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.
Comrades here at Special Management Unit (SMU - long-term isolation) are
doing what they can to protest and fight against the illegal housing
that they are being subjected to. Prisoners here are going on hunger
strikes and are suffering due to the lack of outside support. Further,
the DOC has taken actions to keep outside inquiries from being made
public and the news media is refusing to expose the inhumane treatment
of prisoners in Georgia’s SMU unit.
Prisoners are being transferred to SMU for refusing to participate in
the so-called tier step down programs they’ve started in Georgia. The
DOC is trying to force lumpen groups to be housed two men in a 24-hour
lockdown cell, thus placing prisoners in physical jeopardy, in order to
start a war. Just another attempt to enact the Willie Lynch mentality
amongst these prisoners. Before, the prisoners enacted peace and
brotherhood policies amongst and between the lumpen groups, and there
was no tier step down program. So this program is to create strife
amongst the brotherhood by building enough stress and confusion to
destroy peace that prisoners worked hard to establish.
MIM(Prisons) responds: We have received a lot of
reports
about the hunger strike in Georgia, and the struggles against
SMU
classification. The unity and awareness being built in Georgia
prisons is definitely frightening the prison administrators. This is an
important lesson for organizers: when we build for peace among the
lumpen organizations our enemies will take this as a call to war. The
United Front
for Peace in Prisons is bringing together organizations and
individuals in this important battle. Get involved today in building
peace in your prison.
While capitalism advances technology and produces consumables at high
rates, most people lack decent health care April 1 - The deadline
for enrollment in health insurance under the Affordable Care Act (ACA)
passed last night, and there are now 4.4 million people in the United
$tates newly enrolled in Medicaid health insurance plans sponsored by
the federal government, and another 8 million people newly enrolled in
government-regulated private insurance plans.(1) Those who do not enroll
in any insurance and are not covered by a plan through their family,
work or school will face fines. For people with incomes less than 400%
of the federal “poverty line,” the plans are subsidized by the
government, and those with less than 138% of this cut off will receive
free health care via Medicaid. In the end, for at least the lumpen class
the penalty will actually cost them more than having health insurance
would cost.
This new healthcare system in the United $tates, often called
“Obamacare,” is far from socialist, but it does serve as a good reminder
of the failures of capitalism to care for some of the basic needs of
imperialist country citizens. The United $tates has had government-run
healthcare for military service people and their families since the
1800s, and for the relatively poor, disabled and elderly since the 1960s
with the creation of Medicare and Medicaid. But these programs serve a
minority of Amerikans, leaving the rest to seek health care through
insurance provided by their work or through privately purchased plans or
by paying directly for services. This means that people out of work or
in jobs that don’t provide insurance coverage are often left without any
health insurance. The ACA attempts to address this problem by providing
a government-run program to help insure citizens without coverage.
We’re not going to take on the critics who say that health care quality
would go down if run by the Amerikan government. These same people would
abolish free universal education, privatize water distribution, and
eliminate the fire department. This is a debate between different
factions of the bourgeoisie, and not worth the time of communists,
except to point out that we have fundamentally different values. We have
no need to defend the ability of a capitalist government to run these
programs well because we don’t support capitalist governments. And we
know that the profit motive does not make for greater “efficiency”, as
capitalists like to claim. We see this clearly in the United $tates
where food is dumped rather than distributed to people going hungry, and
the tremendous waste of money on advertising rather than meeting basic
needs.
Communists think about health care the same way we think about
education, food, clean water and other basic necessities. These are
things we seek to provide to all people indiscriminately. We prioritize
basic humyn needs over luxury items like boats, fancy cars, big houses,
TVs, etc. Capitalism, on the other hand, functions on the concept that
profitable luxury items are a priority over basic humyn needs. While in
a matter of years capitalism has gotten hand-held computers into the
hands of anyone with a little disposable income, the decades-long
struggle against easily preventable diseases in the Third World
continues. Millions of children under five years old die each year in
southern Asia and Africa south of the Sahara as a result. We believe
that the Affordable Care Act should offer these people free health care
services as well. While the ACA has proven once again that small reforms
in capitalism can be achieved when they serve the interests of
imperialist country citizens, capitalism will never allow reforms to
improve the lot of the rest of the world. In fact, even within U.$.
borders non-citizens are not eligible for insurance under the ACA. Those
most in need, working the hardest and most dangerous jobs for the least
money, are still denied basic health care.
