) and these same people are the base for the growth in support for the far-right National Front party which 34% of French people polled see as a credible political alternative.(5)

Kouachi’s history in prison is being used to underscore France’s concern about the radicalization of prisoners. Prisoners enter the system and learn about Islam from fellow captives. To address this “problem” French authorities are now experimenting with segregating those considered “Muslim radicals” from general population. This sounds a lot like long-term isolation or control units which are used in Amerikan prisons, torturing politically active prisoners. While details are sparse about the experimental units, prisoners subjected to these conditions are protesting the treatment. We can expect that this isolation will be used to target anyone who speaks out against the French government or other imperialist powers.

At the same time France does not appear to be slowing down the imprisonment of Muslims. For instance, in mid-January a 31-year-old Tunisian man was sentenced to 10 months behind bars after a verbal conflict with police in which he said that an officer shot in the recent attacks “deserved it.”(6)

The French government is facing the contradictions of a criminal injustice system that we see in all imperialist countries. Using prisons for social control means locking up oppressed groups, those who are most likely to disagree with and disrupt the capitalist system. But targeting oppressed groups for imprisonment creates an opportunity for prisoners to quickly become educated and radicalized against the system that put them behind bars. This is the system itself creating the conditions of its own demise.

While prisoners alone will not bring down imperialism, the lumpen in First World countries are potential allies of the international proletariat. And national polarization and xenophobia will feed the development and political consciousness of this lumpen class.

Justice? What justice? There is no such thing as justice. Visit the jails and here’s what you’ll see. “Just us” occupying these modern day concentration camps.

Justice? What justice? Inside the courtroom you think you’ll find justice? Absolutely not. You’ll find just-ice. What do we associate ice with? Cold. Inside the the courtroom empathy is nonexistent, sympathy nonexistent, feelings nonexistent, emotions nonexistent for the jury, the judge & the district attorney.

I can’t find no justice in the courtroom. I’m innocent but they don’t believe me. They want me to pay fines court costs and restitution for something I didn’t do. So I reach into my pockets pull out the lint and tell them my pockets contain “just this.”

Where was justice for Malcolm X, Tupac Shakur, Christopher (Biggie Smalls) Wallace, Oscar Grant, Trayvon Martin, the many Black Panthers and Black Liberation Army members who were hunted & viciously murdered with malice by the police & FBI just for association with those organizations? Hmm what happened to the members of the most vicious organization “Ku Klux Klan”? Nothing!

Psychiatric prisons, gulags and dungeons are the worst of the worst when compared to the standard human warehouses. These foul dinosaurs are established under the guise of compassionate medical intervention (yes, they actually expect you to believe such garbage). Mental health treatment in psychiatric prisons can be and is torture.

Currently in California, the prisoners are rounded up daily, drugged and forced through the cattle stockades of court cells and into the courts where they are dragged before those of black robe who arbitrarily and capriciously commit them to a virtual (if not actual) life in prisons now designated for those thought to be mentally ill from the viewpoint of imperialism’s labor aristocracy. However, one need not be actually suffering from mental illness at all. I was not, and am not, yet this fact had no effect. I myself and many others have been railroaded into psychiatric imprisonment with doctor approved authorization to be at all times heavily sedated. In my case it was only for the use of body building steroids with no prior mental health history requiring medical intervention of any kind.

And, while being held within these psychiatric prisons and jails I have been, and many others are, tortured and abused, starved and injured, sometimes on a daily basis. I have observed young guys whose faces are now a mass of scarring due to them being drugged to the point of unconsciousness and where massive enforcer brutes are purposefully let into their cells to beat those who are drugged, and the victims of such beatings are left to suffer within their cells with no medical attention at all.

These designated prison and jails have cells with feces on the walls and floors. Desk-type tables caked with old dried foods and grime combined to form an un-cleanable cemented solid. And they are usually air conditioned in winter and heated in summer, especially where these cell occupants are given no mattress and sometimes for days no blankets as well. I currently have prison guards who pass my cell door, which is all steel, every fifteen minutes, 24 hours a day, and bang on it loudly with a steel baton like device. Try attaining a deep restorative pattern of sleep under those conditions. This is the current living environment of Amerikkka’s psychiatric prisons and the pitiful inhabitants of its populations.

