In the Nov/Dec 2010 ULK article entitled
Lumpen
Loyalty Dividing the Struggle, the question was posed by a prisoner
in California: “How could you consciously and intently give known rats a
forum or conduit to speak and voice an opinion as if he was an honorable
and principled man? When has it been right in history to accept
traitors? Never!”
to which you responded with the following quote from MIM Theory 6, The
Stalin issue: “It is scandalous to Christians to think of a world
without timeless moral values such as loyalty, honor and integrity –
characteristics that God supposedly places in each of us once and for
all time, especially in the more hard-line Protestant religions
upholding predetermination. These moral characteristics are then
referred to by the Christians as our ‘moral character.’ The Stalinists’
opposition to such an ideology leaves the Christians aghast and hence we
‘Stalinists’ appear as ‘amoral’ to those who claim timeless values.”
You said this was “a quote that came from an article that defends Stalin
for overseeing the killing of innocent people in an effort to eliminate
spies and infiltrators during the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union.”
And that “In Stalin’s day the principal contradiction was the fascists
versus the first socialist state in modern history. Spies could have
brought the destruction of the Soviet Union.” And going further to say:
“In the U$ prison movement, the principal contradiction we face is the
conflicts between the lumpen themselves.”… “Today we are in a much
different condition in our discussion of spies and snitches.” And “that
even the concept of being ‘principled’ is dangerous. Principled is too
often viewed as picking a position and sticking to it no matter what,
right or wrong. But Stalin only stuck to one principle, and that was to
serve the people by building socialism.”
But I ask you, how are we in different conditions in our discussion of
spies and snitches?! Do you have any idea what these rats have done to
MIM, and to us, their fellow comrades? I do not think you know the
gravity of the effects these snitches are having on our movement. Not
just the prison movement, but the anti-capitalism/imperialism movement.
These are the same people (snitches) who are steadily selling out their
fellow comrades for little to nothing. They prevent us from moving
forward with a prison movement of any kind. These same rats are part of
the reason that prisons are censoring mail when it comes to certain
things like MIM, ULK and USW literature. They tell prison officials that
we are using the beliefs of MIM and communism to start a gang of
radicals. These same rats also tell them that we are affiliated with
white supremacists, and/or other gangs. That’s why they will not let MIM
literature in certain prisons, and are trying to stop it in others. It
is also why they use MIM and communist literature to validate some
people as gang members. And this is part of the reason that the prisoner
from California was so upset in his letter.
And like Stalin who was trying to protect and establish socialism by
weeding and killing all possible spies and infiltrators, we prisoner are
trying to do the same exact thing. By eliminating and alienating all
rats for the better of the prison movement, for the better of communism,
for the better of the struggle against the imperialists.
This is why we have to be principled, honorable, loyal to the end, and
oust anyone who isn’t for the greater good of the movement in every
sense.
The minority you spoke of when you said: “despite the rhetoric of honor
and loyalty, it is a minority who really live by these ideals. Perhaps
that minority are more reliable comrades in the revolutionary struggle.
On the other hand, we are trying to mobilize the prison population as a
whole on behalf of the interests of the oppressed, and we believe that
through education people can change their character.” If it was not for
that minority, like the prisoner from California who wrote in, there
would be no prison movement. These rats can do nothing for you or our
movement.
I understand that we (prisoners) need to unify and come together under
mutual issues and work together, or there will be no prison movement to
speak of, and that we must combat the ultra-leftism that prevents
broader unity. But as you stated “of course there is a reason why not
working with the pigs is a common principle among certain populations,
while most Amerikans turn to them whenever they need help. No good can
come for the oppressed form working with the pigs, but we must apply
this principle in a way that best pushes the struggle forward.” And
that’s exactly what we are doing by eliminating and weeding out these
rats. And what we are doing is applying the principle in a way that best
pushes the struggle forward. Because by leaving the rats who are against
us unattended is detrimental to the prison movement, because of how they
are helping prison officials to shut us down, and make it as hard as
possible to make any headway. And the repercussions that most are facing
at the hands of prison administrations due to the lies and false intel
that the rats give them, leaves a great many prisoners weary about
taking up the prison struggle movement, because the punishments that the
prison administrators have been handing out.
The rats do this because they know they can get favors for turning in
gangs, gang members, or united groups which prison officials look at as
semi-gangs. And because they know that prison officials look at anyone
who is trying to cure the injustices of a prison as a trouble maker or
threat to security. They deem you a threat to security just so they can
lock you up, and keep you from unifying. They also view anything such as
MIM as a threat to security because it’s something that helps us come
together on a common ground and unite. Believe it or not prisons pay
rats for info if they are a good rat, just like they’d pay a prisoner
for working in the kitchen, laundry, etc.
So how can we trust them, how can we unite with them without detriment
to our cause? We can’t! If someone is tearing the prison movement apart
like this, just imagine how dangerous they would be in a revolutionary
situation. These rats are the same to us and the prison movement as the
spies and infiltrators Stalin was trying to eliminate.
And though I do agree with you about the fact that some of them can
change with education, the fact still remains that they can not be
trusted! If they are stabbing us in the back now, and sabotaging the MIM
prison movement, even if they do change with the proper education,
what’s to say or stop them from defecting on us later on down the road?
I don’t know about everyone, but that’s a chance I’d rather not take.
People like these rats we talk about are what have always helped the
fascists and slimeball capitalist thrive into the scum they are today.
Now you can see the point of not trusting these rats. It’s not just
weed, tattoos, alcohol, etc, they’re snitching on, it’s everything we’re
trying to build. I’m not saying don’t let these people have a forum to
voice views from, because every bit of input we get form each other
helps to energize us, and keeps us motivated, but there is no way we can
ever unite or accept them as true allies in our struggle.
MIM(Prisons) responds: Our position on SNY yards continues to
raise a point that none of the responses to it address head on. We
maintain that SNY yards are not just used to house snitches who are
afraid for their lives but also to house people trying to escape the
violence of every day prison life. Violence that prisoners as a group
have the power to stop. We know that there are snitches in SNY who are
working for the pigs, but we also know that there are plenty of snitches
in general population also working for the pigs. We don’t want to work
with these people. But we do want to work with prisoners who are
genuinely interested in the anti-imperialist struggle wherever they are
housed.
Our moralist comrades behind bars suggest that we should not work with
snitches as if it’s as easy as just looking at a return address to know
who is on the right side of the anti-imperialist struggle. We have found
this is not at all true. In fact many people who believe themselves to
be anti-imperialists and whose peers would not call snitches, are
actually working against the revolutionary struggle in one way or
another. We have to judge everyone by their practice.
At the same time, we must remember that Lenin kept a known enemy on the
central committee for the money that he was contributing to the
struggle. Similarly, if a known snitch is sending in good
anti-imperialist articles or art then we should use these articles or
art. We can’t control who claims to represent MIM(Prisons) behind bars,
we have to leave it to the masses to see through posers by reading ULK
and noticing the contradictions. But we do trust ULK to represent itself
and so we will send it to any prisoner who wants to read it, and in some
cases we might even turn some snitches to the side of the revolution.
Lastly, we need to address the question of trusting someone who was on
the wrong side in the past. It is incorrect to judge people only for
their past. We need to look at everyone’s current practice. We can bear
in mind past mistakes and guard against backsliding into old ways. But
the Maoist prisons in China demonstrated the correct way to reeducate
enemies of the people and then trust them to come out of prison and
actually work in the interests of the people.