While it’s easy for Amerikans to ignore what goes on outside of their
borders, it should be an embarrassment for Amerikan imperialism that the
individualism of its citizens is so strong that until now they had
refused health care to even their own relatively well-off citizens. Even
now, many across the country continue to fight and resist this new law.
Prior to the Affordable Care Act, Amerikans who wanted to buy health
insurance on their own were often rejected by the health plans for
“pre-existing conditions.” This means the health plans were picking only
the healthiest individuals for insurance, leaving those with even minor
history of health problems with no recourse because most insurance plans
in the United $tates are privately run for a profit. Now most insurance
in this country is still run for profit, but the federal and state
governments provide minimum standards of care that must be provided with
every policy, and sell these approved insurance plans on a marketplace,
in hopes that the market competition inherent in capitalism will
increase quality and transparency while reducing cost.
Abolishing the profit motive behind health care will be a priority for
communists when we take control of a government. We want to make
preventive care and treatment available to all people. The new ACA law
in the United $tates does not eliminate private insurance or remove the
profit from health care, and it’s a fundamentally timid step towards
universal coverage for Amerikans. But it does enable people to get
health insurance regardless of income or health status. For Amerikan
citizens this is progress. And for most it is part of the ongoing
bribery of these citizens by the imperialists, ensuring their allegiance
to the imperialist system. However, a large number of the uninsured in
the United $tates come from the oppressed nation lumpen class, and the
ACA is a positive step for the survival and healthy living of this group
which has a relatively high material interest in revolution.(3) Overall
we see the ACA as a progressive step towards universal health care for
everyone in the world, if only because it demonstrates the concept of
health care as a basic right.
We will continue to fight for health care for the world’s exploited and
oppressed, who are mostly found in the Third World, where even basic
medical services are difficult to obtain. 801,000 children under age 5
die from diarrhea each year, most of which are caused by lack of access
to clean water and sanitation. More than 3 million people die from
vaccine-preventable diseases each year. 86% of deaths among children
under age 5 are preventable and due to communicable, treatable disease,
birth issues and lack of nutrition. These abysmal numbers would cost
very little to rectify. Truly universal health care is a priority for
communists, and the statistics above are just a few reasons why the
overthrow of capitalism is literally a life or death issue for the
majority of the world’s people.
In approximately 1.5 years, between 2 February 2012 and 1 December 2013,
there were 50 reported cases of censorship of material sent by MIM
Distributors in the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC). The
censored material included copies of MIM Theory and Under
Lock & Key, along with informational zines and personal
letters.
Out of those 50 reported cases a staggering 78% (39) of them were
censored with no reason being given as to why they had been censored.
This is typical of the IDOC.
If they do not like a given topic they will ban it without giving any
reason why. This is a continuing violation of prisoners’ constitutional
rights. The only way to combat this injustice is by filing grievances
and 42 U.S.C. § 1983 civil suits.
Resist! Rebel! Defy!
MIM(Prisons) adds: Many facilities in Illinois have enacted total
bans on our mail. Get involved in the
campaign to
fight censorship in Illinois. We need legal help both behind bars
from our jailhouse lawyers and from lawyers on the streets.
This computer animated story could have been a feature length ad for the
popular children’s toy, funded by Lego itself, but it’s not hard to read
a not-too-subtle communist message into this movie. From the main plot
it appears that Marx’s conclusions are logical to anyone thinking about
organized work and struggle against those dominating the world for
persynal gain. What is particularly refreshing about this movie is the
strong theme that heroes are not people with special talent but rather
the masses are all heroes when we unleash their creativity.
The movie starts off in Lego world with regular ordinary construction
worker Emmet, as he follows the instruction booklet for life, produced
by the Octan Corporation, which details how he should dress, what music
to listen to, the expensive coffee to drink, what brainless TV to watch,
and how to do his job working with lots of other people building things
that are without purpose and will be torn down to be built again another
day. These workers are uncreative, but very cooperative in their work.