I am not under the illusion that these facts are not already known by our professionals of community, politics and prisons. Yet, according to a recent news publication, “[in the state of California] the Board of State and Community Corrections (BSCC) funnels hundreds of millions of dollars to construct prisons and jails - and many have been pitched as ‘mental health treatment facilities’.”… “It should come as no surprise that the BSCC is mostly composed of cops: Jeffery Beard, Secretary of the California Department of Corrections, Sheriffs, probation officers, and chiefs of police.”… “It is not shocking when that group of people thinks that the best way to invest in mental health treatment is to build shiny new jails.”(1)

What is termed pathological and rooted in psychosis in Amerikka’s systems of injustice and unjust forensic psychology are in fact political offenses in nature. Such people incriminated and imprisoned should not be civilly nor criminally committed at all. “Mental health treatment… [should be provided and] funded in the community”(1); preferably by a community of communists. “We need to stop pretending that prisons solve the violence in our communities, or we will never actually end that harm or end mass incarceration.”(2)

Onward! in psychiatric prison abolition efforts, and even more so the world-wide abolition of the parasite imperialism.

MIM(Prisons) adds: This writer correctly identifies a problem with Amerikan prisons that is actually pervasive throughout imperialist society: the use of psychiatry to label people as mentally ill because they do not conform to capitalist behaviors and values. As we explained in the ULK article Mental Health: A Maoist Perspective:

“In imperialist prisons, the ambiguity of diagnosing people as mentally ill becomes very pronounced. Part of the problem is that imprisonment causes mental health problems, so people who may not have had symptoms that would lead to a diagnosis often develop them. Yet it is not in the oppressor’s interests to recognize this problem, so staff feel that they must draw a line between the truly ill and the”fakers.” Rather than seeing the prisons as causing mental illness, they see people acting out for attention in contrast to those who were born with “real” mental illness. Such silly exercises allow them to keep some prisoners sedated while pushing others to suicide.”

Ultimately the purpose of prisons is social control, and the purpose of mental health facilities is the same. They are another tool of this social control which targets oppressed nations within U.$. borders. We must expose these facilities and fight against the torture that this comrade describes.

This issue will be marking four years of organizing under the banner of the United Front for Peace in Prisons (UFPP). It was over the winter of 2010-2011 that we firmed up the documents that defined the UFPP, and the United Front was announced on a mass scale in ULK 19. The discussions involved a number of very active comrades at the time, representing a variety of lumpen organizations across the country. The impetus for the project came from countless calls over the years from behind bars for the need for unity and the many who have dedicated their lives to building unity in prisons and in oppressed communities.

When we first announced the UFPP we got a flurry of responses and statements from other organizations wanting to join, most of which we knew little to nothing about. We pushed further engagement with these groups as we sought to develop outlines and protocols for the peace process that have been tested in practice. And we attempted to pull in those more skilled with the written word to develop a writing project focused on the lumpen class.

In 2012, the UFPP took a big step into the realm of coordinated action when one group initiated the September 9 Day of Peace and Solidarity and called on all UFPP signatories to participate. Even with short notice, the response was strong and was promoted via independent media on the outside by activists working with MIM(Prisons). After 2 years of networking, it was a good sign that things were moving forward.

In 2014 we saw another surge in groups signing on to the United Front’s 5 principles. We cannot say whether this reflects more peace organizing on the ground, a greater reach of Under Lock & Key, or more active promotion of the UFPP by us. But regardless, we want to tap into these organizations to further consolidate this movement, which must be both particular to the local conditions and generalized to continent-wide efforts to unite the struggles of the oppressed nations, and oppressed people in general.

In the coming months, we will begin to refocus on the ongoing project to develop theoretical material looking at the conditions and history of the lumpen class in this country. Along with that we hope to put out more agitational materials challenging the lumpen ideologies that are counter to the interests of the oppressed. We have discussed putting together a zine containing some United Front documents, but we would like to have more practical examples of comrades’ work before we do so. We already have the Attica study pack put together to organize for the September 9 Day of Peace and Solidarity and MIM Theory 14 that addresses the Maoist theory of united front. We want to work with UF signatories to utilize these materials to push the third principle of the United Front – Growth.