When it comes time to fight back against President Business, the CEO of
Octan Corp., who is trying to dominate the world, it is Emmet who
realizes that the collective organization of the workers is
indispensable to building the resistance against Octan. In fact, the
Lego heros (batman, spaceman, superman, NBA players, etc.) find their
heroic individualism an impediment in their attempts to fight back as an
organized group.
These are themes of Marxism, which sees that the organized labor of the
industrial proletariat will make up the leadership of the communist
revolution because of their unique position exposed directly to the
contradiction of collective labor being deployed for individual profit.
But there is another layer to this Marxist theme because the workers are
not actually proletarian in the Lego land. There is no profit in the
construction work which appears to just be happening to keep everyone
busy. The workers are paid a high salary, judging from Emmet’s living
conditions. In reality these workers are a labor aristocracy just like
we have in the imperialist countries today, where workers are bought off
with the superprofits from exploitation of unseen workers in the Third
World. The complete lack of productivity of the Lego workers underscores
the impossibility that they are the ones creating the profits. No longer
a part of the proletariat in the real world, these workers will defend
imperialism against revolutionary forces to maintain their elevated
standard of living. So we wouldn’t actually expect them to lead the
revolution that is serving the interests of the global proletariat.
However, at some point a contradiction may arise that is such a threat
to the labor aristocracy that they will be compelled to join the forces
of revolution. This threat will likely be life threatening, like Lord
Business’s plot to kill everyone. But until that contradiction arises,
we should expect the labor aristocracy to join in the chorus of the Lego
theme song “Everything is Awesome,” and continue their unproductive
labor, enjoying their capitalist-created entertainment.
In the beginning of the movie Vitruvius, the white-haired god-like
leader of the forces of good, prophesies that there will be an
individual who will rise up to lead the resistance and foil the ultimate
plot of Lord Business. These strong religious overtones are nicely
dispelled later when Vitruvius confesses that he made up the prophesy
because he thought it would help average people believe in themselves,
and in fact he knows that the creativity of the masterbuilders (heroes)
exists within everyone.
In the end Emmet is able to convince Lord Business that he doesn’t have
to be evil and so the communist theme is undermined by the pacifist view
that we can convince those with money and power to give up exploiting
and oppressing the people of the world. Communists know that this
fairytale ending is far from the reality that will require violent
overthrow of the bourgeoisie, and ongoing military force to keep them
from reclaiming power until we can transform society and create a
culture that does not nurture individualism and profit over people.
Like in past years, I will begin to plan a few months ahead of time for
the revolutionary festival of September 9. This day is a special one
which marks the day when the United Front for Peace in Prisons was given
its first concrete example in these dungeons. I attempt to have
educational study materials available on this day, which usually
includes poetry, short stories or articles, and of course some art if
possible.
In the past I helped read articles and poetry on the tier which
reflected on prisons and what it means to be prisoners. So many times
people forget that what we experience is unbridled oppression and
instead think that we somehow brought it upon ourselves. This backwards
thinking only helps to solidify our own mental captivity! This day helps
to refocus our attention of who we are as people and what is the path
forward for the next year in our struggle for humyn rights in these
dungeons.
I have heard different ways of observing this day, from having an open
line on the tier where folks get a certain “air time” to share their
ideas on what they feel will move the humyn rights struggle forward.
Others talk about creating conscious rap to be performed on the tier.
The main thing I hear is folks being ready to promote peace in prison.
It is a time to help to heal the people outside of state influence.
MIM(Prisons) adds: September 9 will be the third annual United
Front for Peace in Prisons
solidarity
demonstration. This demonstration coincides with the anniversary of
the Attica uprising. On this day prisoners should create ways to work
towards greater peace among the prison population. We will cease all
prisoner-on-prisoner hostilities regardless of set, race, custody,
gender, religion or other division. Some will fast, engage in solidarity
organizing, and carry out educational work. Start planning now for your
September 9 solidarity day.
The New Afrikan Maoist Brotherhood (NAMB) is a collective committed to
the study and propagation of New Afrikan Political Philosophy. We see
the lack of political consciousness amongst the masses of New Afrikans,
along with the multiple and diverse aims of our semi-colonized nation.
Therefore we see it as our duty to take the much-called-for initiative
so that the New Afrikan liberation and independence movement’s aims and
objectives do not die out in vain in this or the next generation. We, as
students to communist thought, understand that the beginning of national
liberation starts with mass political education. Hence, our current
organizational structure is that of a study group, which we intend to
develop and multiply inside and outside of prison. NAMB stands with the
United Front for Peace in Prisons (UFPP). The principles of the UFPP are
important for the following reasons (but not limited to):
The prison environment can become a violent place to dwell. But our
enemies want just that. It is counter-revolutionary for the lumpen
proletariat to waste our time, resources and energy fighting our
comrades in the struggle. We must transform our thinking and in turn
transform our environment. We must make prison a “school of revolution,”
where we invest into each other, by using such terms as “Each one Teach
one” so that we create in ourselves and for ourselves, leaders of our
communities.
Reckless warring and fighting will not aid the lumpen organizations.
That’s why the first principle of peace is so important. Unity is the
key! The enemy divides the lumpen into smaller and smaller illusionary
sections, and we play into it. We internalize divisive thinking, not
thinking about the ill-effects this capitalist thinking has. We must
unite!
Unity will in turn produce Growth (the third principle) in ourselves and
in our collective. And this growth and unity are weapons against the
capitalist imperialists who seek to continue their exploitation of the
people.
The New Afrikan Maoist Brotherhood supports and stands by these
principles of the UFPP. From our Conservative Vice Lord and Mafia Insane
Vice Lord upbringing we have come to know of our national liberation
struggle, for the nation of New Afrika. And coming to this awareness, we
have recognized our national allies in the First Nations, Latino/as and
all those who are in the Third World that face the same oppressive enemy
as us. We understand that national liberation of our semi-colonized
nations will be counter weights in the international war against
capitalist-imperialism, and so we support all nations and all fronts and
parties to this battle. For this is in the spirit of internationalism.
The long legacy of socialism and communism teaches that in building
revolution and nation-building, the people, led by a vanguard party,
must develop independent institutions that will “serve the people” -
both by providing for their needs and in a form of public teaching of
“learning thru practice.” Independence, the last principle of the UFPP,
is one of the building blocks of national self-determination, without
which an independent nation cannot stand!
These 5 principles can be drawn from by all lumpen organizations inside
prison and also even incorporated into the communities where our
organizations are based. It’s “nation time” comrades! It’s time for us
to think and live outside of our individual selves and dedicate our
lives, minds, spirits, energy and resolve to making the world a better
place! And that can only happen if we all have a place to live free and
openly express ourselves. But, freedom only comes to those willing to
die for it.
Greetings to all revolutionary comrades who are kaptive in the gulags of
these United Snakes of a Amurderer (U.$.). I write on behalf of E-NUF,
an organization we formed to develop revolutionary consciousness in
those held kaptive, and to compel direct action to agitate the enemy.
Here we issue our formal statement of unity with the principles of the
United Front for Peace in Prisons. We recognize the importance of all
the principles. It is through growth and unity that we can have peace
amongst the kaptive lumpen irregardless of nation. And it is through the
creation of independent institutions that we can develop
internationalism.
We recognize our existence as being a part of the lumpen class. We
believe when we unite as a conscious class the contradictions existing
between the exploiter class (imperialism) and the oppressed (ourselves)
become clear, exposing our true enemy. Through unity we can develop the
best strategies to fight our way out of the grip of imperialism.
As kaptives we seek to ignite the spark first within our class.
Revolutionary power to the kaptive lumpen.
My most sincere revolutionary greetings to all strugglers. Just a short
note informing the world on the haps here on master Martin’s plantation.
On Thursday, 27 February 2014, during Black history month a white
Christian band was brought in to perform on the rec yard. Upon attending
the function, prisoners were ordered to sit on the grass by staff. By
the time the show began only about 30 prisoners stayed sitting on the
ground. The whole compound went back inside. Feeling insulted and
embarrassed, the administration took dictator-style action. They entered
the dorms where the prisoners had already been placed on lock down for
not participating in a religious event. The officers announced loudly in
the dorm that “all who refuse to participate in the religious event on
the yard will not only be kept on lock down, but their cells will be
shook down and their personal property will be ransacked.” So to avoid
our personal property from being ransacked and thrown away, everybody
from every dorm went to the yard and sat on the ground. How is that for
the First Amendment?
Martin Correctional Institution happens to be one of the plantations at
which the Veteran’s Program is allowed. Not a problem, except that when
the U.S. flag is being risen and put down with the sounding of the
trumpet, all prisoners on the walkway must stop walking in honor of the
flag or be disciplined, even placed in confinement. Dead-ass serious.
Enclosed is a disciplinary report (D.R.) written by Martin CI mail man
Mr. Payne, accusing me of mail violation because I wrote a letter to
Boston ABC some time in early 2013 concerning a petition regarding the
Keefe Commissary network. The letter mentions that I stated that I
placed a petition online. This must be a mistake considering the fact
that the petition had been online long before I was informed of it and
promoted it. It’s also a known fact that I did not post or initiate the
petition. Be that as it may, I pleaded no contest and was sentenced to
30 days on D.R. confinement, which I’m currently serving.
MIM(Prisons) responds: The political repression this comrade is
currently facing for authoring an article protesting high commissary
costs is a good example of why we do not print prisoners’ names in
Under Lock & Key. The pigs have too much control over our
comrades’ lives to let them know who is doing what all the time and not
have it come back to bite us.
We can also add a concerted effort to censor Under Lock &
Key to the list of political repression going on in Florida
recently. They do things that piss people off, and then censor
ULK for being “inflammatory” by reporting on it.
In the richest country in the world, access to wealth and material goods
can be a relative strength we have compared to most of the rest of the
world, namely the global proletariat we aim to represent. We must
consider what the best tactics are to leverage wealth to support our
goals. Yet, we must not fetishize money or technology as panaceas to all
our problems. We know people are decisive in social change. How we get
money is mostly a tactical question. How we use it or campaign around
financial issues is generally a strategic one.
We have at least one USW comrade in California who has been pushing the
prison movement in that state to take up a boycott tactic to push the
demands to end torture and group punishment. Prisoners in Virginia
report of money taken from their accounts, decreased wages and have
launched a fast to
protest
the extortion of Keefe Commissary. Also in this issue, Loco1 offers
an alternative tactic on how to relate to commissary. And one comrade in
Texas offers up a different sort of
[url=https://www.prisoncensorship.info/article/fighting-the-system-appealing-the-100-medical-co-pay-in-texa/boycott
tactic around medical co-pays that could help focus our resources.(see
p.X)
We say these questions are tactical, meaning they will vary from time to
time or place to place. One tactic may work well in one prison, or under
certain conditions, which won’t work well in another circumstance. There
are strategic considerations which serve as general guidelines for all
of us and can help us make our tactical decisions. One stratetic
orientation we hold is to not fetishize money, and remember that the
people must change the system. An example of how this strategic
orientation helps us choose tactics is in deciding whether we should
spend more time and energy raising money, or writing letters to
prisoners and developing study groups. If we believed money were
decisive, we would spend more time fundraising or working at bourgeois
jobs to pad our “revolutionary” bank account.
The concept of the “almighty dollar” leads the consumer class that
dominates this country to see consuming as their means of expressing
their political beliefs, and their main tool for promoting the world
they want to see. Consumer politics are very popular in our bourgeois
society, and these boil down to individual/lifestyle politics. Vegans
may feel better about themselves because they know their nutritional
sustenance doesn’t rely on the abuse and murder of any non-humyn animal.
But veganism itself doesn’t challenge the capitalist system that makes
factory farming profitable in the first place. Capitalists don’t care
what industry their money is in so long as they are drawing a profit.
And no matter how many “fair trade”, “local” or “ethical” products one
purchases, capitalism relies on humyn exploitation to function. We can’t
buy our way out of imperialism itself.
Boycotts can easily fall into the realm of individual/lifestyle
politics. Without a strong political movement with clear demands at the
head of a boycott (i.e. the campaign to divest from Israel), our
consumption habits will do nothing to change the structural problems of
imperialism. Boycotting the commissary as an individual is just like
choosing veganism. It may make you feel better about the role you are
directly playing, but it doesn’t actually have an impact on the prison
system. This is partially because your individual $40 per month is a
drop in the bucket of the prison budget, and also because, like the
capitalists, it’s only a matter of policy change to ensure prisons are
extorting the balance they desire from prisoners. If they can’t get it
from you via commissary, then they’ll instill an exorbitant medical
co-pay, or financial penalties for disciplinary infractions. If you keep
your bank account empty to avoid these fees, they limit indigent
envelopes and postage to limit your contact to the outside world.
That doesn’t mean you should pour your money down the drain or that
there is no use for money in our revolutionary movement. But we have to
be realistic about the impact our money is making. Spending $40 on
mail-order fiction books rather than at commissary has no real political
impact. But sending $40 to MIM(Prisons) allows us to send ULK
to forty subscribers. This money allows us to send study group
mail to eighty participants! That’s enough to cover an entire
level 1 study group! Send us $40 twice and you can cover the printing
and postage of a whole introductory study group, both levels. This is a
good demonstration of the political impact money can have on our ability
to build up people’s political understanding, without worshiping money
as the be all and end all of our political work.
Any reader of ULK should be familiar with our line on the
inflated
minimum wage in imperialist countries. In line with our criticism of
lifestyle politics above, we don’t say Amerikans should refuse to be
paid more than $2.50 per hour as an act of solidarity with Third World
workers. Instead we say revolutionary comrades should funnel as much
money as they can into the anti-imperialist movement. Get raises and
make bigger donations, but don’t waste all your time in your bourgeois
job!
Prisoners and migrant workers differ from the rest of this country in
that there is a progressive aspect to their struggles for higher wages.
The proletarians currently on hunger strike in an ICE detention center
in Washington have pushed internationalist demands to the front of their
struggle. While they ask for higher wages and better conditions in the
private prison they are being held, their primary demand is an end to
deportations from the United $tates. Facing deportation themselves,
these prisoners have a different class perspective than the vast
majority in this country.
In an article titled
“Sending
a Donation is Contraband” from
ULK 25, a comrade
relates being prevented from sending MIM(Prisons) a donation to the
overall political repression and censorship by the prisoncrats. In a
bizarre interpretation of California’s mail policies, CDCR effectively
and illegally prevented this subscriber from exercising their First
Amendment right to free speech. Similarly, in the
last issue of
ULK, another comrade in California
explains
the direct connection between a stamp drive for the SF BayView,
a New Afrikan nationalist newspaper, and the pigs’ mass disallowing of
stamps and increased terrorist activities in San Quentin State Prison.
The state has an interest in preventing any growth of the
anti-imperialist movement, no matter how small.
Naturally it is among the most oppressed that we find the greatest
support for anti-imperialism. Thus, campaigns for a few more $0.49
stamps for indigent prisoners in Texas are of vital importance. Such a
concern is unfathomable to the vast majority in the imperialist
countries.
Cutting
postage stamps and radio service are not only tactics to further
deteriorate the mental health of prisoners, but are also attempts at
political repression under the thinly veiled guise of budget cuts. Here
we see the oppressor using economic tactics to reach their political
goals. While the material basis of what we’re fighting for is in the
people, we must be smart about finance and other material resources to
end hunger, war and oppression as soon as possible.
What it’s like The reasons why The things a persyn must
do or die You’ll never understand The strength it takes To
embrace my fate Time and time again Being spit at for what I
am You’ll never understand You curse me to hell subtly Telling
me not to fight this system Don’t file lawsuits against it Then
you say you love me You’ll never understand Everything about you
is a contradiction Sick consumer puppets of imperialism Parasitic
existences mind washed into believing in “corrections”, “terrorism”,
white male supremacy You’ll never understand I’m on my third
lawsuit My fifth year straight solitary Took me a whole generation
to discern the compliment Each time you spit at me
